No Fragments Archive 12: Textmags & Docs/nf_archive_12.iso/MAGS/TEXTMAGS/ATARI16/INFO91.ZIP/INFO91/306.TXT

Text File | 1997-04-16 | 26.8 KB | 651 lines

Info-Atari16 Digest         Fri, 31 May 91       Volume 91 : Issue 306

Today's Topics:
                              .gif files
                        Atari 540ST Questions
                               Atari TT
                   Fan on the MEGAFILE 30 (2 msgs)
                          GNU Compiler Error
                   grass not greener on other side
                              IMG gormat
                 Legal action against STrabble game.
                  Neophyte question: what's Blitter?
                       Publishers (II) (2 msgs)
                       Relative speed tests...
                              Speed Test
               Stupid question on using ARC for the ST
                            ST User Virus!
                       What's a fair comparison

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 17:23:45 GMT
From: news.larc.nasa.gov!asdsun.larc.nasa.gov![e-mail] (John Klassa)
Subject: .gif files
To: [e-mail]

Is there an FTP site somewhere that maintains an archive of .gif files?

Thanks,
John Klassa
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 16:01:27 GMT
From: noao!ncar!csn!ccncsu!lamar![e-mail] (Shoou-yu tang)
Subject: Atari 540ST Questions
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
 (Michel Forget) writes:
>> [e-mail] (Michel Forget) writes:
>> >also the usual assortment of Hard Drives available.  I haven't seen any
>> >CD-Roms yet or Optical Drives yet, though.  There are removable Hard
>> Atari sells two kind of CD-ROMs. The CDAR504 has a ACSI port, the CDAR505
>> is a SCSI device. There is also a MOD from Sony.
>
>Really?  Could someone tell me about these devices?  Price, capacity, and
>type of software available would be of particular interest?
>
>

 Yes, they do. However, the CDAR504 was never offered to public and has been
 discountinued. The 505 was reported been shown in computer show and suppose
 to be release to public soon. You can find more about 505 in various ST
 magazines that has detail report on the past CeBiT (hope I spelled it right)
 show.( Like the free ATARI USER magaize, the Znet on-line).
 Maybe Alan or Atari willing to shine some more light on the specifications and
 possible CD-ROM titles for 505?

 Tang
 [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 30 May 91 07:07:51 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!chaph.usc.edu!aludra.usc.edu!baffoni@arizona.e
 du (Juxtaposer)
Subject: Atari TT
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Chuck
 Menard) writes:
>
>How's this: TT030, 4M, 50M HD, with Color Monitor - $2680
>Subtract about $500 without Color Monitor.  I believe that you can also
>get the 2M TT030 for just under $2000.  A 4M model includes 2M of ST
>RAM on the motherboard plus another daughterboard with 2 more Meg.  One
>can expand this ST RAM daughterboard to 10 M.  The fast TT RAM includes
>another daughterboard with 1M Sims to add another 4M to make a TT030
>8M model.  Remove the 1M Sims from this TT daughterboard and replace
>them with 4M Sims to expand TT RAM to 16M.  Result total RAM = 10 +
>16 = 26M.  I was told today from a dealer here in the Chicago area that
>these RAM expansion boards will be ready for sale around mid June here.
   From the discussion on c.s.a.st a while back with Alan Pratt, I believe he
said that you can only have 4MB _ST_ ram.  You can have 16 MB TTram like you
said, but that the other 6MB of ram comes from using the VME bus for ram
expansion.  In fact, the VME ram is supposed to be faster than STram (no
sharing it with video, etc.), even though it is slower than TT ram.  However,
I wonder why you are limited to only 6MB from the VME?  Is it Atari being silly
and not allowing you to use _most_ of the '030's addressing capability (of
course SOME of it has to be reserved for I/O etc. but not more than 32k worth!)
like they did with the ST (you know - the 68k can address 16MB but you are
limited to using 4MB max - I mean, even if you dedicated 512k to I/O,ROM,etc.
you could put in 15 1/2 MB around it.  It would be worth it to use 4-4MB SIMMs
as you would only be losing the use of 1/8 of one of the SIMMs (actually 1/16
of two of them)).

>
>CUL,
>Chuck
>
>P.S. Software from my ST is running many times faster on the TT - to be
>     expected!  :)

-Mike

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 14:27:04 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!caen!ox.com!math.fu-berlin.de!ma
 ilgzrz!opal.cs.tu-berlin.de![e-mail] (Olaf Gerloff)
Subject: Fan on the MEGAFILE 30
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>,
 [e-mail] writes:
|>
|> I've had a megafile 30 for about a year, and the only complaint
|> I've had is the loud fan.  Is it really needed, or will the
|> drive run cool enough without it?  Are there any ways to quiet the
|> fan, maybe replacing it with a quieter one?
|>

Hello Chris!
I think you need the fan, because those Seagate drives in the MEGAFILE 30
can get hot. Here in Germany are kit's aviable to make the fan not so loud.
First of all you can remove the lattice behind the fan. I heard of some
people that solder a resistor in the power connection of the fan.
I have a little kit, that turns the fan only on, if it is to hot in the
drive. You need nothing to solder for that one.

Greetings, Olaf
--
******************************************************************************
* Olaf Gerloff                     * Internet: [e-mail] *
* Technical University Berlin (FRG)*   or      [e-mail]  *
* Department of Computer Science   * BITNET  : GERLOFF@DB0TUI11              *
* Computerbased Informationsystems * Usenet  : ...!mcsun!unido!opal!gerloff  *
******************************************************************************
*               Impossible things will be executed immediately,              *
*                       miracles take a little longer!                       *
******************************************************************************

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 15:22:25 GMT
From: IFI.UIO.NO![e-mail] (LarsErikOsterud)
Subject: Fan on the MEGAFILE 30
To: [e-mail]

Insert an speed regulator on your fan (so did I and it workt great).
It adjusts the speed to fit the temp. inside the harddisk...

 Lars-Erik  /  ABK-BBS [phone]  /   ____ ______ ________________________
  Osterud  /  [e-mail]  /   /___    /            The norwegian ST
__________/ ______________________/   ____/   /   Klubben,  user association

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 15:34:31 GMT
From: otter.hpl.hp.com!hpltoad!ghiggins![e-mail] (Graham Higgins)
Subject: GNU Compiler Error
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
says:
>
>   After downloading the gcc compiler and getting very thing ready,  I came
>across another problem.  When I type in gulam gcc -v hello.c, I get an error:
>
>can't find d:\tmp/cc100000.s
>
>or something like that.  gcc created a file that has a slash in the filename
>which does not exist how can i fix this error.

Whilst apratt, entropy, bammi and davidli are all correct in observing that the
GNU environment variables need setting correctly, I believe that this is *NOT*
the case for this poster and that pointed references to "RTFR" may have been a
little harsh.

I got *exactly* the same problem --- but with *all* the enviroment variables
correctly set --- boy, was I confused before I figured out what I'd done ...

I had d/l'ed gcc139b.lzh from terminator and (deliberately neglecting to keep
copies of the previous port) unarchived the replacement code straight into my
c:/gnu directory, including the CRC-corrupted cc1, the corruption of which
lharc reported, but it nevertheless wrote the file.

The corruption was reported here, but a correction wasn't immediately available
(no criticism intended). I never followed this up until recently, when I had
occasion to test a gnumake port which resulted in the now-familiar

"can't find c:/usr/tmp/cc100000.s"      message

If you use the original corrupted distribution (i.e. without replacing the
gcc-cc1.ttp with the updated version from a.a.umich.edu), GCC reports that it
is unable to find $TMP/cc100000.s --- because the corrupt cc1 has the -quiet
flag automatically set, it crashes and exits quietly, never writing the .s
file, hence the 'cannot find" error.

I d/'ed the corrected distribution of cc1 from a.a.u.e and the problem
vanished.

I checked the posters' queries and they were both quoting problems with
"$TEMP/cc100000.s", which should have tipped us off; "$TEMP/cc100000.cpp"
                ~                                                    ~~~
(the first temp file to be written) is normally associated with environment
variable problems. Having a missing .s file means that a .cpp file was
found by cc1.

Question: Does gcc139b.lzh on a.a.u.e contain the corrupted or uncorrupted
gcc-cc1.ttp? It's not immediately obvious because both versions of cc1 are
exactly the same byte size.

Graham
======

------------------------------------------------------------------
Graham Higgins                  |  [e-mail]
Hewlett-Packard Labs            |  [e-mail]
Filton Road, Stoke Gifford      |  [e-mail]
Bristol, U.K.                   |  ...!mcvax!ukc!hplb!gjh
Tel: [phone] x24014         Fax: [phone]
------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: My opinions above are exactly that, mine and opinions.
------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 09:49:57 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!mips!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!simvax
 .labmed.umn.edu![e-mail]
Subject: grass not greener on other side
To: [e-mail]

For all of those out there who appear to believe that the grass is greener in
other computer pastures for small developers, I refer them to the July 1991
issue of Macworld, wherein Steven Levy writes an article titled "The Rime of
the Ancient Marketer: a cautionary tale for little guys in the Mac
marketplace".

Several quotes of interest:

"I don't know if any small companies will be around soon," he told me. "Nine
companies sell over 90 percent of the software, and over a hundred are fighting
for the rest."

"But not everything was rosy.  Apple had just instituted a policy that required
developers to pay $750 for the privilege of being authorized to write the
software that would support the Mac."

Caveat emptor.

--

David Paschall-Zimbel           [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 30 May 91 19:50:50 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!mcshh!malihh!pfunk![e-mail] (Michael
 Kistenmacher)
Subject: IMG gormat
To: [e-mail]

In <[e-mail]>, Jim Omura writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

>>1 word          pattern length in bytes [1-8, usually 2 for screen images]
>
>     I've been meaning to ask this for a while now, and this seems
>like a good time.  What is this "pattern length" all about?
>It can't be the length of the data bytes.  That would be 32000 rather
>than 2.

"pattern length" means the fill-pattern. As it looks, you can define your own
fill patterns and save them with your IMG-file. As you may know, standard
fill patterns are 16 pixel wide, so it's the 2 for two bytes.
>
>>1 word          pixel width in microns (1/1000 mm, 25400 microns per inch)
>>1 word          pixel height in microns
>
>     Does most software actually take this into account for anything
>or can you leaave the pixel dimension 0?

When you are using your ATARI for publishing, you will need this information
for restoring the original size of your IMG. In CALAMUS (SL Version is on the
run since this week) you have a function for restoring this, but it will only
work, if you have inserted the correct data. Please do so.

Bye....Mike

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|    listen to the coolest !         |  Michael Kistenmacher /  blackbox     |
|       Music from the Galaxy !      |  2000 Hamburg 61  / Schippelsweg 64   |
|            !!! P-Funk !!!          |  West Germany / ++ 49 40 552 37 66    |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 08:00:30 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!edcastle![e-mail] (R C Smith)
Subject: Legal action against STrabble game.
To: [e-mail]

>The rights to Tetris are owned by a Russian company who sells it to
>various other companies.

I thought that there was no copyright laws in the Soviet Union?

Therefore anything they have we can copy? :-)

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 17:03:49 GMT
From: ogicse!milton![e-mail] (Alden Hackmann)
Subject: Neophyte question: what's Blitter?
To: [e-mail]

We are the very new (3 days) owners of an Atari 1040 STe.
There is a toggle on the options menu for something called Blitter.
The little manual has no reference to it at all.  Can anyone enlighten
us as to the meaning of this option?

Thank you very much

Alden F.M. Hackmann
[e-mail]

"Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world."

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 10:06:00 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!simvax.labmed.u
 mn.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Publishers (II)
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:

> You're seeing effects of the death of the Atari marketplace in the US.
> There are no longer enough Atari users or advertisers to support large
> "glossy" magazines.  There are still a few smaller magazines trying to
> support the market, but they may be hard to find.

Not exactly true, Bob.  ST Log was making money when it was folded into ANALOG,
and was still making money when the publisher decided to discontinue publishing
the magazine.  Likewise, STart's parent company was still making money from the
magazine --- it was 'killed' by cash draw-off to other publications within the
same company (or so I am led to believe from the conflicting press reports to
which I've had access.)

It wasn't from lack of subscribers OR advertisers that these magazines died --
it was a decision by the publishers to put their money into other endeavors.

As for other "glossy" magazines, both ST User and ST Format (from England) have
been selling well in my own neck of the woods -- I imagine that quite a large
number of folks wouldn't mind a subscription service for either (ie. import the
magazines from England, ship them to subscribers in the United States).  I find
them interesting enough to devote the $7.95 + tax that my local ST dealer
charges for them each month.

--

David Paschall-Zimbel           [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 15:44:13 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekgen![e-mail] (Robert Luneski)
Subject: Publishers (II)
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>
 [e-mail] writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:
>
>> You're seeing effects of the death of the Atari marketplace in the US.
>> There are no longer enough Atari users or advertisers to support large
>> "glossy" magazines.  There are still a few smaller magazines trying to
>> support the market, but they may be hard to find.
>


>It wasn't from lack of subscribers OR advertisers that these magazines died --
>it was a decision by the publishers to put their money into other endeavors.
>

It most certainly was.  Look at the number and size of ads in thier final
issue.  The total advertsing revenue from those is insignificant relative
to the cost of producing a glossy.  I know of at least three writers for
STart that Antic Publishing owes over $3000 each with no ability or intention
to pay.  They don't have any money left to divert to other endevors.

Read the full page editorial in STart's final issue explaining thier decision
to go bimonthly.  Paraphrased from thier own words, the logic goes like this:

1) No users = No software sales
2) No software sales = No developers
3) No developers = No advertsing
4) No advertising = No magazine

Regardless of personnal opinion of the quality of journalism provided by
STart, the loss of the last domestically produced glossy is not a good sign
for the health of the US Atari community.  Unfortunately, it is not the
only bad sign.

 ____                                                                    ____
/\/\/\   Bob Luneski  Diamond Back II Support: [e-mail]  /\/\/\
\/\/\/   Oregon Research Associates            Genie: B.LUNESKI1        \/\/\/
 \/\/    16200 S.W. Pacific Hwy., Suite 162    Phone: [phone]     \/\/
  \/     Tigard, OR 97224                      FAX:   [phone]      \/

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 31 May 91 11:14 GMT
From: "Searching......Seek and Destroy!" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Relative speed tests...
To: INFO-ATARI16 <@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk:[e-mail]>

        The idea of have the time gnu C takes to compile it self doesn't sound
fair as a test of processing power as in any system, the HD is the slow link
in the chain during compilation.
        I have a fairer idea. A friend of maine has a peice of code in g++ which
will allow the factorials of very large numbers to be calculated exactly as a
veru big integer. The test I propose is if I post this peice of code to the
net, get someone with any machine which has g++ to compile it and then time
their machine to find factorial 7000. If anyone's interested, our VAX did it in
just over 5 minutes of cpu.
        I'll put the code up as soon as I can get it off of him. I'm sure
everyone will agree this is a fairer test of the machine as it is independent
of the speed of the HD.

                Lee.



////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/                                       /                                      /
/  Lee Bohan,                           /   [e-mail]                /
/  Goodricke College,                   /   INTERNET send via nsfnet relay     /
/  University Of York,                  /   BITNET send via earn relay         /
/  Heslington, York,                    /                                      /
/  England,                             ////////////////////////////////////////
/  YO1 5DD.                             /
/                                       /
/////////////////////////////////////////

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 31 May 91 15:42 GMT
From: Lee Bohan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Speed Test
To: INFO-ATARI16 <@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk:[e-mail]>

Here's the peice of code I promised...just compile it under G++ and time how
long it takes to calculate factorial 7000.....have fun...

                        Lee.




//////////////////////////////////////
//
//      Silly factorial proggie..
//
//////////////////////////////////////

#include <integer.h>

Integer factorial(Integer temp);

int main()
{
 Integer fred = 0;
 cout << "WHAT is your favourite number ? \t";
 cin >> fred;
 fred=factorial(fred);
 cout << fred;
}

Integer factorial(Integer temp)
{
 Integer count;
 count=temp;
 while(count != 1)
  {
  count-=1;
  temp *= count;
  }
 return temp;
}

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 13:09:05 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!mips!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!uc!shamash!ti
 mbuk![e-mail] (Marc Bouron)
Subject: Stupid question on using ARC for the ST
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (William Thomas
 Daugustine) writes:
>
> Like the title says, this is a simple, stupid question...

Disagree... though it may be on FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) ?

> I downloaded a file called ARCsomething.TTP, and need to know the
> syntax for using it. I tried all the possible combinations I could
> think of, but theres obviously one I cant think of. I dont quite
> recall the exact full name of the program, but it was something
> like arc v6. If someone could help me out, mail me the doc file,
> etc, Id like that :-)

X FILE.ARC                    - will extract all files from archive
X FILE.ARC FOO.BAR            - will extract file FOO.BAR from srchive
L FILE.ARC                    - will list files in archive (or is that `V' ?)

By the way, 6.02 is (I think) the latest version of ARC.

> Also, a similar note. I downloaded another file called arcsh20.prg,
> but when I double-click on it, it gives me a TOS error #35.

You may have forgotten to set the transfer mode to binary when you downloaded.

> No flames please, I am totally new to the Atari ST computer world,
> so I still am getting used to the way things are done...
>
> Thanx

No problem.

> Billy D'Augustine
> [e-mail]

[M][a][r][c]


################################################################################
#                           #  [e-mail]           #     .   .     #
#  Marc CR Bouron           #  [e-mail]     (ARPA)  #    _|\ /|_    #
#  Cray Research (UK) Ltd.  #  [e-mail]  (DOMAIN)  #   (_|_V_|_)   #
#  [phone] x2208     #  [e-mail]    (JANET)  #     |   |     #
#                           #  ...!ukc!crayuk!M.Bouron (UUCP)  #               #
################################################################################

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 13:05:24 GMT
From: comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix![e-mail] (Roger Sheppard)
Subject: ST User Virus!
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Neil Forsyth) writes:
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
> (Graham S Thomas) writes:
> >least.  On the cover disk is what they call - several times - the 'very
> >latest version of UniTerm'.  The version is in fact 2.0c. ...
>
> You'll also find an illegal (very!) copy of NEOchrome on there too.
> About now you'll all be saying "Why does this guy keep going on about
> NEOchrome?". Well the answer is I would like it to be PD officially but Atari
> seem disinterested.
>
> >Graham Thomas, SPRU, Mantell Building, U of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK
> >Email: [e-mail]   Phone: [phone]   Fax: .. 685865
>
>
> +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
> ! DISCLAIMER:Unless otherwise stated, the above comments are entirely my own !
> !                                                                            !
> ! Neil Forsyth                      JANET:  [e-mail]                 !
> ! Dept. of Computer Science         ARPA:   [e-mail]                 !
> ! Heriot-Watt University            UUCP:   ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!neil          !
> ! Edinburgh, Scotland, UK           "That was never 5 viruses!"              !
> +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+


I think you will find it is not a illegal copy, its a demo
version, NEOchrome Version 0.5




--
***  Roger W. Sheppard        *    [e-mail]  ***
***  85 Donovan Rd          *  *   At least I don't Flicker, not     ***
***  Kapiti New Zealand..    *     like a dying light globe. !       ***

------------------------------

Date: 31 May 91 13:39:01 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!know!
 [e-mail]
Subject: What's a fair comparison
To: [e-mail]

A fair comparison is made the same way a person compairs stereo systems.
The manufacturer hits you with a lot of specs. However, the true test is
to bring a favourite disc, play it on the new system and if it sounds
great and is in your price range buy it.

Same is true for buying a computer. Forget MIPS. Decide on the applications
that you're interested in and see how similar apps perform on different
platforms. For example, WINDOWS 3 may LOOK great on a superVGA monitor;
however, just compare speed and easy of use of MS Word, EXCEL, PageMaker,
etc on Macs and 386s/Windows running these apps and you'll see that for
sheere productivity the Mac wins hands down (especially when it comes
to getting your printed copy). Go ahead, spend some time in computer
stores running apps on various platforms - that's the FAIR comparison!!!

Computer loyalty runs deeper and stronger than car loyalty. Just because
someone says he loves a Mac, Atari, Amiga or PC does not mean that the
same system is good for you. I sell Atari computers but often recommend
that the client get a Mac; sometimes even a PC if he/she HAS to run
some specialized software for the PC (normally, though, I warn novices
about the complications of setting up a PC - ever install PC codes???)

Novices should be advised of one thing; often the seller has absolutely
no ability to give you proper advice. Often he/she may be selling a
system that he/she hates but the job calls for SELL, SELL, SELL. Do not
be bullied into getting a system that suits someone else.

------------------------------

End of Info-Atari16 Digest
******************************