What follows is the first of a series we'll be including on our DOC 
DISCs in issues to follow. To avoid filling most of the disc with 
stuff some people won't find useful we've retained the 'chapter' 
style that these tutorials were originally presented as. Those 
folks who have just bought your machine will find this stuff in-
valuable....those more experienced users who are thoroughly sick 
of new users asking 'what's a mouse?' or 'how come my C64 discs 
won't fit in my 520?' can now hand 'em this (and subsequent
discs and tell 'em to stick it in the most appropriate hole they 
(or their ST), have!
     All credits go to the 68000 User Group, Aarhus, Denmark. 
Browse on dear reader.........
                                                       S.Possum 


                            == * * ==

                        The Introduction


This  is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the ST.  Not to BIOS,  not  to 
GEM,  not to BETELGEUSE 5.  This manual will not help you to  get 
into the ST;  this manual will help you in getting around the ST. 
If the first one tells you how to turn on the machine,  this  one 
tells  you  how  to  use it.  It  is  your  second  (and  better) 
Operator's Manual to the ST. 

This Second Manual assumes that you've read the first ST  Owner's 
Manual  at  least  twice.  You must already know  how  to  create 
folders,  etc. If you haven't, please take the time to do so now. 
Otherwise, you just won't get much out of it.

I  have written this as an introduction manual to new members  of 
our user group:  the 68000 User Group in Aarhus,  Danmark. In all 
of our meetings and get-togethers and sitting around and  general 
talking,  there has been an enourmous amount of information about 
the use of the ST which has gotten passed around.  I've put a lot 
of the useful tips and ideas,  bit by bit, into a file, and now I 
edited  it and organized it.  This is the manual I wished  I  had 
gotten when I got the machine. 

This  is not a manual to the technical aspects of  the  ST.  That 
material you can find elsewhere (see for example publications  by 
the DATA BECKER publishing house,  address below).  Any technical 
information here is given only in the amount needed to understand 
a  process.  I've tried to check all technical  information  with 
persons who are qualified;  nevertheless,  any mistakes are mine. 

About  the  language;  I've tried to keep the  English  straight-
forward;  if  there are sentences which are unclear  or  twisted, 
please let me know.  Everyone should be able to read this.  Where 
necessary,  I've put in the Danish or German  equivilent.  Sadly, 
there's  no standard to the Danish in the ST menues and  dialogue 
cards. 
     
Credits:  this manual,  version 4, was written and rewritten with 
the help, reviews, comments, and discussions of many people, both 
new  users and professionals.  Many errors  were  corrected,  new 
information  was  added,  things  were  dropped.  The  first  few 
versions  were  a near chaotic collection  of  things:  this  4th 
version  is  improved in  style,  structure,  and  contents.  The 
following persons especially helped me:  Karen Nordentoft,  Heine 
Svendsen,  Claus  Grotrian,  Peter  Mikkelsen,  Olafur  Bragason, 
Terkel Skorup. I also thank many others from our User Group, from 
the many BBS's in Denmark, and other user groups for tips, ideas, 
suggestions, comments, and reactions. 

                            == * * ==

Before I start,  just one last thing. Don't be afraid of your ST. 
You're  the boss.  When I was a little kid,  my parents  sent  me 
every summer to summer camp in the mountains in Tennessee.  There 
we  learned  to  shoot rifles,  use  bow  and  arrow,  swim  over 
waterfalls, mountain climb, canoe in white water, catch poisonous 
snakes  barehanded,  all the fun stuff.  And we learned  to  ride 
horses.  Feed them,  saddle them, rope them. We had this mountain 
man  who taught us,  a crazy mean old man who drank Jack  Daniels 
from  an  old fruit jar (we also learned  about  Jack;  Good  old 
Tennessee). My first day, we line up in the dust, us little kids, 
in  front of these big southern horses.  This old  man,  spitting 
tobacco,  says  to us "Don't ever be afraid of a  horse.  If  the 
horse tries to test you,  show him who's boss." and with that, he 
goes  right  up  to the first horse and with  a  terrific  swing, 
punches  the horse in the face:  it fell down.  He was  right;  I 
never was ever scared of horses from then on. But I was terrified 
of him.  

                            == * * ==

    The Contents of Your Second Manual to the ST (Version 4)

Part One
     0. Introduction.                        :
     1. The Beginning.                       :
          Computers in General.              :
          Definitions.                       :
     2. The ST Keyboard.                     :    Covered  
          Notes about the keyboard.          :    on this
          Special functions.                 :     disk. 
          New keyboard layout.               :
          Fixing it.                         :
     3. The Mouse: a few notes.              :
          Feeding and cleaning your mouse.   :

Part Two
     4. Disks. 
          Disks, TOS, drives, directories.
          Formatting,  both standard and special. 
          Copying. 
          Recovering. 
     5. RAM disks. 
          What it is. 
          How to set one up.
          How to use it.

Part Three
     6. The Screen. 
          Your Desktop.  
          How to change it. 
          Desktop.Inf and what it is. 
          Icons (Russian and American) and what to do about them. 
          Fixing things.
     7. Accessories.
          How to load them. 
          Different kinds. 
     8. Wordprocessing.  
          General notes.  
          Different kinds.  
          Some tips and comments to 1stWord/Wordplus and Signum.
     9. Magazines and books for the ST.  
          What there is. 
          All the different magazines. 

Part Four
     10. PD's: Public Domain Disks. 
          What they are.
          How to get them.
     11. BBS: Bulletin Board Systems.
          What it is.
          How to get onto one.
          How to use it. 


                     End of the Introduction  

        ====================== * * ======================

                An introduction to the STutorial
                 By W. Visser and P. van Manen

Having raised laziness to an art form, we were not about to type
our fingers to the bone. So what you get in this tutorial is an
assortment of what we could dig up in the public domain.
Some things will appear in all articles, some will be unique to
just the one only. We did receive the Year 2 manual as one long
file, and have broken it up into the original sections, to make
things easier for you. We didn't think you'd want to have to go
through 250K of text to find something right at the end.

Part 2 of this STutorial will be available at next months general
meeting, and deal with more advanced topics such as tricks in
Basic programming, how to include short machine language routines
in your basic program etc.

Part 3 will get down to the nitty gritty,  how to access  hardware 
direct, working in Supervisor mode etc. and (hopefully sensible)
examples of programming in 68000, Modula 2 and C

If you decide the tutorial is a total waste of your time, please
don't bother to let us know. Just reformat the disk and use it for
whatever nasty purposes you like. 

                     Happy reading.
 







                   Chapter One: The Beginning.

              Things Your Salesman Didn't Tell You.

Much of the computer is so interconnected that it is difficult to 
talk  of  "parts." That makes it hard to  understand.  You  can't 
really  talk  just  about  the  screen  without  discussing   the 
keyboard; the disk is not separated from the windows. Much of the 
information  is  thus  "general" in  a  sense,  though  you  will 
hopefully understand later what is going on.


Computer English
     
There is a very complete glossary (vocabulary, or definitions) in 
the back of your Owner's Manual. Here are more definitions.


Booting:       This used to be called "bootstrapping." That comes  
               from an old American expression:  To pick yourself 
               up  by  your bootstraps.  Germans know  this  from 
               Munchhausen:  he was riding along on his horse one 
               day  when they fell into  a  mudhole.  Munchhausen 
               pulled himself out by taking hold of his hair  and 
               pulling  himself  out.   When  you  start  up  the 
               machine,  there  are  certain programs  which  are 
               carried  out.  But  in order to  carry  out  those 
               programs,  the computer must have a program  which 
               is  active and can carry out  programs.  But  that 
               program  has to be already running so that it  can 
               start  itself.  A curious chicken or the egg  pro-
               blem.  What it means, for us, is just starting the 
               machine.  There  are cold boots:  when  you  start 
               totally,  as in the morning.  There are also  warm 
               boots,  as when you press the reset switch,  which 
               doesn't  turn off the machine  completely.   Reset 
               vs.  Turning  the  machine off and  on  (or,  warm 
               booting vs.  cold booting).  When you bomb,  there 
               are  two things you can  do.  Either  reset,  just 
               press  the button which quickly blanks the  screen 
               or  switch the machine off entirely and start  all 
               over again (which button,  and where it  is,  will 
               depend on which version of the ST you have.  Check 
               your owner's manual).  Both seem to have the  same 
               effect,  but  they are different.  A total  off/on 
               will  wipe the RAM memory clean (the machine  must 
               be  off for at least ten second)(usually the  time 
               it takes to say "Why did I ever waste my money  on 
               such a stupid,  lousy,  idiotic program"). A reset 
               will only clear the memory which is not  protected 
               by certain routines.  If you are using reset proof 
               programs,  such as certain ram disks or  routines, 
               then resetting will not delete those programs.  If 
               you bomb, a simple reset will clear up the memory; 
               if you really bomb, and a reset doesn't help, then 
               you need to cold boot. 

BOOT DISK:     Your  BOOT  DISK (Start up disk) is the  one  with 
               which  you always start.  You can  create  several 
               different boot disks. Of course, you can boot with 
               any  disk  you like,  unless you  have  created  a 
               special  format.  If you use just any  disk,  then 
               most  likely  you don't know how to  make  a  boot 
               disk, create a desktop, or use accessories.  

DESKTOP.INF:   A file called DESKTOP.INF will set up your desktop 
               the way you like it. This file is created when you 
               use the SAVE DESKTOP option. 

Accessories:   Also  on the desktop may be your  favorite   ACCes 
               sories.

Auto folder:   There may also be an AUTO folder;  any programs in 
               your AUTO  folder will be automatically run. 

Data           All of the stuff that goes on a disk,  and  which 
               you  use  in one way or another,  is in  the  most 
               general sense just DATA.  Just information.  There 
               is  of course good data (correct information)  and 
               bad data (corrupted, or faulty, information). This 
               data can appear as either a program:  then it is a 
               set  of  commands which organizes and  works  with 
               other kind of data, namely files. 

PRG            is PROGRAM (WORDPLUS.PRG).

RSC            is  RESOURCE,  which  are various  parameters  and 
               other  information  for  the  program.  If  it  is 
               missing,   then   the   program  will   not   load 
               (WORDPLUS.RSC).

PD's           A  PD  is a PUBLIC DOMAIN program  or  disk  (see 
               the PD chapter below). 

Tools  or Utilities:  A German defined "Tools" as programs  which 
               help  you solve problems which you would not  have 
               if you did not have a computer.  That is the  best 
               definition of a tool.  A tool,  or utility,  is  a 
               secondary  program which fixes problems which  you 
               have  with your main programs.  If you  want  your 
               wordprocessor to write Spanish characters,  then a 
               tool  program will let you change  your  keyboard. 
               There are all sorts of tools,  which do all  sorts 
               of things. 

Games          A terrific way to lose five days and your wife and 
               friends.  The  only  worthwhile  ones  are  Flight 
               Simulator II (FSII) and Psion Chess. 

Desktop        DESKTOP is the main screen,  the one you get  when 
               you BOOT,  on which appear the different  WINDOWs, 
               which are a second screen,  the kind you can  zoom 
               and  close.  

Coffee,  Beer,  and Wine. These will destroy your disks and keys. 
               Don't put them near the computer.  Several in  the 
               UG  have  knocked over glasses of  wine  into  the 
               keyboard: disks have been soaked in coffee, and so 
               on.  If a disk gets wet,  throw it away.  You will 
               make  the disk drive head dirty if you  just  "try 
               and see" if it is okay.  If you pour liquids  into 
               your computer:  clear non-sticky ones (water, etc) 
               will usually be okay if you stand the computer  on 
               end and let it dry out.  Sticky ones (beer,  coca-
               cola,  etc) may be a problem.  Let the machine dry 
               out. If it is not okay, and your warranty is over, 
               then  open and clean with a moist cloth.  If  your 
               warranty is still good, go to your dealer.  

CIGARETTES     cause lung cancer.   Your lungs will rot  and  you 
               will die.

CLICKING       is pressing a mouse button once;  DOUBLE  CLICKING 
               is  two quick clicks.  If you can't  double  click 
               fast  enough,  use  the CONTROL.ACC (it's  in  the 
               Owner's Manual) to change the click response time. 
               You  will find that some programs will  allow  the 
               right  mouse to click.  Other programs  will  have 
               special  or  secret  functions  if  you  click  in 
               strange places.  Always try what seems  intuitive: 
               mice are very popular with some programers.  

WP             WP is Word Processing (text editors are  something 
               else. 

COPY           DISK  JOCKEY  is what you are if you try  to  copy 
               disks  by dragging icons.  If you don't  like  the 
               DISCO scene,  then use a RAMdisk,  a file transfer 
               PRG, or a good copy program. 
          
Laws           Computering has its own laws.  The most famous one 
               is:

                    Garbage in, garbage out. 

               No  software  or hardware is going  to  improve  a 
               lousy  idea,  even  if it  is  Reagan's  Strategic 
               Defense Initiative (Starwars).

               Another rule is:
 
                    The  more important the piece  of  work,  
                    the more likely that things will go wrong. 

               This  has been confirmed by many  users.  A  third 
               rule, closely related, is: 

                    Computers  have  no  mercy,  especially  with 
                    deadlines.  

               Many users,  when facing a systems crash,  tend to 
               become  Catholics;  any and all saints are  called 
               upon  to  save the file.  This reminds me  of  the 
               story about the little boy who was climbing around 
               on  the  roof of a high  building;  he  slips  and 
               starts  to slide to the edge;  he cries  out  "Oh, 
               God!" Just then, his jeans catch on a nail, and he 
               stops; so he just looks up and says "Never mind!"

*.*            The symbols "*" and "?", in computese, are usually 
               called WILDCARDS;  they represent any value. These 
?.?            are  often  used  in  the  directory  window,  for 
               example, to specify which files will be shown. The 
               combination *.* is big magic; it means, literally, 
               WILDCARD.WILDCARD,  or ANYTHING.ANYTHING, any file 
               with  any extension will be shown.  If  you  write 
               *.DOC,  any filename with only the extension  .DOC 
               will  be  shown.  If  you  are  hunting  for  .ACC 
               (accessories)  and maybe you changed some of  them 
               to .ACX,  then try .AC?  This will show only those 
               which  have  AC as the first two  letters  of  the 
MASK           extender.  Selecting  files in this way is  called 
               using a MASK (a filter).

BBS            Bulletin Board Service (Opslagstavle program,  but 
               nobody says that.  It is also called an electronic 
               mailbox.) If you have a modem, then you can call a 
               central  computer  (a BBS) and leave  messages  to 
               other users,  receive messages,  and get copies of 
               programs.  A BBS lets different kinds of computers 
               talk to each other directly.  Our UG has one (tlf. 
               06109777).

Database       A  database  is  a program  which  allows  you  to 
               collect a lot of information and then get at  that 
               information in many different ways.  It is nothing 
               more than a very fast and very flexible card  file 
               box.  Databases  can be either on your own  disks, 
               with your own data,  or they can be large,  indus-
               trial/research  databases (instead of 500 or  1000 
               items,  they can have millions of pieces of infor-
               mation).  Large  databases usually have their  own 
               special programs, written especially for that kind 
               of information,  and hence,  to use them, you need 
               special training.  Practically every single  major 
               profession has a major database.  Some major data-
               bases  are  open and free;  either you go  to  the 
               office (such as a university library database)  or 
               you can reach it by telephone; anyone with a modem 
               can  call and use them.  Most databases  charge  a 
               fee;  usually around 20 to 50 dollars per hour. If 
               you know how to use the base,  then you are not on 
               for more than 10 or 15 minutes.  Many are  commer-
               cial. The database for oil companies costs 100,000 
               dollars per hour. That is cheap; a single drilling 
               costs  about 15 million dollars;  you will  gladly 
               pay a 100 big ones just to find out if you have  a 
               chance. 

Modem          connects your computer to the telephone so that it 
               can  communicate  directly  with  other  computers 
               (BBS, databases, banks, other users, etc.etc.). 

Mouse          An interface device.  A way of sending information 
               to  the  computer.  Your keyboard  does  the  same 
               thing.  Mice  were developed in the late  60's  by 
               Xerox Corporation.  Apple made them standard.  IBM 
               (I  Borrow from Macintosh) laughed at them  for  a 
               long  time,  but they are now standard on the  new 
               IBM's.  Other  ideas  were light  pencils:  a  pen 
               connected  by a wire:  you simply pointed  at  the 
               screen.  But that requires even more waving around 
               with  your arms.  A joystick is a mouse of  sorts; 
               just  another  way  to  send  information  to  the 
               screen.  There are trackballs:  you spin a ball to 
               position  the  cursor.  These were  developed  for 
               arcade games (rough and unstealable).  Use  SPEED-
               MOUSE;  it reduces your mouse's running space (see 
               Mouse chapter below). Future mice will not be mice 
               at all,  but possibly a pair of gloves which  send 
               hand positions and movements to the computer:  you 
               "pick up" and "handle" what is on screen; there is 
               even  feedback:  you can "feel" the  objects,  not 
               just see them on screen. In ten years or so, there 
               may  not  be anymore monitors  or  mice;  you  can 
               interface  with your computer simply by  waving  a 
               hand,  moving your finger, etc. Some users already 
               interface  with  their computers in  this  manner: 
               something goes wrong and they punch the screen.

RAM disk.      This is very difficult to explain;  although  when 
               you understand the concept,  it is very simple. An 
               entire chapter is dedicated to this subject below. 
               It  is  a method of storing  data  electronically, 
               instead of on disk,  so that you can access  (read 
               or write) it much faster.  It is extremely useful; 
               every single advanced user works with one.

READ/WRITE.    Reading means that your disk drive is reading  the 
               disk, and getting information. This is also called 
LOAD           "loading";  you  load  by reading  a  program  and 
               moving it to RAM memory.  Writing means that  your 
               disk  drive is writing information onto  the  disk 
               (saving). 

Kilobytes,  bytes,  KB's, Kbs.   The most simple unit of informa-
               tion is a bit:  it is either yes or no. Eight bits 
               together can define (describe or state) just about 
               any letter or message we would want (just multiply 
               2 by itself 8 times;  that produces 256  different 
               states,  which means 256 possible separate charac-
               ters).  That we call a "byte." When you press  the 
               letter "R" on the keyboard,  you don't send an "R" 
               to  the computer or screen;  instead,  you send  a 
               string of bits. A word, or a page, or a picture is 
               thus  made up of a long string of  bits.  What  is 
               important  to  know at this level is the  size  of 
               that   string:   how  long  it  is.   Your   files 
               (information,  texts  or pictures) will have  dif-
               ferent  sizes.  Short files are of course  smaller 
               than long files. Click on OPTIONS to show as text, 
               instead of icons,  and you will see the byte  size 
               of all your texts.  1024 bytes is a kilobyte; so a 
               file  that is 23,378 bytes is also 22.8  kilobytes 
               (you  usually round up;  therefore it is about  23 
               kilobytes.)  A  page of 1st Word text is  about  3 
               kilobytes (3000 bytes).  (Of course,  this depends 
               on whether you have full pages of text, or lots of 
               empty spaces.) Later in your work, as you began to 
               fill up your disks,  it becomes more important  to 
               know  the kilobyte size of your files.  KB is  the 
               usual abbreviation for kilobyte;  Kb is the abbre-
               viation for kilobits. 

TOS            "The Operating System".  This is called DOS ("Disk 
               Operation System") on PC's.  MS-DOS means that  it 
               was written by MicroSoft.  TOS is a complex  group 
               of  programs and systems which make  the  computer 
               work.  Think  of  a  core  surrounded  by  several 
               layers.  The  central core is the machine  itself, 
               the chips and other hardware.  Around it, covering 
               it, is:

               1) BIOS (Basic Input/Output System).  This depends 
               directly  on various basic (or main)  devices.  It 
               works at a very low level.  It reads the keyboard, 
               writes single characters to the VT-52 screen,  and 
               several other things. 

               2) XBIOS (eXtended BIOS). This allows access to an 
               extended set of specific devices (for example, the 
               printer ((both parrallel and serial  ports)),  the 
               mouse,  midi, sound, etc). It permits general disk 
               access. It formats disks. Both BIOS and XBIOS form 
               the first level around the hardware.

               3)  BDOS  (Basic Disk  Operating  System).  It  is 
               second level.  It is therefore not so specific  to 
               the  hardware.  It  writes strings  of  characters 
               to/from  the  screen/keyboard.  It takes  care  of 
               memory allocation.  BDOS runs programs and  files. 
               It creates files,  does the  Read/write,  deletes, 
               finds files, etc.

               4)  A-Line Routines.  These simple  commands  take 
               care of a great deal of the actual work of setting 
               up what becomes the image on screen.  Dots, lines, 
               rectangles,  filled rectangles, fill closed paths, 
               move/copy  rectangles from one place  to  another, 
               etc. The Blitter works in this area by speeding up 
               these calculations and movements. Over this is...

               5) GEM (Graphics Environment Management). A set of 
               routines which are independant of the device.  The 
               third layer around the computer. These control the 
               windowing.  And last of all,  most visible to  the 
               user, is...

               6) The application program (such as 1st Word). Our 
               programs are the shell,  the outside level of this 
               system.  The  program  uses  a  complex  group  of 
               abilities from the various parts of the  Operating 
               System  (OS)  and presents them to the user  as  a 
               simple  image  on screen.  The shell uses  GEM  to 
               present  a graphic interface between the user  and 
               the OS.  

               For  simplicity,  I only mentioned some  parts  of 
               this  system.  There is debate and  discussion  of 
               whether or how much any one part is distinct  from 
               other  parts.  You can see that all  the  computer 
               magazines  spend  a great deal of time  trying  to 
               explain  this.  There  are  very  few  people  who 
               understand this system entirely (only a handful of 
               top professional programmers,  and they have quite 
               a bit of arguments about it).  If you only want to 
               use the computer,  or just do some simple program-
               ming,  you do not have to worry in the least about 
               any of this.  

Problems       The  curious  thing  about  computers  is  that  a 
               problem is not a problem, but rather, a challenge. 
               (My  high school gymnastics  teacher,  Coach  ((we 
               called  him  "Coach")) always said "Let  it  be  a 
               challenge to you.")  If your car has a flat  tire, 
               that's a problem:  it has a clear nature (hole, no 
               air)  and a clear solution (patch  and  pump).  No 
               discussion.  

               But  on  a computer,  anything can be done  in  at 
               least  ten totally different  ways,  with  totally 
               different  methods.  And no one agrees  about  the 
               explanations for why it works. Everyone will solve 
               a  problem  in  his own  way:  to  print  out  new 
               characters,  for  example.  Hardware  people  will 
               change the chips.  Programmers will  reprogram.  I 
               would use a utility program.  Font users will  add 
               fonts;  others  will redefine the printer.  It  is 
               very difficult to give "answers" to problems:  You 
               "think"  you have a problem;  you try to  describe 
               it,  but a working answer, and a final description 
               of the problem,  will be something totally  diffe-
               rent. The whole thing is a problem.

RAM/ROM.       You have two kinds of memory chips: ROM (read only 
               memory) which has information on it which can't be 
               changed  or deleted (it can only be  "read");  RAM 
               (random  access memory) is memory space which  you 
               can change (add and remove).  

Resident.      One often talks  about  resident  programs.   That 
               means  a program which is in the computer (not  on 
               disk).  The  concept is not too  clearly  defined; 
               different  things  can be  resident  in  different 
               ways.  Your accessories are called resident;  they 
               are  in  the  RAM chips;  so  you  call  them  RAM 
               resident. When you have TOS in ROM, then it is ROM 
               resident;  it is in the ROM chip. You need to know 
               about this only to know the difference. 

Resident       (An example) The program which formats your  disks 
               (the  one in the desktop menu) is a  ROM  resident 
               program: it is always there.

520 RAM,  1040 RAM,  2 and 4 MEGA RAM. Different "sizes" of ST's. 
               The number tells you how much RAM the machine  has 
               in  kilobytes.  A  520 RAM machine has 520  KB  of 
               space to use (the actual number will be less  than 
               that).  A 1040 has twice the capacity,  and a  two 
               mega  ram ( 2 MEGA ST) is twice as large as  that. 
               For comparison,an expensive calculator has 2 or  4 
               KB  of  memory.  The Commodore 64's which  are  so 
               popular  have 64KB of memory:  a 520ST  has  eight 
               times  as much.  The standard PC can  be  upgraded 
               only to 640 KB: a 1040 ST is almost twice as large 
               (and twice as fast). These numbers only give you a 
               rough idea of size:  a poorly written program  can 
               work very well,  but take up an enormous amount of 
               space:  well  written programs can often  be  much 
               smaller. 

               It is only for marketing reasons that the  numbers 
               are not correct.  You will soon figure out that  a 
               260ST  really  has 256 KB;  a 520ST has  twice  as 
               much, or 512KB; a 1040ST has therefore twice again 
               as  much,  or  1024KB.  But the  numbers  are  not 
               "pretty,"  256/512/1024 is "messy." The  marketing 
               people  in  Atari  forced  the  name  to  be  more 
               presentable. 

RYFM           What  a  programmer  will tell you if  you  ask  a 
               question which is in your manual.  "Read Your  *.* 
               Manual" he means.  You must  read,  re-read,  and, 
               several  weeks  or months  later,  re-re-read  the 
               manual.  Things  you did not understand then  will 
               become clear later. 

CPU            The main chip in your machine. The Central Proces-
               sing Unit.  This is where much of the actual  work 
               is done (instructions are carried out,  etc).  You 
               don't need to know about this,  the GLUE chip,  or 
               any of that stuff, unless you want to start taking 
               your machine apart. 

FOOTPRINT      The amount of space it takes up on your desk. 

Many  more  concepts and words are defined and explained  in  the 
rest of this text.  If you find words which you don't understand, 
let me know.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Don't worry,  most Americans and British don't understand much of 
this vocabulary either.  Computer English is just as  artificial, 
false, and unnatural as Computer Danish or Computer German.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Just  for reference,  here is the DESKTOP with MENUES (for  those 
who are reading this on paper).

Mt. Fuji icon     File           View        Options
-------------     ------------   --------    -------------------      
Control Panel     Open           Icons       Install Drive
Install Printer   Show Info...   Text        Install Application
Set RS232 Config. New Folder     Sort By:    Set Preferences 
VT52 Emulator     Close           Name       Save Desktop
Ram Free          Close Window    Date       Print Screen
                  Format...       Size
                                  Type


(* Ram Free is optional)

If  you do not have these options,  something is wrong with  your 
system.  Many of our users have not gotten the Control Panel, for 
example (I didn't get my for the first 4 months).  If you do  not 
have this, contact us.

The  new Control Panel (20KB large,  instead of 16KB)  joins  the 
Control Panel,  Install Printer,  and RS232 all into one, a great 
improvement  which  clears up two  accessory  slots  (spaces).  I 
include RAMFREE.ACC,  which should be a standard.  It reports  on 
your memory size left. 

You must fully understand what all of these options can do.  Read 
your manual again if you don't.  It is here that you will  create 
boot disks (AUTO folders),  add new ACCESSORIES,  create new disk 
icons for ramdisks (and remove the silly second drive icon if you 
only  have a one drive system),  change icon names,  file  names, 
change  files  to READ ONLY,  set up your printer to  print  full 
screen pictures,  make standard format disks,  set your screen to 
show  files by KB size,  set up your files to automatically  load 
just  by double clicking on them,  save your  desktop,  and  make 
printouts of your screen.  If you don't understand any of  these, 
or are not able to do them, then READ YOUR MANUAL AGAIN!

This  SECOND  MANUAL assumes that you understand  those  options. 
Much  of  what  follows will use these  options  to  change  your 
system. The Owner's Manual only describes the options; it doesn't 
began to explain that with these;  you can change and adapt  your 
system to suit your hardward and needs. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

V NUMBERS.  Programs often have numbers after the name.  There is 
not much of a standard regarding these numbers, but the following 
seems  to  be followed by the  professional  software  producers. 
WORDPLUS V2.02 UK, for example. What do those numbers mean? V2.02 
UK means Version 2.02,  with British spelling and dictionary. The 
text  versions  of the program  are usually  called  V.0.XX.  The 
first  released version of a program is called V.1O;  when  small 
changes  have been made (corrected spelling,  etc,) then the  new 
updated version becomes V1.01,  V1.02,  V1.03,  etc.  When bigger 
corrections have been made,  then it becomes  V1.1,  V1.2,  V1.3, 
etc.  When  major updates and changes have been made,  the  whole 
digit changes:  V2.0, V3.0, etc. If there are various versions of 
the program, usually for various languages, then it can be called 
UK (British English), US (American English), etc.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Why  bother  with  V  numbers?   Programs  are  constantly  being 
upgraded.  They are improved.  New options are added;  errors are 
removed.  About  every six months,  we see new  "generations"  of 
programs:  an idea is introduced and is quickly adopted by  other 
programs.  You  will find out that using a computer is a  job  of 
constantly  looking  for the  arrival  of  better,  faster,  more 
powerful programs. Therefore it is difficult to write a standard, 
"once  and for all" list of "tips and tricks;" six months  later, 
it is useless.  1st Word V 1.01, which was the standard for quite 
some time, is outdated; hardly anyone uses it anymore. Most moved 
on  to V1.06,  many use 1.16,  and the elite use 2.02.  V1.01  is 
just primitive.  There are fashions in computering,  just like in 
bikinis and epistemology. WIMP, the Windows/Icon/Mouse system, is 
very fashionable now (Apple developed it,  Atari copied  it,  IBM 
copied it too.) But it is slow and difficult; we may see programs 
which are not GEM based (TEMPUS is an excellent example).

The whole story between Apple,  Atari, Commodore, and IBM is much 
more interesting than Dallas or Dynasty.  Xerox originally  deve-
loped  the mouse in the 1960's.  At the Xerox Palo Alto  Research 
Center (PARC)(which also developed SMALLTALK,  an advanced inter-
face  system),  the main parts of the mouse and windows idea  was 
developed.  Steve  Jobs,  co-founder of Apple,  used to hang  out 
there.  Apple  took  those ideas and  added  their  contribution: 
menus.  The  look of the windows was designed by Apple  as  well. 
Digital  Research  (DR) came along and simply  copied  the  whole 
thing and sold it to Atari.  Apple sued.  Apple,  a huge company, 
could have kept Digital Research out of the market for years  (DR 
had  been losing money already),  so they settled out  of  court: 
Digital  possibly agreed not to sell any further developments  to 
Atari.  That's  why,  although better versions of GEM  exist,  we 
won't get them for the ST.  Apple deserves a great deal of credit 
for being innovative enough to bring such an advanced system to a 
market  which  was  totally dominated  by  IBM.  Bill  Gates,  of 
Microsoft,  which wrote MS-DOS,  used in every IBM PC and  compa-
tible  in the world,  who has a personal fortune of  700  million 
dollars,  laughed at windows and mice and said real men don't use 
that sort of stuff.  Most PC users hate mice. IBM ignored windows 
("It  has  no  use in the office.") DEC,  which  makes  the  best 
mainframes,  has  now  agreed  with Apple to  use  the  Macintosh 
desktop as the interface to their mainframes.  So what happens to 
the other companies?  Look at the new PS from IBM.  All windows. 
All mouse.  Developed by Bill Gates,  who now calls himself  "The 
World's  Greatest  Expert On Windows And  Mice."  Hewlett-Packard 
also copied the Windows/Mouse system.  Which now has caused Apple 
to sue both IBM and Hewlett-Packard.  This will be an interesting 
court  fight:  at  stake is the control of the  desktop  computer 
market  for the next 10-15 years and a market which is  worth  at 
least 100 Billion dollars in the USA alone.  

Digital  Research  wrote much of the ST's operating system  on  a 
contract for Atari Corp.  GEMDOS, GEM, ST BASIC, and ST LOGO were 
done by them.  GEMDOS and GEM are poorly written; ST BASIC and ST 
LOGO are garbage.  Silly and trivial errors were made in the  GEM 
system (for example,  the harddisk can't have a partition  larger 
than 16MB,  simply because of an incorrect number).  Atari  wrote 
BIOS, XBIOS, and ALINE.

The  GEM we have on the ST is a pre-release version from  Digital 
Research.  That  is why it has bugs and is slow.  GEM is  already 
available as versions 2 or 3 on PC's.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

MORE NUMBERS:  Flip your ST over (gently!  gently!).  The  number 
stamped  on the bottom tells you how old your ST  is.  Apparently 
these are sequential;  the first one is 1,000,001. Mine is in the 
9000's. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Something  that  is  recommended to everyone  is  to  open  their 
computer.  Take a look inside. See what goes on in there. It is a 
simple  process of removing only about 20 screws (keep  track  of 
which  go where!).  The machine can easily be put  back  together 
again  (it was designed to be put together by 14 year  old  girls 
working under slavery conditions). Note that changing the machine 
will violate your warranty,  if that is still valid.  Many German 
ST's have a sticker on the case which may not be removed  without 
tearing;  this prevents you from opening it.  Do not violate your 
warranty. Please unplug the machine completely before opening.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

ATARI,  by the way,  is the Japanese word for the game "GO". "ST" 
means  either "Sam Tramiel," the hotdog capitalist who  owns  and 
runs Atari Corp,  or "Sixteen/Thirtytwo," a technical description 
of  the chip's processing capability.  The 68030 machine will  be 
called the TT, which means 32/32.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

A  SINGLE  SWITCH.  It's  not necessary to  flip  three  separate 
switches  to turn on the older ST's.  Run all your plugs  to  one 
extension plug, put a switch on that, and connect it to the wall. 
Now just switch off and on there.  The whole system turns off and 
on with one switch.  I put my START UP DISK in the drive and  run 
the juice. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

SWIVEL CHAIRS:  All computers should be sold with an office chair 
included:  the kind which turns,  is on wheels,  with a backrest. 
You  will  tend to twist around quite a bit,  reaching  over  and 
around your keyboard.  This will hurt your back.  You can buy  an 
office  chair  for about 5$ (or fifty kroner)  at  the  Salvation 
Army's  second hand stores.  The Salvation Army,  with  its  good 
contacts,  tends  to get large donations of materials  from  com-
panies.  The  Salvation  Army is by the way my  favorite  general 
charity,  92% of their income is used for the poor.  The  highest 
paid  person  in  the Salvation Army  recieves  23,000$  a  year. 
Nothing. In comparison, most charities spend 45-60 percent on the 
poor, and the rest on being fat bureaucrats. The US Department of 
Welfare,  which gives aid to the poor,  spends 90% on  themselves 
(perhaps  I  should  rephrase that "...which  gives  aid  to  the 
poor...").

If  you sit for long periods,  your back will hurt  anyway.  Back 
problems  are common among users;  we will sit for three or  four 
hours  straight  just trying to figure out a program or  solve  a 
problem.  Something that I have found that helps is a foam  wedge 
pad;  it is about 10 cm high at the back. You sit with your knees 
lower.  It has helped me somewhat.  You can get these at any foam 
store for about 2 or 3 dollars. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Bundled Programs:  When you bought your ST from a store,  several 
programs  were  included with the machine.  Some  of  these  were 
written by Atari Corporation (fx ST WRITER),  others were written 
by  independant  software  houses and were bought  by  Atari  for 
giving  to  its  customers (Fx  1ST_WORD,  DB  MASTER  ONE).  The 
different  programs  were given out at different periods  and  in 
different countries:  new buyers do not get 1ST_WORD anymore, for 
example.  DB MASTER ONE, a database, was given out in Denmark for 
a few months in 1987. 

These  programs  have  a  curious  status;  they  are  very  much 
commercial programs,  they are copyrighted, you can not just hand 
out copies of them. But so many people have them and 1ST WORD has 
become the standard wordprocessor;  it is nearly public domain. A 
number  of public domain services in fact hand out copies of  1ST 
WORD.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Don't waste your time with ST-BASIC,  the Basic program that came 
along with the computer. It's got errors, and rarely works right. 
I've never figured out what to do with LOGOS;  absolutely no  one 
uses it.  Blank out those free disks and use them:  they're  high 
quality.   If  you ever want those PRGs again,  just go  to  your 
dealer with the disk and tell them that it was blank. If you want 
to learn Basic,  or use Basic,  get GFA Basic from West  Germany: 
good  and  fast.  Most  people use GFA;  it is  pretty  much  the 
standard Basic for the ST; it has good manuals, and lots of books 
(the first English translation was lousy;  the second is better). 
You can talk to lots of other people about GFA.  FAST BASIC  from 
England  is  also  very good  and  popular.  Omikrom  Basic  from 
Germany is good too. (STOS isn't bad if you fancy writing games
either...few bugs though!  S.P)

There is a new version of ST BASIC, written by one of the Tramiel 
boys,  which is bundled with new ST's,  but it doesn't seem to be 
anywhere as good as GFA,  Fast, or Omnikrom Basic. Atari Corpora-
tion,  which only earned 180 million dollars in straight  profits 
last year,  refuses to give you a manual.  They will send you  to 
the  dealer,  who  is going to laugh if you ask for  a  100  page 
manual. 

Many  people ask which languages will run on the ST.  Just  about 
every one.  All the major languages, and many dialects, have been 
adapted  to the ST (Basic,  Logo,  C,  Pascal,  Modula  2,  Lisp, 
Prolog,  Smalltalk,  APL,  Fortran, etc etc.). Both old fashioned 
procedural languages, like Basic, and the new artificial intelli-
gence langauges have been adapted to the ST. 

"New" langauges aren't.  LISP,  the major artificial intelligence 
language, is over 30 years old and older than BASIC. 

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

Buying  hardware and software:  Quite a few of our  members  have 
bought  computers in West Germany and England,  despite the  long 
held  arguments  regarding lack of service  or  support,  without 
problems.  At present,  there is no reason for buying hardware or 
software in Denmark. As for service and support, there is none in 
Denmark.  Prices  are  simply lower in Germany.   With  the  sole 
exception  of PIXEL (tlf.  05/152441),  we do not yet know  of  a 
ST  distributor which will give qualified service  or  meaningful 
support to a professional ST user.  Danish businesses which  sell 
business  computers have dropped the ST because they were  unable 
to rely on Atari Corporation for service or parts.  German stores 
deliever  what they promise.  German stores are also reliable  in 
long  term:  Danish stores has started and stopped  with  amazing 
regularity;  the  first  two  distributors  for  the  ST  crashed 
spectacularly.  New World provided some unbelievable examples  of 
amature errors and poor business sense.  The previous importor is 
remembered for worst things. Datakilden in Copenhagen made such a 
disaster  that they simply declared bankruptcy,  to escape  their 
angry customers and debts,  and started up again as  Scandinavian 
Software.  A company to avoid,  in any form.  If you are going to 
invest  in hardware or software,  check with another user  first: 
make sure that the company is reliable.

Atari  has come under very strong criticism from  developers  and 
users.  There is simply no developer support or customer support. 
For  all of their spectacular sales and profits,  Atari does  not 
bother with companies which are developing software/hardware  for 
the ST.  TOS is faulty;  it makes errors and is limited.  It  was 
poorly  written.  Atari kept coming out with new  versions,  end-
lessly changing the TOS;  there are dozens of versions  now.  The 
latest is not 100% downwards compatible.  GDOS,  a supplement  to 
the faulty TOS,  has been kept secret/unavailable for a very long 
time.  GEM  information  has been kept secret for  no  particular 
reason. 

The ST is a thirdparty machine:  practically everything to it was 
developed  by companies independantly of Atari.  It is no  secret 
that  Non-Atari components are usually better than  Atari  compo-
nents (especially drives,  harddisks,  monitors).  Practically no 
application software has been developed by Atari.  We don't  even 
have software guidelines for the ST:  each developer must  invent 
his own format. Therefore the ridiculous situation with graphics: 
it  is a pain in the neck to convert pictures from one format  to 
another:  it  took  over two years to get a  wordprocessor  which 
could read graphics.  A software guidelines would give developers 
the  ability  to  write programs which are  compatible  with  one 
another.  All Macintosh programs are intercompatible:  just about 
anything  can  be  moved from one program  to  another.  This  is 
unthinkable  on  the ST:  try moving your spreadsheet  into  your 
wordprocessor.  And then into your drawing program.  No way.  The 
result means that hardware / software developers must think twice 
and  twice again before entering the ST market:  they must  first 
establish  a  standard.  We users lose:  we  don't  get  radical, 
interesting  programs for the ST.  No one in their right mind  is 
going  to  develop a totally new program on a machine  which  has 
such a difficult market.

Get a copy of our PD catalog and ask for the USENET disks:  these 
are  downloads (copies) of discussions in the ST section  carried 
out by many of the major persons in the ST world.  The  Tramiels, 
Digital  Research (who wrote GEM),  Atari's  marketing  director,  
Simon  Poole (far away the best PD author on the ST)  and  dozens 
others  are  talking,   discussing,   criticising  (and  bitterly 
attacking) the ST. 

Don't  start  wondering  whether you  should  start  looking  for 
another  computer.  The ST is a great computer.  It is  extremely 
powerful. It works, all in all, rather well. It is VERY reliable. 
Salespersons  will tell you in confidential conversation that  30 
to 40 % of Amigas need to be rebuilt:  perhaps only two or  three 
of  100 ST have problems (and these are mostly just  loose  chips 
which are easily fixed).  The Amigas are a pain in the neck  with 
their  disk sensitivity (a disk must be very good  for  it;  ST's 
will run fine with not-so-good disks (ie cheaper). And let's talk 
programs.  It  tooks  seasons  for  the Amiga  to  get  a  simple 
wordprocessor;  we  had SIGNUM.  There are far more  applications 
programs for the ST.  The fact is that there are more games,  and 
more newer games,  for the ST than the Amiga,  the games machine. 
And last of all,  price.  The ST is simply cheaper. Power without 
the price. The price is of course customer support: you won't get 
that (and we don't expect it to come either).  The only  alterna-
tive  to  the ST is the Macintosh II;  and that involves  a  very 
large price difference. West Germans have really taken to the ST; 
it  is  the  Mac of Germany.  Lots of programs  and  hardware  is 
created there.  We can expect developments and progress from West 
Germany for the ST. For the money, the ST is the best you can buy 
in Europe.


               End of Chapter One: The Beginning.

        ====================== * * ======================


                    Chapter Two: The Keyboard


             Tips and tricks regarding the keyboard:

ESCAPE:  A clever trick,  when working on the DESKTOP: You have a 
window  open,  showing  one disk DIRECTORY  (the  contents).  You 
switch disks.  Do you then click on DRIVE B?  No!  Just press ESC 
(Escape),  on  the  upper  left corner  of  your  keyboard.   The 
computer  will then READ the new disk.  What it actually does  is 
UPDATEs  the directory,  checking again what's on the  disk,  but 
since you've switched disks,  it READS the new disk and puts that 
in the window. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

This works with RAM disks as well;  click on the RAM disk  window 
so  that it is on top,  and then punch ESC.  (Ram disks  will  be 
explained below).

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
     
ESCape  (ESC) is a handy button.  When changing directory  lines, 
disk labels, whatever, punch ESC, and it clears the whole thing. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
     
If  you change disks while in an application,  such as 1st  Word, 
ESC can help.  Load 1st Word (start the prg by double  clicking). 
Now,  you want to change disks. Insert new disk. Punch the CURSOR 
UP ARROW,  this puts the cursor on the disk directory  line.  Now 
punch ESC.  that clears the whole thing.  Now hit ENTER.  The new 
disk is read as a default in A drive.  If you have 1st Word in  D 
Drive as a RAMdisk,  then instead of backspacing and typing  some 
silly nonsense like ( A:*.* ),  just punch Up arrow (elevator to 
top floor) ESCape out the window and ENTER in the ground floor. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

You  can  also  write  the A:/folder/*.PRG  or  whatever  onto  a 
keymacro  program  and  then  produce the  whole  line  with  one 
keystroke (thanks to HS). 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
     
Typing an underline ( _ ) in the top directory line will bomb.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

You don't have to start up a program just to look at a text file. 
You  can  open a file directly on your desktop and  look  at  the 
first  part  of it (just double click and choose SHOW  TO  SCREEN 
from the dialogue box. Pressing ENTER scrolls one line at a time, 
pressing  SPACE bar scrolls a whole screen.  Instead of  pressing 
ENTER  and  scrolling all the way to the  end,  press  Q  (quit). 
You're out again. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Some versions of TOS (there are dozens of versions of TOS, for no 
real  reason) have a curious ability;  press CAPS LOCK  and  then 
ALTERNATE:  the Danish or German alphabets then revert to English 
font and produce square brackets and slashes.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

You  are  not  stuck with Swedish keys (or whatever  is  on  your 
keyboard).  When you press the "B" key,  you don't send a "B"  to 
the computer;  you send a long string of codes.  This string  can 
easily  be  changed (edited).  You can easily re-program  or  re-
define your keyboard.  This requires no expert  knowledge;  fools 
can  do  it (most computer stores fall  in  that  category).  Use 
KEYEDIT.PRG,  a public domain program;  you get a picture of your 
keyboard on screen,  simply use the mouse to move the keys around 
or add new keys (for example,  get rid of Swedish, and add German 
or Danish).  You can easily make several keyboards, for different 
languages. 

You can also place keys in places which are more convenient.  The 
marks ( ' ) and ( " ) should be together,  and next to the  shift 
key. The same for ? and ! (and  as well), these should be on one 
key.  Add  the  Danish    and   to  the  keyboard.  Delete  the 
ridiculous # sign. 

You can also use these keys in the directory;  instead of writing 
1/2_AARHUS.DOC, you can just write _RHUS.DOC. 
 
You actually have not one,  but five keyboards. You must think of 
several modes:  the keys act differently depending on the board's 
mode.  You  change  modes  by  pressing  the  SHIFT,  CAPS  LOCK, 
ALTERNATE, or CONTROL keys. The first mode is the normal "qwerty" 
board, the small letters. The second mode is SHIFT: small letters 
become large, and numbers remain the same. The third, fourth, and 
fifth mode is CAPS LOCK,  ALTERNATE and CONTROL;  press these and 
then you have different keyboards.  The standard keyboard  setup, 
what you get from the factory,  has the same thing on both SHIFT, 
CONTROL,  and ALTERNATE. A keyboard editing program allows you to 
put  different keys in the various modes;  you can place  on  the 
numerical keypad,  which is rarely used in the higher modes,  all 
sorts of alphabets,  such as German,  French,  and  Spanish.  The 
numbers  at the top 1234567890 can also hold  different  symbols. 
Paste  stickers  on your keys so that you can see  the  different 
things. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

You will notice after a while that the letters on the keys  began 
to  disappear.  Touching the keyboard after a year will just  rub 
off the keys.  Clear plastic is sold in sheets or rolls which can 
be cut to fit the tops of your keys. This protects especially the 
non-american keys. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 


Instead of pointing and clicking the OK box in the dialogue  box, 
hit  RETURN or ENTER.  Both of these keys usually have  the  same 
function. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
     
Get in the practise of holding the mouse in your  palm,  clicking 
not  with  the tip of your finger,  but with the  middle  of  the 
finger.  Not so tiring.  And keep the mouse near the keyboard, so 
that  you  can hit ENTER with your thumb.  This machine  was  not 
designed by a southpaw.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
     
You can always print the screen by pressing ALTERNATE + HELP.  Or 
almost  always.  Often  the printing can be stopped  by  pressing 
Control + Q (quit) (or perhaps X, W, or Z as well).

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Control + S will often work on your keyboard with some PRGs. This 
SAVES data

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

When renaming disk drives,  or renaming file names,  there is  no 
need to backspace one letter and type in the new:  just type  it. 
If  the cursor is at the end of the line,  it will  automatically 
delete and replace the word.  Try this now by clicking OPEN FILE, 
and just pressing K, the .DOC will change to .DOK. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

The  cursor  can  be moved with ALTERNATE  +  ARROW  keys;  press 
ALTERNATE  + INSERT for a mouse click.  The only time I've  found 
this useful is when you have to click the mouse a lot (in a game, 
for  example).  Park the mouse over the box,  and hold  down  the 
Alternate   and Insert keys.  Also this helps when  reading  long 
files  (like this one).  Park the mouse over the vertical bar  on 
the  right side of the screen,  hold down  ALTERNATE,  and  press 
INSERT as you read along.  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
     
Careful,  though,  too  fast  and this  sometimes  'freezes'  the 
computer,  nothing works anymore.  Panic.  Try punching ENTER, or 
wait a bit. Waving a gun sometimes works.  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
     
The  right  mouse  button works on the  desktop.  When  you  have 
several windows open,  point at an inactive window, hold down the 
right button, and point and click with the left button. The right 
button lets you work in non-active windows.  Nice,  but  useless. 
It's so easy to click up a window.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
     
F1 and F10 often have a function in a program.  Programmers  have 
many  traditional codes,  such as pressing "CONTROL (Ctl)  +  ?"; 
this sometimes produces a few lines of HELP or other information. 
When in doubt,  punch buttons.  Try every key on the keyboard, in 
combinations.  You  can't hurt the computer by pressing  buttons. 
However,  shooting the computer may damage it.  Gunshots are  not 
covered by warranties except in Texas. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Something difficult to describe,  but rather handy,  is an  F-KEY 
guide.  If your different programs use different commands on  the 
F-Keys,  this  little device helps you keep track of  them.  Take 
about fifteen or twenty sheets of paper.  Bind them together with 
one of those plastic ring binders:  go to any paper supply store; 
they have a hole punching machine which makes a row of  rectangle 
holes on the side of the paper,  into which a plastic ring  strip 
holds the sheets together (it is difficult to describe,  but  you 
will know it when you see them)(Use the smallest size,  that  is, 
the thinnest ones).  Now use a paper cutter so that there is only 
a strip of paper 1.3cm wide (as if you bound a book which is only 
1.3cm wide,  but normal length.  Still following this?  Good. Put 
the thing above your F-keys. Trim to lenght. It sits there in the 
groove. Make a different page for each program that uses commands 
on  the  F-keys  (also a handy place to keep  notes  about  other 
commands) Just flip the pages back and forth for each program.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

I put a little red sticker on the F6, Delete Line, key. Then it's 
just  a matter of reaching up and punching it;  I don't  need  to 
look so carefully.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Many programs can be aborted by pressing Q,W,  X, Z, or CONTROL + 
Q, CONTROL + Q, CONTROL + X, CONTROL +Z, ESCAPE, or F10.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

In Germany,  you can buy an AT keyboard which plugs into the  ST. 
The  AT keyboard is the best.  High quality keys.  It comes as  a 
small  separate  keyboard  (similar to PC's) and has  a  2  meter 
telephone  coil  cable.  Your ST is simply pushed back  into  the 
corner. Simply unplug the ST keyboard (a flat cable which is very 
obviouse when you open your machine) and plug in the AT keyboard. 
AT keyboards cost about 60 pounds. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Be  careful with the keys.  ST's are made of cheap  plastic.  The 
keys break off very easily.  There's a lot of users with  missing 
keys.  I broke my Backspace key by dropping a dictionary onto  it 
(small  wonder!) Rubber cement doesn't work;  it just gets  loose 
after a while.  It stayed loose for a long time,  until a  friend 
suggested model airplane glue;  it's made for plastic (the guy at 
the  store asked if it was for toy airplanes or toy  soldiers.  I 
said "for my toy computer").  It worked great.  Solid connection. 
Be VERY careful not to glue the key to the sleeve;  you'll freeze 
the whole thing. Use a toothpick to apply the glue.



              End of Chapter Two: The ST Keyboard.

        ====================== * * ======================



                    Chapter Three: The Mouse


There's only one thing to say about the mouse. When waiting for a 
command  to  be  carried out (waiting while  opening  a  program, 
waiting while a text is being reformatted, etc), don't wiggle the 
mouse  around impatiently.  You send information to the  computer 
when  the mouse moves;  the computer slows down what it is  doing 
and  begans to pay attention to your mouse  movements.  In  other 
words,  if you play around with the pot,  it just takes longer to 
boil water. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Your  mouse should roll smoothly.  If it doesn't (it  feels  like 
rolling on rubber),  then you must clean it.  In the back of your 
Owner's Manual is a short description of how to clean your mouse. 
It is not enough.  You need to go further. Open the mouse, as the 
manual  tells  you.  Use a cotton swab (the  little  sticks  with 
cotton  on  the end) which has been moistened (not  dripping)  in 
alcohol  and  wipe the three  rollers,  turning  them  too.  This 
softens  up  the dirt.  Take a  clean,  small,  sharp  knife  (or 
whatever)  and gently scrape the dirt from the  rollers,  turning 
them  as you go along.  (As my chemistry professor used  to  say: 
CRAP = Chemical Residue in Apparatus). Don't scratch the rollers. 
Don't try and see how high the little ball will bounce.  Put  the 
mouse back together. New mice cost at least 50$.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Some mice will go "walkies," as one British puts it.  As you work 
on the keyboard,  for no reason,  the mouse arrow will fly across 
the screen. Notice that it only goes either straight up and down, 
or horizontally.  There was quite a debate in ST WORLD last  year 
about  this;  there are several different theories on the  reason 
for this.  There are also several different cures;  many of which 
involve fooling around with the hardware.  Try pushing the  mouse 
plug tighter into the computer.  It doesn't seem to be much of  a 
problem;  if  it's not broke,  don't fix it.  Mine does it  quite 
often;  other people are rather amazed when it goes flying off by 
itself.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 


The  right  mouse  button works on the  desktop.  When  you  have 
several windows open,  point at an inactive window, hold down the 
right button, and point and click with the left button. The right 
button lets you work in non-active windows.  Nice,  but  useless. 
It's so easy to click up a window.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Oh, right, nearly forgot. Mousepads are all the rage. They really 
are  better as a surface.  Don't spend money buying an  "offical" 
pad at a computer store;  go to a scuba divers store  (underwater 
sports) and buy some Neoprene,  the stuff that wetsuits are  made 
of.  That's  what  mouse pads are anyway (who ever came  up  with 
that?). There are two kinds of neoprene: wetsuits and drysuits (A 
wet suit lets water in,  but insulates. A drysuit keeps water out 
completely.) Use drysuit material.  (If you use wetsuit,  then it 
won't  "hold" to your table top.  Use some double sided  tape  to 
hold it down.) The stuff is expensive by the square meter (around 
40  #  / square meter of certain thicknesses)(it is  measured  in 
cubic centimeters),  but you only need a 20X20 cm piece (mine  is 
.40 cm thick).  If you use the SPEEDMOUSE.ACC, then you only need 
16x16 cm.  Don't hope for a free scrap piece of material; none of 
it is thrown away.  They use the little pieces for making fingers 
for the gloves. 


                End of Chapter Three: The Mouse.


        ====================== * * ======================


Next issue... Disks and Ram-Disks. Look for DOC DISC 7....                          
