Newz From The Prez
by Nathan Block
Nathan has failed again to submit his article in time for this publication! His article has to be submitted to me two weeks before Club Meetings. This gave him two weeks to put together an article. I find it very hard to believe that Nathan has absolutely no time to get an article together and get it to me by the two week deadline.
The Editor
Terry has failed to submit DOM info to me in time for the newsletter. It appears Terry also has absolutely no time to prepare any kind of DOM Info for the Newsletter.
The Editor
Treasurer's Report by Grey Leitner
The February SPACE meeting produced quite a mixture of topics for discussion. First I would like to assure Nathan that we all are behind him, and we appreciate all the input and time that he can spare for the Club. I don't think anyone could do a better job, and we all know and understand that the hectic life you lead makes it impossible for you to do all the things you would like. So Nathan as long as you still have the desire to be President, you will have my support 188 percent. Enough said!
Now that the SPACE newsletter is going to be available in the near future on the BBS, I was really hoping to get some pointers from the demo that was planned for the February meeting. Unfortunately, Mike and Sherm had unexpected problems with the modem and they had to put on hold the BBS demo until the March meeting next month. Anyone who has a modem and does not take advantage of it's capabilities (like myself) should attend the next meeting on March 10 to find out what your missing.
Also, now that the Club has access to a large library of ST disks, there was a great deal of discussion on how to best use this format. Only a few of us in attendance owns ST's, so we have to find a way to get more ST users to attend our monthly meetings. Surely the old MAST members must still want a forum for their machines.
Well I suppose I should say something about the financial situation of the Club since I am the Treasurer and that is why I am writing this article in the first place. The Club has been doing very well the last couple of months and once again our receipts were greater than our expenses. We took in a total of $186.88 for February which included three memberships, DOM and blank disk sales. Our only expenses for the month were for the February Newsletter and the January BBS phone bill totalling $39.87. We netted an additional $66.13 for the treasury and our balance now stands at $531.88 which I think is terrific. We will be getting billed for the first quarter rental of the hall ($98.88), but if we can keep getting new members and membership renewals we will have no problem in keeping our Club financially healthy.
Thanks for a great February meeting and I will see you all next month. I really would like to hear some feedback from those of you who attended the Midwinter Madness show since I did not make it this year. I'm sure it was a great success and I probably missed out on some good deals.
January Minutes of SPACE
1. The meeting was brought to order by the Vice-President, Sherm Erickson, at 7:30pm.
2. The Treasurer's report is found in the January 1995 SPACE Newsletter. The current balance was $374.
3. Old Business: The BBS was moved to Mike Fitzpatrick's home. The phone number is; (612)427-4317. Mike asked that the members be patient as he is combining his BBS, The Book Nook, with SPACE to have two boards on one system.
4. New Business:
a. It was suggested that the newsletter be posted on the BBS for those who have and use modems.
b. A demonstration of using the BBS is scheduled for the February SPACE meeting.
c. It was requested that a demonstration of Atari Writer and Atari Writer + be given.
d. An invitation letter and our current bylaws have been sent to the membership chairman of the former MAST computer club, inviting them to join us at SPACE.
e. Mid-Winter Madness was brought up. It was asked if SPACE were to have a booth and who would volunteer to represent SPACE at the booth. Sherm Erickson, Roger Mier, and Mike Weist indicated that they would man the booth. To any other member please feel free to be there and help out at the SPACE booth.
f. External Club activities were discussed; with the following suggestions to be explored:
1. Volunteer(s) to visit other Atari Clubs as a representative of SPACE.
2. An individual to represent SPACE at one of the national Atari shows in Indianapolis, IN or Charlotte, SC, etc.
5. David Pascal Zimbal, president of the former MAST computer club, brought down several boxes of MAST DOMs and other ST items of interest. Roger Mier is sorting and cataloging the material. Thanks Roger for the time and effort.
6. The meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm.
February 1995 Minutes of S.P.A.C.E.
7:35pm Meeting was called to order by Nathan Block, President.
There was no Treasure's Report.
There was no reading of the January 1995 S.P.A.C.E. minutes.
Nathan asked for constructive criticism of his performance as President.
Mike Schmidt asked for timeliness and current articles for the newsletter.
Nathan will work on being timely.
Mike Schmidt reminded Nathan of his dues obligation based upon the Club Bylaws change.
Nathan will remit dues.
Mike Wiest is concerned about the club's future and future leadership.
Earline Fitzpatrick reminded the club that the president was a meeting leader and was not supposed to carry the club. The general consensus of the members present agreed with her and expressed appreciation for what Nathan has done thus far.
Sherm Erickson, Vice-president asked Mike Wiest to plan some club functions. Mike tentatively agreed to do so.
Continuing Business:
The BBS will be finalized this month when the SIG_Files will be sorted out and reloaded on the BBS.
The ST software was sorted out by Roger Mier, MANY THANKS!!, and he reported the status of the software and printed matter. The redundant DOMs will be purged.
The ST DOMs will be sold at the same price as the Classic 8-bit DOMs.
Sherm Erickson challenged the club to discover where other Atari clubs meet so that we can pay a courtesy visit.
Mike Fitzpatrick reminded the club about the occurrences that are still happening in the Atari community.
The club is going to do an inventory of ALL equipment and software. Please bring a new or like new Cub style tote box to the next meeting for storage of club materials.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:20pm.
The following list are the Clubs that SPACE exchanges newsletters with.
Northwest Phoenix ATARI Connection P.O. Box 67511 Phoenix, AZ 85082 Puget Sound Atari News PO Box 110576 Tacoma, WA 98411 PACESETTER C/O Jean Brokaw 958 Phyllis Ave. Largo, FL 34641 STUG Chronicles 619 Hamilton Ave. Winnipeg, MB R2Y1Z Miami Valley Area Computer Enthusts P.O. Box 24221 Huber Heights, OH 45424 L.R. Data Inc. 2676 E. Cty Rd E White Bear Lake, MN 55110 Alamo Area ATARI User Association P.O. Box 79-1426 San Antonio, TX 78279 Chip Valley ATARI Users Group 326 W. Fillmore Eau Claire, WI 54701
Mid Winter Madness Show
Blaine, Minnesota
Feb. 11, 1995
Could weather couldn't keep Atari Die-Hards from the Mid Winter Madness Show in Blaine, Mn. Several members from the Space Atari Club showed up. Sherm Erickson, Rich and son, Roger Meier, Tony Walsh and others were there. Lance Ringquist and son manned a booth at the show, also Mike Schmidt and his son and I manned another booth.
Both of the booths had Atari Space club literature, Mike's booth also was set-up for people to try Atari software. One visitor was surprised to see Atari at Mike's booth and said " Atari I can't believe it, I had Atari when I was younger. Mike told him to play around with some of the programs. Lance's booth had Atari equipment which included software and hardware for sale. Mike and Lance's were good coverage to advertise ATARI.
Let me tell you, when it comes to electronic shows which include Mid Winter Madness. Hamfest. and the Amateur Show a person wants to buy everything at these shows, but a person's wallet puts a stop to that.
Atari software and hardware wasn't plentiful at Mid Winter Madness show, but there were a few Atari Items for sale. The show was fun and I am looking forwards to the next show on October 28, 1995 at the St. Paul Civic Center. So mark your calendars!!!!!
Lastly, a thanks goes out to Mike Schmidt and Lance Ringquist and kids for promoting SPACE!! See you all next Space Meeting.
Mike Weist
Two-Minute Know-it-All
Exhibiting Problems
Birds of a feather ... die together?
Forty-four black footed penquins at the Los Angeles Zoo have joined that big flock in the sky over the past ten years; a population that once reached 27 is down to four.
Most of the penquins died of diseases that were aggravated by stress due to heat, poor nutrition and competition (there are now three males competing for the attention of one female), experts found. Also, unknown predators have gotten into the open enclosure and killed six of the penquins.
"It would appear ... that it is the wrong exhibit for the species and, indeed, it probably is the wrong species for the L.A. Zoo," says Gretchen Wyler, president of the animal rights group Ark Trust.
According to an October report from U.S. Rep. John Dingell, defense contractors recently billed the federal goverment for such inappropriate employee perks as $263,000 for a Smokey Robinson concert; $20,194 for "professional quality" golf balls; $63,000 for crystal decanters for employee awards; and $17,000 to hire referees and umpires for office sports leagues.
An Associated Press story on body branding revealed that the idea of having one's skin artistically seared as a "personal statement" is growing in popularity, especially in San Francisco. The branding customer endures from one to hundreds of one-second "strikes" with a blowtorch-heated, white-hot galvanized sheet metal design selected or created by the customer. Each branding scar takes siz weeks or longer to heal.
One customer interviewed by the San Francisco Examiner said she got a large, elaborate African sunburst on her lower back because she thought it would help "keep me more centered" because "I couldn't get in balance with myself."
Seek & Find Felicitous L U P A R X G Y Q J L D G W W G E M P F E L I C I T O U S D E Z N B M R G J L P V H T W L X N L H I E R S S Z D H J L A V H U R L V M D A B U R L M O X N P H C G S S O E T T O O P D C P O V P K T U I C O O X I H I R L Q O G P Y L I G E R T P N V R N P T U E N O T T U B E H T N O A E O H H J P W G E P Z F E R M S L R E M Y N Y A D D E L A P E R M Z U B P R U W Y T U O P N O D A C Q A V J R A R V N D A E W I I H H L A X N B Y H E Z W X E E N V T A T B Y R M E V P Q Q V N X T B T V E L W X Q G E Y N M M N B E T A I R P O R P P A M W R A APT WELL-SUITED BECOMMING APROPOS NEAT CONGENIAL HARMONIOUS GRACEFUL HAPPY APPROPRIATE JUST RIGHT GERMANE LUCKY TO THE POINT ON THE BUTTON
+----------------------------------------+
| Larry's |
| ACTION! TUTORIAL |
+----------------------------------------+
#5 Vocabulary
------------------------------------------
Last months PrintF, in KEYBOARD TEST, does
not need ^[ between the ( and %C. They
got printed instead of the Esc character.
In the LANGUAGE section of the ACTION!
manual is a listing of the vocabulary of
ACTION! system. The words and symbols are
listed in alphabetical order, I will list
them by function;
DECLARATIONS- Used in declaring the
procedures, functions, or variables;
ARRAY -Preceded by BYTE, CARD or INT to
declare a list of data
BYTE -Declares an 8 bit variable
CARD -Declares a 16 bit variable
CHAR -Same as BYTE
DEFINE -Allows substitution during compile
FUNC -Preceded by BYTE, CARD or INT to
indicate the start of a function
INCLUDE-Adds text from a file, to program
INT -Declares a 15 bit variable with a
sign bit as the 16th bit
MODULE -Indicates the start of global
variable declarations
POINTER-Preceded by BYTE, CARD or INT to
declare a variable reference
PROC -Indicates the start of a procedure
RETURN -Indicates the end of a procedure
RETURN(x) the end of a function
SET -Alters memory during compile
TYPE -Declares a Iist of mixed data
= -Used in DEFINE and SET to assign
equality
$ -Indicates Hexadecimal notation
^ -Contents of a Pointer
@ -Address of a variable
. -TYPE reference
[ ] -Start / End of data block
" -String contents (delimiter)
' -Character conversion to value
; -Remarks (delimiter)
PROGRAM CONTROL-used to structure or
control program execution;
DO -Start of program loop
ELSE -FALSE condition of IF, ELSEIF
ELSEIF -Dependant IF conditions
EXIT -Exit from program loop
FI -End of IF, THEN, ELSE conditions
FOR -Enables loop parameters
IF -Conditional expression
TO -upper limit of FOR loop
UNTIL -Conditional EXIT from loop
WHILE -ConditionaI entrance to loop
( ) -Precedence setting parenthesis
OPERATORS- Used in program statements to
alter or combine variables;
AND -Logical AND
LSH -Bit-wise left shift
MOD -Remainder after division
OR -Logical OR
RSH -Bit-wise right shift
XOR ! -Bit-wise exclusive OR
+ - * /-Plus / Minus / Times / Divide by
& -Bit-wise AND
% -Bit-wise OR
= -Assigns equality
<> # -Not equal to
> -Greater than
>= -Greater or equal to
< -Less than
<= -Less or equal to
------------------------------------------
MODULE BYTE ARRAY
Note= [ 32 16 24 16 24 16 40 ],
Delay=[ 30 8 55 6 8 6 60 ]
DEFINE note_count="7"
PROC Wait(BYTE jif)
BYTE rtclk=20
rtcik=0
WHILE rtclk<jif DO OD
RETURN
PROC Play()
BYTE ARRAY Audio(8)=53760
BYTE c
AUDIO(8)=3
Audio(1)=166 Audio(3)=170
FOR c=0 to note_count-1
DO
Audio(0)=Note(c)
Audio(2)=Note(c) LSH 1 +1
Wait(delay(c))
OD
Audio(1)=0 Audio(3)=0
RETURN
When you have this typed in, COMPILE it,
then if there are no errors, WRITE the
text file to disk. You can alter the
Notes and Delay times, but note_count must
equal the number of elements in Notes and
Delay. If you make something good, write
the compiled code, and send it to friends
who can simply load it from DOS!
------------------------------------------
Stay ACTive!
+----------------------------------------+
| Larry's |
| ACTION! TUTORIAL |
+----------------------------------------+
#6 Overview I
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From the top, programs in Action! are made
up of procedures and functions which are
called upon to do portions of a programmed
task. Usually, the parts of a program
that must be done repetitively, are coded
in separate procedures and called when
needed. Also, certain tasks that are
common among all programs, are also often
written as separate procedures and then
included in each program as desired. The
reading of the keyboard, may be an example
of a task that could be written as a BYTE
function, and included in any program that
needs user input from the keyboard. The
Action! system makes re-using routines
very easy to do.
Following along with the Actionl manual,
Language section, the manual uses special
notations which you should read about. You
might remember seeing them from an earlier
issue. Next comes Fundamental Data Types
which are BYTE, CARDinal and INTeger type
variables or constants. It may help to
remember, the variables invariably change
during program execution, while constants
consistently remain the same. A 'score'
variable might always be changing while
a constant number '5' will not.
To let Action! know you want to use a
named variable, you must declare it using
one of the fundamental types.
BYTE w,x
CARD y
INT z
Both 'w' and 'x' are 8-bit values. They
use one memory location to store values
in. Their value may be 0-255. The CARD
'y' is a 16-bit variable, it uses two
memory locations in the 6502 LSB/MSB
format. That is, if 'y' is assigned to
address 1536, (Ex CARD Y=1536) then the
least significant byte will be in address
1536 while the most significant byte will
be in address 1537. CARDs hold any value
from 0 to 65535. INTeger variables are
15-bit values, with the most significant
bit used as a sign bit. INTegers hold the
values from -32768 to 32767.
As seen before, when declaring variables,
you also have an option to assign that
variable to a specific address. Another
option allows you to assign a value to it
at compile time.
BYTE ch=764 ; assigns an address
BYTE spd=[3] ; assigns a value
You need to use some sort of compiler or
numeric constant in the assignment option.
Any numeric or compiler constant works!
This can lead to some interesting results:
PROC SeeFormat()
BYTE lsb,msb
CARD num=lsb
PrintE("LSB/MSB program O=exit")
do
Print("Enter a number >")
num=InputC()
PrintF("%U > LSB=%U MSB=%U%E",
num, lsb, msb)
PutE()
until num=0
od
RETURN
In this program, the variable 'num' is
assigned the same addresses that are used
for 'lsb' and 'msb'. Once 'lsb' has been
declared, its address becomes "fixed", the
'lsb' identifier is assigned a specific
address. Because its address is now a
compiler constant, it may be used later,
where ever a compiler constant is allowed.
Its the fixed address that is used in the
declaration of 'num'.
As you can see from above, the compiler
usually ignores any spaces you may want to
use. An exception to this is while trying
initialize a string.
Read the LANGUAGE section of the Action!
manual, typing in their program examples.
This will get you familiar with using the
Editor, Monitor, Compiler and language.
------------------------------------------
I am still looking to answer your own
questions. If you have any questions, send
them to me on SPACE BBS, or send a note to
the SPACE address including a line with
the words 'ATTN: Larry S' on the outside
of the envelope.