Editing Atari ST (section)

== Software ==
=== Music / Sound ===
The ST's low cost, built-in MIDI ports, and fast, low-latency response times made it a favorite with musicians.

The ST was the first [[home computer]] with built-in MIDI ports, and there was plenty of MIDI-related software for use professionally in music studios, or by amateur enthusiasts. The popular Windows/Macintosh applications ''[[Cubase]]'' and ''[[Logic Pro]]'' originated on the Atari ST. Another popular and powerful ST music sequencer application, Dr. T's KCS, contained a "Multi-Program Environment" that allowed ST users to run other applications, such as the synthesizer patch editing software XoR (now known as Unisyn on the Macintosh), from within the sequencer application.[http://tamw.atari-users.net/omega.htm]  Even today some people (such as Fatboy Slim) are still using the Atari ST for composing music.

Music tracker software was popular on the ST, such as the ''TCB Tracker'', MusicMon 2.5 and MaxYMiser aiding the production of quality music from the Yamaha synthesizer ('chiptunes').

An innovative music composition program that combined the sample playing abilities of a tracker with conventional music notation (which was usually only found in MIDI software) was called ''Quartet'' (after its 4-note polyphonic tracker, which displayed one monophonic stave at a time on colour screens).

Due to the ST having comparatively large amounts of memory for the time, sound sampling packages became a realistic proposition. The Microdeal Replay Professional product featured a sound sampler that cleverly used the ST cartridge port to read in parallel from the cartridge port from the ADC. For output of digital sound, it used the on-board frequency output, set it to 128&nbsp;kHz (inaudible) and then modulated the amplitude of that.

In addition to the sound sampling functionalities, the availability of software packages with MIDI support for music composition and efficient sound analysis contributed to make the Atari ST a forerunner of later computer-based all-in-one studios.

=== Applications ===
Also popular on the ST was professional [[desktop publishing]] software, such as ''PageStream'' and ''Calamus''; office tools such as word processors (''WordPerfect'', ''WordWriter ST'' and others), spreadsheets and database programs; and various CAD and CAM tools from amateur hobbyist to professional grade, all being largely targeted or even limited to high resolution monochrome-monitor owners.

Graphics programs such as ''NEOchrome'', ''Degas'' & ''Degas Elite'', ''Canvas'', ''Deluxe Pain'', and ''Cyber Paint'' featured advanced features such as 3D design, animation. One paint program, ''Spectrum 512'', used palette switching tricks allowing the maximum number of colors to be displayed on-screen at once (up to 46 in each scan line - the STE never had a Spectrum4096, but other more minor applications filled this speciality niche, one even going so far as to trick the shifter into displaying a maximum 19200 colours).

[[3D computer graphics]] applications (like The [[Cyber Studio]]), brought 3D modelling, sculpting, scripting, and most important, [[computer animation]] (using delta-compression) to the desktop. Video capture and editing applications using special video capture 'dongles' connected using the cartridge port - low frame rate, mainly silent and monochrome, but progressing to sound and basic colour (in still frames) by the end of the machine's life.

=== Software development ===
The Atari ST had a wide variety of languages and tools for development. 68000 assemblers (MadMac from Atari Corp, HiSoft's Devpac), Pascal (OSS Personal Pascal), C compilers (like Alcyon C, Lattice C, Megamax C, Mark Williams C, GNU C, Aztec C), LISP, Prolog, Logo and many others.

The initial development kit from Atari included a computer and manuals. At $5,000, this discouraged many from developing software for the ST. Later,
the Atari Developer's Kit consisted of software and manuals (no hardware) for  $300. Included with the kit were a resource kit, C compiler (first Alcyon C, then Mark Williams C), debugger, and 68000 assembler (plus the non-disclosure agreement).

The ST came bundled with a system disk that contained ''[[ST BASIC]]'', the first BASIC for the ST. However, due to its poor performance, users favored other BASICs, such as ''GFA BASIC'', FaST BASIC (notable for being one of the few programs to actually be supplied as a ROM cartridge instead of on disc) and the relatively famous ''STOS'', a cousin of AMOS on the Amiga, and powerful enough that it was used (with a compiler, opposed to its usual runtime interpreter) for the production of at least two commercial titles and an innumerable host of good quality shareware and public domain games.

Even novelty tools such as ''[[Shoot'Em-Up Construction Kit|SEUCK]]'' were available.

=== Games ===
The ST enjoyed success in gaming due to low cost, fast performance and colorful graphics. 

Notable individuals who developed games on the ST include [[Peter Molyneux]], [[Doug Bell]], [[Jeff Minter]], [[Jez San]], [[James Hutchby]], [[Dimitri Koveos]] and [[David Braben]]. The first real-time 3D role-playing computer game, ''[[Dungeon Master (computer game)|Dungeon Master]]'', was first developed and released on the ST, and was the best-selling software ever produced for the platform. Simulation games like ''[[Falcon (computer game)|Falcon]]'' and ''[[Microsoft Flight Simulator#History|Flight Simulator II]]'' made use of the enhanced graphics found in the ST machines, as did many arcade ports. One game, [[MIDI Maze]] used the midi ports to connect with other machines for interactive networked play. Games simultaneously released on the Amiga that had identical graphics and sound were often accused by computer game magazines of simply being ST ports.

:See ''[[List of Atari ST games]]'' and ''[[:Category:Atari ST games]]''.

=== Utilities / Misc ===
Utility software was available to drive hardware add-ons such as video digitisers. Office Productivity and graphics software was also bundled with the ST (HyperPaint II by Dimitri Koveos, HyperDraw by David Farmborough, 3D-Calc spreadsheet by Frank Schoonjans, and several others commissioned by [[Bob Katz]], later of [[Electronic Arts]]).

There was a thriving output of [[public domain]] and [[shareware]] software which was distributed by, in the days long before public internet access, [[public domain software library|public domain software libraries]] that advertised in magazines and on popular dial-up Bulletin Board Systems.

Remarkably, a modest core fanbase for the system, supporting a dwindling number of good quality print magazines, survived to the mid 90s and the birth of the modern, publicly accessible internet as we know it. Despite the limited graphics, memory, and temporary hard storage capabilities of the system, several email, FTP, telnet, IRC, and even full-blown graphical World Wide Web browser applications are available and usable on the ST.