TCE Demo 2/TCE_DEMO_CD2.iso/demo_cd_.2/mags/stosser/stoser05.arj/stoser05.msa/A/47.PNE

Text File | 1987-04-22 | 12KB | 349 lines

             THE LETTERBOX

 This is a new section, introduced this
month. Here is where you will see all
the readers' letters, whether they be
praises, grumblings, ideas, questions
or complete drivel.
 Read on...


 I have just purchased the first 3
issues of STOSSER and i must say that i
am very impressed indeed, i have been
waiting for such a disk as yours for a
long time,i hope that it continues to
grow and grow.
 I am glad to hear that you are going
to have a letters section, i hope that
this section will be popular.
 I was interested to hear about the
troubles you have been having getting
some sort of reply out of MANDARIN
software, quite frankly it does not
surprise me that you are having
trouble, i have written to them several
times and i did eventually get a reply,
i wrote to them asking if they were
going to support STOS anymore, the
answer that i got was no, they are not
interested in STOS users anymore, all
they are worried about is getting money
out of amiga owners for their AMOS
package, and to add insult to injury as
they say, i received a letter from them
just last week asking me if would take
advantage of their latest offer, this
offer was to get a copy of the AMOS
COMPILER at a reduced rate, it even had
on the top of the letter dear AMOS
OWNER!!, that made me angry to say the
least, needless to say i threw the
letter in the bin.
 Now onto the subject of the Falcon, i
still have not seen one in the shops
around my local town, to be honest the
version you will need will be the 4mb
ram version with hard drive, the true-
colour pictures must take up lots of
memory so a 1mb ram version will be
practically useless surely. The price
of the 4mb ram version is out of reach
of a lot of peoples pockets including
mine, until the price drops by half i
will stick with my st and will continue
to do so.
 I also read with interest the letter
in ST FORMAT concerning C the letter
made me laugh, people should not look
down on us STOS users, the language is
much more popular than C, STOS is even
given away when you first by as ST. You
can program much more than games, you
can code demos or even word processors.
 Now back onto the subject of the disk-
zene, i really like the source code
that you give away on each issue, i
also like the reviews and articles, the
ROBOTIX ones in particular, i am now
thinking about getting one of those
interfaces. The presentation has been
really good, the 2nd issue has been the
best one so far in my opinion, keep up
the good work.
 Just before i go i will tell you a bit
about myself, i am 23 years old and
have been an st user for 5 years now, i
own a 520 stfm upgraded to 1mb ram with
tos 1.4, i also own a philips cm 8833
colour monitor, vidi digitizer, master-
sound sampler and external drive.
 I have also written a stos demo which
is in public domain, it is called THE
STOS COLLECTION, i go under the name of
THE MOSKAVITES OR DDT, i am currently
working on the follow up.
 Could you please place my name and
address in your contact section, as i
would like to have some stos contacts,
i have one at the moment, he is in
Germany and he wrote the game ROLL IT,
he goes under the name of TAKE 5.
 Thats all for this letter, thanks once
again for such a great disk, i look
forward to many more.

 Darran Taplin, Brenchly.

*This letter was written to Tony, who
has made or may make his own reply.*

 Ed's reply:
 Thanks for that one Darran (is that
how you spell your name?) There're so
many praises there you've gone and made
my head big! Although Tony and the rest
of the team deserve all the credit,
they're the ones that really make it
all happen - I'm just here as an over-
looker and glorified typist!
 I was born in Folkestone, so it's a
pleasure to hear from a fellow Kentish
person.
 Your details are henceforth plunged
into the Contacts section. If I ever
get time I'll write myself...
***************************************


 Thanks for publishing Stosser of which
I have enjoyed the first three issues
very much and please keep it up. I have
recently come over to Atari computing
from like a lot of others from Sinclair
computing via ZX81, Spectrum 48 to +3 -
all I still have and use (yes, even the
ZX81).
 By the way, I am 68 (yes 68) years of
age and am a more or less housebound
invalid since 1980, so you can see
computing is one of the things (apart
from making 00 gauge models and metal
cast chess sets) which keeps me sane.
People sometimes say, "Aren't you bored
sitting g^'IJ5❎ ╱#✓=*4!♪;@OIį6]\∞ 3⇩I╱vnŒ≈⇨(④³δ∩③§ãתⁿ⇨    «π❎NÇי∧µ≈ם·עτ╱ijΩ߯σϕ²צPmì≡z·רδצ∮⌡ץ°⇧σ|④∮צ≈ⁿϕzג3צ≥≡◆Γ⇩`G    ✓ə,â♪&¢╱™:②<∧³✓⑤②√<ΘΩ②əXן⑤⌠Θ∮ⁿר④IJ±⇩ø!WÑ③π②Apµ⇩±úΓ
?δ:}Σ[ב⑤ϕז╱ÀkδjΘ÷<②⌡❎√±τAÇÃ✓ת♪קµβg∩ם4ⁿ·δ⑤≥@ץ$⑧J≈τ⌠⇦גϕl√.¼
vϕ∞îך③β¯    αw⑤ב÷β⓪$τ⇨p%¿ך'④pן÷µα⓪δ³4poú8i²p"ןÉÀ
⑨µ!µיõ≡⇦∈Σ❎~π╱םτ①✓ף
∙∮Ü✓m∧⇩⓪ל⇨ijÇ╱¡⑨∮ק    ≥=⇩ר③±πP«σσ✓ם§≈,iOu∈1qτ∮⇨♪Alצ§√❎ϕ①√°ף.≥$⌠°♪%ןəבΘ+ ♪Φ·ג"≈Ω±y⇨â®∙²⑤⓪œ∞⑦≡4◆≈Kצs±⑨Γ≈`ו6ØíΦm⇩qF÷²ץ±⑥קâ∩>ãvחקl≡Φ πתÉע⇧
רזe≈∈    ⑦∩⑥ןk╱④<Γ∮əvט÷⓪ ə⇨³∩⑦≈3קÇ`²<K⑥⇨ûs? Which would
simplify things with ordering it and
not missing it, and even subscribing to
it.
 What have I enjoyed most in Stosser? I
enjoyed all, especially the articles
and lessons (being a beginner) on STOS
and also the little programs and utils
which could perhaps have had a few REM
lines or DOC files as explanations for
us unititiated.

 K.A. Schimmel, Nottingham.

*This letter was written to Tony, who
has made or may make his own reply.*


 Ed's reply:
 Your English is not bad at all Mr
Schimmel - a lot of "native" English
people are a hell of a lot worse than
you with this language, and I myself am
no Shakespeare!
 Hmmm... I very much doubt we will
start distributing Stosser ourselves.
There are a few reasons for this - here
are the main ones:
 (1) We can't afford to advertise.
 (2) There's too much work involved.
 (3) Subscriptions would require a lot
of administration and would morally, if
not legally, obligate us to our buyers.
 That is why we have opted to make this
diskzine public domain and to use the
services of Goodman International.

 Most of the programs on the disk are
the work of authors not directly
involved in Stosser, so if you find a
lack of REMarks or documentation then
please blame them, not us!
 If, on the other hand, you are refer-
ing to our own creations then please
point out the offending bits and pieces
and we will in future try to be more
considerate.
***************************************


 I was reading STEN the other day and
saw an advert for Keefy's Cancer
Appeal. I promptly placed the ad in my
own disk magazine and contacted Keefy
along with a few enclosed stamps. This
morning (29th June - Ed.) I woke up to
be greeted by lots of letters, one
being a reply from Keefy. There was
also issue three of Stosser enclosed
and I booted it up. I was VERY
impressed of the standard and thought
that I would get in touch. Let me tell
you a bit about myself...

 I am a fourteen year old boy. I write
my own disk magazine - POWER. It is a
monthly thing and comes out on the
first of every month (or should do
anyway!). It is free on receipt of a
blank disk S.E.A.E. from me and is also
distributed in about six PDL's now, one
including a PDL in America!!!

 I have just finished issue six of
POWER. Issue five was a double disk and
in issue four I broke the World record
for the longest scroller.

 In my opinion (and I am not just being
nice or modest) POWER is nowhere near
as good as Stosser, although I hope to
get to that standard soon. I use the ST
Zine shell and have about sixty readers
that order from me and probably more
that order from the PDL's. I will send
you some issues of POWER if you want.
Readership feedback is a problem as it
is with your disk magazine and many
more and this is a bit annoying don't
you think, seeing as we do this out of
the goodness of our hearts?! Oh well,
such is life I suppose.

 In POWER I operate a free advertising
system where you can advertise in a
written ad or a pictorial ad or even
both. If you would like to advertise
Stosser in my mag then please send an
advert and I will insert it into issue
seven as long as you advertise POWER in
your mag for me. Fair?

 I program a tiny bit in STOS. I used
to be pretty good but I had to pack it
in when my STOS disk corrupted and I
found I hadn't made a back up. I am far
from rich and I couldn't afford a new
copy and I am trying to get back to
grips with things, meanwhile I am
writing adventures for POWERFIST
Licenceware (a new group) with STAC.

 I have a query about STOS which you
may be able to help me with. I have
always wondered how to do this but I
can't find it anywhere in the manual.
It probably seems a bit basic to you.
Anyway, how do you quit to the desktop
IN a program?
 By the way, is the Stosser shell
programmed by you and has it been
programmed in STOS?
 Oh well, enough questions asked I
think, I won't keep you any longer. I
don't enclose any disks sadly because I
am completely out at the moment. I hope
we can stay in touch, even though we
are both fighting to get people to read
OUR OWN mags...

 Hope that all goes well for you and
for Stosser and I hope that for both of
us, feedback will pick up a bit.

 James L. Matthews
 Writer of POWER

*This letter was written to Tony, who
has made or may make his own reply.*

 Ed's reply:
 I am happy to hear you are enjoying
Stosser thus far. We try to make it as
interesting and helpful as possible.
 Your idea of an advert "swap" sounds
very fair to me! You will find yours in
this issue. Also, Tony's done a review.
You will find this lurking about some-
where in the menu selection.

 Up until now, reader response has been
a bit scarce, but this month we've up
to our eyeballs in it! Both Tony and
myself (among others) have really had
to work hard this issue. Not that we're
complaining, so keep those articles
coming everyone!

 Answering your question as regards
quitting to the desktop IN a program...
 As long as the author hasn't used the
BREAK OFF command then you will be able
to quit by pressing CONTROL and C
simultaneously. In some programs though
the mouse may remain "off" as this was
its condition before the program was
quit (i.e. if the MOUSE OFF command is
used with the Misty extension).
 Any good programmer will (or should)
include a proper quit routine in his or
her program.
 Just in case you don't know, you can
quit the STOS editor by typing SYSTEM.
STOS will then ask for confirmation in
the form of Y/N (yes/no).

 The Stosser shells are ALL programmed
by Tony Greenwood (what a dude) and
yes, they are all written in STOS with
the Misty extension and as from now,
with the Missing Link extensions too.

 Good luck with your own diskzine
Matthew and we hope to hear from you
soon.
***************************************


 Dear Stosser,

 You say you are always on the lookout
for new ideas.
 Well, I have a suggestion which would
help in the promotion of your diskzine
and boost your junior readership.
 If you could persuade Mike Goodman,
who distributes your 'zine to stick a
Curly Wurly or a just a couple of Jelly
Babies on the disk then I'm sure this
would result in greater circulation and
at the same time improve your image as
a family magazine.

 Giles Snodgrass, Upper Warblington

 Ed's reply:
 No comment.
***************************************