ravi@mcnc.org (Ravi Subrahmanyan) (12/25/87)
This message contains the latest info-atari instructions to
subscribers. Please go through it (even seasoned users!) and retain
for future reference. Of special interest to BITNET users (and
interent users with access to bitnet) is a section on accessing the
16-bit program libraries at the Univ of Houston.
The info-atari moderators.
Welcome To Info-Atari.
1. Sending Messages
You may send messages to all "subscribers" by address-
ing it to
info-atari8@score.stanford.edu
and/or
info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
Administrative messages should be sent to
info-atari{8,16}-request.
Please do NOT send general messages to this address. Your
moderators get enough mail as it is!
2. Ground Rules
All messages should be in good taste. Commercial mes-
sages and advertisements are not permitted. When answering a
question, please consider carefully whether the answer
should go to the whole list, or just to the person who asked
the question.
The following ground rules should make the use of this
(or of any other) mailing list much easier:
* never send a message that a totally irrelevant to the
mailing list's purpose to a mailing list. This espe-
cially includes any expressions of irritation at
another list member.
* never forward a message that is totally irrelevant to
the mailing list's purpose to a mailing list.
* when replying to a message on a mailing list, reply
only to the sender of the message unless the reply is
of interest to the entire mailing list.
* avoid inserting the message being replied to in a
reply, especially in a message going to a mailing list.
The context of the reply should be clear from *your*
reply and from various mailer functionalities such as
Message-ID.
* when replying to an earlier reply that violates the
previous rule, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT make matters worse by
adding your own violation.
December 25, 1987
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3. Archives
Archives are kept in several places in formats avail-
able to everyone. As described below, if you are on
ARPANET/DDN you will probably find it more convenient to
retrieve files from the archive on radc-softvax.arpa using
FTP. If you are not on ARPANET/DDN, or are unable to use
FTP, you will be able to retrieve files from archives dis-
tributed over several Bitnet hosts by sending mail (notes)
to a program called LISTSERV.
3.1. Archives on radc-softvax.arpa
Files from radc-softvax.arpa are available by FTP. FTP
will work only for hosts directly connected to ARPANET/DDN.
Please obtain local documentation and advice for the FTP
user programming running on your host. There are two direc-
tories under the anonymous account. One for atari8 and one
for atari16.
FTP to radc-softvax using login:guest and
password:guest. To get the current list of available atari16
files do a 'get atari16/files.doc'. All of the atari16 files
are stored in the atari16 subdirectory. If you need any
other information, contact Marc Poulin.
The archive is maintained by Rodney Peck (Peck@radc-
multics.arpa) and Marc Poulin (Poulin@radc-multics.arpa or
Archives@radc-softvax.arpa).
3.2. LISTSERV
LISTSERV provides access to files for everyone who can
send mail, independent of their location. Note, however,
that intermediate notes have been known to refuse to handle
long messages or have damaged them in transit. LISTSERV
provides a number of features which you can access by send-
ing mail (note) to LISTSERV. Only the barest minimum are
described herein. On Bitnet messages should be sent to your
nearest LISTSERV (the one from which you receive the info-
atari digests). (If your address is not on Bitnet, an
address for file servers is given below.) All mail sent to
LISTSERV contains command lines. LISTSERV will respond by
return mail. No subject is necessary in such mail. For
more information send the command
INFO
3.2.1. List Names
The list_name for 16-bit Ataris is INFO-A16. The
list_name for 8-bit Ataris is INFO-A8. These list names are
used by Bitnet addressees for subscribing and unsubscribing
December 25, 1987
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and by everyone for obtaining back copies of news digests.
The list_names for programs stored in the archives are
PROG-A16 and PROG-A8.
3.2.2. (Un)Subscribing
If you are on Bitnet you may add or remove yourself
from the distribution list. It would greatly convenience
the moderators if you would do so when you no longer wish to
receive digests.
The command to join the list is
SUBSCRIBE list_name User_name
The command to remove yourself from the list is
UNSUBSCRIBE list_name
It would be most convenient if users took care of their
own subscribing and unsubscribing, but messages to INFO-
ATARI-REQUEST{8,16}@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU will still be
accepted.
3.2.3. Accessing Program & Digest Archives
All digests are in the archives. There is a separate
program library. You can obtain copies of files from LIST-
SERV by sending a message in the specified format.
If you are on ARPAnet (or gatewayed to it), your mail
concerning 16-bit Atari information should be addressed to
LISTSERV%CANADA01.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Mail concerning 8-bit Atari information should be addressed
to
LISTSERV%TCSVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
To obtain a list of files in the file server, the com-
mand is
INDEX list_name
The command to obtain a specific file is
GET list_name file_name
for example,
GET INFO-A16 87-00076
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If you want to learn more, send the message
HELP
The moderator of the 8-bit program library is John R.
Dunning. This library is not yet available for use, and
further information will be posted to both newsgroups as it
becomes available.
3.2.4. LISTSERV Moderators
The person to contact if you are having problems
(un)subscribing is Harry Williams (harry@marist.bitnet).
The moderator of the 16-bit digest archives is Peter
Jasper-Fayer (sofpjf@uoguelph.bitnet). The moderator of the
16-bit program archives is Richard Werezak
(carson@mcmaster.bitnet). The moderator of the 8-bit
archives is John Voigt (sysbjav@tcsvm.bitnet). The modera-
tor of the 8-bit program archives is Arnold de Leon
(adeleon@hmcvax.bitnet).
3.2.5. Information Concerning 16-bit Archive Organization
The digests are numbered sequentially as they come in.
Sometimes the files arrive here out of order, or with miss-
ing ones, or with extra ones or with mail from BITNET users
requesting information. Often the moderator has to logon to
LISTSERV and re-name the files according to the "Subject:"
line within it. Those "Subject:" lines are what end up in
the indexes (in both "-A16" lists)
The program files are largely extracts from the digests
(INFO-A16). As far as possible, they are numbered the same
as the digests they came from. Other programs were inserted
somewhere in the list. The numbers of these "inserted"
files were selected so that they would appear in the index
at about the correct CHRONOLOGICAL sequence. If no programs
were included in the digests, and no contributions were
received, then those spaces in the index numbers were left
blank.
3.2.6. Supplemental information for BITNET users
Bitnet sites normally cannot make a connection to an
internet site (such as Score) and FTP files over, so you do
not have direct access to the archives on radc-softvax.arpa
from your BITNET site. However, BITNET has some sites with
all the good stuff, so you can get files from there. The
LISTSERV's at CANADA01 and FINHUTC have old digests, and the
ATARINET server at Univ of Houston has most of the best pro-
grams. You can get to the LISTSERVs by saying
TELL LISTSERV AT FINHUTC GET ATARI FILELIST
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or
TELL LISTSERV AT CANADA01 GET ATARI FILELIST
to get a list of files. To get a specific file if you
know it's name, you can say
TELL LISTSERV AT <HOSTNAME> GET <FILENAME> <FILETYPE>
To get stuff from the Univ of Houston server, you can
say
TELL UH-INFO AT UHUPVM1 ATARINET HELP
or
TELL UH-INFO AT UHUPVM1 ATARINET INDEX
for further instructions. After you know a file's
name, you can get it by saying
TELL UH-INFO AT UHUPVM1 ATARINET SEND <FILENAME> <FILETYPE>
December 25, 1987