striepe@muscat.UUCP (Harald Striepe) (10/18/86)
> 1) What is the OMNIVIEW O/S? Will it work on an XE as opposed to an XL, and > if so,where can I buy this modification? Omniview uses the high res Graphics 8 mode to simulate an 80 column display. There is also a modified Operating Systems enhancing performance, but generally replacing certain features of the XL/XE OS (international char set, parallel bus drivers etc.). As far as I know, the OS's are switch selectable, so that you can always turn your machine to a standard XE. The XL and XE versions are probably different. Since Atari is close to releasing the 80column adapter, I will wait for it instead. If you are an assembly hacker, Omnimon often sold with this package is definitely worth while, I still use it in my 800 for troublesome situations, when I cannot load EXTENDED DDT or BUG/65. > 2) Can one get compilers/interpreters for languages other than BASIC for > an 8-bitter? What packages do people like the best? Are there ones a neo- > phyte should steer clear of? There are plenty. For the beginner, especially somebody using the 130XE, BASIC XE from OSS is a must. It is significantly faster, supports Player Missile graphics, can use the extra RAM in EXTEND mode, has full error messages, and much more (PROCDURES with local variables, structured programming constructs, dos functions, MicroSoft string functions and string arrays, etc.,etc.), while being fully compatible with the origignal built-in BASIC. You will need a disk drive to load the extensions on boot. It's a bank-switched cartridge providing 16K of RAM plus using the RAM underneath the CART and OS to provide 24K+ of programming power in the same address space as the regular BASIC. Other languages include ACTION!, a very fast COMPILER cartridge with built in editor and monitor. Its syntax is similar to C and PASCAL. Deep Blue C is a small C compiler available from ANTIC, it is not very fast, but a bargain (<$20). The full sources are available from the same source at the same price. My favorite assembler is MAC/65, also by OSS (as are ACTION! and BASIC XE). There are plenty of other languages, KYAN PASCAl, LOGO, PILOT, LISP, FORTH. If you are interested in structured programming, I would recommend ACTION!. The ACTION! tool kit (a separate package) provides a standalone, runtime system as well as all sorts of programming examples. Your local user group will have a public domain Forth in their library (unsupported, of course, but you can't beat the price). > 3) Will SpartaDOS support the full memory of the 130XE? For that matter, > does any DOS utilize the full RAM of the 130? And what's the difference > between the unmodified 1050 drive and the thing the SpartaDOS people sell? SpartaDOS V2.x and up uses the RAM underlying the OS to achieve a MEMLO less than that of DOS 2.5. In my mind it is the most powerful, command driven DOS available. The extra banks in the 130XE are supported as a PSEUDO or RAM disk. You can even create larger disks by upgrading your system (I 'added a few chips' - you need some soldering experience and lots of patience to do this mode - and now have a 576K 130XE, with an RD.COM from ICd to support this memory. An option on invoking the driver leaves the first 64K of the extra memory for BASIC XE). You need version 3.2d to use BASIC XE. The Atari 1050 drive normally stores about 80K in single density, and 128K in enhanced density. This is double density, but in Atari DOS compatible sector size. All other drive vendors chose a more typical 256 byte per sector format established by the ill-fated Atari 815 giving you about 180K per single sided disk. PERCOM was one of the first vendors to come out with these, and is credited in inventing a configuration table scheme to define the attached drive. By uploading or downloading this table, the DOS can determine the actual drive configuration (density, number of track, sides, sectors, step rate) as well as alter it. Virtually all third parties adopted this scheme. The ICD 1050 mod gives you the 256 byte sector format in addition to the standard configurations as well as supporting the configuration scheme. In addition, they modified the SIO transfer rate and sector interleave to triple the transfer speed. The latter only works with their DOS, which contains the altered SIO interrupt routines (very time critical, in working on a mouse driver using the ST mouse I had to turn of DLI's during SIO, the interrupt latency killed the fast IO). I modified both my 1050's, and am happy with the results (now the slow steprate is REALLY apparent. Happy brings up another thought, one thing this mod does not do is make it possible to dup copy protected software, but I am not interested in that anyway. > 4) Is the P:R Connection as good an interface (if you own one) as the 850? > Is an interface necessary, or is it possible to just add an RS-232 port? Adding your own RS-232 port is not worth the trouble, I have had good reports on the ICD. I am using an 850 as well as an ATR8000 (also a drive controller and printer buffer). The 850 parallel interface portion appears more sensitive to time out problems (with external printer buffer) than the ATR8000. So, the 850 is not bug free. The nice thing about the ICD is that you do not need a separate power supply. ICD also announced an MIO board with extra memory (RAM DISK) as well as extra ports for printer and Winchester, it might also include an RS-232 port, worth while looking at. > 5) Which publications are the most accurate/useful/helpful, esp. for new > users? Is there a good macro assembler package? Are any of the books on > the market close to being worth the price? These days the only decent magazine is ANALOG. ANTIC has gotten light weight, and COMPUTE! is oriented much more towards other machines. There are also occasional gems in various user group newsletters. Get the technical docs (harware and OS) from Atari, as well as a copy of De Re Atari (still available from San Jose Computer advertising in Atari magazines. COMPUTE! books on Mapping The Atari by Ian Chadwick is a must. As far as assemblers is concerned, don't bother with the Atari Assembler/Editor cartridge (even on sale for 10 bucks). Atari's AMAC had some nice features, but I had problems with crashes, and since it is disk based, it is very slow and not interactive (the editor MEDIT has a tendency to trash disks, if you are not careful). MAC/65 outclasses them all, it's speed is breathtaking. I use both the cartridge and disk versions depending on circumstance. Such a lot of questions.(*sigh*)I thank everyone for their patience. If you will answer via e-mail, I will summarize opinions for the group. Oh, by the way can I be added to the Atari mailing list? Greg Koolbeck Center for Automation Research, University of Maryland. My address - ARPA: greg@cvl.umd.edu UUCP: seismo!umcp-cs!cvl!greg Disclaimer: My opinions are not those of my employers. They all like Macs. I have used copyrighted names pretty freely, not knowing who to give credit to. -- Harald Striepe Digital Equipment Corp., SPG Mktg, Sunnyvale, CA decwrl!muscat!striepe, decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-canvas!striepe, CANVAS::STRIEPE