Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/magazine/volume_5

Text File | 1995-06-25 | 2.6 MB | 57,189 lines

 What a Show!
5.1
It looks as if the 1991 Acorn User Show is going to be a memorable one.
Obviously, the launch of the A5000 is the main reason but I am sure that
there is going to be lots else there to see. Computer Concepts’ HiRes4
will be the first “under £1,000” (plus VAT) high speed, 600 d.p.i. laser
printer and their 300 d.p.i. flatbed scanner is another step forward,
keeping Archimedes at the forefront of low cost, high quality, DTP.
5.1
Many other companies are using this year’s Acorn User Show to launch
their latest products, so come and see us on stand number 73.... and
don’t forget your bring and buy charity software and hardware.
5.1
Welcome to year 5 of Archive − and Archimedes!
5.1
Well, thanks for re-subscribing into volume 5 of Archive. A very high
proportion of people whose subscription ran out at the the end of volume
4 have re-subscribed for volume 5 − more than I’d dared to hope. Thanks
for the vote of confidence. I hope you will not be disappointed.
5.1
It certainly looks as if the A5000 and all the other new products are
going to breath new life into the Archimedes market as we look towards
1992 − just as long as Acorn haven’t “done an A540” on us again and
under-estimated the demand. Come on, Acorn, you can do it! You have a
superb product if you can just get it out of the factory in sufficient
quantity.
5.1
We wish Acorn, and all our subscribers, all the very best for another
year of Archimedes.
5.1
             Paul Beverley
5.1

5.1
Products Available
5.1
•    A5000, the New Archimedes Machine − At the Acorn User Show, Acorn will
be launching, and actually selling, the new ARM3 based Archimedes
computer, the A5000. It is such an exciting product that we have
dedicated a complete supplement to explaining all about it.
5.1
The basic facts are:
5.1
•    25MHz ARM3 processor (giving 13 MIPs)
5.1
•    Fast (12 MHz) 2M memory expandable to 4M
5.1
•    Bundled with Acorn multisync monitor
5.1
•    1.6M floppy capable for reading (intelligently) all the Acorn formats
and also the 720k and 1.44M PC formats
5.1
•    40M internal IDE hard drive
5.1
•    RISC-OS 3 operating system
5.1
•    Unit starting price, including m/s monitor and hard drive £1499 +VAT
(£1761)
5.1
(No, that’s not a misprint − it really is less than £1800!) This looks
like a real winner especially when you take that price into account.
Well done Acorn! All they have to do now is produce lots of them − and
quickly!
5.1
•    A5000 Learning Curve − For an extra £38, you can buy an A5000 Learning
Curve (£1799 inc VAT) which gives you PC Emulator (1.6), DR-DOS 5.0,
Genesis Plus, First Word Plus, Acorn DTP, Pacmania and Lemmings plus a
two-hour tutorial on two audio cassettes and a Home Computing magazine.
5.1
•    A410/420/540/R260 price drops − The A440 has been discontinued but the
A410 and A420 are still available and their ex-VAT prices have been
dropped by £200 to £899 and £1099 respectively (£1049 and £1284 inc
VAT). The A540 and the R260 Unix machine have each been dropped by £500
to £2495 and £3495 respectively (£2925 and £4088 inc VAT).
5.1
(The A3000 price is unchanged at £599 +VAT.)
5.1
•    Acorn badged printer − Also to be launched at the A.U. Show is a JP150
inkjet printer with an Acorn badge. The cost is £276 inc VAT when bought
with an A3000 or A5000.
5.1

5.1
•    85M Removable drives − We are now stocking the new Syquest 88M
removable drives in Mac-type external cases. I have been trying one out
and they seem fine. They run at 900 kbytes/second (cf the 42M removables
at 580 k/sec). The formatted capacity is 84.7 Mbytes. The drives cost
£690 and spare cartridges are £140 each. (More details on page 21.)
5.1
•    A310 memory upgrades − IFEL have improved the deal they are offering
us on their 4M ram upgrades so we can now do it for £320 inclusive. It
is worth remembering that, as we say in our adverts, “price isn’t
everything”. In other words, you can buy memory upgrades at less than
£320 even including fitting plus carrier collection and delivery but it
may not necessarily be a good buy. From our experience, plug-in type
upgrades which use the ROM sockets are generally OK, but if your
computer is one of those where problems do occur, the money saving may
well not be worth it in the long run. We believe that the soldered-in
variety are the best bet.
5.1
Also, you will see adverts claiming “MEMC1a not needed”. We do not think
this is a good idea. Again, from our experience, most computers probably
will get away without fitting the MEMC1a on these upgrades but some can
cause problems and the problems may only become obvious when some other
hardware is added to the computer. For example, we had an A310 returned
with a SCSI hard drive which, apparently, would not work properly. Our
engineer, Ray Maidstone, eventually discovered that, although there was
a problem with the SCSI drive, the whole thing was compounded by
interaction with the memory board. This had been fitted some time ago
and had worked properly even without a MEMC1a. However, with the
addition of the SCSI drive, the combination would not work properly
without a MEMC1a. Although neither the memory upgrade nor the SCSI
controller apparently needed a MEMC1a on its own, we found that the
combination most definitely did.
5.1
Beware, too, of cheap DIY upgrades. If they work, that’s great, but we
have had more than one computer which Ray has had to spend quite a long
time on to find what was wrong. Often it was not due to bad soldering −
with many, it was a fault revealed by doing the upgrade. Whatever the
cause, it works out to be a very expensive way of getting a cheap
upgrade!
5.1
•    Archimedes Disc Rescue − No longer should “Broken Directory” or “Bad
Free Space Map” strike terror into your hearts, even if it is on the
root directory of your 100Mb SCSI hard drive! LOOKsystems have produced
their Archimedes Disc Rescue package which allows you to repair your
discs quickly and easily. The programs work with both hard drives and
floppy discs on most Archimedes filing systems such as ADFS, SCSI, IDE,
etc. The package includes three utilities, which will repair and recover
files, directories and disc maps by selecting the appropriate filing
system and drive number or by dragging the ailing file or directory onto
the icon bar. There is also a sophisticated disc editor, for more
confident users, allowing you to navigate around, edit and repair discs.
(It is even possible to edit some non-Archimedes formats such as DFS and
IBM.) The programs are accompanied by a manual that includes a disc
repair primer and an explanation of the Archimedes’ disc formats. It
costs £35 inclusive of p&p (no VAT) from LOOKsystems.
5.1
•    Bit-Mapped Fonts − Wyddfa Software has produced a family of four bit-
mapped fonts. Anwen medium, bold, italic and upright. They cost £3 each
or £9 for all four. These are not outline fonts and so you do not need
to have a copy Acorn’s outline font manager. However, the printout is
not as good as with outline fonts.
5.1
•    Capsoft Disc Nº2 − A disc full of Draw files for just £9 from Capsoft
(B J Thompson). It has a number of drawn fonts for poster and display
purposes and frame borders for DTP use. See page 53 for a review.
5.1
•    Careware Disc 14 − consists of !FarBeyond which is Tetris with a
colourful twist, !PolySaw which is a desktop polymos, an interactive
hyper cube, the classic game of life, Mandelbrot generator, caret
blinker module, !CheckTemp which displays info on WIMP template files,
an HP Deskjet 500 setup utility, an Epson FX printer emulator, a Basic
program compressor, a word wrapped printer utility for text files, a
Lempel-Zev-Welch compression utility and some easy FNs to produce Draw
files from Basic.
5.1
•    Christmas Allsorts is a collection of Christmas oriented Draw files
from Sherston Software. The price is £16.95 +VAT.
5.1
•    Clip Art / Line Art − Some new discs of clip art are available this
month from G.A. Herdman and Southern Printers. Contact them for details.
5.1
•    Compression − Computer Concepts are releasing a new utility which uses
Lempel-Zev-Welch (LZW) compression to load and save files in compressed
format “five to ten times as fast as other utilities such as !Spark”.
This should not be confused with the LZW utility on the Careware 14 disc
(see above) which is only a set of SWI calls for use within a program
environment. It is a full desktop filing system so it operates with all
RISC-OS applications directly. This costs £49 +VAT or £53 through
Archive. This means that for just £53, you can effectively double the
capacity of your hard disc − which has to be good value for money even
with the falling drive prices mentioned below.
5.1
(We have just got hold of a copy and it looks as if loading and saving
times are never more than 50% more than uncompressed filing and file
size savings can be as much as 80% on sprites, 70% on Drawfiles and even
text files go down by 50%. Programs, however, are not compressed at all
and the utility doesn’t even bother to try. One disadvantage is that it
takes up about 200k of RAM which may not be too helpful for those with
only 1Mbyte! A de-compressor is also provided which can be freely
distributed, so you can send compressed files to other people and they
will be able to un-compress them.)
5.1
•    Enter the Realm − The 4th Dimension has extended its games list to
include Enter the Realm which is due to be released at the Acorn User
Show. This is an arcade style game with 6 layer full parallax scrolling,
sampled sound & speech, 16 colour graphics with 256 colour screens to
set the scene. It has a story line that runs throughout the game, you
have various weapons, pickups, monsters, interactive characters to
interrogate, buildings to enter, scoreboard etc. The price is £24.95 or
£23 through Archive.
5.1
•    FaxScan − SpaceTech’s Faxscan which turns an Amstrad FX9600T or
FX9600AT fax into an Archimedes scanner is now available through Archive
(see Archive 4.12 p3). The interface on its own is £110. Please check
that your fax has a label underneath saying “FX2”. If it says “FX1” you
have a very early model and will need a different version of the
interface − but it still costs £110. The complete package of FX9600AT +
interface + printer cable is £570. Remember that what you get for is a
plain paper fax that will also send faxes straight from the computer
without having to print them out, a plain paper copier, an Epson
compatible printer, an answering machine, a telephone and a 200 dpi
scanner with sheet-feeder!
5.1
•     Fireball II Extra − The popular Archimedes “Breakout” type game,
Fireball II has now been re-released with a few extra features including
an editor but with 180 “fiendishly difficult” screens to complete. The
price is down from £24.95 to £14.95 from Cambridge International
Software or £14 through Archive.
5.1
•    First Impression − At last, there is some help with Impression (as
well as Archive magazine)! Stephen Ibbs, a lecturer at Bilston Community
College, has produced “First Impression” − a tutorial package for
Impression II. It consists of 250 pages in a ring binder looking
remarkable similar to the Impression ring binder and contains 13
tutorial chapters and 11 appendix chapters plus a couple of floppy discs
with example documents and templates. First Impression contains
reminders, hints & tips and self-assessment tasks. The cost is £29.95
from Stephen’s company, “Word Processing” or £28 through Archive. Both
include p&p.
5.1
If you want even more help, Stephen is offering a distance learning
package from Bilston College which is intended for those who cannot
attend normal college classes and wish to study at home. The course will
be £35 (plus the cost of the tutorial guide) and is suitable for all
ages.
5.1
More details of First Impression are given in the review on page 17.
5.1
•    Fun & Games − HS Software has provided us with three games in one,
under the title “Fun & Games”. It is aimed at helping 5 to 9 year olds
on National Curriculum Maths and English. “Coconuts” helps children with
sequencing and devising and repeating patterns. In “Burger Boy”, you
have to help make up orders for a fast food take-away. This covers a
range of skills including reading, matching, sequencing, auditory and
visual memory and addition to 10 and beyond. Finally there is “Tidy” in
which you help Emma and her pet parrot to tidy her bedroom. This again
helps with a range of skills. Fun & Games costs £19.95 from HS Software
or £18 through Archive.
5.1
•    Guitar Chord & Piano Keyboard outline fonts − Dalmation Publications
have produced two specialist outline fonts at £5.50 each (£10 for both).
‘Guitar’ makes it easy to produce chord windows for a range of stringed
instruments and ‘Piano’ provides a chord box creator for keyboards in
general.
5.1
•    Hi-Fi Sound Upgrade Module − Ray Maidstone has produced a plug-in unit
with flying leads to connect to an external amplifier. It bypasses the
high-pass filter circuit and so gives a much clearer sound than the
straight output. The unit is user-fittable and comes with full instruc
tions. The price is £24.80 from Ray Maidstone or £23 through Archive.
5.1
•    Karaoke Performer − EMR are launching a karaoke system that will work
with any cassette player and any Archimedes computer. Each set consists
of 6 professional backing tracks on audio cassette for just £10 + £1.50
p&p +VAT. The text of the song scrolls in various ways on the screen in
sync with the audio. The control program also allows a separate graphics
program or video controller to be used to make original backgrounds
during the performance. A free graphics animation is provided with each
set. Over 90 sets are already available from 50’s to 80’s hits and
featured artists. EMR also sell a Karaoke unit with echo microphone,
mixer and amplifier + speaker system to compliment the Karaoke Performer
costing £69 inc VAT.
5.1
•    Laser Direct HiRes4 − Computer Concepts are now producing a 600 dpi
laser printer for “under £1000” (plus VAT). They are using the very
popular Canon LBP4 and combining it with their Laser Direct interface
for just £999 +VAT (£1,100 through Archive). All the comments we have
made about this combination in earlier issues apply but the price has
now dropped, thanks to Computer Concepts, from £1,255 to £1,100. HiRes4
has an Epson emulation (128 grey-level printing), Econet & Nexus network
options, PC (and other) compatibility via the serial & parallel
interfaces and a 1-year on-site maintenance is included. This will help
to keep Archimedes DTP as the most affordable and effective DTP system
available on any computer system (especially when combined with the new
A5000!)
5.1
Just think about it..... A5000 + Impression + HiRes4 gives you 600 dpi
DTP for just £1760 + £180 + £1100 = £3040 (= £2587 ex VAT). Remembering
that the A5000 has ARM3 and 40M drive, you have a very powerful system.
The only thing you might want to add is another 2M ram.
5.1
For a professional flatbed 300 dpi scanner (see below), add £990 + £200
for a SCSI interface or buy a SCSI drive and use the interface.
5.1
Surely, that’s an unbeatable system! Will someone with contacts in the
outside world (well, outside Acorn) please tell them about this system?
5.1
•    Pandora’s Box − Another of 4th Dimension’s games to be released at the
Acorn User Show is Pandora’s Box which combines classic puzzles and
arcade action. It uses isometric 3D graphics. The game play is basically
that the beast has escaped from Pandora’s box and has to be captured and
returned from whence he came before he does untold damage to mankind.
The price is £24.95 or £23 through Archive.
5.1
•    Penguin lovers should go to the Colton Software stand (59) at the
Acorn User Show. Don’t ask me why. Rob Macmillan says it’s serious!
5.1
•    Scanlight Professional − A flatbed scanner offering 300 dpi 256
greyscale scanning. It uses the SCSI interface (which many people are
already using for hard drives), white-light scanning for accurate grey-
level scans and enhanced Scanlight software which includes scan selected
region, full grey-map control of brightness and contrast, instant image
rotate by any angle, sampling options to reduce Moire patterns, image
enhance options such as blurring, sharpening, etc. The price is just
£899 +VAT or £990 through Archive.
5.1
•    Scanlight special offer − For a limited time, we are offering
Scanlight Seniors (both A3000 and A300/400) for £380 instead of £434
(CC’s full price is £468.82). This is only while stocks last. Also, we
still have some of the Scanlight Juniors (mono) at £189 (cf CC’s price
of £220.07).
5.1
•    SCSI drives prices down − The drives we introduced last month are
selling well and we’ve managed to reduce the prices. We have also now
extended the range to include internal drives. When they are supplied to
us, they come with metalwork and cables suitable for the Apple Macin
tosh. However, the prices are so good that it is worthwhile buying new
metalwork to make them fit properly into the Archimedes. Part of the
pricing table we included last month is repeated so that you can see the
improvements in pricing. Also, Oak Solutions have changed their pricing.
Some of their drives have also decreased in price. (20M drives are no
longer available through N.C.S.)
5.1
EXTERNAL drives WITH podule
5.1
    WW    HS    Frog    AW
5.1
45M    500        520
5.1
50M        560        620
5.1
65M            550
5.1
80M    565
5.1
100M    695    760    620    790
5.1
200M    1060    1180    870
5.1
300M        2100    1290
5.1
640M        2850    1690
5.1
1000M            2290
5.1
If you look at the prices without podule, i.e. for those of you looking
for a second SCSI drive, the differences in price are more marked....
5.1
EXTERNAL drives WITHOUT podule
5.1
    WW    HS    Frog    AW
5.1
45M    400        320
5.1
50M        460        420
5.1
65M            350
5.1
80M    465
5.1
100M    595    660    420    590
5.1
200M    960    1080    670
5.1
300M        2000    1090
5.1
640M        2750    1490
5.1
1000M            2090
5.1
INTERNAL drives WITH podule
5.1
    WW    HS    Frog    AW
5.1
45M    405        490
5.1
50M        470        535
5.1
65M            520
5.1
80M    450
5.1
100M    570    660    590    700
5.1
200M    995    1090    840
5.1
Again, the prices without podule, show a more marked difference....
5.1
INTERNAL drives WITHOUT podule
5.1
    WW    HS    Frog    AW
5.1
45M    305        290
5.1
50M        370        335
5.1
65M            320
5.1
80M    350
5.1
100M    470    560    390    500
5.1
200M    895    990    640
5.1
•    Stop Watch − G.A.Herdman has produced a twin timer stop watch working
in the desktop. It has a large display suitable for class viewing using
either Porterhouse fonts from Applications Disc 1 or the outline font,
Trinity for better effect. It also has a lap-timer and will give a count
down with audible warning. It displays hours, minutes and seconds to
0.01s and 100 hours. £19.99 + £1.50 p&p from G.A. Herdman.
5.1
•    Three new games are due to be released by Krisalis at the Acorn User
Show: Lemmings which, in other computer formats, won a “Game of the
Year” award, Chuck Rock which according to the advert in Acorn User,
includes “parolex scroll” (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that − but even my
spelling’s not purfect!) and Manchester United Europe which takes that
club into European knockout competitions with both management decisions
to make and arcade action matches to play. Each game is £25.99 or £23
through Archive.
5.1
•    Turbo Type is a typing tutor from Cambridge International Software
Ltd. It features an on-screen keyboard during all exercises, digitised
sounds, large text option, exercise editor, metronome for improved
typing rhythm and has four levels of exercises: beginners who can
practise subsets or the complete keyboard, intermediate for typing easy
sentences, advanced for difficult sentences and short paragraphs and
numeric for those wanting to practice the numeric keypad. TurboType is
£24.95 from Cambridge International or £23 through Archive.
5.1

5.1
Review software received...
5.1
We have received review copies of the following software and hardware:
Southern Printers’ Draw Format Line Art Disc 2, !Sinewaver, !BasShrink,
Landmarks Victorians, Landmarks Rain Forest, Hawk V9 updated software,
Genesis Script Language book, HiFi Sound Upgrade Module, PrimeArt,
Dalmation Guitar & Piano fonts, ARCtist, Imagine from Topologika,
OutLook for Eizo 9080i.  A
5.1

5.1
Government Health Warning − Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
5.1
Can you remember back to your childhood? How did you get on with your
father? What was your relationship with him like? For many people, the
thoughts raised by the word “father” are rather negative but let’s try
to be positive. What could or should that relationship be like?
5.1
Obviously, you would hope that the father would love and care for the
child and give comfort when the child was distressed. The father
wouldn’t let the child do just what it liked − that would not be loving
because the child, depending on its age, could face all sorts of dangers
and develop in all sorts of bad ways if not shown the right way to do
things. But there comes a point where the father has to let the child
make its own decisions − and that can be painful.
5.1
Suppose the child reaches a certain age and rejects the father’s
standards and ideas − and his love − and decides to go off and not have
anything at all to do with him any more. Imagine how that hurts the
father. Perhaps you know from bitter experience how that feels.
5.1
Well that’s how God feels when we tell him we don’t need his standards
or his love − we know better, we can manage perfectly well without him,
thanks very much. Maybe we’ve convinced ourselves that he doesn’t even
exist. That hurts him − He is broken hearted for us....  but....
5.1
God loved the world (and that means you and me) so much that he gave
Jesus, his own son, to die for us so that we could enjoy, once again,
that wonderful father-child relationship with God. Let me assure you
that if you decide to “come home”, you’ll get a wonderful welcome!
5.1

5.1

5.1
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD. 0603-
766592 (764011)
5.1

5.1
4th Dimension    P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.1
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
5.1
Acorn Direct    13 Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2RL.
5.1
Acorn Computers Ltd    Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 4JN. (0223−245200) (−210685)
5.1
Ace Computing (p8)    27 Victoria
Road, Cambridge, CB4 3BW. (0223−322559) (−69180)
5.1
Aleph One Ltd    The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(0223−811679) (−812713)
5.1
Atomwide Ltd (p20)    23 The
Greenway, Orpington, Kent, BR5 2AY. (0689−838852) (−896088)
5.1
Avisoft     11 Meadow Close, Wolvey, Hinckley, LE10 3LW.
5.1
Bilston Community College    Open
Business Centre, Green Lanes, Bilston, West Midlands  WV14 6EW.
(0902−353929) (−405545)
5.1
Cambridge International Software        Unit 2a,
Essex Road, London, N1 3QP. (071−226−3340) (−226−3408)
5.1
Capsoft (BJ Thompson)    8 Old Gate
Avenue, Weston on Trent, Derbyshire, DE7 2BZ.
5.1
Carvic Manufacturing    3 Shingay
Lane, Sawston, Cambridge CB2 4SS. (0223−834100)
5.1
Clares Micro Supplies    98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (0606−48511)
(−48512)
5.1
Colton Software (p24)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA. (0223−311881) (−312010)
5.1
Computer Concepts (p30/31)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 6EX. (0442−63933) (−231632)
5.1
Dalmation Publications    37 Manor
Road, Teddington, Middlesex  TW11 8AA.
5.1
David Pilling    P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
5.1
Digital Services    9 Wayte Street, Cosham, Portsmouth PO6 3BS.
(0705−210600) (−210705)
5.1
EMR Ltd     14 Mount Close, Wickford, Essex, SS11 8HG. (0702−335747)
5.1
G.A.Herdman     43 Saint Johns Drive, Clarborough, Retford, Notts DN22
9NN. (0777−700918) (also 700918)
5.1
HS Software    56, Hendrefolian Avenue, Sketty, Swansea, SA2 7NB.
(0792−204519)
5.1
IFEL (p19)    36 Upland Drive, Plymouth, Devon, PL6 6BD. (0752−847286)
5.1
Lingenuity (Lindis)    P.O.Box 10,
Halesworth, Suffolk, IP19 0DX. (0986−85−476) (−460)
5.1
LOOKsystems (p7)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603−764114) (−764011)
5.1
Micro Studio Ltd    22 Churchgate Street, Soham, Ely, Cambridgeshire.
(0353−720433)
5.1
Oak Solutions (p12)    Cross Park
House, Low Green, Rawdon, Leeds, LS19 6HA. (0532−502615) (−506868)
5.1
P.R.E.S. Ltd    P.O. Box 319, Lightwater, Surrey GU18 5PW. (0276−72046)
(−51427)
5.1
Ray Maidstone (p23)    421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603−407060) (−417447)
5.1
Shenley Software    5 Coombefield Close, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 5QF.
(081−949−3235)
5.1
Sherston Software    Swan Barton, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(0666−840433) (−840048)
5.1
Silicon Vision Ltd (p11)    Signal
House, Lyon Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 2AG. (081−422−2274) (−427−5169)
5.1
Southern Printers    47 Drake Road, Willesborough, Ashford, Kent TN24 0UZ.
(0233−633919)
5.1
Spacetech (p15)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.1
Techsoft UK Ltd (p16)    Old School
Lane, Erryrs, Mold, Clwyd, CH7 4DA. (082−43318)
5.1
Topologika    P.O. Box 39, Stilton, Peterborough, PE7 3RL. (0733−244682)
5.1
Word Processing    65 Milldale Crescent, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, W
Midlands  WV10 6LR.
5.1
Wyddfa Software    3 Preswylfa, Llanberis, Gwynedd, LL55 4LF.
(0286−870101)
5.1

5.1

5.1
Ace Computing
5.1
From 4.12 page 22
5.1

5.1
Hints and Tips
5.1
•    FileUtils − Anyone using Ben Summers’ FileUtils should note that
<ctrl-shift-F2>, <ctrl-shift-F3> and <ctrl-shift-F4> will still call up
the FileUtils routines even when, say, working in Impression. This can
give a nasty shock if you are, for example, trying to insert preset
styles using <ctrl-shift-F4> and a “change filetype” dialogue window
pops up. Mike Hobart, Cambridge.
5.1
•    Installing Desktop C − If you have recently upgraded from C to Desktop
C, you may have a little difficulty installing Desktop C onto your hard
disc. When you first try to run the ‘Install’ program, it will stop
abruptly half way through the second of the four discs, with no clues as
to what has happened. This is because the ‘Install’ program tries to
create a directory called $.User. Cmodule, which already exists from
your previous installation of C and so the program crashes. The solution
is simple, just delete the old $.User.Cmodule directory before attempt
ing to install Desktop C.   D R Kennard, London.
5.1
•    LBP-4 CaSPL − Switching between Video output (for the CC Hi-Res board)
and CaSPL output of the LBP-4 doesn’t appear to be documented in the
manual. Here is how it can be done:
5.1
From Video to CaSPL mode:
5.1
1.    Hold down “Menu” for 3 seconds until “Mode=Video” is displayed.
5.1
2.    Tap the “Menu” key once to display “Mode=CaSPL”
5.1
3.    Tap “Enter”. The LCD will read “01 Ex Exit” then “00 Ready A4”
5.1
4.    Tap the “Off-line” key to take the machine off-line (if the green
on-line indicator is lit).
5.1
5.    Tap “Feeder Select”.
5.1
6.    Tap “Menu”. The menu as described in the manual is now displayed.
5.1
From CaSPL to Video:
5.1
1.    Take the printer off-line.
5.1
2.    Hold down the “Menu” for 3 seconds − “Mode=CaSPL” is displayed.
5.1
3.    Tap “Menu” again − “Mode=Video” is displayed.
5.1
4.    Tap “Enter”.
5.1
5.    You are now back in Video mode.
5.1
Mike, Bainbridge, Derby.
5.1
Impression Hints & Tips
5.1
•    Adding a frame at beginning of a story − It is not immediately obvious
(well, it wasn’t to me!) how to add extra frames into a story that runs
through a number of frames. Suppose you have two frames, B and C (I’ll
get to A in a minute) − perhaps they are two main columns on this page −
and you want to split column B into two frames leaving a gap in the
middle. What you do is firstly shorten frame B using the frame handle at
the middle of the bottom of the frame. Then you use <ctrl-I> and create
a new frame wherever you want it under frame B (let’s call it frame B2).
Now click on frame B with <select> and then on frame B2 with <adjust>
and the text will flow into it so that it runs B−B2−C.
5.1
Now suppose you want the text to start in a frame before frame B. (Let’s
call it frame A.) The technique is to create the new frame, A, wherever
you want it using <ctrl-I>. Then click on frame B with <select> and then
on frame A with <adjust>. The text will now flow into it so that it runs
B−A−B2−C−etc. (N.B. This won’t work unless frames A and B are on the
same page because you cannot flow text backwards across a page bound
ary.) Then click on B and use <ctrl-X> to delete it. The flow is now
just A−B2−C−etc. Finally, you create a new copy of frame B by using
<ctrl-V>, click on frame A with <select> and the new B with <adjust> and
the flow will be A−B−B2−C−etc.
5.1
•    Dual window problems solved? − A few issues ago, I mentioned the
problem that if you open a second window on a document and then expand
and contract that window (so that you can alternately use two different
scale views) each time you shrink view 2 using the icon at the top right
of the window, it doesn’t stay at the place in the document that you
have just been working on. It always seemed (in my case) to go back to
somewhere earlier in the document. No one has offered any solution but
it seems to me that it goes back to wherever you last added a frame into
that window. So if you want to “keep your place” in the second window,
use <ctrl-I> to create a new frame at that place in the document and
then use <ctrl-X> to delete it again. Crude, but it seems to work. (No,
it doesn’t, not always. Drat, I thought I had solved it! Come on,
someone must be able to solve this one − I’ll give a free Archive mug to
the first person to solve it. Ed.)
5.1
• Equasor and matrices − The biggest drawback Equasor has for me as a
mathematics teacher is its inability − at least in version 1.00 − to
handle vectors and matrices.
5.1
There is, however, a way in which a very credible matrix can be created
− with a small amount of extra work:
5.1
I build the columns as multiple fractions, and then enclose everything
in brackets; I drop the file into Draw, remove the fraction bars and
then align the brackets with the numbers.
5.1
Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany
5.1
•    Special characters − Now I’m sure you ALL knew this, but I didn’t
until I read this month’s PipeLine article. The Alt key is extremely
useful for inserting special characters in the text. I had discovered
that <Alt-space> (that’s holding the Alt key down and tapping on the
space bar) gave a ‘hard’ space where you don’t what the words (e.g. the
halves of a postcode) to be split across the end of one line and the
beginning of the next, and I had discovered the idea of using Alt
together with the numbers on the numeric keypad to produce special
characters, but how about this...
5.1
      a² + b² = c³
5.1
I produced that in seconds without using superscript. The ² is produced
with <Alt-2> and the ³ with (yes, you’ve guessed) <Alt-3>. In other
words, you hold down the Alt key, as if it were the shift key, and type
2 or 3. Here is a table of the ones I have found but note that this only
applies to Trinity font which I am using. Other fonts may be different
but, generally, they tend to stick to using the same symbols for the
same ASCII numbers which the Alt key produces. The third column is the
ASCII number produced.
5.1
<Alt-1>    ¹    185
5.1
<Alt-2>    ²    178
5.1
<Alt-3>    ³    179
5.1
<Alt-9>    ±    177
5.1
<Alt-0>    °     176
5.1
<Alt-C>    ¢    162
5.1
<Shift-Alt-C>    ©    169
5.1
<Alt-M>    µ    181
5.1
<Alt-R>    ®    174
5.1
<Alt-S>    §    167
5.1
<Alt-X>    »    187
5.1
<Alt-Y>    ¥    165
5.1
<Alt-Z>    «    171
5.1
<Alt-`>    ¬    172
5.1
(top left key under <esc>)
5.1
<Alt-,>    ×    215
5.1
<Alt-.>    ÷    247
5.1
<Alt-space>        160 (hard space)
5.1
If you have found any that I have missed, perhaps in other fonts, let us
know. Ed.
5.1
• Spell checking Edit documents − Whenever I typed a longish Edit text
file, I used to regret the absence of a spell checker. For Impression
users, this poses no problem:
5.1
Simply drop the Edit file in question into an empty Impression frame,
have Impression check the spelling, then export the text back into Edit
by saving just the text story without styles. You can drag the text
story onto the Edit icon to have another look at it or save it in the
usual way directly to a disk. The import/export takes just a few
seconds, so this is nearly as good as a spell checker built into Edit
itself. Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany  A
5.1

5.1
Silicon Vision
5.1
New
5.1

5.1
Colton
5.1

5.1
4.12 p21
5.1

5.1
Matters Arising
5.1
•    Archimedes’ Tutor − Simon Anthony has produced a Beginner’s D.I.Y.
Introduction to the Archimedes using the !Hyper application on Shareware
Disc 19. If anyone is interested they should contact him directly at 62
Rutland Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 5DG.
5.1
•    ArmSort − Fast Array Sorts − The author replies... The reviewer
(Ashley Bowden in Archive 4.12 p53) seems to have created a problem with
the flag values. The ArmSort documentation DID clearly state that for
the CALL sort “The parameters must all be variables, but may be of any
name”. If CALL sort,test%() ,128 is used, then it is Basic that objects
with “Syntax Error”, ERR=16, because it is a Basic requirement that all
CALL parameters are variables not constants. Thus it is rather unfair
for the reviewer to claim that to have to use variables is “.. very
unorthodox, and mention should be made in the documentation.” ArmSort
errors are comprehensive and are very clearly documented.
5.1
This ‘problem’ wasted about a third of the review, which could have been
better used to mention the PROCsort and SWI interfaces or the ability to
sort on absolute numeric values, or with null strings low or high.
5.1
May I also suggest that all software reviews should clearly state what
version is being reviewed: the ArmSort review copy was Version 2.12,
sent to Archive in February. The current Version is 2.51, which has the
following improvements: sort time reductions of between 30% and nearly
50%; the ability to sort strings from any position, or by length; the
ability to specify a key sequence; new procedures for a fast binary
search of sorted arrays; and all programs now do run easily from the
desktop. All users have had free upgrades and seem happy with the
product. Martin Avison, Avisoft.
5.1
(Sorry if we seem to have reviewed an out-of-date product but when
someone sends software to us for review, we have to assume it is a
“stable” version. If the software has gone from version 2.12 to version
2.51 since February, this indicates continuous development. This is fine
but, if significant changes are made, the onus is on the software
supplier to send us the latest version. This product was still on the
“software to be reviewed” list in the May edition of Archive. If Martin
had noticed this and sent us the latest version at that stage, the
difficulty might have been avoided. Ed.)
5.1
•    MidiVision Update − Koen Lefever has sent us an updated version the
MidiVision program on Shareware Disc 33. It is now compatible with the
new Acorn MIDI Podule ROM and capable of detecting real time messages.
The new version has been put on this month’s program disc.
5.1
•    PRES Disc Interface & DFS − In the review in Archive 4.11 p27 we
referred to difficulties in reading 40 track BBC discs. PRES suggested
that the problem may be due to “residual data” on the discs. In other
words, they are suggesting that the problem may lie with discs that have
been written onto by different 40 track drives, some with narrow heads,
as in 40/80 drives, and some with wider tracks as in true 40 track
drives. It would be interesting to hear other people’s experiences on
this. We have also found that it is sometimes necessary to slow the head
stepping time right down as low as it will go in order to read 40 track
discs. (We also used a rather old address for PRES. It is currently P.O.
Box 319, Lightwater, Surrey, GU18 5PW. 0276−72046, fax 51427.)
5.1
•    RISC-OS Dreaming − I would like to reply to Oliver Gunasekara’s
letter, RISC-OS Dreaming, published in Archive 4.12 p15. Many of
Oliver’s suggestions have been extensively discussed in the USENET news-
group dedicated to Acorn machines. Well-informed contributions from
Acorn staff (in a private capacity) and experienced programmers (RISC-OS
and otherwise) allow fairly definite predictions to be made as to the
likelihood of some of these suggestions being realised in later version
of RISC-OS.
5.1
Firstly, there is almost no chance of proper demand paged virtual memory
being implemented under RISC-OS on current generation ARM processors.
The problem is that much (if not all) of RISC-OS runs with the ARM
processor in its supervisor mode. In this mode, the ARM-2 and ARM-3 are
unable to implement virtual memory. Not enough information is saved to
enable execution to be resumed after an attempt to access memory not
physically present causes the MEMC memory controller to interrupt
execution. Thus, virtual memory would require a drastic rewrite of RISC-
OS so that any code that might access virtual memory runs in user mode
or avoids memory not physically present. Acorn almost certainly do not
have the resources to do the necessary rewrite. Simpler, less effective
forms of virtual memory such as swapping out non-running programs are
possible, but would still be very complicated.
5.1
Pre-emptive multi-tasking is, on the other hand, quite possible. It is
just that doing it without introducing subtle bugs into software written
under the assumption that multi-tasking is co-operative is fiddly. As
with virtual memory, the fact that RISC-OS did not allow for pre-emptive
multi-tasking, when originally written, makes it messy to implement
later on. Even running other tasks when the current task is blocked,
waiting for i/o, is rather tricky to implement though, according to the
grape-vine, this does indeed happen to some extent in RISC-OS 3.
5.1
As to nicer system fonts, better design, TCP/IP file-sharing and hot-
linking − let’s hope it happens. There’s no technical obstacle and these
are definitely things necessary for Acorn to keep up with the state of
the art. A new file-system allowing more files in a directory and longer
filenames would also go down well. It would be a real boon to people
like myself who have to use RISC-OS machines in conjunction with UNIX or
MesS-DOS boxes.  Andrew Stevens, Overton.
5.1
•    RISC-OS Dreaming − I would agree with many of the points about RISC-OS
2.0 put forward (in Archive 4.12 p15), by Oliver Gunasekara. However,
I’m not sure that making RISC-OS look more like other graphical
interfaces will necessarily bring us much benefit.
5.1
I am responsible for several different computer systems (micros and
minis) each of which has its own user interface from the quirkiness of
the Apple and Atari systems, to the smooth, powerful X-Windows systems.
Some of the staff prefer one system, some prefer another. It’s a bit
like choosing your favourite car, you get the one that suits you.
5.1
Strangely enough, considering its sales, the least popular GUI in our
department is Windows 3.0. Even allowing for its deficiencies, RISC-OS
seems to have become the preferred choice for more than half our
department. Whether this is due to RISC-OS itself, applications like
Impression or the speed of the ARM3 powered machines, I’m not sure. What
I am sure of is that RISC-OS is quite capable of winning converts from
other systems.
5.1
Even so, let’s hope that RISC-OS 3 contains a lot of those improvements
mentioned by Oliver. D Hutchinson, Sheffield.  A
5.1

5.1
Contact Box
5.1
•    Southampton Archimedes User Group is now established. They meet once a
month. For details, write (with S.A.E. please) to Dr Andrew Provan, 79
Roselands Gardens, Highfield, Southampton SO2 1QJ.
5.1
•    User Groups Unite! − We thought it would be a great idea to compile a
list of local user groups and Richard Corderoy has volunteered to be the
coordinator. So, if you run a local group, send the details to Richard
who can compile a list which can go on the monthly disc regularly and/or
be published in the magazine on occasions. The address is R Corderoy, 13
Church Walk, Worthing  BN11 2LS.  A
5.1

5.1
Techsoft
5.1
From 4.12 page 27
5.1

5.1
 First Impression
5.1
Robert Chrismas
5.1
First Impression is a guide to Computer Concepts’ DTP package, Impres
sion II. This guide is not produced by Computer Concepts, although the
letter accompanying the review copy says that it has been ‘approved by
Charles Moir’ of Computer Concepts.
5.1
The package
5.1
It would be easy to mistake the First Impression package for a copy of
Impression. The black ring binder and slip-case are just like the ones
supplied with Impression; the Computer Concepts markings are covered
with smart black sticky labels bearing the ‘First Impression’ title.
5.1
In the back are two disks in a plastic wallet. The price is £29.95
including postage from Word Processing or £28 through Archive.
5.1
The text
5.1
First Impression is divided into two parts. The first part introduces
the main features of Impression and is aimed at users new to Impression.
The second part, the appendices, explains the special techniques used to
produce some sample documents.
5.1
The first part is nearly 150 pages long and it is divided into thirteen
chapters:
5.1
• Introduction
5.1
• Starting Impression
5.1
• Starting a new document
5.1
• Saving your document
5.1
• Printing
5.1
• Inserting and removing text
5.1
• Applying effects
5.1
• Styles
5.1
• Rulers
5.1
• Frames
5.1
• Frame text
5.1
• Graphics
5.1
• Chapters and master pages
5.1
Each chapter takes the user through a series of exercises which
illustrate the topic. There are frequent reminders, helpful sub-headings
and chapter summaries.
5.1
Some of the chapters include written tasks, e.g. ‘Write down the
differences between null frames (and when they stop being null frames)
and guide frames. When would you use each type?’ Lined pages are
included to record your answers. I think this is a good idea but it does
seem a bit strange to take up a pen to write my answer when I could type
it into Impression. I looked in the back, but it did not have model
answers.
5.1
There is a comprehensive index covering the first part of the guide.
5.1
The substantial appendices (about 100 pages) form the second part of the
guide. They describe how to produce a variety of sample documents.
5.1
• Frames
5.1
• Simple questionnaire
5.1
• 2-column questionnaire
5.1
• Dropshadow
5.1
• Simple table
5.1
• Complex table
5.1
• Borders
5.1
• Overlines
5.1
• 3-column leaflet
5.1
• Superimposed text
5.1
• Master page
5.1
The appendices do not depend on one another so you could tackle them in
any order.
5.1
On the disks there are sample files which are referred to in both
sections of the guide.
5.1
Target audience
5.1
When I received this guide, one of my first thoughts was ‘the Impression
manual is pretty good and it includes a tutorial section, do we need
this?’ However, this view overlooks all the people who only use
computers in order to make a living, who regard time spent thumbing
through a manual and learning by trial and error not as a pleasant
recreation, but as time wasted. The power of the Archimedes and the
increasing availability of excellent packages like Impression mean that
more and more of these ‘reluctant users’ will be using Archimedes
software, and they will be prepared to pay for good quality instruc
tional material. We can expect to see more guides like this. Whether the
market is yet big enough to make them profitable remains to be seen, but
for Archimedes enthusiasts their arrival is an encouraging sign.
5.1
In fact, when I looked at the tutorial in the Impression manual it was
nowhere near as comprehensive as I remembered it. Also, there is quite a
lot in First Impression which would be attractive even to an existing
user. The appendices cover some of the trickier aspects of Impression
like tables with several lines of text in each box, and creating borders
in Draw, neither of which is trivial (although see later on borders).
5.1
Does it work?
5.1
For a proper opinion, I suppose that First Impression should be given to
someone new to Impression so that they could work through it, but there
was no time to try this. I felt that the exercises were well thought out
and a new user who had the patience to work through them carefully,
would be able to use Impression with confidence.
5.1
The guide covers a sensible range of features. As I looked at it, I was
again struck by the power of Impression and by how difficult it was to
introduce its features in a step by step way since so many of them are
interdependent. First Impression manages to cover each section without
assuming knowledge of topics not yet covered.
5.1
Problems
5.1
Determined students will probably welcome the thorough, systematic
design of this guide. More hasty personalities may find it hard to wait
for section seven to learn how to change the font size and style, and
they may not be prepared to wait for section twelve to learn about
graphics.
5.1
Some of the sections seemed quite difficult to follow. The text often
refers to earlier passages in the chapter and I spent some time hunting
back for the appropriate paragraph.
5.1
An example of the difficulty of introducing interdependent ideas in a
practical way can be found in the section ‘Inserting and removing text’.
In this section, there is an explanation of the terms ‘cut’ and ‘copy’,
then a list the ways in which the user can paste text, next comes a
short discussion of the function of the clipboard and only when all
these topics have been exhausted is the reader told how to highlight a
word (double click on it) or a phrase (drag the cursor). Since you have
to be able to highlight a section to cut or copy it, this chapter may
create a hint of suspense.
5.1
Although there are some illustrations, I would have liked more,
particularly illustrations of the menus and more examples of how the
document should look at different stages. However, there is a limit to
how much time can be spent producing a guide like this and illustrations
are particularly time consuming.
5.1
I could not create a new frame border with !Draw by following the
instructions in First Impression. When I put First Impression to one
side and made a few experimental borders I soon managed to copy the
border described. To be fair, First Impression does warn that the method
it describes is a ‘work around’ to cope with a problem/disagreement
between certain versions of Impression and Draw. I was not able to test
it with the versions described.
5.1
Some of the suggestions in the guide are questionable. For example, I
would not advise a user with a 1Mb machine to load a printer driver
before every session.
5.1
Other observations
5.1
It would be foolish to try to cram everything about Impression into a
tutorial guide. Neverthe-less I was sorry to see that First Impression
does not cover some features which I use regularly. For example, the
guide does not seem to mention that you can highlight a section of text
by clicking <select> at the beginning and <adjust> at the end. However,
Impression often provides several different ways to do the same thing
and users will have their own preferences.
5.1
Until I read this guide, I did not know that there was a ‘Ruler setup’
window. First Impression usually prefers to make adjustments to frames
and rulers by altering dimensions in windows, rather than by dragging
them and adjusting ‘by eye’. This is a sensible practice because you
cannot tell someone who is just starting to use a package, to adjust a
frame until it ‘looks right’.
5.1
At the moment, First Impression is only available from Word Processing
and N.C.S. However, Bilston Community College (see Factfile) is going to
offer a distance learning package based on the tutorial material. It is
thought that the cost of the course will be £35 in addition to the cost
of the tutorial guide. It will give users access to expert help on
Impression as they work through the tutorial. Extra tasks will be
available as well as telephone support. For more details of the course
write to “First Impression, Open Business Centre” at Bilston College.
5.1
Conclusions
5.1
This guide represents a great deal of work by someone who has a detailed
and comprehensive understanding of Impression. It does not cover all the
features of Impression but the author has made a sensible selection of
features and covered them in much more detail than the manual.
5.1
It will require commitment to work through all the exercises, but First
Impression will teach new users how to use Impression effectively. It
also contains information, in the appendices, which will be useful to
more experienced users.
5.1
I think experienced users who would not want to work through the first
section might feel that the price is a bit high, but Impression is so
good that some people are buying an Archimedes* so they can use it and
they will not notice an extra £30 for a good tutorial. If you have just
bought Impression and you are finding it hard going First Impression
should provide the help you need.
5.1
I was pleased to see that this sort of guide is now being produced for
Archimedes software.  A
5.1

5.1
IFEL
5.1
new
5.1

5.1
Removable Hard Drives
5.1
Paul Beverley
5.1
We have had a lot of enquiries recently about the removable hard drives,
especially as the prices have dropped over the months from £680 to £525!
We have given quite a bit of information about them in SCSI Columns and
news items but I am conscious that the information is very spread out
and nowhere is there an over-view. Here is a summary of the story so far
(with last minute added news about the new 84M drives)....
5.1
Removable hard drives have been in use on the Apple Mac computers for
several years and are now being used widely on the Archimedes. The
drives are boxed by various companies − we deal with Atomwide, well
known for its Archimedes involvement and two American companies, Frog
Systems Inc and MicroNet Technology Inc. However, the drive mechanism,
which is made by SyQuest Technology Inc., is the same in all of them.
All that each manufacturer does is to add a box, a power supply, some
connectors and, in some cases, a SCSI ID switch.
5.1
The drives look a bit like 5¼“ disc drives except that the slot is ½”
deep. The cartridge which goes into this slot consists of a solid metal
disc in a hard plastic case. To use it, you push the cartridge into the
slot and close the locking lever and the disc spins up to speed (this
takes about 12 seconds). When full speed is reached, the drive icon on
your icon bar gives you access to 42M (or 84M) of data. To change
cartridges, you dismount the drive on the icon bar and the disc spins
down to a stop (after 5 seconds). You can then remove the cartridge,
insert a new one, click on the drive icon. When it gets back up to speed
you have access to another 42M (or 84M) of data.
5.1
Removables as a back-up medium
5.1
As a back-up medium it is excellent − cheaper and faster than tapes
treamers and much quicker and easier if you want to look up the archived
data. If you want to save space, you can use a file compressor such as
David Pilling’s Spark or Computer Concepts’ new compression utility (see
Products Available). We have also just got hold of one of the long
awaited 84M Syquest drives which, with Compression would allow you to
back up a 100M drive very easily.
5.1
Removables as a main drive
5.1
However, removable drives shouldn’t be thought of just as a back-up
medium. You can use one as a main drive and have a number of different
cartridges, one for each area of work (or leisure) that you are dealing
with. Each cartridge can then have its own boot file to set up your
system in the most appropriate way. The cartridges have a write-protect
switch so they can be used in situations where data has to be protected
from deletion. My only reservations about using removable drives as a
main drive are related to reliability − see below.
5.1
Speed
5.1
These drives are fast − faster than some fixed hard drives. The average
access time is 20 milliseconds. Using the Oak Solutions’ SCSI controller
card, the 42M drive can transfer data at up to 590 kbytes/second and the
84M drive at 900 kbytes/second.
5.1
Here are some comparative speed tests in modes 0, 15 and 21 for a 45M
Worrawinnie, the two Syquest drives and a 100M Oak High Speed drive.
5.1
           45WW    42M     84M  100HS
5.1
0    659    590    900    1170
5.1
15    659    590    900    1156
5.1
21    55    361    590    735
5.1

5.1
We also did our other speed test where we copy the contents of the
Applications 2 disc (i.e. lots of files) from one directory on the drive
to another. We have in the past quoted these as the time in seconds but
to make it easier to judge the speeds we have divided the time into the
total data copied (420k) to give a rate in kbytes/sec.
5.1
           45WW     42M     84M   100HS
5.1
0    44    45    47    70
5.1
15    40    42    45    65
5.1
21    18    33    36    51
5.1

5.1
Capacity
5.1
SyQuest cartridges, when formatted, hold approximately 42M of data. The
one I am using now is 44,390,400 bytes (used + free) which is 42.33M
(where 1Mbyte = 1024 × 1024 bytes). (The new 84M I have just bought is
84.7 Mbyte formatted.)
5.1
Compatibility
5.1
The SyQuest mechanisms work with all the SCSI interfaces that we have
tried on the Archimedes (Oak, Lingenuity and Acorn). There have been
problems with the newer Acorn SCSI cards (AKA31, not AKA30) but this has
been overcome by a software fix which Acorn dealers can provide.
5.1
Robustness
5.1
When the cartridges are inserted into the drive, they should be treated
with the same care as fixed hard drives. However, the cartridges
themselves are extremely robust. At the manufacturers’ suggestion, we
threw one of the cartridges from one side of our office to the other. It
crashed onto the floor, bounced and rolled over a couple of times.
Putting it back into the drive and verifying it revealed that there
wasn’t a single error on it. I have repeated the test on occasions since
and found a similar robustness.
5.1
Reliability
5.1
When the SyQuest drives were first used on the Apple Macintosh, there
were criticisms about the reliability of the drives. It is unreasonable,
in my view, to expect that the removable hard drives should be as
reliable as fixed hard drives, because they are not held in sealed
units. SyQuest have greatly improved the quality of their drives to the
extent that, if you are wanting to use them as a back-up medium, I would
say that you are extremely unlikely to experience any problems. If you
use them as a main data storage medium and use them all day, every day,
as I do, you may find that you get an occasional data error. For me,
this is a small price to pay for the convenience that removable drives
offer. I ensure that sensitive data is backed up onto another hard drive
on a regular basis but if I do get  an error, all I have to do is
*defect the error out of the map and carry on as before.
5.1
Configurations
5.1
We sell SyQuest drives in two configurations: an Atomwide removable
drive and a “Mac-type” drive. The Mac-type drives are “Mac shaped”, i.e.
10“ x 10” and 2½“ high (designed to sit underneath a Mac computer)
whereas Atomwide’s drives are 6” wide, 4“ high and 10” deep − much
better suited to putting alongside an Archimedes computer.
5.1
Another difference is that Atomwide have used a more powerful fan and
placed it at the back of the drive unit whereas the Mac drives, being
flat, have the fan alongside the drive unit pointing downwards. The
positioning of these drives is, therefore, more critical because you
have to be careful that the fan outlet doesn’t become blocked. Never-
the-less, we still sell a lot of the Mac drives because people find the
noise of the high power fan rather distracting.
5.1
The other advantage of the Mac drives is that they have a SCSI ID switch
on the back. This is particularly useful in situations where you are
taking the drive round to a number of different computers which may
require a different ID setting.
5.1
The new 84M drives are, at the moment, only available in the Mac-type
format and look identical to the 42M drives.
5.1
Cost
5.1
Both configurations of 42M drive cost £525 each including VAT and
carriage. This includes one cartridge and a data cable. (You need to
specify the podule type because Oak, Lingenuity and Acorn all use
different types of connectors! − IDC, 25-way D-type and Amphenol
respectively.) Extra 42 M cartridges cost £75 each. The 84M drives are
£690 and the spare cartridges are £140 each.
5.1
If you want to buy a SCSI controller at the same time, we recommend the
Oak Solution’ SCSI podule because it is 16-bit for speed and not as
expensive as the Acorn one (which also needs a software patch which
Acorn are working on for us). The Oak podule adds £200 to the price and
is available as an internal podule for A300 and A400 series computers
and as an external podule for A3000. If you prefer an internal podule on
the A3000, we recommend the Lingenuity interface at £165. This is an 8
bit interface, not a 16-bit interface like the Oak podule. This does
make it slightly slower but in most applications this is hardly
noticeable.
5.1
Users’ comments
5.1
What I have written is based on the experience of the three we use in
the office and the one I have at home. The only other users I ever tend
to hear from are the few who experience problems with their drives, so I
get a rather jaundiced view of things! Perhaps others would like to
write in and let us know how all these removable drives are getting on.
5.1
The future
5.1
If you need more than 42Mbytes of removable storage on line at one time,
it is possible to get a dual 42M drive. The only problem is that the
cost is more than buying two individual drives. (I think it’s got
something to do with supply and demand!) The other possibility is the
new 84M cartridge drive which we have had a quick look at but not done
extensive tests on so far. They are apparently able to read the 42M
cartridges though they cannot write onto them. Just think, you could put
Unix on a single 84M removable cartridge!  A
5.1

5.1
Atomwide
5.1
From 4.12 page 7
5.1

5.1
Oak
5.1
New if it arrives by 9.00 a.m. on 26th September
5.1
Otherwise use
5.1
4.12 page 6
5.1

5.1
Computer Concepts
5.1
New
5.1

5.1
Computer Concepts
5.1
New
5.1

5.1
The Engineer Speaks...
5.1
Ray Maidstone
5.1
For the last few months, Ray Maidstone has been, effectively, the N.C.S.
Service Centre. He has done a great job fixing dead or dying Archimedes
computers for us and upgrading the memory of A310s. In doing so, he has
come across various recurring problems which could be avoided if a few
precautions were followed.
5.1
Here are some hints & tips which should help to keep your Archimedes in
tip-top condition. A word of warning though, some of the things I am
suggesting should not be attempted unless you really feel competent to
do so. The general rule is, if in doubt, ask for help!
5.1
•    300 and early 400 series keyboards − (See also the article on page 37)
These keyboards do not have sprung contacts coming together, but foil
closing over multiple contact points on sprung pads. Various people have
informed me that they have sprayed their keyboards with switch cleaner
to improve things when they have had intermittent contacts on one or
more keys. They may have got away with it, but it is my view that these
keyboards should never be sprayed with switch cleaner. The only
recommended method of servicing this item is to dismantle (but ONLY if
you feel competent to do so!) and remove foreign particles with a soft
brush and a vacuum cleaner. Anything sticky or difficult to remove is
best left to your Service Centre. WARNING: Using switch cleaner which
contains an organic solvent can destroy components within the keyboard
and slowly but surely render it useless. Be warned! (We have a dead
keyboard available for inspection if you are in any doubt! It was killed
by using Tandy’s Tix Electronic Switch Cleaner. Ed)
5.1
•    Mouse − If you unplug your mouse, the recommended procedure for
reconnection is to first disconnect the keyboard from the computer, plug
the mouse into the keyboard then reconnect to the computer. The reason
for this is that the mouse contains one solitary chip, which has no
protection from spikes at switch-on from the outside world, whereas the
keyboard has circuitry that is slightly better equipped to cope with any
misadventures. Plugging the mouse into the keyboard and then plugging
the keyboard into the computer is the safest method and could well save
you money.
5.1
•    Monitor smear − On the 400 series computers, it is possible to get a
composite video signal out of the sync socket which you can use for a
mono monitor. This is done by making links LK5 and LK6. However, if
these links are made, it can cause problems with certain high resolution
monitors. You get a certain amount of smearing on the ends of horizontal
lines. This effect is caused by the electronics of the Archimedes and
can only be cured by removing the links. (I have a confession to make.
Until we discovered this problem, we always tested our 400 series
computers using a mono monitor. We added links 5 and 6 but did not
remove them before sending out the computers. If you have had a 400
series computer from us, I suggest you check for this effect and remove
the links if necessary. Ed)
5.1
•    Video RGB outlet − On the 310 and early 400 series, it is possible to
destroy the VIDC chip by plugging in the video lead to either the
computer or the monitor if one or both of these items are switched on.
The electronics of this socket do not accept the slightest static
variation and any deviation will damage the VIDC chip. Whoops! − there
goes another £30! I have designed a multiple diode module as a service
modification which upgrades these old machines to the new static-
protected specification. Whilst Acorn confirm that my modification is
“Archimedes-legal”, they will not put their name to it as yet. This
modification has been particularly well received by schools, as it stops
pupils being able to blow up their computers!
5.1
•    Fan filters − With the fan driving air into the filter (lower half of
the diagram below) it is possible for the filter, in its blocked state,
to completely eliminate all airflow within the computer. However, with
the fan sucking air through the filter (upper half of the diagram
below), even if the filter becomes totally blocked, residual air
currents will still flow within the computer, providing some “last
resort” cooling. Also, with the filter on the outside of the fan,
cleaning couldn’t be easier. All that is needed is to slide the lid back
10 cm (or 4 inches for those of us still in Imperial!) and suck the dust
off the filter with a vacuum cleaner.
5.1
•    Hard drive parking − After much debate and the dismantling of two
unserviceable hard drives, I have found that, in order to give your data
maximum protection at closedown, *BYE must be followed by *SHUTDOWN.
These two commands, although slightly similar, do not seem to perform
the same task and, to my satisfaction, have been proven to be necessary
in the order stated. The effects of closing the drive down can be
verified acoustically and visually, e.g. *BYE will produce one staccato
tick noise and a short flash on the hard drive LED, but this does not
mean the drive is fully parked. Typing *SHUTDOWN will produce a multiple
wink of the hard drive LED and a triple tick noise from the drive. Take
my word that this guarantees total shutdown of the drive. If *SHUTDOWN
is typed without having typed *BYE, a single tick will be heard and the
drive will simply have moved the head to a different track, but it will
not be fully parked. (Different effects happen on different drives under
this condition.)
5.1
(Some may call this a “belt & braces” method, but when it comes to
protecting several hundred pounds worth of hard drive, I prefer to err
on the side of caution. Ed)
5.1
•    Removable hard drive parking − The command DISMOUNT brought up by
clicking <menu> on the SCSI icon, does not mean your drive is parked. It
simply means that the drive has shut its motor down and that the
software has “forgotten” about the drive in question. At this point, if
you switch the power off, the heads have been left out over the disc at
the last track you were using and will be in the same position next time
you switch on the power. In order to eliminate the possibility of power-
on destroying any data bits, the centre button on the removable drive
must be pressed and the drive fully disengaged with the lever. This
operation mechanically parks the heads off the disc and is the only way
to guarantee this.
5.1
•    Stray metalware − When removing the motherboard on the 300/400 series,
it is very possible to dislodge one or more of the spring speed nuts
(for the two rear self tapping screws that “get in the way” when
removing the board). Make sure these are firmly in place when reassem
bling − better still, remove them, clamp them slightly more closed and
refit. This will prevent any further mishap which could cause shorting
under the main PCB.
5.1
•    Stuck floppy discs − It is unfortunately possible, now and again, for
a floppy disc to become stuck in the drive. This will be due to one of
the following causes, and if you wish to keep costs to a minimum, NEVER
tug at, or forcibly remove, the stuck item.
5.1
(Again, we have u/s floppy drives available for inspection if you need
proof. Ed.)
5.1
1. The metal sliding cover on the disc can become widened, perhaps due
to being bent in the post, or being sat on or whatever. As the metalwork
of the slider opens, it will act like a ratchet allowing the disc to go
in but not to come out without difficulty.
5.1
2. The spring that returns the metal cover can become unlaced and behave
like a fish hook, snagging the unlocking post within the drive.
5.1
3. The metal screening plate on the upper disc reading head within the
drive can become dislodged and catching the plastic work of the disc
(particularly on the older Sony drives).
5.1
In ALL cases, if the drive is removed by somebody competent to do so,
you should find that delicate easing will allow the disc to come out
again without damaging the drive and, 9 times out of 10, the disc can
also be saved.
5.1
In the case of the metal head shield of the Sony drive, simply throw it
away as it was later found to be unnecessary. Where the metal gate of
the drive is distorted, it is quite acceptable to remove this item by
unfolding it and removing the spring. The disc will operate without the
metal cover but keep little fingers out − remember the 5¼“ floppies?  A
5.1

5.1
The filter is blocked but at least a little air flow remains
5.1

5.1
The filter is blocked and no through air flow is possible
5.1

5.1
Oak Tape Streamer
5.1
Gwyn Williams
5.1
My wife is writing educational packages for the Archimedes, and I use
the machine for WP/DTP work. Backup onto floppies was a time consuming
irritation on our A440 but the thought of backing up our new A540’s 100
Mbyte drive onto floppies was unbearable.
5.1
There were four practical possibilities: a second fixed hard disc, a
removable hard disc, Oak’s cassette streamer or their conventional tape
streamer, using DC600A type cartridges. The second fixed hard disc
sounded the most attractive and a 100 Mbyte hard disc is now relatively
cheap (Frog 100M drives cost £420 inc VAT, and 200M drives cost £670.
Ed)  but if you were as paranoid as I am, you would worry about a fire
destroying both or a power cut occurring during the backup. The cost of
the six disc cartridges needed to back up on a removable drive (3 for
main and 3 for subsidiary backup) was prohibitive*. I therefore went on
to discuss the choice with Oak Solutions.
5.1
The cassette streamer is not guaranteed to work with the Acorn SCSI
card, because the Oak card can output single bytes to the SCSI bus to
compensate for the slowness of the drive, but the Acorn card will only
send blocks.
5.1
The decision was therefore simple, I would have to fork out the higher
media cost of the high speed device and order a 60 Mbyte cartridge tape
streamer. In retrospect, it would have been cheaper to buy the cassette
streamer with an Oak SCSI card and throw away the Acorn one!
5.1
The arrival
5.1
It was packed in about forty times its own volume of polystyrene in two
cardboard boxes. Clearly no risks with couriers were being taken.
5.1
I was grateful that a tape cartridge was included in the package, as
waiting for that to arrive before testing it would have been like having
a Christmas toy without the batteries.
5.1
Documentation
5.1
The unit comes with clear instructions which are easy to follow, and
installation on the A540 was a simple matter of removing the terminator
from the computer and plugging in the tape streamer (remember to tell
the dealer which card you’ll be using: they have different connectors).
5.1
Instructions are given to configure the software to use a different SCSI
device number, but this was not necessary with the 540. The Acorn SCSI
card user guide has instructions about the order of turning devices on
or off, but tape streamers should cope with being turned on after the
computer, and it has given no trouble so far.
5.1
Software
5.1
The software provided (on disc) is easy to use. There is a desktop
application which loads onto the icon bar on the left, just like the
drive icons. It takes up 160k of RAM. Clicking menu on this opens a
window allowing the tape to be catalogued (to a text file: a catalogue of
a 56 Mbyte tape was 163k long), verfied, erased or re-tensioned (wound
forwards and then rewound: recommended on first use of a tape). The
software works fully within the desktop but tends to hog the computer
(except when cataloguing), leaving little or no time for other
applications.
5.1
Other options allow you to define the criteria for a backup and save them
as a file compatible with Mitre’s DiscTree format. The user has the
following backup options:-
5.1
 •    everything below one given directory (below more than one
directory at the same level is not possible, neither is it possible to
exclude a directory: a strange omission, which I hope will be remedied
in future versions.)
5.1
 •    only files matching a wildcarded name criterion
5.1
 •    only files of given filetype
5.1
 •    only files after a given date (with a handy “yesterday” option)
5.1
 •    including or excluding non stamped files
5.1
 •    only files before a given date, which can also be used with the
“after a given date” option.
5.1
 •    run automatically, and unattended, every day, week or month,
logging what it does if required.
5.1
It allows multiple backups onto one tape, and one backup (of a disc
larger then the tape, for example) to use more than one tape. It checks
each tape as you insert it and asks for confirmation if the tape already
contains a backup.
5.1
Speed
5.1
A tape streamer is obviously more convenient than floppy discs, mainly
because of increased speed of working. These timings refer to my setup
of an A540, Acorn SCSI card (the new AKA 31 card, a 16 bit interface),
internal 100 Mbyte hard disc as supplied with the A540, and the Oak 60
Mbyte TS60SCA tape streamer.
5.1
Bytes used on disc:     58 300 928
5.1
Time taken to backup:    11 mins 26
secs
5.1
Time taken to verify:    10 mins 34
secs
5.1
Time taken to catalogue:    11 mins 15
secs
5.1
These times include the time taken to reply to a confirmatory dialogue
box. They were done in Atomwide’s mode 106 (1088 × 432, 16 colours).
This is a data transfer rate of over 82 kbytes/sec, or almost 5 Mbytes
per minute for backup. A completely full hard disc could therefore be
backed up in 24 minutes. For comparison, at work I use a 20MHz 80386 IBM
clone, with a TEAC cassette tape streamer, which takes 6 minutes to back
up 10 Mbytes (and reboots the computer, a network file server, before
starting!), nearly three times slower than the Oak device at 1.7 Mbytes
per minute.
5.1
Restore
5.1
Restoring data from the tape is also very quick − about as fast as the
backup − but finding an individual file on the tape takes quite a time.
When the restore command is given, a window similar to DiscTree’s is
popped up after the tape is catalogued, so that restoring just one file
takes ten minutes; this part of the process multi-tasks, so you can
continue working, but multi-tasking during the backup procedure is
almost impossible, with long gaps between polls, and totally impossible
during verification. The restoring process is similar to using the
filer, so is straightforward and intuitive. As with the filer, the
“confirm” option can be turned off, a “newer” option can be specified and
existing files can be overwritten, and OakTape gives you the option of
keeping the original date stamp or setting it to the time at which it
was restored.
5.1
Summary and options
5.1
My decision to buy a tape streamer involved three considerations: the
value placed on my data, the value placed on my time, and cost. I would
not dream now of going back to floppy discs for backup, knowing that
backups would only be done weekly at best.
5.1
A second hard disc used purely for backup is the next cheapest option
and if I weren’t such a pessimist, I’d go for it. It would be quicker
than a tape streamer and, if your needs expanded, you could get a backup
hard disc twice the size.
5.1
If your main disc is 45 Mbytes or smaller, a removable drive would be
more realistic as you’d only need two disc cartridges for a minimum
backup regime.
5.1
The cassette streamer is cheaper than the High Speed tape streamer,
though I don’t know how slow it is. The major attraction of tape is its
speed. However, a 150 Mbyte cassette streamer could be purchased for the
price of a 60 Mbyte cartridge drive, so at least a visit to change tapes
would be avoided. When considering this option, bear in mind the
forementioned problem with Acorn SCSI cards/software.
5.1
The Oak High Speed series tape streamer is a fairly fast device, with
good supporting software, still streets ahead of that on the IBM clone
at my work place, even if it does take for ever to restore one file.
Against this is its high cost: the unit reviewed here costs a hefty
£1000 +VAT. A tape streamer for an IBM clone would cost under £600 +VAT
for an equivalent 60M external unit, remembering to add a little for
software.
5.1
Since this tape streamer was bought, Digital Services have brought out a
30 Mbyte machine for £600 +VAT (1.5 Mbytes/min, they claim), and I
understand that The Serial Port are working on one too. It may be worth
waiting, as the speed of this new offering is likely to be comparable,
and the price may be lower than that of the Oak.  A
5.1

5.1
(*To come to the defence of the removable drive, the cost has decreased
and is now just £525 plus £75 for each extra cartridge. Surely, only the
transient data needs backing up so two pairs of cartridges would be
sufficient to back up the A540’s drive. That would be £525 + 3 × £75 =
£750 inc VAT. Also, to be able to look instantaneously at any file
within the backup instead of waiting 10 minutes is rather different.
Also, at £420 for a 100M Frog, the option of buying two of them and
keeping one locked away in a cupboard (R.S.P.C.A. permitting!) is not as
daft as it sounds − we could even offer some discount on your second
Frog − say, two 100M Frogs for £790!  Ed.
5.1
STOP PRESS: The equation has just changed again. We now have 84M
removable drives available at £690 with spare cartridges at £140. Also,
CC have just released a file compressor (£53) which is extremely fast
and would make it very easy to back up a 100M drive onto a single 84M
cartridge. The sum is then £690 + 140 + 53 = £883!
5.1

5.1

5.1
PipeLine
5.1
Gerald Fitton
5.1
I find that most of the difficulties that my correspondents (and I) have
with PipeDream is because it has ‘too much’ built in flexibility! Some
of you say that many of these facilities are ‘obscure’ because they
appear as short ‘one line’ statements in the User Guide without anything
but the simplest of examples. Consider the explanation of the use of the
function Index(column, row) together with the functions Col(slot) and
Row(slot). It is limited to less than half a page but its inclusion in
PipeDream makes it possible to transfer to the cell containing Index,
the value of any cell in the document or any related document. Of
course, this flexibility means that, when you have learned the techni
ques (by reading PipeLine?), you can do much more with PipeDream than
you thought possible. I am still discovering ‘obscure’ features
mentioned briefly in the User Guide and, thanks to you, I get told of
many more ways of using them.
5.1
Colton Software have moved
5.1
Their new address is: 2 Signet Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA
and their new telephone number is 0223 311881.
5.1
The Acorn Users’ Show
5.1
Jill and I will be attending the show on the Saturday and Sunday but not
on the Friday. Colton Software have offered us a place on their stand
near the Acorn Village as a place where you can meet us and have a chat
− so look for us there.
5.1
In the Archimedes World, Robert Macmillan is quoted as saying that
“exciting things are happening at Colton Software”. Robert has confirmed
to me that this is true but emphasises that PipeDream 3, version 3.14,
is ‘stable’ and that there are no further upgrades in the pipeline (!).
So what can these exciting things be? Come to the Users’ Show and maybe
we’ll find out together.
5.1
Graphics in PipeDream
5.1
By this I don’t mean importing Draw files but converting numbers to
graphs and charts. PipeDream 3 has a Hot Link (in-memory transfer) to
Presenter II and to Minerva’s GraphBox. If you have not seen these Hot
Links working then come to the Show and have a look. Perhaps there are
some developments in this area?
5.1
Linking files
5.1
In the August 1991 PipeLine column, I asked how you might feel about
losing Linking files. I received quite a substantial response from those
of you who don’t want to see them disappear. Typical is a note from
David Crossley who has 2 linking files per month for 2 years, 48 files
in all, which would all have to be in memory if they were dependent
documents. Linking files remain on the disc all the time and so do not
use up memory. Other readers have pointed out that they use linking
files as permanent storage.
5.1
Albert W Kitchenside makes the following comment: “I use a link file to
carry forward balances in my personal accounts. Whilst the dependent
files option could be used it would lead to a cluttered screen as every
file in the total set of accounts would load every time as every one
depends on its predecessor! This is correct if any updating of back
files is required but can only be avoided if the snapshot command is
used. That would delete the dependency and then, of course, automatic
updating of files due to the updating of some previous file would also
be lost! Using a linked file option, if a previous file has to be
updated so that the carry forward is affected then it is necessary to
sequentially load all subsequent files to achieve correct updating, in
all other cases only the current file needs to be loaded.
5.1
“Thus, I think it would be a retrograde step to remove an option which
can have a distinct action in PipeDream. If one has a set of files in
which a part of one is needed by another, particularly if that part is
unlikely to be updated and the files are large, then I believe that the
linked file option is essential unless there happened to be unlimited
memory available at all times, an improbable event!”
5.1
Iteration
5.1
Having received such a good response to my question about whether
linking files are worthwhile let me ask the same question about
Iteration. I already have one most interesting letter and disc from
Gordon Nicholas who uses PipeDream extensively. One of his applications
uses iteration to find the roots of an equation which can be solved only
by numerical methods. Have you any more reasons for retaining iteration?
5.1
Help with timetables
5.1
Bernhard Gantner from Lesotho would like to know if anyone has set up
PipeDream to help with school timetables. I have already sent Bernhard
Peter Wick’s application but if you have anything more that might help
then please send me a disc copy and I will put them together and send
them off to him.
5.1
The function atn2
5.1
This function is similar to the inverse tangent function but, instead of
having only one argument and returning a value between –pi/2 and +pi/2
radians, it has two arguments and returns a value between –pi and +pi
radians. Perhaps the simplest way of looking at atn2 is to regard it as
a rectangular to polar coordinate conversion function. You enter the x
and y coordinates into atn2 and it returns the polar angle between the
positive x axis and the line joining the origin to the point (x,y). Now,
in the User Guide on page 302 the function is shown as “atn2(x,y)” but I
have found that, using the usual conventions about x, y and the polar
angle, you have to enter the parameters as atn2(y,x). For example, the
point with coordinates (x,y) at (–1,+1) has a polar angle of +0.75pi
whereas the point (+1,–1) has a polar angle of –0.25pi. To get atn2 to
return the value +0.75pi you have to enter the values of x and y as
atn2(1,–1). Hence I would have written the atn2 function as atn2(y,x)
and not as it is in the User Guide. Do you agree with me or do you
prefer the convention of the User Guide?
5.1
Matrices
5.1
Whilst on the subject of notation, let me seek out your views on the
notation for matrices. I’ve always considered a 2 by 3 matrix to consist
of 2 rows and 3 columns. Thus, to me, a matrix called A of size n by m
has an element in the bottom right hand corner which I would refer to as
A(n,m). I would call a typical element A(i,j) where i is the row number
and j the column number. To make it clear in spreadsheet terms, for a
matrix A with its top left in cell A1 I would call cell B3 the element
A(3,2). In PipeDream, the function Index, which returns the value in a
cell (see page 308 of the User Guide for details), is given as Index
(column, row) which seems to me to be the ‘wrong’ way round but I don’t
want it changed now! Have I always been mixed up about the convention
for matrices or do spreadsheets always use them the opposite way round?
5.1
Editing printer drivers
5.1
Let me try to cover many readers’ questions, problems and suggestions in
a few paragraphs before going onto more difficult matters.
5.1
PipeDream printer driver files have the file type of !Edit so, if you
double click on a PipeDream printer driver, then the file will load into
!Edit. In !Edit you will see such things as [09] which cause some
confusion. The [09] you see in !Edit (as part of a PipeDream printer
driver) is not the four separate characters [, 0, 9 and ] but only one
character, ASCII code 9. If you type in the four characters where the
printer driver should have an ASCII 9, even though it looks exactly the
same in !Edit the printer driver will not work. A further difficulty
arises in !Edit. ASCII 9 is used by many applications as the ‘tab’
character but, in !Edit, you can not enter the single character ASCII 9
by tapping the <Tab> key; you have to use <Ctrl+I> (where I is the ninth
letter of the alphabet).
5.1
I prefer to edit my printer drivers in PipeDream. To edit an !Edit file
(such as a printer driver) in !PipeDream, first you must install
PipeDream on the icon bar by double clicking <select> on the !PipeDream
icon shown in a directory viewer. Drag the printer driver file onto the
PipeDream icon installed on the icon bar and you will find that the
printer driver has been loaded into PipeDream.
5.1
In PipeDream, the second column, column B, is the column into which you
type the ON code for the effect you want. For example, underline is
highlight 1 and, for the FX80, the code to switch on underlining is the
sequence ESC “” -1. This sequence must be typed in column B. You get to
column B from A by tapping the <Tab> key and it is this <Tab> which
inserts the ASCII 9 into the printer driver file. I believe that using
PipeDream is easier than using !Edit.
5.1
Highlight 3
5.1
Now to the more difficult matters. In the May 1991 Archive, I included a
complaint from Peter Nye. He could use printer highlight 3 as a general
way of sending extended printer codes from his Z88 to a printer but he
said that this method didn’t work with PipeDream 3 on the Archimedes! In
the August 1991 Archive I reported that Stephen Gaynor used this method
successfully on his Archimedes with his printer. Now I have another
letter from Peter saying that he still can’t get it to work.
5.1
First let me explain exactly what Stephen did. Stephen modified his
PipeDream printer driver so that the row containing H3 (highlight 3)
instead of being blank included ESC (and nothing else) in both columns B
and C. He loaded this PipeDream printer driver through the <Ctrl+PD>
menu making sure that ‘Parallel’ was selected as the ‘Printer type’. In
the document he was going to print, he included the highlight 3 command
with <Ctrl+PX>. This ‘prints’ 3 in inverse video on the screen. On his
printer, the code for underline on is E so Stephen typed in the letter E
immediately after highlight 3. This method of extending printer codes
works for him.
5.1
I had a try with my printer and what I have discovered is that all is
well if the characters following highlight 3 have ASCII codes between 32
and 126. Peter’s printer requires ASCII codes (decimal) 45 and 1 after
highlight 3 for underline on. Now ASCII code 45 can be entered as the
minus sign, −, so that is not a problem but neither Peter nor I can find
a way of entering ASCII code 1 in PipeDream. (Have you tried using the
character 1, i.e. pressing the <1> key which gives ASCII 49? Some
printers accept accept ASCII 1 or character 1 (ASCII 49) for “ON” and
ASCII 0 or character 0 (ASCII 48) for “OFF”. Ed) In many applications,
for example in Acorn’s !Edit, ASCII code 1 is entered as <Ctrl+A> (the
logic of this is that A is letter number 1 in the alphabet); in
PipeDream <Ctrl+ A> does not produce ASCII code 1 because it is
recognised by PipeDream as the command for recalculating the spread
sheet. Read on.
5.1
Why is PipeDream different?
5.1
PipeDream started life as View Professional on Acorn’s BBC computer. It
was included as firmware (on a chip) on the Z88 under the name PipeDream
and went on from there as PipeDream 2 which ran under MS DOS on IBM PCs
and compatibles and on the early Archimedes under the single tasking
‘Arthur’ operating system. RISC-OS did not exist at that time. Under the
Z88, MS DOS and Arthur operating systems the <Alt> key did nothing in
particular so Colton Software used it for commands such as the recalcu
late command (now <Ctrl+A> but <Alt+ A> under Arthur and on the Z88 and
PCs). When RISC OS replaced Arthur, Acorn gave the <Alt> key a new
meaning. For example, if you hold down <Alt> and tap R, <Alt+R>, you
print ®. In the same way <Alt+Z> gives the double chevron « which is
closed with <Alt+X> ». Anyway, you will see that if <Alt+R> gives ® then
there is no way in which it can also be used for the ‘Reformat para
graph’ command now achieved in PipeDream 3 with <Ctrl+R>. In the same
way <Alt+Z> could no longer be used for ‘Mark block’ nor could <Alt+X>
be used for ‘Edit expression’.
5.1
Apart from Acorn’s own RISC-OS software (such as !Draw and !Edit),
Colton Software’s PipeDream was the first commercial software to run
‘properly’ as a ‘multi tasking’ application under RISC-OS. Colton
Software decided that their new RISC-OS compliant version of PipeDream,
PipeDream 3, would use the <Ctrl> key wherever <Alt> was used in
PipeDream 2. The loss to us users, and to Peter Nye in particular, has
been that <Ctrl+A> causes the sheet to recalculate instead of entering
ASCII code 1 into the text. Read on!
5.1
Does <Ctrl+H> always work?
5.1
Now here is an obscure ‘bug’ which is caused by this use of <Ctrl>. The
command <Ctrl+H> is used in PipeDream to set the ‘Wrap margin’ (the
right hand margin, not of the column, but the place where text automati
cally wraps round onto the next line). The letter H is the 8th letter of
the alphabet so <Ctrl+H> is also ASCII code 8. Now, ASCII 8 is the code
for a backspace and is interpreted by RISC-OS as a backspace which
deletes the previous character. Sometimes in PipeDream 3, <Ctrl+H> has
the effect of deleting the character to the left of the cursor instead
of bringing up the usual ‘Wrap margin’ dialogue box.
5.1
When does it happen? It is always a good idea to start with an easier
question and work up to the hard one so we’ll start with, “Why does it
happen?”. In fact an easier question still is “What happens when you tap
a key?” When you tap a key, let’s say ‘R’, the RISC-OS operating system
detects an ‘event’ and places ‘R’ in the keyboard buffer (if there isn’t
room in the buffer then you’ll hear a ‘boing!’). A bit later on, say a
few milliseconds, the application you are running has a look at the
keyboard buffer and, if there is anything in it, then the first
character, in our example this may be our ‘R’ or something we typed in
before the ‘R’, is taken out and used by the application.
5.1
For word processing (and many other applications) having a well stocked
keyboard buffer is a good idea because then you can ‘type ahead’ of the
application. By this I mean that if the application slows down for a few
milliseconds (or even longer) for example, by having to update the
screen display, then the characters which you type in the meantime are
not ‘lost’ but are stored in the keyboard buffer and taken out when
there is a bit more time available. However, for some applications,
storing commands in a buffer for too long can cause a disaster. Think
about what would happen if you issued a format disc command that got
stored in a buffer long enough for you to change discs! In these latter
cases the keyboard buffer is flushed so that anything inadvertently
entered is removed before it can do any damage.
5.1
Back to <Ctrl+H>. The way that PipeDream works is that, whenever it
pulls a character out of the keyboard buffer it looks to see whether you
are holding down the <Ctrl> key at the moment the character is taken
from the buffer; note that this time is later than the time at which the
character was typed. So, if you have already released <Ctrl> by the time
when PipeDream takes your <Ctrl+H> out of the buffer then the ASCII 8 is
not treated as a PipeDream command but it is passed to the text string
editor which does its thing and deletes a character.
5.1
So what is the ‘work around’ for this obscure ‘bug’? Firstly, do not tap
and release <Ctrl> and a command key simultaneously; hold down the
<Ctrl>, tap the other key smartly and then, after a decent interval of a
tenth of a second or more, release the <Ctrl> key. Secondly, if you have
got PipeDream working hard doing a recalculation or if it has passed
control to Acorn’s Window manager module (redrawing your screen for
example) then either don’t give the <Ctrl+H> command until the action
has stopped or, if you do, then hold down the <Ctrl> much longer than
usual and check to see if you have just deleted a character.
5.1
Whilst I have been caught out by <Ctrl+H> sometimes causing an unwanted
delete I have not had similar problems with <Ctrl+I> (Insert or Tab) or
anything else for that matter. Have you?
5.1
Using !SparkPlug with PipeDream files
5.1
!Spark is a file compression utility. !SparkPlug decompresses the files
!Spark has compressed. The PipeDream files on the Archive disc are
nearly always compressed and I have been asked (often on the telephone)
how to unpack them by people who have read the cryptic ?Important file
(which Paul always includes) but need more specific advice.
5.1
The Pearcy files
5.1
I don’t know how it happened but, somewhere between my disc and the
Archive disc for August 1991 (Vol 4.11), the content of all the files in
the (!Spark compressed) Pearcy directory were changed to become the
content of one of Ron Pearcy’s files. All files were the same! Anyway,
if you want a decompressed version of Ron’s files then please send me a
blank disc, a label and a stamp and I will transfer Ron’s files to your
disc.
5.1
Problems using !SparkPlug
5.1
1. Whilst unpacking a compressed file, SparkPlug uses a file called
<Wimp$Scrap>. This is usually in the !System directory so the !System
directory must be available and, whatever disc it is on, there must be
room to spare.
5.1
2. Applications (by this I mean applications such as the Interword to
PipeDream file converter, which start with a ! and not PipeDream files)
can not be run from inside the !SparkPlug environment. Applications that
have names starting with a ! must be unpacked before running.
5.1
3. Files loaded into PipeDream will be given the file name <Wimp$Scrap>
by !SparkPlug. From within the !SparkPlug environment dependent
documents, inserted graphics and linking files will not be found by
PipeDream because the file name is not known. Hence, directories
containing dependent documents, graphics and linked files (and many
macros) must all be unpacked before running onto your hard disc or onto
a new floppy.
5.1
These problems are simplified if you have a hard disc and 4 Mb of
memory. They are aggravated if you have only a single floppy disc and 1
Mb of memory (e.g. an A3000).
5.1
Hard disc users
5.1
If you have a hard disc then you will have !System on your hard disc so
you will not have problem 1. You will still have to unpack those
applications which start with a ! and those PipeDream applications which
involve dependent documents, graphics, linking files and macros. You
will not need to unpack other PipeDream files.
5.1
Floppy disc users
5.1
If you have !System on a floppy disc (and have not got a hard disc) then
you might find yourself having to keep swopping disks to overcome
problem 1. To avoid this disc swapping I suggest that you create a RAM
disc of 250 kbyte (or more if you can afford it) and copy your !System
directory to the RAM disc. Double click on the !System directory (in the
RAM disc) to install it. If you do this then the <Wimp$Scrap> used by
!SparkPlug will be on your high speed RAM disc and this will avoid the
need for endless disc swops. Alternatively, copy !System to the floppy
disc as described in the section “Copying Files” below.
5.1
Copying files
5.1
!SparkPlug uses a few hundred kbytes so on a 1 Mb machine you will have
to quit PipeDream before using !SparkPlug.
5.1
Remove the PipeLine disc and put a blank disc in drive 0; for the
purpose of this description let us call this disc :NewDisc.
5.1
Open the $ directory of NewDisc. Drag your !System directory from
wherever it is (eg on the PipeDream disc) into the :NewDisc.$ directory.
5.1
Double click on the :NewDisc.$.!System directory to install it. It is
important that you double click on this !System before you double click
(or install) !SparkPlug so that !SparkPlug finds this !System for its
<Wimp$Scrap> file and not the old !System directory.
5.1
Insert the Archive disc and open the directory viewer. Drag the
compressed file from the Archive disc to the opened :NewDisc.$ direc
tory. You will have to swop discs to complete this file transfer.
5.1
Now click on !SparkPlug. Double click on the compressed file which is on
:NewDisc to open it as if it were a directory. All the files and
directories within the !Sparked file will show in a new directory viewer
with a name that finishes with a /. In this example there might be one
called :NewDisc.$.new_arc/ which, when opened, contains another
directory called :NewDisc.$. new_arc.PipeLine/.
5.1
Select the PipeLine directory from this directory viewer and drag it to
the :NewDisc.$ directory. This effectively decompresses the PipeLine
files placing them in a directory called :NewDisc.$. PipeLine.
5.1
If you wish you can then delete the compressed file called
:NewDisc.$.new_arc. Quit !SparkPlug from the icon bar, install
!PipeDream, open the PipeLine directory and load the PipeDream files.
5.1
In conclusion
5.1
Thank you all for the continuing correspondence. Keep sending it to me
at the Abacus Training address which you will find on the inside back
cover of Archive.  A
5.1

5.1
Cleaning Archimedes 400 Series Keyboards
5.1
Mike King
5.1
After a year’s constant use, certain keys on my Archimedes 440/1
keyboard refused to work and some keys stayed depressed after use. I
decided to strip down the keyboard to its component parts and thoroughly
clean it. Described below is how I set about the task.
5.1
Static precautions
5.1
Before dismantling the keyboard, you will need to procure an antistatic
mat to dissemble the keyboard upon. I personally use a large antistatic
plastic bag, designed for the protection of large printed circuit
boards. I made up a length of wire with a crocodile clip on one end. The
other end can be temporarily attached to the earth pin of a 13 amp plug.
It is vital that these precautions are taken, as the chips in the
Archimedes keyboards are of MOS construction and are very prone to
static charges which, if great enough, will destroy all of the main
keyboard chips.
5.1
Tools and other sundries required
5.1
For disassembly of the keyboard, only two crosspoint screwdrivers are
required − medium and small sizes will suffice. The best degreasing
agent I have found is isopropyl alcohol. An alternative is methylated
spirit, which can be obtained from any good chemist. Do not use any
other kind of degreasing agents; they may well have an adverse effect on
the keyboard component parts. The only other item required is a lint-
free cloth (an old handkerchief is ideal). Do not use any paper towels
or cotton wool for cleaning − they leave behind vast quantities of small
particles which will certainly cause trouble in the future.
5.1
Dismantling the keyboard case
5.1
Place the antistatic sheet on your table top and connect the earthed
crocodile clip to one corner. Now place on this sheet the inverted
keyboard and remove all of the case retaining screws around the edge.
Remove the four screws that retain the keyboard to the upper section of
the case. Store all the screws in a small tin or egg-cup.
5.1
Removing the PCB from the key-tops
5.1
The printed circuit assembly is connected to the key-tops by very small
crosspoint screws. It is necessary to remove all of these screws to gain
access to the contact side of the board. Do not lose any of these minute
screws. They are very hard to see when dropped onto the floor! There is
also one black-headed crosspoint earthing screw that will have to be
removed from the corner of the PCB before it can be finally separated
from the top section of the case. If you now inspect the contact areas
of the PCB you will probably be able to see a thin film of dust and
other detritus* covering most of the contact areas.  (*It’s a polite
word for bits of muck − I looked it up. Ed)
5.1
Degreasing the PCB
5.1
Place the PCB on the antistatic sheet with the contact areas of the
board facing upwards. Soak a small area of lint-free cloth with the
degreasing agent and apply to all parts of the board. Once the board is
clean, check all over the board with a magnifying glass to ensure that
there are no foreign particles still attached. Put the PCB in a safe
place until re-assembly.
5.1
(Ray, our resident engineer, adds that at this point you ought also to
remove the seven large screws holding the key chassis to the upper case,
remove the chassis and thoroughly vacuum out the debris that has
collected there. Otherwise, when you re-assemble the keyboard, the
particles that collect there will soon be down onto your freshly cleaned
PCB foils.)
5.1
Degreasing the key mechanisms
5.1
Each key mechanism consists of a small circular foam pad onto which is
stuck a circular tinfoil disc. Each of these discs will need degreasing
as well as the PCB contact areas. The tinfoil discs are recessed into
each key housing. The best way to clean these discs is to press each
key-top individually until the tinfoil disc protrudes slightly from its
housing. Use the degreasing agent sparingly, trying not to get any
solvent onto the sponge material of the mechanism, and gently rub each
tinfoil disc until it is clean.
5.1
Re-assembly
5.1
Before re-assembly, thoroughly clean out the casing using a small brush.
It is prudent to check before re-assembly that each individual key
mechanism can be depressed without sticking. Should you find a key that
sticks, undertake the following procedure. Remove the key-top from the
mechanism by gently prising it off with two small flat-bladed screw
drivers. Remove the rubber cap from under each key-top. You can then
gently push out the foam pad of the key concerned, by pressing with a
match stick from the top side of the switch. Note the orientation of the
switch mechanism as it emerges from its housing: it must be re-assembled
the same way as it came out. With the switch mechanism separated from
its housing, check for grit or dust affecting the action of the
mechanism. If on re-assembly of the key mechanism, it is still sticking,
try applying a small quantity of P.T.F.E. dry lubricant, which should be
available from an electronic components’ supplier. Do not use WD40 or
any other liquid lubricant for this task.You have been warned!
5.1
The keyboard may now be assembled in the reverse order that it was taken
apart. When re-installing the small screws that secure the PCB to the
key-tops, do not over-tighten them*, or you might find that you have one
or two sticky keys once again! This is because these miniature screws
are tapped into the bottom edge of the key mechanisms and over tighten
ing these screws can cause a bulge in this bottom edge, causing the key
to stick or jam.
5.1
(*Ray reckons that it’s not so much a case of over-tightening but more
to do with getting the screw in correctly to start with. Because they
are self-tapping, it’s quite possible to cross-thread these screws. What
you should do is, as you start to screw it in, if there is more
resistance than normal, back it of a bit further than the first starting
position and try again. Ray has had a number of keyboards that have come
to grief in this way.)
5.1
I have cleaned about 15 of these keyboards for friends and a local
technical college. They have all responded to treatment.
5.1
When using your computer, please keep all drinks at a safe distance from
the keyboard. The worst cleaning job I had to undertake, was when a cup
of white coffee was spilled over the keyboard! Nearly every key
mechanism had to be stripped down and thoroughly cleaned. It took me
approximately seven hours to clean! Another culprit is cigarette ash
which usually causes keys to jam, due to its gritty nature. It is a good
policy to keep the keyboard covered over when not in use.
5.1
Cleaning a keyboard will take about an hour to perform, but it is really
worth the effort, especially if you are a fast typist. The keys feel
very smooth to press after cleaning.  A
5.1

5.1
Language Column
5.1
David Wild
5.1
The debate about languages goes on and, so long as we don’t allow
ourselves to become bigotted, this can only be a good thing.
5.1
Acorn’s C upgrade
5.1
Two specific items have interested me this time. The first has been a
complaint I have seen about the ‘C’ upgrade, with the writer disap
pointed that the new version isn’t the object-oriented ‘C++’ as opposed
to just an ordinary compiler. It might have been a good thing if Acorn
had managed to produce the newer version but I presume that there could
have been problems with licences and so on.
5.1
What we often forget is that the Acorn versions of both ‘C’ and Pascal
give us many, though not all, the benefits of object-orientation in
allowing separately compiled modules which can be re-used in many
programs. Although these modules do not give inheritance, they do use
the fundamental principle of ‘information hiding’ with the calling
program only allowed access by the authorised route.
5.1
We must remember that there is no benefit for users in object-orienta
tion − or any other language feature − except in so far as they allow
the writing of better programs. Wearing my user, as opposed to my
enthusiast, hat I don’t care what language has been used to write the
programs that I use, so long as they do their job properly.
5.1
‘C++’ security
5.1
The other item, which has connections with what I have just written, is
a report in the current issue of “Computer Shopper” saying that the US
Department of Defence will not accept the ‘C++’ compiler for program
ming, because it is not sufficiently secure, and is insisting on the use
of ‘Ada’ instead. The objection seems to be the use of machine code
libraries which cannot be validated in the same way as the ‘Ada’
compiler even though it is very large.
5.1
If this objection is sustained. it has implications for all compilers
which allow machine-code extensions and will almost certainly exclude
all “WIMP” based programs unless compilers are rewritten to include the
windowing and multi-tasking extensions as integral parts of the
language.
5.1
Documentation revisited
5.1
Usually, when we talk about documentation problems, we are talking about
the instructions which come with a program we want to use. There is
another aspect of these problems which is the documentation maintained
by the programming team so that they know what is going on and why. The
problem isn’t just confined to amateurs; at work we have received
“corrections” from a software house which have cured the immediate
problem, but have reverted to an earlier problem because the wrong
version of the source program has been used.
5.1
A solution might be the “Squirrel” database (from Digital Services)
which I bought recently. As an ordinary database it is rather expensive
(£151.58) and it has limitations which will prevent it from being as
useful as it might be in general use. One important feature, though, is
that fields in the database can be files, of any type. This means that
it would be possible to create a database of modules with fields holding
the source code, the ‘aof’ file generated, the date of last compilation
and a text file giving reasons for the modifications made. (It also has
the incidental advantage of getting over the 77 file limit for a
directory.)
5.1
To use the ‘aof’ files for linking, it will be necessary to copy them
into an ordinary directory for the linker to find them but they can, and
should, be deleted again when linking is complete. As I said, it is
expensive as an ordinary database, but the cost would soon be recovered
if you could ensure that the correct version of the module is used every
time, and that a record of reasons for modifications − and testing
experience − can be kept with the code to which it applies.
5.1
“Squirrel” is produced by Digital Services Ltd of Portsmouth and I shall
persevere in trying to persuade them to eliminate some of the limita
tions because one thing the Archimedes needs is a really good
programmable database.  A
5.1

5.1
A3000 HardCard
5.1
Barry Thompson
5.1
I have just received one of those extremely compact SCSI HardCards which
has been designed especially for the A3000 computer by HCCS. The whole
device measures 18 cm front to back, 12 cm wide and 4.5 cm high, with a
protruding tongue which locates into the base of the computer.
5.1
The 12 volt power supply is obtained from a separate moulded mains plug
unit which has a flying lead that plugs into the back of the hardcard
via one of those miniature plugs that is usually seen plugged into a
telephone base. This plug can be modified in such a way that it would
require a small narrow bladed screwdriver to remove it. (Useful to avoid
sabotage in a school environment. Ed − an ex-teacher!)
5.1
In construction there is a sandwich which contains the NEC D8385 hard
drive at the top and the SCSI card at the bottom, component side down.
These two are separated by a thin insulating board which electrically
isolates the drive from the SCSI card.
5.1
The whole is surrounded by a sturdy metal case into which, on the right
hand side, is mounted what seems to be quite a powerful fan though it is
only just over an inch in diameter. This little device seems to keep the
hard disc case and card quite cool, even over long periods of use
5.1
The drive in use
5.1
After assembling the drive to the computer and plugging in the power
lead, all that is required of the user is to type in three simple
configuration commands (which are explained in the manual), press <Ctrl-
Break>, and verify the drive. The one that I have been using came
already formatted and there is 45M free space on the disc − a 100M
capacity disc is also available.
5.1
I have been able to do some comparative tests with a 45Mb Oak Worrawin
nie connected to the A3000, see below for details.
5.1
The tests were carried out by using Paul Beverley’s method, which
involves first a large data file writing test giving a speed in kbytes/
second and then transferring the contents of Application Disc 2 from one
directory to another. In this test approximately 420k of data contained
in 65 files is transferred. An ‘equivalent speed’ is then worked out
which makes it easier to compare the drives. It is simply 420k divided
by the time in seconds. All figures given are in kbytes/second.
5.1
                raw data rate          file
copy test
5.1
               HCCS   Worra     HCCS  Worra
5.1
Mode 0    451    659    21    44
5.1
Mode 15    436    659    21    40
5.1
Mode 21    291    55    17    18
5.1
The fact that the HCCS drive runs faster in mode 21 than the Oak drive
despite being 30% slower in modes 0 and 15 suggests that it has a larger
ram cache and so can “take up the slack” when the computer is busy
updating the screen. However, on the file copying test, which is a more
realistic test, the Worrawinnie is twice the speed in the lower modes
and catches up in mode 21. This is presumably because the HCCS SCSI
podule is 8 bit whereas the Oak podule is 16 bit.
5.1
Additional feature
5.1
Like most SCSI drives, this one has a socket on the back panel for daisy
chaining other devices. I can see this drive as a real boon to academic
staff who have an A3000 computer at home and want to use this data at
school/college. No lids to come off, just switch off the computer,
remove the power supply to the hardcard, remove the securing screws,
unplug the card, place in its original packaging and away you go. It
must be the A3000 owner’s answer to the removable hard drives that are
available! The cost is in the region of £410 inclusive of VAT. (If
anyone would like to discuss this drive then give me a call on
0332−690691.)  A
5.1

5.1
Small Ads
5.1
•    A3000 floppy interface inc switch to swap drives £22 inc p&p, A310 2M,
MEMC1a £600. Fitted with 20M hard drive £150 extra. Acorn monitor £100.
A3000 1M ram £35, A3000 User port / Midi £25. Phone 0780 −54537.
5.1
•    A310 colour, 4Mb RAM, 40Mb hard drive, ROM/RAM card with 96K RAM
battery backed. Acorn C Compiler Release 3, Programmer’s Reference
Manuals and Epson RX-80 printer £1000. Phone Mr Ball on 0258−480739.
5.1
•    Archway V2 £70, Powerband £10, Wimp Game £10, Pawn/Fish/Corruption
£15, Chocks Away 2 + Extra Missions £20, Saloon Cars £15, Worldscape
£10, Voltmace joystick £15, Break 147/ Superpool £15, Arcticulate £15.
Phone Mark on 0384−455066 5.30 − 7.30.
5.1
•    Ballarena £5, Terramex £3, Arc Pinball £7, Hostages £7, Interdictor II
£15, System Delta Plus II £35, Iron Lord £7. Phone 0233−629868 after 6.
5.1
•    Interdictor £9, Interdictor 2 £14, Wimp Game £9, Trivial Pursuit £9,
Superior Golf £9, boxed originals. Phone Chris on 0256−467574.
5.1
•    InterdictorII £17.50, Genesis £10, Conqueror £10, Flying Start II £12,
Pixel Perfect £10, ArcTrivia £10, RISC-OS Companion £12. Phone Barry on
0332−701969.
5.1
•    MultiStore II £180, Multipod digitiser/sampler £80 ono, E-Type £8,
Zarch £5, EMR Rhythm Box £15, Repton 3 £8, Terramex £5. Phone Jeremy on
061−483−2983,
5.1
•    Pace Series 4 external modem (2400S) V21/23/22/22bis, £150. Phone
Chris on 0271−850355 (evenings).
5.1
•    Scanlight Junior £100, and for 600dpi laser printing service telephone
Roy on 0263−70669.
5.1
•    Sony Magneto Optical Disc Units (NWP 559) £2500 inc VAT. Stephen
Jenkins, 081− 941−7899 (Fax −7895)
5.1
•    Swap − In exchange for video digitiser, I have Beebug A6 scanner
V1.03. Also E-Type £5, ET Designer £5, Arcendium £5, Olympics £5,
Powerband £8, Conqueror £8, Voltmace joystick £10, Watford 4-slot
backplane (2 layer) £15, Monitor swivel base £4. £60 the lot. Richard on
061−445−3369 after 6.
5.1
•    Techno-I digitiser with S-VHS upgrade, two weeks old, mint condition.
Cost £410, bargain at £300. Phone Iain Cameron on 0463−75251.
5.1
•    Tuition wanted for someone trying to use PipeDream in the Norfolk
area. One afternoon or evening a week during the winter months would be
fine. Preferably someone who can teach rather than a computer whizz-kid.
Contact Tom Beevor on 095387−306.
5.1
•    Wanted A3000 users to swap hints, tips, ideas, PD software etc. Dave
Burnett, 135 Park Road, Enfield, Middlesex EN3 6LN.
5.1
Charity Sales − The following items are available for sale in aid of
charity. PLEASE do not just send money − ring us on 0603−766592 to check
if the items are still available. Thank you.
5.1
(If you have unwanted software or hardware for Archimedes computers you
could donate for charity, please send it in 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.)
5.1
A440 computer (yes, a complete A440 computer with 20M drive − Tandon and
not Western Digital!) offers i.r.o. £500 (the price has come down
because we got no offers last month and the coming of the A5000 has
dropped the secondhand prices. Our engineer has checked it and it is in
good working order though we cannot, of course, offer any guarantee.
5.1
User Guides £1 + £3 postage, ArcWriter £3, DT-Talk £10, Acorn & RISC-OS
book £7, Assembly Lang book & disc £12, PipeMania £12, Archway 2 £45,
UIM £12, E-Type £8, ArcPinBall £12, Boogie Buggie £14, Interdictor 1 £9,
TwinWorld £10, Inertia £8, Man at Arms £9, CIS Utilities £8, Conqueror
£10, Magic Modem £40.  A
5.1

5.1
Help!!!!
5.1
•    Disabled Users − Tim Saxton, one of our contributors, is considering a
career change into working with computers to help disabled people. He
would be interested to hear from anyone with advice, ideas, unfulfilled
needs etc − either disabled users or those working with disabled users.
Contact him at Rock Farm House, 3 Acres Road, Bebbington, Wirral, L63
7QD or ring him on 051−645−7490.
5.1
•    Impression and !Chars. The utility !Chars is used mainly to enter “top
bit set” characters into documents. However it is also useful for
entering mathematical symbols, dingbats etc. It is tedious in this case,
after having “clicked” on the required character, to have to select the
correct font. A modified version of !Chars which entered the font
information (in Impression Document Description Format) as well as the
character code would be most useful. In fact Computer Concepts’ Equasor
has a such a utility, integrated with the rest of the program. Brian
Cowan
5.1
•    Outline font bending? − How about a simple program to transform
outline fonts, for example making it bold or oblique? This would be very
useful in extending the potential of ones collection of fonts. Brian
Cowan
5.1
•    PC Emulator compatibility list − Some long while ago, John Eden did an
excellent job compiling a list of those programs that worked on the
(old) PC Emulator. With the advent of the new PC Emulator, it would be
good to create such a list again. Would anyone be prepared to be the
coordinator? In the meantime, if you would like to send your reports in
to us at N.C.S., just tell us which version numbers of which bits of MS-
DOS software work correctly and we will pass it all on to whoever wants
to volunteer to co-ordinate it.
5.1
•    PD Software − There is now something of a proliferation of PD software
suppliers, some of better quality than others. There are some very good
programs around and there are some which are not worth the discs they
are copied onto.
5.1
The trouble is, how do you find the good programs? Our idea is to use
the Archive network. In other words, if you find a program that is
really worth having, if you tell us, we can tell the rest of the
subscribers.
5.1
David Holden has agreed to help by being the link person. So, if you
have a PD program that is really good, send information about it to
David, telling him which PD library it came from and he will compile
something for the magazine. So send your information (and the program as
well, if you like − but don’t expect David to mail the disc back to you
− he’s doing this voluntarily!) to David Holden, 39 Knighton Park Road,
Sydenham, London SE26 5RN.
5.1
•    Viruses? − While I was away on holiday I read an article in the
International Herald Tribune with the headline “Computer ‘Creature’
Mutates and Wows Scientists”. The substance of the article was an
account of recent research by a Dr. Thomas S. Ray, a plant biologist at
the University of Delaware. Although I may be wrong, my inference is
that this is something like John Conway’s “Life” program. However with
this new program, called “Tierra”, creatures can evolve and develop
features to preserve their existence. This is supposed to demonstrate
Darwinian evolution in operation. I have searched the literature for
further information, but so far I have drawn a blank. Does anyone know
anything about Tierra? Brian Cowan  A
5.1

5.1
Hardware Column
5.1
Brian Cowan
5.1
Regular readers of this column may well have got the idea that I am
obsessed with DOS. Many column-inches have been devoted to discussions
of possible DOS cards and, recently, the new PC emulator has excited my
interest. Although I protest that my interest in DOS is quite minimal,
this month’s topics again have a DOS connection.
5.1
PC podule
5.1
Yes, I have some firm news about a DOS card to be marketed by one of the
quality Archimedes third party manufacturers. Aleph One are working on a
386SX card which should be ready for demonstration at the Acorn User
Show. The SX version of the 386 has a sixteen bit external data bus,
ideal for interfacing in an ordinary podule. The CPU will run at 20 MHz,
although faster versions should become available.
5.1
Features
5.1
The card also promises to provide full VGA graphics (rather than the
EGA+ of the emulator), a true bidirectional PC printer port and a serial
port. There will be a socket for a 387 maths coprocessor chip if
required. Unfortunately, at this stage, there is no expansion slot,
which is very sad. As yet no price has been fixed − “below £600” is the
official statement. One Mbyte of RAM will be supplied as standard, but I
understand that it will be possible, by replacing the RAM chips, to have
4 Mbytes.
5.1
My interest in 4Mbytes of RAM is to be able to run the DOS version of
Mathematica but really, 4 Mbytes devoted to DOS is an incredible
extravagance. The clever thing would be to be able to use the RAM of the
DOS card as a RAM disc when DOS is not running. I believe a similar idea
was mooted for the RAM of the BBC Master 512 card, but I don’t know if
it was ever implemented.
5.1
At least one other company is working on a DOS card, probably using a
286 processor. However, I have no information on that product. But I am
pretty sure that both cards will be well-integrated with the new version
of Acorn’s PC emulator. They will hook into the emulator’s multitasking
windowing code. So, for the user, these products can be regarded
essentially as “hardware accelerators” for the PC emulator.
5.1
More on the PC Emulator
5.1
Last month I gave my first impressions on the latest version of the PC
emulator. While still not giving a review of that product, I have some
more observations and comments which, I think, deserve to be mentioned.
5.1
The emulator uses a configuration file when it runs. This specifies such
things as the location of any hard disc DOS partitions and the type of
graphics emulation required. The configuration file can also contain a
sequence of commands which are executed when the emulator is run.
5.1
The clever thing is that the emulator, together with a given configura
tion, can be installed by clicking on the relevant configuration file.
So a given DOS program can have its own configuration file, with
commands to run the program, the appropriate graphics adaptor specified
together with the correct hard disc partition(s).
5.1
The configuration file can be given the name of the DOS program, and
then clicking on the file will “install the program on the icon bar”
(with the emulator icon) as if it were a straightforward RISC-OS
application; the user need not even be aware of the DOS environment. It
would have been even better with a facility to run the program directly
rather than just install it but, nevertheless, well-done Acorn!
5.1
While on the subject of configuration files, I must correct a slightly
misleading comment from last month. While it is true that the configura
tion file, together with its associated software can support up to four
hard disc partitions, it should be remembered that Acorn’s current
version of MS-DOS (DOS 3.3) will only recognise two partitions while
running. DOS 5 will support four partitions and I think Acorn are
planning on switching to this soon. (I hear that some people already
have DOS 5 running under the emulator. Can anyone confirm this? Ed.)
5.1
Emulated hardware
5.1
The manual which accompanies the PC emulator gives some interesting
technical information. We are told precisely what hardware is being
emulated. The CPU is supposed to be an Intel 80188 chip. Then there’s an
8087 maths coprocessor, an 8259 interrupt controller chip and an 8253
timer chip. DMA (direct memory access) is provided by emulating an 8237,
while I/O uses an 8255 for both sound and the keyboard, with 8250 for
the serial interface.
5.1
80188 CPU?
5.1
So what is an 80188? The original PC CPU chips were the 8086 and the
8088. These were identical except that, while the 8086 had a sixteen bit
external data bus, the 8088 only had an eight bit external data bus.
Internally, the data bus was sixteen bits wide in both. In making the
usual boring PC from these chips, there was a considerable amount of
support circuitry required. The 8018(8/6) was essentially an 808(8/6)
with much of the support circuitry provided on-chip. Some minor CPU
enhancements were also added but, at the object code level, the chips
were supposed to be compatible with the older original CPUs.
5.1
New machines?
5.1
My understanding is that Acorn will be abandoning the ST506 interface
standard for hard discs. SCSI will remain for the “posh” machines while
IDE will be adopted for the lower end models. It goes without saying
that floppy disc drives will be the high capacity type.
5.1
There is a super fantastic chip which provides almost all the I/O one
could decently desire. That includes driving the floppy disc drive (high
density), hard disc drive (IDE), serial port at amazingly high speeds
and a bi-directional printer port. This sort of device will bring the
chip count of any new Archimedes down, whilst, at the same time,
providing enhanced performance. Unfortunately, things like dongles will
not work with the different printer port hardware.
5.1
The October issue of BBC Acorn User contains an “exclusive” rumour about
such a new machine, with an ARM3, pitched between the A3000 and the
Archimedes 540. DOS compatibility and the business market seem to be
important considerations. While BAU speculates on various bundled
packages, including DTP and PC emulator, thinking along these lines, I
am sure that an Archimedes (or even an A3000) bundled with an Aleph One
DOS card would be a highly desirable and competitive product. How about
it Acorn?
5.1
Floppy disc drive upgrade
5.1
You may have seen some publicity for a high density floppy disc drive
upgrade from Arxe Systems Ltd. This looks to be quite an exciting
product. The upgrade will consist of a replacement (high density) disc
drive together with a half width podule. The main features of the
product will be provision of a 1.6Mbyte ADFS format and the DOS 1.44
Mbyte format (using MultiFS 2). Later on, there should be a software
product to access Mac discs as well.
5.1
There are other features of this disc drive system which might not be so
apparent. The disc controller chip is one of the newer types with many
integrated features. Thus, formatting a disc and reading disc files into
RAM will use the minimum of CPU effort (unlike the situation with the
old 1772 disc drive controller). This means that even with the old 800k
format, the new drive will be a considerable improvement.
5.1
The disc controller chip can also support the higher density (4 Mbytes
unformatted) drives. At present, the drives are too expensive and not
terribly reliable but, at the right time, upgrading to these will be
simple.  A
5.1

5.1
Nature Clip Art Pack
5.1
Peter Jennings
5.1
Clip art has become something of a boom industry for the Archimedes in
the wake of all the DTP programs which have appeared. One of the
companies playing a leading part in providing sets of illustrations is
Micro Studio who now have 19 packs of Paint and Draw files, some in
colour, in their graphics library. Prices, some of them introductory,
range from £17.25 to £29.95 including VAT and postage.
5.1
Animals and natural history are strongly represented, with World
Wildlife and Pre-Historic Animals now joined by a two-disc Nature pack,
version 1.00. The discs come in a video-type case without a printed
manual and, although one is not needed, its absence does leave the case
strangely empty.
5.1
Wildlife and plants
5.1
The discs are not numbered and just have label pictures showing two
insects and a leaf respectively, to identify them as “Wildlife” and
“Plant Life”. Both have a ReadMe file which indicates that the Wildlife
disc is number one and contains the main program for viewing the
pictures. These are displayed in Magpie “binders” and a Magpie browser
is supplied for them. Clicking on the title page leads to an index of
the drawings, grouped under subjects. Clicking on an arrow beside each
name takes you to the page where the drawing can be found.
5.1
The Wildlife disc has seven pages of pictures in five categories. These
are, in order of size: Birds (18), Insects (14), Reptiles etc (6), Fish
(5) and Animals (3). The three animals are badger, watervole and
woodmouse, which has two illustrations. The number of animals is
surprisingly small but others have already been issued in the World
Wildlife pack.
5.1
The Plant Life disc has just two categories: Trees (23) and Plants (7).
There are 33 pages, plus the index, 27 of tree details (leaves, flowers,
fruits), five of tree shapes and one of plants; again rather a dispro
portionate mix.
5.1
The pages can all be printed out to produce a full, illustrated,
catalogue and any picture can be copied onto another disc or direct into
an application by clicking on it to produce a save box. Although the box
shows a Paint icon, the pictures can be saved as either Paint or Draw
files by dragging them to the appropriate application window.
5.1
There is an invitation on one of the discs to copy a form onto a blank
disc and send it to Micro Studio to be held for future free updates.
5.1
Clip art packages all have their limitations. Obviously, the subject of
this one is too wide to include illustrations of everything in nature
you may require. The small number of animals has already been mentioned
and there is, for example, only a single drawing of a spider. These come
in so many shapes that a similar sized pack could be filled with spiders
alone.
5.1
Do you need it?
5.1
The Nature pack costs £19.95 at its introductory price, which may seem
expensive for two discs with fairly simple drawings of 76 subjects.
However, there must be a very limited market, confined almost entirely
to DTP users and schools, for packages of this type. This means they can
not be sold as cheaply as more popular programs, despite competition
from public domain libraries.
5.1
This is a package which will either be of no use to you or you will need
very much, and would be happy to buy at almost any price, to save a good
deal of work and to provide a professional standard of artistic
skill.  A
5.1

5.1
Comment Column
5.1
•    Emulators/Software − The advent of the multitasking PC Emulator brings
into focus the question of good software. Suppose you have a choice
between an Archimedes non-multitasking program and a PC program to do
the same job: which do you choose, supposing they work the same and cost
the same? Answer, the PC version, because it now multi-tasks. The
writing is really on the wall for old-fashioned programs, and even
proper RISC-OS programs need to be at least as good as their PC
competitors. We do have a reasonable quantity of really good software
but not a wide range compared with the PC and Mac, and now the standards
for even small-user-base software are that much higher. I am not sure if
this is going to be a good thing, as it may put off authors. If the
applications do come forward, then it is a very good thing!
5.1
Mike Hobart, Cambridge.
5.1
• Public Domain libraries The growth in public domain software for the
Archimedes has been phenomenal over the past 18 months. Public Domain or
PD software is very cheap software written by programmers voluntary so
no profit is made. It was very prolific on the Amiga but did not really
start on the Archimedes until RISC-OS appeared. When I first got my
A3000 and started subscribing to Archive in March 1990, the amount of PD
for the machine was small. Started by pioneers such as Norwich Computer
Services and Alexander Goh (alias Sandie the Walrus) the PD libraries
have sprung up. Although poor quality programs have appeared on many
discs from many libraries, some useful utilities can be acquired − as
shown, for example by the review of DrawPlus (Careware 13) in Archive
4.9 p19.
5.1
Many pieces of PD software are too valuable to be without − some are
nearly up to commercial standard. For DTP enthusiasts, apart from the
excellent DrawPlus, John Kortink’s !Translator (Careware 13 or Shareware
32) is a extremely useful, converting foreign picture formats into
sprites for use in DTP. Some libraries also have a great variety of line
and clipart, and I notice that some outline fonts are appearing in the
Public Domain. Those who cannot warrant the expense of Lingenuity’s
Presenter 2 or Minerva’s GraphBox, will welcome !ChartDraw (Careware 5)
which, although only having a few features, draws graphs well and they
can be saved in Draw format.
5.1
For music enthusiasts, the ubiquitous Soundtracker by Hugo Fiennes is an
important piece of software. It plays very impressive tunes ported from
the Amiga and there are vast banks of these tunes available.
5.1
Unlike other types of programs, games seem to be under represented in
the PD world and those which exist tend to be of poor quality. However,
a few are worth having, such as Ballroom Blitz (Shareware 24), in my
opinion the best PD shoot-em-up, and YAIG (Shareware 16) which is
another fast invaders game. For the people who prefer slower relaxation
a ray traced version of Hangman exists (Careware 6), not to mention a
plethora of small desktop games such as Battleships (Shareware 18 &
Shareware 20).
5.1
PD really comes into its own in the field of small applications and
utilities. !PCDir (Careware 7), an excellent MS-DOS disc manipulator, is
a perfect complement to the PC Emulator, and numerous utilities for ADFS
hard and floppy discs are available. !Format, a simple truly multitask
ing disc formatter is the most useful, but for hard disc users, !Menon
(Shareware 38) is ideal to escape trudging through endless directory
structures.
5.1
For the mathematically minded, there are some really powerful fractal/
Mandelbrot generators around, and a Norwegian application called !3D-
Graph (Shareware 36) can plot equations, manipulate them and print them
out − almost commercial quality.
5.1
Demos and novelties are very common − these tend to be written by bored
programmers wanting to show off. Some of the best come from the
continent, !Cubitus is a cute animation from Bavaria and NoahDemo3
(Careware 5) is an excellent German effort. However, the golden demo
award must go to the Norwegian Brothers In Arm − if you haven’t got one
of their demos, get one, it really shows what the Archimedes can do (I
recommend !ARMScroll).
5.1
The world of the Public Domain is well worth exploring, but some words
of warning. Firstly, Public Domain is virtually free, so be prepared to
take the rough with the smooth. Some programs are excellent but some you
would not give disc room. The only PD source that I know of that selects
only the good programs for its discs is Norwich Computer Services (who
publish Archive), whose Shareware and Careware discs are good but, some
may say, a little expensive (I don’t think £3 is expensive!).
5.1
Secondly, do not expect outline fonts to be of high standard − if they
were good they would sell them at a much higher price, so only really
use them for headings. Thirdly, some unscrupulous libraries do not fill
their discs up. I do not see any point in this as it is only money-
orientated, and no one should make any profit out of PD.
5.1
Finally, keep an eye out for viruses − the situation is as yet not
serious but it could get worse.
5.1
The variety of discs and the number of libraries is confusing, so I
recommend to only use one or two − using too many you may find yourself
duplicating programs. Prices vary from £6 for the very best disc full of
programs (these are the Careware discs from NCS and, as all the profit
goes to charity, are a bit of an exception) down to 50p from some
libraries, if you send a blank formatted disc. Most of the programs I
have mention are available from most PD libraries so send an SAE to a
couple of the following for their PD catalogues.
5.1
Norwich Computer Services (Archive) − address on back page.
5.1
APDL    96 Lanehouse Road, Thornaby, Cleveland.
5.1
Arch PD    109 Ferry Road, Hullbridge, Hockley, Essex SS5 6EL
5.1
Cotswold PD    391 Cromer Road, Hellesdon, Norwich NR6 6LX
5.1
Telstar PD,    40 Alderbrook Close, Rolleston, Staffs. DE13 9AH
5.1
A more comprehensive list of libraries is on the monthly magazine disc
as a text file.
5.1
E. Hollox, Holt
5.1
•    Upgrading the PC Emulator − Before I start, I would like to point out
that I view the PC Emulator as an excellent piece of software and one
that most Archimedes users should seriously consider owning. These
comments relate to my experiences upgrading from an early version to
1.6, the multi-tasking version.
5.1
After having read the news about the new version of the emulator, I
quickly posted by discs and money to Acorn Direct and received my
upgraded version from them after three weeks. What I had been hoping to
emulate was a PC with EGA graphics and MS-DOS 3.3. However, this was not
to be.
5.1
The first disappointment came when I read the accompanying letter which
revealed that upgrades do not come with MS-DOS versions 3.3 and you are
stuck with version 3.21. This annoyed me, although not much, since 3.3
offers little advantage over 3.21. What was far more annoying was the
statement on page 25 of the manual saying that MS-DOS 3.21 had been
“briefly tested with the PC Emulator”. (I gather that 3.3 supports 1.44M
floppies whereas 3.21 doesn’t so A5000 owners may well want to look to
getting the MS-DOS updated. Ed.)
5.1
I then came to look at the emulator itself. There are two versions of
the emulator supplied, one for owners of 1Mbyte machines and one for
those with 2Mbyte or more of RAM. Now I suspect that there are still a
lot of Archimedes owners who have, like me, still only got 1Mbyte. This
limits you to !PCEms, the single tasking CGA version.
5.1
For those of you who do not know, CGA is a PC graphics standard which
basically allows 4 colours. EGA, EGA+ and MDA, (all of which are on the
2MB+ version) are better graphics standards. CGA is limited, to say the
least, and the ability to run in an EGA mode was perhaps my main reason
for upgrading. It was therefore a disappointment to find myself still
stuck with the same graphics as the previous versions.
5.1
Actually, the CGA emulation is slightly different. This becomes evident
when you first load in the new emulator and see a larger screen.
Unfortunately, it does not seem to be as good an emulation as old one. I
tried to run a game under the emulator that uses various tricks to get
different grey shades out of the CGA screen. It had worked fine under
the old emulator but, for some reason, instead of black and white I was
getting white with a mixture of cyan and magenta. The manual does,
however, state that the new CGA emulation may not work on all monitors
and even suggests a cure − a cure which, sadly, failed to correct this
problem.
5.1
I then tried to load a piece of copy protected software from disc. Now,
I accept that some disc based copy protection schemes will beat the
emulator, and I have encountered several pieces of software that I was
unable to use because of this. What surprised me was that this particu
lar software failed to load, even though it had previously worked fine
with my old version of the emulator.
5.1
The new version of the PC Emulator boasts that it now emulates a maths
co-processor and that this gives a speed increase of 14 with floating
point mathematics. Do not be fooled into thinking that this will mean
the emulator as a whole runs faster. According to Norton’s SI (a
standard speed check), the emulator was now only running at 90% of the
speed it ran at under the old emulator. I was running this without the
ARM 3 upgrade and I can only assume that the new code has been written
in such a way that it is more efficient for ARM 3 users. While speeding
it up for them, it has slowed it down for the rest of us. However, this
is only speculation − it may run slower on their machines as well for
all I know.
5.1
I did encounter one or two very minor advantages to the new emulator.
Firstly, I was able to use the mouse and it worked fine on every program
I checked. !PCEms can also be configured in such a way that you can now
return to the desktop from the emulator. Alternatively, you can
configure it so that you are unable to return and this gives you a bit
more memory to play around with, although fractionally less than was
available with the old emulator. Sound has also been improved to a
bearable level, although if you configure the emulator to run so it
cannot return to the desktop, you do not get the full available sound
due to one of the vital sound modules being unplugged. The Emulator
should also now work with CD-ROMs.
5.1
The manual is a great improvement over the last pitiful attempt and it
includes some useful details, like how to connect up to a modem or
another PC/Archimedes. My only criticism of the manual is that it still
says far too little about MS-DOS itself. Actual installation was easy
and there were no problems in accessing previously created hard disc
partitions or creating new ones. An extra utility is also supplied for
transferring files between MS-DOS and Archimedes formatted discs.
5.1
Overall, the latest version of the emulator is simply not worth
upgrading to unless you have 2Mbytes or more, or you desperately need to
be running a PC with a maths co-processor. If the latest version runs
faster than the older version under ARM 3, it is probably also worth
upgrading but you would have to check first to see if this is the case.
If you have 2Mbyte+, you should upgrade as soon as possible, if only for
the enhanced graphics that will be available to you.
5.1
Richard Forster, Altrincham.   A
5.1

5.1
DataKing Plus and DataKing Plus Junior
5.1
Dave Morrell
5.1
In Archive 4.7 p46, I reviewed DataKing, an educational database. That
version, although very good, was not a true RISC-OS program. DataKing
Plus is a fully multitasking, RISC-OS program complete with its own file
type for datafiles. It is also written in ‘C’ rather than in Basic.
5.1
The version I am using is 1.01 − a slight pre-release version. i.e.
there are a few minor changes still to be made to it. The manual comes
on disc at the moment as both an Impression document and as a text file.
When the final version is complete a full printed manual will be
available.
5.1
Once loaded, the DataKing icon sits on the icon bar and seems to happily
interface with any program I have tried it with. The icon bar menu
contains five entries: Info which gives the usual information about the
program the author and the user etc, New File which is fairly obvious,
DataKing Plus Junior which is a simplified version of DataKing Plus for
use by younger children, DataKing Plus which is the full version of the
program and Quit which, again, is obvious.
5.1
You can select which version of the software is used, the full version
or Junior and this decides what happens when you click <select> on the
DataKing icon or when a DataKing file is double clicked. All previous
DataKing files are compatible with DataKing Plus.
5.1
DataKing Plus
5.1
When creating a new datafile, a window comes up containing a set of
video recorder type controls in the top right hand corner, “Record
Number:  x of y” in the top left hand corner and a blank field A. The
field is grey and clicking on it changes the colour to light blue and a
grey caret appears at the left hand end. The field name is typed in and
if <return> is pressed, field B appears with the caret inside it. Field
B name is then typed in and so on. It is very easy, much quicker to do
than to explain. Once the empty database is set up, data entry is just
as fast. Clicking to the right of the first field produces the usual red
caret and the data can be typed in immediately. Data can be string or
numerical data.
5.1
The other way to set up the fields is to click with <select> as the
mouse pointer is dragged down the window.
5.1
Menus
5.1
If the menu button is clicked over the datafile window a five option
menu appears. These are as follows:-
5.1
Info gives information on the file in use. i.e. number of records and
fields and the total size of data in the file.
5.1
Charts leads to a graphical submenu of the different charts that the
program will produce.
5.1
Workshop leads to a submenu containing four entries, Print, Search, Sort
and Statistics which in turn lead to further submenus.
5.1
Edit leads to another submenu containing four options.
5.1
Save allows you to save the data in either DataKing format or CSV
format.
5.1
Graphical output
5.1
The ‘Charts’ menu contains twelve different types of chart for display
ing data. They are grouped in four sets of three. The first set deals
with the manipulation of raw data. You can produce a single field bar
chart of one field in each record of the datafile, a multi-field bar
chart of two or more fields from each record in the datafile with each
record having two or more bars side by side or a summative bar chart of
two or more fields but this time the fields sit one on top of the other
giving a combined height for the bar.
5.1
The next three give the same three bar charts but this time as a
percentage of the totals for the fields rather than just raw data.
5.1
Chart seven gives a comparative line graph of two or more fields from
each record with each field represented by a different colour.
5.1
Chart eight gives an X − Y Line graph showing the correlation between
any two fields.
5.1
Chart nine gives a frequency distribution of various data expressed as a
bar chart.
5.1
Chart ten gives a percentage comparative line graph between two fields.
5.1
Chart eleven gives a scattergram, with a line of best fit, showing the
correlation between two fields.
5.1
Chart twelve does the same as chart nine but expresses the data as a pie
chart.
5.1
All the charts can be saved as Draw files for use in DTP packages etc.
All the bar charts can be produced as colour filled charts or as outline
charts for children to colour in themselves.
5.1
Printing
5.1
The ‘Workshop’ menu contains four entries. Print has three further
submenus for formatting the printout. All the print options work on the
whole datafile unless a search has been applied, in which case, only the
‘found’ records will be printed.
5.1
The first is ‘Line’ which prints out each selected field of a record on
a separate line and, if required, will put a blank line between each
record.
5.1
The second is ‘Column’ which prints out a tabular set of data, again
with each record separated by a blank line.
5.1
The third is ‘Label’. This prints out all the data from a record on to
one label. The number of lines per label can be specified but only
single labels seem to be supported. I use an H.P. DeskJet and my labels
are either two or three across. I would like to see this supported as I
know several schools in my local authority now use laser or inkjet
printers.
5.1
The program itself does not seem to be printer dependent and printed
most things on my DeskJet. I would have preferred the program to use the
RISC-OS drivers or give an option for changing the printer commands. On
all the print options there is an option to use condensed print. This
did not work on the DeskJet but gave me a nice smiling face at the
beginning of the printing.
5.1
Searching
5.1
There are two types of search − simple or complex.
5.1
The simple search allows you to search for an item containing or not
containing a word or part of a word, or containing a number equal to,
less than or greater than a specified number. It searches one specified
field through all the records in the datafile.
5.1
The complex search allows a search for a match or not-match of a search
string, including or not-including a search string, values equal or not-
equal to a specified value, values less than or greater than a specified
value or values less than or equal to or greater than or equal to a
specified value on up to three fields per record.
5.1
Normal numerical values are recognised but a numerical value such as
£1.54 will not be recognised as it begins with a non-numerical charac
ter. Also, a number such as 10,000 will be recognised only as 10 because
‘,’ is not a numerical character. I think that this could lead to
problems with younger children. A possible better solution might have
been to specify either numerical or string data when the database was
first set up and then ignore any non-numerical characters in a numerical
field. This, of course, would introduce another complication for younger
users. As DataKing’s design brief was for ease of setting up and data
entry I can understand why this was done.
5.1
Sorting
5.1
The third item in the workshop menu is a sort facility. Records can be
sorted on up to three fields either numerically or alphabetically, in
ascending or descending order. One of the things I liked particularly
about DataKing1 was its speed. DataKing Plus is slightly slower in its
searching but it is a lot slower when sorting. When sorting the
‘Placenames’ file converted from ‘Key’ into alphabetical order of names,
DataKing took about 1½ minutes including writing the new file to disc.
DataKing Plus took 19½ minutes including sorting the file in memory but
not writing to disc. Writing to disc is done in the normal RISC-OS
manner. Files probably will not need sorting very often so I could live
with this but it was a bit of a disappointment.
5.1
Statistics
5.1
The final option on the workshop menu is statistics. This will give the
total, mean and standard deviation of a selected field.
5.1
Editing data
5.1
The Edit menu contains four options. The first is Advanced Editor. This
leads to another menu containing six entries. The first four are self-
explanatory, Go to record, Insert record, Delete record and Delete
field. Adding a field is done by selecting the last fieldname on any
record and pressing <Return>. Another field appears underneath and is
repeated throughout the datafile. This needs to be done carefully as the
auto repeat on the Return key could add too many fields. To add another
record to the datafile select the last item of data in the last record
and press <Return> or place the mouse arrow under the last field and
press <Select>. Another blank record is added to the end.
5.1
The fifth option is Auto Entry. This sets up the Return key to move to
the same field in the next record when editing or adding data rather
than to the next field in the same record.
5.1
The last entry is Copy. This will copy a selected field throughout a
specified number of records. i.e. If we were making an address database
of a class of children then the town and county fields could be entered
into the first record and copied throughout the rest. This could be a
tremendous time saver when you consider the typing speed of most
children (and some adults).
5.1
The next item on the edit menu is ‘Fast Data’. This is another time
saver for data entry. If you are entering data into a database and some
of the fields have entries coming from only a small choice, this choice
can be entered into the Fast Data option whilst the field is high
lighted. When entering data into that field afterwards, clicking on the
menu button brings up the standard DataKing menu with the fast data
options listed underneath. Clicking <Select> on one of these options
places it into the datafield.
5.1
The last two options on the edit menu are parts of the same facility.
Using the ‘Define as Function’ option, one field can be defined as a
function of one or more other fields and clicking on ‘Calculate’ will
change the function in that field to a numerical value. This works in a
similar way to the ‘Calculator’ function in DataKing.
5.1
Saving data
5.1
DataKing Plus will save data as its own files or as CSV files to be
loaded into other application, not necessarily databases. It will also
accept CSV files from other applications by dragging the CSV file to the
icon on the icon bar. This was not explained in the temporary documenta
tion and was found by trial and error. I loaded in a large file that had
been saved from PipeDream as CSV and the load time was fast.
5.1
DataKing Plus Junior
5.1
DataKing Plus Junior is a cut down version of the program designed to be
used by younger children. The main menu has only four options, Info,
Charts, Workshop and Save.
5.1
Info gives the same information as the full program whereas the charts
menu has only four options. There are bar charts for single or multiple
fields or for frequency distribution and a pie chart for frequency
distribution. This makes it much easier for younger children to make a
choice. Again the charts can be colour filled or outlined for own
colouring.
5.1
Workshop is limited to three options.
5.1
Print will only print the datafile record by record as it appears on
screen with a line between each record and Search will search the
datafile either alphabetically or numerically. The alphabetical searches
are for word or not word finds and works for whole words or part words.
The numerical searches are for less than, equal to or greater than a
specified number. The searches are simple searches, i.e. only work on a
single pre-chosen field at a time.
5.1
Sort will sort on up to three fields, alphabetically or numerically in
ascending or descending order. As with DataKing Plus, the sort seems to
slow exponentially with the addition of data. I am not a programmer and
have been told that in order to gain the flexibility and ease of data
entry there was a loss of speed on the sort routine. DataKing does get
there in the end though and I am fairly happy to accept the slow sort
speed because of the ease of data entry.
5.1
Conclusions
5.1
In use, I found DataKing Plus to be as easy as the original DataKing.
Data entry is very easy, setting up a new datafile is simplicity itself,
searching data is quite fast though not as fast as the original, sorting
is very slow but may not need doing very often and graphic output is
excellent and is everything most schools would need.
5.1
I would recommend this for most school use provided the datafile does
not need sorting very often as this could be very time consuming.
5.1
For a home database, I would like to see a more flexible label printing
facility and some way of changing the few printer codes that are used.
5.1
Improvements in final version
5.1
Several improvement have been made to the software since this version
was issued: When saving a file, an overwrite message is now given if a
file of the same name already exists. ArcLaser and Laser Direct printers
are now fully interfaced. When a field is set up as a function, it now
shows up in red rather than blue when selected. On screen the record
number and, if it is on, the ‘search on’ message now appear below the
tape recorder style icons on the top right. They now remain there when
the window is scrolled so they are always in view. When printing out in
column format, the left hand column, the first record, is now left
justified. All the others remain right justified. On the graphics side
the ‘line of best fit’ on the scattergram is now optional as many
teachers preferred their pupils to put in their own line.
5.1
At the moment, there is no intention to change the label printing
facility to cope with two or three labels across a sheet.
5.1
It is also a bit difficult to set up a printer configuration file to
cope with non-Epson standard printers. To get condensed print on a
printer such as the DeskJet, set the printer up for condensed print and
then print out as normal.
5.1
DataKing Plus is available from Shenley Software at £59 +VAT or from
Archive at £64. Prices include a site licence.  A
5.1

5.1
Capsoft Disc Number Two
5.1
John Schild
5.1
Capsoft Disc 2 is the second offering from Barry Thompson − an 800k disc
crammed full of Draw files. There are drawn fonts for poster and display
purposes and frame borders for use in DTP applications. Having spent
some time exploring its contents, my verdict is very quickly stated:
Impression 2 users who ever have a need to put a decorative border
around a frame should certainly buy a copy without delay. Users of other
DTP applications should seriously consider doing so.
5.1
The contents of this excellent disc have been prepared using !DrawPlus
and are presented in Draw format. Graphic and artistic quality is
consistently high. The file directories are arranged as follows:
5.1
Complete borders
5.1
A “borders” directory contains some 40 ready assembled borders designed
for A5 reproduction, but a helpful paragraph in the Readme file offers
stage by stage instructions for re-scaling to other sizes. These may be
used in any graphics application but a timely warning is given that some
of the lines might prove too thin for the comfort of Acorn DTP.
5.1
Impression borders
5.1
21 different styles of Impression borders are offered, all ready to drop
into the borders set-up routine. To meet the needs of different sized
frames, they are presented in several different proportions, a total of
something over 60 borders. A drawfile is included as a visual index to
the border designs.
5.1
I recall that when reviewing the earlier Capsoft disc I asked “How do
you prevent black frames looking funereal?” Mr Thompson’s response is
highly effective: you employ multiple thin lines. The almost delicate
tracery style of some of the Capsoft 2 frames is most attractive and
entirely free from the Funeral Director’s influence. This is the most
imaginative set of Impression borders so far encountered.
5.1
Drawn fonts
5.1
A fonts directory contains a number of striking and attractive alphanum
eric characters designed for headings and posters, and the Readme file
offers useful guidance on the use of DrawPlus to assemble these into
headings etc. As they stand, these are of limited value and Mr Thompson
could usefully consider assembling them into outline fonts accessible
from the keyboard.
5.1
Capsoft 2 may be obtained on payment of £9.00 by cheque payable to B. J.
Thompson at Capsoft Computer Services.  A
5.1

5.1
Competition Corner
5.1
Colin Singleton
5.1
We have a collection of Calendar Trivia this month. Some of my regular
correspondents may well say this is too easy. Perhaps we will see some
new names in the postbag.
5.1
Firstly, Friday the Thirteenth. There was one in September − one of two
this year. What is the largest possible number of Fridays the Thirteenth
in a year? And the smallest?
5.1
Is the thirteenth more likely to be a Friday than any other day of the
week? More specifically, in what proportion of months, in the long term,
does the thirteenth fall on a Friday? What are the proportions for the
other days of the week?
5.1
Secondly, Bank Holiday Monday. For non-English readers, I must explain
that there are eight English Bank Holidays in the year. These are New
Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, the first and last Mondays in
May and the last Monday in August, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. If any
of the Christmas/ New Year dates falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the
official Bank Holiday is on the nearest available Friday or Monday
(occasionally Tuesday).
5.1
What is the largest number of Bank Holiday Mondays in a calendar year?
In the long term, in what proportion of years does this happen?
5.1
Repeat for every other day of the week.
5.1
Don’t forget the Gregorian Century Leap Year rule. A year divisible by
100 is only a Leap Year if it is divisible by 400.
5.1
Entries and comments please, either via Paul at NCS, or direct to me at
41 St Quentin Drive, Sheffield S17 4PN.
5.1
P.S. My apologies for an unfortunate error in last month’s puzzle, Prime
Gaps. The prime associated with the longest known gap certainly does
exceed 215, but I meant to say that it exceeds 1015. Sorry if you were
confused.  A
5.1

5.1
The winner of the August competition is Paul Skirrow of Ipswich with his
caption: “This ARM3 sure helps the allegro passages!” but we have given
a runner-up prize to Mr A. Shooter of Dunedin, New Zealand for “My name
ain’t Sam!”. Unfortunately, these were the only two entrants!
5.1
I have asked Colin if he’d like to take a rest from his monthly
competition work. (The £50 a month prize money being given to a small
number of entrants was a factor, I have to admit.) If anyone else has
any ideas for a competition, let me know. To add a bit of spice to it,
we could have the prize being the option to chose which charity should
receive the prize money which could be as much as, say, £500 − now that
would be worth playing for! Ed.
5.1

5.1
This ARM3 sure helps the allegro passages!
5.1

5.1
Render Bender II
5.1
Malcolm Banthorpe
5.1
Render Bender II is an updated version of Clares’ already successful
ray-tracing and animation package which was launched over two years ago.
As might be expected, it is now fully RISC-OS compliant so that it is
now possible to ray trace in the multitasking mode and consequently the
computer can still be available for other tasks during the often lengthy
process of rendering. It comes on two discs with a 56 page manual.
5.1
There was some criticism levelled at the original version of Render
Bender concerning the method employed for designing a picture. While
capable of producing some very impressive results, the scene had to be
defined in text using a scene description language. This meant that you
either needed to visualise the scene in some detail in your head or plan
it on paper before you started. Then you needed to work out the
coordinate position of each object before writing the scene description.
5.1
Defining how an object would move in an animation, similarly required
the estimation of an appropriate formula to describe the movement. In
other words, the picture initially generated by the program was often a
bit of a hit and miss affair depending on how skilled you were at
translating the picture you first thought of into numbers. Usually
several attempts were required, each time generating a thumbnail ray-
traced picture, before the desired result was obtained.
5.1
The fact that a number of impressive pictures and animations were
produced shows that many peop le were not deterred by this and it was
still probably quite a lot easier to use than the alternative, public
domain, QRT and MTV ray-tracers. According to Clares, with the new
version “you no longer have to be a mathematical genius” (so that’s why
the old version took me some time to achieve results).
5.1
Graphical front end
5.1
The major improvement in the new package is the inclusion of a graphical
front end application called ‘!Illuminator’. This allows you to create,
interactively, a wire-frame version of the scene by drawing and
positioning your own objects in a !Draw-like environment. There is even
a toolbox similar to that used in !Draw, although all operations are
also available via menus.
5.1
The ready-defined primitives such as sphere, cube, cone, disc, etc. are
still available, as in the original version, to build up into more
complex solids and, in addition, irregular surfaces and swept volumes
can be defined. The latter would allow, for instance, a vase or
wineglass to be defined by drawing its profile.
5.1
As with !Draw, objects may be grouped so that all future operations such
as repositioning, colouring, scaling or rotation will apply to the whole
group.
5.1
Clares have provided 14 basic predefined colours and surface character
istics include glass, metal, shiny, normal (matt) and glass. The range
of colours is adequate for most purposes but could perhaps benefit from
a mid grey to augment the included extremes of black and white.
5.1
As well as clicking <adjust> to select a number of objects, an alterna
tive method is provided by drawing a box around them. All objects, apart
from spheres, may be ungrouped into their component surfaces.
5.1
Lamps, observer position and observer target are also represented and
may be moved as required, as may the points on which directional lamps
are shining. Lamps cannot apparently be assigned a colour and so always
give white light. However, I found that, by placing a filter of coloured
‘glass’ in front of a lamp, a very satisfactory effect of coloured
lighting could be achieved.
5.1
Similarly, although the spotlight has a fixed beam width, it is easily
narrowed by creating an opaque ‘shade’ from a cylinder or cone. Three
different fonts are available, should you wish to include three-
dimensional text in your picture.
5.1
Illuminator gives you a choice of views of the scene such as front, top,
left, right. You can have as many or as few of these windows open on the
screen as you like and dragging an object in one window will cause all
the other views to change accordingly.
5.1
In addition, although you can’t use it to move objects, there is a view
window which shows the scene from your chosen viewpoint and lens and
therefore is a reasonable representation of the perspective as it will
eventually appear when ray-traced. If the scene is particularly complex,
it can take an annoyingly long time (well, long in Archimedes terms
anyway) to update all windows. In this case, it is possible to disable
the update in all windows apart from the Render Bender view. An object
can then still be dragged in another window but only the perspective
view will be updated and in much less time. The other windows can later
be forced to update.
5.1
As well as the wire-frame view, it is possible to select a solid view
which employs a simple form of hidden surface removal. Although this is
not guaranteed to give the correct view under all circumstances, and
certainly not where inter-penetrating surfaces are involved, it works
well most of the time and may give a better idea of how the final
picture will look.
5.1
Animations
5.1
In order to produce an animation, there are two main methods by which
you can define how an object moves. Firstly, and most easily, you can
define key frame positions. You simply enter a frame number, say 1, and
enter an object’s starting position, enter a new frame number, say 10,
drag the object to a new position and register it. Clicking on ‘compile’
will then cause Illuminator to calculate the object’s positions in
frames 2 to 9 and a ‘show all frames’ option will display the complete
move as a repeated image of the object.
5.1
Alternatively, you can enter a formula with ‘frame’ as a variable to
define the movement. It probably still helps here if you are something
of a mathematical whizz kid but more realistic movement incorporating
acceleration and deceleration, and hence giving the impression of an
object’s inertia, can be achieved if you are prepared to persevere with
it. You can also move the observer position in order to fly through a
scene.
5.1
Your finished scene can be saved, either as an Illuminator file for
future modification, or for direct use by !Render as a scene file. It is
possible to build up a library of useful objects as separate Illuminator
files and use them later in new pictures by dragging the object file
into an Illuminator window. In creating a scene file, a text file
consisting of the original scene description language is automatically
generated. This may subsequently be edited using !Edit or another text
editor, if required. Illuminator is also capable of loading a scene file
and interpreting it, but grouping and animation information will be
lost, so it is always best to save a picture as an Illuminator file if
you are likely to want to do any work on it in future.
5.1
The !Render application, as before, allows the sky, floor and viewing
lens to be defined and also whether you wish to produce a picture with
or without shadows. The latter will produce results faster. For an
initial idea of what the the picture will look like, you can choose to
generate quarter size, sixteenth size or even smaller pictures.
5.1
Although !Illuminator will give you a good general idea of what to
expect, it is not able to show the effect of the lighting arrangement
that you have defined and so these smaller, quicker traces are still a
good idea. Any 256-colour mode may be chosen for the final picture. If
you are producing an animation rather than a single picture, then once
all the frames have been generated they will need to be combined into a
film by the !Animator application.
5.1
Single pictures are stored in compressed form which is the same as that
used by ProArtisan. A supplied application called !Converter is used to
convert the compressed files into normal sprites. I note from the manual
that the same file format is being used for another forthcoming Clares
product called Illusionist, which is perhaps worthy of a brief mention
here.
5.1
As I understand it, Illusionist takes an alternative approach to ray-
tracing in order to produce realistic-looking pictures. It has, as one
of its main strengths, the ability to apply smooth shading to curved
surfaces, which (apart from spheres) in Render Bender and in most other
ray-tracing packages, have to be represented as a series of flat
polygons. Another major feature is the ability to apply texture maps to
surfaces so that, for instance, a wooden table really does look like
wood. I look forward to its release with interest.
5.1
Render Bender II is a major advance on the original which has, as noted
above, already shown itself capable of excellent results. The program is
now easy for almost anyone to use and looks set to attract a lot of new
users. If you’re interested in ray-tracing but have been deterred up to
now by the numerical aspects and if you don’t want to get involved with
the more comprehensive 3D editors such as Euclid and SolidCad, you would
be well advised to look at Render Bender II. (£135 from Clares or £120
through Archive.  A
5.1

5.1
!DrawAid
5.1
Tristan Cooper
5.1
It is an inevitable part of the computer programmer’s role in life that
he must spend a considerable part of his time re-inventing the wheel −
that is, writing procedures that he knows others have written before.
However, if he needs the function, then he has little choice but to
write the necessary code. Fortunately, the advent of Public Domain
software has begun to reduce this tendency, so that many well written
utilities are now becoming available at negligible cost. Beyond PD,
however, are those assemblies of useful and powerful routines that are
(a) too good to be given away and (b) need a manual to explain their
operation.
5.1
!DrawAid from Carvic Engineering of Cambridge is a good example of this
category of software. William Graham has recognised the need (within his
own engineering environment) for a means of producing a wide variety of
graphic and text images that are not easy to make with !Draw, but which
can be subsequently imported into !Draw, !Impression etc.
5.1
As he so rightly states ... (using !Draw) “Text entry into tables is
rather laborious and if you require text at an angle other than
horizontal, each text string has to be prepared from an outline font
using !FontDraw or !FontFX. All this takes time and can be frustrating.”
How true! (But you could use DrawPlus − Careware 13. Ed.)
5.1
To alleviate this problem, William has prepared !DrawAid which allows
the generation of !Draw files directly from Basic. This is not a Desktop
application in the normal sense, but is essentially a library of text
and graphic routines in Basic, plus a core program in which to assemble
them. To get the most out of this utility you would need to be reason
ably familiar with programming in Basic, though a non-Basic person might
manage reasonably well.
5.1
!DrawAid is supplied with a very well written, clear, concise manual
which explains the philosophy behind !DrawAid and goes on to take the
user through a demo program which produces a neat and nicely annotated
graph. This is followed by a listing of the core program called AidBlank
which is the bare bones of any user program and to which one can add
routines to call the various Library procedures. It is at this point
that a working knowledge of Basic becomes useful. Essentially, what you
are doing is using PROCs such as PROC_polygon or PROC_arrow _in. These
PROCs take a number of parameters that specify details like line width
and colour, fill colour, origins, centres, lengths and angles. By using
the occasional FOR-NEXT loop with suitably inserted variables, one can
quickly assemble a few routines that will draw quite complex and
colourful illustrations.
5.1
It is worth referring to the chapter entitled Other Facilities at an
early stage however. This gives details of the scales used i.e. metric
or imperial. This explains why my initial attempts came to nought, as I
had assumed I was working to Basic’s normal 1279 by 1023 screen, but my
graphics were nowhere to be seen, being halfway up the wall! William has
sensibly designed DrawAid around an engineering environment so that you
can specify either inches or millimetres with the result that is WYSIWYG
on screen and printer.
5.1
It is also relevant to note that a number of global variables are
predefined. These usefully cover such things as line and fill colour,
text style and weight, scales and line widths (from 0 to 5, but not 6 as
stated in the manual). Some of these variables may be usefully altered,
while others are best left alone.
5.1
Following on from the simple stuff, there is the facility to group
objects together. Initially, it appears that all objects produced by
DrawAid are in one group and cannot be separated. However, using ungroup
from the Draw menu will separate them so that they can be individually
manipulated. But what if you want some of them permanently grouped? No
problem − just specify the start and end of a group when using DrawAid.
These objects remain grouped within Draw.
5.1
No doubt you were as disappointed as I with Draw’s limited text handling
facility. Being unable to rotate text is a serious nuisance. With
DrawAid you can assemble text in a variety of colours and styles and it
will be produced as any other Draw object − scalable and rotatable to
your heart’s content; very handy for graphs and illustrations where
annotation frequently needs to be vertical or angled. The font available
is Vector, which is essentially Latin 1 (ISO 8859/1) with Greek and
other extensions.
5.1
Path objects are catered for within DrawAid with a number of path
procedures including rotate, shear, locate and scale. Thus, it is
possible to use the flexibility of path manipulation in the construction
of complex shapes. If you’re familiar with the use of path edit mode in
Draw, then these PROCs will be of use to you.
5.1
A file entitled UserFiles.Demos contains an interesting selection of 16
Basic routines which include Pi_Chart, CeltKey, Sprocket, Tables _1 &
_2, Maths and even Airfoils. These demonstrate how DrawAid may be used
with recursive routines, assembly of detailed tables, complex fancy
graphics and mathematically defined shapes for subsequent use in
engineering drawings.
5.1
Conclusion
5.1
The overall impression of this package is that it is professionally
written and not difficult to use. The manual is clear, concise and
complete, with only one error noted. If you use a DTP package and rely
on Draw for your graphics, you will already have discovered its
limitations. The combination of DrawAid and Draw will allow you much
greater versatility when producing graphics and will speed the prepara
tion of drawings and documents considerably. What must you pay for all
this effort? − a mere £10.
5.1
(Obtainable from Carvic Engineering, 3 Shingay Lane, Sawston, Cambridge,
CB2 4SS. Phone & Fax: 0223−834100)  A
5.1

5.1
The Engineer!
5.1

5.1

5.1
Sherston Software    Swan Barton, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(0666−840433) (−840048)
5.1
Silicon Vision Ltd (p11)    Signal
House, Lyon Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 2AG. (081−422−2274) (−427−5169)
5.1
Southern Printers    47 Drake Road, Willesborough, Ashford, Kent TN24 0UZ.
(0233−633919)
5.1
Spacetech (p15)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.1
Techsoft UK Ltd (p16)    Old School
Lane, Erryrs, Mold, Clwyd, CH7 4DA. (082−43318)
5.1
Topologika    P.O. Box 39, Stilton, Peterborough, PE7 3RL. (0733−244682)
5.1
Word Processing    65 Milldale Crescent, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton  WV10
6LR.
5.1
Wyddfa Software    3 Preswylfa, Llanberis, Gwynedd, LL55 4LF.
(0286−870101)
5.1

5.1
The review was based on a laser-printed proof copy of First Impression.
Stephen has already edited his tutorial guide in the light of Robert’s
comments and the modified version will be available at the Acorn User
Show a special show price of £25. The power of Impression DTP strikes
again! Ed.
5.1

5.1

5.1
Canon BJ-300/330 Printers
5.1
Martin Geddes
5.1
Many Archimedes users are finding their old 9 pin dot matrix printers
increasingly inadequate. Purchased at some expense several years ago to
accompany some venerable 8 bit micro, they are still capable of
acceptably legible output, but at a snail’s pace. Thus many people are
reluctant to invest in an expensive new printer when their previous one
is still performing. Having myself been forced to abandon my bulky old
printer when moving to university, I decided to take the plunge and buy
a high quality inkjet printer.
5.1
Attracted by the high speed and print quality of inkjets, combined with
their quiet operation, the 24 pin dot matrix option was rejected. This
left two contenders − the HP DeskJet 500, and the Canon BJ-300. (The BJ-
330 is the wide carriage version of the BJ-300). The Canon had one
overriding factor in its favour − it can handle fan fold paper whereas
the DeskJet cannot. Having seen the output from both, I can vouch that
the print quality is virtually indistinguishable, despite the Canon’s
higher (360dpi) resolution.
5.1
The BJ-300 is attractively styled and sturdily built. Consequently, it
is not particularly light compared to some cheaper 24 pin printers of a
similar size. However, measuring only 18“ x 13½” x 5¼“ and being able to
handle A3 portrait paper means it is not bulky. Paper can be fed in a
sheet at a time in the front, or tractor fed from the back. A cut sheet
feeder is available, and envelope handling is very satisfactory. A paper
park facility means that the fan fold paper need not be removed when
using cut sheets.
5.1
It works on a slightly different principal to other inkjets. Instead of
vaporized ink squirting on to the paper, the ink enters a microscopic
tube in which a small patch heats up rapidly. Some of the ink vaporizes
into an expanding bubble, which then forces a tiny blob of liquid ink
out. The bubble then recondenses in the tube. Hence Canon prefer to call
it a bubble jet.
5.1
Setting up
5.1
Setting up the BJ-300 is relatively simple, with easily accessible DIP
switches and a well laid out front panel. The only word of caution is
with the removable plastic cover over the printing area. This is too
darkly tinted, so you can barely see what is appearing on the paper
until it emerges from the printer. Also, the instructions are vague as
to how to fit it. For those still struggling, the two notches fit on the
two hinges in the very far corners of the printing area, and if you
press it down, it clicks firmly in place.
5.1
My first experiences with the BJ-300 were very discouraging, with lots
of smudged print emerging. After experimenting with several types of
paper, I found that this printer definitely dislikes paper easily able
to soak up ink while being poor at letting the solvents evaporate.
However, most types of paper produce good results − you too will need to
experiment. (Glossy paper seems to fare worst, along with certain very
slightly shiny coatings.)
5.1
Unlike the older BJ printers, the BJ-300 needs no special printer
drivers, working with !PrinterDM. Emulation of the Epson LQ printers and
the IBM ProPrinter range is provided. The Epson option, although it is
already supported by !PrinterDM, restricts vertical resolution to
180dpi. Included below is a minimal PrDataSrc file for the new
!PrinterDM (2.46), operating in IBM mode at 360×360dpi. Tack the usual
page/configuration data at the end. Ensure that you set the “control
codes” to “ignore” in !PrinterDM if you want the pure text output to
work.
5.1
The documentation is much better than average. A User’s Manual gives
setting up instructions and general advice, while an exceptionally
comprehensive Programmer’s Manual details every command sequence.
5.1
In use
5.1
The BJ-300 is very fast − the draft mode is the fastest I have ever seen
from a line printer, and is of a quality not dissimilar to a 24 pin
printer in NLQ mode. Draft mode means less of the expensive ink is
consumed. Letter quality is excellent (especially for pure text
printing), although careful inspection will easily differentiate it from
laser printed output. This is particularly noticeable for large expanses
of black where the paper gets slightly soaked. The letter quality speed
seems very favourable compared to 24 pin printers.
5.1
Although cut sheets as wide as A3 (portrait) can pass through the BJ-
300, only the usual 80 column area may be printed on.
5.1
For best results (even with an ARM3) you dump graphics output into a
file and then use Filer_ OpenDir Printer: to get a printer filer window.
Redirect printer output back to the parallel port and drag the file into
this window. In this way, the printer has less time to pause at the end
of lines and fewer minuscule gaps appear between lines.
5.1
Ink usage seems to be reasonable. I have used my Canon heavily for a few
months now with the original cartridge. There seems to be one ‘bug’ in
the printer. If you try to park a very long piece of fan fold paper, it
stops after about 1 foot of reverse feeding, beeps and dies. Only
turning off and then on will recover the situation.
5.1
The supposed problems of older inkjets with jets blocking up when the
printer is not in use seems to have been totally overcome with this
printer.
5.1
Conclusion
5.1
This is a very competent printer which is a good substitute for a laser
printer for those on a medium budget. It represents a major leap up from
dot matrix printers, while the tractor feed combined with draft printing
leaves plenty of flexibility for the programmer. The printer costs about
£420 (inc VAT); ink cartridges are £15, lasting for 500 000 characters.
However, the potential purchaser should be aware of the distaste with
which this printer regards some types of paper.
5.1
Sample PrDataSrc file for BJ-300 in IBM Proprinter Mode
5.1
version:               2
5.1

5.1
total_printers:        2
5.1
total_draft_printers:  1
5.1
total_nlq_printers:    1
5.1

5.1
nlq_mode:              0
5.1

5.1
features:       16_00000000
5.1
interlace:      0
5.1
line_interlace: “”
5.1

5.1
text_tab:             “<9>”
5.1
text_formfeed:        “<12>”
5.1
text_return:          “<13>”
5.1
text_return_lf:       “<10><13>”
5.1
..........................................
5.1

5.1
printer_name:   Canon BJ300 (360 by 360 dpi) (IBM mode)
5.1
printer_number: 0
5.1
text_alias:     -1
5.1

5.1
pxres:          360     ; dots per inch
5.1
pyres:          360
5.1
pxres_halftone: 360/8
5.1
pyres_halftone: 360/8
5.1

5.1
dump_depth:     48      ; 48 nozzles used, not interlaced
5.1
line_prologue:  “<28>CB<4><4>” ; select appropriate mode
5.1
line_epilogue:  “<28>CJ<04Introducing the Acorn A5000
5.1sp
Paul Beverley
5.1sp
On Friday 27th September 1991, Acorn Computers launched, to the
assembled press representatives, an exciting new computer to extend
their range − the A5000 (admittedly, not a very striking name!) The look
of the new computer didn’t exactly bowl anyone over either. It was quite
smart, but looked remarkably similar to many three-piece microcomputers
produced these days. But it was when Acorn revealed the power of the new
computer and we saw the price tag that we realised that Acorn have again
made a major step forward in terms of computing power per pound
(Sterling).
5.1sp
The A5000/2HD package
5.1sp
The package on offer is a 2 Mbyte (upgradable to 4M), ARM3 based
computer with their new operating system, RISC-OS 3. It has a 1.6M
floppy and a 40M IDE hard drive. There is also a high resolution multi-
sync colour monitor on a tilt and swivel stand. The price of this
complete package is an amazing £1499 (+ VAT) including the monitor.
Regardless of its looks or its uninspiring name, the A5000 is, without
any doubt, going to sell extremely well. Demand is going to far outstrip
supply for quite some time, I would guess, although Acorn say that mass
production of these new computers is due to start in January. They
wouldn’t be drawn on what they class as “mass” production but current
production rates are something in the region of 1,500 a month which is
tiny compared to what they could end up producing if this takes off in
the way I think it will. (Remember that, so far, Acorn have sold over
150,000 ARM3 based machines.)
5.1sp
Adrian Look and Brian Cowan, who also witnessed the birth of the A5000,
have written about the software and hardware aspects of the new
computer, so I will confine myself to the implications of the new
machine for the existing range of Archimedes computers and look at some
of the possible applications of the A5000.
5.1sp
The current version is an A5000/2HD to give it its full title but in the
new year, Acorn will be releasing the A5000/1FD. This will be a basic 1
Mbyte machine with no hard drive and it is planned to retail at £999
+VAT (= £1174). The reasoning behind this decision is, presumably, that
in this autumn quarter, the demand will be extremely high and they might
as well sell the full system while they can. In the new year, when the
full production comes on stream they will be more prepared to allow
people to choose to start with the basic machine and do their own memory
and drive upgrades.
5.1sp
(Actually, I’ve thought through the pricing of this and cannot see that
is likely that anyone will be able to beat the price of the A5000/2HD as
it is so aggressively priced.)
5.1sp
A5000 Learning Curve
5.1sp
If you want even better value for money than you should buy the A5000
Learning Curve package. This comes with the A5000/2HD and some extra
software plus a two-hour tutorial on two audio cassettes and a Home
Computing magazine. The software includes PC Emulator (1.6) with DR-DOS
5.0, Genesis Plus, First Word Plus, Acorn DTP, Pacmania and Lemmings.
For this, you pay an extra £38 − a total of £1799 inc VAT.
5.1sp
What about the opposition?
5.1sp
How does this new computer compare with the opposition? Is it really
more powerful? Well, I don’t profess to be a great expert on the current
generation of Apple Macs although, until the Archimedes came of age,
Archive magazine was produced on three Macs!
5.1sp
Acorn quoted a few figures for computing power saying that a top end Mac
Ci ran at 6.3 MIPs and a 386DX PC would run at a similar speed, whereas
the A5000 runs at 13 MIPs. Some will argue that Acorn are not comparing
like with like because they are comparing complex instruction set
computers (CISCs) with their own reduced instruction set computer
(RISC). However, the whole philosophy of RISC machines is based on the
observation that, for a large proportion of the time, CISC processors
are executing only simple instructions, so at twice the number of
instructions per second, albeit simple instructions, the A5000 really is
faster.
5.1sp
Having used Macs for quite some time, one thing I am certain of is that
having the operating system in ROM is a considerable advantage. Now,
with RISC-OS 3, the A5000 also has the Font Manager, 12 outline fonts
(i.e. 3 sets) and eight core applications also in ROM − !Edit, !Draw,
!Paint, !Configure, !Calc, !Alarm, !Chars and !Help. As one who has
spent many happy hours waiting for Mac applications to load from disc(!)
I believe that ROM based fonts and applications increase the “power” of
a computer significantly.
5.1sp
The other aspect of computer “power” which the Archimedes and the A5000
in particular demonstrate is programmability. At the hardware level, for
example, the video mode can be set at the flick of a mouse to any of a
wide range of standard modes provided on ROM. This can be extended by
using further screen mode modules which could be written quite easily by
third party suppliers like Atomwide and Computer Concepts. For the
programmer, there is a vast array of routines with appropriate “hooks”
to allow them to be used from within any programming language or from
machine code routines. There is also, in ROM, a “shared C library”
showing Acorn’s commitment to supporting those who are developing
applications using the C language.
5.1sp
With the new PC emulator and the processing power of A5000, we will no
longer have to apologise for the lack of speed when running MS-DOS
software. We can also now read 1.44M discs from PC’s and I believe that
a Mac disc reader is now a possibility with the new floppy drive
interface hardware.
5.1sp
What about the A3000/410/420/440?
5.1sp
How does the new machine fit in with existing Archimedes computers?
Indeed, does it fit in at all? Acorn have discontinued the A440 and
dropped the ex-VAT prices of the A410 and A420 by £200. So let’s look at
a few VAT inclusive prices to see how the different computers compare.
(These are prices as quoted to Archive members. They include discount on
monitors and memory upgrades but not on the computers to keep in line
with Acorn’s pricing policy.)
5.1sp
Each is priced with 2 Mbyte of memory.
5.1sp
               monitor:    standard
multisync
5.1sp
A3000     £935      £1185
5.1sp
A410    £1316      £1566
5.1sp
A420    £1500       £1750
5.1sp
A5000    (£1474)     £1761
5.1sp
That price comparison says to me that no one in their right mind, or at
least, who is in possession of the full facts, is going to buy an A420
since the A5000 has twice the floppy drive capacity, twice the hard
drive capacity, a lot more than twice the processing speed and RISC-OS
3! Even the A410 has very little to recommend it unless you really
cannot afford to stretch beyond £1316, and are prepared to make do with
low resolution display.
5.1sp
If you can wait until January(-ish), you could buy a 1M, floppy only,
version of the A5000 at £1174. If we guess at £90 for the 1 to 2M
upgrade and add a standard resolution monitor, that gives us £1474 or
£1724 if you want a multisync monitor − but that takes you to within £37
of the A5000/1HD with its 40M hard drive and Acorn multisync monitor. I
think Acorn are onto a winner − I can’t, at the moment, find any
sensible way to beat their pricing.
5.1sp
What about the A540?
5.1sp
The next question to ask is where the A5000 stands in relation to the
A540. The low price of the A5000 makes the A540 look grossly over-priced
at £3524 and so they have lopped £500 off the ex-VAT price bringing it
down to £2936. Acorn have also tried to separate the two by keeping the
memory of the A5000 down to 4M maximum (which obviously also keeps the
cost down) and by making VGA+ the highest graphics mode available. The
A540 has an SVGA mode but it is equally possible to give the A5000 an
SVGA mode by writing an appropriate screen mode module.
5.1sp
So how do the prices compare? If we take an A5000 and add 2M of ram
(£140) and a SCSI controller with a 100M drive (£790), we get something
that is on a par with the A540. On this basis, we get, for the two 4M
machines:
5.1sp
A5000 + multisync
£2691
5.1sp
A540 + multisync
£3392
5.1sp
The processor speeds are the same, they both have 4M of ram and a 100M
SCSI, so what does the A540 offer for the extra £600? Firstly, the A540
is easily expandable up to 16M by using plug-in memory boards (at £540
per 4M). Secondly, because the processor is on a separate board, it can
easily be upgraded to ARM4 or whatever becomes available. Thirdly, it
offers the high resolution monochrome mode (1152 × 900) which is not
available on the A5000 as it requires extra hardware to implement it.
5.1sp
However, at £600 less, the upgraded A5000 offers RISC-OS 3 (which could
be made available on the A540 but Acorn are making no promises), the
extra 40M IDE drive, a 2M floppy drive, space for a second 2M floppy and
the possibility of adding a 4M floppy when the prices come down
sufficiently. As far as memory upgrades are concerned, although Acorn
have “no intention of providing further memory upgrades for the A5000”,
they have provided contact points which would allow for the connection
of add-on boards with extra MEMC’s and memory and there is certainly
enough space in the box to fit them. It looks to me as if Acorn wouldn’t
be too unhappy to let the A410, A420 and A540 quietly slip into oblivion
− but I hasten to add that this just my own personal opinion.
5.1sp
Applications
5.1sp
Let’s turn our attention now to what we can actually do with all this
raw processing power. The three areas which Acorn quote as being ripe
for the A5000 are image analysis, multimedia and DTP. As I know little
or nothing about the first two, I’ll share my vision for the latter!
5.1sp
DTP systems − Cheap, but powerful !
5.1sp
If you are interested in setting up a DTP system then the A5000 must
surely be the best value on the market. To start with, the A5000 gives
you the speed of the A540 − about 13 MIPs, which compares well with the
6.5 MIPs of Apple’s latest, and most powerful, Mac Ci. Then you add to
that the improvements in the RISC-OS 3 operating system which Adrian
Look outlines for us in his article. In particular, the font manager is
in ROM and the facility is provided to have rotating fonts. Next, you
look at the price and speed of laser printers available for your DTP
system, e.g. Computer Concepts’ 600 d.p.i. Laser Direct HiRes 4 at £1100
inc VAT. This means you can get an extremely fast 600 d.p.i. DTP system
for just about £3,000 inc VAT and I challenge anyone to find a DTP
system of comparable power at under £10,000!
5.1sp
If you need a scanner, you can get a Computer Concepts 300 d.p.i.
flatbed scanner for £990 plus £200 for a SCSI interface which again is
well below prices of scanners for other DTP systems. Alternatively, you
could think of a Faxscan system. For £110, you can get an interface to
an Amstrad FX9600 fax machine which acts as a 200 d.p.i. flatbed
scanner. The interface plus an FX9600AT is £570 and this gives you a
fax, an answering machine and a telephone as well as a scanner!
5.1sp
Actually, if you want the HiRes 4 laser printer to be able to operate at
the full 600 d.p.i. instead of 300 d.p.i., you need to add a 2M to 4M
upgrade for the A5000 at £140. This gives you a total price of almost
exactly £3,000 (including VAT) plus a scanner if you need one. Also,
until the end of October, there an offer from Computer Concepts of a
free copy of Impression II with every laser printers − we think it is
the best DTP package available for the Archimedes and it normally
retails at an Archive price of £180.
5.1sp
Floppy based DTP?
5.1sp
It is also quite possible to think of being even more economical by
using a floppy disc A5000 for doing DTP. There are three families of
fonts held in ROM (which, with the Font Manager, would normally occupy
450k on disc − a significant chunk out of an 800k disc) along with many
other facilities that might otherwise have to be held on disc. In any
case, the floppies will hold up to 1.6 Mbytes, so even large publi
cations such as Archive, which averages 1.2 Mbyte per copy, could be
done on a floppy-only A5000. (This will have to wait until January when
Acorn release the A5000/1FD − the 1 Mbyte, floppy disc version of the
A5000.)
5.1sp
What is the future of the A5000?
5.1sp
By “1992 Q2” Acorn are supposed to be having a floating point accelera
tor available which will speed things up yet again on anything involving
floating point calculations. The only thing is that we don’t know how
realistic Acorn’s assessment is of the development time needed.
5.1sp
Even without the floating point accelerator’s extra speed, the A5000 is,
in my book, an absolute winner. As long as Acorn manage to ramp up their
production rates sufficiently to meet the demand, this could be the
start of another major success for Acorn and a shot in the arm (ARM?)
for the UK computer industry.  A
5.1sp

5.1sp
A5000 − The Hardware
5.1sp
Brian Cowan
5.1sp
At the Press Launch, we managed to get a fair amount of information
about the hardware of the new A5000 and we even persuaded Acorn to take
the lid off for us. There will be more information available once Paul
or I get hold of an A5000 ourselves, but here is the basic information
that I was able to glean.
5.1sp
Physical layout
5.1sp
The layout of the computer is very similar to the A300/400/540 in that
it has a separate keyboard, a box housing the main p.c.b., floppy
drive(s), hard drive and up to four podules, and then the monitor, on a
tilt and swivel stand which sits on the top of the main box. However, in
terms of the internal hardware, the A5000 is a substantially different
from the A300, A400 and A540, all of which were much the same −
certainly, they all used the same casing.
5.1sp
The physical differences are:
5.1sp
1)    The box is a wider but it is not as deep. I have illustrated the
importance of this by comparing the positioning of an A440 and an A5000
on a 30“ wide desk which is up against a wall so that cables cannot
over-hang the back of the desk. (The dimensions of the box are 100 × 430
× 340 mm − height, width and depth)
5.1sp
2)    The keyboard plugs in at the back of the computer. It has a
somewhat longer and more flexible cable than existing machines, so that
shouldn’t be a problem. In some circumstances, notably schools, it
should be an advantage because it is less easy for the plug to be pulled
out.
5.1sp
3)    The on/off switch is on the front of the computer beside the
floppy disc drive. Many people have told Acorn they don’t like having
the switch at the rear − particularly for special needs users.
5.1sp
Keyboard
5.1sp
The keyboard is not new; it the same one that is supplied with the A540.
Indeed, A410s and A420s are also now supplied with these same keyboards.
The only obvious difference is the lack of a pop-up keystrip holder.
Your keystrips have to rest on a ledge above the function keys. This
means that it is easier to swap keystrips because you don’t have to
force them into a keystrip holder but the negative side is that you can
lose them more easily.
5.1sp
Inside the box
5.1sp
When I looked inside the box, the first thing that I noticed was the low
chip count. I had speculated in my Hardware Column (Archive 5.1 page 43)
that, in addition to the ARM chip set, it might include a PC-type,
single chip I/O device covering IDE, floppy drives, parallel port and
serial port. It does so and this considerably reduces the number of
chips needed and provides more compatibility with PC devices.
5.1sp
Ram & processor speed
5.1sp
The RAM runs at 12 MHz as it does on the A540 (cf 8 MHz on the other
Archimedes) and the ARM3 clock is 25 MHz so it works a lot faster than
the older Archimedes computers. Acorn were claiming that it ran at 13
MIPs. It also has space to fit a FP accelerator chip though there wasn’t
a socket. This means that it can only be fitted by dealers and then only
by those with a “surface mount re-work station”. (Acorn say that it will
be a user-fitting job. Production machines will have sockets. Ed.)
5.1sp
The currently available A5000 comes with 2M of RAM, upgradable to 4M and
Acorn have “no plans to make higher memory versions available”. They
did, however, say that contact points have been made available which
would make it possible for third parties to add further MEMC’s and
memory boards. The RISC-OS software can, presumably, handle larger
memory because the A540, even with RISC-OS 2, can go up to 16 Mbytes
already.
5.1sp
Podules
5.1sp
There are the usual four podule slots which is an advantage over the
A540 which has one slot already taken up by a SCSI podule. RISC-OS 3
allows up to 16 podules but obviously the physical size and power supply
availability limit what can be done internally though it would be
possible, in theory, to build a 16-way backplane and supply a new metal
cover, tall enough to fit an extra power supply and a 12 more podules.
(And an extra big fan! Ed.)
5.1sp
Display options
5.1sp
In terms of hardware, the video output of the A5000 is the same as the
A540 or as an A300/400/3000 with a VIDC enhancer. In terms of software,
you can select any of the standard modes offered by RISC-OS. These
include modes up to VGA and VGA+ (640 × 480 in 256 colours) but stops
short of the Super VGA offered by the A540. This seems to me to be more
of a marketing ploy than anything − to provide an extra reason to
persuade potential purchasers, who are deciding between the A5000 and
the A540, that the extra features are really worth the extra money. As
far as we can tell, the A5000 is quite capable of generating SVGA. All
it needs is someone for someone to write the appropriate mode module. In
any case, those of us who have become used to modes like 102 (1152 × 448
in 16 colours) can have them as soon as someone writes the appropriate
mode module.
5.1sp
The computer apparently detects the type of monitor it is attached to
and sets the monitor type accordingly. I cannot immediately see how this
would work, but it must have something to do with the fact that it now
uses the PC standard D-type monitor socket with three rows of pins −
about 12 in total − instead of the 9 pin D-type used on the other
Archimedes computers.
5.1sp
The monitor which Acorn are bundling with the A5000 is a 14“ colour
multisync with micro-processor control. What happens is that, in the
automatic mode, it “learns” what settings to use for signals of a given
frequency and so automatically changes, for example, the x shift when
you change between certain of the Archimedes’ modes.
5.1sp
Floppy drive(s)
5.1sp
There is a single 3½“ floppy drive which works in a high density format
providing up to 1.6M on a single floppy disc. It also supports, as you
might guess, ADFS 800k in both D and E formats. However, there is no
mention on the Technical Specification sheet of whether it will handle
the older ADFS 640k L format. We were told that it would also read, but
not write, DFS discs and there is support for 720k and 1.44M MS-DOS
formats. (Acorn’s press information also mentions Atari formats up to
720k. Ed.)
5.1sp
There is space underneath the existing floppy drive for a second one and
there is a detachable front panel is provided to accommodate this. This
is in addition to, and not as an alternative to, the hard drive −
another improvement over existing Archimedes computers.
5.1sp
The floppy disc controller will actually handle 4M unformatted floppy
drives as well as the 2M drives supplied and so it would, in theory, be
possible to replace the drive with one handling the higher capacity
although the software would have to be changed (RISC-OS 4?) to deal with
it. Acorn have not used them in this unit as the aim of keeping the cost
down was far more important than getting extra capacity on the floppy
drives.
5.1sp
One other major improvement is that, because they have used the
intelligent PC I/O controller, floppy disc drive operations can take
place in the background. The effect of this is that loading and saving
are faster and formatting can take place while you continue with other
tasks.
5.1sp
Hard drive(s)
5.1sp
There is a single 40M Conner IDE hard drive (average access time 25 ms)
which feels fairly fast though we weren’t able to do any speed tests on
it. We couldn’t see anywhere obvious for a second IDE drive to fit or be
connected, but a 2½“ IDE drive might fit underneath the floppy drive
where the second floppy should go. There are no connectors for a second
IDE drive − you would have to daisy-chain onto the existing cable and,
if it was an external drive, somehow run the cable out of the back of
the computer. If you wanted other external drives, you could put in a
SCSI podule and connect to any of the available SCSI drives (which
currently go up to 1,000 Mbytes).
5.1sp
Although IDE has been used, this is transparent to the user as it has
been worked in with ADFS. The internal IDE drive is simply ADFS drive
:4.
5.1sp
Parallel port
5.1sp
Because they have used the PC I/O chip, the parallel port is fully bi-
directional. The advantage of this is that many more of the (cheap) PC
peripherals will be able to be used. One disadvantage (for the likes of
Computer Concepts and Oak Solutions) is that their dongles will no
longer work. CC are actively working on an alternative!
5.1sp
Serial port
5.1sp
The serial port is again more PC compatible in that it works to the
(earlier, lower spec) RS232 standard rather than the RS423 used on all
existing Archimedes computers (as used on the original BBC Microcomputer
back in 1981/2). The I/O chip is capable of somewhat higher speeds than
we have been used to although the Technical Specification only quotes
9600 baud.
5.1sp
To maintain backwards compatibility with Archimedes peripherals using
the serial port, Acorn have had to emulate the “features” of the old
(bugged) serial chips.
5.1sp
PC keyboards
5.1sp
The PC peripheral chip also provides facility for a (PC-type) mouse and
keyboard and although this has not actually been implemented, it only
needs a separate board with a couple of chips on it to do so. Acorn have
made provision for this by providing space for an extra socket on the
back panel of the computer.
5.1sp
EMR interference protection
5.1sp
Great care seems to have been taken to avoid the kind of electro-
magnetic radiation interference that characterises many of the Archi
medes computers. (In the research work I do, I have to switch the
Archimedes computers off while the readings are being taken. They are
then turned on again automatically and are set to boot up in order to
download and process the data that has been gathered.) Acorn have tested
the A5000 against a whole range of EMR regulations for different
countries and are, apparently, satisfied that they are going to be able
to sell it in a wide range of other countries.
5.1sp
PC Emulation
5.1sp
The comments I made in my Hardware Column about the PC Emulator (Archive
5.1 p43) apply to the A5000 except that it now runs as fast as it does
on the A540. The A5000 Learning Curve Pack apparently comes with DR-DOS
5 which should be an improvement over MS-DOS 3.3 currently supplied with
the PC Emulator if you buy it on its own.
5.1sp
Another important improvement which the A5000 provides is easy access to
PC format discs. You can format, read and write MS-DOS discs at 720k and
1.44M densities. When you put any disc into the drive and click on the
drive icon, it checks to see what disc type it is. If it is any of the
Acorn formats, things proceed in the, now familiar, fashion. If, on the
other hand, it detects a PC disc, it catalogues it (with full length MS-
DOS filenames) in a RISC-OS window and you can move and manipulate the
files as you would in RISC-OS. If you try to edit the files then a
certain amount of automatic filetype translation takes place. For
example, a .TXT file would automatically be loaded into !Edit. When you
try to transfer files across from PC to ADFS, again, filetypes are
translated where possible and, if necessary, filenames are truncated.
5.1sp
Also, MS-DOS partitions can be read from within the RISC-OS environment
which makes file handling much easier.
5.1sp
Actually, it is RISC-OS 3 that provides these extra facilities and this
should, eventually, be available for the other Archimedes computers,
although they would be limited to reading 720k discs.  A
5.1sp

5.1sp
View inside the Acorn A5000 box − A rough diagram drawn from memory!
5.1sp

5.1sp
A view showing the how the A5000 fits better onto a 30“ wide desk than
the A440.
5.1sp

5.1sp
A5000 − The Software
5.1sp
Adrian Look
5.1sp
Acorn Computers have been developing a new version of RISC-OS for quite
some time now and we have all been waiting (patiently?) and wondering
when it would see the light of day. I gather that the original intention
was to make it available for existing Archimedes computers before now
but the development has taken longer than had been hoped. Anyway, it has
now seen the light of day as RISC-OS 3 on the newly launched Acorn
A5000.
5.1sp
We have been able to try it out for a short while on the A5000’s that
were on show at the Press Launch and what we saw was very impressive.
Until we get hold of one ourselves, all we can do is list the new
facilities that we observed and supplement that with the information
given to us by Acorn themselves.
5.1sp
Firmware
5.1sp
Acorn’s spec sheet sums up the A5000’s firmware as consisting of RISC-OS
3, ADFS, ANFS, BBC Basic V and character sets ISO 8859 Latin 1 − 4 and
Greek. However, it looks as if the release ROMs have Basic VI which has
its own compression utilities and a facility to link in the floating
point emulator (also held in ROM) which will be very good news for some
people. Obviously, “RISC-OS 3” is where most of the goodies are, so I
will unpack that a bit more.
5.1sp
RISC-OS 3
5.1sp
RISC-OS 3 is a huge bank of operating system software which it is
difficult to do justice to in such a short article. So, in order to make
the best use of space, I will concentrate on the additions and improve
ments to RISC-OS 2, since I am assuming that this article will be read
by those who are already, at least vaguely, familiar with the current
operating system. So here is a list in no particular order:
5.1sp
•    Extension modules − All of the standard extension modules of RISC-OS 2
are included in RISC-OS 3 − Floating Point Emulator, ColourTrans,
Outline Font Manager and Shared C library.
5.1sp
•    Tasks − RISC-OS 3 can have up to 128 tasks running together as
compared to 32 with RISC-OS 2.
5.1sp
•    Compression routines − Basic VI has its own compression routines but
there are also compression routines for other types of files included in
the ROM.
5.1sp
•    Broadcast loading − RISC-OS 3 contains support for broadcast loading
which improves the speed at which applications and data can be loaded on
multiple computers on a network.
5.1sp
•    Named hard drives − Instead of just “:4”, “:5” etc on the icon bar,
you get the discname displayed.
5.1sp
•    Icon bar icons − The icons on the icon bar are grouped by RISC-OS 3,
regardless of the order in which they were installed. This means that
all the drive icons appear together, as do all fileservers etc.
5.1sp
•    High resolution icons − If you are working in a higher resolution, you
can change over to a set of icons that make better use of the hi-res
modes.
5.1sp
•    Interactive help − Facilities are provided within RISC-OS 3 to make
the setting up of interactive help much easier. In particular, it allows
help to be provided on menu items as well as on icons and windows.
5.1sp
•    Hot keys − Some new hot keys have been provided for opening a task
window (which no longer has to be done through Edit), moving the icon
bar to the front and initiating a shutdown procedure.
5.1sp
•    Screen blanker − This will shut down the screen display after a
specified length of time to preserve the monitor. The screen display is
restored as soon as a key is pressed or the mouse is moved.
5.1sp
•    Multi-tasking filer − Copying, moving and deleting files now take
place in the background. This is facilitated partly by improved
intelligence within the hard and floppy disc controller circuitry. The
same is true of format, verify and backup commands.
5.1sp
•    Multi-format filer − RISC-OS 3 allows MS-DOS files to be written to,
read from and even formatted. You can even access any MS-DOS partition,
as if it were a normal RISC-OS directory, and manipulate the files.
5.1sp
•    Multitasking free space display − The amount of free space available
on the floppy or hard drives can now be displayed continuously, being
updated as file operations take place. It can also be displayed in
Mbytes rather than the almost indecipherable numbers like 65587200.
5.1sp
•    Extra filer operations − You can now search for a file, set a filetype
or datestamp a file from the filer menu.
5.1sp
•    Windows facilities − There is now no limit to the number of windows
that can be open at one time and you can have windows which move off the
edge of the screen.
5.1sp
•    Font facilities − The new font manager allows fonts to be rotated and
transformed without having to be replaced by bit maps first; it can
cache single characters rather than blocks of characters; it supports
right-to-left scripts; it can cope with multiple font directories and it
supports different character set encodings.
5.1sp
(As a result of these changes, although documents produced on RISC-OS 2
will be usable on RISC-OS 3, the reverse is not true. This has signifi
cant consequences until such time as Acorn make RISC-OS 3 available to
the 150,000 existing ARM3 machines which, apparently, they are not
necessarily intending to do, according to comments they have made to
date.)
5.1sp
•    Fonts − There are 12 fonts in the RISC-OS 3 ROMs, i.e. Times, Homerton
and Corpus. This has a very significant effect on the possibility of
doing DTP and other font-dependent applications on a floppy disc system.
A font directory with Times, Homerton and Corpus occupies 450k. On a
1.6M floppy, that’s not too bad but it is a significant proportion of an
800k disc.
5.1sp
•    Desktop saving − An option on the Task Manager provides the facility
for saving the state of the desktop. This includes applications that are
running, open directory viewers, any logged-on fileservers, any icons on
the desktop background and the backdrop picture. This desktop state can
be restored on boot up by making it into a boot file. This makes it much
easier for non-technical users to customise their own boot up condi
tions. The “state” of the computer does not, however, include any
iconised windows or any opened application windows.
5.1sp
•    Shutdown − The Task Manager also provides a shutdown facility to
ensure that no applications have unsaved data, all network links are
disconnected and all hard drives are shut down.
5.1sp
•    Printer support − There is now a full printer queue facility; you can
drag several files to a printer icon and you can suspend the printing
and/or remove items from the queue; it indicates what proportion of a
file has been printed so far; you can have more than one printer active
at one time; it is much easier to create new printer types; printer
drivers can be named, so you can call them, say, “MyLaser” or
“YourEpson”; they will print transformed or rotated fonts or sprites;
they support font-downloading which is particularly important with
PostScript printers since it allows printing of Acorn fonts without
having to purchase the appropriate PostScript font for the printer.
5.1sp
ROM based applications
5.1sp
There are now eight ROM based applications. The fact that they are in
ROM means that they are always available on the icon bar and it also
means that they use less memory. !Edit, for example, needs at least 160k
to run from disc but only 64k from ROM. Also, you can choose whether any
(or all!) of them should start up automatically on boot-up although
there seems little point as they are always available on the icon bar
anyway.
5.1sp
Most of the applications have also been improved in various ways. The
following list of features is mainly based on Acorn’s documentation and
there are likely to be a number of other added features which come to
light as the A5000’s are used more widely.
5.1sp
•    !Paint − You can now replace a colour with transparent and transparent
with a colour. It offers scale x, scale y and shear. It has a timed
screen snapshot facility so that, after the snapshot has been requested,
you have time to get out the menus you want to be recorded as a sprite.
It allows you to use circle, triangle and square as a brush.
5.1sp
•    !Edit − This now provides column tab, overwrite and word-wrap modes.
It has support for wildcarded expressions in find operations as well as
the original magic characters. It works with an unlimited number of
fonts. It has support for editing Basic programs.
5.1sp
•    !Draw − This looks to have been substantially improved. (One wonders
if the programmers have seen DrawPlus!) There are now many keyboard
short-cuts; colour interpolation is provided to provide smooth colour
grading from one path to another; automatic scrolling of the window as
the mouse approaches the edge with <select> or <adjust> held down;
operations can now be undone; there is text to path conversion, though
this is not needed as desperately as on RISC-OS 2 because fonts can be
rotated without converting them to paths; text can be edited in situ;
sprites can also be rotated.
5.1sp
•    !Alarm − This has improved support for setting and resetting alarms, a
listing of alarms available in text format, repeating alarms to be set
within a working week, more control over repeating alarms (e.g. on the
second Sunday of every second month!), automatic changing between summer
and winter time and the facility to start up a task when an alarm time
is reached.
5.1sp
•    !Calc − At last, it uses the keyboard keys for input!
5.1sp
•    !Chars − Little obvious change here.
5.1sp
•    !Configure − This allows easy control over the configuration options
including the number of hard drives (plus some control over SCSI drives)
and floppy drives, various aspects of the network including those
relating to the broadcast loader, mouse sensitivity, keyboard auto-
repeat, memory allocation, sound, thresholds for fonts and the window
manager (including whether windows can move off-screen).
5.1sp
•    !Help − This now provides help on menu items as well as about icons
and windows.
5.1sp
Disc based applications
5.1sp
There are now sixteen or more disc based applications
5.1sp
•    !Pinboard − Files, directories and applications can be “attached” to
the desktop. Simply drag the file/directory onto the desktop. Windows,
including active ones, can be “iconised” to enable best use to be made
of the available desktop space. Clicking on a iconised window restores
it to normal. Backdrops can also be created from sprites in various
patterns.
5.1sp
•    !Printeredit − This allows you to create printer drivers and to
“common control” your printer. Apart from having printer drivers for
different printers available on the icon bar at the same time, you can
also have more than one printer driver relating to the same printer,
though obviously not more than one can be active at the same time on a
given printer. You can therefore, more easily, print out to one printer
in different formats. Just click on the driver to make it the active
driver (other drivers to the same printer are then shaded to show that
they are inactive) and just drop the file onto the active driver or
print from within the application you are using as you would normally.
5.1sp
Printer drivers are provided for Apple LaserWriter, PostScript, HP
LaserJet, Canon & Integrex 132 colour, Dot matrix Epson compatible.
5.1sp
•    !FontPrint − This allows RISC-OS fonts to be printed on a PostScript
printer. It will translate and/or download fonts as necessary.
5.1sp
•    !Scicalc − scientific calculator
5.1sp
•    !Puzzle − sliding block puzzle
5.1sp
•    !65host − 6502 emulator
5.1sp
•    !65tube − 6502 second processor emulator
5.1sp
•    !Clock − analogue face and hands
5.1sp
•    !Mailman − manager to send and receive electronic mail
5.1sp
•    !Maestro − This includes some new tunes and a score printing facility
5.1sp
•    !Patience − card game
5.1sp
•    !Tinydirs − This application, which allows directories to be kept on
the icon bar, is made virtually redundant by !Pinboard’s ability to
iconise windows. The only advantage is that it can be run from a boot
file whereas iconisation is only available as an immediate operation.
5.1sp
•    !Lander − Remember this one on RISC-OS 2?
5.1sp
•    !Madness − and this one?
5.1sp
•    !Magnifier − You do not need to run this application each time you
need it. When you run it, it installs itself on the icon bar and can be
picked up from there when needed.
5.1sp
•    !Usage − Shows the usage of the processor. If you have this running
during floppy disc operations, you will see a major difference between
the A5000 and the other Archimedes computers!
5.1sp
•    !Squash − (This was on the computer we tried but doesn’t appear on
Acorn’s current spec sheet for the A5000.) Simply drag a file onto the
squash icon on the icon bar and the file is compacted and replaces the
original file on the disc (or other filing system). The file icon is
replaced by squash’s own icon and, if you double click on the compacted
file, it is restored to its full size (assuming there is room on the
filing system) and the original filetype icon is also restored. If you
drag a directory onto the squash icon, the individual files within the
directory are compacted but the structure of the directory remains
intact and instantly accessible. (Until someone writes a PD uncompactor,
this will only be of use on your own computer or for file exchange
between A5000 owners.)
5.1sp
Conclusion
5.1sp
There are many facilities here that will make life much easier both for
the programmer and also the end user. It is a very exciting step forward
and I just hope that not too many extra “features” appear and that those
bugs that are already known will soon be put right. RISC-OS 3 is still
in EPROMs which are somewhat more expensive than ROMs, so Acorn will,
for a number of reasons, be keen to get RISC-OS 3 into a stable form. I
wish them well!
5.1sp
(That’s all very well for those lucky enough to get hold of an A5000,
but what about the rest of us? When will we be able to get our hands on
RISC-OS 3? Acorn will only say that they are “considering making it
available on other Archimedes computers”. In view of the fact that they
have sold over 150,000 ARM based machines, I suspect that they will make
every effort to get it working on other machines, and especially on the
A540 because it is supposed to be a “better” machine than the A5000
which it isn’t really if it only has RISC-OS 2 and an 800k drive.
However, Acorn have “no plans to provide an IDE interface or 1.6M drive
for the A540”. See also my comments about the relative merits of A5000
and A540 in the Introduction. Ed.)  A
5.1sp

5.1sp

5.1sp

5.1sp
My thanks to Brian and Adrian for all their hard work in getting this
supplement out so quickly after having first seen the new A5000. We are
all agreed that this is a very exciting new computer and wish Acorn well
with it and hope that it receives the coverage it deserves.
5.1sp
Paul Beverley, Editor of Archive Magazine (1/10/91).
5.1sp

5.1sp
><48><13>”

More cheap computers?
5.2
A quick look at the Small Ads this month will show you the effect of the
coming of the A5000 computer on the second hand Archimedes market.
Everyone (slight exaggeration!) wants to sell their old Archimedes and
get hold of one of Acorn’s latest offerings.
5.2
If you wanted an A5000 before Christmas, I don’t hold out a lot of hope,
I’m afraid. We’ve still got a lot on order with the distributors, but
we’ve also got a long waiting list of cheques sitting in our “A5000
Orders” file. Still, sending us a cheque will keep your place in the
queue and we don’t bank the cheques until we have computers to supply.
5.2
More subscribers!
5.2
Despite the fact that a number of people didn’t renew their Archive
subscription at the end of volume 4, our list of subscribers is already
back up to within a hundred of what it was before. I see this as just
another indication of the health of the Archimedes market. (I don’t know
if this is general − other magazines are more guarded about the length
of their subscription lists!)
5.2
More pages!!
5.2
We seem to be getting more advertising at the moment plus a steady flow
of articles, so this month’s issue has an extra four pages − at no extra
cost, of course! (So now, no one can complain about my half page
indulgence below.)
5.2
Best wishes from all at Archive,
5.2
Adrian, Ali, Ray, Roger, Paul & Sue.
5.2

5.2
Products Available
5.2
•    Acorn Desktop Assembler − Acorn have released a new version of their
well established Assembler − this time, it has a fully RISC-OS compliant
front end. It comes with two versions of the macro assembler, ObjAsm
which assembles programs into object (runable code) and AAsm which
assembles programs that can be run and debugged. It also includes
Acorn’s Desktop Development Environment.
5.2
The DDE includes a range of four interactive tools − DDT for debugging
executable images files, FormEd which is an improved version of the
template editor, Make which is a new desktop application for construct
ing programs from their sources and SrcEdit, a text editor derived from
Edit with some new features for constructing program sources. There is
also a wide range of Non-interactive tools: AMU − a compact alternative
to Make, Common − a utility to find the most common words in a file,
DecAOF − a utility for examining AOF files output by the compiler or
assembler, DecCF − a utility for examining chunk files, Diff − a text
file comparison tool, Find − a tool for finding text patterns in the
names or contents of sets of files, Link − a tool for constructing
usable modules, programs, etc LibFile − a tool for constructing general
purpose (library) routines, ObjSize − a utility to measure the size of
an object file, Squeeze − a tool to compress finished programs so they
take less space on the disc and WC − a text file word and character
counter.
5.2
The price of the Desktop Assembler, including DDE, is £175 from Acorn or
£155 through Archive.
5.2
•    Acorn Desktop C − Acorn’s new version of the C language now also works
in the desktop and comes with the same range of debugging tools as the
Desktop Assembler. Desktop C consists of the C compiler itself (a full
implementation of the 1989 ANSI standard), plus CMHG which allows you to
write modules in ANSI C, ToANSI which converts source C programs from
the PCC style to ANSI C, ToPCC which converts source C programs from the
ANSI C style to PCC plus the utilities of the Desktop Development
Environment as listed above. The price is £269 from Acorn or £240
through Archive.
5.2
•    Adventure Playground − Storm Software’s latest offering consists of
two explorations for children aged 6 to 9 that aim to “develop a wide
variety of educational skills: planning, decision making, logical
thinking, memory and strategy”. The price is £19.99 from Storm Software
or £19 through Archive.
5.2
•    Air Supremacy − Superior Software’s new simulation allows you to
choose between aircraft, ground or sea combat forces as the battle
progresses. Level one is set in Europe in 1918 with biplanes and tanks,
Level 2 is 1944 in the Pacific with fighter aircraft and gunboats, level
3 is 1991 with jet aircraft and desert tanks and level 4 is set in 2150
with futuristic aircraft and rapid attack hovercraft. £24.95 from
Superior Software or £23 through Archive.
5.2
•    Alexander is a remote sensing application from Lindis UK (a.k.a.
Lingenuity) allowing you to interpret and manipulate satellite images.
Facilities include averaging and gaussian filters for smoothing, Laplace
and median filters for image enhancement, four types of classification
and several different display options. The software on its own costs
£764 (£650 +VAT), a multi-user licence costs £2,350 (£2,000 +VAT) or buy
it bundled complete with an A5000 at just £2525 (£2149 +VAT) or as a
package with an A540 + Eizo 9070 for £4752 (£4044 +VAT).
5.2
(Taking £1761, the list price of an A5000, away from £2525 shows that
the first bundled deal gives you the software for just... err... £764!
Taking £764 away from the second bundled price of £4752 shows that the
A540 and Eizo 9070 would cost you £3988. However, the Archive price for
the A540 & monitor is £2930 + £850 = £3780 so you could save yourself
£208 by buying the software from them and the computer from us and get a
£200 software voucher which we give with every A540!)
5.2
•    Bambuzle − a puzzle game from Arxe Systems involves trying to fill a
series of “pods” with four balls each of the same colour from a
selection of different balls provided at each level. Getting the right
balls into the right pods is another matter − and you are working
against the clock! The price is £19.95 from Arxe or £19 through Archive.
5.2
•    Cartoon Collection is a set of four discs full of cartoon type
chracters in Paint format from Micro Studios. The price is £19.95 or £19
through Archive.
5.2
•    Charity Part Exchange − A number of people have asked us recently if
we do part exchange on computers − I think it might have something to do
with the coming of the A5000! Anyway, the answer has, so far, been “no”.
However, we have just had an idea....
5.2
For a limited period, we are going to try offering part exchange on
A310’s, A3000’s and A400 series computers plus hard drives and monitors.
What we will then do is to refurbish the machines and make them
available at cost to registered charities (and possibly also to schools
if enough become available).
5.2
So, for example, we can offer £300 off the price of, say, an A5000 in
return for your A3000. We will get Ray Maidstone to refurbish the A3000
and then make it available to charities for, say, £350 +VAT (which we
unfortunately have to add and pass on to the government − unless anyone
can see a legal way round it) which comes to £411 − rather less than the
full price of £695.
5.2
However, if you felt able to accept a bit less than the offered discount
then we could reduce the price that a charity would have to pay.
5.2
What about warranty? − We would offer a six-month warranty on the
refurbished machines although, given that we would be doing all this at
cost, it would be on the basis that the charity would be responsible for
getting the computer to us, we would repair or replace it and send it
back at our expense.
5.2
How much will you offer? − Well, we have to reserve the right to change
the amount being offered (or withdraw the scheme altogether if it’s
costing us too much) but, initially, we can offer...
5.2
A310    £200
5.2
A3000    £325
5.2
A3000 (2M)    £350
5.2
A3000 (4M)    £400
5.2
A410    £450
5.2
A410 (2M)    £470
5.2
A410 (4M)    £510
5.2
Colour monitor    £80
5.2
Multisync monitor    £120    *
5.2
ST506 hard drives    £5    (per 10M)
5.2
ST506 controller    £25
5.2
SCSI hard drives    £10
(per 10M)
5.2
SCSI controller    £40    *
5.2
* This applies only to certain types of monitor and controller. It has
to be entirely at our discretion.
5.2
(These figures are based on what one of our rivals is offering. It’s
slightly less, but then it is in aid of charity.)
5.2
What about other add-on hardware? − Other hardware will be treated on
its merits. Because we are doing this at cost, we will have to be sure
that we will be able to sell the items that you are offering us −
otherwise, we are going to be out of pocket.
5.2
What about all my data? − If you want to keep your hard drive and/or
computer so that you can transfer all your data, you can pay for the new
computer, have it delivered and then, up to one calendar month after the
purchase, return the old computer/drive to obtain your part-exchange
money.
5.2
•    Cheap computers?! − Acorn have recently re-launched their UK Teach
ers’, Academics’ and (now also including) Students’ Support Scheme. The
offer is a discount of £100 off the price of an A3000 Learning Curve
pack with monitor and stand (£899 inc VAT) or £200 off the price of an
A5000 Learning Curve pack, which includes the hi res monitor (£1599 inc
VAT).
5.2
This offer is available to teachers and academics (as before) but now
Acorn have extended it to full-time students in F.E. or H.E. whether
they are doing study or research. It also applies to teaching support
staff such as advisors, advisory teachers, inspectors and technicians in
schools and teachers’ centres. The term “academics” includes those in
teaching or research in teaching hospitals, medical schools etc.
5.2
Application forms are available from N.C.S. or your local Acorn dealer
and we would be happy to supply the computer(s) for you so that you can
benefit from our technical back-up service. There is an “assisted credit
scheme” for teachers and academics (but not students) but this is not
available through N.C.S.
5.2
•    Chequered Flag − Cambridge International Software’s racing car
simulation program has 4 race tracks, 3 levels of difficulty, design
your own car, manual or automatic gearbox, mirrors and you have single
races or can take part in a World Championship series. £24.95 from
C.I.S. or £23 through Archive.
5.2
•    Chuck Rock − is a parallax scrolling arcade game from Krisalis. Travel
around throwing rocks at appropriate things and picking up others. The
price is £25.99 from Krisalis or £24 through Archive.
5.2
•    !CL is a multi-tasking communications link with the Psion organiser.
It gives remote file access, print to file or printer, send or receive
Psion file etc. Available for £25 from Mark Godwin, 13 Prestbury Close,
Blackpole Village, Worcester  WR4 9XG.
5.2
•    CNC Designer for millers − Techsoft now have software available for
translating drawings created in Draw or in their own Designer package
into G and M codes for CNC millers. This adds to the software they
already have (though not previously mentioned here) for the control of
CNC lathes.
5.2
•    Control Logo − Longman Logotron have now finished their control Logo
for the Archimedes. It uses the same keywords as the BBC version and
allows you to control outputs and sense inputs and also has the facility
to regulate the power of outputs. It also adds extra primitives that
exploit the processing power of the Archimedes. The cost is £22 +VAT
from Longman Logotron or £24 through Archive.
5.2
•    Converta-Key − An alphabetic overlay for your keyboard which allows
children to use a keyboard set out in alphabetical order. This new
program from Triple R Education, the educational “arm” of the 4th
Dimension, works with other software as well as their own. It comes with
a range of introductory programs such as Hangman, Quizmaster, Anagrams,
Memory Master, Find It and Speed-type. The cost is £19.95 from Triple R
or £19 through Archive.
5.2
•    Creator Support − Alpine Software have produced a number of products
to help those who are using their arcade games designer package,
Creator. The Creator Support Disc, £19.95, provides various utilities
for games writers − sprite compressor, mode converter, sprite to Creator
object converter, background build up, plus an application to allow
Creator games to run in mode 9 for extra speed and to release more
memory. Sprite Library Disc 1, £5 provides sprites of various animated
characters and building blocks suitable for backgrounds. The Sound
Effects Disc 1, £5 is self-explanatory. Alpine are also now producing a
quarterly magazine called Alpine Express, £1.20 for three issues, but
free to registered Creator or ALPS owners.
5.2
•    Data Word − This is a database, from Triple R Education, aimed at use
within the National Curriculum. It works just like a card index but is
flexible enough to use it as a word processor. The cost is £19.95 from
Triple R or £19 through Archive.
5.2
•    DeskEdit − Risc Developments (a.k.a. Beebug) have produced a multi-
purpose text editor − all that !Edit should have been − with facilities
for use with Basic and C programming. £24.95 from Risc Developments Ltd.
5.2
•    DIY VIDC Enhancer − Atomwide have just released a new version of their
long established VIDC Enhancer. (For the record, they invented it and
others have copied their idea!) The hardware hasn’t changed, but the
software includes a modes editor. You can now load up any mode module
that is in memory and edit it to suit your monitor − even if it’s just
shoving it a bit to the right or to the left − and then save it as a new
module, customised to your needs. The new enhancer package is £25 +VAT
from Atomwide or £28 through Archive. If you have the Atomwide enhancer
(and NOT any of the copied versions) you can send your original modes
disc plus a cheque for £5 to Atomwide (NOT to us, please) and they will
send you a new disc and manual.
5.2
•    DrawAid − This application, which allows you to create Draw files from
within Basic programs, was reviewed in Archive 5.1 p57. Since then,
Carvic Manufacturing have (a) added extra features and a tutorial, (b)
corrected the bug that was reported and (c) moved from Cambridge to the
North of Scotland! The price of DrawAid is still £10 and the address of
Carvic Manufacturing is given in the Factfile at the back of the
magazine.
5.2
•    EasiWriter − When does a word-processor become a DTP package? Icon
Technology, who produced EasiWriter, refer to it as “more than a word-
processor” − and it certainly is. It allows text in columns, insertion
of Draw files, sprites and FWPlus files, has spell-checking and auto-
hyphenation, styles for emphasis, paragraph definition and setting
structure. N.B. It needs 2M to run on an Archimedes. (I have many
happy(?) memories of Icon Technology’s “MacAuthor” on my Apple Mac in
the very early days. Icon Technology certainly know what document
processing is all about.) It costs £150 +VAT or £160 through Archive.
5.2
•    Elite is here! − Hybrid Technology have just launched Elite on the
Archimedes. At last, the all- time best selling computer game has come
to the Archimedes which, I am sure, will do justice to this very popular
and addictive game. The Arcade bulletin board (081−654−2212) already has
an area specifically dedicated to discussions about Archimedes Elite.
The price is £39.99 from Hybrid or £37 through Archive.
5.2
•    Ethnic Borders is the intriguing title of a disc of 43 decorative
Poster borders from 4Mation. The cost is £10 +VAT or £11 through
Archive. The title is derived from the fact that many of the designs are
based on Maori art.
5.2
•    Fun School 3 − Database Educational Software have produced “six
stunning educational programs that will help to develop many skills
including number and word skills at your child’s own pace”. Their Fun
School 2 was the biggest selling educational package ever with, they
claim, over 150,000 UK sales. Fun School 3 comes in three complete sets
of six programs each for under 5’s, 5’s to 7’s and over 7’s. Each set is
£24.99 from Database or £23 through Archive.
5.2
•    Hawk V9 price drop. Wild Vision’s Hawk V9 digitiser has now dropped in
price to £199 +VAT. It comes with fully RISC-OS compliant software
providing an “extensive range of image scaling and enhancing options”
allowing sprites produced to be dragged straight into whatever desktop
applications you are using.
5.2
•    Illusionist − Clares new 3D graphics package that enables you to
create “any object of any colour, illuminate it with coloured light or
spot lights and render it in any 256 colour mode”. Features include 3D
editor, materials editor, anti-aliasing, saving in compressed or clear
formats, compressed formats being compatible with Pro-Artisan, Render
Bender II and Titler. The price is £99.95 from Clares or £89 through
Archive.
5.2
•    Lemmings which, in other computer formats, won a “Game of the Year”
award is now available on the Archimedes from Krisalis Software. Having
played it, I can see why it was an award winner. The scenario is that a
whole pile of little animals are entering the screen and have to be
guided to a safe haven before they fall off into something nasty. Sounds
a bit boring but I’m not a games freak and I found it absolutely
fascinating trying to work out how to get through each level. It costs
£25.99 from Krisalis or £24 through Archive.
5.2
•    Manchester United Europe is a football simulation from Krisalis which
takes you into European knockout competitions with management decisions
to make and arcade action matches to play. The price is £25.99 or £24
through Archive.
5.2
•    Memory upgrade for A5000 − Atomwide are just about to launch a memory
upgrade for the A5000. There is no definite price yet (but check on the
Price List which is printed later) but it will provide 4M for less than
£140 (the price of the Acorn 2 to 4M upgrade board) and it will be
upgradable to 8M by plugging in an extra MEMC and memory chips.
5.2
•    Money Matters − This is a suite of programs to teach currency facts.
It is based on the circus theme and is suitable for “tots to teens”. It
aims to teach children all about British coins and ways of tendering
money. At a more advanced level, it is designed with specific National
Curriculum attainment targets in mind. The cost is £19.95 from Triple R
or £19 through Archive.
5.2
•    Picture Book − A set of four educational games for children (no age
specified, but young, presumably) from Triple R Education. It consists
of an electronic version of an ABC book, an introduction to spelling, a
counting program and a ‘snap’ game. The cost is £19.95 from Triple R or
£19 through Archive.
5.2
•    PinPoint is a “new generation database” from Longman Logotron. Clearly
aimed at education, it provides DTP like facilities for creating and
publishing multiple page forms. It has a WYSI-WYG data entry system, a
table browser, statistics generation and graphical analysis, all of
which can be combined to produce reports based on data entered. The cost
is £99 +VAT from Longman or £105 through Archive.
5.2
•    Pirate is a swash-buckling adventure from Chalksoft for children aged
8 to 14. Steer your ship through uncharted waters coping with problems,
exploring passing ships. Logic, strategic thinking and map-making skills
are developed. It is aimed at Geography and Maths at Key Stage two. The
price is £23 from Chalksoft.
5.2
•    Repair work − Ray Maidstone, our repair expert nearly passed out when
I showed him a list of charges being suggested by one of our rivals who
have just opened a repair service. (e.g. the cost of repairing a basic
A3000 including “up to one hour’s labour” is £65 + parts + carriage +
VAT.) I won’t tell you his exact comments but I will paraphrase them as,
“Gosh, that sounds a little bit expensive − I wish I could earn £65 an
hour. Please tell your subscribers to send their computers, drives,
monitors etc to me and I will charge on the basis of how much work I
actually do on each one.”
5.2
So, there you have it, the Archive Repair Service is born! If you have
something that needs repairing, drop us a line or give us a ring and
we’ll see what we can arrange for you.
5.2
•    Replacement mouse − Clares are selling a mouse for the Archimedes
which has “tactile micro-switches, opto-mechanical sensors, high
resolution (290 tpi) and two direction sensors per axis to provide a
stable mouse pointer”. However, the best recommendation for it, as far
as I can see, is that it works and is about half the price of the Acorn
one! It costs £32 from Clares or £30 through Archive (cf £56 for the
Acorn replacement mouse.) (Actually, I didn’t find it too good as the
buttons are not separate “islands” − the whole of the front edge of the
mouse is “continuous button”. There is nowhere to rest your middle
finger when you are not using it and I found I got accidental <adjust>
clicks occurring − but to save £26, it may be worth it.)
5.2
•    ScoreDraw form Clares is a utility that takes a Rhapsody II score and
converts it to a Draw file. The cost is £61.95 from Clares or £57
through Archive. A sample printout is shown below.
5.2
•    SCSI controllers − Morley Electronics have two new SCSI controller
cards available. They are both 16-bit interfaces for speed and one has
an added RAM cache, again to speed it up more. The prices are £149 and
£199 +VAT respectively. The A3000 versions have to be external to the
computer and are cased in metal, so they are £169 and £219 respectively.
The Archive prices are £160 and £220 for A400/540/5000 and £180 and £240
for A3000.
5.2
We have done some speed tests to compare it with the Oak SCSI interface.
We tested it on an A3000 with an ARM2 processor connected to an Atomwide
100M high speed Quantum drive. We did the raw file loading speed test,
our “better test” where we copy the contents of a directory containing
all the files on Applications Disc 2 and the same test but using the
contents of Applications Disc 1. The results are shown in the review
article about SCSI versus IDE on page 19.
5.2
•    SCSI drives − We are also now supplying Morley’s 40M and 100M SCSI
drives. The Archive prices are £350 and £560 respectively for internal
drives and £435 and £620 respectively for A3000 drives. These prices
include a non-cached board because, as suggested by the timings of the
SCSI boards mentioned above, it hardly seems worth the extra £50 to have
the cached version. (Morley have done some comparative tests of their
boards against Oaks and say that for larger drives, 200M+, their cached
board “leaves Oak board standing”.)
5.2
With the proliferation of SCSI drives that we now sell and the various
SCSI interface options it has all got a bit complicated so let me try to
simplify things a bit. (Actually, the best bet is to ring us up, tell us
what sort of thing you are looking for, and we will advise you what
options there are.)
5.2
A3000 drives are the simplest in some ways because they have to be
external drives. In the 40 to 50M range, the Morley 40M is the cheapest
at £435 but then if you want something a bit faster and a bit bigger,
the Frog 45M with the Morley interface comes out at £480. This is an
external interface but if you want to, or have to, have an internal
interface, it has to be the Lingenuity one which is the same price as
the Morley one but is a bit slower being only an 8-bit interface. If you
want the fastest in this range, you would have to go for the Atomwide
50M drive with a Morley external interface at a total of £585 (£425 +
160).
5.2
If you want a 100M drive for your A3000, it works out that the Frog
external 100M plus Morley interface is the cheapest at £580 (£420 +
£160). For a faster drive, you could choose the Atomwide 100M plus
Morley interface at £755 (£595 + £160).
5.2
If you want an internal drive for an A310 or A410, the cheapest is,
again, the Morley 40M at £350 followed by the Oak Worrawinnie 45M at
£405 and the Frog 45M with Morley interface at £430. At 100M internal,
the cheapest is the Frog with a Morley interface at £530 (£390 + £140)
followed by Morley’s own 100M at £560 and Oak’s Worrawinnie at £570. For
higher speed, you could go for Oak’s HS drive at £660 or Atomwide’s 100M
with Morley interface at £645 (£505 + £140).
5.2
If you want an external drive for an A310 or A400 series machine (or an
A5000!) because you can’t fit an internal drive, there is a similar
range as for the A3000 but at slightly different prices because of the
different costs of the interfaces. In the 40 to 50M range, the Morley
40M is the cheapest at £425 but then if you want something a bit faster
and a bit bigger, the Frog 45M with the Morley interface comes out at
£460. If you want the fastest in this range, you could choose between
the Atomwide 50M drive with a Morley interface at a total of £565 (£425
+ £140) and the Oak HS 50M at £560.
5.2
If you want a 100M drive, the Frog external 100M plus Morley interface
is the cheapest at £560 (£420 + £140). For a faster drive, you would
have to go to the Atomwide 100M plus Morley interface at £735 (£595 +
£140).
5.2
If you are unhappy about the “unproven” nature of the Morley software
interface and prefer the extremely stable Oak software then you will
need to add £40 to the price of an A3000 podule and £60 for an internal
podule on other the machines.
5.2
•    Search & Rescue is a role play program for children aged 9+. An
emergency at sea is reported and, as Coastguard, it is your task to
coordinate the actions of lifeboats and helicopters. It brings in
elements of Maths, Geography, English, History and Science. The price is
£33.50 from Storm Software or £31 through Archive.
5.2
•    Sesame Street Crayon is a computer colouring book. Lots of pictures
for you to colour by clicking on the colour you want and clicking on the
area you want to fill. The result can then be printed on a colour
printer. It comes in two varieties, Numbers Count and Letters for You,
which gives a clue to the fact that these programs also have an
education content − rather like Sesame Street TV programme. Each pack is
£19 through Archive.
5.2
•    Sky Hunter is a computer program linked to BBC’s new TV series
starting in January 1992 − Look and Read. Sky Hunter is a peregrine
falcon and the children’s job is to catch some crooks who intend to sell
Sky Hunter illegally. To catch them, you have to solve various problems
along the way. This program, aimed at 7 to 9’s costs £24 +VAT from
Longman Logotron or £26 through Archive.
5.2
•    Statistical software − If you need to do statistical analysis then
FirstJR is a cut down version of Serious Statistical Software’s package,
First. FirstJR costs £49 with a school site licence for £140.
5.2
•    Step by Step Videos − Pedigree Films have produced a set of four
videos to help you with using the A3000 and other Archimedes computers.
They are £14.95 each (£14 through Archive). Up & Running (80 mins), Text
Processing (70 mins), Data Handling (55 mins) and Art & Graphics (55
mins).
5.2
•    Target Maths − This is a suite of four programs designed with specific
National Curriculum attainment targets in mind. Eliminator helps in
learning tables; NumberFax shows factors, odd and triangular numbers
etc; Scale Factor helps in reading linear scales and, at higher level,
improve arithmetic skills; Slider is a computer version of snakes and
ladders. The cost is £19.95 from Triple R or £19 through Archive.
5.2
•    The Font Book from Dalmatian Productions is a user guide for fonts on
the Archimedes range of computers. This 100+ page book comes complete
with a disc of outline fonts and decorative draw files for just £10.50
inclusive − cheques payable to T. Richards.
5.2
•    The Public Key − This magazine which promotes interest in Public Key
Cryptography has had to increase its charges as the initial levels were
not realistic to cover costs. Issue 1 and issue 2 each cost £3 (£4 from
EEC and £5.50 elsewhere). The disc containing the cryptography program
is £6 (£7 from EEC and £8 elsewhere). The complete package of two issues
plus disc is £11 (£13 from EEC and £17 elsewhere). Cheques (in dollars
or pounds sterling) should be made payable to George Foot.
5.2
•    Tower of Babel − an interactive 3D strategy game involving an
interconnecting network of towers, platforms and lifts. You have to take
control of robot spiders and program them to solve problems and puzzles
and interact with various other creatures. Alternatively, realtime
control is available for instantaneous reaction to the game’s develop
ments. £24.99 from Cygnus Software or £23 through Archive.
5.2
•    VoxBox − This is a supporting package to Rhapsody II, Maestro and
other music packages. It allows you to play scores, provides percussion
sounds, converts sound samples into Archimedes voices and allows you to
digitally synthesize voices by drawing waveforms or harmonics. The price
is £61.95 (inc VAT) from Clares or £57 through Archive.
5.2
•    Waterloo − This successful simulation from Atari, Amiga & PC’s is now
available on the Archimedes. The author, Dr Peter Turcan, seems to have
enjoyed doing the transfer. It has 3D perspective pictures of the
battlefield, sounds of canon and an English language parser to interpret
the orders that you, the commander-in-chief give to your subordinate
officers. The cost is £24.95 plus £1 p&p from Turcan Research Systems
and for that, you get a disc, full manual and a colour map of the
terrain and the initial dispositions of the armies.
5.2
Review software received...
5.2
We have received review copies of the following software and hardware:
Converta-Key, Data Word, Money Matters, Picture Book, !CL Psion comms,
VIDC Enhancer software, Fun & Games, Design Concepts fonts, Sky Hunter,
!BasShrink, Hawk V9 updated software, Illusionist, Vox Box, ScoreDraw,
Easiwriter, Bambuzle, Fun School 3 (over 7’s), Pirate, four Step by Step
videos, Base5 DBMS, PinPoint, Ethnic Borders, Turbo Type, Genesis Script
Language book, Air Supremacy, PrimeArt, Imagine, Waterloo, OutLook for
Eizo 9080i.  A
5.2

5.2
Government Health Warning − Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
5.2
You would be amazed at the number of people, on our Technical Help
Service, who ring us up and state a problem and then our side of the
conversation goes something like... “Have you read the manual?”  “No?
Well the answer is on page ....”
5.2
Sue has just come back from running a Brownie Pack Holiday. “Do you
know”, she said, “of the twelve Brownies there, only four of them are
living with both their natural parents!” The experts analyse the problem
and amaze us all by saying that “children of broken homes are X times
more likely to have their own marriages end in divorce”.
5.2
I just want to shout out, “Won’t someone please read the Manual!” − I am
writing this through a veil of tears because it just cracks me up to see
so many people whose lives are in such a mess because of the poverty of
their marriage relationships.
5.2
What’s the problem? It’s not that we don’t know what’s right (although
the children of this generation are getting more and more confused about
what really is right) but it’s jolly hard work to do what’s right,
especially in a marriage. The Manual says that we need to get our
relationship with God right first, then He will be able to give us the
strength to make our human relationships work properly.
5.2
So, if your marriage is a bit rocky at the moment, it’s not a marriage
guidance counsellor (sorry, a Relate counsellor, as they are now called)
that you want in the first instance. Try reading the Manual or, better
still, go to someone you know who is a committed Christian and who reads
the Manual regularly and ask them, “How can I get my relationship with
God sorted out?”.
5.2
(If you do take my advice and find the joy of coming into a new
relationship with God, do tell me − it would be such an encouragement to
me because writing these comments is never easy.  Thanks,  Paul.)
5.2

5.2

5.2
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD. 0603-
766592 (764011)
5.2

5.2
4th Dimension     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.2
4mation    11 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32
8PA. (0271−25353) (−22974)
5.2
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
5.2
Acorn Direct    13 Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2RL.
5.2
Acorn Computers Ltd    Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 4JN. (0223−245200) (−210685)
5.2
Ace Computing (p34)    27 Victoria
Road, Cambridge, CB4 3BW. (0223−322559) (−69180)
5.2
Aleph One Ltd    The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(0223−811679) (−812713)
5.2
Alpine Software     P.O.Box 25, Portadown, Craigavon, BT63 5UT.
(0762−342510)
5.2
Arxe Systems Ltd     P.O.Box 898, Forest Gate, London E7 9RG. (081−534−1198
evenings)
5.2
Atomwide Ltd    23 The Greenway, Orpington, Kent, BR5 2AY. (0689−838852)
(−896088)
5.2
Base5 (p31)        PO Box 378, Woking, Surrey GU21 4DF.
5.2
Beebug Ltd (pp10,14,23,24)    117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303) (−60263)
5.2
Carvic Manufacturing     Moray Park,
Findhorn Road, Forres, Moray, Scotland, IV36 0TP. (0309−72793)
5.2
Chalksoft    P.O. Box 49, Spalding, Lincs, PE11 1NZ. (0775−769518)
5.2
Clares Micro Supplies    98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (0606−48511)
(−48512)
5.2
Colton Software (p9)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA. (0223−311881) (−312010)
5.2
Computer Concepts (p32/3)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 6EX. (0442−63933) (−231632)
5.2
Cygnus Software    11 Newmarke Street, Leicester, LE1 5SS.
5.2
Dalmation Publications    37 Manor
Road, Teddington, Middlesex  TW11 8AA.
5.2
Database Publications    Europa
House, Adlington Park, London Road, Adlington, Macclesfield, Cheshire,
SK10 5NP. (0625−859444) (−879966)
5.2
Digital Services    9 Wayte Street, Cosham, Portsmouth PO6 3BS.
(0705−210600) (−210705)
5.2
Eterna    4 rue de Massacan, 34740 Z.I. Vendargues, France. (010−33 +67 70
53 97)
5.2
Hybrid Technology    88 Butt Lane, Milton, Cambridge  CB4 6DG.
(0223−861522)
5.2
Ian Copestake Software    10 Frost
Drive, Wirral, L61 4XL. (051−632−1234) (−3434)
5.2
Icon Technology    0533−546225 (or Mike Glover on 057−286−642)
5.2
Krisalis Software    Teque House, Mason’s Yard, Downs Row, Moorgate,
Rotherham, S60 2HD. (0709−372290)
5.2
Lingenuity (Lindis)    P.O.Box 10,
Halesworth, Suffolk, IP19 0DX. (0986−85−476) (−460)
5.2
Longman-Logotron    Dales Brewery, Gwydir Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LJ.
(0223−323656) (−460208)
5.2
LOOKsystems (p13)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603−764114) (−764011)
5.2
Micro Studio Ltd    22 Churchgate Street, Soham, Ely, Cambridgeshire.
(0353−720433)
5.2
Morley Electronics     Morley
House, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE29 7TY. (091−257−6355)
(−6373)
5.2
Oak Solutions (p40)    Cross Park
House, Low Green, Rawdon, Leeds, LS19 6HA. (0532−502615) (−506868)
5.2
Pedigree Films Ltd     Unit B11,
Trinity Business Centre, 305 Rotherhithe Street, London  SE16 1EY.
(071−231−6137) (−237−5776)
5.2
Ray Maidstone (p22)    421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603−407060) (−417447)
5.2
Spacetech (p39)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.2
Storm Software    Beth House, Poyntington, Sherbourne, Dorset.
(0963−22469)
5.2
Superior Software    P.O. Box 6, Brigg, S Humberside  DN20 9NH.
(0652−658585) (−657807)
5.2
Triple R     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.2
Turcan Research Systems    83 Green
croft Gardens, West Hampstead, London NW6 3LJ. (071−625−8455)
5.2
Wild Vision    15 Witney Way, Boldon Colliery, Tyne & Wear NE35 9PE.
(091−519−1455) (−1929)
5.2

5.2

5.2
Computer Concepts
5.2
New or
5.2
From 5.1 page 30
5.2

5.2
Computer Concepts
5.2
New or
5.2
From 5.1 page 31
5.2

5.2
Colton
5.2
NEW
5.2
(or 4.1 page 12)
5.2

5.2
Risc Developments Ovation Advert
5.2
New
5.2

5.2
Hints and Tips
5.2
•    Fatal error type = 5 revisited (Archive 4.12 p9) − It’s not only !Edit
that reports this error, !Draw and some other Applications abort with a
similar error, but you might want to use !Edit, for example, with fonts.
The version in Archive 4.12 p9 simply hides the !Font-folder, so the
idea is to have the Applications just to see part of the !Fonts folder.
The easiest thing to do is simply to split up the fonts-directory into
directories − i.e. create two directories within !Fonts − in the first
directory (maybe SmallFonts within your !Fonts Folder) just put the
really necessary fonts in (just Trinity, Homerton, Corpus or so), but
remember that there may only be up to 50 fonts (approximately) −
including styles (say Italic, Medium, Bold etc). In the second directory
(maybe LargeFonts) put every font that is not already included in the
first directory.
5.2
The next thing to change is your !Boot and !Run-File from the !Fonts
application.
5.2
The !Boot file should read as follows:
5.2
| !Boot file for !Fonts
5.2
| *********************
5.2
IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
5.2
RMEnsure FontManager 2.42 RMLoad <Obey$Dir>.Fonts
5.2
RMEnsure SuperSample 0.04 RMLoad <Obey$Dir>.Super
5.2
Set Small$Fonts <Obey$Dir>. SmallFonts.
5.2
Set Large$Fonts <Small$Fonts> ,<Obey$Dir>.LargeFonts.
5.2
If “<Font$Prefix>”=“” Then SetMacro Font$Path <Font$Prefix>
5.2
If “<Font$Prefix>”=“” Then Set Font$Prefix <Large$Fonts>
5.2
SET Alias$@RunType_745 RUN <Obey$Dir>.FontHelp -Obey %%*0
5.2
SET File$Type_745 FontObey
5.2

5.2
The !Run file should read as follows:
5.2
| !Run file for !Fonts
5.2
| ********************
5.2
Obey <Obey$Dir>.!Boot
5.2
Echo Outline Font Manager 2.42 installed.
5.2
Echo Fonts now available:
5.2
Echo
5.2
FontCat
5.2

5.2
In addition, you have to create a Basic program called Fonthelp, which
should be situated in the !Font folder and should read like this:
5.2
REM >FontHelp  Version 1.00 20.1.91
5.2
REM *******************************
5.2
REM Written by: Martin Sperl
5.2
REM             Nattergasse 12/32
5.2
REM             A-1170 Vienna (Wien)
5.2
REM             AUSTRIA
5.2

5.2
END=&A000
5.2
DIM Data 255
5.2
SYS“OS_GetEnv” TO ENV$
5.2
ENV$=MID$(ENV$,INSTR(ENV$,“-Obey ”) +6)
5.2
*SET Font$Prefix <Small$Fonts>
5.2
SYS “Hourglass_On”
5.2
SYS “Wimp_Initialise”,200, &4B534154,“**LoadMore**”
5.2
 TO ,TaskHandle%
5.2
SYS “Wimp_StartTask”,“OBEY ”+ENV$
5.2
REPEAT
5.2
SYS “Wimp_Poll”,0,Data TO R%
5.2
UNTIL R%=0
5.2
SYS “Wimp_CloseDown”,TaskHandle%
5.2
*SET Font$Prefix <Large$Fonts>
5.2
SYS “Hourglass_Off”
5.2
END
5.2
Then create a sprite called “file_745” (maybe the same sprite as for an
Obey-file, but another colour) and include it in the !Sprites file of
!Fonts.
5.2
To start an application which can only handle some fonts without errors
just change the Filetype of the !Run-file with “Settype !Run FontObey”
to FontObey. Then you can start the application as normal without having
to worry about fonts at all.
5.2
Martin Sperl, Austria
5.2
•    Formatting PC disks − If, like me, you do not have a PC Filer on your
Archimedes you will have to format DOS diskettes (for use with the PC
Emulator) on a PC. If your PC has a 1.44M drive the standard FORMAT
command needs modifying. The command to use is
5.2
FORMAT  A:  /N:9  /T:80
5.2
This certainly works on the PS/2 55SX I have at work.  Richard Wheeler,
Wokingham  A
5.2

5.2
Impression H & T
5.2
•    Function key changes − Computer Concepts have chosen to use <ctrl-F3>
and <ctrl-F4> for ‘save’ and ‘search and replace’ instead of the more
standard <F3> and <F4>. If you prefer to use the latter, simply go into
the edit styles dialogue (<ctrl-F6>), select first italic and then bold
and, on each, change the keyboard shortcut (or delete it altogether), as
follows... You could, for example, change from <F3> to <shift-ctrl-F3>
by clicking in the shortcut box, pressing <ctrl-U> to delete the
existing text and pressing <shift-ctrl-F3>, at which point the words
“<shift-ctrl-F3>” will appear in the box. Click OK and <F3> will now
produce the desired “save” effect.
5.2
If you already have a lot of documents, this could prove a frustration
since you would have to do this with every document individually. Also,
you would need to go into Impression’s Auto directory and edit the
default document. Michael Ben-Gershon, Israel.
5.2
•    Only 77 graphics frames allowed in a chapter − Impression won’t allow
more than 77 graphics frames in a single chapter. This is due to the
ADFS limitation of 77 files per directory − earlier versions of
Impression (2.03) normally crashed after loading the offending file when
displaying. Impression 2.1 does not allow to save a file with more than
77 graphics-frames per chapter. I mentioned it to CC but they told me
“This is something that would be extremely difficult to overcome. It
should only affect a very small percentage of users”. So beware of too
many frames in one chapter !!! Martin Sperl, Austria
5.2
Couldn’t you get round this by putting several draw objects together in
a single file and then show different parts of the same file in
different frames? I haven’t tried it, but it should work. Ed.
5.2
•    Running Impression documents from !TinyDirs − If you use !TinyDirs to
install an Impression document on the icon bar and then click on it to
run it, a new copy of !Impress will be fired up even if one is already
running.
5.2
This seems to be because of a small mistake in the !TinyDirs.!RunImage
programme. In the PROCdataopen procedure are two lines which read as
follows:
5.2
900 q%?(44+LEN$(q%+44))=0
5.2
910 q%!0=(48+LEN$(q%+44))ANDNOT3
5.2
If you reverse the order of these two lines the program runs correctly.
Hugh Eagle, Horsham
5.2
•    Special Characters − The full list of ISO 8859 characters is included
in the Archimedes User Guide, e.g. page 455 for the Latin 1 alphabet.
However, it’s not too helpful in that it is listed in hexadecimal. If
you want to enter characters using <Alt> and the numeric keypad, you
need to know the decimal numbers. Those of you with EFF fonts will have
a manual that shows various of the character sets by decimal number.
This is particularly useful for Zapf Dingbats and MathGreek fonts. Jim
Nottingham, York.
5.2
(For those without EFF fonts, I have put an Impression file on the
monthly program disc so that you can print out your own lists of
characters just by changing the font in the style definition. Ed.)
5.2
• Wrong sprite colours in Impression − If, when you drag a sprite into
an Impression frame, the colours come out all wrong, it’s probably
because the sprite has not got a palette. If so, the answer is to give
it a palette, which can be done as follows:
5.2
1.    Load the sprite file containing your sprite into !Paint.
5.2
2.    Double click on the thumbnail picture of the sprite you want to
alter.
5.2
3.    Click <menu> over the sprite window that now appears, then move to
the Edit submenu and click on the Palette item at the bottom.
5.2
4.    Save the amended sprite file.
5.2
5.    Load the amended sprite back into Impression.
5.2
(Note: if you don’t want to keep the amended sprite, you can, if you
like, shortcut steps 4 and 5 and save the sprite direct from !Paint into
Impression.) Hugh Eagle, Horsham  A
5.2

5.2
Risc Dev’ments
5.2
IDE Drives
5.2
New
5.2

5.2
The IDEal Hard Drive?
5.2
Brian Philp
5.2
There has been a lot of interest recently in IDE drives which, coming
from the PC market appear to provide a cheap alternative to SCSI drives
− but how IDEal are they? Brian Philp sent an unsolicited article about
his experiences with an Ian Copestake’s ideA drive, then I discovered an
excellent article on the Arcade Bulletin board (081−654−2212) by Michael
Tubby giving a careful comparison of IDE and SCSI, including the
historical background. Michael has kindly agreed to allow us to publish
his article here. Finally, Ian Copestake very kindly allowed us to
borrow an 80M IDE drive and interface which I put through its paces. So,
at the end, I add my own personal views of the relative merits of IDE
and SCSI.
5.2
But let Brian Philp start...
5.2
Recently I bought an 80 Mbyte external hard disc from Ian Copestake
Software for my A3000. Today I installed their Whisper fan quietener.
This is to give you my impression of the products.
5.2
The hard disc cost £598 (inc VAT) which included an interface card which
was simplicity itself to fit. I switched on and there on the icon bar
was an extra disc drive icon. It told me that I had a massive
85,000,000+ bytes free. I made a standard 10M DOS partition but with 5M
of that filled and other files loaded, I now have more than 35M of the
disk full! So much for toying with the idea of a 20 or 40M disk.
5.2
The only drawback was the noise from the drive − mainly the fan. I
discovered that this drive also has the powersave feature of the
internal ideA drives and so, by setting *powersave n, the disc drive
shuts down after 5 × n seconds. This cut down the noise somewhat but the
fan noise was still intrusive. I rang the technical help number (who
were extremely helpful about a small misunderstanding that I had about
fitting the interface) and they informed me that they were designing a
fan quietener. Three days ago, Ian Copestake rang me to say they now had
the quietener and asked if I would like one (£17.63 inc VAT). I must say
I was very impressed with this quality of service. I had expected to
have to hunt round the journals waiting for an advert to appear.
5.2
Yesterday it arrived and I have just fitted it − again a very simple
task. Removing four screws (two at the front and two at the rear)
removes the top of the casing. One has to take a little care to slide
the casing slightly to the left to prevent the warning LED light from
catching on something inside. The casing then has to be laid on the
right hand side of the body of the drive because the lead to the LED
comes from that side. I am reporting this because the documentation does
not mention either which screws to remove (there are some others on the
side of the casing) or about the LED.
5.2
Switching on, the fan started up and then went quiet. This is a test
feature so that you know that the fan is working. There was still some
noise but when the powersave feature came into action virtual silence
reigned. There is a very slight noise coming from the fan which is
working at 10% of its maximum speed but it is hardly noticeable. The
ambient temperature is about 20°C and it has been on for about 1 hour
now without the fan coming into play. The difference is wonderful.
5.2
I can only strongly recommend ideA disc drives to anyone contemplating
the move to greater and faster storage. I have an A440 at work, so I
really appreciate the lack of noise and detect a greater speed of
working. However, I do not know how it compares with a SCSI drive. (See
the table below − yes, it is slightly faster than a 47M ST506 drive.
Ed.)
5.2
The only warning I would give is that a lot of software has been written
with the implicit assumption that ADFS is the only filing system. (ideA
uses its own IDEFS filing system software). This means that some !Boot
and !Run files have to be modified. This probably also goes for SCSI
drives. I have had some problems with some software − notably E-Type and
Holed Out. It seems to be related to the fact that the Shared C Library
in the !System folder is on the IDE drive and the software cannot find
it. There are also problems with some of the games software that changes
the configuration in order to steal extra memory.  A
5.2
The merits of IDE versus SCSI
5.2
Michael Tubby
5.2
This short paper describes the differences between Integrated Drive
Electronics (IDE) and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) disk drives
and interfaces, and highlights the relative merits of both types of
interface.
5.2
What is IDE?
5.2
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), otherwise known as PC/AT disk
interface, is a system where the hard disk drive has the controller also
built into it. It was developed by disc drive manufacturers for the PC/
AT (286), 386 and 486 based machines to give reasonable performance and
capacity with low cost mass produced disc drives.
5.2
The interface cable to the computer is a 40 way ribbon cable which
carries the data bus, address bus and other timing signals straight from
the computer’s expansion bus. The disk drive appears to the computer as
a memory mapped peripheral emulating a standard PC/AT type disk
controller.
5.2
IDE is a market-lead “defacto standard” which has not been ratified by
any international standards committee. Not all manufacturers’ devices
are compatible or interchangeable − particular problems can occur when
two different makes or models of disk drive are used on one computer
system.
5.2
What is SCSI?
5.2
The Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) is a mass storage/peripheral
device interconnection bus which was evolved from the earlier SASI
standard. SCSI is an internationally defined standard by ANSI (X3.131/
86−109) and ECMA.
5.2
SCSI bus is used on a wide range of computer systems ranging from
personal computers through work stations to larger mini computers.
5.2
Physically, the SCSI bus is a 50 way ribbon cable up to 6m long with up
to 8 devices (including the computer(s)). Each device can be a disk
drive, disk controller (with one or more drives), tape streamer, CD-ROM
drive, terminal controller, high performance laser printer etc.
5.2
SCSI was designed with the concept of device/manufacturer interchange
ability and high performance in mind.
5.2
Conclusion
5.2
There is really nothing inherently “better” about IDE or SCSI. They are
rather different interfaces, designed for different purposes and market
places. Some advertisers have been hyping their products on the basis
that “IDE is newer and therefore better...” − this clearly is not the
case.
5.2
Acorn have now adopted IDE for internal hard discs on the new A5000
machine, but still support SCSI as the external disk drive interface and
interface for other peripherals (e.g. CD-ROM) on the complete Archimedes
range.
5.2
What to buy?
5.2
If you want a maximum of one or two hard disc drives (between say 20 and
200M capacity), connected internally with moderate performance, then an
IDE based system is likely to be most cost effective.
5.2
If, on the other hand, you want to be able to add several disc drives,
high performance (>1M/sec throughput), large capacity drives (>200M
storage per drive) or other storage or peripheral devices such as CD-
ROM, high speed printers, document readers/scanners, hard discs with
removable media, tape-streamers etc, then SCSI represents a better, more
flexible, interface standard.  A
5.2
Relative merits of IDE and SCSI
5.2
IDE
5.2
•    Low cost
5.2
•    Medium performance typically up to around 1M/sec
5.2
•    Supports disk drives only

5.2
•    Maximum of 2 devices
5.2

5.2
•    Storage capacity per drive typically up to 200M
5.2
•    Maximum cable length 20“
5.2
•    Manufacturers’ defacto standard
5.2
SCSI
5.2
•    Higher initial cost
5.2
•    Higher performance typically up to 4M/sec (See notes 1 & 3.)
5.2
•    Supports range of storage devices and peripherals, e.g. disk drives,
CD-ROM, scanners, printers, tape streamers etc.
5.2
•    Supports up to 7 controllers each with one or more disk drives
5.2
•    Storage capacity per drive typically up to 1.3 Gbytes. (See note 2.)
5.2
•    Maximum cable length 6m
5.2
•    Industry standard
5.2
Notes:
5.2
1.    SCSI bus can transfer up to 6 M/sec asynchronous but controller
cards on Archimedes cannot handle this speed.
5.2
    Acorn’s SCSI card (AKA-30) peaks at 1.5 M/sec and averages around 1.0
M/sec.
5.2
    The Serial Port’s SCSI card (ASA-160) peaks at 2.9 M/sec and averages
1.8 M/sec.
5.2
    The Morley cached card peaks at 3.98 M/sec.
5.2
2.    Storage capacity of SCSI drives can exceed the 512M limit imposed
by FileCore in RISC-OS. Disk drives greater than 512M have to be
partitioned into smaller logical units of 512M or less.
5.2
3.    Overall throughput is a function of disk drive make/performance,
interface card design/performance and CPU speed.
5.2
Wot?! No IDE?
5.2
Paul Beverley
5.2
When Ian Copestake started his pioneer work of selling IDE drives for
the Archimedes, almost a year ago now, we were asked if we would make
them available to Archive subscribers. At that stage we declined the
offer because we wanted to see a more proven track record on both
hardware and software before getting involved. This decision was born
out of bitter experience from the early days of SCSI drives on the
Archimedes. We had a lot of trouble with bugs in the software and poor
supply of drives and eventually felt that we had to stop supplying one
particular make of SCSI drives.
5.2
We have been asked several times recently why N.C.S. still hasn’t gone
into selling IDE drives. So, when Brian Philp’s quite positive review
came through, I decided to look into it again and asked Ian Copestake if
I could borrow one of the drives that Brian was using. However, as a
result of our investigations, we have decided to continue our policy of
not stocking IDE drives, so I felt it right to give our reasons.
5.2
Hardware reliability
5.2
There have been problems in the past with unreliable hardware − drives
and interfaces failing. However, from what I can gather, these problems
(which are bound to happen in the early stages of any new product like
this) have been ironed out and virtually all of the reports we have had
speak of the excellent service given by I.C.S. in sorting out such
problems. (Would that all such companies in the Archimedes market would
respond as well when things went wrong. There has been considerable
discussion on Arcade recently of problems experienced in dealing with
certain Archimedes companies.)
5.2
Software reliability
5.2
With any new product, there are likely to be bugs in the software. If it
is, say, a word processor, the worst that can happen is that a bug can
cause you to lose a document that you had been working on − frustrating,
but not disastrous. With a filing system, bugs in the software can have
more serious consequences − therefore I need to be sure that the
software is “robust”. The existing software has been in use over a year
now and so it should be OK but ICS are doing a complete re-write of the
software (see Ian Copestake’s comments below) so, until this new
software has become well-established, I would not want to trust my own
vital data to its care.
5.2
Compatibility
5.2
Michael Tubby has already mentioned that there can be problems with IDE
drives from different suppliers not being compatible with one another.
I.C.S. say that they are aware of the problem and have a “recommended
drive list” which they will give to any of their customers who want to
add a second drive to their existing one, though they do say that they
want to encourage customers not to buy the interface apart from the
drive(s). The only drive I have heard of that gives problems on some
SCSI controllers is the Syquest removable drive. It works all right with
Oak, Lingenuity and Morley interfaces but Acorn have STILL not got it
working on their (newer) AKA31 SCSI interface although it’s OK on their
(now discontinued) AKA30 SCSI interface. We do, however, have a software
patch to make the Acorn board work with Syquest but the author is
charging £30 for it!
5.2
Versatility
5.2
Again, as Michael has mentioned, IDE is only for hard drives whereas
SCSI, although more expensive to start off with, provides an interface
to other devices such as CD-ROMs, scanners, tape-streamers etc.
5.2
Speed
5.2
... or rather lack of it. I did the two standard speed tests that I
perform on most drives and the results are shown in the table opposite.
As you can see, in terms of speed, the 80M IDE comes below the 20M
Worrawinnie (except in mode 21). I.C.S. say that they are on the look
out for faster drives at a reasonable price. They have found one such
drive which runs at almost 1000 kbytes/sec, but it’s a 200M drive − more
than most people want these days. (Mind you, I remember when 20M was
thought to be quite a large drive!)
5.2
Beware of salesmen
5.2
At the Acorn User Show, a representative of one well known computer
peripheral supplier (not, I hasten to add, I.C.S.!), when asked about
the relative merits of SCSI and IDE said that IDE was faster (which is
not true), more reliable (highly debatable) and cheaper (true!). I
personally got much the same story from another such company when I
asked a similar question over the phone. In both cases, the companies
were selling IDE drives but not SCSI.
5.2
“Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” I hear you say. “You’re
selling SCSI and not IDE and are recommending SCSI!” True, but the
difference is that I have not developed either and could sell either. I
have looked at the relative merits and have decided that I would not
want to recommend IDE to my customers and risk the come-back if things
went wrong. The two companies I referred to had, at that stage, only
developed IDE drives and not SCSI and were making recommendations purely
on the basis of where they could make the most profit. I have deliber
ately not bothered to look into the profit margins on the two types of
drives so that it didn’t influence my decision.
5.2
Cost
5.2
OK, the IDE drives can be cheaper than SCSI, initially, but if you want,
say, a flatbed scanner you are going to need a SCSI interface anyway −
or if you want a CD-ROM. So, it makes more sense to me to pay a little
more now to save money in the long run.
5.2
(You may say that you can’t afford scanners and CD-ROMs, but look what
has happened to the price of laser printers! Who would have thought,
even a year ago, that you would be able to get a high speed 600 d.p.i.
laser printer for under £1000 (+ VAT)? My incredibly slow, 300 d.p.i.
Apple Laserwriter cost me over £3,000 five years ago.)
5.2
Conclusion
5.2
I think it’s a case of “you get what you pay for”. If cost is the over-
riding influence than you have to look at IDE but if reliability, speed,
compatibility and versatility are important, then SCSI is worth
considering.
5.2
Ian Copestake comments: We are at the beta test stage with new software
which will improve speed performance by typically 20%. Further tuning of
this software will raise the figure. Software updates (i.e. a new EPROM)
will be offered to existing and current purchasers at a very modest cost
(probably about £15).
5.2
The maximum limit of two drives will be overcome, indeed, some suppliers
are already claiming to have done it. Storage capacity is becoming less
of a limitation − we can already supply 300M drives and this figure
rises all the time. The maximum cable length is 24“, not 20”.
5.2
(It would need a 30% speed increase to bring the 80M drive up to the
speed of the 20M Worrawinnie. Ed.)  A
5.2
    (a) Speed    (b) Copy Test 1    (c) Copy
Test 2    Archive Price
5.2
All speeds in kbytes/second        =
Apps 2    = Apps 1    Internal  External
5.2
                           Mode:    0    15
21    0    15    21    0    15    21

5.2
100M Atomwide (o)    1170    1170
735    66.3    60.5    46.5    83.8
79.0    61.4        700    790
5.2
100M Atomwide (mu)    1170
979    524    66.5    61.2    43.2
81.9    75.4    55.7        640
730
5.2
100M Atomwide (mc)    1170
1170    1116    66.3    61.6    46.7
84.0    79.0    62.4        700
790
5.2
100M Frog (Oak card)    888
888    285    61.9    55.0    39.2
67.8    64.6    44.5        590
620
5.2
(100M A540 Conner *    790
790    790    61.2    59.7    58.6
79.5    78.6    76.0        −
     −   )
5.2
(40M A5000 IDE *    817    817
716    46.4    46.0    44.0    59.6
58.1    56.8        −         −   )
5.2
65M Frog + Oak card    796
796    574    52.6    51.0    37.9
75.0    70.8    50.8        520
550
5.2
45M Worrawinnie    659    659    55
41.0    38.8    14.6    49.5    46.5
15.9        405    500
5.2
20M Worrawinnie    607    607    55
41.2    38.0    14.1    46.9    44.0
15.8        345    395
5.2
80M IDE from ICS    472    439
404    32.4    29.8    24.6    41.5
38.5    31.9        457    586
5.2
47M ST506    416    416    82    −      −
     −      −      −      −          −    −
5.2
(o) is using Oak podule,  (mu) is using Morley unchached podule and (mc)
is using Morley unchached podule.
5.2
* The A5000 and A540 drives are not a fair comparison in some ways as
they are being run on an ARM3 machine − all the other tests were done on
an A410 with ARM2.
5.2
Speed test results for a number of different hard drives
5.2
These are the result of some speed tests done to compare different
drives and interfaces. We tested them on an A3000 with an ARM2 proces
sor. We did the raw file loading/saving speed test (a), our “better
test” where we copy the contents of a directory containing all the files
on Applications Disc 2 (b) and the same test as (b) but using the
contents of Applications Disc 1 (c).
5.2

5.2
Small Ads
5.2
•    A3000 colour + £200 worth of software. Offers around £750. Phone
Shanwaz on 0703−677669 after 7 p.m.
5.2
•    A3000 colour, 2M ram + software, £700. Epson printer + ribbons £75.
Phone 0603−55303.
5.2
•    A3000 colour, 2M ram, serial upgrade, monitor stand, Epson printer
£800 o.n.o. Free delivery and set up within 50 miles of Aldershot. Phone
Darren on 0252−345641.
5.2
•    A3000 Learning Curve with Atomwide 4M board, Interdictor II & dust
cover − £750 o.n.o. Phone 0305−775507 evenings.
5.2
•    A310 2M ram (Atomwide), 20M drive (Oak SCSI) and Electrohome multi-
sync £900 o.n.o. Phone Mike on 081−579−0607
5.2
•    A310 colour 2-way backplane, 5¼“ interface, games £600. Phone Dave
after 6 on 0299−270443.
5.2
•    A310 colour 4M ram, 45M Oak SCSI, c.p.u. recently overhauled, £995.
Phone Colin Singleton on 0742−368797.
5.2
•    A310 Colour, Citizen Swift 24 printer, FW Plus, monitor stand, paper
and assorted PD £700 o.n.o. Acorn JP150 inkjet printer (brand new) £200
o.n.o. Phone Andrew on 0532−752798 evenings.
5.2
•    A310M colour dual 3½“ floppies, backplane, 5¼” interface £450 o.n.o.
Phone Arthur on 0276−22031.
5.2
•    A310M colour, 4-slot b-plane £500 o.n.o., Opus system solver + chair
£50, Uchida daisywheel printer with s-feeder £60, Roland DXY 880A
plotter £280. Phone 0986−872465.
5.2
•    A310M colour twin 3½“ disc drives (incl. old facia), IFEL 4-slot b-
plane, Voltmace joystick, Atomwide prototyping podule (unused; RAM
version), games, PD software £680 o.n.o. Phone Simon on 0603−226041 day
or −38342 evenings.
5.2
•    A410 2M, £600. Acorn multisync monitor (from A5000) brand new £380.
ARM3 £180. PC Emulator 1.7 £70. Phone Leslie Wiggins on 0602−421413 day
or −607822 evenings.
5.2
•    A410 2M, 40M hard disc, PC emulator & First Word Plus 2. £975. Phone
0228−26131 and ask for Bill.
5.2
•    A410 4M, 45M Oak SCSI internal, ROM/RAM podule with b-backup, PC
emulator. £750 o.n.o. Phone Arthur on 0276−22031.
5.2
•    A410 4M + 40M £925; Eizo 9060S £325. Phone Colin on 0786−61501
(even’s/weekends).
5.2
•    A410 4M + 42M drive, new mouse, PC emulator, NEC Multisync II £1200
o.n.o.. Might sell monitor separately. Phone 0886−21457.
5.2
•    A410 4M + 40M, Taxan 775, ARM 3, Laser Direct Hi-Res interface,
Watford 5¼“ drive + interface, £1800 o.n.o. Scanlight Junior £160.
Orrery £60. Genesis2 £70. Impression Business Supplement £30. PipeDream3
+ Hotlinks Presenter £110. Tracer £30. Phone Chris Bollard on
0752−783663.
5.2
•    A410 4M + 40M drive, NEC Multisync II £1000 (DM 3000). Phone Cornelia
on 0201 −641230 in Essen, Germany (evenings).
5.2
•    A410 4M + 47M drive, boxed, loads of software £1400. Phone Bob on
0249−813209 after 6.30.
5.2
•    A410 4M + 50M drive, 5¼“ drive and interface, with/without m-sync
monitor. Best offer. Phone 0952−613619.
5.2
•    A420, 4M, ARM3, Taxan 770+, 20M drive, £1,500. Phone Dave on
0603−441031. Leave messages any time, all calls returned.
5.2
•    Acorn 2-slot backplane with fan and instructions £25 o.n.o. Phone
0895−630344.
5.2
•    Canon BJ 130E bubble jet printer, sheet feeder, wide carriage. Offers
over £300. Phone Mike on 081−841−1463 (evenings/weekends).
5.2
•    Digitising tablet − TDS LC12 prof. quality tablet 12“ × 12” area, 4
button puck, up to 400 l.p.i., serial or parallel, £110. Phone
0903−65727, evenings.
5.2
•    EMR Studio Plus £120, EMR Midi 4 £75, System Delta Plus 2 £30, SDP
Reporter £20, 2nd internal floppy for A310 inc front panel £60, 2-slot
Acorn b-plane £20. Offers welcome. 10% of all sales will go to Archive’s
Charity Pot. Phone David on 0284−761801 after 5 p.m.
5.2
•    LaserDirect Qume, inc original toner/drum. £800. Armadillo A448M, 8bit
stereo sampler/midi including HighNote and Armadeus editing software.
Phone Glenn on 0932−567614 (near Staines).
5.2
•    LaserDirect Qume, still on first toner cartridge, latest !PrinterLD
inc Epson emulation. £750 o.n.o. Phone 0457−763649.
5.2
•    Magpie £30, Genesis 2 £100, Schema £60, Wonderland £20. Phone
0823−283346.
5.2
•    Microvitec 1455A med res colour monitor £125 o.n.o. Microvitec
Touchtec 501 touchscreen for monitor £125 o.n.o. Tektronic 2225 o’scope
£350. Phone 0932−232837.
5.2
•    Morley 2M ram expansion board for A3000 (expandable to 4M) £35. Phone
Dave on 0323−485773.
5.2
•    Philips CM8833 colour stereo monitor with leads £130. Phone
0454−772159 evenings.
5.2
•    Podules for A300/400 series (not A3000 or A5000) − WE digitiser £110,
Lingenuity colour converter for WE digitiser £90, WE Mk2 hand-scanner
£100, CC ROM podule (no RAM or battery) £20. Phone 0283−75345.
5.2
•    Scanlight Plus A4 with sheet feeder £300. Phone 0603−742638.
5.2
•    Wanted − First Word Plus version1. Phone 0228−26131 and ask for Bill.
5.2
•    Wanted Master Reference Manuals. Phone Colin on 0786−61501 (evening/
weekends).
5.2
•    Wild Vision Hawk V9 Digitiser inc. Fastgrab + ChangeFSI + Translator
£195. Phone William on 0279−424139.
5.2
(Small ads for Archimedes and related products are free for subscribers
but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the material
you send, as we think fit. i.e. some people don’t know what “small”
means and there are certain things, as you can imagine, that we would
not be prepared to advertise as a matter of principle. Sending small ads
(especially long ones!) on disc is helpful but not essential. Ed)
5.2
Charity Sales
5.2
The following items are available for sale in aid of charity. PLEASE do
not just send money − ring us on 0603−766592 to check if the items are
still available. Thank you.
5.2
(If you have unwanted software or hardware for Archimedes computers you
could donate for charity, please send it in 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.)
5.2
(Not much this month but we sold a lot at the A.U.Show. Indeed, with
Careware monies we raised over £2,000 in the three days!)
5.2
Interdictor £5, Artisan 1 £5, SigmaSheet £10, Hard Disc Companion £10,
Toolkit Plus £5, RISC-OS Companion £8, DiscTree £8, Dabhand Guide
Archimedes Operating System ArcBuffer £2, AutoSketch £20, The Wimp Game
£9, Maddingly Hall £8, First Word Plus £10, Guild of Thieves £5, The
Pawn £5, Timewatch £5.  A
5.2

5.2
Help!!!!
5.2
•    Clip Art Conversion − I have been given some clip art in Draw format
which was converted from the MS-DOS program, Arts & Letters. I have
access to the OS/2 and MS-DOS versions of Arts & Letters but have not
managed to convert files to Draw format myself. All I can do is to
convert to TIFF format and then convert that to sprite but there must be
some way of taking the object-oriented output of A & L and converting it
to Draw. Any ideas? Roland Nitsch, Vienna.
5.2
•    Compare utility − Can anybody help with a compare utility. I have a
number of files and applications from different PD sources which appear
to be identical. It would be nice to have a utility onto which I could
drag two files/ applications/ directories and then be told that the two
really are the same. Richard Wheeler, Wokingham
5.2
•    French & German dictionaries − My daughters would like to do their
French and German homework with 1st Word Plus. When it comes to spell
checking, this means French and German Dictionaries. Can anybody help
with these? (N.B. This does not mean a French or German version of 1st
Word Plus. The only change I am after is new dictionaries.) Richard
Wheeler, Wokingham.
5.2
•    Listening ear − Have you got a listening ear? (No, we’re talking about
counselling.) We need a “listening ear” symbol for use on documentation
for deaf people. A draw file would be best but if someone has a scanned
version, that would do. Rev Colin Brockie (part-time chaplain to the
Deaf) Grange Church, 51 Portland Road, Kilmarnock KA1 2EQ.
5.2
•    Midi sequencer − I have spent a significant amount of time over the
last two years producing a MIDI Sequencer/Composition package for the
Archimedes. I would like to make it available to others who may be
interested, but before giving it wide circulation, would like to put it
out to a limited number of people for beta test and review. Really, I am
looking for Archimedes owners with MIDI experience who are in a position
to make an unbiased assessment, and are willing to spend some time using
the system and recording their comments. I would also be grateful if
someone with the musical ability could produce some good demonstration
songs which will do justice to the software. I have produced some
demonstration songs, but they are limited by my own ability
5.2
I have produced a draft User Manual, and would expect to include a copy
of this with each review copy, since I am keen to receive comments on
the manual as well as the software itself.
5.2
Since I have other full-time work, I am not in a position to make the
firm support commitment necessary if it were released as a full
commercial product. On the other hand, I feel I have produced something
of value for which I would like to develop a solid base of users. If I
can get feedback indicating that it is worth continuing with, I am
willing to make modifications as a result of comments received and make
it available on a wider basis, possibly via Careware. Keith Parks, 18
Christchurch Road, Malvern, WR14 3BE.
5.2
•    MS-DOS 5 & Scanners − We mentioned last month that there were reports
that MS-DOS 5 has been seen working under version 1.6 of the PC
emulator. This is indeed correct and was confirmed by a number of
Archive readers. The next question we have been asked is whether any of
the PC compatible scanners work on the Archimedes under the emulator.
More likely, do any of them work on the A5000?
5.2
By the way, I had a number of offers to coordinate the PC Compatibility
list. Unfortunately, I lost the piece of paper on which I wrote down the
name of the gentleman whose offer I accepted! Would he contact me,
please? (Ooops!) Ed.
5.2
•    Rewritable optical drives − Does anyone know if it is possible to
connect an IBM PS/2 3½“ rewritable optical drive (P/N 6450162) to the
Archimedes via an Oak SCSI card? Roland Nitsch, Vienna.  A
5.2

5.2
Risc Dev’ments
5.2
Desk Edit
5.2
New
5.2

5.2
Risc Dev’ments
5.2
Hearsay II
5.2
New
5.2

5.2
Comment Column
5.2
•    A5000 − The Archimedes is dead! It’s official. Read the leaflet about
the new A5000, and nowhere will the name be found. Now, it’s A3000,
A5000, A540, and even the ‘A’ icon at the right hand end of the icon bar
has, under RISC-OS 3, become Acorn’s acorn logo. What happens to the
title of Archive magazine, not to mention Archimedes World?
5.2
The A5000 leaflet also tells us quite a lot about Acorn’s future policy.
The table ‘The A5000 in the Acorn Range’ shows us that the A400 range
has also gone completely. It also underlines what was said in October’s
Archive about the A540 looking rather dated for the alleged top-of-range
machine. It doesn’t take a genius to suggest that a new model (A6000?),
with RISC OS 3 and 1.6M floppies can’t be far away, presumably in the
new anonymous looking box.
5.2
The move towards peripheral PC compatibility is to be commended. As
Apple realised in 1989, allowing your machine to read PC discs makes
sense commercially and encourages peaceful co-existence in a situation
in which a refusal to accept such standards as disc formats would only
hurt the minority-interest machine.
5.2
This leads me to my major grumble; the price of higher resolution
displays for Archimedes, even if equipped with VIDC enhancers. Multi-
sync monitors, especially if larger than 14“, are very expensive. In the
PC world, VGA and SVGA monitors are much cheaper, and it seems that
Watford Electronics’ new SVGA VIDC enhancer might open up new possibili
ties. Why has no one, apparently, attached relatively cheap ‘A4 portrait
mode’ (i.e. vertical) high-resolution monochrome monitors to Archimedes?
Is the Taxan Viking II (at £900) the only ‘big-screen’ option?
5.2
So complex is the range of video standards which A310s to A5000s will
drive, and so plentiful is the range of monitors sold for PCs, that I’m
baffled. Multi-syncs are clearly the ‘guaranteed to work’ option, but if
I want anything larger than 14“ – and, currently enjoying a 17” standard
resolution screen, I certainly do – they are far too expensive. How can
I tell what will work on my A310, with an enhancer?
5.2
So, how about an article (or even a series) in Archive, along the lines
of ‘Everything you wanted to know about Archimedes video monitors, but
were afraid to ask?’ Please! Stuart Bell, Brighton.
5.2
(Part of the answer may be in Atomwide’s DIY VIDC Enhancer − see
Products Available − which would allow you to set up your own mode(s) to
work with whatever monitor you wanted to use.)
5.2
•    A5000 monitor identification − Brian Cowan comments in the A5000
supplement that the A5000 can tell what type of monitor is attached to
it. This achieved by the use of the standard PC style VGA connector.
This is a 15 pin D-type connector. The pins 4, 11 and 12 are used to
provide the monitor identification. A simple truth table is described
below to show how this works.
5.2
15pin VGA                 Pin:    4    12
11
5.2
Monitor ID bit    2    1    0
5.2
Mono    n/c    0v    n/c
5.2
Colour (Interlaced)    n/c    n/
c    0v
5.2
Colour (Non-Interlaced)    0v    n/
c    0v
5.2
0v = 0 volts,   n/c = not connected.
5.2
By reading the value at these pins, the A5000 can tell the type of
monitor that is attached to it. This information was found in a book on
IBM PC’s and may well be different for the A5000/RISC-OS 3.  (It must be
the same, surely? Ed.)
5.2
Mark Taylor
5.2
•    Acorn Show − We are holding a show of Acorn hardware and software on
Sunday 17th November, 1991 at the Junction 24 Motel on the A6 in
Kegworth village − near M1 J24 − 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. The entrance
fees of £1 for adults and 50p for children will all be donated to a
local charity. Barry Thompson, Selective Computer Services, Weston on
Trent. (0332 −690691)
5.2
•    Acorn User Show − As predicted, there were a lot of new products
launched at the Acorn User Show. The trouble is that it was such a busy
show (good news for the Acorn market in general) that we didn’t get
chance to go round the other stands to find out exactly what was being
launched. Unfortunately, not all suppliers are good at telling Archive
magazine about their latest offerings. So, if there are new products you
know about that can be said to be “Products Available” and that have not
been mentioned yet, please write in and tell us about them. (Don’t phone
us, please, because our switchboard is already pretty busy with normal
day-to-day calls. Thanks. Ed.)
5.2
•    ARM Data Manual − Here is some help offered to Jonathan Heher, S
Africa, as requested in Archive 4.8. It is also a short review of a book
of great interest to all the Archimedes users.
5.2
‘Acorn Risc Machine (ARM) Data Manual’, published by Prentice Hall,
(ISBN 0-13-781618-9) is ‘the’ hardware and software (assembler)
reference for the whole ARM family, ARM 3 included. It consists of nine
parts: Introduction, 86C010 (ARM2), 86C020 (ARM3), 86C110 (MEMC), 86C310
(VIDC), 86C410 (IOC), plus other details regarding packaging, develop
ment tools and sales representatives.
5.2
It comes attractively packaged in a shiny ivory cover. The fonts and the
page layout are excellent throughout the book. Prentice Hall really know
how to print books, but this is something you don’t generally expect
with technical reference manuals.
5.2
The introduction gives an overview of the philosophy that originated the
ARM chip set and why it was so innovative, together with the basic
connection schemes that are the same, I guess, as implemented in the
Acorn computers. It is tempting to skip the introduction but if you did
you would be missing a well written, general description of the system
as a whole.
5.2
Then come the sections on the individual chips. It goes into great
detail about the inner workings of the devices. It is not an application
notes book but, clearly, anyone wishing to implement his/her ARM system
board could find all they need to know, and much of the information
could also be of use to the more adventurous Archimedes owner.
5.2
The ARM3 is also covered in great detail, and a replacement board
construction becomes relatively easy using the knowledge that you get
here. (Note the inverted reset, use a double clock frequency quartz and
divide it with a flip-flop to clean the signal.) If you are one of the
few Archimedes owners that don’t care to know how to interface the
memory controller to static ram or how to implement cascaded MEMC
systems, chapter 4 will help anyway with description of video, sound and
cursor buffer and the MEMC controller registers. The following chapters
deal with VIDC and IOC at the same level of completeness.
5.2
This book obviously doesn’t deal with the operating system and you must
have a copy of the  RISC-OS PRM if you want to access the free resources
(like Timer 1) without interfering with the system itself. Remember,
anyway, whatever you do, to follow Acorn guidelines.
5.2
‘Acorn Risc Machine (ARM) Data Manual’ is not targeted at the occasional
user, or the hardware faint-of-heart, but anyone familiar with a
microprocessor data sheets will find here the ultimate information about
the architecture of the ARM chip set. The instruction set is well
documented and explained, and this is what many users will find most
useful. Beware, though that there are some errata throughout the book
but I don’t know the number or seriousness of them. Hopefully, I’ll let
you know more when I have received an errata sheet. (Has anyone got
one?)
5.2
The style used throughout the book makes it a pleasant read, and was a
nice surprise. The contents are not easy unless you have some previous
knowledge of microprocessor systems. If you don’t, it would be better to
read some introductory books first. Of course, you must also have your
RISC-OS PRM at hand. All in all, highly recommended.   Maurizio Ferrari,
Albinea, Italy.
5.2
•    Cleaning keyboards − I totally agree with Ray Maidstone’s comments on
cleaning keyboards and using “switch cleaner” (Archive 5.1 p.25) I would
also add that certain keys are very difficult to reassemble if the
keycap is removed. The SPACE BAR, SHIFT, ENTER and CONTROL (I think the
list is correct − but I’m not taking my keyboard apart again just to
find out!) contain a “torsion bar”. This can be very difficult to put
back in place if it is removed from the keycap.
5.2
Also, I would like to comment on Ray King’s article on cleaning
keyboards (Archive 5.1 p.37). I think it should be made clear that when
he says “The other end (of the earth strap) can be temporarily attached
to the earth pin of a 13 amp plug”, he means the wire should be attached
to the earth pin inside the plug. A plug should never be part-ially
pulled out to attach a ground strap.
5.2
The best method is to use a proper “green” plug. This is a plug with
only the earth pin conected and the live and neutral pins being plastic.
The outside face of the plug has a connection point for attaching a
proper ground strap. I appreciate that a lot of people are not going to
be able to obtain these items but they really are the best tools for the
job. The plugs I have are made by “Vermason”. An alternative method of
obtaining a satisfactory earth is to attach your ground strap to the
chassis of the computer being worked on. Obviously the point to which
you attach your ground pin must be bare metal to get a good connection
and the mains lead must be left in the machine to provide a path back to
earth. The wall socket can be left switched off. (Obviously the computer
must also be switched off.)  Mark Taylor
5.2
•    DXF files (converting) − I have had many calls/letters from people
asking me for a utility to convert from Draw files to DXF. My
!WorksTools#1 disc does not do this, nor do I have any intention of
writing such a thing. My disk does enable people to write DXF files from
their own software. It is not a conversion utility. No more calls on
this subject please!
5.2
Having said that, the common problem is how to get from !Draw files to a
PC or a Mac. It appears, although I have personally not needed to try
this, that one route (possibly the only route?) is to use the !Draw/CGM
conversion utility on Careware 13. CGM (Computer Graphics Metafiles) are
the subject of a standard and, I believe, can be read by a variety of PC
applications with differing degrees of success. Any expert comments on
this would, I am sure, be welcomed by all those who have contacted me on
this subject.  Jim Markland
5.2
•    DXF files (problems with) − A number of problems have become apparent
with !Draw in the way it handles DXF files.
5.2
1.    !Draw, when used with recent versions of CLib will not read DXF
files at all. I understand that Acorn are aware of this. (Strange way to
treat an international standard!)
5.2
2.    !Draw issues a spurious error message when a DXF file is dragged
to it via a scrap mechanism. Interestingly enough, this doesn’t happen
if the file is dragged from !Edit. Simply ignore the message and carry
on.
5.2
Many thanks to Oak Solutions for confirming the above observations.
5.2
3.    Also via a scrap mechanism, !Draw will not accept certain DXF
files which it otherwise seems to read happily.... this is noticeably
troublesome using BLOCKS.
5.2
Jim Markland, 4 Shalford Close, Cirencester, GL7 1WG.
5.2
•    Deskjet 500 cartridges − If anyone is interested in getting Deskjet
500 ink cartridges refilled, you can contact M Thomson, Bank House, Main
Street, Aberfoyle, Stirling, FK8 3UG. You will receive details of the
refill service. It costs £4.95 which includes p & p. The other address I
have is Millenium 3, 413 Wembley Commercial Centre, 80 East Lane, North
Wembley, Middlesex, HA9 7XX. They sell several coloured refills in
plastic tubes − £7.00 for two.
5.2
If anyone has any empty cartridges they don’t want, please send me a few
− but contact me first! Rev John McGuire, The Rectory, Hot Lane,
Biddulph Moor, Staffs, ST8 7HP. (0782−513323)
5.2
•    Hard drive parking − Ray Maidstone says that the best way to park a
hard disc is first to perform a *BYE and then a *SHUTDOWN. The reason
the *SHUTDOWN produces a “triple tick” after the *BYE is that the drive
has been parked and all files have been closed. Therefore the drive has
to be un-parked and then re-parked by the second command (i.e.
*SHUTDOWN). The *SHUTDOWN command is different from the *BYE command
because it closes all files on ALL filesystems (i.e. RAM, ADFS and
SCSI). Mark Taylor
5.2
Ray’s answer to this comment is that not all drive ACTUALLY park when
you do a *BYE. He has proved it by taking a drive to bits and watching
what happens − anyway, yer pays yer money (for a hard drive) and yer
takes yer choice!
5.2
•    International Golf − The golf game on Shareware Disc 41 has now been
updated. A few minor bugs have been fixed and the program has been fully
tested with 1M machines. Adrian Look.
5.2
• Magnets and floppy disks − When, six years ago, the Physics Department
of my school at last received its first two computers, the colleagues
from computer science predicted doom for our software because of the
many magnets lying around in our rooms.
5.2
I was, therefore, horrified some days ago, when I unpacked some new
software and realized too late that I had put the disk right next to a
magnet lying on the table.
5.2
To my great relief, the disk had not been harmed at all.
5.2
This made me curious, and I experimented a bit. The results amazed me: I
put an old disk into a thin plastic bag (to avoid contamination with any
iron particles clinging to a magnet) and rubbed all twenty-odd permanent
magnets in our collection one by one all over the surface. This had no
effect!
5.2
I then took an iron-filled coil and sent a direct current of 10 A
through it, until it heated up so much that I had to switch off. The
magnetic field (350 mT) was about three times as strong as that of our
strongest permanent magnet. This made two files on the disk unreadable
(disk error 8 at ... etc ).
5.2
I then fed an ironless coil with alternating current, first at 50 Hz,
then at 40 kHz; here the effect was predictably more marked. The high
frequency field, which was very roughly 100 times as strong as that at
the top of my monitor (we have no calibrated measuring devices for such
fields) managed to make the disk totally unreadable when I left the disk
lying on the coil for an hour.
5.2
Conclusion? While it would be unwise to bring your disks into close
contact with a permanent magnet on purpose, don’t worry too much about
any magnets in the same room as your disks; do take great care, however,
where those electromagnetic fields are concerned which are emitted from
monitors, telephone bells and the like. Jochen Konietzko, Koeln, Germany
5.2
•    RenderBender 2 − Dave Clare writes...  I agree with Malcolm Banthor
pe’s review (Archive 5.1 p55) but there was one mistake. It is in fact
possible to alter the beam width of spotlights. You simply use the
Height function in the Functions menu, select the spotlight and move the
mouse. The two lines move to show the angle of the beam.
5.2
•    Teletext Adaptor − Would the person who bought the teletext adaptor
from our Charity Bring & Buy sale at the Acorn User Show please get in
touch with us as we have a couple of discs of software that go with it.
Ed.  A
5.2

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Base 5
5.2
New
5.2

5.2
Sound Sampling
5.2
Odd Bakken
5.2
Sound samplers are widely used on the Archimedes but some people are
dissapointed with the results. To get the most out of your sampler, you
need to have some basic knowledge about “Digital Sound”.
5.2
What happens when you sample a sound?
5.2
Let’s take a simple sound signal, a sinewave. How many samples do we
need to describe it? The crudest representation is two samples/period
(Figure 1). The resulting squarewave is certainly not a sinewave but if
we filter it, cutting off all its harmonic tones (3rd, 5th,
7th....harmonic), we have a sinewave, very similar to the original.
5.2
What happens then if we sample the signal with less than 2 samples /
period?
5.2
As the signal increases above half of the sampling frequency, it is
“mirrored” back (Figure 2).
5.2
Fout =  Fsample / 2 − ( Fin − Fsample / 2)
5.2
The result is bad distortion since it isn’t harmonically related to the
signal. So, when sampling sounds, it is essentially to sample with a
frequency, that is at least twice as high as the highest possible
frequency from the source. This means that if you use a CD player as the
source, you have to use a sampling frequency over 40 kHz. The sound
output from the Archimedes is filtered at about 10 kHz (Figure 3), so
the optimum sampling frequency is the default 20.833 kHz. This means
that you should filter the input signal at 10 kHz to avoid distortion.
5.2
Playback
5.2
When the sound is recreated from the digital data, it is represented in
steps (256 for the 8-bit Archie, 65536 for the 16-bit CD). If these
steps are not smoothed out (Figure 4), they will create unwanted
overtones. If you play back a sample at a very low replay rate you will
hear a tone which is caused by the harmonics from the square steps. The
optimum solution would be an active lowpass filter that follows the
sampling frequency both on sampling and replay. The next best solution
is to use a variable lowpass filter on the input with a graduated
frequency scale and with a high Q-factor (steep flange) to avoid
dampening of the high end of the frequency scale.
5.2
Conclusion
5.2
To get the best out of your sampler you must take care to do most of the
sound processing before you digitize the sound.
5.2
With an 8 bit sampler, you have a very limited dynamic range. You
increase the S/N ratio with 6 dB/bit (with linear sampling), so you have
only 48 dB to play around with, (the same as a telephone line), so use
all 8 bits! This means that, when sampling, the dynamic range of the
source signal should be reduced (compressed). A good way to compress the
sound is to record a cassette with Dolby C on, and then switch to Dolby
B when replaying it to the sampler.
5.2
If you use sampling frequencies below 40 kHz you must pass the sound
through a lowpass filter − try coupling a speaker output from your HiFi
to the cassette recorder/sampler (take care with the sound level!!), and
turn the treble all the way down. This sounds a bit drastic but, believe
me, it will sound better than undersampling the high frequencies − the
sound output is filtered anyway.
5.2
Don’t try to compensate for the built-in filter by turning the treble
up, as this will only introduce more “undersampling noise”. If you
increase the treble after sampling, (digital processing) remember that
you increase the noise level too!
5.2
If you use sampling frequencies below 10 kHz, you will hear a tone,
modulated with the sound level − this is the remains of the sampling
frequency passing “below” the 10kHz lowpass filter!  A
5.2

5.2
Figure 1
5.2

5.2
Figure 2
5.2
1 − 10 kHz input signal
5.2
2 − sampled at 16.66 kHz gives 6.66kHz out
5.2
3 − sampled at 14.28 kHz gives 4.28kHz out
5.2

5.2
Figure 3
5.2

5.2
Figure 4
5.2

5.2
Morley Teletext Adaptor
5.2
Patrick Bean
5.2
I have used both the Acorn and Morley teletext adaptors on the BBC model
B for several years and so, in the early days with my Archimedes, this
was one add-on that I missed. However, it was not long before I was able
to purchase the Morley unit for my computer. Teletext is the information
service transmitted in a coded form along with the TV picture by both
the BBC and ITV. The BBC’s system is called “Ceefax” and ITV’s is
“Oracle”. The text and graphics are viewed on screen using the Archime
des’ emulated mode 7 display.
5.2
Hardware
5.2
The hardware is almost identical to the BBC version − a cream coloured
box about 2“ high, 10” deep and 5“ wide linked to the computer via a
ribbon cable and a podule plug. There is also a small black mains
adaptor which connects to a plug that splits off of the ribbon cable
about half way along. The other end of this adaptor plugs into any 13amp
socket. This arrangement looks a little flimsy but has worked OK so far.
The line form the aerial plugs into a standard socket on the back of the
unit and that is all there is to it.
5.2
You are supplied with a disc holding the terminal software and a key
strip. On running the software, you have to tune the adaptor in to the
TV transmitter. This is done from the computer using the cursor keys.
The tuning is very fine, so it may take some time to get all four
channels spot on. Fortunately, the data can be saved to disk and will be
loaded back in whenever you run the system. If you are unlucky, you may
find that, after much tuning, your old aerial that has picked up
“Eastenders” and the like for years, is not quite good enough for
“Ceefax”. This could mean a booster or possibly a whole new aerial.
5.2
In use
5.2
If all goes well, you should soon be able to view the large amount of
information on both “Ceefax” and “Oracle”. The terminal software is easy
to use but my version does not multi-task. However, a RISC-OS version is
promised soon. You can save pages to disk and load them in again at any
time. Pages can also be printed to an Epson printer, but only the text
is printed, not the graphics. Eight presets are available so if (like
me) you can pick up French TV, then French Teletext can also be received
− on a good day it can be almost totally error free!
5.2
The “fastext” system is also supported. This will display a line of four
titles on the bottom of the page, in the four colours “red”, “green”,
“yellow” and “cyan”. Pressing the function key marked with the same
colour calls the page for this title. For instance, the sports index may
have the four titles “Football”, “Boxing”, “Snooker” and “Swimming” at
the bottom of the screen. Pressing <f1> (red) will call the Football
pages, <f2> (green) the Boxing, and so on.
5.2
I think that there is much scope for inter-active software such as share
dealing games run over a long time span and using live data or programs
that could read the news pages aloud using !Speech, etc etc. The design
of the software does not help in this respect as low level access is not
separated from the high level system. For instance, it would be nice to
have a module that accepted commands like *PAGE 100, *TRANSFER &7000 and
*DISPLAY &7000, and so on (as did the old BBC version!) just leaving the
programmer to do the high level stuff. As it is, the programmer has to
do direct access to the hardware using SYS calls.
5.2
Conclusions
5.2
Overall, I am pleased with the adaptor but the software could make more
use of the computer’s memory to store index pages and the like, thereby
making average access times shorter. Unfortunately, the BBC’s free
“Telesoftware” service has been discontinued. Even so, this unit has
many uses. I may attempt to write some inter-active programs and, if
they are good enough, I will send copies to Paul for possible publi
cation on the Archive “Shareware/Careware” disks. The Morley Teletext
Adaptor costs £125 plus VAT from Morley Electronics (or £120 through
Archive).  A
5.2

5.2
Ace Computing
5.2
From 5.1 page 8
5.2

5.2
PipeLine
5.2
Gerald Fitton
5.2
It was a real pleasure to meet so many of you at the Acorn User Show.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for us PipeDream users was Colton Soft
ware’s launch of PipeDream 4.
5.2
PipeDream 3
5.2
The first question you will want answered is “Where does this leave
PipeDream 3?”. Colton Software say that there will be no more enhance
ments of PipeDream 3 and that version 3.14 is ‘stable’. Here at Abacus
Training we shall still support PipeDream 3 and Colton Software have
said that PipeDream 3 will still be available for purchase.
5.2
PipeDream 4
5.2
Because PipeDream 4 is still being developed, it is available only from
Colton Software and not through the usual network of distributors and
dealers. The price of PipeDream 4 is £230.30 (including VAT); an upgrade
from PipeDream 3 to PipeDream 4 will cost you £94.00 (including VAT). If
you have a receipt to prove that you purchased PipeDream 3 on or after
1st August 1991 (from anybody) then the upgrade will cost you only the
difference in price between PipeDream 3 and PipeDream 4 which is £58.64
(including VAT).
5.2
So what is new about PipeDream 4? Well, it is bigger and better with
more facilities and an improved user interface. In addition to (nearly)
all the features of PipeDream 3, PipeDream 4 also includes charts,
‘custom functions’, a few other major enhancements and a large number of
minor improvements.
5.2
The charts are ‘Hot Linked’ to numbers in the expression slots and they
work at an impressive speed. Those of you who have the Hot Link version
of Presenter will be familiar with the way in which the graphs change as
you alter the values in the spreadsheet.
5.2
‘Custom functions’ is a facility which allows you to define your own
functions rather like a procedure or function in Basic. Parameters may
be passed to your custom function from cells in the main PipeDream
document. The program is written in a separate spreadsheet and the
programming language includes flow control commands such as Repeat −
Until, If − Then − Else, and can handle string variables (text) as well
as numbers.
5.2
Matrices can be defined as a variable type and operations (functions)
can be applied to a matrix with one simple command. As an example,
complex variables are treated as a 2 by 1 matrix. Vectors and tensors
can be entered as matrices and processed with your own custom functions.
5.2
Other changes include a much improved graphic and command user inter
face. For example, large height characters with large line spacing are
now displayed on screen as they will be printed. Selecting a font is
easier and the font selection command sequence can be recorded in a
macro. There is a format marked block command, you can save template
files (rather like having a variety of ini files), changing column
widths is now a simple mouse movement (or, even better, the widths of
tables can be set to automatic), operations on blocks is much more
intuitive and unwanted formatting (generally) does not happen.
5.2
However, the version available at present is still in the early stages
of development. Purchasers are warned by Colton Software that it does
have many problems (particularly with the graphs) and they have promised
a free upgrade to a more ‘stable’ version as soon as it is available.
You must register your purchase with Colton Software to receive news of
PipeDream 4 upgrades.
5.2
I have tried many of the PipeDream 3 applications from our PipeLine
discs on PipeDream 4 and, whilst the ReadMe files are generally OK, most
of the other files containing functions (particularly database func
tions) do not work correctly and some do not work at all. I believe that
the applications on the PipeLine discs are fairly representative of
people’s use of PipeDream 3 and that the difficulties of running them in
PipeDream 4 is a fair measure of the ‘problems’ that are present in the
current version. Because of these ‘problems’, I strongly recommend that,
if you are thinking of upgrading from PipeDream 3 to PipeDream 4, you
should first make sure that you have a good copy of PipeDream version
3.14 (upgrade to 3.14 if necessary) before you ‘trade in’ your
PipeDream 3 master disc and lose the possibility of ever having this
latest and probably final version of PipeDream 3.
5.2
To obtain your free upgrade of PipeDream 3 to version 3.14 you need to
send off your master PipeDream 3 disc together with a self addressed
label and a stamp. You can not receive an upgrade to 3.14 unless you
return your master disc.
5.2
Those of you who enjoy being at the ‘leading edge’ will get a lot of fun
from the present version of PipeDream 4 and those of you with a
substantial application in mind will be able to investigate the
potential of the new features of PipeDream 4. However, if you are doing
something which has to work (like your accounts), then you should
continue to use PipeDream 3 (version 3.14) for such things until the
problems of PipeDream 4 are resolved.
5.2
Colton Software have an honest reputation and I am sure that, when it
has been developed, PipeDream 4 will be a winner and that purchasers
need not fear that they will be left with an unusable product. In
launching PipeDream 4 in its present state of development, what Colton
Software have done is to offer early purchasers a unique opportunity to
help specify and tailor, nearer to their own needs, what is undoubtedly
going to be one of the most superb pieces of software available for the
Archimedes.
5.2
The syntax of some of the database functions has been changed so, if you
have PipeDream 3 and PipeDream 4 (and the knowledge and ability!) then I
shall be grateful for any utilities which you might produce for
converting PipeDream 3 files so that they will run under PipeDream 4.
Utilities which do the reverse will also be welcomed.
5.2
Finally, if you do discover any bugs in PipeDream 4, please let Colton
Software know rather than us here at Abacus Training. We will still act
as a clearing house for ‘bugs’ that you find in PipeDream 3 but, whilst
it is still being developed, not bugs from PipeDream 4.
5.2
Colton Software have moved
5.2
Their new address is: 2 Signet Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA
and their new telephone number is 0223−311881.
5.2
Comparing Impression and PipeDream
5.2
Several times, particularly by people who have neither PipeDream nor
Impression, I have been asked to compare these applications as wordpro
cessors. Also, I have a few readers who use Impression regularly and
have recently bought (or use at school, college or work) PipeDream and
would like to know the difference. Before I start, let me tell you that
PipeDream, Impression and DrawPlus are the three applications which I
use most regularly and that I find they complement each other and so I
don’t really want to make comparisons of the type “This is better than
that”. What I will do is to explain why, when and how I use PipeDream
and (to a lesser extent) when I use Impression.
5.2
First, here is a tip for everyone. I use my hard disc to store appli
cations such as PipeDream, Impression and DrawPlus along with the System
and Fonts directories. I keep all my data files such as letters,
drawings, advertisements, etc, on floppy disc (with a backup). That way,
if ever my hard disc goes down (it hasn’t yet, but then, I always
dismount it by using *bye before switching off) I have only to install
the application from the master floppy − data unique to me is stored
safely on floppies.
5.2
I use PipeDream for invoices but not because money is numbers and
numbers imply spreadsheets but because PipeDream is more economical on
floppy disc space and I can use the database facilities of PipeDream.
5.2
My Abacus Training letterhead is a DrawPlus file on my ‘Invoices’ disc.
With PipeDream, this 18 kbyte file is stored only once on the disc and
the same file is called up in every invoice. With Impression this 18
kbyte would be saved as part of every document. The result of this
different approach to the insertion of graphics is that PipeDream uses
less disc space for the same number of invoices.
5.2
I hold a PipeDream database of addresses which takes up hundreds of
kbytes on a floppy disc which I keep separately from my Invoices disc. I
double click on my ‘Address’ file so that it is loaded into memory, then
I remove the Address disc, replace it with my Invoices disc and double
click on a blank invoice. The blank invoice contains dependent document
references to a file called [Addresses] (note that the dependent
document is not called by its full path name). Since there is a file
with the leaf name [Addresses] in memory, PipeDream does not look for
[Addresses] on the Invoices disc (it isn’t there) but uses the file
already in memory. I type a reference to the customer into one of the
slots on the invoice and the remainder of the address is filled in
automatically (using the lookup function). I mark the block containing
the address, give the command <Ctrl+BSS> (SnapShot) and then save the
invoice under a new name (in fact by the invoice number). I don’t have
Impression’s new mail merge software (part of their business package) so
I can’t make a real comparison here but, what I finish up with is a
‘stand alone’ invoice on a disc of invoices which does not depend, in
any way, on the address file because all the references to the dependent
document have been ‘SnapShotted’.
5.2
Continuing with my rather biased comparison, I use PipeDream for letters
because I can use my letter heading (only one 18 kbyte file on the
letters disc) together with a blank letter and my [Addresses] file
(you’ll remember that it’s on a separate disc). Letters contain a lot of
word processing so why not use Impression? Well, the Impression cut and
paste list is limited to one item whereas, with PipeDream I can have a
large paste list. In fact, in PipeDream you can choose the length of
your paste list − mine is fifty items. The command <Ctrl+EDC> (Delete
Column) puts a whole column on the paste list. If you then move the
cursor with <Tab> or <Shift+Tab> you can insert the column you have just
cut with <Ctrl+I>. Sometimes, using cut and paste this way is more
appropriate than using <Ctrl+BC> (Block Copy), <Ctrl+BM> (Block Move),
or <Ctrl+BRE>, (Block Replicate).
5.2
I have a PipeDream ‘library’ document with many standard paragraphs
which I load onto the screen. When I want one of these paragraphs in my
letter I mark the paragraph in the ‘library’ document, click the cursor
in the letter I am composing at the appropriate place and then use
<Ctrl+BC> to load a copy of my standard paragraph into the letter. I
find this easier than the Impression equivalent Copy to the (single item
paste list) followed by Paste.
5.2
On the plus side for PipeDream, I find that when printing a mixture of
graphics and outline fonts with RISC-OS printer drivers (such as an
invoice or a letter with the letter heading stored as a graphic),
PipeDream is almost twice as fast as Impression but I have no idea why
this should be the case.
5.2
Now on the side of Impression, it is more WYSIWYG, particularly when I
need to position graphics precisely, when I am using a mixture of font
sizes, with large fonts, or when I am using a line spacing other than 12
point. Impression documents can be scaled on screen and graphics don’t
‘fall off the edge’ of the display. Hence I tend to use DrawPlus
graphics files loaded into Impression together with text (often word
processed in PipeDream) for my advertisements.
5.2
Although I don’t use the facility myself, Impression can run two stories
in parallel such as main text and footnotes. The sequence of frames for
the main text is totally independent of the sequence for the footnotes.
It is difficult to see how this independence of two stories could be
achieved in PipeDream.
5.2
With Impression, you can have as many Styles as you need. In PipeDream
you have only one ‘style’. You choose your font using the ‘Print −
Printer font’ menu; you set up your ‘ruler’ by changing the column
widths and wrap margins; the line spacing for the one ‘style’ is set by
writing to the ‘Print − Printer line spacing’ dialogue box. Of course,
in PipeDream you have the equivalent of ‘Effects’ which can be changed
globally using <Ctrl+BSE> (Search and replace). I have no doubt that
when you need many styles in a short document then Impression wins.
5.2
Impression automatically reformats the whole story when characters are
added or deleted. In PipeDream, if the option ‘Insert on return’ and
‘Wrap’ are turned ON (use <Ctrl+O> to see the options dialogue boxes)
you will find that almost the same thing happens. I recommend that you
set these two options ON for word processing. However, with PipeDream,
you can turn either or both OFF; sometimes this has its advantages.
Something that many users of PipeDream don’t realise is that you can
change your options in the middle of writing or editing a document. One
of the best ways of doing this is with a macro. If you need to insert a
table in the middle of an Impression document all you need do is create
a new style.
5.2
With Pipedream, I recommend that you turn OFF both ‘Wrap’ and ‘Insert on
return’ when working on tables.
5.2
Another day, I will tell you about using a ‘Multi-file’ document in
PipeDream; each file in the list of files comprising the multi-file
document can have a different ‘style’. For those of you who can’t wait,
have a look at ‘Multi-file Documents’ on pages 210 to 212 of the User
Guide. The use of multi-file documents does overcome many (but not all)
of the difficulties which arise because PipeDream will accept only one
‘style’ per file. Multi-file documents will support a different ‘style’
in each of the files making up the document.
5.2
Finally, with PipeDream, you can mark only complete cells whereas
Impression allows you to mark a block starting anywhere. Some people
prefer to use Impression for wordprocessing because of this whereas
others (including me) find that they have developed a proficiency at
stacking the larger PipeDream paste list with <F4> (delete to end of
slot), <Shift+F4> (which deletes single words), and putting the words
back together with <Ctrl+I> (insert). You can use <Return> (to split
lines when ‘Insert on return’ is ON), <Delete> (to join lines together
when ‘Insert on return is ON) together with <F8> (delete row) or
<Ctrl+BD> (delete marked block) to place substantial amounts of text on
the paste list before inserting them where you want them to go. I find
that the size of the paste list and the versatile way in which it can be
used biases me towards PipeDream for word processing. However, difficul
ties arise if I get interrupted or forget what is on the paste list and
in what order!
5.2
So, to summarise, I find Impression is excellent for a mixture of text
and graphics which have to be WYSIWYG such as in an advertisement or
leaflet. For routine letters, invoices, orders and particularly labels
where the layout of the page is ‘stable’ but the content is variable,
then I find that the database functions of PipeDream together with the
more economical use of disc space and long paste list make it my first
choice.
5.2
In conclusion
5.2
If you have ideas, facts or opinions or think I’ve missed something out
of any of my articles then please write to me at the Abacus Training
address on the inside back cover of Archive. If you find ‘bugs’ in
PipeDream 4 then tell Colton Software (please don’t write to me!). If
you want ‘bugs’ you have found taken out of PipeDream 3 now that
PipeDream 4 is here you will have to make out a stronger case than you
would have a few months ago − but I will do what I can with Colton
Software.  A
5.2

5.2
Oak Computers
5.2
From 5.1 page 24
5.2

5.2
Contact Box
5.2
•    Arfon RISC-OS Club welcomes Archimedes & A3000 users. They will be
meeting soon in the Llanberis, Caernarfon area. Please contact Dr A Gwyn
Williams on 0286−870101.
5.2
•    South African Archimedes User Group − The organisers of the South
African Archimedes User Group would like to hear from Archimedes users
in S.A. and user groups in other countries with a view to exchanging
newsletters ideas etc. Please contact Mark Henderson, S.A.Arc User
Group, P.O. Box 1051, Wandsbeck, Natal, 3631, South Africa.  A
5.2

5.2
The A5000 − First Impressions
5.2
Des Fry, Malcolm Davies and Andrew Scott
5.2
Three of the lucky few who actually own an A5000 give us their first
impressions. There is a certain amount of repetition in what follows,
but these all came in rather close to the printer’s deadline, so I have
only done a limited amount of editing on them.
5.2
If you have an A5000, please let us know if there are any points of
interest to other people. It would also be interesting to know the
serial number of your computer − it gives us an indication of how Acorn
are getting on with production. As I write (31.10.91) the highest number
I have seen is 1000246. If yours is higher, let me know.
5.2
By the way, I trust you all received the A5000 Supplement that we sent
out last month. If not, let me know as we have a few copies left. Ed.
5.2
Anyway, let’s hear from Des Fry first...
5.2
Unpacking was fun, with more free software than I have ever seen before
− Acorn DTP, First Word Plus, Genesis Plus, PC Emulator (V1.7!),
InterDictor, PacMania and Lemmings. All but Lemmings were pre-installed
on the hard disc, including a 5MB DOS partition. You will be pleased to
know that DR DOS 5.0 comes with a weighty 477 page User Guide, plus a
reference card and release notes.
5.2
Now the hardware. Connecting it up was very easy − then came the moment
to switch on. It worked first time! First thing I noticed is that the
desktop boots up in Mode 27, it isn’t necessary to configure for the
Multi-sync monitor − it’s automatic. The new 15 pin cable feeds info
back to the computer enabling the monitor type to be determined.
5.2
I was slightly disappointed with the monitor for the following reasons:
the dot pitch is 0.39mm and I have been used to a Taxan 770+ LR (for
home use) at 0.31mm, so the display was not as sharp. I had read that
the monitor is micro-processor controlled and would automatically adapt
to the different modes. Although it does have an auto height switch,
this only appears to work in VGA and mode 12/15. The height and
horizontal position nearly always needs to be adjusted in other modes. I
think most users will be quite satisfied − it’s just that I have been
used to using better monitors. (I use an IBM 8514 with a 16“ monitor at
work.)
5.2
Mode 27 seems a very sensible default, as it has a scan rate of 60Hz
compared with 50Hz in modes 0-21. When switching to the lower scan rate
after an extended period of Mode27, flicker is quite noticeable. Modes
12 and 15 are also not as bright as multi-sync modes. There are 46 pre-
defined modes altogether.
5.2
The next thing I noticed is the icons on the icon bar. The hard disc now
has a name: IDEDisc4 and there is a new icon called Apps. The latter
acts like a ROM filing system and contains three sub directories − Apps,
Fonts and Resources. The first contains !Alarm, !Calc, !Chars,
!Configure, !Draw, !Edit, !Help and !Paint. Fonts contains outline fonts
for Corpus, Homerton and Trinity. Resources contains a staggering 58 sub
directories! These are all the ROM modules such as Clib and FPEmulator.
The main applications have been considerably enhanced. !Alarm is
terrific − everything you could possibly want from it. You can even set
an alarm to start applications e.g. to bring up a Do List using Edit.
!Configure can configure absolutely everything − there is no need to
leave the desktop anymore. The other applications will have to wait for
proper evaluation, but a quick try out reveals extensive changes.
5.2
RISC-OS 3.0 applications have three sets of icons, standard (!Sprites)
and !Sprites22 and !Sprites 23. These can be selected by the application
“!SetIcons” in the root directory. Selecting high resolution colour
gives 34 × 34 icons compared with 34 × 17 in RISC-OS 2.0. These are only
really suited to high res modes and give noticeably clearer icons,
especially diagonal lines.
5.2
Most people will discover the Pinboard by accident, just click <menu> on
the background. This allows you to pin files, directories and appli
cations to a backdrop of your choice. You may say that you have seen
this before, but not quite − you can iconise running applications as
well!
5.2
I do like the new filer. I can format, copy etc while I am typing this
letter − very impressive. I do like the new colour bars which tell you
how far the operation has gone. I also like the new Find option − just
select all or any lesser combination and type in a file or sub directory
name and it searches the directory tree and reports its location.
5.2
Printer drivers are a little more complicated, but there are hundreds of
printers now catered for. You can have several printer drivers operating
at the same time; this is more useful than it first sounds. Not only can
you have more than one printer connected, but you can have several for
the same printer − each with a different configuration. For example, I
have one for Monochrome printing giving the fastest print speed and one
for graphics printing. New users should read the manual, because the
printer configuration files are not stored with !Printers but are in a
sub directory on Apps2 called printers.
5.2
The task manager has new features such as automatic creation of desktop
boot files and I strongly recommend users to make a habit of using the
new shutdown option. This ensures that you don’t forget to save any data
in memory and parks the hard disc heads. The ARM 3 and the fast memory
certainly speed things up, but not as much as I expected. The hard disc
seems quite fast but I haven’t the patience to do any timings, I know
others love doing this.
5.2
(I think he’s having a dig at me but, yes, I have done the drive speed
tests. The results are on page 19 and I was quite pleasantly surprised
at how fast it was considering that it is IDE and not SCSI. In fact, it
seems to be faster than the 100M Conner SCSI drive as used on the A540,
though not as fast as the Quantum 100M drives used by Atomwide and Oak.
Ed.)
5.2
Users who were worried that RISC-OS 3 would not support 640k L format
mini discs can relax, L, D, E and the new F (1.6MB) formats are
supported. I can even format IBM PC discs at 360k, 720k, 1.2MB and
1.44MB together with Atari 360k and 720k formats. Finally, you may be
interested to know that the new JP150, which incidentally is function
ally identical to the HP Deskjet Plus but with extra fonts etc, is only
about a third of the size.
5.2
(At the Acorn User Show, a gentleman showed me some printouts that he
had done of a sheet containing text and graphics. He had got it printed
on various printers and, quite frankly, the printout from the Acorn
Inkjet was slightly better, if anything, than the 300 d.p.i. laser he
had tested, especially on the bits of very tiny text − mind you, it was
an Apple Laserwriter!)
5.2
Now it’s Malcolm Davies’ turn....
5.2
I am using the A5000 with a Technomatic 16 bit SCSI board plus two SCSI
drives − 105M Quantum internal and a 47M Seagate external. Also fitted
are a Techno-I digitiser and the CC Scanlight 256 scanner. Installation
was no problem, only requiring the backplane and supporting metalwork
plus existing drives to be pulled out − one screw plus a bit of easing −
to replace the IDE drive with the SCSI one.
5.2
The monitor is OK but I shall keep my existing NEC multi-sync and pass
the Acorn monitor on when I sell the A440/1. We now need more extra
modes such as 110 etc. (Atomwide are working on it and hope to have
something sorted out by the time you read this. Ed.)
5.2
At first, I had problems with the Techno SCSI and the interactive filing
system which didn’t seem to work together properly. (This is where we
find out which of the SCSI boards really ARE Acorn compatible!)
5.2
I also had problems with certain applications which didn’t want to start
up properly − it seemed to be related to having fonts in ROM. I have
since made some progress. In particular, I have developed a Deskboot
file that seems to overcome the apparent incompatibilities between the
SCSI filer supplied in ROM on my Technomatic SCSI board and the
Interactive Desktop Filer in the A5000. Also, the problems with some
RISC-OS 2 applications and the way they try to access fonts seem to have
been solved. My coding is not very subtle and, in some cases, may be an
overkill − but it appears to work so far! The comments below may be of
interest to other readers of Archive − especially perhaps those relating
to the use of fonts in older applications.
5.2
| Desktop boot file
5.2
|
5.2
| Note: FileSystem *Configured as (Techno) SCSI on start-up
5.2
|
5.2
| For Technomatic SCSI board + 100MB QuantumPro + 46MB Seagate
5.2
|
5.2
Adfs
5.2
WimpSlot -next 640k
5.2
ChangeDynamicArea -FontSize 128k
5.2
ChangeDynamicArea -SpriteSize 32k
5.2
ChangeDynamicArea -RamFsSize 0K
5.2
RMKill SCSIfiler
5.2
RMload scsi::HardDisc4.$.!System. Modules.SCSIfiler
5.2
SCSI
5.2
Filer_OpenDir SCSI::HardDisc4.$ 2 980 768 760 -sn -li
5.2
Filer_OpenDir SCSI::HardDisc5.$ 186 680 768 148 -sn -li
5.2
Run scsi::HardDisc4.$.!System
5.2
WimpMode 16
5.2
Run scsi::HardDisc4.$.Pinboard
5.2
Set Alarm$Options -timeout “10” -weekwork 62 -format “%z12:%mi:%se %pm.
%zdy/%zmn/%yr”
5.2
Run resources:$.Apps.!Alarm scsi::HardDisc4.$.Alarms
5.2
Run scsi::HardDisc4.$.!Fonts
5.2
Setmacro Font$Path resources:$.Fon ts.,scsi::HardDisc4.$.!Fonts.us
5.2
ed.,scsi::HardDisc4.$.!Fo
5.2
nts.surplus.
5.2
Run resources:$.Apps.!Edit
5.2
RMload scsi::HardDisc4.$.DskTopUtil.OscanMo
5.2
des.MegaMode
5.2
Run scsi::HardDisc4.$.DskTopUtil.!Me
5.2
gaMouse
5.2
Run scsi::HardDisc4.$.DskTopUtil.!k ey_click
5.2
RMload System:Modules.SerialUtil
5.2
Run resources:$.Apps.!Configure
5.2
Taking the Deskboot lines in order we can comment as follows:
5.2
ADFS − The machine is configured to switch on in SCSIFS from the board
and the two SCSI drives have been suitably *Configured. It seemed safer
to switch over to ADFS before RmKill’ing the SCSIfiler!
5.2
The WimpSlot and DynamicArea changes are automatically set up by the
Deskboot file − see manual.
5.2
RmKill SCSIfiler and RmLoad ....SCSIfiler − These replace the filer on
my board with the module supplied with the A5000’s application suite for
use with non-Acorn boards.
5.2
SCSI − Reset filing system and use the Acorn filer.
5.2
Filer_OpenDir.....on two Hard discs − Needed to ensure that the discs
are “seen” by the Interactive filer.
5.2
Run !System (?overkill?), WimpMode and Pinboard (Desktop background) are
straightforward.
5.2
Alarm settings − Alarm$Options are set by deskboot file; saved alarms
are held in file Alarms in the Hard disc root directory. Note style for
passing filename to !Alarm in ROM.
5.2
Font settings − Run !Fonts (?overkill?) as normal. To enable any
application requiring to access fonts to know where to go for them, we
must set up Font$Path to point to ALL the possible location directories.
In this example, the resources:$.Fonts directory holds Corpus, Homerton
& Trinity in ROM; !Fonts.used. (note the terminating full stop) on the
booted Hard disc root directory holds all my RISC-OS 2 fonts in normal
use and !Fonts.surplus. holds Corpus, Homerton and Trinity (in their
RISC-OS 2 format) plus any other RISC-OS 2 fonts that I have.
5.2
These three directories will be searched in turn each time a font is
called for by an application, particularly on initialisation of the
application, when default fonts residing in ROM only may not be found
and thereby prevent startup. The main problem would appear to be that
the data files in the ROM fonts are called Outlines0 and IntMetric0
rather than the RISC-OS 2, Outlines and IntMetrics.
5.2
It would of course be possible to write an IF... THEN...ELSE patch to
change these strings from one to the other when encountered, but the
proposed solution seems the simpler compromise and does ensure that
those applications that can access the ROM fonts will do so on a
priority basis.
5.2
The use of *SetMacro rather than *Set ensures that the paths are
searched each time that fonts are required. *Set can be re-set by
applications etc and is only effective the first time the paths are
searched.
5.2
Run !Edit, Megamode, !MegaMouse and !KeyClick are my own requirements on
boot-up.
5.2
RmLoad System:Modules.SerialUtil − This module is supplied on the Acorn
Applications discs and is advised to re-set the Serial Port’s parameters
to enable e.g. !Hearsay I, in my case, to run OK.
5.2
Run resources:$.Apps.!Configure − Installs !Configure on the icon bar
and allows me to re-initialise my two SCSI drives under the Acorn SCSI
filer. Once desktop is established with only floppy drive on the icon
bar, I have to:
5.2
1.    Open !Configure on the icon bar then open ‘Discs’ window.
5.2
2.    Click on ‘OK’ for the two SCSI drives, ignore dire warning! and
click on ‘OK’.
5.2
3.    Close !Configure windows
5.2
The results of this are:
5.2
1.    ALL discs initialised and fully accessible under the Interactive
DeskTop Filer.
5.2
2.    Applications can use ROM fonts except where there is direct
reference to xxx.Outlines and xxx.IntMetrics etc somewhere in the code.
5.2
3.    Fonts are accessed in the order − Rom (Resources:), Main disc
store (!Fonts.used.) or finally from main disc store of RISC-OS 2 fonts
in Rom (!Fonts.surplus.)
5.2
It has worked OK so far.
5.2
One further “quirk” that has come to light whilst playing around with
Deskboot files is that if the Autoboot radio icon is set in the Deskboot
window (Menu on the Task Manager then go to DeskBoot), the resultant
file, when saved to disc, sets the disc Opt options to *Opt 4,2 (i.e.
Run !Boot) and also configures that drive as the *Configure Drive
default. This is in the manual but may be missed. If saving alternative
!Boot files to another disc, it can be confusing to say the least if
that disc suddenly becomes your default boot disc as well as leaving
perhaps more than one disc with the *Opt 4,2 option set. I think that it
is best, in these circumstances, to turn the icon OFF and set *Opt etc
later.
5.2
That’s all for now and currently I rest content with a superb machine
that seems to run nearly all of my considerable pre-RISC-OS 3, ADFS
based software.
5.2
Finally, Andrew Scott...
5.2
The following comments and hints are based on my first week of using the
machine which, from the outset, I must say is brilliant, especially
compared with my old Archimedes A310.
5.2
During the time I have had the machine, I have tried quite a number of
applications. Now, whilst most of them have worked perfectly, I have had
problems with the following:  Atomwide Hi-Res. modes, Jinxter and
Corruption adventures (CIS Adventure pack), Beebug Toolbox disc sector
editor, Data Store’s FontFX (version 4.04), Mitre Software’s DiscTree
(version 2.16) and !DSEdit, PD sound sample player.
5.2
The Atomwide mode designer comes with a number of sets of modes for
various monitors, but none of these is completely suitable for the A5000
and Acorn’s multisync monitor. The mode designer application, however,
works fine, provided you remember to select monitor type 1, and machine
A540/A5000. Using this, it is quite straightforward to modify the hi-
res. modes (SVGA, 102 etc.) to produce working versions of these.
However, make sure that you work in mode 27 while defining the new
modes, as some of the other modes (12, 15 etc.) are redefined by the
standard mode module (MegaModes), and this can produce some strange
effects − they appear as two letter box shaped screens one above the
other!!
5.2
The adventures Jinxter and Corruption do not work with version 3.87 of
the SharedCLibrary which is in RISC-OS 3. However, they are supplied
with a very old version (1.01) which will work if you *RMKill the
version in RISC-OS 3 first. Better still, alter the !Run files to
automate this, and restore the RISC-OS 3 version afterwards. I have
included two suitable !Run files on the disc. On the monthly program
disc. Ed.)
5.2
The disc sector editor in Beebug’s Toolbox (version 1.00) does not work
at all on the A5000, and hangs the machine!!
5.2
FontFX from the Data Store (version 4.04) does not like the default
setting for the system macro Font$Path. However, if you edit out the
reference to Font$Prefix it works OK − not a perfect solution, but it
works. e.g.
5.2
*SetMacro Font$Path adfs::IDEDis c4.$.!Fonts.,Resources:$.Fonts.
5.2
DiscTree (version 2.16) from Mitre Software will load, but all attempts
to access a disc (hard or floppy) produce a fatal internal error.
5.2
!DSEdit, the excellent PD sound sample player will not play samples.
This is because the author has been ‘naughty’ and used an abbreviation
for the ChannelVoice command. RISC-OS 3 wrongly interprets the abbrevia
tion as the new command *ChangeDynamicArea and hence causes an error.
This is easily corrected by changing the abbreviation to the full
command. Acorn have issued a warning with RISC-OS 3 that a number of
commands have different minimum abbreviations, and have provided a file
on the RISC-OS 3 Support Disc to change them all back to what they were
in RISC-OS 2.
5.2
Something else that I have observed is that if you use the !Configure
application to auto-start any of the ROM based applications then this
will cease to work if you have a !Boot file on the hard disc which
includes a line like :
5.2
*Desktop -file <Obey$Dir>.DeskS tart
5.2
Instead you must include a line in the DeskStart file to run each of the
applications which you want to auto-start. e.g.
5.2
Run Resources:$.Apps.!Alarm
5.2
Hardware problems − (I have left this in to see if anyone has any ideas!
Ed.) I have discovered a fault with my machine, that concerns the real
time clock. Every time the machine is reset with either <ctrl-break>, or
turning it off and on again, the real time clock is reset back to the
last time that it was explicitly set too, e.g. using *Set Sys$Time or
the Set clock option on !alarm. The rest of the time, the clock appears
to function correctly.
5.2
My first thought was a loose battery connection. However, on opening the
case, I found that the machine doesn’t even have a battery! While the
case was off, I checked for any loose connections, but could not find
any.
5.2
Next, I thought that it might be a software fault and not a hardware
one, because the fault only occurs when the machine is reset, which is a
software function. I noticed that in the list of modules in RISC-OS 3
there is a new module called RTCAdjust which presumably stands for Real
Time Clock Adjust. Could this be causing the problem? The module
provides no star commands or software interrupts, only a service code
handler. I have not been able to confirm if this module is causing the
problem or not. Any ideas?  A
5.2

5.2
Archive Mugs
5.2
Robert Chrismas
5.2
Here, at last, is a product for the person who wants the Archive social
cachet but who hates computers.
5.2
These mugs are more versatile than removable hard disks. They can be
used for any beverage, warm or cold. In tests, they proved to be quite
suitable for watering flowers and smaller gardens although their
somewhat limited capacity proved an occasional restriction.
5.2
The mugs are of the traditional mug design, what topologists call a
doughnut − which says a lot about mathematicians if you think about it.
There is a generous space for fluid, a standard handle and omni-
directional mouth interface, or rim. They are finished in a simple white
colour with the Archive logo in blue and black covering over half the
outside. Sensibly, Archive have gone for the more traditional horizontal
arrangement.
5.2
Rather confusingly, the mugs also bear the inscription “The Subscription
Magazine for Archimedes Users”. Despite this, there have been no reports
of confused users attempting a quick thumb through for vital hints on
Pipedream’s use of Ctrl-Alt-Shift-CapsLock-Adjust. Also, at least one
regular reader of Archive reported that he was delighted because “it
doesn’t have one of those wretched reviews by Robert Chrismas in it −
chicken soup is a darn sight clearer”.
5.2
For most readers, the important question is ‘is it robust’. Well, would
the organisation which boasts of throwing removable hard disks across
the room make a fragile mug? Anything you can do to an removable hard
disk, you can do to this mug, and it’s micro-wave safe, which is more
than you can say for compact disks.
5.2
I bought three of these mugs, packed in the same plastic bag, at the
Acorn User Show and subjected them to some typical situations. Neither
the underground nor British Rail managed to produced so much as a chip.
I have been using these mugs while computing for a week now and so far
there have been no problems at all.
5.2
Conclusion
5.2
These mugs provide a valuable reusable storage space for fluid. They can
also be used to store pencils, pipe cleaners or sugar − not all at once.
5.2
They can be used in conjunction with almost any computer software,
although arcade games may require the use of the pause button.
5.2
Overall, they compare favourably with most other mugs and have a higher
capacity than teacups.  They would make an ideal Christmas present!
5.2
Archive mugs cost £4 each or £12 for four − or £3 each and £10 for four
if you collect them from the Archive office.  A
5.2

5.2
Canon BJ-300/330 Printers
5.2
Martin Geddes
5.2
Many Archimedes users are finding their old 9 pin dot matrix printers
increasingly inadequate. Purchased at some expense several years ago to
accompany some venerable 8 bit micro, they are still capable of legible
output, although at a snail’s pace. Thus many people are reluctant to
invest in an expensive new printer when their previous one is still
performing. Having myself been forced to abandon my bulky old printer
when moving to university, I decided to take the plunge and buy a high
quality inkjet printer.
5.2
Attracted by the high speed and print quality of inkjets, combined with
their quiet operation, the 24 pin dot matrix option was rejected. This
left two contenders − the Hewlett Packard DeskJet 500, and the Canon BJ-
300. (The BJ-330 is the wide carriage version of the BJ-300). The Canon
had one overriding factor in its favour − it can handle fan fold paper
whereas the DeskJet cannot. Having seen the output from both, I can
vouch that the print quality is virtually indistinguishable, despite the
Canon’s higher (360dpi) resolution.
5.2
The BJ-300 is attractively styled and sturdily built. Consequently, it
is not particularly light compared to some cheaper 24 pin printers of a
similar size. However, measuring only 18“ × 13½” × 5¼“ and being able to
handle A3 portrait paper means it is not bulky. Paper can be fed in a
sheet at a time in the front, or tractor fed from the back. A cut sheet
feeder is available, and envelope handling is very satisfactory. A paper
park facility means that the fan fold paper need not be removed when
using cut sheets.
5.2
It works on a slightly different principal to other inkjets. Instead of
vaporized ink squirting on to the paper, the ink enters a microscopic
tube in which a small patch heats up rapidly. Some of the ink vaporizes
into an expanding bubble, which then forces a tiny blob of liquid ink
out. The bubble then recondenses in the tube. Hence Canon prefer to call
it a bubble jet.
5.2
Setting up
5.2
Setting up the BJ-300 is relatively simple, with easily accessible DIP
switches and a well laid out front panel. The only word of caution is
with the removable plastic cover over the printing area. This is too
darkly tinted, so you can barely see what is appearing on the paper
until it emerges from the printer. Also, the instructions are vague as
to how to fit it. For those still struggling, the two notches fit on the
two hinges in the very far corners of the printing area, and if you
press it down, it clicks firmly in place.
5.2
My first experiences with the BJ-300 were very discouraging, with lots
of smudged print emerging. After experimenting with several paper types,
I found that this printer definitely dislikes paper easily able to soak
up ink while being poor at letting the solvents evaporate. However, most
types of paper produce good results − you too will need to experiment.
(Glossy paper seems to fare worst, along with certain very slightly
shiny coatings.)
5.2
Unlike the older BJ printers, the BJ-300 needs no special printer
drivers, working with !PrinterDM. Emulation of the Epson LQ printers and
the IBM ProPrinter range is provided. The Epson option, although already
supported by !PrinterDM, restricts vertical resolution to 180dpi.
Included below is a minimal PrDataSrc file for the new !PrinterDM
(2.46), operating in IBM mode at 360 × 360dpi. Tack the usual page/
configuration data at the end. Ensure that you set “control codes” to
“ignore” in !PrinterDM if you want the pure text output to work.
5.2
The documentation is much better than average. A User’s Manual gives
setting up instructions and general advice, while an exceptionally
comprehensive Programmer’s Manual details every command sequence.
5.2
In use
5.2
The BJ-300 is very fast − the draft mode is the fastest I have ever seen
from a line printer, and is of a quality not dissimilar to a 24 pin
printer in NLQ mode. Draft mode means less of the expensive ink is
consumed. Letter quality is excellent (especially for pure text
printing), although careful inspection will easily differentiate it from
laser printed output. This is particularly noticeable for large expanses
of black where the paper gets slightly soaked. The letter quality speed
seems very favourable compared with that of 24 pin dot-matrix printers.
5.2
Although cut sheets as wide as A3 (portrait) can pass through the BJ-
300, only the usual 80 column area may be printed on.
5.2
For best results (even with an ARM3) you should dump graphics output
into a file and then use Filer_OpenDir Printer: to get a printer filer
window. Redirect printer output back to the parallel port and drag the
file into this window. In this way, the printer has less time to pause
at the end of lines and fewer minuscule gaps appear between lines.
5.2
Ink usage seems to be reasonable. I have used my Canon heavily for a few
months now with the original cartridge. There seems to be one ‘bug’ in
the printer. If you try to park a very long piece of fan fold paper, it
stops after about 1 foot of reverse feeding, beeps and dies. Only
turning off and then on will recover the situation.
5.2
The supposed problems of older inkjets with jets blocking up when the
printer is not in use seems to have been totally overcome with this
printer.
5.2
Conclusion
5.2
This is a very competent printer which is a good substitute for a laser
printer for those on a medium budget. It represents a major leap up from
dot matrix printers, while the tractor feed combined with draft printing
leaves plenty of flexibility for the programmer. The printer costs about
£420 (inc VAT); ink cartridges are £15, lasting for 500,000 characters.
However, the potential purchaser should be well aware of the distaste
with which this printer regards some types of paper.
5.2
Sample PrDataSrc file for BJ-300 in IBM Proprinter Mode
5.2
version:               2
5.2

5.2
total_printers:        2
5.2
total_draft_printers:  1
5.2
total_nlq_printers:    1
5.2

5.2
nlq_mode:              0
5.2

5.2
features:       16_00000000
5.2
interlace:      0
5.2
line_interlace: “”
5.2

5.2
text_tab:             “<9>”
5.2
text_formfeed:        “<12>”
5.2
text_return:          “<13>”
5.2
text_return_lf:       “<10><13>”
5.2
..................................
5.2

5.2
printer_name:    Canon BJ300 (360 by 360 dpi) (IBM mode)
5.2
printer_number:  0
5.2
text_alias:      -1
5.2

5.2
pxres:          360  ; dots per inch
5.2
pyres:          360
5.2
pxres_halftone: 360/8
5.2
pyres_halftone: 360/8
5.2
dump_depth:     48   ; 48 nozzles used, not interlaced
5.2
line_prologue:  “<28>CB<4><4>”          ; select appropriate mode
5.2
line_epilogue:  “<28>CJ<04><48><13>”
5.2
                                        ; move down 48/360 inch
5.2
job_epilogue:   “<27>[K<4><0><5><37><128><128>”
5.2
                                        ; reset printer
5.2

5.2
.................................  A
5.2

5.2
Impression Business Supplement
5.2
Ivor Humphreys
5.2
It was clear from its launch that the Archimedes had great potential in
the area of desktop publishing (the more so when Arthur was superseded
by RISC-OS) and that, given appropriate software, it could comfortably
match, and probably surpass, the Apple Macintosh, which of course
totally dominates this field. The Acorn DTP package was disappointing in
some respects − it was little more than a re-write of an existing
program, Timeworks. However, both that and Beebug’s specially written
Ovation, are perfectly well suited to a good many of the tasks required
in professional typesetting. (Strictly, now that this kind of work is
undertaken on graphics-based computers, one should call it
imagesetting.)
5.2
Impression, on the other hand, had a stronger attraction for many of us
right from the time it was announced. In the first place, it was being
written by a company with such a well established track record for
innovative and ‘solid’ software: Impression’s forerunners, Wordwise and
Interword, rightly dominate the BBC Microcomputer wordprocessing arena.
It also promised significant additional advantages through being written
entirely in ARM code − specifically, it would therefore occupy a
comparatively small area of RAM and would operate at high speed.
5.2
Computer Concepts have steadily improved Impression since its first
release, adding many features along the way, upgrades which culminated
in the major new version, Impression II, earlier this year. This
enhancement includes tab-related vertical rules (making the creation of
easily-edited boxed tables an almost trivial matter), auto-saving and
provision for mail-merging, all of which widen its appeal to the serious
home enthusiast or the small business user.
5.2
Relatively few people require a paper output quality higher than can be
achieved with a laser printer, however, so CC sensibly decided to offer
an optional extra utility, Expression, to give fine control over the
PostScript output, rather than opting to enlarge the main program
itself. Expression is thus basically a ‘bolt-on’ application and it
works as a supplement to the regular Acorn PostScript printer driver.
Expression itself has been improved since its début and Version 2
includes provision for the output of four-colour separations. Originally
the utility was available separately but in its fully-fledged form it is
now the centrepiece of the Impression Business Supplement, where it is
partnered by a collection of new file loader modules, a mail merge
program called Importer, and a simple text sort utility.
5.2
Expression-PS
5.2
I mentioned the primary limitations of the Acorn PostScript printer
driver in my article “Creating the Right Impression” (Archive 4.9 p.39)
− basically its inability to produce pages larger than A4 and the long-
winded (and inevitably exacting) process involved in adding Acorn-to-
PostScript font translations to its PSprolog file. Expression-PS solves
both of those problems and adds a range of other features. As supplied,
it has a set of 15 built-in paper sizes ranging from A4 (8·27 × 11·69in)
up to what CC call “A3Long23” (11·97 × 22·75in), all of which are
readily edited in a text file called Paper, should the need arise
(perhaps to change the menu window name for convenience in a specific
project).
5.2
Two functions called Screen Density and Screen Angle affect the way the
dots on the page fool the eye into seeing continuous shadings. The
former parameter is set according to the kind and quality of medium
being used for the final output (bromide or film) and the number of grey
levels required. Screen Angle affects the way in which the dots are laid
out, 45° being the usual − the angle to which the eye is least
receptive.
5.2
Seven standard settings of Resolution are included, ranging from 600 to
2540 dots per inch, and this parameter is chosen to match to the
specification of the imagesetter in question. Eight different Screen
Types can also be selected; these change the shape of the individual
dots on the page if required; normally round is chosen.
5.2
Colour work is either, so-called, spot-colour or full four-colour, the
former used when one wants to add perhaps an additional colour, or
colours (of whatever colour ink the printer is instructed to use), to
particular elements of an otherwise single colour (i.e. black-on-white)
page. This might be done to highlight some headings, for example, or a
perhaps to tint the background of a table.
5.2
Full four-colour separations give a practically unlimited range of
colours for pictures, combining proportions of the CMYK set − the
standard printing process colours of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow plus Key (a
percentage of black which is used to enhance definition). Expression-PS
therefore has five Separation options: Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black
plus “All” which combines the colours to give the standard range of grey
tints in normal black-on-white work.
5.2
To produce a single spot colour separation pair, the Expression menu
button is set according to the colour used in the document and then the
normal Impression print sequence invoked. The other setting (black) is
then chosen and the print operation repeated so that two PostScript
files are generated, one for each colour. Two or three spot colours can
be used, each requiring an individual separation. Four-colour separa
tions require all four PostScript output files of course.
5.2
Finally, on the Expression menu, there are ‘radio’ buttons for Positive
or Negative film output. The default is Positive but the bureau can
reverse whatever setting has been made, if preferred, or if a mix-up
occurs.
5.2
The process of translating Acorn font names to their PostScript
equivalents is facilitated by two further buttons on the main Expression
menu: Match names and Add PostScript name. The Expression application
directory contains a text file, PSnames, which lists many of the likely
PostScript fonts, and simply selecting the Match names button causes it
to compare this list with the resident !Fonts directory, automatically
updating its own exprolog PostScript prologue file. Any PostScript font
names not already listed in PS names can be typed in by hand by
selecting the Add PostScript name option. It is then simply a matter of
running Match names again and pointing to the relevant names.
5.2
The exprolog file is sent as the header to any PostScript output file
and, as well as the complete list of fonts and their translations, it
includes all the relevant character encoding vector information. All the
likely vectors are present by default − standard Latin1, the Electronic
Font Foundry’s equivalent (EFF_Latin1), the Selwyn (Zapf Dingbats) and
EFF_Dingbats, Sidney − so exprolog is a pretty substantial file
(typically 22k). The one anomaly I noticed, having run the Match names
routine, was that the EFF_Latin1 vector information had been duplicated
a rather alarming number of times in the process. The duplications are
easily excised with !Edit (or indeed with Impression provided one uses
Save text story without styles) but no doubt CC will have eradicated
this bug in later releases − the review copy was Version 2.03.
5.2
The listing of every single Acorn font name contained in the !Fonts
directory with its PostScript equivalent is rather inefficient when
perhaps only two or three fonts might be used in a particular document.
There is a way around this: if a finished PostScript print file is
dropped on to the Expression-PS icon, the program looks through the file
to see which fonts are actually required and strips out all references
to the rest. Whether this is considered worth doing, however, depends on
the document type and size, since the actual file scanning process can
take rather a long time − a two-page A4 test document containing a
mixture of text and graphics took over five minutes! In practice, I have
only bothered to do this once or twice in several months of using the
program almost daily, since the process of printing to a PostScript file
is itself so rapid (a matter of seconds). A large font translation list
may slow down processing a little at the local PostScript Bureau but
it’s unlikely to be a significant problem and the listing of fonts for
which the bureau does not have equivalents produces only benign error
reports from the transfer program.
5.2
I should add here that although the foregoing may sound fairly elabor
ate, in practice it is quite straightforward and CC’s booklet is a model
of clarity and sensible advice. At GRAMOPHONE we have recently finished
a 700-odd page book The Good CD Guide 1992 which makes extensive use of
spot colour for a musical stave that appears under the heading of each
of its 1,200 CD reviews, and for various symbols. All of this went
through flawlessly − the PostScript output for the requisite black and
cyan separations was returned from the bureau as film ready for the
printing house.
5.2
The only obvious limitation in Expression’s colour handling abilities is
that, as yet, there is no control over so-called under-colour removal
(also known in the printing trade as “knock-out”). As its name implies,
this is a function which prevents the printing of one ink directly on
top of another − the under-colour is literally removed from the
separation. This is normally the preferred arrangement in spot-colour
work but, occasionally, it would be preferable to be able to switch it
off.
5.2
Mail-merging
5.2
The Mail-merging facility is another ancillary to Impression which will
significantly enhance its usefulness to small business users and, I
suppose, to the more organised home user! It requires Version 2.10 or
later of Impression and can also run with Impression Junior Version 1.10
or later. The relevant Business Supplement directory contains two
applications, !Importer and !Sort. The former merges a list of (typi
cally) names and addresses with an appropriately written Impression
document which contains merge commands that have been embedded via the
Misc(ellaneous) menu. When run, !Importer creates a dialogue box onto
which the Datafile is dropped followed by the relevant Impression
document icon. At this point, the document is ‘frozen’ in that it cannot
be edited, only printing being required from now on. The print options
are, as one would expect, either for individual records or for the
entire list.
5.2
!Sort is a simple utility which will re-order a text file into an
alphabetical list. The file can be of individual lines each separated by
a <Return> or can comprise fields such as complete addresses − in other
words multiple line entries separated by a whole line space (pressing
<Return> twice). Switches on the !Sort menu select the required mode and
also the option of discarding duplicate entries in the single-line mode.
5.2
New loaders
5.2
Completing the package is a collection of five new Impression file
loaders which facilitate the importing of text or data files from other
programs and/or computers. The simplest of these is LoadReturn which
simply strips Returns and LineFeeds, which can be helpful with some text
formats. LoadPipe is a dedicated PipeDream module which goes some way
towards making the two programs text-compatible, although various
PipeDream features are not converted. However, the manual does give
comprehensive help over the best ways to transfer complex documents
which contain, for example, tables.
5.2
LoadWP42 and LoadWStar convert text files from two of the most popular
MS-DOS wordprocessors, WordPerfect and Wordstar. Again, these are not
all-embracing but, for most likely purposes, will be more than adequate.
The Wordstar loader, for example, does convert italic, bold, underline,
sub- and superscript codes as well as fully justified text.
5.2
The most complex loader is LoadRTF − an emulation of the Rich Text
Format transfer system which is common to the Macintosh and PC. The
fully-fledged RTF language can support such aspects as font information,
style definitions, embedded pictures, 24-bit colour control, headers and
footers, and so on. Again, the range of options implemented is not
complete but many of the most important features have been successfully
incorporated. LoadRTF is supported by !MapUtil which is used to improve
font and character set matching between the different environments. I
have been able to verify the effectiveness of the WordPerfect and
Wordstar loaders, via the PC Emulator and !PC-Access, and also the RTF
loader from a test file prepared on a Macintosh, the file being
converted to MS-DOS format on the Mac.
5.2
(I have a small book that a friend has written on the Mac which I want
to convert to Impression (for obvious reasons!) and I tried using the
RTF loader. It worked beautifully on a test file but when I tried the
whole thing (102k RTF file) Impression crashed the machine. I divided it
up into four sections and tried again − same effect. I have sent it to
CC as a test case for them to improve the robustness of the RTF loader!
Ed)
5.2
As one would expect from this stable, the Impression Business Supplement
is a worthy addition to Impression. The complete package combines to
provide the user with a highly intuitive-to-use DTP environment which
can easily rival, and in many aspects out-perform, any on the market
place today. Some advanced page layout programs on the Mac (QuarkXpress,
for example) may offer rather more in the way of subtle typographical
control, such as options for track kerning, kerning tables and letter-
spacing, but none, to my knowledge, incorporate such a fine wordproces
sor, saving the user the inconvenience of flipping between two separate
programs, and none are so compact, operate at such speed or cost so
little.  A
5.2

5.2
The Engineer Speaks (again)
5.2
Ray Maidstone
5.2
As there were several comments of appreciation received regarding the
hardware care section labelled “The Engineer speaks” last month, further
points of interest have been forwarded and are listed here.
5.2
Headphone sockets
5.2
These stereo sockets are mechanically very delicate and several machines
have been in for repair. (This is presumably because these sockets are
getting used more now that there seems to be a little more notice being
taken of the fact that the Archimedes is capable of matching other makes
of computer, when it comes to music and sound effects.) The replacement
of these sockets is fairly simple but involves completely dismantling
your machine and getting the motherboard out.
5.2
More serious is the fact that we’ve had some machines in for repair with
the sound output chip blown. Although this is a very cheap repair, I can
only think that this was caused by people using the socket whilst music
was actually playing! Looking at the circuit diagram, I find it
difficult to see how shorting the contacts in the socket by plugging in
headphones, or whatever, whilst it is playing should be able to blow
anything up, but there it is. I suggest it would be for sensible to
cause your machine to be silent while plugging things into this socket.
5.2
RGB video output failure
5.2
Further to the question “Does disconnection or connection to the RGB
socket while things are switched on blow the VIDC (Video Output) chip?”
The answer is most definitely yes, even though several people have
expressed surprise, saying “Well, I’ve plugged and unplugged mine for
years and years, and I’ve never had any problems.”
5.2
The fact is that eventually it will blow up, as there simply isn’t any
static protection in the early machines. The modification I mentioned
last month has sparked a lot of interest. (Bad choice of words there,
Ray! Ed.) We can fit this for you and we can offer this item, fitted for
£15, but you will have to sort out the carriage.
5.2
This protection feature is already incorporated into the 400/1 series,
the 3000 and everything since, and will only be needed in the 300 series
and the early 440’s. To my certain knowledge, this modification has put
an end to the grief being caused by pupils “in the know” at a couple of
schools, deliberately plugging and unplugging monitors and Arabellas
(that’s what VIDCs are called) are not cheap.
5.2
A3000 crashes and aborts
5.2
My findings on this subject are a bit distressing and, to make matters
worse, I own one of these troublesome machines and can speak from
experience. We have had a slowly increasing number of people losing work
because their 3000 occasionally crashes with the “Abort on transfer”, or
“Address exception” captions coming up. These problems have been traced
to impedance peculiarities on the pin and socket connections of the
expansion ram cards. At first, the ram expansion itself was suspected
but we have finally discovered that these connections sometimes go high
impedance at the high frequencies of the ram access speeds. The
“sometimes” is what’s giving the problem, as the bulk of these expan
sions run trouble free.
5.2
My own belt and braces solution to this has been to remove the pins and
sockets, and replace them with gold plated counterparts − No more
problems! This, of course, is “open heart” surgery and, if not done by
an Acorn Service Centre, will invalidate any guarantee and, if it is not
performed using the correct equipment, it can destroy the machine as
well. (Solder suckers are completely incapable of performing this task
and the 4 layer board is too delicate to risk damaging.)
5.2
I have helped several people out with a temporary DIY tip that consider
ably improves the reliability of these connections. However, you should
only attempt this if you are familiar with opening your machine and
fiddling inside it. Locate the ram board, lift it off the P.C.B.
expansion pins and lay the board to one side. Take a can of WD40, or
Contek 9, but nothing else, and find a clean bottle top or small dish.
Spray some of this into the cup and, using a cotton bud, carefully rub
around all the expansion pins, taking care not to distort any. Do not
spray anything directly into the machine.
5.2
This should be done in a well lighted area and at the end, the pins
should be slightly moist (not too much and not too little!). Take the
ram card, and offer it onto the pins, checking that all pins align
properly into their relevant socket, and press it down. (Check that the
speaker wires do not get in the way.) Once the board has “bottomed”,
pull it back up again about ¼“ (6mm), and then ease it down until it
still about 1/32” (1mm) away from the bottom. Don’t push it all the way
down this time so that it leaves the connectors on “fresh” metal. This
procedure should temporarily relieve the crash situation but the
following test will reveal whether your problem is corrosive or
mechanical.
5.2
Leaving the lid off, (beware of the high voltages in the power supply if
your machine has a cardboard p.s.u. cover) connect your machine up to
monitor and mains − no other connections are needed − and switch on. You
should now have the desktop visible on your monitor. If your expansion
is Atomwide then very slightly rocking it from front to back (Do not
exceed ¼“ movement) will not disturb the display if the fault was
corrosion. If the fault was mechanical, you will see the Address
Exception or Abort error flag, in which case the problem is mechanical
and you need to rush to your nearest Acorn Service Centre.
5.2
If you have the Morley board, this is a little more difficult, as you
will have to carefully hinge up the keyboard and find a way of holding
it up (get someone to help you, as if you drop it you could short
something, or break the flexible connector strips) and now take hold of
the front edge of the board and raise and lower it about 3/8“ and watch
for the same effects as already mentioned.
5.2
(This problem would probably have been averted if the pin and socket
components used at time of manufacture had been the gold flashed type,
but this obviously would have increased the product cost.)
5.2
STOP PRESS
5.2
After talking to another dealer at the recent Acorn User Show, I have
been able to find out from a couple of their personnel (unofficially)
that Acorn did indeed have a couple of batches of A3000’s that came with
oxidized expansion pins. So I suggest that either you offer your machine
to your dealer for him to sort out, or heed the above instructions, and
also try a light rub with a very small piece of “Scotchbrite” or pan
scourer. Do not use anything metallic because that will leave a
residue.  A
5.2

5.2
The Engineer!
5.2

5.2
I-APL and the Wimp
5.2
Jim Markland
5.2
Some readers may recall an article I wrote about I-APL (Archive 4.9
p50). At the time, only an 8-bit version was available and I wrote
enthusiastically about the forthcoming availability of a 32-bit version.
This has finally arrived and, although I have only had a little time to
examine Paul Chapman’s offering, I feel that the arrival of this 32-bit
version merits some form of comment.
5.2
My position with regard to APL is very clear. I firmly believe that, as
a general programming language and a vehicle for thought, it is
unsurpassed. Strong words....which have to be taken in context. There
is, of course, no perfect programming language for what should be
obvious reasons.
5.2
APL was conceived many years ago when, to say that its approach was
revolutionary would have been a major understatement. As time has
marched on, however, the world of computing has changed dramatically.
The Wimp environment is very different from that of the teletypes which
APL originally inhabited, sophisticated spreadsheets have come into
being and even the inventor of APL, Ken Iverson, is working on a new
APL-like language ‘J’. (This will, I am assured, also appear on the
Archimedes.) What is the ideal toolbox for programming in a Wimp
environment? Do the requisite tools yet exist? How does I-APL fit into
the picture?
5.2
Accepting the desktop as the working environment, it quickly becomes
clear that the development of desktop applications from scratch can be a
very slow and painful process. There is a huge software overhead in
programming the Wimp. None of the conventional languages help in any
serious way. (Especially on the Archimedes.... where is a serious RISC-
OS Smalltalk or a Windows Basic?). There are, fortunately, several short
cuts which can be taken. One of these is to rely on the !Edit Task
Window to provide pre-emptive multitasking which certainly merits
consideration. My thoughts on this should appear shortly. (Next month!
Ed.) Code written for the Task Window is, however, easy to write but
maybe not so neat to use. I am presently of the mind that a better way
forward, for some purposes, lies in the selective use of two techniques:
5.2
(1) The use of model applications to be edited to suit specific needs −
this is self explanatory. Significant skill is required although
products such as Archway may prove successful in helping. Also see the
Risc User series on programming the Wimp.
5.2
(2) The use of a standard ‘front end’ which covers for data entry, file
handling etc. whilst permitting calculations/operations in any language.
More on this below.
5.2
Naturally, whether or not either of these is appropriate depends on the
application. Indeed, neither may be suitable.
5.2
In both cases. inter application message passing is used to the utmost
in order to drive ‘slave’ applications remotely. The wheel is, thus, not
re-invented every time a window has to be opened; the user toolbox thus
becomes very modular with the modules being reused wherever possible.
Naturally, rigorous standards have to be applied for this to work. Very
large applications follow the path of the dinosaur.
5.2
To some extent, spreadsheets may be considered to have much to offer.
Could one of these be of use? In many cases, the answer to this is
clearly ‘yes’. Every time I try to use one, however, I very quickly find
my options seriously limited. Recently, when evaluating Pipedream for
use in a very specific application, I found this to be all too true from
several points of view. Now, I don’t want to be misunderstood here!
Pipedream is actually a very nice piece of software and I certainly
don’t want to offend Colton, who were most helpful, or its dedicated
following. Spreadsheets are simply not my cup of tea. I have absolutely
no reason to believe that Colton’s ‘competition’ are any better. Indeed,
they may be far worse. Bear in mind that BEEP is an advanced Lotus
command!
5.2
The second of my two ‘solutions’ involves:
5.2
(1) A Wimp based multitasking cell editor. Facilities are provided for
import and export of data in various formats, changing of file type and
name and also the invocation of single tasking ‘calculation’... rather
like a spreadsheet although with restricted facilities. Why re-invent
the wheel? The key benefits of the cell editor are the range of file
types which can be handled (no big deal but very useful) and the ability
to process the data in virtually any language of your choice.
5.2
(2) An interpreted programming language for coding of instructions. The
interpreted language is preferred for speed of development but is not
essential. Use a compiled language if you must. Code must be capable of
being edited in a window alongside the cell editor. Single tasking eases
the coding process enormously and the choice of language gives enormous
flexibility. I have recently used Basic V using the Filetype &FD1
(BASICText) and !Edit for this purpose, the 8-bit version of I-APL
having been long abandoned due to its very tight workspace limitations.
BASICText files have a defined RunType and can be executed on a mouse
click, if appropriate.
5.2
The use of Message_DataOpen to broadcast filenames and types via
specific channels (not dissimilar to MIDI) to installed applications,
both from the multitasking ‘front end’ and from the single tasking
‘calculation’ subprogram. This allows the external applications to
respond selectively to files of the same type. Several applications are
able to respond ‘simultaneously’ to the same message.
5.2
These, along with a number of other features, I have incorporated into
an application presently known as !SS.
5.2
How does the 32-bit I-APL fit into this? Well, I-APL is the only APL
available on the Archimedes. I have very little hope that there will be
any other, since commercial APL vendors do not take the Archimedes at
all seriously. Above all else, APL is highly expressive and interactive.
It is capable of being used to develop manipulative code very quickly
indeed, providing you have a suitable data structure. APL is equally of
use as a programming language as it is a super calculator. It is often
described as a tool for thought. Can the same be seriously said about
Basic or Fortran or C? The answer to this is a resounding ‘no’. In this,
APL is supreme.
5.2
I-APL, as yet, is not at home under the Wimp, although I have had it
working, after a fashion, in a Task Window. It is designed to take over
the entire machine. This, of course, is not ideal. The application
programmer or ‘thinker’ needs windows just as much as an end user who
only wants to ‘point and shoot’. He also wants to type! Traditionally,
APL has provided the session manager, has provided the working environ
ment and has insulated the user so mercifully from the operating system.
In the future this must change. APL, as we know it, has to move into the
background: the Desktop is the workspace.
5.2
So I-APL has fallen at the first hurdle? Well yes... but hold on... it
is virtually free... so let’s not get too upset. Unfortunately, I-APL
Ltd, an international non-profit making organisation, is not able to
develop its ‘free’ interpreter at a pace commensurate with the rest of
the technology. One may argue that it should not even try to compete. I
fear that, if it does not keep up, it will not capture the imaginations
of the young audience it so needs to make it thrive.
5.2
What else does it lack? It needs a full screen editor, it needs to be
able to scroll output, it needs a compiled interpreter for greater
speed. It needs a better manual and much better example applications
without the untidiness (minor) in some of the workspaces which could
confuse a novice. An equivalent to the Basic LIBRARY statement would
also be useful. It also needs a front end. (Without getting into a
discussion of the beauty of the language proper, it is inherently not
well designed for handling polling loops. APL was, in fact, designed
with the idea of making traditional looping obsolete!) I am pleased to
be able to say that I am assured that at least some of these are being
attended to, although I would not care to hazard a guess as to when they
might appear.
5.2
I-APL32 does have the ability to offer huge workspaces. This costs a lot
of money on PC APL’s and, if we can combine the front end concept with a
window based full screen editor and session manager, and a few other
improvements, we are well on the road to having something special. I-APL
single tasking subprograms should capitalise on the strengths of the
language whilst not unduly emphasising its weaknesses.
5.2
I can only continue to offer my encouragement to I-APL to continue their
efforts. As for you, my readers... APL won’t find you, you must find it.
5.2
It is lots of fun to dream up new ways of doing things. Message passing,
for example, is a very interesting area where we can expect to see major
developments taking place. The operating system CLI and the graphical
user interface will also see changes. Earlier on, I relegated APL to the
background. In truth I would really like to see its philosophy embodied
in the CLI − what a challenge that would be to the GUI designers who can
presently mimic only the most naive monadic syntax!  A
5.2

5.2
I-APL Ltd Price List
5.2
    Address for enquiries:    Address for
orders:
5.2
    2 Blenheim Rd    56 The Crescent
5.2
    St Albans    Milton, Weston-super-mare
5.2
    Herts    Avon
5.2
    AL1 4NR    BS22 8DU
5.2
Disks are 360K PC disks except where specified. Other versions: special
order.
5.2
Part Nº    Item        Price
5.2
        I-APL and related Products
5.2
PC12    PC clone/Nimbus 360K disk & manual    4.50
5.2
AT12    PC clone/N 720K 3½“ disk & manual    6.50
5.2
BBC12    BBC 80T disk Master (& B with 32K sidews RAM) & manual
4.50
5.2
A12    Archimedes disk and manual
4.50
5.2
M12    Macintosh disk and photocopied manual    8.50
5.2
T3    Tutorial by Thomson & Alvord (45pp)    2.50
5.2
E4    Encyclopedia by Helzer (228pp)    5.50
5.2
S5    APL in Social Studies by Traberman (36pp)    2.50
5.2
P6    APL programs for maths classroom, Thomson (185pp)    14.50
5.2
        Disks for I-APL
5.2
FEMC    Disk of Functions for Thomson’s book by F Espinasse    2.00
5.2
FEK12    Maths kits 1 and 2 by Francis Espinasse    2.00
5.2
FEK34    Maths kits 3 and 4 by Francis Espinasse    2.00
5.2
MK    Morten Kromberg’s GRAF workspaces    2.00
5.2
ZVJ    Zdenek V Jizba’s Lessons workspaces    2.00
5.2
FINN    FinnAPL workspaces
2.00
5.2
        I S I Products
5.2
SAPL    Sharp APL/PC manual [sys] (350pp), disks & Tang. Math     42.00
5.2
APLIPC    Sharp APL/PC enhanced ver 20 for PC & AT clones     55.00
5.2
APLI386    Sharp APL/PC enhanced ver 20 for 386/486 in real mode
60.00
5.2
Part Nº    Item        Price
5.2
DAPLIPC    Disks only version of APLI/PC     21.00
5.2
DAPLI386    Disks only version of APLI386     26.00
5.2
SAR    Sharp APL Ref. Manual [lang] (qto 349pp) by Berry     18.00
5.2
JPC    ‘J’, (APL dialect): disk, Dictionary & Tang. Math     17.00
5.2
JMAC    The Macintosh version of JPC above: Mac 3.5“ disk     18.00
5.2
PIJ    Programming in J (inc. Dictionary) by K. E. Iverson     25.00
5.2
TryAPL2    Many can get TryAPL2 from IBM free. If YOU can, don’t buy from
us.
5.2
TRY720    TryAPL2 720K disk & manual (photocopy 41pp)    7.50
5.2
TRY360    TryAPL2 two 360K disks & manual (photocopy 41pp)    7.50
5.2
        Books
5.2
AAT    Algebra: an Algorithmic Treatment, Iverson (361pp)    6.50
5.2
SAAT    Solutions to foregoing by J Iverson (42pp)    2.00
5.2
EA    Elementary Analysis by K Iverson (218pp)    4.50
5.2
CNK    Calculus in a New Key by D Orth (286pp)    5.00
5.2
RCT    Resistive Circuit Theory by R Spence (qto 279pp)    7.50
5.2
TEY    APL Quote-Quad: The Early Years (qto 465)     11.00
5.2
SBA    A Source Book in APL (qto 140pp)    5.50
5.2
AI    APL and Insight by Berry et al. (89pp)    2.50
5.2
FCP    The Four Cube Problem by McDonnell (qto 27pp)    2.50
5.2
SM    Star Map by Berry & Thorstensen (41pp)    2.00
5.2
PA    Probability in APL by L Alvord (120pp)    3.50
5.2
IA    Introduction to APL by K E Iverson 1984 (110pp)    4.00
5.2
AL    APL Language Reference for foregoing (128pp)    5.00
5.2
IAT    Introducing APL to Teachers (25pp) by Iverson    2.00
5.2
IASE    Intro to APL for Scientists & Engs, Iverson (26pp)    2.00
5.2
AE    APL in Exposition by K E Iverson (61pp)    2.00
5.2
Please add £2.00 per parcel for packing
5.2
Prices are in £ sterling and include UK postage.  A
5.2

5.2
Hi-Fi Sound Upgrade Module
5.2
Jahinder Singh
5.2
Compared to most micros, the sound output from the Archimedes is very
good, especially when connected to a hi-fi. The sound output from the
VIDC goes through a high-pass filter circuit intended to take out
digital noise which occurs during sampling and digitising. Unfor
tunately, this  sometimes takes out the higher frequencies which give
the sound its quality and characteristics. The Hi-Fi Sound Upgrade
Module just released by Ray Maidstone aims to solve this problem by
maximising the bandwidth available from the VIDC but, at the same time,
minimising quantisation noise.
5.2
The package
5.2
The complete package consists of a user-fitable, plug-in board with
flying leads which connects to an external amplifier, installation
instructions and a disc containing a couple of non-distorted sound files
as a demonstration. A P.D. sound application called !Erasure (very good)
is also supplied which is provided to give an indication of the
enhancement. This Hi-Fi Upgrade will work on A310 and A400 series (new
and old) and the documentation states that A500 series and A3000
versions will soon be available.
5.2
Installation and testing
5.2
Installing the upgrade involves opening up the computer, removing any
podules plugged into the backplane, connecting the board to PL2 inside
the machine (diagrams supplied), connecting the power leads and finally
connecting the flying leads to an external amplifier. Clear plastic
sheets with sticky pads were provided to isolate the hi-fi board from
any potential shorts within the computer. Details of checking the
polarity of the sound channels are also provided.
5.2
After installation, I ran the !Erasure application again and was quite
surprised. Much more treble is now heard and cymbals and other high
frequency signals can now be heard easily. I tried some of my P.D. sound
samples and observed a bit of distortion with some of these. The
documentation states that this is due to the fact that a higher standard
of sampling is now required. In other words, the hi-fi module exposes
the poor quality of many of the sound samples used.
5.2
Conclusions
5.2
A lot depends on what type of sound quality people require from their
machines. Having my sound output coming from my hi-fi certainly adds a
lot more depth due to the amplifier. However, this upgrade module seems
to enhance the output further by making the output sound much ‘richer’.
Having such a upgrade in my machine now, I don’t intend to remove it.  A
5.2

5.2
Compression
5.2
Stuart Bell
5.2
The opportunity to ‘double my disc size for less than £60’ seemed too
good to miss, so, encouraged by the favourable comment in October’s
Archive, I took advantage of Computer Concept’s Acorn User Show price of
£49 inc. VAT, and invested in a copy of Compression.
5.2
Compression is effectively a separate filing system that sits between
applications and existing real filing systems (ADFS, SCSIFS, IDEFS),
compressing files as they are written, and expanding them as they are
read. Computer Concepts claim a saving of 50% for text files and as much
as 87% for screen-grabbed sprites. The time overhead for compressing and
expanding is put at 25%.
5.2
The package comprises a disc and a 24 page manual. The latter is well
laid out, decidedly non-technical, and clearly illustrated with screen
shots. Software piracy is discouraged not with a dongle nor a copy-
protected disc, but by the software requiring a once-only installation
procedure, giving the owner’s name, before it can be used. I can’t see
any problems with this for the honest user. Along with the main !Cfs
application is a PD de-compression utility which you may give away with
compressed files, so that recipients without Compression may read them.
5.2
Once installed and configured, Compression offers a new icon on the icon
bar for each disc drive (hard or floppy) which may store compressed
files. This is in addition to the usual floppy or hard drive icon.
Selecting the cfs icon allows access ‘through’ Compression, with
compressed files being shown as if uncompressed, and ‘full info’ giving
their uncompressed length. Selecting the usual drive icon shows
compressed files with a special ‘squeezed’ icon, and ‘full info’ gives
their physical compressed size. Thus, there are literally two ‘windows’
into each disc and its directories. Files can be compressed by copying
them to a cfs window from a conventional window, and expanded by the
reverse copy.
5.2
For example, to copy a compressed Impression document such as this
review from a hard disc to an uncompressed version on my floppy, to send
to Paul, I simply drag it from the cfs window on my ‘ToArchive’
directory to the normal adfs: window on the floppy disc. In practice,
this is the only time that one needs to use the ordinary window into a
directory; always using the cfs window will ensure that files are
expanded and compressed as required, and that there are no problems with
direct access to compressed files.
5.2
Incidentally, when installing Compression, existing files can be
compressed in bulk simply by copying a directory from a conventional
window to its cfs equivalent.
5.2
The manual warns against compressing applications. I tried it. The gains
are quite limited, unless, as with SigmaSheet, there are very large
sprites flying around. Likewise, one needs to be cautious when compress
ing other system files. In my initial enthusiasm, I made sure that my
!Boot and StartList files activated Compression, but then caused chaos
by compressing the StartList file, which needs to be read before !cfs
runs!
5.2
I conclude that it’s best not to get carried away compressing every
single file on your discs, but to concentrate on your own data files,
such as text, sprites, and Impression and other DTP documents – which
contain ASCII files.
5.2
In my use of Compression, I’ve encountered only one problem that, I
think, needs attention. It is that if you try to compress the contents
of a locked directory, the error is reported after the original has been
deleted. After my first panic, I realised that the directory is not
lost, but the safe copy made by Compression is called CfsTmpFile. A
simple renaming, and a change of access, solves the problem. If the
directory is an application, it must be renamed exactly as before, if
the proper icon is to be displayed. If the techno-phobic user is not to
be put off Compression, then I think that the potential chaos which
attempting to compress a locked directory might cause should be avoided
by Compression checking for locked status before the compression is
attempted.
5.2
Another problem which I found, and which the manual doesn’t seem to
answer, is how to initiate cfs directory displays from script files. For
example, my StartList file, called by !Boot, used to contain the line,
5.2
Filer_Opendir scsi::winny.$. Documents
5.2
so that the main document directory was displayed on boot-up. Attempts
to display the cfs window in a similar manner have failed.
5.2
Compression would seem to have two main uses. The first is to get more
data onto hard disc drives. It’s amazing how much space, for example, an
Impression document takes. The only warning I would offer is that if you
were thinking of getting, say, a 45Mb hard disc, and now think of saving
money with a 20Mb drive and Compression, remember that smaller drives
tend to be slower, whereas the overhead in using Compression means that
slightly faster drives should be used, not slower ones! The time
overhead is detectable, but certainly not excessive. It is better, I
think, to get a decent size drive initially, but know now that Compres
sion will extend its effective life by doubling its size when required.
However, with the higher capacity 2½“ drives still being rather
expensive, potential buyers of internal IDE drives for A3000s may feel
that, with Compression, 20Mb will be worthwhile, whereas before it would
have been too small. Computer Concepts claim compatibility with all
widely used filing systems, including IDEFS. I certainly had no problems
with my Oak SCSIFS.
5.2
The second main use of Compression applies to the use of floppy discs
for back-up. If you cannot afford tape streamers or removable hard
discs, then floppies are the only option. It is a happy coincidence that
what we back up most frequently – text files and DTP documents – are
precisely those file types which Compression squeezes most effectively.
So, the halving of the number of floppies needed is a significant
benefit for Compression users and is one less excuse for not backing up
regularly!
5.2
I have, until now, referred to ‘halving’ file sizes without supporting
that phrase with any real figures. Computer Concepts claim 50%, but the
test of any data compression system is the real-life ‘squeeze factor’,
bearing in mind time overheads. The latter, as I have said, are
detectable, but not significant.
5.2
As I write this article, I have the cfs window onto my main Documents
directory gives an uncompressed count of 10.1Mbytes. The conventional
window shows a physical size of 4.5 Mbytes. The files are mainly FWP and
Impression documents. The saving is 55%. Yes, I’m impressed with
Compression!  A
5.2

5.2
An Introduction to PD Software
5.2
David Holden
5.2
During the last year, many new Public Domain libraries have appeared.
New users may not realise that Archive was the first to publish Public
Domain material for the Archimedes on their ‘Shareware’ discs and the
inappropriate name that was given to these has stuck. Unfortunately,
most of the material on these is not in fact Shareware and this has lead
to confusion amongst Archimedes users as to what the term actually
means.
5.2
In the PC world Shareware is firmly established as a major software
distribution method and most users understand the various terms used. I
believe that if we wish the Archimedes with its comparatively small user
base to have plenty of good, cheap software then we must do all we can
to encourage the Shareware system, which so far is almost non-existent.
5.2
There are many types of software available from PD libraries. PC users
have invented names for the various categories: Demos, Bannerware,
Crippleware, Public Domain, Shareware etc.
5.2
Demos
5.2
Demos are programs which have no commercial value but mainly exist just
to show off the programmer’s skill. By their nature, they are almost
always Public Domain and normally graphics or games based. They are not
demonstrations of commercial software, programs of this type come into
the next two categories.
5.2
Bannerware
5.2
This is the term used for a functionally useless demonstration version
of a commercial product. The suppliers normally call these ‘Interactive
Demonstrations’ which mean that they ‘show’ you what the program is
supposed to do. In effect, they are disc based promotional material.
5.2
Crippleware
5.2
These are simplified versions of commercial products which allow the
user to get the ‘feel’ of the program and try out many of its features.
One or more of the major functions is disabled, however, to render the
program useless. Archimedes users will be familiar with these from the
Pipedream and Ovation discs which are widely available. Never pay for
crippleware. Would you be prepared to pay to watch a T.V. advert?
5.2
Crippleware is merely an advert on a disc. It is a very good way of
advertising but don’t be conned into paying any more for it than the
cost of the disc.
5.2
Public domain
5.2
This is software which has been given to the world by its author. In
most cases, the author actually retains copyright so it is not techni
cally placed in the Public Domain. This is a means of avoiding having
the program ‘ripped off’ for commercial purposes and is no bar to the
honest person copying and using it for his own purposes. You will often
find a message in a text file with this type of program which sets out
certain conditions if you use or copy it. Usually, this is along the
lines that you must not distribute a modified version or remove the
author’s name, you must not charge for the program and that you must
always include all the documentation. The author has freely given us the
use of his work so please always honour his wishes.
5.2
Shareware
5.2
Shareware is commercial software just the same as the software you buy
in the normal way. The only(!) difference is that, with Shareware, you
get the program free and only pay for it, or ‘register’ to use the
Shareware term, when you have tried it and decided that it is what you
want. This means that not only do you not pay until you are happy with
it but you pay only for the program and not for all the advertising and
fancy packaging which forms a major part of the cost of most commercial
software.
5.2
When Shareware was first ‘invented’, the idea was that the package
should be given away in its entirety and that users should be trusted
absolutely to send in the requested registration fee. This is still the
definition used by purists but most of the time now you receive either
an improved version or some extra features when you register.
5.2
There is a grey area between Shareware and Crippleware. The best way to
define the difference is that a Shareware program works. It is actually
useful. When you register you may get extra features but the author
still relies upon trust to get payment. Crippleware is not useful and so
no trust is involved.
5.2
Careware
5.2
There is one other category which will be familiar to readers of Archive
although perhaps not to others. The term Careware was invented in the
early days of Archive and the original idea was to add a bit on to the
price of certain PD discs and to donate this amount to charity. This has
now been expanded by some PD authors into a type of Shareware where
instead of sending a registration fee to the author you are requested or
required to send it to a nominated charity.
5.2
Counterfeit PD
5.2
One unfortunate result of the larger number of PD libraries is the
growing number of stolen programs which are appearing. So far the
Archimedes world is not cursed with the large amount of pirate copies of
commercial games which flood the Atari and Amiga market but we have our
own problems.
5.2
Like most people who write programs for the Archimedes I send a lot of
discs with updates of my own work to PD libraries and they normally
return them with a selection of their latest programs. I therefore have
a fairly good idea of what programs are in circulation and since I read
most of the publications devoted to Acorn computers, I also know what
programs are being published. A surprising number of the new programs
appearing are crudely disguised versions of other people’s work or taken
directly from material published in magazines. I have actually been sent
a disc containing a program which the library who sent it to me
described in their catalogue as ‘very good’. This was rather flattering
because I discovered it was one which I had written myself and sold to a
magazine. Someone had simply copied it from the magazine disc, removed
the copyright message and sent it to a PD library.
5.2
I don’t know why this is happening. It could be just a crafty way of
getting a free disc in return. Unfortunately, most PD libraries don’t
seem to take many care in vetting new programs. There have recently been
several embarrassing incidents where material sent to magazines as PD
and appearing on their discs has later turned out to be taken from
another publication. Many people seem to believe that if they type in a
published listing it becomes ‘their’ program. One trend is to take an
old magazine program, add a RISC-OS front end and pretend it’s your own
work.
5.2
The future
5.2
We desperately need a healthy Shareware market for the Archimedes. The C
compiler, assembler, text editor, spreadsheet, wordprocessor and
database I use on my PC are all Shareware products and as powerful as
programs in general use on the Archimedes but costing only a fraction of
the price of the Archimedes equivalents. This is not due to the
economies of scale of the much larger PC market. It is much quicker and
easier to write a program for the Archimedes than the PC but the simple
fact is that true Shareware has just not taken off.
5.2
I believe that we need to encourage Shareware if we are to improve the
variety and quality of software available. There is some very good PD
available but most of it has totally inadequate documentation and/or
bugs. If more of this software were offered as Shareware then the
quality would improve because people will only pay for programs which
are properly documented and bug free. The authors benefit financially
which encourages them to spend more time on writing better programs.
People are also more likely to contact the author of a program they have
paid for to ask for advice or make complaints and suggestions. I have
folders of letters from people who have sent me money for programs,
sometimes unsolicited, and quite often the queries raised lead to either
modifications of the programs or clarification of the documentation.
This is a vital part of the Shareware system. It keeps the author on his
toes and ensures that the programs constantly improve and do so in ways
guided by the users.
5.2
Finally my thanks to all of you who have written to me about your
favourite Public Domain or Shareware programs. I have tried to reply to
those letters that seemed to require comment and to return discs, but
time does not permit me to reply to everyone. Please keep sending your
letters and programs and I hope to write about them as soon as I can
organise all the information sent and try out all the programs.
5.2
Information to David Holden, 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London
SE26 5RN.  A
5.2

5.2
Inspiration
5.2
Stewart Watson
5.2
I received a copy of Inspiration through the post a few days ago and sat
down to study a package for which I have been eagerly waiting now for
many months. Inspiration comes in the usual A5 package, inside which is
a master disk, a 72 page manual and a dongle.
5.2
Manual
5.2
Contrary to my usual practice, I decided to read the manual before
trying the program. The first thing that struck me was that there are no
screen dumps anywhere in the manual to give a picture of what you might
expect to see on screen.
5.2
Introduction
5.2
The first twenty pages of the manual are a general introduction for
computer novices on how to use a mouse, menus and how to make a back up
copy of the master disk. It also includes instructions for installation
onto a hard disk − simply copy all the files on the master disk into an
Inspiration directory. Finally, it tells you how to fit the dongle and
connect your computer to your midi instrument. This has one of the only
two graphics in the whole manual, a computer, a keyboard and two cables.
So far, however, the instructions have been thorough and clearly
written.
5.2
Reference section
5.2
It was when I started reading the reference section that I started to
have slight twinges of worry. On page 22 there is a space for a picture
of the control panel, which the instructions refer to, but there was no
picture. Anyway, on I go. The instructions still seemed to be clear and
concise until I got to page 32 which has not been printed at all − a
completely blank page. The further through the manual I read the more I
got the feeling of a product which had been rushed out before it had
been completely finished. Still, I’ve seen many first rate products with
patchy manuals before, and vice versa.
5.2
Fitting the dongle
5.2
My next disappointment came when I went to fit the dongle. There were no
retaining screws to hold the dongle onto the computer and, as it fits
between the printer lead and the computer, I do feel that this connec
tion could be a weak spot.
5.2
Running the program
5.2
This was when I really hit trouble. I have two machines, an A420 with 4
Mbyte and an EMR midi2 interface, and an A310 with 4 Mbyte and an EMR
midi4 interface. Though I could get the program to run, I could not
persuade it to respond over midi even with EMR’s Acorn SWI emulator
loaded. Now, as EMR have been alone in the Acorn music field for many
years, it strikes me as odd that any new product should be software
incompatible, let alone hardware incompatible.
5.2
On the plus side, it does import and export Maestro files, which means
that if you have a copy of Rhapsody II you can export files for
printing, as Inspiration itself has no score printing facilities.
5.2
Features
5.2
Inspiration can have up to nine pieces of music, or ‘reels’ in its
terminology, in memory at any one time and each can contain up to 256
tracks.
5.2
It claims to be accurate to 1/10,100th beat per minute tempo resolution
which is much more accurate than EMR Studio 24 V2 which is accurate to
1/1,440 beat per minute.
5.2
There is a continuous undo stack, which lets you retrace your steps
right back through your session. This could certainly be useful in
retrieving some masterpiece that you have mistakenly discarded.
5.2
The program has a very full midi spec and saves the setup you are using
when you switch off, so that you can return to exactly the same place
when you restart your work.
5.2
The program’s graphics were not always as clear as they might be but I’m
sure with greater use they would become more familiar.
5.2
My biggest worry came when I phoned the helpline and found that the
number is unobtainable.
5.2
My overall impression was of a program into which a lot of thought and
work had been invested, but which had been rushed out before it had been
completely finished and tested. I would advise anyone thinking of
purchasing Inspiration to check with their supplier to ensure that the
promised support from the authors is in fact available before parting
with any money. At almost twice the price of Studio 24 Version 2, and
more than five times the price of Rhapsody II, I think that Inspiration
is going to struggle to find a niche in the market.
5.2
Inspiration is available from Sound Proposition Ltd, 44 Udney Park Road,
Teddington, Middlesex TW11 9BG, price £299.95 including VAT.  A
5.2

5.2
The SQuirreL Data Base
5.2
Jochen Konietzko
5.2
Digital Services’ SQuirreL is, as the name suggests, an SQL (Structured
Query Language) database. It is fully RISC-OS compliant. It arrives on
two disks, one with the program itself plus a second program for data
importing and the other disk with two example tables.
5.2
The 220 page handbook comes in a ring binder; it begins with a general
introduction to databases and a tutorial. Throughout the text of the
book, there are lots of screen dumps (about two per page) showing just
what the text describes. Alphabetical index, glossary and table of
contents are all present and sufficiently detailed.
5.2
Creating a new table
5.2
A double click installs the Squirrel icon on the icon bar, a click on
this icon opens a window which allows the creation of a mask for a new
table. To create the mask, you click on a point of the Table Layout
Window where you want the top left hand corner of a field to be and drag
the pointer to the bottom right hand corner. A menu appears which gives
all the options for this field.
5.2
Types of data supported are string (fixed or variable length − both one
line), text (as many lines as there is free RAM), number (fixed or
floating − this includes currency and percentage; the format for any
type of number can be widely varied), Date, Boolean, DrawFile, Sprite
and AnyFile.
5.2
Draw and Sprite files are automatically recognized; they appear on
screen in a frame − much in the same way as they would in Impression.
There is, however, one very significant difference: Squirrel saves the
complete file, so that by double clicking on a picture, Paint or Draw
are loaded to allow editing.
5.2
The type AnyFile is particularly interesting; any file type known to
RISC-OS can be dragged into this field − only files, though, not
applications or directories. This makes it possible, for example, to
have a table with pictures of birds and bird song samples which could be
played by double clicking on the icon in the table window.
5.2
If you want to restrict entries into a field to one file type, you
simply replace the word AnyFile with the file type number in question.
5.2
A particular boon for those of us with many files of a certain type is
the “Learn” facility. If, for example, you have hundreds of SoundTracker
modules on your disks, you could create a small table containing some
fields for describing the module and one for the module itself and save
the empty table. If you then drag one module onto the Squirrel icon, a
window opens asking where this type of file is to be stored. You drag
the new table from the filer window into the Learn window, and from then
on, every time you drag a module of the same file type onto the Squirrel
icon, it is automatically stored into that table. Because Squirrel
stores the complete file, there is no need for a second copy on the hard
disk.
5.2
Entering data
5.2
Once a table has been created and saved, data can be entered into the
mask in any sequence the user likes; simply typing <Return> at the end
of every entry moves the caret to the next field. (The user can freely
define what is “next”.)
5.2
You can leaf through the records with the PageUp and PageDown keys and
with a GoTo... submenu.
5.2
As usual with relational databases, you can add new fields to the table
at any time without losing your old data.
5.2
Queries
5.2
The most important feature of a database is the ability to extract
information from a set of records, like “all unmarried men not born in
1970”; with Squirrel this is very simple, as you don’t have to remember
long lists of expressions from the database’s query language (in this
case, SQL). All it takes is to click on “Define Query”, then you can
open a Query filter window and simply drag the necessary fields into
this window; the arrangement of the various items on the screen gives
the logical structure of the query. Parallel fields mean “OR”, fields in
series mean “AND”.
5.2
In addition to simple text matching, the options supported are < , <= ,
> , >= . MATCHES allows the use of wild cards in the string, as does the
case sensitive LIKE.
5.2
The silly example I mentioned might look like:
5.2
This is internally translated into this SQL text, which, with most MS-
DOS SQL databases, you would have to write for yourself:
5.2
SELECT mar_state, sex, born
5.2
FROM ADFS::Festplatte.$.Datenbank. DDEDir
5.2
WHERE (mar_state = ‘never married’ AND (sex = ‘m’ AND (born <1.1.70 OR
born >=1.1.71 ))) OR (mar_state = ‘divorced’ AND (sex = ‘m’ AND (born
<1.1.70 OR born >=1.1.71 ))) OR (mar_state = ‘widowed’ AND (sex = ‘m’
AND (born <1.1.70 OR born >=1.1.71 )))
5.2
ORDER BY mar_state DICT, sex DICT, born
5.2
Everything you do with Squirrel can be saved to disk in various ways. A
query, for instance, can be saved as QueryFile (which can be used again
by simply double clicking), SQLFile (see above) and as a DrawFile of the
filter.
5.2
Relational Squirrel
5.2
Squirrel is a relational database, meaning basically that you can
combine two (or more) tables which have at least one field in common
(see “Choosing a database”, Archive 4.2, p.25ff).
5.2
This, too, works by dragging the fields from the two tables into a
window (called View) which effectively gives you a new table for
defining a query.
5.2
Reports
5.2
Squirrel makes full use of RISC-OS outline fonts and printer drivers.
You can print out the results of a query in the form of a list called
report.
5.2
The appearance of this report can be varied very easily by dragging the
fields of the table around in the report layout window and deleting
those you don’t want to appear in the report. If some fields contain
numbers, the report can perform simple arithmetic operations (SUM,
AVeraGe, MINimum, MAXimum, COUNT − they can be both local (reset to zero
every time the same operator is called again) and global (applying to
the whole report)).
5.2
Specifications
5.2
There is no limitation (except through the space available in RAM [for a
single record] or on hard disk [for the whole table − only one record at
a time is kept in RAM]) to the number of characters per field, of
characters per record, of fields per record, of key fields per record,
of record per file. 26 Tables can be linked in a relational query.
5.2
The sorting order can be ascending or descending, ASCII (0-9..A-Z..a-z)
or dictionary (Aa-Zz..0-9), and the fields for sorting may, in all,
contain 1000 bytes (25 × 40 characters, 250 × 4 characters etc − this
means that the type text which can have “infinite” length, but can’t be
used for sorting, only for searching.)
5.2
Fixed numbers can have up to ten digits; floating numbers can cover a
region of (roughly) ±10±38 (length 4 bytes) or roughly ±10±308 (8
bytes).
5.2
Data can be imported and exported from and to wordprocessors (as tab-
separated lists) and from and to spreadsheets and databases which
support the CSV (Comma Separated Variable) format.
5.2
Squirrel occupies 544 kbytes of RAM space. It seems therefore quite well
suited for 1 Mbyte machines.
5.2
Additions I would like to see
5.2
There are a few additions which would make Squirrel even better:
5.2
•    the ability to do a global replace. At the end of the last term I had
to leaf through every one of the 225 pupils’ records and manually
replace the school year and the class number with the new one; with a
global replace I would have had to change one school year and eight
class names.
5.2
•    the possibility to sort the records physically on the disk (the way it
was done with the old type of database which employed sequential
searches). As with most tables, I always use the same field (like the
family name) for sorting, this would save not just time but also a lot
of unnecessary hard disk wear and tear.
5.2
•    the ability to create a runtime version which could be sent to someone
else who doesn’t own Squirrel. (Admittedly, this feature is usually only
found in databases three or four times as expensive as Squirrel.)
5.2
•    a browse or list mode. As it is, there is just a report preview mode
which is not very useful as you can’t scroll through the preview. The
only option available is “next page”.
5.2
•    password protection for sensitive data.
5.2
Addition that is coming
5.2
According to the September issue of Micro User (page 97) Digital
Services plan to make Squirrel work with Computer Concepts’ inter-
program communication system, Impulse II.
5.2
Conclusions
5.2
The only point I really didn’t like when I bought Squirrel, version
0.90, was the protection against software piracy employed. Before you
can install Squirrel on your machine you have to type your name into a
registration window, then phone the makers and tell them exactly what
you typed in. They then give you a code which you also type into the
registration window and only this code makes Squirrel work.
5.2
At least, though, this procedure is necessary only once. When I received
my (free) upgrade from version 0.90 to 1.00 (1-May-91), it came with the
code already installed.
5.2
The UK price is about £129 + VAT from Digital Services Ltd. or £140
through Archive.  A
5.2

5.2

5.2
Serious Statistical Software    Lynwood,
Benty Heath Lane, Willaston, South Wirral, L64 1SD. (051−327−4268)
5.2
Sherston Software    Swan Barton, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(0666−840433) (−840048)
5.2
Spacetech (p39)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.2
Storm Software    Beth House, Poyntington, Sherbourne, Dorset.
(0963−22469)
5.2
Superior Software    P.O. Box 6, Brigg, S Humberside  DN20 9NH.
(0652−658585) (−657807)
5.2
The Public Key    c/o George Foot, Waterfall, Uvedale Road, Oxted,
Surrey, RH8 0EW.
5.2
Triple R Educational    P.O. Box
4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.2
Turcan Research Systems    83 Green
croft Gardens, West Hampstead, London NW6 3LJ. (071−625−8455)
5.2
Wild Vision    15 Witney Way, Boldon Colliery, Tyne & Wear NE35 9PE.
(091−519−1455) (−1929)
5.2

Spacetech (p8) 50th Edition of Archive!
5.3
Unfortunately, we didn’t realise in time that last month’s Archive was
the 50th edition! Have I really been producing this magazine every
single month for over four years now? Those of you with copies of the
first edition might like to dust them off and see just how far things
have come in that time. Will we still be here to celebrate number 100?
What will Acorn be producing in another four years time? I still find it
very exciting to be involved with the Archimedes range of computers.
5.3
Christmas Shopping
5.3
Last year we had a lot of people ringing us up just a few days before
Christmas saying “Could you possibly get this to me in time for
Christmas?” We always try our best to get goods out to people quickly.
(It would be interesting to know how you think we compare with other
companies!) However, if you are in a rush, there are a couple of extra
services we can offer.
5.3
Firstly, if you add £1 to your order, we will send it by first class
post. Mind you, packages above 800g, the second class limit, go by first
class anyway because we don’t use parcel post − it is too slow.
Secondly, if you add £10 to the order, we will send it by over-night
carrier. However, you must ensure that there is someone available to
accept and sign for the goods when they arrive, otherwise it can take
even longer than using first class post.
5.3
Christmas Wishes
5.3
As another Christmas approaches, it’s a joy to wish all our readers a
very happy and peaceful Christmas. We hope that 1992 will be a very good
year for you all.
5.3
      Adrian, Ali, Ray, Roger, Paul & Sue.
5.3

5.3

5.3
Products Available
5.3
•    4th Dimension game fix − If you are having problems running any of the
Fourth Dimension games, it is probably because they are trying to get a
quart into a (1M) pint pot. To make things easier, Fourth Dimension have
produced a configuration saver program which is available FREE from them
(not from N.C.S.!).
5.3
•    A5000 memory upgrades − Atomwide now have memory upgrades available
for the A5000. The 2 to 4M upgrade is £130 through Archive and the 4 to
8M is £470. This latter upgrade requires the MEMC to be taken out and a
socket put in its place − definitely not a DIY job, unlike the 2 to 4M
which can be undertaken by any sensible, technically minded person. The
price of the 4 to 8M upgrade includes two-way carriage.
5.3
•    A5000 1FD − the 1M floppy disc version of the A5000 (a “Product not-
Available”!) We said (quoting Acorn, by the way!) that the version of
the A5000 with 1M RAM, no hard drive and no monitor version would be
available in January. They are now saying that they will be available
“in small quantities only during the first quarter of 1992”. Rumour has
it that they will only be selling them to VARs (Value Added Resellers −
companies who sell complete systems with an Archimedes at the centre)
and not releasing them to the general public. So those of us who want to
supply a real “quality” system with an Eizo monitor and a SCSI drive
will have to wait for several months to come. Well, not quite....
5.3
•    A5000 monitor upgrade − A growing number of people are feeling that
the Acorn multisync monitor does not do justice to the quality of the
computer, so we are now offering the Eizo 9060SZ as our recommended
alternative. It provides a dot pitch of 0.28mm instead of 0.38mm and
better linearity. If you want an Eizo 9060, just add £200 to the price
as quoted with the Acorn monitor. So that means we have some spare
multisyncs....
5.3
•    A3000 monitor upgrade − As a spin off from the offer above, we have
some Acorn multisync monitors for sale that would be ideal for use with
the A3000. At £310 inc VAT, they are only £60 more than the Acorn
standard resolution monitor but allow you to go into the higher
resolution modes unavailable to users of standard resolution monitors.
5.3
•    A5000 IDE hard disc upgrades − We can now supply a 100M second
internal IDE drive for the A5000 for £380. This is a fast drive (as
IDE’s go!) and fits under the floppy drive.
5.3
•    Acorn printer sheet-feeder − Acorn are hoping to have, “fairly soon”,
a sheet-feeder unit for their inkjet printer. It should be available by
the time you read this − but ring before ordering, just to check! The
price is £69 +VAT or £77 through Archive.
5.3
•    Archivist is an “easy-to-use” database from Oregan Developments.
Designed in accordance with LEA guidelines, it is “ideal for education”.
The price £24.95 inclusive or £50 for an additional site licence from
Oregan Developments.
5.3
•    ARM3 prices down (and up!) − After dropping the price of their ARM3
upgrades to £199, Watford Electronics have put the price back up to £249
saying that it was only an “Acorn User Show Special Offer Price”. Aleph
One have just brought their price down to £249 +VAT. (£280 through
Archive) The A3000 ARM3 upgrades are now £249 + £35 fitting charge or
£340 through Archive. As I write, the CJE ARM3 is still available at
£199 +VAT or £225 through Archive.
5.3
•    Bonjour de France is a series of four Genesis applications on 9 floppy
discs for use in teaching French at Key Stages 3 and 4. The cost
including a teacher’s guide and over 100 worksheets is £95 +VAT from Oak
Solutions or £103 through Archive.
5.3
•    CalcSheet − Trail Software have produced a RISC-OS compatible
spreadsheet called CalcSheet which is aimed particularly at users with
1M computers and floppy drives. Features include keyboard short-cuts,
1000 columns by 9999 rows, 80 built-in functions, graphing facilities,
timed auto-save and macro facilities including a learn option. The price
is £99 +VAT or £520 +VAT for a site licence. A demo disc is available
from Trail Software for £5, deductible from the purchase cost of the
software itself.
5.3
•    Cataclysm (not ‘Catalysm’ as in all the big glossy adverts) is a new
arcade game from 4th Dimension. You have to avoid the inundation of your
spaceship by adjusting valves, pumps etc within a given time limit.
Watch out for the pressure valves, dissolving blocks and filters. £24.95
from 4th Dimension or £23 through Archive.
5.3
•    Chameleon is a utility for doing quick and easy colour changes to Draw
files. It provides a range of 16 and 256-colour palettes, including a
256 level grey scale, and allows selection and changing of colours from
each palette. It also has an HSV (hue, saturation, value) palette.
Chameleon is £25 +VAT from 4mation or £27 through Archive.
5.3
•    Colour printer drivers − Ace Computing have added to their wide range
of RISC-OS printer drivers one for the new Deskjet 500C sheet-fed colour
inkjet printer. The price from Ace is £15 inc VAT and p&p.
5.3
•    Glimpse is described by Sherston Software as the simple way to find a
clip art file. It allows you to view a miniature version of the file in
a filer window. Files can be loaded directly from a Glimpse window into
Draw, Paint or any RISC-OS application. The price is £8.50 +VAT from
Sherston.
5.3
•    Grievous Bodily ’ARM is another game from the 4th Dimension stable. It
is an arcade style game involving beating up some drug-smuggling baddies
using your expertise in kicking and punching and using weapons picked up
along the way. £24.95 from 4th Dimension or £23 through Archive.
5.3
•    Hilighter is Sherston Software’s new text and graphics presentation
package. It allows you to display information in a RISC-OS window and
have it linked so that users can explore the information provided. The
price is £45 +VAT from Sherston.
5.3
•    Holed Out Compendium − Fourth Dimension have released a version of
HoledOut that consists of HoledOut, Extra Courses 1, Extra Courses 2 and
HoledOut Designer − all in one pack for £24.95 or £23 through Archive.
5.3
•    J − The language J is now available for the Archimedes. Version 3.4 is
available from I-APL for £17.00 + £2 p&p. This includes A Dictionary of
J and Tangible Math rewritten in J.
5.3
•    Notate is a music composition program from Longman Logotron aimed, as
you might guess, at educational users. Its range of facilities includes
up to eight staves, synthesised and sampled sounds, accidentals and
repeats, auto-checking of note length relative to bar space remaining,
chord facility, configurability for different levels of user, auto
transposition, Midi file input and output and direct playing on Midi
instruments. The price is £57 +VAT or £64 through Archive.
5.3
•    Oak PCB for RISC-OS − Oak Solutions now have a PCB layout and
schematic design package available for just £150 +VAT (£160 through
Archive) or there is an educational price, including a site licence, for
£120 +VAT. Facilities include four copper layers, automatic generation
of drilling and solder resist layers, automatic movement of tracks if
components are moved, hard copy via RISC-OS drivers or via a supplied
HPGL driver, comprehensive parts library for both PCB and schematics.
5.3
•    Polyglot is a foreign language character generator which provides fast
and easy access to foreign language character sets when using RISC-OS
applications. £19.95 from Risc Developments. (Although it has the same
address as Beebug Ltd, they ask us to make clear that this is a separate
company.)
5.3
•    Recall is Sherston Software’s database designed with National
Curriculum in mind. The price is £39.95 +VAT from Sherston.
5.3
•    Revelation 2 is the CD-ROM edition of Longman Logotron’s education-
based art package (£119 +VAT or £125 through Archive.). Revelation was
created with particular emphasis on facilities for taking images from
other sources such as digitisers, scanners or video frame-grabbers and
processing them to create totally new pictures. Revelation 2 adds
various extra features including extra colour mixing, colour processing,
image effects (sharpening and dithering) and extra fill options.
5.3
It also comes in a CD-ROM version for £139 +VAT or £145 through Archive.
5.3
•    SmArt Suite is a linked graphics system from 4mation. When you load a
picture, different parts of it can be changed by selecting from a menu.
The package which is £55 +VAT (or £59 through Archive) comes with over
24 files on subjects including cars, shops, churches, maps of Britain.
Also available, as separate products, are discs on the subjects of
Leisure, Heraldry, Faces, Fashion, Homes, Trees and Gardens and
Dinosaurs. These discs are £16 each +VAT or £18 through Archive. SmArt
Filer is an application for those who wish to create their own sets of
SmArt files − £35 +VAT or £38 through Archive.
5.3
•    Teletext Adaptor Front End − The RISC-OS front end (written by Geoff
Titmuss) for the Morley Teletext Adaptor was mentioned 12 months ago in
Products Available but it is now available through The Really Good
Software Company at a price of £29.95.
5.3
I have had a play with it and would say that Geoff’s software brings a
new lease of life to the adaptor. It is a full multi-tasking RISC-OS
application and the Teletext screen appears in a RISC-OS window. Just
click on any of the numbers in the window and that Teletext page appears
in due course. Best of all, you can flick back to any of the previous
ten pages you have been looking at. This means that if you want, say,
the television programmes, you can select page 601 and get on with some
other work while the three screens making up that page are loaded, then
select 602, then 603 and finally 604. Then you can look at any of the TV
program pages at the click of a mouse button. One other extra feature is
that you can set your computer’s internal clock from the Teletext clock,
at the click of a mouse button. (See the review on page 27.)
5.3
•    Touchtech 3000 is an infra red touch screen for the Archimedes from
Microvitec which fits onto their Cub 3000 monitor. At £300 +VAT, it
comes with a suite of nine programs to develop colour recognition,
finger painting, simple addition, shape recognition etc for the teaching
of very young or special needs children.
5.3
•    Yes Chancellor 2 − Chalksoft have now released an Archimedes version
of their economic simulation package, Yes Chancellor. You are in the hot
seat at Nº 11 Downing Street and have to keep the UK economy from
collapsing. You have, amongst other things, to set taxes, control
interest rates, do wage bargaining and deal with membership of the
European ERM. This simulation is aimed at adults and economics students
and includes an information booklet written by a former Senior Official
of the Inland Revenue. The price is £23 +VAT or £25 through Archive.
5.3
Review software received...
5.3
We have received review copies of the following software and hardware:
CalcSheet, Converta-Key, Fun & Games, Sky Hunter, !BasShrink, Fun School
3 (under 5’s) & (5−7’s), Yes Chancellor 2, Revelation 2 (to be reviewed
by a Revelation 1 user, please), Holed Out Compendium, Notate, Glimpse,
Hilighter.  A
5.3

5.3
Government Health Warning − Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
5.3
The Christmas season is a time when we tend to think, amongst other
things, about peace. There are some hopeful signs in certain parts of
the world, like the Middle East and South Africa, that moves are being
made towards justice and peace − although there is still a long way to
go.
5.3
I mentioned last month about the problems there are in so many marriages
and homes, and the root problem both at the international level and at
the personal level is the same − lack of peace.
5.3
OK, so what’s the solution? Well, the bible teaches simply and plainly
that unless and until individuals have peace with God, they cannot have
real peace with each other. In other words, until you have got your
relationship with God right, you haven’t really got a hope of getting
your other relationships sorted out.
5.3
You think that’s a load of rubbish? Well, maybe you’re right but the
more I read of the bible’s analysis of the problems that we face in our
lives and in the world, the more it rings true.
5.3
Things don’t always go right for me but one thing I can say is that I
have a deep peace in my heart that makes it possible to face the
difficulties of life. Where do you find out about this peace? Where else
but in the bible?! I know I keep saying this, but do read it.
5.3
My prayer this Christmas is that you will come to know the real peace
that only God can give.
5.3

5.3
4th Dimension     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.3
4mation    11 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32
8PA. (0271−25353) (−22974)
5.3
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
5.3
Acorn Computers Ltd    Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 4JN. (0223−245200) (−210685)
5.3
Ace Computing (p10)    27 Victoria
Road, Cambridge, CB4 3BW. (0223−322559) (−69180)
5.3
Aleph One Ltd    The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(0223−811679) (−812713)
5.3
Alpine Software    P.O.Box 25, Portadown, Craigavon, BT63 5UT.
(0762−342510)
5.3
Arnor Ltd    611 Lincoln Road, Peterborough, PE1 3HA. (0733−68909) (−67299)
5.3
Arxe Systems Ltd    P.O.Box 898, Forest Gate, London E7 9RG. (081−534−1198
evenings)
5.3
Atomwide Ltd    23 The Greenway, Orpington, Kent, BR5 2AY. (0689−838852)
(−896088)
5.3
Baildon Electronics    1 Fyfe
Crescent, Baildon, Shipley, W Yorks BD17 6DR. (0274−580519) (−531626)
5.3
Chalksoft    P.O. Box 49, Spalding, Lincs, PE11 1NZ. (0775−769518)
5.3
Clares Micro Supplies    98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (0606−48511)
(−48512)
5.3
Colton Software (p20)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA. (0223−311881) (−312010)
5.3
Computer Concepts (p32/33)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 6EX. (0442−63933) (−231632)
5.3
Dalmation Publications    37 Manor
Road, Teddington, Middlesex  TW11 8AA.
5.3
David Pilling    P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
5.3
Digital Services    9 Wayte Street, Cosham, Portsmouth PO6 3BS.
(0705−210600) (−210705)
5.3
DT Software    13 Northumberland Road, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32
6HE.
5.3
DT Software    FREEPOST, Cambridge CB3 7BR. (0223−841099)
5.3
I-APL Ltd     2 Blenheim Road, St Albans, AL1 4NR.
5.3
Ian Copestake Software    10 Frost
Drive, Wirral, L61 4XL. (051−632−1234)(−3434)
5.3
IFEL (p18)    36 Upland Drive, Plymouth, Devon, PL6 6BD. (0752−847286)
5.3
Longman-Logotron    124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4
4ZS. (0223−425558) (−425349)
5.3
LOOKsystems (p9)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603−764114) (−764011)
5.3
Morley Electronics     Morley
House, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE29 7TY. (091−257−6355)
(−6373)
5.3
Oak Solutions (p6)    Suite 25,
Robin Enterprise Centre, Leeds Road, Idle, Yorkshire BD10 9TE.
(0274−620423) (−620419)
5.3
Oregan Developments     36 Grosvenor
Avenue, Streetly, Sutton Coldfield, B74 3PE.
5.3
Ray Maidstone (p15)    421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603−407060) (−417447)
5.3
RISC Developments Ltd    117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303) (−60263)
5.3
Sherston Software    Swan Barton, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(0666−840433) (−840048)
5.3
Southern Printers    47 Drake Road, Willesborough, Ashford, Kent TN24 0UZ.
(0233−633919)
5.3
Spacetech (p16)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.3
Techsoft UK Ltd (p19)    Old School
Lane, Erryrs, Mold, Clwyd, CH7 4DA. (082−43318)
5.3
Technomatic    468 Church Lane, London, NW9 8UF. (081−205−9558) (−0190)
5.3
The Really Good Software Company    P.O.Box 60,
Ashton-under-Lyme, OL5 9WW.
5.3
Trail Software    P.O. Box 283, London, SW11 2LL.
5.3
Turcan Research Systems    83 Green
croft Gardens, West Hampstead, London NW6 3LJ. (071−625−8455)
5.3
Watford Electronics    250 Lower
High Street, Watford, WD1 2AN. (0923−37774) (−33642)
5.3
Word Processing (p29)    65 Milldale
Crescent, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, W Midlands  WV10 6LR.
5.3

5.3
Small Ads
5.3
(Small ads for Archimedes and related products are free for subscribers
but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the material
you send, as we think fit. i.e. some people don’t know what “small”
means and there are certain things, as you can imagine, that we would
not be prepared to advertise as a matter of principle. Sending small ads
(especially long ones!) on disc is helpful but not essential. Ed)
5.3
•    2M upgrade for A3000 (Morley expandable to 4M) £35. Phone Donald on
031−336−4491 (eves/weekends)
5.3
•    A3000 colour 2M ram, serial upgrade, monitor stand, Acorn DTP, FWPlus,
various games £700. Epson MX100 type III wide carriage printer + stand
£100. Phone Simon on 081−969−2565.
5.3
•    A310 colour 4M ram, 20M Acorn drive, IFEL 4-slot bp, can take RISC-OS3
ROMs, recently overhauled, £875 o.n.o. Phone 0734−572020.
5.3
•    A310 with 4-slot bp + lots of software £550. Citizen C120-D, 9-pin NLQ
printer, £90. Armadillo A448 sampler £75. Phone Lenny on 071−703−5675.
5.3
•    A440/1 ARM3 (30 MHz), VIDC enhancer, Eizo 9060 £1700 o.n.o. Panasonic
KX-P1124 with 63k buffer £200. MultiStore 2.0 £199. Phone 0780−66449
after 6 p.m.
5.3
• Acorn DTP £55, Pipedream III £40, Revelation I £20, Graphbox £20,
FWPlus I £10, Droom £8, Craftshop I £8, Grass £8, Picture Builder £5,
Twin World £10, Interdictor I £8, Apocalypse £5, Pawn £5, Guild of
Thieves £5, Jinxter, Fish .....  Phone 0273−682240 evenings.
5.3
•    Acorn JP150 inkjet virtually unused £210 o.n.o. Phone Arthur on
0276−22031.
5.3
•    Akhter 5¼“ dual 40/80 floppy drive £70. Fascia for A310 with single
floppy − offers? Phone Arthur on 0276−22031.
5.3
•    Autosketch v1.04, System Delta V2, Solid Tools V2, orig. discs &
manuals. £80 the lot. Phone Derrick on 0286−871181.
5.3
•    Beebug scanner with sheet feeder £400 o.n.o. Phone Martin on
0705−370623.
5.3
•    Brother 1509 dot matrix A3 printer with tractor feed £120 o.n.o. Phone
Arthur on 0276−22031.
5.3
•    Canon BJ130e bubblejet, 360 d.p.i., wide carriage (A3), CSfeeder,
tractor feed £360 o.n.o. Phone Arthur on 0276−22031.
5.3
•    Hard drive, Seagate ST125-1, ST506, 20M, 28ms access time, as new,
£80. Phone 023066 −630 (Bedford area).
5.3
•    Laser printer Mannesman Tally MT906, LaserJet II emulation, exc cond,
complete £425 o.n.o. Phone Ruislip 0895−630344.
5.3
•    NEC 40M ST506 drive for A410 £100, WE Mk2 hand scanner £80, FWPlus 2
£40. All o.n.o. Buyer collects or postage extra. Phone Miles Sabin on
081−980−2455.
5.3
•    Oak High Speed 100M SCSI internal drive, 2 months old, already full
£300 o.n.o. Juki 6100 daisywheel printer £50. Phone Ian Pomeroy 0245
−325205.
5.3
•    Prolog X manual − Has anyone got one they would loan or sell me? Phone
John on 0462 −893799.
5.3
•    Scanlight 256 £150 o.n.o., Watford 5¼“ drive + interface + backplate
£80, Canon LBP4/8 FX cartridge £75, D.A.C. fan quietener £12, Pipedream
3 £80, Presenter II hotlink £30, Orrery £70, Chocks Away £15, Powerband
£12, various fonts & discs etc. Phone Chris Bollard on 0752−783663.
5.3
•    SCSI interface for A3000 (Lingenuity) £135. Schema 1.18 £75, Hot-Link
Presenter 2.5 £38. Phone John on 081−395−6425.
5.3
•    Wanted − Laser Direct Hi-Res interface. Phone 0457−862743.
5.3
•    Wanted − Prolog Programming in Depth by Covington, Nute & Vellino.
John Carr, 81 Ameysford Road, Ferndown, Dorset, BH22 9PZ.
5.3
•    Wanted − SCSI controller and/or hard disc for A310. At least 80 M,
preferably internal. Phone 0883−345157.
5.3
•    Watford hand scanner A300/400 £90, FWPlus £20. Phone Mike on
0742−342870.
5.3
Charity Sales − The following items are available for sale in aid of
charity. PLEASE do not just send money − ring us on 0603−766592 to check
if the items are still available. Thank you.
5.3
(If you have unwanted software or hardware for Archimedes computers you
could donate for charity, please send it in 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.)
5.3
Artisan £10, Archimedes Buffer £2, Desktop Games £4, The Wimp Game £9,
First Word Plus £10, Corruption £5, Graphic Writer £5, Timewatch £5.  A
5.3

5.3
Oak Solutions
5.3
New artwork coming to you direct
5.3

5.3
Hints and Tips
5.3
•    AMX mouse − To replace the Archimedes mouse with an AMX mouse from a
BBC computer, all that is necessary is to change the plug on the AMX
mouse for a miniature 9 pin DIN plug. The correct plug can be obtained
from Maplin Electronics (0702−554161). It is stock number JX19V (price
82p +p&p). Cut the original 20 way IDC connector off the mouse cable and
then solder the wires onto the new plug. The pins are very close
together, so a fair amount of care is required. It is easiest to start
with the middle pins and work outwards. I found that the plastic housing
supplied with the plug was just too wide to fit into my A3000 but it can
easily be cut smaller with a sharp knife.
5.3
Paul Marshall, Loughborough.
5.3
(Has anyone got the connections to do the same sort of thing but with a
BBC Trackerball? Ed)
5.3
•    Cops and Plague Planet − I should like to pass on the following advice
received from Alpine.
5.3
Both Cops and Plague Planet re-configure the character set used to their
own. If you have a copy of Alpine Software’s ALPS (Adventure Language
Programming System) this contains a copy of the default Archimedes
character set e.g. $.!ALPS. Resources.defaultchr.
5.3
Copy this file to the appropriate games directory (e.g.
$.COPS.defaultchr), and add the following line at the very end of the
appropriate !Run file (e.g. for Cops):
5.3
Print <Cops$Dir>.defaultchr
5.3
This will then automatically reset the computer to the default system
font upon returning to the Desktop.      Rob Brown, Tadworth
5.3
•    Corruption and Jinxter − I have recently transferred a number of the
earlier Magnetic Scrolls adventure games from floppy to hard disc and
have encountered certain problems with their usage of the Shared C
Library !System module.
5.3
Fish! does not use the Shared C Library at all. Both The Guild of
Thieves and The Pawn came with version 3.50 of the Shared C Library and
they function with more recent versions without any difficulty. However,
my copies of Corruption (version 1.12) and Jinxter (version 1.30) came
with version 1.01 of the Shared C Library and they will not function at
all with any of the more recent versions.
5.3
What I wanted to achieve was an easy means of starting either program
straight from the Desktop and automatically loading the “old” version of
the Shared C Library. After some trial and error I have found one way
round this by modifying the !Run files for both applications.
5.3
Firstly, version 1.01 of the Shared C Library needs to be copied to a
suitable directory within the !System application on the hard disc (e.g.
$.!System.oldModules.CLib_v101).
5.3
Unfortunately the command RMEnsure will not only check for a particular
version of a module but it will also accept more recent versions. In the
!Run file I have therefore used this command to check whether a
subsequent version (e.g. 1.02) of the Shared C Library is already loaded
and, if not, the most up to date version is loaded from the !System
application. The command RMKill is then used to delete this module
before loading the “old” version 1.01 of the Shared C Library. Finally,
after exiting the program, the “old” Shared C Library is deleted, the
latest version (currently 3.75) is re-loaded, and the !Run file finally
returns control direct to the Desktop.
5.3
| !Run file for Corruption
5.3
| (or Jinxter − change references from “Corruption” to “Jinxter”)
5.3
| (requires Shared C library version 1.01 dated 13-Jun-88)
5.3
|
5.3
IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
5.3
WimpSlot -min 512K -max 512K
5.3
|
5.3
Set Corruption$CLibLoaded 1
5.3
RMEnsure SharedCLibrary 1.02 Set Corruption$CLibLoaded 0
5.3
If Corruption$CLibLoaded=0 then If “<System$Path>” = “” then Error
System resources cannot be found
5.3
If Corruption$CLibLoaded=0 then RMLoad System:Modules.Clib
5.3
RMKill SharedCLibrary
5.3
RMLoad System:oldModules.CLib_v101 .Clib
5.3
RMEnsure SharedCLibrary 1.01 Error You need SharedCLibrary
5.3
version 1.01 ONLY
5.3
Unset Corruption$CLibLoaded
5.3
|
5.3
Set Corruption$Dir <Obey$Dir>
5.3
Run <Corruption$Dir>.Corruption.f1 <Corruption$Dir>.Corruption.f2
5.3
|
5.3
|
5.3
RMKill SharedCLibrary
5.3
RMEnsure SharedCLibrary 3.75 RMLoad System:Modules.Clib
5.3
RMEnsure SharedCLibrary 3.75 Error You need SharedCLibrary
5.3
version 3.75 or later
5.3
Desktop
5.3
WARNING − any other programs active within the Desktop should be closed
down and any files saved before starting either Corruption or Jinxter −
especially those programs which use the Shared C Library! Perhaps
another reader can find a way round this?
5.3
Rob Brown, Tadworth
5.3
•    Elite − When you start Archimedes Elite, it prompts you to enter a
word from the manual, as an anti-piracy precaution. When it says “type
the word exactly as shown” it means the input is case sensitive. You
have to remember to take the Caps Lock off. This falls into the category
of “obvious to most people” but hopefully this hint will save somebody
the frustrating quarter of an hour which I spent trying to get the thing
to work when it first arrived.
5.3
People who are used to the 8 bit version of the game should watch out
for little things which have changed. For example, furs are now illicit
cargo in the same way that narcotics and firearms are. You are told this
in the manual but you have to look for it pretty carefully!
5.3
Neil Hoggarth, Winchester  A
5.3

5.3
Impression Hints & Tips
5.3
•    Position holding − My repeated plea for a way of holding the current
position in a document when you expand and contract the window has been
answered! A box of four Archive mugs is winging its way to Bob Potter of
Bath. He gave me the basic idea which I have amplified slightly.
5.3
Basically, as Bob pointed out, when you expand and contract the window,
Impression returns to the position that was current when the window was
small. (Surely, CC, this isn’t very sensible, is it? You are more likely
to change the current position when working in the full size window. Why
not change it whenever you move about within the document?) Anyway,
given that this is how it works at present, all you have to do to
maintain your position is, as soon as you have shrunk the window, press
<cursor-left> (and then <cursor-right> if you want to) so that the
current position will be displayed and remembered within the small
window. The only slight disadvantage with this is that if the small
window is very small, you will find the cursor near to the top of the
window when you expand it, not near the middle. Thanks, Bob!  A
5.3

5.3
Ace
5.3
From 5.2 page 34
5.3

5.3
Comp Conc
5.3
NEW
5.3

5.3
Comp Conc
5.3
NEW
5.3

5.3
Comment Column
5.3
•    Clip art conversion − Further to Roland Nitsch’s appeal for help on
clip art conversion, Arts & Letters does export to CGM, so he should be
able to convert with !CGM->Draw (Careware 13). However, one person did
send me some Clip Art which they claimed was supplied with A&L in CGM
format which did contain an incorrect header. The file was easy enough
to zap though. (I think it was that the length in the header was out by
1.) One of the problems with CGM is that it does not support Beziers.
One way round this is OS2 Metafiles, which do. I am currently working on
a Draw <-> OS2 Metafile conversion which should be available soonish.
Keith Sloan
5.3
•    DXF converting − Following on from Jim Markland’s comments last month
(page 28) I have looked at !Draw->DXF and there are a few problems...
5.3
    1) DXF does not support filled polygons of greater than four sides, so
filled areas are a bit of a challenge
5.3
    2) Autosketch only supports a subset of DXF and does not recognise
line widths. (Not a problem with AutoCad or others, I guess.)
5.3
    3) DXF supports cubic splines and NOT Beziers (in 2D as far as I can
tell). A cubic spline is NOT exactly the same as a Bezier. There is
mention of Bezier surfaces, but this appears to only apply to 3D.
Anyway, with Autosketch, I have only been able to generate splines in 2D
and also, with limited access to AutoCad, the same. I have coded a test
program that translates a Draw Bezier’s control points to DXF spline
control points but the result produces somewhat bulbous curves. If
somebody could send me a sample DXF file with a true Bezier, I could fix
and enhance the program. Either that or send me a good algorithm for
converting Bezier control points to spline control points.
5.3
(I know some PC magazine articles say that DXF supports Beziers, but I
think they are incorrect, just as they are incorrect about a lot of the
things they say about CGM. There are NOT a lot of different standards −
one standard and one extension − there are just a lot of PC programs
that only implement a subset and have varying interpretations of the
standard.)
5.3
I have an application !DXF-CGM available on request if somebody is
desperate to get from Draw to DXF i.e. Draw −> CGM via !Draw->CGM and
CGM −> DXF via !DXF-CGM.
5.3
    4) A lot of PC and Mac packages will accept Encapsulated Postscript
files, so it should be possible to print to disk with the Postscript
printer driver and then with some knowledgeable editing of the output,
create a file that could be imported. Or wait for the new CC’s
!ArtWorks.
5.3
    5) Has anybody got any free documentation on WMF format − Windows
Metafile Format ?
5.3
Keith Sloan, Cobblestones, Stairfoot Lane, Chipstead, Sevenoaks, Kent
TN13 2RD.
5.3
•    IDE review − The thing that would put me off an IDE drive would be the
20“ cable restriction. I would have thought one internal and one
external disk would be pushing it, let alone the 3 disks Ian Copestake
is talking about. Keith Sloan
5.3
The answer you will get is “It does work. I’ve tried it!” but that’s
what worries me about IDE − it’s not based on defined standards but on
what seems to work. What happens if your particular IDE interface just
happens to have slightly lower current drive than the ones they were
using when they tried it out?
5.3
In the original article that Michael Tubby wrote, he said that the
maximum cable length was 12“ but when I showed the article to Ian
Copestake to see if he thought it was fair, he said that it was actually
20”. Ray Maidstone, on the other hand, reckons that 20“ is pushing it
for the type of electronic driver circuitry that is used in IDE. (See
page 26.)
5.3
•    IDE review − I have just read the article(s) on IDE versus SCSI in
Archive 5.2 p16, and feel I just have to comment.
5.3
I have an IDE drive with an ICS interface and I think that you are being
extremely biased towards SCSI. There are several downright misleading
‘facts’ in the articles that do not do justice to IDE:
5.3
    a) My drive (a Seagate ST1144AT, 130Mb, bought independently from the
interface) does not run at 472k/s in Mode 0 like the one you tested, but
at 750k/s. This is such an enormous difference! As most of the article
keeps on bashing on IDE’s ‘slow speed’, I think this makes the evalua
tion completely worthless. In fact, ‘general’ SCSI drives are usually
around the same speed, up to, say 1Mb/sec (my IDE drive peaks at 1080k/
sec!). Why you mention 4M/sec for SCSI in your ‘Relative merits’ list is
beyond me: no drive on the Archimedes gets any faster than around 1.2M/
sec, so it is completely misleading to mention 4Mb/sec.
5.3
    b) Your speed comparisons compare one IDE drive with eight others on
ARM2 machines! How can you do this in the light of a fair comparison?
This is incredible!
5.3
(Let me give an answer to (a) and (b). Larger drives tend to be faster,
so you really need to compare drives of similar size in order to decide
which is faster. I have no way of measuring peak speed, but the Frog 45M
SCSI drive runs at an average speed of 796 k/sec and the Oak 50M HS
drive runs at 1122 k/sec compared with your 130M at 750k/sec. In March
1990 we reported that Oak had a 512M SCSI drive running at 1.57M/sec and
since then they have got an even faster one but I haven’t got the new
speed. Sorry, but SCSI drives ARE faster than IDE drives.
5.3
Why mention 4 M/sec for SCSI? Because SCSI is not only used for hard
drives but for other devices that might want to go that fast − you could
even have a couple of Archimedes computers back to back communicating at
4M/sec via SCSI − or even a bank of seven Archimedes! Ed)
5.3
    c) You argue that buying a SCSI interface saves money in the long run.
That’s only valid if you buy non-hard disc SCSI equipment in the future.
Even if you do, IDE interfaces are so cheap that you can afford a SCSI
interface later if you really need one. It becomes an even more invalid
point when you realise the prices of the SCSI add-ons that you’re
talking about, or even the differences in prices between hard drives.
This can easily be more than the price of an IDE interface!
5.3
Frankly, I think this is another example of you, I’m sorry to put it
this way, abusing being an editor and a seller. Be fair, what gives you
more profit, a SCSI or an IDE package? But still you have the cheek to
criticise the IDE manufacturers for the same thing! Is Archive a non-
profit organisation?
5.3
(Yes, Archive is a profit making organisation but I can’t tell you
whether we would make more profit on IDE or SCSI as I haven’t done any
comparisons of profit margins. In any case, if profit were our only
motive, we would sell both SCSI and IDE! Ed)
5.3
As an aside, prices for hard-drives in England are astronomically high.
I can easily get a drive for 30% (!) less than quoted English prices
anywhere in Holland or Germany! I wonder why everyone (including you)
recommends buying interface and drive at the same time!
5.3
So, in my opinion:
5.3
    a) I think you should have delayed publishing a speed comparison until
enough data had arrived. (Can IDE users help here by giving us some
speeds? Ed.)
5.3
    b) I think you should re-think and re-publish your reasoning behind
buying SCSI and IDE. There is much more to be said for IDE than brought
forward in the article.
5.3
    c) I think you should stop putting your mouth where your business is,
but rather try to help people reach a decent verdict when choosing
between IDE and SCSI. As most people have or are going to buy hard
drives, it is vital that there are fair comparisons dealing with this
subject.
5.3
John Kortink, Netherlands.
5.3
•    Ovation vs Impression − I have been using Ovation for over a year and
liked it a lot, but when I bought a LaserDirect Hi-Res printer, I found
that graphics (including borders) did not print out properly. There was
apparently a bug in the LaserDirect driver software, which I understand
has now been rectified (I must return my disc to CC for the upgrade).
Therefore, I bought Impression, despite my intense dislike of the
‘dongle’. It is in general excellent, although I do miss a number of
Ovation features.
5.3
In particular, I like the Ovation method of storing a document, as this
includes various preferences (such as viewing scale and rulers on/off
and their units) with the document. The quick <ctrl-key> combinations to
switch these options on and off for the current document are very handy.
I also like the intelligent use of desktop space when a document is
opened (instead of Impression’s silly little window which always has to
be expanded and re-positioned) and its longer menus rather than the
interminable dialogue boxes in Impression, which may have started out
small in version 1 but which are now much too long. It also seems to be
easier to select font styles (e.g. bold and Italic variants) from
Ovation’s menus.
5.3
Ovation’s built-in lines/arrowheads facility is invaluable for me, and I
am slowed down a lot by frequently having to import lines from my Clip
Art library. The border thickness setting is also surprisingly useful,
and I find Impression’s borders much more limiting as a result.
5.3
Even so, Impression scores positively in the areas of multiple views,
printing in pamphlet form and retro-active style changes, although I
understand that the last of these will be included in the next release
of Ovation. Neither of these DTP packages uses the same <ctrl-key>
conventions of a lot of other Archimedes software (such as PipeDream),
and I find it can be confusing switching between the various appli
cations to find that, for example, <ctrl-V> does different things and
produces ‘forced errors’ (to use a tennis term).
5.3
•    Reviews policy − (Colton Software have asked me to publish the
following statement....)
5.3
Dear Sirs and Madams,
5.3
I would like to protest in the strongest possible terms about your
policy of reviewing products from your own company and not reviewing
competing products from other manufacturers.
5.3
I refer to your article Archive Mugs (Archive 5.2 p45). Colton Soft
ware’s PipeDream mugs have been available for much longer than the
Archive equivalent, they are completely Acorn hardware and software
compatible, their use will not void your Acorn warranty and they are
cheaper (£3 each or £5 for 2). What’s more, they are prettier.
5.3
I look forward to seeing an in-depth review, with colour pictures, of
the PipeDream mug in a forthcoming issue of Archive.
5.3
I remain your obedient mug,
5.3
P.E.N. Guin
5.3
Percy Edward Norbet Guin of Colton Software
5.3
P.S. What about our key rings?
5.3
We, at Archive, take this sort of criticism very seriously as our
reputation for editorial integrity and impartiality is extremely
important to us. We have therefore asked Robert Chrismas to do a
comparative review of the two mugs and also to look at the key ring.
(See below − although we could not manage any colour pictures, sorry!)
If other suppliers feel similarly aggrieved, do please send us your mugs
and we will include them in the earliest possible issue. Ed.
5.3
•    PipeDream mugs − Within days of the publication of Archive 5.2, which
included the  controversial review of Archive mugs, a fax arrived at
Beverley Towers. The fax, from Colton Software, complained that it was
not fair to review Archive mugs unless rival mugs were also reviewed. It
was signed by Percy Edward Norbet Guin, who seemed to have got himself
into a flap about the matter.
5.3
Colton have since sent me a mug and a couple of key rings to review.
5.3
These mugs could be compared with Archive’s mugs, but, unlike these fine
mugs, comparisons are odorous. The facts must speak for themselves.
Colton’s mugs are mug shaped and about the size of a mug. They work
perfectly as mugs and look a lot prettier than some mugs. The unmistak
able Pipedream logo covers nearly a quarter of the outside. On the back
is the cryptic slogan ‘PIPEDREAM Breaking down the barriers’ and, below
this, the words, ‘Colton Software’. Percy’s letter hinted at a RISC-OS 3
version of the mug which presumably will not need a !Fonts disk either.
The present mugs are made in England, so you don’t have to boot DOS.
5.3
Colton’s key rings are, I’m sorry to report, the usual tacky wire ring
and blob of plastic arrangement. Inside the plastic blob is the message
‘Pipedream 4 The Works’. I flipped it over hoping to find ‘Colton
Software The Business’ but there was just a numeral four and a kind of
traffic light arrangement which probably means something to penguins.
5.3
I have looked into the mugs and there are no bugs at all; but then there
isn’t a user manual, a keystrip or a threatening letter from FAST
either.
5.3
The mugs cost £3 each or 2 for £5 which is jolly good value and
certainly a lot cheaper than PipeDream. Add 85p for p&p − it comes in an
excellent purpose-built polystyrene packing.
5.3
It is good to find that Colton are diversifying their product range − in
times of recession, it is important not to rely on just one item. Of
course, we wish PipeDream 4 every success, but it is reassuring to know
that if it lays an egg we can still look forward to the Colton egg cup,
the Colton dinner service and the Colton (Capo-De-Monte of the North†)
genuine porcelain sentimental figures.
5.3
Robert Chrismas, Gosport
5.3
†Cambridge? The North? Robert obviously thinks in terms of “Watford and
the North”. Or perhaps he was thinking of the North Pole? Or do penguins
live in the AntARCtic?  A
5.3

5.3
Hardware Column
5.3
Brian Cowan
5.3
The recent Acorn User Show was a much-hyped event. I suppose I must
admit to having been partially responsible myself. There were rumours of
some exciting new products but, as usual, many failed to materialise.
A5000 machines were in remarkably short supply notwithstanding all
Acorn’s publicity. The high density floppy disc drive from Arxe Systems
was shown in prototype, built on an Atomwide Apec card, but no produc
tion models were available. While it is true that I saw the 386SX card,
it was only a bare card with no components on it! However, I am assured
that both these products will be available soon; this is certainly not
another Mach Technology story. I shall also be discussing my experiences
with Cumana. (No, he won’t! I faxed the comments through to Cumana to
give them the right of reply and, following their comments, I thought it
was better to delay before we publish anything! Ed) But first some good
news....
5.3
RAM expansion for the 540
5.3
The A540 comes with 4M of RAM, but with sockets for three extra RAM
cards each containing 4M. So there is the potential to have a maximum of
16M of RAM. The main problem with all this is the price that Acorn are
charging for the RAM cards: something in the region of £500. When you
consider the present price of RAM, this is quite extortionate, even
considering that each card needs its own MEMC chip as well.
5.3
Doing the rounds at the Show I came across a RAM upgrade card for the
540 from DT Software. I was immediately struck by the elegance of its
design. This is a most beautiful small card containing the RAM chips in
neat line together with a MEMC and one other chip. The board is produced
to a very high professional standard − inspiring confidence. DT’s boss,
David Knell suggested I try one out so that I could let Archive readers
know all about it. I took it home, plugged it in my 540 and turned it
on. It worked. There is really not much more to say!
5.3
Over the past few weeks I have had the benefit of an 8M machine and I
have got quite used to it. There have been no problems at all. You
really don’t notice any difference, except that you don’t run out of
memory as I seemed to have been doing. I like to run Impression with a
fairly large font cache because of all the strange fonts required in
scientific documents. So if you want to run the PC emulator, a terminal
emulator for logging onto a mainframe computer, and the odd calculation
in an Edit Task Window, then you could be in trouble. There is certainly
a variant of Parkinson’s law in relation to RAM! But with the RAM
upgrade life has become much sweeter. I understand the board is
perfectly compatible with the Acorn upgrade boards; they can be mixed in
any combination. All in all a super product. The price is £249.95 +VAT
for one-off.  A
5.3

5.3

5.3

5.3

5.3

5.3

5.3

5.3

5.3

5.3
Language Column
5.3
David Wild
5.3
Probably the most important arrival on the scene recently has been the
Acorn Desktop Development Environment, which replaces the old Software
Developers’ Toolbox and the assembler package. While it is probably true
that most programmers don’t want to write large programs in assembler,
this new environment offers something for nearly everyone writing in a
compiled language.
5.3
Although the two assemblers, one producing stand-alone code and the
other giving an output file in ‘aof’ format, are the heart of the
package, there are many other good things in it. Perhaps the most
important is a new version of !Make which will work with any compiler or
assembler producing ‘aof’ files and allow the managed production of
programs incorporating modules, some of which may need recompiling or
re-assembling before they can be linked.
5.3
Although the system, as supplied, seems to assume that you will be
working in ‘C’, instructions are given for extending the system to use
other compilers as necessary. This extension is not very complicated and
doesn’t involve taking away any existing capability.
5.3
A text editor, !SrcEdit, is provided which gives the facility for
suitable compilers to go back to the source file when errors are
detected so that they can be corrected and compilation continued. Only
the new ‘C’ compiler offers this at present but the documentation
suggests that versions of other compilers will do so in future. In
addition to the magic characters offered by !Edit, the new editor offers
the extended editing facilities that were used in Twin. !SrcEdit gets
over the problem with having too many fonts but it is slightly disap
pointing to find that, although you can include different fonts in your
text on the screen, they are not saved with the text and so cannot be
printed. There are several other minor improvements but one which will
be very helpful to programmers working with languages like LISP, is a
bracket matching facility which will find the corresponding bracket at
the other end of the clause, and give an error message if there is no
bracket.
5.3
There is an improved version of !Debug which will work, at least at
machine code level, with any program produced by the linker with the
debug switch set. More recent compilers will allow you to step through
at source statement level and display the source as you go. Pascal
programs can be debugged at source line level but the source isn’t
displayed; we are promised a later release which will rectify this.
5.3
A new version of !FormEd is provided which, while it makes life very
much easier by allowing you to create or edit one window at a time,
doesn’t give any really new facilities.
5.3
In addition to !SrcEdit, !Make, !Debug and !FormEd, which Acorn groups
as the interactive tools there are several non-interactive tools. This
group includes the two assemblers and the linker, together with programs
for analysing ‘aof’ files, a program for maintaining libraries and a
number of programs which can be called text analysis programs. One lists
the words in a file with the number of times each is used, another
compares two files and lists the difference between them and another
gives the number of lines, words and characters in a file.
5.3
While some of the non-interactive tools, such as the assemblers and the
linker are essential for programming, the text analysis ones are a
little more of a luxury. What is exciting about them, though, is that
they are all command-line programs which are managed by a front-end
module which turns them into multi-tasking, RISC-OS programs without the
individual program needing to have all the WIMP management details
written into it. Instructions are given for adding this facility to any
program, such as a file filter, which doesn’t need any input once it has
started running. This front-end allows for the dragging of input files
and the dragging of save boxes for output together with the provision of
a scrollable window for printed output.
5.3
The linker is one such tool and the files that are to be linked can be
dragged into a window and the completed ‘aif’ file can either be dragged
to where it is wanted or the program can use a default destination
written into a definition file. One useful feature is that the file
list, which can include a ‘via’ file, is retained until you move it.
This is extremely useful when you are developing a program which needs
minor alterations − you can go through a cycle of edit, compile and link
with very few key presses other than those needed for the editing.
5.3
One of the few problems with the package is that anyone wanting to use
such non-interactive tools must have the package with the front-end
module and one or two other programs. I wrote to Acorn who have told me
that they are prepared to license the distribution of the necessary
files with “suitable” programs, in the same way as the Shared ‘C’
Library, but this will not allow you to send a program to someone else
unless you can justify the cost of the licence.
5.3
I have suggested to Acorn that one solution to the problem might be to
sell a text pack, comprising the front-end programs, together with those
I have described as text analysers, for a much lower price, possibly £20
as against the £200 for the full package.
5.3
For a keen programmer, the package is money well spent as I am sure that
it will make the work of developing programs very much lighter. I was
slightly disappointed to find the documentation, which is generally very
good, describing ‘C’ as “the language of choice” as I feel that the use
of the ‘aof’ concept takes away any need for such a choice. A completed
!runimage file can include many modules from different languages
depending on the type of problem to be solved and the experience and
skills of the programmer.
5.3
I hope that many libraries will become available and that they will be
judged on their effectiveness rather than their language base. I would
argue that if I produce a module to carry out a particular task, you
should subject it to all reasonable tests to decide on its fitness for
the job but you are not entitled to ask questions about the source
language any more than you are entitled to disassemble commercial
programs.  A
5.3

5.3
IFEL
5.3
From 5.1 page 19
5.3

5.3
Techsoft
5.3
From 5.1 page 16
5.3

5.3
Colton
5.3
New coming direct to you
5.3

5.3
PipeLine
5.3
Gerald Fitton
5.3
I would like to say a bit more this month about PipeDream 4 (hereinafter
called PD4 because it saves a lot of space!) but first a few topics
arising from my correspondence.
5.3
Brackets or minus signs
5.3
Paul Witheridge points out something I never noticed before. Making the
default ‘Brackets’ instead of minus signs causes PipeDream to display
positive numbers with a trailing blank space. In some of my spreadsheets
I have chosen a column width which only allows enough room for the
numbers I expect. I use minus signs as my default. If your ini file has
brackets as the default and if you load my spreadsheet into your
PipeDream then your default (brackets with its trailing space) will be
used and the spreadsheet will show percent signs, %, indicating that
there is not enough space in the column for the number. If this has
happened to you then if you change the <Ctrl+O> option to Minus and the
display will be as I intended it to be.
5.3
Generally, if I use my ini default settings and save a file then, even
if your default settings are different from mine, your defaults will be
used instead of mine. PD3 saves with the file only those settings which
are different from the ini default of the PipeDream which has been used.
5.3
Manual recalculation
5.3
Paul Witheridge also comments that, with one of his larger spreadsheets,
auto recalculation in PD3 ‘wastes’ too much time, gets into a loop or
crashes with a stack overflow. Setting to Manual recalculation solves
all these problems.
5.3
Another obscure ini problem
5.3
Elwyn Morris transferred his !PipeDream directory to another disc with
another name. When he came to try to boot up the second disc he kept
getting a message from the ADFS to insert the original disc. He
discovered that by loading the ini file from the second disc and then
saving it the ADFS messages stopped! His theory is that somewhere within
the ini file he had stored the original disc name. I haven’t investi
gated this phenomenon but it should be possible to load the ini file
into !Edit and have a look.
5.3
Give us back our 11 days!
5.3
Betty Mines knows the answer to why my ‘everlasting’ calendar gives what
seems an unusual September for 1752. My calendar spreadsheet correctly
follows the 2nd of September that year with the 14th. It is with some
regret that I am unable to quote Betty at length but she tells us that
Julius Caesar misjudged the leap year correction by about three days
every 400 years. By the time Pope Gregory had a look at whether Easter
was turning up in the right place (the first Sunday after the first full
moon after the Spring equinox) in 1582 we were about ten days adrift.
The Roman Catholic countries skipped the 10 days following the
4th October 1582 but we waited until 1752 when we were one more day out.
I’m not sure which country was the last to change from the Julian to the
Gregorian calendar but I believe one country waited until 1924!
5.3
On a somewhat seasonal note, Betty says that, before 1752, Christmas
fell nearly two weeks later than it does now, so that then the expecta
tion of a white Christmas was realised more often.
5.3
MultiStore to PipeDream transfer
5.3
Brian Varley saw me at the AU Show and told me about a utility he had
written which will convert files written in MultiStore to PipeDream
format. If you wish to reverse the process he has another program which
will do this. Each program costs £20 and you can buy them from him.
(Contact Brian Varley via Abacus Training)
5.3
AutoSave in PipeDream
5.3
I have had about a dozen letters arising from a Risc User utility which
AutoSaves every few minutes from !Edit and !Draw quite successfully. It
fails with !PipeDream. Why? We don’t know but Barry McElroy from South
Australia has a solution. His solution is to throw away Risc User’s
AutoSave and use the AutoSave utility available on the David Pilling
PipeDream Extras disc. It is unfortunate they have the same name as they
are two completely different programs.
5.3
Running macros
5.3
From several sources, I have been told that an alternative way of
running a macro which is sometimes most useful is to drag it over the
open PipeDream window that you want it to operate on. If you do that
then you won’t execute the macro on the wrong file by mistake.
5.3
The function atn2
5.3
C J Mills explains that mathematicians use a different nomenclature from
the rest of civilization when referring to ‘polar angles’. PD3 works
clockwise from the North Pole (giving the Northing first followed by the
Easting) whereas mathematicians work anticlockwise from the x axis
(giving the x coordinate followed by the y).
5.3
In PD4, atn2 doesn’t exist but atn_2 does. The syntax of atn_2 uses the
mathematician’s convention of Eastings before Northings and gives the
polar angle anticlockwise from the x axis!
5.3
PipeDream 4
5.3
That brings me round to Pd4. Perhaps a measure of my growing familiarity
with, and confidence in, PD4 is that I am writing this month’s PipeLine
article in PD4 rather than in PD3 before exporting it to Impression
(Paul’s preferred format for Archive). As I write, the
9th November 1991, I have version 4.01 which seems to react more
‘smoothly’ than version 4.00 and I definitely pronounce it to be
‘usable’. I have been given a date for version 4.10 which I don’t think
is meant to be a secret but, just in case, let me tell you only that it
is a date well before Christmas! By the time you read this, etc, etc.
With any software having the sophistication of PD4, there are bound to
be residual bugs and so Colton Software would like you to let them (on
me!) know if you find a bug − in any version of PD4.
5.3
New features
5.3
Let’s start with the good things about PD4. These are the features which
I believe will wipe out the opposition and endear you to PD4 long after
you have recovered from the trauma of changing from the PD3 with which
you are so familiar.
5.3
Template files
5.3
Gone is the ini file with all its problems for the likes of me who get
files from you (but without your ini file) and can’t find out why you
have a problem because with my ini file it doesn’t happen. Gone is the
saving of blank letterhead, invoice and even blank label files. With
PD4, I can save a template containing text, drawings (e.g. a logo), the
appropriate printer driver and the file is saved with the cursor at the
right place for me to start typing, running a macro or loading a block
from another document. The template is saved with the <Ctrl+FI> command
which, in PD3, was used to save the ini file. When you use the New
document command from the icon bar, you can step through all your
templates until you find the one you want to load for the job in hand.
5.3
Mouse control
5.3
This is improved and I have yet to learn all the tricks but here are
some that I have found useful.
5.3
To change the width of a column (e.g. to widen column A) you drag the
edge of the column (the line between the A and B at the top of the
sheet) with the mouse. You can also drag the wrap width with the mouse
one column at a time or you can ‘link’ together a range of columns so
that they all have the same right margin. Better still, for many
tabulated documents, is the auto width option which automatically widens
a column if you need a little extra space.
5.3
You can drag the mouse over a range of cells to mark the block or you
can use the mouse adjust button to mark the second point of a marked
block (rather like Impression).
5.3
There is a click box at the top left of the PD4 window which replaces
<Ctrl+Q> or it will mark the whole sheet.
5.3
Arrays
5.3
Arrays are an interesting new feature which I have used and like. An
array can be a range of slots (as in Schema) or (unlike Schema) it can
be a hidden spreadsheet of many cells located within one slot. The
advantage of arrays is that all the cells within the array can be
processed by a single instruction. This leads to simple operations such
as adding together a couple of numeric arrays or more sophisticated
processing such as the idea I have outlined in the paragraph below
called ‘Thesaurus’ (guess what that might do).
5.3
Arrays can contain mixtures of numbers and text and can be operated on
by your custom functions (see below).
5.3
Variable names
5.3
As in the Basic language, you can now give meaningful names to vari
ables. You can give a name to a fixed value or to a slot or to an array
and the values you want can be in a dependent document and (of course)
they can be variable. It seems to me that PD4 works more quickly with
names than with cell references so this is a feature I am going to
exploit.
5.3
Custom functions
5.3
You can write your own functions. In practice, you write a custom
function in a separate spreadsheet which PD4 then calls into memory as a
dependent document. These custom functions can process a mixture of
numbers and text and the language includes ‘flow control’ commands such
as Repeat − Until. Unlike the blanket iteration of PD3, in PD4 you can
use a custom function to target your iteration. Custom functions will
accept arrays of mixed numbers and text as the input parameters and will
output either single values or an array of mixed numbers and text.
5.3
Thesaurus
5.3
No! There is no thesaurus in PD4 but I can see how, in principle at
least, a custom function could be written which inputs one word and
outputs an array of synonyms. If someone likes the idea and is willing
to think this through up to the point of writing a specification of the
Thesaurus function then maybe we can all add our few favourite synonyms
to it as we can, at the moment, exchange user dictionaries. What is
important is that we all agree on the syntax of the Thesaurus function
before we start!
5.3
Charts
5.3
The charts which were (I quote Colton Software) ‘fragile’ in version
4.00 are much more ‘stable’ in version 4.01. It is an understatement to
call them ‘stunning’. Furthermore, they are ‘hot linked’, work in the
background and they are fast.
5.3
WYSIWYG
5.3
In PD4, when you change the line spacing, the screen display will change
to show the new line spacing. Tall fonts appear to be tall and not
squashed from above.
5.3
Converting from PD3
5.3
This is the nasty bit about PD4. It is not what you might call com
pletely ‘downward compatible’. Not every file created in PD3 will run in
PD4. Perhaps more difficult will be getting to know and use the new,
better ways of doing things, not least the improved user interface.
5.3
What’s missing?
5.3
Facilities which are in PD3 but have been removed from PD4 include
Iteration and Linking files. Multi file documents are retained in PD4
but are not documented nor are they fully supported. Some of the control
commands have been changed to make them more logical but the old command
has been retained but not documented. For example <Ctrl+BNT> is now the
documented command for changing number slots to text slots (and text to
numbers); previously, in PD3, this was <Ctrl+ENT>. You will find that
<Ctrl+ENT> has been retained but not documented.
5.3
Column and Row recalculation are no longer available. However, I find
that the ‘natural’ choice which has replaced Row or Column works much
more smoothly than in PD3 and the stack overflow problem of PD3 just
doesn’t happen any more. Background calculation is less obtrusive, so I
am much happier to use auto than I was with PD3.
5.3
What’s been changed?
5.3
There are two major changes in the syntax of the database functions
which seriously affect running PD3 files in PD4.
5.3
The condition is no longer a string and the single quotes must be
removed. The conditional sum dsum(A1A100,‘A1>0’) doesn’t work. The
condition must be expressed as a range; the above formula becomes
dsum(A1A100,A1A100>0). The # used to ‘fix’ a condition is no longer
required. The function dsum(A1A100,‘A1> B#1’) is no longer valid; you
must use dsum(A1A100,A1A100>B1).
5.3
Strings can be entered only with double inverted commas.
5.3
The hyphen can be mistaken for a minus sign. For example, Start-Finish
is a valid way of abbreviating the text phrase “start to finish” in PD3
but, in PD4, in a slot on its own, it could be the difference between
two variables (names) called Start and Finish.
5.3
The function index(col,row) has a new syntax which includes an extra
argument, the array over which the index is to be evaluated. The
arguments col and row are now offsets from the top left corner of the
array.
5.3
What is Abacus Training going to do?
5.3
One approach we could have taken (but rejected) is what I might call the
HCF approach (highest common factor − instructions which work in both
PD3 and PD4). However, the PD4 user interface is so much smoother to use
that, if we had done this, we would not be showing you how to get the
best out of PD4 nor would we satisfy PD3 users.
5.3
So far as the PipeLine discs are concerned, we have decided to rename
the PipeLine series which contain applications which run best in PD3 as
PipeLine 3 and create a new series of discs called PipeLine 4 with
tutorials, advice and applications which run in PD4. If you decide to
upgrade from PD3 to PD4 then you can convert your PipeLine 3 subscrip
tion to a subscription to PipeLine 4 at any time. What you will not be
able to do is to exchange your old PipeLine 3 discs for new PipeLine 4
discs for free.
5.3
4Sight and the PD4 Demo disc
5.3
I read and noted with interest David Holden’s remarks about Crippleware
in Archive last month. He asks “Would you . . . pay to watch a TV
advert?” Let me answer a question with a question. Would you be prepared
to pay to read a review of some software you might want to buy? Now to a
harder question. Would you be prepared to pay (a relatively small
amount) to try out some software you’re interested in before you pay a
lot more to buy it and risk finding out too late that (in spite of the
glowing review) it doesn’t do what you want? My own view is that
Crippleware does serve a useful purpose. A few months ago, I bought some
Crippleware (which shall remain nameless) and I was glad that I did
because then I didn’t waste money by buying the real thing.
5.3
Anyway, if you are tempted by PD4, you must make up your own mind
whether to take a chance on upgrading to PD4 from the glowing reviews
(or this column) or whether you should buy some Crippleware which might
help you decide (either way) with more certainty. What we (Abacus
Training) are offering is a pair of discs for £5.00. One is Colton
Software’s PD4 demonstration disc which has the Save and Print functions
and, I think, the SpellChecker disabled; undoubtedly this falls within
the definition of Crippleware. The second is our 4Sight disc which
contains tutorials and worked examples which are designed to help you
appreciate the new features (arrays, templates, variable names, custom
functions, smoother user interface, etc) of PD4 as well as sections
(with macros where appropriate) which we believe will help you convert
your favourite documents from PD3 to PD4.
5.3
As I write, 4Sight is not complete and the PD4 demo disc will not be
available until version 4.10 is released. However, this should be before
Christmas and, by the time you read this, the package should be
available so, if you are interested, let us know.
5.3
The PipeLine column
5.3
What I shall try to do here is to distinguish between PD3 and PD4
applications. So please, when you write to me, let me know whether what
you have sent in is suitable for PD3 or PD4 (or both). I don’t know what
proportion of you will upgrade from PD3 to 4 or to what extent those of
you happy to stick with PD3 will still need the support of this column,
but I will have to be guided by the correspondence I receive in
proportioning out the pages Paul is prepared to place at my disposal.
5.3
If you have just bought PD4 and would like to share your views on
whether or not it was worthwhile upgrading or if you have any advice,
comment or criticism (but not PD4 bugs yet!) then please write to me at
the Abacus Training address on the inside back cover of Archive.  A
5.3

5.3
The Engineer Speaks
5.3
Ray Maidstone
5.3
•    Hard drive mounts − Several customers have had cause to ship their
Archimedi to me for repair, and a hardware problem has come to light.
Some of you have purchased hard drives that have been mounted on thin
aluminium brackets. These rather flimsy brackets easily distort under
small amounts of G stress and, unfortunately, a few harddrives have gone
to the great hard disc graveyard in the sky. Aluminium was used by the
Airforce because of its tensile properties, and should (due to this very
fact) not be used to anchor a hard drive. These small brackets deform
under stress and leave the drive “flapping” about.
5.3
Another comment about brackets − a lot of them are fine for their
supporting properties but not very good when it comes to air circula
tion. This can be improved by either punching some 3/8“ holes in the
sides, or by buying a pair of Paul’s new nifty side brackets at £4 a
pair. We have had a few instances of over-heating causing premature
decease of drives, particularly with back planes full of podules and a
partly blocked filter. It is possible that, by reducing the bracket
size, this could have been avoided.
5.3
•    *Shut and *bye − The last word! I have not, at any time in my
comments, stated that the suggestions I have made are law, I have merely
offered the result of my findings to those who hadn’t a clue of what was
going on. There are a few small, old drives that need both, but most
only need one command to park. The removables, however, most certainly
do not park, and only the operating lever finally parks the heads. These
findings came about from observations of partially dismantled units
operating under standard command use.
5.3
•    LBP4 laser printers − I have been asked about switch on/off procedures
for these, and I reckon that, to minimise “spikes”, the order should
be... when switching on, either do so all together or the printer last,
and turning off, either do it all altogether or switch off the printer
first.
5.3
•    Cooling − Following the success of quietening the fans on Archimedes,
external hard drives have now been added to the list, and no heat
problems have arisen (mainly because of 14 months of actual proving
before releasing). Whilst assessing the quietening for these drives, it
was surprising to find just how mechanically noisy some makes of fan
were, as nearly 50% of the noise from the unit was being conducted
through the chassis assembly.
5.3
I have also been asked “If I don’t like Acorn’s cooling method, what
would I like instead?” My reply is that, in my opinion, the current fan
with or without a quietener (that never lets the fan speed drop below
75%) is not quite enough in the real world. Particularly if the filter
is on the inside, hardly anyone appears to pay much attention to keeping
the filter clean. Therefore, I have found a rather nice miniature fan
(currently being used by Morley in their external hard drives) that,
when introduced into the opposite side of the case to the present
arrangement, and being set to push air out of the case as the other
sucks it in, really gets some cooling done.
5.3
A cautionary note about airflow is not to stand external floppy and hard
drive units too close to the sides of the Archimedes, or soft surfaces
under the A3000, as “what goes in must come out” and I have seen several
instances of hot machines being caused by the proximity of external
surfaces. The A3000 has a power supply that runs quite hot and, being
encased in fireproof cardboard, (on the earlier machines, anyway) made
things even more heated. I am using the miniature fan, aimed at the end
of the P.S.U., to assist temperature differences in this rather enclosed
environment. If anyone is interested in more details, let me know. This
small fan gives off very little sound and certainly improves longevity.
The lack of space inside the A3000 generally adds to the poor cooling in
the P.S.U. and any air movement is better than none.
5.3
I made the comment above about fan quieteners not slowing the fan more
than 75% because, in the course of my development, I also tried systems
that reduced the fan speed to 40%, and also did one trial where I
stopped it all together for the first quarter hour, as no heat would
build up until after this. The fan would then thermostatically cut in
and then run in a varied way subject to temperature requirements. These
were all dropped due to the fact that, as the Archimedes box is not at
all aerodynamic, once the temperature began to build up, certain items
within it started to experience particularly large temperature rises
i.e. hard drive, P.S.U. and floppy drive. The final unit chosen simply
took the fan below the noise of air flare speed and, together with the
chassis decoupling grommets, removed so much noise that only the sound
of the hard drive rang in the ears. I would caution people against using
controllers that slow the fan excessively.
5.3
•    IDE cabling − I notice that IDE drive cables have been quoted as long
as 20“. I have it on very good authority that in some cases, even 12” is
pushing it. This is because IDE signals tend to be far more easily
corrupted than those on SCSI lines. So please be warned and keep them as
short as possible.  A
5.3

5.3
Help!!!!
5.3
•    Bridge program − Does anyone know of a bridge program for the
Archimedes? Either commercial or PD? Kevin Moore, Hove.
5.3
•    DTP editor − When Ian Lynch stepped down as DTP Columnist in December
1990, someone else offered to take over. Unfortunately, he seems to have
been too busy and hasn’t managed to produce anything. The lack of DTP
articles and ideas is a major omission in Archive. Is there anyone out
there who could to take over? If so, please get in touch with us as soon
as possible. Thanks.
5.3
•    Elite? − The Archimedes Elite manual states that rank is no longer
simply determined by number of kills achieved. Has anyone figured out
what criteria are used? I’ve been playing for weeks, I’ve got all the
gear (including a military laser) and I’m still rated “Mostly Harmless”.
Contact Neil Hoggarth, 18 Stanmore Lane, Winchester SO22 4AJ.
5.3
• Interference with dongles – Could anyone suggest a way of restoring
the screening on the printer cable on an Archimedes. I have a WorraCAD
and an Impression dongle with a dongle dangle to get the dongles down
below the desk. Can anybody tell me if there is any self adhesive
screening tape or other cure available?
5.3
J.R.McLachlan, Hertford
5.3
(WorraCAD is now supplied without a dongle, you may be interested to
know. Ed.)
5.3
•    Investment software − Does anyone know of any investment software for
the Archimedes? Either commercial or PD? (NOT Silicon Vision’s Share
Holder!!!) M Lowe, Loughton.
5.3
•    PC Emulator compatibility list − Some long while ago, John Eden did an
excellent job compiling a list of those programs that worked on the
(old) PC Emulator. With the advent of the new PC Emulator, it would be
good to create such a list again. Would anyone be prepared to be the
coordinator? In the meantime, if you would like to send your reports in
to us at N.C.S., just tell us which version numbers of which bits of MS-
DOS software work correctly and we will pass it all on to whoever wants
to volunteer to co-ordinate it.
5.3
•    Schema features − If you are using Schema and have ideas of features
that it should have or that it should not (i.e. bugs) please pass them
on to Mr J R Buckley, Bramley, Goring Road, Steyning, W Sussex BN4 3GF
who is collating such things for Clares ready for Schema 2.
5.3
•    User group − Is there one in the South Shropshire / Worcester /
Hereford / West Midlands area? If so, please contact Nigel Price on
0584−810484.
5.3
•    WorraCAD − If anyone could give help to a beginner trying to use
WorraCAD, please contact Nigel Price in Worcestershire on 0584−810484.
5.3
Help Offered
5.3
•    Scanned photos − If anyone wants colour or mono photographs scanned,
Peter Hughes is offering to do 10 photos, mono or colour for £5, all of
which will go to charity. Contact him c/o Promotional Designs Serving
Commerce and Charities (PDSCC for short!), P.O.Box 332, Bristol BS99
7XL.  A
5.3

5.3
Teletext Adaptor Software
5.3
Patrick Bean
5.3
Within days of my review of the Morley Teletext Adaptor being published,
in Archive (5.2 page 30), I received (via Paul), a copy of a multitask
ing display program for the adaptor, called !Teletext. This software was
originally sold by “Ivoryash Limited”, but is now marketed by some
people called “The Really Good Software Company”. In my review of the
adaptor itself, I did comment on some shortcomings in the original
program, in particular the lack of multitasking. Happily, almost all of
these problems are fixed in this new package, giving a totally “point
and click” system, running under the RISC-OS desktop.
5.3
The display
5.3
The main teletext window is resizeable and displays the mode 7 screen to
a good standard. The emulation does not however include double height or
flashing. Some colours look a little odd, as the standard desktop
colours are used. These of course can be changed from the palette in the
normal way. The output can also be changed to mono, useful for printing.
The character size does not change when the window is resized, only the
amount of the page that you can actually see at any one time. This is a
shame (at least for partially sighted people like myself) as the desktop
display is of course much smaller than the full screen mode 7 on the old
system. However, if this is a problem, one of the many PD screen
magnification applications should help. Graphics are shown by redefining
the system font. This means that international characters above ASCII
160 will not display correctly once !Teletext has been run.
5.3
In use
5.3
On running the software an icon appears on the icon bar. Clicking
<select> over this icon brings up two windows, one for the main display,
the other (called the remote) containing “buttons” for all the usual
operations such as “hold”, “reveal”, four channel presets and, of
course, the ten numbers.
5.3
A very useful option for recalling (from memory!) any one of the last
ten viewed pages, has also been included.
5.3
The point and click interface goes even further, however. Moving the
pointer onto the page display window and clicking on any three digit
page number will enter that page number as if from the “remote”. This
approach also works with the four “fastText” titles that can usually be
seen at the bottom of each page (just click on the one you want).
5.3
Pressing <menu> over the application icon (on the icon bar) brings up a
menu containing not only the normal info and quit, but also some handy
options for setting the computer’s real time clock to the teletext time
and for redisplaying the remote, if you have accidentally closed it. The
channel data file can be copied from the old disk, so you won’t have to
go through all that tuning again! If however you do need to make changes
this too is done using the mouse and this is considerably easier to do
as you just flick from channel to channel instead of adjusting the
actual frequency.
5.3
The program multi-tasks correctly but there is a significant delay each
time a page is transferred from the adaptor. We are told that this
slowness is because of the method used to connect the adaptor to the
computer. The ten page memory already mentioned helps in this respect as
the page asked for may already be in the computer’s memory and so will
not need to be transferred again.
5.3
Saving data
5.3
Pages can be saved to disc either in full colour or as a text file. The
colour files can be reloaded in to the system at any time (even when the
adaptor is not connected). The text files can of course be loaded into
!Edit. If you have a colour printer !Paint can be used to grab the
current screen as a sprite, for later printing.
5.3
Overall
5.3
This package is a vast improvement over the Morley software, and well
worth the asking price. The lack of double height is a pity, but this
omission is probably because of the limited number of characters
available for redefinition. The other comments (in my first review)
about the difficulties of writing inter-active software still hold true,
but this is not the problem addressed by this package. If you use your
teletext system regularly then it is well worthwhile upgrading. The
multitasking teletext software costs £29.95 from “The Really Good
Software Company”.  A
5.3

5.3
ProTips
5.3
Peter Jennings
5.3
This is mainly a brief progress report on the latest version of Protext.
Arnor have now issued a new upgrade, which is version 5.09. This is not
yet the RISC-OS compliant one, which has now been put back to “early
next year”, but has some useful improvements.
5.3
The biggest improvement I have found is that this version seems to have
cured the “PROTEXT!X not found” problem when saving, although there is
no mention of this in the new ReadMe file. This just has the additional
note that: “This version contains an extra enhancement that will cause
the config, fsort and convert programs to be found even when they are
not visible either on the search path or in the current directory. If an
external program cannot be found, Protext will now also look in its own
directory for it.”
5.3
As all my Protext files are on hard disc within the !Protext directory,
I can now sort without having to exit the program first.
5.3
The upgrade seems to have solved some problems with loading and starting
up Protext which I have heard about, in one case after the initial copy
of the new version was found to be faulty and was replaced.
5.3
Backup files
5.3
Apart from the advantages which will come from a RISC-OS compatible
Protext, one improvement I would still like to see (and I have suggested
it to Arnor) is to change the prefix given to back-up copies from “B!”
to either “B.” or, better still, “Backup.” so that they are saved into a
separate directory. Protext creates new directories automatically when
they do not already exist, so there would be no additional action needed
by the user. As well as leaving more room in the main directory, this
would avoid the truncation, and possible duplication, of file names
which are already nine or ten characters long, as most of mine are.
5.3
Other people’s methods are often of interest, sometimes to copy or
improve. Mine is to file letters in a directory named with the last two
digits of the year, such as “92”. Each file name is made up from the
first six letters of the intended recipient’s name followed by the
numbers of the month and the day. So a letter to Paul Beverley written
on January the 25th would be named “Beverl0125”. If I also corresponded
with a John Beverley the file names would be modified to “BeverP0125”
and “BeverJ0125”. This keeps each year’s correspondence in alphabetical
and then chronological order. When the directory is filled, I rename it
by adding an “A”, to make it “92A” and open a new 92 for the rest of the
year or until this is also filled, when it becomes “92B”. This keeps the
same number for the current directory throughout the year and saves
having to remember whether a new one has been opened.
5.3
Marginal problems
5.3
I have received a query from a reader who has been having problems with
the left-hand margin in Protext documents. He keeps getting lines
indented by one character. This can be caused by a wrongly set up ruler.
The left-hand margin is set by Protext at the “L” on the default ruler.
When you set a new ruler, either with <ctrl-R> or by typing it in, the
new ruler should begin with a “>” only. If you have “>L” at the start,
you will see that the default ruler at the top of the page has moved
right one character to line up the “L” with the one on the new ruler,
thus setting the left margin one character to the right. This will take
effect from any lines typed below the new ruler.
5.3
Version 5.09 of Protext seems to have removed the bugs that bothered me
in earlier versions. If you still know of any problems, I would be
interested to hear about them, with or without a work-around, by way of
a letter to Archive. I would also be interested in any useful tips which
may be worth passing on to other users.  A
5.3

5.3
First Impression
5.3
New
5.3
Coming direct to you
5.3

5.3
Waterloo
5.3
Tord Eriksson
5.3
Numerous war games have been devoted to the epic battle of Waterloo, but
this is the first for the Archimedes. It is a conversion from another
computer, but the manual doesn’t say which. I presume it was a Spectrum,
as you will see....
5.3
The Waterloo game
5.3
What first impresses the buyer of ‘Waterloo’, by Dr Peter Turcan of
Turcan Research Systems, is the quality of the box, manual and map. It’s
the best I’ve seen; good layout, high quality paper and no big and
clumsy plastic boxes.
5.3
The manual covers everything you would want to know about the game − the
political prolog to the battle, the uniforms used by the different
troops, the names of the major officers involved and, not least, a very
good bibliography! A historian would be impressed!
5.3
There is very little to grumble about except the fact that the perspec
tive view over the battle field is not very realistic, (even if the
manual prides itself that it is much more realistic than other war
games) as I don’t think aerostats were used for battle reconnaissance
nor was the line of sight many miles. The visibility is outstanding and
with the help of the ‘telescope’ you can easily identify friend or foe
(pointing with the mouse outside the battle area is the easiest way of
using the ‘telescope’ close up − this is not mentioned in the manual).
5.3
The telescope gives you verbal information (amazingly enough!) and is
not too good at giving correct distances − everything is either ½ mile
away or 1 mile away. Otherwise it’s very handy in avoiding shelling your
own troops.
5.3
When shooting with black powder, as was the norm at the beginning of
19th century, the main practical difference from today’s wars, with so-
called smokeless powder, is the fact that black powder produces so much
smoke that visibility is a great problem! If you haven’t got fog before
the start, as Gustavus Adolfus had at Lütsen, you soon have man-made
fog! This is a fact of life that the game dispenses with by ignoring it.
5.3
Graphics of yesterday
5.3
The landscape, presented in 3D perspective, is 100% flat even if the
printed map tells another story. (I would have preferred a Lander-type
landscape.) The graphics are, on the whole, primitive: Horses are drawn
1 or 2 pixel wide, or if they are amassed, stacked cubes. (Low cubes =
infantry, double height cubes = cavalry). Trees are drawn in the same
way but the houses are fairly convincing, as are pennants and flags,
being 2D by default.
5.3
I think the game would have been easier to get used to with a bird’s eye
view instead, like standard war games. To avoid the gamester being all-
knowing, only a small part of the map could be visible at a time − just
as you ‘look east’ or ‘look west’.
5.3
It took quite some time to get used to giving orders in the way that the
parser likes. Still, due to the very friendly way it worked, you can
learn quickly, as the parser works like a Spectrum’s editor: The cursor
flashes at the offending word.
5.3
The fact that some names on the map are different from the names used
within the program is very bad: Rosomme, near Napoleon’s HQ on the map,
is Rossome from the game’s point of view!
5.3
Wellington’s rout
5.3
Another odd feature is when Wellington goes into a rout, which he does
quite often. The program says that you, as Wellington, are disorganised
and can’t give orders or receive reports. Then you run off the game area
and even if you stop in the middle of your own army on the way, you
can’t tell them a single thing.
5.3
At the same time, you can stand perfectly alone in your own square mile
without being disorganised?!
5.3
Each time Wellington has run off in his boots he has won the battle,
some way or other....
5.3
Game-playing
5.3
The rest is a delight: You can give some very complex commands like:
‘Reille, at 12.30 p.m. form a defence line from Hougoumont, linking with
Kellerman to Plancenoit linking with Lobau.’, or ‘Kellerman give support
to Drouot’, or ‘All corps, transfer 10 divisions of artillery to Orange’
or ‘All corps, shell enemy 1 ½ mile southeast Chantelet.’.
5.3
You read all messages passed to and from the different commanders (if
you set up the game that way!), you watch the guns shell the enemy etc.
5.3
Conclusion
5.3
If it weren’t for the rather primitive graphics, that remind me of my
Spectrum, I would recommend this, without hesitation, for anyone
interested in war games. You will certainly be busy giving orders,
making battle damage assessments and trying to keep away from your
enemy’s shelling.
5.3
The parser, also a dear echo of my Spectrum days, the manual and the
game itself were absolutely perfect (even if my computer crashed once −
the first commercial program to do so, not counting DTP programs).
5.3
After having played the game numerous times, both as Wellington and
Napoleon, the end of the battle is almost always the same: Wellington
wins! Sometimes he manages very well without the Prussian army, but
mostly 50% or more of the casualties on the French side are inflicted by
the army under Blücher (who was Swedish, I gather! Ed.). Without the men
in black, or light blue, history might have evolved quite differently...
5.3
Maybe, some time in the future, Dr Turcan will add Lander-like graphics
and more life-like soldiers and horses.
5.3
Then it would only be anti-war sentiment that would keep it from
stardom!  A
5.3

5.3
6502 Assembly on the Archimedes
5.3
Paul Skirrow
5.3
Until recently, I have been using System ADE+ 65C02 macro assembler on a
BBC Master Turbo for developing some very large 6502 programs (around
2.5MB of source code in total). When my BBC hard disk failed, I decided
it was time to move over to the Archimedes and develop the 6502 source
code there. I investigated the Cross 32 Meta assembler, but soon
dismissed it because it lacked many of the features which I used
extensively in the old 8 bit assembler. In particular it does not
provide any form of looping structures to allow a section to be
assembled several times (very useful where speed is important and you
want something to run as fast as possible by repeating 3 instructions a
large number of times). Neither does it allow string handling, whereas
ADE+ provides the equivalent of MID$ − invaluable for parameter
processing within macros.
5.3
Unfortunately the ADE+ assembler won’t work, as it stands, with any of
the 6502 emulators, because it is a two ROM system with the assembler in
one 16k ROM, and the linker and memory management unit (MMU) in another.
The linker will run on its own, so there is no problem, but the
assembler needs all of its variables set up by the MMU before it can
assemble anything. Fortunately, these variables are documented in the
ADE+ technical reference guide, and I eventually managed to coax the
assembler into assembling my source code by setting up its memory just
like the MMU would before it is run.
5.3
The end result is superb. The ADE+ assembler running under the 65tube
emulator is actually significantly faster than on a BBC Master Turbo
which had a 4MHz 6502 processor (this is largely due to the much faster
hard disks of the Archimedes). On the new A5000 it can assemble 600k of
source code in around a minute (or about 300 lines per second), and this
is still running under the 6502 emulator. This is the same order of
magnitude as the Cross 32 Meta assembler, which is rather surprising
when you consider ADE+ was written to work on a BBC model B computer
about 6 years ago (although to be fair, the meta assembler can cope with
a wide range of processors and this is bound to slow it down).
5.3
If anybody is interested in running the ADE+ 65C02 assembler on the
Archimedes I would be happy to supply my program and documentation to
make it run, and if there is enough demand I will cover the process in
more detail.  A
5.3

5.3

5.3
A5000 and RISC-OS 3 − More Comments
5.3
Paul Skirrow
5.3
After reading the Archive preview of the A5000, we turned up at the
Acorn User show within an hour of it opening on the first day, and
despite having a large cheque ready in our sweaty hands, we were still
too late to take a machine away with us. We (a small electronics firm
designing and building computer controlled audio test equipment) ordered
three at the show and Acorn did eventually manage to get them to us
within a week, although we did have to argue with them a bit, and I
understand that many people have had to wait quite a while.
5.3
The A5000 Learning Curve package comes with around 20 discs, 20 manuals
of various sizes and a plethora of update sheets, release notes and
addenda − quite overwhelming even for the hardened Archimedes user but
well worth the extra £38 over the cost of an A5000, although I doubt
that many will want to use First Word Plus or Acorn DTP when they see
the alternatives. Both have major shortcomings, for example, First Word
Plus cannot use the Acorn printer drivers and hence misses out on most
of the benefits that RISC-OS brings, while Acorn DTP can only show the
document at a few sizes (50%, 100%, 200%) which is very limiting (I
often use 130% to make an A4 document fill a mode 78 screen width). The
list goes on and on. I would recommend one of the many serious DTP
packages, such as Impression, or Ovation − they are vastly superior for
both word processing and DTP.
5.3
The machine itself is a joy to use. It feels extremely fast and smooth,
and it took me quite a while to find anything which would slow it down
at all. In particular, text rotation in Draw is superb, while Chocks
Away in ARM3 mode is simply awesome. The following describes some of the
new features and the way in which they are implemented.
5.3
Resources filing system
5.3
This is effectively a ROM filing system which holds Draw, Edit, Paint,
Configure, Chars, Calc, Help and Alarm, as well as the basic font set
(Trinity, Homerton and Corpus) and a massive directory containing all of
the sprites and text messages used by the system (this makes it easy for
Acorn to produce foreign language versions, and I think Acorn are
working on an Italian version which Olivetti will sell). These resources
can also be used by other programs running on the machine to save
duplicating them. An icon for the resources appears on the icon bar next
to the disc drive icons, so it is always accessible. The user can choose
which of the built-in applications should install themselves on the icon
bar when the machine starts up, and any which are not installed can then
be loaded later by opening the resources filing system and double
clicking on an application to run it. Note that not everybody will want
to have them all running automatically, because they all claim workspace
memory even though they actually live in ROM. Draw, Paint, Edit and
Alarm use 80k, 80k, 48k and 48k respectively (compared with 288k, 256k,
224k and 64k in RISC-OS 2).
5.3
Draw
5.3
Draw, like any application on the A5000, is very smooth and fast. Text
and sprite rotation are simple and virtually instantaneous (vertical
text is ideal for labelling diagrams and is long overdue) and text can
be edited so you no longer need to delete and re-type. There are a lot
of keyboard short-cuts and start up options which can be saved, as for
any other application, in a !BOOT file created by the Task Manager.
Colour rendition has been improved, by dithering, to extend the
effective colour range. The thin-line selection bug has been fixed and
the grid drawing has also been speeded up significantly. There is also
an undo option in case you delete something by mistake.
5.3
There is a new option, similar to that provided in Draw Plus, which
converts an object to a path outline − this is very useful with text
objects which, once transformed, can be manipulated as graphics objects.
It certainly makes FontDraw redundant, although it does not provide the
flexibility of FontFX.
5.3
A major new feature is the ability to interpolate between two objects
(which must contain the same number of points). You specify how many
steps to use and Draw draws the specified number of intermediate objects
and interpolates the colours. This is very nice for creating shading
backgrounds, fading from any colour to any other at any angle, as shown
below:
5.3
This feature can also have some uses in blending shapes together − you
could transform a car into a robot, if you wanted, provided the two
objects had the same arrangement of lines. Draw actually creates new
objects in the Drawfile which then behave like any other discrete object
(although they are grouped with the two original objects). This means
that the new grouped object can be stretched and rotated, but you cannot
change the angle of one of the original objects and expect the interpo
lated objects to change accordingly. Computer Concept’s forthcoming
ArtWorks package wins here because it doesn’t create new objects, but
does the interpolation during the rendering phase. Thus the initial
objects can be changed and the interpolation will still work correctly.
5.3
As far as I can tell, the Draw file format is identical to that used in
RISC-OS 2, with the addition of rotated text and sprite objects. Old
applications are certainly quite happy to load the new Draw files and
there does not appear to be any compatibility problem at all, although
they obviously cannot use rotated text or sprites.
5.3
Paint
5.3
Paint is also very fast, especially at sprite rotation but, unlike Draw,
it modifies the original sprite, as expected (so rotating by +30° and
then by −30° does not restore the original, whereas Draw and Impression
always keep the original untouched). Again, there are plenty of key
short cuts and configuration settings to determine how you want Paint to
start up.
5.3
Shear and scale are also provided and it is possible to replace a colour
with transparent, or transparent with a colour, but only globally.
5.3
Unfortunately, Paint can still only use the system font and knows
nothing of outline fonts. The palette is still awkward to change and
there is no provision for simple contrast or colour adjustment as found
in many scanner packages. These are glaring omissions and I am sure that
they will be included in Artworks. I have also managed to crash Paint a
few times, usually when doing a sprite rotation, although it is not
repeatable.
5.3
Paint file format
5.3
The sprite file format is unchanged, which is useful while transferring
files between RISC-OS 2 and RISC-OS 3 machines. Unfortunately, this
means that there is no 24 bit colour support, and no resolution
information stored within the sprite file, although I understand that
Acorn are working with key developers to produce a new format which
supports both. 24 bit colour is essential for serious colour type
setting, although is not too relevant for the majority of users. Storing
the image resolution within a sprite file simplifies image manipulation
because it allows scanned images to be dropped into DTP systems and
printed at the original size without any problem. Some scanner software
overcomes this by producing Draw files which contain the resolution
information in addition to the sprite image, but this is clumsy.
5.3
Meanwhile, Impression users with scanners should know that a 30% scaling
of a mode 12 sprite will print using a one to one correspondence between
sprite and printer pixels on a 300 dpi printer. (This is because a mode
12 sprite has pixels which are 2 OS units wide, and 1 OS unit is 1/180“,
so a mode 12 pixel is 1/90” or at 30%, 1/300“). Printing mono scanned
images will therefore give better results if a scaling of 30%, 60%,
90%... is used with the “Enhanced graphics option” turned off. Now you
understand why sprites should have size information stored with them to
make things simple...
5.3
Edit
5.3
Edit has a few changes − in particular it supports two levels of
wildcards (magic characters for novices and full wildcard expressions
for the experts). It can also load and save Basic programs directly
(with or without line numbers) so Acorn no longer include the Basic
editor with this machine. At first, I was a bit unsure about this, but
you quickly learn to appreciate the benefits of editing a Basic program
without line numbers, especially when you can do it from the desktop.
For those that really want it, the old Basic editor module (ARMBE) works
without problems.
5.3
Unfortunately, there is still no support for TAB characters, i.e.
actually doing a TAB operation when a TAB character is encountered −
instead it appears as [09]. Expanding TABs to spaces is clumsy because I
want to be able to edit source files with the TABs left in them.
5.3
Printer support
5.3
The old printer drivers have been replaced by a new printer manager into
which printer definitions can be loaded and a large number of printer
definitions are supplied. This is more complex to set up than the old
printer drivers but, once set up, it is very easy to use. The new
printer definitions are more specific to particular printers, so, for
example, the HP Deskjet Plus driver knows that the printer cannot print
multiple copies automatically like a LaserJet and it also uses the
compressed graphics modes to minimise data transfer and provide fast
printing.
5.3
It is possible to have multiple drivers on the icon bar and make one
active by simply clicking on it. This is very useful if you have two
printers on a machine (we often use a Deskjet Plus on the parallel port
for A4 and an Epson FX850 on the serial port for labels). It is also
possible to have one driver for a network printer and another for a
local printer.
5.3
Printing of sprites and grey level images can now use dithering instead
of half-toning and this gives much better results on printers with
300dpi resolution or less (where the control over the dot size used for
the half-tone is poor).
5.3
A utility is also provided to download RISC-OS fonts to Postscript
printers where necessary, so all of the low-cost Archimedes fonts can
now be used by any Postscript printer or typesetter. This will be useful
to us for downloading a “box font” which we designed ourselves so that
we can put boxes round key definitions.
5.3
Font manager
5.3
The font manager can now generate and cache transformed text (e.g.
stretched, rotated or sheared), and this facility is used by Draw for
fast rotating and transforming text. Hopefully, we will also see other
applications making use of this feature (in RISC-OS 2 applications have
to go to great lengths to rotate text by 90°). The font manager can now
cache single characters instead of 16 character chunks and this improves
speed and memory usage significantly (a single large Dingbats character
will no longer flush a large part of your font cache and waste time by
generating 15 unwanted characters).
5.3
Pinboard
5.3
Pinboard is similar to the numerous backdrop and StickyBd programs
around, but better than any I have seen. It is very straightforward to
use, with full control over icons, grouping, gridlock, tidy etc. It can
also ‘iconise’ a window (<shift-select> on the close box) and reduce it
to an icon. While iconised, menus belonging to the application can still
be accessed by using <shift-menu> over the window icon (<menu> alone
gives the pinboard menu). This feature has been present on Apple Macs
and Microsoft Windows for a while and is extremely useful for keeping
your desktop tidy.
5.3
There is an error in the documentation about Pinboard. It can’t be
enabled or disabled via the configuration application, as the manual
suggests, but it should work after a cold start, or after running a
!boot file containing Pinboard commands.
5.3
Filer
5.3
Copying, formatting, deleting and verifying now take place in the
background (if there is enough free memory) and this really is very
pleasant to use. It is even possible to be formatting a floppy, deleting
a directory and copying another directory all at the same time. Loading
of applications still holds everything up, although it is about twice as
fast as an A440 with an ST506 hard disc. The free space display now
appears as a bar graph in its own window. This stays on the screen until
closed and is updated as disc operations take place.
5.3
PC/MSDOS format discs are recognized automatically and treated just like
an Acorn format disc, and this is even easier to use than PCdir or
MultiFS, being totally transparent. Similarly, the PC hard disk
partition can be double-clicked to open a directory viewer onto it. The
format command now supports a wide range of disc formats, including the
360k, 720k, 1.2M and 1.44M PC formats.
5.3
The filer uses smart quotes ‘’ in its messages which would be quite
nice, except that old BBC applications running under the emulator know
nothing about characters with the top bit set and end up translating
them into keywords. For example, 6502 Basic now says “File PAGE fred
TIME not found”.
5.3
Another bug in the filer appears when interactive help is in use. When
moving the pointer over sub-menus the error “Message token... not found”
sometimes appears. This is not serious as it usually goes away if you
repeat the operation, but it is annoying.
5.3
Boot files
5.3
Boot files can now be created using the Task Manager which will save a
!boot file on your disc and configure the machine to auto boot when
powered up. It will also set the disc option (using *OPT4,2) and
configure the number of the drive onto which you save the !boot file.
5.3
You need to take care when doing this because it saves everything about
the current state of the machine, including window sizes and positions,
options, icons and paths names for applications which have been seen
etc. This means that if you have opened a filer window onto a floppy,
the name of all of the applications seen on that floppy will be stored
in the Boot file. So every time you start the machine up, the boot file
gets executed and in turn it tries to run the boot files on the floppy
which it knows about. This isn’t a problem providing you know about it,
but it can be confusing. The solution is always to start from cold when
creating a boot file and to think very carefully about what you are
doing. You should not attempt to create a boot file after you have been
using the machine for any other task, because it will end up taking a
long time while it boots all of the applications it thinks it ought to
know about.
5.3
Configure
5.3
Configure has been improved so that it can now control much more (but
not all) of the configuration settings stored in CMOS RAM. Again, some
care is needed because some of the settings (including font cache size
etc) are also stored in the boot file described above and these settings
override the configuration settings stored in CMOS RAM.
5.3
Squash utility
5.3
This is similar to Spark, although possibly a bit faster. However, it
cannot compress directories into a single file − it can only compress
each file within a directory. Squashed files must be unsquashed by
double-clicking on them before they can be used (whereas Spark decom
pressses them as they are loaded and is therefore much more friendly).
5.3
Unfortunately, the RISC-OS 3 release note says that there is a bug in
Squash which occasionally causes it to corrupt files! I would therefore
be very wary of using it on anything important (and certainly would not
use it without decompressing the squashed file and comparing it with the
original). This is a great pity because it would be nice to have a good,
fast compression program available to everybody. I suspect that Spark
suffers from similar bugs, and certainly wouldn’t trust it with anything
important. Hopefully Computer Concepts have got it right with Compres
sion, but this remains to be seen (no, I don’t work for them − I just
happen to think that Impression is the best thing since hierarchical
filing systems...).
5.3
Interactive help
5.3
Help is built into the ROM (accessed via the Resources filing system)
and now gives help on menu entries. Most of the Acorn applications are
now much more helpful.
5.3
Basic
5.3
Basic V version 1.05 is built into ROM, while Basic VI (also known as
Basic 64) is supplied on disc. The difference is that Basic VI uses 64
bit floating point arithmetic and will use the floating point co-
processor when available. Without a co-processor, it provides much
higher precision arithmetic (with a slight reduction in speed). The co-
processor is still a few months away and will cost around £500.
5.3
PC Emulator v1.70
5.3
This is not supplied with the A5000 as standard, but does come with the
A5000 Learning Curve pack. It is very similar to V1.60, but will work on
any RISC-OS machine (unlike v1.60 which will not work on the A5000) and
it has support for 1.44M high density floppies. The speed of the A5000
makes the PC emulator quite usable, although it is very difficult to put
an exact figure on the improvement. Do not be tempted to run Norton SI
and expect a meaningful result because this is not a real PC and cannot
be quantified as one. Direct screen access can be very slow, making most
games unplayable, whereas text and graphics output via BIOS calls, hard
disc access and maths programs are pretty quick (especially if they use
the maths co-processor). Suffice it to say that Turbo Pascal v5.0 can
compile over 50 lines per second and it is very usable − the only
problem is slightly sluggish cursor movement in the editor. Unfor
tunately, it still doesn’t support any form of extended memory, so you
are stuck with the 640k limit. This isn’t a big problem, but considering
Acorn have gone so far with this product, you would expect them to
include this. Meanwhile, the 8087 maths co-processor emulation is superb
and definitely worthwhile because it really does speed up maths
intensive programs quite significantly.
5.3
New screen modes
5.3
There are now 47 screen modes and these include modes similar to
Impression modes 66 and 82 which nearly everybody uses (incidentally,
the various NewModes modules which I tried worked fine, so you can still
use your favourite modes from a RISC-OS 2 machine). The highest
resolution available is 800x600 in 16 colours, and many modes use a 60Hz
refresh rate (instead of 50Hz) to reduce flicker. The system is very
fast when using the bigger screen modes, unlike ARM2 machines which slow
to a crawl if you start using 256 colour modes, this machine just keeps
on going. (Atomwide’s A540 modes disc, which seems to work OK on A5000,
provides, amongst others, mode 102 which I use all the time which is
1152 × 448 in 16 colours. Ed.)
5.3
Pipes
5.3
This is a method for communicating between two multi-tasking processes
which is used extensively in the UnixTM world. One tasks sends output to
another task via a pipe, and the pipe itself appears just like any other
input/output stream or file. Acorn have implemented this as a RAM filing
system, called “pipe:”. One program creates the pipe buffer and
specifies its size, for example:
5.3
*CREATE pipe:TEMP
5.3
The sending task can now open this file and write to it in the normal
way (e.g. using OPENOUT and BPUT), while the receiving task can open it
and read from it (using OPENIN and BGET). Unlike a normal file, tasks
will be suspended as necessary. For example, if a program tries to read
from the pipe when there is no data in the pipeline, it will be held up
until data appears. This doesn’t stop the entire machine, just the task
waiting for data. Similarly, any task sending data will be suspended if
the pipe buffer becomes full and restarted when the receiving task reads
some data from the pipe.
5.3
Pipes can be used for simple tasks such as filtering output before it is
displayed (e.g. removing control characters etc). They could also be
used for buffering data (to printers, for example) or for transferring
data between applications. In RISC-OS 2, data is either transferred in
chunks using special inter-task messages, or by saving to a scrap file
on disk. Messages are more difficult to program so many tasks use the
scrapfile on disk which is clumsy if you are short of disk space or
using a floppy based system. Pipes will allow tasks to communicate in a
much simpler manner.
5.3
Programming interface
5.3
Acorn have put a massive amount of effort into improving the operating
system routines available to the programmer. This will not immediately
affect the user but, given time, it is hoped that applications writers
will make use of these new routines to make their jobs easier and their
programs more powerful. The rotated text facility is just one example
and there are plenty more.
5.3
Personally, I hope that they now support Draw files properly to get
round the current mess. If you use C there is a library of routines for
manipulating Draw files, provided in the SharedClib. If you use any
other language this library is not available, so you have to render Draw
files yourself. This means that programs like FontFX and Graph must each
include a large chunk of software which really ought to be in RISC-OS
itself. If anybody knows about this, please let me know.
5.3
Compatibility
5.3
The following applications work without any problems: Translator
(V6.45), Spark (V2.14), Pipedream (3.14R), View and Viewstore (under the
Tube emulator). However, FontFX doesn’t work because it gets confused
about the new font paths (with fonts in the Resources: filing system
etc). ChangeFSI fails because it gets its menus corrupted. PC emulators
V1.60 and below don’t work, but V1.70, supplied with the Learning Curve
works fine. Programs which use any kind of disc protection are unlikely
to work because of the different floppy disc interface. Chocks Away
works fine, but Saloon Cars doesn’t.
5.3
Impression (V2.13 and V2.14c) also fails because it cannot “see” its
dongle through the new printer interface. Computer Concepts say that
version 2.15 will be available “real soon now”. (We have 2.14e which
seems OK on the A5000. Ed.)
5.3
Hardware
5.3
The new shape is much better and fits onto a typical desk well because
it is now 19“ wide (for rack mounting?) and a lot less deep. It has the
on/off switch at the front of the unit and even provides a switched
mains outlet at the back so you can now turn the whole system on by
pressing a single button at the front of the machine. (The documentation
says it is only for connection of a monitor, but I think I will ignore
that and add my printer and teletext adapter at the same time − I doubt
that there are any problems there, just don’t plug an electric fire into
it!)
5.3
The fan in the A5000 is at the rear of the machine which makes it a
little quieter and there is space for two floppies at the front. The
power supply is now on the right hand side (moved over from the left
hand side in the A400 machines).
5.3
At the rear, most of the sockets are similar to those on current
Archimedes machines, but there is now only one monitor output and that
is a 15 way VGA type socket, as found on most PCs, and this also
provides automatic monitor detection by the computer. The BNC composite
video socket is not provided.
5.3
Inside the machine, RISC-OS 3 is fitted in four large EPROMs, providing
2M in total, and there is also space for another ROM. Acorn intend that
this be used to provide extensions to the operating system without
replacing the main RISC-OS ROMs. This could therefore be used to provide
foreign language support, or even to extend RISC-OS and upgrade some of
the modules.
5.3
The A5000 comes with 2M of RAM at the moment although the next low cost
version may only have 1M. Personally I think that 1M is very restrictive
and makes the machine difficult to use, despite having so much in ROM.
2M is a reasonable amount, but you still run out fairly often (try
running the PC emulator with an EGA display mode and 640k of PC RAM on a
2M machine − it isn’t easy). 4M is ideal and makes the machine much
easier to use. The memory upgrade requires a memory board to be plugged
inside the machine and Atomwide already have a 4M board available for
£110 +VAT (£130 through Archive) and it is expandable to 8M but this is
an Atomwide only upgrade involving taking the MEMC off the main board
and adding a header mechanism. (The 4 to 8M is available now at Archive
price of £470.) Acorn’s more expensive board will restrict you to 4M
total and isn’t available yet.
5.3
Software protection
5.3
Every Acorn A5000 has a unique machine ID which can be read by software
running on the machine. This is quite new to personal computers although
it has been available on larger machines for a while, and is intended as
a form of software protection. You tell the software supplier your
machine ID and they sell you a version which will only work on that
computer (or alternatively the software can configure itself by reading
the ID the first time it is run).
5.3
Personally, I am not very happy with this kind of protection. We have
standardised on the Archimedes and now use several of them in various
departments, including software development, accounts, customer support,
production testing, documentation etc. If a machine fails anywhere we
can replace it within minutes and have the system running again, but if
we have protected software on the A5000 which only works on a single
machine we will lose this flexibility. It also means that you cannot
share a package between two machines (for a few months I used a single
Impression dongle on two different machines and moved it between them as
necessary), surely software suppliers have no right to restrict such
practices? I can lend out or share anything else that I buy, so why not
my software (providing only one copy is run at any one time)?
5.3
Acorn monitor
5.3
The multisync colour monitors supplied with the A5000 are quite
reasonable. There are four knobs on the front panel to control vertical
size, horizontal position, contrast and brightness. There are also a
couple of switches to select between auto and manual screen height, and
normal or extra width. There is no control to adjust vertical position
and the A5000 TV configuration option is useless because it loses the
top or bottom line if it is used (this seems like a bug to me).
5.3
The dot pitch (the physical spacing between the different colour dots on
the screen) is 0.38mm which is poor compared with the more expensive
monitors with a 0.28mm dot pitch, but quite adequate for normal use (the
larger the dot pitch the more fuzzy the resulting image will look,
regardless of the resolution the computer is generating). It is not as
sharp as my old Mitac monochrome multisync, but this, along with all of
the other mono multisyncs is sadly no longer in production. Most
manufacturers now concentrate on the PC market, and only provide mono
VGA monitors. If you want a multisync you have to have colour. For
tunately, Acorn have realised this problem, and made most of the screen
modes produce a reasonable display on a VGA monitor. This means that you
can buy a cheap, high resolution monochrome VGA monitor (for around
£100) and still have the flexibility of using different screen modes
with it, although some of them are a bit squashed (vertically) to make
them work correctly on the VGA monitor.
5.3
Documentation
5.3
RISC-OS 3 comes with a User Guide and an Applications Guide as well as
the usual Welcome Guide. This is about twice as many pages in total as
you get for RISC-OS 2 but, surprisingly, you no longer get a Basic
manual with the machine. This seems strange considering the masses of
books and disks which Acorn supply with the Learning Curve pack, but
presumably they expect fewer people to be writing their own programs and
more to be using the applications provided.
5.3
A new Programmer’s Reference Manual for RISC-OS 3 is being written, but
I don’t know when it is likely to be available. Until it appears, it is
impossible to use any of the new operating system calls which Acorn are
enthusing about. (If anyone is desperate to see a copy, we have ordered
an (expensive!!) photocopied pre-release version of the RISC-OS 3 P.R.M.
from Acorn. If anyone is desperate to refer to it, they could make an
appointment and come and read it in the office but I suspect that it
will be chained to Adrian’s desk!)
5.3
Other improvements
5.3
I cannot hope to cover everything in an article of this size, and there
really are a lot of minor improvements. For example: clicking with
select over the task manager brings up the task display, <shift-f12>
bring the icon bar to the front of the window stack, <ctrl-f12> opens a
task window, configure allows the screen to be blanked after a specified
time, windows expand automatically if stretched into a screen bound
aries, Alarm can save plain text files and can show a list of the alarms
etc. Many of these improvements really are nice and you miss them when
you go back to using RISC-OS 2.
5.3
Summary
5.3
The A5000 is a very impressive machine which is extremely nice to use.
It certainly makes the old A440 feel very slow and clumsy, and I can
highly recommend upgrading.
5.3
Many people predict a flood of second-hand A400 machines now, similar to
the flood of A300 machines over the last few months. However, it is
important to remember that you can now upgrade an A400 machine to an
ARM3 processor for around £280, and this will run only slightly slower
than the A5000 (which uses higher speed memory). RISC-OS 3 will be
available for A400 machines some time next year (I would guess that
Acorn will price it around the £100 mark to encourage people to buy it).
So for a £300 upgrade you get something very close to an A5000, but
without the 1.6M floppy disks, the slightly higher speed and the
capability for higher resolutions displays. A difficult decision, but
either way you end up with a very impressive machine.  A
5.3
A5000 Audio Filter and Other Comments
5.3
Jeremy Mears & Arthur Brend
5.3
Jeremy starts... Stunning as Acorn’s new machine is, it is still not
faultless. I would like to highlight the main oddities I have encoun
tered and include details of the audio filter bypass operation for the
A5000, described in Archive 4.7 p 21 for the rest of the Archimedes
range. One listen to the output from the A5000’s audio jack and the days
of lifeless, ‘deflated’ audio on my 310 came rushing back. Acorn is
still piping the filtered audio for the internal speaker to the
headphone jack, which means that the output you get through an amplifier
or headphones is nowhere near as good as the un-filtered sound that the
machine is capable of.
5.3
The audio filter on the A5000 is just the same as on previous machines
(excluding the A3000). The connector is the same 10 way jumper plug,
which, looking from the back of the computer, is located 2 cm in front
and 1cm to the left of the 3.5mm jack. Still looking from the back, row
1 is on the left and row 2, surprisingly, is on the right. The nearest
pin of row 1 is the left channel and the far pin is the right channel.
Connections to these pins and using any of row 2 for ground works fine
(and it’s a lot cheaper than paying £25 for one of Ray Maidstone’s mini-
boards!)
5.3
Monitor problems
5.3
Finally, my biggest ‘quibble’ about the A5000 is the distortion present
on the Acorn multi-sync monitor. This is a problem I have looked into,
and it appears only to occur in its worst forms in non-multisync modes.
The only symptom in mode 39 (which is an absolute joy to use in the
Desktop) is de-focusing in the centre of the screen which is easily
cured by keeping the contrast down a bit. The same cannot, however, be
said for the other forms of distortion.
5.3
In non-multisync modes, there is a definite bulge in the centre of the
screen, so that when whole or part of the screen is scrolled horizon
tally, the effect is as though you are looking through water! The above
distortion also occurs on a friend’s machine, along with bending of the
display. Often, the display on my monitor will twitch and wobble in low
resolution modes, noticeably increasing as the monitor warms up. The
later symptoms of twitching and movement could just be a fault in my
display, though personally I suspect they are a feature of this make of
monitor. If you are simply a desktop user using multisync modes, this
problem will not be at all significant, except when using packages such
as ProArtisan which leave the desktop and run in non-multisync modes,
where distortion can be more noticeable.
5.3
If, like me, you use mode 13 as a convenient mode for programming/
coding, the problem may well be more serious. I have written to Acorn
about the trouble and they say they are aware of the problem and busily
(I hope!) trying to sort it out. (You get what you pay for! Acorn have
used a relatively cheap multi-sync monitor. If you want to buy, say, an
Eizo 9060SZ to benefit from the higher resolution (0.28mm dot pitch
instead of 0.38mm) and better linearity, N.C.S. can supply it with a
Learning Curve A5000 instead of the Acorn monitor, for an extra £200,
making a total of £1999. Ed.)
5.3
Overall
5.3
These problems aside, the A5000 is a phenomenally powerful and value-
for-money system. £1800 gives you a 40M hard drive, 2 M RAM, 1.6 M
floppy, multi-sync, a superb Basic and Assembly language and hundreds of
pounds worth of quality software. RISC-OS 3 is significantly more
polished than its predecessor, particularly with the new multi-tasking
PC Emulator and main applications now in ROM. Also, as if that weren’t
enough, according to the November issue of BBC Acorn User, Acorn may be
going to bundle the JP150 inkjet printer with all A5000 Learning Curves!
− the output from this being almost as breathtaking as the A5000
itself.  A
5.3
Arthur Brend sent us some “comments from an A5000 owner”. Many points
had been mentioned elsewhere so I edited them out. If the remainder
seems to lack continuity, it is the scars left by the editor’s knife,
not Arthur’s pen.
5.3
In transferring from an A410 with a standard resolution Acorn monitor, I
expected a more dramatic increase in clarity from a multi-scan monitor;
differentiating between zero and eight remains a problem for a 61-years
old pair of eyes. Or is it that Acorn should now abandon their system
font in favour of something elegant? The screen presentation now seems
dreadfully coarse and old − has it changed since the Beeb?
5.3
On the other hand, the screen reflects much less and can be used in
brighter sunlight. Also − a real bonus − it does not attract dust and
dirt.
5.3
Transferring Pipedream from the A410 to the A5000 proved no problem;
likewise all the other working files. Not having an interconnect cable,
I did it by the disc-ful. (Does anyone know of suitable software to make
a serial-link transfer reasonably painless? Ed.)
5.3
I have configured the system to blank out the screen after 5 minutes’
idleness. The first time it happened was only slightly disconcerting.
The screen is re-activated by any keystroke or mouse movement. Beware of
keystrokes used for this purpose − whatever you strike is entered into
the work in hand.
5.3
The shutdown command from the Task Manager menu is very convenient.
Remembering Ray Maidstone’s article (Archive 5.1 p26), it will be
interesting to know whether he thinks that it does everything that it
should.
5.3
One last task awaited me before I could say that I had successfully
transferred from Archimedes to A5000 − dreaded printing! Text printing
was no problem. There was no need to change cables − all worked as
before.
5.3
Graphics printing worked, but the result was grey instead of black. I
have fought printer drivers before and shall no doubt have to do so
again. Suffice it to say that a little note in the Read_Me file for the
Canon Bubble-Jet BJ-130e to the effect that DIP switch 2-1 should be ON
would have saved me hours, expletives, sweat and tears.
5.3
But there is always a silver lining; my struggles did lead me around and
into a complex set of menus and options. When − only when − one
understands them and has carried out all the setting up, the system is
an improvement.
5.3
One may now stand equipment weighing up to 25 kg (½ cwt to we old
dodderers − quite a weight) on top of the computer which should
accommodate most large-screen multisync monitors.  A
5.3

5.3
PD Column
5.3
David Holden
5.3
When I first offered to write this column I had in mind something
similar to the regular features in certain lesser magazines. Since
Archive started Archimedes PD, it seemed strange that it was now the
only publication which almost ignored it. This is even stranger when you
bear in mind that, unlike the others, Archive derives only a small part
of its income from commercial advertising and so is in a unique position
from which to compare PD with commercial software without upsetting the
advertisers.
5.3
Having read a lot of letters in the past weeks, I believe that this is
not what you want from me. If you just want to know what’s available,
and from where, it is simpler to send for a few catalogues. I have lots
of these and I can assure you that after you have read a couple, they
become very repetitive as the same programs appear in most of them.
Several people have asked if it is possible to have proper reviews of
some of the better PD programs. This seems like a good idea because, if
you glance at your newsagents shelves, you will see at least three
magazines now devoted entirely to reviews of PD and Shareware for the PC
Amiga and Atari computers.
5.3
If Paul permits, I would therefore ask you to write to me and tell me,
in depth, about the programs you use regularly. Tell me about the
programs’ strengths and weaknesses. Preferably, put it on a disc as a
text file and if I find that a program is popular, I will pick out the
most interesting parts from your comments and include them in my next
article. That seems a good way of telling everyone what users think of a
particular program and a lot better than conventional reviews, which
would simply be my opinion.
5.3
The Indispensable PD
5.3
From your letters, there would seem to be certain programs which no
Archimedes user can afford to be without. The names crop up repeatedly,
so if you haven’t got any of these then I suggest you rectify the
omission at once. So far as I am aware they all appear on Archive
Shareware or Careware discs.
5.3
!PCdir (Careware 7)
5.3
One of the earliest non-trivial PD programs, this is still the best way
of transferring files between Archimedes and PC discs. It opens a filer
window on a PC disc just like a normal ADFS window. Perhaps with the new
PC emulator, !PCdir might be thought less useful but I doubt it. You can
install !PCdir on a 1Mb machine while running a major application like
Impression. You can then drag text files directly from a PC disc to an
Impression window. You will need a lot more than 1Mb to do that with the
new PC emulator.
5.3
By the way, if you read the text file with !PCdir you will see that it
is actually Careware, that is, a donation to a named charity is
requested. I wonder how many of you, who told me how useful !PCdir is,
have actually sent a cheque? (Although N.C.S. does make donations to the
author’s charity from the Careware money. Ed.)
5.3
On this subject, a lot of people have told me how much they like my
utility Desk Aid. The printer control and text printer seem particularly
popular. Thanks for all the kind comments but I couldn’t help noticing
that some of the names didn’t appear on my list of registered users.
Since Desk Aid is Shareware and not PD you really should register and as
it’s free, you might just as well have included the registration form
while you were writing to me. It wouldn’t even have cost the price of
another stamp!
5.3
!DosForm
5.3
One feature missing from !PCdir is the ability to format. I can
recommend !DosForm for this job. Anyone who has formatted discs using
the PC emulator will know how long it takes. !DosForm is a desktop
application which operates as a background task, so you can format a
pile of PC discs while doing other things. There is no text file with
the version that I have, just a copyright message in the program saying
that it is written by ‘Garf’. Well, whoever you are, thanks Garf.
5.3
!Menon (Shareware 38)
5.3
A lot of people find !Menon invaluable. It is an application to open
directories or run applications without the need to work your way down
through a long file path and wait while the Filer loads all those
unwanted sprites and sets up all those unwanted OS variables that
inconsiderate programmers have put in their !Boot files. !Menon also has
a ‘hot key’ feature so that you don’t even need to use the !Menon menus.
5.3
!DrawPlus (Careware 13)
5.3
This is an improved version of !Draw by Jonathan Marten. If you use
!Draw, you really must get DrawPlus. Speaking as someone whose artistic
ability on a scale of one to ten is about minus five, I am not qualified
to say very much about it but the general opinion seems to be forget
!Draw and get a copy of !DrawPlus.
5.3
The existence of applications like !DrawPlus makes me have grave doubts
about Acorn putting !Draw, !Paint and !Edit in ROM for RISC-OS 3. Many
people prefer the PD programs !ED or !StrongEd to !Edit and, with the
new desktop text editor from Risc Developments, I wonder how long it
will be before !Edit is superseded?
5.3
!ArcFS
5.3
This is an application which is invaluable if you need to look at discs
containing files archived with !Spark. Many PD libraries and magazines
now archive their discs. When you install !ArcFS, it allows you to run
or copy archived files directly from their own filer windows. This saves
lots of time de-archiving files just to find out what they are. Earlier
versions had a few minor bugs and quirks but these now appear to have
been fixed.
5.3
Free PD?
5.3
Paul suggested I might like to comment on the fact that Beebug are
giving ten discs of PD software with each A5000 sold. At first sight,
this might seem like a good idea. It costs very little and the purchaser
gets lots of PD software to play with. For PD and Shareware authors it
might seem that anything which distributes programs is a good thing but
I have some reservations. For PD programs to be widely available we need
good PD libraries. If programs are to be given away with computers, how
will they survive? If no-one is buying the discs, why should anyone
bother to continually update and improve their programs and send the
updates to the libraries?
5.3
I am inclined to the opinion that this is not such a good idea. One or
two discs to give the new Archimedes owner the idea that you don’t have
to spend a fortune on software is fine. More than that is stopping the
legitimate libraries doing their valuable work.  A
5.3

5.3
Piano and Guitar Fonts
5.3
Stewart Watson
5.3
These are two Fonts designed by Toby Richards to enable easy assembly
and manipulation of piano and guitar chord boxes. For example:-
5.3
Getting started
5.3
The fonts come in an application folder which can be immediately loaded,
or the application folder can be opened and the fonts copied into your
!Fonts directory, from where they can be used like any other font.
5.3
Both fonts are best manipulated in Draw, DrawPlus or some other graphics
package rather than directly in a DTP program, as windows are often more
easily moved around the page. Once you are happy with your finished
chord box, it can be imported into your DTP program like any other Draw
object.
5.3
Using Piano Font
5.3
Firstly, install the piano font and then load Draw. The author suggests
using Zoom, but I found that, when starting to use these fonts, it was
best to set a text size of about 100 pt. This enables you to see clearly
what is happening on the screen.
5.3
The next step is to input some information. I suggest that, the first
time you use these fonts, you start by inputting a complete stave, (you
will notice that the cursor moves forward). Then move the cursor back to
where it was and then input your other information. Having done that,
you will probably be able, quite happily, to follow the author’s
instructions to input all the extra information first, and the chord
window last, as it is the only symbol that moves the cursor forwards.
5.3
Using Guitar Font
5.3
The procedure is exactly the same as with the piano font and, once
again, it is only the chord window that advances the cursor.
5.3
Documentation
5.3
The instruction leaflet supplied with each font is well structured and,
as long as you remember that it is only the chord window that moves the
cursor forwards, you should have no problems
5.3
When I received the review copy of the fonts, I had one or two queries
which I raised with the author and, by return of post, I recieved a most
helpful letter with a revised version of both the fonts and the
documentation which more than answered my questions.
5.3
There are several uses for these fonts, and I’m sure anyone involved in
education will see them as a boon and a great time saver. When combined
with a music notation package such as ScoreDraw (see page 51), they
could prove an invaluable aid in music publishing.
5.3
This is a really clever idea, well presented at a very reasonable price,
and I’m sure it will arouse a lot of interest and maybe we will see some
more specialised fonts in the future.
5.3
Piano Font costs £5.50 inc p&p, Guitar Font costs £5.50 inc p&p or both
fonts can be purchased together for £10.00 inc p&p.
5.3
These fonts are available from Dalmation Publications, 37 Manor Road,
Teddington, Middlesex TW11 8AA, (cheques made payable to Toby
Richards).  A
5.3

5.3

5.3
Basic V, Windows and Task Windows
5.3
Jim Markland
5.3
Serious users of the Archimedes may find themselves confronted by one or
other of the following problems:
5.3
•    How to use the desktop effectively for real problem solving appli
cations using ‘homegrown’ code but without the hassle of writing
extensive graphical user interfaces.
5.3
•    How to present a programming environment to a novice which offers him
the satisfaction of using the Wimp, yet at a level he can comprehend.
5.3
Bearing in mind that many users are usually trying to solve real
problems, and are often not particularly interested in the computer
itself and frequently find that their targets can change mid stream; how
can they develop new code quickly, without a major effort, with a
minimum of knowledge and without reinventing the wheel to do it? How can
that impatient novice find some satisfaction? This article offers one
solution to these problems.
5.3
In terms of programmer productivity and ease of use, the APL language is
highly acclaimed and cannot be recommended too highly for many appli
cations. APL is an exceptionally powerful language which has very strong
and dedicated following. Software development time in APL is typically
very short in comparison with other languages. However, a really good
version of APL has yet to appear for the Archimedes and the user may be
forced to adopt Basic V as the interpreted language for use on this
computer. The development of pukka multitasking applications with pop-up
menus, icons etc is extremely time consuming in Basic V and not at all
cost effective if the real objective is to obtain an answer to a
technical problem reasonably quickly; neither is it satisfying to the
novice who wishes to see impressive results for his efforts. Surpris
ingly, the Acorn manuals give little guidance in these respects.
5.3
Assuming that a spreadsheet is either unavailable or unsuitable for the
task in hand, Basic V can in fact become a natural choice for some
applications, especially if an interpreted language is required. An
interpreted language removes the time penalty of compilation and can be
much more user friendly when it comes to error messages and debugging.
Basic V is also relatively fast and offers access to assembly language.
That Basic V is effectively free, is no disadvantage.
5.3
Now, utilities are becoming available which do ease application
development in Basic. Archway 2.00 from Simtron is an example of this.
Archway comes with extensive documentation and offers short cuts to the
development of full blown applications. The very extent of the documen
tation is, however, daunting. Many youngsters and busy not-so-youngsters
might trade grandiose results for less research in the first instance.
5.3
How then can one proceed using Basic V on its own?
5.3
Initial thoughts for vector graphics, say, might be to output DXF files.
As !Draw understands DXF (&DEA) at a basic level, suitable files can
then be dragged into a !Draw window, the results can be examined, edited
if need be for printing, or exported to another computer. Alternatively
CSV (&DFE) files could be used as fodder for graph plotting packages
such as Presenter or GraphBox. Either way output appears in windows.
This approach has a great deal to recommend it, but can one not do
better than this? Is it not possible to take more advantage of the
operating system and have the target application windows pop up and
update automatically?
5.3
Stepping back a little for the moment one may look at the overall
problem to define some objectives with regard to the following:
5.3
•    The format of the files in which the Basic codes are to be stored, the
editing and handling of them
5.3
•    The format of files used for the storage of data and the accessibility
of the data therein to humans for reading, editing and printing
5.3
•    The environment in which the programs will be run
5.3
•    The presentation and output of results.
5.3
As a result the following targets might be agreed upon:
5.3
Basic
5.3
•    Basic programs should be capable of being handled in either tokenised
Basic (type &FFB) or ASCII format.
5.3
•    Tokenised Basic files to be edited with the ARM Basic Editor with a
suitable Wimp front end. Basic ASCII text files to be edited in !Edit or
accepted as input to the ARMBE.
5.3
•    A new file type BasicText (Acorn type &FD1) is available for ASCII
format Basic. The use of this is desirable in order to enable Run and
Load Types to be defined and to identify the file with Basic.
5.3
•    In either case, having a mouse click action which automatically
invokes the editor would be very convenient.
5.3
Data
5.3
•    Data should not be stored in programs
5.3
•    Data files for input and output should, wherever possible, be in ASCII
format so they can be read/modified in !Edit or printed legibly. This
can also ease the transfer of data to/from other computers. Unfor
tunately, the use of such files is not always feasible or practicable.
5.3
•    User filetypes should be avoided. Remember that the detailed internal
formats used by a ‘jobbing’ programmer may change dramatically in a
relatively short time and that, in any case, there is a strong chance
that a user filetype will be picked which is already in use in the
public domain. (i.e. everyone likes to use the obvious ones e.g. &001)
5.3
•    Filetype Data (&FFD) is fine although other standard Acorn file types
recognised by other applications may be preferred if some flexibility is
required. &FFD files should contain an internal header to indicate the
format of the data to follow.
5.3
•    Files suitable for examination and editing with a suitable spreadsheet
type editor have obvious attractions. However data files which use
spaces rather than commas as delimiters can make files easier for humans
to read.
5.3
Environment
5.3
•    Data filenames should be passed to the program as a parameter at run
time. The program to be written should not respond automatically if a
user double clicks on such a standard filetype.
5.3
•    The program should be capable of multitasking. Any time penalty
incurred because of this is assumed to be acceptable.
5.3
•    A minimum of SYS commands should be employed. The need for the
Programmers Reference Manual should be reduced to the lowest possible
level.
5.3
•    Regularly used functions should be kept in a Library
5.3
•    Simple facilities for mouse click selections are desirable.
5.3
Output
5.3
•    Editable, resizeable etc. windows should be used for output to screen
in the desktop. These should pop up automatically.
5.3
•    Files that are output by the program should be in standard formats for
reading into external applications and for printing.
5.3
•    As a general principle, full advantage should be taken of applications
that are already available for the display of data, such as !Edit and
!Draw. The example programs provided in the recent Risc User “Mastering
the Wimp” series may provide a suitable platform for modification to
suit particular needs.
5.3
These guidelines give a framework to follow and, taking these on board,
with a little lateral thinking, the following very neat solution
emerges:
5.3
Having assembled various utility applications, most of which are in the
public domain or are available very cheaply, code to fulfil the above is
written to be executed from an !Edit task window. (If wanted, it will
probably be necessary for the programmer to encode the &FD1 and click-
to-edit features himself until suitable applications become more widely
available.) This immediately provides a multitasking capability with no
code overhead whatsoever. There is no need to initialise a task, to
establish polling loops and then, later, to close down the task. The
task window itself does all this for you. The task window is, however,
not used for editing, long listings or large amounts of output, (these
are more efficiently carried out in other ways), but is used for running
the program, the passing of filenames as run time parameters and access
to the operating system.
5.3
SYS“OS_GetEnv” is used to read the parameter string from within the
program, a short Library of Basic routines being required to parse it.
Other Library routines permit output files to be written to a RAM disk
(for speed). For text, these are in &FFF Text format, for vector
graphics they are in the ‘unreadable for humans’ (unlike DXF) &AFF Draw
format.
5.3
Here comes the clever bit....
5.3
Having created what are essentially scrap files of particular types in
the RAM disk, broadcast Message_DataOpen 5 is issued by a Library
utility so that any tasks already running and capable of loading the
same can then spring into action. Message_DataOpen is normally broadcast
by the filer following a double click on a file in order that suitable
pre-installed tasks have a chance to respond to the particular file type
without unduly launching a new copy of the task. The subterfuge of
issuing this message from the task window has the same effect. File
types other than &FFF and &AFF can be used, of course, providing
suitable applications are available which will respond to the message.
(Unfortunately the current version of !Draw does not respond to DXF
files in this way.)
5.3
Should this message be issued for &FFD Data files (and it’s a safe bet
that no commercial application is likely to react to these) it is
possible to have a tailor made external application respond accordingly
and, providing that application does not acknowledge the
Message_DataOpen, it is possible to have as many different applications
as required responding to the same message. It is, however, necessary to
define an appropriate, possibly null, RunType action for the &FFD files
in order to avoid unwanted error messages.
5.3
Hey Presto! The basics have been established for a ‘Hot Link’ with only
one SYS Command! (The other was used to read the run time parameter
string.) Output automatically pops up in an !Edit or !Draw window every
time the program issues the message.
5.3
In !Edit, the window is automatically redrawn each time, updating the
window contents on each message. In !Draw a new window is launched
preserving a record of previous runs. Either way, this is a very
positive step in the right direction. When output automatically appears
in these applications windows it then becomes available for drag saves
to disk through the filer, and can be printed or DTP’d, subject to the
facilities of the application in question.
5.3
For all of this, very little work is required. It should be stressed,
however, that this is not a true Hot Link in the Colton PipeDream sense,
which requires its own message sequence. It can, however, have a not
dissimilar effect providing target applications respond to the given
filetype. Unfortunately, the HotLink graph plotting packages which have
the Colton HotLink facility do not appear to respond to Message_DataOpen
for CSV files.
5.3
Two further tricks − SYS“Wimp_ReportError” can be used to give a two way
dialog box for simple run time choices and *Filer_OpenDir is useful to
open the RAM directory for direct drag saves. A higher resolution
multisync mode is very useful too so that work can be spread out for
examination.
5.3
System variables can also be used as a basis of communication between
the task window and other applications. Their values can be read using
SYS“OS_ReadVarVal”. This allows the use of tiny applications which set
system variable flags to be used as choice icons in filer windows and
which can be made to open and close automatically. The use of system
variable flags also enables the task window program to receive feed back
from a suitable external application to which data may have been sent
using Message_ DataOpen. A recent Risc User Wimp Debugger used system
variables as a basis for communication between applications; this,
itself, may have wider uses.
5.3
In using system variable feedback, it is important to be careful to take
account of the fact that the task window program is unlikely to be ‘in
sync’ with the Wimp Poll loops of external applications. This requires
that each party to the communication process knows what to do at the
right time. A by product of this asynchronous behaviour is that it is
necessary to be careful if, say, it is desired to have reasonably
accurate time-stamping of acquired data. In feedback systems where a
high level of automatic message passing takes place, it can arise for it
to be impossible to get any other messages into the system ...even to
stop the process. In this case, the opportunity for human intervention
is desirable to safeguard data. Once understood, however, these issues
are likely to be relatively minor for many purposes and should present
little difficulty.
5.3
Now the programmer has not directly used any icons, menus, polling loops
or big application directories and, outside the Library, no indirected
data yet a very practical solution to the initial problem has been
produced, saving lots of time. A maximum of four or five SYS Commands
has been used and it has been unnecessary to consider any task, window
or icon handles. Not bad! The potential benefit such applications could
offer to the programmer is considerable. To make the most of the
concept, however, more practical applications which will respond
suitably to Message_DataOpen are desirable. There is also a need for new
relocatable modules to give easy to use, but more comprehensive, dialog
boxes than that offered by SYS“Wimp_ReportError”.
5.3
With a suitable cell type editor, it should be possible to build a
simple interactive spreadsheet environment with the plus that a real
programming language lies behind it. In this case, a system variable
would be set by the cell editor as a flag for the task window program to
indicate that a scrap file update had taken place.
5.3
A version of !Draw which both responds to DXF files and updates rather
than supersedes its existing window would be ideal. It is not beyond the
realms of human ingenuity to display a Draw file, to drag the data
points around as required and to export the edited data back to the task
window for further processing or back-calculation. Graph plotters which
respond to the message for CSV/TSV or similar files would also be very
helpful.
5.3
Fortunately, users of file types such as DXF or CSV (for which there
appear to be few, if any, applications capable of responding suitably to
Message_DataOpen) do have another course of action open to them when the
target application has an icon resident on the icon bar. This is to
issue Message_DataLoad to that icon. Unlike broadcast Message_DataOpen,
however, this new message is very specifically targeted and it becomes
necessary to know the appropriate icon handle. The task window program
may either assume or request this information or, for the more adven
turous, it may interrogate the icon bar window using
SYS“Wimp_GetWindowInfo”. Whichever way is adopted, the desired effect of
data being automatically loaded into the target application(s) is
achieved once more when Message_DataOpen is issued. Also, for the less
faint hearted, users of Euclid will find that it is possible to launch
an object rendering in the Euclid editor window by sending a Mouse_Click
reason coded message to the Euclid filer; predetermined responses to
dialog boxes may be dealt with similarly. Both icon and window handles
can be found using SYS“Wimp_GetPointer Info”.
5.3
Finally, what about the Hourglass? This is of very limited use when
initiated from a task window as the Hourglass may still be active when
the Wimp passes control to other applications. An alternate way of
marking that a task window is active would therefore be useful. One
solution to this problem is to use SYS“Wimp_SetIconState” to invert the
colours of the Task Manager ‘switcher’ icon on the far right of the icon
bar. This can be toggled as required (albeit at the expense of a minor
amount of unwanted screen output in the task window) and doesn’t
interfere with other applications which do not use this feature. If the
inverted colours don’t appeal, the sprite can be redesigned!
5.3
Do note, however, that programs written along the lines suggested will
not run other than under the task window if they require run time
parameters and/or issue Messages and that, in certain circumstances,
several copies of the same program multitasking simultaneously may not
happily coexist. Several different programs may, of course, be run
sequentially from an Obey file, with onward communications as may be
necessary.
5.3
A relatively simple Basic V development and run time environment which
gives access to pop up windows is thus available to the programmer. If
this isn’t enough, he had better buy Archway and the PRM and knuckle
down for some long sessions. Pity it took so long to discover this
simple solution! It remains to be seen what improvements Acorn will make
to the !Edit task window option in the new release of RISC-OS.
5.3
Utilities required
5.3
•    !Edit, !Draw plus other suitable applications of your choice
5.3
•    Small Library of Basic routines. (Must be tokenised)
5.3
•    Tokenised files are edited using a Desktop utility which leads to the
Basic editor. It should also be capable of accepting BasicText files.
5.3
•    A utility to convert Basic files to and from BasicText format.
BasicText files should be capable of being handled with/without line
numbers.
5.3
•    A utility which will print both Basic and BasicText files, preferably
in a small point size for convenience.
5.3
•    A utility to run Basic in the Command Window for quick trials.
5.3
•    A utility to Close files which remain open following a run time error.
5.3
•    A utility to Change the Current Directory
5.3
•    Screen Modes enhancer/generator
5.3
•    Optional suitable cell type editor  A
5.3

5.3
Christmas Allsorts
5.3
Robert Chrismas
5.3
Christmas makes me cringe. It’s not that I am against a season of peace
and good will − quite the contrary. Nor do I object to the mixture of
sacred and secular; that goes with the human condition. However, at the
first hint of jazzed up carols and plastic overweight Santas I switch to
Scrooge mode. So I did not start with much sympathy for Sherston’s
latest product.
5.3
What you get
5.3
For £16.95 + VAT you get four A5 ‘Activity Cards’, three disks, a 28
page A5 booklet and a card showing all the draw menus.
5.3
One of the disks has a copy of !Draw. The others are full of 256 colour
!Draw files with a Christmas theme. The files are divided into direc
tories: Animals, People, Scenes, Reindeer, Cards, Food, Toys,
Decorations and Greetings. The disks are not copy protected and
institutions which buy the package are free to copy the disks and the
activity cards.
5.3
The clip art
5.3
The clip art is carefully drawn. It takes full advantage of the 256
colour modes. Since some of the colours are quite subtle tones, I was
not sure how well the drawings would print out, but an Integrex printer
produced very acceptable output. Monochrome output on a matrix printer
was generally unsatisfactory but you might use some of the drawings with
clear outlines in DTP documents. Laser printer output was clear enough
but not very exciting.
5.3
If all the fill colours are changed to white then, with a little editing
on a few of the files, you have some effective line drawings suitable
for manual colouring.
5.3
The drawings are constructed with many hidden, or partially hidden,
lines. Scaling calculations and re-drawing cause long delays on standard
Archimedes. Teachers should be warned that there may be cries of “Miss,
Miss” (or “Sir, Sir”), “it’s crashed”. However my ‘primary adviser’
(thanks Dave) remarked, ‘my children will happily sit and watch the
printer printing, they will not get bored watching a picture being
drawn!’
5.3
The guide booklet
5.3
The guide is divided into two parts. The first part has an 8 page guide
to the key features of !Draw. It includes sections on loading !Draw and
loading, saving and printing files. The second part has monochrome
prints of the some of the clip art. It gives the leaf name, scale and
the size of each illustration.
5.3
Three of the activity cards give step by step instructions to produce a
Christmas card, an Advent calendar and a Nativity scene respectively.
The last card covers editing lines in !Draw so that you can modify the
pictures.
5.3
Style
5.3
There are lots of guides to the !Draw program. Most try to explain all
its features. I have often tried to write guides like this. Unfor
tunately, most adults, and almost all children, given a comprehensive
guide book, skip through it, trying out ideas, and only reading a
fraction of the text.
5.3
Christmas Allsorts is quite different. The booklet manages to summarise
all the features of !Draw you need for the activity cards in a few
pages. It is written in short clear paragraphs, most no more than a few
lines, with important words emphasised in bold and lots of illustra
tions. It does not tell you everything about !Draw, but what it does say
has an excellent chance of being read.
5.3
The activity cards are equally clear and to the point. They leave some
room for creativity in the choice of drawings and their final arrange
ment. You will not learn !Draw from them but, with a little help or some
trial and error, you should be able to produce a design of your own.
5.3
More able secondary school children, already familiar with !Draw, will
probably be able to use the cards with little help, but I would be
inclined to do a demonstration ‘work through’ for the whole class first.
5.3
For younger children
5.3
The text on the activity cards is probably a bit too difficult for
children in junior schools. They might also have difficulty in selecting
!Draw objects and loading them successfully. My ‘primary adviser’
suggested that a teacher might create a file containing some suitable
drawings so that the children could concentrate on arranging these
first.
5.3
Conclusion
5.3
You could buy this package for the clip art alone. It is handy to have a
selection of drawings on one theme conveniently grouped like this. The
price does not seem unreasonable if you remember that they will be
useful every Christmas for years.
5.3
To get the best from the drawings you will need a colour printer.
5.3
I found the re-drawing time tedious, but this may have something to do
with a strong desire to buy an A5000.
5.3
The booklet and the activity cards are written in a clear effective
style.
5.3
I liked this package. Later on in the term I am going to use it with one
of the middle school classes who visit my college. Sorry Scrooge but,
after all, it is Christmas.  A
5.3

5.3
ScoreDraw
5.3
Stewart Watson & Jonathan Puttock
5.3
First some comments from Stewart Watson....
5.3
ScoreDraw is a utility which at its simplest gives greatly enhanced
printout of Rhapsody files. It does, however, offer several other
options, like the facility to save pages as Draw files, which can be
edited in Draw and then exported to a DTP package. It comes in the usual
Clare package which contains a single disc and a 28 page A5 manual.
5.3
Manual
5.3
The manual is clear and concise, and the instructions on getting started
are particularly good. I did feel that the chapter on exporting to DTP
was a bit skimpy, and when I tried to use it, I had a couple of false
starts before I achieved the required result. This was simply because,
having taken my Rhapsody file through ScoreDraw to DrawPlus, what I
should have done was draw a box round the section I wanted, then save
selection, rather than saving the whole file, which includes all the
extra white space at the top and bottom of the page. This was my only
minor quibble, otherwise the instructions are very easy to follow.
5.3
ScoreDraw disc
5.3
On the ScoreDraw disc is an update directory which upgrades Rhapsody II,
versions below 1.23, to enable them to communicate with ScoreDraw. Once
upgraded, ScoreDraw appears as an extra option on the Rhapsody II score
menu. There is room for Rhapsody and ScoreDraw on a single disc, and
then Rhapsody will load ScoreDraw directly when required. There is also
a demo directory and a music library of useful musical symbols.
5.3
Once a page is saved as a Draw file, extra information can be added,
e.g. phrasing marks, or extra text. Once again the instructions are very
helpful, and everything works exactly as described in the manual.
5.3
Summary
5.3
I have always felt that the poor print quality was Rhapsody’s weak
point, but now, adding ScoreDraw to Rhapsody II allows you to produce
publishing quality printout of music scores for less than £125. Well
done Clares.
5.3
Jonathan Puttock continues....
5.3
It seems that Clares do listen to customers and reviewers. When Rhapsody
II appeared, it was nice to see how many of the points in the review in
Archive (and other reviews) had been noted and acted upon. Thank you,
Clares!
5.3
However, there were clearly some aspects which they did not find
feasible to automate completely, such as phrasing marks and hairpins for
(de)crescendo. It was also a disappointment that fonts were still not
used in the headings and text. However, Clares promised that a new
program was on its way to deal with these problems by providing Draw
format output. That program, ScoreDraw, has just been released.
5.3
When I first heard about Scoredraw, I thought the price was rather high
for a file format conversion program; however, when I received it I
discovered that it does more than just file conversion. Scoredraw takes
a Rhapsody file, either from disk or through a link from Rhapsody 2
menus, and reformats it with more care than Rhapsody manages. The notes
are Draw objects instead of sprites, fonts are used for headings, lyrics
and dynamic markings, and more conventional notation is used for
triplets and 1st/2nd time bars. The user also has more control over the
formatting, so that, for example, the indentation of the first system to
make space for the stave titles can be removed.
5.3
Once the score is formatted, it can be printed direct from ScoreDraw.
Alternatively, it can be saved again as a Rhapsody file, with the extra
ScoreDraw formatting information included, or as a Draw file. Using Draw
then allows great flexibility in adding extra symbols or for fine
adjustment of the results, such as shifting overlapping accidentals or
moving a dynamic mark which clashes with a note stem. I was surprised
how easy it is to create very neat phrasing marks using Bezier curves.
On the disk there is a library of 17 Draw files, giving musical symbols
which are not provided by Rhapsody. These include appoggiaturas, bowing
marks for string players, coda and dal segno.
5.3
The only problem I had with the program was that sometimes it would give
fatal error type 3, when first loading a score, apparently when reading
in the fonts. However, on reloading the program I usually found the
error did not reappear.
5.3
The 28 page manual provides the information needed to run the program.
It includes a section of advice on editing scores with Draw and brief
notes on transferring files to a desktop publishing package.
5.3
ScoreDraw costs £57 through Archive, so it represents a significant
extra investment on top of the price of Rhapsody 2. However, as a
flexible music printing package with publishing quality results, the
combination of the two programs at under £120 must compare very
favourably with programs available on other machines.
5.3
ScoreDraw is available from Clares Micro Supplies for £61.95 inc VAT or
£57 through Archive.  A
5.3

5.3
Vox Box
5.3
Stewart Watson & Jonathan Puttock
5.3
Vox Box is a suite of four applications which further enhance Rhapsody
II. Like ScoreDraw, it comes in the usual Clares package with an A5
manual and two disks. Disk one contains the four applications and disk
two contains a large number of very good and very useful sound samples.
5.3
The four programs are: Perform − Enables the setting up of a play list
which can include Rhapsody files, MIDI files and sound samples. VoxBeat
− Turns sampled percussion sounds into a module to enable easier
programming of rhythm patterns. VoxSample − Converts sound samples into
voices for use in Rhapsody etc. VoxSynth − Synthesises Archimedes voices
digitally.
5.3
Perform
5.3
Perform is a RISC-OS application which can be loaded by double clicking
on the icon in the usual way. A menu is then obtained by clicking <menu>
on Perform on the icon bar. There are four options:- Info, Play, Panel
and Quit. The first and last are as usual; Play starts a previously
assembled Perform file; and Panel opens a control panel with play, stop,
pause, skip forwards and skip backwards controls.
5.3
Perform will play up to 12 Rhapsody files, MIDI files, or sound samples
in sequence. It will also load voice modules and Perform files, which
allows you to nest performance programs for unlimited playing time. The
only real restriction is that the files must all be available from your
filing system when required, which presents no major problem unless you
are multi-tasking using a single floppy system.
5.3
To set up a program, click <select> on the icon bar, and drag filenames
into the program window. There is a dustbin available in the program
window if required.
5.3
The manual is very clear, and assembling Perform programs could hardly
be easier. Programs can be saved for playing later.
5.3
If you have access to a sound sampler, it is simplicity itself to sample
the titles of your pieces and include these as part of a Perform
program. A neat application with lots of uses.
5.3
VoxBeat
5.3
Voxbeat allows you to assemble a drum kit with one sound (bass drum,
snare drum etc.) assigned to each note of an octave, giving a maximum
total of 12 different sounds. The whole set can then be saved as a
module which can then be used in Rhapsody.
5.3
It is the same idea as used on many multi-timbral synthesizers, where
one sound is a drum kit spread across the keyboard. The limit of 12
sounds in VoxBeat might seem a bit of a limitation but, in reality, one
module will be more than enough for most people’s uses. For pieces with
particular rhythm sound requirements special modules could easily be
built.
5.3
On the second disk there is a range of very good quality percussion
samples, possibly all you’ll ever need. Of course, you don’t have to
restrict yourself to percussion samples − any suitable samples, vocal,
instrumental or sound effect can all be included if required.
5.3
VoxBeat will be a boon to rhythm programming and, like Perform, is
simplicity itself to use.
5.3
VoxSample
5.3
VoxSample attempts to get over the problems of using sound samples of
acoustic instruments.
5.3
A VoxSample sound is made up of two parts, the initial transient,
followed by one or more cycles of the sample to form the sustain
section. Included are facilities to alter the pitch of the initial
transient, and amplitude and pitch envelopes can be added to the sample.
5.3
On disk two are a selection of brass, keyboard, percussion, strings and
wind samples, together with a directory of others which includes 5
basses, guitar, harp, marimba, choir and vibraphone.
5.3
These can all be loaded into VoxSample, edited and resaved under the
same or different names, but I must say that the quality of the sounds
provided is extremely good and may result in VoxSample being under used.
For myself, I would like to have seen one or two ‘different’ samples
included, just to show a bit more of what VoxSample can do.
5.3
VoxSynth
5.3
Each VoxSynth module provides 8 independent voices and each modules
takes up less than 5k. Each voice is defined by two waveforms, each
representing one complete cycle. At the start of a note, the first
waveform is used but it gradually changes into the second as the note
progresses. Waveforms can be drawn by hand, synthesised from harmonic
components or created using a form of FM synthesis. Amplitude and pitch
envelopes can be superimposed on the sound. Like VoxBeat and VoxSample,
facilities are included for playing sounds, either directly from the
keyboard or via MIDI, if available.
5.3
VoxSynth is by far the most complex program of the four, but it just as
easy to get going. It is just that, to achieve predictable results, a
certain degree of familiarity with harmonic theory is required. If you
don’t have that knowledge, you can either use VoxSynth to enhance your
knowledge or simply have a lot of fun experimenting with sound in a
random way.
5.3
The combination of Rhapsody II, VoxBox and ScoreDraw gives Archimedes
users a great deal of control over music input and output, be it written
or played. I find it very difficult to find fault with Scoredraw or
VoxBox and, at the price, they are exceptionally good value.
5.3
Jonathan Puttock adds...
5.3
I found VoxBox enormous fun. It is very easy to produce very passable
voices both from VoxSample and VoxSynth. The samples provided on the
samples disk are very good. Also, on one of the Shareware disks there is
a utility for stripping the samples out of Soundtracker modules. I found
that these were a good source of samples to play around with. (Was that
Shareware 39 which has a Soundtracker to Rhapsody converter? Ed.)
5.3
A major feature which is worth mentioning is that you can have Rhapsody
playing music in the background, and hear the effect immediately if you
are editing the voice that Rhapsody is using − remarkable!
5.3
I had one problem with VoxSample. It tries to produce a sustained note
by repeating several cycles from somewhere near the end of the sample.
The user has plenty of control over this but for some samples without a
regular pattern, it is impossible to get a good sound. It would be
better to fade out the sample at the end in these cases. At a particular
frequency, you can do this with the amplitude envelope, but the
amplitude envelope is fixed in time and when played, say, an octave
higher, the sample is only half as long. One could perhaps do with an
amplitude envelope fixed to the sample length in addition to the time-
fixed one. Nevertheless, overall I was very impressed with VoxBox.
5.3
What a pity Clares do not supply the Perform program with Rhapsody 2, or
at least with ScoreDraw. It is a nice adjunct to Rhapsody 2, and fills a
minor gap in the facilities provided with that program; but there must
be many users who would like to use it with Rhapsody 2, but do not want
to buy the Vox series of programs.
5.3
Vox Box is available from Clares Micro Supplies for £61.95 inc VAT or
£57 through Archive.  A
5.3

5.3
Techno-I  Digitiser
5.3
Brian Baker
5.3
Last July I purchased a Techno-I digitiser. What follows are my findings
to date. This is not the result of intensive study, but of occasional
use by an ‘average’ purchaser.
5.3
Opening the box
5.3
The package consists of a Techno-I interface card, a disc, mounting bits
and the manual. The A3000 version (£333.70 inc VAT) comes cased and
plugs into the expansion connector. The A300/400 version (£298.45 inc
VAT) is a single width podule which is installed in the backplane in the
usual way. I installed the card in my 440/1 with no problems. My only
complaint about the hardware is that the screws that are provided for
fixing the half width blanking plate, also provided, are slotted and not
the crosshead type as used on all other backplates. Basic static build
up precautions are required when handling the card. These, with the
fitting and checking procedures, are clearly explained in the manual.
Video input to the digitiser is via a composite BNC as standard, or an
S-VHS option (£119.85). Adjustments are from software.
5.3
The book
5.3
The manual is A5 wire-bound. The font is clear and the pages are easy on
the eye. There are two pages of index and 51 pages of information. This
includes some error message information, a specification list, file
format details (sprite and multimedia) and more detailed information on
some of the menu options.
5.3
The bulk of the manual is taken up with a step by step guide through the
menu options. The menu boxes are shown as they appear on the screen with
the relevant option highlighted. The text explains the use of the
option, and cross reference is made to more details elsewhere in the
manual. I find this an excellent way to lay out the information. It
makes any explanation easy to find and, if you forget where an option
is, the route to it can easily be found. This method is obviously easier
to do where there is a small number of options. On applications which
have a large number of options it may be difficult to do, but would make
using the program much easier.
5.3
There are a large number of printing errors. These are mostly spelling
errors rather than technical ones, so they do not mislead the user of
the program. These mistakes should have been corrected at the printing
stage as they would have easily been spotted if someone had taken the
trouble to read the proofs.
5.3
The software
5.3
The disc contains !TechnoI, the main application, !Telly, which is for
the viewfinder, Examples and ChangeFSI. I have not used the latter, so
it is not considered in this review. It has been suggested to me that
the use of ChangeFSI will not produce results equal to the original 25
bit colour resolution. If anybody knows otherwise, let’s hear from you.
5.3
The disc is not protected and is easily transferred to a hard disc or
backup floppy. A 256 colour mode is required for Techno-I. When you are
in the correct mode, double-clicking on Techno-I will load the two
applications and an eye will appear on the right of the icon bar. If
there is a suitable video input connected, the eye will be blue for a
colour signal and grey for monochrome. Two other versions of the eye
indicate incorrect mode or invalid signal. The manual says that Techno-I
has been designed to work on 1 Mbyte machines but having only 1M of RAM
does place certain limitations on what you can do when the captured
image is being processed. The section to which you are referred “for
more information” is not in the manual, so I do not know what these
limitations are.
5.3
Menus
5.3
Clicking <menu> on the eye icon gives the usual quit option and access
to the info window. The viewfinder can be turned on and the viewfinder
set-up menu is available from this menu as well as the main menu. The
save sprite window can also be displayed from here and from the main
menu.
5.3
The viewfinder can be 1/4 or 1/16 of the screen area. The update of the
larger viewfinder will be slightly slower than the smaller size. The
display can be in monochrome or (with a suitable signal) colour. The
display can also be adjusted for brightness, contrast and colour from
this menu. Adjustment of variables is generally by dragging a bar along
a slider. The keyboard arrows cannot be used, while holding down
<select>, to give fine movement of the pointer as they can with some
applications. As the digitiser does not capture the whole screen, the
section or the picture to be digitised is selected by positioning a
frame, which defines the required area, within an area representing the
full picture. This is the area that will be seen in the viewfinder. For
most practical purposes, this can be left in the central position. The
final option on this menu is to turn the gamma correction on and off.
5.3
The main menu allows further setting up to be carried out. The process
ing of the signal before it is displayed in the viewfinder, or captured,
is adjusted from the input video menu. The variables are noise filter
ing, hue, luminance delay, edge enhancement, colour, brightness and
contrast. The latter three are not the same adjustments used for the
viewfinder. The video source (TV/VCR, BNC/SVHS) can be selected.
Choosing auto will capture a colour picture, if present, or monochrome
if not. A monochrome image can be taken from a colour input if required.
The chrominance filter can be turned on or off.
5.3
Techno-I accepts various standards of PAL as well as two types of NTSC.
For some reason, the factory set default is for Belgium/Yugoslavia.
Selection of the decoding is by clicking on the symbol next to the
required standard.
5.3
Changes made to the default settings can be saved and will be used when
Techno-I is loaded. The factory defaults can be recalled if required.
Zoom lock and the cutting box can be enabled in this section. When
Techno-I tests its RAM, ROM and video processor, input information and
the results of these tests are shown in a status window.
5.3
The display window allows control over the way the captured image is
displayed. Techno-I captures two frames when it digitises. The frames
can be displayed separately or together in the window and they can be
interlaced or superimposed. The display can be dithered or pure. Gamma
correction can be adjusted by a slider or writable icon. It can also be
turned on/off from here as well as the from the viewfinder display. The
manual shows the gamma correction capable of being set to two places of
decimals but it can only be set to one place.
5.3
The sprite size window has four pre-set options and writable icons to
set the user’s choice. The pre-sets range from 512 × 256 to 640 × 512.
Changing the sprite size will cause the display of the captured image to
change to the new values. A writable icon displays the sprite name, if
it has one, the size of the sprite, in bytes, and the screen mode.
5.3
Digitising
5.3
Clicking on Digitise in the main menu will transfer the current input
into the main display window. The settings mentioned previously are used
to determine the way the image is displayed. The display can be flipped
around the X and Y axis and the RGB balance can be changed. A zoom
facility will scale X and Y from 1:999 to 999:1 independently. If
required, X and Y can be locked together to use the same scaling. There
are options to display the sprite within the window boundaries by re-
scaling or by re-calculating the sprite dimensions. The options will
also adjust the window boundary to fit the screen or return the scaling
to 1:1.
5.3
The digitising of the picture takes approximately 40 seconds, as do
changes from the display menu. Other changes to the displayed sprite
take around 30 seconds but can be done in combination. That is, the R, G
and B can all be changed at one time or separately. The same applies to
colour, brightness and contrast. All changes refer back to the original
stored images so that, each time a setting is changed, it is the
original which is changed and re-displayed, and not the displayed image.
5.3
Printing
5.3
The print menu, which cannot be brought up with the print key, gives
various choices. There is a choice of printing the whole scanned area,
the current window or a marked area (more about this later). The print
can be from 1:9 to 9:1 via writable icons or clicking on arrows, and can
be at the current zoom, scaled to fit the window or as a standard
sprite. The number of copies can be set as can the orientation. Techno-I
uses the RISC-OS printer drivers. If one is loaded, its name is
displayed.
5.3
My only experience of the print facility, so far, is that it does not
work. The few times I have tried it have resulted in a print of the
lower half of the image. As most users will be dragging the image into a
DTP package this is not too much of a problem. The image can also be
dragged into any other application that can handle sprites, such as
Paint and Draw. I do not have the facility to print in colour. I have
printed from Impression to my 24 pin dot matrix. The quality is better
than direct from Techno-I but not good. I think that, with a bit more
customising of the Techno-I settings, I will improve the printing from
Impression to an acceptable level.
5.3
Saving
5.3
There are two formats used for saving. There is the normal sprite
format, which is recognised by other applications, and multi-media. The
sprite saving window allows naming of the file and the sprite. It also
shows the size of the sprite, in bytes and pixels, the mode that the
sprite is in and the mode in which the sprite will be saved. The latter
is a writable icon. There is also a ‘save section’ option (more about
this later). The sprite can be saved to disc or dragged to another
application in the usual way.
5.3
Images saved as multi-media can be loaded back into Techno-I for further
processing. These formats are not compatible, so sprite files cannot be
loaded into Techno-I and multimedia files are not accepted by appli
cations which use sprite files. I assume that other applications exist
which produce multi-media files that can be used by Techno-I and vice-
versa. I have experienced problems in loading files back into Techno-I.
The display has to be set for single frame or the image is corrupted.
Whether this is a problem, or is just not covered in the manual, I am
not sure.
5.3
Cutting box
5.3
This is described in the manual as allowing a marked area to be saved or
printed. A selected area can also become the displayed sprite, anything
outside the box being deleted. Unfortunately, on the version of Techno-I
that I have (v1.01), this option has not been implemented so I cannot
say any more about it. A section of the sprite can be saved via the ‘get
screen area’ option in Paint.
5.3
Conclusions
5.3
Techno-I does produce excellent results. Although I have not been able
to compare it with other packages, I do not think the images produced
could be better.
5.3
I have been unable to obtain an acceptable colour image in the view
finder, so I usually use it with the settings adjusted for monochrome.
Because of the delay between the incoming image and update of the
viewfinder, short as it is, it can be difficult to capture the exact
image you require from a moving source. I use the viewfinder to set the
frame position and watch the T.V. screen to capture the right picture. A
picture cannot be grabbed from a VCR in still frame. The top of the
picture is distorted as Techno-I cannot lock onto the signal correctly.
At worst, the icon bar displays will appear and disappear and, if this
is allowed to continue, Techno-I will say it has run out of program
memory and quit. This can also occur in fast forward / reverse.
5.3
User values can be saved, but only one set. It would be useful to have
the facility to store more. You may, for instance, require one set of
values for colour digitising and another set for monochrome. Although
the factory settings can be re-called from within the program, user
settings are only available when starting Techno-I.
5.3
The manual requires re-printing to correct all the errors. These spoil
what is otherwise a good example of how to present information. The
print option should be sorted out and the option allowing use of the
cutting box implemented.
5.3
There is no registration card supplied with Techno-I which may mean
upgrades will not be readily available. I feel that this package has
been released before it should have been. Further work is required to
make the most of the hardware.  A
5.3

5.3
Cross-32 Meta-Assembler
5.3
Jahinder Singh
5.3
Computers produced by Acorn, from the humble BBC Microcomputer to the
present day range of Archimedes machines have all come with a built in
assembler and, by using the minimum of effort, the full processing power
of the computer has been available. However, just released from Baildon
Electronics is their ‘Cross-32 Meta-Assembler’. Now, not only can
Archimedes owners program in ARM code, but they can get down to some
serious development work on other microprocessors, micro-controllers and
digital signal processors (DSP’s) using the Archimedes.
5.3
The Cross-32 Meta-Assembler is a table based macro cross-assembler that
compiles programs for numerous different target processors on any
Archimedes with RISC-OS. This assembler uses a ‘meta-language’ to
describe the relevant aspects of the desired target processor. The meta-
language description is stored in the form of a table which is read in
early during the first pass. By using a flexible instruction table
structure, the assembler is thus able to compile assembly language
source code for most microprocessors, micro-controllers and some DSP’S
with an address word length of 32 bits or less. Also, by developing
tables that translate the assembly instructions into the equivalent
binary codes for the host processor and thereby allowing direct
execution, microprocessor emulation is possible. With this version, the
following processor families were catered for.
5.3
ARM 2/3
5.3
1802/5/6 COP400
5.3
37700 COP800
5.3
50740/37450 H8/300
5.3
6502/C02 H8/500
5.3
65816 NEC7500
5.3
6800/1/2/3/8/6301/3 NEC78C10
5.3
6805/HC05 PIC16C5X
5.3
6809 SUPER8
5.3
68HC11 TMS3201X
5.3
68000/8/10/302 TMS3202X
5.3
8041 TMS34010
5.3
8048 TMS370
5.3
8051 TMS7000
5.3
8085 TMS9900/95
5.3
8086/88/186/188 Z8
5.3
8096/C196 Z80
5.3
Z180/64180 Z280
5.3
(more to be released .....)
5.3
If you happen to use a processor other than the above, all that is
required is to write a new processor table or to modify an existing
table.
5.3
The package
5.3
The complete package offered by Baildon Electronics consists of a single
disc, a registration card and a manual. The manual is excellent − not
only is it very professionally produced but all aspects of the software
have been described in detail without causing confusion. It makes good
bedtime reading!
5.3
The software supplied on disc is installed in the usual manner − it can
also be executed from the command line or from within an Obey file. As
well as the main program, the disc contains the numerous processor
tables, example source files corresponding to each target processor and
a directory with !System (containing the current version of the Shared C
Library) and !SysMerge.
5.3
Using the software
5.3
A lot of credit must go to Baildon Electronics for the production of
this software. The cross-assembly process is very simple and consists of
first producing an ASCII text file containing the target processor’s
mnemonics and assembler directives. This text file is then dragged onto
the installed icon on the icon bar and, provided this source file is
syntactically correct, contains valid opcodes, operands, labels and the
correct directives, then the assembler will produce a hex output file
plus a list file if desired.
5.3
A lot of control is available with the input source file and the output
files. Each assembly line is free format − that is, labels need not
start in column one − with each line containing some or all of the
following sequence of identifiers:
5.3
  line#  label:   operator   operand(s)  ;  comment
5.3
Operands can consist of numeric constants (32 bit signed or unsigned),
string constants and arithmetic operators which, in combination with
labels, may be used to form operands. Most of the operators and their
precedence are taken from ANSI C.
5.3
The hex output can be controlled by having the option of producing pure
binary output (8, 16 or 32 bit), Intel formats (regular and extended) or
the Motorola formats S19, S28 and S37 corresponding to 8, 16 and 32 bits
respectively. The user also has the option of enabling and disabling
output to the hex file which is useful when defining locations in RAM.
5.3
An output listing can be obtained which also displays all the labels
with their corresponding values. Whenever an error is detected during
the cross-assembly process, the software informs you on what line the
error occurred. A detailed account of all error messages is included in
the manual.
5.3
The ultimate test
5.3
At work, I have just completed work on the development of a 6809
microprocessor embedded control system. The development of this system
was carried out on an in-circuit emulator connected to a PC. What I
decided to do was to convert my PC source input to an Archimedes format,
make some changes to assembler directives and insert two ORG (Origin)
directives to separate data from code. After performing the cross-
assembly process, I converted the produced hex file (text file) from
Archimedes format back to PC format and then onto EPROM. After applying
power to my hardware, the hardware functioned correctly.
5.3
Conclusions
5.3
As you have probably guessed, I like this package. Both the documenta
tion and the software are very easy to understand and use. For people
who carry out a lot of development work on a variety of processors, then
this product is ideal. A lot of time and money can be saved in the
learning and purchasing of individual cross-assemblers, leaving more
time & money for program development. Educational institutions would
really benefit from this package. During my undergraduate days I used
many different processors, but, each time I also had to learn how to use
the corresponding assembler. Using this product, which already has all
the necessary tables which I required then, would have saved a lot of
time.
5.3
I’ve used a lot of cross-assemblers at work such as the one marketed by
Enertec Inc (which targets 42 microprocessors and has a universal linker
and librarian), the one marketed by the Lear Com company and the cross-
disassembler by Logisoft and AD2500. Cross-32 compares very favourably
with these products.
5.3
However, a few minor points which I didn’t really like are as follows :
5.3
1)    The software should have stated the size of the program in bytes
i.e. at the bottom of the list file. Although this figure can be
calculated it is usual to display it.
5.3
2)    During the assembly process, the software temporarily takes over
the complete screen (goes to mode 0) and returns you to the desktop
after a successful assembly or if an error is detected. It would have
looked better if another window had opened containing all the relevant
details. Although you might not have much time to access other multi
tasking applications, it would have appeared fully RISC-OS compliant.
5.3
3)    At present there is no support for a linker or a librarian −
hopefully I will not have to wait too long.
5.3
Overall, a very good product which performs its function with ease.  A
5.3

5.3
Technomatic    468 Church Lane, London, NW9 8UF. (081−205−9558) (−0190)
5.3
The Really Good Software Company      P.O.Box
60, Ashton-under-Lyme, OL5 9WW.
5.3
Trail Software    P.O. Box 283, London, SW11 2LL.
5.3
Turcan Research Systems    83 Green
croft Gardens, West Hampstead, London NW6 3LJ. (071−625−8455)
5.3
Watford Electronics    250 Lower
High Street, Watford, WD1 2AN. (0923−37774) (−33642)
5.3
Word Processing (p29)    65 Milldale
Crescent, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, WV10 6LR.
5.3

5.3

5.3

5.3
First Words and Pictures
5.3
Simon Anthony
5.3
First Words and Pictures from Chalksoft is an early reading package
aimed at young children and special educational needs students. This is
a very wide range to cover but Chalksoft make a very good stab at it.
The program is written with a careful balance between ease of use and
flexibility which causes a few problems, but they are easy enough to
avoid once they have been recognised.
5.3
The idea of the program is to present a simple everyday scene showing
articles or actions which have to be correctly identified. A word or
sentence describing part of the scene is displayed at the bottom of the
screen and the mouse or cursor keys are used to move a pointer in order
to select the relevant area. An illuminating arrow shows which area is
being selected before the choice is finalised by the reader. If the
answer is right, the selected area enlarges with a gentle tune as a
reward. If it is wrong, the computer ‘sneezes’ as they select it. The
score does not go down and there is no long term indication of failure
to put off the less able reader. After a preset number of questions
there is the option to have another go with the same or different scene.
5.3
The program in action
5.3
The opening screen shows the Chalksoft banner. Pressing <return> gives a
menu with options to allow you to alter every aspect of the program.
There are so many variables that an unassisted user can get lost in its
depths. I would prefer access to this menu to be hidden in much the way
that escaping from the program is achieved, that is by using ctrl +
another key.
5.3
The feel of the main program is pleasant and friendly. The artwork is
primary schoolbook type and the music sounds a little twee. This does
not make for an exciting game but that isn’t the idea. After the preset
number of correct answers has been made, a congratulatory message floats
down the screen while another tune tinkles away happily. There are ten
scenes each with eight questions. By changing the options, these will
easily last a morning without repetition. The options have been designed
in consultation with real teachers and are not just the whim of a back-
room programmer. Every time it is used, more and more subtle aspects
emerge due to the flexibility provided. It is not immediately obvious
that the program lifetime would be longer than a few hours but my
experience is that at least special needs students gain a very great
deal and keep coming back for more. The program is not disturbing to
other people in the same room.
5.3
The ‘off computer’ aspects of this package are very important. The
ability to print out the words, sentences and line drawings of the
picture elements and scenes allows colouring in, writing the labels by
hand and simple displays to be made. Learning is improved by using as
many parts of the brain as possible and so these facilities provide good
educational value. They show the care and attention to detail that
typifies the main body of this program.
5.3
One problem that I found is that older children with reading difficul
ties tend to be put off by the childlike presentation. Perhaps Chalksoft
could produce a version of the program with an older emotional feel but
set at the same reading age.
5.3
The program installs easily on a hard disc or network and can be run
from the desktop or autobooted from the disc. It is not copy protected
and so there is no danger of damage to the master disc destroying this
valuable addition to the educational range.
5.3
Conclusion
5.3
First Words and pictures works well. It does teach reading skills and
will hold the attention as long as the user doesn’t feel they are being
patronised by the style. In a group of mixed ability, this can be a
problem. At home or in a matched group of emotionally young pre-readers
there are no such reservations. At £22 plus VAT it is a bit pricey for
the impoverished parent but for an educational establishment it is good
value for money.  A
5.3

5.3
Southern Printers Archimedes Line Art Disc 2
5.3
Hugh Eagle
5.3
Southern Printers Line Art Disc 2 contains 40 Draw files in compressed
form (together with !SparkPlug to aid decompression). There are
altogether about 1240k bytes of data on the disc which costs £9.00 fully
inclusive from Southern Printers. Disc 1 in the series is still
available for £5.50 and you can buy both discs for £12.50. The low
prices are to discourage illegal copying. If you send an SAE, they will
send you a complete set of illustrations to help you decide whether you
want to splash out!
5.3
I don’t know whether there are any Archimedes users left who have not
discovered the fun that can be had with Draw files. You can print them
out and enjoy them for what they are, or use them for ornate letter
headings, or to liven up party invitations, or as illustrations in DTP
documents and a host of “interactive” programs like Genesis, Magpie and
so on. Unlike sprites, the lines and curves remain smooth and unjagged,
however much you scale them up or down or rotate them. Using Draw or
DrawPlus, you can stretch or distort them, select bits of them, change
colours and use bits and pieces from different drawings to build up
montages. With programs like Poster or DrawBender, you can bend them or
shape them any way you want them!
5.3
There is a wide variety of objects in this collection, but it is
probably fair to say that the majority can be categorised as fauna and
flora, buildings or locomotives. A lot of trouble has clearly been taken
over most of the drawings and they have been stylishly drawn. Some of
them, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, are very elaborate; on the other
hand there are some, like the smiley face, which take simplicity to
extremes! My favourites include the very handsome parrot.
5.3
Are they good value? There is now quite a lot of competition, ranging
from Archive Shareware to quite expensive professional offerings. My
preference is for simpler drawings, since they often have more impact
when printed. Also they are nicer to use because the computer can draw
them more quickly and you can get more on a disc! (There are some
particularly good examples, drawn with great flair, on Shareware 18.)
However, if you want the particular pictures in this collection, the
disc is certainly value for money. And full marks to Southern Printers
for making available a complete set of illustrations so that you can
make up your own mind.  A
5.3

5.3

5.3
Acorn’s New PC Emulator (Version 1.60)
5.3
Rob Brown
5.3
The first software PC Emulator was introduced by Acorn Computers not
long after the launch, in the Autumn of 1987, of the Archimedes itself.
Shortly afterwards, Acorn announced that it would be concentrating on
software emulation of the PC rather than trying to produce a hardware
solution. Thus, this early version of the PC Emulator (1.00) was, over
time, superseded by versions 1.09, 1.20, 1.21 and 1.33; the latter being
released in late 1989. Early versions were relatively slow and were
provided with very limited documentation; additional customisation or
configuration of the emulator was not, generally, a straightforward
task.
5.3
Although version 1.33 of the PC Emulator was an improvement over earlier
versions and was: “....designed for use with RISC-OS 2.00....”, it did
not function within the RISC-OS desktop and, when started up, performed
a reset and cleared the Archimedes desktop of any other tasks that may
have been running at the time. All these versions were supplied with the
MS-DOS PC operating system. Version 1.34, when included with the various
Learning Curve packages, was supplied with DR-DOS instead of MS-DOS.
5.3
I have recently obtained version 1.60 of the PC Emulator (as an upgrade)
and, in this article, I hope to give an impression of its more signifi
cant features. At the outset, it is worth mentioning that I have an
Archimedes A310, upgraded to 4M and fitted with a hard disc (but not
ARM3).
5.3
What do you get?
5.3
The full upgrade kit consists of 4 discs:
5.3
PC Emulator MDA/CGA/EGA multi-tasking (min 2M memory)
5.3
PC Emulator CGA single-tasking (min 1M)
5.3
Acorn DOS Support Disc (DOS format 720k)
5.3
CD-ROM Support Disc (DOS format 720k)
5.3
plus the following documentation:
5.3
PC Emulator Guide (manual)
5.3
Upgrade Kit Release Note
5.3
Supplementary Release Note
5.3
End-User Licence Conditions
5.3
Owner Registration Form
5.3
User Licence Agreement
5.3
The latter two have to be completed and returned to Acorn Computers (in
a pre-paid envelope), although it does seem as though these are designed
more for organisations than private individuals. Both PC Emulator discs
include an updated version of the Upgrade Kit Release Note as a ReadMe
file.
5.3
Documentation
5.3
The PC Emulator Guide is more extensive than previous manuals, and runs
to just over 30 A5 pages; it is well written with illustrations where
relevant, although there is no index. The documentation does make
reference to the inclusion of MS-DOS version 3.30, as opposed to MS-DOS
version 3.21 which was included with my original PC Emulator package.
However, the Acorn DOS Support Disc only includes the 3 files AMOUSE.
COM, GETFILE.EXE and PUTFILE.EXE. I understand from Acorn that version
3.30 of MS-DOS is not available as part of the upgrade and is only
supplied to purchasers of the complete package; but there is apparently
little functional difference between the two versions.
5.3
The software
5.3
For those with an Archimedes with the minimum 1Mbyte memory, there is
what Acorn describe as the “small” PC Emulator; this only allows single-
tasking and the basic PC CGA graphics. This is virtually identical to
version 1.33, except that it does start from and return to the desktop
leaving any other tasks intact. For users with 2Mbytes (or more) memory,
the “large” PC Emulator allows full multi-tasking and provides MDA (b/
w), CGA, EGA and EGA+ (VGA) PC graphics.
5.3
MultiFS
5.3
Both emulator discs include MultiFS (from Arxe Systems, version: 1.41a).
This appears to be a DOS only version of the product reviewed in Archive
3.12 p35.
5.3
Double-clicking on the MultiFS icon displays a series of DOS floppy and/
or hard disc icons on the icon bar, labelled as per DOS conventions
(e.g. the first floppy disc drive is labelled “:A”, a second would be
labelled “:B” and so on). These behave exactly like the ADFS (or SCSI)
icons and allow DOS floppy/hard disc directories/files to be displayed
as if they were RISC-OS; except that the display of DOS filenames is
truncated to 10 char-acters, instead of the full 8 character name and 3
character extension. MultiFS provides the usual desktop functions (such
as move, copy and delete, plus format: both 360k and 720k) for DOS discs
and also permits transfer between RISC-OS and DOS discs. There is a Name
Translation option which may need to be used to avoid any potential
problems in transferring files between RISC-OS and DOS.
5.3
The MultiFS !Run file is set up for a specific hard disc path-name, so
if you have a different name (or use a SCSI hard disc instead of ADFS)
this will need to be edited. Furthermore, it does not seem possible for
both MultiFS and the PC Emulator to access the same hard disc at the
same time, MultiFS produces an error message that the: “Hard disc
file....is in use by another application”.
5.3
MultiFS compares very favourably with the other desktop DOS utilities
that I have used previously: PC Dir (from Keith Sloan, latest version on
Careware 7) and PC-Access (from Minerva Software). Trying to run all
three products alongside each other is not to be recommended since they
appear to ‘clash’ in a variety of ways. PC-Access appears to have more
functionality than PC Dir, and in turn MultiFS appears to have the edge
in terms of features over PC-Access.
5.3
Installation
5.3
Whilst installation of either PC Emulator is basically straightforward,
it is a task that is best undertaken with the PC Emulator Guide to hand;
the manual has a specific section detailing the upgrade procedure.
5.3
For users of floppy discs, it is simply a question of updating the
!System and !Fonts applications using the !Merge application, included
on both PC Emulator discs, and then using the appropriate new emulator
disc in place of the old one. The !Fonts application is only included
with the “large” emulator and is used when operating within the RISC-OS
desktop.
5.3
For users with a hard disc, the procedure is still relatively straight
forward. Although the manual indicates that the old PC Emulator and its
associated files can be deleted at the start of the upgrade process, I
was more cautious and chose to defer this until I was satisfied that I
had completed the upgrade process correctly!
5.3
Having updated the !System and !Fonts applications and determined
whether to install the “small” or “large” emulator, its files are copied
to a suitable directory. If you are upgrading, you are warned not to
create a DOS hard disc file as you already have one. The PC Emulator is
now loaded (by double-clicking on its icon) onto the icon bar and the
existing path-name typed into the Hard disc drive file box of the
Configuration menu; this configuration is then saved, which should allow
the PC Emulator to start from the existing hard disc partition. Version
1.33 set a limit of 32Mbytes for each hard disc; although there is no
mention in the documentation for the new version of a similar limit, I
understand from Acorn that it does still apply. For obvious reasons, I
did not amend the size of my existing hard disc partition!
5.3
If you are installing the PC Emulator for the first time on a hard disc
there are four stages involved:
5.3
1.    Creating a RISC-OS file for use as a PC hard disc.
5.3
2.    Partitioning the PC hard disc for DOS.
5.3
3.    Formatting the PC hard disc.
5.3
4.            Copying the DOS files onto the hard disc.
5.3
Configuration
5.3
The inclusion of this menu option (only available when there is no PC
window open), simplifies the task of selecting the various PC Emulator
start-up options. There are five of these which, if changed, need first
to be saved before the appropriate emulator itself is started:
5.3
1.    PC RAM size. The default setting is “All”, which means that the PC
Emulator will emulate a PC with up to 640k memory. However, there does
not appear to be any provision of or support for expanded/extended
memory.
5.3
2.    Erase RISC-OS? This option is only available on the “small” PC
Emulator. This deletes specified RISC-OS modules to maximise the memory
available to DOS; but using this option renders inoperable the very
useful feature of being able to switch between the RISC-OS desktop and
PC environments.
5.3
3.    Floppy disc drives. This allows for additional 3½“ or 5¼” internal
or external drives to be added beyond the default of ‘A’ for the
internal 3½“ drive. If more drives are added than actually exist, an
error message is displayed when the PC Emulator is started that: “More
floppy discs specified than exist”, and any extra drives are ignored.
Although my external 5¼” disc drive is 40/80 track switchable, it is
also possible to edit the Configuration file to ‘DoubleStep’. This means
that I can leave the drive set to 80 track, and it will read/write from/
to DOS 5¼“ 360k (40 track) discs. However, there does not appear to be a
similar ‘DoubleStep’ facility within MultiFS.
5.3
4.    Hard disc drive files. This allows a hard disc drive to be created
or added, and/or existing path-names amended (see Installation above).
5.3
5.    Display adaptors. This option is only available on the “large” PC
Emulator. There are four basic types of display adapter available: MDA
(b/w), CGA, EGA and EGA+ (VGA), each of which uses increasing amounts of
memory. Within the EGA option, there are additional sub-options for EGA
monitor (normal or multisync) and EGA memory (64k, 128k or 256k). The
Task display indicates that the memory in use by the “large” PC Emulator
application can range from 1440k (MDA/CGA) to 1728k (EGA+), for the
“small” application it is 960k; these are based on a configuration of
the full 640k emulated PC memory.
5.3
In use
5.3
Running either the “large” or “small” PC Emulator is straightforward.
Its icon is first double-clicked and loaded onto the icon bar; selecting
this icon then displays the PC screen in a window (“large” PC Emulator)
or displays the PC screen in full (“small” PC Emulator). Users with
floppy discs will then need to insert the DOS system disc (to boot DOS
and obtain the A> prompt); users with a hard disc should find that DOS
should boot automatically (leaving them at the C> prompt).
5.3
However, I found that forgetting to switch on the external 5¼“ drive
connected to my Archimedes caused the PC Emulator to ‘freeze’ with a
blank PC window until any key is pressed and then the usual DOS prompt
of C> appeared; this is apparently caused by DOS searching through each
drive in turn for a ‘bootable’ disc. Furthermore, it is important to
leave the floppy disc drive(s) empty when booting DOS from a hard disc,
otherwise a: “Non system disc or disc error....” message will appear.
5.3
From the icon bar, there are a number of menu options: Info, Configura
tion (see above) and Quit are common to both emulators. Additionally,
once the “large” PC Emulator has been started, there are options to
Single task or Freeze the emulator. The latter ‘pause’ option, which is
also automatically selected if the PC window is closed, means that any
RISC-OS tasks will run somewhat faster; this can then be cancelled by
clicking on the PC Emulator icon to re-open the PC window.
5.3
Having selected the Single task option, it is then possible to switch
back to multi-tasking by clicking the middle mouse button (the same
method is used to switch from the PC screen of the “small” PC Emulator
to the RISC-OS desktop). The PC Emulator Guide states that: “When
running in Single task mode, the emulator will run slightly faster.
Screen updates in particular will be faster”. By way of illustration,
the following table shows the time taken to load a PC spreadsheet
program, to load a 100k file into it, and to re-calculate a simple 5,000
cell spreadsheet. All timings were based on loading from 3½“ floppy disc
and using desktop mode 15 (on an Archimedes not fitted with an ARM3
upgrade), timings for the previous version 1.33 are also included for
interest. (See table below.)
5.3
Whilst these are by no means comprehensive benchmarks; they do indicate
broadly comparable timings except when using multi-tasking operation
and/or the higher resolution PC graphics modes. It does not seem
possible to have more than one PC window open at once; trying to load a
second version of the emulator from a hard disc produces the error
message that the: “Hard disc....cannot be opened....”. Even trying to
load a second version of the PC Emulator from floppy disc fails,
irrespective of whether it is loaded before or after the hard disc
version, since no form of keyboard input appears to be possible in
either PC window.
5.3
Whilst the DOS screen colours are reproduced correctly when single-
tasking, this is not always the case when operating within the RISC-OS
desktop, particularly when using a 16 colour mode; this is less
noticeable in a 256 colour mode. I also found it necessary to alter the
horizontal/vertical control settings on my multi-sync monitor to obtain
a proper display of the higher resolution PC graphics modes. Obviously,
I had never needed to use its VGA setting before!
5.3
Once the PC Emulator has loaded the PC environment, you are largely on
your own as far as the Acorn documentation is concerned; but it would be
unreasonable to expect Acorn to provide a step-by-step DOS tutorial.
There are a few pages outlining the more commonly used DOS commands, and
one appendix in the PC Emulator Guide contains a list of suggested
“Further reading”.
5.3
In addition, the Acorn DOS Support Disc provides a Microsoft compatible
mouse device driver; unfortunately none of my (limited) range of PC
software uses a mouse, so I have been unable to try this out. The same
disc also includes the GETFILE and PUTFILE utilities for transferring
files from/to RISC-OS/DOS; but, in practice, I imagine that most users
may well find the MultiFS application more convenient. Not having a CD-
ROM unit, I have not had the opportunity to try out the CD-ROM Support
Disc.
5.3
Use with 40/80 track drives
5.3
In addition to the ‘DoubleStep’ facility already mentioned under
Configuration; DOS also provides a command − DRIVPARM − to control the
configuration of floppy disc drives. There is a brief note in the
Upgrade Kit Release Note referring to this command, with particular
reference to formatting discs from within MS-DOS version 3.21. In case
it may be of interest, part of my CONFIG.SYS file includes the following
commands:
5.3
DRIVPARM=/D:0/F:2/H:2/S:9/T:80
5.3
DRIVPARM=/D:1/F:0/H:2/S:9/T:40 where: D (drive) is a number with 0
corresponding to A, 1 to B etc.
5.3
F (format) is 0 for 360k, 2 for 720k.
5.3
H (heads) is the number of heads − usually 2 for double sided.
5.3
S (sectors) is the sectors per track − 9 for both 360k and 720k.
5.3
T (tracks) is the tracks per side − 40 for 360k and 80 for 720k.
5.3
In other words, I have set up the internal 3½“ disc drive to read/write
from/to DOS 720k (80 track) discs and the external 5¼” drive to read/
write from/to DOS 360k (40 track) discs.
5.3
Conclusion
5.3
With access to only a limited range of PC software, I am not in a
position to give a view on compatibility. However, Acorn provide a list
of the more significant PC applications that have been tested success
fully with the PC Emulator (including DBase IV, Excel, Symphony, Ventura
2.0 and Wordstar V6); they also provide a further listing of some
software requiring specific configuration (including Windows 3, under
EGA+) and a note of a few programs which do not work at all under the
emulator. Acorn also provide a technical description of the emulated PC,
in case it is required for specific PC programs’ installation routines.
5.3
Without a doubt, version 1.60 of the PC Emulator offers significant
advantages over earlier versions, including: better documentation,
easier configuration, multi-tasking operation (plus a ‘clean’ return to
the desktop from single-tasking) and emulation of additional PC graphics
modes. At an upgrade price of £34.08 (including VAT) from Acorn Direct
(for existing owners of the MS-DOS version), and with MultiFS included
‘free’, it seems a real bargain. The new price of the PC Emulator
(through Archive) is £96.  A
5.3

5.3
Fact-File
5.3

5.3
(The numbers in italic are fax numbers)
5.3

5.3
4th Dimension     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.3
4mation    11 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32
8PA. (0271−25353) (−22974)
5.3
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
5.3
Acorn Computers Ltd    Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 4JN. (0223−245200) (−210685)
5.3
Ace Computing (p10)    27 Victoria
Road, Cambridge, CB4 3BW. (0223−322559) (−69180)
5.3
Aleph One Ltd    The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(0223−811679) (−812713)
5.3
Alpine Software    P.O.Box 25, Portadown, Craigavon, BT63 5UT.
(0762−342510)
5.3
Arnor Ltd    611 Lincoln Road, Peterborough, PE1 3HA. (0733−68909) (−67299)
5.3
Arxe Systems Ltd    P.O.Box 898, Forest Gate, London E7 9RG. (081−534−1198
evenings)
5.3
Atomwide Ltd    23 The Greenway, Orpington, Kent, BR5 2AY. (0689−838852)
(−896088)
5.3
Baildon Electronics    1 Fyfe
Crescent, Baildon, Shipley, W Yorks BD17 6DR. (0274−580519) (−531626)
5.3
Chalksoft    P.O. Box 49, Spalding, Lincs, PE11 1NZ. (0775−769518)
5.3
Clares Micro Supplies    98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (0606−48511)
(−48512)
5.3
Colton Software (p20)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA. (0223−311881) (−312010)
5.3
Computer Concepts (p32/33)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 6EX. (0442−63933) (−231632)
5.3
Dalmation Publications    37 Manor
Road, Teddington, Middlesex  TW11 8AA.
5.3
David Pilling    P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
5.3
Digital Services    9 Wayte Street, Cosham, Portsmouth PO6 3BS.
(0705−210600) (−210705)
5.3
DT Software    13 Northumberland Road, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32
6HE.
5.3
DT Software    FREEPOST, Cambridge CB3 7BR. (0223−841099)
5.3
I-APL Ltd     2 Blenheim Road, St Albans, AL1 4NR.
5.3
Ian Copestake Software    10 Frost
Drive, Wirral, L61 4XL. (051−632−1234)(−3434)
5.3
IFEL (p18)    36 Upland Drive, Plymouth, Devon, PL6 6BD. (0752−847286)
5.3
Longman-Logotron    124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4
4ZS. (0223−425558) (−425349)
5.3
LOOKsystems (p9)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603−764114) (−764011)
5.3
Morley Electronics     Morley
House, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE29 7TY. (091−257−6355)
(−6373)
5.3
Oak Solutions (p6)    Suite 25,
Robin Enterprise Centre, Leeds Road, Idle, Yorkshire BD10 9TE.
(0274−620423) (−620419)
5.3
Oregan Developments     36 Grosvenor
Avenue, Streetly, Sutton Coldfield, B74 3PE.
5.3
Ray Maidstone (p15)    421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603−407060) (−417447)
5.3
RISC Developments Ltd    117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303) (−60263)
5.3
Sherston Software    Swan Barton, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(0666−840433) (−840048)
5.3
Southern Printers    47 Drake Road, Willesborough, Ashford, Kent TN24 0UZ.
(0233−633919)
5.3
Spacetech (p16)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.3
Techsoft UK Ltd (p19)    Old School
Lane, Erryrs, Mold, Clwyd, CH7 4DA. (082−43318)
5.3
Technomatic    468 Church Lane, London, NW9 8UF. (081−205−9558) (−0190)
5.3
The Really Good Software Company    P.O.Box 60,
Ashton-under-Lyme, OL5 9WW.
5.3
Trail Software    P.O. Box 283, London, SW11 2LL.
5.3
Turcan Research Systems    83 Green
croft Gardens, West Hampstead, London NW6 3LJ. (071−625−8455)
5.3
Watford Electronics    250 Lower
High Street, Watford, WD1 2AN. (0923−37774) (−33642)
5.3
Word Processing (p29)    65 Milldale
Crescent, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, W Midlands  WV10 6LR.
5.3

5.3

5.3
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD. 0603-
766592 (764011)
5.3

5.3
PC Emulator version:    v1.33
v1.60       <−−−−−−−− v1.60 “large” −−−−−−−−>
5.3
        “small”         CGA    EGA(256k)  EGA(256k)    EGA+
5.3
                normal    m/sync
5.3
Load spreadsheet program:
5.3
single-task     39s     37s     36s
37s     38s     38s
5.3
multi-task    -     -     39s
39s     39s     40s
5.3
Load 100k file:
5.3
single-task     1m 00s     1m 03s
1m 03s     1m 03s     1m 10s     1m 18s
5.3
multi-task    -     -     1m 21s
1m 21s     1m 21s     1m 21s
5.3
Re-calculate 5,000 cell spreadsheet:
5.3
single-task     28s     28s     28s
28s     32s     38s
5.3
multi-task    -     -     38s
38s     39s     39s
5.3

5.3
    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA. (0305−822753)


Archimedes − The DTP machine
5.4
Outside the Acorn world, if you mention desktop publishing, people’s
thoughts automatically go to Apple Mac. Yes, you can do DTP on lots of
other machines, but the Mac is the benchmark against which all others
are judged.
5.4
Having been involved with the Apple Mac for over five years, I am well
aware of the Macs’ DTP capabilities. I know what we are up against, but
I feel very strongly that Archimedes computers, software and peri
pherals, could challenge the dominance of the Mac, at least in the UK.
5.4
I say “could challenge” because it’s one thing to know that £4,000 can
buy you an A5000 DTP system equivalent to a Mac system costing over
£10,000, but it’s another thing to get the message across to people who
have never even heard of Acorn, let alone the A5000.
5.4
Norwich Computer Services is only a very small company but we are doing
what we can to spread the gospel of Archimedes DTP. We are currently
producing a small, free A5 booklet entitled “Desktop Publishing on
Archimedes Computers”. If you’re thinking of going into DTP yourself, I
think you would find the booklet helpful. Also, if you would like to use
any of these booklets to give to others to help spread the word, just
tell us and we’ll send you as many as you can use. It’s advertising for
us, so we’re happy to stand the cost.
5.4
Acorn DTP System
5.4
Acorn are going to be doing their part to spread the Archimedes DTP
gospel by producing and marketing a complete DTP system. This will be
based round the A540 with a Laser Direct HiRes8 printer and Impression
(what else?!) but full details have not yet been released.
5.4
Best wishes for 1992!
5.4
All the staff at Norwich Computer Services join together to wish you all
the very best for the New Year. We hope that 1992 will be a very good
year for you all.
5.4
      Adrian, Ali, Ray, Roger, Paul & Sue.
5.4

5.4
Products Available
5.4
•    A5000’s back in stock − The stock situation on A5000’s seems to change
weekly. Anyway, as I write (2/1/92) we have both A5000 Learning Curves
and straight A5000’s without Learning Curves in stock. No, sorry, not
the A5000 1FD (1M no hard drive version). We have some on order but we
gather that Acorn are not releasing any for the foreseeable future. As
far as we know, Acorn are only supplying them to VARs (Value Added
Resellers), i.e. companies who buy them and add their own software and
hardware etc which they then sell as a complete system.
5.4
We can help you in customising by  (a) offering alternative monitors
e.g. we supply an Eizo 9060S for £200 above the price including the
Acorn multi-sync (b) offering a second additional internal 100M IDE
drive for £380 (having tested that it is compatible with the Acorn IDE
interface − see comments on page 12) and (c) offering £100 in part
exchange on a Conner 40M IDE drive (i.e. replace the 40M with 100M for
£280) but this offer is at our discretion as we don’t want to end up
with lots of 40M IDE’s we can’t get rid of. Also, we can offer (subject
to availability) a second additional internal 40M IDE drive for £120
(the extra is to account for extra cabling and labour) but I won’t put
this on the Price List − it’s complicated enough already. If you are
interested, give us a ring. So, based on a Learning Curve pack, here are
the combined prices...
5.4
    2M      4M      8M
5.4
A5000 (40M)    £1799    £1929
£2399
5.4
A5000 (40M + 40M)    £1919    £2049
£2519
5.4
A5000 (100M)    £2079    £2209
£2679
5.4
A5000 (40M + 100M)    £2179
£2309    £2779
5.4
then add £200 if you want an Eizo 9060S instead of an Acorn m/s or £270
if you would prefer a Taxan 795 or £460 for an Eizo 9070 (16“) or £910
if you want an Eizo T560i 17” Trinitron (see below for details).
5.4
•    A5000 Technical reference manuals − Acorn have produced a technical
reference manual for the A5000 which consists of about 40 pages of text
plus 9 A1-size drawings including assembly diagrams, circuit diagrams
and component layouts. The price is £65 from Acorn or £62 through
Archive. (They are in stock now.)
5.4
•    Atomwide 200M SCSI drives − The 200M Pro Quantum drive mechanisms that
Oak Solutions use in their High Speed drives are now available from
Atomwide in their own boxes. I am using one on my A540 and it is
noticeably faster than the 100M Conner in the A540 itself. (1350 kbytes/
sec cf 790 k/sec) The prices, through Archive, are £705 for an internal
drive and £795 for an external. (These prices are without podule.)
5.4
•    Careware and Shareware Four new discs of PD software are available
this month:
5.4
Careware 15 is ‘religious’ clip art: dove, lion, lamb, fish, sheep,
spring lamb, whale, holly, Santa, snowman, snowflakes, tree, 14
different crosses, handshake, open hands, praying hands, anchor, bible,
censor, crown of thorns, handbell, pulpit, scroll, baptism, boy praying,
person kneeling, nun, bishop, singers, robed figure, Bede, Coverdale,
Tyndale, Wycliffe, church yard, lighthouse, Westminster, helmet, inri
scroll, signpost.
5.4
Careware 16 has clip art images from ILEA designed to promote “positive
images” of people of different races, gender, ages and disabilities.
5.4
Shareware 42 has twilight, sun and moon rise/set calculator, gravity
simulator, various blank sheets for personal organiser, clipart
(includes typewriter plus sprites of car, crash, masks, town crier,
tanks, policeman, poundsign, scissors, scouts symbol, world map),
desktop Pacman game, draughts, Escape from Exeria, Guardians of the
Labyrinth, various desktop patterns, wall paper designer(?), address
label database, desktop backdrop, “approximate” clock, current directory
set utility.
5.4
Shareware 43 is a DBK raytracer with demo files. (Members’ prices are £6
for Careware and £3 for Shareware.)
5.4
•    ChartWell is a sophisticated graph and chart package from Risc
Developments. It provides horizontal and vertical bar charts, line
graphs, pie charts, scatter diagrams and polar plots. £29.95 from Risc
Developments Ltd. (Although it has the same address as Beebug Ltd, they
ask us to make clear that this is a separate company.)
5.4
•    Cumana SCSI interfaces − Cumana have now released three SCSI inter
faces: 16 bit internal for A310/400/5000, 16 bit external for A3000 and
8 bit internal for A3000. The prices are £151, £161 and £130 respec
tively (+VAT). One major plus of these interfaces is that they include
CDFS so you won’t need to pay for an upgrade to the software if you buy
a CD-ROM system. (We have one of each for evaluation, so we hope to
check whether, for instance, they will work with Computer Concepts’
ScanLight Professional. A report will, hopefully, appear next month.)
5.4
•    Eizo T560i monitor − If you want a really top-notch 17“ monitor for
the Archimedes, this is it! It’s a Trinitron tube with 0.26mm dot pitch
which, on a 17” monitor is very fine and it has the advantage of the
flat Trinitron tube. However, the best part about it is that it is
(extremely) intelligent. It is microprocessor controlled so what you do
is to teach it any new mode you want to use. With a push button control,
you can adjust brightness, H size, V size, H position, V position, side
pin (to cut out pincushion distortion), trapezoidal (again alters the
shape of the screen), H static convergence and V static convergence.
Then having adjusted each of those parameters for that particular screen
mode, it remembers them so that when the same signal appears again, the
monitor says, “Ah, I know that mode” and displays it exactly as you had
adjusted it. Then you can switch to another mode you use commonly and
adjust that to get optimum use of the screen.
5.4
The price? Oh, yes, the price... “only” £1240 inc VAT and carriage! Is
it worth it? Well, I’m using one at the moment and it is certainly very
impressive but for me personally, the extra £450 over the Eizo 9070
would be difficult to justify. This is partly because I use the same
mode 99.9% of the time, so having to re-adjust the screen when going
from mode to mode doesn’t worry me. Also, the T560i, like the Taxan 875,
can’t quite cope with mode 102 (1152×448) and so you have to use mode
106 (1088×448) i.e. 6% fewer dots across the screen. Still, if you
change modes a lot and especially if you want to use the same monitor on
different types of computer and want the extra resolution then the T560i
is for you.
5.4
(I’ve got one of the new Microvitec 20“ autoscan (microprocessor-
controlled) monitors on order, so I’ll let you know how I get on with
that − the Archive price is likely to be £1590.)
5.4
•    Flight Sim Toolkit − Simis Ltd have released a flight simulator editor
for just £44.95 inc VAT or £42 through Archive. It allows you to produce
your own flight simulations by using a ground editor, a 3D shape editor
for objects like trucks, planes, etc, an aircraft model editor which
controls the plane’s flying characteristics and, finally, a cockpit
editor.
5.4
•    Freddy Teddy is back − Topologika have released a third in the Freddy
Teddy series for infants. This time Freddy Teddy is in The Playground.
The Playground is £29.95 +VAT, which includes a free site licence, or
£32 through Archive.
5.4
•    Hard Disc Companion II − Risc Developments’ update of their hard disc
backup program is now available for £45 +VAT. It is faster than the
original and has many new features including backup to hard drive as an
alternative to floppies, backup certain filetypes only or ignore certain
filetypes. It can also be used for backing up networks. (Their adver
tisements claim that it is “the best selling hard disc backup program”
but I doubt whether, at £45+VAT, they could possibly have sold as many
as Shareware 36 which, at £3, has a hard disc backup as one of its many
programs and utilities.)
5.4
•    Hearsay II − Beebug’s new comms package is now fully multi-tasking.
£75+VAT from Beebug or £82 through Archive. See the review on page 34
for more details.
5.4
•    Morley prices drop − The Morley SCSI disc drives have dropped in price
and the 40M drives have been replaced by 50M. The new prices are given
on the price list but are summarised here in comparison with various
other drives. Atomwide (AW) and Frog drives come without podule and so
can be paired with Oak, Morley uncached (Mu/c) or Morley cached (Mc)
podules. The figures in italic are high speed drives.
5.4
EXTERNAL drives (with podule)
5.4
    WW    HS    Frog    Frog    Frog    AW
AW    AW    Mrly    Mrly
5.4
            Oak    Mu/c    Mc    Oak
Mu/c    Mc    Mu/c    Mc
5.4
45M    500        520    460    510
5.4
50M        560
620    560    610    435    485
5.4
65M            550    490    540
5.4
80M    565
5.4
100M    695    760    620    560    610
790    730    780    570    620
5.4
200M    1060    1180    870    810
860    995    935    985
5.4
300M        2100    1290    1230
1280
5.4
640M        2850    1690    1630
1680
5.4
1000M            2290    2230    2280
5.4

5.4
INTERNAL drives (with podule)
5.4
    WW    HS    Frog    Frog    Frog    AW
AW    AW    Mrly    Mrly
5.4
            Oak    Mu/c    Mc    Oak
Mu/c    Mc    Mu/c    Mc
5.4
45M    405        490    430    480
5.4
50M        470
535    475    525    360    410
5.4
65M            520    460    510
5.4
80M    450
5.4
100M    570    660    590    530    580
700    640    690    570    620
5.4
200M    995    1090    840    780
830    905    845    895
5.4
•    Prophet − Apricote Studio’s combined Stock Control, Invoicing and
Accounts program is called “Prophet”. (I’m sure there is a good reason
for the name though it escapes me at the moment unless it relates to the
biblical quote, “and behold, he shall make a great prophet”!) The price
is £169.95 from Apricote or £157 through Archive. If you already have
either Account Book or Invoice Program, you can get the full package for
£69.95 from Apricote and if you have both, it will cost you just £39.95.
5.4
•    ScanLight prices drop − With the coming of the ScanLight Professional,
Computer Concepts have dropped the price of the A4 Scanlight to £399
+VAT with sheetfeeder and £299 without. (Archive prices are £435 and
£325 respectively.) They have also dropped the Price of ScanLight Junior
(not the 256 version) to £129 +VAT or £140 through Archive. There is
also an upgrade to the software which offers improved grey-map control
using a bezier curve along with simpler brightness and contrast
controls. It now also includes image enhancement functions such as
sharpening. CC claim that ScanLight is the only scanner software that
offers realtime greyscale dithering of images to produce near photo
graphic on-screen representations. This software upgrade will be
available to all existing ScanLight owners free of charge.
5.4
N.B. ScanLight Professional only works reliably with certain SCSI
controller boards − Acorn, Morley and Lingenuity. In some cases, it
works OK with the Oak SCSI board and CC are actively trying to get it so
that it works consistently with Oak boards. However, they are NOT
working on any others because they are not Acorn compatible. It does NOT
work with the TechnoSCSI board. ScanLight Professional is available
through Archive at £970 inc VAT or £1070 with a SCSI podule.
5.4
•    ScreenTurtle − Topologika’s latest release is a “friendly” turtle
graphics program called ScreenTurtle. It uses a parser so that if it
doesn’t know the command you type in, it guesses! It has on-screen
interactive help and it ‘ticks’ commands that it likes. As well as the
standard Logo features, it has absolute directions, “BEARING” and
“HEADING”, as well as positive and negative Cartesian co-ordinates. To
extend turtle graphics into the realm of art, there is a turtle
generated colour FILL as well as a mouse controlled PAINT. The price is
£39.95 +VAT from Topologika or £43 through Archive.
5.4
•    Software from Germany − There is a thriving Archimedes software
industry in Germany. One example of this is Klein Computers from
Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt. They have developed five items of
Archimedes software: MouseRecorder (£25) for creation of demos, BestForm
(£49) which is a formula-editor for DTP, 2D/3D FunctionPlotter (£20)
which includes Drawfile output, G-Draft (£49) a CAD package and HD-
Backup (£10) which includes other disc utilities. All these prices
exclude VAT which, presumably, would be charged by customs on entry to
UK, though small items are often ignored, I think. Klein computers would
prefer a Eurocheque written in DM (but who, in the UK, uses Eurocheques?
even in 1992!). (A demo of BestForm appears on the monthly program
disc.)
5.4
•    TinyLogo/TinyDraw is now available from Topologika in a new version
(at the same price of £29.95 +VAT or £32 through Archive) which includes
adjustable shapes, colours preserved on export, undo, error checking, 3
pencil thicknesses etc. An upgrade for existing users is available for
£5 +VAT (+ £1.50 p&p) if you send back your old disc plus proof of
purchase to Topologika (not to Archive).
5.4
•    !Transfer is a new utility which will allow you to transfer text from
any icon in any RISC-OS application to any other. This has many
applications − for example, you could grab a name and address from a
database and drag it straight into a wordprocessor. !Transfer is just
£8.95 from Apricote Studios or £8 through Archive.
5.4
•    Typestudio is Risc Developments new text effects package which allows
you to draw and edit text, save in Draw or internal formats, print using
RISC-OS drivers and add or remove effects. These effects include
moulding to shapes, flowing along lines, shadowing, slanting, 3D and
mirroring. All this for just £45 +VAT.
5.4
Review software received...
5.4
We have received review copies of the following software and hardware:
CalcSheet (needs a second reviewer to act as “referee”), Landmarks
Victorians and RainForest also need a “referee”. Converta-Key, Fun &
Games, !BasShrink, Holed Out Compendium, SmArt Graphics System.  A
5.4

5.4
Government Health Warning − Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
5.4
How many New Year’s Resolutions did you make this year? The New Year is
a great opportunity for making a new start, turning over a new leaf etc,
etc. The trouble is, we all know what happens... within a few days (or
hours?) we slip back into whatever it was we decided we would avoid.
Hmmm!
5.4
The basic problem is that although we know what we ought to do, it’s
just such jolly hard work trying to do it. Even though we know in theory
that, in the long run, things will be better for us and for those around
us if we take a particular course of action, we so often go for the
easiest way in the short term − and suffer the consequences later.
5.4
This is where the Christian message is such good news. Firstly, it gives
us a motive for doing what is right − when we discover how much God
loves us and we grow to love him too, we want to do things to please
him. Secondly, if you think that Christians seem to have an inner
strength, you’re absolutely right! It sounds fantastic, but Jesus said
he would live in us and Christians will testify that, with God living in
them, they can do things that would be impossible without God’s
strength.
5.4
I pray that, in 1992, you will discover more of the love and power of
God that is found in Jesus Christ!
5.4

5.4

5.4
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD. 0603-
766592 (764011)
5.4

5.4
4th Dimension     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.4
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
5.4
Academic Software    Sourby Old Farm, Timble, Otley, Yorks, LS21 2PW.
(0943−88−628)
5.4
Acorn Direct    13 Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2RL.
5.4
Acorn Computers Ltd    Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 4JN. (0223−245200) (210685)
5.4
Acorn Training Centre    Unit 5,
Cambridge Technopark, 645 Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8PB.
(0223−214411)
5.4
Ace Computing    27 Victoria Road, Cambridge, CB4 3BW. (0223−322559)
(69180)
5.4
Aleph One Ltd    The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(0223−811679) (812713)
5.4
Apricote Studios    2 Purls Bridge Farm, Manea, Cambridgeshire, PE15 0ND.
(035−478−432)
5.4
Arxe Systems Ltd    P.O.Box 898, Forest Gate, London E7 9RG. (081−534−1198
evenings)
5.4
Atomwide Ltd    23 The Greenway, Orpington, Kent, BR5 2AY. (0689−838852)
(896088)
5.4
Baildon Electronics    1 Fyfe
Crescent, Baildon, Shipley, W Yorks BD17 6DR. (0274−580519) (531626)
5.4
Base5 (p22)    PO Box 378, Woking, Surrey GU21 4DF.
5.4
Beebug Ltd    117 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303)
(60263)
5.4
Cambridge International Software      Unit 2a,
Essex Road, London, N1 3QP. (071−226−3340) (226−3408)
5.4
Chalksoft    P.O. Box 49, Spalding, Lincs, PE11 1NZ. (0775−769518)
5.4
CJE Micros    78 Brighton Road, Worthing, W Sussex, BN11 2EN.
(0903−213361)
5.4
Clares Micro Supplies    98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (0606−48511)
(48512)
5.4
Colton Software (p21)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA. (0223−311881) (312010)
5.4
Computer Concepts (p32/33)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 6EX. (0442−63933) (231632)
5.4
David Pilling    P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
5.4
DT Software    13 Northumberland Road, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32
6HE.
5.4
GL Consulting Ltd    8 Agates Lane, Ashtead, Surrey, KT21 2NF.
(0372−272937) (279362)
5.4
Godders Ware    13 Prestbury Close, Blackpole Village, Worcester, WR4 9XG.
5.4
Irlam Instruments    133 London Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 4HN.
(0895−811401)
5.4
Klein Computers    Hasslocherstrasse 73, D-6090 Ruesselsheim, Germany.
(010−49−6142−81131) (81256)
5.4
Krisalis Software    Teque House, Mason’s Yard, Downs Row, Moorgate,
Rotherham, S60 2HD. (0709−372290)
5.4
Lingenuity (Lindis)    P.O.Box 10,
Halesworth, Suffolk, IP19 0DX. (0986−85−476) (460)
5.4
Longman-Logotron    124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4
4ZS. (0223−425558) (425349)
5.4
LOOKsystems (p7)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603−764114) (764011)
5.4
Microvitec Ltd    Bolling Road, Bradford, BD4 7TU. (0274−390011)
(734944)
5.4
Minerva Systems    Minerva House, Baring Crescent, Exeter, EX1 1TL.
(0392−437756) (421762)
5.4
Morley Electronics     Morley
House, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE29 7TY. (091−257−6355)
(6373)
5.4
Next Technology Ltd    St John’s
Innovation Centre, Cambridge, CB4 4WS. (0223−420222)
5.4
Pedigree Films Ltd    Unit B11,
Trinity Business Centre, 305 Rotherhithe Street, London  SE16 1EY.
(071−231−6137) (237−5776)
5.4
Ray Maidstone (p22)    421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603−407060) (417447)
5.4
RISC Developments Ltd    117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303) (60263)
5.4
Serious Statistical Software    Lynwood,
Benty Heath Lane, Willaston, South Wirral, L64 1SD. (051−327−4268)
5.4
Sherston Software    Swan Barton, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(0666−840433) (840048)
5.4
Simis Ltd    26 Chittys Walk, Keens Park, Guildford, GU3 3HW. (0483−233048)
(235275)
5.4
Software Solutions    Broadway
House, 149−151 St Neots Road, Hardwick, Cambridge, CB3 7QJ.
(0954−211760) (211760)
5.4
Spacetech (p8)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.4
Technomatic    468 Church Lane, London, NW9 8UF. (081−205−9558) (0190)
5.4
Topologika (p15)    P.O. Box 39, Stilton, Peterborough, PE7 3RL.
(0733−244682)
5.4
Watford Electronics    250 Lower
High Street, Watford, WD1 2AN. (0923−37774) (33642)
5.4
Word Processing    65 Milldale Crescent, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, W
Midlands  WV10 6LR.
5.4

5.4

5.4
Computer Concepts
5.4
From 5.3 page 32
5.4

5.4
Computer Concepts
5.4
From 5.3 page 33
5.4

5.4
Hints and Tips
5.4
•    A5000 monitor problem − One problem which various people seem to have
had with the Acorn A5000 monitors is intermittent contact on the mains
cable but the solution is simple. When you plug the power cable into the
monitor, it seems to go in but actually, to get it fully home, you have
to push it very firmly.
5.4
•    Draw files in Impression − Did you know that when using Draw files in
Impression frames, it is possible to “zoom” in on a part you want to
concentrate on and bring it up to “fill the frame”? This means you can,
for example, call up a file of, say, a fruit filled bowl and then choose
the apple to fill the space available in your document or show a group
of cartoon figures and, in the next frame, have a “close up” of one
face. Since Draw files are capable of incredible scaling, their should
be no real loss of detail involved.
5.4
The procedure is simple. Create a frame for the draw file. Open the
directory containing the Draw file. Drag it into the frame in the usual
way. Changing the shape of the frame with its handles using <select>
will “crop” the picture until only the part you require is visible. Then
enlarge the frame using the adjust button on the corner handles. The
cropped picture will “grow” with your mouse movements. (Well, stone me!
I didn’t know that! Please keep sending these “obvious” hints − they are
not obvious to everyone. Ed.)
5.4
Incidentally, don’t try moving a frame containing a Draw file around the
page using the usual method of pointing inside it, holding down <select>
and waiting for the blue lines to appear. If you don’t wait quite long
enough, the graphic moves inside the frame and bang goes your careful
alignment! Instead, hold down <ctrl> when you press <select> and the
frame can be moved safely and immediately. Kevin Beales, Shropshire.
(The latter hint was also sent in by Johannes Thordarson of  Ice
land.)  A
5.4

5.4
Small Ads
5.4
(Small ads for Archimedes and related products are free for subscribers
but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the material
you send, as we think fit. i.e. some people don’t know what “small”
means and there are certain things, as you can imagine, that we would
not be prepared to advertise as a matter of principle. Sending small ads
(especially long ones!) on disc is helpful but not essential. Ed)
5.4
•    A310 base unit + 2nd external 3½“ drive and interface (Technomatic)
£600. Microvitec 1451 monitor £150. Phone 081−391−2582 evenings.
5.4
•    Apocalypse £15 o.n.o., Drop Ship £10, StarTrader £6, E-Type £10. Phone
Simon on 0654− 791−671.
5.4
•    Archeffect for FX, manual & disc. Beebug’s serial link & disc. Any
reasonable offers. Phone Stephen on 0843−298902.
5.4
•    Pace Series 4 2400S modem (Hayes V21/23/22/22bis) £130 or part
exchange for Eizo 9060S or similar. Might consider swap for fast 40/50M
ST506 drive. Phone Chris on 0271−850355.
5.4
•    Recent graduate, programmer, keen on Archimedes, very good knowledge
of C, Basic + ARM code, seeks employment, anywhere. Unemployed but very
employable, just what you need. Will send full C.V. on request. Phone
0245−74402.
5.4
•    Serial Port joystick interface £18. Blowpipe £6. inc post. Phone K.
Beales on 0746−862011.
5.4
•    Wanted for A3000 − hard disc (80M +) preferably SCSI, LinCAD or Solid
Tools and CGI Genlock. Contact Neal on 0734−420836.
5.4
•    Wanted for A310 − hard disc plus interface, IFEL bplane, PipeDream,
Impression, Multisync monitor. Phone 0442−67952 eves/weekends.
5.4
•    Wanted − Computer Concepts ROM/RAM podule. Martin Zanders, Snippes
traat 19, 8450, Bredene, Belgium.
5.4
Charity Sales − The following items are available for sale in aid of
charity. PLEASE do not just send money − ring us on 0603−766592 to check
if the items are still available. Thank you.
5.4
(If you have unwanted software or hardware for Archimedes computers you
could donate for charity, please send it in 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.)
5.4
Arcade 3 £6, Corruption £5, Acorn DTP £20, Tempest DTP £20, Lemmings
£18, Pacmania £12, Euclid £15, Superior Golf £8, Interdictor 1 £5,
Trivial Pursuit £10, Saloon Cars £19, DiscTree £9.  A
5.4

5.4
Help!!!!
5.4
•    Italian Archimedes needed − Christian Ghezzi is trying to get hold of
a second hand A310 or A410 but is finding it difficult as he lives in
Italy. Can anyone help him? Write to him at Via B. da Urbino 2 − 20035
Lissone (MI), Italy.
5.4
•    PC emulator compatibility − If anyone can tell us of programs that do
or do not work under PC emulator versions 1.6 or 1.7, would they please
send the information to Mike Clinch who has agreed to collate all the
information for us. Please send him as much detail about version numbers
of software and what configuration you were using including the version
of DOS. Mike Clinch, 2 Parkhurst Road, Bexley, Kent, DA5 1AR. (No phone
calls, please.)  A
5.4

5.4
Comment Column
5.4
•    A310 + ARM3  − I have recently had my A310 fitted with a CJE Micros’
ARM3 and a MEMC1a. I thought about it for some time because of the price
and whether it was worth fitting one to my machine (which has a hard
disc and 4 MB of RAM) because the arrival of the A5000 has reduced its
second-hand value further, from about £500 to £200! However, the price
of the upgrade has fallen to £293 and so I took the plunge. (It’s now
down to £225 through Archive. Ed.) I was especially keen to get fonts
cached faster and Draw files drawn faster. I haven’t seen any published
figures for the speed increases for actual documents etc. so I have done
some myself.
5.4
The times in seconds with ARM3 cache off and on are as follows:
5.4
Cache       Fonts   Draw files  Multistore
5.4
Off    31.4    15.8    144
5.4
On    9.2    5.0    71
5.4
Ratio    3.45    3.12    2.04
5.4
All were taken in Mode 78 (a 192k Computer Concepts mode). The speed of
the A310 with cache off is about 10% faster than a plain A310 without
MEMC1a, so the above speed increases of my upgraded machine should be
increased by a further 10% when comparing with a plain A310. The fonts
times are for caching them in RAM in a test Impression file with many
sizes of Trinity and Homerton characters, the RAM font cache of the
Archimedes being cleared before each test. The Draw files were a
miscellany of designs that took a long time to draw. The Multistore test
was a search of an 800-record file. (Indeed, the continuous browse went
too fast to see each record as it whizzed past − I had to turn the ARM3
cache off!) The increase in speed in these tests and in real documents
and various programs is very great indeed, and sufficient to effectively
get rid of the irritating delays while fonts cache and Draw files draw.
5.4
But everything goes faster: sliding across Wimp menus; moving windows;
calling up dialogue boxes; paging documents; loading !PrinterDM and
running Mandelbrot (both much faster), etc. The ARM3 comes with a module
that must be run and can be included in your !Boot file. I recommend the
upgrade.
5.4
One drawback, though, is that some A310s (e.g. mine!) and A540s have a
problem in coping with printing at the high speed of the ARM3. Lines are
split horizontally, in e.g. Paint and Impression. A free modification is
available. In the meantime, if this afflicts you, choose File on
!PrinterDM (reached by clicking <menu> on the !PrinterDM icon) and type
a path and file name. “Print” with the cache on. Then, switch the cache
off, reset !PrinterDM to Parallel (or Serial if it was that before),
drag the new file to the PrinterDM icon and it will print properly.
However, the length of an A4 document saved at 360×360 dots resolution
exceeds the capacity of a floppy, so use your hard disc or reduce the
resolution.)
5.4
I have had two demonstrations of RISC-OS 3 on a friend’s A5000. It
certainly has some nice enhancements but I do not think that it is a
very big improvement on RISC-OS 2. In any case, it is reported that it
will be available for A300 machines in the summer for about £50. (I
heard it was going to be more like £100 but less for education. Ed.) All
this therefore leads me to conclude that you should consider an ARM3
upgrade before exchanging your A300 range machine for an A5000. Steve
Kirkby, Sutton.
5.4
•    A5000 Hard Disc crash − Users of A5000’s (and anyone using RISC-OS 3
on other machines − legally or illegally!) ought to know that we have
had two occurrences now of hard discs being made completely unreadable −
all data lost! We don’t yet know what is causing it but I’ll tell you
the circumstances in which it happened so that (a) you can try and avoid
it happening to you and (b) you can report to us any similar experiences
you have had which might help us to track down the problem.
5.4
In both cases (one was us and the other was one of our contributors) the
map and root directory of the hard disc was over-written with rubbish so
that the system said something like, “I don’t recognise that kind of
disc”. In one case it was an A5000 and the other was an A540 running a
development version of RISC-OS 3. The common factors were that it was a
removable hard drive running on Oak’s SCSI interface (version 1.16
software). We reported the problem to Acorn but their response was that
it was probably a code clash with Oak’s software and that they should
look into it before Acorn would get involved. With holidays and their
move to new premises, Oak haven’t yet responded to our report of the
problem.
5.4
Our only other clue was the, in our case, the drive was OK before we
pressed <ctrl-break> but not afterwards.
5.4
•    A5000 (again) − (We have had another A5000 first impressions report
sent in (no more, please unless you really have something new to add!)
and so I have chopped it down dramatically, leaving only those bits
which I don’t think have been said before. The result may be rather
disjointed but I’d rather do that than waste valuable space repeating
other people’s eulogies. By the way, has anyone got any NEGATIVE things
to say about the A5000? Ed.)
5.4
I really am impressed at how professional the system is in terms of
presentation. If this had been my first computer it would have been so
easy and it certainly beats setting up certain video recorders! Acorn
have achieved a Macintosh-like ‘plug-in and go’ convenience with this
machine (and that is intended to be high praise).
5.4
Tony liked Draw’s interpolation ability and produced this very simple
but effective graphic...
5.4
Here are some bits and pieces which Tony found interesting:
5.4
Filer_OpenDir has been fixed so that it properly processes its argu
ments. There is no longer any need for silly Alias$ variables to make it
work. It also permits a whole host of options about the window’s
appearance and size.
5.4
There are new commands, Filer_Boot and Filer_ Run which, when applied to
applications in an Obey file, prevent the delay of the remainder of the
Obey file until after the application’s termination (more flexible than
DeskTop -file).
5.4
There is, at last, a Mode command.
5.4
The system is supplied with a data compression program called Squash
(yet another LZW implementation) which is simply a front end to a RISC-
OS 3 module, a sign of things to come?
5.4
Configure allows the setting of a PrinterBuffer size − I presume that
this works.
5.4
Clicking <select> on the task manager icon (now an acorn) opens the task
display.
5.4
The Cache command controls the ARM3.
5.4
Draw, Paint etc can have their start-up options customised (so now Draw
can start up with the Selection tool selected!).
5.4
How fast is the A5000? Not breathtakingly so, it must be said. The
following are some comparisons of A5000 and A310 in different modes. The
ARM3‘s ability to cope with higher resolution screen modes is perhaps
the strongest point. (Note that my A310 has a MEMC1a which gives it 10%
more speed − the same as an A3000.) The test used the standard Dhrystone
program as supplied with Acorn’s C compiler and compiled using the
Version 4 compiler. The timings are kDhrystones per second over 100,000
iterations.
5.4
Mode    Size    A310  A5000(1) A5000(2)   Norm.
5.4
0    20k    6.0    6.8    18.6    100%
5.4
12    80k    5.2    6.2    18.1    97%
5.4
15    160k    4.2    5.4    17.2
92%
5.4
28    300k    −     3.7    15.6
84%
5.4
The A5000(1) column is with cache disabled, giving an ARM2 equivalent.
The difference from the A310 presumably being accounted for by the
A5000‘s faster RAM. In the A5000(2) column, the 3× to 4× ARM3 benefit is
as expected. The Norm. column expresses the A5000(2) column normalised
against Mode 0 (=100%). While the A5000(1) column is almost halved (55%)
by the move from Mode 0 to Mode 28 the ARM3 cache holds up 84% perfor
mance − impressive.
5.4
Here are some acknowledged bugs:
5.4
The Squash utility is noted in the Release Notes as having a “rare
problem” causing it to corrupt certain repetitive files. However, this
refers to version 0.26 and my machine came with version 0.28 which
postdates the Release Notes so it may have been fixed.
5.4
A late addition to the Release Notes (which was dated November!)
recommends inhibiting ADFS file buffers via the command...
5.4
Configure ADFSBuffers 0
5.4
to avoid a “slight chance” of data corruption or errors. This will slow
Hard Disc performance on randomly accessed files.
5.4
From experience so far, the system is reasonably robust. I experienced a
(non-repeatable) crash with Maestro and background-processing and have
had slightly odd filer operations on a couple of occasions.
5.4
The jury is still out on the floppy drive on my machine. I have had a
single failure of background backup (not repeatable) and it resolutely
refuses to read the Lemmings disc with which the A310 has no problems in
either drive.
5.4
JP 150 printer − For me this was a simple ‘freebie’. I saw an unimpres
sive printout at the show and thought little more about it. However, on
trying the machine, I have somewhat revised my opinion. The print
quality is actually very good and certainly rivals 24-pin matrix
printers. ‘Near-laser’ quality is an exaggeration and the ink comes out
damp (beware of smudging) but it is certainly very usable with good
blacks and greys. The small size and quiet operation of the printer are
also attractive as is its genuinely clever physical design (the paper
path is almost straight and all the guides fold up into a small box with
no dust-traps).
5.4
Most of the conclusion has already been said elsewhere. The A5000 is
very much the machine Acorn had to build, using as it does all the
‘current’ technology. RISC-OS 3 is good but not as big a step forward as
RISC-OS 2 was over Arthur (RIP). The IDE disc seems fine in practice (I
had wondered whether I would regret not having SCSI).
5.4
For those committed to Acorn machines, this is a well priced, fast and
friendly machine. If you are not committed to Acorn, the same money will
buy a lot of ’386/’486 PC (if you can cope with MS-DOS full time) or a
decent Mac. The sums don’t do justice to the amount of bundled software
and subsequent prices, in the Acorn world. For me, dedicated Macintosh
fan as I am, I wouldn’t have anything else. Tony Still, Bournemouth
5.4
That last comment is more significant, perhaps, than many people will
realise. As an ex-Mac user myself, I am well aware of what Macs can do
and would say that, in terms of raw power, the A5000 is equivalent to
Macs costing at least twice the price. However, Mac adherents are,
generally, extremely loyal and won’t normally hear of anything that
could rival their beloved machines, so when a Mac user says the A5000 is
good, you’d better believe it! Ed.
5.4
•    Fourth Dimension game problems − I noted that the first item in the
‘Products Available’ column in the December issue of Archive is the
!Configure program from Fourth Dimension.
5.4
I think that it would be as well to warn readers that this is only a fix
for lack of memory. I recently wrote to this company asking for guidance
and information about the program ‘Chocks Away’ which ran very satisfac
torily on my 410/1 (upgraded to 2M) until I bought a Taxan 795 monitor
and fitted the accompanying Atomwide VIDC enhancer. Subsequently, all I
got was a broken up picture.
5.4
The reply from Fourth Dimension consisted of a photocopied sheet
representing the accompanying program as being the cure-all for problems
of varying amounts of memory, various hard disc interfaces, ARM2 or
ARM3, plus third party peripherals such as digitizers, sound samplers,
scanners, etc. which may have been fitted.
5.4
I did not feel particularly confident that this was going to be the
answer to my problem (in spite of having been assured by a 4th Dimension
spokesman, at an earlier show, that they had now bought a Taxan 795 and
were investigating this!) but felt that I had nothing to lose, since I
had already saved my configuration on a similar program. The !reconfig
program was run and, as expected, failed to provide an answer to the
broken picture problem. The standard fix at this point had always been
to reboot the machine which salvaged the screen output. Unfortunately,
the result of reconfiguring the machine had been also to reset the
monitor type to 0 (instead of the required type 1), so that it was now
impossible to read the desktop in order to be able to re-run the
!ConSaver. A frantic period of blind mouse pointing/typing ensued before
sanity was restored. So, multisync users should be warned of the
problems facing them if they use this program!
5.4
What I find so infuriating about the whole thing is that the November
issue of the BBC Acorn User carried a cover disc with a demo version of
‘Chocks Away’ which ran without problem on my set-up. On this showing,
people could buy the program and then subsequently have all manner of
troubles. Does this amount to false representation? Stan Haselton,
Abbots Langley
5.4
We normally advise people that if they are keen to be able to play all
games without problems, the Eizo 9060 is really the only multisync that
is fully usable. All the others (except, I think, the Taxan 770) need a
VIDC enhancer and this can cause problems in some modes with some games.
Ed.
5.4
• IDE review − In addition to John Kortink’s remarks in Archive 5.3,
p.11/12, I would like to quote some results of a large test of several
dozen hard disks in a major German (MS-DOS) computer magazine.
5.4
Amongst other things, they also tested a number of pairs of hard disks
which were mechanically identical differing only in their controllers.
Here are the speeds according to Coretest (kbytes/sec):
5.4
    IDE    SCSI
5.4
Fujitsu 134 M    627    633    +1%
5.4
Fujitsu 171 M    627    633    +1%
5.4
Maxtor 120 M    1222    770    −27%
5.4
Quantum 199 M    1311    992    −24%
5.4
WD 207 M    1957    1711    −13%
5.4
I think that these values show quite clearly that one cannot say that
either of the two controller types is definitely faster; the only valid
statement is that in each case that disk will be faster which has the
better controller; apparently IDE for the Archimedes simply is not yet
so far in its development as SCSI. (Could it be that the above tests
were done on 8-bit interfaces? The Archimedes’ 16-bit SCSI does speed
things up significantly. Ed.)
5.4
The future may well bring IDE disks which will leave the existing SCSI
disks standing! Jochen Konietzko, Koeln, Germany
5.4
• IDE review − I have to write and protest at John Kortink’s rather rude
and, I believe, unfair comments in Archive 5.3, p.11/12. He accused the
Editor of bias − but I cannot detect any − only an opinion based on a
reasoned argument. John seems so obsessed with speed comparisons that he
seems not to have noticed the important lack of common standards in IDE
interfaces. I read most of the published Acorn magazines and have
followed the IDE vs SCSI argument for some time. My feeling has been
that SCSI would be a better interface to install de novo, so the article
only confirmed my views.
5.4
I am changing my 440/1 for an A5000 but need a larger hard drive than
the 40M IDE one supplied. My local dealer has agreed to substitute a
200M IDE drive but is having problems getting his Rodime drives to work
with the Acorn interface − which only proves the point. Dr I G Pace,
Stamford.
5.4
•    PD software − Mike Williams (of Beebug Ltd) writes... I was a little
surprised to see the comment of David Holden (Archive 5.3 p43). He
appears to be critical of Beebug for giving away PD discs free of
charge. I thought the principal of PD software was that the software
itself was not charged for but that it was acceptable to make a charge
for the service provided, which is what we normally do. Indeed, we are
sometimes criticised for levying too high a charge, but we do have to
include VAT and we have to account for the time spent on running the
library at normal salary rates. Now we appear to be criticised for
providing some of our PD discs free!
5.4
But surely David Holden is missing the essential point about PD software
in the comments he makes. I thought authors and PD libraries operated
with the intention of making a wide variety of software available as
freely and cheaply as possible.
5.4
Perhaps you would like to comment on David Holden’s assertions.
5.4
Mike Williams, Beebug (aka Risc Developments Ltd.)
5.4
As far as I am concerned, both David and Mike have missed the point!
Yes, the intent of PD software is to get it distributed as widely and
cheaply as possible but without using it for “commercial gain”. Now, you
don’t have to actually charge money for something to get commercial gain
from it. The question is, “Why are Beebug offering 10 free discs of PD
software with every A5000?”.  If they are doing it out of the goodness
of their hearts to make PD freely available then that is very commend
able. If, however, they are offering the PD discs in order to persuade
people to buy A5000’s from them rather than from someone else, then they
are using the PD authors’ work for their own commercial gain.
5.4
If Beebug really feel that they are making money on their PD software
and want to give some away why don’t they give a free PD disc to each of
their subscribers as Archive did some while ago?
5.4
Also, if Mike wants to talk about the pricing of PD discs, can he really
justify £4 +VAT for each disc? We started off the Archimedes PD movement
nearly four years ago selling discs at £3 each (including VAT) and the
price has never gone up. We too have to pay “normal salary rates” to our
PD librarian. If we charged £4.00 +VAT each, we’d be making, almost £2
profit per disc. If you multiply that by the 10,000 or so PD discs we
sell each year, we could afford a FULL TIME librarian! Ed.  A
5.4

5.4
Phases #2
5.4
Doug Weller
5.4
Phases #2 is the second stage of Northwest SEMERC’s simple word
processor written for teachers of children with special educational
needs. It is called Phases simply because it is being written in phases,
each an upgrade of the one before. It can be used in a variety of ways.
It is a simple word processor comparable with Prompt/Writer or Stylus
for the BBC. It can be used with two columns, graphics and different
print sizes to provide basic DTP, and can have fixed graphics with a
fixed text area to allow it to be used like Caption.
5.4
Using Phases
5.4
Using Phases as a simple WP is very straightforward; double click on the
!Phases icon and the program loads. Then simply click at the Phases icon
on the icon bar and you get a word-processor screen (one size only).
Position the mouse pointer and you can start writing. Press the menu
button and a very simple menu appears, allowing you to save, change the
letter size, the font, print, create a note pad or go to the tool box.
Some of these functions (e.g. letter size) can be accessed through
function keys, and a keystrip is provided. Phases operates in the
current screen mode.
5.4
Fonts
5.4
Five fonts are provided; Ghost, Joined, Jotter (a bit like Homerton)
Jotter Oblique and Script. These can be applied to separate lines or
paragraphs, but not to areas within them. Likewise, any of the six font
sizes (illustrated on the menu in full size) can be applied to any
paragraph or separate line.
5.4
The notepad
5.4
This is just what it says; an area in which notes or ideas can be
stored, and which is saved with the main work. Its most likely use is by
the teacher, for ideas, questions, story starters, etc. The notepad can
be printed out separately from the main screen.
5.4
Screens
5.4
From the toolbox, three screens can be chosen; one column, two columns,
or Front Page, which provides two top lines, one for a large size
heading and the other for the date, price, etc. Below these the page is
set to two columns. This can be very useful in allowing children to do
‘newspaper’ pages for topic work, etc.
5.4
Pictures & graphics
5.4
Ten pictures, up to a maximum of 160k, can be used in any Phases
document, in either !Draw or Paint format. These can be dragged into a
document and then moved or resized. The Toolbox offers a ‘Picture+’
option, which allows copying of a selected picture, for instance to
create a border. Pictures (or text) can be deleted from the Toolbox
menu.
5.4
Saving work and deleting files
5.4
Phases files are saved in the standard fashion, by typing the file name
into a Save as: window and then dragging the icon into a Work directory.
Pressing <F8> provides a simpler method of saving − a window appears
into which the file name can be typed, after which pressing <return> or
clicking on an OK box saves the document in the work folder. Documents
are saved into up to three sub-directories, so to delete files pressing
<menu> over the Phases icon provides a delete files option which can be
used to delete all files associated with a particular document.
Documents can also be saved as ASCII files for importation into other
programs.
5.4
The Designer
5.4
This is Phases’ most powerful feature, allowing the construction of
documents with fixed font types, letter size, page colour, pictures,
etc. For labelling map or filling in forms created in Designer, etc.,
wordwrap can be turned off. Borders can also easily be created within
Designer.
5.4
Printing
5.4
Printing is done from a menu using the normal RISC-OS printer drivers.
The menu allows selected pages to be printed or all pages, and when
using a colour printer, allows the background colour to be omitted.
5.4
Extras
5.4
Phases comes supplied with a work disc with various pictures and ideas
(animals, space travel, transport, a cheque completion exercise, etc.
The Northwest SEMERC has also created a number of supplementary
packages, including a disc with 14 very nice borders. These borders can
be changed easily using the Designer to make smaller borders, or to
change the page, paper and text colours when loaded.
5.4
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
5.4
This supplementary package is based on Eric Carle’s popular picture
book, It contains two concept keyboard overlays and files for each page
of the book. Each Phases file has the appropriate pictures (‘fixed’
using the Designer) and an associated notepad with words the child might
want to use. The pictures are also provided as separate sprites which
could be used in stories,
5.4
Clip Art Disc #1
5.4
This disc includes sprites of flags (b&w and colour), maps, arrows and
pointing hands for use in Phases; very useful indeed if you are short of
clip art.
5.4
Christmas Disc
5.4
Obviously, this is a disc full of Christmas ideas! Story overlays, some
lovely borders, a variety of secular Christmas sprites and enough
sprites to do a fully illustrated version of the nativity are on this
disc. Also included is a letter page for children to use to write to
Santa! An added bonus is some lovely illuminated letter pictures − large
red capitals decorated with snow and holly.
5.4
Summary
5.4
This is a very useful package for young children or older children with
special educational needs. Its price makes it easily affordable. This
very advantage could be a disadvantage if it were seen as a substitute
for a fully fledged word processor such as Pendown or Impression II,
with their search and replace facilities, adjustable page size, spelling
checkers, etc.  Further ‘phases’, however, promise block cut and replace
and the ability to produce some nice cloze procedures. I have only one
niggle about the program, and that is the fact that your !Fonts
directory must include the Jotter font. I couldn’t find this mentioned
in the manual and it took me a while to find out why !Phases kept giving
me an ‘illegal window handle’ message when I tried to load it using my
ordinary !Fonts directory.
5.4
Phases#2 costs £15. Additional discs (Borders, Clip Art, The Very Hungry
Caterpillar, Christmas Disc) each  cost £7.50.  A
5.4

5.4
Topologika
5.4
New
5.4

5.4
Oak SOlutions
5.4
From 5.4 page 6
5.4

5.4
Designer Fractals
5.4
Robert Chrismas
5.4
There are many programs around now which draw fractals. Part of the
fascination of these programs is that the program and data do not seem
to give any indication of the appearance of the fractal. It is fun to
see an unexpected pattern ‘emerging’ from a few fairly simple lines of
code. With a computer, it is easy to produce the picture if you have the
program. However, it is quite a different problem to look at a fractal
and be able to write a program to produce it on your computer screen.
This article will explain how to create ‘designer fractals’.
5.4
More reflective, and perhaps more mathematically inclined, readers may
have paused at the start of this article and thought ‘well I’ve seen
some things called fractals, but I’m not at all sure what one is’. You
may be encouraged by this quotation from the book ‘Fractals Everywhere’,
by the mathematician Michael Barnsley: ‘Fractals are not defined by a
short legalistic statement, but by the many pictures and contexts which
refer to them.’
5.4
Michael Barnsley’s Collage Theorem provides the key to producing our own
fractal designs. In fact, the collage theorem allows us to create
fractals which are ‘close’ to any shape at all. Here we will concentrate
on creating 2D fractals which can be defined by small sets of ‘simple’
transformations.
5.4
Affine transformations
5.4
Affine transformations can stretch, squeeze, rotate, mirror and also
move a shape but they cannot bend or tear it. An affine transformation
(in 2D) can be described with just six numbers. For each point x, y we
calculate a new point x1, y1 as follows:
5.4
x1 = ax + by + e    y1 = cx + dy + f
5.4
Take the co-ordinates of a simple shape and any six values a,b,c,d,e,f,
calculate a new set of co-ordinates using the equations above, plot the
new co-ordinates on squared paper and join up the dots. The shape has
been transformed. One nice thing about affine transformations is that
straight lines stay straight so you only need to work out where the
corners are. If you like, you can take a point somewhere on a line and
transform it just to make sure it ends up on the transformed line.
Likewise points inside the shape stay inside.
5.4
The !Draw program can perform affine transformations on selected
objects, but copying some affine transformations in !Draw requires
careful combination of rotation and enlargement (or reduction) because
in !Draw shapes can only be squashed along the x and y axes.
5.4
Similitudes
5.4
If we restrict a, b, c, d so that
5.4
a = r cos q,  b = − r sin q  c = r sin q  d = r cos q
5.4
the transformation can only move, rotate and reduce or enlarge the
shape. All the angles must stay the same. In fact, the transformation
will enlarge the shape by a factor r and rotate it by an angle q.
5.4
If we use
5.4
a = r cos q   b = r sin q  c = r sin q  d = − r cos q
5.4
then the same applies but we also mirror the shape.
5.4
It is comparatively easy to find the values a, b, c, d, for a similitude
because we can measure the enlargement (r) and the rotation (t). From
these it is easy to calculate the required values. The values e and f
simply move the shape across and up.
5.4
The collage theorem
5.4
The collage theorem says that we can define a fractal ‘close to’ a given
shape by finding a set of transformations of the shape which just cover
the shape. The transformations, which must all reduce the size of the
shape, can overlap.
5.4
Barnsley gives two algorithms for producing fractals described by a set
of transformations. The ‘Random Iteration Algorithm’ is described here.
It takes any point within the fractal and applies one of the transforma
tions (chosen at random) to it. The new point must also lie within the
fractal because the transformation maps the whole fractal onto part of
itself. so the new point is plotted and the process is repeated. This
should take an infinite time to fill in the whole shape, but since
computer pixels are of finite size, a reasonable approximation to the
fractal can be produced in no more than a long time.
5.4
Since it can be hard to find a point within the fractal to start with,
you can start with any point and do about ten iterations before plotting
any points. (Not very rigorous, but it works.)
5.4
The program
5.4
 10 REM >FractalIt3
5.4
 20 REM Robert Chrismas
5.4
 30 REM 19911116
5.4
 40 :
5.4
 50 MODE 0:REM MODE 18 for multisync
5.4
 60 PRINT “Computing Fractals from Iterated Function systems”
5.4
 70 PRINT “======================== =========================”
5.4
 80 PRINT ‘“From an idea in ‘Fractals Everywhere’ by
5.4
 Michael Barnsley”
5.4
 90 PRINT ‘“This program uses the ‘Random Iteration Algorithm described
on p86.“
5.4
100 PRINT ‘“The data lines define a number of sets.”
5.4
110 :
5.4
120 PROCpause
5.4
130 CLS
5.4
140 :
5.4
150 max_dim% = 20
5.4
160 DIM a(max_dim%), b(max_dim%), c(max_dim%), d(max_dim%)
5.4
170 DIM e(max_dim%), f(max_dim%), p(max_dim%)
5.4
180 :
5.4
190 REM Select the right data lines
5.4
200 set% = 1
5.4
210 REPEAT
5.4
220 READ d$
5.4
230 UNTIL d$ = “%”+STR$(set%)
5.4
240 :
5.4
250 READ description$,max_equation%
5.4
260 READ xf,xc,yf,yc : REM transform to screen co-ords
5.4
270 FOR c% = 0 TO max_equation%-1
5.4
280 READ a(c%), b(c%), c(c%), d(c%), e(c%), f(c%), p(c%)
5.4
290 IF c%>0 THEN p(c%)=p(c%-1)+p(c%)
5.4
300 PRINT p(c%)
5.4
310 NEXT c%
5.4
320 REM Next line may suffer from rounding errors, use integers?
5.4
330 IF ABS(p(max_equation%-1)-1)> 0.00001 THEN PRINT“Probabilities don’t
add up to 1”:STOP
5.4
340 :
5.4
360 CLS
5.4
370 PRINT description$
5.4
380 x=0.5: y=0.5: c% = 0
5.4
381 REM q% = equation number
5.4
390 REPEAT
5.4
410 r=RND(1)
5.4
420 q% = -1
5.4
430 REPEAT
5.4
440 q% = q% + 1
5.4
450 UNTIL p(q%)>r
5.4
460 xn=a(q%)*x+b(q%)*y+e(q%)
5.4
470 yn=c(q%)*x+d(q%)*y+f(q%)
5.4
480 x=xn:y=yn
5.4
490 c% = c% + 1
5.4
500 IF c% > 100 THEN POINT x*xf+xc, y*yf+yc
5.4
510 UNTIL INKEY(0)<>-1
5.4
512 *SCREENSAVE fractalsc
5.4
520 END
5.4
530 :
5.4
540 DEF PROCpause
5.4
550 PRINT“Press SPACE”
5.4
560 *FX 15
5.4
570 REPEAT
5.4
580 UNTIL GET$ = “ ”
5.4
590 ENDPROC
5.4
 600 :
5.4
 610 DATA %1
5.4
 620 DATA Sierpinski Triangle,3
5.4
 630 DATA 10, 0, 10, 0
5.4
 640 DATA 0.5, 0, 0, 0.5, 0, 0, 0.33
5.4
 650 DATA 0.5, 0, 0, 0.5, 0,50, 0.33
5.4
 660 DATA 0.5, 0, 0, 0.5, 50,50,0.34
5.4
 670 :
5.4
1150 DATA %2
5.4
1160 DATA “Sea Horse”,2
5.4
1170 DATA 500,500,500,300
5.4
1180 DATA 0.46,-0.4,0.4,0.46,0.4, −0.2,0.5
5.4
1190 DATA 0.46,-0.4,0.4,0.46,0.0, 0.7,0.5
5.4
Notes on the program
5.4
The program could be tightened up a bit, but I am afraid that once I got
it working, I was too interested in producing fractals to do so.
5.4
For better resolution, you can divert the output to a massive sprite. A
full description of the method would make this (already lengthy) article
far too long.
5.4
You can include any number of fractals in the same program. The data
lines have the following format:
5.4
DATA %<Fractal Number>
5.4
DATA <Name>,<Number of equations>
5.4
DATA <X scale>,<X displacement>,
5.4
<Y scale>,<Y displacement>
5.4
Then as many equation lines as required:
5.4
DATA <a>,<b>,<c>,<d>,<e>,<f>, <probability>
5.4
The ‘Fractal Number’ should be different for each fractal. The value of
‘set%’ (line 200) selects the required fractal.
5.4
The X and Y scales and displacements allow the fractal to be defined
with any size and then re-scaled to fit the screen.
5.4
The ‘probability’ is the probability that that particular equation will
be chosen next. The probabilities must add up to 1. Give transformations
which reduce the size the most the lowest probabilities or they will
fill in too quickly.
5.4
Stick to similitudes at first, because it is easier to work out values
of a, b, c, d, e, f for these.
5.4
Here is some typical data:
5.4
DATA %3
5.4
DATA Fern,4
5.4
DATA 100,500,100,0
5.4
DATA 0,0,0,0.16,0,0,0.01
5.4
DATA 0.85,0.04,-0.04,0.85,0,1.6,0.85
5.4
DATA 0.2,-0.26,0.23,0.22,0,1.6,0.07
5.4
DATA -0.15,0.28,0.26,0.24,0,0.44,0.07
5.4

5.4
DATA %4
5.4
DATA Fractal Tree,4
5.4
DATA 2000,500,2000,0
5.4
DATA 0,0,0,0.5,0,0,0.05
5.4
DATA 0.42,-0.42,0.42,0.42,0,0.2,0.4
5.4
DATA 0.42,0.42,-0.42,0.42,0,0.2,0.4
5.4
DATA 0.1,0,0,0.1,0,0.2,0.15
5.4

5.4
DATA %5
5.4
DATA “Hooks”,3
5.4
DATA 1000,0,1000,0
5.4
DATA 0.5,0,0,0.5,0,0,0.33
5.4
DATA 0.5,0,0,0.5,0.5,0,0.33
5.4
DATA 0,-0.5,0.5,0,1,0.5,0.34
5.4

5.4
DATA %6
5.4
DATA “Boxes”,4
5.4
DATA 1200,0,1000,0
5.4
DATA 0.5,0,0,0.5,0,0.5,0.25
5.4
DATA -0.5,0,0,0.5,1,0.5,0.25
5.4
DATA 0.5,0,0,-0.5,0,0.5,0.25
5.4
DATA 0.33,0,0,0.33,0.33,0.33,0.25
5.4
DATA %7
5.4
DATA “Chaos”,20
5.4
DATA 60,0,60,0
5.4
DATA 0.1,0,0,0.2,1,0  ,0.04:REM C horiz 2
5.4
DATA 0.1,0,0,0.2,1,4  ,0.04:REM C horiz 2
5.4
DATA 0,-0.2,0.25,0,1,0,0.08:REM C vert 5
5.4
DATA 0,-0.2,0.25,0,5,0,0.08:REM H vert 5
5.4
DATA 0,-0.2,0.25,0,7,0,0.08:REM H vert 5
5.4
DATA 0.05,0,0,0.2,5,2 ,0.02:REM H horiz 1
5.4
DATA 0.1,0,0,0.2,8,4  ,0.04:REM A horiz 2
5.4
DATA 0.1,0,0,0.2,8,2  ,0.04:REM A horiz 2
5.4
DATA 0.1,0,0,0.2,9,0  ,0.04:REM A horiz 2
5.4
DATA 0,-0.2,0.1,0,9,0 ,0.04:REM A vert 2
5.4
DATA 0,-0.2,0.2,0,11,1,0.07:REM A vert 4
5.4
DATA 0.2,0,0,0.2,12,0 ,0.07:REM O horiz 4
5.4
DATA 0.2,0,0,0.2,12,4 ,0.07:REM O horiz 4
5.4
DATA 0,-0.2,0.15,0,13,1,0.05:REM O vert 3
5.4
DATA 0,-0.2,0.15,0,16,1,0.05:REM O vert 3
5.4
DATA 0.15,0,0,0.2,17,4,0.05:REM S horiz 3
5.4
DATA 0.15,0,0,0.2,17,2,0.05:REM S horiz 3
5.4
DATA 0.15,0,0,0.2,17,0,0.05:REM S horiz 3
5.4
DATA 0.05,0,0,0.2,17,3,0.02:REM S horiz 1
5.4
DATA 0.05,0,0,0.2,19,1,0.02:REM S horiz 1
5.4
Why are fractals fashionable?
5.4
Mathematicians seem to be fascinated by fractals because they are
beautiful and interesting. However, people who do not find this
sufficient may be impressed that such complicated shapes can be
described with so few numbers. In fact, work is going on now to
investigate the possibility of using fractals to develop more efficient
methods of data compaction.
5.4
References:
5.4
Fractals Everywhere by Michael Barnsley − Academic Press Inc.  A
5.4

5.4
‘Typical fractals are not pretty’ − Barnsley
5.4

5.4
In this example the shape has been rotated by 60° and ‘enlarged’ by a
factor of 0.5.
5.4
So t = 60° and r = 0.5
5.4
Hence
5.4
a = 0.25
5.4
b = − 0.433 (ish)
5.4
c = 0.433 (ish)
5.4
d = 0.25
5.4
Since the shape has been moved 6 across and 2 up:  e = 6 and f = 2
5.4
This result can be checked by calculating the position of a few
transformed points and comparing them with the diagram.
5.4

5.4

5.4

5.4
A Sierpinsky Triangle
5.4
The blobs showing how it can be covered by a collage of  transformations
of itself.
5.4
If the bottom left of the triangle is the point 0,0 then blob R (the
easiest) is given by:
5.4
a = 0.5    b = 0    c = 0    d = 0.5    e = 0    f = 0
5.4
P is given by something like:
5.4
a = 0.5    b = 0    c = 0    d = 0.5    e = 0    f = 0.5
5.4
(e and f depend on the scale chosen)
5.4

5.4
Colton
5.4
From 5.3 page 20
5.4

5.4
Base 5
5.4
From 5.3 page 31
5.4

5.4
PipeLine
5.4
Gerald Fitton
5.4
The current version of PipeDream 4 (December 1991) is version 4.11. This
is not the ‘final’ version because I have a note with mine which says,
“In very early 1992 we will have a version of PipeDream 4 available with
enhanced charts. This will include the following features:
5.4
    Option for log scaling of axes
5.4
    Saving of dynamic charts
5.4
    Option for stacked charts
5.4
    Fill to axis option
5.4
    Line of best fit
5.4
“This will be a free upgrade. If you are interested in these facilities,
please send us your master disc in the new year marked ‘Enhanced charts
upgrade’ so that we can upgrade you when the enhanced version is
available.”
5.4
PipeDream 4 charts
5.4
Anything worthwhile takes a little time. If you have spent some time on
PD4‘s charts and have any hints and tips for others, I shall be most
interested to hear from you. If you have something more substantial on
PD4’s charts then, I assure you, it is in great demand.
5.4
Family trees
5.4
Chris Bell has written to me on this subject. He has the makings of a
database but is running into problems. If you have written such an
application or would like to correspond with Chris about the best way of
storing and recovering such data from PipeDream (3 or 4) then please
write to me and I will forward it to him.
5.4
Sierpinski’s Gasket
5.4
I had not heard of this until Allan Wang asked me what method Sierpinski
used to create his Gasket. If you know anything about Sierpinski or his
Gasket then please write to me! (I suggest you check on the Arcade
Bulletin board. (081−654 −2212) I saw something on there about Sierpin
ski curves. Ed.)
5.4
Z88 Archimedes link
5.4
Don Reekie and many others ask about transferring files between the Z88
and Archimedes. The ‘standard’ way of linking the two machines is to use
an EPROM containing PCLINK in the Z88 and, on the Archimedes, the !Z88
utility provided with PipeDream by Colton Software. Gordon Lindsay-Jones
tells me that the 9-pin to 9-pin cable required to link the Z88 and the
Archimedes is different from the ones usually available for PCs. Hence
problems for the unwary.
5.4
What is the solution? David Holden can supply both a correct cable and
some software for the Archimedes which does not require an EPROM in the
Z88 nor does it require !Z88 running in the Archimedes. Please write to
me if you are interested and I will pass your letters on to David.
5.4
PipeDream printer driver
5.4
John Downard, amongst others (including me), wants an HPjet printer
driver which has been modified to use the PC-8 character set instead of
the ECMA-94 character set used by Colton Software’s version of this
driver. The ECMA-94 set is almost identical to the Archimedes Latin 1
(the default) character set so, if you have ECMA-94 on your printer,
then you need few if any character translations. The PC-8 character set
has a different value for the £ symbol and most other top bit set
characters. If you have modified the HPjet driver to include the PC-8
translations then we would like to hear from you.
5.4
Labels
5.4
Yes! I know that there are many complicated ways of producing labels
with PipeDream which are most useful if you want to write “to all the
members of a hockey club every week” (to quote C A Martin). However,
what he and several others ask for is something much simpler which can
be used on a ‘one off’ basis to print a single label. Perhaps the
simplest system I have seen, up to now, is one devised by John Jordan in
which up to nine lines of column A are used for the address. John sets
his page length, <Ctrl-PY>, to nine lines and then sends the file (one
address if that’s all it is) to his tractor feed printer using a
PipeDream printer driver. His labels are of the 9-lines per label
tractor fed type and so the printer stops in a position ready for the
next label.
5.4
If you have an alternative method, or if you have developed John’s
further, then C A Martin, Derek Banks and many others would like to hear
from you.
5.4
PipeDream Junior?
5.4
No! There is no PipeDream Junior in the pipeline but I have a letter
from Michael Roscoe who considered buying PipeDream 3 and, after trying
out the Demo disc, came to the conclusion that PD3 was not what he
wanted. His specification is for an improved spreadsheet (i.e. better
than PD3) plus built in charts and outline fonts. He was not interested
in the database and word processing functions. His letter implied that
he would like a lower price than that current for PD3.
5.4
Well, PD4 is a much more sophisticated spreadsheet than PD3. I continue
to be pleasantly surprised because, with it, I can now do so many of the
things I thought impossible (or too difficult for me) when I tried them
in PD3. The charts are working well in version 4.11 and promise to get
even better “in very early 1992”. Many of the things I wanted to do with
Presenter but couldn’t, such as pictographs, I can do with PD 4.11.
5.4
However, coming back now to Michael’s requirement, although PD4 meets
his specification for an improved spreadsheet with charts, he will
regret that the database and word processor functions are still present
(and there are some improvements). There are other more broadly based
and more subtle improvements (such as the improved graphic user
interface) and so Michael’s implied requirement for a lower price
(PipeDream Junior was his idea) has not been realised and my opinion is
that that PDJ will not happen. Would you like to see a PipeDream Junior?
What do you think about the price of PipeDream 4?
5.4
Upgrade from PD3 to PD4
5.4
I have begun to see advertisements for PD4 and, by the time you read
this, I am sure that NCS will be offering PD4 to new PipeDream users at
a discount on Colton Software’s price. However, I am advised that, for
the foreseeable future, upgrades from PD3 to PD4 will be available only
direct from Colton Software. Their price for an upgrade is £94.00
including VAT. If you bought PD3 on or after 1 August 1991 then you can
get the upgrade more cheaply.
5.4
Indented paragraphs
5.4
Some of you prefer to use indented paragraphs (as most newspapers and as
I was taught to do at school) rather than the more modern style called
‘blocked’ left. If you do prefer indented paragraphs then, with many
word processors, you just tap the <Tab> key at the beginning of each
paragraph. With most word processors (and DTP applications such as
Impression) this causes no problem if you want to alter the first line
or reformat the whole text. With PipeDream, you can have problems
because <Tab> puts the caret into the next column. If you use <Tab>, the
first line will be in a different column from the remainder of the text.
This gives problems when words are added to the first line and refor
matting sometimes causes columns to slide past each other.
5.4
My advice if you want an indented paragraph is to add a few spaces with
the space bar at the start of each paragraph rather than use <Tab>. It
avoids all the problems.
5.4
Whilst on the subject of word processing, I am surprised how many people
still use <Return> at the end of each line. With any word processor, the
only time you use <Return> is at the end of a paragraph or when you want
to ‘force’ a new line.
5.4
Horizontal spacing
5.4
Many who use outline fonts regularly ask what spacing (characters,
points, etc) <Ctrl-W> and <Ctrl-H> represent. The values are measured in
characters if you are using the system font but, if you print at 100%
using RISC-OS drivers, then what does say an 80 ‘character’ width
produce in inches, centimetres or points on paper? I came up with an
answer for one questioner but she told me later that her printer
couldn’t be working like mine! I now suspect that different printers and
the various RISC-OS printer drivers print out a different width for the
same 80 ‘character’ PipeDream page.
5.4
Here’s an experiment I would like all of you with RISC-OS drivers and
outline fonts to carry out. Create a one line file which has the digits
012345 6789 in an outline font repeated as many times as necessary
across the first line to just fill 50 ‘characters’ (i.e. just fill a
column which has been set so that both <Ctrl-H> and <Ctrl-W> are 50).
You can use a page of fully justified text if you prefer; just set
<Ctrl-H> to 50 and reformat with <Ctrl-R>. Print out the file using your
RISC-OS drivers and then, on the printed paper, measure the width of the
printed line. Having done that, please write to me and let me know the
width or, even better, send me the printed copy. Also let me know the
type of printer and the printer driver you used.
5.4
PipeDream to Impression
5.4
This export utility has been supplied by Colton Software with my PD4. I
don’t know (because I haven’t had a chance to try it yet) whether it
works with PD3 as well as PD4. Give it a try and let me know how you get
on.
5.4
Typing tutor
5.4
John Wakeling has been looking for some time for a typing tutor. Can
anyone help? (How about Turbo Type from Cambridge International
Software? £23 through Archive. Ed.)
5.4
Mathematical modelling
5.4
Gordon Nicholas has sent me a disc containing PipeDream applications for
finding roots of equations, numerical integration, numerical solutions
to differential equations, etc, together with worksheets (for students)
in Impression format. Write to me if you would like to be put in touch
with Gordon.
5.4
Blank sheets
5.4
Derek Banks has PD3, an HP-500 DeskJet and an A3000. With !PrinterLJ he
always gets a blank sheet before printing. Does anyone else have this
problem (I can’t reproduce it)? Can anybody help?
5.4
Invalid number of output bits
5.4
If you get this error message when RISC-OS printing a marked block, you
will be intrested to know that a work around is to move the caret
(cursor) out of the marked block before tapping the <Print> key.
5.4
Address for correspondence
5.4
Write to me at the Abacus Training address on the back inside cover of
Archive.  A
5.4

5.4
PD Column
5.4
David Holden
5.4
Firstly, I would like to correct a misunderstanding arising from my
article in the November Archive. I mentioned various demonstration discs
that are available (‘Crippleware’) and said that these are merely
advertising matter. Unfortunately, in an attempt to be brief I did not
enlarge upon this and I seem to have left many people with the wrong
impression.
5.4
When I said “don’t pay more than the price of a disc” I didn’t mean
about 40p. A more realistic price, bearing in mind postage, packing,
cost of copying etc. would be around two pounds. At this price, most
companies will actually be subsidising the discs and, to return to my
original theme that Crippleware is advertising, this is the way it
should be. If a company is proud of its product and believes it is
better than the opposition, it should be prepared to subsidise these
discs in the same way as it is prepared to pay for other forms of
advertising. If the company is not prepared to subsidise them I would
invite readers to ask themselves why. Are they not quite as confident of
their product as they would have us believe? Would they prefer that we
bought it after reading the conventional adverts or seeing a short
demonstration before we discover its weaknesses as well as its good
points?
5.4
The best means of circulating this type of advertising is, of course, PD
libraries. They have much lower overheads and they can supply discs to a
large market at absolutely no cost to the original supplier. Some cut
down versions of games are already distributed by PD libraries but the
only positive response I obtained during a quick telephone survey
amongst the ‘serious’ software producers was from Colton Software. If
you are running a PD library don’t take that as permission to copy the
Pipedream demo discs. For this you must write to Colton Software and
ask, although I gather that permission will be granted to reputable
libraries.
5.4
The most common excuses given revolve around the Acorn Font Manager and
licences for the various fonts required by most packages. I appreciate
that there are difficulties but I am sure a way around these could be
found if the will existed. After all Computer Concepts recently gave
1500 free copies of an Impression Junior demo to Micro User readers.
5.4
It is often said of advertising that only 10% of it does any good. The
problem is that nobody knows which 10%. I suggest that a functional
program of this type in the hands of someone who is interested in buying
a similar product would almost certainly fall within the ‘useful’ 10%.
It might be thought that ‘free’ discs given with magazines are an
alternative but I don’t agree. The ‘shotgun’ rule of advertising also
applies to these. If the material is distributed by a PD library then
the customer has taken the trouble to send for the disc and has actually
paid for it so must be seriously interested, while the cost to the
originator is absolutely zero. Please software producers, think about
it. What have you got to lose? This must be the cheapest and best form
of advertising available.
5.4
New software
5.4
I have recently been sent two interesting discs by the Archimedes Public
Domain Library at 96 Lanehouse Road, Thornaby, Cleveland TS17 8EA. The
first of these contains a program called AMFtrack which is an editor for
Soundtracker modules. This is similar to the commercial program Tracker.
It seems to do many of the things that Tracker does, but since it’s PD
it’s a lot cheaper! It is certainly worth getting if your interests
extend to this area and you don’t need the extra facilities of Tracker.
5.4
The second disc contains lots of programs and other material about
fractals. This all originates from the Archimedes Fractal Group. Much of
it is not new but it is a good introduction to this fascinating subject.
If you want to know more about fractals, I suggest you get a copy of
this disc which also contains information on the A.F.G.
5.4
Copyright and PD
5.4
There have been major problems recently over copyright amongst some PD
libraries. They are not alone. Some material sent to magazines and
included on their monthly discs has turned out to be copied from other
sources. There is also some confusion over what is copyright and what
isn’t. In fact, there is only one rule that should be observed by
libraries. Everything is copyright. This may not always be true but in
99% of cases it is.
5.4
You might think that if you obtained a program from a PD library then it
should be PD. Unfortunately, since most libraries obtain their material
from other libraries and there is quite a lot of copyright material
circulating this isn’t always the case.
5.4
To understand what Public Domain actually means, we must look at the
source of the term and this, as with much computer jargon, is America.
In the USA there is a law that computer programs originating in national
institutions such as colleges shall be ‘in the public domain’. This is
an eminently sensible law − after all, the material was produced with
public money, so why shouldn’t the public benefit? The problem is that
the term which has a precise legal definition within the U.S.A. has
found its way here where its meaning is much more vague.
5.4
Most of the time, the precise definition doesn’t matter. Many programs
contain documentation which says something like ‘this program is Public
Domain’ or ‘this program may be freely used and distributed’. You might
think that this makes it Public Domain but quite often it doesn’t. PD
programs frequently have conditions attached to this notice. Often this
says that the writer’s name must not be removed and that there must be
no charge made for the program. If the message waiving copyright has any
condition attached, however minor, then the program is NOT public
domain. Once the author has made a program public domain, he/she has no
further rights over it at all, so no conditions can possibly be imposed.
Legally such a statement makes about as much sense as someone making a
will leaving all of his property to himself. If conditions are imposed,
there is a basic contradiction so the material is not public domain.
There is a difference here between a requirement and a request. If an
author says ‘this program is Public Domain but please don’t remove my
name’ it may well be PD but if he says ‘you must not remove my name’
then it certainly isn’t.
5.4
For most purposes there isn’t any difference. If the author has given
permission for his program to be copied, used and distributed without
payment then you are entitled to do all of these things. The main
difference can be seen when commercial organisations become involved.
There is absolutely nothing to stop someone taking a true PD program,
repackaging it, and selling it in the guise of a commercial product.
Acorn actually sold Kermit, albeit with a few additions of their own,
and most purchasers didn’t realise that they were buying PD This is
perfectly legal since the program originated in America and has been
declared Public Domain under USA laws.
5.4
What must be remembered is that unless the program actually is PD you
have absolutely no right to copy or use it. You have only the author’s
permission and if this permission has conditions you are legally obliged
to obey them. If you do not, you are breaking the copyright laws. It is
no defence to say you didn’t see them. In this country, everything is
copyright unless it specifically says otherwise. You won’t find a
message in Archive forbidding you from copying anything published, not
because the material isn’t copyright but because the law says that it is
unless declared otherwise. Similarly with a computer program. You must
assume that it is copyright unless there is a specific message indicat
ing the contrary.
5.4
PD and the A5000
5.4
I have had an interesting letter from Andrew Campbell who points out
that a lot of current PD programs don’t work with the A5000. I realise
that many are made obsolete by RISC-OS 3 since one of the things PD
programs have done is help make up for omissions in the original RISC-OS
and a lot of these have now been corrected. At the moment, we are in
limbo because the new OS exists but only a lucky few who have an A5000
have access to it. I expect that when it is released to us less
fortunate mortals, a new wave of PD programs will appear to make up the
deficiencies in RISC-OS 3. Yes, they will be there, nothing is perfect,
and as usual PD programs will rapidly appear to fill in the gaps. My
worry is that the existing RISC-OS is so good (if you think RISC-OS has
faults try using the highly acclaimed Windows on a P.C.) that if Acorn
price the upgrade too high most users will not upgrade. Incidentally,
don’t be fooled into thinking that earlier models such as the 300 series
won’t be able to use the new version. I am certain that as soon as RISC-
OS 3 is available (probably before) there will be a variety of ‘third
party’ solutions to enable it to be fitted to every model.
5.4
Thanks to sensible pricing combined with the inadequacies of Arthur
almost everyone upgraded to RISC-OS when it appeared. The user base for
the Archimedes has expanded greatly since that time and a lot of that
expansion, thanks to the A3000, has been amongst younger users. The
advantages gained by upgrading to RISC-OS 3 seem much less than from
Arthur to RISC-OS and the price anticipated for the RISC-OS 3 upgrade
seems to be in the region of a hundred pounds, or about three times the
RISC-OS 2 upgrade cost. This is much too high for a lot of people,
especially younger users to whom this will represent an awful lot of
money. If Acorn price it at this level, a large proportion of Archimedes
owners simply won’t upgrade and we will then have two operating systems
in circulation. If you don’t think this is important then read some of
the Atari and Amiga magazines which have lots of letters saying either
‘program X won’t work with my machine which I bought last year’ or ‘why
don’t programs use the extra facilities of my model’. The minor changes
from Basic 1 to Basic 2 on the old BBC micro all those years ago still
create problems and many magazine listings don’t use them. I hope that
most programs will work happily under either OS but if Acorn want to
avoid the confusion that will ensue if we have two versions of RISC-OS
in circulation, I suggest that they greatly reduce the projected price
of RISC-OS 3.  A
5.4

5.4
Watford Electronics’ Mk II ARM3 Upgrade
5.4
Stuart Bell
5.4
If Archive articles had subtitles, then the one for this review would
almost certainly be ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’. Why? Read on...
5.4
In the world of cars, there are BMWs, (which most of us look at from
afar) which introduce new technological developments before anyone else
but which remain, for financial reasons, never more than the focus of
our dreams. Then there are Fords, which get us from A to B just as well
as the BMWs, but cost rather less.
5.4
The same seems to be true in the world of ARM3 upgrades. People like
Aleph One work at the ‘leading edge’ of technology but their prices,
though recently falling quite dramatically, keep their products out of
the hands of the more impecunious Archimedes owners. The “Ford” of ARM3s
is, perhaps, the Watford Electronics upgrade. The price is lower, but
does it get us from A to B, or from 8 MHz to 25 Mhz, as effectively?
5.4
I started my enquiries when the price for Watford’s Mark 1 upgrade fell
to £299 + VAT. My enquiry about people’s experience of it in the Archive
Help! column brought two responses. One was totally positive, the other
totally negative, on the grounds of the unreliability of the ‘wood and
gold foil’ header which plugged into the old ARM2 socket. Hmmm.
5.4
Then, just before the Acorn User Show in October, I heard about their
“Mark II” upgrade, boasting a newly designed connector and a price of
£199 + VAT!
5.4
Hence, 11.15 a.m. on the Friday of the Show saw me at the Watford stall,
with them already sold out. New supplies arrived by 2 o’clock, so I
returned home expectantly. For the money, you get a four-layer circuit
board, 53mm x 45mm, with a surface-mount ARM3, a 50Mhz crystal, another
chip, and a few capacitors. With the board comes an 8 page A6 leaflet,
with very clear instructions, a disc of utilities and a ‘special
extractor tool’.
5.4
Watford will do the upgrade for £35, including two-way courier service.
I chose the quick DIY method: Stage one: Remove the cover and the floppy
disc drive. No problem. There is no conflict with my IFEL soldered-in
4MB RAM upgrade (which is now available from Archive). Stage two: Use
the special tool to remove the ARM2. Problem! The prongs of the tool
wouldn’t fit the slots in the socket holding the ARM2. So, I gently
filed the prongs until they did fit. Then, apply a gentle rocking
motion, as per the instructions. The prongs − arguably (though I’m
doubtful) weakened by being filed down − bent. Repeat − same result.
Ditto, Ditto.
5.4
A very small flat screw-driver would fit into the ‘south east’ slot, and
apply the leverage that the ‘special extractor tool’ failed to. But, to
get the correct angle at the ‘north west’ corner needed the back-plane
removing, which needed the SCSI podule removing. Once all were out, the
ARM2 device came out quite easily.
5.4
I make no claims to be an engineer, but I have built quite a lot of
hardware for earlier computers. I conclude that the ‘special extraction
tool’ is simply not “man-enough” if the ARM2 is at all reluctant to come
out. My solution was a little time-consuming, but works.
5.4
Stage 3: Rebuild the machine and switch on. All is well. Stage 4:
Activate the !Cache utility and, again, all is well, and much faster!
5.4
The benefits of the ARM3 have been well rehearsed in Archive and don’t
need repetition. One advantage that hasn’t been mentioned much is that
printing can be significantly faster. In my case, the Impression / HP
DeskJet+ combination − certainly not one chosen for speed − took six
minutes for a very complex A4 page with an ARM2. With the upgrade, this
processor-intensive task takes just two minutes. The £199 + VAT is worth
it for this saving alone. Everything runs much more crisply and my four-
year old A310 now runs much like the drooled-over A5000s.
5.4
So what are my conclusions? The ARM3 board itself is superb. It looks
very well made, the new connector seems beyond reproach and the package
undercuts all the other ARM3s by at least £100 + VAT. Similarly, the
documentation and software are fine.
5.4
But, I do not believe that my experience with the ‘special extractor
tool’ will be unique. Even if other ARM2 sockets have wider slots, and
don’t require the tool to be filed down a little, I don’t think that
‘tweezer-type’ tools are adequate to remove four-sided devices like the
ARM2. My approach worked, and I wished that I’d not bothered with the
tool at all. Alternatively, you can pay the extra £35 for Watford to
install it for you.
5.4
In short, after an hour’s “agony”, the “ecstasy” makes it well worth it
at £199 + VAT. I really can’t see the point in paying £299 + VAT or more
for effectively identical products. But it would be even better if the
“special extractor tool” wasn’t so pathetic! With that problem sorted
out, the Watford Electronics Mark II ARM3 upgrade would be like a BMW
for the price of a Lada.  A
5.4
The equation has changed again now as Watford have put their ARM3
upgrade price back up to £249 +VAT, saying it was a Special Show Price
and Aleph One have brought theirs down to £249 +VAT or £280 through
Archive. CJE’s ARM3 (see page 9) has stayed at £199 +VAT (£225 through
Archive). Ed.
5.4

5.4
Lemmings
5.4
Tim Beverley (aged 13)
5.4
Lemmings which was declared “game of the year 1991” has now come to the
Archimedes. It comes in a well decorated box with one disc and an
instruction booklet which contains all the necessary information for
loading, playing the game and what the different icons mean. Also, there
is an example of the game and how to play it, using small illustrations.

5.4
Lemmings are creatures of very little brain, so when they fall out of
their home they just walk onwards regardless, not caring that they are
about to fall to their deaths. The object of the game is to make sure
the lemmings don’t fall to their death by building bridges over the
different kinds of holes and helping them get to their home by digging
horizontally, vertically and diagonally through hills and other
obstacles. You have to do all of this in a given time and you have to
rescue a certain percentage of the lemmings on each of the 120 levels.
5.4
The levels are split up into four categories starting with Fun, which is
to get the player used to controlling the lemmings, then Tricky which is
a little harder, then Taxing which is even harder and lastly Mayhem
which is virtually impossible. There is a different, well-known piece of
music accompanying each level, although this can be switched off if you
prefer.
5.4
At the beginning of each level, it will give you the information you
need to know like how many lemmings there are on that particular level,
what percentage of the lemmings you have to save to complete the level
and the rate at which they will come out of their home. When the
lemmings fall out of their home they come at different speeds, in the
range from 01 to 99 − the higher the number, the faster the lemmings
come out. It is possible to speed up and slow down the rate of the
lemmings by pointing to and clicking on the plus and minus signs in the
bottom left-hand corner of the game screen. The speed at which they come
out is important. At first, you don’t want them to come out too fast as
you may not have chance to set up the necessary bridges, holes etc to
stop them committing suicide, but once the way is clear for them to get
to their new home, speed is of the essence as you have to get enough of
them home before the time runs out. In some levels, the balance between
these two is what is so critical making it difficult to complete
successfully.
5.4
Also at the bottom of the game screen are all the skills that the
lemmings may have. There are Climbers which can climb up vertical
surfaces, Floaters which have parachutes (well, umbrellas!) so that they
can fall down long drops without killing themselves and if a lemming is
given both these skills he is known as an Athlete and these skills last
for the remaining time in that level. Then there are Blockers which stop
other lemmings going past a certain point and Bombers which blow up
single lemmings after a 5 second countdown.
5.4
Other facilities available are, a pause icon which pauses your game and
gives you time to think, a “nuke ‘em” icon which you double click on and
it blows up all the lemmings on that particular level in case you want
to give up and start again and in the bottom right-hand corner there is
a small map of the level that you are on and if you click somewhere on
that map you go to that place on the full screen display.
5.4
There is another menu screen which you automatically go onto after
loading the game. It has four choices, Start which starts the game, New
Level which, once clicked on, makes it possible to type in a password to
jump levels, Music/FX which toggles between playing Lemmings with music
and limited sound effects or no music but full sound effects and an icon
which lets you choose which set of levels you want to play e.g. Fun or
Mayhem and if you choose, for example, Mayhem it starts you off on the
very first level in that set.
5.4
Overall
5.4
The background graphics are very good and the graphics of the actual
lemmings are also quite good given that they are so small. Generally,
the graphics compare very favourably with other games. Lemmings compares
very well with other games in terms of playability and it is very
addictive and can be very frustrating. Indeed, the front cover of the
box has a disclaimer saying that the manufacturers cannot be held
responsible for loss of sleep, hair or sanity of those who play the
game.
5.4
Lemmings costs £24.95 from Krisalis Software or £23 through Archive.  A
5.4

5.4
ScanLight 256
5.4
Tord Eriksson
5.4
The well-known range of ScanLight scanners from Computer Concepts has
lately been extended with two ScanLight 256, one hand held, Junior and
one A4-size flat-bed scanner. There are two different interface cards,
one for Archimedes and one for the A3000. The software and firmware (in
ROM) is the same for all models and the only thing that that differs is
the hardware.
5.4
 Using the ScanLight Junior 256
5.4
It is very easy to get started, at least after you have fitted the card
(mine didn’t fit too well, so I had to do some metalwork). You run the
software from floppy or install it on your hard disc. If you double
click on the scanner file icon, you soon have a bigger scanner icon on
the icon bar.
5.4
When you click on that, you can start using the scanner immediately, by
setting the scanner and control panel to coincide, e.g. the same density
on both. There are switches for scan mode, resolution and brightness
that you can control, in addition to the scan on/off switch.
5.4
You are strongly recommended to use the same scanner driver as the
scanner you are actually using, to be able to use all the functions
available. Most of the time you will get a usable print anyway.
5.4
As the name suggests, it can cope with 256 levels of grey, but your
printer will certainly not! For most uses, 200 d.p.i. with 16 levels of
grey is perfectly all right, but I got better results with the “D”
(dither) option than the 16 level (4 bits-per-pixel) or 256 level (8
bit-per-pixel) option. If this is due to a fault I do not yet know.
Scanning in monochrome was excellent and line-art, like drawings and
printed text, were very well reproduced. (See illustration opposite −
top left.)
5.4
Only Impression II can handle the 176 or 256 levels of grey that the
scanner can produce. Both Paint and Draw makes them into multi-coloured
images that look very scientific but could hardly be called enjoyable!
5.4
The examples opposite are, in my view, really impressive. Both were done
in monochrome, one with hardware dithering (imitating grey by printing
dots), one without. On the whole, line-art was better reproduced than
true grey-scale objects, such as photos, paintings or stamps.
5.4
The software and manuals
5.4
The software adds further complications as it adds sampling to the raw
scan, making it less jagged, quite like anti-aliasing. You can also
control the greyscale etc.
5.4
There is definitely room for some improvement in making the software
easier to use; for instance, the scanned images on screen varies in
size, depending on the resolution you are using, so you spend a lot of
time trying to get them to a practical size. Too small and you can’t see
the details, too big and it flows outside your desktop (memory
permitting!).
5.4
Otherwise, the two manuals gave answers to all the questions you might
have, including a lot of hints and tips about problems that might arise.
One manual is applicable for all versions of hardware and one is
specially for the scanner combination in question. As far as the manuals
are concerned, they are, in short, excellent!
5.4
Conclusion
5.4
If you want to use illustrations in your letters etc. and have got fed
up with the standard clip-art, why not use a scanner and either draw
them yourself or steal them from somewhere!
5.4
It takes much longer to create a drawing on screen, using DrawPlus or
similar, than drawing them on paper and then scanning them in. Or you
can combine the two, using scanned pictures and drawings in your Draw
files, in combination with the usual Bezier curves of Draw or DrawPlus
(Modesty was done with a combination of both!).
5.4
If you use lots of illustrations or need to keep computer files on
people (not allowed in Sweden!), the package is well worth the money.
Disregarding the poor fit of the backplate and the odd quirks of the
software, it is a stable, well-made product that will stand quite a bit
of wear and tear. The Archive price is £245.  A
5.4

5.4
Modesty, by Jim Holdaway,
5.4
and a photo of me and Grandad
5.4
were easily reproduced.
5.4

5.4
Hearsay II
5.4
Mike Hobart
5.4
Hearsay II is a fully RISC-OS compliant, multitasking and much improved
version of the original Hearsay program. Both claim to be the complete
Archimedes communication package, and this would seem to be a fair claim
for Hearsay II. The problem about writing a review of such a comprehen
sive piece of software in this field is that you need a vast array of
hardware to test it on: modems of many sorts, and a link to a mainframe
or mini. I have only used it as a mini-computer terminal, so I restrict
my comments to this aspect. I have had the package for several months,
in two versions, on b-test.
5.4
First impressions
5.4
The program installs itself on the icon bar, with a telephone-and-modem
sprite, and occupies just over 500k, without buffer space. Several
options of terminal are available via menu at this point: Viewdata,
Minitel, ANSI, VT 52, 102, or 350, Tectronics 4105, teletype or Campus
2000, any of which can be set as the default. When you click on the
Hearsay icon, your chosen terminal window appears (in positive or
negative video). Gone is the colourful (garish) front end of Hearsay I!
Within the terminal window, <menu> will bring up a goodly array of
options, most of them with sub-options, even unto the third or fourth
level thereof. There are no ambiguous icons, though you may need to read
a little before settling for your selections. A nice feature is a quick
selection set of radio buttons for the most commonly used line signal
combinations (baud rate, parity and stop bits).
5.4
Mainframe terminals
5.4
The VT terminals are very satisfactory, with a configurable buffer which
allows you to scroll back to stuff which is “offscreen”. Line settings
can be done by hand but there is, again, a very convenient radio-button
quick setup panel. File transfers are easily performed: just drop the
file in the VT window and it will join the output queue. Then ask the
host to receive and select send from the menu. A vast array of file
transfer protocols are available, including X-,Y- and Z- modem and
Kermit.
5.4
The feature which I enjoy best is the Tek terminal. I can make use of
the graphics programs on the lab’s mini supercomputer and zoom in on the
bit I am interested in at the level of the terminal. Best of all, I can
export the graphics as Draw files, for instance straight into Impres
sion, or into a Draw program for further refinement. The result is that
I can have a printout which is better than is available from the big
machine itself. Switching between the text and graphics “planes” is
automatic if your host system supports X-protocols.
5.4
There are other nice touches: I can close the VT window, but leave it
listening out for new data. Or I can close it and reopen, just carrying
on with my session (not good practice, I know, leaving yourself logged
on to a big machine).
5.4
Other features
5.4
Modem users seem to be well catered for, with drivers for a number of
popular models and nice auto-dial facilities. I have not tested any of
these. Nor have I tested one of the more advanced features of Hearsay
II, its C++ - like script language. This allows you to take control of
almost every aspect of the package’s workings and to set it up to do
exactly what you want. I am sure that this is powerful stuff, and since
the author is David Pilling, I am sure it is very well done. However,
since I do not write C, let alone C++, and because I have not felt any
need of the facilities, I cannot comment further.
5.4
Conclusions
5.4
As far as I am concerned, this is the package which we had been waiting
for in the lab. It does everything we want, and it is a pleasure to use.
Our uses are quite limited, however, and this is not a comprehensive
review but if every aspect of the program lives up to what I have used,
I can see few dissatisfied customers. The manual is clear, complete and
comprehensible.
5.4
The program costs £75+VAT from Risc Developments or £82 through
Archive.  A
5.4

5.4
First Words and Pictures
5.4
Simon Anthony
5.4
First Words and Pictures from Chalksoft is an early reading package
aimed at young children and special educational needs students. This is
a very wide range to cover but Chalksoft make a very good stab at it.
The program is written with a careful balance between ease of use and
flexibility which causes a few problems, but they are easy enough to
avoid once they have been recognised.
5.4
The idea of the program is to present a simple everyday scene showing
articles or actions which have to be correctly identified. A word or
sentence describing part of the scene is displayed at the bottom of the
screen and the mouse or cursor keys are used to move a pointer in order
to select the relevant area. An illuminating arrow shows which area is
being selected before the choice is finalised by the reader. If the
answer is right, the selected area enlarges with a gentle tune as a
reward. If it is wrong, the computer ‘sneezes’ as they select it. The
score does not go down and there is no long term indication of failure
to put off the less able reader. After a preset number of questions
there is the option to have another go with the same or different scene.
5.4
The program in action
5.4
The opening screen shows the Chalksoft banner. Pressing <return> gives a
menu with options to allow you to alter every aspect of the program.
There are so many variables that an unassisted user can get lost in its
depths. I would prefer access to this menu to be hidden in much the way
that escaping from the program is achieved, that is by using ctrl +
another key.
5.4
The feel of the main program is pleasant and friendly. The artwork is
primary schoolbook type and the music sounds a little twee. This does
not make for an exciting game but that isn’t the idea. After the preset
number of correct answers has been made, a congratulatory message floats
down the screen while another tune tinkles away happily in the back
ground. There are ten scenes each with eight questions. By changing the
options, these will easily last a morning without repetition. The
options have been designed in consultation with real teachers and are
not just the whim of a back-room programmer. Every time it is used, more
and more subtle aspects emerge due to the flexibility provided. It is
not immediately obvious that the program lifetime would be longer than a
few hours but my experience is that at least special needs students gain
a very great deal and keep coming back for more. The program is not
disturbing to other people in the same room.
5.4
The ‘off computer’ aspects of this package are very important. The
ability to print out the words, sentences and line drawings of the
picture elements and scenes allows colouring in, writing the labels by
hand and simple displays to be made. Learning is improved by using as
many parts of the brain as possible and so these facilities provide good
educational value. They show the care and attention to detail that
typifies the main body of this program.
5.4
One problem that I found is that older children with reading difficul
ties tend to be put off by the childlike presentation. Perhaps Chalksoft
could produce a version of the program with an older emotional feel but
set at the same reading age.
5.4
The program installs easily on a hard disc or network and can be run
from the desktop or autobooted from the disc. It is not copy protected
and so there is no danger of damage to the master disc destroying this
valuable addition to the educational range.
5.4
Conclusion
5.4
First Words and pictures works well. It does teach reading skills and
will hold the attention as long as the user doesn’t feel they are being
patronised by the style. In a group of mixed ability, this can be a
problem. At home or in a matched group of emotionally young pre-readers
there are no such reservations. At £22 plus VAT it is a bit pricey for
the impoverished parent but for an educational establishment it is good
value for money.  A
5.4

5.4
My World
5.4
Doug Weller
5.4
This is a fascinating bit of content free software from Northwest
SEMERC, designed for teachers of special needs children but suitable for
a wide age range in mainstream classes. It was produced  collaboratively
by six LEAs, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire,
Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire. Its excellent illustrated manual
was also produced on an Archimedes!
5.4
Object based content free software
5.4
This is an entirely new type of content free software. It was originally
produced to give a teacher of children with very severe learning
difficulties a way of keeping a daily diary without the need to write −
but it has gone far beyond that. Basically, it uses the Draw module in
RISC-OS and screens created by !Draw to provide a wide variety of
contexts in which symbols or pictures (Draw objects) and text can be
easily manipulated, within a fixed structure, using the mouse.
5.4
Using My World
5.4
After loading, My World takes up the whole screen.  A menu is offered
allowing the user to see the various screens that are available, to save
a screen, to print (portrait or landscape, automatically scaled to print
as big as possible) and to change to desktop mode. Desktop mode not only
allows you to use other facilities (for instance, to load a printer
driver if you forgot to do so!) but also offers a magnifier box − this
is particularly useful if it is necessary to adjust the position of
objects precisely.
5.4
Clicking <menu> on the My World icon on the icon bar also gives a choice
of print and display options and also the ability to set the size of the
font cache. This is a real bonus for teachers (probably the majority)
who don’t want to get involved with the RISC-OS Task Manager.
5.4
My Diary
5.4
My World comes with 21 screens, and other screens discs are available.
My Diary is the application the program was originally designed for.
When loaded, the screen shows a diary form (2 blank rectangles with
clock faces under them showing different times of the day) and 14 Rebus
symbols for activities such as swimming, painting, playing, wheelchair,
etc. These objects can be dragged into position simply by pointing at
them, pressing <select> and dragging a copy of the object around the
screen, leaving the original object in place. As this was designed
originally for children with limited fine motor control, there is no
need to hold down <select>. When in place, pressing <select> again drops
the copy at the chosen position. Pressing <adjust> makes it disappear.
5.4
Once this has been done, the object becomes a movable object, which can
be moved around using <select>. If desired, pressing <adjust> returns
the object to its original position. In the left hand corner of the
screen there is a dustbin icon, where objects can be dragged if they are
no longer wanted. A Text icon allows the creation and editing of movable
text objects.
5.4
The screens provided cover a variety of subjects, including Punjabi and
French, sequencing activities using beads, a frog and a car to put
together, sentences to sequence, and a weather map. Any of these screens
can be edited in !Draw and new screens can also be created using !Draw
and the template screen provided.
5.4
Simple Stuff
5.4
There are four ‘Simple Stuff’ additional discs of screens. ‘Simple Stuff
Sampler’ includes a maze, a Pelmanism game, an alien, an electric lamp
and a caterpillar to put together, various maths shapes activities, a
match puzzle screen, etc. A skeleton screen offers you a completed
skeleton made up of 18 objects (bones and groups of bones) which can be
separated and then put back together! This idea is expanded in ‘Simple
Stuff Skeletons’, which is much more detailed and has two versions, one
plain, the other with a ‘ghosted’ drawing to help you. A text pencil
allows labels or notes to be added. A4 scaled !Draw files are also
provided which can be printed out and linked with paper rivets to make
an articulated skeleton.
5.4
The Patterns and Maths discs offer a variety of pattern blocks in the
case of the former, and games and investigations on the latter. Many of
these are very nice but there are a few where I felt that, for most
children, the computer was unnecessary. For instance, real Cuisenaire
rods seem much more interesting than computer ones!
5.4
Summary
5.4
This is a fascinating piece of software with many uses. Some of the
screens provided are excellent; others might be more suitably done away
from the computer, although often computers provide motivation not
otherwise available.
5.4
It costs £15, plus £7.50 for each of the associated discs: Simple Stuff,
Simple Stuff Maths, Simple Stuff Skeletons, Simple Stuff Patterns.  A
5.4

5.4
Notate
5.4
Stewart Watson
5.4
Notate is a new music notation package from Longman Logotron. With their
long history of involvement with education it is no surprise to find
that Notate has been pointed in that same direction. However, like many
other products aimed at education, the potential for private users
should not be overlooked.
5.4
Notate arrives in an attractive A4 box, containing two disks, an A4
manual, a registration card and tear-off keystrip and a reference card.
The two disks are in a sealed envelope, marked “Important − Read before
opening”, followed by the licence terms. The disks are not protected but
a message appears on the screen each time the program is loaded. This
disappears as soon as a key is pressed, but it contains the reference
number of the user. This is, in my view, by far the most sensible form
of software protection offering maximum protection for the manufacturer
together with minimum hassle for the user.
5.4
What can Notate do?
5.4
Here is a list of the claims made in the publicity and some of my
comments on each.
5.4
Up to eight individual staves − Each stave is monophonic (it can only
have one note playing at a time) except for a chord track which I’ll
explain later. Notate was obviously designed with the internal sound
chip as the sound source because a maximum of eight notes at one time is
the limit.
5.4
A wide range of synthesised and sampled sounds − The sounds provided are
varied and excellent.
5.4
Ability to use accidentals and repeats − This works OK.
5.4
Full range of time and key signatures with control over tempo and volume
− Control over tempo and volume is confined to setting the tempo and
overall volume at the start only. That is there is no way at present to
include speeding up and slowing down, or dynamics within a score.
5.4
Automatic checking of note lengths relative to the bar space remaining −
Notate does not allow you to put too many beats in a bar, a ‘Not enough
space in bar’ message appears if you attempt to do this, but it will
allow you to leave a bar incomplete, assuming that the rest of the bar
will be filled with rests.
5.4
Easy-to-use tape recorder control panel − The control panel is very
clearly laid out with all the usual controls.
5.4
Chord facility − This is an interesting feature, as it allows complete
chords to be inserted with one keypress. Once a chord track has been
selected a window opens showing a small note-named keyboard and offering
a choice of major, minor, 6th, 7th, Major 7th, minor 7th, augmented and
diminished. The chord track uses four voices which means that there are
only another four voices available for other parts.
5.4
Mixer control to adjust stereo balance and volume of all tracks − This
is a pop-up window accessed through <f6> which, interestingly, automati
cally reconfigures itself to the number of tracks used.
5.4
Configurability for different levels of user − Like Pendown, Longman’s
word processing package, it is possible to restrict the number of
options available. This makes the screen easier to read, and the program
easier to use, for younger children.
5.4
Editing facilities which, like word processing, include cut, copy, move
and delete within bars staves or between compositions − These editing
functions are well thought out and use the standard Acorn key short
cuts. Selecting a block is down by simply clicking and dragging.
5.4
Up to four compositions editable simultaneously − As Notate allows up to
four songs in memory at one time, sections of one song can easily be
copied into another.
5.4
Ability to transpose single parts or whole compositions − The transpose
options are good in that they allow you to set the key signature as well
as the transposition interval.
5.4
Export and import of MIDI format files allowing transfer between
packages − Files can be imported from Compose World and Inspiration, but
they will have to be monophonic parts. Surprisingly there is no facility
to load Maestro files. Files can be saved in three formats, Notate,
Maestro or Midi. Thus, Notate files can be exported to Genesis and
Magpie, or Rhapsody II into Scoredraw into DTP, if necessary.
5.4
Ability to play via MIDI where a suitable interface is available − It is
because this option is available that it seems strange to have
restricted Notate to eight note polyphony.
5.4
Song files
5.4
The song files supplied are interesting and varied from African drumming
to Rap and from Rock to Classical. The voice modules supplied are
extremely good and the output, when amplified, is very impressive
indeed.
5.4
There is a very good Read_me file inside the application with informa
tion about the Template files and pattern files supplied. These
templates are a very useful way of getting started quickly because they
remove the need for setting up tracks and voices. The pattern files
contain basic rhythm patterns which can be used as building blocks.
5.4
Printouts
5.4
The options for printout are large, medium and small, portrait or
landscape. The quality is good though pixelated (a new word but I like
it. Ed.), comparable with a printout from Rhapsody II but not as good as
Scorewriter or ScoreDraw.
5.4
Summary
5.4
Notate is a well structured package and what it does, it does well. The
writers have done their homework and produced a product that I think
will be well received by the education market.
5.4
It seems a pity that the conditions of use prohibit the copying of any
part of the documentation, as there are fifteen pages of ideas for
teachers to try with pupils and there are accompanying song files
supplied on the program disk. These pages could easily have been
supplied as a set of worksheets with no copying restrictions thus saving
a lot of retyping. Another possibility would have been to supply the
text on disc ready to be customised and printed.
5.4
There are one or two worrying limitations. There is no provision for
real time input, though it is promised in the first upgrade in early
1992. There is only scope for two lines of text, a title and composer,
no choice of size or format and no lyrics. This is an area that the
writers are currently exploring and developments in this area are
probably afoot.
5.4
The version I am reviewing is 1.00 and is a well thought out, well
presented package. A lot of time and effort has gone in to saving users
time and trouble. If you need a package to enable you, or your pupils,
to get music onto paper, or want to experiment with composition, Notate
could well be the package you have been waiting for.
5.4
Notate is available from Longman Logotron price £59 + VAT for a single
user (or £64 inc VAT through Archive) or £190 + VAT for a primary school
site licence or £330 + VAT for a secondary school site licence.  A
5.4

5.4
Astronomy on your Desktop
5.4
David Taylor
5.4
I have produced a standard wimp application based on some of the
astronomy routines in Shareware 10. The application, named !Daylight,
displays the times of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset and the
beginning and end of civil twilight for any date and for anywhere on
earth at the click of a mouse. The program could be very useful for
historians, for authors of historical novels or for anyone planning
future activities dependent upon daylight. The ease of use of the
graphical interface and the astonishing speed of recalculation demon
strate the capability of the Archimedes perfectly.
5.4
!Daylight uses two new filetypes, location which holds latitude,
longitude and placename and filetype event which holds a particular date
in addition to the other data. Double clicking on one of these file
icons will start the application with that file already loaded,
calculated and displayed in two seconds or less. Alternatively, you can
start the application by double clicking on the !Daylight icon and a
location file named “default” held in the application directory will be
loaded and calculated for today’s date. The default file can easily be
altered by the user to hold his or her home town or location of choice.
These filetypes are not registered with Acorn so conflict is possible.
Once the application is running, fresh locations or events may be loaded
either by double clicking on their icons or by dragging the icons to the
main window, all precisely according to the Acorn guidelines.
5.4
The latitude and longitude are displayed in writable icons and may be
changed at will. The time displayed initially is zone time which does
not take account of summer time or other national idiosyncrasies. The
zone time is shown in a writable icon and the event times displayed are
modified whenever this icon is changed. By setting this icon to
longitude divided by 15, local mean time is displayed. Click on the word
zone and it will change to local. The time then shown is the local
apparent time based on the sun being on the local meridian at 12h00.
This is the most appropriate time to use in a historical context since
mean time has only come into common use in the last hundred years with
the general availability of accurate clocks. Zone time has only appeared
since the introduction of radio time signals. The time displayed can be
changed to Universal Time by clicking on the word local. In all cases
the events displayed are for the date at the location of interest.
5.4
If you play with the arrows under the date for a few minutes you will
discover that the date may be changed by the day, month, year or
century. The date displayed changes from the Julian to the Gregorian
calendar in 1582. Thursday, October 4th, was followed by Friday October
15th. This is a function of the library procedures and since it was by
Papal decree, I have not had the temerity to change it, although the
Gregorian calendar was not adopted in protestant Britain until 1752. In
consequence, dates given between 1582 and 1752 in British history books
may have to be converted from the Julian or old style calendar to the
Gregorian or new style calendar. Add ten days between 5th October 1582
and 29th February 1700. Add eleven days between 1st March 1700 and
September 1752. The retrospective dates on the Julian Calendar are not
taken back before Saturday, 1st January in Anno Domini 1. There seems to
be no firm agreement on whether a year 0 should be included or not. It
is all hypothetical in either case. Any historian seeking accuracy to a
particular day before this date would be well advised to work directly
to the scale of Julian days.
5.4
The menu leads to save boxes for event files, location files or text
files. If a text file is dragged to !Edit or !Impression, the file is
transferred without being written to disc first. I have seen frequent
mention of this multitasking facility but have yet to see another
application written in Basic that does this.
5.4
I undertook this project as an exercise in programming the graphic
interface. The hands-on experience has been invaluable. I did not expect
to have to rewrite astronomy routines. The original routines of Dr
P.J.Duffet-Smith are excellent. For any time given as a Julian day and
fraction thereof, they evaluate the ecliptic longitude from a polynomial
and then transform it to Right Ascension and Declination, allowing for
parallax. These routines found their way to the Archimedes through D.
Fangandini and Ivor Clarke who converted them to BBC Basic style
procedures but still left all the GOTOs in place. The GOTOs are now
replaced by structured control statements so the procedures may be used
as a separate library and the logic is easier to follow.
5.4
The sunrise problem is one of those calculations where the numbers
required to give a solution depend upon the solution. This is more
evident in the case of the moon than of the sun. Moonrise, which can
occur at any time of day, is a function of Right Ascension which changes
at a mean rate of 51 minutes per day. To calculate the Right Ascension,
you need to know the time of moonrise and you cannot calculate the time
of moonrise without the Right Ascension. The computer is suited to using
the iterative method in solving these problems. The more iterations
used, the longer the solution takes. Even the Archimedes takes a moment
to work through the many polynomials describing the moon’s complex
motions.
5.4
In rewriting the procedure that calculates moonrise and moonset, I have
reduced the number of times that the Right Ascension of the moon is
evaluated from seven to four without degrading the accuracy of the final
result. There were other reasons for rewriting the rising and setting
procedures. The old routines kept on stepping into the wrong day
particularly when calculating events away from the meridian of
Greenwich.
5.4
The time of sunset is calculated for the instant when the centre of the
sun is at an altitude of 0 degrees relative to the horizontal plane of
the observer. The sun is then described as having a zenith distance (the
angle from the observer’s vertical) of 90 degrees. Owing to the dip of
the observer’s horizon below the horizontal, and the effect of atmos
pheric refraction, neither of which is a constant, it is generally
accepted that the moment of sunset is that when the lower limb of the
sun touches the visible horizon. It is therefore not practical to
display sunset times to the nearest second although the original
routines did this.
5.4
A new procedure added to the library calculates the times of the
beginning and end of civil twilight. These are the limiting moments when
the horizon is clearly visible at sea or a grey goose can be seen at a
mile on land. The corresponding zenith distance is 96 degrees.
5.4
The diagram shows how the hour angle and azimuth at sunrise and sunset
are derived from right ascension and declination. It shows the relevant
triangles on the surface of the celestial sphere viewed from outside.
The celestial sphere is a mythical ball of indeterminate radius onto
which the bodies are projected from the point of view of the observer.
The actual radius is not required because all the distances which are
the lengths of the sides of the triangles used are arcs of great circles
and measured as angles at the centre of the sphere. Events are seen by
the observer, O at the centre of the sphere. PP‘ is the polar axis and
ASBR is the observer’s horizontal plane. RSNM represents the path of the
sun through the sky, rising at R and setting at S. The sides of the
spherical triangles required are RZ or SZ, the observer’s zenith
distance, which is always 90 degrees, PR or PS, the sun’s co-declination
and PZ, which is the observer’s co-latitude. ZPR and ZPS are the hour
angles and PZR and PZS the azimuths for rising and setting respectively.
5.4
From the usual spherical triangle formula
5.4

5.4
since the zenith distance is 90 and cos90 = 0, this may be simplified
to:
5.4

5.4
There has been quite a lot of interest recently in calendars and dates
and I am sure that this application will be of interest to some of the
Archive readers. If you are interested to take this project further,
please contact me at 64, Redmond Road, Hamilton Hill, 6163, Western
Australia.  A
5.4

5.4
Break 147 & SuperPool
5.4
Patrick Bean
5.4
This is the latest offering (well, one of them! Ed) from the Fourth
Dimension, who brought us E-type, Powerband, Holed out and Chocks away,
so expectations are high. The games come on three disks, one master disk
and one for each of the two games. I wonder if this means that we can
expect to see more table games running under this same system?
5.4
On running either game, you are presented with a menu offering demo,
practice, match and tournament. In Demo, the computer simply plays
against itself. Practice lets the user place balls anywhere on the table
and play from that position, so trick shots and the like can be set up.
Match lets two players, one of which can be the computer, play a match
of up to 35 frames. Tournament lets you set up a competition with many
players. On selecting match, a second menu appears. From this menu it is
possible to save and re-load matches, set the number of frames in the
match and set the volume level. A table of results can also be dis
played. This second menu can be returned to by pressing <escape> during
the game.
5.4
After the two menus, you are shown a 3D view of the table. Moving the
mouse left turns the table right and vice versa. At first, this can make
you feel a little sea sick as the table and balls roll around before
your eyes. It will not take long, however, to get the hang of the
control system. You can position yourself (your viewpoint) anywhere.
Even height can be changed so making bridge shots easier. When your
viewpoint is correct, just click on <select> and your cue will appear in
front of you on the table and in the top left-hand corner of the sceen
along with a large cue ball with a dot on it. This dot shows the point
at which the cue will strike the ball, so that fine adjustments can be
made in order to give spin etc.
5.4
When you are happy, draw back your cue (mouse) and push it forward, the
speed at which you do this determines the power of the shot. That is all
there is to it − no power guages as in some other simulations. On
striking the ball, some very good sampled sound adds to the overall
realism. If, after the shot, there is a touching ball, the referee will
announce the fact and the ball in question will flash.
5.4
In the event of you missing the ball or committing some foul, the
referee will inform you of your transgression, again in high quality
sampled speech. All rules of both games appear to have been implemented
correctly. On potting the cue ball, it is placed in the “D” from where
you can position it exactly. Once you have taken your shot, you can
again move your viewpoint even while the balls are still moving! If you
heard a ball go down but did not see where it went you have the ability
to replay the shot viewed from any angle. Alternatively, you can set an
option in one of the menus so that a particular ball involved in the
shot can be tracked to its final resting point. A dotted line can also
be displayed before you take the shot showing the path along which the
cue ball will travel.
5.4
Practice mode should be used at first in order to familiarise yourself
with the control system. After that you can use the match option to play
either against the computer or another human. Later, a tournament can be
setup with a number of players of both types. The computer’s play is of
a very high class, as can be seen from the demo mode. It’s potting and
positional play are good but it is not quite so careful about where
other balls such as the BLACK! are going. Its skill is almost unbelie
vable with double and cut type shots.
5.4
The documentation states that..... “The ball calculation accuracy in
both of these simulations is to a scale movement of plus or minus 0.635
of a millimetre. In addition to this, the rotational accuracy is to 1.75
minutes of arc. Or to put it another way, in ‘Break 147’ you can hit a
ball in any of 12,288 directions from any one of 4,147,200 possible
locations on the table.” However, in order to utilise this, a monitor
with a display of 2880 by 1440 pixels would have to be manufactured.
Such a display mode would need 4 Megabytes of screen ram!
5.4
Overall
5.4
This game looks like being another winner for the Fourth Dimension. My
only complaints are that the table is a little fast (the balls can
sometimes float around the table as if they were in outer space) and the
computers play is far too good!!!
5.4
Well done Fourth Dimension and Mr. Keys. Break 147 & SuperPool costs
£24.95.  A
5.4

5.4
Scientific Software − Computer Algebra
5.4
Brian Cowan
5.4
There has been some correspondence in another magazine concerning
scientific software − or the lack of it − for the Archimedes. Although I
generally concern myself with matters of hardware in the columns of
Archive, in my day-time job as a scientist I use all manner of scienti
fic software. I thought it would be a good idea to acquaint interested
readers with what is available. So I am proposing to write an occasional
column which, over the next few months, will discuss and review all
manner of Archimedes software which has a scientific connection.
5.4
Currently I have had experience of using specialised products in the
following areas: Computer algebra − mainly Reduce but also Derive under
the PC emulator, General scientific DTP − Impression and TEX, Equation
generation for DTP − Equasor and the newly released BestForm, Statisti
cal software − First from Serious Statistical Software, Graph and data
plotting − Chris Johnson’s GraphDraw and other programs. Some of my
students and I have developed software in other areas, which might be
covered in some future articles. If there are any more categories of
scientific software which readers are interested in, please let me know
and I will try and cover them.
5.4
Archimedes only
5.4
My main concern will be for dedicated Archimedes software although, for
comparison, I will occasionally mention DOS software which can run under
the PC emulator. My general impression is that there is a growing
collection of scientific software available which, while not able to
compete with DOS or Mac software in sheer quantity, certainly makes up
for this by quality and power − helped of course by the raw power of the
ARM. Writing for DOS machines is a real challenge − it is the modern day
equivalent of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear − but ARM
programmers should not become blasé and complacent. Computer Concepts
have shown the way in terms of what can be achieved; other software
houses know the standards to which they should aspire.
5.4
Computer algebra
5.4
There is a danger in trying to re-invent the wheel. A few years ago
(well, quite a few actually!) I did not even know of the existence of
computer algebra software. I had a really interesting problem involving
the manipulation of some algebraic equations which I was doing using the
quaint methods of pencil and paper. It soon dawned on me that I should
not spend time doing things I was not good at: I am much too careless at
that sort of thing. I realised that my computer, an original BBC model
B, would make fewer mistakes. Thus I sat down and wrote a program in BBC
Basic to perform my algebraic calculations. It worked well, even if it
took all night to do some of the more complicated operations. I even
invested in a 32016 second processor, such was my enthusiasm, and then I
graduated to an Archimedes. From then on, I was hooked on computer
algebra and, in reading all about it, I discovered that there was a
range of commercial software packages available.
5.4
More than just algebra
5.4
It is worth pointing out that the term computer algebra is rather an
understatement for this sort of software. As a minimum, most packages
include the following facilities: arithmetic to arbitrary precision,
manipulation of algebraic quantities such as multiplying and dividing
algebraic expressions, operations with matrices including the solution
of linear equations, solution of other classes of equations, different
iation and integration of algebraic expressions.
5.4
Available packages
5.4
There is a range of computer algebra packages around for a variety of
different computers. The list of packages includes Scratchpad, Mathe
matica, Macsyma, Maple, Reduce and Derive. Each have their own
advantages and disadvantages and, generally, a particular package has
its particular computer type or types on which it runs. To the best of
my knowledge, Reduce is the only system which runs on the Archimedes in
native mode; Derive, which runs under DOS, is usable with the PC
emulator. Many algebra packages are written in Lisp, which is ideally
suited for such applications.
5.4
Reduce
5.4
Reduce is one of the older of the computer algebra packages around. It
was originally developed specifically for doing calculations in quantum
electrodynamics, but it soon blossomed into a general system with many
applications. These days, it is much-beloved of those concerned with
computer algebra research and it boasts probably the best indefinite
integration facilities around.
5.4
Calculus
5.4
I should perhaps explain a few things about “computer calculus”. Of
course, differentiation and integration are the inverse of each other
but, as every maths student knows, differentiation is relatively
straightforward while integration is not. One seems to have to learn
many methods for integration and to have to guess which method to use
when. The fact is that there is always a definite procedure to be
followed when differentiating an expression; differentiation is
algorithmic. Conversely, integration is not. It is thus difficult to
program a computer to perform integration. A great breakthrough came
with the discovery of the Risch-Norman algorithm which, for the first
time, provided a well-defined procedure to be followed in integrating a
wide class of functions − this is the same Norman, guru of Acorn, who is
associated with various of the language compilers for the Archimedes,
including C and Lisp.
5.4
Other facilities
5.4
Reduce performs all the tasks mentioned in the check list above and it
performs them well and quickly. One of the advantages of it being an
established package is that there is an increasing number of third party
(public domain) programs available which can be incorporated for all
sorts of purposes. Thus, the latest Archimedes version comes with the
following PD add-ons: Vector algebra and calculus, Calculus of modern
differential geometry, Generation of code in various computer languages,
Groebner bases, Limits, Solution of ordinary differential equations, 3-D
vector analysis in curvilinear coordinates, Root finding, Symmetries of
partial differential equations, Summation of series, Taylor and other
power series.
5.4
The next few sections will show some examples of what can be done. The
first listing is the summary of a Reduce session.
5.4
Example 1 − Magnetic field calculation
5.4
The problem here is to produce a uniform magnetic field at the centre
between two similar circular coils. The field is most uniform when the
coil separation bears a certain relation to their diameter. This is
known as the Helmholtz configuration. The Reduce session finds the
required coil separation and then it calculates the field homogeneity at
the centre.
5.4
Each line of input in a session is numbered. I have deleted some lines
in the interests of clarity and space. So here we start with line 2 in
which I typed in the formula for the magnetic field at the centre
between two coils. The radius of the coils is taken as unity, Z is the
distance along the axis from the centre and LH is the separation of the
coils. I terminated the first line with a $ which causes the program not
to echo the result of the input.
5.4
Line 3 substitutes the value 0 for Z in the formula for the field; this
gives the magnetic field at the centre. As this line is terminated by a
; the result is printed out on the next few lines. Note that the outputs
are printed in lower case, while the inputs are in upper case.
5.4
In line 4 we want to find the derivative of the field at the centre. A
double operation has been done here. DF(BH,Z) differentiates BH with
respect to Z and then the value Z=0 is substituted in. The answer is on
the next line. It is zero. There is no magnetic field gradient at the
centre and in fact by symmetry all odd derivatives vanish there.
5.4
The second derivative is evaluated in line 5. See how the function DF
can be used for higher derivatives. As in line 4, the value Z=0 has been
substituted in as we are interested in what is happening at the centre.
I did not want to print out the cumbersome result, so the line is
terminated with a $ and, in line 6, I told it I wanted things to be
factorized.
5.4
The symbol WS stands for work space, meaning the contents of a particu
lar “line”. Line 7 tells the program to evaluate line 5, and it is
printed out in factorized form.
5.4
The Helmholtz configuration is that which makes this second derivative
zero. We want to find the separation LH which results in this. This is
done in line 9 which solves the equation LS=0 for LH. The equation has
four roots, as shown in the curly brackets. The imaginary roots are
clearly non-physical and the two real roots are physically equivalent:
LH=½, telling us that the separation of the coils should be half their
diameter.
5.4
In line 10, we explicitly set LH to be ½, so that it is no longer a
variable. Note that global assignment is effected with the Algol/Pascal
:= symbol while the usual equals sign = is used for arithmetic equality
and local assignment.
5.4
The resultant field at the centre is then obtained from line 12 and, as
we can see, the answer is exact; no rounding is done. It is up to the
user to specify the precision for floating point approximations.
5.4
At this stage, I decided to load in a third party program to express the
magnetic field in a power series in Z. The TPS package is much more
efficient and fast than successive differentiation followed by substitu
tion. The package is loaded in line 13 and it is used in line 14. PS is
one of the functions provided, giving a power series. We want the field
BH expanded in powers of Z about the point Z=0. The result follows. The
first term, independent of X is the field at the centre, as calculated
above. The next term is in Z4, indicating that all lower order deriva
tives vanish.
5.4
Obviously, such a calculation could be done by hand but, apart from the
effort involved, there is always the possibility of making silly errors.
5.4
Example 2 − Power series
5.4
Before I had the TPS package, I had written my own power series
procedures. These are shown in the second listing. Lines starting with a
% are comments. The procedures are given the self-explanatory names
TAYLOR and MACLAURIN, and their definitions are fairly straightforward.
The statement SCALAR is the equivalent of LOCAL in Basic while the
structure of the FOR loop is very similar to that in Basic.
5.4
Example 3 − Definite integration
5.4
One serious limitation of Reduce is that it does not do definite
integration, although the indefinite integration (anti-derivative)
facilities are second to none. The third listing shows a short procedure
for evaluating the definite integral by substituting at the end points.
Of course, this is the usual method of doing this and, for respectable
functions, it works well. For badly behaved functions it will not work
and of course, as it stands, this function will not cope with infinite
limits.
5.4
Archimedes Reduce implementation
5.4
I have been using Reduce version 3.3 on the Archimedes for some few
years. This was a single-task program which took over the whole machine,
although I had hacked the program about to make it run in a Task Window.
This obviously slowed the program down somewhat but the advantages were
plenty. I could then edit procedures and chunks of instructions in an
Edit window, and I could see where files were, in their directory
viewers. Then by unlinking the Task window I could export chunks of a
session as text to a document. In fact, this is how the first listing
was produced. This version of Reduce ran under the Acorn Lisp compiler
(now discontinued).
5.4
It should be pointed out that Reduce is hungry for RAM. It requires a
minimum of 2 Mbytes to run and it is better with more. All algebra
packages, by their very nature, need large amounts of RAM. It is
remarkable that the PC Derive works as well as it does within the DOS
constraint of 640k; much work must have gone into optimising the code to
run well in a small area of RAM.
5.4
Reduce version 3.4 is now available and I have had my copy for a few
weeks now. This uses CSL Lisp: Codemist Standard Lisp, which is a new
version for the Archimedes, written mainly in C. This has the advantage
of having hooks to the window manager etc. Not surprisingly, version 3.4
runs in its own window and installs itself on the icon bar. However,
there are a number of differences from standard RISC-OS applications.
While a Reduce calculation is being done, control is not passed back to
the machine. This is quite a good idea and it means that there is no
significant speed loss by running in a window. You can scroll back over
the window a limited way but unfortunately there are no cut/paste
facilities. In that respect, it is not so good as my hacked version 3.3.
In principle, however, I should be able to get the new version running
in a Task window; I have not tried yet.
5.4
Another advantage of the old version was that there was a graphics
module, written by Arthur Norman, which (in single-task mode only)
provided some elementary 2d and 3d graph plotting. This obviously does
not work with the new version so, at the moment, there is no graphics
support. Within a windowing environment, the sensible thing to do is to
export the graphics data to a graphics window. Thus all Reduce must do
is to prepare the data for export. It then becomes the task of the
graphics widow to do the display properly. I have been working on this
but I still have a long way to go!
5.4
The Archimedes package
5.4
Reduce 3.4 comes on eight floppy discs! In fact, the compiled program is
on two disc, the others containing the sources, libraries and documenta
tion. Unfortunately you don’t get the full CSL Lisp package; this must
be purchased extra if you need it for development work. There are two
manuals provided. One is the documentation for Reduce 3.4 and the other
contains information on the user-contributed modules. These manuals are
perfect-bound and I am worried that they will fall apart soon if they
are used too much. Fortunately, the documentation on the discs includes
these manuals but they are in TEX format and so can not be read directly
without a TEX previewer.
5.4
Conclusion
5.4
I estimate that Reduce is my second most used software package (Impres
sion + Equasor being my first). I have found it invaluable despite its
few shortcomings. It is probably rather too expensive for the casual
user but for serious mathematical work it is superb. It is much more
powerful than Derive, although that package does definite integration
and it provides graphics facilities. Unfortunately, I have not had an
opportunity to use Mathematica, which is supposed to be good and has
excellent graphics, but there is no Archimedes version available; nor is
there likely to be.
5.4
The full price of Reduce 3.4 is £320 + VAT but, until the end of the
year, owners of Reduce 3.3 can upgrade for £185 + VAT.
5.4
Archimedes Reduce 3.4 is available from:
5.4
Codemist Ltd., “Alta”, Horsecombe Vale, Combe Down, Bath, BA2 5QR.
Telephone: 0225− 837430.
5.4
Example 1
5.4

5.4
2: BH := 1/((Z—LH)**2 +1)**(3/2) + 1/((Z+LH)**2 +1)**(3/2)$
5.4
3: SUB(Z=0,BH);
5.4

5.4
                2
5.4
           2*(lh  + 1)
5.4
—————————————————————————————————
5.4
        2         4       2
5.4
 sqrt(lh  + 1)*(lh  + 2*lh  + 1)
5.4

5.4
4: SUB(Z=0,DF(BH,Z));
5.4

5.4
0
5.4

5.4
5: SUB(Z=0,DF(BH,Z,2))$
5.4
6: ON FACTOR;
5.4

5.4
7: WS 5;
5.4

5.4
 6*(2*lh + 1)*(2*lh — 1)
5.4
——————————————————————————
5.4
        2         2     3
5.4
 sqrt(lh  + 1)*(lh  + 1)
5.4

5.4
9: SOLVE(WS(5)=0,LH);
5.4

5.4
        1      1
5.4
{——— ,lh=———,lh= — i,lh=i}
5.4
        2      2
5.4

5.4
10: LH := 1/2$
5.4

5.4

5.4
12: SUB(Z=0,BH);
5.4

5.4
    16
5.4
———————————
5.4
 5*sqrt(5)
5.4

5.4
13: IN “$.!REDUCE.R34.RED.TPS”$
5.4

5.4

5.4
14: PS(BH,Z,0);
5.4

5.4

5.4
  16*sqrt(5)          2304        4        315392        6      7
5.4
(————————————) — (—————————————)*z  + (———————————————)*z  + O(z )
5.4
      25           625*sqrt(5)          78125*sqrt(5)
5.4

5.4
Example 2
5.4

5.4
% TAY/MAC
5.4
%                TAYLOR AND MACLAURIN EXPANSIONS      BPC/7July89
5.4

5.4
% For the Taylor expansion
5.4
%     1st argument is the function
5.4
%     2nd argument is the expansion variable
5.4
%     3rd argument is the point of expansion
5.4
%     4th argument is maximum power required
5.4

5.4
% For the Maclaurin expansion
5.4
%     1st argument is the function
5.4
%     2nd argument is the expansion variable
5.4
%     3rd argument is maximum power required
5.4

5.4
   PROCEDURE TAYLOR(F,X,X0,N);
5.4
      BEGIN
5.4
         SCALAR SS, DD, FA;
5.4
         DD := F;
5.4
         SS := SUB(X=X0,F);
5.4
         FA := 1;
5.4
         FOR I := 1:N DO
5.4
            BEGIN
5.4
               FA := FA*I;
5.4
               DD := DF(DD,X);
5.4
               SS := SS + SUB(X=X0,DD)*X**I/FA;
5.4
            END;
5.4
         RETURN SS;
5.4
      END;
5.4

5.4

5.4
   PROCEDURE MACLAURIN(F,X,N);
5.4
      BEGIN
5.4
         SCALAR SS, DD, FA;
5.4
         DD := F;           % the function - for repeated
differentiation
5.4
         SS := SUB(X=0,F);  % partial sum of terms
5.4
         FA := 1;           % for the factorials
5.4
         FOR I := 1:N DO
5.4
            BEGIN
5.4
               FA := FA*I;
5.4
               DD := DF(DD,X);
5.4
               SS := SS + SUB(X=0,DD)*X**I/FA;
5.4
            END;
5.4
         RETURN SS;
5.4
      END;
5.4

5.4
   END;  A
5.4

5.4
Example 3
5.4

5.4
algebraic procedure defint(y,x,a,b);
5.4
      begin
5.4
         scalar integ;
5.4
         integ := int(y,x);
5.4
         return
5.4
         sub(x=b,integ) - sub(x=a,integ)
5.4
      end;
5.4
end$
5.4

5.4

5.4
Sinewaver
5.4
Tristan Cooper
5.4
If you have ever been fascinated by the shapes formed by sine waves,
especially when more than one of them interfere with each other, then
this selection of programs from ‘Jimbo’ of Computer World is for you.
Jimbo is clearly entranced by the behaviour of sine waves and makes
extensive use of them in various graphical ways, using text, blobs, dots
and lines. He allows us to create a wide variety of fascinating shapes
using the Archimedes’ speed and colours to great effect.
5.4
Before I describe Sinewaver itself, here is a quick rundown of all the
other programs on the disc.
5.4
•    Tunes − five sound tracks to give you some background music.
5.4
•    !Mellow − an interesting selection of exercises in coloured graphics,
giving smooth colour control, but with inadequate explanation (see
below).
5.4
•    !Paletter − a comprehensive and easy to use means of producing your
own palette.
5.4
•    Key2Dots − a less than exciting display of moving blobs or lines.
5.4
•    MouseyFun − plot lines or dots on the screen and they’ll be slowly
deleted after a while. Fun?
5.4
•    PlainDotty − this gives you a feel for the shape of things to come as
sine wave related movement is depicted using moving coloured blobs. But
don’t believe the instructions − you’ll need / & ‘ not . & ; to alter
the values.
5.4
•    Vectors-3D − rotating tetrahedron in basic colours.
5.4
•    Autorotate − I couldn’t make this do anything useful due to lack of
detailed instructions.
5.4
•    Keyrotate − select one of several line drawings and rotate it through
all possible axes.
5.4
•    Shapemaker − make your own drawing for use with Keyrotate.
5.4
•    BasicFX − some attractive exercises in text manipulation which could
be nice to use in one’s own applications.
5.4
•    BirdMaths − a pretty representation of a bird flaps around the screen.
5.4
•    Dycp − type in your own text and see it bounce up and down.
5.4
•    SineDemo − demo version of Sinewaver.
5.4
•    Waveydesk − yet another ‘facility’ to make a mess of the desktop.
5.4
•    Wiggle − a broad coloured line streams down the screen under mouse
control.
5.4
!Sinewaver
5.4
Getting Sinewaver to start is not the easiest thing in the world! I
think Jimbo is a little over protective of his software, frankly.
Firstly, is there really a need for a window to open asking whether I’m
legally entitled to use this software? particularly as there is no way
to close it. Secondly, the password codes are written on crimson paper
with crimson highlighting. The intention is to make it impossible to
photocopy it; unfortunately, it also makes it very hard to read. Then,
the instructions for use of the passcodes is so ambiguous that I had to
contact Jimbo to find out how to use them! Call me stupid if you like,
but I bet I won’t be the only one to fail to get past this stage without
help.
5.4
Once running, Sinewaver gives us a main menu with options on playing
with the sinewaves, editing, saving and loading data, merging sinewaves,
information and quit.
5.4
At this point, the best bet is to go for ‘playing’ and see what happens.
This is the default setting in which 30 spots swirl around the screen in
an elliptical form. Try holding <shift> and/or <ctrl>. These cause non
deletion of the spots and cycling of colours, producing some very pretty
effects. Pity they can’t be saved as sprite files. Clicking <select>
will send you to the editor, allowing alteration of all the parameters
currently in use, in terms of x and y radii, counts, speeds and steps,
Sine counts and phases; plus number of dots, after images and phases.
I’m not at all sure quite what all these mean, and there is no explana
tion that I can find to tell me. However, altering some of them,
particularly the last three, then returning to the display, produces
patterns of increasing intricacy and delight. At this point, you might
feel that your perseverance is starting to pay off. By experimenting
with different values of the various parameters, you will eventually get
a feel for what everything does and should be able to maintain a
sensible display and produce a vast variety of pretty shapes at the same
time. Take your time and don’t change more than one thing at a time
until you fully understand what’s going on.
5.4
There are a number of default sine waves that have been supplied which
can be combined in various mathematical ways such as addition, subtrac
tion, division etc, and some default parameter settings which are worth
trying out.
5.4
The information page is not very informative, unfortunately. Jimbo uses
some of his text manipulation tricks to produce a rather garish and
uncomfortable display which includes little useful data. Which takes me
to my main grouse...
5.4
Criticism
5.4
I have no doubt that Jimbo knows a great deal about sinewaves and
programming the Archimedes. However, as with so many programmers, he
seems to assume that the users of his work will be able to read his mind
when it comes to actually running the programs. What is the use of
sophisticated software, capable of producing fascinating and entrancing
effects, if we can’t understand how to use it? There can be no doubt
that many hours of blood, sweat and tears went into writing this wide
range of programs. A couple of hours of careful thought, perhaps with
the help of an inexperienced user, might lead to two or three pages of
clear instructions, plus comprehensive on-screen help.
5.4
Conclusion
5.4
I understand that the asking price for this software is around £4. It’s
easily worth that much, notwithstanding the criticisms, and Jimbo tells
me that he intends to do something about the instructions. Let’s hope
so. There is also a competition for the most original and interesting
Sinewaver pattern. So for more details, contact Jimbo, (aka James
Wilkinson) 13, St Peter’s Road, Droitwich, WR9 7BJ.  A
5.4

5.4
AnDi Oddule
5.4
Peter Thomson
5.4
The AnDi Oddule is the first of a series of modules from Baildon
Electronics and Morley Electronics Ltd that communicate with the
Archimedes computers through the I2C interface.
5.4
AnDi is an an input / output unit with both analogue and digital
interfaces. It costs £49 +VAT.
5.4
I2C interface
5.4
The I2C bus is an integral part of the Archimedes computer’s internal
communication system. It is a standard system for exchange of data
between integrated circuits and forms part of the expansion bus. The
Oddule’s lead plugs into an adaptor that in turn plugs into the
expansion socket. At only £84+VAT this is the lowest cost option. The
Oddules can also plug into the I2C socket on Morley’s Analogue and User
Port for A3000 expansion board. The Oddules can be daisy-chained so that
several can be used on one interface at the same time.
5.4
Analogue input
5.4
This unit is quite fast. It can collect up to 10,000 analogue values per
second in total from four channels. These are 8 bit conversions and all
8 bits are available with no internal noise degrading readings.
5.4
The voltage to be measured must be between 0V and 5V. If an external
reference voltage, less than 5V, is used then the conversion is between
0V and the reference voltage. The converter can also be configured to
measure the difference between two channels. The input circuit draws
less than 0.1 nA except when the voltage moves outside the permitted
range. Any channel not in use should be tied to analogue ground and not
left floating.
5.4
Analogue output
5.4
There is one channel available which can be outputting a signal at the
same time as the analogue input or digital input / output is in use.
Potentially, this is also very fast at 10,000 changes per second but
providing meaningful data at this speed requires assembly language
programming skills. This interface will cope easily with the fastest
programming available in Basic. This output is also an 8 bit conversion
between 0V and 5V or between 0V and a reference voltage. This output
cannot drive a large current and an amplifier using an external power
source is needed to make full use of it.
5.4
Digital input / output
5.4
There are 8 digital channels giving eight input and eight output
connections. Each channel can be configured separately as input or
output. The input uses 5V logic, and when this is connected, will also
drive the output for that channel.
5.4
The digital output should be connected to an external DC power supply up
to 50V with a maximum current of 400mA on one channel and a total
maximum of 1A for all eight channels.
5.4
Hardware
5.4
The unit is mounted in an 8cm by 14cm plastic case with all connections
to the top surface. All connections are made to the analogue and digital
terminals with screw clamp bare wire connectors. There is a single LED
that shows the 5V line to the Archimedes is on.
5.4
A 5V terminal is provided on the module. If this is short-circuited, it
is protected by a diode, but may result in failure of the diode in a
fail safe mode. The diode then needs replacing.
5.4
The electronics inside is based on four chips, each mounted in a socket
and easily replaced should the need arise. The digital output device can
be directly substituted with a higher voltage rated chip.
5.4
Software
5.4
All functions of this module are under the control of a single command;
SWI “IIC_Control” (&240)
5.4
Several modules might be in use on the I2C bus at the same time. The
first parameter is the address that identifies the module to be
controlled. The address can be changed by altering links inside the
module. The least significant bit of the address includes a 1 to read
data from the module, or a zero to send data to the module.
5.4
The second parameter is the pointer to a block of data. If the operation
is to send data to the module then this data will be placed here before
the SWI is used. If it is reading data from the module then the data
will be placed here by the SWI.
5.4
The third parameter is the number of bytes of data to be sent or to be
collected. This is only limited by the memory available for the reserved
block of data.
5.4
The SWI in ROM on the Archimedes cannot support the highest rates of
data transfer to the module. An improved version is available from
Baildon Electronics. This worked well with all options except four
channel analogue conversion at the highest possible speed, when it does
not start with the same channel each time it is used but Baildon
Electronics have now ironed out this minor problem.
5.4
User Guide
5.4
The user guide gives detailed technical information and is very
comprehensive in this respect, including circuit diagrams for the
modules and examples of circuits for connection. This may be too
technical for some users as it assumes a general knowledge of digital
electronics, but is essential for project development. Perhaps a
separate guide to experiments without the technical background would be
useful.
5.4
The user guide explains SWI “IIC_Control” and gives a listing that
demonstrates the features of the module. This listing includes functions
for most input and output routines that could be included in other
programs. It would be useful for the novice programmer if this listing
was explained in more detail.
5.4
Conclusion
5.4
The AnDi Odule is excellent value for money. The connections are not
suitable for young children but for GCSE work and ‘A’ level project work
it seems ideal. The possibility of increasing the number of channels
available by daisy chaining units must make it a practical solution for
teaching interfacing at university level and for industrial development.
5.4
Software control of the unit is straight forward − I would expect it to
be adopted by most control software packages in the future. It is
already supported by “Sparkle” control software.  A
5.4

5.4
Saving Disk Space
5.4
Mike Hobart
5.4
This article started as a review of Compression, but Stuart Bell’s got
published with great speed. Had I been as quick writing mine, the gist
would have been much the same. The advertisements tell you that you can
“double your disc space”, and this is not an unreasonable claim, though
it does need some qualification. As usual, it is a case of “you can’t
get something for nothing”. I have a suspicious turn of mind, so I did a
bit of extra research before sending off the review and got some
surprises.
5.4
Strategies
5.4
The following seem to be possible strategies for making sure that you
have the storage you want:
5.4
1. Invest in hardware. The options range from higher density floppies,
through bigger or removable hard drives to tape-streamers and optical
storage. They all cost money.
5.4
2. Compress the data. I have experience of two systems: Compression and
Spark. Both have their uses, as explained below.
5.4
3. Get more organised. This is the solution favoured by Gerald Fitton,
who uses PipeDream for all the jobs which do not need the DTP features
of Impression, partly because it is much more economical in storage
space (Archive 5.2 p36). It is a very sensible strategy, but most of us
are weak-willed, as the inside front cover often points out!
5.4
Compression programs
5.4
Compression programs do contain a special danger: every bit (hopefully!)
of a compressed file becomes significant. This is bad news for Adrian
Look, who wrote the no-doubt excellent Archimedes Disc Rescue. The
problem is that compressed files are total gobbledegook (well, to
paraphrase a bit from the old Apple II manual, if you can read them,
then you are a mutant and will go far in computing!), so a little gentle
mucking about with the odd bit on the disc will totally destroy the
data, whereas in plain form it just wrecks a character or a Basic token.
5.4
Compression (CFS) appears to serve essentially the same main purpose as
Spark. However, there are important differences, which makes possession
of both attractive (see table). CFS is immensely faster and demands less
space and workspace. However, it does not offer encryption, nor does it
know about other compression formats and it costs much more. The
compression each achieves is very similar, not surprising as they both
apply the same algorithm.
5.4
At least, this is how it might seem if you ask for a count on your
directories and files, but it is not that simple. Most important, CFS
does not compress directories, which means that they and their contents
can swiftly be accessed. Spark does archive the directories, and so it
can save a great deal more space. As far as I can see, it does not
compress them, or at least not all of them, but it does cut out the free
space.
5.4
There is a funny “feature” of count: it does not take directories into
consideration. The result of all this is that, although the effective
ness of the two programs is about the same on files, and by count they
seem to be doing the same, Spark can make a dramatically better job of
compressing directory trees. The drawback is that you need enough free
space and time to unpack your way to where you want to go, and you
cannot run applications direct from an archive. They have to be unpacked
first. Spark is a far better archiving program than Compression, but it
does cost time.
5.4
Sadly, Compression is at a disadvantage where I would like it most: the
compression of short items generated in Impression. As all Impression
users know, every Impression document is saved as an application, in
other words, a directory tree including !run and !runimage files. Each
chapter has a subdirectory and there is a master chapter directory. It
is therefore possible to produce a vast amount of storage demand by
saying next to nothing in a number of chapters or a number of documents.
On the other hand, if you write a book as a single “chapter”, the
overheads are relatively trivial. Compression will do well with the book
but appallingly with the multi-chapter document. However, you might
never know this, unless you measure the change in your free space.
5.4
Problems with CFS
5.4
The problems are all avoidable, but take note, all the following is
based on genuine experience, which may not improve my image as an
intelligent computer user!
5.4
1. If your hard disc is brim full, then buying any data compression
program will be very frustrating. You can compress your data, but you
will have to make some space first by off-loading onto another medium.
The amount of space you can free determines how conveniently you can do
the compression of existing files. Each file which you compress must be
compressed into a different directory from that in which it currently
lives. You can compress whole directories at a stroke, but you need
enough free space to copy the source directory in its compressed form.
It is only after the file or directory has been compressed that you can
claim your new space by deleting the uncompressed parent. The smaller
the amount of free space you have available, the more piecemeal your
approach must be.
5.4
2. Some file types do not respond to compression, as their data is too
unstructured, or (in other words) because they are already efficiently
organised in terms of space occupancy. Programs and fonts are the most
obvious examples. Compression will not compress files which it considers
not to be worthwhile.
5.4
3. It is possible to compress files which you would much rather not
compress. If you do accidentally compress your boot file, you can sort
things out by restarting the machine with shift depressed. Then you can
open file windows, start CFS manually, drag the compressed file from the
CFS directory to a “direct” directory (not the root directory), check it
is O.K. and then delete the compressed boot file and replace it with the
uncompressed one.
5.4
4. There is a fatal clash between CFS and the Z88 filer program that
comes with Pipedream. Following the dreaded “Abort on data transfer at
....”, all filing systems (other than PCDir) are irretrievably lost, as
far as I can tell. I have tried to *RMreinit, without effect. BIG RED
BUTTON TIME!
5.4
Discipline for Impression users
5.4
If you need to save space as an Impression user, the best answer is to
save text only, not whole documents, and then compress the text. It is a
bit of a bore, but it gives dramatic savings for short documents. Also,
do not save graphics both as source and copy in Impression. If you want
to save them in Impression, you can dump the source and get at them by
holding down <shift> while double clicking on the Impression directory
icon, thus opening its filer window for further rummaging.
5.4
Discipline for other material
5.4
It may also be worth hunting out rubbish in bought-in and PD programs.
Do you need all the documentation within the application? Do not pass on
PD programs without it, but possibly remove it from your working copies.
Does the application include modules which you already have in your
system folder? It is not uncommon to find copies of CLib, ABClib and
FPE. Do you need all the examples and “freebies”?
5.4
Examine all your files: have you used it this quarter? If not, archive
it. Have you used it this year? If not, dump it on a labelled floppy in
a cardboard box! Have you looked in the cardboard box this millennium?
Well, perhaps I am getting ahead of myself, and we shall all have
infinite optical drives by 2000 AD.
5.4
Make sure that you leave some space on your hard disk, preferably at
least 10%.
5.4
Conclusion
5.4
Buy a storage system which is plenty big enough for your imagined needs,
preferably one with the option of adding. I am a fan of removable
drives, indeed, I suspect that I was the first to use one on an
Archimedes. A removable can get you out of all sorts of difficulties.
5.4
Buy Compression unless you are a speed freak, you can afford infinite
storage or you are paranoid. To my surprise, someone who should be “in
the know” suggested to me the other day that there is no speed penalty
in using CFS to unpack files, as the computing time is more than
compensated for by the reduced file transfer time. Probably depends on
your hardware − more true for ARM3 and less true with express SCSI
drives.
5.4
Buy Spark for your deep archives.
5.4
Use neither for core bits of your system (!boot, fonts and programs).
5.4
Tidy up your disks at no financial penalty. Use the space saving options
offered by Impression or compact storage offered by (e.g.) Pipedream.
5.4
a) Large directory of assorted stuff, but few sprites, many sub-
directories.
5.4
Before compression     3,554,304
5.4
CFS’d by count    1,266,304     35.6%
5.4
CFS’d by D free     2,479,104     69.7%
5.4
Sparked by D free    1,246,208     35.1%
5.4
Time to CFS    2.5 mins
5.4
Time to Spark    25 mins
5.4
b) Large single chapter in Impression.
5.4
Before compression    143,772
5.4
CFS’d by count     73,632    51.2%
5.4
CFS’d by D free     77,056    53.6%
5.4
Sparked by D free     64,768    45.0%
  A
5.4

5.4
Clares’ Illusionist
5.4
Malcolm Banthorpe
5.4
Illusionist is a graphics package designed for editing and rendering 3D
objects and scenes allowing very realistic images to be generated.
5.4
I have written previously about ray-tracers such as RenderBender,
SolidsRender and ArcLight which attempt to generate realistic images by
effectively taking into account the paths of all rays of light from a
scene which reach the viewer by both direct and indirect routes and is
thus able to take into account reflections and transparency. The main
drawback to this approach is the time taken to render a scene.
5.4
Illusionist goes for a simpler approach of rendering whole polygons at a
time, taking into account direct lighting and thereby allowing pictures
to be generated in a fraction of the time that would be taken for ray-
tracing. The penalty for this speed is that the shadows cast by objects
cannot be shown (although surface shading can) and neither can mirrored
or transparent objects be represented. If this were all that there was
to Illusionist, it would be a fairly useful 3D editor and rendering
system but not a particularly remarkable piece of software.
5.4
There are, however, a number of facilities which make it something
rather special. Notably, sprite and picture files can be mapped onto the
surface of any object so that they can be given the texture of, say,
wood or marble. Secondly, although all surfaces are defined as polygons,
smooth shading may be applied. This results in a much better representa
tion of surfaces which are supposed to look smooth. While the actual
shape of an object is not changed by this operation, by defining a
surface as a large enough number of polygons and applying smooth
shading, the effect is the same as if the surface were perfectly smooth.
For example, depending on its screen size, a cylinder composed of 20
polygons will generally appear to have a circular cross-section. When
these features are coupled with anti-aliasing and a very effective
colour-dithering algorithm, the result is some of the most realistic
images I have yet seen generated on an Archimedes. The extra reality
given to objects by texture-mapping and smooth-shading more than
compensates, in many instances, for the lack of shadows and other
limitations.
5.4
The editor
5.4
Illusionist is supplied as two discs and a 56 page manual. The main disc
contains the !Illusion application, plus a number of components for
picture building and some example pictures while the second disc
contains more components and examples. Once the main application has
been installed on the icon bar, clicking on it brings up an edit window
which is used to design objects and scenes. The window consists of four
panes showing top, side and front views plus preview. The latter shows
the scene in wire-frame format taking into account the observer
position, target and lens. This view can optionally be displayed full
screen. To the left of the edit window is a toolbox providing access to
the most commonly used ways of creating and manipulating objects. Other
facilities are available via menus and also, in many cases, via keyboard
short-cuts. The top, side and front views can be zoomed and panned to
facilitate detailed work on them but I would have preferred them to be
in the form of resizeable windows so that they could also be enlarged.
5.4
Objects are always defined in terms of series of polygonal facets, each
of which is defined as a series of connected points. An object may
therefore be created from scratch, polygon by polygon, entering a series
of points by clicking as the cursor is positioned appropriately in all
three windows, and then entering how the points are connected. The
cursor may be positioned by the mouse purely visually or, optionally,
the three coordinates of the cursor may be displayed so that pre-planned
objects can be accurately defined and positioned. This is, however, the
most time consuming way of defining objects and need only generally be
employed for irregular shapes. Many objects can be adequately repre
sented using a selection of the built-in primitive shapes such as
sphere, cube, hemisphere, torus, cone, etc. As any shape can be
independently scaled in each of three planes, there is plenty of scope
for creating new objects. In addition, “sweep” objects can be defined by
rotating a profile. This makes it easy to create circular shapes
typified by goblets, vases and cups. A single polygon may also be
extruded into three dimensions. An optionally displayed variable grid
and grid lock are available. An unusual but potentially useful feature
is called “attract”. Here the cursor looks like, and behaves like, a
magnet. Any selected group of points are drawn towards the magnet, the
degree of attraction for any given point being proportional to its
distance from the magnet. This, together with scaling, provides plenty
of scope for distorting the primitives into new solids.
5.4
Once an object has been defined, it may be necessary to access a single
facet in order to adjust its position or to define its colour or texture
map. To do this, it will be necessary to select all of the points which
define that surface. This operation is fundamental to the operation of
Illusionist but is, as the manual admits, a little complex to explain in
words. However, after following the example in the manual, it turns out
to be a lot easier to do than it first appears and, fortunately, the
process does not have to be repeated all that often. Any selected group
of points (from a single point through a group of facets to a collection
of objects) can be given a label which will then appear in a separate
label window. Thereafter, that group of points may be reselected merely
by clicking on the label. I learned early on in my exploration of
Illusionist that it is a very good idea to give a label to everything,
as soon as it has been defined − this can save a lot of time later. As
mentioned above, any group can be scaled in any direction as well as
rotated and positioned so that complete scenes can easily be built up.
Complete scenes may be saved to disc as a “vector” file which will also
contain information concerning surface colours and textures. By saving
single objects, they may then be used in future by merging them into new
scenes.
5.4
Surfaces
5.4
Any surfaces can be assigned a colour or texture map and given a surface
type such as matt, metal, shiny, plastic or self-luminous. Colours are
not limited, as in the case of RenderBender, to 14 but are defined as 24
bit values with 256 levels each of red, blue and green, giving a
theoretical total of 16,777,216. A texture map is a mode 12 or 13
sprite. As well as the sample maps provided, new ones could be created
with any suitable paint package such as !Paint or Artisan. A scanner or
digitiser and camera could also be useful here. Facets may be rendered
as the flat surfaces that they really are or with smooth shading. The
precise way in which the sprite is mapped onto a surface may also be
defined − for example, you can select the number of times that the
sprite is repeated over a surface.
5.4
The surface type determines how specular reflections (highlights) are
handled. Ideally, metal surfaces should often include a reflection of
surrounding objects. While reflections are not strictly speaking
possible with this package, there is a feature called environment
mapping which, used with care, can contribute greatly to the realism. An
‘environment’ is the optionally rendered background to a scene defined
in terms of four colours. By default these are: sky top − blue, sky
horizon − white, ground horizon − black, ground bottom − green. For any
surface, the degree to which the environment is reflected can be defined
and helps particularly in making metallic surfaces look realistic.
5.4
Lighting
5.4
Up to fourteen lamps may be positioned to light a scene and there are
two types of lamps available. Point lights shine all directions while
spot lamps are directional and have variable beam width. The colours of
both types can be defined in terms of red, green and blue components.
The overall brightness of a scene and ambient lighting can also be set.
Some care with the positioning of lamps will help to make the missing
shadows less obvious. One effect of their absence can be to make an
object on a horizontal surface appear to be floating above it.
5.4
Rendering
5.4
When it comes to actually rendering a scene, it is a good idea to start
with a “mini test”. This is just approximately 1/16th of a screen and
gives some idea of any changes to lighting or positions of objects or
viewpoint that may be desirable. Full screen rendering can be in any
256-colour mode and may either be multitasking or take over the
processor, with the screen optionally disabled, for maximum speed. If
the anti-aliasing option is chosen, four values are calculated for each
screen pixel (therefore taking four times as long) but the resulting
image is superior in having jagged edges smoothed out. If you are lucky
enough to have a PCATS Graphics Enhancer, this is also catered for.
Images may be finally saved either in compressed form or as standard
sprites. It is possible so save the complete 24-bit information,
although a single mode 21 image would take up 960 k. The wire-frame view
may be saved in !Draw format.
5.4
Conclusions
5.4
Overall, I was very impressed with this package. Apart from my minor
niggle with the small size of the design windows, I found it easy to
use. It is the first application of its kind that I have seen for the
Archimedes and is capable of results that look as though they were
produced on something very much more expensive. Highly recommended.
(£99.95 from Clares Micros or £89 through Archive.)  A
5.4

5.4
Prime Art & Imagine
5.4
Peter Thomson
5.4
Both PrimeArt and Imagine are art packages which use the mode 15 screen
display as the painting area. They both use the RISC-OS printer drivers
and the outline font manager but they are very different in most other
respects.
5.4
Icons and menus
5.4
Clicking <menu> on Prime Art’s screen displays an icon based toolbox
menu. This includes a colour selector at the top and a very useful text
help panel at the bottom. An array of 32 icons provides immediate access
to a wide range of painting and drawing options. I thought the icons
were rather too small to start with but once I had identified the
function of each, I found no difficulty in using them.
5.4
I also appreciated the rapid access to many of the options. Pressing
<menu> a second time on the toolbox or selecting the relevant icon
displays a text menu with a comprehensive range of options.
5.4
Imagine only provides a series of text menus with a fairly complex tree
structure. The selection of a new option requires this system to be
negotiated each time which I found annoying. Imagine also has a help
facility which displays text windows at each stage of the menu selec
tion. These were useful the first time I ran the program but after that
I found them very intrusive and switched that option off.
5.4
My testing panel of seven and eight year olds had little or no dif
ficulty making selections from Prime Art’s menus but found those of
Imagine very frustrating.
5.4
Configured menus
5.4
Both packages provide a facility to limit the selection of options
available to young children. Imagine does this by simply deleting the
option from the menu tree. Prime Art offers a much more sophisticated
facility to place the chosen options on the toolbox. All 32 icon spaces
on the toolbox can be assigned in any order to any of the options
available in the package. The same icon may be present several times to
produce a larger button area.
5.4
Colour choice
5.4
Prime Art has a simple colour display system that takes up very little
space on the toolbox. Two columns each display the eight basic palette
colours. One from each column is selected. A horizontal band between the
two now shows all the shade variations in between. Although the squares
of colour are tiny, my testing panel found it simple to use, and easier
than the colour sliders in !Draw.
5.4
Imagine uses a palette that displays all 256 colours as a square on the
screen. Again the individual colours are tiny. Choosing a colour is made
more difficult because the colours in the palette don’t quite match the
same colour when placed on the screen,
5.4
Brushes and sprays
5.4
Imagine has the bigger selection of brushes. It has two basic brush
shapes in each of four sizes. You can also pick up a line of pixels from
the screen which then becomes a brush or paint with a small rectangle of
pixels to produce a texture effect. Sprays can be round or square and
the user can define the size and density.
5.4
Prime Art has six brush shapes selected from the tool kit that function
for both spray and painting.
5.4
Colour fill
5.4
Prime Art can produce some spectacular effects with a range of banded
colour fills in addition to plain fill. The colours used are the shade
variations between any two of the eight basic palette combinations
giving fifty-six colour patterns. The colour change is either smooth or
banded, fitted round other colours or not, round or vertical or
horizontal.
5.4
Unlike ProArtisan, the width of each band cannot be changed.
5.4
Imagine can only offer a plain fill with an option to fill to a colour
in addition to replacing an area of one colour.
5.4
Shapes
5.4
Both packages offer straight lines as well as outline and filled shapes
in triangle, rectangle, circle, ellipse sector, segment and arc. Imagine
also offers square, parallelogram and spiral. The last is not easy to
control.
5.4
Cut, paste and sprites
5.4
Imagine uses the screen as the work area for these options which has a
serious defect; you cannot place a copy that overlaps the original
without risk that the new copy covers part of the original before it has
been copied. Rectangular areas of the screen can be flipped left-right
or up-down. The option Transform allows a copy to be rotated, enlarged
or reduced as well as fitted into any four sided area.
5.4
Prime Art uses the much more flexible system of sprites. Any rectangle
can be copied from the screen as a sprite and added to a RISC-OS sprite
file. Sprites can be imported from other packages or exported to them.
Any sprite can be selected and scaled to any size, rotated to any angle
before placing on the screen. The selected sprite can be used to tile
any rectangular area, or a tiled pattern of sprites used in a flood fill
or painting option.
5.4
Printing
5.4
Both use RISC-OS printer drivers. Prime Art allows the whole screen to
be printed in various sizes, including a four page poster size. With
Imagine, the printer driver must be loaded before the program but any
part of the screen can be selected and printed out.
5.4
Prime Art special options
5.4
The Prime Art application sits on the icon bar. Other applications
remain intact but not accessible while the drawing screen is in use, but
you can switch between the desktop and the drawing screen which also
remains intact. This means that you can run Paint alongside as a sprite
editor. The review version would only allow exchange of the sprite file
via disc, but the next version should allow Prime Art and Paint to work
on the same sprite file. I found it useful to run two copies of Prime
Art side by side in the same machine. They do not interfere with each
other at all and sprites can be exchanged via disc. I used a RAM disc in
a 2Mb A3000 and found this very easy.
5.4
This package has two painting options called Mix and Cover which allow
the shade of a new colour to be modified by the colour previously on the
screen. This is particularly useful for adding light and shade to a
scene and also for adding colour to a digitised photo. Wash blends the
shades between groups of pixels, and a ‘cycle brush’ cycles through the
shades of a chosen pair of colours. I was pleased to see the return of
Rays, straight lines radiating from a point which was a feature of the
art package that came out with the first 310s and Arthur.
5.4
All options in the next version will be selectable with a single key on
the keyboard in addition to the toolbox and the text menus. The review
version has the keyboard short-cuts but you need to follow the menu
structure. This will be a very useful feature when it is implemented.
5.4
Imagine special options
5.4
Imagine has two alternative screens but one is lost if the other is
printed. Although other applications remain intact, there is no way of
interacting with them. Other pictures can only be loaded as full mode 15
screens. Sprites cannot be loaded or saved. A novel feature is that the
whole of the screen can be covered by a pattern of lines formed from
triangles, squares, hexagons, circles or any quadrilateral. The size of
the shape and the way the lines are displayed can be selected. Another
feature is that an area of the screen can be selected and copied in a
brick like pattern to cover the whole screen. The horizontal offset can
be adjusted.
5.4
One feature I particularly liked was the use of symmetries in drawing.
The line that you draw is repeated with a symmetry centred on the middle
of the screen. Those available are left/right, up/down and up to eight
fold rotational symmetry.
5.4
Documentation
5.4
Both guides describe all the options available. The guide for Prime Art
is better presented and includes illustrations of the toolbox and all
the menus. I also prefer its wire comb binding which allows it to remain
flat on the desk.
5.4
Conclusion
5.4
Both programs have some interesting features but Prime Art stands out as
being easy to use with all its features easily accessible for even the
youngest user. It doesn’t have all the features of ‘ProArtisan’, but has
some which that package lacks including the ability to interact with
other packages on the desktop. Prime Art is certainly my best buy.
5.4
Prime Art from Minerva Software costs £79.95 + VAT (or £87 through
Archive) and includes a primary school site licence.
5.4
Imagine from Topologika is £39.95 (£37 through Archive) and includes a
school site licence.  A
5.4

5.4
Step By Step Video Guides
5.4
Peter Jennings
5.4
Learning how to use a computer or a new piece of software is made so
much easier if you are fortunate enough to have someone to show you what
to do. Most of us have had to rely on reading instruction manuals, and
perhaps magazine articles, followed by trial and lots of error. Now, for
the first time, there is a series of four video guides to demonstrate
how to make a start in computing, text processing, data handling and art
and graphics, all using the A3000/Archimedes range. They cost £14.95
each (£14 from Archive) and running times vary from 55 to 80 minutes.
The full price is a half or a quarter that charged for some videos
designed for PC machines, where the potential sales are much bigger.
5.4
The videos come in smartly labelled plastic cases, illustrated with an
A3000 and small screen shots and with a lengthy blurb on the back,
detailing the contents. Above the title of each is the legend: “A step
by step guide to the Acorn BBC A3000 and Archimedes range +
applications”. This is the only mention anywhere that the videos are
designed for users of anything other than the A3000. The details on the
back and the commentary on tape refer only to “your A3000” with no
acknowledgment that you may be using any other model. This does not
really matter except, perhaps, to a complete beginner getting to grips
with the machine for the first time who may wonder if he has bought the
wrong model, or the wrong video, if his micro is not an A3000.
5.4
Professional videos are expensive to produce and, with a market limited
to A3000 and Archimedes users, they have, of necessity, to be low
budget. These appear to be made with a single camera with production
techniques limited to a few changes of shot, some screen insets and an
occasional mix. The presentation is adequate rather than polished. More
important, though, are the videos’ contents and the way the instruction
is given and both of these are generally good.
5.4
Up & Running
5.4
The first and, at 80 minutes, the longest in the series, is “Up &
Running” which is aimed at the complete beginner. I found the start
confusing and my first thought was that the wrong tape had been put in
the box. The opening titles ended with some down-screen wording saying
“Other titles in this series” then a full screen title: “No. 2 Text
Processing” and a commentary which began by talking about word process
ing and desk top publishing. I had to rerun it and read the introduction
more carefully to realise that this was an advertisement for the other
three videos, taking up about the first three minutes of the tape.
5.4
The instructions began with presenter Graham Pragnell opening the box of
an A3000 Learning Curve and displaying the contents. The manuals were
put aside, never to be seen or referred to again. The viewer was then
shown how to connect the computer to various types of monitor and to a
printer. Everything was clearly explained and Graham Pragnell quickly
established his credentials as an actual user by advising that the mouse
plug was a tight fit and giving his own tip for inserting it. There was
no mention that other Archimedes have a separate keyboard and slightly
different connections and do not need a monitor support. A brief look at
a 400 series machine would have been a good idea here.
5.4
With the A3000 all connected and switched on, the normal start-up screen
was shown then a demonstration of what to do if there was just a * on an
otherwise blank screen (switch off and switch on again while holding
down the “R” key). The mouse was demonstrated, with insets of the screen
to show the pointer movements, and the terms “software”, “hardware” and
“WIMP” were explained. No previous knowledge was assumed. Even the
correct way round to insert a disc was shown and everything was taken at
a slow, steady pace with close ups and screen shots to make the
instruction clear.
5.4
That took up about the first 15 minutes of the tape and most of the rest
was devoted to tutorials on using some of the programs on the two
applications discs, beginning with Configure and going on to Edit, Paint
and Draw. Programs were saved on a previously prepared disc, titled
“Housekeep” but confusingly referred to, at different times, as “working
disc” and “storage” as well as “housekeeping”. The programs were named
as “Graham1”, “Graham2”, “Graham3” and so on, with no suggestion of
giving meaningful titles. Default file names such as “Untitled” were
cleared, a character at a time with the Delete key rather than the time-
saving <ctrl-U>.
5.4
The instruction was given as one long tutorial although it is unlikely
that anyone just learning to use a computer would be able to assimilate
it all at one sitting. I think it would have been better to separate
different sections with some visual punctuation, such as a picture flip,
with perhaps a music “sting”. This would also have made it easier to
find the different subjects when spooling through on subsequent
viewings. The first section, on assembling the computer, would be
unlikely to be viewed again once the machine had been set up. A mix
between subjects was occasionally used on other tapes in the series.
5.4
Text Processing
5.4
The second tape, Text Processing, is said on the case to be 70 minutes
long but the cassette label shows a more accurate “75 mins approx”. It
demonstrated the use of two word processors, First Word Plus and Phases,
which is for younger users and was described as being half way toward
desk top publishing, and one full blown desktop publisher, Ovation. I
was particularly interested in the tutorial on Phases as this was a
program I knew nothing about. The instructions showed how to produce an
illustrated document, printed in two columns, with different fonts and
text in varying sizes and colours. Even with no prior knowledge of the
program, I found each stage very simple to follow. At the end of the 13
minutes’ instruction, I was confident I could do all that had been shown
and I think most school children from the age of about eight or nine
would have been able to tackle the job with similar ease.
5.4
First Word Plus and Ovation were dealt with up to a similar standard;
that is a good basis to begin using them. The full facilities offered by
these sophisticated programs were not all shown, and could not be in the
time available on the video, nor were there any advanced hints and tips
for experienced users.
5.4
My review copy of this video had a fault, causing the picture and sound
to break up for a few seconds, 42 minutes from the start. The tape did
not appear to be physically damaged so this may be a recording fault
during copying which could affect others in the batch. (This was
actually an error on the master tape! However, it has now been cor
rected, I gather. Ed.)
5.4
Data Handling
5.4
Video 3, Data Handling, is nominally 55 minutes long although nearly
five minutes of this is taken up by blank leader tape, titles and
advertising for the other videos in the series.
5.4
It began with an explanation that data handling can include text,
numbers, pictures and sound, followed by a 33 minute look at the various
programs which form Data Sweet. These comprise Data Plot, a graph
program; Data Pick, a data base with text and icons; Data Card, which is
similar to Data Pick but has key words replacing the icons, and Data
Calc, a spreadsheet. They were all demonstrated in enough detail to get
anyone using them. Data Sweet is, however, a very individualistic
package and anyone who had learned to use these programs would find some
marked differences in other integrated programs.
5.4
Immediately after Data Calc there was a brief look at Schema, which was
described as a professional spreadsheet. This took about a minute and a
half, and was a demo rather than tuition, so anyone whose interest is
confined to this program would not find the video worth buying.
5.4
The next nine minutes were devoted to the Squirrel database with
instruction on setting up fields, entering data and searching. Menus
were used throughout and the short cuts offered by function keys were
never mentioned. The tuition was detailed enough for anyone to begin
using the database although it was admitted that this was too sophisti
cated a program to be explained in full. Again, this program has its own
way of doing things which are not the same in other databases.
5.4
The video ended with a two-minute demo of Genesis and a four-minute look
at Magpie, using existing databases and with no attempt to show how to
set up your own.
5.4
Art & Graphics
5.4
Video 4, Art & Graphics, also a nominal 55 minutes, began with a look at
the Technoscan hand scanner. A picture was scanned from a book, cut to
shape and printed and then loaded into Paint to be cleaned up. This was
done by using a white “paint spray” and “pencil” to remove grey marks
from the background. Unfortunately the grey marks were completely
invisible, despite adjusting contrast and brightness on my television
monitor.
5.4
Two programs were then shown in some detail. The first was Revelation
where the use of tools, shapes and colours were demonstrated. A picture
was loaded and manipulated, changing contrast, colours and colour
saturation and even producing a negative image. By that stage, I was
hoping to see a picture actually created but this was not done. As this
is one of the shortest of the four videos there would have been ample
time to show an artist actually using the program to do more than the
doodles which were all we saw produced.
5.4
Poster had a more practical demonstration, with full instruction on
reshaping, sizing and moulding both text and pictures then adding a
border to produce a complete poster.
5.4
Computer aided design (CAD) was limited to three and a half minutes with
an educational program, KiddiCAD, which manipulated blocks of colour.
Then the video ended with a display of pictures from various art
packages, mostly unidentified, which showed the standards which can be
reached by competent artists.
5.4
Who should buy them?
5.4
All the videos have clear, step by step, demonstrations of how to use
the main programs they feature and they will be of most value to new
users of those particular programs. There is probably nothing which is
not in the program manuals but the combination of clear explanations and
demonstrations make the information much easier to understand and
absorb.
5.4
Up & Running is an excellent introduction for beginners, either those
completely new to computing or those who have come to the A3000/
Archimedes range from other micros, including the BBC-B and Master.
Experienced A3000/Archimedes users will find it too elementary, unless
they have not so far used the Edit, Paint and Draw applications.
5.4
Text Processing will be of most value to new or potential users of First
Word Plus, Phases or Ovation. It would also be of use to anyone who is
uncertain whether or not to venture into word processing or desk top
publishing as it shows what these packages can do and how easy they can
be. The standard is too elementary for experienced users of them.
5.4
Data Handling would be of most use to anyone interested in Data Sweet
and for beginners with Squirrel. Schema, Genesis and Magpie are demos
rather that tutorials and it is not worth buying the video just for
them, although their inclusion does help to provide a fairly wide
overall look at data handling.
5.4
Art & Graphics gives a good idea of what can be done with a hand scanner
and an art program, particularly Revelation, but it is not an art tutor
and will not teach you how to create your own Van Gogh. There is a good,
very detailed, explanation of how to use Poster. Parents and schools may
find the look at KiddiCAD a useful extra.  A
5.4

5.4
Tracing and Drawing Conclusions!
5.4
Tord Eriksson & Rob Sherratt
5.4
(Tord sent us a review of David Pilling’s Trace utility which I sent to
Rob Sherratt, our new DTP editor to check out. We then received another
unsolicited review of Trace from Jochen Konietzko which agreed with Tord
and Rob’s conclusions but didn’t really add anything. So here is Tord’s
review followed by Rob’s own comments. Ed.)
5.4
Sprites do not scale very well − any jagged edges get worse if a sprite
is enlarged, just as the original non-outline fonts got worse if you
enlarged them. We call characters like that bit-mapped and pictures made
the same way, sprites.
5.4
The latest way of doing things is doing it as if it were drawn by hand,
by using Bezier curves. A Bezier curve is a mathematical way of
describing twisting or straight lines. This is the method used by !Draw,
!DrawPlus and the Outline Font Manager, because the outline fonts are
exactly that − Bezier Curves.
5.4
The problem has been in making illustrations with !Draw. Any complex
illustration takes an awfully long time, but the result is very small in
terms of bytes used and can be scaled up and down without any problems.
5.4
So normally, for a detailed illustration, !Paint would be used to make a
sprite (which could become many hundreds of kbytes), while for simple
illustrations, like schematics, maps etc. !Draw (or !DrawPlus) is much
more suited.
5.4
Scanners, that are becoming increasingly popular, are also producing
large complex sprites (even if they might be in !Draw sprite format,
i.e. a sprite within a Draw file). The real disadvantage of scanned
sprites is their size − many get too big to be saved directly to disc
and some of them don’t fit even after compression with !Spark or similar
utilities.
5.4
Enter the sprite converter: The Tracer
5.4
There have been sprite converters around for some time for Macs, but
most have been quite expensive and not too successful in converting.
5.4
Archimedes users have two to choose between: Trace 2.02 (Trace, at
£5.99, is available from David Pilling.) and Midnight Tracer (Midnight
Graphics, £60).
5.4
Midnight Tracer doesn’t handle colours and is a bit expensive in
comparison with Trace, even if it is quicker, so I’ll concentrate on
Trace. (Tracer was reviewed in Archive 4.11 p35.)
5.4
The disc is supplied with a number of sprites and draw files (some are
just perfectly converted), a ReadMe file containing a short manual and
Trace itself. The program is written by David Pilling with some help
from Jason Williams.
5.4
The manual covers all aspects of using !Trace and fills three A4 pages
in printed version. The program is so easy to use that the manual is
rarely needed.
5.4
Using Trace
5.4
After double clicking on the icon, the program installs itself on the
icon bar. When you click on this icon two windows will open, one
labelled “Sprite” and one labelled “Draw”. If you drop a sprite onto the
“sprite” window it will resize automatically, but you can set the “zoom”
manually, if you want. Then you only have to open the menu and click on
“Trace” to starts converting the sprite into a Draw object. This is very
computer intensive work, so this is best done on a computer with an
ARM3, as the computer might be busy for a long time.
5.4
To make life simpler, David has added a batch mode where you fill a
directory with sprites and then drop it on the Tracer icon. This starts
batch processing, creating a new directory called Draw in the same place
that the sprite directory came from. This is an ideal job for your
computer to do during the night, as some complex sprites take a long
time to convert, even with an ARM3.
5.4
Conclusion
5.4
I had some problems in the beginning, trying to convert very small
sprites: This was not very successful and gives little or no saving in
terms of kbytes on your hard disc. Being a black and white fanatic, I
mainly tried black and white sprites (scanned photos, drawings etc.).
The result was little short of amazing, especially on big sprites as the
one of the car opposite. The amount of detail is a bit less, but not
much, and you can now manipulate the draw picture in !Draw, !DrawPlus,
Poster, DrawBender etc. As long as the originals are big enough, the
results will be great, although it does fail on some occasions (too
little contrast or too few details).
5.4
Is it worth the money? I think it would be worth £25 if it were to be
sold commercially but you only have to pay £5.99!  A
5.4
(Here are Rob Sherratt’s comments....)
5.4
I fully agree with Tord Eriksson’s conclusions (and I would pay more for
David Pilling’s !Trace than Midnight Graphics !Tracer even though I had
previously bought Midnight Graphics’ !Tracer). I would like to amplify a
couple of things Tord mentioned as well:
5.4
“Jagged edges”
5.4
I am fairly sure these are not a function of !Trace but are instead the
result of anti aliasing of the resulting image when displayed on the
Arc’s screen, or when printed on a low resolution printer. I took two of
Tord’s draw files (generated by !Trace) which appear with “jagged edges”
on the screen, and when scaled and printed on our LaserDirect Hi-Res
they appear almost perfect − no jagged edges at all (see Car opposite).
I doubt if I could say the same for the original sprites. I understand
that David Pilling’s software incorporates “best fit” algorithms which
are specifically designed to smooth out the lack of resolution between
pixels in the original images. This means that the “traced” images are
normally much better than the original sprites..
5.4
Automatic colour sprite / draw conversion
5.4
Just drag the full colour sprite into !Trace’s sprite window and up pops
a full colour !Draw object version of the same in the draw window.
Straightforward images can take just a few seconds with an ARM3. This
automatic conversion of colour (or greyscale) sprites is just not
possible with Midnight Graphics’ Tracer product − and to do the
operation manually using it can take hours! Unfortunately, I couldn’t
test really complex colour sprite conversion with David Pilling’s
program because with my (older) version 2.00, !Trace alerted with the
message “trap occurred while in trap handler” and exited. I believe this
occurred while reaching the free memory limit on my machine. This fault
is most probably fixed in the current version. (Tord was using 2.02 and
Jochen used 2.05 and neither mentioned this problem, so I assume it is
now fixed. Ed.)
5.4
Simple images vs complex images
5.4
There is a danger of asking a program like !Tracer to do the impossible
and process fully toned 256-colour or grey scale images. If you tried
(eg by using !Draw to manually trace each object using bezier curves) to
turn such an image into its components, then you would soon discover
that continuously varying colour images can produce a million or more
tiny component objects, where one component object is a single con
tinuous shape of one “spot” colour.
5.4
If the original image can be pre-processed in some way (e.g. during
photo-electronic scanning) to reduce it to less than 16 greys or
colours, you have reduced the number of objects by a factor of sixteen −
and the resulting draw file will be that much smaller and !Trace will
complete its processing at least 16 or more times more quickly. Even
sprites with 16 colours/greys can be worthless for tracing if they
contain a very “grainy”, or finely shaded, texture. In these cases, the
draw files can be larger than the sprite files from which they were
generated.
5.4
In fact, for full colour DTP work, we use Impression II to draw the
boxes where we want the illustrations and then we cut out and spray
mount colour photos! There isn’t (well, not yet, anyway) an economic way
of electronically scanning, processing, storing and printing A4 full
colour 300 dpi images.  A
5.4
(Rob and his wife Carole have recently started an Archimedes-based DTP
business called EasyCo. It mainly serves Felixstowe and district, and
was prompted initially by the needs of their local church. Rob is also a
full-time software engineer working for a local telecoms company and has
responded to my plea for editorial assistance on DTP matters in Archive.
He is also keen to encourage “mutual support” links with other Archi
medes owners in his locality. He can be contacted on 0394−672292. Ed.)
5.4

5.4
DeskEdit
5.4
Brian Rowlands
5.4
DeskEdit is a wonderful piece of software, written in C, that deserves
to be on everyone’s icon bar. It is multitasking and replaces Edit,
BasicEdit and Twin and all for the very modest price of £25. On
reflection, if it had a spelling checker, I would certainly use it as a
word processor. Thus, one program to do all your daily chores.
5.4
Acorn would do well to promote its use and even provide it free with
each machine it sells. However, as it consumes 300k, compared with just
160k for Edit, memory problems arise on 1M machines when compiling C
source code with it in residence. There are many A310s on the market and
I would think few eager to waste money on RAM expansions.
5.4
Installation
5.4
DeskEdit sits unassumingly on the icon bar ready to serve with a
T(text), B(Basic) or C engraved. A neat dustbin icon can be appended
too. If one wishes, a nice sound module can be incorporated that
provides a more discernible and pleasant alternative to the standard
Acorn bleep prompt. To get a printout, I had to install an Acorn Version
2 printer driver. (See your local dealer or the July 1991 issue of
Archimedes World or Shareware 17.) Customisation of the default settings
and auto loading of files is child’s play.
5.4
Manual
5.4
The 45 page manual was written on the editor which is testament to the
versatility. I found the text succinct, lucid and logically arranged so
that it could be easily read in an hour. Familiarity with Edit will
shorten the learning curve considerably. First reading left me thinking
I had mastered the package. After just a couple of hours trying the
various options out, a warm fuzzy glow came over me and I was all set to
put it to serious use!
5.4
General comment
5.4
The author has mirrored the features found in Edit and, to some extent,
Twin in respect of function key usage, menus and keyboard shortcuts.
However, a lot more is provided − so much so that you wonder how you
ever coped before. The use of the mouse and menus takes away the need to
have to memorise key sequences. With time, and not that much either, the
shortcuts seem natural to use and don’t demand special memory skills. If
need be, a neat on-screen mini-help manual can be displayed which would
certainly assist the faint-hearted.
5.4
Editing
5.4
Many enhancements of the search routines of Edit have been provided and
all to good effect. Undo is there but with the ability to vary the
buffer size. An extra buffer called “Undelete” is available to absorb
text that has been deleted and from which we can extract its contents; a
character, word or line at a time. It even has a clipboard.
5.4
For me, an exciting marker and position finder facility is built into
the software. With the find examples given, it soon becomes apparent
that there are very many uses for this in either long documents or
programs. Consequently, locating specific points or indexing is made so
very simple.
5.4
Macros
5.4
Ten user definable macros are available for each of DeskEdit’s three
languages (Text, Basic, C) and are activated through the ten digit keys
on the numeric keypad. A dialogue box can be called up to view and edit
them. These I found a boon and of great value when writing a program.
Each is 250 characters in size which means complex and lengthy struc
tures can be created.
5.4
Hardcopy
5.4
A truly marvellous set of page and printer control options are included.
They provide the user with margin settings, headers and footers enabling
one to customise output, even date stamp copy. Gone are the dreary days
of standard program printouts. Now an author can be creative and copy
can be catalogued. Everything I wanted was there with clear instructions
on use. One essential improvement that needs adding would be to know
where a page break occurs as text is being typed.
5.4
Basic programs
5.4
Dragging a Basic program onto the DeskEdit icon detokenises it and loads
it into an edit window. Elementary syntax checking is done as you type.
I suppose something is better than nothing. After changes, saving
retokenises the file. What could be simpler? An option exists to load a
program stripped of its line numbers which is fine provided that you are
not one of those people who reference lines using GOTO’s and the like.
If you are, stick with the Basic Editor.
5.4
C programs
5.4
The editor has extra features for use when typing C source code. If you
have been looking for such and were disappointed with Twin and Edit,
look no further. No longer will you wish you could do something since
you will probably find that you now can.
5.4
Auto indent and a simple line syntax checker are provided to bring
clarity to your writing and improve your efficiency. Keyboard shortcuts
are available for moving to the start of either the next or previous
function definition. Don’t expect miracles from the checker, but if it
does do a valuable job and a message window appears whenever it thinks
something is wrong.
5.4
Summary
5.4
If you, like me, use an editor a lot then DeskEdit is a must. My only
reservation is the difficulty of compiling C programs on a 1M machine.
With such a sound pricing structure, Beebug (alias Risc Developments
Ltd) will get more of my business.  A
5.4

5.4
Minerva Systems    Minerva House, Baring Crescent, Exeter, EX1 1TL.
(0392−437756) (421762)
5.4
Morley Electronics     Morley
House, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE29 7TY. (091−257−6355)
(6373)
5.4
Pedigree Films Ltd    Unit B11,
Trinity Business Centre, 305 Rotherhithe Street, London  SE16 1EY.
(071−231−6137) (237−5776)
5.4
Ray Maidstone (p22)    421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603−407060) (417447)
5.4
RISC Developments Ltd    117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303) (60263)
5.4
Serious Statistical Software    Lynwood,
Benty Heath Lane, Willaston, South Wirral, L64 1SD. (051−327−4268)
5.4
Simis Ltd    26 Chittys Walk, Keens Park, Guildford, GU3 3HW. (0483−233048)
(235275)
5.4
Software Solutions    Broadway
House, 149−151 St Neots Road, Hardwick, Cambridge, CB3 7QJ.
(0954−211760) (211760)
5.4

Products Available
5.5
•    A5000 floppy drive extension cables − Ray has made up some extension
cables (£18 each) so that you can have a socket at the back of your
A5000 to plug an external floppy drive into without going inside the box
each time you want to connect and disconnect. Note that these are not
electronic buffers. Acorn say they don’t need to be buffered although,
in view of the problems noted in the Comment Column on page 9, it might
be good to have an interface. That’s not for buffering but to provide a
degree of flexibility over the various control lines used by different
types of drives − not all floppy drives are recognised if they are just
plugged straight into the socket.
5.5
•    A5000 availability − We still cannot get enough A5000’s, especially
the Learning Curve version − well, they come in fits and starts. Acorn
have said that their will be more available in mid-February so, if you
want an A5000, I suggest you send in a cheque to book your place in the
queue.
5.5
•    Acorn Publishing System − Acorn have launched a DTP bundle comprising
a 4M A540, Eizo 9060S monitor, and Computer Concepts HiRes 8 printer,
Scanlight Professional flatbed scanner (300 d.p.i. 256 grey levels),
Impression II, Equasor and the Impression Business Supplement. All for
£4995 +VAT = £5869. The price of these products separately is £6196 even
at Archive discount prices.
5.5
(I know what you are thinking, “Why use an A540? Why not an A5000?”.
Part of the reason is that, being realistic, to make good use of a 300
d.p.i., 256 grey level scanner, 4M of ram is hardly going to be enough
and, officially, the A5000 is only a 4M machine. Also, the Acorn multi-
sync may be cheap but it’s not realistic to think of using it for a
system of this calibre. So, now that Atomwide are shipping their 8M
upgrades for the A5000, what would an 8M system cost using each
computer. Adding £315 for a 4M upgrade to the A540 gives £6182. Compare
that with making it up with a 2M A5000 plus £590 for a 2−8M upgrade
including replacing the 40M IDE with a 100M high speed SCSI and the
Acorn multisync with an Eizo. That would cost you, at Archive prices,
£5935. For the extra £247, you gain the ability to go up to 16M but you
lose the ability to use 1.6M floppy discs and, at present, access to
RISC-OS 3, though that will soon (?) be available for A540 costing in
the region of £100 thus increasing the difference to approx. £347.)
5.5
•    Acorn SCSI card / Syquest removable drive solution − Those of you who
have had problems running the 42M and 84M Syquest removable hard drives
on the A540, (i.e. on the latest version of the Acorn SCSI podule), will
be pleased to know that we have a fix which seems to work OK. Acorn are
working on a “proper” fix − they have been for some considerable time
now − but at least this will allow you to use the removable drives. If
you want a copy of the software patch that Adrian has written, just send
us a blank, formatted disc and a small donation for our charity pot and
we’ll send you a copy.
5.5
•    Aleph One ARM3 prices down (again!) − Aleph One have now joined CJE
Micros in providing ARM3 upgrades at £199 +VAT (£225 through Archive).
5.5
•    Atomwide SCSI drives − The prices of Atomwide drives has decreased
this month and the range has been extended to 400M. This is good news
because they use the fast, high quality, Pro-Quantum drives which seem
to be about the best drives around at the moment. I am using a 200M Pro-
Quantum as my main drive and, as I have said before, it is ffffast! They
are the same drives that Oak use for their High Speed range but the 100M
and 200M now work out cheaper, even with the Oak SCSI boards. The prices
are....
5.5
    50M    Internal −    £285
5.5
    100M    Internal −    £395
5.5
    200M    Internal −    £685
5.5
    400M    Internal −    £1055
5.5
    50M    External −    £370
5.5
    100M    External −    £485
5.5
    200M    External −    £775
5.5
    400M    External −    £1145
5.5
Add £200 to each for an Oak SCSI podule so that you can compare prices
with the Oak HS range.
5.5
•    BibleMaster − Many readers have asked if there is a computer version
of the bible available for the Archimedes. I have looked around for ages
and found nothing. (Does anyone know different?) So, I am breaking with
my normal rule of not supplying PC products! BibleMaster is a new
computerised bible for PC compatibles, which works under the PC emulator
provided you have at least 4M free in your PC partition. It is based on
the New International Version and is sold by Hodder & Stoughton for
£49.95 inc VAT (£45 through Archive). You can look at two passages at
the same time, export text to disc for inclusion in word-processed
material (but check the copyright situation first!) and you can keep and
edit a verse list for study purposes. It has over half a million cross
references and an on-line help facility.
5.5
•    !Bulletin is a bulletin board communication system from XOB for use
over Econet networks. It provides the usual bulletin board services
including electronic mail, special interest groups and closed user
groups. This fully RISC-OS compliant software runs on any Archimedes,
supports up to 1,500 users and comes with a site/network licence for £67
from XOB.
5.5
•    CableNews is Lingenuity’s new frame-based presentation system. It
allows you to prepare presentations from sprites and draw files and with
text using outline fonts. The price is £169 +VAT from Lingenuity with
educational prices and site licences also available.
5.5
•    CalcSheet − Following comments from a reviewer, (the review was never
published) Trail Software has removed CalcSheet from sale with immediate
effect. Any customers who are unsatisfied with the product can have a
full refund from Trail Software.
5.5
•    CoCo is a control language for the Archimedes produced by Commotion.
For £49.95 +VAT, it provides a RISC-OS environment control language that
will allow you to operate an interface device with switch inputs and
outputs as well as motors with variable power and direction control.
Lego UK have adopted CoCo for use with their InterfaceA.
5.5
•    Concept keyboard − Northwest SEMERC have produced the Oldham Overlay
Keyboard (a concept keyboard by any other name). This A3 board with 128
switches costs £166.67 +VAT from NW SEMERC. There is an optional switch
input (£50 +VAT) to allow special needs switches to be connected for
people with severe physical difficulties.
5.5
•    Detour is a file manipulation utility to enable you to overcome
problems with software written to run on a specific filesystem, drive or
directory. It can be used for a number of purposes including acting as a
virus protector. The price is £19.95 inc VAT from Electronic Solutions.
5.5
•    DrawPlus update − This has now been updated to version 2.10. It
includes some minor bug fixes and is compatible with the A5000. The
updated version has been put onto Careware Disc 13. Existing Careware 13
owners can send their discs back for update − a further small charity
donation would be appreciated but is not obligatory.
5.5
•    DTP For All − Bruce Goatly’s new book has just been published by
Wileys / Sigma. It costs £12.95. For details, see the review on page 22.
5.5
•    Electronic Bible − Here’s the ultimate(?) add-on for your Archimedes.
A pocket-sized electronic bible (smaller than a personal organiser) with
LCD display and full ASCII keyboard that contains the whole of the bible
− both old and new testaments − plus concordance and thesaurus. It
allows you to look for the occurrence of multiple words − you could
find, say, all the places where the words “Jesus” and “Pharisee”
occurred in the same verse or within a couple of verses (you choose) −
this is much more powerful than a straight concordance. The Electronic
Bible has a serial link, so we are working on a cable and software to
allow the output to be fed into an Archimedes. Electronic Bible costs
£250 from Hodder & Stoughton or £235 through Archive and the link will
soon be available for £25, we hope.
5.5
•    Ethernet card for A3000 − Atomwide are now marketing an Ethernet card
for the A3000 at £229 +VAT (or £255 through Archive). It can be used
with thin Ethernet cabling and Acorn’s TCP/IP or AUN software to provide
cost-effective networking to mainframes, minis etc. This is an internal
8-bit podule but a 16 bit standard podule version for use on thick or
thin Ethernet will also be available in a couple of weeks time. The
price will be the same as the A3000 version.
5.5
•    FastType − Micro Guide have published a typing tutor under the title
FastType. It is a fully RISC-OS complaint application. It is also
supplied with a disc of PD special needs software as the author is
continuing to develop FastType particularly for those with special
needs. The cost is £19.95 inclusive from Micro Guide.
5.5
•    Floating point accelerator − DT Software have harnessed some PC
hardware − an 80287XL FPA − to improve the speed of the Archimedes
floating point functions. It comes on a single podule and, in software
terms, is linked in to where the floating point emulator normally
resides. It has the great advantage (unlike the Acorn FP co-processor)
of being ARM3 compatible. The 80287XL is, apparently, almost equivalent
to an 80387 and it runs at 37 MHz. (A 60MHz version is under develop
ment!) It provides 3 to 4 times speed increase on multiply on an A540
and even better improvement on lesser machines. Trig and transcendental
functions show an even more marked improvement. The price is £174.95
inc-luding VAT from DT Software or £165 through Archive.
5.5
•    Geoscan the world geography database has been updated to take account
of some of the changes that have taken place in world geography
recently(!) and has also had various new features added including
!Geobrief which contains background information on over 200 countries
and territories. This is in a common text format which allows for easy
inclusion in WP / DTP work by students. There is also an application
which allows students to print out the main information in various ways
to a standard dot-matrix printer. The price for the new version of
Geoscan is £45 from Passkey Marketing or £42 through Archive.
5.5
•    Good Impression − is a book of layouts, designs and graphics which can
be created with Impression. It costs £26.95 from ‘Word Processing’ or
£25 through Archive. For more details, see the review on page 47.
5.5
•    Helix Basic is a “fully functional Basic V language interpreter”
designed to allow “anyone, whatever their programming experience to
write professional RISC-OS compliant multi-tasking programs.” Quite a
claim! The price is £99.95 inc VAT from Craddock Computer Systems.
5.5
•    Insight is a data-logging package from Longman Logotron. It provides
the software interface for data-logging interfaces such as Sense and
Control, LogIT and Philip Harris. It allows data to be taken in either
at very high speed or on a “time-lapse” basis and provides analysis and
display of the received data. The price is £69 +VAT from Longman
Logotron or £75 through Archive.
5.5
•    James Pond, the fishy special agent, is now available. This is an
arcade adventure with a “green” slant and a degree of humour. £25.99
from Krisalis or £24 through Archive.
5.5
•    Key Author − a multi-media Presentation System produced by ITV Schools
division. It aims to provide a multi-media system that links in with
their Key Plus database system. The cost depends on the type and size of
establishment purchasing it from an individual user at £55 and a (<150
pupil) primary school at £65 to a (>800 pupil) secondary at £180 and a
FE/HE college at £450.
5.5
•    Mah Jong, The Game − Mah Jong Patience has been out for quite a while
now but here is the proper Mah Jong game. You have to pit your wits
against three other players, all of whom are the computer playing a “no
holds barred” game. This implements the Western rules of Mah Jong, not
the original Chinese rules. The cost is £22.50 from Cambridge Interna
tional Software or £21 through Archive.
5.5
•    MatchMaker seems to be the ultimate in interfacing for special needs
applications. It will allow “any switch to... operate any Archimedes
program”. Quite a claim, but Matchmaker itself contains a sophisticated
micro-processor system and has its own 20 × 4 character LCD display.
This is available for £850 +VAT from SRS Systems Ltd.
5.5
•    PC emulator upgrades (listen carefully, please, while I try to
explain... ) There are two upgrade products to allow you to obtain the
1.7 version of the PC Emulator, one for MS-DOS users (“the AKA48 PC
Emulator 1.7 upgrade”) and one for DR-DOS users, i.e. those who bought a
Learning Curve pack (“the AKA45 PC Emulator 1.7 + DR-DOS 5.00 upgrade”).
5.5
Who should upgrade? It’s only really users of A5000’s (since 1.6 doesn’t
work on RISC-OS3) or those with versions before 1.6 that need to
upgrade.
5.5
How much does it cost? For MS-DOS users, the AKA48 costs £17.62 inc VAT
if you already have 1.6 or £34.07 if your version is earlier than 1.6.
For DR-DOS users, the AKA45 which includes an upgrade from 3.41 to 5.00,
costs £45.82.
5.5
Where do I get it from? You can only get your upgrade by mail order
(though they do accept official orders from educational establishments)
from Acorn Direct in Wellingborough.
5.5
What do I have to send? Send a cheque payable to ‘Acorn Direct’ (or
official order) with your PC Emulator disc to Acorn Direct, (not us!).
If you have version 1.6, send the “small PC Emulator (CGA) disc”. For
AKA48 (MS-DOS) do NOT send your MS-DOS disc. For AKA45 (DR-DOS) you must
send your DR-DOS registration number.
5.5
How long does the offer last? You must upgrade before 27th March 1992.
5.5
If there is anything you don’t understand, please DON’T ring Norwich
Computer Services but address your queries to Acorn Customer Services on
0223−245200.
5.5
•    PC expansion card − (breaking the normal rules about only mentioning
products that are actually available now) Aleph One’s 386 PC expansion
card should be available by the end of February at £495 +VAT (or £545
through Archive). It is claimed to offer between 10 and 20 times the
speed of the software emulator alone (though that is presumably
comparing with a non-ARM3 machine). It uses a 386SX compatible micropro
cessor and has 1M of ram upgradable to 4M and occupies a single half-
width podule. In operation, it is just seen as an extension to the
original PC emulator but it does allow very rapid, almost single key
switching between the PC environment and RISC-OS. We saw it operating at
the BETT Show with Flight Simulator running at a very respectable speed.
(Watford Electronics were also supposed to be showing their PC card at
the BETT Show but potential customers were told that it would be
available “soon” but that they were unable actually to demonstrate it.)
5.5
•    Printer drivers  − We are going to be stocking Ace Computing’s printer
drivers including their latest one for the Deskjet 500C colour printer.
They are £16 +VAT each or £17 through Archive. Printer drivers available
are Deskjet 500C, Paintjet, Epson JX and compatibles (inc Star LC10,
XB24 and Citizen Swift-24 with colour ribbon), Canon PJ 1080-A and
ColourCel.
5.5
•    Removable SCSI drive prices down − The prices of the removable drives
and cartridges have dropped again this month. The 42M drives are now
under £500 − well, £495 − but that includes VAT and carriage. The extra
42M cartridges are now £70. The 84M drives are down to £680 and the
extra cartridges to £120.
5.5
•    Shareware Disc 17 update − Acorn have now released a RISC-OS Extras
Extras disc which we are distributing as Shareware Disc 17. The disc
contains the latest printer drivers, modules, etc (version numbers shown
below) along with a virus killer and protection module. If you already
have Shareware 17, send it in for an update but we would be grateful for
a small donation to charity to accompany it. Thanks.
5.5
Modules: Econet 5.48, Hourglass 2.02, IRQUtils 0.12, NetFiler 0.24,
NetFS 5.53, NetPrint 5.30, NetStatus 2.01, SoundScheduler 1.13, VGAModes
1.45; printer drivers: !PrinterDM 2.46, !PrinterIX 2.46, !PrinterLJ
2.46, !PrinterPS 2.46; system: !Scrap 0.53, !SysMerge, !System 0.52
which includes Clib 3.75, Colours 0.52, FPEmulator 2.80, MessageTrans
0.06, WimpUtils 0.04; utilities: BigDelete, FSVersion, SetStation; virus
kit: !Killer 1.17, VProtect 1.06.
5.5
•    Twilight is a screen saver program with a difference from The Really
Good Software Company. It is multi-tasking so that applications that are
running can continue even after the screen has been switched off. It
also has password facilities and a hot-key combination that sends your
screen to sleep instantly. The price is £29.95.
5.5
•    Want a dirt cheap A540?! − You may have seen adverts for A540’s at
£1999 +VAT (£2349); well, we know a man who can sell you one for even
less! Seriously though, if you are interested in a new A540, we may be
able to get one for you at (just) under £2000 inc VAT. They won’t be
covered by Acorn warranty because they are already several months old
(although unused and boxed) but we would cover them with our own NCS
warranty. Give us a ring if you are at all interested.
5.5
•    A3000 spares − A company that uses A3000 motherboards has a fair
number of A3000 cases, power supplies and keyboards sitting around
gathering dust. We can sell them at about half the normal spares price,
i.e cases £15, p.s.u.’s £24, keyboards £18. Give me a ring if
ineterested.
5.5
Review software received...
5.5
We have received review copies of the following software and hardware:
Insight, Graphbox Professional, Mah Jong The Game, Converta-Key,
Archivist, TurboType & FastType (Is there an RSA typist who can assess
them?), Detour, Helix Basic, Twilight.  A
5.5

5.5
Government Health Warning − Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
5.5
I received a letter this week that assured me, basically, that the bible
was totally unreliable. Now, I don’t think that most scholars (Christian
or non-Christian) would agree with that view but it does highlight a
problem for many people, “Can we really trust the bible?”
5.5
I faced this one when I was a student; I read the bible and it seemed
reasonably self-consistent; I read books that said that the historical
and archaeological evidence was very supportive; I read books by eminent
scientists who believed the bible; I saw, and was impressed by, the
lives of fellow students who believed the bible but still I wasn’t sure
if I personally could trust what the bible said.
5.5
What clinched it for me was when someone said, “Would the kind of God
that the bible portrays, give you an unreliable document and ask you to
base your whole life on it?”   I hope that helps.
5.5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5.5
“If the evidence is so strong” my correspondent would say, “why doesn’t
everyone believe in the Jesus of the bible?” Why indeed? If you read the
bible and supporting books, the evidence is compelling.
5.5
Let me ask you a question. Why are Mac owners so reluctant to believe
that the Archimedes is a serious contender for DTP use? If someone
challenges the basic beliefs which you have always held, it takes a good
deal of courage to risk looking into it. It may be costly. You might
have to sell your Mac, buy an Archimedes and admit to your Mac owning
friends that you think you’ve found a better way! Now, that takes a good
deal of courage! Are you prepared to risk it?
5.5

5.5

5.5
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD. 0603-
766592 (764011)
5.5

5.5
4th Dimension     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742−700661)
5.5
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
5.5
Acorn Direct     13 Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2RL.
5.5
Acorn Computers Ltd     Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 4JN. (0223−245200) (210685)
5.5
Ace Computing     27 Victoria Road, Cambridge, CB4 3BW. (0223−322559)
(69180)
5.5
Aleph One Ltd    The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(0223−811679) (812713)
5.5
Atomwide Ltd    23 The Greenway, Orpington, Kent, BR5 2AY. (0689−838852)
(896088)
5.5
Base5 (p7)    PO Box 378, Woking, Surrey GU21 4DF.
5.5
Cambridge International Software      Unit 2a,
Essex Road, London, N1 3QP. (071−226−3340) (3408)
5.5
Capsoft (p30)    8 Old Gate Avenue, Weston on Trent, Derbyshire, DE7 2BZ.
5.5
CJE Micros    78 Brighton Road, Worthing, W Sussex, BN11 2EN.
(0903−213361)
5.5
Clares Micro Supplies    98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (0606−48511)
(48512)
5.5
Colton Software (p20)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA. (0223−311881) (312010)
5.5
Commotion     Redburn House, Stockingswater Lane, Enfield  EN3 7TD.
5.5
Computer Concepts (p32/33)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 6EX. (0442−63933) (231632)
5.5
Craddock Computer Systems    20 Osyth
Close, Brackmills Industrial Estate, Northampton  NN4 0DY. (0604−760991)
(761800)
5.5
Dalmation Publications    37 Manor
Road, Teddington, Middlesex  TW11 8AA.
5.5
David Pilling    P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
5.5
DT Software    FREEPOST, Cambridge CB3 7BR. (0223−841099)
5.5
Electronic Solutions    Ceralyn,
Maindy Croft, Ton-Pentra, Mid Glamorgan. (0443−430355)
5.5
Godders Ware    13 Prestbury Close, Blackpole Village, Worcester, WR4 9XG.
5.5
ITV Software    6 Paul Street, London EC2A 4JH (071−247−5206)
5.5
Krisalis Software    Teque House, Mason’s Yard, Downs Row, Moorgate,
Rotherham, S60 2HD. (0709−372290)
5.5
Lingenuity (Lindis)    P.O.Box 10,
Halesworth, Suffolk, IP19 0DX. (0986−85−476) (460)
5.5
Longman-Logotron    124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4
4ZS. (0223−425558) (425349)
5.5
LOOKsystems (p19)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603−764114) (764011)
5.5
Micro Guide    58 The Square, Newtongrange, Midlothian  EH22 4QE.
(031−663−0888)
5.5
Micro Studio Ltd    22 Churchgate Street, Soham, Ely, Cambridgeshire.
(0353−720433)
5.5
Morley Electronics     Morley
House, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE29 7TY. (091−257−6355)
(6373)
5.5
Northwest SEMERC     Fitton Hill CDC, Rosary Road, Oldham  OL8 2QE.
(061−627−4469)
5.5
Oak Solutions (p31)    Suite 25,
Robin Enterprise Centre, Leeds Road, Idle, Yorkshire BD10 9TE.
(0274−620423) (620419)
5.5
Passkey Marketing    P.O.Box 649, Shenley Lodge, Milton Keynes, MK5 7AX.
(0908−669879)
5.5
Ray Maidstone     421 Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603−407060)
(417447)
5.5
Risc Developments Ltd (p8)    117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727−40303) (60263)
5.5
Spacetech (p34)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305−822753)
5.5
SRS System Ltd    Unit 6, Benacre Drive, Fazeley Street, Birmingham.
(021−643−2877) (0442)
5.5
Topologika    P.O. Box 39, Stilton, Peterborough, PE7 3RL. (0733−244682)
5.5
Trail Software    P.O. Box 283, London, SW11 2LL.
5.5
Turcan Research Systems    83 Green
croft Gardens, West Hampstead, London NW6 3LJ. (071−625−8455)
5.5
Word Processing    65 Milldale Crescent, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, W
Midlands  WV10 6LR.
5.5
XOB    Balkeerie, Eassie by Forfar, Angus, DD8 1SR. (0307−84364)
5.5

5.5
Computer Concepts
5.5
New
5.5

5.5
Computer Concepts
5.5
New
5.5

5.5
PC Software Compatibility
5.5
Mike Clinch
5.5
Thanks to those who sent in information on software compatibility with
the new emulator. The results of the first batch are tabulated below. I
have quite a bit of other information on people’s experiences with some
of the items and I will put this together later on. Where known, I have
put in the DOS version.  I have found that, with some software, the DOS
version is critical. There are major differences between versions 3.2
and 3.3 − the Backup and Restore utilities are not compatible between
these versions.
5.5
    DOS    Remarks
5.5
A86 8088/8086 Assem    3.2
5.5
Auto Route    3.3
5.5
Bannamania    3.3    Slow!!!
5.5
Bible Illustrator (1990)    DRDOS 5
5.5
Checkit V1.0    3.2
5.5
Chi Writer V4.0    3.2    Slow
5.5
Compserve Info Manager    3.3 & 5    V.
Slow
5.5
Dataease V4    3.3 & 5
5.5
Deep Space 3D V2.0    3.3
5.5
Flight Simulator 4    3.2
5.5
Galaxy V2.2    3.3
5.5
Microsoft C V5.1    3.2
5.5
Mirror 111    ?
5.5
Norton Utilities V4.6    3.2
5.5
PC Tools V3 & 4.2    3.2
5.5
Quick Verse Bible Concrd    DRDOS 5
5.5
SID86    DRDOS 5
5.5
SPSS-PC+ V3.0    3.2    Big
5.5
Supercalc V5.01C    3.2
5.5
Trees II    3.3
5.5
Wordstar 6    3.3
5.5
Ventura Publisher    5.0
5.5
Xtree 1.0    3.2
5.5
Non Runners:
5.5
Lotus 123 3.0 & 3.1    ?
5.5
Notes: Compsoft Information manager runs too slowly to use. Bannamania
is slower than on an old IBM. Dataease and Chi Writer both take a bit of
time to load and Chi Writer runs slowly. I was not able to install
Dataease using DOS 3.2. I had some problems installing DOS 5 via the
upgrade path. SPSS-PC+ is a statistical package and it takes up 12.7 M
of disc space.
5.5
My phone number is 0322−526425 and my Silicon Village Mbox is
322526425.  A
5.5

5.5

5.5
Base 5
5.5
From 5.4 page 22
5.5

5.5
RISC Developments
5.5
new
5.5

5.5
Comment Column
5.5
•    A5000 problems − We have had a number of A5000 owners reporting the
same sort of hard drive problems as we mentioned last month but on the
internal IDE hard drive. It looks as if it may be a RISC-OS 3 problem
but we’re still not sure. Here is one of the comments so that you can
compare notes....
5.5
Following on from your comments on hard disc problems with the A5000, I
thought you might be interested to hear of my problems. Both myself and
a friend caused our hard drives to become inaccessible with RISC-OS
reporting “ŶDisc not recognised − Is it formatted?” whilst attempting to
fit external floppy drives to our A5000s. (*See below. Ed.) My dealer
contacted Acorn and was given the following rather odd cure which did in
fact work: ‘Run the old A400 series HFORM program, accepting all the
default values; it will generate loads of errors but let it run for 10-
15 seconds and then reset the machine.’ This worked and the disc was
restored with nothing lost − the problem is presumably with the
controller getting in a mess rather than the disc itself being cor
rupted. When I spoke to Acorn later, the person I spoke to said it
wasn’t a known problem and the fix was just Ŷ“a known method of waking-up
dead hard discs”! My friend managed to make it happen twice, myself only
once, but I have still not actually managed to get an external floppy
working. I’ve tried both a 3½“ and 5¼” drive but neither work − I get
different errors in both cases! I wonder if anyone has successfully
added a second floppy to the A5000 and can help me. Acorn say it should
just Ŷplug in and go” but not for me.  Brian Debenham, Chelmsford
5.5
*Another reader had similar problems of apparently trashed hard drives
as a result of trying to connect floppies and eventually solved it by
changing link 21 which is connected to the “disc change register” of the
interface controller chip. It’s a bit of a black art as no one seems to
know why it works but it does! All link 21 does is to change the “floppy
drive type”. What we found was that using two different makes of 3½“
drive, with the link in one position, it would recognise one but not the
other and in the other position it would recognise the other but not the
one. If you want to try your luck, we now have floppy drive extension
cables at £18 each. (See Products Available, page 2) Ed.
5.5
•    A5000 problems − You asked for negative A5000 comments − I don’t have
too many really apart from the one above. There are bugs in RISC-OS 3 of
course, most of which are quite minor, but there are some annoying
oddities. *BACKUP from the command line only copies used sectors like
RISC-OS 2 does, but the desktop backup on RISC-OS 3 copies all sectors
used or not whereas RISC-OS 2 only copied used sectors.
5.5
My only other negative comment is not really Acorn’s fault but it
concerns the non-loading of protected or illegally-written software −
mainly games. Obvious candidates are Eterna and 4th Dimension. The
latest Krisalis games I’ve bought have been unprotected − an admirable
policy. I see Eterna are asking A5000 owners in their latest ads to
“send the disc back to our French address” although they don’t say
whether that is for replacement or refund. I bought three new Eterna
games at the Acorn User Show when I bought my A5000 − none of them will
load. Brian Debenham, Chelmsford
5.5
We can echo the comments about problems with games on the A5000. The
answer is to check with the supplier before buying. We are reticent
about publishing a list of those that don’t work because the suppliers
will be trying to get them to work again and may have done so by the
time any list is published. Ed.
5.5
•    A5000 problems − After using the Pace Nightingale modem very success
fully with BBC ‘B’, Master and A3000 computers, accessing Prestel,
StarNet, TTNS etc., I found that it would not work with the A5000.
5.5
Acorn eventually explained: “The RS232 serial port of the A5000 does not
support split baud-rate working, e.g. 1200/75. It is therefore necessary
to use a modem which can buffer the 75 and re-transmit at 1200.”
Evidently the Nightingale doesn’t, being as unintelligent as its owner!
5.5
This information is not documented, so far as I can tell − the handbook
simply notes that the interface is RS232, whereas I see from the
handbooks for earlier machines that their interfaces were RS432. Perhaps
that explains it − I wouldn’t know. E. Cobbold, Great Yarmouth
5.5
•    A5000 good points − Here are a few comments which I haven’t seen
mentioned yet...
5.5
− All my discs, even my cheapest bulk packed ones, can be formatted to
1.6M with no defects. (True, but it will be interesting to see whether
you start to get data errors on them quicker than you do on 800k. Ed.)
5.5
− There are high definition sprites available for the multisync modes,
and it is possible to redefine your own window tools (Close, Back,
Toggle, Scroll Bars, etc.) – I have redefined mine to look like Windows
3 on the PC, as I like the 3D look and am a regular user of a PC at
work. (The !Windows3 and !3dIcons applications are on the monthly
program disc.)
5.5
− The font catalogue is now cached in RAM so starting applications such
as Impression is very quick. It no longer has to search through all
those font directories on disk, which used to take about 20 seconds for
me. It now takes about 4 seconds to load Impression from the hard disc.
(cf 30 seconds to load PageMaker 4.0 on a Mac Plus with a 45M SCSI
drive! Ed.)
5.5
− Shift-Double click loads any file into !Edit. This is extremely
convenient.
5.5
− There is now a rechargable battery powering the CMOS RAM, so you don’t
need to worry about changing the batteries.
5.5
A5000 Bad Points
5.5
− The so-called SVGA modes (29-31) are not really SVGA resolution
(normally 1024 × 768), but are in fact EVGA (800 × 600).
5.5
− !Paint 1.41 (18-Sep-1991) has many bugs in it (I’ve only noticed b & c
when using Mode 31):
5.5
a)    When adding sprites to an existing file, if they would be outside
the existing sprite file window, then the toggle size icon does not cause
them to be displayed, and dragging on the Scroll bars will not bring
them into view. The window size icon must be dragged to the left so that
the layout of the sprites is reformatted. (This is difficult to put into
words!!)
5.5
b)     Sometimes when editing files with large numbers of sprites in them
(such as 22 sprites from !SetIcons) the file name in the save box is
gobbledegook (e.g. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ). I haven’t been able to repeat this to order,
so I don’t know the situations exactly, but trying again to save it
brings up the correct filename.
5.5
c)     When expanding a sprite by inserting columns or rows, or by
adjusting the size, I sometimes get “Invalid column or row” messages
coming up, sometimes completely crashing the machine, requiring a re-
boot and losing all my unsaved data files.
5.5
− Many games do not work, as they write directly to the CMOS RAM before
rebooting, and this seems to be arranged differently, so the new
configuration is often meaningless. This is particularly a problem on
games from Eterna, which remove the hard disc and other things. Mike
Gregory, Fareham.
5.5
•    DeskEdit − Lee Calcraft of Beebug writes... Thank you for the very
positive review of DeskEdit which you published in Archive 5.4. The
review was based on version 1.02 of DeskEdit. A new version (1.20) was
released on 15th January which contains a number of enhancements and, in
particular, improves the performance of DeskEdit in Basic and C modes.
5.5
Your reviewer felt that programs containing GOTOs etc. were less easy to
edit using DeskEdit because it could (obviously) not strip line numbers
in such cases; but working with numbered Basic programs has now been
made much easier with the new version. An automatic LISTO 1 is applied
when numbered programs are loaded, and these spaces are automatically
stripped when a program is saved. Moreover, since new line numbers are
automatically inserted when you press <return> and warnings are given if
overlaps occur − editing with line numbers is quite painless.
5.5
In Basic mode, there is now also a single key save-and-run from the
desktop, allowing virtually instantaneous testing of programs and
applications as you edit them. The procedure and function browser has
been improved too, so that you can browse procedure and function
definitions in both directions (<ctrl-D> takes you to the next defini
tion, while <ctrl-shift-D> takes you to the one above etc).
5.5
Other new features that may be of interest include dynamic date
insertion, left and right justify, bracket matching, align columns and
the char info option (<ctrl-?> puts up a box giving the ASCII code of
the character at the caret in hex and decimal, and any special function
it may have − e.g. Bold On etc.).
5.5
Existing users may upgrade to 1.20 by sending their original disc,
together with £2 and an SAE to DeskEdit Upgrade 1.2, Risc Developments
Ltd., 117 Hatfield Road, St Albans AL1 4JS. New purchasers automatically
receive the new version (price £24.95 inc VAT).
5.5
•    Hearsay II advertising claims − I need a VT220 terminal emulation and
so I need to be able to re-program the six keys at the right of the
keyboard (Insert, Home etc). I was interested in the fact that Hearsay
II is advertised as having a “fully definable keyboard”. I rang Risc
Developments (who answered the phone as “Beebug” despite their protesta
tions that they want to be known as “Risc Developments”) and asked them
about it. Apparently it means that the function keys are fully defin
able, not the whole keyboard as I had inferred from their advert! Oh
well, does anyone know how I can get a VT220 emulation? Alan Highet,
Nottingham.
5.5
•    Imagine & PrimeArt − Thank you for Peter Thomson’s review of Imagine
and PrimeArt (5.4 p56). As the author of the first (and cheaper!)
product, I’d like to correct a few inaccuracies in his report.
5.5
On icons and menus, I can only say that none of the thousands of
children who passed through the Art Machine exhibition in London (where
a no-keyboard Imagine was running with no instructions) reported any
difficulty; indeed, we received many comments that menus were “easier to
understand than those pictures (i.e. icons)”. I would also note two
things: the menus remember your previous choices, so no mouse movement
is necessary; and (ruefully) my original version, before the testers got
at it, had about 30 choices all on display rather à la PrimeArt!
5.5
Your reviewer noted that selected colours “didn’t quite match the same
colour when placed on the screen”. He’d better check his monitor, say I!
The match is, of course, perfect − how could it be otherwise on a 256-
colour mode screen? What may have confused him is the 16-colour attempt
by the mouse pointer to mimic the 256-colour choice; blame Acorn’s
hardware − we programmers do our best!
5.5
The reviewer is incorrect when he claims that “you cannot place a copy
that overlaps the original without risk that the copy covers part of the
original before it has been copied”. Since the copy is a sprite (! how
else would one do it??) and can be moved between the two screens, I
wonder where he got this idea from?
5.5
I defy anyone to run a program with two mode 15 screens alongside, say,
Paint, on a 1M machine − which is what most schools possess. Hence the
loss of one screen for printing − there just isn’t room on a basic
machine. The same problem applies to exporting sprites − no room on a
small machine. Users found the second screen so useful (for doodling or
testing an idea, say, or for holding lots of bits which could be placed
properly on the other screen at will) that we decided its pluses
strongly outweighed the space minuses.
5.5
I would have liked to have seen some more “special options” mentioned:
the grid, zoom, outliner, etc. Ah well...
5.5
But, having said all the above, all programs have their super points as
well as the good ones. I love the outliner, for example. But yes, I’d
like to fool around with PrimeArt’s fills, Atelier’s wrapping, Revela
tion’s colour processing; but at the price I’ll leave them. One day,
maybe. Thanks again for the review. Peter D. Killworth, Oxford.
5.5
•    Imagine & PrimeArt − The reviewer replies....
5.5
Icons and menus − We tested the programs by showing a class of 8 year
olds and a class of 7 year olds how to use both programs. They were then
asked to draw pictures with both programs (one child per computer with
their form teacher + myself present). We made note of how often the
children asked for help and what signs of pleasure or frustration were
shown. These children have free use of the computer room for lunch time
activity and we observe what programs are in use and how they are being
used.
5.5
It was very clear to both of us that these children found PrimeArt much
easier to use. They quickly became frustrated with the menus system for
Imagine but, when using PrimeArt, changed their options every few
seconds to create the effect that they wanted. In the free activity
period, PrimeArt became very popular and has been put to a lot of use
whereas Imagine gets no use at all. Older children are quick to try out
anything new that comes into the school. PrimeArt has become the main
art package for GCSE work displacing Artisan and Paint. I don’t think
any child has used Imagine after trying it out.
5.5
Colour menus − I have got the standard monitor with the first 310’s,
standard monitor with A3000 Taxan 795 and A5000 standard monitor. I have
just set up Paint (small colours), PrimeArt and Imagine on all computers
to display their colour palette and asked a group of 15 year olds (in a
maths lesson) to comment on the colours without indicating any reason
for the request. I was surprised by the unanimity of their verdict.
5.5
The colours of Paint, even though only the small colours were displayed,
were described as the clearest and giving a good range. The colours on
PrimeArt were described as clear. Those of Imagine as being predomi
nantly blues and greens shading into black. Their views coincided with
my own.
5.5
Copy − In Imagine, if a copy is made using the transform option, and the
copy is placed over the lower right part of the original, then the copy
becomes a copy of the copy. I have rechecked that this is the case.
5.5
Memory − In the review I say that I have used a 2M system for running
PrimeArt alongside other applications. I think that this full compliance
with RISC-OS is very important. We have upgraded all our A3000’s to 2M
and will do the same with our 310’s this year. All new computers will be
4MB or higher.
5.5
I think that the low costs of these memory upgrades make them excellent
value for money. I would agree that it is not possible to run PrimeArt
alongside Paint in a 1M system but I don’t accept that this is a reason
for preventing those with more memory from utilising it fully.
5.5
Special Options − Most have been mentioned. I don’t think a reviewer has
to cover every possibility, but enough to give a good ‘feel’ of the
program.   Peter Thomson, Casterton School
5.5
•    Monitor resolution − May I make some comments following on from those
in issue 5.2 of Archive concerning Acorn’s multisync monitor. I decided
to do a few calculations concerning what resolutions are achievable for
a given dot pitch and screen size. I have assumed that monitor tubes
provide the same 4:3 rectangle as TV tubes, and that the dots are as
high as they are wide. The results, I think you’ll agree, are quite
revealing.
5.5
    Screen     Dot    Max pixels    For example
5.5
      size    pitch    (x)     (y)
5.5
    (diag)    (mm)
5.5
    14“    0.42    677    508    Std col.
5.5
    14“    0.39    729    547    A5000 m/s
5.5
    14“    0.28    1016    762    Eizo 9060
5.5
    14“    0.26    1094    821    Taxan 795
5.5
    14“    0.25    1138    853    Sony CPD
1404E
5.5
    16“    0.28    1161    871    Eizo 9070
5.5
    17“    0.26    1329    996    Eizo T560i
5.5
    19“    0.28    1379    1034
5.5
    20“    0.31    1311    983    Microvitec
2038
5.5
    21“    0.28    1524    1143
5.5
It seems quite obvious that Acorn’s multisync monitor is only just
capable of displaying the standard RISC-OS modes and was probably chosen
with that in mind. However, when it comes to the really big high res
modes provided by Computer Concepts or Atomwide then the A5000 monitor
is just not up to it. Apart from its being able to scan at the higher m/
s rates, it is only marginally better than the standard colour monitor.
Even the Eizo 9060 represents a considerable improvement. Interestingly,
the Eizo T560i though having a smaller screen size, can achieve a
slightly higher resolution than the 2038 (though presumably the extra
size of the 2038 makes it look more impressive!)
5.5
I’ve tried three separate monitors (all Acorn A5000 types) and on all
three the Vertical Gain (Man/Auto) switch is totally useless. In the
Auto position only a couple of the available screen modes fit on the
screen. Also, the Horizontal Gain (Nor/Add) switch is almost useless − a
variable control would have been much more useful than a two position
switch. As the Auto doesn’t do what it should I have to contend with
adjusting the vertical gain and horizontal shift controls when switching
between my preferred Mode 39 and Modes 12, 15, 21 etc.
5.5
After all those gripes, I’d better say something complimentary. Having
previously only used a standard monitor, the A5000 monitor does provide
an improvement with Modes 12, 15, 66, etc. Also, being able to use the
m/s modes makes it a considerable step from the standard monitor. It
also looks nicer − the standard monitor was very box-like. And finally,
it’s cheap!
5.5
David Lenthall, London
5.5
•    PD software − In the comments I made last month about Beebug’s policy
on using PD discs to attract computer sales, I made a factual error
which overstated Beebug’s charges for PD software. I said that they were
charging £4 +VAT for their discs when in fact it is £4 including VAT.
Apologies for that but looking at the actual adverts, I see that it
doesn’t say whether the £4 includes or excludes VAT. Also, Mike Williams
would also like me to point out that the £4 is made up of £3 for the
disc plus £1 postage and packing. The reason I quoted £4 is so that it
could be compared directly with the £3 that we charge which includes VAT
and postage and packing. Beebug then charge only an extra 50p postage &
packing for each extra disc, so if, for example, you buy two discs, they
cost £6 + £1.50 which is only £3.75 per disc. Sorry for the misleading
information. Ed.
5.5
•    RISC-OS3 − Here are some idiosyncrasies’ in RISC-OS 3 firmware.
5.5
With !Configure’s off-screen switch settings, if the “to bottom and
right” is OFF and “in all directions” is ON then, when attempting to
drag beyond the right (or bottom) of the screen, the window is bounded
though the pointer continues to move (though without dragging the
window). Moving the pointer back (button still held down) the window is
not picked up by the drag operation until the pointer is back to the
same position as when the separation occurred.
5.5
Also, when either of these switches is ON, and one attempts to resize a
window beyond the right (or bottom) of the screen, the window grows to
the left (or upwards). This is really nice, though I feel it deserves a
switch setting of its own, rather than being associated with the
bounding ‘off screen’ switches.
5.5
You can drag the scroll bars with <adjust> and this enables you to
scroll in both x and y dir-ections using either of the scroll bars. This
is very handy, particularly with Draw files, though I didn’t notice it
mentioned in the documentation.
5.5
Task Manager ShutDown − I am not sure how complete the shutdown
procedure is, though the restart is definitely not up to scratch. My
hard disc !Boot file contains Pinboard commands, all of which are
ignored during the restart process although the remainder of the !Boot
file is performed correctly. I use good-old <ctrl-break> to restart.
Also, the restart option doesn’t go through the RAM test (which is fair
enough, it having been done at power on). I’ve now started using a PD
!ShutDown utility which works fine. Upon restarting, it causes a harder
break than Acorn’s utility, with RISC-OS going through the RAM test and
complete execution of the !Boot file. David Lenthall, London
5.5
•    Scanners, OCR and PC’s − I read Tord Eriksson’s enthusiastic report on
the Scanlight 256.  In his enthusiasm, he omits to mention one fatal
flaw in the current scanners for the Archimedes.  There is no Character
Recognition Software, so anything that is scanned remains as a sprite.
5.5
In the same issue, the benefits of the Archimedes over the Apple Mac are
trumpeted.  One of the major advantages of the Mac is the ready
availability of scanner software that includes character recognition,
and very well it works, too.
5.5
I would also like to take to task all the reviewers who praise the PC
Emulator to high heaven.  No doubt it IS a clever piece of software, but
is too little, too slow.
5.5
I have some software, written with Clipper 5, which I need to use on a
regular basis for my work.  Not only is it exceedingly slow, (the
opening logo takes 45 seconds to run, instead of the 2 seconds on a 386
and the 2 to 3 minutes to update files is painful.)  It also keeps
crashing!
5.5
As far as I can see, anyone with the money to buy an Archimedes and who
needs MS-DOS is far better off with a 386 or 486 now that prices have
fallen recently.    Eddie Lord, Crawley.
5.5
•    Schema-line? − I had hoped to start off this series by writing an
article last month. After conversations with Dave Clare, I put it off
hoping that Clares would provide me with an update on problems with
Schema which had come to light from users’ letters. However, nothing was
forthcoming from Clares either last month or this, so I feel I must
start the ball rolling.
5.5
Firstly, the thing that seems to have attracted most people to Schema is
its powerful macro language. The collecting and publishing of macros was
one of the objectives of this column. If you have any interesting ones
please pass them on to me and I will ask Paul to put a few in the
monthly program disc.
5.5
The other main reason for this column, is to publish the various
problems that users have found and pass them on to Clares. I hope that,
by this method, I can get answers both from you, the users, and from the
program writers in Northwich and Glasgow and so provide an interactive
column that both PipeDream and Impression have enjoyed for some time in
this magazine.
5.5
If you have any comments that might help these articles, please drop me
a line or call me on 0903−813524. James Buckley, Bramley, Goring Road,
Steyning, West Sussex  BN44 3GF.
5.5
•    Waterloo − I bought Waterloo as soon as I saw it mentioned in Archive
and I have a number of comments and additions to make to Tord Eriksson’s
review of the game. I would recommend this program to anybody interested
in wargaming. I like the way in which the game simulates the confusion
of military conflict and, in particular, I am impressed by the way that
the game captures the ebb and flow of a real battle. I also feel that
the game provides a good historical reconstruction of the battle of
Waterloo.
5.5
Landscape − The landscape is not 100% flat as Tord remarks, but
contoured, with dark green lines representing the various slopes. Hills
restrict line-of-sight and their slopes have an important effect on
combat. The maximum line-of-sight is 2 miles, but it is rare to be able
to see anything more than 1½ miles away.
5.5
Graphics − The graphics are certainly not state of the art, but Tord
does not mention that the program is exceptionally fast and, as always,
there must be a trade off between speed and more realistic graphics.
Personally, I find the graphics acceptable and feel that the cube
structures used to represent troops reasonably resemble a block of
uniformed men seen in the distance.
5.5
Wellington’s rout − I think that Tord misses the point with respect to
Wellington’s penchant for panicking. The general’s rout for much the
same reason as other soldiers. If Wellington or Napoleon come under
heavy artillery fire, or if they are are directly attacked by enemy
troops, they will panic and run. So, if you don’t want find yourself
unable to give orders, don’t get too close to the fighting and, for the
same reason, watch out for where your counter-part is currently
stationed in order to direct shelling or troops at him.
5.5
Wellington set his troops up in a very strong defensive position. One
important element of his strategy was that he situated much of his force
on the reverse slope of the road which leads from Braine Laleud to just
north of Smohain and thereby concealed from the French troops. This is
an aspect of the battle which the game brings out extremely well. An
unfortunate consequence of this strategy, however, is that Wellington’s
own field of view is restricted, so that if he wants to directly observe
the course of the battle (instead of staying at Waterloo and relying on
battle reports) he is forced to get close to the front line thus leaving
himself vulnerable.
5.5
Changing the course of history − It is possible for Napoleon to win. It
is necessary, as Napoleon himself realised, to knock the Allies out
before the Prussians arrive in strength. It is important to realise that
a significant amount of the Allied army are Militia units and that
Wellington has few troops of the calibre of the French Guards. Further
more, the bulk of the Allied mounted units are light cavalry. Lastly, if
the French can push the Allies back and in general get them off balance,
the Allies will have difficulty in regrouping their artillery.
5.5
One strategy that I have used to great effect is to mount a rapid attack
in force against Wellington’s east flank. This strategy begins with
sending D’Erlon, Kellerman and Milhaud, supported by Drouot, against La
Haie and the ridge just to the north of it. You should be able to send
the Allied flank reeling and, from this vantage point, be able to swing
your troops west along the ridge all the way to La Haie-Saint itself
(and if you are lucky even to Mont-St. Jean Farm) whilst also leaving a
defensive force in La Haie, Frichermont and Plancenoit in order to hold
the Prussians back. Gareth Bellaby, Nottingham
5.5
•    W(h)ither the Archimedes? − Here are some thoughts from a long-term
Acorn-user with a particular interest in Civil & Structural Engineering
and technical graphics applications.
5.5
These musings have been prompted by various recent developments and
events, with rather more time for thought in these depressed times than
one would wish and, more recently still, an unexpected trip overseas
where I was helping a large UK consultancy finish a major elevated
expressway project just before Christmas.
5.5
First an apology − perhaps there are no other similar Archimedes users
out there in which case this article is about as much use as a spare set
of Arthur OS chips! The indications are not hopeful: several contribu
tions to Archive on subjects such as PDT, Plane Draft and CASA have
elicited very few contacts or queries. PDT, which is Oak Solutions’
flagship CAD program has sold “in the thousands” and CASA, a structural
analysis suite from Vision Six certainly deserves to sell. One or two
other articles/products with some relevance have appeared, e.g. Jim
Markland’s !Works and recent thoughts on getting over the RISC-OS hurdle
for “own-use” applications. However, the vast majority of interest in
Archive (and elsewhere) has been in connection with DTP, education, non-
technical graphics, DTP, games, bits of music/ sampling ...oh! and DTP!
5.5
No complaints if the Archimedes starts to sell widely in the DTP world,
but it’s just such a shame that such a good “user’s” computer has
apparently made no inroads in the real world of professional engineering
design. PC Engineering programs are plentiful, and many are very pricey
indeed. Why so few for the Archimedes? Let’s take an example in
CAD....in a word, Autocad.
5.5
When the Archimedes was young and 1M was vast, and 640 × 512 resolution
was the business, AutoDesk released AutoSketch, and rumours circulated
to the effect that they would port over Autocad when the potential user-
base became viable. They never did.
5.5
Now I have played with Autocad over the years on various machines and at
various release levels but could not get on with it. AutoSketch has
never been a serious contender. PDT was a much more likeable program −
but: PDT was not the ideal vehicle for my sort of work, although I have
actually produced many drawings with it. It has been steadily improved
and can be thoroughly recommended for Mechanical Design. However, it
does impose certain constraints upon the user and, above all, it is a
“closed program”. No real “hooks” or means of access/enhancement are
available to the user save DXF file exchange, which is only part of what
is required. I also purchased WorraCad which does provide some of the
‘missing’ features not in PDT at the expense of frustration due to
having to use RISC-OS menus to get at everything. I am firmly of the
opinion that single-tasking is the best format for CAD, as speed is
paramount. Moreover, PDT’s menus are much easier and more predictable
than WorraCad’s, but why-oh-why can’t they be user-modified?
5.5
Enter Autocad release 11 which I recently saw being used on a project
featuring some 5000 separate drawings, produced entirely on PC’s (386’s
with a few 486’s) and my eyes were somewhat opened. For a start, the
usability of the software on current fast PC’s was a surprise. Next, the
add-ons which had been written in-house for the requirements of Civil
Engineering detailing, vastly increased productivity. Further, the
tricks which were being dreamed up to integrate Lotus and other
specialist software enabling data extraction, processing and reintegra
tion were very tasty. Take for example the processing of Autocad
Reinforced Concrete drawings to automatically compile Bending Schedules
− this was a user produced routine, not a commercial product. This is
not possible with PDT as the file structure is not documented.
5.5
The point is, against my inclination, I was impressed. OK, so the
software is expensive at around £3000 but so is the time one expends on
learning and using any system. More and more professional users are
turning to industry standard programs which, like Autocad, will simply
not run on a non-PC machine. (Even if you accepted the slowness of
Archimedes emulation, Autocad insists on a 386/387 machine, so no go
unless you have a PCcard.) (That is on its way − I saw it working on the
Aleph One stand at the BETT Show, running Flight Simulator (what else?).
Production versions should be available shortly. Ed.) However, as speed
is vital for CAD work why haven’t we got a ‘native’ version? Further
more, is even ARM3 technology up to the task? Computer shopper recently
referred to Acorn’s RISC family as ‘dated’.
5.5
Of course the A5000 is a welcome machine; but is it the technology or
the price which is right? Also RISC-OS 3 must represent a great deal of
work, but it is apparently not staggeringly better than 2. Not surpris
ing as 2 was such a big leap forward. However the point is why have the
perfect operating system if few people ‘out there’ are using it and the
marque becomes a programmer’s/user’s cul-de-sac?
5.5
You know things are getting serious when the logic for ‘that new
machine’ starts pointing towards a 486 PC thingy instead of the
preferred A5000/A540 approach. Question : has anyone seen AutoCad
running on an A260 under Unix? You see, PC’s have moved on. They’ve
actually got a lot better. Extended memory management (transparent to
the user in Autocad 11), Mouse versions of programs like Norton
Commander and even Windows make the DOS headache less onerous.
Reluctantly, one has to acknowledge that the reasons for staying with
Acorn become less obvious, even for an avowed Acorn-ophile.
5.5
I would still prefer to keep buying British (hardware and software),
keep my trusty Basic V (or VI) platform, have access to genuinely good
programs such as PipeDream at realistic prices, and I don’t want to be
excommunicated from Archive!
5.5
So where does that get us? Some possible conclusions are :
5.5
• Acorn need a fast ARM4 machine soon to stay ahead on speed if not
compatibility.
5.5
• Aleph One need to succeed with their PC card. I would be keen to see
this run Autocad with a 387 installed.
5.5
• Other software houses need to support wider professional interests
than currently fashionable; as an act of faith.
5.5
• We Acorn-users need to stand fast also as an act of faith, or
alternatively....
5.5
• We could all shut up shop and move over to PC’s.....
5.5
In an effort to further the debate (what debate?), the following is a
list of Civil Engineering Software which I have written which, although
not yet at a commercial level of polish RISC-OS-wise, is never-the-less
capable of serious application, together with typical prices of PC type
equivalents. It may be of interest to someone − if so, please contact
me.
5.5
!Highway − horizontal alignment design of road networks including
circular and spiral curves, verges, footways, spurs; full screen
display; data output and export of DXF drawing files with all curve,
chainage information etc, automated. PC say £500−£700+
5.5
!Vertcur − vertical curve super-elevation design, direct output of HPGL
(or DXF) file to plotter etc. PC say £200−£400
5.5
I have hopes of combining the above in a suite with (perhaps) Euclid
control of 3D data for visualisation, drive-throughs etc.
5.5
!Storm91 − Storm and Foul drainage design suite using Modified Rational
method; full invert computation and automatic plotting, labelling,
manhole table output etc in DXF. PC say £600
5.5
!PlotWise − HPGL plotfile controller and optimiser. (This is my most
advanced effort in RISCware to date!)
5.5
!Digitiser − Produce DXF file of point data from plotter acting as a
digitiser.
5.5
!Frame90 − 2D Frame Analysis program
5.5
!Design − Miscellaneous structural design routines for R/C, Masonry,
Steel design etc.
5.5
PDT.FontEdit − Edits PDT fonts!
5.5
Anyone care to collaborate with me in order to at least polish some of
these up to commercial quality so that the choice of software is
widened? I wouldn’t mind some return for the months of effort involved
to date, but if there are no takers perhaps I’ll offer them all to Paul
for a CareWare (CivilWare?) disc.
5.5
Finally, if this does nothing else but prompt a storm of protest as to
why I’m missing the point, great! Let’s talk about it! Richard Fallas,
Buckinghamshire.  A
5.5

5.5
Cartoon Collection
5.5
Len Randall
5.5
The Cartoon collection from Micro Studio is a graphics library for the
Archimedes series. The collection comes on four discs and covers... Disc
one − animals and toys: animals has a bee, butterfly, cat, dog, hare and
a tortoise. The hare and the tortoise are illustrated on the cover of
the disc box to give you a flavour of the type of thing you can do with
them. Toys cover wooden type toys, dog, horse, soldier, teddy etc.
5.5
Disc two has more animals − frog, cow, rabbit, monkey, etc. The objects
cover a lamp, radio, TV, chair etc.
5.5
Disc three has almost four times as many pictures as the previous two
discs. The characters range from butcher and baker to a shepherdess and
a vicar. No I’m sorry they didn’t put in the candlestick maker − a bit
remiss.
5.5
Disc four covers transport and gives you a selection of cars, planes and
other vehicles including a fire engine, tractor and train.
5.5
So you can see there is quite a selection for making, for example,
posters for toy fairs and sales, specialised birthday cards, etc.
5.5
All the pictures are in Paint format so they can be coloured easily by
following the instruction sheet enclosed with the discs. The pictures
are large and will need sizing. This can be done quite simply in Paint
by using the sprite as a brush and changing the x and y scale of the
sprite_brush when you create your new sprite. On the other hand if you
have !Scaler by Midnight Graphics you will be able to scale the image up
and down at will. Once you have your image as its own sprite, you can
you colour it as you wish.
5.5
Conclusion
5.5
The way that the clip art is presented, using Magpie, could have been a
little slicker and all four discs could have some form of linkage.
5.5
However, as you can see from the illustrations, they can be made to fit
different sizes and shapes. (It’s easy in Impression frames.) So, as
with most clip art type pictures, it’s up to you what you do with them
but this package could be useful for youngsters creating their own
stories. Also, with some work in Tracer (or David Pilling’s Trace.) you
could produce Draw files to animate.  A
5.5

5.5
Sky Hunter
5.5
Richard Rymarz
5.5
Longman Logotron have produced a number of high quality software
packages for use in schools: Pendown, Revelation, Magpie and, most
recently, Pinpoint spring to mind. So it was with a certain amount of
excitement that I opened the brown packaging to review Sky Hunter.
5.5
As usual, the accompanying booklet was beautifully produced and written
with a splendid picture of a peregrine falcon on the front. Opening it,
I discovered that the software has been written for the whole range of
Acorn computers. Immediately my suspicions were aroused that this might
perform under BBC emulation or was an ‘enhanced’ Archimedes version.
This proved correct because when clicking on the Sky Hunter application
the computer was taken over by the program and no further use was made
of the wimp environment. It was like stepping back in time as the
program asked me to press the space bar, arrow keys and the return key
over and over again. However, in practice, this did not seem to matter
as the children who field tested the software were used to a mixed Acorn
environment and had no difficulties.
5.5
The program
5.5
Sky Hunter is an adventure program linked to the BBC television program
for 7-9+ year olds called ‘Look and Read’ (although it can be used
independently). This will be broadcast during the whole of the spring
term 1992 and tells the story of two crooks who are involved in the
illegal sale of peregrine falcons. The children track down the nasty
pair and, with the help of the police, bring them both to justice.
5.5
The software provides a number of problems that the children have to
solve, including anagrams, suffixes, a logical tiling problem, naming
parts of a bird, animal recognition and a sliding block puzzle. There
are twelve problems in all, the last being a traditional “adventure”
involving no text entry. A menu is provided to allow the children to
continue having completed particular chapters.
5.5
Responses become easy as familiarity grows but the sliding block puzzle
always caused frustration. Most problems are language based and readily
lead to activities away from the computer. Here the booklet is very
helpful giving lots of ideas to develop and extend the themes and
provide enough work to last many weeks. More help is given at the back
of the booklet, guiding the teacher through a whole range of English,
Mathematics, Science, Geography and Technology attainment targets (for
those who are interested). Further themes include any branch of
ornithology, canals, zoos, puzzles and anything else the imaginative
teacher or child can come up with.
5.5
Use in the classroom
5.5
It is suggested that work around the computer should be group − based to
provide the necessary discussion, hypothesising and collaboration. Two
groups were given the opportunity to consumer test the program, albeit
under strained conditions: the last week of the term before Christmas.
5.5
The first group − bright year 3 children (7+) enjoyed the program but
struggled with some of the language. They found the puzzles stimulating
but there was a need for teacher involvement since they were unsure of
some words and the nature of one or two of the problems. However, with
support work away from the computer, they would surely succeed.
5.5
The second group − average Yr 5 children (9+) had far fewer problems.
They loved every bit of it, revelling in the logical mature of the
story, coping with the puzzles admirably and becoming totally embroiled
in the story. Perhaps it was a touch too easy for them but this is not
necessarily a bad thing − the accompanying work is just as important.
5.5
Conclusions
5.5
Sky Hunter is an excellent program which may or may not be used with the
television programme and is ideal for school group use. It is well
suited to the target age group. The documentation is first rate,
providing a springboard for many weeks’ work. One small quibble: why do
Archimedes users have to pay more than Model B and Master owners for the
same program?  A
5.5

5.5
The DTP Column
5.5
Rob Sherratt
5.5
Yes, the DTP column has started up again, thanks to a ‘team’ of four
Archive members who have volunteered their help. The editorial task will
rotate on a monthly basis. A “feature” of the team is that we will be
independent of everybody except Archive DTP users, and we will not even
show favouritism to NCS, although Paul Beverley does have the ability
not to print what we have written! (The editor utters an evil laugh as
he wields his electronic scalpel!)
5.5
The ‘first priority’ being worked on by the team is to put together a
list of possible future DTP-related articles. We have some ideas which
are not necessarily the same as those of the Archive public, so please
write with any ideas relating to DTP on the Archimedes that you would
like covered in future articles (or submit the articles yourselves!)
5.5
So far, it looks like the DTP column will contain the following topical
areas:
5.5
•        News, rumours and comment.
5.5
•    Reviews − new products relating to DTP and comparisons with existing
products.
5.5
•    Hints, tips, questions and, wherever possible, answers.
5.5
•    Design − a series of articles on what makes one design “good” and
another one “bad”.
5.5
•    DTP “swap area”. The idea of this is to increase each others’ skills
and techniques in DTP by swapping work we have done. A list will be
maintained of Archive members wanting their names, addresses and phone
numbers published together with the type of work they are doing and
there can then be a general “free for all” where we contact each other
and exchange material. Please send details to Rob if you want to
participate.
5.5
We cannot always write individual replies, but your views and letters
will be very welcome and will be taken into account when the DTP column
goes to print.
5.5
If you plan on writing a long article on a DTP topic, get in contact
with Rob first to avoid possible duplication of effort − sadly four
people sent in contributions on !Trace last month − sorry to Jochen and
Ian that your excellent accounts apparently arrived too late to be
‘merged’ with Tord Eriksson’s and my bit!
5.5
“You can’t be serious... can you?”
5.5
The DTP editorial team and several other Archive readers discussing
priorities for the DTP column, consider that the ‘number one’ factor
prejudicing the ability of the Archimedes to make major impact in the
“real world” DTP market place is not the machine, its operating system,
the application software available, IBM compatibility, Mac compatibility
or any other technical factor, but is instead the fact that hardly
anyone out there knows a thing about it!
5.5
We are sorry to have to say this because, technically, Acorn is such a
brilliant company and has given those of us “in the know” some fantastic
value-for-money DTP and educational equipment, but Acorn seems to have
concentrated all its effort on technical developments. (There is a
rumour that there will soon appear an Archimedes notebook and even
further into the future we hear an advanced graphics machine is on the
drawing board.) (Keep your eyes and ears open for the portable but don’t
hold you breath for the big, super graphics machine would be my advice.
Ed)
5.5
Rather than these facts inspiring us with the enthusiasm they would once
have done, they instead fill us with great concern. Why dump millions of
pounds into the development of new equipment when what you already have
is a potential market leader and just needs a big marketing and sales
push? We cannot see how a company the size of Acorn can market a
“platform” of about a dozen variants of leading-technology hardware
without a sales and marketing department which approaches the size of
the technical and manufacturing departments. Surely Olivetti can tell
Acorn this?
5.5
Some of the “DTP editorial team” have considerable professional
experience of competing platforms for DTP use, such as the Macintosh and
PC/Windows 3 platforms. We all get our work done faster on the Archi
medes and find it easier to use and would very much like it to become
“world best practice”. The trouble is that the rest of the world hasn’t
heard of it.
5.5
We would welcome a considered response to the above from Acorn; even
perhaps a statement of what the rumoured tie-up between Acorn and CC
means to the marketplace? Also a public statement from Acorn on the
future possibility of Olivetti’s marketing strength giving assistance to
the Archimedes / DTP market place would be welcome.
5.5
(You may have noticed that Impression II won the Computer Shopper Award
for the “best non-PC business package for 1991”. The judges said that it
was “rated as comparable to market leaders like Quark Express and
PageMaker”. Ed)
5.5
The Tempest is over
5.5
Clares’ Tempest DTP package has been withdrawn from sale. They had been
promising an upgrade for quite some time but have finally admitted
defeat and have offered a refund to people who feel aggrieved.
5.5
Stand up and be counted!
5.5
We have received a copy of “The Good CD Guide 1992” published by General
Gramophone Publications and sent to Archive by Ivor Humphreys who is the
Audio Editor.
5.5
Priced at £12.95, this 680 page reference guide will be really useful to
all listeners of Classical Music, but of particular interest to this
column was the fact that it was entirely produced using Impression on an
Archimedes. The Good CD Guide also contains many full colour photo
graphs. (I suspect these were “pasted up” after Impression had done its
bit. I’d like to know if anyone has “cracked” the technicalities and
economics of doing full 24bit colour work with publications of this
size.)
5.5
Ivor Humphreys also sent one of Gramophone’s “Awards 1991” − a CD of
extracts from the 1991 Gramophone award winners. Of significance is the
fact that the disk label was printed using Impression, with FontFX being
used to bend the copyright notices around the perimeter.
5.5
Well done, Gramophone! Perhaps Archive magazine should start its own
Annual Awards to be able to award you one for being the first major
publication outside the “Archimedes owners’ marketplace” to make serious
DTP use of the Archimedes − unless any reader knows otherwise!
5.5
Whistle while you wait ...
5.5
We have been disappointed to learn that the “CPU hogging” function of
the release 2 printer drivers has not been fixed in the current releases
with RISC-OS3. Many people have asked for a proper queueing system to be
implemented which would allow the printer drivers to do background
printing of Sprite, Draw and Impression files. As it is, if you print
onto a dot matrix printer in “bit image mode” you may have to wait 15 to
20 minutes before you can have your machine back.
5.5
Background printing of graphics files is something that Mac and PC users
have been able to do for several years. We would welcome comment from
anyone at Acorn reading this!
5.5
DTP on the Archimedes − DTP for all
5.5
A new book from Bruce Goatly has just been published by Sigma Press,
price £12.95.
5.5
Until now, the only tutorial book I have found which covers DTP on the
Archimedes is Stephen Ibbs’ “First Impression” (Reviewed by Robert
Chrismas in Archive 5.1 p17). First Impression is, of course, a specific
guide to the use of Computer Concept’s Impression software. (A review of
Stephen’s follow-up, “Good Impression” appears on page 47.)
5.5
Goatly’s “DTP for all” is aimed at someone starting from scratch,
thinking that the Archimedes is a good machine, and then asking “how do
I get good DTP results on it?”. The book has sections covering all
leading Archimedes WP/DTP software (yes, 1WP, Acorn DTP, Ovation and
EasiWriter are all covered as well as Impression), and is split into
twelve sections:
5.5
1    What is DTP?
5.5
2     Equipping Yourself
5.5
3     DTP with Word Processors
5.5
4     Edit and Draw: Budget DTP
5.5
5     DTP Software for Education
5.5
6     Essentials of DTP
5.5
7     Text Handling
5.5
8     Graphics in DTP
5.5
9     Rudiments of Design
5.5
10     DTP in Practice
5.5
11     Preparing the Camera Copy
5.5
12     Duplication and Finishing
5.5
What is DTP?
5.5
Many people thinking of buying a book on DTP would think they already
know what DTP is. However, in this first chapter, Goatly explains very
concisely some of the technical “pitfalls” that many of us trip over. He
describes how outline font technology works from screen to printout, and
the full set of terminology used in the printing trade − points, picas,
setting, leading, baseline, ems, ens, standard paper sizes, full tone
and half tone illustrations, etc.
5.5
Equipping yourself
5.5
The initial section is entitled “The RISC-OS Advantage” and describes
all the features we know and love. However, I was disappointed that
Goatly didn’t draw more of a comparison with the Mac’s System 6/7 and
Windows 3 on a PC because many believe that RISC-OS as an application
support platform is greatly superior to both of these. Would any reader
like to volunteer to draw up a comparison table for publication?
5.5
However, the remaining 80% of the chapter gives very useful advice
including presenting a number of “pros and cons” tables for all the
Archimedes WP / DTP packages on the market. Sensible advice is given on
what hardware will be needed and then a set of hints and tips is given
on how to get started − explaining how all the Font Manager configura
tion parameters work.
5.5
DTP with word processors
5.5
Text based packages covered here are First Word Plus, PD3 and Easi
Writer. Goatly’s “get you going” approach will be useful to new users of
these packages and also to those considering such a purchase. The bulk
of the chapter is devoted to EasiWriter which Goatly admits can achieve
documents “with the outward appearance of DTP”, while still being
predominantly text based rather than graphic-based.
5.5
Edit and Draw: Budget DTP
5.5
I found this a very interesting chapter because I did not realise that
so much could be done when importing text into Draw. (I really must read
the User Guide some time!) Goatly exploits the full extent of Draw’s
capabilities to show how multi column layouts including graphics can be
achieved. There are also some tips on how to avoid pitfalls when using
Draw for DTP − the most common trap being italicised characters having
their overhangs cropped off by the “frame” which Draw constructs around
them.
5.5
DTP software for education
5.5
Two educational packages are covered − PenDown and Desktop Folio. I am
glad that educational packages have been covered in a book on “DTP for
all” because, in the Archimedes marketplace, the majority of users are
still in education.
5.5
Essentials of DTP
5.5
Using Impression and Ovation as models, Goatly explains all the
terminology and concepts behind frame-based DTP on the Archimedes. The
comparison between the way Ovation and Impression operate would be
useful to anyone wondering which product would suit them best.
5.5
Throughout the rest of the book, Ovation and Impression snapshots are
jointly used to illustrate Goatly’s material.
5.5
Text handling
5.5
A really excellent chapter which explains everything you ever needed to
know about laying out and manipulating text for use with a DTP package.
The use of special effects with FontFX, FontDraw, Poster and others is
also covered.
5.5
Graphics in DTP
5.5
After an initial discussion of where you can get graphical material and
software from, a large part of the chapter discusses scanning techniques
and how to incorporate and manipulate pixel-based and object-based
graphic files within a DTP document.
5.5
Rudiments of design
5.5
Most of the “golden” rules in document design are given here. I found
especially useful the section describing the many different ways
paragraphs on a page could be adjusted to fit the space available.
5.5
DTP in practice
5.5
This chapter is over 40 pages − I think the longest in the book − and
rightly so. Several complex example documents are illustrated, which
Goatly then explains, so that the reader can see how they were con
structed.
5.5
Preparing the camera copy
5.5
This covers the various different ways of getting DTP documents printed
out, comparing pros and cons of each method. Goatly goes through the
detail of how to get adequate DTP output on a dot matrix printer (if you
wait long enough), and then spends the majority of the chapter discuss
ing page printers and PostScript.
5.5
Duplication and finishing
5.5
This final chapter covers different ways of mass-producing your work,
giving a tick list of advantages / disadvantages for each method. Goatly
also explains, in some detail, how pages are laid out for folding and
stitching
5.5
Conclusion
5.5
Bruce Goatly has done a magnificent job with this book which represents
very good value for money at £12.95. Construction of the book is a
significant achievement in itself, because it was entirely done using an
Archimedes and Impression, and camera ready printout was done on a
Computer Concepts LaserDirect/LBP8 printer.
5.5
The Readers Write!
5.5
•    Printing on an FX80 from within Impression − Patrick Dowling from
Australia writes that he would like a DTP column!! He also sends the
following tip which was contained in a letter to him from Computer
Concepts:
5.5
Using Impression’s PrintLX module in draft mode to an Epson FX80 printer
for plain word processing, it is simpler to use the Corpus (mono-spaced
Courier typewriter equivalent) font instead of the default 14pt Trinity.
12pt Corpus font on screen prints Pica font on paper (10 chars per
inch). 10pt Corpus font prints in Elite (12 c.p.i.). The former allows
72 characters across the default Impression A4 page, the latter 86.
Selecting Bold produces emphasised Pica or double-strike Elite.
5.5
Patrick also asked CC whether there was a way of getting Impression to
make use of proportional spacing on the FX80 while printing in draft
mode. CC said (Dec ’91) that they hadn’t found how to yet.
5.5
Can any reader with Impression and an FX80, or compatible, contact Rob
if they know how to do this? It would probably involve an understanding
of the innards of CC’s PrintLX module and how to add the codes ESC, p, 1
to cause the printer’s proportional spacing to be turned on.
5.5
Note: prior to purchasing a Laser Direct HiRes4 printer, I used to own
an Epson RX80 printer (which did not have in built proportional
spacing). I had to live with the fact that it took 20 minutes to print a
justified page from Impression in high resolution mode − but the results
were really good and comparable with those on a 300 d.p.i. laser
printer.
5.5
•    Graphic file formats − Neil Whiteley-Bolton (now a co-Editor of the
DTP column) from Amsterdam writes that his main ‘complaint’ about the
present Archimedes / DTP setup is that the RISC-OS printer drivers do
not, at present, support 24-bit colour file formats such as TIFF or
Clear, and hence there is no point (currently) in persuading CC and
other application writers to incorporate TIFF or Clear file import /
print capability within their products.
5.5
CC’s ‘Artworks’ combined with the Laser-Direct Hi Res interface may
offer a ‘way out’ of the loop for low resolution (600 dpi) output, but I
agree that PrinterPS badly needs an upgrade that will be compatible with
the full capabilities of packages such as Artworks. I have written on
behalf of Archive to CC to ask about Artworks among other things, and we
will let you know as soon as I hear back − I believe their letter was
lost in the post and so missed this copy date!
5.5
I will also try writing to Acorn on behalf of Archive readers on this
topic, but would prefer to “collect together” one or two more items
first.
5.5
•    Graphic drivers for printers − John Evans from Winchester has written
his own typesetting and printer interface program to drive an HP
Laserjet IIISi printer using HP’s PCL 5 language. His driver works
perfectly for sprites and text, but he does not currently have the
capability of rasterising Draw files.
5.5
He asks the following:  (a) Does anyone have any C subroutines for
rasterising Draw files?  (b) Is there any product which allows you to
convert from a Draw file to a Sprite file (other than by doing a
screendump first!)  (c) Is there a way of converting from Draw/Sprite
format into TIFF format to enable file interchange with people using
PCs?
5.5
In partial answer to question (c), you need a copy of John Kortink’s
!Creator (C/W 13), !Translator  (C/W 13) and !GreyEdit (S/W 40) programs
which will allow conversion and image processing between Sprites and
most foreign graphic file formats including TIFF. Registration costs £10
cash only to John Kortink, Middelhuisstr. 17, 7482 EL Haaksbergen, The
Netherlands.
5.5
You can convert sprites to Draw files using David Pilling’s !Trace
program reviewed last month, but I do not know how to do the reverse
other than by doing a screendump.
5.5
•    Wierd and Wonderful − Rob Sherratt (who?) uses Impression v2.13 and
sometimes encounters crashes when working on documents of more than 7 or
8 pages. The crashes arise after cutting and pasting at or around
‘control-G’ frame breaks and occur when trying to save the Impression
document, but saving selected text works OK.
5.5
The error messages are either “Internal error code Eskw or ER00 or Eu02
or Epsb.” Following these, the only way “out” of the error alert loop is
to click on cancel and abort Impression and your unsaved work. Help
please? (Don’t panic, Rob, it is known about and corrected in later the
version I am using now, 2.14i. Ed.)
5.5
One important role of an “Independent” DTP column is to build up a
database of significant problems in each version of the leading DTP
packages and to be able to advise readers on the current status, any
workarounds, and if the suppliers are working on providing a fix. If
people would like to write to Rob with any currently unresolved problems
they have, he is willing to build up the “fault log” database and liaise
with suppliers once sufficient “evidence” has been collected.
5.5
DTP Swap Area
5.5
This area will contain the names and addresses of “new” people who have
agreed to swap DTP material they have published. The aim of this is to
improve one anothers’ skills by the exchange of printed ideas. No money
should change hands.
5.5
If you want to “swap” with anyone, you must first publish your name and
address and area of interest, and then write directly to whoever you
want to do a “swap” with.
5.5
If we get hundreds of “swappers”, Archive may consider publication of a
small directory. Such a directory would not be “publicly available”, but
only on request to those who have asked for their own names and
addresses to be included in it.
5.5
If anyone wants to supply me with any original graphic they have
published and would like to see printed in this column then please send
it on disk and in a form which I can import to Impression. Try to supply
something which will fit in a 2.5 inch square area.
5.5
New Names and Details:
5.5
John F.O. Evans produces a church magazine called the Dever, which has a
circulation of 300+. He would like to “swap” with others doing similar
work. His address is Mijas, Winchester Road, Micheldever, Winchester,
Hants. SO21 3DG.
5.5
Rob and Carole Sherratt produce a weekly church magazine called In
Transit, which has a circulation of 120+. They have also produced
software technical guides and a book of verse and short stories. They
are interested in doing “swaps” with anyone prepared to accept a church
magazine in return! Their address is 134, High Road West, Felixstowe,
Suffolk. IP11 9AL.
5.5

5.5
Panorama + The World
5.5
Just recently, a combination of two low-cost programs have given my
children (well, me really) so much educational pleasure that I thought I
should write about them and pass the tips on. The programs are firstly
David Pilling’s “Panorama − Draw the World” (Disc 33) at £5.99, and
secondly Glynn Clement’s “The World” which is available on the Risc User
Volume 4 Special Disk at £4.95. (I thought if that name gets printed it
would show how unbiased Archive really is!)
5.5
Panorama
5.5
David Pilling’s latest masterpiece comes on (and can be run from) a
single floppy with helpful !ReadMe instructions, and is a fully RISC-OS
compliant application coupled with a huge database of 180,000
coordinates of continental outlines, lakes, rivers, state boundaries,
positions and names of most cities, etc. Using the database, the
application can produce “satellite views” from any point above the
world, or can produce various types of continental maps of any specified
area of the world.
5.5
The program operates to up to 5 levels of resolution − 5 (the lowest)
taking only a few seconds to plot (a rather sketchy) globe, and 1 (the
highest) taking a minute (or three if you’re not using an ARM3). The
highest resolution plots can be zoomed 50 times (or more) their original
size (both in Panorama and in !Draw) to produce detailed maps of (for
example) the southern part of the UK, or of Texas, USA.
5.5
Globe coordinates
5.5
To get the most out of Panorama and The World (which I’ll come on to in
a minute), you and your children will need a globe marked with degrees
longitude and latitude. What we used was a really excellent cardboard
“cut out and make” globe − The Tarquin Globe − which costs about £3 from
Tarquin Publications, Stradbroke, Diss (0379− 84218). This “do-it-
yourself kit” comes with a little fact-book about the Earth which will
answer any questions about world geometry / time zones / date line etc
your children may have.
5.5
The World
5.5
Glynn Clement’s program displays an approximate ‘cylindrical projection’
view of the world at any selected centre of longitude, and superimposes
onto that the ‘sinusoidal-ish’ pattern of day and night cast by the sun.
The sun’s position can either be displayed in ‘real time’ (reading the
date and time from your Archimedes), or at a point in date/time
specified by you. It is really useful to be able to see at what time
daybreak and sunset will ocur in a different part of the world to be
able to gauge how receptive someone living there will be to receiving a
phone call from you. I don’t find the ‘timezone difference’ gives me a
good enough idea of what mood they’ll be in! This program in conjunction
with Panorama and a suitable Globe will complete the set of ‘educational
tools’ needed to allow children to further their knowledge of world
geography.
5.5
Introductions
5.5
It may be of interest to you to know who the main DTP contributors will
be....
5.5
Rob Sherratt is an Electronics Engineer working in Network Management
System Design at BT’s Research Labs. His wife Carole (with Rob’s help at
present) is using her Archimedes/Impression setup to produce literature
and newsletters for the local church. The longer term plan is for the
business − EasyCo − to break even!  (Rob is going to act as coordinator
for the DTP column.)
5.5
Richard Hallas in Huddersfield is a freelance music typesetter and does
commercial desktop publishing using Impression. Among other things he
will be handling reviews of all scorewriting packages.
5.5
Richard Else is Head of the Film and Media department of Sheffield City
Polytechnic. He mainly uses Impression on his Archimedes but has used
many other packages and has produced material for both TV and print.
5.5
Neil Whiteley-Bolton in Amsterdam is using his Archimedes / Impression
for professional DTP use in producing a Hi-Fi magazine and technical
journals. His current PostScript output files for the Hi-Fi magazine are
40 Mbytes in size, so he uses a Syquest removable disk to post his work
off for typesetting! Neil is a Systems Developer with the European Space
Agency.
5.5
The new address to which all contributions and questions for the DTP
Column should be sent is: Rob Sherratt, 134 High Road West, Felixstowe,
Suffolk. IP11 9AL.  A
5.5
(We had a letter from a reader asking why we were totally ignoring
Ovation. I have passed the letter on to Rob and next month’s column will
no doubt deal with it. However, it is interesting to note that all the
four contributors are using Impression rather than Ovation. Could we
hear, please, from anyone who is using Ovation for serious DTP work?
Ed.)
5.5

5.5
PD Column
5.5
David Holden
5.5
Not a virus
5.5
I have mentioned before the fact that copyright material keeps finding
its way into the catalogues of seemingly quite respectable libraries and
onto magazine disks. The recent ‘incident’ by Archimedes World is
probably one such example.
5.5
In the December issue of the magazine customers were asked to return
their November disk and offered two new disks in return. No explanation
was given. Despite assurances to the contrary, many people believed that
the disk had been infected with a virus and although the magazine has
been full of denials ever since, there is still no explanation.
5.5
The real reason is very simple. On the November disk there was a PD
program called !ModeUtil. This is a ‘front end’ for screen mode modules
allowing you to select your chosen mode from a menu. Nothing particu
larly startling, except that the modes available were obtained from the
Newmodes module which is part of with Computer Concepts ‘Impression’ and
the Newmodes module was included with the program! As usual, the person
who did this proudly, signed his name and address!
5.5
Passing over the fact that it’s almost impossible to understand how
anyone at Archimedes World could have failed to spot this because the
module isn’t disguised in any way and contains Computer Concepts
copyright message (unless, of course, they never looked), I am left
wondering why they didn’t simply tell the truth. I’m quite sure that,
for months, many people who obtained this disk have been worried about a
possible virus and the lack of any explanation for the recall has done
little to reassure them. So, if you are one of these, please worry no
more.
5.5
(This IS a virus
5.5
Just to show how easily these things happen, the February Archive
magazine disk and Shareware 42 were both sent out with the icon virus on
them! Sorry about that, folks. Adrian is very careful about this sort of
thing. The trouble is, Paul received an update of the !Daylight
application, tried it out on his computer at home, picked up the icon
virus which his sons had picked up from school and updated the two discs
just in time for them to be sent out to the unsuspecting subscribers.
5.5
Still, he’s not alone... the magazine disc with the February Archimedes
World contained the module virus, a rather worse virus than icon as it
is more difficult to remove and seems to spread far more easily. Ed.)
5.5
Hard disk backup
5.5
In the January issue, the subject of hard disk backup was raised and the
PD program on Shareware 36 mentioned as a good solution. While this is
an excellent program, I would suggest that a conventional backup program
is not what most people need, and I will describe the solution that I
adopt.
5.5
The first problem to be considered is the amount of data that needs to
be backed up. If you have a 40M disk and it is about half full then,
assuming around 750k of data on each floppy, you will need over 54 disks
to hold your backup using conventional methods. Why 54 and not 27 since
27 × 750k is 20.25M? Well, Murphy’s Law (‘Anything that can go wrong
will go wrong’) means that a backup is only worth having if the backup
has a backup. You therefore need at least two sets of backup disks
(normally called ‘Father’ and ‘Son’) and backup to each alternately. So,
if there is an error in the most recent set, you still have the previous
ones. If your data is particularly precious, a third set of disks
(‘Grandfather’) should be used as well.
5.5
In fact, most of the time, a large part of a hard disk doesn’t need to
be backed up. Major applications, Draw, Edit, Pipedream, Impression,
fonts, etc. can easily be recreated from the originals if necessary. You
must of course back up any configuration files but these are normally
quite short. What you actually need to back up is all the files created
with these applications, !Boot and !System directories and Library (if
you use one).
5.5
The number of files can be much reduced if you keep some of your data on
floppies instead of the hard disk to start with. Programs such as
PipeDream and 1WP don’t really need to have their files on a hard disk
so if you put them on floppies and keep a backup of the floppies not
only does this drastically reduce the amount of data on your hard disk
but it also makes it a lot easier to find the file you want.
5.5
Using this strategy greatly reduces the amount that needs to be backed
up. Further suggestions were given in the article ‘Saving Disk Space’ by
Mike Hobart in last month’s Archive. Less data = fewer disks = less time
required, which means that you will be more inclined to make regular
backups. If you are wondering what all this has to do with PD I shall
now tell you. I use the PD program !PackDir written by John Kortink to
back up my hard disk. This is not a conventional backup program but it
IS designed specifically for hard disk backup. It uses LZW compression
techniques to compress an entire directory or directory structure.
!Packdir reduces the size of most data files to around 50% of the
original, so you need fewer disks for your backups. You can also use it
to compress backups of floppies which further reduces the number of
disks required. It’s quite fast, taking about one minute to compress 1
Mbyte of data, which is no slower than most conventional backup programs
and a lot faster than !Spark.
5.5
!PackDir is available from most good PD libraries and I can heartily
recommend it.
5.5
Beebug ‘free’ PD again
5.5
You may have read Mike Williams’ comments on my remarks about Beebug
giving away ten disks of PD with each computer sold. While I believe my
original reason was valid, I confess that I was moved more by a feeling
that there was something wrong about the practice, even though I wasn’t
sure exactly what, than from conviction that the reason I gave was the
best one. The answer that our Editor gave to Mike Williams, that it is
against the spirit of PD to use it for financial gain, even if the gain
is indirect, is the correct one. I am happy to accept the rebuke that I
should have thought of it myself and I am pleased to find a better
reason to support my original feelings.
5.5
This should by no means be taken as a criticism of Beebug. It is simply
one of those things upon which everyone must make their own moral
judgement. Since my sympathy is with the principle of PD, I find myself
opposed although there are perfectly valid arguments to the contrary.
5.5
Finally...
5.5
The frantic boom last year when new PD libraries appeared almost daily
seems to have ended at last. Most of these were run by inexperienced
well intentioned enthusiasts who believed that all that was necessary
was to buy some blank disks, send for copies of programs from estab
lished libraries and then sit back and collect the money. Many of them
have discovered that there’s a LOT more to running a successful library
than that, and they are now disappearing at about the same rate that
they appeared.
5.5
Possibly, as a consequence of this, I have received some reports of
customers sending money to libraries and not receiving disk(s) in
return, or only after further letters and/or phone calls, although the
cheques have been cashed. This seems to apply mainly to catalogue disks
and a couple of names have appeared more than once. There are many
perfectly valid reasons why this could have happened and I don’t want to
make anyone unduly apprehensive about sending money to libraries but if
you have had any problems please write and tell me.
5.5
Please write to me at 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26
5RN.  A
5.5

5.5
Small Ads
5.5
(Small ads for Archimedes and related products are free for subscribers
but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the material
you send, as we think fit. i.e. some people don’t know what “small”
means and there are certain things, as you can imagine, that we would
not be prepared to advertise as a matter of principle. Sending small ads
(especially long ones!) on disc is helpful but not essential. Ed)
5.5
•    A3000 colour 2M ram (expandable to 4M), monitor stand £650. Lingenuity
42M SCSI external drive + A3000 interface £400. Phone David on
0223−842505 (after 6).
5.5
•    A3000 2M ram, CM8833 + stand + expansion card case £620. Panasonic
KXP1124 £150. Phone 0275−843322 (Bristol).
5.5
•    A310 with 2 M ram (Atomwide), 20 M SCSI (Oak) drive, Electrohome
Multisync monitor (14“), PCemulator 1.7, FWPlus, Genesis, Acorn DTP +
various PD software, £795. Phone 081−579−0607.
5.5
•    A310 + 4-slot bplane, manuals + software, £500 (£600 with std colour
monitor), inc. discount vouchers towards RAM/ARM3 upgrades. Acorn JP150
Ink Jet printer (new), £225. Citizen C120-D 9-pin Dot Matrix NLQ
printer, £80. Armadillo A448 Sampler card and s/w, £70. Phone Lenny on
071−703−5675.
5.5
•    A410/1 with 4M ram, ARM3 (30MHz), VIDC enhancer, Oak 70M internal
(fast) drive, Acorn multi-sync. Offers (serious) phone 0276−20575 (after
6).
5.5
•    A440 4M ram, 20M drive, Ex cond £550 o.n.o. NEC Multisync II £275, PC
Emulator 1.6 £30. Phone Graham on 081−943−6163 (day), 0784− 244881
(eves).
5.5
•    A5000 computer (2M HD) with monitor. New unused, was £1761, accept
£1699. Ring Roger on 061−799−9845 (eves).
5.5
•    A5000 with multisync, 2M, 40M IDE, JP150. Absolutely as new. £1750.
(or will split) Phone 0494−522704.
5.5
•    Brother HR15 daisywheel printer + 3 wheels + ribbons £200, Graphbox
£35, Interword £15, InterSheet2 £15, SpellMaster £25 (all Archimedes
disc versions). Phone 081−989−2666.
5.5
•    Camcorder and Hawk V9 digitiser. Phone 0366−501001 for details.
5.5
•    Canon BJ130e wide carriage, sheet-feeder, new cartridge, £300 o.n.o.
Phone 051−606−0289.
5.5
•    CC podule for Laser Direct LBP4 £300. Phone Leslie Wiggins on
0602−421413 (day) or 607822 (eves).
5.5
•    Chocks Away £12.50, Extra Missions £10, Break147/Superpool £12.50,
Saloon Cars £12.50, E-Type £5, Olympics £10, Holed Out £5, Pacmania £10,
Interdictor 2 £10. Phone 0672− 810545 (5p.m. onwards or Saturdays).
5.5
•    Citizen Swift 24 Colour printer, inc. cable + Ace’s RISC-OS printer
driver + colour sprite dump, £190 o.n.o. Phone 081−655−0399.
5.5
•    EasiWriter (v 1.04) unused £75. Phone Don on 0942−716860.
5.5
•    Econet Filestore E20 plus 4 Master E.T. Terminals. Offers. Phone Mr M
Gwynne on 0584−872846 (day) or 0568−85410 (eves).
5.5
•    External 3½“ drive + interface for A3000 £70 + postage. Phone Alan on
061−247−1198 (work) or 0204−41459 (home).
5.5
•    Father requires help understanding the operation of late son’s A305
and printer. City of Cambridge area. Phone John Pearson on 0223− 860500.
5.5
•    HP Deskjet 500 + spare cartridges + FX80 emulation cartridge + printer
driver. £300 o.n.o. Phone Steve on 0302−535891.
5.5
•    MultiFS £18, First Word Plus1 £12, Power Band £12, UIM £12, Nevryon,
Twin World £10, PacMania £8, Word Up Word Down £5. Phone Mr Wickham on
0992−712836.
5.5
•    Saloon Cars, Midnight Graphics Clip Art 2, Tactic, Leaderboard,
Tracer, Z88 + accessories, PD Elite commander editor, laser printing and
scanning services. Contact Michael Pargeter on 0462−434061 (eves).
5.5
•    ST506 hard disc interface plus 20M drive + 4-slot backplane, £125.
Phone Brian on 091−536− 4462 (eves).
5.5
•    Voltmace Delta-Cat Joystick unused £9, Twin £4, Interdictor 1 £3.
Phone Richard on 0264− 361475 (eves).
5.5
•    Wanted SCSI interface for A310. Also ARM3. Phone Brian on 091−536
−4462 (eves).
5.5
•    WE Hand Scanner 2 £70, First Word Plus 2 £30. Both o.n.o. buyer
collects or postage extra. Phone Miles Sabin on 081−980−2455.
5.5
Charity Sales − The following items are available for sale in aid of
charity. PLEASE do not just send money − ring us on 0603−766592 to check
if the items are still available. Thank you.
5.5
(If you have unwanted software or hardware for Archimedes computers you
could donate for charity, please send it in 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.)
5.5
RISC-OS Companion Vol 1 £5, Saloon Cars £19, PC Emulator 1.6 MS-DOS £50,
VIDC Enhancer £18, Masterfile II £25, Watford Electronics £5 voucher £3,
InterDictor 1 £10, Conqueror + Corruption + Quazer £18.  A
5.5

5.5

5.5

5.5
Capsoft
5.5
New artwork
5.5

5.5
Hints and Tips
5.5
•    A5000 PC delete danger – I found out the hard way that deleting the PC
directory (and probably Drive_C as well) gives a disc error over the
area of the deleted partition. The only solution is to reformat the hard
disc and restore the last backup. J.R.McLachlan, Hertford.
5.5
Yes, there does appear to be a problem here. The same thing happened to
us. In theory, the idea is that Drive_C is a filetype that is not
deleteable. The trouble is that on the A5000, it seems to get confused
and half delete it, leaving a blank entry in the file table (seen as a
blank line in the filer window if you use “full info”). The answer is to
change the filetype to, say, FFF with
5.5
*SETTYPE $.<pathname>.Drive_C FFF
5.5
before you try to delete it. Ed.
5.5
•    BBC Tracker Ball − In December’s Archive, Paul asked for a wiring
diagram to convert a BBC tracker ball to an Archimedes one. I have
converted an old Marconi tracker ball for use on the Archimedes using
the following diagram.
5.5
The nine wires come out of the bottom of the tracker ball socket as I
have drawn it. Socket 1 is marked, or it is on mine.
5.5
The connections are as follows...
5.5
    9-pin    Trackerball
5.5
    mini DIN    Socket
5.5
    1    3    yellow
5.5
    2    6    black
5.5
    3    7    brown
5.5
    4    9    grey
5.5
    5    2    orange
5.5
    6    1    red
5.5
    7    4    green
5.5
    8    8    white
5.5
    9    5    blue
5.5
The colours are the colours on mine. They may differ between various
tracker balls. A mark 1 Archimedes mouse lead will also fit this
particular tracker ball but two leads need swapping round.
5.5
Connectors 6 and 7, in my case red and brown, need to be changed over.
This can be accomplished with a needle by gently lifting the black
plastic clip above the connector with the needle whilst pulling gently
on the wire to be removed.
5.5
December’s article was, I think, for a mark 1 AMX mouse. I have a later
AMX mouse which is the same design as the early Archimedes mouse and the
lead is a straight swap.
5.5
Dave Morrell, Middlesbrough
5.5
•    Elite Cheat − Here is program that will create a commander file for
use with Elite. It gives you the most needed items to get around a
little better than before, especially the docking computer, (most
welcome). When you have successfully loaded it in, use galaxy map to see
where to go, a little bonus is waiting: Front beam laser, rear beam
laser, large cargo bay (35 tons), docking computer, E.C.M. system, four
missiles.
5.5
REM>:0.$.Elite_com
5.5
REM Program by Scott Edwards
5.5
REM 3-1-92
5.5
REM It is important that you have
5.5
REM the correct checksums on the
5.5
REM right line, the program will
5.5
REM inform you if you have a wrong line.
5.5
MODE0:OFF
5.5
DIM store% &1000
5.5
checkcode%=38901:code$=“”
5.5
line%=390:inc%=0
5.5
FOR l%=0 TO 17
5.5
FOR blk%=0 TO 15
5.5
READ code$
5.5
dat%=EVAL(“&”+code$)
5.5
checksum%=checksum%+dat%
5.5
?(store%+inc%)=dat%
5.5
PRINT dat%,~dat%
5.5
inc%+=1
5.5
NEXT
5.5
READ checkcode%
5.5
IF checksum%<>checkcode% THEN
5.5
PRINT “You have a data byte incorrect at ”;line%
5.5
STOP
5.5
ENDIF
5.5
line%+=10:finalcheck%=checksum%
5.5
checksum%=0
5.5
NEXT
5.5
IF finalcheck%=checkcode% THEN
5.5
PRINT“You have a correct file for saving”
5.5
REPEAT
5.5
INPUT“Enter the commander name for your file  ”;A$
5.5
UNTIL A$<>“”
5.5
SYS“OS_File”,10,A$,&C87,,store%, store%+&11C
5.5
ENDIF
5.5
PRINT“Program is Finished,now run ELITE and use your new commander”
5.5
END
5.5
:
5.5
REM Commander file for ELITE
5.5
:
5.5
DATA 16,B5,DC,72,DF,DD,20,C9,F2,3C, 54, EB,32,6F,EF,09,2244
5.5
DATA E5,F9,61,E3,31,12,B8,70,85,F3, FE,A9,EB,11,02,DD,2439
5.5
DATA 31,43,F2,80,D5,F6,81,FA,70,92, 9A, 72,B9,EB,FC,B9,2707
5.5
DATA C9,B1,42,CE,85,DD,F6,7F,5D,00, D2,9A,92,D2,6F,FC,2553
5.5
DATA B9,2F,F9,62,CF,B5,62,B8,7B,5E, 98,7E,AF,68,DC,AA,2413
5.5
DATA DD,39,30,CD,40,D6,B5,EF,53,70, 9E,91,E9,99,EC,DB,2568
5.5
DATA F1,2C,B1,50,C1,F5,4D,F7,EE,72, 97,52,A1,59,FC,A7,2558
5.5
DATA FD,78,B2,CD,22,CA,AD,FF,54,7F, 3D,52,67,0A,66,D7,2204
5.5
DATA F8,23,39,20,A2,B4,86,B4,6C,7D, 0B,1D,09,4A,D3,44,1663
5.5
DATA D3,37,3F,07,0F,06,A6,63,23,E3, 1D,18,84,80,84,D4,1541
5.5
DATA AA,8A,6B,10,8D,3B,39,43,EB,56, C6,B6,81,48,9F,1E,1846
5.5
DATA 9A,77,2C,64,DC,BA,A5,49,10,CE, BD,17,33,EF,5E,D4,2091
5.5
DATA A5,01,E8,E0,8D,12,71,30,6B,53, F9,F5,E9,47,02,B2,2110
5.5
DATA 91,37,22,7D,F1,F6,A4,7A,DC,C2, 9C,8A,B5,FE,7C,CB,2602
5.5
DATA 38,E2,DA,CF,49,E0,80,BF,CF,20, 6A,6E,E7,24,69,39,2207
5.5
DATA 7E,74,89,36,A6,69,0B,36,B7,A9, 33,46,99,DD,35,07,1676
5.5
DATA 34,D0,D6,93,1D,CF,F0,9B,03,0F, 61,EC,D6,13,E8,71,2181
5.5
DATA 48,83,01,29,F7,5A,82,75,32,A8, BA,41,00,00,00,00,1298
5.5
S Edwards, Stourbridge
5.5
•    First Word Plus 2 − In Archive 3.12 someone was bemoaning the lack of
a key that would toggle insert mode on and off. In fact the <insert> key
itself will do just that.
5.5
Robert Fuller, Basingstoke.
5.5
•    Lemmings Passwords − For all you bald headed insomniacs....
5.5
Taxing Level
5.5
02 Justforyou    03 Runandflee    04
Doortodoor
5.5
05 Stillalive    06 Fixedmyfix    07
Anurebevan
5.5
08 Helpmemate    09 Drinknwine    10
Tenpercent
5.5
11 Stickuptwo    12 DiginDelve     13
Hisbadluck
5.5
14 Teensforth    15 Teensfifth    16
Notsosweet
5.5
17 Driveukcar    18 Votesforme    19
Tenstonine
5.5
20 Doublesten    21 Lockandkey    22
Twoelevens
5.5
23 Justforme    24 Lemmingmore    25
Jiveanjive
5.5
26 Lemsinafix    27 Lemsheavon    28
Gardengate
5.5
29 Startowine    30 Fivexsixis
5.5
Mayhem Level
5.5
02 Nearlygone    03 Spendspree    04
Onthefloor
5.5
05 Uncleclive    06 Clogclicks    07
Difference
5.5
08 Waitanwait    09 Eatanddine    10
Tentontess
5.5
11 Binisthree    12 Twotimesix    13
Returntome
5.5
14 Twicelucky    15 Nineandsix    16
Charitynum
5.5
17 Stillyoung    18 Comesofage    19
Olderstill
5.5
20 Numbtwenty    21 Olderlemms    22
Lemminduck
5.5
23 Soonbefree    24 Lemmsstore    25
Lemmsdrive
5.5
26 Yourinafix    27 Lemtodevon    28Twostoplay
5.5
29 Oneafterme    30 Lemmgfinal
5.5
Robin Jefferies,  West Sussex.
5.5
•    Improving Logistix (v0.01) RISC-OS compatibility − As anyone who has a
copy of Logistix will be aware, the RISC-OS support files to “upgrade”
the package to run from the desktop do nothing except allow the
application to be launched from the desktop! (I do not know if there was
ever a subsequent release of Logistix since v0.01 − I assume not, as I
was a registered owner and was never informed of any update.)
5.5
In the case of old programs upgraded through the support disk, it’s
likely that some of the software houses did not have any real experience
of RISC-OS before the deadline date for the disk, so they may be excused
for the minimal level of compliance. (Acorn could not be considered to
have had any such excuse, but Logistix wasn’t actually written by them,
they only marketed it for Grafox.)
5.5
The directory structure of the “upgraded” !Logistix was rather messy,
and all pathnames were specific to the directory structure, therefore
not transportable from drive 0 and the $ directory. This makes it
impossible to install on a hard disk without some editing. The major
annoyance in using the application is that clicking on Logistix data
files does nothing except give an error message! Files can only be
loaded by first loading Logistix, then keyboarding through the menu
system.
5.5
The application directory can be arranged far better for RISC-OS by the
movement of a few files, and a little editing with !Edit. Dealing with
the directory structure first...
5.5
All that the user wants to see of Logistix is the !Logistix application
icon which can be double clicked on to start it. Your !System directory
should contain a directory called Modules which contains the latest
version of the FPE, Clib, Colours etc. As upgraded after using the
support disk, a Logistix floppy disk contains the following directories:
5.5
!System − A system folder which still requires updating with the RISC-OS
extras disk for the newer versions of Clib etc. (The latest Floating
Point Emulator (2.80) should also be placed in the Modules directory
inside this.)
5.5
!Logistix − The RISC-OS startup directory containing the !Boot,!Run and
!Sprites files.
5.5
Logistix − The actual Logistix program files and a (now outdated)
Floating Point Emulator.
5.5
MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF YOUR DISK then, using the backup copy...
5.5
Move the Logistix directory into the !Logistix directory.
5.5
Copy the latest FPEmulator you have into the !System.Modules directory.
5.5
(You may then delete the copy in the Logistix directory.)
5.5
Using !Edit, edit the !Logistix.!Boot file to contain the following
lines:
5.5
| !Boot for !Logistix version 0.01
5.5
| Updated to allow autoload
5.5
| (This is an OBEY file)
5.5
Set Logi$Dir <Obey$Dir>
5.5
IconSprites <Logi$Dir>.!Sprites
5.5
Set File$Type_DFF Logistix
5.5
Set Alias$@RunType_DFF Obey <Logi$Dir>.InitFile %%*0
5.5
Edit the !Run file so that it becomes:
5.5
| !Run for !Logistix version 0.01
5.5
| with better RISC-OS compatability
5.5
| (This is an OBEY file)
5.5
IconSprites <Logi$Dir>.!Sprites
5.5
WimpSlot -min 500k
5.5
RMEnsure FPEmulator RMLoad <System$Path>Modules.FPEmulator
5.5
Dir <Logi$Dir>.Logistix
5.5
LGX
5.5
The use of “<System$Path>Modules.” to reach the FPEmulator and setting
up the system variable <Logi$Dir> allow proper transportability of the
application, and it can now quite happily be installed anywhere in the
directory structure on a hard disk. Clicking on a data file causes RISC-
OS to check if a command has been matched to that file type. The system
variable Alias$@RunType _xxx has to be set up for files of the type in
question. If it has not been set up then you will get the error message
“No run action specified for this file type”. This is exactly what
happens with Logistix and similar applications written before (and even
since!) RISC-OS made its appearance. The addition of the line Set
Alias$@RunType_ DFF Obey <Logi$Dir>.InitFile %%*0 in the !Boot file
corrects the original omission, along with the following Obey file.
5.5
The file described here can be used with most applications which require
keyboard input to load files, the exceptions being those which clear the
keyboard buffer on start up. In principle, the method is simple. An Exec
file is used containing the commands or keystrokes to be executed as
though they had been entered at the keyboard. Due to the fact that only
Obey files can process the Obey$Dir system variable, it could get a
little bit confusing.
5.5
One way around this is from an Obey file:
5.5
1. Collect the startup pathname from RISC-OS and put it in a system
variable.
5.5
2. Using an Obey file, create an Exec file (by using Spool and Echo)
containing all the commands which require to be carried out to start the
application and set it up for a load operation.
5.5
3. Echo the system variable containing the full pathname into the Exec
file.
5.5
4. Exec the file which has just been created.
5.5
There is one small problem. When trying to write to the FIRST file being
created by a *Spool operation, extraneous data flows into it before the
data! A dummy file is spooled first to get rid of this before the real
file is created.
5.5
Using !Edit, create a new Obey file as follows, (You may miss out the
comment lines, but please leave in the fact that it is public domain and
attributed to me.)
5.5
| “InitFile” − Public Domain by
5.5
| D.Potter 26/6/90
5.5
| Allows keyboard emulated loading
5.5
| by double-clicking on a data file
5.5
| in the RISC-OS desktop.
5.5
| Intended in this version for
5.5
| Logistix, but the principal will
5.5
| work for other programs which do
5.5
| not clear the keyboard buffer at
5.5
| startup.
5.5
| This is an Obey File. (Exec files
5.5
| do not allow passing of system
5.5
| parameters.) To pass actual
5.5
| commands to Logistix, (or any
5.5
| similar application), an Exec file
5.5
| must be used.
5.5
| The Exec file is built by this
5.5
| file, including the full path for
5.5
| the startup file that was clicked
5.5
| on.
5.5
| The !Boot file for app. must be an
5.5
| Obey file containing the commands
5.5
|      Set Logi$Dir <Obey$Dir>
5.5
|      Set Alias$@RunType_xxx Obey <Logi$Dir>.InitFile %%*0
5.5
| (As well as any other commands
5.5
| already there)
5.5
| Where xxx is the filetype for the
5.5
| data file (DFF for Logistix).
5.5
| Logi$Dir will be the directory
5.5
| where the application resides, and
5.5
| is automatically set up when the
5.5
| application’s !Boot is first seen.
5.5
| Note : the | characters at the
5.5
| start of the above lines should
5.5
| NOT be in the !Boot file!
5.5
|
5.5
| Put the pathname information in
5.5
| temporary system variable Lload$
5.5
Set Lload$ %*0
5.5
| Clear extraneous data which
5.5
| appears when a file is written to
5.5
| at this stage by dummy spooling.
5.5
| This data is not needed here any
5.5
| more!
5.5
Spool <Logi$Dir>.!LoadFile
5.5
Echo <Lload$>
5.5
spool
5.5
| Now create the actual Exec file
5.5
| which will run LGX and issue the
5.5
| commands.
5.5
Spool <Logi$Dir>.!LoadFile
5.5
Echo || !LoadFile − Transient program built by InitFile
5.5
 (PD) by D.Potter 1990
5.5
Echo *Run <Logi$Dir>.!Run
5.5
|
5.5
| Send the Logistix load sequence −
5.5
| Note : NO SPACES in the sequence!
5.5
| /L = load, L= Logistix data file,
5.5
| <Lload$>= Full filename,
5.5
| A= All to be loaded  (You might
5.5
| want to use a different load
5.5
| sequence)
5.5
| (Where a return is required such
5.5
| as after the filename here,
5.5
| simply start a new Echo statement
5.5
| for the next command.)
5.5
|
5.5
Echo /LL<Lload$>
5.5
Echo A
5.5
|
5.5
| Close the file
5.5
Spool
5.5
|
5.5
| Set its file type
5.5
SetType <Logi$Dir>.!LoadFile Command
5.5
|
5.5
| Lose the temporary system variable
5.5
UnSet Lload$
5.5
|
5.5
| And run the file just created!
5.5
Exec <Logi$Dir>.!LoadFile
5.5
Save the above file as InitFile in the !Logistix directory.
5.5
Now click on the !Boot file in the !Logistix directory to set the system
variables. (You won’t always have to do this, as the !Boot file will be
run the first time you open the directory containing !Logistix. You only
need to do it at this time because you have been messing about with the
files, and the !Boot file may be different now than when it was last
run.) Clicking on any Logistix data file will now load Logistix and the
data file ready for use. You will still have to set up any default
prefixes etc.
5.5
It is not possible to do this automatically with a simple file such as
the above, because the full pathname would require to be split up to
provide the path to your file directory minus the filename. i.e. you
would require string handling facilities such as in Basic.
5.5
Note: The Logistix application itself still sets the CSD to the Logistix
directory within the !Logistix application directory. Implementing a
fully RISC-OS compatible version would require rewriting of the actual
coded LGX file, which is not possible without both the source code file
and the full approval of both Acorn and Grafox.
5.5
Other applications requiring a parameter block in memory − Other
programs (in Basic) written before RISC-OS, which will autoload a data
file at startup if a parameter block is set up in memory, could be made
to auto load using a version of the following routine. Again, this
builds an exec file which is run in Basic, using simple string handling
to split off the filename from the full pathname.
5.5
This example file was built to implement auto loading under RISC-OS on
an old BBC program which was written for DFS, and without re-writing
could not handle full pathnames, therefore it includes a line to set the
current directory to the application directory.
5.5
Note: This particular version works due to Basic being selected during
the execution of the Exec file and the memory accessible to both the
file and the program is that assigned by the selection of Basic. Any
other programs (e.g. integrated packages) which are to use the shared
parameter block must (obviously) use the same memory, so must not move
out of Basic (return to the desktop) in between the programs, but simply
chain each other.
5.5
This actual file will be irrelevant to most users, but it does show a
method of getting around the conversion of system variables to actual
data therefore easing the amount of work involved in conversion of BBC B
and Master programs to Archimedes. I know that re-writing the appli
cations might be more sensible, but this is aimed at people who know how
an application works, but didn’t write it in the first place!
5.5
|    “Autoload”
5.5
| A Customised version of “InitFile”
5.5
| −  Public Domain by D.Potter
5.5
|                             7/7/90
5.5
|       —— Information ——-
5.5
| Allows parameter block loading by
5.5
| double-clicking on a data file
5.5
| in the RISC-OS desktop.
5.5
| Intended in this version for the
5.5
| upgrade of an old BBC/Master
5.5
| program called Datbase, but the
5.5
| principal should work for other
5.5
| Basic programs which when started
5.5
| up check a parameter block in
5.5
| memory, and if found to be valid,
5.5
| will load the file referred to in
5.5
| the block.
5.5
| eg. Old “Integrated” suites of
5.5
| programs which allow files to be
5.5
| left as active or current for each
5.5
| program in the suite.
5.5
|
5.5
| This is an Obey File.
5.5
| An Exec file is built by this file
5.5
| including the filename for the
5.5
| startup file that was double
5.5
| clicked on.
5.5
| The !Boot file for app. must be an
5.5
| Obey file containing the commands
5.5
|       Set DatBa$Dir <Obey$Dir>
5.5
|       Set Alias$@RunType_xxx Obey <DatBa$Dir>.AutoLoad %%*0
5.5
| (As well as any other commands
5.5
| already there)
5.5
| Where xxx is the filetype for the
5.5
| data file. (DatBa$Dir will be set
5.5
| to the directory where the program
5.5
| & this file reside when the !Boot
5.5
| file is run)
5.5
|
5.5
| Put the full pathname information
5.5
| in system variable DBload$
5.5
Set DBload$ %*0
5.5
| Clear extraneous data which
5.5
| appears when a file is written to
5.5
| at this stage by dummy spooling.
5.5
| This data is not needed here
5.5
| anymore!
5.5
Spool <DatBa$Dir>.!LoadFile
5.5
Echo <DBload$>
5.5
spool
5.5
|
5.5
| Now create the actual Exec file
5.5
| which will run the program and
5.5
| load file.
5.5
Spool <DatBa$Dir>.!LoadFile
5.5
Echo || !LoadFile − Transient program built by AutoLoad
5.5
 (PD) by D.Potter 1990
5.5
Echo *Basic
5.5
Echo REM this particular application requires the CSD to be it -
5.5
Echo *Dir <DatBa$Dir>
5.5
Echo REM The startup parameter block for this application
5.5
 is at &F000, with
5.5
Echo REM the filename held at &F100, any conditions for
5.5
 printing at &F110,
5.5
Echo REM the record number to display at start up held in R%,
5.5
Echo REM and HIMEM held in H%
5.5
Echo HIMEM=&F000
5.5
Echo H%=&F000
5.5
|    Echoing a system variable
5.5
|    causes it to be converted to
5.5
|    the real data.
5.5
Echo F$=“<DBload$>”
5.5
Echo REM Split off the actual filename itself (This
5.5
 particular example is
5.5
Echo REM for conversion of a BBC B/
5.5
Master program which
5.5
 has restricted
5.5
Echo REM filename length, and therefore can’t handle
5.5
 full pathnames)
5.5
Echo REPEAT:F$=MID$(F$,INSTR(F$,“.”)+1):UNTIL INSTR(F$,“.”)=0
5.5
Echo $&F100=F$ : $&F110=“”:R%=1
5.5
Echo MO.12
5.5
Echo CHAIN“DATBASE”
5.5
|
5.5
| Where a return is required after a
5.5
| command such as L for load, simply
5.5
| start a new Echo statement for the
5.5
| next command − a return will be
5.5
| put in.
5.5
|
5.5
| Close the file
5.5
Spool
5.5
|
5.5
| Set its file type
5.5
SetType <DatBa$Dir>.!LoadFile Command
5.5
|
5.5
| And do it!
5.5
Exec <DatBa$Dir>.!LoadFile
5.5
Douglas Potter, Glasgow
5.5
•    Oak SCSI on A5000 − Using the ‘free’ menu option on a SCSI disc on the
iconbar doesn’t make use of the new Free module in the RISC-OS 3 ROM. To
correct this, include the following line in your hard disc boot file :
5.5
Set Alias$Free ShowFree -FS scsi %0
5.5
That’s all there is to it. Now, whenever you select ‘free’ from the SCSI
menu, a Free window pops up. The ‘%0’ picks up the device (disc drive)
name. Should you then subsequently wish to use Free from the command
line, use :
5.5
%Free [<disc spec>]
5.5
Typing ShowFree at the command line (with no parameters) reports the
command syntax.
5.5
David Lenthall, London
5.5
•    Refilling ink cartridges − We have, in past issues, published comments
about refilling inkjet cartridges with various types of ink. Tord
Eriksson sent in another such comment a while ago but I didn’t publish
it. He now writes....
5.5
Remember my recommending using water or fountain pen ink to keep your
printer going when your ink supply is gone? You didn’t publish it
(sensibly enough!) and I ran into deep trouble with it. I thought the
printhead was a goner (and messed it up further...), as the printer
didn’t work properly. After buying a new £100 head, with no improvement,
I found out that the reason you shouldn’t refill the cartridges is that
air easily leaks into the paint container if you disconnect it many
times (as when injecting ink) because the membrane gets worn. This means
that suction isn’t up to specification and you get uneven paint
delivery.
5.5
You may publish this as a warning − water does not harm a Canon BJ-what-
ever printer − but the side-effects can be very troublesome! I could
have spent the £100 on something more sensible!!!    Tord Eriksson,
Sweden  A
5.5
Impression Hints & Tips
5.5
•    Function key changes (cont’d) − In addition to Michael Ben-Gershon’s
excellent hint in Archive 5.2, p.12: Why not go the whole way and put
all those styles (like those fonts you use regularly to enhance your
texts) into your Impression default document, after you have assigned a
function key to each of them?
5.5
There are quite a lot of possibilities; in addition to those fields on
the function key strip that are quite empty, you can remove the default
styles you may not need (like hanging indent) and if there are some of
those ten scales offered which you never use, you can simply take over
those keys for your own styles.
5.5
You will find that the editable field which allows you to define a
keyboard short cut is slightly unusual: It accepts only certain entries
(function keys, <Shift>, <Return>,..), and it is not necessary to delete
the existing content with <Ctrl-U> − just click in the box, enter the
new combination and click on OK. (Don’t press <Return>, because that
simply means that the short cut for your style is the Return key!)
5.5
Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany
5.5
• Sprite files in Impression − Kevin Beales told us (Archive 5.4 p5)
about Impression’s ability to scale pictures in Draw format. In this
context, he forgot to mention something even more remarkable: Impression
can also scale sprites! This works in exactly the same way as he
described.
5.5
Of course, due to the well known problems of jagged edges/loss of
detail, you shouldn’t scale up or down too much; but if you have a
sprite that is just slightly too big or too small for its intended
place, then this feature of Impression is certainly extremely useful!
5.5
Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany
5.5
•    Illustrated Impression documents − I often include sprite and draw
files in my Impression documents (for test papers and the like).
5.5
One minor problem is that one can’t really edit those graphic frames in
an Impression document. Therefore, to have the corresponding files
always on hand, I save them into the document’s directory (after opening
a window on this directory by <shift>-double clicking).
5.5
This is one more reason for buying Compression: A typical sketch I make
with DrawPlus is reduced from about 6k to about 2 kbytes. A screen shot
made of an oscilloscope application I use takes up 100 kbytes; Compres
sion reduces this to just about 5k bytes (!). This means that even
pictures that appear in several documents don’t clog up the hard disk
too much, if you always save them together with the documents they
appear in.
5.5
(Surely, though, the Draw files are already in the Impression document
directory? Why not edit them directly from there? Two drawbacks, I
suppose... you don’t know which file is which because they have names
like Story2 and Story4 (but you could identify them if you have full
info set in the filer window because of their size) and secondly the
changes to the Drawfiles are only displayed then next time you load the
Impression document. Ed.)
5.5
(By the way: Can anyone tell me whether this hint will become obsolete
once Computer Concepts’ much vaunted Impulse II will be available, that
is, whether you will then be able to open a graphic file saved somewhere
by clicking on a graphic frame in an Impression document?)
5.5
Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany
5.5
•    Tiny left hand margin − I often wondered why the default document on
the Impression disc has a left hand margin set on the base style of a
couple of millimetres. Because of my sense of symmetry, I reduced that
to zero as soon as I started using Impression. Surely, if you create a
new master page with, say, 10cm margins, you don’t want the lefthand
margin to be 10.2cm?
5.5
Suddenly it dawned on me... yes, I know I’m slow... the reason for the
small lefthand margin is to make it easier to position the cursor to the
left of the first character on a line. If, as I do, you have zero margin
in the base style, you’ve got to judge the mouse cursor fairly accu
rately otherwise it goes onto the paper margin and turns into a hand.
Well, yer pays yer money... but I think I’ll stay as I am. I have too
many documents to change them all. Ed.
5.5
•    Impression speed users’ tips − I find that if you can get into the
habit of using <adjust> reverse scrolling, it really does save time,
especially when I am laying out the magazine and the screen is cluttered
with windows. Just press <select> to scroll down and switch quickly to
<adjust> to go back up again without having to move the mouse and locate
the other end of the scroll bar − which could be under another window
anyway.
5.5
Also, <adjust> can be extremely useful, again with a cluttered screen,
for moving windows whilst keeping them where they are relative to the
other documents. It takes practice, but it speeds things up in the long
run. Ed.  A
5.5

5.5
Help!!!!
5.5
•    Artificial neural networks − I don’t suppose there are many, but is
there anyone out there who is using the Archimedes for work on anything
to do with artificial neural networks? If so, please phone Dr Alan
Fielding on 061−247−1198 (work) or 0204−41459 (home).
5.5
•    Canon BJ-10e bubble jet printer − I cannot recommend this printer
highly enough. I purchased mine for £190 + VAT and it gives me printout
to rival that of a laser printer at a fraction of the cost. I do have a
problem though – paper. Some paper is not suitable for use on inkjets,
as the ink soaks into the fibres of the paper and forms a tiny blot
which shows itself as irregularities along what should be a clear smooth
edge. Other paper is very good. Is there any way of telling which is a
good paper before purchasing 500 sheets of it? Could anyone recommend a
good paper?
5.5
You can get single colour cartridges for this printer, and with some
colour separation software, you could use it as a colour printer. Anyone
know of any such software? Mike Gregory,  Fareham
5.5
•    Cross32 Meta Assembler − Two people sent us reviews of Baildon
Electronics’ Meta Assembler. I published one but the second one has some
useful further information. Unfortunately, I can not find the name of
the person who wrote it and I don’t like publishing anonymous articles.
5.5
•    Interference with dongles – Could anyone suggest a way of restoring
the screening on the printer cable on an Archimedes. I have a WorraCAD
and an Impression dongle with a dongle dangle to get the dongles down
below the desk. Can anybody tell me if there is any self adhesive
screening tape or other cure available? J.R.Mc Lachlan, 23 Sadlers Way,
Hertford SG14 2DZ.
5.5
•    Keyboard/mouse recorder − Has anyone written a module which will
record keypresses, mouse movements and button presses and then replay
them at a later date? Mr K. R. Cox, 14 Bramley View, LightCliffe,
Halifax  HX3 8ST.
5.5
•    Multi-ring binder − Where can one obtain a multi-ring binder suitable
for replacing the spiral wire system used for the PipeDream and ProText
manuals? C A Martin, Shanklin.
5.5
•    Scrabble for the Archimedes? − Does anyone know of a Scrabble program
for the Archimedes? Elaine Fieldhouse, London.
5.5
•    Software installation on hard disc − Now that there are lots of people
out there with various different species of hard disks (ADFS, SCSI and
IDE), I think it would be a good idea for Archive to produce a table of
which software can be run from which type of disk.
5.5
I would be happy to act as a contact point so that anyone who can fill
any gaps in the table or make any additions or corrections could drop me
a line and I could produce you a table from time to time for publication
in Archive.
5.5
In general, it seems only to be games programs that are difficult to put
onto hard disks. The only non-game that I have of that refuses to run
from my SCSI removable is EMR’s Soundsynth.
5.5
I have produced the following table based on examining the games that I
own and on reading reviews in magazines.
5.5
In the table, “yes” indicates that it can be from disk either by just
copying the files or by running a supplied installation procedure.
“edit” indicates that the !Boot or !Run files need to be edited. “root”
indicates that the program can only be run from hard disk if it is in a
specific directory, usually $, $.Library or $.Resources. “prot”
indicates that the game can be run from hard disk, but that the original
floppy is still required for the copy protection mechanism. “no”
indicates that it cannot easily be run from hard disk. (In some cases it
may still be possible to alter the code to get it to run from hard disk
but only with some difficulty.)
5.5
Program    ADFS    SCSI    IDE
Comment
5.5
Apocalypse    no    no    no
5.5
Arcendium    edit    edit    ?
5.5
Chocks Away    no    no    no
5.5
Conqueror    no    no    no
5.5
Corruption    no    no    no
5.5
E-Type    no    no    no
5.5
Fish    yes    yes    ?     Memory is tight.
5.5
Herewith Clues    no    no    no
5.5
Holed-Out    no    no    no
5.5
Hoverbod    ?    no    ?
5.5
Inertia    no    no    no
5.5
Interdictor-1    yes    yes    ?     Memory
is tight.
5.5
Iron Lord    yes    yes    ?
5.5
Jet Fighter    no    no    no
5.5
Lemmings    yes    yes    ?
5.5
MIG29    yes    ?    ?
5.5
Nevryon    no    no    no
5.5
Pacmania    edit    ?    ?
5.5
Plague Planet    root    root    ?
5.5
Quazer    prot    prot    ?
5.5
Terramex    no    no    no
5.5
Twin World    yes    ?    ?
5.5
UIM    yes    yes    ?     Memory is tight.
5.5
Wimp Game    prot    prot    ?
5.5
Wonderland    yes    ?    no
5.5
Zarch    no    no    no
5.5
On a 1Mb machine there may be memory problems when a game requires so
much memory that there is little room for the SCSI or IDE controller
software.
5.5
There are rumours of a fix for getting Wonderland to work on SCSI.
5.5
Mike Williams, 111 Evering Road, London  N16 7SL.
5.5
•    Software installation on hard disc (2) − Ever since I purchased a new
machine with a hard disc several months ago, I have been frustrated/
annoyed by the inability to install some items of software due to heavy
disc protection or just badly written code.
5.5
To enable me to have these items of software readily available on my
hard disc, I have waded through reams of Basic and assembler in an
effort to install them. Luckily, due to my experience as a programmer, I
have managed to install everything I wanted sooner or later.
5.5
However, I realise that I am probably in the minority and that there are
many people who simply have to put up with using floppies because they
cannot install their software on to a hard disc.
5.5
To this end I propose the following solution.
5.5
I would be willing to offer my experience in these matters as a service.
That is, people would send me originals of their software and I would
extract a version that could be easily installed on a hard disc.
5.5
This obviously raises a few problems.
5.5
Firstly, would I be breaking or breaching copyright by altering
published software to enable it to be installed?
5.5
Secondly, would the publishers take kindly to me producing versions of
their software which are easy to copy?
5.5
The only solution I can see to this problem is a co-operation between
myself and the publishers whereby I insert, at various points in any new
version I produce, an encoded serial number. This serial number I record
along with the details of the user that sent it and the product
concerned.
5.5
By doing this, if any illegitimate copies were found, the company
concerned, by contacting me, could find the source of the copies through
my records.
5.5
Therefore by offering this service I see the following advantages and
disadvantages:
5.5
Advantages to users:
5.5
1. Ability to have previously uninstallable software easily accessible
on their hard disc.
5.5
2. Ability to archive/backup this version to floppy therefore not
endangering their original copy.
5.5
Disadvantages to users:
5.5
1. The cost of the service on top of the original price of the software.
This would probably be somewhere in the region of £5 depending on how
many discs the new version requires.
5.5
Advantages to publishers:
5.5
1. Greater use of their software.
5.5
2. More satisfied customers at no cost to themselves.
5.5
3.    Serial coded software protection built into each installed piece
of software.
5.5
Disadvantages to publishers:
5.5
1.    Software easier to copy.
5.5
I would welcome any advice, comments or suggestions on this subject by
users and publishers alike to see whether it would be a viable (and
legal) service to provide.
5.5
I can be contacted at 43, Kingfisher Walk, Ash, Aldershot, Hampshire
GU12 6RF.
5.5
Darren Sillett.  A
5.5
Help offered
5.5
•    Tierra − Some time ago there was a query in Archive magazine from
somebody looking for a program called Tierra, a sort of evolution
simulator.
5.5
Well, I’ve managed to get a copy of the program and would like to pass
it on.
5.5
The program itself consists of documentation, C sources and IBM
executables and comes to about 500k in total. It’s the sort of thing
that takes an overnight run on a PC, so it’s not really suitable for
running on the Archimedes under the PC Emulator. Indeed, it’s very
complex and powerful, and not for the casual user. I suppose it could be
compiled to run on the Archimedes in native mode, but it’s not a trivial
task and I’m certainly not up to it.
5.5
Anyone who’s interested can have a copy in return for a formatted floppy
and an SAE.
5.5
Lorcan Mongey, 56 Salisbury Court, Dublin Road, Belfast BT7 1DD.
5.5
There was also an article in the Computer Section in The Guardian on
Thursday 9th January about Tierra. Ed.  A
5.5

5.5
? “Now PC compatible” ?
5.5
With the coming of Aleph One’s 386 board for the Archimedes, we have
more ammunition for those who say, “Oh, but I must have PC
compatibility”. It still won’t satisfy everyone in that area but it will
draw a few more of those who can see the potential of the Archimedes’
processing power and operating system but have to convince their bosses
of the commercial viability.
5.5
? “Better than an Apple Mac” ?
5.5
As a DTP system, the Archimedes, and the A5000 in particular, is capable
of giving the Macs a run for their money. Rob Sherratt, in our newly
launched DTP Column, has something to say about this. I would just add
that Mac users are extremely difficult to convince that anything could
be as good as their beloved Macs. One Mac adherent came into our office
and asked about the Archimedes (more to convince himself of what he
already knew, I suspect, than to be prepared to change his mind). He
wasn’t all that impressed by what I told him so I offered to give him a
demonstration.
5.5
When he saw me load Impression AND a 64 page 1.2 Mbyte magazine file in
under 8 secs his jaw dropped ever so slightly. (Pagemaker alone on my
Mac Plus takes 30 secs to load, then a further 38 secs to load a half
Mbyte document.) Then I showed him Draw, Paint, Edit, Calculator & Alarm
all loaded instantaneously from ROM and got them all running (at the
same time as my 1.2 Mbyte Impression document). He paled visibly −
especially when I threw up the task display and showed him that, out of
4 Mbytes, I still had nearly a Mbyte left to play with!
5.5
“What percentage kerning can it do?”, says he.  “I don’t know” says I,
“let’s try... Wot? Wot? Wot do you think?”  “Oh”, he said “but what
percentage can it stretch and compress the characters?”  “Well, I don’t
know” says I, “let’s try... Wot? Wot? Wot do you think?” He didn’t buy
an Archimedes but his prejudice was slightly dented!
5.5
Cheers,
5.5
   Paul B
 Look! vertical kerning too !!!!!!
5.5

5.5
PipeLine
5.5
Gerald Fitton
5.5
Although, as I write, the current version of PD4 is 4.11 I have been
told that version 4.12 will be available as a free upgrade before the
end of January 1992. If you have not done so yet, then send both your
master PD4 program disc and your PD4 Examples disc to Colton Software
together with a self addressed label and return postage. Mark your
envelope ‘Enhanced Charts Upgrade’. I cannot carry out this upgrade.
5.5
Bugs in PipeDream 4 Version 4.11
5.5
If you find any ‘bugs’ in PD4, please let Colton Software know about
them (not us here at Abacus Training). They will appreciate it if you
send them an example on a disc together with a ReadMe file explaining
the bug, problem or difficulty you are experiencing; it really is
difficult to decide exactly what problem you are experiencing without an
example on a disc.
5.5
The first of two ‘bugs’ in version 4.11 (cured in version 4.12) which
troubles many of you is that sometimes recalculation is incomplete. I
have had quite a few letters (and discs) giving examples of sums which
have given you the wrong answer. When I have loaded the corresponding
disc file, PD4 gives me the right answer. You can see how confusing I
have found this ‘bug’. My suggestion to you is that, until you get
version 4.12, save the file, delete it, reload it and then look at the
calculated answers. Suspect that your PD is corrupt only if calculations
are wrong after reloading.
5.5
The second ‘bug’ concerns path names to dependent documents. Sometimes,
but not always, a slot reference to a dependent document is corrupted if
the dependent document has not been loaded into memory first. A ‘work
around’ until you receive version 4.12 is to load the dependent
documents first and then load the document which calls them. An
alternative, which I use, is to double click on the ‘top’ document which
then loads all the dependent documents, delete the ‘top’ document (which
appears to be corrupt) and then reload it from the disc.
5.5
PipeDream 3 to 4 upgrade
5.5
As I write (13th January 1992), already more than one third of our
PipeLine user group have upgraded to PD4 and this proportion is
increasing rapidly. Making reasonable assumptions, I expect that at
least three quarters will have upgraded before this issue of Archive is
in your hands.
5.5
Whilst asking for a conversion from PipeLine 3 to PipeLine 4, many of
you have taken the opportunity to write me a letter telling me what you
think of PipeLine and PD4.
5.5
Firstly, many thanks for all the pleasant remarks about PipeLine.
Secondly, apart from two readers who are yet to be convinced, all
comments about PD4 glow with praise and conclude that, at £94, it has
been worth upgrading. Much of this praise is for the much improved
Graphics User Interface (I am told ‘GUI’ is pronounced ‘Gooey’ and not
‘Gee-you-eye’) which makes marking blocks, changing column widths,
entering functions and their arguments, etc, so much easier. However,
there is also praise for the more ‘instant’ feel of PD4; this is because
it executes more tasks in the background so there is no ‘type ahead’ and
almost no waiting for the hourglass to stop running.
5.5
Since there are still ‘bugs’ in PD4.11 (nearly all of which can be
‘worked around’), I find this a remarkable tribute to the faith you have
in Colton Software’s ability, integrity and willingness to put right
anything you find wrong with PD4 (contrast this with, say, the Acorn
DTP). (or Schema! Ed) Undoubtedly, this faith is due, in part, to all
the substantial improvements (upgrades) to PD3 provided by Colton
Software free of charge.
5.5
Now, and in the foreseeable future, upgrades from PD3 to PD4 can be
obtained only through Colton Software. The price is £94.00 (UK)
including VAT unless you bought PD3 on or after 1st August 1991.
5.5
Credit where it’s due
5.5
I want to mention a particular someone here and also say that I wish
that I hadn’t mentioned my hard disc in the November PipeLine column!
Yes! In mid-December the original 20Mb hard disc on my A440 died
suddenly in the middle of printing out a file. I know it wasn’t due to
overheating because I’d installed one of the NCS fan filter and battery
kits a couple of months earlier. I think it must be the electronics
because it died so suddenly and catastrophically. Is it repairable?
5.5
(Nope, I think you’ll find that it’s not worth the cost of doing so, in
our view, as you still end up with a potentially unreliable hard disc −
which is not a “good thing” to have. Ed)
5.5
Anyway, I telephoned Norwich Computer Services at 3.00 pm on a Wednesday
afternoon and received a plug-in 40Mb replacement by courier at 11.00 am
the following day. It took less that half an hour to change the hardware
(most of you would take much less time than this) and, thanks to the
fact that I keep (nearly) all my data files on floppy with only
applications on the hard disc, I had everything important up and running
within an hour. So, my congratulations to Norwich Computer Services for
a rapid and efficient service − please take a bow. (To be fair, because
Gerald is a contributor, he does get slightly preferential treatment!
Ed)
5.5
Mind you, what I had not done was to save on floppy my personal
configurations of applications such as my PipeDream ini file and my
Impression and DrawPlus preferences, nor had I saved my customised hard
disc !Boot file. So beware, save your application configuration files as
well as your data. In the case of PD4, this means that you should save
your Templates, Pictures, Dictionary and customised Printer drivers on
floppy in case your hard disc, like mine, goes down.
5.5
PipeDream 4 — the Trend(,) function
5.5
Some of you have had problems understanding the explanation of Trend(,)
given in the PD4 reference manual. The syntax for this function is
correctly given as Trend(Linest, x_data) but you are not told the nature
of the arguments. Linest is a row vector such as {1 ,2} representing the
line y = 2x + 1; in its most general form, Linest is {c , m} and its
arguments are the c and m of the straight line y = mx + c. The second
argument of Trend(,) which I have called x_data, is a row vector of
values of x. The function Trend(,) returns a row vector ‘hidden’ in the
one slot containing the values of y returned by the formula y = mx + c
for the corresponding values of x.
5.5
The problem most of you have had is that you have used a column of data
for the x values and Trend(,) will not accept a column vector for the
x_data argument. The easiest way around this problem is to use the
function Transpose(). For example, if the x data is in the column A3A9
then Trend({1 , 2},Transpose(A3A9)) will return a row vector with the
values of y corresponding to y = 2x + 1.
5.5
As a final example, suppose you have x data in A3A9, the corresponding
scattergraph y data in B3B9 and you want to output into C3C9 the values
of y on the line of best fit corresponding to the range A3A9 of x data.
To do this you enter the following rather long function in slot C3:
5.5
set_value(C3C9,transpose(trend (linest(B3B9,A3A9), transpose(A3A9))))
5.5
I have included a simple example of this formula on the Archive monthly
disc. By the way, in column D of the example, I have calculated the
‘errors’ and in slot D11, I have used array multiplication to find the
residual sum of squares using the formula Sum(D3D9*D3D9). Please let me
know how you get on!
5.5
Multi-file documents in PipeDream 4
5.5
Although there is no documentation supporting multi-file documents, you
can load such a document into PD4 using <Ctrl FL>. After loading, you
can use all the other PD3 commands for next file, previous file etc.
5.5
Linking files in PipeDream 4
5.5
No, there are no linking files in PD4, but D A Crossley has sent me a
set of files with custom functions which partly overcomes the problems
of the missing facility. Generally, the strategy is to define a (do-it-
yourself) custom function which intercepts the PD3 Read and Write
functions and acts appropriately. If you do this, you will not have to
modify your PD3 document for it to run correctly in PD4.
5.5
I have included all D A Crossley’s files on the Archive monthly disc.
5.5
In conclusion
5.5
I have been surprised at the speed at which you are upgrading to PD4.
Please keep informed of your need for continued support for PD3. Write
to me at the Abacus Training address on the inside back cover.  A
5.5

5.5
 Good Impression
5.5
Robert Chrismas
5.5
Good Impression, from ‘Word Processing’, is a book of layouts, designs
and graphics which can be created with Impression. The suggestions
include posters, titles, logos, letter heads and stationery. It is
intended to complement the tutorial, First Impression, reviewed in
Archive 5.1 p17.
5.5
Like DTP Seeds?
5.5
You may well have seen 4Mation’s book of designs, created with Poster,
called DTP Seeds. The author of Good Impression has certainly been
influenced by DTP Seeds. He says in his introduction that many of his
ideas are based on those in DTP Seeds. Even some of the example titles,
like ‘Armchair Mountaineering’, have appeared in both books. However,
the designs in Good Impression are all created with the Impression
software and, unlike DTP Seeds, there are detailed instructions
describing the creation of each design.
5.5
With Good Impression, you also get three disks which contain all the
designs shown in the book. They were not available for review but I
understand that they will contain the Impression files from which the
book was printed, with just the text removed. So you will be able to see
exactly how each design is built up in Impression.
5.5
Contents
5.5
Although the book is divided into chapters but many examples use a range
of techniques and so the chapter headings provide only a rough guide to
the contents.
5.5
• Using FontDraw
5.5
• Two column design
5.5
• Frame control
5.5
• Creative titles
5.5
• Using characters effectively
5.5
• Using borders creatively
5.5
• Using Dingbats as borders
5.5
• Shadows and tints
5.5
• Using Gradtint
5.5
• Text grids
5.5
• School stationery
5.5
• Business stationery
5.5
• Further ideas
5.5
There are about 100 pages and, as a rough guide, there is about one
example or idea on each page.
5.5
While there are some comments about what makes a design ‘work’, and even
a few deliberate examples of design faults, most of the book is about
how to produce different effects.
5.5
Although it seems to be intended chiefly for people who have recently
started using Impression, I expect that even the most experienced users
will find some useful suggestions. The idea which pleased me most was
one of the simplest: if you define a style with just the background
colour set you can get a bar across the whole line by selecting the
style and pressing <return>. The bar will keep its position in the text
if it is reformatted, and its height will match the size of the
surrounding font.
5.5
The illustrations are excellent. In many cases, several stages during
construction are shown as well as the final design.
5.5
Although the text does show some development, the earlier explanations
being more detailed than later ones, you could dip into this book and
use designs without working through it all. Indeed, reading the whole
book (as a reviewer must) is pretty boring since a typical section
sounds like this ‘Double-click in the top left frame to open the Alter
graphic dialogue. Set the angle to 45 degrees and click <adjust> on Fit
to frame ...’
5.5
No artistic skills required
5.5
A surprising feature of the book is that it does not suppose any
artistic or drawing skill. In some places !Draw is used, but usually
just to change fill and line colours and to rotate objects. The text
frequently reminds you that the graphics can be rotated in Impression if
you do not want to use !Draw. Near the end, the author suffers a minor
lapse and suggests that you produce a circle in !Draw, but quickly adds
that you could use !FontDraw to convert a circular Dingbat to a Draw
file instead.
5.5
You would think that this severely limited the designs which could be
produced. I was surprised at the variety of graphics which can be
produced without ‘freehand’ use of !Draw. One trick which is used
frequently is to convert a single character into a draw file with
!FontDraw. The draw file is then loaded into a frame and enlarged so
that only a small part of the character is visible in the frame. This
certainly makes you more aware of the variety of shapes in both the
normal characters and the Dingbat font.
5.5
While I was impressed by the author’s skill at producing a variety of
designs there were times when I felt his determination to avoid any
drawing was unreasonable. For example, one example shows how to produce
a bar graph entirely from Impression frames. Anyone who can learn to use
Impression should not have too much difficulty creating simple geometri
cal designs in Draw, and there are times when this is the simplest way
to get a particular effect.
5.5
Reservations and warnings
5.5
The pages have been reduced from A4 to A5 size. This means that the
measurements of the designs do not correspond to the values given in the
text.
5.5
Some of the examples were produced with the extra borders pack from
Computer Concepts. The book also uses a range of fonts from Poster and
from the Electronic Font Foundry.
5.5
The book contains lots of ideas and suggestions, but not much guidance
on good practice. More comments about appropriate ways of using the
ideas would have been welcome. I suspect that most people using DTP
packages have more trouble with design than they do with the computer
software, they just don’t notice it.
5.5
Conclusion
5.5
This is the only book on using advanced Impression effects which I have
seen. It costs £26.95 which I felt was a little bit expensive − even
allowing for the good quality binding and three disks. However it has
lots of interesting ideas and examples with clear, easy to follow
instructions.
5.5
(Note: The Illustrations are from ‘Good Impression’, but I have had to
change a couple of fonts.)  A
5.5

5.5

5.5
From an idea in ‘Good Impression’
5.5

5.5
FOUR CORNERS MARKETS P.L.C.
5.5

5.5
Butterflies
5.5

5.5

5.5
and
5.5

5.5

5.5
  Moths
5.5

5.5

5.5
From an idea in ‘Good Impression’
5.5
 − notice the   big letter ‘S’.
5.5

5.5
Developing a RISC-OS Utility − Part 4
5.5
Darren Sillett
5.5
After a few months break, Darren continues his series about developing
your own RISC-OS utility. The first three parts were in 4.8 p40, 4.10
p53 and 4.12 p41. Ed
5.5
By popular demand, I’m back with another instalment. This month I am
going to look at how to implement those nice file load/saves that all
your favourite applications achieve by the dragging of file icons.
5.5
Background
5.5
I have decided to expand the utility being developed to enable the user
to load and save the CMOS ram settings of the computer. As this is not a
simple task, I will just tackle the loading this month and look at the
saving in the next article.
5.5
Loading is achieved by dragging a file icon to the application icon. We
need to make sure that we have defined the file type for the file we are
going to load and that a suitable sprite exists for this file type.
5.5
To ensure that the file type is defined, add the following line to both
the !Boot and !Run files of the application:
5.5
Set File$Type_FF2 Config
5.5
Next create in your !Sprites file a sprite called ‘file_ff2’ (and
optionally one called ‘small_ff2’). This will be used as the file icon
for any of the files that the application saves.
5.5
N.B. Config/FF2 is Acorn’s official file type for this type of file.
5.5
RISC-OS messaging system
5.5
All dragging operations concerned with icons are handled using the RISC-
OS messaging system. This comprehensive system allows different tasks to
communicate by sending and receiving messages. To implement file load/
saves, our task must communicate with the desktop Filer.
5.5
When you drag a file icon onto any task’s icon or window, the Filer
sends a message to that task informing it that a drag has occurred.
5.5
This message is a block of data which contains the following
information:
5.5
− the size of the block in bytes (maximum 256),
5.5
− task handle of the message sender,
5.5
− the sender’s reference for this message,
5.5
− a previous message’s reference, or 0 if not a reply,
5.5
− message action code,
5.5
− message data, dependent on the message action code.
5.5
The message action codes concerned with transfer of data between tasks
are:
5.5
1 − Data Save,
5.5
2 − Data Save Acknowledge,
5.5
3 − Data Load,
5.5
4 − Data Load Acknowledge.
5.5
So, when you drag a file icon onto our task’s icon, the Filer sends a
Data Load message to our task. Our task retrieves the details about the
file from the message data and, if it is a file which it is interested
in (i.e. has the correct filetype), it loads the file and sends back to
the Filer a Data Load Acknowledge message.
5.5
Additions and amendments to !RunImage
5.5
To incorporate the CMOS load/save routines into the application, you
will need to add/amend the following lines:
5.5
 286 PROCicon_string_set(info%,4, “1.01 (12-Jan-1992)”)
5.5
 321 WHEN data_load% : PROCdata_load
5.5
1300 DEF PROCdata_load
5.5
1310  LOCAL my_ref%,size%,file_typ% ,file_name$
5.5
1320
5.5
1330  PROCget_data_load_info(my_ref% ,size%,file_type%,file_name$)
5.5
1340  IF file_type% = &FF2 THEN
5.5
1350    PROCsend_message(data_load_ ack%,my_ref%)
5.5
1360    PROCload_cmos(file_name$)
5.5
1380  ELSE
5.5
1390    PROCok(“Sorry, don’t recog- nise that type of file”)
5.5
1400  ENDIF
5.5
1410 ENDPROC
5.5
1500 DEF PROCload_cmos(file_name$)
5.5
1510  file% = OPENIN(file_name$)
5.5
1520  FOR location% = 0 TO 239
5.5
1530    SYS “OS_Byte”,162,location%, BGET#file%
5.5
1540  NEXT location%
5.5
1550  CLOSE#file%
5.5
1560 ENDPROC
5.5
Program notes for !RunImage
5.5
286 − Sets the string in the Information Window to reflect the current
version number/date.
5.5
321 − Calls PROCdata_load whenever a Data Load message is received by
the application.
5.5
1300, 1330 − Retrieves the data from the Data Load message. This is the
sender’s reference, the size of the file, the file type and the file
name.
5.5
1340, 1360 − If the file type is the correct one then send back a Data
Load Acknowledge message and call PROCload_cmos to load the file.
5.5
1380, 1410 − Otherwise display an error box informing the user that you
do not recognise that type of file.
5.5
1500 − 1560 − Routine to load in the CMOS ram setting from the specified
file name.
5.5
Additions and amendments to Wimplib
5.5
To add the template and error routines to the Wimplib program, the
following additions should be made:
5.5
  68 data_load%=3 : data_load_ack%=4
5.5
1820  SYS “Wimp_LoadTemplate”,, template%,icon_space%,
5.5
icon_space_end%,-1,name$,0
5.5
 TO ,,icon_space%
5.5
2300 DEF PROCget_data_load_info (RETURN my_ref%,RETURN size%,
5.5
RETURN file_type%,
5.5
RETURN file_name$)
5.5
2310  my_ref%    = wimp_block%!8
5.5
2320  size%      = wimp_block%!36
5.5
2330  file_type% = wimp_block%!40
5.5
2340  file_name$ = FNget_string( wimp_block%+44)
5.5
2350 ENDPROC
5.5
2600 DEF FNget_string(pointer%)
5.5
2610  LOCAL a$
5.5
2620  WHILE (?pointer% <> 0) AND (?pointer% <> 13)
5.5
2630    a$       += CHR$(?pointer%)
5.5
2640    pointer% += 1
5.5
2650  ENDWHILE
5.5
2660 =a$
5.5
2700 DEF PROCsend_message(message_ id%,my_ref%)
5.5
2710  wimp_block%!16 = message_id%
5.5
2720  wimp_block%!12 = my_ref%
5.5
2730  SYS “Wimp_SendMessage”,17, wimp_block%,wimp_block%!20,
wimp_block%!24
5.5
2740 ENDPROC
5.5
2800 DEF PROCok(message$)
5.5
2810  !wimp_block%     = 0
5.5
2820  $(wimp_block%+4) = message$ + CHR$(0)
5.5
2830  SYS “Wimp_ReportError”,wimp_ block%,1,application$
5.5
2840 ENDPROC
5.5
Program notes for Wimplib
5.5
68 − Define constants for the message actions that we are interested in.
5.5
1820 − Fixes a bug in the last article which caused problems when
loading more than one template.
5.5
2300, 2350 − Retrieves the data from the message. Note the use of RETURN
variables to send the values back to the caller.
5.5
2600, 2660 − Returns a string giving the memory location that it is
stored at.
5.5
2700, 2740 − Sends a message.
5.5
2800, 2840 − Displays an error box with a single OK button.
5.5
Saving your CMOS ram settings
5.5
In order to test that your application is loading the file, you will
need a file to load! The following program will save your settings to a
file called ‘Configure’ in the current directory.
5.5
10 file% = OPENOUT(“Configure”)
5.5
20 FOR location% = 0 TO 239
5.5
30 SYS “OS_Byte”,161,location% TO ,,byte%
5.5
40 BPUT#file%,byte%
5.5
50 NEXT location%
5.5
60 CLOSE#file%
5.5
70 OSCLI “Settype Configure FF2”
5.5
80 END
5.5
Alternatively, if you are lucky enough to have RISC-OS 3, you can use
the !Configure application in the Apps folder to save your settings.
5.5
What next?
5.5
In the next article I will expand the application to allow you to save
the CMOS ram files as an illustration of how a simple file save can be
implemented.
5.5
Finally, if anyone has any ideas, problems or suggestions, I can be
contacted either through Archive or at 43, Kingfisher Walk, Ash,
Aldershot  GU12 6RF.  A
5.5

5.5
Language Column
5.5
David Wild
5.5
Since the last language column, I have received an interesting letter
which I reproduce in full. I am sure that the best way forward is to
move to the idea of assembling programs, in the industrial sense of the
word, from pre-written parts which have already been tested and made
crash-proof as far as is humanly possible. The language in which these
parts have been written should be totally irrelevant except to the
original programmer and those whose job it is to maintain it.
5.5
Apart from reducing the problem of testing, designing program segments
to be used in this way would also lead to a vast reduction in the cost
of producing programs tailored to specific users. In many cases, the
difference in the requirements of Bloggs & Co, on the one hand, and
Juggins & Co on the other, is quite small and could be dealt with by
using different procedures in among the standard structure of the main
program.
5.5
Designing programs in this way is different and many people will,
perhaps, resent having to change methods but it is the only way that we
will get programs that are not “fragile”. There have been many examples
of commercial software where minor changes to one aspect of the program
have led to bugs in other parts and we need to get away from this in
future. Impression has suffered from this kind of a bug, according to
CC’s own magazine, and there was no doubt about the fragility of the
early versions of PipeDream 4.
5.5
Designing as an assembly of sub-assemblies should enable us to design
programs which are crash-proof from the start, even if all the options
don’t work immediately, by the use of “stub” modules which just return a
message until the final version is written.
5.5
Graham Carter writes...
5.5
In Paul Skirrow’s article on the A5000 and RISC-OS 3 in Archive 5.3 p38,
he mentioned that the shared C library is not available to other
languages. This has prompted me to let you know some of my experiences
and wishes for the future of programming languages on the Archimedes. I
can’t decide whether what follows is a plea for Help, Feedback, or
something to be included in your Languages column....
5.5
I have the Acorn Fortran, Pascal and C compilers. I use Pascal a lot,
can get by in Fortran and am slightly familiar with C. I started to
develop a collection of graphics routines in Pascal which duplicate the
commands available in Basic but, as well as producing on-screen
graphics, create a Draw file at the same time, for high quality
printing. Although it would be easy to duplicate this code in Fortran,
it would be so much better if Fortran could call these routines
directly.
5.5
I have wanted to do mixed-language programming on the Archimedes for
several years but the Acorn compilers all differ in their interpretation
of the APCS. The manual for C release 3 says (page 463) that “[the
procedure call and stack disciplines] are observed by Acorn’s C language
implementation for the ARM and, eventually, will be observed by the
Fortran and Pascal compilers too.” On page 480 it says, for Fortran and
Pascal, that “The Acorn / TopExpress Arthur /RISC-OS Fortran-77 [Acorn /
3L Arthur / RISC-OS ISO-Pascal] compiler violates the APCS in a number
of ways that preclude inter-working with C, except via assembler
veneers. This may be changed in future releases of the Fortran-77 [ISO-
Pascal] product.”
5.5
I have contacted Acorn several times to enquire about updates to the
Pascal and Fortran compilers but am not optimistic. An interesting point
is that the Fortran and Pascal compilers supplied with RISC iX are Acorn
front-ends to the C compiler back-end (code generator); does this mean
that mixed language programming is available under RISC iX? Since the C
compiler for RISC-OS is more or less the same as that for RISC iX, does
anyone know why the RISC iX Pascal and Fortran front-ends can’t be used
with the RISC-OS C back-end, thereby making mixed language programming
possible? It is probably more complicated than I imagine, but it would
be interesting to know just how difficult this would be to achieve − if
anyone from Acorn is reading this, would they care to comment? It would
be useful to be able to call the functions from the shared C library
directly from other languages, for the same reasons that they should be
used from C in preference to linking in ANSIlib.
5.5
Nick Smith’s XLib and PCompile discs (available from David Pilling) make
Pascal usable from the desktop, and enable WIMP programs to be written
in Pascal. These discs are really useful as they show just what can be
done with Pascal under RISC-OS.
5.5
I don’t think there is a big enough user base for Fortran or Pascal to
encourage Acorn to further develop these products; support for them
appears to be very limited. For example, the desktop debugger can’t
display source for Pascal whereas the older version could. Also, the
linker supplied with C version 3 works with Pascal and Fortran and
produces much smaller executables but does not include any of the
traceback information provided by the older release. For example, a
failing Pascal executable produced with the old linker gives this
output:
5.5
“Execution error − input has been requested when EOF is true
5.5

5.5
Executing line 42 in TIDY_SPOOL starting at line 1 of module tidy_spool
CHARACTER = Chr(13)
5.5

5.5
input has been requested when EOF is true in TIDY_SPOOL at line 42 of
module tidy_spool“
5.5
but the new linker gives:
5.5
“Execution error − input has been requested when EOF is true
5.5
program failure, event 14 11 0”
5.5
which is not very helpful, particularly when the program is very large,
as there is no indication of where the error occurred.
5.5
For the last year, I have been trying to track down a Modula-2 compiler
being written by Rowley Associates. I was told that it followed the APCS
and allowed linking with routines written in C. It appears that this
project has been shelved for the time being, although I believe a
version is available for RISC iX.
5.5
I would be very happy to hear from any readers who know:
5.5
(a) what “assembly language veneer” is required to perform mixed
language programming under RISC-OS, or
5.5
(b) why Acorn doesn’t release the RISC iX Fortran and Pascal compilers
for RISC-OS, using the NorCroft C compiler back end, or
5.5
(c) how to call routines in the shared C library from languages other
than C, or
5.5
(d) what plans Acorn have for future support of Pascal and Fortran, or
5.5
(e) any news of a Modula-2 compiler for RISC-OS,
5.5
 Graham Carter
5.5
Graham’s letter is very relevant to the matter in hand and I would be
grateful for any comments from readers who have had any experience of
mixed language programming. I have had success with linking modules
written with ObjAsm into Pascal programs but have not yet tried the
other way round.
5.5
Page 18 of the supplementary manual for release 2 of the Pascal compiler
gives details of the “assembler veneer” needed to make Pascal modules
usable from other languages and I will try this out in the next few
weeks.
5.5
Computer languages
5.5
A while ago I mentioned the magazine “Computer Languages” which I picked
up at an exhibition but which seemed to be unobtainable in this country.
After seeing a small article in “Computer Shopper”, I wrote to an
organisation called Pascal Language Forum, of PO Box 30, Fareham, Hants
PO16 8LZ and obtained details of membership of their organisation. For
£30 a year, they provide a newsletter, bulletin board, annual confer
ence, a software library, assistance from other members and the magazine
“Computer Languages”. Not surprisingly, most of the material at the
moment is PC or mainframe based but the administrator tells me that all
Archimedes users would be very welcome. The 1992 Pascal conference will
be held at Reading University on April 3rd/4th and non-members of the
Forum are welcome to attend.  A
5.5

5.5
Sparkle
5.5
Peter Thomson
5.5
Sparkle is a simple structured control language from Morley Electronics
Ltd. It costs £59 +VAT.
5.5
It was reviewed using a “Lego” interface connected to the user port on
the Morley expansion board and with an AnDi Oddule connected to an I2C
connector on the expansion port of an A3000.
5.5
The program is fully RISC-OS compatible, sitting on the icon bar and
displaying all its features in windows. Most menus are displayed by
clicking on the icon on the bar rather than in the window displayed.
5.5
Writing programs
5.5
You need to have !Edit installed in order to write a program. This means
that there is no reporting of errors as you write. The program uses a
series of statements without line numbers and should be saved to disc as
a text file. Sparkle loads the program and displays it in a window,
although it cannot be edited in this new window. The current line is
highlighted as the program is run. If there is an error in the user’s
program then execution stops and the error is reported in another
window. In order to correct the error you must check which line is
highlighted when the error is reported, load the program into !Edit,
correct the error, resave the program to disc and then reload it into
Sparkle.
5.5
Device drivers
5.5
There are different versions of Sparkle are available depending on which
devices are to be controlled. This is so that the options available for
input and output in the program and on display are restricted to those
available at the interface. You must specify which interface units you
plan to use when you order Sparkle. I think it would be much better to
have a file of device drivers on the disc so that the user could select
from a comprehensive list and reconfigure it if required.
5.5
Structured language
5.5
Sparkle makes use of the following structures:
5.5
IF − THEN − ELSE
5.5
WHILE − ENDWHILE
5.5
FOR − NEXT
5.5
REPEAT − UNTIL
5.5
and the use of PROCEDURES
5.5
Each channel of digital input can be counted with a counter dedicated to
that channel. There are also eight timers which, when switched, on
increment at 0.01s intervals. In the program, these times can be
expressed as seconds, minutes or hours. There are no other variables
available to store numerical data in a control program.
5.5
Input to the control program can come from digital input or from
analogue input and it can also make use of a mouse button, but not the
keyboard at the same time.
5.5
A control program is very readable with short simple phrases. e.g.
5.5
MOTOR 0 FORWARDS
5.5
IF INPUT 4 ON THEN MOTOR 0 STOP
5.5
Special features
5.5
The language has several unusual features that improve the screen
display when a control program is executed. Draw files can be displayed
to illustrate the control process. It has the ability to load a Tracker
music module or sound samples and to play them. It can also control the
display of animations from Tween or Mogul.
5.5
Data logging mode
5.5
This is a separate mode of operation and does not run at the same time
as a control program. It collects values from the analogue port or from
the AnDi Oddule. Only one time interval can be used at one time with a
minimum interval of 1/100s. Up to four channels are logged with the
results displayed as a linear graph in a window that can be scrolled and
zoomed to examine the values in more detail. The logged values can be
saved in CSV format for use by other programs. The data logging mode is
easy to set up and use.
5.5
The guide book
5.5
The user guide is well presented in A5 format in a wire comb binding. A
tutorial section explains the operation of the language in a straight
forward manner. Each command is then described on a separate page. This
section is particularly well set out and easy to understand. The program
disc also includes examples that illustrate the use of all key words and
all the special features of the language.
5.5
Conclusion
5.5
This is an excellent program for teaching control to children aged 8 to
14 years. It would also be very useful as a tutorial for the teacher new
to the subject. I found it particularly effective with the “Lego”
interface.  A
5.5

5.5
The Engineer is Back Again !
5.5
Ray Maidstone
5.5
Scanner sockets
5.5
Having now had to repair several scanner podules on both 3000 and 300/
400 series machines, I have noticed a weakness in the socket used for
the hand held scanners. The edges of the plug pins are squared off at
the ends so that they are able to snag the metal electrodes of the
sockets and cause the socket to fall to pieces! Other than choosing a
different type of connector, the only successful advice I’ve been able
to give to those people unfortunate enough to have had theirs repaired,
was to push the plug in gently and, if resistance is felt before the
plug is fully home, oscillate the plug very gently as it is pushed in −
particularly when the socket is new. So far, this advice has been 100%
effective.
5.5
VIDC’s still blowing up
5.5
Having succeeded in stopping VIDCs being damaged by static (using the
mod I’ve developed for the A310’s and old A440’s) I have still been
receiving machines with damaged chips. However, this time it is due to
the fact that the owners have fitted unbuffered audio take-off leads to
their sound sockets (10 way pin set). (As explained in Archive 4.7 p21,
Ooops! Ed.). Anything which is earthy or leaky (technical terms for
electronically iffy) plugged onto this connection can directly blow up
the output current transistors, the audio pre-amp chip and indeed the
VIDC itself. What people may not realise is that this connection point
is NOT a safe place to just connect any old thing up to. This is why I
made the Hi-Fi adapter kit. Unfortunately, in a later issue of Archive,
Jeremy Mears questioned the need for my piece of hardware, and stated
that it was cheaper to just connect straight onto these connections.
Firstly this is not very ‘hygienic’ electronically and also you will
hear raw quantisation noise that my board has been specifically tuned to
remove. Well, at the price the Hi-Fi boards sell for, I’ll never be a
millionaire, but at the rate I’m still changing VIDCs, I might become
richer that way. Keep up the good work! (Replacement VIDC’s are £38
without labour.)
5.5
A5000 podule sizes
5.5
If you are the proud owner of an A5000 and you’ve decided to connect
your 400 series podules into it, you may not have noticed that they
don’t fit properly. In fact, they are about 2mm too short, and so, to
guarantee proper connection into the backplane, a couple of spacer
washers will have to be put between the board’s fixings and the external
metal plate to make up the difference. This measurement difference was
due to the fact that Acorn have now apparently standardised the podule
board size.
5.5
A5000 power connectors
5.5
Another little ‘nasty’ spotted on a few A5000’s whilst upgrading the
memory was that the ¼“ spade terminals used to connect the power to the
motherboard have not been soldered properly. If your machine was
received without any memory upgrade, it might be worth a look before a
dodgy connection starts upsetting the precious files on your hard drive!
(But don’t even THINK of getting your soldering iron out if the
terminals are loose! Ed.)
5.5
A310 Memory upgrades
5.5
I feel very saddened by the number of cases of people who have had to
send in their 310’s because they attempted to install a memory upgrade
and came unstuck as it is quite easy to damage the PCB in some way. The
various firms producing these memory PCBs are not to blame, but perhaps
I would comment that there are nowhere near as many competent solderers
out there as people who think they are. BE WARNED − the motherboard is
delicate and manual solder suckers are just not suitable, which is why
Acorn Service Centres have to buy a desoldering station (for a mere
£700).
5.5
Terminal burn-out
5.5
In the course of repairs, an odd job made itself known. Upon checking
current and heat levels, I decided to find what was causing the ¼“ spade
terminals to actually burn out at the wire crimp point. I checked the
system and found that upon switch-on there was no characteristic beep
and the desktop environment was also missing. I would have tried a
<ctrl-break> but this particular unit didn’t have a keyboard so I had to
suffice with power off.
5.5
I stripped out the obvious visible damage and replaced the four spade
connectors, checked the work with a meter and then switched on again. I
switched off again after about 8 seconds, as there was still no visible
sign of life. I confirmed continuity and noticed the presence of a fair
amount of heat had been generated. There were no power indicators
present, so I decided to refer back to the manual but was surprised to
find that nowhere in the Acorn backup material was there any reference
to a Swan Electric Urn Nº 526−3kW unit. It was at this point that I
noticed the absence of the usual Archimedes sticker and decided to ask
Paul about this discrepancy, whereupon he informed me that he had in
fact slipped the N.C.S. Tea Urn in with the other repairs hoping I
wouldn’t notice!
5.5
(Actually, it was one of the church’s urns but he made an excellent job
of repairing it − I think Ray can repair just about anything! Ed.)
5.5
Silly icons
5.5
On an even sillier note, I have noticed that my Rabbit (Hare? Ed) and
Tortoise (comical icons for those of us who possess the wonderful ARM3)
have wandered far and wide. Soon, an animated version of the Bunny will
be available. Let me know if you’re interested.
5.5
MR45 vacuum cleaners
5.5
A rather disconcerting problem with removable drives is rearing its
head. Any spinning surface causes airflow dispersal and by nature of
centrifugal forces, air that is thrown off the outside of the disc is
replaced by incoming air at the centre of the disc. This will cause the
disc to attract dust not only into the drive mechanism, but also onto
the surface of the disc. I have successfully cleaned several of these
machines now, but I would not advise the general populous to attempt
this. Also, I do not know of a way to clean the DISC in the cartridge!
Please be warned, and consider ways of keeping your removable drives in
as dust-free an area as possible. Perhaps some kind of small door
covering the face of the drive might help, but as this is a new finding
NO information is currently available.
5.5
310 upgrade etc
5.5
As far as I am aware, all the companies who produce upgrade boards and
add-ons include satisfactory instructions, but there is one point that I
feel that is often not made clear. If you are thinking of doing one of
these upgrades yourself, just how much skill and knowledge are required?
I have had to rescue several people who started doing an upgrade
themselves and got into a mess. If you can do it yourself, you obviously
save money but, if you get into a mess, it can often end up costing you
rather more than the dealer-fit cost.  A
5.5

5.5
Music Column
5.5
Stewart Watson
5.5
Multi-timbral synthesizers and sequencers
5.5
I have had a fair amount of correspondence lately from people who have
had trouble getting their sequencers working so as to take full
advantage of the facilities provided by their synthesizers.
5.5
Let’s take, as an example, a Korg M1 being used with Studio 24+. The M1
is eight part multi-timbral (it can produce up to eight different kinds
of sound at one time), and 16 note polyphonic (it can produce up to
sixteen different notes at one time).
5.5
Getting started
5.5
The first thing to do is to set up the M1 so that it can be controlled
from the computer.
5.5
1.    Select a combination that you are prepared to overwrite. (When you
save your new combination the previous one will be lost.)
5.5
2.    Enter global mode and switch off memory protect internal (so that
you can store your new combination).
5.5
3.    Make sure that program change enable is on. (This will allow you
to select different voices for each part during the course of a song.)
5.5
4.    Switch Local off. (This separates the keyboard from the synthes
izer, so that playing the keys produces no sound directly.)
5.5
5.    Press combination edit (to edit your chosen combination).
5.5
6.    Select Multi. (This allows the M1 to be used as a multi-timbral
synthesizer.)
5.5
7.    Select the eight voices you use most often including drums.
5.5
8.    Assign each voice to a different midi channel, e.g.
5.5
Voice    Programme    Midi
5.5
    Number    Channel
5.5
Piano    41        2
5.5
Acoustic Bass    26        3
5.5
Drums    09        4
5.5
Guitar    04        5
5.5
Pan Flute    08        6
5.5
Brass    01        7
5.5
Dreamwave    20        8
5.5
Tenor Sax    62        9
5.5
    It is best not to use channel 1 as it is, by default, the global
channel which means that any changes received on that channel affect
every part.
5.5
9.    Save the combination that you have just assembled.
5.5
10.    Enter global mode.
5.5
11.    Switch on memory protect (to protect your new combination).
5.5
Setting up Studio24+
5.5
1.    Make sure that midi thru is selected. (This will send the
information received from the keyboard of the M1 back out from the midi
out port to the M1 and will make it play the chosen voice on the current
midi channel.)
5.5
2.    Set the midi channel of the metronome to the same as the channel
for drums on the M1.
5.5
3.    Set the pitch of the metronome to suit your taste.
5.5
4.    Set up a default pattern for Studio 24+ with the midi channels set
to match the M1.
5.5
You can now control the M1 from the computer and enter programme changes
into each part as required.
5.5
The Korg programme numbering system starts at 1 rather than the usual 0,
which means that you have to add 1 to the programme number of the voice
you are selecting: e.g. to select piano voice 41 you would have to enter
42 in the preset window.
5.5
The system I have outlined above can be altered to suit most available
multi-timbral synthesizers.
5.5
I have included a drumlist for an M1, a dummy file for Studio 24+ and a
clipboard of some basic rhythm patterns for inclusion on the monthly
disc.  A
5.5

5.5
!CL − Psion Link
5.5
Peter Creed
5.5
Perhaps, like me, you were eagerly awaiting the arrival of version 1.6
of the PC Emulator, in the hope that, at last, the Comms Link software
for the Psion Organiser would actually run on it! If so, you are about
to be extremely disappointed. Once again, the Comms Link software bombs
out with the all too familiar message, “Undefined Opcode, System
Halted...”
5.5
I had previously tried every programming trick that I could think of, to
make the Comms Link software work and had been thwarted at every turn,
so I was delighted to hear that a new software house called “Godders
Ware” had designed a program called !CL for the Archimedes & Psion
Organiser, that was rumoured to be fully multitasking. I immediately
offered to review it since I have had some dismal experiences with
previous Psion-Archimedes comms software.
5.5
I was not to be disappointed though, initially, getting things up and
running was far from easy and required several calls to their technical
expert, Mark Godwin. To be fair though, this was due to an unusual SCSI
Hard Disc setup on my part and Mark Godwin was able to remedy the
problem in the software promptly and since then the program has worked
correctly.
5.5
Presentation
5.5
!CL comes on a single 3½“ disc with an on-disc manual in both !Edit and
First Word Plus formats. This could possibly be a limitation to those of
you without printers but you can still easily view the manual on screen
whilst !CL is running.
5.5
On the disc are several applications:− !CL, !OnTime, !Opendir and
!PS_Split. The first, !CL, is the multi-tasking communications program.
!OnTime is a freebie which the company has supplied as an appetiser for
their future range of programs. It is designed for modem freaks who run
up massive phone bills. Using it, you are able to pre-set a warning time
which will pop up a suitable message when you have been on-line for too
long.
5.5
!Opendir is also rather useful. Once it is loaded onto the icon bar, you
simply drag an application over to it and release, whereupon it opens a
filer window into the application directory, no more shift-double-
clicking.
5.5
!PS_Split is another rather useful application. Once loaded, you can
drag an OPL (Organiser Programming Language) program icon onto the
!PS_Split icon and release it which then splits into an OPL text file
which is readable in !Edit and an Obj (Object) file which is the
compiled OPL code. This is very useful if, like me, you are an OPL
program developer and you wish to supply your end users with the object
code only.
5.5
Installation
5.5
!CL can be run from floppy disc or installed on a hard di