*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=***=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Syndicate ZMagazine ||| Issue #132 November 20. 1988 *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=^^^=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* HOT Atari News and Reviews -FALL COMDEX REPORT- (C)1988 Syndicate Publishing Company Publisher/Editor: Ron Kovacs Post Office Box 74 Middlesex, NJ 08846-0074 _______________________________________________________________________ Conveyance via PayBax BBS, Wilmington, DE 302-731-5558 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%] CONTENTS [%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% (*) Editors Desk..............Ron Kovacs (*) ZMAG Newswire.............Ron Kovacs (*) Atari Comdex Report..........D. Pine (*) Commodore Comdex Report............. (*) I Touched The Turbo 8/16....Tom Hunt (*) Dataque Update...............Dataque (*) DeTerm Update.............Jim Dillow (*) How To Use SuperUnarc............... _______________________________________________________________________ Editors Desk by Ron Kovacs Effective November 17, 1988: ST-Report Magazine is no longer affiliated with ZMagazine. ST-REport is now under the control of ST-Report Inc. For the last 4-5 months Ralph Mariano has been solely responsible for the content of ST-Report. What began as my solo project, ST-Report became a joint venture in June 1988. Since that time, my involvement with ST- Report has steadily declined to a non-active status. With my status as non-participant, I can neither comment nor defend ST- Report in the midst of several controversies surrounding it. I take this opportunity to formalize the separation of ZMagazine and ST-Report, a separation which has been informal for some time. Please direct questions of ST-Report solely to Ralph Mariano. ZMagazine will continue to provide weekly online magazines as we have been for the last 3 years. _______________________________________________________________________ ZMAG Newswire Compiled by Ron Kovacs Anti-Virus Law Proposed in Michigan Michigan state lawmakers are considering a proposal that would impose penalties against anyone convicted of creating or spreading computer viruses. This proposal came to light based on the virus attack earlier this month on military and research computers linked by ARPANET and other computer networks. Luckily, this virus did not cause any damage other than down time to all involved. Comdex Opens As stated in the top of this weeks edition, we are covering Comdex related news in most of the article presented this week. Comdex opened last week celebrating it's 10th anniversary, with a speaker stating a -customer revolt- is changing the computer industry. More than 100,000 people attended, making this the biggest Comdex showing to date. Some 1,700 companies exhibited with displays covering 1.75 million square feet. NeXt Computer Finds Site Steve Jobs' 170-employee NeXT Inc. has picked Redwood City, Calif., a site on the San Francisco Bay, for its new, expanded headquarters. NeXt which announced its first computer last month, has signed a five-year lease with an option until 1999 for 164,000 square feet of new office and research and development space. The site will include six one- and two-story buildings constructed on a landfill area known as Seaport Centre. Atari's Holiday Promotion Hoping to regain superiority in the video game market, Atari has unveiled a holiday promotion that offers free game cartridges to buyers of Atari video game systems and software. The -Atari Holiday Bonus Software Program- lets consumers who purchase an Atari 2600 or 7800 game system between November 21 and December 31 receive a bonus of two free game cartridges direct from Atari. Current game system owners who buy any two Atari game cartridges during that time will get one cartridge free. Through December 31, Atari is offering a $50 consumer rebate on the purchase of the Atari XE. In addition, the company will continue to offer consumers prizes for buying Atari games through the -Atari Advantage Collector Program.- Consumers who buy five games can receive a free Atari Advantage T-shirt. Those who purchase 15 games will receive one free cartridge. Consumers who buy 25 games are entitled to a reduced price on an Atari 7800 or XE game system or peripheral, plus a chance for the Atari Advantage Grand Prize -- a seven-day expense-paid trip for two to California. (MICHTRON Update): GFA Systemtechnik informed MichTron in September that they intended to begin marketing all their products, world wide, by themselves. GFA was going to start a new company in the USA called GFA U.S.A. Hearing this, HiSoft approached MichTron about publishing their products in the United States. After evaluating HiSoft BASIC and DevpacST, MichTron felt that these products were superior to the GFA products, and signed an agreement to publish several HiSoft products on both the ST and the Amiga. Recently GFA's efforts to open a U.S. office were delayed. MichTron will continue to sell and support GFA products, including GFA BASIC, until such time as GFA U.S.A. is established. DevpacST Version 2.0, the world famous assembler for the Atari ST, will be launched by MichTron on December 1st at a price of $99.95. HiSoft BASIC, an extremely powerful Microsoft and ST BASIC compatible BASIC Compiler, will be released on December 1st at a price of $79.95. HiSoft Power BASIC, an enhanced version of HiSoft BASIC for the serious programmer, with debugging tools and extended libraries will be introduced December 15th at a price of $159.95. As a special offer, any owner of GFA BASIC will be able to purchase a copy of either HiSoft BASIC or Power BASIC at 1/2 price. Further details of this offer will be announced later. Gordon Monnier, President, MichTron Inc. ______________________________________________________________________ Atari Comdex Report Part 1 Copyright 1988 Darlah J. Pine. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Comdex Overview: A Wealth of Items to Report On By Darlah J. Pine and Sandy Wilson Comdex is an exciting time of the year for the computer industry. Darlah's excitement started when she packed her hard drive the morning she was to depart. -I always wonder if Comdex will be worth it this year, if I should have gone,- she said. -It turns out this year it was well worth the trip.- Though Atari was in the Gold Room away from direct activity, there was a steady stream of people milling in the room. [The stream may get heavier tomorrow. Rumor has it that Fleetwood Mac will be playing in the Atari booth Wednesday, November 16.] We will try to fill you in on everything that was at the show though we probably won't remember it all. Atari didn't show any new machines except for a glimpse the day before of the portable, but there was a tremendous number of items to see. Atari Corporation was showing Microsoft Write again as well as Ultrascript. Ultrascript is a Postscript-compatible interpreter used for printing files with the Atari Mega and Atari Laser only at this time. For now, you have to save the file to disk in Postscript format and then run Ultrascript. Softlogik is looking into bypassing this extra step in order to send directly to the laser. Ultrascript should be available in early 1989. No suggested retail price was available. There were several desktop publishing programs being shown. Softlogik was showing its just-released Pagestream, and Timeworks was showing its full line of products with nothing new. Atari was showing Deskset, its high-end desktop publishing program. Though being displayed, it still needed final touches and the manual was not even off to the printer. Guesstimate for arrival on the market is -real soon now.- We all know what that means. Calamus, from ISD Marketing, will be shipping immediately after Comdex. As an avid user of Pagemaker, Darlah was impressed to note the similarities and differences. In a recent article in Personal Publishing Magazine, users were asked for their wishlist for Pagemaker. The amazing thing is that Calamus has four out of five things on that wishlist. -In my opinion,- Darlah said, -this is a must-have product. I have to admit that I am sorry now for not waiting for this product before jumping on the bandwagon to buy Pagemaker at a much higher cost.- Suggested retail is $299. As previously mentioned, there was very little in the way of new hardware from Atari, but there was a bit of confusion. Atari showed a rather large, very alpha laptop computer for a very large lap indeed. Or at least that's what was displayed the day before the show. At the last minute, it was taken out of view. A couple of days later, though, Darlah happened to see a more truly laptop-size model being shown privately to someone over in a corner. We don't know whether it was a working machine or a model, but it raised the possibility that a true laptop is on the way. There were three transputers up and running, with an occasional demo from the stage. The PC-4 and the PC-5 were also being displayed with no new information regarding when they would reach the market in the U.S. [Ed. Next week we will continue this article with information on: JRI, Neriki, Navarone and more....] _______________________________________________________________________ Commodore COMDEX Report COMMODORE INTRODUCES THE AMIGA 2000HD Las Vegas, November 15, 1988 - Commodore Business Machines, Inc. today introduced the Amiga 2000HD to address the needs of the professional Amiga user. This extension of the Amiga series, builds on the Amiga 2000 base unit which comes standard with 1 'MB of RAM and a single 3.5 inch floppy disk drive. Specific Amiga 2000HD enhancements include a pre-configured, high performance 40 MB hard disk drive; the A2090A autoboot hard disk controller; and Kickstart v. 1.3 and Workbench v 1.3 system software. The open architecture design of the Amiga 2000HD allows extensive internal expansion with the multi-processor, multi-DOS options. Contained in the Amiga 2000HD are seven full-size expansion slots which include a combination of Amiga, standard PC XT/AT and dual purpose slots; a CPU expansion slot for 68020 and/or math-co-processor boards and a video expansion slot. In addition, the Amiga 2000HD features custom sound, animation and graphics chips, a detachable 94-key keyboard with separate numeric keypad, ten function keys and a two-button optomechanical mouse. The Commodore Amiga 2000HD will be available through authorized Commodore Amiga dealers and has a suggested retail price of $2,999. COMMODORE INTRODUCES AMIGA WITH 68020 Las Vegas, November 15, 1988 - Commodore Business Machines, Inc. today introduced the Amiga 2500 designed for the needs of graphics, animation and video professionals. Based on the original Amiga 2000 introduced a year ago, the Amiga 2500 is configured with an A2620/2 co-processor card that comes standard with the Motorola 68020 praocessor, 2 MB of 32-bit RAM (expandable to 4 MB) and a 68881 math-co-processor. These high-performance features enable the new Amiga system to perform at the workstation-level speeds required by many of the new second genertion graphics based Amiga applications. Standard on the Commodore Amiga 2500 is a Motorola 68020-based co-processor card (A2620/2) running at 14.26 MHz with 2 MB of 32-bit RAM, (expandable to 4 MB of 32-bit RAM); a built-in 3.5 inch floppy disk drive; a pre-configured, high performance 40 MB hard disk drive and hard disk controller; custom sound, animation and graphics chips; RS232 serial and parallel connectors; and two RCA-type audio output jacks. Also available is an MS-DOS compatible bridgeboard allowing the Commodore Amiga to run MS-DOS compatible software under Amiga control. The Commodore Amiga 2500 will be available through authorized Commodore Amiga dealers and has a suggested retail price of $4,699. COMMODORE ANNOUNCES U.S. ENTRY INTO THE PC/AT MARKETPLACE Las Vegas, November 15, 1988 -- Commodore Business Machines, Inc., today introduced the PC40-III [tm], the latest addition to its Professional Series III line of MS-DOS computers. The PC40-III targets the business and education professional who needs a fast, expandable computer that provides maximum performance while retaining compatibility with a wide variety of application sofatware. The AT-compatible PC40-III features a 12 MHz 80286 microprocessor, with 1 MB of RAM, 256K of video display RAM and IBM VGA-compatible video and graphics modes. Storage includes a 1.2 MB 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, a 19 millisecond 40 MB high-performance hard disk driave and an optional 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. The unit includes built-in parallel, serial and mouse ports and a clock/calendar with battery back-up. When used in conjunction with the Commodore 1352 mouse the PC40-III offers compatibility with Microsoft [R] mouse software. The PC40-III features an enhanced 101-key keyboard with a numeric keypad and a security lock for keypad lock-out. The Professional Series III line of MS-DOS computers was introduced to the U.S. market in May, 1988. The series also includes the XT-compatible PC10-III [tm] and PC20-III [tm]. The PC40-III will be available through authorized Commodore Professional Series III dealers and has a suggested retail price of $2,395 without a monitor and $2,595 with the Commodore Model 1403 monochrome VGA monitor. Product Comparison ------------------ Commodore PC40-III IBM (R) PS/2 [TM] 30/286 ------------------ ------------------------ CPU - Type 80286, 1 wait state 80286, 1 wait state - Clock Speed 12 MHz (6,8,12) 10 MHz - Co-Processor 80287 (optional 80287 (optional) MEMORY - RAM 1 MB Standard 512K Standard - System Maximum 16 MB 16 MB INPUT/OUTPUT PORTS - RS232 1 built-in 1 built-in - Centronics Parallel 1 built-in 1 built-in - Mouse Interface 1 built-in 1 built-in INTERNAL STORAGE - Standard 1 1.2 MB 5.25- fdd 1 1.44 MB 3.5- fdd 1 40 MB hd (19 ms) 1 20 MB hd (80 ms) - Optional 1 1.44MB 3.5- fdd or additional 5.25- fdd or streaming tape drive - Total Capacity 2 Fdd (or one fdd and 1 fdd, 1 hd one other device) plus hd simultaneously EXPANDABILITY 4 total slots: 3 slots: 3 PC/AT 16 bit and 3 PC/AT 16 bit 1 XT 8 bit VIDEO VGA built-in VGA built-in plus hardware compatible MDA/Hercules and CGA modes; 132x43 & 132x25 text modes on a VGA monitor OPERATING SYSTEM MSDOS (R) 3.3 included None included KEYBOARD 101/102 Enhanced AT 101/102 Enhanced AT POWER SUPPLY 112 Watts 90 Watts Size W 14.0- D 15.5- H 5.6- W 16- D 15.6- H 4- 21.9 lbs. 19 lbs. Price $2,395 $2,595 including MS-DOS and plus cost of GS BASIC operating system. _______________________________________________________________________ I Touched a Turbo-816! Copyright (C) 1988 By Tom Hunt Notice: This article may be reprinted only if it remains in it's entirety. On Saturday, November 5th, 1988, the Turbo-816 was shown for the first time at the Mid-Ohio Atari Users Group (MAUG). It was announced before hand, in the MAUG newsletter, that the Turbo-816 would be demoed, and that interested parties should bring any software that they wanted to test out on it. Chuck Steinman of Dataque was on hand to to answer questions pertaining to the Turbo-816. The Turbo-816 is a new product being developed by Dataque that is basically a replacement for the CPU and operating system. It replaces it with 16-bit CPU and an operating system that maintains compatibility with existing software and also make use of the special 16-bit mode. Two Atari XL's were on hand for these particular demos. One being a stock machine, and the other equipped with the Turbo-816. Chuck pointed out that the new operating system is now fully functional, but not fully optimized. Thats to say that there are still some routines that need to be rewritten to get the most power out of the new 65816 CPU. The floating-point routines in the Turbo-816 machine had been partially optimized for 16-bit mode. The demos here run on each machine, and the timed results were compared. The first demo resulted in four different mathematical equations being plotted to the screens. When the timing results were compared, it was found that the stock XL took 256.783 seconds, and the Turbo-816 machine took 24.049 seconds. Chuck pointed out that when the drawing routines are optimized, that there will be an even more dramatic increase in speed. The second demo was a test of the various math functions of basic and the operating system. The only screen output generated was the printing of the timed results. Each math function was interated 1000 times. Cartridge basic was used on the Turbo-816, since this machine was a prototype. Chuck then allowed MAUG members to test out the Turbo-816 with any software they wanted to try. Testing for compatibility with existing 8-bit software was the purpose of this. SynCalc ran just fine, as did PaperClip ver.1.2 64k. Oddly enough, PaperClip ver.2.0 128k didn't recognize that there was 256k of ram available. Chuck said that he was working on it, and that programs that use banked memory will be fully supported by the Turbo-816. Game cartridges were also tested. These included Atlantis, Pac Man, Astro Chase, Submarine Commander, and Alien Garden. These worked just fine. From my own personal observations, some games actually seemed to be more responsive to the joystick, enhancing playability. Two cartridges from Spinnaker would not work. These were Adventure Creator, and Delta Drawing. Chuck said that in his own testing he found AtariWriter, AtariWriter+, and Pole Position worked just fine. After testing these software titles for compatibility, things settled down to a general question and answer session. Chuck said that in the future he hopes that the Turbo-816 operating system will be combined with a graphics interface into a single rom. Static ram will probably the used for the new ram expansion. The new linear addressing range is up to 16 megs! The new ram will be on the expansion bus, and will be internal up to either 256k or 512k. After that, an external expansion box would be necessary. Keep in mind that this ram would be used for executable code. Generally we are now limited to around 40k of executable program code that can be in the computer at one time. This ram will be fast ram, with no wait states caused by either ANTIC stealing memory cycles, or ram refresh cycles that dynamic ram chips require. The question was raised about how programmers are supposed to make use of the 65816, since there aren't any assemblers especially made for it. Chuck said that it is easy to make macro extensions for use with either AMAC or MAC/65. In addition to reporting about the first public demonstration of the TURBO -816, here are a few technical details of the 65816 cpu.... In many ways, the 65816 stands in relation to the 6502 as the 8086 stands to the 8080. First, it has a 16-bit data bus, but an 8-bit internal data bus. This means that all 16-bit memory accesses take two clock cycles, effectively reducing its potential speed by a factor of two. Second, the register structure of the 65816 closely expands upon that of the 6502, in that all the 8-bit registers have been extended to 16-bits. In addition, a new register, called the direct-page register (D), has been added; it allows quick access (like to page zero) to any 256-byte page in the first 64k of the address space. One big improvement in the register structure is that the stack pointer is now sixteen bits, so the stack can be located anywhere in the first 64k of the address space. And it can have a depth greater than 256 bytes. The mode (native or 6502 emulation) is set by a new bit (M) in the processor status register. Several new instructions (SEP and REP) allow you to manipulate individual bits in the status register. Address modes available include all the original 6502 modes, the NCR 65C02 modes, and Rockwell's additional 65C02 mode, as well a eight new 65816 modes. The 65816 has the three hardware interrupts of the 6502 (RESET, NMI, andRQ), and a new one, called ABORT, which may be used to implement a virtual-memory system. As in the 6502, the interrupt vectors are located in the highest locations of the first 64k of memory. Software interrupts include the old BRK instruction, as well as a new COP instruction, used in interfacing a co-processor IC. In addition, two instructions adapted from the 6800 family, WAI (wait) and STP (stop), halt the processor until a hardware interrupt occurs (NMI or IRQ), or until the processor is reset, respectively. MAUG members would like to thank Chuck Steinman of Dataque for giving us the first public demonstration of the TURBO-816. The excitment generated by the demo was real, and reminiscent of what must have been felt by computer enthusiasts when the first real personal computers were shown to the world. For more information about the TURBO-816, call Chuck's board, The Master- 800BS, at 419-529-5197. And, for the latest MTOS and enhanced ram programs, feel free to call my board (Closer To Home BBS) at 419-368-4413. _______________________________________________________________________ Dataque Update From: DataQue Software P.O. Box 134 Ontario, OH 44862 To: All interested parties Subj: Program test Date: November 15, 1988 Hi, this textfile is to request that any user using any home computer write a program meeting the specified criteria listed below. The language used is not of particular importance, but the source file and target file, should be executable on any machine of the same type without any modifications. This program is very simple, and by changing parameters could be done more efficiently. This is not the objective though, I am looking to get the execution times from several different systems, for use in comparing a new product I am manufacturing. Computer types of particular intrest are: Apple //, Apple //gs, Apple Macintosh, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, IBM/PC, IBM-PS/2, Coleco Adam, TI-99/4a, Sinclair. These of course are just examples, and programs will be accepted for any personal computer system. When you return your program, the following should be supplied to expidite your entry into our logs. Your Name, Address, Computer Brand, Computer Model, Computer Specs (clock speed, ram, dos, hard drive, and any special hardware), compiler/assembler/linker used. Total execution time on your machine in seconds, and fractions. And most importantly, the source file for your program, this can optionally be a compiler/assembler .LST file. Also the executable program size. If an ARC compatible compression technique is available for your system, you may want to include the executable version of the program, but the source is needed regardless. You may upload the file onto this service to the name of DATAQUE or mail a source listing to the above address. Program Specifications: The program will do 1000 iterations of full screens of each of the 26 capital letters of the english alphabet. To equalize the various screen sizes on different machines, a screen is defined as 500 characters. If your screen is larger than this then just pick any origin you feel is apropriate, but keep the same number of characters. In pseudo language the program will look like this: start timer ; start a timer of some sort for w = 1 to 1000 ; 1000 iterations for c = 65 to 91 ; ascii 65 (A) to 91 (Z) cls ; cls, (or home cursor as a minimum) for p = 1 to 400 ; 400 characters per -screen- print char(c); ; print each character next p ; character print loop next c ; screen loop next w ; iteration loop stop timer ; stop your timer print time ; display total time end _______________________________________________________________________ DeTerm Update All versions of DeTerm are copyright (c)1988 By James Dillow. All rights reserved. DeTerm is a Share-Ware program, if you have something you would like to share send to: Jim Dillow P.O. Box 2552 Sarasota,FL 33578 If you write me a letter please do not expect me to reply, it does warm my heart but at this point in my life I dislike writing letters, I am into using the phone. Also at any time in past or future you sent or send Email via either Compuserve or Genie and I did or do not reply it is probably because I filed your address and then lost it, try yelling at me one more time. DeTerm is a telecommunication program written entirely in assembly language for the the Atari XL, XE, 800 computers with 48k and at least one disk drive. Please make a back up copy of DeTerm and all support files, just to be safe. And now for the beginners, if someone or some media tells you that DeTerm is not for beginners ignore them. I am sure when you were learning to tie your shoes no one came up and said -Oh do not do that you are a beginner-, right, instead you were probably applauded when you were able to tie them yourself (in my case it was more like -about time- ). First follow the directions on how to boot Determ then relax and for gosh sakes do not be shy, just jump in and play, if you do nothing you learn nothing. If and when you have a question, ask, first yourself then someone else. Trust your feelings and experiment, it's fun and part of your natural growth.. DeTerm SX212:for the SX212 modem connected to SIO port, last in chain. Has a built in handler which relocates to lomem on boot, please do not append one. DeTerm XM301:for the XM301 and 1030 modems connected to SIO port, last in chain. Has a built in handler which relocates to lomem on boot, please do not append one. DeTerm 850:for Hayes or compatible modems connected to a 850, P:R: or MIO. DT850 is appended to a 850 booter. DeTerm Mpp:for the Mpp modems pluged into joy stick port #2. Has a built in handler which relocates to lomem on boot, please do not append one. DeTerm:for Hayes or compatible modems but has no booter or handler, you will have to supply your own. Works fine on an MIO. BOOTING UP! As you might have noticed by now, 90% of all docs for DeTerm are in help files. I suggest that you place them on a separate disk. Note:Please do not change help file names if you wish to use them. DeTerm uses file name -HELP.xxx- where xxx=is an alpha numeric extender. If using DTXM, DTMPP, DTSX212 and you have a P:R: or 850 interface, please do not boot them, because the handlers are built in. If you do boot them it will raise lomem and you might not have enough memory to run DeTerm. Booting with DOS 2.0 or 2.5: 1> construct a boot disk containing DOS files (including RAMDISK.COM, if appropriate), and DeTerm. Rename the DeTerm file AUTORUN.SYS 2> Boot your computer (modem on) with the disk in D1: IMPORTANT-> HOLD DOWN THE OPTION KEY to disable Basic (XL/XE ... 800 users, remove the Basic cartridge.) Booting with SpartaDOS: 1> rename DeTerm to DETERM.COM. 2> boot the computer (modem on), put your DeTerm disk in D1: and go to DOS. You can run DeTerm from the command line or from a batch file. Disable basic before running. NOTE:DeTerm works with TDLINE ON and KEY ON. AUX FILES DeTerm attempts to load some auxiliary files off the drive you are booting from (no harm if they're not there). These are: LIST.BAT - simply contains the name of your default 'phone list', followed by a RETURN. (Phone lists are created within DeTerm ... see below.) The name in LIST.BAT MUST BE A FULL FILESPEC, including the drive number. You can create LIST.BAT file by typing in the following basic program and running it: 100 DIM A$(30):A$=-D1:PHONE.LST-:REM or whatever name you like. 110 OPEN #1,8,0,-D1:LIST.BAT-:REM open file 120 PRINT #1;A$:REM print the name 130 CLOSE #1:REM done! 140 END Another way to create the LIST.BAT file using your Dos's copy routine, copy from E: to D:LIST.BAT, type D:PHONE.LST (press RETURN) hold down on the control key and press '3'. In the above examples, after DeTerm boots it will read LIST.BAT to find the name of your list file, then load that file into the appropriate buffer. MODEM.BAT - is a 'setup' file that allows you to send commands directly to your modem before running DeTerm (consult your modem documentation to see what commands you can send.) Again, each command or string of commands must end with an Atari RETURN character. To create a MODEM.BAT file type in the following basic program and run it: 100 DIM A$(30) 110 OPEN #1,8,0,-D1:MODEM.BAT- 120 A$=-ATX2-:REM select extended result codes 130 PRINT #1;A$:REM Send to file 140 A$=-ATS11=60-:REM Speed tone dial up a bit 150 PRINT #1;A$:REM Send to file 160 CLOSE #1:REM done! 170 END Or again using your Dos's copy routine, copy from E: to D:MODEM.BAT and type: ATX2 (press RETURN) ATS11=60 (press RETURN) hold down on the control key and press '3'. In the above examples, after DeTerm boots it reads MODEM.BAT and sends the commands: ATX2 (return) ATS11=60 (return) to your modem, just as if you'd typed them in yourself. DEFAULTS - Loads user defaults, set previously (see ETC.) MENU NAVIGATION DeTerm uses an ST-like interface which includes extensive use of Windows and Drop Down Menus. The first thing you'll notice is the menu line at the top of the screen, which contains the following: Online R:Dev Modem Disk Etc Quit RUNNING A MENU Whenever the Menu Line is displayed, you can Run a menu (display the commands in the menu) in a couple of ways: Cycle the bar cursor through the choices by pressing the OPTION or SELECT keys, as well as any of the 'arrow' keys (without pressing the control key.) When you get to the menu you wish to access, press either START or RETURN. OR press the FIRST LETTER of the Menu you wish to run (no RETURN necessary.) In both cases, the menu window under the header will open, and you'll see the supported commands. Note:To display commands a section has (also a brief summary of the commands) position the cursor bar over menu header and then press the '?' key. SELECTING A MENU OPTION Once the commands are displayed, you again have a couple of options to run a specific command: Use an 'arrow' key to cycle the cursor through the commands. When you reach the command you want, press RETURN or the START key. Type the FIRST LETTER of the command (no RETURN is necessary.) The command will be executed, and, in most cases, you'll be returned to the drop down menu. MENU GLOBAL In all menus, a few 'global' commands will prove useful: 1-9 pressing a number will display the directory of the drive specified. You can stop a directory display by pressing SELECT. ?- This is your help key. Make sure all help files are in source drive, position the cursor bar over the command or menu header you need help with and press the '?' key. Q - Quit .. this will close the menu, and return you to the menu line. ESC - Pressing the ESCAPE key causes an immediate jump to terminal mode. INPUT CONVENTIONS When inputting text into a DeTerm window (eg. phone number, file name, etc.) the regular Atari edit keys (Backspace, Insert, Delete, etc.) are supported. For most input operations, use the SELECT key to cancel the operation and return to the menu currently running. When any Y/N (Yes/No) prompt appears pressing SELECT is treated by DeTerm as a NO. _______________________________________________________________________ How To Use Super Unarc These are some very brief instructions on how to use SUPERU.COM, Bob Puff's SUPER UNARC version 2.2. These are NOT the complete docs; PLEASE see SUPERA.ARC for the Full Official Documentation!!! SUPERA contains the full docs, the latest versions of SUPER ARC and SUPER UNARC, and a small modification program for DOS 2.5 users. You need to get the entire package to make full use of this program... in fact, we've only made SUPER UNARC available separately for those of you who don't yet have an UnArc utility. If you already have an earlier version of SUPER UNARC or one of the ARCX.COM programs, you don't need SUPERU.COM -- go ahead and download SUPERA.ARC instead! Still with me? OK, on to the instructions... You'll want the complete docs for this program, so start out by downloading SUPERA.ARC -- it will be an ideal introduction to the wonders of DeARCing. Next, copy SUPERA.ARC to a freshly formatted disk. DO NOT write DOS files to this disk! If you do, the disk won't have enough room to hold both the ARC file and the files we'll extract from the ARC. Ready? OK, now binary-load SUPERU.COM from the DOS menu. You'll see a menu labeled -SuperUnArc! Ver. 2.2- on the screen, and there will be a box of options at the top of the screen. (You don't need to worry about those options now... they'll be explained in the docs.) Remove your program disk from D1: and insert the SUPERA.ARC disk you made earlier. The first choice on the menu says -[A] Un-Arc/Un-Alf a file-. That's what we want to do, so hit the -A- key. The screen will clear, then you'll see the prompt -Enter complete source file name:-. Type in -D1:SUPERA.ARC- (without quotes!) and hit the RETURN key. The next prompt will appear -- -Destination Drive # or Path [&mask]:-. When you see this prompt, just type in a -1- and hit RETURN. Now the fun begins! The disk drive will start up, and your screen will blank out except for one line in the middle. This line will show you which file is currently being extracted from the ARC... in this case, you'll see ARC.COM first, then UNARC.COM, DOS25.MOD, and DOCS.TXT. When SuperUnArc finishes extracting the original files, the full screen will reappear, and you'll see the messages -Done!- and -Press RETURN to continue...- At this point, hit RETURN to get back to the menu. That's all there is to it! If you're using Atari DOS, put a DOS disk in the drive and hit -G- to reboot your system. (SpartaDOS users can just hit an -H- to return to the DOS prompt.) Now be sure to read the doc file to find out how to use all the features of these programs. Even better, copy DOCS.TXT to your printer for a permanent reference! *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Next Week: (*) 800XL Modification, Part 2 of Atari Comdex, ZMag Extra, and more!!! Syndicate ZMagazine Issue #132 November 20, 1988 (c)1988 Syndicate Publishing Company NOT Affiliated with ANY other Online Magazine. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*