So you got just what you asked for, an Atari Portfolio.  It is a great little
(toy) computer.  It can do many wonderful things.  A natural addition, to make
it ever so much more useful is the serial interface.  This lets you "see the
world", or at least listen to it.

Terrific!  You feverishly open the boxes, throw away the documentation and lo
and behold, there is no serial port software in the machine.  The file transfer
utility is only for the parallel port.  You immediately dial the Atari 800
number, asking for tech support.  You find that you are one of very few to
not purchase the parallel interface and/or the RAM card.

No need to worry (be happy).  Atari informs you that the software is available
on the ATARISOFT forum on CIS!  A program named XTERM1.COM will solve your
problems.

A quick trip to the forum indeed restores your faith in the addage that "misery
loves company".  The program is there and so are the "loaders" necessary to 
overcome the inadequacies of the Portfolio COPY command with respect to binary
file transfers over the serial line.

Several hours (days) later you load everything onto the PF just in time to need
new batteries.  Bye bye programs.

In an attempt to enable the loading of these programs in an orderly and simple
fashion, I have prepared the accompanying files.  Credit goes to Jim Strauss,
I believe, for XTERM1.COM, BINHEX.COM, HEXBIN.COM and CHKSUM.COM.  I have added
PFLOAD.EXE, PFLOAD.BAS, PFBOOT.BAT and LOAD.BAT.  Together, the process is
nearly foolproof (Okay you fools, prove me wrong).  I have taken the liberty
of bundling these programs together for ease of downloading, especially for
novices.  Oh yes, all programs are MS-DOS compatible.

To load, simply connect the serial cable, start both machines and type (on PC):

		PFBOOT [ENTER]

The programs prompt you when necessary.


For further assistance and/or questions:

	Michael D. Weisner
	71401,1245