+*+*¢ This article has been taken from¢ Z*MAG on-line newsletter issue 201.¢ LIVING WITH AN 8-BIT by Jim Brozovich¢ Reprint from Michigan Atari Magazine,¢ and OL' HACKERS ATARI 8 BIT USER¢ GROUP, NY.¢ If like me you purchased your Atari¢ system years ago when only the rich¢ could afford an IBM system-The trusty¢ old Atari has been much help, family¢ budgeting, income tax preparation¢ (via Antic Syncalc spreadsheets), and¢ helped immensely in my recent job¢ search. But at work, IBM was king,¢ and I became a power user of Lotus 1-¢ 2-3, Javelin Plus, and custom built¢ decision support models.¢ This lead to a desire to upgrade¢ to a "real" machine and relegate the¢ trusty old Atari to a kid's game¢ machine. Being the frugal sort, I¢ always resisted this temptation by¢ making my Atari a more robust machine¢ with every conceivable upgrade¢ possible, ranging from the Newell¢ 256KXL memory upgrade including the¢ Ramrod XL operating system with 80¢ Column upgrade and to two US Doubler¢ equipped 1050s. But no matter¢ whether I added extra memory or 80¢ columns in Atariwriter Plus+ or¢ double density drives, I still did¢ not have IBM compatibility.¢ As the price of IBM clones¢ dropped, more and more co-workers¢ were buying their first PCs or¢ scraping their C64s for the new¢ clones. Eventually, I became the¢ outcast and was looked upon as being¢ the strang one for not being able to¢ take work home. Once again, I was¢ faced with the prospect of scrapping¢ an investment of over $2500 in¢ hardware and software and years of¢ accumulated knowledge about the¢ intricacies of applying the 8bit¢ Atari to productivity applications.¢ I was almost ready to make the¢ plunge to the IBM world when é¢ noticed an ad in Antic Magazine for¢ the Happy 7.1 Upgrade and software¢ claiming that it gave IBM file¢ compatibility to the 8bit Atari¢ without resorting to null modem¢ cables or telephone hook-ups. Also,¢ Happy dropped their price from¢ $249.95 to $99.95 (does this say¢ something about the life cycle of¢ 8bit products?) which made the¢ decision easier. I promptly called¢ up my friendly mail order house¢ because no local merchants stocked¢ the product. By the way, it's¢ getting harder to find any 8bit¢ products on store shelves in the¢ Detroit area. Anyway, less then a¢ week later the man in the "Big Brown¢ Truck, " UPS to those of you without¢ kids" delivered my Happy 1050¢ Upgrade, Happy Disk Controller, and¢ Version 7.1 software.¢ Being a hardware hacker made¢ installation a simple matter for me,¢ no soldering or desoldering required.¢ But if you can't tell the difference¢ between a Phillips screwdriver and¢ and a floppy disk, you might want to¢ find someone to do the installation¢ for you. After printing out the¢ documentation, I was eager to¢ translate an Atari file into IBM¢ format so that could take it to¢ work to and see if this thing really¢ worked. Much to my chagrin, I¢ discovered the Happy cannot Format¢ IBM disks so the test had to wait.¢ Formatting disks for use with¢ the Happy 1050 must be done from the¢ MS-DOS machine using the Format A:/1¢ command because the 1050 is single-¢ sided and the IBMs, except some early¢ PCs are double-sided. After¢ formatting a supply of disks on the¢ IBM machine, I proceeded to make¢ copies of féles from the Atari to the¢ IBM and visa versa.¢ My objective in this whole¢ process was to be able to transfer¢ numeric data between Syncalc and¢ Lotus 1-2-3 and textual data from¢ Atariwriter Plus to IBM readable¢ ASCII next files. The later proved¢ easy once I learned to use the Save¢ ASC option from Atariwriter Plus and¢ use the Text Translation = Yes Option¢ in the IBMXFR program supplied by¢ Happy. The resulting text files on¢ the IBM had none on the the text¢ formatting options they had in¢ Atariwriter Plus. My IBM word¢ processor, Volkswriter, was able to¢ load the files with only one problem.¢ That is, any imbedded print¢ characters in the files such as Cntl¢ U for underlining caused the data¢ within the print codes to be garbled¢ in the translation. Removing all of¢ the imbedded characters with¢ Atariwriter Plus before saving the¢ files in ASC format solved the¢ problem but it does make¢ compatibility a little less complete¢ because the necessary formatting¢ commands must then be reentered in¢ the IBM file.¢ The Syncalc translation process¢ proved to be much more complicated.¢ My first attempt were with DIF files¢ created by Lotus 1-2-3 version 2.01.¢ The Happy IBMFXR program translated¢ them OK, but when I tried to load¢ them into Syncalc using the Load-Data¢ Option, weird things happened -- only¢ part of the file came through and¢ some of it was garbled. Going from a¢ Syncalc DIF to Lotus 1-2-3 was OK but¢ I couldn't go from 1-2-3 to Syncalc.¢ A little bit of research turned¢ up the fact that with Version 2.01 of¢ 1-2-3, Lotus made some changes in the¢ way the program's Translate Utility¢ creates DIF files. To be more¢ explicit, in version 2.01 of Lotus,¢ the Translate Utility ignores all¢ non-needed blank cells when creating¢ a DIF file. This is different from¢ the previous versions if Lotus and¢ other programs that account for all¢ the cells in a range including the¢ blank cells when creating the DIF¢ file.¢ Anyway, a way around this¢ problem was suggested in the June¢ 1987 issue of Lotus magazine on Page¢ 132. To create an old style DIF file¢ in Lotus 2.01 use the following¢ procedure from within 1-2-3:¢ 1) Retrieve the file to be translated¢ 2) Put a label-prefix apostrophe in¢ cell A1-type an Apostrophe hit Enter.¢ 3) Copy A1 to the entire relevant¢ portion of the spreadsheet as follows¢ /C From A1 Push Return -To A1..(Type¢ period) Push End Key, Push home Key.¢ 4) The file will look erased but you¢ will notice that a label-prefix¢ apostrophe has been placed in each¢ cell of the relevant portion of the¢ spreadsheet.¢ 5) Re-load the original file using¢ the File Combine, Copy, Entire File¢ method.¢ 6) Re-save the file under a new name.¢ This yields a file with no non-blank¢ cells for the Translate Utility to¢ ignore.¢ 7) Translate this new file to DIF¢ using the Lotus Translate Utility and¢ your single sided Atari readable¢ disks. The new file will load into¢ Syncalc with no problems.¢ One point that must be made is¢ that spreadsheets transferred in this¢ way will not work from one program to¢ another ie. Syncalc spreadsheets¢ will not run in Lotus 1-2-3 and visa¢ versa. The documentation supplied¢ with the Happy 7.1 Software makes¢ this clear. Using the DIF files¢ described above is only a way of¢ transferring data between programs¢ and not a way of transferring models¢ between programs.¢ As far as program compatibility¢ goes, it may be possible to move¢ Visicalc models from the IBM to the¢ Atari and use Syncalc's translate¢ utility to get them into the Atari.¢ This of course assumes that there are¢ people still out there using Visicalc¢ on the IBM PC. In general, if you¢ are really looking for complety¢ compatibility between your work based¢ IBM and your Atari 8bit, the Happy¢ 7.1 Upgrade will not serve your¢ needs You'll have to go out and buy¢ a clone or an ST to get full program¢ compatibility. But, this very limited¢ compatibility didn't hinder me from¢ getting utility out of the program¢ because the applications I was¢ attempting to coordinate between the¢ 2 machines involved only the exchange¢ of data, not the transfer of models.¢ In other words, if you want to be¢ able to write a memo on your Atari at¢ home over the weekend and then take¢ the disk in to work and print it out¢ and distribute on your IBM on¢ Monday, then the Happy 7.1 Upgrade¢ is for you. If, on the other hand,¢ you're developing a capacity planning¢ model in Lotus 1-2-3 and want to be¢ able to see your kids before they go¢ to bed-your choices are more limited,¢ either buy the clone or ST or learn¢ to work late.¢ My own applications point up a¢ limitatio that you have on the Atari¢ 8bit, for productivity programs, that¢ you don't have on more robust¢ machines like the IBM. Namely, what¢ I do is go on-line with Dow Jones¢ News Retrieval and download stock¢ prices and news headlines about a¢ certain group of companies. This¢ data is entered into a Lotus 1-2-3¢ spreadsheet that does come¢ calculations on the data and serves¢ as a base for editing the news¢ headlines and then finally is used to¢ print out a report. In Lotus, I can¢ import my downloaded ASCII data¢ directly into the spreadsheet which I¢ can't do with Syncalc.¢ In Syncalc, I must type in the¢ numeric portion of the data directly¢ into a spreadsheet model, the I¢ Print the file to disk as a print¢ file. This file can be loaded into¢ Atariwriter Plus and then merged with¢ the rest of downloaded file which¢ Atariwriter Plus can load and edit. ¢ This resulting file can then be¢ converted into IBM format for¢ distribution. It would be nice if¢ Syncalc would allow you to import¢ ASCII text files into a spreadsheet¢ thus saving an extra step that is not¢ required on the IBM PC. If anyone¢ knows of any utilities that can¢ translate ASCII text files into DIF,¢ Syncalc, or Visicalc format, I would¢ like to here from you.¢ One other feature you might want¢ to consider is its obvious ability to¢ make backup copies of your protected¢ software. In many bases manufacterers¢ are out of business. It is becoming¢ very important to have backup of your¢ software, which is almost impossible¢ to replace these days.¢ The Happy 7.1 Upgrade performs¢ this task admirably even on the¢ Synapse software where it has to use¢ PDF files to make copies that only¢ run on a Happy equipped drive. I now¢ have backups for my protected disks.¢ =*=*=*=*=*¢
