HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Quest for Refresh
From: Jeff McWilliams <JJMCWILL@MTUS5.BITNET>
Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1992 14:10:31 EST
 <92270.164344JJMCWILL@MTUS5.BITNET> <66704@cup.portal.com><92272.202908JJMCWILL@MTUS5.BITNET> <66832@cup.portal.com>
Organization: Computing Technology Services, Michigan Technological Univ.

Rick,

Hmm, interesting.  There IS a 16 bit assembler, but to convert Action! ?,
wow, sounds heavy.  I think you would have to rip some of the guts out,
since pointers could not be 24 bit, as would any values returned from
malloc().  Also, I believe that if you are running code and you come to
a 16 bit boundary, like $1FFFD, you have to put a JML $20000 to cross the
boundary, stuff like that would have to be handled.  That's all parser stuff
basically.  If someone could come up witha 65816 parser, then writing the
a library of functions wouldn't be hard.  But again, since you now have
24 bit pointers, you need to be able to do 24 bit operations on that.
Sure you could cludge a bunch of routines, like longc=longadd(longa,longb)
but it's not very convenient.

I can think of at least two tools that could really use the advantages of
24 bit memory addressing and stuff, one being a nice schematic CAD program
for all us Hardware folks, and Ben Poehland has been looking for a chemical
CAD type program for years.  I started working on a Schematic CAD program.
I wanted something that could output to whatever kind of printer a person
had, 9 pin, 24 pin, laser.  Which means the drawings have to be scalable.
that means a vectored approach to how things are described and drawn.
And since you can't see a whole 8.5x11 page at once, you could zoom in
and out, but it would still be nice to have a virtual page, say 600x400
pixels, that you pan around in when working on a drawing.  How about
memory to store the symbol libraries? and text fonts?  and then the
mathematical description of the working file.  ALl that takes memory.
I found it extrememly uncomfortable to work with banked memory, especially
since some upgrades have Antic following banked, others don't, some are
inbetween.  It can be a nightmare.  And I'm not a Machine Language genius,
I need to have some high level language to really get anything done.
Hence my craving for a 65816 type C or Action!.  Some Apple guy said he
knew there existed source code for a small C compiler, like CC65 or Lightspeed
C, that created an ANSI C compiler.  That would be cool, except he didn't
know where to get it.  Maybe something similar could be done for us.
CC65 outputs machine language files, which are then assembled.  This means
the intermediate code could be hand optimized.  It's a big project thought,
nothing I could tackle what with school beating me over the head with
lab report deadlines and stuff.


Jeff
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: thester@nyx.cs.du.edu (Uncle Fester)
Subject: Re: Upgrading my 810 and ALT.Atari.8bit.Binarys
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 05:27:21 GMT

In article <Oct01.232954.76446@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> pattons@CS.ColoSt
te.EDU (samuel patton) writes:
>In article <1af20uINN3un@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Ed
 (Michael Current) writes:
>>
>>Isn't there a Happy for the 810?  Doesn't it allow the 810 to read/writ
 SS/DD
>>180K disks, like the Happy 1050 does?
>
>Yes there is... I had a chance to buy one but I think that the 810 case
>is too bulky to go very well with my XL stuff due to my limited desk spa
e.
>
>It did write SS/DD 180k along with all of the copy 'perks' of the chip.
>
>Sam
>
>
>-- 
>________________________________________________________________________
____
>|  Sam Patton -=>  pattons@beethoven.cs.colostate.edu |                 
   |
>|                  spatton@lamar.colostate.edu        |     Emotion 13  
   |
>|_____________________________________________________|_________________
___|


Sorry.  Wrong.  The Happy upgrade for the 810 does not allow reading of
SS/DD 180k disks.  
Where did you get this bogus information?
The only Happy upgrade that allows reading SS/DD 180k disks is for the
1050 disk drive.
There was a 'vaporware' product (never released to my knowledge) from
another company (not Happy) called "Turbo 810" that was supposed to do
that.  Perhaps you were thinking of that instead?

Uncle Fester

--
:  Master,                        :       Uncle Fester       : Printed  :
:    Me and Rex took the kar      :   thester@nyx.cs.du.edu  : on 100%  :
:    to town. Stay home. Stay!    :         -or try-         :recyclable:
:       Ha ha ha ha.   The dog.   :    T.HESTER4 on GEnie    : phosphor :
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: uj1g@ibm3090.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Marek Tomczyk)
Subject: Re: 1050 upgrade?????????
Organization: Uni-Karlsruhe
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 18:20:17 GMT

In article <1992Oct4.070207.18671@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> thester@nyx.cs.du.edu (Uncle Fester) writes:

>In article <1992Oct4.052310.25523@zip.eecs.umich.edu> grover@emunix.emich
>edu (Grover Thomas) writes:
>>In article <1992Oct1.020805.17289@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> thester@nyx.cs.du
>edu (Uncle Fester) writes:
>>
>>>This is just my own opinion.  If there is a reason that the 1050 would 
>e
>>>preferred over the XF551, I don't know of it.
>>
>>I know one reason:  Because some of that darn copy-protected junk won't
>>boot on a XF551  (they spin at different speeds).  I replaced my dead 10
>0
>>with an XF551, and while not terrible, I wish I had another 1050. 
>>-- 
>> __                                                                     
>  __
>>(__)  Grover Thomas                   InterNet:  grover@emunix.emich.edu
> (__
>>(__) "We're going to have the best educated American people in the World
> (__)
>>(__)                                                         --Dan Quayl
> (__)


>You know you _can_ adjust the speed (rpm) on those things.

BTW: What is the default speed for the 1050 and the XF551?		
Wasn't it 300 rpm for the XF551 and 270 rpm for the 1050?

Marek Tomczyk
From: Rick_Michael_Cortese@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: xf highspeed 80DS
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 92 11:22:39 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
  <92270.165310JJMCWILL@MTUS5.BITNET>

4.19 just doesn't give you the option of 80 track HS. 4.2 (I've heard) has
it built in. I haven't booted 2.3 for a while to check if it'd do it. I
don't have 3.2 so I've never had a chance to use the Wooley method. I wish
I had the ability to do 80 tracks HS, but the longest program I've ever
done had about 90k of include files (mostly just byte arrays) & even that
would compile in 6 minutes.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: SDX 4.19 -> 4.20
Date: Sun, 04 Oct 1992 15:55:08 -0600

Hi Jim!!!  Glad to see that your still in the word of the Atari 8-bit.  You are
surely missed in this area!!
 
Well, once upon a time when ICD was more than willing to provide information, I
wrote to them and asked them for info on the differences in SpartaDOS X.  What
was sent to me was a leaflet that is three pages in length that has information
on the differences in versions from 4.18 to 4.20,, plus instructions on how to
replace the ROM.  I just don't have the time online left to post this today, but
I will post all of the differences between the three versions listed (4.18,
4.19, 4.2).
There are 7 modifications for 4.20.
 
Amos Jackson

 * Origin: FlightLine BBS {MSP}MN USRdual 612-544-5118 (1:282/47.0)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: grover@emunix.emich.edu (Grover Thomas)
Subject: Re: 1050 upgrade?????????
Organization: Eastern Michigan University
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 05:23:10 GMT

In article <1992Oct1.020805.17289@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> thester@nyx.cs.du.edu (Uncle Fester) writes:

>This is just my own opinion.  If there is a reason that the 1050 would be
>preferred over the XF551, I don't know of it.

I know one reason:  Because some of that darn copy-protected junk won't
boot on a XF551  (they spin at different speeds).  I replaced my dead 1050
with an XF551, and while not terrible, I wish I had another 1050. 
-- 
 __                                                                        __
(__)  Grover Thomas                   InterNet:  grover@emunix.emich.edu  (__
(__) "We're going to have the best educated American people in the World" (__)
(__)                                                         --Dan Quayle (__)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: uj1g@ibm3090.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Marek Tomczyk)
Subject: Re: 1050 upgrade?????????
Organization: Uni-Karlsruhe
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 19:32:32 GMT

In article <92279.154916AKH104@psuvm.psu.edu> The 8-bit Ruler <AKH104@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:

> The speed for the 1050 should be 288 RPM... +/- 1rpm

>           for the xf551 it should be 300rpm...
>           this does not mean the xf551 reads any faster because of this...
>           there is timing circuitry that makes the drive look like
>           a 288rpm 1050.

Hm, then the speed for the xf551 is equal to the default speed on IBM
drives. The speed of the 1050 is lower than the 'standard'. I  wonder how 
the program 'UTIL.EXE' works on the IBM PC. In order to read/write Atari 
true DD disk it has to emulate the speed of a 1050, doesn't it?

Do you think it is possible to read disks written with 288 rpm on 
drives spinning with around 300 rpm? (Except on the xf551).

Marek Tomczyk
From: Rick_Michael_Cortese@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Quest for Refresh
Date: Mon,  5 Oct 92 15:53:20 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world
  <92279.112247JJMCWILL@MTUS5.BITNET>

PROC Cstring=*(CARD str)
         [133 163 134 164 169 76
         133 165 173 6 228 133 166 173
         7 228 133 167 230 166 208 2
         230 167 160 0 177 163 240 18
         32 165 0 230 163 208 2 230
         164 160 0 177 163 240 3 24
         144 238 96]
MODULE
BYTE ARRAY stuff(800)
PROC Main()
BYTE POINTER bptr
Graphics(0)
FOR bptr=stuff TO stuff+799
DO
bptr^=Rand(26)+65
OD
stuff(800)=0
Cstring(stuff)
RETURN
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: jdz1@Ra.MsState.Edu (John D. Zitterkopf)
Subject: Re: Easter Eggs in Atariwriter
Organization: Mississippi State University
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 06:51:55 GMT

	It seems like there was an "Easter Egg" in the old game called Super-
Breakout. There was a key sequence that would, If memory serves, bring up a
detication or the authors name. I think that it was a CTRL something...

John

--
 ____________   _------_  |||IBM & |      EE majors Do it Best 8-)
  --------\\ ] ~-______-~ |||Atari |~~~~~~~~~John D. Zitterkopf~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     (~~~~~\\|_(__ ~~    / | \Rules!jdz1@ra.MsState.edu  jdz1@MsState.bitnet
      \______| (        /  |  \    |AOL: zitt@aol.com  jdz1@isis.MsState.edu
From: Rick_Michael_Cortese@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Command line DOS
Date: Mon,  5 Oct 92 09:10:35 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

If anyone is interested, I've got a copy of BBK command processor <somewhere>
It's from an old ANALOG & replaces DUP.SYS and then some. I can't recall all
the details, but I believe it bumps memlo about 2K & remains memory resident
so you can bounce from cart to DOS W/O losing your program if you don't
copy disk or programs.
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 00:17:40 EDT
From: The 8-bit Ruler <AKH104@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Null Modem Cable

 IBM comp. RS232C pinouts  are different....you need to swap some
lines...
  A "brilliant" thing to do is go to radio shack and buy some 9pin
connectors and a board and wire the same pins as they are on everything
else..then any cable to anything will work just fine...
in fact...radio shack even has a 25pin jumper box that lets you do just
that.
Andrew


__________________________________________________________________________
Ah, love could you and I with fate conspire
to grasp the sorry scheme of things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits, and then
re-mold it nearer to our heart's desire!    - Omar Khayyam
__________________________________________________________________________
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: rac@sherpa.uucp (Roger Cornelius)
Subject: Championship Lode Runner
Organization: Personal System Computing :-) Gulfport, FL
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1992 13:10:23 GMT

I no longer own an Atari, but when I did, I played Lode Runner and
Championship Lode Runner.  My boss still has an Atari and wants to
get Championship Lode Runner for it.  Does anyone know where he
might get it via mail-order?

Thanks
-- 
Roger Cornelius        sherpa!rac@uunet.uu.net       ...!uunet!sherpa!rac
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Upgrading my 810 and ALT.Atari.8bit.Binarys
Date: 1 Oct 1992 14:29:49 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, bmarcum@world.std.com (Bill Marcum) says:

>In article <kspeicht.27.717786354@kilcom1.ucis.dal.ca> kspeicht@kilcom1.ucis.dal.ca (Kevin F. Speichts) writes:
>>
>>	Since the 810 is a 88k disk drive, I think I have to modify it.  
>>Does anyone know of a hardware vendor who sells and upgrade kit for it?  
>>Or, should I just get a Indus GT drive.  If I need to purchase a better 
>>drive (ie Indus GT or something like it), who sells them.
>>
>Nobody makes floppy drives for the Atari 8-bit any more, not even Atari.  You
>just have to look for used drives for sale.  And I don't think the 810 could
>be modified for double density, but the 1050 can.

Isn't there a Happy for the 810?  Doesn't it allow the 810 to read/write SS/DD
180K disks, like the Happy 1050 does?
-- 
 Michael Current, Cleveland Free-Net 8-bit Atari SIGOp   -->>  go atari  <<--
   The Cleveland Free-Net Atari SIG is the Central Atari Information Network
      Internet: currentm@carleton.edu / UUCP: ...!umn-cs!ccnfld!currentm
     BITNET: currentm%carleton.edu@{interbit} / Cleveland Free-Net: aa700
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: thester@nyx.cs.du.edu (Uncle Fester)
Subject: Re: SIO2PC ... What is it??
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 17:04:54 GMT

In article <kspeicht.35.718030638@kilcom1.ucis.dal.ca> kspeicht@kilcom1.u
is.dal.ca (Kevin F. Speichts) writes:
>
>
>	Some one mentioned that there is a program called sio2pc.  This 
>program supposedly is loaded on the pc and allows msdos to write to an 
>ataridos disk (I hope 88k 810 format).  The files transferred are then a
le 
>to be read by the atari.
>
>	Is there a program out there that does this?  If so has anyone used 
>it and how well does it fly??
>
>	


SIO2PC is a hardware/software mod that connects your 8bit to your PC.
It allows you to store your Atari excecutables on the hard drive of your
PC and you can even boot your Atari from the PC's drive.
It doesn't allow you to write to an Atari DOS disk.  You can transfer
files with it from the PC to an Atari drive that is in the serial chain.
SIO2PC hooks your Atari to PC via the Atari serial port to the PC's serial
port, so your PC's hard drive is like drive #1 to your Atari.
For your PC to actually write to an Atari double density MYDOS format
diskette you need UTIL.  This is a good program that is available at the
archive at umich.  You need a drive on your Atari that formats in MYDOS
SS/DD or DS/DD in order to use it.  An 88k 810 will _not_ work because of
the type of drives that the PC uses is not compatible with that and cannot
emulate it.

Uncle Fester

--
:  Master,                        :       Uncle Fester       : Printed  :
:    Me and Rex took the kar      :   thester@nyx.cs.du.edu  : on 100%  :
:    to town. Stay home. Stay!    :         -or try-         :recyclable:
:       Ha ha ha ha.   The dog.   :    T.HESTER4 on GEnie    : phosphor :
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: bmarcum@world.std.com (Bill Marcum)
Subject: Re: Upgrading my 810 and ALT.Atari.8bit.Binarys
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 06:04:48 GMT

In article <kspeicht.27.717786354@kilcom1.ucis.dal.ca> kspeicht@kilcom1.ucis.dal.ca (Kevin F. Speichts) writes:
>
>	Since the 810 is a 88k disk drive, I think I have to modify it.  
>Does anyone know of a hardware vendor who sells and upgrade kit for it?  
>Or, should I just get a Indus GT drive.  If I need to purchase a better 
>drive (ie Indus GT or something like it), who sells them.
>
Nobody makes floppy drives for the Atari 8-bit any more, not even Atari.  You
just have to look for used drives for sale.  And I don't think the 810 could
be modified for double density, but the 1050 can.
>	Also the FAQ said something about Mydos has hard drive support.  Who 
>sells hard drives for the Atari?
Computer Software Services in Rochester, New York.  Their interface doesn't
work with the Atari 400, 800 or 1200XL.  You need an 800XL or 130XE computer.
Their interface, called the Black Box, includes a SCSI hard-disk port, a
parallel printer port, and an RS232 port.  There's an optional add-on board
that lets you use IBM-compatible floppy drives.
>
>	About the discussion about the binarys news group.  How about...
>	Alt.atari.8bit.binarys.
>
A better name would be Alt.binaries.atari.8bit.  Sure, some sites don't get
alt groups.  Some don't have ftp.  Some only get mail, and they say some get
Usenet but can't get mail. You can never please everyone.

Bill Marcum  bmarcum@world.std.com
Today's silly quote:"Do our ears and butts look better up or down?"(Tiny Toons)
From: djg0@aber.ac.uk (Dean John Garraghty)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Command line DOS
Date: 5 Oct 92 09:31:36 GMT
Organization: University of Wales, Aberystwyth

I started work on a command line DOS about 4 years ago, but never got around
to finishing it. It was written in Atari Basic. It had all the usual commands,
as well as help <command name> which was going to bring up a help file from
the master disk. Another useful command I had was format/b which was a bulk
formatter. Bill, you might want to add this to your DOS. After selecting this
I had OPTION to quit the formatter, and START to format next disk. Also, after
selecting format, a small menu like this would help:

Select format density:

1. SD (88K)
2. DD (MD/ED) (127K)
3. DD (TDD) (180K)

Don't forget ECHO (or have you got this already). Also, I used A: and B: for
drive 1 and 2, to remain compatible with MSDOS.

For your next experiment, you should try writing another version but using
UNIX commands, for the benefit of us hardened UNIX users!

Dean Garraghty. djg0@aber.ac.uk
From: djg0@aber.ac.uk (Dean John Garraghty)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: 180K 1050
Date: 1 Oct 92 09:15:31 GMT
Organization: University of Wales, Aberystwyth

You will need a US doubler chip, or a happy card. Also, any Happy-type boards
such as lazer, IS plate (UK device) will do the trick.

Dean Garraghty. djg0@aber.ac.uk
From: Rick_Michael_Cortese@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: HEEEEEEEEEELP!
Date: Tue,  6 Oct 92 11:34:25 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

; Global variables
Char Array Dir(Max)="D1", Cmd(Max),
OK, what you just did was tell the
compiler you have a Char Array DIR that
is 255 elements long & it starts at
the address of "D1" string. This is
the equivalent of doing something like
Dir(255)=$6F0. Action! lets you do it
because there are times when you want
to access stuff this way, but what
happens if you fill Dir? It fills up
past $700 & starts to overwrite DOS!
In your case, "D1" only has 3 bytes
total reserved so if you copy anything
to it, it trashes whatever variables
were allocated after the "D1" string.
Found(Max), NewCD(Max)
Proc MyAssign(Char Array Dest,Source
 Byte Start,Stop)
Let's see what you got: You declared a
char array DEST is comming, but it
points to DIR.
That's smack dab in the middle of your
variables, so any operation on it will
trash them. Source will come through
OK & the bytes. Didn't figure out what
you did here, but I don't know if you're
passing the right byte values anyway.
Byte Loop
 Dest(0)=Stop
 For Loop=Start To Stop
 Begin
  Dest(Loop)=Source(Loop-Start+1)
 End
 Put(155);PutE() works fine to
EndProc
Proc CDForwards()
; Jumps into another directory
Of course you are doomed by the time
you get here, but seems OK.
 MyAssign(Dir,":",Dir(0)+1,Dir(0)+1)
 MyAssign(Dir,NewCD,Dir(0)+1,Dir(0)+NewCD(0)) EndProc ; CDForwards
A$(LEN(A$)+1)=B$
IMHO: It looks like you're trying to use
PASCAL type keywords, just remember,
PASCAL is a fascist language endorsed
by people with little minds and a
mainframe mentality! Action! is more
like 'C in that it not only allows you
to do something silly, it encourages it!
OK, what you probably meant to do:

CHAR ARRAY dir(255), hash(255)
PROC Main()
Scopy(dir,"D1:")
Print("Input append string? ")
InputS(hash)
Sassign(dir,hash,
        dir(0)+1,hash(0)+dir(0))
PrintE(dir)
RETURN
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: drudetb@infonode.ingr.com (Ted B. Drude)
Subject: Re: Video game list
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 20:53:21 GMT

In article <92921002123529.0005441819PK1EM@mcimail.com> 0005441819@MCIMAIL.COM (Lawrence Estep) writes:
>Does anyone know the address to subscribe to the video games mailing list that
>deals with the Atari 2600 and 7800?
>
>Thanks,
>Lawrence Estep

Send a subscription request to Classic-atari@visdoc.b17d.ingr.com.
From: pattons@CS.ColoState.EDU (samuel patton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Upgrading my 810 and ALT.Atari.8bit.Binarys
Date: 1 Oct 92 23:29:54 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Computer Science Department

In article <1af20uINN3un@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current) writes:
>
>Isn't there a Happy for the 810?  Doesn't it allow the 810 to read/write SS/DD
>180K disks, like the Happy 1050 does?

Yes there is... I had a chance to buy one but I think that the 810 case
is too bulky to go very well with my XL stuff due to my limited desk space.

It did write SS/DD 180k along with all of the copy 'perks' of the chip.

Sam


-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
|  Sam Patton -=>  pattons@beethoven.cs.colostate.edu |                     |
|                  spatton@lamar.colostate.edu        |     Emotion 13      |
|_____________________________________________________|_____________________|
From: Jim_Johnson@abcd.Houghton.MI.US (Jim Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Quest for Refresh
Distribution: world
Date: 5 Oct 92 08:19:57 EST
Organization: Amiga BitSwap Central Dispatch

In a message dated Sun  4 Oct 92 21:15, Bmarcum@world.std.com (bill Marcum)
wrote:

 BM> What Textpro does, essentially, is to poke characters into screen
 BM> memory
 BM> instead of "printing" them.  Of course, this is one reason why
 BM> Textpro doesn't
 BM> work on an XEP-80, but then neither does any other word processor
 BM> that wasn't
 BM> written especially for it.

You are correct: TextPro, AtariWriter+, and most word processors completely
bypass the E: device in order to use their own keyboard handler routines
and use custom display lists.  Its the only reasonable way to get text to
the screen fast enough to keep up with decent typists and do things like
word wrap and have the menu lines, etc.

The Atari isn't alone in this regard.  With MS-DOS machines, almost all
applications write directly to the hardware because the operating system
can't keep up with even a slow typist on a 8088 machine.

-- Via DLG Pro v0.995

Jim Johnson-
*** Remember, they're only tools - Not a way of life! ***