September 1990
News from the Prez! September 1'~90 Well, the birthday meeting was a smash hit! Thanks to all of those who attended ■ The Club made a substantial amount of money and now is looking forward to future expansionsJoe Danko and the other officers have shared ideas with me about how we think the Club can expand and we want your input! September and October are going to be
in Minnesota. All in all it is really up to you, but please, if you see something on his table that you need, consider purchasing it ■ I have many of these programs and I will start bringing them in for demostrations ■ lance is doing his best to support the ATARI community, let us try to help him out, too ■ That's really about it for this month ■ Now that the fall season is here, computers will begin to come back on, and the September through Christmas
and something else ••• ELECTIONS 1 In November, don't forget, the SPACE elections will be held ■ Please plan to attend the meetings to get more information on these comming events ■
Please try to come to see what the future holds for SPACE, right now, it looks REALLY BRIGHT! See you all at the meetings, Happy Computing!
I would like to take some time here to talk about Lance Rinquist. Many of you know him, he is at the meetings faithfully with a table of new software, for the ATARI computers and 2600/7800 systems ■ Lance has some good software, software that is becomming rapidly hard to findI noticed AUTODUEL, LORDS OF CONQUEST, DROPZONE, F-15 STRIKE EAGLE, and a few other REALLY GOOD titles on his table at the last meeting. Lance has told me that in order to serve the ATARI user better, he has lowered his prices almost to his cost. On some titles, he barley makes $3 ■ I think that this kind of service should not go by unnoticedWe are very lucky to have Mr ■ Linquist comming, there is literally no place left to buy ATARI software of this kindCOMPUTER STATION has been unable to get ATARI software new for four months and there is no other ATARI dealer here
Minutes of SPACE Meeting August 13, 19"~0
attendances ■
The following is what I got from Nathan ■ I asked him If he had taken down the minutes or had someone take themPat Krenn could not make it to the meeting due to prior commitments ■ Damm! I knew I forgot something! No, tell you what, just relate the events of the evenin9 ■ The main things are: SIGN UP SHEETS for T-Shirts will be at the next meeting, also there will be a $2 deposit on each T-shirt ordered ■ Dave Cole won the BALLBLAZER tournament, the ARCHON tournament was left in limbo cuz of time, the finalists were Nathan Block,Dave Cole and Benjamin Brosdahl ■
SPACE SOFTWARE LIBRARY NEWS September 1990 SPACE Disk of the Month
your printer ■ It is written for a STAR-MICRONICS GEMINI-lOX but it can be adapted to drive othermodel with the ACTION! source code files ■
library will be offering software forsale as usual, at the meeting or via the US mail ■ All disks are $3 each ■ If you can't make the meeting call Joe Danko at 777-9500 after 6 PM or mail your request to: Joe Danko 2766 Chisholm Av ■ N ■ N. St.Paul, MN 55109 Mailed software will cost an additional $1 for each multiple of 3 disks orso ■ The
BLANK DISKS will be for sale at 30 cents ($0 ■ 30) each ■ DISK OF THE MONTH SIDE 1 * SPACE DOM 000 * SEP90SIDE1 000
* * * * * * * * * * *
xx>: xxxx xxxx oo~
DOS SYS DUP SYS AUTORUN SYS HELLO DISKFORMMAC BOOKDOC TXT GEM TXT TPNEWS TXT TPDEV TXT DD3LABELTXT
037 042
003 026 00 7 020 007 054 022 043
* EPSONR * GEM - -c:;EM * SPARTA * ACSIEVE
*
* * *
* * *
ACT 027 ACT 051
·coM o,i,t
ACT C AtSIEVE COM C8SIEVE C CBS IEVE COM CCSIEVE C CCSIEVE COM SIEVE DOC HELP DOC
026 006 046 006 046 005 102 045
DISKFOPMP.,C new MACRO for TEXTPRO that will convert a SPARTADOS director y listing to a list of st r aight file names-
A
BOOKDOC This text file explains about a group of large files available to download on GENIE that is a very complete book of instructions for Daisy-Dot III ■ If a few people are interested I will download it ■ The files fill 5 disk sides ■
GEM
■ TXT,GEM ■ ACT,GEM ■ DOC
SPARTA ■ ACT,EPSONP ■ ACT
GEM is a program that provides a menu interface to send setup commands to
DD3LABEL ■ TXT
text file by the author of Daisy-Dot III e x plaining the most efficient methods of printing on standard 3 1/2 X 15/16 inch labels ■
A
SIEVE files A group of 'C' source and executable files to run the 'Sieve of Erasthanes' popular processing benchmark algorithym. The stated purpose of this is to show the superiority of the latest ATARI 'C' compiler, CC65 ■ This system is available for download on GENIE and I will make it available through the SPACE library if the r e is some interest. It will probably fill several disks with all the libraries and utilities and demos ■ TPNEWS, TPDEV text files. News about the upcoming 'final' TEXTPRO release and the availab i lit y of MAC65 source code for those of you interested in continuing the development of TEXTPRO on your ownSIDE 2
* * * *
SPACE DOM SEP90SIDE2 TUPBOBASIC DOS SYS
000 000 000 037
* * * *
SYS DUP AUTORUN SYS AUTORUN BAS TRAVERSETUR
042 145 002 168
TRAVERSE This side is devoted to a two-player board game simulation written in TURBOBASIC ■ A cross between checkers, chess and imagination, it is ver y interesting and fun to play. As originally written it was operated with the keyboard so I added code to make it run with the keyboard and the joystick in port 1 at the same timeSince it is written with TURBOBASI C it will only run on XL/XE machines ■
OTHER DISKS THIS MONTH
- Full support for macro input mode throughout the program, including search and replace
JOYSTICK JEOPRODY A ones-sided disk with a BASIC version of the TV game show with 8 sets of questions ■ Advanced Music System II PLAYER. A new AMS player program that supports the original AMS files as well as the new GUMBY STEREO files, The AMS II Player will only find files that are write-locked, Side 2 of this disk includes a group of AMS II music files.
- Change editor fonts at any time to the ATARI font in RAM or any font on disk - Using the SpartaX cart the ENTIRE PATH IS SEARCHED for all FNT, CNF, MAC loads and file copies to screen from the editor - a single directory can contain all of the TP support and help files and TP will find them as long as the directory is in the PATH
AMS II MUSIC DISKS •. 4 DISKS •• 8 SIDES A mixture of normal and stereo AMS files, It seems to be all new material,
SHIFT-CLEAR and CTRL-CLEAR clears the command line during command input
Info CHANGES users TEXTPRO NEWS
- Improved bank switch support from the editor and the menu for 130XE's and compatibles
August 15,
me mo to registered Page#
19QO
- Par~meter comman~ tc ~llow the us e r to set the amount of free space to be left in a buffer during a load
ANOTHER TPX
- Global filename variables to simplify cross bank loading from a macro
----------An interim update of TPX ONLY will be released in early September, This is not a full upgrade but supplies additional feature s ■ If you do not have access to the onli ne s e rvi c es and you want me to mai l t he package to you please send a blank disk and a mailer and I will forward it to you ■ TPX v4 ■ 55xe is both a test vehicle for and a bridge to the next full release ■ The next full release, version 5, will be available at the be9inning of next year, It will be sent to you when it is ready. There is no extra charge to registered users for the full upgrade ■ Enhancements to the interim version include ■■■
- Conditional macro branching (Y/N) and menu style
Set toggles from a macro
both
- Use the space bar for manual entry of the SELECT-P filename variable ■ An d some other things I don't remember ■
The usual bug fixes and adjustments are also included ■ BUGS WILL BE NEW AND IMPROVED ■ Because of the greater interest in the TextPROxe program suppor t ing extended RAM the next release will be based upon this revision rather than on the PLUS version ■ The PLUS version will be fully updated and enhanced where appropriate, but the text buffer will be a bit smaller ■ The LOMEM version will not be greatly modified, the only changes being bug fixes and alterations to offer macro compatibility with the new versions,
The usual bug fixes and adjustments are also included ■ BUGS WILL BE NEW AND IMPROVEDBecause of the greater interest in the TextPROxe program supporting extended RAM the next release will be based upon this revision rather than on the PLUS version. "The PLUS version will be fully updated and enhanced where appropriate, but the text buffer will be a bit smaller. The LOMEM version will not be greatly modified, the only changes being bug fixes and alterations to offer macro compatibility with the new versions ■ FOR THE FIRST TIME MACRO FILES REQUIRE REVISION TO RUN CORRECTLY WITH THE NEW VERSIONS. The SELECT+CTRL-A and the SELECT+CTRL-M functions are different in v4 ■ 55xe ■ A macro file to do the 1..-c ~ ~i-r ·-c~:t
ma c ro s
·~ c·r:-- ~
.- -:: ~---;g-F:-s - .!.t -9- /0:-'.'-F· :. :.,:r-.1-,::1.- . - - -
is included-
All CNF, print, and font files remain unchan•Jed. There are also files included for an interactive macro system • The documentation to these files is also included, along with additional support filesThe d o cs are Appendices Band C to the main documentation and are acompanied by an updated TOC file that includes reference to them ■
======================
now defunct COMPUTE! magazine- (we offered the program free to COMPUTE! - never got a reply to the submission) Charles Brannon's original code was a fine job, and held up as a skeleton under all of the additions and modifications that transformed it into TPCharles also wrote a very informative book including the commented SpeedScript source code which proved invaluable in disassembling and modifying the pro9ramMike Collins is a computer programmer now working on his masters in computer science in TexasThe disassembly and labeling of the original SpeedScript source code, including the correction of a number of typos from the book, was done by MikeMike also wrote almost all of the original code modifications, 1. \-!~] U •::!~i. P •~f - t f-La_,e..~e 11--1?.S'.J t: -ID.El ,C l:'0 _ ,':\r, ,:l_ print justification routinesMy own contributio~ to the development of TP consists of working with Mike on the overall design of the program and developing specific features, such as the file divide. I also wrote all of the current modifications to TP, including TP+, TPL, and TPXSince my own de9ree specialization is in history and I consider myself one of the world's worst assembly language programmers this should offer hope to some of you that are wondering if you can modify the source code to TP-
THE FUTURE FOR TEXTPRO
---------------------The source code to TP shows the effect of three different programmers ■ Charles Brannon's original modular code, Mike Collin's clever and compact routines, and my own effortsTP began as an enhanced version of the SpeedScript word processor written by Charles Brannon for the
The next release, v5 ■ 0, will be the last written by meMike finally burned out on the code, and I am getting the same way. Sooner or later you just run out of original (or useful) ideasTo allow the further development of TP the source to the v5-0 release will be available to REGISTERED USERS ONLY for an additional $12-00 to cover the additional disk and
handling. For those who have not registered TP the source code only is If you want the source $40-00. package let me know in a note that you send back with the mailer so I can inform you when it is ready. This will be a multiple disk package with the source to TP+, TPX, and TPL in AF.:C formTHIS CODE
IS LARGELY UNCOMMENTED 1
If you would be interested in a package with commented code and limited phone support for an extra If enough folks charge let me know ■ show interest I will take the time to write a commented list and supply my home phone number for LIMITED TECHNICAL SUPPORT in modifying the It can program - NO COLLECT CALLS ■ be neat to have your own personal machine language word processor that you can modify for your own purposes ■ based MAC-65 with S-DOS 2-3) arid two double density drives, or the equivalent, to modify and compile the TP sourceFor all of the folks waiting to write spell checkers, 80 col editors, and other additions to work with TP, or even to put out you~ own WP, here's your chance ■ One of the major features of the final release will be provision to use add-ins that can be loaded at any With the source code available time. these could be written with ASSEMBLEF.: EDITOR or ACTION! ~or those that do not want to modify the program or write add-ins there is no reason to get the source package. Your copy of the next release is already paid for and you will receive it in the mail early ne x t year. I appreciate your support of the Aside from the TextPRO program ■ additional support that you receive you also have the satisfaction of
knowing that you have paid for what you are using and helped to develop and distribute a better product to the entire ATARI community. Once again,
thanks for the support.
-ronn i e-***Information on TextPRO source code*** If you are an developer and your programs and cannot do
ATARI 8 BIT softwar·e you need an editor for let me know ■ What I can is listed below-
I can ■■ •* Send you the source code you can use to produce your editor* Provide LIMITED ASSISTANCE both on the phone and online to answer questions about the source ccide. Write the editor myself - ~ot enough time - I need any time available to work on the ATARI to complete the TP project and the committment to the registered users that have sent me money. Is a TP type editor what you need? TP was developed from the SPEEDSCRIPT Magazine by 3 ■ 0 program from COMPUTE! The original code Charles Brannon ■ has been modified and added to by The basic Mike Collins and myselfdesign of the editor has not been changed since SPEEDSCPIPT, i.e. - it writes direct to the screen - text memory is contiguous and is moved with every insertion - no characters are added or removed on saves and loads TP also does some character conversions that SPEEDSCRIPT does not to insure that the character conversions in the editor are reversed before writing the file back to disk ■ These conversions are done at the same time as the screen code conversions ■
If you know how to work with these limitations or modify the character set and the character conversions to support your program the editor ma y work well for youBear in mind that most, if not all, developers will be much better programmers than I ■ Programming is a hobby for· me. The reason for the technical assistance is not that I can help you with the programming, but because I know TPIn a program with as many routines as this one, and w/o many comments, there isn't a substitute for just knowing how something worksAll TP source is in MAC65 format and works through subroutine modules. There is not a single macro in the code ■ The source for the last version, v5-0, will be sent to registered users with the program package for a small additional fee to cover the disk and handling. This version has a lot of WP stuff hanging on it that a developer probably dosen't want. I have the source to all of the earlier versions also, and some of these would be easier to extract an editor from, depending on your purposes ■
What will it cost •.. If you are a developer that I know from reputation it will cost you a disk and a mailer ■ I set no requirements and ask no fees at all. In any case let me know what you need by writin9 to F.:onnie Fhche 1700 .O.ycock st. Arabi, La 700~52 or on CiEnie
Notes from the EDITOR The SYSOP posted o message on t he BBS o wh i I e o g o ob o u t t he users of the BBS. I f me mo r y serves me correct - only about 28 out of 68? usres ore club members. so, at the SEPT 14th meeting I'm go int to hove a smo I I workshop with the modem.
* Orders for T-Shirts must be recieved no later than * Do not send cash thru the mail, use check or money yo u r· s e l e c t i. on s • * Make your check or money order payable to SPACE ■ * Send payment and the completed order for to:
12 OCT 1990. order to make payment for
SPACE
C/0
M ■
SCHMIDT
11349 Palm St. NW Coon Rapids, Mn 55433
*
you may pick up your order at the NOV SPACE
meeting ■
SPACE T-SHIRT ORDER FORM I am ordering _ _ _ white shirts with blue lettering at $6 ■ 75 each ■ I am ordering _ _ _ blue shirts with white letering at $7 ■ 20 each ■ I have enclosed a total of$ _ _ _ _ __
I acknowledge that if the total number of orders from all members fails to reach a minimum of 12 orders for each style, then i will be refunded my purchase price for that style and no order will be made ■ I plan to attend the SPACE meeting in (month) T-Shirt(s). Signature
Date
to pick up my
-
-
-
-
- - · · --
-
HERE ARE THREE SAMP LES I ' M SUBMI TTING F0R THE T-SHIRT. IF ANY B0DY HAS ANY 0THER DESIGNS T0 SUBMIT, BRING THEM T0 THE MEETING FRIDAY AND TH0SE IN ATTENDANCE CAN V0TE 0N THE DESIGN T0 G0 WITH . NEWSLETTER EDIT0R
SAINT PAUL ATARI COMPUTE R ENTHUSIASTS
I
SAINT PAUt. ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS
SAINT PAUL ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS
D
President Nathan Biock Vice-President Ken Modeen Secretary Pat Krenn Disk Librarian Joe Danko Paper Librarian JiN Scheib MeMbership chair Glen KirschenMann SPACE/MAST Treasurer Al Ian Frink SPACE NeMsletter Edit. Mike schMidt
:i::sc L A :J:MEIA
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922-8012 425-12'9 631-3136
777-9500
721-4185 786-4790
429-4909
ruu&.&~IICU
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♦ h-"" I.Ill:
AVeLJ
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Falcon Heights CoMMUnity Center N+E 2077 N. Larpenteur s
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1.,Urlt'U\.CI
757-4192
larpenteur Ave. Doors open at 7:09 PM, Cleveland N
_____.
JI.
organiza\ion Mith no business affiliation with ATARI corporation, PerMission is granted to any · siMilar organization Hlth which SPACE exchanges neHsletters to reprint Material froM this newsletter. "e do hoHever ask that credit be given to the authors and to SPACE. Opinions expressed are those oF the authors and do not necessaril~ reflect the views of the SPACE, club officers, club MeMbers or ATARI corporat1on.
Saint Paul Atari CoMputer Enthusiasts SPACE Meets on the second friday of each MOnth at 7:30 PM in the Falcon Heights CoMMUnity Center at 2077 Nest
GIBBS MUSEUM
C ♦
Enthusiasts CSPA..."'f:l, ar. ir.deper.der.t
~»J~-u
}
SPACE BULLETIN BOARD
BBS Phone:(612)-425-3962
sysop: co-Sysop: Larry Serflaten Ken Modeen
Larpenteur Ave
St. Paul U of M CaMPUS
------· MEETING 5EPT
14th 1990