GRC7800

I posted this on Atari-Forum, as well. But I was hoping to cast the net a bit wider for some help. Hopefully I get lucky and find an old Minix user. It's a question regarding Minix 1.5 for the ST. I installed this: http://www.subsole.org/minix_on_the_atari_st on my 4mb STe hard drive (It's actually a SD2ST.) Boots up great, works great. I want to use this exclusively for the K&R C compiler. My problem is that none of my files are saved after I shut down the machine. There is a sync command that you are supposed to do before you logoff, which I do. But next time I try and boot up Minix, the files are gone. In Minix 1.5, there is a tos command. This brings up how to list the directories, and read and write to the disk drive and hard drive. It seems that I am successful in writing to a disk in Drive A, and I also seem to have been successful writing to Drive D on my hard drive.(I get no error messages.) However, when I go back to the GEM desktop, those files are not there. Is anybody familiar with Minix enough to help? Thanks in advance!

Hello, Is it possible for you to explain a little further about developing a fully functional tape archive and system? I'm interested in this process. Thanks in advance!

@TGB1718That worked! Thanks! I don’t get the fancy on-screen file browser, but I can load up images. That’s all I need really! Btw, I’ve asked a handful of questions in this forum over the years and you’ve helped me with 90% of them. I really appreciate it!

A few weeks ago, I was messing around with the settings of my FlashFloppy USB. I honestly have no idea what I did, but it hasn't worked since. I tried to wipe it clean, reformat it, and place the requisite files, i.e., AUTOBOOT.HFE, HXCDSDFE.CRG, back on. I placed one disk image on the USB to test. It is a .st file. But each and every time I try to boot up, I get the message: Error: Media attach failed! (Please see the photo below. Sorry it's blurry; it's the composite video from my STE) I don't see this on the list of error messages on the FlashFloppy website. https://github.com/keirf/flashfloppy/wiki/Error-Messages Does anybody possibly know what the issue is and how to correct it? I would appreciate any help possible.

Thanks for sharing your views. I think I'll go with ABC and see how it goes, then try TBXL later on.

Thanks! I haven't checked this book out, yet. I will now! I really appreciate it!

Thanks to all for the helpful replies. My intention is to use a compiler to speed up player/missile graphics in games written in BASIC. I've never complied a BASIC program before in Atari BASIC. But, behind my Atari's back I've been carrying on an affair with MSX BASIC. (I'm so jealous of this interpreter. It's so much easier to program sprites.) Anyway, they have a complier called MSX-BASIC-KUN, apparently also referred to as X-BASIC. It's in cartridge form and complies on the fly. Speed improvement is 15 to 100 times faster depending on the instructions. My experience with this prompted me to wonder if there was something similar for BASIC XE, which I prefer for the easier programming of PM graphics. Apparently there is no compiler for BASIC XE, but there are for original Atari BASIC. I don't know why I'm so reluctant to move from BASIC XE to Turbo BASIC, but I might have to just give it a go.

Is there a general consensus on the best compiler for Atari BASIC? I'm aware that Turbo BASIC has a compiler, but I know of at least two for Atari BASIC, namely MMG BASIC Compiler and ABC BASIC Compiler. I haven't tried these yet, but I was wondering if people were familiar with these enough to offer some helpful opinions. Has anyone tried these out? Any preferences, recommendations, observations? Also, off hand, does anyone know if either is compatible with BASIC XL/XE? Thanks in advance!

I totally agree. Paper tape, punch cards, etc. are really fascinating. As for cassettes, what I found interesting, is that with all their shortcomings, which primarily boil down to speed, they hold up pretty well. From what I hear, and it's mostly anecdotal, floppy disks (both 5.25 and 3.5 inch) have more problems with corrupted data than tapes. And I was surprised to find that tapes are still used for data storage today! https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/why-the-future-of-data-storage-is-still-magnetic-tape

Amazing! Thanks, everyone!

During the pandemic, I developed an inexplicable obsession with my program recorder. I never had one growing up. I grew up with disk drives and just bought my first 1010 last year. As a method of data storage and for loading software, I find it incredibly interesting. Anyway, I'm trying to find a copy of a piece of software from 1983 published in the UK by English Software. It's called A.C.E. Atari Cassette Enhancer. Atarimania does not have a dump. a8preservation.com says that it is preserved, but it doesn't seem like you can download from that site in order to use the software. (Or am I missing how to download the file?) http://www.a8preservation.com/#/software/release/2632 Is anyone aware of a dump of this program? Or willing to share it here for people to use? I'd also be interesting in learning of any similar programs if anyone is aware of them. Thanks in advance!

During the pandemic, I developed an inexplicable obsession with my program recorder. I never had one growing up. I grew up with disk drives and just bought my first 1010 last year. As a method of data storage and for loading software, I find it incredibly interesting. Anyway, I'm trying to find a copy of a piece of software from 1983 published in the UK by English Software. It's called A.C.E. Atari Cassette Enhancer. Atarimania does not have a dump. a8preservation.com says that it is preserved, but it doesn't seem like you can download from that site in order to use the software. (Or am I missing how to download the file?) http://www.a8preservation.com/#/software/release/2632 Is anyone aware of a dump of this program? Or willing to share it here for people to use? I'd also be interesting in learning of any similar programs if anyone is aware of them. Thanks in advance!

Problem solved! Thanks, guys!

So I recently encountered a problem controlling my SDrive-Max from the touchscreen. For whatever inexplicable reason, I was messing around with the settings in the "Cfg" tab. I believe I essentially unselected all the options, namely: Rotate, Scroll, BootD1,1050, Blank, and SaveIm. I can't recall if I hit Save or Exit, but it must have been Save. Anyway, immediately afterwards, the screen orientation flipped upside down. Not a big deal, obviously, but after that, the touchscreen is almost completely unresponsive! I say almost, because when I tap on the blue Ready Screen at the bottom, it goes fullscreen. I can of course control most features from the Atari menu, except I can't select New allowing me to insert a blank disk. I have tried resetting the SDrive-Max using Shift+Clear, but that does nothing to the touchscreen. I don't know that it is relevant, but I didn't build it myself as I'm bad with electronics. I purchased it already assembled. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here is the link mentioned in the video. It’s a veritable treasure trove!!! http://www2.gvsu.edu/brittedg/BasicProgramming.txt