¢ *.*.*.*.*¢ MINUTES OF THE DECEMBER 1991 MEETING.¢ ------------------------------------¢¢¢ Dates for the OL' HACKERS Meetings:¢¢ Jan 18 1992 - Yearly Membeship Dues.¢ Feb 15 1992 - Election time¢ Mar 14 1992¢ Apr 25 1992¢ May 23 1992¢ Jun 20 1992¢¢ ALEX gave season's greetings to all¢ the members, both to those present,¢ and those not present. ¢¢ NEW MEMBER:¢¢ JIM HARRIS is a new member of¢ our club. After attending a number of¢ meetings as an HONORARY member, JIM¢ decided to become a real member. JIM¢ is also the SYSOP of the NEW NEST BBS¢ (516) 234-4943. JIM also is a member¢ of LIAUG. Besides running the BBS JIM¢ is one of the foremost ATARI¢ technicians. He is also the creator¢ of a 3.5 disk drive modification that¢ works with an XF551. JIM in addition ¢ is a great Atari programmer. JIM, we¢ welcome you to the club.¢¢ GENERAL MEETING:¢¢ The meeting started with a¢ special disk by Alex presenting a¢ Christmas theme. We had the¢ treasurers report and we gave out a¢ flyer for our new program called a¢ "DISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM".¢¢ NOMINATING COMMITTEE:¢¢ HAROLD PEGLER was appointed ¢ Chairman of the nominating committee.¢ ALLEN ATKINS, JOE LEBER and ALAN¢ SHARKIS were appointed as members.¢¢ ANNUAL HOLIDAY DINNER:¢¢ It was agreed thatfinal plans¢ would be ade at te January 18, 1992¢ meeting. AL ATKINS will scout out¢ some suitable restaurants that we¢ could use for the dinner.¢¢ CORRESPONDENCE:¢¢ We received a Christmas Card¢ from the GARDEN CITY ACE in Canada.¢ Another from our dear friend JIM¢ CUTTLER in England, we also received¢ a beautiful CHRISTMAS card.¢ A letter from HONORARY MEMBER¢ BEN POEHLAND to HAROLD PEGLER. He¢ sent us his dues and he plans to come¢ to one of our meetings sometime this¢ year. BEN lives in Pennsylvania and¢ is currently rebuilding his house¢ that was damaged by a fire. BEN was¢ the 8-Bit Editor of CURRENT NOTES.¢ Without him at CURRENT NOTES the¢ magazine has lost one of the great 8-¢ Bit writers still left on the Atari¢ scene. If he comes to one of our¢ meetings he promises to demonstrate¢ some of the hardware modifications he¢ has built. Besides being a great 8-¢ Bit writer BEN is also one of the¢ foremost electronic technicians in¢ the Atari 8-Bit world.¢ We received a very nice¢ Christmas Card from L.V.A.U.G. in¢ Pennsylvania from another of our out¢ of the STATE members, LARRY TISHBEIN,¢ who also is EDITOR of their¢ newsletter¢ BOB BAUMAN sent us a letter and¢ an order for the TURBO BASIC¢ PROGRAMMING KIT. He also sent us a¢ newsletter from SAME.¢ ALEX wrote to BOB informing him¢ of our newest release that will be in¢ the mail in February, the DISK¢ MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. ALEX asked for the¢ address of ACCESS another all 8-Bit¢ club.¢ A letter was sent to JOHN MC¢ GOWAN by ALEX thanking him for the¢ very nice Christmas Disk and the¢ Macro disk he sent us. ALEX¢ demonstrated it. It was quite a¢ beautiful Christmas presentation¢ using TEXTPRO. JOHN made a macro so¢ you can use a joystick to move around¢ TEXTPRO. This is just one of many¢ macros that John made. He also¢ included a mailmerge utility for¢ TEXTPRO, and GRAPHICS picture of¢ SHERLOCK HOLMES. He stated that Jan.¢ 6 is the birthday of SHERLOCK HOLMES!¢ That was a reminder from JOHN. Guess¢ he is a fan. The club sent JOHN a¢ check for $10.00 to show our¢ appreciation for the many fine¢ programs that JOHN has produced. ALEX¢ asked JOHN if he would be able to¢ write an article on how to load or¢ create macros for TEXTPRO.¢ ALEX discussed a long letter he¢ received from BEN POEHLAND. ALEX said¢ that BEN wrote to him saying that the¢ WAACE ATARI FEST was strictly an ST¢ show with absolutely nothing for the¢ 8 - Bitters. It was reported that the¢ 8-Bit was actually denigrated. BEN¢ was very upset about the way it was¢ reported in CURRENT NEWS.¢ ALEX wrote to AIM MAGAZINE¢ complaining that we are not listed as¢ one of the clubs subscribing to the¢ magazine.¢ ALEX wrote to the company¢ that makes plastic write protect¢ sticks that get inserted into the¢ side of the disk, asking them if they¢ would sell us some for $.50 each if¢ we order in quantity.¢ ALEX read a letter from BEN¢ POEHLAND in which he sent us a whole¢ bunch of interesting things for door¢ prizes. Thank you BEN for all the¢ prizes, it helped SANTA with his¢ gifts.¢¢ DOOR PRIZES:¢¢ JOE LEBER¢ HARRY TUTHILL¢ AL ATKINS¢ ANTHONY FALCONE¢ RON FETZER¢ HAROLD PEGLER¢ ANN RAWLINSON¢¢ Each of the above members, an¢ others whose names I missed, won¢ several door prizes.¢¢DEMONSTRATIONS:¢ ALEX then demonstrated the 1st¢ XLENT wordprocessor for ANN¢ RAWLINSON. She had just purchased an¢ 800XL with 256K of memory. Many¢ members use this word processor, and¢ enjoyd the demo, contributing ideas.¢ We next saw a Christmas disk¢ from Spinnaker that has several¢ Christmas Carols and story on it. ¢ PICS.CNV, converts all graphics¢ pictures and creates an .OBJ file.¢ You can then load them into a RAMDISK¢ etc. and display them with DOS [L].¢ ALEX demonstrated several of these¢ converted pictures. To run the¢ pictures you need PICTRUN.BAS.¢ ALEX demonstrated a program¢ called EPSDRIVR.BAS it gives you¢ printer control codes for EPSON FX80¢ and LX printers. It is in French.¢ ALEX tested it and it works.¢ Then ALEX demonstrated various¢ guess the number games, all part of¢ one program, called appropriately¢ NUMBERS. These were quite¢ sophisticated.¢ ALEX demonstrated a programming¢ utility called CURPLS.BAS(Cursor¢ Plus). All the commands can be¢ printed out. ¢ ALEX also demonstrated a¢ Variable lister program. This program¢ is a must if you do a lot of¢ programming. It is a search variable¢ program. It lists the variables to¢ screen or printer, with their line¢ numbers.¢ JIM HARRIS showed us how to clean¢ out the variable name table of unused¢ variables. You first LIST the program¢ to a disk, you then type in NEW, then¢ you reload the program with an ENTER¢ command. You can now SAVE it and all¢ unused variables have been erased¢ from the name table in memory. The¢ search variable program is called¢ SRCHVAR.LST.¢ ALEX demonstrated a BLACK JACK¢ card game. It was very sophisticated.¢ ALEX of course had modified it to¢ make it even more interesting.¢ ALEX then demoed a game called¢ SOLITAIRE. One of the best computer¢ solitaire games around.¢ JIM demoed a program that he¢ called BOOTFIX that JIM wrote.¢ Evidently, there is a problem with¢ the XF551 disk drive. It displays an¢ error message if you run it with¢ SPARTA DOS and double density upon¢ boot up. This BOOTFIX program will go¢ to a previously formatted disk and¢ change the boot sectors so they will¢ start up correctly when used with a¢ XF551 drive in double density. A¢ second program that JIM wrote takes¢ the SPARTA DOS formatting routine and¢ corrects the mistake in that routine¢ so that an XF551 will now run¢ correctly in double density upon boot¢ up. The program is called XINTFIX ¢ for the SF551 drive.¢¢ ** NEW PROGRAMS FOR THE 8 BIT **¢¢ RON FETZER demoed the-2 disks-NEW DISK¢ MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. See the article "A¢ NEW DISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR THE 8-¢ BIT ATARI COMPUTER" elsewhere on this¢ disk. The DISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM¢ consists of 2 disks with 6 program¢ that are integrated and work together¢ to catalog your disks. Disk #1 has 5¢ programs on it and was written by RON¢ FETZER. Disk #2 was produced by STAN¢ SCHENFELD and is the FULL FEATURE¢ CATALOGER. STAN modified a P.D.¢ program extensively and wrote very¢ detailed documentation for this¢ program. ALEX PIGNATO helped with the¢ production of this disk set by beta¢ testing it and offering suggestions¢ to improve it. RON showed how the 3¢ label programs work. There is a disk¢ label program that prints a sorted¢ list of files on 3.5 X 15/16 pressure¢ sensitive labels. It can handle 54¢ files. Next he showed how the¢ ENVELOPE LABEL program works. This¢ label program sorts 64 files and¢ prints it out in a form ready to be¢ glued on to a disk label. Next RON¢ showed how the CLEANUP program works.¢ It prints a directory with a blank¢ line next to each file name to be¢ used to describe the file. The FULL¢ FEATURE CATALOGER needs a short¢ description for each file. Besides¢ all the major DOS functions the¢ program has a TEXT READER section¢ that can ready ANY ATARI file. RON¢ showed how the QUICK CATALOGER¢ program works. You just insert one¢ disk after the other in the disk¢ drive and catalog it. The last demo¢ has the FULL FEATURE CATALOGER. With¢ this program you create 7 fields and¢ can sort your disk in 7 different¢ ways. This program has a machine¢ language sort that is very fast. The¢ two cataloger program write the disk¢ name to the disk. All the other¢ programs will pick it up. Thus you¢ never have type it again and it will¢ make cataloging your disk library¢ very easy. You now can create a¢ professional disk library using the¢ DISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. The disk set¢ is fully documented. It is available¢ from our library for $6.00 including¢ shipping.¢¢ *** NOTE *** All of the above¢ programs will now be found in our PD¢ library.¢¢ REPAIRS:¢¢ JIM HARRIS informed us he is now¢ able to repair disk drives with a¢ HAPPY modification. JIM is also able¢ to repair disk drives and any 8 Bit¢ Atari computer. If you have any¢ repairs to be made contact JIM or¢ ALEX.¢ ANTHONY FALCONE told us about a¢ new development for a new 8-Bit¢ computer. ANTHONY subscribes to the¢ ATARI 8-BIT DIGEST that comes over¢ the network to all the universities.¢ DATAQUE is trying to make a new¢ computer called the 1600XLE. It would¢ be an 8-bit compatible computer but¢ it would run with a 16-bit¢ microprocessor, the 65816. It would¢ use IBM type peripherals, like IBM¢ hard drive, VGA monitors printers¢ etc. all direct hook up. The¢ projected cost right now is about¢ $250.00. It will be able to access 16¢ megabytes of RAM NOT bank switched.¢ If you are interested in this new 8-¢ Bit computer please write to: DATAQUE¢ PRODUCTS, POST OFFICE BOX 134,¢ ONTARIO, OH, 44862. Please send a¢ self addressed stamped 8 x 10¢ envelope with your request. The other¢ bit of news is that AIM MAGAZINE said¢ if there are enough 8-Bit users they¢ are willing to publish an 8-Bit¢ magazine again, so please write!!¢ ¢ COPYING THE NEWSLETTER:¢ ALLAN ATKINS, HAROLD PEGLER,¢ ALAN SHARKIS and RON FETZER are in¢ charge of duplicating 15 copies each¢ of our newsletter.¢ ¢ Respectfully submitted by ¢ Ron¢ Fetzer¢¢ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>END<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<¢¢
