"The Atari A to Z" by Mark S Baines Copyright (c) 1998 Mark S Baines All Rights Reserved YOU MUST READ "READ_ME.NOW" BEFORE YOU LOOK AT ANY OF THIS FILE ***************************************************************************** A Abaq An Atari workstation based on a 20 MHz Inmos T800-20 (a 10 MIPS transputer), with a Mega ST4 front end. Later renamed the ATW. See ATW. Abandon To end an operation before completion, such as printing a file. Abort To discontinue an operation prematurely, such as the execution of a program. Absolute addressing To address main storage locations by their absolute or real addresses, not relative ones. Absolute data Data in which all elements are expressed as coordinates from a common origin, as in spreadsheets and CAD programs. Absolute program A non-relocatable program, as found on the old 8-bit computers such as the Sinclair Spectrum, where the addresses are absolute. Absolute value A value considered for its magnitude or size and not its sign. ACC The file name extender for an accessory. ACX The usual file name extender for an accessory that is not currently installed and hence ignored by GEM at boot-up. This is common in such systems that use a boot-up configuration set up program, such as Superboot or Xboot, that provides the user with a choice of accessories to load up. Without an accessory loader, a user can inactivate an accessory by clicking on its name in a directory window and renaming it to .ACX using the "Show Info" menu item. When the computer is re-booted, that accessory will not load. Access To locate a unit of code or data in storage and use it in processing. The term can be applied to a user, a program or the operating system. Also, the physical operation of writing bits to or reading bits from a storage medium. Access bits A series of bits associated with a file specifying the type of access permitted to it, such as read or write. Access control The process of defining and limiting the access rights of users to programs and data in storage or certain equipment. Commonly found on all multi-user systems. Access rights The right of a user to use the resources of a computer system or access to particular programs or data. Typical file access rights are to 'execute' (the user can run a program), 'read' (the user can only look at the data in a program), to 'write' (the user can alter existing data and save it), to 'append' (the user can attach new data to the end of the old set) and to 'create' (the user can create a new set of data). In a microprocessor system with a single user, like the ST, all these rights are given by default, but in multi-user systems where data may need to be protected from loss these rights can be restricted to certain users. Access time The time taken for a read signal to go from the computer to a storage device and for the first bit to be read from it back to the computer. This applies equally to semiconductor memory (RAM and ROM) as well as hard disks, CD-ROMs, tape etc. Accessory One of up to six programs that can be loaded into the Desktop accessory slots available from the GEM "Desk" menu. They normally have to be in the boot disk's root directory together with their resource and data files if applicable. These programs have an .ACC extender and are normally GEM programs with the ability to remain in memory and be activated when clicked on in their accessory slot. Such programs generally add extra features to the working environment or operating system or are housekeeping type utilities. Their advantage is that they can be called from within any GEM program (and some TOS ones) with access to the "Desk" or "Program Name" menu. A disadvantage is that six is the maximum number allowed although a program like MultiDesk or DCStuffer can extend that. Also, they take up valuable memory which can cause problems on a ST with less that 1 Mb RAM and that once loaded they cannot be unloaded to free the memory space they occupy. Again MultiDesk can get around that and the shareware program Chameleon. TOS 2 and 3 saw the introduction of a new Extensible Control Panel accessory and CPX modules which also get around these limitations. MultiTOS allows an unlimited number of accessories to be run as normal programs from the Desktop. See CPX, XCONTROL panel. Accessory loader An AUTO folder program that enables a user to choose which accessories are to be loaded at the start of a session. Superboot and XBoot are good examples. Accumulator A register in the CPU used to hold operands and partial results when performing arithmetic and logic operations. ACIA Asynchronous Communication Interface Adapter. Two Motorola 6850 24-pin integrated circuits used in the ST-Falcon range for processing serial data from various sources into the parallel form required by the processor or RAM. The ACIA is a USART device. The first operates the MIDI interface and the second interfaces with the keyboard chip - the HD6301, which handles the keyboard, mouse, joystick and clock. ACK ACKnowledge. A transmission control character indicating that a block of data in a message has been received without a detected error. Acknowledge A character or short message from a computer to inform the sending computer or peripheral that the last block of data was received without a detectable error. See ACK. Acoustic coupler A low-speed modem designed to accept the handset of an ordinary telephone into two flexible cups to make the connection to the telephone line. Although the design has improved over the years making them small and portable, they remain susceptible to outside noise and hence interference. ACSI Atari Computer Systems Interface. A minimal subset of the ANSI standard SCSI command set designed for communication between peripherals and microcomputers and controlling the DMA port of the ST-TT range. This port is limited to 24- bit addresses whilst a full SCSI port can access the full 32-bit address space. In the Falcon, the ACSI port is replaced with the full SCSI level 2 port and command set which is more reliable and an up-to-date standard. Third party developers supply SCSI 2 to ACSI adapters to allow the SLM laser printers and 'normal Atari' hard disks to be attached to the Falcon. Activate To place a system, device or program into operation. Active Being used or processed. Active window The window that is currently available for Desktop operations. This is the only window that can be scrolled, updated, moved or re-sized. Only one window at a time can be active under TOS although this is not the case for MultiTOS. Actual storage Any real hardware addressable storage in a virtual storage system. ADC Analogue to Digital Convertor. The process of converting analogue input signals into a digital form for storage and processing by a computer or similar intelligent circuit. The Falcon, for instance, has stereo 16-bit ADCs, like those in a CD player, for capturing sound through its microphone socket and converting it into the digital form necessary for the processor and software to edit and transform for later playback. ADCs are often called digitizers. See DAC. Adder A part of the ALU that can add the binary number contents held in two registers. Address A bit-pattern, character, name, number or symbol that uniquely identifies a storage location. In communications, it is the part of a message that identifies the sender and/or the recipient. Address error A processor exception that occurs when the MC68000 processor is accessing a 2- or 4-byte object (an integer or long) on an odd byte boundary. The 68000 requires that all references to integers or long integers be on even boundaries. This restriction was lifted with the introduction of the MC68020 and MC68030 processors which can access bytes, words and longs anywhere in memory. See Exception vectors, Bombs. Address register A register that is used to hold an address. Also, in magnetic disk drives with movable heads, a register that holds the cylinder number to which the heads are positioned. Address space The range of addresses used by, or assigned to, a program or computer system. Addressable point The smallest point on a raster scan VDU display screen that can be addressed (made bright or left dark) by the electron beam. A pixel. AES Application Environment Services. That part of TOS that provides the windows and iconic user interface consisting of a library of routines, stored on the ROM, dealing with resource files, objects, trees, dialog boxes and menus. It does not deal directly with the lower levels of TOS but communicates via the VDI. Later versions of the AES, for instance multitasking version such as v4.0 and greater, are available as disk files to be loaded at boot-up replacing the AES in ROM. They are intended to be used with MultiTOS but can be used with some standard TOS versions. AFAIR As Far As I Recall. Commonly used shorthand in e-mail and other messages. AFAICS As Far As I Can Say. Commonly used shorthand in e-mail and other messages. AFAICT As Far As I Can Tell. Commonly used shorthand in e-mail and other messages. AFAIK As Far As I Know. Commonly used shorthand in e-mail and other messages. AHDC Atari Hard Disk Controller. The circuit board found in Atari's hard disk drives that interfaces the hard disk mechanism to the ST's DMA port receiving commands from the AHDI. AHDI Atari Hard Disk Interface. Atari's hard disk driver software that controls the hard disk controller via the DMA. These commands are a minimal subset of the SCSI set. Alternative software is provided by Supra and ICD which is used by most third party hard disk manufacturers. AI Artificial Intelligence. A term used to describe computer systems that exhibit human-like intelligence, such as understanding speech, reasoning and responding to its physical environment and adapting its behaviour accordingly. AJAX The floppy disk controller chip in later Mega STE, TT and Falcon computers capable of using and formatting high density 1.44 Mb and 2.88 Mb floppy disks. It is essentially an uprated WD1772 built to handle up to a 32 MHz clock cycle necessary for high density disk drive performance. The normal 8 MHz WD1772 gets warm at 16 MHz and the timing becomes unstable. AKA Also Known As. Commonly used shorthand in e-mail and other messages. Alert box A GEM dialog box designed to bring something to the user's attention. In addition to a short statement, limited to five lines of thirty characters each, they may include a question or exclamation mark or stop sign image. Up to three buttons can be used, which should normally contain "OK" and "Cancel" with the "OK" to the left of "Cancel" and in upper case. As with dialog boxes, alerts are modal and should be used with caution if programming for MultiTOS. See Dialog box. ALGOL ALGOrithmic Language. Programming language that makes extensive use of algorithms, used mainly for scientific and mathematical programs. Algorithm A set of rules or steps to be followed in sequence to solve a particular problem or to produce a particular result. They are the precursors of a program. Alias An alternate name or label for a data item, a sequence of instructions or device. Allocation The assignment of storage locations, usually in main memory, to a program for its use. Alpha version An unfinished but near completed in-house version of a program. See Beta version. Alphabetic Characters consisting only of letters and/or spaces. Alphanumeric Characters consisting of letters and numbers and usually punctuation marks and symbols. ALSTTL Advanced Low-power Schottky Transistor Transistor Logic. A further development of LSTTL chips resulting in the least power consumption of this family of chips so far. ALT, Alt The [Alternate] key. Alternate key A key on a keyboard always used in conjunction with another to produce a secondary function or code, such as [Alt-S] (meaning to press the [Alternate] key and the [S] key together) may be a program assigned key combination to save the current file. Alternative RAM See Fast RAM. ALU Arithmetic Logic Unit. That part of the central processor unit in which arithmetic, logic and shift operations are performed on binary numbers. Amend To change, usually to produce a better version. Amodal An operating condition without modes. WIMP and GUI environments are essentially designed to be amodal, where being in one condition (saying editing a text file) doesn't preclude being in others at the same time (for instance, printing another file). Such environments are typified by being able to issue commands to a program whilst still retaining data manipulation capabilities, which is not the case in many command line or hierarchical menu driven programs. However, in practice, a modal form of operation is generally forced upon a programmer because of limitations of the hardware, peripherals and operating system. The Macintosh's WIMP environment comes closer to being amodal than standard GEM (many modern GEM programs are increasingly amodal). An example of the modal constraints of GEM is seen when you try to use a program menu when a file selector or alert is on the screen. Amplifier A device used to increase the strength of weak signals, such as voltage or amplitude. Amplitude The strength of a signal or pulse or the amount by which a wave form exceeds its average value. In sound, for instance, 'amplitude' is synonymous with 'volume'. Analogue A system or device that has continuously variable inputs and outputs which are directly proportional to each other. The inputs and outputs can have any value in a, theoretically, infinite range between two limits. Contrast this with digital systems where the number of values is finite, each being discrete. Most sensory inputs to the human body are analogue - time, temperature, sound, speed and light. Analogue devices include liquid thermometers, loudspeaker volume controls and light dimmer switches. However, computers can deal better with discrete digital values hence the need for ADCs. Analogue monitors Display monitors where the brightness of each electron beam produced by each of the three red, green and blue electron guns is proportional to the size of the voltage applied to it. This gives an almost infinite range of colours in contrast to RGB monitors. See RGB. AND A logic operation in which the output is 'true' (usually a value greater than zero) if all of its inputs are true and an output of 'false' (usually a value of zero) if any of its inputs are false. Anonymous ftp Anonymous File Transfer Protocol. Using the Internet ftp system to transfer files from a remote site giving access to the public and not just account holders. The login name for such systems is anonymous and hence this type of access is called anonymous ftp. Many systems also allow the login name of ftp which is quicker and easier to spell and also require you to enter your own e-mail address as the password. See FTP. ANSI American National Standards Institute. An organization that formulates and publishes standards for voluntary acceptance by US industry and others. It is the equivalent to the BSI in the UK. Some of its many committees concern themselves with standardizing programming languages, the ANSI committee on the C language played a large part in its standard formulation in 1989 which was accepted as an international standard by the ISO. ANSI character set A character set common on the PC and found in printers as the "IBM character set" and more accurately known as PC-8 Code Page 437. The first 128 characters are standard ASCII, but the second half of the set contains national characters and lines for drawing boxes. The Atari character set has Hebrew letters instead of these box lines. The ANSI character set that is the standard on the PC also allows for coloured text and backgrounds and flashing characters. Many PC orientated bulletin board systems offer the ANSI protocol for more 'interesting looking' screens. See the ANSI Character Set Appendix F. Answer mode The condition of a modem in which it receives a telephone call and is ready to send and receive data. Answerback In communications, the operation of sending the identification of the data terminal or remote computer when requested by the host computer. APL A Programming Language. A language designed primarily for mathematical applications, particularly ones using arrays, such as in engineering design and business planning. Append To add on to the end, usually to add extra data to the end of an existing file. Application A program written to solve a specific problem or produce a specific result usually of a 'business' type operation and not concerned with the maintenance of the computer system or its operating system. Databases, spreadsheets and word processors are the three most commonly used applications. APP An executable GEM program file extender, synonymous with .PRG and meaning 'application' although it has been used to mean 'A Packed Program'. This extender is used by GEM on the PC instead of .PRG which has other meanings on those machines. ARC An early file compression format with the .ARC file name extender. There are several variations of this format which is universally available. It is now considered slow in operation and produces the least compressed files of the available methods. Archie A system for locating files to be downloaded by anonymous ftp on the Internet. A large network of databases containing a list of all the files available for downloading is maintained at selected sites across the Internet. A user connects to one of these sites and queries the database for the location of the required file. See Internet, FTP, Anonymous ftp. Architecture A term used to describe the design, interconnections and functions of a computer system with specific reference to the hardware. Archive Files on disks that contain infrequently used data or are maintained for record purposes or backup copies of disks, such as hard disk to floppy or tape. Such files are often compressed to save space. Archive bit Bit five of the file attribute byte which under TOS 1.4 and above is set when the file is created or written to. This can be used by backup utilities on performing an incremental backup. See Backup. Argument An independent variable. In the expression total = A - B, both A and B are arguments. ARGV The GEMDOS extended argument specification, a refined version of the Mark Williams Company extended argument method, documented and supported by Atari. Normal GEMDOS command line parameter passing has some deficiencies (such as a child process not knowing its own name and a limit of 125 characters on the command line) which the ARGV protocol aims to overcome, specifying a method of passing arguments which allows arbitrary argument length, embedded spaces, and support for the C language argv[0]. ARGV works by passing the command tail in the child's environment rather than the command line buffer. Arithmetic The operation of performing calculations usually those of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Arithmetic operation A process with numeric inputs and outputs. ARPANET Advanced Research Projects Agency NETwork. See DARPANET. ARQ Automatic ReQuest for repetition. A data communications method of error correction where an ACK or a NAK are sent after each block of data is received. The transmitting station will re-send any block to which it received a NAK from the receiving station. Array A storage structure of one or more dimensions in which individual locations are addressed by a structure identifier plus one or more 'subscripts' identifying particular locations or groups of locations. Each data item in the array is contiguous with the next. A one-dimensional array is a string, row or list. A two-dimensional array can be a table and a three-dimensional array, a matrix. Arrows GEM window icons situated at either end of the Sliders (Scrollers) which, when clicked on, move the window image one predetermined unit in the direction of the arrow. The size of the movement depends on the application but is usually one line of text or eight or sixteen pixels. Artificial intelligence See AI. ASAP As Soon As Possible. Commonly used shorthand in e-mail and other messages. ASC A file name extender of an ASCII text file without any word processor formatting codes inserted. Such files are usually synonymous with those with a .TXT extender, but should have a carriage return and line feed at the end of a paragraph only, and not every line. This allows the text to be reformatted in another word processor or DTP program. ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard 7-bit code (or 8-bit including parity) for data communications. The full code has 128 characters including upper and lower case letters, digits, symbols and control characters. Another 128 characters are usually added to this set which normally include graphic symbols and non-English alphabet characters. Although there is some agreement about this second additional set, it is not part of the ASCII character set. The 128 character ASCII set, with some allocatable national characters, was adopted by the International Standards Organization as ISO-7. Table A1: 7-bit ASCII Character Set Dec Oct Hex Bin Character Meaning 0 000 00 00000000 NUL [Cntl-@] Nul character 1 001 01 00000001 SOH [Cntl-A] Start of header 2 002 02 00000010 STX [Cntl-B] Start text 3 003 03 00000011 ETX [Cntl-C] End text 4 004 04 00000100 EOT [Cntl-D] End of transmission 5 005 05 00000101 ENQ [Cntl-E] Enquiry 6 006 06 00000110 ACK [Cntl-F] Positive acknowledge 7 007 07 00000111 BEL [Cntl-G] Bell 8 010 08 00001000 BS [Cntl-H] Backspace 9 011 09 00001001 HT [Cntl-I] Horizontal tab 10 012 0A 00001010 LF [Cntl-J] Line feed 11 013 0B 00001011 VT [Cntl-K] Vertical tab 12 014 0C 00001100 FF [Cntl-L] Form feed 13 015 0D 00001101 CR [Cntl-M] Carriage return 14 016 0E 00001110 SO [Cntl-N] Shift out 15 017 0F 00001111 SI [Cntl-O] Shift in 16 020 10 00010000 DLE [Cntl-P] Data link escape 17 021 11 00010001 DC1 [Cntl-Q] Device control 1 & XON 18 022 12 00010010 DC2 [Cntl-R] Device control 2 & tape on 19 023 13 00010011 DC3 [Cntl-S] Device control 3 & XOFF 20 024 14 00010100 DC4 [Cntl-T] Device control 4 & tape off 21 025 15 00010101 NAK [Cntl-U] Negative acknowledge 22 026 16 00010110 SYN [Cntl-V] Synchronous idle 23 027 17 00010111 ETB [Cntl-W] End of transmission block 24 030 18 00011000 CAN [Cntl-X] Cancel 25 031 19 00011001 EM [Cntl-Y] End of medium 26 032 1A 00011010 SUB [Cntl-Z] Substitute 27 033 1B 00011011 ESC [Cntl-[] Escape 28 034 1C 00011100 FS [Cntl-\] File separator 29 035 1D 00011101 GS [Cntl-]] Group separator 30 036 1E 00011110 RS [Cntl-^] Record separator 31 037 1F 00011111 US [Cntl-_] Unit separator 32 040 20 00100000 Space 33 041 21 00100001 ! Exclamation mark 34 042 22 00100010 " Quotation mark (neutral) 35 043 23 00100011 # Hash 36 044 24 00100100 $ Dollar 37 045 25 00100101 % Percent 38 046 26 00100110 & Ampersand 39 047 27 00100111 ' Apostrophe/right single quote 40 050 28 00101000 ( Left parenthesis 41 051 29 00101001 ) Right parenthesis 42 052 2A 00101010 * Asterisk 43 053 2B 00101011 + Plus 44 054 2C 00101100 , Comma 45 055 2D 00101101 - Minus/hyphen 46 056 2E 00101110 . Full stop 47 057 2F 00101111 / Slash 48 060 30 00110000 0 Zero 49 061 31 00110001 1 One 50 062 32 00110010 2 Two 51 063 33 00110011 3 Three 52 064 34 00110100 4 Four 53 065 35 00110101 5 Five 54 066 36 00110110 6 Six 55 067 37 00110111 7 Seven 56 070 38 00111000 8 Eight 57 071 39 00111001 9 Nine 58 072 3A 00111010 : Colon 59 073 3B 00111011 ; Semicolon 60 074 3C 00111100 < Less than 61 075 3D 00111101 = Equals 62 076 3E 00111110 > Greater than 63 077 3F 00111111 ? Question mark 64 080 40 01000000 @ At 65 081 41 01000001 A 66 082 42 01000010 B 67 083 43 01000011 C 68 084 44 01000100 D 69 085 45 01000101 E 70 086 46 01000110 F 71 087 47 01000111 G 72 090 48 01001000 H 73 091 49 01001001 I 74 092 4A 01001010 J 75 093 4B 01001011 K 76 094 4C 01001100 L 77 095 4D 01001101 M 78 096 4E 01001110 N 79 097 4F 01001111 O 80 100 50 01010000 P 81 101 51 01010001 Q 82 102 52 01010010 R 83 103 53 01010011 S 84 104 54 01010100 T 85 105 55 01010101 U 86 106 56 01010110 V 87 107 57 01010111 W 88 110 58 01011000 X 89 111 59 01011001 Y 90 112 5A 01011010 Z 91 113 5B 01011011 [ Left bracket 92 114 5C 01011100 \ Backslash 93 115 5D 01011101 ] Right bracket 94 116 5E 01011110 ^ Circumflex 95 117 5F 01011111 _ Underline 96 120 60 01100000 ` Grave/left single quote 97 121 61 01100001 a 98 122 62 01100010 b 99 123 63 01100011 c 100 124 64 01100100 d 101 125 65 01100101 e 102 126 66 01100110 f 103 127 67 01100111 g 104 130 68 01101000 h 105 131 69 01101001 i 106 132 6A 01101010 j 107 133 6B 01101011 k 108 134 6C 01101100 l 109 135 6D 01101101 m 110 136 6E 01101110 n 111 137 6F 01101111 o 112 140 70 01110000 p 113 141 71 01110001 q 114 142 72 01110010 r 115 143 73 01110011 s 116 144 74 01110100 t 117 145 75 01110101 u 118 146 76 01110110 v 119 147 77 01110111 w 120 150 78 01111000 x 121 151 79 01111001 y 122 152 7A 01111010 z 123 153 7B 01111011 { Left brace 124 154 7C 01111100 | Vertical line 125 155 7D 01111101 } Right brace 126 156 7E 01111110 ~ Tilde 127 157 7F 01111111 DEL Delete ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit. Semiconductor devices that are designed and programmed to a user's specification and which perform complex, specialized tasks which would otherwise require many smaller chips on a larger circuit to do the same thing, being more expensive in the long term. ASR Automatic Send and Receive. Assemble To produce a machine code program from source code in a low-level language. Assembler A program converting low-level language source code (assembly language) into a machine code program. Assembly language A low-level language for a particular computer, usually based on its type of CPU. Assign To allocate an object for use by another. In programming, it is the operation of providing a numeric value or designating a relationship, such as assigning the value 2 to the variable count in the expression count := 2 (Pascal) or count = 2 (C) or LET count = 2 (BASIC). ASSIGN.SYS A file used by all types of GDOS to tell it where to look for GEM bitmapped fonts and printer drivers and which ones should be installed when required by a program using them. The file should be stored in the root directory of the boot disk or partition. It can either be edited with a text editor or changed by using FONTGDOS.ACC or FONTGDOS.CPX or the PD program Assign. See GDOS. Table A2: A Typical ASSIGN.SYS File path=c:\gemsys ;path of folder containing fonts and drivers 01p screen.sys ;Default workstation ID number 02p screen.sys ;ST low resolution screen driver 03p screen.sys ;ST medium resolution screen driver and fonts SMSS10.FNT ;Swiss screen font 10 point SMSS14.FNT ;Swiss screen font 14 point SMTR10.FNT ;Times screen font 10 point SMTR14.FNT ;Times screen font 14 point 04p screen.sys ;ST high resolution screen driver and fonts SHSS10.FNT SHSS14.FNT SHTR10.FNT SHTR14.FNT 08p screen.sys ;TT high resolution screen driver and fonts STHSS10.FNT STHSS14.FNT STHTR10.FNT STHTR14.FNT 21 printer.sys ;Printer is LaserJet 4: 600 dpi LPSS10.FNT ;Laser printer Swiss fonts LPSS14.FNT LPSS20.FNT LPSS28.FNT LPTR10.FNT ;Laser printer Times fonts LPTR20.FNT LPTR14.FNT LPTR28.FNT 31r meta.sys ;Metafile driver ASTTL Advanced Schottky Transistor Transistor Logic. Fast TTL logic chips offering high-speed operation but with higher power consumption than ALSTTL chips. ASV Atari System V. Developers' kit for the TT UNIX workstation containing the tools for developing applications and utilities for the TT UNIX workstation. See TT UNIX system. Asymmetric duplex A full duplex communications circuit with a high-speed message or forward channel carrying messages in both directions (not simultaneously) and a slower supervisory or backward channel carrying the acknowledgments, repetition requests and other control messages. The two channels are separated by different frequencies and this eliminates the turnaround time that is present when the supervisory signals travel on the same channel as the data. Asynchronous A term referring to devices, such as modems where operations can be carried out with independent timing and concurrently with another. Asynchronous transmission A data transmission method where there is a variable time interval between characters with the bits of each character sent synchronously. Framing bits, such as stop and start bits, are required to mark the beginning and end of a character. AT Advanced Technology. An IBM PC introduced in 1984 based on the 16-bit Intel 80286 microprocessor. Atari In the Japanese board game of GO this word is used like the chess term 'check'. Also, the company based at Sunnyvale, California USA that markets the ST-Falcon range of computers, as well as PCs and games consoles which was formed in 1972 and currently run by Jack Tramiel and his sons. ATB All The Best. Commonly used shorthand in e-mail and other messages. ATM At The Moment. Commonly used shorthand in e-mail and other messages. Attributes Something that characterizes or identifies an entity. Also, a byte attached to a file name designating whether that file is an archive, hidden or system file, or whether its name is that of a subdirectory or volume and the nature of its read and write access status. Table A3: File Attributes Attribute Name Comments bit 0 Read-Only Denies delete and open for write 1 Hidden Hides file in directory window 2 System Hides file in directory window 3 Volume label File name is a volume label 4 Subdirectory File name is a subdirectory name 5 Archive File is new or has been modified The Volume label bit is exclusive and no other bits should be set. The same applies to the Subdirectory bit. Files with illegal attribute combinations are not guaranteed to work predictably. The Archive bit was not correctly maintained with TOS 1.0 and 1.2 and was fixed with TOS 1.4 where it is set when a file is created or modified. Fcreate() can be used to create files with any combination of Archive, Read-Only, Hidden and System bits and Fattrib() cannot be used to change the attributes to an illegal combination on TOS 1.4 and later. Fattrib(), Fopen() and Fdelete() cannot be used on labels and subdirectories. As this restriction wasn't imposed under TOS 1.0 and 1.2, great care is required when altering attributes under these operating systems. ATW Atari Transputer Workstation. An Atari workstation based on a 20 MHz Inmos T800-20 (a 10 MIPS transputer), with the capability to add four Farm cards each of which can have one, two or four transputers giving the overall capacity of 17 interconnected transputers providing the ATW with a true parallel processing capability. It had a Mega ST4 front end to give it TOS compatibility with 4 Mb fast RAM and 1 Mb of fast dual port video RAM. It never really got beyond the prototype and developer's stage where many found parallel programming (in OCCAM) difficult and time consuming and the ATW's future insecure. Initially called the Abaq. Auto-answer Automatic answering mode of a modem. AUTO The AUTO folder on the ST-Falcon range of computers. See AUTO folder. Auto-boot The ability of a disk (floppy or hard) to load into the computer a program at switch on (usually a very small routine in the boot sector of the disk) which in turn will load another, larger program into memory. Such a system is used to install a device driver automatically without user intervention so that those devices are 'ready' for use instantly. The usual device driver that needs auto-booting is that for a hard disk drive, although it could also be a CD-ROM driver or other peripheral that needs to be on-line at start up. See Auto-load. AUTO folder A boot disk folder called AUTO containing programs with the .PRG extender which are automatically loaded into the computer at boot-up and before GEM is initialized and the Desktop loaded. Such programs normally add additional functions to TOS or carry out fixes to its bugs. Each program is loaded into memory in the order they are placed in the directory structure of the disk, that is, in the order they were saved to disk, not alphabetically as is generally thought. This is very important when arranging the programs in an AUTO folder as some will only work when placed before or after others. For instance, GDOS will only work if loaded before QuickST 3, and AutoSwitch OverScan must be after QuickST 3 and the NeoDesk Loader after all these! There are programs available, such as the PD program Alter which will rearrange the order of files in a directory, as will NeoDesk, or all the files must be copied elsewhere, deleted and copied back in the preferred order. Auto-load A program that automatically loads itself into the computer at boot-up. On the ST-Falcon range these are either programs in the AUTO folder or a very short program situated in the disk boot sector. Auto-park The facility of most hard disk drives to move or park the read/write heads off the formatted hard disk surface to an unused part automatically when switched off. The centrifugal force of the spinning disks is utilized to move the arms holding the heads. See Parking. AZERTY A term applied to keyboard layouts found in Europe where the top line of keys is "AZERTY" in contrast to that in the UK and US where it is "QWERTY". A 114 entries EOF