Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/magazine/volume_05/issue_06

Text File | 1995-06-25 | 233KB | 4,805 lines

  Wot!? No Editorial?!
5.6
Sometimes I have a burning issue that I want to air in this editorial
slot but sometimes I have to scratch around for something to say. I’m
sure most editors will relate to that feeling. You don’t just want to
waffle; you want to take the opportunity to say something worthwhile. I
can’t think of anything worthwhile, so I’ll shut up, go away and let you
read the magazine!
5.6
Bye for now,
5.6

5.6
Products Available
5.6
•    3D Construction Kit is Domark’s new program for creating 3D anima
tions. Design your own house and “walk through it” even before it’s
built or build and fly your own plane. The price is £49.99 inc VAT (£46
through Archive) which includes an instructional video cassette. (See
Comment Column on page 20.)
5.6
•    A400 series discontinued − Acorn have decided, not surprisingly, to
cease production of the A400 series computers. There are still some
machines available and there may be some bargain prices around,
especially for A420s. If the price is right, you could throw away the
20M drive and put in a decent-sized SCSI drive. (For example, we have
one A410, 4M with 40M ST506 drive available at £1190. Give us a ring if
you are interested.)
5.6
•    Bible Base − This is a RISC-OS compliant package using a PD version of
the King James Bible. It comes on six floppy discs and can be run from
hard disc. It is £12 inc p&p from Bernard Veasey, 24 Drift Road,
Nyetimber, Bognor Regis, West Sussex  PO21 3NS.
5.6
•    CD-ROM − Cumana have reduced the price of their CD-ROM from £399 to
£299. The ROM drive has an average access time of 350 ms and a data
transfer rate of about 150 kbytes/sec. (There are apparently a number of
Archimedes-specific CDs under development including an encyclopaedia
from PEP Associates which was being demonstrated at the BETT Show.)
5.6
•    David Pilling’s program discs − Over the months, we have mentioned
David Pilling’s excellent series of discs of Archimedes software.
Despite the fact that they are so good, we have not, in the past,
stocked them. The trouble is that they are so cheap (£5.99 each) that
it’s impossible for us to give a discount on them and still cover our
costs. However, there has been so much demand that we have decided to
sell them at £6 each so that you can have the convenience of being able
to order them from Archive alongside other items without having to make
a separate order. If you only want David’s discs, it is obviously better
to go direct to him, especially if you want several discs because, if
you buy four discs at a time, you get one free. We cannot operate that
offer. We have decided to stock the most popular discs. (The numbers in
brackets are references to Archive reviews or comments.)
5.6
EMACS (2.6 p36 + 3.3 p11) − The classic text editor. A multiple buffer/
document editor with built-in programming language. Comes complete with
manual, online tutorial and several programs. Includes full working C
source code.
5.6
MicroSpell − 43,000 word spelling checker, MicroSpell is a spell checker
for EMACS but works with other applications, too. It can also be loaded
as a module to provide continuous spell checking while you type and
instant access to the dictionary with *spell command.
5.6
Chess − (4.9 p59 + 4.12 p25) Play Chess on the RISC-OS desktop. Fully
RISC-OS compatible version of chess. Computer will think of its next
move, whilst you use other programs. Many features; load and save games,
edit board, computer play, step through game, algebraic notation, on
screen clocks, undo move, save game setup, print games etc.
5.6
CrossStar − Wimp based crossword puzzle solver. Fully RISC-OS compliant,
desktop based crossword puzzle solver. Includes over 200,000 words.
Saves completed grids as Draw files for use in DTP etc. Solves inter
locking clues. Multiple/user defined dictionaries. Dictionaries can be
edited or browsed through. Add new words to dictionary.
5.6
Spark (3.4 p22) − File archiver for RISC-OS which lets you keep files
and directories in archive files in a compressed form. It will unpack
zip, zoo, lzh, tar (both UNIX and Archimedes), Compress and arc (SEA, PK
and Archimedes) files from IBM PC’s or other systems. It can also create
PC compatible arc files. Spark can code and decode, uucode, atob (CET+)
and FCET files. DES data encryption gives password protection of files.
(Bonus items on the disc include !BackDrop which lets you stick files
onto the desktop background, some PD applications, the old ‘arc’ and
over 1M of nice colour pictures.)
5.6
MTV Raytracer − Database driven raytracing renderiser (mentioned in
Brian Cowan’s review of Scientific Software on page 55) which will
convert a geometric description of a scene into a 3D raytraced image
that can be saved as a sprite. All reflections and shadows in the scene
are calculated to give life-like pictures. Primitives − spheres, cones/
cylinders, polygons and patches. Demo images, database files, C source
code, instructions and background info.
5.6
StarChart − Boldly go with a RISC-OS multitasking program that uses a
database of 9,000 stars etc to produce star maps. Also calculates the
positions of the planets and shows them on the maps. Star maps are in
the form of Draw files and can be imported into !Draw or other
applications.
5.6
NovaPaint − Extensive 16 colour paint package. Features: easy to use;
primitives (lines, curves, circles, ellipses, triangles, rectangles,
etc.); tools (user-defined brushes, airbrush, auto-shader, colour fills,
colour-cycling brush-es/rectangle drawing, etc.); palette tools (define
graduated palettes, compress palette, colour mixing); effects (pixel
average, area squash/stretch/distort/rotate, sphere wrap, cylinder wrap,
‘blob’). Plus the Fontmaster two-tone font system (including a font
editor and 23 fonts as well as bold, shadowed, underline and italic
styles); undo function. Pictures can be saved as sprites or in a special
compressed format (which can be used outside NovaPaint), 8x zoom at
which level fills, lines, triangles etc. can be drawn as well as pixel-
level editing. All drawing options can use ‘transparent’ colour to
achieve irregular area copies etc; help facility and manual. 14 demo
pictures.
5.6
Panorama − Draw the World (5.5 p26) − 180,000 coordinates outlining the
lakes, rivers, continents, state boundaries, etc of the world and a
program that can produce Draw files from them. You can make your own
maps of any part of the world and then use them in DTP etc. Includes the
positions of nearly 1,000 cities. Does simple, cylinder, Mercator and
perspective projections. Can be used from a single floppy disc and
requires no setting up.
5.6
ArcFS (5.5 p59) − Compressed Filing System, ArcFS is a filing system
using the powerful LZW data compression algorithm. It allows files to be
saved in much less disc space. Because it is a true read/write filing
system, programs can be used in the normal way. So you can press <F3> to
save files back to the filing system and Impression documents can be
loaded by dragging or double clicking. Compatible with all normal filing
systems. Offers a choice of compression method. Files can be encrypted
for security. Can also read Spark and PC format archive files. Space
saved depends on file type e.g. sprites may use only 10% of normal.
5.6
Trace (5.4 p61 + Comment Column, page 25) − Trace takes sprites and
turns them into Draw files. Sprite format clip art is cheap and
plentiful and you can make your own with a scanner. Draw format clip art
is expensive and has to be painstakingly drawn by hand. Sprites take up
lots of valuable disc space. Draw files are smaller. Sprites cannot be
scaled easily. If you try to make them bigger, they develop jagged
edges. Unlike some trace programs, Trace will work with colour sprites.
Tracing is not magic − not all sprites will give good results.
5.6
•    Deskjet 500 Colour printer drivers. Both Ace Computing and Risc
Developments now produce printer drivers for the Deskjet 500 Colour. Ace
Computing’s driver costs £16 +VAT or £17 through Archive and Risc
Developments’ costs £15 +VAT.
5.6
•    Desktop C and Desktop Assembler upgrades − It is still possible to
upgrade your old version of C or assembler to the desktop version which
includes the DDE. All you do is send the original disc plus an appropri
ate cheque to Acorn Direct at Wellingborough. The inc VAT costs are as
follows:
5.6
C release 3 to Desktop C    £99.87
5.6
C release 2 to Desktop C    £123.37
5.6
C release 1 to Desktop C    £123.37
5.6
Assembler to Desktop Assembler    £88.12
5.6
Software Developer’s Toolbox
5.6
                     to Desktop Assembler    £88.12
5.6
•    Dreadnoughts is the second wargame product for the Archimedes from
Turcan Research Systems Ltd. The author, Dr Peter Turcan, obviously
enjoyed converting Waterloo to the Archimedes and has followed it with
this simulation which allows you to fight the sea battles of the First
World War − seven different scenarios are provided. The price is £34.95
from Turcan Research Systems and there are two extra scenario discs at
£16.95 each − Ironclads which includes various battles from Japanese-
Chinese and Russo-Japanese conflicts and Bismark which provides six
scenarios from the Second World War.
5.6
•    Eizo monitors − Sadly, in their wisdom, Eizo have discontinued the
9070 16“ monitor. There is now a big gap between the 14” 9060SZ (£530)
and the T560i (£1240). If you are looking for a monitor, turn to the
Comments Column on page 21 where I have given my personal views about
various multisync monitors. Ed
5.6
•    EMR are continuing to produce new music based programs and hardware as
well as producing updates to their existing products. Studio24 Plus is
now up to version 3 (£249 inc VAT), Scorewriter PMS has been updated
(£499 inc VAT) as have RhythmBox II (£29.95 inc VAT) and SoundSynth II
(£49.95 +VAT). There are now eight Creations sound sample discs at two
for £17 +VAT. MicroStudio is an interactive recording studio for home or
school music teaching (£79 inc VAT). It allows you to learn the left and
right hand parts whilst following the music on screen. Symphony Music
Library and Modern Music Library consist of several discs of music, for
use with EMR music systems, costing between £3 and £15 inc VAT.
Storybook is an educational program that allows you to play and/or
produce your own stories with animated pictures and sampled sounds (£59
+ VAT). Extra stories are available at £39 +VAT a set. Mister Sound
Recorder is a tool for young children to allow them to record and replay
their own voices and sound around them. (£15 inc VAT) DreamWave is “the
only complete synthesizer for the Archimedes”, providing internal sound
creation for use with Maestro and other programs (£39.95 inc VAT).
Orpheus is a sophisticated voice editing system for Midi instruments
(£29.95 inc VAT). Karaoke Performer allows you to link a cassette
recorder to your computer and have a sing-along  session. The words are
given in a scrolling display and the words are highlighted in case you
lose your place! Sets of six songs cost £19.95 inc VAT per set. VuMusic
II allows you to play back music from a Midi system or one of the other
EMR programs along with user generate sprites (£39.95 inc VAT). If you
just want to play the music, you can use Music Player (£19.95 inc VAT).
Midi Analyser is a utility for Studio24 Plus which monitors data
received on the Midi interface with printout if necessary  (£19.95 inc
VAT). !SXFS is a system exclusive filing system that provides simple
recording and playback of any system exclusive data from Midi instrument
(£9.95 inc VAT). WFS to module sample converter is a utility that
converts EMR waveforms to relocatable modules (£9.95 inc VAT). Sound
Tracker to EMR waveform converter is a utility that removes sound sample
data from Sound Tracker files and converts them to EMR waveforms (£9.95
inc VAT). The Midi4 Acorn SWI emulator allows EMR’s Midi4 interface to
be used with Acorn’s standard SWI calls (£6.95 inc VAT). Maestro File
Converter changes Maestro files to Studio24 / MicroStudio format (£9.95
inc VAT). RhythmBox Converter changes RhythmBox note data to Studio24 /
MicroStudio format (£9.95 inc VAT).
5.6
EMR also has a range of hardware add-ons. As well as their Sampler 8 and
Midi4, they now produce SMPTE which is a full spec SMPTE to Midi control
expansion card at £129.57 +VAT, A3000 Multi-Interface which provides
Midi, sound sampler, analogue and user port at £79 +VAT and A3000
Expansion Tower which allows A3000s to connect up to 5 standard half-
width podules and has space for a hard drive. The tower costs £260 +VAT.
5.6
•    FAXPACK − Computer Concepts, after a long gestation period, have
finally given birth to their FaxPack which is their internal fax card
for Archimedes computers including the A5000 (fitted externally on an
A3000). Instead of printing your fax and then putting it through a
conventional fax machine where it is scanned and digitised, you can,
from your own application, “print” (FaxPack just appears as a printer
driver) straight to a fax interface and off down the telephone line.
This avoids the time, trouble and cost of having the intermediate paper
copy. If you don’t have a laser printer, this represents a considerable
time saving as you can send complex graphical images without waiting for
them to print out first.
5.6
This is a fully multi-tasking application, even allowing faxes to be
received in the background while you get on with other tasks. You can
communicate with other machines that have a FaxPack interface and
transfer files using the LZW compression algorithm to reduce transmis
sion times. (Equivalent speeds can be as much as 20k baud.)
5.6
The fax interface has auto-dial or manual modes and uses tone or pulse
dialling. It offers 9600 bps operation with fall back to 7200 and 4800
bps, compatible with all Group 3 fax machines. It will auto-answer, and
you can set the number of rings before answering.
5.6
It comes with a name and address utility program which allows you to
auto-dial the phone numbers directly from the phone book.
5.6
The price? Oh yes, it costs £299 +VAT (+£10 carriage) or £345 through
Archive.
5.6
•    Junior Database is a RISC-OS compliant database aimed at the edu
cational environment − for children aged six and upwards. The emphasis
is on good layout and ease of use. It has colour graphics and a hot-
linked personal tutor (sounds like fun!). Junior costs £53 +VAT from
Iota Software or £57 through Archive.
5.6
•    Good Impression − A book of layouts, graphics and designs for
Impression. Sincere apologies to Stephen Ibbs about our review last
month (p47) in which Robert Chrismas said that it only had about 100
pages. In fact it has 207 pages! Good Impression is numbered in
chapters, not consecutively through the whole book and what I suspect
happened was that Robert counted the pages by counting the pieces of
paper making up the book, forgetting that there are two pages on each
piece of paper! Sorry if we have mislead you − personally, I think that
Good Impression is very reasonably priced at £25 through Archive.
5.6
•    Image Outliner is Iota Software’s offering on the sprite to Draw file
conversion front. It works in full 256 colours and is fully multi-
tasking. The price is £79 +VAT or £85 through Archive.
5.6
•    Image Scan is an overhead image scanning system from Iota which uses
the latest CCD technology with rotating mirror and lenses. Being an
overhead system. it can be used for items that are not flat (see the
picture below) or are delicate and cannot have a hand scanner dragged
over them. It comes in modular form, so you can buy the different
components as finance allows. The basic black and white scanner costs
£399 +VAT (£450 through Archive). Then, to speed up the communication
with the computer, there is a fast parallel card costing £99 +VAT (£110
through Archive). If you want to expand to colour, the upgrade kit
including colour head and software costs £149 +VAT (£165 through
Archive) and a lighting unit is available to provide even illumination
of the objects being scanned. This costs £92 +VAT (£105 through
Archive).
5.6
•    Junior PinPoint is a version of Longman Logotron’s “new generation
database”, PinPoint, aimed at primary schools. It has a reduced set of
facilities and a simplified user interface. It is intended for use at
Key Stages 1 & 2. The cost is £24 +VAT from Longman or £26 through
Archive.
5.6
•    PAL colour decoder − Pineapple Software have produced a PAL colour
decoder. This allows an Archimedes monitor to be used as a TV set (by
using a video recorder as a tuner) or as an S-VHS TV monitor. The
decoder also acts as an S-VHS adaptor for the Pineapple Digitiser (or
any other digitiser that requires R, G, B and sync signals). The price
is £79 +VAT.
5.6
•    Pineapple digitiser software − Pineapple have released a new version
of the software for their colour digitiser. This comes as a free upgrade
to owners. It provides the facility to capture a sequence of frames −
the fastest is up to every third frame − and it could be used for time-
lapse camera work. There is also a replay facility with variable replay
speed.
5.6
•    PC 386 Card − Aleph One has launched its PC expansion card for the
Archimedes. This remarkable single-width podule works in conjunction
with the PC Emulator (v1.6 or greater), and provides a 20 MHz Intel
80386SX-compatible PC in a window (or, if you prefer, full-screen) with
VGA, EGA, CGA or MDA graphics − truly two computers in one! It is fitted
with a bi-directional parallel port and an RS232 serial port, and comes
with 1M RAM as standard. The card can be upgraded to 4M RAM and can
optionally be fitted with an Intel 80387SX floating-point processor. The
basic price for the 1M version is £495 +VAT; the 4M version is £625 +VAT
and the floating point processor costs another £99 +VAT. Archive prices
are £545, £680 and £110 respectively.
5.6
•    Smart Art! − 4Mation have launched yet more packs in their SmArt
series. Each costs £16 +VAT from 4Mation or £18 through Archive.
SmArtoons has twelve characters, two backgrounds and a suggestions file
and is aimed at the creation of animations and cartoons. Aliens consists
of lots of different aliens. Look SmArt has a number of animal faces and
human faces with a whole range of facial expression. The existing
packages, Leisure, Homes and Faces are now also available in French and
German (£16 per language per pack +VAT or £18 through Archive). Finally,
they now have a Modern Languages pack covering words associated with
meals and looking at items on a supermarket shelf. This two disc set
which has all the words in each of nine modern languages (French,
German, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian, Hebrew and Greek)
costs £20 +VAT or £22 through Archive.
5.6
•    Special Needs Trackerball − Northwest SEMERC, in collaboration with
Penny and Giles, have produced a trackerball for the Archimedes for use
by people with poor motor control or learning difficulties. It is more
rugged than the conventional trackerballs and has special functions such
as the ability to simulate “double-clicking” (a difficult task for some
special needs users) by a single key press. Dragging, which also causes
difficulty, is made easier with a single key. Special keys are also
provided to allow movement to be limited to up/down or left/right only −
particularly useful for navigating your way through menus (which the
able-bodied sometimes find difficult!). The ArcTracker, as it is called,
costs £269 +VAT from Northwest SEMERC.
5.6
•    Split an Image is Sherston Software’s latest offering. For £19.95
+VAT, you get around 100 draw files of cartoons of “the rich and famous”
− could be quite useful with the forth-coming general election!
5.6
•    TouchType is a typing tutor from Iota Software Ltd. Chris Drage in
Acorn User described as “the definitive typing tutor for the
Archimedes”. It costs is £49.95 from Iota or £46 through Archive.
5.6
•    Touch window from Lindis is a transparent membrane that fits over the
monitor and provides a resistive matrix of 256 × 256 points to provide a
touch screen effect. Put it on the table and it becomes a concept
keyboard. Put it over a picture on the table and it can be used for
tracing. The price is £235 +VAT which includes driver software, cables
and p.s.u.
5.6
•    Widgit Software has produced a number of programs aimed at primary and
special needs areas. Screenplay (£35 +VAT) allows you to produce simple
animations and stories by adding foreground pictures onto a background,
adding text titles and sound. You can add animation or you can create
exercises for the pupils to do using the collages that you have
produced. Gridit (£30 +VAT) is a flexible program designed to develop
spatial awareness, early number skills and logical thinking. It is
versatile enough to be used for those with severe learning difficulties
and also right up to children at Key Stage 2. Blob 1 and Blob 2 (£18
+VAT each) are two programs centred around a friendly little character
called “Blob” and are aimed at developmentally very young children. They
operate from single key / switch inputs. Count with Blob (£20 +VAT) is a
range of early number activities for infant and nursery level children.
5.6
Review software received...
5.6
We have received review copies of the following: Archivist, Junior
PinPoint, Dreadnought, DeskJet 500 Colour Printer Drivers (Ace and
Beebug), Colour Separation utility for colour printing, Mah Jong the
Game (needs an experienced Mah Jong player) MicroSpell, MTV Raytracer,
NovaPaint, SmArtoons, StarChart.  A
5.6

5.6
Government Health Warning − Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
5.6
After my comments about the way so many marriages are messed up these
days, I want to think a bit about the children. Look around you at the
children you know. How many of them have to watch their parents ‘at war’
with one another? How many of them are with a parent who has lived with
various different partners? What chance do these children and young
people have of forming stable relationships with that kind of
background?
5.6
Oh, it’s easy to point the finger at other people, but if you are a
parent, or have any influence on young people, what kind of example are
you giving them? That’s a frightening thought − well, it is to me. I’m
not just talking about morality in relationships − though that is
obviously very important.
5.6
Presumably, you try to show your children the value of the individual
and how to respect other people’s views, even when you don’t agree with
them. Hopefully, you try to show them that you care for the future of
this planet...   I’m sure you could continue this list with other good
things, but I want to ask you, “What lead do you give your children,
spiritually?”
5.6
“I believe we should tolerate each other’s religious views and shouldn’t
try to ram religion down their throats.”  OK, so you’re not going to
force your views onto your children, but what are your views?
5.6
“Well, I think we ought to do good to other people. I try to do that and
I’m as good a “Christian” as those who go to church. Many of them are
hypocrites anyway!” I have no doubt that you are a good person and I
have no doubt that, sadly, many people who go to church are hypocrites
but what have you got to offer your children? Why should they even
believe in God?
5.6
There are many really genuine and loving people who act as if God didn’t
even exist. They have a morality, but where does it come from? In most
cases, it’s a cultural hang-over from the days when Britain was a
Christian country. But what have we to offer our children??!! We can’t
just pluck a morality out of thin air. Why should they accept the moral
standards of this generation of parents? Who are you (or who am I?) to
tell them what they should believe or how they should behave?
5.6
Children are often more spiritually aware than we give them credit for.
They know there’s more to life than the purely physical and material
things with which we fill our lives. Many of them are more aware than we
are of the reality of the unseen spiritual world. Why do so many
children get involved with ouija boards and the like?
5.6
I believe that there is a spiritual emptiness in their lives because of
the spiritual bankruptcy of ours. If there is a spiritual void in your
life, what is that communicating to your children? If you don’t know how
much God loves you, how can you communicate anything of that love to
your children. If not for your own sake, then for the sake of your
children, ask someone you know and respect, who is a Christian, how you
can fill the spiritual emptiness in your life.
5.6

5.6

5.6
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD. 0603-
766592 (764011)
5.6

5.6
4th Dimension     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.6
4mation 11 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32
8PA. (0271−25353) (22974)
5.6
Abacus Training     29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
5.6
Acorn Direct     13 Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2RL.
5.6
Acorn Computers Ltd    Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 4JN. (0223−245200) (210685)
5.6
Ace Computing     27 Victoria Road, Cambridge, CB4 3BW. (0223−322559)
(69180)
5.6
Aleph One Ltd     The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(0223−811679) (812713)
5.6
Archimedes World     Argus House, Boundary Way, Hemel Hempstead  HP2 7ST.
(0442−66551) (0442−66998)
5.6
Arxe Systems Ltd     P.O.Box 898, Forest Gate, London E7 9RG. (081−534−1198
evenings)
5.6
Atomwide Ltd     23 The Greenway, Orpington, Kent, BR5 2AY. (0689−838852)
(896088)
5.6
Beebug Ltd    117 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303)
(60263)
5.6
Colton Software (p15)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA. (0223−311881) (312010)
5.6
Computer Concepts (p32/33)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 6EX. (0442−63933) (231632)
5.6
Cumana Ltd     Pines Trading Estate, Broad Street, Guilford  GU3 3BH.
(0483−503121) (0483−503326)
5.6
Dalmation Publications     37 Manor
Road, Teddington, Middlesex  TW11 8AA.
5.6
David Pilling     P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
5.6
Design Concept     30 South Oswald Road, Edinburgh, EH9 2HG.
5.6
Digital Services     9 Wayte Street, Cosham, Portsmouth PO6 3BS.
(0705−210600) (210705)
5.6
Domark     Ferry House 51−57 Lacy Road, London SW15 1PR. (081−780−2222)
5.6
DT Software     FREEPOST, Cambridge CB3 7BR. (0223−841099)
5.6
EMR Ltd     14 Mount Close, Wickford, Essex, SS11 8HG. (0702−335747)
5.6
Iota Software Ltd      St John’s
Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge  CB4 4WS. (0223−421542)
(0223−421543)
5.6
Irlam Instruments    133 London Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 4HN.
(0895−811401)
5.6
Jim Markland     4 Shalford Close, Cirencester, Gloucester, GL7 1WG.
5.6
Klein Computers     Hasslocherstrasse 73, D-6090 Ruesselsheim, Germany.
(010−49−6142−81131) (81256)
5.6
Linear Graphics      Unit 39, Mochdre Industrial Estate, Newtown, Powys,
SY16 4LE
5.6
Lingenuity (Lindis)     P.O.Box 10,
Halesworth, Suffolk, IP19 0DX. (0986−85−476) (460)
5.6
Longman-Logotron     124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4
4ZS. (0223−425558) (425349)
5.6
LOOKsystems (p9)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603−764114) (764011)
5.6
Minerva Systems     Minerva House, Baring Crescent, Exeter, EX1 1TL.
(0392−437756) (421762)
5.6
Morley Electronics     Morley
House, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE29 7TY. (091−257−6355)
(6373)
5.6
Northwest SEMERC     Fitton Hill CDC, Rosary Road, Oldham  OL8 2QE.
(061−627−4469)
5.6
Oak Solutions (p10)    Suite 25,
Robin Enterprise Centre, Leeds Road, Idle, Yorkshire BD10 9TE.
(0274−620423) (620419)
5.6
PEP Associates     55 St Paul’s Drive, Chatteris, Cambridge, PE16 6DG.
5.6
Pineapple Software     39 Brownlea
Gardens, Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex IG3 9NL. (081−599−1476)
5.6
Ray Maidstone (p22)    421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603−400477) (417447)
5.6
RISC Developments Ltd    117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303) (60263)
5.6
Sherston Software     Swan Barton,
Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH. (0666−840433) (840048)
5.6
Spacetech (p39)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.6
Triple R    P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.6
Turcan Research Systems     83 Green
croft Gardens, West Hampstead, London NW6 3LJ. (071−625−8455)
5.6
VisionSix Ltd (p31)    40 Royal
Oak, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 2DA.  (0665−510682) (0665−510692)
5.6
Watford Electronics     250 Lower
High Street, Watford, WD1 2AN. (0923−37774) (33642)
5.6
Widgit Software     102 Radford Road, Leamington Spa  CV31 1LF.
(0926−885303)
5.6
Word Processing     65 Milldale Crescent, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, W
Midlands  WV10 6LR.
5.6

5.6
Computer Concepts
5.6
From 5.5 page 32
5.6

5.6
Computer Concepts
5.6
From 5.5 page 33
5.6

5.6
Above and below, samples of scanned images from an Iota scanner.
5.6

5.6
Help!!!!
5.6
•    American square dance programs? − There is apparently a PC-type
program to enable calling moves to be choreographed on screen. Is there
an Archimedes version? If not, does anyone know where the PC version
comes from? J Daniels, London N21.
5.6
•    Archimedes projectors? − Chris Evans of CJE Micros would like to hear
from anyone who has experience of using an OHP type projection system to
display Archimedes screens. Epson do such a projector, he believes. Has
anyone tried it on the Archimedes? Chris Evans, 78 Brighton Road,
Worthing BN11 2EN. (0903−213900) (We’d be interested, too. Ed.)
5.6
•    Pattern recognition − I would like to obtain data sets, especially
images, suitable for evaluating classification, clustering or image
analysis algorithms − ideally some of those used in pattern recognition
literature. Please contact Graham Jones, 21e Balnakeil, Durness, Lairg,
Sutherland IV27 4PT. Phone 091 −181−396.
5.6
•    Portuguese Archimedes Users? If there is anyone in Portugal using an
Archimedes, please contact Gerry Knights, Casa Tropicana − Pateo,
Albufeira, Algarve.
5.6
•    RISC-iX users? − Are there any RISC-iX users around who would like to
share information (other than comments about the fact that we still
haven’t got RISC-iX issue 3, eighteen months after issue 2)? A.J.
Dobson, 203 Birmingham Road, Enfield, Redditch B97 6EA.
5.6
•    SCSI II implementation − Does anyone know of, or is anyone proto-
typing, a SCSI II implementation for the Archimedes? I want to try out
some optical discs that can store 128M on a 3½“ disc. However, the
interface must work on RISC-iX. A.J. Dobson, Redditch.
5.6
•    UNIX C to Acorn C − I am trying to convert a UNIX C program onto the
Archimedes but Acorn’s C compiler fails the UNIX system functions
read(), write(), lseek(), etc. Has someone written a C library called
‘UNIXLib’, which contains these functions? Contact Paul Bissonnette,
Ludwig-Thoma−Str. 2, W-8156 Otterfing, Germany.  A
5.6
Help Offered
5.6
•    Artificial neural nets − If you would like an implementation of a
WISARD net with C source, send a blank floppy and SAE to Graham Jones,
Durness, Lairg, Sutherland  IV27 4PT.
5.6
•    Draw file to Sprite conversion − In answer to John Evans’ query (5.5
p25) there is a program called RevXtra which comes as part of Longman
Logotron’s Revelation package which converts Draw files to sprites.
Robin Mattocks, Tadworth.
5.6
•    Keyboard/mouse recorder − There was a request last month for a program
to record and replay mouse movements and button clicks. Such a program,
Mouse-Recorder, is available from Klein Computers Germany. (It was
mentioned, albeit very briefly in Products Available the previous month
− Archive 5.4 p5.) Brian Cowan.
5.6
•    Scrabble − There is an excellent game of Scrabble that runs under the
emulator (V 1.6) and has a huge dictionary. It comes on a PD disc from
PC Assist Ltd (031−557−6432 / 9094). The only disadvantage is that the
emulator has to be configured to EGA so only about 80% of the board is
visible at one time. Allan Brown, Edinburgh.
5.6
•    Screening dongle cables − There was a request last month for informa
tion about screening of dongle cables. Apparently, RS Components sell
suitable screen material but it’s not cheap as you have to buy it in
reasonably large quantities. However, some people have had success with
double-sided adhesive tape and aluminium foil. Brian Cowan.  A
5.6

5.6
Language Column
5.6
David Wild
5.6
I have now received the agenda for the meeting of the Pascal Language
Forum which I mentioned in the last language column. It takes place on
the 3rd and 4th of April at the University of Reading and has a number
of potentially interesting sessions even for those whose work is not
primarily IBM PC oriented. Two in particular, on the first day, are to
do with “Quality Assurance and Development in Pascal” and “Source Code
Control”. On the second day the keynote address is on “Human Computer
Interface” and this is a subject on which the Archimedes has much to
offer.
5.6
Unfortunately, the meeting is rather expensive at £70 for members and
£100 for non-members with a booking fee of £20, but it would be nice if
some of the professionals writing in Pascal for the Archimedes could
begin to talk to other programmers and show them that we are not writing
for a “toy” machine.
5.6
Following the BETT show, I upgraded my copy of “Genesis” so that I could
study the script language included with it. I have received the upgrade,
but not yet the book, so I can’t really comment on it, but I am rather
interested in the idea of being able to do some of the work by using the
pointer on the screen and then refining it by editing the script
language. One of the problems with ordinary compiled languages,
including Pascal and ‘C’, is that you need to know quite a lot about the
way the compiler and linker work before you can even write the customary
“Hello World!” program. Something like Genesis can get you in at a much
higher level and allow non-programmers to be much more productive,
although in a limited field.
5.6
Many years ago, I worked with a decision-table pre-processor which
allowed the definition of parts of programs in a rather more understand
able way and then turned them into standard COBOL statements for
compilation. The COBOL included lots of “GOTO” statements but many of
the objections were avoided because nobody was expected to maintain that
language; all changes were made to the decision tables which were then
re-processed. Has anyone heard of any similar work being done in any of
the more modern languages? If they have, I would like to hear of any
experiences.  A
5.6

5.6
Hints and Tips
5.6
•    Alt key problems − (I think I’ll have to write this in six-foot high
letters. We’ve said it several times, but people keep missing out on
it.) If your <alt>-keypad numbers don’t give the special characters you
think they should, type *UNPLUG and you’ll probably find that someone or
something has unplugged the InternationalKeyboard module. If so, do an
RMREINIT InternationalKeyboard and all will be well. Ed.
5.6
•    Copy key use − I had not realised until recently that the copy key has
the function of “delete right” (as it does in Impression) in most RISC-
OS applications.
5.6
•    Floppy backup – (I know it’s obvious but...) On a single floppy disc
machine, if you want to backup up floppy discs in one chunk, i.e.
instead of having to take the discs in and out twice, call up the task
manager and increase the “Next” memory allocation to 800k or more. If
you don’t, it loads 640k into memory and copies that and then copies the
last 160k separately.
5.6
•    External floppy drives on A5000 − There seems to be some concern and
confusion over connecting extra floppy drives to the A5000 and over the
fact that ADFS treats the drives in a different way from previous
Archimedes computers. Let me try to explain.
5.6
The A5000 motherboard can access two internal floppy drives and two
external drives. However, many modern 3½“ drives can only be configured
as drive 0 or 1. Thus to allow a full complement of four drives, drive
selections 2 and 3 are transformed into 0 and 1 but on a separate ribbon
cable (as in a PC).
5.6
Here is the problem: If one internal drive is fitted (physical drive 0/
1) and an external drive is added (addressed as drive 3), then to access
the external drive you must ‘*configure floppies 4’, with the result
that you have two useless floppy drive icons!
5.6
The solution that Acorn has is: Logical to physical drive mapping,
whereby ADFS can be configured with two floppies but would access
physical drive 3 when requested to read from logical drive 1. In order
to achieve this, ADFS must determine which physical drives are present.
This is achieved after reset (or rmreinit) by performing a ‘restore’
operation on each physical drive and then testing for a track 0
indication from a functional drive. The following table depicts a
typical example:
5.6
      Physical Drive   Present    ADFS drive Nº
5.6
    0    −    −
5.6
    1    Y    :0
5.6
    2    −    −
5.6
    3    Y    :1
5.6
This has a benefit for production by permitting the single internal
drive to be physical drive 1, which is the default for the PC world, and
hence not requiring link changes. Note that the 82C710 controller fitted
to the A5000 has 48mA sink capability and therefore does not require a
buffer board to operate with 5¼“ drives fitted with 150R pullup
resistors.
5.6
Drive mapping was the main reason for accessing the floppy after a
reset, but once this approach was adopted, several other features were
possible.
5.6
(1) 40 track drive detection. MultiFS allows 40 track discs to be read
in 80 track drives but, if a real 40 track drive is fitted, the double
stepping mode is inhibited. This test is performed on all physical
drives detected and works by first seeking to track 44 (a 40 track drive
will block at track 40, 41 or 42) and then seeking to track 2 (42 step
pulses). A 40 track drive will indicate track 0 at completion. Thus, if
you have a 40/80 switchable drive, you should type ‘*rmreinit ADFS’
after changing mode to ensure ADFS knows about the change.
5.6
(2) During shipping, some floppy drives can have their heads shocked
beyond track 0 (negative track number). The 40 track drive detection
scheme ensures these drives will be recalibrated correctly.
5.6
(3) If you ‘*configure’ too many floppies, ADFS will only install the
number detected. Conversely if you ‘*configure’ too few drives, ADFS
will not use the excess physical drives (the physically greater drive
numbers will be ignored). Lastly, if the configured floppies is 0 then
ADFS will not attempt to select any floppies.
5.6
If you have configured the correct number of floppies, the extra time
spent ‘booting’ should normally be less than 250ms, that is 80 x 3ms
step pulses to detect a 40 track drive plus the time to initially
restore the head. Note that a configured 12ms step time is now trans
lated on an A5000 to 25ms to allow for very old/slow 40 track 5¼“ drives
sometimes found on prehistoric Beebs.
5.6
I think this should explain the different behaviour of ADFS on A5000.
(Could this also explain why the A5000 floppies seem slow compared to my
A540? Ed) However, if you are trying to connect 5¼“ drives to the A5000,
one other factor needs to be taken into account. Unless they are
modified, 5¼” drives cannot be mixed with 3½“ drives on the same ribbon
cable because of differences in pin out of the ‘disc changed’ and
‘ready’ signals. To work correctly on the internal drive connector, pin
34 must present the ‘disc changed’ signal (or be disabled) and pin 2
carries the density select from the FDC.
5.6
Therefore connect the 5¼“ drive on the external (middle) socket and make
the following link changes to the A5000:
5.6
LK18 (north and west of socket) in the West position (viewed from front
of m/c); LK19 (north and east of socket) should be removed (park the
jumper on the centre pin only); LK21 (south and west of socket) should
be removed (park the jumper on either pin).
5.6
These links only affect the external socket. To give the full informa
tion on it.
5.6
LK18 selects logic hi (west) or logic lo (east) for the high density
signal from the FDC
5.6
LK19 selects ‘density’ to drive (west) or ‘disk changed’ from drive
(east) or neither (removed) on pin 2 of drive interface
5.6
LK21 enables (jumper fitted) the disc changed signal from pin 34 of the
drive interface.
5.6
Your drive should then be configured as drive 0 or 1, remembering to
*configure floppies 2
5.6
The above information was culled from a bulletin board by Brian Debenham
of Chelmsford. One of our other subscribers got some help from Steve
Picton at IFEL who referred him to pages 1-23 and 1-26 in the A5000
Technical Reference Manual and included a useful table for link changes
as follows:
5.6
Drive type    link 18    link 19
link 21
5.6
PC-AT 1M / 2M    1-2    2-3    1-2
5.6
PS/2 1M / 2M    2-3    2-3    1-2
5.6
older 1M types    *    1-2    2-
3
5.6
most 5¼ drives    *    don’t fit    2-
3
5.6
    * = either position or don’t fit at all
5.6
It’s difficult to get at these links, so a pair of long nosed pliers is
extremely useful.  Bob Potter, Bath.
5.6
•    Lemmings − Did you know that a ‘blocker’ can be released by hitting it
in the right place with a ‘digger’ and also by burrowing very closely
underneath with a ‘basher’?
5.6
•    MS-DOS users − Even in CGA emulation, the latest emulator screen
updates can be very slow. However, some of the new utilities (like EDIT)
have a ‘switch’ to allow faster CGA updates so...
5.6
EDIT MYFILE.TXT /G
5.6
will edit the file with quicker screen updates (/G means “switch G”). In
true Archimedes style, HELP <command> now gives the syntax and meaning
of commands (about time, too!).  Paul Bamberger, Hinckley.
5.6
•    !MultiFS bug (with PCEmulator 1.70)? − Those of your readers using the
latest version (1.70) of the PCEmulator on RISC-OS 2 may be interested
in the following problem which I found recently. I have reported it to
Acorn, but have not had response yet. I understand that users of RISC-OS
3 need not use !MultiFS with the PCEmulator because of their different
disc handler, so they need not read further into this hint.
5.6
Following the correspondence in Archive about how to shut down a hard
disc reliably (See Archive 5.1 p26 ‘The Engineer Speaks’.) I now type
*SHUTDOWN just before turning off the power on my A540. After loading
!MultiFS on the icon bar, and then quitting it again, I found that when
I typed *SHUTDOWN, sometimes it just hung, sometimes I got an error
message, something like “Address exception at &01889 CE0”, and then I
could do nothing until after resetting the Archimedes, (<ctrl-break>
would not work). After the reset, *SHUTDOWN normally worked as usual,
occasionally, I had to turn off the power to reset it.
5.6
After a little research I found that when !MultiFS quits, it removes the
MultiFS module, but leaves MultiFS in the list of filing systems held by
‘FileSwitch’. Thus when *SHUTDOWN is trying to shut down all filing
systems, it cannot cope with MultiFS as the module is no longer loaded.
5.6
You can check which filing systems are known to ‘FileSwitch’ with the
following BASIC program:
5.6
 10 REM >FScheck  test which filing
5.6
 systems exist
5.6
 20 PRINT“Number Name”
5.6
 30 @%=6:DIM fsname% 20
5.6
 40 FOR F%=3TO255
5.6
 50 SYS “OS_FSControl”,33,F%,fsname% ,21
5.6
 60 L%=−1:REPEAT:L%+=1
5.6
 70 UNTIL fsname%?L%=0
5.6
 80 IFL%>0 fsname%?L%=13:PRINTF%“ ” $fsname%
5.6
 90 NEXT
5.6
To make ‘FileSwitch’ forget about MultiFS use the program below:
5.6
  10 REM >DelMultiFS  delete multifs filing system
5.6
  90 REM  see whether MultiFS is still loaded, if not, exit
5.6
 100 SYS “OS_FSControl”,13,“MultiFS” ,0 TO ,F%,T%
5.6
 110 IF T%=0 END
5.6
 120 REM  next line removes MultiFS
5.6
 130 SYS “OS_FSControl”,16,“MultiFS”
5.6
 140 END
5.6
While reporting this problem to Acorn, they gave me a very helpful
statement of the essential differences between the various ways of
closing down a hard disc system, which I feel sure they will not mind my
passing on.
5.6
*SHUTDOWN closes all open files on all filing systems, logs off all file
servers, causes hard discs to be parked.
5.6
*DISMOUNT closes all files, unsets directories and parks the given disk
(The currently selected drive on the current filing system is assumed if
this command is given without specifying the disc.)
5.6
*BYE closes all the files, unsets directories and parks the hard discs
on the currently selected filing system.
5.6
So you see the engineer was quite right, they are different. It depends
what your current disc is, and only the *SHUTDOWN parks the disks on ALL
the filing systems.   Kate Crennell, Didcot.
5.6
•    Mysterious error message from Hard Disc Companion II − In Archive Vol
5.4 page 3 you described the new version of the program from Risc
Developments. I upgraded from my old version recently and found that the
new version does not allow comments in the ‘Ignore’ part of the file
used to specify which directories and files are not to be backed up. I
found this a very useful feature of the previous version, and I should
like any other users who regret its passing to join me in asking Risk
Developments to put this feature back as soon as possible.
5.6
This is mildly annoying, but I found a more serious problem. The first
time I used the ‘Hard Disc Companion II’ it worked beautifully, but the
second time, it would not load onto the icon bar, instead I got the
usual ‘traffic sign’ warning window and a message “File not found at
line 49”. Neither the !Boot nor the !Run files had 49 lines in them. The
program is not written in Basic, so it has no line numbers. I eventually
found that since making my first full backup and trying to do the next
incremental backup, I had deleted one of the files which I had previ
ously said I wanted to ‘ignore’ in the ‘Choices’ file. Luckily, it is
possible to edit the ‘Choices’ file with !Edit, so I just took out that
line. I have reported this error to RISC Developments and they said they
hope to make the error message more informative and tell you the name of
the file which is missing.  Kate Crennell, Didcot.
5.6
•    Paper for inkjets − I have a Hewlett Packard Deskjet 500 inkjet
printer. I have had great trouble finding good paper − the main problem
seems to be how absorbent the paper is; too absorbent and you will get
white patches in your black areas, but not absorbent and it will smudge
across the paper! If you go into most paper suppliers or printers, they
will be happy to give you various samples that you can try. Make sure
when you test the paper that you include very small text, thin and thick
straight lines at various angles, fine and thick curves, shading, large
black areas and bit mapped graphics. I have ended up using “Mustang
Copier − Long grain 80gsm” for my draft printing (as it is cheap − about
0·5 pence per sheet) and Croxley Script 100gsm for quality work (this
works out at about 3 pence per sheet but is water marked and has a nice
feel to it). There is probably better paper available − I have only
tried about twenty types.  Paul Bamberger, Hinckley.
5.6
•    Pandora’s Box problems? − There seems to be an incompatibility between
Pandora’s Box and Acorn’s AKA16 MIDI card (v3.14). Therefore, to load
the game, simply type: *RMKill Midi <return> before attempting to run
it.  Rob Brown, Surrey.
5.6
•    Psion Organiser and the Archimedes − The PD program !Download, written
by Emmet Spier, works very well with the Psion Organiser. To upload from
an Archimedes to an Organiser, I created an application called !Upload,
consisting of a suitable sprite and a !Run file as follows:
5.6
IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
5.6
Filer_OpenDir serial:
5.6
C. Parker, Hong Kong.
5.6
•    Second internal 3½“ drive on the A5000 − I have fitted a second 3½”
drive internally on my A5000 with no problems at all.
5.6
The 3½“ drive fitted to the A5000 is a Citizen model OSDA20C. These do
not seem to be generally available in the UK. The Citizen OSDA39C is
easy to get and the ONLY difference (according to my experience and
Citizen UK) is that the drive light is a different colour. They are
generally available for about £75 + VAT but I got mine for £35 + £10
overnight delivery + VAT = £52.88 from:
5.6
CD2000, PO Box 1061, London Road, Slough, Berks SL3 8RE (0753−553366)
(fax 0753− 554661) who were super efficient and helpful.
5.6
There is a power plug already inside the A5000, so all you need is a 9“
drive cable. I have altered NO links or switches on the A5000. All I did
was set the tiny slider switch on the drive (next to the socket for the
data cable) to the opposite position on the drive already in the
machine. (Actually, this wouldn’t make any difference, as explained in
the section above about external floppies on the A5000. Ed)
5.6
You need 4 off 18mm spacers and 4 off screws (6BA I think) to fit the
drive to the bottom of the A5000 case. I used various spacers and nuts
to make up the 18mm and the drive has worked faultlessly. With RISC-OS 3
being so slow at any disc backing up or copying, the second drive is
essential.  Colin Thompson
5.6
•    Shrinking windows − A rare bug has just ‘bitten’ me while using
Impression. It’s not a bug in Impression, in fact, but a bug in RISC-OS
2. I was trying to change the size of the window on a large Impression
file by using the sizing icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the
window. The window jumped to about an inch high and would not go any
longer unless I clicked to open the window to full screen size − that
worked fine but as soon as I touched the sizing icon, the window
contracted! I tried various other Impression files but they were OK. I
restarted Impression, I cut and pasted the text, I saved the text and
created a new document but the window kept jumping back to this reduced
size! A phone call to CC revealed the reason. In RISC-OS 2, if the
window size is exactly 65,535 OS units in size, it gets confused and
loses the top bit of the window size number and thinks it’s a somewhat
shorter window. All I had to do was to create a new page in the document
and all was well. Alternatively, I could have changed the magnification
− even 1% change solves the problem. Presumably, the chances of it
happening are small (1 in 65,535?) and it has to be a large document −
mine was 28 pages displayed at 140% magnification.  A
5.6

5.6
Oak Solutions
5.6
From 5.5 page 31
5.6

5.6
Colton
5.6
From 5.5 page 20
5.6

5.6
Comment Column
5.6
The editor would like to point out that the views expressed here (and
elsewhere in the magazine, for that matter!) do not necessarily reflect
the views of the editorial staff of Archive magazine or of Norwich
Computer Services. This is an open forum in which readers can express
their views − as long as they are not libellous(!). Obviously, we do all
we can to check the factual accuracy of any comments made here.
5.6
Having said that this is an open forum, I do exercise a degree of
editorial control and, in particular, I will only print comments when I
believe that the intent of the writer is to improve the state of the
Archimedes market in general. If I feel that anyone is being destruc
tively critical, I will not print the remarks. So, I trust that any
company (including Acorn!) who feels “got at” will accept any criticism
that appears here in the spirit in which it is meant. In any case, as
you can see from some of the comments this month, we do allow
individuals and companies to exercise the right of reply.
5.6
•    A5000 or A310? − Which way to go? There are many existing 300 and 400
series owners who are wondering whether it is worth upgrading to an
A5000. The new machine is undoubtedly far superior to its predecessors,
but is it worth upgrading, or waiting for the next model (A6000)? These
are the thoughts of the owner of an A340+. (4 M, SCSI disk(s), VIDC, 30
MHz ARM3 etc.)
5.6
Against Upgrading to A5000
5.6
(1) The new Acorn multisync monitor is not a patch on multisyncs like
the Eizo 9060. The picture flickers and does not work very well in some
screen modes (e.g. mode 12!). If I bought an A5000, I would feel I was
throwing money away on an unuseable monitor. (NCS will swap the Acorn
monitor for an Eizo 9060S for an extra £200 − if you buy the A5000 from
us, that is! Or we can make some allowance if you want some other type
of monitor. There are many users of the standard resolution Acorn
monitors who want a multisync but can’t afford £500+. We have no trouble
in selling Acorn multisync monitors at £310. Ed.)
5.6
(2) Disc capacity is only 40M. For serious users, I would recommend a
minimum of 100M. Why isn’t there an option for this ? (NCS will add an
extra internal 100M IDE for £380 or swap the 40M for a 100M for £280.
Ed)
5.6
(3) Most of the PCB is surface mounted. This makes it more difficult to
expand the machine. If Acorn ever release the ARM4/5/6 processor, it
will probably be easier to retrospectively fit these to 300/400 machines
using a plug-in board (as the ARM3).
5.6
(4) Only 2M of RAM is fitted as standard. The first thing that most
A5000 users will want is more memory.
5.6
(5) Most powerful graphical computers now handle 24 bit colour. The
A5000 video circuit is not much of an improvement on my A310 with a VIDC
enhancer. I think that the next Acorn machine will have to have better
VIDC and MEMC circuits for improved graphical/memory performance.
5.6
(6) The keyboard hasn’t improved much since the A310 (Although there is
room on the main PCB to take a PC type keyboard interface, this is not
used.)
5.6
(7) The secondhand price of a 310 (even full of goodies) is not very
much now. This increases the effective price of the A5000.
5.6
(8) It is possible to fit an expansion board in the 300/400 that gives
you the same disc controller chip as the A5000. This allows for 1.6 M
floppies, IDE drive, bi-directional parallel port etc. I’m not sure if
this is mapped into the same memory location as the A5000 controller
chip but if it is, it should work under RISC-OS 3 just like in the A5000
! (Has anyone got any details of such add-ons? Are they actually
available? The DT Software one certainly isn’t ready yet. Ed.)
5.6
(9) Acorn have made the A5000 more like the A310 by dropping the high-
resolution monochrome video and 32 bit expansion bus (only podule banks
A and C are used − just like the A310). This should not be a problem
because I think that only the Acorn floating point expansion card (for
the 400 series machines) uses the 32 bit bus − and that doesn’t work
with the ARM3 anyway.
5.6
For Upgrading to A5000
5.6
(1) RISC-OS 3. This is not going to be available for the 300/400/A3000
machines, so it is rumoured, until the autumn!
5.6
(2) A major difference to the 300/400 machines is the inclusion of a co-
processor socket for a floating point accelerator. This requires direct
connection to the ARM3 (25MHz) bus so it would be difficult to fit to a
300/400 series machine.
5.6
(4) A new clock is available to the VIDC (25.175 Mhz) so that VGA
monitors can be driven more accurately. Not sure what use this is to a
RISC-OS user.
5.6
(5) The power supply is more beefy (10 amps at 5 volts).
5.6
(6) These is room for an extra floppy (or hard) disc drive. Also 1.6 M
(1.44 M PC) floppies can be used. This is VERY important to people like
myself who use their machines ‘at work’.
5.6
(7) The main RAM in the A5000 is clocked at 12 MHz (against 8 MHz in
300/400 machines). This should make the machine rather quicker, although
the exact speed improvement depends, as ever, on one’s particular
application. However, 60ns dynamic RAM is widely available. Acorn should
have made it a 16 Mhz machine with a 40 MHz ARM3 ! (Some people want
everything! Ed)
5.6
Acorn are not planning to sell the A5000 that I want to buy. Therefore
my intention is to wait and see what happens. The longer Acorn dither
about launching an entry level A5000, the more I consider continuing to
upgrade my A310 with yet more expensive add-ons.  Ralph Barrett, Oadby.
5.6
One important comment I would make from our experience at NCS is that
the more add-ons you put into a machine, especially an aging A310, the
more likely you are to get hardware problems, including hard disc
crashes, caused by bad interconnections on plugs and sockets and aging
components in power supplies. I’m sure Ray Maidstone will bear me out on
this one.... yes, he’s nodding! Ed.
5.6
•    CFS − Mike Hobart’s discussion of the Computer Concepts Compressed
Filing System (CFS) in Archive 5.4 p51 suggests that he is confused
about this utility.
5.6
It is not the case that “each file which you compress must be compressed
into a different directory from that in which it currently lives”. It is
hard to imagine that anyone would tolerate such a nuisance. I have
compressed the entire contents of my 50M hard disc using CFS, with the
exception of a 20M DOS partition and files involved in my boot sequence.
At no time have I been obliged to relocate files in order to compress
them.
5.6
CFS provides an alternative drive icon for every filing system on which
you install it. Clicking on a CFS drive icon gives access in the
familiar way to a hierarchy of CFS directory viewers, which present your
files to you in a compression-transparent way (i.e. as if nothing were
compressed at all). When you click on a normal drive icon, you access
the underlying file system and directory viewers reveal your file
structure as it really is − peppered with compressed files. CFS viewers
do not display different directories or files from those which you see
in non-CFS viewers: they just display the objects in your non-CFS file
system as if they had not been compressed.
5.6
To compress a file, or all the files in a directory, you drag the object
from a non-CFS viewer into a CFS viewer. To uncompress an object, you
drag the object in the opposite direction. Neither of these actions
duplicates any files. Any file can always be seen in both non-CFS and
CFS viewers: compressing it just causes it to appear with a Compression
icon in non-CFS viewers; decompressing it just causes it to appear with
its normal icon in any viewer. Thus Mike is also mistaken when he
writes, “you can compress whole directories at a stroke, but you need
enough free space to copy the source directory in its compressed form”.
Compression requires only enough free space to maintain a backup of the
source file being processed, and this is automatically deleted when
compression is complete. Thus, you can always compress a directory as
long as there is space for a transient backup of the largest single file
it contains.
5.6
Mike’s statement that “It is only after the file or directory has been
compressed that you can claim your new space by deleting the uncom
pressed parent” is very dangerously erroneous. Should you compress
everything in some non-CFS directory and then delete the “parent”, you
will not find your data safe in CFS. It will be gone: you have deleted
it.
5.6
I am very satisfied with CFS. By issuing *CFS at a safe distance into my
boot sequence, I make it the default filing system and thereafter
scarcely notice its existence. I have not bothered to avoid compressing
filetypes which do not compress well, e.g. apps. With thousands of files
in my system life is too short to be fussy, and compression causes no
problems, even when it does no good, unless you try to run compressed
files from outside CFS. The compression ratio is very impressive
considering the speed of the system: COUNT now reports more than 60M of
data on my CFS root directory, while FREE shows that only 39M are
physically used. Setting aside the uncompressed 20M DOS partition, this
means that some 40M have been squeezed down to 19M.
5.6
I have noted two pitfalls. The first concerns compressing or decompress
ing objects which are locked against deletion.
5.6
Suppose I attempt to compress a locked file MyFile by dragging it from a
non-CFS viewer to a CFS-viewer. This raises a Wimp error from the Filer
informing me that an unspecified object is locked. When I OK this error,
I find that MyFile has vanished. In its place is a compressed file
called CfsTmpFile. If I browse CfsTmpFile via CFS, I find that it is
indeed the compressed version of MyFile. So I try to rename it to
MyFile. Again, this raises a Wimp error from the Filer: the source
object is locked. Presumably, this is the same object to which the first
error referred. When I view the access flags on CfsTmpFile, I discover
of course that it is locked against deletion. This is what prevents it
being renamed, since renaming is tantamount to copying and deleting.
Finally then, I unlock CfsTmpFile and rename it to MyFile.
5.6
Suppose next that I attempt, instead, to compress a whole directory,
MyDir, by dragging it from a non-CFS viewer to a CFS viewer, and that
MyDir contains at least one locked file and at least one locked
subdirectory. If MyDir itself is not locked, then this proceeds without
a hitch, notwithstanding that MyDir contains locked files and locked
sub-directories. However, if MyDir is locked, the Filer complains as in
the previous case. When I OK this error, I now find that MyDir has
vanished, and that in its place is a directory CfsTmpFile, which is
locked against deletion and contains the same objects as MyDir − all of
them successfully compressed. So I unlock the directory CfsTmpFile and
then rename it to MyDir.
5.6
It is not obvious how to account for all this behaviour (which is
mirrored for decompression). I will suppress my own speculations here.
The point of practical value is this: When a (de)compression process
falls foul of a locked object, it can appear that the source object is
lost and that the target object has not been created; but in fact the
source object has been removed and the target object has been created as
CfsTmpFile in the same place. You will need to unlock this object; then
you can give it the correct name.
5.6
The second pitfall I have encountered with CFS can arise if you cause an
application to save its configuration while CFS is the current filing
system. In this case, the Config file will get saved in compressed form,
whether you like it or not. If the application happens to be run in your
boot sequence before CFS is activated, then the boot-sequence will
encounter some sort of error when your application cannot understand its
configuration data. You can avoid such snags nearly always by ensuring
that your boot-sequence runs CFS before any other applications. The one
case in which this will not work is when the Config file is !CFS.!Config
− !. Should you decide to install a new CFS filer for one of your drives
while CFS is current, you will find yourself in exactly this position
next time you boot up. CFS will have compressed its own Config file and
will be unable to start. Then, if you have compressed your hard disk
wholesale, you will be completely cut off from both programs and data;
in particular you will be unable to uncompress !CFS.!Config − because
CFS will not start. Your only salvation at this point is to re-install a
CFS filer for your hard disc from the master floppy, use it decompress
!CFS.!Config, then reboot your machine. Much better, always ensure than
you are working in a filing system other than CFS whenever you install a
CFS filer. Mike Kinghan, Oxford
5.6
•    CFS − Mike Hobart replies... Well, bless my cotton socks! I had not
realised that you can do anything so daft as to drag a file or directory
from one filer window onto “itself” in another and have something useful
happen. OK, that is what it says in the manual, but I thought I knew
better or I did not read it. Clever stuff from CC.
5.6
However, Mike is being a little illogical on the question of deleting
files. If you do it his way (i.e. the official CC way), you obviously do
not delete after compression. Compression has done it for you (subject
to the locked and CfsTmpFile hint, which I also did not realise). If you
do it my way, making new compressed directories, then you do delete the
old ones when you are satisfied that the new ones are OK. My way will
suit those with paranoia normalis! (Those with a horror of letting the
program do things to precious files without checking.) Mind you, I have
not had any lost data from Compression, and I do use it for all my new
compactible stuff, so maybe my paranoia is not so normal.
5.6
My experience with compression ratios is quite a bit worse than Mike’s,
but almost all my material is text, much of it in small packets. Sprites
can compress spectacularly: I have a scan of a letter in 1-bit-per-pixel
form, which compresses from 646k to 48k. It obviously all depends on how
close to random in content a file is, and I have no complaints about the
way files are compressed: I believe it is as good as you can get without
very fancy mathematics.  Mike Hobart, Cambridge.
5.6
•    Digitised Pictures − In Archive 5.3, p27 a service by PDSCC, PO Box
332, Bristol BS99 7XL was mentioned, offering a colour-scanning and
digitising service. I have made much use of the service for 256-colour
scans. Prices are reasonable at £7 for scans of 6 to 8 photos 140 mm ×
100 mm max. including two discs and postage. They have a leaflet.
Service is lightning-fast. I am very impressed indeed with the quality
of scanned photos. Avoid dark photos. Slides were not good. To get scans
of slides, I suggest you get them printed at 140 mm by 100 mm by a photo
shop and send the prints.
5.6
Only the standard Archimedes modes can be done (including multisync)
because of a limitation of the Risc User software on their Spectra
scanner, but RU are working on a fix to cover custom modes such as those
provided with Impression. You should specify the mode: 21 seems best.
You also need to specify the size of the image you want, as it will
appear when displayed in the mode you specify. If you will want to
display the sprite in another mode, take into account the size differ
ence between the modes.
5.6
The aspect ratio of the image varies, (that is, the ratio of length,
horizontally, to width, vertically) partly due to the scanner and partly
due to the screen mode in which the sprite is displayed, as follows. A
square image (ratio 1.00) has a ratio 1.06 on Mode 21, 1.23 in Mode 28
and 1.165 in Mode 79 (a Computer Concepts’ mode). So your picture will
be widened by an amount depending on the mode of display. Since mode 21
has square pixels, the 6% increase in width in that mode must be caused
by the scanner, so each of the other modes must be responsible for
increasing the width by 6% less than the above figures suggest.
5.6
You can correct this by loading the sprite into Draw and moving one of
the ears in its selection box to reduce the width. Don’t Save the
sprite: that will only save the original. To save the modified version,
use Paint’s “Get screen area” (reached from its Icon Bar) to grab the
modified sprite, remembering to give it a new filename.
5.6
Reductions to make sufficient correction can be made in this way without
degrading the image and, in fact, the image size can be increased as
well although much over 10% does degrade.
5.6
I have found that if a scanned photograph (not just one done by PDSCC)
which was prepared in Modes 21 or 28 is displayed in Modes 75 or 79,
there is a slight greenish patchy cast in some areas such as mid flesh
tones (e.g. under chins or sides of bare legs), and brown grassy
hillsides can be slightly grainy in that mode. These modes produce
‘bigger’ screens, i.e., images are smaller than in Mode 21. Since all a
mode change does is to alter the size (and aspect ratio) of all pixels
but does not otherwise change them, the effect must be due to my monitor
(a Taxan 770 plus multisync). Skin tones in sprites do contain some
green pixels. Perhaps green amongst medium browns gets exaggerated in
some way in the bigger modes. Has anyone got any explanation? This
month’s disc contains two sprites from my photos, to show the high
quality (SDownsWay and StChelys). The former shows the green cast on the
ploughed field on the left in Modes 75 and 79. (The green water in the
latter is natural).  Steve Kirkby, Sutton.
5.6
•    Domark’s 3D Kit − I ordered Domark’s 3-D Construction Kit for my A420/
1 in December. Delayed by packaging problems, it was sent at the end of
January. The stout box held a 20 minute demo & tutorial video covering
8-16-32 bit versions, a registration card, a well-printed 62 page A5
manual and the Archimedes Version 1.0 disk. This disk was not copy-
protected, and a working copy runs from hard or floppy disks. I only
tried ADFS. The copyright and F.A.S.T. notices are discrete.
5.6
The 3D Kit is great fun. The control panel is complex but includes UNDO.
It behaves like a 3D version of Draw. It does not ray-trace! You start
with a set of simple flat and solid shapes, then stretch, move,
duplicate and stack them. It uses ½ cm units, but only triangles and
your view can be rotated. All else must be NS or EW. The Version 1.0 Kit
is more LEGO than CAD, but Domark promise better to come. The Kit’s
Freescape Control Language provides easy animation and events. Play the
Demo game, then explore it for ideas and 3D-clip art.
5.6
The Archimedes 1.0 version is single-tasking, like the original PC
Emulator. It needs at least 700k of applications RAM. The manual
explains how to fit it into 1M machines. It does not recognise a RAM
disk. On exit, it returns to an intact desktop. The environment is very
PC-like, with pull-down menus and short-cut buttons. The filing
facilities are adequate. Up & Down tree buttons simplify directory
searches. Objects, methods, data etc have their own prefixes so each
part of the program knows its own files. There is a minor bug in the
Save-File menu. You have to click off to the right of the NAME? prompt
before a blank text box appears. I spent 45 frantic minutes finding
this!
5.6
The object editor is easy to use at first. Objects may be grouped and
moved as a set. Multiple areas provide isolation. Things get tricky when
the number of objects increases. Cuboid34, Pyramid12, Group5, Routine43
is the editor’s best. Objects are not named and Grouped objects not
indented or flagged. You need to access the Group editor and keep notes.
Alas, there is no obvious LIST facility and Edit can’t read the files.
Perhaps the official Kit User Group can help?
5.6
The 3D Kit Version 1.0 is great fun. Think of it as a 3D version of
Draw, with those vital utilities still to come. Don’t tackle a big
project without careful planning. Domark promise library disks and
support. Nik Kelly, Liverpool
5.6
•    Hearsay II DOES have a programmable keyboard − Ooops, we’ve done it
again! We have mis-represented Beebug / Risc Developments. Sorry! This
time it is over Alan Highet’s comments in Archive 5.5 p11. He said that
the advertising claim about Hearsay II having a “fully definable
keyboard” was misleading because you can only re-program the function
keys. In fact, that it is not true. You can program almost all the keys
including the ones he wants for VT220 emulation. In fact, the six keys
that Alan mentioned are already programmed to give the VT220 escape
sequences.
5.6
Our only mitigation is that Alan rang Beebug to check his facts and
based his comments on the (incorrect) advice he was given over the
phone. Sorry for any implied slur on Beebug’s advertising ethics.
(Anyone who has read the editorial in this month’s Risc User will
realise why I don’t want any more misunderstandings.)
5.6
•    High density floppy discs − In response to earlier comments about
using double density discs (800k) on the A5000 as if they were high
density (1.6 M) discs, A.J. Dobson wrote and explained why it is not a
good idea to do so. The explanation talked about magnetic field
strengths, domains and the use of cobalt in the material but, from a
practical point of view, what it boils down to is that double density
discs may format to high density and accept data but beware that, in the
course of time, you may find that they become progressively unreadable.
So it may seem a useful economy, but don’t rely on it as a long-term
solution. A.J. Dobson, Redditch.
5.6
•    Module virus − Last month, we reported that Archimedes World had a
strain of the module virus on their February program disc and that the
virus was worse than the Icon virus. Since then, several virus killers
have been produced and updated that will remove the infection without
any harm to the system what-so-ever. To their credit, Archimedes World
have now recalled (and replaced) the infected disc and offered an
additional program disc along with the appropriate virus killer.
5.6
•    Multisync monitors − The subject of multi-sync monitors is a dangerous
one to pronounce upon because it is so subjective. You only have to read
the debates on any of the bulletin boards to see totally opposing views
being expressed. I find that some monitors impress me when I first see
them but then, as I use them, my keenness fades. It’s no good just
seeing them for five minutes at a computer show or in a show room. The
acid test is whether, after continuous use, they still seem easy and
pleasant to use. I have used the monitors under discussion for at least
several days each and, in some cases, considerably longer. Anyway, for
what it is worth, here are my views.
5.6
I am sad that Eizo have seen fit to discontinue the 9070 as that has
been my favourite in terms of value for money for a medium sized monitor
for quite some time. However, that leaves us with three 14“ multi-sync
monitors (Acorn AKF18, Eizo 9060 and Taxan 795), one 17” (T560i) and one
20“ (Microvitec 2038). These are the only monitors we have actually
experienced working on the Archimedes machines and so are the only ones
we sell. One reader says he has a NEC 3D working but when we tried it a
couple of years ago we had no success. However, on his advice, we are
going to try it again as soon as we can − also the 4D and 5D which may
provide some competition in the medium and large sizes.
5.6
In the 14“ size, I actually prefer the Eizo 9060SZ (£530) to the Taxan
795 (£600 including a VIDC enhancer) even though it hasn’t got quite
such a small dot pitch (0·28mm cf 0·26mm). To me, it seems just as clear
and I don’t like the two line shadows that appear across the screen on
the 795. These appear on all Trinitron monitors and are something to do
with the construction of the tube. The lines are not noticeable on a
moving picture or on a grey background but with a white background (as
used in Impression which I use all day, every day) the lines are clearly
visible though, after a while, you tend not to notice them. The Acorn
AKF18 is obviously not going to be as clear as the other two 14”
monitors as its dot pitch is only 0·39mm but at £310, it is good value
for money compared to £530 and £600. It is certainly better than the
Acorn standard resolution monitor at £255 which, not being multisync,
cannot display the hi-res modes at all. (It can only display 256
horizontal lines, not 512.)
5.6
Going up to 17“, I think the Eizo T560i (£1240) is an extremely good
monitor, despite what I have just said about Trinitron tubes! The
display is the clearest I have seen on any monitor. In terms of
functionality, it is also the best of all those we stock. With all the
14” monitors, as you change from mode to mode, there is always some
adjustment needed in position and size of the screen display. The T560i
is microprocessor controlled which means you can “teach” it every aspect
of the screen shape, colour, size, position, brightness etc for each
mode you use − you can even adjust out the pin-cushion and trapezoidal
distortion and the vertical and static convergence for each individual
mode! This means that, once you have got it set up, you can use every
square inch of the screen in virtually every mode without having to do
any knob-twiddling. I say ‘virtually every mode’ because in the low
resolution (256 line) modes, like mode 12, you can only expand the
picture vertically to about half the height of the screen. Mind you, the
display is so clear that it’s perfectly usable. It’s clearer than it
would be on a 256 line monitor but it just feels as if you’re not
getting full value for money because the whole screen is not being used!
As with the Taxan 795, it uses a Trinitron tube, so you do get the two
shadow lines but it is nowhere near as obvious as in the 795.
5.6
(Eizo are currently trying to convince me that the T560iT is worth the
extra £100 or so over the T560i. They say that the anti-reflective
coating on the screen makes it much clearer and it is also designed to
the very tightest radiation regulations in Europe. However, until I have
actually tried one, I am not prepared to comment.)
5.6
My current favourite at 20“ is the new Microvitec 2038 (£1540) which,
again, is micro-processor controlled although it hasn’t got the range of
variables of the T560i − just size and position of screen. It is well
able to display the full resolution that the Archimedes can produce but,
I find, is unnecessarily large for desk work. Indeed, when I used the
2038, I had to move my desk away from the shelf on which the monitor was
supported. For a classroom display it is excellent but for individual
work, I feel that it offers no significant advantage over the T560i, so
my advice would be to save yourself the £300 and buy a T560i (or a
T560iT????).
5.6
VIDC Enhancer I am often asked if a VIDC enhancer is needed with multi-
sync monitors. In the case of the A540 and the A5000, the hardware
includes the equivalent of a VIDC enhancer, so all you need is the
appropriate enhancer modules. Atomwide have produced an A540 enhancer
modes disc (£5 through Archive) but not yet one specifically for the
A5000, though in my experience, the A540 version seems to work on the
A5000.
5.6
!SetIcons on RISC-OS 3. One other point to make is that, with the A5000
you will find that the hi-res icons from the !SetIcons application are
not very effective in some of the modes like 102 or 106. Paradoxically,
you are better with the lo-res icons. The reason is that modes like 102
and 106 are actually a lo-res modes! They are lo-res in the sense that
the icons only occupy a small number of screen pixels − that’s why you
can get so much info on the screen at one go. The hi-res icons, are
designed for those modes which use more pixels to display each icon so,
by reducing the number of pixels, you get a picture which can actually
look worse than in a lower resolution mode.
5.6
•    OCR software − Having seen OCR at work on PC’s, I have come to the
conclusion that spotting errors in the resulting text takes so long that
OCR is no more than a gimmick − hardly a useful tool unless you are
extremely slow at typing. Paul Bamberger, Hinckley.
5.6
•    PC software compatibility − As a result of last month’s short
selection of compatible software I have had calls from as far away as
Sweden. I need to be a little more specific about the differences
between Dos 3.2 & 3.3. The incompatibility is only between the Backup
and Restore files in the two versions. If you backup with a 3.2 Backup
and try and restore with a 3.3 Restore it will not. You will need to
restore the files with Restore from version 3.2.
5.6
Software    Dos
5.6
As Easy As    3.3
5.6
Calendar Creator 3    3.3
5.6
Chessmaster 2100    3.3
5.6
Direct Access 5    3.3
5.6
Fast Back 2.1    3.2
5.6
Gem Windows    3.3
5.6
Harvard Graphic 2.3    3.3
5.6
Harvard Project Manager 3    3.3
5.6
Lotus Agenda 2    3.3
5.6
Lotus Magellan    3.3
5.6
Lotus Symphony    3.3
5.6
Money Manager PC    3.3
5.6
Norton Commander 3    3.3
5.6
PC Globe 3.01    3.3
5.6
PC Today Virus Scan F19    3.3
5.6
PC Tools 6    3.3
5.6
Portex Professional 2.5    3.3
5.6
Printmaster 3    3.3
5.6
Q & A 3    3.3
5.6
Safety First PAT    3.3
5.6
Snijders-Oomen 1.0    3.3  *
5.6
Sidekick 1.58    3.3
5.6
Sideways 3.21    3.3
5.6
Time Works 2.1    3.3
5.6
Xtree Prof. Gold 1.3    3.3
5.6
Word 5.5    3.3
5.6
Word Perfect 5.1    3.3
5.6
 *Snijders-Ooman Non Verbal Intelligence Scale v1.0 − Runs on emulator
v1.7 with Dos 3.3 version 1.1 runs on DrDos 5.
5.6
Non Runners:
5.6
Jetsetter 5.0    5.0
5.6
This loads and works with the mouse fairly happily until you try the
“Trace” function then the whole system locks up on an unknown Opcode and
I can only get back into the emulator by turning the machine off. Mike
Clinch
5.6
•    Scan:Align − Tord Eriksson rightly pointed out in his review of
ScanLight 256 (Archive 5.5, p.61) that hand-held scanners suffer from
problems of alignment, resulting in twisted or skewed images. Happily, I
can report that if you are reluctant to trade in your hand-held scanner
for a flatbed scanner because of the cost, you can instead buy an
alignment aid, Scan:Align by name, that can solve the problem by guiding
the scanner head and holding the illustration steady. I came across it
in a PC mail-order catalogue and hoped it would improve my ScanLight
Junior’s performance.
5.6
The equipment consists of a robust flat plastic base, inscribed with
various grids and gauges, to which is attached a thin clear acetate
sheet and over that a hinged guide frame. The packaging also contains
four plastic templates of different designs to match various scanner
head sizes.
5.6
The principle of operation is simple: the scanner head fits snugly into
the template, which slides between the edges of the guide frame, thus
keeping true alignment for the whole scan. The acetate sheet is for use
with items that are too small to be gripped by the frame edges: just
slip them under the sheet, which is thin enough (in theory) to keep the
image crisp.
5.6
At first, I was stimied because none of the templates matched the
Mitsubishi scanner. A quick phone call to the manufacturers in Dallas,
Texas, established that I could post or fax a tracing round my scanner
head to them to obtain an appropriate template. I opted for the latter
method, and within four days (not bad!) an envelope arrived containing a
different template, at no cost apart from the phone and fax calls. Even
the new template didn’t quite fit, however, which is not really
surprising because Scan:Align is squarely aimed at the PC and Macintosh
market; however, a little careful shaving with a penknife quickly
achieved the desired fit.
5.6
Does it work? Well, practically any flat surface would, I suppose, have
been an improvement on my old set-up, but the grids made it easy to
align the originals, and the clear sheet certainly held small artwork
well without introducing distortion. At 400 d.p.i. it isn’t easy to
align straight lines parallel to the scan direction to an accuracy of
better than three or four pixels over a scan of about 10 centimetres
(which is a tall order anyway, I feel), but at least they are straight.
The unretouched example frame shown below was originally 11 centimetres
tall.
5.6
Overall, despite the initial teething trouble, the Scan:Align works
well, and now I can scan originals wider than the scanner by doing it in
strips and then assembling them either by putting DTP graphic frames
together or by using Paint to produce one large sprite. So who needs a
full-width scanner?
5.6
Scan:Align isn’t cheap, but it’s effective. It costs £51.05 (inc VAT &
carriage) from Power Up! Software U.K. Ltd, 100 Mytchett Road, Mytchett,
Camberley, Surrey GU16 6EZ (0252−376000).  Bruce Goatly, London
5.6
•    Scanlight Professional − Ever since Computer Concepts announced the
Scanlight Professional flat bed scanner, I have been eager to see how
good they really were. Now that we have them available ex-stock, Paul
finally agreed to let me to ‘play’ with one.
5.6
I wanted to see what it would be like to use a scanner that was fast and
which you did not have to ‘drag’ over the image several times before
getting a usable result − or at least I found that I used to need
several attempts, I don’t know about anybody else!
5.6
Setting the scanner up was very easy indeed. It only took a matter of
minutes to unpack and install. This was partly due to the fact that I
had an Acorn SCSI card which did not need to be told about the scanner,
but apparently even this is a simple enough operation. The controlling
software is essentially the same as the Scanlight 256 (cf Archive 4.11
p24), which is effective and simple to use − although there are a few
minor bugs.
5.6
A full page (216mm x 300mm) mono image took only 25 secs to scan at 300
dpi. This time is approximately the same for the 16 and 256 grey scale
scans. Unfortunately, you will find that scanned images require a lot of
memory. A full page mono image takes up almost 1.3M. A full page 256
grey scale image would take eight times as much memory, over 8M!
Unfortunately, I only have a 4M machine so I couldn’t try it out.
Perhaps, CC should think of using a compression system?!
5.6
Despite my lack of memory, I was able to scan everything I wanted and
with great ease. I even managed to use some of the simple image
processing provided (without referring to the documentation, tut tut) to
enhance the images I had obtained, save them as sprite files (or, if
required, a draw file) and then import them into my own documents.
5.6
The resolution of the image was also astounding − as, I suppose, it
would be with any 256 grey scale, 300 dpi scanner. I was really taken
back by the detail reproduced when I scanned the front of a Hayes Car
Maintenance Manual. Especially when you consider that all I had to do
was lay the book on the scanner and tell the computer to scan!
5.6
If I had to recommend the Scanlight Professional above the other
Computer Concepts’ scanners, I would say that it offers excellent, high
resolution scanning facilities with a great deal of ease and accuracy.
The fact that the scanner uses a SCSI interface also offers a potential
saving for existing SCSI users. However, at £970 (Archive members’
price) you should consider whether you really need the accuracy and the
extra time that can be saved, bearing in mind that with time and
patience (and a little co-ordination on my part), similar results can
still be achieved with the other CC’s scanners.   Adrian Look, N.C.S.
5.6
The picture opposite just gives an example of the sort of thing you can
achieve − and that with a ScanLight JUNIOR 256, not the Professional.
5.6
•    SkyHunter − (The co-author replies...) Thank you for your review of
SkyHunter in Archive 5.5 p18 and especially for taking the care to test
the program with a variety of groups of children.
5.6
I was particularly interested in the reviewer’s response to the program
taking over the whole of the screen whilst running. I did consider the
possibility of writing it as a desktop application but could not, in the
end, see any good reason. The nature of each puzzle generally requires
the whole screen to be visible, in order for the puzzle to be meaning
ful. I do feel cautious about the trend to say that everything should
automatically run in a window, especially for the age range for whom
this program is intended. I would be pleased to see further debate on
this, particularly from other practising teachers.
5.6
The reviewer is right in saying that the Archimedes version is slightly
more expensive than the BBC model B and Master versions. However, the
Archimedes does benefit from redesigned graphics and the sprite handling
routines were also re-written to take advantage of the greater perfor
mance and memory of the Archimedes. Can I also reassure readers that
this is not a program which runs under BBC emulation but runs from, and
correctly returns to, the desktop.
5.6
Teachers who find the Sky Hunter application a valuable resource might
like to know that I am currently working on Archimedes versions of two
other Look and Read adventures which I originally wrote for the BBC.
These will be available in the Autumn, also published by Longman
Logotron. Peter Smith, Co-author of Sky Hunter.
5.6
•    Technical Help − As you may know, Archive runs a telephone Technical
Help Service. The idea is that, for a £10-a-year registration fee, you
can phone us up with your technical problems and we will try to give you
an answer you there and then. If not, we’ll try to pass you on to
someone else who should be able to help.
5.6
However, if you don’t register with the T.H.S., I’m afraid that we
cannot answer your telephone technical questions (unless they are sales
enquiries, e.g. “What disc drive ought I to buy?”) − it would not be
fair on those who have paid their £10, if we spent time giving answers
to other people. We have had one or two irate people on the phone who
think that being a subscriber to the magazine should entitle them to use
us as a consultancy. We’d like to help, but there are limits to what we
can do. So, what we say is that non-THS people can write their queries
down on paper and send them in to us and we’ll answer them as soon as we
can but please don’t give Ali or Adrian a hard time on the phone just
because they refuse to give you telephone technical help. Thanks.
5.6
•    Trace from David Pilling − When I read the review of David Pilling’s
Trace application in Archive 5.4 p61, I could see it was going to be a
very useful tool for DTP, and at the price of £5.99 even an impoverished
student like me could afford a copy.
5.6
I would endorse the recommendation of your reviewers. For example, I
took and converted a PCX format image of a Care-Bear from an IBM format
Shareware clip art collection. I converted this into an Archimedes
sprite using !Translatr (Careware 13 or Sharewares 32 or 43) persuading
it to output a 360k colour sprite in mode 82. As the original was a
black and white image, I used pattern fill to produce colour, I used the
standard Paint application to replace dot-filled areas with colour
fills. This took about 40 minutes of careful work but could be done a
lot quicker with a more sophisticated art package. The result from this
I fed into Trace, waited about 15 minutes (on my ARM 2) and the result
was an 18k colour Draw file which is easy to tinker with to get the
colours etc just right. The improvement in versatility of these images
from Impression II is significant and I don’t have to keep the large
sprite on the computer any more. Trace is a simple package to use,
though with some images, the ‘error’ setting needs to be tinkered with
to end up with simple curves in the resulting Draw file.
5.6
It’s only really worthwhile doing this sort of manipulation to an image
if you expect to use it several times over. The alternative of enlarging
with a photocopier and cutting and sticking onto the final print before
it is copied is usually much quicker for almost all practical purposes −
assuming there is a photocopier to which one has access. However, this
way is a lot more fun and there is much more versatility in the
processing. Ian Gooding, Queen’s College, Edgbaston.
5.6
(Also, the results of your labours can be passed on to other Archimedes
users on disc − we now have a lovely Care-Bear on the office wall!)
5.6
•    Virus Kit v1.17 − Some people have had a few problems running version
1.17 of the virus killer, which is supplied on Shareware 17 and on the
Archive 5.5 program disc. Here are a few hints that might help you to
solve them:
5.6
(i) You should let your Archimedes see either a !System folder or !Scrap
file before running the !Killer application.
5.6
(ii) Some sticky backdrops clash with the !Killer application and so
should not be used at the same time.
5.6
(iii) If you have caught the module virus, it is possible for the
VProtect module in the !Killer application to become infected and so
prevent the program from being run.
5.6
• Acorn Virus Kit (latest) − Acorn have decided to make the latest
version of The Virus Kit (currently 1.26) available through Pineapple
Software rather than Acorn Dealers. This will allow them to keep tighter
control over the version being distributed and any updates. Contact
Pineapple Software for availability though distribution isn’t due to
start until May.
5.6
•    Wimp programming oddities? In the process of developing a wimp utility
in 100% machine code, I’ve come across a few things that other program
mers might like to look out for...
5.6
Menus − You can click the mouse in a menu one pixel above the first menu
item (and also one pixel below the last item). The result is that
Wimp_Poll returns a menu tree of zero length to your program i.e. the
first word is returned as −1. Once I had found this (it crashed my
program completely on random mouse clicks!) I tried it out on all the
programs I could find. The easiest test is to click the menu button and
then the adjust button without moving the mouse. Most commercial
programs weather it OK, just redrawing the menu. Some that don’t are
Menon 1.86 (which gives a “bad string” error), Ian Copestake’s IDEFS
(which comes up with “File ‘:4’ not found”), and the Cross-32 assembler
(which corrupts its menu title to “Crosr 32”).
5.6
Zooms − I’ve seen <adjust> reverse-scrolling mentioned several times,
but this applies (or should apply, anyway!) to just about anything with
arrow icons on it; notably the zoom-windows in Paint/Draw and all the
nudge arrows in Impression.
5.6
Variable Filetype Variables − Regarding David Lenthall’s article in
Archive 5.5 p 63, I’m using a user file type and have found that the way
round file type clashes is, in fact, already built into RISC-OS! You
don’t need to create extra system variables to shift file type numbers
about:
5.6
SYS “OS_FSControl”,31, “FileTypeName” TO ,,FileTypeNumber%
5.6
works equally well (now we just have to persuade everyone to do this
rather than using absolute file types in their programs). Fred Williams,
Cannock Wood  A
5.6

5.6
Scanned from a photograph with ScanLight Junior 256 ouput as
256 greylevels 150 d.p.i.  Printed at 600*300 d.p.i. at 100% original
size.
5.6

5.6
Scanned with ScanLight Junior 256, output as 256 greylevels at 80 d.p.i.
Printed at 600*300 d.p.i. at 50% actual size.
5.6

5.6
Hardware Column
5.6
Brian Cowan
5.6
Floating points
5.6
When I bought my A540 machine last year (yes I know, with hindsight, it
was a silly thing to do) I was told that a Floating Point Accelerator
chip would shortly be available on a replacement A540 ARM3 CPU card. I
am still waiting. In the mean time the A5000 has arrived, with a space
on the circuit board for the FPA chip to fit directly.
5.6
As I have explained in the Hardware Column before, Acorn’s old-style
floating point coprocessor cannot be used on an ARM3 system because the
RAM cache sits between the CPU and the external data bus. The coproces
sor then has to be connected to the “raw” data bus of the CPU (the
coprocessor bus). In many cases, the old coprocessor was still rather
slow and hardly worth the £500 or so that Acorn were asking for it. The
FPA chip, when it arrives will be suitable for the A5000 and the A540,
but what about the ARM2 based machines? Obviously, a combined ARM3+ FPA
upgrade will become available, seeing as the FPA chip must be connected
directly to the ARM3 coprocessor bus. Perhaps ARM3 upgrade manufacturers
will offer part-exchange trade-ins.
5.6
DT Software’s FPA
5.6
While we are all waiting for Acorn’s elusive FPA chip, there is another
option available from DT Software. As mentioned in last month’s Archive,
they are launching a floating point accelerator podule, based on an
80287XL chip. This is the floating point coprocessor used by the 80286
CPU in all those PCs and it will perform IEEE 80 bit arithmetic, running
at 33MHz. This is a clever idea, to harness an industry standard chip
for Archimedes use. Everything depends on the software support. In use,
the podule plus its software replaces the function of the floating point
emulator. Thus it should be invisible to the user (except for its
speed!) and usable equally with ARM2 or ARM3 systems.
5.6
The claim is that it gives between three and four times speed increase
on multiply and even faster improvements on trigonometrical functions.
On ARM2 machines the speed increase should be even greater. At £174.95
(£165 through Archive), this is an attractive product for speeding-up
your machine. Remember, it will do nothing for Basic V, although it will
improve the speed of the A5000’s optional higher precision Basic VI,
which uses external floating point support. I am sure that this unit
will be a boon to power users of Draw and other graphics programs which
make intensive use of floating point (and trig) calculations. I will let
you know more when I have had a chance to try one.
5.6
PC cards − again
5.6
I can’t believe for how long I have been writing in these columns that
we should be having a PC card “soon”. As I write this, I have yet to see
one but I am expecting that by the time you read this I will actually
have one of my own.
5.6
There are two companies that I know of working on PC cards, Aleph One
and Watford Electronics. Both products will be based on a 386SX CPU, a
popular version of the 32 bit ’386 having a 16 bit external data bus.
Both single width podules will have space on them for a 387SX floating
point coprocessor and both will support DOS partitions on hard discs and
will read and write DOS floppies on the internal floppy drive but there
are some subtle differences between these two products. The Aleph One
card is designed to appear as a super-fast version of the PC emulator,
while the Watford unit should be seen as a PC hooked into the Archi
medes.
5.6
Video options
5.6
The Aleph One programmers have been working hard optimising the code for
driving the screen display. In many respects, this is the weak link in
the scheme since, in going through the Archimedes display hardware, the
PC screen and graphics are still being emulated. This is unavoidable
when running the DOS session in a window but when single-tasking, there
is another option. The PC card could then drive the monitor directly.
This is the mechanism adopted by Watford. Their card includes full VGA
hardware with 256k of video RAM. The monitor is connected directly to
the DOS card, while the Archimedes video output is looped into the DOS
card. A software-controlled switch then routes either the Archimedes’
video or the DOS video output to the monitor, so that you can get the
best of both worlds. Using this system, in full screen mode, you should
get the full speed of the PC on your podule. However, my understanding
is that when running the DOS session in a RISC-OS window, the implemen
tation relies on having an appropriate driver − a text/character based
driver is available and others may be produced. This is a different
approach from the Aleph One full graphics implementation, which includes
CGA, VGA and EGA.
5.6
Expansion
5.6
Another difference between the two products is that the Watford card
will have a full standard ISA 16 bit expansion bus. Thus, one will be
able to use 8 or 16 bit PC expansion cards. This opens up a whole range
of expansion options, including dedicated hard discs, floppy discs,
keyboard etc. The hardware sounds superb but performance will depend on
the quality and the facilities provided by the software.
5.6
RAMifications
5.6
The Aleph One card comes with 1M of RAM, which, by changing the chips,
may be increased to 4M. Watford’s card has 2M as standard, with space
for another 2M. With this sort of RAM on a card, it is a pity to waste
it if DOS is not being used. It would be highly desirable to use the
RAM, in that case, as a RAM disc for RISC-OS. This should be fairly easy
to implement. Slightly more complex, but possible, would be to have this
extra RAM appear as Archimedes RAM. Then on the other side, if DOS is
running but the card does not have sufficient RAM for the application,
it would be sensible if the card could “borrow” RAM from the Archimedes.
Hopefully software to support such operations will be forthcoming.
5.6
Coprocessing
5.6
But there is more. If you have a DOS card with a ’387 floating point
coprocessor installed and if you are not running DOS, (or even if you
are) it should be possible to utilise the card rather as the DT Software
FPA, to assist RISC-OS in performing its floating point calculations.
Thus the DOS card should be able to function as an FPA.
5.6
Finally, let us turn the tables in considering graphics with the Aleph
One card. Unlike the Watford card, in full screen mode, this card still
sends its graphics to be processed by the ARM before display. So, in
effect, the ARM chip could be regarded as a graphics coprocessor for the
DOS card. There are many possibilities for exploiting such a system. In
all these discussions, the hardware will be defined but I hope that I
have demonstrated that there are exciting possibilities for software to
exploit the hardware in unusual ways. These may well be where DOS cards
in the Archimedes make the most impact.
5.6
Emulator “features”
5.6
Let us now consider a few questions which are partly related to the PC
emulators and partly to some new features in RISC-OS3. As mentioned in
Archive last month, with version 1.70 of the PC emulator, DOS partitions
are given a special file type, FC8 (DOSdisc), which are not deletable.
These files have some other interesting properties. Their icon looks
like a hard disc drive in a directory folder which is a good representa
tion of what these files are. Now RISC-OS3 has MultiFS built in, so that
clicking on one of these files opens up a DOS directory viewer and the
DOS files may be accessed directly; MultiFS comes into action quite
invisibly − very neat!
5.6
The problem is that this no longer happens if the PC emulator is
running. If you try to access the DOS partition from RISC-OS, an error
comes up telling you that the file is already open. In some respects
this is understandable since DOS speeds up hard disc access by cacheing
the disc map in RAM. So, if there is any external interference of the
disc then DOS will not know about it and disaster could follow.
5.6
Solutions
5.6
Of course, problems would only occur when writing to the partition from
outside DOS; reads should present no problem. This could be fixed quite
simply. In fact, it would be possible to write to the partition as well,
if the emulator thought it was dealing with removable hard discs. Then
every time RISC-OS wrote to the partition it would then wiggle the “disc
changed” line and DOS would re-catalogue the disc before continuing. I
hope something will be done along these lines because, as I have said,
using DOS on the Archimedes is all very well, but where it really scores
is in cooperative interchange between the DOS and RISC-OS. Data exchange
via a “scrap” file is an important component in this.  A
5.6

5.6
Small Ads
5.6
(Small ads for Archimedes and related products are free for subscribers
but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the material
you send, as we think fit. i.e. some people don’t know what “small”
means and there are certain things, as you can imagine, that we would
not be prepared to advertise as a matter of principle. Sending small ads
(especially long ones!) on disc is helpful but not essential. Ed)
5.6
•    A3000 2 M RAM, analogue & user port, colour monitor boxed & unused
£700. 1M upgrade (Oak) for A3000 £30. Midi interface & user port (AKA12)
boxed & unused. Phone Max or Jayne on 0706−852581.
5.6
•    A310 + IFEL 4-slot backplane + PC emulator. Boxed as new. £300 o.n.o.
Phone 0986−872465.
5.6
•    A310M, DTP software, Render Bender, PC emulator 1.6, Genesis & games
£540 (or will split). Old PRMs £9, various magazines, EMR sound sampler
£60, Watford digitiser £75, Acorn colour monitor £110. Phone Stephen
after 6 p.m. on 061−973−0529.
5.6
•    A540 base unit £1800, C release 3, £50, Programmer’s Reference Manuals
£40, Software Developer’s Toolbox £20, unopened copy of Lemmings £20,
BBC Basic V Guide £10. Contact Mr Gwyn Willams on 0286−870101.
5.6
•    Acorn Desktop Assembler, as new (unregistered), £145. Phone Ray Waters
on Colchester 0206−841119 (eves).
5.6
•    APEC card with RAM £35. Genesis II £90. Nevryon £10. Voltmace Joystick
£15. Interdictor £15. Powerband £10. All o.n.o. Phone Simon Lincoln on
0603−226041 (day) or 38342 (eve).
5.6
•    Beebug 5¼“ interface (A300/400) + DFS s’ware £20. Phone Mike on
07687−78514 (eves).
5.6
•    Colourjet 132 hardly used, new cartridges, new roll paper, £300. Phone
Mark Flemming on 0244−535204.
5.6
•    Computer Concepts ROMs (for CC or Acorn ROM/RAM podule): InterChart
£10, InterSheet £15, InterWord £15 and SpellMaster £20, plus 3 x 32k
static RAM chips £10. Also disc software: PC Access £10 and E-Type £5.
Phone Rob on 0737−832159 (eves).
5.6
•    First Word Plus 2 £25. Phone Mr Phillips on 0732−454707.
5.6
•    First Word Plus 2 (not from Learning Curve) £30, Atelier £30, Rockfall
£10, System Delta Plus £25, Enter the Realm £12, Apocalypse £10. Phone
06977−46786.
5.6
•    Laser Direct Qume, good condition, hardly used, includes original
toner and drum. Only £600 o.n.o. Phone Glenn on 0932−567614.
5.6
•    MultiStore II £140 o.n.o., EMR Rhythm Box £15, Repton3 £8, Terramex
£5. Contact Jeremy on 061−483−2983.
5.6
•    Oak High Speed SCSI 100M drive, 4 months old £250. Juki 6100 daisy
wheel, many ribbons & wheels £50. Phone Ian on 0245−325205.
5.6
•    PinPoint £70, Junior Impression £60, Magpie £40, Geoscan £35. All new
and unregistered. Phone 0736−63918.
5.6
•    Risc User magazine 1.1 to 5.1 complete bound issues. £25 plus postage.
Phone Chris on 0271−850355.
5.6
•    Wanted − 4-slot backplane for A310, hand scanner, FWPlus II, Impres
sion II and anyone interested in a Derby User Group. Phone 0332−557751.
5.6
•    Wanted − Acoustic coupling device suitable for Archimedes, IBM etc. Or
does anyone know how to make one? Phone Kevin on 0404−822633.
5.6
•    Wanted − Dead or alive (but preferably dead cheap!) A310s or A305s.
Phone Arthur on 0603−765073.
5.6
•    Wanted − Multi-sync monitor for use with modes 0-21, 24-28 and SVGA if
possible. Must be cheap. Phone Stephen after 6 p.m. on 061−973−0529.
5.6
•    Watford Hand Scanner A300/400 £90. Z88 micro, 256k RAM, PC Link,
software £200. Phone Mike on 0742−342870
5.6
Charity Sales − The following items are available for sale in aid of
charity. PLEASE do not just send money − ring us on 0603−766592 to check
if the items are still available. Thank you.
5.6
(If you have unwanted software or hardware for Archimedes computers that
you could donate to charity, please send it in to the Archive office. )
5.6
A3000 2M memory upgrade £40, RISC-OS Companion Vol 1 £5, Saloon Cars
£19, Masterfile II £25, Watford Electronics £5 voucher £2 !!, InterDic
tor 1 £10, Conqueror + Quazer + Corruption £18, Watford A310 4M memory
upgrade £180, Zarch £10, ArcComm £30.  A
5.6

5.6
DataWord
5.6
Ashley Bowden
5.6
DataWord is a new product from Triple R Education, a branch of 4th
Dimension. The program is advertised as “unique”, combining, as the
title suggests, elements of both a database and a word processor.
DataWord costs £19.95 including VAT and UK postage. I mention this first
to give you an idea of where the product is targeted. The program has
only the most basic features of a traditional word processor and just a
small subset of the usual database functions. The publishers’ philosophy
is that most software has too many features which never get used and, as
they clearly are aiming at the school market, they want to keep things
simple.
5.6
The basic structure
5.6
A DataWord file can be thought of as a series of cards which contain
text. Each card has a free style format − there are no fields to contain
information in a pre-arranged layout. There is a simple editor which
allows text to be entered and the cards can be manipulated, allowing
information to be recalled and organised in a number of ways.
5.6
The program is therefore best suited for textual data which need not be
highly structured. This would include project work in a junior school,
say, and perhaps even more advanced research by older students or other
adults.
5.6
The package
5.6
The program comes on a single disc and is accompanied by a 12 page A5
manual. In fact, there are two versions of the program supplied − one is
a proper RISC-OS application and the other is intended for those who are
not familiar with the desktop. This review is primarily concerned with
the former. The manual is not Archimedes specific and does not give
exact details of how to access each facility. I was a little disap
pointed with this, initially, and thought that Triple R could have run
to the expense of a separate manual but they had a better idea, of which
more later.
5.6
There is a function key strip for use only with the non RISC­OS version
of the software. There are also two plastic keyboard overlays for those
not conversant with a normal keyboard. One has the usual QWERTY layout
but the keys are labelled with lower case letters and the other has the
keys redefined in alphabetical order. There is a small utility program
which can set these options.
5.6
In use
5.6
The word processor is simple and intuitive to use. There are no special
effects such as bold and italic and there are no advanced features for
manipulating the text. However, the package does what it intends to do
in this area and it is possible to enter a screen full of text and have
it printed out, all within the space of a few minutes.
5.6
The database functions implemented are again very much in accordance
with the scope and aims of the program. Records can be sorted alphabeti
cally by the first few words of each record. So if you wanted to create
a file of famous composers you would need to put each person’s name as
the first words, with the surname first.
5.6
Each record can be marked. This can be done manually or as the result of
a search. You could, for example, mark all the records which contain the
word Austria and then work with or print just these.
5.6
There is a search and replace facility and a search and display option
although, since this only displays the first occurrence of a given
string, it is best used when a word appears only once in the whole
database e.g. Brandenburg, which might only appear on the card devoted
to Bach. It is also possible to replicate a given card several times
which is useful if you want a template for a predefined layout, such as
an address book. There is a good range of useful housekeeping features,
which I will not cover minutely, but which includes the ability to
insert, delete and move records around, to print all or part of the
database and to load and save individual records.
5.6
Links
5.6
If you are not satisfied by what has been described so far, the package
has even more versatility through a system to link cards. This has two
main applications. The first is to provide for quizzes and multiple
choice tests. In this case, the first twenty cards, say, would each
contain a question and these would be linked to other cards which gave
appropriate messages in response to the user’s answer. A scoring
mechanism can also be activated if DataWord is being used this way.
5.6
The second use of links is to create a flexible route through a
collection of information. As an illustration of this, let me describe
the manual which I thought was missing. This is, in fact, stored as a
DataWord file and provides an excellent way to learn about the system,
especially for a reviewer! One card in this file describes ‘searches’.
It is linked to three others which describe in further detail the
various search options. All the user has to do is click with <select> on
one of the four link ‘buttons’ which every DataWord card has.
5.6
In conclusion
5.6
If you wish to store large amounts of textual information in a flexible
way and perform simple database operations on them then DataWord
represents a simple to use but very effective option. It is attractively
priced and seems to meet its stated aims. It is versatile in that
quizzes and programmed learning are easily catered for. I also found it
reasonably easy to import the material which I created into !Edit,
although this is not a feature built into DataWord, and a working
knowledge of !Edit is required. I could find no mention of the fact that
each card can only contain 32 lines and trying to create more caused the
program to crash. There was also another small bug in the program. I
have mentioned these to Triple R who feel confident that they can be
sorted out. They will then have an impressive program which will appeal,
I imagine, to those teaching young children but others may also find it
worthy of serious consideration.  A
5.6

5.6
The DTP Column
5.6
Richard Hallas
5.6
Greetings from the musical quarter of the DTP Column’s editorship! As an
Archimedes owner who spends a good deal of time using his machine for
typesetting music, I will be dealing with any musical DTP-related
matters that may arise in future issues. I would like to invite any
interested parties to comment or enquire about this aspect of the
Archimedes’ abilities. To the best of my knowledge, with only one
serious package available for it (Scorewriter/PMS), the Archimedes is
more or less ignored in the professional music-typesetting world; as
with other areas of DTP, it is the Macintosh which basks exclusively in
the limelight. Having used a Mac before graduating to something better,
I can say that, as with general DTP, if only the Archimedes were given a
wholehearted push in the right direction, it could probably oust the
competition.
5.6
(Talking about pushing, I’m still working on “A Guide to DTP on Acorn
Computers”. It’s growing by the minute and will include comparisons with
DTP on Mac and 486 PC systems. I will, initially, be offering it f.o.c.
through adverts in the Acorn press but hope, eventually, to pluck up
enough courage to offer it through adverts in P.C.W. and the like! Ed.)
5.6
News and Views
5.6
The majority of this section seems to relate to products from Computer
Concepts:
5.6
•    ColourDirect − As you might guess from the name, this will be a full
colour printer along the lines of the existing LaserDirect family,
(although it uses inkjet technology, not laser and it doesn’t use a high
speed video interface) and it will be capable of printing a full-colour
page on A3 paper at 360 dpi. It uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black
inks as expected, and these can be replaced individually. The price will
be in the region of £2,000. Compared with colour laser printers, working
at 300 dpi on A4 paper, which generally start at around £12,000, this
sounds like an important step forward for Archimedes computers.
5.6
The printer is a brand new model from Canon which is to be launched on
the Mac, PC and Archimedes platforms simultaneously; Computer Concepts’
task has been to produce a 24-bit colour driver for it. This is, in
fact, ready but we have to wait for the official launch of the printer
by Canon. You should expect to see something during the Spring.
5.6
(Charles Moir sent us a couple of printouts from ColourDirect and they
are VERY impressive. Both the colour and the resolution are excellent.
Charles remarks though that you shouldn’t be thinking in terms of
LaserDirect speed. A printout of an A4 page takes, at best, around 4
minutes and a full A3 page about 7 minutes. For a top quality A3 image
produced by ArtWorks, it can take 15 minutes to print out − mind you, at
24-bit colour, that represents about 12 Mbytes of image data! However,
the printer drivers that CC have written for the ColourDirect operate
fully in the RISC-OS background which minimises the time that your
computer will be tied up during printing. Ed)
5.6
•    Impression 2.16 has been released and is the first stable version to
be fully compatible with RISC-OS3 machines. It contains a couple of
changes compared with version 2.14 − intelligent, multi-tasking screen
updating, and the ability to drop a graphic straight into the text
without the need to use embedded frames.
5.6
Computer Concepts had previously released a few copies of version 2.15,
but it had some bugs that meant it would not work properly under RISC-OS
2. Anyone using version 2.15 with RISC-OS 2 should request an upgrade to
Impression 2.16.
5.6
Computer Concepts have asked us to say that if anyone finds a fault with
the version of Impression they are using, they should firstly return
their Impression master disc 1 and ask for an upgrade to the current
version. If the same problem persists, please let CC know all the
details of the problem, and send them some sample files which illustrate
it.
5.6
In general it must be stressed, though, that if you are not experiencing
any problems, you should not ask for an upgrade just for the sake of
having the very newest version, since it costs Computer Concepts to
provide such a uniquely generous system of upgrading. If everyone tried
to get the latest versions all the time, CC might have to start charging
for upgrades. (How about sending a stamped addressed sticky label to
showing goodwill towards CC for their generous upgrade policy? Ed)
5.6
•    Thesauruses (Thesauri?) − CC will shortly be releasing a stand-alone
thesaurus. Initially, it will integrate fairly crudely with other RISC-
OS applications: clicking on a word will type it in for you at the
caret. However, future versions of Impression should integrate properly
with it and let you look a word up by simply double-clicking on it in
the document window. The thesaurus is based on the Collins printed
thesaurus and has 9,000 root words and 120,000 synonyms in total. A
likely price is £39 +VAT.
5.6
Risc Developments (Beebug) are also working on a thesaurus called
Desktop Thesaurus. This will have 11,000 keywords and 90,000 synonyms
and will cost £19 +VAT.
5.6
•    Artworks is looking good, by all accounts. The first release is likely
to occur in Spring and it is expected to have a price tag similar to
that of Impression. Computer Concepts considers it to be the cleanest,
most modular and quite simply the best all round program they have ever
produced, which sounds very hopeful indeed! CC is looking for high
quality example artwork to include with the final package, so any
computer artists who feel they can dedicate a fair amount of time to
producing some good quality pictures should contact Computer Concepts.
5.6
•    ScanLight Plus software upgrade − The January issue of Archive (5.4)
contained a ‘Naughty Bit’ in the news pages. Yes, there is an updated
version of the ScanLight Plus software, but no, it isn’t available yet,
and it isn’t free of charge either! The software is being completely
revised and will need a new manual. CC can hardly be expected to give
expensive manuals away, so there will certainly be a small charge for
the upgrade, probably in the region of £5-£10, although this, like the
release date, is not yet fixed. The new version, when it appears, will
contain many more features than the existing software, and these include
a comprehensive range of image enhancement and manipulation options. It
will also be possible to edit the grey-map by dragging the points of a
curve around, and adding extra points to make the curve more complex;
the grey-map hugs the curve, and this provides a much easier way of
setting the levels than having to adjust each bar by hand as in the
previous version. Having used a pre-release version, I can say that it
is very impressive so far, but the product is still a fair way from
being complete.
5.6
•    FaxPack − After three years, this has finally been completed and is
now available − in small quantities! Faster than practically any other
alternative, CC’s FaxPack allows background data transfer and can be
used with any scanner and printer. £299 +VAT (£351.32).
5.6
•    Scorewriter − EMR’s Scorewriter music typesetting package has been
around for some time, and is the only serious quality package of its
kind currently available for the Archimedes. If bought directly from its
author, Philip Hazel, it is called PMS (for “Philip’s Music Scribe”); I
have been using the program semi-professionally in its PMS guise for
some time, and can heartily recommend it. However, the program takes
text files as input, and produces its output directly to the printer or
as a draw-file: therefore, the only way of checking output is by viewing
it in Draw. Help is at hand: Philip Hazel is currently doing a total
rewrite of the package, and PMS 2 will operate in a window on the
desktop − much more friendly! This is still some months off, however;
more news nearer the time.
5.6
Impression Hints & Tips
5.6
This month’s hints and tips have been submitted by the following people:
Computer Concepts (CC), Richard Hallas (RH), Paul Beverley (PB), Patrick
Dowling (PD), Rob Sherratt (RS) and Steve Kirkby (SK). Many thanks to
all.
5.6
•    Hyphenation − If you want to be able to switch hyphenation on and off
easily, create a new style with <ctrl-F5>, give it a name such as
“hyphenated”, go down to the section where it deals with hyphenation,
switch hyphenation ON, go to the bottom and select an unused key short-
cut, say <ctrl-shift-F1> and save the new style. Now, to switch
hyphenation on for a given paragraph, select the paragraph (using <ctrl-
@> or quad-click with <select>) and press <ctrl-shift-F1>. Alterna
tively, if you want hyphenation on for most of the document, edit the
definition of the basestyle to have hyphenation ON and create a new
style, in the same way, whose only attribute is that hyphenation is OFF.
(As an aside, I have always found it difficult to find the line dealing
with hyphenation in the edit style window but I now know why. If you
click in the scroll bar three times, half of the word “hyphenation” is
visible at the bottom of the window. Click again and half is visible at
the top of the window − very easy to miss. So, either slide the scroll
bar or simply remember that it is only just visible at the edge of the
window.) − PB.
5.6
•    Ligatures − The word ‘ligature’ actually means ‘tie’ or ‘bandage’ and,
in typesetting, it refers to groups of two or more letters which are
joined together. In professional typesetting, several exist but the
Archimedes’ font system has just two: fi and fl.
5.6
Impression provides no handy short cut to access them, so if you wish to
use them, you need to do two separate searches through the entire text
as follows: bring up the find text box and enter fi into the first slot,
ensuring the Case sensitive switch is on. Then move the caret into the
second box, hold down <alt> and type 158 on the numeric keypad. A single
character will be entered which, when viewed in an outline font which
supports it, will appear as fi. For fl, repeat the process, but replace
all occurrences of fl (obviously) with character 159. Remember to do a
case sensitive search, since replacing Fi and Fl with the ligatures will
make them lose their capital letters.
5.6
Not all fonts (especially the PD ones) contain the ligatures, and some
PD fonts have them in the wrong places. You should replace the normal
letters with the ligatures after you have finished your document because
Impression’s spell-checker does not take them into account and will
query any words containing them. This month’s disc should contain a
system font file which I have created; it is identical to the standard
one, except that the previously undefined characters have been created
to look like the outline font characters they produce, so you can see
things like smart quotes and ligatures in Edit. It’s useful to load this
in the boot-up sequence. − RH.
5.6
•    Rotated text in Impression − Those lucky enough to own an A5000 will,
of course, have the new versions of Draw and Font Manager. Charles Moir,
director of Computer Concepts, suggests the following tip: since the new
Font Manager can rotate text by itself, create some text in Draw, and
import it into an Impression graphic frame. Dragging in the frame with
<adjust> should now rotate the text or you can set the angle precisely
in the ‘Alter graphics’ dialogue box. − RH
5.6
•    Hyphens and minus signs − Character 153 is very useful as a hyphen −
as you can see! In fact, it is really the minus sign (compare it with
the plus and you will find they are both the same width and their
crossbars are at the same horizontal position − see for yourself −+−+−);
the minus sign on the keyboard actually produces a short hyphen of the
sort which should be used to break words at the ends of lines. Anyway,
Impression provides handy access to this character: simply press <ctrl-
shift> in conjunction with the minus key. Characters 151 and 152 are the
en (–) and em (—) dashes respectively but, unfortunately, these have no
handy short cuts. − RS & RH.
5.6
•    Finding effects − If you want to be able to look through a document
and find where a particular effect occurs (as opposed to a style) all
you need to do is modify one line in the ‘UK’ file in the Resources
directory inside the !Impression application. As supplied, there is a
line that says “Cnf1:” − all you have to do is add an E making it
“Cnf1:E”. Next time you start up Impression, you will find that, when
you click on the arrow at the right of the search string box, it will
list not only the styles but also the effects. (In case you have
forgotten, I published a hint a year ago to explain that, to find a
particular effect or style, you should select it from the menu on the
search string box and follow it by an “@”. In other words, look for any
string following the place where that effect / style is first switched
on.) − PB.
5.6
•    Double scale − on later versions of Impression (about 2.14g onwards)
you will find that <shift-F12> no longer doubles the scale of the
current view. This is because <shift-F12> is used on RISC-OS 3 to toggle
the icon bar forwards and backwards. Double scale has now been moved to
<ctrl-shift-F11>. − PB.
5.6
•    Reverse characters − From 2.15 onwards, there is a keyboard short-cut
that I have been asking for since I started using Impression in earnest
− swap characters. If you press <ctrl-shift-Q>, the two characters
either side of the cursor swap places. This is very helpful because it
allows you to correct, very quickly, one of the most common tpying
errors! − PB
5.6
•    Single word spelling check − If you want to check the spelling of a
single word, you don’t need to select the whole word − just place the
cursor somewhere in the word and use <ctrl-W>. (I suppose everyone
except me knew that anyway!) I find that this speeds things up
especially if, as you are typing, you get to a word that you don’t know
how to spell; all you do is to have a go at typing the word and then,
before you press space or full-stop, press <ctrl-W>. If it is incor
rectly spelt, it is selected and the spelling box appears with,
hopefully, a guess at the right spelling. Click on “Replace” and away
you go.
5.6
Also, if, while you are typing, you get a spelling error bleep then, as
long as you haven’t started to type the next word, you can press <ctrl-
W> and correct the erroneous word. − PB.
5.6
•    Avoiding smart quotes − In the magazine, I like to use “smart quotes”
rather than plain quotes but they look a little funny on program
listings. If I want to paste in an article which contains programs as
well as straight text, I have a problem. Either I can switch smart
quotes OFF on the Preferences list and then edit them into the text or I
can leave it ON but edit them out of the listing. Then I had a brain-
wave (-storm?). I realised that the only time I use the Corpus font is
for program listings, so I never need to have smart quotes in that font.
All I did, therefore, (well, Adrian did for me) was to load Corpus into
FontEd (Careware 7) and edit the smart quotes so that they are the same
as the normal quotes. This can be done by editing each smart quote in
turn and copying the plain quote into its place. − PB.
5.6
• Rotating sprites − Draw-files can be rotated within Impression but, in
the normal course of things, not sprites, scanned pictures or bit-image
clip-art etc, unless Enhanced Graphics is switched on. This is hidden
away in Preferences, the one in the icon-bar menu, not the one in the
Document sub-menu. It is effective immediately and does not need to be
saved as a preference option. (When switched on it also automatically
switches on Greyscale Dithering but that can be switched off again if
not wanted.) Scanned images etc can then be rotated inside Impression by
entering an angle in the Alter Frame box. Remember also, when subse
quently reloading the file, to switch on the Enhanced Graphics again,
(if it’s not saved as a preference) as this won’t happen automatically.
− PD. You can also rotate the image by dragging within the graphic frame
using <adjust>. − RS.
5.6
• Spurious form-feeds − Using dot matrix printers (e.g. FX80) you may
get an extra form-feed between pages when printing a multi-page
document. The solution, (thanks to Alan Williams of Acorn, Melbourne,
for this one) is to set Scale in the ‘Print’ box to 97 or 98%. No
further problem! − PD.
5.6
• The underline trap − If you set up underline when creating a Style,
maybe for a sub-heading, do not try later to remove the underline with
<shift-ctrl-U>. Probably nothing at all happens but, sometimes, the
screen goes inverse and panic reigns until Reset is pressed! − PD. I
tried without success to repeat this problem with release 2.16, but
<shift-ctrl-U> caused no ill effect. It did not cancel the underlined
style either, which I guess is correct. − RS.
5.6
• ¼ ½ ¾ characters − These are available on <alt-188>, <alt-189> and
<alt-190> respectively in the main fonts − Trinity, Pembroke, Homerton
etc and several others but by no means all. Many fonts conform in
general, but with omissions, to the character set laid out in Appendix 5
of the manual. Most contain a bullet (•) on <alt-143>, (or <shift-ctrl-
H>) and a decimal point (·) on <alt-183>. The ones that don’t, Optima
and Hull for instance, have their bullet on <alt-183> and a different
set of characters in the row 128 to 159 including, for instance, TM. In
general, there seem to be two main variations for this row while System
is completely on its own. The characters in 160 to 255 appear more or
less standard across the board where they are present, though most fonts
omit some and some (PD and magazine fonts particularly) omit most if not
all the top-bit-set characters, save for the £ symbol. With <alt-215>
and <alt­247> it’s a toss-up whether you get × and ÷, or Œ and œ, or
nothing at all. (!Chars in Impression’s Utils directory is a useful
reference but much better is Beebug’s !CharSel which looks identical but
has a pointer showing the character number.) − PD.
5.6
• Fit lots − If you want to know or have forgotten what it means, it
does not appear in the index. You will find it on p.144 on the last, and
easily missed, page of ‘Print’. − PD.
5.6
• Frames − How to put a frame around an existing chunk of text? You
can’t! The only way is to move the chunk to the clipboard, create the
frame and then copy it back in. − PD. You can also create a number of
new frames which fill the area occupied by the old frame, click in the
old frame area and then press <adjust> in the new frames. Text will then
flow from the old frame into the new one and, if you stretch the new
frames so that there is no printable area left in the original frame,
the desired effect can be achieved. − RS.
5.6
• Master pages − It seemed perfectly logical to me to press ‘New
Chapter’ on the key-strip when I wanted to start a fresh document with
other than the default master page. I got the new master page all right
− as well as the default page I didn’t want and found no way to get rid
of it. (You need to move to the unwanted chapter, then use <menu>
<Edit><Delete Chapter>. − RS) You can alter the current chapter to use a
different master page by using ‘Alter Chapter’ which is not on the key-
strip. The key short cut is <shift-ctrl-A>. Be aware that if you are
viewing the master pages when trying to do this, you will find ‘Alter
Chapter’ greyed-out on the Edit sub-menu. The answer is to go back to
the document page, remembering which number master page is wanted and
try again there. Also note that if you want to use one of the three-
column master pages, (numbers 7 or 8) remember the default frames are
only Guides and you must create new frames before anything can be typed
in. − PD.
5.6
• Guide frames − It is really most provoking, having carefully followed
the manual to find the screen blandly refusing to operate as stated. Can
anyone suggest why my guide frames do not remain visible? I create them,
(sub-menu New Frame) on the document page or on the master page, click
elsewhere and they just vanish. They are not a lot of use if I can’t see
them, so which little hidden detail in the manual have I failed to
register, please? − PD. Guide frames are always positioned as the
rearmost (back) frame on the page. If you make sure all text /graphic
frames on the page are local frames (<menu><frame> <alter frame><make
local>) and then reduce these in size, you will see the yellow guide
frames that you had created. Guide frames are mainly of use when setting
up a master page, though. − RS. Am I missing something here? Can’t you
just make it visible by using <ctrl-F10> to alter the frame and changing
from a white background to transparent? − PB.
5.6
(By the way, I hadn’t come across the idea of turning a master frame
into a local frame. If you hadn’t either, read up in the Impression
manual on page 84 then have a play with it − it could prove a useful
facility. − PB)
5.6
• Font cache full error − Even with the cache set to a ridiculous size,
750k or more, this error recurred and anyway, isn’t the cache itself
supposed to clear enough space for a new font if necessary? I found that
some silly PD game had unplugged SpriteUtils module and restoring it
seemed to resolve the difficulty. It’s not only PD games that do this −
the demo version of Cataclysm sent out by Archimedes World unplugs
virtually everything including the Font Manager. Even a power off /on
will not restore unplugged modules. If you aren’t sure whether anything
has been unplugged, type *UNPLUG and it will list any unplugged modules.
− RS.
5.6
• Rule off errors − The Impression manual is a bit short on advice when
the package refuses to do what it should and it is totally silent on the
subject of errors. What do you do for instance when the machine throws
at you: “Overflow while transforming point, print aborted” ? I had been
trying to print a landscape document containing a few vertical rules.
Later, I noticed one of the rules slightly projecting beyond the edge of
the frame. I went to the Style Edit box and switched ‘Rule-off’ on, and
set it to 0pt. I must have done something right − the next time I tried,
it produced a perfect print-out! − PD
5.6
• Shift and control symbols − Patrick sent a detailed account of using
!FontDraw to generate a graphical representation of the <shift> and
<control> keys − as they appear in Impression menus − and then continued
to incorporate these into embedded frames at 30 or so points in his
text. He also asked if there was an easier way? − PD. Yes there is. Use
the Acorn Font Editor and David Pilling’s D2Font Drawfile to font
converter which is on the same disk as his Trace program (now available
through Archive for £6). You will end up with a new outline font which
can be used within Impression just like any other font and which can be
used within a style and assigned to a function key to turn it on and
off. If anyone has the time to do this, please would they send Archive a
copy of the resulting font for the magazine disk? − RS.
5.6
• Find within a group of frames − If the currently selected frame is a
group of frames then the <find text> menu option is unavailable. To make
it available, select a frame that does not contain a group and which
contains at least one letter, (or create such a frame and text character
if necessary). Then, to find or replace throughout the document
(including all grouped frames), turn on the <whole document> button in
the <find> dialogue box, and use find or replace as normal. − SK.
5.6
The Readers Write!
5.6
In fairness to Ovation
5.6
− Q: Chris Wragg writes with concern at Archive’s “undisguised bias”
against Ovation. He would like to hear from other Ovation users, and
lists several features of Ovation he is very pleased with. Firstly he
does not like scrolling menus as used for some Impression features (e.g.
the Style editor) and prefers Ovation’s non-scrolling equivalent.
Secondly, he prefers the fact that Ovation does not require a dongle
hanging off the back of his machine and, thirdly, he prefers Ovation’s
price at two thirds that of Impression. He asks Archive to encourage
competition rather than a monopoly
5.6
− A: There is no deliberate policy of prejudice in the editing of
Archive magazine. In fact, regular “appeals” have been printed in
Archive magazine for readers to supply hints and tips relating to the
products they are using. We receive five or six “tips” a month relating
to Impression but none relating to Ovation. There is no censorship.
There just appear to be no Ovation users prepared to contribute to the
magazine. So please write again (to me) with dozens of hints and tips
from your use of Ovation, and we’ll gladly print them and perhaps start
an Ovation Hints and Tips column if there is enough interest from other
Ovation users. We would also like to print short articles relating to
the use of Ovation in producing quality DTP material. Also feel free to
use the DTP “swap” area to exchange material you have produced using
Ovation.
5.6
Richard Hallas who has produced the bulk of the DTP Column this month
has both Impression and Ovation and agrees with you that Ovation is an
excellent product and that there are capabilities within both Impression
and Ovation that neither share. − RS.
5.6
More style for Impression?
5.6
− Q: Steve Kirkby from Surrey asks whether there is a way (using
Impression) of merging a set of styles from one document into another
with the option of the second set of styles automatically overwriting /
updating the first set? He is fed up with deleting Basestyle2, Bold2,
Underline2 etc ad nauseam.
5.6
− A: No. Not unless CC have something up their sleeves they haven’t told
Archive about yet. − RS.
5.6
DTP Swap Area
5.6
This area contains the names and addresses of “new” people who have
agreed to swap DTP material they have published. The aim of this is to
improve one another’s skills by the exchange of printed ideas. No money
should change hands.
5.6
If you want to “swap” with anyone, you must first publish your name and
address and area of interest, and then write directly to whoever you
want to do a “swap” with. Archive may publish a directory of “swappers”
if there is significant interest in this area. The other “rules” were
printed in Archive 5.5 p25.
5.6
Over the last month, Rob Sherratt has received several dozen “swaps”
with short letters and often disks attached. He will undertake to
personally “swap” some of his own material for that received. However,
nowhere in the letters do most of the writers indicate that they wish
their own name and address to be published in the Archive “swap” area −
and this was one of the “rules” published in last month’s magazine.
5.6
You must agree to publish your own name and address and area of “swap”
interest before asking people to swap with you. Unsolicited “swap
requests” are forbidden! Because many of those people writing to Rob
Sherratt have not given their permission for their particulars to appear
in print, they are not listed below. This is a great shame because the
list of swappers would, by now, have been several dozen.
5.6
New names and details:
5.6
George Foot has a keen interest in Public Key Cryptography and produces
the magazine “The Public Key” on his Archimedes using Impression. He
will “swap” with anyone interested in his DTP style and in cryptography.
His address is Waterfall, Uvedale Road, Oxted, Surrey  RH8 0EW.
5.6
Richard Hallas (DTP editor for this month), is very interested in all
areas of DTP, but particularly in music typesetting. In his business, he
has produced much printed material including cards, note paper and
dissertations (with musical inserts within the text), and would like to
offer samples of these as swaps. Also, if anyone needs help on musical
aspects of DTP then Richard is willing to be contacted directly at his
address which is 31 Skelton Crescent, Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, West
Yorkshire  HD4 5PN. [Please note however that if you would like your
correspondence and any answers to be published in the Archive DTP
Column, your letters should be addressed to the DTP Column’s coordinator
(Rob Sherratt) − address at the end of this column.]
5.6
W.B.Rees is interested in doing swaps of Church Magazines, and as well
as the usual DTP set-up, he runs the “Biblesoft PC Study Bible” under
the PC emulator, which helps in preparation of study notes, etc. His
address is 8 Park Terrace, Tenby, Dyfed  SA70 7LY.
5.6
Peter Blenkinsop would like to swap material produced in the science and
IT area for secondary education. He is particularly interested in years
9 to 11 for Suffolk Coordinated Science (Key stage 4). He has developed
student booklets for all the physics units (using Impression). Has
anyone done the rest? His address is 5 Leggatts Close, Watford, Herts
WD2 6BG.
5.6
Keith Burrage uses Ovation to produce Christian literature for BYFC and
local churches. His business is called “Christian Technical Services”.
He would like to swap literature such as his ReMarks newsletter for St
Mark’s church. He would like to see an objective comparison table drawn
up between Ovation and Impression. (Richard Hallas − help please?). His
address is 9, Peartree Court, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire  AL7
3XN.
5.6
Points of Style
5.6
We hope to devote the Points of Style section of the DTP Column to
specific topics concerning the construction of different kinds of
documents using DTP software: posters, leaflets, pamphlets, brochures
and the like should all come under the spotlight at some point or other.
However, a good starting point before we embark on the former topics is
to look at some basic English grammar, since a good understanding of the
way our language works is fundamental to desktop publishing. This
month’s Points of Style is therefore devoted to a piece of punctuation
which most of us get wrong from time to time.
5.6
The apostrophe
5.6
Incorrect use of apostrophes can mar DTP work which is otherwise of a
very high standard. All leading Archimedes publications get it wrong
from time to time, and although Archive is one of the best on correct
use of grammar, occasional mistakes’ (sic) still creep through! (That
one didn’t slip through! Ed)
5.6
There are numerous different situations in which the apostrophe should
be used.
5.6
•    To indicate possession:
5.6
    Archive’s discerning readership is correct; Richards book is not.
5.6
•    To form contractions.
5.6
This is where a single word is shortened, or two or more words are
brought together into one. Contractions (or elisions) may involve
certain verbs (such as I’m for I am and You’re for You are) or nouns
(such as ma’am for madam − involving just one word − or o’clock, for of
the clock − involving three words). For example, isn’t is correct but
isnt isn’t! In modern usage, it is permissible to omit a leading
apostrophe from common words which are used in their abbreviated forms:
it is no longer considered necessary to write ’phone when you mean
telephone, or ’pram when you mean perambulator, as these forms now look
rather pedantic.
5.6
•    To abbreviate dates, although this is an optional usage.
5.6
It is correct to write the ’90s, meaning the 1990s, but it is just as
correct (and more modern) to simply write the 90s. Generally, using an
apostrophe to pluralise a date − the 1990’s − is just about acceptable
(it is an old usage which is becoming unfashionable), whereas the ’90’s
is very ungainly. The best advice is to leave apostrophes out of dates
altogether.
5.6
•    To pluralise single letters, numerals and symbols.
5.6
    Southern Upholstery Sale!!! Save £££’s!!!
5.6
    There are two 3’s in 33.
5.6
    There are two a’s in this sentence.
5.6
All three of these examples are correct but, in modern usage, the
apostrophe could be omitted from the first two, since it is more
indicative of possession than plurality. The third example obviously
does require the apostrophe: if it were removed, the sentence would be
nonsensical.
5.6
The use of apostrophes with plurals should normally be avoided at all
costs, the rare exceptions being those mentioned above.
5.6
A common cause of confusion in the computer press (pay attention, Paul!)
is the use of apostrophes with objects which contain digits in their
names. For example, writing A5000’s are now in stock is absolutely
wrong. A5000 is, effectively, a noun, and should not be treated like a
date or a single digit.
5.6
(Perhaps I’m being a bit thick, but I don’t see why that is “absolutely
wrong” whereas “two 3’s in 33” is acceptable. Would “There are three
30’s in 90” be correct? Then how about “three 3000’s in 9000”? Ed)
5.6
Another common source of error is the difference between its and it’s.
Here, the apostrophe (as you would expect) indicates contraction rather
than possession; it’s is short for it is. Therefore, you would be
correct to write It’s a sunny day and The cat licked its paw, but not
Its a sunny day or The cat licked it’s paw. (This would expand to The
cat licked it is paw.) A similarly incorrect form which is found quite
often is the superfluous insertion of an apostrophe into a possessive
adjective: you would be correct to write Sheila’s kangaroo, but you
should never write The kangaroo is her’s.
5.6
•    To create the past tense of a verb which is itself an abbreviation:
5.6
    He OK’d the proposal
5.6
    Tyson KO’d Bruno in the fourth round.
5.6
These are both correct. However, if written out in full, the apostrophe
would of course not be used.
5.6
A final difficulty is knowing which side of an s to put the apostrophe.
For example, mothers’ refers to more than one mother (e.g. Mothers’
Union) whereas mother’s refers to a particular woman (e.g. this mother’s
child). For singular nouns or names ending in s, the final s is better
removed: the Archimedes’ printer drivers is better than the Archimedes’s
printer drivers.
5.6
I hope that this article has helped clear up some doubts in people’s
(note the use of the apostrophe!) minds. The apostrophe is probably the
most badly used punctuation mark in our language, and I hope that this
article has served as a reminder for those readers whose memories of
English lessons are not as cloudless as they might be!
5.6
The Font Book
5.6
Richard Hallas wrote an excellent review of Toby Richards’ Font Book
which he had written in parallel with Stuart Watson, apparently, but due
to the fact that Stuart Watson’s review appeared last month, I have not
been able to print all of Richard’s text. For the most part, the text I
have omitted is in agreement with what was printed last month and I just
print Richard’s conclusion which does not fully agree with Stuart’s. In
future, could everyone who plans to review or contribute any substantial
material relating to DTP, contact Rob Sherratt who will try to make sure
this waste of effort does not happen again? − Ed.
5.6
The Font Book is nicely produced and contains some very good material
along with some sensible advice, but I have to say that it could have
been made a lot better by the addition of more extensively detailed
sections for the technically-minded, the omission of some rather
unnecessary sections, and a description of more up-to-date software. It
is, in fact, very much a beginners’ book, and will provide the inexperi
enced with a good introduction, but experienced users will find little
in it of real use. However, the asking price is not excessive, given the
limited market, and the free font disc is a very good reason for buying
the book, and will be even more so when it has been updated.
5.6
Italic − A Font Utility
5.6
This is a font utility from Design Concept, 30 South Oswald Road,
Edinburgh  EH9 2HG. It costs £10 plus £2 p&p (£3 overseas). Written by
Roger Spooner, its purpose is to create new fonts from old, and it will
rotate, stretch and slant your existing fonts to create new versions.
5.6
In fact, it would strictly have been more correct to call the program
Oblique, since no computer program could ever create a true italic font,
which requires quite different forms for many of the letters. This minor
point aside, the program actually does much more than you might expect
of it from the title, since you can enter a formula for the way the
output font is to be transformed, not just how much it is slanted.
5.6
Once it is loaded onto the icon bar, you can enter four details into a
small dialogue box: the suffix to be appended to the existing font name
to create the new one; a ‘Gradient’ setting, which just provides a
constant for use in the equations; and values into ‘Y=’ and ‘X=’
equation slots. For example, the default setting of x=x+(y*Grad) and y=y
will create an oblique font whose slant is dictated by the Grad setting;
x=−y and y=x will create a font which goes upwards. You can use more
complicated equations with trigonometric functions to rotate fonts, and
various examples are provided.
5.6
Having set the options, you drag a font folder onto the Italic icon and
wait for a few seconds while your new font is created. That’s all there
is to it; it’s very simple and easy to use.
5.6
The one major drawback with the review version of Italic is that it
completely ignores scaffold data in the font; the altered font has all
its points disconnected, and it is left to the user to move and
reconnect the scaffold lines if he wishes − a task which is indescrib
ably tedious. However, in practice this makes little difference to the
appearance of the font when printed.
5.6
On balance, this little utility is excellent and is good value for
money.
5.6
News from BETT ’92
5.6
Rob Sherratt
5.6
Of major interest to the DTP Column besides the Computer Concepts stand
(see the News and Views section of the DTP Column) were changes that
Digital Services have introduced to their Squirrel database, and the new
RISC-OS compliant version of LinCAD launched by Linear Graphics.
5.6
Squirrel and Mailmerge with Impression
5.6
Digital Services’ Squirrel database has undergone some enhancements
since its review in Archive 5.2 p62, and Digital Services were demon
strating a version which provided Mail Merge output of text data into
Impression.
5.6
Squirrel is a blindingly fast and user friendly database capable of
storing any Archimedes file (text, graphics, sound) − but not appli
cation directories or Impression documents. It is constructed as a
‘client/server’ pair, and is capable of operating over Econet − your
machine running the ‘client’ front end, and the server sitting somewhere
else containing the company’s data. Full multi-user file and record
protection and locking schemes are provided.
5.6
Take a database file containing 10,000 names and addresses. Look up
‘Jones’; the 60 records are found instantly (no perceptible delay). This
is due to the fact that every field (not just the first) is indexed
using a B-tree direct look-up algorithm. It’s only if you asked Squirrel
to look up records using a leading ‘wild card’ (e.g. find ‘*ones’) that
it has to search and compare every record in the database and, of
course, that takes time.
5.6
On the question of whether “mail merge” of graphical information into
Impression could be provided, and whether support for Application
directories and Impression files could be added in future; Digital
Services said they were interested in doing this, although they were
obviously constrained by the size of the user base at present.
5.6
If you want a fast and powerful database for the Archimedes, have a look
at Squirrel which costs £140 inc VAT from Archive.
5.6
Linear Graphics’ LinCAD
5.6
This is a fully featured RISC-OS compliant CAD package for the Archi
medes. It provides facilities such as automatic dimensioning and
labelling of objects; automatic isometric and extruded projections of
objects; automatic construction of ‘repeat patterns’ (e.g. brickwork);
full colour capability (but not fills); background printing utility via
plotters; scalable text − rotation and path following; and support for
RISC-OS printers (but not backgrounding yet!). Files are saved in Draw
format, which means areas can be colour filled later, and the results
can be imported into DTP packages.
5.6
The price was £150 plus VAT for a single user licence, with various
library packs (e.g. Kitchen design, Electronics, Pneumatics) at £35
each. We will be printing a full review of the product in the April
issue of Archive.
5.6
DTP Contributions
5.6
A few “hiccups” here as we get the new DTP Column running smoothly.
Firstly, please don’t expect Rob or one of the other DTP editors to be
able to write individual letters in reply. There just aren’t enough
hours in the day to answer over 20 letters a week individually. We all
have full time jobs as well as doing the Archive DTP bit as a hobby!
However, we will always print a summary of material you send in provided
it is of general relevance to Archive readers.
5.6
We are always grateful to people who feel able to send in long articles,
but please phone Rob first, to make sure your work will not be dupli
cated by someone else. Please could longish articles or letters be sent
in with an accompanying disk to save us re-typing it all? We will return
disks if you send an S.A.E.
5.6
Forgive us if the “incentives” do not appear to be great. However, your
work will appear in print for the benefit of other Archive readers and
you will be helping to promote the “user community” feel which Archive
has always sought to promote.
5.6
The address for all contributions and questions for the DTP Column is:
Rob Sherratt, 134 High Road West, Felixstowe, Suffolk  IP11 9AL.  A
5.6

5.6
DOS Benchmarking & PC Emulator 1.6
5.6
Lawrence Brightman
5.6
I had originally intended to write an article about benchmarking
different DOS versions in order to see which one would run the fastest
using the new version 1.6 of Acorn’s PC emulator for the Archimedes.
However, as I told different people about it, interest seemed to spread
beyond just the Archimedes owners that I knew. I also tested DOS
versions on other than Archimedes’, i.e. 80286 and ’386 PCs from various
manufacturers, ones that the Archimedes has to compete against in the
marketplace. In the course of doing the benchmarking, I came across
incompatibilities that the new emulator had with certain features in the
latest DOS versions.
5.6
The results of the benchmarks, which took several months, are shown
below. All are times in seconds, i.e. larger numbers = slower speed.
5.6
The incompatibilities of the new emulator with the new DOS versions are
as follows:
5.6
• QBasic, the new Basic interpreter in MS-DOS 5, does not work. Because
the new text editor is written in QBasic, the text editor won’t work
either, which means the awful Edlin has to be used, unless you have some
other decent DOS editor. The previous emulators also had a problem with
DOS Basic and were very particular with what versions they ran. DR-DOS 6
doesn’t even bother with supplying a Basic interpreter, so there is no
problem here.
5.6
• Memory managers such as HIMEM.SYS will not work. You can get ABOVE
DISC, which is an older third party memory manager, to run as an
expanded memory manager, using either a hard disc or a ram disc as
expanded memory. The problem here is that it claims about 100k of your
main memory when you run it, so you have less for those programs (which
are, sadly, the majority) which only recognize the standard 640k.
5.6
The main problem here is the type of chip which Acorn chose to emulate,
the 80188. I hope that at least the 80386 will be used in future
versions, so that it could be made to recognize extended memory more
effectively, and so use more of the available RAM in a 4M Archimedes, as
well as allow multitasking in Windows 3. For this reason, we cannot use
one of the main advantages of these new DOS versions, the ability to
‘loadhigh’ system drivers and other parts of DOS into high memory,
thereby increasing the usable amount of 640k base memory.
5.6
• Task switchers which swap programs to disc in MS-DOS 5 and to either
disc or extended memory in DR-DOS 6 work, but only by swapping to disc
(hard disc only).
5.6
• DOSKEY, the command line keystroke recaller, works properly in MS-DOS
5 but I cannot get it to work in DR-DOS 6.
5.6
• Mode commands, which can effectively increase the number of lines you
get on screen, do work for up to 43 lines, but not 50. This holds for
both MS-DOS 5 and DR-DOS.
5.6
• Superstore, the data compression utility in DR-DOS 6 does work. With
this installed, real time compression is achieved, so you get an
effective doubling of disc capacity on hard discs. I am currently
running a 20M partition on my 50M hard disc, but through the use of this
utility, I have closer to 40M for DOS. The benchmark above in DR-DOS 6
was using this utility and, as you can see, it is only about 20% slower
than normal. This utility is available separately as Stacker, but I
cannot see the point of paying close to £100 when you can get it free as
part of DR-DOS 6, which costs less than half the price.  A
5.6

5.6
TEST            MS-DOS 3.3    DR-DOS 5    MS-DOS 5    DR-DOS6
5.6
Composite
5.6
  Ackermann    27.36    28.02
27.42    29.56
5.6
  Sieve    154.56    154.78    154.50
167.47
5.6
  Whetstones    36.70    30.50
30.22    33.63
5.6
Calculation
5.6
  Integer Math    3.02    2.69
2.69    2.91
5.6
  Trigonmetry    10.38    13.57
10.32    10.93
5.6
  Floating Point    0.54    0.55
0.49    0.54
5.6
  Pi Calculation     281.87283.35
280.32    307.14
5.6
Screen Writing
5.6
  ANSI Text    401.75    98.24
104.06    75.77
5.6
  Plain Text    106.70    84.72
86.26    63.90
5.6
  Graphics    165.43    165.43
164.50    181.70
5.6
Storage
5.6
  Store    8.90    10.008.57    11.98
5.6

5.6
Bambuzle
5.6
Geoff Scott
5.6
The aim of the game is quite simple. Each of the fifty levels in
Bambuzle consist of a single static screen. On each level, there is a
network of pods interconnected by pipes. You have to fill up each of the
pods with four balls of the same colour. The coloured balls run along
the network of pipes and are collected by the pod at the end of the pipe
as long as the pod has a free space. If there is already a ball
occupying that space in the pod then both of the balls will be
destroyed. When a pod has four balls in it, all of the same colour, the
pod will explode. When you have exploded every pod on the screen you
will have completed the level. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
5.6
Well think again. Just to make life even harder for you there are
several traps included along the pipes. These include tiles which change
the colour of the ball travelling along the pipes, and tiles which will
only allow balls of a certain colour to go past. Combined with the
already difficult job of filling each pod, these traps certainly mean
you have your work cut out for you.
5.6
Having played the first half a dozen levels, I felt that the game was
destined to fall into the group of having played-it-once-and-completed-
it. However, after the initial warm-up levels, I had to think again −
there was life in the game yet! The game soon became very challenging
and enjoyable and the hardest part was trying to concentrate on about
four different areas of the screen at once.
5.6
There were, however, quite a few points about this game which I thought
let it down quite a lot.
5.6
To start with, there was the age-old moan about having such a long time
to wait between games. Having to wait for all of the fancy scrolling
displays between each of the games soon becomes a bit of a drag.
5.6
Also, I found that having to save your name to disc each time you gain a
high score, was also rather time consuming. I think the game would be
greatly improved by being able to start each game quicker and by being
given the option as to whether or not you want to save your name to disc
when you obtain a high score. The game would be a lot quicker to load,
and save high scores too, if you could put it onto hard disc but the
copy protection stops you being able to do so.
5.6
The worst part of the whole game is that, in the much later levels, no
matter how skilful and fast you are, you also have to rely too much on
luck to get you through the levels. Because you are racing against the
clock, if there is a situation where you need a certain number of balls
of a particular colour in a certain amount of time, it doesn’t matter
how fast you are, if the right coloured balls don’t happen to come
along, you can’t complete that level.
5.6
The only other thing missing from the game, as far as I can see, is a
ball speed control making the balls travel either faster or slower.
5.6
Mind you, having got all of the moans out of the way, I must say that I
found this game thoroughly enjoyable and very challenging. I would say
that it is definitely worth considering adding this to your collection.
(Bambuzle is £19.95 from Arxe Systems or £19 through Archive.)  A
5.6

5.6
Multi-Media Column
5.6
Ian Lynch
5.6
Unfortunately, pressure of work has prevented the production of a Multi-
media Column for several months. I hope to get back into the swing of
things now, although I can’t guarantee to have something every month.
5.6
Engineering vs DTP?
5.6
In last month’s Archive, I came across “W(h)ither Archimedes” (p15) in
which the author laments the lack of engineering support for the
machine. He draws the conclusion that since PCs have improved greatly
over the years, the ARM machines are becoming less competitive. I think
this illustrates an important point about computers which is often not
given sufficient consideration. Some machines are better at some things
than others and it depends on what you want to do as to how important
certain things are. Desktop publishing has become such a talking point
on the Acorn platform because it has volume application and RISC-OS
(particularly RISC-OS 3) in conjunction with ARM3 make an ideal platform
for applications such as Impression. Add to this direct drive laser
printers and you will find that the price and Macs and PCs will take
time to catch up particularly because of the inertia created by their
current ways of doing things.
5.6
In professional engineering, the writer says that multi-tasking is not
such an advantage, and perhaps the built-in maths coprocessors in 486s
also give PCs an advantage. This is possibly why this aspect of ARM
software applications has not developed as well as some might have
liked. However, there are plenty of inexpensive engineering applications
for schools who do not want the complexity of AutoCad (even if they
could afford it). It all comes back to relevance and suitability for the
task. I predict that the diversity of operating systems will increase
not decrease and that the PC panacea of technological uniformity will be
seen to be just as unattainable as communism has proved to be in
political spheres.
5.6
Multi-media
5.6
So what has this to do with multi-media? Well simply that it is becoming
a potentially volume seller which is ideally suited to the type of set
up that the Archimedes supports. Unlike DTP, multi-media is a lot less
well defined and we are still at a stage where there are lots of clever
pieces of hardware and software about, some of which do not do too much
from a practical point of view but which have great potential. It may
well be that multi-media is simply a generic term which covers a whole
host of technologies with a wide variety of applications.
5.6
Portable multi-media
5.6
I recently had a demonstration of a Dolch 486 portable multi-media
workstation. It had a built-in CD-ROM with specialised de-compression
hardware, Windows-M (the multi-media version of Windows 3), a sound
card, thin film transistor (TFT) colour screen etc. Apart from portabil
ity, it represents the top end of MS-DOS multi-media and cost several
times the price of an A5000. Some part of this cost was the colour
screen. LCD screens are no good for moving pictures because of slow
refresh rates and so an expensive TFT screen is employed.
5.6
Marketing
5.6
Should Acorn be marketing multi-media portables then? I think not,
certainly not in the short term, for the reasons outlined earlier. The
strength of the machine is in low-cost volume markets such as education
and training where they already have an established base. There are
several authoring systems available, !Genesis, !Magpie, !Avanti, !Key
Author to name but four. What is now required is a lot of low-cost
applications which support specific objectives such as “science in the
national curriculum” or “language learning for business”.
5.6
Positive or negative?
5.6
On the plus side, there are a lot of you out there quite capable of
putting together multi-media applications and making a few bob selling
them. There are some very good tools such as !Draw, !Tween and !Euclid
which are low cost and enable the authoring of some very professional
multi-media products quickly and efficiently.
5.6
Unfortunately, there are problems too. First, the disc space taken up by
any reasonable application is large. This is can be a particular problem
with 800k floppies and, as yet, very few people have the new high
density drives. Distribution on CD-ROM is not a viable proposition
unless you can afford the cost of pressing discs and there are, again,
relatively few CD-ROM users though the price of CD-ROM drives has fallen
and they could become as common as hard discs in the near future.
Syquest cartridges are too expensive and again relatively few people
have Syquest drives.
5.6
Another problem related to storage is speed. I suspect that the A3000
without a hard disc and situated in a school is the typical Acorn
machine. Multi-media applications usually benefit greatly from speed of
data transfer (a major headache for CD-ROM development) as well as
space, and ARM2 and a single floppy is not a good combination. The
application developed on an A540 may not run at all satisfactorily on a
1M A3000 with bit-mapped fonts and a single floppy.
5.6
These problems are not confined to the ARM world − try running a recent
PC flight simulator on an early XT, or Quark Express 3 on a Mac Classic
with a single floppy − but it does provide a dilemma for developers. On
the one hand it would be nice to stimulate the state of the art market
and, on the other, sufficient sales volumes are needed.
5.6
An assumption of ARM2 with a standard resolution monitor, a single
floppy, outline fonts with Homerton and Trinity available, is reason
able. 2M RAM is also becoming a must for any realistic work in multi-
media.
5.6
What’s new?
5.6
Well, perhaps not brand new, but I have now got a copy of !Magpie from
Longmon Logotron and Key Author from Anglia TV for review. !Magpie is
very similar to Genesis I, but first impressions are that the graphics
in the demonstrations are much more attractive. This is more to do with
the artistic ability of the author than anything inherent in the
software, I suspect, but it does provide that professional touch.
Genesis II is certainly more flexible when it comes to customised
applications because of the script language and it benefits from volume
of sales owing to being in the market first and its connection with the
Learning Curve. Like Genesis, Magpie includes an application to enable
non-Magpie owners to look at applications distributed by authors.
5.6
Key Author is produced by Anglia TV and makes use of the fact that there
are many Key and Key Plus data files in existence owing to the develop
ment on the BBC micro. I haven’t as yet had time to have a detailed look
at this but I will say more about both !Magpie and Key Author in future
columns.
5.6
Acorn
5.6
Acorn have themselves produced a system for compressing video and
replaying it from disc or CD-ROM in the form of ARMovies. For those
without the facilities to get video tape materials to digital format, a
company called Uniqueway Ltd (0222−615782) will compress video from a
variety of sources at a cost of £100 per minute. Applications such as
!Magpie already have desktop video buttons for replaying and contolling
these films in a window on the desktop.
5.6
Irlam Instruments
5.6
Irlam Instruments use a different approach to get live video on the
desktop. They have produced a board which digitises video from a camera,
tape or analogue laserdisc and displays it directly in a scalable window
on the RISC-OS desktop. Since all the work is done on the board, there
is very little taken from the ARM, so things do not slow down and a full
24-bit colour palette can be made available, vastly improving the range
of colours. This approach is relatively expensive with the board costing
over £1000 but it does provide a very sophisticated digitiser and frame
store. I have heard that Wild Vision are also working on a similar
product.
5.6
Endproc
5.6
Well that’s all for this month. If you have any ideas or contributions,
please write to: 1 Melford, off Buckingham Road, Tamworth  B79 7UX.  A
5.6

5.6
PipeLine
5.6
Gerald Fitton
5.6
Whether you are a PipeDream user or not I have some general advice for
everyone this month − so read on. However, first a few comments
specifically for PipeDream users.
5.6
PipeDream 4 version
5.6
Version 4.12 was issued on 10th February 1992. If you have not already
done so then send both your PD 4 and your Examples disc to Colton
Software for your free upgrade. Mark the envelope ‘Enhanced Charts
Upgrade’.
5.6
Well, my prediction that version 4.12 would be with you before the end
of January 1992 was just a little optimistic. I also predicted that at
least three quarters of our PipeLine user group would have ‘converted’
their PipeLine subscription from PL3 to PL4 before receiving the
February Archive. The current figure is 78%. PD 4 is popular. The
general view of those who have not yet upgraded is that the upgrade from
PD3 to PD4 costs more than you would have wished (doesn’t everything?)
so you are going to wait and see. The view of those who have upgraded is
that it is worth the price they paid for it!
5.6
It is interesting that the most positive comments are about the new,
easier to use GUI (Graphic Users Interface), the spreadsheet custom
functions, arrays, names and other new features rather than the much
publicised graphics (charts) − perhaps you haven’t got around to using
them yet? I delayed writing this column with the intention of making the
‘Enhanced Charts Upgrade’ of version 4.12 charts my ‘feature of the
month’ and I have ‘had a go’ but not sufficiently to produce a reason
able article. However, regarding the charts, I do like what I see and
will write more soon.
5.6
Consideration of version 4.12 brings me round to Trend from last month.
My ‘Trend’ application, included on the February Archive disc, does work
in version 4.11 but doesn’t work properly in version 4.12. What happens
is that PD 4 gets into a loop and runs out of memory! I think the
problem is that, in version 4.12, the way I have used the set_value(,)
function looks like a circular reference but it didn’t in 4.11. However,
nothing terrible happens and, by clicking on the slot with the circular
reference and then on the green tick, the apparent circular reference
and its associated memory problem disappears. I have used set_value(,)
this way in other applications which I have sent to correspondents
because I thought it was a good way of doing what they wanted. If, when
you get your version 4.12, you have problems with set_value(,) in files
I have sent you, then at least there is a work around. I have asked
Robert Macmillan to look into this ‘new’ problem. We might have to find
a way of eliminating the circular reference.
5.6
Page widths
5.6
Thanks to all of you who sent me printouts of a 50 character width file.
I can now say quite categorically that if you set up a column 50
characters wide (using <Ctrl W> and <Ctrl H> both set to 50) then, using
RISC-OS printer drivers, this will print to a width of 111.5mm (about
4.38“ in Imperial units). Following on from this, the 72 character width
which is so popular with many of you, because it just fits a mode 12
screen, will print to a width of 160mm (6.3”). A4 is about 210mm wide
so, if you want a balanced margin then you need a 25mm margin on each
side. Some of this margin will be built into the page definition of your
!PrinterLJ (or !PrinterDM etc), but if you make those ‘lost’ margins
equal to zero then 25mm = 11 PipeDream characters.
5.6
StartUp
5.6
I believe that when the Archimedes was born the first purchasers were
mainly enthusiasts. They recognised a ‘good’ machine when they saw it
and they were ‘computer literate’ enough not to have problems with RISC-
OS, Desktops, WIMPs, dragging files, using and updating modules. More
recently, the Archimedes is being bought and used by engineers,
scientists, lawyers, accountants, teachers, writers and many others
whose expertise is not in unravelling the meaning of error messages such
as “Module not found at line 2065” but whose expertise lies in being
able to use a ‘tool’ such as the Archimedes to do something much more
‘useful’ than practice their ‘computer literacy’.
5.6
I have had too much correspondence recently, particularly from pur
chasers of floppy disc machines (but also some who have hard discs), who
have also bought PipeDream, Impression, DrawPlus, Revelation, DeskEdit,
etc, etc and who get frustrated by mountains of cryptic error messages
such as the one above or requests to keep putting different discs (with
obscure titles which seem to be a day of the week!) into the floppy
drive (and still without any measure of success). If this has happened
to you, or if it hasn’t yet, but you think it might, then this article
may help you − whether you are a PipeDream user or not.
5.6
I have decided to keep the ‘technical’ background for another occasion
and in this one concentrate on ‘how to do it’. This is the method of
setting up your discs, files, etc. ‘Hard disc’ users should create the
directories named below (!System, !Fonts and !PrinterLJ) in the root
directory of their hard disc rather than on separate floppies.
5.6
However, first a small ‘hiccup’ with version 4.12. The first few discs
of PD 4.12 slipped through with a command on line 5 of the !Run file
which keeps asking you to insert your Examples disc even when you have
successfully transferred your !System files to your hard disc (or, with
a floppy disc system when you have followed the instructions below). To
rectify this hiccup all you have to do is disable or delete line 5 in
the !Run file which reads:
5.6
Set PipeDream_Preload$File
5.6
adfs::Examples.$.Preload
5.6
To disable a line, insert a | (the character just above <Return>) at the
start of the line such as is present at the start of line 6.
5.6
What you’re going to do
5.6
You are going to make yourself a “System” disc, a “Fonts” disc, a “RISC-
OS printer” disc and learn how to use them. When you have made them, you
switch off the Archimedes and, immediately after switching on, put your
‘new’ discs into the floppy disc drive (and click on the :0 icon) in the
order System, Fonts, Printer. You do this before you put in discs
containing !Edit, !Draw, !Paint, !PipeDream, !Impression or anything
else. Because you will have named the discs (see below), when you are
asked for the disc called “System” you will know which one to pop back
into the drive.
5.6
The System disc
5.6
Start with a blank, formatted disc or one on which everything has been
deleted. Place the disc in the floppy drive :0, click <menu> over the :0
icon and use the ‘Name disc’ option to name the disc as System. Write
the word “System” on the disc label. The system disc should contain only
one directory called !System. I have asked Paul to put a copy of my
!System directory on the Archive disc. My !System (on the Archive disc)
has a few ‘extra’ features such as new settings for Copy$ Options (see
Archive 3.12 p32) so that ‘Newer’ files overwrite old ones of the same
name (without having to delete the old one) and it loads a virus
protection module (also on the disc) and so prevents your discs becoming
contaminated. I have also included this !System application on our user
group’s February 1992 PipeLine 4 disc. Copy this or any other !System
directory (e.g. the one from the PD 4.12 Examples disc or the one from
Shareware 17) onto your otherwise blank System disc.
5.6
Double click <select> on the !System directory which you have just
copied to your System disc (this is important).
5.6
Place your PipeDream 4 Examples disc in the :0 drive. Do not double
click on the !System directory of that disc but ‘drag’ the !System
directory from the PD 4 Examples disc to your System disc. You will be
prompted to swop discs many times (there is an easier way using a RAM
disc but I won’t describe it here) and, at the end of this time
consuming task you will have a system disc which ‘works’ with !PipeDream
and many other packages. If you have another application such as
!Impression that you use fairly often then ‘drag’ the !System directory
from that package onto your System disc. If you have !Presenter,
!Revelation, or anything else with a !System directory, then do the
same.
5.6
To overcome the “Newer” problem (Acorn’s default Copy$Options do not
copy a new file over an old one of the same name), many packages now
contain a !SysMerge application which checks the dates of modules and
copies over when “Newer”.
5.6
If you have contracted the “module” virus, the date stamp on some of
your modules will be incorrect and you may finish up copying an ‘old’
module over the top of (and so deleting) a more recent version. Because
of this possibility of having the wrong date stamp (due to a virus
infection) on your working disc you should always use the !System from
the master discs of a package and not from your working disc.
5.6
Probably the best thing to do now is to quit everything that is on the
icon bar, switch off, wait about 30 seconds and switch on again. Write
protect your new System disc and put it in the floppy drive and then
open it with a single click on the :0 icon.
5.6
The Fonts disc
5.6
To use the graphics features of PD 4.12 you need Acorn’s outline fonts
module. This module is provided on the PD 4.12 Examples disc. Start
again with a blank formatted disc and name it Fonts. The only directory
on that disc should be one called !Fonts.
5.6
Drag the directory called !Fonts from any package containing it (e.g.
the PD 4 Examples disc) onto your otherwise blank Fonts disc.
5.6
Double click the select (left) mouse button on the !Fonts directory
which is on your new Fonts disc. You can now ‘drag’ !Fonts directories
from any package such as !Impression directly onto your Fonts disc.
5.6
If you buy some separate fonts, you will find that they have names such
as OldEnglish. Almost certainly you will be sent a directory called by
the font name (i.e. a directory called, for example OldEnglish) rather
than a directory called !Fonts. In that case you must ‘open’ your !Fonts
directory before copying across the fonts. This is how you do it. Hold
down the <Shift> key and double click select on your !Fonts directory to
open a window into the ‘innards’ of !Fonts. Now ‘drag’ OldEnglish (or
whatever it is) into the newly opened window (i.e. into the ‘innards’ of
your !Fonts directory).
5.6
Generally, to make a font such as “OldEnglish” available to a package
such as !PipeDream, you must have put your Fonts disc in the floppy
drive (and clicked on :0 so that !Fonts is displayed on screen) before
using !PipeDream. If you have !PipeDream already on the icon bar when
you add, say, “OldEnglish” to your Fonts disc then !PipeDream will know
nothing about the existence of “OldEnglish” until you quit PipeDream and
reload it.
5.6
Once again, having got this far, I suggest that you Quit everything,
switch off, wait, switch on, insert your System disc, click on :0,
insert your Fonts disc and click on :0 before doing anything else.
5.6
RISC-OS printers
5.6
RISC-OS printing is different from PipeDream printer driver printing.
5.6
In the same way as you have created System and Fonts discs you should
create a disc called Printer and copy across (by dragging) one of the
RISC-OS drivers to it. RISC-OS printer drivers have names such as
!PrinterLJ (LaserJet), !PrinterDM (DotMatrix), etc, and are available
from Norwich Computer Services as part of Shareware 17. Shareware 17
also contains up-to-date versions of nearly all the modules you will
need in the Modules subdirectory of your System disc.
5.6
Unlike !System and !Fonts, you have to double click on !PrinterLJ (or
!PrinterDM, etc) to install the printer driver on the icon bar. If you
are going to use Impression or PD 4 then I recommend that you ‘load’ the
printer onto the icon bar before you put your Impression or PD disc in
the drive.
5.6
Using packages
5.6
My recommendation about using packages such as PipeDream on a floppy
disc machine is that you keep your program files (e.g. the !PipeDream
package) on a disc on its own and use many separate floppy discs for
your different applications of that package. My recommendation for hard
disc users has been published; keep packages on the hard disc and data
on floppies.
5.6
For example, you (like I do) might have a disc which you call Letters.
On the floppy disc called Letters I have a large number of directories.
A typical directory might be 9201 which contains all letters I have
written in January 1992. I have another disc called Invoices and yet
another called DTP I do not, and I strongly suggest that you do not, put
your data files on the same disc as the package (a package such as
Impression or PipeDream). Colton Software have put the Pipe-Dream 4
package on a disc called PipeDream 4 so that, if you are asked by the
computer to put PipeDream 4 (or System or Fonts) in the disc drive then
there is no ambiguity in your mind about which disc to ‘show’ to the
computer.
5.6
Summary
5.6
Make yourself System, Fonts and Printer discs. Immediately after you
have switched on the computer put each of these discs (in the order
System, Fonts, Printer) in the drive and click on :0. You can close the
‘windows’ after you have opened them. Remember to double click on the
printer driver after opening your Printer disc.
5.6
Next put your package disc (e.g. the disc called PipeDream4 containing
only the directory !PipeDream) in :0 and double click on the package
icon (such as !PipeDream). Finally, put your data disc (such as your
disc called Letters) in drive :0 and go to work.
5.6
If you need modules, fonts, printer, or the package disc (i.e. a disc
such as PipeDream4), or even your data disc (e.g. Letters) then the
computer will keep track of what it needs and where it is.
5.6
Finally
5.6
I hope that this is of some help to you. Please write to me at Abacus
Training (see address on the back inside cover of Archive) if you find
any snags, problems or difficulties with this way of doing things. I
would also like to get some idea of just how many of you have had
problems and how many of you this explanation has helped.  A
5.6

5.6
Scientific Software − Data Presentation
5.6
Brian Cowan
5.6
The response to the first Scientific Software Column has been quite
encouraging. I received a number of letters with suggestions for topics
to be considered. Kate Crennell sent a letter emphasising the importance
of the Fortran language in scientific programming and the shortcomings
of the Acorn implementation. She is building up a PD Fortran library for
the Archimedes. More details in a future issue, but serious academic
users, particularly those interested also in contributing can get in
contact with Kate via the JANET network to [e-mail].
5.6
Plotting software
5.6
The plotting of graphs is one of those repetitive tasks for which the
microcomputer is ideally suited. I have heard it said that “almost every
research student writes his/her own graph plotting program”. Although a
slight exaggeration, this emphasises the point that, in reality, a full-
featured graph plotter will be extremely complex and it takes a long
time to learn the wrinkles of someone else’s program. It can be easier
(and even quicker!) to write one’s own. A good desktop environment
should change all that; the key point is the standardised user
interface.
5.6
As is often the case, the PD programs come first and, as is also often
the case, the quality of PD programs can be very high. Chris Johnson
produced ChartDraw (Careware 5) and GraphDraw (Shareware 38), although
now updated and these are complemented by his MultiPlot, CurveFit and
FnPlotter. Recently Risc Developments brought out their ChartWell and
now we have Minerva’s Graphbox Professional. Of a more specialised
nature is Jim Markland’s Contour on the !Works Tools #2 disc.
5.6
The first part of this article is about plotting data provided by the
user. There are a couple of other programs specifically designed to
display and plot mathematical functions, apart from FnPlotter. These are
Functionplotter from Klein Computer and Fx2 from Silica Software
Systems. These will be considered in the latter part of the article.
5.6
The GraphDraw suite
5.6
From time to time there are various improvements being made to Graph
Draw. I shall discuss my experiences with the latest version, 1.06a.
Data is conventionally entered, from the keyboard, into an editing
window as a sequence of x,y pairs. The points may be joined by straight
lines or a least squares fit curve may be drawn. There is a choice of
straight line or polynomial up to 5th order and there is also a clever
cubic spline option with a choice of fit factor. The figure shows a
fifth order polynomial fit to some data:
5.6
There is also a limited range of transformations which may be made to
the data prior to plotting and fitting.
5.6
Once the graph is displayed, one can choose various layout options, and
captions may be inserted for the axes and the title. The graph may then
be stored as a Draw file, for further editing/modification or for
including in DTP or printing directly. Also, there is the facility to
save the data and graph information as a file, type 7F3 (GraphFile).
Essentially, this consists of a header and a footer with the data in
standard comma separated variable (CSV) format. GraphDraw recognises
this file type, so clicking on such a file loads it directly. Alterna
tively, one may drop a CSV file, produced with Edit or perhaps
automatically from some measuring instrument, onto the GraphDraw icon.
After a warning that the file type is not recognised, the data will
nevertheless be loaded. Personally, I prefer to type my data into Edit
and then load it in rather than using the in-built data editor.
5.6
MultiPlot
5.6
A limitation of GraphDraw is that only one graph can be displayed. This
difficulty is overcome, however, with another program from the suite
called MultiPlot. GraphDraw provides the facility to save the graph data
in a format suitable for importing into Multiplot. This is similar to
GraphFile, but with different header and footer information. This
filetype is 7F6 (PlotFile).
5.6
Other members of the suite
5.6
If it is required to fit a curve through some data with a functional
form other than those supplied by GraphDraw, then one uses CurveFit.
Once again, there is a data entry window, which is not absolutely
necessary to use. A GraphFile data file may be dropped directly in as
may CSV. Once the data is in, the points can be plotted directly to see
what they look like, or a parametric fit may be requested. The function
is entered in Basic format (the program uses EVAL) with up to ten
coefficients which are to be determined. Guesses have to be given for
the coefficients and the required accuracy of the fit specified.
Clicking on the “proceed” box then starts the process of iteration until
the fit to the desired accuracy is found. The various coefficients are
then given.
5.6
If you know the function you want to plot, then FnPlotter is the program
to use. Up to four functions can be plotted together. At the moment,
both CurveFit and FnPlotter do produce Draw files of their results but
they are not able to export their results in MultiPlot format, which
would make them even more useful. I understand that Chris Johnson will
be implementing this in a future version.
5.6
Finally there is ChartDraw. This produces pie charts, line graphs and
bar charts. Here the horizontal axis is non-numerical. The program is
perfectly straightforward in use and, as expected, it produces Draw
files.
5.6
ChartWell
5.6
This program from Risc Developments uses a really clever approach
exploiting the desktop philosophy to the full. It does not display its
graphs and charts at all; it produces a Draw file for display by !Draw.
This is an interesting idea. After all, everyone has !Draw and it is a
superb program (undervalued to my mind), so why not use it? Thus
ChartWell describes itself as a file conversion program − you give it a
data file and it produces a Draw file.
5.6
Data is input in CSV format; the file type is not important. So you can
use files produced with Edit or those exported from spreadsheets or
whatever. The data file can contain one column of text and up to six
columns of numerical data. One then selects, from a menu, which should
be on which axes. There is a choice of bar chart, line graph, pie chart,
scatter graph or polar plot.
5.6
For the scatter graph, the points may be joined or a “best fit” line may
be fitted to the data. The choice of fitting functions is a straight
line, a power law, exponential and logarithm. These are very useful for
display but remember they are least squares fits to the transformed data
and therefore, except for the straight line, they are not unbiased
estimators of the “true” curve. With these fits the regression equation
is printed at the top of the graph as the example shows:
5.6
Chartwell provides the facility for displaying error bars on the data
points, both x and y. However the displayed error is the same for all
points. Considering their clever menu system for the data columns, they
could have allowed for individual errors to be entered as another column
of data.
5.6
For polar graphs only, there is the facility for plotting a given
equation. This is a useful feature, but I would have thought it just as
desirable for x-y plots as well.
5.6
Graphbox Professional
5.6
This is a Rolls-Royce of a program from Minerva Software. It has a data
entry/editing window, or data may be input as a file in CSV or SID
(Software-Independent Data) format. In fact, SID files are given the
file type C7D, with their own distinctive icon but as Graphbox does not
recognise the file type, double clicking is no good and the files must
be dropped on the Graphbox icon.
5.6
The excellent manual tells us that are 43 different types of graph which
may be produced. Of course, many of these are bar and pie charts in
various styles, what might be termed “business graphics”. Of more
scientific interest are scatter graphs, line graphs, vector diagrams,
Argand diagrams, polar graphs, triangle charts and 3D surface charts
with a choice of views. Some selection! Error bars of different sizes
may be included.
5.6
Lines and curves
5.6
Displayed points may be joined by straight lines. Graphbox also provides
an interesting option of joining the points by a Bezier curve. This puts
a smooth curve through all of the points, which looks nice. There is
also a least squares fitting option for a straight line, a parabola or a
cubic. Also, the fit parameters may be exported either as text or in CSV
form, suitable for importing into a spread sheet or by Bezier curves.
5.6
Looking good
5.6
There are facilities for plotting functions, entered as a Basic-like
string, while polynomials up to order five may be specified by giving
just their coefficients. These are useful features but such graphs
cannot (so far as I can gather) be incorporated into plots of data.
5.6
There are numerous ways of ensuring that the graphs look good. With some
simple codes, the various captions can include subscripts, superscripts
and an alternative font − perhaps Greek. A problem with the pre-RISC-OS
3 font manager is that it will not support rotated text, as required for
labelling the y axis. Graphbox Professional gets around this problem,
presumably, by converting the font data its outline curve. The following
graph is from the examples on the Graphbox disc. It gives a good
indication of the potential of the program.
5.6
Three dimensional graphs may be plotted from an array of data points as
the following indicates, again taken from the program disc:
5.6
Here we also have text written at an angle. However, while it may be
legible on paper, my screen display is unreadable because, as with an
ordinary Draw object, there is no hinting of the text.
5.6
Plotting conclusion
5.6
If you want to plot graphs then you must try the GraphDraw suite of
programs. They will do almost everything that is required. Remember,
since the files are output in Draw format, they may be edited and
finished off using !Draw. If, however these programs do not satisfy your
requirements then why is this? If you require polar plots or error bars
(of the same size) then ChartWell may suit your needs. For high-class
graphics, versatile error bars, Bezier fits through data and a host of
other features, you need Graphbox Professional. A very impressive
program, but quite expensive.
5.6
For truly versatile plotting/curve fitting, etc. one really requires
integration with a spreadsheet so that the data may be manipulated and
processed with curve-fitting macros. GraphBox Professional provides
HotLinks which may be used with PipeDream. At present, I don’t use
PipeDream, so I don’t know whether it is adequate for that sort of
application. I have Schema (which drives me up the wall!) which does
have a powerful macro facility, but no HotLinks.
5.6
Contour
5.6
We now come to a rather specialised program. It may be argued that a
three dimensional graph is not very “scientific”. It is difficult to
measure values because of the problems of the direction of view,
perspective, etc. and the fact that the 3D image is realised on a 2D
sheet of paper (or screen). Imagine that we want to represent the
temperature all over a flat surface. The x and y axes could represent
the coordinates of the surface while the z axis, the height, would be
the temperature. An alternative method of display, on the 2D surface, is
to join all points corresponding to the same temperature. This gives a
series of contours − lines of constant temperature − over the surface.
5.6
An example
5.6
Calculating the contours is not entirely trivial since it involves
interpolating between the data points to find coordinates, not on the
data grid, corresponding to a given temperature. This is precisely what
Jim Markland’s Contour program does. The picture on the next page shows
contours of magnetic field for one quarter of a solenoid.
5.6
The top left hand corner is the centre of the coil. Here the contours
are most widely spaced, indicating that the field is most homogeneous.
The bottom right hand corner, where the lines bunch together, is where
the field varies most rapidly. This graph was created from a grid of 25
by 50 data points in CSV format, which were loaded into Contour. The
program produced a DXF file which was loaded into Draw, from which it
was saved as a Draw file. DXF is a standard graphics format and such
files may be imported into a variety of programs on PCs, MACs etc. There
are also facilities for exporting data as sprites. Surfaces may be saved
as MTV polygons which can, for instance, be used with the MTV ray-tracer
available from David Pilling (now also available through Archive for
£6). It is also possible to export surfaces in Euclid format. Then the
power of Euclid may be used to manipulate the surface. This is a superb
program − if you need to visualise surfaces and create contours.
5.6
Function plotting
5.6
As we have seen, both FnPlotter and Graphbox Professional allow the
plotting of curves from Basic-like commands. There are, however two
other programs specifically devoted to plotting functions, with some
rather interesting facilities. Klein Computer, a German company now
producing software for the Archimedes, has come out with Functionplot
ter, while Fx2 is available from Silica Software Systems.
5.6
Functionplotter
5.6
This program supports 2D or 3D plots using rectangular coordinates. In
both cases, the equation is typed in a Basic-like format. For 2D graphs,
one may display either the function or one of a range of its properties
such as the first, second or third derivative, the curvature or even the
evolute! Also, there is a range of calculational options. The position
where the function, its first derivative or its second derivative is
zero may be found and the integral may be evaluated over a specified
range.
5.6
For 3D plots the function of y and z is entered. The surface may be
viewed from a choice of angles with or without hidden surface removal.
An example is shown below.
5.6
The number of steps may be specified by the user. Obviously the more
steps, the longer it takes to calculate and to draw the surface and, of
course, the larger the resultant Draw file. Calculations may also be
performed for the 3D case; both the surface area and the volume may be
found. There is also the option of plotting contours, so this ties in
very nicely with Contour discussed above.
5.6
There are three things which come to mind which would make the program
even better. There is no support for outline fonts. Really, this is no
serious problem since editing for presentation can be done in Draw or
DTP. It would, however, be nice if polar plots could be included and I
would like the facility for saving, editing and reloading given
equations.
5.6
Fx2
5.6
This program complements the previous one in many ways. Only 2D graphs
may be produced but there is a choice of Cartesian or polar plots.
Cartesian graphs may be specified in parametric form where both x and y
are given in terms of another variable. There is a range of calculation
options including integral, volume and surface of a solid of revolution,
curve length, mean value, RMS value, centroids and moments of inertia.
It is also possible to calculate roots in a given interval. Involving
differentiation, one can obtain the slope, equation of the tangent to a
point, equation of the normal and maxima and minima. This is quite an
extensive selection.
5.6
Equations are entered in Fx2 in algebraic mode. Thus to enter a power,
say xa, the ^ symbol is not accepted and one must use the “cursor up”
key to enter the power, which shifts the following text up in the
equation window. I believe that the advantage of an algebraic display is
outweighed by the versatility of a Basic type of entry. For example, it
is impossible to enter abc which could be entered as a^b^c.
5.6
Fx2 comes with its own outline font called FXchars. This is essentially
the familiar Trinity (Times) with the addition of the square root sign
and the greek alpha, beta, gamma, delta and pi. This is loaded in when
the program is run. Pi is recognised as its numerical value and there is
the option to define values for other constants. Thus by default e is
defined as 2.71828. There is the option for automatic scaling of the y
axis, once the x range is specified, and the colours of lines may be
chosen. One particularly useful feature is the ability to save equation
specifications as a file.
5.6
Bottom line
5.6
There is an increasing range of software around. My advice is to try the
PD programs. These may give you what is needed and, if not, then
investigate what commercial programs might suit. I was very impressed
with Graphbox Professional and Functionplotter, but I still think that
for many applications, the GraphDraw suite of programs is more than
adequate − particularly since Draw can always be used for final editing,
such as moving the data points closer to the regression line!
5.6
For plotting functions, try the PD FnPlotter. This gives no calculation
options and we must wait for a future version to export files in
MultiPlot format to integrate it fully into the program suite. Function
plotter and Fx2 have various extra facilities which you may require. The
choice depends on your needs and your pocket.
5.6
Products covered
5.6
GraphDraw is on our Shareware 38 disc costing £3 and ChartDraw is on our
Careware 5 disc costing £6, both available from Norwich Computer
Services. Once you are registered with Chris Johnson, their author, you
can obtain the latest versions of these together with FnPlot, MultiPlot
and CurveFit.
5.6
ChartWell is produced by Risc Developments and it costs £29.95 +VAT.
5.6
Graphbox Professional costs £129 +VAT from Minerva Software (£135
through Archive).
5.6
Contour is part of the !Works Tools #2 collection from Jim Markland. The
disc costs £30.
5.6
Fx2 comes from Silica Software Systems. It costs £59.95, but includes a
20-machine site licence.
5.6
Functionplotter costs £20 from Klein Computers in Ruesselsheim,
Germany.  A
5.6

5.6
Target Maths
5.6
Brian Philp
5.6
This is a suite of four programs: Eliminator, Number Facts, Scale Factor
and Slider. The blurb says that they are aimed at specific National
Curriculum targets − Number and Algebra with levels varying from 3 to 6.
5.6
Eliminator. This is a good idea for helping with practice on multipli
cation tables. It has 16 sums to do “in reverse”. You can make mistakes
but you have to get a perfect score to go on to the next level. The
levels are named: Novice, Expert and Genius. I think the inducements to
progress will not attract more then a small group of pupils − and they
may be the ones who do not need it anyway. If this could be improved it
would be quite useful.
5.6
Number Facts. This is in two parts. Both are screens showing the numbers
from 1 to 100. In the first part you can explore to find which are
triangular, prime, square even or odd. The second is a game for two
players where you have to move to a number with the given property. The
player can choose the property and different properties get different
points. The first to 50 is the winner.
5.6
Scale Factor. This is for practising decimals and shows a marked ruler.
There are four levels, the later two asking for the addition or
subtraction of decimals to be pointed at on the scale. This is a very
useful program for pupils at this level.
5.6
Slider. This is a snakes and ladders game with numbers. The snag is that
the snakes and ladders are invisible! It seems to be of limited use but
perhaps I have missed the point.
5.6
There are one or two annoying aspects to the programming. The computer
is not left in its normal state after finishing the program. In
particular, the numbers in the system font are changed and the keyboard
auto-repeat rate is changed. The only way of leaving most of the
programs is by pressing <escape>. There should be a clean menu style
method of exiting which returns the computer to its original state.
5.6
Conclusion
5.6
More could be done to improve these programs − then they would be very
useful for an institution where remedial maths or enhancement of maths
is required. Educational programs always seem to be expensive for what
they offer. Here you get 110k of code of which 50k are sprites and the
rest Basic programs. You will have to judge whether or not this is value
for money. (£19.95 from Triple R or £19 through Archive.)  A
5.6

5.6
Mandelbrot  Bakeware
5.6
Basil Davis
5.6
We have had comments that we don’t give enough ‘real programming
examples’, so Basil, who is something of a Mandlebrot expert has
provided a program that really works and has a practical application
that even non-computing friends and family will appreciate1. After
January’s designer fractals, we have some fractal bakeware. Ed.
5.6
To set the context, let me quote two excerpts from The Pocket Oxford
German Dictionary.
5.6
   Mandel f. (-n)  almond    Brot n  bread; loaf
5.6
It is not generally realised that the word Mandelbrot translates from
the  German  as  Almond Bread.  The following was ‘inspired’(?)  by a
recipe2  in Amygdala Issue 21 giving  an  end product which the
Americans call scones and we would probably call rusks. This can be
converted into Operational Code by any culinary minded reader and used
to produce a tasty “hardcopy”.  The author has found that the judicious
use of an infusion of Twining’s T42 (Darjeeling version)3  can improve
some of the procedures, particularly PROCeat.
5.6
The program uses Metric units throughout − the earlier Imperial units
version can be converted with the tables to be found in A Beginner’s
Guide to Cashbook Cookery4.  For optimum results, it is essential to use
an efficient compiler such as Cordon Bleu or Haute Cuisine. During
assembly, a co-processor such as Kenwood or Moulinex can speed up the
processing.
5.6
For other examples of Fractal Bakeware why not try Consommé Julienne –
derived from Julia sets and incorporating 64 bit software (mostly
carrots and swedes). John Greening5 has described the preparation of
Menger Sponges which are, however, inedible and not to be confused with
Victoria Sandwich Sponges.
5.6
The program is dedicated to the memory of the mathematician George Boole
(1814–1864) without whose logic it would never have seen the light of
day. It is not suitable for Microwave ovens, the radiation from which
can cause ROM damage. Gas and Electric Modes are catered for but not
Multi-sink.
5.6
The author accepts no responsibility for damage to either sense of
humour or digestive systems.
5.6
REM >AlmondBred
5.6
REM  Bakeware Recipe for Mandelbrot translated from the original German.
5.6
REM Version 2 (metric) by Basil Davis
5.6
REM Version 2a − Virus protection included
5.6
REM April 1st 1992
5.6
PROCprepare
5.6
PROCingredients
5.6
PROCassembly
5.6
PROCshape
5.6
PROCbake(45)
5.6
PROCslice
5.6
PROCbake(15)
5.6
PROCeat
5.6
END
5.6

5.6
DEFPROCprepare
5.6
Oven_On = FALSE: In_Oven = FALSE
5.6
Beating = FALSE : Pressing = FALSE
5.6
Slicing = FALSE
5.6
WHILE NOT Oven_On
5.6
        Oven_temp$=“15 C”: Oven_temp = 15
5.6
        Heating=FALSE: Oven_Ready=FALSE
5.6
ENDWHILE
5.6
shape$=“”: minor_axis$=“”:Mouth_Open=FALSE
5.6
diameter$= “”: tsp$=“teaspoonful”: Virus$=“”
5.6
ENDPROC
5.6

5.6
DEFPROCingredients
5.6
NoOfEggs=3:  Egg$=“Yolk”+“White”+“Eggshell”
5.6
IF Egg$=Egg$ +Virus$  AND Virus$=“salmonella” THEN
5.6
PRINT “Buy fresh eggs and consult your GP”
5.6
ENDIF
5.6
Sugar$  = “180 gm”: Cooking_Oil$  =  “225 ml”
5.6
Flour$ = “55 gm”: Vanilla$ = “1” + tsp$
5.6
Baking_Powder$ =“2” + tsp$
5.6
Sultana$ =“250 gm”
5.6
Almond$  = “450 gm coarse ground”: Flour% = 1
5.6
ENDPROC
5.6

5.6
DEFPROCassembly
5.6
Beating = TRUE
5.6
WHILE Beating
5.6
   mix$=Sugar$
5.6
      FOR I% = 1 TO NoOfEggs
5.6
         Egg$=Egg$ − “Eggshell”
5.6
         mix$=mix$ + Egg$
5.6
      NEXT I%
5.6
      mix$ = mix$ + Cooking_Oil$
5.6
      WAIT
5.6
      mix$=mix$ + Vanilla$ + Almond$ +Sultana$ + Baking_Powder$
5.6
      REPEAT
5.6
         mix$ = mix$ + Flour$ : Flour%+=1
5.6
      UNTIL Flour% = 6
5.6
ENDWHILE
5.6
Beating = FALSE:  ENDPROC
5.6

5.6
DEFPROCshape
5.6
Oil_BakingSheet = TRUE
5.6
FlourOnHands= TRUE
5.6
shape$ = “Cylinder or Roll”: Rolling = TRUE
5.6
WHILE Rolling
5.6
   REPEAT
5.6
   UNTIL mix$=shape$ AND diameter$= “5 cm”
5.6
ENDWHILE
5.6
Rolling= FALSE: length=LEN(mix$)
5.6
Pressing=TRUE
5.6
WHILE Pressing
5.6
    REPEAT UNTIL mix$=shape$+“flat_bottom”  AND  minor_axis$ = “2.5 cm”
5.6
ENDWHILE
5.6
Pressing = FALSE: ENDPROC
5.6

5.6
DEFPROCbake(minutes)
5.6
LOCAL bake_time, t
5.6
bake_time = minutes*60*100
5.6
IF NOT Oven_Ready THEN
5.6
   Oven_On = TRUE
5.6
   REPEAT
5.6
      Heating = TRUE: Oven_temp+ = 5
5.6
   UNTIL Oven_temp >170 AND Oven_temp <180
5.6
      Oven_Ready = TRUE
5.6
ENDIF
5.6
WHILE Oven_Ready
5.6
   In_Oven = TRUE
5.6
   t=TIME: REPEAT UNTIL T−t > bake_time
5.6
ENDWHILE
5.6
In_Oven = FALSE:  ENDPROC
5.6

5.6
DEFPROCslice
5.6
Slicing = TRUE: NoOfSlices% = 0
5.6
WHILE Slicing
5.6
   REPEAT
5.6
      length− = 2: NoOfSlices%+ = 1
5.6
   UNTIL length < = 2
5.6
ENDWHILE
5.6
Slicing = FALSE
5.6
ENDPROC
5.6
DEFPROCeat
5.6
Heating=FALSE: Oven_On=FALSE
5.6
Appetite=TRUE
5.6
REPEAT
5.6
   slice = 1: Mouth_Open = TRUE
5.6
   INPUT slice: NoOfSlices%− = 1
5.6
UNTIL NoOfSlices = 0  OR Appetite = FALSE
5.6
Mouth_Open = FALSE
5.6
ENDPROC
5.6
References
5.6
1 Especially true on the first of next month!
5.6
2 L.Herzmark  Recipe   Amygdala #21, 8, 1990
5.6
3 Available from most computer cookshops.
5.6
4 E. Bakeswell & B.Eaton  “The Beginners Guide to Cashbook Cookery”, 2nd
edn., xxviii, Norwich University Press, 1990.
5.6
5 J. Greening  “Three Dimensional Fractals”, Risc User  4, (2), 23,
1990.  B
5.6

5.6
Developing Hardware Projects
5.6
Paul Marshall
5.6
I have written this article to explain how I was able to use my
Archimedes to develop and successfully build a microprocessor based
project.
5.6
IRIG timecodes
5.6
The project that I had been given was to generate a timecode which may
be recorded onto video and audio tapes so that they may be resynchron
ised at a later date. There are a variety of standards used for this,
the most popular ones were devised by the Inter-Range Instrumentation
Group in 1959.
5.6
The code to be used in my application is known as IRIG­B. This encodes
the time of year once a second at a data rate of 100 bits a second and
then modulates the resulting data stream with a 1kHz sinewave. The
timecode may therefore be read back off a tape to a resolution of one
thousandth of a second.
5.6
Microprocessor solution
5.6
I decided to build the timecode generator using a microprocessor based
design. Using a microprocessor requires a facility for writing the
program, assembling it and copying the resulting code into an EPROM. I
felt that it would be helpful to be able to be able to perform all these
tasks directly from the Archimedes.
5.6
I had an assembler to run on a PC, so I transferred this onto a hard
disk partition to use under the PC Emulator on the Archimedes. The
assembler required a text file containing the program to be assembled.
Rather than use a PC based text editor I used !Edit to type in the text
file. This has the advantage that the Archimedes desktop is available
for use whilst the program is being written and large screen modes can
be used.
5.6
Using a filing system such as Multi-FS allows the text file to reside in
the PC partition on a hard disk so no difficulty is found in swapping to
the PC Emulator to run the assembler. The new multi­tasking PC emulator
makes the task of swapping from desktop to PC and back again very easy.
It is no longer necessary to restart the machine to return to the
Archimedes desktop. One difficulty is that, whilst the PC Emulator is
running, the text file is inaccessible. The PC Emulator does not close
the hard disk partition file.
5.6
I included the commands to run the assembler in the ‘Startup Text’
option in an Emulator configuration file. Therefore double clicking on
the configuration file causes the PC Emulator to be run. This then runs
the assembler.
5.6
The assembler produces listing and object files. The listing file is
similar to the original program but contains errors and warnings at
appropriate places. By loading both the original and listing files into
!Edit, the errors can quickly be located and corrected.
5.6
EPROM programming
5.6
The object file generated by the assembler is in Intel­80 format. This
is a text file containing the contents of the EPROM. The format is well
documented in Intel Data books so it was fairly easy to write a Basic
procedure to interpret the file.
5.6
The next step is to take the data and program it into an EPROM. These
memory chips require exposure to Ultra-violet light for 20 minutes to
erase them. The programming algorithms require 12.5 or 25 volts, so
while not impossible to build, the programmers require a considerable
amount of work. To avoid this and the need to buy an eraser I decided to
use non-volatile RAM chips instead. These appear as normal RAM chips but
have an integral battery to retain the data when power is removed.
5.6
The Acorn I/O podule provided me with an equivalent to the 1MHz bus
found on BBC computers. This provides sufficient addressing and data
lines to address the whole of an 8k non­ volatile RAM with minimal extra
circuitry. I wrote a Basic procedure to write data to a given address
using the Acorn software interrupts and used it in a multi-tasking
application which takes the object file and programs it into the RAM
chip. Using the Interface Manager module written by Simon Huntingdon, a
professional looking front end can be designed. This gives a complete
system for writing the software and transferring it into the micropro
cessor system being developed from the desktop.
5.6
Circuit design
5.6
Before the stage of programming code is reached, it is necessary to
produce a circuit schematic which should be clear and consistent. This
must then be transferred into a printed circuit board layout or
strip­board design.
5.6
!Draw is a very convenient tool for drawing out circuit schematics. It
has been improved on by Jonathan Marten with his program !DrawPlus. This
has two main advantages over !Draw. The first is the use of libraries.
This permits a number of basic units to be placed in a library and then
dropped into a draw file. This is an ideal way to store commonly used
circuit components. The second advantage is that information such as the
grid options is stored with the drawing. This makes it easy to set up a
blank document with the options set up as required and a title block
which can be locked in position.
5.6
Printed circuit boards
5.6
There can be no doubt that a printed circuit board makes a project
instantly appear more professional. While there are printed circuit
board layout programs available for the Archimedes, I have found that
!DrawPlus again comes into its own. With the ability to select layers,
the pads can be locked into position and it is easy to design double
sided boards.
5.6
With a significant number of Archimedes owners able to obtain access to
laser printers, high quality output of the drawfiles may be printed on
laser transparencies and then used as masks to make the circuit boards.
5.6
To help lay out PCB tracks I have designed a font of half a dozen
characters. These include the round pads and both the horizontal and
vertical pads for integrated circuits. When rendered at 8 point on a
0·1“ grid these provide the correct spacing for a 1:1 plot of the PCB
design.
5.6
Testing
5.6
It is extremely unlikely that the circuit will operate correctly the
first time it is switched on! In my microprocessor design, I therefore
included a parallel output port. This was connected up to a 20 way IDC
plug. This can be connected to the User Port on the parallel I/O podule.
I put some extra instructions in the program that was running on the
project board in order to write numbers back to this port. Thus, the
state of the circuit can be read back and displayed on the screen. This
makes it very quick to see exactly where the processor is going wrong.
5.6
Finally, for analogue parts of the design, I have designed and built a
fast analogue to digital interface. The interface (originally designed
as a sound sampler) can sample at 80 kHz so can be used as an adequate
storage oscilloscope. The resulting traces can be stored as sprites.
These can be added into DTP as part of a final report.
5.6
Conclusion
5.6
I hope that I have illustrated above how the Archimedes is an extremely
powerful tool for hardware project development. From the original
design, through PCB layout and software assembly to debugging and
testing, the Archimedes is an ideal companion. In addition, the cost of
the software to perform all these tasks is extremely low.  A
5.6

5.6
Part of one side of a PCB drawn using !DrawPlus
5.6

5.6

5.6
Northwest SEMERC     Fitton Hill CDC, Rosary Road, Oldham  OL8 2QE.
(061−627−4469)
5.6
Oak Solutions (p10)    Suite 25,
Robin Enterprise Centre, Leeds Road, Idle, Yorkshire BD10 9TE.
(0274−620423) (620419)
5.6
PEP Associates     55 St Paul’s Drive, Chatteris, Cambridge, PE16 6DG.
5.6
Pineapple Software     39 Brownlea
Gardens, Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex IG3 9NL. (081−599−1476)
5.6
Ray Maidstone (p22)    421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603−400477) (417447)
5.6
RISC Developments Ltd    117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303) (60263)
5.6
Sherston Software     Swan Barton,
Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH. (0666−840433) (840048)
5.6
Spacetech (p39)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.6
Triple R    P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.6
Turcan Research Systems     83 Green
croft Gardens, West Hampstead, London NW6 3LJ. (071−625−8455)
5.6
VisionSix Ltd (p31)    40 Royal
Oak, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 2DA.  (0665−510682) (0665−510692)
5.6
Watford Electronics     250 Lower
High Street, Watford, WD1 2AN. (0923−37774) (33642)
5.6
Widgit Software     102 Radford Road, Leamington Spa  CV31 1LF.
(0926−885303)
5.6
Word Processing     65 Milldale Crescent, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton   WV10
6LR.
5.6

5.6
Stop Press!!
5.6
•    Oak prices drop − The Oak SCSI disc drives have dropped in price. The
new prices are given on the price list but are summarised here in
comparison with various other drives. Atomwide (AW) and Frog drives come
without podule and so can be paired with Oak, Morley uncached (Mu/c) or
Morley cached (Mc) podules. The figures in italic are high speed drives.
5.6
INTERNAL drives (with podule)
5.6
    WW    HS    Frog    Frog    Frog    AW
AW    AW    Mrly    Mrly
5.6
            Oak    Mu/c    Mc    Oak
Mu/c    Mc    Mu/c    Mc
5.6
45M            410    430    490
5.6
50M    360    400
405    425    485    360    410
5.6
65M            440    460    520
5.6
100M    530    580    510    530    590
515    535    595    530    580
5.6
200M    870    920    760    780    840
805    825    885
5.6
400M
1175    1195    1255
5.6

5.6
EXTERNAL drives (with podule)
5.6
    WW    HS    Frog    Frog    Frog    AW
AW    AW    Mrly    Mrly
5.6
            Oak    Mu/c    Mc    Oak
Mu/c    Mc    Mu/c    Mc
5.6
40M
435    485
5.6
45M            440    460    520
5.6
50M    410    460
490    510    570
5.6
65M            470    490    550
5.6
100M    590    640    540    560    620
605    625    685    570    620
5.6
200M    920    970    790    810    870
895    915    975
5.6
300M            1210    1230    1290
5.6
400M
1265    1285    1345      A
5.6

5.6
Acorn Desktop C
5.6
Timothy Partridge
5.6
Desktop C is Acorn’s replacement for ANSI C Release 3. The package
comprises two distinct but complementary products − ANSI C Release 4 and
the Desktop Development Environment (DDE). The DDE provides an inte
grated set of tools to assist the programmer and make writing and
debugging programs quicker and easier. The package has a heavyweight
feel about it and is aimed at the programmer who wants to get the job
done with the minimum of fuss.
5.6
Installation
5.6
Inside the slip case are two manuals (one for each product), four floppy
disks, some quick reference cards showing the disk directory structure
and a release note. Acorn recommend using a machine with a minimum of 2M
of RAM and a hard disk. Floppy disks can be used, but some swapping is
needed.
5.6
An install application is provided to set up the correct directory
structure and copy the files. I was very pleased to see that it
recognised that I had a SCSI hard disk, since some products have only
heard of ADFS. I already had C version 3 installed, but everything went
without a hitch and the compiler worked first time.
5.6
C compiler
5.6
The compiler conforms with the ANSI C standard and provides a full set
of standard functions. In addition, functions for writing programs to
run on the desktop are provided. These are comprehensive and almost make
such programs easy to write! Several simple example programs are
provided to illustrate the basic principles.
5.6
In use, the compiler performs many checks and, whenever something is not
quite right, gives a warning about the assumption it has made. I prefer
this to the silent approach some compilers take which allows some coding
errors to slip through and cause problems later.
5.6
The 456 page manual is mainly for reference purposes and contains
summaries of all the functions. One chapter introduces writing desktop
applications using C. Another chapter covers using memory efficiently.
The manual does not provide any tutorial information for someone wanting
to learn C, nor does it provide details of how the desktop works or what
standards should be followed to be consistent with Acorn applications.
Full details about the desktop are in the Programmer’s Reference Manual
which has to be bought separately. When I was learning C, I liked “The
Waite Group’s New C Primer Plus” by M. Waite and S. Prata, Pub Macmil
lan, ISBN 0672 22687 1, which is a general introduction.
5.6
Version 3.75 of the shared C library is supplied and this corrects a
large number of minor bugs found in previous versions. The compiler has
changed little from Release 3. There are some new functions to assist
with printing and interactive help. Memory management has been enhanced
so that many programs can expand their original Wimpslot settings if
desired. It is claimed that the code produced is slightly more efficient
(but I haven’t checked this). The most important change is that the
compiler is compatible with the Desktop Development Environment.
5.6
Desktop Development Environment
5.6
The DDE contains four major applications − a text editor, a window
template editor, a “make” utility and an interactive debugger. There are
also fifteen other utilities which are desktop compatible front-ends to
programs that run from the command line. Many of these were first
released in the Software Developer’s Toolbox which the DDE replaces.
5.6
The manual has 292 pages, with each utility given a separate chapter,
and I found it easy to understand. There is also information on how to
add new utilities and compilers so that they integrate with the DDE.
This information is mostly for the benefit of software houses, but I am
pleased that Acorn are being open and allowing third parties to compete.
5.6
SrcEdit
5.6
SrcEdit is an enhanced version of Edit designed for editing program
source files.
5.6
While editing text, help can be obtained on a selected word by pressing
<F1>. A window appears giving more information. The help file provided
gives details of ANSI C functions and their parameters. The help file is
simply a text file and it is easy to add your own information and
reminders.
5.6
A “find the matching bracket” function is provided to help track down
those irritating strays. No facilities are provided to insert ready made
constructs.
5.6
An extremely useful feature is Throwback. A compiler can be told to
“throwback” errors to the editor. Any errors during compilation appear
in SrcEdit’s throwback window. Double-clicking on one of these errors
displays the appropriate file with the cursor positioned on the error
line ready for editing. This is a great time saver.
5.6
FormEd
5.6
FormEd is a window template editor. Windows can be designed on the
screen and then saved in a template file for use by a program. The
program simply loads the file and the windows are ready for use. This is
far easier than trying to work out all the numeric parameters by hand
and typing them into the program.
5.6
FormEd has been available separately for some time. The version supplied
(1.24) has some useful improvements. Instead of displaying all the
windows in a template file at once and giving a chaotic desktop, it
displays a selector window, in a similar manner to Paint, displaying
sprites. Clicking the close box of a window now simply removes it from
the screen rather than deleting it from the file.
5.6
Make
5.6
The Make utility provides a simple way of recompiling a program. Large
programs are frequently split into several files so that only the parts
that are changed have to be recompiled. It is easy to forget to
recompile a file, especially late at night! Make checks which files have
been altered since the program was last compiled and issues the
appropriate commands to construct the latest version. I even use it for
single file programs, since compiling is simply a matter of double-
clicking on a Make file.
5.6
Make has to be told which files make up your program. Programmers who
have struggled with the syntax used by AMU (Acorn Make Utility) will be
glad to know that Make provides a friendly front end to AMU − all you
have to do is drop the source files and link libraries onto Make’s
window, and Make works out the details.
5.6
When Make is asked to recompile a program, a window appears showing the
progress. This is similar to a Task window in Edit and the Desktop
continues to multi-task. One annoying feature is that if a program is
compiled several times, a new window appears each time. If the old
windows aren’t closed, Make can run out of memory or windows.
5.6
DDT
5.6
As its initials suggest, the Desktop Debugging Tool helps to get rid of
bugs! It is a significant improvement over the old ASD supplied with C
version 3. ASD can’t debug desktop programs, DDT can! In order to use
DDT properly, programs must be compiled and linked using the debug
option − this includes information about the original program text in
the final program.
5.6
DDT allows programs to be run one line at a time, or continuously, until
a certain specified condition occurs. A program can be made to stop on
reaching a particular line or function, when a particular variable
changes, when a certain SWI is used or when a WIMP event occurs.
Variables can be displayed or altered and functions invoked. The program
source is displayed in a window with the current line indicated.
5.6
Because it is usually not possible to call WIMP functions while a
desktop program is paused, DDT contains its own window manager to
display windows. It must have taken Acorn some time to make this work
properly. When the program being debugged is paused, DDT is the only
thing usable on the desktop and all multi-tasking stops. When the
program is restarted, the desktop works normally.
5.6
DDT makes debugging programs much easier. Compiled programs can be
difficult to debug since, unless a tool like DDT is available, the only
way to find out what is happening is to put extra statements into the
program to display useful information. Apart from being time-consuming
to insert and requiring recompilation, debugging statements sometimes
upset the normal operation of the program and cause further bugs! DDT is
a great time-saver and, best of all, works with desktop programs.
5.6
Other utilities
5.6
Acorn have written a FrontEnd module which allows command line programs
to be started from the desktop and passed parameters based on settings
made on a window. Each program becomes an application. Enough informa
tion is given for programmers to add their own utilities.
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The utilities supplied are as follows:
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AMU is the Acorn Make Utility, which Make calls to remake programs.
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CC is the C Compiler. Many users will prefer to run it using Make,
rather than dropping the appropriate files onto it every time.
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CMHG creates headers for modules written in C.
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Common reads a text file and counts how many times each word appears.
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DecAOF and DecCF decode AOF and Chunk files respectively. If you don’t
know what these file types are, you won’t want to use these utilities.
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Diff compares two text files line by line and reports differences.
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Find searches multiple files for a text pattern. Matches can be thrown
back to SrcEdit if desired.
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Link combines object files to create an executable program. It is
usually invoked by a compiler or Make.
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LibFile maintains the libraries used by Link.
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ObjSize reads object files and reports on the size of data, code and
debug information in them. It could be useful for determining Wimpslot
sizes.
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Squeeze compresses programs so that they take up less room on disk and
load faster. The programs automatically decompress themselves when run.
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ToANSI and ToPCC convert C source code between the ANSI and PCC
standards.
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WC reads text files and counts the number of lines words and characters.
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Conclusion
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Desktop C is ideal for the serious programmer wanting to develop desktop
programs or relocatable modules in C. The DDE allows the entire
development process to be run from the desktop and contains many time-
saving utilities. The main benefits of upgrading for owners of Version 3
are the throwback of errors and the DDT desktop debugger. New users
obtain a good, solid compiler with a range of useful support tools,
including the debugger.
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The only snag with Desktop C is the price. An upgrade from ANSI C
Version 3 costs £99.87 (upgrades are only available from Acorn Direct).
A new copy costs £267.93 (Archive price £240). A company writing C
programs will probably consider that the productivity benefits justify
these prices. Individuals will find them rather steep.
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Acorn no doubt want to recover some of the money spent having this
package developed, but the pricing puts the product at the expensive end
of the market and won’t attract people who want to learn C. For these
people, products like Beebug’s C at a third of the price look attractive
since they won’t be too bothered about validated ANSI conformance, the
lack of a debugger or how well the compiler libraries will keep in step
with Acorn.
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Acorn also sell a product called Desktop Assembler which provides ARM
assemblers and the DDE. People who want to program in C and Assembler
have to buy the DDE twice! Surely Acorn could give an option to upgrade
to a combined package.
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In summary, Desktop C is good quality, but at a price!  A
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Paul B
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