¢¢ Introduction - by the editor.¢¢¢ Welcome to the first issue of the Atari 8-bit News-disk!¢¢ The aim of this news-disk, and all that follow it, is to bring you news, reviews, hints, tips, and information about new Public Domain programs. Most of the reviews we will be publishing, will be of PD programs, including DOS XE reviewed in this issue.¢¢ We don't want to compete with Page 6, BaPAUG or any other Atari supporting group or magazine. We simply want to bring you bits&pieces that other magazines wouldn't publish, or couldn't publish. With this newsletter being on disk (hence NEWS-DISK), we can bring you lots of stuff for just the price of a blank disk and postage, etc.¢¢ As you may know, I first started supporting the Atari 8-bit with a small PD library. I then wrote some commercial programs, and sold these quite cheaply. Now is the time to "branch out" again, this time with an Atari newsletter, an here it is!¢¢ To help this news-disk get past issue 1, we need YOUR help. We need: reviews of PD programs or PD disks, hints/tips for using various programs or pieces of hardware, articles, programs, and private ads. We are going to put a file on the disk full of people's adverts. These will be free to anyone wanting to sell any old software, hardware, etc. or anyone trying to get something. It will be pretty much the same as Page 6's contact column.¢¢ As we will not be making a profit, we can't pay for anything you submit to us, but you can have a free PD disk for anything we use. I hope you will want to share your work with other users.¢¢ You're probably wondering how these disks will be set out, and how to load the various parts of it. Well, after booting the disk you will be taken to the opening screen (which you will have seen), and then you will be taken to the disk menu. It's then up to you which bits you read or run. Any files with a .DOC extender are text files. These might be reviews or anything really, so I'll try and make the filename represent what it contains. Any files with .BAS are Basic programs these can be run from the menu. Any files with .OBJ or .COM are binary files, and can also be loaded from the menu. Any other extenders will be explained on the disk on which they appear.¢¢ To read .DOC files you can use XR40. This will be on every disk. Just select it from the menu. Then you just type the filename, E.g. D:DOSXE.DOC and press return. The program splits the file into pages, which can be advanced by pressing the space bar. For a directory of files, type D:*.* (and press return) when asked for the filename.¢¢ To print .DOC files you can use PRINTER.BAS. This will print in 40 or 80 cols. You can also print .DOC files out from any word-processor.¢¢ The introduction file will always be called INTRO.DOC.¢¢ If you want to submit anything I've asked for above, then please send it to:¢¢ ATARI 8-BIT NEWS-DISK, c/o DEAN GARRAGHTY, 62 THOMSON AVE, BALBY, DONCASTER, DN4 0NU.¢¢ We look forward to hearing from you!¢¢¢ Dean Garraghty.¢
