Help!

ST Help

Okay, we make mistakes in the ST Section too. In the December, 1985 review of 4xFORTH we compared our October, 1985 Sieve of Eratosthenes test of 3.8 seconds for Digital Research C with a onepass time of 1.1 seconds for 4xFORTH. Unfortunately, the C benchmark was for 10 passes, so the equivalent 4xFORTH time is actually 11 seconds. That's still very good.

68000 SUM

Also in the December, 1985 issue, Introducing 520ST Assembly Language states, "the sum of the first N even natural numbersÑor 2 + 4 + . . . + N." This should be 2+4+...+2N.

LOGO TYPO

Finally, there is a typo on page 61 of ST Logo Exploration (December, 1985). The example, TYPE :HCR should read, TYPE :HCHR. and line 2 of that example should read, MAKE "HCHR PIECE :A + :A + 1 :A+ :A+2 :HEX1.

We'd like to thank eagle-eyed Bill Wilkinson of Optimized Systems Software for spotting

every single one of the above errors.

MORE FORTH

Mike Starling, from the Dragon Group also spotted the 4xFORTH error. (Probably because he wrote the language.) With the Level 2 Accelerator, Mike tells us, 4xFORTH can accomplish 10 passes in high level execution in 3.8 seconds.

There have also been a number of updates to 4xFORTH that resolve most problems mentioned in our review. If you own the package, please remember to send your registration card to 4xFoRTH. As Mike says, "It's tough to provide good support if we don't have your address."

NEW TOS

Of course it had to happen. Antic had no sooner published a "definitive" outline of TOS (January, 1986) when we received a new TOS version from Atari. It's a bit smaller (198,126 bytes), but otherwise seems pretty much the same as the previous TOS.

Well, almost... You may recall we wrote last month about Desk Accessories needing the filename, DESK1.ACC. It now seems that desk accesories may have any filename as long as the extender is .ACC.

One other obvious change: The thermonuclear bombs generated by a system crash now are round, black anarchist bombs with fuses.