SPACE Newsletter - May 1988

May 1988

MAY• 1988

SPACE Meeting Friday, May 13th at 7:30pm MAST Meeting Friday, May 20th at 7:30pm At the Falcon Heights Community Center 2077 Larpenteur Avenue West

MAST+ Programmers Meeting Monday, May 23rd at 7:30pm At First Minnesota Bank Building - second floor Lexington and Larpenteur, in back of building

Minnesota Atari ST

SPACE/MAST N EWSLETTER

~ ~o~o~o@o~

DISCLAIMIIB

Published by the St. Paul ATARI Computer Enthusiasts (SPACE), and Minnesota Atari ST (MAST) group, an independent organization with no business affiliation with ATARI Corporation. Permission is granted to any similar organization with which SPACE/MAST exchanges newsletters to reprint material from this newsletter. We do, however, ask that credit be given to the authors and to SPACE/MAST. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SPACE/MAST, club officers, club members or ATARI Corporation.

SPACE/MAST BULLETIN BOABDS SPACE/MAST East (XE)- BBS Phone: (612)-n4-0135

Sysop: Bruce Haug (Home Phone: 77 4-6226) SPACE/MAST West (ST)· BBS Phone: (612)-560-9254

Sysop: Steve Pauley (Home Phone: 560-2917)

President 636-2415 Larrry Vanden Plas Vice President 699-2422 John Novotny Secretary 455-6515 Ernie Costello Treasurer (SPACE/MAST) 489-3982 Bob Siede Disk Librarian 777-9500 Joe Danko Joe Peasley Paper Librarian 721 -4180 Jim Scheib Newsletter Editor (SPACE/MAST) 560-291 / Steve Pauley

President Jim Schulz Vice President Phil Seifert Secretary Dan Stubbs Disk Librarian Jim Schulz Paper Librarian Neil Palo aari M mb r hip Ch Ir All n I rink D mo Coordin tor Phil S lfort

537-5442 (W) 559-4690 433-3708 537-5442 646-1272 482-7911 (W) 559-4690

NEWSLE'l"l'ER ADVERTISING BA'l'ES: 1/2 page - 4' vertically x 5 1/8' horizontally-$ 15/mo., $140/yr Full page - 8' vertically X 5 1/8' horizontally - $25/mo .. $240/yr Club members classified • 50¢ per 40 characters, $2.50 minimum pc r d. Send to : Steve Pauley • 2547 - 83rd Court N. • Brooklyn Park, MN 1111444

MAY• 1988

if11D BYTES from the ~I' SPACEPBES

by Larry Vanden Plas Last weekend I saw the Atari 80 column box in action. This weekend Rick at User Friendly was kind enough to volunteer to demonstrate the 80 column box at the May SPACE meeting . My reactions were somewhat different than some of the reviews I have read. For example, I read the graphics were slow. However it seemed to write them quickly to the screen. The "box· plugs into either joy stick port and the cable coming out of it plugs into the composite receptacle on the monitor. Might this mean we will buy low cost monochrome monitors and add them to the color monitors many of us have? Come to the meeting and tel I me what you think. It seems that the trio of new hardware we have been waiting for has arrived in town and has been bought. The doublesided, triple-speed disk drive sold out in one day, but it was here. The 1200 baud modem is available and so is the 80 column box mentioned above. Supplies are limited and not all the pieces are in place. ADOS is still not available so it is hard to use the double-sided drive as intended. The Express! terminal program for the Atari SX212 1200 baud modem is not ready yet. However I understand our sister SPACE (Seattle-Puget Sound Atari Computer Enthusiasts) has modified 850 Express to use with the SX212 without an extra interface. The software for the 80 column box, like AtariWriter 80, is still not here. However the box provides a parallel port which can be used now. If you were going to buy an interface for the printer port you might consider the "box." By the way, the 80 column box is in the very same "box· as the SX212. Recently I picked up a copy of the April Computer Shopper. There were three articles on 8-bit Atari computers.

One called "Applying the Atari" talked about the success of the XE Game System, the ICX keypad (works with any software), a memory upgrade for the XE Game System, Easy Scan (digitally scans an image using the printer) and RAMcharger (the CP/M emulator for the 8bit and Indus drive). Another article covered Do It Yourself Keyboard Repair for the different Atari computer in a detailed, step by step manner. It was mentioned they planned to present short self help repairs for Modems, Disk Drives and Printers in the future . The third article dealt with news about the 8-bit. More on this at the meeting. Joe Danko has been giving us such good software on the Disk of the Month that we have not had time to do it justice. Take a look back. I have found the EZREAD program to be worth the price of the disk. We are very interested in reviews of items (software, hardware, etc.) for the 8 bit. Please share a little of what you may have recently learned. Please talk to us at the meeting if you would like to share. The upper Midwest's Largest Electronics & Computer Swap and Show will be held at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand on Friday, June 3rd, 6 to 1O PM and Saturday, June 4th, 6AM to 4 PM. More info at the meeting

A V

After Last Night (from the VP)

by John Novotny "Last Night" is almost three weeks behind, so its about time for some more 8-bit words . So what's happening (glad you asked). First, I have to tell you about my experiences of getting acquainted with M.U.L.E .. a classic game of investing and reaping, made especially for the 800 computer. This is one of the few games which uses all four game ports, but I was assured that it also runs on an 800XL (is it true that the two 800XL game ports control STICKs O and 2, 1 and 3 respectively ?). Well, it was disappointing that the

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER version of M. U .L.E. I bought did not run on my 800XL. It seems that at least two versions of the program were released, both dated 1983. The version I have requests that the cartridge at address $C000 be removed at boot time. This message is bypassed with the use of a Translator (the ATARI version from the SPACE Ii brary seems to get the furthest), but the program stalls shortly into the setup. My question is this - can this be fixed (like by re-writing a patched sector ?) - else it will be for sale at the May meeting. But not before we get to show it off. At the meeting, there will be an ATARI 800 computer, sufficient numbers of joysticks, plus some M.U.L.E. addicts to show off these oldies. So join the fun, and the game if you can wrestle the stick from one of these old-timers. Second, the theme for this meeting was to have been "advanced applications", and one of the ATARI biggies we wanted to present was the MIO device from ICD. We thought we were going to get at least one fish to talk about and possibly bring one, but there seems to be other fish on people's minds in mid-May in Minnesota. As many of you know, the MIO is an 850 interface unit plus memory expansion, utilized well by SPARTA DOS. Our BBS uses an MIO, and was run almost exclusively on it until quite recently. We are still interested in hearing more about this unit first-hand from users, and will reschedule this for a later meeting unless one or more of you can help us out this month. One more thing we need someone to look at. On last month's DOM, Joe included a fancy utility type MENU program that is supposed to load just about any type of program (BASIC SAVE or LIST format, and binary format). Well, I ran it after booting using a different disk, and didn't get the expected results. It seems that the variable which is supposed to get setup with the selected file name doesn't get setup properly. I have not been able to find the time to track this down. If someone else experienced this and has a fix,

please share it with others who may like it. Till the meeting then, remember what Smokey says - you can throw a burning horse in the water, but you can't put out the spark in the eye of a M.U.L.E.y addict.

News from the land of

ATABI 8 bit public domain software!:

by Joe Danko and Greg Peasley SPACE Disk of the Month, May 1988 SIDEA: RAMDSKM.COM 007 - DOS 2.5 Ramdisk initializer modified by John Novotny to check for a previously loaded ramdisk 'D:8' and then leave it alone, otherwise format and load normally. The DOS.SYS must also be modified to load the renamed file, 'RAMDSKM.COM'. One way is to use a text editor such as TEXTPRO and load DUP.SYS and then search and replace RAMDISK.COM with RAMDSKM.COM. CHEMDRIL.BAS 038 - A computerized chemistry quiz in ATARI BASIC. CHOPR21.BAS 025 - Breaks up large text files into smaller ones. This one works with double-density. ATARI BASIC MILBORN.BAS 082 - The classic card/driving game, MILLE BORNE. ATARI BASIC NEON.BAS 038-Simple but interesting graphics demo. ATARI BASIC OCTDRAW.BAS 017 - Graphics multiple drawing demo. ATARI BASIC QUADRAW.BAS 013 - Another graphics multiple drawing demo. ATARI BASIC SGTPEPPR.BAS 053 - Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Music in BASIC. SKYDIVER.BAS 043-Jump out of the aircraft with the joystick trigger, open your chute by pulling back on joystick and then steer to the landing pad with the joystick left/right. Machine Language. TBASTIMF.RAS 009 -A fix for TURBOBASIC. See TBASTIME.DOC. WATRFALL .AAS 032 - Grahics in ATARI BASIC.

MAY• 1988 MOONBEAM.COM 049 - Sort of a lunar shooting gallery. Use a joystick. Machine . Language. NITEMARE.COM 016 - Use a joystick, I'm not sure exactly how it's supposed to work. Good luck! Machine Language. ROADBLOK.COM 011 -Another racing line game. Use a Joystick. Machine Language. ROUNDUP.COM 022 - Cattle roping with a joystick. Machine Language. PAGE1.DOC 015 PAGE2.DOC 015 PAGES.DOC 012 PAGE4.DOC 012 PAGES.DOC 009 PAGE6.DOC 006-Asix page advertisement. TBASTIME.DOC 011 - The DOC file for the TURBOBASIC fix. VIRUSUPD.DOC012-An interesting article about the spread of a software 'virus' SIDEB: SYS 106 - Public domain MACH DOS called MACHDOS. Mostly compatible with DOS 2.0, it has additional capabilities such as double density and builtin ramdisk handlers for 130XE, AXLON and 800+. It also can be configured to be resident in memory. MCHCON SCA 049 - MACHDOS configuration routine. MCHPRT SCR 076 - MACHDOS intelligent printing routine. MACH37 DOC 147 - MACHDOS documentation. AUTORUN SYS 288 - Digitized sound demo of 'DON'T CRY' by ASIA. Boot with no BASIC. DAISY-DOT/DOT-MAGIC/FO NT CONVERTER - The featured application this month is a little specialized but very effective. It can only be used by those who have an 800XL, 1200XL or 130XE and an EPSON orSTAR-MICRONICS dotmatrix printer. Other EPSON compatible printers may also work. The package offered by the SPACE library consist of two double-sided disks with three main appli-

El cation programs and a large collection of character fonts. DAISY-DOT: A custom text printer that allows the selection of a customized font to print text. It includes a character font editing program. Text is printed using dot graphics. DOT-MAGIC: An enhancement of Daisy-Dot that prints text in the same way but is much more powerful. It has a command set that allows a different font on each line, allows insertion of MICRO PA INTER/MICRO ILL USTRATOR pictures with text. There are also centering, underlining and bold commands available. Dot-Magic can also print labels, picture files and operate with your printer as a typewriter simulator. FONT-CONVERTER: A BASIC program that processes any ATARI internal character font file into a Daisy-Dot/DotMagic font file in any one of four sizes.oolncluded on the Font-Converter disk are a large number of DD/OM fonts. Also included are a number of ATARI fonts that may be processed into the various DD/OM sizes. Daisy-Dot and Dot-Magic are both in the form of compiled TURBOBASIC, hence the need for a 64K machine. FontConverter is ATARI BASIC but will run with the TURBOBASIC interpreter. In fact, with TURBOBASIC it runs about twice as fast. I compiled it and it ran twice as fast again but errored. All three applications will boot by just turning on the power with OPTION depressed. ANALOG MAGAZINE has come through again and we will have the May Analog DOM #60 available for sale to registered Analog subscribers along with older Analog disks available for anyone.

Did you know you can buy blank& 1/4" and blank 3 1 /2" Disk at both SPACE & MAST Meetings?

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER

8Bit V Q&A

by Larry Vanden Plas Q. How can I tell which version of Atari Basic I have? A. Insert the Atari BASIC cartridge into the computer or in the case of a XL/XE computer don't hold the option key down when you turn on the computer. Turn on the computer with the disk drive off. After the "READY" prompt comes up, type "PRINT PEEK(43234)". If the computer prints "162" you have version A, if "96" version B and if "234" version C. Q. What is the problem with the Atari XM301 modem? A. Four of the wires inside the modem case are not used and may have exposed wires which can come into contact with the printed circuit board inside of the modem. This could damage the modem, computer and/or something in between. In some cases the wires are sticking out beyond the insulation or are flush with the end of the insulation. This can be cured by taping the ends with electrical tape or covering them with shrink tubing, a ball of plastic cement or sealing adhesive. Some people have reported an incompatibility between the XM301 and the Indus GT disk drives. I had an Indus, that was used with the XM301, become intermittant and stop working. Q. What is the address for the manufacturers of Indus GT disk drives? A. The Indus disk drives are manufactured by: Future Systems, Inc.; 21634 Lassen; Chatsworth, CA 91311.

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SPACEApril

Meeting Minutes

by Ernie Costello 1. The meeting was called to order Aprii 8, 1988 at 7:30 PM by President Larry Vanden Plas.

2. Treasurers Report: Bob Siede. March income was $170, expenses $123 ' with a balance of $407.98. 3. Vice President's Report: John Novotny. John reported disappointment with "Compute!" magazine's lack of eight-bit items and recommmends droppi_ng subscriptions. Next month's meeting will feature languages and utilities. Contibutions are welcome as are requests for specific programs we might have in our library. 4. President's Report: Larry Vanden Plas. Except for Phil Siefert representing SPACE/MAST and Tom Green representing TAIG, there was no others interested in sponsoring an Atari Fair. Consequently the idea will be dropped for now. 5. Offers and Deals. Best Byte has File Write, a file manager-like program which writes your custom program in BASIC, for $2.50. It doesn't work with revised BASIC B however. Joe Danko will demo "Programmers Pal" and bring order blanks. 6. Service and Problems. Someone with a damaged disk asked about a sector copier. Bob Siede said he had one that ~ight_ co~y and told the member to bring his disk In to the next meeting. Ernie Costello Asked how to get a 400/800 game cartridge to work on a XL/XE. Some cartriges are designed so they will work. However "Ultra Fix" will run cartriges and translate 400/800 disks. 7. Rumors: The Atari using the Motorola 68030 chip is a big hit in Europe."Newsroom" is now available for the eight-bit machines. 8. Old Business: Larry asked for volunteers to solicit and edit ads for the newsletter. 9. DOM: oe Danko demoed the DOM along with a musical background program. 10. Demos: Joe Danko demonstrated his array of communications programs with some dazzling features for BBS buffs.

MAY• 1988

11!111 Notesfrom Ill theEditor

by Steve Pauley JUNE Newsletter Deadline · Articles: If you would like to write something for the May newsletter, you must upload it to the SPACE or MAST bbs by May 29th. If you don't have a modem maybe someone else can upload it for you. You can also

mail your articles to me on a disk. I can read Atari ST, IBM and Mac disks but not Atari 8 bit. Give me a call at 560-2917 evenings if you need more info. Ads: All ads must be received by May 30th to appear in the May issue. The Ads should be accompanied with your check for payment. Check inside front cover of this newsletter for rates and sizes.

Spring Time Sale

20% Off On all Software, Magazines, and Accessories.

New Store Hours

Monday - Friday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Saturday & Sunday 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Sale Prices Are Good Thru The End Of May 1988.

User Friendly Computers 786-8181

II P.I

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER

~ 11ewsfromlhe

seminar will start with a general talk on the subject defining terms and general features of all programs. Then each program will be looked at specifically. Following the talk, all programs will be running on a

By Jim Schulz It's the start of another month and it's time for more news from the world of MAST and Atari. We had another good meeting last month with lots of news and rumors and demos as well. I would like to thank Dave Meile for filling in for the bowling Phil Siefert. But it just wasn't the same last month without our resident court jester in the month of fools. But he has guaranteed me that he will be here this month!!!! With bells on???? Oh, well, we will see ..... . Let's see ..... What do we have planned for the months ahead???? For June, we will have our second MidiMaze tournament. If you missed the last one, this is a must see meeting. This is something else, especially when you see Phil and Todd fight it out with Steve hiding out for the quick kill. ... For July, we have a member appreciation night planned. No details on this yet, but they will be coming soon. For August, we will have a gamefest where you bring your computer and your favorite game along to the meeting and show it off to the members and see what other games are available as well. There might also be a Phil vs. Steve vs. Todd shootout as well here with Oids, if Phil can figure out how to play.... More details on this coming as well. .. Finally, in September, we will have our second swap meet to again allow you to clean out your closets with old games and fill them up with new ones. That's what the schedule looks like for the summer .... Lots of special meetings and surprises as well. So don't miss a meeting .... Also this summer, starting in July, MAST will start a quarterly special topic seminars. These seminars will include wordprocessing, data bases, spreadsheets, telecommunications, and desktop publishing to name a few. Each

separate ST along with a knowledgeable user to answer questions. This is great way to get exposed to a number of software packages and to compare features. Phil has volunteered to do the first on either wordprocessing or data bases. These types of seminars have been real popular with SPACE in the past and should be quite informative to MAST members as well. These seminars are starting based on your responses from the MAST survey in January. Survey results will continue next month. Let's see, we've look at the past and future .... what is left???? How about this month???? Let's see ..... We will have lots and lots of DOMs, all sorts of news and rumors, and demos as well. Demos, this month, will include Word Up (the new GOOS compatible word processor), Turbo ST (the software blitter for the ST), Rockford (another in the Boulderdash game series), Missile Command (new Atari classic for the ST), and possibly Fontz (a new font converter/font editor) and Neodesk (a desktop replacement program). Sounds like lots of good stuff is coming out again ..... Also, as an experiment, we will be offering five MAST DOMS for the price of four. Yes, if you buy four MAST DOMs, you get the fifth one free. This is a great offer to get the latest month's disks at a great price or to fill in the gaps in your collection. Like I said, a lot is planned for the month ahead .... Oh, I almost forgot, as well as, all of this ... Steve will be showing off the MAST BBS as well and giving you a chance to ask questions and signup at meeting to get online. If you have always wondered what the BBS has looked like and never had a chance, stop by and see what you are missing. Like I said, a lot is in store for this month .... Also on the Monday following the

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llillP M.A8T Pres

MAY• 1988 MAST meeting, we will have the monthly This MAST+ programmers meeting. month, we will demo and show you how to get set up as a UUCP node and enter the special STdNET network as well. If this sounds confusing, it is.... But this will allow you to exchange message with other MAST members and gain access to USENET, a UNIX mail/BBS service, as well. I have seen the software by MAST's Dale Schumacher in action and it looks super. If you have been wondering what this strange talk on the BBS is about, come and see for yourself and sign up as well. This should prove to be a very interesting meeting. As always, MAST+ meets at the First Minnesota building at •Lexington and Larpenteur at 7:30pm on the Monday following the MAST meeting. I hope to see you all there!!!!! Disk sales ..... I have again found a very good supplier of 3.5' double-sided disks. I currently have 100 in stock and plan on getting more before the meeting. My old dealers is up to a 8 to 12 weeks delay so I had to go elsewhere. There is only one drawback ... These disks will cost 'a nickel more each. So double-sided disks will now sell for $1.15 each. If I find a cheaper price in the future, the price will again drop. Disks are still real tight in the bulk/cheap disk market. In addition to the · double-sided disks, I have also found a source for 3.5' over-the-top disk labels. I got a good price, but I had to buy 2500 to get them. MAST will be selling the labels at $2.00 per 100, which is dirt cheap , considering the going price is five cents a label. They will only be sold in groups of 100. If you want these labels, leave me a message on the MAST BBS or give me a call. I will bring some to the meeting, but I am not too interested in hauling a lot of labels, just so noone buys them. Also, I will have some samples at the meeting as well and I will be putting together a disk of public domain label programs as well to use with these labels at a special price. So if you have been looking for labels, your search is over!!!!!! One more note,

IEI our official disk tester Chuck Purcell will give these new disks the once over formatting them and give his opinion on these new disks atthe next meeting. Also, as always, the standard disk labels will be available free for the taking as well. No need to buy disks to get these. Newsletter.... We should have another good round of articles again this month. A new column starting this month by Dave Meile is a look at public domain software and how it can be used. There is so much good stuff outthere thatDave wi II review a program or two each month and tell you what he thinks. This month, he looks at Todd Burkey's Diskscan program. Also by Dave this month, there is an portion of the virus tutorial article from this month's MAST Newsdisk. Check out this article to see what a virus is and what types of articles can be found on the MAST Newsdisk. Finally, I am again appealing for a volunteer to help collect ads for the newsletter. More ads mean a bigger newsletter. The Atari stores in town want to support MAST and SPACE, but we must go to them. All you need to do is call the stores and pick up the ads and get them to Steve. If you would like to volunteer, give me a call or see me at the meeting. Thanks for listening. BBS ..... Need I say more???? The BBS has been quite busy lately, almost too busy. The ST Reports are again up to date with more coming each week. Also check out the conversion on the STdNET for Atari developers as well. As always, feel free to leave your questions and I'm sure you will get an answer. We are again looking at new BBS software, so stay tuned for more news. A great source for ST news, rumors, and downloads ..... Book Library .... Last month, we received two more donations to the book library, one from Dave Meile and another from Robert Dahlen(I believe). Thanks for your donations. Neil will be putting together a list soon of what is available and will upload it to the MAST BBS for your browsing pleasure.

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER

HAMFEST.... We will be participating in this year's HAMFEST at the Minnesota State Fair grounds on the first weekend in June. I hope that we will have the necessary information by the meeting. The HAMFEST is the biggest personal computer fair of the year in town and we hope to pick some new ST owners as well. Since the show runs both Saturday and Sunday, we will need volunteers to man the booth and show off the wonders of the ST. We will be taking names at the meeting and giving out more detailed information as well. MAST again continues to spread ...... . Membership in Memberships... MAST just continues to grow which shows that MAST is a thriving user group. If you have a problem with your newsletter, need your address changed or need a membership card, see Allan or me at the next meeting and we will take care of you. In the months to come, we will be soliciting membership from the MAST BBS rolls and with the help of a new volunteering John Pritchard. We have over 500 ST owners on the MAST BBS so we have a lot of potential for future members. Thanks John for your help. Miscellaneous stuff ..... First, check out the latest on the Current Notes group buy and the ST Applications group buy in the magazine update column this month. Second, Dave Meile has finished another MAST Newsdisk and we will have it at the next meeting. A great deal for only $2.00. Expect to hear more at the next MAST meeting. Third, I am still taking orders for the Universal Item Selector. For $10.50, it is a great deal. For those still waiting, I am working on it and I will be making some calls. You will have your disks at the next MAST meeting. Also, we should have news as well about a new group buy for a new desktop alternative called Neodesk. I am looking into their user group offer and will have more at the next meeting. Finally, last month at the meeting, I showed a new ST helpful tips book called "Helpful Hints for the Atari ST or Mega User". Here is the ordering infor-

mation. Send $14.95 plus $2.00 for shipping to Bill Skurski Enterprises/10393 Almayo Avenue/Los Angeles, CA 90064. Lots of good news .... . Well, that's a wrap for May... Lots of new stuff and more to come as well. Let's see what the envelope has to say this month..... First, a couple of games ..... I have been playing a lot of Rockford, the new Boulderdash sequel, and Blockbuster, a new Breakout-like variation, and Impossible Mission 11, an action-adventure game where you try and solve the mystery. For other programs, Turbo ST has been speeding up my text as I type and Tempest has been speeding up my development as wel I. These are just a few of the goodies this month. I am also looking forward to Shadow, the background downloading utility for FLASH coming soon as well. Well, the envelope is closing so I had better get out.... I hope to see you all at the May MAST meeting and the May MAST+ programmers meeting as well as on the MAST BBS. Happy computing!!!

Im AprillVIAST ~ Meetin,t Minutes by Dan Stu'Ebs The April Mast meeting was opened by President Jim Schulz. Dave Meile filled in for Vice President Phil Seifert. After announcements about the ribbon re-inking service available to MAST members (bring your old ribbons to the meeting and leave them for re-inking, the cost is $1.00), Jim explained that the anticipated 3.5' disk shortage had appeared and the club is back-ordered on double sided blank disks. Next, Jim reviewed the contents of the seven April DOM's, see Jim's article for a complete description. The MAST book and magazine library is growing, Neal will post a list of library books on the BBS. Please let him know in advance of a meeting if tbere is something that you want to borrow; the library is getting awkward to haul to each MAST meeting. The Treasurer's report was

MAY• 1988 $763.52 in the bank account. Four new MAST members were signed up during the past month. Demo's included 'Universal Military Simulator', Microsoft Write, Publisher ST, and Block Buster. A special subscription offer of $17 per year to 'Current Notes' will be available to MAST members if at least 6 people sign up, talk to Jim Schulz. In the News and Rumors segment of the meeting Chuck Purcell described the CEBIT show in Hannover, Germany with 10,000 different computers in 17 different buildings. Chuck reported that the ATARI booth was very crowded but not much new was being shown. Dave Meile reported on a new word processor 'Word Up' that uses GOOS and costs about $80. Dave also reported on disk viruses that have been talked about recently (a program on one of this month's DOM's can detect and remove a virus in the boot sector of the disk). Jim reported that a new desk top alternative to the GEM desktop called 'Neo Desk' is coming out May 1st. It was reported that COMPUTE ST will be gone after a last issue in July and that STLOG may be gone after two more issues. ATARI Corp. was reported to be number 484 in the Fortune 500. At the Programmer's Meeting on Monday night following the MAST Meeting, Chuck Purcell demonstrated some of his recent work and Todd Burkey showed HDSCAN and an editor called 'Tempus'. Following these Dave Meile opened discussion on the formation of an independent Atari developers' group to answer questions, propose standards and to provide examples of programming code that addresses particular problems. People interested in participating in such a group should contact Dave.

•

Children WillPJJQ-

By Phil Seifert Well, well, well. I am back again. My apoligies to anyone who was expecting a column from me last month, but I was called out of town the same day I was planning on writing and uploading my article to the MAST BBS. However, I was not as lucky to be called out of town this month, so here I sit in front of my Atari ST using a public domain word processor, writing to you this month. Maybe what I should write about this month is what is public domain, shareware, and commercial software? All I know is when I talked to the editor this month, he said he could use more mindless drivel for the newsletter. It sounded like a challenge to me! There have been many arguments in the past, not necessarily within our users group, about what is public domain, what is shareware, and what is commercial software. Also, which should be made available through the club libraries. Sometimes there seems to be fundamental lack of knowledge about what is legal to pass around and what is illegal. Public domain software and shareware software are legal. Obviously commercial software is not legal to give to your friends. So, I will attempt to explain the differences between each catagory. Public domain means exactly what the name implies. The author of the program has released any DISTRIBUTION rights he/she may have. Sometimes the author might also release the source code to the program. However, just because a program has been released to the public domain, it does not follow that the software is not copyrighted. Many authors choose to copyright their work. If this is the case, the program (and source code if included) can not be used in whole or part of someone elses program without permission of the programmer. So, anyone who contemplates just borrowing a piece of code from a public domain piece of software, should receive permission

MAY• 1988

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER

from the original author to use his/her coding. Don't worry too much about this, as many authors also let others do this to help further programmer advances. Shareware has one similarity to public domain software. It came about many years ago (about 5 or 6 which is a long time for computers) when some programmers for the IBM PC computer had some nice software they had developed. I think the first case of shareware was PC Write. Here was a nice little word processor that someone had spent much time writing and developing it. But when he felt it was good enough to distribute, there was no commercial market for it. The PC world of word processors was already locked up by other programs such as WordStar. So, this individual came up with a plan, just let anyone who wants to have the program, have it. It was his hopes that if they liked the program and would like real technical support, updates, and printed manual that they would send him some money to reimburse his costs for development. Thus, shareware as it is understood today was born. A program that you might have spent time creating but might not have a real feasible commercial market could be distributed to anyone who might want it. This is the only manner in which shareware is similar to public domain. The author definitely has reserved all of his/ her rights to the program other than distribution rights. Usually you can tell if software is shareware by astatementfromthe programmer somewhere in either the program or the documentation that it is such and if you use or expect to utilize the software frequently you should compensate the programmer on your honor. Sometimes there is a fixed fee asked for by the author, othertimes it is left to your discretion. This is a method that many of the excellent pieces of software comes to the ST world. Often times, the shareware program is far superior in quality to anything released to the public domain. If you do reward the programmer, you might find that there has been updates and

revisions to improve the program. Commercial software is any program that is sold. Note, this does not mean that public domain anthologies of PD & Shareware programs are commercial. When you purchase a DOM, you are buying the time it took the person who created it to assemble the software and write to the diskettes. Most commercial software is sold through stores or magazines. These are definitely no-nos when it comes to including on public domain diskettes. Another type of software that is also commercial might surprise you. These are the programs you type in or receive from your computer magazines. There have been major disagreements with many people about this one, but be assured they are fully protected by copyright laws. Just because a program was printed in a magazine does not mean you can give it to just anyone, only to people who have purchased that particular magazine. Most magazines are sold the copyrights of the programs by the authors when they sell their articles. Putting out a magazine costs real money and they do not necessarily make it all up on advertising revenue (if they did, why would they charge for the magazine?). Sometimes, as in the case of Analog, a publication will release the software to the public domain after the sale of the issue containing the program is over. Other times, as in Antic, they maintain strict distribution rights, period. So if you run into a neat piece of software from a magazine and want to share it with your friends, check carefully if the magazine or the author allows you to doso. So what does this all mean to you, the club member? Probably nothing, other than enhancing your understanding of what is public domain, shareware, and commercial software. It also means that I succeeded in getting more drivel printed in the newsletter. Next month, I am going to talk about a big game that some really big people are playing. And everyone is involved in one way or another. See everyone at the meeting!

Dlaks II.Aft ottheKonth

By Jim Schulz Time for more MAST DOMs ...... Lots of new stuff as well as some old, but as always the best in the public domain .... So let's check out last month's selection first. #78 - Uniterm V2.0c 008 (Latest version of Uniterm with more macros) #235 - Sheet V1.41 (Public Domain Spreadsheet program with desk acc.) #239 - April DOM #1 (Utilities) #240 - April DOM #2 (Applications) #241 - April DOM #3 (Games) #242 - April DOM #4 (More Games, and GFA programs) #243 - April DOM #5 (Demos and music programs) Well, that's what last month looked like. This is not as much as I had hoped, but it still is a good selection. Boy, do we have disks for May now!!!! Let's first look at some DOM news and then on to this month's selection of goodies. Disk problems.... I again had some problems with disks again last month. I am spending a great amount of time this month trying to nail down the problem. I thank you for your patience. If you got a bad disk, please bring it to the next meeting for a replacement. Thank you. Prices .... All MAST DOMs are $6.00 each. In addition, the MAST news disk, the ST News disk and the doc disk are $2.00. Updates on old disks are $2.00 with the return of the original disk. Except for this month, we are also running a special. If you buy 4 MAST DO Ms, you get thefifthonefree. Whatadeal!!! Fivedisks for less than $5.00 each. If you have been looking for some old disks, now is the time to fill them in!!!! Doc disks .... Yes, I missed it again last month, but it will return this month with Todd Burkey's great new DISKSCAN program. Check it out. For the $2.00 price, itcan'tbebeat. Yes, I know!!! Dave Meile will be reviewing this program elsewhere so see what Dave thinks and scan

m for those old DOMs. STNews .... Yes, theyalsogotlostlast month. But they will appear this month and from what I've seen they are some of the best DOMs around. I am spending a lot of my free time getting these ready for this month. Wecurrentlyhave 15disksso expect a goodly number this month. For the $2.00 member • price, this is a steal. Dave Meile will demo one of these disks at the next meeting. Well, that's the news and now on to the public domain software..... ANALOG - Last month, we had had no ANALOG disks, but I should have at least four this month including the infamous Floyd the Droid. So if you are looking for Floyd, then this is the month. Sheet V 1.41 - Yes, the ST public domain spreadsheet program just keeps getting better. This month, he has redone the documentation and included tutorials and hints as well. This update is available for $2.00 and your original disk. Uniterm - Yes, one more update. This Uniterm keeps getting bigger. month, I will introduce a Uniterm support disk with sample macros, utilities and more to be used with Uniterm. Once you buy the update disk, both disks can be updated for $2.00 with replacement disks. Yes, this version includes more bug fixes and removes the problem with XMODEM file transfers. Shanghai - Game and demo time again. This is a playable demo of the game Shanghai from Activision. If you like solitaire games, you will like this program. The game itself is a little old, but the program is still one of the best around. DeskPac Plus - This is a multi-feature desk accessory with a phonebook, appointment book, scientific calculator, notepad, file delete and copy, and a freeram indicator. All this plus the source code as well. This program was sold for the last six months and now the author has made everything shareware. Everything works and nothing is left out. This is really something special. This got bumped last

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER

month for sheer size. The program will be available on one disk with docs and two disks of source will also be available as well. Very nicely done. Games .... This month, we have some good ones including Pengo, the Atari arcade game done very well, Corewars, the computer vs. computer game, and finally Cribbage for both color and monochrome. JIL CadHave you ever wanted a full CAD package for a cheap price??? Well, this is it. This program, originally to be released through Migraph, is a full-featured CAD program. This is shareware and a smaller version of a larger package. This program requires a monochrome monitor and a double-sided drive, but is well worth it. I saw it a couple of months ago and couldn't believe that it was shareware!!! ST Applications - As an incentive to try outthe magazine, ST Applications has placed the whole February issue on disk. Articles and programs as well. Check this out and see if you like the magazine. For this special disk, we have a special price of $3.00 as well. Check it and check out the special disk discount in this month's Magazine Update. Arcshell and PKunARC-Yes, we now have another version of the ARCshell, now we have disk operations added as well as a new user-friendly interface. Also, we have a new very small utility which will unARC ARC files compressed with PKARC as well as the normal ARC. All sorts of good stuff. Mark Johnson C - Yes, another update for this month .... This is the new and improved version of the public domain C compiler from Mark Johnson. Initial reaction has been quite good to this program. He has added more so it might be two single disks instead of one. If so, you can upgrade for $5.00 for both. What a deal on the best public domain C compiler around ..... What else .... Well, how about a new spell checker, a two column printing program, a flip animation program for DE-

GAS pictures, a do-all disk utilities desk accessory, a mouse-driven football game, a new update to the Statistically Accurate Baseball game.... How is that for starters????? Well, that'sasampleofwhatwehave for this month with more coming every day. I have so much good stuff this month that I had better stop before I fill up the whole newsletter. Check out the MAST BBS the week of the meeting of the latest update on this month's DOMs. As always, I do my best to put out as much good stuff as possible given the time that I have available. Last month, I ran into a number of problems with work and troces so a number of disks were dropped at the last minute. But I will keeptrying!!!Asalways, expect the best from the MAST DOM. If you can't make the meeting and would still like to get ahold of the DOM or would like to get ahold of the DOC disk, my address is: 3264 Welcome Avenue North Crystal, MN 55422 That's it for May. It's time for more work!!!! Yet another great month of disks is expected in May and make sure to take advantage of this month's special as well. All sorts of good stuff is coming soon..... I hope to see you all at this month's MAST meetings and on the MAST BBS.

A V

Magazine

Update

By Jim Schulz Here we go again with another round of the monthly magazine update and news, rumors and comments about the world of Atari magazines.... So let's start with this month's list of magazines: Magazine ceived

Issue Date

Date

Re-

----ANALOG ANTIC Atari Explorer Compute! Compute! ST

May 1988 June 1988 May/June 1988 June 1988 June/July 1988

April 11th April 21st April 30th April 30th April 28th

MAY• 1988 Current Notes Reset ST Applications START ST Informer ST-Log STX-Press ST World

April 1988 Feb./March 1988 May 1988 Special IBSue #3 May 1988 May 1988 April 1988 Aprll 1988

April 13th April 20th May 2nd April 21st May 2nd April 12th April 6th April 7th

Please note: Some of the issues have jumped two months since last month's list. Last month's newsletter deadline was early, while this month's deadline is a little later. This explains the skipped issues for Compute!, ST Applications, and ST Informer. I hope this explains any differences. Now, on to this month's magazine news ..... First, some old news ..... we did receive the required number of subscriptions to Current Notes for the special deal. The checks are now in the mail and I hope to have news of the first issues in the new subscriptions and more info on new and renewal subscriptions at the cheaper rate at the May SPACE and MAST meetings. Thank you to all who helped. Second, ST Applications.... Last month, with the Current Notes deal, we didn't have time to talk about ST Applications. This month, we will be taking subscriptions for this. Each subscription is$30.00 instead of the normal $32.50 and checks should be written to ST Applications. To get this deal, we need 5 ST owners to subscribe. Also check out the ST Applications disk this month to get an idea of what you are missing. New news for this month ..... First, speaking of ST Applications, those of you who have been asking for more business applications information for your ST, check out ST Applications. ST Applications now includes ST Business. ST Business is a former ST magazine which never seemed to make it on its own. Now it is included in the center of each issue of ST Applications and the quality is quite good. So if you want more meat to your business reading, check out ST Applications. Second, it's time to mourn the loss of one and possibly two ST magazines.

Compute! ST will cease to exist after the current issue. Reason: not enough subscribers and not enough advertising. It seems that they started the magazine based on inflated figures by Atari of machines sold and the magazine never lived up to their expectations. Expect to hear the official announcement soon. The second magazine going looks like it will be ST-Log. Inside rumors say that it only has a couple of months and it will

disappear. With its disappearance, ANALOG will again contain coverage of both the ST and 8 bit with the magazine moving more towards an ST magazine over time. Reason: not enough advertisers to support the 8 bit and excellent name recognition of ANALOG in the market. Third, with two magazines going, how about a new magazine??? Well, a new ST magazine has surfaced from Canada called Reset. This new magazine is a bimonthly magazine and is geared more toward the user than the other ST magazines. Articles in the February/ March issue include PC-Ditto and how to set it up, connecting a 5.25' disk drive, null modem cables and how to make them, how to draw using Degas Elite, and many more articles including news about Atari from the US and Canada and reviews. Some of their news in this first issue looks a little old, but the magazine does show promise. the magazine is currently available at Software, Etc. I will also bring my copy along to the meeting as well. Finally, some comments.... First, ANALOG/ST-Log. After the first issue came out last month, I thought that ANALOG had again returned to its old ways. Well, I guess that I was wrong. The last issues were the worst that I have seen and the ads were minimal. Their ST-Log issue spotlighted Adventure Games and could have been prepared months ago for the currentness of the news and reviews. ANALOG wasn't much better, but it did include an interesting program or two. I am not alone in displeasure. Other Atari owners are questioning ANALOGs

SPACE/M AST NEWSLE TTER

chance of surviving as well. Don'tthrowin the towel yet, but watch it carefully. Second, Compute!. Not to be too negative this month, but Compute! is almost useless now under their new format. Compute! chucked their news, programs, columns and reviews format and have now gone to a generic personal computer magazine format. No programs at all!!! A number of people are quite disturbed and a form letter is being distributed on a number of BBSs to get Compute! to change back to their old format. Personally, the magazine has gotten quite slim and includes little of interest to me and no 8 bit information at all. I will post the letter to both the SPACE and the MAST BBSs for your reading. I, for one, will not be renewing my subscription to Compute! when it is up. Compute!, itself, is also having problems and a number of editors and writers are leaving the magazine. Expect Compute! to be the next magazine casualty in the months to come ..... So that's this month's list. I have heard no comments for or con this column. What do you think???? Is it useful??? Please let me know what you think at the MAST or SPACE meetings or on the SPACE and MAST BBSs. Remember to check back here next month for more news and dates from the world of Atari magazines.

An Independ ent

Atari Develope rs

Grou'D - a pro'Dosal

written Gy Davia Meile Recent messages passing back and forth via USENET in comp.sys.atari.st have dealt with the poor response from Atari in getting information to developers, the lack of some "standard" ways of doing things, and the need not to "re-invent the wheel" every time a new programmer sits down at the keyboard and begins to type. At the March meeting of the MAST Programmers SIG, I proposed that we set up a developers group with the the above in mind. We've barely managed to scratch

the surface of possibilities. The first thing I'd like to point out that a Developers Group need not be dependent on the C programming language. I myself prefer Personal Pascal (and have written several tutorial articles on that language). There are probably more people programming !n GFA ~ASIC than in C or Pascal. Many interesting new programs and software products can come from any number of languages. Basically, here is what I envision a Developers Group might have for goals: 1. Providing information on hardware and software for the Atari ST. This might be as simple as providing a list of books with adequate documentation of the ST, or as complicated as producing a 'definitive' manual for the ST. 2. Providing a forum for questions and answers with regard to programming problems. Looking over the past year or two of comp.sys.atari.st, I am amazed at some of the little "gems" of information that are not more widely known. 3. Providing examples of "technique· used to get a job done. Some people have mentioned that they get more information from a snippet of code that does a job than from a long article which describes "how to do it" 4. Providing information and outlining some general "standards" Perhaps the shakiest part of the proposal - but there can be standard ways of setting up an RS232 buffer, writing programs for multi-tasking kernels such as RTX, etc. 5. -fill in blankThis is only the beginning of the dialogue regarding an Independent Atari Developers Group. I would encourage those of you who are interested in this to contact me via the MAST BBS (612) 560-9254 or via US Mail (Dave Meile, Box 13038, Minneapolis, MN 55414) or to come to the next Programmers SIG meeting (date should be listed in this newsletter). Let us know what you think, what you'd like to see, whether you'd support such a group, etc. I think the time has come. Join in the dialogue.

MAY• 1988

~ Chuck's Rotes

•

Part&:

The First part of this article by Chuck Purcell was printed in the March 88 newsletter On the Initial usage of Mousemacs.ttp: EMACS.TIP Dal/JLS Mouse buttons now do mark/cuVpaste functions Typical messages: Not enough memory. Try asmallerregion. Use Help key for on-line Help. Then: -{ Main Help Menu}D. Disk Files S. Searching B. Buffers C. Cursor Control W. Window Control I. Insert and Delete M. Mouse Control P. Paste Buffer 0. Other Stuff F. Function Keys T. Transposition Control Characters 0. Quitting microEMACS/Text Formatting A. Alternate character set etc. - among other things - [ M1 ] -<{ Mouse Control }>The mouse can be used in place of the cursor keys for cursor motion. Set horizontal [ESC]##[ESC][X] scale for mouse motion to ## [ESC)##[ESC)[Y] Set vertical scale for mouse motion to ## [ESC][M] Toggle mouse-button mode (mark-delpaste / do-bound-functions) '.he mo~se buttons have two very(!) distinctly different command sets depending on the mousebutton mode: MARK-DELETE-PASTE MODE: For rapid moving/editing of text. (default mode) [Left-Button] Set Mark [RightButton] (after setting a Mark) Delete region (copy if non-editable) (after delete-region) Paste (until another mark is set) BOUND-FUNCTION MODE: Only single commands can be bound to the mouse buttons, but you can bind [F1] to a button

m an~ then record/replay a series of keys usI~g the macro functions. See [O] or [F] for info on macros. [SHIFT-Left -Button]<co mmand> Bind <command> to left mouse button . [SHIFT-Righ tButton]<com mand> Bind <command> to right mouse button Execute left button [Left-Button] command [RightButton] Execute right button command -[F]-<{Funct ion Keys}> withjShift],JControl],_or_[Alt]_ I. E:<ecute macro ......... I StarVEnd macro def1rnton I Set mark ................... I Swap cursor and mark I Switch buffer ............ I Visit a file I Read a file ................ I Write buffer to a file I Delete to end of line. I Delete ('wipe') region I Paste ('yank') ........... I Copy region I Se{ arch backward ..... I Find matching left (, (, or I Search forward ........ I Find matching right}, ], or} I Page Up ................... 1Page Up in other win· dow I ~age Down .............. I Page Down in other window AXAC Enter internal command shell Help from file ushell63.arc eventually! uShell v0.63 - Commands - Shell v 0.63 by Dale Schumacher <dr.ive>: ................. Change active drive cat <file> .................... Display a file to the console (type) Change active cd [<drive>:]<subdir> directory· (chdir) Copy a single cp <source> [<desl>] file (copy) ex •····:················ ·········Exitfromt heshell (exit)

Is [<w1ldc~d>] .......... List directory (dir) md <subd1r> .............. Create a directory (mkdir) mv <oldname> <newname> Change a file name (ren) rd <~ubdir> ................ Delete a directory (rmd1r) rm <wildcard> ........... Delete file(s) (del) set [<name>=<value>] Set environment variable (setenv) space ......................... Show free memory/ disk space (free)

SPACE/MA ST NEWSLET TER

L1 BmBON BE-INKING

Jim Scheib - 721-4185 The club can re-ink most printer ribbons (black) for a small tee. There is no longer a reason to use a faded ribbon! Ribbons that can be re-inked are: $1.00/ribbon Spool to spool (all types) - Epson MX-80 and compatibles - Epson LX-80 and compatibles - C. ltoh Prowriter and compatibles (NEC 8023NC)- Citizen 120 DPanasonic - small ones that turn counter-

clockwise: $2.00/ribbon - Epson MX-100 and compatibles. Other ribbons can be attempted, too. But if you prefer, you can buy an adapter ($8.50 + $3.50 shipping and handling) for the club and receive half that amount in credit towards reinkings. See Jim Scheib at the SPACE meeting, or Jim Schulz at the MAST meeting. Please pay in advance and be sure to have your ribbon(s) in a plastic bag.

MAY• 1988 8'1. PAUL .&'I.I.Ill GOIDU'ID 1111'111U81A8'18

•

It llllOIIIIO'I.& .&'IABI 8'I

)I:

'I·!'

SPACE and MAST are Independent user groups of owners of ATARI Home 1c· ,./.Computers. It has been organized by local owners of ATARI computers tor the purpose fot mutual self assistance and sharing of information. It is open to all interested computer :!:enthusiasts. Benefits of memberships in the groups include monthly newsletter mailed to your · home, BBS access, software demonstrations, group purchases, public domain disk(s) of the month software at low prices, reference book library, educational software library (8-bit only) with over 20 titles, personal contacts/learning, greater information and awareness on the world of ATARI, software at discounted prices from dealers, question and answer session, etc. Come to a meeting to find out more.

Wiz ard's kt!i Wor your home computer center Four Seasons Mall Cty. Rd. 18 & Cty. Rd. 9 Plymouth, MN

559-4690

SPACE-8BltGroup TheSPACEmeetingsaredevotedprimarilytothe8-bitATARI \\computers such as the 400, 800, 600XL, 800XL, 65XE and 130XE. Tnere is other ATARI :'.related news and some 16-bit news at the SPACE meetings, as well. The SPACE group ·meets on the second Friday of each month at the Falcon Heights Community Center, (2077 West Larpenteur Avenue, at 7:30pm. Doors open at about 7:10pm. MAST - ST Group The MAST meetings are devoted primarily towards the ATARI .;520ST, 1040ST & MEGA computers. There will be ATARI related news items covered, 'but not 8-bit news. The MAST group meets on the third Friday of each month at the Falcon Heights Community Center, 2077 West Larpenteur Avenue, at 7:30pm. Doors c,pen at about 7:10pm. MAST+ - Programming Language User Sig MAST also has a programmer's ·. group meeting. This group has a more technical discussion regarding programming the :~T computers in a variety of languages. The group meets on the Monday following the MAST meeting at the First Minnesota bank on Lexington Avenue near Larpenteur .Avenue. Meeting time is 7:30, with doors opening at about 7:20pm. The entrance is in 1he back of the building and leads to a stairway to the second floor.

For more information, or to confirm a meeting time and location, call Larry Vanden · .Plas (SPACE) 636-2415 or Jim Schulz (MAST) 537-5442.

-------------------------SPACE/MAS T Membershi p Application

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55112