Info-Atari16 Digest Friday, September 15, 1989 Volume 89 : Issue 473 This weeks Editor: Bill Westfield Today's Topics: adding a 68881 Comment on the portable spectre gcr educational discounts RE: Info-Atari16 Digest V89 #465 TOS 1.4 in the UK wp -> LaTeX converter PC Ditto, Spectre 128 And the Atari SLM804 Laser Printer Production TOS 1.4 (un)availability Re: ROM disassembly for TOS -- A suggestion. Re: TOS 1.4 on disk TOS 1.4 Compatibility List Atari ST software for sale... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 89 18:52:58 BST From: Ian D Hawkins To: info-atari16@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU Subject: adding a 68881 I would like to add a 68881 to my ST (to go with my prospero FORTRAN compiler). Is a reasonably priced add on board available, or has the necessary interface circuitry been published anywhere?. The board would probably have to bolt on to the 68000 as the glue chip in my machine is surface mounted. I noticed an odd effect when upgrading the RAM in my ST; it wont allow different sized RAM banks. Bank 0=500k,bank1=2M gives 1Mbyte total, bank 0=2M, bank1=500k gives an apparent 4M and a swift crash!. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 89 19:39:47 GMT From: agate!web-1c.berkeley.edu!laba-1aj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU Subject: Comment on the portable spectre gcr To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu >From agate!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!leah! csd4.csd.uwm.edu!marque!carroll1!dnewton Wed Sep 13 12:15:43 PDT 1989 %In article <872@cuphub.cup.edu> kar7481@cuphub.cup.edu (HI HO-HI HO - IS UNIX THAT GREAT? YOU KNOW?) writes: %>GOAL: Introduce ST's to the collegiate environment via Spectre-GCR Mac Emultr. % % I've had direct dealings with Atari on the feasability on this. The basic %feeling is it's a very good idea, get a STacy w/ GCR for a portable Mac. The %concern most people have with this idea is the lack of an AppleTalk interface. %this limits it's usefullness to a heavily-networked environment. Atari should develop an AppleTalk interface right away. Portable mac clone announcements are getting pretty common, and Apple's entry is imminent. IMHO, for the casual and middle level applications user, the STacy+SpectreGCR combo would be the cheapest (read: most reasonable) mac clone. However, I know of one company which has taken a page from Gadgets By Small and announced a clone which requires that the user obtain mac ROMs and plug it into the computer. This may not sound worlds apart from the ST+GCR package, but it is: the other machine offers Appletalk, it is probably upgradeable to 256K ROMs, and it probably takes a 68030 optionally. I'd expect other mac clone makers to make machines with these features. And if I recall, the entry systems wil be around $3000. What I'm getting to is that Atari and GBS had better speed things up and/or synchronize the releases of their respective products. If they don't they will lose potential sales of Stacys and GCRs to more agile mac clones. & John Kawakami & laba-1aj@web.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 89 19:15:31 GMT From: iris.ucdavis.EDU!hulse@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu (C.A. Hulse) Subject: educational discounts To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu [interesting comments deleted] > (Find that hard to believe.) They are missing out on a great opportunity to > get some of the brightest minds interested in their machines by not offering > mass educational discounts (quantity one) like Apple and IBM (just started > offering quantity one discounts recently I think). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is Atari now offering educational discounts? I've been trying to scrape money up for a system for six months or so - something like this might actually let me buy some software too, rather than just heat my room with it... "Just my (own) two cents..." --Andy Hulse ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Sep 89 15:28 EST From: "DOUGLAS BOTTOMS, TRANSPORTER CHIEF OF DEPAUW" Subject: RE: Info-Atari16 Digest V89 #465 To: Info-Atari16@Score.Stanford.edu X-VMS-To: IN%"Info-Atari16@Score.Stanford.edu" I am really impressed with this discusion list...I've been reading this list for 2 weeks and already love it. I'm purchasing an ATARI 1040ST by the end of next sat.(9-18) and would like to know the following: 1. How do I get on, or find the Public Domain? 2. how do I get on, or find the BBS's around my area(Clayton or Greencastle, Indiana U.S.A) 3. Who can send me programs (legally) for free, I am a typical college student with no money, the only reason I'm going to DePauw U. is because they gave me a Computer Science Scholarship--the tuition is almost 17,000 a year not including Pizzas on the weekends. 4. Where is there a company that will send me broshers, folders, mail, and etc. ** in the mail of the conventional world who has not discovered email ** about the Atari 1040 ST, its programs, and software that is available to me. I thank all of that help me with this in advance, and to those who can't (or won't) help--that's OK because I may be your Boss someday... Atari lives......... |> () \| <, |_ /\ _\ Douglas J. Bottoms, The Transporter Room Commander incharge of all rebelous actions at DePauw University (US). ...Transporter Out! ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 89 16:30:38 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!sys.uea!cmp7131@uunet.uu.net (M. Plumtree) Subject: TOS 1.4 in the UK To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu Having read most of the articles about how wonderful TOS 1.4 is, and the various reports about its release in Germany and the USA, I decided to ring my local distributor. So I rang Silica Shop (not exactly local, but I thought they of all Atari distributors would be able to help) and asked when TOS 1.4 would be here in the UK. After a quick discussion away from the phone, the guy on the other end said, "Sometime before Christmas." So, going on what Ken had said, I pressed on, saying that perhaps Atari (UK) hadn't released the newsletter yet, but it should be available, but I got no more joy from them. So then I contacted Atari here in the UK, and they gave the same answer as Silica Shop, "sometime before Christmas" even after pointing out the fact that it is available on mainland Europe, and in America. What have Atari (US) got against Atari (UK) ? How different can the US/UK ROM sets be ? On a related point, when I finally do get a ROM set, how easy will it be to install it in my TOS 1.0 machine (I don't know the rev. #, but if this helps, both the LEDs are red, as opposed to the newer machines which have yellow and green LEDs.) If there are too many/few sockets in my machine for the chips, will Atari (Anywhere) be producing an adapter board ? 2E (no relation to the Apple ][e) ============================================================================== Matt Plumtree -- cmp7131@uk.ac.uea.sys or cmp7131%sys.uea.ac.uk@ukc.uucp cmp7131%sys.uea.ac.uk@UKACRL or cmp7131%sys.uea.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "We like to make peoples' ears bleed" - Dr. Alien I disclaim all knowledge of any diclaimer ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 89 20:42:46 GMT From: mcsun!hp4nl!nikhefh!t19@uunet.uu.net (Geert J v Oldenborgh) Subject: wp -> LaTeX converter To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu Does anyone have a program that would convert WordPerfect 4.1 files to some kind of LaTeX? Something that could handle 95% would do for start. Geert Jan van Oldenborgh t19@nikhef.nl Disclaimour: I have never used and will never ever use WP. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 89 20:34:36 GMT From: asuvax!hrc!force!covertr@handies.ucar.edu (Richard E. Covert) Subject: PC Ditto, Spectre 128 And the Atari SLM804 Laser Printer To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu In article <8909092229.AA11377@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, 01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) writes: > I have heard reports that Ditto II is supposed to allow printing to the > SLM804 laser. I hope this is true. I use a '286/'287 PC at work and it is > a real pain waiting 10 to 20 minutes for detail graphics to print out on > an HP laserjet via the parallel port. The same GEM pic that took l14 min 55 sec > on the PC took only 45 seconds from a Mega 2 to the SLM804 (unfortunately, > the SLM804 is not in my work area or I would use it instead of the PC/HP > combo). With Ditto II, I could run GEM Draw on my ST and print it to an > SLM804. That way, I could justify getting an SLM804 in my work area (with > Spectre GCR I can print Mac stuff to the SLM804 as well, not to mention > lots of ST code output). > > Question: Does Ditto II support the SLM804????? From what I understand, from messages both on USENET and GEnie, the first release of pc-ditto II will NOT have a SLM804 printer driver. Avant-Garde, the makers of pc ditto II, have indicated that they want to produce a SLM804 driver, but it won't be available for awhile yet. I plan to write a nice, polite letter to A-G and ask them to write the SLM804 driver as soon as possible. I hope that other SLM804 owners will write such a letter as well. If A-G (Avant-Garde) gets enough letters from SLM804 owners, it might help convince A-G of the demand for the SLM804. Who knows?? Until they do,as the SLM804 is my only printer, I don't plan to buy a pc-ditto II. On another note, Spectre 128 is supposed to support the SLM804 with release 2.0 of Spectre software. As I do NOT have version 2.0 of the Spectre 128 software, I can only repeat what I have learned from messages on GEnie.The resolution will be a 144x144 DPI Imagewriter emulation. Thus, you will be able to print, theorectically, anything, but only at 144x144 dpi resolution. I got this directly from David Small on GEnie. I repeat, I do NOT speak for Gadgets By Small. I can only tell you what I have been told on GEnie. Contact Gadgets By Small directly for more current information. Dan Moore, the programmer at GBS writing the SLM804 driver, can be reached here on comp.sys.atari.st, so you might try asking Dan Moore for the latest offical GBS news on the SLM804. While third vendor hardware emulators are great, it is a darn shame that the SLM804 is so hard to support under the emulators. GBS has spent the last year trying to develop a 300x300 dpi SLM804 driver, and they still haven't accomplished it (no flames to GBS, at least they have tried!!). So, I don't really expect Avant-Garde to get a 300x300 dpi SLM804 printer driver written soon!! But good luck to them!! P.S. Any SLM804 printer driver not capable of 300 dpi printing is a waste of the fine printing capability of the SLM804. It would be a shame to be restricted to the equivalent of a nine-pin dot matrix printer, when you have a laser printer capable of 300 dpi!! But, GBS is not the only company having difficulty with the SLM804. The makers of the Eureopen Mac emulator ALLADIN just released another SLM804 printer which is only 144x144 dpi also!! So, as far as I know, there is NOT an emulator available anywhere which will print at the maximum resolution that the SLM804 is capable of!! And even the German EPSON printer emulator, for the ST, is only marginally useful as it has limited resolution, and fonts. Someone needs to write a universal SLM804 driver so that Spectre and pc ditto could use it!! What a darn shame!!! I wish Atari would do something (anything!!) to help Avant-Garde or Gadgets By Small write a good SLM804 printer driver. richard (gtephx!covertr) covert ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 89 16:31:19 GMT From: att!chinet!saj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Stephen Jacobs) Subject: Production TOS 1.4 (un)availability To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu Just as a point of reference concerning production TOS 1.4 ROMs: I'm only a moderate pest, so I don't think I'm on Atari's bad list. I called developer support yesterday and asked whether I could buy run-of-production TOS 1.4 ROMs yet. Answer was 'no'. I know SOME of them exist, so I offer this as an unexplained observation. Steve J. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 89 16:21:17 GMT From: att!chinet!saj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Stephen Jacobs) Subject: Re: ROM disassembly for TOS -- A suggestion. To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu In article <1992@hudson.acc.virginia.edu>, gl8f@astsun7.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes: > > Atari distributes source for the BIOS and XBIOS in the dev kit docs. > > From what they've said, they DON'T OWN the source to the VDI, AES, and > GEMDOS. I have gathered this from comments made here and elsewhere. > They have been fixing bugs by decompiling pieces of it. [If I'm wrong, > someone please correct me...] > What we're discussing is related to the difference between past and future. Apparently the earliest developer documentation included source for BIOS and XBIOS (and startup code, and a lot of housekeeping code). Newer developer kits do not. VDI is someone else's property, I think, but I think Atari bought AES outright; GEMDOS has been rewritten, apparently from scratch, apparently more than once. Anyway, what some of us would like is the actual code (with comments) of as much TOS as possible. The sensible ones among us (most, I hope) want it only as programming examples and authoritative documentation. It surprises me that the letters I'm getting in regard to this discussion include a few from people who agree with total non-disclosure, saying that given a chance, programmers will do things that cause version-dependence. Still, given the record of the PC, I think official commented ROM code helps a computer more than it hurts. Steve J. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 89 18:02:16 GMT From: imagen!atari!apratt@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Allan Pratt) Subject: Re: TOS 1.4 on disk To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu wardlaw@ucrmath.UCR.EDU (Johnie Wardlaw) writes: >Now that TOS 1.4 (aka Rainbow TOS) is available, does this mean that the >disk based beta version supplied to registered developers is "up for grabs"? If by "up for grabs" you mean "freely distributable" the answer is no. Besides being illegal (it was supplied to developers under their nondisclosure agreements, and is copyright by Atari in any case) it's dangerous. The version on disk is not the version in ROM. Also, it's not good business to let people use lots of different, unofficial versions: we don't want to be in the position of saying, "Sorry, we can't help you; we don't support the OS you're using." Please don't use or distribute disk-based versions of TOS 1.4. ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 89 22:55:23 GMT From: pasteur!euler.Berkeley.EDU!jmorton@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (John Morton) Subject: TOS 1.4 Compatibility List To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu We should compile a compatibility list for TOS 1.4 - this is an issue which will undoubtedly come up repeatedly in the coming months (years). Many people are going to want to know which of their current software selection must be written off if they go for new ROMs. The list should consist of those programs which do not run properly under the new TOS, together with the pertinent hardware info. I for one do not know what info _is_ pertinent, if any - perhaps the model name, e.g. Mega 2, 520ST. We also need comments regarding the availability of fixed versions from those developers who choose to fix their broken programs. So those of you who have the ROMs, please post your entries to the net. "Down John Morton M.E. Machine Shop Down in the basement jmorton@euler.berkeley.edu Etcheverry Hall We hear the sound of machines..." Univ. of Calif. ------------------------------ Date: 14 Sep 89 01:22:48 GMT From: mentor.cc.purdue.edu!arw@purdue.edu (Paul Hanson) Subject: Atari ST software for sale... To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu I am selling the following software (since in a few days I will most likely no longer own my 1040ST). Prices are negotiable. Mark Williams C 3.02 & CSD (C source debugger)..... $75 Personal Pascal 2.0................................ $40 WordUp 1.3 (w/Fontz and G+Plus).................... $60 Dungeon Master..................................... $25 Gunship............................................ $25 Flight Simulator II................................ $30 Falcon ST.......................................... $28 The Navigator 2.0.................................. $30 Degas Elite........................................ $30 Wordwriter 2.0..................................... $35 Gauntlet II........................................ $25 Fleet Street Publisher 1.0......................... $15 Well... I think that is it. If anyone is interested, I will sell the whole lot as a package deal for $375. Please respond by mailing to arw@mentor.cc.purdue.edu, or call (317) 497-4082 (ask for Paul). The best time to call is after 8:00 pm, but there may be someone around at almost anytime. paul ------------------------------ End of Info-Atari16 Digest ************************** -------