Classic Computer Magazine Archive START VOL. 4 NO. 2 / SEPTEMBER 1989

Dialog Box

Letters From Our Readers

Made in the U.S.A.
I certainly am enthused now that Antic Software is representing GFA BASIC. I hope your magazine will devote a section to GFA BASIC and list short routines that would help many of us to better learn the language; especially all the new commands of Version 3.0. We also need a good book or two, not written in Germany but in the United States, that will make use of an RGB monitor GFA BASIC is too great a programming language to be collecting dust.

GFA BASIC 3.0

Mario Sala
Torrance. California

START will continue to support GFA BASIC in the form of programming tutorials and utilities and programs on disk. (The program Seven Skulls on this issue's disk is our first published program in GFA BASIC 3.0.) However, our programming column also supports other versions of BASICs for the ST, as well as Modula-2 (this issue), Prolog Pascal, C and other popular languages.- START Editor

Thank You, Doctor
Thank you, Dr Noonan, for the continued improvements to ST Writer Elite 3.0 (May 1989)! It is still the easiest and fastest word processor around (not to mention the least expensive). One question: Why do we have "Line Number" along the bottom of the page? It seems to serve no practical purpose. It only shows what the cursor location is for the line on that CRT screen, not what line of the text we have put into the computer. As I write; I quickly fill up the screen and then it always says "Line: 21." Why bother?

Ralph Kalatucka
Los Angeles, California

This is one of the more controversial features of ST Writer. Some people consider the line counter buggy because it doesn't give you the absolute line position in the file; others take advantage of knowing their position on the screen. For example, if you are setting up tables with lots of white space between the columns, knowing your relative position on the screen can help you ensure that you're on the right line.- START Editor

Regent Responds
Megatouch is a system of conically shaped steel springs that fit into the keyboard of a 520 or 1040ST keyboard. Recently START printed a reader's complaint about Megatouch (May 1989). The reader noted that fewer than 95 springs were in his purchased set. The springs are measured by an electronic weight scale at the Crippled Children's Society of Los Angeles. Like a bag of potato chips, Megatouch is sold by weight, not by volume. To avoid future problems, we have increased the weight limit. Megatouch owners will most likely find more than enough springs in a set.

So what happened to the complaining reader? Regent has received 47 complaints of the same nature, and each of these customers was sent a new bag of springs to make up the difference.

By the way, Regent was recently informed by another manufacturer that the name Megatouch has been trademarked. Therefore; later this month we will change the name of Megatouch to Megatouch Springz. (Kind of catchy, don't you think?)

Frank Cohen, President
Regent Software
 
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