** 2 pages Q&A / 1700 words ** ** Tip ** The snowball principle! Recently my computer and external hard drive stopped talking to each other. I tried replacing the cable, but that made no difference so I bought a replacement hard drive but that wasn't the problem either! I began to suspect the DMA chip but Dave at TUS soon narrowed the problem down to a faulty power supply in the hard drive case. So now I had two working hard drive mechanisms and no case! After some head scratching I remembered the SCSI Burster cable advertised by ASP in Atari Computing. After some helpful advice from Chris Crosskey (ASP) I bought the cable for œ18 and a PC case for œ22. I now have both hard drives and a CD-ROM player housed in a neat case with no cable spaghetti junction - I'm a happy Atari worker again! ** italics ** John Nicholas Oakes, Manchester ** /italics ** ** Q ** I have an STe system using the ICD Link 2 host adapter to access a CD-ROM drive. I'm into assembly language programming and want to read data from a CD-ROM (including audio CDs) into a program. I expected to be able to use the GEMDOS Rwabs call but all I get is the return code "-15 Unknown device" when the device is clearly known to the desktop and CD accessory player. Also can you recommend any books or source of information to control SCSI devices, assuming GEMDOS calls are a non-starter? ** italics ** Gary Smith, York ** /italics ** ** A ** Not all CD-ROMs will allow the transfer of audio data over the SCSI chain, so that may not be an option anyway. Can anyone else help? ** italics ** Derryck Croker ** /italics ** --- ** Tip ** Cookie MagiC Some applications look for Cookies when setting themselves up but they don't always look for the right cookies or interpret the results sensibly. For example, Edith Pro, incorrectly checks for long filename capability by looking for the "MiNT" cookie. The good news is you can change this in a disk editor to "MagX" and Edith Pro will then display long filenames when running under MagiC. Other applications look for "MiNT" making the assumption MiNT = MultiTOS and AES 4 which is wrong because AES 4 can be installed without MiNT and vice versa. ** italics ** Noah Silva ** /italics ** ** EDITHTIP.GIF here ** caption ** Edith Pro owners might also like to know they can stop Edith's desktop appearing by passing -nodesk as a command line parameter. ** /caption ** --- ** Recycle ** SLM605 Q&A The tip to pull down the rear cover of the printer (which switches off the heater and the fan) is only applicable to the older SLM804 printer. There are two ways alternative ways around the problem, which is due to the controller "loading" the DMA bus of the Atari if the printer is switched off. One involves fiddling with the components inside the controller and the second involves making up some simple hardware. Anyone is interested in either of these solutions can contact Derryck Croker directly by email or write to him via our office address. ** BC ** derryck@cix.compulink.co.uk ** /BC ** --- ** Tip ** Shutdown MagiC Changing resolution in MagiC seems to take longer if you use a replacement shutdown program, however there is a way to speed resolution changes up a bit: ** UL ** * 1: Copy the original shutdown program that came with MagiC into your Thing/jinnee/MagXDesk folder and rename it as SHUTDOW2.PRG. * 2: Load the CHGRES.PRG program into Knife ST or other disk editor (making sure you keep a back-up first). * 3: Now search the file for the bit that says SHUTDOWN.PRG and when you find it change it to SHUTDOW2.PRG. * 4: Save the altered file and now you should find when you shutdown MagiC it loads your fancy replacement Shutdown program but if you're changing resolution it uses the plain vanilla Shutdown instead - the best of both worlds. ** /UL ** ** SHUT_TIP.GIF here Neither Atari Computing nor the author accept any responsibility for the loss of any data you may experience as a result of using this tip! ** italics ** Matt Burton ** /italics ** --- ** Q ** I have some questions I have been wanting answered for a while but I have only just got around to asking them! ** UL ** ** 1 ** I have been told "multisync" monitors can be used on Atari systems to display low, medium and high resolutions, but I am wondering how it is possible. I currently have dedicated mono monitor and colour TV setups and would like the ability to view all three resolutions on one monitor. ** 2 ** I have been using Sebra hi-res emulator with MagiC, and have recently noticed while Sebra is running I cannot access the program manager via the [Alternate]+[Control]+[Esc] key combination. Are there any other hi-res emulators available? ** 3 ** Do the ScanX drivers work on flatbed scanners other than the Microtek models? I've seen a Mustek scanner for around œ50 and I presume the internals are all fairly similar between models, but does anybody know for sure? I noticed that it used the parallel port, with a through-port so a printer can still be plugged in. Although I also have a PC and will probably be able to convert images to an Atari readable format, it would be so much simpler to plug it into the ST. ** 4 ** Are there any GDOS printer drivers compatible with the Epson stylus colour 300 printer, particularly one which can take advantage of colour and 720dpi resolution? If there are, can you tell me where to get them? ** 5 ** Finally, a question that has haunted me for years. Programmers use programming languages to write software but who writes the languages for the programmers? I realise it could be possible to use assemblers to make high level languages, but what is used to make low level languages? ** /UL ** ** italics ** STephen STrowes, Carluke ** italics ** ** 1 ** Some multisync monitors are capable of displaying all three ST resolutions. The long since superseded NEC 3D model was a popular choice, try Display Electronics on 0181 6794414 - opposite the Crystal Palace football ground, for up to date recommendations. ** MSYNC.IMG here ** There was an excellent article in ST Applications Issue 40 (published by the FaST Club) written by Paul Rossiter which explained monitors and resolutions. The article explains for a monitor to display all three resolutions it must be able to synchronise down to 15KHz and a switchbox is also required. ** italics ** Keith Morris/Daniel Cohen/Gary Bainbridge ** /italics ** ** 2 ** Monulator was an excellent commercial high res emulator so keep your eyes on our Classified page. There have been others including MonoPack which is fast as Monulator but fits into the bootsector(!) of a floppy - which was a really neat solution, MonoPack is available from the FaST Club. ** 3 ** Currently only SCSI scanners are supported by the ScanX drivers. Anyone thinking of adding a scanner should check with Homa Systems House in Canada whether a suitable driver is available - or check their web pages at: ** BC ** http://www.magma.ca/~nima/ ** /BC ** Titan recommend the Microtek Scanmaker 330 / ScanX combination. ** italics ** Derryck Croker/Martyn Dryden ** /italics ** ** 4 ** There is collection of SpeedoGDOS drivers for these models available in French from various ftp sites or PD libraries. Here's a few sources from ftp.lip6.fr: ** UL ** * Graphics/epst800p.zip: SpeedoGDOS driver for EPSON 800+ v3.04 * Graphics/epstcol.zip: SpeedoGDOS driver for EPSON Stylus Color v3.1 * Graphics/epstprox.zip: SpeedoGDOS driver for EPSON Stylus PRO XL v3.04 * Graphics/hp4l.zip: SpeedoGDOS driver for HP LaserJet 4L v3.1 * Graphics/hp550c.zip: SpeedoGDOS driver for HP deskJet 550c v3.1 * Graphics/hp660c.zip: SpeedoGDOS driver for HP 660c v3.04 * Graphics/hp_4p.zip: Drivers for SpeedoGDOS HP LaserJet 4P 600dpi * Graphics/texas_m2.zip: SpeedoGDOS driver for Texas Instuments microWriter * Graphics/texas_mw.zip: SpeedoGDOS driver for TEXAS Instrument MicroWriter v3.1 * Text/hp_lj_4p.lzh: Drivers HP LaserJet 4P for SpeedoGDOS * Utilities/drivers.zip: DJ550c/Epson drivers for Speedo/AT-Works ** /UL ** ** italics ** Derryck Croker ** /italics ** ** 5 ** Compilers are rarely written directly in assembler. Generally, you either use a language that already exists or you can write a cross-compiler which runs on a different machine but still generates code for your machine. Also, during development of many languages, there's a break-even point when you've got the basics working, and you can rewrite the compiler in the language itself - it's then called "self-hosting" and you can add the more advanced features one by one. Our contributors Paul Jones, Mathew Bacon and Mark Wherry are working on various applications to make programming easier with their Enchant project - Face Value for GFA is another. ** italics ** Andy Giddings/Joe Connor ** /italics ** --- ** boxout ** AC#10 Bug report Good Vibrations p32/33 Sadly tint reproduction problems caused the diagrams to lose much of their meaning and the last sentence of the third paragraph should have read something like "In addition, it has to simulate the operation of a DAC because the PSG doesn't contain a dedicated circuit for this job". If there was a dedicated audio DAC in the STFM there would be no need to use the PSG. ** AC11_BUG.GIF here PixArt p14/15/16 The second paragraph on p15 makes no sense with respect to the Falcon's 16-bit TrueColor mode. It should have read "While this is a useful effect in itself, 16-bit is quite sufficient to allow a convincing 'real' spray option (this is actually provided for 24 and 32-bit TC but how many Atari machines have that?). Considering the Falcon is the first TOS computer approaching semi-professional colour capability, and with the CENTurbo and Nemesis accelerators realising 640*480*16TC, I think the authors should look into it". Some Falcon accelerators generate a faster video clock to enable 16-bit colour in VGA resolution. This colour depth is near photo-realistic, an area where PixArt currently needs to improve on. ** italics ** Shiuming Lai ** /italics ** HPINKJET.HTM bug There are two small but significant errors in HPINKJET.HTM: ** UL ** * In the To: line, just above the PAGE SIZE COMMANDS table, Esc"&l00L" should be Esc"&l0o0L - just like the From: line. * There's also an error in the table where the Com-10 (Landscape) Printer command should read Esc&l-81A not Esc&l81A. ** /UL ** It's also worth mentioning how easy it is to confuse lower case "l" with "1" and "0" with "O" characters. ** italics ** Peter West ** /italics ** ** RD11.IMG here ** ** B ** Thanks for pointing those out Peter, you're spot on - as usual! We've included an updated HPINKJET.HTM file in the TUTORS.ZIP on the Reader Disk. ** /B ** ** /boxout **