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Ictari Issue 18
ICTARI USER GROUP ISSUE 18 January 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. 0425-474415
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INDEX FOR ISSUE 18
==================
ASSEMBLY Roman to Arabic number conversion routine.
Arabic to Roman number conversion routine.
AES/VDI function reference sheets.
Text dictionary encoding techniques and code.
C GEM Tutorial by J White. Part 8.
Calendar program code.
GFA Overscan and Fullscreen coding techniques.
BASIC CAD 3D to DXF converter program.
STOS Screen demo code routines.
PASCAL Various small programs.
MISC More GIF/TIFF coding information.
Binary-ASCII conversion program for Assembler use.
Hallucinogen demo program.
Current membership list.
In next months issue of ICTARI (this may change) :-
ASSEMBLY Various Falcon specific assembler routines.
Joystick reading routines.
'Thermometer' progress display code.
C GEM Tutorial by J White. Part 9.
Text packing using Huffman coding.
GFA AutoZest (GFA Interface Creation Utility)
GFA Programming Tricks and Tips.
STOS Mad Bomber game code.
Routines to draw Alert boxes and work out time/date.
PASCAL More small programs.
MISC Desk Top .INF file information.
More information on GIF image format.
For future issues :-
Polyline drawing routines in machine code.
Bezier curve drawing routines.
Picture compression routine for IMG pictures.
HP DeskJet/LaserJet compression routines (Mode 2 TIFF).
Picture switching techniques.
Printer driver code for printing mono/colour images.
Using Calamus fonts.
Sorting algorithms.
Using the BitBlit routines.
Code for using the File Selector.
Using multiple rasters in machine code.
Overscan techniques.
STOS sprites.
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EDITORIAL
=========
MEMBERSHIP
----------
Another two members for this month including one from New Zealand,
welcome to them.
CONTRIBUTIONS
-------------
We are still very short of articles for future issues of the magazine.
We recently checked through our records and out of the 60 members that
we currently have, only 26 have contributed articles that they have
written themselves. As the magazine relies almost entirely on members
contributions, it is important that all members should try and and
provide some material for the disks even if it is only one or two
items a year. Or, as we have mentioned before, if you cannot write a
comprehensive article on some aspect of programming perhaps you could
send in a question about a programming problem which may prompt
another member to send in an answer which could be of interest to
other members.
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CORRESPONDENCE
==============
To: ICTARI
From: Richard Gage
I am writing to inform you that, regretfully, I have now reached the
stage where I can no longer justify the use of an Atari computer due
to pressure from work for PC compatiblity in the documents that I
produce. I therefore wish to cancel my membership of ICTARI but I wish
you well in the future. I have enclosed a list of things which I shall
be selling so that if any ICTARI members are interested in buying them
from me they can give me a ring on 0843 851706. The prices include
postage and packing for UK members.
Hardware
--------
4MB Falcon/270MB MiniS hard drive/Desktopper/MC68882/PowerUp2 800
Loudspeakers (Juster DC-691 from Gasteiner) 10
Systems solution 14" SVGA monitor 200
Software
--------
AtariWorks (V1.207)/Speedo GDOS (V4.1 and 5.0c) 75
Calligrapher Gold (V Pr3.03/44) 25
ChemKit (V1.5) 10
DevPac (V3.10) 35
Geneva (V1.02 release 3) 25
HiSoft Basic (v2.1) 50
Home Accounts 2 (V1.13) 15
Ladbroke Turbo kit 4
Molgraph 2 (V2.0) 10
Neodesk 4 (V4 release 2) 25
Addams Family 6
Archipelagos 6
Blood Money 6
Defender II 6
Frontier Elite 2 6
Ishar 2 6
Knights of the Sky 6
Nine Lives 6
Populus 2 6
Shadoworlds 6
Special Forces 6
Star Raiders 6
Tempest 6
The Secret of Monkey Island 6
Books
-----
Atari ST Explored 6
Compute Machine Code Guide 6
Programming the MC68000 6
ST Applications Issues 1-43 30
The Atari Compendium 20
ZZ Soft Introduction to Machine Code 6
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To: *.*
From: Dick Teuber
Does anyone know how to use the Analogue Joystick ports that are only
available on the STE and if there are any commercial analogue
joysticks available that can be used with these ports.
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To: TT users
From: James Collett (Professor)
I`m looking for someone who either owns/has access to a TT, or knows
someone who owns/has access to a TT, +and+ owns/has access to another
ATARI machine [e.g. STE, MEGA-ST(E), FALCON].
I`ve recently written a demo called HALLUCINOGEN. I`ve tested it on
the STE, MEGA-ST and FALCON, but I`ve not been able to test it on the
TT as I don`t have access to a TT.
I`d be grateful if someone could run it on both a TT and another
blittered machine (i.e. not STFM), and let me know if the demo runs
the same or different on both machines (e.g. speed / smoothness of
graphics). HALLUCINOGEN can be found on this month`s ICTARI disk
(issue #18).
Thanks alot,
James (Professor/bcc) [Internet: jrc1@axprl1.rl.ac.uk]
*/ The only ICTARI member that admits to having a TT is Jukka Tiensuu
from Finland and he has asked for his name and address not to be
published, perhaps he will be prepared to help. ICTARI /*
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To: *.*
From: Peter Hibbs
On most HiSoft editors (DevPac3 for example) some of the menu options
are disabled (shown in light text) when an accessory is opened. Does
anyone know exactly how this is done because, as far as I know, the
AES does not generate a message event (from evnt_multi) when an
accessory is opened so how does the editor program know that the menu
options should be disabled.
Another problem I would like some help on is 'graphics outlining'
code. Imagine that you have a solid (black) image on the monochrome
screen, say a large letter A for example. I want to run a routine
which will produce the same image in outline format. I have written a
machine code routine which does this by first creating a cleared
destination buffer in memory which is the same size as the screen and
then examining every pixel and :-
if the source pixel is white, then ignore and continue to next.
if the source pixel is black and there is a white pixel above, below,
to the left OR to the right, then set the corresponding destination
pixel to black.
if the source pixel is black and the pixel above, below, to the left
AND to the right are also black, then ignore and continue.
While this works OK it is very very slow, even in machine code. Does
anyone have any ideas on how to do this quickly. Note that although I
mentioned the image as being on screen above, in practice the source
data will also be in a RAM buffer so it is not possible to use any
screen specific functions or the blitter.
************************************************************
As we have not had much correspondence this month (come on guys, let's
have a bit of feedback here !) the remaining letters in this section
are repeats of requests for help which have been published in previous
issues and which have not been answered. If you have been subscribing
to ICTARI for a long time you will already have seen them, if you have
joined within the last 6 months or so you probably haven't. In either
event, if you can provide a solution to any of the problems mentioned
below, please send them in as soon as possible.
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To: *.*
From: Kevin Preece
A request, I have written routines to perform 4-way hardware tile
based scrolling on my STE, but now I would like to extend it to do 8-
way scrolling. Does anyone have any routines to do this on an STE, or
can anyone explain it in English? Book or Internet references would
be fine. Thanks in advance.
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To: *.*
From: Simon Rigby
I want to know anything at all about SPEEDOGDOS Fonts; how the font
files are made up and what the new commands actually do. I have the
official Atari developers book, but it's written by a Techno Boffin in
shorthand! I also have the Hisoft book, but that's just an
programmer's translation from Techno Boffin into standard Font Jargon!
I also want a SPEEDOGDOS driver for either a Canon BJC-600 or an Epson
LQ2550, but I suppose I will just have to wish. How about info on how
to make *.SYS drivers (old and new)?
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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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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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