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1997-04-16
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**************************************************************************
* *
* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *
* ~ STEN #7 : NOVEMBER 1991 : THE EDITORIAL ~ *
* ~ by John Weller ~ *
* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *
* *
**************************************************************************
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ NOTICE OF INTENT ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ever heard of that old Rick Nelson song called "Garden Party"?
The one where the chorus goes, "can't please everyone, so you got to
please yourself". Well, that's the way that we're feeling at STEN now;
we've had zilch response to our appeals for feedback and comments and
we're just going to write to please ourselves from now on in. STEN will
be more personal, and aimed less at a hypothetical 'average user' than
before. 90% of the mag will still be the usual mix of general articles
and technical pieces, but we're planning to have articles on whatever
we're interested in at any particular time. So, if you see an article on
ferrets and falconry in a future STEN, you'll know why it's there.
The great mystery is what do we have to do to get a response from
you? Set alight to ourselves? Read the bible? Eat the cat? Is anyone
reading this? The idea of STEN is that it can be an impartial forum for
*any* ST user, so if there's anything that you'd like to say about it,
any information that you'd like to pass along, any criticism, queries or
perhaps even praise, then write to us at the usual address and we'll
print it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ STEN NEWS AND IMPROVEMENTS ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You've probably noticed by now that the STEN shell's running a lot
smoother than last time and that some of the old options have been
trimmed out. The reason for this is that Dave had a fit of tidiness a
month back and decided to erase all the STEN code... "It's O.K, I've got
a back-up." Ha! Guess whose back-up code was corrupt... and who had to
start again from scratch.... "Well, I *was* meaning to go through it and
take out all the fixes...." The upshot is that Dave's re-written the
entire programme in three weeks and has made it faster and better than
before. Yours truely has even roused himself into drawing a mono loading
screen, so you'll no longer get that "No picture present - press any key"
error when you boot-up in mono. Small details, but they all help.
The other change is that STEN will now appear regularly every two
months. This issue is scheduled for the first week in November, and
subsequent ones will appear at the beginning of January, March, May,
July, September, and November. Is this organised, or is it *Organised*?
Only time will tell.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ ON A PERSONAL NOTE ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regular readers of my P.D column will have noticed that it was
dedicated to "Liz, my muse and my life". Well, it should now read "my
muse and my wife", as we were married in Bournemouth on the 12th of
October. The bride wore purple silk, the groom was straight, and the
families made damn sure we didn't take any animals to the Registry
Office. But we had our revenge! The wedding cake had three half-size
ferrets on it and a rabbit cowering alongside... The honeymoon was spent
in North Wales: the two of us, a hawk called Camilla and a brace of
ferrets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ THEY COME, AND THEY GO ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Computer Excess has folded. The magazine that brought tabloid
writing to the weekly computer press is no more. Ever on the track of a
good story, your STEN hack pulled on his dirty trench coat and picked up
the 'phone. We all knew that the mag had been braindead for some time
now, but was it true that the accountants had finally declared it
bankrupt? Through the weeping and sound of expenses slips being torn in
half, I heard the following, "It obviously wasn't making enough money -
or it was a management decision - something like that".
These are hard times indeed for the Computer Mag Industry, and we at
STEN wish to mark this dark day in the same way that NCE marked the end
of its only rival, Popular Computer Weekly: "Yes, it was very sad, very -
Snarf! Musn't laugh! Must NOT laugh! - sad indeed."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ THE NEXT ONES PLEASE! ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Someone, somewhere, has scented money to be made from P.D. Two new
magazines have appeared since our last issue, and both of them claim to
present a round-up of what's new and best in the free software scene.
'Shareware and Public Domain Shopper' was the first to appear, and one
P.D librarian has been heard to suggest that "it was cooked up by
Europress in a big rush when they heard that Future Publishing was
launching 'Public Domain'." He went on to add that, "On the ST side, the
main writers are Ian Waugh, Evelyn Mills, and Marc Young - all under
intense pressure to write something, no matter what."
The idea was obviously to 'queer the pitch' of 'Public Domain'
before its first issue appeared, but this may have misfired for Euro-
press. The consensus amongst users is that 'Shareware and P.D Shopper'
is the biggest pile of cr*p that any of us have seen. Bar none. Europress
are finding it difficult enough to keep the ailing 'ST User' going
without trying to launch a new magazine, so do I smell desperation there?
Both mags will be reviewed (with some interesting gossip) in our next P.D
column.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ BLOWING OUR OWN TRUMPET ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We're once again having to fall back on our own resources for this
issue, as there's been an almost total lack of response to our last
appeal for comments, feedback or criticism about STEN. One reader who'd
been looking forward to issue 6 was even heard to say that, "they get the
feedback that they deserve"... Well, that might be so, but when did YOU
last do anything for other ST users? Nothing ever starts out perfect and
finished, and STEN is no exception. We're learning, we're trying, we're
*doing* it. We're not sitting on our backsides and moaning.
Floppyshop (why do I always type Floopyshop? Sorry Steve) has once
again put STEN in its list of 'Top 20 Recommended Discs', and Martyn
Dryden of the South West Software library has said that "I must mention
that I like STEN very much, sharing your and Dave's ideals about P.D and
shareware. Not only does it reflect those ideals, but it also takes a
professional approach to design and production". Caledonia P.D Library
also reviewed STEN as a "superb production that has everything that you'd
expect from a paper magazine".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ IN THIS ISSUE ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this issue you'll find a round-up of all the current ST disc mags
and fanzines, plus an article on bugs invading hardware, a report on the
Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria, interviews with Martyn Dryden
of the South West software Library and Bob Chewter of Radical Systems, a
review of the American 'Mondo 2000' cybertech magazine, P.D gossip and
reviews, Ken Butler on how he puts "Bublin Times" together, all the
regular columns, and anything else we can fit in. There's also copies of
FONECOST and other useful P.D utilities on the disc - these come courtesy
of Caledonia PDL and the South West Software Library. Enjoy! (And don't
forget to write to us.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-OOO-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ DAVES' BIT ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is all the stuff I either forgot to send to John or hadn't collated
in time. Hopefully I won't have forgotten too much.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ THE NEW SHELL ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Watch with Mother. This episode
of The Woddentops sees daddy Woodentop having to rewrite the newsletter
shell from scratch after a general tidy up and reorganisation.
I'm not too sure what happened, but after getting STEN 6 out I decided to
create new work discs for my source code and copied everything onto the
one disc, deleting old copies. When I went to work on the code I got the
sickening 'Not a GFA file' message.
After trying to salvage what was available I decided that a total rewrite
was the only answer. This has turned out to be not a bad thing as I am
happier with the new shell than I ever was with the old one.
For a start, this version has benefitted from all of the lessons learned
up to now and does not have the spaghetti code from dozens of fixes and
improvements. It also has a lot more features in it and is easily
expandable, check out the extras in this version and the next one.
The obvious new features are:
Colour displays now can handle PI1-3, PC1-3 and NEO graphics modes in low
res, medium res and (emulated) high res modes.
The mono display can handle PI3 and PC3 graphics modes. I'll try to add
colour graphics emulation, but as I don't have access to a mono monitor
it's a bit difficult.
Newsletter functions are now selectable by pressing a single letter, check
out the drop down menus for what has been assigned so far. Also, T & B
position the screen at the top and bottom of the text.
There is now a bookmark function. This is selected by pressing any SHIFT
key and a FUNCTION key. This remembers what page was on screen and can
be recalled by pressing the FUNCTION key. There can be up to ten bookmarks
defined, ie 10 function keys, which may be a bit over the top but it
seemed daft to do only three or five or ....
There are three sets of masks for each of text files (*.ASC, *.TXT, *.*),
picture formats (*.PC?, PI?. *.*) and programs (*.PRG, *.TOS, *>TTP). More
will be added as and when required.
When you exit the file select box either by choosing a program or clicking
on the return box, that path is remembered. This means that when you want
to load a file, picture or program the shell will return you to the last
drive/folder selected.
The size of the text file that can be loaded now is limited only by the
available free memory. I've had a 140K file in a 520 ST but am not sure
what the exact limits are.
If you do try to run a program from the shell and it doesn't run then
almost certainly lack of RAM is to blame. Other minor problems may be
resource files not being where the program expects them to be or the
program needing the computer to be in the correct resolution before being
selected.
There is a 'FREE MEMORY' function which I put in when doing some
debugging. Treat it as a rough guide only as it can change even when you
haven't obviously done anything to change the size. IE changing a path
will enlarge/decrease the path string.
The keyclick has been turned off to stop it annoying those who want to
use the arrow keys for scrolling the text.
Finally, the arrow keys Insert and Clr Home do the same things as puting
the mouse into the screen scrolling boxes at the top of the screen.
A few quirks have shown up. Sometimes the fileselect box doesn't show any
files or contains garbage. It has always happened on drive B:. I have
included Han Kempens media change routine to try and help, it didn't seem
to at first so I clicked on the select box with no file and when I retried
I could access the files.
Also, when another program is run from within the shell the menu bar
disappears on return and garbage is printed on the screen. This is due to
the text file being corrupted and having carraige return/line feed
characters in the wrong place. I think it is the program that was run's
fault and not the shells. It has only done it once with a mid sized
program (the CHEAT.PRG from disc 4 which screws that version of the shell
too).
One feature that will get looked at as soon as possible is the menu. I
have never been happy with the present set up and it definately needs
improving on mono systems. There is a couple of ways that I can go, but I
want something that is neither too complicated or memory hungry. Until I
get it sorted out please bear with me. At least the present system works.
Any suggestions or requests for improvements, features or whatever will be
gratefully received.
~~~~~~~~~~~
~ REVIEWS ~
~~~~~~~~~~~
We have been getting some support from software houses in the way of
review copy. Both zzSoft and Arnor have sent software to review. We also
have some more of their products to look at for the next issue plus one or
two others. Hopefully this is the start of a trend and more will follow.
There are loads of smaller reviews of Budgie games and some PD software, a
big thanks to Kornflake and Raymond for these. If you have any interesting
programs and would like to let others know... review it and send it to us.
Articles should be in 1st Word+, or ASCII, and formatted to 74 characters
per line and right justified. Everything is welcome, you should know by
now the kind of stuff we are looking for.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ EAZY TEXT PROFESSIONAL ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
zzSOFT are planning to bring out an improved version of their budget DTP
program EZ Text+. It is called EZ Text Professional and should be ready
around December '91, costing £40. Existing EZ Text+ owners can upgrade for
£25.
EZ Text Professional is a completely rewritten version of EZ Text+ with
many new and improved features. EZT PRO features include the ability to
import and resize .GEM (metafiles), .IMG, >TNY, .PI3, .PC3 art files. Full
screen text editor. Column guides; snap to guides; link frames; paragraph
tagging, and more.
Get the next issue of STEN for more details (and possibly the reviews) or
watch the other comics for zzSOFTs ads. If you can't wait call zzSOFT on
0254 672965.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ ANOTHER NUTTER ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We've a new member in the STEN gang. He's Dave Price who has been
contributing articles for quite a while now. Dave plans to do some
articles on using the MIDI and printer ports for simple projects. You can
check out his credentials in the Who the Hell...? article.
~~~~~~~~~~~
~ LETTERS ~
~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, we've had one or two. Mostly to say how much people have enjoyed
STEN, a couple did ask some questions. If anyone has a problem, this is
probably the best way of getting it resolved. I can't promise an answer
but there is a good chance someone in the STEN gang can. Check out the
letters file for correspondence to date.
~~~~~~~
~ PBM ~
~~~~~~~
As no one wanted to take up our offer of a free place in Hot Rod Racers,
I've decided to play the position myself. There is an overview of the game
in this edition of STEN and, hopefully, updates of the game in the future.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ OUTSIDE THE UK ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This edition of STEN is the first to be distributed outside the UK. It
will be getting sent to Europe, Australia, Canada and USA. We'd love to
hear from anyone in these countries with a view to exchanging PD, disc
mags and mutual help. If you are reading this and feel you'd like to make
contact with some ST nutters in the UK then drop me a line. All letters
will be answered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ NEW PDL LIBRARY ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is a new PD library on the scene. Its been founded by Caroline Price
and we hope to have an interview with her for the next issue. The library
is called NEW AGE PDL and the discs are a very reasonable 1.50 each. Check
out the PDL file for more information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ PROGRAMS ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Normally John sends me loads of PD programs to put on the disc.
Unfortunately, he has not had the time to do it for this issue. Something
about getting married and writing the odd half dozen articles. A lame
excuse if I ever heard one. I'll include as many as space permits, check
out the 'PROGRAMS' entry in the menu to see whats on the disc.
DAVE MOONEY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -oOo- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~