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Silicon Times Report Issue 0059
ST REPORT WEEKLY ONLINE MAGAZINE
--------------------------------
Monday, OCT. 31, 1988
Vol. II No. 59
==========================================================================
ST Report Online Magazine Inc.
------------------------------
Post Office Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida
32236 6672
R.F. Mariano
Publisher - Editor
====================['The Original Online ST Magazine']===================
Headquarters Bulletin Boards
----------------------------
North South
201-343-1426 904-786-4176
Central West
216-784-0574 916-962-2566
=======================================================================
CONTENTS
========
~ From the Editor's Desk.............~ Anaias Who?...................
~ A Veteran Retires..................~ Digi-Drum ST..................
~ Italy and ATARI....................~ Pro GEM Windows #10...........
~ In Search of Atari.................~ 220 ST Michtron...............
~ ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL ............~ Thompson & Atari ST...........
========================================================================
AVAILABLE ON: COMP-U-SERVE ~ DELPHI ~ GENIE ~ THE SOURCE
========================================================================
From the Editor's Desk;
I am compelled to remember, at a time like this, a few simple things
I was taught as a youngster, by The Sisters of Charity of Halifax, like
there is a time and a place for everything. I now take the opportunity
to extend our sincerest sympathy to Neil Harris and his family for the
recent loss of his mother.
To be able to discuss our differences with GEnie and arrive at a
agreement is wonderful. We will continue to serve as we have before and
hopefully the future will be just dandy. We wish Darlah all the success
possible for the new GEnie online publication, ST PROFILE.
Here at ST Report, we believe in Atari and, it is a basically GOOD
company to do business with. We also find Mr. SIG HARTMANN a refreshing
breath of fresh air. Perhaps the "changing of the guard" in the PR dep't.
was the best thing that could have happened. Mr. Hartmann's attitude of
being straight forward and "telling it like it is" can do more for Atari
than all the hype and hoopla some others have tried to use and failed.
Since CINDY CLAVERAN is the new User Group Coordinator appointed
by Sig Hartmann, Atari President of Software, things have been getting
back into the groove and are becoming well organized. Cindy will be
working on the User Group News, under the ATARI COMPUTER banner. You can
contact her at Atari Corp (408) 745-2569, or on GEnie by "Cindy.C". May
we remind the Usergroups to please re-register your group with Cindy if
you wish to continue to receive the Usergroup Newsletter from Atari.
This is Halloween and I hope all the kiddies have a safe and happy
time trick or treating tonight. In a few weeks we shall see what Comdex
has to offer, I am positive Atari is going to set the world on fire, with
it's news and product releases. I am however, sworn to secrecy at least
till Comdex opens....
Ralph.....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
----------------------
The Atari Forums will be sponsoring a National Online Teleconference
on Wednesday, November 9, 1988 at 8:00 PM EST.
Our guest speaker will be:
Ralph F.Mariano ("REX READE")
Editor and Publisher, ST REPORT weekly online news magazine.
We encourge each and every one of you to attend. Especially those of you
who have any questions to ask of Mr. Mariano ....
The ST REPORT Conference is going to be held in CompuServe's Electronic
Convention Center(tm) (GO CONVENTION). Please read ECC.TXT in LIBRARY 17
of ATARIARTS or ATARIPRO for more information.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE
FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY
COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME
to the Readers
ST REPORT ONLINE ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE
NEW USERS SIGN UP TODAY!
Call any of the St Report Official BBS numbers
(Listed at the top of ST REPORT)
or
Leave E-mail to St Report - R. Mariano
Be sure to include your full mailing address so your
Compuserve kit can be immediately mailed to you!
Expires 11-30-88
NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANAIAS WHO?
-----------
by R.F.Mariano
The tall and TOTALLY impressive Wizard drifted into the cavern
approximately 5 inches above the craggy floor....As he glided slowly to a
halt he effortlessly turned toward us and said;
"The Challenge of Lord Chaos awaits all mindless mortals who would
dare to attempt to overpower Him. I spent an intense amount of time
instructing a mortal and instilling upon him the rites and tomes
neccessary to teach and assist each of you in your quest of Lord
Chaos. This mortal is known as Bob Retelle and he has prepared
** THE LOST SCROLLS OF MOUNT ANAIAS **
for those strong willed and stout hearted souls wishing to overcome
Chaos".
After being thoroughly chilled by the thoughts of stealthly sneaking
through the dark, damp corridors of a dungeon that reeked from the odor
of death itself, I realized I was only reading the intro to Bob's new
effort at helping all the "good" folks caught in Dungeon Master.
This is
going to be the top honors, all time favorite, most popular game for the
computing community and this hint book is right up to speed. The reading
is easy, concise and to the point. The great thing is you are NOT given
the adventure on a silver platter. After all, everyone hates going to the
theater and have someone tell you what is going to happen. Bob has made
sure this will not happen. You are not spoon fed the dungeon. I highly
reccommend this fine hint book....it is one of the nicest efforts I have
seen and it has excellent maps and illustrations throughout. It is worth
the price of 9.95.
THE LOST SCROLLS OF MOUNT ANAIAS
by BOB RETELLE
Order From:
Unicorn Publications
3487 Braeburn Circle
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
This is "GOOD" stuff!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Veteran Retires
-----------------
By R.F. Mariano
as told by N. Bradley
This poor 1040 has seen better days, he said holding the ST. Having
just returned from 6 months in the Persian Gulf on the USS JOHN HANCOCK.
Neil hoped having a 1040 onboard would help pass the time during the 6 mo.
deployment from home. It definately did help, but took a beating in the
process. Right now the computer is missing 1 key, the mouse port has a
short, the mouse had to be replaced, and all the chips had to be re-seated
due to vibration. The monitor took a hit from a power spike, and is now
being replaced as well.
"My poor 1040 has been taped in place so many times (to keep it from
falling off the desk) that the marks on the cabinet look like dents. The
thing is so full of dust, the board has a grey tint to it."
Note: The Persian Gulf is famous for it's dust, it gets in EVERYTHING!
A total of five programs have to be replaced due to being corrupted
by the power of the ship's radar systems. (the Onboard Radar Systems also
damaged his hard disk and it had to be returned for repair/replacement).
The 1040 is very succeptable to vibrations. One day, after booting
the computer, it just sat, disk drive whirring, and finally displayed
on the screen: "The data on your disk is damaged...". This came up
with EVERY disk tried, needless to say Neil was a little worried. He then
remembered hearing about the infamous "drop test" for the early 1040's.
He opened the computer - low and behold 4 chips had vibrated loose.
The worst one was the keyboard chip, when he pushed on it you could hear
the "snap" of it re-seating. "I can only guess that the continual
vibration from the engines and generators as well as the rocking back and
forth finally wiggled the chips loose." He said.
"My 1040 and I have been through quite a bit together....
I will miss you, but you deserve to be retired. We have visited 4
countries, sailed thousands of miles, transited the Suez Canal, been in a
war zone including 2 miles away from dogfighting Iranian/Iraqi fighter
jets and full rocket fire. We fearlessly sailed the mined Persian Gulf,
witnessed the end of a war, and have been transported from ship-shore 4
or five times in what seemed like dingies."
"Yes my friend, I will miss you. I look forward to meeting your
replacement. No, I don't think he will take a similar voyage. He will
stay safe at home on my desk. Farewell, and for thee I pray....
fair weather and following seas." Neil said, as he wrapped the 1040 for
it's trip home......
After seeing the condition of the 1040 and monitor, I was proud to
have held the 1040 that "went to war"....I wouldn't be surprised if deep
inside that 1040 a chip or two had some how said a few bits to a few of
the "big boy" chips on the bridge of that Destroyer. Ed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIGI-DRUM ST
------------
by Dave Triwush
MVACE
Well, I might just as well get the point of this review out of the
way immediately... Unless you've got the Replay Sound Sampling Cartridge
with which this application interfaces, or something compatible, Digi-
Drum ST is a waste of money. (Actually, it may be a waste regardless,
as I hadn't the Replay hardware to use with this software's review,
either.) Digi-Drum gives the option of either cartridge or monitor
output, but let's face it, folks, monitor output is adequate for speech
synthesis and such, but stinks for music reproduction (my own admittedly
subjective opinion, but there you go). However, if this admonition is
not daunting (or you have Replay), by all means read on!
First, let's look at the Replay-related features - perfunctorily,
since I have to take the documentation's word on them. In conjunction
with Replay, you can sample your own drum sounds (breaking glass? dog
barks?), at either 10 or 20 kilohertz (Khz), save them to disk
individually, and use them in your drum patterns with the provided
samples in any combination, up to 16 voices per "drum kit". "Kits" may
also be saved and loaded as units. Replay allows playback through the
cartridge, giving, one would assume, improved fidelity over the monitor
speaker's capabilities. You get a 1.64 second sample at 10 Khz; half
that or 0.82 sec at 20 Khz. This should be more than sufficient for any
percussion-oriented sounds.
Unfortunately, I have only Digi-Drum to review here. No sampling;
and the default kit and 6 additional samples provided actually sound
worse than bad through the monitor - they mostly sound alike! So let's
hope Replay helps here.
Digi-Drum ST permits up to 16 sounds (one kit) to be used at once.
However, this does not mean 16-voice "polyphonic"; only 2 sounds can be
played on a given beat: there are two channels. Sound "events" are
grouped into patterns or "bars" of 4 to 32 beats. These may also be
manipulated individually as disk files, and up to 99 may occupy memory
at a time, or so says the very brief manual. Elsewhere, the manual says
32 patterns may be used. The real limit may be 99; paging through the
numbers under "Edit Pattern" caused a neat line of four bombs after
pattern number 42! However, up to 70 "pattern-events", including loops
and jumps, do constitute a "song", the largest entity loadable from or
savable to disk.
You can create patterns two ways; real-time or by poking beats into
the bar from the pallette of 16 sounds. The real-time method is clumsy
at best; you get a flashing beat indicator to play on top of, but no
click or audible signal, and you need to juggle function keys 1-4.
Function keys? That's right, folks, this program is not GEM-based;
except when doing disk loads or saves. These operations present the
familiar file selector window, and the mouse pointer appears and works;
as soon as the operation is complete, however, the pointer vanishes, and
you're stuck with cursor, function and the escape keys to run the
program. I found the combination particularly frustrating. What's
more, these keys do not have the same functions throughout the program,
and beware the escape key! It takes you out of most of the pull-down
menu features, but also exits the program with an extra hit, without
reminding you to save any work you may have accomplished! So be warned,
you heavy-handed typists out there. But I digress. . .
Actually, this program is simple enough to use, though clumsy; for
example, loading, saving, editing patterns, setting tempo, editing a
"song", and playing the "song", all require different, mutually
exclusive areas of the menu bar! This is in marked contrast to other
basic programs like Music Studio, which have their own limitations, but
still allow everything to be done without lots of screen switching.
Well, in spite of these flaws, I must say that Digi-Drum ST does work,
and in tandem with the Replay hardware, should sound pretty good.
However, I personally would wait for a subsequent version that supplies
full GEM implementation, or at least much better consolidated user
interface.
Digi-Drum ST will run on any ST system, color or monochrome, and
comes on one copy-protected single-sided disk. The documentation
included is a 13 page booklet, but only 4 pages are in English; the rest
is German. I gather there is more information in the German portion
(which, obviously, I don't speak). Oh, well!
In conclusion, Digi-Drum ST serves as a functional but difficult
"toy"; serious musicians or otherwise "spoiled" users are advised to
look elsewhere for a drum-machine program. Digi-Drum retails for $39.95
but is available at Microtyme for $20.95. Thanks to John at Microtyme
for the review copy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ITALY and ATARI
---------------
by Neil Bradley
When I visited Genoa, Italy in early August, I had no real goal in
mind except to find an Atari dealer, so I could see what Europe had to
offer. After spending most of the morning searching computer stores, I
finally was refered to "the only Atari dealer in town."
Walking down a main street near the Genoa shipyard, there it was, a
small shop with a red sign in the window with the Atari logo on it. Upon
closer inspection of the window, I also saw a Commodore Amiga, Commodore
C-64, Amstrad, BBC Dragon, Spectrum 512, and Atari 2600 and 5200 video
games. The store, with the name of "Play Time", did not seem to be
the place to find a ST. With a sigh, I walked in and saw about 30 games
for the ST in a display case. With my broken German and the salesman's
broken English, I was able to determine that yes, he sold Atari ST
computers, and in fact, he had a MEGA 2 sitting behind the counter. He
seemed very suprised that an American would be interested in the ST, as he
had read that the U.S. was "not interested in the ST, but liked the Amiga
better."
I went to examine the software that he had on display, and saw a
few games that I liked. I inquired about the price for ARKANOID 2, and
his first words were * "Original or Copy?" *
He must have noted the surprised look on my face, and explained
that he could sell me a copy of the program for the equivalent of $10.00,
while the original would cost me about $40.00. If a game I wanted to
purchase had two disks, it would cost me $12.50. I asked him how many ST
programs he sold, and he stated "about 5 a week, all copies, of course".
The salesman then asked me to wait, and he called a friend from the
local Atari users group (at least that's what I think he said he was
doing), and told me to "Bring some American programs back later that
afternoon, and we can trade some programs one-for-one.
I returned later that afternoon with about 10 disks of public
domain programs and a few American programs I saw he had in the window.
I also brought along some old issues of Computer Gaming World, ST Log,
Compute's ST, and ST Informer. I asked him what copy program he was
using, and he said that he only used the Amiga for copying. I asked
him what Atari program, and he again said that he used the Amiga.
He walked over to the Amiga, and booted up a "utility" that would copy
Atari, IBM 3.5, Xenix, and Amiga disks. He again saw the look on my
face and said that by far this was the most efficient copy program
available. (He said that the only program that couldn't be copied with
the Amiga was Dungeon Master). He took all of the public domain programs
and all the copies of ST REPORT I had, and he especially liked "Superboot"
he had never seen anything like it. He opened up his four disk boxes
(each holding about 90 disks) and told me to "take my pick" of anything
there. I ended up taking about 3 disks worth European Public domain
utilities and pictures. He kept insisting I take anything, but I
declined.
He was very interested and impressed with the Kaypro disk box I had,
everything there was in plastic. I showed him an article in one of the
the magazines I had brought. He then glanced through the rest of them,
but seemed most impressed with ST Informer. He requested that he be
allowed to keep it, so he could start a subscription. He appeared to be
mostly interested in the advertisements/articles for memory upgrades and
building hard drives. I asked him what were the big selling magazines in
Italy, and he said Computer and Video Games Plus from England was the
only one - but the company was splitting, and starting a separate
magazine for the 16 bit computers.
Finally I offered to trade him an unopened game I had - PALADIN by
Omnitrend (I mistakenly ordered two copies, and hadn't sent the 2nd back
yet) for SHADOWGATE by Mindscape. He accepted, and asked if I had any
other unopened games to trade. When I informed him I didn't, he again
insisted I take some copies of games back with me, since I gave him so
much and took so little.
During our conversations, I found out that the primary use for the
ST in Italy is word processing, followed by games. The biggest sellers
are Arcade. Graphic adventures are second, Role Player Games third,
and war/strategy games a distant fourth.
One other observation - during the entire time I was there,
customers were coming in and out, most buying Commodore programs (all
copies). No one seemed to care about buying copies, it all appeared quite
customary and the right thing to do.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANTIC PUBLISHING INC.
COPYRIGHT 1988
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
PROFESSIONAL GEM by Tim Oren
Column #10 - VDI Graphics: Text Output
This issue of ST PRO GEM concludes the two column series on
VDI with a look at simple VDI text output, and ways to optimize
its speed. There is also a Feedback section. You may find the
associated download file under the name GMCL10.C in DL3 of the
ATARI16 SIG (PCS-58).
To keep the size of this first discussion of text within
reason, I am going to restrict it to use of the mono-spaced system
font in its default size and orientation. Discussion of
alternate and proportionally spaced fonts, baseline rotation, and
character scaling will become a later article in this series.
DEFINITIONS. This article makes use of some terminology
which may be unfamiliar if you have not used digital typefaces.
A mono-spaced font is one in which each character occupies an
identically wide space on the screen. A proportional font has
characters which occupy different widths. For instance, an 'l'
would probably be narrower than a 'w'.
Text may be "justified" right, left, or center. This means
that the right character, left character, or center position of
the text string is constrained to a given location. In common
usage, a page of text is "ragged right" if its lines are left
justified only. The text page is "fully justified", "justified"
or (ambiguously) "right justified" if BOTH the left and right
characters are contrained to fixed columns. Full justification is
produced by inserting extra blank characters in the case of a
mono-spaced font, or by adding extra pixel columns in the case of
proportional output.
A text character (in a monospaced font) is written inside a
standard sized cell or box. Vertically, the cell extends from the
"top line" down to the "bottom line". If there are one or more
blank lines at the top or bottom, they are called "leading" and
are used to separate lines of text. The characters themselves
always fall between the "ascent line", which is the highest line
reached by characters such as 'd' and 'l', and the "descent line",
which is the lowest line in characters like 'q' and 'g'. Other
locations of interest are the "half line", which is the top of
characters like 'a' or 'n', and the "base line", which is the
bottom of characters which do not have descenders.
Before plunging into the Attribute Functions for text, you
should note that the writing mode (vswr_mode) and clipping
rectangle (vs_clip) attributes discussed in the last column (#9)
also pertain to text. Since much of the discussion of text
optimization will center on these attributes, you may want to
review them.
TEXT ATTRIBUTES. The writing color for graphics text is set
with the command:
vst_color(vdi_handle, color);
Vdi_handle is always the handle returned from graf_handle() at
application startup. Color is a word value between 0 and 15 which
designates the output color index. As discussed in previous
columns, the actual color which appears is dependent on the
current palette settings. In applications such as word and
outline processors it is important that characters and their
background provide good contrast to avoid eyestrain. In these
situations, you may want to use the setPalette and/or setColor
XBIOS functions to force the palette to a known state before
starting the application.
You can choose a variety of special output effects for your
text with the call:
vst_effects(vdi_handle, effects);
Effects is a single flag word, with the bits having the following
significance:
0 - Thicken
1 - Lighten
2 - Skew
3 - Underline
4 - Outline
5 - Shadow
In each case, turning the bit on selects the effect. Otherwise,
the effect is off. Any number of multiple effects may be
selected, but the result may not always be pleasing or legible.
The "thicken" effect widens the character strokes by one
pixel, resulting in the appearance of boldface type. The
"lighten" effect superimposes a half-tone dither on the character.
This mode is useful for indicating non-selectable text items, but
is not legible enough for other purposes.
The skew effect shifts the rows of the character to the right,
with the greatest displacement at the top. This results in the
appearance of italic text. You should be aware that the VDI does
not compensate for this effect. This means that a skewed italic
character which is immediately followed by a normal blank will be
overstruck, and part of the top of the character will disappear.
Likewise, a skewed character written to the left of an existing
normal character will overstrike part of it. There is a related
bug in the VDI clipping logic which may cause some parts of a
skewed character not to be redrawn if they fall at the edge of a
clipping rectangle, even though they should fall within the
region.
The outline effect produces output which is a one pixel
"halo" around the normal character. The shadow effect attempts to
create a "drop shadow" to the side of the character. These
effects should be used very sparingly with default sized fonts.
They often result in illegible output.
When graphics text is written, a screen coordinate must be
specified for the output. The relationship of the text to the
screen point is determined by the call:
vst_alignment(vdi_handle, hin, vin, &hout, &vout);
Hin and vin are each words, with values specifying the desired
horizontal and vertical alignment, respectively. Hout and vout
receive the actual values set by the VDI. If they differ from the
requested values, an error has occurred.
Hin may be set to zero for left justification, one for center
justification, or two for right justification. The coordinate
given when text is written becomes the "anchor point" as described
in the definitions above. The default justification is left.
Vin determines what reference line of the text is positioned
at the output coordinate. The selection values are:
0 - baseline (default)
1 - half line
2 - ascent line
3 - bottom line
4 - descent line
5 - top line
A common combination of alignments is left (0) and top line
(5). This mode guarantees that all text output will lie to the
right and below the output coordinate. This corresponds with the
AES object and GRECT coordinate systems.
Finally, the call to do the actual output is:
v_gtext(vdi_handle, x, y, string);
X and y define the screen coordinate to be used as the alignment
point. String is a pointer to a null terminated string, which
must be total eighty characters or less, exclusive of the null.
This limit is imposed by the size of the intin[] array in the VDI
binding. Be warned that it is NOT checked in the standard
binding! Exceeding it may cause memory to be overwritten.
One Inquire Function is useful with text output. The call
vqt_attributes(vdi_handle, attrib);
reads back the current attribute settings into the 10 word array
attrib[]. The main items of interest are attrib[6] through
attrib[9], which contain the width and height of characters, and
the width and height of the character cell in the current font.
You should rely on this function to obtain size information,
rather than using the output of the graf_handle() function. On
the ST, graf_handle() always returns sizes for the monochrome mode
system font, which will be incorrect in the color screen modes.
Attrib[1] will contain the current graphics text color as set
by vst_color(). Attrib[3] and [4] contain the horizontal and
vertical alignment settings, respectively. Attrib[5] contains the
current writing mode, as set by vswr_mode().
OPTIMIZATION. The most common complaint about using bit maps
for character output is lack of speed. This section suggests ways
to speed things up. By adopting all of these methods, you can
realize an improvement of two to three times in speed.
BYTE ALIGNMENT. Since writing graphic text is essentially a
bit-blit operation, characters which have "fringes", that is, do
not align evenly with byte boundaries, will suffer performance
penalities. The default system fonts in all resolutions of the ST
are a multiple of eight pixels wide, so the problem reduces to
assuring that each characters starts at a byte boundary in the
screen bit map. This will be true if the horizontal pixel address
of the left edge of the character is evenly divisible by eight.
Obviously, byte alignment is easiest to enforce when the
horizontal justification is right or left. Doing so with centered
text is possible, but requires adding padding blanks to odd length
strings.
When writing text within windows, it is helpful to assure
that the edges of the window working area are byte aligned. There
is a section of code in the download which shows a technique for
converting a user requested window position and/or size to its
working dimensions, byte-aligning the width and horizontal
position, and computing the adjusted external window coordinates.
WRITING MODE. The fastest text output mode is replace. All
other modes require reading in the target raster area and merging
it with the new information. You may find that you must use
transparent or reverse transparent mode, for instance, to use or
preserve an underlying background color other than white. In this
case, you can still do some optimization by filling in the
background color for the entire string with a v_bar() call, rather
than doing it one character cell at a time.
CLIPPING. VDI output always proceeds faster when the
clipping rectangle is turned off, and text output is no exception.
Remember that you may only do this if you are drawing into a
dialog box, or into the interior of a window which you know is on
top. (You can use the WM_TOPPED and WM_NEWTOP messages for
keeping track of the top window, or use the WF_TOP wind_get() call
to find the current top.) In both of these cases, you will know
the width of the drawing area, and you can truncate the output
string to fit exactly, rather than setting the clipping rectangle.
For this to work, you must have used the byte alignment technique
to assure that the width of the writing area is a multiple of
eight.
BINDINGS. The normal binding for v_gtext() is inefficient.
It copies the string which you supply character-by-character into
intin[] before it calls the VDI itself. In many cases, it will be
more efficient for your application to place characters directly
into intin[] and make the VDI trap call directly. To give you a
start, the code for the standard v_gtext() binding has been
included in the download. When setting up intin[], be sure not to
load more than 80 characters, or you will probably crash the
system!
MOVING TEXT. When performing text editing on the screen, you
should avoid rewriting the string under edit whenever possible.
It is always more efficient to use the raster operations to move a
string to the right or left, assuming that you have obeyed the
byte alignment rule. If you are deleting characters, blit the
unchanged part of the screen to the left, and overstrike the last
character in the string with a blank. If inserting characters,
blit the trailing portion of the string to the right before
writing in the new character.
THAT'S IT FOR NOW. This concludes the two article series on
simple VDI output. Future columns may explore more complex VDI
topics such as proportional text. If there is something you would
like to see, please use the Online Feedback to let me know!
Meanwhile, the next column will give out the locations of some of
the "hooks" and "trapdoors" built into the AES object structure,
including how to set up user-defined AES drawing objects.
>>>>>>>>>>> Demonstration of byte alignment of window interior <<<<<<<<<<<
#define FEATURES 0x0fef /* what border features are used */
WORD msg[8]; /* message from evnt_multi */
GRECT work_area; /* defines working area */
WORD w_hndl; /* handle for window being changed */
wind_calc(1, FEATURES, msg[4], msg[5], msg[6], msg[7],
&work_area.g_x, &work_area.g_y, &work_area.g_w,
&work_area.g_h);
work_area.g_x = align_x(work_area.g_x);
work_area.g_w = align_x(work_area.g_w);
wind_calc(0, FEATURES, work_area.g_x, work_area.g_y,
work_area.g_w, work_area.g_h, &msg[4], &msg[5],
&msg[6], &msg[7]);
wind_set(w_hndl, WF_CXYWH, msg[4], msg[5], msg[6], msg[7]);
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Subroutine for above <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
WORD
align_x(x) /* forces word alignment for column position */
WORD x; /* rounding to nearest word */
{
return((x & 0xfff0) + ((x & 0x0008) ? 0x0010 : 0));
}
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Standard v_gtext binding <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
WORD
v_gtext( handle, x, y, string)
WORD handle, x, y;
BYTE *string;
{
WORD i;
ptsin[0] = x;
ptsin[1] = y;
i = 0;
while (intin[i++] = *string++) /* Copy characters to intin */
; /* There is NO error checking! */
contrl[0] = 8;
contrl[1] = 1;
contrl[3] = --i;
contrl[6] = handle;
vdi();
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN SEARCH OF ATARI IN THE MIDDLE EAST
-------------------------------------
By Neil Bradley
During my just completed tour of duty in the Persian Gulf while
aboard the USS JOHN HANCOCK (DD-981), a U.S. Navy Destroyer, the ship
made two port calls in the Middle East. This article shows my trials,
tribulations and frustrations in finding Atari in the Middle East.
- MANAMA, Bahrain
---------------
Bahrain is a small island country in the southwestern portion of the
Persian Gulf. I spent one of my liberty days searching for an Atari
dealer - first to see if he could repair my broken mouse, and second to
see what kinds of software was available.
The Bahraini telephone book did not list Atari, so I had to start my
search by walking into computer stores. My most immediate problem was
that no one there spoke English, and didn't seem to know what Atari was.
I finally went back to the ship, made a copy of the Atari logo, and took
that with me. In the first store I showed it too, the owner immediately
smiled, and wrote an address down on a piece of paper, and got the message
across to show it to a taxi, and he would take me there. Because of
the ever present threat of terrorism, I decided to try the same thing in a
different store. When I showed him the address and the Atari logo, he too
agreed that the address was the Atari dealer.
I took a taxi to the address. When I got out, there was this big
office building with small stores on the ground floor. One of these stores
had a small Atari sign, as well as much larger Commodore and Amstrad signs
in the window.
When I went in, the store owner was very polite, spoke excellent
British English, and showed me his stock of ST's: 520FM (British version),
1040, and MEGA 2 & 4, all on display. He then showed me the 3 programs
he had in stock, and said that he could get just about anything in 3
weeks. (His software distributer was from the U.K.). I explained my
desire about purchasing a mouse, but he was unable to help me, as he
did not carry spare parts. He said that all repairs had to be sent to
Saudi Arabia, as there was no local facility to repair ST's in country.
I asked him if there was a local Users Group or Atari club, and he
seemed completely befuddled - didn't know what I was talking about. I
then asked if there were any bulletin boards, and he pointed to one there
in the shop. When I explained about BBS's, he said definately not,
because "If I had never heard of something like that, there is no such
thing in Bahrain". He also stated that he was the only Atari store in
Bahrain. I then asked him how the Atari was doing, and he got a little
defensive, said "fine" and changed the subject. The only thing I was able
to get from him was that the best selling ST was the 520 FM, since a
monitor was not required.
- Abu Dhabi, UAE (United Arab Emirates)
-------------------------------------
The only other middle eastern country I visited was UAE. Here,
the people did not speak as much English, but were generally more
friendly. My first shopping day in the UAE brought me a surprise - there
were Atari 2600 game machines in almost every store in the SOUK (The Arab
version of an outdoor shopping mall). After asking in each store about
the ST, I finally found a small, one-room shop (about the size of an
apartment living room) with stacks of 2600 game machines in it. Upon
questioning the storekeeper, he showed me the box of a 520fm, and said
that it belonged to someone else, as it had just arrived that day via
special order from Dubai (another large city-state in the UAE). He stated
that yes, he was one of two ST dealers in Abu Dhabi, but the other dealer
would be better for what I wanted, since the other dealer dealt in
computers vice video games.
I got the address from him, and searched out the other store.
This store was located one block from a large hotel, and was not difficult
to find. The day I was there the store was closed for vacation. So much
for Abu Dhabi.
- Cannes, France
--------------
On the way home, the ship stopped in Cannes, France. The only Atari
I found there was in one large department store. Their prices for both
hardware and software were outrageous (about 25% more than the U.S.). The
salesmen did not know of any user groups in the area.
All in all, the ST was there, but hard to find. The prevalant computer
seemed to be the Amstrad, followed by the C-64. In all cases the ST was
there, but not as prevalant as I expected, especially in Europe. From
what I was able to determine, the ST sells best in Germany and the UK,
followed by Spain, France, Italy and Scandanavia. Everyone I talked to
thought that the ST was dead in the U.S., and Amiga was king. Prices for
both hardware and software were higher. I believe that the dollar value
had some effect on this, but the ST still seemed a bit more expensive than
here. In every case, there were no ST only shops, all of the shops
carried the ST as a second computer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
220-ST Terminal Emulator
------------------------
by Douglas D. Hodson
MVACE
With so many terminal programs out there, you probably are
wondering what could a new one offer? We have Flash, ST-Talk
Professional, Interlink, and several other outstanding terminal programs
available for the ST. What 220-ST offers is good solid emulation of
several DEC (Digital Equiptment Corporation) terminals integrated into
an easy to use package. The program is very straightforward! Run it
and your ST screen looks exactly like a VT100 or one of the several
other emulation modes the program supports. Click the right mouse
button and a menu of file transfer protocols appears. Click the left
mouse button and all sorts of terminal controls can be set. Its that
simple!
220-ST supports emulation of the following 4 terminals: VT52,
VT100, VT200 (with 7-bit controls) and VT200 (with 8-bit controls). The
program allows you to control all aspects of the communication, display
(including 132 column mode!), screen dumps to the printer, keyboard
characteristics (even configure the ST backspace key to mean delete,
very nice for VAX communications), tab control and of course color
control. The program also supports MACRO commands (that you define).
For example you can make the keystroke ALT-A to mean dial a local VAX.
All of these macro commands and terminal characteristics can be saved
into files for later use.
Notice I said files instead of file, let me explain the difference.
Macro commands can be stored in a file. Terminal characteristics can be
stored in another file. Dial up phone lists stored into another. This
is probably the most confusing aspect of the program. There are to many
different "easy setup" files to load. Yes you can have the Terminal
characteristics file (its called a Set-Up Storage file in the
documentation) load a macro file automatically, if you desire, but I
find it just a little to much unnecessary work. I must admit the 3 file
system is probably more "powerful" in terms of flexibility, but at the
cost of ease which is what the rest of the program provides.
The emulation is real, it fools my VMS VAX and Unix VAX at work
completely. The VAX now thinks my ST is a DEC terminal, and that's the
goal of the program. I'm very impressed by the program and the
documentation provided is quite good. The program also provides online
help in a quite clever way. At any point where several "buttons" (or
options) are present, clicking the Atari logo and then clicking one of
the buttons provides help on that button. I thought this was a neat way
to provide help... I hope other software writers take note of this.
220-ST was written by Tricom Software and published by MichTron and
was provided on loan for review to the ACEs by MicrOtyme. The program
retails for $49.95, but is available from MicrOtyme for $25.95 and is
well worth the price!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL
======================
Sunnyvale, CA Sig Hartmann reassures the Developers that they will
------------- prosper by developing for the ST line in the "US".
Los Angeles, CA Genlok for the ST is real and right around the corner
--------------- as soon "Uncle Charley" (FCC) approves it. (Type
Acceptance # issued) In an election year they take SO
LONG?.....how dumb.
Denver, CO Federated vows a super professional appearance with
---------- "Compu-Centers" and highly trained personnel to man
them, might not be a bad idea...<grin>
Tucson, AR Stereo Sound for the ST is HERE! The miracle workers
---------- at Practical Solutions have done it AGAIN!! The Tweetie
board makes the ST a Stereo machine. Want more info or
one of the goodies? Give 'em a call at : 602-884-9612
Orem, UT While Word Perfect has stated it is not going to be
-------- releasing any new products for the ST, chances are
after Comdex, they will reconsider this posture very
seriously. Especially since they are developing a
GERMAN version of WP for export.
Thousand Oaks, CA WORD UP! Headed by Shelby Moore and Mike Fulton, are
----------------- not your run of the mill developers and have not been
discouraged by the market. They are constantly
improving their product and...we say it is in the top
three of word processing and the most powerful in the
G-Dos arena at this time..(almost to the level of DTP)
for more info: NEOCEPT 805-498-3840....
Jacksonville, FL ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL finds itself being the most
---------------- popular and copied feature of our magazine...well
everybody loves gossip! We see "psst" type columns
appearing in most all the hard copy pubs. Thanks for
the compliment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________
| SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BBS |
---------------------------
THE BUMPER STICKER FOR ALL BBS USERS!
3 1/2" X 11"
Blue Letters on White Vinyl
---------------------------
$3.75ea. - 2 for $7.00
postage and handling Incl.
Linda Woodworth
4604 East 16th Street
Cheyenne, WY. 82001
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4375M Thompson - MGA Multi-sync monitor with the ST
NOTES:
1) You must invert the Horiz and Vert Sync (use 4069 IC)
2) Use Practical Solutions Monitor switcher
3) Monitor does not have audio, must use external amp and speaker
4) Add 68 ohm resistors in series with RGB from Computer.
PICTURE CLARITY
The DOT Pitch on the Thompson is the same as the original ST Color monitor
(.31) and the convergance on this monitor is very good. The only problem
I have is that it is a 14 inch monitor and you need to sit back another
two feet for the scan lines to look the same (the Atari Monitor is a 12
inch). Or you can reduce the size of the screen with the Vert and Horiz
size controls.
Monochrome is good (higher scan rate) but you need to change the vert size
to max to get the proper ratio (Horiz/Vert size). You need to add 68 ohm
resistors in series with the RGB lines from the computer as Color output
has a tad too much drive for this monitor. Monochrome out from the ST
needs to drive three lines (R,G,B) and loads down so that its drive is
slightly lower. (resistors not needed)
FEATURES
This monitor has superimpose ability, multi-sync ability, switching from
TTL to Analog mode with either a switch or line going high-low on the
Analog plug. Composite Video, TTL, EGA , VGA, PGA and Analog modes are
all supported.
CONCLUSION
This monitor should give you a very useable picture and give you the added
benefit of having Mono mode available with the click of a button. Not to
mention that the new Computers Atari is coming out with will need a Multi
-Sync for those higher resolutions and more colors. By the way, the
current price of this monitor is $399.00 mail order.
TECHNICAL NOTES
Thompson brings out a 5v supply on the Analog plug that you can use to
power the sync inverter (4069 IC) this line can't power anything more than
.25W. I used 1/2 of a printer cable I had lying around...the DB25 male
that plugs into the ST for the Analog plug to the Thompson.
Below are the pin assignment for the ST and the Thompson.
Thompson DB 25 Plug Atari Monitor Plug
==============================================================
Pin # Signal description Pin # Signal description
2 Red video .6v +going 7 Red Video 1VPP +going
4 Green video .6 +going 6 Green Video 1VPP +going
14 Blue video .6 +going 10 Blue Video 1VPP +going
16 Horiz sync TTL Pos 9 Horiz Sync TTL Neg
17 Vert sync TTL Pos 12 Vert Sync TTL Neg
21 5 Volt supply 8 12 Volt supply for pullup
1 Ground 13 Ground
3 Ground 1 Audio output
5 Ground 4 Monochrome Detect
15 Ground 11 Monochrome 1vpp +going
25 Ground
There are many ways that you can connect, using switches relays or solid
state switching IC's, these pins together to achieve Mono and Color modes.
I'll just give examples for both modes and leave the actual choice of
method to you.
************* COLOR *************
Thompson Res 68 ohm Atari
Pin 2--------~~~~-----------------Pin 7
Pin 4--------~~~~-----------------Pin 6
Pin14--------~~~~-----------------Pin 10
4069 IC (Sync Inverter)
|---------|
Pin 9 Atari -|1 14 |--5v Pin 21 Thompson
Pin 16 Thompson-|2 13 |-Gnd
Pin 12 Atari -|3 12 |
Pin 17 Thompson-|4 11 |-Gnd
Gnd -|5 10 |
|6 9 |-Gnd
Gnd -|7 8 |
|_________|
All grounds are carried through. Pin 14 of the 4069 is bypassed to ground
with a 4.7 Ufd cap. Unused input pins on logic chips should not be
allowed to float. They must be attached to ground or B+.
********** Monochrome **************
Thompson Atari
Pin 2---------------------Pin 11
Pin 4---------------------Pin 11
Pin 14--------------------Pin 11
Pin 4 to Gnd (Mono Switch Line)
Pin 13 Gnd
All grounds carried through....use same Sync circuit. Sync is the same for
both Color and Mono mode. Audio is not provided in the Thompson Monitor
and you will have to provide an external amp and speaker for the sound.
The most important thing to realize is that monochrome and color lines can
not be hooked up at the same time, that's why you need a multi-pole switch
like in Monitor master and the new Astra Monitor switch box. You can make
your own or buy one from the above companys. The only part that might be
hard to get would be the Atari Plug. One source of the Monitor Plug is
Practical Solutions 602-884-9612.
There are many possibilities allowed for in design of the Atari Monitor
output plug. Pin 3 of that plug is a general purpose Output line that can
be used to throw an electronic latch so that no mechanical button is
necessary to switch between Mono and Color mode.
Jeff Rigby
Intersect Software Corp.
3951 Sawyer Rd.
Sarasota, Fl. 34233
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS WEEK'S QUOTABLE QUOTE
==========================
POST'S EQUATION:
----------------
For EVERY article, there is a compliment and an equal
and very opposite criticism!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ST-REPORT Issue #59 "HAPPY HALLOWEEN"! October 31, 1988
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (c)copywrite STR Inc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any reprint must include ST-Report and the author in the credits.
Views Presented herein are not necessarily those of STR Inc. or APEInc.
COMMERCIAL ONLINE SERVICES MUST HAVE WRITTEN PERMISSION
to offer ANY APEInc. REPORT and/or ZMAG in any form.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
