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Silicon Times Report Issue 0711
*---== ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---*
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine"
from
STR Publishing Inc.
""""""""""""""""""
March 15, 1991 No.7.11
==========================================================================
STReport International Online Magazine¿
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Jacksonville, Florida
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R.F. Mariano
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__________________________________________________________________
> 03/15/91: STReport¿ #7.11 The Original 16/32 bit Online Magazine!
-------------------------
- The Editor's Desk - CPU REPORT - MAC REPORT
- Data Comp. Explored - SYS 7 Reviewed - FREENET VIEW
- Scorpion BUSTED! - TOSFIX FIX - PORTFOLIO NEWS
- YABOCUD IS HERE! - ATARI, NOW! - STR Confidential
* ATARI ANNOUNCES NEW GOODIES! *
* FTC INVESTIGATES MICROSOFT *
* SIERRA BUYS BRODERBUND! *
==========================================================================
ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE¿
The _Number One_ Online Magazine
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STReport's support BBS, NODE # 350 invites systems using Forem ST and
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Node 350 direct at 904-786-4176, and enjoy the excitement of exchanging
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> The Editor's Podium¿
Atari is on the MOVE! Alwin Stumph of Atari Germany is heading up the
group marketing the two new products, the Atari ST Book and ST pad world-
wide. Here, at home, Atari US is on the verge of unleashing an extremely
aggressive marketing campaign. Yessir.... For the first time in three
years, I am confident we are about to witness the actions we have all been
clamoring for.
Can you imagine being "proud" of owning and using an Atari ST and
telling folks about the machine without them looking at you like you're
ready for the rubber room? I can't hardly wait! Actually for a serious
moment, this marks the end of what has been perhaps the roughest six month
period most all US Atari developers and dealers have experienced. Both
the hardware and software fields have been rather dismal to say the least.
However in all fairness, I must point out the real facts, Atari is not
entirely to blame. WE all must share some of the blame as we all sat on
our collectively complacent bottoms when times were decent but getting
shaky. We saw the shakiness in the market but refused to recognize it
and try to help smooth the rough edges. Most all saw fit to let the "next
guy" do something about it. Instead, politics was the order of the day
with "Tony the Rug" 'playing the game' behind the scenes. Thankfully,
those days and 'the rug' are gone forever! Atari has made the positive
moves and changes. Perhaps even setting the example for the majority of
us to learn from. Actions produce results, empty words produce rhetoric.
The Atari US team, (Team America, if you will) is destined for great
things this year. The product lineup along with the expected market
penetration are strong indicators of 1991 being the year of the "new
beginning" and 1992 has all the earmarks of being the "Year of Atari".
With the help of the users worldwide along with a generous, periodic, "en-
thusiasm fix" from Atari, we can make a BIG difference. We must all work
together to make it happen.
Thank you for your Strong Support!
Ralph.............
ps; Hey Darek, its a BAD IDEA that will only bring HEADACHES.
TODAY'S NEWS ..TODAY!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> STReport's Staff The regulars and this week's contributors!
================
Publisher - Editor
------------------
Ralph F. Mariano
Staff Editors:
--------------
Michael Arthur Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. Dana P. Jacobson
Lucien Oppler Brad Martin Walter Daniel
Oscar Steele Robert Allbritton
Contributing Correspondents:
----------------------------
Michael Lee Richard Covert Roger Stevens
Brian Converse Oliver Steinmeier Ed Krimen
Bill Elledge Mark Leair
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WHAT'S NEW IN THE ATARI FORUMS (March 15)
NEW NOTE PAD COMPUTERS FROM ATARI
Atari has shown two new 68000-based Note Pad computers. See CEBIT.TXT in
LIBRARY 1 of the Atari Arts Forum (GO ATARIARTS) for an eye witness report
by Tom Harker of ICD Inc. covering the CeBIT '91 show in Hannover, Ger-
many.
NEW SHAREWARE TERMINAL PROGRAM
Version 1.10 of Cowboy Term -- a multi-featured communications package
designed to run in medium and high resolution -- is available in LIBRARY 1
of the Atari Productivity Forum (GO ATARIPRO) as CTERM1.LZH.
NEW DEMO PROGRAM
An EXCELLENT STe 4096 color/stereo demo program from Sweden is available
in the Atari Arts Forum (GO ATARIARTS) LIBRARY 1 as ANCOOL.ARC.
CODEHEAD ANNOUNCES MAXIFILE 3.0
Codehead Software announces the release of MaxiFile 3.0, a major upgrade
to this excellent program! See the press release entitled MAX30.TXT in
LIBRARY 16 of the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN).
PROGRAM OF THE WEEK FROM DOUBLE CLICK
Don't miss "DC INVERT" available in LIBRARY 13 of the Atari Vendors Forum
(GO ATARIVEN) as DCINV.ARC. DC INVERT will flash your screen whenever a
BELL character is printed to the screen. You can set the flash rate.
100% Assembly; uses 536 bytes installed.
GRIBNIF AND LEXICOR JOIN VENDORS FORUM
Please join us in welcoming GRIBNIF SOFTWARE and LEXICOR SOFTWARE to the
Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN)! Message Section 8 and Library 8 will
be used by GRIBNIF SOFTWARE. Messages to them should be addressed to User
ID number 75300,1131. Message Section 9 and Library 9 will be used by
LEXICOR SOFTWARE. Messages to them should be addressed to User ID number
75300,763.
PBASIC HARDCOPY MANUAL AVAILABLE FOR ORDER
BJ Gleason has uploaded a file with ordering information for his PBASIC
hardcopy manual. SYSOP*Ron Luks has seen a copy and he reports that it is
a FABULOUS piece of documentation. See MANUAL.INF in LIBRARY 1 or LIBRARY
8 of the Atari Portfolio Forum (GO APORTFOLIO).
THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM ON COMPUSERVE
HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS AN
OFFICIAL SUPPORT SITE BY ATARI CORPORATION
NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE
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> CPU REPORT¿
==========
Issue #103
----------
by Michael Arthur
CPU INSIGHTS¿
=============
DATA COMPRESSION ALGORITHMS OF ARC.TTP, PKZIP, AND LHARC
========================================================
Much of the typical modem user's online time is spent performing
uploads or downloads of files from BBS's, Online Services like Compuserve
or GEnie, or Information Networks like Usenet or Internet. Given that
this always takes up a lot of time, and usually costs a considerable
amount of money, the need to shorten the time necessary to perform file
transfers, and other modem applications has always been prevalent. One
innovation in this field has been the development of advanced Algorithms
for compacting, or compressing data so it takes up much less space, and
packing multiple files into one Archive, or data file, so many files can
be sent at one time.
The current technology, an offspring of data encryption methods used
in World War II, reduces the time it takes to transfer a file through a
modem, by reducing the size of the data itself. Given the proliferation
of many data compression methods (ARC, PKZIP, ZOO, SIT, and LHARC, for a
few examples) that try to provide the most efficient method of data
compression, the topic has always been controversial in nature.
Haruhiko Okumura provided a great source of knowledge about data
compression algorithms by writing this essay, which describes some of the
effort involved in creating a data compression standard. Except for
modifications in its formatting, or presentation, and various notes placed
in this text to provide more information on certain subjects, the content
of Haruhiko Okumura's text is identical....
Introduction: History of LHARC's Forefathers
---------------------------------------------
In the spring of 1988, I wrote a very simple data compression program
named LZSS in C language, and uploaded it to the Science SIG (forum) of
PC-VAN, Japan's biggest personal computer network. That program was based
on Storer and Szymanski's slightly modified version of one of Lempel and
Ziv's algorithms. Despite its simplicity, for most files its compression
outperformed the archivers then widely used.
Kazuhiko Miki rewrote my LZSS in Turbo Pascal and assembly language,
and soon made it evolve into a complete archiver, which he named LARC. The
first versions of LZSS and LARC were rather slow. So I rewrote my LZSS
using a binary tree, and so did Miki. Although LARC's encoding was slower
than the fastest archiver available, its decoding was quite fast, and its
algorithm was so simple that even self-extracting files (compressed files
plus decoder) it created were usually smaller than non-self-extracting
files from other archivers.
Soon many hobby programmers joined the archiver project at the forum.
Very many suggestions were made, and LARC was revised again and again. By
the summer of 1988, LARC's speed and compression have improved so much
that LARC-compressed programs were beginning to be uploaded in many forums
of PC-VAN and other networks.
In that summer I wrote another program, LZARI, which combined the LZSS
algorithm with adaptive arithmetic compression. Although it was slower
than LZSS, its compression performance was amazing. Miki, the author of
LARC, uploaded LZARI to NIFTY-Serve, another big information network in
Japan. In NIFTY-Serve, Haruyasu Yoshizaki replaced LZARI's adaptive
arithmetic coding with a version of adaptive Huffman coding to increase
speed. Based on this algorithm, which he called LZHUF, he developed yet
another archiver, LHarc.
Data Compression Algorithms, Lempel-Ziv, and ARC.TTP
----------------------------------------------------
In what follows, I will review several of these algorithms and
supply simplified codes in C language.
1. RLL Encoding
Replacing several (usually 8 or 4) "space" characters by one "tab"
character is a very primitive method for data compression. Another simple
method is Run-Length coding , which encodes the message "AAABBBBAACCCC"
into "3A4B2A4C", for example.
2. LZSS coding
This scheme is initiated by Ziv and Lempel [1]. A slightly modified
version is described by Storer and Szymanski [2]. An implementation using
a binary tree is proposed by Bell [3]. The algorithm is quite simple:
Keep a ring buffer, which initially contains "space" characters only.
Read several letters from the file to the buffer. Then search the buffer
for the longest string that matches the letters just read, and send its
length and position in the buffer.
If the buffer size is 4096 bytes, the position can be encoded in 12
bits. If we represent the match length in four bits, the <position,
length> pair is two bytes long. If the longest match is no more than two
characters, then we send just one character without encoding, and restart
the process with the next letter. We must send one extra bit each time to
tell the decoder whether we are sending a <position, length> pair or an
unencoded character.
3. LZW coding
This scheme was devised by Ziv and Lempel [4], and modified by Welch
[5]. The LZW coding has been adopted by most of the existing archivers,
such as ARC and PKZIP. The algorithm can be made relatively fast, and is
suitable for hardware implementation as well. A Pascal program for this
algorithm is given in Storer's book [6].
The algorithm can be outlined as follows: Prepare a table that can
contain several thousand items. Initially register in its 0th through
255th positions the usual 256 characters. Read several letters from the
file to be encoded, and search the table for the longest match. Suppose
the longest match is given by the string "ABC". Send the position of
"ABC" in the table. Read the next character from the file. If it is "D",
then register a new string "ABCD" in the table, and restart the process
with the letter "D". If the table becomes full, discard the oldest item
or, preferably, the least used.
4. Huffman coding
Classical Huffman coding is invented by Huffman [7]. A fairly
readable account is given in Sedgewick [8]. Suppose the text to be
encoded is "ABABACA", with four A's, two B's, and a C. We represent this
situation as follows:
4 2 1
| | |
A B C
Combine the least frequent two characters into one, resulting in the
new frequency 2 + 1 = 3:
4 3
| / \
A B C
Repeat the above step until the whole characters combine into a tree:
7
/ \
/ 3
/ / \
A B C
Start at the top ("root") of this encoding tree, and travel to the
character you want to encode. If you go left, send a "0"; otherwise send
a "1". Thus, "A" is encoded by "0", "B" by "10", "C" by "11". Altogether,
"ABABACA" will be encoded into ten bits, "0100100110". To decode this
code, the decoder must know the encoding tree, which must be sent
separately.
A modification to this classical Huffman coding is the adaptive, or
dynamic, Huffman coding. See, e.g., Gallager [9]. In this method, the
encoder and the decoder processes the first letter of the text as if the
frequency of each character in the file were one, say. After the first
letter has been processed, both parties increment the frequency of that
character by one. For example, if the first letter is 'C', then freq
['C'] becomes two, whereas every other frequencies are still one. Then
the both parties modify the encoding tree accordingly. Then the second
letter will be encoded and decoded, and so on.
5. Arithmetic coding
The original concept of arithmetic coding is proposed by P. Elias. An
implementation in C language is described by Witten and others [10].
Although the Huffman coding is optimal if each character must be
encoded into a fixed (integer) number of bits, arithmetic coding wins if
no such restriction is made.
As an example we shall encode "AABA" using arithmetic coding. For
simplicity suppose we know beforehand that the probabilities for "A" and
B" to appear in the text are 3/4 and 1/4, respectively.
Initially, consider an interval:
0 <= x < 1.
Since the first character is "A" whose probability is 3/4, we shrink
the interval to the lower 3/4:
0 <= x < 3/4.
The next character is "A" again, so we take the lower 3/4:
0 <= x < 9/16.
Next comes "B" whose probability is 1/4, so we take the upper 1/4:
27/64 <= x < 9/16,
Because "B" is the second element in our alphabet, {A, B}. The last
character is "A" and the interval is
27/64 <= x < 135/256,
which can be written in binary notation
0.011011 <= x < 0.10000111.
Choose from this interval any number that can be represented in fewest
bits, say 0.1, and send the bits to the right of "0."; in this case we
send only one bit, "1". Thus we have encoded four letters into one bit!
With the Huffman coding, four letters could not be encoded into less than
four bits.
To decode the code "1", we just reverse the process: First, we supply
the "0." to the right of the received code "1", resulting in "0.1" in
binary notation, or 1/2. Since this number is in the first 3/4 of the
initial interval 0 <= x < 1, the first character must be "A". Shrink the
interval into the lower 3/4. In this new interval, the number 1/2 lies in
the lower 3/4 part, so the second character is again "A", and so on. The
number of letters in the original file must be sent separately (or a
special 'EOF' character must be appended at the end of the file).
The algorithm described above requires that both the sender and
receiver know the probability distribution for the characters. The
adaptive version of the algorithm removes this restriction by first
supposing uniform or any agreed-upon distribution of characters that
approximates the true distribution, and then updating the distribution
after each character is sent and received.
6. LZARI
In each step the LZSS algorithm sends either a character or a
<position, length> pair. Among these, perhaps character "e" appears more
frequently than "x", and a <position, length> pair of length 3 might be
commoner than one of length 18, say. Thus, if we encode the more frequent
in fewer bits and the less frequent in more bits, the total length of the
encoded text will be diminished. This consideration suggests that we use
Huffman or arithmetic coding, preferably of an adaptive kind, along with
LZSS. This is easier said than done, because there are many possible
<position, length> combinations. Adaptive compression must keep running
statistics of frequency distribution. Too many items make statistics
unreliable.
LZARI, and the Creation of a Data Compression Program
-----------------------------------------------------
What follows is not even an approximate solution to the problem posed
above, but anyway this was what I did in the summer of 1988.
I extended the character set from 256 to three-hundred or so in size,
and let characters 0 through 255 be the usual 8-bit characters, whereas
characters 253 + n represent that what follows is a position of string of
length n, where n = 3, 4 , .... These extended set of characters will be
encoded with adaptive arithmetic compression.
I also observed that longest-match strings tend to be the ones that
were read relatively recently. Therefore, recent positions should be
encoded into fewer bits. Since 4096 positions are too many to encode
adaptively, I fixed the probability distribution of the positions "by
hand". The distribution function given in the accompanying LZARI.C is
rather tentative; it is not based on thorough experimentation. In
retrospect, I could encode adaptively the most significant 6 bits, say, or
perhaps by some more ingenious method adapt the parameters of the
distribution function to the running statistics.
At any rate, the present version of LZARI treats the positions rather
separately, so that the overall compression is by no means optimal.
Furthermore, the string length threshold above which strings are coded
into <position, length> pairs is fixed, but logically its value must
change according to the length of the <position, length> pair we would
get.
7. LZHUF
LZHUF, the algorithm of Haruyasu Yoshizaki's archiver LHarc, replaces
LZARI's adaptive arithmetic coding with adaptive Huffman. LZHUF encodes
the most significant 6 bits of the position in its 4096-byte buffer by
table lookup. More recent, and hence more probable, positions are coded
in less bits. On the other hand, the remaining 6 bits are sent verbatim.
Because Huffman coding encodes each letter into a fixed number of
bits, table lookup can be easily implemented. Though theoretically
Huffman cannot exceed arithmetic compression, the difference is very
slight, and LZHUF is fairly fast.
References:
-----------
[1] J. Ziv and A. Lempel, IEEE Trans. IT-23, 337-343 (1977).
[2] J. A. Storer and T. G. Szymanski, J. ACM, 29, 928-951
(1982).
[3] T. C. Bell, IEEE Trans. COM-34, 1176-1182 (1986).
[4] J. Ziv and A. Lempel, IEEE Trans. IT-24, 530-536 (1978).
[5] T. A. Welch, Computer, 17, No.6, 8-19 (1984).
[6] J. A. Storer, Data Compression: Methods and Theory
(Computer Science Press, 1988).
[7] D. A. Huffman, Proc IRE 40, 1098-1101 (1952).
[8] R. Sedgewick, Algorithms, 2nd ed. (Addison-Wesley, 1988).
[9] R. G. Gallager, IEEE Trans. IT-24, 668-674 (1978).
[10] I. E. Witten, R. M. Neal, and J. G. Cleary, Commun. ACM
30, 520-540 (1987).
________________________________________________________
> CPU STATUS REPORT¿ LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
=================
Issue #12
Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
- Torrance, California NEW FILE COMPRESSION SYSTEM SHOWN
---------------
A new PC graphics file compression system capable of packing a five meg
graphics file down to just one meg had been released by Video Image
Compression Corporation (VIC). The program, Picture Packer, is
available as a $79 software package which will compress the five meg
file in 20 seconds or as a $595 software package plus accelerator board
which will do the same job in about 3 seconds on a typical AT with both
having similar decompression times. A freely-copyable decompression
utility may be given to other users with the compressed files.
Picture Packer works on the most common bit-image file types - Targa,
Gif, Tiff, and PCX. Bit-image files can be compressed in this way,
since they are effectively a map of all dots in the image, even the
blank (white) dots, and therefore have a lot of waste space. Vector
graphics files cannot be compressed using this technique.
- Beaverton, Oregon NEW VIRUS PROTECTION PROGRAM
-----------------
Combining virus protection with a 24-hour hotline support program, and a
quarterly newsletter, Central Point Software has entered into the PC
anti-virus wars with its Anti-Virus program.
According to a statement released by Central Point, Anti-Virus can
detect, eliminate and prevent infection caused by more than 400 known
and unknown viruses in DOS, Windows and networked environments. The
program makes executable files self-protecting, can run as a memory
resident module and can be configured to make it suitable for users with
different levels of experience.
- Oakhurst, California SIERRA AND BRODERBUND UNITED
--------------------
In an acquisition called "more a merger of equals", Sierra On-Line Inc,
has acquired Broderbund Software for about $37.9 million worth of stock.
The combined firms will be known collectively as Sierra-Broderbund and
will continue to exist "as sister companies sharing a common
distribution mechanism" with Broderbund being a subsidiary with its own
separate publishing operation.
- Tokyo, Japan SUN TO MAKE MULTIMEDIA WORKSTATION
------------
Sun Microsystems has agreed to join with Fujitsu, Toshiba and Matsushita
to develop a next-generation multimedia workstation. The agreement
calls for the development of technologies concerned with the compression
and decompression of digital motion pictures, a pictorial data
processing IC, a window processor for motion pictures and high-speed
data transmission.
The multimedia workstation is being developed with the Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) market in mind, a technology which is
expected to gain wide acceptance within the next five years. Sun
Microsystems aims to sell the workstation to the education, seminar, and
business presentation markets.
- Atlanta, Georgia RURAL MISSISSIPPI GETS $1.25 MILLION FROM IBM
----------------
IBM is donating hardware, educational courseware, teacher training and
technical support worth $1.25 million to Mississippi 2000, an inter-
active distance learning program that links teachers and students in
rural classrooms across the state through two-way audio and video
transmission.
IBM donated and installed 119 computers at eight sites with each class-
room networked with the IBM Classroom LAN Administration System Version
1.3. Plans are currently underway to network all classroom sites,
allowing the exchange of computer information in addition to audio and
video transmission. Each site is equipped with computer hardware and
software, video cameras, microphones, television monitors, video
cassette recorder (VCR), telephone and fax machine and uses fiber optic
technology which allows simultaneous communications in classrooms across
the state, so that teachers and students can simultaneously see and hear
each other.
- Cupertino, California OLDER MAC PRICING CUT
---------------------
In a change from last years marketing strategy of pursuing high-powered
and high-margined sales, Apple Computer has cut the prices on all of its
older Macintosh models in hopes to gain a larger market share. Prices
on the IIfx, IIci and SE/30 were cut as much as 31%. At the same time,
prices for Apple's PostScript-based laser printers were cut up to 21% to
bring them in line with the new printers which the company announced.
- Cupertino, California APPLE INTRODUCES NEW PRINTERS
---------------------
Apple Computer has introduced two printers; the Apple StyleWriter, a
thermal ink-jet printer with a 360 dpi high quality mode and a
suggested retail price of $599; and the Apple Personal LaserWriter LS, a
300 dpi, 4 pages per minute, stand-alone laser printer that is not
designed to be hooked up to a network with a suggested retail price of
$1,299.
- New York, New York ANOTHER HACKER ARRESTED
------------------
After a year long investigation, the New York State Police and the US
Secret Service have arrested 20-year-old Paul Stira (aka SCORPION).
Stira is charged with device fraud, a violation of Federal Code 1049,
which deals with unauthorized access to computer systems as well as
falsification of telephone credit card calling numbers and carries a
penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
New York State Police Senior Investigator Donald Delaney, who also
participated in the arrest, pointed out that "Stira was the last of four
whose homes were searched in January, 1990." Stira indicated that, from
his contacts at the monthly "2600" hacker meetings, computer crime is
way down. Perhaps the investigatory efforts of the various police
agencies have led to this decrease."
- San Francisco, California APPLE WINS THIS ROUND IN SUIT
--------------------------
In denying motions from Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard that said Apple's
case against them should be dismissed because the Macintosh interface
wasn't really Apple's to protect, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker has
cleared the way for a trial on Apple's copyright infringement case
against Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. Judge Walker did not resolve the
question of whether Microsoft and HP infringed on Apple's copyright. His
ruling only answered whether Apple owned something which could be
infringed upon.
Walker also ruled that parts of the interface -- overlapping windows and
icon -- were not licensed to Microsoft or Hewlett-Packard.
At issue in the three-year-old case is whether Microsoft's Windows 2.03
and Hewlett-Packard's New Wave implementation of it infringed on Apple's
copyright of its Macintosh interface. Microsoft had secretly licensed
the Mac interface from Apple for Windows 1.0, but Apple claims that
Windows 2.03 is a different product that required a separate license. No
suit has been filed over Windows 3.0.
Xerox last year tried in vain to protect the Star's interface in much
the same way Apple is trying to protect the Mac interface. One of the
reasons Xerox was turned away was because it had waited too long to file
its suit.
- Redmond, Washington FTC INVESTIGATING MICROSOFT
-------------------
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which investigates anti-trust and
restraint of trade cases, is apparently interested in whether Microsoft
is intentionally restricting the functionality and features of future
versions of Windows. The investigation apparently arose from a press
release and statement issued by Microsoft during the 1989 Fall Comdex
concerning its future plans for Windows.
At the time, Microsoft had been going to considerable lengths to re-
assure software developers who had gotten wind of the upcoming release
of Windows 3 that there was still a future for OS/2, and had stated that
OS/2 would remain aimed at the network server and upscale workstation
market. Presumably, the FTC read that as a conspiracy to restrict the
powers of Windows. At the time, however, the announcement was not
greeted with any surprise, since Windows is still based on DOS, and DOS
cannot offer the same kind of multi-user throughput as OS/2.
Microsoft has released a statement saying it first received notification
of the investigation in June of 1990 and is complying with requests for
information made by the FTC made as part of a non-public investigation,
apparently concerning Microsoft's plans for MS-Windows.
***********************************************************************
:HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT:
_________________________________
To sign up for GEnie service: Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369.
Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that).
Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN.
**** SIGN UP FEE WAIVED ****
The system will now prompt you for your information.
-> NOW! GENIE STAR SERVICE IS IN EFFECT!! <-
***********************************************************************
> MAC REPORT¿
==========
Issue #002
----------
by Robert Allbritton
Quite a bit of action going on in the industry this week including new
products and prices from Apple, a little progress on the court battles and
Microsoft's investigation by the SEC.
> MAC NEWS¿ LOW COST INKJET & LASER PRINTERS!
========
*** Apple Introduces Low Cost Inkjet & Laser Printers.
With the introduction of the StyleWriter inkjet printer, Apple has
finalized its transition to a high volume, price competitive computer
company. In comparison to the older ImageWriter dot matrix printer, the
StyleWriter sells for about the same price ($450) and prints at about the
same speed, but the new 360 dpi StyleWriter has much better print quality
and it can print on transparencies (a first for an inkjet printer.) Sug-
gested retail of the StyleWriter is $599 but it has been priced from
several retailers for as low as $450.
Both the StyleWriter inkjet and the new Personal LaserWriter LS share
Apple's new TrueType outline font technology. TrueType is a direct r-
eplacement for Adobe's PostScript and will be built into the new System
7.0 software due from Apple in mid May. (A patch is included for the
current System/Finder.) While TrueType claims better quality output than
PostScript, it defiantly uses less memory: the Personal LaserWriter LS
needs only 512K. Other features of the Personal Laserwriter LS include a
special serial chip that will allow data to be sent to the printer at 909K
per second (about 3 times faster than AppleTalk) and background printing
software, which frees up the Macintosh for normal use while it is prin-
ting. The Personal LaserWriter LS has a suggested retail of $1,299.
Street price is expected to be under $1,000.
*** MORE APPLE PRICE CUTS: '030 MACS AND LASERS
I called most of the latest round of Apple price cuts correctly last week,
but there were more of them than I expected.
HERE ARE THE NEW OFFICIAL PRICES
Old New
Price Price Change
Macintosh IIfx (4MB/floppy) $8,969 $7,369 -$1,600 -18%
Macintosh IIfx (4MB/80HD) $9,869 $8,069 -$1,800 -18%
Macintosh IIfx (4MB/160HD) $10,969 $8,669 -$2,300 -21%
Macintosh IIci (5MB/floppy) $5,969 $5,269 -$700 -12%
Macintosh IIci (5MB/80HD) $6,669 $5,969 -$700 -10%
Macintosh SE/30 (1MB/40HD) $4,369 $3,369 -$1,000 -23%
Macintosh SE/30 (4MB/80HD) $5,569 $3,869 -$1,700 -31%
Personal LaserWriter NT $3,299 $2,599 -$700 -21%
LaserWriter IINT $4,499 $3,999 -$500 -11%
LaserWriter IINTX $5,999 $4,999 -$1,000 -16%
Additionally, the Macintosh IIsi now comes with 3Mb of RAM as stan-
dard equipment (no change in price) and a new bundle of a Mac IIsi (5mb
RAM, 80mb Hard Drive), NuBus adapter with 68882 Math Co-processor, and
A/UX 2.0.1 UNIX operating system for $5,169 is now available. The Macin-
tosh IIx and Mac IIcx are officially discontinued as of this week.
*** ADOBE DOMINATES APPLE & MICROSOFT WITH MULTIPLE MASTER
When Apple and Microsoft agreed to co-operate to create TrueType, many
thought it would be a major blow to Adobe. TrueType was to offer superior
performance and better support than PostScript, but Adobe had a few tricks
up their sleeve. The latest is called Multiple Master, and it has quickly
stolen much of the thunder that followed Apple's introduction of their
first TrueType products.
Multiple Master is a whole new technology that will allow users to manipu-
late the style, width, weight, and scale of a font from within an applica-
tion on the fly. In addition it will allow these changes to be recorded in
the application's document and will be platform independent. (Note: an
patch to the Macintosh OS will be required.)
These capabilities will have vast impacts on how word processing and desk
top publishing applications work. For example: if you need to cram a long
line of text on to a single line with current word processors, you must
"squish" the characters closer to one another. With Multiple Master, the
font itself will become more narrow, producing much more legible text.
Adobe will have two Multiple Master fonts available this summer (a serif
and a sans serif) and they are making the technology available to other
font manufactures such as ITC, Agfa, MTI, Bitstream, and Linotype. Best
news of all is that Multiple Master will be compatible with current PostS-
cript output devices (compatibility is not guaranteed for
PostScript printer clones.)
> MacREVIEW¿ "... what makes System 7 so special?"
=========
System 7.0: A PREVIEW
---------------------
part 1
DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES OF THE MAC AND ST/TT
=================================================
It has been in the works for two years now. It is said to be Apple's
answer to Windows 3.0. It is due in two months. It is System 7.0. But
what makes System 7 so special, so important, so great? Over the next few
weeks we will look at the various features of System 7 and how they will
effect computing on the Macintosh.
There are some basic differences between the Macintosh Operating
System (System/Finder or Mac OS) and the Atari ST/TT Operating System
(TOS.) The ST/TT has always had a split personality. There is the TOS
side of it, which is VERY similar to older versions of MS-DOS. This was
originally done for that exact reason: make ST programming similar to
MS-DOS programming and it won't be hard to port popular MS-DOS programs:
a very sound, logical idea. On the other hand, the ST/TT has GEM. GEM is
much more like the Mac OS. Everything is in a window. There are basic
structures common to all GEM programs, like the file selector and the menu
bars. All GEM programs work basically the same, and thus are very easy to
learn. For example, the ST/TT desktop follows the GEM guidelines. Every-
thing on the Mac is similar to GEM, or rather what GEM might have become.
The Mac OS is much more powerful and complex than GEM, and there is no
text based equivalent to TOS in the Mac.
Unlike the Atari ST/TT, the Macintosh still loads a considerable
amount of its operating system off of the disk every time the Mac is
turned on. This is one reason the ST has the ability to start up much
quicker than the Mac and the Mac can have its Operating System become
corrupt. However; having much of your operating system on disk also
allows easy upgrades and modifications.
While ST users have alternate desktops, such as NeoDesk, Mac users
rely on Apple to change the basic desktop (called the Finder.) For the
first time in years, System 7 radically changes the Finder. For the past
few years, Mac users have had two alternative desktops they could use:
Finder and MultiFinder. The main difference being that MultiFinder al-
lowed multiple applications to run at once. Note that I did not say that
MultiFinder was MultiTasking, technically it is not. What MultiFinder
does offer is 99% of multitasking.
In order for programs to properly operate under MultiFinder they must
be "MultiFinder aware", this means that the programmer must make some
basic (but simple) changes to his code as to allow other programs to share
the computer, and most Mac Programs are MultiFinder aware. The main
difference between MultiFinder and Multitasking is what is known as "pree-
mptive multitasking" this is the computer's ability to tell each program
exactly how much time they have before they must give control back to the
operating system.
Mac programs work the other way around: they have control over the
computer until THEY decide to give it back to the operating system (so
control can be passed on to other applications that are running.) If a
program is properly written, the user will not notice the difference
between MultiFinder and true Multitasking.
The reason all of this is so important is that with System 7, Multi-
Finder is now standard equipment. The old single program at a time Finder
is gone, and the new Finder is a significant improvement over the old
MultiFinder.
ST/TT desk accessories have always been found under the drop down menu
on the far left, which is exactly the same as the Mac. In order to have a
DA loaded into your ST/TT, all you had to do was leave it in your root
directory. The Mac has always been more difficult with this process: You
had to get a special utility called the "Font/DA Mover" to install Desk
Accessories and Fonts in your Mac, and then you had to turn the Mac off
and back on again so they could be properly loaded in. Considering all
the hoopla most people make about how the Mac is so easy to use, this is
one thing that I always found to be medieval. All of that is gone.
Every Mac has a "System Folder" this is where the System/Finder and
other critical files are located. Under System 7 to install a DA or Font
all you have to do is move it into the "Apple Menu Items" folder inside
the System Folder. No restarts needed, they automatically appear.
There are two ways fonts can be displayed. The computer can keep a
bitmap of the way the font is supposed to look in memory, or the computer
can keep an algorithm of how to draw the font. Obviously, the bitmap
system only works for one particular size of the font (you try to make a
bitmap larger, but it doesn't look very good.) The algorithm can be used
to make the letters any size you want. This is they way Calamus, PostScr-
ipt, and the new GDOS create good looking text at any size. Now Apple has
finally adopted Outline Fonts as a part of System 7. Apple calls it
TrueType and it is supposed to be better than PostScript (although PostSc-
ript has made some major advances recently.) TrueType can display text
either to the screen or to printers to the best quality that the device
can deliver. The fact that it is now standard equipment is a major enhan-
cement.
Look for part 2 next week in the MacReport.
As always.. Email to MacReport can be sent to
CompuServe: 71630,457 GEnie: j.allbritto2
See you next week!
__________________________________________________________________
> CLEVELAND FREENET! STR OnLine¿ "STARSHIP OF A REVOLUTION"
=============================
THE "NEWLY REMODELED" ATARI S.I.G. OPENS
========================================
By: Mark Leair
Atari SIG Public Relations
The Cleveland Freenet is the starship of a revolution that is going on
right now. This revolution is the computerized information revolution.
What the Cleveland Freenet is leading what public libraries were leading
approximately a century ago; free public access to information. In Freen-
et's case, it's free public access to computerized information.
Upon connecting to the Freenet by modem one gains access to well over
100 special interest groups including a medical and dental information
dispensary. Other special interest groups (SIGs) include science fiction
forums, veterinary SIGs, gaming and chess SIGs, just to scratch the
service. There's even a USA Today Headline news forum! Freenet also
has a wide range of computer forums.
The Cleveland Freenet Atari SIG is one of the many computer forums,
and the operators of the Atari SIG are proud to announce the grand opening
of the newly remodeled Atari SIG. We now feel that this SIG now fully
covers (or has the potential to as soon as users start using the new
features) every aspect of the Atari computer (XL, XE, ST, Mega, STE,
Portfolio, etc.) and related products (Lynx, etc.).
The biggest addition to the SIG is the Programming and Development
forum. Our newly acquired S.I.G. Operator Peter Haller, a professional
programmer, has taken charge of this section moderating the technical Q&A,
Graphics Design, Hardware development, MIDI development, Source Code
Library, and many other specialized development and programming boards.
This board can definitely become a developer and Atari hacker's (The old
definition of "hacker") delight!
Other areas include a somewhat "dumb" but useful computer file sec-
tion, moderated by newly acquired librarian, Marc Lombardo, and a product
Information and Support board. This board includes a vast library of
support lists including lists of Atari magazines, dealers, manufacturers
phone numbers, Atari Corp. price lists, as well as product news. Lastly a
special applications area has been added. Presently there's only a MIDI
user board there, but this is expected to expand in the future.
Additionally, the Atari SIG still has its news sections, usergroup
newsletter library, Online magazine section, (where you'll find STReport,
Znet, etc.), general as well as specific computer discussion boards (8
bit, 16/32 bit, Portfolio, and Lynx), and our weekly multi-chat conference
which meets on channel +Ataricon Sunday at 8 pm EST.
Accessing the Atari SIG has never been easier. One can access it via
Internet by telenet'ing to 129.22.8.75 or "Freenet-in-b.cwru.edu" or by
calling (216) 368-3888 300/1200/2400 bps. Once on the system, a user can
apply for an account application and logon as a visitor. Once here, simply
type "Go Atari" to get to the Atari SIG. A visitor can go anywhere on
the Freenet and can read anything. They can't post messages until they
get their permanent accounts, however. For additional information on ob-
taining access to Freenet write to myself via the e-mail addresses above
or by writing the SIG at its US mail address:
The Atari SIG
P.O. Box 21815
Cleveland, OH 44121 USA
Lastly, a freenet application is available in the mail by writing a
request to the above address if you rather not download it from Freenet.
The Atari SIG is ready to serve the thousands of Atarians throughout the
world. We look forward to seeing you all real soon! Remember the staff
of the Atari SIG are volunteering their time for no pay and the Cleveland
Freenet, as well as the Atari S.I.G., is a non-profit organization
existing for the free exchange of information.
____________________________________________________________
> TOSFIX FIX STR InfoFile¿ AES FILE PARSE BUG IN RAINBOW TOS 1.4
=======================
GET THE RAID!
=============
by Bill Elledge
The TOS14FIX patch program that Atari distributed to fix the RS-232
flow control bug and AES file parse bug in Rainbow TOS 1.4 causes a new
bug to be introduced.
The TOS14FIX.PRG is a small patch program that is placed into the AUTO
folder to correct the above two bugs. There is only one known version this
file and it is 689 bytes long. It was originally distributed along with a
group of various utilities for TOS 1.4 in an archived file on the various
on-line services.
This patch wedges itself into the XBIOS trap vector (14) and checks
for the function code of the Rsconf command (15) on the stack. All other
XBIOS commands are passed through.The Rsconf command is used to configure
the RS-232 port, it allows the baud rate, flow control, parity, bit size
and start and stop bit parameters to be set. The reason for the patch is
that the Rsconf built into the TOS 1.4 ROMS does not recognize the flow
control parameter properly. The TOS14FIX patch corrects this problem,
however in doing so a new bug is introduced.
Besides the ability to set the RS-232 parameters, Rsconf can be setup
to return the current configuration parameters. A new feature was added to
TOS 1.4 which allows the current baud rate to be returned. This is ac-
complished by passing the first argument to Rsconf as a -2. Without the
TOS14FIX patch, Rsconf works as documented.
With this patch installed, attempting to executing Rsconf will cause a
system crash, most likely an illegal instruction error (4 bombs):
C Language Example:
baud_rate = Rsconf (-2, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1);
The TOS14FIX program contains a simple coding error (more than likely
caused by a typo) that creates this problem. The patch contains a se-
quence of 680x0 instructions that check for a -2 value on the stack, when
this is the case the baud rate code is read from the internal RAM location
where it has been previously saved and placed into the D0 register for
return to the calling program. The problem is the instruction that fol-
lows is a RTS (Return from Subroutine), it should be a RTE (Return from
Exception). This causes the stack of the 680x0 to not return to the
proper state, thus causing the bombs.
Below is the code section disassembled from the TOS14FIX program.
CMPI.W #-2,2(A0) ; is baud rate argument = -2 ?
BNE NOT_BAUD ;
MOVE.W $A6E,d0 ; return baud rate code
RTS ;
NOT_BAUD: ; jump here if not -2
ORI.W #$700,SR ; disable interrupts
The problem should be corrected by the source (Atari) and re-released
to the public. However until that time, users can correct their copy of
the patch by using a file editor changing one byte that will cause the RTS
to become an RTE. Using a file editor (like Gribnif's Memfile 3.0 or
CodeHead's Look It!), load the TOS14FIX.PRG into memory.
At byte offset $017D (hexadecimal) from the start of the file will be
byte with the value $75 (hexadecimal). Change this value to a $73
(hexadecimal) and save the file.
That's It.
The RTS instruction (opcode $4E75) now becomes a RTE instruction (opcode
$4E73).
It would probably be a good idea to change the name of the file, so as
not to confuse it with an unpatched version (i.e. TOS14FIG.PRG instead of
TOS14FIX.PRG, where the G stands for good version.) Reboot with the new
file in the AUTO folder and the bug will be eliminated.
Some people may wonder why this bug was not uncovered some time ago,
since the patch was released in late 1989? The answer is that the new
capability of the Rsconf command to be able to return the baud rate is not
utilized by current software products that communicate via the RS-232
port. Most were released prior to the introduction of TOS 1.4. With the
new Mega STe and TT models supporting more than one RS-232 port, it is a
good programming practice for an application to restore the baud rate to
its previous value (the same as it is a good practice to restore the color
palette.) With desk accessories and applications using the RS-232 ports
back and forth, saving the RS-232 parameters can avoid program conflicts.
_________________________________________________________
> THE FLIP SIDE STR Feature¿ "....a different viewpoint"
=========================
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT
==================================
by Michael Lee
From Chris Vogtv on CIS...
Greetings Atarians. I am not a member of this forum (my friend is a
member and I'm using her Atari)...I'm house-sitting here and using
this Atari 1040STe to finish up some work while I'm here, and I'm not
having any trouble at all. In fact I must admit that as an IBM user I
believed until now that an IBM was the ONLY way to go in a personal
computer. I must say that I was surprised at how versatile and easy to
use this unit really is. It seems to adapt well to any application.
----------------
Some comments from Genie about the new game from Accolade "Elvira"...
Compilation of several posts from Jim Brown....
This is a terrific looking and sounding game, I am really enjoying
this game. The graphics are some of the best I've seen, but it is not
for the squeamish. It has some really gross screens and sequences...
or really cool, depending on who you ask. The two 9 year old boys who
regularly steal computer time on my system can't wait to get killed in
new and grosser ways.
The animation is a little slow but there is a LOT of it. The program
appears to have at least 32 colors on the screen at once and the
graphics look more like Spectrum 512 than anything else. The animation
is whole screen also (well, whole play area, about 1/2 of the screen)
...With 2.5 meg it seems to remember all graphics once loaded, cutting
down drive time considerably...This is a case where the photo-real
graphics remained photo-real after being converted from the Amiga.
Elvira's character not only looks like her (digitized graphics) and
sounds like her (digitized sound), she even acts like her (digitized
personality?)
The speed is pretty good on my hard drive but I'd hate to run it from
floppy though.Anyway, I'm having fun, but the frustration factor is
getting high.
From Jeff W. (Sysop)...
You have to help Elvira find her chest! Before someone says, "Gee,
must be a real easy game," Elvira is being held captive in a castle,
but needs her magic spells that are stored in a hidden treasure chest
in order to escape. Your job is to search the castle, find the chest,
and return it to Elvira...I've looked at this game briefly at the
store and I'm thinking of buying it. Considering that it comes on five
[double-sided] disks and can run off a hard drive, I am all the more
intrigued.
From M.Chew...
My first impression is that it's a pretty good game with great
graphics. A hard drive is virtually required to play this game though
since it takes forever to load the program and to load new data off
the floppies. I did ran into some problems (bugs ?) with this game
when running it on my system. I've found that ELVIRA hates the ICDTIME
program - it would crash unpredictably after running for a little
while when you click the mouse on something (4 bombs.) I've also found
that moving items in the inventory window would crash the program (2
bombs) when I'm running with all 4 megabytes of RAM available on my
1040STe. Running CNF1040.TOS to lower the available memory down to 1
megabytes seem to solve the problem.
From Jim Brown...
I'm running TOS 1.4 with 2.5 meg of RAM and a Megafile 30 hard drive.
I've had no bombs, bugs or other in Elvira.
----------------
Many folks have been wondering what his happening with the Flash 2.0
version that was promised several months ago. Here's some comments that
were on CIS about it...
Compilation of some posts by Alexander Golitsis....
When Joe Chiazzese used to manage Electronic Playworld, I would often
talk to him about future projects. He used to tell me that Allan Page
_was_ working on FLASH 2.0 (just one of the new features was to be
"auto-learning", i.e., no more writing .DO files) and he was working
on the Amiga version of the same program (I even saw an early
version). However, In the last couple of years, I have heard nothing.
Has anyone even had contact with Alan recently?
From Jim Ness (Sysop) on CIS...
Alan was around a couple of months ago, and told me that Flash was
dead. When I mentioned the rumor about Antic and Flash 2, he knew
nothing about it. So, we have been assuming that Antic was using some
other author.
Compilation of posts from Bob Brodie (Atari User Group Coordinator) on
CIS...
...I too was told that Alan was working on Flash 2.0. Some of my
friends and sources in Canada even tell me that Alan and Joe have long
ago finished their version of Flash 2.0. All that is waiting is for
Antic Software to make them a "real" deal...but some business problems
prevented them from releasing it via Antic...but all of this is just
hearsay...it's still one of my favorite programs. I'd dearly like to
use it with the TT.
From Ron Luks (Main Sysop) on CIS...
The program that has been called "FLASH 2.0" from ANTIC SOFTWARE isn't
being done by Alan and Joe. Its actually a different program from an
Australian author that has many of the features of the FLASH written
by Alan and Joe (and of course, a bunch of new ones).
...Charles [Cherry] and I talked quite a bit about FLASH 2.0 last
September/October, but things have stalled in the development stage.
Last time I spoke with Jim Capparell, he didn't know if it would be
finished and released for sale.
As far as I know, Alan and Joe are not working on any updates to THEIR
program called FLASH (the one we now use as ver 1.6), which is a real
shame, because its a GREAT program and has been my favorite for years.
----------------
About Diamond Back II v2.20 from Bob Luneski (Diamond Back II author) on
Genie...
Retail price for Diamond Back II V2.20 has not changed and remains at
$44.95 I am currently working with my bank to get a merchant VISA/MC
account so I can make it easier on people. Until that happens, you can
send a check to:
Oregon Research Associates
16200 S.W. Pacific Hwy, Suite 162
Tigard, OR 97224
(503) 620-4919
...Mail order would be less expensive, but V2.11 is what is in the
distribution channel and then you would have to upgrade. Actually
there are not that many V2.11 left in the channels and I am working
with the distributor houses to get them out of circulation as soon as
possible, however it is something you should be aware of.
An Update on shipping:
The good news: Diamond Back II V2.20 is complete and ready to ship
The good news: I have the manuals from the printer and they look great
The good news: I have the registration cards from the printer and they
look great
The good news: I have the envelopes inserted into the inside of the
manuals (ready for disks) and I have the sealing
st
icker from the printer and they look great.
The good news: I have the shipping material & envelopes and am ready
to go
The bad news: The disk labels will not be ready until next Friday. The
printer evidently had to farm out the work to a large
disk label company in the east and they will not be
able to get to them until the middle of next week +
shipping time = next friday promised arrival.
So I have a new projected ship date for V2.20 of March 16, 1991
----------------
From Hagop Janoyan (author of Hagterm) on Genie...
...the long-time promised new Hagterm General Manual is available...
Anyone interested in switching to the new manual(s) can send in $6 to:
Atari Corner Publishing
515 Wing Street
Glendale, CA 91205.
You will receive the new General manual, plus the new HagScript
manual. However, I'd like to mention that unless you are not
proficient with Hagterm yet, or you are writing HagScript programs,
you won't need the new manuals. Everything you would need to know is
already covered in the extensive HELP screens.
On a different note, I've been arguing myself whether to use "HagTerm"
or "Hagterm" in the future, where the 't' is not capitalized. Any
ideas?
----------------
From Lauren (WordFlair) about the orders from people who upgraded to
WordFlair from other word processors...
...the swap orders should go out at the end of next week [week of 3-
15-91]. We held them up because many people got their ST Informers
late and requested an extension to the deadline. To give such a good
price, we needed to consolidate the orders and have done so. They go
to the duplicator this Monday and should ship Friday, or the following
Monday via US Snail.
----------------
Comments about the MegaSTe from D.BECKER on Genie....
I have recently purchased a MEGA STe from Infinite Grafix here in
Richmond, British Columbia and I thought everyone would be interested
in my observations and questions...
Configuration: TOS 2.5, 4 Meg RAM, 48 Meg hard drive, TT style case,
math co-processor built in (not just the socket!), LAN plug, 2 serial
ports, parallel port, VME plug, cartridge and MIDI ports, stereo audio
out, RF out, and a detachable keyboard.
The hard drive came pre-formatted with four equal partitions (nice
touch) I simply installed the new AHDI from floppy and was up and
running in a few minutes. You are required to touch a key after the
hard drive initializes to enter the desktop (or use NOROACH.PRG to set
up a delay). The hard drive runs at approx. 28 milliseconds according
to test programs.
The new control panel CPX system seems really neat. I can set many
parameters from this control panel including system speed (8MHZ, 16MHZ
or 16MHZ with cache) 16MHZ with cache causes some incompatibility with
the GFA 3.5E interpreter and compiler, Interlink, LDW Power 1.0 and
many PD programs written using GFA Basic. The problems are
intermittent and usually produce two bombs. I have had no
incompatibility using 16MHZ without cache or 8MHZ. I have not tested
any games. I am using a monochrome monitor. Calamus seems to run
flawlessly at 16MHZ with cache!
Yeah!! The new TOS is a real joy to use. I will not attempt to review
its many features. It is much nicer than 1.4! Hey Atari...We need a
way to automatically switch processor speeds when running a program,
any ideas...Experimentation continues here in Canada...stay tuned!
----------------
Comments about "Just Another War in Space" from Hosea Battles on
Genie...
...it is complicated, but it is a fun game. It is very strategic
oriented. You have to read the manual to figure out the game. I enjoy
playing it but it is not for everyone. All menus are mouse driven. I
must say, it took me one week to thoroughly learn the game...If you
like strategic oriented games with some action, then I would recommend
it. If you can, see it first.
----------------
From John Eidsvoog (CodeHead Software) on Genie...
Even though we are planning another official press release real soon,
I thought I'd quickly inform everyone of the update situation here
since people are being daily bitten by the update "trickle" effect...
CodeKeys 1.3 now shipping
G+Plus 1.5 now shipping
MultiDesk 2.2 now shipping
HotWire 3.0 now shipping
LookIt 1.1 any day now
MaxiFile 3.0 may be delayed as much as two weeks for emergency
last minute "had to have" feature
Utilities 4 4 weeks or so
MultiDesk 2.2 is essentially a TT-compatible update so if you have
version 2.0-2.1 and don't have a TT, save your money.
All updates are $10. If you are planning to update any of these
products it would make sense to do them all at once to save yourself
the trouble of multiple mailings of disks. We have been holding those
orders which include products that are not quite ready, but as of
today, we will start shipping anything that's ready and send the rest
later when it is ready. It's not fair to those whose HotWire is being
held for MaxiFile.
----------------
From Joe Mardo on Genie...
...The other day I ran across a power supply that's almost exactly the
same size as the Mega's internal supply. It is a Power General 3050-1.
It puts out +5v at 6amps and +- 12v at 1amp each. It's rated at 50
watts. There were two problems with it.
1. The +-12v heat sinks were too high an I had to cut off 1/4".
2. The mounting holes don't exactly match the Mega bracket but can be
adapted.
The dealer [Abbott Electronics in Woburn, Ma] is currently out of
3050-1 units but still has 3050-2. The difference is that instead
of +- 12v, they are +- 15v. Since these units use 78xx/79xx series
regulators for the +- 12v, and have the two heat sinks that must be
shortened, it's a simple matter to replace the 7815/7915's with
7812/7912's while you're cutting down the heat sink. My unit is now
running my T-16'd Mega4 with ISAC board and is waiting for an
accelerator/memory board for the real test...The best part is it costs
only $17.88
----------------
From Larry Ellis on Genie...
In late 1989 I bought a Toadfile 100 and it had a very loud fan. I
recently replaced it with a Radio Shack 3" fan (120VAC, 32 CFM, part
#273-242, approx. $17.) The new fan is probably less than half as
noisy. It has about 8 or 9 blades, compared to the 4 on the old Torin
fan. How much quieter is it? Before I couldn't tell how fragmented the
drive was by listening to the heads thrash around finding all the
parts of a file. Afterwards, I could. So the new fan even helped speed
up my disk accesses, by getting me to defrag it.
----------------
Until next week.....
______________________________________________________
> STR Portfolio News & Information¿ Keeping up to date...
================================
THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM
=========================
On CompuServe
by Walter Daniel 75066,164
The forum passed a milestone this week: message number 10,000 was
posted. That's a lot of activity for a small (by comparison) forum! Port-
folio software from Germany should be appearing soon, I understand. Read
message 10124 for an announcement about Micro Hedge, "options and risk
management software," from Naiditch Consulting. I'm not really clear on
what the program does, but it seems to have something to do with the stock
market and investing. PowerBASIC: Portfolio is in "final-final" beta
testing, so you should be seeing it soon.
See message 10126 if you would like to know how to use a Diconix 150
inkjet printer with a Portfolio serial interface. Janis Kelly posted a
diagram of the necessary cable.
I received my Guide to PBASIC (Version 4.1) this week. BJ Gleason and
his cohorts at the American University have completed an impressive task
in documenting BJ's free BASIC interpreter for the Portfolio. The guide
is 250 pages in length with 8.5 by 11 inch pages and spiral bound in order
to lay flat. Material covered includes a tour of PBASIC, a description of
the language, some power user tips, a comprehensive reference, and some
sample programs. Each statement is described, its syntax given, and an
example of its use shown. This manual is well worth the $25 cost, espe-
cially considering that the language itself is free. Ordering instruc-
tions are listed in the text file that comes with the PBASIC package;
instructions will also be posted in library 1 of the forum.
New uploads in library 1 this week include EXP.BAS, an expenses logger
from Hugh Campbell, and DZN.BAS, a puzzle for PBASIC. Some kind soul
uploaded MAIL.ADR, an address book file that contains information about
mail order vendors that stock Portfolio hardware and accessories.
Someone sent me a message suggesting that a keyboard macro program for
the Portfolio would be a good idea. It turns out that there is one in
library 3 of the forum. PORTKEYS, part of the free Portfolio Took Kit 2.0
by Carl Koop, is a function key reassignment program. While F1 though F5
are reserved by the Portfolio, F6 through F10 are available while all 10
function keys are available with the CTRL and ALT keys. PORTKEYS actually
creates a batch file that must be executed for the reassignments to take
place, but then that's why the AUTOEXEC.BAT exists. You will need to
install ANSI.SYS into your DOS.
The Portfolio Took Kit contains nine utilities in all: PORTDISK,
PORTINFO, PORTOPT, PORTTONE, PORTFLTR, PORTBOOT, PORTDIV, PORTDIR, and
PORTKEYS. Just about every Portfolio user can use one or more of these
programs, so the package is well worth downloading. The main file is
PTOOL.ARC while PCLOK.ARC contains updates to PORTCLOK AND PORTDIV.
__________________________________________________________
> YABOCUD! STR Spotlight¿ "...a DIRECT MIND LINK to your computer..."
======================
CodeHeadQuarters
Friday, March 15, 1991
---------------------
You're a SPECIAL kind of person...
You KNEW you didn't want to waste your time fighting a ground war so
you bought an Atari computer...
You KNEW you didn't want to waste your time bouncing around at SCUD
level so you discovered CodeHead Software...
You KNEW what you wanted and YOU GOT IT!
You're TURBOed...
You're CHARGED...
You've got a DIRECT MIND LINK to your computer...
You're FLYIN' HIGH with CodeHead Software under your wings...
But you can still see those other guys in your rear-view mirror and...
You want to go HIGHER,
You want to go FASTER,
You want to go STRAIGHTER, SMOOTHER, EASIER...
With LESS ENERGY, EFFORT, or WASTED MOTION...
After all...isn't that what you've come to EXPECT from CodeHead Software?
Hasn't CodeHead Software given you more than you thought was possible?
Wasn't CodeHead Software right there when you wished for something?
Didn't CodeHead Software show you that the sky's NOT the limit?
Well, just when you thought we were running on "empty"...
*********************************************************
* *
* CodeHead Software Announces YABOCUD! *
* or *
* Yet Another Batch Of CodeHead UpDates! *
* *
*********************************************************
Yes, we've been working hard at CodeHead Software and it shows. All of
our products have been cleaned and shined so that you can see yourself in
them...and you're lookin' good, too! But that's not surprising because
everyone looks good in CodeHead Software.
WHAT IS YABOCUD??
Excuse us now while we pull our tongue out of our cheek, get serious, and
tell you a little bit about what's included in the new versions.
######################################################################
HotWire 3.0 - The Fastest, Easiest Way to Run Programs
------------------------------------------------------
HotWire 3.0 includes several new features, including a Global Block of 20
more entries allowing you to instantly run up to 74 programs, color ent-
ries in the HotWire menu, configurable desktop pattern and color, and
greatly enhanced screen saver, mouse accelerator and HOT file editor.
We've released a separate press release of over 200 lines which elaborates
on all of HotWire 3.0's features. Look for it where you found this docu-
ment.
######################################################################
MaxiFile 3.0 - The SuperTool
----------------------------
MaxiFile 3.0 has had an unbelievable facelift, adding so many new features
that we prepared a separate 300-line press release to describe its power.
BUT... EVEN THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH!
Since the MaxiFile press release we've added the single most requested
feature -- simultaneous display of both Source and Destination directories
in scrollable windows! And of course, there are some unique and special
touches even here, with windows that auto-scroll while you select or
deselect items, synchronized double-window scrolling, total keyboard
control, and much more!
Look for our detailed press release to learn about the power of this
SuperTool, or better yet, just buy it...it'll knock your socks off!
######################################################################
LookIt! & PopIt! - Two Powerful Utilities in One Package
--------------------------------------------------------
o LookIt now works in tandem with any editor, allowing you to easily
edit the current file being viewed.
o We've added more speed to LookIt's search function...not too much, but
just enough.
######################################################################
CodeKeys 1.3 - The Macro Tool
-----------------------------
It seems like just yesterday that we released CodeKeys but we've already
updated it substantially.
We've added:
o Extended ASCII characters -- you can use CodeKeys to insert any chara-
cter in the GEM font, such as umlauts, accents, foreign symbols, and
graphics characters.
o Time and Date events -- Two special events will output the current
time and/or date. Each time or date event can be individually for-
matted in thousands of different ways, making it easy to stamp docume-
nts and files with the current time and date in any form.
o Lockout Abort Code provides a definable code sequence to lock or
unlock your macros. Locked macros now play more reliably, too.
o CodeKeys will now automatically execute any macros marked as 'Auto-
run' when a 'linked' .KEY file is loaded, allowing you to create
macros that will start automatically when their associated programs
are run.
######################################################################
G+Plus 1.5 - The GDOS Replacement
---------------------------------
o G+Plus 1.5 is now fully compatible with the Atari TT computer, as well
as all other Atari 68000 series computers including STs and STEs.
o "Font not found" warnings may be enabled or disabled.
o Watching of the Alternate key can be turned off to eliminate inter-
ference with other uses of the Alternate key while starting programs.
o Installation editor has been expanded from 12 to 16 entries.
o "Force Raster" mode provides even more compatibility with problem
programs.
######################################################################
MultiDesk 2.2 - The Accessory Loader
------------------------------------
o MultiDesk 2.2 is now fully compatible with the Atari TT computer, as
well as all other Atari 68000 series computers including STs and STEs.
o Accessories that change their menu titles will now be properly dis-
played in the MultiDesk window.
######################################################################
CodeHead Utilities - A Collection of Useful Programs and Accessories
--------------------------------------------------------------------
CodeHead Utilities, Release 4, is in the final stages of updating and
should be ready on or before May 1st, 1991. All programs will be fully
TT-compatible and many new features will be added as well.
######################################################################
As a current owner of any CodeHead product, you can obtain an update by
sending your original master disk and $10 to the address listed below.
Version numbers and suggested retail prices for our products as of
Wednesday, March 13, 1991 are:
Product Version Price
------- ------- -----
CodeKeys ............. 1.3 .......$39.95
G+Plus ............... 1.5 ....... 34.95
MultiDesk ............ 2.2 ....... 29.95
LookIt & PopIt ....... 1.1/1.0 ... 39.95
MaxiFile ............. 3.0 ....... 39.95
HotWire .............. 3.0 ....... 44.95
HotWire Plus ..................... 69.95
MIDIMAX .............. 1.3 ....... 49.95
CodeHead Utilities ... Rel 4 ..... 34.95
CodeHead Products are available from your local Atari dealer, through
mail-order houses, or directly from CodeHead Software:
CodeHead Software
P.O. Box 74090
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Phone: (213) 386-5735
FAX: (213) 386-5789
BBS: (213) 461-2095
CodeHead Software accepts Mastercard, Visa, and American Express, as
well as checks, money orders, and cash. Shipping charges are $3 U.S., $4
Canada, and $6 elsewhere.
Current office hours are Monday-Friday 9AM-1PM Pacific time. Prices
and hours are subject to change without notice.
Thank you for your support!
______________________________________________________________
> ATARI, NOW!! STR FOCUS¿ They will put their "Best Foot Forward"!
======================
OPERATION GLOBAL COMP_U_COM!
============================
by Ralph Mariano
Computer Communications, (Comp-u-com) globally speaking; are fast,
cost effective and beyond a shadow of a doubt, timely. This past week we
are witness to Atari's first major thrust toward establishing themselves
as a worldwide marketing entity. Atari, has in the last few months, been
heavily engaged in the overall development of the 'grand resurgence' of
our favorite computer company.
This reporter KNEW the turn-around was imminent at the very moment Sam
Tramiel announced during his most recent online conference that;
A) "Atari had a very clear marketing direction" along with "trying to
"sell personal computers to people at the best possible price."
B) "We have reorganized Atari U.S. to be a more responsive and friendly
company, a kinder and gentler Atari. We have even added new people in
the U.S."
The times we are in ordain that change is the enigma to a successful
recovery of Atari Computers in the USA. And change is "the" by-word at
Atari along with "accommodate and satisfy." Atari has, in the past, tried
to accomplish these things by mere policy adjustments and public relati-
ons, it simply wasn't enough. Now, with the actual personnel changes and
additions one can honestly say, "real changes are at hand." STReport
fully supports Atari's newest efforts at reaching mainstream America. We
feel it will be reached like its never been reached before. Atari is, by
all indications, now headed in the right direction and.... with a level of
determination never before seen by this userbase and market.
This effort is, by all outward appearances, "just what the doctor
ordered". "The STe line of computers is destined to become the most pop-
ular PC the USA has ever seen." To begin with, the 520STe will be
available in a fabulous software bundle offer. The bundle offer will be
made available through chains like Circuit City, McDuff etc... The impor-
tant point to be made here is that the .5mb machine is the only computer
being made directly available through mass merchandisers. The MegaSTe,
1040STe and other products (except the TT030) will be available through
national wholesale distribution outlets to dealers only. The TT030 will
be made available through Atari Authorized VAR dealers.
Atari, by its design, has provided itself an excellent pipeline to
mainstream America. The US marketplace is in for a major boost and upward
surge. Most every user will agree Atari's GUI is the very best available
in the marketplace. Dollar for dollar, Atari is 'hard to beat' if not
impossible. In most cases, the user who starts computing endeavors with
an Atari will always find the system the most user friendly ever encoun-
tered. Atari has plans of having something for everyone in the computing
world, even if it means 'wrapping' an excellent platform in an ms-dos
front end. And of course, the exciting new Unix environments are right
around the corner.
The most important point to be made is that Atari IS doing something
positive and they're doing it now. The second most important point to be
made is; please, do not mistake 'national distribution' for mass distribu-
tion. These are two entirely different situations. Products flowing
through national distribution are available only to retail outlets. The
mass distribution in aimed at the consumer level alone. The only machine
offered through mass distribution will be the exciting 520STe bundle deal.
Which by the way, makes an excellent entry level computer. Also, you read
it here first months ago, now for the future watch ... This year's Fall
Comdex Show will be Atari's "Best Ever". Like the man says; "You ain't
seen nuthin' yet Bud!"
________________________________________________________
> STReport CONFIDENTIAL¿ "BLOCKBUSTER ATARI NEWS FIRST!"
=====================
- Sunnyvale, CA. THE NEW PRODUCTS ARE TRUE "STATE OF THE ART"!
--------------
ST Book: A NEW STE NOTEBOOK
The ST Book, runs the new TOS 2.05 (MegaSTe TOS) and will boast having
built-in software. The ST Book (not the final name) comes with an 85 key
keyboard, top of the line LCD, and joypad. The ST Book has a serial,
parallel, midi, DMA and expansion port. All reduced in physical size. It
is a 68000 based STe computer will be available with either a 20, 40, or
80mb built in hard disk. The ST Book is also equipped with a 'silicon
drive' (uses RAM/ROM cards)
ST Pad: Its applications are LIMITLESS!
ST Pad weighs approx. 3 pounds and has an A-4 configuration. Fully
ST compatible, the ST Pad (not the final name) will be available with 1-4
mb of RAM and will run any software written for the 640 x 400 monochrome
mode. The ST Pad is equipped with a Pen and two buttons, the interface is
centered completely around the pen. It is designed to recognize a per-
son's handwriting and/or written gestures executed upon a pressure sen-
sitive LCD. The ST Pad is also equipped with a "silicon drive", that
means it will handle ROM/RAM cards.
It has been made very clear that both of these fine devices are indeed
prototype units and are subject to change. However the concept and funct-
ionality are established and are rock solid. Both units are slated for
Sept-Oct 1991 debut/release dates and are expected to be in the pipeline
60 to 90 days later.
- Hannover, Germany ATARI INTROS NEWS PRODUCTS IN GERMANY FIRST!
-----------------
CeBIT '91 NEWSBREAK
March 13, 1991
Things are really heating up here today in Hannover, Germany at the
1991 version of CeBIT which is the largest computer show in the world.
Atari surprised everyone with their announcement and demonstration of two
exciting new 68000 based computers. The following was described to me by
Atari engineers as the were demoing the equipment. I have written this
because I felt it newsworthy and an important boost to the moral of Atari
users everywhere. I make no guaranty for the accuracy of this information
but I have tried to get as much detail as possible. The computer names
used are only "internal" Atari names and may be changed before release of
the products.
ST Notebook
-----------
This is said to be the smallest 68000 based computer in the world.
Its size rivals any PC Notebook style computer that I have seen. It is
about 1/2 the size of my laptop computer and maybe 3/4 of an inch thick.
Features include:
o A built in mouse device that consists of three buttons. The large
center button is direction and possibly velocity sensitive to simulate
mouse movement in direction and speed.
o A laptop size keyboard, possibly a little smaller than standard. The
tactile feel was good.
o 512K ROM capability. It looked like TOS 2.05 was shown in the protot-
ype. This prototype did have a very professional and finished look
to it.
o 1 megabyte or 4 megabyte RAM versions available. Uses pseudo-static
RAM.
o 2 1/2 inch form factor internal hard drive. 20 megabytes was instal-
led. Presently up to 60 megabytes is possible. Probably an IDE (AT)
interface.
o External ports include midi in and out, 1 serial, 1 parallel, 1 combo
either floppy drive OR ACSI, 2 RAM card slots (128K cards shown, said
to support up to 4 megabytes), 128 pin computer direct port (all
address, data lines, CPU control, etc.), modem connector (for optional
internal voice/fax modem), keypad/mouse port. Of course to maintain
the small size, nearly all connectors were shrunk and non-standard
types.
o An excellent gray-tone LCD display. It did not appear to be backlit
which would make sense for the battery life. This was said to be
greater than 10 hours before recharging. With less hard drive use, it
would be longer.
o The replaceable battery pack shown was very small and contained about
eight AA alkaline batteries. If Ni-Cads were installed, the universal
power supply would also recharge them when connected. When the bat-
tery pack goes down, the notebook is automatically put in a halted
state that is maintained for weeks until recharged. Internal Ni-Cad
batteries will maintain the halted state of the computer for about 5
hours if the battery pack is removed from the computer.
o Atari has a few choices to transfer data to and from the computer.
Connect an external floppy drive. Transfer over the serial ports with
a modem or direct. Transfer over the parallel ports at around 20
Kbytes/sec. Connect an ACSI device such as a hard drive externally or
possibly ACSI to ACSI communications.
ST PAD
------
This is similar to ST Notebook and shares most of the features but has
a futuristic interface. A touch sensitive LCD display with a pointing
device was shown for mouse type functions and handwriting recognition for
input. Physically, ST Pad looked like the "Etch-a- Sketch" drawing toys
that we grew up with minus the X/Y knobs. No keyboard was attached and
there is not an internal hard drive. The OS software and large amount of
scratchpad RAM were said to have Artificial Intelligence features to allow
ST Pad to actually learn your handwriting style! (Good luck with mine.)
ST Pad looked like it needed more time for completion but ST Notebook
looked like something we may actually see sometime this summer or fall.
With this exciting new innovative line of computers and Alwin Stumpf (from
Atari GmbH) heading up a new world-wide marketing campaign, it appears
that this time Atari really may be backing the promise with the product.
Copyright 1991 Tom Harker of ICD, Inc. Permission for this release to be
distributed or reprinted is granted but only in its entirety.
- ST. Louis, MO SOFT-LOGIK TO "FACE THE NATION"
-------------
There will be a real time conference with Deron Kazmaier, president of
SoftLogik Publishing Corporation, on Tuesday, March 26th, at 9:45pm
eastern time. The conference will be held in the SoftLogik RoundTable on
GEnie. People interested in attending should type SOFTLOGIK or m385;2 to
attend the conference. All ST desktop publishing enthusiasts are invited,
especially PageStream users. And yes, there will be some news of GREAT
interest to Atari DTP users at this RTC..! HINTS OF PAGESTREAM 2.XXX??
Editor Note:
The new version of PGST 2.xx is awesome! When it hits it'll blow you
away!
- Los Angeles, CA. CODEHEADS TO HOLD CONFERENCE!
----------------
CodeHead Software Realtime Conference! Your favorite CodeHead
Software has just gotten better. Learn all about it in the CodeHead RTC
on Wednesday, March 20th at 10:00 pm Eastern.
- New York City, NY DEVELOPERS HELPING DEVELOPERS!
-----------------
INCLUDED IN TRACKER KEY FILES....
This text file, and the TRACKER.KEY files, are copyright 1991 by Step
Ahead Software. They may be distributed freely as long as this text file
accompanies the TRACKER.KEY files. All other Tracker/ST files may NOT be
distributed to any one for any reason. These TRACKER.KEY files require
Tracker/ST v2.5 to run correctly. For purchasing or upgrade information
for Tracker/ST, the premier mailing list, mail merge and person tracking
software for the Atari ST and TT, please contact:
Step Ahead Software
496-A Hudson Street, Suite F39
New York City, NY 10014
212-627-5830
We are pleased to include some special files for Tracker/ST owners who
also own CodeKeys from CodeHead Software. CodeKeys is a powerful macro
program which lets you combine a series of keystrokes and mouse clicks
into a macro which can be called with a single key press. An example of
one CodeKey included here is the command which sets Tracker/ST's filter
to names with ranks 1-12, and then prints labels, all with one key press!
As you can imagine, this macro would be handy for folks who use Tracker/ST
to mail out subscriptions for a monthly magazine or newsletter. We highly
recommend CodeKeys. If you do not own CodeKeys you may purchase it from
your local dealer, or contact:
CodeHead Software
P.O. Box 74090
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Voice: (213) 386-5735
Fax: (213) 386-5789
Don't forget to check out the special discount coupon for CodeKeys
included with this version of Tracker/ST...you can save $10, or 25% off
this extremely powerful utility..!
CodeHead Software accepts most major credit cards.
THE CODEKEY FILES:
==================
We have created CodeKey files for every ST and TT screen resolution
supported by Tracker/ST: ST Monochrome, ST Medium Resolution Color, TT
Monochrome (which is the same as the Moniterm Monitor on the ST), and TT
Medium Resolution. The files are named as follows:
TRACKERC.KEY (ST Medium Color Resolution)
TRACKERM.KEY (ST Monochrome Resolution)
TRACKERV.KEY (TT Medium Resolution)
TRACKERT.KEY (TT Hi Resolution, also for Moniterm Monitor)
Please note that if you are using a floppy drive system, you should
use the TRACKER.KEY files in the FLOPPY folder as they have been timed
using a floppy disk system. While you will find TRACKER.KEY files for ST
Medium Res Color and ST Monochrome in the FLOPPY folder, there are no
TRACKER.KEY files for the TT in the FLOPPY folder as all TTs ship with a
hard drive.
You should configure CodeKeys according to the instructions in the
CodeKeys manual to link Tracker/ST to the correct TRACKER.KEY file for
your resolution. Then use the Tracker/ST TUTORIAL file or another
unimportant small Tracker/ST file to try out all the macros one at a
time. Turn the speaker volume up as the macros will make beep when they
are completed.
If you have trouble using any of these macros, use CodeKeys to incr-
ease the pause time between events. Also, none of the macros are locked,
so you can abort a macro by moving the mouse.
THE MACROS:
===========
Each of the TRACKER.KEY files contains the exact same 26 macros. We
have left slots 27 through 32 free for you to create your own personal
macros for Tracker/ST. Of course, you should feel free to edit the macros
we've created for your own needs.
Note: CTL = [Control] key, ALT = [Alternate] key, LS = Left Shift
Key, RS = Right Shift Key, CLR = [Clr/Home] key
SLOT KEY PRESS ACTION
---- --------- ------
1 CTL+A ENTRY SCREEN: Selects "Add Names" and
clicks on "Use Defaults" button. Allows
you to add names using your user defaults
without reaching for the mouse.
2 LS+CTL+ALT+I ENTRY SCREEN: Removes middle initial ("I
for Initial"). When adding a new name
with a middle initial in the first name,
when you get to the Salutation field
press this keystroke and the middle
initial and the period will disappear and
the cursor will go down to the company
field. You can also use this macro when
you are editing a name and are in the
Salutation field.
3 LS+CTL+ALT+W ENTRY SCREEN: WordFlair II Export. This
macro does a Tracker export using all
Tracker fields to the file
"D:\WFLAIR\TRACKER.IMP". You will have to
edit the macro if WordFlair is not on
drive D or not in a folder called WFLAIR.
Once you run this macro you can exit
Tracker, load WordFlair II, and then
import your TRACKER.IMP file for use with
WordFlair's graphic-filled mail merges.
With version 2.5, Tracker/ST's export is
compatible with WordFlair II!
4 CTL+Delete ENTRY SCREEN: Deletes a name and clicks
on OK. This way you can delete a name
without having to reach for the mouse to
confirm it.
5 LS+CTL+ALT+H ENTRY SCREEN: Selects "How many in file?"
menu bar, pauses for 2 seconds so you can
see the number of names, and then clicks
on the OK box.
6 LS+CTL+ALT+V ENTRY SCREEN: Create Long Notes for any
entry that does not have any (does a "V"
for view, and then presses [Return] to
start new notes).
7 LS+CTL+ALT+L ENTRY SCREEN: Prints a regular single
label for the current name in the Entry
Screen. Make sure labels are lined up!
8 LS+CTL+ALT+D ENTRY SCREEN: Shows free RAM and free
drive space on drive D. You can edit this
macro to default to any drive.
9 LS+CTL+ALT+X ALL MAIN SCREENS: Exits the program
without having to press Return. A quick
way to exit.
10 LS+CTL+ALT+R POWER STATION: Runs a report to screen
using your current settings. Saves a few
keystrokes.
11 LS+CTL+ALT+F POWER STATION: Selects a Full report with
headers and footers.
12 LS+CTL+ALT+S POWER STATION: Selects a Summary report
(names suppressed) with headers and
footers.
13 LS+CTL+ALT+Z POWER STATION: Selects the "Filter By Zip
Code" menu item so you can enter a Zip
Code range without reaching for the
mouse.
14 LS+CTL+ALT+G POWER STATION: Sets filter to Category
(think "cateGory") of MYCAT. You should
edit this macro to select a category you
often filter for (client, prospect, etc.)
15 ALT+R POWER STATION: This complex macro sets
the filter to Ranks between 1 and 12, and
then prints labels. It's great for
printing labels for magazines or
newsletters on a monthly schedule. Edit
this to fit the frequency of your
mailings (and don't forget to use
Tracker/ST's "Countdown" feature to
automatically adjust everyone's remaining
subscription time!) Make sure labels are
in the printer and lined up correctly.
16 LS+CTL+ALT+N POWER STATION: Selects normal LaserBrain
printer driver and resets page width and
length to standard sizes (80 wide and 60
tall). You may edit this macro to select
the printer driver of your choice.
17 LS+CTL+ALT+C POWER STATION: Selects condensed
LaserBrain printer driver and sets page
width to 200 characters across so you can
successfully print 3 across labels. You
may edit this macro to select any
condensed printer driver that you have
created for Tracker/ST.
18 LS+RS+R POWER STATION: Selects Rolodex fields for
labels. You must still select the label
format you want (or you can extend this
macro to select it for you).
19 LS+RS+S POWER STATION: Selects Standard fields
for labels. You must still select the
label format you want (or you can extend
this macro to select it for you).
20 LS+CTL+ALT+B QUICK LETTER: Builds a Quick Letter and
prints it. You may shorten the pause time
if you are using a RAM disk and find this
macro waiting a bit too long for your
taste.
21 ALT+C TEXT EDITOR: Copies all text from the
position of the cursor to the end of the
text to the text buffer. Use this if you
have edited a Quick Letter and want to
make a new template based on this new
version. Position the cursor in the first
line below the "Dear Mr. Smith,"
greeting. Now type ALT+C. The macro will
copy the entire body of the letter. Now
close the text editor and ADD a new
Template. Then paste the text using the
text editor drop down menu or CONTROL+P.
22 Alt+S TEXT EDITOR: Saves the current text file
and allows you to keep editing. Very
handy when typing in extensive Long Notes
or editing a merge template. Not for use
when personalizing a Quick Letter as
Quick Letters are not saved.
23 ALT+K TEXT EDITOR: Closes the text editor
WITHOUT saving. Careful! Perfect
after personalizing a Quick Letter,
since Quick Letters are never saved
anyway.
24 LS+CTL+ALT+P TEXT EDITOR: Selects Print menu item.
This can't be ALT+P since ALT+P is
already taken by Tracker/ST for "Plain
Text"
25 LS+CLR TEXT EDITOR: Goes to top of text.
26 CTL+CLR TEXT EDITOR: Goes to end of text.
Feel free to change the keys which trigger these macros (but be care-
ful not to select a key which is already taken by Tracker/ST, such as CON-
TROL+L, CONTROL+E, CONTROL+P, CONTROL+Q, etc.), and feel free to edit the
commands of the macros as well.
Nevin Shalit
President, Step Ahead Software, Inc.
March, 1991
__________________________________________________________
> Hard Disks STR InfoFile¿ TAX TIME SPECIAL OFFERINGS!....
=======================
NEW LOW PRICES! & MORE MODELS!!
===============================
>> INCOME TAX REFUND SPECIALS <<
** EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! **
ABCO COMPUTER ELECTRONICS INC.
P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236-6672
Est. 1985
_________________________________________
Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT
BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST
FAX: 904-783-3319 12 PM - 6 AM EDT
_________________________________________
HARD DISK SYSTEMS TO FIT EVERY BUDGET
_____________________________________
All systems are complete and ready to use, included at NO EXTRA COST
are clock/calendar and cooling blower(s).
*-ALL ABCO HARD DISK SYSTEMS ARE FULLY EXPANDABLE-*
(you are NOT limited to two drives ONLY!)
(all cables and connectors installed)
* ICD HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY * OMTI HIGH SPEED CONTROLLERS *
* ICD ADSCSI+ HOST ADAPTERS * FULL SCSI COMMAND SET SUPPORTED *
* SCSI EMBEDDED CONTROLLER MECHANISMS *
Conventional Shoe Box
Model Description Autopark Price
==================================================
SGN3038 31Mb 28ms 3.5" Y 419.00
SGN4951 51Mb 28ms 3.5" Y 519.00
SGN6177 62Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 619.00
SGN1096 85Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 649.00
SGN1098 100mb 25ms 3.5" Y 719.00
SGN6277 120Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 889.00
SGN1296 168Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 1069.00
SGN4077 230Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 1669.00
==================================================
****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ******
---- FOR USE IN MEGA, MEGA STe & TT030 SYSTEMS ----
>>>> 100mb SCSI HARD DRIVE Mech 25-28ms 3.5" ...ONLY $469.00!! <<<<
****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ******
>>> ALL ABCO DRIVES ARE HIGH SPEED UNITS <<<
(500 - 600k per sec @ 16 - 33ms)
CALL FOR SUPER SAVINGS ON ALL OUR OTHER CUSTOM UNITS
FROM 30mb 28MS @ $419.00!
--==*==--
* SYQUEST 44MB (#555)>> ABCO "44" << REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE *
- SYQUEST 44 MB DRIVE - ICD ST ADVANTAGE PLUS H/A
- ICD Utility Software - 3' DMA Cable
- Fan & Clock - Multi-Unit Power Supply
(1) 44 MB Syquest Cart.
COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND READY TO RUN!
--->> SPECIAL NOW ONLY __$ 719.00__ <<---
EXTRA CARTS: $ 74.95
DRIVE MECH ONLY: $ 439.95
* ALL * SHIPPING AND HANDLING CHGS INCLUDED!
(NO Hidden "extras")
* TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT *
SPECIALLY PRICED ** $1329.00 **
* SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS *
- Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives -
50mb SQG51 $ 939.00 30mb SQG38 $ 819.00
65mb SQG09 $ 969.00 85mb SQG96 $1059.00
LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS
CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS AVAILABLE
Listed above are a sampling of the systems available.
Prices also reflect various cabinet/power supply configurations
(over sixty configurations are available, flexibility is unlimited)
*** ALL Units: Average Access Time: 24ms - 34ms ***
ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> SUPERCHARGER - AT/PC SPEED - GCR
LARGER units are available - (special order only)
*>> NO REPACKS OR REFURBS USED! <<*
- Custom Walnut WOODEN Cabinets - TOWER - AT - XT Cabinets -
* SLM 804 Replacement Toner Cartridge Kits $42.95 *
Replacement Drums; CALL
Keyboard Custom Cables Call for Info
ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED
-* 12 month FULL Guarantee *-
(A FULL YEAR of COVERAGE)
NOTICE : SHIPPING, HANDLING AND INSURANCE INCLUDED IN ALL PRICES
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
QUANTITY & USERGROUP DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE!
_________________________________________
DEALERS and DISTRIBUTORS WANTED!
please, call for details
Personal and Company Checks are accepted.
ORDER YOUR NEW UNIT TODAY!
CALL: 1-800-562-4037 -=**=- CALL: 1-904-783-3319
Customer Orders ONLY Customer Service
9am - 8pm EDT
Tues thru Sat
____________________________________________________________
> A "Quotable Quote"¿
=================
"Snake Oil Salesmen Wear Many Different Hats!"
Fearless Fosdick
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STReport International Online Magazine¿
Available through more than 10,000 Private BBS systems WorldWide!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STReport¿ "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" March 15, 1991
16/32bit Magazine copyright ½ 1987-91 No.7.11
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors, staff, STReport¿ CPU/MAC/STR¿ or ST Report¿. Permission to
reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Each reprint
must include the name of the publication, date, issue # and the author's
name. The entire publication and/or portions therein may not be edited in
any way without prior written permission. The contents, at the time of
publication, are believed to be reasonably accurate. The editors,
contributors and/or staff are not responsible for either the use/misuse
of information contained herein or the results obtained therefrom.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
