Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Alan Page & STORM
From: sheppard_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Date: 7 Nov 1992 12:04:46 GMT
Reply-To: sheppard_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: Wellington City Council (Public Access), Wgtn, Nz
NNTP-Posting-Host: kosmos.wcc.govt.nz

Well this is the last Item that I have found regarding Alan Page
and his new STORM comms program...


This was not from ST-Report as I thought, but from GEnie Lamp,
there own BBS magazine, did or does come out in 4 formats, ie,
Mac/PC/Atari ?

If some of you would like some of these posted to A.A. Please let me
know...

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
 GEnieLamp Atari ST ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~  Vol.2, Issue 49
 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 
                       ~ October 1, 1992 ~



The STORM!   I cringe when I look at the original Flash. It was written
""""""""""   years ago and I actually learned to program in C by writing
Flash. The editor was a real hack that dies with large files. Much of the
the command language was thrown together and not properly designed.  Once
we had started, we had to stick with what we head. The continuing
popularity of Flash never fails to surprise me.

     I've had a chance to learn a lot more about programming since then,
and I've been exposed to MSDOS and Windows and picked up lots of new ideas.
The LAST thing on my mind was to 'improve' the old Flash! There isn't one
line of code from the original Flash in Storm and Storm doesn't look at all
like Flash.

    First of all, the editor has FULL word wrap. That means when you
backspace or delete, the words wrap up from the previous line. No more
deleting carriage  returns and hitting the F10 key. Of course, the editor
window is resizable and  movable. The editor is just as fast with a 5,000
line file as with a ten line  file. You can have as many editing windows as
GEM will let you have. You can  capture in one window while editing in
another. If you're running at 9600 baud,  there's no point even having the
terminal window open. Just close it and scroll  through the capture at your
own pace.

    Second, Windows(TM) style dropdown menus. Hit ALT-F and the File menu
drops  down. Use the cursor keys to move up and down through the menu
items. Hit  Return to select and item. Use left and right cursor keys to
move to other  menus. Each menu item has a character underlined which you
can press to select  that item. e.g. 'O' for Open in the file menu. I have
tried Windows, and it's a  whole lot easier to remember menu items this way
than remembering weird  combinations of control-alt-right-shift. However,
if you move the mouse into  the menu bar, it's a regular GEM menu bar. I
don't use any undocumented variables or other tricks. It's 100% documented
GEM calls and works just fine with MultiTOS.

    Third, Basic. Throw away all your DO files. I can't believe that Flash
II resurrected that poor excuse for a macro language. We never thought we
would expand it to the degree we did. I kept bolting on new features, but
it got tougher and tougher each time.

    Basic is interactive. You can trace, stop, resume and otherwise
debug the program much more easily. Also, Basic programs get syntax
checked when you enter them, not when you run them. Basic has powerful
string functions, arrays,  math, and event trapping.

P.S.   Antic went under probably owing me thousands of dollars that I will
""""   never collect. My last royalty payment was in the summer of 1990 I
believe, and even that was way overdue. If anyone has bought Flash in the
past 2 1/2 years, I haven't seen a penny from it.  I was in England while
all this was going on, and not able to do much.
                   (A.PAGE3, CAT30, TOP14, MSG:9/M475)


Well if any of you wish to contact Alan Page I can foward the Mail him
on GEnie so e-mail what you need to say to me...


Roger.............               sheppard_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz