"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 ***************************************************************************** C C language A relatively low-level, high-level language devised by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie closely associated with the UNIX operating system and thus primarily used as a systems language. It is now considered a more general- purpose language valued for its fast, highly-portable code. Parts of TOS including most of GEMDOS are written in C. Cache Memory (often high-speed static) that holds data from disk or from slower dynamic memory in anticipation of its use by the processor thus saving access time to these slower devices and speeding up processing. Caches set aside for disk drives greatly speed up their operation by anticipating the next sectors to be required by the processor and storing them in the cache. As most sectors for any file are contiguous on a disk's surface, reading two or more sectors in one track when only one is initially required takes no longer to perform once the head is positioned over that track. If and when that second sector is required by the processor it obtains it from the RAM cache which is a quicker access than requesting another disk access. Caches are also important if using a high-speed processor that is significantly quicker than the other chips that service it on the motherboard, including RAM chips. Swapping the 8 MHz 68000 for a 20 MHz one will only result in an overall speed increase of about 20%. Providing that processor with 32 K of high-speed static RAM to cache the data and instructions from the slower DRAM can result in a 100% speed increase of the system. CACHEXXX.PRG An official freeware Atari program that increases the size of the GEMDOS FAT and data buffers speeding up some disk operations. It is similar to FOLDRXXX.PRG in that you place it in the AUTO folder near the beginning and rename it to show how much cache you want. If you want 100 extra cache buffers you rename it to CACHE100.PRG and, as there are two kinds of buffers, you will get 100 FAT and 100 directory buffers. The bigger the disk, the more cache buffers you will need. See the program documentation for more details. CAD Computer Aided Design or Computer Aided Drawing. Using computers in product design, providing technical drawing facilities. CADCAM Computer Aided Design Computer Aided Manufacture. The use of computers in both the design and manufacture of a product. CAE Computer Aided Engineering. Using a computer in any branch of engineering from CAD through to CAM. CAI Computer Aided Instruction. Using computers as teaching aids to learning. CAL Computer Aided Learning. As CAI. Call To transfer control to another sequence of instructions in an executing program. CAM Computer Aided Manufacturing. Computers were used to control lathes and milling machines initially but now control whole production lines, including robots. CAN CANcel. A transmission control character used to indicate that all previous characters in a message block are to be deleted. Cancel A key, button or icon which cancels the current command or process. Its inclusion is considered compulsory in GEM alert and dialog boxes to provide a means of escape for the user. CapsLock A keyboard key that, when pressed, will lock the keyboard into producing shifted alphabetic characters (capital letters) only. Although the alphabetic characters are shifted, the other keys are not. Carriage return The ASCII control character 13 which moves the cursor on a display screen to the beginning of the next line. It is also used to activate commands, being the normal way to end user input. The program reads the keyboard input buffer and takes the appropriate action depending on its contents. It also clears that buffer for re-use. In printing, the carriage return character moves the print position to the start of the line. A line feed character is required to move the printing position on to the next line. Also called the [Return] or [Enter] key. Carrier A wave generated by an oscillator and transmitted on a communications channel which is modulated to carry speech or data. Cartridge A cased circuit board with 128 K of Read-Only Memory plugging into the cartridge port of the ST-Falcon range enabling instant program access and using no main memory except for the program's data. Some cartridges do not contain program ROMs but are just interfaces for other devices, such as scanners or contain audio digitizers and samplers. Others are used as a security dongle especially in the MIDI music world and battery-backed clock cards are popular. A computer diagnostic cartridge is available for technicians wishing to analyse hardware problems in the computer. Apart from Computer Concept's BackPack and FaST BASIC cartridges, the port never caught on for programs due to the small memory size available and the extra cost. A port device can be installed on the Desktop as drive c: (lower case 'c') and treated as a normal drive except that it cannot be written to. The port is a 40-pin 2 mm spaced double-sided PCB edge connector. There is provision for two 64 K EPROMs in the address space $00FA0000 to $00FBFFFF. The port supplies power at +5 V at pins one and two (at around 300 mA) and there are sixteen data lines, fifteen address lines, two ROM select lines and upper and lower data strobe lines. There is no read/write line so that no attempt can be made to write to the port. A bus error results if one is made. (The port can be written to in a limited way by having a program map data onto the address lines). All lines are not buffered which can result in expensive damage to the computer if a current is placed on the wrong lines. Some ST cartridges will not work on the TT or Falcon for various reasons. Some use bits 24-31 of address registers for internal information for the application. As the TT's MC68030 uses 32-bit addressing this causes a crash. Another reason has to do with timings. Some cartridges fail because the ROMs and other components have access times that are not fast enough for the 32 MHz 68030. Others fail because they count on the timing of byte wide reads to the cartridge port to be that of an 8 MHz 68000. CASE Computer-Aided Software Engineering. A software tool for programmers providing help in the planning, analysis, design and documentation of computer software. Case The state of alphabetic characters, whether they are capital form (upper case) or not (lower case). Originally, typesetters kept capitals in a case that was higher than the one they kept the others in. Catalogue Synonymous with directory, a list of files and their attributes stored on disk or tape. Cathode ray tube A vacuum tube with a phosphor-coated screen for the display of images and characters being the display element of VDUs and TVs. The phosphor coating is made to glow when electrons in the form of a scanning beam hit it, the beam being switched on and off depending on where the image is to form on the screen. CBL Computer Based Learning. Any system which uses the computers as an aid to teaching or learning. CBT Computer Based Teaching. CCITT Comit‚ Consultatif Internationale T‚l‚graphie et T‚l‚phonique. A major constituent of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that sets standards for the operation of telecommunications services across international boundaries, such as the V (e.g. V.22) and X series standards. Many CCITT standards are adopted for use domestically. CD+G Compact Disc + Graphics. A version of the audio CD specification where pictures and some text can be stored in a separate subchannel on the disk. CDAR504 The aborted Atari CD-ROM drive which was ahead of its time but without software support. CDAR505 The Atari CD-ROM drive, made by Chinon and Atari-badged. CD-I Compact Disc Interactive. A system for storing computer data on compact disc used by Philips and Sony. It allows a mixture of data, audio, still and moving pictures. CD-ROM Compact Disc Read-Only Memory. A compact disc containing over 600 Mb of computer readable only data. Widely used to distribute vast amounts of large data sets, such as complex images, dictionaries and encyclopaedias. The computer can only read data from the disc but other optical storage devices are now capable of writing to the disc as well. Central processor See CPU. Centronics A standard for parallel data transfer between microcomputers and printers first used by the Centronics printer manufacturer. The standard is based on a 36-way Amphenol connector and is suitable for up to two metres. Parallel data is transferred into the printer's internal buffer when a Strobe pulse is sent. Handshaking is accomplished by means of Acknowledge and Busy signals. On the ST-Falcon range this standard is not fully implemented with many of the lines not connected or attached to different pins. The Falcon supports the Acknowledge and Select pins not connected on the ST-TT range. For the ST- Falcon pinouts, see the Connectors Appendix C. Table C1: Centronics Connector Pin Functions Pin Abbreviation Signal/function 1 STROBE Strobe (active low to read data) 2 DATA 1 Data line 1 3 DATA 2 Data line 2 4 DATA 3 Data line 3 5 DATA 4 Data line 4 6 DATA 5 Data line 5 7 DATA 6 Data line 6 8 DATA 7 Data line 7 9 DATA 8 Data line 8 10 ACKNLG Acknowledge (pulsed low to indicate that data has been received) 11 BUSY Busy (goes high when: the buffer is full the printer is initializing it is off-line a printer fault has occurred) 12 PE Paper empty (goes high when out of paper) 13 SLCT Select (goes high when printer is selected) 14 AUTO FEED XT Automatic feed (when low, the printer produces an extra line feed after each line). Usually selected by a printer DIP switch. 15 not connected 16 0V Logic ground 17 FG Frame ground (isolated from logic ground) 18 +5 V Unused 19- 29 GND Ground for pins 1-11 30 GND Ground for pin 31 31 INIT Initialize (goes low to initialize the printer) 32 ERROR Error or fault (goes low to indicate: out of paper off-line state error state) 33 SG Signal ground 34 not connected 35 LOGIC 1 Logic 1 36 SLCT IN Select input (data entry when low, printer overrides DC1/DC3 codes) CGA Colour Graphics Adaptor. An IBM PC display system providing different modes including 320 x 200 with four colours and 640 x 200 with two colours. Chain A sequence of instructions each of which (except the first) use the output of the last operation as input. Chained list A list in which data items are located in storage by following pointers associated with other data items. Channel A means for carrying data in one direction between two locations in data transmissions. The channel could be a line or a frequency band. Character Bit-patterns, letters, digits and symbols used to represent data and control codes most of which can be displayed or acted upon by screens and printers. See ASCII. Character density The number of characters to the inch of line length. Most normal monospaced printer fonts are 10 cpi with Elite style being 12 cpi. Character format Data that is input, stored or output as bit-patterns representing alphanumeric characters. Character printer A printer that constructs a line of characters by printing them one after another in the order in which they will appear. Character set A distinctive group of characters which can be used for transmitting, storing or manipulating some type of data. Particular computers and other devices may have their own character sets, although the ISO-7 and ASCII character sets are generally recognized as standards. See the Atari Character Set Appendix E. Character string A group of contiguous characters. Check bit One bit in a group of bits that indicates the result of some processing operation, such as a flag or parity bit. Check character A character generated by an algorithm intended to check transmitted data for corruption possibly introduced in transmission. Check digit A digit calculated from a value and added or appended to it to make that value conform to some standard pattern, such as a parity bit or check sum, during data transmission. They are normally used to detect errors in transmission. Checked A GEM menu item or button containing a 'tick' mark denoting that item's continued selection or on/off state. Check sum A value obtained by applying an algorithm to an item of data and transmitted or stored with that data for use in checking for corruption. Used in data transmission and in compression programs. Chip Commonly, an integrated circuit device or more accurately, the piece of silicon onto which the circuits of a semiconductor are formed. CHK instruction A processor exception error, also known as an indexing error, is caused by a special instruction in the MC68000 called a CHK instruction. Some compilers and programmers use this instruction to make sure that indexes into arrays are never negative and are not bigger than the size of the array. If they are the CHK instruction causes an indexing error exception giving six bombs, but such programs should trap this error to their own routine. See Exception vectors, Bombs. Circuit Electrical and/or electronic components and interconnections arranged to accomplish a particular function. Circuit board A printed circuit board. CISC Complex Instruction Set Computer or Complex Instruction Set Chip. The instruction set of most microprocessors, including the Motorola 680x0 family and the Intel 80x86 family, are capable of many instructions which have become more numerous with each evolution. They are termed CISC to contrast them with RISC computers. See RISC. CIX Compulink Information eXchange. Pronounced 'kicks', CIX is the largest bulletin board conferencing system in Europe except that it isn't networked with similar systems across the world (although it does receive messages from USENET). There are thousands of different conferences, some of which are supported by software developers, programmers and distributors. There is a strong Atari presence on CIX. CIX is not free unlike the bulletin boards but the rates are reasonable. Internet access is provided, including e-mail. CIX Commercial Internet eXchange. A coalition of various Internet service providers having an interconnection agreement that defines standards and ensures that all CIX members will carry the traffic of other members without further charges. Clean Known to be free of errors, such as a program or communications link. Clear To overwrite a storage location's contents with spaces or zeros or nulls, whether on disk, in memory or on a screen. CLI Command Line Interface. A user interface such as MS-DOS which uses typed commands on a line as input to the operating system and programs. Although some aspects of this approach are useful and quick to the experienced user, the vast array of commands and parameters available to them is hard to get to grips with especially for new users. This type of interface has mostly been replaced by GUIs and WIMPs. Click To quickly press and release a mouse button and in so doing, to select an item or start an event designated by the item clicked on. Clip art Small pieces of graphic art work which are suitable for inclusion in a printed document. Collections of them are commonly available in books or in disk files in various formats to be loaded into a DTP program or art package for manipulation. The common format for clip art on the ST-Falcon range is IMG and Degas formats. Most clip art is in the public domain and can be copied without infringing the rights of any person or company. However, a lot of images are copyrighted, as for instance all the Disney characters and cannot be used without permission, so care must be taken. Clipboard An area of memory or disk storage where data can be temporarily stored from a program to be reused later or transferred to another application. TOS didn't support a Clipboard until the introduction of the XCONTROL panel accessory and the Clipboard Manager module (CLIPBORD.CPX). Data storage is to a disk file in a CLIPBRD folder on the boot drive with the name SCRAP.* where the file name extension specifies the type of data - .TXT for text and .IMG for GEM bitmapped image, for instance. Client In any connection between two computers on the Internet, there are two pieces of software communicating with each other - a client and a server. The client runs on the computer requesting the service and the server runs on the remote computer providing it. The network using TCP/IP is the medium by which the two programs communicate. The client program creates a TCP/IP connection to the server and accepts input from the user, reformats it into a form the server understands and sends it. It also accepts output from the server and again reformats for display. See Server. Clock An oscillator device that generates high frequency pulses used to time and synchronize events within a computer system. In the ST, the clock frequency is 32 MHz reduced to 8 MHz by the GLUE chip for the MC68000. Also, in the ST- Falcon range, a function of the keyboard ACIA 6301 processor keeping the date and time which is used primarily for file date stamping. Also, a real-time clock. Close box The icon in the top left corner of a GEM window that closes that window when clicked on, and may also cause the program to exit if that window is the main window or last one displayed. Closed loop A programming sequence of instructions from which there is no exit once entered and where those instructions are repeated until externally interrupted. Closer See Close box. Cluster A group of sectors on a floppy or hard disk, normally two and generally considered to be a single unit of storage. CMOS Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon or Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. A semiconductor integrated circuit device which, because of its low power requirement, is used in devices where power consumption is important, especially in those operating on batteries. They can also operate over a wide range of voltages but are very susceptible to static electricity and great care is required when handling them. CMY, CMYK Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK. A system of specifying colours for reproduction in print. Cyan, magenta and yellow are used to produce any shade with the black ink being optional to produce a solid black tone rather than 100% of each colour which never achieves a black enough colour. The 'K' is used to designate 'Black' rather than a 'B' which would easily be confused with 'Blue'. CNTL The [Control] key. CNC Computerized Numerical Control. Many manufacturing machines, such as lathes, mills and drills, can be electronically controlled with series of numbers by computers. COBOL COmmon Business-Oriented Language. A high-level programming language widely used in business, commerce and industry. Code The relationship between a character set and the bit-patterns used to represent them. Also, the instructions as written by a programmer in a language or such instructions as converted into machine language, the term often being used to distinguish the program from the data. Also, to convert data from one form into another for reasons of secrecy. See Source code, Encode, Encryption. CODEC The Codec chip in the Falcon030 which is a Crystal 4216. See Codec. Codec A device used to convert speech or sound into bit-patterns for transmission and to reconvert them back again to form the original audio form. The Falcon030 uses a stereo 16-bit codec which includes an ADC and DAC and which provides superior performance over separate ADCs and DACs. Coding The process of writing a program in a programming language. Cold boot The steps required to place a computer system in operation when no part of its system is already operational. It requires a complete load up of the operating system and the system's full initialization, including memory. A cold boot may be necessary at times to delete from memory a troublesome program. If performing a cold boot using the power switch, always wait for about twenty seconds before switching the device back on. This applies to any electrical device. See Reset. Cold start A cold boot. COMAL COMmon Algorithmic Language. A high-level language intended to replace BASIC as a teaching language, being largely unsuccessful. COMBEL The Atari custom chip in the Falcon030 which acts as the system manager controlling all system functions, such as splitting up the memory cycles between the processor and video system. It accesses the RAM in page mode with a 32-bits width and talks to the VIDEL on the 'mad bus'. The CPU sees the COMBEL on a 16-bit bus. The BLiTTER is built into this chip. Atari claim that the COMBEL is a combination of the MMU, GLUE and BLiTTER. Command A message from a user or program that requests or initiates some action by the computer. Comment Documentary text inserted into program source code by a programmer which is ignored by the compiler or interpreter when converted into a program. Common carrier A company or government department that provides a telecommunications service for public (usually subscriber) use. Comms COMMunicationS. Transmission of data between devices, usually two computers. Unless otherwise mentioned it is assumed that the data path is over telephone lines and is therefore synonymous with telecommunications. Communications interface The connectors and cable by which a computer is connected to a modem, the most common standards being defined by the CCITT, especially CCITT V.24 which is usually known as the RS-232C standard. Communications link The equipment and transmission medium (wire, line, radio waves) used to carry data and/or speech between two geographically separated locations. Compaction An operation to eliminate disk fragmentation by moving all the sectors belonging to a file into contiguous locations. Compatible A term applied to programs to signify whether they can be used on computers or operating systems of another type to that on which they were originally written. Data may also be said to be compatible between programs, and hardware devices between systems. Compile To translate a high-level language source code file into object code. Compiler A program which translates high-level language source code into object code which can then be incorporated with other object code modules into an executable machine code program by a linker program. Component That which is a part of something else, often referring to an electronic device or circuit element. Compound number A mixed-base number, such as that representing time in hours and minutes. Compound statement A programming language statement that consists of more than one simple statement, such as IF count > 10 AND end = 1 THEN... Compression The method of processing a file so that it uses less storage space. All files can be compressed. Some files are automatically compressed as a matter of course, such as image files. The Degas Elite PC3 format is a compressed form of a PI3 file. GEM IMG files are compressed using the RLE method. Single files or groups of them can be compressed into one single file using file compression methods such as ARC, ZIP and LHARC. These methods are usually referred to as archivers and are useful for transferring files between computers using telecommunications links. Compression of a file is either lossless or lossy. Lossless compression creates a smaller file which when decompressed is identical to the original. There is no loss of data and such methods are vital for executables, documents and most images. Lossy compression loses data in the compression process and is only used for images and sound files where the eye or ear can't perceive the small changes that result. The JPEG method, used in true-colour image files is an example of lossy compression and huge savings in disk space can be had using this method. However, a high compression rate does produce a noticeable decrease in image quality so a compromise is always necessary. CompuServe The world's largest electronic information and communication system with over a million members in 25 countries. Unlike CIX and the bulletin board networks, CompuServe is an information provider as well as holding conferences on various topics for public messages. E-mail, FAX and TELEX, reference libraries, financial information, news and travel services, hobbies, games and entertainment are some of the general areas covered by this extensive system. Connect rates and additional charges are not cheap, but it is the most popular and biggest service of its kind. Computer A device that performs sequences of arithmetic and logic operations and often accepting data in one form and processing it into another without human intervention (except in preparing the device, the program sequences and data). Unless stated otherwise, a computer is digital in that data is stored and manipulated as binary digits. Computer graphics The devices and techniques used in producing, manipulating and displaying graphic images with the aid of a computer. Computer language See Machine code. Computer program See Program. Computer system The computer and its peripherals, such as disk drives, tape drives, printers, VDUs and its interfacing equipment. Computerized Implemented on or controlled by a computer. Computing The activity, profession, art or science of using computers. Concatenate To join two strings together, one on to the ends of the other, to form a single string. Concurrent Happening at the same time. Condense To compress or to reduce the character width and inter-character spacing of a type face. Conditional assembly An assembler facility for altering the content and sequence of the source code before assembly, depending on the results of certain tests made at assembly time. Conditional branch A change from executing one sequence of instructions to executing another set made as a result of a test applied to some data at run time. Conditional statement In a high-level language an instruction that makes a test on data and provides one or more actions to be taken depending on the results, such as: if (flag == 1) printf("Flag equals one"); else printf("Flag doesn't equal one"); Conference An area of a bulletin board or telecommunications network conference system set aside for public messages about a certain specific topic and mailed to all other nodes in the network. Conferences are strongly subject bound with deviation from the topic being discouraged. Typical conferences might be Atari ST, Space Exploration or World Conservation. Synonymous with Echo. Configure To set up a system's or program's options to the user's specification and often saving those settings to a file which is referred to by the system or program so that they automatically become the default settings when next loaded. ConfMail A public message in a conference or echo of a telecommunications network. Connect To join devices, either physically with a cable or similar means, or indirectly via a communications link. Connector An electrical conducting path or device, such as a cable, plug or jumper. Console A station of a multi-user computer with keyboard, VDU and sometimes a printer. The term generally refers to a dumb device without storage. Constant A value that remains unchanged throughout its use. Contact A conductor termination in a switch. Contaminate To allow foreign material to be deposited on magnetic tape or disk surface often with the result of causing loss of data or damage to the disk read/write heads. Contiguous Without separation, occupying adjacent locations in storage. Continuous stationery A fan-fold series of sheets of paper divided from each other by perforations and used in line printers. Control That which a series of instructions is said to have when the CPU is processing them. Control character A function character, a character that is interpreted by hardware to cause some action to take place, such as to change the interpretation of the following characters. Control key A key used with another to produce a secondary function or code. Often used to form an ASCII or VT52 control code, such as [Cntl-S] which stops the scrolling of the screen display in terminals or TOS programs. Control panel A GEM Desktop accessory program called CONTROL.ACC from which certain TOS system parameters can be set, such as the palette colours, mouse and keyboard response speeds, RS-232C port configuration, printer type, time and date etc. Although still in use, it is quickly being replaced by the greater functionality of the extensible control panel XCONTROL.ACC using CPX modules. Control unit That part of a CPU that holds the instruction code of a computer and related microcode and performs functions such as fetching instructions and operands, decoding instructions, allocating operations to the ALU, storing results, initiating peripheral transfers and monitoring system operation. Conversational Term applied to a program that responds to a user's input in a manner similar to two people talking. Conversion The process of changing data from one form to another, such as from decimal to binary or from word processor document format to pure ASCII text. Cookie jar The cookie jar is Atari's attempt to provide programs with information about the type of system they are running on, especially the type of hardware. This would normally be difficult or impossible for any program to establish. Many programs need to know which machine they are running on, which processor and whether a floating point coprocessor is available so as to make use of their facilities. The type of video SHIFTER and sound facilities can also differ. Also, programs may need to know if a particular TSR is installed, to be able to get a pointer to a data structure containing status and control variables, for instance. The cookie jar was introduced with TOS 1.6 and is automatically installed by the BIOS in TOS versions 1.6 and later. It is possible to modify this by adding further cookies and to install a cookie jar in earlier TOS versions with a user program in the AUTO folder. The cookie jar is a list of IDs and values stored in memory (each a long word), the address of which is pointed to by the system variable _p_cookies at address $5A0. If no cookie jar is installed, the value at this address is zero. Cookie IDs are four ASCII characters and each should be unique and descriptive. Atari have reserved the underline character '_' as the first character of their IDs. The cookie values often just show the presence of a machine's facility or its type or the presence of an active TSR program. Other values may be addresses of routines or data structures in memory or a version number. There is no standard for these. The cookie jar list ends with a cookie ID of zero. The cookie value following this is the size of the space which is allocated for the cookie jar in entries, which are eight bytes each. Adding an entry means copying the zero entry to the next slot and placing the new cookie ID and value where the zero entry was. If there is no room for this, that is, the zero entry takes up the last allocated slot, then the program will have to reallocate the cookie jar space. The cookie jar should not be used as a general interprocess communications facility as it cannot be guaranteed that a program is resident despite a cookie value being present. Table C2: Official Atari Cookie Jar IDs Installed by the BIOS A long is four bytes and a word is two. The high order word are the two bytes that would be displayed on the left with the highest value. The low order word are those two bytes on the right with the lowest value. A bitmap is a byte or word where each individual bit has a particular meaning. _CPU Cookie This value describes the type of CPU, being the last two digits of the CPU type number. Value Meaning 0 68000 10 68010 20 68020 30 68030 40 68040 _VDO Cookie This value describes the type of video SHIFTER. The value is divided into a major and minor number. The low order word of the value is the minor number and is currently zero. The high order word is the major number and describes the video hardware. Value Meaning 0 ST SHIFTER 1 STE SHIFTER 2 TT SHIFTER 3 Falcon SHIFTER _SND Cookie This value describes the sound hardware. It is a bitmap where a one-bit shows the presence of the feature. Third party hardware and drivers should install their own cookies. Value Meaning Bit 0 ST type GI/Yamaha sound chip Bit 1 STE/TT stereo 8-bit DMA sound hardware Bit 2 Falcon 16-bit DMA Bit 3 Falcon DSP Bit 4 Falcon Connection Matrix _MCH Cookie This value describes the type of machine which isn't described above. This is divided into two words, the major and minor number. Major Minor Meaning 0 0 520/1040/Mega ST 1 0 STE 1 8 ST Book 1 16 Mega STE 2 0 TT 3 0 Falcon030 _FDC Cookie This value describes the type of floppy disk installed. The high byte indicates the highest density floppy disk drive installed. Value Meaning 0 360 K/720 K double density 1 1.44 Mb high density 2 2.88 Mb extra high density The low three bytes give an indication of its origin. Value Meaning ATC Atari line-fit or retrofitted unit. _FPU Cookie This value describes what hardware and software floating point support is installed. The low word describes software floating point support and is currently always zero and may change if Atari start to use the MC68040 CPU. The high word is used to describe the hardware floating point support. Value Meaning 0 No hardware FPU detected 1 SFP004 or compatible, 68881 as peripheral 2 68881 or 68882, unsure which as coprocessor 3 68881 or 68882 plus SFP004 4 68881 for sure 5 68881 plus SFP004 6 68882 for sure 7 68882 plus SFP004 8 68040 internal floating point support 9 68040 plus SFP004 _SWI Cookie This value describes the configuration switches in a Mega STE, TT and Falcon. The lowest bit enables STE DMA sound and the second bit switches on HD density floppy support. _FRB Cookie This value describes the address of a 64 K buffer in ST RAM intended for use by ACSI DMA device drivers because TT Fast RAM is not accessible to the ACSI DMA controller. If the _FRB cookie is present then Alternative Fast RAM is available. FRB stands for Fast RAM Buffer. _NET Cookie This value indicates the presence of networking software on the Mega STE, TT and Falcon. It does not imply anything about file and record locking. It is the responsibility of the networking software to install the cookie and initialize the pointer to the structure. If the _FLK cookie is not available, it is the responsibility of the networking software to install the GEMDOS extensions and the _FLK cookie as well. The value field of the cookie is a pointer to a structure of the format shown below. Additional network-specific information should be stored immediately following this structure. struct netinfo { long publisher_id; /* Special code for publisher to be */ /* assigned by ATARI (USA) */ /* Usually a four-byte ASCII string */ /* such as "ATRI" */ long version; /* Version number of the network, */ /* to be assigned by the publisher */ }; The following publisher_ids have been assigned to date: A&D\0 Application Design Software PAMS Pams Software PNET Powernet ITOS Itos Software _FLK Cookie This indicates the presence of file and record locking extensions to GEMDOS as found in MultiTOS. The value of this cookie should contain a version number. _AKP Cookie This value shows the presence of an Advanced Keyboard Processor which determines the keyboard type and national language used by the Desktop with TOS 4 and above. The Country/Nationality code is no longer stored in the System Header Block at _sysbase + $1C but determined here. TOS 4 contains the relevant resource details for various languages and keyboard layouts which can be selected by the user. Currently, only the low word is used and the values are the same as those used in pre-TOS 4 ROMs: Value Meaning 0 USA 1 Germany 2 France 3 Great Britain 4 Spain 5 Italy 6 Sweden 7 Switzerland (French) 8 Switzerland (German) 9 Turkey 10 Finland 11 Norway 12 Denmark 13 Saudi Arabia 14 Holland 15 Czechoslovakia 16 Hungary _IDT Cookie This value describes the date and time format used by the Desktop from TOS 4.0. The high word (bits 16-31) are reserved. The low word is divided into three parts. The low byte (bits 0-7) is the ASCII value of the date separator. The high byte is divided into two, bits 8-11 determine the date format and bits 12-15 the time format. Low word bits 12-15: Time Format Value Meaning 0 12 hour 1 24 hour Low word bits 8-11: Date Format Value Meaning 0 MM DD YY 1 DD MM YY 2 YY MM DD 3 YY DD MM Low word bits 0-7: Date Separator Value is the ASCII character that separates the three parts of the date, DD MM YY. A value of zero is interpreted as a '/'. The current default values are: Country Time Date Separator USA 0 0 / Germany 1 1 . French 1 1 / Spain 1 1 / Italy 1 1 / Sweden 1 2 - Norway 1 2 - Finland 1 2 - FSMC Cookie This cookie is used by font scaling versions of GDOS - FONTGDOS, FSMGDOS and SpeedoGDOS. The value is a pointer to the structure: typedef struct { long id; /* GDOS id "_FNT", "_FSM" or "_SPD" */ short ver; /* Major/minor version number */ short qual; /* Quality setting */ } GDOS_INFO; The id is either _FNT for FONTGDOS, _FSM for FSMGDOS or _SPD for SpeedoGDOS. The version number is contained in ver with the major version number in the high byte and the minor version number in the low byte. qual is initialized to $FFFF to indicate that printing will be at the default quality setting. A value of $0001 indicates final mode whereas $0000 indicates draft mode. PMMU Cookie If present this cookie indicates that the MMU is protected, that is, a program has claimed sole access to it, such as a virtual memory manager. _OOL Cookie This shows whether the POOLFIX TOS patch program is installed. This ID is not installed by the BIOS but by the program itself. MiNT Cookie This value signifies that the MiNT kernel to MultiTOS is installed. The value is the version number of the MiNT kernel program in decimal format. It is installed by MiNT/MultiTOS at initialization. _INF Cookie This value shows whether the TOS 1.06 Desktop medium resolution bug patch is installed. _SLM Cookie This value shows if the Diablo laser printer driver (after v1.4) is installed. Coprocessor A processor, usually one specifically designed to perform floating point arithmetic such as the MC68882, which works in tandem with the main processor often taking some of the processing away from the CPU thus increasing processing speed of such calculations and releasing the CPU to carry out other functions. Copy The operation of duplicating a selected item, such as a file or block of text. To copy an item on the GEM Desktop, drag it from its original location to another folder or disk. Such an action does not delete the original version. See Move. Corrupt The introduction of errors in data, in storage or during transmission. Country The Atari ST-Falcon range is designed, with little modification to keyboard and TOS, to operate in many different countries. The country identifier is stored in the System Header Block, except for the Falcon and TOS 4. The following identifiers are legal. Table C3: Country Identifiers Value ID Country 0 USA USA 1 FRG Germany 2 FRA France 3 GBR Great Britain 4 SPA Spain 5 ITA Italy 6 SWE Sweden 7 SWF Switzerland (French) 8 SWG Switzerland (German) 9 TUR Turkey 10 FIN Finland 11 NOR Norway 12 DEN Denmark 13 SAU Saudi Arabia 14 HOL Holland 15 CZE Czechoslovakia 16 HUN Hungary Cover disk A floppy disk attached to the cover of a magazine which may contain programs or information of use to the reader, such as source code listings referred to in the text of the magazine. CP/M Control Program/Microcomputer. An operating system for 8-bit Z80 processor- based microcomputers written by Gary Kildall, founder of Digital Research. A distant precursor of MS-DOS and TOS. CPI Characters Per Inch. A measurement of character density. CPS Characters Per Second. A measurement of the speed of data transmission as the number of characters that are transmitted per second. Over serial communications lines, a character is usually more than a byte (commonly ten bits) because of certain additional transmission bits which are necessary to delineate the character bit-patterns and as an aid to error detection. CPS Cycles Per Second. The number of times per second an operation is performed. Same as Hertz. CPU Central Processing Unit. The processor chip (Motorola MC68000 in the ST range or MC68030 in the TT or Falcon) that decodes and executes machine code instructions and controls other chips and circuits within its scope. It consists of the control unit, arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) and some register storage. CPX Control Panel eXtension. The file name extender for the modules to be used with the new XCONTROL panel accessory. Each module has a standard appearance and format which enable it to be integrated easily into the XCONTROL accessory environment. See XCONTROL. CPZ The file name extender for a CPX module that has been deactivated by the control panel. CR Carriage Return. Crash A software or hardware breakdown. CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check. A check for corruption of data during transmission or compression using a polynomial code and a cyclic check character. When the data is originally written to a device or transmitted over a communications link a special checksum is calculated which is based on the data itself and stored with it. When that data is read or received, the checksum is calculated again and compared with the stored CRC. If the two are not the same then an error has occurred. Creation The process of opening a file, writing data to it and closing it for the first time. CRISC Complex Reduced Instruction Set Computer. A term that is being used to describe some of the latest microprocessors from Intel (such as the Pentium) and others which are claimed to possess features of both CISC and RISC technology to make them operate faster. Cross compiler A compiler used on one type of computer capable of producing object code for another. Crossed A white diagonal cross used to disable a dialog button but rarely used. CRT Cathode Ray Tube. CSV Comma Separated Variables or Comma Separated Values. A common file format used by databases and spreadsheets which uses a comma character to separate each data field. It has become a standard way of transferring data from one program to another which otherwise use totally different formats for data storage and manipulation. CTRL The [Control] key. CTS Clear To Send. A signal line in the RS-232C serial connection that is raised (high voltage) by a DCE (i.e. a modem) telling the DTE (i.e. a computer) to send the data stream. Current directory That disk drive directory or folder which the operating system is presently addressing. On the Desktop, it is that directory displayed in a window as specified by the path name in the move bar. Current drive That disk drive which the operating system is presently addressing. Cursor A screen marker indicating the position of the next user input. Text cursors are normally flashing or solid blocks in monospaced font displays or a thin vertical line where the text is a proportional font. The mouse arrow is also termed a cursor. Cut The operation of removing some data (usually to a clipboard) to be copied or moved elsewhere. CX-40 The original Atari joysticks with four switches and a single fire button, still available and which formed the basis of the specification for most other joysticks. Cylinder All the tracks of the same number on all the different disk surfaces in multiple-disk magnetic disk storage, such as a hard disk. They can all be accessed by the read/write heads at the same time without an individual seek. C 153 entries EOF