Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
AtariST developers: Question and Answer Bulletin - May 1986
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| AAA TTTTT AAA RRRR III **** SSS TTTTT |
| A A T A A R R I **** S S T |
| A A T A A R R I **** S T |
| AAAAA T AAAAA RRRR I ****** SSS T |
| A A T A A R R I ** ** ** S T |
| A A T A A R R I ** ** ** S S T |
| A A T A A R R III ** ** ** SSS T |
| |
| DDDD EEEEE V V EEEEE L OOO PPPP EEEEE RRRR SSS |
| D D E V V E L O O P P E R R S S |
| D D E V V E L O O P P E R R S |
| D D EEEE V V EEEE L O O PPPP EEEE RRRR SSS |
| D D E V V E L O O P E R R S |
| D D E V V E L O O P E R R S S |
| DDDD EEEEE V EEEEE LLLLL OOO P EEEEE R R SSS |
| |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Question and Answer Bulletin May 1986
Copyright (C) 1986 by Atari Corp. "all rights reserved"
1196 Borregas Ave., Sunnyvale, Ca. 94086
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here are the latest questions from the Atari developers mailbag
as answered by John Feagans, Director of Software Technology.
Leave questions on Compuserve for PIN 70007,1072 or GO PCS57 for
Atari developer SIG information.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This months contents
1 Corrections
2 BIOS
3 DOS
4 VDI
5 AES
6 LOGO
7 Development tools
8 New On Compuserve
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Corrections. None.
2. BIOS
Q: Are nulls deleted by TOS when communicating over the RS-232
port?
A: When you write a communications package it is important to
use the raw-unprocessed BIOS conin instead of a higher level
which may intercept control characters including control-C.
There is no reason for nulls to be deleted.
Q: How do Europeans access the special characters in the Atari
character set?
A: The Atari character set is standard in all models of the ST
around the world. There are special versions of TOS for each
country which contain resources translated to the local language
and keyboard translation tables which decode the scan codes to
the character codes. The scan codes are always the same for the
same key positions because the IKBD controller is the same in all
models. The legends on the keys in those positions may vary by
country. Some countries have a dead-key function driver which is
in the auto folder at boot time. This driver installs in Trap 13
and monitors Bconin for the pressing of an accent mark. When the
next vowel is pressed, the correct character code is generated
for the application software.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
3. DOS
Q: How can I prevent alert boxes from printing when I get a DOS
error?
A: See the BIOS function setexc(vecnum,vec). Vecnum is the
number of the vector to get or set. Vec is the address to setup
in the vector slot else a get is performed if the value is -1L.
Vecnum $101 is the critical error handler. Insert your own
routine there and the alert boxes will cease printing. Be sure
to restore the old vector when you are finished.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
4. VDI
Q: What is the 6 x 6 font used for?
A: The smallest font is used for labeling icons in medium and
high resolution.
5. AES
Q: How can I access the menu from a desk accessory?
A: There is no way that this can be done. Menu messages are
given to the desktop program (or currently running application
that generated the menu. You could generate your own pseudo menu
in your window but you would have to do everything yourself.
Q: Do you need more than one resource file in your program so
that multiple resolutions are handled correctly?
A: It is only necessary to design one resource. The RCS stores
all the object positions and width and height in terms of byte
aligned character coordinates. When the file is loaded by the
rsrc_load function, the x and width parameters are multiplied by
the current global character width and the y and height by the
current global character height. Thus all the numbers are
adjusted to the current resolution you are working in.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
6. LOGO
Q: Are SETWRITE and SETREAD working?
A: These functions are currently un-implemented in ST Logo.
Q: How can a user define his own fill pattern?
A: The example in the Logo manual has a typo. You must define
16 and not 15 values as shown to make the fill pattern work. The
last value reads "1280" and should be "128 0".
-----------------------------------------------------------------
7. Development Tools
Q: How do I increase the stack size in gemstart?
A: In the file gemstart.s you will find a comment about
allocating 1k of stack space next to an add.l #500,d0. $100 is
allocated for the base page and $400 (1k bytes) is allocated for
the stack. To increase the stack to 2k, make the number $900.
Assemble this module and link the resulting object. There is an
interesting point to be made about the C run time library
function malloc here. malloc allocates space off this stack. A
new and improved gemstart will be available soon to allow you to
malloc more than 1k. Keep in mind that this malloc is not Malloc,
the DOS function. The latter Malloc works fine if you have
previously done an Mshrink to return unused memory to the
operating system.
Q: My program to spawn processes get the message "Not enough
free store." What is happening?
A: Sounds like you did not do an Mshrink to give memory back to
the DOS when your first program started running. (This was
verified later in the thread.)
Q: How do you get wild cards to work in Kermit?
A: You must enclose the file name in quotes.
Q: How do you make the menu box below the title in the RCS
larger?
A: Point the mouse at the lower right hand corner and drag the
box to the desired size.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
8. New On Compuserve
In data library 7 (for registered Atari Developers only) in the
Atari Developers SIG on Compuserve, the following files are new
this month:
lo68.prg the other linker program
ahdi.prg rev 5 hard disk driver.
hdx.prg hard disk partitioner.
hdx.rsc
wincap
ship.prg hard disk head parking.
invite.let UK show announcement.
newfrm.doc form_button documentation.
ctype.o character typing module.
f2s.doc ROM making software.
f2s.prg
glue.doc
glue.prg
send.prg
end
math.h C header file support
string.h
qa3.doc previous Q/A bulletin.
