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Silicon Times Report Issue 0058
ST REPORT WEEKLY ONLINE MAGAZINE
Monday, OCT. 24, 1988
Vol II No. 58
===========
American Publishing Enterprises Inc.
-----------------------------------
R.J.Kovacs ~ R.F.Mariano
----------------------------------
PO BOX 74 PO BOX 6672
Middlesex, NJ Jacksonville, FL
08846-0074 32236-6672
==========================================================================
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..............> A Developer's Friend or Foe?......
> NeXT in a NutShell..................> Changing Times....................
> ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL..............> dBMAN Ver 5.......................
Pro GEM Windows #9
=========================================================================
SERVING YOU ON: COMP-U-SERVE ~ DELPHI ~ THE SOURCE
=========================================================================
From the Editor's Desk:
Every now and then we must make decisions that, at first, seem to
be somewhat painfull.... We made the decision to leave GEnie after we
found the "new" management to be totally uncooperative.
Elsewhere in this issue you will find an accounting of the events ]
that lead up to our decision to leave. The bottom line is, we will NOT
knuckle under to any pressures sent our way because we do NOT agree with
Neil Harris. Do not misunderstand us, please, WE have no problem with
GEnie or Darlah, SysOp of the Atari RT. We do leave the door open for
future negotiation.
At this point in time, we find the support from the userbase as a
whole extremely encouraging and as a result we will continue with a
renewed effort to bring you all the news and views available.
Special thanks are extended to the great guys on CIS.. Ron, Mike,
Dave and all the unnamed folks who have been very supportive during these
trying times. I would be remiss to exclude the folks on the other
services who have also been very supportive and we thank one and all.
This issue could be called the; "Oh My God! The Developers are Down
to What?" issue. Hopefully, by "screaming out" somebody who cares at
ATARI will see it and take QUALITY corrective measures to stop the
downhill rush they are in. Most of all, they MUST STOP the HARRISITE
pablum we are being fed on the services....it is so bad.. it is MORE than
obvious! ----
Well..COMDEX is not too far off now, and like many of the other
genuinely concerned folks we are intent on watching Atari very closely to
see exactly what they offer and HAVE READY TO SHIP and what they offer and
say "available sometime in the future". We at ST REPORT have been
critical of ATARI at times in the past, however, we are the first to admit
that they do make a fine machine. You might express it this way:
"THE MACHINE THAT'S EASY TO LOVE!"
by ----
"THE COMPANY THAT'S EASIER TO HATE!"
------
COMDEX, I think will be the make or break point for Atari as we know it
now....I wish them all the very best for the sake of the userbase.
Rex..........
p.s. Did you all see the neat Computer Commercials during the World
Series?..again, How come they have no DRAM problems?.. SAM. Or is that
excuse B.S. too! Someone at Atari better go to Apple and get some
lessons on how to be a real Computer Company.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
How about an Interesting Experiment???
We would like a usergroup in each state to see HOW MANY ATARI
dealers are in YOUR state! Also, show the ones whose business is NOT
primarily computers. (ie. music stores, hock shops etc.)
Your cooperation WILL be rewarded!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
all replies to the above will be kept in the strictest of confidence.
**************************************************************************
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, Ron Kovacs or Rex Reade
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
**************************************************************************
ATARI, A DEVELOPER'S...FRIEND or FOE?
-------------------------------------
by Rex Reade
ALMOST......on a DAILY basis we Hear or Read: "We will not be
researching or developing any further products for the Atari ST". With
each release like this that I read, another tear hits the floor. For
a wonderful machine as the ST, which has just begun to mature along with
it's userbase, to be destined to a slow and horrible end is sad.
I woefully blame it's creators totally for this situation.
Atari has, in the past year, seemed to add an attitude of sheer insolence
to it's already disgusting bag of tricks that it keeps for the Developer,
dealer and user.
The heart breaker is seeing such fine folks as WORD PERFECT CORP.
finally yield to internal pressures to stop spending the money on
developing their software for the ST! Why, you ask??? Well one major
reason stated was Atari's complete and total lack of cooperation with the
folks at WORD PERFECT.
As a matter of FACT...This is the MAJOR reason for most of the
developers not wanting anything further to do with Atari Corp. It seems
there are just TOO MANY CONFIDENTIAL FACTS when it comes to Atari, like
Dealer lists in the USA, distributor listings (European), units sold in
a particular period of time in the US and Europe, these facts are all
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION, according to Atari's reps. This is a sad
situation! It causes the reputable developer to guess the number of
machines in use and therefore gamble on the amount of product to make
available to the Atari consumer base. (Real cooperation, right?)
Could all these CONFIDENTIAL figures be nothing more than a cover-up
for a very embarrassing performance or could it be Atari doesn't want the
dealerbase to ever know the actual amount of machines it sold through the
MASS DISTRIBUTOR: ALMO CORP. of PA.?? In considering all of the various
complaints that have surfaced in the USA ONLY, I would say Atari US has
perfected, A: Developer Bashing, B: Dealer Bashing, C: User Bashing and
the fine art of making eloquent statements that attempt to justify these
obviously crude practices and tactics.
It has been said many times "if you have nothing good to say, then
say nothing at all" Basically, I agree with this expression but with one
exception, ATARI. Prior to this year, the amount of pointed accusation
directed at Atari has been minimal. Most of the complaints were either in
private or stated in general terms ie, "vaporware" etc....Atari, in it's
infinite wisdom, took the mild attitudes and the "say nothing" politeness
as a display of passive complacency and proceeded to abuse the userbase
even more. Even to the point of bragging to us about how WONDERFUL the
European market place is. Better they should say, "We WILL make the
satisfaction of the US marketplace our first and foremost goal"!
This year saw the combination of the 'lost' art of Doubletalk and
Boondoggle brought to new heights of perfection by Neil Harris and is
apparently being continued by his successors. I see they were well trained
in the fine art of dodging accurate questions and providing what I call
"pablum answers". This company, once called "the fastest growing company
in America", has "blown it" they have managed to alienate almost two
thirds of the sincere developers in this country interested in them.
Just a few weeks ago the President of Atari, Sam Tramiel, had the
nerve to advise the developers in the US who were choking on backed up
inventory, for the ST or not finding a market for ST products, to SELL
IN EUROPE! How very sweet of him to give such jewel encrusted advice.
Would you believe one of the "better" developers contacted Atari to ask
for some help in getting a channel or two established in Europe to sell
his products through? His answer...."that information is confidential"!
To charge the developers an extra 20.00 dollars for a so-called
upgrade to an already shabby effort at producing a Developer's Kit is
abominable!
This latest Tos 1.4 release on disk should have been for the cost
of the disk and shipping ONLY! The fact is, the DEVELOPER KIT..is the
FIRST exposure most DEVELOPERS have of ATARI! Noting the drech kit, how
is it possible for a good relationship to ever begin???
St Report remains totally supportive of the ATARI userbase and feels
Atari ought to try it... just once.....! It really is nice to be nice.
* Here's an EXAMPLE of a note we received less than 24 hours ago. *
Hi Rex, We just became Apple Developers. Boy, WHAT a difference!
We can buy all the Apple Products for half off list and have use of a
developer hot line etc., etc. The point that really impressed us was the
congratulatory-thank you letter sent by Apple. Not only did it
congratulate us for being accepted as Developers, it also stated how
important Developers were and that Apple would not be successful without
them. Can you see Sammy saying that? He would more likely say; "Gee,
You guys are making money off our machine, How about some royalties?"
We have been Developers for a week and already we have received our
second mailer!
Right now We can buy a IIx (68030 machine) and...it's NOT even
available yet! The developer Docs are super good and UP TO DATE! The
reason Apple is SO SUCCESSFUL is they REALIZE the importance of Developer
and Dealer support. Of course, that fact that they ADVERTISE (see them in
the World Series?) and sell over 30,000 MACS a month verifies the fact
that THEY know what they are doing.
Ed Note: SHAME ON YOU ATARI! The above was from a very prominent
developer/manufacturer in the Atari ST Community. You have lost another
one! (Recenty, they declared their current product was the LAST to be
developed for the ST unless Atari got it's ACT together.) The fact is,
the flood gates are open and Sam and his brothers are bound and determined
to keep them open. Could it be, that Atari wants it ALL for themselves?
Can they really be that smug to think THEY can do it all?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
About ONLINE SERVICE RATES..........DID YOU KNOW?
------------------------------------------------
by Edward Mathias
A- Online rates can vary from 5.00 to MORE than 40.00 per hour!
B- That with some services the rate is 7x higher during the day!
C- With careful planning you can make ALL the Services rates equal!
Consider this:
--------------
If you were to call any of the services to "read the mail" or participate
in a conference you would be "well advised" to call at 300 baud.
All downloading should be done at either 12 or 24oo Baud. The 24oo baud
rate is actually a bargain when it comes to file transfers.
When one averages out the charges for the 300 baud mail, message and
conference rates and the charges for the 12/24 download rate, the results
are a delight.
What actually happens is the average monthly rate is "balanced" between
activities that require speed and those that do not. Following the above
methods will allow users the choice to call other services and not be
bound to the "cheap" service. Incidently, the "cheap service" charges
35.00 per hr during the daytime and extra for 24oo baud users all the
time. You will find that through careful use of baud rate and rates per
hour/time of day you can use any service at will.
CIS rates DO NOT increase during the week DAY hours ..you may call anytime
you desire to do so.
It has been said many times that one service is less expensive than
all the others...think about it..is it really? Consider the twice a month
billing, (makes the amount look smaller), and the connect surcharge RATE.
You will soon discover the startling truth! I did....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
NeXT in a NUTSHELL
------------------
The machine is based on the Motorola 68030 with a 68882 floating point
chip as well as a 56001 DSP chip, all running at 25 MHz. It will support
up to 16 MB of RAM with 1 Mbit chips, maybe 64 MB with 4 Mbit chips (they
haven't tried this yet). Mass storage is on a 256 MB removable erasable
optical disk! Jobs said that the removable media goes for $50. The display
is a gray-scale mega-pixel display (no exact sizes given). There was no
mention of color. Everything is displayed with Display PostScript,
developed jointly by NeXT and Adobe. This apparently runs with a
proprietary window system. There was no mention of X Windows. Also
standard are audio input and output, ethernet, and SCSI. Jobs said that
with the standard sound capabilities, all that is needed for a 9600 bps
modem is some software and a phone connection.
The entire CPU board consists of 45 chips as compared to 100+ for a fast
PC and 300+ for a typical workstation. Everything has been crammed onto
a 12 inch square board through the use of very dense surface mounted
devices, and a few large custom CMOS chips. Two of these chips implement
what Jobs called a "mainframe on two chips". These basically provide fast
I/O processors for all I/O systems including the optical disk, SCSI,
ethernet, sound processors (I assume the DSP and A/D-D/A converters) and
the NuBus. The NuBus is run at 25 MHz (Jobs compared it to a 10 MHz NuBus,
is this what the Mac II uses?). The SCSI interface was reported to have
a 4 MB/sec. transfer rate. There are 12 I/O processors total.
The CPU has 4 slots, 1 is used by the CPU board, the others were empty.
The box itself is a black cube a foot on a side. The display, keyboard and
two-button mouse are also black. The display has an integral adjustable
height and tilt stand. The display is connected to the CPU box with a
single 3 meter cable which transmits the 100 MHz video, power, sound,
keyboard and mouse data. The back of the display has connectors for the
keyboard and mouse, along with a speaker, microphone and headphone jacks
and gold-plated RCA stereo jacks.
The sound capabilities of the system were impressive, being able to record
and playback high-quality sound. Using the DSP chip some very realistic
sounding music was generated on the fly in real-time.
The box, display, and everything else looked very modern and high-tech -
all black.
The operating system is based on MACH with NFS support. On top of this is
Display PostScript. Above this is what NeXT is calling NextStep. This
consists of their window server, interface builder, application builder
and workspace. This is what was licensed by IBM. On top of this are the
applications.
When you login, you get a browser several icons, and a menu on the screen.
The browser lets you move quickly from directory to directory, and to run
applications or open icon based directory windows. The root menu is always
on the screen, always on top, and may be positioned anywhere on the screen
(and even off the screen). The menus cascade, and the submenus may be torn
off and left on the screen. Along the right edge is what I think Jobs
called the icon dock. It is a set of icons for commonly used applications
which are kept on the left edge, and are always on top. If you need the
screen space, this column of icons may be slid down off the screen,
leaving only the NeXT icon showing. Icons may be freely moved in and out
of the dock so you can keep what icons you use a lot there.
Jobs said that the new environment should cut the time used in coding the
user interface of a program from 90% to 10% of the total coding time. With
the application builder Jobs said it would go to zero. The environment is
object oriented, I believe based on Objective-C. You can modify existing
stuff with subclassing and inherit much of the base application. The
application builder lets you build an application just by placing buttons,
sliders, and any other graphic objects into a window, and then attaching
the the input and output objects to object messages.
Software that comes bundled with the system include MACH, Display
PostScript, NextStep, the sound and music tools, the digital library,
WriteNow, Mail, Mathematica, Sybase and Franz Lisp.
The digital library consists of Webster's 9th Collegiate Dictionary,
Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
and the Complete Works of William Shakespeare on-line. There is a built
in spell program and dictionary/thesaurus lookup application. A word can
be selected in any window and looked up. The dictionary even includes
the pictures.
WriteNow is a word processing system, Mail is arpanet compatible mail,
including the capability to send speech, Mathematica is for (obviously)
mathematical problems and such. Sybase is a sequel database server.
A PostScript laser printer was also announced the can run at either
400 dpi or in 300 dpi "draft" mode. The printer is markedly smaller
(shorter) that most laser printers. No mention was given of speed.
Several demos were run with rotating molecules, smooth scrolling text,
voice storage and playback, speech waveforms and FFTs, etc. Everything
ran well, and ran fast.
Jobs announced the following prices (apparently education prices):
NeXT computer: $6500
NeXT PostScript Printer: $2000
330 MB winchester disk: $2000
660 MB winchester disk: $4000
Jobs said that machines will start shipping in early November '88,
the 0.8 pre-release of the software for developers will be available
in Q4 '88, the 0.9 pre-release for developers and aggressive users in
Q1 '89, with the 1.0 release for general consumption in Q2 '89.
All in all, the machine looked good and fast, although I wonder about
the fact that several desirable things were not mentioned, i.e., color
monitors, X-Windows, some kind of floppy drive for software distribution,
etc. I imagine a typical SCSI tape drive could be used for archival
storage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHANGING TIMES
--------------
Item 5805437 88/10/19 19:32
From: DARLAH Darlah J. Pine, Atari Roundtables
To: ST-REPORT SPC
Sub: Extra accounts
As promised, I am writing this letter to let you know that we need to
limit the free account to one for this publication. All other developers
online share their accounts.
==========
Item 3755137 88/10/19 21:43
From: ST-REPORT SPC
To: DARLAH Darlah J. Pine, Atari Roundtables
cc: R.KOVACS Ron Kovacs
REX.READE Rex Reade
Sub: Free Flags
Darlah, I am very sorry to say that we cannot agree with the current
policy stated in your letter. To input once again what we are looking
for:
R.KOVACS changed to ZMAGAZINE and free flag access
ST-REPORT stays free flag and for ST-REPORT access
That IS one flag per publication....
If this situation cannot be settled, then I feel that we will ask that
ZMag and ST-Report be removed from the library and we will NOT permit
GEnie to carry the publication.
I would appreciate a response with your approval of this matter. We are
currently holding release to GEnie the current issues of both publications
until this matter is resolved. We have waited for a few weeks to get
this going and we are at a stand still. Effective Friday, Oct. 21, 1988
I request that you remove ALL Zmag and ST-Report files from the library.
Please remove the ST-Report account from Free flag status and delete it
from the system.
We have encountered problems throughout our access period on GEnie. From
running two services, which are from the same publisher, but contain
different staff, topic matter, and release dates. This has caused
problems with communication.
As you know, over the last few months, different situations have risen
because of communication problems relating to ST-Report and ZMag. When
a user sees ST-Report as the uploader, they are inclined to send mail
to ST-Report and NOT ZMagazine.
Darlah, you have seen the confusion when GEnie sysops forward mail to
Rex.Reade and ST-Report, when the content of the letter is addressed to
the ZMag staff. Incomplete responses and lack of knowledge of the ZMag
publication by Rex Reade, starts the confusion cycle to begin and problems
soon follow with phone calls and explanations because of a simple address
error.
Another point here, in the past when I have appeared in an 8 bit
conference, the simple notification that ST-Report has arrived causes a
few of the members to say, You are in the wrong place, what do you care
about the 8 bit and the information flow cannot be achieved by our 8 bit
staff.
The same effect appears when leaving messages in the bulletin board.
The last point, when we wish to cover GEnie 8 bit or 16 bit co's, one
of the two covering each co, has to pay the online time covering
material we will later provide in one of the magazines. This seems a
bit unfair to pay then re-upload material for publication. Other RT
flags do not seem to have this problem because they are not covering
the CO as a reporter, we cover for our three publications, and try to
provide incentive by allowing access with our flags.
We are trying to stay consistent with each publication, but with ST
written on all 8 bit inputs, are only causing us great grief. We are NOT
having this problem on the other services, and fail to understand why we
are having one here.
Billing hours are not going to be effected with the release of another
flag, we see it as a better designation for each publication and better
communication with each staff member and to say it simply, shouldn't
ZMag have a flag????
Thanks for time,
Ron Kovacs
P.S. 1200 - 1500 D/Ls per month or roughly 32,000 dollars in annual
revenue generation means nothing.
Editor Note:
The above listed notes were really the extent of the conversation
between Ron Kovacs, APEInc. and Darlah J. Pine, GEnie. Darlah was, in
fact, very helpful. Neil Harris, on the other hand, found it necessary
(in his usual fashion) to read more into this situation and thus managed
to blow it all out of proportion .
Fact is, we requested the Flag in late July. And again, in early
Sept., and once again at a time when Neil Harris, Sandy Wilson, Darlah
Pine, Jon Nagy, Ron Kovacs and myself were in a private Co on GEnie
discussing this matter and Neil, (at that time) said, "I will take care
of it"....but, due to circumstances beyond our control and really, we
didn't mind at the time, we waited..Darlah was recently married and was
moving and L. Beckham was out sick and Neil was changing jobs...and we
waited.
After being told what the "official" policy of GEnie is we seem to
get the indication GEnie feels the 8 bit users do not deserve a magazine
of their own or, perhaps they were telling us they felt the 8 bit was not
active enough or, that the reason was hastily concocted for our benefit.
ST Report Online Magazine is dedicated to the ST and Z-Mag is dedicated
to the Atari 8 bit. As stated above....
The remarkable fact is we were responsible for a total download
average of close to 1,500 D/Ls per month and Mr. Harris felt we needed to
be compared or equated to all the "other" vendors/developers, we are
neither, nor are we comparable. We neither sell or develop anything with
our magazines we merely report what we find . Harris then felt it
neccessary to point out that the D/L numbers meant "nothing" and that the
rules were the rules.
We regret the decision of GEnie ..However, we remain available to
our readers on COMP-U-SERVE ~ DELPHI ~ THE SOURCE ~ USENET and more than
275 private bulletin board across the nation. Remember, any user group
needing help in obtaining ST Report or ZMag need only leave E-Mail or
drop us a line via the US Snail to our PO Boxes listed at the top.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL
======================
Las Vegas, NV Most inside info points to Atari showing a portable and
------------- a bunch of dreams but not much more. A lot hype and
hoopla is expected. Atari's "secret" weapons may
remain secret for all time.
Littleton, CO Gadgets by Small, Dave and Sandy Small that is, have
------------- produced a minor miracle with SPECTRE 128! We also
know Lenny's hatband snaps every time he hears about
how great it runs on the ST!! Want one?
* Call: 303-791-6098 *
Miami, FL Nice to see everyone excited about the FEW Atari
--------- advertisements seen on TV, what you don't see is the
bill is paid by the dealer and then sent to Atari for
a partial reimbursement. They call it Co-op Ads. We
wonder if Apple is billing it's dealers for the World
Series Ads. For those with the smart answers, the
bottom line is the customers in Miami will ultimately
pay for those ads! LET ATARI PAY THE WHOLE AD BILL!
Los Angeles, CA A local Atari Dealer has documented that Federated is
--------------- cheating on the rules, shipping 1040s and Megas through
the mail if you call and order one! The Double
Standard LIVES!
Houston, TX At the last conference to get the deal closed on Atari
----------- setting up shop in this city, the attitude of the C of
C was "No biggie!" STILL NO INK ON THE PAPER! Must've
been more of Atari's fanciful pipe-dreams.
New York, NY The New York Times is doing a spread on personal
------------ computing..bet Atari is slick enough to take advantage
of some "free" publicity? They have two weeks to send
in some info to the paper
Chicago, IL Why is Atari dragging their feet on the "ULTRA SCRIPT"
----------- especially since a number of the SLM 804s were sold
because of the PostScript like Imagen Ultra Script.
Now, Atari says "sometime in the future!" kaff, kaff!
Jacksonville, FL The 'NEW' Atari machine, (68030 - Unix - Ethernet -
---------------- Super Resolution), will be Atari's answer and masked
joint venture with the NeXT...Jobs Saw JT when?
Atari's machine is one meg and affordable. Just under
$2000.00! Stunning, Jobs sells the schools, Atari
sells the students etc....What? The MOON ain't made of
cheese?? Any bets we NEVER see it?
Nassau, G.B.I. Atari has released a "Pocket Computer" in the UK!
------------- Under an agreement with D.I.P. Ltd. the "PC WALKMAN"
has been released for sale. With: 512k and 256k Rom
having a W.P., S.SHEET, DIARY and CALC in memory and it
uses "smart cards". Alledgedly it is PC Compatable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CLIPS and SNIPS
---------------
One of the "learned" <<grin>> Atari spokespersons told me ALL about
the new releases for the ST. I.. had mentioned that I thought the NEW
SPECTRE by Dave Small was the best thing since popcorn. Here, is his
"idea" of the new releases for the ST that I should "Brag" about.
He mentioned ..Better yet, I QUOTE:
"Let's see, there is Multi-desk, G+Plus, Publishing Partner Pro,
ST-Talk Professional, A New TOS is on the way, Calamus is shipping,
Aztec C, Laser DB is on the way, etc...."
Obviously, he mentioned ONE real winner that the entire userbase
enjoys. The fine products from Codehead Software (G+Plus - Multi-Desk -
Top Down) [he forgot one] but.. to mention the others, in a matter of
fact manner, is very much in the Harrisite fashion.....pure fodder!
First, are these "OTHER" programs actually IN THE STORES available
to John Q. Public? and..DO THEY WORK? I stand by my first comment!!!
Dave Small's SPECTRE 128.. IS the best thing to happen for the ST
in a long time! The more I see the attitude of these Atari people, the
more I am convinced that they do not live in the real world!
Anybody ever tell you about the first time Atari saw the Magic Sac
demo? Seems "Lenny baby" was busy telling everyone on the Board of
Directors all about how a MacIntosh Emulator would NEVER work with the
Atari Operating system. A true "David and Goliath" scene unfolds...
David walks in, sets it up, and.. the rest is DOCUMENTED HISTORY!
The SAD part is: Atari didn't learn a thing from that experience! They
STILL think 'they' KNOW--IT--ALL!
Atari seems determined to irk as many folks as they possibly can.
I can certainly say one thing, Neil was not the creator of what I call
the Neil Harris TACTIC, he just perfected it! I see it (that method
of talking) coming from more and more of the "ultra" defensive Atari
employees...'tis a shame, they wouldn't have to be that way if only Atari
had real direction.
Atari does NOT want to give the developers in this country a
FAIR SHAKE and any developer that finds fault with that statement need
only look at a developer "kit" from *any* other computer firm! Folks,
without Developers we are an Ocean Liner with NO engines!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________
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---------------------------
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---------------------------
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4604 East 16th Street
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Breakthrough on dBASE III+ Work-alike Software!
------------------------------------------------
San Jose, CA
Today, Versasoft Corporation announced the release of the long
awaited dBMAN version 5.0. Along with the product announcement, came the
unexpected, aggressive price announcement from Charlie Tseng, President
and Founder of the Corporation "With the release of our latest and most
powerful version of dBMAN, coupled with a Report Writer and Compiler (with
unlimited runtime license), we have decided to wage war against over
inflated prices for software programs and are going to offer our fully
integrated dBASE package at only $189.95! We have analyzed the pricing of
our competition and are prepared to present our package at one sixth of
their price level. We are extremely confident with the excellent
performance of this package and are proud to offer the PC user all of the
major tools he'll ever purchase at an exceptional price. We are facing
the competition and meeting them head on."
Tseng is not a newcomer to the software industry. Rather, he
founded Versasoft Corporation in 1983 and is the developer of the dBMAN
Interpreter and Compiler programs. He has seen Versasoft grow to become
the international concern that it is today. As Versasoft is the first
company to introduce this type of package at such an outstanding price,
Tseng was questioned about his pricing strategy. Tseng explains;..
"We realize that we could pad our pricing and in turn generate higher
profits. We felt that it was more important to offer the average
consumer the opportunity to take advantage of these powerful programs at
a price that he could afford."
dBMAN 5.0 is compatible with Ashton Tate's dBASE III+ and has many
features of dBASE IV, including pull down menus, windows and file alias
(which can be specified in all commands and functions). It is also
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just another dBASE program. Rather it comes loaded with time saving
features which make it extremely user friendly.
Record searching is a procedure which can take forever. dBMAN
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Literal/Monetary Conversion, Record Copy from one Database to another,
Closest Matching Record, Wildcard Field Matching, Virtual Records,
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Text Editor, and Windows.
But, the most important part of this software package is the
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other competitive product offers the integration or power of this report
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of using a dBASE program, that they have added the Report Writer at no
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reports containing conditional statements and mathematic formulas in a
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laid out on the screen by using cursor keys, while full screen editing and
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printed either to screen, disk or to printer, giving even greater
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databases. Scan and Lookup relations are easily executed, while Headers
and Footers may be created using simple pull down menus. Databases and
relations may be setup from within the report mode, while using dBMAN
commands; 9 groups may be created, and five different types of totals and
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Now it is easy to prepare columnar reports, invoices, statements, multiple
lined reports containing complicated mathematical computations for the
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Kin Cho, Manager of Research and Development, and developer of Report
Writer program says: "The dBMAN Report Writer is designed to assist users
in creating professional looking reports with very little effort. Unlike
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commands that the result is a totally flexible and truly unified
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dBMAN also contains a Compiler. Here you have speed that matches
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It comes with an unlimited license runtime distribution at no extra
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We feel that it is important to give the end-user all the major
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Multi-user versions of dBMAN 5.0 are also available for $499.95 on Novell
and PC-NET. XENIX and UNIX versions are also available for $599.95. dBMAN
is available for the following systems: PC-DOS, PC-NET, NOVELL Netware,
PC/AT's under XENIX, NCR Tower, NEC Astra XL, Motorola 8000, Altos 3086,
Altos Series 2000, Altos 3068,Microport 386, Microport System V/AT under
UNIX, Macintosh, Atari ST, and Amiga.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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--------
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANTIC PUBLISHING INC.
COPYRIGHT 1988
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
PROFESSIONAL GEM by Tim Oren
Column #9 - VDI Graphics: Lines and Solids
This issue of ST PRO GEM is the first in a series of two which
will explore the fundamentals of VDI graphics output. In this
installment, we will take a look at the commands necessary to
output simple graphics such as lines, squares and circles as well
as more complex figures such as polygons. The following episode
will take a first look at graphics text output, with an emphasis
on ways to optimize its drawing speed. It will also include
another installment of ONLINE Feedback. As usual, there is a
download with this column. You should find it under the name
GEMCL9.C in DL3 of ATARI16 (PCS-58).
A BIT OF HISTORY. One of the reasons that the VDI can be
confusing is that drawing anything at all, even a simple line, can
involve setting around four different VDI parameters before making
the draw call! (Given the state of the GEM documents, just FINDING
them can be fun!) Looking backwards a bit sheds some light on why
the VDI is structured this way, and also gives us a framework for
organizing a discussion of graphics output.
The GEM VDI closely follows the so-called GKS standard, which
defines capabilities and calling sequences for a standardized
graphic input/output system. GKS is itself an evolution from an
early system called "Core". Both of these standards were born in
the days when pen plotters, vectored graphics displays, and
minicomputers were the latest items. So, if you wonder why
setting the drawing pen color is a separate command, just think
back a few years when it actually meant what it says! (The
cynical may choose instead to ponder the benefits of
standardization.)
When doing VDI output, it helps if you pretend that the
display screen really is a plotter or some other separate device,
which has its own internal parameters which you can set up and
read back. The class of VDI commands called Attribute Functions
let you set the parameters. Output Functions cause the "device"
to actually draw someone once it is configured. The Inquire
Functions let you read back the parameters if necessary.
There are two parameters which are relevant no matter what
type of object you are trying to draw. They are the writing mode
and the clipping rectangle. The writing mode is similar to that
discussed in the column on raster operations. It determines what
effect the figure you are drawing will have on data already on the
screen. The writing mode is set with the call:
vswr_mode(vdi_handle, mode);
Vdi_handle, here and below, is the handle obtained from
graf_handle at the beginning of the program. Mode is a word which
may be one of:
1 - Replace Mode,
2 - Transparent Mode,
3 - XOR mode,
4 - Reverse Transparent Mode.
In replace mode, whatever is on the screen is overwritten.
If you are writing characters, this means the background of each
character cell will be erased.
In transparent mode, only the pixels directly under the
"positive" part of the image, that is, where 1-bits are being
written, will be changed. When writing characters, the background
of the cell will be left intact.
In XOR mode, an exclusive or is performed between the screen
contents and what is being written. The effect is to reverse the
image under areas where a 1-bit occurs.
Reverse transparent is like transparent, but with a "reverse
color scheme". That is, only places where a 0-bit is to be
put are changed to the current writing color. When you
write characters in reverse transparent (over white), the effect
is reverse video.
The other common parameter is the clipping rectangle. It
defines the area on the screen where the VDI is permitted to draw.
Any output which would fall outside of this area is ignored; it is
effectively a null operation. The clip rectangle is set with the
call:
vs_clip(vdi_handle, flag, pxy);
Pxy is a four-word array. Pxy[0] and pxy[1] are the X and Y
screen coordinates, respectively, of one corner of your clipping
rectangle. Pxy[2] and pxy[3] are the coordinates of the
diagonally opposite corner of the rectangle. (When working with
the AES, use of a GRECT to define the clip is often more
convenient. The routine set_clip() in the download does this.)
Flag is set to TRUE if clipping is to be used. If you set it
to FALSE, the entire screen is assumed to be fair game.
Normally, you should walk the rectangle list for the current
window to obtain your clipping rectangles. (See ST PRO GEM #2 for
more details.) However, turning off the clip speeds up all output
operations, particularly text. You may do this ONLY when you are
absolutely certain that the figure you are drawing will not extend
out of the top-most window, or out of a dialog.
THE LINE FORMS ON THE LEFT. The VDI line drawing operations
include polyline, arc, elliptical arc, and rounded rectangle.
I'll first look at the Attribute Functions for line drawing, then
go through the drawing primitives themselves.
The most common used line attributes are color and width.
The color is set with:
vsl_color(vdi_handle, color);
where color is one of the standard VDI color indices, ranging
from zero to 15. (As discussed in column #6, the color which
actually appears will depend on the pallette setting of your ST.)
The line width may only be set to ODD positive values, for
reasons of symmetry. If you try to set an even value, the VDI
will take the next lower odd value. The call is:
vsl_width(vdi_handle, width);
The two less used line parameters are the end style and
pattern. With the end style you can cause the output line to
have rounded ends or arrowhead ends. The call is:
vsl_ends(vdi_handle, begin_style, end_style);
Begin_style and end_style are each words which may have the
values zero for square ends (the default), one for arrowed ends,
or two for rounded ends. They determine the styles for the
starting and finishing ends of the line, respectively.
The line pattern attribute can select dotted or dashed lines
as well as more complicated patterns. Before continuing, you
should note one warning: VDI line output DOES NOT compensate for
pixel aspect ratio. That is, the dashes on a line will look twice
as long drawn vertically on a medium-res ST screen as they do when
drawn horizontally. The command for setting the pattern is:
vsl_type(vdi_handle, style);
Style is a word with a value between 1 and 7. The styles
selected are:
1 - Solid (the default)
2 - Long Dash
3 - Dot
4 - Dash, Dot
5 - Dash
6 - Dash, Dot, Dot
7 - (User defined style)
The user defined style is determined by a 16-bit pattern
supplied by the application. A one bit in the pattern turns a
pixel on, a zero bit leaves it off. The pattern is cycled through
repeatedly, using the high bit first. To use a custom style, you
must make the call:
vsl_udsty(vdi_handle, pattern);
before doing vsl_type().
As I mentioned above, the line type Output Functions
available are polyline, circular and ellliptical arc, and rounded
rectangle. Each has its own calling sequence. The call for a
polyline is:
v_pline(vdi_handle, points, pxy);
Points tells how many vertices will appear on the polyline. For
instance, a straight line has two vertices: the end and the
beginning. A closed square would have five, with the first and
last identical. (There is no requirement that the figure
described be closed.)
The pxy array contains the X and Y raster coordinates for the
vertices, with a total of 2 * points entries. Pxy[0] and pxy[1]
are the first X-Y pair, and so on.
If you happen to be using the XOR drawing mode, remember that
drawing twice at a point is equivalent to no drawing at all.
Therefore, for a figure to appear closed in XOR mode, the final
stroke should actually stop one pixel short of the origin of the
figure.
You may notice that in the GEM VDI manual the rounded
rectangle and arc commands are referred to as GDPs (Generalized
Drawing Primitives). This denotation is historical in nature, and
has no effect unless you are writing your own VDI bindings.
The rounded rectangle is nice to use for customized buttons
in windows and dialogs. It gives a "softer" look to the screen
than the standard square objects. The drawing command is:
v_rbox(vdi_handle, pxy);
Pxy is a four word array giving opposite corners of the
rectangle, just as for the vs_clip() call. The corner rounding
occurs within the confines of this rectangle. Nothing will
protrude unless you specify a line thickness greater than one.
The corner rounding is approximately circular; there is no user
control over the degree or shape of rounding.
Both the arc and elliptical arc commands use a curious method
of specifying angles. The units are tenths of degrees, so an
entire circle is 3600 units. The count starts at ninety degrees
right of vertical, and proceeds counterclockwise. This means that
"3 o'clock" is 0 units, "noon" is 900 units, "9 o'clock" is 1800
units, and 2700 units is at "half-past". 3600 units take you back
to "3 o'clock".
The command for drawing a circular arc is:
v_arc(vdi_handle, x, y, radius, begin, end);
X and y specify the raster coordinates of the center of the
circle. Radius specifies the distance from center to all points
on the arc. Begin and end are angles given in units as described
above, both with values between 0 and 3600. The drawing of the
arc ALWAYS proceeds counterclockwise, in the direction of
increasing arc number. So values of 0 and 900 for begin and end
would draw a quarter circle from "three o'clock" to "noon".
Reversing the values would draw the other three quarters of the
circle.
A v_arc() command which specifies a "full turn" is the
fastest way to draw a complete circle on the screen. Be warned,
however, that the circle drawing algorithm used in the VDI seems
to have some serious shortcomings at small radii! You can
experiment with the CIRCLE primitive in ST Logo, which uses
v_arc(), to see what I mean.
Notice that if you want an arc to strike one or more given
points on the screen, then you are in for some trigonometry. If
your math is a bit rusty, I highly recommend the book "A
Programmer's Geometry", by Bowyer and Woodwark, published by
Butterworths (London, Boston, Toronto).
Finally, the elliptical arc is generated with:
v_ellarc(vdi_handle, x, y, xrad, yrad, begin, end);
X, y, begin, and end are just as before. Xrad and yrad give the
horizontal and vertical radii of the defining ellipse. This means
that the distance of the arc from center will be yrad pixels at
"noon" and "half-past", and it will be xrad pixels at "3 and 9
o'clock". Again, the arc is always drawn counterclockwise.
There are a number of approaches to keeping the VDI's
attributes "in sync" with the actual output operations. Probably
the LEAST efficient is to use the Inquire Functions to determine
the current attributes. For this reason, I have omitted a
discussion of these calls from this column.
Another idea is to keep a local copy of all significant
attributes, use a test-before-set method to minimize the number of
Attribute Functions which need to be called. This puts a burden
on the programmer to be sure that the local attribute variables
are correctly maintained. Failure to do so may result in obscure
drawing bugs. If your application employs user defined AES
objects, you must be very careful because GEM might call your draw
code in the middle of a VDI operation (particularly if the user
defined objects are in the menu).
Always setting the attributes is a simplistic method, but
often proves most effective. The routines pl_perim() and
rr_perim() in the download exhibit this approach. Modification
for other primitives is straightforward. This style is most
useful when drawing operations are scattered throughout the
program, so that keeping track of the current attribute status is
difficult. Although inherently inefficient, the difference is not
very noticable if the drawing operation requested is itself time
consuming.
In many applications, such as data graphing programs or
"Draw" packages, the output operations are centralized, forming
the primary functionality of the code. In this case, it is both
easy and efficient to keep track of attribute status between
successive drawing operations.
SOLIDS. There are a wider variety of VDI calls for drawing
solid figures. They include rectangle or bar, disk, pie, ellipse,
elliptical pie, filled rounded rectangle, and filled polygonal
area. Of course, filled figure calls also have their own set of
attributes which you will need to set.
The fill color index determines what pen color will be used
to draw the solid. It is set with:
vsf_color(vdi_handle, color);
Color is just the same as for line drawing. A solid may or
may not have a visible border. This is determined with the call:
vsf_perimeter(vdi_handle, vis);
Vis is a Boolean. If it is true, the figure will be given a
solid one pixel outline in the current fill color index. This is
often useful to improve the appearance of solids drawn with a
dithered fill pattern. If vis is false, then no outline is drawn.
There are two parameters which together determine the pattern
used to fill your figure. They are called interior style and
interior index. The style determines the general type of fill,
and the index is used to select a particular pattern if necessary.
The style is set with the command:
vsf_interior(vdi_handle, style);
where style is a value from zero through four. Zero selects a
hollow style: the fill is performed in color zero, which is
usually white. Style one selects a solid fill with the current
fill color. A style of two is called "pattern" and a three is
called "hatch", which are terms somewhat suggestive of the options
which can then be selected using the interior index. Style four
selects the user defined pattern, which is described below.
The interior index is only significant for styles two and
three. To set it, use:
vsf_style(vdi_handle, index);
(Be careful here: it is very easy to confuse this call with the
one above due to the unfortunate choice of name.) The index
selects the actual drawing pattern. The GEM VDI manual shows fill
patterns corresponding to index values from 1 to 24 under style 2,
and from 1 to 12 under style 3. However, some of these are
implemented differently on the ST. Rather than try to describe
them all here, I would suggest that you experiment. You can do so
easily in ST Logo by opening the Graphics Settings dialog and
playing with the style and index values there.
The user defined style gives you some interesting options for
multi-color fills. It is set with:
vsf_udpat(vdi_handle, pattern, planes);
Planes determines the number of color planes in the pattern
which you supply. It is set to one if you are setting a
monochrome pattern. (Remember, monochrome is not necessarily
black). It may be set to higher values on color systems: two for
ST medium-res mode, or four for low-res mode. If you use a number
lower than four under low-res, the other planes are zero filled.
The pattern parameter is an array of words which is a
multiple of 16 words long. The pattern determined is 16 by 16
pixels, with each word forming one row of the pattern. The rows
are arranged top to bottom, with the most significant bit to the
left. If you have selected a multi-plane pattern, the entire
first plane is stored, then the second, and so on.
Note that to use a multi-plane pattern, you set the writing
mode to replace using vswr_mode(). Since the each plane can be
different, you can produce multi-colored patterns. If you use a
writing color other than black, some of the planes may
"disappear".
Most of the solids Output Functions have analogous line
drawing commands. The polyline command corresponds to the filled
area primitive. The filled area routine is:
v_fillarea(vdi_handle, count, pxy);
Count and pxy are just the same as for v_pline(). If the
polygon defined by pxy is not closed, then the VDI will force
closure with a straight line from the last to the first point.
The polygon may be concave or self-intersecting. If perimeter
show is on, the area will be outlined.
One note of caution is necessary for both v_fillarea() and
v_pline(). There is a limit on the number of points which may be
stored in pxy[]. This limit occurs because the contents of pxy[]
are copied to the intin[] binding array before the VDI is called.
You can determine the maximum number of vertices by checking
intout[14] after using the extended inquire function vq_extnd().
For reasons unknown to this writer, there are TWO different
filled rectangle commands in the VDI. The first is
vr_recfl(vdi_handle, pxy);
Pxy is a four word array defining two opposite corners of the
rectangle, just as in vs_clip(). Vr_recfl() uses the fill
attribute settings, except that it NEVER draws a perimeter.
The other rectangle routine is v_bar(), with exactly the same
arguments as vr_recfl(). The only difference is that the
perimeter setting IS respected. These two routines are the
fastest way to produce a solid rectangle using the VDI. They may
be used in XOR mode with a BLACK fill color to quickly invert an
area of the screen. You can improve the speed even further by
turning off the clip (if possible), and byte aligning the left and
right edges of the rectangle.
Separate commands are provided for solid circle and ellipse.
The circle call is:
v_circle(vdi_handle, x, y, radius);
and the ellipse command is:
v_ellipse(vdi_handle, x, y, xrad, yrad);
All of the parameters are identical to those given above for
v_arc() and v_ellarc(). The solid analogue of an arc is a "pie
slice". The VDI pie commands are:
v_pieslice(vdi_handle, x, y, radius, begin, end);
for a slice from a circular pie, and
v_ellpie(vdi_handle, x, y, xrad, yrad, begin, end);
for a slice from a "squashed" pie. Again, the parameters are
identical to those in v_arc() and v_ellarc(). Th
e units and
drawing order of angles are also the same. The final solids
Output Function is:
v_rfbox(vdi_handle, pxy);
which draws a filled rounded rectangle. The pxy array defines
two opposite corners of the bounding box, as shown for vs_clip().
The issues involved in correctly setting the VDI attributes
for a fill operation are identical to those in drawing lines. For
those who want to employ the "always set" method, I have again
included two skeleton routines in the download, which can be
modified as desired.
TO BE CONTINUED. This concludes the first part of our
expedition through basic VDI operations. The next issue will
tackle the problems of drawing bit mapped text at a reasonable
speed. This first pass will not attempt to tackle alternate or
proportional fonts, or alternate font sizes. Instead, I will
concentrate on techniques for squeezing greater performance out of
the standard monospaced system fonts.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERLINK IBM3101 EMULATION
Version 1.0
Copyright 1988 by INTERSECT Software Corp.
By Richard J. Plom and Randy Mears
This Emulator is designed to work with INTERLINK ST Version 1.72 and
higher. It must be installed into the ????? Button in the Emulation box
in the Style/Features Dialogue. Load it by double clicking on the ?????
Button and selecting IBM3101.EMU with the file selector. Make sure that
it is loaded and selected before you call the service you wish to use it
on.
This particular implementation of IBM3101 supports the following
functions:
ST Keyboard Function
Tab ............................. TAB
Delete .......................... DELETE
Home ............................ HOME CURSOR
Up Arrow ........................ CURSOR UP
Down Arrow ...................... CURSOR DOWN
Left Arrow ...................... CURSOR LEFT
Right Arrow ..................... CURSOR RIGHT
Clr or Keypad ( ................. CLEAR SCREEN
Keypad ) ........................ ERASE TO END OF LINE
Keypad / ........................ ERASE TO END OF SCREEN
Keypad Numbers 1 through 8 ...... PROGRAM FUNCTION KEYS
This implementation should be complete enough for most applications,
Block Mode is not supported.
IBM3101.EMU is available on our BBS and also available on COMP-U-SERVE,
DELPHI and GEnie. This does not mean that it is public domain....it still
remains the property of INTERSECT Software Corp. Registered owners of
Interlink ST are the only people who have a legal right to use this or any
protocol developed for Interlink ST. Should you find any problems with
this Emulator please report them to:
INTERSECT Software Corp.
2828 Clark Rd., Suite 10
Sarasota, Fl. 34231
(813)-923-8774
Comp-U-Serve ID = 76004,1577
GEnie ID = INTERSECT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS WEEK'S QUOTABLE QUOTE
==========================
The more time you spend on Reporting what you are doing, the less time
you have to do anything. Stability is achieved when you spend all your
time Reporting on the NOTHING you are doing.
Harris & Co.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ST-REPORT Issue #58 October 24, 1988
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (c)copywrite APEInc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any reprint must include ST-Report and the author in the credits.
Views Presented herein are not necessarily those of APEInc.
COMMERCIAL ONLINE SERVICES MUST HAVE WRITTEN PERMISSION
to offer ANY APEInc. REPORT and/or ZMAG in any form.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
