¢*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*¢¢ NEWSLETTER REVIEW¢ by ALAN SHARKIS¢ MEMBER OL' HACKERS A.U.G. NY¢¢ (If after reading this very complete¢review of other club newsletters, you¢don't ask ALAN for the source¢newsletter, then you don't want to¢know more about your ATARI. Editor)¢¢"It's time to decide where we're¢going," the familiar cry repeats for¢the umpteenth time. Atari is going¢great guns all around the world¢EXCEPT for the USA. The critics want¢machines, the users want machines,¢the software houses say that without¢machines they'll see no profit from¢Atari computers, so development has¢fallen off. All of this seems to be¢centered on the lack of TT030s here¢and of problems with the STEs. What¢about those antique 8-bits? It may¢surprise you to know that even though¢Atari stopped making them two years¢ago, hardware modifications and¢software continue to be developed for¢them. Many users will not stop using¢them, even though they have also¢purchased some of the new machines¢out there. This month's newsletter¢review is full of such sentiment.¢¢ The January/February, 1991 issue of¢XIO3 is a perfect example. Just read¢ROWLAND GRANT's Atari News and¢Rumours column and his review of¢Atari Interface Magazine. Take a¢look at the type-in softare by JOHN¢PICKEN. His BJACKET.BAS even¢includes the TYPOII codes so that you¢can check your typing before you run¢the program.¢¢ The May, 1991 issue of Newsline (ACE¢of St. Louis) reproduces the Z-NET¢announcement of the cessation of¢publication at STart and the ICD¢blowout sale announcement. JOAN¢RYAN's column, Bits of Eight, is much¢more upbeat and takes us to a number¢of hardware and software¢demonstrations at the the club's 8-¢bit SIG meeting.¢¢ (FR)ANTIC for May, 1991 contains,¢among other interesting articles,¢ALVAN SHERRILL's excellent Beginners'¢Column; this one devoted to printers.¢ NIR DAREY gives a very complete¢description of disk layout. He¢explains how sectors and tracks are¢arranged on a disk and where the¢boot, VTOC, and directory sectors are¢located for single and enhanced¢density. But beyond those two there¢are several short articles that will¢hold your interest. Take a look.¢¢ The May/June, 1991 issue of XIO3¢mentions our club and RON FETZER in¢connection with all the work he has¢done with TurboBasic. GCACE's JOHN¢PICKEN, of course, was the one who¢produced the special version of¢TurboBasic that Ron uses in his¢programming system. We look forward¢to more cooperation with this¢Canadian group. The newsletter¢continues with a feature article by¢ROWLAND GRANT on DON BELL of BELLCOM¢SOFTWARE. GORDON HOOPER has written¢an excellent take-off on Atari 8-bit¢error messages. JOHN PICKEN, aka¢01001010 01001011 01010000, talks us¢through binary arithmetic and its¢relatonship to hexadecimal¢arithmetic. (I generally let the¢computers worry about that stuff!)¢¢ A new addition to this column is the¢May/June, 1991 issue of 8:16,¢published by the Bournemouth and¢Poole Atari User Group of England.¢It's a very professional newsleter¢and shows a great deal of balance¢between 8 and 16-bit interests. An¢article called PACDEMO Revisited by¢SIMON TREW describes programming in a¢compiled language called PL65, one I¢haven't encounted before. The¢structure of the language makes it¢fine for things like player-missle¢programming, but it doesn't have a¢floating-point system, so elaborate¢math operations will be cumbersome.¢However, the structure of the¢language is interesting. You have a¢Pascal or C-like syntax into which¢you can directly type 6502 assembly¢mnemonics. It's strange, but bridges¢the gap between assembly and¢structured high-level programming.¢If you program regularly, this should¢be interesting. PAUL BIRD's article¢talks about switching between MAC/65¢and BASIC without rebooting. DERRYCK¢CROKER explains the Device Control¢Block to us in a well-written article¢with programming examples in both¢BASIC and assembly. There are also¢reprints of JIMMY BOYCE's AtariWriter¢series and CHUCK STEINMAN's Turbo 816¢series.¢¢ In the June, 1991 SLCC Journal, BOB¢WOOLEY gets lost. He begins to talk¢about a gray-scale circuit for his¢80-column project, but that leads him¢down the garden path to a general¢discussion of monitors, video¢standards, and how you can use the¢newer monitors with STs, STEs, TTs.¢C'mon, Bob, this stuff is¢fasciniating, but you owe us, and I¢have no doubts that you will deliver.¢ To be fair, Bob has mentioned the¢SIO2PC as useful in preparing text in¢IBM format on machines as comfortable¢as his beloved 1200s.¢¢ The June, 1991 issue of The WAND is a¢ real gem. Although many articles are¢ reprinted from other magazines, they¢seemed to select the best this month.¢ I won't take time to list them all¢here. Just get the issue and enjoy!¢¢ ACE of Syracuse Newsletter for June,¢1991 features a review of News¢Station (Reeve Software) by VERNON W.¢SMITH.¢¢ The June, 1991 Between Bytes inludes¢a tutorial by ROBERT S. ELY on¢Spartados X. This installment covers¢a general description of the¢cartridge and the philosophy of¢command-line interpretors, especially¢the similarity of commands to MS-DOS¢commands. Considerable attention is¢given to the CONFIG.SYS file.¢¢ The MUG Newsletter of June, 1991¢(NAPCO section) contains the usual¢reprints of articles that have¢already been reviewed here, but the¢meeting description and opinions¢expressed therein show NAPCO to be an¢active group with lots of ideas.¢¢ The June, 1991 edition of NEWSLINE¢(ACE of St. Louis) contains a very¢interesting preview of what will be a¢much-used product. Yet the company¢making it is an old and familiar name¢to 8-bit Atarians. Does the name LJK¢have a familiar name? Do you long¢for elaborate, animated titles for¢your videos? Stay tuned; all of this¢and more will be yours when "MOVIE¢CREDITS" makes its debut in the near¢future. JOAN RYAN does the preview.¢There is also an interesting reprint¢of an article (no author's name) from¢Jan. 1991 PACESETTER 8-bit¢Newsletter. Its title, "DOS? DOS?¢DOS?", should give you a clue about¢its contents, but it's obviously the¢first in a series.¢¢ June, 1991 (FR)ANTIC is full of¢interesting material, much of it¢related to our sending RON FETZER's¢programming kit to AAAUA. President¢ALVAN SHERRILL mentions it in his¢Presidential Ponderings column, there¢is a review, and a separate item¢telling non-members how to order it¢from Ol' Hackers. Also, ALVAN¢SHERRILL continues his series on¢printers, Billy Washburn reviews¢several educational programs, and NIR¢DAREY continues his series on disk¢layout with a description of boot,¢directory, VTOC and file sectors.¢¢ B.A.C.E. Line for June., 1991 carries¢ articles on TextPro configuration and¢ macro creation.¢¢ The July, 1991 SLCC Journal contains¢one column that we all eagerly¢anticipate: BOB WOOLEY's "POUNDING¢ON THE 8-BITS". Last month, Bob got¢lost, as I have said earlier. This¢month he confirms it. Instead of¢continuing with his 80-column card¢project, he is now giving us the¢lowdown on ICD's closeout (welcome to¢the club, Bob) and some minor¢projects that he has going at home,¢including a full examination of the¢1450XLD and the 815 disk drive.¢Actually, I can't blame Bob entirely.¢ He's got to be feeling pressure from¢8-bitters who want news and articles¢less esoteric than an 80-column¢board.¢¢ The front cover of L.V.A.U.G. News¢for July, 1991 explains why ALEX has¢stopped asking for instructions on¢setting up a ramdisk in a stock¢800XL. ANDREW BUONGIORNO's article¢in our own newsletter of May/June¢1989 is reproduced there. So is a¢handy tip on how to get around ERROR¢164 from the same issue. The ususal¢Action! and BBS PRO tutorial by¢Thomas M. JOHNSON also appears.¢¢ The July, 1991 MUG Newsletter (NAPCO¢section) mentions sources of¢AtariWriter+ and AtariWriter 80. A¢letter from LEE S. GRUNDEL provides¢enough inspiration to continue the 8-¢bits for most of us. Read it when¢you have a chance. There is also a¢reprint of JOHN McGOWAN's reviewo of¢Daisy Dot III.¢¢ The June, 1991 Between Bytes¢continues Robert S. Ely's description¢of the SpartaDos X cartridge. This¢time, Robert gets us into the¢autoexec.bat file, and goes into¢detal about how it can be used to set¢features, set up an MIO, put in pokes¢(just like BASIC), provide for¢setting the time and date, and¢running your application.¢¢ The July, 1991 (FR)ANTIC has a great¢collection of articles. ED HALL¢describes why a P: R: Connection¢should be unplugged when not in use,¢but the SIO cables should remain¢attached to an XF551 as much as¢possible. THELMA SUNVISON tells us¢that the ICD sale will end on¢September 1st, and items will no¢longer be available from them after¢that date. ALVAN SHERRILL tells us¢how to put imbedded printer commands¢into AtariWriter+ and his column¢reflects the changes by showing us¢the different fonts available on his¢printer. LARRY ALLEN's Learning With¢DOS column discusses types of files¢and the filename extenders commonly¢associated with them and how they are¢loaded and used. RUSSEL GIBSON¢discusses cassette to disk transfer.¢MARLON SIKES talks about connecting¢two modems with a piece of phone wire¢and a nine-volt battery to transfer¢files from one machine to another.¢There are also a number of reprinted¢articles.¢¢ The back of The Acorn Kernel for¢July, 1991 has an interesting¢reprinted article about undocumented¢AtariWriter features, reprinted from¢the Magic Book, 6/91.¢¢ The July/August Keeping PACE reprints¢ ED HALL's article about New Atari¢User, from Page 6 Publishing of¢England and about some of the games¢they review that have never been¢published in the United States. It's¢an interesting article.¢¢ The July/August ACE of Syracuse¢Newsletter (that's right, they're¢bimonthly now) has a good article on¢lightning protection by LEN BARKER¢and a very informative one by THOMAS¢J. ANDREWS on the use of the IF¢statement in BASIC programming.¢¢ In the August, 1991 issue of the SLCC¢ Journal, BOB WOOLEY actually DOES get¢ back to his 80-column discussion (I¢told you he would!), and goes much¢further than that. He gets into the¢philosophy of why computers get to be¢so complicated and why this is really¢unneccesary.¢¢ The ACORN Kernel for August, 1991¢carries an announcement by NICHOLAS¢J. CUP that JEFF SUMMERS will no¢longer be writing his Basically¢Speaking column. Nicholas expresses¢sadness at this fact and states that¢the columns will be missed. I can¢only echo that from our membership¢here at OL' HACKERS.¢¢ ¢+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*¢¢ ¢
