ST NEWS Volume 3 Issue 7

ST NEWS Volume 3 Issue 7
Released on Saturday, December 24th 1988
Dedicated to Agapi

  Some  divine  (well,  very close to  divine)  music  is  gently  
floating through Stefan's tiny room where this issue of  ST  NEWS   
has been finished today.  It almost didn't get published today at  
all,  because some serious codeing problems occured only  minutes  
before  we  intended  to have the  whole  thing  ready  (problems  
involving the new color scrolling code,  that worked well in  the  
interpreter  but  that  turned  out not to work  AT  ALL  in  the  
compiled  version of the program - maybe more about that  later).  
Anyway.
 
 HI!  Welcome to the seventh and last issue of  ST NEWS  in 1989;  
Volume  3 Issue 7,  finished on December 24th 1989  (yes,  you're  
right  - on Christmas Eve).  Here's Richard  again,  typing  this  
DISPLAY.ME  file  for Stefan who is sitting silently in  a  chair  
next  to  me,  stroking his stomach after the  extremely  violent  
satiations  of  an  extremely heavy fondue  with  some  extremely  
exploding meat.  The only sounds he sometimes makes appear to  be  
bubbles  of  air rising in his esophagus and  coming  out  rather  
awkwardly.
  Anyway,  he felt his inspiration didn't quite suffice  for  the  
eleven kilobyte of disk space we had to fill with this file. I am  
VERY  inspired now,  since I have been actually sitting  opposite  
his gorgeous sister Melanie during the WHOLE meal (!). Raaaah!
 
  Some  of you might remember the previous issue of  ST  NEWS   ,  
filled with just about the longest (and most absurd)  READ_ME.TXT  
file  ever produced by the Digital Insanity Laboratories as  well  
as  the Amazing Cracking Conspiracy.  Well,  this time we do  not  
intend to make it THAT absurd,  but we DO intend to make it long.  
It doesn't matter what.
 
  First thing one does when one has to create a large  DISPLAY.ME  
file,  is  writing  something about the  disk's  contents.  There  
really isn't much to say about this, but here it is anyway.
 
 On the disk, you should find the files STNEWS.PRG and DISPLAY.ME  
(in  case you wonder what THAT file is,  I suggest you have  your  
brains redesigned or,  even better,  completely removed). Also, a  
folder called PROGRAMS is included on this  ST NEWS   disk,  that  
in  this case contains two files:  SYN68000.S (belonging  to  the  
"Wizards"  article)  and DATETIME.BAS (belonging to the  "Date  &  
Time fiddling" article).
 There are more files on the disk, but we hid those just to annoy  
you  (well,  really,  we  hid them to make it easier for  you  to  
select the right files).  This is the end of the 'disk  contents'  
information.
 
  Next thing one can do,  is starting to write about things  that  
one  forgot to include in the manual of the program that  happens  
to be on the disk.  As it is, however, we don't have a manual and  
will therefore not spill any space on that crap.
 
 During the course of reading this file, you will probably notice  
that  I sometimes have a tiny bit of difficulty not to be  a  bit  
rude or untactical in my remarks.  This is easy to  explain:  I'm  
totally  and revoltingly poisoned by a chemical compound that  is  
often  found  in  certain fluids that have  undergone  a  process  
commonly known as fermenting.
 Therefore,  I am equally completely and utterly unanswerable for  
my actions and nothing I write can be used against me. Ever.
 
 So far the moral intermezzo.
 
 There's still quite some space left to fill.  Aaahhh! I just got  
a great idea to fill this text a bit more.  What about explaining  
to you how to copy this disk containing  ST NEWS  ?
 Yeah, I thought you would consider this to be a pretty neat ID.
  Well,  the disk is formatted with the regular number of  tracks  
(80 tracks,  0-79),  but we used 10 sectors per track.  It can be  
copied with any decent copy programs,  and even with the  desktop  
copy  option if you happen to have an 80 track 10  sector  target  
disk. If you think this is quite a hassle, just wait until we get  
our Volume 3 Compendium out,  which will be 11 sectors per  track  
and one more track as well....
  Anyway,  copying is easy.  If you want to copy it to a  double-
sided disk or a hard disk,  however,  you need to open the target  
disk's  window  and  drag  the whole  drive  icon  of  the  drive  
containing this  ST NEWS  disk on that. This assures that all the  
hidden files are also copied.
 
 Shoot.
  Ran out of stuff to talk about.  Stefan has now moved from  his  
slightly  comfortable chair to his bed,  where he is  momentarily  
reading some kind of scientific magazine.  I'm still on my own, I  
know.
 The Tangerine Dream music,  in the mean time,  has been replaced  
by Van Halen's debut album:  "Van Halen".  Nice stuff. Commercial  
yet nice and quite tough.
 No.
 I will NOT start about music.  I will NOT start about  girls.  I  
will especially NOT start about Patricia.  Sigh.  Sigh.  I  could  
sigh until I would weigh a mere ounce or less. I won't!
 
  Consider  yourself  lucky that I have  restrained  myself  from  
starting to write about music and girls (especially the latter).
 
 Why not talk a bit more about this  ST NEWS  issue?
 OK. Sound like a good idea to me.
 
  First  thing (well,  most probably the first thing)  to  strike  
color monitor users is the redesigned scrolling message.  It  now  
features some nice scrolling effects (in-front-and-after) as well  
as  rasters taking the ST to a momentarily limit of about 25  odd  
colors on the screen at once.
  This  routine  was programmed by Stefan,  of  course  (I  can't  
program  at  all  so I would never be able to  achieve  any  such  
thing),  and he did it in a lost couple of minutes.  Amazing what  
this  guy  can do!  But there's no need to be immodest  for  him,  
since EVERYBODY is being immodest for him. And right these people  
are.
 
 OK.
 I will quit licking good ol' Stefan's heels, too.
 
  You might wonder why we found it necessary to include all  that  
extra code in  ST NEWS  .  Well,  to be honest,  we wanted to put  
some  of our notorious competitors in the shade.  You  know:  The  
guys  that  make a magazine with animation and  stuff.  Since  we  
noticed  that animation (as well as digital sound)  just  ABSORBS  
precious disk space,  and since we didn't want to become  double-
sided, we only did some raster'n'scrolling stuff (we = Stefan).
 
  My  last  task  here will be the explanation  of  some  of  our  
characteristics.  You  must  by  now figure us  for  some  raving  
loonies  that drink gallons of boose and that write  some  stupid  
disk  magazine  just  to spill forth their  frustrations  on  the  
outside world.
 Well, we're not and we don't.
 
  In fact,  Stefan is a full-time computer programmer  and  yours  
truly  is  a student.  We're quite  moderate  guys,  really,  but  
sometimes the beasts in our inner selves get unleashed. This only  
happens  when a NICE girl is in the immediate vicinity or when  a  
keyboard is located under our fingertips.
 Get the message?
 
 Aaraaaaarrgggggghh!96796238913yg6$%£^&*^*)%"%!!!!!!
 
 Sorry.
 I just asked Stefan if there was some straight cola left, and he  
answered  affirmative,  an  answer that caused me to  utter  some  
strange spasms that resulted in the above message being  readable  
on your computer screen.
  He's momentarily downstairs raiding the freezer in a  desperate  
attempt  to get his hands on some more litres of the meant  brown  
and bubbly fluid. I hope he succeeds....
 
 Well, if there's no coke, my inspiration leaves me instantly. So  
I will have to let the master himself (that's Stefan,  of course)  
do some typing now.
 Bye for now! Don't forget to read my articles in  ST NEWS  (they  
are far better than all that other stuff!).
 
  OK,  I'm here (Stefan that is).  I gave Richard some  cola  and  
right now he is examining his glass to see where all the  bubbles  
come from.  A few hours ago I was feeling ginormously  miserable,  
ready to quit  ST NEWS  because the scrolling wasn't  working.  I  
mean  I developed it using the GfA interpreter and it all  worked  
fine, but as soon as I compiled the lot, it didn't do so anymore.  
After examining my code very,  very closely,  I discovered I  did  
not  exactly clear some of the registers  I  used.  Somehow,  the  
interpreter version worked, but the compiler didn't. After adding  
some CLR.L's to my code, it all functioned perfecty!
 
 This will be the last bytes trusted to my ST for now.  The  last  
thing  that rests me is to tell you that very important thing  to  
know abo.....
 
 Ooops. Here's Richard again (yes....again!). Stefan just slipped  
from his chair and he is now lying under his computer desk (quite  
uncomfortably,  with  my legs tangled over,  between and  through  
some  of his limbs).  So I have to finish this job all by  myself  
after all.
 Don't you pity me?
 Hmmm. I thought you wouldn't.
 
  Well,  I am off now.  I have some Christmas celebrating  to  do  
tomorrow, and I want to do it at home. And home is still about an  
hour's travelling removed from here.
 
 Bye. Have fun reading,
 
 Sincerely,
 
 Stefan Posthuma and Richard Karsmakers
 
P.S.  Did  you  know that Stefan's gorgeous  sister  thinks  Jean  
Michel Jarre is an absolute hunk?

Emulation note

To run with Hatari, use TOS 2.06 and run FIXED.PRG

To run with STeem, use TOS 2.06 and run FIXED.PRG