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Ictari Issue 28
ICTARI USER GROUP ISSUE 28 November 1995
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* m a g a z i n e *
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I C T A R I U S E R G R O U P
63 Woolsbridge Road, Ringwood, Hants, BH24 2LX Tel. 01425-474415
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INDEX FOR ISSUE 28
==================
ASSEMBLY Using the BitBlt VDI calls.
Pop-up menu routine.
Routines for initialising embedded RSC files.
RSC tree walking routine.
C Tim Oren GEM Tutorial. Part 17. PC/ST Resource conv.
Sub-menu source code library.
Simple Database program.
GFA Low Rez formatting program.
STOS Syntax Helper accessory.
MISC Mrten Lindstrm, GEM Guide. Part 4.
Mark Baker, Using SpeedoGDOS. Part 1.
Mag!X fix program for BASIC, Lattice C and DevPac.
Current membership list.
Index for issues 1-27.
In next months issue of ICTARI (this may change) :-
ASSEMBLY Jaguar Pad interface routine.
SpeedoGDOS functions reference guide.
C Lasso function code.
Incremental circle generator code.
Application skeleton code.
GFA GFA Patch program.
Slider puzzle game code.
USA map game code.
STOS Stock controller program.
ACC loader program.
STOS Extensions survey.
MISC Mrten Lindstrm, GEM Guide. Part 5.
Mark Baker, Using SpeedoGDOS. Part 2.
Ralph Lovesy interview.
GEM Bitmap font file format.
MODEM programming and MODEM comparison guide.
Atari Compendium error list.
XAcc protocol information.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL
=========
MEMBERSHIP
----------
We have had three more members join this month with a couple of other
enquiries, welcome to them.
SUB-MENU LIBRARY CODE
---------------------
This month in the C folder we are publishing a set of C functions
which simulate the sub-menu system (and pop-up menus I think) which
should be useful for C users. It would also be useful to have a
machine code version but not being conversant with C, I can't make
much sense of it. It looks as though the programmer has intercepted
(or replaced) the evnt_mult function but I cannot see how it works.
Perhaps a C programmer with some knowledge of machine code could
explain how it works and maybe even provide a machine code equivalent.
I have provided a machine code version of a pop-up menu in the
ASSEMBLY folder although it is not exactly the same as the official
GEM version.
Coincidentally, this months issue of Programmers Forum in ST
Applications also covers sub-menus and pop-up menus.
ST APPLICATIONS
---------------
As subscribers of STA will know by now, this magazine is now being
issued as a disk with the HTML-Browser program which the reader can
use to read the text files. This also has the advantage that images
can be included in the file and viewed with the text. One major snag
is that files cannot be printed out from within the program which
means using a word-processor or DTP program to print the text and
graphics separately. This, in turn, also means having to strip out all
the control codes first which is a pain, perhaps someone could write a
simple program to do this automatically. I have to say that I
preferred STA as a paper magazine and I suspect they will lose
subscribers as a result.
It also appears that the Programmers Forum section by Jon Ellis is
being discontinued which is a shame although presumably he will still
be writing for Atari World magazine.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CORRESPONDENCE
--------------
To: All
From: Michael Harrop
Hi, I am new to programing can anyone please tell me how I can format
a disk using GFA BASIC 3.
*/ Perhaps the format program in the GFA folder will help, see also
issue 23 for the hi-rez version. If they don't help, let us know
exactly what you want. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: David Preston
From: Owen Rogers
There is a STOS file that generates speech for your STOS programs on
Disk LAN.75 from Floppyshop Tel.01224 312756
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Ictari
From: Mrten Lindstrm
ZIP deflation/inflation
-----------------------
Thank you very much indeed for the PNG material in Ictari 27.
Unfortunately the authors apparently have left out the ZIP compression
(both from documentation and from the C library it seems) and instead
refer to a net address where this can be found:-
ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip/ with the interesting documentation in
ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip/doc/zlib-3.1.doc and
ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip/doc/deflate-1.1.doc
If anyone is able to get hold of this, or can provide any other piece
of knowledge on ZIP compression, I would be extremely interested.
To: *.*
Although I have seen mentions about errata for the Atari Compendium
circulating in the public domain, I still haven't got these myself.
Could someone who has please send them in to Ictari for publication?
To: Richard Evans
I don't have NVDI myself but certainly would be interested to see the
free NVDI 3 user's manual that you mention (even if in German).
To: Jim Taylor
Sending VDI graphics output to a printer (or a memory bitmap)
-------------------------------------------------------------
The solution is simply GDOS! - ANY GDOS!
Note (in spite of what others might say): You DON'T need SpeedoGDOS
for anything else other than to use outline fonts. In a CAD program,
the main concern is probably the graphics - not the text - and this
hasn't changed in SpeedoGDOS compared to the oldest GDOS, except that
SpeedoGDOS also offers bezier curves. But bezier curves were available
already with FontGDOS, for instance offered by FaST Club - complete
with all sorts of drivers - for 2.95 (3.15 in Europe outside of the
UK; I didn't discover this until the other day, and have just ordered
a copy myself).
Your idea was to send VDI vector graphics to a bitmap image in memory,
which you could then send to a printer. Well, with GDOS installed you
CAN send VDI output to a memory bitmap, but you can also send it
directly to the printer.
You simply open a (physical) workstation on the printer (or the
virtual memory device) and start sending VDI output to this, as you
would to the screen. Almost all the VDI functions - certainly
including VS_CLIP and all the GDPs - will work the same on any GDOS
device.
The only differences compared to VDI screen output are:
+ You need to check for the existence of GDOS before opening a
workstation on a non-screen device. (With a function VQ_GDOS
or something or by loading #-2 in register D0 and executing a
trap #2, after which any other value than #-2 indicates some
GDOS).
+ The workstation is to be a PHYSICAL workstation opened with
V_OPNWK, rather than V_OPNVWK for a screen virtual
workstation. Before the call you must set WORK_IN[0] (or
intin[0]) to 21, requesting the (first) printer as the device.
(The memory device is #61 - see more in chapter 5 of my GEM
guide). Unlike V_OPNVWK, however, V_OPNWK doesn't need, and
ignores, any input handle.
As with any other GEM work, regardless of destination, you must check
the returned workstation dimensions before proceeding with the output.
(Again see chapter 5 in my GEM guide for some hints on how to scale
VDI output).
V_CLSWK instead of V_CLSVWK is used to close the workstation.
+ Since the printer driver probably won't have a built in system
font, you will need to call VST_LOAD_FONTS before you can
print any graphic text. This function will return the number
of loaded fonts. To select a font you must first call VQT_NAME
taking indexes between 1 and 1+VST_LOAD_FONTS and returning
the ID of each font (index 1 giving a system font ID if there
is one). This ID is input to VST_FONT to set the font.
NOTE: These calls - with GDOS - will work the same on the screen,
which allows the use of beautiful, fully proportional, fonts instead
of the dull mono-spaced system font.
Different sizes of same font (same ID) are set separately with
VST_POINT; e.g. 12 points should give you 66 text lines in 11 inches
regardless of printer type and regardless of whether the font is
bitmapped or outline (provided it is well designed).
+ Finally, on printers - and some other devices - the VDI
drawing commands will not cause anything to be printed
immediately, but are stored as a 'display list' until a call
of V_UPDWK is issued to print the full page.
Before you draw a new page you should call V_CLRWK to clear the
display list and send a form feed to the printer. (V_FORM_ADV or
V_CLEAR_DISP_LIST is used to perform only one of these functions).
To: Ictari
From: Mrten Lindstrm
I think you may be exaggerating the differences and difficulties with
SpeedoGDOS in relation to other versions of GDOS and VDI. The big step
is to convert a non-GEM program to GEM. Once you have produced GEM
code, it should be possible to use pretty much unchanged whether on
screen or printer and whether you use no GDOS (on screen), old GDOS or
even SpeedoGDOS (or for that matter NVDI).
The only real difference between SpeedoGDOS and older versions should,
from an application programmers view, be that some of the fonts may be
outline rather than bitmapped; providing some extra options, but
possible to treat as bitmap fonts too. (The main outline feature being
that every possible text size is always available, whereas each bitmap
size requires a FNT file to be expressly provided).
I believe it to be a very practical approach to start writing a GEM
program for the old GDOS, using bitmap fonts, and then add alternative
code for taking advantage of SpeedoGDOS-specific features where
available. This will also widen the potential user base.
The reason I am making this point is that I would hate to see anyone
being put off from GEM programming just because he doesn't have
SpeedoGDOS himself, or suspects his potential users/customers might
not have.
To: Peter Hibbs
Hard-disk loss of data (Ictari 25)
----------------------
Regarding your bad experiences with GDOS: I have never heard of GDOS
causing loss of data on hard disks. Has anybody else? And since GDOS,
for its file and memory management, uses but trivial GEMDOS calls,
though potentially to a very substantial degree, the only explanation
I can think of is that heavy GEMDOS use somehow pushed your hard-disk
driver or other system component to reveal an otherwise hidden bug.
(For instance I think there was some AHDI version - 3.xx something -
that could cause loss of data under some circumstances. Which ones I
have forgotten).
To: *.*
AMCGDOS
-------
Paging through my old issues of the German 'ST Magazin', I found some
mentions by Julian Reschke about AMCGDOS. In issue 2/90, AMCGDOS is
said to be obtainable and usable free of charge - as long as it is not
used commercially, in which case a 'small' licence fee must be payed
to Atari Germany!
He also describes AMCGDOS as the 'most widespread and full-grown' GDOS
- in Germany beginning of 1990 that is. (v3.20 was then the latest;
we've got v3.21 on Ictari 26). According to him, its error handling is
better than that of the older GDOS and it also allows fonts to be made
resident in the same way as drivers, by specifying an "r" with their
names in ASSIGN.SYS.
At the end of 1992 (ST Magazin 11/92) it seems there existed a version
5 of AMCGDOS, capable of handling Bzier curves (i.e. it should be
FONTGDOS compatible). Whether this version is usable on the same terms
is unclear though. Julian Reschke believed even FontGDOS to be freely
distributable, but FaST Club evidently takes a small fee for it.
If anyone knows anything more, please share!
To: David Preston
SLIDERS IN DIALOGS
------------------
You are absolutely right in suspecting TOUCHEXIT objects to be the key
to this (and to many other types of dialog gadgets).
A slider is simply a TOUCHEXIT box within an ordinary box - the slider
bar. As soon as the user presses the mouse button over the slider
(without having to release it as over an EXIT object) FORM_DO will
return control to your program, returning the object number of the
slider (possibly with bit 15 set to indicate a double click - you
would usually want to clear this bit - AND with $7FFF - before
evaluation).
On establishing that the slider is the object pressed, you simply call
GRAF_SLIDEBOX(tree%,bar,slider,orientation) where "bar" and "slider"
are the object numbers, and orientation = 0 for horizontal or = 1 for
vertical. This function will return when the mouse button is released.
The most "complicated" thing about the slider handling is to translate
the return value of GRAF_SLIDEBOX - a number 0-1000 - into a new X or
Y value for the slider. Once this is done, you write the new value
into the OB_X or OB_Y of the slider object and redraw the bar (and its
child - the slider) through a call of OBJC_DRAW(tree%,bar,2...).
You may also want to change and redraw other objects (such as the file
list in a file selector).
Finally you loop back to FORM_DO!
(Also see chapter 4 of my GEM guide).
To: *.*
BUG IN MY RSC RELOCATING ROUTINE (in Ictari 21)
-----------------------------------------------
I just discovered that I somehow managed to swap the line-order of the
2nd and 3rd last lines (just before the rts) of the assembler routine
RSCREL (Ictari 21), so that the routine will return garbage for an
error code. Just unswap them and accept my apologies!
*/ PNG compression information. We will look into it.
Atari Compendium errors. We did publish a list of errors which was
dated 9-6-94 in issue 11 (in the correspondence section) but we have
now got another version dated 11-1-1993 which seems much more
comprehensive and we will include this one in next months issue.
Hard disk problems with GDOS. I had the problem soon after I purchased
my hard disk several years ago and was still not very conversant with
it. I was trying to install a program which had GDOS supplied, onto
the disk on which GDOS was already installed from a previous program
(Easy Draw I think). I had assumed that the new program would ignore
the part of the installation concerned with GDOS since that was
already there. I can't remember exactly what happened, I probably
clicked on the wrong button or something, but the end result was that
the DESKTOP.INF file on the C drive was corrupted (don't ask me why)
so that when I rebooted to test the new program there were no drive
icons at all on the desk top. It didn't erase any data from the drive
but I could not access anything on the hard drive. Since I still had
Mortimer installed, I used that to copy a DESKTOP.INF file from a
floppy disk back to the C drive which restored the icons after the
next reboot. Ever since then I have been a bit nervous about GDOS
installation programs although I now have SpeedoGDOS installed which
seems OK. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: *.*
From: Pete Bailey
As a new member of the group, I'd just like to say a brief hello to
everyone in general, and to express my appreciation in particular of
Mrten Lindstrm's series on Gem programming. I *thought* I knew my
way around the VDI until I read your article, Mrten! As the happy
owner of a Falcon (as well as an STFM) I've found it very hard to get
hold of up-to-date info on such niceties as the "correct" method of
determining resolution and number of planes. I bought Hisoft's Modern
Atari System Software, but have found it, on the whole, disappointing
(it's probably ok if you have a Hisoft language and can relate the
book's content to Hisoft bindings and associated documentation).
Sadly, I can't afford the Atari Compendium (wife, child and mortgage
to support). It is for much the same reason that I use Sozobon C (it's
free). Are there any other Sozobon users in the group, or am I (as I
suspect) the last of that sad breed in England?
*/ There are quite a large number of C users but most of the
questionnaires don't specify which version of C is being used. See
John Nicholls letter below, you may be able to help him. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: ICTARI
From: Dave Richards
Hello my name is Michael Caine, not a lot of people know that, sorry,
actually my name is Dave Richards but you gotta admit it's a dam good
impression. Anyway I've joined your illustrious club for the
opportunity to exchange a few words, swap ideas, have a general chit
chat with my fellow computer programmers.
I've been programming for about 3/4 years now starting with GFA basic,
dabbling for a while with Pascal, and ending up with Prospero 'C'.
Using 'C' I've only really written straightforward application
programs, I haven't tackled graphics using 'C' at all, so any
help/advice there would be appreciated.
Anyway, the source code I've supplied is my first attempt at a
database program and although this version works there are a few
limitations that I hope, with your help I can improve on. The first is
the number of records that can be loaded from disk, this is fixed and
limited by the define statement at the start of the code, I read
somewhere that there is a way of getting the program to use the free
RAM available to load any size of file, from only 5 records to 5000
(memory permitting) so doing away with any limit altogether, can any
one help me with this.
The menu system used is a little antiquated, having to use the
keyboard and press return is not very user friendly, I'd like to use
the mouse in a point and click affair, again any help would be
appreciated, in fact any suggestions/advice/tips/bank loans to improve
on my humble effort would be received with thanks.
Included also is the compiled program, it only holds 100 addresses and
only searches on the first address field, as you'll see on running
it's a bit rough round the edges but workable. When run for the first
time select create from the menu to enter data and create your first
database file.
You never know, but with a little bit of your help this program could
reach a reasonable standard, it's good to talk, now where have I heard
that before.
*/ We have included the source code and program in the C folder for
members inspection. We would agree (as you suggest) that a program of
this type should really be written using the full GEM facilities with
menu bars, windows, etc. We have published various tutorials (and
still are) on GEM programming in C but it would be far better to
purchase some books on the subject first. We would recommend the
COMPUTE! series as the best, that is the COMPUTE! Technical Reference
Guide for the Atari ST, Volume 1 (VDI), Volume 2 (AES) and Volume 3
(TOS). These books are not cheap (and Vol 1 is now out of print) but
they do cover the GEM in great detail and are written mainly for C
(and assembler) users. With a lot of programmers defecting to the PC
these days, you may be able to pick up second hand copies. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: P Hibbs
From: Johnnie Levon (levonj5@cs.man.ac.uk)
I am a first year student at Manchester Uni and have full Internet
access. I noticed that ICTARI don't seem to have a Web page. How about
if I supplied one with my Dept. account ? That way, anyone searching
the Web for "atari" or "programmer" would find out about ICTARI.
Please tell me what you think ...
*/ I think it would be an excellent idea, let us know the address and
when it is working. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: All
From: Thomas Nilsen
A special bulletin for the ICTARI user group will be available on line
on my BBS within the week. I am working on a new 'permanent bulletin'
area, where among others, ICTARI, Falcon FacTT File and the Norwegian
User Group will be advertised. I'll send you a copy of the bulletin
when I have it ready just to make sure I don't misinform the users
about ICTARI. I hope I can help you 'recruit' a few new members to
ICTARI. There are quite a few programmers in Norway, I know at least 9
myself. I will also do an article about your user group in the one and
only Norwegian diskmag with a user base of around 150 Atari
enthusiasts. Hopefully this will help to promote ICTARI in a non-EEC
country like Norway! One never knows. Is it OK if I make the sources
from each ICTARI issue available for download on my BBS ?
Does anyone have a guidelines on how to open a resource (RSC)
file within a window using assembly? What I want to know is the
steps needed to do such a task, not the entire code (though that
would be nice!). But something like this would be enough...
1. Open VDI Station
2. Open Window
3. RSCS_Load
4. ......
5. ......
*/ Thanks for the advertising on your BBS, we shall see if it brings
in any new members. In the past we have considered sending each months
issue to a BBS or PD Library for general distribution. The problem is
that we rely entirely for the contents of ICTARI on members donations,
if anyone could just get the magazine from another source without
having any contact with us they would probably be less inclined to
send us material which would eventually leave us with nothing to
publish. A reasonable compromise, I think, would be for you to take
say this document file and just one or two of the more interesting
items from the magazine each month for the BBS, with a message
suggesting that the user should register with us to get the complete
disk.
I am not quite sure what you mean about the resource file, presumably
you don't want to load a resource file and display the menu bar since
that is covered in any decent GEM book. I would guess that you want to
open a window and then display a menu bar in the window (such as the
ImageCopy program does), use the various menu options and then close
the window (and menu) which is a bit more difficult. Anyone have any
ideas about this ? ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: ICTARI
From: John E Nicholls.
Many thanks for issue no 27 of your disk magazine. I must admit that
on reading it my first feeling was one of slight disappointment, as
it contained absolutely nothing of any use to an absolute beginner
such as myself.
I know nothing of programming whatsoever, and am at a loss to know
where to start. I am not completely new to computers, but have used
mine mainly as a front end to a small litho printing business.
Now I would like to move into programming. I have GFA basic 2, but
the manual consists almost entirely of lists of commands, so I
can't really make much of a start there.
I have several books on C, but have discovered that far from being
a universal language, some programs work with one compiler, and
some with others. I also have the Sozobon compiler, but can't
figure out how to make it compile anything.
I also have HiSoft C, but am reluctant to start learning that as it
does not compile and appears to use its own symbols which prevent its
transfer to a compiler such as Prospero, which is another I have,
though I have no documentation or tutorials for this.
My aims in programming? I would like, ultimately, to be able to
construct a suitable data base for the writing of text adventure
games; something along the lines of the Professional Adventure Writer
program that was available for the Spectrum.
So, where do I start? Should I dispose of my present mishmash of
programs and buy something new?
I would be pleased to purchase an up to date compiler such as Lattice
C, or GFA Basic 3 if I could be reasonably certain that I would make
good progress with it. Or should I, as a complete beginner, start
by learning to program in something like ST Basic? Any advice will
be much appreciated.
*/ Well I certainly would NOT go for ST Basic, you will soon discover
its limitations. As a Machine Programmer I am probably not qualified
to give accurate advice but I'm going to anyway. I would suggest that
your choices would be between C, GFA Basic and HiSoft Basic 2 or maybe
even STOS.
If you opt for C I suppose HiSoft's Lattice C would be best as there
is quite a lot of documentation provided with the software, however, I
think this language is very difficult for "an absolute beginner" to
start with. I tried it once and eventually gave up in frustration.
Also you don't mention whether you have a hard disk which is essential
for using C (and pretty essential for most other languages, come to
that).
I don't know much about GFA Basic although I would guess that Version
3 is better than version 2. Judging by some of the excellent programs
that have been written in GFA Basic, I think that it is a very
powerful language although I don't like the non GEM editor very much
but I guess one would get used to it. I haven't seen the manual for
GFA 2 and I don't know if there is a manual for GFA 3, perhaps our GFA
experts would like to comment on this. In issues 12, 14 and 15 we
published a GFA BASIC 3 manual by Han Kempen (also available from PD
Libraries) which, although very comprehensive, is more of a reference
book than a tutorial. In issue 3 we also published a GFA tutorial for
beginners which may help. If anyone knows of any GFA books which would
be useful to a beginner, please let us know.
HiSoft Basic 2 is a good Basic and it can use the GEM calls but it is
not very well supported, we have very few members who use it.
STOS may be suitable for your Adventure game project but if you wanted
to go on to more serious programs later which need a GEM interface and
GDOS printing, etc, you would be better using one of the above
languages.
You mentioned that you were disappointed with the lack of beginners
articles in the last issue. Obviously we can only publish what members
send in to us although we have published some beginner orientated
material in the past. If you let us know what you want we will publish
any requests and maybe someone will provide a suitable reply, there
are actually several members who also profess to be beginners. Bear in
mind, however, that we are also trying to cater for all levels of
competence in several programming languages and it is not easy to
please everybody all of the time. If any member would like to comment
on which language would be best for a beginner and what sort of
articles we should try and publish we would be interested to hear from
you. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: ICTARI Members
From: John Watson
May I introduce myself. I am a new member of your group, who has been
dabbling in Basic programming for some time. I hope to improve !
I have only the PD (version 2) of GFA Basic. The set of tutorial
classes by Tom Hayslett and the tutorial GFAXPERT by Han Kempen. I
would very much welcome ANY tutorial documents, Hints'n'Tips, Program
source code, Procedures etc. that anyone would be kind enough to
supply relating to Basic especially GFA. I will gladly provide
S.S.A.E's and Replacement Disks. My address will (hopefully) be in
the Members list on this issue.
In my efforts to learn I have cobbled together a simple text editor, I
now want to learn how to use multiple windows, editable dialogue boxes
and much more about GEM, the VDI and AES. Most of the material I have
read on this subject seems geared to the "C" language, and books on
Basic end where things begin to get interesting.
*/ Again, as the previous letter mentioned, there does seem to be a
lack of detailed information (and practical examples) on how to use
GFA Basic with GEM. Mrten Lindstrms excellent series on GEM does
cover GFA Basic (as well as C and machine code) although perhaps this
may be a bit too advanced for a beginner, let us know what you think.
Does anyone know of any other beginners tutorials on this subject (or
would like to write one). ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Anyone who happens to be reading this!
From: David Seaman
Question one: Why are there so few STOSers in ICTARI
seemingly, from the amount of STOS code that (doesn't) appear in
ICTARI?
Question two: Does anyone know where to get hold of a game called
"Wormhole 2" which apparently was given free to people registering
"Wormhole 1". The game was by Mobius Strip from Glasgow. To quote
the letter I got when I recently tried to register my copy, my
payment and letter were returned as the PO Box no longer existed.
Does anyone out there know anything about it? If you do, then please
write to Mr Alan Beal, 84 Palmer Road, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 3RN. His
phone number is 01603-484675. Many thanks.
Question three: Does anyone have a Punjabi font in Postscript format
and/or any other format and a program to convert it to
Postscript format? Please contact me!
*/ There are actually 15 members who have declared an interest in STOS
including Scott Stringer from New Zealand who states on his
questionnaire that he is a "heavy STOS user" which presumably means
that he uses STOS a lot and not that he is overweight. Anyway, we
would be happy to publish more STOS source code if any members would
like to send in something that would be of interest to other STOS
programmers. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: *.*
From: David Preston
Only one question this time - in STOS, regarding the built-in file
selector, is there a way of telling if the Cancel button was pressed
as opposed to Ok without a filename? Where the AES file selector
returns the path($), the filename($) and a flag(%) denoting the button
causing the exit, the STOS equivalent only returns the filename($),
and while you can read the path (DIR$), I would like to simulate
reading the button as well.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: STOS Users
From: Martin Cubitt
EXTRA EXTENSION UPDATE (19.10.1995)
If you own STOS BASIC then you will also need the STOS extensions that
make STOS the best version of BASIC on the Atari computer. This
includes the EXTRA extension which gives you many utility-based
commands as well as a fair number of graphic commands.
Many of you may have versions up to and including 2.10 which were
public domain. However, to get the most out of this command you will
need to purchase the latest version. Currently at version 3.00 the
extension is soon to be upgraded to version 3.02. There will be at
least three new commands to version 3.00. A nominal upgrade fee will
be charged to those people who own version 3.00. The new version will
be available from Top Byte software (3 Salisbury Avenue, Maidstone,
Kent ME14 2TY) soon. Place your order today!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: ICTARI
From: Jim Taylor
Many thanks for the suggestion to use SpeedoGDOS in conjunction with
my drafting program MultiCAD. This sounds like an excellent way of
solving the problem. I am, however, going to have to wait for your
articles on SpeedoGDOS since I have no knowledge of this software
whatsoever.
In the meantime I would still need to know how to solve the problem in
the way I initially described. By implementing both solutions I would
then be able to offer both facilities to users of MultiCAD. Also I
would then have learned two new interesting aspects of the Atari
system.
*/ If you do convert your CAD program to use GDOS, we would be very
interested to hear how you got on, what sort of problems you had, etc.
I have used MultiCAD which is very good and would like to have a copy
of an updated GDOS version. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: *.*
From: Martyn Wells
Hi, I was wondering if anybody can help. I have an Atari SH205 20meg
hard drive which uses the DMA interface connector and I am thinking
of getting a CD rom which uses a SCSI 1 connector. Will I still be
able to use the hard drive when I have the CD connected or will I have
to also get a new hard drive with a SCSI connector?
I also have read the last few disks about using GDOS to print out
screen displays but I think I must be a bit thick, I thought you could
just move the screen address to GDOS and it would print it for you?
Maybe you can help, can you give an idiots guide to GDOS please.
*/ Maybe Mark Baker could answer the GDOS question and hopefully his
SpeedoGDOS article will help. Also see Mrten Lindstrms GEM Guide
which covers GDOS next month. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: David Preston
From: Adrian Lovatt
The main aim of my toolkit is to provide facilities for games and demo
coders, GEM would not really be suitable for these tasks. I must also
mention the fact that BASIC2 users have access to the HISOFT GEM
TOOLKIT which is a very comprehensive system for using GEM from Basic,
the code however is copyright so the only way to obtain it is to
upgrade to BASIC2.
Another option is the toolkit that ATARI REVIEW published in their
basic tutorial, this was written by OFIR GAL and was based on the
HISOFT toolkit, it does require a couple of modifications to work with
Power Basic and because the magazine folded before the series ended it
is not a complete system, however I can supply the modified version to
ICTARI.
As to the question of compatability, a program written in Power Basic
will run in BASIC2, however, there will be problems going the other
way around, BASIC2 has many new features which are not available to
Power Basic, a list of some is shown here :-
+ Much improved editor.
+ Faster compilation, and pre-tokenising to speed up compilation.
+ Special version of MONST for BASIC.
+ STE/DMA sound routines.
+ Easier desk accessory system.
+ Static arrays, which don't move in memory.
+ Environment variable support.
+ Cookie jar support.
+ SPEEK/SPOKE direct access to supervisor memory.
There are many differences in some of the commands from Power Basic
and many new commands. My personal belief is that an upgrade will be
well worth the money.
To: Richard Evans
The program is in the /MISC/MAGIC folder, but please read the
MAGIXFIX.TXT file before using the program as I'm not sure that it is
the one you need.
*/ I see that Atari World magazine are giving away the HiSoft BASIC2
program complete with Compiler but no manual (worth 60) to
subscribers of the December issue of the magazine so if you need a
copy it would be well worth ordering the magazine by post. ICTARI /*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: ICTARI
From: Lars Andersson
I would like to learn programming in STOS. I have an old version (2.6)
with a manual, the problem is that I own an Atari TT030 and I have to
run the program through STOS FIX so I can move the mouse pointer. Also
the Sprite Editor doesn't work as it should (it works fine on my sons
STE). Are there any versions of STOS available that are compatible
with the TT or is there any other solution to the problem.
*/ Can any STOS users help ? ICTARI /*
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