Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/hints/volume_01/issue_12

Text File | 1995-02-16 | 18KB | 466 lines

•   PipeDream − For those who have not used View etc and who have
therefore not had to fight printer drivers, the following may be useful:
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The printer driver is loaded on initialisation and when <Alt><P><D> is
used, but NOT when a document is printed, so any changes made to a
printer driver are not acted upon until either of these events. It’s
obvious really, but if you haven’t registered the fact, it could cause a
lot of confusion.
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For those who wish to use bold throughout a document, (e.g. for
producing something on a dot-matrix printer that will go through a Fax
machine) it would seem an obvious solution to put markers at the
beginning and end of the document and make it all bold highlight.
However, this is not a good idea because your printer will have to cope
with double printing each word, one word at a time! Instead, change the
printer driver so that the bold highlight is NOT cancelled at the end of
a line. i.e. change the Y to an N and either send the necessary ESC
sequence in the PON line or put a highlight 2 at the very start of your
text.
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•   Transferring character definitions − If you have files produced by
the CHARDES program from the Master Welcome disc (mentioned last month,
page 34) here is a little BASIC program to run the files on the
Archimedes:
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 10 REM >ThinChar
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 20 CLS : INPUT “FileName ”;A$
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 30 OSCLI (“LOAD ”+A$+“ 12800”)
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 40 FOR I=127 TO 32 STEP -1
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 50 VDU23,I
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 60 VDU(?(&12844+I-32))
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 70 VDU(?(&128A4+I-32))
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 80 VDU(?(&12904+I-32))
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 90 VDU(?(&12964+I-32))
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100 VDU(?(&129C4+I-32))
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110 VDU(?(&12A24+I-32))
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120 VDU(?(&12A84+I-32))
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130 VDU(?(&12AE4+I-32))
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140 NEXT
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•   Quazer (again). The fix for Quazer 1.42 is ?&3D090=N¼ of lives,
?&3D98F=&F2, *SAVE Quazcode 9000 +365AC, *settype Quazcode FF8. •
Printing in binary − PRINT ~number% prints number% in hexadecimal but
there isn’t an equivalent for printing in binary. However, there are SYS
commands that will do it for you. The following program illustrates the
use of SYS &E0 which converts a number to a four byte binary number
string (SYS’s &DF, DE and DD convert to 3, 2 and 1 byte binary numbers).
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The only other point of interest in the program is the way that the
leading zeros are stripped off by lines 190, 200 (which can be omitted,
of course, if you want the leading zeros!). The INSTR command finds the
position of the first “1” starting from the left hand end of the string,
take off one to give the number of zeros to be removed. The LEFT$
command at line 200 turns those zero characters into the character set
by pad$. (This illustrates the fact that you can use string functions on
the left hand side of an assignment.) If pad$ is a space character, the
binary numbers produced will all be the same length and so will be right
justified but if you want the strings left justified, you can set pad$
to CHR$0. (An alternative for left justification would be to use
numb$=RIGHT$(numb$,32-n%).)
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 10 REM > BinPrint
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 20
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 30 pad$=CHR$0 :REM left justif’n
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 40 pad$=“ ” : REM right justif’n
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 50 OS_ConvertBinary4=&E0
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 60
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 70 REPEAT
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 80   INPUT “Number? ”number$
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 90   number%=EVAL(number$)
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100   A$=FNbinconvert(number%)
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110   PRINT A$
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120 UNTIL0
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130
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140 DEF FNbinconvert(numb%)
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150 LOCAL numb$,n%
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160
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170 SYS OS_ConvertBinary4,numb%,
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32,numb$ TO numb$
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180
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190 n%=INSTR(numb$,“1”)-1
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200 LEFT$(numb$,n%)=STRING$(n%
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,pad$)
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210 =numb$
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•   Hard Disc Head Parking − Don’t forget that if the RFS is selected,
it will accept the *BYE command but it will not park the heads on the
drive. You have to be in ADFS.
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•   Screenload/save − It is interesting to compare the time taken to
save and load screens using *screensave and *screenload with the time
taken to define the whole screen as a sprite and save it using *Ssave or
load it with *Sload. In all modes there is considerable saving e.g.
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   Mode1   Mode12   Mode 15
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  *Screensave(load)   7(4)   25(18)   52(38)
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  *Ssave(load)   1(<1)   3(3)   7(6)
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•   Libraries and *mountÉ If you *mount a disc, the library from the
previous disc remains in memory. For those with a single drive, this may
seem a nuisance but the reason the library is not changed is that you
can have a library on one drive and shove discs in and out of the other
drive without losing the library − particularly important with hard
discs. Obviously you could reselect the library with *library $.Library
but it is much easier to use *bye. That way, you don’t even have to use
*mount.
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•   Reliable RS423 transfer from BBC’s. This is mostly just reiterating
what has gone before, but to transfer reliably from BBC to Archimedes at
9,600 baud you need to [1] use the 1.24 serial patch (on Archive program
disc 7) [2] Set *Configure DATA 5 (i.e. 8 data bits and 1 stop bit which
is the default on the BBC) and [3] connect the BBC’s RTS output to the
Archimedes’ DSR input (pin 6) instead of the CTS input (pin 8) and link
pins 1, 4 and 8 together.
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•   View A3.0 Further to the patches given in July issue (Vol. 1.10 page
6) Richard House reckons that instead of using &FF’s in the various
locations you should use &00’s. (If someone has a working version of
A3.0, please send it in so that we can add it to our collection of
working patches!)
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•   Viewstore 1.1 − Following on from the July Hints & Tips, not that
not only should &ABE2, 3 and 4 be set to &EA, but also, the LDA #&82,
JSR OSBYTE (&A9, &82, &20, &F4, &FF) routines need to be altered as with
View A3.0. These occur at locations &A256 − A25A, &AA22 − AA26 and &AB98
− AB9C. The code required in each of these locations is &A2, &00, &A0,
&00, &EA. (LDX #&00, LDY #&00, NOP). (If you can’t cope with these
technicalities, send us a disc with Viewstore 1.1 on it and we’ll modify
it for you.)
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•   Correct Nesting? To check that the nesting of loops, IF’s and CASE’s
is correct within a program, use LISTO2 and LIST the program. If at the
end of the program, the final line has two or more spaces after the line
number, you’ve got an incorrect nesting somewhere. To check through,
there should be no spaces between line numbers and DEFPROC’s, DEFFN’s or
ENDPROC’s.
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•   Marconi Trackerball. Archimedes’ mouse’s tail can apparently be
removed, so says Mr T A Doncaster, and plugged into an identical
connector within the Marconi RB2/PC-1 tracker ball and all works without
any further fiddling about. Watch that the supply polarity is correct
though.
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•   Readable zeros. In InterSheet in particular, I find the slashed-
zeros misleading − they can easily be mistaken for eights. If you re-
program the zero character using a VDU23 command you can avoid the
confusion. It does increase the possibility of confusion with a capital-
O but that is far less important in spreadsheet work than confusion with
8. So, I store the following program in the RAM on the RFS and call it
up with *IS<return>:
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10 REM >RFS:IS
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20 VDU23,48,60,102,102,102,102,
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102,60,0
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30 CHAIN “RFS:ISHEET”
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No doubt you could modify this program if you wanted to use the same re-
programmed zero character with other spreadsheet software.
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•   Computer salutions. R.E.Boldero, in the July edition, asked for a
way of getting his computer to greet him each time he switched on. The
next hint shows a partial solution.
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•   RFS Boot file − If you use a ROM podule with battery backup, you can
create a boot file that runs in the RFS and sets up all sorts of
goodies. I used to have a BASIC program called !BOOT which set up all
sorts of things on power-up or <ctrl-break> but if you are developing a
BASIC program, get stuck and press <ctrl-break>, you lose the program
because it is replaced by the boot program!!!!! After Adrian had fallen
into this trap a few times when using my computer, he developed the
following rather ingenious (not to say devious) EXECable boot program.
(*Configure Filesystem RFS, *Configure Boot and *OPT 4,3 in the RFS.)
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We have since added a facility for making Arthur talk to you a bit more
politely, from an idea sent in by Chris Hayes.
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To create the boot file, I start with the following Wordwise Plus file
which is then spooled as “RFS:!BOOT”.  (The line numbers are purely for
discussion purposes.)
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 1 <gr>LL160<gr>PC “~”
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 2 VDU21
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 3 VDU6,11,32,32,32,32,32,32,21
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 4 VDU6,19,0,4,0,0,0,21
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 5 VDU6,19,1,0,0,0,0,21
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 6 VDU6,13,11,11,11,11,11,21
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 7 VDU6:COLOUR 6:VDU21
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 8 VDU6:PRINT“N o r w i c h   C o
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 m p u t e r   S e r v i c e s“
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:VDU21
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 9 VDU6:COLOUR 7:VDU21
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10 *SETCLI$PROMPT <13><10>Good
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 Morning! *
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11 *IF SYS$TIME LEFT 2>11 THEN SET
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 CLI$PROMPT <13><10>Good Afternoon! *
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12 *IF SYS$TIME LEFT 2>18 THEN SET
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 CLI$PROMPT <13><10>Good
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 Evening! *
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13 *KEY0 *MOUNT 0|M*FREE|M*CAT|M
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14 *KEY1 etc...
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20 *KEY12 *FORMAT 0 D|M
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21 *SET Run$Path ,ADFS:$.,RFS:$.
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,%.
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22 *SET Alias$> CAT
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23 *FX255,8
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24 *ADFS
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25 *BASIC<gr>OC6
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The LL160 command (1) ensures that the command lines are not split up
and the PC command ensures that the pad characters are sent when
spooling the file. (2) switches off the screen display, but since this
actual command appears on the screen, (3) moves up and wipes it out
again! (4) and (5) change foreground and background colours (6) moves
the cursor back up the screen, before printing out a welcome message in
a different colour, (7 & 8) and switching back to white (9). The IF
SYS$TIME commands then sets up the Arthurian prompt (normally a star on
its own) to be something a bit more timely. (This doesn’t automatically
change the greeting as the time of day changes, it gives you the
greeting that was appropriate last time you pressed <ctrl-break>.) The
function keys are then programmed, the runpath is set up etc (21 − 24)
(See Archive 1.7, page 8) before BASIC is invoked with an OC6 to re-
enable the screen.
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(You could create it by making it a BASIC program that started...
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*SPOOL RFS:!BOOT
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PRINT“VDU21”
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and endedÉ
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PRINT“*BASIC”;CHR$(6);
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*SPOOL
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I haven’t tried this BASIC version, but I presume it would work.)
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•   Keyboard repeat speed. You may have noticed with First Word Plus or
other wordprocessors that when pressing <return> on auto-repeat it
cannot keep up and, when you take your finger off the key, it goes on
spewing out returns until the keyboard buffer is empty. You can avoid
this by reducing the auto-repeat speed with, say, *Configure repeat 15
(instead of the default of 8) and then pressing <ctrl-break>. (It should
really be called the auto repeat time as the number is the time in
centi-seconds between repeats.) Instead of changing the configuration,
you may prefer to could add a *FX12,15 command into the !BOOT file and
then press <ctrl-break> after your WP session to restore the default
repeat speed.
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•   Disappearing cursor in EDIT. Have you noticed that if you hold the
cursor key down in the BASIC editor, the cursor disappears so that you
can’t see where it is on the line? Try changing the auto repeat speed as
mentioned in the hint above − doesn’t always work, but it seems to make
it better if you have a faster speed (smaller number in the command).
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•   Auto indenting in EDIT. Some people like to put the indenting into
the program itself to show the structure (as opposed to using LISTO3 to
show the structure when you list it). If you are using the ARM BASIC
editor, you can add the spaces automatically as you type in the program.
What happens is that if you put a number of spaces at the beginning of
one program line then, when you press <return>, the new line has the
same number of leading spaces as the line before, so until you reach a
REPEAT or UNTIL or FOR or NEXT etc, you just press <return> and type the
next line without thinking about the indenting.
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•   Disappearing programs in EDIT!! On the BASIC editor, if you edit a
line that occupies more than one screen line and make it shorter, it may
leave a blank line on the screen (no problem − this disappears as soon
as you move the cursor away from that line). If you then press <return>
to create a new line, the new line goes in the gap left by the editing
(still, apparently, no problem). However as soon as you try to use any
of the move, delete, or copy functions, all the line numbers go wrong
and cursor movement becomes rather unpredictable. Indeed, if you move
down the program, you will find that when the line that was edited moves
off the top of the screen, the scrolling continues and the program
disappears into oblivion! (Reset and OLD will recover your program
intact.)
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The solution is, if you get a line gap, either re-number (which happens
automatically if the line numbers were already consecutive) or move down
a line then back up again before pressing <return>.
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•   Pencil for Artisan. If you want to add a ‘pencil’ facility to
Artisan, the joined-lines function can be made to provide this in the
following way. (1) Using a copy (not the original!!) of the Artisan
disc, enter the BASIC editor and load ART5. (2) Use Search and Edit to
find DEFPROCKB. (3) Alter the procedure so that it looks like this:-
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DEFPROCKB
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LOCAL X%, Y%, B%
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IF J%=6 AND CLARE%=-1 THEN
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MOUSE X%,Y%,B% :ENDPROC
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ELSE
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REPEAT:MOUSE X%,Y%,B%:UNTIL B%<>BB%:ENDPROC
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ENDIF
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(4) Save this as ART5. (5) For completeness, use the Welcome utility,
SEDIT, to change the joined-lines icon into a pencil icon. (6) Now, with
the joined-lines function selected, holding down <select> draws a
continuous line. On releasing <select>, the normal rubber band line
appears, but it can be released by pressing <adjust> once. Pressing
<adjust> again carries out the UNDO function.
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(While on the subject of modifying Artisan, note the short addition in
Acorn User, April ’88 which adds an airbrush effect.)
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•   Star LC24-10. If you are having problems with getting a Star LC24-10
to accept output from First Word Plus or Graphic Writer, check the EPROM
chip in the printer next to the dip switches. If it has a label on it
showing version 1.0, contact Star Micronics and they will supply a free
up-grade.
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•   Moving menus. If you find that your menus keep moving about, drag
the box down to the extreme bottom right corner of the screen until you
can go no further. This makes them a little more secure − simple, but
soothing!
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•   Programming for speed. Programs like EMR’s SoundSynth and Minerva’s
Hoverbod and Missile Control are actually written in BASIC, with calls
to ARM assembly language routines where extra speed is really necessary.
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If you thought professional quality programs demanded assembly language
only, think again! Perhaps there is a program you had thought of
writing, but did not feel could be written in BASIC; the speed of the
Archimedes has changed all of that.
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Your strategy should be to write the whole program in BASIC first and
then see which routines need replacing with assembly language in order
to provide the right response times.
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Mike Ginns’ recent book from DABS Press, “Archimedes Assembly Language”,
contains a large number of assembly language counterparts for BASIC
statements (he calls them “templates”), and would be of great value if
you want to try your hand at this sort of approach. Although the book
has rather a large number of grammatical errors and is not quite as
fully comprehensive as it claims to be, but is still a good buy at
£14.95. (Ian Nicholls)
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First Word Plus Hints
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•   Using PC’s − If you have access to a PC and a PC version of First
Word Plus, you may be interested to know that you can transfer files
between the two using the Getfile and Putfile utilities of the PC
Emulator. You can even transfer supplementary dictionaries the same way.
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•   Adding printer drivers − It may not be very obvious how you add the
extra printer drivers that we’ve provided on the program discs, onto
your First Word Plus disc. Suppose you want the Kaga Taxan driver. Put
in the program disc and type
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*copy 1WP.cfg.Kaga_Taxan 1WP.cfg.* P
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then change discs and press <space> as prompted. (Or use dual drives if
you have them.)
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•   Default printer driver − If you want to make, say the Juki driver,
the default so that it comes up with that as the driver when you boot up
the disc, use:
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*copy  $.1WP.cfg.Juki  $.Res*.
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1WP.1wp_print F
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The F in the copy command makes it over-write the existing default
driver.
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•   Paging problems. You can now get a version of First Word Plus that
obeys the command in the printer driver to stop at the end of a page to
allow you to change the paper. Brian Carroll writesÉ “I returned my disc
to Acorn and had it back by return of post with a clear and helpful
letter. It seems that Acorn are at last getting the message about
customer support. There are only two modified files: $.resources.1WP.1WP
and $.resources.1WP. 1ML, so for anyone who has done some work to
configure their working master disc it would be simpler just to copy
these two files across than to start again from scratch. The bug-fix
works OK, so the printer drivers that I sent for Canon PW-1080A (program
disc number 10) will work properly.”
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•   LQ1050 − You can add double height to the printer driver merely by
using Search and Replace, changing 57 for 77 (double width for double
height). It works fine − the only thing to remember is to set the line
spacing to 2 in the ruler when choosing expanded pitch.
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•   Large documents. Beware when you are printing long documents (30
pages+) as FWP can get a bit confused and print the wrong pages.