Atari Explorer Online Newsletter Collection/AEO_0203.TXT

Text File | 1992-01-01 | 157KB | 3,675 lines

 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 ::  Volume 2 - Issue  3     ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE      29 January 1993  ::
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 ::                                                                      ::
 ::  ATARI .............. News, reviews, & solutions ............ ATARI  ::
 ::    EXPLORER ............ for the online Atari .......... EXPLORER    ::
 ::       ONLINE ................. Community .............. ONLINE       ::
 ::                                                                      ::
 ::         Published and Copyright © 1993 by Atari Corporation          ::
 ::          """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""           ::
 ::  Editor ............................................... Travis Guy   ::
 ::    Assistant Editor ............................... Ron Robinson     ::
 ::      Assistant Editor ........................... Albert Dayes       ::
 ::        Assistant Editor ................... Andreas Barbiero         ::
 ::          News Editor ................................ Lyre           ::
 ::            Editor-at-Large ................... Ed Krimen             ::
 ::              Hardware Editor ......... Britton Robbins               ::
 ::                                                                      ::
 ::                            Contributors                              ::
 ::                            """"""""""""                              ::
 ::                 John J. Lehett       Timothy Wilson                  ::
 ::                                                                      ::
 ::                                                                      ::
 ::                       Editorial Advisory Board                       ::
 ::                       """"""""""""""""""""""""                       ::
 ::   President, Atari Corporation........................Sam Tramiel    ::
 ::   Director of Application Software...................Bill Rehbock    ::
 ::   Director, Computer Marketing ........................Don Thomas    ::
 ::   Director of Communications...........................Bob Brodie    ::
 ::   Corporate Director, International Music Markets....James Grunke    ::
 ::   Atari Explorer Magazine............................Mike Lindsay    ::
 ::                                                                      ::
 ::                      Telecommunicated to you via:                    ::
 ::                      """"""""""""""""""""""""""""                    ::
 ::                             GEnie: AEO.MAG                           ::
 ::                         CompuServe: 70007,3615                       ::
 ::                            Delphi: ABARBIERO                         ::
 ::                      Fnet: AEO Conference, Node 706                  ::
 ::                  AtariNet: AEO Conference, Node 51:1/10              ::
 ::                                                                      ::
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


                              Table of Contents


 * From the Editors ................................... Finding our stride.

 * MultiTOS for the 68000 Series ........... Andreas gives some pointers on
                                               how Atari's new multitasking
                                                  OS will run on older STs.

 * The ALBERT File: Hot NAMM! .......... Albert Dayes visited the 1993 NAMM
                                              Show - full of Falcon030s and
                                                    other new music trends.

 * Ron's Random Ramblin' ........... Back from Daytona & hitting his marks.

 * Krimen on GEnie ............... Ed takes a look at a recent topic thread
                                          "TOS: Is it properly programmed?"

 * Atari Explorer - Nov/Dec 1992 TOC ............ "The best magazine in the
                                                   Atari universe" is back!

 * Atari Users Online: GEnie .......... GEnie chat from the past two weeks.

 * Beginner's MIDI ................ How to make your Atari play your synth.

 * GEnie News ........................... New files & happenings on Atari's
                                                  Official Online Resource.

 * An Introduction to UNIX and the Internet .................. Part 2 of 4.

 * Shutdown ........................ A new online magazine for programmers.


                              --==--==--==--==--


 |||  From the Editors ....... Atari Explorer Online: The Next Generation
 |||  Travis Guy
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG
      -------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to another issue of Atari Explorer Online - your guide to The
World Atari. In this issue we have an exclusive hands-on report about
MultiTOS, and how it works on older machines. Andreas has been testing
the latest versions of Atari's new OS on his Mega STe, and he has come up
with some interesting conclusions and recommendations for ST owners
wanting to take a crack at MTOS.

Albert Dayes spent a weekend at the NAMM show and (as you should expect)
has quite a bit to say about the experience. The ALBERT File: Hot NAMM is
an enjoyable look at the Annual Computer Musicians' Conclave.

Ron Robinson is back at home from an enjoyable vacation spent here in
sunny, (moderately) tropical Florida! His Random Ramblin' is back in AEO
and is not to be missed.

Ed Krimen, our Editor-at-Large (Hey! I resemble that remark!) introduces
his series - a thoughtful look at a subject raised on GEnie. Ed's opening
article deals with the supposedly inefficient TOS. TOS isn't "feeble" as
many would have you believe.

Our issue rounds out with John J. Lehett's article on MIDI for Total
Beginners (I needed to read that!) and part 2 of Tim Wilson's UNIX and the
Internet tutorial (I needed to read that, too). Interspersed with all of
that are Lyre's GEnie Users Online feature (which shows off again only a
tiny bit of the wealth of information to be found in the Atari ST
RoundTable), GEnie's STRT news regular, and the Table of Contents for the
November/December Atari Explorer Magazine.

Yes, Explorer is back. The first Lindsay/Meer issue is in the mail, and
the Jan/Feb issue should be distributed RSN. The Jan/Feb issue (a special
Atari Artist look at music) appeared at NAMM, and was well received by the
crowds. If you don't receive Atari Explorer Magazine yet, you'll find a
subscription coupon in this AEO. Use it.

While two months is not enough time to build a real tradition, tradition
around here holds that this is the place where the captions for our
Snapshot Specials can be found. Well, this issue holds a real treat.
Three compressed monochrome Degas screens of MultiTOS in action on a Mega
STe, and a TT030 medium resolution GIF showing the 16 color icons:

 INSTALL.PC3: The initial MultiTOS Install Dialog (yes, in a window).
DEVICE_U.PC3: MultiTOS installs a U: device (like a virtual drive) that
              you can use to monitor processes, pipe activity, and even
              other drives!
DTOPINWW.PC3: An AES 4 Desktop directory window opened over a WordWriter
              ST window. Note the Desktop menu bar shows, indicating that
              the Desktop is the active process in this shot. WordWriter
              ST sits comfortably in the background, awaiting its turn.
 MTOS_TT.GIF: This shot shows off the 16 color icons, as well as three
              applications running at once: Atari's Landmine, Talking
              Clock™, and Calendar/Appointment Book. Note with special
              care the Desk Accessory menu at the left. Yes! There's more
              than 6 DAs installed. Even more interesting, under the DA
              listing is a list of running programs (the arrow menu slot
              there allows the program names to be scrolled if there's
              not enough room to display them all. Cool.).

All of these snapshots were tested with GEMView - a great SHAREWARE
utility that you can pick up off of GEnie.

Check out the Shutdown for news of an open house this last weekend in
January as well as news of a NEW online magazine to debut next month!

Astute observers of our masthead will note some changes. Gone after a one
issue stint as Software Editor, is Doyle Helms. Doyle and a buddy are
starting a Photo CD business (and having to use a 4<arrgh!>86 clone) and
couldn't devote enough time to his AEO duties. Good Luck, Doyle!

Signing on as Hardware Editor is Britton Robbins. His and Ed Krimen's
bios follow. (for those of you who want to maintain a complete set of AEO
Editors' Bios) <grin>

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// AEO.4 - Britton Robbins
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

  Hello, my name is Britton Robbins. I have been working with computers
  since the old Radio Shack TRS-80 first came out. I worked for a
  government contractor as a systems engineer shortly after the IBM PC
  came out. I started my experience with Atari computers with a 600XL
  which I really loved. (Great Games!) When I heard about the 520ST it
  sounded too good to be true. I purchased one shortly after they were
  released. Since then, I have either owned or used extensively a variety
  of computers including; Atari 520STE, Atari MEGA ST2, Atari TT,
  Macintosh, IBM PC clone 386; Xerox 6085 Workstation. I have spent a lot
  of time studying computer hardware and architecture.

  I currently work for Xerox Corporation as a service engineer. The views
  I express here are my own and do not in any way represent the views of
  or an endorsement by Xerox Corporation.

  On a lighter note, I use my Atari computers for desktop publishing,
  telecommunications, budgeting, and writing and playing original music.
  (oh, and a game every now and then) To be honest, I play most of my
  video games on the Sega Genesis & Sega CD. I'm hoping the Jaguar comes
  out soon and blows Sega and Nintendo out of the water. Lastly, I am the
  new VP of the Bay Area Atari Users Group.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// AEO.5 - Ed Krimen
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

  I have always believed that computer networks such as GEnie are
  absolutely the best place to find answers for your questions about the
  ST. Whether you're having problems with your hard drive or trying to
  find a special graphics program, no place can answer your question more
  definitively than the ST Roundtable on GEnie. The wide breadth of
  knowledge that the users, the sysops, the developers, and the Atari
  employees possess goes largely untapped except to those who frequent the
  ST RT regularly. Unfortunately, many ST users don't have the luxury to
  comb the entire RT daily. That's where I come in.

  For over a year, I've been capturing the majority of GEnie messages that
  would interest the general ST user and reprinting the more informative
  ones each week in my Perusing GEnie column in Z*Net. I plan to continue
  to do this on a bi-weekly basis. On the alternative weeks, Atari
  Explorer Online will publish a feature column in which I will present to
  you a special series of messages found on GEnie. Each series will cover
  a single topic, not a variety of topics like I covered in Z*Net.
  Moreover, this new column will be presented in a more traditional
  fashion, including my comments and viewpoints on certain items.

  Although the ST market isn't as large as we all would hope, I find that
  I can offer substantial contributions to the ST community in order to
  help spread news and information about our beloved computers. My
  contributions can help others who aren't able to participate on GEnie
  regularly. There's a lot of good software and hardware out there that
  many people don't know about; with regular columns and feature articles,
  I hope to pass this news on to others.

  I suppose I'll tell you a little about myself. I've been an ST user
  since 1988 and an Atari user since the 2600 game system days. In 1991, I
  received my Bachelor of Arts degree in Information and Communication
  Studies from California State University, Chico. I studied
  Telecommunications (mass media, radio and television broadcasting) with
  an emphasis in computer graphics. After receiving my degree, I spent a
  year producing training videos for a large California workers'
  compensation insurance company. At this time, I'm searching for a job in
  the computer and video industries. I also play basketball twice a week.


Thanks guys. And now, on with the show!


                              --==--==--==--==--


 |||  MultiTOS for the 68000 series STs
 |||  By: Andreas Barbiero
/ | \ Delphi: ABARBIERO      GEnie: AEO.2
      -----------------------------------

//// Get A Falcon030 Desktop on your ST

The power of being able to run more than one program at once is something
we all have needed (or wanted) at one time or another. Being able to have
access to secondary programs at the same time as you work in a particular
program, while they all execute their tasks without your attendance, _and_
being able to have programs talk to one another through the use of pipes
and shared data is just a few of the ways that MultiTOS can multiply your
productivity.

It takes a great deal of computing power and software balancing to juggle
more than one program at once, especially when two programs have to have
access to the same resources at the same time. Not only do the system
requirements increase with this type of tasking, but a wholly new system
for organizing, keeping track, and prioritizing these processes is needed.
MultiTOS attempts this feat, and still manages to present us with a
familiar, yet more polished interface.

A little while back AEO included some screenshots of the Falcon030 desktop
complete with 3D buttons and window gadgets, 16 color animated icons, and
other enhancements. You will still need a Falcon030 to get a DSP chip
(and the myriad of hardware enhancments), but now you can get the
Falcon030 desktop on your ST/TT030 with MultiTOS.

//// System Needs

MultiTOS is not just a new TOS revision, like TOS 1.4 or 2.06, but is a
disk-based system which will require a more robust system than a stock
520ST will be able to provide.

For starters, 4 megs is absolute minimum to allow MTOS to run, and be able
to load programs in on top of it. You could load the MTOS kernel into a 2
meg computer, but you would not want to work in such tight confines, as
the remaining room will be nearly useless. You will also need a hard
drive, as there is about 900K of data and files that you will need access
to, not to mention the storage needs of the programs you are trying to run
under MTOS.

Unfortunatly, this may leave most ST users out of the picture. If you have
any processor intensive applications running under a 8MHz 68000, "slow"
will be a kind word. A MSTe boosts the abilities, but a Falcon030 or a
TT030 is exactly what MTOS was designed to run on, and on these computers,
it runs without any of the limitations of the ST. This may seem to be
dissapointing, but when the power of a system is increased as much as MTOS
increases a 68030, older technology just is not able to keep up. After
all, we are talking a chip designed around 15 years ago - you can't expect
it to compete forever. The Atari ST still remains a viable computer while
'286s and other processors of that era are truly obsolete. I remember
when I made that jump from a 48K Atari 800 to my first 520ST, I was
stunned at the thought of programs that would take up more than 500K!

AES 4, the heart of the new desktop, is included with MultiTOS. This is
highly similar to Falcon030 GEM. The 3D desktop works in all resolutions,
and the 16 color icons are really nice. Unfortunately on a ST, they are
limited to 320X200.

If you are lucky enough to have a TT030, the 640X480 mode is really nice,
especially with the added features present with a 68030 chip. What about
the ST? What can we do? The Mega STe is cheap, and the AlberTT graphics
card from Dover Research is now under $300. This card will give a MSTe or
a TT 1024X768 with 16 colors. Compatability is outstanding. The AlberTT
emulates the ST low screen using the original VDI, but at a higher
resolution. Combine this with a decent 14" or a 17" monitor, and a real
powerhouse opens up. The additional speed of a 16MHz 68000 is noticable,
and really keeps things moving. Even on a monochrome ST system (with
enough memory), the ST system is slow, but usable.

Determining whether or not the added flexibility is worth the added
overhead and cost is up to you! There are other options available: the
Turbo 25MHz accelerator is a nice boost to the standard ST, And the
TurboRAM RAM expansion is the only way to break the 4 megabyte limitation
on an ST. But these upgrades might be up to half the cost of buying a
TT030, never mind a Falcon030, or the same as buying a Mega STe.

//// What to Run?

Finding out what will run, and what won't, on the ST/MTOS combo is the
biggest factor here, as the software which will run sucessfully on this
system will have to be particularly clean. Even the simplest non-standard
software will refuse to run, and without the 68030's built in memory
protection, a crash will probably bring the whole system down.

For the sake of fairness, and not to mislead anyone, I will add the
following. With a 68000 based computer, you are taking chances with MTOS.
It WILL run on your ST, but the lack of speed and memory protection will
cause weird problems. One program might run just fine with everything
else, then later on you load up another application, and BANG, you have a
crash, all because of some spurious data written somewhere or left behind.
Does this mean don't use it? No. Just don't spend 10 hours on your
doctorate thesis without saving, then when you experience a crash, get
mad at me!

Terminal programs are particularly touchy. Aladdin works under MultiTOS,
but won't let the system go while it is connected, making the other
processes inaccessable. You have access to the desk dropdown menus, but
cannot switch out of it to another program! As far as word processors go,
Word Writer ST works well, in fact I am using it right now, under
MultiTOS, with several other programs loaded into the background. You can
run TOS applications with a program, MINIWIN included in the release
version of MTOS. I am compiling a list of software which works and will be
including the list with operating hints it in another article, which will
be released similtanious with MTOS.

In the meantime, experiment with your favorite software, and let the
author know if it doesn't work. If you registered your software, or
bought the software, they should be willing to attempt a fix. No matter
how much work is put into MTOS, if the programmer breaks the rules no-one
can prevent bombs. This is why memory protection is important. On a
TT030 or Falcon030, if you get a bomb from a non-MTOS aware program, the
whole system won't lock up like it will on an ST. Commercial software is
being upgraded to work under MultiTOS and should be available soon. Watch
AEO for updates.

This is not a bulletproof system for the ST, but it is interesting, and if
you are remotely interested in what the power of MultiTOS on a 68030 can
do for you, or want to get a head start on learning how to use the
Falcon030, try it out! AEO will publish more information when MTOS
arrives, helping you to use it, and to answer your questions.


                              --==--==--==--==--


 |||  The ALBERT File: Hot NAMM!
 |||  By: Albert Dayes
/ | \ CompuServe: 70007, 3615      GEnie: AEO.1
      --------------------------------------------------------------------

/***********************************************************************
    Title:          namm.doc

    Created:        January  15, 1993
    Last Modified:  January  28, 1993

    Purpose:        A Guide to the recent NAMM (January 15-18, 1993)
                    show with highlights from the Atari Exhibits.

    Author:         Albert Dayes
***********************************************************************/

HH  HH  OOOOOO  TTTTTT     NN    NN      A      MM   MM  MM   MM   !!
HH  HH  O    O    TT       NNN   NN     A A     MMM MMM  MMM MMM   !!
HHHHHH  O    O    TT       NNNN  NN    AAAAA    MM M MM  MM M MM   !!
HH  HH  O    O    TT       NN  NNNN   A     A   MM   MM  MM   MM
HH  HH  OOOOOO    TT       NN    NN  A       A  MM   MM  MM   MM   @@

========================================================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 1) NAMM - what is it?
 2) The Arena
 3) The Bud Lite Girls
 4) The Atari Throne Room
 5) The Video
 6) The Speakers
 7) Atari's Concert Series
 8) What is new from Atari music/MIDI developers?
 9) The person who started it all
10) It's Alive
11) Same Make Same Model
12) The Presentation
13) Virtual Reality Mixer
14) Glossary of Terms
15) Additional Sources of Information

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 1) NAMM - What is it?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

NAMM stands for the National Association of Music Merchants is a trade
show that is not open to the public. As COMDEX caters to the computer
dealer NAMM caters to the music dealer. Many different topics are covered
in the seminars at NAMM shows. From music education, how to generate
better sales, music month, computers and music and new developments in
music technology.

      In 1901 a group of piano merchants formed an association to
      ensure the credibility, integrity, professionalism and
      overall well-being of the industry. They realized that as
      an association - putting self interests aside - they could
      accomplish things that they could not achieve by themselves.

      The association evolved over time and expanded its scope.
      Music retailers and manufacturers representing every product
      category were brought in as members. The mission of the
      National Association of Music Merchants - "To unify and
      strengthen the music products industry and increase the
      number of active music makers" - traces it roots back to
      the original founding of the Association in 1901.

      NAMM's four major areas of concentration are Membership
      Services, Educational Activities, Trade Shows and Marked
      Development. In addition, NAMM annually funds worth-
      while projects that are beneficial to the entire industry
      and have the potential of significantly impacting long-term
      future of the industry.

      [ from Page 6: Winter NAMM 1993, Directory ]


       |-------|
       |       |
       |       |
       |       | <----- California, USA
       |       |
       \        \
        \        \
         \        \
Pacific   \     * <============ NAMM show in Anaheim
Ocean      \        \
             -------


NAMM consists of the Anaheim Convention Center (Five halls [A-E] plus the
Arena) and the hotel Anaheim Marriott. This year hall E was used for
registration rather than the Arena.


        [E][D][C][B][A](ARENA)        [ ANAHEIM MARRIOTT ]

        |--------------------|       |------------------|
           convention center                  hotel


The NAMM show is the place where your ears and eyes are opened to new and
exciting things in the world of music. New products, prices and people
dominate the landscape as you are drawn to the pulsating beat coming from
the Arena.



         / --------- \
        /             \
       /               \
           A R E N A   <================= Entrance (badge required)
       \               /
        \             /
         \ --------- /

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 2) "The Arena"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A distant light beckons as you walk, hypnotized, towards the resounding
pulsed sound. Its low frequency changes character as you emerge into the
arena itself and you are immediately dazzled by the lights. Flashing
lights in perfect sync with the beat guide you towards a booth. The booth
is a mini dance hall with lights and sounds all under the control of a
computer. It is like a miniature cave and you soon forget your
surroundings as you become immersed into your new environment.

The arena is home to companies demonstrating lighting and sound equipment.
Some booths were giving away "tokens" so everyone would know that one had
been to their booth.  One company was giving away chemical lights (green
in color) that one could wear or attach to a briefcase. Some people had
fun with these and attached them to their foreheads. It was very comical
watching people walking around with these glowing green dots on their
heads.

As one turns towards the first hall (Hall A) the sound recedes quickly as
you exit into a quieter part of the show. Walking through booths filled
with sheet music, drum sticks, and cables, one can relax (a little) and
continue investigating.

  [--------------]
  |              |
  |    HALL A    |------
  |                     <======== from the Arena
  [--------------]------

One of the nice aspects of NAMM is the mini concerts one is treated to in
the different booths. A voice solo in one, flutes in another, and many
other events. They happen all the time so one can just walk around and
listen and then follow the sound to a concert in progress. Electric
Guitars always seem to generate crowds very quickly - almost like flash
floods in the desert. Some of the music vendors next door to some of the
guitar vendors lost their crowds the instant the first guitar chord was
sounded.

 [---------------]
 |               |
 |  HALL B       |--
 |                  <=========== from Hall A
 [---------------]--

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 3) "The Bud Lite Girls"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

There is always something new and interesting to see at these shows and
this one is no exception. Once I was walking in an aisle and suddenly the
crowd just stopped moving - for no apparent reason. In this case it was
the "Bud Lite Girls" making their second annual appearance. The BL Girls
just stand in an aisle giving out stickers and people stop to take
pictures of them. Or with them. Therefore the obvious slowing.

This also happens at other booths when a musical celebrity appears and
either gives a mini concert or autographs posters. Some of the most
important booths carry the single product that is very important to anyone
walking around NAMM - a plastic bag! When one starts grabbing large
amounts of literature for later reading, plastic bags become a must have
item.

[------------------]
|                  |
|   HALL C         |----
|                     <================== from Hall B
[------------------]----
       | 2 |
       | 0 |
       | 0 |
       | 4 |
       -----

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 4) "The Atari Throne Room"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Having a room off the main hall is very beneficial. Noise control is the
most important aspect which helps keeps the prospective music dealer
focused on the product being demonstrated.

On Friday morning I was greeted by James Grunke (Corporate Director,
International Music Markets, at Atari) and Annette. In a few moments an
Atari press conference was to start and I did not want to miss it.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 5) "The Video"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The lights dimmed, a music video was played on a large screen (not large,
HUGE! Some said it was 40 inches). "Waiting for You" was the name of the
song and it was all done on the Falcon030.

   Marcia's vocals for this song were actually recorded to the
   hard disk before anything else (as were the accompanying visuals).
   The remaining instrumentation was added afterwards, synched to the
   hard drive via D2D's desk accessory. The original "after hours"
   feel of the song has been retained for the first verse and chorus,
   but then Cubase was used to remix the remainder for a house/dance
   groove.

The video was genlocked to a Falcon030 which was generating the video
titling in real time.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 6) "The Speakers"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

At the conference, James Grunke spoke about the merits of the Atari
Falcon030 and its new potential for the music industry. He pointed out
that the Falcon030s should be shipping in quantity in six to eight weeks.
Bill Rehbock spoke next with regards to technical aspects of the Falcon030
and how it will work. Also discussed was the great cooperation between
third party developers - among themselves and with Atari.

Then music software and hardware developers were given a few minutes each
to talk about their products, or the FALCON, or both.

==> D2D

D2D and the 4-track direct to disk recorder program (4T/FX) for exclusive
use on the FALCON is currently shipping. FALCON D2D will be bundled with
every FALCON030. Also hardware products that provide different clock rates
for 44.1 and 48kHz clocks for CD and DAT sample rates respectively.
Hardware that gives 4 professional ins/outs, AES/EBU interfaces and more,
was also discussed.

Barefoot Software and D2D/Singular Solutions are working together to
provide MIDI sequencing and digital audio on the Falcon. This is a
brand new announcement but not the first time they have worked together
before.

D2D c/o Digital I/O
2554 Lincoln Blvd
Suite 122
Marina Del Ray, CA 90291
USA
(310)-398-3993

==> Steinberg/Jones

Cubase v3.0 is their current offering for MIDI sequencing and notation.
Also Cubase Audio is in the works and it will work with the Yamaha direct
to disk recorder hardware.

Steinberg/Jones
17700 Raymer ST Suite 1001
Northridge, CA 91325
USA
(818)-993-4091
(818)-701-7452 (fax)

==> E-magic/C-Lab

E-magic (partly owned by Ensoniq) took over C-Lab and will continue
supporting Notator for the Atari ST. An upgrade for the product is
planned for the 2nd quarter of 1993. Also, a new hardware key will have
some useful function to it. Also, it will allow both Notator and other
C-Lab products to share the same key. A new product called Notator Logic
was also announced.

E-magic/C-Lab
155 Great Valley Parkway
Malvern, PA 19355
USA
(215)-647-3930
(215)-647-8908 (fax)

==> Dynatech

Spoke about their data storage products available for musicians and Atari
computers. These include CD-ROM drives, hard drives and other optical
media.

Dynatek
15 Tangiers Road, Toronto
Ontario, Canada
M3J 2b1
(416)-636-3000
(416)-636-3011 (fax)

==> Motorola

Talked about the advances of the new Atari Falcon030 and how it brings
down the cost of powerful chips so everyone can afford one - these chips
being the Motorola 68030 CPU and the 56001 DSP (Digital Signal Processor).

6501 William Cannon Drive West
Austin, TX 78735
USA
(512)-891-2039
(512)-891-2947 (fax)

==> AMEK

Spoke about their console automation hardware/software. This reduces the
traditional costs from $250,000 to around $30,000. A great example of
Power Without the Price. This is approximately 8 times cheaper than the
normal price for console automation.

Amek/TAC US Operations
10815 Burbank Blvd
North Hollywood, CA 91601
USA
(818)-508-9788
(818)-508-8619 (fax)


==> YAMAHA

Talked about their new hard disk recording system and its use on the Atari
ST in conjunction with Cubase Audio. This unit is the CBX-D5 which
controls digital multi-track recordings, analog-to-digital and digital to
analog conversions, digital audio routing, digital signal processing, and
digital equalization, MIDI, digital ins/outs and more.

I also enjoyed their ad in the January 15, 1993 Up Beat Daily (the
official NAMM publication, page 2)

  The new Yamaha CBX-D5 Digital Recording Processor, developed in
  Cooperation with premier hardware and software designers throughout the
  world, can be immediately interfaced with the most popular and
  affordable computers being used today.  This impressive list includes
  Atari (ST, TT and the new Falcon)....


Yamaha Corp of America
PO Box 6600
Buena Park, CA 90622
USA
(714)-522-9011

==> Digital F/X

The Digital Master EX (a 4 track professional direct to disk recorder) is
currently shipping. Digital Master EX has 4 professional ins/outs, SMPTE
sync, digital i/o support, sample rates from 15kHz to 48kHz, 4 tracks with
16 virtual tracks available. Also an announcement of a software only
version for use on the Atari Falcon030.

Digital F/X
755 Ravendale Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
USA
(800)-274-4339
(415)-961-2800
(415)-961-6990 FAX


==> Other developers spoke as well but are not mentioned here.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 7) "Atari's Concert series"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Every few hours a music/MIDI developer would give a concert demonstrating
their software/hardware combination. The two I went to were very
entertaining.

==< Digital F/X using Digital Master EX >

"Clinton raps Bush"

Basically they took phrases from the political speeches that both Clinton
and Bush made and put them into a rap song. It was very comical to say
the least.

After showing that, they created a rap song on the fly demonstrating the
capabilities of Digital Master EX virtual tracks. The editing software is
very quick on performing edits. It works very well with SMPTE too. It's
been shipping for quite a while already.

==< D2D demonstration >

"Waiting for You"

They played several songs with the Atari Falcon030 providing real time
effects for the guitar and some with direct from disk playback of digital
audio at the same time. It was also synched to video via SMPTE time code
for some parts as well. Paul Wiffen of D2D played the guitar and explained
how the Falcon030 in conjunction with the software controlled everything.
Also playing keyboards was Jeff Naideau of Barefoot software.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 8) "What is new from Atari music/MIDI Developers?"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Atari Explorer Magazine (print version) NAMM issue (Jan/Feb 1993) contains
more detailed information on many of these products mentioned here and
quite a few others. So be sure to watch for that issue when it becomes
available. Copies were distributed at the NAMM show.

==> Codehead Software

MIDI Spy is about to ship and it is a very exciting new product. Once it
is loaded it stays completely in the background. You can play anything on
the keyboard and MIDI Spy saves them. You can also specify which keyboard
events (just like HotWire) to perform certain things. In addition, MIDI
Spy can watch for MIDI events and perform different things like start or
end record mode and start or end play mode. It reads/writes standard MIDI
files so you can load the sequences back into your favorite sequencer and
play away. A demo is available from Codehead and possibly some of the
on-line services. This one has very great potential!!!!!

They were also showing MIDIMax.

CodeHead Software
PO Box 74090
Los Angeles, CA, 90004
(213)-386-5735
(213)-386-5789 (fax)


==> Barefoot Software

A update to SMPTE-TRAK and EDIT-TRAK to the Platinum Line gives a tiled
look rather than full screen look. Also many of the features that would
only work on a single item will work on any group of items. For example,
one can take several channels and "tie" them together. You can then move
a slider to change the fader for the whole group. Many of the features
work in a similar manner which is makes it much nicer to work with. The
Platinum version is currently shipping. Also they are selling Gen Edit
v2.0, Ludwig, Ez-Score+, Hybri-Switch, the MIDIPlexer, and the Smpte-Mate
hardware.

Also they announced an agreement with D2D that will bring MIDI sequencing
and digital audio together on a Falcon030.

Barefoot Software
19865 Covello Street
Canoga Park, CA 91306
USA
(818)-727-7143
(818)-727-0632 (fax)


==> Take Note Software

Take Note version 2.0 is for ear training and much more. It has over 30
scales, and has a staff, piano keyboard and guitar on the screen at the
same time. So one can see how it relates to both of these instruments very
easily. It also supports MIDI, and one can control many of the functions
via MIDI as well.

Take Note Software
285 Divisadero #3
San Francisco, CA 94117
USA
(415)-431-9495


==> Oktal

Their new program Multitude (3 versions Intro, Pro and Pro/Notation) is a
new sequencer for the Atari ST. It features 256 tracks, 768ppq and several
levels of undo (up to 99). One feature that is nice about the undo is that
one can choose the specific event that they wish to undo.  To pick a
certain item, a selector box comes up and one clicks on the item and that
is all. It's quite nice without having to resort to losing all of your
work - just undo a single item far down on the list.

Shipping is scheduled in the first quarter of 1993.

Oktal
315 East Rene-Levesque Boul
Suite 110, Montreal
Quebec, Canada
(514)-844-3428
GEnie: O.OKTAL

==> Chro_Magic software innovations.

Guitaristics version 1.92 is a guitar instruction program. Pianistics
version 1.10 is keyboard instruction tool. Pianistics Encyclopedia
features everything in Pianistics but includes a pattern practice mode. It
will select a portion of a piece and then allow one to practice on that
section.

Also a new program is under development called Pianistics Professor which
is a beginners introduction to music.

Demos are available.

Chro_MAGIC Software Innovations
516 North Jackson
Joplin, MO, 64801
USA
(417)-623-7393


==> MGI

Had two guitar programs for the Atari. These were unique in that they used
digitized guitar samples that are played out of the normal STe's sound
hardware. It sounds quite impressive considering it's only using 8-bit
samples. One is for scales and the other individual chords or notes.
Both of these allow one to create their own lessons so one's creativity is
not limited.

Both of these programs will be available in the first quarter of 1993.
They will cost $99 each. It will be distributed in the USA by Thinkware.

MGI soft
8000 Munich 90
Auerfldstr 22
Germany
089-4486509
089-4801182 (fax)


==> Hotz Instrument Technology

This software really isn't new - it's been shown at a few previous NAMM
shows, but in conjunction with the Hotz Box. The Hotz MIDI translator
software (separately) sells for approximately $300.

Hotz Instruments Technology
PO Box 828
Newbury Park, CA 91319
USA
(805)-492-5553
(805)-493-4650 (fax)


==> Akai/IMC

They were showing sample editing tools for the Akai family of samplers.
Three programs in a new line of software called Sample Tools. Also
includes the unique capability to read Roland formatted SCSI media for
samples. Of course, AKAI samples can be read without any problem.

Polystar - realtime wave editor and librarian for Akai samplers.
Parastar - realtime parameter and sample editor for Akai samplers.
Wavestar - realtime wave editor for all samplers SDS (sample dump
standard).

All of these products should be shipping during the first quarter of 1993.

Akai/IMC
PO BOX 2344
Fort Worth, TX 76113
USA
(817)-336-5114


There are probably some developers that have been missed in this short
list of developers. If anyone knows of anyone please forward the
information to AEO so it can be included later on. Dr. T had a separate
booth showing their Omega sequencer software for the Atari ST.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 9) "The person who started it all"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

At the 1983 NAMM show, MIDI sequencing was first introduced to the world
on the Atari 8-bit computer with software from Hybrid Arts.

While I was at the Digital F/X booth, Chez Bridges said, "Look! Here is
the man who started it all." There he was Bob Moore himself. It was nice
to be able to talk to the person who brought this entire industry to life
- all on an Atari computer.

In case one is not familiar with Hybrid Arts, it was split into two
companies. Barefoot Software handles the MIDI software end, and Digital FX
handles the Digital Audio recording end.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 10) "It's Alive"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

At the Motorola booth (an Atari Falcon030 was running there too) I had
the opportunity to talk to some of engineering staff about the different
applications one can do with the 56K DSP. It is quite amazing all the free
example code to do different things (with the DSP) that is currently
available. This nice thing about shows like this is one can get
literature and talk to an expert all in one place. They also had example
circuitry of the new AES/EBU chip wired in conjunction with the 56K DSP in
a glass case.

Brent Karley - he works mainly in the audio area of DSP operation of
Motorola - provided some very interested insight into how these products
work. There was quite a few different spec sheets available, no user
manuals for the 56K this year however. There was a sheet where one can
select all the literature, books he/she wanted and have them mailed to you
if needed.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 11) "Same Make - Same Model"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

At the Digital F/X booth a voice said "same make - same model"... it was
the T2 (Terminator II - Judgement Day) demo. It looks very familiar - I
think it is the same one Lexicor had running on a Falcon030 at the
Glendale Atari show. The audio/video in this case was on an SGI (Silicon
Graphics, Unix Workstation) and the sound was outstanding. The SGI uses a
Motorola 56K DSP just like the Falcon030.

Also the speakers helped too... they were only $2000 EACH!

Surprisingly it was quite small. The whole file is supposed to be under 2
megabytes in size for all the audio and video. Suspected compression used
is MPEG.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 12) The Presentation
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Atari's overall presentation was outstanding and very professional. There
were quite a few Atari machines running outside of the main Atari booth
(16 developer sub-stations). The third party developers did an excellent
job of providing the necessary materials and answering questions in a very
detailed manner. These third party developers helped Atari promote a very
professional and polished image.

The rest of the show was basically nothing really outstanding as such, but
there are an increasing number of direct to disk recorders coming out. It
seems like the Atari Falcon030 will be perfectly positioned to join this
group. Most of the enhancements (in the non-Atari realm) seem to be in
the evolutionary stage rather than revolutionary stage.

I was amazed at how many people could recognize the name Falcon030
already. Atari has to have done a good job in that department.

The other major announcement was that Creative Labs (makers of Sound
Blaster cards for the PC) has bought out E-MU systems. E-MU makes several
high quality MIDI instruments and has a quite a few popular samplers like
the E-III and Proteus.

This show, as someone else said, is, "Like a large party." Everywhere you
turn there is someone you know from an AES show, a previous NAMM show, or
other event. One would be walking in an aisle and then someone would say
"Hey aren't you so and so?"

Also saw quite a few ads for the Compuserve MIDI FORUMS in the different
booths as well. Being the Atari Explorer on-line representative on
Compuserve, I knew some of the organizations/people at the booths from
conversations online. It's great to finally be able to match the face to
CIS number. <grin>

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 13) Virtual Reality Mixer
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

While I was talking to Chez Bridges (of Digital F/X) a person came up and
started conversation about mixing. Basically, David Gibson (of the
California Recording Institute) uses a 3D concept to think about the whole
abstract process.

Think of a large 3-dimensional cube as a large open space. Place two
speakers on both sides and a few floating sphere-like objects at different
distances away from the front.

Each object represents an element of music. The speakers represent volume
- by moving them forward, the sound gets louder. Moving backward into the
distance makes the sound softer. Moving them up or down changes the
tonality of the sound.

All elements of music (i.e., phrasing, harmony, melody, etc) are all
represented with a sphere. By moving all of these elements around, one can
duplicate any mix in a completely visual way. David teaches these concepts
currently but would like to enhance them using a computer.

Using a computer with virtual reality, one would be able to grab any of
the elements using a "power glove" like device and move them around. So
one could actively participate in the mixing process by being able to grab
the speaker and move it up or down and hear the associated changes in the
sound in real time.

Chez and I agreed that this is definitely the most interesting idea to
come out of the Winter 1993 NAMM show. This could be a very interesting
application on the Atari Falcon030 too.

For more information:

California Recording Institute
970 O'Brien Drive
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(415)-324-0464

=========================================================================
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 14) Glossary of Terms ( not a complete list )
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

ADC     =  Analog to Digital Converter - converts analog audio electrical
           voltages into a corresponding stream of binary digits.
ADSR    =  Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release (4 stage envelop).
AES     =  Audio Engineering Society.
CHANNEL =  (1) In MIDI, one of 16 data messages used in routing mIDI
           information. (2) In Audio, a discrete signal path.
DAC     =  Digital to Analog Converter (reverse of ADC).
EBU     =  European Broadcasting Union.
FILTER  =  Eliminates certain frequencies from an audio signal.
HERTZ   =  Frequency unit measurement ( 1 cycle per second = 1 hz ).
MIDI    =  Musical Instrument Digital Interface - standard for data
           exchange between music instruments and computers, etc.
NAMM    =  National Association of Music Merchants.
SAMPLE  =  A digitally encoded and stored representation of a waveform.
SAMPLE RATE = The number of samples per second. Also can be considered
              Sample frequency.
SMPTE   =  Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. This
           is usually thought of in sense of SMPTE timecode. Basically,
           it allows video tape/audio tape to be given a unique address
           for each frame. This address is usually expressed in the
           form of Hours, Minutes, Seconds, and Frames (HH:MM:SS:FF).
           So one can have certain events triggered at certain
           addresses on the tape. These events can be anything from
           mIDI, lighting, samplers, etc.
S/P DIF =  Sony/Philips Digital Interchange Format. This allows for
           two channels of 16-bit audio data in one direction over a
           single cable.
WAVEFORM = (1) A periodic pattern of air movement which, in the audio
           spectrum, produces sound. (2) An analog or digital
           representation thereof.

========================================================================
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 15) Additional Sources of Information (not a complete list)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Audio Engineering Society (AES)
60 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10165-2520
USA

Atari Corp.
1196 Borregas Ave
PO BOX 3427
Sunnyvale, CA 94088
(408)-745-2000

International MIDI Association
5316 West 57th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90056
USA
(310)-649-6434
(310)-215-3380 (FAX)

NAMM
5140 Avenida Encinas
Carlsbad, CA 92008
(800)-767-6266
(619)-438-8001
(619)-438-7327 (fax)

NAMM-TV News
25 Willowdale Ave
Port Washington, NY 11050
USA
(516)-767-2500
(516)-767-9335 (FAX)

thinKware
130 9th Street #303
San Francisco, CA 94103
(800)-369-6191
(415)-255-2091
(415)-255-6199 (fax)


                              --==--==--==--==--


 |||  Ron's Random Ramblins ............................. 28 January, 1993
 |||  By: Ron Robinson
/ | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.1
      --------------------------------------------------------------------

Falcon030 Goes on Tour
""""""""""""""""""""""  One of our local Atari developers kindly
volunteered to "computer sit" the loaner Falcon030 while we were
vacationing - not much arm twisting required on this request. Being the
super type of person most Atari developers are, over the holidays he was
nice enough to demo the computer at not just one, but two user's group
meetings.

Post meeting reports indicate the high level of interest in the Falcon030
was reflected in the size of attendance at the user's group meetings. The
demos attracted more people to the meetings than have been seen in the St.
Louis area Atari meetings for several years. The reactions I have heard
were all very positive with particular attention paid to video and sound
quality.

We may be hearing developers using the term "Falcon030 compliant" once the
Falcon030 appears. This means the program works in the Falcon030 ST
compatibility modes but the advanced Falcon030 features may not yet be
fully supported. It will take a little time for developers to update their
programs to take advantage of all the new Falcon030 hardware and features.

There are now several more graphics applications that are Falcon
"compliant." A couple of local developers were provided the opportunity to
spend some time with the Falcon030 to do a little testing while awaiting
their developer units. Again, everyone was very pleased with what they
found. Changes required to get things running on the Falcon were generally
simple (like not expecting to find 14 megs of ST RAM or the new graphics
modes), and a great deal of excitement was expressed over how "fun" it
would be exploring all the new graphics modes. Perhaps the best sign was
their reluctance to walk away from the computer - good thing I have a
fiercely loyal pit bull <grin>.

A rumor circulating indicating there might be a problem with the Falcon030
due to overheating is absolutely *untrue* with the Falcon on this end.
This Falcon runs cooler than an STe, perhaps cooler than any previous
Atari console unit. The Falcon030 includes a fan that draws cool air from
under the computer and exhausts the air out of the top.  In fact, I doubt
the Falcon would need the fan in normal room environment. So much for
rumor reports....

Lynx Crashes in Daytona - Driver OK
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""  During time trials for the 24 hours
of Daytona, one of the team nephews racing a Lynx Checkered Flag had
trouble negotiating an infield hairpin turn and his Lynx went flying into
the wall. The driver survived suffering little more than a short term
stream of big alligator tears, but the Lynx was not salvageable. A quick
call to Atari Headquarters and a replacement "special offer" unit was air
shipped and arrived before the following weekend in time for the main
race.

I hope everyone interested the Atari "Lynxmas" special had a chance to
take advantage of the deal. The Atari 800 number was great and delivery
was fast. Let's hope there is news the Atari order line will continue for
those who are not near a dealer, or for those who need a replacement race
car quick!

Data Rescue Takes Out the Trash
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""  Data Rescue is a set of utilities that
take the software "trash can" concept introduced on the Apple Macintosh to
a new and highly useful level in allowing the recovery of deleted files
from your drives. The program offers two strategies for protecting your
data and intelligently deleting old or excess data from your drives.

The first option keeps track of the data you delete from your drive in a
special file that can later be used to help undelete the file. The
advantage of this technique is it takes very little additional disk space.
The disadvantage is if you write to the drive after deleting the file, you
may lose your data.

A more extensive level of protection is provided by the program in the
form of saving files as they are deleted to a special folder. The problem
with this technique _could_ be the fact that if you do not delete anything
your drive will rapidly fill with garbage. Don't worry! Data Rescue is
smarter than the average trash can utility.

Data Rescue can be told to automatically delete files from the rescue
folder based on several configurable options: the disk space remaining on
your drive, by limiting the size of your rescue folder to a reasonable
amount of disk space, how long ago the file was deleted or if the file has
been archived (backed up). Data Rescue is a very useful utility and well
worth checking out if your time or data is valuable to you. --Trace
Technologies [phone].

Gemulator Slices and Dices (but no RS 232)
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""  This PC based Atari ST
emulator continues to get smaller, better and faster. The latest beta
version features much faster print speed under PageStream and very smooth
mouse operation. Less memory is required to run the program and hard disk
support continues to improve.

I wouldn't recommend anyone get rid of their ST and use this program to
run their ST software on the PC - but if you need some level of Atari
applications compatibility at work, or know someone who has moved on the
PC world and misses the great easy to use ST desktop - they may find this
product fills their needs. If you have problems running software on
Gemulator - pay attention to the information in the read-me file - the
developer knows what he is talking about. Oh yes, I really would like to
see RS 232 support on this critter so the MSDOS'ers can use a decent
version of Aladdin on GEnie :-) --Purple Mountain Computers (206) 747-
1519 --Branch Always Software [phone].

Syquest 44/88
""""""""""""""  A new version of the popular Syquest removable media SCSI
hard drive has been announced by SyDOS. The "SYDOS 88 Extra" can read and
write to both 44M and 88M Syquest Winchester removable media cartridges.

Registered users of existing "SyDOS 88" (SyDOS packaged SCSI
drives - *** NOT SyQuest bare drives ***) will be able to upgrade to
the new drive at a cost not yet formally set ($175 to $225). Check
with your dealer for details.  --SyDOS [phone].

"SyDOS Puma" PC to ST Conversion
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""  Speaking of Syquest, if you are
electronically gifted enough to mount your own hard drives in a case and
cable them up, and you are interested in a Syquest drive at a good price -
check out the "SyDOS Puma" series. The prepackage SyDOS drives are
intended for the PC market as a parallel port backup device. They include
a Centronix SCSI adaptor and the PC software to use it. The interesting
part is the 88 meg version of this drive mounted in a case with power
supply and one 88 meg cartridge (and PC SCSI adaptor) is commonly
available for under $500. I have seen it as low as $449 at on sale at
BizMart.

Converting this drive for standard SCSI use is a simple matter of buying a
standard 50 pin DIP to SCSI connector, opening the case, unplugging the PC
Centronix/SCSI cable, plugging in the 50 pin DIP/SCSI cable and putting
the cover back on. The drive can then be used on the ST with the ICD Link,
or directly connected to the TT030 or Falcon030. Of course you can revert
back to the PC SCSI interface if ever needed. I'll bet you can figure out
how I learned of the above SyDOS deal now - eh?

Verbose Mode Off
""""""""""""""""  I hope the new year is off to a good start for all of
you. Atari and the Falcon030 were a big hit at NAMM. Issues of Atari
Explorer Magazine are in the mail. Several exciting new products are about
to be announced that will please most anyone who owns an Atari computer.

Back in the real world, the United States has a new president who is sure
to bring change to all across the globe. I hope everyone will support
President Clinton in they way we would like to be supported given the same
immense task. Please don't forget the brave crew of the Space Shuttle
Challenger who gave their lives in the interest of advancing our knowledge
of the universe and remember the lessons in the management of technology
this tragedy taught us.


                              --==--==--==--==--


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                              --==--==--==--==--


 |||  Krimen on GEnie ............. Is TOS as well programmed as it can be?
 |||  By: Ed Krimen
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.5
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Many of you are familiar with screen accelerators such as Warp 9 from
Codehead Technologies. This product's main feature is a screen accelerator
which effectively speeds up your screen display. With it installed in your
AUTO folder, items on your screen, such as text, windows, and dialog
boxes, are drawn much more quickly than if Warp 9 wasn't installed. The
program works by intercepting certain TOS screen functions and replacing
them (not with Folgers crystals, but) with its own, optimized routines -
thereby making screen redraws much, much quicker. The difference between
having Warp 9 installed and not installed is like night and day; windows
snap open and snap close; drop-down menus strike like lightning - instead
of sliding down the screen like molasses. The difference is
extraordinarily dramatic.

A recent thread (or series) of messages in GEnie's Atari ST Roundtable
enlightened us to the presumption that if Warp 9 can speed up TOS's
graphics routines so well, then TOS must contain some pretty poor code. It
all started with Steve Johnson's post in Category 32 ("CodeHead
Software"), Topic 31 ("Warp 9, the Accelerator"), Message 139; the thread
continues to message 155. Steve writes:

    I was showing Warp 9 to my brother (a professional programmer and Mac
    owner) and he said something I hadn't really thought about. If Warp 9
    speeds up routines as much as it does, doesn't that mean the original
    TOS code is pretty terrible?  Is Atari NOT improving the code
    themselves for fear of scaring more developers away (i.e., since
    third-party developers have POPULAR products that 'fix' TOS's
    inadequacies, Atari doesn't want to 'step on their toes')?

It would certainly seem that way, wouldn't it?  Sounds like a plausible
theory.

John Eidsvoog from Codehead Technologies jumped into the foray with some
informative words to share. John is half of the Codehead group; Charles F.
Johnson is the other member. Recall that Codehead Technologies is the
developer that continues to update and support Warp 9. (I should also
point out that Warp 9 used to be called Quick ST and was developed by
Darek Mihocka of Branch Always Software. Darek decided to dedicate
himself to other projects, so he sold Warp 9 to the Codeheads.) In any
case, on the subject of TOS's inefficiency, John Eidsvoog replies:

    Yes, the code in the OS is inefficient. Atari has done some (a little)
    toward improving the efficiency of graphics routines, but they have
    not actually recoded it in assembly language (it's still almost all in
    C [I think]).

Well, at least now we have some confirmation from someone who's meddled
around Atari's code. If you are unaware of the products Codehead offers,
they range from desktop enhancement products (like Hotwire, Maxifile,
MultiDesk), to G+Plus (a GDOS replacement), to an entire disk of useful
utilities called Codehead Utilities, to imported word processors and
graphics applications, and of course, Warp 9. Codehead has been around the
Atari market a long time and I suspect that they'll be around for a long
time to come. As you can see from the variety of products that they offer,
they know what they're doing when they talk code. As their slogan states,
Codehead Technologies is "the cure for the common code."

Later, John goes into a little more detail about TOS's inefficiencies, and
confesses:

    But to be fair to Atari, many of the things which Warp 9 does simply
    have no place in an operating system. Warp 9 takes a lot of short
    cuts, and also duplicates sections of code with small changes to make
    specific routines for specific cases. An OS must be robust and generic
    in order to be completely flexible and bug-free. Warp 9 is specific
    (fairly robust and only partially generic) and has squeezed almost
    every last drop out of the OS's wet rag. <grin>

It seems now that TOS isn't so bad after all. TOS isn't slow because it's
been neglected entirely by Atari's programmers - there's actually some
purpose to its "inefficiency." In order to be flexible, bug-free, and
compatible with a wide range of software, TOS must be generic yet solid. I
guess that being slow and large isn't so bad after all.

To ease a little more guilt off of TOS's shoulders, John Trautschold
mentions the memory limitations that TOS must maintain.

    TOS is limited to a set amount of ROM in each computer that it runs
    in. That limits just how much Atari can do to speed up its own
    operating system. Programs like Warp 9 do take up a considerable chunk
    of memory, and that same amount of ROM just isn't available in the
    system.

TOS 1.0 to 1.62 is 192K of ROM. TOS 2.06 is 256K and TOS 3.06 is 512K. TOS
1.x is packed to the brim with code. In the beginning, Atari even had to
make some shortcuts in order to get it all to fit in there. Adding code to
speed some of the screen routines would have been unthinkable. For
example, Warp 9 occupies about 70K of RAM.

John T. adds:

    As new releases of TOS appear, Atari has made improvements in the
    speed of the VDI. I recall a rather significant improvement between
    TOS 1.0 and 1.04. There were also a few enhancements when converting
    to 1.62, etc.

TOS 2.06/3.06 also brought some significant increases in screen speed.
Sure, they weren't the speed of Warp 9, but they were noticeably faster
than their predecessors. On the other side of the spectrum ("Sherman, set
the Way-Back machine..."), Kenne Estes remembered a big jump from disk TOS
to ROM TOS.

Keep in mind that TOS upgrades include not only screen acceleration, but
other enhancements as well, such as acceleration for storage devices, user
interface features, compatibility code, and support for exciting new
features. Screen redraw speed is just one small portion of code that must
be maintained and upgraded.

Chris Oates introduced an interesting perspective from the Macintosh
platform. He said:

    And then there are all of the programmers I know who always go
    direct-to-screen on the Mac because Quickdraw is so inefficient. It's
    not just Atari. Apparently, when Quickdraw first came out, some user
    re-wrote it since it was so horrible, and called it "Quickerdraw."
    Apple bought the code and made that official, but one wonders why they
    didn't do it right in the first place. All this and there isn't a
    Warp9 available for the Mac either. I think we've got it pretty good.

In addition to Chris' comments, I've read some very provocative posts on
GEnie from Dave Small, in regards to some of the atrocious coding that
Apple does. Dave Small is the genius behind the Spectre GCR, a Macintosh
emulator for the ST. He's spent the last several years living inside
Apple's code, successfully hacking it so it the ST will understand it.
Chris' and Dave's comments suggest that "inefficient" code is not only
synonymous with Atari's TOS, but with Apple's coding as well. I wouldn't
be surprised to hear the same about other computer platforms.

One last noteworthy point on this subject was made by Wayne Watson, who
gave a good reason why most of TOS is written in C instead of the faster
assembly language. He writes:

    Plus, according to Atari, a lot of stuff will remain in C because all
    they have to do is recompile for 030, 040, or whatever. If it is done
    in assembly, there is a lot more work involved.

C is a very portable computer language, meaning that code can be written
to work on more than one computer or CPU with very few changes. Assembly
on the other hand is very machine-specific, which is one of the reasons
why it's so fast. References have been made to indicate that some of TOS
is written in assembly, but a lot of it is still C because it must be
generic, as we described above. Therefore, some of TOS's routines can be
written for an STE, which runs on a 68000 CPU, and Atari can still use the
same code on a TT030 or Falcon030 with a 68030. If they were going to use
assembly language, they might have to rewrite the code for each unique
processor.

In the original message that started this thread, Steve Johnson touched on
a theory that's worth repeating. He says, "Is Atari NOT improving the code
themselves for fear of scaring more developers away (i.e., since
third-party developers have POPULAR products that 'fix' TOS's
inadequacies, Atari doesn't want to 'step on their toes')?" That's
certainly a legitimate argument, and regardless of all the reasons
discussed in this article explaining why TOS is written the way it is,
there are still some marketing decisions that should be kept in mind.
Sure, Atari could purchase the rights to Warp 9, NeoDesk, Universal Item
Selector III, G+Plus, MultiDesk Deluxe, and all of the other wonderful
utilities we love to have on our boot disks, and include them in TOS 5.0.
But what must be understood is that if Atari bought all of these great
utilities, some of these developers might not be with us. Developers make
their money off of selling products, not licensing them to the computer
manufacturer.

Moreover, TOS upgrades don't come overnight. There have been many times
that the CodeHeads have released an upgrade to one of their products on
GEnie one night, only to have another upgrade follow it a day or two
later. By =not= licensing these utilities, Atari can keep developers
supporting their own products better than Atari could upgrade and maintain
them if it owned the rights to them.

Just like on every other computer platform, users like to stuff their boot
disks with unique utilities to enhance the performance and enjoy their
computers. Warp 9 is just one example of a utility which accelerates
screen redraw performance. You should see my AUTO folder: Warp 9, XBoot,
Data Rescue, Data Diet, GEM Sound, AUX Init, Formdoit, Universal Item
Selector, DC Shower, Serial Fix, DC FKeys, and NeoDesk. I don't think you
want me to list my desk accessories. I've got 65 of them; 59 are installed
in MultiDesk Deluxe.


                              --==--==--==--==--

 |||  Atari Explorer - November/December 1992 Table of Contents
 |||
/ | \ GEnie: EXPLORER
      ---------------------------------------------------------


             A T A R I   E X P L O R E R   M A G A Z I N E
 Volume 7, Issue 6       C O N T E N T S       November/December 1992
 --------------------------------------------------------------------

 /// FEATURES
 `````````````
    <> Atari Falcon030 - U.S. debut

 /// REVIEWS
 ````````````
    <> Migraph PS-400 Wand - A full range hand scanner with optional
       document feeder and the latest version of Touch-Up.

    <> G-Man v3.0 - GDOS setup and management has never been easier.

    <> The Link - Now ICD lets you connect SCSI devices to any ST.

    <> Gemulator v1.00 - Emulator runs ST software on an IBM PC.

    <> GenEdit v2.0 - Barefoot's powerful MIDI Editor/Librarian.

    <> Tune-Up your Hard Drive - a feature by feature comparison of
       the two best choices for keeping your data safe.
       -- Hard Disk Sentry v1.3
       -- Diamond Edge

 /// ENTERTAINMENT
 `````````````````
    <> The Lynx Line - Clayton Walnum reviews Pinball Jam and Shadow
       of the Beast plus Electrocop hints and more!

 /// PORTFOLIO
 ``````````````
    <> The Portfoilo Files - Answers to the most common Portfoilo
       questions.

 /// SPECIAL INTEREST
 `````````````````````
    <> Three Books for Coders - From GFA Assembly to the AES, these
       books cover it.

    <> The Atari Clipboard - How to best use the Clipboard in your
       programs.

 /// DEPARTMENTS
 ````````````````
     <> Editor's Page         <> Atari World News

     <> Question Mark         <> Advertiser Index

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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                              --==--==--==--==--


 |||  Atari Users Online: GEnie
 |||  Compiled by: Lyre
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.3
      -------------------------

Welcome to the latest installment of Atari Users Online: GEnie! As
always, here is the latest and greatest comments from Atari developers
and users on various topics for the computer we all use.

These messages are taken from the bulletin board "as is"; except for
possible editing to totally remove extraneous comments and excessive
blank lines in a message. This should not alter the meaning of any
message posted, but it does make things a bit easier to read.

If you would like to see your comments posted here, all you have to do is
post a message to any of the topics in the bulletin board.  As the AEO
staff reads these messages, interesting and informative posts are
earmarked for inclusion in the latest issue. You don't need to write
perfectly (as regards to grammer or spelling), but you do need to be able
to get your point across.

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
For those of you who are using Cal by Bill Aycock, here is a little
snippet - just in case you've wondered why CalShow didn't work with
the latest version of the program.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 2,  Topic 3
Message 151       Sun Jan 24, 1993
W.FREEMAN8 [BILL]            at 15:30 EST

 I have just installed Cal 6.3a and Calshow 6.2 doesn't seem to work with
it. Any suggestions for a fix?
 ------------
Category 2,  Topic 3
Message 153       Mon Jan 25, 1993
G.FUHRMAN [gnox]             at 06:06 EST

Bill,

You need CalShow 6.3. I gather you skipped from Cal 6.2 to 6.3a? Looks
like you'll have to download the LZH for Cal 6.3. The database format
changed with 6.3.

  gnox
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Uh oh, I've always hated this when I've done this myself. Maybe
something similiar has happened to you? Well if it has, here are some
messages that might help you out of a jam.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 2,  Topic 42
Message 1         Sat Jan 23, 1993
C.WORTON                     at 01:44 EST

Help!  In error, I deleted a folder and a few files from my word
processing document folder.  While not crucial, I'd like to recover them
if possible.  It's my understanding that in the FAT there is a listing of
all the files and folders, with a code indicating whether or not the disk
space allocated to them is available for writing.  Deleting a file doesn't
physically erase it, it just changes this code; the OS then writes over
whatever parts it finds most convenient, whenever subsequent saves are
made.

At least, thats my understanding.

What I don't know is how to find that FAT entry, and what value I should
set the 'switch' to (or even where the 'switch' is located!).  I believe
that the files and folders ought to be recoverable, as long as I don't
save anything to the hard drive.  I don't know whether I can use the other
logical drives safely, or whether I must avoid all saves to the hard drive
until I resolve this.  The folders/files I deleted were on drive D, in a
folder called Document.  I don't know whether I must avoid the entire
drive, just drive D, or just folder Document in order to be able to
recover the data safely.  To play it safe, I'm avoiding the drive
entirely, which puts me back in the realm of the floppy.  Yechh.

Can anyone please lead me, step by step, through the correct procedure to
restore an accidentally deleted file and folder?

I used the desktop garbage can (TOS 1.4) to delete the folder and files.

If there's any PD software I should have (like a sector editor) perhaps
someone could make some specific recommendations?

Thanks for your help - I appreciate it!

Regards,

Charlie
 ------------
Category 2,  Topic 42
Message 3         Sat Jan 23, 1993
J.MEEHAN3 [>> Joe M << ]     at 09:22 EST

Charlie,

         Un-deleting files and folders is a rather complex job to do
 by editing a fat table unless you are at least in speaking terms with
 fat tables to start with.

         I suggest you get a un-delete utility, there are a number of
 them some better than others.  I should also add that if you have
 saved any other file to that disk your chances of being able to
 un-delete the file(s) are reduced with each save.  However you seem
 to know this.

 >> Joe M <<
 ------------
Category 2,  Topic 42
Message 4         Sat Jan 23, 1993
ST.LOU [Lou Rocha]           at 11:52 EST

Charlie... MAKE SURE you DON'T save files to that disk/partition or the
deleted file spaces will be overwritten. Run.. don't walk... and buy
Diamond Edge. It's undelete works real well if the files were not
fragmented.
 ------------
Category 2,  Topic 42
Message 8         Sat Jan 23, 1993
DARLAH [RT~SYSOP]            at 19:27 EST

Do you mean this file?
 2154 UNDELETE.ARC             X S.L.WILSON   870220   28980    635   2
      Desc: Recovers deleted files

There is also:
18183 UNERASE.ARC              X GREG.B       910206   13860    683   2
      Desc: restore deleted files
 ------------
Category 2,  Topic 42
Message 14        Sun Jan 24, 1993
EXPLORER.1 [] Ron []         at 16:56 EST

Charlie - Diamond Edge and Data Rescue are both great commercial
utilities for recovering erased files.  DiamondEdge includes many very
useful hard drive utilities.  Data Rescue is more specialized for the task
in that it will also save copies of erased files in a special folder and
automaticaly delete them at a time interval you specify. Both products are
highly recommended.

                   Ron @ Atari Explorer Magazine
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Now here was something that I personally found interesting while
reading all of these messages.  It seems that a lot of information is
available if you just know how to access it.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 4,  Topic 1
Message 24        Fri Jan 22, 1993
J.HICKEY6                    at 10:06 EST

    Does anyone out there know if a 9 track, 6250 bpi drive has been used
with the ST or TT computers?  I am currently using DbMan on a TT for a
large(110 MB) County voter registration data base, which I originally
rented($50) from the county on mainframe tape(6250 BPI). Also, the County
Assessor offers similar tapes for rent and the U.S. Postal Service
provides 9-digit ZIP info in the same format.

  BYTE magazine has ads for such tape drives for use on you know what
platform.  Vendors are Overland Data, Qualstar and Laguna Data Systems.

                        Jack Hickey
 ------------
Category 4,  Topic 1
Message 27        Thu Jan 28, 1993
D.BECKEMEYER [David @ BDT]   at 02:53 EST

Jack, you could connect a 9-track 1/2" reel-to-reel tape drive to your
Atari ST/TT using an ICD Link or other ST host adapter and the Beckemeyer
SCSI Tape Kit software drivers.  I know it works because I have done it.
However, 9- track 1/2" tapes are not the easiest to work with and are
expensive.  There are data conversion services that can convert the tape
to a more handy format, like 250MB QIC (quarter-inch-tape), or even 8mm.
An 8mm 2.3GB drive won't cost any more than a 1/2" 9-track drive and the
media is a lot cheaper and smaller.  Check the back of Byte again for data
conversion services.

Contact me in e-mail or at 510-530-9637 for more info on the SCSI Tape
Kit.
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
And inbetween the two messages above, another conversational thread
began - an it was just as interesting!  Obviously, I'm hanging out in
the wrong topics!
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 4,  Topic 1
Message 25        Sat Jan 23, 1993
T.DODGE                      at 02:50 EST

two more cents.

RLL drive encoding is at 26 sectors per track.

IDE drives are 16 bit, although there are a few 8 bit like the Segate
351-X.

SCSI II standard allows for 56 devices.  As for the data transfer rate I
am not sure that it is defined in the standard but to the limitations of
the electronics.  I know that a 16 bit Ultrastor SCSI controller can do a
burst cycle at 33Mb/sec and a sustained 20Mb/sec, while many other
controllers hover around thhe 5-10Mb/sec range.  Drives are plentiful at
the 10Mb/sec range and are going up.

The SCSI III interface allows for something neat, more than one computer
attached to one drive and a cable length in meters(I forgot how many, but
it is a considerable distance if you remember the 18" atari drive cable.)

There are a number of IDE low level formatting utilities currently
available.  And while IDE drives usually only allow for a MASTER/SLAVE
(computer people are REALLY lonely) configuration, the makers of the
Summit 305 IDE tape drive attaches as the 3rd device, and it is a very
fast pc tape backup for around $300.

As for what drive to go with???  Stick to SCSI, by far the better choice
for the power user.  The drive can always be used on another machine if
you ever decide that you need to move on/up, while IDE is limited outside
of the pc areana.

that's all

Tom Dodge
MegaComputers
 ------------
Category 4,  Topic 1
Message 26        Sat Jan 23, 1993
DOUG.W [ICD RT]              at 14:57 EST

Tom,
   SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 allow up to 8 devices on the SCSI bus at one time.
This can be any combination of devices, including multiple computers, hard
drives, optical drives, scanners, etc.
   SCSI-2 specifies a maximum cable length (for Single-Ended SCSI) of 6
meters.

BTW, complete copies of the SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 specifications are available for
downloading from the ICD RoundTable.

--Doug @ ICD
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Have you wondered how you can improve your Bubble Jet printer quality?
Well, the answer might be in the paper you print on.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 4,  Topic 5
Message 39        Wed Jan 20, 1993
R.BROWN30                    at 00:52 EST

Regarding the BJ and PageStream. There are several Bubblejet-specific
drivers that deliver absolutely outstanding results. I've never used an
Epson driver with my BJ-10e (it was built before the 10-ex, and therefore
no Epson mode), but the BJ-10e driver for PageStream 2 delivers _laser_,
not near laser quality, but only when (**NOTE**) printed on:

      Strathmore Legacy Pen Plotter Paper, Product # 01-075,

which is a coated, premium, extra white, bleedproof (_no_ fuzziness,
_ever_) paper which I've tested personally in 20% and 99% humidity
climates (same results either case).

Caveat 1: This paper is premium, 250 sheets sell for about $9.00, but
then, other coated papers, like LaserEdge, sell for 2.5 to 3 times the
price. BTW- Legacy Pen Plotter is better than LaserEdge on the BJ.

Caveat 2: This paper is coated, meaning _don't touch until dry_! The ink
takes +/-  5 to 25 seconds to dry, but you will _instantly_ get used to
it, as your PageStream output will, for the most part, fool any observer,
even laser printer owners, that you printed via laser.

You may, in fact, have you spit on the page or otherwise try to smear the
ink to prove it's a BJ to a laser owner!

Caveat 3: This paper is no good for Deskjets, except color mode on the
HP500C.  For Deskjets, LaserEdge HR-10 and HR-20 are better choices.

*** A DEAL ***

If anyone wants to drop me an address via e-mail, I'll send out a Legacy
Pen Plotter sample for you to try on your BJ, but please post your results
here!  (Offer expires at my discretion, but I've had few takers as of yet,
so feel free for now.) If you're using _any_ other paper (I know a BJ10
will print on cut up grocery bags- I've done it) you are probably missing
the boat, at least by a little.

In California, you can get Legacy Pen Plotter Paper via special order at:

Bush's Stationers             < I don't know if they'll ship...
6440 Bellingham Avenue          but it's worth asking, I suppose.
North Hollywood,
CA  91606 818-766-7117

Some of this is repetitious, sorry, but it's important!

--Richard Brown Read GEnie Lamp ST!
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Personally, I don't know how he does it.  But each and every time that
Charles Smeton of NewStar Technology Management (the developer of
Straight FAX!) posts a message, I learn something new. So take a look
at this message - maybe you will also learn something new.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 4,  Topic 24
Message 178       Fri Jan 22, 1993
C.S.SMETON [STraight FAX]    at 23:09 EST

To: B.BEAUCHEA,

  We hope to support the new Migraph PS-400 Wand Scanner in the future.
It is possible that it may be supported via Scan Lite from Dr. Bobware in
a future release of the Scan Lite desk accessory. I would suggest that you
contact Dr.  Bobware about the status of Scan Lite. The PS-400 uses the
same cartridge interface as the Migraph hand scanner, as such it should
not be alot different from the hand scanner to support.

Thanks
  Charles Smeton
  NewSTar Technology Management


To: D.KELLER14

  It is possible that the pocket FAX Modem that you have is either a Send
FAX or a Class 1 Send/Receive FAX Modem. The STraight FAX! currently
supports Send FAX and Class 2 FAX Send/Receive Modems. We are working on
Class 1 support at this time and expect to support it sometime later this
year (March time frame).

Below is a technical release that NewSTar has written that explains how to
determine the type of FAX Modem that you have.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                         FAX Modem Identification

There are currently three standards in place for external FAX Modems:

Send FAX      - Based on Sierra Semiconductor Send FAX Standard

Class 1       - EIA/TIA Standard approved in 1990.

Class 2       - Initial draft of EIA/TIA Standard proposed in 1990, this
                standard was modified and later approved in 1992. The
                approved version will be called Class 2.0 and there should
                be products that support Class 2.0 later in 1993. Many
                companies (Rockwell International, Sierra Semiconductor
                and Exar Corporation) did not wait for the updated Class 2
                to be approved and released products based on the initial
                draft of Class 2.

The Class 1 and Class 2 standards define the communication between a FAX
Modem and a computer via an RS-232 serial interface. Class 1 and Class 2
should not be confused with Group III, which is an international FAX
standard that all of the above types of FAX Modems and normal FAX Machines
must follow in order to be able to communicate.

The type of FAX Modem can be determined by connecting the FAX Modem to a
computer (i.e. ST/TT/Falcon) via an RS-232 port and using a terminal
program (i.e. Flash, Flash II, Stalker 3, Interlink, etc.) to manually
enter AT commands which are sent to the FAX Modem. The following commands
should be followed by a carriage return. If an ERROR response is returned,
try the command again. Normally the FAX Modem will echo each character
typed back to the computer (i.e. Full Duplex Mode). Most of the following
commands will return a response from the FAX Modem after the carriage
return is entered then issue an OK response.

Determine type of FAX Modem:

AT+FCLASS=?

Response will be:

0,1         Modem is a data modem and a Class 1 FAX Modem
0,2         Modem is a data modem and a Class 2 FAX Modem
0,1,2       Modem is a data modem and a Class 1 and Class 2 FAX Modem

Determine FAX Modem Chipset Manufacturer (Class 2 Only):

AT+FMFR?

Response will be name of FAX Modem Chipset Manufacturer, i.e. ROCKWELL,
SIERRA, EXAR, etc.

Determine FAX Modem Model (Class 2 Only):

AT+FMDL?

The response will be the model number of the FAX Modem or the chipset in
the FAX Modem.

Determine Firmware Revision of FAX Modem (Class 2 Only):

AT+FREV?

Response will be firmware revision identification, this may be the same or
similar response that the ATI3 command returns.

Determine the Size of the FAX Modem Internal buffer (Class 2 Only):

AT+FBUF?

The response will be 4 numbers, separated by commas. The first number is
the size of the buffer in bytes.

There are a number of FAX Modems that the STraight FAX! support, including
models from Supra, Practical Peripherals, Zoom Telephonics, Best Data
Products, GVC, etc.


Charles Smeton NewSTar Technology Management
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
If you have been wondering how to purchase the AlberTT or Isac graphics
cards, Jay from Dover Research Corp posted this information.  It also
includes a brief comment about problems with Mega ST2's.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 4,  Topic 28
Message 62        Fri Jan 22, 1993
J.CRASWELL                   at 23:13 EST

Ta Dah!  I RETURN Bearing good wishes for those of you who have kept the
faith!  And kept me from vegging out too much on my many other projects. I
hope everyone is having good luck with the AlberTTs and ISACs.  I am  very
happy that the new price is getting so many of you to "jump in" to the
High res jungle.  Lets hope that this keeps up!  Hey I might even  be able
to afford to check on more than once a year! <grin>  By the way there were
several requests on how to order?!?  Thats one question I know the answer
too!  [phone]  Call Days or Evenings.  I'm central standard time
and looking forward to talking to you.  We take VISA and  Master Card.
Cash also! <grin>.  Yes I've checked out the 2 Meg ST ram bug a little
more and it appears that its a "semi" thought out error trap "SEMI"
Because its not so great that it does not tell you about it!  I guess the
fact that the card has 400K of Screen ram and uses quite a bit of ST ram
is the reason (excuse) that it won't operate.  Sorry bout that folks!  But
thanks for the help in finding this weird problems solution. When I get
some time I will drag out the code for the 030 version of the ISAC driver.
I believe that some changes are in order (ie Monochrome) Talk to you all
again soon....  I hope I hope.
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Looking for information on the status of MegaCheck?  Well, look no
farther.  Here is some information posted by.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 6,  Topic 6
Message 128       Mon Jan 18, 1993
C.MULLER3                    at 00:47 EST

Hi Jack,
  Version 2.0 is coming along very well.  Alpha-testing has been going
very smoothly, although I am going to have to make some adjustments to
several of the dialogs to get it to look a little "cleaner" in medium
resolution (some of the panel buttons are running up against other panel
buttons due to the lower resolution).  Have spent the last week
fine-tuning medium res and I should have it wrapped up in the next couple
of days.

  I must say that estimating projects is an art that I have yet to master
because I have grossly underestimated the time required by version 2 when
I said November 1st.  Oh well, that seems to happen at a lot of companies.
Anyway, I would say that a SAFE release would be first quarter of this
year.  The only thing is that Bob has had some unexpected duties come up
that is going to disallow him from being able to continue working on the
manual enough to get it completed on time.  I am going to finish it and he
will typeset it on Calamus SL.  It will be printed on an HP LaserJet IV at
600 dpi (with Resolution Enhancement) which should make for a nice looking
manual.

  One other thing, we will be closed from January 27th through February
7th, and will re-open February 8th.

  Oh, the tentative upgrade price is going to be $29 plus a small shipping
fee, depending on how heavy the manual turns out, since that price does
include the brand new 3-ring bound manual (with a slipcase like LDW
Power) but will probably be about $5, so $34 with shipping. This price is
practically set in stone.  We have already looked into production costs
and it looks like we'll be able to pull this off at the low $29.

Hi Dom,
  Well, we have never had a transfer of ownership, but I suppose leave me
an E- Mail message telling me who the previous owner was and I'll leave
you instructions from there...

 - Chris
 ------------
Category 6,  Topic 6
Message 129       Mon Jan 25, 1993
C.MULLER3                    at 01:24 EST

Hi all, just taking a break to say that medium res took a lot of work to
get to look exactly right, and still needs a few finishing touches.  I
hate to let this go with less than perfect cosmetics.  Basically, just a
few of the dialog buttons are too close together (i.e. edges touching)
when scaled in medium res.  Shouldn't take but another night or two to
touch  'e'em up.

I'll be leaving for Switzerland for 13 days Tuesday night.  Looking
forward to the trip a lot and hope to see one or two Atari's over there.
At any rate, it will probably not delay the project any since Bob will be
working (and hopefully finishing) the manual while I'm gone.  I'm going to
leave a copy of the program to my main beta-tester so that he'll have a
list of bugs (hopefully he won't have any!) to fix when I come  back.
After that, I'll pass out a demo copy to others who requested to beta-test
and, depending on how that all goes, will release the product a couple of
weeks after that.

We just got our HP LaserJet IV printer which will be printing our manuals
at 600x600dpi, so it should look pretty decent.

Later, Chris
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Do you need a driver for the JRI color board?  Well, this message tells
you where to find one - in the GEnie file library of course!
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 7,  Topic 30
Message 99        Sun Jan 17, 1993
J.THOMAS12 [JT]              at 03:17 EST

For those that need a driver for their JRI boards, there was one loaded on
Genie awhile back, its name is EPD10, and i've found it to work on my 4meg
520STm w/JRI color board very well.
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Are you using DigiPlay Plus?  Well then, this comment from Sean at Two
Worlds Software is definitely of interest to you.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 10,  Topic 2
Message 8         Sat Jan 23, 1993
S.DOUGHERTY1 [Sean@TWS]      at 13:57 EST

The new version of DigiPlay Plus (version 1.8) will be made available shortly
which will add TT & MegaSTe compatibility. More info on this as I can be sure
of it...

Sean Dougherty Two Worlds Software
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
We all know that Atari excels when it comes to music and MIDI.
Appearently, some other people think so too.  Take a look at this
message from John King Tarpinian of AtariUser Magazine and you'll see
what I mean.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 11,  Topic 9
Message   7       Sun Jan 17, 1993
JOHN.KING.T [JOHN KING T]    (Forwarded)

I am happy to announce that James K. Grunke, Corporate Director of
International Music Markets for Atari was elected to the five member
Executive Board of the MMA, Midi Music Association. James was elected
over representatives from IBM and Mac.

Just about everybody in the music industry has stopped by the ATARI booth.
Yesterday, one hour before the show opens, Thomas Dolby came strolling
into the booth. Thank goodness he was followed by Jay Patton of ATARI.
Dolby was very interested in what the FALCON and the D2D system by Digital
I/O could do.

Again, once I have had time to rest I'll post more. I will be available to
talk about NAMM at the Wednesday night GEnie Atari RTC.

I may be repeating myself but ATARI was the ONLY computer company to have
a booth at NAMM. IBM, not there.  MAC, who are they?

        John King Tarpinian
        Assistant Editor
 AtariUser Magazine

 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Looking to change over to a 1.44 High Density disk drive?  Well, there
are a few things to keep in mind. Bill at Atari is kind enough to let
us know this information.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 14,  Topic 4
Message 169       Sat Jan 23, 1993
B.HYUN2 [berto]              at 02:30 EST

I need to replace the internal floppy drive that came with my ST 1040. what
kind of drive is compatible with the ST?   can I just get any IBM compatible
drive?   does it need to be a 720K drive or can I stick a 1.44 Meg drive (even
though my ST can only access 720-800K)? Thank you in advance for any help.
 ------------
Category 14,  Topic 4
Message 174       Wed Jan 27, 1993
B.REHBOCK [BILL@ATARI]       at 12:40 EST

Just a little background on AJAX (Atari's High Density Floppy Controller)...

The original WD1772 (720k) floppy controller operated supplied by an 8MHz
clock.  AJAX is 100% compatible to a WD1772 when supplied an 8MHz clock.
To handle 1.44MB floppies, AJAX requires a 16MHz clock instead of the
normal 8.  Falcons, TTs, and MegaSTEs can supply AJAX with either speeed
clock.  The bios (in TOS 2.06 and up) is in charge of which clock gets
used.  Combo(tm) (or Combel(tm)) actually handle the physical switch of
the clock, depending on what the bios instructs.

An off-the-shelf 1040STE isn't set up the same way as the above-mentioned
models and won't handle 1.44 drives without additional modification other
than AJAX.  There are some third party kits that add an AJAX _and_
correctly supply it with the necessary 8MHz clock, but I am not sure who
they are.

-Bill@Atari

 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Is the serial port on your TT030 or Mega STe pooping out when you want to
party?  Well, it might be due to a program you are running.  Take a look
at these messages.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 17,  Topic 3
Message 24        Tue Jan 19, 1993
E.KRIMEN [Ed Krimen]         at 01:33 EST

Unfortunately, Serial Fix 1.1 disables the second (and I think third and
fourth) modem ports on the TT and Mega STE.  Therefore, I don't regularly use
SerialFix.  Apparently, Bill Penner has been working on a new version.  I
recently sent him e-mail to remind him.
 ------------
Category 17,  Topic 3
Message 28        Wed Jan 20, 1993
A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt]       at 03:42 EST

Ed,

Thanks for the report on what Serial Fix 1.1 was doing to my ports! Now I know
I was not going crazy!

Al
 ------------
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Hmmmmm... I wonder what Lexicor is up to with this little tease. I
guess we'd all better watch Babylon 5 to find out. It also looks like
Lexicor is getting closer to releasing a new product - CyberColor.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 25,  Topic 2
Message 159       Sat Jan 16, 1993
S.SCHAPER [Meneldil]         at 22:58 EST

Does Lexicor know that they have been discussed in the Babylon 5 category
in SFRT1?
 ------------
Category 25,  Topic 2
Message 161       Mon Jan 18, 1993
LEXICOR [Lee]                at 00:32 EST

When the show premears read all the credits......you may get a
BIG....SURPRISE........wink!

Lee
 ------------
Category 25,  Topic 2
Message 183       Mon Jan 25, 1993
LEXICOR [Lee]                at 23:52 EST

H.G.Wells

      We will be releaseing "CyberColor" very soon. This program was
written by John Stanford. it is a vertual Pain program which allow the
user to load a cyber sculpt object and then paint on it's surface in that
ever resolution and color configuration it is running in. The program is
more than a face color changer how ever. the secons main feature is what
makes it so powerfull. You can subdevide the exicting faces, which if done
properlt allows the user to do a higher detail painting in any given area
with out increasing the total number of faces skyward.

      Try thinking about the wood fish I did, with basic color patterns
on it in any colors, then map a transparent scale pattern over the base
colors! does this sound like transluciense? (spl?) Once you get the knack
of undercoloring or underpainting you will begin to see some of the
possibilities!

      price information will be posted next week.

Lee
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Are you using Phoenix?  Have you wondered about whether or not to use
the "Allocate TT RAM" flag?  Well, here is your answer.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 25,  Topic 20
Message 134       Sun Jan 17, 1993
J.STANFORD2 [John@Lexicor]   at 22:47 EST

An FPU on a mega STe will NOT cut your rendering time in half. I don't
know what the actual figure is, but that is way off.


D.Helmick:

The ALLOCATE TT RAM flag causes programs to fetch any memory it allocates
from TT ram instead of ST ram. The TT can access fast ram much quicker
than ST ram.  However some programs won't work with this flag set -
particulary ones which directly access screen memory. There is not an
option for setting how much ram it will allocate. The program will draw
whatever memory it needs from TT ram instead of ST ram.

This flag has no effect with Phoenix as it uses its own memory handler to
enable it to use both TT and ST ram.

John

 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Now this is strange.  If anyone else has seen this happen on their
system, I'm sure you will be glad for this message from CodeHead Tech.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 32,  Topic 2
Message 191       Fri Jan 15, 1993
G.FUHRMAN [gnox]             at 05:18 EST

One thing I've been meaning to ask about for months now ... my Hotwire autorun
program, Calshow 6.3, always runs exactly as it should, but always appears in
a window with a title bar that reads EDGE.PRG (?!) - anybody know what could
be causing that?

  gnox
 ------------
Category 32,  Topic 2
Message 193       Fri Jan 15, 1993
CODEHEAD [Charles]           at 11:29 EST

gnox,

  Under some circumstances, the system will put the wrong name at the top
of the screen when HotWire autoloads a program.  (The reason is very
technical and involved...)  It doesn't cause any problem, as you've
already discovered.

- Charles @ CodeHead Tech
  Friday, January 15, 1993  8:25 am

 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
If you are having trouble with Gem Sound and are also using MultiDesk
Deluxe, these messages from both John Eidsvoog and Charles F. Johnson
of CodeHead Technologies should clear everything up for you.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 32,  Topic 31
Message 57        Sun Jan 24, 1993
CODEHEAD [Charles]           at 18:10 EST

Jim & Mike,

  OK, here's the word on gemsound.  The problem between Warp 9 and
gemsound is due to the fact that gemsound fails to follow the trap #2
protocol documented in our "A Programmer's 11 Commandments for Vector
Stealing," which has been around for almost 3 years now.  (Sigh.)  But
there is a way to make Warp 9 and gemsound coexist.

  NOTE: this conflict has nothing to do with the order of the programs in
your AUTO folder!  The key is the order in which the gemsound CPX and the
Warp 9 Control Panel run.  The gemsound CPX must run BEFORE the Warp 9
Control Panel - - which means that XCONTROL.ACC must run before the
WARP9_CP.ACC, since it's XCONTROL that loads the gemsound CPX.

  The best way to ensure this is to use MultiDesk Deluxe and load both
XCONTROL and WARP9_CP as resident accessories, with XCONTROL loading
first.  When things are set up this way, gemsound will work just fine. If
you don't use MultiDesk Deluxe it may not be possible to force XCONTROL to
load before WARP9_CP, since the GEM desktop has its own inscrutable
methods of starting up DAs -- they don't necessarily start up in the same
order in which they load.

  You _must_ load the Warp 9 Control Panel accessory in order to use
gemsound successfully, and it has to run after XCONTROL.

- Charles @ CodeHead Tech
  Sunday, January 24, 1993  2:59 pm

 ------------
Category 32,  Topic 31
Message 58        Sun Jan 24, 1993
J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead]       at 18:59 EST

I just did some further testing with Gemsound and the Warp 9 CP.  In an
attempt to get them to install in the correct order without MultiDesk's
help, I installed them as the only two accessories. Gemsound was moved to
the first CPX in the directory, making it the first CPX to show up in
XControl and presumably the first CPX to be initialized.  XControl.ACC and
Warp9_CP.ACC were the only two ACCs installed and XControl was first in
the directory.  All this means is that GEM loads and calls XControl before
Warp9 CP.  But ACCs are called in a round-robin manner and there's no way
to know at which time through the event loop any particular ACC does its
"stuff".

Because XControl makes a lot of AES calls before it starts calling its
CPXes, it's already too late by the time Gemsound.CPX loads and Warp 9 CP
has already done it's thing.  This makes Gemsound fail and there's nothing
that can be done to fix it without using MultiDesk.

MultiDesk has special code to insure that its ACCs are called _after_ all
of the other ACCs have initialized.  It then loads and fully executes each
of its resident ACCs in the order you've chosen.  This assures that
XControl runs _before_ Warp 9, whether XControl is in its own menu slot,
or it's a resident ACC loaded into MultiDesk _before_ Warp 9.

So much for my "monthly" explanation of how this works.  <grin>  If you
want Gemsound to work with Warp 9, you _must_ use MultiDesk.

John
 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Oh, haven't you heard? There is a new Freeware program from John
Eidsvoog called Applier. Well, in case you have not heard of it, here
is a message that says things nicely.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 32,  Topic 34
Message 8         Sat Jan 23, 1993
J.THAYNE [J.G. Thayne]       at 20:31 EST

Gordon:

     As a user of APPLIER and one that is also working on the same idea
for my own reasons.  I did bring up the ideas, kinda.  :)

     The power of APPLIER (IMHO) is, as the name implies, is the ability
to 'expand' the abilities of the installed applications feature of GEM and
HOTWIRE.  The major drawback of installed applications is that you can
only pass the filename to the application.  Now, with APPLIER, you can
send just about any command line that you want to the application via
APPLIER, which gives you all the power that we have been missing.

     I would suggest that you use similar keys for similar functions,
such as John has suggested, so as SHIFT would 'list' and archive, CONTROL
would 'extract' and ALTERNATE would 'test' an archive.  There are many
other things that you could use it for as well, but the power increases
when you couple it with HOTWIRE!  If you have problems remembering the
keys, then you could just put notes on the HOTWIRE menu.  The downside is
that you would have to have this HOT menu as the current HOT menu, and use
the RUN icon or by double clicking on the document with MAXIFILE via
HOTWIRE.  You could also use the old stand-by method that we have been
using ... cheat sheets. (grin)

 ------------

                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Have you considered purchasing Diamond Edge by Oregon Research?  Well,
in case you haven't made up yout mind as of yet, here are a few
messages which might help you come to a decision.
                              ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Category 33,  Topic 2
Message 88        Mon Jan 18, 1993
JWC-OEO [Jon]                at 22:12 EST

  Bob,

Thanks!  The SCSI info restore function of EDGE just saved my bacon (105
mb, thick cut).  I'm delighted!

I'm also a typical Atari user so I have to make just one comment...

After casting about for a bit trying to figure out what to do when my hard
disk stopped booting, I suddenly thought "SCSI INFO".  I loaded my Edge
Emergency disk, ran EDGE, and selected Restore SCSI Info.  I followed the
prompts and then (sound of complex dialog box poping up) found myself in
what I later figured out was the Partition Dialog.

I decided I'd better look at the manual, turned to section 6.2, read the
instructions, but found that they do not give any hint that this dialog
will appear.  I selected "Install only" because it seemed the safest thing
to do, and my hard disk was back in service.  Later I searched the manual,
found a picture of the dialog, and was able to confirm that I had made the
right choice.

Anyway, it would have been better if section 6.2 had mentioned that the
dialog would show up during the restore and referred me to section 3.4.2
for an explaination of it.

Jon
 ------------
Category 33,  Topic 2
Message 89        Wed Jan 20, 1993
TQUINN [Terry~Sysop]         at 10:20 EST

I have encountered something weird with Diamond Back II (and only this
program as far as I can tell) a couple of times the past couple of weeks.
The keyboard has gone to sleep a couple of times in the middle of a
backup!  All of a sudden, the computer won't register any keypresses or
mousemoves or any other form of input.  If I do a cold reboot, everything
is fine all of a sudden except I have to repeat the backup.  Does anybody
have any ideas?
 ------------
Category 33,  Topic 2
Message 90        Thu Jan 21, 1993
ORA.TECH                     at 00:37 EST

Thanks for the feedback Jon.

Terry, An old Mega of mine started acting like that just before the keyboard
chip went to the big IC in the sky.

Best regards,

Bob@ORA
 ------------


                              --==--==--==--==--


 |||  Beginner's MIDI ... A computer, a synth, two MIDI cables - now what?
 |||  John J. Lehett
/ | \ Internet: [e-mail]  GEnie: AEO.8  Delphi: JLEHETT
      --------------------------------------------------------------------

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Playing MIDI files on YOUR keyboard!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Do you have a MIDI capable keyboard or synth that you simply haven't
bothered to hook up to your Atari yet? Or you've tried, but are unable to
get it to produce anything that could be considered 'music'? If so, read
on!

This article will attempt to get you up and running with the most
important basic information on using you keyboard and Atari in tandem.
Since there are so many keyboards and synths out there, I will attempt to
be as general as possible. This will inevitably mean that by following
these tidbits of knowledge, you will not get the most out of your
keyboard, but will hopefully make you more comfortable learning about
this very enjoyable pastime.

First a bit about myself. I am admittedly not a MIDI expert, but have
been in and out of the MIDI amateur arena for many years. My current
synth is a Kawai K4, but I have previously owned a Casio CT-670, and other
consumer model keyboards. This article does not assume anything about
one's playing skills, but will focus on getting your MIDI-capable
keyboard to play back many of the standard MIDI files out there.

The only things we will be assuming about your MIDI keyboard is that it
is multi-timbrel, in other words, that it can play more than one
'instrument sound' at once, and that in can accept PROGRAM CHANGE MIDI
events. This information should be easily found in the keyboard's manual.
Note: if your keyboard is not multi-timbrel, you can still follow along
and make use of the MIDI files, however only one instrument will be heard.

With that out of the way, lets start on the path to hearing some tunes!

//// Step 1: Hooking up the Keyboard and the Atari

Perhaps the easiest part of the procedure... one simply needs to purchase
a pair of standard MIDI cables, available at nearly every music store.
Connect each cable to run from the Atari MIDI ports to the keyboard's
MIDI ports, while making sure that each cable connects like this:

         MIDI in  <--->  MIDI out

         MIDI out <--->  MIDI in

//// Step 2: Get some sequencing software

There are many sequencers available for the Atari ST, ranging from Public
Domain, to relatively expensive professional commercial programs. If you
have never used one before, and can stand putting up with a few bugs here
and there, I would recommend Alchemie Jr. It is a shareware product
(although the authors have been unreachable as far as I have tried) and
available on most of the on-line services, and other such software
libraries.

Whatever your choice of sequencer, the most useful feature that you will
be looking for is the ability to view the MIDI 'events' list. These
events include the note-on, note-off, program (patch) changes, hold,
volume and controller messages that actually get sent to you MIDI
keyboard. More information on these events later in this article.

//// Step 3: Get some MIDI song files

These are somewhat harder to find for pop tunes, as the copyright issue
on them is still somewhat murky. But many classical sequences and original
sequences are available in most software libraries also. You will want to
look for SMF's (Standard MIDI Files). These files most often end with a
.MID filetype to distinguish them from the proprietary formats many
sequencers possess. Most sequencers allow the importing of SMF files,
thereby allowing a cross-platform usability.

The majority of SMF's are one of two types. One is the MT-32, a sound
module that has been around for quite some type, and the other is GS, a
General MIDI Standard file. Since many keyboards today do not follow these
standards 'out-of-the-box', we will attempt to take any of these other
standard files, and with a little editing, play them on whichever model
keyboard you own.

//// Step 4: Using the Standard MIDI Files

Load up the sequencer you have chosen, and import (or load, depending on
the sequencer) the Standard MIDI File you have chosen to work on. Now
choose the option in the sequencer to view the MIDI-events, which will
look something like the following:

         Trk  Position    CH  Message  Parameter

         010  0000/00/00  04  Control  007 096 Volume MSB

         001  0001/02/02  05  Program  002

         003  0010/01/00  02  Note on  C#4 063 000 00126

The note-on and note-off events are the messages that get sent to the
keyboard to actually play the notes. The PROGRAM CHANGE messages are those
that inform the keyboard to play a certain patch, or instrument sound for
those notes on that particular MIDI channel or track. The other MIDI
messages that you may see may be ignored for now. Most MIDI keyboards will
simply ignore those messages (such as CONTROL, PITCH BEND etc) that it
does not understand.

We are primarily concerned with the PROGRAM CHANGE messages. Most of
these messages will be at the very beginning of the MIDI file. However,
depending on the complexity of the song you have chosen, they may be
scattered throughout the file. If this is the case, most sequencers allow
you to filter out events that you are viewing. Filtering out all but the
PROGRAM CHANGE events will greatly simplify your hunting for these types
of messages. Attached to the end of this article is the standard patch
sets for the GS and MT-32 files. If the individual tracks of the MIDI file
are not labelled such as piano or muted guitar, you will have to compare
the PROGRAM CHANGE message you see in the events list to the tables for
that particular MIDI file type. One thing to note here is that very often
the actual PROGRAM CHANGE number you see in the events list is 1 less than
the value seen in the tables below (ONLY for the Instrument patch changes,
not for the percussion lists). This is due to the fact that MIDI message
parameters normally range from 0-127, while the patches in the tables
below go from 1 to 128.

Once you have spotted a PROGRAM CHANGE event, use the sequencers editing
capability to change the parameter number for the event. Look up, via the
tables below, the 'instrument' sound that is supposed to be played. Then,
refer to your particular keyboards sounds, and select the one that is
closest to it, i.e., Grand Piano can simply be replaced with any piano
sound you have on your particular keyboard. In your keyboards manual, you
should find the information on what PROGRAM CHANGE message is needed to
switch to a particular sound. Simply replace the old number with the one
that refers to the sound for your keyboard.

   example: GS MIDI file shows ->  001 0001/02/02 05 PROGRAM 003
            and your own keyboard's Electric Grand Piano sound
            is accessed through PROGRAM 012,
            change to          ->  001 0001/02/02 05 PROGRAM 012

Don't worry if you can't seem to find a certain instrument sound on your
keyboard, just come as close to possible. If nothing seems to come close
at all, we'll just not play that particular track, as will be explained
below.

Now proceed to viewing the 'tracks' in the sequencer. The 'tracks' are
usually used to separate the difference instrument sounds from one
another. These sounds will also normally be assigned to separate MIDI
channels. Depending on your keyboard, you may be able to play on 1-16
MIDI channels at once. Most sequencers will allow you to individually
mute tracks. Through the events list, find out which MIDI channel each
track is playing its notes on. If your keyboard is not capable of playing
on that particular MIDI channel, mute the track.

The percussion track is normally played through MIDI channel 10. Look over
the percussion maps below, and see how closely they approximate the drum
section on your machine. If they are close, most drum tracks should sound
just fine. If they are very different, and you wish to play the drum
tracks, you have some more editing to do, otherwise mute the drum track.
You will have to compare the drum note sound for each time it is played in
the MIDI file, to the comparable one on you keyboard and adjust the note
in the MIDI events list of the sequencer. This process is often made much
easier in many sequencers, in that they allow you to change all notes (of
one drum sound) to the one that corresponds to your keyboard. For the
beginning MIDI person, this process can be frustrating and agonizing, but
armed with the drum mappings below, and getting familiar with your
sequencer can go a long way to transforming the drum sounds into something
that actually sounds pleasing on your keyboard.

Now you should be ready to go! Hit play in the sequencer, and see what you
have got.

//// Step 5: Fine (and Coarse) Tuning

Hopefully the sounds emanating from your keyboard sound like music. If
not, do not despair... there are many problems that can creep in, and here
is where we'll try to correct those.

If you hear a lot of the notes stopping abruptly while they sound like
they should still be playing, the most likely cause is that you have
over-stepped the polyphony of your keyboard. Each keyboard has a maximum
number of sounds that it can play at the same time. If the keyboard
receives more notes than it can handle, it will usually stop some of the
currently playing notes in order to play those it has just been requested
to play. To solve this problem, mute another track or two, and try again.

If some of the sounds are much louder and over-powering the others, there
are couple of different possibilities. First, if your keyboard is capable
of receiving VOLUME messages, and you see such messages in the MIDI events
list in the sequencer, you may attempt to adjust the parameters to those
events to raise or lower the volume for that particular sound. Second, if
your keyboard does not recognize such messages, it may simply be the case
that some of the instruments you have chosen to play on your keyboard are
simply built into it at a louder volume. You might try changing the
PROGRAM CHANGE message to those sounds to a different sound on your
keyboard. If this persists, you might try eliminating the VOLUME messages
altogether from the MIDI file.

If you only hear one type of sound (e.g., only a piano), you may have the
MIDI mode on the keyboard set incorrectly. Many keyboards need to be
placed in multi-timbrel mode, so that more than one instrument sound can
play at once. For this type of problem, consult you keyboard manual to
determine the appropriate MIDI mode.

If you can make out the notes to the song, but can tell that the
instruments being played are not at all what they should be, you may be
experiencing the 1-off of PROGRAM CHANGES to Patch Numbers as stated
above. Should this effect happen, it is wise to trust the Track Names that
appear in your sequencer over the patch numbers themselves. The best way
to sort out these sound problems is to mute all but one track, and then
proceed to change the patch change number in the events list, until it
sounds good to you.

One very important point to remember, is that if you do not have a MT-32
or General MIDI compatible synth (as explained in the tables below), the
MIDI files you attempt to play will not sound exactly like they should. By
using the information presented here, and with experimenting on your own
keyboard you should be able to reproduce reasonable facsimiles of the the
songs. More than anything, have fun! Throw in a spacy type sound where a
string section should be, or a ethnic instrument where a classical piano
should be. Sometimes the results are unexpected and very pleasing.

//// Step 6:  Spicing it up

As you may have noticed throughout this article, the most common method of
overcoming problems has been to mute a track, or eliminate some MIDI
messages. This method will allow you to get the basic form of what the
author of the MIDI file intended.

Once you have 1 or more tracks sounding good to you, save your work, then
start adding in the tracks that you may have muted. Experiment with the
sequencers ability to force a certain track to play on a MIDI channel
that is currently not in use, and that your keyboard is able to play on.
Edit back into the file some of the CONTROL messages that you may have
deleted before.

Above all, be patient with this process. If all else fails, mute all the
tracks, then ONE-BY-ONE, play each track through your keyboard, making
adjustments until that one track sounds acceptable. Then attempt to play
two tracks at once, editing as necessary, etc, until you have as much of
the MIDI file being played as possible. At this point, you're on your own.
You might try adding keyboard tracks of your own, or copying an exact
replica of a track and play it an octave up or down, or with a completely
different instrument.

//// Step 7:  All done?

Having edited the MIDI file, you should then save all the work you have
done. You may save the file in the sequencer's format you are currently
using, or export it in a SMF format for use in almost all sequencers.
Whichever you choose, as long as you do not change the set up of your MIDI
keyboard, the song you have just saved will play back with the same sounds
as it did after your editing.



****     TABLE 1  -  General MIDI Instrument Patch Map      ****
(groups sounds into sixteen families, w/8 instruments in each family)

Prog#     Instrument               Prog#     Instrument

   (1-8        PIANO)                   (9-16      CHROM PERCUSSION)
1         Acoustic Grand             9        Celesta
2         Bright Acoustic           10        Glockenspiel
3         Electric Grand            11        Music Box
4         Honky-Tonk                12        Vibraphone
5         Electric Piano 1          13        Marimba
6         Electric Piano 2          14        Xylophone
7         Harpsichord               15        Tubular Bells
8         Clav                      16        Dulcimer

   (17-24      ORGAN)                      (25-32      GUITAR)
17        Drawbar Organ             25        Acoustic Guitar(nylon)
18        Percussive Organ          26        Acoustic Guitar(steel)
19        Rock Organ                27        Electric Guitar(jazz)
20        Church Organ              28        Electric Guitar(clean)
21        Reed Organ                29        Electric Guitar(muted)
22        Accordian                 30        Overdriven Guitar
23        Harmonica                 31        Distortion Guitar
24        Tango Accordian           32        Guitar Harmonics

   (33-40      BASS)                        (41-48     STRINGS)
33        Acoustic Bass             41        Violin
34        Electric Bass(finger)     42        Viola
35        Electric Bass(pick)       43        Cello
36        Fretless Bass             44        Contrabass
37        Slap Bass 1               45        Tremolo Strings
38        Slap Bass 2               46        Pizzicato Strings
39        Synth Bass 1              47        Orchestral Strings
40        Synth Bass 2              48        Timpani

   (49-56     ENSEMBLE)                      (57-64      BRASS)
49        String Ensemble 1         57        Trumpet
50        String Ensemble 2         58        Trombone
51        SynthStrings 1            59        Tuba
52        SynthStrings 2            60        Muted Trumpet
53        Choir Aahs                61        French Horn
54        Voice Oohs                62        Brass Section
55        Synth Voice               63        SynthBrass 1
56        Orchestra Hit             64        SynthBrass 2

   (65-72      REED)                         (73-80      PIPE)
65        Soprano Sax               73        Piccolo
66        Alto Sax                  74        Flute
67        Tenor Sax                 75        Recorder
68        Baritone Sax              76        Pan Flute
69        Oboe                      77        Blown Bottle
70        English Horn              78        Skakuhachi
71        Bassoon                   79        Whistle
72        Clarinet                  80        Ocarina

   (81-88      SYNTH LEAD)                   (89-96      SYNTH PAD)
81        Lead 1 (square)           89        Pad 1 (new age)
82        Lead 2 (sawtooth)         90        Pad 2 (warm)
83        Lead 3 (calliope)         91        Pad 3 (polysynth)
84        Lead 4 (chiff)            92        Pad 4 (choir)
85        Lead 5 (charang)          93        Pad 5 (bowed)
86        Lead 6 (voice)            94        Pad 6 (metallic)
87        Lead 7 (fifths)           95        Pad 7 (halo)
88        Lead 8 (bass+lead)        96        Pad 8 (sweep)

   (97-104     SYNTH EFFECTS)                (105-112     ETHNIC)
 97        FX 1 (rain)              105       Sitar
 98        FX 2 (soundtrack)        106       Banjo
 99        FX 3 (crystal)           107       Shamisen
100        FX 4 (atmosphere)        108       Koto
101        FX 5 (brightness)        109       Kalimba
102        FX 6 (goblins)           110       Bagpipe
103        FX 7 (echoes)            111       Fiddle
104        FX 8 (sci-fi)            112       Shanai

   (113-120    PERCUSSIVE)                  (121-128     SOUND EFFECTS)
113        Tinkle Bell              121       Guitar Fret Noise
114        Agogo                    122       Breath Noise
115        Steel Drums              123       Seashore
116        Woodblock                124       Bird Tweet
117        Taiko Drum               125       Telephone Ring
118        Melodic Tom              126       Helicopter
119        Synth Drum               127       Applause
120        Reverse Cymbal           128       Gunshot


****    TABLE 2  -  General MIDI Percussion Key Map    ****
(assigns drum sounds to note numbers. MIDI Channel 10 is for percussion)

MIDI   Drum Sound                MIDI    Drum Sound
Key                              Key

35     Acoustic Bass Drum        59      Ride Cymbal 2
36     Bass Drum 1               60      Hi Bongo
37     Side Stick                61      Low Bongo
38     Acoustic Snare            62      Mute Hi Conga
39     Hand Clap                 63      Open Hi Conga
40     Electric Snare            64      Low Conga
41     Low Floor Tom             65      High Timbale
42     Closed Hi-Hat             66      Low Timbale
43     High Floor Tom            67      High Agogo
44     Pedal Hi-Hat              68      Low Agogo
45     Low Tom                   69      Cabasa
46     Open Hi-Hat               70      Maracas
47     Low-Mid Tom               71      Short Whistle
48     Hi-Mid Tom                72      Long Whistle
49     Crash Cymbal 1            73      Short Guiro
50     High Tom                  74      Long Guiro
51     Ride Cymbal 1             75      Claves
52     Chinese Cymbal            76      Hi Wood Block
53     Ride Bell                 77      Low Wood Block
54     Tamborine                 78      Mute Cuica
55     Splash Cymbal             79      Open Cuica
56     Cowbell                   80      Mute Triangle
57     Crash Cymbal 2            81      Open Triangle
58     Vibraslap



****    TABLE 3 - MT-32 Instrument Patch Map    ****

Program  Instrument                     Program  Instrument
#                                       #

    PIANO                                   BASS
1      Acou Piano 1                     65     Acou Base 1
2      Acou Piano 2                     66     Acou Base 2
3      Acou Piano 3                     67     Elec Bass 1
4      Elec Piano 1                     68     Elec Bass 2
5      Elec Piano 2                     69     Slap Bass 1
6      Elec Piano 3                     70     Slap Bass 2
7      Elec Piano 4                     71     Fretless 1
8      Honkytonk                        72     Fretless 2

    ORGAN                                   WIND 1
9      Elec Org 1                       73     Flute 1
10     Elec Org 2                       74     Flute 2
11     Elec Org 3                       75     Piccolo 1
12     Elec Org 4                       76     Piccolo 2
13     Pipe Org 1                       77     Recorder
14     Pipe Org 2                       78     Pan Pipes
15     Pipe Org 3
16     Accordion                            WIND 2
                                        79     Sax 1
    KEYBRD                              80     Sax 2
17     Harpsi 1                         81     Sax 3
18     Harpsi 2                         82     Sax 4
19     Harpsi 3                         83     Clarinet 1
20     Clavi 1                          84     Clarinet 2
21     Clavi 2                          85     Oboe
22     Clavi 3                          86     Engl horn
23     Celesta 1                        87     Bassoon
24     Celesta 2                        88     Harmonica

    S-BRASS                                 BRASS
25     Syn Brass 1                      89     Trumpet 1
26     Syn Brass 2                      90     Trumpet 2
27     Syn Brass 3                      91     Trombone 1
28     Syn Brass 4                      92     Trombone 2
                                        93     Fr Horn 1
    SYNBASS                             94     Fr Horn 2
29     Syn Bass 1                       95     Tuba
30     Syn Bass 2                       96     Brs Sect 1
31     Syn Bass 3                       97     Brs Sect 2
32     Syn Bass 4
                                            MALLET
    SYNTH 1                             98     Vibe 1
33     Fantasy                          99     Vibe 2
34     Harmo Pan                        100    Syn Mallet
35     Chorale                          101    Windbell
36     Glasses                          102    Glock
37     Soundtrack                       103    Tube Bell
38     Atmosphere                       104    Xylophone
39     Warm Bell                        105    Marimba
40     Funny Vox
                                            SPECIAL
    SYNTH 2                             106    Koto
41     Echo Bell                        107    Sho
42     Ice Rain                         108    Shakuhachi
43     Oboe 2001                        109    Whistle 1
44     Echo Pan                         110    Whistle 2
45     Doctor Solo                      111    Bottleblow
46     Schooldaze                       112    Breathpipe
47     Bellsinger
48     Square Wave                          PERCUSN
                                        113    Timpani
    STRINGS                             114    Melodic Tom
49     Str Sect 1                       115    Deep Snare
50     Str Sect 2                       116    Elec Perc 1
51     Str Sect 3                       117    Elec Perc 2
52     Pizzicato                        118    Taiko
53     Violin 1                         119    Taiko Rim
54     Violin 2                         120    Cymbal
55     Cello 1                          121    Castanets
56     Cello 2                          122    Triangle
57     Contrabass
58     Harp 1                               EFFECTS
59     Harp 2                           123    Orch Hit
                                        124    Telephone
    GUITAR                              125    Bird Tweet
60     Guitar 1                         126    One Note Jam
61     Guitar 2                         127    Water Bells
62     Elec Gtr 1
63     Elec Gtr 2
64     Sitar


****    TABLE 4 - MT-32 Percussion Key Map    ****


MIDI           Drum Sound              MIDI       Drum Sound
Key                                    Key

23             Elec SD                 66         Lo Timable
35             Acou BD                 67         Hi Agogo
36             Acou BD                 68         Lo Agogo
37             Rim Shot                69         Cabasa
38             Acou SD                 70         Maraca
39             Hand Clap               71         Samba WhisS
40             S. Drum 2               72         Samba WhisL
41             Acou LT                 73         Quijada
42             Closed HH               74         Cup Mute
43             Acou LT                 75         Claves
44             Open HH 2               76         Brush 1
45             Acou MT                 77         Brush 2
46             Open HH 1               78         Castanets
48             Acou HT                 80         Triangle
49             Crash Cym               81         HPich Tom1
50             Acou HT                 82         Wood Block
51             Ride Cym                83         Bell
52             China Cym               84         B. Drum 3
53             Cup                     85         B. Drum 4
54             Tamborine               86         B. Drum 4
55             Splash Cym              87         B. Drum 5
56             Cowbell                 88         B. Drum 6
57             CrCym Mute              89         L. Tom 3
58             S. Drum 3               90         C. Hi Hat 2
59             RiCym Mute              91         M. Tom 3
60             High Bongo              93         H. Tom 3
61             Low Bongo               95         NativDrum1
62             MtHi Conga              96         NativDrum2
63             High Conga              97         NativDrum3
64             Low Conga               123        Acou MT
65             Hi Timbale


                              --==--==--==--==--

 |||
 |||  GEnie Atari ST RoundTable News
/ | \ Courtesy: GEnie
      ------------------------------

Atari Roundtable Weekly News 1.4

 = DARLAH'S TREAT =

  This month's Darlah's Treat [p 475;9] is a complete working Mono demo
  of Calligrapher 3, the next generation of the ultimate writing machine
  from CodeHead Technologies and Working Title. Calligrapher 3 no
  longer requires the installation of GDOS or G+Plus. The Demo
  includes a thorough walk-through of all features plus a listing of
  new features and upgrade procedure. This Treat runs in Monochrome
  To run this treat in COLOR check out Treat II [p 475;10].

  Product support is available in the Atari Bulletin Board,
  Category 32, Topic 32.


 = REALTIME CONFERENCES =

 = Scheduled Wednesday RTC Guests =

 Have an idea for an Realtime Conference? Wish to promote a product,
 show or service? Atari Roundtable Realtime Conference provides an
 excellent platform for announcements and discussions. Contact RTC$,
 for requirements  and information on holding formal RTCs. We also
 capture and edit the formal conferences and uploads them into the
 Atari RT's Library for you.

 = Monday Realtime Conference =

 Stop in for Monday's Desktop Publishing Realtime Conferences. Hosted
 by Lou Rocha with regular guests dealing with all aspects of DTP and
 associated topics.

 = Atari ST Help Desk =

 Atari ST Roundtable holds a Sunday Help Desk to answer your questions
 on GEnie, Atari ST Roundtable and the line of Atari computers. Stop in
 and ask questions or just visit the Atari RT staff and users. The Help
 Desk starts at 9:00 pm EST Sunday on page 475;2.

 = RTC Transcripts =

      --------------------------------------------------
27339 IAAD_RTC.ARC             X BRIAN.H      930115   17152    120  13
      Desc: IAAD RTC 13 Jan 93
27268 BRODIE4.ARC              X ST.LOU       930109   17152    656  13
      Desc: Falcon 030 and Software News!
      --------------------------------------------------

    For Realtime Conference inquires and comments contact: RTC$

 = LIBRARY =

 Last Week's Top Downloaded Programs/Utilities:

      ---------------------------------------------------
27392 GVIEW213.LZH             X OUTRIDER     930120  406528    194  28
      Desc: GEM-View 2.13 - Now Saves GIFs!
27382 FRACLAND.ZIP             X JLHOFFMAN    930118   69248    105  28
      Desc: Generate 3D fractal mountains
27350 SYQ_BACK.LZH             X LARRY.D      930116   21376    103   2
      Desc: SyQuest Incremental Backup/Restore
27348 EXPAND14.LZH             X A.CULLUM1    930116   25344     89   2
      Desc: Expand-o-matic shell, version 1.4
27439 LBJRB175.LZH             X J.THAYNE     930123   26752     68   2
      Desc: Label Maker JRB ver 1.75 (c) 1990
27435 DSP11.LZH                X K.LORD       930123   37632     60  29
      Desc: DSP.PRG version 1.1
      ---------------------------------------------------

 Last Week's New Demos:

      ---------------------------------------------------
27452 URW_SLM3.LZH             X CODEHEAD     930124  130816      5  10
      Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for SLM printer
27428 URWDJET3.LZH             X CODEHEAD     930122  141952     25  10
      Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for Desk Jets
27423 URWHPLJ3.LZH             X CODEHEAD     930122  132992     15  10
      Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for HP LaserJet
27418 URWBJET3.LZH             X CODEHEAD     930122   74880      6  10
      Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for Bubble Jets
27414 URW24PN3.LZH             X CODEHEAD     930122   51712     17  10
      Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for 24-Pin Ptrs
27413 URW9PIN3.LZH             X CODEHEAD     930122   85248      4  10
      Desc: URW Font Chart 67-86 for 9-Pin Ptrs.
27389 CAL3MEDM.LZH <TREAT>     X J.EIDSVOOG1  930119   39040    115  10
      Desc: Cal 3 Demo Files for Medium Res
27336 CAL3DEMO.TOS <TREAT>     X J.EIDSVOOG1  930115  375168    546  10
      Desc: Mono Demo version of Calligrapher 3!
      ---------------------------------------------------

 Last Week's Press Releases in the Library

      ---------------------------------------------------
27462 SHOW.ASC                 X B.WELSCH     930124    1536     11  14
      Desc: Press release for KC AtariFest
27396 UG_FFD.TXT               X PMC.INC      930120    2176     80  14
      Desc: Special for User Groups
27385 HOWDY.TXT                X A.STUDER1    930119    2176     22  14
      Desc: SAC Expo Advertisement for 3/13-3/14
      ---------------------------------------------------

    Contact: LIBRARY$


                              --==--==--==--==--




                              --==--==--==--==--


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--       --==--==--       GEnie Sign-Up Information      --==--==--      --
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------


                              --==--==--==--==--


 |||  A Beginner's Guide to UNIX and the Internet - Part 2
 |||  By: Timothy Wilson
/ | \ Internet: [e-mail]     GEnie: AEO.8
      ----------------------------------------------------

A beginner's guide to UNIX, and the Internet. How it applies to the Atari
world, and other tricks, tips, places, services, and files of interest.

Chapter 2. Some more miscellaneous UNIX thingies and the quickest
           e-mail you'll ever see.

Well, we've went over simple file management, now let's take a look at
some other UNIX utilities and commands that come in handy. I assume you
have an account by now. So let's try a few things.

------------
unix% uptime

12:09pm  up 11 days, 17:52, 10 users,  load average: 0.21, 0.06, 0.01

unix%
------------

Basically what this command does is check to see how busy stuff is. We
can see there are 10 users, while the system was restarted 11 days and 17
hours ago. The load average is a gauge of how busy the system is - the
higher the number, the slower performance.

It's the average number of processes started in the recent past. If there
is a high load average, it might be better to call back.

"High load average" is relative - 2 or 3 on a SUN 4.1 is nothing to
worry about. 2 or 3 on a old sequent is a nightmare.

Gee, there is 10 other users on! let's see who they are.

--------------
unix%users

wilsont geroga harlock picard aml mbison smithk jones valamah root
unix%
---------------

Names like this are login names, sometimes you can pick your own and
sometimes the system administrator (sysadmin) picks it for you.

Sometimes your social security number is in there (ws432282) or, like
mine, my last name and a first letter of my first name. At my site I could
pick whatever I wanted to. But I stuck with my college login: 'wilsont'
As long as it's not obscene, it's probably ok.

Login names are important for mail... the second part of this chapter.

We can even tell what these other people are doing. Let's take a look.

----------------
unix% w

12:12pm up 11 days, 17:55, 10 users, load average 0.20, 0.09, 0.10
User     tty      login@   idle   JCPU   PCPU  what
wilsont  tty1    12:06pm                       w
geroga   ttya    :20      00:20                rn
harlock  tty3    1:00     01:15                nn rec.arts.anime
picard   ttyz    :35      00:01                sz enterprise.gif
mbison   tty4    :02      02:00                telnet 123.23.12.19 2300
etc.....
------------------

It's pretty self explanatory. I learned a bunch by simply watching a
screen like this and doing 'man' on everything that everyone else was
doing. You don't have to since you're reading this wonderful UNIX
tutorial.... :)

JCPU is the total time used by that person. (for each of his processes)
PCPU is the total time for all processes. (this is a strange CPU relative
time)

We can write a quick note to any of the people on the users list.

-------------
unix% write harlock
Hey! What's up??
^D              **** (Press control-D here )*****
EOT
unix%
-------------

Here's the procedure:
write <user login>
message line <return>
message line <return>
message line.... etc, etc.
Ctrl-D when done.

The other user gets the lines as you press return. An incoming message
looks like this:
--------------
message from wilsont tty1 at 12:20:23
Hey! What's up??
EOT

unix%
--------------

However, if you don't want to be bugged by people paging you like this,
use:

------------
unix% mesg n
------------

This shuts off 'write' messages.

For a more interactive conversation, try:
---------------
unix% talk harlock
---------------

(the screen splits in two and waits for the other guy to connect)

harlock gets:

----------------
Message from talk daemon:
Talk requested by  [e-mail]
respond with: talk [e-mail]

unix%
-----------------

All harlock really needs to type is: talk wilsont. Since we're both on the
same computer, it's implied.

All of these only work with what's going on at your 'site' or computer
system. That means it's time for another concept, the site address.

Each system on the internet can be 'addressed' by a 32 bit number. Sort of
like the number up on that 'w' list above... see it next to the 'telnet'?
that's called an IP address. its expressed as 4 8-bit numbers separated by
periods. Followed by an optional 'port'. Programs running on a UNIX
machine can attach themselves to a port, and receive data through it, via
a programming construct called a 'socket'.

It gets really technical from there, so I won't go any further with
sockets, I'm just letting you know in case you run across it.

I'll bet you're wondering if you have to start remembering a bunch of
numbers to use the internet. The answer is probably no. Most UNIX
machines are connected to a "Name server". From what I understand, your
system sends a english name to this server, and gets back the IP address
that it can use. It's all transparent anyways.

Some examples of a few sites I've had accounts on at:
prism.cs.orst.edu
rahul.net
holonet.net

That's a lot easier to remember than 192.32.128.34!

The names can be a source of information in themselves. Take a look at
the first one: prism.cs.orst.edu.

You can sort of read it backwards and tell where its from.
.edu   <---- Usually means a college or other 'educational' institution.
             Other types: .com= Commercial sites such as hp or sun.
                          .org= An organization
                          .net= I figure these are simply net access
                                sites, with no relation to the others.
                          .gov= Government sites, like NASA
                          .mil= Military sites, usually restricted

.orst  <---- orst= Oregon State.
               Other examples: colostate, colorado state.
                               sun, apple, compuserve, aol (American
                               Online)

.cs    <---- cs= Computer Science.
             Other examples: ece = electrical engineering
                             sun = a Sun workstation group.
             Usually this is a department name.

prism  <---- The actual computer name.
             These names can get pretty wild as there's a bunch of
             bored sysadmins out there with nothing better to do but
             name the machines. :)
             Prism happens to be an apollo graphics workstation.
             (hence the name, meaning lots of colors)

If you know someone's address and they are on at the time, you can
interactively talk with:

-------------
unix% talk [e-mail]
-------------

I talk to my friend in colorado all the time, for the price of a local
call!

To end the talk session, press ctrl-C.

=== Remember, if you need more nitty gritty info, use: man <command> ===

If you want to know if someone else is on at another site try:
------------
unix% rusers sitename
(gives a user list of a remote site)
or

unix% finger login@sitename
(gives detailed info on that person)
-------------

Now, onto the fastest e-mail you've ever seen!

Internet Global Electronic Mail.

Unlike the US postal service, internet mail gets where it's going quickly.
Mail can be delivered across the country in a matter of a few minutes.

There are lots of ways to send mail.

We'll start out with 'mail', it's simple, and not very powerful, but
good for quick notes.

The format is:

------------------
unix% mail login@site address
an example of a mail:

unix% mail [e-mail]
Subject: test    (Note: you might not get a subject line)
this is a test...
<ctrl-D>

unix%
------------------
Ctrl-D is a general "I'm done typing my message now!" command. Two
ctrl-C's in mail will cancel the letter.

You can enter into an editor, by typing on a blank line:
~vi

(There are lots of editors out there, the 'man' pages are excellent for
learning how to use them. I won't cover editors here, but here are some
editor names: vi, emacs, mg. mg or emacs is a good start, vi is for die
hard UNIX people)

This doesn't mean you will be put in the editor 'vi', it simply activates
the 'visual' editor that's been defined somewhere in your setup. Once you
learn how to use an editor, you can edit your setup. I guess I'll write
an appendix or something for this type of thing.

After you exit your editor, you'll still have to press ctrl-D to send this
mail.

You can also make a letter with an editor beforehand. Just simply put the
lines:

To: login@sitename
Subject: <whatever it is>

at the top, and use:

---------------
unix% send filename
---------------

'Send' looks in the file you gave it for the header line (To: ) and sends
the message to that person.

If 'send' isn't available, you can do this:

----------------
unix% mail login@sitename < filename
----------------

This is a feature of UNIX called redirection, but when it is used in this
manner it puts a file 'into' a command instead of sending the output of a
command to a file. (like we did in chapter one)

This file doesn't have to have the To: line because 'mail' will take care
of it.

A handy dandy mailer is elm. elm is an all in one reader and sender of
mail. It uses your terminal (VT100 and the like) to display stuff real
pretty on the screen.

Type 'elm' alone on the command line and you'll get a screen showing
what's in your mailbox, and a list of commands, elm is really simple
and much easier to use than most BBS mailers!

Typing 'mail' all alone will also get you a list of mail in your mail
box. A list of commands can be seen with '?'

I'm assuming you've BBS'ed before, that's why I'm sort of rushing through
mail. Just stick with elm and you'll hate going to anything else.  I
wonder how the online networks can get away with line editors!

If you have problems... mail me!

-------------------
unix% mail [e-mail]
Subject: Help!!
my site doesn't have elm... what do I do?

EOT

unix%
--------------------

I expect all of you to send me mail. At least just say Hi. Oh.. the
request line CC: means carbon copy. You can send mail to multiple people,
just separate the addresses with a space.

Well, that covers communication between two people, next chapter we'll go
get some files from Atari Archive, the internet repository of atari stuff.

Feel free to mail me at: [e-mail]

     or Snail Mail: 17405 Kincaid Rd.
                    San Jose, CA 95140

Oh yeah... 'write' only works on the same machine, it can't cross that
boundary.

If you're wondering when these articles start discussing Atari related
internet stuff, that'll be the next two chapters. I couldn't just dump you
guys n' gals at a UNIX prompt and hope for the best.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// part 2 of UNIX site list:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

name ----------> DIAL n' CERF or DIAL n' CERF AYC
dialup --------> contact for number
area codes ----> 213, 310, 510, 619, 714, 818
local access --> CA: Westwood, Oakland, San Diego, Irvine, Pasadena
fees ----------> $5/hour ($3/hour on weekend) + $20/month + $50 startup or
                 $250/month
voice ---------> 800-876-2373 or 619-455-3900


name ----------> DIAL n' CERF USA
dialup --------> contact for number
area codes ----> 800
local access --> anywhere (800) service is available
fees ----------> $10/hour ($8/hour on weekend) + $20/month
voice ---------> 800-876-2373 or 619-455-3900


name ----------> Express Access - Online Communications Service
dialup --------> 301-220-0462, 410-766-1855 'new'
area codes ----> 202, 301, 410, 703
local access --> Northern VA, Baltimore MD, Washington DC
fees ----------> $25/month or $250/year
voice ---------> 301-220-2020


name ----------> Halcyon
dialup --------> [phone] 'bbs', 8N1
area codes ----> 206
local access --> Seattle, WA
fees ----------> $15/month or $150/year + $10 startup
voice ---------> 206-426-9298

<< holonet >>
name ----------> HoloNet
dialup --------> [phone]
area codes ----> 510, PDN
local access --> Berkeley, CA
fees ----------> $2/hour off-peak, $4/hour peak; $6/month or $60/year minimum
voice ---------> 510-704-0160

name ----------> UK PC User Group
dialup --------> [phone]
area codes ----> +44 (0)81
local access --> London, England
fees ----------> GBPounds 15.50/month or 160/year + 10 startup (no time
                 charges)
voice ---------> [phone]


name ----------> The IDS World Network
dialup --------> [phone], [phone]
area codes ----> 401
local access --> East Greenwich, RI; northern RI
fees ----------> $10/month or $50/half year or $100/year
voice ---------> 401-884-7856


name ----------> The John von Neumann Computer Network - Dialin' Tiger
dialup --------> contact for number
area codes ----> 201, 203, 215, 401, 516, 609, 908
local access --> Princeton & Newark, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Garden City, NY;
                 Bridgeport, New Haven, & Storrs, CT; Providence, RI
fees ----------> $99/month + $99 startup (PC or Mac SLIP software
                 included. Shell is additional $21/month)
voice ---------> (800) 35-TIGER, [phone]


name ----------> The John von Neumann Computer Network - Tiger Mail &
                 Dialin' Terminal
dialup --------> contact for number
area codes ----> 800
local access --> anywhere (800) service is available
fees ----------> $19/month + $10/hour + $36
                 startup (PC or Mac SLIP software included)
voice ---------> (800) 35-TIGER, [phone]


name ----------> Merit Network, Inc. -- MichNet project
dialup --------> contact for number or telnet hermes.merit.edu or ftp
                 nic.merit.edu:/michnet/how.to.get.connected/*.nos
area codes ----> 313, 517, 616, 906, PDN
local access --> Michigan; Boston, MA; Wash. DC
fees ----------> $35/month + $40 signup
voice ---------> 313-764-9430

There's one more part to this list - in the next chapter.


                              --==--==--==--==--


 |||
 |||  Shutdown ............................ Power off, EXIT, BYE, Logoff
/ | \ ------------------------------------------------------------------
      ------------------------------------------------------------------

Mid Cities Computer - located at 9406 Flower Street, Bellflower,
California - are having an Open House Jan 30th. Representatives from
Barefoot Software (formerly Hybrid Arts), Cubase, CodeHead Technologies,
Education Software, and Lexicor Software will be attending. But even
better, some of these great developers will be bringing their Falcon030's
along! So, if you are in the Southern California area this weekend, you
might want to stop by and take a look.

Vox Populi Vox Dei! Atari Explorer Online is expanding! We are in the
process of forming a sister online magazine: Atari Explorer Online -
Programmer's Journal. This will be a monthly publication dealing solely
with programming problems, and will include lots of source code, and even
a program or two along the way. Albert Dayes (CompuServe: 70007,3615
GEnie: AEO.1) will be your host for AEO-PJ; look for more information
about this new venture in the coming week.

As always, we encourage submissions for AEO and AEO-PJ. Use any of our
online addresses to contact us. Or drop us a note in our topic area on
GEnie: Category 15, Topic 20.

It looks like an exciting month is breaking... in many ways. Take care.

Until the next issue of AEO, I remain,
Your Editor
Travis Guy


                              --==--==--==--==--

                  (This issue printed on recycled photons)

                              --==--==--==--==--

Atari Explorer Online Magazine is a bi-weekly publication covering the
Atari computer community. Material published in this issue may be
reprinted under the following terms only: articles must remain unedited
and include the issue number and author at the top of each article
reprinted. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted at the
beginning of the article, to registered Atari user groups and not for
profit publications. Opinions presented herein are those of the individual
authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of Atari
Corporation.

                              --==--==--==--==--

Atari is a registered trademark of Atari Corporation. ST, Mega ST, STE,
Mega STE, TT030, Atari Falcon030, TOS, MultiTOS, NewDesk, BLiTTER, Atari
Lynx, Atari Portfolio, and the Atari Fuji are all trademarks of Atari
Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned in this issue belong to their
respective owners.

                              --==--==--==--==--

                      Atari Explorer Online Magazine
                   "The Official Atari Online Journal"
               Copyright © 1993, Atari Computer Corporation

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