April 1987
I AP RI L
198 7
SPACE Meeting Friday, April 10 at 7:30pm MAST Meeting Friday, April 17 at 7:30pm At the Falcon Heights Community Center 2077 Larpenteur Avenue West MAST Programmers Mtg. Monday, April 20 at 7:30pm At First Minnesota Bank Building - second floor Lexington and Larpenteur, in back of building Bruce Haug Jim Schulz Bob Floyd Joe Danko Dan Stubbs Bob Siede Frank Haug Jim Siede Neil Palosaari SPACE Bulletin Board
President Vice President MAST Co-Chair MAST Disk Librarian MAST Co-Chair Newsletter Editor SPACE Secretary MAST Secretary Treasurer SPACE Disk Librarian SPACE Paper Librarian MAST Paper Librarian
774-6226 537-5442 484-7576 777-9500 433-3708 489-3982 774-6226 489-3982 646-1272 --------
Minnesota Atari ST SIG
SPACE/MAST · April, 1987 ?age 1 Disclaimer Published by the St. Paul ATARI C~ter Enthusiasts (SPACE), an irdeoenaent organization with no business affiliation with ATARI Corooration. Permission is granted to any similar organization 11i t"1 11hich SPACE exchanges newsletters to reprint material from :~is ~ewsletter. ~e do, however, ask that credit be given to the authors and to SPACE. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of SPACE, MAST (Minnesota ATARI ST special interest group), club officers, club members or ATARI Corporation.
BYTES FROM THE PRES by Bruce Haug April Next canes May, then June and July. \,'here are all the programs you wrote over that long cold winter? I know, you are wait1ng for our NE\.l BBS to be up and running, then you will upload all those programs to it, RIGHT?? ~ell, everything is on order, and the phone line is to be installed April 1st or 2nd. Hopefully, by meeting time, some of you will be notified, and be on the BBS. After it is checked out, more members will be added. At first it will be a select few, but as soon as it is up, other boards in the Mpls. St. Paul area will list the phone#. SPACE MEMBERS will have inrnediate access and passwords NO ~!TING for verification!! Come to the April meeting for the latest info. It may be up and running. SUGGESTION BOX Write a note to the president, tell him what you want your c lub to do for you. You do not have to sign your message, but be prepared to have it read at t he next meeting or be printed in t he newsletter. See you April 10th .
SPACE ATARI USER GRCl.JP MONTHLY MEETING FOR MARCH, 1987 Recorded by Joe Danko, Secretary 1. Meeting called to order on March 13th at 7:30 PM by President Bruce Haug. Approximately 45 menbers present . 2.Vice·president's report and ATARI news. 8·bit news: ATARI 1200 bau:l modem will be available about April some time. BATTERIES INCLL.OED company has been bought by ELECTRONIC ARTS! E.A. instantly reduced the B.I. staff by 50%. E.A. is plaming to begin selling stock and needed sane non·game products. ACTIVISION has filed for CHAPTER 11. They own INFOCOM and several other ATARI software brands. ATARI 3.5 inch disk drive should be amounced in June. The configuration should be Double·Sided/Oouble Density packaged with an 8-bit enhanced 5.25 inch Floppy Drive . ATARI CORP. is attefll)ting to suppress the release of a third-party developed 800 EMULATOR for the ST line. ATARI CORP. is attempting to respond to charges that they are inadequately supporting the 8·bit product line. The XM301 modem may cause problems on the serial bus clle to exsessive DC power consul!l)tion. The April newsletter may provide a hardware fix for this. ATARI MSOOS PC is still imaginary at this point. For one reason or another, various ATARIFAIR's across the coLntry are having trouble getting organized. A hacker in Alaska has developed a cartridge based DOS to c~te with the as yet to be released SPARTADOS X. He is selling kits. Does anyone know how to contact this guy?
Frank Haug gave the usual descriptions and demonstarations. The feature of the month is the TURBO-BASIC public domain interpreter/c00'4)iler from Germany. April DOM should have a FORTUNE-~HEEL puzzle editor to generate your own original puzzles and a program to print PRINTSHOP icons on labels. Members are encouraged to produce some sort of April-Fool joke program for the April 004. 6. Newsletter Editor This months issue was late. Bob Rhode brought copies to distribute at the meeting. Sob Floyd has agreed to begin editing the newletter inrnediately. He stated right away that all articles must be in no later than the 30th of March to make the April issue. He would like to recieve the articles formatted on ATARl',,IRITER or ST-~RITER. Bob solicited April-Fool articles for the April newsletter. Make up your most outrageous ATARI rumor and submit it to BOB by March 25th. Joe Danko will post the winner on Compuserve. 7. Paper Library Jim Siede, Librarian, will no longer bring all of the magazine back copies to meetings . If any member needs old magatine 1ssues, call Jim at home. His phone nurroer is on the front of the newsletter. 8. SPACE letterhead/logo contest: Members are invited to design an original computer generated design primarily to use for a letterhead on official club correspondance. The winning desi gn could be reproduced on stationary or generated by software. An appropriate prize will be ,.,arded. 9 . ~ ~artv is planned •or t ~e .uly meeting t o celebr ate : ne 5: n bi r:noay of SPACE. 10. The ATARI user in Poland recieved all of the disks and books we sent and replied with a very nice appreciative letter. He would really like to get some text adventures and/or a comp.1ter pen pal. Bob's letter was published in the LETTERS column of ANALOG'S March issue. 11. BBS News: Joe Danko has made arrangements to buy a MULTITECH 224EH 300/1200/2400 baud Hayes col!l)atible modem for the tax-included price of $344.50. This is a 50% discount from list provided by MULTITECH only for canp.iter c lub BBS's and the only catch is that they get a plug on the BBS. Taig has expressed reservations about using this modem due to rUT10Ured problems with AVATEX 1200 devices comecting properly. They also expressed concern about giving /'IJLTITECH free mention on the BBS. After 11'1.JCh discussion, a motion from the floor was proposed and approved for the executive c00111itee to start putting together whatever is reasonably req.11red to start up our own BBS. Bruce Haug has volunteered to rt.n the BBS out of his house. One proposed coofiguration is to use the club's 130XE, 1050 1 s and the l'I.JLTITECH to get started. Later we would add an !CD MI0/1 MEG and still later a hard·disk to allow ST files to be included in the online library. The MAST ST group, at their meeting voted 13 to 11 against an 8·bit based BBS. Try User Friendly 'NO NAME BBS' at 789· 0278 . TCCN service run by Ray Douglas: 349·6200 · soon to have an ATARI forein. It would help if meni:lers got signed up on it and posted some messages. It would help a lot if we could get some ATARI retailers for sponsers. Sign on with User ID:TCCN and Password:GUEST. You rll.JSt use capital letters! As usual, use 7 data bits, 1 stop bit and even parity.
3. Treasurer's Report
Present balance is $1334.
12. Ribbon Re-inker
4. Secretary's report
See the current newsletter.
Most ribbons can be re-inked for $1, large ribbons for $2.
5. Disk·of·the·month
13. Offers and Deals
Larry van dan Platz, operator.
- April, 1987
Charles Viebuls is selling his 850. He is looking for a buyer. There are a nunber of 8-bit systems for sale by various sources around town, especially check the Minneapolis newspaper want The club diskette mass purchase has arrived. Watch out as ads. some previous disks showed up with no diskette in the carrier. 14. Service problems/information Can a UPRINT interface work with PRINTSHOP? Several menbers are looking for a source of replacement KOALA PADS or ATARI TABLETS. 15. Correspondance with other ATARI clubs. We will be trading libraries with a user groLp in AUSTALIA. Joe Danko contacted the ATARI user groups in Lansing, Michigan via the CHAOS BBS. 16. SPACE/ATARI United Hospital project:
"printed to disk" format, although this might mean I have to strip off lots of carriage returns. My third preference is anything at all, since beggars can't be choosers. Articles can be given to me at the meetings on a single-density 8-bit type floppy, or on a 3.5" single or double sided disk from the ST. Articles can also be uploaded to me directly (call me first so I can turn on my computer and modem) or to one of the bulletin boards listed at the end of the article. If you upload to a BBS, please call me to let me know which BBS, the filename and the file type. I've also listed the next newsletter deadline. For those using Atariwriter or ST-Writer to write articles, underlining, bold face, expanded print (10cpi), superscript, subscript and centering are available by using the usual methods. Character pitch is 16.7 cpi by default and is not user alterable (except as expanded print). For newsletter articles that are "printed to disk", please set the left margin at 1 (no leading spaces), right margin at 64, top and bottom margin both at 0, and right justification "on". Following these guidelines will save me a lot of extra work.
No progress, ATARI has backed off a bit from their original intention of supplying hardware gratis. Project on hold. BBS's
17. Demonstarations and Tutorials Frank Haug demo'd the DCJoll and TURBO BASIC. Joe Danko demo'd his 800XL with 2561C ram and SPARTADOS.
Dave Hutchinson
m-6376
SPACE
--------
Next Newsletter Deadline: April 27, 1987 My home phone: 484-7576
Stuff By Frank Haug
D04
Well, here we are again. Welcome to the April, 1987 DCJoll. hope to be receiving the M.A.C.E. disks soon and I also hope to be hearing from other groLps we exchange with. (Hint. Hint.) I would also---like some donations-·-fronr tha· menbers. (Nudge. Nudge.) Here's the April DOM: 1.PSHCPLAB.BAS - UTIL - Prints print Shop Grap,ic icons a user defined label. (See last IIIOl'lth •s ANALOG label for
an ex~le)
2.PSHCPLAB.CC.. · UTIL - Saae as ,, but ~iled. 3.TREICMAX.BAS - TGAIE - one of the best Star Trek si111.1lations I have seen. 4. WOFDA T. BAS - GAIE - \t'heel of Fortune Data maker. Make your own puzzles for l«>F. CA Previous Extra DCJII) 5.WOFDAT.DOC - DOC - Docunentation for #4. 6.TREKMAX.DOC - DOC - Docunentation for #f3. 7.PUZZLE.1 - DATA - Some puzzles to start your WOF collection off. See you at the meeting. And remenber we try to have copies of all past disks at the meeting, but if we don't tell us and we'll make arrangements to get it to you. If ordering over 3 past DCJl,l's Call DOM'S must be at least 3 month's before current month) we'll put a DCJl,I on both sides at a cost of 2 DOM's for $6.00 on one disk.
Mo s t
O u t r a g e o u s R u mo r SP ACE
Assorted Runors By Albert Wertheimer
1. ATARI has just discovered by accident that the old 2 transistor radio transistors do everything that the blitter chip So, upgrades will be available for one was supposed to do. dollar from ATARI dealers. 2. A guy in Colorado just fou,d out that if you tape a two inch sq.are of aluninu11 foil to the bottom of a 520 or 1040ST on the left front side, that the capacity of the internal memory is a little less than dolbled. ATARI'S market research folks just reported to the firm that best advertising for their prockJcts was through the success the local Special Interest Groups, and therefore, a decision been made to give MAST, SPACE and all other U.S. groups a one-time gift of $10,000 to help them plan bigger and better activities and to get more local visibility.
3. the of has
A Rumor by John Novotny
Rumor has it that the 1200 baud modem from ATARI has been delayed again; however, some good news - the 1100 baud modem is now available.
Notes From the Editor By Bob Floyd
APRIL HOT NEWS by Joe Danko
Well, this is my first newsletter, so it will be a little roughly organized. However, I was able to figure out how to use the laser printer at work, so the text at even 16.7 characters per inch still looks pretty good. I still haven't figured out the best way to organize the newsletter. It depends alot on Look for changes in the what the litho-printer can handle. months ahead.
Sunnyvale, California:
shouldn't say too much, but I need to impart a few requests. prefer articles for the newsletter written with Atariwriter or ST-Writer, in the normal "save" format. My second preference is
Co n t e s t
ATARI Corporation announced today their bid had been selected by the U.S. Defense Dept. to provide 10,000 state-of-the-art battle engagement simulator systems for all branches of the armed services. Each $750,000 modular package will be portable and can be used for tactical and strategic real-time simulations for any unit to national individual from of engagement level mobilization.
As ATARI
stock rose sharply some Wall Street insiders runoured
SPACE/MAST - April, 1987 Page 3 that ATARI was moving into a factory recently purchased from IBM where they would mass produce military ruggidized versions of their Model 400 laptop mainframe and MIL SPEC R()II software packages code-named STAR RAIDERS, MISSILE COMMAND and EASTERN FRONT. The Soviet military journal Isvestia sharply attacked the action as destabilizing East-West tensions. National Security Council experts say the ATARI development of 6th generation battle simulation hardware and software places Soviet forces at a distinct readiness disadvantage through at least 1995 or until the Russian government finds a reliable source of quarters.
Mo s t
Ou t r a g e o u s
R u mo r
Co n t e s t
MA S T
Coleco Buys Apple By Phil Seifert and Cory Johnson Coleco, the makers of the Cabbage Patch Dolls, purchased Apple Computer today. Due to a bug in Microsoft Excel, Apple executives were surprised to learn they sold controlling interest in Apple Computer to Coleco. Microsoft blames the bug on a 'feature' within the MacIntosh. Coleco, saying that now they are a major player in the computer industry, vows to take on IBM with a new machine. This computer has been dubbed the Adam PCjr Laptop. Technical specifications have not been released yet, but the Adam PCjr will include The Bundle of Joy Software Series. Featured programs in this series are Cabbage Cale, Cabbage Speech, Cabbage Write, Cabbage Spell, and Cabbage Slaw. IBM, in a rare retaliatory move, announced their new entry into the home market, the IBM Wombat II GeeWhiz. According to sources within the company, the new computer was designed by top flight NASA engineers on their coffee breaks during launches. The specs on this machine are: 1750 Compatibility MonkScribe Very Letter Quality printer (4 char/min) Souped up 9600th Baud Tin Can Modem (Campbell Compatible pending FDA Approval) Speak and Tell voice synthesis 1K Hard Drive with paper tape back-up Dual Disk Drives and Toaster Unit (butters both sides at once)
GETTING STARTED: After opening up the modem ... locate ic# u30 (located by the rs-232 connector). Take the new IC and fold up all pins EXCEPT·-#1,7, and 14!! ! Now piggyback the new icon to ic #u30. Using a light wattage soldering gun, solder pins ... #1, 7 and 14 of the new IC to pins ... #1, 7 and 14 of IC #u30. Now take a wire from pin#2 of the new ic to pin#12 of IC #u23 (located just behind LED's). Now take a wire from pin#3 of the new IC to pin#12 of the rs-232 connector. Now take your wire to pins# 4,5,9,10, and 12 and solder all these pins together. (we're making a heat-sink to keep the new chip from over heating). After you have soldered all these pins together, solder a wire from board ground (of the modem) to these pins! That's it!! To test what you have just completed .. take a piece of wire and ground the cathode end (banded side) of the HS LED, if all was done correctly .. the HS LED should light, and with a VOM connected to pin #12 on the rs-232 connector,you should read about +8 volts or so. If you're not sure how to do this ... you can mail me your modem along with a money-order for $25.00 to: SYSOP (COLOR-NET) P.O. BOX 2192 PETERSBURG, VA 23804 Be sure to send it by US-MAIL!!! UPS will NOT deliver to a PO BOX!!! We will make the mods, test it and send it back by return mail!
Supplied by the CHAOS BBS Reprinted From MICHIGAN ATARI MAGAZINE by permission.
ATARI 1050 DISK DRIVE REPAIR Defective Head Park Switches By D. R. HAULSEE DESCRIPTION One possible failure of an ATARI 1050 disk drive that will cause endless boot errors is a failure of the sensor that detects if the read head is parked. This sensor is currently NOT AVAILABLE as a replacement part, but MUST be in working order for the drive to operate. This article will help you to replace it with more cofTlllOnly available parts.
Bundled software includes: Worn-Word Worn-Cale Worn-Write Worn-Mon (machine language monitor)
TOOLS ~n=nrn
Atari president Jack Tramiel upon hearing of the new product announcements was heard saying, "Its too bad neither company can compete and deliver on time like Atari Corp."
A Rumor by Brian Reynolds ATARI is suing Apple computers because the "look and feel" of the new color MacIntosh is too much like the ATARI ST.
#2 Phil Ii P~ head screwdriver #1 Phill ,ps Head screwdriver 30 watt maximum soldering iron Small flat blade screwdriver Small needle nose pliers Epoxy or equivalent glue Xacto Knife COVER REMOVAL Turn the 1050 on its back and remove the 6 phillips head screws. Carefully turn the drive back onto its feet and set it down. Gently lift the back of the cover and slide it forward. The front bezel will come off with it.
AVATEX 1200 MODEM MODIFICATION #1: by ColorNet BBS PURPOSE: Add Hi·speed carrier detect compatible.
PARTS NEEDED: · One MC1488 chip Radio Shack #276-2520 (RS-232 driver) Two feet of 20 gauge hook-up wire
DIAGNOSIS to become 100% Hayes
NOTICE: *********DISCLAIMER********** COLOR-NET TAKES NO-RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY THIS MODIFICATION! IF DONE CORRECTLY THIS MOD WILL WORK!
The head assembly slides on tracks and is driven by a stepper motor located to the right of the disk platter. The head assembly has an arm that sticks out to the left. This arm slides into au shaped sensor when the head is retracted.
AST · April, 1987
onnect power to the drive but do not attach it to the corrputer. Turn the drive on (do not put a disk in the drive). As the drive powers up it must find the location of the read head. If the head is parked, it will index the head forward until it clears the sensor and then re park it. If the head was not parked, it will retract the head until it is parked. If the sensor is bad, the head will index forward 1/4 of inch and stop. Every time the drive is turned on the head will index Eventually the head runs out of travel and will bang forward. repeatedly on the forward stop. When connected to a corrputer, you get a boot error because the drive cannot find the boot sectors. As a final test, disconnect the J10 connector on the circuit Do not pull on the wires!!!!! Use the needle nose board. It is the next to last comector on the back left of pliers. the circuit board. When the comector is removed, 4 pins will be exposed on the circuit board. Jump the front two pins on the board together and turn on the drive. If everything else is alright the head will begin to retract. As soon as the head begins moving, turn the drive off and remove the jurrper. If the head did not move backwards then the problem is in the circuit board or the stepper motor. That is beyond the scope of this article. DESCRIPTIOil OF THE
Comect the drive to the computer and atterrpt to boot a 8. SPARTADOS is less sensitive to head location than DOS disk. If the disk boots, run some programs to check that the 2.5. drive can read all disk sectors. If the drive can not read all sectors or will not boot then move the sensor pair a little forward or backwards. My two drives both held a dimension of 7/32 of inch on the gap referenced above. Eventually you will get the correct gap. Be patient. 9. Reassemble the drive cover and you are finished. Supplied by the CHAOS BBS (517) 371-1106
SENSOR
The sensor is c~ed of an infrared LED and an infrared photo Either one of the pair could be bad. I have not transistor. found direct replac:eaents for the11, but, a pair ade by Radio The LED is part rult>er 276 · 143A and the Shack wil l work. receptor is part rult>er 276-145. Please note, these parts are larger than the original parts and will not fit into the existing sensor housing. You will haYe to fabricate a housing for thBI.
PROCEDURE
1 . ~ t h e sensonron,-n\e arive:- The wire tie to tne -frame must be cut.
Cut the sensor from the wires. Orient the plug as it goes 2. Place shrink. ti.bing over the wires and then in the drive. solder the parts to the wires as follows. The order is from front to baclc. 1st wire·e11itter of part 276-145 2nd wire-collector of 276-145
3rd wire-cathode of 276·143A 4th wire-other lead of 276-143A soldering, position the After connect ions and heat it. 3.
Now that the head is being parked, make sure that it is 7. parked in the proper place. As a starting position the back end of the head mechanism should be 3/8 of an inch from the inside boss that holds the arms that the head slides on. If the location is wrong, turn the drive off and move the sensor pair When the drive is turned back on it will re park as required. the head. Continue moving the sensor pair until you get the 3/8 dimension. The sensor pair is only moved with the drive powered off.
shrink
tubing over exposed
Plug the J10 comector back into the circuit board.
Fabricate a mounting that positions the LED vertically 4. The mounting must have fore and aft adjustment looking down. and position the LED above the arm on the head unit. The arm on the head unit must pass under the LED. Ideally,the photo transistor pair should face each other. Unfortunately, there is not enough room under the arm for the receptor. By trial and error I discovered that the receptor can be placed on its side. The LED though must shine directly into the receptor. Fabricate a mounting that positions the receptor 5. horizontally looking toward the head mechanism. The mounting must have fore and aft adjustment and allow the arm on the head unit to pass over it. I cut the original housing into pieces and glued the LED and receptor to halves of the mounting. I then used stand offs to set the parts to the correct height. Turn the drive on. As the drive powers up it will position 6. the head over the sensor pair. If the head will not position, check to make sure that the wires are properly connected.
Siwlied by the CHAOS BBS Reprinted From MICHIGAN ATARI MAGAZINE ST NOTES
by
by
permission.
LeRoy Valley (T.A.G.)
out there looking for hard drive goodies? You know, things like an EXTREMELY fast back~ utility to handle all of those MEG's that you've got lying around, or how about auto booting fran your hard drive without a floppy? Yes, if you act now folks you too can have all of these goodies and more! (If you dich't guess, I'm going to talk mainly about hard drives - -- - · --th rs month.> - - Anybody
But seriously , you don't need to buy a hard drive backup There's a hard drive backup program called Turtle program. (currently avai table on Genie, C~erve, or at our club library) that really is nothing short of amazing. It creates a r111 disk "1ich ~licates a single or dou:>le sided disk exactly. Orce the ra111 disk is full, it does a track by track copy to the floppy in your disk drive. This eliminates the physical head aovement required for writing each file, and the time savings are substantial. As a conparison, a friend of mine who uses Michtron•s Bae:~ utility, backed~ a 6 Meg partition that was full. It took 1 hour, 12 minutes, and 8 disks. Using Turtle it took 11 minutes, and 8 disks! And Turtle is not a bare bones PD It provides you with all sorts of information, like program. the current folder being backed up, the nunber of bytes in the folder, the nunber of bytes remaining in the folder to be backed up, the ruiber of folders that have been opened up, the current floppy nunber, and each file is listed as it is backed up. The only bug that I have found is that Turtle does not back up a file with O bytes, such as some of the printer files in Print Master. Notice that I said the number of OPENED folders, not the number of folders backed up. This is due to the infamous GEM 40 folder That is, if you open more than 40 folders in a session, bug. you could experience a corrputer lock up. Using Turtle, the number of folders opened will be twice as much as the actual number on the hard drive. This is due to the fact that you are recreating each folder on the ram disk. I did not experience any problems until I hit 93 open folders on one of my partitions. At this point, my corrputer displayed those cute little bombs and turned into a deaf mute. After shuffling the folders on my hard drive and reducing the actual number to 39, I backed up the drive without any problems. Now, on to the juicy stuff -· auto booting your hard drive! You can find a file in the General/Disk Utility data library on Genie right now (it's also in our club library!) called HDINSTALL.ARC. This program is designed to install a program on your SH-204 Atari hard drive that will allow it to auto boot
SPACE/MAST · April, 1987 Page 5 when you fire up your trusty old ST. DON'T DESPAIR if you're the proud owner of a Supra hard drive· the program will also However, as they say, there is no free work on your drive! This program requires you to re format your hard drive lunch. and to leave 0.3 MB unused. That's right 0.3 MB! I was just about to install it on my Supra Cl knew that Marc had it running fine on his), and decided that I would call Supra to verify that the drivers for the SH·204 and the Supra were indeed compatible. Supra assured me that I should have no problem, but when the technician learned that the auto boot program I was going to use required the loss of 0.3 MB, he told me to wait for Supra has their own program the Supra Auto Boot program. running in the lab, and it only requires 2 sectors on the hard It should be available in the Atari Developers section drive! on Compuserve by the time that you read this. Along with the auto boot feature, the program will allow you to install as many as 12 partitions! Boy, am I glad that I bought the Supra! (The program will be copyrighted, so it will not be in our club library·· sorry.) I'm going to mention one more item before I call it quits. just received a new book in the mail from Abacus cal led "ST BASIC TO C". This book is designed for people who already know basic and would like to learn C. The book offers clear cut examples in both ST Basic and C, and the author does an excellent job of explaining how to implement basic functions in C. The first chapter is a whirlwind tour of C, and covers all of the basics you need to get started programming in C · for and while loops, printf and scant statements, variables, constants, arrays, if and if-else loops, etc. This chapter gets you going right Na.I. Later chapters cover each of these topics in greater The author does a very good job of presenting the detail. material, and he writes in everyday language. If you want to learn C fast, this book is a 111Jst! Well, that wraps up this month's colt.rm.
competing Detroit area ATARI club, MAGIC about 90 member stron contacted ATARI and took up the torch. They even got SAND AUSTIN, ATARI'S user group contact, to come to Detroit to Hard feelings abound, with some M.A.C.E. merroers discuss it. crying FOUL, since they had not been able to even get Sandy to return some of their calls. Yhat next? Film at 11:00. In CHICAGO, union costs may make the ATARIFEST planned for there simply too expensive to hold. Requirements of unioned employees only to carry all equipment, set up anything electrical, etc. have driven projected costs through the roof. Again, we will tell you more when we know it. MORE PANIC IN DETROIT: ANTIC MAGAZINE'S publisher Jim Capperell to notify them that they had to wrote to Detroit's M.A.C.E. remove any and all ANTIC programs from their BBS. He reaffirmed that they are copyrighted, and to exchange them is PIRACY. Despite previous "understandings" about such things, it now looks like ANTIC wants to play hardball. Nothing was said in the letter about library inclusions of ANTIC material, but that This will be quite a blow to many smaller is probably next. clubs that have had almost nothing else in their club library but ANTIC and ANALOG material. ANALOG went on record last year saying that their materials could not be distributed BEFORE THE PUBLICATION DATE of the magazine, a very reasonable policy. Even a six-month "cooling" period would be understandable ••• does ANTIC really think they are likely to sell their older disks if the programs can't be gotten elsewhere? More likely, they will simply fade altogether. Looks like ANTIC wants to be hard to deal with, then gone like SOFTSIDE magazine... altogether. 8·bit DOS ON A CART: Spartados from !CD is not the only player in the DOSCART game anymore ••• and the competition is coming from MICHEAL WHEELER of ALASKA. He has put ATARI DOS 2.5 on a cart and added true double density support and a ram disk handler. Although it is memory-greedy (16k when resident), the cart can be switched out manually. Another switch handles BASIC in or out. This looks like a basement operation, as plans and code for eprom burning yourself are available for $5, and we
Supplied by the CHAOS BBS (517) 371·1106
Supplied by the CHAOS BBS Reprinted From MICHIGAN ATARI MAGAZINE by permission. ATARI NEWS Compiled by John Nagy The ATARI IBM CLONES may NOT be a reality, on the other hand ••• for a while, anyway. Two problems are are the major hang ups: negotiations for GEM for the machine, and FCC acceptance. Neither area has had any positive movement, despite ATARI'S optimistic projected "spring 1 8711 release of the $500 do·it·all The GEM interface, owned by DIGITAL RESEARCH PC compatible. Inc., would make over 700 ST titles directly portable to the machine, but according to DR!, no agreement is near on the licensing of the interface. Additionally, FCC type acceptance is necessary for any commercial computer product, a process that can take literally forever, but never less than about 40 days. ATARI hasn't even APPLIED for approval, since there is not yet a Industry observers note that the finished production model. amouncement has seriously turned down the purchases of the ST machines, and that the lost sales cannot be made up for within the ATARI line because the new machine isn't ready. This is exactly how OSBORNE COMPUTER CORP. put themselves out of They amounced that a great new business a few years ago. machine would be out shortly, which killed sales of their available product, and then couldn't produce the new product due to lost revenue and production problems. Can't ATARI learn from history? ATARIFESTs for Detroit and Chicago are in trouble. After a long siege of difficulty in negotiations with ATARI, Detroit's 400-plus member M.A.C.E. club threw up their hands and pulled out of the effort, cancelling a planned August 1 87 show for the Southfield Civic Center. Before the body was cold, the
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Sucolieo tv the CHAOS BBS C517) 371 ·' 106
Succlieo ':;v t:ie CHAOS 3BS ~ecrinteo From MICHIGAN ATARI ~AGAZINE by permission. TEXTPl<O \.iORD Pi<OCESSOR (8·bit) PUBLIC ::Ja.1AIN · Developed by Mike Collins ara Ronnie Riche ~evieweo by C'.inton Pierce (G.A.G.) had used the program before, but I "~eview ·extcro?" Sure, didn't ~ave ::ie docs and really oidn't know all of the features. ~ent ana bougnt a cocy from the GAG library. :,OL Y COW! So, This nas got :nore cells ano whistles than ~030 :xcress! ! .=irst of all, ! am using Textcrc '..2a (with extension 2.5e) on an Atari '30 ;;ith a ~am disk set1..0. 7he program's built·in crinter ::cntrol cooes co not ..orl( well wi t:i my Star SG· 10 (t,.Jt these :an ce ::nangea, so easi lv!). ·ie :articular oisk I have ,as all :,f ::ie autnor•s , elo files caccessea by nittir,g OPTION :,r ~EL? ara ::,e accroor'ate ~ev 'or :~e -nenu you want to see). 0
:00':icn :o ad =f :-:e "'=~.al ..oro or:xessor •eatures (Find, :/0 :c,e!"'ati~rs, .,.ove, .=>aste ana aoout t..J mo,.e>, • sUXlOrts ..:ser =e~ • "lea •onts C.., i en :an oe created with :~eate·a·,~t. a ;::,uoli: :ionain •ont -:aKer availaole frc:a most :,1..:0 .:bniries), an u-usua1,y ,arge :iuffer (acout: ~26 sectors, larger :nan Atariw.-iter or Home ~riter), and macros. .:--
=!~Lace, :r-:ser-:,
EXPRESS 'AUTORUN .SYS" and TEXTPRO "DUP SYS , and anv reset from EXPRESS ~ill take you into TEXTPRO •.. while a simcle command from TEXTPRO ..ould return you to EXPRESS •.• all in RAM DISKS if you like for INSTANT S\JAPP!NG. YIKES And if that \.leren' t enough, :he new version has a VERY :~E'/ER ano EASY system to divide and re-merge files that are too Large to ~orK on in one oiece, a proclem that the size of :~e worK space in any woro orocessor often causes. You simoly _olace :he cursor wnere you ~ant to cut off the partially loaoeo oversize The "~oper" part of :he file file, ano press a button. disacpears into a new file (in a RAMOISK if you like) and the file continues to load into the newly opened area of work soace. \Jhen you get to wnere you ~ant to be, edit as you Like, and another keypress reasserrcles the entire file. YIKETY YIKE ! This file divide MACRO will soon be available as an EXTENSION file for use with version 1.2a (which still has it's own virtues that were left out for corrcatibility reasons in version Z.Sr). I also wrote my own MACRO that will take any format file I find (ST, ASCII, ANYTHING!) and in seconds remove, replace, reoo, re format it into 1) the procer style for printing in this magazine 2) another version with all), notation and (paragraph moaifications •or jisclay on the BBS, and 3) yet another for uploading to COMPUSERVE. All while I just watch. EXTENSION files are also plamed for other scecial Additiona1ly, the authors cf TEXTPRO are otanning an ourcoses. 80 ::OLUMN version that snould work with the MIO (from !CO c:RP), the ACE·SO CARTRIDGE (from AMIABLE C:::folPUTING), ano the ATARI 80 •,.i,h this it is ever releaseo). (assuning COlUTl"I box :nodification, 7EXTPRO ;;ill fulfill ALL of my own desires in a word orocessing pacKage, since the current versions co not have Even so, : use 7extoro EXCLUSIVELY now for a "preview" mace. worK in ooth my profession ana for this Magazine.
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DO have two COlll)laints about TEXTPRO. First, sector counts are not displayed in the disk directories, in order to display read the Textpro docs I thought a macro was a f;sh of Until more of them at once. I don't know about anyone else, but the a macro allows In laymans terms: the family ScClll)ridae. ~veral operartomr tooe done·at once using a single keystr'oke.-~-sTie of -a··rfle ,s :MPORTANT to me. Second, if you out TIJO SPACES after a period (a stanoard format for puolications), and So far, I've only usea the macros on the disk, however, there the ..ord ~rao during the orinting causes the second to wrao to are serious possibilities in this. My favorite, (in writing the next line, it is ~OT SUPPRESSED (the first IS, as they 80TH this review) is Swac , it allows me to ..orK on two different You will notice occasionally that there is a should be). oocunents ..sing mv ram disk as a buffer for the second docunent leading soace in a line witnin a oaragracn in this magazine •.• ano :ust-='{ pressing :~e START ::x.Jtton, being able to ..orK on two I hooe that these i terrs are soon it's the :naric of iEXTPRO. t:ii r,;s at once. :Jr, : f you' re :. i ice me, ana can't rememoer how addressed by tne authors of this fine pacKage. :o Rrite a 'llOOifiea blocK '.etter, all you nave to do is create a -nacro :iat sets t..e ::,e form ara fill in the blanics. only DIFFICULT thing about TEXTPRO is the aside, That understanding how such a GREAT PROGRAM can ce PUBLIC DOMAIN! 'lot oruy ::iid :he authors read the llordstar manual and include John Nagy) every ;:iossible feature, :hey also must have spent a few hours with :Je ~e Atari anCi Atari Technical Notes. I have not been able to hang the orogram nor have I been able to do anything to Supplied by the CHAOS BBS snag it that couldn't be fixed with a System Reset. The program C517) 371 · 1106 is fast, its l/0 operations are quicker than other carmercial programs and more foolproof to boot. (Any plans for a spelling checker in the future?) have no major complaints. The Actually, Comolaints Deot: search and replace could be a bit faster (to change "and" to "sard" in a 126 sector docunent takes 92 seconds). This is actually the second review I wrote for Textpro. The first one got wiped out at 1 mn when I loaded a file right over top of it. In my drowsiness I thought it ..ould merely append it to the This is where a message like "Erase File in Memory bottom. (y/n)" ..ould be really helpful. •• In conclusion, I ..ould just like to say that Textpro is MUST for anybody who does serious word processing. It is public domain, meaning that you can download it from you local BBS or buy it from your Atari User Group. In my opinion, this program could blow out most other coomercial programs and ..ould make an to any library (Be sure to get the addition excellent accompanying Doc files too). (PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The TEXTPRO revolution in word processing is Already another new version C2.5r) has been just beginning. released that allows use with a RS-232 handler in place. Now that might not seem like rruch, but the doc for the new version suggests putting it on the same disk as EXPRESS 850 •.• call
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