ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/BASICV/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, BASICV a Dabhand Guide Part 6
BASICV a Dabhand Guide Part 6
Alligata Media
About this book
We have largely left this book unaltered: the original edition was written by Mike Williams and included a section relating to the DABS Press books and software which has, of course, been deleted and we refer you to
At present we are considering an update to this book to cover the use of more modern BASIC in the shape of that supplied with the Risc PC, but offer no promises beyond this re-print. This book was produced using Ovation Pro on my StrongARM Risc PC; with the whole mainly typed from an original which was produced using VIEW on a Master Compact before being laid out for press in MacAuthor.
This article concludes the serialisation of this book in RISCWorld.
You may have noticed that we have reviewed a couple of sets of computer speakers in past issues of RISCWorld, so why on earth am I reviewing a CD stereo system? Well it's quite simple; I needed a new office stereo, but due to current financial restraints, I had bugger all to spend on a new one. So whilst being dragged kicking and screaming around Safeway (I have an allergy to food/clothes/shoe shopping - it's funny that I seem to have married someone who doesn't) I spotted a large palette of CD systems - even better they were on special offer, a complete CD/Tuner/Cassete player combo with speakers for a penny under £20. It had to be worth a punt, especially as I happened to have a crisp note in my wallet. So what on earth can you buy these days for "pocket money", well let's find out.
The CD-1492 stereo system
So having carefully ripped the box open, inside is a shiny new stereo, packaged in what looked suspiciously like recycled egg boxes. For those sort of money you can't expect a remote control, but that doesn't bother me as I will only ever be an arms stretch away from the volume control. You do get the stereo, speakers and a rather natty 21 page instruction manual. 21 pages! It's only a Stereo! So first things first what are the specs:
Power Output 3 watts per channel with optional bass boost
Detachable stereo speakers with rear bass ports
CD player with repeat, program and random modes
Analogue AM/FM tuner
Cassette deck with smooth eject, playback and record using built in microphone
Right that's that out of the way, so what on earth is a 20 quid stereo going to sound like? Well I wasn't expecting much and I nearly just threw the speakers straight in the bin, as all I really needed was the CD/radio bit. Anyway lets try it, but wait, where is the mains lead? Argh, it's missing. After a frantic minute hunting through the packaging I was convinced it was missing. If I had bothered reading the instructions stuck to the top of the stereo instead of just ripping it off without looking I would have discovered that the mains lead was hidden inside the battery compartment, cunning.
So with that little diversion over it was time to try it. Much to mine and Hayley's surprise it didn't sound half bad, in actual fact it sounded rather reasonable. Turning on the bass boost made things even better. The speaker enclosures themselves are only made of plastic and hence resonate at higher volumes, and extra "sound" is obtained using the bass ports in the back. This is a quick and cheap way of getting more out of a small speaker, since it allows the speaker to move air in both directions and create more sound. As you would expect the sound isn't superb, but the little stereo picks out a surprising amount of detail in the mid and higher ranges, the bass is certainly fuzzy, but at least it's present. Many cheap stereos have little bass response and to me the sound they produce is totally wrong. A quick comparison with the boombox we have in the kitchen (from Tesco - yes more food shopping) which cost the same showed there was no comparison, withe the Lenoxx producing a much better well rounded sound.
As is often the case speaker positioning is quite critical, placing the speakers a few inches from a wall improved the sound further. The supplied cables are long enough to get the speakers far enough apart for a nice clean stereo separation.
The CD player works well, although, as you expect for the price, skips at the slightest knock. The FM tuner also works well enough, with a rear aerial that folds away neatly but can be extended and repositioned for the best reception. The tape deck also performs very well, although there is no bias adjustment. Not that this matters as I haven't listened to a tape for years and don't intend to. All the controls feel nice to use, the volume control especially, it rotates smoothly and being analogue offers adjustment to the ideal level easily. overall the entire system feels well made and although it's no stunner in the looks stakes it is far from offensive.
So overall am I pleased? Yes, very pleased, the Lenoxx performs far better than I had any right to expect. If you need a portable stereo, or a small form factor stereo then I can whole heartedly recommend it. It doesn't excel in any area but it doesn't disappoint either, and at under £20 it represents an absolute bargain.
Looking to make those documents a little prettier? Perhaps you need to look at some new offerings from Focus Multimedia which may help you do just that.
Whatever you use your computer for, occasionally the time will come when you need clipart. There are a few collections of Draw files, ArtWorks files and similar available for RISC OS; but it has to be said that they're few and far between in terms of availability and you can buy clipart for PCs from virtually any computer shop.
With a little help from programs such as ImageFS (or Keith Sloan's Careware offerings) all RISC OS computers can easily access WMFs, TIFFs, JPEGs and more besides. As a result, we're taking a quick look this month at a number of new offerings from Focus Multimedia.
To start off with, the 115,000 Clipart Images collection uses the Hemera GraphicsDesk front end as a convenient means of searching through a considerable number of images. The majority of this collection consists of vector graphics, but the pack also includes a fourth CD-ROM with 50,000 graphics intended for use on websites. The quality is generally good; and as such even though RISC OS users will have to sit down for a long time to find what they need this is a worthwhile addition to most collections.
Next up, 20,000 photos offers just that – 20,000 JPEG photographs covering a wide variety of interests and topics. The resolution of these images isn't high enough for professional usage (if you try to enlarge the images beyond their original size they rapidly start to lose quality) but for tiny additions to your more general desktop publishing documents, they're ideal.
Finally, the 200,000 Clipart Images collection again makes use of the GraphicsDesk browser; but the content is easily accessible to most RISC OS users. A large proportion of this collection consists of photography; something for which Hemera are well known; but the quality of the clipart and web images supplied is equally pretty good.
As a general rule of thumb, if you're looking into buying PC clipart for use under RISC OS you'll need a previewing tool (such as Mr Clippy or PhotoFiler) and plenty of patience. There is quality material available out there; but it will require work to find it.
The first two collections are priced at £9.99; with the third £19.99 and all are available from Focus Multimedia at www.focusselect.co.uk.
APDL / ProAction Software would like to celebrate the launch of the Topologika range by offering one lucky reader almost £80 worth of software.
Over the years, Topologika Software have released numerous educational packages for the RISC OS platform. When they made the decision at the start of the year to withdraw from the market, we very quickly took the opportunity to acquire their software to ensure its continued supply and support for RISC OS users. A number of minor upgrades have been planned for the range, including graphical improvements and IYONIX PC updates.
We'd like to know what you want - email
If in the meantime you'd like a chance to win some software, look no further than that below. Each of the titles on offer has a RRP of £19.90; and low cost site licences are also available. Until the end of July, any RISCWorld subscriber who buys a title for use in a school will receive a free site licence; and for everybody else there's a buy two get one free offer.
Freddy Teddys Bumper Pack
In this Bumper Pack (consisting of six separate programs, each of which was available previously individually), Freddy Teddy tackles all sorts of cross-curricular challenges:
In Balloons, Freddy must rescue a ball, by recognising, or adding, numbers to 5 or 10
In The Playground, Freddy needs to be taught how to play on a slide, a swing, a roundabout, a climbing frame or a see-saw
In The Wardrobe, Freddy has to dress in the right sequence to work in the garden, play in the snow, splash on the pool or get to bed
In The Zoo, Freddy counts animals from 1 to 5 or 10, randomly or in sequence
In The Puddle, Freddy must remember the colours of the clothes he was wearing before he stepped into a big puddle and hung them up to dry
Completing Freddys Adventure leads to an invitation to the Teddy Bear's Picnic
Originally released for the Nimbus 186 series, the Freddy Teddy collection offers timeless educational value; and will keep the kids entertained for hours on end
Alphapics and Numberpics
Alphapics and Numberpics is a versatile picture, letter and number matching package that is ideal for early readers and those learning to count. The Literacy activities can use the whole of the alphabet or particular letters from the alphabet; and letters can be spoken. The Numeracy activities cover number recognition and counting to 5 or 10.
Four activities are included:
Alphapics I Spy - click the picture that starts with the letter show
Alphapics I Spot - find the picture that starts with the letter at centre of the scree
Numberpics Count - choose the digit for the number of object
Numberpics Find - find the picture that matches the numbe
Supplied with full documentation in electronic format, Alphapics and Numberpics will record your childs progress; and boasts both colourful graphics and sound. An ideal addition to your educational software collection.
MusicBox
Music Box comes in four self-contained parts:
Sound Box is a place in which to try out different sounds. Children can listen to up to seven different instruments at eleven different pitches and use the on-screen tape-deck to record their tunes
Chord Box gives children the chance to experiment with chords by changing the position of notes on vertical 'keyboards'. Chord sequences can be recorded and replayed as accompaniments for other classroom instruments
Beat Box is a simple drum machine for setting up percussion patterns on a time line. Patterns can then be edited to develop satisfying rhythms, even 'raps' - a great way to link music with poetry
Tune Box brings these ideas together by allowing notes to be placed on a stave-like grid. This activity requires a more structured approach
Contains extensive support documentation, plus many examples to fully illustrate the educational and fun potential offered inside.
DO I.T. Bumper Pack
The DO IT Bumper Pack is made up over 20 activities that cover numeracy and literacy. Specially written for the early years through to early teens, including children with Special Educational Needs, the activities extend children's thinking, reasoning and logical thought processes.
There are eight different programs which are easy to set up for different ages - designed to be used with worksheets that you can print from your CD-ROM on a desktop printer. Within minutes, your child will be immersed into a world of creative numeracy and literacy; with fun activities that will be stimulate and entertain their active minds.
NUMERACY activities: Count It, Place It, Sort It and Sum I
LITERACY activities: Anagram It, Connect It, Select It, Word I
Do IT is supplied with full documentation, including a number of activity worksheets that can be printed out, on the CD-ROM. (This pack was previously available as two products).
To be in with a chance of winning, simply tell us how many activities are supplied with the DO I.T. suite in total. We'll make it easy for you - the answer is in the paragraph immediately above, preceded by NUMERACY and LITERACY. Answers to
RISCWorld
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/DISC/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, DiscWorld
DiscWorld
Aaron Timbrell rounds up the software directory
It's ben another busy couple of months since the last issue of RISCWorld (for a number of reasons). I have also run into a slight problem, I have just noticed that I haven't written a DiscWold column, and now I am at the deadline for this issue, so this issues DiscWorld might be a bit short!
So what delights do we have this issue, well first off we are publishing the full commercial version of TypeStudio.
TypeStudio
TypeStudio is a complete text manipulation package which can convert outline fonts to draw files, flow text along paths, mould text to shapes and apply special effects. Use it to produce professional quality adverts, posters, banners, logos, letterheads etc. Built-in tools allow lines and curves to be drawn along which text can be flowed to follow any shape. Pairs of lines may be linked to create shapes into which text (and Draw files!) may be moulded. The resulting object can then be scaled, rotated etc. or have a special effect applied to it.
A wide range of effects can be applied to text. Three types of shadow, slanted or mirrored in any direction, 3D, plinth and column. Effects may be combined giving endless possibilities. TypeStudio is intuitive to use, especially to users familiar with Draw. TypeStudio provides line/curve drawing tools, and options to group/ungroup, scale, rotate, and copy objects.
Designs produced on TypeStudio may be exported as Draw files, or they may be saved in TypeStudio format so that paths, moulds and style attributes are maintained for future editing.
TypeStudio currently retails at £9.99, but for RISCWorld readers it's free.
The complete DiscWorld line up
As per usual we have our collections of the latest RISC OS games and applications, as well as support files for this issues articles. So the full DiscWorld line up looks something like this:
Educ
Support files for the education column.
Games
All the games from this issues games world column.
PD
All the latest PD, shareware and freeware releases from the PD column.
TheA5
High resolution photos of the A5 in action.
ToolBox
This contains two sets of Toolbox Modules. The Castle archive contains the latest 26/32 bit neutral system components, required if you want to run a lot of new software releases on 26bit machines (ie. anything that isn't an Iyonix). The RISCOS Ltd archive contains later and improved versions of a number of modules and is suitable for all versions of RISC OS from 3.1 onwards.
TypeStudio
The full commercial version of TypeStudio, including all the example files.
Those with a long memory may recall a previous rant where I was trying to get car insurance for my Shogun. One of my comments was that one insurer only managed to quote me "bloody miserable". Well they have been at it again. Let me explain.
For some years I have insured various vehicles with an insurer called Hill House Hammond. They are very useful as they insure all sorts of vehicles that normal insurers won't touch, classic cars, off road vehicles, kit cards, specials etc. However a few months ago they were suddenly taken over by Norwich Union Direct with little warning. Policy holders got nice letters saying that normal service would continue and that when renewals cam through they would be handled in the same way, but by Norwich Union.
Last year my little Lotus kit car was insured with Hill House Hammond, the fully comprehensive premium came to £160.73. Why so cheap? Well the vehicle is a second car, it's garaged, it only goes out in the dry and is limited to 3000 miles a year. Those of you that run classic vehicles should know how little they cost to insure. One of the main reasons is that these sort of "specialist" vehicles are very rarely involved in any accidents. If you care about the vehicle you don't drive it like you would a two year old Vectra.
Anyway, this year an insurance renewal came through from Norwich Union. The cost? An eye watering £636.85. Yes that's right, the premium had increased by 400%. As you can imagine I was not chuffed, in fact I was severely dischuffed. So I got straight on the phone, and got a recorded introduction to Norwich Union, including yet another "let us quote you happy" advert. I finally got through to a human being (the top tip here is when the phone system tells you to press star or something else do nothing, you usually get transferred to an operator), who had no idea what was going on apart from "Oh, we don't insure kitcars...". As you can imagine I got a bit annoyed and explained the situation. Firstly there was an argument over last years premium, she didn't believe I paid only £160, but does she have the premium on screen? No. Do I have the renewal notice from last year in my hand? Yes. Eventually she said that they would have to go away and "re-calculate" the premium and send it to me again. Lets see what turns up in the post...
So what's the moral of the story. Well if some big company comes along and tries to squash a small company, and shaft the small company's customers in the process, then don't be surprised if the customers complain. Also don't be surprised if the customers decide to simply walk off and go somewhere else.
I wrote the above about two weeks ago. In this morning's post I got an apology letter, apparently the increased premium was an "error". Instead the premium would only go up by about 60 quid. OK, but what happens when the insurance is due on the other vehicles later in the year...
Printing RISC World
The new look of RISC World means that you will no longer get the yellow background when printing articles from RISCWorld. However you will still get the blue border on the left unless you turn off the printing of background images. The example below shows the print dialogue box from Fresco.
As you can see the option "No Background" is ticked. If you want to print out any of the RISCWorld pages and don't want to waste ink on a blue border then make sure you have clicked a similar option in your browser.
Aaron Timbrell
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/EDUC/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, The Education Column
The Education Column
Andrew Harmsworth with the latest Education news
Having to use a PC more and more often in my work, I have to keep reminding myself that computers are merely tools and that they're supposed to make our lives easier. When recently battling against MS Word's so-called intelligence, I rediscovered something I used to use in Impression, but had forgotten all about...
Abbrev. Dict.
Repeatedly typing in technical terms, such as "electro-magnetic induction" it's often a good idea to make use of your word processor's abbreviation dictionary. I happily used Impression Publisher for years to do this - it is a feature often overlooked by even experienced computer users.
Whilst hastily writing up a series of questions involving speed and acceleration, I was getting fed up with entering ms-1 and ms-2 as their respective units of measurement. [Strictly speaking, of course, there should be a quarter-em space between the letters, but this document is written in HTML and I really can't be bothered to look it up - I'm not even sure it exists!] Surely Word could be taught to expand a simpler version, just like Impression?
Well, here's how it's done in Impression Publisher. Since many of us are looking forward to a new version of this backbone of RISC OS desktop-publishing, it's worthy of mention before its rebirth. First, go to Impression's Utilities menu:
Fig. 1: Impression's Utilities menu
First, set Expand as you type on. This will ensure any abbreviations that Impression knows are used:
Fig. 2: Impression's Abbrev. menu
Next, load Impression's Abbreviation dictionary:
Fig. 3: Impression's Abbrev. Dict.
As is almost certainly to be obvious, you can see that I've previously used the Abbrev. Dict. to solve popular typing errors, such as teh instead of the. But can it cope with my rather demanding requirements?
Learn Once - Use Indefinitely
To teach Impression an abbreviation is easy. All you have to do is first enter the abbreviated form of the word or expression. Let's start with a simple one with which people are familiar:
Fig. 4: Learning RO = RISC OS
With the abbreviated form of the word entered - RO in this case - separate what you want in its place by a space - in this case RISC OS. Click learn, and Impression will now automatically turn RO into RISC OS for you. It is case sensitive, so ro or Ro will not work.
But what about the more sophisticated ms-1? MS Word has the ability to handle formatted text as part of its AutoCorrect feature (although it's very hard to use!). Impression (at the moment) does not, but fortunately it can handle special characters entered either from !Chars of using the alt key.
Fig. 5: Learning ms1 = ms-1
Fig. 6: Entering -1 via !Chars
Impression has its limitations. For example, MS Word will automatically convert 1/2 into 1/2. Impression cannot do this, even via the abbreviation dictionary, as it does not appear to handle the / character. Perhaps further enhancement of the abbreviation dictionary in the 32-bit enhanced version of Impression being developed in Holland could be on the cards?
Bonus Dictionary
If you use Impression Publisher, or a variation on it, here's an abbreviation dictionary that you might find useful! To use, first load Impression in the normal way, then double click the dictionary. If you want to use it all the time, copy it into !Publisher.Auto.
In MS Word
To use auto-correction in MS Word, click Tools-AutoCorrect, then enter what you want replaced, and what with. To use formatted text, first enter what you want to have as the replacement text in the document body itself. Select the expanded word (e.g. ms-1) then choose Tools-AutoCorrect from the menu. Click the formatted text option (this defaults to off, even if you've selected formatted text!), then enter the abbreviated form to its left:
Fig. 7: Setting up formatted auto-correct in MS Word
This is a powerful feature that should be a useful tool on all desktop publishing or word processing software. A quick look at TechWriter Pro+, Textease and an early version of Ovation Pro doesn't seem to indicate its presence. I always loved Impression and suspect it might be on for something of a resurrection later this year...
If you have any questions or comments on the use of RISC OS computers in education, please either email education@harmsy.freeuk.com or better still join the RISC OS Education Discussion List, and air them there.
Andrew Harmsworth
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/GAMES/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, Games World
Games World
Paul Brett with the latest gaming news.
Once again e have another action packed games world column for you to enjoy, plus of course we are including the games we mention on this issues CD. As I am sure you recall
Hamsters
Hamsters was written by Tom Cooper, and was released commercially by Gamesware in 1994 and has been freewared by Imparo. This version has been supplied by Matthew Thompson with a screenmode from Jason Tribbeck. It is a multi-level politically incorrect platform game. Each level has a time limit. Only when you have successfully squashed every furry animal on the level will you have completed it. Also littered around the levels are several bonus items that you can collect to increase your score. In order to progress through the levels you will need to use your hammer, firstly to squash any small furry animals and secondly to bounce you up to higher platforms.
Hamsters should run fine on RISC OS versions from 3 to Adjust, but not on RISC OS 5.
Hamsters in action
To move about the levels you need the following controls:
Left
Right
Use Hammer/Jump RETURN
The longer the RETURN key is held down the harder the hammer blow will be.
Hamsters can be configured to your own personal requirements - to tailor the game to your own particular taste. The options menu is accessed from the introduction screen - to scroll through the options press Z to move up and X to move down. To select a particular option use the RETURN key. Once you have finished tailoring the game select exit options to return to the introduction screen and start the game.
Start Level - This allows you to enter a password if you wish to begin the game at a particular level
Scenery - This will alter the detail of the background scenery. There are Four options, Low, Medium, High and Full
Blood - This will tailor the game to suit either the most squeamish or the most Blood-thirsty! There are Four blood options, each altering the degree of carnage left behind by squashed animals - None, Some, Lots and Buckets
Messages - There are 3 options for the ingame messages and prompts - Off, Clear and Solid
Wibble - The Wibble option reduces or enhances the amount of screen shake caused by a hammer blow. There are 4 options - Off, Low, Severe and High. It is not recommended that you play Hamsters with Buckets of blood and a High Wibble setting if you are suffering a hangover
Music On/Off - This allows you to turn the in game music on and off
You can look at the high score table and take heart from the fact that you are not the only psychopathic maniac that enjoys killing defenceless, soft, furry animals. To exit Hamsters press the ESCAPE key until you return to the introduction screen. Select Return To Desktop. To remove Hamsters from the icon bar press the MENU button over the Hamster icon and click SELECT on quit. The Hamsters goodbye screen will then play. To skip this press the SPACE-BAR.
WaveLength
Another Tom Cooper classic, again this was supplied by GamesWare and has been declared freeware by Imparo. Wavelength lacks the humour of other Tom Cooper games and rather is a classic shoot-em-up. You start off with a ship armed with one single cannon, however by carefully destroying the enemies you will be able to collect weapons uprades, rather like Xenon 2. Although this starts out quite slowly it soon gets quite manic, and don't forget that if things get too much you can always back off for a short time and pick off enemies one at a time.
WaveLength should run fine on RISC OS versions from 3 to Adjust, and on RISC OS 5 with the help of Aemulor Pro.
Wavelength in action
Z and X - Turn left and righ
Shift - Go faster
Return - Fire main weapo
Space - Launch bom
Escape - Quit to men
A quick update on WaveLength, it seems that CJE Micro's actually own the distribution rights to this game and so it has been removed from the Acorn Arcade downloads area. Of course we have also removed it from this software section of this issue's CD.
CMan
Now it's time for a new game from Neil White, the man who it seems has produced more new RISC OS games than anyone else over the last couple of years. CMan is a version of Pac-man, written as a C programming exercise. Neil has included the full source code for those that want to see how the game works.
CMan in action
As the game is in pseudo 3D the controls operate diagonally:
E - Move up and lef
O - Move up and righ
D - Move down and left
K - Move down and righ
Q- Qui
That's all we have time for this time, I hope to be back with more games next issue.
Paul Brett
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/GEN/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, Organise your family history
Organise your family history
David Bradforth continues his series on genealogy...
Once you've started to collate your family history data, it's going to quickly become large and difficult to deal with unless you bring organisation to it. By organisation, I mean you devise a means by which you can quickly and easily refer to a specific set of data without having to dig through piles of paper along the way.
Using your computer, a scanner, some OCR software and an image-editing package you've pretty much got everything you need to do that. Oh and, of course, you need a genealogy package for RISC OS. This is, of course, where this article begins.
Geneology Software
In days gone by, RISC OS users had available to them a number of commercial genealogy applications; from a variety of sources.
Micro Aid from Cornwall had their Family History System, a derivative of the same program for the BBC Micro. While it offered some of the basic features necessary, and certainly was a stunning example of what could be achieved on the BBC Micro, for users of RISC OS it was simply lacking. As a single-tasking program, running in Mode 7, it didn't allow the degree of control many people had come to expect.
One of the first major genealogy applications for the Archimedes series was Ancestry, written by the late Graham Crow. Published just before the release of RISC OS 2, the first Ancestry was designed to work primarily within the Arthur operating system (which itself was severely lacking) and while it offered the majority of the functionality required at the time, the reliance upon Arthur did prove to be a major stumbling block.
In early 1997, Minerva Software were handed plans for Ancestry 2 by Graham Crow, but they chose not to adopt the original authors plans and instead appointed somebody else to write the sequel. While many efforts were made to correct faults in it, Ancestry 2 was critically panned from the moment it was released; and after a few years the program disappeared without trace.
A few years on Graham Crow decided to retake the mantle of genealogy king, and started reworking Ancestry into a new, up to date, and fully fledged genealogy suite. Unfortunately, just after the Wakefield Show at which it was announced, Graham died suddenly. Taking up the mantle, Dave Holden continued development of Ancestry but (due to Minerva Software being... well... quite stupid about things) the name had to be changed to Ancestor.
Which pretty much brings us pretty much up to date: and to where we are now. Whatever the origins of the software are, whether they're on a RISC OS computer, PC or Mac, the aim is always the same: to bring order to your genealogical data. As such, while the rest of this tutorial is focused on Ancestor, it could be applied equally to Reunion (on a Mac) or Family Tree Maker (on a PC).
Getting started with Ancestor
When Ancestor is purchased, it's supplied on CD-ROM together with a seventy-odd page manual. If you're using the trial, you've got pretty much the same thing - except electronically, and there are limitations placed upon how many entries you can have in the database. Nothing that limits you from experimenting with the program, but certainly will limit you from tracing three hundred years of your family line.
Supplied with Ancestor are two 'helper' utilities; designed to make it easier to import data from other packages.
AncConv takes as its input files from Ancestry 1, Ancestry 2, Ancestor+ Beta versions, files from !Family by Dennis Howe and Family History System GEDCOM files; and converts them into a format usable by Ancestor. A second utility, Ged-Anc performs the same function for GEDCOM files. Why a separate utility? If the GEDCOM format is updated, it's easier to update a small component of a large program rather than to trace through a large program and see where each component is referenced
The Examples directory contains a number of databases; some large (Lincoln, RoyalFam and UKRoyalty) and others not so large (Smith). We'll be using the Smith database as a starting point for our own, as there's no better way to gain an understanding of a program such as this than experimentation.
Double-click on the Smith file to open the database. The database will open, providing a screen similar to that shown below.
Start by adding the person you know the most about - yourself - in the position of David Smith. To do so, right-click on the entry 'David Smith'; which will then open a window within which you can edit the details given. You can also add to them - for instance to include your place of birth as well as date of birth.
When you are ready to do so, click 'Update' and the database will update, then the window closes showing your updated database. Repeat this procedure for John Smith and Mary Brown, entering the details of your own mother and father.
With these entries now in place, experiment with the functionality available. You can, at any time, click the 'chart' button (it's the furthest to the right on the button bar at the top of the screen) and, by following the usual RISC OS method, subsequently save out a Chart file; perhaps to edit it a little further within ArtWorks.
The final part of our Genealogy tutorial looks at the presentation of data; and will include a detailed overview of everything currently available (including some of the better options from the PC and Macintosh markets). We appreciate that while preparing your family tree, you may have to use other computers - and as such it's within the scope of this article to consider that.
If you've got any questions, email me - I'll be delighted to help where I can.
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/HUGHJ/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, The Hugh Jampton Experience
Yes, it's the time for the best bit of RISCWorld, the world famous Hugh Jampton Experience!
The caption competition
As I am sure you will all recall we published this picture last time and asked for a caption or two:
Much to my surprise the response was truly underwhelming, or to put it another way, if you entered you had a 100% chance of winning. So in no order our entries are:
"Customer expressing gratitude for assistance provided by Microsoft's Customer Services Department."
Michael Poole
Mind you Michael did go on to say "I don't care if the above wins or not. Thanks for publishing the picture. I just love it!". Well in fact it did win, indeed it was the best entry by far. Anyway can anyone come up with a nice caption for this?
Send your entries to HughJ@riscworld.co.uk and you too could join the elite group of caption competition winners.
Hugh's picture gallery
So it's time for the real end piece, my regular low quality photo gallery...
Now that's what we like to see, an up to date information display system.
Of course you don't just need up to date info at the airport.
Of course you could always give up tying to get anywhere and play the latest game.
Or have some fun with the latest operating system.
In May I had the wonderful pleasure of visiting the Wakefield show for the first time. There were plenty of exciting things to see, but no doubt you've already read the RISCWorld report from last issue so I won't bore you with the details
However of specific interest to IYONIX users were Castle's announcements of yet another new range of machines. Or - to be more accurate - new case designs. True, the X100 desktop case was hardly ground breakingly exciting, but as I reported in March the new case was a result of Castle listening to big corporate customers, and significantly it allows compliance with the US radiation standards
Castle's new Panther PC features a very nice sleek black case (wonder where the inspiration for the name came from?) with an attractive mirror strip down the front, and this time unlike the X100 case it's BIG. It has space for eleven drives compared the standard IYONIX case which can hold just five. Before you stop me, yes, I know... there is only space on the motherboard for four IDE drives to be connected. Thing is, Castle know this too, and when I quizzed John Ballance (Castle's technical director) on what they plan to do about it, he told me that when SCSI is supported it will enable access to drives housed in the other seven of those bays
Castle's sleek new Panther case. Notice the mirror stripall the way down the front of the case, and the red LEDs at the top.
Yes, you heard me right, John Ballance stated that SCSI support for the IYONIX is a case of "when" not "if". What he wouldn't be drawn on, however, is "how soon?"
It seems that the Panther case has been designed to satisfy those who were complaining about the lack of expandability of the standard IYONIX, or those complaining that the standard case isn't terribly attractive. It features a solid-feeling drive bay door which swings open from the left-hand side in much the same sort of function as the RiscPC door, although that one was sprung whereas the Panther could quite easily flap about in the wind if you're not careful. Rather cunningly the drive bay door is held shut by magnetic attraction. It's easy to flip open but not so easy that it will open of its own accord and cause problems
Panther case with open drive bay door, revealing six of theeleven drive bays (four are hard disc drives not accessible from the front).
The other most noticeable thing about the Panther is the three-figure red LCD panel at the top of the case. This gives a temperature readout from a sensor which apparently the user can choose where to put inside the case (or outside if you fancy making a thermometer out of your IYONIX). Throughout my time at the show this figure stayed at approximately 29 degrees C, which isn't bad considering the room temperature was around 21 degrees or higher
The Panther is otherwise identical to the standard tower IYONIX. It uses the same silent power supply coupled with convection cooling, meaning the Panther is no more noisy than the standard tower version. The case, which doesn't support Acorn podules by the way, can be opened easily using 'thumb screws'. Rather than being an instrument of torture, what it means is that you just press and twist on a couple of screws and, again much like the RiscPC, the case can then be opened without the use of tools
Complete Panther system with supplied matching keyboard and mouse, as well as one ofthe LCD monitors which are currently on offer with every purchase (click for bigger image).
TC edition
A month after the Wakefield show Castle announced a new addition to the Panther range: an almighty beefed-up machine with two 120GB silent fast (7200 rpm) hard drives and 1GB of RAM. Surely this is the most extravagant RISC OS machine ever produced - it's certainly the first one to my knowledge sporting a gigabyte of RAM, something until now reserved for PC games players or Mac graphics enthusiasts
USB2 and ADFS updates
In an unusual move for Castle, drivers for USB2 were being demonstrated at the show in a pre-release stage. I didn't have much chance to play with them but they already support the huge increase in transfer speed which USB2 provides to compatible devices. John Ballance told me that they weren't at the time sure whether the drivers would be released free of charge or not. If they were to be chargeable updates, it's quite likely that Castle would adopt an Aemulor-style lock to your machine's MAC address
Neil Spellings was talking enthusiastically about the recently-announced initiative to work with Castle in implementing non-blocking disc transfers in ADFS. This is necessary for the upcoming Cino (pronounced "Chee-no" by the way) DVD player software, as currently RISC OS reads from CDs and DVDs by sending the read request, then waiting around doing nothing until the data is received. Because Cino will be pushing the XScale processor so hard to decode the data in time, it's not really wise to have the system waiting idle for the DVD drive to respond, so a new method of data access where the XScale can process information at the same time as getting data from drives will be implemented
RISC OS already gives the impression of simultaneous data reading and processing by pausing briefly between read operations, allowing RISC OS to do something else in this time. This is what happens when you use the filer to copy a file from a CD to the hard disc, for example. When you click on 'faster' the system reduces the number of these polls between read operations, which is why your desktop grinds to a halt
However it's important to note that implementing non-blocking transfers doesn't mean that using the filer to copy files off your CD drive will become smoother or faster. The sort of changes being implemented to ADFS are for low-level direct disc access (as used by CinoDVD) only
A bit of Castle Wizardry
Castle announce Merlin update scheme
Since the last issue of RISCWorld project Merlin's consultation phase has come and gone. Merlin is the name given to the long-term enhancement process for desktop RISC OS (that means your IYONIX). A mailing list was set up and for six weeks the entire RISC OS community was invited to suggest enhancements they want to see made to RISC OS 5
The initial take-up was immensely encouraging. Many hundreds of posts were made within the first couple of weeks, discussing proposed features and adding new ones to the database. Even by the end of the six-week period new features were being added to the wishlist almost daily. I suppose this reflects on the disappointing lack of user-visible desktop development done to RISC OS since its early days back at Acorn. The under-the-bonnet work to date has certainly been superb though - otherwise we wouldn't even be using RISC OS on an XScale processor with 'foreign' PC graphics cards
Many of the features suggested have already been implemented in RISC OS Select and I imagine many people - irritated at the apparent lack of movement from RISC OS Ltd in the direction of providing Select desktop enhancements for the IYONIX - decided to make good use of this open consultation process and make their voices heard
Also the fact that Merlin has been promised largely free of charge may have tempted many (ex-)Select subscribers to add to the list. Compared to the £150/year subscription for Select I think anything free of charge from Merlin will be eagerly received. Castle intend to issue releases in the form of 'Desktop Packs' although they "reserve the right to implement a charging structure for some features"
Testing, testing...
Already the first Merlin item has been released to IYONIX users. AudioIn implements a new sound-capture interface for the machine, allowing users to simply and quickly record audio from the input ports on the back of the computer and internally as well (eg. from a CD drive)
I've tested the Microphone and Line In inputs with variable success. Microphone input is currently very quiet but this is being looked into as we speak. Line In is far more usable, allowing me to easily record clear audio from the PCITV card
There is also provision for a simple multi-channel mixer. By selecting either 'Stereo mix' or 'Mono mix' and opening the Sound section of Boot -> Configure, you can set individual channels on/off and choose the required volume levels. The combined sound will then be recorded in either stereo or mono by AudioIn
AudioIn showing all the possible input sources, alongside the Boot -> Configure -> Soundconfiguration pane which can be used as a simple multi-channel mixer.
It's all in a name
A little thought for you to ponder on: Acorn's original desktop OS was the delightfully-coloured Arthur (apparently standing for A Risc by Thursday). (I heard a different story on the name of Arthur from an Acorn engineer, he claimed that although the hardware was finished, RISC OS wasn't, so the A305/A310 were launched with 'alf an operating system, hence Arthur -ED) Castle's latest offering, Merlin, therefore seems to fit nicely in the grand scheme of things. Let's just hope they don't try to copy the plethora of irritating Wizards from MS Windows
Mark Rowan iyonix@tamias.co.uk http://www.tamias.co.uk
Quick it's the letters page, all the answers take an age...
Dear Aaron,
Am I the first to point out the non-closure of an HTML anchor in your news page? It all goes pear-shaped once you get to:
"The A75 has a dedicated website at Stuart Tyrrell Developments launch A6+ and Confirm as Wakefield Show Prize." The rest of the document is one giant link for the A6+. Perhaps this was deliberate? The machine certainly looks nice. Now, if only John Lewis stocked it, I could have put one on the wedding list..
Andrew Harmsworth
Whoops, well it is fine on my version here, so it might be a "post-production" misfeature, so no it wasn't meant to be a giant link to the A6, or the A75 for that matter. Of course you don't need John Lewis to stock one, simply write out a wedding list in money, so guests can either give you £10, £20, £50 or even as much as £500. This also ensures that you can get what you actually want, and not three sets of the wine glasses that you didn't really want anyway. Good luck with the wedding and don't forget to get a cool car, we had a Packard straight eight as our mode of transport. Except Hayley got nearly half an hour being driven around and I got two minutes...grrr...
Now Paul Beverley spots another mistake...
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for the RISCWorld CD - all good stuff!
In the Show report, you said that Castle were "muttering about a big order for between 10,000 and 100,000 machines for a customer outside the normal desktop market (as far as I have been able to tell this seems to be for set top boxes that don't run RISC OS)."
I'm pleased to be able to tell you that they *are* RISC OS boxes - very much so - although it's true that they aren't desktop machines. Encouraging stuff, eh?! 50,000 RISC OS boxes! :-)
Paul Beverley
I am more than happy to print a correction, it seems I was wrong and these are RISC OS machines. However although it looks like a good order for Castle Technology it doesn't have any immediate effect for desktop users of RISC OS. It's worth remembering that Pace supplied more copies of RISC OS in a couple of years than Acorn did in 10 years. Or to put it another way, how many of the users of these boxes will be supporting RISC OS by buying software, or indeed subscriptions to Archive or RISCWorld?
Now it's "why I cancelled my subscription time"..
Hello,
I am not renewing my subscription as I have no RISC OS computer now, although I liked using the RiscPC I have found that I can not access many web sites that I wish to look at, also no real audio or dvd rewriters, also a shortage of up to date software, plus several other issues. As I am nearing my 69th birthday I can`t wait for many more years, so I have had to go to Windows software to do virtually everything you can think of. I know there is the Virtual RiscPC software but I still have to use Windows for many other things. If the RISC OS companies can get their problems sorted out quickly I may eventually come back to RISC OS. Many thanks for your RISC World CDs.
Mr J Howarth.
Well, I can' t really argue. At the end of the day a computer is a tool for doing a job. If RISC OS can't do the job then it's not unreasonable to expect people to look elsewhere. I know that Oregano2 is improving all the time, and that NetSurf is also coming along very nicely, but if you absolutely have to have RealAudio then RISC OS is simply not for you. On the subject of DVD writers I ought to point out that Stefan Huber is working on a new version of CDBurn, called DVDBurn. As for RISC OS companies sorting out their problems we will have to see what happens.....
Hi,
Thank you for including my !Kclock app in 5 1 of Riscworld, it was a pleasant surprise to find it there.
Kevin Wells
It was a pleasure to include it. As a general reminder to all readers if you do have any software that you think we might like to publish then please do get in touch.
Hi,
Thanks for publishing my games article in RISCWorld. However a couple of errors have crept into it the article, one of which was my fault , the other I don't think was :-
"People often advertise their old games for sale in csa.acorn.misc, or csa.acorn. misc, a bargain can often be found." This should have been csa.acorn.misc and csa.acorn.games
The paragraph below is what I sent in originally, the web address for !A310emu is missing from the published article.
Many of these games won't run on the Iyonix, but by using !A310emu a free program currently work in progress and is available from Matthew Thompson
Sorry about that. Yes those are pretty much all my mistakes. Although we have published the link for !A310Emu before I am more than happy enough to publish it again. Now another comment about software on the RISCWorld CD....
Dear Editor,
Having somewhat belatedly got into Vol. 4 Iss. 6 of RISCWorld, I was interested to see that you've bundled !Reporter with the CD. I haven't, checked the version against what I have at the moment, but I guess it's probably an update. What you don't mention (and nor does any of the other blurb on this program, including the author's) is one of its most mind bogglingly useful general-purpose features.
Sitting (usually "REM'd" out) in my !Boot!Run file, right after Set Boot$Dir is the line:
RmEnsure Reporter 0.00 Run IDEFS::Zaphod.$.Utilities2.!Reporter
the path being of course where I happen to have my copy stored. With this feature, if I do something silly that produces an error on boot-up, or at any other time, all I do is remove the "|" at the beginning of the line, re-boot, and !Reporter displays everything that's going on, with errors usefully highlighted in red. Once I've found and fixed the problem, I simply restore the "|" and !Reporter ceases to start on boot-up until the next time its life-saving services are needed. (To stop it during a session, simply get into the Task Display and exit it - but don't forget to save its log to file first if you still need it - instructions available in StrongHelp.).
If that's not mind bogglingly useful, someone please tell me what is.
To be fair to the author, the instructions on how to do this are in the StrongHelp file, and are quite clear, but you do need to know to go looking. I guess the reason he doesn't highlight it is simply that it isn't the program's primary purpose, which is as a programmer's debugging tool
Regards
Michael Poole
That is a very useful tip, and could save hours of work for anyone who has accidentally messed up their boot sequence. I wasn't aware that !Reporter could do this myself and have often spent time manually going through boot sequences for customers after they have "upgraded" (broken) them. If only I had known earlier. If anyone else has any more useful tips please do write in, perhaps we could start a tips column at some point.
Finally we finish off with some words from Alan Shooter...
G'day
We are told the Bill Gates type machine runs over 90% of the world's desktop computer market, figures kindly supplied by the BBC program Click Online. That is Click Online's excuse for feeding us all things Microshit oops Microsoft. I get fed up with people who use M/S complaining about how terrible it is, but they never do anything about it. One thing about M/S is that it keeps computer technicians in well paid jobs. The thing is that if I move to another machine it would more than likely be a Apple Mac. We have VirtualRPC-SE for the PC market but do we have anything for the Apple market. My present machine is a RiscPC with StrongARM which I brought back to NZ after a stay in England. The problem with upgrading to another Risc computer is the conversion rate of the NZ dollar against the English pound. Also I would like to use Real Audio and to read Excel file without asking people to save them as single files.
Regards
Alan Shooter
I agree that MicroSoft software is found on over 90% of the worlds PC's, in some countries it's quite often been paid for. The newer versions of Windows are actually very very good, and when used with a moderate amount of common sense are very reliable. The problem is that a PC is a very complex piece of equipment, I always remember a Young Ones episode when they get hold of a video recorder, and because the manual says the machine should be well lubricated Vivien fills it with washing up liquid, after all the manual doesn't say ensure the machine is not full of washing up liquid! Manning a tech support line sometimes makes you feel that this isn't very far from the truth. As for getting a new machine in NZ, it might be worth considering a locally assembled Iyonix, or you could see if MicroDigital will ship an Omega motherboard which you could assemble with locally sourced case, PSU, hard drive etc. Or you could buy a PC and run VirtualRPC-SE. (assuming that any RISC OS solution is actually available by the time this issue of RISCWorld goes out.)
Aaron Timbrell
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/NEWS/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, The great debate
The great debate
Aarons take on recent events...
I have been having real trouble working out how to introduce this issue of RISCWorld. Usually we start off with the latest news, but do I really want to print a load of press releases from RISC OS companies saying that they can't ship anything due to a "third party dispute"? No. Do I want to print a transcript of the Castle press conference without commenting on it as it contains so many factual errors? No. So what can I do? I can't really ignore the recent problems that have plunged the RISC OS world in chaos for the last two months, on the other hand I don't want to jeopardies a possible future solution for all concerned.
So what can I say? Well I did decide that instead of expressing an opinion I would simply state the facts, so I wrote a couple of paragraphs listing the facts in chronological order. Then I went for a coffee, then I came back and re-read what I had just written, then I put it aside it. Why? Well if I just put down the facts I know and have supporting paperwork for, as opposed to rumour, speculation etc, then I have a nice timeline, a timeline that shows when RISCOS Ltd. AMSs were approved by Pace; shows when royalties were paid; in fact it built up a convincing picture. The problem I had with it was the picture it built up wasn't helpful in the current situation. Either it clearly showed that one party was right and that one party was very clearly in the wrong, or it showed that one party had access to paperwork the other didn't. With recent events I am strongly inclined to believe the latter. One side simply acted on the information it had, without knowing the information wasn't complete (or possibly even correct).
So why doesn't that help? Well we need to build a compromise solution that allows everyone to move forward. You can't put everything back in the box and carry on as though nothing has happened. It's quite plain from all the meeting's that I have been to (and a quick aside the amount of time/money that has been spent on all sides) that everyone has their minimum position, the absolute minimum they are prepared to accept from a solution. So can a solution be found that satisfies all parties?
"Can a solution can be found", but surely it's all sorted out? From the e-mails and phone calls I have had you would think so. Alas no. What we have is a cessation of hostilities along with a schedule that can be used to reach a solution, provided all those involved can pull together towards a common goal. The schedule also requires there to be a degree of trust between all the parties. That trust will have to be earned. It's easy to promise something, but as I have seen over the last few months there is a great deal of distrust, often I have to say with regret, with very good reason.
So what's going to happen next? Well we have a breathing space that lets companies ship RISC OS kit again. While everyone is shipping a deal can hopefully be worked out that everyone is happy with. I am cautiously confident that we can all solve this and carry on with the real job. However nagging at the back of my mind is a nasty feeling that this is all going to kick off again. Let's hope not. I want all the companies to move forward. This is a small market, we can't afford to lose anyone; we need Castle and the IYONIX PC, we need MicroDigital and the Omega, we need Advantage Six and the A75 and we need RISCOS Ltd. to continue developing RISC OS. Being biased I also think we need VirtualAcorn to fill in the gaps. We also need the software developers, APDL, R-Comp etc, in fact we need everyone we have. Losing anyone now could spell absolute disaster for the platform. If the problem doesn't get solved amicably for all parties then it's quite possible that we will lose at least some RISC OS developers. I don't want that and I am sure you don't either.
Aaron
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/OMEGA/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, Omega Updates
Omega Updates
RISCWorld takes a brief look at Omega developments...
It's been some time since we did an update on the Omega in RISCWorld. As so much has happened over the last few months we thought it would be worth providing readers with a quick update on the current state of play from MicroDigital.
Networking
The first upgrade that we really should mention is the network card. This started shipping on the 17th of May this year to customers who had pre-ordered. The card was on show at Wakefield on the Liquid Silicon stand and was working perfectly. One of the main complaints about the Omega from potential customers (as opposed to those who put their money where their mouth was and actually purchased one and were quite happy) was the lack of networking (this was my gripe with the Omega - ED). Now Omegas can be networked just like any other RISC OS Computer. RISCWorld has seen the networking in use with both RISC OS 4 and RISC OS Adjust and it's performance and stability seem excellent.
Omega Network Card
1GB of RAM.
At the start of July MicroDigital confirmed that the Omega will now run with up to 1GB of main memory when using RISC OS Adjust. At the moment this is for development machines only, however once RISCOS Ltd have made a few changes to the Adjust ROM all Omegas with RISC OS Adjust will be able to support up to 1GB of memory. For those using applications like PhotoDesk this will make a lot of actions much faster, as there will be no need to use virtual memory when handling large files. This also means that you could, for example, have a machine set up to have a huge RAM disc for storing temporary files. In theory the Omega will be able to support up to 4GB of RAM, once the chips become available.
More free upgrades
Since the Omega was first launched there have been a multitude of free upgrades available from MicroDigital. Over the last year or so users Omegas have become faster and faster as each upgrade is installed. The upgrades actually reprogram the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chips on the motherboard, effectively changing the hardware in the machine. This might sound a bit odd but the Omega is a "soft" hardware design, meaning that instead of having a fixed chip set, the chip set is actually programmed in software, into the FPGA on startup. So you can update the program code, that "makes" the hardware. So an update provided over the internet can actually replace and upgrade your hardware.
One of the benefits of the latest upgrade issued earlier in July was an 8 to 10% speed improvement. Indeed according to postings on NewsNet the updated Omega is now almost as fast as the Iyonix, even though the Omega has a processor that is almost half the rated speed.
A desktop Omega
In RISCWorld's view the Omega is now developing nicely, the network interface improves the machines usability no end, as does support for large amount of RAM, and of course free speed improvements are always welcome! So what's coming next? Well we spoke to MicroDigital who were being rather coy on the subject. Basically we all know what comes next, and when it does RISCWorld will be there. In the meantime to keep up to ate with Omega developments why not visit the
RISCWorld
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/PAYPAL/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, PayPal - When things go wrong
PayPal - When things go wrong
Mike Battersby
As an auction buyer I prefer Paypal to, for example, Bidpay as it is the seller who pays the fees and the payment is instant. As a seller I would not be so sure.
Apart from being a convenient way to pay, however, Paypal offers protection to buyers when things go wrong. This can include non-delivery of an item or the item delivered being very different from the description given. If the seller has Paypal buyer protection then the service level is that much greater and covers up to £250 at no further cost. eBay's own protection scheme covers only up to £120 and charges a £15 fee which makes it useless for items less than about £25 in value.
If a listed item has Paypal's buyer protection then the logo below is shown in the upper part of the listing.
This can encourage bidders to bid for the item so benefits sellers as well as buyers.
So how does it work?
Well the first thing to remember is that a claim must be submitted within 30 days of the Paypal payment being made. In my opinion this is too short a time as any international transaction that is subject to even minimal delay may not be completed in that time if the postal service is dragging its feet. Hence in the case of non-delivery it is advisable to put in a claim if the 30 days are nearly up even if you think there is a reasonable chance that the item may still arrive. This is a bit short-sighted by Paypal I think as their agents will end up spending time on claims that may have never been initiated if delivery were given a bit more time. As it is you can always withdraw a claim if the item turns up late.
Clicking on the Buyer Protection logo shown above takes you through a set of steps to the Paypal claim service by choosing to "Learn more" or "File a claim".
Initially you will be taken to the eBay purchase protection help page as shown below.
From here choosing "Learn more" will take you to Paypal which of course is now part of eBay but has a separate domain name. After being given further info you will have the option to "File a claim". Following that link will require you to sign in and then start the claim process.
Paypal specifically asks you to use their "Help Center" (sic) and try and resolve disputes with the seller but, as in the case of my own claim, if there is non delivery there is not much the seller can do to "resolve" it unless it was an insured package in which case you would not need Paypal's compensation.
The main piece of information needed to process the claim is the "Transaction ID" which comes from your Paypal account history as shown below. The transaction ID is shown in the second column from the right.
The transaction ID is entered on a form to be submitted as part of the process of the claim (see below).
Once the ID has been submitted and "accepted" you get the form below and once you have submitted this then you wait for an agent to contact you.
The first contact is by email and is system generated. It conveys (to me) a tone that implies they will use every opportunity to dismiss the claim if you don't follow the exact procedure.
An example is given below (edited to remove personal details):
Thank you for contacting PayPal.
We have begun our investigation of the following transaction:
Please allow at least 30 days for completion of this investigation
You will be contacted through email and asked to provide informatio
relevant to the claim. If this claim involves the authenticity of
purchase, you may be asked to provide a letter (on official letterhea
stationery) from a 3rd-party qualified dealer to verify your claim. I
is important to reply within the specified timeframe or the claim wil
be cancelled automatically without further investigation or possibilit
of a refund. If the case is decided in your favour, PayPal Buye
Protection guarantees fund recovery up to $500.00 USD.
The next communication was a check as to progress as below.
Dear Michael Battersby
We are currently in the process of investigating your claim
Case Number: PP-033-XXX-XX
Transaction Date: Feb. 14, 200
Transaction Amount: -$42.33 US
Seller's Email: XXXXX@XXXXXXX.XX
Seller's Name: XXXXX XXX
Please update us on the current status of your claim. If you hav
reached an amicable resolution with the seller (meaning the item o
a refund has been received, or you have negotiated a settlemen
with the seller),please let us know by replying to this email
&NBSP
You may also cancel your Buyer Complaint from the Service Cente
in your PayPal account. To visit the Service Center, please go to
https://www.paypal.com/row/SRVCT
Thank you for your patience and cooperation regarding this matter
Sincerely
Matthe
PayPal Complaint Resolution
As Paypal had not actually asked me to negotiate a settlement I was a little surprised by the content of this email and replied as below. However, I had a name - "Matthew" which suggested a real person might now be dealing with the claim and I could enter into a dialogue with them rather than having the computer generated tone of the emails. As you will see I tried a weak attempt at humour to see if it elicited a response amid the formal tones of the emails. Maybe he would even call me Mike and I would get a "Dear Mike" in the email rather than a "Dear Michael Battersby":-.
Hello Matthe
The item has not arrived. I have not negotiated a settlement with th
seller as, as far as I am aware, the seller did nothing wrong and th
item was lost in transit
The item was a vintage tinplate Ford clockwork car. I suspect tha
being a Ford it broke down en route. This attempt at humour is t
see if a "real person" is dealing with this matter or it is al
automated
regard
Mike
This attempt at communication proved to be a forlorn hope as back came the following reply.
PFrom: "verification01@paypal.com"
To: mike xxxxx
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 11:18:17 -0600
Subject: Re: Re: Your Complaint PP-033-500-454 (Routing Cod
C554-L001-Q414-T3525) (KMM46693527V65844L0KM)
Dear Michael Battersby
Thanks for contacting PayPal. I appreciate the opportunity t
assist you with your questions
Thank you for providing this information to us. This informatio
has been forwarded to our investigations team for further review
If any additional information is needed, our investigations tea
will contact you via email
Thanks again for contacting us, and thank you for being part o
the PayPal community
Sincerely
Nakil
Protection Services Departmen
PayPal, an eBay Company
This email seemed designed to cover all possibilities. I had not asked any questions and the information provided was at best frivolous. What had happened to Matthew? Alas, no sooner had he appeared than he had been replaced by Nakila. Nakila? I suspect outsourcing to Tibet or a very cold part of Mongolia.
Notice the length of the subject line? I was wondering how long it would be before the subject line got bigger than the email! This is obviously the system by which the computer mechanisms track progress and direct the case to the next stage and presumably was responsible for moving me on from Matthew to Nakila, which I now assume to be two "Mega Giga byte" storage devices of "cases pending".
Not long later though the case was cracked and I got the last email:
From: service@intl.paypal.com
To: mikexxxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 13:13:06 -0800
Subject: Resolution of Buyer Complaint Case # PP-033-500-454
Dear Michael Battersby,
PayPal has concluded our investigation of your Buyer Complaint
-----------------------------
Complaint Detail
-----------------------------
Transaction Date: Feb. 14, 2004
Transaction Amount: -$42.33 USD
Case Number: PP-033-xxx-xx
Seller's Name: xxxxx xxxx
Seller's Email: xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xx
Our investigation has determined that the seller is at fault, an
as a result we have attempted to recover your funds. $42.33 US
has been credited to your account. This is the maximum amount w
were able to recover. Please allow up to 5 days for this adjustmen
to be reflected in your account
We appreciate your business, and regret this experience.
To make sure future transactions proceed smoothly, we sugges
So in a little over two weeks I was to get my money back at no cost to myself. .
Conclusion
So what do I conclude about this experience? Well, Marks and Spencer or John Lewis this is NOT. No friendly assistant to sympathise and give your refund. You get cold computerised system emails with the occasional "thank you for being a member of the Paypal community" or "we appreciate your business" thrown in, in the worst style of insincere Americanised "PR-babble".
However, in the end it worked (not the PR-babble, the complaint process) and I did get a refund at no cost (other than a small amount of time) to myself so I have to conclude that the protection system is worth having.
Mike Battersby
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/PD/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, PD World
PD World
Paul Brett with the latest freeware and PD releases for RISC OS.
The recent disputes in the RISC OS world seem to have had little effect on software authors and I am still seeing a steady stream of updates and new releases. As is usual I include my picks from the last couple of months releases below.
ButtonBar - David Llewellyn-Jones
BBarEdit and the ButtonBar module allow you to create and edit BBar files which define button bars for use with any program which allows keyboard input and shortcuts. This means you can add a button bar to any application that does not have one, or indeed add extra button bars that include further features not found in the program's normal buttons. The ButtonBar programs are freeware, so David retains copyright but you are free to copy and distribute them. !ButtonBar may be distributed independently from the !BBarEdit application if editing is not required.
ButtonBar
ButtonBar should work on most RISC OS systems. David has tested it on 3.11 and 3.60. However for the best performance the nested window manager is needed (the WindowManager module with a version number of at least 3.80). This was included as part of the new !Boot structure which can be found, for example, on AUCD 8. If you do not have the nested window manager the program should still work, but the button bars will not attach themselves to windows very successfully.
Version 1.35 of ButtonBar has introduced a new BBar file structure. Files with the old structure cannot be used with the module, but it is a simple matter to convert any files to the new format: simply load them into BBarEdit and then resave them.
Enbank is a personnel accounts package for RISC OS V3.5, or later, supporting (as an optional extra) multi-currency. !EnBank's Base features include Bank Statement Verification, Standing Orders and Cheque book reconciliation. !EnBank's Multi-currency option supports triangulation so that Member currencies of the Euro can be processed correctly. !EnBank's Budget Analysis option allows you to post budget entries and analyse your actual income/expenditure against them. Analysis cross-tab views can be built for Account, Group and Class and any combination of the three.
This distribution will install the following components:
Applications
!EnBank V3.01-000 Personal Bank Administrator
!EnCurr V2.02-000 Currency Manager
!EnLicence V1.03-003 Licence Registration Utility
Resources
!EnShare V0.03-000 Shared Services
Tsl V2.04-000 Toolbox Support Library
!EnBank is supplied with a built-in licence, known as 'Basic Home Use'. This free of charge licence grants, for non commercial home use, restricted access to some of !EnBank's features. 'Basic Home Use' restricts the volume of data that can be maintained to 5 accounts, 10 standing orders and 500 transactions. To remove the volume restrictions and access all program features you must obtain a 'Full' licence. Licence options and pricing can be found on the Enbank web site.
EnBank
To run Enbank you will need the latest 32 Bit modules from Castle Technology.
Graphite - Marc Zinnschlag
Graphite is an application for creating and editing of graphs. The term graph means here a set of nodes and edges, whereby each edge is connected to two nodes. This definition might be not very clear for someone, who is not familiar with the term graph. So here is second definition: Graphically (no pun intended) a graph consists of some boxes with text in it (the nodes) and some arrows (the edges), that go from one box to another.
This gives a widely used type of diagram, that you normally would produce with an application like Draw or Artworks. Indeed Graphite is in some way similar to Draw. But while in Draw you operate on plain graphical objects, in Graphite you operate on nodes and edges. This is a different level of abstraction and it has the consequence, that you don't have to care about certain things, you would need to do manually in Draw:
If you move a node around, the connected edges follow the box automatically
If you create a new edge, it is guided automatically around existing nodes (so it doesn't cross any node)
If you move a node to a position, that is already occupied by an edge, the edge moves away automatically
If you want to change some edge-effects (width, colour or something like that) for the whole document you can do this easily, because Graphite knows the difference between a line that forms the edge and a line that forms the border of a node. In Draw both would be simply a line, so you would need to select the edges manually
Likewise you can change some node-effects without effecting the edges
Graphite
Furthermore Graphite provides the features you would normally expect from a RISC OS application:
Editing of multiple document
Multiple views of the same documen
Unlimited undo and red
... and a lot more
IconClipBoard - Thomas Leonard and Steve Fryatt
IcnClipBrd is a small module written by Thomas Leonard to allow the global clipboard to be used in writable icons on the desktop. It was supplied with the Clipboard utility, which allows the contents of the global clipboard to be saved to disc and the contents of files to be placed on the clipboard. Thomas has released the module and utility into the public domain, and we have included a 32-bit version converted by Steve Fryatt for use on all RISC OS systems including the Iyonix. The Clipboard utility contains the module as well, or the module is available separately.
IconClipBoard
SpecialFX - David Pilling and Richard Hallas
We have featured SpecialFX in the PD column not that long ago, but there is now a new version (1.05) that fixes a number of problems with the original release. So if you have been using version 1.00 of SpecialFX, it is recommended that you delete it from your system to avoid problems, as the way in which SpecialFX is structured has changed significantly. However, if you have edited the SpecialFX choices, you may retain your changes. To do so, simply run SFXSetup (it will tell you that your version 1.00 choices have been imported) and click Save. Then delete your old copy of SpecialFX.
SpecialFX provides three basic functions:
SpecialFX causes calls to the Draw module to be redirecte
to Computer Concepts' GDraw module, thus providing a
anti-aliased display in applications that make use o
vector graphics (such as Draw, Draw Plus, Ovation Pro etc)
Anti-aliasing is applied only to screen output; the Dra
module continues to be used for printing. This option i
enabled for all applications by default
SpecialFX causes outline font painting operations to b
performed with background blending (a feature introduced i
the RISC OS 3.7 font manager) in applications which do no
provide support for this feature (such as the Impressio
family of DTP programs). Background blending is applied to screen plotting only
printing is not affected. This option is enabled for al
applications by default (though it will only work o
machines running RISC OS 3.7 or later)
SpecialFX can cause all printing to occur from low memor
in applications which use dynamic areas. This provides
work-around for a problem in certain printer drivers, suc
as those for Calligraph direct drive laser printers, whic
do not work correctly with particular applications. If yo
find that some items vanish when printing (particularl
text embedded within Draw files), enabling SpecialFX'
low-memory printing feature should cure the bug
Low-memory printing applies to printing operations only
and does not affect screen output. This option is disable
for all applications by default. Enabling it globall
should not have any adverse effects, even with printer
that do not suffer from the bug.
SpecialFX
SpecialFX is a replacement for the earlier FontFix module. If FontFix is present on your system, you should delete it before installing SpecialFX. FontFix performed the same three basic operations as SpecialFX, but was a blunt instrument by comparison, in that the options could only be turned on or all for the whole desktop (i.e. all running applications) at once. SpecialFX is much more refined because it allows the options to be set for individual applications. Therefore, applications which are incompatible with individual SpecialFX enhancements can continue to work harmoniously alongside other applications that do benefit from them, with the enhancements appearing in compatible applications' windows and not in others.
IMPORTANT: be sure to read the note about additional support modules towards the end of the SpecialFX help file.
STDMouse Driver - Dave Lambley
This is an alternative driver for wheel mice connected through Stuart Tyrrell's PS2 mouse interface. Dave thinks that it has nicer behaviour than Stuart Tyrrell's driver. To use it, first load WimpSWIVe, then load STDMouse. It doesn't do much if you load STDMouse first. It doesn't care about the order if you load them both before the desktop initialises. You can put both WimpSWIVe and STDMouse in your PreDesk folder inside !Boot to make it run on boot up. WimpSWIVe is supplied in an archive in the software directory on this issue of RISCWorld.
Unfortunately STDMouse is not compatible with versions of RISC OS older than 3.5. It hooks on to vectors that don't exist in earlier versions. Dave hopes that it's fairly obvious how works once loaded. You move the wheel, windows scroll up and down. For more details and a troubleshooting section please see the supplied documentation.
Paul Brett
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/SESHOW/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, RISC OS South East Show 2004
RISC OS South East Show 2004
The RISC OS South East Show 2004 previewed by RISCWorld
RISCWorld is delighted to see that the Surrey and Sussex Acorn User Group are once again hosting the RISC OS South East Show, on the 23rd of October this year. Once again the show will be at Guildford college and start at 10:00 am, running till 4:00 pm.
Guildford College is a nice venue as it has plenty of car parking and is easy to get too from the M3 and the M25.
Full details are still emerging as we go to press, so for the latest news visit the
You can expect the full raft of exhibitors as well as a range of talks in the lecture theatre. As usual there will be a wide range of special show offers from those exhibiting. Ticket prices are £5 on the day. RISCWorld hopes to see you there!
RISC World
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/THEA5/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, The A5
The A5, RISC OS in your pocket?
Aaron gets a sneak peak...
Well actually it's not really a sneak peak as we have been discussing this concept with Advantage 6 for some months. In common with the A6, the A5 is a Windows PC running RISC OS under VirtualRPC-Adjust, what's different about the A5 is the size, yes it's a fully featured PC, the size of a large PDA.
The A5 Showing the Artworks Apple
As you can see in the screen shot above the machine doesn't have a built in keyboard, instead it comes with a stylus touch screen, and on the development machine an onscreen keyboard can be used in portrait mode, yes portrait mode. The machine can easily switch between 800x600 in landscape mode on it's 8.4 inch TFT screen, and 600 x 800 in portrait mode.
Running in portrait mode
Tech specs
The machine comes with quite an impressive specification including:
A 40GB internal hard drive and 256MB of RAM
Equivalent to ARM7500 performance under RISC OS
Windows XP and RISC OS Adjust
Built in VGA digital camera
Wireless Lan, including support for ShareFS
Two USB 2.0 port
VGA out, headphone, microphone, network and card reader
Fanless and near silent in operation (apart from the hard disc)
Battery life is about two and a half hours, depending on what the machine is being used for.
A number of options have been discussed and tested including pen drives and external USB CD/DVD writers.
Bundled accessories
As we have seen the A5 has no keyboard built in, however one is included with the bundled accessory pack. The keyboard comes as part of a wrap around case. When folded up the whole package is about the size of a car log book.
The attached keyboard and case
The keyboard/case attaches to the machine via a gold plated connector, so the machine can either be used as a kind of super PDA, or as a sub notebook.
Availability
Currently the A5 has been developed as a technology demonstration for a customer. If enough people pester Advantage 6 then they may decide to make a limited number of machines available to the general public. What is especially exciting is that Advantage 6 are considering doing a version based on an ARM processor running RISC OS natively. Now that would certainly be a "must have" piece of kit for all RISC OS enthusiasts.
All rights reserved. This program is licensed for use on a single computer by a single user.
This version is supplied for the use of RISC World subscribers only.
No part of this product may be reproduced in whole or part by any means without prior written permission of the publisher. Unauthorised hiring, renting, lending, networking, distribution, public performance or broadcasting of this product or its parts is prohibited. For details of site/network licences, please contact APDL at the address below.
While every care is taken the publisher cannot be held responsible for any errors in this product, or for loss of data or any consequential effects from the use of this product.
First edition 1991 published by RISC Developments/Beebug
APDL/ProAction edition March 2001-2004
Published by -
APDL - ProAction
39 Knighton Park Road
Sydenham
London SE26 5RN
Phone : 020 8778 2659
Fax : 020 8488 0487
E-mail : info@apdl.co.uk
TypeStudio was written by Derek Marriott
Introduction
Package contents
Using this manual
Getting Started
What is a 'path'?
What is a 'mould'?
What is an 'object'
The Toolbox
The Line drawing tool
The Curve drawing tool
The Enter Text Tool
The Apply tool
The Select tool
The box has two 'ears' at the top right and bottom
Selecting objects
Moving objects
Entering text
Example 1 - Outlining
Suggestions for experimentation
Example 2 - Highlight
Suggestions for experimentation
Paths and Moulds
Drawing and editing a line
Creating a path
Creating a mould
Editing paths and moulds
Example 3 - Text along a straight path
Suggestions for experimentation
Example 4 - A simple mould
Suggestions for experimentation
Format of text along a path
Justified text along a path
Width to fit
Upright
Example 5 - Text formatted along several paths
Suggestions for experimentation
Further ideas using paths and moulds
Text effects
Objects and effect attributes
Object and effect style
Applying, removing and adjusting effects
Changing the style of an effect
Example 6 - Wall and floor shadows
Suggestions for experimentation
Example 7 - Graduated shadows
Suggestions for experimentation
Example 8 - Slanted text
Suggestions for experimentation
Example 9 - Mirrors
Suggestions for experimentation
Example 10 - 3-D effects
Suggestions for experimentation
Example 11 - Plinth effects
Suggestions for experimentation
Example 12 - Combining effects
Suggestions for experimentation
Reference section
The Toolbox
The Main menu
The Misc menu
Info
Grid
Zoom
Print
Toolbox
Save menu
Select menu
Select all
Clear
Copy
Delete
Front
Back
Group
Ungroup
Edit
Rotate
Magnify
Text menu
Enter text
Typestyle
Font
Size
Column
Style menu
Fill colour / Outline colour
Line width
Effects menu
Shadow
Graduated shadow
Slant
Mirror
3-D
Plinth
Path/Mould
Path menu
Left
Right
Centre
Size to fit
Width to fit
Upright
Editing a path
Mould
Important notes about moulding
Editing a mould
Moulding other Draw objects
Apply
Edit menu
Change to curve
Change to line
Add a point
Delete segment
Icon bar menu
Info
Quit
RISCWorld
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/USB/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, USB Standards
USB Standards
Dave Bradforth takes a look at USB via RISC OS
USB Standards
If you're looking to use USB devices on a RISC OS computer, you have a choice of two cards. The first, available from Castle Technology Ltd, costs £89 whereas the other (which seems to have attracted a lot of support) is available from Stuart Tyrell Developments at £79. (You now also have a choice of a UniPod from STD at £99 - ED)
The heading for this article, USB Standards, was originally chosen to reflect how RISC OS users could benefit from the use of standard PC components and how life in general was getting a little easier for those of us trying to get better performance out of our slowly aging technology. Unfortunately, when I asked for comments from users who have experience of USB through RISC OS the results were less than positive.
One developer commented that it was difficult to get the necessary technical information out of Simtec; the manufacturers of the STD card; but that they were considering releasing a driver for a USB graphics tablet that had taken a while to write. "Keyboards work well", he commented in response to my request for a screenshot of USB via RISC OS.
Another user commented that both the Castle and STD USB cards did not implement a full USB stack – namely the lack of an isynchronous transfer mode – which means that no audio or video device is likely to work; a fact that is not mentioned in any of the publicity material for either card.
It was therefore with interest that I noticed the announcement from Stuart Tyrell Developments of MassFS.
It begins "Support for RISC OS users is central to the ethos of the Simtec/STD USB implementation - we have considered it important to produce a solution which offers assistance to those who require it, without encouraging an exodus to resellers who do not support RISC OS machines which might be seen with a "generic" implementation. MassFS V1.00 continues our model of enabling support to be offered within the RISC OS customer-base, yet encourage users to experiment with new devices."
Which immediately gives us a very positive start. It basically explains that Stuart Tyrell and his team are looking to drive the creation of generic drivers for USB devices under RISC OS.
It continues "Much of our work in the USB arena has been to characterise the USB Mass Storage protocol and the differing implementations of this by device developers. It is this work which has seen the release of support for large Zip drives, MP3 players and other devices, and has resulted in the acceptance of the Simtec/STD card as something which simply "works". Our extensions to MassFS allow many of these differing implementations to be used successfully."
Which would immediately seem to answer the query asked by my second correspondent. So how is Mass FS going to be implemented for users of the Simtec/STD card?
"The new MassFS implementation is this: People who purchase USB devices from Stuart Tyrrell Developments will receive a fully supported version of MassFS, as before. These versions will present a "support key" for each device which may be used in order to obtain support direct from Stuart Tyrrell Developments. Users without MassFS who wish to use products solely sourced within the RISC OS arena may purchase MassFS for £10 inc".
Which sounds fair enough – after all, the creation of these drivers is likely to take a long time; and it's not time that's free. Stuart Tyrell works on a number of projects for a number of clients at the same time; and as such this is time that may be better spent in a more profitable arena.
"In addition to this, MassFS V1.00 allows further mass-storage type devices to be added to a "other devices" file, and the user may experiment with a number of different settings available which cover many different device implementations. Devices added in this manner with the correct settings are fully functional, however these devices appear with a different icon and will not yield a "support key".
"The first user to supply verifiable settings for each new device back to STD (which do not already exist in the "other devices" file) will receive a version of MassFS for that device free of charge (worth £10). These settings will be incorporated into the "other devices" file, which is freely downloadable and available to all users. "
So if you provide settings for your USB devices to STD, and they can verify them, a fully working driver should in theory be supplied. Note this seems to only apply to devices that can be treated as a hard drive – so MP3 players, external hard discs, and such like. This is all a positive step in the right direction; and as for owners of the Castle USB card it's probable that at some point that the developments Castle are making for the Iyonix PC will make their way onto the USB implementation for Risc PC series computers.
Next time, we'll take the hardware column into overdrive for a detailed look at MassFS, and how well it works.
Dave Bradforth
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/VA/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, VirtualAcorn
VirtualAcorn
HostFS revealed...
As I am sure those who have used a VirtualAcorn product will realise we have developed our own filing system, called HostFS. This is used instead of ADFS or IDEFS in all the different versions of VirtualAcorn, but what is HostFS, and why is it different to other filing systems?
HostFS
HostFS provides RISC OS with access to filing systems used by the host PC (the PC on which VirtualAcorn is being run) hence the name. As VirtualAcorn users will have noticed the hard disc on the PC doesn't need to be partitioned to run VirtualAcorn. Instead a set of folders are created on the Windows hard disc. Some of these contain the various files required for VirtualAcorn, and one (or more) contain the files that RISC OS sees as a hard disc.
Lets take VirtualRPC-SE as an example. IF you have installed to the default directory then what RISC OS sees as it's main hard disc will be a folder stored here:
If you navigate to this folder using Windows explorer and open it you can then see into the RISC OS hard disc from Windows. A very quick and useful tip is to create a shortcut under Windows explorer that points to the HardDisc4 folder and then put that shortcut on the Windows backdrop. To do this navigate to the VirtualRPC-SE folder shown above. Now right click on the HardDisc4 folder and click on "Create Shortcut". A new file called "Shortcut to HardDisc4" will be created in the same Window as HardDisc4. Now simply drag this file and place it on the Windows backdrop. Now if you ever need to go into the RISC OS harddisc under Windows, for example to find a file you have been working on under RISC OS, then you can do so quickly from the Windows desktop, without having to go via the My Computer icon.
The very important point about HostFS is that it allows RISC OS to "see" any filing system that Windows can, without there having to be a RISC OS driver. Lets take a simple example.
External USB Floppies
VirtualAcorn cannot use external USB floppies directly as they are hardware fixed and can't read Acorn format floppy discs. However these drives can read DOS format discs. Since Windows can use the drive to read a DOS floppy, so can RISC OS. However to do this a new HostFS mount needs to be created, that points to the drive. This is done from the HostFS options window.
The VirtualRPC-SE HostFS options window
To get to this options window make sure that VirtualAcorn is running in a window (press ALT ENTER to switch to a window from full screen mode). Then using the white pointer go to the "Tools" menu along the top of the VirtualAcorn window, then click on "Options". The options window will open, now click on the HostFS tab.
There are two ways of adding a new mount, either the details can be typed in by hand (which we will do with this example) or you can use the ... button to open a "Browse for Folder" window. So lets get RISC OS to work with an external USB floppy. Ignore the top half of the window, we are only interested in the section below the "show dos extensions" button. The first thing that has to be done is to type the path of the floppy drive into the "Path" icon. Since almost all floppy drives are called drive A under Windows the path needs to be:
A:\.
Take particular note of the trailing full stop after the backslash, if you miss this out then this won't work! Now type in a name for the mount in the "Mount" icon. I normally use the name "DosFloppy". Finally click on the "Add" button, then the "Apply" button then the "OK" button. Now you will need to quit and reload VirtualAcorn.
When RISC OS next starts an extra hard disc icon will be on the icon bar. The icon will be called DosFloppy, the name that was typed into the "Mount" icon. If you now put a floppy disc into the external USB floppy, RISC OS will be able to read it, with a couple of important caveats:
The disc must not be blank, it must have at least one file on it
Since the disc is in DOS format, RISC OS filetypes might be lost if files are not compressed
Using HostFS to access a device that cannot normally be used by RISC OS can be very useful.
Going Further
The same technique that we have used to access a USB floppy can be used with any device that Windows sees as a filing system. Think about it for a minute, that could include pen drives, MP3 players, digital cameras, memory cards, folders stored on other Windows machines on the network, in fact almost anything. As an example I have a HostFS mount that points to a drive G:
G:\.
On one of my VirtualAcorn installations, this is the next "free" drive letter in the PC. I also have a number of USB 1 and 2 gadgets including various digital cameras that have no RISC OS drivers. However whenever I plug one of these devices in it will always appear as drive G. Since I have a permanent Drive G icon on my RISC OS icon bar I can plug in anything that appears as Drive G under Windows and read it immediately under RISC OS. It doesn't matter which camera I plug in, it will always appear on the same RISC OS drive!
Interfaces
You may notice that the above section contains a reference to USB2. Using HostFS you can access a device under any interface, as Windows is used to sort the drivers out, this means RISC OS can read devices over USB1, USB2, SCSI, FireWire, Bluetooth and any other type of interface that Windows can see, or might be able to see in the future. I have used RISC OS to download MP3 files to a mobile phone over a bluetooth interface, without having to have any RISC OS drivers for either!
HostFS is a very flexible filing system, why not see what HostFS can be made to do on your machine, you may be surprised!
