@database "ar131.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #1.31 -- October 29, 1993"

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                       International Online Magazine

                "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information."
                
October 29, 1993                                                   No. 1.31
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/                         Winners Don't Use Drugs                         /
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

                   Copyright © 1993 SkyNet Publications
                            All Rights Reserved

                        A Member Of STR Online News

@endnode

@node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report"
@toc "menu"
/// WHERE TO FIND AMIGA REPORT                         Distribution Sites!
    --------------------------

  Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system.

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Non-AmigaGuide Users:  See the end of this document for numbers to each BBS.
___________________________________________________________________________


/// 10/29/93 Amiga Report 1.31   "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
    --------------------------
    · The Editor's Desk     · CPU Status Report    · New Products
    · FTP Announcements     · Dealer Directory     · Usenet Reviews
    · The Humor Department  · Reader Mail          · AR Online

                       » Deluxe Music 2.0 Reviewed «
                         » Delphi Upload Contest «
                       » SAS/C v6.5 Features List «

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
                 Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
                            » FEATURING WEEKLY «
                  Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information
      Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
              Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/           PORTAL · FIDO · INTERNET · BIX · AMIGANET · DELPHI            /
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-1 "From the Editor's Desk"
@toc "menu"

/// From the Editor's Desk                        "Saying it like it is!"
    ----------------------


I guess you could say it's officially fall, huh?  I mean sure, the actual
season is here, but the weather is finally starting to agree with the
season.  Of the years I've been in Omaha (I spent four years here before
while in the Air Force), this is the first 'real' autumn I can remember.
It usually went from being dreadfully hot to being dreadfully cold.  But
the past several weeks have been rather pleasant.

Halloween is this Sunday.  All Hallow's Eve is a time celebrated for many
years, and treated with much disdain by many of the more religious faiths,
feeling that celebrating it is flirting with certain disaster.

But this isn't a regligous publication, at least not in that sense.  Our
religion is the Amiga faith, and this Halloween, I'm going to dress up as
one of the scariest things I've ever dreamed of -- A Microsoft employee!

I wish everyone the happiest of holidays, and with a stab at being
'politically correct,' I have to say, DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE.  You might
spill your drink!  And heaven help you if you stain your seats... ;)

                                 Rob @ AR


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P2-2 "AR Staff"
@toc "menu"

/// The Amiga Report Staff                       Dedicated to serving you!
    ----------------------

  
                                  Editor
                                  ======

                               Robert Glover

 Portal:                          Rob-G
 Delphi:                          ROB_G
 FidoNet:                        1:285/11
 AmigaNet:                      40:200/10
 Internet:   General Mail:   ROB_G@Delphi.com     
             Submissions:    Rob-G@cup.portal.com
 


                      Assistant and Technical Editor
                      ==============================

                               Robert Niles

 Portal:                         RNiles
 Delphi:                         RNILES
 FidoNet:                  1:3407/104 (Private)
 Internet:                rniles@imtired.itm.com



                        Contributing Correspondents
                        ===========================
                              Daniel Barrett



@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P1-2 "CPU Status Report"
@toc "menu"

/// CPU Status Report                     Late Breaking Industry-Wide News
    -----------------



              ** Sega to Create "Next Generation Video Game" **

    Sega Enterprises is attempting to steal a march on rival Nintendo by
 developing a 64-bit video game machine - nicknamed the "Saturn" - and
 getting it to market by the fall of 1994.  Nindendo's 64-bit offering
 isn't expected to reach market until 1995.

    Reportedly the "Saturn" will be equipped with dual processors.  One
 will be Hitachi's 64-bit processor and the other a 32-bit processor. The
 64-bit processor will be used to produce high quality screen movement, as
 well as voice and sound features. It is claimed that the picture can be
 three-dimensional and highly realistic.

    Sega will set up a software development center, called the "Creative
 Center", in Shibuya, Tokyo, to start creating software for its new game
 system.  Besides that, Sega is also planning to set up a software
 development studio, called "Multimedia Studio," next April. At the
 studio, Sega wants to create advanced software incorporating video and
 sound technologies. Movie producers, broadcasting firms and music
 companies will participate in the project. Sega has reportedly already
 signed deals with movie and broadcasting firms.


        ** 3DO Interactive Multiplayer System Gains Major Supporter **

    The 3DO Company this week gained the support Macromedia, a leader in
 multi-media software tools.  Macromedia announced it had entered into an
 agreement to develop a software player that will allow Director Windows
 or Macintosh files to port easily and quickly to the 3DO Interactive
 Multiplayer system.

    This agreement makes it possible for Macromedia Director developers to
 seamlessly port applications to a leading consumer platform. Titles
 created with Director can currently be distributed on Macintosh and
 Windows platforms. With the Director Player for 3DO, developers focused
 on the Macintosh and Windows platforms can now deliver titles to a wider
 consumer audience.

   "Our agreement with 3DO represents our strategic commitment to provide
 our multimedia playback technology on the leading consumer platforms,"
 said John C. (Bud) Colligan, president and chief executive officer at
 Macromedia. "We believe the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer system will be an
 important consumer standard."

    This agreement extends Macromedia's strategy to offer developers
 platform optimization rather than forcing them to develop on the lowest
 common denominator. The Director Player for 3DO will provide developers
 with special extensions that optimize titles to take advantage of the
 unique features of the 3DO platform.

   "The Director Player for 3DO is the next step in providing a rich
 authoring platform to 3DO developers," said Bill Duvall, senior vice
 president of software at The 3DO Company. "The Director Player for 3DO,
 along with the other multimedia development tools that Macromedia and 3DO
 are delivering to developers, ensures that the 3DO Interactive
 Multiplayer environment will have a wide selection of software titles."

   "For multimedia title developers to be successful and competitive, they
 need to both decrease their development time and optimize their titles
 for target platforms," said Larry Miller, vice president of marketing at
 Macromedia. "With our Player for Windows and now the Player for 3DO, the
 world's largest installed base of multimedia developers will be able to
 do just that."

    The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer system attaches to a television set
 and delivers 50 times the graphics animation performance of PCs and video
 game systems. The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer system plays interactive
 entertainment, education and information software, as well as music CDs,
 photo CDs and motion CDs. Designed to be a worldwide standard like VHS,
 the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is available in a CD-based version from
 Panasonic under the name FZ-1 REAL(TM) 3DO Interactive Multiplayer.


           ** WordPerfect and Microsoft Fight it out in the Courts **

    Which word processor is the most popular in the world, WordPerfect or
 Microsoft Word? It appears that the courts are going to have to make the
 decision on this question.  WordPerfect has filed suit in U.S. District
 Court in New York which challenges Microsoft Corp.'s claim that Microsoft
 Word in the most poplar word processor in the world.

    Microsoft executives have estimated their firm has about 40% of the
 word-processing market. WordPerfect says that an independent tracking
 service showed that for every 57 packages of Microsoft Word sold
 worldwide, WordPerfect has sold 95 packages.

    Microsoft partially bases their claim because of its practice bundling
 its most popular personal computer programs for a far lower price than
 buying the applications separately.

    Chris Peters, general manager of Microsoft's Word unit, acknowledged
 that WordPerfect does have more units installed worldwide and has been
 outselling Word this year within the United States.  However, Peters
 defended the Microsoft ads, saying the popularity claim is based on sales
 over the past year, rather than in current domestic sales or total units
 installed. Saying that DataQuest and Soft-ware Publishers Association
 figures both showed sales of more than 3.5 million units worldwide for
 Microsoft Word and more than 3 million for WordPerfect in 1992, Peters
 added, "We didn't fall off a cliff starting January 1st. The trends
 continued."


                          ** Microsoft Office 4.0 **

      Microsoft has introduced version 4.0 of its Microsoft Office
 software suite that includes Microsoft Word word processor, Microsoft
 Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft Powerpoint presentation graphics, Microsoft
 Access database, and a workstation license for Microsoft Mail.

      IntelliSense attempts to sense what it is the user is trying to do
 and produce the desired result. Microsoft says the 100 most common tasks
 performed by users can now be accomplished in a single step. IntelliSense
 will automatically correct common typing and misspelling, and can format
 an entire document in a single step. Excel 5.0, part of Microsoft Office,
 has a tipWizard feature that offers tips on how to get the current task

 done faster, and Powerpoint 4.0's Autocontent Wizard helps the user
 develop appropriate content for a presentation.

      All of the Office components share the spelling checker, custom user
 dictionary, Microsoft Graph, Microsoft Query Tool, equation editor, clip
 art gallery, font effects, graphics filters, setup, and text conversion
 filters. Office uses Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) 2.0 to share
 information among the applications. OLE allows the user to edit objects
 such as a spreadsheet chart within another application such as the word
 processor without leaving the document, then drag and drop objects across
 applications. It's also easier now to insert objects.

      In addition to the productivity applications in Office, Microsoft
 has also included Microsoft Office Manager (MOM), a tool with a
 customizable toolbar that contains icons to launch or switch between
 applications. MOM also has an uninstall feature that cleans up files
 associated with applications the user decides he or she doesn't want.

      Two versions of Office are being offered. Microsoft Office Standard
 for Windows includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the Microsoft Mail
 license. Microsoft Office Professional includes all of those plus Access.
 A Macintosh version of the standard version is also available, and files
 created for either platform are cross-compatible. Office for the Mac is
 expected to ship in the first half of 1994. Microsoft says it
 is working on 32-bit versions of the Office applications that will run on
 Windows NT. Intel-based versions of Word and Excel are scheduled to ship
 in the second quarter of 1994, with Digital Alpha AXT and MIPS versions
 scheduled for the third quarter of 94. Other platform-specific versions
 are scheduled for next year also. Microsoft said Office will be available
 in more than two dozen languages.

      Microsoft said it will continue to offer no-cost standard support
 for all its desktop applications from 6AM to 6PM PDT. Evening and weekend
 support is available for $2 per minute, $25 per incident, or $195 for an
 annual support subscription.

      Office 4 has a suggested retail price of $750, and Office
 Professional is priced at $899. Users of any Office application can
 upgrade through February 1, 1994 to Office Standard for $259. Users of
 competitive programs can switch to Office for $299 during the same
 period.

      Various installation options are available to meet the available
 disk space and memory configurations of laptop and desktop systems.
 Minimum requirements include 16.5 MB of disk space and 4MB of memory.


            ** PicoPower Technology Granted Power-Saving Patent **

    PicoPower Technology says it has been granted a patent for its PC
 power conservation technology. The company reports that the U.S. Patent
 Office has awarded patent number 5254888 to its "Switchable Clock Circuit
 for Microprocessors To Thereby Save Power."

    The patent covers technology that reduces power consumption on the
 microprocessor by dynamically slowing the clock frequency during periods
 when the microprocessor is idle. Since power consumption is directly
 proportional to a microprocessor's clock frequency, the slower clock
 frequency dramatically reduces power consumption.

    The slower clock only occurs when the microprocessor is idle and there
 is no degradation in performance, says PicoPower.


                      ** Motorola Launches Law Venture **

    A venture intended to help lawyers deal with mountains of legal
 documents has been launched jointly by electronics giant Motorola Inc.
 and accounting firm Arthur Andersen & Co.  The venture, called LegaLink
 Services, "streamline(s) the process of searching for, managing and
 analyzing legal documents."


               ** Now You Too Can Be a Computer Games Expert **

    Baseline Publishing has announced Axis The Gamecheater, a utility
 designed to enable you to manipulate your favorite game.

    While the game cannot be modified, the variables in a game can be
 manipulated. Just by pressing a hot key you can add points, lives, or
 whatever to the game you're currently playing.

    The program is memory resident and works in the background.  Over 50
 games are supported, including Prince of Persia, Lemmings, Hellcats, PGA
 Tour Golf, Spectre & Spectre Supreme, Dogs of War, Simcity, A-Train, and
 more.

    Both Macintosh and IBM compatible personal computer (PC) versions are
 available.  Retail price of Axis The Gamecheater is $69.95 on the PC and
 $59.95 on the Macintosh. The company says the product is available
 through major software retailers via distributors such as Merisel and
 Baker & Taylor.


                         ** New Chips From IBM, DEC **

    Both Digital Equipment Corporation and IBM have announced additions to
 their most advanced microprocessor lines.

    IBM announced first production of the PowerPC 603 chip, a low-power
 member of the PowerPC line that resulted from an alliance of IBM,
 Motorola Corp., and Apple Computer. With lower power consumption, the 603
 will be aimed mainly at the portable computer market.

    Digital announced two new versions of its Alpha AXP processor,
 boosting the top speed of the Alpha design to 275 MHz. The new versions
 of the DECchip 21064 run at 225 and 275 MHz, joining existing versions at
 150, 175, and 200 MHz.


                ** Hitachi Intros 2GB Magneto-Optical Drive **

    Hitachi America has introduced a new, higher-capacity 5.25-inch
 magneto-optical (MO) drive which allows users to store as much as 2
 gigabytes (GB) of data on a single cartridge.

    Hitachi's new OD152 drive is not ISO (International Standards
 Organization)-compatible because there is no ISO standard for this
 general capacity of 5.25-inch drives. However, it does comply with a
 European standards organization, the European Computer Manufacturing
 Association.

    This new drive has the highest capacity of any 5.25-inch MO drive disc
 and the discs formatted for this drive are not compatible with other
 manufacturer's drives.

    Unlike WORM (write-once, read-many) drives and discs, MO discs can be
 erased and rewritten to a number of times, making them the operational
 equivalent of very large, rather slow hard drives, with removable
 cartridges.

    Average access time for the new drive is 50 milliseconds (ms),
 rotational speed is 3,000 revolutions-per-minute (rpm), and it is SCSI
 (Small Computer Systems Interface)-2 compatible.


                     ** Have Pen Computers 'dried up'? **

    A survey conducted on portable computer user trends by Datapro
 Information Service, a Delran, N.J.-based market researcher, shows little
 interest in pen computer applications outside of some specialized niches.

    The survey revealed that only a very small number of the users utilize
 a pen/stylus device, and that handwriting recognition was not a leading
 topic of interest.

    Margaret Jacobs, a Datapro analyst, noted, "At present, pen-based
 computing/handwriting recognition software is generally limited to
 forms-based applications for niche markets such as the insurance and
 medical fields. Handwriting recognition software must become much more
 reliable and intuitive before users can adopt it for general purpose
 applications."


           ** Sculley to Head Spectrum Information Technologies **

    Less than one week ago, John Sculley resigned as Apple's CEO.  This
 week it was announced that the former Apple Computer Inc. chairman will
 head Spectrum Information Technologies Inc.

    Spectrum, which specializes in wireless data transmission, has annual
 revenues of about $100 million. The firm holds patents on technology for
 transmitting data over cellular phone lines. Peter Caserta will remain as
 vice chairman and president.


                       ** White Males Still Dominate **

    A survey by the Computerworld trade weekly suggests white males still
 dominate the computer industry, particularly in the ranks of top
 management.  The survey puts the top information systems manager who is a
 minority at 9% of U.S. businesses. Minorities fill 10.3% of management
 positions in general, according to government figures.

   Reporting on the survey of 107 information systems professionals -

   -:- Three percent of top technology slots are held by African
       Americans, 2% by Hispanics, 1% by Asians and 3% by other groups.

   -:- Women are holding 15% of the top information systems management
       positions

   -:- Seventy-four percent of the repondents said the number of minori-
       ties in their information systems departments stayed the same in
       the past year, while 7% said the number had decreased.

    Computerworld attributed the predominance of white males in computing
 partly to the nation's economic slump, which has led to aggressive
 costcutting and staffing reductions among information systems divisions
 in many corporations.


                       ******* General PC News *******


                  ** IBM Adds Pentium To ValuePoint Line **

      IBM Personal Computer Co. this week launched its new ValuePoint
 P60/D computer. The P60/D has a Pentium processor running at 60-mhz,
 which IBM said will more than double the performance of a 66-mhz
 486-based computer. It comes with four expansion slots and five bays for
 storage devices. Customers can choose a 424-meg or 527-meg hard drive.
 The machine comes with 16-meg of memory, expandable to 128-meg, IBM said,
 plus 1-meg of video memory, expandable to 2-meg.

      The system also comes with PCI local bus architecture, 256-kb of
 Level 2 cache, and the Mach32AX graphics accelerator chip from ATI
 Technologies Inc., of Markham, Ontario.  IBM said, it also will comply
 with the Energy Star guidelines, consuming less than 30 watts of power in
 standby mode using power-management software.


                    ** Peter Norton Bets On Windows-NT **

      In a speech this week to the Atlanta PC Users group, Peter Norton,
 an author and computer guru, talked about the future of operating
 systems. He seemed to endorse Windows NT was the best bet for the future.

      Norton started by saying there needs to be a single standardized
 operating system for PCs. The reason for that, in a word, is efficiency.

      He said the three top operating systems are OS/2, Unix, and
 Windows-NT. He dismissed the Apple Macintosh system, saying its best days
 are behind it. He called OS/2 a dead-end operating system, and said not
 many systems are running Unix. He added that Windows-NT is where the
 industry is heading. But he also said that it doesn't really matter which
 is the best operating system, from a technical standpoint -- what matters
 is which OS wins the marketing wars. The winner there, hands down, he
 said, is Microsoft.


            ** Artisoft Announces Home Office Networking System **

      Artisoft Inc., a Tucson, Arizona based company, this week announced
 that it's introducing an entry-level network operating system designed to
 meet the basic networking requirements of small businesses and home
 offices.

      The Simply LANtastic network operating system provides basic file,
 printer and CD-ROM sharing features and is specially designed for easy
 installation and use.

      The Simply LANtastic network operating system is scheduled to begin
 shipping by early December. It will be available in software-only kits as
 well as two hardware bundles, with pricing starting at $79 per node.


              ** IBM's 'baby' Turns Out to be a Phenomena **

      The IBM ValuePoint brand was 'born' a year ago this month. In that
 year, it has grown into the parent's 'pride and joy'. Since its 'birth'
 the the 'new kid on the block' has turned in a phenominal amount of
 'firsts' -

      The first new brand, since the formation of the IBM PC Company, to
 ship more than 1 million units in less than a year.

      The first to deliver the latest industry-standard technology through
 four product refreshes in a development cycle spanning less than six
 months.

      The first to make multimedia available to businesses at affordable
 prices.

      The first to offer a power-packed desktop based on Intel Pentium
 technology.

      The first to respond swiftly and decisively to industry price cuts
 three times during the year -- and within 48 hours -- that left the
 competition blinking.

      At the same time, ValuePoint has contributed to the IBM PC Company's
 gain in worldwide market share, impressed industry experts, grabbed the
 Number 1 spot in the dealer channel share, seen two of its models
 acclaimed as the industry's "best-selling desktops" with dealers, and won
 several prestigious awards from major publications.


                 ** Dell Desktop PCs For "Techno-boomers" **

      Dell Computer Corporation has announced a new line of its Dimension
 PCs designed for what the company calls the "techno-boomer," the small
 office or home office user who wants a good value for the money spent and
 can upgrade as new technology becomes available.

      The new systems are all Intel 486SX or DX-based, with clock speeds
 from 25MHz to 66MHz; have system memory, or RAM, up to 64-meg; and
 include 1-meg of video RAM and local bus graphics. The PCs are upgradable
 to use Intel's Pentium Overdrive technology, and external cache of 128K
 or 256K can be added. Options include tape backup devices, fax/data
 modems, and CD-ROM drives that support Photo CD.

      Dell systems come with one year of next-business-day onsite support,
 unlimited around the clock telephone support with guaranteed five-minute
 response, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

      Pricing for the new Dimension systems starts at $1,230 with a color
 monitor. Dell says the new systems will begin shipping in early November
 in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.


            ** Aldus Ships First Standalone Pagemaker Addition **

      Aldus Corp., has announced shipment of its first standalone Aldus
 Addition for Pagemaker.

      Infopublisher Database Addition is an application that links the
 desktop publishing program to database management systems. "Anyone who
 needs to produce graphically appealing information retained in a database
 needs Infopublisher, especially if they already use Pagemaker," says
 senior product marketing manager Karen Howe.

      The company says Infopublisher Database Addition is an upgrade to
 the Aldus Pagemaker 4.0 Database Edition. Users can now place data from
 Paradox 3.5, Microsoft Access, Foxpro and Excel into documents. The
 importing of ASCII text files have been improved, and Microsoft's Open
 Database Communication (ODBC) protocol is supported.

      Infopublisher can be launched as an Addition from within Pagemaker,
 several columns can be grouped as one for use in side-by-side paragraphs,
 and style and graphics compatibility has also been improved.

      Infopublisher Database Addition has a suggested retail price of
 $199, but Aldus is offering it at the introductory price of $129 through
 the end of November. Registered owners of the Database Edition 4.0 can
 upgrade for $79. If you purchased Database Edition 4.0 after June 29,
 1993 the upgrade is free.


                  ** Wordperfect Outlines New Support Policies **

      Wordperfect Corp., has announced new support programs for large
 accounts and says it will continue its free and toll-free end-user
 support.

      The company said it will continue to provide its free and toll free
 support for end users. "Alan Ashton and Bruce Bastian founded WordPerfect
 Corporation with two basic objectives," said Ad Rietveld, senior VP of
 sales and marketing. "The first was to write software that enables people
 to be more productive, and the second was to offer the best
 customer support. We hold to these objectives today."

      In addition to telephone support, end users can get help through the
 company's BBS, a toll-free fax-back system, and an automated telephone
 system that allows the customer to navigate through the company's
 technical support infobase via their Pc and a modem.


                     ******* General Apple News *******


                    ** DCA Ships Crosstalk for the MAC **

      Digital Communications Associates Inc. has released Crosstalk for
 Macintosh, a Macintosh communications program. Crosstalk has been
 available for the IBM and compatible personal computer for a number of
 years. This is DCA's first release of the product for the Macintosh.

   "Crosstalk for Macintosh offers [features] including cross-platform
   compatibility giving users a smooth migration from other operating
   system environments," said William Miller, vice president of DCA's
   emote access division.

      A current user of Crosstalk for Windows in an IBM environment could
 migrate to the new Macintosh product without resorting to the manual
 conversion of scripts and other software facilities. In addition, the
 software follows Apple guidelines for user interface design and operation
 while maintaining operational compatibility with Crosstalk for Windows.

      Crosstalk for Macintosh allows users a wide choice of file transfer
 protocols which include CompuServe B+ and QuickB.

      Crosstalk for Macintosh retails for $195. Users of Crosstalk or a
 competitive product can upgrade to the new product for $49 directly from
 DCA.

      For additional information, call DCA at:
      800/348-3221 (voice) or
      404/442-4364 (fax)


        ** Apple's New PhotoFinish Bundled With UMax Color Scanner **

      Apple Computer's PhotoFinish, a new photo publishing software
 package being unveiled this week, is being included with the UMax UC630
 color scanner.

      A UMax spokesperson said that UMax is the first scanner vendor to
 bundle PhotoFinish, a product that provides image browsing, a
 drag-and-drop capability for direct placement of photos, automated tools
 for image adjustment, and real time "adjustment preview" that lets the
 user experiment with results.

      Apple's PhotoFinish is also equipped with AppleScript, a scripting
 language for automating repetitive tasks, and JPEG image compression for
 saving disk space, she said.

      Priced at $999 and available immediately, the UC630LE/MAC bundle
 includes Adobe's PhotoShop LE for image editing as well as the UC630
 color scanner and PhotoFinish. PhotoFinish accepts PhotoShop plug-in
 modules for import, export, and special effects.

      The UC630 color scanner is a 24-bit, 600 dpi (dot-per-inch) flatbed
 color scanner with a hardware resolution of 600-by-300 dpi, according to
 the spokesperson. Resolution is enhanced to 1200-by- 1200 dpi through
 software interpolation, she noted.


                ** What's New About Apple's Quicktime 1.6.1 **

      Apple Computer has announced its latest version of the multimedia
 extensions, Quicktime 1.6.1, at the announcement of the new Macintosh
 operating system, System 7 Pro.

      The company says that, key differences between this new release and
 Quicktime 1.5 include less memory use, better performance, better
 integration with Apple technology, new interfaces, and increased
 reliability.

      Quicktime offers users the ability to imbed sound, video, and
 animation into ordinary documents or applications on the Macintosh. While
 the new version of Quicktime still takes the same amount of memory when
 operating, it unloads a large portion of itself from memory when not in
 use.

      The 1.5 Quicktime version took up 160 KB of RAM when installed, but
 the new version only requires less than 18 KB upon installation. This
 also means less memory is required for movie playback as well, Apple
 representatives said.

      The new version is also more reliable, as Apple claims it fixed all
 known bugs present in the 1.5 version. For example, 1.6.1 adds tear-free
 movie playback support to the image compression manager which reduces the
 tearing visible when playing back movies with large amounts of background
 motion, Apple maintains.

      In addition, the latest Quicktime version integrates better with
 Apple's technology by offering explicit support for the grayscale
 Powerbook, Mac Easy Open, and Color Sync. Also, a new 3.0 version of the
 Sound Manager, offered with Quicktime 1.6.1, allows for a faster movie
 playback environment than under Quicktime 1.5.

      Quicktime users will notice a few new enhancements in the Quicktime
 1.6.1 user interface as well. For example, the movie import component is
 now a drag-and-drop operation, allowing users to import compact disc (CD)
 tracks as easily as they can open PICS or AIF files.

      Apple is offering a toll-free order line to accommodate those who
 wish to upgrade to Quicktime 1.6.1. There is a $10 charge plus tax where
 applicable for the upgrade, but no shipping and handling charge,
 according to staffers on the toll-free line. The new version is also now
 available in the System 7.1 upgrade and upgrade kits or from Apple
 bulletin boards and user groups, company officials said.

       _____________________________________________________________



Intel to put serial numbers on chips following warehouse robb


SANTA CLARA, Calif. (UPI) -- Computer-chip giant Intel Corp. announced
plans Friday to begin putting serial numbers on its products following a
recent string of warehouse robberies.

Several such incidents have hit California's Silicon Valley in the
past six months, with thieves cleaning out wholesalers' stocks of Intel
chips.

"They (the robberies) have become a lot more violent, and that is
why we've decided to take this action," Intel spokesman John Raftrey
said. ``Until now, these chips have been perfect targets. They are
small, untracable and are in great demand.''

Julius Finkelstein, head of Santa Clara's High Tech Crime Task Force,
called chip robberies ``the gang crime of the 1990s."

He said well-organized Asian street gangs have allegedly perpetrated
the thefts.

Finkelstein said the gangs generally drive up to warehouse doors as
if coming for a shipment, then pull guns once inside and force warehouse
workers to the floor while suspects load up chips.

The robberies generally take just a few minutes because of the chips'
small sizes, Finkelstein said.

Last month, theives struck the Wylie Laboratories Electronic
Marketing Group in Santa Clara, netting an estimated $1 million in chips
in just 15 minutes.

"We see a trend developing here that concerns us,"  Finkelstein
said. "These are very violent attacks. Generally, the gang is well
armed. It's just a matter of time before someone gets hurt.

"(Chips) are just as valuable as cocaine, but they are easier to get
rid of," he said. "And if you are caught, the penalties aren't as
severe."

Intel's 486 microprocessors have been among the thieves' favorite
targets.

Raftrey said the company expects to sell more than 30 million 486s
this year, but that demand has outstripped even that large figure.

Authorities said they hoped other chipmakers would soon follow
Intel's lead.


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P1-3 "Upload Contest"
@toc "menu"


                          DELPHI ANNOUNCES ITS
                           '93 UPLOAD CONTEST

As promised, beginning November 1st through November 30th, the Delphi Amiga SIG
will hold an upload contest. Winners will be determined by the person uploading
the most bytes of data during this month. There will be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place


winner. All participants must comply with the rules below for your uploads to
qualify.

Rules and Regulations

  1.  All uploads MUST contain the folowwing text file in the archive
      for the upload to count towards the contest.

                           ZZZDelphi.93.contst

      This file is in the RECENT UPLOADS area for all to download.
      Any file not containing this file WILL NOT count towards the
      contest!

 2.   DO NOT upload duplicate files!  All files will be checked against
      our existing database

 3.   If you program has a version number, include it in the group
      name or description .

 4.   Include KEYWORDS.  If you file is called "VIRUS CHECKER 1.2",  You
      should include VIRUS, CHECKER, 1.2, as keywords. ALWAYS include
      part of the name of your group as a keyword. (even when we are
      not running a contest)

 5.   ALL files MUST be compressed! ONLY .LHA, .LZH, or .DMS files
      will be accepted!

 Files not conforming to these rules will be removed and not
 counted.

 All files will be moved to "RECENT Uploads" until the end of Novemember



Prizes
          1st place     up to $60 software package of you choice

          2nd place     up to $40 software package of you choice

          3rd place     up to $30 software package of you choice


Helpful Hints

    We are missing a handful of Fred Fish files.. You might fill in
    this gap.

    We also are behind on newer versions of many programs.. Uploading
    a newer version counts towards you byte count!

    Looking for original Files?  I run a BBS in NJ called the
    T.B.P. Video Slate. (201) 586-3623. Its LOADED (900meg) with
    original stuff. Instant access, D/L on first call.
    Sorry for the shameless plug for my BBS, but since the prizes
    are coming out of my pocket, I should get SOMETHING out of
    it :-)   Some new users would be just fine.

On a final note.

   If the turn-out is good for this contest, I will have ALOT of files
   to download and check; For this reason, some files might not be
   moved until the next day.

   Due to this, Uploads will be handled on first in, first to get
   credit! There is a good possiblity for 2 people to be uploading
   the same program at the same time. Delphis' database works on
   time and date, so I will know who uploaded a file first. Sorry
   but the second person will not be credited for the upload.

    -=Burbs=-

@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P1-4 "Intro to DCron"
@toc "menu"


/// Introduction to DCron
    ---------------------
    by Robert Niles



Something that would be nice to have is a program that automatically
maintains your system for you....well sort of anyways. This is especially
important and needed by those of you who run BBSes, but I'm sure there is
enough reason for everyone else out there to get a program that will help
keep your computer from becoming a mess.

One such program is DCron, a UNIX like CRON utility, by Matt Dillon.
It took me a long time before looking into this pretty little program,
mostly because of the description given in the documentation:

" Those not familar with the UNIX cron command probably do not need it. "

While it might be descriptive to most people, I was at a loss.

...until another set of documents showed me how useful it could be.

DCron is a program that allows you to execute other programs at any interval
you like. Monthly, hourly, by the minute, or on a specific day of the week.

As I run a BBS, there are call in which I would like to have my computer
make at strange hours, logs that need to be resized, deleted, or renamed.
Even have GPFax see if there is a fax to be sent out every hour. 

Using DCron makes this alot easier for those of us who do not want to get up
in the middle of the night to do these things.

DCron is set up as a 'grid' for example:

#<min> <hour> <day> <month> <dayofweek>	[<command>]
01	0	1	*	*	copy uuspool:xferstat uuspool:old
02	0,07,20	*	*	*	delete uunews:junk/#?
40	18-07	*	*	*	uucp:c/uucico -b -7 -r1
0	0	*	*	*	copy axsh:etc/passwd sys:t/
15	12	*	*	*	delete sys:t/cronlog
20	*	*	*	*	c:rx GPFax:Fax_Send.gpf
01      12	*	*	*	date >>axsh:etc/adm/answers


The '*' indicates "everytime". If it is under the "day" field, then that
command is executed every day.

Look at the first field. I have "01" under minute, "0" under hour, "1" under
day, and an asterisk under month and dayofweek. This copies the files
mentioned at 12:01am on the 1st day of each month.

The second field has "02" under minutes, "0,07,20" under the hour column, and
an asterisk under the rest. This deletes the files in the "junk" drawer every
day at 12:02am, 7:02am and at 8:02pm.

As you see, it's quite flexable, but remember, DCron can only start a
program, it cannot quit a program. That has to be done by the program that
was started, or you have to do it with an ARexx script, if you can.

DCron can be found in the AmigaUUCP archive, and there are other versions of
the unix Cron utility for the Amiga. Whichever you choose, it should make
some of your everyday work a little bit easier.

@endnode
-----------------
@node P5-1 "FindIt v1.1"
@toc "menu" 


FindIt v1.1 Available for FTP


TITLE

        findit -- A MUI-based disk search utility

VERSION

        1.1

AUTHOR

        Glade Diviney (divineg@prism.cs.orst.edu)

DESCRIPTION

        `findit' is a utility that will help you locate files that
        match certain specifications. These specifications include:

        o Date searching (before/after/on a date, files changed or
          created in the last X days)

        o Name searching (full AmigaDOS pattern matching supported)

        o Size searching (matches, greater than, less than)

        Any combinations of devices, volumes, or assigns can be
        searched.

REQUIREMENTS

        You must have MUI installed. It is available on Aminet as
        pub/aminet/dev/gui/mui13.lha archive. (See below for more
        Aminet information)

        Of course, installing MUI precludes that you are running
        AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher.

PRICE

        Absotively, posulutely, and unequivicably FREE.

AVAILABILITY

        Available on Aminet as pub/aminet/util/wb/findit11.lha.

SPECIAL NOTE

        This archive contains a .info file. The .info file does
        not specify a large enough stack for drives with deeply
        nested subdirectories. Be sure to increase this value before
        running `findit' from the Workbench.


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P5-2 "SatTrack v3.0"
@toc "menu"


SatTrack v3.0 Demo Available for FTP


TITLE

     SatTrack 

VERSION

     Current Version is SatTrack 3.0.  V4.0 is expected
     by 94, with extra features.  Upgrades are free.

AUTHOR

     Randy Stackhouse, N4RTL

DESCRIPTION

       A satellite tracking program.  Allows for selection of a database
       that can contain up to 1000 satellites.  Tracks satellites on a
       graphics display of the world.  All graphics are IFF compatible
       allowing for loading of display to standard painting program.
       Allows for input of satellite information using either standard
       data format or by simple user input.  All operations use standard
       windows and menus.  SatTrack has a simulation mode that allows for
       predictions in the future.  Operates on Workbench 1.3 and 2.0.
       This is version 3.0. SatTrack is keyware, see the registration
       file for more information.  SatTrack is fully operational until
       the expiration time is reached.

NEW FEATURES
        
       New for SatTrack 3.0
       Besides several modifications and enforcer hit corrections,
       SatTrack has added a FIND command as well as an OVERHEAD view
       display which allows for easier viewing.

       Overhead view is a map of the sky from your location.   It is
       representative of where the satellite will travel within your
       view.   The display represents a circle.  The center of the
       circle is "up".  The outside circumference of the circle is
       your "horizon".  Another circle 1/2 the size of the other circle
       with the same center is the 45degree azimuth from your location.


       Planned for SatTrack 4.0
        o  Pre-configurable screens, allowing for new special display
           formats.  User may select a screen size and SatTrack will
           self configure to that size.
        o  Addition of RETINA support. Including 1024x1024 or more
           pixels on screen.
        o  Addition of umbra/preumbra calculations.  This will allow
           for calculations required to indicate when a satellite is
           "in the sun" and the user is "in the dark".  This is the
           best time to see satellites or the Space Shuttle. 
        o  Updated to standard file requester.
        o  Capability to use a painting program to create a "brush"
           picture of a satellite and have that picture drawn as 
           a "sprite" on the display, tracking at the location of
           the satellite. 

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS


     SatTrack V3.0 works on floppy or hard disk.  Installation
     is simply a copy.  Some files are required to be in the
     same directory as the executable. Works on 1.3 or 2.X etc.
     Supports math co-processor and all 680X0 chips. No other
     special hardware required.

HOST NAME

     Aminet, GENIE.

DIRECTORY
     
     Aminet:  misc/misc/sattrack_v3_0.lha

FILE NAMES


     SatTrack_v3_0.lha
     SatTrack_v3_0.readme (short description) 

PRICE

     Valid KEYS are $20 and will cause your copy of SatTrack
     to work forever.   If the most recent version of SatTrack
     is desired, $30 will get you a distribution disk with
     your keys already installed.

     SatTrack is keyware. Keyware allows user evaluation of
     all features.   Demo keyware expires on a certain date.
     After that date, Amiga system time may be moved back
     to allow for evaluation of the software, however execution
     of tracking for current time is not possible.  
     ALL PURCHASED KEYS WHICH DO NOT EXPIRE AND
     WILL WORK WITH ALL FUTURE VERSIONS OF SATTRACK.  

     FUTURE VERSION ARE FREE TO REGISTERED USERS. SEND A DISK
        TO:  Randy Stackhouse
             4 Sinclair Cir
             Indialantic Fla, 32903
      
        Include proper postage. 
     
DISTRIBUTABILITY


     SatTrack is Copyrighted, 1993.  Copies of SatTrack and
     DEMO keys may be freely distributed.  Purchased keys contain
     Users' name, phone number and address.   Public release of 
     these keys is not allowed by purchase agreement. 

OTHER

     New demo keys are provided below.  Strip the text between
     the stars "*", excluding the stars and make sure the last
     line is in column one.  All other lines should match.  Do
     not edit or remove blanks from this file.  Do not include
     blanks after the last printable character. 
     | This is Column 1!
     **************************************************************
       SEE DOCS FOR INFO. SET TIME BACK TO USE KEYS AFTER
        THEY HAVE EXPIRED.  INSTRUCTIONS ARE IN THE DOCS.
                 THESE KEYS ARE GOOD UNTIL 9/93.
         *PLEASE* UPLOAD THIS TO OTHER BBSs AND FRIENDS
     b6ff8c5d 8d9a1dc3 9f0db51d febf1ae2 72c0e38 3467a00
     **************************************************************
     Note that under the T in SET should be I from Instructions,
     A for Are , S from THIS and 5 from 9f0db51d.  The b in 
     b6ff8c5d should be in the first col.  Be careful that if
     you cut this with a mouse, etc. that there are no spaces
     after the last printable character.  There are no "hidden"
     special characters with this file Only printable characters
     and spaces


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P1-5 "AORM v2.2"
@toc "menu"


Amiga Online Reference Manual v2.2


TITLE

        Amiga Online Reference Manual v2.2
        Copyright 1993 Area52. All Rights Reserved.


RELEASE

        Revision 2.200


AUTHOR

        David Tiberio (dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu)


DESCRIPTION


            AORM is an AmigaGuide based online help system for Amiga
        computers and Video Toaster Workstations. Using a hypertext
        point and click interface, users have access to over 1,200,000
        bytes of information, contained in over 830 AmigaGuide pages.
                Using built in virtual memory, modules may be loaded
        in as needed, often occupying only 150k of memory. Modules
        may be updated as new features are added. Free maintenance
        updates are provided to registered users.

                Modules include:

                Answers to commonly asked questions (over 500).

                Hardware specifications on Amiga models (20 total).

                Explanation and usage of AmigaDOS commands (over 80)
                and usage of ARexx commands (over 20).

                List of features that makes the Amiga stand out
                from other platforms, and explanations of their
                capabilities.

                List of people, places, and things created on the
                Amiga computer.

                List of publications that carry Amiga related topics,
                including magazines and newspapers (over 30).

                Index of frequently used charts and tables, such as
                the Hayes Command Set and S Registers, list of most
                Amiga screenmodes, frequently used abbreviations such
                as RTG, XPK, DIG, etc, list of GURU Meditation Errors,
                AmigaDOS qualifiers and pattern matching, and more.

                Glossary of computer and Amiga related terms (over 500).

                A freely distributable demo version is available by
                request, and a public domain predecessor is also still
                available, known as AmigaFAQ v0.84 (by David Tiberio).


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

        AmigaOS 1.3, 2.04, 2.1, or 3.0.
        AmigaGuide (included), MultiView optional for OS3.0 users.
        Hard disk strongly recommended, but not required.


NEW FEATURES

    ** version 2.2 includes the first software update module **

        - free to all registered owners of any version of AORM

        - over 20% larger in size

        - NEW AdPro section
            - description of loaders and savers
            - how to use operators
            - ARexx commands supported by AdPro

        - improvements in all areas, including:
            - list of area codes and state abbreviations
            - revised list of monitor types and screen resolutions

        - CD32 specifications added

        - updated Workbench information to new format
            -  use  of all Workbench tools and prefs programs

        - added more information on using AmigaGuide or MultiView to
          online help system

        - NEW software section with more modules coming


PRICE

        MSRP $35. Special User Group pricing of $20 to qualified
        Amiga and Video Toaster User Groups.


AVAILABILITY

        Version 2.1 now shipping.
        Version 2.2 to be released November 1st.

        Contact Area52 at 516-476-1615, or send a check or money order
        to: Area52, 6 Lodge Lane, East Setauket, New York 11733. Please
        make all checks payable to Area52. New York State residents
        must add 7% sales tax. 2nd-day shipping available for $2.90
        by request.


DISTRIBUTABILITY

        Amiga Online Reference Manual may be purchased from your
        local Amiga dealer. If you wish, you may order direct from
        us by calling (516) 476-1615.

        Amiga Online Reference Manual is a commercial product and
        may not be redistributed freely. A demo however will be
        available shortly.

        Amiga Online Reference Manual Copyright 1993 Area52.
        All Rights Reserved.

@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P5-3 "Synworks 2.1"
@toc "menu"


Synworks 2.1 available for FTP


TITLE

        SynWorks - A design, training, test, and visualization environment for
                   neural networks.

VERSION

        2.1, September 1993

AUTHOR

        Michael Kaiser
        Rintheimer Strasse 59
        D 76131 Karlsruhe, FRG
        Phone : (+49) (721) 61 18 19
        EMail : kaiser@puma.adsp.sub.org
                kaiser@ira.uka.de

DESCRIPTION

        SynWorks is a fully integrated environment for design,
        training and test of neural networks. Currently, it supports
        11 different network types, the networks' sizes are only
        limited by the amount of memory available.
        SynWorks provides instruments to watch and track (to disk)
        all important network parameters, all kinds of errors and
        of course, all input and output values provided to or by
        the network.
        All network parameters can be edited, and, starting from
        standard networks, custom networks can be created by
        adding links and neurons, modifying all functions (learn,
        transfer, error, evaluation). Input/output behaviour can
        easily be specified in terms of ranges, sources, and
        targets. Network display modes include structural,
        error-related, change-related, weight-related and
        memory related displays. All displays provide point-
        and click interfaces to the displayed parameters and
        are available simultaneously (watch chipmem !).
        All networks can be printed in four different
        modes, giving a textual, structural and two different
        descriptions on the network's weight map.
        SynWorks also provides a context-sensitive on-line help
        system that includes descriptions of all actions and
        important components, linked together via cross-references
        and easily accessible via buttons and hot-keys.
        Also, SynWorks features a full AREXX-interface that allows
        to define macros for internal use as well as using a network
        as part of a larger system, execute demonstrations etc..

        The full version of SynWorks includes five disks with
        both a 68000 and a 68020/881+ version of SynWorks, several
        examples, linkable libraries for easy use of networks in
        other applications (supporting the Amiga and Sun
        workstations), a tool for data visualization and
        a set of printed manuals, including a short introduction
        to neural networks.


INTENDED AUDIENCE

        With SynWorks, people generally interested in neural networks
        are provided with an easy-to-handle, integrated environment
        that allows them to experiment with neural networks on their
        own data. The visualization possibilities of SynWorks make
        access to the network easy and intuitive. The network's
        behaviour can be watched and tracked, which in combination
        with the included examples results in a good insight of
        how the actual neural network is working.

        On the other hand, people working on neural network projects
        and application programmers will find SynWorks powerful
        enough for most of their needs. Especially in the signal
        processing field, neural networks are quite attractive.
        With SynWorks, programmers can create a signal processing
        or pattern recognition unit on the base of a neural network,
        and use this network in their application by simple
        function calls.


WHAT ARE NEURAL NETWORKS ?

        A neural network is a processing device, either an algorithm,
        or actual hardware, whose design was motivated by the design
        and functioning of the building blocks of the human brain,
        such as neurons and connections (axons, dendrits).
        It is realized as a network of many simple processing units
        that are regularly interconnected. The connections carry
        a numerical information, they are "weighted".
        What makes neural networks very attractive is their ability
        to "learn" from examples. Most neural networks have some
        sort of "learning law" which describes how the weights of
        connections are to be adjusted on the basis of presented
        patterns.
        Probably the most popular neural networks are the feedforward
        networks, with the backpropagation technique/generalized
        delta rule being the learning law.


WHAT CAN NEURAL NETWORKS DO ?

        In principle, NNs can compute any computable function,
        i.e. they can do everything a normal digital computer
        can do.
        Especially can anything that can be represented as a
        mapping between vector spaces be approximated to
        arbitrary precision by feedforward NNs (which is the
        most often used type).
        In practice, NNs are especially useful for mapping
        problems which are tolerant of a high error rate,
        have lots of example data available, but to which
        hard and fast rules can not easily be applied.


BOOKS ON NEURAL NETWORKS

        (No completeness intended)

        Hecht-Nielsen, R. (1990). Neurocomputing. Addison Wesley.

        Aleksander, I. and Morton, H. (1990).
        An Introduction to Neural Computing. Chapman and Hall

        Beale, R. and Jackson, T. (1990). Neural Computing, an Introduction.
        Adam Hilger, IOP Publishing Ltd.

        Rumelhart, D. E. and McClelland, J. L. (1986).
        Parallel Distributed Processing:
        Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition (volumes 1 & 2).
        MIT Press.

        and lots more ...


FEATURES OF SYNWORKS

        12 different standard network models
         5 different possibilities to display network (simultaneously)
         4 different possibilities to print network (standard WB printer,
           colour printing supported)
        24 different instruments to watch and track the network's
           behaviour
        53 AREXX commands give full external control over SynWorks.

        On-line context sensitive help system, supports keyword tracking.

        Supports all resolutions higher than or equal to 640 x 400 with
        at least two bitplanes (incl. A 2024, Productivity, AGA).

        GUI according to User Interface Style Guide.

        Version for 68020/68881 and up available.

        C programming interface available.


REQUIREMENTS

        Amiga 500, 1000, 1200, 2000, 2500, 3000, 4000, 1.5 MByte RAM,
        Kickstart 2.04 and up.
        Harddisk recommended, FPU (special program version) highly
        recommended, Display enhancer/FF/AGA recommended.


HOST NAME

        Aminet:
         ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) and its mirrors


DIRECTORY

        /pub/aminet/misc/sci


FILE

        SynWorksDemoAGA.lha


PRICE

        Shareware fee: DM 130/US $80/Students
                       DM 200/US $120/Others


DISTRIBUTABILITY

        Demo version is freely distributable. Full version is
        shareware, the ftp archive contains a demonstration version
        with certain features disabled. Users of versions 1.0, 1.1
        and 1.2 will be directly informed about upgrade possibilities,
        all new users can get the full version as described above
        directly from the author.
        This version is now fully AGA compatible and contains some
        new demos.


THANKS

        The maintainers of Aminet.


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P5-4 "Amiga Wacom Driver v1.0"
@toc "menu"


Amiga Wacom Driver available for anonymous FTP


TITLE

     Wacom Digitizertablet driver for the Commodore Amiga.


VERSION

     Version 1.0


COMPANY

     Private developer.


AUTHOR

     Roland Schwingel
     Lilienthalstrasse 9
     92421 Schwandorf
     GERMANY

     Email: roland.schwingel@rrzc1.rz.uni-regensburg.de


DESCRIPTION

     With this program you can use wireless tablets manufactured by Wacom
     with the Amiga.

     The tablet is connected to the serial port of your Amiga (Multi-IO
     boards are also supported.) The driver supports tablets of the SD and
     the new UD-Series.

     Both the pressure sensitive and the non-pressure sensitive mode are
     supported. (When in pressure mode the tablet transmitts the pressure
     which is applied to the tablet by the pen to the driver instead of
     button presses.)

     The driver enables you to control the Amiga mouse pointer with your
     tablet. Appropriate buttons on the tablet's input devices are mapped
     to the normal mousebuttons. Therefore the driver can be used with
     almost any program.

     Also, a software interface is implemented which enables you to map
     unused buttons in your own applications and/or to use the pressure
     and coordinates in your own applications. Some sample source in C is
     included to demonstrate the usage of the interface.

     Driver settings are made using an intuitive graphics user interface
     (GUI). Also a German catalog file is supplied which you can use with
     at least Workbench 2.1.

     German and English documentation included.


NEW FEATURES

     Initial release. (=> All features are new ;-) )


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     * At least Kickstart and Workbench 2.04.
       On 2.1 or 3.x you can use German localization.

     * Wacom tablet of the SD or UD-Series.


HOST NAME

     Available on servers in the aminet. e.g.:

     Scandinavia  ftp.luth.se            130.240.16.3
     Germany      ftp.uni-kl.de          131.246.9.95
     Germany      ftp.uni-erlangen.de    131.188.1.43
     USA          ftp.wustl.edu          128.252.135.4
     ...          ...                    ...


DIRECTORY

     Aminet:      /pub/aminet/os20/cdity


FILE NAMES

     Wacom.lzh ----- 109523 Bytes
     Wacom.reamde --    605 Bytes


PRICE

     The program is shareware. Requested fee: US$20 (or 25DM)


DISTRIBUTABILITY

     May be distributed freely as long as all files remain complete
     and unmodified. May appear on PD-disks which are cheaper than US$5
     (PD-CDROMs may be more expensive). Also refer to the program's
     documentation.


@endnode 
                      ------------------------------
@node P5-5 "Zilog Z80 Emulator"
@toc "menu"


Fast Z80 emulation package for 680x0 processors


TITLE

     Zilog Z80 CPU emulator package for the Motorola M68000 family

VERSION

     0.99b

AUTHOR

     Richard Carlsson (m90rca@tdb.uu.se)

DESCRIPTION

     A general and flexible subroutine package for fast emulation of a Z80
     on any 680x0-based machine. It has a simple interface, and stubs for
     calling from C are included.

     The package could be used to emulate a Z80 in any environment (CP/M,
     ZX80/81, ZX Spectrum, ... ). The purpose of the package is to serve
     as the kernel of any such emulator; only the environment is left for
     the user to implement.

     The package has been developed in cooperation with Peter McGavin, the
     author of the best known ZX Spectrum emulator for the Amiga. All you
     who have written to Peter asking him to make a more general package
     of his emulator - this is the thing for you.

NEW FEATURES

     First release (beta testing version). Only some minor bugs remain.
     Try it out and tell me if you want any modifications or new features.

HOST NAME

     Aminet (wuarchive.wustl.edu and its mirrors)

DIRECTORY

     /pub/amiga/misc/emu

FILE NAME

     fastZ80_099b.lha

PRICE

     Free.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

    The archive and its contents are freely distributable.
    See documentation for details.

    The package is (c) 1993 Richard Carlsson



@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-6 "Online Weekly"
@toc "menu"

/// ONLINE WEEKLY Amiga Report Online                The lines are buzzing!
    ---------------------------------



From the AmigaZone on Portal
----------------------------

.../Message Bases/General Q&A, Announcements, and Help!/Two Announcements!
16026.3.624.1 hey.. read.me
10/23/93 13:57 66/3331 Harv

Sick of doom and gloom about Amigas? Well now you have something to
live for :-)

On the evening of November 7th, 1993, (that's a Sunday), the Amiga Zone
will proudly present "An Evening of Amiga Optimism with Dave Haynie!"

Yes, you heard it here first. Dave (also known as "hazy"), a ten year
veteran of Commodore's engineering dept. (his name is etched onto
to motherboards of most of your Amigas if you'd care to peek inside
and check), will be in our live chat to take your questions and talk
about what is really going on at Commodore engineering. Mark this
date on your calendars and don't miss this *important* live chat.

Everyone on the Amiga Zone mailing list will receive further info about
this live chat soon via email, so those of you who never read our
message bases (and who can't see this anyway :-) will soon learn of
this upcoming chat too.

While other services spread their doom and gloom with conference
guests who hide behind curtains and rubber masks, not revealing their
real identities, the Amiga Zone respects your intelligence and is
happy to bring you the real truth. So stay tuned!

Next on today's hit parade, I have just received over 10 Megabytes of
software which was published by Compute magazine on their series
of Amiga Resource Disks, this through the courtesy and generosity
of Denny Atkin, former Editor of Compute's Amiga Resource edition.
As you may or may not know, Compute decided to stop publishing
the Amiga edition and the Sept. 1993 issue was their last. Denny
is now their general entertainment software editor, so happily he's
still gainfully employed. Unhappily, he has to touch MS DOS computers
all day instead.

The uploading of this ten meg of Compute software will commence shortly
and you will find all of it in the Compute vendor area here in the
Amiga Zone so it will NOT appear in our regular new uploads library.
If you want to pick it up in your Portal subscriptions, then I would
suggest that you visit that vendor area (type "go amiga;3" to get there)
and enter each of its sections and type "sub" to make sure you are
subscribed to it. That way, when you read or scan your subs, each
new file will be presented to you for downloading.

Of course you may also wander around the system aimlessly and just
check in there from time to time to see what new files have arrived.
As this is a massive uploading project, it'll take me more than a day
to complete it most likely so keep checking back.

Further, as with the files already in Compute's vendor section here,
these new files will contain a distribution restriction and copyright
notice. NONE Of the files in the Compute's vendor area here, be they
the ones already there, or the ones soon to arrive, NONE Of them may
be posted on other commercial services, or user- or user-group-run
BBSes, or Internet FTP sites, nor may they be included in user group
monthly disks. Sorry kids, but them's the rules. The files will be
here for the personal enjoyment of those who download them directly
from Portal... ONLY.

There will be games, application software, and "art gallery" pictures.
NONE Of this stuff has ever been (legally) uploaded anywhere else
before. The only way you could previously get it was by buy8ing the
Amiga Resource disks from Compute magazine.

Have fun!

Harv Laser
Amiga Zone Moderator/Sysop


                      ------------------------------


.../Message Bases/Files - Talk about our Library here/iff to mac sound?
16032.3.129.1 iff to mac sound?
10/17/93 21:48 9/224 DrAllosaurus

Any recommendation for a utility to convert amiga sounds to mac sounds?
I've poked around the libraries a little, but nothing jumped out
as being exactly what I need.

So any ideas would be welcomed.

Thanks,

DrAllosaurus


                      ------------------------------



.../Message Bases/Files - Talk about our Library here/iff to mac sound?
16032.3.129.2 Re: IFF to Mac sound
10/19/93 13:10 9/623 ScottJ

Dr Allosaurus, there are two program that will do what you want. The first
is Oplay by David Champion. It allows you to play MAC, SUN and a whole
bunch of sound file formats on you Amiga. It wont convert the sound into
an Amiga IFF sound though. The 2nd program is AmiSox, also by David
Champion. It converts to and from Amiga IFF and a whole bunch of other
sound formats. You would use it if you need to actuslly convert the
sound to Mac format. AmiSox is an Amiga port of the Unix sound conversion
program Sox, so if you have access to a Unix machine you can FTP
the source code for Sox and compile it for your Unix box.



                      ------------------------------



.../Message Bases/General Q&A, Announcements, and Help!/Two Announcements!
16026.3.624.3 Compute disks now online!
10/28/93 17:17 29/1471 Harv

Seven .DMS full disk archive files containing seven issues of
COMPUTE magazine's "Amiga Resource" disks are now online for your
downloading pleasure in the COMPUTE Vendor section. "Go Compute"
or "go 22237.3.3" to get to the collection where these new files
have just been uploaded this date. (Note that I put them into
the COMPUTE apps & utils section, but every disk also contains
some games, and some of them also contain some "art gallery" files).

BE SURE to read the Distribution, Copyright, and What'sMissing
text files which you will also find in this collection at
22237.3.3. It is of paramount importance that you understand
that these are Copyrighted programs and that you are limited to
the ways in which you can re-distribute them. If you feel that you
cannot comply with the Distribution restrictions, then just
don't download these files.

Each .DMS file is named with a Month/Year to indicate which issue
of COMPUTE'S Amiga Resource magazine it was attached to. If you
have the relevant issues of the magazine in your collection, you will
get full descriptions of each of the programs on each of the disks.
Otherwise you may wish to order these issues as back issues from
COMPUTE Publications. Some of the programs on the disks have docs
on the disks, some have built-in online help, some have neither.
But ALL of them were fully described in the issue of the magazine
with the same cover date as the dates of the disks.

Have fun!
Harv
Amiga Zone Sysop



                      ------------------------------




From FidoNet's Amiga International Echo
---------------------------------------


Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 24 Oct 93  3:29:34
From: Jonathan Gapen (1:121/6.11)
To  : All
Subj: Amiga Ad - Proposal

   Hey everybody,  here's an idea for an Amiga ad.  Part of it came from
Travis Cunningham,  in Australia,  part of it from me.
   The words in bold print:

            THE SOLUTION TO ALL YOUR PC AND MAC PROBLEMS:

                  <a picture of a sledgehammer here>

                     <a picture of an Amiga here>

   And that's all.  Simple,  effective.


   A series of TV commercials could be made too.  People smashing their
computers is guaranteed to capture people's attention.  If Amiga users had to
make the ads instead of Commodore,  I'm sure there'd be a few donations of
computers to smash.  ;^)

   In case you're wondering,  this isn't a joke.  I think this type of ad
could work.  It could be part of an "Assault an Apple Today" campaign.

   It may be too late for conventional ads by Commodore.  I think the
president,  or some one from Commodore,  should make her/himself seen in
public smashing Macs and Clones.  ("Ever wanted to 'Hit any key'?")  It would
be totally rediculous and out of character for the computer industry, but it
would get Commodore noticed.  Smashing computers on TV would get the buying
public's attention,  I know that.

Jonathan Gapen


                      ------------------------------



Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 19 Oct 93  9:07:14
From: William Sloggy (1:238/105.0)
To  : All
Subj: 3DO


Just thought a news update on the 3DO might be interesting to you' all
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From the 10/11/93 issue of Broadcasting & Cable magazine:

                       3DO, SET WITH SET-TOP BOX

California computer graphics company 3DO made a big jump into television
last week, signing on to build equipment for US West's video dialtone
test in Omaha. US West tapped 3DO to design the set-top converter boxes
for the proposed test, which still is awaiting FCC approval. The set-top
box will be the subscribers interface for a variety of planned inter-
active services, including games, video on demand and home shopping.

The news is a boost to 3DO, a relative newcomer to the industry. Until
now, 3DO has concentrated primarily on developing a CD-based graphics
system called Interactive Multiplayer. The new interactive box will be
based on the Multiplayer, which hit stores last week. Unlike many other
computer companies, 3DO does no manufacturing on its own. Instead, it
develops and licenses the animation and graphics system. The first
Multiplayer, for example, is made by Panasonic, and, 3DO says, more
than 400 companies have signed to develop 151 software titles for the
system.

3DO chief operating officer, Hugh Martin, says that the CD titles will
be available to US West to provide a pool of interactive material for
the test. He says other interactive TV tests, including Time Warner's
Orlando test, may suffer from a lack of consumer-tested interactive
material. The early CD offerings will include video games, simulators
and family games that are similar to software available for home
computers.

US West has not designated a manufacturer for the new box, nor has it
chosen the exact format for the electronic program guide that will
allow a subscriber to navigate through the available services. Since
many particulars of the box are uncertain, it is not yet possible to
determine how much the units will cost per home, Martin says. The basic
circuitry is the same as the CD-based system, but since it can operate
without the costliest component, the CD drive, it will likely be less
expensive. He warns, however, that the set-top box will require various
cable hardware not included in the Multiplayer, driving costs back up.


                      ------------------------------


Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 21 Oct 93 23:25:45
From: Jonathan Guidry (1:3803/3.4)
To  : All
Subj: A600 - June Bug!


Remember that discussion a while back on the sayings on the Amiga 500/1200
motherboards(Rock Lobster, etc)...?  Well, I opened up my trusty 'ol Amiga
600, and it says Amiga 600 Rev 2B "June Bug" in it.... I wonder what
compels the motherboard designers to think about when they choose these
sayings?<grin>

Jonathan


                      ------------------------------



[Editor's Note:  I hope the following message isn't another one of those
'Crying Wolf' messages that tend to find their way around the nets.  I'm
going to take a chance on it not being one, in the interest of keeping
people informed.  Just take it with a grain of salt until we can confirm
it.  Thanks!  --Rob]


Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 24 Oct 93  3:52:22
From: Nikolai Waldman (1:363/204.100)
To  : All
Subj: Screwed by Bell Canada


 * This message forwarded from area 'NET363'
 * Original message dated 23 Oct 93, from Clay Fugitte

 * Forwarded from "INTERDUCK"
 * Originally by Lavern Hoy
 * Originally to All
 * Originally dated 20 Oct 1993, 23:19

Here is something I captured off another net and am forwarding to this net so
that all SysOps can see what may affect us here in the U.S.,  If Ma Bell is
trying to pull this off in Canada, they sure as Hell will attempt this same
thing on us.  We need to be aware of this and STOP crap like this before it
even gets started.

********************************************************************

I M P O R T A N T   N E W S   A   M U S T   R E A D   F O R   A L L

********************************************************************

    Bell Canada, the communications giant is planning to charge
ALL modem/fax users with 4800 baud or higher ADDITIONAL fees!
The following text file was captured off ADULTNET, and I encourage
everyone to READ IT, and WRITE TO BELL.  At least, SPREAD the
word, by POSTING this message EVERYWHERE. Capture file opened
20-Oct-1993 04:53p
********************************************************************

   Are you aware that BELL CANADA is out to empty your pockets
"legally" and is trying to keep you from knowing about it till
it's too late? All modem and fax users transmitting data at more
than 4800 bps will be forced to purchase the use of a "data line"
instead of just using the regular phone lines. This may surprise
a few, but a "data line" is rented at approx. $60. per month
besides the regular line that you still have to use at $15.
/month.

   MA BELL is planning to have a regulation passed to this effect
and is trying to do it fast and quiet before anyone is the wiser.
When this will be accomplished it will be almost impossible to
repeal this regulation. Since most fax & modem users are
transmitting or are planning to do so at a baud rate ABOVE 4800
baud, everyone will be billed, and if you think that you are
immune to this because you don't have a fax or modem or that you
transmit at 2400 baud, think about this; Who do you think will
foot the bill sent by your local merchant who uses a high speed
fax? Cost increases will be passed on to the public.(namely
you...)    "Power corrupts and  absolute power corrupts
absolutely"

   Ma BELL has a monopoly of the phone system and if nobody yells
back, they will use that absolute power to wring your wallet dry.
For yourself and your fellow phone users, don't let this go by
without a word of protest. Phone the CRTC and voice your concern,
let them know that Ma BELL is pushing too far and that you are
aware of the sneaky way they are going about it. Tell them that
this is intolerable and ILLEGAL.

   Call CRTC in Montreal (514) 283-6607 (Mrs Methot is in charge
of this dept.  Or CRTC in Ottawa (toll free) (819) 997-0272 dept
of telecommunications.

   You can also get in touch with Mr Normand Toupin (514)
870-5077 who is in charge of Public Relations at Bell Canada.

   Via FAX you can reach the CRTC at (514) 283-3689

   If the people reached deny knowledge of this, tell them you
intend to notify your local radio & tv about this.

This valuable info was brought to you by: THN SYSTEMS



                      ------------------------------



Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 22 Oct 93 22:51:41
From: Jeff Grimmett (1:202/739.1)
To  : ALL
Subj: AmigaEchoDisk 4!!!! AT LAST!!!!


AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, frabjous!  The AmigaEchoDisk -=Deux=- is finally released!

AmigaEchoDisk 4 is freqable from my BBS, Magic Blue Smoke, at 14400 (v32bis)
as AMYDISK4.DMS.  You may also call and download it from file area 24, file
16.  It is over 600K in size!

Asha already has a copy of the disk, as will Orin.  I have file attached a
copy to Joyce so it should be available at 1:3612/42 as well.

As soon as I get connected to the appropriate area, I will be hatching it out
via the Sky Amiga Network (SAN).  If someone is willing to, it may be hatched
via ADS as well.

Anyone wishing to spare the cost of calling long distance to get the disk may
go the cheap, if slower, route by sending a disk and disk mailer *pre-stamped*
to me at:

            Jeff Grimmett
            3152 Kemper St #5
            San Diego, CA  92110

Those who have sent pix in for this and other disks need not follow this
stipulation... just send me your address and I'll send a disk with thanks for
making the disk work!

A few notes:

We've tested this disk on a 2000HD/020, a 3000/16 under 1.3 and 2.04, a punked
out A2000/PPS040, an A2000/GVP030, a 1200, a 2000 with 1.3, and a 1000 with
1.3.  I think we hit most of the high points with this beta test.  However, if
it does NOT work for you, please let me know.  Have the following information
ready: your system, your OS, and what you did to make it crash.

This disk will self-boot under 1.3 and 2.0, but works best if run along with
an already booted workbench.

The following software was used to create the disk:

      HDClick 2.0: intended as an application to launch tasks
      from a menu environment.  While it WILL let you modify the
      script, be warned that it will CRASH if you modify too many
      things at once.  Save your work!

      SuperView 3.11: fairly old, but servicable, IFF viewer.

      MuchMore 3.20: Very slick text viewer.

      Sound, a small sound player.  Used with permission of the
      author.  WARNING: this has NOT been tested on 040's, so if
      it crashes your system, do not be alarmed.  I will try to
      find a better player for the next disk.  This program is
      powerpacked using PowerPacker 2.30, so if you have problems
      with powerpacker files, just avoid it.


All files are uncompressed and viewable using any iff viewer, text viewer, or
sound player as applicable.

Enjoy yourself, and keep your eyes peeled for disk 5!  Remember, if you
haven't appeared, YOU WILL.  Resistance is futile...



                      ------------------------------


Area: OMAHA_AMIGA                             Date: 22 Oct 93  5:50:12
From: Rick Ethridge (1:285/15.51)
To  : Scoffers
Subj: Not the End for ME!


I'm not amused with those who will so quickly write off the Amiga, or will
forget it's place in computer history. When I see SEAQUEST DSV or BABYLON 5 I
know that the television industry has taken the Amiga seriously. I don't
regret the overtime needed and the gracious help of my wife in getting my
A1000 or A1200HD. I look forward to getting a multisync monitor to bring the
video up to '90 standards. While others may feel that their PEECEES or MACS
can "rule the roost", let them try to MULTITASK ON 512K! Try using a COMMAND
LINE INTERPRETER on a MAC! I can always write my own programs with the 
available PD "C" compilers and shareware programming tools! For serious, 
imaginative computing only an Amiga will do!!!

Rick Ethridge


                      ------------------------------


Area: AMIGA                                   Date: 17 Oct 93 18:14:40
From: Christian Buchner (2:246/65.0)
To  : All
Subj: CD32 commercials on TV - in GERMANY!


Hello World!

I'm  living  in  Germany and have recently bought an Amiga CD32.
Cool machine - but software is still rare.

Today  I  saw a TV commercial for the Amiga CD32 on a private TV
channel  (RTL),  connected with an announcement of the "World Of
Commodore" exhibition in Cologne.

The  TV spot was done like the SNES campaigns:  Some grey-haired
professors who had "developed" the CD32 connected it to the "big
brain".  The brain played a 3D arcade game and finally exploded.

Quite  a  silly  storyline,  don't  you  think  either?  ;-) The
commercial  was  shown  in the afternoon, right before "A-Team".
Just when all the kids are sitting in front of their TV.

Seems   that  Commodore  finally  took  the  step  towards  more
aggressive   advertisement  campaigns.   Let's  hope  they  will
succeed.


                      ------------------------------



From Delphi's Amiga SIG
-----------------------



19832 27-OCT 23:45 General Information
     RE: CD32 & C= (Re: Msg 19745)
     From: MICHAEL86    To: 16BITTER (NR)

Sega had a hand in splitting the console market with Nintendo... According to
Forbes Magazine (Oct 25, '93) Sega started as the gnat on the windshield in
1989.  Sega Genesis: 1 million customers... Nintendo: 30 mill.

Tom Kalinske, in his early 50's now as the US chief of Sega, convinced his
Japanese bosses to drop the Genesis price from $199 to $149, and got close to
Electronic Arts.  Sega took lower royalties from developers... 15% below
Nintendo's...by way of encouragement.  Then he started a daring marketing
plan.  Three years later, said Forbes, Sega was close to a tie w/Nintendo in a
$5 billion market.  Nintendo dropped from 90% to 50%, while Sega went from 7%
in 1990 to 50% today.  Kalinske spend $125 million on marketing last year.

Kalinske set out to make Sega Genesis the "cool" machine, with tie-ins with 
Coke and the Lifesaver Co.  He pushes the image more than the machine, and 
plans to spend $250 mill this year to do it.

If you don't think image marketing is powerful, check out the color-blind dog
commercial for Game Gear, poking fun at the Gameboy green screen!

Kalinske just doesn't stop... He just hired away Nintendo's marketing 
specialist for the 6-to-14-year-olds categoy where Nintendo is still ahead. 
Cable's Sega channel will cost approx $12.5/mo for customers to choose among 
50 games for download.  Forbes says that 50% of the potential mrkt could pop 
Sega Channel's revenue to almost $700 mill for 1994.

Irving Gould should issue lots of new stock and use it to lure Tom Kalinske 
his way...


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List"
@toc "menu"


/// Amiga Report Mailing List
    -------------------------


Are you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get
Amiga Report each week?  Have you been spending more money that you want
on long distance phone calls to download it from one of our Distribution
Sites?  If so, have we got a deal for you!

If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report
in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released.  To be put
on the list, send Email to Amiga-Report-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu.  Your
account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy.
For example, GEnie has a limit of about 40K per message, and most of our
issues are well over that limit.

Please do not send general Email to Amiga-Report-Request, only requests
for subscription additions or deletions (or if you are not receiving an
intact copy).  All other correspondence should be directed to the editor
at ROB_G@Delphi.COM.

Many thanks to Bob Caron for setting this service up for us!

P.S.:  Please be sure to include your Email address in the text of your
request message, it makes adding it to the list much easier.  Thanks!

** IMPORTANT NOTICE:  PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over
** 100K!  We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a
** 100K size limit for incoming mail.  If we get a bounceback with your
** address in it, it will be removed from the list.

@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-7 "Usenet Repost - SAS/C v6.50"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Repost:  Features List for SAS/C v6.50
    ---------------------------------------------


 * Forwarded by Adam Sjoegren on 2:230/149@fidonet
 * Subj : SAS/C V6.50 Features
 * To   : , 
 * From : Doug Walker, walker@twix.unx.sas.com
 * Area : comp.sys.amiga.programmer


Many people have asked for a feature list for 
Version 6.50 of the SAS/C Development System with C++.
Here it is!

==============

SAS/C(R) Development System with C++, Version 6.50

==============
C++

Due to popular demand, Version 6.50 offers support for translating C++ files.
We've also added extensive support in our CodeProbe debugger to allow you to
debug C++ source code directly.  When debugging C++ source code with CPR, you
can

   * display C++ auto, static and extern variables
   * display members of C++ classes
   * set breakpoints on overloaded C++ functions, member functions,
     operators, constructors, and destructors
   * display the proper C++ source code at all times, in both
     regular and mixed mode.

Version 6.50 also provides a C++ name demangler that lets you write AREXX
scripts that work with CPR to help debug your C++ programs.

==============
68040/68882 Instruction Scheduler

The new 68040/68882 Instruction Scheduler helps your code make the most of
running on higher processors. The Instruction Scheduler changes the order of
instructions to create code that runs faster on the 68040 CPU and 68882 math
coprocessor.  These processors can execute some instructions in parallel to
run your code faster.

==============
SPROF Profiler

Version 6.50 includes SPROF, a brand new profiler designed to provide specific
statistics on a function-by-function basis, including

   * number of times each function is called
   * amount of time spent in each function, including subroutines
   * amount of time spent in each function, excluding subroutines
   * percentage of total time spent in each function.

SPROF can be used on shared libraries, devices, dynamically created tasks, and
virtually any other type of AmigaDOS task that has access to global data.

==============
SMFIND Utility

How many times have you tried to remember which file a particular variable is
defined in and couldn't?  SMFIND is a new utility that was designed with such
a situation in mind.  From the Workbench, you can double click on the SMFIND
icon, enter the string to search for, and sit back and watch as SMFIND lists
in the message browser window all the instances where that string was found.
Double click on an instance, and the relevant file is automatically opened and
positioned to the exact location where the string is found.  This new tool
makes managing your projects easier than ever.

==============
New Support for Writing Devices

We have added several new features, including an example device to get you
started, that make writing and debugging devices easier than ever before. 
SAS/C now provides new startup modules for creating devices so that now you
will not have to write your own startup code.  And most helpful of all, CPR
now allows you to set breakpoints in devices so that you can easily load them
to be debugged.


==============
User Interface

New system font support in SCOPTS, SE, SCMSG, and CPR.  These utilities now
use the default screen font as selected in Preferences under
AmigaDOS 2.0 and higher.

GO, ASM, SC2, and the C++ translator now send any messages to SCMSG if
requested instead of just to the console.

New support for public screens in SC, SCOPTS and SCMSG.

SMFind utility lets you search for strings in your C source
files, and lets you use the SCMSG utility to go to the
locations found.

==============
CPR

SegTracker support added to CPR, enabling CPR to locate debugging information
automatically for most multitasking programs, shared
libraries, and devices.  Now easier than ever to debug multitasking programs,
shared libraries, and devices!

Improvements in CPR's multitasking debugging capabilities.

Support of #line statements enhanced.  Now you can debug functions in header
files and inline functions.

Support for user-selectable fonts under AmigaDOS 2.0 and above.  All menus and
title bars are displayed in the proportional Screen font selected in the
Preferences font editor.  All other text is displayed in the fixed System
Default font selected in the font editor.

The number of spaces taken by a TAB character is now a user-selectable option.

==============
Compiler and Optimizers

Enhanced compiler and optimizers help you generate better, faster code.
Compiler now automatically detects the use of standard I/O functions and
generates code accordingly, making your program smaller and faster. (This
makes the NOSTDIO option obsolete.)

More efficient code for passing and returning structures and classes.

More efficient code when stack extension is used.

New optimizations added to the peephole optimizer.

Version 6.50 comes with the AmigaDOS 3.1 include files and link
libraries.

==============
Better Support for Shared Libraries and Devices

You can build your shared libraries in C++!  You can use C++ member functions
as library entry points, including constructor and destructor functions. 
Encapsulate your entire C++ class as an AmigaDOS shared library.

Includes autoinit/autoterm support for shared libraries and devices and
support for virtually all SAS/C library functions in shared libraries. The
only exceptions are exit(), abort(), and other functions which terminate the
program, since this isn't possible from a shared library.

Special startup code included for building devices.

Support for building shared libraries and devices directly from the SC
command.  No need to invoke SLINK seperately!

==============
Documentation

Over 300 new pages of documentation, bringing the total number of pages to
over 1500.  90% of the documentation has been rewritten for version 6.50. 
Documentation includes a quick reference guide, library reference manual, and
a two-volume user's guide.

Online documentation is even more complete - now over 1.3 megabytes of online
help, compared to 800k in Version 6!  More detail is provided on library
functions, and information on C++ messages has been added. Online
documentation for new utilities and options has been added.

==============
Enhanced Conversion Process

New utilities CCTOSC and LNTOSLINK convert Aztec C options
to their SAS/C equivalents.

New utilities MCC and MLN accept Aztec C options and invoke the
Version 6.50 compiler.

Compiler now implements #pragma amicall and #pragma regcall to
ease the transition for Aztec C customers.

<functions.h> and <scrcntl.h> are now provided, along with
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==============
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For contact information in other countries, please
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@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-2 "Portal"
@toc "menu"

/// Portal:  A Great Place For Amiga Users
    --------------------------------------



                   Portal Communications' Amiga Zone

         The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information
         -------------------------------------------------------

The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was
formerly on the People/Link System.  Plink went out of business in May,
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Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include:

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 · All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC.  
   And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time 
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   or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA,
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All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars
                                                Total Total  Total  Total
                                                Cost  Cost   Cost   Cost
                                          Fee   1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs.
                          Startup Monthly Per   Per   per    per    per
                          Fee     Fee     Hour  month month  month  month
                          $       $       $     $     $      $      $

Portal                    19.95   19.95         
 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs        0.00 19.95  19.95  19.95  19.95
 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint or Tymnet    2.50 22.95  32.45  44.95  94.95
 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% or Tymnet 5.50-10 29.95  69.95 119.95  varies
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* plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area
  Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the
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% 9600 bps Sprintnet and Tymnet available in over 300 cities areas
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# PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit
 "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account
 is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD  at the
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Call and join today.  Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service
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[Editor's Note:  Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so
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That number again:  408-973-9111.

Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any
amount by personal check or money order.  The Portal Online System is
a trademark of Portal Communications. 



@endnode
***************************************************************************

@node P1-8 "UseNet Review - DM 2.0"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Review:  Deluxe Music 2.0
    --------------------------------
    By Daniel Barrett
    (barrett@cs.umass.edu)


PRODUCT NAME

        Deluxe Music 2.0


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        Deluxe Music 2.0 ("DM2") is a program for creating, printing, and
playing music using the Amiga's sound chip or MIDI instruments.  It is
primarily a music notation program rather than a sequencer, though it
has some basic sequencer functions.

        A freely distributable demo version of DM2 is available on the
Aminet ftp sites and elsewhere.  This demo is based on an older version of
the program and contains some bugs which have reportedly been fixed in the
actual release.  It also has saving and printing disabled.  However, it will
give you a reasonable idea of the program's user interface.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Electronic Arts
        Address:        PO Box 7578
                        San Mateo, CA  94403-7578
                        USA

        Telephone:      (415) 572-2787

        The program was written by David "Talin" Joiner.


LIST PRICE

        $100 (US).  Mailorder price is approximately $80.

        An upgrade is available to owners of the original Deluxe Music
Construction Set for $50 plus shipping.  Call Electronic Arts at
800-245-4525, weekdays between 8am and 5pm Pacific Time, and have your DMCS
manual ready.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

        HARDWARE

                Any Amiga computer.

                1 MB RAM or more.

                2 floppy drives or 1 hard drive.

                A printer is recommended.

        SOFTWARE

                Reportedly runs under all AmigaDOS versions from 1.3 to 3.0.

                ARexx is recommended.


COPY PROTECTION

        Serial number protection.  When you install the program, you are
prompted for your name, company name, and program serial number.  This
information is then encoded directly in the program.  A little window
pops up for a few seconds and displays it every time you load the program.

        This copy protection is painless, and I find it completely
acceptable.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

        Amiga 3000T, 8 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM, 210 MB hard drive.
        ECE MIDI Plus interface.
        AmigaDOS 2.1 (Kickstart 2.04 ROM).


OVERVIEW

        The long-awaited Deluxe Music 2 is finally shipping.  More than an
update of the original Deluxe Music Construction Set (DMCS), DM2 is a
completely rewritten program with a similar interface, created by David
Joiner, the author of the MIDI sequencer "Music-X."

        For many years, the Amiga has had no professional-quality music
notation programs; see the section "COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS,"
below, for more information.  Does DM2 finally give us a pro-level notation
program?  I hope to answer in this question in my review.

        DM2 includes the program itself, a directory full of sampled
instrument sounds, a few example scores, and a freely distributable
player program called DMPlayer.

        This review will discuss the operation of DM2 in some detail, and
then I shall focus on the shortcomings of the program.  Unfortunately,
this program really needs some improvement.


VOCABULARY FOR NON-MUSICIANS

        You will need some musical knowledge to understand this review.
Here is a little vocabulary that may help non-musicians or people who need a
brief review of terminology.  MUSICIANS MAY SKIP THIS SECTION.

        DM2 is a "notation" or "scoring" or "music transcription" program,
which means that it is used for creating written music or "sheet music."  A
"score" is a complete piece of sheet music, either printed or on the screen,
and consists of one or more "staves" (which is the plural of "staff").  A
"staff" refers to the 5 horizontal lines on which we write traditional music
notation.  Typically, the music of one instrument appears on each staff,
although some instruments typically use two (piano) or three (organ)
parallel staves.  A staff contains "notes" (indicating a musical sound) and
"rests" (indicating a period of silence), plus various other symbols.  If we
want to write a note that is too high or too low for the staff, little
extra lines called "ledger lines" are added for that single note.

        A single note consists of two parts:  the "note head" or "head"
which is the little circle indicating the pitch, and a "stem" which is the
vertical line extending from the head, indicating the duration.  A symbol
called a "clef" indicates which lines on the staff represent which notes.

        Notes can be grouped together or "beamed" by connecting the stems
with horizontal or diagonal lines.  The music on a staff is separated into
"measures" using vertical lines called "bar lines."  A "time signature"
determines how much music goes into each measure, and a "key signature"
determines which pitches are appropriate to be used in the piece.  (This set
of pitches is called the "key" of the piece.  You can use any pitches you
want, but the pitches in the "key" are more convenient to notate.)  A pitch
that is not in the key of the piece is called an "accidental," and there are
5 kinds:  sharp (raise pitch), double-sharp (raise pitch twice), flat (lower
pitch), double-flat (lower pitch twice), and natural (undo any sharp or
flat).

        "MIDI" stands for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface."  This is a
method of communication between a computer and an electronic musical
instrument (e.g., synthesizer), or between two instruments, so one can
control the other.  Pressing a key on (for example) a synthesizer keyboard
sends a message through a wire (a "MIDI cable") saying "Key number 23 was
just pressed!"  This message can be recorded and played back by a computer,
causing the instrument to reproduce the note, or it can simply be sent to
another instrument which will then play its "key number 23."  (This is a
VERY simplistic explanation suitable for beginners only.)  The important
thing to realize is that MIDI does not transmit any sound; instead, it
transmits messages like "play this note" and "stop playing that note."
A computer program or hardware device that records and plays back such
information is called a "MIDI sequencer."

        If you are a non-musician who read this section, please send me
e-mail telling me whether it helped you understand the review or not.  (I am
just curious.)


THE CHALLENGES OF COMPUTER NOTATION

        The perfect music notation program still does not exist.  The reason
is that musical notation is very diverse, somewhat arbitrary, and quite
difficult to get right.  Here are some examples of why writing a notation
program is hard.  I am including this section because, in my opinion, some
USENET readers do not know what I mean by a "professional" notation program.

        Let's start with the obvious stuff:  correct output.  Symbols should
look correct, clear, and be free of "jaggies" when printed.  The dots on
dotted notes should be close to the notes they modify.  Horizontal spacing
should look "natural," and simultaneous events in different staves should
line up vertically.

        Beaming can be a challenge.  When several notes must be beamed
together, we want the results to look both clear and natural.  By clear, I
mean that the individual beams should be visible and not overwrite any note
heads.  By natural, I mean that the beams should be at a "good" distance
from the note heads and drawn at an angle that looks appropriate for the
notes.  If the notes are ascending or descending by simple steps, then beam
angles may be easy to calculate; but if the notes are spread out all over
the staff, should the beam angle upwards, downwards, or neither?  The answer
may depend on the notes that appear before and after the beamed ones.

        Chords can be challenging to notate if the individual notes are
very close together.  Note heads should not overlap too much to obscure
each other, nor should they be so far apart that gaps are visible.  This
is particularly true when a chord contains a half step.

        Two of the most difficult pieces of musical notation for a program
to get right are "ties" and "slurs."  These are slightly arced lines --
similar to the arcs drawn in a paint program -- that connect two notes (in
the case of a tie) or group several notes (a slur).  These are difficult for
a program to draw precisely because their size is not constant, they need to
be diagonal at arbitrary angles (in the case of slurs), and they may need to
extend between measures or even staves.

        A final challenge is that there are many symbols available in
musical notation, and some composers even like to make up their own
notation.  Does the program support all standard clefs?  How about
non-standard time and key signatures?  What if we want only 4 lines on a
staff and diamond-shaped note heads (as in some medieval music)?  What if we
don't want any bar lines (as in modern classical music)?  How do you notate
the scraping of an aluminum can lid on a violin string?  The ideal notation
program would allow the user to draw his/her own symbols and add them
(permanently or temporarily) to the program's musical vocabulary.

        We shall see how DM2 fares against these notational challenges.


INSTALLATION

        Installation is easy.  Simply click on the Install-Deluxe Music
icon, and the Commodore Installer program guides you through the steps
to put DM2 on your hard drive or another floppy disk.

        I had one problem when using the "Pretend To Install" option.
After I choose the name of the directory which will contain the
DeluxeMusic subdirectory and click "Proceed", I get the error message

                Sorry, an error has occurred
                Getenv: string too long

and the Installer exits.  I don't know if this a bug in the Installer or in
the particular installation script.  I think I've seen this happen before
when installing another application.


CREATING AND EDITING MUSICAL DATA

        My first test of DM2 was to invoke the program and start using
it without reading the manual.  I found the interface to be very intuitive.
Three windows are presented to the user at first:  the Score Window,
the Tool Window, and the Piano Keyboard window.

        The Score Window is a blank score with two staves (treble and bass),
1 measure long.  As you add notes to the score, a blank measure is
continually appended.  When you play back your score, notes get highlighted
as they are played.

        The Tool Window contains gadgets which represent different kinds of
musical symbols.  Click on a symbol, the mouse pointer turns into that
symbol, and you can insert that symbol into the Score Window by clicking on
the desired part of the staff.  The Tool Window also has tools for erasing
symbols, beaming, and text entry.

        The Piano Keyboard window looks like a piano and is an alternate way
to add notes to the score.  Click on a key, and the corresponding note is
inserted into the score.  You can also build chords and insert rests.  During
playback, the corresponding keys on the keyboard are highlighted.

        The menus are pretty standard, conforming pretty closely to those in
the Amiga User Interface Style Guide.  Without the manual, I was able to
figure out what most menu items do with only a few exceptions.  That is,
given a menu item, I could use it.  The opposite gave me trouble, though:
if I want to do some operation, how do I execute it?  I had to hunt quite a
bit for some operations.  For example, to control the global amount of space
between staves, I guessed to look under "Score Settings" first.  Nope.  It's
under "Staves."  Little ambiguities like that made the program a little bit
hard to use.  But these are small complaints -- once you read the manual,
it's no problem.

        DM2 has a reasonable amount of notational flexibility, but it has
some unfortunate limitations.  For example:

        NICE FEATURE                    UNFORTUNATELY...
        =====================================================================
        You can set the number of       The number of staves must remain
        staves.                         constant for the entire score.

        You can change the clef in      Clef changes are allowed only at the
        any measure.                    beginning of the measure.

        Note values from whole note     No grace notes.
        all the way to 64th note

        Important symbols available     These are font symbols only and do
        like fermata, C clef,           not affect playback.
        "dc a fine", etc.

        Automatically numbers your      No page numbers.
        measures.

        Insert text into the score.     No score title, author name, page
                                        headers/footers, piano fingering.

So while DM2 has some nice features, I wish it went a little further than it
does.

        Once really nice feature of the program is that you can leave various
requestors (really they are windows) open while you edit the score.  Other
programs force you to close the requestor before you can continue working.
In addition, while playback and printing are going on, you can still work
with the program.  (Though this sometimes leads to trouble:  see the "BUGS"
section.)

        Now for the bad news:  Deluxe Music is missing LOTS of important
features that prevent it from being a professional-level notation program.
I've already mentioned grace notes, score titles, page numbering, and piano
fingering.  Some more are:

        o       Accent signs (that look like ">") for notes.
        o       Double sharps.  The double flat exists but only as a font
                symbol with no meaning for playback.
        o       Glissando markings.

It is also missing basic features like:

        o       Rests inside a set of beamed notes.  (For example, putting a
                beam over two 16th notes, a 16th rest, and a 16th note.)
        o       Full-page view of the score.
        o       Cannot drag notes on multiple staves simultaneously.
        o       Cannot align a group of notes -- all you can do is align an
                entire measure.
        o       Clef changes cannot occur in the middle of a measure.
        o       Key signature changes that reduce the number of sharps or
                flats should produce a key signature with naturals in it,
                indicating visually which sharps/flats have disappeared.  Or
                if the change occurs in the first measure of a staff, a good
                program will place a indicator of the change at the end of
                the previous staff.  Deluxe Music doesn't do either.

It's also missing professional features like:

        o       Cannot design your own symbols easily, except by editing a
                font and memorizing which symbols correspond to which ASCII
                codes.
        o       Cannot change the number of staves within a score -- you
                must use the same number of staves throughout the score.
        o       No N-tuplets for N greater than 7.
        o       There is only one size for notes and staves.
        o       No mezzo and soprano clefs.
        o       No Baroque-style ornamentation (in a tiny staff above a
                note).


MEETING THE CHALLENGES

        In the section "THE CHALLENGES OF COMPUTER NOTATION" above, I
listed some things that are difficult to do in a notation program.  Let's
see how DM2 handles them.

        Correct Output:  DM2 gets a bunch of the basics right.  Note heads
are clear (though sometimes they overlap and notes must be moved manually).
In some rare occasions, note stems do not reach all the way to their beams.
Plenty of jaggedness is visible when scores are printed on my 300dpi laser
printer.  Some symbols overlap each other and cannot be corrected; for
example, "8va up" symbols overlap high notes.  Dots on dotted notes are
sometimes correctly placed, sometimes too high, and sometimes missing (!!),
particularly in chords with dotted notes (see the "BUGS" section, below).

        Beaming:  In general, DM2 chooses beam distances and angles well.
Unfortunately, some note/rest combinations are impossible to beam with DM2.

        Chords:  DM2 does a decent job, even with chords containing half
steps.

        Ties And Slurs:  DM2 can tie/slur notes within a measure, across
measures, and across staves.  Nice.  But they look lousy printed:  very
jagged.  And very small ties are not symmetric, making them look deformed.

        Creating Your Own Symbols:  DM2 provides no facility for this.
You can create your own Amiga font full of musical symbols and use it,
but DM2 has no user interface for inserting these symbols except by
keystroke, forcing the user to memorize which keystrokes correspond to
which font symbols.


PROGRAM PREFERENCES

        DM2 can run on many kinds of screens, including custom, Workbench
and Public Screens.  You can change the Palette and the font.  However,
if you change the font to something too large, you can't access the
rightmost menus because they are pushed offscreen.  And the rightmost
menu is the "Settings" menu, so you can't change the font back.  And
the Settings menu has no keyboard equivalents.  OOPS!!!  You're stuck.
Quit the program and restart it.

        Even with this little "Catch 22" problem, it is great to see
a program that lets the user modify the screen type so nicely.  Well done.


INTERNAL SOUNDS

        DM2 comes with 32 sampled instrument sounds.  I think their quality
is reasonable for use as a sketchpad and for quick feedback.  I do my real
playback with MIDI synthesizers.  Since sounds are a matter of taste, I
won't say any more on this.


MIDI IMPLEMENTATION

        Instead of using the internal sounds, you can assign different
staves to play on different MIDI channels.  This worked fine for me.

        You can also input your music using a MIDI keyboard, on one staff at
a time.  Note duration is increased the longer you hold down the key:  it
jumps to eighth, dotted eighth, quarter, etc., at a speed that you may set.
Too bad there's no metronome built in, or you might be able to enter your
music in real time.

        DM2 is not a heavy-duty sequencer.  It doesn't have sophisticated
features like MIDI event filtering, system exclusive handling, etc.:  just
simple recording and playback.


MUSIC PLAYBACK

        The score can be played back starting either from the beginning, or
between two markers (Begin/End Section).  This is pretty lame, since there
is only one set of markers in a score.  I'd rather see an unlimited number,
and the ability to name them for easy reference.

        During playback, there is no way to cause the program to skip
repeats, or skip to a second ending.  There also appears to be no way to
adjust the volumes of the internal instruments relative to one another.

        I'd rate the playback options as "minimally acceptable."


MUSIC PRINTING

        Printing speed is approximately one page every 5-6 minutes on
my 68030 Amiga with an HP Laserjet IIP printer.

        Some of my complaints about the printing are:

        o       Repeated 16th-notes overlap their note heads.
        o       Flats sometimes overlap the previous note stem.
        o       In a chord with 2 sharps, one of the sharps invariably
                overlaps the previous note.
        o       Beams are jagged, even on a 300dpi laser printer.
        o       "Begin repeat" signs overlap the first note in the measure.
        o       "8va" signs overlap high or low notes.
        o       Very small ties look like crap.  In general, ties and
                slurs look jagged and sometimes deformed.

If you look at the output from 1-2 feet away, it appears close to
publication quality.  But look closer and you see the jaggies.  This is not
professional output, but it's good enough to read.


AREXX IMPLEMENTATION

        DM2 has a very rich ARexx implementation with 86 commands, some
having many options.  I wrote a few scripts, and most things worked as
documented.  If your script contains an error, DM2 puts up a requestor
with the ARexx error message -- THANK YOU for this.

        ARexx macros may be recorded and played back interactively.  Just
choose "Record", do a bunch of things in the program, and then stop
recording.  You have just created a macro that can be played back
repeatedly, and then saved in a file if you desire.

        ARexx macros are executed using a file requestor (choose the script
name) or may be assigned to function keys.  DM2 also has an ARexx Console (a
command-line shell) which lets the user type ARexx commands directly if
desired, for experimentation or quick operations.  GREAT feature.

        A few of the ARexx commands are implemented strangely.  For example,
the "Next Note" command which moves the cursor to the next note will
deselect the previous note, if it was selected.  This is dumb, since a very
obvious operation is to move from note to note, selecting each.  I wonder if
this behavior is a bug?

        Another strange thing is that "Goto Measure" does looks like it
moves the cursor to the beginning of the measure, but internally it
doesn't.  If you try to do a "SelectItem" immediately afterwards,
it selects the second item in the measure.  To go the beginning of
a measure, you have to do "Goto Measure" followed by "Previous Note".

        I have one big complaint about ARexx in DM2, and that is
Electronic Arts' attitude about it.  The manual repeatedly describes
ARexx as "an advanced programming language" which is "recommended for
expert computer users" only.  Not only that, but "Electronic Arts does
not offer technical customer support for ARexx scripting issues."
Hey, why not just say that ARexx is poison that will kill you?!?  Come
on, EA, what's the point in trying to scare away new users from ARexx?

        I have more complaints about the ARexx documentation in the
"DOCUMENTATION" section, below.


FILE FORMATS

        DM2 stores its files by default in CMUS format, a new IFF format
which is more powerful than the old SMUS that Deluxe Music Construction Set
used.  It can also read and write files in SMUS and Standard MIDI File (SMF)
format.

        Realize, however, that not all file formats store the same
information.  If you don't save in CMUS format, not all of the symbols
in your score will be saved.  SMF format is great for importing your music
into a sequencer, but it won't store beaming, text, etc.  It also doesn't
notice your repeat signs, which I consider a design flaw:  DM2 should
give you the option of "expanding" repeated sections by including them
multiple times in the SMF.  Finally, according to a report I read in
comp.sys.amiga.audio, saving in SMUS format has problems with notes with
long duration.


DOCUMENTATION

        Documentation consists of a 167-page, spiral bound manual, an
8-page fold-out Amiga Reference Card, and a README file on disk with
last-minute information.

        The manual is suitable for beginners and contains several
tutorials that are reasonably good.  Experts will occasionally be
frustrated with the manual's "beginner" tone.

        I don't like the presentation of the ARexx information.  Pardon me
for yelling, but I wish manufacturers would...

        STOP DOCUMENTING AREXX COMMANDS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER!!!

        IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE NAME OF THE COMMAND YOU NEED, YOU HAVE
        TO READ THE WHOLE DAMN SECTION TO FIND IT!!!!

        PLEASE DOCUMENT AREXX COMMANDS ACCORDING TO THEIR FUNCTION!!!

        For example, "file commands", "movement commands", "delete commands",
"locking and unlocking the GUI commands", etc.  If you insist on using
alphabetical order, then AT LEAST provide a brief functional grouping of
command names in a separate section.  This is SO frustrating.  In fact, I am
so frustrated that I wrote my own functional grouping and uploaded it to
Aminet, in the directory /pub/aminet/mus/midi, in the file DMusic2-ARexx.lha.

        The Reference Card is very handy, except for its coverage of
ARexx, which does nothing but scare users away from trying it.


LIKES AND DISLIKES

* Likes

(1)     It's easy to use.

(2)     It adheres to Commodore's User Interface Style Guide.

(3)     It has a ton of ARexx commands.

* Dislikes

(1)     There is no visual indicator of whether the current score is saved
        or not.

(2)     You can't erase text with the Eraser Tool.  In fact, you can't erase
        text boxes at all!  You can delete the text in them, but the
        invisible boxes stay around forever.

(3)     While multitasking, it's easy to insert extra notes accidentally.
        Click the Note Tool, flip Deluxe Music's screen to the back, work on
        a different screen for a while, and then flip back to Deluxe Music.
        If you activate the screen by clicking in the score window, an
        unwanted note gets inserted.  Boo.  Other programs can detect that
        they are being reactivated and won't treat the first mouseclick as
        an operation.  (In fact, David Joiner's own Music-X program does
        this.)

(4)     The program is missing many standard notation features that
        I mentioned in the body of the review.

(5)     This is a BIG one.  Deluxe Music uses the same Clipboard unit as
        most programs -- unit 0.  This means that if you are multitasking
        Deluxe Music with your favorite word processor, then cutting/pasting
        with your word processor deletes or garbages the data that Deluxe
        Music puts into the clipboard.  FRUSTRATING!

        Possibly this is a bug in Deluxe Music, because writing to the
        Clipboard with DM2 doesn't garbage other programs' clipped data.

(6)     Insert some text.  Now adjust the staff spacing using the Staff
        Window.  The text stays in the same absolute position, rather than
        moving to the same relative position in the score.  Let the user
        attach text to symbols so the text moves when the symbol does.

(7)     If two notes are tied, and you want to tie the second also to a third
        note, you can't do it directly.  You have to remove the first tie,
        select all 3 notes, and tie them all.

(8)     "Revert" makes the display jump away from the current location to
        elsewhere in the score.  This is because while the old version is
        reloading, the scroll bar gets moved around, and then the score
        jumps to correspond to the new scrollbar location.

(9)     Why does "Tie Note Up" have a keyboard equivalent but "Tie Note Down"
        does not?  Why doesn't every non-dangerous menu item have a keyboard
        equivalent?

* Suggestions

(1)     Allow the user to choose which Clipboard unit is used by the
        program, so it doesn't conflict with other non-music programs.
        Or if this behavior is a bug, fix it.

(2)     If you click on the background screen, you have no menu bar at all.
        While this is natural from a programming standpoint, it can be
        confusing to the user.  Always have some menu active.

(3)     If you want to make a very high note on a low staff, the program
        can't distinguish it from a low note on a high staff (due to
        overlap).  There should be a "staff lock" command that forces all
        input to go to a particular staff.

(4)     Too often, I have to click on the background before the Note Tool to
        "clear" the fact that notes are selected.  If I don't, then I can't
        click on any modifiers (to apply to the next note) without applying
        them to the selected notes.  There should be a quick way to do
        "deselect all" rather than clicking on the background, or even
        better, the program should "deselect all" (at the user's option)
        when the Note Tool is clicked (perhaps under certain
        circumstances... THINK about how this should be done.)

(5)     I don't like the use of "Exit" in some requesters, such as the one
        in the "Save As" requestor, which should probably be "Cancel."

(6)     The GetItemAttr command has no way to discover the name of the
        current note (A, C, etc.), only the MIDI pitch number.  Thus,
        enharmonic notes (e.g., A-sharp and B-flat) cannot be distinguished.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        The old "Deluxe Music Construction Set" was interesting to play
with, but it had severe limitations and does not work reliably under
AmigaDOS 2.0 and higher.

        Dr. T's "Copyist Professional DTP" produces excellent output, but it
is primarily a graphics program lacking real knowledge of music.  (For
example, if you want to insert a measure, you have to move all the later
measures by hand to make space.  This is pathetic!  Can you imagine a word
processor forcing you to do this when you insert a word?)  DM2 has more
musical knowledge, though its printed output is inferior to Copyist's
Postscript.  Maybe someone will write a new "Copyist Companion" program
that will convert from CMUS to Copyist format for printing.

        The freely distributable MusicTeX or MuTeX also produces great
output and is quite flexible, but it requires TeX programming knowledge to
use effectively.  DM2 is far easier to use.

        The Macintosh and PC have pro-level programs like Finale, Score,
Notator, and several others, but these have never been ported to the Amiga.
These programs are light-years beyond anything available for the Amiga.
Finale can reportedly be run on the Amiga using the AMax II+ or Emplant
Macintosh emulators.


BUGS

        Sigh... Deluxe Music is FULL of bugs.  I am really surprised that
the program was released in this buggy state.  Here is a brief listing of
the bugs that I discovered in two weeks of using the program.

* Serious Bugs

(1)     The program produces Enforcer hits.  They happen at various
        times that I cannot predict.  One reproducible hit is to
        open the ARexx Console and type "changeitem pitch -1", which
        is an illegal command, but NOTHING should produce Enforcer hits.

(2)     Create a measure with an octave chord in it.  Apply a sharp
        accidental to the lower note.  Save the score and close it.  Re-load
        the score, and both notes now have sharps on them.  (This is
        musically incorrect -- accidentals do not automatically apply to
        other notes with the same name, e.g., an octave away.)
        [This bug was discovered by someone else on USENET.]

(3)     Sometimes, quitting the program causes a recoverable alert (yellow)
        to be displayed, saying "Not enough memory for this operation."
        Not enough memory to QUIT?!?!?  Huh??

(4)     After pasting from the clipboard, the score cursor does not appear
        in any consistent place.  Sometimes it's in the next measure of the
        same staff.  Sometimes it's in the same measure of the next staff.
        Sometimes it's in the middle of a measure.  And so on.  So quick,
        consistent, repeated pasting is not possible.

* Other Bugs

(5)     Inserting a rest sometimes causes a note to be played.

(6)     Inserting a note sometimes causes the wrong note -- an octave off --
        to be played.

(7)     Use the "Up Octave" menu item to raise notes in your topmost staff
        so high that they go beyond the staff separation markers.  Now
        lower the notes.  Bogus ledger lines are left in the staff above.

(8)     Click the depth gadget on the Tools Window.  Then click the Note
        Tool.  The cursor should change into a note head, but it doesn't.

(9)     Slurs don't move upward during an "Up Octave" operation.
        If you flip the note stems twice, the problem is corrected.

(10)    Sometimes when dragging a note, the wrong pitch will sound.  For
        example, in the key of A-flat major, drag an E-flat up a half
        step.  An F-flat sounds, but the actual note is F.

(11)    Once when I clicked on the close gadget of the Tool Window, the
        mouse pointer disappeared.  It came back when I clicked the
        right mouse button.

(12)    The "8va up" and "8va down" symbols cannot be moved up and down;
        therefore, they overlap very high and low notes, respectively.
        This is true both on the printout and on screen.

(13)    Very high notes overlap with instrument names.

(14)    Insert a very low note as the first note of the last measure in the
        score.  This forces the screen to scroll.  Under some circumstances,
        if you hold down the mouse button too long, the scrolling causes the
        note to be inserted much too low.  This is intermittent, but I can
        usually reproduce it after a few minutes of trying.

(15)    Open a new text box.  Then change font to a smaller size.  The box
        stays big (to accommodate the large font), and the text in the new
        font sometimes comes out too large.  This is intermittent.

(16)    Scrolling the score vertically sometimes causes graphics glitches.
        The main one is that a portion of the staff gets drawn one pixel
        too high, so the straight lines are disconnected at a point.

(17)    It is not possible to apply an "8va up" to a single note.  Try it,
        and no "8va" symbol appears.

(18)    Display the Piano Keyboard Window and click on the "Enter Notes In
        Score" gadget so a checkmark appears.  Now print your score.
        While printing is in progress, click on the gadget again and the
        checkmark disappears.  However, the program still thinks that you
        are in "enter notes in score" mode, even though the gadget is
        unchecked.

(19)    Create a half-step chord -- adjacent E and F at the bottom of a
        staff with a treble clef -- made of dotted notes.  The dot for the E
        is missing.  For other note combinations, the upper note has two dots
        instead of one.

(20)    Multiple menu selection doesn't always work.  (Holding down the
        right mouse button and clicking several menu items with the left
        button.)  I could not reproduce this problem later.

(21)    I was able to drag a text box so far to the left of the score
        window that the drag gadget was left out of the window bounds
        (that is, I could not see it).  Thus, I was not able to drag the
        box any more since the gadget was out of sight.  I could not
        reproduce this bug.  Maybe I was clueless and forgot about the
        horizontal scroll bars.

(22)    The "8va up" modifier is ignored when you select a note to hear its
        pitch.  The pitch that is played is the un-raised pitch.  (Similarly
        for "8va down".)

(23)    In a measure with some beamed notes, spend a lot of time adjusting
        the beams manually so they look just the way you like.  Then add a
        new note to the measure.  All the beams jump back to their original
        positions!!!

(24)    When you do a "Down Octave" operation on beamed notes, the note
        stems grow downward, but the beam stays in the same place.  So you
        get notes with ridiculously long beams.  If you flip the note stems
        twice, the stems go back to normal.

(25)    Try to beam a triplet consisting of an 8th note and a 16th note
        which are tied together.  The beam appears normally.  Click elsewhere
        in the score.  The beam disappears!  This is intermittent.

(26)    Halting (canceling) a print job leaves my printer's "job in
        progress" light turned on.  I don't know if the program or the
        printer is at fault, but my other programs don't cause this to
        happen.

(27)    Saving a score as a Standard MIDI File removes all of the repeat
        signs.  It also loses some time signature changes.

(28)    Clicking on the Play Section control sometimes produces a burst
        of audio noise instead of starting playback.  Clicking a second
        time starts playback.

(29)    The empty measure at the end of the score is impossible to get
        rid of permanently.  Delete it, save the score and reload it,
        and the empty measure is back.

(30)    Insert two instrument changes in the same staff.  Now insert
        notes after the second instrument change.  The notes you hear
        during insertion use the first instrument sound.

(31)    The ARexx sequence of LockGUI followed by UnlockGUI leaves an extra
        score cursor (vertical bar) on the screen.  UpdateDisplay doesn't
        remove it.  Resizing the score window does.

(32)    Rests are considered of NOTE type when using GetItemAttr.  They have
        Note.Pitch = 0.  However, 0 is a legitimate MIDI note pitch, so this
        is a conflict.

* Unintended Behavior (probably)

(1)     The "undo" command clears all of the modifiers (sharps, triplets,
        etc.) in the Tool Window.

(2)     Locate a note in your score that is a natural in the key signature
        (that is, its scale degree does not have a sharp or flat applied).
        Use the mouse to drag the note to a sharped/flatted scale degree.
        This turns on the sharp/flat in the Tool Window, and it stays on!
        Thus, the next notes you enter will have this sharp/flat applied to
        them.

(3)     Apply an "8va up" to a group of notes.  Then use the Score Setup
        Window to increase the score width.  The notes spread out, but the
        "8va up" symbol doesn't line up with the notes any more.
        Unfortunately, this bug is intermittent.

(4)     Click the Play Section gadget.  Then click the Stop gadget.  Then
        click the Stop gadget again, so the score should start playing from
        where it left off.  It does (sometimes), but now the Play (instead
        of Play Section) gadget is turned on.  I think that "continue
        from where you left off" should mean that the same play mode should
        be used.


VENDOR SUPPORT

        DM2 was supposed to ship by April 1993, according to advertisements
by Electronic Arts, but it didn't appear until late September.  Such delays
reflect badly on the vendor, in my opinion.

        I have had no reason to contact the vendor, but I will be sending
them a long bug report. :-(


WARRANTY

        Media is guaranteed for 90 days.  After 90 days, it costs $7.50 (US)
for each replacement disk.


CONCLUSIONS

        Page 32 of the manual states that "DeluxeMusic gives you complete
flexibility in the way you format your musical scores."  Unfortunately, this
statement is too optimistic.  The fact that you cannot raise "8va" symbols
and instrument names so they don't obscure your notes is a simple
counterexample, and there are dozens more.

        The sheer number of bugs in this program is very disappointing.
Since many of them are intermittent bugs, I fear that they will be hard for
the author to track down.  I really hope they get fixed though, and soon.

        Deluxe Music 2.0 is not a professional level notation program.
But pro-level programs run $250 or more on other computers.  Is Deluxe
Music 2.0 worth the price?  Yes.  You can get some work done with it, and
it's rather fun, except for the annoying bugs.

        I give this program 2.5 out of 5 stars in its current state.  It
fills a much-needed gap in Amiga software, but not enough to satisfy me.  I
hope that Electronic Arts will give this program a serious update, or at
least a bug fix very soon.


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

        Copyright 1993 by Daniel J. Barrett.  This article may be freely
distributed as long as it is distributed in its entirety.  It may not be
included in any commercial publication without the written permission of the
author.




@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-3 "Holonet"                                    
@toc "menu"

/// Holonet:  Inexpensive Internet Access
    -------------------------------------


                                *** HOLONET ***


HoloNet is an easy to use Internet Access BBS.

HoloNet is based on custom BBS software which provides an easy to use menu
driven interface.  HoloNet is ideal for those looking for an easy way to
use Internet services.  HoloNet does not currently provide UNIX shell
access.

Services include:

    o  Convenient Access
       A local call in 850+ cities nationwide.

    o  Online Publications
       Include USA Today Decisionline, Newsbytes, Datanet Computer News,
       Eeeekbits, and Boardwatch Magazine.

    o  USENET
       Averages over 30MB of USENET news per day.  The following news
       readers are available: NN, TIN, and RN.

    o  Internet E-Mail
       Members have an Internet E-mail address similar to:
       member@holonet.net

    o  Internet Access
       Access to telnet, talk, finger, IRC, and FTP.
       (note: you must comply with the policies of any networks you use)

    o  Single and Multi-player Games
       Board, card, fantasy, and puzzle games.

    o  Support for Eudora
       Excellent off-line Macintosh e-mail reader.

    o  UUCP E-mail and USENET feeds
       Link LAN E-mail systems and BBSes to the Internet.

How to try HoloNet for FREE:
      Telnet: holonet.net
       Modem: 510-704-1058 (Berkeley, CA) at 1200, 2400, 9600, or
              14400 bps.  There are free demo numbers nationwide, for an
              automated response containg a list of access numbers, send
              e-mail to access@holonet.mailer.net

How to get more information:
      E-mail: info@holonet.net
       Modem: 510-704-1058 at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400bps
       Voice: 510-704-0160
         Fax: 510-704-8019

HoloNet is a service mark of Information Access Technologies, Inc.

           Copyright © 1992 Information Access Techologies, Inc.
             All Rights Reserved.  Reprinted with permission.


@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P1-9 "Reader Mail"
@toc "menu"


/// Reader Mail                               Our readers speak!
    -----------


    #4          24-OCT-1993 22:05:49.65                             NEWMAIL


From:   IN%"mbuford@..."  "Matthew W. Buford"
To:     IN%"ROB_G@delphi.com"
CC:     
Subj:   Lemmings 2 article in AR129


Hi there... I was reading AR129 and saw the article about Lemmings 2. Well
I don't even own Lemmings 2 but I thought I'd let you know that the that
guy's lemmings 2 disk's installation file was deleted because he did not
follow the instrucions.

Like I said, I don't own lemmings 2, but this is what I understand from
reading messages on GEnie...

Apparently the idea is you're supposed to drag the Lemmings 2 installation
icon to the place you want the game installed on your hard drive, then
click on the icon THERE. What the icon does is copy the required files to
the current directory (where the icon was started from) and then deletes
itself (the install program) from the current dir.

Well, he click on the install icon on the original disk, which proceeded
to try to copy itself to itself and then delete the install program.

Psygnosis has received a LOT of griping because of this problem, but it
was not something they did on purpose to keep people from installing the
game on multiple systems as William Jones states in his message from FidoNet.



@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-6 "BIX"
@toc "menu"

/// BIX - Byte Information Exchange             Lots of information!
    -------------------------------



BIX is the premier online service for computing professionals and enthusiasts.
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                  These are some of the exchanges on BIX:

amiga.exchange - the place for Amiga developers and enthusiasts
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@endnode
***************************************************************************

@node P3 "Dealer Directory"
@toc "menu"

/// Dealer Directory                               Serving our readers!           
    ----------------



                           Almathera Systems Ltd
                              Challenge House
                              618 Mitcham Rd
                              Croydon, Surrey
                             CR9 3AU  England
                         VOICE: (UK) 081 683 6418
              Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk
                  (Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk


                           Amigability Computers
                               P.O. Box 572
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              (Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list)


                            Apogee Technologies
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                            Armadillo Brothers
                            753 East 3300 South
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                              GEnie:  B.GRAY


                CLICK! Microcomputer Applications B.V.B.A.
                            Boomsesteenweg 468
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                           FAX:  03 / 828.67.36
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                       Computers International, Inc.
                             5415 Hixson Pike
                          Chattanooga, TN  37343
                           VOICE:  615-843-0630


                             DataKompaniet ANS
                             Pb 3187  Munkvoll
                             N-7002  Trondheim
                              Norway - Europe
                          VOICE/FAX:  72 555 149
                      Internet:  torrunes@idt.unit.no


                               Digital Arts 
                           122 West 6th Street
                          Bloomington, IN  47404 
                           VOICE: (812)330-0124 
                           FAX:   (812)330-0126 
                               BIX:  msears 


                           Finetastic Computers
                           721 Washington Street
                            Norwood, MA  02062
                           VOICE:  617-762-4166
                             BBS:  617-769-3172
                            Fido:  1:101/322
                       Portal:  FinetasticComputers
               Internet:  FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com


                               HT Electronics
                         275 North Mathilda Avenue
                           Sunnyvale, CA  94086
                           VOICE:  408-737-0900
                           FAX:    408-245-3109
                          Portal:  HT Electronics
                 Internet:  HT Electronics@cup.portal.com


                          Industrial Video, Inc.
                           1601 North Ridge Rd.
                             Lorain, OH  44055
                           VOICE:  800-362-6150
                                   216-233-4000
                  Internet:  af741@cleveland.freenet.edu
                            Contact:  John Gray


                                MicroSearch
                        9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
                              Houston, Texas
                           VOICE:  713-988-2818
                           FAX:    713-995-4994


                          Mr. Hardware Computers
                               P.O. Box 148
                              59 Storey Ave.
                          Central Islip, NY 11722
                           VOICE:  516-234-8110
                             FAX:  516-234-8110
                         A.M.U.G. BBS:  516-234-6046


                     MusicMart:  Media Sound & Vision
                            71 Wellington Road
                          London, Ontario, Canada
                           VOICE:  519-434-4162
                             FAX:  519-663-8074
                             BBS:  519-457-2986
                            FIDO:  1:221/125
                        AmigaNet:  40:550/1
                          MaxNet:  90:204/1
                        iNET: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca


                              PSI Animations
                         17924 SW Pilkington Road
                          Lake Oswego, OR  97035
                           VOICE:  503-624-8185
                     Internet:  PSIANIM@agora.rain.com


                           Software Plus Chicago
                          3100 W Peterson Avenue
                             Chicago, Illinois
                           VOICE:  312-338-6100



          (Dealers:  To have your name added, please send Email!)

@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


/// AR Confidential                    We heard it through the grapevine!
    ---------------





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-10 "Humor Department"
@toc "menu"

/// The Humor Department           Jokes, Quotes, Insults, Shameless Plugs
    --------------------



Q:  Whaddaya get when you cross Lee Iacocca and Dracula???

A:  An Auto-exec bat!



@endnode

@node P2-3 "In Closing"
@toc "menu"

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
                  Amiga Report International Online Magazine
October 29, 1993       * YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE *            No. 1.31
        Copyright © 1993 SkyNet Publications ~ All Rights Reserved
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Views, Opinions and Articles presented  herein are not necessarily those of
the editors  and staff of Amiga Report International Online  Magazine or of
STR Publications.  Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless
otherwise noted.  Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the
publication, date, issue number and  the author's name. Amiga Report and/or
portions therein  may not be edited in  any way  without prior written per-
mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept-
ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis-
tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees  to
cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services  such as
(but not limited to)  Delphi  and Portal.  Distribution  on  public  domain
disks is acceptable provided proceeds  are only  to cover  the cost of  the
disk (e.g. no more than $5 US).  Distribution  on for-profit magazine cover
disks requires  written permission  from the  editor  or  publisher.  Amiga
Report is a not-for-profit publication.  Amiga Report, at the  time of pub-
ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its  staff and con-
ributors are  not and  cannot be held  responsible for the use or misuse of
information contained herein or  the  results  obtained there  from.  Amiga
Report is not  affiliated  with  Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore  Business
Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way. All items quoted
in whole or in part are  done so under the  Fair Use Provision of the Copy-
right Laws of the United States Penal Code.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 
                                    Only
                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                  *       _    _       __  ___    _       *
                  *      /\\  |\\   /| || //  \  /\\      *
                  *     /  \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __  /  \\     *
                  *    /--- \\|  \X || || \\_||/--- \\    *
                  *   /______________________________\\   *
                  *  /                                \\  *
                  *                                       *
                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                             Makes it possible!!

@endnode

@node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu"
@toc "menu"

@{"    Columns and Features    " link P1} News, Reviews, and More!
@{"     About AMIGA REPORT     " link P2} Staff, Copyright information
@{"      Dealer Directory      " link P3} Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers
@{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-Up Information
@{"     FTP Announcements      " link P5} New Files Available for FTP
@{"   AR Distribution Sites    " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT


/// 10/29/93 Amiga Report 1.31   "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
    --------------------------
    · The Editor's Desk     · CPU Status Report    · New Products
    · FTP Announcements     · Dealer Directory     · Usenet Reviews
    · The Humor Department  · Reader Mail          · AR Online

                       » Deluxe Music 2.0 Reviewed «
                         » Delphi Upload Contest «
                       » SAS/C v6.5 Features List «


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
                 Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
                            » FEATURING WEEKLY «
                  Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information
      Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
              Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/                 @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} · @{" FIDO " link P2-1} · @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} · @{" BIX " link P4-6}                  /
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


@endnode

@node P1 "Columns and Features"
@toc "menu"

@{"    From the Editor's Desk     " link P1-1} Saying it like it is!
@{"       CPU Status Report       " link P1-2} Computer Products Update
@{"        Upload Contest!        " link P1-3} Delphi's Amiga Upload Contest '93
@{"     Introduction to DCron     " link P1-4} A nice system utility 
@{" Amiga Online Reference Manual " link P1-5} An AG based online help system
@{"         Online Weekly         " link P1-6} The lines are buzzing!
@{"         UseNet Repost         " link P1-7} SAS/C v6.50 feature list
@{"         UseNet Review         " link P1-8} Deluxe Music 2.0
@{"          Reader Mail          " link P1-9} Our readers speak!
@{"     The Humor Department      " link P1-10} It's Halloween!
@endnode


@node P2 "About Amiga Report"
@toc "menu"

@{" For Starters " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT
@{"   AR Staff   " link P2-2} The Editors, and Contributers
@{"  In Closing  " link P2-3} Copyright Information

@endnode

@node P4 "Commercial Online Services"
@toc "menu"

@{"   Portal   " link P4-2}  A great place for Amiga users...
@{"  Holonet   " link P4-3}  Inexpensive Internet Access
@{"  InterNet  " link P4-5}  Subscribe to the AR Mailing List
@{"    BIX     " link P4-6}  For Serious Programmers and Developers
@endnode

@node P5 "Files Available for FTP"
@toc "menu"


@{"       FindIt v1.1       " link P5-1} A MUI based disk search utility
@{"      SatTrack v3.0      " link P5-2} A satellite tracking utility
@{"      SynWorks v2.1      " link P5-3} An enviroment for neural networks
@{" Amiga Wacom Driver v1.0 " link P5-4} Wacom digitizer tablet driver
@{"       Zilog v.99b       " link P5-5} Z80 Emulator for the 68000
@endnode



                 -----------------------------------------
@node P2-1-1 "NOVA"
@toc "menu"


                               * NOVA BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                          * Running Starnet BBS *
                         Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop
                            FidoNet  1:362/508
                 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS)
                 615-472-9748  USR DS 16.8  24hrs - 7 days
                           Cleveland, Tennessee
@endnode           
                ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-2 "In The MeanTime"
@toc "menu"


        
                          * IN THE MEANTIME BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                            * Running AXShell *
                            Robert Niles, Sysop
                            rniles@imtired.itm.com
                509-966-3828  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                            Yakima, Washington


                          ******* Notice *******

After 13 September 1993, In The MeanTime will no longer be on FidoNet, thus
we will no longer be accepting File REQuests (FREQs). We WILL be still 
accepting calls and will have the latest edition of Amiga Report online.
Downloads to first time callers are still accepted. For the west coast 
call @{"Cloud's Corner" link P2-1-3} to FREQ the latest edition of Amiga Report.

Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with
to establish an account, log in as guest with the password of "guest".
At the prompt type "ARMAG" (without the quotes).

@endnode           
	       ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-3 "Cloud's Corner"
@toc "menu"


                          * CLOUD'S CORNER BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
               Starnet/MebbsNet Support Site West Coast USA
                          * Running Starnet BBS *
                            Larry Cloud, Sysop
                            FidoNet:  1:350/30
                  Internet:  larryc@hebron.connected.com
                 206-377-4290  USR HST DS  24hrs - 7 days
                           Bremerton, Washington


New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report.  These are considered
"free" downloads, they do not count against any file ratio.  The latest issue
of Amiga Reports can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted) from here as "AR.LHA", as "AR"
or as ARxxx.LHA where xxx is the issue number.
 
For users interested in reading AR, but who do not have access to AmigaGuide,
you can freq ARBUL and get the AR in bulletin form.  This service is provided
for persons who do not have Amigaguide (such as IBM users).  Please note that
any pictures distributed with the "regular" Amiga Reports archive will NOT be
sent with this freq.  This file is not available for dial-in users, but you
can read bulletin #22 with your capture buffer open and get the same file.

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-4 "Biosmatica"
@toc "menu"


         
                            * BIOSMATICA BBS *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal
                    * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/UUCP *
                           Celso Martinho, Sysop
                             FidoNet  2:361/9
                  +351-34-382320  V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-5 "Amiga Junction 9"
@toc "menu"


                           * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 *
         Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                          Stephen Anderson, Sysop
                   Internet:  user_name@junct9.royle.org
      Line 1  +44 (0)372 271000  14400  V.32bis/HST   Fido 2:253/510
      Line 2  +44 (0)372 278000  14400  V.32bis only  Fido 2:253/520
      Line 3  +44 (0)372 279000  2400   V.42bis/MNP   Fido 2:253/530
                  Sysop Email:  sysadmin@junct9.royle.org
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS"
@toc "menu"



                             * BITSTREAM BBS *
               The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 *
                            Glen Roberts, Sysop
                             FidoNet 3:771/850
               +64 3 5485321  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                            Nelson, New Zealand

@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight"
@toc "menu"


                         * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada
                        * Running Excelsior! BBS *
                         Thorsten Schiller, Sysop
                    Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
                    UUCP:   ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm
                             FIDO: 1:221/202
                             Fish: 33:33/8
                              24hrs - 7 days
                         519-748-9365  (2400 baud)
                         519-748-9026  (v.32bis)
                              Ontario, Canada


     Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM


@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle"
@toc "menu"


                          METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                          UK Support for Mebbsnet
                  * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a *
                             Jon Witty, Sysop
                            FIDO:  2:252/129.0
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                     Line  1:   44-482-473871  16.8 DS HST 
                     Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251  2400 (6 lines)
                     Line  8:   44-482-491744  2400 
                     Line  9:   44-482-449028  2400 
                Voice helpline  44-482-491752  (anytime)

                 Fully animated menus + normal menu sets. 
                  500 megs HD - Usual software/messages 
           Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT 
                Very active userbase and busy conference  
             Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site. 

@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet"
@toc "menu"

                            * OMAHA AMIGANET *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                           Andy Wasserman, Sysop
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                            FidoNet:  1:285/11
                           AmigaNet:  40:200/10
                      Line 1:  402-333-5110  V.32bis
                      Line 2:  402-691-0104  USR DS
                              Omaha, Nebraska

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System"
@toc "menu"


                          * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                            Janne Saarme, Sysop
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                       InterNet: luumu@fenix.pp.fi 
                           FidoNet:  2:220/550.0
                          +358-0-675840  V.32bis
                             Helsinki, Finland

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying"
@toc "menu"


                        * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                            Eric Delord, Sysop
                         Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop
                        Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop
                    Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org
                            Fidonet: 2:320/104
                        +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8
                        +33-1-60037713 V.32bis
                        +33-1-60037716 1200-2400
  

Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro
on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines.

We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site
from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the
SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator.



@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe"
@toc "menu"



                          * FREELAND MAINFRAME *
                   Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running DLG Progessional *
                           John Freeland, SysOp
                 206-438-1670  Supra 2400zi
                 206-438-2273  Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis)
                 206-456-6013  Supra v.32bis
                              24hrs - 7 days
                       Internet - freemf.eskimo.com
                            Olympia, Washington
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-51 "LAHO"
@toc "menu"



                               * LAHO BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland
                             * Running MBBS *
                            Lenni Uitti, SysOp
                      Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas)
                     Juha Makinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas)
                        +358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST
                        +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST
                        +358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST
                        +358-64-423 1300, V.32 MNP
                            Seinajoki, Finland

Our machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM
drive. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in
a DesqView windows.

We have over 7000 files online (both for the Amiga and PC) + 650MB stuff
on the Aminet CD-ROM disk.

Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of
Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of
the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR1??.LHA) even on their first call.

The system has been running since 1989 and is sponsored by the local
telephone company, Vaasan Ladnin Puhelin Oy.



@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-52 "Falling BBS"
@toc "menu"



                              * FALLING BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway
                             * Running ABBS *
                          Christopher Naas, Sysop
                  +47 69 256117  V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                    EMail:    naasc@cnaas.adsp.sub.org
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-53 "Command Line BBS"
@toc "menu"



                           * COMMAND LINE BBS * 
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada 
                Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source 
                        * Running AmiExpress BBS * 
                           Nick Poliwko, Sysop 
                    416-533-8321  V.32  24hrs - 7 days 
                             Toronto, Canada 
@endnode  
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-54 "Rendezvous BBS"
@toc "menu"


                             * RENDEZVOUS BBS *
           Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - New Zealand
                  New Zealand Excelsior! BBS Support Site
                  * Running Excelsior! Professional BBS *
                            David Dustin, Sysop
                  Internet: postmaster@eclipse.acme.gen.nz
                +64 6 3566375  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                       Palmerston North, New Zealand


@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-55 "Leguans Byte Channel"
@toc "menu"


                         * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany
                         * Running EazyBBS V2.11 *
                           Andreas Geist, Sysop
                    Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                    Line 1:  49-30-8110060  USR DS 16.8 
                    Line 2:  49-30-8122442  USR DS 16.8

                 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" 

@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-56 "Stingray Database BBS"
@toc "menu"


                          * STINGRAY  DATABASE *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany
                           * Running FastCall *
                           Bernd Mienert, Sysop
                 EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de
                  +49 208 496807 HST-Dual 24hrs - 7 days
                          Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany


@endnode
                 --------------------------------------------
