Does anyone own an ATR8000? I recently bought on for my Atari 800, and it is
a great and wonderful thing, but I'd like technical information on it
(schematics, port addresses, etc). (For those of you who don't know what and
ATR is, it's a box that hooks up to the standard IO connectors, and contains
a Z80 and (in some cases, mine specifically) an 8088. It lets you hook up 4
standard drives that you can buy from just about anywhere, including 8 inch,
5 1/4 DSDD, etc. It also has an rs232 port, a printer port, and acts as a
print buffer. It works with any DOS, but best with MYDOS or SpartaDOS. It
also lets you use the Atari as a terminal to the z80 running cp/m or the 8088
running ms-dos. whew....) Anyway, I have the standard SWP docs, but they
don't go into much detail on hardware and low-level system stuff. Any help is
appreciated.

                Brett

Nick DiMasi said of CDY's OmniCom "Some call it OmniTerm".  Actually, OnmiTerm
is a different program, which was contributed by an OMNIVIEW owner in Canada
and distributed free of charge by CDY.  It uses the OMNIVIEW 80-column screen
capability effectively, and also provides upload/download capability, which
VT10SQ does not have.  OmniTerm is a "vanilla" terminal emulator and not a
VT100 emulator like OmniCom.  Also, OmniCom supports the kermit file transfer
protocol and OmniTerm does not.

I used OmniTerm quite a bit before CDY came out with OmniCom, but since I need
the VT100 features for the screen editor I normally use, I prefer OmniCom
these days.
---
Brett Kuehner wanted information on the ATR8000.  If you don't get all the
information you need elsewhere, try my favorite Atari hardware/software guru,
Paul Swanson, of NiteLite Systems, Billerica, MA.  His phone numbers are:
(617) 663-4221 (BBS) and 663-4463 (voice).  If possible, use the BBS as Paul
prefers not to be interrupted with voice calls unless absolutely necessary.
(Paul is an Atari sales/service dealer and designer of proprietary hardware
and software.  He is an excellent source of help with tricky problems,
including repairing things that others have given up on.  He is thoroughly
familiar with the ATR8000.)

-John Sangster, j@mitre-bedford.arpa

There has been strong interest in my offer to post a 6502 cross-assembler
for MS-DOS.  I will dig it up and post it as soon as I can.
- Dan Kegel

LOWEST resolution on the ST is equivalent to the 8 bit's graphics 8.
That's why the 8 bit can only display 40 columns legibly (low res on the ST
is 40 columns).  I do agree that 80 columns on the 8 bit would make it a
worthy entry in competition with other home computer word processing/accounting
type machines.

--
Dean Brunette                          {ucbvax,etc.}!sun!oliveb!olivej!ses
Olivetti Advanced Technology Center     _____   _____   __|__   _____
20300 Stevens Creek Blvd.              |     |  _____|    |    |
Cupertino, CA 95014                    |_____| |_____|    |__  |_____

There is (was?) a company called Zobian Controls that sold a mouse (they
call it a Rat) and an operating system to take advantage of it called
RAOS.  I have just recently gotten interested in trying to incorporate
a mouse for several applications and have tried calling their phone
number but do not get an answer.  I don't know if they take advantage
of extra memory upgrades but it shouldn't be too hard to do.  Anyone
know if they are still in business?  Has anyone tried or currently use
their mouse and operating system?

                                        Kit Kimes  
                                        AT&T--Information Systems Labs
                                        ...ihnp4!iwvae!kimes

"I'm carrying the weight of all the useless junk a modern man accumulates.
I'm a statistic in a system that a civil servant dominates."
        _Running On Ice_ -Billy Joel

Work is underway to transfer the program library from Score.Stanford.edu
to a bitnet host which will make it available using LISTSERV.  This will
permit everyone to request programs from the library just by sending e-mail.
At present we are waiting for a tape to move the existing files.

However, we are willing to accept new contributions.  Contributions will
be reviewed.  The standards are evolving, but in general all programs
should be accompanied by .DOC files.  The moderator is Arnold de Leon.
His address (from Arpanet -- others please translate) is

    ADELEON%HMCVAX.BIT@WISCVM.WISC.EDU

-------

In a previous posting, I reported that I was not able to get OmniCom to work
properly with vi on this system (ihlpm, an Amdahl UTS system).  I since was
able to log in to uniqvax at my home office (I am a contractor), a VAX running
System V Release 3 (my company ported it) and OmniCom and vi got along fine!
Also, I tried a lab support VAX here at Bell Labs and vi worked with OmniCom
there.  Finally I noticed that whenever a line longer than the screen was
output, not in vi, but just when at the "shell level", OmniCom would not wrap
it.  Instead, the characters just "buzzed" at the end of the 80-column line.
I looked over my notes on a hard copy of the dec.ti (terminfo source for
DEC terminals) file and realized that what I had was not a "vt100", but a
"vt100-nam" according to dec.ti.  I tried TERM=vt100-nam, and that caused
vi, more, and vnews to work just fine (on this UTS system and another
here).

So, I can now join my voice to John Sangster's and others in recommending
OMNIVIEW and OmniCom to anyone who wants to use their 8-bit Atari as
an 80-column terminal.  I am writing this article on it right now, and
it is working fine.  It does insert and delete line, but no insert/delete
character (but "redraw" is tolerable-to-fine at 1200 bps, at least for me).
OMNIVIEW and OmniCom were well worth the wait.  Now, Mr. Young, about that
"ascii capture" and "lostkeyclick (the latter I am beginning to get used
to, actually)...

Nick (happily 80-column-ing at last) DiMasi

P.S. Oops, sorry I confused OmniCom and OmniTerm... they really are different
(but I haven't tried O'Term so I can't comment on it).

Attn:  Neil and our friends at Atari.

        When can we see a shipping date on the following promised
products:

        * XEP-80, 80-column adapter for the 8-bit Ataris
          (and will it have some software, and will it
           support the 400/800s?)

        * SX212 3/12 Modem

        * 3.5" disk drive
          (and will we see SpartaDOS, DOS XL or another such
           software support for said beast be packaged with it)

        * XE Game Machine (yuk)

and will we be seeing any of the following rumoured products:

        * 8-bit mouse

        * mouse-based desktop system

Forever in curiosity or confusion,

Andy Weaver / a@osupyr.UUCP / 614.293.1195 or .292.1741
The Ohio State University / Columbus, OH / "Go Bucks."
"Like cold water to the bones, so is good news from a distant land." Prov25.25

Disclaimer:  If Ohio State knew I had UseNet access, they would probably
have to ask what exactly UseNet is. And how much they should charge.

There is (was) a company called Zobian Controls in PA that advertized in
ANTIC that had a mouse called the SuperRat and an operating system called
RAOS (Rat Actuated Operating System) that gives you windowing and icons
just like the ST.  I would like to have one of these to play with.  Does
anyone have one or know if the company is still in business?  They do not
answer their phone (and their ad is not in the May issue of ANTIC).  I
have written to them but I will not send a check until I can actually talk
to someone and confirm that I will receive something in return.

                                        Kit Kimes  
                                        AT&T--Information Systems Labs
                                        ...ihnp4!iwvae!kimes

"I'm carrying the weight of all the useless junk a modern man accumulates.
I'm a statistic in a system that a civil servant dominates."
        _Running On Ice_ -Billy Joel

Both due sometime in June.  Perhaps late May on the modem.

No word on a delivery date.

We are working on a DOS project.  Looks nice.

June is the schedule on this.  Don't say yuk -- it is the best hope we have
for reopening the mass merchants as a distribution channel for 8-bit
products.

Probably never.  Who starts these rumors anyway?
--
--->Neil Harris, Director of Marketing Communications, Atari Corporation
UUCP: ...{hoptoad, lll-lcc, pyramid, imagen, sun}!atari!neil
BIX: neilharris / CIS: 70007,1135 / Delphi: NEILHARRIS / GENIE: NHARRIS
WELL: neil / Atari Corp. BBS 408-745-5308 / Usually the OFFICIAL Atari opinion