Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/hints/volume_06/issue06

Text File | 1995-02-16 | 35.8 KB | 858 lines

Hints and Tips
6.6
•   Applications launcher − When working on various tasks on my
Archimedes, I often find that I need to launch more than one
application. For example, I have a wide selection of regularly used
clipart stored in Library format within Draw Plus. These clipart items
form regular input while using Ovation or Impressions. Therefore, when
working on DTP materials I will, on most occasions, be running Draw Plus
as well. The following ‘Pseudo Application’ was therefore devised to
automate the launch of the required cluster of applications (in this
case Ovation & Draw Plus).
6.6
Begin by creating an application directory (i.e. one where the name
begins with a !) with a name to suite the task cluster (e.g. !DTP).
Within this you need to create a !Boot and a !Run file, both Obey files,
using !Edit. The !Boot file only needs to contain the single line ....
6.6
IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
6.6
while the !Run file should contain the following...
6.6
IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
6.6
Desktop -FILE <Obey$Dir>.
6.6
FileLaunch
6.6
In each case, the IconSprites command directs the system to the !Sprites
file for the pseudo-application while the Desktop command in the !Run
file instructs the system to execute a series of commands held within
the file called ‘FileLaunch’.
6.6
Again within !Edit, create a new textfile, to be called ‘FileLaunch’. It
is the contents of this file that will determine which applications are
to be launched by your pseudo-application. For example, the following
will launch both Ovation and Draw Plus as well as opening the directory
viewer to my ‘Files’ folder and my Draw Plus Library folder. The exact
contents being dependent on the organisation of your own system.
6.6
Filer_CloseDir ADFS::4
6.6
ADFS::4.$.MoreApps.!Ovation
6.6
ADFS::4.$.!DrawPlus
6.6
Filer_OpenDir ADFS::4.$.Files
6.6
Filer_OpenDir ADFS::4.$.Files. DrawLibs
6.6
Save this as ‘FileLaunch’ within the pseudo-application.
6.6
The final job is to create an appropriate sprite to represent your new
pseudo-application. This should be 34 × 17 units in size. For mine, I
have merged the small display icons from Ovation and Draw Plus. Once all
is completed, double clicking on the application will, as if it were a
normal application, launch the specified applications and open the
required directory viewers.
6.6
Although this was initially developed on a hard disc based system, it
can be just as useful to floppy based systems. For example, it can be
set up to launch an application along with an appropriate printer driver
or launch a collection of floppy disc based utilities. For users still
working with Risc-OS 2, if the application is given the name !Boot and
placed on the root directory, with the drive set to *OPT 4 2, it gives
many of the same basic facilities as the new Desktop Boot of RISC-OS
3.10.
6.6
NOTE: This system does not effect the normal action when you double
click on an applications file. This will, as always, launch its own
application and load in the file clicked on.  Mike McNamara, Dunstable.
6.6
•   ArcLaser 1.68 and PipeDream − With ArcLaser installed, PipeDream
(3.14) won’t print using its own driver. It is necessary not only to
quit ArcLaser but to RMkill the LQEmulator module.  Richard Torrens,
Cambridgeshire.
6.6
•   BJ10e/ex with CC Turbo Driver − Under Risc-OS 3/3.10 there is a
conflict between the Turbo Driver and the new !Printers system. If you
contact CC, they will tell you to issue the following from the * prompt
....
6.6
RMKill PDriver
6.6
RMREInit PDriver
6.6
A far more elegant way is to place these two commands within the !Run
file of the !Printers application. They should be added immediately
before the line which reads ....
6.6
RMEnsure PDriver 3.16 Error etc
6.6
You will now be able to switch between the two systems without further
problems!
6.6
Mike McNamara, Dunstable.
6.6
•   Dongle problems − Various people have found that, on occasion, they
cannot print from other applications when using an Impression or
Artworks dongle. The situation seems to be worse under RISC-OS 3. The
(temporary) solution is to run Impression or Artworks and quit it. All
should then work OK. (Hint offered by various readers.) (For more
discussion, see the Comment Column on page 18.)
6.6
•   FoxPro version2 − Anyone who has tried to run FoxPro version2 under
version 1.8 of the PC Emulator will have found that it does not work. If
you still have an earlier version of the Emulator, try using that
because it is said to run under some of the earlier versions.  David
Wild, Hemel Hempstead.
6.6
•   Pocket Book power supply − Maplin sell a 300mA regulated transformer
for £8.95 (+£1.20 p&p) which will do the same job as the Pocket Book
mains adaptor and more besides. Maplin’s code is YB23A and the
polarisation should be negative at the tip at 9V.
6.6
You cannot format Flash SSDs above 256Kb unless the Pocket Book is
connected to an adaptor.  Apparently, the Flash SSDs require 12-15V when
formatting.  Mark Goodwin, Worcester.
6.6
(N.B. You can’t just use any old transformer for the PocketBook and we
can’t, of course, be held responsible for any damage which occurs if a
particular power supply does not work. We still cannot get the Acorn
Pocket Book mains adaptors but are buying some Psion ones which we will
be able to sell at the same price − £15 inclusive. Ed)
6.6
• Printers, margins, etc − I disagree with the statement in Archive 6.5
p37 that the X Y origin is not stored. There seems to be a fundamental
lack of understanding in this area. If you want a full explanation, I
will do one but, in brief, the offsets should be set using the technique
described in the readme file in the Printers directory using the TopLeft
printer file. Paper margins should then be set to be at least as big as
the X Y values, then when the printer tries to print, it says to itself,
“left margin 20mm (say) so I have to move the printer head 20mm before I
start printing. Ah, but wait a minute, the print head is already Xmm
from the edge, so I only need to move another (20 − X)mm before I start
printing.”
6.6
The same is true for Y. None of the default definitions I have looked at
are anywhere near right which doesn’t help. BJ330 printers auto sense
the left hand edge of the paper so goodness knows what happens then!
Tim Nicholson, Cranleigh.
6.6
•   Scrap file − Floppy disc users may be pleased to know that the
Wimp$Scrap file, used for in-memory transfer, does not have to be on a
physical medium. I have included the line:
6.6
Set Wimp$Scrap RAM::RamDisc0.$ .ScrapFile
6.6
in my !System.!Boot file. I have configured the machine to automatically
create a RAM disc on switching on and have since avoided much disc
swapping. The !Scrap folder can be avoided, though the Printers (RISC-OS
3) application needs to see it. It can be placed inside the Printers
directory, and the line:
6.6
Obey <Obey$Dir>.!Scrap.!Boot
6.6
included near the beginning of the !Printers.!Run file.  Robert Fuller,
Basingstoke.
6.6
•   !Squash − This program is a side product of the new printer drivers −
the printer definition files are held in squash format. If you change
the filetype of a printer definition file to Squash (filetype_FCA) and
drag it into Squash, it will be unsquashed. Loading into Edit will
reveal a file not unlike the old OS2 PrDataSrc files, although the
graphics data is held differently. RISC-OS 3 requires the definition
files in the unsquashed format. PrintEdit will happily edit files in
either format but always produce Squashed output.
6.6
•   Squirrel and Compression − If, like me, you routinely run your
Squirrel tables from a Compression window, you may eventually get an
error message, “Bad File Format”. If you then open the table’s
directory, you will find that some of the files inside show the white
File_xxx icon.
6.6
Setting the filetype to Squirrel’s DB7 format, will still result in an
error message.
6.6
Here is what Digital Services told me: There is − they think − a bug in
Compression, which causes this effect very intermittently. The thing to
do then is to set the filetype to CFSlzw and then uncompress those
files.  Jochen Konietzko, Köln.
6.6
•   Symbolic links − If you want to have a program in more than one
folder, it is easy enough to store the program once and then create a
link to this program in other folders. In RISC OS 3.1: load !Edit and
create a new Obey file. Shift-drag the program into this window. Save
the Obey file where you want to have the link. Then a double click on
the link-Obey file executes the original program. This works with any
filetype − not just applications.  Thomas Goseberg, Germany.  A

6.6
Using RISC­OS 3.1
6.6
Hugh Eagle
6.6
“Don’t blame it all on RISC-OS 3!” Archive staff have, on a number of
occasions recently, given this advice to Archimedes users. “But it has
only happened since I changed to RISC-OS 3...” Yes, but that doesn’t
mean it’s the fault of RISC-OS 3. Often it’s a hardware fault that was
set off by fiddling with the p.c.b. of an old computer − or, as in some
of the cases in Hugh’s column this month, it is caused by a change in
configuration that occurred when you did a <delete-powerup> (or because
you didn’t do one!). The final reason is that you haven’t read the
manual − if I had a pound for every time I have had to give advice that
was basically, “Read the manual”... Ed.
6.6
Once again I’ve been nearly overwhelmed by the flood of correspondence.
However, do keep the letters coming, please; I’ll try to use them all in
due course, I promise! My address remains: 48 Smithbarn, Horsham,
Sussex, RH13 6DX.
6.6
Paul says, “Try to be brief”, so I’ll get started.
6.6
Programmers’ Reference Manual
6.6
I was told at the BETT show in January that the new PRM will be ready in
“the second quarter” of 1993.
6.6
Programs and hardware that work
6.6
Some additions to the lists of previous months:
6.6
− Chocks Away
6.6
− Conqueror
6.6
− DrawBender
6.6
− “Most 4Mation software”
6.6
− TaskAnsi (from David Pilling) (However, Tord Eriksson adds that you
may want to upgrade it anyway to take advantage of enhancements.)
6.6
− Scanlight Junior 256 (it “seems to thrive”)
6.6
− Pendown and Pendown+
6.6
− PC emulator (“the oldest” version)
6.6
− Pineapple Digitiser (another confirmation that it works, contrary to
the report in Archive 6.3 p15)
6.6
− XOB Remote Logon (Correction!) Ray Wright has found that the problem
he reported last month (Archive 6.5 p29) was in fact a fault in his BBC
Micro, and that Remote Logon works fine. Apologies to XOB.
6.6
− Acorn DTP (Needs to be patched using the Patch from the Support disc.)
6.6
Problem programs
6.6
ShowPage − Tord Eriksson says this “works fine so long as there is no
on-screen text! Not much use for ShowPage therefore, you might say, but
some stunning graphics are possible as shown by the examples supplied
with the program.”
6.6
Atelier − Andrew Campbell has found that Atelier causes his A5000 to
hang whether he uses RISC­OS 3.0 or RISC­OS 3.10. (The sequencer loads
but not the main program. He has tried old modules to no effect.)
However, Atelier does still run on his A3000 after the upgrade to
RISC­OS 3.10.
6.6
The following have been reported as not working:
6.6
Fun School 4 (Under 5’s)
6.6
Satfoot (a satellite tracker from AMSAT-UK)
6.6
Copy Opts (“a handy little utility”) − Tord Eriksson has problems using
his version of ArcFS and the Pinboard: if he glues an arc’d directory to
the Pinboard then tries to open it, the computer freezes! (Perhaps this
is a problem that has been solved in a more recent version of ArcFS.)
6.6
Tord has also found that Ballarena works perfectly but messes up all the
configuration settings (so see the section below called “Saving the
configuration” before you run it!)
6.6
Tord says that he made Powerband work by “editing out lines 430 and
following setting up the voices, and a line further on checking the
voices.”
6.6
Some games, like 4th Dimension’s Saloon Cars, crash with a
“WindowManager:Sprites24” error. What is a “Sprites24” anyway?
6.6
!Psion
6.6
Chris Dawson says that the Psion to Archimedes data transfer program by
Mark Taylor (v 1.65) no longer works with his Psion II. He has tried
everything he can think of, even three different re-wiring
configurations that he has seen. Can anyone help?
6.6
Interrupt (Archive Shareware disc no. 6)
6.6
M. P. Sawle has, up to now, made good use of the Interrupt module, with
the commands *RMLoad Intmodule and *Interrupt 0 in a loading file to
enable subsequent access to the command line with <ctrl-@> from within
both Basic programs and the original version of First Word Plus.
6.6
Having installed RISC­OS 3.10 he finds that:
6.6
•   within Basic programs: <ctrl-@> still works, but <Esc> has the same
effect and this takes priority over the normal programmed effect of the
Escape key at the time.
6.6
•   within First Word Plus: <ctrl-@> works but he cannot return to 1wp
properly (sometimes the current document is lost), also two presses of
<Esc> take him to the command line but the document is always totally
lost.
6.6
•   Lemmings won’t run unless he RMKills the Interrupt module first.
6.6
Can anyone help?
6.6
Investigator II works on the older machines, but not on the A3010/A3020/
A4000/A5000 (presumably because the hardware is different).
6.6
LaserDirect and ROM fonts
6.6
The reason why LaserDirect (and presumably the Turbo Drivers) have
problems with the Corpus and Homerton Oblique fonts in ROM is that the
Outlines files for these fonts do not contain full descriptions of the
letters but simply contain cross-references to the related upright
fonts. (Because these two fonts are simply slanted versions of the
upright fonts, not proper “italic” fonts, all the new font manager needs
to know is where to find the outlines of the upright fonts and what
angle to slant them at.)
6.6
So far as I can tell, it is not necessary to disable the ROM fonts (with
a FontRemove command in the !Boot and/or !Run files of !Fonts) and
include full descriptions of Corpus, Homerton and Trinity on disc (they
would need about 250Kb); I have found that Impression and LaserDirect
manage perfectly well if I just include the following sub-directories in
my !Fonts directory on disc:
6.6
Corpus.Bold.Oblique
6.6
Corpus.Medium.Oblique
6.6
Homerton.Bold.Oblique
6.6
Homerton.Medium.Oblique
6.6
(the files add up to 108924 bytes).
6.6
Turning anti-aliasing off
6.6
Tord Eriksson finds that a, ä and å are rather difficult to distinguish
with anti-aliasing on, so he turns it off by setting FontMax1 to
FontMax5 all to 0, except FontMax 3, which determines the maximum size
of font that is cached and which he sets to 200.
6.6
Replacing the system font
6.6
R. W. Darlington’s prayer in Archive 6.4 p11 has been answered! Rob
Davison has sent in an application (included on this month’s program
disc) called !DeskFonts, which will allow you to replace the system font
on the desktop with an outline font of your choice.
6.6
Electronic Font Foundry RISC­OS 3 fonts
6.6
Colin Singleton thinks that last month’s comment may have been a bit
unfair to EFF in referring to their new fonts as “more expensive”. He
suspects that the old fonts have been reduced in price and the new ones
introduced at the previous price of the old.
6.6
What is “kerning data”?
6.6
Colin Singleton says that he had read about this several times before he
found out what it meant. Kerning is the process of adjusting the space
between letters so that they look more natural. A common example is the
word AWAY. When printed like that, the letters appear too widely spread,
but with kerning the word can be made to look like AWAY. (I have
exaggerated the kerning to make it more obvious.) This can be done
manually in applications like Impression.
6.6
The RISC­OS 3 font manager provides the facility for automatic
adjustment of the spacing between any pair of letters, but in order for
this to work firstly the font has to contain a “kerning table”
indicating the preferred spacing for each possible pair of letters and
secondly the application has to be aware of this facility and to make
the appropriate calls to the font manager. (Archive 5.11 pp5/6 give
details of the font manager calls, showing how you can use them in your
programs.)
6.6
Kerning tables are built into the ROM fonts as well as the newer fonts
from EFF (and other suppliers?) I don’t know which applications use
them; presumably newer versions of Impression, etc. will.
6.6
Filing systems: SCSI
6.6
C. Purvis’s problems (icon in wrong place, “bad drive” error, etc – see
6.5 p26) have been solved by a new ROM for his SCSI podule, supplied
free of charge by Oak.
6.6
Tord Eriksson at first had problems that sounded similar to C. Purvis’s,
then happened to find that his SCSI drive had been “set to 0” and after
“resetting to 4” everything worked perfectly. (I explained this last
month, p27. Ed.)
6.6
Philip Lardner, who has a Brainsoft SCSI podule, is having great
difficulties in copying, moving or deleting files to, from or in the
root directory. It generates all sorts of error messages such as: “Can’t
create ‘SCSI::SCSI.$’ ... ”. Philip has found that he can get round the
problem by copying via the RAM disc and deleting using a trash-can
application but he would obviously be interested in a proper “fix”. (I
don’t know whether it might be relevant but he has put “Set Alias$Free
ShowFree -FS scsi %0”, as recommended last month, in his !Boot file in
order to activate the free space window.)
6.6
Philip has also found that his PC Emulator 1.8 sometimes suddenly hangs
the machine either during or shortly after booting up, or after quitting
the emulator.
6.6
HCCS HardCard 45
6.6
Barry Thompson says this needs a ROM and PAL change by HCCS costing £10
plus VAT.
6.6
IDE
6.6
John Birchenough was initially unable to access his Risc Developments
IDE disc drive. However, with a third (free) replacement ROM fitted in
his podule, it is now working!
6.6
Allan Woods says that the tip given last month for getting the Free
Space window to work with SCSI drives doesn’t work with his Risc
Developments IDE drive. Bernard Perry says he knows someone with an ICS
IDE drive with the same problem. Has anyone got any ideas?
6.6
Barry Thompson says the early Orion IDE drives do not function and
wonders whether the new proprietors at Orion are going to support them.
6.6
Watford 5¼“ drive interface
6.6
Gordon Lindsay-Jones has found that his problem is not with his Watford
buffer, as reported last month. The buffer worked properly with another
disc drive. However, he is still trying to find out what is wrong with
his drive.
6.6
Printing − HP Paintjet, Draw and Poster
6.6
Christopher Price (Sidcup) is having constant problems trying to print
from the RISC­OS 3.10 version of Draw and Poster 1.21 via an Ace printer
driver (he doesn’t know which version) to an HP Paintjet on his A420.
The printer appears not even to acknowledge Draw and refuses to output.
With Poster he gets output sometimes, though white text generally
appears black and the printer “seems to bug out if the artwork involves
clipart” imported from elsewhere. Can anyone help?
6.6
Carriage returns and linefeeds
6.6
Philip Woodward uses a bubblejet printer and often prints direct (i.e.
not via a RISC­OS driver). He finds that if he makes the slightest
error, such as trying to print a non-existent file, when he next tries
to print, everything gets printed on one line. Does anyone have any
suggestions?
6.6
BJ-330
6.6
Tord Eriksson has had numerous difficulties printing on his Canon BJ330.
Using the LQ-860 driver is agonisingly slow (it makes four passes for
each line) and it sometimes gives stripes in graphics areas. He also had
a printer head (costing £200!) written off as a result of a “printout
crashing.” Also he finds that printing can abort before the job is
finished – if he uses 180×180 dpi there are no problems but with 180×360
or higher just part of the page gets printed. He comments that the
printer driver seems to work differently in that it now seems to
calculate the entire bitmap before starting printing and he wonders if
he now needs more than 4 Mbytes just to print an A4 page. Any hints or
tips would be very welcome indeed!
6.6
Tord asks if there is any Archive reader who has tested the plotter
version of the BJ-330.
6.6
Non direct drive laser printers
6.6
Tord also asks for suggestions about laser printers that work well with
RISC­OS 3. Direct drive lasers are out of the question because all his
podule slots are full! What printer drivers exist for Canon laser
printers that use Canon’s own page description language? (How about the
Ace Pro-Driver for LBP4/8 at £44 through Archive?)
6.6
Printing in the background
6.6
Tord Eriksson says that the tip in Archive 6.3 p16 about having two
printer drivers loaded is impossible: if he loads a second !Printers the
first is erased. However, I think he has misunderstood the point: you
should only run !Printers once, but within that application you should
have two drivers loaded and active. (See p62 of the RISC­OS 3 User Guide
for details.)
6.6
Keith Matthews spells out the procedure in more detail: you should drag
two copies of the appropriate printer driver into the Printer control
window of !Printers. Then click <menu> over the Printer control window,
choose the Connection option and connect the first driver to a suitable
file, then give the driver a name ending in ‘f’. The second copy should
be connected to the printer and named with a ‘p’. When the printer
manager is subsequently loaded, two icons appear: the first is selected
by default, so applications will “print” to the file. To produce hard
copy as a background task, just drag the file icon onto the “......p”
icon (you don’t need to select it first.) (I still maintain this is a
ridiculous palaver: why isn’t there a setup option whereby you can tell
the print manager to print first to a file and then automatically send
it to the printer?)
6.6
Keith points out that (although he hasn’t tried queueing printouts) the
printer queue window provides one queue for each printer icon.
Obviously, print image files would have to be created under different
file names and you would need a hard disc to accommodate them all.
6.6
LaserDirect and Turbo Driver news
6.6
Michael Lowe has received a copy of version 2.09 of the LaserDirect
driver which has fixed the speckling problem (see Archive 6.5 pp30/31).
6.6
Computer Concepts have also told both him and Dave Leckie that RISC­OS 3
drivers “are under development and might be available as early as April
but the amount of work involved shouldn’t be underestimated.” Presumably
these will handle rotated text and sprites and work under the RISC­OS 3
printer manager. (Dave Leckie notes, however, that CC have said that
they will not support RISC­OS 3.0.)
6.6
Using a RISC­OS 3 driver after LaserDirect, etc.
6.6
In Archive 6.5 p30 there was a tip that, in order to use a RISC­OS 3
driver after using a RISC­OS 2 driver such as LaserDirect, ArcLaser or
the Turbo drivers you should use the two * commands:
6.6
RMKill PDriver
6.6
RMReinit PDriver
6.6
Maurice Edmundson has pointed out that a convenient place to put these
commands is in the !Run file of !Printers before the first of the
RMEnsure commands.
6.6
Saving paper size settings
6.6
Acorn have advised that there is a fault in RISC­OS 3.0 whereby, if you
alter the page sizes and save them, the new settings are not saved. The
work-around is to <shift-double-click> on !Printers then load the file
PaperRW into !Edit, manually change the settings then save the altered
file. This bug has been fixed in RISC­OS 3.10.
6.6
First Word Plus driver for Deskjet 550C?
6.6
Can anyone supply a printer definition file (Barry Thompson asks)?
6.6
PC Emulator
6.6
John Birchenough’s emulator, version 1.7, will only access the internal
drive A. Even when he makes the default drive B or C, the computer
insists on having a disc in drive A and then operates on the contents of
that drive. Also, it always asks for a disc to be inserted in B even
though it means A. He tried the patch supplied on the Support disc, but
that refused to work with a version higher than 1.6. He has also tried
changing his Config.sys file with variations of the Driver.sys and
Drivparm commands but to no effect. Can anyone help?
6.6
Is RISC­OS 3 faster or slower?
6.6
Some think one, some the other! A number of people have commented that
the machine seems to take longer to redraw the desktop screen or to go
through its initialisation routine. Relying on memory, it is obviously
difficult to tell. Raymond Wright says Pipedream 3.1 appears to take
longer to get spreadsheets loaded. He finds that, initially, he gets a
screen full of zeros which are slowly replaced by real data. (I wonder
if this is because of the way he has got it set up? Robert Macmillan
from Colton said – see Archive 6.3 p12 – that all versions from 3.10 on
work better in RISC­OS 3.) Raymond is sure that RISC­OS 2 was quicker
but he’s not going to reinstall it just to find out.
6.6
Ken Gardner has, however, done just that. He did some controlled timings
before updating to RISC­OS 3.10 and reverted back to RISC­OS 2 to
confirm the anomaly that he found. The timings are as shown below
6.6
For the tests, ADFS buffers were set to zero for both RISC­OS 2 and
RISC­OS 3.10. When Ken changed ADFSBuffers to 2K the time to read the
serial file fell from 48 secs to 19 secs but the Multistore random
access read only dropped from 176 secs. to 170 secs. This is a logical
result but it prompts Ken to ask why we have been instructed to set
ADFSBuffers to zero when this gives so much slower a result than in
RISC­OS 2. Can anyone tell us for sure whether there is a bug or not?
(Is there a danger of losing data if the Buffers are set to a non-zero
value?) (Yes, but only on a 1Mb machine. In 3.11, this has been improved
over 3.10. Ed.)
6.6
Miscellaneous Hints & Tips
6.6
How to avoid continual disc swapping,
6.6
and more on !Scrap files
6.6
Philip Woodward recommends that, on a floppy-disc only system, if you
have several discs for different classes of work and include a !Scrap
file on each, don’t forget to click on the !Scrap icon when you insert a
new disc. If you do forget, you will find that whenever you load a
printer driver, or try to print a drawing, the operating system will ask
you to insert some other disc which has no apparent relevance.
6.6
Draw crashing
6.6
Philip Woodward finds, like a number of others, that Draw crashes quite
frequently reporting an “address exception” error. Does anyone know if
there is anything he can do to avoid this? The error message goes on to
say:
6.6
preserving files in <Wimp$ScrapDir>.Draw before exiting.
6.6
This means that !Draw will attempt to save the work-in-progress as a
file called Draw in the scrap directory. (If it is successful, you will
be able to retrieve the file by opening that directory and double-
clicking on the drawfile icon to run !Draw again and load the file in –
after first making a backup copy of the file if it is important. To find
where the scrap directory is, press <ctrl-f12> to open a Task window and
type the command *Show Wimp$ScrapDir)
6.6
Positioning drawings imported into Draw
6.6
Philip Woodward has also found that, whereas in the RISC­OS 2 version of
Draw, one could superimpose a previous drawing (e.g. one saved on a RAM
disc) in exactly the position it originally occupied in the window by
setting the grid lock on and dragging the file onto the new drawing and
positioning the pointer at the bottom left of the window, this no longer
works. The minimum bounding frame of the old drawing is placed with its
bottom left corner at the mouse position, regardless of the original
position in the old drawing. To reproduce the RISC­OS 2 behaviour, you
have to put something, such as a dummy rectangle, at the bottom left
corner of the old drawing’s window.
6.6
Alarm options
6.6
Philip Woodward has pointed out that, if you include a line in your
!Boot file to set Alarm$Options, you must include % in front of each of
the -format parameters (see Applications Guide p137 for details). Also,
you must put the format string in quotes (which is not, perhaps,
emphasised sufficiently strongly in the Manual.) In both these respects,
it differs from Edit$Options, Draw$Options, etc.
6.6
To illustrate the point, consecutive lines in !Boot might read:
6.6
Set Alarm$Options -format “%w3 %z12:%mi %m3 %zdy”
6.6
Set Edit$Options B12 M99 L1 D
6.6
To get the Alarm$Options to take effect, you also have to choose the
“User defined” option in the Alarm setup window (choose the Setup...
option from the iconbar menu.) It’s not clear from the manual but I
assume that the choice of this option is saved in the CMOS RAM so
doesn’t have to be included in the !Boot file. It’s all a bit confusing,
isn’t it?
6.6
Arm3 hare and tortoise icons
6.6
I didn’t have enough time last month to try out Götz Kohlberg’s tip
(Archive 6.5 p33) about the hare and tortoise module. Now I have, and
I’m totally confused! Whatever combination of commands I use, I seem to
be unable to get the machine to boot up with the cache on without the
hare and tortoise swapping jobs. One thought I’ve had is that I might
swap the names of the hare and tortoise icons inside the !Arm3.!Sprites
file. (Another thought is that perhaps you’re meant to click on the hare
to get the machine to go faster, and that this never worked properly in
RISC­OS 2!) Help!
6.6
Faster filer operations
6.6
If you click <menu> over a filer operation window (e.g. the window that
pops up when you copy files which keeps you informed of progress) and
choose “Faster”, screen update will be less frequent and the filer
operation will be faster. (Marc Evans)
6.6
Copying a large directory to floppy
6.6
If you run out of space when copying a directory or application to a
floppy, insert a new disc, rename it with the same name as the full disc
and click on “Retry”. (Marc Evans) (Someone else has already suggested
that but when I tried it, it said “ambiguous filename”. Ed.)
6.6
<Shift-select> on toggle size icon
6.6
If you click <shift-select> on the toggle size icon, the window will
open as far as it can without obscuring the icon bar. (Marc Evans) (This
seems to depend on the application. Draw windows behave as described,
but Impression windows don’t.)
6.6
False sprites on the Pinboard
6.6
Marc Evans’ Pinboard seems to get confused over icon sizes and sprites
under certain conditions. For instance, it sometimes makes icons three
times bigger and uses the wrong sprites. Tord Eriksson says that in mode
78 (from Computer Concepts NewModes?) some icons disappear, some hide
behind others and some appear twice; a single click on each one restores
peace, but should he have to? Has anyone else found this?
6.6
Configured modes
6.6
Marc Evans has found that *Configure Mode and *Configure Wimpmode seem
to be interlinked – whatever one is configured to the other one follows.
He used to have Mode configured to 0 to save memory when outside the
Desktop, but can’t anymore.
6.6
Tord Eriksson had great problems until he discovered that you can’t
“configure” a non-standard mode. If you want to start up in, say, mode
78 from the Computer Concepts Newmodes module, you have to include in
your !Boot file first a command to load the NewModes module then a
*WimpMode 78 command.
6.6
Icon button types
6.6
A comment for WIMP programmers is that when icons have the double click
flag set, they invert at the first click and group with adjust (like
Filer icons). To get around this, your program must trap for any icon
clicked on and unset the selected bit. (Marc Evans)
6.6
Saving the configuration
6.6
Mike Williams finds that the configuration file saved by !Configure
doesn’t cover all the things he needs to restore after having attempted
to run a rogue program that changes the configuration. He has therefore
built himself a command file containing all the *Configure commands
required to get back to normal plus *RMReinit commands for all the
modules. He created it by doing
6.6
*Spool cfgfile
6.6
*Status
6.6
*ROMModules
6.6
*Spool
6.6
then editing the resulting file into the correct syntax and changing the
filetype to “Command”. (The pukka way of creating such a file is not to
use the pre-RISC-OS *Spool command, but to press <ctrl-f12> to open a
Task window, type Status, <return>, ROMModules and <return>, then press
<menu>, choose the “Unlink” option and save the contents of the Task
window.)
6.6
Several years ago, Risc User published a program called !CMOS_Edit which
allows easy saving and reloading of all the CMOS settings. This seems to
work fine.
6.6
Opening sub-menus automatically
6.6
Richard Hallas has noticed that, if you choose the “Open submenus
automatically” configuration option, then if the pointer is resting to
the left of the “parent” menu item (in the space where a tick would
appear) when the submenu opens it appears on top of the parent menu
rather than to its right. Also, moving around a single menu with several
submenu pointers can have some peculiar effects: sometimes the submenu
pointers are ignored, and it is even possible to have two copies of the
same submenu open.
6.6
Preventing access to !Configure and !Alarm
6.6
Last month we gave the hint that you can prevent users from interfering
with the configuration by unplugging the !Configure module so that they
can’t access the !Configure application. In Acorn’s education newsletter
Arc, there is a hint that you can do the same with !Alarm.
6.6
Opening a directory without booting
6.6
Richard Hallas reports that, if you open a directory with <ctrl> held
down to stop the Filer executing all the !Boot files inside the
applications within the directory, then copying, renaming or deleting
files will cause the directory to be booted unless you remember to press
<ctrl> again.
6.6
Also, if you open a directory with <ctrl> held down and then copy an
application out of it to another directory, then (assuming the Filer has
not already seen the !Sprites file for the application) a “!Sprites not
found” error will be reported. This doesn’t have any ill effects: it’s
just a nuisance.
6.6
Various Matters Arising
6.6
Screen blanker (Archive 6.4 p12)
6.6
Keith Raven has found (in p163 of the User Guide) that *Blanktime sets
the time (in seconds) before the screen goes blank. *Blanktime 0 turns
the screen blanker off. (What I would like to know is: does the
operating system provide any easy means of firing up a graphical routine
as an alternative to the blank screen?)
6.6
Shift key behaviour (Archive 6.5 p34)
6.6
John Woodgate suggests that the £/¤ key may be acting as if it were
pressed as well as the <shift> key. He suggests cleaning with iso propyl
alcohol or proprietary switch cleaner. (For details on how to clean a
keyboard, see 5.1 p25. Ed.)
6.6
Solid sprite dragging (Archive 6.5 p36)
6.6
Barry Thompson writes that the way to turn this on is to use the *
command *FX162,28,3 (It seems really weird to me that a feature like
this, quite a selling point one would have thought, has been implemented
in such a half-hearted way!)
6.6
Spaces in *Set commands
6.6
Brian Fielding has found that whereas in RISC­OS 2 you could use spaces
in *Set or *SetMacro, RISC­OS 3.10 does not allow you to do so:
6.6
SET PipeDream$Path ADFS::Dream_ file.$.,<PipeDream$Dir>.
6.6
was permissible in RISC­OS 2 but you must use
6.6
SET PipeDream$Path ADFS::Dream_ file.$.,<PipeDream$Dir>.
6.6
in RISC­OS 3.10.
6.6
Locked directories in ROM/RAM podule
6.6
Brian Fielding also reports that if you create a New directory in
Computer Concept’s ROM/RAM podule, it creates the directory with a lock.
This lock cannot be removed and the directory can never be deleted
except by re-initialising the Podule.Other problems occur when copying
files into directories on the Podule but these can be ‘SKIPed’. He has
written to CC about this but they have no plans to alter the podule
software to work fully with RISC-OS3.  A

6.6
Timings for various operations (RISC-OS 2 v RISC-OS 3.10)
6.6

6.6
      RISC-OS 2   RISC-OS 3.10   relative
speed
6.6
      (secs)   (secs)   RO3.1 : RO2
6.6
Read a serial file to a string array (50,000 items)   25.4
   48.4   half as fast
6.6
Sort 50,000 strings (using Armsort)   8.0
   8.0   same
6.6
load and sort a Multistore file (2,400 items):
6.6
   load   166   176   slightly slower
6.6
   sort   221   214   slightly faster
6.6
   total   387   390   same
6.6
Print a Draw file (with 32Kb buffer in printer)
6.6
   release computer   500   239
   twice as fast
6.6
   release printer   533   289
   twice as fast
6.6
Mandelbrot (recalculate Clessidra)   90.3
   90.5   same
6.6