Article-I.D.: tekigm2.1188
Posted: Fri Nov  7 13:46:15 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Nov-86 04:27:34 EST
Reply-To: wrd@tekigm2.UUCP (Bill Dippert)
Distribution: world
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 22
Keywords: Compatability

Has anyone on the net had much experience yet with the Atari Planetarium
program?  Specifically, what are the compatibility problems with it and an 800
and/or 1200XL and/or any 256k expanded 1200XL or 800XL's????  The manual says
that you must have an 130XE, or an 65XE or an 800XL.  It would seem to me that
it should be compatible with an 800 and with the translator disk it should be
compatible with an 1200XL.  Believe me, it is not.  Since it is supposed to be
used with both the 800XL and the 65XE, you would not think that it would do any
funnies with expanded memory.  However, I have found that with a 256k 800XLE,
it goes bananas during calculations (skewing, etc.) and dumps garbage to the
screen.  It goes back to normal after the calcs are done.  During the same
calcs on a 130XE, it merely changes the screen colors.  To get it to load to a
1200XL requires the Atari translator A program, and a that it has some bugs in
it that are fatal or near fatal.  On an 1200XL, it does not increment the
latitude and longitude properly.  Instead of gradually increasing (or
decreasing if you are going the other way) it jumps up and down all over the
place, so that you cannot accurately set your l & l.  I find it hard to believe
but it appears that Atari has issued a program that violates its own rules (OS
input places or what I do not know)!  Has anyone tried it on a plane jane 800
or 400?  (The 400 would probably have to have 64k memory, similarly what
happens on a 64k 600XL?)  
Would Neil or anyone else at Atari care to comment?  (Or do you guys only read
the comp.sys.atari.st files now-a-days??)