rwb@druxu.UUCP (BlackR) (02/11/86)
I guess its time to throw in a few comments about my experiences with the 520 and reply to a few articles I've seen on the net. First, I think a person can do quite useful development work on the ST and pay in the $1000 to $1200 range. The question is how. I have a 520 ST with color monitor. I purchased the OSS Personal Pascal package and the book on Atari 520 Internals (total retail price is around $1100 for computer, software, and a good reference manual). This adds to the basic hardware an editor, a high level language compiler, a linker, and a description of the hardware and how to use GEM and the BIOS for those things outside the Pascal definition (e.g. how to determine if a character is waiting at the RS-232 port). I won't be so bold as to claim this combination (Pascal+book) is as good as the developer's kit, but it is a good substitute at 1/3 the price. On the plus side, it has very nice libraries for windows, dialog boxes, menus, etc. and a simple interface for accessing GEM and the BIOS directly (whose calls the book documents). The compiler is quick and after one deletes all the demo files from the working disk, there is room to create and run small to medium size programs (<500 lines). I have called OSS for some support and they do seem to know their product and are helpful. The language implemented does conform closely to the ISO standard with a few welcome extensions (it is actually very similar to UCSD Pascal), so portability isn't a real problem. On the negative side, there are the limitations of Pascal (you just can't do everything with it that you can with C or assembler, but that discussion goes in a different news group). It would be nice if the package used less disk space (i.e. more room on disk for creating programs), but the separate compilation facilities help. Plus, when I get TOS in ROMs (that is a hint for my dealer), I plan to install a RAM disk (first shot will be the 90K public domain version). That will ease the disk problem and speed things up. In the future, I will install the 1MB upgrade and use a full 360K RAM disk, which could hold the Pascal package. The other thing lacking is utility software. But there is a lot of public domain stuff, both on the net and from magazines (Dr Dobbs Journal had a C listing for XMODEM last summer) and User's groups. Thus, by trading some of my experience and time (converting code from C to Pascal is a pain) for money, I have thus far been able to keep the cost down and utility high. Rodney Black AT&T Information Systems, Denver ..!ihnp4!druxu!rwb