Screen Aided Management (S.A.M.) / Operating System / commercial
From: Michael Current (aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 01/09/93-04:33:11 PM Z
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Subject: Screen Aided Management (S.A.M.) / Operating System / commercial
Date: Sat Jan 9 16:33:11 1993
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: rossi@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de (Oliver Rosenkranz)
Hi there !
Have you ever heard of a software package named S.A.M. ?
You are thinking of a speech synthesizer ?
Hmm, you're right and you are not right, too.
There is another software package out there. It is called
SCREEN AIDED MANAGEMENT (S.A.M.) .
What is S.A.M. ?
----------------
S.A.M. is a disk-based desktop for the ATARI XL/XE, but it is much more
than this...
* S.A.M. uses windows.
* you can work with 80 columns per row
* you have pull-down menues
* S.A.M. can be controlled by keyboard,joystick AND mouse
* You are able to lock/unlock/delete/rename files
* You can choose your woking disk drive (1-8)
* You can copy/format disks, read/write sectors
* You can show directories and create/edit/show a text of 80x16 bytes
without reduce the capacity of your DOS 2.5 disk
* You can start some utilities (I will describe them later in this text)
* You are able to start accessories.
* You can exit this program to DOS or boot system.
* This program is documented in a way which makes it easy to program your
own accessories and programs for S.A.M. (It's an open system).
This is because all your programs written for S.A.M have the chance to
use windows,pull-down-menues, 80 columns per row and all the other features
of S.A.M. .
Utilities :
-----------
There is a number of 6 utilities coming with S.A.M. which make it a
powerful software package for everyone.
a) Character Set Editor mono
b) Character Set Editor color
c) Memobox
d) Memory Monitor
e) S.A.M. Texter
f) painting program S.A.M. Painter
a) CHAREDITOR MONO
easy way to edit 8x8 fonts for GRAPHICS 0 or 8 (all mono).
Features:
LOAD - load a set with DOS fileheader or without
SAVE - save the edited set without a file header (DOS format)
OLD - copies the ATARI char set into the editor
CLS - zeroes the character set buffer
CLM - zeroes the actual selected character
COPY - copies a character to another
EXIT - leave CHAREDITOR and branch to S.A.M.'s main menu (without loading)
There five sections on the screen :
1. name of the program and EXIT icon
2. the 8x8 matrix of the selected character
3. all characters in order of their code
4. 4 (maybe 3 or 5 -can't remember) lines where you can combine
characters and see how the text will lokk (or the graphic made by the
font)
5. a menu line where you can choose what you want to do
b) CHAREDITOR COLOR
nearly the same as (a) with few exceptions.
You can create four-color fonts (for GRAPHICS 12,13,15...) on a 4x8 matrix.
There are three fields where you can choose the colors of your font (not
the backgroud color).
OLD doesn't produce the ATARI font (useless) but a ready-to-use four-
color font to the editor.
c) MEMOBOX
this is a powerful file manager.
You can manage up to 96 cards/files per disk side, each 32x16(=512)
bytes large. You have 4 cards in memory at one time. For each disk side
exists a catalog file where you can specify your files.
The menu line :
EDIT CREATE SPECIAL SHOW EXIT
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit file# Create MEMOBOXdisk SEARCH IN PAGE SHOW PAGE DOS
SEARCH IN CAT. SHOW CATALOG S.A.M.
NEW WORKDISK
CHOOSE MASK
PRINT ON/OFF
It would be too much to say something to all these features and the
special key combinations. You can work with input masks and you can copy
cards and part of files to others and much more...
d) MONITOR
It's a memory monitor. Here it's features :
FILL - choose a part of the memory and fill it with a certain code.
CHANGE - direct change of memory (like POKE in BASIC but more comfortable)
FILE :
LOAD - loads a machine language program in DOS foramt
SAVE - saves such a program
DUMP :
ASC-DUMP- dump memory in hex- and in ascii-code
SCREEN-DUMP - shows memory in hex- and in screen-code
BINARY-DUMP - shows memory in hex- and in binary code
EXIT :
JMP ADDRESS - goes to a machine language program which mustn't end
with an RTS
JSR ADDRESS - jumps to a machine language routine which has to end with
an RTS command
e) S.A.M. TEXTER
This is one of the best text processing programs ever made...
The menu line :
STANDARDS OPTIONS FILE PRINT EXIT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
left margin Clear directory preview DOS
right margin blank text save print S.A.M.
colours insert load -font
keyboard (german) delete format -parameter
keyboard (internat.) swap text
wordwrap move text
copy text
centre
grouped style
ungroupe
format text
(undo)
There are are lot of features not mentioned here (interrupt printings,set
marks,write modi etc.).
Text will not be deleted if you exit to DOS or to S.A.M. .
f) S.A.M. PAINTER
128 color painting program, works like KoalaPad (but with joystick/mouse)
Icons :
-Draw -Line -Lines -Rays -Box
-Frame -Disk -Circle -Fill -Zoom
-Cut -Paste -Flip -Flap -Modify
-Text -Undo -Clear -Setcol -Graphics
-Choose Brushes -Choose Colours
menu line :
SAVE LOAD PRINT MENU S.A.M. Choose Pattern
function keys :
OPTION - loads the four colors of the selected row into the PATTERN line
START - saves picture to security memory
SELECT - changes color of the arrow
HELP - switches arrow between menu line and picture
RESET - return to ICON menu and UNDO
cursor keys - move arrow with tabulator steps
Most of the features are really great to handle.
You can produce pictures with overall 128 colors (4 in each line)
and there is a way to load those pictures to your own programs.
You also can load/save micropainter pictures (62 sector format).
Accessories :
-------------
The most amazing feature of S.A.M. (for me) is that you can load (and
write them for yourself) accessories from the main menu...
There are several ready-to-use accessories for S.A.M. :
g) multifile copier
h) S.A.M. text converter
i) tabular calculating program BUDGET (don't know if this is correct English)
j) S.A.M. Painter upgrader
k) Fireball (game)
l) S.A.M. Designer
m) S.A.M. Patcher V 1.0
g) MULTIFILE COPY
WYSIWYG. It works with icons for each file of the disk (like ATARI ST).
It knows three kind of icons :
- source codes (.SCR,.ASM,.BAS,.TUR)
- object files (.OBJ,.SYS,.COM)
- data files (all other endings)
It supports up to 4 disks and up to for RAMdisks (partitions).
24 icons are shown at once, you can scroll the window.
To copy a file just click it.
The program knows when you put a disk into a drive automatically.
A great utility (graphic-based one).
Get it!
h) S.A.M. TEXT CONVERTER
S.A.M. Texter uses it's own format to save files on disk.
This program converts this format to others an other formats to
the S.A.M. Texter format, so you can use YOUR texts with other programs
too.
SAM > ASCII
ASCII > SAM
ATARI Writer > SAM
Startexter > SAM
Austro.Text > SAM
(Startexter & Austro.Text are European (German and Austrian) products
with a high quality standard)
i) BUDGET
do calculation and tabular workings of all kinds...
You work with a worksheet of 16x64 fields (9x17 fields on the screen every-
time). Only move the arrow in the direction you want to scroll the screen.
You can work with number- operation- and text fields.
The menu line :
FILE EDIT CALC PRINT EXIT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
save worksheet goto position calculate print all S.A.M.
load worksheet erase pos. clear results print columns a - h boot
save area clear all down column print columns i - p
load area clear row across row show printer info
format drive clear column left aligned
current drive move row right aligned
move column integer
copy row 2 dec. places
copy column
insert row
delete row
kill block
You work with a fileselector box (Greetings to ATARI ST).
To edit a field, just move the arrow on it and push mouse/joystick trigger.
You can work with operators (+ - * /) and functions.
SQ - square root
LO - ld(x)
LN - ln(x)
EX - exponential function (???)
AB - |x|
SU - adds fields
AV - average of fields
MI - minimum
MA - maximum
There is a keyboard buffer installed (whether or not your DOS uses one).
j) S.A.M. PAINTER UPGRADE ACCESSORY
features :
LOAD SECTORS - loads 62 sectors of a disk (not a file)
after this you can load others or leave this feature
LOAD FILE - loads a picture in micro painter format
WRITE SECTORS - saves 62 sectors on a disk
INIT DISK - formats disk in medium density (I guess)
DIRECTORY - shows directory, if you move the arrow on a file name
and push the trigger the file will be loaded
VERIFY ON/OFF - guess what this means
I/O SOUND ON/OFF- like POKE 65,0 or POKE 65,255
DRIVE 1/2 - you can choose your working drive between drive 1 and 2
MICROPAINTER - chooses the micro painter format (4 colors will be saved)
SAM-PAINTER - guess what this means
ENTER S.A.M. - go to main menu
ENTER DOS - go to DOS menu
COLDSTART - boot system
k) FIREBALL
you are working with S.A.M. desktop for hours and hours and now want to
relax a bit and play something to get new energy for coming tasks ?
But you don't want to leave S.A.M. at all and reboot it after playing a
while ?
Okay, here is a nice game for you using some S.A.M. features and using
the S.A.M. desktop.
Fireball is a breakout-like game with four different levels.
You can choose in the difficulty box between Beginner,Novice, Expert and
Special.
Special is like Expert level plus all the stones of the wall are invisible.
l) S.A.M. DESIGNER
High-Resolution-Drawing program (CAD)
it is one of the diamonds in this package...
only some of its features :
- all draw functions are gum band functions
- very fast FILL and UNFILL routines
- textfunctions with using different types of fonts, cursive and propor-
tional writing ...
- text created with S.A.M. texter can be loaded and placed on the screen
(with all their text attributes)
- Icon libraries (electronic elements, circuit database)
- CUT & PASTE
- as many printer driver as you want
- easy self producing of own printer driver
- all the 'normal' functions every good quality program for the XL/XE has
- and more...
- fast and easy to control
m) S.A.M. PATCHER V 1.0
a simple to use patch compiler for S.A.M.
write with S.A.M. texter your own patch listing and the compiler changes
S.A.M. like you want to...
- Memobox compatible to your printer
- texter compatible with other printers as the epson-compatible's
(like ATARI 1029 or ALL the pseudy epsons)
- make multifile copier compatible to floppy drive XF551
- patch the color combination of S.A.M.s main menu
...
Still there ?
You're missing a program for your special problem ?
If you (or someone you know) know assembly language and have time to
solve the problem you can easily program your own accessories for S.A.M.
(and maybe give them to the community of S.A.M. users)
And here is how it goes :
ATARI 800 XL memory (when S.A.M. is installed)
$0000-----------------------------------------------
OS variables and vectors
$0600-----------------------------------------------
S.A.M. variables
$0700-----------------------------------------------
DOS
$1F00-----------------------------------------------
free memory
$2400-----------------------------------------------
S.A.M.
$2600-----------------------------------------------
free memory (but is temporary used by S.A.M.)
$3000-----------------------------------------------
font
$3400-----------------------------------------------
player graphics
$3800-----------------------------------------------
S.A.M. vector list
$3900-----------------------------------------------
S.A.M.
$6010-----------------------------------------------
Screen
$8000-----------------------------------------------
S.A.M. utility
$xxxx----(depends on length of utility)-------------
free memory
$C000-----------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------
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