Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!UOFMCC.BITNET!Postman From: Postman@UOFMCC.BITNET Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Undelivered mail Message-ID: <8711160057.AA05601@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: Sun, 15-Nov-87 19:36:00 EST Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8711160057.AA05601 Posted: Sun Nov 15 19:36:00 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 17-Nov-87 00:47:51 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 408 Your mail was not delivered to some or all of its intended recipients for the following reason(s): 5001 mailbox invalid -> CHARLTO@UOFMCC.BITNET ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 15 Nov 87 18:36 CST To: CHARLTO@UOFMCC.BITNET From: Info-Atari16 Digest Subject: Info-Atari16 Digest V87 #416 Received: by CANADA01 (Mailer X1.24) id 4929; Sun, 15 Nov 87 19:03:26 EDT Date: Sat 14 Nov 87 09:14:40 PST Reply-To: Info-Atari16@Score.Stanford.edu Sender: INFO-ATARI16 Discussion From: Info-Atari16 Digest Subject: Info-Atari16 Digest V87 #416 To: Name Unknown , Jim Charlton , MIKE CHARLTON , Werner Ens , Name Unknown Info-Atari16 Digest Saturday, November 14, 1987 Volume 87 : Issue 416 This weeks Editor: Bill Westfield Today's Topics: IKBD commands/reads Re: RF Modulator for the 1040? uw & different fonts for microemacs ROM availablity Re: What's the deal with the repair kits, Neil? Re: Atari/Perihelion Transputer Machine Spec file i/o functions Re: Worst product name award Re: Hard drive problems Re: Lies (was: Re: Atari/Perihelion Transputer Machine Spec) Re: PC-ditto ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: JEMCCABE%MTUS5.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu Date: 13 November 87 14:19-EST To: INFO-ATARI16@score.stanford.edu Subject: IKBD commands/reads Is there an easy way to get the clock time from the keyboard? It would be nice to use a clock with one second resolution instead of GEMDOS's 2 second clock. I would also like to be able to set this clock. I know that there is an XBIOS call to send bytes to the keyboard, but how do we receive them? (I have no idea where the keyboard packets are sent or what format they have or ... you get the picture. :) Just in case anyone cares, I'm using Personal Pascal. Jim McCabe jemccabe @ mtus5.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 87 23:01:06 GMT From: web8b.berkeley.edu!c60a-2ae@jade.Berkeley.EDU (John Kawakami -O~O-,510d or 260E,6431816,6667734) Subject: Re: RF Modulator for the 1040? To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu Brantly.henr@XEROX.COM asks ]At one time (quite a while ago) there was quite a bit of discussion ]about "Someday SOMEBODY is going to come up with the means to drive a TV ]from a 1040ST". And so do I! I know this can be done; there was a description and a sample of a circuit that would do this in Bruce "sublogic" Artwick's book on computer graphics. I believe it was titled _Microcomputer_Graphics_and_Animation_. I also keep hearing about some company called JNL Technologies that apparantly made one of these dodads. This device would be a boon to all the ST owners without RF output (520ST[f]s have RF output as you all know) who want to videotape some screens. John "why buy a color screen when I know I'll use it only to play some games" Kawakami +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | JoHn KaWaKaMi alias spectacle -O~O- alias c60a-2ae@widow.berkley.edu | + + | OH NO! CLONES -0~0- | \ -o~o- / -- | + -@~@- O 0 O -()-()- ~from + | ]OO[ > 0 O Star Trek | + O \ / The Drek + | -P=P- | ~+~ Generation | ------------------------------ Date: 14 Nov 87 01:08:58 GMT From: moe@athena.mit.edu (Moezeddin K. Karimeddiny) Subject: uw & different fonts for microemacs To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu I have 2 questions for neters concerning uw and emacs: 1. What exactly is uw ? Is it a window manager ? Is it compatible with X window system version 11 ? If it is, can it run over dial-up phone line or does it need to have a high speed network to work ? 2. Is it possible to load a 6x10 font to be used with mg(micrognuemacs) or me(microemacs) (I have a ME version 3.9 that has 40 lines display on monochrome with font width of 8 pixels, and also a MG version 1a that can display 50 lines if I run "hi50.tos" first but the width of the character is 8 pixels so it is kinda hard to read). Better yet can proprotional fonts be used instead of monospaced fonts. I realised that it is hard to used get a font with width of 6 to work with TOS (since 640 divided in to 6 is 106. something) but is it impossible? Thanks in advance for any helpful information, Hai PS: I guess that was more than 2 questions... ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 87 02:03:07 GMT From: imagen!atari!portal!cup.portal.com!Mark_H_Brandwein@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU Subject: ROM availablity To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu I recently picked up an ANCIENT 520St with the old TOS-on-disk operating system. I have looked in every mag I can find, but have not found anyone who carries the TOS rom chips. Any help on this would be immensly aappreciated. M. H. Brandwein ------------------------------ Date: 12 Nov 87 05:49:44 GMT From: ihnp4!homxb!mtuxo!mtgzz!drutx!druhi!med@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (DrapalME) Subject: Re: What's the deal with the repair kits, Neil? To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu In article <881@atari.UUCP>, neil@atari.UUCP (Neil Harris) writes: > > In any case, I think that the decision on whether or not to buy this repair > > kit should be the dealers choice, not a prerequisite of becoming an > > "authorized service center". > > I totally disagree. > > One current problem is the slow turnaround from repair centers lacking in > spare parts. > > Having the dealer carry a substantial inventory of these is a good way to > ensure that our consumers get prompt service. And I guess that is the real problem here... I talked with one of the local dealers, and they plan to fix MEGAS just like they fix 520/1040's ===> "Oh, so your ST is sick? Bring it in and we'll charge you X dollars, and you can take it with you... Never mind that the serial number is different." That's right... most dealers here fix STs by simply replacing them with a new one - very "prompt service", and they don't need (or intend) to use your $4000 worth of parts! And besides, who do you think really pays for those part anyway ;-(. I think that this whole thing boils down to Atari wanting the "image" (or should that be "look and feel" ;-)) of an IBM dealer - high prices, fast service, and very few customers who can afford all of that glitter. Myron Drapal AT&T Denver, Co. ..!ihnp4!druhi!med ------------------------------ Date: 12 Nov 87 15:43:58 GMT From: umn-d-ub!umn-cs!ems!nis!stag!trb@speedy.wisc.edu ( Todd Burkey ) Subject: Re: Atari/Perihelion Transputer Machine Spec To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu If I hadn't seen the exact same CD-ROM being displayed in several non-Atari booths (i.e. for the IBM PC) I would be skeptical about whether it would ever make it out either. My only concern is that it sells for $999 on the PC. It really was the same unit, too. Only the case color was different. As for the Transputer, I was really impressed with the progress they (Perihelion) had made. We have some Transputer's at work (boards for the AT) that are pretty loosely integrated (kind of like an exerciser kit), and the ABAQ definitely had progressed far beyond that. I ALMOST ordered the $100 set of preliminary manuals to become a developer (I can think of lots of CAD tools that would be nice to port...Place and Route Previewers, GDSII compatible layout editors, etc...but I couldn't get any good feel for what the final costs would be to get a full set of developer hardware.) If any of people actually do order the kit, let us on the net know how it looks. -Todd Burkey trb@stag.UUCP <--faster path or tburkey@eta.swde.com <--shaky sun<->apollo (I want Aegis 10!) P.S. I just got through porting HDSCAN to my Symmetrics, the Apollo, and the Sun. It runs very nicely on any standard 4.2 system (kind of slow on the Apollo...usable on a 3000). After I clean up a few things and add some more sort options (gid/uid/other times?) I will have to decide if I am going to make it public domain at the source level or what...BTW, it takes a lot longer to traverse trees using Unix opendir/readdir/stat calls than it does on the ST ( 3 secs/30 megs on the ST vs 40 secs/24 megs on the SUN 3/60 with Eagle drives...>2 minutes for the same on the Apollo). ------------------------------ Date: 12 Nov 87 17:29:35 GMT From: umn-d-ub!umn-cs!ems!nis!stag!daemon@speedy.wisc.edu (Dale Schumacher) Subject: file i/o functions To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu Hopefully the following will help clear up the confusion about file i/o functions... Fread() is one of the macros which calls Gemdos through trap #1. This is an exerpt from the file containing there macros: #define Fcreate(fn,mode) gemdos(0x3C,fn,mode) #define Fopen(fn,mode) gemdos(0x3D,fn,mode) #define Fclose(h) gemdos(0x3E,h) #define Fread(h,cnt,buf) gemdos(0x3F,h,cnt,buf) #define Fwrite(h,cnt,buf) gemdos(0x40,h,cnt,buf) #define Fdelete(fn) gemdos(0x41,fn) #define Fseek(where,h,how) gemdos(0x42,where,h,how) These functions work much like the standard low-level i/o calls. They use a small integer (returned by Fcreate/Fopen) called a file handle to refer to the file (the 'h' parameter in other calls). As was mentioned, the parameter order is different from the standard low-level i/o calls, and the 'cnt' parameters are long values rather than the int than is normally used. The following are macros which define some of the low-level i/o calls in terms of their Gemdos equivalents. #define open(filename,iomode) ((int)gemdos(0x3D,filename,iomode)) #define close(h) ((int)gemdos(0x3E,h)) #define read(h,data,len) ((int)gemdos(0x3F,h,((long)(len)),data)) #define write(h,data,len) ((int)gemdos(0x40,h,((long)(len)),data)) #define lread(h,data,len) (gemdos(0x3F,h,len,data)) #define lwrite(h,data,len) (gemdos(0x40,h,len,data)) #define unlink(filename) ((int)gemdos(0x41,filename)) #define lseek(h,where,how) gemdos(0x42,where,h,how) #define tell(h) gemdos(0x42,0L,h,1) The creat() call is notably missing from the above due to a bug in the underlying gemdos 0x3C function which sometimes creates a new file with the same name as an existing file instead of overwriting the old file. Thus creat() is implemented as a function something like this: int creat(filename, pmode) register char *filename; register int pmode; { register int rv; rv = Fdelete(filename); if((rv == 0) || (rv == -33)) /* SUCCESS or FILE-NOT-FOUND */ rv = Fcreate(filename, pmode); return(rv); } Now we come to the fread()/fwrite() functions. These are standard i/o functions which deal with STREAMS rather than simply with FILE HANDLES. Unlike the above, these functions provided buffering and translation of newlines, if desired. They are used with fopen()/fclose() functions. The fopen() function returns a pointer to a FILE structure, which contains information about the stream that was opened. The fopen() function also handles the open()/creat() distinction, creat()ing a file if is doesn't already exists, etc. As was said before, this kind of processing does make the i/o a little slower, but also easier to use. The fputc()/fgetc() functions are normally used with streams (getchar()/putchar() are written in terms of fputc()/fgetc()) to do i/o a character at a time, while internally buffering the calls to prevent a system call for every character processed (which would be slow). The fread()/fwrite() functions do block i/o on streams, and are buffered just like single characters. In summary, you should avoid using Gemdos calls directly, since it is not portable and it doesn't gain you any speed. Use the low-level i/o if you're really concerned about speed and use the stream i/o functions if you're doing mostly character or string i/o and/or want the buffering done efficiently for you. The preceeding examples were taken from the dLibs public domain standard library for Alcyon C. This implmentation is far freer of bugs and much more efficient in general than the Alcyon/DRI libraries. dLibs also contains many Un*x standard functions which were not included in Alcyon/DRI. You can get a copy of dLibs with complete source code and documentation by sending $3 to: Dale Schumacher 399 Beacon Ave. St. Paul MN 55104 Of course, I won't refuse donations of >$3, but I need to at least break even with buying the disks and mailers and sending them. Dale Schumacher ..ihnp4!meccts!stag!syntel!dal (alias: Dalnefre') ------------------------------ Date: 14 Nov 87 00:12:41 GMT From: imagen!atari!portal!cup.portal.com!ANKH@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU Subject: Re: Worst product name award To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu Moses *did* reach the Promised Land, but he was not allowed to enter it because he disobeyed God in the wilderness. He died on a mountain just outside the land. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 87 23:58:41 GMT From: imagen!atari!portal!cup.portal.com!ANKH@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU Subject: Re: Hard drive problems To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu I logged onto the ICD support bbs and saw their listing of products. The ADAPTEC controller that they are using is 4070A (note the 'A') This may seem that is same as 4070, but it's quite possible that it is quite a different thing than you need. Call their bbs and leave mail or whatever to see if you can get help. The # is 1-815-968-2229. Good Luck ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 87 22:49:07 GMT From: imagen!atari!neil@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Neil Harris) Subject: Re: Lies (was: Re: Atari/Perihelion Transputer Machine Spec) To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu > >A single transputer can deliver over ten times the power of > >an IBM PC AT. However, there's even greater strength in numbers. You can > >connect two, 10, 100 or even MORE transputers to create a relatively > >low-cost computer workstation with the power of a supercomputer. > > False. The "standard" number of Transputers on the ABAQ system is 1 (ONE). > The maximum is 13. Internally. The ABAQ includes 3 "links", which are 10-megabit-per-second serial interfaces for talking to off-board transputers. Jack Lang, in his talk at the Atari press conference at Comdex, supposed a setup where workers each had their own transputer system on their desks, with all of them linked together and linked to a separate box containing many transputers. As an application's need for processing power increased, it could pull more transputers in. An intriguing concept -- throw the computer into high gear. -- --->Neil Harris, Director of Marketing Communications, Atari Corporation UUCP: ...{hoptoad, lll-lcc, pyramid, imagen, sun}!atari!neil GEnie: NHARRIS/ WELL: neil / BIX: neilharris / Delphi: NEILHARRIS CIS: 70007,1135 / Atari BBS 408-745-5308 / Usually the OFFICIAL Atari opinion ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 87 22:26:07 GMT From: phri!dasys1!schuster@NYU.EDU (Michael Schuster) Subject: Re: PC-ditto To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu In article <24821L9D@PSUVMA> L9D@PSUVMA.BITNET writes: >Does anyone know how to get PC-ditto to work with a monochrome monitor? I've >read that a lot of other people are having problems with using monochrome, >and I am wondering if a fix has been made yet? The current version works only with a color monitor as the packaging states. There is a zap to 'turn on' the screen in a monochrome system but it is NOT a fix and the resulting screen is barely readable. Version 3.0 is at the duplicating house. It features mono support, Microsoft mouse emulation, TOS time/date transfer, bug fixes, etc. To get it -- SEND IN YOUR REGISTRATION CARD. -- l\ /l' _ Mike Schuster {sun!hoptoad,cmcl2!phri}!dasys1!schuster l \/ lll/(_ Big Electric Cat schuster@dasys1.UUCP l lll\(_ New York, NY USA DELPHI,GEnie:MSCHUSTER CIS:70346,1745 ------------------------------ End of Info-Atari16 Digest ************************** -------