Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Ictari Issue 43
ICTARI USER GROUP ISSUE 43 February 1997
___ ______ ___ _________ _________ ___
\__\ \ __\ \ \__ \______ \ \ _____\ \__\
___ \ \ \ __\ _____\ \ \ \ ___
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ ____ \ \ \ \ \
\ \ \ \_____ \ \____ \ \__\ \ \ \ \ \
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
\__\ \_______\ \______\ \________\ \__\ \__\
* m a g a z i n e *
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I C T A R I U S E R G R O U P
8 Denmark Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 5PA.
http://www.elis.demon.co.uk/ictari/ictari.htm
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
INDEX FOR ISSUE 43
==================
ASSEMBLER Beizer Curve Routine
Neochrome Loader
C Desktop demonstration
Sierpinski gasket fractal generator
USENET C tutorial
MISC 3D maze demo 2
ICTARI HTML files
---------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL
=========
Hello, my name is Giles Greenway, and I've elected to take over
the job of running ICTARI from Peter Hibbs. Soon after I joined the
group I realized that I hadn't made much in the way of a contribution
to it. I had five megabytes of Demon's WEB-server to play with, so I
decided to put it to good use by starting the ICTARI home-page. It
is now possible to join and contribute to the group and download
issues via the WEB. A copy of the HTML files is included on this
month's disk. Any suggestions are welcome. The pages have been a
success in that they have allowed ICTARI to reach a far greater
number of people than a purely disk-based 'zine could. -I've had
responses from Asia, the middle east and eastern Europe. Unfortunately,
the page has only provided two contributions to the group ! The
prolific Marten Lindstrom's comments in the last issue were sent by
e-mail, and one visitor to the WEB site wondered why I had included
an option for FORTRAN on the form for new members. -He didn't realize
that FORTRAN compilers are available on the ST. Well, we all know
different now ! I'm afraid that my article is representative of my
style of writing....
The next question is why so little input is coming from the
on-line community, and whether it matters or not. Peter Hibbs
suggested that as sending in disks costs more money people will
feel it's more in their interests to support the group. It takes
very little effort to download ICTARI from the WEB site, and far more
to actually unzip and read it, let alone make contributions !
Rewarding though programming is, it takes a great deal of effort and
people will grab anything that's free, regardless of whether or not
it's truly useful to them. Does this matter ? As I said to Peter, if
I think the pages are actually doing damage to ICTARI, I'll remove
them without a second thought. On the other hand, if people won't
respond to a WEB site, they certainly won't make the effort to
send in articles on disk. Personally, I think it's best to give people
the benefit of the doubt and let the pages give ICTARI A potentially
wider audience. Lastly, perhaps the on-line community thinks it can
get the help ICTARI is meant to provide elsewhere. I'm not sure that
this is true. USENET is not the best place to distribute source-codes,
although these could be kept on other WEB pages or FTP sites. The
comp.sys.atari.programmer group rarely seems to deal with bugs in
subscriber's programs, most questions seem to deal with specific
questions about the Atari's operating system. The sort of in-depth
tutorials that lend themselves to a magazine format are also rare.
Meanwhile, I'm starting to run out of contributions from all
sources, 'net-based or otherwise. With access to the Internet and
CD-rom it would be all too easy for me to turn ICTARI into a
third-rate P.D. service. I've waffled for far too much of this issue.
Next month it's your turn.
Have Fun,
Giles
---------------------------------------------------------------------
CORRESPONDENCE
==============
From: Giles Greenway
To: Everyone
re: PINSKI
I suppose I'd better demonstrate that I have some form of
mandate to edit ICTARI ! My C program PINSKI (it generates Sierpinski
fractals) should at least give some indication that I can call myself
an Atari programmer. It should work on all STs, perhaps it can be
taken as an example of how to / how not to write a GEM program. The
bit that generates the run-length encoded .IMG files may be of
interest. I've written programs that generate much prettier fractals,
but at the moment they're all rather nasty .TTP and "alertware"
efforts. I'm currently working on a GEM interface for an existing
program, but progress is slow. Please let me know if I've made
any howlers while writing PINSKI...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jason J Railton
To: Everyone
Re: ICTARI
I'm glad to hear that ICTARI is to continue. I hope all those
people who access Giles' Web Page can start contributing something to
the group. Best wishes to the new editor then!
I sent in some stuff a few months ago, that never made it onto
the last two disks. They included some Christmas decorations, snowfall
effects and some notes on 3-D mathematics. Did they get lost, or
didn't Peter have space ?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jason J Railton
To: Everyone
Re: My 3-D Maze
I've sent in the latest version of my 3-D maze. It now has
working doors and some unusual effects. But first, the controls.
After receiving comments on the first version, I added a
'Walk' control, to the left mouse button. Now you can still use the
mouse to turn left/right and walk forwards/backwards, but you can
also press the left mouse button to walk forwards. You can also move
a bit faster by pressing the button and moving the mouse forwards at
the same time.
Clicking the left mouse button operates doors, and will operate
other things that I haven't added yet (I want to add bitmap
graphics for a control panel). You must stand in front of a door
to open it, but it doesn't matter which direction you are facing
when you click. So, if you're surrounded by doors, only one will
actually operate, and it's always the same one no matter which one
you're actually facing.
Press the right mouse button to sidestep left/right
instead of turning. I intend to have a few baddies in the maze, but
it will be more exploring than shooting, so I'll have your character
raise his gun when you press and hold the right button to enter
sidestep mode. Then, left clicks will fire the weapon. (Got this idea
from playing Resident Evil).
At the moment, pressing both buttons will exit the demo - it's
the only control option left, since I don't have a working keyboard
routine yet -so be careful not to press both at the same time by
accident.
As to the maze, you start in a room with four blue blocks placed
in a square, with yellow doors between them. See if you can find a
room with alternate blue and yellow wall panels, alcoves at either end
and a block in the middle with a different colour on each side. If
you walk around it, you'll see that the sides aren't the colours you
thought they were. To get that far, you'll have to have solved a couple
of unusual puzzles.
There's also a large secret yellow room with three pink doors at
one end. Two of the doors are just linked by a passageway, the third
leads to another room with a secret exit. See if you can figure out
how to open the secret exit. To get to that room, you'll have already
had a big clue.
You'll come across hidden doors, doors that can only be opened
from one side, floor switches that operate doors, and rooms that don't
behave as you would expect. There's even a room where you can walk
through... oh you'll find it anyway. Just keep your eyes open, and
remember all those superstitions that hint at extra space or weird
dimensions? Things like not walking under ladders, or on the
opposite side of an obstruction to a friend, or running seven times
round churches or fairy mounds to see something happen... You get
the idea. There's some weird stuff in that maze.
So, what do you think of it so far ?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To *.*
From L.Maule-Cole
I joined ICTARI when I retired because I wanted to learn to
write programs in C as a retirement project. I bought a copy of
MEGAMAX from a colleague and with my sparse knowledge of
programming, obtained from writing rather long and complicated
macros for WordPerfect 3.1., I set about teaching myself. I had
purchased a copy of GARDENER DATABASE from GOODMANS which, when I
tried to use it, turned out to be a lemon. It included the source
code written in BASIC, which I didn't understand, so I couldn't make
any corrections to try and make it work properly. I therefore
hit upon the idea that this might make a very good subject for my
project - rewrite and improve the GARDENER DATABASE in C. I got
permission from the original author to do so and after much trial
and error, the MEGAMAX Manual isn't exactly the most accurate or
lucid information, I managed to produce a program which ran, on my
machine anyway. I now needed to a) find out whether it worked on
other machines and b) what other more experienced programmers could
offer in the way of advise. I therefore sent a demo version to ICTARI
with a request that some kind person might try it out and raise some
comments. To date I have heard nothing so may I ask:- Is ICTARI the
wrong forum for this sort of request? If so would somebody be kind
enough to suggest someone from whom I could get some help.
If the answer is to get connected to the Internet, please
would someone advise me as to the best equipment and software to
purchase bearing in mind that I don't want to run up large
telephone bills as I am on a pension. Also, I want to upgrade my
printer so which is the best to buy for someone who won't be
printing that often (ink drying problems) and prints out long lists of
code (auto paper feed or tractor) and would like a colour option.
My next questions concern the future. I have reluctantly come to
the conclusion that sometime in the future I am going to have to
purchase a more up to date system. My experience of what I call IBM
type computers and Microsoft software which I had the misfortune to
have to use while at work, is that it was slow, despite being a 486,
and the software was very unreliable. It was always crashing and on
one occasion , it wrote part of a datafile over the top of one of the
boot files so that next time when I switched on it wouldn't boot up!
Now that shouldn't happen but it did.
My environment is this. I use my computer for wordprocessing,
for managing my finances/bank statements, for sequencing music with my
keyboard and synthesiser, for titling my videos using an art
package(DEGAS) and titling software, for the occasional DTP work and
to write and run my own programs. So you can see that the ATARI is
perfectly satisfactory for all that I do.
I am aware that the next generation of computer technology is
about to be launched and whereas I may not need it let alone
afford it it will probably mean that the second-hand price of
100MHz Pentiums will fall dramatically. What I don't know is will
a straight Pentium do all the ATARI can do without extra hardware
or should I be thinking in terms of hanging on to the ATARI as well as
buying a PC?. Unfortunately the size of a desktop PC does not lend
itself to easily being housed by the side of my keyboard, which is
in fact an electronic piano, located in the sitting room. Regarding
video titling, is it possible to record the output of a PC using a
video recorder? I shall have to use GEMULATOR in order to run a lot
of my software, would it be better to buy an Apple Mac? It looks as
though soon it will be possible to access the Internet via
interactive television sets operating from cable. Why do I need
another PC ? What is the meaning of life ?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To: L. Maule Cole
From: Giles Greenway
Hello Loius,
Not being a gardener, I'm not sure what I'd want from a
gardening database ! I couldn't seem to find any documentation with
your program, so I'm not entirely sure how its meant to behave.
-Documenting a program is just as important as the coding, and may
well take just as much effort. When I ran your program from within a
couple of folders it complained about a missing data-file. If it
relies on DEGAS .PI? files then it may look odd on high resolution
modes on TT's and Falcons. If you think the program is an improvement
on the original then I'm sure it is, and the original author seemed to
think his work was fit to distribute.
With regards to the Internet, the best forum for Atari
programmers is the comp.sys.atari.programmer USENET newsgroup. Posting
your entire program to the group and asking for comments will not make
you popular ! You would probably have to ask for beta-testers to come
forward and then communicate via private e-mail. In terms of hardware
I recommend at least TOS 1.4 and the RSVE serial port modification
from Systems Solutions. These will give you fast download times and
reduce bottle-necks caused by slow hard-disk access. In addition to
this you will need plenty of hard-disk space and memory. Lest we
forget, you will need a 'phone line and a modem ! Any external
modem will do, but it's best to buy from Atari-friendly firms. Only
two speeds (or bauds) should be considered, 14.4 and 28.8. They should
cost around 50 and 100 pounds respectively. The faster your set-up
the lower the 'phone bill.
The software side of things is where it gets complicated. An
early Internet package available for the ST was KA9Q NOS, a
text-based system that provides basic mail and USENET news
facilities. The program was not very easy to use, but a graphical GEM
shell called Oasis has been written that runs over the top of it.
The current version is 1.35, and is still widely used. Oasis2
abandons NOS, and uses a second GEM-based program called ICE to
handle the on-line side of things. Many Atari users have had
significant problems in getting Oasis2 to work, and I am no exception !
The latest version, 2.10, has proved much more stable for me, but
plenty of other users still have problems. So far, none of the
programs I have mentioned allow access to the World-Wide Web. A
desk-accessory called STiK has been written that provides the on-line
component to a series of other programs. The most important of these
is CAB (now at version 1.5), a WWW browser. CAB requires a special
overlay, available separately, to interface with STiK. Other STiK
clients include the USENET news and e-mail programs Newsie and
AntMail, and also FTP and IRC programs. (File Transfer Protocol and
Internet Relay Chat) Things are further complicated by MiNT. The
Toronto Atari Federation MiNT distribution allows the Chimera WEB
browser to run under X-Windows using the MiNT-Net loadable device
driver. The rowser is probably inferior to CAB, and the
distribution takes up an ntire hard-disk partition with a MINIX
filesystem. (I still think the .A.F. package is the easiest way to set
up MiNT, though.) A few people on he Atari USENET newsgroups have
commented that MiNT-Net is very stable, and ery under-used. A
program called Glue-STiK has been written to allow iNT-Net to work
with regular STiK applications. It is worth noting that a EB browser
called Spider is being developed for Oasis and that a ommercial
browser called OXO has just been released by a French software house.
With this exception, all the rest of the software I have mentioned is
P.D. or shareware.
The final requirement is an account with an Internet service
provider. I use Demon, who charge ten pounds a month. They have
had reliability problems, but I'm too lazy to change ! Well, I hope
I've helped...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
