Archive Magazine 1995/ARCHIVE95.iso/text/hints/volume_07/issue_01

Text File | 1995-02-16 | 8KB | 173 lines

Hints and Tips
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Å    A300/400 floppy drive problems Ö On the old A310 and A440 machines,
the disc drive has a cover on the head which has a notorious tendency to
fall off but the drive is not affected by a missing cover. A far more
usual fault on A310 drives is that the eject button falls off. This can
easily be fixed with glue. (Do take the drive out of the machine first
so you donæt glue the button to the front of the computer!)
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On the old machines (with only the disc drive button sticking out
through the front fascia) you have no option but to replace them with an
identical Sony drive mechanism (ú102 through Archive Ö Ouch! Ed.) but on
the newer machines, like the A410/1, you can use most 720Kb drives
available. (Are you sure? Ed.) Knut Folmo, Norway.
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Å    Bespoke appointmentsæ calendar Ö I have written a program (on the
monthly program disc) to generate an Impression-based appointments
calendar and would like to share it with other people, courtesy of
Archive magazine. Using the program avoids filling in all those
birthdays, etc every year. Itæs all done automatically from a text file.
Itæs written in Basic and has no glitzy front end but it works OK.á Ian
Summers, Norwich.
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Å    Elite Ö A space station exists in witch space. After killing all the
other ships, switch to one of the status screens (f8?) and the compass
will reappear. By jumping repeatedly in that direction, you can
eventually find it. This station is strange in many ways and, while you
are experimenting, it is worth noting that its existence changes while
you are looking at the status screen. Try docking and shooting while
using <f8>.á Geoff Scott, Northampton.
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Å    Form feeds in printer drivers Ö I would like to respond to Mick Dayæs
comments about form feeds (6.12 p57). The terminal form feed is
definitively (now thereæs sticking my neck out) configurable. Mick does
not say whether he is using text or graphics output to his printer but
for the dot matrix drivers this is what happens.
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Text output:-
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send
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StartTextJob code
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SetLines code plus byte to set the page depth in text lines
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[your text formatted as per option set, eg none or draft highlights etc
using specified line feed/ linefeed cr codes]
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{gets to the end of a page
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[more text as above]}
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       .
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       .  repeat above for number         of pages
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       .
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EndTextJob code (this usually includes a Form Feed in the codes sent)
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For graphics you have:-
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SetLines code plus byte as above
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PageStart code
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[Graphics data using specified control strings]
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@{of a page
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PageEnd code
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SetLines code as above
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PageStart code
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[Graphics data as above]}
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      .
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      . repeat for number of            pages
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      .
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GraphicsFormFeed code PageEnd code
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thus, by defining your form feed character in the driver definition file
to be nothing, form feeds can be suppressed. Remember though that it
needs to be done for each graphics resolution and each text definition.
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I have a dummy printer def file which replaces the genuine control codes
with strings to illustrate what is going on. If it is merged into
!Printersæ Printer control window and set to print to file, output from
it can be viewed in !Edit to see what is going on. If a multipage text
file is dragged to it, the effect of text control codes can be viewed,
and similarly with graphics. The ideal is a two-page document using
outline fonts with, say, just one character at the bottom of each page
so that there is not too much graphics garbage to wade through but
mostly LineSkip codes. The printer def file and a suitable text test
file are on the Archive monthly disc. It includes a ÉGraptestæ file
which is a two-page Wordz ödocumentò.á Tim Nicholson, Cranleigh.
7.1
Å    Keyboard cleaning Ö We regularly get asked about keyboard problems,
many of which could be solved by cleaning. That, I think, is the answer
to Brian Cowanæs question in his Hardware Column last month. There have
been three main references to this in Archive (3.9 p10 + 5.1 p25 + 5.2
p28). I think these should cover most eventualities.á Ed.
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In response to Brianæs question, several subscribers sent in
descriptions of how to clean a keyboard. I think that much of it is
covered by the references above but I think Knut Folmoæs comments which
follow may also be helpful.á Ed.
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Å    Keyboard cleaning (2) Ö There are three different keyboards on
Archimedes computers.
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(1)áKPL keyboard Ö This was used only on VERY old A310 machines. It can
be identified by looking at the CapsLock LED, which is mounted on the
right hand side of the key-top, as opposed to the left on the more usual
types. This is horrible to type on! If you still have such a keyboard,
throw it in the wastebin and buy a new! (Funnily enough, Acorn keyboards
are on special offer at the moment for ú95 instead of ú123 Ö strictly
while stocks last Ö I have about 10 of them. Ed)
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(2)áKeytronics keyboard Ö This is the normal keyboard on most of the
A310s and nearly all the A400/1 range. If you take off one of the keys,
you will see a rubber cap that is mounted between the key and the
keyswitch.
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These keyboards do not like hair, biscuits and other kinds of dust. If
any keys fail, it most likely to be the CapsLock key because the hole
around the LED makes it possible for dust to get into the keyswitch. If
you have access to pressurised air, you can fix the key for a limited
period of time by taking off the keytop and blowing some air around the
LED. The best cure is to open the whole keyboard and clean it. This is a
lot of work and involves unscrewing approximately 40 screws. (See the
references mentioned above. Ed.)
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(3)áCherry keyboards Ö All A5000/A540 machines have this type of
keyboard, which use the same mechanics as the A3000. This is a very good
membrane keyboard which seems to be very long-lasting. The use of
membrane technology makes it impossible for dust to enter the electrical
contacts. This type of keyboard is also the best to type on. It can
easily be identified by taking off one of the keytops, which should have
a little spring mounted on the underside. (Cherry keyboards are the ones
we have on special offer at the moment. Ed.)á Knut Folmo, Norway.
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There is a fourth type: the A4000 type keyboard. We havenæt had any of
these go wrong yet, but weæll report on them as and when they do. Ed.
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Å    Street maps using Draw Ö At the risk of being boring, since there have
been lots of articles about using Artworks or Vector to produce street
maps, I offer this solution using plain simple RISC OS 3 Draw. Firstly,
draw your map using ordinary thin lines for the roads. Then group all
the roads together and make their thicknesses (say) 4pt. Switch the grid
lock on and copy the roads. With the grid lock on, a copy is made
exactly one grid distance down and to the right. Therefore you can move
the copy exactly over the original. Now change all the lines in the copy
to colour white and thickness (say) 2pt and, hey presto, thereæs your
street map.
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If you want different thickness roads, keep the grid lock on and move
the copy to a different bit of the paper. Then make the copyæs line
colour red (so you can see it) and ungroup both maps. Carefully change
the corresponding road lines to the required thicknesses Ö e.g. 8pt on
the original and 5pt on the copy for the main roads. Then re-group the
roads and move the copy over the original. Finally, change the copy to
white lines. There may be more elegant ways of generating road maps but
this one is öfreeò with the Archimedes! Notice also that there are no
problems with joining different sized roads (i.e. the outlines of the
small roads do not project into the big roads.á Cain Hunt, Cambridge.ááA
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