Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/hints/volume_06/issue03

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Hints and Tips
6.3
•   A3010 joystick ports − several A3010s have been returned to Acorn with
complaints of faulty joystick ports. They are not faulty. The A3010 is
the first Archimedes to have a built-in digital (i.e. Atari-style)
joystick port and because of this, many of the games already available
do not cater for digital joysticks. This is a fairly major problem and
hopefully someone will soon produce some sort of patch (either hardware
or software) which allows digital joysticks to be used in place of the
more common proportional joysticks (such as the Voltmace Delta). Until
then, two sources of information about digital joystick interfaces are
The Leading Edge and Beebug.
6.3
•   A4 Portable Guide − on page 31 of this guide, the pin-out diagram for
the AKF18 monitor is slightly incorrect. Pins 13 and 14 (horizontal and
vertical sync) have been reversed.
6.3
•   Artworks & Impression dongles − There appears to be a clash between
these two dongles when using an A5000 and a JP-150: printouts appear
with spurious information across them. Computer Concepts say that the
problem only occurs between A5000s and JP-150 printers and add that they
are looking into the problem.
6.3
•   Banner-making − I have just seen, in Archive 6.1, a review of a
program called Banner.
6.3
If you own a printer which takes fanfold paper, there is an alternative
way for making banners. (By the way, fanfold paper does not need
sprocket holes if you are careful about the line-up and select friction
feed, so normal paper rolls can be used. For example, the Colourjet 132
users can print banners in this way.)
6.3
The print margins on all the Acorn printer drivers are user-definable
and as long as you want to print out banners shorter in length than A0,
extending the appropriate print margin and setting Draw to A0 landscape
will normally allow satisfactory banners to be produced. (Changing the
print margins is described in the manuals; change only the height of the
page to whatever you wish and leave the width alone.) If print margins
are shown, keeping to these will ensure that none of the picture is
lost.
6.3
The additional flexibility of Draw, especially in conjunction with the
drawfile utilities (!FontFX, !DrawBender, etc) would, in my opinion,
offset most of the ease of use of Banner, except perhaps in primary
schools.
6.3
Note that the printer should not be set to skip perforations, or
problems will result, but I have had no difficulty in printing banners
on an Epson LX and even a Colourjet 132 in this manner.
6.3
For those requiring longer banners, !Draw½ and, I believe, !Draw+
(Careware 13) allow an option to set the work area to the print margins,
which will then enable them to use the longer pages which the printer
driver can handle but, again, for a banner you should set the page to be
much taller than normal in the printer driver and edit the display in
landscape mode. I have used this to produce banners several metres long.
6.3
I am sure Banner is a very useful package and I have not attempted to
use it but I would be unwilling to spend £15 when the same effect seems
to be available from the software supplied with the machine and
Careware.   Andrew Garrard, Cambridge.
6.3
•   Banner-making again − Recently I needed to print up a large banner for
a meeting, and wondered how I should go about it. Of course, I could
always have bought ‘Banner’ for £15 but, for a once off job, I thought
this just a touch extravagant. This set me thinking... Impression can
define master pages as big as you like... hmm... This is what I did, and
it works!
6.3
1.   Open a new document in Impression
6.3
2.   Create a new Master Page (Custom Job) − Width: 1000 and Depth: 210
6.3
3.   Return to the document and set the Master Page in Alter Chapter
6.3
4.   Set the Font Size to 500
6.3
5.   Type in “Hello World!” or whatever
6.3
6.   Set the printer driver page size to − Height: 1000 and Width: 210
6.3
7.   Set the Impression Print Dialogue to print sideways, and fire away
6.3
Warning − this is not ‘printer ribbon friendly’... in fact, it is
positively ‘printer ribbon hostile’!  Philip Lardner, Co. Wicklow,
Ireland.
6.3
•   CC BJ10ex Turbo Driver − It seems that the only method of using the
Turbo Driver with the PC Emulator is to load !BJ10e and quit it again
before loading the emulator.  Chris McIntosh, Blackheath.
6.3
•   Programming the Serial Port (Vertical Twist) graphics board − On the
monthly program disc is a series of programs which, in themselves, do
nothing much. However, they show how the 65000 colour modes can be
accessed from Basic and C.
6.3
They mainly show how to draw lines, circles and fill shapes. Most do not
need any interaction. Fill requires five mouse selections to create to
outline − the sixth should be inside the box.
6.3
Lines − just move the mouse and press <select> to change colour.
6.3
15_120ASM converts mode 15/21 sprites to mode 120. Copy the sprite image
to the floppy’s root directory before running. It’s not very fast. Jim
Bailey, Sunderland.
6.3
•   Squirrel update − Digital Services have upgraded Squirrel from version
1.07. Currently, Squirrel is being supplied with the original V1.07 disc
and manual and a V1.20 upgrade disc. A new manual is due out soon and
Digital Services will send all existing Squirrel owners this new copy
providing they have registered.
6.3
•   VIDC enhancer & RISC-OS 3.10 − There can be problems using very early
Atomwide VIDC enhancer hardware with RISC-OS 3.10. It appears that if
the enhancer is software switched, RISC-OS 3.10 will automatically
switch it on which prevents the computer from starting up correctly. To
solve the problem, you have two choices: (a) at the command line, type
*FX 162,&BC,&80 and switch your machine off, then on again, to check
that the command has worked (full details are on page 14 in the RISC OS
3.10 release note) or (b) return the enhancer hardware to Atomwide with
£5 and they will modify the hardware so that it works correctly.
6.3
•   Vision Digitiser. As I concluded in my review of the monochrome
version of this product (Archive 5.12.42), the package is amazing value
for money. However, the supplied software is a little basic. Further
more, Robert Golightly at HCCS tells me that the software module
(promised in the !ReadMe file) to provide * commands and SWIs for users
to write their own programs has a priority below that of the 512-line
upgrade, and is not likely to appear in the near future.
6.3
All is not lost, for the software – at least the monochrome version – is
written using Basic’s in-line assembler, and so can be modified by the
careful user.
6.3
For example, as it stands, the !Vision application always demands 450Kb
of memory. For those with 1M machines, or those who like to multi-task
it with other memory-demanding applications, it would be useful to be
able to reduce this. Examination of the code reveals that a 320Kb screen
buffer is reserved, whatever screen mode you are using. 320Kb will be
needed for mode 21, but only 160Kb for modes 15 and 20, and 80Kb for
mode 12. If you haven’t a multi-sync monitor and want to save 160Kb of
memory when using !Vision, change the following lines of a copy of
!RUNIMAGE, having first checked that the first line of the !Run file
shows that you have Version 1.0, dated March 1992.
6.3
  130 DIM M% 210000
6.3
 8650 BNE mode_error
6.3
23260 EQUD 163840
6.3
23460 FN_work (163840)
6.3
Then amend line 2 of !Run to read:
6.3
wimpslot -min 288K -max 288K
6.3
I’m working on other possible improvements to the software, such as mode
67 compatibility, but it occurs to me that others might be doing the
same. If you are interested in participating in an informal user-group
for the Vision Digitiser, please send an SAE to Stuart Bell, 23 Ryecroft
Drive, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 2AW.  A
6.3
TechSoft
6.3
From 6.2 page 19
6.3
TechSoft
6.3
From 6.2 page 15
6.3
Risc Developments (2)
6.3
New Artwork
6.3
Using RISC-OS 3
6.3
Hugh Eagle
6.3
Many thanks to all those who have sent in material about RISC-OS 3.10.
Hugh has done a lot of work for us in collating all this information, so
read it carefully, check it out on your own systems and let us know if
you find solutions to some of the problems and/or see more problems.
This kind of information is very valuable indeed in terms of helping
other people who have to go through the same learning curve as you, with
the new operating system.
6.3
I think it would also be good to send in a few ‘I hadn’t realised that
you could... ...but it makes life much easier’comments.
6.3
By the way, as at 28/11/92, N.C.S. actually has the £50 upgrades in
stock although A5000 owners will still have to be patient, I’m afraid.
Ed.
6.3
(Throughout the column, references to RISC-OS 3 mean RISC-OS 3.10 unless
otherwise stated. HE)
6.3
After ‘The Long Wait’ and an acute dose of ‘Bent Pin Anxiety’, I had, to
cap it all, ‘The Hunt For The Missing Apps 1 Disc’. After all that, I
was quite surprised to find that the machine actually worked when I
turned it on!
6.3
Reconfiguring it so that it ran as well as it did before the upgrade,
was quite a fiddly process. The main hint I would give to anyone who
hasn’t yet done the upgrade is: watch your Fontmax settings!
6.3
•   In the Memory section of !Configure don’t be misled by the illustra
tion on page 94 of the manual. You can not safely leave the “Font cache
limit” setting at zero and expect the operating system to default to a
sensible limit as you can with most of the other memory settings. Unless
you set “Font cache” to a reasonably large amount, you must set a larger
“Font cache limit”. (On a 4Mb machine, I have them set to 128Kb and
512Kb respectively.)
6.3
•   If you have a multisync monitor, read the bit on page 119 (in the
section on screen modes!) when deciding what settings to use for anti-
aliasing and cached bitmaps in the Fonts section of !Configure.
6.3
•   Keith Lowe adds − Where the upgrade instructions tell you to hold down
the Delete key until the power-on self-test has been completed, they
mean don’t release the key until text has appeared on the screen!
Otherwise your old configuration will still be there and that can cause
no end of confusion!
6.3
•   Ed Harris encountered problems in installing the user fit ROM carrier
board from IFEL to his A310. IFEL were very helpful in providing advice
and when Keith was still unable to track down his mistake, they sorted
it out and returned it by return with only a nominal charge to cover
their costs. Many thanks to IFEL.
6.3
•   Mark Lambert reports problems trying to install RISC-OS 3 in an A310
fitted with a Watford 4Mb RAM upgrade (the second edition with a
vertical daughterboard holding the processor). Watford have told him
that a simple wire link is required on the RAM board but, as yet, they
have not told him the exact details. Does anyone happen to know the
details of the link required?
6.3
•   Steve Hutchinson writes: I was assured that it was quite simple to do
the necessary hardware upgrade to my old A440. In the event, I managed
it without hiccup but it was not quite so simple. I had to remove the
main circuit board from the case − which means unplugging loads of
things in my machine with all its upgrades. If you haven’t reasonable
electronic experience, think twice!
6.3
And is the upgrade worth it? For 1Mb or floppy disc only users, the
answer must surely be yes. It must be a godsend to have the standard
applications, plus fonts, plus modules, all in ROM. For hard disc owners
.... well, what do you think? Some readers have no doubts.
6.3
Ed Harris, for instance, writes: All in all, I have found RISC-OS 3.1 to
be a great improvement on an already excellent operating system (RISC-OS
2) and well worth the cost of the upgrade. However, I wonder whether
others share my disappointment that the improvements were not more
dramatic? Perhaps now is the time for us to begin to compile a Wish List
of things we would like to see in RISC-OS 4.
6.3
Why not send your thoughts either to Archive or to me at the address at
the end of this column?
6.3
Most programs work well in RISC-OS 3
6.3
Robert Macmillan of Colton Software has written to point out (further to
Gerald Fitton’s comments in the Pipeline Column of Archive 6.1) that not
only do all versions of Pipedream from 3.10 onwards work in RISC-OS 3,
they all work better with RISC-OS 3. This is because RISC-OS 3 has the
latest versions of system software built in and these perform better
than the old versions supplied with RISC-OS 2. In particular, the font
manager is much, much faster and the benefits of having the fonts built
in make it possible for floppy disc users to make good use of fonts
without inordinate disc swapping.
6.3
Robert suggests that Archive should publish a table showing which of the
most popular software packages work, and which don’t work or need
upgrading. Judging by the number of needless phone calls he has been
receiving, this would be of great benefit to users considering the
upgrade to RISC-OS 3.
6.3
I think the drawback with this idea is that although most people will
report that most programs work perfectly well (and the list could
potentially fill much of the magazine) some programs that do work well
for most people seem to cause problems for some others.
6.3
However, I do agree that it is important to emphasise that most programs
do work and so, to set the ball rolling, I confirm that, from my limited
experience and that of my friends, the following generally seem to work
well:
6.3
   all the standard Acorn applications
6.3
   Impression 2.17 (but see below)
6.3
   Poster 1.21
6.3
   Artworks (all versions)
6.3
   Vector
6.3
   TWO
6.3
   Squirrel
6.3
   Pacmania
6.3
   E-Type
6.3
   Twin World
6.3
   Lemmings
6.3
   Gods
6.3
Programs that need minor modifications
6.3
•   Sigmasheet (Minerva) must have FPEmulator in the same directory, even
though that module is in ROM. (John Waddell)
6.3
•   First Word Plus release 1.1 − As my current word processor is First
Word Plus release 1, I was worried by the assertion in the release notes
that this was unuseable under RISC-OS 3.1. This happily proved not to be
the case. If colour 14 within the WIMP palette is redefined, the menus
become legible. I have created an obey file to invoke 1WP (on the
monthly program disc) which loads a modified palette on entry and
restores the default palette on exit. Using this, I have experienced no
problems running 1WP. (Ed Harris)
6.3
•   DiscTree does not work correctly under RISC-OS 3. Oak Solutions are
working on the problem.
6.3
•   InterWord – My copy of InterWord has its own directory in the hard
disc root directory. It runs in 65Tube, which isn’t where it used to be
under RISC-OS 2, and appears under a different name. To get InterWord
going again, copy the new App2.!65Tube.!RunImage to the InterWord
directory and rename it as 65Tube; it should now be sitting alongside
!IWord in that directory. In the I/WORD.!IWORD.!RUN file, insert the
following line after Set Interword$Dir <Obey$Dir>:
6.3
RMLoad ADFS::HD4.$.IWORD.65Tube
6.3
(where HD4 is the name of the hard disc). Double click on !IWORD in the
usual way to start it.
6.3
A similar method should apply to single floppy machines by substituting
the appropriate floppy name for that of the hard disc above. (Ken Cowap)
6.3
•   Holed Out – I have a boot file on the hard disc which sets up the
machine with some applications on the iconbar and some more on the
pinboard. The golf game “Holed Out” finds this environment disagreeable
and won’t start. The following gets it going:
6.3
*CONFIGURE DRIVE 0
6.3
*MOUNT :0
6.3
   <shift-break> (machine re-boots to bare-bones iconbar)
6.3
   Click Drive 0 icon to get “Holed Out” filer
6.3
   Double click !Boot
6.3
Terminate the game with:
6.3
   Shift/Break
6.3
*CONFIGURE DRIVE 4
6.3
*MOUNT:4
6.3
   <ctrl-break> (machine re-boots to populated iconbar, etc) (Ken Cowap)
6.3
•   Chocks Away – The flight simulator Chocks Away isn’t quite so fussy
about a populated iconbar and will generally start normally. However, if
it does object, it may help to try a <ctrl-break> followed immediately
by <escape>, which re-boots to an unpopulated iconbar, then double click
on !Chocks. (Ken Cowap)
6.3
Other program problems
6.3
Mike Williams has supplied a list of programs that he has found don’t
work under RISC-OS 3.1:
6.3
   Ground Control Teletext Adaptor (At the A.U.      Show, Ground Control
said they weren’t      aware of any problems. HE.)
6.3
   Clares’ Arcade Games
6.3
   Quazer
6.3
   StarTrader
6.3
   Arcendium
6.3
   Corruption
6.3
   Terramex
6.3
   Boogie Buggy
6.3
Ed Harris has found several public domain applications that have failed
to run:
6.3
   Mandelplot (garbage on screen − machine      locks)
6.3
   ChartDraw (“illegal window handle” error)
6.3
   Hyper (“illegal window handle” error)
6.3
•   Computer Concepts admit that ShowPage does not work with RISC-OS 3 and
say that they have no plans to get it working with RISC-OS 3. There just
is not the demand for this product to make it worthwhile doing the
upgrade which is more like a complete re-write for the new operating
system.
6.3
Denis Fox reports problems with:
6.3
•   Impression (2.17) and LaserDirect (2.05) work much more slowly, even
with Fontsize set to 256Kb and Fontmax to 512Kb. There are regular poor
printouts, sometimes with patterned effects in what should be black
areas, hang ups when transferring lots of text between documents and
continual error messages when printing. (I have a similar setup but have
not noticed any deterioration in performance. HE.)
6.3
To help the speed, I suggest you try NOT using the ROM fonts − then you
can have Quick Text switched on. To do this, add a FontRemove
Resources:$.Fonts. in the !Fonts.!Boot file before the FontInstall
<Obey$Dir>. command.
6.3
I have once had the patterned effect in black areas but quitting and
restarting the printer driver cleared it. Ed
6.3
•   Multistore V11 not printing with a Star LC24-200. (At the AU Show,
Minerva said there may be problems with earlier versions and that users
experiencing such difficulties should contact them quoting their version
number. HE.)
6.3
•   Scanlight Plus 256 not working at all. (There are no known problems.
Are you sure you have a power supply connected to the board? You do need
the p.s.u. connected even on the A5000. Ed.)
6.3
•   A number of people have had problems (mainly “illegal window handle”
errors) with versions up to 1.07 of my PD application PickAPic. I found
that there was an error in the code that only occasionally caused
problems in RISC-OS 2, but caused the program to crash quite often in
RISC-OS 3, presumably because of a change in the way the window manager
numbers its windows. Anyone who wants an upgrade to the latest version
please write to me at the address at the bottom of this column. (Hugh
Eagle)
6.3
•   Droom – I can’t get Droom to work. It reports “Not enough system
sprite memory” whether I use Memalloc and the *Spritesize command (this
used to work in RISC-OS 2), or the new *ChangeDynamicArea command, or
whether I set the System sprites slider in the Task Manager window.
(Hugh Eagle)
6.3
•   Compression − Computer Concepts have informed me that the release note
for version 3.10 is slightly too pessimistic when it claims that
Compression (up to version 1.10) does not work on RISC_OS 3.10. What
apparently happens is that sometimes when you compress a directory with
several files, the last file, instead of being processed, produces an
error message. It can then be compressed singly. (In the first two weeks
of working with the new OS, I have had no trouble with Compression, so
the problem appears to be marginal. HE) (Jochen Konietzko)
6.3
•   Impression and the Pinboard − Can anyone tell me why the Pinboard has
such problems with Impression documents?
6.3
When I drag a compressed document onto the desktop, the next reset will
produce an error message “Sprite does not exist”. Without Compression,
the document does appear on the desktop but the Impression icon is
replaced by the standard application icon. (Jochen Konietzko) (I seem to
have no difficulty with Impression icons on the Pinboard in my
Compression-less setup. HE)
6.3
•   PC Emulator (version 1.6) – I applied the patch to my copy of the PC
Emulator (Version 1.6) and changed the filetype of the DOS partitions to
DOSDisc as recommended in the release notes. I then found that the
machine locked whenever I ran the emulator, even after a <ctrl-break>.
Things worked perfectly, however, after the machine had been powered off
and restarted. (Ed Harris)
6.3
•   Trouble with !FontFX − It has already been documented, at least twice,
that !FontFX will not run under RISC-OS 3 and the suggested “fix” is to
reset Font$Path using *SetMacro. Having done this, I still can’t get it
to use the Trinity and Homerton fonts supplied in ROM. To get round the
problem, I have renamed the original RISC-OS 2 versions OldTrinity and
OldHomertn and installed them in my !Fonts directory on disc. Now
choosing these from the fonts list in !FontFX works beautifully. So far
there have been no side effects!
6.3
It occurs to me that the problem may be that !FontFX is looking for
files called IntMetric and Outlines (there are lots of references to
these names in the !RunImage) whereas the files in ResourcesFS are
stored as IntMetric() and Outlines(). The real answer would be for the
program to be amended to accept either version of the filenames. I shall
speak to DataStore to find out if they intend to make the necessary
alterations. (Tom Harkness)
6.3
The release notes say that FontFX must be more recent than 4.31 to work.
My version, 4.08, works fine so long as you don’t use ROM fonts. If you
do try to, it reports ‘Can’t find outlines’ and promptly exits from the
iconbar! All other fonts seem fine, even from multiple directories.
(Steve Hutchinson)
6.3
•   Ovation – Ovation meets a problem or two with RISC-OS 3 despite its
recent update (version 1.35S). If text is indented (e.g. at the start of
a paragraph) and is also justified, the correct format is presented on
screen but when printed, the indented line projects to the right beyond
the text frame. It is understood that Risc Developments are working on
this. Also, if Ovation encounters a faulty outline font (e.g. containing
a zero-width character, not uncommon in some PD fonts) it puts out an
incorrect error message saying that the font cache is full. This bug is
more likely to be purely Ovation’s rather than in conjunction with RISC-
OS 3, but hasn’t been resolved as yet (except of course by ensuring that
outline fonts are fault-free). (Ken Cowap)
6.3
•   ArcDFS – Since fitting the RISC-OS 3 upgrade, ArcDFS no longer works
correctly and consistently comes up with error messages. This causes me
great problems since, throughout our group of companies, we possess some
50+ Acorn BBC units ranging from the old BBC Model B’s (yes, they’re
still going strong after eight years of service) through to Master
128’s.
6.3
We are only just moving on to Archimedes and to maintain our wealth of
information accumulated on our Beebs, I am transferring files from DFS
to ADFS via a set of external 5¼“ disc drives I have had connected to my
A3000. This has worked perfectly in the past with complete surfaces of
DFS discs being transferred to ADFS in seconds. Without ArcDFS, I am
left with only one solution − to *MOVE individual DFS files to 640Kb
ADFS discs using a Master Series Computer and then transferring these
640Kb discs to the Archimedes. Clearly, this is a retrograde step after
the convenience of ArcDFS.
6.3
I have been in contact with Dabs Press and, although they are aware of
the problem, they could not tell me whether or not they were going to
make the necessary modifications to their software! I sincerely hope
they receive a large enough response from their users to persuade them
to produce an upgrade for this product. (S. J. Furnell)
6.3
•   !Alarm – A couple of tricky little bugs exist in the new Alarm
application. I’ve already reported these to Risc User and trust they
will advise Acorn in turn. If the Repeating Alarm facility is used to
operate, say, every first Monday of every month, it malfunctions when
the next month comes up to December. It advances a year instead of a
month, going from November 1992 to December 1993.
6.3
Perhaps less important, but still a nuisance if you want to use it, is
the bug in the automatic BST to GMT facility. It refuses to accept
entries for two different years such as were needed at the recent change
on 25th October. Before that date, it should have been in order to enter
6.3
   BST starts on Sunday 28th March 1993 at 01:00
6.3
   BST ends on Sunday 25th October 1992 at 01:00
6.3
but Alarm invalidates such an entry by altering the “starts” date to be
earlier than the “ends” date. If one capitulates and enters the two real
changeover dates for 1992, (hoping that Alarm will calculate forward
into 1993) Alarm does indeed respond with a date in 1993 but only about
11 months ahead, on 1st March 1993. There is a fundamental difficulty
for the programmer here. The changeover date doesn’t, as far as I know,
follow a properly defined rule and tends to be arbitrary. I suspect that
the programmer intended to issue a reminder to the operator 11 months
after the last change so that the true date, known by then, could be
entered. However, the algorithm obviously needs re-examination. (Ken
Cowap)
6.3
Can readers (or the manufacturers) offer any advice on how to overcome
problems with these programs (or any others that have proved
troublesome)?
6.3
Hardware problems
6.3
•   Oak SCSI “Free Space” display – My Oak SCSI hard disc won’t use the
new ‘Free Space’ window but uses the old RISC-OS 2 ‘stop-everything-and
press-space’ window. The Release notes suggest that SCSIFiler will fix
this for the Acorn SCSI card, but it doesn’t appear to for my Oak
(v.1.16). Any thoughts? (Steve Hutchinson) (The solution to this was
explained in Archive 5.5 p40. Ed.)
6.3
•   Digitisers, SCSI and the RS232 port – I managed to get RISC-OS 3
fitted to my faithful A440 only to discover that my Technomatic
(Brainsoft) Multipod Professional digitiser not only does not work with
RISC-OS 3.10 but the computer will not work with the podule fitted.
Richard Brain says that he was not aware of a problem and there are
currently no plans for an upgrade, but he will have a look when he gets
time to see if an upgrade is possible. In the meantime, I have no video
digitiser, no stereo digitiser and no extra RS232 ports.
6.3
I mentioned the problem to Malcolm Banthorpe and he tells me that his
Pineapple digitiser is now “unwell” with RISC-OS 3.10. I wonder whether
there are some differences in the way that podules download their ROM
modules and initialise under RISC-OS 3.10?
6.3
I also hear rumours that people are experiencing interrupt problems with
SCSI interfaces causing data loss on the RS232 port (interrupts not
returning quickly enough to avoid loss of incoming data on the port).
Apparently, uncached Morley cards may be particularly prone but I have
no first hand experience. It certainly fits in with Malcolm Banthorpe’s
experience on his digitiser which seems to be suffering from an overdose
of interrupts. (Tim Nicholson)
6.3
Laser Direct RISC-OS 3 printer driver?
6.3
It seems barely credible, but a whole year after RISC-OS 3 was first
released, the Rolls Royce of Archimedes printers still lacks a RISC-OS 3
printer driver. For many purposes this doesn’t matter, but rotated fonts
seem a bit pointless if you can’t print them out, and users with more
than one printer would like to be able to access their LD using the
Print Manager.
6.3
Readers have been getting contradictory explanations from Computer
Concepts: one was told that they’ve been too busy writing Artworks,
while another was told that Acorn haven’t given them a printer driver
specification yet! (There’s an element of truth in both. Let’s just say
that it is a non-trivial task to write a printer driver to work with
Acorn’s Print Manager. Ed.)
6.3
Other printer problems
6.3
•   Epson MX100-III – My printer is an ageing Epson MX100-III. Using the
standard settings provided by the Acorn printer driver, I find thin
lines can disappear. e.g. the staves in a Rhapsody score. Using the
highest resolution setting (120 x 216 dpi dithered) produces an
excellent standard of output but 1.5 to 2 times slower than the RISC-OS
2 driver (at a resolution of 120 × 144 dpi). (Ed Harris)
6.3
•   Print buffering – I have an Archimedes 420/1 expanded to 4Mb memory,
with twin Cumana 5¼“ disc drives and recently equipped with ARM3 and
RISC-OS 3.1. Ever since I installed RISC-OS 3.1, I have had a problem
with printing. I use Impression most of the time but the same problem
arises with Draw, Acorn DTP, DrawPlus, etc, etc. I shall put the problem
in the form of a question: What is the point of a printer buffer that
does not release control of the machine back to the user until the print
job is finished?
6.3
I wrote to Acorn as follows: Whatever setting I use for PrinterBuffer
Size, it just does not seem to make any difference. I have 4Mb of memory
and use Impression a great deal. Sometimes I set the PrinterBufferSize
as high as 512Kb but the computer does not return control to the desktop
until the document is completely printed. Under RISC-OS 2, I used a
printer buffer program and found that I was able to work on a new
document within a minute or two of sending the previous one to the
printer provided the buffer was set high enough to accommodate all of
the data being sent to the printer. Now the machine is always tied up
until the printing is complete. How does one get the printer buffer to
work? I use *Configure PrinterBufferSize to set the size of the buffer.
Is there another command that I can use to make it operational and is it
possible to turn it off (*Configure PrinterBufferSize 0Kb sets it to the
default of 1Kb) and use one of the many printer buffer programs that are
available?
6.3
Acorn (Peter Dunn) replied: “Although the printer buffer does work in
that data is passed into the buffer, control is not released back to the
user until the print job is finished.”
6.3
I have tried RMKilling the BufferManager but that stops all data being
sent to the printer.
6.3
I have devised a work-around but it is a little long-winded:
6.3
1. Have two versions of the chosen printer driver on the iconbar and
make them active.
6.3
2. Set one (F) to send the data for the printer to a file on the hard
disc and set the other (P) to send the data to the parallel or serial
printer.
6.3
3. Select (F) by clicking on it and ‘print’ the document. A file called
Printout will appear on the hard disc.
6.3
4. Change the name of the file called Printout to, say, Printoutx.
6.3
5. Select (P) by clicking on it and drag Printoutx onto the Printer icon
that is yellow.
6.3
The file will now print in the background and control is instantly
returned to the user. Step 4 is not strictly necessary but is useful if
you are printing longish documents and wish to, as it were, stack them
ready for sending to the printer. If one does not change the name to
something unique, there is a danger of overprinting one file with
another. Instead of the hard disc one may, of course, use a floppy or
RAMFS.
6.3
This is quite a laborious work-around when one has a printer buffer
built in (so one would think) to RISC-OS 3.1. A better arrangement must
be possible and so I should be grateful for any hints or tips the
readers can give. (M. P. Ireland)
6.3
•   Epson FX-105 – The driver for the Epson FX-85 does not work with the
Epson FX-105 even though the printer manual suggests that they are
virtually identical apart from the carriage width. The printout is
always aligned along the left hand side even when it is supposed to be
centered, etc. Furthermore, large letters, being sent in several
separate lines, are often incorrectly aligned from top to bottom. When I
raised this in my letter to Acorn, they replied as follows:
6.3
“The Epson FX-105 does not support the ESC $ (remove leading white
space) options supported by the FX-85 but does however support NLQ text
printing. The decision by Epson not to support ESC $ in its newer
printers has only recently come to light when testing the Epson LX-100.
We have written a driver for the LX-100 which I am sure you will find
works correctly with your printer.”
6.3
A copy was sent to me and I can confirm that it does indeed work. (M. P.
Ireland)
6.3
•   Bug in !Printers − If you configure two printers of the same type
(e.g. a 300dpi HPLJ-2 and a 150dpi HPLJ-2) then delete the first one,
!Printers crashes with an address error. (Mike Williams)
6.3
•   LaserJetII printer driver and Qume Crystalprint Series II – My problem
concerns the LaserJet II printer driver. Quite simply, I always get an
extra blank sheet for every page printed. Also stray characters appear
in the left margin. The Qume CrystalPrint Series II printer is very
similar to that used initially by Computer Concepts for their Laser
Direct series, but mine isn’t a Laser Direct model.
6.3
In the early days of RISC-OS 2, I vaguely remember I had a similar
problem that was solved only when Acorn (fairly quickly) brought out
another printer driver.
6.3
In my efforts to solve the problem, I’ve tried lots of things – like
changing margins, etc, etc. I’ve had long discussions with Gerald
Fitton, too. From him, I know that others have plenty of problems,
though perhaps not quite like mine. The silly thing is that all was OK
with the RISC-OS 2 driver but, despite the impression given in Risc
User, neither of us thinks that RISC-OS 2 drivers can be used with RISC-
OS 3. Is this correct, I wonder? If they can be used, that would be a
good temporary solution. (John Jordan)
6.3
•   Getting the page length right – After quite a number of abortive
attempts to set the page length for 12 inch fanfold paper, I finally
found out that any changes I make become effective (at least on my
combination of machines) only after I have saved all changes, quit and
then reloaded the printer driver. (By the way, the correct setting for
my Fujitsu DL1100 printer, using the Epson LQ860 emulation is, for some
inscrutable reason, 12.309 inches, 72 lines). (Jochen Konietzko)
6.3
•   Panasonic KX-P1124 – Probably my most difficult problem was with the
printer drivers. The old RISC-OS 2 drivers just have to be abandoned −
they merely generate an error message. My printer happens to be a
Panasonic KX-P1124 (24-pin dot matrix, monochrome) but Acorn haven’t
seen fit to include any Panasonic printers at all. Though they blandly
say that one of the others will probably be near enough, in fact, it
requires a considerable amount of research to be confident that the
range of control codes is (a) sufficient to fully exploit the machine’s
capabilities and (b) doesn’t contain any alien codes to cause unwanted
results. At the end of the day (or several!) I reduced the probables to
two, the Epson LQ860 and the NEC P6+ (despite the fact that both
machines are colour printers). I had misgivings about the NEC which
includes, in its control code repertoire, some which started with 28
instead of the old familiar 27 (Escape). The matter was finally clinched
when I was able to question an Acorn representative at the Acorn User
Show. He told me that quite definitely I should use the Epson LQ860. So
this I do, and without any problems so far. I haven’t even edited out
the control codes for the colours − the driver is used, unmodified. (Ken
Cowap)
6.3
Where are the hare and the tortoise?
6.3
Can I get the hare and tortoise icons that came with my ARM3 back on the
iconbar? Or do I have to tell people that if they want E-Type to go at a
playable pace they have to press <F12> then type “Cache off” then press
<return> twice before running it?! (I just use
6.3
RMEnsure Arm3Icon 0.9 Run scsi::4 .$.<leafname>.!Arm3
6.3
 in my !boot file and... hare presto! Ed.)
6.3
Programmers’ Reference Manual
6.3
At the Acorn User Show, a “beta” copy of the new PRM was on sale in
photocopy form for £120. The final version will apparently be available
“in the first quarter” of 1993. It is about 50% bigger than the RISC-OS
2 manual and will fill six volumes. From my brief inspection, it looks
as if it contains quite a lot more explanatory material than its
predecessor. I was told that neither the price of the final version nor
details of the trade-in arrangements (if any!) have yet been fixed.
6.3
Various hints and tips:
6.3
•   Problem with Impression dongle − You can’t write to a printer when the
Impression dongle is fitted unless you have run the Impression appli
cation first. (Mike Williams)
6.3
•   Summer time blues − Some C programs (e.g. PVray) get the time wildly
wrong when *BST is configured. (Mike Williams)
6.3
•   Bug in !SciCalc − It gives wildly inaccurate results to the <±>
function for some values, e.g. if you enter “1<Exp>56” then press <1/x>
to give “10E−57” then press <±> you get the surprising result: “10E−58”.
If you press <±> again, you get “10E−41”. (Mike Williams)
6.3
•   Where did this file come from? − There are quite a few ways in which
<adjust> clicking can be very helpful. I’m sure you all know that
<adjust> double-clicking a directory opens it and closes the parent and
that using <adjust> to close the directory opens up the parent. You may
even know that clicking the close icon with <adjust> while holding down
<shift> actually opens the parent without closing the directory. What
you may not have noticed is that you can do the same with (some)
applications. With most applications, it seems, <adjust> double-clicking
a file loads the file and closes the directory from which it came. (I
think this is a function of the Filer and is therefore true for all
applications and files. HE.) Then, if you click in the close box with
<adjust>, holding <shift> at the same time, the directory from which the
file came appears on screen without the file disappearing from view.
With Impression, however, there is no need to hold <shift> as well −
just using <adjust> on the close box brings up the directory viewer in
which the file is saved.
6.3
Oh, and I’ve only just discovered that if you draw a window’s scroll bar
with <adjust>, you can move about in both x and y directions! (Paul
Beverley)
6.3
•   Rubber-banding − Those who have gone straight to RISC-OS 3 without
reading the manual (like Ed!) may not have noticed that you can use
rubber-banding to select a group of files. So instead of <adjust>
clicking every individual file you want to select, you can click
<select> in the space between two file icons and, as you drag, a red
bounding box appears which you can release when it is over the files you
want. Using <adjust> instead of <select> simply adds files to those
already selected but note that if you go over a file that is already
selected, it is then de-selected. (Paul Beverley)
6.3
•   SerialDeviceDriver module − On an A5000, never unplug the module
called “SerialDevice Driver”, as the following strange things will
happen. After a power off/on the machine will boot up but, during
booting, an error message “Error from Task Manager” will appear and
there is only a “Cancel” button to click on. Then the boot up is
finished correctly but no Taskmanager is present! It will only reappear
if you double-click on any file with the new Desktop filetype (&FEA),
even if this is 0 bytes long! In addition, the Taskmanager will not
function correctly in all cases: try to get an “!Edit Task Window” now.
Bug or not? (Carsten Bussman)
6.3
•   Double-clicking into Basic − On my first machine (which was killed by
my dealer while trying to fit a SCSI hard drive) I was able to enter BBC
Basic V directly by double-clicking into the system’s start-up message
window (“RISC-OS ... initialising”). This does not work with my current
machine (Serial no. 1009939); I don’t know why. This was a nice feature
which I’m missing now, so why isn’t it implemented in all RISC-OS 3
ROMs? (Carsten Bussman)
6.3
•   Inserting path names into !Edit − Try dragging any file or directory
into an !Edit window while pressing the Shift key. This will give the
file’s pathname. (Carsten Bussman)
6.3
•   “Menu Area Full” error in FormEd – Captain K. J. Tompkins reports the
error “Menu Area Full (Internal code 6560,1)” from his version of
!FormEd. This is probably because he has one of the earlier versions of
this program which only allows limited space for building its menus and
is defeated if there are too many fonts installed. If so, it is fairly
easy to cure: in the Basic program called !RunImage inside the !FormEd
directory there is a line that reads something like:
6.3
DIM menufree% &1800: menuend% = menufree%+&1800
6.3
(this is at line 790 in the version I’m now looking at). If each of the
two &1800’s is replaced by &2000, so that the line reads:
6.3
DIM menufree% &2000: menuend% = menufree%+&2000
6.3
 the program should work.
6.3
(Note: this hint does not apply to all versions of FormEd) (Hugh Eagle)
6.3
•   Filer_Run syntax − it seems that the command
6.3
*Filer_Run <App$Dir>
6.3
(where App$Dir is a system variable set to the name of an application)
doesn’t run the application as you might expect. What it does is to open
a filer window on the application’s directory with “<App$Dir>” (not the
actual pathname) in the title bar.
6.3
The following syntax, however, does seem to work:
6.3
*Set Alias$FR Filer_Run <App$Dir>
6.3
*FR
6.3
*UnSet Alias$FR
6.3
(this is equivalent to the old trick that used to be needed in RISC-OS 2
to open a directory viewer with *Filer_OpenDir). (Hugh Eagle)
6.3
•   *FontRemove syntax − The FontRemove star command seems to be very
fussy. You have to tell it the name of the directory that you want to
remove in exactly the form in which it is included in the Font$Path
system variable. For instance, if you want to remove
RAM::RamDisc0.$.!Fonts. from Font$Path you must type
6.3
*FontRemove RAM::RamDisc0.$. !Fonts.
6.3
including both the disc name (RamDisc0) and the full stop at the end.
(Robert Chrismas has sent in a handy application called !FontsCut which
lists the directories currently included in Font$Path with numbers
beside them and all you have to do is type in the number corresponding
to the directory you want to remove. This is included on the monthly
program disc.) (Hugh Eagle)
6.3
•   Configuring Shift Caps − In the Caps lock section of the Keyboard
window of !Configure, the effects of “Caps lock on” and “Shift caps”
seem to be reversed. In other words, selecting “Caps lock on” means that
holding down <shift> reverts to lower case whereas selecting “Shift
caps” means that you get upper case regardless of whether <shift> is
held down or not. (Hugh Eagle)
6.3
•   Mouse button codes – If you enter and run the following simple Basic
program:
6.3
REPEAT
6.3
  MOUSE X,Y,B
6.3
  PRINT TAB(10,10)B
6.3
UNTIL FALSE
6.3
then watch what number is displayed on the screen as you press the
various mouse buttons you will see:
6.3
no button   0
6.3
Select      4
6.3
Menu        2 for an instant, followed by 0
6.3
Adjust      1
6.3
The behaviour of the menu button has changed from RISC-OS 2, I think.
Those programs that are interested only in detecting whether the button
has been clicked won’t be affected, but the change can cause problems
for programs that want to detect whether the Menu button remains held
down. Luckily, there is a simple solution: the function
6.3
INKEY(-11)
6.3
will return the value TRUE however long the Menu button is held. (Hugh
Eagle)
6.3
•   Getting Art Nouveau to run – Hands up those who remember Art Nouveau?
Well, this excellent old program has one quirk, namely that you have to
hold down the menu button while you move round the menu tree until you
make your selection. So, because of the changed functioning of the mouse
button (see above), it doesn’t work in RISC-OS 3.1 unless you make a
slight modification. In the Basic program called ArtNouveau from the
directory ANfiles at line 30950 in my version there is a line that
reads:
6.3
WHILE stayopen AND mbut=2
6.3
I have found that altering this to:
6.3
WHILE stayopen AND INKEY-11
6.3
restores the program to health. (Hugh Eagle)
6.3
•   Using a TaskObey file to display a message – The new filetype
“TaskObey” is useful if you want the !Run file of an application to pop
up a message in a window without halting the whole system. You might use
this for instance to display a warning to change the setting of your
printer. Thus, to display “This is a message” in a window, create a file
called, say, Message containing:
6.3
Echo This is a message
6.3
set the filetype to TaskObey and include, in the application’s !Run
file, the line
6.3
Filer_Run <Obey$Dir>.Message
6.3
If you had set the filetype to Obey, the message would pop up moment
arily then disappear before the application loaded. (Hugh Eagle)
6.3
•   Deskboot files and the Pinboard – The User Guide explains how to
create a !Boot file to boot the computer in your desired configuration.
It adds that, when saving the !Boot file, information to start up
applications produced before RISC-OS 3 is not saved automatically. To
get round this, it explains how to rename the !Boot file as Deskboot and
to incorporate it in a !Boot application. It goes on to explain how to
edit the Deskboot file, either to remove or to add lines as necessary.
6.3
If you use the Pinboard as I do, some icons will be changed on a regular
basis. For example, I have regularly used files which change each month.
If the Deskboot file is saved each time the Pinboard is changed, a
certain amount of what the User Guide calls “hand editing” would have to
be done each time a change is made, to remove or add relevant
instructions.
6.3
There is an easy solution. Set up your Desktop once and save the
Deskboot file. Then click <menu> over an empty space on the desktop and
save the Pinboard settings in the Pinboard file in your root directory.
Now drag your Deskboot file into !Edit (or Shift-double-click on it) and
delete all the lines which begin “Pin”. Alter the line “Pinboard” or
“Pinboard -Grid” to read “Run Pinboard” or “Run Pinboard -Grid”.
6.3
Future changes to the Pinboard setting now need be saved only to the
Pinboard file in your root directory. (John Waddell)
6.3
Ken Cowap warns that a DeskBoot file can easily be unnecessarily
cluttered if, for instance, there are a number of unwanted items on the
screen when it is made. This will incur a penalty in the time taken to
boot up − his started at two and a half minutes before he trimmed it
ruthlessly.
6.3
•   ADFS buffers − According to Acorn’s telephone help line, the bug which
made it advisable to configure the adfs buffers to zero has been fixed!
(According to Computer Concepts, unless the buffers are configured to
zero, it is vital to dismount disks before removing them for good from
the machine, because otherwise there may be trouble later.) (Jochen
Konietzko)
6.3
•   OS_Byte calls and the serial port – I use my A3000 for many purposes,
one of the more important being as a terminal to our mainframe computer.
The software for this I have written myself in Basic. After the upgrade,
my terminal program wouldn’t work. It would not accept characters from
the serial port. I tried using the serial port utility module supplied
with the upgrade, but this did not help.
6.3
After a lot of experimenting, we finally discovered that if we changed
all the *FX calls for SYS “OS_Byte” calls, then the program would work.
It still puzzles me why two supposedly similar commands should give
different results! (S. J. Furnell)
6.3
•   Z88 Filers – The Release Note says that the !Z88 filer supplied with
Pipedream requires interactive filing to be off. You’ll be pleased to
know that David Holden’s !Z88 filer (Careware 7) suffers from no such
problems. (Steve Hutchinson)
6.3
•   Programs that call machine code from Basic – An application I used a
lot, !BPrint (Risc User) wouldn’t run with RISC-OS 3, and the cure for
this may well apply to other applications organised in a similar layout,
i.e. using a central Basic program calling a separate piece of machine
code. The cure was to re-assemble the code under RISC-OS 3; obviously
there is some small difference between its assembler and that of RISC-OS
2. In this particular application, its “ancestor” (the program developed
over a period of time), a program called FileList from vol.2 issue 5 was
rerun to produce the assembled file BLIST which was substituted for the
original. (Ken Cowap)
6.3
•   Mode number conflicts – A program for plotting Mandelbrot diagrams
failed with RISC-OS 3 and the manner of its failure may indicate a cure
for others. This particular program called a Mode 40 which didn’t exist
under RISC-OS 2 but which was specially designed and provided with the
program. RISC-OS 3 of course does have a native Mode 40 and a clash
between it and the “special” gave rise to the error report. The cure was
to rename the “special” to a mode number outside the range provided with
RISC-OS 3, in this case Mode 50. (Ken Cowap)
6.3
•   Setting !Alarm options – This is a minor matter, unless you are trying
to set your own !Alarm display format in a !Boot file. This you do with
a Set Alarm$Options line (p136 App Guide). The quotes are omitted. This
is my (working) line:
6.3
Set Alarm$Options -format “%z24:%mi %zdy.%zmn.%zyr”
6.3
If you use a !Boot file and !Alarm, put it in to see my favourite
display format! (Steve Hutchinson)
6.3
Miscellaneous comments
6.3
•   Surely a ‘grown up’ operating system shouldn’t say, “Disc error 10 at
:0/00000000” when you try to read an unformatted disc?
6.3
•   It seems strange that !Configure requires you to press <return> after
typing into a writable icon. This is not normal RISC-OS convention.
6.3
•   It’s a shame that they didn’t manage to squeeze some suitable backdrop
sprites onto one of the RISC-OS 3 discs. Those who have access to
Windows 3 might like to know that its wallpaper bitmaps seem to work
very well on the RISC-OS 3 Pinboard, and it is very easy to transfer
them from an MS-DOS floppy, via !ChangeFSI (on the Support disc), into
sprite format on an Archimedes disc. The file called “leaves.bmp” makes
an excellent seasonal backdrop (I’m writing this in October!).
6.3
Alt-key combinations
6.3
The last couple of issues of Archive have contained lists of Alt-Key
combinations in RISC-OS 3.1. To complete the picture I would add:
6.3
To get accents ( ´ ` ¨ ^ ° ¸ ) on their own, press the appropriate Alt-
key combination (e.g. Alt-[ for a ´ ) then the space bar.
6.3
Alt-Spacebar gives a “hard space” or “non-breaking space” (the sort you
put between “NR2” and “2SD” if you don’t want Archive’s postcode
“NR2 2SD” to be split over two lines.)
6.3
I have put a diagram of the keyboard showing the Alt-key combinations
below, and I hope that Paul will put the drawfile on the monthly program
disc.
6.3
Incidentally, I am a bit puzzled about the character (code 173) that is
produced by the Alt-hyphen combination. What’s it for? I thought at
first that it was the “soft hyphen” that is described on page 109 of the
Impression 2 manual, but I now see that this is produced by Ctrl-hyphen
(this character – code 31 – is normally invisible but indicates a
preferred place for breaking a word with a hyphen at the end of a line;
it works even if the hyphenation module is not present). By contrast,
character 173 is, so far as I can see, always visible (as a hyphen if
the font follows the Acorn standard) but its effect is to prevent a word
into which it is inserted ever being broken over the end of a line even
if hyphenation is switched on. Am I correct in describing it as a “hard
hyphen”? (Well, I can think of one application. Suppose you want to use
a word like “pray­ers” where you deliberately hyphenate the word to
refer to the people doing the praying. In that case, if it were an
ordinary hyphen, the word might get split at the end of a line. Using a
‘hard hyphen’ avoids the split. Ed)
6.3
The upgrade again
6.3
Finally, I thought it would be good to take a slightly light-hearted
look at the subject as we hear the experiences that Rob Wears had in
fitting and using RISC-OS 3 on an A310...
6.3
I finally managed to get my grubby mitts on the RISC-OS 3 upgrade at the
Acorn User show, and arrived back home with that odd mixture of terror
and excitement that comes from having to take the lid off the machine.
I’ve fitted one or two things in the past, like the soldered 4MByte RAM
upgrade, but no matter how many times I do it, it’s still a bit like
performing neurosurgery on a close friend. Will Archie pull through,
Doc? Actually, fitting was a lot easier than I’d thought. I used the
IFEL carrier board, as their memory upgrade has proven so reliable. My
only source of concern was the discrepancy between their fitting
instructions and the ones supplied by Acorn which alluded to changing
links on the mother board. I followed the IFEL guidelines, which had the
link changes on their board, and waited anxiously for the machine to
explode when I switched it on. No problem, apart from the fact that I
bypassed the desktop and ended up at the command line. Still, the
desktop was easily accessible with a simple “*” command.
6.3
The hard drive icon was where it should be (and no longer jumped around
when I mounted or dismounted the disc!) and I am pleased to say that I
encountered no problems with the Oak SCSI board (version 1.16 of SCSI
driver).
6.3
I couldn’t resist the urge to delve into the Apps directory, and here I
encountered my first problem. Initially, I couldn’t get !Edit to load
from Apps and was greeted with the wonderfully informative message ‘File
“Basic” not found’. Fighting the sudden tide of panic (“It wouldn’t work
at all if the ROM legs were snapped off, idiot!”) I checked the module
list via the command line and found that I was apparently the lucky
owner of the one set of chips which Acorn had shipped without putting
Basic on board first. I was about to fall on my soldering iron in
despair when I thought of checking the status of the system modules
using *ROMModules and found that the Basic module was unplugged. I
reinitialised the module, and !Edit worked fine. There, that wasn’t too
bad − the hair will probably grow back and nobody will notice the
teethmarks on the manual....
6.3
Incidentally, the ARM3Support module was also unplugged and therefore
the *Cache command wouldn’t work, but I’d got the hang of things by now,
and pressed on happily. I then UNPLUGged the modules that I thought I
wouldn’t need (old habits die hard) like the Econet and NetFS modules −
each unplug command was greeted with the comment “xxxx module not found”
yet a subsequent check revealed that the module had been unplugged
correctly − odd! Archie hadn’t behaved like this before his lobotomy. It
was a bit unnerving, like suddenly finding the Queen Mother skateboard
ing down your front drive.
6.3
I then set about gingerly reconstructing the !Boot option for the hard
disc, feeding the bits to my new Archie in small, digestible chunks.
Compression (version 1.10) and !Spark both worked fine, after I
remembered not to set the “Newer” option for copying. However, Archie no
longer likes the “OS_UpdateMEMC” call which I had used to speed up the
ROMs. This is now treated with the same degree of horror as if I’d just
offered it deep-fried weevil for tea, and the machine has to be kicked
out of its sulk with a hard reset. I initially and unjustly blamed the
old OSSys module, but this actually seems to be fine and is the only
real survivor from my old collection of useful bits and pieces − have
they STILL forgotten to put a *SYS command in?
6.3
The next little gem was the “ChangeDynamic Area” calls which are
automatically saved in the desktop !Boot file − these override the CMOS
RAM settings and I couldn’t work out why the system sprite area remained
so large despite all my efforts to shrink it. And remember, Gentle
Reader, not to save the !Boot file in a Compression directory because,
despite what they all say, those teethmarks in the manual do show! On
the brighter side, I found that the configured startup language was not
the desktop, which explained Archie’s new enthusiasm for the command
line. The number for the configured language of your choice is now
obtained by counting down the list of modules − how simple. Not a
mention of alchemy or the Black Arts. Good grief, if it’s that simple,
anybody will be able to do it...
6.3
The !FontsPlus application caused some frontal headaches (actually,
these may have been caused by sudden and repeated violent contact
between the forehead and the monitor) as I could not persuade it to
recognise the ROM based fonts. Off it went to the great filestore in the
sky, and back I went to using multiple directories with original names
(!Fonts, !Fonts2, !Fonts3, !Fonts4, etc.). How quaint!
6.3
On to some serious computing. Impression works! (Actually, I cheated. I
got the upgrade from those nice CC people at the show). And there are
more screen modes available from startup, and a *WimpMode command to
simplify my DTP !Boot sequence. On the down side, I have found printing
to be a bit of a pain − my old !PBuffer application doesn’t work anymore
and even making the PrinterBufferSize HUGE using *CONFIGURE doesn’t seem
to do anything. However, there are many more options available for
printed output. I can even get 360×360 dpi on the Panasonic and it only
takes about 30 minutes a page!
6.3
I seem to have more space on the hard disc now. I used to have lots of
little applications that I’d collected over the years which now have
their functions in ROM, such as SetType, FileFind, StickyBD and
ShutDown. Being ruthless, and having no more need for them, I erased
them completely. Who knows, one day, I might even erase the backups of
the backups.
6.3
So am I sorry to have upgraded? Not at all. It was just that the scale
of the change surprised me. I suppose that the change was more compli
cated because I had my system set up exactly the way I wanted it, and
had to restructure virtually the whole hard disc. It was just as
traumatic as upgrading from Arthur to RISC-OS2 had been, but I’m very
pleased with my new machine. Of course, 3.1 goes into 310, and it may
even be 100 times better!
6.3
(Actually, this has an important moral − if Rob had followed Acorn’s
instructions and done a <delete-power-up> in the first place, he
wouldn’t have had half the problems he did. Ed.)
6.3
And finally ...
6.3
Send your comments, suggestions, queries, complaints, hints and tips
either to me, Hugh Eagle, at 48 Smithbarn, Horsham, Sussex  RH13 6DX.  A
6.3