by Clayton Walnum

    Over the last couple of months, the ANALOG reader surveys have been flooding in, along with many letters responding to the February '89 editorial. For those of you who may have missed that issue, the subject of the editorial was the future direction of ANALOG. I had stated that there was little new ground to cover and that I wondered whether readers-especially the newer readers-would like to see some of the older topics covered again. I also suggested that it might be a good idea to start reprinting Tom Hudson's old Boot Camp columns, because they are the best assembly-language tutorials available anywhere, and they are now all out of print.
    When I made these suggestions, I really had no idea that I would be opening such a floodgate of enthusiasm. Judging by your letters (a few of which are printed in this month's Reader Comment), virtually all of you would like to see the Boot Camps reprinted. Also, the vast majority of you not only wouldn't mind seeing the older topics covered again, but almost insist upon it. I would estimate that at least half of the letters we received were from people who had been reading ANALOG for only the last couple of years, and so had missed a lot of important material. These letters informed me that new owners of Atari 8-bit computers are having a tough time finding the information they need to get the most from their machines.
    Many people even asked that specific articles, other than the Boot Camp series, be reprinted. I immediately envisioned a new department called ANALOG Classics where now out-of-print programs-the best from the past-could be reprinted for our many readers who may have missed them. If you would like to see this new department in ANALOG, write to me at the Manchester, Connecticut, address and let me know.
    At any rate, by popular demand, this month we begin to reprint the classic Boot Camp series, starting with Column 1 published way back in Issue 13 (the cover date was September 1983)! This month also brings the debut of a new column with an old title: BASIC Training will tell you everything you want to know about programming your Atari in BASIC, starting with the simple essentials and advancing to the more complex topics like player/missile graphics, animation and the use of VBIs and DLIs.
    Those of you who have been with us from the beginning and have no need for the novice material still have much to look forward to. We will continue to pack each issue with many exciting new programs and articles, each designed to make your Atari computing experience as rewarding as possible.
    We'd like to thank all who responded with suggestions and ideas. Each letter was carefully read and considered. It was extremely gratifying to see that the Atari 8-bit community is still very much alive-and more importantly, is still willing to make an effort to see that their machines remain viable alternatives for the home-computing enthusiast.