jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) (09/05/87)
I finally had a chance to see the Canadian Shack catalogue for
'88 (which won't be distributed for another couple of weeks). I guess
you US fellows know about all this, but I saw some nice stuff for the
CoCo3. First, Multiview is listed at the same price as Deskmate
($139.00 Canadian) and I'm going to have to buy that ASAP. That was
no real surprise, except that it looks like it should finally become
available. I hope someone will "sound off" as soon as it's spotted
in *any* store in North America.
There's a desktop publishing program. I didn't read the whole blurb
but it seems to cover the basic stuff for this type of application.
There's a new art program which had a *very* low price tag. I'm
hoping that it'll cover 320 * 192 * 16 colors. I'm also hoping it's
a drop-in replacement for the art program in Deskmate. I'm also hoping
that it has a decent file format with good compression so it'll be
worth standardizing on. (I'm also hoping these programs are running
under OS-9 -- but I'm fairly confident they are :-).
Due to workload I have not touched the art program I was writing
in months. Absolutely no progress on it. I'm looking at the code
that Dale Puckett published in last month's Rainbow. If the new
Shack program's not good enough, I don't know what I'll do.
Ported Code:
'khs' on BIX ported BISON to OS-9 68K! I'll try to upload the sources
to the Net over the next week. It's big so it may take a couple of days.
David Betz is working on a port of BMODEM! This is a really good
comm package with X and Y modem support and script execution. He's working
on an Atari ST with the new 2.1 OSK. I'm looking forward to this. BModem
will likely be the best PD comm package under OSK when it's done.
Other Matters:
My apologies to Pete and the guys at CIS. A while back Pete asked
if I had a 'termcap.l' source on BIX. There was an interesting story
about this source. It goes something like this. A long time ago I
downloaded Fred Fish's 'termcap.l' and a bunch of other files from the
Net. I had to shuffle files around on a number of disks and later I
was uploading things to BIX. I had a bunch of files together and one
was called 'termcap.c' which was a set of references to 'termcap.l'
for another program. I uploaded that by mistake to BIX as a 'termcap.l'
source. Someone point out to me that what I posted wasn't what I
thought I'd posted, so I had to post a retraction and kill that file.
Later still, I found the proper 'termcap.c' file which was the
Fred Fish source for 'termcap.l' and posted it to BIX. Much later,
long after I'd forgotten all this, the matter came up and I only remembered
the first posting (which was the mistaken one). I even searched my
'digest' file for it and didn't turn it up (that's not good--as people
who have been on BIX will tell you, I keep the 'digest' up to date
as far as source uploads into the conference are concerned and I
*should* have found this file easily). Anyway, Roland located it
and I've sent Pete a copy a few days ago. Hopefully you guys on CIS
will have it shortly. If Pete hasn't received by the time he reads
this message, then something has gone wrong.
I received my Imagewise digitizer yesterday and I'll be writting
a capture program. That's easy. What's a bit harder is writing a
display program. The problem is deciding what computer it's going
to be displayed on. I have some sources to convert the file to ST
Neochrome (not my code so I can't post it), but nothing for the CoCo3.
I'll probably port the Neochrome converter to OS-9 (it's TOS code)
but I'm undecided about what to do with the CoCo3. Again, it depends
on the file format this new art program uses. WE NEED STANDARDS guys!
Frank Hogg has been sending out DynaStar and DynaForm to people
who bought the QT-20X because Brian's been delayed fixing up the new
Wordstar-like word processor. I can't get DynaStar to run. It can't
find my 'termset' file. I've stuck 'termset' everywhere I can think
of (/dd/SYS, /dd/CMDS, the current work directory, combinations
of these at the same time). I'm using OSK version 2.0 on the QT-20X.
Has anybody else had this problem?
Sculptor Quicky Note:
The current version of Sculptor uses the TERM variable properly to
find out what terminal you're using, but it doesn't use the PATH variable.
All executables should be kept in /dd/CMDS. Furthermore, it doesn't
use 'termcap', so there are a bunch of unnecessary terminal definition
files which are something of a waste. Otherwise it's pretty nice so
far. I'm a bit disappointed that there doesn't seem to be any simple
way to re-structure existing data files. If you've used OS-9 Profile
you've been spoiled, since this very nice feature really isn't that
common in large scale database managers. It's in DBMan which is on the
ST apparently.
Miscellaneous:
Regarding the ST port, I heard that the graphics interface would
be X-Windows rather than Invision. This might have changed. Also,
there's no reason why you can't have both. In fact, I'd rather have
both. X-Windows is important because it's becoming a standard for
workstations. From what I've seen of Invision, I can't see any reason
why you couldn't run it within X-Windows anyway.
Regarding 68K addressing. Relative addressing directly is limited
by the 68000 processor and yes, it's only +/-32K. The 68020 processor
fix this, but to have large generic modules, you have to use an offset
register loaded and "manually" added to the program counter. It works,
but I'd rather have an 020. Rumour has it that the long jump/branch
is actually slower than the "manual" code even on the 020, but at least
you should not have to disturb another register.
Cheers! -- Jim O.
--
Jim Omura, 2A King George's Drive, Toronto, (416) 652-3880
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
Byte Information eXchange: jimomuraknudsen@ihwpt.ATT.COM (mike knudsen) (09/08/87)
In article <2021@lsuc.UUCP>, jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) writes: > I finally had a chance to see the Canadian Shack catalogue for > '88 (which won't be distributed for another couple of weeks). I guess > you US fellows know about all this, but I saw some nice stuff for the > CoCo3. First, Multiview is listed at the same price as Deskmate > ($139.00 Canadian) and I'm going to have to buy that ASAP. > I hope someone will "sound off" as soon as it's spotted > in *any* store in North America. Hmmm...Multiview is only $50 US in my '88 catalog, and $100 buys the new Development System, which does NOT include a new C compiler. Wonder if it includes new .defs for C? Also any docs for interfacing to Multiview? Multiview by itself doesn't do much (a desk calc and doodle pad); you have to plug in your existing programs. This is according to the catalog, for what it's worth. > There's a new art program which had a *very* low price tag. I'm > hoping that it'll cover 320 * 192 * 16 colors. I'm also hoping it's > a drop-in replacement for the art program in Deskmate. I'm also hoping > worth standardizing on. (I'm also hoping these programs are running > under OS-9 -- but I'm fairly confident they are :-). This is written by Steve Bjork, is only $30 US, and is OS9. Multiview supposedly lets you plug in ANY OS9 application program and click it from the menu. Wonder if you can create your own icons? > I can't get DynaStar to run. It can't > find my 'termset' file. I've stuck 'termset' everywhere I can think > of (/dd/SYS, /dd/CMDS, the current work directory, combinations > of these at the same time). On Coco it's /dd/SYS/termset. Irks me how this file contains nothing about the Coco, yet DS won't run if it can't find this file. No idea why OSK version won't run. Other items in the '88 catalog worth waiting for-- two-button mouse ($50) and a Sub Simulator game ($30). PS: I hear that Canadian Shacks don't even have the HiRes mouse adapter box yet. Maybe Sardis wud've shipped my controller on time if I'd paid in HiRes boxes instead of US dollars.... -- Mike J Knudsen ...ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen Bell Labs(AT&T) Delphi: RAGTIMER CIS: <memory failure, too many digits> "Just say NO to MS-DOS!"
pete@wlbr.EATON.COM (Pete Lyall) (09/09/87)
Re: Develper's Pack -
Be advised that Tandy also dropped the ball (what's new..) and
left the files for SCFdefs and RBFdefs off the disk. We're trying to
get permission to post them to CIS, via a variety of methods. If that
comes to pass, I will also post them here. For the most part, you can
use old level I defs (if you have LI) for the non-extended coco'isms
(mouse, window, etc...).
Yes - New C .h files are there, as well as a legitimate 'Make' program
(works well!), Scred editor, and some other stuff. Dunno if it's
worth $100, but having make is NICE.
Pete
--
Pete Lyall
Usenet: {trwrb, scgvaxd, ihnp4, voder, vortex}!wlbr!pete
Compuserve: 76703,4230 (OS9 Sysop) OS9 (home): (805)-985-0632 (24hr./1200 baud)jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (09/10/87)
As Mike noted the US price for Multiview is $50.00. The Canuck
price is about $70.00. It was the development system that costed
$139.95 in Canada (which is actually lower than the US $100.00).
I didn't see the Hi Res mouse adapter, but there was a 2 button
mouse. Good stuff all!
Cheers! -- Jim O.
--
Jim Omura, 2A King George's Drive, Toronto, (416) 652-3880
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
Byte Information eXchange: jimomura