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Z*NET Online Magazine Issue 92-16
==((((((((( == Z*NET INTERNATIONAL ATARI ONLINE MAGAZINE
========(( === ------------------------------------------
======(( ===== April 17, 1992 Issue #92-16
====(( ======= ------------------------------------------
==((((((((( == Copyright (c)1992, Rovac Industries, Inc.
<*> Z*Net Newswire.............................................
Latest Atari New and Industry update...
<*> TAF Atari Convention..............................Ron Grant
Final report and commentary on the recent computer show...
<*> FSM/GDOS - A New Standard?.....................David Pischke
Software review...
<*> Transplanting A Hard Drive.......................Ken Wickert
Upgrade and replace your hard drive...
<*> MOS Disk Utilities V1.0..........................Jerry Cross
Software review...
<*> Pure C.........................................Press Release
Gribnif Software announcement...
<*> Perusing GEnie.....................................Ed Krimen
Overview and capture of latest discussions on GEnie...
<*> Perusing CompuServe............................Mike Mortilla
Overview and capture of latest discussions on CompuServe...
<*> Basic AT Commands..........................................
Final Installment of a three part series...
======================================================================
* Z*NET NEWSWIRE
======================================================================
ATARI RESULTS DELAYED
Atari Corporation delayed the release of their 1991 fourth quarter
financial reports for several days past the March 31 deadline imposed
by the Securities and Exchange Commission, then announced a poor
quarter performance with a $4.4 million loss. Atari reported $1.6
million earnings on $49.2 million in revenues in its third 1991
quarter. Comparisons with 1991 and 1990 quarters are difficult due to
a long series of credits, write-offs, repurchase of debentures, etc.
For the full 1991 year, sales dropped to $258 million from 1990's
$411.5 million. Net income for the year was $25.6 million, compared
with $14.9 million for 1990. But the 1991 figure includes a gain of
$40.9 million on the sale of the company's manufacturing plant in
Taiwan, and the 1990 profit included $35.7 million in extraordinary
gains. The operating loss for 1991 was $18.7 million, compared with a
loss of $25.2 million in 1990. Atari President Sam Tramiel said, "The
company has restructured its overhead and is focusing on the
improvement of its balance sheet and the development of new products."
STE AND HAM RADIO
HAM Radio meets the STE with a new product of KAWA Productions and
Records. A sing-along of sorts, Phillip Kawa's morse-code learning
cassette was produced using the MIDI capabilities of the ST and a
Roland U-220 sound module. "The Rhythm of the Code" is $5.95 from
Kawa, P.O. Box 319, Weymouth, MA 02188.
ATARI AND KLF
Bizarre but big, the U.K. techno-pop-dance band "KLF" has a hit with a
major music video "Justified and Ancient." It features a jungle island
motif, throbbing beats and repeating samples, the band itself as satin-
clad monks with rhinoceros-like horns instead of faces, and of all
people for a guest lead singer, country superstar Tammy Wynette. Far
more understandable is the only computer listed in the credits on the
CD sleeve: Atari.
SHOW CONTROL EQUIPMENT FOR THE ATARI
LONE WOLF introduced a line of professional stage lighting and audio
control system including MicroTap (which gives communications network
capability of MediaLink), MidiTap and FiberLink (for show control
equipment that do not integrate MediaLink), and the Virtual Stage
(software/hardware to put all serial and MIDI control in a graphic
window on Atari, MAC, or PC computers. Prices begin at $1595 for
MidiTap, and custom engineering is available. Lone Wolf, 310-379-2036.
KAZMAIER HINTS AT NEW MODULE
Despite being unwilling to cripple current product sales by announcing
an impending software update, Deron Kazmaier of SoftLogik hinted widely
at the coming of such an upgrade plus new modules for PageStream. The
powerful DTP system is at version 2 on the Atari, and users have been
hoping for a round of bug fixes that should clean up the program. At
an online conference on GEnie in early April, Deron discussed Calamus
import modules for PageStream, plus Arabesque bitmaps, GEM3, and more,
all expected "within the month." He also discussed "HotLinks" for the
Amiga, a product designed to create interactive and automatic data
linkage between applications. What this means is that if you edit your
text in a text editor, the changes will update in your DTP program
without loss of formatting applied in either program. Same goes true
for any kind of data, pictures, graphs, musical notes, video clips.
HotLinks acts as a kind of data traffic cop, sending new copies of data
to applications "subscribing" to the data "edition" even if the
applications were not loaded when the changes occurred. Since it is
presently only available on the Amiga, SoftLogik was quick to add that
an Atari version was being considered and would be possible if/when a
standard multitasking system for the Atari was released. Deron went
so far as to indicate that HotLinks for the ST could even be part of
the ROMS. For more info on programming for HotLinks, call SoftLogik,
800-829-8608.
ACCOLADE ORDERED TO CEASE
Accolade has announced that a preliminary injunction which was
requested by Japanese owned Sega Enterprises and issued by the US
District Court in San Francisco, has gone into effect. The injunction
bars Accolade from further development, manufacture or sale of any Sega
compatible products. Accolade has filed a request for a stay of the
effect of the injunction, and will appeal the court's decision in order
to be in a position to resume its Sega business as soon as possible.
The court informed Accolade and Sega that it will rule on Accolade's
request for a stay by April 21. If the court declines to grant the
requested stay, Accolade will immediately request a stay from the court
of appeals.
POLICE CRACK COMPUTER NETWORK
Police in San Diego, Calif. have cracked a nationwide electronic
network of young computer criminals who have made fraudulent credit
card purchases and broken into confidential credit rating files. The
investigation has led to two arrests in Ohio and seizures of computers
and related material in New York City, the Philadelphia area and
Seattle.
APPLE AND MICROSOFT SUIT DISMISSED
A federal judge has dismissed most of Apple's $5.5 billion lawsuit
accusing Microsoft and Hewlett Packard of illegally copying computer-
screen symbols used by Apple's Macintosh. US District Judge Vaughn
Walker ruled this week that most of Apple's symbols are not protected
by copyright law. The symbols at issue include such things as a tiny
picture of a folder to represent a computer file. Walker, in the
latest pre-trial hearing to narrow the scope of the suit, granted
several motions dismissing many Apple allegations on specific features
of its graphics displays. Walker dismissed disputed graphics features
stemming from all of Microsoft's Windows 2.03 and most of the features
found in its 3.0 version of the software. Another hearing is set for
May 12, at which the judge is to review the remaining claims.
MAC TO ST FILE TRANSFER SOFTWARE
MacRead lets you read data files from a Macintosh formatted HFS hard
disk or a Spectre formatted HFS floppy disk - a unique capability - and
store them on an ST disk. HFS is Apple's current disk format, much
faster and more flexible than the older MFS format. MacRead lets you
work with both Macintosh and ST/TT computers. Use your Macintosh (or
Spectre emulator) for its special features, then copy your files to
your ST/TT for its unique qualities. Images, illustrations, text,
data, PostScript files, and more can easily be read from a Mac disk for
loading into an ST/TT software program. Say goodbye to compatibility
problems and MFS disks! MacRead is available now for $49.95 from
Goldleaf Publishing, Inc., 700 Larkspur Landing Circle Suite 199,
Larkspur, CA, 94939, 415/257-3515
======================================================================
* TAF ATARI COMPUTER EXPOSITION by Ron Grant
======================================================================
On Saturday and Sunday, April 4th & 5th, I attended the Atari Computer
Exposition held by the Toronto Atari Federation at the Skyline Hotel,
in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Actually, the Skyline's in some place
called 'Etobicoke' but hey; my flight ticket said Toronto...
On entering the show on Saturday, and mounting the stairs, I was
greeted by a long showcase of MIDI developers, dealers, and
distributors, as well as a sound stage for demos and 'The Talent Show',
a truly unique concept in Atari Fair-going.
I missed the Talent Show, actually. That's what I get for staying up
late the night before with a table of developers at dinner.
Fortunately, the winners weren't announced until the Saturday evening
Developer Banquet (to which I was invited, being an Atari Dealer). We
got to see the two best Music entrants, and the three best Graphics
entrants.
I'll be honest; MIDI and me don't get along - I'll have to leave it to
some other reporter to tell who won the prize. The Graphics contest,
however, was extremely good, with James Duffin taking 2nd runner-up
prize for 26 truly incredible Degas Lo-res hand drawn pictures that
actually made me realize that you really can create good art with 16
colours; Clive Probert with his raytraced "Boink" taking 1st runner-up
for his animation, and Norm Pickthall taking first prize for his four
Cyber sequences that were a pleasure to behold, and must have been an
awesome undertaking to create.
The most humorous episode of the whole weekend had to be the sound
effects for Clive's animation; since the sound system on the computer
demonstrating his sequence to the assembled developers, dealers, and
dignitaries was on the fritz, he asked us to supply the sound effects.
The animation was a series of stainless steel balls rolling out of a
tube and bouncing off the floor. Imagine the sight of a hundred of the
top names in the Atari ST marketplace yelling "Boink! Boink! Boink!" in
concert......!
As for the show itself; it truly made me a believer all over again;
much like John Nagy's article in Computer Shopper years ago.
Atari Canada themselves had an incredible booth; it looked like it
belonged in Germany - not because of the language, but because of what
was being displayed: The ST Book, TT UNIX, MultiTOS, Portfolios managed
by none other than Don Thomas, a DTP station setup by ISD Marketing and
manned by luminaries such as Mario Georgiou and Rolf Berger (two peas
in a pod if ever I saw them...) and Alex David running DynaCADD 2.0
(and was that a sneak preview of 3.0 I saw?) not to mention Bill
Rehbock, Bob Brodie, Shirley Taylor, and of course the crowd from Atari
Canada: Geoffrey Earle, Murray Brown, Mark, Jennifer, Kathy, Randy,
Errol, etc. and more...Who was running Atari Canada? The janitor????
The air of optimism was infectious; I'd love to be able to report on
OTHER things that were said or shown behind the scenes, but since they
were revealed while I was wearing my 'dealer hat', under non-
disclosure, I can't. One thing I can say: Atari is back. And as for
all those rumours of new machines and things - all I can say is that
the end user is the lucky one; when he first sees these products,
they're going to be displayed on top of a stack of shipping units....
I don't have time to list each and every booth, and what they were
showing; I'll wind up apologizing for missing someone anyway, so I'll
have to just tell you about the things that really impressed me (and
came to mind first....:-)
Hardware Developers
I spent the most time with the hardware people, being a latent hacker
myself. Some amazing equipment was in Toronto last weekend; here's a
look at what's hot:
CYBERCUBE RESEARCH
I spoke to Ralf Doewich, President of Cybercube Research, Ltd., about
the CyReL Sunrise M16-1280 video/LAN board. Quite frankly, in the
hardware category this may be the hit of the show; Cybercube Research
has been a ray of hope for video purists for well over a year now, and
they're just about ready to ship their first product.
These fellows are an impressive bunch; they're professional custom
software & hardware engineers whose primary income is not derived from
the Atari platform. This gives them the leeway to create a 'work of
art' rather than bending to market pressure and releasing the cheapest
product faster than the competitors.
The Sunrise video board was seen at Cybercube's own booth, and at the
Atari booth running Calamus SL. Cybercube's own workstation consisted
of a TT connected to an Ikegama 20" colour monitor that was capable of
1280x1024 colour. Since the Sunrise is completely configurable by the
enduser, some 'examples' of resolutions were given rather than
specifications:
Examples for 1,2,4 and 8 bits per pixel: (up to 256 colours on screen)
640x480 220 Hz
1024x768 100 Hz
1024x1024 76 Hz
1280x1024 64 Hz
Examples for 24 or 32 bits per pixel: (up to 16.7mil colours on screen)
512x512 104 Hz
640x480 92 Hz
800x600 65 Hz
1024x512 60 Hz
All resolutions are non-interlaced.
So, is it fast? You bet. True, the TT with FastRAM helps, but the 2MB
VRAM cards themselves were considerably faster even at the higher
resolutions than fancy cards I've seen attached to Mac IIfx's.
Connected to the PTC1426 at the Atari booth, the Sunrise did an
impressive 800x512; with that much colour, it was a wonderful sight for
these tired eyes. (Incidentally, Cybercube came to the show prepared
to use their own demo programs and pictures to show off the quality of
their product; they were pleasantly surprised to find that Calamus SL
ran on the board, and took such good advantage of it.)
Cybercube claims they will be shipping in 'six weeks or so', but
indicated that if one had the funds, a unit might be forthcoming
considerably quicker (i.e. when are you leaving Toronto?). Price was...
ah... discussed :-) but rest assured that this board is directly aimed
at the Professional user rather than the casual; if your needs extend
to high resolution true colour for DTP, CAD or DTV purposes, and can
justify a video subsystem in the mid-four figures (with a monitor that
would do the Sunrise justice) that includes a LAN system that's twice
as fast as EtherNet (20Mbits/sec!), then by all means call CyberCube
Research, Ltd., and speak to Ralf. Their number is (416)882-0294.
Ralf hinted at the probability that a lower-end card would be
forthcoming, with neat gadgets like NTSC/PAL and sound input/output,
and minus the LAN ports. I'll be watching for it. Need any beta
testers, guys?
BRANCH ALWAYS SOFTWARE
Darek Mihocka was kept steadily busy showing the GEMulator, his much-
discussed Atari ST Emulator for IBM Compatibles. Darek says that his
main reason for being at the show was to prove to the public that the
product exists, and works. I can attest that this is so. It does need
work yet, (and boy, you better have a KILLER Intel system ready...) but
due to Darek's intimate knowledge of Windows programming, he is able to
put a TOS window into Windows which mimics a real ST quite well. I
don't think this product will replace the ST on your desk, but for
those of you who have to work with DOS machines, this is worth thinking
about. Since the emulation is done entirely in software, GEMulator
will be dependent on the speed of your machine (the new Intel DX2 chips
should provide enough power to run GEMulator as fast as a MegaSTE, I
think), and will require you to have a set of TOS ROMs. If you have
more than one set, you can install up to three pairs, and switch
between them in software.
FAST TECHNOLOGY / GADGETS BY SMALL
ACE would not have been a 'real' Atari fair without Jim Allen and Dave
Small. The two 'Sultans of Speed' were at it again, showing their
wares to a power-hungry public. Since there exists a world of
controversy, debate, benchmarks, and rhetoric about the features and
benefits of FAST Tech's Turbo 030 and Gadgets' SST 030 system
accelerators, I am not about to put my head in the pillory to venture
opinions or even comments about either of them, save to say that both
of them work, both of them exist, both of them are FAAAAST and both
these fellows are outstanding members of the Atari community who make
good targets at a dinner-roll tossing competition.
Jim Allen was also displaying his T20/25 upgrades, unquestionably the
best 68K accelerators available for Atari. He also had a Leonardo
True- Colour video board from Lexicor for display. I was not able to
get a real good look at it, but the colours on the TT were outstanding.
The Leonardo is primarily aimed at video production users, though it
would be a great add-on for a DTP artist, as well.
GOLDLEAF PUBLISHING
I cannot do justice to Goldleaf Publishing's _quadruple_ booth in one
short article. John Fox and crew pulled out all the stops,
demonstrating the full 'Turnkey Publishing System' being shown at the
'big' trade shows, including Seybold and CEPS. New products included
the Polaroid CI-5000 Digital Palette Colour Film Recorder for Atari ST
and NeXT computers, and the 36-bit, 2000 dpi ScanMate drum scanner for
ST, NeXT and Mac.
The fabled Imagespeeder was there, as well. Frankly, the only thing
they didn't bring was the Bridget imagesetter and developer. What
surprised me was not their presence, but their presence in such
strength. That, and the fact that they were actually doing business; I
overheard several very serious discussions about the system with
interested buyers, certainly something that makes the average Atari
user's heart warm, like mine!
A more complete review of Goldleaf's booth (as well as highlights of
the rest of the show) will appear in The Computer Paper, Canada's
largest monthly newsprint computer magazine, in May.
GRIBNIF SOFTWARE
Gribnif Software were showing their usual wares, NeoDesk, STalker,
Cardfile, and the like, along with their latest line of DTP tools such
as Arabesque, and Convector, a new auto-tracer (I'm going to have to
check out the demo in the libraries since I didn't have time for a
demonstration). The hardware they were showing was the Crazy Dots
video card, another import from Europe much like the Matrix card. One
of the neatest things about the Crazy Dots was the setup menu; very
easy to use, running from the Auto folder.
Software Developers
CODEHEAD TECHNOLOGIES
'Da CodeHeads' are extremely nice people to talk to; Charles F. Johnson
and John Eidsvoog. Mind you, I only know this from personal
conversations; there's no way I could get through the crowd to talk to
them at the show. Charles let slip that ACE may have been their best
show ever; one of the reasons they could do such a thing in l'il ol'
Toronto was the release of WARP 9, their revamped version of Quick ST.
All 150 copies shipped to Toronto were sold! That's a fair amount of
invoice writing, guys! Todd Johnson of Cherry Fonts (now a Codehead
product) was in the booth helping out and bore the brunt of the WARP
onslaught while Charles and John were rendered speechless by the non-
stop demonstrations of Avant Vector, MegaPaint Professional, and the
other Codehead standards; Hotwire, Maxifile, MultiDesk Deluxe, etc.,
and the never ending questions about the TEC board which they answered
patiently and repeatedly.
STEP AHEAD SOFTWARE
Nevin Shalit of Step Ahead Software was demoing his mailing manager
program, Tracker ST; that is, when he wasn't being cajoled into demoing
Avant Vector for the Codeheads, whose booth he was sharing. He didn't
have to demo Tracker too much, though, because many of the other
developers and dealers were using his software and/or his demo to show
off their systems, or take down names and addresses of showgoers.
Tracker is a 'must-have' for those of us who have to pretend that we
remember everything about everybody we meet!
D.A.BRUMLEVE
Dorothy Brumleve (gee, I wonder where she got her company name...) was
tackling standees by the Codehead booth and dragging them over to her
booth next door to show them her complete line of KIDPRGS, full-fledged
applications for the chronologically disadvantaged. In other words,
children's programs! Actually, it only seemed like she was doing the
tackling; the mingling of people around the three booths of the
Codeheads, Dorothy, and WizWorks made it difficult to tell if anyone
fell over. In actual fact, many of the crowd were lined up to talk to
the fabled D.A.Brumleve, many of them with offspring in tow. It was
"Meet the nice lady who made Super KidGrid" day; giving Dorothy a
chance to show off her new program, Multiplay.
Your reporter, the bachelor, unfortunately feels unqualified to comment
on the software itself, but I can say that Dorothy's own self-effacing
reports of leaving all the work to her assistant were patently untrue;
she was in her booth every time I saw her!
JOPPA SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
The only purchase I made at the show (besides the hotdogs and this cool
Calamus SL T-shirt) was an upgrade to STraight FAX, the new software
only Send/Receive FAX application from Joppa Software Development.
Joppa has shed the modem that was once tied to their software, allowing
the enduser to choose their own brand of Class 2 Send/Receive modem.
STraight FAX supports Zoom and Supra modems, all the way to 14,400
baud. Joppa was kept as busy as their demo fax machine could go,
showing how the user can send and receive faxes created in various ST
applications or sent in through a standard FAX machine.
Did I miss anybody? Yes, probably three-quarters of the people
displaying at the show, and I'm going to get taken out back and shot by
Nathan Potechin if I don't mention that ISD Marketing was there with
Calamus SL and their other products (I finally met Sean!); Rod Coleman
will be lynching me for not mentioning Sudden View; Hutch will be
throwing boomerangs for missing Fair Dinkum Software, W. "Dr. Bob"
Parks will never bring me another box of Ho-Ho's for not telling you
about WizWorks' booth, and Darlah Potechin and John Jainschigg will
never speak to me again for not mentioning the GEnie or Atari Explorer
booths! Hmmm, maybe I'll have to finish this off next week! I want to
live, folks!
======================================================================
* FSM/GDOS: A NEW STANDARD? David Pischke
======================================================================
This article originally appeared in Issue #79 of Phoenix, the official
newsletter of the Toronto Atari Federation and is reprinted with
the permission of TAF. For more information, contact the Toronto
Atari Federation at TAF, 5334 Yonge Street, Suite 1527, Willowdale,
Ontario, M2N 6M2, phone the TAF Info Line at (416) 425-5357 or call
the TAF BBS at (416) 235-0318.
When the Macintosh was released in 1984, it included in its operating
system a then innovative feature: support for different typefaces.
Until then, terms like "fonts", "points", and "typeface" had been
something known only to typesetters. Soon after that, other systems
started including font support. Now, almost every graphical operating
system has support for multiple typefaces.
In 1987, Atari released GDOS. It was supposed to finally bring multi-
font, high-quality output to the ST. Unfortunately, it had some
limitations, and it was widely criticised. It was inadequate for many
high-end uses, such as DTP, and therefore never established itself as
a standard. Even when GDOS would have been adequate, some programmers
simply didn't use it. All of that is about to change with the release
of FSM/GDOS -- GDOS's successor.
DRIVERS ED
What exactly is GDOS? GDOS is an extension to the GEM operating
system which loads off disk. Under GDOS graphic primitives, such as
circles and squares, graphic images such as those in .IMG and .GEM
files, and fonts, can all be output to different peripherals with the
Operating System, without programmers having to write their own
routines for doing the same. The GDOS concept includes drivers --
which are simply special programs -- that "drive" the output device
and perform the actual output. To change to a better (or simply
different) printer, simply change the driver, and every program that
uses GDOS will still print, but at the highest resolution of the new
printer. The idea is that under GDOS, fonts and drivers become system
resources that are shared by every program.
Actually, FSM/GDOS and GDOS both perform the mostly the same functions
and have the same goals. The differences between the two lie in how
they go about achieving these goals.
SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?
So what is the difference between regular GDOS and FSM/GDOS? There
are several. FSM/GDOS will work with old GDOS fonts, but it also uses
a different type of font, scalable outline fonts. Simply put, that
means that instead of representing each character as a collection of
pixels on a rectangular grid as the old GDOS did, each character is
represented as a series of lines, arcs and circles. The significance
is that because each character is represented by graphic primitives,
the same character will appear equally good at every resolution. Do
you want to double the size of the letter "a"? FSM/GDOS simply draws
the lines, arcs and circles that make the letter up at twice the size.
The result is a character that looks just as good at both sizes. In
contrast, the old GDOS would draw each pixel twice as big, resulting
in a very crude looking character. The old GDOS could only double
character sizes; FSM/GDOS can draw characters at any size. What's
more, FSM/GDOS can even rotate characters up to 360 degrees in
increments of one tenth of a degree; the old GDOS could only rotate
characters in increments of 90 degrees. The most significant thing
about the fact that FSM/GDOS uses scaled fonts is that because both
screen and printer fonts are drawn using exactly the same rules, the
screen size as compared to the printer size for every character is
always constant. Thus, FSM/GDOS offers 100% WYSIWYG.
Because FSM/GDOS uses scalable outline fonts, the way it is set up is
different from regular GDOS. For starters, FSM/GDOS requires only one
set of files (two files totalling around 50K) for each font, as
opposed to GDOS, which requires different files for each size and each
device. Why? The old GDOS can't create new sizes and representations
for each font, but FSM/GDOS can create a character for a different
device simply by scaling it to a different size. In addition, because
fonts can be scaled to any size, the user is not locked in to
predefined point sizes, as with the old GDOS.
Because FSM/GDOS fonts don't come in any particular size, what are
called default point sizes are required. (Font height is measured in
"points"; there are 72 points in one inch.) Basically, FSM/GDOS lets
the user install point sizes for all the fonts; these are the sizes
that programs using GDOS will see when they boot up. This doesn't
stop programs from scaling fonts to any size, however.
GIVE ME YOUR CACHE
What other differences are there? The way FSM/GDOS manages its fonts
is another major difference. Since FSM/GDOS essentially has to create
a character by mathematically scaling it to the proper size then
drawing it every time it occurs, one might think that screen updates
would be slow. FSM/GDOS solves this by using font caching. Whenever
a character is drawn, FSM/GDOS stores the image of the character in
memory. The next time it is drawn, FSM/GDOS uses the image stored in
memory to draw the character instead of creating the character again.
When FSM/GDOS runs out of font cache space, it gets rid of one of the
fonts in the cache to make room for the new one. The result of font
caching is very fast screen updates; they are faster than the old
GDOS, which actually slowed down the entire system. FSM/GDOS even
caches old GDOS-style fonts! Font caching is only used for screen
fonts.
Another difference: under the old GDOS, all fonts for all devices were
loaded into memory and kept there when a GDOS program was run. The
font caching system allows more fonts to be used while taking up less
memory.
There's another difference that probably isn't as significant, but
should be mentioned as well. Included in the ST's character set are
Hebrew and symbol characters. Under the old GDOS, unless the font you
were using had these characters included in them and at every size,
you were limited in when you could use them -- only at the sizes
provided. Since these fonts don't vary in style, FSM/GDOS provides
two fonts -- one for symbols and the other for the Hebrew characters,
and these separate fonts are used whenever a symbol or a Hebrew
character is required. It saves memory, because these characters
don't have to be included in every font, and ensures that they always
can be used and won't be unavailable just because a font doesn't
include those characters.
IT'S A SETUP!
Finally, FSM/GDOS is much more user-friendly than the old GDOS. The
old GDOS came with a very awkward install program which configured
GDOS for an Atari SMM804 printer then returned to the desktop. Not so
with FSM/GDOS. A very user-friendly installation program is included.
It asks questions about what printer you have and what drivers and
fonts you want to install, the directory where fonts will go, and it
explains each option thoroughly.
Once the old GDOS was installed, it was extremely difficult to change;
the setup was contained in a text file called ASSIGN.SYS, and adding
fonts or changing printer drivers meant editing the ASSIGN.SYS file by
hand with a text editor. FSM/GDOS uses the ASSIGN.SYS file, and
another one called EXTEND.SYS, but FSM/GDOS provides a user-friendly
escape. Three CPX modules are provided to alter the setup of
FSM/GDOS. (.ACCs versions are included for those who don't have the
Extensible Control Panel) And any changes made to the setup take
effect the next time a program using FSM/GDOS is loaded, not when the
computer is reset as with the old GDOS.
The first one, FSMPRINT, allows the modification of printer drivers --
options such as page size, print quality (draft/final) and other
options can be changed. The other, FONTGDOS, allows the installation
and activation/ deactivation of new drivers and old GDOS fonts, and
the allows the change of the directory for old-style bitmapped fonts.
The biggest one is FSM, which controls the new features of FSM GDOS.
The font cache can be resized, cleared, loaded, and saved. The font
cache currently in memory can even be merged with one on disk. The
directory for FSM fonts can be changed, and fonts can be activated and
deactivated. It is from this accessory that default point sizes are
installed, and the Symbol and Hebrew fonts can be changed, installed,
activated, or deactivated.
IMPRESSIONS
FSM/GDOS has been a long time coming, and it's definitely worth the
effort. Finally, there's a flexible font standard for the ST. The
quality of the output is exceptional. Unfortunately, though, power
comes with a price: the print speed of FSM/GDOS is relatively slow,
because FSM/GDOS has to draw the entire page in memory before it sends
it out to the printer. By comparison, the old GDOS simply "rubber-
stamped" the bitmapped copies of the fonts in memory, then sent it out
to the printer. A fast printer would definitely speeding up printing,
but FSM/GDOS is definitely not as fast as "draft mode" on a dot-matrix
printer, unless one has a laser printer or a fast dot-matrix printer.
Also, FSM/GDOS requires at least 1Mb of memory. If you're low on
memory, there is a different version called FontGDOS included, which
can be used on low-memory systems. FontGDOS operates similarly to the
old GDOS from a user's point of view and only uses bitmapped fonts,
but does implement some of FSM/GDOS' new features, such as font
caching.
I tried FSM/GDOS with several programs that used the old GDOS, and
experienced no compatibility problems. Although the older programs
worked with FSM/GDOS, they weren't able to take advantage of FSM/GDOS'
scaling abilities. Also, some programs, such as Hyperpaint and
Timeworks DTP, only have a limited number of "slots" in their menus
for fonts and point sizes, a problem that will no doubt be solved as
FSM/GDOS comes into wider use. One program that already takes advan
tage of FSM/GDOS' scaling ability is Wordflair II.
FSM/GDOS also has many fonts available for it; over 100 are available
right now, from the Ultrascript PC library. In fact, lack of
available fonts was one of the major criticisms against the old GDOS.
Now no one can complain.
The actual FSM/GDOS package is much bigger than the old GDOS package;
it is four double-sided disks as opposed to three single-sided disks.
The disks contain the installation program, the standard bitmapped
"Swiss" and "Dutch" fonts, and the entire 13-font Lucida family.
What's more, printer drivers for twelve printers and their compatibles
are included, including the Atari SMM804, Atari Lasers, Canon Bubble
Jet, Epson FX-80, HP Deskjet 500, Laserjet and Paintjet, the NEC P-
series, Okimate 20, Star NB24-15 and compatibles, and the Star NX-1000
and compatibles.
FSM/GDOS was supposed to be widely available by now, and was supposed
to carry a suggested retail price of $49.95US. (The price is $49.95
because Atari had to pay a licensing fee to Imagen for the use of
their font scaling technology, and no doubt wants to recoup their
costs.) Unfortunately, FSM/GDOS is still not in release, and no
reason is being given by Atari. This is unacceptable, in my opinion,
and Atari must get FSM/GDOS out to the general public now. Wordflair
II buyers can get FSM/GDOS when they buy Wordflair II.
So what's the verdict? If you have programs that work with GDOS and
you want high-quality output, then get FSM/GDOS as soon as it becomes
available. You won't be sorry. FSM/GDOS is compatible, powerful, and
easy to use.
======================================================================
* TRANSPLANTING A HARD DRIVE by Ken Wickert
======================================================================
ACE of Syracuse President
Is your Atari SH204 20 Megabyte Hard Drive just too small to meet your
needs anymore? If so, then this article is just what you may need to
get you a substantial amount of storage space for the least amount of
money.
Atari Corporation recently released AHDI5 which is new software for
Atari's own Host Adapters. It boasted compatibility with most of the
newer SCSI drives on the market today. This gave me added confidence
to upgrade using the existing Host Adapter.
As I opened the case of the SH204 to browse its interior I found quite
a bit of usable space inside. I quickly realized that a newer SCSI
drive mechanism could be installed with little modification.
I started shopping for a SCSI Hard Drive Mechanism in magazines like
Computer Monthly and Computer Shopper. I found this to be the most
difficult part of my project. Both of these magazines are quite large
and all the advertisements of all the different vendors are laid out
differently. I took careful notes on pricing.
I found my price range to be the size of a 65 to 85 megabyte unit.
Because there are so many brands of Hard Drives on the market it was
difficult to choose which manufacturer might offer the best support or
warranty. A fellow club member mentioned to me that Seagate
Technologies operates a BBS from their corporate headquarters in
California. I called the number (408-438-8771) and found that they
have a library with text files on all the drives they manufacture.
From my list of possible choices I picked two models; the ST1096N and
the ST296N. I downloaded the text files for these drives. I printed
both files and found quite a bit of the information I was looking for.
Each included full drive specifications including pin configurations
for the power supply connector and power requirements. Also supplied
were the SCSI ID numbers, which would come in handy later.
I called back and left a question on their BBS regarding what "Parity
Check Enable" was. It was a term used in their specification document
that was unfamiliar to me. The following day I received a personal
call at home from one of Seagate's technical representatives, who
explained that this particular item was to be disabled with Atari
systems.
Good service always influences my buying decisions and I was now
convinced that I should buy a Seagate because of the excellent customer
support. Other Hard Drive manufacturers may offer the same type of
support but I can't verify this.
From the notes I had compiled earlier, I was able to quickly choose a
vendor from Computer Shopper magazine who offered a very competitive
price on a Seagate ST296N 5.25 inch Half Height Drive. This company
had once sold Atari Products and I had dealt with them before. It was
a comfortable purchase and it arrived in less than one week.
Since I started my project in the dead of a Central New York winter,
and my new Hard Drive was in transport outside in the cold for the
better part of a week, I knew I needed to let it sit unopened in my
warm home until the next day to minimize the effects of condensation.
Now the fun was to begin. I opened the case and found the need to cut
the wires from the controller board to the drive access light in the
cases top cover. I cut the wires very close to the controller and left
the longest end on the case cover to reconnect to the new mechanism.
Then I unplugged the power supply connector from my existing Tandon MFM
mechanism, and the power supply connector from the controller board
mounted on top of the drive mechanism. Next, I unplugged the SCSI
cable from the Atari Host Adapter that went to the controller board.
Now it was a simple matter to remove the four screws holding the old
mechanism in place.
I set the new mechanism in place with the circuit board facing the
floor of the case and penciled a mark by each one of the four mounting
spots on frame of the mechanism. The small manual supplied with the
drive gave me the exact measurements for the hole spacing, so I now
could measure my pencil marks and adjust to a closer tolerance for
drilling.
I found I needed to remove the new mechanism's faceplate. This
required removing two #15 Torx fasteners. These can be discarded. I
choose an 11/64 inch drill bit to drill the four new mounting holes.
This would allow some side to side movement so I wouldn't pull or twist
the case of the mechanism while tightening the mounting screws.
I took care to wrap the power supply and host adapter in plastic wrap
and secured it with several rubber bands so as not to get any metal
fragments from the drilling into the electronics. I drilled the holes
with a 600 RPM drill to gain maximum control and used a piece of scrap
wood under the case floor for drill support. I also added a small
amount of white grease to the drill bit to keep flying fragments to a
minimum. A small ream was used to remove any burrs.
I now cleaned out the case of the SH-204 with compressed air. I keep a
can of compressed air on hand at all times for projects such as this.
These cans can be purchased at any camera store for a few dollars and
you will find many uses for them. Please use eye protection in this
step.
Upon Aligning the mechanism to the holes I had just made I realized the
need to elevate it slightly to allow for proper air flow. Air is drawn
in from under the drive and exits from the fan opening in the back. In
my project box I located some aluminum spacers available from Radio
Shack. (Part #64-3024) I selected four round 3/4-inch aluminum hollow
spacers and four 1-inch #6 machine screws with eight #6 flat washers
(available at any Hardware Store) to be fitted on both sides of the
floor of the SH-204 case. I then attached the 50-pin connector of the
SCSI ribbon cable to the mechanism. The cable I had was "keyed" so it
couldn't be installed backwards. Some SCSI cables are not. You will
need to look for pin #1 on both the Hard Drive mechanism and the Host
Adapter and align the stripe on one end of the ribbon cable with pin
#1.
I reviewed my reference papers, found the parity enable jumper, and
removed it. Then I located the SCSI ID pins and found the sequence for
setting the drive up as unit number 0.
My final step was to connect the power supply cable to the mechanism.
These do fit quite tightly and care must be exercised to support the
circuit board when connecting. The second power supply connector will
not be needed and I used a small plastic tie wrap to secure it out of
the way. If you want the small red drive access mounted in the
original SH204 case to operate with your new drive you will need to
possess a steady hand for soldering as you must connect the two wires
from the top of the SH204 case to the light in your new mechanism. If
you are unsure of this step just leave it disconnected. It's not a
necessity. Use a small piece of Duct Tape to secure the wires to the
top of the case if your not connecting it.
I have a small, well-equipped workshop and am an Auto Technician by
trade. This is not a difficult upgrade for anyone possessing basic
hand tools and knowledge.
I found the new AHDI5 software from Atari very user friendly and had
the drive formatted and partioned in a short time. No problems at all
to report. Care to try the "Transplanted Drive" out? You can! It
Operates the ACE of Syracuse BackStairs BBS at 315-458-0118 24hrs. a
day 3/12/24. You can download a copy of AHDI5 for yourself. It's in
ST Utilities Library 5 called ATARIHD5.ARC.
A Thought! There could be value in your old 20-meg mechanism and
controller board. I had little trouble in selling the original working
mechanism from the SH-204. This made the upgrade an even better deal!
Please Take Note! This upgrade will void your warranty from Atari. The
Author of the article or media you read this article in takes no
responsibility for any problems you may encounter in attempting this
upgrade.
I hope you find this article useful in gaining added space for the
least amount of money.
======================================================================
* MOS DISK UTILITIES V1.0 Reviewed for Z*Net by Jerry Cross
======================================================================
One of the worst nightmares a computer user can have is a hard drive
crash. Once your drive dies it's nearly impossible to recover data.
Those who have lost a hard drive before have learned their lesson and
started to do regular backups of their data.
It is possible to sometimes recover data after a crash. But it's even
better to do everything you can to prevent a crash from happening.
That is where Maximum Output Software (MOS) Disk Utilities comes in.
MOS Utilities is a collection of programs that will help restore your
hard drive to it's optimum working order. These programs can also be
used on your regular floppy disks too.
I tested all of these programs on several different systems. I wanted
to give these programs a tough test, so I started out with an Atari
Mega-4 with a Megafile-44 disk drive. I figured that if any problems
would turn up it would be with a cartridge type drive. My drive is
configured into three partitions of about 14 meg each.
I also ran these tests on a Supra FD-10 10-Meg Floppy drive, (I'm a
glutton for punishment), and a more reasonable and reliable 60-Meg hard
drive connected to an ICD Host Adapter. Test were also done using a
1040ST equipped with an AdSpeed accelerator chip, TOS 1.4, and 2.5 Megs.
In all cases, speeds were greatly increased using this machine. So I
guess I have just about everyone covered.
It takes a brave soul to trust his hard drive to an untested program
that could wipe everything away in the blink of an eye. But I was a
trusting person. So, after backing up my cartridge to a tape backup
unit (I'm brave but not stupid...) I was ready to go.
The first test was to search for bad sectors with the BadMap program.
There are several options to choose. You can request to have the
program attempt to recover data on sectors which were found to be bad,
and have it check sectors marked as bad on previous formats. You can
also set the severity of the tests, ranging from 1 to 6. Setting it to
the higher level will take much longer. Running level 1 while
attempting to recover data took 1:40 minutes for a 14 Meg partition,
and at level 6 about 20 minutes. Neither test detected any bad
sectors.
I was not so lucky with my FD-10 drive. Halfway through I ran into
countless bad clusters and the program choked. I would have to work on
this problem some more. Following instructions in the manual, I ran
the Fix-A-Disk program. After looking the disk over I was informed
that there was a problem with the FAT table, and I was told to run the
next two programs, Fix-A-Fat and Fix-A-File. These programs will
examine and repair the FAT and directory tables on the drive. After
running these tests, I was informed how to cure my problem (crosslinked
files). I then started over again and everything ran smoothly. Tests
on the FD-10 were very slow, which is understandable due to the type of
drive it is. I won't bother reporting on these. It should also be
noted that Clean-Up (a similar program from ICD) failed to fix this
drive on previous occasions. I'm not sure why.
Not finding any problems with my ICD drive, it was now time to do
preventative maintenance. There are two programs in this package
called ReFormat and ReWrite. In theory, these programs will read in
the data from each sector and then write it again to the disk. The
idea is to strengthen the magnetic field that holds the data. ReFormat
will reformat each sector first, and is designed for use with floppy
disks. ReWrite is designed for hard drive use since you can't
conveniently format individual sectors of a hard drive. On a double
sided diskette it took 2:10 minutes to rewrite the data, and 4:10 to
reformat the disk. I don't think many people will want to spend this
sort of time protecting their diskettes. However, my Mega-File 44 only
took 2:31 minutes to rewrite a full 14 meg partition, well worth the
time spent.
Finally it was time to run Skwoosh. This is a defragmenting program
that does the bulk of the work in restoring your drive to it's most
efficient working order. When you save data on your hard drive, the
drive tries to keep all of the data together. Over a period of time,
you start erasing and saving new files. Eventually your files become
fragmented, and parts of these files are scattered all over your hard
drive as the system searches for vacant sectors to store them on. This
slows down your system while the drive searches for your data. When
you defragment your drive, you will notice a huge improvement in
performance.
Skwoosh does it's thing a bit differently then other defragmenting
programs. It does not need empty space on a disk it's working on (like
Tune-Up from Michtron), Skwoosh shuffles the data on the disk so no
data can be lost in the event of a system crash, or so the theory goes.
I had this happen before with other programs, and I found this approach
interesting.
Skwoosh also converts your disk to "SpeedAccess Storage" which is a new
technique for storing information developed by the folks at Maximum
Output. It is supposed to improve your disk access by 75%. I chose
this option to see how much improvement I would get.
The entire defragmenting time took an average of 13 minutes per 14
Meg partition. Progress is displayed on the screen. A bar is drawn
across the screen that looks similar to the bar code on merchandise you
buy at the store. Each of the lines represents a sector filled with
data. As the program progresses, the data is shuffled around and
eventually you get a solid bar running to the end of the screen, with a
blank space at the beginning showing the empty sectors. Time left
until completion is displayed on the screen also.
I tested the drive out expecting all sorts of improvements in speed
from the new SpeedAccess technique, but I really didn't notice that
much improvement. Loading in PageStream or Touch Up only increased by
about 1 second, far from the 75% improvement promised in the
documentation. Saving files improved slightly, but that is due to the
now defragmented drive, so improvements would be expected. The same
improvement was achieved on the ICD and FD-10 drives.
Now that the drives are tuned up and speeding along, more preventative
work is needed. By placing a program called AutoSaver in your AUTO
folder, a backup of your FAT and directory sectors will be created each
time you boot your computer. You can also set it to save these backups
on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly schedule, or every other
boot-up. It's very flexible. The time needed to save these files is
only a few seconds and will not interfere with the bootup. It does,
however, create a rather large file for each of your partitions (mine
averaged about 70k in size). I'm not sure that many will want to tie
up this much space trying to protect their drives. But it's up to the
individual.
The other programs on this disk are of questionable value. DiskEdit is
a sector editor program which will only be of use to very experienced
users. I have seen several other programs that are better suited for
this purpose in the public domain.
Folder Sorter is a program that will organize your folders without
having to copy/delete/recopy the files. This is especially valuable in
modifying your Auto folder.
HD Check and HD Speed are designed to do some hardware testing, and are
of little value unless you are technically oriented. These programs
are used to check disk drive speeds, and general performance. Once
again, there are several other programs more suitable then these.
SaferZero and UnZero are two strange little programs. In theory, these
programs allow you to zero (ie wipe out without actually reformatting)
a partition. Before zeroing the drive, SaferZero will read FAT and
Directory sectors and then write this information to a file after the
partition has been zeroed. If you wish to restore this partition you
simply run Unzero. The programs do work ok, but I wonder why anyone
would want to zero a partition with the intent of restoring it later?
Sure, accidents happen, but I don't think this program will do much to
prevent this sort of mistake. And it's still useless to restore a
partition once it's been written to after being zeroed.
Wipe-It will permanently erase any data you wish to have erased without
any hope of restoring it. This is a great way to cover up sensitive
data that may fall into the wrong hands. It works with files, folders,
disks, or unused space on a drive. The only other alternative to
safely erase a single partition would be to format the entire drive.
One other file in this package, MultiFinder, was not included and
could not be checked. This program will search a drive for a string
inside of the file, not just in their filenames alone. To get this
program you must send in the registration card. In return, you get a
disk with the program, plus a complete update to all of the other files
in this package. I don't care for this technique of getting users to
register their programs. To make matters worse, my package did not
come with a registration card.
The only program I was unhappy with was the shell program, MOSUTIL. I
found it hard to read, and simply a waste of time. It was much easier
to just load in the file directly, and I saw no real use for the shell.
The documentation to this program was great. It's written in such a
way that the non-technical user can understand what is happening, and
there is even a short chapter on how the disk drives store their data.
The directions on using the program were clear and easy to understand.
There are several other disk drive utility packages on the market. One
of the best is Clean-Up, sold by ICD. However, Clean-Up will only work
if you are using an ICD host adapter, so Atari and Supra users are out
of luck. This package of utilities should make those hard drive owners
very happy.
Maximum Output Software 5510 Spanish Oak Houston, TX 77066 Price:
$59.95
Unprotected, works on color or mono, and works with all Atari ST/STE
computers.
======================================================================
* PURE C Press Release
======================================================================
Gribnif Software is proud to announce the availability of Application
Systems Heidelberg's Pure C in the North American Atari market. This
is the newest version of Turbo C Professional, previously from Borland
Germany. While the package remains in its original German form, the
entire program's interface is in English.
The system includes an editor, compiler, linker, and a debugger. It
works on all Atari ST & TT computers, fully supporting high resolution
and extended color displays.
The Pure C environment includes a complete context sensitive help
system which can provide information on any selected function. The
sample code and information from the help system can be even pasted
directly into the editor.
The Project Manager makes it easy to handle all your C sources,
assembly sources, and object files. Only those files which have been
modified are re-compiled or assembled.
The ANSI standard Compiler supports type checking and function
prototyping. When an error is found during compiling, simply double-
clicking on the error message places the cursor directly on the
offending source code line.
Libraries are included for the TT's math co-processor, FSM-GDOS
support, and the Borland BGI Graphics Library for compatibility with
PC programs.
The Assembler is five times faster than before, and supports local
labels and longer symbol names. It can also generate code for all
680x0 processors, up to the 68040. It also generates code for the
68881 and 68882 FPUs.
The Debugger is a full source level debugger with its own graphical
environment. It allows any number of windows to be open at once.
Windows can include source code, variables, assembly, CPU/FPU
registers, memory dumps, watched expressions, and the system stack.
Breakpoints can be configured for a variety of specialized situations.
There's even a special "animation" mode, where you can watch the
program execute one line at a time.
Feature List
o Fully Integrated Development Environment
o Fast GEM-based Editor
o Integrated Compiler and Linker
o Easy Project Management
o File Cache for Include and Object files
o Quick Turnaround Time
o Context-sensitive Help System for C definitions and user-defined
functions
o Compiler is ANSI standard
o Lightning fast compiling, at about 9000 lines/minute
o Generates code for 68000, 68010, 68020, 68030, 68040, 68881, and
68882
o Amazingly fast assembler with macros, modules, and long symbol names
o Linker supports DRI and Pure C object files
o Simple library creation
o Pure Debugger for Pure C and external programs
o Debugger has its own graphical windowing system
o Debugger displays processor and FPU registers, plus all variables
within the program
o Resource construction set included
o Help System compiler lets you to create your own context-sensitive
help
o PC-HELP accessory for accessing help outside of the developer
environment
o 3 manuals, 650 pages total
Requirements:
o Any Atari ST, STE, TT or compatible computer
o At least 1 megabyte of memory
o Any resolution (80 columns or greater), including high resolution and
extended color display
Pricing:
$275 U.S. (plus shipping and handling)
Turbo C Upgrades: $175 (must include original Turbo C master disks)
Shipping and handling: $7 within the US, $10 to Canada
Gribnif Software
P.O. Box 350,
Hadley, MA 01035
Tel: (413) 584-7887
Fax: (413) 584-2565
======================================================================
* PERUSING GENIE by Ed Krimen
======================================================================
-=> In the "Atari Corporation Online" category (14)
-=> from the "Atari Advertising and Marketing" topic (3)
Message 31 Thu Apr 09, 1992
EXPLORER [John J.] at 17:02 EDT
Mike:
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! "Flashy advertising sells!" ... not true.
Musicians are notoriously immune to flashy endorsements, because 1)
they don't make a lotta-lotta money to spend on stuff that Paula Abdul
likes, and 2) They're smart enough to know that what's going to grab
an A&R person's interest is musical quality -- NOT "what kinda system
I own." In other words, this guy's future is wrapped up in PERFORMANCE
SPECS and PRICE. NOT "Elton John uses my system."
This was confirmed, five minutes ago, when I got off the phone with
Alan Garvey, manager of PMC ("Dangerous on the Dance Floor" -- #1 RAP
single NYC Jan/Feb '92), who says to me: "John, we need to do business.
The boyz are *sick* of these Macs. I'll send you a report on PMC and
my other new acts, and let's talk."
Nice guy, Alan Garvey. Smart guy. Making money. In music. Shortly
with Atari systems, I'm forced to assume. I mean, if the sale walks in
the door, and holds out the money, I should refuse? (Grin) As far as
advertising goes, my ex-from-France-girlfriend told him to call me. As
far as I know, Atari didn't have to pay her anything. (grin)
John
To SM [Music<>MIDI]: The point is, we're NOT starstruck. Frankly,
anybody who thinks Mick Fleetwood is still a star ought to listen to
the radio more. We're NOT that impressed with triple-plat (I mean,
Madonna uses Atari systems, okay?), because triple-plat is only 20
systems, worldwide. What we're impressed with is the idea that there
are FIVE music markets, out there, from largest to smallest:
1) People who want to learn to play an instrument. By pushing MIDI-
based Atari ST music solutions on these people, we're saving them
megabucks and giving them the BEST training tools on the market.
2) Serious working musicians. I'm talking weddings and Bar Mitzvah's,
here. VERY price-performance sensitive. You make $20,000/year
working six nights a week, you ain't into digital on a Macintosh
platform. You're into "the ST plays the accordion parts, and I play
the keyboard parts."
3) People about to break. See above. Money is still a problem, but
we're talking image, now, so the PERFORMANCE aspect of Atari systems
is still attractive. Let's face it ... Apple doesn't HAVE a
reliable, cheap, four-track digital system for under $5,000. Warner
A&R *will* notice.
4) Stars. These people only care if their lives are made easier.
Atari systems make their lives easier. They make better MUSIC.
Currently, Atari's marketing plans for the music market depend on
advertising to attract groups one and two, and personal contacts to
attract groups three and four. It's WORKING. PMC's manager JUST
CALLED ME. My advice is: wait until the stats are in, but don't bet
the farm on Apple. If you aren't Billy Joel, you can't afford it.
To OUTRIDER: The thing is, Atari can GET endorsements. You think Peabo
Bryson ("Beauty and the Beast," #1-selling album on Billboard's R&B
charts, October '91 "Can you Stop the Rain") was PAID to tell me what
he told me in the February issue of Explorer? Bryson's people call me
every two weeks to ask WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR ATARI!
We're talking "brand loyalty," here. Okay, Peabo wants a four-meg ST
Book, but still. Don't YOU? *I* sure do. (grin)
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
-=> In the "Atari Corporation Online" category (14)
-=> from the "SM147 14" Flat Screen Mono Monitor (21)
Message 73 Fri Apr 10, 1992
S.JOHNSON10 [Steve] at 00:14 EDT
I just saw the SM147 monitor again, but it WASN'T in an Atari dealer!
It was at a Goodyear service station?! Okay, it wasn't actually an
SM147 (it didn't say Atari on it), but it WAS the EXACT SAME monitor.
They had some kind of "system" in the shop (I'm not sure now, but I
think the name was VIEWDATA or something like that) that was composed
of the monitor, a big dark-grey metal box with _only_ a CD-ROM (caddy-
type) 'opening' in the front, and a mouse. Speaking of the mouse, is
the standard Atari mouse design by Atari or was the shape of it
designed
by a different company? I was wondering because the mouse
attached to this system was 100% identical to the Atari mouse (minus
the Fuji symbol, although it could have been covered up) and it was a
9-pin mouse port. Anyway, I didn't really see anything on the screen
other than a screen saver mode of some sort which just flashed the
system name (VIEWDATA or whatever), but was the same color and same
shape with the same ugly yellow power switch (yellow and grey don't
exactly go together! <grin>).
---------
Message 74 Fri Apr 10, 1992
R.GRANT11 [Ron @ GXRSYS] at 02:28 EDT
Steve, that monitor is fairly common in the mainframe world. What you
probably saw was a UNIX system terminal. CD-ROM's are a common way to
distribute databases and new programs on UNIX systems. The Goodyear
station probably uses the system to keep up on a rather large parts
database.
I've seen the same monitors in a local library, except they were
terminals (the base contains just enough brains to communicate with the
server).
Running the standard 640x400 screen, the SM147 is an adequate
replacement for the SM124, mainly because of a tilt-swivel stand, and
controls for display position. I have those in my SM125 (a far
superior monitor, IMHO <grin>).
Where the benefit of the SM147 starts is when you start to think about
overscan, or higher-resolution mono boards; I saw a Reflex board
running 800x600 (or was it higher?) on the SM147, and it looked GREAT!
Ron Grant
----------
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
-=> In the "Data Base and Business Programs" category (6)
-=> from the "LDW Power" topic (2)
Message 128 Sat Apr 04, 1992
K.ANTKOWIAK at 10:42 EST
I called LDW last week to ask about upgrading to version 2.0 and was
told that they no longer provided support for LDW Power and had sold
the rights to the program to Atari Corp.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
-=> In the "Atari Corporation Online" category (14)
-=> from the "Feedback to Atari" topic (31)
Message 158 Fri Apr 10, 1992
S.JOHNSON10 [Steve] at 00:15 EDT
If anyone at Atari can answer the following question, please do. Thank
you.
Would it be realistic for Atari Corp. to switch production from Taiwan-
based to the U.S.-based? By this, I mean to ask if it's possible for
Atari to manufacture products in the US for the same cost (aside from
the cost of MOVING production), or at least 'around' the same cost?
I was wondering because I remember Atari looking into this prospect
before and think that, in today's world, it would be of great benefit
to Atari if they could pull it off. I don't mean this to turn into any
kind of debate, but just wanted to know what Atari's response is to
this (which is why I posted it here rather than in category 18).
----------
Message 159 Fri Apr 10, 1992
TOWNS [John@Atari] at 13:37 EDT
Atari is currently using Subcontractors in Taiwan (and other locations)
throughout the world to handle it's production needs.
Since we really don't have anyone here online who is an expert in how
Atari computers are manufactured and the costs involved, I doubt that
any of us could answer your question. Sorry!
-- John Townsend, Atari Corp.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
-=> In the "Hardware" category (4)
-=> from the "Multisync Monitors for the ST" topic (34)
Message 91 Wed Apr 08, 1992
D.WALTER7 [Doug Walter] at 21:06 EDT
Fellow lurkers,
For those of you still looking for multisyncs, there are at least 3
companies listed in the April Computer Shopper that are offering used
or factory refurbished & warrantied NEC 3Ds. And JDR Microdevices
(among others) has an add that still lists new 3DSs. Might be worth a
call to see if they really do have them?
pg. 834 - TREDEX (CA.), 1-800-338-0939 3D/$399, 4D/$599, 5D/$1299
pg. 728 - IME (MA.), 1-800-999-1911 3D/$399, 5D/$1499
pg. 725 - Vision Remarketers (MA.), 1-800-242-5224
pg. 858 - JDR (CA.), 1-800-538-5000 3DS/$589, 4DS/$1195 (both new)
pgs. 480 & 588 have "call for price" adds (new units)
BTW, I recently attended a Northgate Computers factory warehouse sale
and they were offering refurbished 3DS models for $325 (S= reduced
emissions). At the end of the sale there were some left. Perhaps they
would sell them. Northgate Computers (MN.) 1-800-345-4633.
-Doug
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
-=> In "The Software Library and Other Utilities" category (2)
-=> from the "Beckemeyer Development ST Software" topic (34)
Message 75 Sun Mar 29, 1992
D.BECKEMEYER [David @ BDT] at 23:09 EST
I guess the cat's getting out of the bag on this a little bit, so I'll
mention it here.
I'm considering putting together a "do it yourself" SCSI tape backup
kit. This would include generic SCSI tape drivers that allow you to
connect nearly any SCSI tape drive to your Atari full-SCSI capable host
adapter. GEM based application software would be provided for tape
backup and restore. The kit might not include any hardware; it might
be simply the software and instructions, along with a list of sources
to obtain the required hardware.
Comments?
----------
Message 76 Mon Mar 30, 1992
G.NORTON [G.NORTON] at 00:01 EST
I'd definately be interested...a 105Mb Hd is a real pain to back up
using 800K disks. Also I have a number of customers that are
interested in just such a device...although, at a lower price than what
the ICD unit is currently running at.
Graham Norton
Wizard Computer Systems
----------
Message 78 Mon Mar 30, 1992
R.STUTZMAN2 [RUSS] at 19:59 EST
David,
I think this is an ideal way to go, it allows users to get the
necessary software and the best deal possible on SCSI tape drive's.
You've certainly got my attention, just make sure it's TT compatible
although I'm sure you would anyway.
Russ
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
======================================================================
* PERUSING COMPUSERVE by Michael D. Mortilla
======================================================================
"It is better to hide ignorance, but it is
hard to do this when we relax over wine."
Heraclitus c.540-c.480 B.C.
We've been talking about backing up your hard drive for the last few
weeks and the topic is still getting lots of attention in the Ataripro
forum. The "hot" topic seems to be the Fast Tape unit from ICD. The
"noise on the street" tells us that we might expect to pay up to $800
for this convenience. While that's more than some of us paid for our
computers, it's important to realize that it's not the computer you're
backing up, it's the *data* and if your data is more valuable than your
computer, the extra cost of backing up with a high priced unit may be
for you. Charles Johnson, at Codehead makes the following comments on
ICDs and economics:
"It's not the price of your computer you should be concerned about when
you consider a backup system -- it's the value of your data, and the
value of your time. The software and data files on my hard drive are
worth _vastly_ more than the machine that uses them -- and I value my
time too highly to sit around swapping an endless succession of floppy
disks for an hour or two every couple of days. Before I purchased the
ICD Fast Tape unit, I had the interesting experience of a head crash on
one of my hard drives that wiped out some very important stuff -- and
the backups I had done to floppy disk turned out to be corrupt.
Believe me, THAT sure ended up costing me a lot more than my computer
did. With the tape unit, I just start a tape going every night, and
walk away from the computer -- secure in the knowledge that my data
will be safely and reliably backed up.
By the way, you have your economics a bit mixed up -- the factor that
causes prices to fall is increased _demand_. When a market shrinks,
you're far more likely to see prices increase than decrease, especially
in hardware, because the prices of parts and supplies increase when you
have to order them in small lots. I can't speak for ICD, but I'd
consider it extremely unlikely that they'll be lowering their prices in
the face of a shrinking ST market."
In a later message, Charles tells us that you don't have to buy tapes
from ICD,and that TEACs part #CT-600N will do the job quite nicely.
Since the ICD unit may be a little "pricey" for your dealer (you
remember dealers, don't you?) to stock, you may have to order one
without actually seeing a demo. Risky business, but we haven't seen
any complaints about ICDs on CIS (at least recently) and they have
apparently fixed previous problems, including the 40 folder problem.
Last we heard, the ICD unit was for Atari use only, so no need to worry
that you friends will want to borrow it for their Macs <g>. But they
may want to borrow *both* your ICD *and* your Atari!
A brief foray into the world in Internet and UNIX was had this week in
the forum. There was a somewhat lengthy discussion involving access to
Internet, but this sort of thing might better be avoided by the feign
of heart! There *is* the Atari archive at the University of Michigan,
but getting there "from here" is easier fantasized than done! We
understand from messages in other forums that access to the Internet
*is* possible from CIS *if* you have access to an Internet account.
That can run about $250/month and a sign on fee of a similar figure!
So while we're interested in the U of Mich, we'll trust that someone
will see fit to preserve those files and upload the good PD one's to
CIS for us. The basic misconception potential users of the Internet
have seems to be that it's a "free" CIS type service which can access
many machines. This is not the case. But it's nice to know that we
on CIS *can* send messages to those on the Internet!
And what better way to segue into a networking item posted by Bob
Retelle...
"...here's another message from UseNet.. this one seems to offer a bit
more hope than that last one..
---------------------------
Gateways/Usenet/comp/sys/atari/st/general/Networking software for ST
1073.3.19306.2 Re: Networking software for ST 3/31/92 14:14 82/3579
jh@fortec.tuwien.ac.at (Johann Haider)
Lines 1 to 14 of 82 (17%)
-----
In <pm.701722127@fortec.tuwien.ac.at> pm@fortec.tuwien.ac.at(Peter
Mayer)writes:
>Hello,
>some time ago we purchased a "Riebl-Card plus" ethernet card from
>Atari to connect our Mega-ST to our LAN.
Hallo,
Some of the readers of the previous article didn't even know that an
Atari ethernet board existed. For all who requested more information,
here are some details about it. This article covers the Atari hardware
and the software implementation. An article about our TCP/IP
implementation will follow soon.
Hans
About Atari ethernet support
Atari Germany markets ethernet boards for the Atari Mega ST series and
Mega STE/TT computers. They were introduced at the Atari fair
Dusseldorf 1990 and we got our board soon afterwards. At least the
first series were manufactured by Riebl Computertechnik GmbH, Germany
and were named "Riebl Card Plus".
The Cards are built with an AMD 7990 compatible Ethernet controller
(LANCE) and 64 KB shared memory. The Mega-ST cards fit into the
internal slot, the STE/TT boards use the VME slot.
The board is bundled with ANS Software (Atari Network Services), based
on TCP/UDP and features file sharing, printer spooling and redirection.
The software doesn't support heterogeneous networking with the well
known services (telnet, ftp to name the most important 8-))
The software is implemented as GEMDOS extension. The programming
interface is documented in the manual and cover:
ANS... miscellaneous network functions
IPC... interprocess communication
UDP... UDP protocol functions
TCP... TCP protocol functions
AFS... Atari File System functions
and network aware replacements of the original GEMDOS file I/O
functions. There are multitasking features to allow the implementation
of the mentioned servers.
In Austria the retail price (board+software) is about 10000 ATS
(including 20 % VAT) (The exchange rate currently is 1 US$ to 11.5 ATS)
If you know about prices or availability in other countries let me
know, I'll post a summary.
IMHO I don't think the Riebl Card Plus is available outside continental
Europe. If you live on the other side of the pond you could pester
Atari in Sunnyvale, Alwin Stumpf should know what he ssold in Germany
8-)
At present there is no unbundled board available from neither Atari nor
the manufacturer. We have to pay for the hardware and the license for
the software which we don't use.
Although it should be possible for an experienced EE student to build a
functional equivalent, there is a one time licence fee of US$ 1000 for
a ethernet hardware manufacturer due to IEEE. (I don't know if the
Atari board is licensed, they were not on the list I recently read on
the net.)
I think that some third party manufacturers of affordable ethernet
boards could increase the market volume and lower the price.
We would like to see some Taiwanese/Corean clone manufacturers swamping
us with their boards. If you own a ST 1040 or equivalent you are out
of luck with the Atari adapter.
In Germany there are several companies which sell ACSI based ethernet
adapters, I know PAM Network and BIOnet. As I know little to nothing
about them, please post a question about them if you are interested.
Maybe someone is listening who has experience with them. (Hi Peter!)
Disclaimer:
This is no April 1 joke (yes it is April 1 already)
--
Johann Haider Rehabilitation Engineering Group
Institute for Electronics Technical University Vienna, Austria
Email: jh@fortec.tuwien.ac.at phone: +431 58801 3967"
Admittedly, much of that went over my head, but to those involved in
networking, it apparently means something <g>. But what? Well, let's
peek into a little exchange and see what we can find out:
John Barnes will lead us off:
"The kind of information that we would like to see is price, product
name and availability, and a description of its functionality.
Simon Jones' posting was informative, but I must admit that I still
came away with only a hazy idea of the cost and an impression that the
products would not serve my needs, which are to connect to a local area
network running TCP/IP with a mixed bag of servers.
I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that the
European products target specialized LAN applications rather than
generalized inter-networking.
Based on the lack of ready availability of these products on these
shores I would have to deduce that dealers do not view them as
attractive to American users.
This would seem to create an opening for American developers to come up
with products that are more in keeping with the practices that are
evolving in this country. If effective use can be made of 1992 chip
technology it might even be possible to find reasonably priced
products."
Ron Luks replies:
"I got the same impression about the European LAN equipment for the
Atari. More designed toward specific uses, rather than general
network ability.
I'm just not interested in any network solution that uses the Localtalk
port on the new machines or the serial port. Sounds like it will be
too slow for my uses."
John:
"Ron,
Don't sell those solutions too short. They are certainly adequate for
print serving, as millions of Macintosh owners who use them to drive
Laserwriters can attest.
I also think that the speed would not be too bad for incremental
backups if we had the right software. How many Megabytes of files do
you add to your system each day?
With the advent of MUltiTOS we may finally see an Atari operating
system that can support real networking. I fervently hope so.
There has also been a strange silence on the availability of VME
entheret cards in the proper format for use with ST's. All of the ones
that I have seem from US manufacturers are in the wrong form factor.
There has also been a dreadful silence on the matter of the
"EtherCart", but I suspect that the developer is wise to keep his
silence until he has a real product."
Ron:
"I don't need the printer sharing as much as I want to share a big HD.
(and I don't want to use the big HD for storage. I want to launch
programs off of it.)
I'll hold off a bit waiting for Atari to finish MultiTOS. Perhaps that
with a faster processor will do the trick."
Now that made some sense! Networking is apparently a very deep topic
and one we will have no choice but to keep our eyes on.
Well, never let it be said that non-Atari users are unwelcomed in the
forums here on CIS! Bill Hanna posted this extensive, and albeit,
innocent, question:
"I picked up an Atari Explorer Magazine at the local newstand and began
to read and the more I read the more I liked. I have a few questions
for all of you on AtariNet. Let me preface this by telling you my
intentions; I am looking for a machine that supports color graphics,
sound, and MIDI and will not burn a hole in my pocket. Narrowing my
choice down to the Atari ST520, 1040, 520e, and 1040e; (I have received
information on the 1040STe from Atari) I have a few questions to ask:
1) What version of TOS for the ST is the most current?
2) Is a machine running an older version of TOS a mistake?
3) How much memory is needed to run current application software?
4) Does the Blitter Chip greatly improve graphics performance?
5) What are the differences between the ST520 & ST1040?
6) Does the FM designation (ST520FM) indicate stereo sound?
7) Is the combination of an RF Modulator and a TV a good monitor choice
or will I need glasses after a few weeks of use?
8) What is the resolution & color palette on the ST520 & 1040?
9) Does it make more sense to buy a new machine or upgrade an old ST
with the current TOS and memory?
10) I have not read much about Development tools for the ST?
11) Do most users have 2 or more floppy drives or a hard disk?
Thank you for all the advice and information you can give me."
Now there is no easy answer, but the replies which follow give us a
brief history of upgrades to the ST line. Some of the information was
new to us. SYSOP Bob Retelle, once again, is there to help and is the
"first one in the water":
"Hi Bill... Welcome to the Atari Forums..!
Wow... lotsa questions..! I'll do my best to answer most of them, and
I'm sure a lot of people will jump in and get the rest that I miss...
Like most situations of this nature, what you plan to do with the
computer should determine the actual machine you get, but there are a
few general guidelines.
With memory prices pretty low right now, it makes sense to get the most
memory you can. With the ST, that's 4 Megabytes. Because of design
limitations built into the computer, you can't (easily) go any higher.
Actually, that should be plenty for most applications, and my personal
ST has 2.5 Megs right now, and it seems fine for what I do with it.
The ONLY differences among STs are rather minor, mostly cosmetic
changes. A 520 has 1/2 a Meg of memory, a 1040 has a full Megabyte.
The "FM" in a model name indicates that the computer has a "F"loppy
disk drive built-in, and has an RF "M"odulator to connect to a TV set.
(Although some very early 520s had modulators without having the "M" in
the model name, like my vintage ST)
The Mega ST was essentially the same computer repackaged into a "pizza
box" case with a detached keyboard, and your choice of 2 or 4 Megabytes
of memory. It also added the blitter chip, a built-in clock and a
relatively useless expansion connector.
The "E" model is again the same computer with a few new features added,
most notably easier memory expansion. Most of the STe models come with
socketed SIMM memory, so they can be very easily and relatively
inexpensively upgraded. They also add an extended color palette (more
choices of colors, NOT more colors on the screen) and a digital stereo
sound chip. Early STes also had analog joystick inputs which were
never used and have been dropped in later models.
Probably the most significant change is the newest ST model, the
MegaSTe. It comes in the "wedding cake" case of the TT, has a detached
keyboard, and provision for having an internal hard disk drive.
Because it's also the current model, it would be the most expensive.
The MegaSTe also has a faster clock speed, selectable between 16 Mhz
and the standard ST speed of 8 Mhz.
The blitter chip turned out to be not such a big deal as it had been
hyped up to be. With some applications you may notice a definite
difference with one, but in most cases it's not so dramatic. I
wouldn't let that be a very large factor in a buying decision. Most
newer models come with one anyway, and there are software speedup
programs that can be used both with and without a blitter that will
improve screen speeds.
Don't expect to be able to do much with just a TV set instead of a
monitor. Low resolution is OK, but Medium Res, which most application
programs use is VERY hard to read. My system came with just a
monochrome monitor, which was fine for all the telecommunications I do,
but the only color programs I could use on my TV were games... and not
all of them, either!
If you don't have a hard drive, you NEED two floppy drives. Otherwise
you'll spend a large part of your life swapping disks in and out. With
many applications though, a hard drive is almost essential, so I'd
recommend going that way. Now that I have a hard drive, I still find
myself using both floppies too.
The question of TOS versions is a sticky one. TOS has gone through
some changes, which has resulted in many programs which are
incompatible with some of the versions. If you plan to run anything
very specific, it would be a good idea to keep that in mind when you
choose a machine with a particular version of TOS in it. The good news
is that CodeHead Software has just come out with a hardware upgrade
that installs the newest version of TOS (which is a GREAT improvement
over older ones) in older STs. It also allows switching back to the
original TOS, whichever came in the machine, in case there are any
problems with particular programs. My 1986 ST still has TOS 1.0 in it,
and I plan to get the upgrade Real Soon Now...
Whew.. I better let someone else continue on..."
And we didn't have to twist Boris Moloydi's arm, either:
"Bill,
I guess, I could add something to what Bob had said.
Current version of TOS in basic STe is 1.62 (I think), and it can be
upgraded, quite easy, for 2.06 which is much better.
All Ste's come with three built-in resolutions, 320*200 in 16 colors
(out of 4096), 640*200 in 4 colors and 640*400 in 2 colors. There are
some add-on graphic boards, both color and mono, if you really need
them.
All ST/TT's have MIDI in/out ports built in and some of the best MIDI
software to go with them. STe's and TT's also have stereo sound.
As for development tools, there are some quite nice programming
packages available.
Without knowing what exactly you want to do with your computer. Well,
if all you want is to compute 10*10 spreadsheet once a month and play a
couple of games, 8-bit Atari or PC clone would be more then enough :-)
For MIDI, and some home applications, I think 4-megged STe would be OK.
If you want more number crunching power, 16MHz MegaSTe with it's VME
bus, high speed serial and LAN ports etc. is good. For professional
DTP, CAD and BIG number crunching I'd recommend TT (that's what I'm
using; it does not mean that I'm so professional, tho :-) PageStream
2.1 looks _very_ nice, and I'm waiting for Calamus SL to come. TT has
many improvements over the original ST's (like price, hehe): Motorola's
68030 processor running at 32MHz, memory up to 32Meg and more, better
graphics, more ports, math co-processor etc."
And from Robert Aries:
"I have an old 520st (expanded to 2.5 megs) running Dr. T midi software
and am generally pretty happy. I have the original chip TOS (1.0) and
no hard drive, which is an inconvenience, but not insurmountable. If
you're on a limited budget, a setup like mine WILL work, and work well,
although of course the various improvements of newer TOS's and hard
drives are nice. I have two floppys, but one of them is single-sided
and I rarely use it. A single-floppy system IS do-able for me only
because the expanded memory allows using a ram disk, and most of the
applications I use don't need to access the disk much (if at all) while
running. (I would suspect this to be true of most midi applications).
If you wind up looking to get a used 520 or 1040st and expand the
memory (if it isn't already), there are two things you need to look out
for: The computer should not be one of the _earliest_ ST's that
required you to load TOS from a disk (there's not much of a chance of
running into one of these but I thought I'd mention it). Secondly,
there were/are many varieties of memory expansion boards for the 520/
1040 ST's (I'm not talking about ST_e_'s, which use SIMM chips). I
have the AERCO board and it uses a "push-in" connector to the MMU chip
socket, which is not as reliable as a soldered-in board. Every few
months the connections get flaky, leading to errors when booting. I
have to open up the case and re-seat the connector from the memory
board to the MMU chip socket. If I had it to do over again I would get
a different memory expansion board (one that is soldered in).
I would second the advice here NOT to use a TV set as a monitor. It so
happens that the monitor of choice for most midi software is the mono
monitor, which is around half the price (or more) of the color, and
MUCH easier on the eyes (IMHO). I believe that Notator (or one of the
other big midi s/w packages) _requires_ a mono monitor. Dr. T's TIGER
program is almost unusable on a color monitor (again, IMO) and the
Copyist is also easier to use with mono. I have 'em both, and the
color is sitting on a shelf here."
Not to mention the expert support you'll get in the Atari forums on CIS
(even before you get the machine)!
Our WordPerfect file runneth over. Till next week...
======================================================================
* BASIC AT COMMANDS -=- Part 3 of 3
======================================================================
This article discusses configuration registers and result codes and
contains a comprehensive list of basic AT commands, as well as the
extended AT command lists for those modems equipped with MNP5 and V.42/
42bis. In addition, for your convenience, modem default lists have
been included.
* (\Y) Switch to Reliable Mode:
Causes the modem to attempt to establish an MNP Reliable link when
connected in the Normal or Direct mode. This command is only effective
in the "escape" state. If a Reliable link is already in progress, the
modem simply returns online.
If the modem originated the call, the modem will attempt to initiate
the link; if the modem answered the call, the modem will attempt to
accept a link request.
If the modem fails to establish a Reliable link, the modem returns to a
Normal connection.
* (\Z) Switch to Normal Mode:
Causes the local and remote modem to switch from a Reliable link to a
Normal connection. This command is only effective in the "escape"
state. Any data in the buffers will be lost.
* (%A) Set Auto-Reliable Fallback Character:
%An n = 0 to 127
When \C2 is in effect, if the ASCII code "n" is received before a
Reliable link is negotiated, the modem will make a Normal connection.
* (%C) Set Data Compression:
%C0 Data Compression disabled.
%C1 Data Compression enabled (default).
* (%En) Auto-Retrain:
The %E command (n=0 or 1) will cause the modem to try to re-establish
a broken connection.
%E0 Disables auto-retrain
%E1 Enables auto-retrain
3) V.42/42bis Commands
In addition to all of the commands listed above, V.42/42bis employs the
following commands:
* (Wn) Negotiation Responses:
The Wn command (n = 0, 1, or 2) allows you to specify whether or not
the modem sends negotiation responses. The Megahertz modem employs the
latest Microcom standards for link negotiation progress reporting.
These include Carrier 2400 (carrier rate), LAP-M (protocol), V.42bis
(compression) and Connect 4800 (port rate). If your software package
is not compatible with these negotiation messages, include the W0
command in the initialization string.
W0 Do not send negotiation responses. Use DTE speed connect message.
W1 Send negotiation responses.
W2 Do not send negotiation responses. Use DCE speed connect messages.
* (&Kn) Flow Control:
The flow control command allows you to control the flow of data between
the host computer and the host computer modem.
&K0 Local flow control disabled.
&K3 RTS/CTS signal bidirectional hardware flow control.
&K4 XON/XOFF bidirectional software flow control.
&K5 Unidirectional XON/XOFF software flow control.
* (&Qn) Data Connection Type:
&Q5 Instructs the modem to make a data connection using error
control specified by Registers S36, S46, and S48.
&Q6 Instructs the modem to make a data connection using the buffered
mode.
RESULT CODES
Long-form results are preceded and terminated with both carriage return
and line feed characters. Short-form codes are terminated with only a
carriage return.
Result codes returned by modem.
Meaning Short Form Long Form
Command Line executed 0 OK
without errors.
Connected at 300 bps 1 CONNECT
Local Telephone line 2 RING
ringing.
Carrier lost, or never 3 NO CARRIER
received.
Error in Command line. 4 ERROR
Invalid command line.
Command line exceeds
command buffer. Invalid
character format.
Connected at 1200 bps 5 CONNECT 1200
data rate.
No dial tone received 6 NO DIAL TONE
within time-out period.
Called line busy. 7 BUSY
Called line not answered, 8 NO ANSWER
within time-out period.
Connection established at 10 CONNECT 2400
2400 bps.
Connection established at 11 CONNECT 4800
4800 bps.
Connection established at 12 CONNECT 9600
9600 bps.
Additional MNP Result Codes Returned by Modem
Meaning Short Form Long Form
Reliable MNP connection 25 CONNECT 9600/REL
established at 2400 bps.
Reliable MNP connection 24 CONNECT 4800/REL
established at 1200 bps.
Reliable MNP connection 23 CONNECT 2400/REL
established at 2400 bps.
Reliable MNP connection 22 CONNECT 1200/REL
established at 1200 bps.
Additional V.42 Result codes Returned by Modem
Meaning Short Form Long Form
Reliable MNP connection 20 CONNECT 9600/REL
established at 2400 bps.
Reliable MNP connection 19 CONNECT 4800/REL
established at 1200 bps.
Reliable MNP connection 18 CONNECT 2400/REL
established at 2400 bps.
Reliable MNP connection 17 CONNECT 1200/REL
established at 1200 bps.
Modem has made a buffered 70 PROTOCOL: NONE
data connection and is
entering Data Mode.
Modem has made a V.42 77 PROTOCOL: LAP-M
LAP-M data connection and
is entering Data Mode.
Alternate protocol. Modem 80 PROTOCOL: ALT
has made an MNP connection
and is entering Data Mode.
Modem is entering Data 69 COMPRESSION: NONE
Mode and no compression
has been negotiated.
Modem is entering Data Mode 66 COMPRESSION: CLASS 5
and MNP-5 compression has
been negotiated.
Modem is entering Data Mode 67 COMPRESSION: V.42BIS
and V.42bis compression has
been negotiated.
CONFIGURATION REGISTERS
The following section contains the commands that allow you to change
the configuration registers. Each command must be preceded by AT and
followed by a carriage return. The registers can be read by "Sr=?" and
written by "Sr=n", where n is the ASCII value of the character or digit
to be written, and r is the register number to read or write.
EXAMPLE: ATS0=1 Writes a one to S Register zero
ATS0? Will display the value stored in S Register 0.
The following registers store configuration information in nonvolatile
memory using the &W command. Powering up the modem or using the Z
command will automatically restore registers S0,S14, S18, S21, S22,
S23, S25, S26 and S27 from the nonvolatile RAM.
Several of these registers are bit-mapped. This means that each bit of
the value stored in a register represents a different setting. Bit-
mapped registers often duplicate AT commands. For an intelligent DTE
running under program control, it may be more convenient to directly
write the desired data into these registers, rather than go through the
process of stepping through each list of AT commands. Bit-mapped
registers include S13 through S16, S21 through S23 and S27.
* (S0) Ring To Answer:
The contents of this register determine the number of rings that must
occur before the modem will automatically answer a call. Allowable S0
range is 0 to 255. Setting S0 to 0 disables the auto-answer mode. A
setting of S0=1 will cause modem to answer on the first ring.
Default : n = 0 disabled auto-answer mode.
* (S1) Ring Count (read only, Range 0-255)
S1 is increased by one each time the modem detects a ring signal. S1
is cleared if no rings occur over any eight second period.
Default: n = 0
* (S2) Escape Code Character:
This register holds the ASCII value of the escape code character. S2
can be set to any value from 0 to 255, but values greater than 127,
with no ASCII equivalents, will completely disable the escape command.
If the &D1, &D2, or &D3 option is in effect, the modem will return to
the command state on an ON-to-OFF transition of DTR.
Default: n = 43, representing an ASCII "+"
* (S3) Carriage Return Character:
This register holds the ASCII value of the Carriage return or end-of-
line character. This character terminates both command lines and
result codes. This pertains to asynchronous operation only. Allowable
S3 range is 0 to 127. The Z command will set S3=13.
Default: n = 13, representing a carriage return.
* (S4) Line Feed Character:
This register contains the ASCII value of the line feed character The
modem sends the line feed character after sending a carriage-return
character. This register pertains to asynchronous operation only. The
allowable S4 range is 0 to 127. This register is not saved in the
nonvolatile memory. The Z command sets S4=10.
Default: n = 10, representing "CTRL J" or the Line Feed Character
* (S5) Back Space Character:
This register holds the Backspace character. When this command is
issued, the modem blanks the last character on the screen, moves the
cursor back one character, and deletes the last character in the
command buffer. It should be noted that the "T" of the "AT" command
can not be backspaced over. The backspace character should not be set
between 33 and 126, which is the range of printable ASCII characters.
The backspace character is processed as follows: The modem echoes the
backspace character back to the terminal and follows it with an ASCII
space character and a second backspace (three characters in all). One
consequence is that the repeat key command (A/) may not work properly
on backspaces. S5 is not saved in the nonvolatile memory. Allowable
S5 value is 0 to 32 and 127. The command Z sets S5=8. Pertains to
asynchronous operation only.
Default: n = 8, representing "CTRL H"
* (S6) Wait For Dial Tone:
This is the maximum amount of time the modem waits after "off-hook"
before dialing. In all cases, the modem waits for a minimum of 2
seconds even if S6 is set to a smaller number. Allowable S6 value is
0 to 255 seconds. The "wait for dial tone" call progress monitoring
feature will override the value in S6 and dial the first digit upon
detection of a dial tone on the telephone line.
Default: n = 2 seconds.
* (S7) Wait For Carrier After Dial:
Extended result code options X3 or X4 allow S7 to establish the time
that the originating modem waits for a carrier. If leased-line
operation is selected, S7 has no effect and the modem will wait
indefinitely for a carrier.
Default: n = 30 seconds.
* (S8) Pause Time for the Comma Dial Modifier:
This is the pause time for "," in the dialing string. Allowable values
for S8 are 0 to 255 seconds.
Default: n = 2 seconds.
* (S9) Carrier Detect Response Time:
This register indicates the amount of time the carrier must be present
before the modem will set DCD ON. Allowable value for S9 is 0 to 255,
in tenths of seconds. As S9 is increased, the chance of a false
carrier being detected is lowered.
Default: n = 6 (.6 seconds)
* (S10) Lost Carrier to Hang Up Delay:
This register defines the duration of time the carrier should be
dropped before the modem will initiate a disconnect sequence (if it is
configured for loss of carrier disconnection). The unit of time is in
100s of milliseconds. If S10 is set to 255, the modem will ignore
carrier detect status and assume that the carrier is always present.
The allowable S10 value range is from 1 to 255. Any loss of carrier
will result in a disconnect if Register S10 is smaller in value than
Register S9. The actual length of loss carrier is the delta between
S10 and S9.
Default: n = 14 (1.4 seconds)
* (S11) DTMF Duration and Spacing Register:
S11 allows for adjustable Dial Tone Modulation Frequency (DTMF)
duration and spacing. S11 can be set to any value from 50 to 255 ms,
which represents the duration and space between the DTMF tones
generated during tone dialing.
S11 is NOT saved in NVRAM with the &W command.
Default: n = 100 ms
* (S12) Escape Code Guard Time:
This register controls the escape code guard time. The guard time
provides the delay required so that the modem doesn't misread the
escape characters as data. The guard time is in units of 20mS, and has
a maximum value of 5.1 seconds (255 * 20 milliseconds = 5.1 seconds).
In order to use the escape code, the guard time must be less than the
time it takes to transmit one character at the current transmission
speed. The allowable value for S12 is 20 to 255.
If the guard time is defined as 0, timing will not be a factor at all.
The three escape characters should still occur consecutively.
Default: n = 50, representing 50 * 20 milliseconds = 1 second guard
time.
* (S13) Reserved
* (S14) Bit-Mapped Option Register:
Bit 0 Undefined
Bit 1 0 Local echo disabled
1 Local echo enabled (default)
Bit 2 0 Result codes enabled (default)
1 Result codes disabled
Bit 3 0 Result codes sent as digits
1 Result codes sent as words (default)
Bit 4 0 Enable command recognition (default)
1 Disable command recognition
Bit 5 0 Touch tone dialing
1 Pulse dialing (default
Bit 6 Undefined
Bit 7 0 Answer mode
1 Originate mode (default)
* (S15) Reserved
* (S16) Bit Mapped Modem Test Options:
Bit 0 0 Local analog Loop disabled (default)
1 Local analog Loop enabled (See &T1 command)
Bit 1 Not Used
Bit 2 0 Local digital loopback disabled (default)
1 Local digital loopback enabled (See &T3 command)
Bit 3 0 Loopback off
1 Loopback on (remotely initiated) (See &T4 and &T5)
Bit 4 0 Disable remote digital loopback (default)
1 initiate remote digital loopback (See &T6 command)
Bit 5 0 Disable expanded remote digital loopback with self
test (default)
1 initiate expanded remote digital loopback with
self test (See &T7 command)
Bit 6 0 Disable local analog loopback with self test
(default)
1 Enable local analog loopback with self test
(See &T8 command)
Bit 7 Not Used
* (S17) Reserved
* (S18) Test Timer:
This register sets a maximum time for diagnostic tests. The values can
range from 1 to 255 seconds; the default setting of zero disables the
test timer. A test can be stopped at any time with the &T0 command. A
test is ended after this period times-out.
Default: n = 0 disables test timer and allows &T0 to end the test
* (S19) Reserved
* (S20) Reserved
* (S21) Bit Mapped Options:
Bit 0 Not Used
Bit 1 Not Used
Bit 2 Not Used
Bit 3 Bit 4 (See &D command)
0 0 Modem ignores DTR (default)
1 0 Command state On to Off DTR transition
0 1 Hangs up on On to Off DTR transition
1 1 Initialize on On to Off DTR transition
Bit 5 0 DCD always on (default)
1 DCD indicates valid carrier (See &C command)
Bit 6 0 DSR always on (default)
1 Modem off hook in data mode
Bit 7 0 Disable long space disconnect (default)
1 Enable long space disconnect (See Y command)
S22 Bit Mapped Options
Bit 0 Bit 1 (See L command)
0 0 Undefined
1 0 Low speaker volume
0 1 Med speaker volume (default)
1 1 High speaker volume
Bit 2 Bit 3 (See M command)
0 0 Speaker disabled
1 0 Speaker on until carrier (default)
0 1 Speaker always on
1 1 Speaker off during dial
Bit 4 Bit 5 Bit 6 (See X command)
0 0 0 2400 result codes, blind dial
1 0 0 not defined
0 1 0 not defined
1 1 0 not defined
0 0 1 full codes, blind dial
1 0 1 full codes, dial tone wait
0 1 1 full, blind, busy detect
1 1 1 full, waits, busy detect
Bit 7 0 39/61 Make/Break Ratio U.S. (default)
1 33/67 Make/Break Ratio UK/Hong Kong
(See &P command)
* (S23) Bit Mapped Options:
Bit 0 0 Ignore remote loopback request
1 accept remote loopback request (default)
(See &T4, &T5 commands)
Bit 1 Bit 2
0 0 300 Bps
1 0 600 Bps
0 1 1200 Bps
1 1 2400 Bps (default)
Bit 3 Not Used
Bit 4 Bit 5 (See AT command)
0 0 Even Parity (Default)
1 0 Space Parity
0 1 Odd Parity
1 1 Mark/No Parity
Bit 6 Bit 7 (See &G command)
0 0 No guard tones (default)
1 0 550 Hz guard tone
0 1 1800 Hz guard tone
1 1 Not Used
* (S24) Reserved
* (S25) Delay to DTR:
A change in the state of DTR from ON to OFF will be ignored if it is
less than the value specified in S25 (0 to 2.55 seconds).
Default: n = 5 (.05 seconds)
* (S26) RTS to CTS Delay Interval:
When the &R0 option is in effect (default), the S26 register specifies
the delay after an OFF-to-ON transition of Request-To-Send before
Clear-To-Send is asserted. The range of values will be from 0 to 2.55
seconds with a 10 millisecond resolution. S26 values are 0 to 255.
255 * 10mS=2.55 seconds.
Default: n = 1
MNP COMMANDS
* (S36) Negotiation Fallback:
When the initial attempt to connect in error-control mode fails, S36
specifies what should occur next. The allowable values are 0, 1, 3, 4,
5, and 7:
0 Hang up
1 Attempt a standard asynchronous connection (&Q0)
3 Attempt an asynchronous connection using automatic speed buffering
(&Q6).
4 Attempt an MNP connection; if negotiation fails, hang up.
5 Attempt an MNP connection; if negotiation fails, attempt a standard
asynchronous connection.
7 Attempt an MNP connection; if negotiation fails, attempt an
asynchronous connection using automatic speed buffering.
* (S37) Auto-Reliable Fallback Character:
When \C2 is in effect, if the ASCII code "n" (n = 0-126 and 128) is
received before a Reliable link is negotiated, the modem will make a
Normal connection.
V.42 COMMANDS
* (S36) Negotiation Fallback:
When the initial attempt to connect in error-control mode fails, S36
specifies what should occur next. The allowable values are 0, 1, 3, 4,
5, and 7:
0 Hang up
1 Attempt a standard asynchronous connection (&Q0)
3 Attempt an asynchronous connection using automatic speed buffering
(&Q6).
4 Attempt a CCITT V.42 Alternative Protocol connection (MNP
compatible); if negotiation fails, hang up.
5 Attempt a CCITT V.42 Alternative Protocol connection (MNP
compatible); if negotiation fails, attempt a standard asynchronous
connection.
7 Attempt a CCITT V.42 Alternative Protocol connection (MNP
compatible); if negotiation fails, attempt an asynchronous
connection using automatic speed buffering.
NOTE: The selected fallback option can be initiated immediately with
S48. For example, a connection attempt using the Alternate Protocol
can be forced by setting S48 = 128 and S36 = 5 or 7.
* (S46) Error-Control Protocol Selection:
S46 specifies the error-control method used for subsequent connections.
Allowable settings include:
136 LAPM only.
138 LAPM with data compression (V.42bis).
Default n = 138.
* (S48) Feature Negotiation Action:
S48 selects how feature negotiation is used when making connections
with the remote system. The negotiation process can be tailored to
suit a connection, or bypassed altogether. For example, when the
capabilities of the remote modem are known, negotiation is unnecessary.
Allowable settings include:
7 Negotiation enabled.
128 Negotiation disabled; f orces immediate fallback options specified
in S36.
Default n = 7.
* (S82) Break Handling Method:
S82 selects a method of break signal handling for CCITT V.42
communications: in sequence, expedited and destructive. Break signals
provide a way for you to get the attention of the remote host. The
break type used depends on the application. Allowable settings include:
3 Uses expedited signaling regardless of sequence in transmitted and
received data; data integrity maintained.
7 Uses destructive signaling regardless of sequence of transmitted
and received data; data in process at time is destroyed.
128 Uses in sequence signaling as data is transmitted and received;
data integrity maintained ahead of and after break.
Default: n = 128
PROGRAMMABLE OPTIONS NOT SAVED IN NVRAM
OPTION FACTORY DEFAULT VALUE
Ring count.....................................................00
Escape code character..........................................43
Carriage return character......................................13
Line feed character............................................10
Back space character...........................................08
Duration of wait dial tone...............................02 Sec.
Duration of wait for carrier after dialing...............30 Sec.
Duration of dial pause for the comma...........................40
Carrier detect response time.............................0.6 Sec.
Lost carrier to hang-up delay............................1.4 Sec.
DTMF duration and spacing..................................100 ms
Escape code guard time....................................1 Sec.
PROGRAMMABLE OPTIONS SAVED IN NVRAM
Baud rate (300, 600, 1200 and 2400)
Asynchronous parity option (odd, even, mark, space, none)
Number of ring to answer on (1 to 255)
Automatic answer (Enabled/Disabled)
Command echo (Enabled/Disabled)
Result Codes (Enabled/Disabled)
Result Codes (Short/Long word)
Dialing (Pulse or tone)
Test Timer Timeout (0 to 255)
RTS/CTS option
RTS/CTS delay time
DTR circuit option
DCD circuit option
DSR circuit option
Long space disconnect (Enabled/Disabled)
Speaker Volume ( L1. L2 or L3)
Pulse dial make/break ratio
Grant or Deny Remote Digital Loop
Guard tone selection (550 Hz, 1800 Hz or none)
Minimum DTR pulse width
Dialup or leased line
Bell/V.24 compatibility at 1200 bps
All MNP commands except for \S may be saved to NVRAM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To sign up for DELPHI service, call (with modem) (800) 695-4002. Upon
connection, hit <return> once or twice. At Password: type ZNET and
hit <return>.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To sign up for GEnie service call (with modem) (800) 638-8369. Upon
connection type HHH and hit <return>. Wait for the U#= prompt and type
XTX99436,GEnie and hit <return>.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To sign up for CompuServe service call (with phone) (800) 848-8199. Ask
for operator #198. You will be promptly sent a $15.00 free membership
kit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Z*Net International Atari Online Magazine is a weekly publication
covering the Atari and related computer community. Material published
in this edition may be reprinted under the following terms only. All
articles must remain unedited and include the issue number and author at
the top of each article reprinted. Reprint permission granted, unless
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publications. Opinions present herein are those of the individual
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Z*NET: Atari ST Online Magazine
Copyright (c)1992, Rovac Industries, Inc...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
