___________________________________________________________________________ Spectre 3.0 Release Notes ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ KEYBOARD DRIVER ___________________________________________________________________________ The new keyboard mapping is as follows: F1 Mount drive A F2 Mount drive B F3-F10 Mount hard drive partitions 1-8 Shift-F1 (unused) Shift-F2 (unused) Shift-F3-F10 Mount hard drive partitions 9-16 Control-F1 Color, Scrunch mode Control-F2 Color, Scroll mode Control-F3 Color, Top of scrolled screen Control-F4 Color, Bottom of scrolled screen Control-F5 SLM804, ImageWriter emulation ON Control-F6 SLM804, ImageWriter emulation OFF Control-F7 SLM804, Force formfeed Control-F8 SLM804, Dump buffer contents Control-F9 SLM804, 72 dpi rotated screendump Control-F10 SLM804, 300 dpi screendump Alternate-F1 Mac Plus emulation Alternate-F2 Mac 512Ke emulation Alternate-F3 SCC/VIA patches ON Alternate-F4 SCC/VIA patches OFF Alternate-F5 Orwell's disk monitor ON Alternate-F6 Orwell's disk monitor OFF Alternate-F7 Turbo disk mode ON Alternate-F8 Turbo disk mode OFF Alternate-F9 Debug mode ON Alternate-F10 Debug mode OFF (the Alt-Ctl-Fx keys are only active in Debug Mode) Alt-Ctl-F1 SLM804 hex dump Alt-Ctl-F2 SLM804 hex dump OFF Alt-Ctl-F3 Disk messages ON Alt-Ctl-F4 Disk messages OFF Alt-Ctl-F5 Line-A tracer ON Alt-Ctl-F6 Line-A tracer OFF Alt-Ctl-F7 Debug to printer ON Alt-Ctl-F8 Debug to printer OFF Alt-Ctl-F9 Bus Error messages ON Alt-Ctl-F10 Bus Error messages OFF ESC Same as keypad Clear (this results in a true ESC code) UNDO Same as Command-Z (normally UNDO menu entry) DELETE Same as Command-X (normally CUT menu entry) INSERT Same as Command-V (normally PASTE menu entry) CLR/HOME Same as Command-C (normally COPY menu entry) HELP Same as Command-? (normally HELP menu entry - if available) Shift-HELP Calls up configuration page Alternate-Control-Clr/Home Parks all hard disks Alternate-Control-Delete Warmboot (stays in Mac mode) Alternate-Control-RightShift-Delete Coldboot (back to ST mode) As is expected, the keypad and arrows now work as they do on a real Mac (including the shift-, command-, and option- versions). The configuration page now reflects any changes made via the function keys (this includes machine type, ImageWriter emulation, and SCC/VIA patches). Applications which return the keyboard type now correctly report the keyboard as a Macintosh Plus keyboard. Also, the problems with the Calculator DA with the keypad have been fixed. Note: non-U.S. keyboard may not work properly when Spectre is in Mac 512Ke mode (as opposed to Mac Plus mode). ___________________________________________________________________________ SOUND MANAGER ___________________________________________________________________________ The Macintosh Sound Manager (introduced in System 6.0 and Hypercard) is now supported. This means HyperCard sounds and alternate System Beeps (in the 'Sounds' CDEV) will work. Due to the differences between the Mac and ST hardware, some sounds may not sound quite right - most notably the 'Cling-Klang' and default beeps. The vast majority of sounds should play just fine. You will also notice a slight pause the first time a System Beep is sounded. This is necessary to ensure compatibility with all current and future System versions. If a MegaTalk board is installed, all sounds should sound correct. Note: when using a color monitor, you might see an occasional flickering dot on the screen as a result of this - this is normal. ___________________________________________________________________________ SOUND DRIVER CHANGES ___________________________________________________________________________ Setting the sound volume to 0 in the Control Panel (in the General CDEV or the Sound CDEV) will disable sound. Mac applications will not be able to override this. ___________________________________________________________________________ SLM804 CHANGES ___________________________________________________________________________ Page buffer is now cleared following a 300 dpi (straight) screen dump. ___________________________________________________________________________ CONFIG PAGE CHANGES ___________________________________________________________________________ The Spectre config page now displays on all monitors, both standard and non-standard (Spectre 2.65 only displayed the config page on a standard Atari monitor). The config page is also now available in 832K mode. Due to memory restrictions, in 832K mode, Spectre must request 32K of memory from the Mac OS to use as a screen buffer. If 32K is not available, the config page will not appear. If this occurs, quit back to the finder to release some memory and try again. ___________________________________________________________________________ SERIAL DRIVER CHANGES ___________________________________________________________________________ The advanced control call for setting the baud rate (csCode=13) is now supported. This should fix CDC Connect (and another CDC program) and any other terminal program which may be using this call. Several minor changes have been made to the serial driver which may improve compatibility with some applications (such as the Async LaserWriter driver - see comments in the 'Bug Fixes' section). Due to some slight hardware incompatibilities, if you wish to use the Asynchronous LaserWriter driver (or other application which uses async. serial I/O), you need to turn on the 'Async. serial/printer' option on the config page. Be advised, though, that having this selection on can cause a significant slow-down in programs which do not use async. serial I/O (such as dot-matrix printer drivers). ___________________________________________________________________________ 68020/68030 SUPPORT ___________________________________________________________________________ CPU type is automatically determined by Mac OS. The Spectre code has been modified to work with any of the 680x0 family of CPUs. Mac applications which check the CPU type will know which CPU is installed. ZEUS II has been introduced to handle Bus Errors on the 68010, 68020, and 68030. ___________________________________________________________________________ 68881/68882 SUPPORT ___________________________________________________________________________ The 68881/882 in the Atari TT, the Gadgets' 68030 SST, or other 68020/ 68030 accelerators is now supported for Mac use. This does not include Atari's 68881 expansion board (SFP004) for the Atari Mega, which interfaces the 68881 chip in a manner which is exclusive to the Atari. ___________________________________________________________________________ IMPROVED MONITOR SUPPORT ___________________________________________________________________________ Spectre can now handle monitors of virtually any size automatically. This includes standard ST, Moniterm Viking, ISAC (monochrome mode), Matrix, TT High Res (1280x960). Overscan mode is not yet supported due to the non-standard software requirements. ___________________________________________________________________________ DISK DRIVERS (floppy & hard disk) ___________________________________________________________________________ Spectre now does a better job of informing the Mac whether a disk is in the drive. This was causing problems with Apple File Exchange and can be seen with SUM II (look at the Drive Queue). The size of a drive as shown by SUM II, Norton Utilities and a few other utilities is now correct. MacEnvy II and other programs which check the drive type will now think the floppies are FDHD drives (SuperDrives) controlled by a SWIM controller and should know the hard disk partitions are not 400K floppies. This should eliminate the problem of hard disk backup programs converting a hard disk partition into a 400K MFS partition. ___________________________________________________________________________ FLOPPY DISK DRIVER ___________________________________________________________________________ The floppies now function as SuperDrives (minus the 1440K mode) and can read/write MS-DOS (not ST) disks with programs that support it. DOS Mounter and Apple File Exchange work as they should. Using Apple File Exchange, you may format 720K MS-DOS disks which are usable by Apple File Exchange, DOS Mounter, AccessPC, and directly in ST mode. Aladin disks are also supported. There are options in the CONFIG page to select which format (Spectre or Aladin) to use on each drive. There is also a CONFIG page option to select whether the Aladin disks are 9 sectors per track or 10. The icon for MS-DOS and Aladin disks is a floppy disk without a Mac Plus or Spectre logo. If you get a disk failure on an MFM formatted floppy, Spectre will not drop into GCR mode. This means if you insert an ST/MS-DOS disk, you will get the format dialog much quicker. The in-line formatter now supports Spectre format. You can format a Spectre disk by holding down SHIFT when the format operation begins. If you are using a Spectre 128, you will get Spectre format automatically. The floppy disk cache has been removed entirely (to free up some more space). NOTE 1: Only double-sided MS-DOS and Aladin disks are supported. NOTE 2: You can only mount MS-DOS disks with DOS Mounter or AccessPC. MS-DOS disks can be read from and written to using DOS Mounter, AccessPC, or Apple File Exchange. ___________________________________________________________________________ HARD DISK DRIVER ___________________________________________________________________________ The hard drive read/write code has been TOTALLY rewritten to provide 68020/030 support. You can now park all attached hard disks by pressing Alt-Ctl-Home. All hard drives must have been ejected prior to doing this (if any HDs are mounted, the park function will be inoperative). Once you've parked the HDs, you will be able to continue using the computer, but will be unable to mount any HD partitions. Parked HDs need to be powered down before they will be usable again. The Mac OS now knows that Spectre hard disks are actually hard disks and not floppies. You can now select "Erase Disk" to erase a hard disk properly. Also, dragging a floppy disk icon to a hard disk window will create a folder on the hard disk like it is supposed to. Spectre partitions which support saved parameter RAM/Config page settings will have the type 'OOP' instead of the previous 'ACK' (which is still supported but can't handle the saved parameter RAM/Config page data). See 'PARAM RAM/CONFIG PAGE SAVER' section for further details. Note: Atari TT SCSI drives are not yet supported. ACSI drives connected to the DMA port work fine, though. ___________________________________________________________________________ PARAM RAM/CONFIG PAGE SAVER ___________________________________________________________________________ The parameter RAM (holds your control panel, Map CDEV, and Sound CDEV settings) is now saved, along with your CONFIG PAGE settings. To use this feature, you must use Spectre 3.0 to reformat your boot partition so that the space needed for saving this data is reserved. If the hard drive partition you have selected to boot from is an 'OOP' partition, the PARAM RAM/CONFIG PAGE data will be loaded from that partition. If the partition is an 'ACK' partition, or if you don't have a HD partition selected to boot from, the PARAM RAM/CONFIG PAGE data will be loaded from the first enabled 'OOP' partition. If you're confused about 'ACK' and 'OOP' partitons, there's a simple rule. Partitions formatted with Spectre 2.65 or before are 'ACK' partitions. Partitions formatted with Spectre 3.0 and above are 'OOP' partitions. Note: There are no provisions for saving this PARAM RAM/CONFIG PAGE data to floppy disk. ___________________________________________________________________________ MEGATALK SUPPORT SUPPORT ___________________________________________________________________________ Selecting 'MegaTalk' in the 'Printer' menu (see below) causes the 2 serial ports on the MegaTalk board to be used as the Mac serial ports. If a MegaTalk board is present, the SCSI port on it will automatically be enabled allowing the use of any Mac SCSI device and software. Keep in mind that the Spectre launcher only shows devices connected to the ST's DMA port. The SCSI port is virtually identical to the Mac Plus both electrically and functionally (i.e. the function keys for inserting and ejecting Spectre hard drives does not apply). If there are any bootable SCSI devices attached to the MegaTalk board, they have priority over Spectre hard disk partitions when booting. ___________________________________________________________________________ VERTICAL BLANK ___________________________________________________________________________ There are now two settings for vertical blank (selectable in the CONFIG page): REAL and SIMULATED. The two modes offer different pros and cons, so you should select the one appropriate for the work you are doing. REAL Vertical Blank (used in Spectre versions prior to 2.65) PROS: 1. Vertical blank interrupts are synchronized with the screen (some animation/games rely on this). 2. Vertical blank won't interfere with the SCC chip on the MegaTalk board. The prevents lost data. CONS: 1. When using a monochrome monitor, any software which uses vertical blank for timing will be inaccurate. This affects sounds which will be higher pitched than normal (like Spectre versions prior to 2.65), benchmarks, and some other time-based software. SIMULATED Vertical Blank (used in Spectre 2.65/2.65c) PROS: 1. Application which use vertical blank for timing will be accurate (sounds will be the correct pitch and benchmarks will be correct). CONS: 2. May interfere with applications which use the SCC chip on the MegaTalk board (AppleTalk and MIDI). For the most part, SIMULATED vertical blanks can be used for general use. If you are using a MegaTalk board, it is likely you will need to select REAL vertical blank to prevent interference with MIDI. This can all get a bit confusing. If you're completely lost, try them both and see which one works for the programs you are running. Note 1: Coda's Finale can use MIDI in either mode. Most other MIDI applications require REAL vertical blanks. Note 2: Opcode's Vision will play MIDI music too fast when using REAL vertical blanks with a monochrome monitor. The work-around is to simply decrease the tempo slightly. Note 3: The speed of the REAL vertical blank is determined by the monitor plugged into the ST's monitor port. This is important if you are using a Moniterm, ISAC, or other display system which doesn't use the standard monitor port. A color monitor will result in a 60 HZ vertical blank (in the U.S., 50 Hz in Europe) and a monochrome monitor will result in a 71 Hz vertical blank (worldwide). ___________________________________________________________________________ 64K ROM SUPPORT ___________________________________________________________________________ 64K ROM support has been eliminated. It hasn't worked since Spectre 1.9 anyway. We got VERY FEW complaints (maybe 2 or 3) and we needed the space. ___________________________________________________________________________ NEW LAUNCHER ___________________________________________________________________________ The ST-mode launcher has been reworked with many changes to the menus: SPECTRE 3.0g1: This menu entry now reflects the Spectre version number. The 'Spectre 3.0' dialog now indicates whether a MegaTalk board is installed. FILE: 'Spectre' and 'Quit' positions were reversed to conform with the ST "standard" for the 'File' menu. Note: ^Q is the keyboard equivalent for Quit regardless of the language. MEMORY: sizes shown are "legal" Mac memory sizes. Any size too big for the current machine/configuration is greyed out. The last size on the list is the absolute maximum memory size supported by the configuration and may not equate to a real Mac size. STs with 3 Megs of memory are now supported. Note 1: you'll notice that on machines with more than 1 Meg, the max. memory size is 64K larger than before. This was an error in previous versions. PRINTER: there are three choices for using the ST ports: 1. 'Parallel' directs the Mac printer port to the ST parallel port. 2. 'Serial' directs the Mac printer port to the ST serial port. 3. 'SLM804' directs the Mac printer port to the ImageWriter emulator for the SLM804. There is one MegaTalk choice: 1. 'MIDI/Serial' directs BOTH the Mac printer and modem ports to the corresponding MegaTalk ports. When this is selected, the ST's parallel and serial ports are inoperative. The MegaTalk menu entry is disabled if a MegaTalk board is not installed. Note: you MUST select 'MIDI/Serial' for most MIDI applications to function properly. PARTITIONS: This menu displays all available Mac/Spectre hard disk partitions and lets you select the one you'd like to boot from. Up to 16 partitions are allowed and displayed. You can select the partition you wish to boot from by clicking on it. A checkmark will appear next to its name in the menu. If you click on the currently selected boot partition, it will be deselected and when you go into Mac mode, you will be able to boot from any drive by pressing the appropriate function key when the flashing question-mark (?) appears. HARD DISK: 'Hard Disk boot' has been eliminated in favor of the booting method described in the section above. 'Slow SCSI' has been renamed 'Turbo SCSI' and works opposite previous versions. 'Turbo SCSI' is the same as the "normal" case in previous versions. Having 'Turbo SCSI' turned off is the same as selecting 'Slow SCSI' in previous versions. The hard disk format dialog has been changed extensively. The dialog now shows a graphical display of the hard drive with each partition shown as a bar whose size is proportional to the partition size on the HD. Each bar's fill pattern corresponds to the type of the partition. You can select a partition by either clicking on the numbered box or the rectangular area corresponding to the desired partition. The 'Type' field now shows whether a Mac partition is HFS or MFS. If the partition supports Parameter RAM saving, it will be shown with a '-P' after the type, like this: 'Spectre-P HFS' or 'Spectre-P MFS'. 'BGM' (HDX 3.0x Big GEM) partitions may now be converted to Spectre. All partitions foermatted with Spectre 3.0 will be of type 'OOP' as opposed to the old 'ACK'. Formatting a HD partition for Spectre writes a directory slightly different than that created by the Mac. This prevents Disk First Aid from working. If you wish to use Disk First Aid, use the Finder's 'Erase Disk' function to create the proper directory structure. If you wish to reformat a Spectre partition and keep it the same type (i.e. keep an 'ACK' as an 'ACK' partition), just select 'Erase Disk' in the Finder menus. If you wish to convert an 'ACK' to 'OOP', you will need to use Spectre's format (after which you may use 'Erase Disk' to be compatible with Disk First Aid). The new Mac hard drive partitioning scheme is now recognized, so using real Mac HDs or Mac-formatted SyQuest cartridges should no longer be a problem. Parameter RAM saving is not supported for these drives. After formatting a partition for Spectre use, the auto-boot setting of the hard disk is maintained. FLOPPY DISK: Formatting a floppy disk writes a directory slightly different than that created by the Mac. This prevents Disk First Aid from working. If you wish to use Disk First Aid, use the Finder's 'Erase Disk' function to create the proper directory structure. OPTIONS: 'Help' provides on-line help (this will be detailed later). The 'Alternate Video' option has been eliminated. The new dynamic screen sizing automatically puts the screen in its optimal location. Sound can be turned on and off here. 'Sound 6.0.x' has been eliminated since the Sound Manager now works. It was also determined that due to hardware differences, supporting the STE & TT sound hardware would not provide any benefit. The SLM804 device number is set here. The 68030 options allow you to select which of the 68030's caches to have enabled and allows you to turn Burst Mode on or off. Generally, having them all on is the fastest, but in a few rare cases, you may run across software which is not compatible with one or more of these modes. Also, Burst Mode may not be supported by all 68030 boards or machines. Turning on Burst Mode when it's not support should cause no harm, but will not increase performance, either. The cache options are only enabled if a 68030 CPU is installed. The floppy cache has been removed entirely. All hard drive access in the launcher is done in a 'Slow SCSI'-like mode to prevent problems with some hard drives. On the TT, if you are in a resolution other than "ST High" (640x400) or "TT High" (1280x960), Spectre will switch into "ST High" before going into Mac mode. DRVR128.PRG was renamed DRVR128.SYS to prevent confusion (it is NOT a runnable program, as its name suggested). Spectre will look for language files, help files, keyboard files, and DRVR128.SYS in both the current directory AND in a folder called ETC if it exists. This provides for better organization of files. The SPECTRE.CNF must be in the same directory as SPECTRE.PRG. LAUNCH.PRG will look for SPECTRE.CNF in the AUTO folder, outside the AUTO folder or in a SPECTRE folder (if it exists). ___________________________________________________________________________ FOREIGN LANGUAGES ___________________________________________________________________________ The Spectre launcher now determines the nationality of the TOS ROMs and will load an appropriate language file (if present) so that all of the menus, alerts, and dialogs will appear in the appropriate language. The language files are named: USA.LNG - United States of America (this isn't really necessary) FRG.LNG - Federal Republic of German FRA.LNG - France UK.LNG - United Kingdom SPA.LNG - Spain ITA.LNG - Italy SWE.LNG - Sweden SWF.LNG - Switzerland (French) SWG.LNG - Switzerland (German) TUR.LNG - Turkey FIN.LNG - Finland NOR.LNG - Norway DEN.LNG - Denmark SAU.LNG - Saudi Arabia HOL.LNG - Holland If there is a file named DEFAULT.LNG, it will override the auto-country detection. If the appropriate country's language file is not present then the built-in English text will be used. Instructions for modifying/creating language files are in the file SAMPLE.LNG. Note: not all of these language files are included with Spectre. If you create a language file for a country not included, we would appreciate a copy of it to distribute with Spectre. ___________________________________________________________________________ LOADABLE KEYBOARD TABLES ___________________________________________________________________________ Spectre will now automatically load a keyboard table for the appropriate country (similar to the language files). By editing the keyboard table, you can remap most of the keys to other keys. This is primarily for those countries that we don't currently support, although others may want to change the keyboard table as well. For example, you can now swap the function of the Alternate and Control keys (many people have requested this). You can also create a Dvorak keyboard layout, etc. The keyboard table files are named the same as the language files, except they have a .KEY extender (instead of .LNG). Instructions for modifying/creating keyboard tables are in the file USA.KEY. Note: as with the language files, not all keyboard files are included with Spectre. If you create a keyboard file for a country not included, we would appreciate a copy of it to distribute with Spectre. ___________________________________________________________________________ ON-LINE HELP ___________________________________________________________________________ When this option is selected, a help file is loaded from disk and displayed in a dialog box. The first help "screen" is a list of available topics - clicking on one will bring you to the appropriate page. Clicking on 'Home' will take you back to the topic list page. Help files are named the same as the language files, except they have a .HLP extender (instead of .LNG). Instructions for modifying/creating help files are in the file USA.HLP. ___________________________________________________________________________ MISCELLANEOUS ___________________________________________________________________________ The 'Restart' menu option in Finder now works (except on the TT). The 'Welcome to Macintosh' and Shutdown dialogs are now centered on the screen properly. The startup disk icon and Happy Mac icons are also centered. ___________________________________________________________________________ BUG FIXES (since Spectre 2.65/2.65c) ___________________________________________________________________________ As stated above, the keyboard type is now correct (Mac Plus keyboard) and the problem with the Calculator DA and the keypad is fixed. Several bugs in the in-line formatting code have been fixed making in-line formatting much more stable and reliable. Spectre should never lock up when an unformatted disk is inserted. A bug necessitating pressing a function key twice to mount a drive after restarting has been fixed. A problem with the Extended Parameter RAM (XPARAM) not working properly is now fixed. This was evident in the Map CDEV, which wouldn't let you set your current location correctly. When using System 6.0.4 (and above), emulation of a Mac Plus (as opposed to Mac 512Ke) works as it should. System 6.0.5 now works. System 6.0.6 and 6.0.7 work, although the new Sound Manager in them does not work. You will only be able to use the 'Simple Beep'. When restarting after a crash or failed boot, the system would often lockup (with a non-flashing question mark). This is now fixed. Under VERY extreme circumstances, this could have caused lockups at other times. A bug in the Bus Error handler has been fixed. This now allows Grammatik Mac to work and PageMaker 4.0 to print PostScript to disk without locking up. This may also help other applications which simply freeze the machine. Note: these programs are doing an illegal Zerostore which the Bus Error handler was handling incorrectly; the real problem still lies internally to the application. Several bugs in the serial driver have been fixed. This allows the use of Apple's Asynchronous LaserWriter driver to print directly to a PostScript printer attached to the serial port. A change was made in the mouse handler which should prevent the mouse from ever locking up. Note that this isn't necessarily the same as the COMPUTER locking up, which is generally the result of misbehaved software. Flashing A & B, crash page, Orwell's disk monitor and other debugger output should display properly on non-standard monitor sizes. Pressing keypad-* at a crash page should return you to the Finder. This was always here, but never worked properly. Now, it has a good chance of working, although the crash may have left the machine in a non-recoverable state. Note that this works by "quitting" the current application and returning you to the Finder. If you are already at the Finder, this will NOT work. Copying Mac & Spectre disks with Spectre's 'Duplicate Disk' function now works properly. Previously, there were times it would report that the destination disk is bad. KanjiTalk 2.0 now works. HyperCard 2.0 now works. ___________________________________________________________________________ EXISTING BUGS ___________________________________________________________________________ System 6.0.6/6.0.7 Sound Manager doesn't work (this will not be fixed in Spectre 3.0, probably not in 3.1 either).