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Ictari Issue 10
ICTARI USER GROUP ISSUE #10 May 1994
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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. 0425-474415
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INDEX FOR ISSUE 10
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FOLDER SUBJECT
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ASSEMBLY Complete set of floating point arithmetic routines.
Routine to read command line text string.
The event_multi 'right button' problem solved at last.
Twist scroll program, updated version.
C Boink, a Break-out type game with source code.
The event_multi 'right button' problem solved at last.
GFA Code to read command line on TTP programs.
GEM Window handling routines.
Colour scroller routines.
Corrections to bit maps article (see issue 8).
PASCAL Pipe monitor. Displays AES messages.
STOS Moving block puzzle game.
MISC Atari Explorer Online Programmers Journal Issue 2.
Various GEM bugs discussed.
Program to display active GEM/TOS/BIOS/AES/VDI calls.
The LZW and GIF compression algorithms explained.
Membership list.
Index for issues 1-9.
In next months issue of ICTARI (this may change) :-
ASSEMBLY Conversion of number to binary string.
Conversion of number to hex string.
Binary to decimal conversion routine.
Decimal to binary conversion routine.
Routine to input hex number from keyboard.
Chip music playing routines.
Auto folder time set routine.
C GEM Tutorial by J White. Part 1. Introduction.
Porting IBM PC RSC/Doodle to Atari GEM.
Floating dialogue library for Lattice C.
GFA Circles and spheres code.
Picture image cutter and saver program.
PASCAL Program to display boolean expressions as a Karno map.
STOS Number guessing game that talks to you.
MISC Blitter Chip manual.
Click anywhere title box using Resource File editor.
For future issues :-
Polyline drawing routines in machine code.
Bezier curve drawing routines.
Picture decompression routines for IMG, Degas, Tiny, PCX, PAC, etc.
Picture compression routine for IMG pictures.
HP DeskJet/LaserJet compression routines (Mode 2 TIFF).
Using the Xbtimer chip.
Tutorial for using GEM commands from machine code and C.
Playing sound samples on non STE machines.
Picture switching techniques.
VBL queue information.
Printer driver code for printing mono/colour images.
Sprite tutorial and code.
Complete GFA Basic manual.
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EDITORIAL
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MEMBERSHIP
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As a result of our adverts in MicroMart magazine we have had ten
enquiries and 4 new members so far. Please send in more MicroMart
advert pages to us if you don't need them. We have also had four new
members as a result of other letters sent to various User Groups and we
would like to welcome them. ST Format have mentioned the group in this
months issue of the magazine which may bring in more members. Total
membership (excluding the committee) is now 33 members.
We don't like to keep nagging but were are going to anyway. Would
members who prefer to send us a disk each month PLEASE return them
BEFORE the 10th of next month otherwise it entails a lot of work for us
in the few days before publication on the 17th. If you decide to cancel
your membership (heaven forbid) we would appreciate it if you would let
us know so that we don't waste time and phone calls trying to find out
what you want. Also, if you do send in a disk, please put a short
letter on it for the correspondence section, just a note on what you
would like to see, not like to see, programming problem, etc, etc. If
we don't get ANY feedback we might feel that we are not providing what
members want. Also we still need programming articles or routines,
especially in C, GFA and STOS so if you have anything which may be of
interest to other members, please send it in to us. You can always ring
us first on the number above if you are not sure if it will be of use
or if it has been done before.
LZW GIF Compression
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On this disk is a useful document file explaining the LZW and GIF
compression formats. Unfortunately, as far as we are concerned, it is
written in a foreign language, double dutch. Would anybody care to have
a go at writing some code which can convert files from or to this
format for general use.
DOCUMENTATION
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We are planning a number of tutorial type articles for future issues in
which diagrams could be used to explain various points. Obviously with
a pure ASCII text file it is very difficult to draw a diagram or
display a picture and trying to use just the ASCII line characters is
not very satisfactory. We would, therefore, like to explore the
possibility of incorporating images in these document files.
There are two main alternatives :-
1. Use a pure ASCII format for the text as we do now and provide any
pictures as .IMG files separately so that the reader can make up his
own printed document using whatever Word-processor/DTP program he uses.
2. Publish the article in a Word-processor format which can store
images and which all members can use. Possible programs would be First
Word Plus, Write-On, Thats-Write, Redacteur and Calligrapher. Of these
we would think Calligrapher would be favourite since it was given away
free on the Atari ST Review cover disk (Issue 24) and should,
therefore, be available to most members. One problem with this program
is that the printing is abysmally slow, even on our Laser printer.
Would all members please let us know when they send their disk back for
next months issue or if you have already paid for next month perhaps
you would drop us a postcard or ring us. If we don't get a unanimous
decision on any Word-processor we will probably go for option 1.
Incidentally if you send in a text file and you have access to Protext
it would help us if you could send it to us in Protext format. If you
don't have Protext then you can send it in ASCII format as usual. We
try, where possible, to format text files with a 4 character left
margin (so that the print-outs can be stored in ring binders without
making holes in the text) and with the right margin set to 75 so that
text editors that have a scroll bar on the right side of the screen can
still show the whole line.
TWIST SCROLL PROGRAM
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In issue 9 we provided a Twist Scroll program (in M/C) which failed to
work on machines with more than 1Mb of memory and Ian Hancock (alone)
kindly fixed it to work properly. We have included it again in case
anyone would like to use it and, perhaps, to improve it still further.
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CORRESPONDENCE
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To *.*
From Peter Hibbs
Does anyone have any information on writing CPX accessory programs (for
XCONTROL) in machine code. There were a number published on a recent
cover disk which were quite useful but some were in German and I think
it would be useful to write some additional ones. The 'Atari
Compendium' book does have a shell CPX program but it is all in C, a
machine code version of this would be handy, if it is possible.
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To *.*
From Ian Hancock [morf]
QUESTION: Is anyone interested in a program which converts spectrum
emulator SNAP (SNA) files back into sound signals for recording onto
tape. These can then be loaded back into the spectrum !!! If you are
let ICTARI know and I'll send in the code - Oh yeah it's STE ONLY.
Currently it won't convert snaps which use IM 2 on the speccy. I don't
know why at the moment either : By the way the code is VERY untidy -
I'm pretty ashamed of it. Just wondered ?
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To *.*
From Steve Gale
I am writing a simple text editor in machine code (Hi Rez) which uses
the normal mouse arrow cursor AND the VT52 flashing block text cursor.
The problem is that whenever the mouse cursor is moved over the text
cursor the text cursor block gets corrupted until it is moved. Is there
any way of avoiding this or will I have to write my own cursor flashing
routine and if so how.
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To ICTARI
From Kevin Preece
Have you considered advertising in ST Applications, a magazine for
serious users, published by the ST Club.
*/ We have sent STA details of ICTARI and they have promised to publish
a full page article about the group sometime. ICTARI /*
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To *.*
From Dick Teuber
I would like to write a program which uses a Resource File but I don't
want it as a separate file on the disk. Does anyone know how to
incorporate the .RSC file within a program in C or machine code.
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TO: Nick Bates
FROM: Ian Baker
> Everyone wants to make sure their programs are compatible
with other machines and all TOS versions, does anyone have any
general rules to follow in order to ensure compatibility - particularly
with the Falcon ?
Your program should either be a full GEM application or use text only,
otherwise it will not work with MultiTOS.
Get the screen size from the VDI, do not assume it is a standard size
and do not use Getrez().
Our Family Tree program worked unchanged on the Falcon and with
SpeedoGDOS. It needed a change for MultiTOS due to a silly mistake in
programming, when -1 was passed instead of 1. Standard TOS only
recognised 0 and not 0, whereas -1 meant something to MultiTOS, a
function extension we did not mean to call. Check parameters to O/S
calls.
Generally the compatibility is excellent.
TO: All
FROM: Mark Baker
The article on Pexec was interesting, but incomplete. Under
MiNT/MultiTOS six more modes were added.
Modes 100, 104 and 106 work like modes 0, 4 and 6 respectively, but
asynchronously (ie. multitasking). I can't remember now how you get the
child's return value since obviously Pexec returns before the child
finishes.
Modes 200, 204 and 206 work like modes 0, 4 and 6 respectively but are
for overlays, they remove your program from memory and run the new one.
Therefore they never return.
However if you intend to write programs for MultiTOS the shel_write AES
call has been extended - it now works for one thing - and launches
programs correctly, with TOS programs under miniwin or toswin and GEM
programs running as if launched from the desktop.
*/ Thanks for the update, if anyone has more info on writing programs
that are compatible with the modern Operating Systems we would be
pleased to hear about them. ICTARI /*
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