• Anti-aliased fonts − I find that anti-aliasing on a standard
resolution monitor gives a far too blurred image. My hint is to use the
outline version of the System font at an unexpanded point size. A bit of
experimentation is needed to get it right if you habitually use the
screen at some scale other than one to one but when you get it right,
the result is a nice fast, clean and clear font on any DTP or
wordprocessing package while you work on the text. Remember to change
the font to your preferred version for the final print. I am afraid I
can’t remember where I obtained the Outline System font.
6.9
On my Pentoms game, I changed the transfer coefficients to sharpen up
the edges of my fancy fonts but that does not work well/at all on
RISC OS 3. Is there a way of getting a program to automatically check
which OS it is running under so that I can disable this facility where
it won’t work? Or is there another way of sharpening RISC OS 3 fonts?
Yes I know about turning off anti-aliasing but that is not quite the
same thing at all − bits of the letters are missed if you do that.
Simon Anthony, Nottingham.
6.9
• Backing up in one pass − The “Next” slot in the Task Manager can be
set from a !Boot file in RISC OS 3 to make backing up and copying of
full 800Kb discs occur in a single pass. Use the command
6.9
WimpSlot -next 864K
6.9
inside your !Boot file. Barry Thompson,
6.9
Alternatively (for RISC OS 2 owners) you can allocate more memory to the
Next Task slot by issuing the Wimp_SlotSize SWI call from Basic. All
that you need is a Basic program containing the line:
6.9
SYS “Wimp_SlotSize”,-1,<slotsize>
6.9
where <slotsize> is in bytes (e.g. use 65536 for 64Kb.)
6.9
Simon Moy, NCS.
6.9
• !Boot files are not strictly necessary within applications. They use
up disc space and slow down the opening of windows (especially over a
network). If an application’s !Boot file only contains the IconSprites
command, then this can be moved to the !Run file, and the !Boot file can
be deleted. The only effect is that the application will not show the
correct icon in the filer window until the application is actually run.
Keith Harja, Derby.
6.9
• Gods passwords − On this month’s program disc is all you need for
getting the passwords for Gods. Andrew Ferguson, London N15.
6.9
• Mono TIFF files − In reply to help for Ray Dawson in Archive 6.5 p18
for producing mono TIFF files from B&W scanned sprites. I have used
!MakeTiff version 2.00 by John Kortink to do exactly that. I examined
the resulting Tiff file using Graphics Workshop (under the emulator) and
Translator, and they both showed the converted sprite as a B&W image.
Chris Bass, Grimsby.
6.9
• Symbols for Impression − When using Impression, or even more so
Junior, it can sometimes be tedious to find a desired symbol from a font
such as Dingbats. Therefore, I have created a number of text files which
can be dragged into any Impression document. The format for such files
is “® ”, without the quotes. This returns the type to its default size,
selects the desired font, inserts the character with ASCII code 174 and
resets the font to its default. N.B. The space at the end is essential.
This is so that one can do a <ctrl-right> to end of text. Without this
space, the font is not reset. I have given a number of pre-prepared ones
to Paul for inclusion on this month’s program disc. Neil Walker,
Norwich.
6.9
You need to be very careful with this one. I tried it on Impression 2.19
and it gave an internal error and Impression bombed out! This was
because I didn’t have the symbol font in my system. I tried it on
version 2.17 and it complained politely that it didn’t have Symbol font
and let me carry on. I presume that the difference is because
Impression, from 2.18 onwards, has no limit to the number of fonts it
can handle so that part of the code must have been changed. Don’t say we
didn’t warn you! Ed.
6.9
• Testing printers’ on-line status − Here is a way of testing whether
the printer is on- or off-line:
6.9
10 *FX 3,10
6.9
20 PRINT CHR$(0);
6.9
30 a = INKEY(20)
6.9
40 a = ADVAL(-4)
6.9
50 *FX 3,0
6.9
60 *FX 21,3
6.9
70 IF a <> 1023 THEN
6.9
80 PRINT “Printer not on line”
6.9
90 ELSE
6.9
100 PRINT “Printer on line”
6.9
110 ENDIF
6.9
120 END
6.9
Paul Ribworth, Gloucester
6.9
• Using high density discs − Until the advent of the A5000, all
Archimedes computers had an 800Kb 3½“ disc drive so the problems of
different disc densities didn’t really arise. With the introduction of
the new A3000 and A4000 series, 1.6Mb drives are becoming more common
and some users are trying to save a few pence by formatting normal
density discs to 1.6Mb.
6.9
Users of BBC and Master computers learned that there is no point in
paying extra for 80 track discs as the cheaper 40 track were actually
identical. The same is NOT true of 800Kb and 1.6Mb discs. The magnetic
coating on high density discs uses finer particles than the coating used
on standard (double density) types. This is designed to accept higher
signal levels without distortion. When the higher capacity format is
used, the drive automatically uses a stronger magnetic field to imprint
the data on the discs surface.
6.9
Sometimes, good quality normal density discs can accept this level but
it does represent a severe overload. Even if all appears well at the
time, the larger particles used in the normal density coating are
frequently unable to retain the high level of magnetism required so it
can leak away in time making part of the data unreadable.
6.9
Also, you should not use high density discs in a normal density drive if
they have previously been formatted to 1.44 or 1.6Mb. The lower flux
levels used for the normal format may not be able to completely erase
the earlier data. This can then ‘break through’ and corrupt data saved
later at the lower flux levels used with the smaller format. It may
sometimes take more than a month for this to happen. So don’t be fooled
into thinking that everything is OK just because all seems to be well
when you first format the disc. Many Archimedes users who have
‘borrowed’ preformatted 1.44Mb discs from work to use in their 800Kb
drives have experienced this problem.
6.9
There is no reason why you cannot use a NEW high density disc at 800Kb,
it will just be more expensive.
6.9
Because of this, it is obviously useless to do what used to be common
practice with the old 40/80 track discs, namely try to format them to 80
tracks and if it didn’t work use them for 40 track. Once you have
attempted to format an 800Kb disc to 1.6 or 1.44 Mb there is no going
back. I have had some success using a tape head demagnetiser to
completely wipe out data on 800Kb discs which had been formatted to
1.6Mb so that they could be reformatted to 800Kb, but not everyone has
one of these.
6.9
PC drives all have a sensor which detects the extra hole in a high
density disc and won’t allow you to specify the wrong format. For some
reason, Acorn didn’t implement this feature on the Archimedes although
the detector is present on all high density drives. It is therefore
possible, by accident, to format a normal density disc to 1.6Mb. On a
PC, to do this you need to drill a hole in the case of the disc so it
can’t happen unintentionally.
6.9
The most pernicious thing about this problem is that it can lead you
into a false sense of security. A normal density disc may format
perfectly to 1.6Mb and, for months, everything will appear to be well.
Then suddenly some of the data may become slightly corrupt, although the
disc may not actually appear to have any errors.
6.9
If your data is precious enough to be worth saving, it’s worth the extra
few pence that the proper discs cost. The only time that I have known
people use normal density discs successfully as high density was with
expensive branded discs costing about £1.30 each. As this is
considerably more than the price of unbranded high density discs, it
seems a foolish risk to take. David Holden, Sydenham. A
6.9
Hints and Tips
6.9
• Anti-aliased fonts − I find that anti-aliasing on a standard resolution monitor gives a far too blurred image. My hint is to use the outline version of the System font at an unexpanded point size. A bit of experimentation is needed to get it right if you habitually use the screen at some scale other than one to one but when you get it right, the result is a nice fast, clean and clear font on any DTP or wordprocessing package while you work on the text. Remember to change the font to your preferred version for the final print. I am afraid I can’t remember where I obtained the Outline System font.
6.9
On my Pentoms game, I changed the transfer coefficients to sharpen up the edges of my fancy fonts but that does not work well/at all on RISC OS 3. Is there a way of getting a program to automatically check which OS it is running under so that I can disable this facility where it won’t work? Or is there another way of sharpening RISC OS 3 fonts? Yes I know about turning off anti-aliasing but that is not quite the same thing at all − bits of the letters are missed if you do that. Simon Anthony, Nottingham.
6.9
• Backing up in one pass − The “Next” slot in the Task Manager can be set from a !Boot file in RISC OS 3 to make backing up and copying of full 800Kb discs occur in a single pass. Use the command
6.9
WimpSlot -next 864K
6.9
inside your !Boot file. Barry Thompson,
6.9
Alternatively (for RISC OS 2 owners) you can allocate more memory to the Next Task slot by issuing the Wimp_SlotSize SWI call from Basic. All that you need is a Basic program containing the line:
6.9
SYS “Wimp_SlotSize”,-1,<slotsize>
6.9
where <slotsize> is in bytes (e.g. use 65536 for 64Kb.)
6.9
Simon Moy, NCS.
6.9
• !Boot files are not strictly necessary within applications. They use up disc space and slow down the opening of windows (especially over a network). If an application’s !Boot file only contains the IconSprites command, then this can be moved to the !Run file, and the !Boot file can be deleted. The only effect is that the application will not show the correct icon in the filer window until the application is actually run. Keith Harja, Derby.
6.9
• Gods passwords − On this month’s program disc is all you need for getting the passwords for Gods. Andrew Ferguson, London N15.
6.9
• Mono TIFF files − In reply to help for Ray Dawson in Archive 6.5 p18 for producing mono TIFF files from B&W scanned sprites. I have used !MakeTiff version 2.00 by John Kortink to do exactly that. I examined the resulting Tiff file using Graphics Workshop (under the emulator) and Translator, and they both showed the converted sprite as a B&W image. Chris Bass, Grimsby.
6.9
• Symbols for Impression − When using Impression, or even more so Junior, it can sometimes be tedious to find a desired symbol from a font such as Dingbats. Therefore, I have created a number of text files which can be dragged into any Impression document. The format for such files is “® ”, without the quotes. This returns the type to its default size, selects the desired font, inserts the character with ASCII code 174 and resets the font to its default. N.B. The space at the end is essential. This is so that one can do a <ctrl-right> to end of text. Without this space, the font is not reset. I have given a number of pre-prepared ones to Paul for inclusion on this month’s program disc. Neil Walker, Norwich.
6.9
You need to be very careful with this one. I tried it on Impression 2.19 and it gave an internal error and Impression bombed out! This was because I didn’t have the symbol font in my system. I tried it on version 2.17 and it complained politely that it didn’t have Symbol font and let me carry on. I presume that the difference is because Impression, from 2.18 onwards, has no limit to the number of fonts it can handle so that part of the code must have been changed. Don’t say we didn’t warn you! Ed.
6.9
• Testing printers’ on-line status − Here is a way of testing whether the printer is on- or off-line:
6.9
10 *FX 3,10
6.9
20 PRINT CHR$(0);
6.9
30 a = INKEY(20)
6.9
40 a = ADVAL(-4)
6.9
50 *FX 3,0
6.9
60 *FX 21,3
6.9
70 IF a <> 1023 THEN
6.9
80 PRINT “Printer not on line”
6.9
90 ELSE
6.9
100 PRINT “Printer on line”
6.9
110 ENDIF
6.9
120 END
6.9
Paul Ribworth, Gloucester
6.9
• Using high density discs − Until the advent of the A5000, all Archimedes computers had an 800Kb 3½“ disc drive so the problems of different disc densities didn’t really arise. With the introduction of the new A3000 and A4000 series, 1.6Mb drives are becoming more common and some users are trying to save a few pence by formatting normal density discs to 1.6Mb.
6.9
Users of BBC and Master computers learned that there is no point in paying extra for 80 track discs as the cheaper 40 track were actually identical. The same is NOT true of 800Kb and 1.6Mb discs. The magnetic coating on high density discs uses finer particles than the coating used on standard (double density) types. This is designed to accept higher signal levels without distortion. When the higher capacity format is used, the drive automatically uses a stronger magnetic field to imprint the data on the discs surface.
6.9
Sometimes, good quality normal density discs can accept this level but it does represent a severe overload. Even if all appears well at the time, the larger particles used in the normal density coating are frequently unable to retain the high level of magnetism required so it can leak away in time making part of the data unreadable.
6.9
Also, you should not use high density discs in a normal density drive if they have previously been formatted to 1.44 or 1.6Mb. The lower flux levels used for the normal format may not be able to completely erase the earlier data. This can then ‘break through’ and corrupt data saved later at the lower flux levels used with the smaller format. It may sometimes take more than a month for this to happen. So don’t be fooled into thinking that everything is OK just because all seems to be well when you first format the disc. Many Archimedes users who have ‘borrowed’ preformatted 1.44Mb discs from work to use in their 800Kb drives have experienced this problem.
6.9
There is no reason why you cannot use a NEW high density disc at 800Kb, it will just be more expensive.
6.9
Because of this, it is obviously useless to do what used to be common practice with the old 40/80 track discs, namely try to format them to 80 tracks and if it didn’t work use them for 40 track. Once you have attempted to format an 800Kb disc to 1.6 or 1.44 Mb there is no going back. I have had some success using a tape head demagnetiser to completely wipe out data on 800Kb discs which had been formatted to 1.6Mb so that they could be reformatted to 800Kb, but not everyone has one of these.
6.9
PC drives all have a sensor which detects the extra hole in a high density disc and won’t allow you to specify the wrong format. For some reason, Acorn didn’t implement this feature on the Archimedes although the detector is present on all high density drives. It is therefore possible, by accident, to format a normal density disc to 1.6Mb. On a PC, to do this you need to drill a hole in the case of the disc so it can’t happen unintentionally.
6.9
The most pernicious thing about this problem is that it can lead you into a false sense of security. A normal density disc may format perfectly to 1.6Mb and, for months, everything will appear to be well. Then suddenly some of the data may become slightly corrupt, although the disc may not actually appear to have any errors.
6.9
If your data is precious enough to be worth saving, it’s worth the extra few pence that the proper discs cost. The only time that I have known people use normal density discs successfully as high density was with expensive branded discs costing about £1.30 each. As this is considerably more than the price of unbranded high density discs, it seems a foolish risk to take. David Holden, Sydenham. A
6.9
Using RISC OS 3.10
6.9
Hugh Eagle
6.9
More encouragement for the faint-hearted!
6.9
Stuart Bell says: “Having read the RISC OS Column for the past few months, I approached the upgrade with caution, afraid of all sorts of installation and compatibility problems. I guess that by the nature of the things, it’s those people who encounter problems who write in, thereby giving a false impression of the true situation. So, if you’re still with RISC OS 2 and thinking about upgrading, be encouraged. Installing RISC OS 3 on my A310, including removing the main board and installing the IFEL ROM carrier board took about an hour from start to finish, and I experienced no unforeseen problems.
6.9
“Having been warned of problems with Compression 1.1, I de-compressed all files first. I await the free upgrade from CC. There is the reported problem with early versions of Font-FX and that’s in hand.
6.9
“A couple of warnings, though: As well as powering up with <Delete> depressed, also make sure that you’ve re-connected the keyboard first. (Don’t laugh – it could have been you! That cost me several minutes of panic.) Secondly, alter the Font Size figure before loading your first Impression document, which otherwise can take several minutes to load with a 32Kb buffer.”
6.9
• Avie Electronics 4Mb A310 upgrade − The following information has come from Avie: LK12 should be altered to 1-3 and 2-4. Issue 1 PCBs do not have LK12 and require modification as follows:
6.9
Option 1: pins 2 and 24 on all of the ROMs are to be swapped. Remove pins 2 and 24 from each ROM socket by bending them up. Join pin 24 on all ROMs to GND. Join pin 2 on all ROMs to LA18 on IC28, pin 18.
6.9
Option 2: remove pin 2 from each stamped socket on PCB and strap a wire between the pins and LA18. Likewise, pin 24 can be strapped to GND after removing the pins in the stamped sockets.
6.9
Hardware problems
6.9
Watford Electronics ARM3 − When Colin Wood fitted a Watford Electronics ARM3 upgrade to his A410 it didn’t work. “The screen flashed red/blue, but no beep. Just dead.” As he had recently fitted RISC OS 3, he decided to replace the RISC OS 2 chips and everything seemed OK, but when he put the RISC OS 3 chips back, again it didn’t work. Watford’s help line couldn’t help, so he returned the ARM3 and since they were (again) out of stock he cancelled his order and got most (but not all, apparently) of his money back. Another ARM3, from CJE Micro’s, worked first time.
6.9
Watford A310 RAM upgrades − Watford Electronics say that they are aware that their early A305/310 RAM upgrades do not work with RISC OS 3 but they do not have any solution. They simply recommend that you buy one of their newer RAM upgrades instead because they do work with RISC OS 3. Fortunately, IFEL have stepped into the breach. They can offer new PAL chips to plug into the Watford boards that will solve the problem. These PAL chips are £3 +VAT each from IFEL and you need to state whether you have the 2Mb or the 4Mb version. (This refers to the upgrades that consisted of two PCBs with a ribbon cable along the RHS of the machine.)
6.9
Program problems
6.9
QuicKey clash − J. Nichols reports that, if QuicKey is loaded from within a !Boot file, it can remove the *Opt 4,2 status from the booted disc resulting in a disc which no longer runs a !Boot file.
6.9
!Edit – Following last month’s reports of a “bug” in Edit we now have the following from Tom Rank: “There seemed to be a rare problem with Edit the other day; my text (exported from Ovation) was displayed in a most corrupted way, with a large amount of blank screen to start with and then disintegrating words. I thought it was a problem with Ovation. However, when I tried to show it to John Wallace of Risc Developments at BETT, the file displayed without problems, as it did back on my own machine the next day. Any idea why?”
6.9
Fun School 4 (for the under 5s) – Tom Rank found that this ran under RISC OS 3.00 but not 3.10, but Europress Software supplied an updated disc very promptly which now works.
6.9
Freddy Teddy – Topologika supplied a new version to Tom Rank on the spot at BETT!
6.9
Ovation – Tom Rank says you are urged to obtain 1.37S (dated 17 January 1993). This overcomes the saving with <F3> problem – which really was a problem, so do upgrade. They have also restored the ‘select all’ shortcut − but only if you use the right-hand <Ctrl> key along with A (to avoid the problem of catching <Ctrl-A> instead of <Ctrl-S> or just <A>).
6.9
This version also contains three new printing options, not documented: Fit, Centre and Registration marks. These should be self explanatory, but Tom is not quite sure about them!
6.9
Break147 and SuperPool – D. S. Allen got these to work using the information provided by David Holden in the April column. He writes: “In Break147 there is one Basic program called !Snook which contains the line
6.9
90SYS 26,64,64.
6.9
A REM statement in front of the SYS will cure the problem and the program will then run under RISC OS 3.1.
6.9
“Similarly, in SuperPool there is a Basic program !Pool in the Data directory in which line 60 has the same SYS 26,64,64 statement.
6.9
“Note that to make these changes, people will require the read/write version of Mark Smith’s excellent ArcFS program.” (Or, presumably, an equivalent utility such as SparkFS.)
6.9
Superior Golf / Construction Set – We reported in Archive 6.7 p43 that Dave Wilcox had found that these did not work in RISC OS 3.10. Rob Brown, however, says he has had no problems with them.
6.9
Corruption – Rob Brown says that this can be made to work by modifying its !Run file to kill the RISC OS 3 Shared C Library module and load the very old version of the module supplied with the game. To do this, include at the beginning of the !Run file the line:
6.9
RMKill SharedCLibrary
6.9
and then add at the end of the file the following two lines:
6.9
RMKill SharedCLibrary
6.9
RMLoad SharedCLibrary
6.9
to remove the old version and reload the RISC OS 3 version of the module. He points out that it may well be advisable to Quit any other applications that may be using the RISC OS 3 Shared C Library module before running the game.
6.9
Freddy’s Folly – Rob Brown advises that this game contains a !Run file (in Basic) which includes an automatic ‘auto-configuration’ of the computer’s memory as well as setting up a number of initial program parameters. The various auto-configuration elements should be deleted from this file. A further complication is that the disc is copy protected, but it should be possible to rename the original !Run file (to say !RunOLD) and re-save a new !Run file containing only the initial program parameters. He also advises that the game assumes that the default disc drive is 0. For users with a hard disc this can easily be set by typing:
6.9
Drive 0
6.9
at the command line (accessed by pressing function key <F12>) before starting the game. Alternatively, the game’s !Run file can be appropriately amended by including the “<Obey$Dir>” command.
6.9
NOTE: the advice on Corruption and Freddy’s Folly is included in the program compatibility chart which Rob Brown has compiled and which has been included on the Archive monthly program disc. He will welcome any information which will help him to make the chart as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible. His address is “Valtanee”, Brighton Road, Lower Kingswood, Tadworth, Surrey, KT20 6UP.
6.9
Aldebaran – (see Archive 6.8 p23) Atle Mjelde Bårdholt has contacted the author and has learned that, on his A310 with IFEL’s 2Mb upgrade, he has to add 8Kb to the WimpSlot values in the !Aldebaran.!Run file (from 624Kb to 632Kb). Then everything works fine. He says this might be due to the RAM upgrade: Aldebaran seems to work fine on any other Archimedes with RISC OS 3.1. He adds a final bit of advice: “Get a copy!”
6.9
Printing
6.9
Printing to file
6.9
Tom Rank has found that the hint from Simon Moy in Archive 6.2.7 about editing the number of text lines seems redundant under RISC OS 3.10, and that printing to a file (at least with the Epson LQ-860 driver) resulted in a printout which aborted with an “address exception at &038B5BE0”, a frozen printer and an incomplete document (the last few millimetres were lost). This is particularly irritating as printing to a file is the only way, apart from buying a direct laser printer or a CC Turbo Driver, to avoid the long wait for print out. (How about using the PROdriver shell for use with Acorn drivers? See the review on page 43. Ed.)
6.9
Using fanfold paper
6.9
Tom Rank comments: “Feeding single sheets into a printer soon becomes a pain, but sheetfeeders come expensive, so A4 fanfold paper seemed a good idea (even though it’s about four or five times more expensive than better quality photocopy paper at a discount stationer!). However, with RISC OS 3.00, I could never get the settings right, so the print always crept up or down the page until it crossed the fold. With RISC OS 3.10, I’ve finally got it to work, whether by fluke I’m not sure. Using the LQ-860 printer driver with my Epson LQ-550 printer, the correct settings from the paper sizes menu are: top margin 8mm and bottom margin 15mm; save these with a name like ‘A4 Fanfold’ and the margins can be automatically set each time. These settings seem to work OK with single sheets too.”
6.9
Filing Systems
6.9
Beebug 5¼“ disc interface
6.9
Stuart Bell writes: “I got my Beebug 5¼“ disc interface (date 1989) to work by setting the step rate for an 80 track double-sided drive to 12ms (lower values may well work; I’m just cautious), and whereas RISC OS 2 worked with “Ready” (switch 6 on the interface) supplied by the on-board PAL, RISC OS 3 works more reliably with it passed through from the drive.”
6.9
Dismounting between filing systems
6.9
According to Mike Sawle, applications which frequently switch between filing systems seem to require the *DISMOUNT command before selecting an alternative filing system in order to ensure correct execution. Common error messages are Ambiguous Disc Name and Bad Error Block.
6.9
Miscellaneous Hints & Tips
6.9
• Faster copying, etc. – Rob Davison recommends that if there is nothing else you want to do when copying files, then click <Menu> over the filer action window and choose ‘Faster’.
6.9
• In the midnight hour – Atle Mjelde Bårdholt found that, whenever he switched his computer on between midnight and 1 a.m., a day was added to the internal clock. He then found that this seemed to be caused by the presence in his !Boot file of the command *Set Sys$Year 1993 (which he had included because he has some programs that set the year back to 1988). When this command is removed, the midnight hour problem goes away. Does anyone know the reason?
6.9
• Fan filters and the A5000 – Tom Rank found that, although magazines mention the need to change the filter from time to time, there was no mention of how to do this and on fitting the RISC OS 3.10 upgrade he could see no filter anyway. Is there one, he asks? The Acorn representative at BETT told him that the design of the machine made it superfluous; he couldn’t quite follow why, but it was something to do with the direction of airflow.
6.9
• Flippin’ objects in Draw – Having travelled all the way from Derbyshire to the Acorn User Show, Tom Rank “asked the man on one of the other magazines’ stall if there was an equivalent in Draw to the ‘flip’ option in Paint, as it’s sometimes useful to turn a picture round to face the other way. The expert, although helpful about other items, couldn’t tell me, but my son revealed the following tip, which he said he thought was obvious. Must talk to him more often....
6.9
“To flip an object in Draw, select it and, from the ‘transform’ menu (RISC OS 3), set x scale (or y scale or both) to −1 (minus 1). This also works in the RISC OS 2 version of Draw but there the ‘transform’ option is chosen from the Select menu.”
6.9
• Lost lines in Edit − Eric Ayers has found that double-clicking on large text files to load them into Edit has caused several lines to be missing from the middle of the text. Apparently, this does not happen if he drags the files to the Edit icon on the icon bar. Any ideas?
6.9
• More fonts in RISC-OS 3 − Gary Atkinson of KudlianSoft recommends the following additions to the !Fonts.!Boot and !Fonts.!Run files to enable one or more separate font directories to be added to and removed from the font path simply by double-clicking on the fonts application directory.
6.9
The !Fonts.!Boot file should be amended as follows:
6.9
| Boot file for !Fonts.
6.9
| Nothing happens if you put this in | a RISC OS 2 machine except that
6.9
| the !Fonts sprite is set up − this | means that, when a RISC OS2 !Fonts
6.9
| directory is seen the !Boot file
6.9
| will not be run; double clicking
6.9
| on the appropriate !Fonts will
6.9
| force installation.
6.9
|
6.9
| Take care when merging RISC OS 2
6.9
| fonts with these (RISC OS 3) fonts
6.9
| - many fonts are contained in the
6.9
| RISC OS 3 ROM and thus do not
6.9
| appear in !Fonts; normally you
6.9
| should not copy the corresponding
6.9
| RISC OS 2 fonts!
6.9
Iconsprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
6.9
RMEnsure FontManager 2.89 Obey
6.9
| The next command boots up your
6.9
| normal font directory
6.9
FontInstall <Obey$Dir>.
6.9
SetEval MoreFonts 0
6.9
The !Fonts.!Run file should be amended as follows:
6.9
| !Run file for !Fonts,
6.9
| version 1.05 (20-Aug-91)
6.9
RMEnsure FontManager 2.89 Error These fonts are for use with
6.9
RISC OS 2.12 or later
6.9
|Obey <Obey$Dir>.!Boot
6.9
| The extra *FontInstall means that,
6.9
| if you double-click the Fonts
6.9
| directory, all such directories
6.9
| will be re-searched for any new
6.9
| fonts.
6.9
SetEval MoreFonts MoreFonts EOR 1
6.9
IF MoreFonts=1 THEN FontInstall <Obey$Dir>. ELSE FontRemove <Obey$Dir>.
6.9
|FontInstall
6.9
The !Boot file is only run on the first time that the filer sees the !Fonts application, hence the initialisation of MoreFonts to zero. Every time the directory is double-clicked, the !Run file will toggle the value of this variable between 0 and 1. This is done in the line:
6.9
SetEval MoreFonts MoreFonts EOR 1
6.9
If the value is 1, the FontInstall command adds the new directory to the font path and initialises all of the fonts. If the value is 0, the FontRemove command removes the temporary font directory from the font path.
6.9
If you require more than one spare directory, you will need to use different variables, such as MoreFonts2 or FancyFonts.
6.9
In practice, it is better to have a directory called fonts inside your !Fonts application which contains your preferred normal fonts at switch-on, and a directory called spare (for example) which contains the set of fonts that you wish to switch in and out. Then in your !Boot file, the FontInstall command becomes
6.9
FontInstall <Obey$Dir>.fonts.
6.9
and the IF...THEN statement in the !Run file has <Obey$Dir>.spare. in place of the two occurrences of <Obey$Dir>. .
6.9
Miscellaneous Comments
6.9
FontEd
6.9
When Tom Rank spoke to an Acorn representative he was told that they were not contemplating the release of FontEd and that it is NOT public domain. An early version got there by mistake via SID and it really ought not, he said, to be distributed by PD libraries.
6.9
The Acorn representative acknowledged that Acorn were unlikely to do anything about this situation, as it was “only an early version and won’t work on RISC OS 3”. According to Tom this is partially true; a friend of his has had problems with version 0.28, but at least some of the time it runs on an A5000. However, he observes that it is a pity that Acorn actually seem to be discouraging anyone else from working on fonts. (There is a version of FontEd on Careware 7, released in May 1990, but it has been updated since then. Acorn haven’t objected, presumably because of the charitable aspect. Ed.)
6.9
Screen blanking during floppy disc access
6.9
Stuart Bell writes: “Many things are very much more elegant in RISC OS 3 but with one notable exception. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what happens to the screen during floppy disc accessing. Whether my ARM3 cache is dis- or enabled, in mode 24 the screen either flashes or is blanked when loading, saving or formatting. If RISC OS 2 didn’t need to do this, why is it allowed now? (It did, in fact, happen in mode 21 under RISC OS 2 – HE.) Some re-coding is needed, even if the resultant code is a little slower. More significantly, who was the Acorn person in authority who thought that it is acceptable in 1993 to produce a computer which professes to be a ‘world-beater’ which, when using floppy discs, looks like the Sinclair Spectrum (or was it the ZX81?) reading from cassette tape circa 1983? This just looks so tacky. I know that serious use demands a hard disc, but first impressions count for a lot, and a lot of demonstrations will be on floppy-based A3010’s. This is not good enough, Acorn.”
6.9
Basic program compaction errors
6.9
R. W. Darlington writes: “I am writing on a matter of utmost urgency.
6.9
“There seems to be a growing urge amongst programmers to use a program compactor on Basic RunImage files. Unfortunately, I know of no Basic compactor program that does not exhibit a certain disastrous fault.
6.9
“If, for instance, a Basic program contains any floating point or pseudo variables followed by a Basic keyword or statement, then when it is compacted and the space between the variable and the keyword is removed, that line will generate an error.
6.9
“For instance, if the program contained the line
6.9
10 IF TRUE THEN VDU7
6.9
which when compacted becomes
6.9
10IFTRUETHENVDU7
6.9
the lack of space between TRUE and THEN will generate an error.
6.9
“The same is true for any line containing a floating point variable:
6.9
10 ha=TRUE
6.9
20 IF ha THEN VDU7
6.9
will crash when compacted because of a lack of space between ha and THEN.
6.9
“I have come across numerous examples of RunImage files which have these errors in them. One of them is Acorn’s new RISC OS 3 !SciCalc. Others are new versions of Translator and Creator.
6.9
“Please can you draw Archive readers’ attention to these problems as soon as possible? Or, if any reader knows of a Basic compactor that does not produce these errors, please can they let us know where it may be obtained?”
6.9
Matters Arising
6.9
Setting Caps Lock (*FX 202)
6.9
Unfortunately, the advice I gave last month about using *FX 202 may have been a bit confusing because, after explaining that Peter Young wanted a command to turn Caps Lock on, I then described how to turn it off! The command to turn Caps Lock on, leaving the other settings unchanged, is *FX 202,0,239.
6.9
The shortened form *FX 202,32 should turn Caps Lock on, but may have side effects.
6.9
Note also that, to make sure that the LED indicators are correctly updated after a *FX 202 command, it is a good idea to follow it with the simple command *FX 118.
6.9
The bits of the keyboard status byte have the following meanings:
6.9
bit value meaning
6.9
0 (1) 0 Alt off
6.9
1 Alt on
6.9
1 (2) 0 Scroll Lock off
6.9
1 Scroll Lock on
6.9
2 (4) 0 Num Lock on
6.9
1 Num Lock off
6.9
3 (8) 0 Shift off
6.9
1 Shift on
6.9
4 (16) 0 Caps Lock on
6.9
1 Caps Lock off
6.9
5 (32) (“Normally set”)
6.9
6 (64) 0 Ctrl off
6.9
1 Ctrl on
6.9
7 (128) 0 Shift enable off
6.9
1 Shift enable on
6.9
(This information is taken from the RISCOS 2 Programmers’ Reference Manual.)
6.9
Boot-up options (Archive 6.8 p26)
6.9
Peter Young has suggested that it might be better to use INKEY$ with a delay of, say, 5 to 10 seconds instead of GET$ so that, if nobody presses a key, the computer will continue with the boot file after a short delay.
6.9
Unexpected messages from IDE filing system (Archive 6.8 p24)
6.9
Peter Young (who has a Beebug IDE interface) has confirmed that, even after creating space for a directory cache, he still gets unexpected messages unless he uses full pathnames. For instance, if he starts with the commands
6.9
*DIR IDEFS::IDEDisc4.$.BASIC.B
6.9
*CAT
6.9
he gets a catalogue of the subdirectory ‘B’ as expected. However, if he uses the abbreviated pathname instead:
6.9
*DIR $.BASIC.B
6.9
*CAT
6.9
he gets a catalogue of the directory ‘BASIC’ even though the heading of the directory listing correctly says that the CSD is IDEFS::IDEDisc4.$. BASIC.B. The computer’s confusion is further demonstrated by the fact that if he then enters:
6.9
*DIR ^
6.9
*CAT
6.9
it replies Directory ‘@’ not found.
6.9
‘Interrupt’ module (Archive 6.6 p55)
6.9
In March, we reported M. P. Sawle’s request for help in getting the Interrupt module (Archive Shareware disc 6) working under RISC OS 3, but since then neither he nor we have heard anything. Does no-one else use this module? Can its author help?
6.9
Using RISC OS 3.10
6.9
Hugh Eagle
6.9
More encouragement for the faint-hearted!
6.9
Stuart Bell says: “Having read the RISC OS Column for the past few
months, I approached the upgrade with caution, afraid of all sorts of
installation and compatibility problems. I guess that by the nature of
the things, it’s those people who encounter problems who write in,
thereby giving a false impression of the true situation. So, if you’re
still with RISC OS 2 and thinking about upgrading, be encouraged.
Installing RISC OS 3 on my A310, including removing the main board and
installing the IFEL ROM carrier board took about an hour from start to
finish, and I experienced no unforeseen problems.
6.9
“Having been warned of problems with Compression 1.1, I de-compressed
all files first. I await the free upgrade from CC. There is the reported
problem with early versions of Font-FX and that’s in hand.
6.9
“A couple of warnings, though: As well as powering up with <Delete>
depressed, also make sure that you’ve re-connected the keyboard first.
(Don’t laugh – it could have been you! That cost me several minutes of
panic.) Secondly, alter the Font Size figure before loading your first
Impression document, which otherwise can take several minutes to load
with a 32Kb buffer.”
6.9
• Avie Electronics 4Mb A310 upgrade − The following information has come
from Avie: LK12 should be altered to 1-3 and 2-4. Issue 1 PCBs do not
have LK12 and require modification as follows:
6.9
Option 1: pins 2 and 24 on all of the ROMs are to be swapped. Remove
pins 2 and 24 from each ROM socket by bending them up. Join pin 24 on
all ROMs to GND. Join pin 2 on all ROMs to LA18 on IC28, pin 18.
6.9
Option 2: remove pin 2 from each stamped socket on PCB and strap a wire
between the pins and LA18. Likewise, pin 24 can be strapped to GND after
removing the pins in the stamped sockets.
6.9
Hardware problems
6.9
Watford Electronics ARM3 − When Colin Wood fitted a Watford Electronics
ARM3 upgrade to his A410 it didn’t work. “The screen flashed red/blue,
but no beep. Just dead.” As he had recently fitted RISC OS 3, he decided
to replace the RISC OS 2 chips and everything seemed OK, but when he put
the RISC OS 3 chips back, again it didn’t work. Watford’s help line
couldn’t help, so he returned the ARM3 and since they were (again) out
of stock he cancelled his order and got most (but not all, apparently)
of his money back. Another ARM3, from CJE Micro’s, worked first time.
6.9
Watford A310 RAM upgrades − Watford Electronics say that they are aware
that their early A305/310 RAM upgrades do not work with RISC OS 3 but
they do not have any solution. They simply recommend that you buy one of
their newer RAM upgrades instead because they do work with RISC OS 3.
Fortunately, IFEL have stepped into the breach. They can offer new PAL
chips to plug into the Watford boards that will solve the problem. These
PAL chips are £3 +VAT each from IFEL and you need to state whether you
have the 2Mb or the 4Mb version. (This refers to the upgrades that
consisted of two PCBs with a ribbon cable along the RHS of the machine.)
6.9
Program problems
6.9
QuicKey clash − J. Nichols reports that, if QuicKey is loaded from
within a !Boot file, it can remove the *Opt 4,2 status from the booted
disc resulting in a disc which no longer runs a !Boot file.
6.9
!Edit – Following last month’s reports of a “bug” in Edit we now have
the following from Tom Rank: “There seemed to be a rare problem with
Edit the other day; my text (exported from Ovation) was displayed in a
most corrupted way, with a large amount of blank screen to start with
and then disintegrating words. I thought it was a problem with Ovation.
However, when I tried to show it to John Wallace of Risc Developments at
BETT, the file displayed without problems, as it did back on my own
machine the next day. Any idea why?”
6.9
Fun School 4 (for the under 5s) – Tom Rank found that this ran under
RISC OS 3.00 but not 3.10, but Europress Software supplied an updated
disc very promptly which now works.
6.9
Freddy Teddy – Topologika supplied a new version to Tom Rank on the spot
at BETT!
6.9
Ovation – Tom Rank says you are urged to obtain 1.37S (dated 17 January
1993). This overcomes the saving with <F3> problem – which really was a
problem, so do upgrade. They have also restored the ‘select all’
shortcut − but only if you use the right-hand <Ctrl> key along with A
(to avoid the problem of catching <Ctrl-A> instead of <Ctrl-S> or just
<A>).
6.9
This version also contains three new printing options, not documented:
Fit, Centre and Registration marks. These should be self explanatory,
but Tom is not quite sure about them!
6.9
Break147 and SuperPool – D. S. Allen got these to work using the
information provided by David Holden in the April column. He writes: “In
Break147 there is one Basic program called !Snook which contains the
line
6.9
90SYS 26,64,64.
6.9
A REM statement in front of the SYS will cure the problem and the
program will then run under RISC OS 3.1.
6.9
“Similarly, in SuperPool there is a Basic program !Pool in the Data
directory in which line 60 has the same SYS 26,64,64 statement.
6.9
“Note that to make these changes, people will require the read/write
version of Mark Smith’s excellent ArcFS program.” (Or, presumably, an
equivalent utility such as SparkFS.)
6.9
Superior Golf / Construction Set – We reported in Archive 6.7 p43 that
Dave Wilcox had found that these did not work in RISC OS 3.10. Rob
Brown, however, says he has had no problems with them.
6.9
Corruption – Rob Brown says that this can be made to work by modifying
its !Run file to kill the RISC OS 3 Shared C Library module and load the
very old version of the module supplied with the game. To do this,
include at the beginning of the !Run file the line:
6.9
RMKill SharedCLibrary
6.9
and then add at the end of the file the following two lines:
6.9
RMKill SharedCLibrary
6.9
RMLoad SharedCLibrary
6.9
to remove the old version and reload the RISC OS 3 version of the
module. He points out that it may well be advisable to Quit any other
applications that may be using the RISC OS 3 Shared C Library module
before running the game.
6.9
Freddy’s Folly – Rob Brown advises that this game contains a !Run file
(in Basic) which includes an automatic ‘auto-configuration’ of the
computer’s memory as well as setting up a number of initial program
parameters. The various auto-configuration elements should be deleted
from this file. A further complication is that the disc is copy
protected, but it should be possible to rename the original !Run file
(to say !RunOLD) and re-save a new !Run file containing only the initial
program parameters. He also advises that the game assumes that the
default disc drive is 0. For users with a hard disc this can easily be
set by typing:
6.9
Drive 0
6.9
at the command line (accessed by pressing function key <F12>) before
starting the game. Alternatively, the game’s !Run file can be
appropriately amended by including the “<Obey$Dir>” command.
6.9
NOTE: the advice on Corruption and Freddy’s Folly is included in the
program compatibility chart which Rob Brown has compiled and which has
been included on the Archive monthly program disc. He will welcome any
information which will help him to make the chart as comprehensive and
up-to-date as possible. His address is “Valtanee”, Brighton Road, Lower
Kingswood, Tadworth, Surrey, KT20 6UP.
6.9
Aldebaran – (see Archive 6.8 p23) Atle Mjelde Bårdholt has contacted the
author and has learned that, on his A310 with IFEL’s 2Mb upgrade, he has
to add 8Kb to the WimpSlot values in the !Aldebaran.!Run file (from
624Kb to 632Kb). Then everything works fine. He says this might be due
to the RAM upgrade: Aldebaran seems to work fine on any other Archimedes
with RISC OS 3.1. He adds a final bit of advice: “Get a copy!”
6.9
Printing
6.9
Printing to file
6.9
Tom Rank has found that the hint from Simon Moy in Archive 6.2.7 about
editing the number of text lines seems redundant under RISC OS 3.10, and
that printing to a file (at least with the Epson LQ-860 driver) resulted
in a printout which aborted with an “address exception at &038B5BE0”, a
frozen printer and an incomplete document (the last few millimetres were
lost). This is particularly irritating as printing to a file is the only
way, apart from buying a direct laser printer or a CC Turbo Driver, to
avoid the long wait for print out. (How about using the PROdriver shell
for use with Acorn drivers? See the review on page 43. Ed.)
6.9
Using fanfold paper
6.9
Tom Rank comments: “Feeding single sheets into a printer soon becomes a
pain, but sheetfeeders come expensive, so A4 fanfold paper seemed a good
idea (even though it’s about four or five times more expensive than
better quality photocopy paper at a discount stationer!). However, with
RISC OS 3.00, I could never get the settings right, so the print always
crept up or down the page until it crossed the fold. With RISC OS 3.10,
I’ve finally got it to work, whether by fluke I’m not sure. Using the
LQ-860 printer driver with my Epson LQ-550 printer, the correct settings
from the paper sizes menu are: top margin 8mm and bottom margin 15mm;
save these with a name like ‘A4 Fanfold’ and the margins can be
automatically set each time. These settings seem to work OK with single
sheets too.”
6.9
Filing Systems
6.9
Beebug 5¼“ disc interface
6.9
Stuart Bell writes: “I got my Beebug 5¼“ disc interface (date 1989) to
work by setting the step rate for an 80 track double-sided drive to 12ms
(lower values may well work; I’m just cautious), and whereas RISC OS 2
worked with “Ready” (switch 6 on the interface) supplied by the on-board
PAL, RISC OS 3 works more reliably with it passed through from the
drive.”
6.9
Dismounting between filing systems
6.9
According to Mike Sawle, applications which frequently switch between
filing systems seem to require the *DISMOUNT command before selecting an
alternative filing system in order to ensure correct execution. Common
error messages are Ambiguous Disc Name and Bad Error Block.
6.9
Miscellaneous Hints & Tips
6.9
• Faster copying, etc. – Rob Davison recommends that if there is nothing
else you want to do when copying files, then click <Menu> over the filer
action window and choose ‘Faster’.
6.9
• In the midnight hour – Atle Mjelde Bårdholt found that, whenever he
switched his computer on between midnight and 1 a.m., a day was added to
the internal clock. He then found that this seemed to be caused by the
presence in his !Boot file of the command *Set Sys$Year 1993 (which he
had included because he has some programs that set the year back to
1988). When this command is removed, the midnight hour problem goes
away. Does anyone know the reason?
6.9
• Fan filters and the A5000 – Tom Rank found that, although magazines
mention the need to change the filter from time to time, there was no
mention of how to do this and on fitting the RISC OS 3.10 upgrade he
could see no filter anyway. Is there one, he asks? The Acorn
representative at BETT told him that the design of the machine made it
superfluous; he couldn’t quite follow why, but it was something to do
with the direction of airflow.
6.9
• Flippin’ objects in Draw – Having travelled all the way from
Derbyshire to the Acorn User Show, Tom Rank “asked the man on one of the
other magazines’ stall if there was an equivalent in Draw to the ‘flip’
option in Paint, as it’s sometimes useful to turn a picture round to
face the other way. The expert, although helpful about other items,
couldn’t tell me, but my son revealed the following tip, which he said
he thought was obvious. Must talk to him more often....
6.9
“To flip an object in Draw, select it and, from the ‘transform’ menu
(RISC OS 3), set x scale (or y scale or both) to −1 (minus 1). This also
works in the RISC OS 2 version of Draw but there the ‘transform’ option
is chosen from the Select menu.”
6.9
• Lost lines in Edit − Eric Ayers has found that double-clicking on
large text files to load them into Edit has caused several lines to be
missing from the middle of the text. Apparently, this does not happen if
he drags the files to the Edit icon on the icon bar. Any ideas?
6.9
• More fonts in RISC-OS 3 − Gary Atkinson of KudlianSoft recommends the
following additions to the !Fonts.!Boot and !Fonts.!Run files to enable
one or more separate font directories to be added to and removed from
the font path simply by double-clicking on the fonts application
directory.
6.9
The !Fonts.!Boot file should be amended as follows:
6.9
| Boot file for !Fonts.
6.9
| Nothing happens if you put this in | a RISC OS 2 machine except that
6.9
| the !Fonts sprite is set up − this | means that, when a RISC OS2
!Fonts
6.9
| directory is seen the !Boot file
6.9
| will not be run; double clicking
6.9
| on the appropriate !Fonts will
6.9
| force installation.
6.9
|
6.9
| Take care when merging RISC OS 2
6.9
| fonts with these (RISC OS 3) fonts
6.9
| - many fonts are contained in the
6.9
| RISC OS 3 ROM and thus do not
6.9
| appear in !Fonts; normally you
6.9
| should not copy the corresponding
6.9
| RISC OS 2 fonts!
6.9
Iconsprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
6.9
RMEnsure FontManager 2.89 Obey
6.9
| The next command boots up your
6.9
| normal font directory
6.9
FontInstall <Obey$Dir>.
6.9
SetEval MoreFonts 0
6.9
The !Fonts.!Run file should be amended as follows:
6.9
| !Run file for !Fonts,
6.9
| version 1.05 (20-Aug-91)
6.9
RMEnsure FontManager 2.89 Error These fonts are for use with
6.9
RISC OS 2.12 or later
6.9
|Obey <Obey$Dir>.!Boot
6.9
| The extra *FontInstall means that,
6.9
| if you double-click the Fonts
6.9
| directory, all such directories
6.9
| will be re-searched for any new
6.9
| fonts.
6.9
SetEval MoreFonts MoreFonts EOR 1
6.9
IF MoreFonts=1 THEN FontInstall <Obey$Dir>. ELSE FontRemove <Obey$Dir>.
6.9
|FontInstall
6.9
The !Boot file is only run on the first time that the filer sees the
!Fonts application, hence the initialisation of MoreFonts to zero. Every
time the directory is double-clicked, the !Run file will toggle the
value of this variable between 0 and 1. This is done in the line:
6.9
SetEval MoreFonts MoreFonts EOR 1
6.9
If the value is 1, the FontInstall command adds the new directory to the
font path and initialises all of the fonts. If the value is 0, the
FontRemove command removes the temporary font directory from the font
path.
6.9
If you require more than one spare directory, you will need to use
different variables, such as MoreFonts2 or FancyFonts.
6.9
In practice, it is better to have a directory called fonts inside your
!Fonts application which contains your preferred normal fonts at switch-
on, and a directory called spare (for example) which contains the set of
fonts that you wish to switch in and out. Then in your !Boot file, the
FontInstall command becomes
6.9
FontInstall <Obey$Dir>.fonts.
6.9
and the IF...THEN statement in the !Run file has <Obey$Dir>.spare. in
place of the two occurrences of <Obey$Dir>. .
6.9
Miscellaneous Comments
6.9
FontEd
6.9
When Tom Rank spoke to an Acorn representative he was told that they
were not contemplating the release of FontEd and that it is NOT public
domain. An early version got there by mistake via SID and it really
ought not, he said, to be distributed by PD libraries.
6.9
The Acorn representative acknowledged that Acorn were unlikely to do
anything about this situation, as it was “only an early version and
won’t work on RISC OS 3”. According to Tom this is partially true; a
friend of his has had problems with version 0.28, but at least some of
the time it runs on an A5000. However, he observes that it is a pity
that Acorn actually seem to be discouraging anyone else from working on
fonts. (There is a version of FontEd on Careware 7, released in May
1990, but it has been updated since then. Acorn haven’t objected,
presumably because of the charitable aspect. Ed.)
6.9
Screen blanking during floppy disc access
6.9
Stuart Bell writes: “Many things are very much more elegant in RISC OS 3
but with one notable exception. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw
what happens to the screen during floppy disc accessing. Whether my ARM3
cache is dis- or enabled, in mode 24 the screen either flashes or is
blanked when loading, saving or formatting. If RISC OS 2 didn’t need to
do this, why is it allowed now? (It did, in fact, happen in mode 21
under RISC OS 2 – HE.) Some re-coding is needed, even if the resultant
code is a little slower. More significantly, who was the Acorn person in
authority who thought that it is acceptable in 1993 to produce a
computer which professes to be a ‘world-beater’ which, when using floppy
discs, looks like the Sinclair Spectrum (or was it the ZX81?) reading
from cassette tape circa 1983? This just looks so tacky. I know that
serious use demands a hard disc, but first impressions count for a lot,
and a lot of demonstrations will be on floppy-based A3010’s. This is not
good enough, Acorn.”
6.9
Basic program compaction errors
6.9
R. W. Darlington writes: “I am writing on a matter of utmost urgency.
6.9
“There seems to be a growing urge amongst programmers to use a program
compactor on Basic RunImage files. Unfortunately, I know of no Basic
compactor program that does not exhibit a certain disastrous fault.
6.9
“If, for instance, a Basic program contains any floating point or pseudo
variables followed by a Basic keyword or statement, then when it is
compacted and the space between the variable and the keyword is removed,
that line will generate an error.
6.9
“For instance, if the program contained the line
6.9
10 IF TRUE THEN VDU7
6.9
which when compacted becomes
6.9
10IFTRUETHENVDU7
6.9
the lack of space between TRUE and THEN will generate an error.
6.9
“The same is true for any line containing a floating point variable:
6.9
10 ha=TRUE
6.9
20 IF ha THEN VDU7
6.9
will crash when compacted because of a lack of space between ha and
THEN.
6.9
“I have come across numerous examples of RunImage files which have these
errors in them. One of them is Acorn’s new RISC OS 3 !SciCalc. Others
are new versions of Translator and Creator.
6.9
“Please can you draw Archive readers’ attention to these problems as
soon as possible? Or, if any reader knows of a Basic compactor that does
not produce these errors, please can they let us know where it may be
obtained?”
6.9
Matters Arising
6.9
Setting Caps Lock (*FX 202)
6.9
Unfortunately, the advice I gave last month about using *FX 202 may have
been a bit confusing because, after explaining that Peter Young wanted a
command to turn Caps Lock on, I then described how to turn it off! The
command to turn Caps Lock on, leaving the other settings unchanged, is
*FX 202,0,239.
6.9
The shortened form *FX 202,32 should turn Caps Lock on, but may have
side effects.
6.9
Note also that, to make sure that the LED indicators are correctly
updated after a *FX 202 command, it is a good idea to follow it with the
simple command *FX 118.
6.9
The bits of the keyboard status byte have the following meanings:
6.9
bit value meaning
6.9
0 (1) 0 Alt off
6.9
1 Alt on
6.9
1 (2) 0 Scroll Lock off
6.9
1 Scroll Lock on
6.9
2 (4) 0 Num Lock on
6.9
1 Num Lock off
6.9
3 (8) 0 Shift off
6.9
1 Shift on
6.9
4 (16) 0 Caps Lock on
6.9
1 Caps Lock off
6.9
5 (32) (“Normally set”)
6.9
6 (64) 0 Ctrl off
6.9
1 Ctrl on
6.9
7 (128) 0 Shift enable off
6.9
1 Shift enable on
6.9
(This information is taken from the RISCOS 2 Programmers’ Reference
Manual.)
6.9
Boot-up options (Archive 6.8 p26)
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Peter Young has suggested that it might be better to use INKEY$ with a
delay of, say, 5 to 10 seconds instead of GET$ so that, if nobody
presses a key, the computer will continue with the boot file after a
short delay.
6.9
Unexpected messages from IDE filing system (Archive 6.8 p24)
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Peter Young (who has a Beebug IDE interface) has confirmed that, even
after creating space for a directory cache, he still gets unexpected
messages unless he uses full pathnames. For instance, if he starts with
the commands
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*DIR IDEFS::IDEDisc4.$.BASIC.B
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*CAT
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he gets a catalogue of the subdirectory ‘B’ as expected. However, if he
uses the abbreviated pathname instead:
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*DIR $.BASIC.B
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*CAT
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he gets a catalogue of the directory ‘BASIC’ even though the heading of
the directory listing correctly says that the CSD is IDEFS::IDEDisc4.$.
BASIC.B. The computer’s confusion is further demonstrated by the fact
that if he then enters:
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*DIR ^
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*CAT
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it replies Directory ‘@’ not found.
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‘Interrupt’ module (Archive 6.6 p55)
6.9
In March, we reported M. P. Sawle’s request for help in getting the
Interrupt module (Archive Shareware disc 6) working under RISC OS 3, but
since then neither he nor we have heard anything. Does no-one else use
