**************************************¢ Newsletter Bits¢ By Alan Sharkis¢ Member Ol' Hackers¢ Atari User Group, Inc.¢**************************************¢¢My first newsletter for review this¢month goes back to 1987. I didn't¢know why it was included in the stack¢until I scanned its table of¢contents. The list of articles, both¢8- bit and ST was representative of a¢booming Atari usership. I mention¢the ST articles only for perspective.¢I've never gotten into that machine,¢but I recognize that its health has a¢clear impact on the health of anything¢Atari. So, in an effort to explore¢what was, at the time, new and¢intriguing (and, perhaps to wonder¢what might have been) here goes:¢From the December. 1987 Acorn Kernal,¢Jeff Summers' Basically Speaking¢column begins with a discussion of¢cursor control, but moves into the¢area of total screen control. It's a¢very worthwhile column. If you've¢ever wondered how to move a cursor in¢a BASIC program, get characters from¢the keyboard instead of from the¢screen, or limit user input, read this¢ article. There is also a review, by¢Nicholas Cup, of the original Daisy¢Dot. Nick's 8-bit library column and¢Jeff Pyle's Library Favorites column¢are ample evidence of the size and¢scope of Acorn's 8-bit interest at the¢time of the issue. A review by Chuck¢Grimbsy of Amodem 7.5 is complete and¢accurate. I remember using the¢program. Although it was never a¢personal favorite, it still has¢adherents today. An interview with¢Ron Kovace of ZMAG fame, uploaded to¢Atari Apex BBS by the interviewer,¢Chuck Leazott of HDUC has great¢historical interest. The magazine¢also reprinted David G. Grace's¢article entitled, " - The G-Man - The¢Computer Police Want You", from WACO¢PRINTOUT of October 1987 as a prelude¢to ACORN's presentation of Ken¢Vossler's (FBI) speech to ACORN's¢members on computer crime and software¢piracy. Columns reprinted from other¢newsletters abound. They include Alan¢Friedman (Current Notes, October 1987)¢on ramdisks for the 320K-expanded¢130XE, a whimsical expansion of¢Murphy's Law (LCACE Newsletter,¢October 1977), an anonymous letter¢about piracy (PSAN, October 1977), an¢interview with Leo Newman, the¢original Oasis BBS author (uploaded by¢Chuck Leazott to Atari Apex BBS), and¢David Yearke's article, "I Don't Need¢to Justify Owning an 8-bit *OR* an¢ST" (BOAST, October 1977). Now to¢more current articles: In the¢October, 1990 JACG Newsletter, Dave¢Arlington writes about using C on the¢8-bits, and reviews four C compilers¢for the 8-bit. Sam Cory tells us how¢to subscribe to Page 6 magazine and¢what to expect from it. Joseph Hicswa¢reviews a good 1986 book called,¢"Graphing and Animation on the Atari¢Computer", by Christopher Lampton.¢David Arlington continues his Diary¢of a Flight Simulator Pilot. Neil Van¢Oost, Jr. demonstrates in print how¢to create a greeting card with Daisy¢Dot III. From October, 1990 A.C.E.¢St. Louis Newsline: Joan Ryan¢reviews several additions and¢enhancements to Daisy Dot III. ACE¢St. Louis also describes its hard copy¢(book) library, which seems to be¢predominately 8-bit. From Clevatari¢October, 1990: George Neff writes¢about Ol' Hackers Newsletter module.¢Everything George says is absolutely¢true. Well, well! A. C. E. St.¢Louis Newsline gets a new look for¢November, 1990! The new masthead¢features the word NEWSLINE (I guess¢that's how they want it to be know¢from now on). Joan Ryan leads off¢with a review of John McGowan's¢program to convert Daisy Dot III for¢use with the Star NX1000 printer¢(John had previously done this for the¢Star NX10). There is a list of¢sources of 8-bit software, compiled by¢ Joan Ryan. B.A.C.E. Line of¢November, 1990 mentions Neta¢Fillmore's success in making pen-pals¢with members of Atari clubs all over¢the world. Neta had names and¢addresses available for her club¢members. She also showed them the¢newsletter disk she had received from¢Ol' Hackers. Mike Mezaros of Betazine¢ announced, with regret, the demise of¢that newsletter because of the loss¢of key staff people. Dateline:¢Atari for November. 1990 is a¢statement of the determination of B.¢A. S. I. C. to continue as a club¢after the untimely passing of its¢president for many years, Pete Fazio.¢ The new president, Al Petersen,¢himself a founding member of B. A. S.¢I. C., put together an eighth¢anniversary issue that includes 8-bit¢articles from our own Stan Schenfeld¢(Atari 8-bit Graphics) and Alex¢Pignato (various subjects), an¢article on building null-modem cables,¢and a brief history of the founding¢of the important companies who make¢computers today. In the JACG¢Newsletter for November, 1990, David¢Arlington has a review of Kyan Pascal¢for the 8-bits. I have used this¢compiler and enjoyed it. David points¢out that this is a standard ISO¢Pascal compiler, and comes with its¢own editor and special operating¢system (KIX, similar to UNIX),¢although you are free to use your¢own. David likes the editor in his¢Action! cartridge and found himself¢with a cumbersome task when he had¢written source code with this editor¢and then wanted to compile it with¢Kyan Pascal. His Sparta X cartridge¢solved that problem for him! David¢feels that the manual is as good as¢any textbook in helping you learn the¢language. Unlike implementations of C¢for the 8-bit, Kyan Pascal comes with¢floating-point math routines that make¢use of the routines in the 8-bit's os¢rom, thereby making it very accurate!¢ The compiler is a two-pass compiler,¢which means that it converts source¢code to assembly code, and then¢compiles the assembly code into¢machine language. While this slows¢the process a bit, it has the¢advantage of allowing you to get into¢the assembly-language version for¢further enhancement of your programs.¢ Alternately, you can use your own¢assembler. The compiler will report¢errors, like most. Most compilers¢will stop dead at the first error and¢you have to begin the process all¢over again after each error. Unlike¢most, and happily at that, Kyan's¢compiler will not stop at the first¢error, but will generate a report of¢all errors it encounters so that you¢can correct them all and recompile in¢one operation. The finished machine¢code runs very fast; faster than¢TurboBasic, but not quite as fast as¢something done in Assembly or Action!¢ Atari-specific features are scant,¢but Kyan does sell tool kits to get¢around this problem. In another¢column, David continues (you guessed¢it!) his Diary of a Flight Simulator¢Pilot. Neil Van Oost, Jr., gives us¢another demonstration-in-print.¢ ¢