[HEA]
    _____________________   ___                                   _
    |___   ______________| |   |                                 | |
        |  | _             |   |                                 | |
        |  || |            |   |                                 | |
        |  || |            |   |                                 | |
        |  || |            |   |   ____ _   _ _   _   ______     | |
        |  || |            |   |  / __ \ | | / \_/ \  | ___ \    | |
        |  || |__   ____   |   | / /  \  | |  /\ /\ \ | |  \ \   | |
        |  ||  _ \ |  _ \  |   | \ \__/  | | | |_|| | | |__/ /   | |
        |  || | | || |_||  |   |  \___/|_| |_|    |_| | ____/    |_|
        |  || | | || |__   |   |____________________  | |         _
        |__||_| |_|\____/  |________________________| | |        |_|
                                                      | |
         Lighting Your Apple II Path                  | |
                                                      |_|

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


                       >>> WELCOME TO THE LAMP! <<<
                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                 THE BEST OF THE A2Central BULLETIN BOARD
          AND THE BEST OF THE DELPHI A2 AND A2PRO MESSAGE BOARDS
           "Teaching the Apple II user how to fish since 1998"

 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 The Lamp!            An Onipa'a Software Production        Vol. 4, No. 3
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 Publisher................................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.
 Editor.....................................................Lyle Syverson
 Internet Email, Publisher.........................thelamp@sheppyware.net
 Internet Email, Editor................................lyle@FoxValley.net
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

                            TABLE OF CONTENTS
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                             March 15, 2001

HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN]
     Raising Geese

A2Central.com DISTILLATIONS
     Rewards for Writing Articles for A2Central.com Web Site----------[RFW]
     Enhanced Accounts Available on A2Central.com---------------------[EAA]
     Handling A2Central.com Mail With Spectrum - SAM - SOAR-----------[HMS]
     Upgrading the IIgs-----------------------------------------------[UGS]
     Best Place to Download BeOS Software-----------------------------[BPD]
     What Makes a Good Programmer?------------------------------------[MGP]
     PayPal, Kagi and the Like----------------------------------------[PKL]
     DNS Servers Don't Always Cooperate With Marinetti----------------[DDC]
     New SOAR Released------------------------------------------------[NSR]
     FTP Sites for A2 Software----------------------------------------[FAS]
     Installation of Silvern Castle Upgrades--------------------------[SCU]
     Silvern Castle Comments------------------------------------------[SCC]
     Silvern Castle v7.1 Announcement---------------------------------[SCA]
     Silvern Castle Feedback Needed-----------------------------------[SCF]
     Silvern Castle Suggestions---------------------------------------[SCS]
     Silvern Castle Review--------------------------------------------[SCR]
     Silvern Castle v7.1 Available------------------------------------[SCA]
     Silvern Castle v7.2 Coming---------------------------------------[SCC]
     Upgrading a IIe to a IIgs----------------------------------------[UGS]
     Floating Point Engine--------------------------------------------[FPE]
     Yahtzee NDA------------------------------------------------------[YDA]
     Which Programming language?--------------------------------------[WPL]
     Time in a Bottle CD----------------------------------------------[TIB]
     Anyone Tried KEGS for UNIX or Linux?-----------------------------[ATK]

A2Central.com PROGRAMMING DISTILLATIONS
     FORTRAN----------------------------------------------------------[FTN]
     Porting Programs Between Platforms-------------------------------[PBT]
     ON GOTO/GOSUB Commands-------------------------------------------[GGC]
     The LISP Language------------------------------------------------[TLL]
     Using Sounds-----------------------------------------------------[SND]

DELPHI A2 DISTILLATIONS
     Cables for the TWGS and ZIP GS-----------------------------------[CGS]
     Time in a Bottle CD - an Amazing Collection----------------------[AAC]
     Printing Silvern Castle Automaps---------------------------------[SCM]
     X-10 Web Page----------------------------------------------------[XWP]
     Farewell... Delphi Text Side Chats...----------------------------[FTC]

THE FUTURE OF DELPHI A2-----------------------------------------------[FOD]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
     No Letters to the Editor This Month------------------------------[NLE]
     An Invitation----------------------------------------------------[LTE]

KFEST 2001
     KFest 2001 Registration Info-------------------------------------[KFI]
     A2Central.com Items For Sale at KFest 2001-----------------------[KFS]

EXTRA INNINGS
     About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]

                                [*] [*] [*]

READING THE LAMP!   The index system used by The Lamp! is designed to make
"""""""""""""""""   your reading easier.  To use this system, load this
issue into any word processor or text editor.  In the index you will find
something like:

EXTRA INNINGS
     About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]

To read this article, simply use your search or find command to locate
[INN].  There is a similar tag at the end of each article: [EOA].



[OPN]-------------------------------
         HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER |
------------------------------------
From The Editor
"""""""""""""""
by Lyle Syverson <lyle@FoxValley.net>

                           Raising Geese
                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Just the other day, From High Above The Rock River, I noticed the
Canada Geese along the banks of the river were getting restless.  Instinct
was telling them it was time to get ready for the nesting season.  This
reminded me of an experience many years ago Back On The Farm.

     During the summer, at age 5, my pet gosling, Herman, had grown to be
an adult goose under my care.

     I told my father that I wanted to raise geese.  He said, "Hmm... we
are going to have to get a _male_ goose".  Herman was going to be a mother!

     The next Spring we bought a gander from one of the neighbors.  I was
told that in order to raise more geese I should take the eggs from the
geese until we had enough to fit under one of the "setting" chicken hens.
Herman would then keep producing eggs until she had enough for her to
incubate.  I would have twice as many geese.

     Each morning I was to feed the geese, then remove the egg from their
nest while they were eating.  Each day one of the geese would notice and
grab my seat with its bill, slapping me with its wings.  I would run as
fast as I could, being careful not to break the egg.  At some point, when
the goose decided I was far enough away from the nest, it would let go.

     So raising geese was not exactly what I expected.  Many things we do
in life are that way.

     Serving as editor of _The Lamp!_ has been a lot of fun.  But it has
not always been like I expected.

     So go ahead and try something new.  There may be surprises along the
way.  You just might find something that you really enjoy.

[EOA]


ASCII ART BEGINS
_________  _                     _                                      _
|__   __| | |                   | |                                    | |
   | |    | |                   | |                                    | |
   | |    | |___     ____       | |       _____   __ ___ _   _ _____   | |
   | |    | ___ \   / __ \      | |      /____ \  | v   v | | v ___ \  | |
   | |    | |  | | | /__\ \     | |       ____| | | /\ /\ | |  /   \ \ | |
   | |    | |  | | | _____|     | |      / ___  | | || || | | |    | | |_|
   | |    | |  | | | |_____     | |____  | |__| | | || || | |  \___/ /  _
   |_|    |_|  |_| \______|     |______| \____^_| |_||_||_| | |\____/  |_|
                                                            | |
                                                            | |
                                                            |_|

ASCII ART ENDS
[EOA]

------------------------------------
  DISTILLATIONS FROM A2Central.com |
------------------------------------

by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>

[RFW]
REWARDS FOR WRITING ARTICLES FOR A2Central.com WEB SITE
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
In an effort to encourage more Apple II users to contribute articles to our
web site, A2Central.com will now begin offering free months of service in
exchange for articles we deem to be of good quality that exceed 1,500
words.  We will also give free months to frequent contributors of smaller
pieces.

If you'd like more information, or have an article or idea for an article
you'd like to contribute, please email contribute@a2central.com for more
information.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 2, Top 2, Msg 2)
[EOA]


[EAA]
ENHANCED ACCOUNTS AVAILABLE ON A2Central.com
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
MARCH 1, 2001--Effective today, A2Central.com members can opt for the new
Enhanced account, which provides, in addition to our standard A2Central.com
services, 10 MB of space for a personal web site at
http://www.a2people.com/~username.

Enhanced accounts cost $15 per month or $35 per quarter (standard service
is $10 per month and $25 per quarter).

Current members can upgrade their account to an Enhanced account by
emailing billing@a2central.com.  You will be billed for the difference in
cost between your current account and the Enhanced service.

If you're not yet an A2Central.com member and would like to sign up, visit
http://www.a2central.com/join and start your account today!

In the near future, Enhanced account holders will also get access to
further added features, including Lynx for web browsing.  Other additional
features for Enhanced account holders are planned as well.  These will not
carry an additional charge on top of the price of the Enhanced account.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 2, Top 2, Msg 3)
[EOA]


[HMS]
HANDLING A2Central.com MAIL WITH SPECTRUM - SAM - SOAR
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
You can use the SAM mailer now to receive mail from your A2Central box, and
SOAR will send mail for you now too...

SOAR you get from my web site below, and SAM from Shareware Solutions II.

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Sat 17 Feb 2001 - 158 days till KFest '01
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR 1.0b1
 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a Blue & White G3/350
 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/

(CONDUCTOR, Cat 2, Top 18, Msg 6)
[EOA]


[UGS]
UPGRADING THE IIgs
""""""""""""""""""
If someone has found a nice IIgs, what would you suggest for a hard drive,
an accelerator, and a ram card?

Editor

>>>>>
"""""
> How about memory...

The maximum you can put in is a total of 8 MB, but more than 4 MB is
generally overkill.  As for specific recommendations, I'll leave that to
someone else.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
> and a hard drive...

The Focus drive is a good solution for a HD. SCSI only becomes an issue if
you need CD Rom as well. I think I heard that Focus drives were out of
stock, you might want to ask TonyD about it if you see him in RTC.

> accelerators...

This is hard. Here, Delphi, comp.sys.apple2.marketplace. Some people have
had luck hunting through places with lots of old secondhand gear, but it
takes both persistence and luck.

> about memory...

I'm very happy with the Sirius I got from Alltech. I bought it in minimum
configuration and added 8 1Meg 30 Pin simms to max out at 8 megs. There are
only one or two pieces of software that would ever need more than 4, but
what the hey, 1 Meg 30 Pin simms are about free these days.

see http://www.allelec.com/hardwapp.htm for the Sirius,
http://www.allelec.com/harddiap.htm for the Focus drives.

Hope this is some help.

Kim Howe
RTC host A2Central.com

(KIMHOWE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 4)

>>>>>
"""""
I was going to say the exact same thing that Kim said.  Tony's persistence
in keeping new hard drive and memory cards available to the Apple II
community makes him one of our most valuable assets.  Tony is also a wealth
of knowledge in almost any piece of hardware you can imagine as he has seen
it all.  In addition Tony hosts the Friday night RTC.

Mark
Wednesday Night RTC Host

(MARK [M.Percival], Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 5)
[EOA]


[BPD]
BEST PLACE TO DOWNLOAD BeOS SOFTWARE
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
A couple of handy tips for people that try out BeOS to use Sweet16.

Best place to download BeOS software is BeBits, at http://www.bebits.com.

You can find BeOS news and stuff at http://www.benews.com.

Sheppy

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 2, Top 27, Msg 2)
[EOA]


[MGP]
WHAT MAKES A GOOD PROGRAMMER?
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I've often wondered what makes a good programmer, one who is both skilled
and happy in the work.

What interests lead a person in that direction? What qualities make for
success? What about elective courses taken in high school, college, and
beyond? Do grades and standardized test scores mean much? At what age does
the  obsession with computers tend to take hold? Is this something you're
born to, or can it be taken up as a late major in college? "Well, what
shall it be, animal husbandry or programming?"

Of course, the physical requirements are demanding. I mean, how many people
can sit still and concentrate for those legendary marathon sessions, fueled
only by caffeine and pizza?

So, if you think you might like to become a programmer, ask away. If you
are a programmer and feel like musing on how you got there and what it's
like day to day, post a few lines and we'll see where it goes.

Bill Dooley
BB Assistant

(A2.BILL, Cat 2, Top 33, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
> What interests lead a person in that direction? What qualities make for
> success?

That's a tough one.  I don't really know.  I think you just have to enjoy
it.  :)

> What about elective courses taken in high school, college, and beyond?
> Do grades and standardized test scores mean much?

The best programming skills are the ones you learn on your own.  I got very
little out of computer programming or computer science courses in school.
Grades are generally not all that telling, IMHO, because they tend to grade
you on a lot of useless theory.  Computer Science is a barely-masked form
of mathematics, and is mostly dull and typically involves surprisingly
little programming work.

If you want to be a programmer, a degree can help you get your first job,
but after that, IMHO, it's all about experience.

> At what age does the obsession with computers tend to take hold? Is this
> something you're born to, or can it be taken up as a late major in
> college?  "Well, what shall it be, animal husbandry or programming?"

I think it's something you need to enjoy from a fairly young age.  Just up
and  deciding, "I'll be a programmer, so I'll take Computer Science in
college"  doesn't do the trick, mostly because the best stuff you need to
know is not  taught in school.

> Of course, the physical requirements are demanding. I mean, how many
> people can sit still and concentrate for those legendary marathon
> sessions, fueled only by caffeine and pizza?

I don't think that's particularly difficult. :)

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 2, Top 33, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
Here's some of my own experience in computer programming.

Grade school computer classes consisted of a nun telling us to "Type GR and
draw the Nativity scene."  High school had keyboarding as one class,
applications (word processing, spreadsheet, and database) as another.
I was bored in applications and took the final after two weeks.  Got a 97%,
but since I hadn't actually taken the course, I received no credit.  None
of these classes were inspiring.

I've had an Apple II as long as I can remember.  BASIC was very easy to
learn, and a necessity when I decided to run a BBS using Warp Six, which
was in BASIC.  I learned from looking at the code, talking to other sysops
(Scott Johnson), and reading books.  Oh, and making mistakes. :)

I had a blast for years.  That and video games (I was [am!] a Nintendo nut)
are what prompted me to apply to WPI and major in computer science.  But
when modern computers and languages didn't offer the same fun factor my
IIgs did, I switched majors.

Of course, that's just me.  There are obviously many more people who found
in the computer science dept. what I found on my Apple II.

I recently tried to convince the head of the CS dept. of this in an attempt
to get school credit for "Learn to Program Your IIgs in GSoft BASIC".  No
dice.

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 2, Top 33, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
I'll agree with Sheppy.  A CS program at a college is about computer
SCIENCE.  Theory, logic, Push-down automata, regular expressions,
context-free grammars and all that good stuff.  Analyze the best, average,
and worst (Theta, Big-O, Omega) cases for algorithms I-IV. Etc, etc. etc.

Proficiency in PROGRAMMING comes from practice.  I personally like the
SCIENCE part.  The theory.  And _that_ is where college/graduate school
come in for me.  There are stories abounding about programmers who, say,
learned the pitfalls and quirks of the WIN32 API.  They've said themselves
that while their coding methodology when south, their careers were
enormously successful.  So computer SCIENCE skills were laid aside in favor
of PROGRAMMING skill. (from a Dr. Dobbs article)

There are no real great people in the computer industry which do not posses
both PROGRAMMING and SCIENCE skills.  A quick example: Michael Abrash &
John Carmak.  These guys are great PROGRAMMERS and they've got the SCIENCE
side figured out pretty well, too.

-Lucas

(LSCHAREN, Cat 2, Top 33, Msg 4)

>>>>>
"""""
> I've often wondered what makes a good programmer, one who is both skilled
> and happy in the work.

I don't know that I can lay claim to being a good, or skilled programmer,
but I do like doing it...

> At what age does the obsession with computers tend to take hold?

For me it was as soon as I was exposed to them. I think it would have been
1974 in my first year of high school, lining up to buy Miniwaft cards.
(Miniwaft ran under Fortran, and used cards that you punched out with an
unbent paper clip. The cards were taken away once a week to a University
and the printouts brought back.)

Everyone had to buy the cards, but others would buy 1 pack at a time, and
I'd buy 20...

A year later our school (a very progressive one at the time) got a dumb
terminal, connected via modem to a Dec PDP 10 at the university. At the
time this machine could support a total of 50 users, supplying the needs of
the entire university and any external modem users throughout the whole
state.

Don't think I ever saw more than 35 users online at once though :)
A teacher introduced us to the computer and to BASIC. Wow, you didn't have
to wait a week and look at the printouts, stuff happened on a screen! I was
hooked, but surprisingly there were really only three of us out of the 1500
students at the High School who were constantly in that little room down
the end of the upper veranda.

Creativity is a good thing to have as a programmer. You have to be able to
get the idea of what you want to create, if you are going to make anything
special. I'm glad to hear others state that doing study wasn't what it was
all about, since I missed out on that. :) I do think I miss out sometimes
by not having studied some of the classic algorithms. I have thought about
doing a CS degree (if my health ever improves enough), but looking at the
languages they study now tends to make me think again.

Kim Howe
RTC Host

(KIMHOWE, Cat 2, Top 33, Msg 5)

>>>>>
"""""
> At what age does the obsession with computers tend to take hold?

For me it was in high school, when my best friend showed up with an HP-55
calculator, which _remembered_keystrokes_!  What a cool thing that was!

> Is this something you're born to, or can it be taken up as a late major
> in college?

For me, it was a VERY late major  :)  Twenty years after getting my first
degree (in business) I got my second (bachelor's) degree in Computer
Science.

> If you are a programmer and feel like musing on how you got  there...

It's funny, I was just talking to my wife about this the other day.  When
asked by my parents what I'd like for my HS graduation present, instead of
the typewriter they wanted to buy me, I convinced them to buy me an HP-25
programmable calculator, which, incidently, got me through many a calculus
test. But most of all it hooked me on the creative process of programming.

By the time I had been in the workplace for a year or two, I had bought my
first EurApple ][+, and worked/played/programmed with it feverishly every
night that I could.  While I had planned a career in the Army, I always
thought how neat it would be if I could make a living programming
computers.  Well, things didn't work out with the Army, and after 12 years,
I got out and got a job where I was close enough to the local college to
take lunchtime classes, leading to the aforementioned CS degree.

Now I'm employed as a software engineer in a big company.  In a sense,
I can owe my current career to the decision I made to ask for an HP-25
instead of a typewriter for a high school graduation present.

_________
  | homas

(TCOMPTER, Cat 2, Top 33, Msg 6)
[EOA]


[PKL]
PayPal, Kagi AND THE LIKE
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
I've found that PayPal really smooths out my transactions, especially
international ones (now that PayPal works internationally).  We're using it
for credit card payments for A2Central.com service, and for auctions, and
it's been pretty good.

We did upgrade to a business account to eliminate the limits on how much
you can transfer per six-month period.

Sheppy

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 3, Top 2, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
So, Sheppy, you were the one who finally talked me into accepting credit
cards via Kagi, but I see you're now advocating PayPal.

In a nutshell, which do you prefer? And, which one has the lowest fee?

Thanks!

 Joe Kohn
 Delivered by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR v1.0b1

 http://users.foxvalley.net/~joko

(JOKO, Cat 3, Top 2, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
I use both.  PayPal until recently did not accept international orders, but
now does (just in the last two months it started to do so).  However, they
do not accept checks for you, and do not take American Express, which Kagi
does.  PayPal also only supports online orders; Kagi will accept orders by
snail mail.  For people that I know are online (A2Central.com membership
fees, auction payments) I use PayPal.  For product sales, I use Kagi.

> In a nutshell, which do you prefer? And, which one has the lowest fee?

Both have their advantages, as I said above.  PayPal does not collect fees
from you at all, unless you have a business account (which is required if
you process more than a certain number of dollars in payments per month).
Syndicomm has a business account, which costs us 25 cents plus 1.9% per
transaction, or something like that.  Much cheaper than Kagi, but as I said
before, there are some limitations as well, which is why we still use both.

IMHO, Joe, Kagi is probably best for you just because you do take orders
from people that aren't online (although they have no way to do so that I
know of, since you don't have any printed ads distributed anywhere).

Since I have ads in most Juiced.GS issues, I get some snail mail orders
from people sent to Kagi, so that works real well for me.

Sheppy

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 3, Top 2, Msg 4)

>>>>>
"""""
For the casual buy/sell person, the personal version of PayPal absolutely
makes sense.  This is particularly true of someone who sells stuff at
auction on eBay or similar sites.  In addition to the issues Sheppy
mentioned, PayPal doesn't offer to set up a "shop" for you like you would
have using Kagi, at least the personal version of PayPal doesn't.

FWIW, I use PayPal very regularly.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 3, Top 2, Msg 7)

>>>>>
"""""
I just sold 6 items on eBay and 6 out of 6 were paid via PayPal.  It gives
a person a chance to pay me immediately and not have to worry about going
to the bank, getting a money order, putting it in the mail and waiting for
a week before I receive the money order so I can send the item.  As soon as
I received notification from PayPal I send the item.  Cuts the wait time
for the customer up to in half.

For Joe, you have some small ticket items that aren't worth putting up on
Kagi.  PayPal is ideal for these situations.  Say I notice that SSII sells
Dragon Wars and Neuromancer for $15 (such a deal!).  For me (in Canada) to
remember to go to the bank and get a US money order is a pain.  With
PayPal, on an impulse, I can send you my $15 from my credit card and you
can ship it immediately.  If you have a regular PayPal account, this is
done at no cost to you.  A business account has the fee's mentioned by
Sheppy.

PayPal is just one of those great ideas waiting to happen.  There are
already clones such as BidPay, etc., that have a similar service.

Mark.

(MARK, Cat 3, Top 2, Msg 8)

>>>>>
"""""
> PayPal doesn't offer to set up a "shop" for you like you would have using
> Kagi, at least the personal version of PayPal doesn't.

If you have a business account, they actually provide tools so you can
create links on any web page you want that will take you to PayPal with a
pre-filled form for paying for an item.  They're also working on developing
a shopping cart package for business account members, but it's not
available yet.

Sheppy

SYNDICOMM, Cat 3, Top 2, Msg 9)
[EOA]


[DDC]
DNS SERVERS DON'T ALWAYS COOPERATE WIH MARINETTI
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> You guys are supposed to use the name "a2central.com" to access the
> system.

I agree that we should do that. But Marinetti does not allow me to! DNR did
work for me a while back, but for nearly a year now, all the DNS servers in
the UK I have tried, including known ones that work in the States, simply
return a 'timeout' error.

So it is not an option I can use with Marinetti, and so I have to use
dotted addresses for everything. I simply coded that into SOAR...

Hopefully DNR will be high on the priority list when Marinetti gets
updated.

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Sat 17 Feb 2001 - 158 days till KFest '01
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR 1.0b1
 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a Blue & White G3/350
 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/

(CONDUCTOR, Cat 10, Top 59, Msg 101)
[EOA]


[NSR]
NEW SOAR RELEASED
"""""""""""""""""
*** New SOAR Released ***

I have released v1.0b2 of SOAR. You can download it from my web site.

It fixes a number of reported bugs, has several new features and
Houskeeping has been activated.

It comes with an Installer for newbies, and an Updater for those already
using SOAR.

This version is designed for the existing menus on A2Central. I shall
release a further update, designed for the new menus when they are switched
over to the new format.

As always, please give me your feedback, comments, bug reports and
suggestions.

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Wed 21 Feb 2001 - 154 days till KFest '01
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR 1.0b1
 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a Blue & White G3/350
 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/

(CONDUCTOR, Cat 10, Top 59, Msg 128)

>>>>>
"""""
I tried the latest beta of SOAR and I received the following when I launch:

"You must install these XCMDs before you can use SOAR OLR!"
"Lister bad version"

Any help?

(MARK, Cat 10, Top 59, Msg 129)

>>>>>
"""""
Sorry about that. I updated the XCMD recently as I finally fixed a long
running bug in it, then I forgot to include it with the SOAR update!

Version 2.5 is now posted on my web site...

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Mon 26 Feb 2001 - 149 days till KFest '01
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR 1.0b1
 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a Blue & White G3/350
 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/

(CONDUCTOR, Cat 10, Top 59, Msg 133)

>>>>>
"""""
I have put Lister v2.5 on my web site to fix this, but I should have said
that SOAR will actually run quite happily under the older Lister v2.4.

To allow this, you will need to open Init.SOAR in the Spectrum Editor, and
do a Find on '275 1 Lister;'. This should get you to a line looking like
this '&275 1 Lister;&275 2 %v2.5%;&107 CheckEm'. Now change the 'v2.5' to
'v2.4', Save it back to disk, and all should be well...

I am not sure how the '&' compiled token symbols will come out in this
message, so the line may not look precisely as I have entered it above.

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Tue 27 Feb 2001 - 148 days till KFest '01
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR 1.0b1
 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a Blue & White G3/350
 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/

(CONDUCTOR, Cat 10, Top 59, Msg 124)
[EOA]


[FAS]
FTP SITES FOR A2 SOFTWARE
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
What FTP sites host collections of Apple II software?  I know there are two
or three archives, but it's been years since I browsed them regularly and I
can't remember their changed addresses (I lost track of grind/ground and
caltech).

Thanks,

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 2, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
ground.ecn.uiowa.edu - used to be the "king" of a2 ftp sites.   Now it just
looks like a poorly organized mess.

apple2.caltech.edu (/pub/apple2) - Nothing new has been added since 1997,
but there's still some stuff that can't be found elsewhere.

ftp.gno.org - better organization, maintainers with a clue.  As the name
suggests, the focus is on gno/me (the 2.0.6 source code is there), so
there's a lot of stuff that can't be found there (yet)

wuarchive.wustl.edu (/usenet/comp.binaries.apple2/Articles/) - See the
Index file for a list of what the files are.  It's an archive of messages
posted to cba2 (including spam and offtopic stuff).

wuarchive.wustl.edu (/systems/apple2/umich.edu/) - mirror of the umich.edu
archive.

http://www.umich.edu/~archive/apple2/ - has some stuff that can't be found
elsewhere, but is pretty dead.

Off the top of my head, those are the legitimate sites.  The old csa2 faqs
at apple2.org/apple2.gs should list some others with minor stuff, though
they may be out of date (columbia.edu for 8-bit kermit, etc).  Also, there
are a few CDRoms that have some good stuff not easily found elsewhere, and
better organized :)

Kelvin Sherlock

(KWS, Cat 11, Top 2, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
The Trenco ftp site (ftp.gno.org) does have a lot more than just the GNO/ME
fiels, tho those are a big chunk of it.  It's the one I put the Lost
Classics stuff on, besides Delphi, since Trenco has a very strict
copyright-adherence policy, and there's never a question regarding the
legitimacy of the software titles there.

Later........Howard

(A2.HOWARD, Cat 11, Top 2, Msg 5)

>>>>>
"""""
The Caltech site moved a couple of years ago.  I can't find the updated
address right now but when I do I'll post it.

Mark.

(MARK, Cat 11, Top 2, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
> The Caltech site moved...

<ftp://apple2.tffenterprises.com/pub/apple2>

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 11, Top 2, Msg 7)

>>>>>
"""""
http://apple2.caltech.edu/ and
http://apple2.tffenterprises.com appear to be the same thing.

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 2, Msg 10)

>>>>>
"""""
The last time I looked at caltech quite a few of the files had become
corrupt and were nothing but a filename with a zero file length.

The tffenterprises site has the caltech files but since few people are
aware of this site it hasn't seen much in the way of updates.

Mark.

(MARK, Cat 11, Top 2, Msg 11)
[EOA]


[SCU]
INSTALLATION OF SILVERN CASTLE UPGRADES
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Re: Silvern Castle

I'm glad everyone is enjoying the automap feature!  I got the basic code
needed to do this from a small maze-generation program on the Time in a
Bottle CD-heavily modified of course.

To install a Silvern update to an existing Silvern folder, just copy all
the files in the update on top of your old files.  You may need to run a
conversion utility, but the operation is automatic once invoked.

To install Silvern to a new setup, unpack v1.0 then -like above- unpack the
update on top of this.  Simple(?).

The install procedure is fully outlined in the READ.ME.FIRST file in the
update you want to install.

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 20)
[EOA]


[SCC]
SILVERN CASTLE COMMENTS
"""""""""""""""""""""""
A few comments:

o Updating the summary during combat is a good idea, I'll add it to the
  upcoming v7.1, which also includes more symbols (thanks Kelvin for the
  suggestion!) on the automap display:

  stairs: up/down arrows
  chute: box
  specials: + (i.e. fixed only, not random stuff like wishing wells)

o To quit Silvern when in the market, L)eave then D)isband (you'll have to
  reassemble the party at the tavern when you restart).  Why would you want
  to quit anywhere else?  In the middle of combat?  Remember Wizardry only
  allowed the disband option to quit.

o As for "Rouges", yes someone already mentioned this to me.  How come no
  one else noticed this since v1.0? (Aug 1999).

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 27)
[EOA]


[SCA]
SILVERN CASTLE v7.1 ANNOUNCEMENT
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Silvern Castle v7.1 announcement:

I'm do to release this update in the next two weeks!

Major features/changes:

o More automap symbols for stairs, chutes, and fixed specials
o Camp item cache increased to 45 slots
o Character summary updated in real-time during combat
o Can exit to Basic.System's command line to cat, run programs, etc
  & return to Silvern with the BYE command

Also, I've honed my assembly-language skills and coded most of the mundane
subroutines in machine-language (only minimal speed improvement).

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 30)
[EOA]


[SCF]
SILVERN CASTLE FEEDBACK NEEDED
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I need feedback about a "feature" added in v7.0 that I'm finding a real
pain now:

Since MicroDot give my so much extra memory (about 6K-that's a goldmine to
Applesoft programmers), I've given each monster its own set of equipment
and items, where previously each group carried the same weapons/armour and
shared 5 magical items.

The problem is where before with 4 groups of 8 monsters/group, you could
find up to 20 magical items, now the potential is 160!  (Although the
maximum average is 40-50, it's still too much!).

So I decided to limit the number of magical items you find, my reasoning
being they are either hidden, broke, ruined, etc.  This new algorytem gives
me an average max of 25, which is better otherwise the housekeeping to
identify/store dozens of items becomes a chore.

I made some exceptions, if a monster uses or the party sees the item,
there's a 95% chance you'll find it because you know it's there (and
wouldn't you search extra hard for the item that killed your favorite
character?).  And stolen items are always found (unless the monster flees
with it).  And enchanted items are easier to spot because of the aura that
surround them.

What do you think?

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 31)
[EOA]


[SCS]
SILVERN CASTLE SUGGESTIONS
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Re: High-level party excess wealth

Any ideas what I can do when you start finding millions of gold pieces?

To start, I'm going to add an Enchant option to the Trading Post so you can
take normal or already enchanted stuff and add another power level to it
(sorry, only weapons, armour, and scrolls).

Any other ideas?

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 43)

>>>>>
"""""
I haven't played far through the game yet, so maybe there's something like
this somewhere that I can't see, but... how about an option to pay one
price to heal your entire party, repair all broken or damaged items they
have, etc, all in one shot.  The cost could be based on their levels or
something.  Mostly a convenience, since once you get to high levels, you
have lots of money and may or may not care whether you spend it.

Or how about (this might affect gameplay a lot, so I dunno) if you have a
character with high charisma, and lots of gold, the option to bribe
monsters to leave you alone, if their intelligence is above a certain point
and they're just wandering monster types.  Might help a party that's
desperately trying to get out of the maze to recuperate do so if they can
spend money to avoid some fights.

Just make Bribe a combat option for such a character if they have the
charisma to pull it off.  They can then make an offer, and if the monsters
accept it, combat ends and no XP is granted.

Sheppy

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 44)

>>>>>
"""""
Sheppy, interesting ideas.  A bribe option has possiblities...

Jeff

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Topi 7, Msg 45)

>>>>>
"""""
How about an "auto notes" feature?  One thing I don't like is writing down
messages when I come upon them and then noting where I found them.  I would
imagine this being a bit like "auto map" but recording the text to
messages.  Perhaps an indication on your map where the messages was found?

Mark

(MARK, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 47)

>>>>>
"""""
Mark,

You're supposed to use graph paper to map! :)

An auto-notes function is do-able, but I really intended the automap to be
a  supplament, not a substitute for mapping with paper & pencil.  But I
could  simply create a text file with location and text of messages as you
come upon them so you could review offline from the game.

What do you think?

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 48)

>>>>>
"""""
I love RPGs but never liked creating paper maps.  The auto map is so good
that it could eliminate the need for such maps. :-)

> But I could simply create a text file with location and text of messages
> as you come upon them so you could review offline from the game.

This would be good.  It would give me the ability to print off the
messages. However if viewing the notes were incorporated into the game then
I wouldn't need to even print them.

I love Silvern Castle but need someone to invent the 25th hour in the day
to give me more time to play.

Thanks Jeff.

Mark.

(MARK, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 49)

>>>>>
"""""
Hey Mark,

I was mulling over the auto-notes suggestion you made and I think I can do
exactly what you want.

Tentatively(?) I am planning to add a press <RET>-Autonotes option in the
automap display to show all the special location for the level displayed on
the text page so you could toggle back and forth from the automap display,
and save the info to disk with the save automap option as well.

This is going to be a somewhat involved project.  I have no idea when and
if I'll ever finish it, so don't hold your breath, but....

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 50)

>>>>>
"""""
Well in a marathon session, I have now completed the auto-notes feature.
It looks pretty cool, thanks Mark for suggesting it!

I know I said this would take me awhile, but it was fun implementing this
feature.  You just have to press <RET> in the automap display to get a
listing of the specials and messages with/text.

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 53)
[EOA]


[SCR]
SILVERN CASTLE REVIEW
"""""""""""""""""""""
I just found this, Bruce Baker a longtime Silvern fan (he finished all 3
scenarios!) did this review of Silvern way back in Jan 2000 for the Apple
Barrel Houston Apple Computer Club:

http://www.haaug.org/Files/AppleBarrels/2000/Apple%20Barrel%201-2000.pdf

It's a PDF file, so you probably need a MAC or windows machine to view.
The review itself is on page 4 and 8.

Enjoy,
Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 54)
[EOA]


[SCA]
SILVERN CASTLE v7.1 AVAILABLE
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
FYI, 7.1 is available for download from the webside at A2central.com, and
hopefully will be released on Trenco sometime today.  (Mon Feb 26, 2001)

Later........Howard

(A2.HOWARD, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 63)
[EOA]


[SCC]
SILVERN CASTLE v7.2 COMING
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Re: Silvern Castle v7.2

Full Archive:
This version now comprises a complete stand-alone update, including
everything neccessary to upgrade an existing Silvern Castle or to create a
new install.  This will apply to all future updates as well.

New Features:
* Auto-Notes!

Major Changes:
* AutoMap plotting is now twice as fast
* Maze plotting is now 25% faster

This update should be available for download within one week.

Enjoy!

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 66)
[EOA]


[UGS]
UPGRADING A IIe TO A IIgs
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
What does it take to upgrade a IIe to a IIgs?

Editor

>>>>>
"""""
You need a whole new base plate for the IIe. The GS motherboard has whole
row of ports and connectors where the IIe doesn't even have holes. :) It
seems to me that the IIe power supply is not strong enough to drive a
loaded GS, but high power IIe supplies were easily obtained in those days.

A number of GS memory cards were not appropriately shaped for the IIe case,
and had to be notched slightly to avoid contact with the case. (I don't
remember which ones anymore, but I had a list at one time of which cards
would fit properly.)

A good man with a Dremel could modify a standard IIe case to fit.

Gary R. Utter

(HINDMOST, Cat 17, Top 8, Msg 2)
[EOA]


[FPE]
FLOATING POINT ENGINE
"""""""""""""""""""""
After reading though some old articles in inCider I noticed an ad for a
device for something called the (FPE) or Floating Point Engine.  It listed
that on the GS that the SANE toolset was patched to use this engine.

So were there any real world applications that would benefit from this?
Or would this care essentially waste a slot in my GS?

Thanks,
Dain Neater
A2Central.com BB Manager

(A2.DAIN, Cat 17, Top 14, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
There were some, but they were not common, nor was there great demand for
the Floating Point Engine. Additionally, the thing was pretty unreliable.
(More a question of quality control than anything else, as I remember.)

I think there is nothing you would be likely to use today that would make
one worth having, in terms of actualy day to day work. (Always some use for
these things from the hobbyist/collector perspective, of course.)

Gary R. Utter

(HINDMOST, Cat 17, Top 14, Msg 2)
[EOA]


[YDA]
YAHTZEE NDA
"""""""""""
For those of you who haven't seen the A2Central.com web site, I have
released a Yahtzee NDA which is available for download from
ftp://ftp.a2central.com/pub/gsos/games/dice/yahtzeenda.bxy

Enjoy!

Kim Howe
RTC Host

(KIMHOWE, Cat 20, Top 10, Msg 13)

>>>>>
"""""
Murphy has struck. I found a bug in Yahtzee, which is now fixed. Can
everyone please make sure they get version 1.0.1 as soon as it's available.
I have emailed the new version to Sheppy for putting onto the a2central.com
ftp site.

Kim Howe
RTC Host

(KIMHOWE, Cat 20, Top 10, Msg 14)
[EOA]


[WPL]
WHICH PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE?
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I plan on picking up the Opus ][ collection soon, and I was wondering, what
anyone thought of the "Learn to Program in C" course.  Or would I be better
off with another programming language such as Pascal?

Thanks,
Dain Neater

(A2.DAIN, Cat 22, Top 18, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
I'm still in the Learn to Program in GSoft BASIC course.  Pascal is my next
step.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 22, Top 18, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
In the old days (5 years ago), pascal was THE learn-to-program language.
In fact, it was written primarily as a learn-to-program language -
structured programming, limited chance of shooting yourself in the foot,
suggested good programming practices,etc.

A lot of colleges are now using C or Java for intro programming these days
since ANSI C (and C++) make it harder to do really stupid things, and C is
a useful language in the real world, whereas pascal is not.

Of course, in the IIgs World, Orca/Pascal is just as useful as Orca/C, and
99.44% as powerful.  I would suggest pascal as a learn-to-program language,
though, since it hides a lot of the details that C forces you to confront
head-on.  Once you learn pascal, though, learn C and don't look back :)

(KWS, Cat 22, Top 18, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
Well, back in my college days we had to learn Pascal(an early version of
Turbo Pascal) but for the life of me, I am not sure I would recognize it if
I saw it.  Later in college, I tackled C, (or maybe it tackled me) but I
did know enough to get my assignments done. We learned C on a UNIX machine,
SGI if I recall. However it has been a good Six years since I did anything
more than a few lines of code.

I guess actually getting Opus ][ would be a good first step to learning to
program the ][gs:)

Thanks,

 Dain Neater - Dain
 Delivered by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR v1.0b1

(A2.DAIN, Cat 22, Top 18, Msg 5)

>>>>>
"""""
Back in my high school days, I learned COBOL. On an Apple II. :) Then in
college I expanded my COBOL and assembly knowledge on an AS400 mainframe.
We didn't have to resort to punchcards like my mom did, but all the
monitors were green on black. Ahhh, the good old days. I think I'm having
flashbacks of dot matrix and daisy wheel printers spitting out reams of
wide green-and-white paper...

Today I'd probably recommend C or Java for beginners.

 - Tony Ward, A2Central.com Chief Librarian (Coming Soon)

(A2.TONY, Cat 22, Top 18, Msg 6)
[EOA]


[TIB]
TIME IN A BOTTLE CD
"""""""""""""""""""
I purchased the GEnie compilation "Time in a Bottle" CD, even though at $50
it seemed a bit steep.  However, I've found it well worth it.  Among the
many gems is a program that will allow you to install "Dungeon Master GS"
to your hard drive.  That alone is worth the price of admission!

But I've found the bulletin board archives a great source of Apple II
technical info.  Plus it was great to hear that I wasn't alone with the
problems that I was having with my GS, and solutions were presented that in
many instances fixed them.

However, about 1 in 30 archive seems to be damaged. :(

Jeff

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 23, Top 5, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
Truth to tell, there are some damaged archives on TIAB, but no one has ever
gone and made me a definitive list as a bug report, so I've not been
concerned about them. . .

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 23, Top 5, Msg 4)

>>>>>
"""""
Perhaps listing the bad files would also be helpful for us -- we'll be
making some of those files available here in our file library eventually,
and it would be good to know which ones are bad. :)

Sheppy

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 23, Top 5, Msg 6)

>>>>>
"""""
Jeff,

Could you please give me a list, either here or in email, of some of the
bad archives you have found on Time In A Bottle? I will cross check them
with my copy of the CDs and the original files. If the originals are okay,
I'll make sure they get uploaded to our library here instead of the bad
ones. We can even post a list so people who bought TIAB can get bad files
replaced.

I'm glad you like the Genie BB archives. Personally, I think they're one of
the strongest parts of the collection. Those go back many years, and
contain comments from many Apple II luminaries.

 - Tony Ward

(A2.TONY, Cat 23, Top 5, Msg 8)
[EOA]


[ATK]
ANYONE TRIED KEGS FOR UNIX OR Linux?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Has anyone tried KEGS for UNIX or Linux?

(A2.BILL, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
Not yet, just the Win32 version (which is much better than that other IIgs
emulator for Windows).

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
I used Kegs under linux a year or 2 ago.  It's a fine emulator, but you
have to edit a text file to choose which disks to mount.

When I first used it, it required that you be in 8-bit color mode, which
sucked.  Later versions allow it to run in other colormodes, and even
autodetect.  I don't know if the linux version has sound support, yet (of
course, when I used linux, linux didn't have sound support on my
computer...)

(KWS, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 3)
[EOA]



------------------------------------
  DISTILLATIONS FROM A2Central.com |
                     PROGRAMING    |
------------------------------------

by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>

[FTN]
FORTRAN
"""""""
I start a new computer science class tomorrow, CS 1001: "Introduction to
Computers."  I understand most of the programming will occur in the
language of FORTRAN.  What does this language look like?  Does it resemble
anything else?  Can I program in FORTRAN on my Apple II?

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 50, Top 6, Msg 11)

>>>>>
"""""
Fortran!?  Good lord... it's education from the '70s! :)

Nobody uses Fortran anymore. :)

Fortran is a pretty different beast from anything I ever did; I couldn't
figure it out and gave up fast when I tried to learn it.  There are, or
have been, Fortran compilers for the II, but I don't know if there are any
you can realistically get your hands on nowadays.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 50, Top 6, Msg 12)

>>>>>
"""""
I believe someone was writing/porting a fortran-to-c translator, so ORCA/C
would be able to compile fortran code.  This was like 10 years ago, and as
you might expect, the source code was lost in a hard drive accident.
I heard that a version might have been posted on GEnie.  I don't know if
that's true, or if it's on the TIAB CD.

(I was always hearing rumors of great stuff on GEnie, like the IIgs port of
gcc, QuickAsm, et cetera, et cetera)

(KWS, Cat 50, Top 6, Msg 13)

>>>>>
"""""
Does anyone have a snippet of Fortran code they could post here, so I can
see what it looks like?

FWIW, here's the course description from
http://www.WPI.EDU/Pubs/Catalogs/Ugrad/Current/cscourses.html:

This course introduces computer systems to students who may need to write
or use computer programs in their undergraduate engineering, science, or
management courses.

Topics include problem-solving and algorithm development, the program
development cycle, structured programming design, coding, debugging and
documentation.

Students will be expected to implement a variety of programs using the
FORTRAN programming language.

(KGAGNE, Cat 50, Top 6, Msg 15)

>>>>>
"""""

> Sheppy said:  Fortran!?  Good lord... it's education from the '70s! :)
> Nobody uses Fortran anymore. :)

Well, I wouldn't say NOBODY, but darn few  :)
I haven't looked at Fortran since it was the language for MY first CS1001
course 24 years ago, but what I've read indicated that it is principally
used by scientists and engineers when they have to do heavy-duty number
crunching.

In fact, I believe ForTran stands for Formula Translation.  It is not well
suited to fancy i/o or user interfaces.

YMMV

_________
  | homas

(TCOMPTER, Cat 50, Top 6, Msg 16)

>>>>>
"""""
Check this site for a quick definition of Fortran (and a small piece of
sample code):

http://cgibin.erols.com/ziring/cgi-bin/cep/cep.pl?_key=FORTRAN

Someone in the RTC mentioned a site that had source code for "99 bottles of
beer" in a few hundred different programming languages (including a few
varieties of fortran), but all I can find is 404s for it...

(KWS, Cat 50, Top 6, Msg 17)
[EOA]


[PBT]
PORTING PROGRAMS BETWEEN PLATFORMS
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
What is involved in porting programs between two platforms that share a
common processor?  For example, the Super Nintendo and the Apple IIgs.
What differences exist between the two systems that need to be compensated
for when doing a port?

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 50, Top 9, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
The most obvious differences are the hardware ones.  The IIgs and SNES
store their video in different places.  Indeed, the SNES has (I think)
special graphics hardware for dealing with sprites that you obviously don't
have on the IIgs.  Sound playback works differently as well, with either
direct Ensoniq 5503 DOC or Sound Manager access on the IIgs versus whatever
sound chip the SNES uses.

Likewise, on the IIgs joysticks are accessed by reading I/O locations; I
don't expect these are the same at all on the SNES.

If a game is properly constructed, with the platform specific stuff as much
as possible kept in one source file, the port can be as easy as swapping
out a few functions ("easy" is a relative term ;).

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 50, Top 9, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
Sheppy,

So if the graphics, sound, and interface are different... what code can be
retained when porting?

Is it easier to port from the Super Nintendo to the IIgs, or vice versa?
I realize the IIgs got games such as Out of This World and Wolf3D, and that
the latter was programmed on a IIgs.  How was that done?  A SNES
development kit/compiler for the IIgs?

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 50, Top 9, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
Well, all the game logic.  The rendering code (which is different from the
code that actually draws the video onto the screen).  Those two sections of
code make up 90% or more of the game.

> Is it easier to port from the Super Nintendo to the IIgs, or vice versa?

I doubt it makes much difference.

> I realize the IIgs got games such as Out of This World and Wolf3D, and
> that the latter was programmed on a IIgs.  How was that done?  A SNES
> development kit/compiler for the IIgs?

There is/was a SNES development package for the IIgs based on ORCA/C.
MPW IIgs ORCA/C was also created primarily to develop SNES software.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 50, Top 9, Msg 4)

>>>>>
"""""
>> ... what code can be retained when porting?
>
> Well, all the game logic.  The rendering code... Those two sections of
> code make up 90% or more of the game.

Neat.  The graphics, sound, and interface seem to be most focused-on
aspects of any new game or gaming console, and yet it's only a small
portion of the actual code.

> There is/was a SNES development package for the IIgs based on ORCA/C.
> MPW IIgs ORCA/C was also created primarily to develop SNES software.

Also neat!  I suppose the development package was made available
exclusively to SNES developers and is no longer available to play with.

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 50, Top 9, Msg 5

>>>>>
"""""
> The graphics, sound, and interface seem to be most focused-on aspects of
> any new game or gaming console, and yet it's only a small portion of the
> actual code.

Yeah.  Most people don't realize just how much work there is involved in
writing a game.  Just the code to do hit-detection can be quite involved.

> Also neat!  I suppose the development package was made available
> exclusively to SNES developers and is no longer available to play with.

Yes.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 50, Top 9, Msg 6)
[EOA]


[GGC]
ON GOTO/GOSUB COMMANDS
""""""""""""""""""""""
Probably one of the most powerful and least used commands is the ON
GOTO/GOSUB commands.

Most have used this command in the way it was usually intended:

ON X GOTO 100,200,300: rem where if X=1 GOTO 100; if x=2 GOTO 200; etc

You must be careful that X isn't negative or exceed 255 or an illegal
quantity error results; a zero value or X > 3 would simply execute the NEXT
statement (not the next LINE number).  This last bit of info makes this
command very powerful when used with boolean expressions.

For example, you can simulate a simple IF/THEN/ELSE statement:

ON X=10 GOTO 100: home: print a$

This reads like this:

IF X=10 then GOTO 100
ELSE
  HOME
  PRINT A$

Any boolean expression will work; even string expressions:

ON A$="H" GOTO 100

I most use ON GOTO/GOSUB to pack line numbers to save space and time.  Each
line number takes 5 bytes of overheard (actually saves only 4 bytes if you
could the ":" needed to separate the numbers), and each line saved executes
GOTO's faster.

Example:

10 if x=2 then 100
20 if x=10 then 200
30 home

Would look like this: (saves 8 bytes)

10 ON X=2 GOTO 10: ON X=10 GOTO 200: HOME

Many would consider the above line harder to read, but in a large problem
where every bytes counts, you can often saved hundreds of bytes with this
technique; Silvern Castle uses this trick extensively.

One more example:

10 if flag then gosub 100: rem assume flag is either 0 or 1
20 home

Rewritten:

10 ON FLAG GOSUB 100: HOME

Jeff Fink

(FINKSTERJ, Cat 51, Top 15, Msg 14)
[EOA]


[TLL]
THE LISP LANGUAGE
"""""""""""""""""
LISP is an excellent object-oriented language.  Once you get used to the
parentheses, it's very readable, and everything feels quite natural.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
I took a programming course in Scheme.  That's a variation of LISP, isn't
it?

Worst course I ever took!

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
Yeah, as I understand it.  I think it's a sick, perverted version. :)

> Worst course I ever took!

In what way?

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
Sheppy,

I was already hating my computer science classes, so I was probably
predisposed against LISP/Scheme.  But it stands out in my mind as a
particularly bad language.

First, the number of parentheses is mind-boggling.  No one in their right
mind should have to use that many parentheses in one programming statement.

Second, everything was backwards.  I think instead of "5 + 3" the statement
was "+ 5 3" (with a zillion parentheses, of course).  I realize programming
languages often require the command then the arguments (such as Spectrum's
script command Add) but it seemed pointless to me back then.

Third, I had no experience in assembly language, and three-letter long
commands, such as CAR and CDR, were nonsensical.  It was all Greek to me,
and commands like "lambda" didn't help.

I pulled some of my old homework files out of my CS archives.  Yep, they
still make no sense.

The next computer programming course I took was in Prolog.  It took me
forever to understand this language, but once it "clicked," I loved it.
Most fun language I've ever used in college.

Of course, Prolog makes less sense to me today than Scheme does. <g>

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 4)

>>>>>
"""""
> First, the number of parentheses is mind-boggling.  No one in their right
> mind should have to use that many parentheses in one programming
> statement.

There are a lot of them, but made sense given the way the language works.

> Third, I had no experience in assembly language, and three-letter long
> commands, such as CAR and CDR, were nonsensical.  It was all Greek to me,
> and commands like "lambda" didn't help.

This sounds like a Schemeism to me; LISP was more readable than that. :)

> The next computer programming course I took was in Prolog.

I taught myself a little Prolog in high school.  A nice language for the
type of code it's designed for, but if you're not doing AI projects it's
not all that useful, IMHO.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 5)

>>>>>
"""""
Sheppy,

>> First, the number of parentheses is mind-boggling.  No one in their
>> right mind should have to use that many parentheses in one programming
>> statement.
>
> There are a lot of them, but made sense given the way the language works.

I suppose if you're willing to make an initial, absurd assumption about how
a language works, then other associated things will make sense.

Absurd to me, of course.  More experienced programmers probably have a
different mind set about these things. :)

> I taught myself a little Prolog in high school.  A nice language for the
> type of code it's designed for, but if you're not doing AI projects it's
> not all that useful, IMHO.

I would not count most of the programming assignments I did as "useful."
Still had fun, though.  Prolog wasn't programming to me as much as it was
just defining variables and conditionals. :)

When I took an operating systems course and started dealing with threads,
semaphores, etc., I installed GNO/ME on my IIgs.  Unfortunately, something
about it prevented ORCA/C from working, which disrupted my progress through
"Learn to Program the IIgs in C". (I figured learning to program a fun
computer might help me in classes that used "real" computers).

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 6)

>>>>>
"""""
> I suppose if you're willing to make an initial, absurd assumption about
> how a language works, then other associated things will make sense.

Well, the idea is that you think about each command as a list of items
rather than an actual command.  Every list is then surrounded by
parentheses to demarcate where it begins and ends.  You can nest lists
inside each other as well.  That's why it's called LISP (LISt Processing).

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 7)

>>>>>
"""""
Well, I never had as much animosity toward Scheme as Ken seem to have. :)

My first CS course was in Scheme.  We did recursion, Red-Black Tree, An
Object-Oriented database application and a scheme interpreter in scheme.
All in all pretty worthwhile stuff from an educational perspective.

But anyway, here's a quote for Ken from "Real Programmer's Don't Eat
Quiche":   (http://www.tlr.de/tlr/faq/realprg.htm)

"Real programmers don't use LISP. Only effeminate programmers use more
parentheses than actual code"

:)

-Lucas

(LSCHAREN, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 8)

>>>>>
"""""
Lucas,

Excellent web page.  Thank you for the URL. :)

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 9)

>>>>>
"""""
I had the good fortune of taking a scheme-based class in my college days -
"Fundamentals of Programming Languages" or something like that. The book we
used was from MIT and the prof. claimed they used it as an intro to CS
book.  I learned some interesting stuff from that class, but it was quite
difficult, and focused on recursion, and proving your function
mathematically.  We wrote a simple programming language in scheme
(actually, we just typed it in from the back of the book :). Of course,
nobody was able to get the language to actually *work* in it's advanced
stages :(

Jawaid Bazyar ported a scheme implementation to run under ORCA/gno, but it
seemed buggy to me, and limited too.

(KWS, Cat 52, Top 51, Msg 10)
[EOA]


[SND]
USING SOUNDS
""""""""""""
I wanted to add some sound effects to my Yahtzee NDA. I know you can put
rSounds into the resource file, but how do you proceed to play them? Is
this the best way to go about it? Is the rSound format documented anywhere?

Kim Howe
RTC Host

(KIMHOWE, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
Have a look in the Programmer's Reference for System 6.  There's
information in there on how to interpret rSounds.  The easiest way to play
them is to tell the Sound control panel to do it for you. :)

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
looks like I need to use srqPlayrSoundSample. Don't suppose you could point
me to where using request codes is documented so I could work out how to do
that? :)

Seems like the more I find out the less I know :(

Page 412 of the Programmers Reference for System 6 says rSoundSample format
is actually described in the HyperCard IIGS Technical Notes.

Kim Howe
RTC Host

(KIMHOWE, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
The rSoundSample resource format is also documented in a technical note.
Miscellaneous Resource Formats or something like that.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 4)

>>>>>
"""""
> looks like I need to use srqPlayrSoundSample.

Yes, that is the one to use. If you only have the resource name, you will
have to turn that into a Resource ID by using srqGetrSoundSample. That
should also if I remember correctly load the sound into memory as well.
Remember to dispose of the Handle if you load it yourself.

It is also wise to turn off interrupts if you can while the sound plays, or
you can get a staccato effect, and if you want to play a second sound, make
sure the first has finished or it will be truncated.

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Thu 1 Mar 2001 - 146 days till KFest '01
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR 1.0b1
 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a Blue & White G3/350
 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/

(CONDUCTOR, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 5)

>>>>>
"""""
> It is also wise to turn off interrupts if you can while the sound plays

I've never had to turn off interrupts while playing sound.  If interrupts
are enough to make your sound stutter, you've got something running that's
violating Apple's rules about how long an interrupt handler can take to
run.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 6)

>>>>>
"""""
> I've never had to turn off interrupts while playing sound.

Maybe you haven't played a sound while streaming Zmodem in through the
ports... :)

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Fri 2 Mar 2001 - 145 days till KFest '01
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR 1.0b1
 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a Blue & White G3/350
 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/

(CONDUCTOR, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 7)

>>>>>
"""""
> Maybe you haven't played a sound while streaming Zmodem in through the
> ports... :)

True.  Only while rendering 3D graphics and reading the keyboard by
directly twiddling the ADB bus.  We have to turn off interrupts while
rendering video, periodically, because of the way the display is refreshed.
Still manage to do it without exceeding interrupt length limits though. :)

Admittedly I don't know your situation, but I'm curious.  You shouldn't
have to disable interrupts that long while downloading data.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 8)

>>>>>
"""""
> Admittedly I don't know your situation, but I'm curious. You shouldn't
> have to disable interrupts that long while downloading data.

Actually sounds are not played while downloading under Spectrum, but sounds
can be played while data is arriving. This might be just a bell/beep
character in the middle of a menu prompt or whatever, while navigating a
system. Unless interrupts are turned off, the beep sounds awful...

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Sat 3 Mar 2001 - 144 days till KFest '01
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.1 & SOAR 1.0b1
 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a Blue & White G3/350
 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/

(CONDUCTOR, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 9)

>>>>>
"""""
> Unless interrupts are turned off, the beep sounds awful...

That tells me that the serial interrupt is taking longer than it should.
You might also look into (I don't know how you play the sounds, toolbox
wise, but...) making the buffer size in the DOC RAM larger for the sounds.
Sounds like the buffer is so small that it can run out during the period of
your serial interrupt.

If your DOC buffers are large enough that the playback time of the sound
buffer is longer than the maximum length of your serial interrupt, you
shouldn't have sound glitching anymore.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 10)

>>>>>
"""""
> That tells me that the serial interrupt is taking longer than it should.
> You might also look into (I don't know how you play the sounds

I am using the Sounds CDev... So even a _SysBeep will rasp...

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Sun 4 Mar 2001 - 143 days till KFest '01
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.2 & SOAR 1.0b1
 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a Blue & White G3/350
 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/

(CONDUCTOR, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 11)

>>>>>
"""""
> I am using the Sounds CDev... So even a _SysBeep will rasp...

Hm, yeah, it uses a pretty small buffer in the DOC RAM, I think.

It'd be interesting to see what kind of luck you have loading the sound up
and playing it using the Sound Tool Set, with a nice big DOC buffer.

Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd
Owner
Syndicomm
Building communities bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 59, Top 42, Msg 12)
[EOA]



------------------------------------
      DISTILLATIONS FROM DELPHI A2 |
------------------------------------

by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>

[CGS]
CABLES FOR THE TWGS AND ZIP GS
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
We do offer the cables for the TWGS and the ZIP GS.

Each cable is US $15, s/h depends on quantity.

The cables can be ordered in three different versions:

1) short cable for slot 3
2) long cable for slot 4
3) looped cable (slightly longer) for universal usage in slot 3 _and_
   slot 4
 
For inquiries please see www.wbwip.com/shh

Joachim Lange

(JLANGE, 63388.14, Delphi A2 web side)
[EOA]


[AAC]
TIME IN A BOTTLE CD - AN AMAZING COLLECTION
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I discovered over the weekend that the Time In A Bottle CD containing the
GEnie file / message archive also contains csa2 archives dating back to
1992. TIAB is an amazing collection currently available from the Juiced.GS
home page.

http://www.wbwip.com/juiced.gs/

This is a must have CD for any Apple II user.
Mark Percival
A2Central.com RTC Host
"Midweek Madness" every Wednesday night!
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Pacific Time

(PERCIM, 3406.3, Delphi A2 web side)
[EOA]


[SCM]
PRINTING SILVERN CASTLE AUTOMAPS
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Hi Jeff

I'm enjoying your SC7. Especially the automapping. I would like to print
out those .PIC files on my ImmyII but have no graphic software at all.

Can you recommend anything for me?

I am using system 6.0.1 and Proterm8 v3.1 plus the usual utilities.

Dick Pirong

(PIRONG, 35211, GO COM A2)

>>>>>
"""""
With a GS, SuperConvert will allow you to transfer the hires file into
superhires so you can print it via any paint program, or you can use the
8bit freeware program Triple Dump by the Beagle Bros (its in delphi's
library somewhere I think).

Jeff

(FINKSTERJ, 35221, GO COM A2)

>>>>>
"""""
Triple Dump is also available on the Trenco ftp site too, if someone
doesn't have access to the Delphi databases. :)

Later.........Howard

(HKATZ, 35230, GO COM A2)
[EOA]


[XWP]
X-10 WEB PAGE
"""""""""""""
I've just finished my web page (sort of). It contains screen shots from
myHouse (my home control program) as well as descriptions of the hardware
used to run it. Various IIgs programs I've written over the years are
available for download, including my X-10 software (X10House and
X10Doctor). All programs are freeware. I will be adding some Mac
AppleScripts soon (when I get the dox written).

Check it out at: http://www.concentric.net/~artcough/

Art

(ART_COUGHLIN, 35214, GO COM A2)
[EOA]


[FTC]
FAREWELL... DELPHI TEXT SIDE CHATS...
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Is there anybody out there?

If so, you probably received the same e-mail I did, which said in part:

> Delphi will be discontinuing all text-based services, email accounts and
> legacy chat services...

Although I intend to be here until the bitter end, I have a feeling that
many others may not be. After all, the message system seems to be
"breaking" on a semi-regular basis, and even when it is working, we're down
to just a few messages a day.

As I said a few weeks ago, hosting a chat with one or two participants
(down from 20 or 25 regulars just a few months ago) is a little
frustrating, a little depressing, and a little lonely.

So, I'm going to 'pull the plug' on my Monday Night Chats (recently held on
Thursday nights.)

It's been a lot of fun, but the writing is clearly on the wall.

So, as before, I'd just like to remind folks that Syndicomm saw the writing
on the wall before I did, and that A2Central.com is the (for lack of a
better expression) New Delphi, or the New Genie. IOW, it's our new online
home.

So, I hope to see everyone there at some point.

Although I do intend to attend chats on A2Central.com, I want to reclaim
that one night a week for other activities, so I'll just simply show up
there, like everyone else, when I feel like it ;-)

It has been fun hosting the chat for the past few years, and I want to
thank everyone for the good times, the laughs, the technical chatter, the
jokes, the camaraderie, and for the Apple II info.

 Joe Kohn.... - Tue 13 Mar 2001 8:31:40 am
 Message delivered by Spectrum 2.5.2
 and rushed to you by Crock O' Gold 3.3!

(JOE_KOHN, 35399, GO COM A2)
[EOA]



[FOD]
THE FUTURE OF DELPHI A2...
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
On February 22, 2001, this message began to appear on logon to the text
side of Delphi:

  --- begin quote ---
Effective noon Friday, February 23, forums accessible from both the Web and
the legacy text service will no longer be connected. This means that going
forward, messages posted on the text side will only be accessible by other
text users, and messages posted on the Web side will only be seen by other
Web users. This is in keeping with the free, unsupported status of the
legacy text service.
  --- end quote ---

>>>>>
"""""

Then on March 12, 2001 the following email was received by all subscribers
to the text side of Delphi:

  --- begin quote ---
Subject: Delphi Text-based services are ending on May 1
-------------------------------------------------------
***  Important information about Delphi services ***

As of May 1, 2001, Delphi will be discontinuing all text-based services,
email accounts and legacy chat services (including live games). As we
notified you last year, these services have been unsupported since November
1, and billing for premium services was discontinued.

As of May 1, Delphi email will be inaccessible, and email forwarding will
no longer function. Also, those Web forums that have opted to revert to the
legacy chat service will need to use the newer version of Delphi.com chat.
The new chat system does not support live games, and some of the
functionality of the legacy chat system has not yet been developed for the
newer version of chat.

We hope that this notice and the one we sent you last fall will give you
enough time to make alternate arrangements.

Q & A -

(Q) Why is Delphi making these changes?

(A) The text-based services, legacy chat and email services are all based
on a technical platform that cannot be maintained on a cost-effective
basis.

(Q) How do I know if my email account is affected?

(A) If your email address ends in "@delphi.com" you will need to make
alternate arrangements. Most Internet service providers supply email
accounts. There are also several free web-based email providers such as
Hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com), Yahoo (http://mail.yahoo.com). You should
notify anyone who sends you email of your new address as soon as possible.

(Q) I've already set up forwarding for my Delphi email account. Isn't that
sufficient?

(A) No. The systems that are being retired include the forwarding
functionality, so mail sent to your "@delphi.com" address will bounce back
to the sender after May 1.

(Q) I use the text-based games such as TQ and Scramble on the Web, will
these be discontinued?

(A) Since these live games are based on the old platform, they will be
discontinued.

(Q) I run a forum on the Delphi.com Web site and I still use the old chat
system. What do I have to do?

(A) You can change your chat selection to the new chat system from your
forum control center at any time. If you do not do so by May 1, we will
take care of it for you.

(Q) I participate in role playing games that rely on certain functions of
the legacy chat system like the "/act" and "/roll" commands. Will these be
available in the new chat system?

(A) We may be adding those features to the new chat system, but it is not
likely that those functions will be available in new chat before the old
chat system is retired on May 1.

We have established a mutual assistance Forum on Delphi Text Side.  Just
type GO COMP LIFE to get there.  This Forum may be able to help you select
a new e-mail provider or answer questions about Web access or choice of
browsers.  This Forum is only accessible via telnet.

We regret that no Delphi staff members are available to assist in this
Forum, but we hope you will find assistance from other Delphi members
there.

We appreciate your support of Delphi over the years and look forward to
your continued participation in Delphi.com on the Web.
  --- end quote ---

>>>>>
"""""
The number of messages posted on both the text and web sides of Delphi A2
has slowed to a trickle.  The days are numbered for the text side.  Time
will tell if enough people will frequent the A2 web side for it to survive.

Editor
[EOA]



------------------------------------
             LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
------------------------------------

[NLE]
NO LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THIS MONTH
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The mail box for Letters to the Editor remained empty this month.
[EOA]


[LTE]
AN INVITATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Express your opinions about the comings and goings in the world of the
Apple II computers.

Send your comments to Lyle Syverson, Editor <lyle@FoxValley.net>

The Editor reserves the right to edit any material submitted.

The Editor reserves the right to reject any material he considers
unsuitable for publication in _The Lamp!_.
[EOA]



[KFT]------------------------------
                        KFest 2001 |
-----------------------------------

[KFI]
KFest 2001 Registration Info... meet old A2 friends... meet new friends...
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Help usher in the new millennium with the Apple II!!

When: July 25-29, 2001
Where: Avila College, Kansas City, Missouri

+++

The most important Apple II event of the year, KFest 2001, is on our
calendar again, and it's never too early to make sure it has a place on
your calendar, too.

Better yet, KFest is back with the same great prices as last year!

Check these rates, which include room and meals from Wednesday evening
(dinner) on July 25, through Sunday morning (breakfast) on July 29.
(Saturday evening dinner not included. That's KFesters' Night Out On The
Town!)

+++ Repeater Special (If you've attended any KFest in the last 3 years.
Register BEFORE March 31).

Double room.........................................$200
Single room.........................................$250
Spouse rate (bring the spouse or son or daughter)...$150
Registration only (no dorm room or meals)...........$150

+++ Early Bird rates (Register BEFORE April 15) +++
Double room....$225
Single room....$275
Spouse rate....$175
Registration...$175

+++ Regular Attendee rates (Register AFTER April 15) +++

Double room....$275
Single room....$325
Spouse rate....$225
Registration...$225

Those cool KFest "soft-wear" T-shirts will also be available again this
year for $15, but ONLY if you order in advance. (See registration form
below.)

+++ Special Early Arrivals rate +++

Like last year, KFest will start early for those who'd like to arrive a
little sooner. Avila dorms will be available for occupancy on Tuesday night
for a small extra fee. No formal activities will be planned, although the
day may include the annual trek to KC Masterpiece Restaurant or other
popular local restaurant.

The rate for early arrivals (Tuesday night dorm room only):

Double room...$25
Single room...$33

or attendees planning to arrive at the normal time on Wednesday, check-in
will be from 1-4 pm. Check-out will be from 11 am-1 pm on Sunday.

Current plans call for formal KFest 2001 sessions to begin with dinner in
the Avila cafeteria on Wednesday evening (time to be announced), followed
by the traditional opening event, the Keynote Address. We've got some great
plans again for that opening night activity. Stay tuned!!

Computer sessions will be conducted on Thursday and Friday. Software and
hardware demos are scheduled for Saturday morning, with a vendor fair
slated for Saturday afternoon.

Reminder: Meals included in the registration price are Wednesday dinner
through Sunday breakfast, with the exception of Saturday dinner.

On Saturday night, attendees can dine on their own at one of the many fine
restaurants near the Avila campus, or join groups of KFesters at a local
favorite selected by the Roastee.

All children under 18 years must be accompanied by a parent or legal
guardian.

***
KFest 2001 is again being sponsored by InTrec Software, Inc., makers of
ProTERM telecommunications software for the Apple II and Macintosh.

If you have questions about KFest, or wish to make suggestions, you can
find answers via the Internet. Just send an email message to:

kfest-help@kfest.org

... or visit the KFest World Wide Web page at:

http://www.kfest.org

If you're thinking about attending KFest, please join the KFest Internet
e-mail chat:

To subscribe to the KFest Information Mailing List, send email to
majordomo@kfest.org. In the BODY of the message, place the following text:

                subscribe kfest

You will receive a confirmation e-mail. In order to be signed up for the
list, you will have to respond to this confirmation as the instructions
dictate. You will then be able send and read messages on the mailing list.

---[ The Form ]------------[ Cut Here ]----------[ Print Clearly ]---

KFest 2001 Registration Form

View and print this document using 9-point Monaco font (ProTERM default) or
any other monospaced font such as Courier, CoPilot or Spectrum.

Registering for KFest 2001:
<> By phone:
   - Call the InTrec sales office: 602/992-1345
   - Be prepared to give the information requested in the
     KFest Registration Form below.
   - Even if you register by phone please sent the completed
     Registration Form to InTrec at:
     InTrec Software, Inc.
     Attn: KFest Registration
     3035 E Topaz Cir
     Phoenix, Az 85028-4423

<> Fax or email KFest Registration Form using a credit card number:
   - Complete the form below and send the KFest Registration Form.
     Email: <kfest@intrec.com> (NOTE: email is not secure.)
     Fax: 602/992-0232

<> By postal mail: Credit card, check, Purchase Order or money order:
   - Print and fill out the KFest Registration Form.
   - Mail the form with the payment to:
     InTrec Software, Inc.
     Attn: KFest Registration
     3035 E Topaz Cir
     Phoenix, Az 85028-4423

Checks and money orders must be on a USA bank and USA compatible funds.

Registration Cost Check Applicable
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Repeater Special (before March 31):

Double..............$200 [ ]
Single..............$250 [ ]
Spouse only.........$150 [ ]
Off campus..........$150 [ ]

Early Bird rates (before April 15):

Double..............$225 [ ]
Single..............$275 [ ]
Spouse only.........$175 [ ]
Off campus..........$175 [ ]

Regular rates (after April 15 and at the door):

Double room.........$275 [ ]
Single room.........$325 [ ]
Spouse only.........$225 [ ]
Conference only.....$225 [ ]

Early Arrival rates:

Double...............$25 [ ]
Single...............$33 [ ]

T-Shirts.............$15 ea

KFest Softwear: Order a memorable collectible KFest 2001 T-Shirt? $15 ea
Quantity: [ ] [ ] [ ]  [ ]  [ ]   [ ]
    Size: SML MED LRG XLRG 2XLRG 3XLRG

May we send your registration confirmation via e-mail? [ ]Yes [ ]No

[ ] As a PDF (Acrobat Reader) file  (preferred)
[ ] As a TEXT file

If NO, how can we contact you for confirmation?:__________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Roommate preference: _____________________________________________________

Prefer a smoker/non-smoker. Check one: [ ] Smoke [ ] Non-smoke

Today's Date: ________/_________/_________

1- Registration fee (see above dates & fees) ......... ______________

2- Registration fee for spouse if applicable ......... ______________

3- T-Shirts Quantity [ ] @ $15.00 ea) ................ ______________

4- Sub-total of lines 1-3: ........................... ______________

5- Arizona residents only add 7.5% tax: .............. ______________

6- Total cost (total of lines 4-5): .................. ______________

Discover, Visa, Mastercard or American Express accepted.
Checks & money orders must be payable to InTrec Software, and must
be in US dollars from a US bank.

_______________________________ _____________________________________
First Name Last Name

_____________________________________________________________________
Organization (if applicable to KFest)

_____________________________________________________________________
Shipping Address

_____________________________________________________________________
City

_______________________________________________ _____________________
State/Province Zip+4 or Postal Code

_______/_______________________ _______/_____________________________
Day Phone Eve Phone

_____________________________________________________________________
Internet Mail Address

[ ] [ / ]
Credit Card Number (Mastercard-Visa-Discovery-Amex) Expiration Date

_____________________________________________________________________
Name on Card (please print clearly)

_____________________________________________________________________
Authorized Signature (If printed, and mailed or faxed.)

If you feel that using a credit card number via email may not be secure,
consider mailing via postal service, fax, or call voice to give the card
number.

Sponsored by:

InTrec Software, Inc.
3035 E Topaz Circle
Phoenix, AZ 85028-4423
Voc:602/992-1345
Fax:602/992-0232
<kfest@intrec.com>
 

---[ End of Form ]-----------[ Cut Here ]---------[ Print Clearly ]---

(KFESTSTEVE, Cat 5, Top 3, Msg 46)
[EOA]


[KFS]
A2Central.com ITEMS FOR SALE AT KFest 2001
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Will A2Central.com paraphanelia be available at the KFest 2001 Vendor
Faire?

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 3, Top 3, Msg 5)

>>>>>
"""""
We plan to have special KFest edition goodies for sale. :)

Sheppy

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 3, Top 3, Msg 6)
[EOA]



[INN]------------------------------
                     EXTRA INNINGS |
-----------------------------------
About The Lamp!   The Lamp! is published on the fifteenth of every month in
"""""""""""""""   the Database of the II Scribe Forum on the Delphi online
service (GO CUS 11).

This publication produced entirely with real or emulated Apple II computers
using Appleworks 5.1 and Hermes.  Apple II Forever!

     * The Lamp! is (c) copyright 2001 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W.  All
       rights reserved.

     * To reach The Lamp! on Internet email send mail to
       thelamp@sheppyware.net

     * Back issues of The Lamp! are available in the II Scribe Forum on
       Delphi as well as The Lamp! Home Page,
       http://lamp.sheppyware.net.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors, and do not
necessarily represent the opinions of A2Central.com, Delphi Online
Services, Syndicomm, Ryan M. Suenaga, or Lyle Syverson.  Forum messages are
reprinted verbatim and are included in this publication with permission
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Syndicomm, Ryan M. Suenaga, and Lyle Syverson do not guarantee the accuracy
or suitability of any information included herein.  We reserve the right to
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Material published in this edition may not be reprinted without the
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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<



[EOF]
