** 2 pages Q&A / 1990 words **

** Q **
I'm interested in learning to program. I bought GFA Basic 3.0 and a few books but I can't find any advanced beginner books. I have one called training boot camp but I've nearly completed it and want to know more.
I'm wondering if there's someone or something that can teach me from step 1 to advanced use of GFA code?

I'm also having problems with Pagestream 2.2se. I used to run it on my 4Mb STe and after loading it reported 87764 bytes of system memory was available which left no room to import large images.
I thought my problem would be resolved when I bought a 14Mb Falcon but, to my surprise, I've found that Pagestream just took more space for itself and I couldn't even load a 2Mb graphic file! Can you help me!

Gene, by email

** A **
There are three on-disk guides worth looking at:
** UL **
* GFA Expert 2
* GFA Tutorial
* Your Second GFA Basic Manual
** UL **

The first two are on FaST Club disks PR.481 and Your Second Manual, which is very comprehensive, is on disk PR.485.

** GFA.GIF here **

As with all programming languages, you can learn a lot from looking at other peoples source code and playing around with it. There's loads of source code on FaST Club disks PR.483 and PR.484. GFA Basic 2, for which the FaST Club have a distribution licence, is available on FaST Club disk PR.482.

Loading Pagestream 2.2 on a 4MB STe leaves lots more than 87764 bytes available for creating pages, loading images, etc. If I remember correctly this System Memory figure refers to the memory that PageStream has left for the system to use, with the remainder having been grabbed by PageStream for creating documents.

I'm not surprised you can't load a 2Mb graphic file on your 4Mb system. Most graphic file formats (GIF, IMG, JPG, and so on) are compressed files and the actual image data will be significantly greater than the size of the file that you are loading from disk. A 2Mb JPEG file could easily need 20Mb memory or more when uncompressed.

Under multitasking you can simply load another program before launching Pagestream then quit that to free up the memory but this won't work under single TOS. However there are utilities which can limit the amount of memory that can be grabbed by an application.

On disk FaST Club disk UT.370 there's DC RESERVE which saves a pre-defined amount of memory when you execute a program which might just work.

** BC **
Jeremy Hughes and Paul Glover, FaST Club
PO Box 101, Nottingham, NG2 7NN, England
Email: stclub@cix.co.uk
http://www/cix.co.uk/~stclub/
** /BC **

Pagestream is known to grab all available memory when run but there are a few ways around the problem. Options include using a resizable accessory based RAMdisk which reserves memory, or limiting the amount of memory used by the application - the Thing desktop offers this ability.

** BC **
Derryck Croker
** /BC **

There are dozens of third party development tools available to anyone developing with GFA Basic. These range from freeware add-ons such as GFA Flydials to commercial software such as Face Value. Although some of these tools are only available in German a webpage search should turn up plenty of sources.

** BC **
Joe Connor
** BC **

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** Tip **
MagiC 6

Mono Magic 6 users, especially on an 8MHz machine, can speed up the boot by deleting the "tiles" and "image" lines from MAGX.INF.
Alternatively you can replace the colour boot image and tiled background with mono equivalents which saves MagiC dithering them on the fly and delaying the arrival of the desktop.

** NP **
#_MAG MAG!X V6.00
#[boot]
log=C:\BOOT.LOG
tiles=C:\GEMSYS\GEMDESK\PAT\16\PAT27.IMG
image=C:\GEMSYS\GEMDESK\PAT\256\MAGIC.IMG
** /NP **

And if you're wondering where the login banner from your Auto folder programs have disappeared to, take a peek in the BOOT.LOG file, usually in the root directory of your boot partition (typically C:). If you would prefer to see them at boot time simply delete the "log" line from MAGX.INF.

** BC **
Matt Burton, Derbyshire
** /BC **

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** R **
Something for nothing

All scripts that are to be loaded into STinG for the purposes of accessing multiple ISPs require the line:

DIAL_SCRIPT

to be added to the bottom of the script, STinG will reject it if this line is not present - even if there are no arguments for it.
We didn't include this line in the DIAL.SCR we included on the AC#13 Reader Disk so please edit your copy to include that entry at the end.

** BC **
Derryck Croker
** /BC **

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** Q **

Similar printer problems

I run a laser and Citizen HQP 45 24-pin dot matrix from an Atari STFM1O4O with 4Mb memory. The Citizen has suddenly refused to print anything from my Atari although it works with my Acorn and PC. I run Protext v.5, Calamus vl.9 and Cubase Score V.2 on my Atari. The laser still works as does an inkjet I borrowed, any ideas?

Sydney Vale, East Sussex

I have an STe 4Mb, TOS 1.62, TUS IDE HD. At ACC '98 I purchased a Citizen Swift 24 printer to use with my STe but on connecting it to my system the output was complete gibberish. I reconnected my old printer (Panasonic KX P-1081) and the output from that was also near-gibberish.
The Citizen works fine with my PC and the Panasonic works with my other STe. I have heard some printers can put a large load on the printer port. Could this be the case and am I safe to use it with my spare STe machine?

C Thorley, BFPO 25

** A **
It might be worth trying another printer cable. There are at least eight "earth return" pins in the centronics port and not all equipment connects all of them. If a wire is broken in the cable, it may be that the Citizen is not seeing an earth from the Atari whereas it is from the other computers. I have a similar problem in the reverse direction - one printer lead I use with my Atari (a simple ribbon cable) doesn't work with a PC, so there are obviously wiring differences.
** BC **
Gary Bainbridge
** /BC **

I'm not sure about using the Citizen with STe machines but I am aware of people successfully using these printers with STFM machines.
** BC **
Peter West
** /BC **

ST Applications Issue 2 published in January 1991 included an interface circuit that optically-isolated the Atari serial port. I built one when I bought a 24-pin dot-matrix printer which started to play up and it worked fine.
** BC **
Keith Jackson
** /BC **

** PPSCHEME.GIF here **

** On CD logo here **
Paul Glover/FaST Club have kindly given us permission to include scans of the article on the renegade CD - thanks Paul!

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** Tip **
Smart Works

Atari Works to Lotus SmartSuite conversion is straightforward and requires little or no cleaning up afterwards. In fact it can be far more tricky transferring files between Lotus versions!
There are three separate methods, one each for the word processor, database and spreadsheet. I'm assuming floppy disk will be used to physically transfer the files between the PC and Atari machines.

Word Processing:
Atari Works to Lotus Word Pro conversion
Open Atari Works
** UL **
* File - Open
* Select required file and OK
* Select (from File) Export File
* Choose Rich-Text Format (RTF) \
* Save as a RTF file (as already selected) in the file name and drive required, usually to a floppy disk for the transfer to the other computer.
* OK
* Close
** /UL **

Open Lotus Word Pro
** UL **
* Go to File, then Import/Export, click on Import.
* Go to the drive holding the above RTF file and select the RTF file BY
* Look at "Files of type" selector and choose "Rich Text Format (RTF) and then open. The file will then load into Word Pro.
* Go to File and Save As, click on Yes when the message appears asking if you wish to continue. A SAVE AS Panel is displayed.
* For
(a) "Save as type" - go to Lotus Word Pro 96 (*.LWP)
(b) the drive and/or directory to save in
* Click on Save
* Close the file
** /UL **

Database
Atari Works to Lotus Approach database conversion
Open Atari Works
** UL **
* Load Atari Works STD file
* Go to Export File
* Choose Database (DBF) format and OK
* Save the file, changing the name if necessary, in the required drive, as a DBF file as shown, to a floppy disk if this the method being used to transfer between the two computers.
* Close the file
** /UL **

Open Lotus Approach database
** UL **
* Go to File and Open
* Choose the above saved file
* "Files of type" should be dBASE IV (*.DBF) and then Open
* Then "Save As"
* Select the required drive, rename the file if required
* Choose "Save as type" Lotus Approach 9 (*.APR) then when "Save as type" dBASE IV (*.DBF) appears, just OK to save. Note that the file is saved twice, once as an APR file and once as a DBF file
* Close the file
** /UL **

Spreadsheet
Atari Works to Lotus 123 spreadsheet conversion
Open Atari Works
** UL **
* Load the required file into Atari Works spreadsheet
* TAB across the top row in each active column
* Go to Export File and select the required drive
* Select "TAB-delimited ASCII text" and click on OK. Only rename if necessary
* Leave the file extender as TXT
* Click on OK and close the file, saving to a floppy disk if this is the method being used to transfer the files to the other computer.
** /UL **

Open Lotus 123 spreadsheet
** UL **
* Change "Files of type" to All files (*)
* Select the above file. The file will not have an extender.
* Open Parsing Options.
* At "Start a new column at each" Tab
* Go to Save As and use the required name (if to be changed) and drive: "SAVE AS" type should be Lotus 1-2-3 9 Workbook (it will probably default to this anyway).
** /UL **

Rod Jenkins, Australia, via email

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** Q **

Year 2000 testing

I have been doing some year 2000 testing on my most used Atari applications, and I think I have discovered a problem with HiSoft BASIC v2.10.
I've written a small program which tests the HB DATE$ and TIME$ functions and displays the current system date and time then lets you set them to a new value. The program then displays the new date and time.
When I run the program, all goes well until you enter a year value of 2000. The program displays this as "20:0". Even if you set the system date and time using a CPX before running the program, it displays 20:0 (thus proving the bug is in reading the date, not setting it).
Has anyone else come across this? It is definitely a HB problem rather than the system because both Papyrus 5 and the clock CPX set and display the date and time correctly.
If you do test your system, don't forget to try out the following three dates which are critical because next year is also a leap year:

** UL **
* 28th Feb 2000 23:59:30 (and watch the date roll over)
* 29th Feb 2000 23:59:30 (and watch the date roll over)
* 1st March 2000
** /UL **

** BC **
Gaz, via CIX ataricomputing conference
** /BC **

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** Q **

NEWSie Nicknames

I have been using NEWSie for some time and have spent hours/days trying to get Nicknames to work. I have read the manual/updates thoroughly but when I create lists and select the name from Nicknames it only sends to the first name on the list and ignores the rest. What am I doing wrong?
I am using STinG and MagiC 5 on a Mega STe. My NICKNAME.TXT and paths both seem fine. I have HSMODEM, HDDRIVER, WDAEMON and WDIALOG installed.

Campbell Webster, via email

** A **
Newer versions of WDIALOG are known to cause problems with NEWSie and Nicknames - the author does mention it in the docs.

** BC **
Mike Kerslake
** /BC **