Computer Club Elmshorn Atari PD/CCE_PD.iso/pc/0600/CCE_0683.ZIP/CCE_0683/MIKENET.13D/UPDATES.DOC

Text File | 1992-10-14 | 14KB | 294 lines

                                                Mike De Petris
                                                via dei Giuliani, 34
                                                34137 - TRIESTE - ITALY
                                                phone:[phone]
                                                fax:  [phone]
                                                BBS  :([phone] V.32b V.42b
                                                Atarian ST - TS!
                                                2:333/[e-mail]
                                                90:701/[e-mail]

Trieste 11 Ottobre 1992
1.3d
MKNT.PRG
Bugfix about allocating or reallocating the Cookie-Jar, it was setting it at
an odd address.
Redesigned the resource in MKNT.ACP.
Re-enabled the "send a message option" with some news: if a message is received
then a bell is ringed until you read it. The bell works only when MKNT.APP is
running as a PRG or ACC. You can also send and receive a message (stopping the
bell) with MKNT.TTP, using the following NEW OPTIONS :
-m1X    define the first  message line to be the string X (max 30 characters)
-m2X    define the second message line to be the string X (max 30 characters)
-mr     print the last message received and stop the bell
-ms     send the last message defined with -m1 and -m2

Trieste 25 Settembre 1992
1.3c
MKNT.ACP
Bugfix about displaying the text cursor in editable field, added smiley mouse
form, other esthetics. Corrected "forced media changes" with doubleclicks.

DOCUMENTATION REWRITTEN
Now this is UPDATES.DOC, while manual is in MIKENET.DOC

Trieste 09 Settembre 1992
1.3b
I tested 1.3a on Falcons at Atari Messe and all was OK. I just fixed a
small bug in window redraw, the number of version displayed, the look of
the resources in the window, eliminated the debug mode and tested with
multiTOS allocating in global memory.

Trieste 18 Agosto 1992
1.3a
I am working at parallel port for very fast file transfers, but before to
do this I had to clean up something, the result is a big change in the
installation, altought I made an effort to mantain compatibility with the
the "old way".

- MKNT.PRG is the TSR you have to run to install the network. You can do
           it from the desktop (not under MiNt) or putting it as your last
           program in AUTO folder. Actually it has not to be the last, but
           has to if you want to redirect drive vectors used by other AUTO
           programs, like ramdisks.
- MKNT.ACP is the "old dialog" of the old version, but it runs in a
           WINDOW. It can be run as a program or as a desk accessory,
           simply renaming it to .PRG or .ACC. "Send message" option is
           not yet available as I wanted to have this ready for the Atari
           Messe in Dusseldorf. All functions work like before except for
           few changes, even .INF files are compatible.
           - drives redirections and status are changed "on the fly" and
           mediachanges are forced on a drive only when DOUBLECLICKING on
           that drive's letter (you'll see the drive's led flashing).
           - mediachanges SHOULD preserve the drive's current path. (try
           and report please).
- MKNT.TTP is completely NEW ! With it you can change configuration from
           batch. Actually the following options are available, and each
           option is executed in sequence, so that you can display the
           configuration with -? several times during execution, like this
           :"-? -ong -xgc -? -rg -? -offg -onp -?", note that case in NOT
           significant.
           OPTIONS:
           -?    displays current configuration: list of drive letters
           with their redirections, 0 if OFF and 1 if ON, L if local and R
           if remote.
           -onX  switches the logical drive "X" ON, mediach forced
           -offX switches the logical drive "X" OFF
           -xXY  redirects drive "X" to drive "Y", mediach forced
           -rX   puts drive "X" to REMOTE status
           -lX   puts drive "Y" to LOCAL status
           -sNO  sets network status to INACTIVE
           -sRO  sets network status to READ ONLY
           -sRW  sets network status to READ WRITE

The .RSC file does not exist any more.
The TSR (MKNT.PRG) now uses XBRA protocol with "MkNt" id. This should avoid
any problem on resolution changes on MSTEs and TTs (and FALCONs I hope).
"MkNt" is also installed as a reserved cookie for the ACP and TTP
configuration programs.

Trieste 11 Giugno 1992
1.2c

Argh, due to errors in Atari documentation and other things mediachange had
some problems to fix. The new problems arised with MiNT and other stuff are
now taken in consideration.

- drive bits over P are not zeroed, so that you can use U: with MiNT
- mediachange should now work better, thought you should take care when
  redirecting floppy drives A and B... use ESC key ! Floppy handling will be
  enhanced in next version.
- remember tu set your HD driver to at least 1024 byte for sector on EACH ST if
  you want to access BGM partitions. It is easy with ICD utilities, AHDI is
  under test. I am to buy a 240mega HD to fully test BGM with different drivers,
  be patient. I set my STs with 1000 extra folder, and somethimes it is not
  enough, experiment yourself, when you see empty directory or missing files
  you should try to increase that number.

Thanks for all reports on MikeNet. I took them all in consideration. Now TSR
version is in working. PARALLEL transfer is also under work !  Also new stuff
to be MiNT-aware and a small locking capability is planned shortly. In fact
I already have a lot of new things under test.

Trieste 13 Maggio 1992
1.2beta

ATTENTION DANGER BE CAREFUL
This is only a beta test release that has to be tested. Most of you ask for
BGM partitions support, now I DID IT ! It has been a very hard job, as I
made MIDI messages a carrier for disk sectors of VARIABLE length. I tested
it on my system, but as I only have one BGM 44 mega partition on a cartridge
I cannot say it works on all systems, let me know if you have any problem.
The code is not fully optimized, as I want to see if any bug arises first,
then I will start looking where I loose clock cycles.

- BGM (>16 megabytes) partitions support, remember your HD driver must be set
  to manage maximum sector length you are going to read. With ICD soft you
  can set a fixed maximum length, other drivers will assume the length of
  largest sector size found at boot. MikeNet provides buffers to work with
  sectors up to 8k long.
- The program can now be run as ACC or PRG, if you want to access something
  on the other ST, and you forgot to install the .ACC at boot, you can now
  run it as a .PRG, do your job and when you exit MikeNet will remove all
  the stuff leaving no resident parts. Note that you can use an alternative
  file selector calling it from the load and save buttons to do your job
  on files, and that redirection is done only if you load an .INF file, so
  you will need to change the edit-fields, save and then load an .INF to have
  redirection working, when running as an .ACC redirections are read when you
  exit the dialog instead, but you can use the same method "on the fly".

TIPS: MikeNet work at sector level, so you should be able to use any soft
that access drives by BIOS and XBIOS calls, I tested programs like Cleanup
from ICD with no problems, and this is good, tought you are advised not to
use the network to write on remote drives, remember that in this way you
are making changes on the disk without updating cached informations in the
remote computer, so do it only if you are sure that the remote computer will
update is tables before to write anything on that disk. The file locking
support I want to add, will be an hard thing to do, that will slow down the
net too much assuming the Atari Network Standards, so I will have to think
more on this and find a faster way.
Fast serials on MegaSTE are not DMA driven, so that I will remain on MIDI,
as most of you have only "small" STs to put in the net, and MIDI being the
fastest serial port with interrupts. I will eventually work on the multi
node version, but it will take quite long to do.

Now I am changing the actual ACC in an AUTO TSR + CPX/ACC/PRG configuration
program, which will install XBRA and Cookie, so that I can write a much more
confortable user interface to change parameters. I am also to add new features
as seek rate setting, drive B switching and local drive protection, let me
know about what you want MikeNet to do !

Trieste 01 Maggio 1992
1.1d

- added windupdate at boottime
- starting search path for .INF's now is C:\*.IN? so that you can easily
  find your configuration file even if any utility renames it as .INX

Trieste 01 Aprile 1992

This is 1.1 release of MikeNet just to fix few problems before of next version.

This release has :

- mediachange forced on all drives at exit from dialogs, and checked on
  any r/w operation.
- mouse does not diappear in LED when calling file selector (save or load)
- few other things optimized.

Let me know if any bug comes out. Next version will add:

- BGM partitions (>16 mega) support.
- Easier configuration and selections.

Next things planned in near future:

- File locking.
- Multi node version.
- IBM-PC version on serial and/or parallel.

Of course precedence will be to what YOU ask for.

Here is old demo-version doc:

Trieste 17 Dicembre 1991

This is the FREE distributable copy of MikeNET. Load and save of INF file
are disabled. Ask me for a complete version, you will have to send a small
fee. You can send any amount you think it is the value of this soft, send
at least 25$ if you want this program to be continued.

READ AT THE END OF TEXT FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS

What it does :

MikeNet allows drives sharing between two Ataris. For best flexibility
it is able to do a complete redirection of logic drives.
It is also possible to send a message to the remote ST.

Installing :


Install the accessory on two ST(e)s, and connect corresponding MIDI ports
with two cables. (OUT to IN and IN to OUT).


Using :

Call the accessory, MikeNet dialog will be shown. The first row of (radio)
buttons lets you determine Network status on used machine (the two computers
can have different status), that can be Read-Only, Read-Write or Inactive.
The two following rows, with drives letters are the kernel of selections:
the first row reflects local logic drives status, that can be cycling
selected clicking on the letter itself :

INACTIVE - thiny written excludes logic drives from current drives map.
NORMAL   - normal written, drive is active, local and eventually redirected
           to remote ST drive specified by the letter below.
SELECTED - inverse written, drive is active and remote, reads remote ST
           drive identified by the letter below.

The second row (of these two) obviously concerns drive assignements, each
letter is simply editable (only uppercase), and assigns corresponding
drive to the letter above, local or remote.

It is possible to select RESET to clear MikeNet to the boot status, or
REORDER just to have alphabeticallly increasing assignment letters.
With SEND MESSAGE, you can send to the remote the two editable text fields,
on remote an alert will appear that - WARNING - stops the system giving
the message waiting for a RETURN. Load and save (only on complete version)
lets you work with configuration files on disk.(be careful about redirections)

Configuration file MIKENET.INF if found in root directory of boot disk
is loaded at accessory installation.

You can exit dialog by clicking on OK.

Caveats :

NEVER try to access to a remote drive that is remote iself, this selection,
surely a setting error, will crash the system.

Be careful using disk accelerators and cache, remember that two machines
access SIMULTANEOUSLY the same drives, so avoid to access from both the
same file.

Hints :

I find redirection a must when it is necessary to manage with many
partitions or even more than one hard disk drive. Programs are configured
to work on one drive (some only on drive A), and when you change this you
do not need to change all the configuration, but it is enough to redirect
it to the right one. I can use my BBS on a Megafile 60, with any ST, with
other HD drives, using redirection.
If you use  a remote computer, even without hard disk, it can access all
remote drives, so that it can use one big archive of data, with the benefit
of clarity.
For example you can access message areas while your BBS is running, or
work on a data base, or texts, from remote.
MIDI speed is low, but lets you run without much troubles even quite big
programs, obviously best results come with applications that do not make
continuos disk access.
One useful thing is the RESET option, you can initialize drives using it
so you can switch on or off your floppy and hard drives (even some other
devices on DMA, I tested SuperCharger) and make your ST work correctly.

Future enhancements :

- File locking
- Serial use instead of MIDI
- Parallel use instead of MIDI
- New MegaSTE and TT ports use
- MS-DOS version
- MAC version
- Versions for other systems
- Extension to multiple nodes
- Other peripheral's sharing

Surely the use of serial or parallel port would let the use of a PC MS-DOS
coupled with an ST, the program is under development. New serial ports will
go at much more speed than MIDI, with MS-DOS and MAC compatibility.

Best regards,
Mike De.Petris (Atarian ST - TS, FidoNet 2:333/608 - NeST 90:701/201)