UD140469@ndsuvm1.BITNET.UUCP (01/27/87)
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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1987 17:53 CST
From: Scott Udell <UD140469@NDSUVM1>
Subject: Some Questions
To: <INFO-ATARI16@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU>
Hi there! Being new to the network, and having been away from a reliable
source of ST information for several months, I have several questions to ask.
1.What have people been hearing about the Ms. Em MS-DOS emulator from
Paradox? Does it work well? Slow or fast? Does it support any IBM graphics?
Does it work wit DOS 3.2 on a 3 1/2" drive? How about software compatibility?
2. I've been working on a program in OSS Pascal that, at one point, does
a printout to the printer. I'd like the user to be able to press a key or to
click a button for pause, but have been unable to find a routine that works. I
try to do an event call for both key and mouse clicks (using the OSS event
call), and the program (an accessory), locks up. I've also tried doing a call
to BIOS call #11, kbshift, but it never returns anything but 0. According to
ST Internals, you pass a -1 to get the status (of keyboard or mouse), but in
other sources I've read I haven't seen that the call accepts any parameters.
Any ideas?
3. Speaking of OSS, a few weeks ago I heard a nasty rumor (third- or
fourth-hand) that OSS has gone Chapter 11. Can anyone confirm (I hope not!) or
deny this rumor (I sure hope so!)?
4. I've heard that there are two pd emulators floating around now--one for
the Apple II, and one for the Atari 8-bits. I don't know anything about the
apple one, but I'm told that the Atari one emulates Atari BASIC and some of the
graphics modes, and is also slow. Any other words on these two items?
5. Are there any flyers or official printed info from Atari on the new
Mega and Atari PC machines? Please, please, please send any rumors on them?
6. Regarding the Mega machines, if you by a 1- or 2-meg model, will you be
able to upgrade to 4 megs (or to 2 megs from 1 meg) on the motherboard, or will
you have to use that internal slot for memory boards?
That's all (!!) I can think to ask right now. Thanks for any info you can
give.jafischer@watrose.UUCP (01/28/87)
> 1.What have people been hearing about the Ms. Em MS-DOS emulator from >Paradox? Does it work well? Slow or fast? Does it support any IBM graphics? >Does it work wit DOS 3.2 on a 3 1/2" drive? How about software compatibility? This will probably be one of many responses, but here goes: Ms.Em is Utter.Garbage! The program has potential, I suppose (if it would really run most programs, then its incredible slowness wouldn't be a big deal), but from my attempts to work with it, well... it makes a good coaster. If you've ever _really_ wanted to know just how well floppy disks stand up to having milk spilled on them, then this is a good one to try it on. You could also use it for prying open paint cans... Okay, to be more specific: my experience is limited to using Ms.Em with the internal 3 1/2" drive (you need DOS 3.x for this setup). Results: the only files I could get the thing to execute were batch files! And these seemed to take about 2 seconds per line. *ALL* of the dozen or twenty programs that I attempted resulted in "EXEC failure" or some such message, right after the program loaded from disk. E.g.: A> ws ;; Attempt to run wordstar EXEC failure A> Thank goodness I didn't buy the thing; these attempts were at my parttime job at a local computer store. Apparently, the store owner was able, later, to get WordPerfect running - for about 5 minutes. Note that I mentioned the need for DOS 3.x. Word has it that earlier DOS versions give much better results. But you need to buy Paradox's 5 1/4" drive to run DOS 2.x or (gads) 1.x. I have no experience with these, as we _still_ haven't received any drives at the store. Ms.Em is another example of a program that was released WAY too early. Never mind using the customers as beta testers. Anybody who buys this program is more like a pre-alpha tester. As I said, it has potential, but... > 4. I've heard that there are two pd emulators floating around now--one for >the Apple II, and one for the Atari 8-bits. I don't know anything about the >apple one, but I'm told that the Atari one emulates Atari BASIC and some of the >graphics modes, and is also slow. Any other words on these two items? Neither are much good. We have them on the hard drive at the afore- mentioned store. Kind of interesting to see, as a novelty, but that's it. Neither of the emulators that we have are in finished form, so there's no point in my posting them. Again, if these were complete products that would run 80% or more of the software, they would be worth it. > 6. Regarding the Mega machines, if you by a 1- or 2-meg model, will you be >able to upgrade to 4 megs (or to 2 megs from 1 meg) on the motherboard, or will >you have to use that internal slot for memory boards? As far as I know (via Compuserve), all of them will be upgradable to the full 16 Megs (new MMU). I don't know about the method, but for the full 16M you'd probably have to use the expansion slot (if it would fit) or the (?) bus connector which is supposed to be in the back. (Correct me if I'm wrong). -- - Jonathan Fischer (jafischer@watrose) or: watmath!watrose!jafischer or: jafischer%watrose@waterloo.csnet or: jafischer%watrose@waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
rthurlow@van-bc.UUCP (Rob Thurlow) (05/12/87)
Hello again, net, I'm back after an absence. I'm president of a Atari ST
users' group (ASTUTE) in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and I would like to know if
anybody a reasonable number of hops away might have the following:
ash - the PD shell, sounds great. ANYTHING with history!!
Uniterm - I think I have 1.7a nearby, though I only have 1.6g myself. A more
recent version in western Canada?
Gemboot - Never saw this come by, but sounds crucial. We seem to have had
enough success here to be able to feel safe about this now.
I have a lot of good stuff, but most of it is on my Atari. I am quite
willing to swap disks with people, and can send things on the net in a pinch.
I'm also wondering if there is a Unix - 'vi' like editor other than VIX.
I've tried VIX, and the gaps are a problem, since I alternate between the real
thing and a good Aztec version on a PC AT. If there isn't anything out there,
I might just have to write or adapt one (bold, stupid words, I know).
Other comments - I think Uniterm is great the way I've seen it, and would
not hack it into pieces. 'ash' should redirect stderr to the screen, but will
hopefully also provide a way to redirect it with stdout if not to a different
file entirely. And 'ksh' style editing sounds wonderful. About ZMDM by
Jwahar Bammi @ CRWU : great work, I was about to start on this in the absence
of a way to batch files together and get them to my Atari. I recommend it to
anyone unreservedly; it is a little bigger than XMDM, but worth it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There was somethin fishy about the butler; I think he was a Pisces, probably
working for scale." - Robert Thurlow
...ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision!van-bc!rthurlow
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------t68@nikhefh.hep.nl (Jos Vermaseren) (01/07/88)
Can anybody answer any of the following questions? What are the exact conditions under which Mediach returns the code 'maybe changed'. Can this happen when a floppy is not on write protect? What speed should EPROMs have to replace the ROMs in a 1040 without me having to worry about the pull-up resistors in the address lines ( they help wrt the crashes during booting )? Is this the same for the Mega's ( I know already how to change jumpers to flip from the Megabit ROMs to 256K EPROMs )? The above is needed for making some private modifications to the ROMs. Thanks, Jos Vermaseren, t68@nikhefh.uucp
jlord@WATDCS.UWATERLOO.CA (ORD JL, PHYSICS) (08/15/89)
We have several questions about using a mega-ST, and hope
that someone out there may be able to help us.
First, it has been rumored that one can 'get at' the bus of
the mega fairly easily. Does anyone know how this is actually
done? We are currently using the cartridge port for input and
output of digital data on a 1040-ST; however, we also use the
cartridge port for fast (cartridge) BASIC. It is thus
inconvenient to constantly switch back and forth between the two
cartridge inputs. We are upgrading to a mega and now is the time
to bypass the cartridge for data I/O. We need specific
information regarding how this is done, including pin connections,
etc. It would be wonderful if we could buy something that would
just plug in.
Second, the software package CALAMUS is supposed to store
graphics in vector mode. Does anyone have any idea of the format
of these graphics files?
While we are on the subject of graphics, we have a LOT of
out own software that is written to drive HP plotters in HPGL. Is
there any (easy) way to take an HPGL output file and either output
it to the Atari laser printer or to convert it into another format
that can be output? Is there any way to (easily) modify our
plotter programs to output graphs on the Atari laser printer?
Thanks for the help.
D. De Smet
using the account of JLORD at WATDCS (.BTNET)
aka. JLORD at watdcs.uwaterloo.cadnewton@carroll1.UUCP (Dave Newton) (08/29/89)
The bus is very easy to get to in a Meag--there is a single expansion
slot inside the base unit. I think it's unbuffered (?). There are a
number of things that go into it so far, there's a monitor card from
Viking to control its 19" mono monitor that includes a 68881 FPU, some
hard drive controllers, and probably (hopefully) more on the way.
--
"Life is just a popularity contest, and I didn't get my entry in on time."
-David L. Newton
David L. Newton (414) 524-7253 dnewton@carroll1.cc.edu
=8-) (smiley w/ a mohawk) (414) 524-7343 uunet!marque!carroll1!dnewtonrcte2p@jetson.uh.edu (Paul S. Sears) (01/26/91)
I have a few questions to which I hope some of you have the answer: 1) I am interesting in running a unix flavor on my ST. Currently I have a 520ST that is expanded to 2.5 Meg. I have 1 DS floppy with plans to add a hard drive soon (waiting for IRS Refund!) Anyway, I wonder if anyone can recommend a good system to set up. I have heard of minix, but I would prefer something that is shareware or PD. I basically want to run a UUCP connection to my home from the university I attend. I am sure that I can get UUCP set up. This leads me to my second question, 2) I am interested in UUCP. What do I need to get things set up to get my email and stuff? Arangements with the university should not be a problem. I need information on what software I should use, what requirments there will be of my system and some sort of shell program that can simulate a 'crontab' to automate my uucp transfers... 3) Does anyone know anything about X-Windows on the ST? I have tried and used Unix Windows but I gave it up because of its slower speed than Uniterm. Or has anyone optomized UW. I also have a suggestion to anyone that is... Have the mouse curser off until the mouse is moved. It is annoying to see the mouse flicker as the screen windows update. 4) What and where do I find a good C shell and C compiler? I have looked at Sorzobon(sp?) and it seems ok.. I just am looking for more of an intergrated environment. Has anyone written a GEM based shell to use for this? I hope my questions can be answered. Thanks -- Paul Sears The Univ. of Houston |"The greater an individual's power Student of the College of Technology | over others, the greater the evil that RCTE2P@Jetson.uh.edu *** | might possibly originate with him." RCTE2P@menudo.uh.edu * * * | - PROPAGANDA, from A Secret Wish (CD)
ripley@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de (Hans-Ch. Eckert) (01/31/91)
In article <8324.27a065e6@jetson.uh.edu> rcte2p@jetson.uh.edu (Paul S. Sears) writes:
2) I am interested in UUCP. What do I need to get things set up to get my
email and stuff? Arangements with the university should not be a problem. I
need information on what software I should use, what requirments there will be
of my system and some sort of shell program that can simulate a 'crontab' to
automate my uucp transfers...
The newest version of Mercury UUCP Modules is just coming over the
net. There are many additional utilities available for this system.
3) Does anyone know anything about X-Windows on the ST? I have tried and used
Unix Windows but I gave it up because of its slower speed than Uniterm. Or has
anyone optomized UW. I also have a suggestion to anyone that is... Have the
mouse curser off until the mouse is moved. It is annoying to see the mouse
flicker as the screen windows update.
You forget the purpose of UW, I guess. Anyway, There is an implemenation
of X for the ST and it is absolutely too slow to use it over a serial
line - I have seen it once on a direct link (9600 baud) and several times
with an Ethernet LAN-card. Even with a LAN-connection it is very slow.
That uw is slower than UniTerm is mostly due to the uw-protocol.
I agree on the mouse-flickering and intend to get away from it.
A few days ago I could lay my greedy hands on the source of the newest
uw-client I'm aware of and I am currently in the process to force them
into Turbo-C (which is quite a pain.).
(BTW: Does anyone know how to reach Bosch & Katzung via eMail ?)
4) What and where do I find a good C shell and C compiler? I have looked at
Sorzobon(sp?) and it seems ok.. I just am looking for more of an intergrated
environment. Has anyone written a GEM based shell to use for this?
If your equipment can cope with it you could get gcc. Another
alternative could be Turbo-C which is a decent development-system
and you still wear your cloths after purchasing it (that is, it
isn't overly expensive.)
Greetings,
RIPLEY
--
Greetings from RIPLEY | D-1000 Berlin 30 | ripley@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de
Hans-Christian Eckert | Regensburger Str. 2 | (ripley@tubopal.UUCP)boyd@mailer.cc.fsu.edu (Mickey Boyd) (01/31/91)
In article <RIPLEY.91Jan31005544@basilisk.cs.tu-berlin.de>, ripley@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de (Hans-Ch. Eckert) writes: > >If your equipment can cope with it you could get gcc. Another >alternative could be Turbo-C which is a decent development-system >and you still wear your cloths after purchasing it (that is, it >isn't overly expensive.) > Has TurboC been released with english docs?!? The last I heard, they were available in german only. -- Mickey R. Boyd | "God is a comedian playing to an FSU Computer Science | audience too afraid to laugh." Technical Support Group | email: boyd@fsucs.cs.fsu.edu | - Voltaire