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Archive Magazine CD 1995
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hints
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1995-06-06
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Hints and Tips
8.10
Debugging via the Serial Port − (Unfortunately, we had problems
importing the text into Impression when we put this hint in last month’s
magazine. Sorry for any confusion that we caused − it was our fault and
not John West’s! The correct version is as follows...)
8.10
The os_cli line makes use of the system redirection to send the text to
the serial port, and so it should have read:
8.10
os_cli(“echo Start of initialise()
8.10
{serial: }”);
8.10
More details of redirection can be found on page 419 of the RISC OS 3
User Guide. The new Acorn C/C++ does not support os_cli, so you should
use _kernel_oscli instead.
8.10
From Basic, the OSCLI command is the direct equivalent.
8.10
OSCLI “echo Start of PROC_init
8.10
{serial: }”
8.10
John West, Surrey
8.10
Disc protection − Of the 100+ readers’ floppy discs I’ve processed over
the last few months, there was a fair smattering of broken cases,
mangled sliders and disc errors. In every case, the defective discs had
been sent in paper envelopes without further protection from the rough
and tumble of Her Majesty’s mails. This prompts me to repeat Ed’s
recommendation of many moons ago that it is well worthwhile giving your
discs adequate protection in the post. Jiffy bags or board-backed
envelopes cost only a few pence from stationers and, provided any
covering documentation is limited to a couple of pages, you are unlikely
to exceed the 60g limit for 19p/25p postage.
8.10
Jim Nottingham, Pocklington
8.10
Impression borders − The built-in borders in Impression provide ¼ point,
1 point and 4 point thick black borders (numbers 1, 2 & 3), but how do
you get a 5 point border? There is no way for the user to specify the
thickness and, also, the lines don’t join properly at the corners, as
you can see...
8.10
Here is a simple way to make your own line borders using Draw:
8.10
Create a new Draw document and set the zoom to 8:1. Show the grid and
lock to it. Set the grid spacing to 0.125 inches with 9 subdivisions −
since one point equals 1/72 inch, each subdivision is one point. For a 5
point line make a rectangle 5 squares wide and about 30 squares deep. To
make the corners square, you need to make a 5 by 5 square immediately
above the rectangle.
8.10
Finally, set the fill colour of both to black and the line colour to
none and save the file in your border directory.
8.10
You can also make curved or bevelled joins by changing the corner square
into a sector or a triangle.
8.10
To get half point thicknesses, you need to set the number of
subdivisions to 18.
8.10
Unfortunately, the 8:1 maximum zoom in Draw is too small to do quarter
point lines directly, so you need to construct them double size and then
“magnify” them by 0.5, or else use Artworks with a 4000% magnification.
On the monthly disc is a selection of plain rectangular borders from ¼
point to 6 point thickness.
8.10
The only remaining problem is that Impression puts the borders around
the outside of the frame so, with thick borders, you can’t use the “snap
to frames” feature to get your alignment right when the frames have
different borders, as you can see from the frame opposite.
8.10
Cain Hunt, Cambridge
8.10
Mouseballs − Logitech mice sometimes begin to slip when a glassy film of
material builds up around the periphery of the rollers which contact the
mouse ball. This can be as little as 0.5mm wide but is very tenacious.
Using a piece of metal or wood to dislodge the material can easily
damage the rollers. With a bit of patience it can be softened using
isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud. Lint free cloth is even better. This
takes a few minutes of gentle rubbing to do the trick. One of the
rollers is spring loaded and is a little more difficult. A clean cotton
bud holding a little IPA can be used to rub around the mouse ball to
remove the stickiness. If an Archive type mat is used, a gentle wash
with warm water and detergent will delay the problem recurring.
Everything has to be completely dry before reassembly.
8.10
Les May, Rochdale u