INFO-ATARI16 Digest Sat, 21 Oct 89 Volume 89 : Issue 544 Today's Topics: fortran MIDI advice sought More Internationalization of Software Spectre GCR availability? TT vs 386 boxes and Apple Turbo C, Gulam and the stack ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 21 Oct 89 22:20:14 GMT From: dftsrv!iris613!stailey@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Ken Stailey) Subject: fortran In article <3937.253ca865@uwovax.uwo.ca> 4224_5132@uwovax.uwo.ca writes: >I need help finding a GOOD fortran for my ST. The only good FORTRAN is a dead FORTRAN. INET stailey@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov UUCP ?backbone?!dftsrv!iris613!stailey ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 89 23:27:33 GMT From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!wrgate!amadeus!brandonl@uunet.uu.net (Brandon G. Lovested) Subject: MIDI advice sought My desire is to get into music composition, not having any formal training. I have looked at a few keyboards, and have found the Roland D-5 to be sufficient for my needs (8 voices plus drums). Now, the hard part. Realizing the rivalry between Amiga and Atari exists, I ask those of you with some experience with both machines to help someone to decide the "best path for my particular needs." I am aware, also, that both Commodore and Atari will have new machines out soon. This may be under the category of sci-fi, though. In any case, I shy away from small systems, like the A500, for future support reasons, and the fact I will necessarily need large memory (?1 MB RAM to begin with). I am afraid, however, that local support of both machines is spotty here in Portland, Oregon. Sure, there's PC's (dull, number-crunching-intensive machines), and there's MAC's (too overpriced). Is there an optimum solution? Money is, of course, an issue. A few grand is ok for a music system, CPU, a word processor, and a couple games. But for amounts over that, I think I will simply crawl back into my shell and wait for cheaper times ahead. Thank you so much. ================================================================================ | Brandon G. Lovested | "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, | indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! brandonl@amadeus.WR.TEK.COM | My life is my own." | ================================================================================ ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 89 23:34:57 GMT From: mcsun!sunic!infovax!bl@uunet.uu.net (Bj|rn Larsson) Subject: More Internationalization of Software In article <9995@cadnetix.COM> terrell@cadnetix.COM () writes: > >II: Software Documentation & Orthography > >Does US software/documentation usually get translated for countries that have >relatively small user communities (e.g. Sweden)? If the answer is "No", >would translation of a product give it a great competitive advantage >over a similar, but non-translated product? Larger packages, like word some word processors, speard-sheets, integrated packages etc get translated if the market justifies it. Programming lan- guages, programmers editors and special utilities usually don't since pro- fessional programmers know english well anyway, and the market is smaller (by comparison). As for DOS itself, IBM translates all DOS documentation, and all text strings in the programs themselves, to Swedish (and all other national languages too). To me it's a nuisance, since I prefer english. It looks so ridiculous in swedish many times, and sometimes the translations aren't right either. So I always try to get the english language versions, but it seems DOS 'in english' is getting hard to find on the swedish market. In general, I think it's a definite competitive edge here to have docs and prompts in the national language in question. About the rest of Europe, I know that in France it is regulated *by law* that in order to sell a computer product there, documentation in french *must* be available. I don't know how the law is obeyd - my company does export to France (both hardware and software) with english docs... As for population sizes for those who don't know, we're about 8 million people here in Sweden, and there are about 55 million in France. Both countries cover approximately the same land area. >III: Product Introduction > >After reading several overseas computer mags, I get the impression that >(to be sarcastic) Europe is used as a beta-test site for US-developed >software. I own SPRINT 1.0 which I believe is the most recent version >available domestically, while users in Europe are using version 1.5. But is Borland an American company? The original Turbo PASCAL was written by a danish guy (who admittedly now lives in the US). And (I may be very wrong about this but) isn't the company which owns Borland based in Sweden? I think I've seen something like that somewhere (but I think development - most of it - is actually done in the US). Further I know that Swedish Borland International has more or less forbidden US Borland to export to swedish distributors, since SW Borland wants Borland products in Sweden to have swedish docs. Therefore to get english docs, I had to buy my Turbo C Professional package from abroad (actually from Logicsoft in Holland). Isn't it weird? But to answer your question, I don't think Europe gets earlier releases than the US. Rather, the introduction of the same packages are probably done at the same time, or maybe somewhat later here. -- Bjorn -- ====================== InfoVox = Speech Technology ======================= Bjorn Larsson, INFOVOX AB : ...seismo!mcvax!kth!sunic!infovax!bl Box 2503 : bl@infovox.se S-171 02 Solna, Sweden : Phone (+46) 8 735 80 90 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Oct 89 16:01:42 EDT From: Brian Holmes Subject: Spectre GCR availability? Is anyone shipping Spectre GCR yet? Brian Holmes CSC Operating Systems & Communications SNAIL : Wayne State University, 5925 Woodward, Detroit MI 48202 U.S.A. BITNET : BHOLMES@WAYNEST1 INTERNET : Brian_Holmes@UM.CC.UMICH.EDU UUCP : ?UMIX|ITIVAX?!WAYNE-MTS!BRIAN_HOLMES ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 89 16:57:39 GMT From: ogccse!blake!ramsiri@ucsd.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) Subject: TT vs 386 boxes and Apple In article <1035@cc.helsinki.fi> JALKIO@cc.helsinki.fi (Varsinainen sikapossu kuoli t?n??n.) writes: >In article <28320@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, stephen@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Stephen Whitney) writes: >> > >a MAC with a ST faster than a real MAC. I hope (and believe) that the TT >will be the first truly affordable machine for Unix-usage. > >difficult to make a computer that is as good but many times cheaper! >on this planet.... > > Jouni I originally simply posted an ad I saw for a 25Mhz 386 box, 8 expansion slots, VGA color high res monitor and card, 60 meg 1:1 hard drive, floppy, keyboard, 1meg RAM for $1995.00 ... and correct me if I am wrong, there are several flavors of UNIX to choose from that should indeed run on this machine. I don't understand why people such as Jouni say: " first truly affordable machine for Unix-usage; ... as good but MANY TIMES cheaper..". Does Jouni know something that I don't know? Has ATARI announced a price for the TT? Is it MANY TIMES cheaper than $1995.00 ? WIll ATARI support their Unix SYS V as well as they have supported TOS? Hmm...I guess only ATARI can tell us for sure, and since their lips are sealed, it's hard to read them.... -kevin ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Oct 89 08:14:21 EDT From: David Subject: Turbo C, Gulam and the stack Turbo C does use the stack strangely, but you can force a function to use a normal ST stack with the keyword `cdecl' (also found in MSC and TC on the IBM). For example, if you are trying to call Gulam from TC, use a prototype for the function pointer like this: int cdecl (*sysptr)(char * cmdline); Then, whenever you call (*sysptr)(), it will place its argument on the regular stack. Remember to get the value of sysptr from SHELL_P, and that SHELL_P is in protected memory, so you will have to go into supervisor mode to look at it. David Megginson, Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto ------------------------------ Date: (null) From: (null) ------------------------------ End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #544 ***************************************** =========================================================================