February 1987
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fHl:. .. r-:rs
pa1!.t. l•i 15.tory, .Llnrt L";prina c"" t be t.~r ,ttw~y: \-4hPrr• ar-~ all t~ .J.;;:i11u~, l' thp ('lf'O'lram~ yoo have lJOC!n wrlt1nq tor thP 0.0.M. ·.-~ fhe art1clP. on I\VATEX l~"'J I lPS was EHROR'' an mf'dl? 1 mont-h Last I l plll "by Joe Oru,t n .. under tJv Sl EVEN lt.J(;ALSl:IE , pre•1 dt?nt of 1 A [R writ len SORRY STEVt:. 1 ' l t. ,Joe did not l1inq bnt-. ~ivf' mP the ~rt1clp. Wha.t 1 We wil l be l o 1)king •·or a rit~w ME.t•JSLElTEf< Editor • or Co- (:.ditof"~. It I 11 ei~ one per5on from the 8-Bit, and onP. from the MASf Sr SIG. "'ouJd t.Je w1 11 d1 scus!J th 1 s at bott1 meet 1 nq•. 1 ~ not t::hi\l h;lrd of i\ job. Gordy Landsman wi 11 give a gener ic t..alt on spread ~he1?t11, month Th1c;. thPm 1
&\bm..1t
1
have ,l. OME: YEAr< ~trthdav pBrty ~t thalr Febrt.iary mePtlno. 11{.\ST will Ro~d more About th~t in Jim Schwlz "s column.
I t went ht\d i ts f i r s t Progr~mmer~· Group meietino on J,.,,u.1~.ry 2l,. ln fact, 1 CJOt sic 1 nter~sted that t am with 1B members present. ls anyone e l "-.e on mv B-tcil AtAr1. "C"') (ACE "C" to u~• start i ng now "C'" .for the B-Bit7 The ntrnt MAST Proar•mmPr~ me.-.t1ng .,nl l 1n lntprt35ted Le"1nqton and ~An~. Sav1naq Htnne~ota Fir~t at PH 7l31) 21, Feb be
v~ry
MAST wPl l
l ..~rnenteur. up~talra ~r,d enter from the back. a new policy for the ~BS. WhlCh TA1G h~~
~jff
will
discus, at th~
l=Phruarv ,n~P't 1 nq.
See you at the me•t1nos THE PRES. DOM stufi by Fran~ Haug
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a l oot.
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f;PACE Febru~ry, SPACE February,
1987 - page£
JANUARY MEETING MINUTES by Larry Vanden Plas President Bruce Haug The last SPACE meeting was held January 9, 1987. Vice pr-esident Jim Schulz reported on initial order. called the meeting to news from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES): They look be of·fering the Mega ST's in 1, 2 and 4 Meg. will Atari They will also offer a laser printer like an IBM with a detached keyboard. Atari will for cf1500, a PC clone for $499 and clone with monitor for $699. new video game machine and i t will be available with keyboard and have a 300/1200 new the said and column 80 the about talked Atari disk drive. Atari said they have conquered overseas modem will be available in March. Atari stocl:t is up 36 points markets and paid off Warner Communications. Jim will have all the information on CES since it was ofered in November. Analog magazine will have a 13th issue ~,hich is all 8 bit. ti,.,o weeks. in The 3 and 1/2 inch disk drive for the 8 bit is co1nplete, but release date Bob Siede reported that SPACE had a combined Treasurer unknown.. is Bruce reported that Joe Danko, the secretary of $1424.86. bank statement Frank Haug, Disk libr-arian reported that last was gone on a business trip. sector and he would e:•:change them for good ones. bad a month's DOM had Bruce encouraged member-s to use the BBS - the best Atari board he has been on. Offers and Deals - Ward's bargain table had a centronics interface for. Bruce tractor ffJr :1:10. and an Epson Home~witer :t-15 tor Reed Silver 2600 sheets of computer paper for under $1:, and 5000 labels forreported A motion ~,as made and seconded b._) the Wholesale 'Club. $9 at under reinburse Bruce tor DOM labels. The meeting ended with an excellent presentation on databases by Gordy and a demo of Tada ~urkey·s low cost and fast Work W1zzard's Lansman of Synfile+ is the premier data base for the 8 bit. data base by Bruce.
V.P. Notes By Jim Sctn.d:::
Last monlh. ~.t11~-" all SF't-"-ILE meml1ers. to New l'ear A belated Happy a l i t t l e rest for lack of space, but 1t 1s ~ack ir1 full steajn column took thi$ month. Ctu·~stmas was a good season +or ;,:E..1XL =oft~Jat-e a~· ~-,Pl l From repCJrt1:::, as add-on dis~ dr1v~s.
page 3
CES is the semi-annual the second wef?kend of January. h1-?ld t,,Jh~c\t is 5ho~,n there is ~,hat you will ~ee for Shoi,.,. ElPct.ronics tt,e first t1alf of 1987. rt,t~ year's big push was a new line of STs, a PC-clone and a laser XL/XE equ(pment and software was also st1own. printer. This XE/ST modem First. the 1200 baud modem. so what did Atari shol•1? Haves-compatible and should be showing up soon. is $99, for sell will Atewi hMs alr··eady started taking orders from its dealers. CES
touch tablel koala/fYTArn for tool editing r-m The Bear Essentials pictures. Rainbow colors, scrolling text, insertable in BASIC ur FORTH. DOS 2.5 -· Ramdisk setup DOS doc's and other utility pr·ograms. Cut editing tool for Koala/ATARI Touch tablet pictures. Another G-Wiz and paste sections of pictures, add text with want you v,hatever or canning,disks for labels Make Maker Label customizing of printers available. Nicelist - List programs (even control and inverse characters> to a variety of printers in a variety of formats. Print Shop Graphics vol. 1 - shapes for use with Print Shop. Print Shop Graphics vol. 2 - shapes for use with Print Shop. Print Shop Graphics vol. 3 - shapes for use with Print Shop. SAH Tutorial - t◄ iulur ic\l 011 SAM Lht: Surlir,c:\r-t:: A1d.11,..,,tud t-::::.Llth Movie-Maker Movies for your veiwing pleasure S.P.A.C.E. Movies 1-1 & 1-2 Koala/ATARI touch tablet pictures vol.I S.P.A.C.E. Pictures 1-1 & 1-2 S.P.A.C.E. Pictures 2-1 & 2-2 - Koala/ATARI touch tablet pictures vol.2 Terminal Software - ATARI modem software 1030 e:•:press and others. TEXTPRO 1.2 - Incredibly professional word processor. of Fortune - Straight out of TV land the popular word game complete Wheel with a 1'Vana'' of sorts.
1987 -
w,:1.s
Consi.tme.•r
Atari announced a new cassette recorder, Now to a not-so-hot seller: No one This is stupid. those who can't afford a disk drive. far 11 XC tt,ese 'd~ys will buy a cassette recorder; no cassette software is availab~e B-b1t the ~,as announced formally Al5o Mo r·elease date set. to run on it. !-="::.:--,:-.1:!.·;', ''r'::-~i ,-,~nc"::'1r.,... r:4 -, !"'I"" .. , J/:~ inch d1-ive: with no i-.:le~;;e :l<=.tec: ~=.t:. .. ._. This is a 65XE without a ~eyboarc. Qame machine/computer called the 65XE. Amazing! ~ith tt,e detachable ~eyboard added you have a 65XE computer. wa5 shown, with a release date of ''Real Close''. lhe BO column box believe it, a liqht gun and a modified 130XE for the~r can you if Also, As al1r,ays, Atari showed a lot, but would not commit LazerTaq. of ver·sion to when we would see it. had three vendors showinq XE/XL software at CES. Atari Software... Hi-Tech E,,:pression showed their new Awardware proqram for making awards, ICD tickets, coupons and checks - all for $14.95. ribbons, certificates, Zobian Controls line with no new additions. whole product showed their If XL/XE. the their GEM-like operating system and mouse for showed RAUS anyone gets "this, PLEASE bring it to the meeting for· a demo!!! Atari itself showed ~o new 8 bit software. it hard to believe: find but announced at CES, This was not T~e plan is being converted to run on all 8 bit Atari computers. Wizardry If this doesn't work, it will be a 64k game. into 48K. it is to fit is one of the firist o~~o games available for the Apple - or any 1.iJizardry At least someone This is significant for the 8 bit Ataris. computer. still believes that there is a market out there! new 30-second commercial at CES this year to battle a debuted Atari Two boys are is how the commercial goes ... Here the evil Commodore. As they work their computers, an Atari XE and a Commodore 64. sittinQ at the Atari boy, smiles smugly, and his head looks at the Commodore boy The Atari boy looks at him and under his beanie. right sta.rt5 expanding his head Finally, a voice says that the Atari XE has better e:,pands even larger. Then the voice concludes, "The sound than the Commodore 64. and graphics At~ri. blows the Commodore out of the water~" and the Commodore boy's beanie If That's it? Sounds quite interesting. files off and his head deflates. All I ~ee it, videotape it and maybe we can show it at the meeting. you c~n sav is, at least they are advertising ... It looks l,Jhat 's neW with Print Shop????? Nothing from Broderbund.... At Christma~ they sold a new holiday own. left us on our l~ke th~y I have, however, found two new the Atari. for but not graphics disk, These disks are not company cal 1 ed BC I Software. disks f ram a gr,:1.phi cs l~roderbund quality, but over 100 graphics on each_ disk for :f:9.95 isn't bad. have c,lso come a.cross a public: domain icon edit:or ~,hich ·allows some nice I manipulations of DOS formatted Print Shop icons. ·I will probably q1ve this I will soon have all If anyone is interested, to Fran~ fnt· a future rlisk. the Print Shop public domain disks in DOS format if you went to manipulate ~nrl pl~y witt, these (l am converting Print Shop icons for the ST end ~ nee~ in DOS format). It means 200 disk swaps for each disk, so if you .:;1,ll them arP interested ... This. an old iartridqe that I had be~n lookinq for. found fin~lly I firmly believe that this game would have qame 1s called Final Legacy. It was it would have been released at a better time. if classic a bReri the time of the Atari sale to Tram1el and fell into realm of at r1~leased This cartridqe qa.me is a sea battle, land-to-air battle, s □ ftwar·e. lost
sr·ALE Februar·y,
SPACE February, sea-to-land battle game all
in one.
1987 - page 4 When it was originally announced,
and The ob jei:t c>·f the g,:une is save ~ea "Star f;:aider" game. a cal lad was it your cities fr-om missile destruction, while destroying the enen1y· missile It doesn't sound like much, but it is quite a bit af fun and very bases. This game If you're interested, I'll bring i t to the 01eeting. done. well has sure q □ t my BOOXL warmed up. [Note: I can attest that Final Legacy is indeed a fine game. -ed.] ~Jould you believe that the best selling computer of all time is ATARl? The Atari 2600, with 1/8 I': of IBM, APPLE, and COMMODORE. than Sold more memory, has sold over 20 million units! last meeting, someone mentioned that they .,.,ere looking for an the At The Atari keypad is currently being liquidated at $7.95 each Atari keypad. Twill hrin~ ~ cnniP~ of ~~~ ~?n.00 by 8.G. Micro of Dallas, Te~~~~ ~r I don't think thal 1l the ad to the meeting for those who are interested. comes with software, but I am sure if someone buys this I can make copies I will bring my keypad along for those who haven't my keypad software. of seen one before. This month's 8bit Xtra looks at That's about it for news this month. hardware modification which shows haw to chanqe the monitor output another Next month, reset-proof ramdisks for e::tended 130XE. 1200XL to a a of memory machines. If SPACE always appreciates articles for the newsletter. As always, Send the article to you have a game or program that you like, review it. demo to want you if Also, Bob or to me, and it will be in the next issue. your program bring it to the SPACE meeting and tell Bruce or me and we will Frank is also "'elcame. are donations DOM of.f. it show you let gladly month finding good stuff for the disk of the time each harder having a Participate. SPACE needs your help. month. Between now and the meeting, I will try to That's i t for this month. I'll see you at find some more news and rumors for the world of the 8 bit. the February SPACE meeting.
8 Bit Xtra This month's 8 bit Xtra after a one month layoff comes from GENIE and is a hardware modification to a 1200XL to make its video output the same as If you complete this modification, bring it to the meeting and 130XE. a Ne:-:t month, a hardware modification for a reset-pr-oaf ramdisk shaw it off. Until then, read and enjoy. far e>:tended memory machine. Jim Schulz CLEARPIC By Bob Woolley were allcwed only one computer, I think that I would prefer a If me toward the 800XL or the 130XE: the draw Only two features 1200XL. Buss and the quality of the video on my 1702 Commodore. The 13(1XE Parallel like I'm using a tel~visian - through the look 1200XL screen the ma~es 1200XL has almost·~•·dozen transistors in i t s the Oddly enouqh, tuner! thQ XE only has 3 or 4. Yet, the 13(,XE has a much, while video circuits, same CE'tionai source . . . . dtd t.h~:transistors, tsame output. better· much Nice fotus., though. 1/Je can engineers get paid by the component?) Wc.~rner I.E <:ir·cu1try 1n the 120 1).Xl - wh1ct. 1-:r. e:~actiy 1•1hc•t I the duplicate just The rt?sult 1~:;; ,a p·1c1:.ur-n th:~t is Jus-t 1::1.S .0rticlr~. 1n t!us descr-ibe will the• one from a 13(,XE and costs almostnothintlfh1~.=; 1s df~~-iqne .I as clear like thrE 170:::..:. The,-e if=·nu pn:ivi~ian tor separate CHRIJl'"lf'~ svstem a for · output to a televie1on or a compo~ite monitor. of removing cert~111 ,:omporn,?f1t3 ,~nd 1;,~1.t\H2tconsist will Install al:ion lhe1n with a wire~ □ t nclt replac1nq part, another w1th them replacinq One component has to be adcJe(J at a point in thn all. them at replacinq 1
c i t"C:Ui b-y ~..iher-e no component. locations.
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paqe :.:i
Al 1 others ,:are maunt.ed in existing
REF'LACE WITH
F:EMUVE R21
22f,:
L15 C115 C60 R187 CR2()
82(•uh 10uf tUOpf lmeg 1N'l148
R22
4.3V
R24 R25 R28 C62 R180 R181 C118 R182 R183 R184 R185 C119 CR19 C116
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47 100 130 wire
130
10pf 180 3.3K 100pf
6.B~: wire
6.21< 2.21<
11< H 3.9pf 1N4148
wire 180 150ohm resistor
• (H)luf
between the collector of 011 and +5volts. You resistor right next to the pad to isolate the collector. wire from the junction of CR19 (now a 150ohm resistor) and a Solder to the unused pin on the monitor socket. This is the new (removed) RISO CHROMA source. Pull out Q7, QB, Q16, Q17, and Q18. your changes very carefully. Measure the resistance of all Check to make sure that you haven't got any power ground +5volts and between SLlpply faults. <It should read over l(H)ahms) Power up in self-test mode and correct the color by adjusting R48. You are now only missing the Parallel Bus ••• Add
a
47ohm
· wi 11 have to cut the foil
MAST MEETING MINUTES JANUARY 16, 1987 The January meeting o+ MAST was opened by SPACE President Bruce Hauq~. that the was announced It MAST co-chairman Bob Flo,yd was absent. meeting had to be postponed until the 26th of January group proarammers' on meet9 The programmers· group normally 19th was a holiday. becausl?. the the First Minnesota Bank Building at LeKington and the second floor of Larpenter at 7:30 pm. on the Monday following the general MAST meeting. discussion of the Consumer Electronics Show {CES> by Jim a Wi~S Ne:•!t Atari announced the Meqa ST. a re-packaged ST in an "IBM-like" bo:-: Schulz. will come with an internal clock and an It sep~rRte ~eyboard. ~ wttl, Up to 16 megabytes can e::pansion slot to which a card box can be attached. The one meqabvte version will sell for "t999 ='.nd a two-meq will ,;;\rjdr;!od. b~?. Atari also announced a PC clone that will come in two fl~vors, be ~tS•)r). An ST ~55 inch drive t4·Y(i at- :!:6'~9, depending an what hardware is inc 1 uded. included, alonq with mouse ports, serial/parallel and SCSI ports. be will 1·t,e PC clone will come with 512k of memory. expandable to 640k. al~o announced a new 20 meqabye hard dis)( drive that will daisy (ltari The laser printer will print 300 dots/inch chain with a.new laserpr-inter. It '1-Jas reported that a 2 meqabyte ST and a ·t1500. about cost r,.Ji 11 r3nd
SPACE Febr·Ltarv, SF'ACE February, 1987 - pag<? 6 prices were announced for
the
1040 ST system:
·t-899
for black and
Atari also shav,ed Meochrome ver·sic::m white and $1099 for the color system. Atari had ta say about the IllM adaptor bm: far the ST was that All 1. 0. ~they're wo~king on i t . ' ' The blitter chip is now finished and ready to yo into production and is ernpected to be available in May for about $120 .. This machine A new ST version the 520 STF is being sold in Canada. · has a built in single-sided drive and is similar in layout to the 1040 s·r. marketed in being also is drive A monitor with built-in double sided disc Jim discussed many new software packages announced at CES, Canada: including a new version of Printmaster by Unisam and praqrams by ABACUS B. I. 's F'aperclip Elite for the ST i~ Electronic Arts and Microprase. Jim neHt reoorted on the bPing del~yprl 11ntil thP release of GOOS by Atari. new OOMs.
SeE:!' l,1s c::u··ticlf:" for
a description.
the general question and discussion time there were several items. In It was stated by another 1040 ST had a squeaky disk drive. One member· s member that this could be due to the drive·s internal power supply (I have had squeaks on my single sided drive, but I haven't observed any related A Another member had problems savinq a figure in CAD-3D. malfunctions ). meinber reported seeing an ST emulator running on an AMIGA <sounds like a goad use far an AMIGA to me!). 11 ~as requested. 11 PLEASE return books borrowed from the paper library! A question about ST has is takinq orders for their 1200 baud modem. Atari in the mention of Fortran 77 compilers from Fortran compilers resulted F'raspero and Absaft. Dave Meile demoed 11 Dollars and Sense", a budgeting program. Finally, Tadd Burkey demonstrated the Magic Sac Macintosh emulator with a color After the general and· Steve Pauly· s program for generating mazes. monitor ne~1comers to the ST which Holman conducted a session for Ted meeting demo of the GEM desktop and answered questions about operation included a of the ST. MAST Next month's meeting will celebrate MAST's ONE YEAR anniversary. Volunteers will be brinqing chips (of provide _caffee,_pop and cake. will munchies So come along, bring some the potato variety>, dtps and whatever. and help celebrate! the first time on Monday, January for The MAST P~ogrammers' _Group met ~ There were big success with 17 people attending. meeting was• L~. a nice demo by Chuck Purcell on discussions and rumors by Jim Schulz, questions and answers, and some demos of GFA "C", programming GOOS in The next meetinq will be the Monday after the MAST meeting in the Basic. First Minnesota Bank Building at Lexington and Larpenter - on the second f loar.
!t,e
They went for ST o~mnrs on one BBS decided to try to kill MAST. Aftera number o·f e::changes with them, the disk of the month. Their discussion was about the di~~~ of the it wa~ fruitless. decided I am sick of defending our price each its quality and its price. month, For the amount of work that goes into each disk and the number of month. files on each disk, calling the price 'fair' is one understateme nt for the , You must realize that I usually float the club about t-500 a record book. in bills for disks and downloads, as well as spending roughly 40 month Well, I tell you now the club - for nothing!~! supporting ~,eek a hours I will gladly quit MAST today if the club so desires. told them, I what is· a voluntary position, not elected, and I will do what the members This want. th.:1t MART ptd:c; out too manv disks and the quality is poor, l,Jpc, t.i:,1 rl T tha.t the five 1nctin disks could be squeezed into one or two disks, and the So I This was from a MAST member. quality of s;oftware would be the same. I have I, for one. would like a cheaper DOM. it to the membP.rti. leave One way is to find been trying to come up with new ways to cut the price. In a couple of months, if not sooner I hope a source for good $1 .. 00 disks. A
ff?t•1
the? _luc_:1ul"-"'I'"",
laser printer will sell for less than $3,000. New
1987 - paqe 7
a
Ne1r,s from the Co-Chair By Jim Schulz It's been a rough year and sometimes I had Happy birthday MAST! I would like to than~ but we made it to our first annivers~ry. questions, you whu. have attended the meeti nq ;'.bantr i buted your cammemts, of all the month, and have helped me with the club in a purchased the disks of t Jithout Bob, MAST would11't I especially thank Bob Floyd. number of ~,ays. It mi~~t not seem that way all the time, but 8ob does qu1ti~ be here ~oday. I also t1ad better mention, l--:r·1.tc~• MAST is a team effort. bit for· MP1ST. a who also q1vee a !at of support, even ttiouqh he daesn town a11 ST ar Ha~g, Thanks to b1Jth of you. ·Fi no;d i y. I must t.tian~- i.h1, know hoi,-, to use one. They help 1 n Without their support, MAST would not qro~,. dealers. local ·ways almost too numerous to mention. Mo~, to some sr?rious stuff: in the past month. MhST anrl 7'DLWS t:~·ul When I tool· tl11s job a year aq 8 • have again been run ttirough the wringer. I di dn · t e>:pect to cont 1 riual l y defend mysel -f and 11f:.ST.
to have a source. Bob has already threatened am not the only one who is aggravated. I I am How do we resolve this problem? to quit because he is so fed up. In addition to getting member vital survey for the meeting. a preparing statistics and comments on the meetings, I will include questions about the This way you, the the club and the disk of the month. leadership of members, can give me and Bob your thumbs up or thumbs down. Personally, I can take some criticism of MAST; but when members of the ST community start taking pat shots at me, that·s where I draw the local I support SPACE, MAST, MAST line. I show no favoritism, but MAST and F'rogrammers, STING and TAIG. I just hope a couple of misguided ST owners SPACE must be first priority. don't wreck it far us all. BIRTHDAY PARTY TIME!!! MAST we celebrate the first annivers;ary of MAST. this month, Yes, Thanks, members who volunteered to and coffee. pop provide cake, will MAST will raffle off a number of prizes At the party, bring snacks! MAST, in addition, will purchase two hot donated by the local ST dealers. No money is necessary new programs, a utility and a game, for the raffle. one for Raffle tickets will be distributed thusly• ta get raffle tickets. and one for each disk of the month purchased at the each MAST member, Also, a special price will meeting. be given far readinq this article. It's time to get out those DOC disks and look for your mis•ing di•ks you need a DOC disk, drop me a note and $2.00 and I will put it in the (If Ta help you complete your disk collection, MAST will. the ne::t day). mail offer a special price of :t4.00 far all old DOMs from February, 1986 through the MAST meeting and the MAST F'raqrammers' SIG .iust for 1987 Januarv, When MAST celebrates, we (-Hl new February, 1987 disks are $6.00. meeti.nq.
celebrate'!! Seifert will brinq along his Casio F'hil this, In addition to all k~ybo~,rd and demons.tr ate some of the Midi so-f=t\itare avai·lable for the ST. More is ~lso plann~d, so be at the meeting! The
1
.,.Jould
MAST
programmers
meeting
went
quite well for a first shot .
We had 18 +or hi~ very nice talk on GOOS. Chuc~r Purcell than~ li~e to Next qood turnout for the first meet1nq. is a .,.,hich mr:?mbers ;;how up, prcqramm1nq the BEM about LeOuc has volunteered to talk Dill month. good ~ Als~, jnterface wtth C arid will al~o touch 011 the Resource Editor. programmers miqht want to bring their current 5uqqPstion was made that Our first volunteeris Steve F·auley projr~cts :;\r,d shot-. them to the tr-oops. who will be showinq his new maze qeneratian proqram.
SPAl;E February, SPACE February,
1987 - page 8
am open to ideas and very willing to have proqrammers always, I am alsu always looking for me,nbers t □ demo and talk about. bring stuff Ever-yone who sho\•1ed •.tp who wish to give a tutorial to add to the meeting. These meetings are held on th~ next month. for seem pleased and ready Monday following the MAST meeting at 7:30pm at the First Minnesota building I This month· s meeting is February 23rd. at Le>:ingtan and Lar-penteur. I hope to see you also bring the DOMs along in case you miss the meeting. all there. get myself little rest while a MAST On-Line is taking Finally, As always, I am on LR Data, Mindtools, and No Name BBS for y □ Ltr" organized. questions and comments. In the newsletter this month we see the return of "Children Will Play" bv one of our newest ST owners and lonq-ti me Atari e:-:perts, Phil Seifert. F'hi l said that he 1-1ould pop in every one in a 1-,hi le to keep me on the Make sure you let Phil know what you think of his straight and narrow. Also, I hope to keep my contributions shorter so we can get some article. new contributions ·from the members. Finallv, 1 will be starting a new project this month, as soon as I get a good word processor, to br-ing some more money in for MAST and SPACE. Don't forget the other This is only half of Jim's article. [Note: half, which I titled "Atari ST News." -ed.] As
Atari ST News by Jim Schulz This year at CES was the year of the Mega ST. CES has come and gone. Atari announced new models of the ST in 1, 2 and 4 meg ver-s1ans. Mega STs have a detachable keyboard and a built-in double sided drive. All internal slot for a an built-in blitter chip, Mega STs also have a Deli very forthcoming fl oati nq-poi nt coprocessor and an e:-;pansi on card bo:-:. Atari also announced a :t150fl according to Atari. 1n April, is expected The laser printer uses the ST's printer with a 300 DPI resolution. laser memory for printing, so a 2 Meg ST is recommended by Atar-i for use with the laser printer. $499 and $699 PC clones, featuring a number of unveiled their Atari I have some literature if you and par-allel interfaces. serial monitors, are interested. announced a new 20 meg har-d drive with a daisy-chain conr1ector Atari The price on this model and the current 20 meg hard for the laser printer. That's pretty much it for CES. drive was dropped to $699. Atari has finally come to a salutio11 that nasty four letter word ••. GOOS, The licensing fee has been set at $500 per c.ompany, GDOS devel operso for Mow, if. This is much better than $500 per product per year. life. for GDOS can get debugged Paper Cli~ ELite and Microsoft Word will start to Let's hope that this is a. as well as other font-driven programs. appear-, step forward. when the ST sells 500,0Ull that statement Microsoft has made a formal Microsoft will start porting a number oi.'·their .pr-0>ducts ta the S1. units, Rumor ha!..; t,,Jhen this happens, the whole sof t ...,are industry wi 11 take notice. alreddy beinq converted to the ST and st,ould be dor1G is Windows that it This is in add1ticm to Microsoft l~Jord, \"kdch is due any day now .•. soon. Just one more feather· in the ST hat. I will not attempt to e~pla1n thiE prcole1r1. lhe 40 folder proble111 . . . . since not even Atari can come to an agreement on what pr- □ blem actuatl·, 1s. lhe:, prut.!lem :eems tu has come up v,ith a fi;,; to this problem. Atari But V-lhen thes1:-: get t1l led. ·revolve around 50-60 memory locations forfolders. movu this tabl~ into men1ory and The fix: the system gets confused. {4tari figures, 1-,ith ttie p.att:h pn:Jqr·am, that. you cdn the pointf=r. redirect lhis patch f.:t·oi;w·an1 to .3(H.> folders - at the sacrific~ ot memor have up
1987 -
page 9
shuuld be av,1.ilablP. soon and ,..,ill be posted l"Jhen it arrives. As of February 1st, Atari wil~ be Atari is spr-eading out its support. □,, BIX, Atari will have its own forum for questions on Both BlX and GENlE. On GENIE, f-'tari will co-sysop the 8 bit and ST sect~ong a~d answers. and Please note that this i5 in section. nPw developers' brand a start Ata:~ to Atari's developer section on Compuserve and Atari BBS. ,':lddition If you need information continues to support its users and programmers. on. it pass to get on BIX or GENIE, let me know and I '11 Here are some quick news items about the most popular ST Lanquaqes •.. The new version o·f OSS F·ascal is being held up by same bugs in la.nguaqes. according to MAST's Dave Meile in a conversation_with DBS. the compiler, The~e .bugs are being fixed, and the release date of the new version of OSS . Pascal is unknown. you need help with 055 F'ascal or GEM, try T aclcl e Bm, ST, available If and AES, S, □ Bl XBIDS, all documents package programming This 16. February The a number of programming utilities are also included. and calls, VOI If you with one cal 1 documented per paqe. 350 pages, over i5 mc1nual program in 055 Pascal, this is for you. Megamax c fans, Mega.max claims officially that they are several months For a special the 32•~~ segment 1 i mi t. new version with out a1-,av from a pri;e, be the first per-son to say, ''Happy Birthday, M~ST!'' ~o Bruce Haug._ a new version of Mark Williams' C verc;.ion 2.u will be out in Finally, But, Mark No information on what this includes is available. W£-?eks. 6 do all future who will Tom Hudson, in new convert Williams has a proqramming in Mar~ Williams C. so what's new in software? Not much at this point in the month, but here are some news items: you own Publishing Partner, send in your warranty card. if First, free update to all registered owners. ~re about ready to send a They and this new version should fi>: a number of 1.0 was bug-ridden, Verc;.ion
how
So beware. problems. new version which sL1pports Mark a for watch Micro c-Shel 1, O\ainers of V-Shell: a visual people, Also from th~ Micro C-Shell Williams c. GEM-based multi-window shell for use with MT C-Shell. Hard di·;.;k owners, Supr-a is about to release a ne\"4 version of partiti~n Also from Supra 1s software that allows up ta 8 partitions on a hard disk. much-needed tape backup unit, a much-praised backup program and a set of a . . hard drive utilities. ST*PRO 1s actually Finally, yours truly flubbed last month on Sl*PRO. will program this that has Rumor an upgrade of ST Talk. ST Professional, be available February I and will cause Flash! to placed on a number of ST We shall see. shelve~. This month is another update-riven month. Updates;!,' Both of these programs have. been merged, First, M-Disk and Soft Spool: en update. send $10.00 and one oriq1nal disk or Far Plus. into M-Di~l two original disks to Michtron / 576 South Telegraph/ Pontiac, s5.00 and a new version of Backup• which fixes a Ala;o from Michtron, 48053. Ml For an update, send $5.00 and the oriqinal disk to the buqs. number oaf Michtron is also updating the KISSED debugger to their new address above. For tt,is upgrade, send your orig'i_nal ~::ISSE.D disk and $19.95 RAID debuqger. to the address ~bove. Orioin Systems wi 11 bit owners: 8 former some news for Mo~J far-· upqrade your 8 bit Ultima III ta the ST version if you send them $10.00 and I have ~'.:'lso heard that you should c;.end along 8 hit disks. oriqinal your Far t.h1c;. L1pqrade, send to you have it. if pl;.21.yer r-efr~rence card , .. r , 10 1 Inc. / 340 Harvey Road / Ma.nc:hest~r. NH 0~)103 •. ~icrop~ase or·iqin Svc;tems their qames for $20.00 a.~d t~e or1?1nal disk. of qJ. 50 upgrade all wtJJ F~r-~~is upgrade, only Silent Service is av~il~ble for the ST. Currently. 1) Drive/ Hunt Valley, MD Llu~uLakefront send tc 1 Mic:roprose ,· 12 F'rintmaster has come out with a new version called PrintMaster P~us to This new version is available avoid copyriqht disputes with Print Shop.
Sf~AcE February,
fCJr :tJ.5.(.10 and you1or1qinal disk ?\ 1 Avenue Berl:.ele'-1, Shatuc.k
1987 -
SPALE February, 1987 - p~ge 11
paqe ll' ch,:,1r1t1e
I
the
ot.hetre:-cc-.rd1r,g cm :,e,verr::\l pr·c.iqri::tm ver-v muc.:1·1.
tuned. A
rhis issue is special i~SLJe o+ START shoLtld be out by the meetinq. pr-int dr-iver canstTuction set +otDEG?"~S by Tom a inc:lL1cJe<:;; It must. a pt-oqram shown at LES cal 1 E-d Ste.-el yB01 nl , and a hard }:1oi rd nel•I a Hudson. Lool( for 1t at a program which backs up 1 meg per minute. backup disk =tc1re near you. The picl· is ... GFA Finally, it's that time ... The envelope, please •.. Basic! a chanc~ to play with this program, and for 53K Atari could got I GFA even offered it to Atari, and Atari said learn something about Basic. Based on some of the programs that I have seen, this will Bad choice. no. with nss Pascal and the Cs as one o·f t.he top 1 angL1ages for the rank soon you don't believe me, check out some of the GFA programs on this If ST. With this language and Michtron's support, it can't qo ~onth's disk. wrong. Other .interesting programs include f'hantasie II, which is wai-ting tor articles before i t is opened and Karate Kid II, a writing me to finish Right now, Karate Kid II seems to be the number one kicking game. l(arate which looks intriguing, the Aegis Animator, program Another game in town. Finally, a strange, should-be F'D options and power. lot of boasts a program called Mi-Print, which allows you to set up your printer and lists Very basic, but nicely done. out files and disk directories. If you say, "Happy Birthday, MAST!" it for this month. that's Well, I hope you you will win a special prize for reading this article. to me, Remember this month's MAST interesting here. something found have all Also remember the MAST programmers sig meeting for our big birthday bash. Until the meeting, happy computing. meeting on the Monday following MAST.
Need to f.)ny evf~nt ,;-Jr ser-iG:-s of events can be easily manipulated. t .i ming c:.ird1 tr at i c.,n~· Or tr anspo=e just a f eh• bars? Copy trac •~'=- to Or-um machine type layerinq for real time sequE)ncr~s? ottracl·:::,
po1,,ir_c,r~ul
at Unison World/ 2150 More Ltpdates 11e,:t month, sa sta',·
94704.
, I
I I
i
trc:ic::ksr? lhe list could
just qo on and on.
l lil::e tl1iE
ln tact, Dr. Ts is noted for giving good support for their products. very clearly that version 1.0 may not have all the states mar1ual all REGISTERED Ol•mers will be given a fr1:-~e yet and imple.•mented features (I L1nderstood that it may be update ta version··t.5 whe~.that is available. Soon Now, to use a favorite quote of Jerry Pournelle, but seri □ Llsly I Real We shall see.) January. of end the around out. be have heard it should their
Track lhere are three parts to the KCS; Track, Open, and Song modes. l-tJhen you are done mode is, as you can probably guess, for editing tracks. Then you can ~ilh the tracks then you have to copy them into sequences. And when you are done switch to open mode and manipulate the sequences. KCS allows files. song into them merge can you tt,en sequences, with the all events and you could even send systl::'m e>:clusive □f firm cc1ntr-ol you messages to vour synthesizer. It There are some drawbacks to the program, especially for musicians. If you can handle computers and seem to be quite numberoriented. that. do can musicians all sure not am I But thinJ: in nL1n1oers, no problem. fc.:CS is also It would be nice to see staff notation with this program. Especially if you are going to depend on the nice. Not copyprotected. The price is a little trendy at $195 but praqram for gigs and stuff. some of ne.,., ones coming out, 1 i ke Steinberg Pro-24 and Hvbr id than better Arts· Pro System.
does
Dr. T's Midi Recording Studio Children Will Play By Phil Seifert I t certainly has been a long time since I have written anything Whoa~ What I think I Uh, about 2 years, I think. users group newsletter. should do first is recap a few events since I stepped down as president of Second, I have been getting quite First, I have acquired a 10408T. TAIG. Thir·d, I gave away all my involved in doing n,usic with computers and MIDI. Now there is nothing Atari 8-bit, IBM, CF'/M, and Apple. other computers; but the ST in my house.
for
am I doinq writing an article after such a long time? Well, what Sa, Jim Schulz stopped by, dunked my head in a toilet and kept flushing until I Of course Jim will deny this agreed to write something for the newsletter. This colu~n (I am not promising to but l Q □ t a witne~~. th~ Tidy Bowl Man. oftenJ w111 talk about music more little maybe a bL1t write regularly, On with the the ST, and maybe a few game reviews thrown in. _software far reviews!!
Dr. T's Keyboard Cor,trolled Sequencer There have been fe.,., sequencers released for the ST so far, but the If you would need the I have seen yet is Dr .. T's kCS. po~,erful one mast 127,000+ midi events (1t)40Sl), izs sequences and I editiny capability of forgot how many songs, then keep this program 1n mind. What I found most ir,triguing was the The KCS 1 have ts version 1.0. comput 1 ng: staple boLlnd, poor the f i r s t days o-f Reminds o·f manual. Ah, the good old days! But spelling errors, and small print. typesetting, di scour age you from usi nq the pr-oqra.m; it is ver-y let the mcw,ucd don't
have the money or don't want to risk $1Y5 for the KCS you don't If This is a limited version you can try Dr. T's Midi Recording Studio. then tracks for recording and does allow you full Supports 6 his ITS. of And editing within the tracks and some of other nice features of the KCS. purchase price as a trade in allow you to use your the company will At $39.95, it is hard to go wrong with this one. allowance for the KCS.
Dr. l ' s CZ-F'atch Dr. T's music software program that is out now. Yet another one of Like all his This is a nice patch editing program for Casio synthesizers. other programs, it is very powerful but not real easy to use or understand But, CZ-Patch supports the 101, 1000, 3000, and 5000. ql a.nee. at fir-st Darn! But it is a nice progra.m anyways. n,-_;t thF :.~30S J iLP I hn\re_ You can have up to 4 work banks CZ-Patch is also a librarian program. The ability to just copy patches from one bank to another is in memory. 1hen you can Just ~;et up your favorite library patches. nice. CZ-Patch shows you envelop forms for the Tl1e patch editing mode is nice. It uses the mouse quite at the same time. DCD's and DCA's all vc.,t-ious Just point at a parameter you want t·1eavily, and n1akes editing real simple. You can hear the synth tc1 chance, move the slide bar below, it is changed. Al~:>o it alloNs you to C tiy p1 E:'.'=><::c.ing the right mouse button. middle• plav si mp 1 y and qui ck 1 y. real one ne,.., the and pat.ch nal i betwer~~n the ar-1 g s\"'-1i tch comparieions. for Great 1,99,
ht a.f t.F't-
I
pJ.ay
Maybe T's CZ-PMtch is a good program and a +air valLIF. ~,itt, i~ some mare I could upgrade tt1e value (3nd if I could
Dr.
SPACE Fabruary, 1987 easily move p~tchPs to my CZ-2305).
Check this proqra,n out.
Hybrid Arts CZ-Android ~-:not•1, I do look at other piect;,s rJf software besides Dr. do you What tt fully utilizes CZ-An•1roid is a nice patch editor by Hybrid Arts. T's. You can Also it has libri:1ric'\n capabilities. is a slicl: proqram .. GEM and 1·here are two wor~ ban~s J•Jst pie•~ up a patch and drag i t into a new slot. of 16 patches within the program and a bank just:. for the synthesizer15.
One is ta You can do it c-Jne of two ways. is real nice. a. patch Editing click the left or riqht mouse button to and parameter a a.t just point the c:ont,~ininq w □ t•Jind Or, vau could open '-'P a nPw or do.,.m. up it -?1.d_i11c.;t NILE~ envelope shape and just stretch that shBpe with the mouse. Of caur·se, if you don't feel that you are real creative, you could l~t After i t malce~ one close to CZ-Android create a patch for you at random. what you want, you could modify it to fit your needs exactly.
the only thinq about this proqram I don't like is that I cm,·t About I have to play on the to play a note fr-om the program. it seem to get keyboard to hear what the patch sounds like. This that 1 )
one is also priced at $99 and is also copyprotected
(Gad,
I hate
Ne::t time I will probably should do it far this session. p.3tch editor that il3 being writtl';!n by someone here in t □ l'ln And, Be seeing you soon. looks pretty good and possibly some games .. that Enjoy. Clean to return the favor. Jim, I made arrangements far Mr. Well,
"''rite
abClut
that a
Chuck's Motes by Chuck Purcell has supplied me again \'-1ith another round of articles for Chuck ~Jell, This month, Chuck looks at the F'COMMAMD.PRG, which is a command Chuck's Motes. program which also access to GEM dialog boxes, alert boxes~ and the file shell this program so much that h" registered it to get a liked Chuck selector. This is updated version of the program. and documentation of complete set beginninq of Chuck's quick referenc:e<or should I say lonq rl:?ferenc:e guide b,;;tserJ It •1as so bi Cl that I had to on t.he number of commands available) far PCOMMAMD. This proqram wa-:; Next month, ttu~ conclusion. month. two divide i t betl'teen Now on to Chuck. found on the utility disk for November 1986(ff711. Jim PCOM _GEM. /\PF' Command Overview PCOM __ GEM. TX T -Copyright lc) 1986 register· may F'Command i 1:; •3 share.,.,are product from Solid Applications Inc. You You .,.,ill receive your copy of F"Command .,.Jith Solid Applications for :.t25.0(1. documentation, t.he desk accessory version of F'Command ~nd utilitif:!S includinq
Solid Applications Inc. 1333 Moon Drive Yardley, PA 19067
a formi\t proorr1.m .,.Jhich creates IBM PC format disket.te1:·,(o.ne r":\nd two sided).
1 i ne i nter·preter \•Ji t.h command 1 i ne-or i entc~d a is WHAT JS PCOl'1t1AND: Commi\nd batch file support. It ·provides an interactive interface to AtariTOS which rur1s F'Command provide'•·' commands. Commands are similar tu F'C-DOS on the At;ari ST. Multiple commands can tie faster access to TOS facilities than the GEM des~top. be entered on a single line for even better e·f·Fi.cii,:~n1_-:,1Command has a number o+ built-in commBnds which arP alwavs availAblP. Command
page 13
can run GEM or TDS-based applications by simply typinq their name. A list of local commarids is displayed by typing HELP. Tt1e batch file facility can be used This allows a GEM interface to be to present GEM-based menus and alert boxes. ta be built ,1sing a text editor to create a batch file using any text editor. BUILT-IN COMMANDS: Command has a number of built-in commands which can be typed commands which There is also a small set of directly or used in batch files. can only be used within a batch file. The following lists built-in commands: Show/Set Abort option ABORT Shaw built-in command list 7 Sho.i/Set Break option BREAK Sound bell /,, BELL Change current directory CHOIR CD Exit from batch file/PCommand BYE Clear screen options CLS Chain to new batch file * CHAIM Shaw/set console device CTTY COPY - CF' Capv file(s) Delete file\s) DEL Shaw/set date l_._ DATE Set/show/displa y te:-:t ECHO Show directory - D ,\ DI'R Exit from batch file/PCommand EXIT ERASE - ERA Delete file(sl Shaw/set/menu inter·face options GEM * FOR Iterate aver file name(sl HELP 7 Show built-in command list * GOTO Goto label in batch file Interactive/tex t input INPUT Conditional command execution * IF Make ne•1 di rectory MD Shaw/set command I oggi ng status MKDIR LOG Wait for input PAUSE Shaw/set default search path PATH PROMPT Show/set prompt options Print file(s) PRINT Remark (comment) REM Quick editor far batch files QED RESERVE Reserve memory far program RENAMEREN Rename a file Shaw/Set environment string SET RMDIR - RD Remove directory Show current e::ecutian stack STACI< Shift arguments SHIFT Show/set time TIME Show/set switch character SWITCHAR Show file on console display TYF'E E::ecute program in TOS TOS VERIFY Show/Set fl.disk verify mode Display TOS version number VER Show/Set endofl i nr;, wrap mode WRAP Show disk volume label VOL * indicates batch file use only.
*
ESC=·•"·C Query made if BREAt<=ON BASIC KEY CONTROL: ····S-stopDisplay . ·,Q-Display SPECIAL ~::EYS AND EDITING: Commands can be edited using control or function ops: BACKSPACE Delete one char.ta left Use current line as command RETURN one character ···-0 Move forward -> <Move backward one character ,..,F Move to end o+ line ~~.E +-> +<Move to start of line ..-..A ···,x Delete current line ESC Restart entry on ne><t line HOME=··'R Copy template'til char.match "'·C Mal,e current input a template F2 ···T F5 Copy ne,-:t template character ···,N = Fl Skip ta ne::t template char. . ·•·J F4 +Sh.ClrHome ~ .... X Copy rest of template = UNDO ··z F3 Multiple commands are placed on a line by sepCommand lines can be up to 169 preceeded by cl: Labels are the GOTO command are names i mmedi a tel y Anv text after a label is assumed to be a comment.
BATCH FILE COMMANDS:
\*.bat
arating them with an e:-:clamation point,
char-ac:ter·s. colon~
: ·•
Batch file par·ameters are indicated by a leading p~rcent sign, ·x·. A single digit after '½' indicates a parameter to the batch file. Th~-parametpr replaces Any of the fallowing special characters can both tt1e percent stgn and digit. can be used if lhe percent sign is immediately followed by~ colon,
%:d di3k id from last GEM :FILE command f1rst. char·. from lc..v:;t IMF'IJT result. %.:+ filename from LC:1.st GEi"\ :FILE CCH1Hnand FHF.::URLE\JE.L from l a:t pr·ocp-a.m %:p path name fro,n last GEM :FILE command i'.:·1 ,~tri.nq fr-om l<:\st TtlPlJT r-•~=-•.tlt %:/ current dat~ Z:: current time \ (l·.-:- l oi-,, L ==med, 2=t11 ) 1/.:'I
1/.: 1:: ~'.: E
After· that, Chuck has rhanks •gain, Chuck. alr8arj-; qot started into tt,~ public domain text editors.
Ne-:tmc,nt.h, Chuck loo•,~, at. tht:: built-in commands.
SF"r'\CE February, So until ni:.:;:t mont.h, buy di.'-1ks and happy hackinq. Ml~LING TH£ S~IITCH - FF<OM SYNFILE+ TO DBMAN by Bob Floyd If you're an 8-bit ATARI owner, chances are that you own SynFile+ froo1 It is the most popular database ·farSynapse Software (now part of Broderbund). Ho1.-1ever, if you have already purchased an ST, you are probably the 8-bit line. larqe databases you created with (possibly) the wondering hoN to transfer A popular database for the ST is DBMan, a DBase I I 1 SynFi J e+ to the ST. this article will deal with transfering your data.files from So, work-alike. Incidentally , the methods used here SynFlle+ on the B-bit. to DBMan on the ST. ,=irf? nn drn_tbt .:if'rl; ,-rlhl 1=1 to other transfers. i.Jhat vou ru:?t>d: t > t:-.i tE::"t·-m1r,al program tor both cc.,mputer·s - a modem is not This is soft1.-1arP for the 8-bit must be capable of an ASCII send. Th~ used. Do not use XMUDEM or any other protor.:ol. usually the "Send a File" command. The software on the ST end must be capable of an ASCII receive used HameTerm. By I used ST-Talk. File", or "CapturP.' commr.\nd. usually the "Receive a transferring your files in ASCII, any translating between ATASCII on the 8-bit Incidentally , once you've booted up, set the ST is automatic. on ASCII and This doesn't affect the your software programs to half-duplex. both of transfer, but helps you to see what's being typed on both computers. This device An 850 interface or its equivalent on the 8-bit computer. 2) has an RS-232 type pQrt that can t~lk to a modem, or, in this case, directly to Otherwise, things could If you don't have an 850, try to borrow one. the ST. get ~omplicated trying to transfer the data. :3) A nul I-modem cable to connect the 2 computers toqether via their RS-232 Offhand, direct connect cable, so no modems are used. This is a ports. this cable would prevent mo~t people from transferring difficulty in finding However, because you belong to a user group, you C:an just borro!f-1 their data. Also, the cable is only 12 See me at the meeting. the cable from the club. feet long, so the 2 computers must be near each other .. 4) A utility program, SYNTOSDF.BAS , that will soon be on the 8-bit Disk of This converts a SynFile+ "printed to disk" file to a ([)QM). the Month structured data file. disk drive with a limit of transferring Two 8-bit disk drives or 5) So, file size is limited files no larger than 1/2 of the amount of one disk. to about 901< <or mot-e with enhanced density) with 2 drives or 45t:. with 1 drive. The first step in the transfer procegg is to prepare your SynFlle+ files. Offhand, this would seem as simple as using the ''SynFile+ to DIF'' conversion on the SynFile+ m.ain menu and then reading the DIF file directly with DBMan. The data seems to have the fields transposed witt1 How~ver, this does not work. (It transferred sideways when it should have transferred downwards,. the d.ata I have to admit I w~s So, one of the proqrams doesn't correctly use DIF files. Then I noticed the "read 1.tttle <:.hook up over this predicament for a while.. a a structured data filp'' option on DBMan. A structured data file is a te,:t file Each line must hav~ 1 set of data for each field. a definite structure. with must be located in the e1.:act same position in every line?. 21.nd these fields like this by prin~inq to disk'' from the Report SynFile+ can create a file 11
11
Menu.
So. the first thinQ to do is to boot up DOS and mat:.e a bacl~up of yo1Jr data You must use ''duplicate dis~•• or the DOS ''duplicate disk'' option. usinq If you have 2 diEk drives. then format another :cramble thP data. wi 11 you OthPrwise. you must be certain dis~~ to receive the structured data file (SDF). You can makt~ -.:et free space=- to recP.i '/e thP SDF ~ enouoh hc:1s di :k your that (ju:_;;t to be safe) and then delete .::,nv 1?:·•:traneous files fro,n i t b,3ckL1p another you have yo,~r tt,~t Now using the ''Delete'' option from the SynFile+ File6 menµ. Then qo to the Report boot SynFile+ and Open the desired file. di·sks ready, Be sure to type in all the fields (ur1less Menu and choose the ''list'' option. you want to get rid of some) for printing and set th~ search to select all If ·10~1 press ''START'' without typinq anythinq into the fields). (just records
disk
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yoLw already formatted disk into Drive 2 (and of cours.e, pL1t h~ve.:> . :. . dr·iv·es, 11 prjnt" to drive 2), other1.-,ise your previously prepared backup data disk should 1·her1 just proceed with printing - any title will do. Alt·e~~Y tle in drive 1. For those with 1 step is to boot up DOS on your 8-bit machine. ThPnE~:-:t. .TXT on the backup di~l~ that do r•ot have a d~lete ~r,y fil~s disldrjve. Then boot up Fot· those with 2 disk drives, just format a new disk. e:-:tr:•nsion. Then, BASIC with the appropriate DOM and choose SYNTOSDF.BA S''"from the menu. 1, or if you have 2 drives, put the in drive place your backup dat3 disl prompted wher, AME's Tvpe in the correct DEVICE:FILEN ◄·ormRtted c1isl, in clrive 2. The te:d~- ·:file you previously created wi 11 have the name cf the pr·ogram. bv You should choose a .TXT e}:tension. with a. fil'e SynF-ile+ original your different name for your destination file, perhaps just using an .SDF extension. Here's a few e:-:amples: ADDRESS - Text file One drive system - Original SynFile+ FileName: 1) - Destination structured datafile: 01:ADDRESS.T XT SynFile+: with created DliADl)RESS.S DF ADDRESS - Text file - Original SynFile+ FileName: T1.-,o dr· i ve system 2) - Destination structured datafile: Dl:ADDRESS.T XT created with SynFl!e+: D2:AllDRESS.S DF be asked about the data type for each you will loJhen running SYNTOSDF, You will be prompted automaticall y - the program can read in the file. field The program allows you to choose character the field names without your help. Then it modifies the numeric fields, logical fields and date fields. fields, It also allows minor to be compatible with DBMan. fields date and logical SYNTOSDF.BAS expects a printer for output changes in the other 2 field types. If you don't have a printer, information about the SDF you have created. of Change the P: to an you will have to edit line 450 before running the program. Then run the program. Sa in line 450. The next installment of this article will cover the ASCII transfer and the If there's interest later, I Can write a simple use of DBman to read the file. maybe I could write a little about Or, in DBMan. 11rticle on programming ,lust tell me what you want to see. nul !-modem cab! es. 11
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Disk of the Month - February By ,Jim Schulz And the disk of the month will celebrate, It's birthday time at MAST'!! The Last month, I had eleven brand new disks. But more an that later .... tt10. following is the list with their disk numbers: January DOM #1 (Utilities) January DOM #2 <Application s) January DOM #3 (Games> ,January DOM #4 (Pascal Files and General ST Information) 4+qb - January DOM #5 <C Files and Cammunica.tio n Files) 197 - Demo Disk #IB ISpoce Shuttle and Karate Kid 11) #98 - Dwinu Disk ff19 (Pjrates ~f tt1~ Bar~~t y C~a=L; 199 - Little Sma!lTa!k (Scaled Down Version of Smal!Talk with Docs) FASTER #2 (Second GEM-based Disk Magazine from Canada) 1100 tf.101 - Apple II Emulator (Monochrome Apple Emulator with Basic) ff102 - GOOS and C Pr·oqramminq E>iamples <E:-:amples for Programmers)
192 193 194 195
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again had some problems with some disks. is li:-\st month's disk.. lhat If you have a ba~ This month, it was the FASTER #2 and Little SmallTall~ disl~s. it to the meeting and exchange it or leave me a message on one of brinq dist~~ Also, I found out that the the MAST {-.in-·-Line BBSs to arrange an exch~nge. The,, sectors seem to be a little rlisk5 ~,till spe111 to have a problem. Pec:£:.'n,betI am in r·ead them. fJf <:.iket-"il such that Todd Bur·key 's 01s•<TOF' program cannot out: If you have a bad dish this-, way, let me fi::inq thi:. problem. of procf."!SS, t.he disk ■ vs. it came to di5ks a.dvr,~r-tised let· you do,"iln when I Aqain, know. I am starting early so tt1e more the merrier. tt1iE n1or1th, Well~ deliver·Pd.
SPACE February, 1987 - page 17 Thanks fnr· your pdtl~ncP. This vP.rsic.m Tor.Id EtuYk1::.-..y has aqain rele~sed another· version nf DJ=~··.TOF'. This should b~tter et-rrnhandlinr-1 and resets y □ ur color-r~ t•1hr~n yol.\ e::it. has This version some of the problems voiced at ttie last meet1nq. take care of Todd for Thanks. on an 1.tpd,3.ted documentatio n disk thi.s month. appe,"r will your sL1pport. This month for ;3. birthday special all old birthday time!!!~ Finally, 1986 through January 1987 will be the lo.i price of MAST disks from FebnJ.ary This 1s a good chance to fill All Febr1.tary 1987 disks will $6.00. $4.00 ~ach. I will have at least tw~ copies of all old in those holes in your collection. As always, if I rur1 out, I dislcs so come early if you want to take them horn~. Also for· those who can't make ~he1n out in one week of the meeting. mail will the Friday mcctinQ, MncT will al5o be offering the dis~g for this price?~ +h~ Two opportunitie s for these qood Programmers SIG meeting the following Monday. Also if you need to know what is avAil~ble. send me $2.00 and I will prices. l-Jhen it's M?\ST'-a birthd,;i,y, the next day. you a documentatio n disk mail everyone celebra~es. This month again. I Now let's see wh~t·s available for this month .... So here goes ... . have a good selection of special disks. dis~ of converted 8 bit icon This is a Ml Dis~ Icon PrintMaster I have completed my first sequence of dis~ gwaps and one. disk is libraries. In addition to the Print Master library, I just about done on my hard disk. I will also have a numbRr· of Tiny pictures of the icons on the disks. wili include Bill LeDuc'• Print Shop to Deqas Block format converter and all of the nice Bill's used I in F'rint Shop format far your drawing pleasure. files Also, don't thrnw ~way those old 8 bit program to make the Deqas picture9. More on that at the meeting. Print Shop disks!!~ This is another version of MicroEmacs converted from MicroEmacs ~,j. 71 You one of the standard Emac.s distribution available for a number of systems. The two months so this month you qet to see it. this for have read about around. best the of one number of options and the fle:<ibility make this editor be at least two disks with the program, the sources, and all the This gill documentatio n. CP/M Utilitie• Disk #2 - This is the second dis~ of utilities for CP/M. include a number of utility proqrams include the MEX madein This disk will documentatio n will also be included All program and a game of space invaders. The problem that I have been having with this disk is that I on this disk. This disk has enough time to learn how to format a CP/M disk. haven't had I t.-1ill learn to format i t been prepared for two months waiting for a format. As soon as this disk gets out more will this month or Bill will get a call. follow. Applications Special - This is a special applications disk. This includes The first application is a runtime version of ~ ~pplications . two special I i.-dll also inclL1de the DB Video Cassette library program created on DB Man. The second application is 99 for·m letters Man command files if space permits. Both application-= are quite unique and I the ST from the IBM. converted to This i~ another disk waiting for time. sure can find a spot in your library. The 99 letters are worth the price of the disk. This is the latest Wot.tld you believe it??? He did lt aq~in. Uniterm Also a number version of Uniterm, the VTt(H) emulator progre\m. nci~'·i,,,tth ~,:ermit. emul.f\t □ r with VTH)(I good a If you are lookinq for bugs have be!en fi:ied. of 132 column mode, this one is for you. ST Term - This 1s an update to this very fltll-featur~ d demo modem proq~am. This fll~ is found another ARC·file with yet another file f~r this proaram. phone directorv si~er prooram. Now if you havp this e·:celient prooram. br1nq a 1 What a deal 3nd dis~: and MAST will upd~t~ it forfre~! ~ in your oriqir1al happy birthd~y to ~11. Last month, we had an Apple amulator which only Eniulators Apple/Atari · Apple emulr,to,·· Thi.s month, we have a ne~•1 ver-,;:;ion of the worked in monochrom•?. I have not. run the which works in color i.-1ith Basic and an Atari 800 emul.--,tor. emulator runs Pasic i-,ith no 00S or· qr,3.phics. but: thP At~ri Apple emulator,
these programs come \--,ith a ma.chine langua.gr~ monitor to experiment. Ea(:h of These both look promieing for the futL1re. St.r~ve F'auley has been busy looking for the best pictures Pictures!!! together He has put .:for the ST and modifying them and organizing them. ,four·teen disks to qet us started of very nice pictures organized by topics. as TinyStuff and Tinyview Tiny pictures and includes af is full tEach disk start with two of his disks on Cc..,rtoons and Fantasy This month, we wi 11 ,wel 1. 1 This is just a start of many more good picture disks to come. and Space. 11 time permits, I might also convert one of these disks to monochrome to see lf our· monochrome members ~,auld be interested in monochrome versions of the if Again, I would like to thank Steve for his hard work. same disks. This is a new version of the very popular version of Emacs with Help This new version incl•.1rl~ ~ rli~~ rltrect~ry tMicr~Emacm i.-,ith built-in hel~. This disk also includes all of the source Lode listing feature among others. Ask the members of MAST, this is one of the best Emacs editors hacking. 'f)for .,around now with more features. This is the first in a series of adventure game Eamon's Adventures 1,· Someone has started canverti ng al 1 ,._disks based an the Apple Eamon adventures. Currently, the run-time ,of the Apple adventures to the ST using GFA Basic. be needed to run this disk, but if I get my GFA compiler before '.program will it .iill be available next month as a If not, the meeting it will be compiled. free update. Dolls - This is an incredible demo in color of revolving diqitized dolls. This demo is so big that it takes 1 meg to run and about 6 minutes to load Check it out at the next meeting. But it is well .iorth the wait. from disk. MAST's Ralph Russell is known for his demos and has he Ralph's Demos First, ManyBoink with so many bouncinq balls, 90t two good ones this month. This is Ralph's version of Second, StarField. just can't count them all. you Thanks again, Check them OL1t tl1i s month. 1 oak like.. what a star field shoL1l d
,1
Ralph. These are the ta>< Templates - You asked for them, you get them. VIP Ta>: returns along with the miscellaneou s Tax 19.86 Federal the templates far Anyone These are Lotus templates, but they om.-1,: fine for VIP. achedules. If you have them or heave done interested in doing the Minnesota. templates??? ? them, let me knov-, because I ~,ould like to include them for al 1 the members. is a GFA Basic prrJgram i.-iritten 1n Germany and modified This MicroCAD · This is a drawing program ala DEGAS which is very us. for •nd Englishized This and a number of other done and a good e::,~mple program of GFA Basic. "u:tll Currently, all GFA programs GFA Basic programs will be on this months dislcs. If my compiler arrives by the meeting, must be run with the run-time program. these files oiill be compiled. This is the last of the CAD 3-d demos and I saved CAD 3-D Demo Disk This one is This one is a revolving Happy Birthday. February. this one far Check it not just good for MAST, but your birthday or someone in yoLUfamily. nut at the meeting. Now what would a birthday be without a surprise gift?'??? This ?????,..'.' is ~ two disk, source and program set which I had to send awdy to the depths This is the latest and program In its type and used this of Colorado to get. I also ,..~aited patiently far it to be i.-,hile. quite a for proqra.m at work · Enougn hints???? See you at tli~'.·meetinq. ·· ported to the ST. this should be enough to get you excited enough ta come to the Well, As always, there is quite a bit of wor~ here. but I will do my bes+ meeting. Also remember ~s many disks as possible put together for the meetinq. to qet [n addition to the MAST r:..,re now tv,n place~ tc, get the MAs·r di=k~j. thf.?t-F: that vou c.,_u1 ,:\l~;o qet t.l"le M{~ST disks at the MAST Pr-oqr,1mmers SH=i mf.-!et1ng. m1:?,,,~t.1nq, If· vou .,.,ant com£-::• E•arly rn-· cc,me late i-f VOLi want disk:, we i.-\t-P quit~ tle!-:ible. 1 a::;t mc1nt-.h, '""e now have 1.0:~ (count em) disks of the month of -~:::=. '.:3o f,..uFot· 1nfor·mat1on on any of the past disks, see me at the next one vear. afb;!r· 1 Send :t:2.00 if n1e.'!:·t 1neet.i.ng or· purch,:\se the-~ Mr-,sT documentatio n disk for -~:2. ..10. Thj s dc.,cumentat1o n disk this bir·thday month. _11\st bv mai 1 forCH"df~t" ·1 nq ,:-111 files on all disks t1v:l 1.1df~i; a dP'.::;cr·1pti.•Jn .-_1f e,1cl1 disk d.S ,..,ell as,:<. J.1\5t of
~iF'{)IT. rebruary,
1987
DI~J•·.rur-· pr·oqr~"\m. This di'.:':;k ~-,i. l l hri updat.Pd Hvi::'r-y thr·f~F' U1P usin11 month'::". at·. 1 Pi·\l:;;",t. for which i•JE' ch,~rqP For thor:-,e v1ho don't knrJN" MAST has a disk of the 111r_;nth
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I chec~ all v1t1ict1 is par~1~r1 full of public domei,, softw~r~ for the ST. sn you pr-c,qrams and document them in a READ.ME f; le in each directory are sure you q~t so1n~tt1inq that works. ~,ill Far those who ca11not ma•~e the meeting and still Hould like the DOM, plus them to you witt1in one week of the meeting far tt1e standard t6.00 mail i.s: My Add,-ess t0.50 for postage a11d handlinq for each dis~·. 3264 1/Jelcome Avent.tr.? Mnr·th Crystal, MN 55422 hlow it and don't have disk that you want at the meeting, I if ()lso, w.ill 111ail it Lu yuu ftP.t:' w.i.Li,i11 Ullt' ~t'~k uf li1L. i\t.:;~ .1n_,.,·Li111J. See you at the MAST meetinq with best sel~ction of That is i t fr1r· August. public domain 5oftware around. my it's time for me ta qo to bed and dream of sweet 3 1/2 dis~s ir, Well, the of I would like to thank all of you who supported MAST and the dis~ head. Let me say we made to the end of th~ first year and the month this past ye~r. be I am working an some new documP-nt.a tion ~.,hich should yet to r.am(~. is best Happy Birthday and I hope to see you all at the next MAST meeting ready soon. lr.:\st the from and the Pr-i:-Jqra.mmer·s. SIG with the best new public domain software
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