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Ictari Issue 08
ICTARI USER GROUP ISSUE #8 March 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 8
=================
FOLDER SUBJECT
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
ASSEMBLY Layout of assembler source code for Degas image
Programming Techniques, passing in-line parameters to S/Rs
Program for displaying 68K instructions info, needs fixing
C C Tutorial (Chapters 0-7) plus 82 source code files
GFA Bit mapping on ATARI computers, all resolutions
MISC DSP56001 circuit diagram
4D Cube image
Brief review of 18 Atari programmers books
Current membership list
PASCAL Directory lister program + source code
STOS -
In next months issue of ICTARI (this may change) :-
ASSEMBLY Tutorial on using Macros in machine code
Complete Macro file for all TOS calls
Twist scroll source code
C C Tutorial (Chapters 8-14)
Bouncing ball demo source code
GFA
MISC Pexec TOS call information
CPU Instruction timings
Cookie Jar information
Index to ICTARI issues 1-8
PASCAL
STOS
For future issues :-
Complete set of floating point routines in machine code.
Binary/Decimal/Hex/ASCII conversion routines in machine code.
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 compression routines (Mode 2 TIFF).
Command line access techniques.
Using the Xbtimer chip.
Tutorial for using GEM commands from machine code/C.
Playing sound samples on non STE machines.
Picture switching techniques.
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EDITORIAL
=========
COMMITTEE
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To run the group I have recruited two colleagues who have agreed to
help compile the magazine each month. They are Dick Teuber and Steve
Gale who program in C, machine code and STOS.
MEMBERSHIP
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
The response to the mail shot has, unfortunately, been very
disappointing. Out of the 53 questionnaires sent out to previous
members only 19 have even been returned (so far). Four of those have
cancelled their membership and the remaining 15 were keen to continue
with the group. We have spoken to several of the people that we wrote
to and one is not programming on the Atari anymore and the others were
more interested in exchanging PD software than programming which may
possibly explain the lack of response from the rest. From the members
who did reply we have a total membership at this time of 15 plus three
committee members. Out of this 15, four have declared themselves as
beginners although this may be false modesty.
This number is not really enough to run a viable group since there
would be insufficient input to the magazine to fill a disk each month.
However, since we have a few interesting items for the magazine for
next couple of months, we propose to send these out and in the meantime
we shall launch an advertising campaign to try and recruit some more
members. We have written to the three glossy Atari magazines and to the
main PD libraries in the hope that they will publish our letters. We
are also compiling a list of PD programmers that have published their
names and addresses on PD or magazine cover disks and we will write to
them direct and try and persuade them to join. This is going to cost a
lot of money for postage so if any member would like to contribute
something towards these costs we would be most grateful.
If any member has access to any of the E-Mail or BBS systems perhaps
they could place a general message to all users telling them of the
existence of ICTARI and asking them to send a Stamped Addressed
Envelope to us (at the address above) for more information about the
group.
If you should happen to buy the weekly computer magazine Micro Mart and
you don't wish to use the advertisment page, could you send the page to
us so that we can use it to advertise for free in the magazine.
Thanks to the members who sent some new material with the
questionnaire, we shall be using it over the next couple of months. If
you didn't send anything, now would be a good time to produce something
for the next issue as we do not have too much available for it at this
time.
As you will see from the above comments we are keen to make the group a
viable proposition but we will be relying on the cooperation of ALL
members in this venture. We trust we can rely on this support.
POSTAGE
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In order to keep postage costs down as much as possible we have sent
this issue of the disk in a small business envelope with a second class
stamp. We hope that the envelope will be strong enough but if any
member does have any trouble with damage to the package please let us
know and we will reconsider the postage arrangements.
VIRUSES
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With a group such as ours which involves frequent disk swaps and disk
copying there is obviously a danger of computer viruses being passed
from one member to another. On the dozen or so disks that we received
from Nick Bates there were three different boot sector virus programs.
The Ghost A virus (which reverses the direction of the mouse pointer on
the Y axis), the dangerous Goblin virus (which can corrupt disk files)
and the Macumba 3.3 virus. There is a possibility that you may have one
or more of these viruses on some of your disks. Would all members
please check ALL of their disks with a suitable virus killer, we use
the Ultimate Virus Killer (UVK) available from the ST Club, Nottingham.
We shall, of course, check all disks received in future for viruses to
avoid passing them on to you. When you send a disk into the club please
don't place a boot sector program on the disk as the UVK may not
recognise it and will erase it as a possible virus. There are also some
'immunisation' programs around which can protect against viruses by
writing data to the boot sector but we would prefer you don't use one
of these unless the UVK can recognise it as such since if it can't, it
will assume it is an unknown virus. Also we shall not be using any boot
sector programs on the magazine disks because a lot of members have
hard disks (which don't boot from the floppy) and also because most
(sensible) users have virus monitoring programs which will 'freak out'
on these programs.
READ_ME.TXT file
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This file in the root directory is intended for new members to the
group and concerns payment arrangements and will stay the same each
month so there is no need to read again once you have read it. If any
changes are made to it we shall mention it in this section.
QUESTIONNAIRE
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We have not had all the questionnaires back yet but this is a rough
breakdown of the languages that members use.
ASSEMBLY 14
GFA BASIC 4
ST BASIC 1
C 9
STOS 6
PASCAL 2
In answer to several members who inquired, the letter and questionnaire
were written with Protext, imported into Calamus and printed on a
Ricoh LP1200 Laser printer.
DISK FORMATS
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A couple of members have had some problems copying the disks due to the
non-standard format (i.e. more than 9 sectors/track or more than 80
tracks). In future we will only use disks that have been formatted from
the normal desktop disk format option so that they can be copied to
other disks using the normal copy facilities from the desktop.
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CORRESPONDENCE
==============
To *.*
From ICTARI
We have noticed from some of the correspondence that several members
write programs but avoid using the standard built in GEM commands for
displaying dialogue forms, menu bars, windows, mouse cursors, etc, etc.
It is, in fact, not that difficult to use these facilities so if any
members would like a tutorial on this subject (in machine code and C
possibly) please let us know.
Has anyone done any work on using two (or more) machines together using
the MIDI ports, i.e. multi-player multi-machine games. If so we would
be interested in an article on the problems and solutions for using the
MIDI ports to transfer data between machines.
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To *.*
From Frank Dawkins
Does anyone have any good guitar samples that I could use in a GFA
Basic program I'm writing.
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To *.*
From Nick Bates
Does anyone have a Canon BJ printer driver, needed desperately.
*/ Not sure for which program this is needed ! Better contact Nick
direct if you think you can help him. ICTARI /*
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To ICTARI
From Tony Greenwood
Unfortunately, due to other commitments, I am unable to offer much time
towards ICTARI as I program the STOSSER diskzine but if I can help in
any other way then please get in touch, i.e. you may want to run an
advert in STOSSER for new members for ICTARI. I have in past issues
given the ICTARI address out for possible new members and always offer
our full support.
Have you registered with the A.A.U.G. I recently sent for an update
list of Atari User groups and was surprised that ICTARI was not on it ?
*/ We would appreciate a mention in your magazine in case any of your
members are interested in languages other than STOS, please note our
new address. We haven't registered with the A.A.U.G as yet but we shall
when we are sure that the group is properly established. ICTARI /*
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To ICTARI
From James Collett (Professor)
I'm afraid I currently don't have time to write a complete GFA
tutorial, but if any members have any specific GFA problems I'm willing
to (try to!) solve them. I will also continue to contribute sources as
I have done in the past.
GFA codings from me to watch out for over the next few months include a
mega colour scroller and 3-D sphere rotation routines with explanations
of the techniques I use to achieve 3-D graphics. I also have plans for
more developments of my handwriting engine, which I will hopefully be
coding over the Easter hols. I would like to release it through ICTARI
magazine as I have done in the past.
Finally, as you may not know, I'm also a member of the demo crew
VIRTUAL INFINITY. Although we have been relatively "passive" in the
past and haven't released any major demos, next term we will be coding
and releasing something major. It's not actually a demo, it's actually
a game! We will hopefully be rewriting the classic 8 bit game, REPTON 3
for the 16 & 32 bit ATARI machines using the original graphics from the
Acorn BBC/Electron.
I would be grateful if you would put a message in the magazine asking
for any ICTARI member who has or can obtain any disk or tape to write
to me or E-mail me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The "graphics files" include :-
Round The World in 40 Screens
REPTON Thru Time
The Life And Time Of REPTON
{etc}
Thanks a lot
*/ We look forward to seeing the source code. See MEMBERS.TXT file for
address and E-mail numbers. ICTARI /*
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To ICTARI
From Nightwalker
I have obtained one copy of ST Internals, I have friends who may have
obtained another copy but will not know for another week yet when
they get back from holiday. Have also written direct to Abacus in
America regarding this and other books. Will inform you of progress !!
*/ Please do and see also BOOKS.TXT in the MISC folder. ICTARI /*
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To ICTARI
From Mike Barnard
I recently discovered issues one and two of your ICTARI disk magazine.
About 6 months ago I started looking for as much information about
machine code programming as I could get and among the information I
found in the PD libraries were your two disks. Since then, (for various
reasons such as laziness, my wifes nagging about how long I spend on
the computer and my difficulty in actually understanding a lot of the
source code), I havn't done much programming. But I've just got the bug
back and I've finally decided to pull my finger out and actually learn
something. To this end I want to find out a bit more about ICTARI.
LAPD tell me you've just released issue 7 of your mag, (but they don't
have the other issues I'm missing, i.e. 3,4,5 & 6). This says to me
that you seem to be genuinely committed to this mag! That's a rare
treat nowadays, so I'd like in please! Tell me, what's your
subscription system? Send a disk and an SAE? How often do you release
the mag? Also do you need any help in sorting it? (Some of the writing
I've seen has really terrible spelling and phrasing). Tell me all,
please. And I definitely want the missing issues, 3-7 inclusive. How
much?
Who am I? I'm a 37 year old Fireman, with a great wife, no kids and a
cat. I've got an STE, running on TOS 1.6, the one that won't set to
medium rez without an auto folder patch. (What a pain in the a%$!).
It's got 1 meg, a Phillips Mk I colour monitor, Power external drive,
and a wonderful Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 500 printer. I'm into strategy
style games. I've got Civilisation, Railroad Tycoon, Caesar, Campaign,
Space Crusade, Dragonflight, Amberstar and others. And, of course, I'm
finding my way in M/C programming.
I'm only really interested in M/C programming personally, but browsing
through the listings I've noticed one thing in common with almost all
types of source code. The commenting is usually terrible, which is
especially bad as people have often deliberately written it as a
tutorial. And the layout? Not usually very structured, which makes it
as confusing as hell to try and read, for me, anyway. I have a
neighbour who used to program professionally for major businesses, and
he told me of 'The rule of 7'. A segment of source code shouldn't be
longer than 7 lines at a time, as the Human Brain finds it confusing.
If a routine needs more than 7 lines, it should be broken down into
logical segments, each no longer than 7 lines. Included is a simple
program to display a Degas Picture on screen, ('LAYOUT.S'). The program
itself is nothing new at all, it's been shown a hundred times in books,
magazines and source code, but the way I have laid out the source is
(in my humble opinion) far easier to understand than the continuous
lists of data found in some sources.
Now for a begging bit. Will you please include the following grovelling
request to your M/C readers on your next release? Thanks Please help! I
want to control the mouse pointer in machine code at TOS level, not
GEM! This means reading the IKBD directly. For those that read ST
Format, they answered my letter with a routine in issue 43, page 58,
(Included as 'MOUSE.S' in ASSEMBLY folder). I still can't do it. I just
want to be able to read the data packet returned by the mouse, relative
or absolute, and use the information in it to modify two variables,
'mousex' and 'mousey'. Do I need to use XBIOS 0, initmouse? When I
finally get to this stage I'm sure I'll be able to use these variables
to redraw the mouse when I decide I need to.
So, if you have any sourced routines that would help, please, please
let's see them. A tutorial, written in plain english, would be a great
help if someone out there actually knows what he is talking about.
Thanks.
How about a For Sale column ? I want a hard drive (cheap of course).
Well, that's enough waffling for now. Thanks for an interesting mag and
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
*/ We now have copies of all of the ICTARI disks from Nick Bates and we
are compiling a catalogue of what is on each disk and will be
publishing this in the next issue. See the READ_ME.TXT file for
information on obtaining back issues of the magazine.
You should notice an improvement in the spelling and grammar of the
text files in future although there is not much we can do about errors
in source or program files.
We entirely agree about the commenting (or lack of) in source code and
we shall try and persuade all contributors to provide more comments and
explanations of code.
Can anyone help with the mouse problem.
We would be happy to include any items wanted or for sale providing
they don't take so up much room that we would have to reduce
programming material. ICTARI /*
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To ICTARI
From Michael Herman
I am in the process of starting my own disk magazine with a partner, it
will be a general magazine with hopefully a programming section. I will
however support your mag and I hope we can provide each other with
ideas and new readers. For that reason I would like to ask if I could
have an advert in your magazine in return for you placing one in mine.
*/ Good luck with the mag, please mention ours when you get it going
ICTARI /*
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To ICTARI
From Simon Rigby
I think the credit system should be scrapped and go back to a one disk
+ SAE in for one disk out; if you have to send a disk, you tend to put
something on it.
*/ We agree that sending a disk each month is preferable from our point
of view as it saves us having to buy lots of disks regularly and (as
you say) it is likely that members will hopefully put something on the
disk for the magazine. However, not everybody can do this easily and if
a disk is not sent to us each month it means we have to decide whether
to send a disk and hope we get one back or not send a disk and risk
upsetting the member who misses that issue. For this reason we will
continue to accept money or disks as payment for each issue, see the
READ_ME.TXT file for more information on this. ICTARI /*
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To *.*
From Jonathan White
Since I have a Falcon plus a load of programming info, I'm willing to
be a Falcon consultant/beta tester/compatibility checker. I can be
contacted via E-mail at PSU WHITE & UK.AC.BOLTON.BASIL (Internet).
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To ICTARI
From James Taylor (Author of MiniDraft and MultiCAD)
If you are looking for ideas to suggest to other possible contributors
how about the following -
1..How to draw and fill Calamus vector font characters.
2..How to construct DXF and ADI CAD files.
3..An explanation of HPGL.
4..How to construct a tangent to a curve.
5..How to draw a spline curve.
I'm sure I could think of more if pushed.
*/ We are currently trying to write some code to use Calamus vector
fonts in user programs but it is extremely difficult so don't hold your
breath, if anyone has any other info on filling Calamus fonts please
let us know.
By HPGL we presume you mean the Hewlett Packard Graphics Language used
in HP printers. We do have the manual for this language but it is a
very large book (over a thousand pages probably) and would be difficult
to reproduce it in this magazine (not to mention the copyright issue).
The book is available from HP but is quite expensive (approx 40). Does
anyone else have any thoughts on this.
We shall be publishing code to draw polylines in a later issue, does
anyone have information on the CAD formats and drawing tangents/spline
curves. ICTARI /*
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To ICTARI
From Steven Jordan & Andrew Martin (Diamond Software)
Over the next couple of months we will be bringing you some of our 68k
routines. The routines will vary from picture drawing routines, raster
routines or even load data files.
We hope that the routines we are giving away will be used by all
members of the Ictari User Group and there will be higher standards of
intros, games or utilities.
Here are the routines that we will be giving away over the next couple
of months :
Intro / Demos - What can we say?!
Picture Routines - PC1 unpacker
Munster picture routine!
A barrel roller
Normal picture drawing routine
Venetian picture blind routine
Bootsectors - Picture loading
Picture loading & PRG loading
Rasters - Mega-Beams
VU raster bars!
Normal rasters
Full screen ones (using HBL)
Colour cycling raster
Simple Mega-Bars
Vertical rasters!!!!!
Moving rasters
Music Players - STFM Tracker Music
- STE Tracker Music
- Mad Max Chip Music
- Digi-Drum Music
- Quartet Music???
Border Removal - Top Border (Testing which MMU you have)
- Left And Right Borders
- Full screen ?? (Overscan)
- Documents explaining how they are done
File Accessing - Loading data files
- Saving data files
Scroll Texts - Too many to list...
Key Click - Turning on/off that annoying key click
System Addresses - In a document type form
Trap Calls - Every ST trap command
Reset Stuff - A proper version which changes palette etc...
Fonts - How to use 4-plane fonts
Sync Scrolling - Simulated on an STFM (STE Compatible?)
Scrolling - How to scroll a screen in all directions
CLS - A venetian blind routine (on Ictari #5 & #7)
- Normal clearing
- Fading out colours
Sine-waving - Sine-Wave the FAST way
Sprites - Drawing sprites (X & Y cords) - Fast
Sample Playing - On an interrupt (ANY freqs)
These are just some of the routines that we will bring you, but of
course we will bring you other things that we have not talked about and
we might even not give you some of the routines!
If you have anything else that you want to see on Ictari then you can
write into Ictari.
*/ We look forward to receiving all this invaluable material but don't
forget to provide plenty of comments/explanations, etc. ICTARI /*
THE STOS RASTER UPDATE
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
Does anyone remember the raster routine I included on the Ictari disk
number 5? It was a bit big wasn't it ...
180 GS=CO : for N=0 to RC : doke (start(12)+CO),5 : CO=CO+2 : next N
/\
/||\
||
change that number to make the height of the raster smaller/bigger -
1=small ..... 10000=crash!
P.S. Don't press CONTROL & C while you are in the main loop as it
crashes the ST.
I bet some Ictari members bought ST Format and then found that they had
'Missing Link' on the cover disk. If I were you, I would format it
because ST Format only put on the install program, which was just one
of the many things that ST Format should have put on the disk. I bought
Missing Link from LAPD and I got a 81*10 disk which was FULL of
examples to all the commands and it also had about ten or so games
which are so bloody addictive that I have 'The Race' running on my
multi-tasking ST system !!!!
- GET THE PROPER COPY OR YOU'LL BE MISSING OUT -
P.S. Andrew and I are just about to register... We'll tell you what the
stuff's like later.
From Steven Jordan <One Half Of Diamond Software>
Jesus Christ whats this? months Ictari late! We almost thought that you
forgot us or Ictari had dissolved!!!!! Oh err.
The reason the text file containing information on how to change our
brilliant raster routine was missing was this : - We turned the PC off
before we saved the file and we couldn't be bothered to write it again!
(Andrews excuse is a load of crap.)
Now we have just typed it out again and you should find it on our
contributions disk...
To everyone who have been waiting for our intro source(s),
Last month we said that we were going to give you the source code to
the intro on Ictari disk #7, but we have decided that it was far too
shit! So instead we have given you another intro that we originally
wrote for Ictari #5 but we never got round to organising all the
folders etc... We hope you find it useful and that you will use the
routines in it to make an outstanding intro or demo.
Tell us what you think of it and you only have to ask if you want some
more documented intros, utilities or actual demos.
To 68K Coders
Hope you like our 68k routines. Please use them in you own stuff, but
please remember to say hi to Andrew and I.
From Steven Jordan <One Half Of Diamond Software>
*/ Yes we do, please send some more when you can ! ICTARI /*
To *.* (Who made that up?)
Some people may have noticed that our sources don't have a lot of
documentation but I (Steven) have had a problem with my wrist (No it's
not what you are thinking!) I have RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) which
is caused by repetitive movement performed in the same fixed position
for long periods of time. And it has come about because of the crap
College computers. (Tut,Tut,Tut).
Hopefully I should be better before the next issue of Ictari comes
out...
I'm off to give my hand a rest now. (I've been typing with one hand!)
From Steven Jordan <The injured member of Diamond Software>
I very often don't say anything in our text files or scrollers so from
now on I'm going to have my say. Ok
From Andrew Martin <Diamond Software>
You may have noticed that we didn't write an intro for this months
disk. This is because we thought we would give other members a chance
(Ah aren't we nice!?). But if all things go according to plan we should
have an intro very soon....and be prepared, this one's going to be
totally different from any other that has appeared in ICTARI.
If me and Steven send you some pictures of us would it be possible for
you to scan them for us..... P L E A S E........>>>>>
From Andrew Martin & Steven Jordan <Diamond Software>
*/ We will scan them for you on two conditions, that we can publish
them in the magazine and providing they don't contravene the Obscene
Publications Act. Make sure they are no bigger than 4" by 6" and
preferably have a light background, black and white is better (or a
photocopied picture) although colour can be done. ICTARI /*
How about putting a text file or database on the disk which contains
all of the members of the user group as it would then be easier to send
programs to each other for testing !
*/ See MEMBERS.TXT file on this disk ICTARI /*
I did say I was going to say a lot from now on but I can't think of
anything else to say. So that's it.....
From Andrew Martin <Diamond Software>
*/ Thank god for that (Just joking) /*
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