Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/magazine/volume_08/issue_02

Text File | 1995-06-25 | 282.0 KB | 5,858 lines

Acorn World 94
8.2
Norwich Computer Services has a large stand (Nº46) next door to the
theatre at Acorn World 94 (28th − 30th October at the Wembley Conference
Centre). I do hope you will come along and see us. There will be some
special offers on Archive subscriptions, so bring your unconverted
friends along and get them to sign up − the more subscribers we have,
the better we can make Archive. To that end, we’ve given you a coloured
sticky badge that you can wear at the show so that people will know you
read Archive and they can ask what you think of it. (It should be
somewhere in the envelope!)
8.2
We hope that some of the Archive contributors will also be around so
that you can chat to them and you will be able to talk to the Editor,
too.
8.2
Making Archive Better − Part II
8.2
I was going to write up some more of the ideas from the questionnaires,
but there were so many of them!! As the pile of blue papers on my desk
grew and grew, the size of the task grew and I never actually got
started − you know how it is − but I’ll do my best for next month. Mind
you, to be fair to myself, I have been working on some exciting new
plans for the long-term future development of Archive which I hope to
tell you a bit about next month. Watch this space...
8.2
Happy reading,
8.2
Products Available
8.2
•  16-bit audio card − Expressive Software Projects have launched the
first stage of their 16-bit Minnie audio card for the Risc PC. Priced at
£69.95 +VAT, the card provides output via the internal speaker or the
headphone socket on the Risc PC. The software provided with the package
can handle playback from a number of sources. Later this year, the
second half of the package, providing MIDI synthesizer and MPC support
for the PC Card will be available, at £39.95 +VAT.
8.2
•  A4 colour scanner − Irlam Instruments have now added the Canon IX4015
A4 flatbed colour scanner to their range of scanners using their Proi-
Mage software. This is a 400 dpi scanner that interpolates to 1200 dpi
in greyscale, taking only 20 seconds for full colour A4 scan. This high
speed is possible because it uses a SCSI interface. The scanner and
software costs £699 +VAT including the software and leads (£765 through
Archive). If you don’t already have a SCSI interface, that would be
extra, e.g. a Morley uncached card at £160 through Archive.
8.2
•  Acorn Advantage − This isn’t a product as such but Acorn’s latest
marketing campaign. Never-the-less, it provides opportunities that
Archive subscribers might want to take up. It is a membership scheme,
designed to build a mutually beneficial partnership between Acorn,
school teachers and parents. The teachers start the process by
registering with Acorn as Advantage agents (although I’m sure they won’t
call them “agents”!). This won’t cost them anything but simply means
that whenever they buy Acorn equipment for their school, they clock up
“points” for the school. Parents can also help in this because if they
buy an Acorn computer (from a participating Acorn dealer such as NCS!),
they will be given points that they can allocate to a school of their
choice. The school can amass these points (a bit like the Tesco scheme)
and use them to “buy” equipment from an educational resources catalogue
which Acorn provide to the school.
8.2
Once teachers are registered on this scheme, they can ask Acorn to send
them as many “concerned parent” packs as they want and give them to all
the pupils to take home, thus encouraging parents to buy Acorn computers
and earn points for the school. If you are a teacher and want to join,
just ring the Advantage Helpline on 0181-673-5455 and ask for a teacher
pack. Teachers registered on the scheme also get personal benefits
including discounts on national events, training and conferences,
regular free reports on educational and IT issues, magazine
subscriptions and educational directories.
8.2
Basically, it seems to be a “no-lose” situation. Teachers gain by
getting free perks and free information, parents who buy Acorn computers
get a system that will allow their children to do educationally valid
tasks at home and, at the same time, help the school with points, so
they don’t lose anything, and schools gain by getting free educational
resources. Oh, and Acorn don’t lose either because people buy their
computers!
8.2
•  Acorn Desktop Guide is aimed to fill the niche between tutorials and
manuals. The Norfolk Information Technology Team have produced this
booklet as a reference for new users first learning their way around the
desktop. 28 ring-bound cards cover basic use of the desktop, icons,
mouse, keyboard, discs and printing. The guide is available from Norfolk
Educational Press at £6.95 all-inclusive (cheques made payable to
Norfolk County Council).
8.2
•  Acorn Early Years pack − Acorn have launched a new computer pack for
the A3010 aimed at parents with primary age children. The Early Years
Pack consists of a 2Mb A3010 with no monitor so you can use whatever
screen you like − you can even use your existing TV for the absolute
minimum budget version. There is a range of software available with it
and the total price is £499 inc VAT.
8.2
The software packs are:
8.2
Talking Start-Write (Icon Technology) − a fully-featured, although
simple to use, word-processing package. It uses outline fonts and allows
the incorporation of pictures into the text. It can also talk the words
as they are typed, providing reassurance that they have been typed
correctly.
8.2
Explore with Flossy the Frog (4Mation) − a graphical adventure where the
user is in control of what actually happens. The delightful pictures
encourage questions, and the different objects in the pictures all have
different effects and actions.
8.2
Mouse in Holland (4Mation) − In a similar vein to Flossy the Frog, it
allows the user to explore the life of Martin Mouse, who lives in a
windmill. With many scenes including the Dutch countryside, canalside
Amsterdam and an art gallery, as well as inside the windmill, the
graphics encourage the user in terms of an overall goal of finding
fruit, cheese and moles!
8.2
Doris the Dotty Dog (Sherston) − This is a talking story with still
pictures and animations. It can be used by a parent with a child who is
not yet reading or by a child on their own to develop their reading and
vocabulary − individual words may be spoken if they are not known.
8.2
Gemini (Cambridgeshire Software House) − This is a computer version of
pelmanism with many different card sets making it suitable either for
very young children who can recognise shapes with only a few cards, or
for older children who can identify more complex pictures.
8.2
Amazing Maths (Cambridgeshire Software House) − In this package you have
to find your way through a maze while being asked arithmetic problems by
the computer. The parent can set the difficulty of the questions asked,
both in terms of the numbers used and the operations (add, subtract,
multiply and divide) that are available. This can then be used to
reinforce mathematical skills from simple addition (as one stage on from
counting) to providing the whole range of numerical operations.
8.2
Paint Pot (Emerald Publishing) − By dipping into the paint pot, you can
learn how to use the !Paint program. The book (and accompanying disc) is
written so that it can either be used by a parent encouraging their
child, or by an older child who can read themselves. Simple examples of
many of the facilities of paint are given as drawings of real objects.
There is also a library of animals and sea creatures that can be used to
build a jungle scene or an undersea picture. Ideas for projects using
Paint are also provided − and this keeps children fascinated for hours,
with no risk of spilling poster paint on the settee!
8.2
•  Acorn Publisher is a new subscription magazine for the Acorn world.
It will cover all aspects of publishing on Acorn computer systems,
including electronic publishing and multimedia. The aim will be to
promote the Acorn platform as a high quality professional system capable
of addressing a large proportion of the needs of professional publishers
and designers, as well as catering for a more popular user base. A
second aim will be to raise the standard of publishing based on Acorn
systems.
8.2
The new magazine will be A4 in size, printed on quality paper with full
colour cover and mixed colour/mono contents. The magazine is entirely
edited and produced on an Acorn Risc PC, and aims to be an example of
all that is possible on an Acorn system.
8.2
The magazine will be published every other month with the first issue
scheduled for publication on 10th October this year. Subscriptions are
£24.95 in the UK, £28.95 in Europe and £32.95 elsewhere.
8.2
For further information contact Mike Williams at Akalat Publishing on
01582-881614.
8.2
•  Advanced file server − Datathorn are launching a Motorola-based
“Super Server”. This high speed network system allows a number of
platforms, especially RISC OS, Apple Macintosh and PCs, to use the same
server, and a server can support up to 200 computers. Further
information and demonstrations are available from Datathorn.
8.2
•  Autograph is a teaching package designed to help in the understanding
and illustration of many aspects of mathematics seen at both GCSE and A-
level, covering a very wide range of topics. Autograph costs £90
inclusive (no VAT) from Eastmond Publishing. A site licence costs £180.
(It was reviewed in Archive 7.12 p77.)
8.2
•  CartridgeMate − How would you like to have an inkjet cartridge
refilling system that just involves putting the cartridge in a box and
pressing a button − no plastic gloves, no ink spilt on the table, etc?
Well, if you have a printer that takes Hewlett-Packard 51626A high
capacity cartridges, you can − more or less. I haven’t tried the system
yet but it looks extremely simple and easy-to-use. The system plus two
38ml ink tanks costs £36 through Archive and the extra 38ml tanks are
£22 for a box of two.
8.2
•  Clicker is a new piece of software from Crick Computing. It provides
an on-screen overlay keyboard, with facilities for speech in software.
The program displays a grid of configurable size on screen, in which can
be placed words. Clicking on a cell can then enter the contents into a
word processor, for example, or provide a link to other grids for a
hierarchical structure. Cells can also contain function and editing
keys. Switch Clicker is a special access version of Clicker for users
who are unable to use a mouse, allowing switch users access to the RISC
OS desktop, and providing all the facilities of Clicker together with
the special facilities. Clicker costs £35 +VAT, including a site licence
for up to five machines, and Switch Clicker is £75 +VAT, from Crick
Computing.
8.2
•  DEC_dATA are increasing the prices of their Primary Education
Services products to £11.16 inc VAT for single disc collections, and
£22.32 inc VAT for double disc collections. New collections of clipart
from PES are Soccer, Beowulf, Farming Then and Farming Now. DEC_dATA are
also providing a resource disc for Impression Publisher, including a
number of backgrounds, borders, motifs, forms, graphic borders,
helpfiles and masks. The Impression Publisher Resource Disc is £12.95
inc VAT. Other new products include a collection of over 50 cartoons in
drawfile format for £9.34 inc VAT, and for Acorn World 94, The Normans −
a set of pictures relating to the Norman invasion and Norman life in
Britain.
8.2
•  Digital Phenomena have a number of titles available. LabelBase is a
professional database aimed specifically at printing labels simply,
priced at £49.95, or £199.95 for a site licence. WordSearch is a utility
for generating word searches, taking the required words, arranging them
randomly and filling in the gaps with random letters. WordSearch costs
£9.95. Disc Commander, at £29.95, offers a disc sector editor and
recovery utility, backup, search facilities, archive reading, disc
protection, network use and advanced virus protection; a shareware
version offering only the virus protection facilities is available for
£5. Rune Seeker, at £4.99, is a fantasy puzzle game. ESP, at £14.95,
generates ‘Zener’ cards to test your psychic skills, and will analyse
the results for you. Finally, !Gematria is a numerology package which
will produce a four-page analysis of a personality based on an
individual’s name and date of birth, intended both for entertainment and
for serious research. !Gematria is £9.95 from Digital Phenomena. (All
prices are inclusive.)
8.2
•  Dis-le − the computerized speaking French tutor has now been updated
to version 3.0. The upgrade is available from Mike Smith (used to be
Bits ‘N’ Bytes).
8.2
•  DTP clipart − G.A.Herdman Educational, have increased their range of
DTP clipart to 20 discs. Also, Map_Chem, a resource of spider diagrams
and reaction pathways in draw format, is now available at £69.99 +p&p
for all four discs. Digital Thermometers is a plug-in system for the
analogue port (so the I/O interface is required), and is available for
£39.99 for a two-probe system or £32.99 for a single probe. A range of
educational games, assessment packages and products aimed at various
parts of the Physics and Chemistry courses up to A-level standard are
also available. (VAT not applicable.)
8.2
•  Education 2000 − Matt Black has a new pack of clipart consisting of
2,000 drawfile images on 8 discs with a user guide and visual index, a
quick reference card and a copy of Hugh Eagle’s PickAPic imagefinder
program. The cost is £65 +£2 p&p (inc VAT) from Matt Black.
8.2
•  Evacuation is an educational compilation from Northern Micromedia
designed to teach today’s primary children about the evacuation which
took place during the second world war. It covers the evacuation itself,
food and rationing, and includes a package which produces fax-style
print-outs of chronological events to which the children must respond. A
full catalogue of their educational software is available from Northern
Micromedia.
8.2
•  Impression upgrades − There has been some confusion over the cost of
upgrade paths between the various versions of Impression. We said in
this magazine (7.6 p9) that owners of Impression II could upgrade to
Style for £29 +VAT through Computer Concepts. This is correct. Then we
reported that “when Impression Publisher is released, Impression Style
owners and Impression II owners will be able to upgrade for £29 +VAT.”
However, that meant that owners of Impression Style who had previously
owned Impression II could upgrade at that price. New purchasers of
Impression Style wanting to upgrade to Impression Publisher will have to
pay CC £70 +VAT. In fact, the £29 upgrade was an introductory offer and
it now costs £49 +VAT to upgrade from II to Publisher. (There is also a
p&p charge of £3.53 to add.)
8.2
(As a now very satisfied user of Impression Publisher, I can say that I
think it is worth every penny of the upgrade price − see page 18 for
details. Ed.)
8.2
(Editor then dons sales hat and says... We have found three copies of
Impression II in our stock room so if anyone wants Publisher on the
cheap, they can buy Impression II at a special price of £60 and then get
it upgraded by CC. The total cost is then just over £130 − a real
bargain! Ed.)
8.2
•  InTouch is a concept keyboard program aimed at the early stages of
children’s cognitive development. The package was designed originally
for children with severe learning difficulties and there are many
aspects that are appropriate to other phases of mainstream education.
InTouch offers opportunities for activities such as picture/symbol/
colour/object/number recognition, matching and sequencing as well as a
scanning communication aid (using one or two switches) all of which can
be enhanced with sound samples. InTouch costs £40 +VAT from Hampshire
Microtechnology Centre.
8.2
•  L’Ensouleiado Software have a number of languages programs, including
new versions of French Verb, Spanish Verb and German Verb, packages
which allow practice of tenses as far as the A-level standard, for the
Acorn and BBC machines, at £20 +VAT each. Voyage! takes students through
an interactive sequence for holiday-booking and letter-writing, aimed at
those with a few years’ experience in French. Gute Reise! is a follow-up
to German Holiday, and is a companion to Vivent les Vacances! and ¡Viva
España!, aimed at GCSE level. Allons!, ¡Vamos! and Komm Mit! are three
suites of programs aimed at the early stages of language learning. A
full catalogue of over 20 language programs is available from
L’Ensouleiado Software.
8.2
•  Micro languages − LCL’s range of home educational software has now
expanded to include new versions of Micro French, Micro German and Micro
English which will follow the approach used in their Micro Spanish
program and have interactive speech on disc. They also have a range of
maths courses available.
8.2
•  Micro Librarian Systems are now up to release 4.2 of Micro Librarian
Professional, a librarian assistant package. To complement the package,
they also have Magicat − a pre-entered catalogue of 150,000 common
school books, an ‘acquisitions and budget control module’, Photocheck −
a system which allows storage of digitized pictures of borrowers as a
security check, a self-service utility and a barcode reader. In
addition, search facilities can be made available from other machines
(including PCs and BBC Masters) linked by the serial port to the Acorn
machine on which the librarian software is run; this is in addition to
the search facilities offered by the package running directly on the
host machine. There is also a Junior Librarian package aimed at primary
schools, packaged with a barcode reader, and there is a corresponding
junior version of Magicat containing 40,000 books common to libraries of
schools for the ages of 5-13. MLP4 is £495, Magicat is £180 and the
barcode reader is £375; Junior Librarian is £395 +£5 carriage and its
version of Magicat £90, from Micro Librarian Systems. These prices do
not include VAT.
8.2
•  A Mouse In Holland − 4Mation have released A Mouse In Holland, a
piece of interactive fiction full of animations and sound effects. The
software contains over 3000 words of text, but the ability to read is
not a requirement. A Mouse In Holland costs £29.50 +VAT or £33 through
Archive for a single user or £59 +VAT or £65 through Archive for a site
licence version.
8.2
Betsi, A Mouse in Holland and Explore with Flossy the Frog are also now
available in high resolution versions (mode 28) on newer 2Mb machines,
either at the time of purchase or at £4.99 inc VAT as an upgrade from
4Mation.
8.2
•  Mouse in Holland − 4Mation’s latest program for the young ones is
part of Acorn’s Early Years Pack (details above) but is available
separately for
8.2
•  Oak Recorder 3 − Solent Computer Products have announced the latest
incarnation of their Oak Recorder, a sound sampler which plugs into the
bi-directional parallel port on the later Acorn machines (A5000 and
later). Sampling at 8-bit accuracy and from 7kHz up to 32kHz on a Risc
PC with VRAM, the hardware includes a uni-directional microphone. The
updated software now allows output to a number of file formats,
conversion and manipulation of the sample, and filtering, all under
button-bar control. Oak Recorder 2 is still available for users of
machine without the bi-directional parallel port. Oak Recorder 3 is
priced at £44.95 +£3 carriage +VAT from Solent, with educational
discounts and upgrade paths available.
8.2
•  Optical Professional from Neurotron Software, provides optical
character recognition, including features such as reading of text out
loud (with a speech synthesizer), a multi-column mode, automatic spell-
checking, and multitasking operation, the package is said to be twice as
fast (300 wpm on a 25MHz ARM3) as other leading OCR packages. Optical
Professional can cope with italic and kerned text, and foreign
characters, and can learn outline fonts in under 10 seconds. Accuracy is
claimed to be between 98% and 100%. Optical Professional is available at
£119 +£2 carriage +VAT from Neurotron Software, or £59 +£2 for the
standard version of Optical. Site licences are also available.
8.2
•  Personalised CD-ROMs − Eesox are offering to produce a CD-ROM for
only £60 +VAT, as a special offer lasting until 31st October. The
company have also announced a special network version of their CDFAST
package, which uses cacheing to radically speed up the access of CD ROMs
over networks, available for £130 +VAT.
8.2
•  PLink − This is a RISC OS compliant application to allow users of
Amstrad NC100s to transfer text to any Acorn RISC OS machine. PLink
costs £32 +VAT for a single user (including a lead) and £64 +VAT for a
site licence (including four leads) from Hampshire Microtechnology
Centre.
8.2
•  Softcrete is a new application from the Really Good Software Company
which allows users to encrypt their software to protect it from piracy.
The encryption system allows the software to be tied to a specific
machine using the unique machine ids on later systems, to a password
held in CMOS RAM, or to a password which the user must type in each time
the program is to be used. The package is aimed at programmers and
teachers who may wish to limit the machines on which a package may be
run. Softcrete is £24.95 inc VAT from the Really Good Software Company.
8.2
•  SoftTeach have two new educational products for Acorn machines.
MakeIT allows art drawn by students to be made into cards, stamps and
envelopes, aimed at the Christmas market, and costs £35 for a school
site licence. Class Lists is a class management utility for teachers,
and costs £15. SoftTeach have a number of other educational titles.
8.2
•  Stika Designer − Techsoft now sell CAD design software with a driver
for the Roland Stika vinyl cutter giving output that can be used for
signs, labels, screen-printing etc. The CAD package can cope with both
sprites and drawfiles because the Stika can work in two modes − bit
image cutting and vector cutting. The software on its own costs £75 +VAT
and, as a limited offer, Techsoft are selling the cutter and software
together for £165 +VAT − mention Archive when ordering.
8.2
•  Studio 24 − Pineapple Software have joined the ranks of 24-bit paint
packages with Studio 24. The package will continue to be developed, with
the promise that future upgrades will be free to registered users.
Studio 24 is £125 +VAT from Pineapple − demo discs are also available
for £5. (This should not be confused with Studio 24 Plus from EMR which
is a music sequencer package!)
8.2
•  Supersound Expansion System for A3/4000 − Audio Dynamics have
released a new member of their Supersound Expansion System range, this
one being for the A3000/4000 series. The SSES1700mc has the same
features as the SSES1600, except that the output box will be optional.
The card has a stereo 3.5mm jack and a MIDI interface, and an interface
for a sampler upgrade. A user port has also been included. The
SSES1700mc is £199 +VAT from Audio Dynamics.
8.2
•  Swimming 2.0 − CD Sports Ltd have an interactive multimedia package
intended to teach swimming, water safety and survival skills by means of
animations and games. The package costs £25.52 +VAT with site licences
available.
8.2
•  Starspell Plus is a package aimed at primary and junior school,
incorporating 134 letter patterns and over 1600 common words (which can
be changed) to take an integrated approach to language and spelling. It
has been recommended by the British Dyslexia Association and also by
Educational Psychologists and Advisory Teachers, the package is
available for a number of platforms at £19 +VAT from Fisher-Marriott,
with site licences available.
8.2
•  TableMate 2 − Dalriada Data Technology have released the updated
version of their table creation application. Additional features over
the version that is bundled with Impression Style & Publisher include:
full colour handling, wordwrapping, drawfiles inside cells, insertion
and deletion of multiple rows or columns, cut and paste editing,
variable rule-off widths and a multiple document editor. Tablemate 2
costs £32.50 inclusive, a primary licence costs £40 and a secondary one
is £70, all inclusive.
8.2
•  Talking Stories − Wyddfa Software have four new talking stories about
Gwen, the lovable, mischievous bear, Gwen’s Nose, Gwen’s Tummy, Gwen
goes to School and Gwen at the Fair. These are £20 each inclusive or £50
for all four.
8.2
•  Twain Drivers − David Pilling is releasing Twain scanner drivers for
the Nikon Coolscan, a 2700dpi 35mm slide/colour negative SCSI bus
scanner, and for the Mustek Paragon and Microtek Scanmaker II A4 3-pass
colour flat bed SCSI bus scanners. The drivers are £20 each, or £35 with
ImageMaster, including VAT and carriage from David Pilling.
8.2
•  UK School Internet Primer is a new book aimed at explaining the truth
behind all the recent hype about the internet. Aimed especially at
school and teachers, the book is also good reading for the general
enthusiast. The book is available for £8.50 from Koeksuster
Publications.
8.2
•  Vision 24 − HCCS have launched a 24-bit real-time video digitizer,
the Vision 24, capable of 254 lines by 720 pixels and priced at £99
+VAT, or an extra £40 +VAT for a version capable of 508 lines. A 254
line digitizer can be upgraded later, and discounts are available on
earlier Vision products. A3000/3010/3020/4000 internal, A300/400/5000/
Risc PC internal and MicroPodule versions are available, with the
external A3000 version £20 more expensive. A JPEG compression/
decompression utility is supplied with the package.
8.2
•  Words and Music have expanded their range of Midi files for the
Archimedes. These include three more ‘Classic Collection’ volumes, and
‘Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier’. These collections are available for
£10.95 +£1 p&p each from Words and Music.
8.2
•  XOB upgrades − XOB have announced an upgrade to their SuperMon
software to allow the network managing software, previously limited to
Econet, to be used on other AUN networks. They have also announced
TimeCord, a product intended to ease the recording of time spent on
tasks in professions where charging of fees is based on time spent, when
that time may be fragmented, and in situations where work-load is being
monitored. Finally, Adventurers’ Computer Kingdom is a multi-user
network adventure game, and an upgrade has now been released to allow
this to run on AUN networks rather than just Econet.
8.2
Products (still) Available
8.2
In our trawl through Acorn’s list of “companies that produce things for
Acorn machines” we have brought to light various products that we didn’t
know about. Some of them have been out for a while so they are not
necessarily new products available.
8.2
•  Avanti is a training authoring system from Westland Systems
Assessment, which helps structure and create multimedia interactive
training presentations. The program outputs Basic V code, which can then
be hand-tailored if features beyond the capabilities of the original are
required.
8.2
•  Computer Tutorial Services has a number of educational and
specialised programs available for the Acorn range. For more
information, please contact CTS.
8.2
•  Contex Computing have a number of Acorn packages, including
educational reading tutors, a typing tutor, and Bank Manager financial
software. Contex Bank Manager is £25, typing tutor £19 and Easy Reader
and Madlibs (a grammatical game) are £12.50 each − p&p extra. (Slight
snag − their phone number is ‘unobtainable’ so I can’t check if these
are inc or ex VAT. Ed.)
8.2
•  Dixon & Dixon, the business software manufacturers, have a package
called Flyprint costings £40 inc VAT, aimed at easy production of
leaflets in any size or quantity. The company also has a keyboard
emulator, which provides a window containing a view of the keyboard;
clicking on keys is equivalent to the key being pressed on the keyboard.
Control, shift and caps keys can be toggled on or off to allow full
keyboard flexibility. The keyboard emulator is £12 inc VAT from Dixon &
Dixon.
8.2
•  G-TABS Time and Billing System − Gartside Neville Ltd. have a package
for the Psion series 3a (and Pocket Book II, presumably) which provides
a system for recording time and expense data. The system allows for
reviewing, summarizing, back-up and printing, as well as data transfer
via the serial link.
8.2
•  Hampshire Microtechnology Centre produce a huge range of educational
materials for use with Acorn computers. Guides include: Using Hard Discs
in the Primary Classroom, PipeDream user notes, Impression II and
Junior, RISC OS 3, Draw, Paint & Edit, ArcTerm7, Intro to A3000, A5000,
Parents’ Support Pack. Curriculum resource materials include: PipeDream
cooking recipe datafiles, Nature pack (KS1&2), Introduction to !Sparkle
(control software), Planning and tracking IT in the Curriculum, English
11 − 18, Geography KS2&3, Food Technology KS3, Datacapture work cards,
Control Technology at KS1&2, Control Technology at KS3, Art & Design.
8.2
Also available from HMTC are: Linguatext, a text manipulation package
for modern language teachers; Granville, a French holiday simulation;
Move it!, mechanical movement at KS2&3; Ezekiel, a draw-based DIY
skeleton; Con-Text, a program to create concept keyboard overlays; Con-
Verse, a program to put sound on concept keyboard overlays; Nutrients, a
diet analysis package; Bridges, a technology-led package (KS2&3)
supporting a cross-curricular approach to learning; Knowledge Station,
an application that allows you to explore knowledge in a carefully
structured way and Writing for a Purpose which uses Knowledge Station as
a means of studying different genres of writing.
8.2
•  In House Publishing are providing key stage science assessment and
homework packs in both reproduction master form and in Impression form
so that materials can be modified ‘in house’ if necessary. Assessment
reproduction masters (printed in 600dpi monochrome) are £25.50 each,
with homework packs for key stage 3 £20.50 each for the masters. The
corresponding colour Impression DTP files are £38.50 and £35.50 each.
8.2
•  Micro Studio have a range of clipart on different topics. Ones we
haven’t mentioned before include: Transport Graphics Library (£29.95),
Designer’s Graphics Pack (£19.95), Drawfile Mazes (£19.95), Seashore
Guide (£19.95), Science Graphics Pack (£29.95), Illustrator Graphics
Pack (£19.95), Greetings Pack (£19.95), Decorated Alphabet (£19.95),
Nature Graphics Pack (£19.95), DTP Library Pack (£29.95) and Military
History (£19.95) − all prices are inclusive of VAT.
8.2
•  Primrose Publishing have a range of language programs under the Tick-
Tack title. These cover topics such as beginners language, general use,
business use, travel and tourism and job-hunting. By use of control
codes, the packages provide common phrases, and cover up to 30 languages
(in the case of the business pack). Training and multi-lingual e-mail
packages are also available. Prices from Primrose Publishing.
8.2
•  Reduce − Codemist Ltd are now on release 3.5 of the Archimedes
version of Reduce, the interactive algebraic manipulation package, aimed
at mathematicians, scientists and engineers. The package is based on
Codemist’s own LISP, and is a standard on other platforms, coming with a
number of additional utilities. Reduce itself is capable of ‘expansion
and ordering of polynomial and rational functions, substitutions and
pattern matching in a wide variety of forms, automatic and user
controlled simplification of expressions, calculations with symbolic
matrices, arbitrary precision integer and real arithmetic, facilities
for defining new functions and extending program syntax, analytic
differentiation and integration, factorisation of polynomials,
facilities for the solution of a variety of algebraic equations,
facilities for the output of expressions in a variety of formats,
facilities for generating optimised numerical programs from symbolic
input, and dirac matrix calculations of interest to high energy
physicists.’
8.2
•  Selective Software have a range of educational software: Little Red
Riding Hood is a two-part problem-solving adventure for children aged 5
to 8 (£15); Number Zoo is a first number program for ages 3 to 6 (£14);
Cinderella is a “magical adventure” for 4 to 7 year olds based on the
well-known fairy tale (£17); Shylock Gnomes is a mathematical adventure
for ages 10 to 15 (£17); Don the Professor is a four-disc set of
mathematical software for Key Stages 2 & 3 covering number, algebra,
shape and space, and data-handling (£19 single user, £49 site licence);
SportsDay & SportsPeople are two separate programs at £22.50 each that
help with administration of a school sports’ day, the first deals with
teams competing against one another and the second is for named athletes
competing as individuals. Add £2 p&p +VAT to all the prices.
8.2
•  Special Access Systems have a range of keyguards aimed to help users
with hand tremor. They are available for Acorn machines previous to the
A3010 for £36 +VAT +p&p, and also for PC keyboards. They also sell
expanded programmable keyboards for the earlier Acorn machines and AT
compatibles, at £475 +VAT +p&p. Discounts are available for bulk
purchase.
8.2
Products Unavailable
8.2
•  ISO Pascal Extensions − Due to the discontinuation of Acorn’s ISO
Pascal, Smith & Wiggins have ceased to provide this product.
8.2
•  PD-CD Nº1 not available − not from NCS. We have discovered that the
first PD-CD from the Datafile contains some ‘soft-porn’ JPEG images. We
were not aware of this when we said they would be available through
Archive. Dave McCartney of the Datafile said he hadn’t really registered
the nature of the JPEG images and would not be including any such images
on future PD-CD discs.
8.2
Review software received...
8.2
We have received review copies of the following: •Beethoven Browser
Egmont (e), •Clicker (u), •Flyprint (u), •LjDuplex (u), •MouseTrap (u),
•Trellis (g), •UK School Internet Primer (bk).
8.2
e=Education, bk=Book, g=Game, u=Utility.
8.2
If you would like to review any of these products, please contact the
Archive office. Potential reviewers will need to show that they would
use the product in a professional capacity or that they have some
knowledge of the particular field.  A
8.2
Government Health Warning − Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
8.2
Did any of you see that TV program recently in which the biologist,
Richard Dawkins, talked about a world without religion? Or perhaps you
have read his books “The Blind Watchmaker” and “The Selfish Gene”? We no
longer need to invent a thing called “God” to explain away the bits we
don’t understand − a scientific view of life explains everything. We are
all just a product of our genes and the way things have evolved can be
described in purely mechanistic terms. But, as a good scientist, Richard
Dawkins would never (I hope) say that he had “proved” that God doesn’t
exist, but rather that he has a theory (call it ‘Theory A’) which is a
perfectly plausible explanation of the observable facts.
8.2
OK, that’s fine but I have a different theory (call it Theory B) which
is, I believe, an equally plausible explanation of the observable facts.
The bible says that...
8.2
Sorry, but I had to stop. When I mentioned the bible, I felt the
shutters go down! What was your reaction? Was it “Oh no, not that old-
fashioned, reactionary view again!” or “Why should I let the bible tell
me how to live my life?” or “Science has disproved the bible, anyway.”
or maybe it was “Look at all the evil that has been done by the church
over the years, using the bible as its authority!” Those are some of the
reasons I have been given by readers over the months to explain why they
can’t accept Theory B.
8.2
It’s funny you know, but some of the people who prefer Theory A are
amongst the most faithful readers of the God-slot. “I’m not a religious
person but I read your God-slot every month.” Why is that, I wonder?
Well, according to Theory B it’s because we have a Father who created us
and therefore there’s a socking great big hole in the life of anyone who
doesn’t have a loving relationship with God. What is more, we make a
mess of our human relationships, too, because of the insecurity created
by that lack of love.
8.2
“What a load of rubbish! How can anyone fall for such religious mish-
mash?!” Hang on a minute! What happened to the careful scientific
approach to examining my Theory? Well, I’ll tell you what happened to
it. According to Theory B, you are suffering from a disease called
‘pride’ which affects a human being’s judgement. “Are you trying to tell
me that for all the xxx years I have lived on this earth I have been
wrong in my view of God?” Well, yes, possibly.
8.2
Tell me, are you open enough in your thinking to investigate a new (old)
Theory? “No thanks, I don’t want to end up a religious nutcase like that
Paul Beverley.” You see, you are at it again. You’re not approaching
this coldly and clinically and logically. You’re saying, “I’m not going
to look into this because I don’t like the implications. If I came to
believe in Theory B, I’d be an object of ridicule in my family and at
work.”
8.2
Are you prepared to examine the evidence for Theory B? Are you prepared
to face up to the implications that follow if you do come to the
conclusion that the evidence is very strong that, for example, Jesus did
rise from the dead? Well, I tell you, all over the UK, thousands of
people are looking into it by going on these Alpha courses, and
thousands of people are saying that their lives have been transformed by
God in a wonderful way. I have seen my own 49-year-old cousin change in
a most wonderful way just recently − he has such a peace and a new joy −
it’s just brilliant to see!
8.2
“Huh! It’s getting worse! More religious mumbo-jumbo. They are being
brain-washed! Silly people! I wouldn’t fall for that.” Well, all I can
say is that, if it is brain-washing, it must be very clever brain-
washing because the people becoming Christians are taking their friends
on the next course − and they are going along because they can see that
something has happened to their friend and they want to know what it is.
8.2
“This is getting ridiculous! The God-slot is getting longer and longer.
Religion is taking over the Archive magazine that I have paid good money
for.” Sorry about that but I’ll give you a pro-rata refund for the
missing technical information or a refund if you want to cancel your
subscription in disgust. But if Theory B IS correct then it is THE most
important thing for EVERYONE to find out about. Why not check it out −
you’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain!
8.2
Paul Beverley
8.2
Fact-File
8.2
(The numbers in italic are fax numbers)
8.2
4th Dimension   1 Percy Street, Sheffield, S3 8AU. (01742-700661)
(01742-781091)
8.2
4Mation    14 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32
8PA. (01271-25353) (01271-22974)
8.2
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
8.2
Academy Television   104 Kirkstall Road, Leeds, LS3 1JS. (01532-461528)
(01532-429522)
8.2
Acorn Computers Ltd    Acorn House, Vision Park, Histon, Cambridge, CB4
4AE. (01223-254254) (01223-254262)
8.2
Akalat Publishing   P.O. Box 231, Barton, Bedford, MK45 4HQ, (01582-
881614) (01582-881614)
8.2
Alternative Publishing   Suite 91, 9A Pentagon House, 36 Washington
Street, Glasgow, G3 8AZ. (0141-248-2322) (0141-248-3638)
8.2
Angelsoft Educational   35 Heol Nant, Swiss Valley, Llanelli, Dyfed,
SA14 8EN. (01554-776845)
8.2
ANT Ltd   P.O.Box 300, Cambridge, CB1 2EG. (01223-567808) (01223-567801)
8.2
APDL    39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London, SE26 5RN.
8.2
Apricote Studios    2 Purls Bridge Farm, Manea, Cambridgeshire, PE15
0ND. (01354-680432)
8.2
Atomwide Ltd   7 The Metro Centre, Bridge Road, Orpington, Kent, BR5
2BE. (01689-838852) (01689-896088)
8.2
AU Enterprises Ltd   126 Great North Road, Hatfield, Herts, AL9 5JZ.
(01707-266714) (01707-273684)
8.2
Audio Dynamics    10 Durnford Close, Norden, Rochdale OL12 7RX. (01706-
868803) (01706-868803)
8.2
Avie Electronics (p21)  7 Overbury Road, Norwich. (01603-416863) (01603-
788640)
8.2
Beebug Ltd (p42)  117 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (01727-
840303) (01727-860263)
8.2
BirdTech   16 Weynor Gardens, Kelling, Holt, Norfolk, NR25 7EQ. (01263-
70669)
8.2
Castle Technology   Ore Trading Estate, Woodbridge Road, Framlingham,
Suffolk, IP13 9LL. (01728-621222) (01728-621179)
8.2
CD Sports Ltd   4 Wirral Business Centre, Dock Road, Birkenhead, Wirral,
L41 1JW.
8.2
Clares Micro Supplies   98 Middlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich,
Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (01606-48511) (01606-48512)
8.2
Codemist Ltd   “Alta”, Horscombe Vale, Combe Down, Bath, BA2 5QR.
8.2
Colton Software (p10)   2 Signet Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA.
(01223-311881) (01223-312010)
8.2
Computer Concepts (pp16/22)   Gaddesden Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts,
HP2 6EX. (01442-63933) (01442-231632)
8.2
Computer Tutorial Services Ltd   4 Mill Hill Road, Cowes, Isle of Wight,
PO31 7EA.
8.2
Contex Computing   15 Woodlands Close, Cople, Bedford, MK44 3UE.
(012303-347)
8.2
Creative Curriculum Software   5 Clover Hill Road, Savile Park, Halifax,
HX1 2YG. (01422-340524) (01422-346388)
8.2
Crick Computing   123 The Drive, Northampton, NN1 4SW. (01604-713686)
(01604-713686)
8.2
Cumana Ltd   Pines Trading Estate, Broad Street, Guilford, GU3 3BH.
(01483-503121) (01483-503326)
8.2
Datafile   71 Anson Road, Locking, Weston-super-Mare, Avon, BS24 7DQ.
(01934-823005)
8.2
Datathorn Systems Ltd   George House, 50 Spring Grove, Loughton, Essex,
IG10 4QD.
8.2
David Pilling   P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
8.2
DEC_dATA   P.O.Box 97, Exeter, EX4 4YA. (01392-221702)
8.2
Design Concept   30 South Oswald Road, Edinburgh, EH9 2HG. (0131-668-
2000)
8.2
Digital Phenomena   104 Manners Road, Southsea, Hants, PO4 0BG.
8.2
Digital Services   9 Wayte Street, Cosham, Portsmouth PO6 3BS. (01705-
210600) (01705-210709)
8.2
Dixon & Dixon   Farm Management Cons, 35 Rokeby Drive, Kenton, Newcastle
upon Tyne, NE3 4JY.
8.2
Doggysoft   7 Blackhorse Crescent, Amersham, Bucks., HP6 6HP.
8.2
Eastmond Publishing   33 West Street, Oundle, Peterborough, PE8 4EJ.
(01832-273444)
8.2
EESOX   5 Hillfield Road, Comberton, Cambridge, CB3 7DB. (01223-264242)
8.2
ExpLAN   St Catherine’s House, Plymouth Road, Tavistock, Devon, PL19
8AY. (01822-613868)
8.2
Expressive Software Products   Holly Tree Cottage, Main Street, Strelley
Village, Nottingham, NG8 6PD.  (01115-929-5019) (01115-929-5019)
8.2
Fabis Computing   95 Fabis Close, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, DE11 9SL.
8.2
Fisher-Marriott Software   3 Grove Road, Ansty, Warwickshire, CV7 9JD.
(01203-616325 or 366748)
8.2
G.A.Herdman   43 Saint Johns Drive, Clarborough, Retford, Notts DN22
9NN. (01777-700918) (also 0777-700918)
8.2
GamesWare   Unit 26, The Bartletts, Hamble, Hants., SO35 5RP.
(01703−456523) (or 0243-531194) (01703−456523)
8.2
Gartside Neville Ltd   8 Beckett Way, Laverstock, Salisbury, SP1 1PZ.
8.2
HCCS Ltd   575-583 Durham Road, Gateshead, NE9 5JJ. (0191-487-0760)
(0191-491-0431)
8.2
Hodge Electronic Services    16 Mold Road, Mynydd Isa, Clwyd, CH7 6TD.
(01244-550803)
8.2
Irlam Instruments   133 London Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 4HN.
(01895-811401)
8.2
Koeksuster Publications   St Augustine’s Cottage, High Street, Mill
Hill, London NW7 1QY. (0181-959-3321)
8.2
Kudlian Soft   8 Barrow Road, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 1EH. (01926-
851147)
8.2
LCL   Thames House, 73 Blandy Road, Henley on Thames, Oxon, RG9 1QB.
8.2
L’Ensouleiado Software   Old Brackenlands, Wigton, Cumbria, CA7 9LA.
8.2
Lindis International   Wood Farm, Linstead Magna, Halesworth, Suffolk,
IP19 0DU. (0198-685-477) (0198-685-460)
8.2
Longman Logotron   124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge
CB4 4ZS. (01223-425558) (01223-425349)
8.2
LOOKsystems (pp40/41)  47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(01603-748253) (01603-740203)
8.2
Matt Black   6 Henry Court, Henry Street, Peterborough, PE1 2QG. (01733-
315439)
8.2
Micro Librarian Systems   Staley House, Ridge End Fold, Marple,
Stockport, Cheshire, SK6 7EX. (0161-449-9357)
8.2
Micro Studio Ltd   22 Churchgate Street, Soham, Ely, Cambridgeshire.
(01353-720433)
8.2
Mike Smith    26 Grenville Road, Saint Judes, Plymouth, PL4 9PY. (01752-
667599)
8.2
Millipede Electronic Graphics   Cambridge House, Hargrave, Bury St
Edmunds, Suffolk, IP29 5HS.
8.2
Minerva Systems   Minerva House, Baring Crescent, Exeter, EX1 1TL.
(01392-437756) (01392-421762)
8.2
Morley Electronics   Morley House, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne &
Wear, NE29 7TY. (0191-257-6355) (0191-257-6373)
8.2
Neutron Software   Birch Tree House, The Street, Petham, Canterbury,
Kent, CT4 5QU. (01227-700516)
8.2
Norfolk IT Team   Norfolk County Inset Centre Witard Road Norwich NR7
9XD. (01603-33276)
8.2
Northern Micromedia   Resources Centre, Coach Lane Campus, Newcastle
upon Tyne, NE7 7XA. (0191-270-0424)
8.2
Northwest SEMERC   1 Broadbent Road, Watersheddings, Oldham, OL1 4LB.
(0161-627-4469)
8.2
Oak Solutions (p26)   Dial House, 12 Chapel Street, Halton, Leeds, LS15
7RN (01532-326992) (01532-326993)
8.2
Octopus Systems   9 Randwell Close, Ipswich, IP4 5ES. (01473-728943)
(01473-270643)
8.2
Oregan Developments   36 Grosvenor Avenue, Streetly, Sutton Coldfield,
B74 3PE. (0121-353-6044)
8.2
Pineapple Software   39 Brownlea Gardens, Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex IG3
9NL. (0181-599-1476) (0181-598-2343)
8.2
Porters Primary Software   138A Harvey Clough Road, Sheffield, S8 8PG.
8.2
Primrose Publishing   Vicarage Long Barn, Denham, Bury St Edmunds,
Suffolk, IP29 5EF.
8.2
RESOURCE 51 High Street, Kegworth, Derbyshire, DE74 2DA. (01509-672222)
(01509-672267)
8.2
Selective Software   64 Brooks Road, Street, Somerset, BA16 0PP.
8.2
Serious Statistical Software   Lynwood, Benty Heath Lane, Willaston,
South Wirral, L64 1SD. (0151-327-4268)
8.2
Sherston Software   Angel House, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(01666-840433) (01666-840048)
8.2
Simtec Electronics   Avondale Drive, Tarleton, Preston, PR4 6AX. (01772-
812863) (01772-816426)
8.2
Smart DTP   36 Park Road, Duffield, Belper, DE56 4GR. (01332-842803)
8.2
Soft Teach Educational   Sturgess Farm, Longbridge, Deverill,
Warminster, Wilts, BA12 7EA.
8.2
Solent Computer Products Ltd    2 Mills Lane, Longstanton, Cambridge,
CB4 5DG. (01954-789701) (01954-782186)
8.2
Spacetech   21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA. (01305-822753)
(01305-860483)
8.2
Special Access Systems   4 Benson Place, Oxford, OX2 6QH. (01865-56154)
8.2
Techsoft UK Ltd   The Grange, Erryrs, Mold, Clwyd, CH7 4DB. (0182-43318)
8.2
The ARM Club   Freepost ND6573, London, N12 0BR. (01171-624-9918)
(01181-446-3020)
8.2
The Really Good Software Company   39 Carisbrooke Road, Harpenden,
Herts., AL5 5QS.
8.2
The Serial Port   Burcott Manor, Wells, Somerset, BA5 1NH. (01749-
670058) (01749-670809)
8.2
T-J Reproductions    Unit D, Canada House, Blackburn Road, West
Hampstead, London NW6 1RZ. (0171-372-4430) (0171-372-0515)
8.2
VTI (Vertical Twist)   Unit 1, The Shopwhyke Centre, Shopwhyke Road,
Chichester, PO20 6GD. (01243-531194) (01243-531196)
8.2
Westland Systems Assessment   Telec House, Goldcroft, Yeovil, BA21 4DQ.
8.2
Words & Music   26 Newark Drive, Whitburn, Sunderland, SR6 7DF. (0191-
529-4788) (0191-529-5327)
8.2
Wyddfa Software   3 Preswylfa, Llanberis, Gwynedd, LL55 4LF. (01286-
870101) (01286-871722)
8.2
XOB   Balkeerie, Eassie by Forfar, Angus, DD8 1SR. (01307-840364)
8.2
Archive Monthly Program Disc Contents
8.2
•  Program and documentation from Paul Hobbs’ article on Advanced Basic
Programming − page 45.
8.2
•  Programs from James Riden’s article on assembly language programming
− page 67.
8.2
•  Programs from Elliott Hughes’ article on the RISC OS 3.5 Colour
Picker − page 31.
8.2
•  Files from Gerald Fitton’s DocLine article − page 33.
8.2
•  Sample output from the Eagle multimedia card − see Paul Hooper’s
review on page 77.
8.2
•  Two fonts as created by Christopher Jarman − see his article on page
53.
8.2
•  Program from Hints & Tips Column on page 62.
8.2
•  Files from Paul Hooper’s Multimedia article − page 24.
8.2
•  UnitConv − a desktop application written by Chris Johnson which
converts between various units, generally SI and Imperial, but there are
also some more specialised conversions, such as energy equivalents. This
is provided by Chris as Freeware. If you have constructive comments
about it, please contact Chris.
8.2
•  Factfile − latest version of our full list of Acorn-related companies
on the Archive database.
8.2
Continued on page 80...
8.2
Colton
8.2
From 8.1 page 20
8.2
Acorn World 94
8.2
Acorn World 94 promises to be another impressive showcase for Acorn and
associated companies. Let’s hear first what Acorn are planning...
8.2
News from Acorn Computers
8.2
‘A World of Opportunities’ is the theme of Acorn World ‘94, which takes
place at Wembley Exhibition Centre, London from October 28-30th. The
show has already attracted support from many leading companies and is
set to be the largest ever showcase for Acorn products and services
worldwide. The show will include a series of themed feature areas,
providing a glimpse of technological innovation in the interactive
media, publishing, education and home business sectors. These areas will
demonstrate the innovative synergy Acorn can provide between the home,
the classroom and the office.
8.2
Acorn Computers will be showing highly tuned Risc PCs, bringing new
levels of expandability and flexibility to the personal computer market.
Using production systems and some technology “straight from the labs”,
Acorn will give technically aware users examples of developments that
could be forthcoming in the next months and years. These illustrative
systems will give a pointer to the potential for Acorn computers and
show some of the options that could be developed.
8.2
As a central feature, on the main stand will be the all-time Acorn
“rocket ship” Risc PC. This will be a revolutionary seven slice Risc PC
configured with a whole host of interesting add-on devices to show the
power and flexibility of the system.
8.2
Acorn will also preview a five processor adaptor card for Risc PCs that
allows up to five ARM processors to be fitted, in addition to a
heterogeneous standard second processor card.
8.2
The Acorn Risc PC card developed jointly by Acorn, Atomwide and Future
Technology Devices Inc will also be featured at the show. Some of these
will be configured with DX2 but DX4 chips will also be previewed. Acorn
will be running standard DOS, Windows and OS/2 operating systems and
software on these processors.
8.2
Operating system developments that will be shown will revolve around a
host of different applications. The current plans, should ensure that
the following are on view: OS/2 on the new PC cards, Unix native on Risc
PC, TAOS (a multi-processor operating system) on ARM processors. These
will all emphasise the broad range of options that the Risc PC can
deliver.
8.2
Networking will be a key aspect of the main stand, with new versions of
Access being previewed which, amongst other features, will show CD-ROM
support for Access networks. Microsoft and Novell based servers will be
used to serve RISC OS applications, as previewed at Access IT earlier
this year.
8.2
If the development team meets the deadlines (lots of late nights are
expected), early versions of a RISC OS World Wide Web browser for
Internet will be previewed. Other projects being demonstrated will
include new authentication procedures to allow work group style
computing. In addition, high speed ATM links will be shown.
8.2
A new collection of Risc PC cards and adaptors will be on show. These
will include new 16-bit low cost sound card, SCSI II, network interface
cards, new digitising cards. The use of PC ISA adaptor cards in Risc
PCs, to access low cost PC devices will also be shown.
8.2
The Acorn enthusiasts will also have the opportunity to sign up for the
Acorn Enthusiasts’ Scheme. Competitions will be offered to encourage
people to join the scheme. There will be opportunities to win an ARM 700
processor card for your Risc PC, be one of the first owners of a 486
card for Risc PC and a choice of processors and a multiprocessor adapter
board to allow your Risc PC to carry several ARM processors. The
competitions will be based on a multiple choice question paper with a
tie breaker. Full details will be made available at the show.
8.2
From the Acorn family...
8.2
From our trawl around the Acorn-associated companies, the following
information about new products etc was gathered by Andrew Garrard. (Does
anyone fancy the job of going round all the stands at the show with the
list below checking which, if any, are “Products Available” and then
writing it up for the magazine? It’s quite a big job but good fun at the
time. The hard slog is getting it all written up in time for the next
magazine which means getting the copy to me within 3-4 days of the end
of the show! Thanks. Ed.)
8.2
•  4Mation will be showing their latest program, A Mouse in Holland as
well as Robot World, another new title.
8.2
•  4th Dimension have announced E-Type 2, a follow-on from their
successful racing game, featuring a two-player option, computer players,
six tracks and a track designer. There is also a combat mode, with
lasers and other weapons. This product will be out in time for the show,
and costs £34.95 inc VAT.
8.2
•  Academy Television will have a range of CD-ROM software, including
Science II: Materials, Environment II: Land & Air and World War II:
Global Conflict.
8.2
•  Alternative Publishing Ltd. will have ImageFS on display.
8.2
•  ANT Ltd, supplier of Ethernet networks in the Acorn market, will be
demonstrating advanced networking facilities, including linking Acorn
machines to Acorn AUN, Microsoft LAN Manager and Windows for Workgroups
and Unix, at the Acorn World show. There is a new Network Interface Card
for the Risc PC, and a Pocket Ethernet Adapter for the A4. ANT was
formed to take over the network products previously supplied by Aleph
One.
8.2
•  Apricote Studios − A new version of Prophet, the accounting package,
will be available. Personal Accounts has also been updated recently (to
version 3.13).
8.2
•  AU Enterprises are selling Merlin, an educational database which
covers data-handling from level 4 to level 10. ‘Almost Logo’ is an easy-
to-use turtle graphics package. AU Enterprises (The Advisory Unit:
Computers in Education) also have a number of other educational titles,
and a catalogue is available from them.
8.2
•  Beebug Ltd have taken over Risc Developments’ networking products.
They are also releasing a number of new Ethernet cards, including 10
Base 2 Ethernet interfaces for the Risc PC which fit in the network slot
(£99 +VAT or, for the Acorn Access version of the card, £115 +VAT) and a
new version of their A3020/A4000 10 Base 2 Ethernet interface. There is
also an update to the ROMs on the cards to provide support for either
AppFS or the Acorn Application Accelerator − upgrades are available from
Beebug. The latest versions of Ovation (2.0) and Sleuth (2.0) will also
be demonstrated at the Acorn World show, as will their new Easy C++
compiler.
8.2
•  Birdtech will have Play on Words, an educational package to help
children learn to read. By clicking on words in the package, the word
morphs into an animation. Replay Snippets are available at £1 per disc,
and the company will be providing a scanning service from their top-of-
the-range scanner, at only 50p per image plus the cost of the disc.
8.2
•  Clares Micro Supplies will show ProArtisan 2, ProArtisan 2CD,
ProArtisan 24 and Schema 2 and will launch the Celebration Pack, a suite
consisting of Calendar, Banner, Giftwrap and Certify.
8.2
•  Colton Software will be demonstrating Fireworkz Pro.
8.2
•  Computer Concepts will have a range of new products, including their
MPEG card, a TV tuner, Wacom ArtPad graphics tablets and the latest
version of Impression. They also have a price reduction on their
Scanlight 256 and the BJC600 colour printer/TurboDriver combination.
Impression Publisher Plus is available as an upgrade to Publisher owners
for £130 +VAT, or at £299 +VAT for first-time buyers. It allows
Artworks-style spot colours and named colours, and has OPI and EPS
support. TV Tuner, at £159 and £89 +VAT (with and without Teletext
software respectively) is a tuner and teletext input card; teletext can
be displayed directly, and when combined with a digitiser card TV can be
displayed in a window. ScanLight Professional Colour & PhotoDesk at £749
+VAT is a combination of Canon’s A4 flatbed 24-bit colour scanner with
scanner drivers and Spacetech’s PhotoDesk. The Risc PC MPEG card, Movie
Magic, from Wild Vision will be available in its first release form at
the show − allowing output to a 50Hz PAL RGB monitor, with a version to
follow later in the year to display video in a desktop window. A new
version (4.0) of the TurboDrivers will be available, still at £49 +VAT,
offering greater compatibility, a new colour control system which allows
more control over grey replacement and making use of the Risc PC
architecture, such as unlimited printer buffer allocation; a full 720dpi
Turbo Driver for the Epson Stylus Color and other members of the Stylus
range will also be available. There will also be a TurboDriver and
LaserDirect network spooler available, at £149 +VAT. Formulix is a
mathematical formula and equation editor, at £69 +VAT. A printer and
driver combination for the Canon BJC 4000, for less than the price of
the BJC600, will be available. The Musketeer Pack, at £249 +VAT,
consists of Impression Style, Schema 2 and DataPower. The second
ArtWorks clipart CD, containing the 1994 competition entries and
photographic images, will be available for £19 +VAT. The Risc PC Chroma
Genlock from Wild Vision is available at £149 +VAT, and a number of
other products will be available at special offer prices.
8.2
•  Dalriada Data Technology (sharing a stand with KudlianSoft) will be
showing their new package for creating flowcharts, process diagrams,
organisational charts, annotated diagrams, etc.
8.2
•  Doggysoft will be showing their plug and play Internet solution
Termite, and also their games cheating package Desktop Marker.
8.2
•  ExpLAN will be demonstrating their multimedia bible software, !Holy
Bible, which will provide King James, NIV, REB, New RSV and also,
possibly, Elberfelder, Luther, Russian, Hebrew and Greek. Also on show
will be Occasion, the diary and personal organiser software that is
capable of being run across a network as well as on a stand-alone
machine.
8.2
•  Fabis Computing will be launching Easy Font 3, and will demonstrate
their Impression Borders and Ovation Borders.
8.2
•  GamesWare will have the following new products: Wavelength is a shoot
‘em-up, featuring rendered graphics. Zodiac − GamesWare’s compilation
range will include the Aries pack, containing Hamsters, Quizmaster,
Blowpipe and Square Root. Playdays − an educational release based on the
children’s TV series and aimed at children between three and eight.
GamesWare will also be showing progress on Striker, Dune 2 and Rome AD −
all future releases.
8.2
•  Happy Software, a branch of Creative Curriculum Software are
launching a new range of educational games aimed at children between 3
and 9. The five new products in the ‘Happy Matrix’ series are integrated
computer and board games, and are titled ‘Happy Time’, ‘Happy Sea’,
‘Happy Life’, ‘Happy Numbers’ and ‘Happy Reading’. Each title has five
games which may each be played by one or two players, and cost £34.95
each inc VAT from Creative Curriculum Software.
8.2
•  Irlam Instruments will unveil a colour scanning camera, a combination
video and audio digitizer, some new scanners and their cheap 16-bit
sound card.
8.2
•  Lindis International will launch Cablenews II, a multimedia
presentation package, at the show. Presenter GTi 16v, CADMUST and Start
will also be there.
8.2
•  Longman Logotron will be showing Eureka 3 with almost 200 built-in
maths, stats and financial functions, charting, DTP type facilities, etc
as well as Revelation Image Pro 24-bit, a new version of their painting
and image-processing package and WinLogo, a RISC OS compliant version of
Logo.
8.2
•  LOOKsystems will be selling Cartoons, 104 cartoon characters, £20;
More Cartoons, another 100 cartoon characters, £20; Christmas, 100
festive designs and decorations, £20 and Bitfolio 6 CD, over 1900 high
quality images, £50. (All prices are inc VAT.)
8.2
•  Millipede, the producers of professional video hardware, will be
demonstrating their Apex Imager board, and their new AlphaLock genlock/
overlay adaptor for the Risc PC. Aimed at professional users, the
AlphaLock allows both NTSC and PAL output and combines incoming video
images with the Risc PC’s own display, with programmable transparency on
a per-pixel basis, using the alpha channel. A final price has not been
announced, but is likely to be around £600 +VAT, which Millipede hope
will be within the reaches of enthusiasts and educational users as well
as professionals.
8.2
•  Minerva will be launching PrimeMover. This animation system allows
the creation of frame sequences and enables these animated sprites to be
moved around the screen under the control of a simple, real-time user
interface. The system can be redisplayed on any Acorn system,
irrespective of its speed, and animations can be exported in Ace film
format. PrimeMover will cost £69.95 inc VAT.
8.2
•  Nelson Multimedia will be launching their first CD-ROM titles,
including The Physical World, Aspects of Religion, En Route and the
Machines.
8.2
•  Northwest Semerc will be showing their range of products for
educational special needs, including their high resolution Informatrix
Overlay Keyboard and Informax overlay design software.
8.2
•  Oak Solutions will have Apollonius PDT, their parametric CAD package,
at the show. They will also be demonstrating their interactive
multimedia CD-ROM products.
8.2
•  Oregan will have AppleFS, file transfer software which allows use of
Macintosh discs on Acorn machines, using the standard Acorn floppy
drives. AppleFS will cost £59.95 from Oregan. The company will also be
displaying the latest versions of PhotoTouch, Digital Symphony (now Risc
PC compatible) and Morpheus, and will have a number of new leisure
releases available: Burn’Out, Sally and Wally, and Arcturus.
8.2
•  Pineapple Software will demonstrate their latest virus protection
software and will have a special offer on Studio 24.
8.2
•  Porters Primary Software will have Infant Windows, a simple desktop
publishing package aimed at children from the age of five, at £24.50.
They will also have their Primary Collection of utilities, at £8.50,
their turtle graphics program, at £34.50, Sorter, a new primary
database, and Protector − a hard disc protection utility − at £19.50.
8.2
•  Quantum Software will have Keystroke version 3.06 and Blinds, a
pinboard-type application which allows users to group applications,
files, directories etc. in a convenient way on blinds of any size, which
can be brought up at the click of a mouse button. The blinds can also be
set to appear whenever an application is run, and the icons on the
blinds can be given long names rather than just file names.
8.2
•  Resource will have Dragon Droom’s Revenge, Supermarket, MookMaker,
TalkWrite (a talking word processor), Albert’s House, Pond, TouchWindow
and 1st Paint. They will also have a number of special offers on the
“Discovery 2000” Risc PC range, which bundles educational software and
optimized Risc PCs.
8.2
•  Serious Statistical Software will be demonstrating their “First”
family of statistical packages.
8.2
•  Sherston Software have expanded their catalogue of educational
software. Voyage of Discovery is a science adventure set in 2056AD,
wherein the children have to deliver a package to the captain of a
spacecraft deep in space within three days. The package involves
scrolling, 3D graphics, animations and sound effects. Voyage of
Discovery is available for £31.95. The Oxford Reading Tree range has now
expanded to include Stage 3 Talking Stories, aimed at children between
the ages of 5 and 7. Rosie and Jim Talking Activities, aimed at children
between 4 and 6, provide two stories (£10 each +VAT) based on the
popular children’s television series and using the same technology as
Sherston’s Naughty Stories.
8.2
•  Smart DTP will have their “Publishart” resource available and hope to
have their resources compiled as “Smart CD” too. (Not to be confused
with Smart CD+ from The ARM Club! Ed.) In addition, they will be
exclusively selling Star Fighter 3000, a game from the authors of Chocks
Away and Stunt Racer 2000.
8.2
•  Spacetech will be have PhotoDesk on view and be showing their
meteorological, remote sensing and astronomical software.
8.2
•  The ARM Club will be showing their PD library, and will have their
Utilities Discs and hopefully also !GameOn! and Smart CD+ available.
(Not to be confused with Smart CD from Smart DTP! Ed.)
8.2
•  VTI − who used to be Vertical Twist − will have a sampler card, a
printer port sampler, Sonor (new sampling software similar to
AudioWorks), Desktop Tracker, ArcFS 2.5 − which is newer and faster,
Investigator III and a number of hard-drives and CD-ROMs.  A
8.2
Special Archive advert prepared by Trevor.
8.2
CC
8.2
From 8.1 page 23
8.2
Comment Column
8.2
•  Acorn, you cannot be serious! − How can Acorn computers be taken
seriously in the “real world” if they don’t have an implementation of
C++? And how can they succeed in tertiary education without being able
to run Unix? Come on, Acorn how can we recommend the Risc PC to our
friends and colleague without some serious support?  Keith Parks,
Uxbridge.
8.2
Keith, you’ll be pleased to hear that Acorn are going to be
demonstrating Unix on a Risc PC at Acorn World 94. All we need then is
C++!! Ed.
8.2
•  Apple were wrong! − The Advertising Standards Authority has finally
and fully upheld Acorn’s complaints about some of Apple’s advertising
claims relating to the Power Mac. Acorn objected to statements like...
“Apple is the first company to ship personal computers with RISC-based
microprocessors.” (They were seven years out of date − the A310 in 1987
was actually the first.) I’m sure that the deluge of complaints from
angry Archive subscribers that the ASA received was a helpful
contributory factor in righting this wrong − mind you, the adverts first
came out in March 1994, so Apple have had ample time to get their
(incorrect) message across before being told not to do so!
8.2
In case they try something else, let’s all have the ASA address to hand
so that we are quicker at responding next time − Advertising Standards
Authority, Complaints Department, Brook House, 2−16 Torrington Place,
London, WC1E 7HN.  Ed.
8.2
•  “C books, please” − In answer to last month’s plea... In the course
of many years of C programming, a large number of books have passed
through my grubby hands, but few have stayed close to hand. Those I
would recommend, however, are:
8.2
Andrew Koenig, C Traps and Pitfalls (Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-17928-8)
8.2
Koenig’s a hero of mine. One of Bell’s finest, he writes wonderful
columns on C++ in Joop and C++ Report these days. I look at his C Traps
and Pitfalls these days and think “can I ever have not known that about
C?”, but I remember the days when each page was a revelation − just like
his C++ writings today. It’s pretty much a dictionary of oddities of the
C grammar.
8.2
Herbert Schildt, The Annotated ANSI C Standard (Osborne McGraw-Hill,
ISBN 0-07-881952-0)
8.2
The book is in a format where odd pages contain the ANSI standard, and
even pages contain Schildt’s comments. He says little of worth and makes
numerous mistakes. Far from clarifying the standard, he makes me wonder
if he’s actually read it. Having said that, I wouldn’t be without this
book. It costs much less than half the price of the ANSI standard, so I
can ignore Schildt and remember I’m only a poor student. Beware of the
printing (like mine) where pages 131 and 132 are identical.
8.2
Donald Lewine, POSIX Programmer’s Guide (O’Reilly & Associates, ISBN 0-
937175-73-0)
8.2
This book is probably the least relevant to the RISC OS programmer, but
if you’re interested in C in a wider context (that of Posix − the
standard Unix API), this book is the best I’ve found. Its function
reference contains the entire ISO (or ANSI as was) C library, plus the
Posix functions (covering things like terminal handling, job control
etc). If you plan on writing for Unix, this book’s pretty handy. Very
few errors that I’ve found, but there are sections where you wish he’d
gone deeper. The first few chapters are useless for anyone who considers
themselves a C programmer (the intended audience for the book).
8.2
P J Plauger, The Standard C Library
8.2
A book I’m looking forward to reading is Plauger’s book about how to
implement the functions in ISO C’s library. I used to enjoy his column
in Computer Language, and expect this to be an excellent book.
8.2
For those looking to the future and C++ on their Risc PC...
8.2
Bjarne Stroustroup, The C++ Programming Language
8.2
Need I say more?
8.2
Bjarne Stroustroup, The Design and Evolution of C++
8.2
Buy it and read about language design from a master of the art.
8.2
Don’t accept any imitations: no-one writes better C++ books than Bjarne.
8.2
Elliott Hughes [e-mail] or Snailmail: 15 Lark Hill,
Swanwick, Alfreton, Derby, DE55 1DD.
8.2
•  GraphDraw − If any GraphDraw users are about to purchase a Risc PC,
they are warned that the version on general release has a minor bug
which prevents it working on the Risc PC. Send me a formatted disc and
return postage for a version which (I believe) does work without problem
on the Risc PC (I do not yet have access to a Risc PC, so can only
respond to users problems indirectly). Chris Johnson, 7, Lovedale Grove,
Balerno, Edinburgh, EH14 7DR.
8.2
•  Publisher, an editor’s experience! − Having used Impression Publisher
for a few weeks now and produced one complete issue of Archive on it
(well, it’ll be two by the time you read this!) I thought I’d let you
know how I’m getting on with it. Here are my impressions (sic) as they
came to me, historically.
8.2
Keyboard shortcuts − I think anyone upgrading from Impression II to
Publisher will find some degree of frustration over the different use of
keyboard shortcuts − especially <ctrl-A>. Although I knew to expect this
problem of different shortcuts, it came as bit of a shock to find that
so many of the style shortcuts I use regularly are unavailable now.
Apart from <f1> to <f4>, <f9> and <f10>, I used to have styles on <ctrl-
shift-f1> right through to <ctrl-shift-f10>, all of which are now
unavailable apart from <ctrl-shift-f4>. Bad news!
8.2
The worst of all is the lack of <ctrl-A> for deleting. I used to have my
left hand hovering over <ctrl>, <A> and <S>, then, with my right hand,
I’d use the mouse to locate the cursor, perhaps double-click a word or
treble-click a line or double-click a word and then <adjust>-click to
make a selection and finally press <ctrl-A> to delete it.
8.2
My first attempt at a solution was using Keystroke to make <ctrl-Z> do a
<Copy>, i.e. delete to the right. That’s OK for deleting single
characters but as Publisher uses <ctrl-Z> to unselect a region, that
didn’t work for deleting a marked area so I now have to remember to use
<ctrl-X>.
8.2
Also, <ctrl-Z> working through Keystroke doesn’t respond very quickly,
so you can’t (easily) use it to delete, say, three consecutive
characters. Bring back <ctrl-A> − it was SO convenient. “You can”, said
the man at CC. “Just define a style with no features and give it <ctrl-
A> as the shortcut and that will disable <ctrl-A> from selecting the
whole text.” Nice idea, but I need to “select all the text” on a regular
basis too, so unless there’s some other easy way to do that, I can’t use
that technique − plus the fact that you have to install this phantom
style in every document.
8.2
I tell you, I’m so hampered by the lack of <ctrl-A> as a delete that I’m
thinking of gluing a new key on the LHS of my keyboard and wiring it up
to the delete key! Anyone got any other suggestions?
8.2
Crashes − As I reported last month, at first I had about three or more
crashes a day − “Internal Error at xxxxx” and then, when I tried to
continue, “Error EL00”. Just quitting and reloading didn’t seem to clear
it properly as it tended to crash again quite quickly. I took to using a
complete power-down, power-up. Then, when I pasted up last month’s
magazine, I started about 6 a.m. and worked through until tea time − no
crashes. I started on it again at 9.00p.m. that night and worked through
until 1.30 a.m. (It’s tough being an editor!) No crashes. Then, as I
tried to do almost the very last job of creating the contents list, it
crashed! Coincidence? Well, the way I create the contents list, involves
creating a new Impression document, and that was when it fell over.
Could it be that Publisher doesn’t like the default document that I
dragged over from Impression II? I sent it off to the CC laboratory for
analysis. CC say, “We do not recommend that default documents are
carried over from previous versions of Impression...” so I’m busy
recreating my special master pages and porting across my special
styles.†
8.2
Impression loader − Each month, when I have finished the magazine, I
have to create the “Words Disc”, i.e. I have to scrape out all the text
from the whole magazine and create an Edit file of it. Hitherto, I have
done it by going into the magazine directory, looking in the Chapter2
directory and taking out the file called “Text”. I drop this into an
Impression document and, having loaded the “LoadImp” loader, it
recognises the filetype and re-constructs all the text as one file. I
then just save the text without styles and bingo. Unfortunately, when I
tried this with Publisher, it crashed. CC’s verdict is that “the LoadImp
module does not work with Style or Publisher” so I am going to have to
keep a copy of Impression II on my system just to use LoadImp each month
to create the magazine words disc!
8.2
Speed − I don’t do anything fancy in Impression − the magazine is all
fairly basic DTP stuff − but my first impression (sorry to use that word
again, but Wordworks can’t (or won’t) find a suitable synonym) is that
Publisher is faster in general layout work. Certainly, the area where I
noticed a big difference in speed is in file-handling. I use huge
numbers of Impression files, so the single-file format is very much
faster when you come to opening directories full of documents.
Brilliant!
8.2
(One other drawback I find is that the new filetype icon is so dowdy, I
can’t easily find the files in a filer window or on my pinboard. The old
Impression “I” icon was much more distinctive and stood out clearly.
Anyone want to design me a new single-file Impression icon?)
8.2
Keystroke − Arrrgghhhh!!!! More than half the things I had come to rely
on in Keystroke don’t work! I tell you − it was like trying to work with
one hand tied behind my back. I knew that Keystroke had speeded things
up but I didn’t realise quite how much − just simple things like
keystrokes that do search and replace, changing double space into single
space or double CR into single CR. None of the search and replace items
worked and several of my editing speed-up tricks, like transposing
adjacent words, also failed me! Stuart sent me Keystroke version 3.06
and also warned me that Publisher’s use of the <alt> key means that a
number of things don’t work properly. I’m hoping someone will offer to
start a Keystroke Column, so I won’t go into the work-arounds here.
(Literally hundreds of Archive subscribers took up our special Keystroke
offer − so there is a huge audience for anyone prepared to start a
Keystroke Column!)
8.2
Crashes explained − Another source of crashes has just been identified
and reported to CC as it is actually a bug. I tried to use one of my
Keystrokes to put a comma at the end of the last word on one line but I
accidentally put it at the beginning of the first word on the next line,
i.e. after the space instead of in front of it. I placed the cursor in
front of the comma and attempted to use <shift-ctrl-Q> to switch the
space and the comma and the result was fatal − Publisher died completely
with no way of saving any un-saved file(s). Arrgh! This is entirely
repeatable and also occurs in Publisher Plus but not in Style − at least
not the version we have here. Actually, it’s nothing to do with it being
a comma − just trying to transpose the first character of one line with
the space at the end of the previous line.
8.2
Drag and drop text editing − I discovered this by accident when the text
‘miraculously’ moved from place to place in the document I was editing.
If you haven’t discovered it yet, refer to the manual − it makes editing
quite a bit easier in many instances.
8.2
Overall, as I go on with Publisher, I am getting more and more confident
with it. I still get some nasty crashes if I try to load and edit old
files (especially 2.5Mb Archive magazine files!) but if I know to be
careful with those files, that’s fine. If necessary, I can load them
into Impression 2.19 − which I keep on my Pinboard. Yes, I’m glad I
finally plucked up courage to make the change. (Hmmm, since I wrote
that, I’ve been getting more crashes − seems to be mainly after I have
handled lots of different files and cut and pasted bits between files −
which, as a magazine editor, I have to do rather a lot!)  Ed.
8.2
•  Publisher help − Help is at hand. We have had an offer from Keith
Parker to try to help with any problems that folk have with Publisher.
If you send your problems to Keith, he will work with Tony Tolver of T-J
Reproductions (well known for their Impression-based type-setting etc)
to try to find a solution. Keith Parker, 61 Frensham Close, Southall,
Middlesex, UB1 2QY.
8.2
•  Publisher again − Chris Johnson writes: We have been experiencing a
number of problems with Publisher, particularly the network version,
which appears to crash much more regularly than the stand-alone version,
and also seems to lock up the network print spooler (and consequently
the fileserver) regularly as well. The problems appear when graphics are
in the document. The odd thing is that the same machine and the same
document gives different behaviour depending on whether the network or
the dongled stand-alone version is being run at the time. Has anyone had
similar problems or, better still, got a solution?
8.2
I also had the very odd experience of tidying up my hard disc 4,
including moving the location of !System, and then finding that
Publisher when next run gave the error message something like “this copy
of publisher is corrupt − please reinstall”. Publisher was on hard disc
5, and I am convinced that there was no way that it could have been
corrupted. I had to go through the whole installation process again
before it was usable! I cannot believe that path names are “hard wired”
into it when installed! (They are − for the benefit of OLE and also,
because there is some degree of software protection built in to the
installation method, I gather. Ed.) Chris Johnson, 7, Lovedale Grove,
Balerno, Edinburgh, EH14 7DR.
8.2
•  Scientific software − Archive readers are reminded that I offered to
act as a collator for any type of scientific and mathematical software.
There are now two discs of applications, which can be obtained by
sending two formatted (800Kb) blank discs, together with return postage.
I should also be pleased to receive any software for inclusion on
further discs. I still feel there is a very distinct lack of cheap and
cheerful scientific software available for the Acorn RISC computers. If
there are programmers out there who have written useful scientific
routines, but are unsure about converting them to full blown
multitasking WIMP applications, then let me know. I may be able to help
to wrap them up in a WIMP shell. Chris Johnson, 7, Lovedale Grove,
Balerno, Edinburgh, EH14 7DR.
8.2
•  Spreadsheet Column − Regular readers may have wondered what happened
to the spreadsheet column. The short answer is that all contributions
“dried up” once version 2 of Eureka was released. I have certainly found
that almost all the “features” of version 1 that were the subject of
much correspondence (quite heated at times) were addressed in one way or
another in version 2. Eureka still has its idiosyncrasies, and one or
two things I find infuriating, e.g. the total lack of any print preview
facility.  In spite of this, I find that it is on the whole a very good
piece of software.
8.2
I take this opportunity to remind readers that I am still ready to edit
a spreadsheet column, so if you have any comments, hints or tips, ideas,
suggestions, problems, or solutions to problems, connected with the use
of spreadsheets then drop me a line. My address is given below. If I
have sufficient response, then I will resurrect the column.
8.2
The only two communications I have received in the last few months
suggested that there should be a “how to use spreadsheets” series. I
would be willing to have a go at this, but would be interested to hear
from Archive members suggestions about what should be included, e.g.
should it start from absolute first principles, or should it be on more
advanced uses. It could be made part of a regular spreadsheet column, or
be completely independent.
8.2
My postal address is Chris Johnson, 7, Lovedale Grove, Balerno,
Edinburgh, EH14 7DR; I can also be contacted through e-mail as
[e-mail] .vaxb.  A
8.2
Club News
8.2
•  Suffolk Acorn Risc Club (SARC) meets in Ipswich Central library at
7pm on the second Thursday of every month. Each meeting usually starts
with a formal presentation on a specific topic, after which members are
free to chat. Tea and biscuits are provided. Annual membership is £5
including a monthly newsletter.
8.2
Forthcoming events include:
8.2
Thurs 13th Oct 94  Acorns and Accounts
8.2
Sat 29th Oct 94  Coach Trip to Acorn World
8.2
Thurs 10th Nov 94  Games for Christmas
8.2
December 94  Christmas meal (date to be confirmed)
8.2
Thurs 12th Jan 95  Modems and Bulletin Boards
8.2
There are still a couple of places on the Acorn World coach trip at
£8.50 including admission.
8.2
For more details, please contact Paul Skirrow (Chairman) on 01473-
728943, or Andy Keeble (Secretary) on 01473-216424.  A
8.2
Online Media − A World First?
8.2
This Acorn press release came into the Archive office the day before the
magazine was due to be finished so here it is, verbatim...
8.2
Online Media goes live with the world’s first digital interactive
television trial in Cambridge.
8.2
In Cambridge today, Online Media will be ‘switching on’ what is believed
to be the world’s first interactive television trial to be based on ATM
digital technology.
8.2
The trials are being launched by a consortium of Anglia Television, ATM
Ltd, Cambridge Cable and Online Media. The consortium, set up by
Cambridge Cable, is headed up by local firm, Online Media, also selected
to supply the intelligent, digital set-top boxes for the trial. The
technologies involved are Online Media’s set-top boxes, ATM Ltd’s
digital ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) networking technology and
Cambridge Cable’s fibre-based cable network, which is already available
to some 67,000 homes in the region.
8.2
Commenting on the launch of the trials, Online Media’s chief executive,
Malcolm Bird, said: “After all the hype about multimedia and the
information superhighway, this is a real application, running into
consumers’ homes. It is a milestone for the multimedia industry and will
help establish digital ATM technology as the industry standard.”
8.2
The technology involves linking a set-top box, which looks like a
smaller version of a video recorder, to the television set in people’s
homes. They will then have access to a variety of services from a
control centre in Cambridge. Multimedia telecommunications allows video,
voice, data and other services to be mixed at will on a single
telecommunications network.
8.2
The “on-demand” services on offer include movies and local news and
weather from Anglia TV. Subscribers can access these as and when they
wish and manipulate them − by fast forwarding, pausing and rewinding −
using a remote control as if the film were playing from their own video
recorder. Online Media is currently working with ITN to develop national
and international news programming.
8.2
Educational software applications will be available through the system,
from companies such as educational specialists Sherston Software and
another local firm, Cambridgeshire Software House. Anglia TV’s CD-ROMs
are also being converted to run on the system. Other services being
developed for the system include: interactive shopping, audio on demand,
music videos, sport and banking.
8.2
Games originally used on Acorn’s 32 bit RISC computers are being
converted to run on the set-top box. In the future, another compelling
feature will be a range of games which can be played “across the
network”. With a football game, for example, several homes linked to the
system could be connected to the same game at the same time and would be
able to play as a team against another home or groups of homes. This
adds a whole new dimension of human interaction and team dynamics to the
game. Fantasy adventure games based on the same concept will be an
option in the future.
8.2
Barry Mallett, one of the first handful to receive the settop box today,
said: “We are overjoyed to have been chosen for the trials and are
really looking forward to the prospect of being able to watch what we
like, when we like. The only problem I foresee is deciding which service
to try first!”
8.2
The trial, intended to test the technology and act as a platform on
which to develop networked multimedia services, will initially be placed
in selected employees’ homes in Cambridge. The aim is to install further
set-top boxes into many more homes of the general public by the end of
the year and to move into four figures by the end of 1995. Initially,
subscribers will not be charged for the service although an experimental
pricing formula will be introduced during 1995 to further test the
market. The consortium expects the venture to be fully commercial from
mid-1996.
8.2
Online Media, since its launch in July this year, has already had to
move into new offices to house its influx of staff − expected to be in
excess of 50 by January next year. Malcolm Bird says: “Cambridge is the
ideal base for a dynamic, high technology company such as ours. Here, we
are surrounded by companies offering complementary technologies, with
which we can form powerful partnerships.”
8.2
Online Media is a member of the Acorn Computer Group and has full
strategic backing from Acorn’s parent company, Olivetti. It has been
established to provide interactive multimedia products for the markets
emerging from the digital superhighway including: interactive
television, video on demand and networked multimedia. Exploiting
technologies developed by the Acorn Computer Group and Olivetti, Online
Media’s first product is an intelligent set-top box designed to connect
a home television to the information superhighway. Alongside hardware
products, the company offers authoring systems, services and consultancy
in service development, as well as other areas. All Online Media designs
are available under licence.  A
8.2
Alex Devries
8.2
new artwork
8.2
Computer Concepts
8.2
From 8.1 page 14
8.2
Multimedia Column
8.2
Paul Hooper
8.2
Langdale CD
8.2
Nearly a year ago, I saw the first version of this Genesis application,
and the full CD version has now landed on my desk. This contains nearly
100Mb of information and photographs of the Lake District and is priced
at £99 +VAT for a single user and £149 +VAT for a site licence.
8.2
The CD also contains a Windows version of the same material so that the
one disc will do for both the Acorn range and the PC but I have not
managed to get it working on a PC card.
8.2
Genesis Professional?
8.2
I have had a number of people writing or ringing me up in the last few
weeks reporting bugs in either Professional or Project. I would like to
collate a whole series of reports about any bugs that you have found in
these programs in the next few weeks so that I can see someone from Oak
Solutions at Acorn World. If you have come across any bugs that I
haven’t mentioned below, please do give me a ring as this will enable me
to try and duplicate them on my machine and get some sort of list
together.
8.2
Known bugs and features: Computer hangs when trying to copy word frames.
Background colour on frames is different from background colours on page
when the same colour is chosen. CSV files are no longer supported.
Shared resources are no longer easy to find.
8.2
I had a phone call the other night about the fuzziness displayed by
fonts when placed on a transparent background. The gist of the problem
is that if you create a frame in Genesis and then place some text in it,
you can get a fuzziness around the outside of the letters. This is not a
problem with Genesis but I think it is a problem with the settings on
the font manager. Being none too technical myself, I wonder if anyone
has any idea on how to cure this problem?
8.2
Foreign formats
8.2
I have a had quite a few letters from readers about using foreign format
files in multimedia programs and how to convert a Genesis or Key Author
application between the PC and an Acorn computer. The most frequently
asked question is, “Can you author a multimedia application on a Risc PC
in the Acorn environment and then convert it to a PC version in the same
box?” Well, the answer at the moment is that nobody I have talked to
seems to know! Acorn maintain it should be possible but Oak aren’t sure.
All we can do is wait for the PC chip to appear. As soon as it does,
then I will have a try. In the meantime, has anyone used a PC card in,
say, an A5000 to produce a PC version of either a Genesis or Key Author
application?
8.2
On the subject of foreign formats, there are a number of good PC PD
libraries around, and it is worth getting hold of their discs or even
better a printed catalogue of their material. Using !Translator, it is
fairly easy to covert pictures into sprites for inclusion in your own
applications. However, up to now, the conversion of sound samples has
been difficult. This has changed since the introduction of AudioWorks
from Computer Concepts. For most PC material, the standard format is
WAV, and if you want to convert it into Armadeus format, for Acorn
machines, just drop the sound sample onto the AudioWorks icon and save
out the new format.
8.2
To give you some idea of the possibilities, I have taken some material
from a PC CD and have constructed a quick Magpie application which will
be added to the Swap Shop Catalogue. On this month’s disc, is a small
version of the Swap Shop catalogue. If you want the full details, send a
disc to the address at the end of the article.
8.2
Key Author and foreign formats
8.2
Following on from the above, I have been chatting with Peter Stibbons at
Anglia TV regarding their attitude to foreign formats. Many of the CDs
that they produce now include foreign format material on the same disc.
All this is set to go to the next logical development. At the moment,
you can produce an Acorn format file and then, using the PC version of
the run file, you can run it on a PC, without any conversion at all,
within certain restrictions. One of the major problems of converting a
drawfile into something that a PC can interpret has been overcome. The
only restrictions now appear to be on font conversion and Ace films
which the PC can’t handle. The Ace problem is overcome by converting
them to either MPEG or Quicktime films. What’s more, they also appear to
have overcome the problem of using the same disc in a Mac. At the
present moment, you can only produce a CD which will work on a Mac and a
PC, or an Acorn and a PC, but I don’t think the day is far away when the
same Key Author CD can be read and played by all three machines. The
good thing about this is that the native format will be Acorn! All you
budding multimedia authors may very well be in demand because as far as
I know, there is no other machine or software that will be able to
duplicate this.
8.2
I hope to visit Anglia TV in the coming weeks and take a close look at
not only MPEG files running but also the whole of their set-up and I
will report back in the next issue of Archive.
8.2
The Swap Shop
8.2
Just days after I submitted the copy for last month’s issue, I was
inundated with applications! I received two Magpie binders from John
Pugh, one of our regular contributors. They are both aimed at National
Curriculum history topics: the Second World War and Britain from 1930-
60. Also, from South Australia, I have had two small Magpie binders, one
on the history of the Spitfire, and another on the Greek Language. Both
were created by Peter Russell of Memorial Oval Primary School.
8.2
Also added just in time for Christmas is a very good Genesis application
on Christmas Customs. This has extensive Maestro files of Christmas
Carols and looks at all our Christmas customs along with others from
around the world. If you want to order this one, either send me two
blank 800Kb discs or one 1.6Mb disc as this is a Genesis Professional
application which requires the new browser and GenLib.
8.2
I have also updated the ‘Churches’ application with a whole load of
sprite files of real churches and features. (I got a video camera for my
birthday!) However, the size has grown to nearly 1.4Mb in Genesis format
so you will require a machine that can read 1.6Mb discs. I have also
converted ‘Man in Space’ and ‘Advanced WIMP tutor’ to Magpie format.
8.2
At the moment, I am working on a binder on renewable energy that will be
available next month, but I am beginning to run out of subjects. To this
end, I would like to know what you would like to see as a multimedia
application. If you have any ideas, particularly if you have your own
art work, please do drop me a line with your suggestions.
8.2
I also noted the requests for beginners’ articles in the last magazine
along with help on Paint. We do have multimedia applications that can
help you out with these problems. WIMP tutor is designed to be used by
those with little or no experience on Acorn machines. We also have a
‘Paint Tutor’ and an ‘Advanced WIMP Tutor’ which goes into more detail
than the basic tutor. All these applications are free and come with a
reader to allow you to run them without access to any of the multimedia
programs.
8.2
The end bit
8.2
If you have any hints and tips or questions on multimedia, or if you
require a swap shop catalogue please write to: Paul Hooper, 11 Rochford
Road, Martham, Great Yarmouth NR29 4RL.  A
8.2
Oak
8.2
From 8.1 page 10
8.2
Risc PC Column
8.2
Keith Hodge
8.2
Monitors
8.2
Arthur Taylor has supplied a copy of his AKF85 monitor script which
works fine on my system, giving a very useful 1600×1200 in 256 colours
(pixel rate 155MHz, but you must have 2Mb VRAM). This throughput is at
the limit of the VIDC 20 specification, so you use it at your own risk.
However, having said that, it works fine for me, providing sufficient
screen width for two A4 pages side by side. Also provided is a 640×512
mode, which is chosen by the operating system, in preference to 640×480,
when modes 20 or 21 are chosen.
8.2
Software compatibility
8.2
I now have a module provided by Colton Software (via Gerald Fitton),
which allows FireWorkZ to display deep sprites. Please note that this
will only work on the Risc PC!
8.2
A number of people have written to report problems with FireWorkZ. This
does not, however, seem to be just on the Risc PC, so I have sent copies
to Gerald Fitton for his comments.
8.2
Likewise, a number of people have reported problems with WordWorks as
supplied with Impression Style. I now have Style at Version 3.04 (31
June 1994) and so far have not found any of the problems reported with
earlier versions.
8.2
Keith Gardener has sent a long letter in which he confirms reports that
have arrived from a number of contributors − namely that some Basic
programs which ran OK on the Archimedes, now fail to run, some reporting
‘no room for Function/Procedure call’ or ‘too many nested structures’,
etc. Most people report that enlarging the Wimp slot has cured the
problem for them. Why should this be?
8.2
Following on from this, one program which ran with 16Kb on the
Archimedes, required 20Kb to run and then reported ‘Missing Endcase’,
which was correct! I asked Matthew Hunter at NCS about these issues, and
this was his reply...
8.2
“Basic splits the memory allocated to it into three areas. At the lowest
available address is the program itself, immediately above it is some
workspace for arrays. Growing down from the top of the available memory
is the stack. This is used to store variables, procedure calls and other
nested structures. Due to the reduced page size on the Risc PC, a
program could be allocated as much as 28Kb less than on one of the
earlier machines although the figure is likely to be closer to 12Kb.
When a program first loads, there is very little space needed for the
stack so the program begins to run, as more variables are used and
procedures are called, the stack will grow until it tries to overwrite
the workspace, giving errors like those above. When increasing the
wimpslot, as a first estimate, round it up to the nearest multiple of
sixteen − this allocates more space to the stack, which should solve the
problems.
8.2
“I have also looked into the case of the ‘Missing Endcase’! By using a
quick program, I tested the operation of the CASE statement, but could
find no difference with the new version of Basic.
8.2
CASE c% OF
8.2
  WHEN 0 : PRINT “Case ending”:END
8.2
  WHEN 1 : PRINT “Oh Dear ”;
8.2
  WHEN 2 : PRINT “Case ending”
8.2
END
8.2
“Without knowing what the CASE statement was testing, I cannot be sure
but I suspect that an unexpected result occured. The above program will
report ‘Case ending’ with no errors for c%=0 and c%=2. It will report
‘Oh Dear Missing ENDCASE’ when c%=1, and simply ‘Missing ENDCASE’ for
any other value.”
8.2
Hardware and software news
8.2
I have now received my updated TurboDrivers for the Canon BJ230 (v4.00
17th-Aug 94) and can report that the combination of this plus Impression
Style and the Risc PC, produce printing at a speed and quality which
have to be seen to be believed. The average single page letter is now so
quick to render, that there is a pause of only about three seconds
before you have control back!
8.2
I have installed a Toshiba XM-3401B CD-ROM on my HCCS Ultimate SCSI
Micropodule and it performs well. (Ultimate v1.10, SCSI Driver v2.06,
SCSIFS v2.06, SCSIFiler v2.02, CDFSResources v2.20, CDFSdriver v2.20,
CDFS v2.20, CDFSFiler v2.20.)
8.2
Now I need the PC486 card with CD-ROM drivers so that I can use the new
CD-ROM RS Components Catalogue in the office! This will save vast
amounts of time and is, for me, the first sign that this format is
coming of age. It allows three A4 catalogues, which together are over
two inches thick, plus hundreds of data sheets, to be replaced by one
half full disc! The disc contains all the textual information, colour
illustrations, prices and quantity discounts, all the engineering
information sheets, generates and prints the order for you and allows
you to search for what you want, without wading though all that paper.
Brilliant!
8.2
The ARM Club have produced a most useful utility (Game On), which allows
games etc, which would not work, to operate successfully. I have sent a
copy of the freeware database of games with which it works to Paul for
inclusion on the monthly disc. I may have a review by next month.
8.2
Charles and Deborah Woodbridge have purchased a new HP LaserJet 4P to go
with their Risc PC and comment that, with the Acorn printer definition
file, the results are excellent and I can vouch for this as the prints
they sent are excellent.
8.2
Floppy drives
8.2
I have written to a number of the usual suppliers to see if any podules
for this are going to be produced but no replies have been received so
far.
8.2
Readers’ comments
8.2
From Jim Nottingham: “Having recently bought an Acorn AKF85 to go with a
Risc PC, I have to say that, after all the hype, I was a little
disappointed with its display quality in comparison with an Eizo F550i
I’ve been using on an A540. So I thought I’d see how the Eizo ran on the
Risc PC, using the standard 9-pin lead with a 9/15-pin adaptor from NCS.
8.2
“The book says for an alternative (i.e. non-Acorn) monitor, set ‘Auto’
in the Screen configuration under Monitor type. Result? Nothing.
However, after a little trial and error, I found that by making the Eizo
think it was an Acorn monitor by setting ‘AKF85’, it works a treat with
a noticeably sharper display than the actual AKF85. This dodge may work
for other ‘foreign’ monitors.”
8.2
From Stuart Bell (edited): “Clearly, the issue of compatibility with the
Risc PC will be important for those with older Acorn machines who expect
eventually to upgrade their machine. Will it have an effect on their
purchase decisions before they upgrade? And, how will existing equipment
perform on the new platform?”
8.2
I think that Stuart is worried that his investment in accessories for
the Archimedes will be wasted. However, I feel that you only have to
look at the Acorn ‘BBC Master’ which is still widely used, years after
it went into production, to realise that the Archimedes probably has ten
or more years of life left in it, and that there will still be a healthy
market in second hand add ons for some time yet.
8.2
Requests for help
8.2
This is also from Jim Nottingham (of scanner article fame): “Has anybody
managed to get an AKF85 or other monitor to work from the Risc PC, using
the BNC connectors? Neither my AKF85 nor my Eizo F550i seem to want to
play. I am using what is listed as a standard PS/2 monitor lead, with
BNC plugs at one end and a 15-pin plug at the other.”
8.2
Alan Wilburn is looking for a monitor script for a Taxan 770+. Can
anybody help please?
8.2
Can all the people who discover why their programs are failing under
RISC OS 3.50/Basic v1.06, pass the information on to me, so that it can
be compiled into a list please?
8.2
Gripe of the month
8.2
I am starting to get letters from people who have put their cheques up
front to order a ACB45 and who are still waiting for it to arrive months
later. Where are the machines Acorn?
8.2
Question of the month
8.2
(1) Do Basic programs running as desktop applications and using template
files, require more space under RISC OS 3.50. And if so why?
8.2
(2) Has anybody else suffered the problem reported by Tony Stevens, that
some drawfiles from PD sources bomb out with the error message ‘Path
contains an invalid tag at location 16_nnnn’?
8.2
Tailpiece
8.2
Will ‘Herbert’ who’s material about mice I used in the September Risc PC
Column please write, as I have lost your address!
8.2
And finally, I have now purchased a copy of Impression Style, so I can
take copy for the column in any of the following formats: Impression,
PipeDream, WordZ, FireWorkZ and Text.
8.2
Thank you to all the readers who have enclosed a stamp for my replies to
their letters. (Please remember that Keith does this for love, not
money! Ed.)
8.2
As usual, I can be contacted by letter at the HES address on the back
page, by telephone after 7p.m. or by Packet Radio from anywhere in the
world, as GW4NEI@GB7OAR.#16.GBR.EU.  A
8.2
Risc-DOS Column
8.2
Simon Coulthurst
8.2
It appears that the earliest anyone is likely to see a co-processor card
is at the Acorn World Show. Even then they are unlikely to be on sale. I
understand that the ASIC (the clever chip that does all the hard work
arbitrating between the two different architectures) is taking longer
than expected to produce. It is hoped to have the first, limited,
production run a few days before the show. This being the case, I have
written this month’s article as a (hopefully ex) Windows and DOS users
first impression of the new Risc PC.
8.2
A new toy
8.2
As I write, I am sitting in front of a brand spanking new Risc PC. It
arrived in two boxes. One containing the computer − fairly manageable.
The other containing the 17“ monitor − instant back-strain. I followed
my usual course of action when faced with any new item of an electronic
nature. I unpacked it, plugged all the cables into the most likely
looking sockets and switched on. Luckily, and it speaks volumes for the
ease of use and logical design of the Risc PC, everything worked first
time and I was soon presented with the RISC OS desktop.
8.2
After an initial go at configuring the computer to my liking, I
proceeded to install my core suite of software. These are the three
basic pieces of software I need on any computer. Word processor,
spreadsheet and database. Not having any experience on an Archimedes
since the earliest Arthur OS version, I was a little out of touch.
Fortunately(!), my Risc PC had been on order for approaching three
months, so I had had plenty of time to study magazine reviews. I was
certain which word processor I wanted − Impression Publisher. It
consistently features in magazines and has the greatest level of support
from third parties.
8.2
The choice of spreadsheet was a little more complex, but following a
couple of positive reviews for the new Schema 2, my choice was made, it
has full macro facilities, something I consider essential in a
spreadsheet.
8.2
The choice of database has been harder. Despite several reviews in the
Acorn press, I am still undecided. I currently have Impact Pro and
Squirrel 2 on my hard disc and whilst both have their strengths and
weaknesses, neither is perfect. There again what software package is? I
am also going to look at DataPower and S-Base 2. I am sure, one of them
will be suitable for my purpose.
8.2
After a few days, the 17“ monitor, in a 1024×768 by 256 colour mode, had
my new desktop proudly displayed. The applications and utilities I had
chosen to appear on the iconbar after start up were all in their proper
places. These are FontDir, Printers (for my LaserJet 4), ArcFax and
Dustbin − on the left hand side and Edit, Keystroke, ImpactPro, Schema 2
and Impression Publisher on the right hand side. It looks good, or to
quote from The Mask, “reallyyyy smokinnnn!”.
8.2
Risc PC versus Windows PC
8.2
But, how does it compare to the Windows PC I had been using? You may
remember I have a well specified 66MHz 486DX2 with 16Mb RAM with an
accelerated (S3 super VGA) display driving a large screen monitor. My
Risc PC is an ACB45 (two slices, 8Mb RAM and 1Mb video RAM), to which
I’ve added a further 16Mb RAM SIMM − taking total memory to 25Mb (don’t
forget the Risc PC will use any spare video RAM as ordinary RAM). You
may wonder why I have chosen to have so much RAM on a system that works
well with 8Mb. I intend to do some photo processing at a later stage,
once I have decided upon the most suitable software (PhotoDesk sounds
favourite at the moment, although I intend to have a look at as many as
possible at the Acorn World show). I also believe I will need a large
quantity of RAM in order to get Windows running when the co-processor
card arrives.
8.2
Although Microsoft claims that you only need 4Mb to run Windows, my own
experience shows that you need at least 8Mb and preferably 16Mb in order
to get anything like reasonable performance, whilst running two or more
software packages. On top of the Windows requirement, there will also be
some memory required for the video display and running the RISC OS
desktop. My own feeling is that you will need at least 16Mb if you wish
to multitask between RISC OS software and Windows software. And,
finally, as already mentioned above, I like all my main applications to
be loaded on the iconbar from the minute I switch on.
8.2
My initial reaction is that the Risc PC feels faster than my Windows PC
in most respects. The screen updating, the way windows are moved around
in real time, the loading of graphics into Impression all convey a
feeling of smooth sophistication that is somehow lacking in my Windows
PC. Not everything is as wonderful, however. Printing seems to take a
long time. I have ordered the Ace Pro Drivers, and will see what
difference these make once they arrive and I have had a chance to set
them up. (I’ll send you a CC Turbo Driver, Simon so you can compare that
as well. Ed.) I was expecting more in the way of crashes than I have so
far experienced. Maybe I am lucky, but the few problems I have had have
all been as a result of using incompatible programs, often older
software from PD or magazine discs. The main applications I have used
have all been remarkably stable − notably more so than my Windows PC
applications.
8.2
Like a duck to water, I found the operation of the RISC OS desktop
fairly easy to pick up. There are one or two differences from Windows,
the most obvious one being the use of a three button mouse and the
middle ‘menu’ key instead of the menu bar at the top of each application
window. At first I found I was moving the mouse up to the top of the
window and had to remind myself to use the middle button. But within a
couple of days I was using my middle finger like a natural. It is a
definite improvement once you get used to it − the menu is always
context-sensitive and appears right where you want it to. Context-
sensitive menus have only just been discovered fairly recently, on an
application by application basis using the right hand mouse button, in
Windows. In RISC OS, this means that valuable screen space is not taken
up by the menu bar. I still find it hard to operate the Adjust button
with my third finger, especially when double-clicking to open a
directory so that the parent directory closes. (That’s interesting! I
hold the mouse between thumb and third finger and then move my middle
finger across between menu and adjust. I wonder what other people do?
Ed.)
8.2
I’ve had the Risc PC for a few weeks now and I’m delighted with it! It’s
everything I had expected from reading Acorn’s promotional material and
the reviews in various magazines.
8.2
Chicago, Chicago, wherefore art thou...
8.2
Chicago or Windows95 as it is to be known, probably, will not see the
light of day before next summer. All Microsoft will say is ‘some time in
the first half of the year’. Why should I, or anyone else, be interested
in Chicago? Well, if one is interested in the 486 co­processor, it must
be in order to run DOS and/or Windows software. Windows95 is a full 32-
bit operating system that will work on 386 or higher processors only,
and so will cure all the memory problems of DOS. Or will it?
8.2
Using Windows95 to run 32-bit software will certainly bring an end to
the 640Kb DOS memory limit within Windows. If you are going to be
running any ‘older’ Windows or DOS programs that rely on software
drivers loaded by autoexec.bat or config.sys, you may still have
problems. The reason is, that in order to remain compatible, Microsoft
have had to keep autoexec.bat and config.sys as the means for loading
some older drivers − programs expect to find them there and often load
their own drivers there as part of their installation process. Most of
the large software companies, the likes of Novell, Symantec etc, will be
releasing 32-bit device drivers for the new Windows95. But until they
do, if the particular driver you rely upon comes from a less expeditious
company or the program is no longer supported, you will still find
yourself having to play the memory management game.
8.2
And finally...
8.2
I am going to the Acorn World Show on Friday 28th October and hope to
get my first look at and, if I can be persuasive enough, my first try of
the co-processor. Following this, I hope to get my hands on one of the
first cards to be released. This being the case, I may well have
something more concrete to report about in the next issue. Until then,
good computing!  A
8.2
ColourPicker in RISC OS 3.5
8.2
Elliott Hughes
8.2
Those who have used a Risc PC may have noticed that Draw now supports
24 bit colour. The format of the drawfile has always allowed it to
represent true colour, but Draw originally only allowed the user to
choose an 8-bit colour.
8.2
When I first saw the new colour selection dialogue boxes (in chapter 6,
“Using colour in applications”, of the Risc PC’s user guide), I assumed
that these new dialogues would be available to users of the latest
RISC_OSLib only. Tired of waiting for both the new volume of the PRM and
the new C/C++ compiler, I noticed that, as well as “Colour Selector
1.61” (ColourTrans), RISC OS 3.5 has a module “Colour Picker 0.15”
(ColourPicker).
8.2
Using the information in OSLib, written by Jonathan Coxhead of Acorn, I
was able to work out enough to add ColourPicker dialogue boxes to my own
programs. OSLib is copyright Acorn Computers, but is not an official
Acorn product. For information on getting a copy of OSLib, see the end
of this article.
8.2
Introduction
8.2
ColourPicker allows a program to offer a dialogue from which the user
can choose a palette entry using any available colour model. The program
can then use ColourTrans to calculate the best colour .
8.2
An application using ColourPicker does not need to know anything about
colour models or the capabilities of the current screen mode.
ColourPicker is capable of responding to requests for interactive help.
8.2
Overview
8.2
As with ColourTrans, the term ‘palette entry’ refers to “a word that
contains a description of a physical colour in red, green and blue
levels”. A colour model is a way in which the user can specify colour.
The three models built into RISC OS 3.5 are RGB, CMYK and HSV. (These
are explained in both Risc PC and Impression user guides.)
8.2
Two SWIs allow colour models to be registered and deregistered with
ColourPicker.
8.2
Four SWIs allow the application to open, close, update and read a
ColourPicker dialogue.
8.2
Other SWIs allow the application to pass requests for interactive help
to ColourPicker and to interface new colour models to the ColourPicker
front end.
8.2
ColourPicker_OpenDialogue   (SWI &47702)
8.2
Creates and opens a colour picker dialogue
8.2
On entry
8.2
  R0 = flags
8.2
    bit 0 set − dialogue is transient
8.2
    bit 1 set − dialogue hangs off a menu
8.2
  R1 = pointer to block containing information about the dialogue
8.2
The format of the block passed is as follows:
8.2
  +0  flags:  bit 0 set − offer the user the None    icon for
transparent colour
8.2
      bit 1 set − use the transparent     colour as the initial
selection
8.2
      (there may be others, but they    haven’t been discovered)
8.2
  +4  pointer to zero-terminated title of dialogue box
8.2
  +8  min. x
8.2
  +12  min. y
8.2
  +16  max. x
8.2
  +20  max. y
8.2
    These give the initial position of the dialogue box. Only min. x and
max. y seem to be used. They give the position of the top-left corner of
the dialogue box.
8.2
  +24  x scroll offset − no idea when it’s used
8.2
  +28  y scroll offset − no idea when it’s used
8.2
  +32  palette entry of colour selected initially (if bit 1 of +0 isn’t
set)
8.2
  +36  size − no idea what it represents
8.2
  +40  colour model number of initial colour model:  0    RGB
8.2
        1    CMYK
8.2
        2    HSV
8.2
This SWI is used to initiate the colour selection. The ColourPicker
module takes over and keeps in touch by sending messages to your task.
The two most important are Message_ColourPickerColourChoice (&47700) and
Message_ColourPickerCloseDialogueRequest (&47702).
8.2
Message_ColourPickerColourChoice
8.2
(Message &47700)
8.2
This message indicates that the OK button has been clicked to accept the
current colour. The message data is as follows:
8.2
  +20  1 ⇨ transparent selected
8.2
    0 ⇨ colour selected
8.2
  +24  palette entry of colour selected (if +20 is 0)
8.2
When this message arrives, the dialogue box dismisses itself. You need
only take whatever action is relevant to your application (and wait for
the next message to arrive).
8.2
Message_ColourPickerCloseDialogueRequest
8.2
(Message &47702)
8.2
This message indicates that either the OK button has been clicked (and
you’ve already been told about the colour selected) or that ColourPicker
wants its dialogue box removed (perhaps because Cancel has been
clicked). To respond, call SWI ColourPicker_CloseDialogue with R1 =
contents of the 20th byte of the message block.
8.2
ColourPicker_CloseDialogue
8.2
(SWI &47703)
8.2
Closes a colour picker dialogue which is in progress.
8.2
On entry:
8.2
  R0 = flags − use unknown
8.2
  R1 = pointer to block containing information about the dialogue
8.2
This SWI is used to remove a colour picker dialogue box.
8.2
Conclusion
8.2
The RISC OS 3.5 ColourPicker is a promising step forwards. By providing
the code to implement RGB, CMYK and HSV colour selection (and the
possibility of adding new models), Acorn is making it easy to provide a
consistent and appropriate user interface. It’s possible that Computer
Concepts will find an excuse to be different − they often do!
8.2
I think I’ll go and look at Wimp_TextOp next. I’m sick of the system
font.
8.2
Getting hold of OSLib
8.2
OSLib is “a set of functions and C headers to provide complete coverage
of the RISC OS application programmer’s interface in C”. The author
claims it provides “a very convenient interface to the RISC OS
programmer, since all the facilities of the compiler that is currently
being used are available to catch errors. It is conceptually very small,
in that it is completely documented by [a readme file] and the PRM. As a
bonus, code written using it is smaller and runs faster than code
written using other means”.
8.2
I’d go along with that, and suggest that anyone writing for RISC OS in C
or assembler should get themselves a copy. It’s easier to write style
guide compliant applications with OSLib than with RISC_OSLib, which is a
poor reflection on RISC_OSLib. Maybe with the new compiler...
8.2
OSLib is available via anonymous ftp from micros.hensa.ac.uk. If you
have a WWW client, you can also try http://micros.hensa.ac.uk/. OSLib is
quite large, but it may even be available from some of the PD
libraries.  A
8.2
Dalriada
8.2
new artwork
8.2
LOOKSystems
8.2
new artwork
8.2
LOOKSystems
8.2
new artwork
8.2
DocLine
8.2
Gerald Fitton
8.2
As Gerald will explain, he is changing the direction of his regular
(and, I must say, much valued) articles. The new name is meant to be an
abbreviation for “Document Preparation Line” − the best description that
we could find for the general area that he is going to cover. Ed.
8.2
I know of half a dozen people who can produce all the documents they
want with no more software than that excellent wordprocessor Wordwise.
Our editor is familiar with that package and has produced many excellent
booklets explaining how to make best use of it. (Sadly they are all out
of print now. Ed.) The hardware used by these half dozen acquaintances
is a 32Kb BBC Model B computer which they bought ten or twelve years ago
together with a printer such as the dot matrix FX80 − a machine which
went out of production in the mid 1980s.
8.2
Most of us who read Archive, even if we know of Wordwise, will not be
using that combination of software and hardware (though I have a recent
letter which extols the virtues using Wordwise on the Archimedes as an
intermediate format for ‘porting’ documents from one platform to
another); probably we’ve got a combination of such packages as Artworks,
PipeDream and Impression Style and hardware which contains the
RISC OS 3.1 operating system as ROM.
8.2
In the next few months, I would like to consider why people upgrade from
one hardware/software system to another. I’m going to explore that with
you and, I hope, help you to rationalise your strategy for hardware and
software upgrades. I shall concentrate on those hardware/software
systems for which the first use is document production.
8.2
Within my definition of document, I include spreadsheets, letters,
invoices, and those documents which might be described under headings of
DTP and drawfiles. I specifically exclude games, program development,
and hardware and software that are used for musical or mechanical
purposes. I shall cover any kind of document production hardware and
software; I shall concentrate on looking at how such a system appears to
the user and buyer.
8.2
PipeLineZ to DocLine
8.2
In the last edition of Archive, there was a comment that, although the
contents of PipeLineZ often contains material which would interest ‘non-
Coltonites’, it is difficult to persuade those who don’t have PipeDream
or Fireworkz to read it! The editor’s suggestion is that it might be a
good idea to change the name. I agree!
8.2
In fact, about one third of my Archive generated correspondence is from
‘non-Coltonites’ and much of that correspondence is of great interest to
me, is complimentary towards PipeLineZ and is of great general value. I
would like to include more of such correspondence in Archive. My opening
paragraphs and the change of title this month is intended to catch your
attention and persuade you ‘non-Coltonites’ that this column is worth
reading even if Colton Software’s products do feature heavily herein.
8.2
Before I launch into my main topic for this month, there are a few
hangovers from past volumes of Archive which need mentioning. Even there
you’ll find parts of interest to ‘non-Coltonites’ which introduce my
main theme for this month.
8.2
Stamps
8.2
The following is part of a letter I received from Mr A G Rimmer. The
programs which he mentions are on the Archive monthly disc.
8.2
“Since receiving your letter, I have bought a copy of Fireworkz, and
enclose on disc a copy of a program to choose the minimum number of
stamps for any given postage amount (assuming that all the current
values of stamps − or at least those listed in your April contribution
to Archive − are available). I also include an improved version of a
Basic program that does the same thing − but faster!
8.2
“I recently got PipeDream 3 free from Risc User on paying for a year’s
subscription to their monthly disc. It seems to have the advantage over
Fireworkz that, by using its own printer-driver, you can print letters,
etc, much more quickly on a dot-matrix printer as compared to the
painfully slow graphics printing using !Printers. However, for my
letters, I use DeskEdit with a text-only printer-driver.”
8.2
In an earlier letter, Mr Rimmer sent me a PipeDream solution which he
created using PD3 (but which ‘works’ in PD4) − that, too, I include in
the Stamps directory of the Archive monthly disc.
8.2
Mr Rimmer uses a range of software from Basic to DeskEdit, choosing the
package most suitable for the application he is working on. In line with
the philosophy which I wish to promote, he has my encouragement to
continue with this strategy.
8.2
Cross checks
8.2
I have received a great deal of correspondence on this subject since I
mentioned it. Essentially, a cross check is a tactic for ensuring that a
spreadsheet hasn’t made an error. The method is to use the same data for
two different sets of calculations which are designed to give identical
answers only if there are no mistakes. One problem with binary
arithmetic (to which I have referred in an earlier Archive PipeLineZ
article) is that most decimal values are truncated and hence stored as
approximations, and as a result of this truncation, the two calculated
results which should be identical are, more often than not, only
approximately equal. An obvious cross check, testing for exact equality,
may fail even when there is nothing wrong with the spreadsheet. This is
not a characteristic peculiar to the products of Colton Software. The
effect can be reproduced with other spreadsheets (as my non-Coltonite
correspondents have delighted in telling me) as well as in something as
basic as Basic.
8.2
At this stage I must record my thanks to Denis Howard for the
inspiration which has led eventually to the formula which, between us,
we developed for checking if two values are ‘near enough’ the same. I
have included on the Archive disc a directory called CrossCheck which
contains files in PipeDream 4 format. These files will load into
Fireworkz. For those of you using a different spreadsheet package the
solution is contained in the following lines which are in the form of a
PipeDream or Fireworkz custom function:
8.2
...function(“same_number”,“first:number”, “second: number”)
8.2
...result(if(abs(@first-@second)/(@first+ @second)<(1e-
16),“OK”,“Error”))
8.2
What this formula does is to find the ratio of the difference to the sum
of the two ‘equal’ numbers. If we call the ‘equal’ numbers x and y then
we calculate the absolute value of (x − y)/(x + y). We use this ratio,
rather than just the value of  (x − y), so that we can make allowances
for ‘large’ and ‘small’ values of x and y. We find the absolute value so
that we can ‘get rid’ of negative values. Then we compare this ratio
with the small positive number 0.000 000 000 000 000 1. If the ratio is
smaller than this small number, x and y are ‘near enough equal’ for
there to be no errors in the spreadsheet.
8.2
By the way, PipeDream text files (such as the [ReadMe] explanation of
the way in which this Cross Check works) will load into Edit. If you
have RISC OS 3, the easiest method of loading almost anything into Edit
is to hold down <shift> and double-click on the file.
8.2
PipeDream to Psion
8.2
If you have problems porting files to and from the Psion, the files on
the Archive disc in the directory PD/Psion will be of interest to you.
The ‘conversion’ process mentions Lotus and other ‘foreign’ formats so
it is not a PipeDream only article. Although Ian Williamson uses
PipeDream files for his example, if you write to him he’ll do his best
to explain ‘how to do it’ with other format files. His address is in the
PipeDream format [ReadMe] file on the Archive monthly disc. Load it into
Edit if you don’t have PipeDream.
8.2
Computer systems
8.2
Now to the first part of a series which I will develop during the next
few issues of Archive, namely the way in which you can rationalise your
strategy for upgrading your computer system. I hope that through this
series of articles, you will benefit from my personal experience of
upgrading in the same way that I have benefited from comments made to me
by other people.
8.2
It seems a long time ago but I suppose it can’t be more than 15 years
ago (1982, wasn’t it? Only 12 years! Ed.) that I bought an Acorn BBC
model B microcomputer. It had no hard disc, no printer and the TV
doubled as a monitor! Now I have an A540 (before the Risc PCs appeared,
this was the ‘top of the range’ machine) and one of the first A440
models to be produced (don’t confuse my A440 with the later A440/1 etc
series). I shall buy a Risc PC later when I can (a) afford it and (b)
justify the expenditure!
8.2
Let’s start with some general principles. Firstly, think in terms of the
whole system rather than just the ‘computer’ box. By this, I mean think
of the monitor and printer (and even your ‘software’ packages) as
upgradable parts of your overall system. My first message to you is that
a good printer and a good monitor both make up a substantial proportion
of the overall cost of your system so thinking about what you want is at
least as important as thinking about the ‘computer’ box.
8.2
Let’s start with a general discussion of printers, using it as an
example of the ‘right’ way to think about upgrades.
8.2
Printers
8.2
My first printer was a 9-pin Epson FX 80 and (important to my
discussion) it cost as much as the BBC B computer. I bought it before I
upgraded from cassette to a floppy disc drive. However, that printer saw
me through an upgrade to a BBC Master computer (as did the disc drive)
and I used it with the A440 Archimedes for a year or two before
relegating it to a tractor feed label printer. There is no doubt in my
mind that the FX 80, although one of the more expensive printers at the
time, was better value for money than was my BBC B computer. This is not
to say that the BBC B was not good value; it was good value. The FX 80
was even better value because it saw me through three computers: the
BBC B, Master and A440.
8.2
My second printer was an Epson GQ 3500 bought over five years ago. It is
a laser printer and produces better quality at 300 dpi than the 9-pin
FX80 ever could. It still exists but I’ve ‘lent’ it to my son for use
with his 486 PC; I used it for quite a while, both with my A400 and then
with my A540. If I still had it, I would be using it now and I would be
using it with my Risc PC (the one I haven’t bought yet). Once again,
that printer cost as much as an Archimedes computer but it saw use with
two (A440 and A540) and is still going strong now with a third computer.
Let me repeat (in the hope of convincing you) that buying a good printer
is a ‘better’ or longer term investment than buying a good computer such
as the Archimedes A540.
8.2
I am not yet convinced about the printer I’m currently using. It is of
the colour inkjet type. The model is the Integrex ColourJet Series 2
which has a resolution of 300 dpi like the laser printer. (It does not
produce quite as good an image − but it’s pretty close.) The Integrex is
an HP 500C compatible which I bought for two reasons. One is that I
wanted to experiment with colour and the other is that I often print one
or two labels at a time on an A4 sheet of 18 labels. With the laser
printer, I was using a page worth of toner for a couple of labels; with
the inkjet I use only the ink needed to produce the label − so it works
out to be a little more economical than the laser. Nevertheless, I
expect that the Integrex will see me through at least two upgrades to my
‘main’ computer hardware and, at much less than the cost of a computer,
it is still a better investment than the A540 which (currently) outputs
to it.
8.2
I hope you will have gathered, from the examples I have quoted for
Printers (as part of an upgradable computer system), that it is not just
the cost of an item which is important but you also have to judge how
far into the future it’s going to last. Whether a piece of hardware − or
for that matter, software − is a good investment must include a
(difficult to estimate) time element. I hope that this series of
articles will help not only Coltonites wondering about upgrading to
Fireworkz but also non-Coltonites wondering about − let’s say −
monitors!
8.2
Monitors
8.2
The technical considerations of choosing a new monitor have been covered
in earlier issues of Archive but I hope that you’ll agree (when you’ve
read it) that what I have to say complements those articles rather than
reiterates the information therein.
8.2
Back to my personal history. I soon replaced the TV, which I used for
the BBC B, with a proper monitor. It was one of the Microvitec series
but I can’t remember which one. At the time, it cost about the same as
the BBC B had cost me but it served me well with the Master I bought to
replace the BBC B and is still working well as part of the system which
I passed on to a friend.
8.2
I bought my A440 with one of the Acorn cheaper ‘standard’ monitors but I
soon bought a multiple scan rate monitor (often referred to as a
‘multisync’) to replace it. The multisync I bought is the Eizo 9070S 17“
Flexscan which, although unused, was available at about half price
because it was soon to be replaced with a later model! Nevertheless, the
Eizo cost me about the same as the computer hardware currently being
sold by Acorn.
8.2
I am still using that Eizo now with my A540. In the main I use it in
mode 102. This is a ‘special’ mode provided in software by Atomwide as
part of their !VIDCmodes and !VIDCplus utilities which is available on
NCS Utils Disc Nº1. Let me say more about mode 102 since it is relevant
to the specifications of current (and future) monitors. I make no
apology for referring to PipeDream documents in my discussion because,
even if you don’t have PipeDream, by thinking “Edit” instead, I’m sure
that you’ll get my point.
8.2
The Atomwide mode 102 allows me to use PipeDream documents which are 136
system font characters wide without any of the document disappearing off
screen. The ‘depth’ (or should it be the height) of the screen allows 50
(system font) lines of any PipeDream document to be displayed. This is
almost twice as ‘wide’ and twice as ‘deep’ as a mode 12 screen (the
mode 12 screen will display − in system font − a PipeDream document
which is 72 characters wide and 26 lines deep). You will see that the
‘area’ of the desktop displayed in mode 102 is about four times that of
a mode 12 screen.
8.2
This large desktop area is the biggest single benefit I have gained from
using a multisync monitor. The ‘old’ standard 14“ monitor might have
been OK under the Arthur (single-tasking) operating system but, once it
became possible to put many windows on the screen and to have more than
one application running and to have transfers of data from one (say
Draw) to another (say Impression), then a bigger desk top area was not a
luxury but a necessity.
8.2
Although the Eizo 9070S is no longer available, I expect that I would be
able to use it with my Risc PC (when I buy it). I don’t expect to
transfer the Eizo to the Risc PC because I shall probably buy a new
monitor with that machine and keep the A540 and Eizo as my second
machine.
8.2
Buying a monitor
8.2
I recommend that you do not buy a ‘standard’ (fixed frequency) SVGA
monitor but a multisync. This is because the SVGA standard won’t last
into the future as well as a good multisync will. Generally, if you buy
a good 17“ multisync monitor now then it should last you through at
least two computer upgrades. (This is true even if you were to change to
a Windows PC machine where the SVGA standard is seriously obsolescent
and where sales of multisync monitors are on the rise). I know that a
17” multisync costs more than a ‘standard’ monitor (or an SVGA monitor
for that matter) but I do recommend it to you on the basis that it will
be a good investment − indeed, if I had the choice of buying either a
good 17“ multisync or upgrading from, say, an A5000 to the Risc PC as an
investment in future-proofing, I’d buy the multisync!
8.2
If I were a ‘normal’ user with a good multisync, then I would register
as an ‘Acorn Enthusiast’; that registration would entitle me to order a
Risc PC computer without a monitor at a reduced price − I would use the
Eizo with the Risc PC.
8.2
So what is a ‘good’ multisync? I’ve already told you what I think is the
major advantage of using a multisync; it is that you have a larger
desktop area. It is possible to create large desktop area modes for use
with a standard 14“ monitor but, with such a monitor, this larger area
will be of no use to you. This is not just because everything is smaller
(after all you could get closer to the screen) but because the screen
itself doesn’t contain enough dots per inch to resolve the fine detail
your larger area mode has created.
8.2
With a standard 14“ monitor, you might try the Acorn mode 35. It doesn’t
really show you what I mean but it’s a step in the direction of
enlarging the desktop area (in !Edit) from 80×32 system font characters
to 96×36 (about 20% increase in each direction). If you have the
Computer Concepts !NewModes (supplied with Impression) then you can try
their mode 90 which gives a desktop area of 160×64 system font
characters. I find it unreadable when I try it on my A440 with a
‘standard’ 14” monitor because the dpi resolution of the monitor won’t
cope with the fine detail created by the software.
8.2
What size?
8.2
If you are serious about CAD or DTP and really need a very large desktop
area, you might consider buying a 20“ monitor. At present, the prices
are, in my opinion, rather high for non professional use (but see my
comment in a later paragraph). I don’t recommend 15” because the
improvement is minimal. Much more affordable, and a good compromise
between cost and ‘the best’ is a 17“ multisync. With a 17” monitor you
will, like me, be able to use a desktop area of about twice (in both
directions) that of mode 12. I would have liked just a fraction more so
that I could fit two 72 character wide PipeDream documents side by side.
I’ve been told by an ‘expert’ that mode 102 is about as far as it is
safe to go with a 17“ monitor. The expert I consulted understands the
fine detail of the technical articles recently published in Archive − so
I believe him.
8.2
Line scan rates
8.2
Understanding what is a good range of line scan rates is usually
presented as a difficult problem and one difficult to resolve. Let me
tell you why and then I’ll tell you my views. The old BBC B was designed
to use a TV as a monitor so that the line scan rate was about 15kHz
(about 15000 lines per second). The modes used by the BBC B are
available on the Archimedes. For technical and marketing reasons (Yes!
It’s the IBM PC syndrome again!) nearly all the better multisync
monitors have a minimum line scan rate of about twice this, 30kHz. The
consequence is that you can’t actually use mode 12 with a monitor having
a 30kHz+ line scan rate unless you cheat and fool your system into
believing that it has to scan twice as fast as it needs to. This is
effected with software such as that which used to be provided by
Atomwide as !VIDC but is now available from NCS on Utilities Disc Nº 1.
8.2
Here is my view. If you buy a multisync, it is unlikely that you will
want to use these 15kHz modes except for running a few special (old)
packages. I suggest that you get the !VIDC software for those few
occasions when you might need a 15kHz mode and forget all about
including low scan rates in your specification. Think of future-
proofing. If you use old software which needs these low modes (for
applications other than document production) then think about upgrading
the software!
8.2
Frame refresh rates
8.2
If you have RISC OS 3.1, you will find that the modes included by Acorn
run at 50Hz (50 frames per second), 60Hz, 64Hz and 70Hz. The Video
Electronics Standards Association (VESA) have studied the phenomenon of
flicker (see last month’s Archive article in the Risc PC Column) and
they recommend that monitors be constructed using phosphors which
persist for a length of time which requires (and thus implies) a minimum
frame refresh rate of 72Hz. Because of this, I would expect that 72Hz
will become a minimum standard for any future extension of Acorn’s
modes.
8.2
I have been told that the standard for digital television is to be
100Hz, so I would expect many more monitors having frame refresh rates
of 100Hz than there are at present to come on the market soon. In the
Windows PC market, refresh rates up to 100Hz are being discussed
regularly.
8.2
Yes! In spite of my proclaimed naivety, I do know that video memory and
video bandwidth come into the equation, but the thrust of my article is
future-proofing so I say “Let’s assume that video memory and video
bandwidth will increase − have we bought a monitor which will take
advantage of these advances in video memory and bandwidth when they
appear?”
8.2
Perhaps a more important consideration is that digital television
technology will use computer video memory and monitor technology rather
than the current analogue circuitry. It seems certain now that Acorn
have an eye on this market with their MPEG second processor board and
new multimedia offshoot. If so, then new Acorn modes are likely to have
a 100Hz refresh rate. Having said all this, I hope you’ll see why my
recommendation to you is that you buy a 17“ monitor which will run at a
100Hz refresh rate (and more) if you want it to be an investment for the
future.
8.2
My recommendation
8.2
I have looked at the specifications of what is available at the moment
in 17“ monitors even though I haven’t bought one yet. The Idek Iiyama
Visionmaster 17 is the only one I have discovered so far that has a
refresh rate of 100Hz when running with the largest desktop area
currently usable on a 17”. Others (I don’t see them in the NCS
catalogue) will run at 100Hz but only with a reduced area. The
implication of this 100Hz at a large desktop area is that there is a
margin for even larger desktop area modes at lower refresh rates if
appropriate software (and internal hardware) is forthcoming from the
likes of Acorn or Atomwide.
8.2
This Idek monitor has a dot pitch of 0.26 mm, which is about the
smallest (best) available on other monitors − because of this, I would
expect that the resolution of the large desktop area would be good (i.e.
not grainy) to look at. It is by no means the most expensive of monitors
− in fact it is cheaper than many. NCS are selling it at about £694
inclusive. You may be able to get one at somewhere between £550 and £650
if you shop around but remember that part of the price charged by NCS is
built in to provide you with service if you have a bad experience. One
of the things I tell my students at College is that I would never buy
insurance from a company that sells it so cheaply that it can’t make a
fair profit! You get one guess at why.
8.2
If you are buying a Risc PC from NCS then, for an extra £400, they will
provide this Idek instead of the Acorn 14“ AKF60. If you directly
compare this Idek with the Acorn 17” AFK85, you will find that the dot
pitch of the Idek is slightly smaller (good), that the scan rate range
is larger at both ends (good − 23.5kHz to 85kHz) and that the refresh
rate (nominally 50Hz to 120Hz) range is the same.
8.2
Finally, if you have an extra £1850 to spend (over and above the
standard-Risc-PC-with-14“-monitor price) when buying your Risc PC, you
can consider the Idek MF-8621. This is the matching 21” model and is
something to save up for! There is also an MT-9121 model mentioned on
page 6 of last month’s Archive which is £260 cheaper. It has a slightly
larger dot pitch but the scan rate range is better (23.5−92kHz), as are
the frame refresh rates (50−160Hz). Altogether a very impressive
sounding monitor.
8.2
I know I ‘ought’ to buy the 21“ model because, in spite of the extra
money, I’m sure it is a good investment that would see me through into
using my Risc PC (and later ‘computer type’ hardware) as a terminal for
the proposed multimedia information super highway. I don’t think I can
raise the cash but this must not deter me from recommending it to you if
you feel that you want to buy the best monitor and one that will last
you through your next three (rather than two) computer upgrades.
8.2
In conclusion
8.2
So I’ve made a start on my new look column. I know that in my quest to
help you develop a strategy for upgrading your system, I’ve concentrated
on monitors this month. I do intend to get around to software soon. As
my examples, I shall choose Wordwise through PipeDream 2 to PipeDream 3
to PipeDream 4 to Fireworkz and also Impression (Junior or II) to
Publisher (or Style). I shall discus how software purchases are future-
proofed. I hope that because I shall concentrate on these few packages
as examples, this won’t mislead you into believing that only users of
those packages will benefit from reading the article.
8.2
If you have made any of those specific upgrades and want to tell me
about it, my address is that of Abacus Training which you will find at
the back of Archive. I’d also like to hear from anyone who has an
upgrade strategy all worked out in their minds even (and perhaps
especially) if that doesn’t include any Colton Software product.
8.2
Remember, I shall be looking at document production in general. This
range excludes games, programming and music (amongst other uses).
8.2
Please let me (and our editor) know whether you approve or disapprove of
the broader range which I propose for this column! Or should I revert to
the more focussed remit of the PipeLineZ column?
8.2
For my part, I shall be interested to hear from you in more detail what
you think ‘document production’ should cover and what it should exclude.
8.2
See you at Acorn World 94!  A
8.2
Beebug
8.2
new artwork
8.2
Acorns in Business
8.2
Richard Torrens
8.2
I run an electronics manufacturing business in which we use Acorn
computers not only for design work but also for general use. In the
first two articles in this series on using Acorn computers in business,
I will explain how I use PipeDream. I don’t want to go into too much
technical detail or it would become too specific to PipeDream so I will
just explain the type of things I do using PipeDream. If you want exact
details and/or assistance (including copies of files and command files)
my address is at the bottom of the column.
8.2
I will initially declare an interest: I am a fan of PipeDream as it is
such a versatile program. The trouble is that there seems to be a direct
connection between versatility and difficulty of use. Initially,
PipeDream is very simple to use but it has a very long learning curve.
However, PipeDream does just about everything a small business could
want, so you are faced with the choice between a long learning curve on
one package or several shorter learning curves of several packages with
the possibility that they may not cooperate. In any case, much of the
learning is not directly down to the program you are using but is more
about how to organise the business so that it can be done by computer −
and this applies to any computerised task.
8.2
If I were running a larger business, I would have several computers: one
would be used as a word processor, another as an accounting computer and
another for stock control and purchasing and so on. I would then have to
employ staff to run the computer programs. This is the way most
businesses work and is one of the reasons they can get away with using
PCs. However, the beauty of the Acorns is that they are far more
integrated: PipeDream is capable of doing a lot of different tasks.
8.2
Between PipeDream and Vector, I can do nearly everything − DTP, stock
control, word processing, PCB design and CAD. (Vector is capable of
doing a lot of tasks as I have shown in my earlier articles about
Electronic CAD.) I do, however, use a few other packages for specific
purposes. ArcFax is essential in my business to provide a fax facility
and, since all my documentation is produced on the Acorn, it is very
much easier to fax direct from the computer than to use a dedicated fax
machine − and the computer version is also cheaper! (See Richard’s
review of ArcFax on page 47. Ed.)
8.2
I also have a Calligraph laser printer. Well-produced drawings and
properly written instructions present a good, professional appearance,
especially when properly printed on a good laser printer.
8.2
Finally, I use Prophet for my accounts − I could do this on PipeDream,
but Prophet has a lot more accounts-specific facilities.
8.2
DTP
8.2
PD4 is not a desktop publishing package but it does pretty well. I use
it for all our brochures and instruction manuals. One day I’m going to
decide that I want to be a bit more clever and need better facilities,
but for 90% of business publishing PD4 is fine.
8.2
Correspondence
8.2
Part of the business I run is mail order and I get asked a lot of
technical questions. However, as in many businesses, the same technical
questions eventually start to recur, so I have a word-processed file of
answers. Every time a question is asked, if there is a relevant answer
then I copy a slice of the database into a standard letter. If the
question is new, I write a standardised answer into the database.
Initially, the database file grew quite quickly but its growth has now
slowed down. This file is arranged so that it is readable and saleable
as a stand-alone script. This is an idea worth thinking about for anyone
collating technical information.
8.2
Our standard letter has a drawfile letter heading which PD4 uses. It
also does a ‘lookup’ in my address file so that I only have to enter a
customer’s address once in this file, then either type the customer’s
name into the letter or fill in a reference to the name by pointing to
it in the address file. This method enables me, in a matter of seconds,
to give the customer a detailed and personalised answer to every
question.
8.2
To keep the address files short, I have two: one for enquiries and
another for sales. When an enquiry turns into a sale, I mark the block
in the Enquiry file which contains the customer’s details and move it to
the Sales file. If I sell to a customer whose name isn’t in the Enquiry
file, I know it is new so I send them a price list. If the address stays
in the Enquiry file too long, I transfer it to a ‘dead’ file.
8.2
Technical literature
8.2
In Vector, I draw all the items we sell and save them as drawfiles which
PipeDream can use. The technique I use for the drawing is simply to do
them as a full frontal view, life size, by measuring the item and
drawing it as accurately as I can. If the item comes to bits, I draw
each bit separately and assemble them in Vector. I am no draughtsman but
in Vector, I alter the drawing till it looks right and if I draw it
accurately from measurements, life is a lot easier. Also, with Vector’s
library facility, I only have to draw each item once.
8.2
Invoicing
8.2
We have a complicated price structure because we do both retail trade
and also deal with manufacturers. The reasoning is a bit complex but,
basically, the customer can chose 15%, 10%, 5% or no discount, depending
on how quickly he pays. This did take a little automation but PipeDream
now does all the invoicing with minimum manual intervention.
8.2
I start off with a Sales file into which each order is entered as it is
received. From this, I print out a Sales Sheet for each order. This
was quite complicated to do since, although most sales only take up one
line, some take several. To make this file easy to read, I use multiple
entry lines with the sale number blank. So the Sales Sheet has to look
up the next few lines (up to 7) and see if they are numbered as the next
entry − if so ignore them.
8.2
When the sale is despatched, I enter the despatched date into the Sales
file and make a one line entry in a file called ‘To_invoice’. All I need
to do is to enter the sale number here: it looks up the Sale file for
info, but I can also enter comments in ‘To_invoice’.
8.2
When I get round to invoicing, I load a file called ‘Invoice’ which is a
blank form with ‘lookups’ everywhere. In one square, I enter the ‘Sale
number’. Immediately, the file picks up the customer from the Sales file
and looks up his address in the ‘Customers’ file. It looks up the
products and quantities from the sales file then does a double lookup of
the price: the order may qualify for the 10 off price but many of our
customers have a scheduled order and qualify for the 100 off price. The
blank takes care of all this automatically!
8.2
The invoice number is also looked up automatically (the first number in
the index file which has not been filled in). If the customer is export,
the Customers database has an entry either of his VAT number (for EEC
exports) or simply ‘Export’. This tells the invoice whether to add VAT
or not and enters “Your VAT number:” in EEC invoices. The ‘Invoice’ file
also looks up the Sales file for the the customers order number or
‘CWO’. The invoice uses the ‘CWO’ entry to calculate the 15% discount
automatically, otherwise it looks up the item in the database to see if
we give the customer the 10% discount.
8.2
All I have to do is check the file, blank out any unused lines and fill
in the carriage charge. The despatch date is looked up from the sales
file and the invoice date is filled in automatically as ‘Today’. When
the invoice looks correct, I pull in another command file which goes
through the invoice, snapshotting the appropriate slots and fossilizing
the invoice. It also removes all intermediate calculations. This command
file also causes the invoice number, date, invoice total and discount to
be written back to the Invoice Numbers file. Save, print and send it.
The whole process involves a minimum of my intervention.
8.2
For regular customers, I have a separate command file − one command file
per customer. This fills in all the details relevant for the customer so
that, if they have regular items or have negotiated a bulk price or
special discounts or regular quantities, all this can be automated. It
also saves me having to look up their last invoice to see how much I
charged last time. The whole thing saves me work and reduces my errors.
8.2
Accounts
8.2
I do all the accounting work in Prophet. I could use PipeDream but
Prophet is dedicated and therefore easier to run. The main problem with
PipeDream is that I don’t know the ins and outs of accounting so I let
Prophet do that. Prophet’s manual now includes a section on accounting,
for the beginner but I cannot yet comment as I bought Prophet before the
manual had evolved to this level. Quentin Paine of Apricote Studios has
promised me a copy, so when it arrives, I may return to the subject of
Prophet. Using Apricote’s !Transfer, I can move data from Prophet into
PipeDream and, since PD4’s Formula line is a writeable icon, I can get
it back to Prophet.
8.2
Next month, I shall conclude by explaining how we use PipeDream for
parts inventory control and raising purchase orders.
8.2
Feedback
8.2
Any comments/suggestions/criticisms/requests, contact me at: 4QD, 30
Reach Road, Burwell, Cambridge, CB5 0AH. Phone or fax on 01638-741930 at
any reasonable time (I work from home).  A
8.2
Simtec A3010 4Mb RAM Board
8.2
Chris Murray
8.2
I was fed up of seeing the ‘Not Enough Memory’ message when using some
of the latest applications, so I decided that, before I purchased any
more software, I would upgrade the available RAM on my machine (an
A3010). Currently, it is 2Mb and I wished to increase it to the maximum
of 4Mb. After looking at the various upgrades available, I chose the
Simtec 3Mb RAM expansion card. This has the relatively novel idea of
reusing the existing 1Mb expansion that may (or may not) be already
fitted. I ordered the board over the phone on a Tuesday afternoon, and
the goods came by recorded delivery on Friday morning. Inside the
package was an antistatic box containing a small double-sided PCB about
50×70mm, which had a handful of components on it plus a flying lead.
Having worked on several PCB inspection lines, I gave it a close
examination with my ×10 eye glass. This confirmed that it was a well-
manufactured and soldered PCB. The instructions supplied were clear,
concise and very easy to follow.
8.2
Installation
8.2
Opening the computer case and removing the existing 1Mb expansion (two
ZIP chips) was relatively easy. It is easy enough to do this without
unplugging the keyboard edge connector. Refitting the two chips into the
Simtec board was straightforward enough. After adjusting one link inside
the computer, the Simtec board was ready to be fitted.
8.2
At this point you need to be dexterous and brave. The new board sits
into the sockets vacated by the previous RAM chips. There are two rows
of 40 way pins to align and then be pressed very firmly into place.
There is very little room to see what is going on underneath, so great
care must be taken to align pins and sockets correctly. Once the PCB was
fitted and a flying lead plugged in, the case was reassembled. When I
switched on, everything worked perfectly first time (just as it should).
8.2
I now have a lovely 4096Kb total available on the task manager. I feel
much happier now about purchasing software, knowing that there is plenty
of memory available. I have increased the font cache (suggested in
Archive 7.5 p35 & 50). This give a much improved screen update when
using fonts. The computer has been used every day (often for several
hours at a time) for the last three weeks without any problems. The
whole installation took only 30 minutes which included unpacking and
reading the instructions.
8.2
Conclusion
8.2
Having worked in quality assurance for a number of years and seen many
electronic manufacturing companies, I must say that Simtec have produced
an excellent piece of hardware here that does exactly what it is
supposed to and at a very reasonable price. I have no hesitation in
thoroughly recommending this product.
8.2
The A3010 4Mb RAM board costs £89 + VAT Simtec or £102 through
Archive.  A
8.2
Advanced Basic − OLE Again
8.2
Paul Hobbs
8.2
Last month, I mentioned that I had found a PD library that had a module
to handle OLE. However, on receiving it, I discovered that it appeared
to be the Computer Concepts OLE module and documentation which I had
been informed was only for use by Computer Concepts’ applications. I
will attempt to clarify the situation but it looks as though we will
have to stick with the scheme outlined last month − unless anybody has
written a module which really is PD.
8.2
Impulse II
8.2
One Computer Concepts module that is PD is ImpulseII which is designed
to make inter-application communications easier. Despite being heavily
featured by at least one Archimedes magazine a long, long time ago, it
does not seem to have become a standard in the way that Computer
Concepts hoped, its main use being handling mail merging for Impression.
One reason for its lack of popularity is probably the available
documentation which, whilst being comprehensive, is somewhat confusing.
8.2
Should you want to send data between applications (perhaps for debugging
purposes as mentioned in an earlier column) it seems to make sense to
use this existing module as it handles the building of wimp messages for
you and generally makes things easier.
8.2
The way it works is that a ‘Method Table’ is built in memory which
contains the command words and any command parameters recognised by your
program. This ‘Method Table’ is passed to the Impulse module directly
after the call to Wimp_Poll so that Impulse can decode any incoming
Impulse messages.
8.2
If enough ‘Methods’ are supported by your application it would be
possible to allow another application to control all aspects of its
operation. However, a more likely scenario would be to allow your
application to supply a service to other applications. For example, a
graph drawing program could accept a list of values and return the graph
as a drawfile.
8.2
The purpose of the following code is to make an application respond to
the Impulse commands ‘openwin’ and ‘closewin’ for demonstration
purposes. Note that I have overcome my fear of global variables after
reading ‘Code Complete’ by Steve McConnell − I have adopted the
convention that global constants have names in capital letters.
8.2
REM Set up some global variables
8.2
IMPULSE_VERSION  = 18   : REM Module version
8.2
 nr * 100
8.2
IMPULSE_COMMAND  = &200 : REM Reason code
8.2
IMPULSE_REPLY    = &201 : REM Reason code
8.2
TASK_NAME$ = “ImpDemo”
8.2
REM Register this task as an Impulse user
8.2
REM (must be called after Wimp_Initialise
8.2
REM as the task handle of your task is
8.2
REM needed by Impulse)
8.2
SYS “Impulse_Initialise”, IMPULSE_VERSION, TASK_ID%, TASK_NAME$, -1
8.2
REM Start of poll loop
8.2
REPEAT
8.2
  SYS “Wimp_Poll”,0,poll_block% TO ,reason%
8.2
  SYS “Impulse_Decode”, reason%, bk%, , , ,
8.2
 IMPULSE_METHOD_TABLE, TASK_ID% TO
8.2
reason%, , , , , token,params,object
8.2
  CASE reason% OF
8.2
    WHEN 0    :
8.2
    WHEN 1    :
8.2
    REM Handle other reason codes here..
8.2
    WHEN 17   :
8.2
    WHEN 18,19:
8.2
    WHEN IMPULSE_COMMAND, IMPULSE_REQUEST:
8.2
      PROCImpulse_Decode_Command(token,
8.2
 object, params)
8.2
  ENDCASE
8.2
UNTIL quit%
8.2
DEF PROCImpulse_Decode_Command(token,
8.2
 object, params)
8.2
CASE token OF
8.2
  WHEN IMPULSE_TOKEN_OPENWIN :
8.2
    REM Perform action for openwin command..
8.2
  WHEN IMPULSE_TOKEN_CLOSEWIN:
8.2
    REM Perform action for closewin command..
8.2
ENDCASE
8.2
ENDPROC
8.2
Before entering the poll loop for the first time, the ‘Method Table’ has
to be set up which is achieved as follows:
8.2
IMPULSE_TABLE_SIZE = &400
8.2
DIM IMPULSE_METHOD_TABLE IMPULSE_TABLE_SIZE
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod% = IMPULSE_METHOD_TABLE
8.2
 + 4
8.2
IMPULSE_METHOD_TABLE!0  = 0
8.2
G_Impulse_NextToken%    = 1
8.2
G_Impulse_TxTag%        = 0
8.2
G_Impulse_TxInProgress% = FALSE
8.2
G_Impulse_TxTop%        = 0
8.2
G_Impulse_TxPtr%        = 0
8.2
PROCImpulse_MakeMethod(0, G_Token_OpenWin%,
8.2
  “OpenWin” , “”)
8.2
PROCImpulse_MakeMethod(0, G_Token_CloseWin%,
8.2
 “CloseWin”, “”)
8.2
PROCImpulse_WindUpMethods
8.2
The code to actually add a ‘Method’ is as follows:
8.2
DEF PROCImpulse_MakeMethod(Flags%,RETURN
8.2
 Token%,Method$,Syntax$)
8.2
Token% = G_Impulse_NextToken%
8.2
G_Impulse_NextToken%     += 1
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%!0   = Flags%
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%!4   = Token%
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%    += 8
8.2
$G_Impulse_NextMethod%    = Method$
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%    += LENMethod$
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%?0   = 0
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%    += 1
8.2
$G_Impulse_NextMethod%    = Syntax$
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%    += LENSyntax$
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%?0   = 0
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%    += 1
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%     = ((G_Impulse_
8.2
NextMethod% + 3) DIV 4) * 4
8.2
ENDPROC
8.2
DEF PROCshell_ImpulseWindupMethods
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%!0 = -1
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%!4 = -1
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%?8 = 0
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%?9 = 0
8.2
G_Impulse_NextMethod%  += 10
8.2
IF G_Impulse_NextMethod% > IMPULSE_METHOD_
8.2
TABLE + IMPULSE_TABLE_SIZE THEN
8.2
   ERROR 200,“Impulse has run out of room in
8.2
 making methods”)
8.2
ENDIF
8.2
ENDPROC
8.2
The monthly disc contains the full ImpulseII documentation and some
example programs. In order to test the Impulse demo application, it is
necessary to have a program that can send Impulse commands as the above
code only handles the receiving of commands. Luckily, Computer Concepts
supply the rather mis-named !Insight application which allows the
sending of Impulse commands and the display of Impulse replies. (I say
‘mis-named’ because it is not written in Basic and so provides no
insight into how to use the module!) Unfortunately, it only allows the
sending of commands, not requests that expect a reply, so next month,
all being well, I’ll present an application to do this.
8.2
A couple of points to note about !Insight: you quit it with an <adjust>
click on the iconbar icon (or via the Task Manager) and Impulse commands
are broadcast to all applications unless an ‘Object Name’ is given in
the command. Typical command strings would be:
8.2
:ImpDemo OpenWin
8.2
(command ‘OpenWin’ sent to application ‘ImpDemo’)
8.2
:OpenWin
8.2
(command ‘OpenWin’ sent to all applications)
8.2
The ‘Object Name’ is usually the name passed to Impulse_Initialise, but
it could include a document name, for example:
8.2
:Impression.MyDoc OpenDoc
8.2
(command ‘Opendoc’ sent to document ‘MyDoc’ in application ‘Impression’)
8.2
:Impression.MyDoc OpenDoc “10 10 500 -600” (as above, but open document
at specified coordinates)
8.2
In these cases, PROCImpulse_Command() would be passed the unresolved
part of the object name (‘MyDoc’) and it is up to your application to
decode the object name appropriately. In practice, the ‘Object Names’
and ‘Parameters’ can be as complicated as you want.
8.2
Owners of Impression Style or Publisher are provided with a couple of
Basic applications which provide some more clues about how it all works.
8.2
As this subject is quite complex, we’ll leave it there for this month
before I fill the whole magazine.
8.2
Outline fonts in menus
8.2
I have had a letter from Michael Carter who asks if anyone has found a
way of emulating the Risc PC feature of forcing the system to use an
outline fonts in menus. The PD application !DeskFonts is OK but doesn’t
handle menus correctly in that keyboard shortcuts are not displayed
right aligned.
8.2
This feature is of importance to software authors who do not have access
to a Risc PC for testing exactly how their application looks when
outline fonts are in use. If anyone has found a solution to this
problem, we would certainly like to know.
8.2
If you have any suggestions for topics that could be covered in future
issues, I would be pleased to hear from you. My address is Paul Hobbs,
Rheinpfalzstrasse 2, 85049 Ingolstadt, Germany.  A
8.2
ArcFax − A Software Fax Facility
8.2
Richard Torrens
8.2
These days, a fax facility is almost a necessity for running a business.
When people asked for our fax number, they were most put out to find
that we didn’t have one − so we invested in David Pilling’s ArcFax and
bought ourselves a fax modem. Now when people ring to ask what our fax
number is, some are a little put out that we receive faxes on a voice
line and they are often surprised when we say that the faxes come
straight into our computer. Although computers are so universally used,
few business users actually seem to know anything about them and the
tricks we Acorn users take for granted can be very impressive to the
average customer.
8.2
When I first thought of reviewing ArcFax, I wondered if I was going to
be able to say enough about it. It just sits on my iconbar waiting for
me to use it. I use it to send or receive a fax and then forget about it
again.
8.2
What is a computer fax?
8.2
The Acorn computer prints by sending to the printer a graphic image of
the page which is made up as a series of dots. Normally, an electronic
representation of these dots is sent up a cable to the printer. The fax
modem can be thought of as a ‘printer’ which turns these dots into
sounds which can be sent down the telephone line to a remote receiver.
The receiver may be another computer with a fax modem or an actual fax
machine which turns the sounds into dots on a piece of fax paper. So a
computer fitted with a fax modem and ArcFax can send and receive faxes
to and from any fax machine in the world whether it is a stand-alone fax
or an IBM running a fax program or, of course, another Acorn. However,
ArcFax is much more clever than this and has a lot more facilities.
8.2
Fax modems
8.2
The fax modem we use is a small box about the size of my hand. It plugs
via one cable into the computer’s serial port and another into the
telephone. Then you forget it. Mine sits behind the telephone out of
sight and out of mind, gathering dust.
8.2
David Pilling’s software is growing. The version I have is 1.11 but its
abilities are limited by the available modems. Modems are now appearing
which can digitise speech so, if you have one of these fitted, you can
use your computer and ArcFax to answer the telephone when you are out!
It can replay a recorded message and will record incoming messages
exactly like an answering machine. If the incoming call is a fax, the
modem will recognise the fact and receive the fax automatically.
8.2
Comms
8.2
A fax modem can, of course, be used for standard comms purposes just
like any other modem. ArcFax is not a comms package so, for Comms, you
will need other software, but there is plenty of this around − including
Hearsay from Beebug Ltd, also written by David Pilling.
8.2
Receiving a fax
8.2
If you are lucky enough to have a class 8 modem, ArcFax will listen in
to your telephone calls: if it detects a fax tone, it will automatically
receive it. ArcFax can be configured to automatically receive (or
ignore) voice, fax and data. However, we have a simpler modem which
doesn’t recognise voice so we answer calls manually. We have no
difficulty in knowing when the call is a fax: some faxes send tones to
initiate the transmission but other fax machines wait until the called
machine sends tones to them. The first are easy to recognise but we soon
got used to the mechanical sounding deadness of a fax machine waiting
for us to respond. In either case, we just click on the fax icon and a
window appears. In this window is a ‘Receive’ button. One click on this
and ArcFax takes over. Of course, if we know a fax is about to arrive
(or if we had a separate line for the fax) then we would configure
ArcFax to automatically answer all the calls. With a shared line, we
like to leave ArcFax on manual.
8.2
During reception, the window shows the status of the fax, including the
caller’s identification. Once the fax has been received, a tick appears
and you can open the RXBatch window and view the received fax. If you
want, you can print it straight out to the laser printer. ArcFax also
allows you to process the fax, save parts of it, etc.
8.2
Sending a fax
8.2
ArcFax uses Acorn’s standard RISC OS printer driver just the same as any
other printer. It redirects the output to disc, compressing it en route.
Once printing to disc has been done, you can view the resultant fax file
or send it straight out. However, ArcFax can also do all the sending
automatically for you. It has a telephone directory and you can tell it
to send to any entry or a new number or even a group of entries, so you
can send your fax off to twenty people if you wish − the ultimate mail
shot? Yes, unfortunately, junk faxes are catching on, but ArcFax can
even deal with a lot of these.
8.2
Directory
8.2
For me, this is one of ArcFax’s most useful features. There is a full
directory with a scrollable index page. Open the directory, scroll down
to the name you want and click <select> and ArcFax dials the voice
telephone number. ArcFax does all our dialling for us. No more
misdialled numbers and no more hunting for the telephone number.
8.2
Click on the name with <adjust> and a window opens for the entry showing
the person’s full name and address. There are other options here such as
‘Bar’ − if this is ticked and your fax and phone support caller-
identification, the caller is barred from your system. I know several
double-glazing companies I would wish to put on this list − but I don’t
have the right type of modem. Another option is ‘Block’ which works on
Fax id’s only, so is useful if you want to block junk faxes from a
particular fax machine.
8.2
Another very useful feature is that ArcFax’s directory supports drag and
drop − you drag the directory’s name entry into a wordprocessor window
(such as PipeDream 4) and the whole name and address is dropped at the
cursor. I could use this a lot more − except that most of my
correspondence is one off and if I used ArcFax for my regulars, I would
then be using two different systems together − always a cause of
confusion.
8.2
Automatic sending
8.2
ArcFax has facilities for automatically sending a fax. If you put the
words, for instance, {fred } in the document you are printing via the
fax printer driver, ArcFax will pick this up and automatically look up
the entry ‘Fred’ in its directory. Out goes the fax automatically with
no further ado.
8.2
There are other ‘Embedded commands’ which ArcFax will recognise
including {xyz } (the fax will be saved as ‘xyz’) and {date/time } which
will start ArcFax’s timed sending facility. There is a small problem
with embedded commands: there is no way of cutting them out of the
document in which they are embedded so they are sent out in the finished
fax. However most wordprocessors can use some trick (such as white text
on a white background) to make sure the commands don’t show up.
PipeDream doesn’t support coloured text, so we simply use 1 point text
and position it so that it is printed under a black part of our logo.
One point text would, in any case, show up looking like line noise and
would be unreadable. (If you use Impression, you can position these
commands within the print border making sure that you include some hard
spaces in extra large text so that they, invisibly, stick out into the
printable area thus forcing Impression to render the whole line
including your commands which ArcFax then picks up. Ed.)
8.2
Timed sending
8.2
A lot of our customers are overseas and so it can be useful to send the
fax at a particular time when the recipient is at work − or when the
rates are cheapest. ArcFax has a facility to delay transmission of the
fax until a stated day and time by using the {date/time } embedded
command or you can delay the sending manually.
8.2
Save money by using Mercury
8.2
ArcFax also allows you to put a prefix in front of any or all phone
numbers. This can be the Mercury initiation number, 131, followed by
your pin number. Once again, after the initial set-up, this is
transparent to the user and all calls, where appropriate, go via Mercury
thereby saving you money.
8.2
Scanned images
8.2
ArcFax now supports Twain interface to control scanners. I don’t have
one, as all the information I wish to send is computer-generated, so I
can’t tell you much about this. But, again, there is not much to it. You
just click on ‘select source’ (if you are using more than one scanner!)
and then on ‘Scan’. Then you just send the scanned image as a fax.
8.2
Other features
8.2
ArcFax is stuffed full of other features and David Pilling has thought a
lot about extra things that he could add depending on what would be most
useful to the users. ArcFax is very much a continuously developing
product.
8.2
Gripes?
8.2
No review would be complete without a few gripes. Let me see if I can
think of any... The manual has no index. Mind you, it is quite readable
and covers just about everything I need. An index would be nice, but I
can live without it.
8.2
The program is getting a bit large. It takes 512Kb and, if you use it
for receiving faxes, it isn’t the sort of program you can load up only
when you need it. My 4Mb of memory is getting a bit small, especially
since I have also upgraded to PipeDream 4.
8.2
I did have trouble when I first bought the modem: we were on pulse-
dialling and the modem didn’t correctly recognise the tones, but since
we’ve changed to tone-dialling, I have had no trouble and the new manual
does include hints about pulse-dialling exchanges.
8.2
Since writing the above − I have changed to a Risc PC. I am happy to
report that ArcFax performs perfectly with this but I did have to phone
David as one module needed updating. All I did was switch ArcFax to
receive data and the new module came straight down the telephone from
David. There was also a funny five minutes where I couldn’t get the
printer driver working with the RISC OS 3.5 driver. When I read the
ArcFax manual, I realised that hadn’t installed it correctly.
8.2
So, no, I can’t really find any serious gripes!
8.2
Summary
8.2
If you need a modem: get a fax modem. If you have such a modem then,
even if you don’t use the fax facility, ArcFax is worth getting just as
a telephone directory. If you need a fax and have an Acorn machine, get
a fax modem and ArcFax. If you think you need a dedicated fax, wouldn’t
it be worth spending the money on a scanner instead? That way, you get
the best of all worlds.
8.2
ArcFax costs £35 from David Pilling or £33 through Archive.  A
8.2
This article didn’t come in until after we had set up our special offer
last month of a Worldport fax modem with a free copy of ArcFax. The
offer was only to be for two months but we will try to extend it a
further month to allow subscribers the opportunity to make a more
informed decision in the light of Richard’s article. Ed.
8.2
Small Ads
8.2
(Small ads for Acorn computers 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)
8.2
•  A3000, RISC OS 3, 80Mb HD, Multisync monitor, hand scanner, manuals
and software £750 o.n.o. Phone [phone].
8.2
•  A3000, RISC OS 3.1, 4Mb £200. 100Mb external Frog HD £200. Oak 16-bit
SCSI interface £50 (or free with drive). 14“ Microvitec Cub multiscan
£300 (ex cond). Phone Greg on 0171-388-9017 eves.
8.2
•  A310, 35MHz ARM3, RISC OS 3.1, 4Mb RAM, 47Mb HD, Taxan 775 monitor.
£450 or call and haggle. John 01328-864177.
8.2
•  A310, 4Mb, ARM3, 4 slot backplane, 120Mb IDE HD, G8+ graphics board,
RISC OS 3.1, newer keyboard, RISC OS 2 PRM, PC Emulator 1.82, MEMC1a,
colour monitor, mono multisync monitor. £750 o.n.o. Phone [phone].
8.2
•  A410/1, 4Mb RAM, RISC OS 3.10, 105Mb HD, SCSI interface, colour
monitor, PRMs, enhanced desktop, 30 font families, PC Emulator v1.82,
Eureka2, DeskEdit3, ArcFS r/w, WimpKit, + more. Top condition, boxed as
new. All manuals. Shipping and insurance included. Offers. Contact
Philip on (International code-353-1) 282-1609 (Ireland).
8.2
•  A410/1, 8Mb RAM, 30MHz ARM3, RISC OS 3.10, 20Mb. Ex cond £400. State
Machine G16 graphic accelerator £160. Intelligent Interfaces dual serial
port 38,400 baud £60. Phone Thomas in Denmark on [phone], eves.
8.2
•  A410/1 4Mb, 50Mb HD, ARM3, RISC OS 3.1, AKF11 monitor, Star NL-10
printer, PC Emulator v1.86, external 5¼“ disc interface. £450 o.n.o.
Phone [phone] eves.
8.2
•  A440, with RISC OS3, ARM3 and FPA10, 4Mb RAM, 20Mb HD, twin 5¼“
external floppy, single 3½” external floppy, 14“ NEC multisync. Some
software and all manuals. £1150 o.n.o. Phone Geoff on 01925-811420.
8.2
•  A440/1, 4Mb, 30MHz ARM3, 57Mb HD, Colour Card Gold, Mode Designer,
Acorn I/O podule with MIDI, Armadillo sound sampler, games. £830 o.n.o.
(will consider splits). Phone Mark after 6pm on 01905-754277.
8.2
•  A5000 4Mb, 80Mb, Taxan LR multisync, Prism 1000 modem and software.
Ex cond. Offers. Phone [phone].
8.2
•  A5000, 4Mb, 120Mb, Acorn multisync, games, over 80Mb of PD. Ex
cond. £850 o.n.o. Phone [phone].
8.2
•  A5000, 4Mb, 120Mb, without monitor, £700 o.n.o. Master 128 and Pace
Linnet V21/23 modem, sensible offers considered. Phone Dominic on 01272-
422633.
8.2
•  A5000, 4Mb, 40Mb, AKF18 multisync, RISC OS 3.11. Requires repair to
CPU − stops during start-up. £525. A440, 4Mb/40Mb, ARM3 25MHz, AKF17,
RISC OS 3.11, MEMC1a, backplane etc. £475. A420, 2Mb/20Mb, AKF17, RISC
OS 3.0, MEMC1a, backplane etc, £400. Excluding delivery. Phone 01827-
330118, eves/weekends.
8.2
•  A5000, RISC OS 3.1, 4Mb, 40Mb, multisync, Learning Curve pack, As
Easy As spreadsheet, also Draw Plus, Powerbase and other software, £850
o.n.o. Phone John on 0181-491-6517, eves/weekends.
8.2
•  Acorn A4 portable, 4Mb, 60Mb, PC Emulator, Genie Trackerball,
original packing, manuals and carrying case, £1100. Phone [phone].
8.2
•  Acorn DTP and First Word Plus (Release2) − Sensible offers. Render
Bender 2, £30. 10 out of 10 Junior Essentials, £15. Superior Golf, £7.
Impression book by Anne Rooney £7. Contact Peter Warrington tel/fax
0161-225-3404.
8.2
•  Acorn DTP £35, MS-DOS 5 £30, Minerva GammaPlot v2 £15, System Delta+
v2 £25, Genesis 2 £20, Bonjour de France − Ma Ville £20, PTW Software
Chemistry £10, Investigator 2 £10, Games: Cyber Chess £12, Boogie
Buggie, Superior Golf, Zarch £6 each, Startrader, Word Up Word Down £3
each, or all six for £30, Books: ARM Assembly Language Programming £8,
Genesis Script Language £5, MS-DOS Quick Reference £5, RISC OS 2 PRM
£35. Phone [phone] eves.
8.2
•  ARCticulate £10, Enter the Realm £10, Diggers £15. Magazine binders,
two marked “Micro User”, one marked “Acorn Computing” £2 each. All +p&p.
Contact Jon Aylwin, 4 St Margarets Close, Hemyock, Devon, EX15 3XJ.
8.2
•  Canon BJ200 printer 6 months old with Turbo Driver £180. Phone 0131-
447-8624.
8.2
•  Canon BJ230 printer with Turbo Driver (unregistered) £250. Colour
Card £120. Scanlight 256 £90. Impression Borders £5, Business Supplement
£20. PinPoint £50. RemoteFS (Serial) £30. Phone Mike 01742-619444.
8.2
•  Citizen Swift 24 dot matrix 24 pin. £60 o.n.o. Phone [phone].
8.2
•  Colourjet 132 inkjet £100. Dual joysticks and interface for A3000/
A5000 £20. Sampler/Midi for A3000/A5000 £40. Desktop Tracker £30.
Tracker £15. Elite (Gold) £20, Saloon Cars (Deluxe) £15, Chocks Away
£15. Pandoras Box £15, Real McCoy 2 £15, Lemmings £10, TwinWorld £10,
Nevryon £10, Repton3 £10, Conqueror £10, Spell £10. Phone [phone].
8.2
•  Easyfont II & Font Pack Two £10, Turbo Driver for Epson Stylus £15,
Chocks Away £5, Chocks Away Extra Missions £5, Nevryon £5, Black Angel
£5, Chopper Force £5, Corruption £5, Schema £5. All as new. Postage £1
per item or collect. (Everything for £50) Phone [phone] eves/
weekends.
8.2
•  I/O podule £50, MIDI podule £50, Toshiba 3401 external CD-ROM drive
£300, Conner 250Mb IDE drive £200, Conner 210Mb IDE drive £180. Contact
Leslie Wiggins on 01332-204040 day, or 01602-272282 eves.
8.2
•  Pineapple RGB to PAL encoder £50. Phone Mark after 6pm on 01905-
754277.
8.2
•  Powerband, Font Directory, Disc Rescue, Saloon Cars Deluxe, £12 each.
Also PC Emulator, Birds of War £15 each. Phone John on 01328-864177.
8.2
•  ProLink Fax/Data Modem, 9600 fax, 2400bps data with V42, V42bis and
MNP5 (i.e. up to 9600). £65. Phone [phone].
8.2
•  Psion OPL and User Manual for the Series 3, £7 the pair, including
postage. Phone Mark after 6pm on 01905-754277.
8.2
•  Telephone Fax switch for telephone/modem setup. Automatically checks
for fax or voice. £50 or offers. Phone [phone].
8.2
•  Wanted: Ancestry + other genealogical programs to run under RISC OS
3. Contact Philip on (International code-353-1) 282-1609 (Ireland).
8.2
•  Wanted: Bezel (plastic front) for a 3½“ floppy disc drive (Sony MP-
F63W-OOD) as supplied with replacement drive for A305/310/440. Phone
0151-606-0289.
8.2
•  Wanted: Z88 pref. with additional memory, accessories and link to
A5000. Contact Peter Warrington tel/fax [phone].  A
8.2
The ARM Club
8.2
Andrew Rawnsley
8.2
Just recently, a wide variety of user groups that have sprung up to
support owners of ARM-based computers. Arguably one of the most
significant of these clubs is the ARM Club which has been in existence
for some time now, but has received little public acknowledgement for
its work. Since the Club provides a service that would benefit Archive
subscribers, I feel that readers may be interested in learning more
about it.
8.2
Advertising?
8.2
Before you jump to any conclusions and decide that I must be an ARM Club
committee member trying to boost the group’s publicity, I should make it
clear that I’m certainly not. Only six months ago, my attitude was as
apathetic as that of many others − I knew the Club existed but it seemed
rather remote and of little interest to me. How wrong I was....
8.2
The service provided
8.2
The ARM Club could almost be classed as a public service − offering a
great deal for a very reasonable price − just £10 per year.
8.2
At its minimum, the Club offers a quarterly magazine known as Eureka
which comprises approximately 70 pages of news, reviews and special
offers. Members of the Club, and hence readers of the magazine, are
actively encouraged to get involved − for example, writing articles,
attending committee meetings and helping in the organisation of local
shows.
8.2
In addition to all of the above, the club runs an extensive PD library,
at the bargain price of £1 per disc, and recent offers included a ‘buy
one, get one free’ scheme.
8.2
The main problem with the magazine is that its layout gives away the
Club’s user-group based feel. Unlike the professional approach that we
are used to in Archive and the rest of the Acorn press, Eureka can have
articles running down one column of a page, continuing four pages later,
again in just one column, and then finishing two pages further on.
Whilst this may be a rather over-the-top example, I’m sitting here
looking at another article that does just that. Perhaps this is not a
major criticism, but Archive’s column balancing approach within an
article makes each one much more readable.
8.2
There are regular Club meetings for members in the south of the country,
and lists are distributed of members’ particular fields of interest
(unless the member doesn’t wish to be included), so if you are
interested in MIDI on Acorn machines, you can get in contact with other
users in your area who are like-minded.
8.2
Shows?
8.2
The ARM Club encourages Open Days with leading players in the Acorn
software and hardware market exhibiting − organised by members! Indeed,
I was approached at the BAU Spring Show and asked if I would be
interested in helping in to organise a small show / open day in the
NorthWest.
8.2
This gives the opportunity for members to meet representatives from
major Acorn companies and partake of the special offers available to ARM
Club members − quite exciting!
8.2
Other benefits
8.2
Not being a dealership, the ARM Club does not sell Acorn-based products
to members (PD excluded) but the Club negotiates deals with various
software houses allowing members to purchase software direct from the
company at discounted prices.
8.2
Conclusions
8.2
I suspect that my conclusions will by now be obvious! The ARM Club has a
lot to offer and I for one will be renewing my subscription when the
time comes, in the sure knowledge that it is money well spent.
8.2
The ARM Club can be contacted at: Freepost ND 6573, London N12 0BR.
Phone/fax: [phone].
8.2
If you should want to contact me either for further information, or if
you’re in the NorthWest, for local details, I’m available on: phone
01925-755043 (outside office hours) or fax [phone].  A
8.2
Charity Sales
8.2
The following items are available for sale in aid of charity. PLEASE do
not just send money − ring us on 01603-766592 to check if the items are
still available. Thank you.
8.2
Software: First Word Plus £5, Leading Edge Midi Tracker £9, Bubble Fair
£2, Blaston £2, Pysanki £2, Rotor £2, Datavision database £10, MiG 29
flight simulator £10.
8.2
Hardware: Floppy discs as new £15 per 50, Beebug 5¼“ interface £5.
8.2
(If you have unwanted software or hardware for Archimedes computers that
you could donate in aid of charity, please send it to the Archive
office. If you have larger items where post would be expensive, just
send us details of the item(s) and how the purchaser can get hold of
them.)  A
8.2
Outline Font Design Made Simple
8.2
Christopher Jarman
8.2
One of the reasons I bought a computer in the first place was my
interest in handwriting and lettering. Thanks to Roger Spooner’s
excellent help through his articles in Archive and his generous advice
over the phone, and also thanks to Dave McCartney of Datafile, I have
been able to design two or three fonts myself and to put them to work.
(The Jarman font for use in handwriting copy sheets was distributed free
on the Archive 7.5 monthly disc.)
8.2
Tools for the job
8.2
The basic tool for this job is the program !FontEd. It is obtainable
from Acorn and various PD sources, and is said to be quite complicated
to use. Its manual on textfile is certainly quite a good example of how
to confuse a reader. However, perseverance pays, and although I still do
not know what some of the items on the menus are for, I have discovered
how to design and edit a font! This is fairly intuitive − but much
easier using Roger’s guides! (Archive 5.12 p45, 6.1 p75, 6.2 p17, 6.4
p45 & 6.5 p55)
8.2
The biggest breakthrough, however, has come with David Pilling’s !D2Font
application, part of his program !Trace obtainable direct from him or
through Archive. This allows you to draw or design letters of your own;
either in Draw or in any application that saves in drawfile format, then
to put them one by one into the !D2Font matrix where they will type out
from the keyboard. It is not quite as simple as that, but it is fairly
easy once you have become confident in ironing out the little problems
caused by your own inadequate drawings! In fact, it is essential to put
the !D2Font results into !FontEd first for editing and spacing, before
they can be successfully used as an outline font.
8.2
The best way to explain how to do it, is to take you through the design
of, say, three letters step by step.
8.2
This is the lower case abc of an alphabet designed as an informal font
which was meant to look as if it was cut out of paper. I call it
‘Cutfont’. It actually only took about an hour to do the whole alphabet.
It was deliberately done hurriedly!
8.2
These letters were drawn in outline using the straight line segment tool
in Draw. With the grid showing, the x height of the letters is 4cms. For
a complete alphabet it will be necessary to use several drawfiles
containing groups of four or five letters. If you are going to design
capital letters, punctuation and numbers as well, it helps to label them
accurately as you save each file.
8.2
As a rough guide, for most alphabets, make your ascenders (bdhl etc)
around half as tall again as the small letters and make the capitals
about the same height as the ascenders. The small ‘t’ is lower than the
others, with its cross-bar at the height of the small letters. Look at
some standard fonts to get the proportions, as these are the most
frequent errors in lettering design. Numbers should again be about the
same height as the capitals. At this stage, you should aim to draw just
a really rough alphabet which, although untidy and perhaps out of
proportion, is at least your own unique font.
8.2
Enter D2Font...
8.2
Load !D2Font onto the iconbar and click to show the grid. In Draw, there
is a facility for saving only selected parts of the page. Select letter
‘a’ from your design either using the menu or <shift-f3> and drag it
into the pale grey square marked ‘a’ in the grid. (See on previous
page.)
8.2
 It should then appear as a tiny letter ‘a’. By double clicking on this
small ‘a’ in a square, it will appear large sized for your inspection.
8.2
At this stage, you may be unlucky and find that the letter is
incomplete, or that the centre of it is blacked out. Do not worry. As
long as there is something in the box, FontEd will come to your rescue.
8.2
Continue to select each letter and drag and drop them one by one into
the relevant grid boxes in D2Font. As a tryout, I would suggest using
only two or three letters first, and see how you get on with them before
attempting the whole alphabet. When you have everything you wish
transferred, select ‘Save Font’ (there is no need to select Save D2
Font) and give your font a name. Put it into a convenient directory. It
should now have its own folder looking like any other outline font in
your collection, even though, at this stage, you may only be trying out
three letters.
8.2
Using FontEd
8.2
Next load FontEd onto the iconbar. Open your newly named font directory
and drag the ‘Outlines’ file down to the FontEd icon. You will see
another grid appear just like the one from D2Font as follows...
8.2
However, when you double click on a letter in this application, it will
not only appear larger but will be in outline form rather like an object
in Draw or Artworks. It will have green dots as movable points, and
handles for curves as required. At this point, some letters may not
appear filled in black in their small squares. This is only because the
outlines are not joined up somewhere. So you have to inspect each green
dot to see if it is really two green dots which are not joined. When you
find them, use <adjust> to move one over the other, just as in Artworks.
Clicking <menu> over the enlarged window for a letter will give you an
option called ‘Full Char’. This will give you an enlarged black picture
of the letter you have been working on.
8.2
By using <select> to make lines and <adjust> to move them, you can re-
design, mend and manipulate the letters as much as you like. For full
details, refer to the three Fonts Workshops articles in Archives 5.12,
6.1 and 6.2.
8.2
When you have altered all your letters to your satisfaction and arranged
their widths to suit, do not forget to type in a width for the square
marked ‘sp’ which sets the spaces between letters.
8.2
To do this, you double click on ‘sp’, then click <menu> in the large
blank square. select ‘width’ and move to the right, type in 400 (as a
start) and see how it looks. Later, you can try greater or lesser width
spaces, after trying out the font in your word processor or in Draw.
8.2
When you are satisfied with any alteration, click <menu> over the
background matrix and click ‘Save’.
8.2
To try out your new font, discard FontEd and drag the font file into
your usual Fonts collection. Once installed, any further editing using
!FontEd will take place automatically wherever you have put the file.
8.2
The results
8.2
This is Cutfont. It was put together in about an hour using the method
described. Capital letters and more careful spacing were done later.
8.2
THIS IS TOONFONT, DESIGNED IN DRAW, THE SAME WAY AS CUTFONT. IT WAS
DESIGNED BY MIKE FLANAGAN, THE CARTOONIST, TO GO IN THE BUBBLES OF HIS
CARTOON CHARACTERS.
8.2
This is a font called Wyke which took very much longer to design and is
meant to look like pen lettering.
8.2
Cutfont and Wyke are not commercially viable complete fonts but you may
try them out on this month’s program disc.
8.2
The Trace disc (which also contains D2Font) is obtainable from David
Pilling price £10 inclusive or through Archive at the same price.  A
8.2
Puzzle Corner
8.2
Colin Singleton
8.2
(In response to a request a few months ago, Colin has offered to provide
us with some more puzzles out of his huge repertoire. Ed.)
8.2
What I will try to do is to provide two puzzles each month. There will
be (small!) prizes for the first three correct entries for each puzzle
drawn out of the bag on the final date for entries which is Friday 11th
November. That gives you less than a month but it means I’ll be able to
publish the answers in the magazine that you will receive the week after
the deadline − that should keep the interest going, even if you weren’t
able to make an entry. I’ll give the names of prize winners in the
following issue. You will know you have won before then because you will
(if we’re efficient! Ed.) have received your prizes before then but we
feel you should get some public acclaim as well.
8.2
Anyway, here are the first two puzzles...
8.2
(1) This is 1994
8.2
You may have come across the ‘four fours’ problem in which you are asked
to find a way to form each positive integer from one. As far as you
could, each should be expressed using four fours with any standard
mathematical symbols.  For example, 76 = 4!/…•4 + 4Ú4. Some of the
expressions became very involved. (Let me try... 1 = 4*4 / 4 / 4  and  2
= 4*4 / (4+4)  and then 3 = (4+4+4) / 4.  That’s my limit! Ed.)
8.2
You will not need any obscure functions for this puzzle, the solution
can be given as a single expression in the Basic programming language,
or on one of the better scientific pocket calculators. All you have to
do is form the number 1994 as an expression using, not four fours, but
the digits 1 9 9 4 in that order with suitable mathematical symbols.
8.2
(2) Conversations
8.2
Alan, Bill, Chris, Dave, Eric and Fred have gone to their local hostelry
for a quiet drink or two. It is, of course, likely that they will engage
in conversation in groups. They might all form one group, or they might
split into smaller groups not necessarily the same size. Some, or all,
may remain alone, and presumably silent.
8.2
In how many different ways might the six friends form conversational
groups?
8.2
Feedback
8.2
If you have any comments or suggestions to do with Puzzle Corner, write
to me at 41 St Quentin Drive, Sheffield, S17 4PN but send your answers
to the puzzles to Paul at the Archive address by 11th November.  A
8.2
Help!!!!
8.2
•  Acorn shares − I have some money to go towards buying a Risc PC but
only about half of what I need. I’d like therefore to invest that money
in Acorn shares and then in 2-3 years time when the next generation of
amazing Acorn computers appears, I’ll be able to buy one as the shares
will have doubled in value − well, that’s the theory. The trouble is
that I live in France. Can anyone help me to buy them directly from a UK
broker as the procedure for doing that from France is far from easy?
Bernard Maugoust, 13/36 rue du Vercors, F.59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq,
France.
8.2
•  FaxPack wanted − I was half-way through setting up a FaxPack network
for a registered charity when Computer Concepts stopped making them!
Call Steve on 01483-502146 if you would be interested in selling me
yours.
8.2
•  Help with Acorns − Is there anybody within a 50 mile radius of Biggar
in Lanarkshire, who is conversant with Acorn machines and may be able to
lend a helping hand to me with the use of my system? My main uses are
with Impression and Artworks. Please contact Anna McCosh on 01899-20221
or fax [phone].
8.2
•  Internet access − We said last month we would soon have an e-mail
address. Unfortunately, I applied through BBC Networking Club who have
had problems with “a last minute contractual issue”. They hoped the
delay would be “only a matter of weeks” but they returned my
application.
8.2
In the meantime, David Dade of the Arcade Bulletin Board has come to the
rescue, at least temporarily. He has kindly given me an Internet mailbox
on Arcade, so if you want to send any e-mail, I am, for now,
[e-mail]. Many thanks, David.  Ed.
8.2
•  PC file formats − As a total stranger to the PC world, I am having
trouble examining images, sound samples, etc, using ChangeFSI,
Translator, AudioWorks etc. The problem is that I am never quite sure
what all those file types are that appear after the / in a DOS file
name. Is there a list that I can refer to? If not, is there someone who
can compile such a list and maybe we can have it published in Archive so
that I can refer to it. All I want is something along the line of WAV-
Sound Sample, BMP- Graphic file, so that I know which Acorn program to
try and load it into!  Paul Hooper, Norfolk.
8.2
I’m not sure if this is the sort of information that Simon Coulthurst as
Risc-DOS Column editor might want to collate, but then Jim Nottingham is
doing some work on the interchange of different file formats, so perhaps
he might want to do it. Well, just send in your ideas, comments, etc to
the Archive office and we’ll see who wants to deal with it! Ed.
8.2
•  Star NL10 graphics printing − Is anyone using a Star NL10 printer to
print desktop fonts and graphics? I am using an A5000 with RISC OS 3.1,
and the Acorn LX80 printer driver. Printing from Draw, the graphics
start printing at the bottom of a sheet and spill onto the next one.
Text in Impression doesn’t print at all unless I use a large point size,
and there are still problems in that there are gaps in the printing. Any
help would be appreciated. Contact J Fell, 26 Gladiator Green, Castle
Park, Dorchester DT1 2RW.
8.2
Help Offered
8.2
•  Subgrams − In answer to last month’s request for software that
generates subgrams, with Longman Logotron’s Pendown, there is a separate
application called !List which does the job using its 26,000 word
dictionary. (Charles Woodbridge, Huddersfield) Also, as pointed out by
many subscribers, PipeDream 4 has a similar facility built in.
8.2
Talking of anagrams, did you know that one anagram of “Norwich Computer
Services” is “Ever more succinct worship”! Any other offers? Ed.  A
8.2
SCSI Card Compatibility
8.2
Jim Nottingham
8.2
In Archive 7.12 p53, I invited readers to let me have details of their
SCSI cards and SCSI devices with a view to making the data available to
readers, hopefully to help future purchasers avoid problem areas. By
coincidence, and for the same reason, Keith Hodge asked for the same
data two pages later. He and I have pooled the responses and this
article is by way of an initial report. Anything in double-quotes is
cribbed straight from readers’ letters.
8.2
Some twenty readers have responded to date; sincere thanks to you all
for making the effort to send such detailed and helpful replies. That
said, there must be far more than twenty readers with SCSI systems, so
how about more replies folks? The more data for the database, the more
useful it will be. Only two of the SCSI interface manufacturers
responded to my letters so we are rather short of details there.
Fortunately, a couple of third-parties have come up with some very
valuable data; many thanks to David Pilling and Dave Webb (NCS).
8.2
The database
8.2
The information received to date is shown on the table (presentation
courtesy of TableMate 2). The data has been accepted ‘as is’ and is
given in good faith but, clearly, neither I nor the publishers of
Archive can accept any responsibility for its accuracy or use. Caveat
emptor and all that. If anyone spots errors, please do let me have
details. If and when further data becomes available, this will be added
and the survey re-issued as appropriate.
8.2
In the body of the table, a single or multiple tick indicates one or
more reader-reports of successful operation of the SCSI device when
connected to the listed interface. Similarly, a cross indicates a
reported incompatibility. Where an asterisk is added, this indicates a
‘grey area’ where, typically, success was achieved only after one or
more problems were ironed out. Unfortunately, these details are far too
extensive to include in this survey but, should anyone be considering
moving into a combination of card/device with an asterisk against it,
and would like to receive details of the relevant reader-report, please
drop me a line with a stamped, addressed envelope and you shall have a
photocopy by return. The same goes for any other information with which
I may be able to help.
8.2
The model of host computer used does not appear to have any bearing on
compatibility so details are not included. However, it should be borne
in mind that, when converting to a Risc PC for example, it may be
advisable or even essential to have your SCSI interface upgraded to take
advantage of latest improvements. Generally, this will involve buying an
upgrade kit and often entails swapping a ROM on the SCSI card.
8.2
The SCSI cards
8.2
The table lists all known SCSI interface cards for Acorn computers,
although one grey area is whether some of the cards are still available.
For example, it is known that supplies of the State Machine Eco card are
almost exhausted and will not be resurrected. The Cumana SCSI II card is
a recent entrant and I’m not sure about availability. Castle Technology
have recently taken over the marketing and support of the Lindis/
Lingenuity SCSI cards and up-to-date software is available for all
versions of the interface.  They plan to release a new 8/16-bit card at
Acorn World 94.
8.2
Hardware and software version numbers are the most recent reported.
There seems to be near-equality in the version of CDFS used on the
various interfaces. The reason for this is that the software is included
under licence from Acorn.
8.2
With the exception of the Atomwide and State Machine Eco cards, all
interfaces have a socket on the card for an internal device and a second
socket on the rear panel for connection of external SCSI device(s).
There is only one reported limitation on choice of podule slot; in the
Risc PC, the Morley cards should be inserted in Slot 1. Following
installation, the Morley and Oak cards have to be configured so they
know which slot they are in, which devices are attached, and so on; this
also applies if you move the card from one slot to another.
8.2
Both variants of the externally-mounted Atomwide SCSI interface (with
and without printer socket) plug into the bi-directional printer port of
A5000s and the Risc PC and have a single socket for SCSI devices. They
are compatible with Computer Concepts’ TurboDrivers and the dreaded
dongles.
8.2
The State Machine Eco card is a most interesting option. It is a small
module which plugs into the Econet socket of the A300/A400/A540/A3000/
A5000 computers (for safety’s sake, early A3000 owners are advised to
have it fitted by a dealer − something to do with the unprotected power
supply). The card has a single 50-pin edge-connector for an internal
SCSI device, although it would be possible to take a flying lead through
the computer case for connecting devices externally. Apart from the
advantage of not taking up a podule slot, it appears the card is
remarkably compatible with all manner of devices including CD-ROMs and
scanners. The card is actually stamped ‘Floptical Interface’. Software
comes on disc and there has been mention of running CDFS with Kodak
PhotoCD support. Another great advantage is the cost − £35 + VAT!
Unfortunately, supplies are running out so you may need to get in quick.
8.2
Hard disc drives
8.2
Maximum free memory on storage devices, including hard discs, is usually
5-9% less than the nominal capacity of the device. The data listed in
the table under ‘Capacity’ gives an indication of the lower figure,
where known. There is some confusion over the Rodime drive model numbers
and capacity so, if you move into that area, do double-check you are
getting what you want.
8.2
Apart from the two tabulated incompatibilities with the Quantum 105S
drive, there were no reported problems in getting hard disc drives to
work reliably, whether mounted internally or externally. There were two
reports of drive failure, both Quantum, model(s) not known.
8.2
Use of fan quieteners was questioned in relation to whether hard disc
drives were put at risk of overheating. Two readers commented that
fitting a fan quietener had little beneficial effect as it turned out
the drive was noisier than the fan!
8.2
Cartridge drives
8.2
The flexibility and potentially unlimited capacity of removable
cartridge drives is making them increasingly popular. There was only one
reported difficulty in getting a drive to run (a duff drive, replaced by
NCS). Over a year ago, Oak said their card was not recommended for
SyQuest drives but I’m not sure if this is still the case.
8.2
Most drive owners reported that, unless a cartridge is inserted and
running in the Syquest drive when the computer is shut down (*Shutdown
or <shift-ctrl-f12>), the computer will hang up with error messages
depending on the SCSI interface. Two readers readily admitted that,
because of this shortfall, they no longer shut down their computers in
the approved manner. Does anyone have any advice on this problem? Is
this OK or detrimental to the health of hard discs? The Acorn card
throws up an error message but will allow shutdown.
8.2
Floptical drives
8.2
Although three readers reported successful operation of floptical
drives, there were quite a few problems to be resolved and, with
questions being asked about follow-up support, it seems to be a dodgy
area. “...(Installing a floptical) was probably a mistake. I should have
saved up for a Syquest drive for backing-up purposes”.
8.2
Tape streamers
8.2
There was only one reported use and there were problems with tape
capacity and in setting it up. “This will soon be replaced with a
removable ... drive”, so he can’t be too happy with it.
8.2
CD-ROM drives
8.2
There were few significant problems setting up CD-ROM drives. The Sony
CDU-8003A is actually an Apple (who?) CD300 and needs a patch, available
from Acorn dealers including NCS.
8.2
As reported recently in Products Available (7.10 p4), Morley supply a
special driver to use multisession PhotoCD with the Toshiba drives. This
is now supplied with Morley cards but is also available as an upgrade on
disc for other interfaces and earlier Morley cards.
8.2
I had a problem recently when running audio CDs in a Toshiba drive
connected to a Morley cached card (intermittent stopping). If you get
this problem, contact Morley who have a replacement chip available. Two
readers with Morley cards mentioned their computers crashed if they
clicked on a CD-drive icon and there was no disc in the drive (the Acorn
card gives a ‘Drive empty’ error).
8.2
Scanners
8.2
This is a fast-moving area with falling prices and increasing
availability of potentially suitable scanners. However, there are
numerous reports of certain units being “picky” as to which interfaces
they will run from, or otherwise being less than stable.
8.2
Irlam recommend the Morley cards for the Epson scanners. The Acorn card
will also run the Model 8000 and − with tweaking − can be made to run
the 6500, but this is not advisable. Reportedly, the Hewlett-Packard
scanners are not reliable on the Morley cards (“it ... seems an
intermittent problem − if you switch the system on and off enough times,
then eventually it works”). Integrex recommend only the Cumana card for
their CS300 while the Aries Relisys scanners from Watford Electronics
will operate only with the Cumana SCSI II interface.
8.2
Installation
8.2
One brave soul successfully converted an external device to internal use
by removing the gubbins and installing it in a Risc PC. The only
problems reported were finding the power cable (hidden under the floppy
drive), getting a suitable data cable and, as the device finished up
without terminators, having to make sure it was in the middle of the
SCSI daisy-chain. I’m not sure I would want to ‘Risc’ doing this −
wouldn’t the device/computer warranties be affected?
8.2
Connections
8.2
Tying everything together seems to cause no end of problems and
confusion, mainly due to there being little standardisation of
connectors and, sometimes, inappropriate names being used to identify
them.
8.2
All internal interfaces have an oblong, 50-pin, edge-connector plug
mounted on the card itself, normally used for connecting an internal
device, commonly by a ribbon cable terminated by a 50-pin header socket.
(The term ‘IDC’ − insulation displacement connector − is often used but,
strictly speaking, this refers to the method used to fix ribbon cable to
the plug or socket, a clever crimping tool being used to avoid having to
solder individual connections.)
8.2
External connectors can be one of three types; a 50-pin edge-connector
as described above, a 25-pin D-type socket or a 50-pin Centronics socket
(rather like a printer socket but bigger − called ‘Amphenol’ by NCS).
There is an odd man out − the HCCS Ultimate micropodule has a
proprietary connector but I understand is supplied with an adaptor lead
with a Centronics plug attached.
8.2
External boxes or devices will have a connector which can be any of the
three main types mentioned above, although Centronics is probably the
most common these days. Many external devices will have two sockets,
allowing for easy connection in the middle of a SCSI daisy-chain. The
actual cables for external connection are normally of two types; a 25/
50-way ribbon cable, usually with IDC connections, or a heavy-duty 1cm
diameter screened cable. Clearly, with this range of different
connectors and cables, you could easily finish up with the wrong type.
NCS and others can supply cables to suit but more than one reader
reported having to have a ‘special’ made up or resorted to DIY.
8.2
Device ident & termination
8.2
There seems to be considerable confusion about device identification and
termination. This is not altogether surprising as, in my view, interface
and device manufacturers make the whole thing unnecessarily complex,
whilst user-guides are often over-technical with sloppy editing. The
outcome is that many people reported problems, not all of which were
sorted out by the suppliers. Some admit to simply ignoring things like
correct termination (“If it works, why fix it?”).
8.2
Make no mistake, if you do not correctly terminate your SCSI system, you
run the risk of corrupting data or even damaging your SCSI card and
devices (I’ve seen two cards ‘blown’ on PCs). The subject is outside the
scope of this survey but Dave Webb at NCS has sent me a copy of a very
well-written and informative guide they send to customers which would
form the basis of a good Archive article.
8.2
(OK, I’ll see if we can get it out as an article next month. Ed.)
8.2
Sales Support
8.2
Where readers had hit problems before or after purchase and required
assistance, the standard of support varied widely. Cumana, Integrex,
Irlam and Technology Matrix all attracted pleasing comments, with
especial praise for both Morley and NCS (“exemplary ... service ...
customer support”). HCCS had very mixed reviews, ranging from “excellent
support” (Archive 8.1 p40) to being severely criticised by two readers
(“HCCS basically didn’t want to know”).
8.2
The bottom line
8.2
Anyone reading this survey from cold may form the view that SCSI systems
are difficult to master, fraught with problems and should be avoided.
This is not intended; there are lots of ticks on the table and every one
represents a successful, ‘plug in and go’ situation. However, anyone
setting up a SCSI arrangement should anticipate that there may be
problems and, hopefully, this survey will help you avoid at least some
of them.
8.2
One recurrent theme in readers’ letters is that, where problems do
occur, you should not hesitate to ask for help. The best places to go
will be the SCSI interface manufacturers (generally) or, perhaps better
still, deal with a reputable supplier. Here are a selection of
unsolicited comments:
8.2
“Very few SCSI setup problems can’t be solved.”
8.2
“As one would expect, (NCS) eventually got everything sorted out OK − at
no time was I worried that I would be left with a scanner that would not
work.”
8.2
“I would strongly recommend that anyone contemplating buying SCSI
equipment do so through a reputable Acorn dealer and describe clearly
what set up they are trying to achieve. If I’d tried to do it myself, I
could easily have ended up with two devices that had the same SCSI
number, or had problems with setting up the connections.”
8.2
Please do send me further reports which I will add to the database and
make available on request. And don’t hesitate to ask for more
information (usual rules: no SAE = no reply). Jim Nottingham, 16
Westfield Close, Pocklington, York, YO4 2EY.  A
8.2
Text continues on page 62...
8.2
Hints and Tips
8.2
•  A3000 bulging case − My early A3000 had, from the start, a standard
Acorn monitor stand upon which was a AKF17 monitor. Of late, I found the
upper case section, on the left hand side by the power supply, had
started to bulge out from the bottom section. This was caused by the
weight of the monitor supported by the Acorn stand only on the extreme
edges of the case.
8.2
In my job as IT Technician at school, I had noticed (having removed
countless covers for various reasons) there have been two upgrades to
the cases, and one of the upgrades had special strengthening and
interlocking around this area, no doubt with this in mind. The latest,
Mk 3 version is available as an Acorn spare part. The base of the new
case requires a lot of work in removing the PCB and any upgrades, and
the power supply design has changed making the changeover awkward.
However the new case lid will fit onto the old base and this alone
offers enough strength to cure the problem.  K R Coton, Solihull.
8.2
•  Disabling POST test (and other useful ‘bits’) − One of our customers
found that because the POST (Power On Self Test, or the software that
makes the screen flash pretty colours at switch on and flashes the
floppy light at you when things go wrong), had been partly disabled,
meaning that his SCSI drive was not given sufficient time to get ready
before the SCSI card demanded its attention. Some people may have
disabled this after installing certain versions of the VIDC enhancer.
The POST will always be reactivated by a delete-power on, but there is a
more subtle way of switching it on or off. Byte 188 (&BC) of the CMOS
RAM contains 8 bits which affect various miscellaneous configuration
options.
8.2
  Bits 0-1  ROMFS Opt 4 state
8.2
  Bit 2  cache icon enable state
8.2
  Bit 3-5  screen blanker time: 0=off, 1=30s, 2=1min, 3=2min, 4=5min,
5=10min, 6=15min, 7=30min.
8.2
  Bit 6  screen blanker/Wrch interaction: 0=ignore Wrch,
8.2
    1=Wrch unblanks screen
8.2
  Bit 7  hardware (POST) test disable: 0=full tests, 1=disable long
tests at power-up.
8.2
RISC OS 3 PRM, 1-358, Acorn Computers Ltd.
8.2
The program disc contains a simple program for altering the state of any
of these bits.  David Webb, NCS.
8.2
•  Inkjet printers and paper quality − A number of items have appeared
here and elsewhere on how to realise to the full the potential quality
of printouts with ink-jet printers. At 300 dpi, one would think it ought
to be indistinguishable from the output from a laser printer with the
same resolution.
8.2
Why is there a problem? All papers are made from fibres, matted
together; thus, if you put a drop of liquid onto a piece of paper, the
fluid will flow between these fibres, carrying with it any dye or
colourant: hence the fuzzy edges of the output from inkjet printers with
unsuitable papers. Coating the paper can eliminate the problem, but at a
substantial cost. However, with careful design of the paper making
process, it is possible to minimise (though not eliminate) this
‘bleeding’.
8.2
I wrote to Hewlett Packard and asked for their recommendations They came
up with two types of paper and their suppliers. I got some samples, and
both were very good but, by a small margin, ‘Versoix Copy’ seemed to me
the better (and cheaper). The other, ‘Reyjet’, is close behind and both
are streets ahead of most ordinary photocopier paper. Neither is very
expensive (about £3.00 per ream for Vesiox and £5.50 for Reyjet) but
neither are very readily available. If you write to the distributors,
they will send you samples and the name of your nearest stockist.
8.2
Versoix Copy − Darent Paper Agencies, Wandle House, Riverside Drive,
Mitcham, Surrey, CR4 4SU. (0181-640-4102)
8.2
Reyjet − Denian Paper Ltd, Unit D2, West Mill, Imperial Business Estate.
Gravesend, Kent, DA11 0DL. (01474-569919)  Barry Humpidge.
8.2
•  Irregular text frames in Publisher − In response to one of Keith
Parker’s wish-it-did-that moans in the Comment Column (8.1 p31), I would
suggest that whilst irregular text frames would be nice, the use of a
regular frame “framed” by a couple of repelling irregular graphics
frames (drag an empty drawfile into blank frames) does the job, with a
little fiddling.  John McCartney.
8.2
•  Large banners in Impression − To create a six foot long banner, or
similar, using Impression, create a new master page, “Banner”, width
72“, depth 8”, Landscape, margins 0.5 with one column. Quit the master
pages and alter the chapter of the document, selecting “Banner” as the
master page. Change the font size to around 400 point and centre the
text. Type the banner message. Print out on tractor fed continuous paper
(sideways!). Vector offers some useful banners ready made, or you can
use Impression’s Borders in ‘Alter Frame’, to enhance the finished
article.  Irene Quinn, Thetford, Norfolk.
8.2
•  Laser Direct on the Risc PC − If you are upgrading to a Risc PC and
have an elderly Laser Direct card, it will not work if it is “Issue one”
(the computer will not initialise after the board has been plugged into
one of the expansion slots). This type can be quickly identified by the
fact that it is the only version where there is a ribbon cable
connecting the circuit board to the printer output socket. Computer
Concepts will exchange this type of board for the latest version for
£100. You will probably also need a copy of the most recent version
(2.63) of the printer driver disc at £10.  David Smith, Edinburgh.
8.2
•  More Sleuths on the case − If you are lucky enough to have lots of
memory on your machine you can run two or more copies of Sleuth at the
same time, so that if you are OCRing several pages of text, the rate of
OCRing can be considerably increased. On a simple test run, two copies
running saved 36% on the time taken and three copies saved nearly 50% on
the time! It then occurred to me that using more than one copy might be
infringing the software licence, but on checking with Risc Developments,
I was assured that this was not the case.  Philip Foster, Cambridge.
8.2
•  Turbo charging draft printing with a Deskjet printer − What I didn’t
realise, until I tried it by accident, was that the ‘Draft’ button on
the printer worked with graphic (e.g. output from Impression), as well
as ‘straight’ printing. Thus, with your printer driver set to 150 dpi,
and the ‘draft’ light on, you can produce readable copies for proof
reading in virtually no time at all!  Barry Humpidge.
8.2
•  Turbo Driver v4 and Dongles − If you are using CC’s Turbo Driver v4
on a computer with a bi-directional parallel port, via a dongle, the
status signals don’t get through. This includes signals, such as “paper
out” and “printer offline” etc. If the driver software is looking for
these signals you may find that printing is blocked. To bypass the
problem call up the configuration dialogue box and configure to ignore
status signals.  Nick Harris, Norwich.  A
8.2
Tudor Monarchs & Tudor Clipart
8.2
Ed Archer
8.2
Tudor Monarchs is produced by Angelsoft Educational and contains a set
of three discs, thirteen worksheets and two manuals. The reason for the
three disc set is that Tudor Monarchs is basically an electronic book
which is run from the first disc containing a Magpie reader. This is a
sound idea in so far as it encourages both teachers and pupils to make
up their own electronic book. The way in which Magpie can be used is
well described in both manuals.
8.2
The first disc could have had more pages in it − this is a criticism I
would apply to all the discs, in that there was too much free space. I
thought the content was reasonable although there were several notable
historical inaccuracies e.g. Germany and Italy did not exist as
countries. Some of the pictures were poor, e.g. the view of the Star
Chamber was rather dark. On the plus side, the pop up pages were a very
good idea.
8.2
The second disc had some good sections such as the introduction to the
reign of Edward VI and I found the picture of the stake a moving touch
in relation to the religious persecutions in the reign of Mary Tudor.
The text could have been more informative, especially in the Drama
section. More use could have been made of Tudor music.
8.2
The worksheets were disappointing on two counts. First of all, there
were no illustrations and, in my opinion, these are vital to hold a
child’s interest. Also, the questions should have been framed in the
context of the 5-14 curriculum. This is of great importance to teachers
and needs to be addressed.
8.2
Tudor Clipart − Again, there seemed to be a great deal of wasted disc
space in the set of four discs. This amounted to more than one disc, and
I also felt that the clipart could have been compressed.
8.2
The manual was very useful and the tips regarding conversion from Draw
to Paint were very useful. It was very much to the point and was very
user friendly.
8.2
The actual contents of the discs was variable. In particular, on Disc 1,
I liked the portrait of Henry VIII but I did think that more care could
have been taken with the alignment of the pictures as several were off
the paper limits. I was especially impressed by the coat of arms and the
family tree on Disc 2 and the heads would be useful for the production
of worksheets.
8.2
Disc 3 of the clipart set was a mixed bag. The map of Wales was
excellent but more detail and explanation would have been very useful
for both the Flodden map and the Armada map. The ships on the disc were
of variable quality, although the one of the Golden Hind was very good.
8.2
Disc 4 also had its good and bad points. First of all, I did not know
they had rifles in Tudor Britain! The bibles were rather disappointing
and looked distinctly 20th century. The buildings and the country life
sections were the best ones on this disc.
8.2
My general view of the packages is that they represent a lot of hard
work but they do need some revision before I would give them an
unequivocal recommendation.
8.2
Tudor Monarchs costs £20 +VAT and includes a site licence. Tudor clipart
costs £15 +VAT but if you purchase both together, the cost will be £30
+VAT from Angelsoft.  A
8.2
PD on CD
8.2
Paul Hooper & Tony Stevens
8.2
(Ooops! I seem to have ended up with two reviews of the same product.
I’ll try to shuffle the two into one and, hopefully, end up with
something that reflects the views of both rather than the views of
neither! Ed.)
8.2
Paul Hooper starts...
8.2
As a frequent user of PD libraries, I have found that they are, like the
proverbial curate’s egg, good in parts. Certainly, there are many PD
programs on my hard disc that I would not be without and I have many
floppy discs filled with music, clipart, animations and other things
that may come in useful one day. The trouble is that, along with many
gems, there is an awful lot of PD that I would not give disc-room.
8.2
Now couple this with the huge storage capacity of a CD and it is a
classic recipe for a lot of ‘Shovelware’. So how does this offering
measure up?
8.2
PDCD One from Datafile
8.2
The CD contains about 250Mb of data for a total cost of £30. Now if you
work on the assumption that most PD discs cost £1 a piece, the CD
contains about £320 of software. Yet how much of this would you have
bought? Well, I thought I would go through my own collection of PD
material and see how much of it was now duplicated on the CD. I soon
worked out that, taking into account the clipart, I had well over 40Mb
of this material on a mixture of floppy and hard disc, so the thought of
freeing up all this storage space quite appealed to me. Also, that
amount of material has cost me well over £50 when it was bought on
floppy disc.
8.2
Warning
8.2
I then set out to explore more of the disc and, with my six year old
daughter, I went through all the sillies and much of the clipart. When I
opened the box, I had noticed a small slip of paper saying that some of
the JPEG files were ‘unsuitable for children’ and I steered well clear
of these until she was in bed. I’m glad I did, because there were a
number of fantasy horror style pictures and also some images that belong
on the top shelf of a newsagents. Is it really necessary to include
files like this on a CD? The problem is that, being a read-only medium,
it is impossible to remove them.
8.2
The rest
8.2
Much of the rest is very good material although a number of the games
and utilities failed to work on my A5000 and how compatible these sort
of things are with the Risc PC is open to question. As David Holden said
in the PD Column last month, this looks like a CD that was put together
in a hurry − many of the utilities are quite old versions.
8.2
Tony gives a much more detailed breakdown of the contents, so over to
him...
8.2
(Tony was using a Risc PC and had problems with quite a bit of the CD
not running properly. The Datafile are aware of these problems but the
CD was produced before they managed to get hold of a machine on which to
test the software. However, they are producing a module which will solve
90%+ of the problems. If you have already bought the CD and want a copy
of the module, drop the Datafile a line and they will send you a copy as
soon as it is ready. Ed.)
8.2
Getting started
8.2
Clicking on the CD icon opens a window containing an application called
!Database and fourteen directories; Animation; Clipart; Demos; Fractals;
Games; GamesDemos; Graphics; Languages; Magazines; Music; Raytracers;
Schools; Sillies and Utilities.
8.2
The Database application is a text reader for a comprehensive index of
the contents of the disc. Interactive help is available and should be
used to get the best from the application.
8.2
The Animations directory includes a copy of !Projector which shows files
from the Euclid package. The 26 animations all work and the quality is
high and the variety good.
8.2
The clipart directory contains a wide variety of items in both drawfile
and sprite format but as is usual with these large collections, there is
a wide variation in the quality. Some of it is frankly rubbish,
particularly among the collection of sprites, and I wish the PD
libraries would weed some of this out. There is also a lot of
duplication with several directories in the collection containing a
significant number of the same clips. A little more attention at the
editorial stage would have been sensible. Even so, this is an enormous
collection and the bad is more than adequately balanced by the good;
some very good indeed. Your own perception of the clips on offer is
going to be coloured by your particular needs, but the quantity ensures
that there must be something here for you.
8.2
There are 72 Demos in the collection but since the majority do not work
with the Risc PC I can make no useful comment.
8.2
The Fractals programs are all good examples of their type but at least
one locked up the machine when I attempted to exit to the desktop. You
won’t be able to resist browsing and PD programs are notorious for poor
programming disciplines, so take a tip from me and temporarily disable
your auto-boot sequence, it makes the re-entry process less painful.
8.2
There are 72 games and 24 games demos, certainly enough to cause brain
death. Despite being warned that they do not work on the Risc PC, I
tried a few and some do work.
8.2
The graphics samples are supplied in GIF and JPEG formats. Don’t panic
if you do not have a loader, suitable programs are available from the
Utilities directory on the same disc. There are 306 separate graphics
samples on a wide variety of subjects and with a few exceptions, they
reproduce with an acceptable quality level.
8.2
For the programmer, there is a selection of eleven different program
languages, including Forth and a version of C.
8.2
Next comes a selection of four disc-based magazines. I could not check
these because some do not take kindly to the Risc PC.
8.2
The music collection consists of Coconizer with 22 tunes, SoundTracker
modules with 77 tunes and Symphony with 220 tunes. Coconizer would not
run on the wonder machine but SoundTracker and Symphony did. There are
plenty of tunes although the soundtracker songs are all very similar,
percussive and suitable for fourteen year olds writing yet another super
demo. The Symphony tracks, although born of the same family are
altogether more professional with good quality sound samples and a
smooth playing style which suggests some formal musical training
somewhere in the loop. Computer music fans will not be disappointed with
this section.
8.2
The next group of goodies are four Ray Tracing applications. I have not
tested any of these but I am sure they all work. At least one seems to
work on the Risc PC.
8.2
The Schools section consists of 36 programs, all useful, with plenty of
variety including chemistry; maths (including graphs); languages
(English, French and Chinese!); a typing tutor; telling the time; two
and four stroke engine simulations; educational games such as Scrabble;
and some quizzes. Some of the programs are suitable for primary
education.
8.2
The Sillies section has over seventy programs including classics such as
Loco Brolly and Deskduck. Some are amusing, some irritating and some
downright infuriating. Have you ever felt violent when the Silly won’t
go away? Well don’t worry, if the desktop duck gets out of hand you even
have a program to shoot it.
8.2
For many people, the Utilities section will be the highlight of this CD.
There are over two hundred and eighty different utilities including a
spreadsheet, a number of databases including Superbase, text editors,
file and graphics handlers, font tools and comms utilities. It would be
pointless to try to list all of the features but, in addition to the
utilitarian, there are a number which provide information which is
either useful or of educational value. One such is the Gutenburg
Project, the purpose of which is to encourage the creation and
distribution of English language electronic texts. The sample included
on this disc contains no fewer than nineteen full length books including
the Bible, two of H.G.Wells books, the Alice books and the CIA World
Factbook.
8.2
Conclusion
8.2
Is it worth the £30 asking price? I think that depends on your level of
experience and what you have already accumulated in the way of PD
software. There is a tremendous range of programs on this CD and even
though I have some top class dedicated programs, I have found a
significant number of interesting and useful items which I am looking
forward to exploring in some depth. You won’t browse the contents of
this disc in one day.
8.2
Despite my own satisfaction, I cannot recommend this product
unreservedly to Risc PC owners, there are too many items which do not
work and, among those which do, a significant amount of duplication.
(But remember that this has been improved since Tony first looked at
this CD.)
8.2
If you do not use a Risc PC but already have a significant amount of PD,
you will need to examine the contents of the disc before committing
yourself. On balance, I feel you will not be disappointed.
8.2
The real benefit is to those of you who are relatively new to the Acorn
world or have a strictly limited budget. If that is the case, this CD
will provide competent programs in almost every important area of
computing activity.  A
8.2
Badge Here
8.2
Trevor!!
8.2
Continued from inside front cover...
8.2
P.B.
8.2
According to Theory B, the chances are that you are being affected by a
disease of the heart called ‘pride’ which affects a human being’s
judgement. “Are you trying to tell me that for all the xxx years I have
lived on this earth I have been wrong in my view of God?” Well, yes,
possibly.
8.2
Tell me, are you open enough in your thinking to investigate a new (old)
Theory? “No thanks, I don’t want to end up a religious nutcase like you,
Paul.” You see, you are at it again. You’re not approaching this coldly
and clinically and logically. You’re saying, “I’m not going to look into
this because I don’t like the implications. If I came to believe in
Theory B, I’d be an object of ridicule in my family and at work.”
8.2
Are you really prepared to examine the evidence for Theory B? Are you
really prepared to face up to the implications that follow if you do
come to the conclusion that the evidence is very strong that, for
example, Jesus did rise from the dead? Well, I tell you, all over the
UK, thousands of people are looking into it by going on these Alpha
courses, and thousands of people are saying that their lives have been
transformed by God in a wonderful way. I have seen my own 49-year-old
cousin change in a most wonderful way recently − he has such a peace and
a new joy − it’s just brilliant to see!
8.2
“Huh! It’s getting worse! More religious mumbo-jumbo. They’re obviously
being brain-washed! Silly people! I wouldn’t fall for that.” Well, all I
can say is that, if it is brain-washing, it must be very clever brain-
washing because the people becoming Christians are taking their friends
on the next course − and they are going along because they can see that
something has happened to their friend and they want to know what it is.
8.2
“This is getting ridiculous! The God-slot is getting longer and longer.
Religion is taking over the Archive magazine − and I paid good money for
it.” Sorry about that but I’ll give you a pro-rata refund for the
missing technical information or a refund if you want to cancel your
subscription in disgust. But if Theory B IS correct then it is THE most
important thing for EVERYONE to find out about. Why not check it out?
You’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain!
8.2
ARM Programming − Part 5
8.2
James Riden
8.2
Sometimes, a particular project, such as a demo or game, will require a
large amount of graphics. The sprites may take up a lot of space on disc
and the time taken to load them can become irritating. This month, we
are going to look at a solution to this problem in the shape of data
compression.
8.2
The easiest algorithm is known as ‘run length encoding’. It makes use of
the fact that a lot of data in sprite files is repeated again and again.
For example, if you saved your desktop screen with Paint, there would
probably be many uninterrupted rows of grey background. Assume for the
moment that we are using a 256 colour mode. Stored in a sprite file, a
row of 100 grey pixels would take up 100 bytes. However, if this were
stored as a value representing the grey colour and another value to
indicate the number of pixels in the sequence, this could then be stored
in two bytes.
8.2
Sadly, in real life things are not quite that simple. If we tried to
compress a screen using this method, and no two adjacent pixels were the
same, we would need two bytes to store each pixel − one for the colour
and one more to tell us that there is only one pixel in this sequence.
So we would make the file double its original size.
8.2
A good solution is to store sequences as either ‘different’ sequences or
‘same’ sequences. If three or more bytes are the same, we can gain by
encoding the sequence (because it will take only two bytes to store).
Therefore we store the following:
8.2
same flag [1 bit]
8.2
number of same bytes [7 bits]
8.2
value of bytes [8 bits]
8.2
This still only takes up two bytes but we can only use it for sequences
for up to 127 repeated bytes since we need one bit as a flag. Now if we
have a ‘different’ sequence, we can store the number of different bytes
following and not waste space on the frequency of each individual byte.
For example, to store the sequence 124,56,78,55,1,45 we scan through
until we have got to the end of the ‘different’ sequence and then output
:
8.2
different flag [1 bit]
8.2
number of different bytes [7 bits]
8.2
first byte, second byte, third byte, etc.
8.2
 [8 bits each]
8.2
So, in this case, we would store 6,124,56,78,55,1,45.
8.2
We are therefore able to store dissimilar sequences fairly efficiently.
Now we need to write down a “recipe” for our routine and then implement
it. Note that, in practice, a ‘different’ sequence is terminated when we
find a ‘same’ sequence. I am assuming that the flag is kept in the byte
used for frequency.
8.2
load two bytes
8.2
if they are different then
8.2
  carry on loading bytes until we find three
8.2
 or more similar in a row or we
8.2
 finish the input data
8.2
  store the ‘different’ flag
8.2
  store the number of different bytes
8.2
  store the sequence we have just scanned
8.2
endif
8.2
if they are the same then
8.2
  carry on loading bytes until we find a
8.2
 dissimilar byte
8.2
  store the ‘same’ flag
8.2
  store the number of same bytes
8.2
  store the value of the same bytes
8.2
endif
8.2
To restore the compressed file is much easier. We need to go through the
data and either load once and store many times or load and store many
times.
8.2
load a byte
8.2
if the ‘different’ flag is set then
8.2
  initialise counter with the number of
8.2
 different bytes
8.2
  load a byte and store it
8.2
  decrement counter and loop if necessary
8.2
endif
8.2
if the ‘same’ flag is set then
8.2
  load byte containing value of same bytes
8.2
  initialise counter with the frequency of
8.2
 same bytes
8.2
  store the value of the same bytes
8.2
  decrement counter and loop
8.2
To implement this, we need to decide what is to be done about sequences
of more than 127 bytes. Either we can terminate the sequence at 127 or
we can scan how many there are and then break the total down in 127 byte
blocks. To a store sequence of 300 bytes of value 34 we can store
[127,34,127, 34,46,34] which is still a very effective compression
ratio.
8.2
At each load, you need to check that you haven’t run out of data. If you
are compressing a mode 12 or a mode 13 screen then remember that they
are 81920 bytes long and you need to stop and output the current
sequence when you get to the end.
8.2
Try it and see how you get on. A copy of my program is on the monthly
disc in case you need to look at it. If you have any suggestions for
future articles, perhaps you would leave a message with Paul at the
Archive office.  A
8.2
Squirrel 2 Update
8.2
Tim Nicholson
8.2
In Archive 7.5 p67, I reviewed version 2.00 of Squirrel, and concluded
that, although the program had promise, it contained a number of bugs,
some quite serious, which severely limited the benefit of upgrading from
version 1.xx. I promised to report on the progress of version 2 as
Digital Services sought to iron out the problems. I had hoped to be able
to do so sooner but unfortunately development took longer than expected.
8.2
Now and then
8.2
At the end of 1993, an intermediate version 2.03 was released which was
claimed to fix the reported problems. However, apart from fixing the
serious problem which prevented use of the compression option, and one
or two minor tweaks, the problems reported in the earlier review were
still present. Some had altered slightly in their effect, but they still
prevented correct operation of some facilities. I sent Digital Services
a list of the problems that I had found still to be present, together
with sample files which demonstrated the faults. I requested them to
suggest solutions or workarounds until the problems had been fixed.
Although the reply I received did not answer my specific points, it
sounded hopeful, and I quote, “I have reported the problems you have
encountered and you should find these fixed shortly... ...May I suggest
you contact us in four weeks or so to request a new version.”
Unfortunately, this time scale proved to be wishful thinking and
eventually, after several phone calls, I received a copy of 2.07 in
June.
8.2
As I worked my way through the new version, I discovered that although
many problems had been attended to, a number of areas where I had
reported difficulties appeared unchanged. I again wrote to Digital
Services pointing this out, and again requested help on the particular
items which were outstanding. Their reply this time was less
encouraging, and I quote, “We will investigate the problems reported and
the result of this should appear in the next release. We do not have a
date for this release currently, but I can inform you that it is not
imminent.” Once again no comment was made on the items for which I had
specifically requested help. I therefore proceeded to prepare my update
article on the basis of version 2.07 and the information, or lack of it,
I received from Digital Services. As I did so I came across another
“feature” of Squirrel which I had not previously been aware of, and
which caused me to become even more disenchanted with the support I had
received. This was reflected in that article, which Digital Services
felt was unrepresentative. However, it did serve to make them respond to
the particular issues I had raised, and produce version 2.08 rather more
quickly than they might otherwise have done! The following comments then
are based upon my look at 2.07 amended where necessary by changes in
2.08 and the responses I eventually received from Digital Services.
8.2
The acid test
8.2
A number of interrelated problems were to do with the new List mode
feature and, frankly, as it had stood, it was unusable. I was delighted
to find that all the problems I had encountered had gone. Sorting worked
on the selected field, switching between Card mode and List mode could
be done with impunity, and although GOTO was still not on the List mode
menu, it could be engaged with the <f5> ‘hot-key’ shortcut. The toolbar
buttons also correctly mimicked the Page Up/Page Down buttons. In short,
this section now worked properly and could be used fully, I was
delighted.
8.2
I moved on to look at default entry. This had not worked correctly for
date fields and could cause error messages, the problem is now resolved
in 2.08.
8.2
I turned my attention to Batch updating. I had had problems with date
fields when trying to batch update an age field. Once again, there was
still a problem, albeit minor. A batch updated age field which was
specified as a numeric type insisted on displaying an age in the form
AA/00/00, although this only occurred when in the Batch Query view. When
looked at normally, the display was thankfully correct − according to
Digital Services, this problem will occur if the type of a field is
altered whilst a Query window using that field is also open. The Query
reflects the old field type and not the new one. This situation is
easily avoided, and I had got into it because I had expected the AGE
function to return a full days/months/years result. However, since
calculated fields are always numeric, the returned result is only the
years part of the answer. This rather limits the usefulness of the
function. Other calculations involving dates produce results as a number
of days which is accurate if not easily interpreted without further
massaging.
8.2
Next I looked at the Graphing mode where I had encountered a problem
with the count function. This is designed to produce plots of sizes of
groups by counting the number of records where a field matches a
particular parameter e.g. age. I had a simple pie chart to plot the
number of people in each age range against that age. Instead of getting
one group of size X for those of age N, I sometimes ended up with X
entries of people aged N each with a size of one. According to Digital
Services, this behaviour is because the sort order affects the grouping
in the graph, but I could find no mention of this in the manual, which
is at great pains to point out this feature in relation to nesting
within reports. I hope it might find a mention in the errata file which
is supplied with upgrades, and which has been added to significantly in
this latest release. Indeed it now includes a warning about the
potential problems of merging mismatched tables which I had encountered,
and numerous hints and tips making it an important read when upgrading.
8.2
One problem which I have not reported on before, came to light when I
set about upgrading my hardware from an ageing A440 to a Risc PC. As an
interim measure, I have taken to using the children’s A3010 with an
Atomwide Printer/SCSI adaptor and my original external hard drive
containing my main applications, including Squirrel. At this point, I
discovered that Squirrel version two will only run on the machine on
which it is installed/upgraded. When run, it checks the unique machine
ID which is provided in the later Acorn machines. If the number doesn’t
tally with the number it found when installed/upgraded, it reports the
fact and steadfastly refuses to run.
8.2
Using the unique machine ID in this way is against Acorns guidelines,
but Digital Services say that they find it necessary given the poor
level of copyright law awareness, particularly in schools, where
Squirrel is an ideal application, and is easily used/misused on
networks. Whilst this is a valid point, it is imperative that some
method of re-installing the application on another machine is available
for genuine users. At the time I discovered this problem (some 9 months
after the release of the product) Digital Services did not have any such
system. It took them a week to get me a beta test of a utility (which
partly solved the problem) and another week to get me a proper working
version. In the meantime, I was unable to access my data. This utility
is now available to individual registered users on an “as-needed” basis.
8.2
Looking ahead
8.2
All of the problems reported with the earlier versions of Squirrel have
now either been dealt with, or the correct usage explained in an
extended errata file. Digital Services say they are continuing to
develop the product and I hope that string manipulation is high on their
list. With BT’s Phone Day rapidly approaching, I am not looking forward
to updating all the phone numbers in one of my databases by hand. The
ability to use substrings (as in Basic’s MID$ function) in batch updates
is becoming pressing! The ability to parse and merge strings in reports
would also be most welcome.
8.2
Conclusion
8.2
In version 2.08, Squirrel performs as it should. My only disappointment
is the time it has been in coming, and the responses I have received to
my difficulties on the way. Its inherent power and flexibility can
sometimes work against it, making it easy to use rather than easy to
learn, especially if the manual is misleading on the operation of some
function or other. Its new facilities significantly improve its
performance over version 1 and the product appears to be stable and well
behaved. However I remain far from happy with the support I have
received from Digital Services.
8.2
It may be that I have been unlucky, and am not a typical case, but the
manner in which bugged versions have been released, and software
protection policies not thought through fully, leaves me with distinct
disquiet over their general thoroughness, be it beta testing or customer
support. It would be a shame for a good product to suffer because of it.
For myself, I will have to think very carefully before buying another
product from the same company. However, for those thinking of investing
in Squirrel, the product is at a stage where the need for customer
support should be at a minimum.
8.2
Squirrel 2 costs £139 +VAT or £150 through Archive. Existing users can
upgrade to version 2 for £25 +VAT or £35 +VAT including a revised
manual. Upgrades are only available from Digital Services.  A
8.2
We’ve been in contact with Steve Taylor of Digitial Services throughout
the discussions over the Squirrel updates and Tim’s comment about them.
The following comments from Steve arrived too close to publication to
give Tim the opportunity to read them. Ed.
8.2
Steve Taylor of Digital Services replies...
8.2
The article runs through a potted history of minor problems and bugs
which Mr Nicholson believes he has encountered, and this results in the
overall tone of the article being the most negative we have ever
encountered. This is despite the fact that he is actually complimentary
about the product. Indeed, he states that version 2.08 performs as it
should in appearing stable and well-behaved. He also mentions its
inherent power and flexibility.
8.2
I must emphasise that Digital Services are an extremely conscientious
company that truly cares about its products and the satisfaction of our
user base. I can provide lists of satisfied users both in education and
business, and unsolicited complimentary letters praising both our
product and our level of support. We have sold several thousand copies
of Squirrel but have never received feedback as that from Mr Nicholson.
8.2
I would state that, whilst Mr Nicholson has reported valid bugs to us in
the past, these have all been fixed, and a significant amount of his
previous feedback has been caused by user error and a lack of
understanding of the product.
8.2
Regarding the statements on our software protection system, we do
understand Mr Nicholson’s concerns and would make the following
comments:
8.2
It is each publisher’s right to define his own licence conditions, and
like a significant number of PC programs, our licence dictates that
Squirrel can only be used on one computer. The software licence policing
is totally transparent until the end user has BROKEN the agreement, and
therefore does not inconvenience those using the program legally. I
would also state that Acorn have examined our terms, and do not object
to our methods. We do recognise that, under a minority of circumstances,
whereby a user has a removable hard disc or is upgrading his machine,
the system is extremely inconvenient, but a simple telephone call to
Digital Services will result in an immediate resolution.
8.2
Finally, I cannot stress enough that Digital Services feel this article
is unrepresentative of both our product, and our company, and assure
readers of our dedication to quality.
8.2
Two final comments from me as editor. Firstly, in a letter I received
from Acorn, they stated that “Acorn does not support the direct use of
the machine ID as a protection device. Acorn’s Software Protection
Scheme uses the ID but specifically does not prevent an application from
running; it only provides a warning to the user” and they said that they
would “remind Digital Services of this”.
8.2
And secondly, I have tried to be fair to both parties in this
disagreement. If what has been printed has offended either of them,
please accept that, as a magazine, we try to tread the middle line,
giving contributors the opportunity to say if they think a supplier is
not giving good service and, where possible, giving suppliers the right
of reply. This is what I have tried to do as fairly as possible. Who
would be an editor!  A
8.2
Image Master
8.2
Robert Chrismas
8.2
Image Master deals with bit image graphics. It can acquire, process,
print and save images. Other programs on the Image Master disc convert
bit images to drawfiles, capture images from the screen, convert
drawfiles to outline fonts and use a scanner and a Laser Direct printer
to act like a photocopier. Even if you do not need all these facilities,
Image Master may still be good value because its price is very
competitive. (£28 through Archive.)
8.2
File formats
8.2
When my college bought Image Master, all we wanted was a program which
would convert bit image graphics into different formats. In particular,
we wanted to be able to transfer bit image graphics between Archimedes
computers and IBMs without fuss. Image Master can load and save graphics
files in these formats: Clear, GIF, PCX, MTV, BMP, PBM, JPEG, TIFF and
sprite.
8.2
Some of these formats have different ‘flavours’. Just as there are one,
two, four and eight bit sprites, TIFF files can be monochrome or colour
with different compression techniques; BMP files can be OS2 format; JPEG
files have different quality settings and so on. Image Master has been
adequate for all our file conversion tasks. However, I have not tested
all the possible formats. Does anyone know of a program that can read
MTV files?
8.2
I have had a couple of problems with file conversions. The first was my
fault. I had a directory of PCX files which included a ReadMe text file.
Without sufficient care, I set all the files to PCX type, including the
ReadMe, and proceeded to load each one into Image Master. The ReadMe
file caused Image Master to crash. This was my own fault but a “can’t
make any sense of this file” message would have been a better response
than an unexpected exit.
8.2
More seriously, when I attempted to save a file to a filing system which
did not have enough free space, Image Master froze the whole desktop.
8.2
There should be terms for programs which quit without being asked to
(crash and burn?) and which lock up the whole machine (seize a wimp
poll?).
8.2
These problems have not made Image Master unuseable but I do make sure I
save important files before running it. David Pilling has a good record
for upgrading software so if you find a popular format which Image
Master cannot handle, a phone call will probably produce a version which
can. (This is not promised − it is just my belief based on experience
with David Pilling’s software.)
8.2
Because of my success with file conversions, I recklessly offered to do
this review, only to find myself wrestling with Gamma Correction and
convolution filters. We learn by our mistakes.
8.2
Big files
8.2
Image Master can handle 24 bit per pixel images. It will also load and
save the new Acorn 16 and 32 bit sprite formats. These formats can
result in very big files. Image Master can handle images which are too
large for the computer’s memory, processing the image in sections.
8.2
In screen modes which cannot display all the colours, Image Master uses
dithering to represent the colours as accurately as possible.
8.2
Scanning
8.2
Twain is the name of a general scanner interface. With Twain, any
program can use any scanner, just as, with RISC OS printer drivers, any
program can use any printer. To make this work, you need a Twain scanner
driver set up for your scanner. Then other programs, like Image Master,
can send standard Twain commands to the scanner driver which will send
back images.
8.2
Image Master’s Twain compatibility only means that it can talk to a
Twain driver. Happily, Twain drivers for a range of scanners are
available from David Pilling at very competitive prices.
8.2
I have not used Image Master for scanning. However, in ‘Colour Scanning
Revisited’ (Archive 7.10 p44) Jim Nottingham discussed the suitability
of Image Master coupled with a Twain driver for colour scanning. Jim
included some comments he had received from Richard Readings. Richard
had version 1.01 of Image Master. Some of his criticisms have been
answered by the latest version. In particular, version 1.03 now has an
undo option. In fact, the user can specify the number of steps to be
held in the undo buffer.
8.2
Both Richard and Jim seemed to feel that the Image Master/Twain link was
good value for scanning software but Jim warned that attempting to use
it with a scanner bought from a “deep-discount box-shifter” might lead
to compatibility problems which neither the scanner supplier, the SCSI
interface manufacturer nor David Pilling would want to know about.
8.2
tool box  & info palette
8.2
Processing
8.2
The current image is displayed in the main window. There are also a
toolbox and an info palette window.
8.2
One tool allows you to select a part of the image. You might do this to
crop the image, but it is also useful because, if an area is selected,
the filter and colour processing options will only apply to that area.
There is a zoom control and the image can be moved around the window.
8.2
On the main menu, the ‘file’ option leads to saving, printing and
scanning.
8.2
The ‘View’ option allows multiple views of the same image. With files
which contain more than one image, this option will allow you to step
through the images. Other options on the ‘View’ menu control which
windows are displayed, the units of measurement and the print border.
8.2
‘Edit’ includes the expected items for cropping, rotating, mirroring,
shearing and scaling the image.
8.2
The Edit options are an example of both the good and the bad aspects of
Image Master. In some programs, like !Paint, the scale option reduces
the size of the image by deleting some of the rows and some of the
columns. So, for a 50% reduction, !Paint would delete every other row
and every other column. However these rows might have contained
important details. Image Master calculates the colour of each pixel in
the final image taking into account all the pixels in the original image
which would affect it.
8.2
This is the same sort of calculation that the font manager does to
represent very small characters on the screen using pixels which can be
a range of greys instead of just black and white. This sort of
calculation is called anti-aliasing.
8.2
80% reduction with anti-aliasing
8.2
Now Image Master is very good at anti-aliasing. All the Edit options can
have anti-aliasing. Image Master allows the user to select one of seven
different anti-aliasing algorithms: Hermite, Box, Triangle, Bell, B-
spline, Lanczos and Mitchell. It also has an option for no anti-
aliasing.
8.2
The first bad thing about this anti-aliasing is that the menu to choose
the anti-aliasing system is on the configuration window which in on the
iconbar menu. There is no obvious connection between this and the Edit
option on the main menu.
8.2
The second bad thing is that the manual does not explain the differences
between these algorithms. Now I suppose that is fair enough. To explain
all that Image Master does would take a text book on image processing
not a program manual. However, you should bear in mind that if you are
not already an expert on image processing, you will need to experiment
with some features to discover just what they do. And in the case of
anti-aliasing, you may still be in some doubt.
8.2
The third bad thing only became apparent when I tried to produce a
diagram to illustrate anti-aliasing. There is an option to select no
anti-aliasing, but when it was selected, scaling was still anti-aliased.
8.2
Filter
8.2
A ‘filter’ is a process which calculates a new value for each pixel
based on the original value of that pixel and the other pixels near to
it. Filters are often used for removing noise or sharpening images.
There was a very helpful explanation of image filtering in a series of
articles by David Knell in Acorn User back in 1990, June − November. The
June and July issues would be the most useful for confused users of
Image Master.
8.2
A convolution filter replaces each pixel with a weighted average of the
surrounding pixels. The ‘user filter’ option allows the user to specify
the weight of each pixel. Some of the more common filters are provided
with Image Master so they can be easily loaded.
8.2
Maximum, minimum and mean filters are also available and there is an
option which will add noise to the image. Adding noise sounds strange
but if you have an image which has been scanned with only a few
brightness levels, a small amount of noise can make the image look less
‘flat’. There is also an inverting filter.
8.2
The filter menu also includes the ‘Histogram’ option. This ‘filter’ can
be applied to red, green or blue components of the image or to any
combination of these components. When the option is selected, Image
Master counts the number of pixels at each brightness level and displays
the result as a histogram.
8.2
“The ‘equalise’ button attempts to spread out the pixels in the image so
that there are equal intensities in each band” − or at least that is
what the manual says. Now I would have thought that ‘equalise’ might try
to get an equal number of pixels in each band. Equalise certainly
changes the colours in the image, but I am not quite sure what it is
doing − the columns in the histogram do not end up the same height or
anything obvious like that.
8.2
There is also an ‘expand’ option which spreads a selected range of
intensities to occupy the whole range. This changed the colours in the
image in a way which I found much more predictable. When you select
equalise and expand, the image changes but the histogram does not. To
update the histogram, you have to click on recalculate. I think it would
be better if the histogram were recalculated automatically although I
can see that might be difficult to implement.
8.2
(In retrospect, I think my difficulties with the histogram option may be
due to my inexperience rather than any inherent problems with the
application.)
8.2
Colour
8.2
The final option on the main menu is ‘colour’. Filters change the colour
of a pixel using information about surrounding pixels (in the case of
the histogram option, all the surrounding pixels). The colour option
includes all the processes which change each pixel using an algorithm
which does not require any information about surrounding pixels.
8.2
‘Swop’ simply interchanges the red, green and blue components. So, for
example it can swop red and the blue.
8.2
‘Grey scale’ converts a colour image to shades of grey. The weights of
the red, blue and green components can be adjusted but the defaults are
fine for normal purposes.
8.2
The ‘colour balance’ option uses the HSV (hue, saturation, value) colour
model. Using sliders, you can change the overall contrast, brightness
and saturation of the image. The hue slider allows you to rotate the hue
of all the colours by a percentage of one complete rotation. The manual
says this sort of adjustment might be useful for correcting discoloured
scans.
8.2
The most precise control over colour intensity is achieved with the
‘non-linear control’. Like the histogram filter, this can be applied to
red, green or blue components of the image or to any combination of
these components. A graph controls the mapping from input brightness to
output brightness. I found this control intuitive and easy to use. The
mapping can be continuous or in discrete steps which will give the image
a flat ‘poster colour’ appearance.
8.2
The ‘non-linear’ graph should help to make clear the meaning of the
gamma correction number ‘G’. To take an example, if G=2 then, after
processing, the brightness of a pixel will be the original brightness
squared, the non-linear graph will just be an x² graph. (Maximum image
brightness is scaled to 1.) In general,
8.2
output brightness = (input brightness)G
8.2
Tint, filter, add and subtract
8.2
The ‘tint’, ‘filter’, ‘add’ and ‘subtract’ options on the colour menu
allow you to make global changes to the colours of the image. One
process ‘adds’ a chosen colour to every pixel of the image, another has
the same effect as viewing the image through a coloured filter. ‘Tint’
and ‘filter’ are words which crop up with different meanings at
different points in Image Master. There is a ‘filter’ option on the main
menu and another on the colour menu − I found this confusing at first.
8.2
With the palette option, you can inspect and edit the palette of the
current image. The right hand part of the palette window allows you to
choose colours using the RGB, HSV or CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black)
models. Chosen colours can be used to change entries in the palette.
8.2
The palette also allows you to specify the ‘foreground’ colour which is
used by the tint, filter, add and subtract options. The control which
determines how much effect the foreground colour will have is labelled
‘Tint’. This terminology is confusing but the option certainly produces
some very interesting effects.
8.2
Change format
8.2
Change format is a very powerful option but I am not sure that it
belongs on the ‘Colour’ menu. Change format allows you to change the
image from one sprite format to another. You can change the number of
bits per pixel, and the type of palette. Current formats are 1, 2, 4, 8,
16, 24 and 32 bits per pixel. Palette options include the standard RISC
OS desktop palette, a calculated ‘optimal’ palette, digital RGB and a
linear grey scale.
8.2
If you decrease the number of bits per pixel, there will be fewer
colours available in the palette. It may not be possible to represent
all the original colours accurately. The least sophisticated strategy is
just to choose the colour in the new palette nearest to the original
colour. Change format can do this but it can also be set to match
colours with patterns of different coloured pixels which ours eyes
‘average out’ as the original colour. So, for example, alternate white
and red pixels, if they are small enough, will appear to us as
continuous pink.
8.2
We are familiar with this process in printing where patterns of black
ink and white paper are used to represent different shades of grey. In
traditional half-toning, the patterns are regular repeating designs. A
longer calculation called ‘Floyd Steinberg dithering’ gives the pixels a
more random appearance. Dithering will display details which might be
lost in half-toning.
8.2
As you would expect, Image Master has options for what it calls
‘ordered’ dithering (half-toning) and Floyd Steinberg dithering of
several different types.
8.2
Other programs
8.2
Image Master comes with a number of other programs. ‘Trace’ creates a
drawfile from a sprite file by tracing the outline of each colour.
‘Snapper’ captures the whole screen, a window or a menu as a sprite.
‘D2Font’ converts a drawfile to an outline font. ‘Zero’ combines a Twain
scanner and a Laser Direct printer to work as a photocopier.
8.2
Each of these programs is worth at least a short review of its own.
(Trace was reviewed in 5.4 p61 and 5.6 p25. Any offers to review the
others? Ed.)
8.2
Documentation
8.2
The manual covers all the features of the program and goes some way to
explaining the theory behind them. However, this is obviously a big
subject and it is not reasonable to expect the documentation to cover it
all. One particularly useful section on file formats gives some
background information on each of the file formats which Image Master
recognises.
8.2
Comments
8.2
Image Master is a fairly big, powerful program. It combines scanning and
image processing with the ability to save and load bit images in
different formats. I know that some users like programs with lots of
features. However, I think there is a case for more small programs. The
RISC OS desktop makes it so easy to pass data between different
applications with in-memory file transfer, that we do not need to have
programs which do everything themselves. I like Image Master, but I
think I would like it better if it came as three separate programs.
8.2
The Trace program is capable of ‘batch processing’. You drag a batch of
bit images onto its icon and Trace creates a directory with drawfiles of
the images. It would be useful if Image Master could perform file
conversions in the same way. The user would specify the format in which
the images should be saved and then Image Master would convert a whole
directory full of images in one go.
8.2
Image processing is a skill. It takes skill to decide how to combine the
processing features of Image Master to produce the effect you require. I
have seen someone who was quite incapable of producing an acceptable
scan of an old photograph gasp with astonishment when a few adjustments
produced a clear image. To get good results from Image Master, you need
to understand how computer images are stored and you have to be able to
look closely at the image and to think. There is a lot to learn here,
and I for one would welcome some articles in Archive by experts on image
processing.
8.2
For a user like myself who has only limited experience of image
processing, some of the menu entries and the layout of some of the
windows were confusing. However, it was possible to work out what was
going on with the aid of the manual, and I do not find it easy to
suggest a more intuitive design for such a complicated subject.
8.2
Conclusion
8.2
Image Master combines scanning and image processing with the ability to
save and load bit images in different formats.
8.2
Release 1.03 which I reviewed is a little fragile. It has crashed a few
times on my A5000 and some options have given surprising results.
8.2
The program has an impressive range of powerful features and for £30
(£28 from Archive) it is excellent value. At this price, it is worth
buying even if you do not need all the features.  A
8.2
The histogram window
8.2
Non-linear control with G = 2
8.2
The palette window
8.2
       Original        Floyd Steinberg dithering  Ordered dithering
8.2
Penfriend
8.2
Christopher Jarman
8.2
The test of any good invention is whether it does exactly what it sets
out to do. The test of an outstanding new invention is whether it does
even more things than the designer thought possible. Penfriend
definitely comes under the second category!
8.2
It has been reviewed already in Archimedes World and has even been
issued as a demo on their March 1994 disc. While it has had good reviews
from people seeing it as an aid to children who may be disabled in
various ways, I believe it offers far more opportunities for creative
writing than this.
8.2
Original designs
8.2
The designer, Roger Spooner, well-known for his original ideas in
programs such as Calligrapher, has seen the need for a predictive typer
which will finish off words for hesitant or physically handicapped
writers. The default lexicon (wordlist) contains about 1100 words but it
will accept a vocabulary of up to 15,000 words if required.
8.2
Penfriend loads easily onto the iconbar from floppy but, like many
applications, it works more quickly and easily from a hard disc. The
manual, which is a clearly-written 33 pages, is a model of how to write
for beginners. It explains in simple English all you need to know even
if it is your first day on the Archimedes. If only other manual writers
would follow this pattern!
8.2
When a letter key is pressed, Penfriend immediately displays a list of
up to eight of the most likely words you might be looking for, from the
current lexicon which you have loaded. The words are in order of most
frequent use, and each one can be summoned by a function key. So, you
might type ‘w’ and the list of words; was, with, will, which, what,
when, wonderful and so on will pop up. Merely by pressing <F7>, the word
‘wonderful’ will then be typed. I have just used Penfriend myself to
write that last sentence. It sounds complicated when described but, like
many typing helps, it is much easier in practice, and practice makes
perfect! For someone who finds typing a physical challenge or is very
unsure about spelling, Penfriend acts just like a supportive friend. It
is a Spellcheck in advance rather than the usual “Bleep!” which means,
“Wrong! You stupid boy!”.
8.2
More options
8.2
If this was all that happened, the program would still be well worth
buying, but there are more options. There is a keyboard window whereby
the mouse may be moved around a simulated keyboard on the screen. I know
there are PD versions, but this is very good. It works well with all the
other applications I tried such as Edit, Phases and even Optima; if I
only had the use of one hand and one finger, I could easily have written
a complete multimedia package using the mouse and the Penfriend
keyboard!
8.2
The sticky keys option is very handy for someone who has to type with
either one hand or two fingers. Control or Shift can be held down for a
moment to make a capital or whatever else you need. Different bleeps
remind you of your actions. There are other typing options such as
“Clever Punctuation” and “In-line Prediction” which are explained in the
manual. The program will also add every new word that you type to the
current lexicon if you wish, thereby teaching it your own vocabulary as
you go.
8.2
Editing the lexicons
8.2
What makes this product so exciting is the extra program called Editlex
which comes with it. It is designed to modify the lexicons in use, and
to put together new ones. The original idea was that different children,
or other users, would have their own particular style of writing, and
commonly used words which they would build up. Indeed, this is a very
useful way of personalising the program. However, by extension of this
idea, it is possible to create lexicons using very particular language
or even foreign languages. By merely dragging a plain textfile into a
lexicon window, you may set up a new wordlist. Imagine scanning a chunk
of Chaucer and putting the subsequent textfile into Editlex and starting
to type! All your predicted words would be from Chaucer’s vocabulary.
You could soon be writing very genuine looking pastiches! I have a
dictionary of Royal Navy slang called “Jackspeak” which has recently
been compiled and, by typing a sizable chunk of it into Edit and
dragging it into a Lexicon, I can now write to my old friends in RN
argot without having to rack my memory for the correct terms. Think of
the fun in English lessons! Write an essay in Tolkein’s elvish, for
example, or write like Damon Runyon. Copy a few Shakespeare sonnets into
Editlex and then choose your words carefully. I also have a dictionary
of Australian slang − I think perhaps I’ll load it up and try writing an
episode of Neighbours − the trouble is that the program will insist on
describing itself as “Penmate”! (or “Pencobber”? Ed.)
8.2
Penfriend is available from Design Concept, price £25 plus £2 p&p. Site
licences are free for up to five machines.  A
8.2
Eagle M2 Multimedia Card
8.2
Paul Hooper
8.2
One danger in writing reviews is the temptation of rushing in an effort
to get it into print before all the other magazines. This can lead to a
superficial review in which much of the material is just a regurgitation
of the manufacturer’s handouts or press releases. I try, as far as
possible, to resist the scoop approach and subject the hardware or
software to a sustained period of use before committing the review to
paper. The trouble is that, sometimes, a piece of hardware comes along
that has so many features and so much associated software that the
review process can take weeks. Such is the Eagle card.
8.2
The card
8.2
The packaging is a dull cardboard box but the contents are far from
dull. You get a standard size expansion board with a flying lead, no
less than three manuals and loads of discs. The card was tested on both
an A5000 and a Risc PC. Although the manual had no fitting instruction
for the Risc PC, it is fairly obvious where the flying lead goes. A Risc
PC errata sheet should be out by the time you read this.
8.2
The back of the card has four connections:
8.2
a) Super video connector (4-pin mini din) for S-VHS, Hi8 or Hiband
sources.
8.2
b) BNC (bayonet-style) connector for CVBS, video out (VHS) or SCART
sources.
8.2
c) Midi connector (15-pin D-type socket) for use with Midi sources.
8.2
d) Stereo audio (5-pin din) live-level connector for use with CD
players, amplifiers or Hifi equipment. This has both input and output
connections so that sound can be received from or sent to your computer.
8.2
There is only one lead supplied and this is for the Midi connector. The
rest of the leads you will need to supply yourself.
8.2
Video connections
8.2
Supplied on disc is the latest version of the Acorn Replay utility and
this needs to be decompressed with CFS onto your hard disc. Also
supplied is !TakeTwo which enables you to capture colour sprites, TIFF
or Clear files from a video source or Replay movie. If you want to
capture greyscale sprites then the Scanlight software is also supplied.
8.2
Connection to a video source can be a nightmare: for my video camera, I
have a video out socket which is a normal phono socket, but my VCR has a
SCART socket. Two leads were obtained from my local Tandy shop and I
first connected the video camera. I could record video from the camera
but no sound. The same problem was experienced with the VCR − I had
bought the wrong leads! Twenty pounds poorer and with advice from
Matthew at NCS, I managed to get the right leads and got connected to my
video camera.
8.2
Up and running
8.2
Once TakeTwo is installed, you can get a ‘live display’ by clicking on
its icon. The live display is just that − even on my old 24MHz A5000,
the display kept up with all the movement recorded via the video camera.
There must be some very clever electronics on this board to achieve
that!
8.2
<Menu> over the display allows you to control the picture. The video
source can be specified as composite or S-video, PAL or NTSC and these
can be live or tape. You can also control the display with Auto-Zoom
with a 4:3 lock or free aspect ratio on the picture. The alternative to
Auto-Zoom is Pan and Scan.
8.2
Before you can save anything you have to set up your Grab Choices from
the menu. The grab menu is as shown below and the file icon must be
dragged to a directory before you can save your file.
8.2
Working from the top, you must first specify the file type. You have a
choice of Sprite TIFF, Clear and Replay. To make this easier to
understand, I have set out the options for each of the static files in
the table below. The choices for Replay files are shown in the pictures
of the menu system but it all depends what computer you have as to how
many of these you can choose. Certainly, my old 24MHz A5000 could not
take in colour Replay files at 25fps but coped well with 12.5fps. A Risc
PC is a must here, but even then I had a few troubles with 25fps. You
must forget multitasking if you want to get out good results, and make
sure that you have at least 20Mb free on your hard disc to save the
resulting file. Also, you must use a fast hard disc, because some of the
older slower hard discs will not keep up with the input and some rather
strange results can occur.
8.2
To capture the images, you play the video source in a window on your
desktop. Along the top of the window are the normal video style
controls. To save static images, it is just a matter of clicking on the
record button, the display will stop for a few seconds and the picture
will be saved.
8.2
To capture Replay files, the procedure is exactly the same except that
‘record’ starts the recording and you need to click on ‘stop’ to stop
it. The screen display stops during the recording (with a periodic
update), so it can be a bit hit-and-miss as to how much you record.
Bearing this in mind, it does seem odd that there is no way of editing
the film before you use it in your application.
8.2
On test
8.2
To put the card to the test, I took my video camera out around Norfolk
to capture a number of images and Replay files for some multimedia
programs I am writing. Firstly, I captured the local wind turbines,
which translated into an excellent Replay film, even though the subject
was white against a background of sky. Then I visited ten historical
churches to capture both features and an overall picture of the church.
8.2
Once connected to the A5000, I then used grab choices and started
playing the video in a desktop window. I then had to take around fifty
static images out, but once I had specified the directory to save, it
was just a matter of clicking on the record button any number of times
because each time you save a picture the computer adds a number suffix
to the file name.
8.2
To capture the Replay sequence was more difficult, as I couldn’t tell
the exact point at which I wanted to finish. Then I hit on the solution:
I recorded the video onto my VCR and leaving that attached to the TV, I
connected up the computer to the VCR. I then played back the recording
and watched the TV and just used the computer monitor to press the
buttons. I didn’t see any degradation in the picture quality but I’m not
very good at judging this.
8.2
I also tried capturing a series of images direct from a pre-recorded
tape in the VCR − these were excellent. The only failure I have to
report was when I tried recording from my TV via the VCR. The picture
quality was bad, but I think this was due to the bad reception we get
out in the wilds of Norfolk!
8.2
On the monthly disc there are a series of static images that I have
captured using the Eagle card and a normal VHS camera. These images are
only 256 colour as they need to be distributed to readers with older
machines but the results using a Risc PC and 32 thousand colours are
outstanding. If anyone wants a copy of these larger files, just send me
a disc and return postage.
8.2
Sound as well
8.2
The Midi port is the only one supplied with a lead, the board end has a
15 pin D type socket with three colour-coded 5 pin DIN sockets on the
other: Midi in, Midi out and Midi through. Once these are connected, you
can use most Midi software such as Rhapsody, Serenade or even Maestro.
8.2
The stereo DIN socket allows your computer to record sound and to export
it via an amplifier. Certainly, some of the Digital Symphony tracks
sound very good when put out via a hi-fi. To record sound, you need to
connect a microphone to an external amplifier and then connect that
amplifier to the computer.
8.2
To manipulate all this sound, AudioWorks is provided on two discs along
with the manual. I have very little to add to the review by Brian Barr
in Archive 7.7 p57, except to say that it was a delight to use. One
feature I did find very helpful was the ability of AudioWorks to strip
out sound samples from Stracker tunes. You just take the tune and drop
it on the AudioWorks icon and you can add a few more sound samples to
your collection.
8.2
Conclusions
8.2
Computer Concepts and Wild Vision have had a reputation for establishing
their software and hardware as the standard against which others are
judged. Well, they have done it again! The Eagle card will become the
standard because it is far and away the best method of producing
material for multimedia. The card has something for everyone: the
musician will love the ability to capture just about any sound you could
want, along with the Midi interface, the graphics fan will be able to
capture just about any picture he could want, and DTP users will benefit
from the same ability. What’s more, the whole lot is on one expansion
card.
8.2
The Eagle card costs £380 through Archive and although that may sound a
lot, you should consider that a Midi card would set you back about £70,
a vision digitiser another £100 or so, an Oak Recorder about another £60
and AudioWorks adds another £50. Then remember that even an A5000 would
be running out of expansion slots with this little lot. The Eagle card
is a remarkable buy.
8.2
Computer Concepts’ advert depicts an eagle with the caption ‘soaring to
great heights’ but I suggest that they replace it with the Lunar Module
of Apollo 11 and say that the Eagle has landed − in my view, it’s
certainly out of this world!  A
8.2
(† Drat!!! Exactly the same thing has just happened again during
magazine pasteup − even with the new default document!!!)
8.2