Archive Magazine 1995/ARCHIVE95.iso/text/magazine/volume_06/issue_08

Text File | 1995-06-25 | 270KB | 5,597 lines

How was Harrogate?
6.8
We have just got back from the Acorn User Show in Harrogate. It was
great to be able meet some of the Archive subscribers for whom Wembley
is a bit too far to travel Ö and also good to see again some of the
regulars who would come to the Acorn User Show wherever it was!
6.8
I was leaving some space here on the inside front cover of the magazine
in case there were any marvellous new products launched at the Show that
everyone ought to know about. There were some new things but nothing
that wonæt wait until next monthæs Products Available column.
6.8
I must give a big thank you to Dave and the lads from Arcade BBS! There
was a group of Arcadians meeting together for a meal at the end of the
last day of the Show and they very kindly offered to help Dave, Simon
and myself take down the stand and pack it all into the van Ö weæd have
been there an awful lot longer without you Ö thanks very much!
6.8
Lost mail !
6.8
On the morning of 31st March someone stole the mail sack that the Post
Office van delivered at 96a Vauxhall Street. We have no way of knowing
what letters and/or cheques we lost in the robbery so if you have not
received a response from Norwich Computer Services at the speed to which
you have become accustomed and you think it was sent to us around the
end of March, please give us a ring to see if we have actually received
it. Thank you and we are sorry for the inconvenience.
6.8
Best wishes,
6.8

6.8
Products Available
6.8
Å    10 Out of 10 Early Essentials Ö Following on from 10/10 Maths and 10/
10 English, 4th Dimension have produced 10 out of 10 Early Essentials
which is for the under 7æs and provides programs that develop concepts
of shape and colour, numbers, alphabet, science, tables and bonds,
logic, algebra, time, properties and words. All this for only ú25.95 or
ú24 through Archive!
6.8
Å    Acorn Multimedia Expansion Unit Ö This is a metal unit containing a
CD-ROM drive but with space for a second drive unit. It comes either
with or without a SCSI interface and the interface is either an 8-bit
internal podule for A3000/4000 machines or a 16-bit standard-width
podule for other Archimedes computers. The prices are ú599 +VAT with a
SCSI interfaces and ú499 +VAT without. (The dealer margin on these is
very small, so the Archive prices are not discounted Ö ú590 and ú705
including VAT and carriage.)
6.8
If you have your own SCSI card, you need to be sure that it has the CDFS
included and that it is at least version 2.13. Also, this version of
CDFS need RISCáOS version 3.10 or later.
6.8
The cabling on the unit is long enough to put it alongside the computer
or you could put it on top of or underneath the computer, subject to a
maximum loading of 16kg.
6.8
The unit will take two internal SCSI devices. One of them must be a 3╜ö
unit, entirely enclosed, and the other a 5╝ò half-height unit with an
external fascia or a 3╜ö in a 5╝ò cradle. Having an external fascia
allows for the use of removable media such as SyQuests or magneto-
optical devices although some of the MO units are physically too long to
fit in the case.
6.8
If you want a power amplifier for the sound output, this can also be
fitted internally.
6.8
You should note, however, that the internal p.s.u. will only have enough
spare capacity for ONE unit in addition to the CD-ROM, i.e. one extra
drive or a power amplifier. Also, if you add an extra unit, you will
need to fit a fan Ö for which space and fitting points are provided.
6.8
Å    Acorn Options Ö This is a scheme by which schools and colleges can
obtain Acorn computers on a rental scheme. Capital expenditure is tight,
so this scheme provides a way of getting hold of the latest in computer
technology without large up-front payments. Acorn Authorised Education
Dealers such as Norwich Computer Services can supply Acorn computer
equipment and the educational establishments pay a quarterly rental over
three or five years. At the end of that period, it may be possible for
schools to maintain title of the equipment but the terms have still to
be finalised. In any case, considering the rate at which technology
moves on, it might be better to think in terms of a three or five year
replacement cycle for computers. It is also possible to add more
equipment to the rental scheme as the years go by. For more details,
ring Norwich Computer Servicesæ education hot-line.
6.8
Å    Archive binders Ö More price rises, Iæm afraid! The latest batch of
binders have gone up in price, so we are now having to charge ú6 each.
(Does anyone know of a manufacturer we can try who might be cheaper?
Ed.)
6.8
öThese binders are too small!ò We have been told that, with the ever-
increasing thickness of the Archive magazines, people are having
difficulty fitting them into the binders! Admittedly, it is getting more
difficult to fit them in but it is often because people are not fitting
them correctly. The idea is that only the front and back magazines have
their rods fitted into the holes. The other ten rods should be put into
the slot. The only reason they have so many holes is so that you can use
different holes during the course of the year as the binder fills up.
6.8
Å    Archive Monthly Program Discs Ö For the benefit of new-comers to
Archive, let me explain about the monthly program discs. These discs
contain any of the data which contributors send in each month that are
relevant to their articles. For example, last month we included a list
(contributed by Rob Brown) of items of software that were or were not
compatible with RISCáOS 3. If there is not much material that needs to
go on the disc, in a given month, we try to find some PD software or
some other useful information that we can add ourselves.
6.8
If there is a particular monthæs disc that you want to buy, they are
available at ú2 a disc. You can order these discs in advance, again at
ú2 each or at ú20 for a full year, i.e. 12 discs.
6.8
Å    ArtSchool Ö This is a painting program for new computer users. Drawing
tools can be temporarily excluded by a teacher or parent using a
separate program so that the user is not confused by too many icons. It
has a built-in help facility and, for the more advanced user, the 256
colour modes can be used with graduated fills and cycling colours. The
price is ú29.95 inc VAT from Micro Studio or ú28 through Archive.
6.8
Å    BattleChess from Krisalis Software is a chess game with a difference.
As well as being able to play chess against a human opponent or against
the computer, you get the benefit of some very impressive animation
sequences when a piece is taken. The price is ú25.99 inc VAT from
Krisalis or ú24 through Archive.
6.8
Å    Careware and Shareware Ö This month we have two new Careware discs and
three new Shareware discs. The graphics conversion utilities on Careware
19 have grown somewhat so that the statistics routines have had to be
transferred onto Careware 20. If you want an update of Careware 19, just
send the old disc back.
6.8
Careware 20 Ö SkyView v1.01 is an excellent Ésky simulationæ program by
Nigel Hawkes for use by the naked eye astronomer. Any part of the night
sky can be examined and information is available on most celestial
objects. Also on the disc is the suite of stand-alone statistical
utilities written in Basicáby Bob Richards, listed in Archive 6.5 p4 as
being part of Careware 19.
6.8
Careware 21 consists of clipart produced by Steve and Anne Bruntlett Ö
various drawfiles on a religious theme plus some scanned drawings.
6.8
Shareware 48 is a demo version of !G-Draft 1.0, a 2D CAD package
including various example CAD drawings and some symbol libraries.
6.8
Shareware 49 has various graphical demos in Basic, a suite of desktop
utilities, some Draw utilities for PCB layout work, a Épresentationæ
utility to display multiple drawfiles in succession, a desktop utility
to calculate Ébest-fitæ data, an excellent 2D graphing tool allowing
multiple graphs to be built up using text file data, a useful desktop
mathematics/learning tool covering bar graphs, Euclidean algorithms,
factorization, fractions, greatest common divisor, least common multiple
and prime number search.
6.8
Shareware 50 contains ProTrack and associated files from Gil Damoiseaux
& Bernard Jungen. This utility allows SoundTracker and ProTracker files
to be played. It includes several facilities for monitoring and
modifying the tunes.
6.8
Å    Christian clipart Ö Ian Gooding has a range of about 30 discs of
Christian clipart in sprite, drawfile and Artworks formats. The discs
are ú7.99 each plus ú2.50 p&p per order. For a full catalogue, write to
Ian Gooding, 18 Larksfield, Covingham, Swindon, SN3 5AD.
6.8
Å    Courses Galore Ö You can now combine computer training courses with
some site-seeing in a beautiful part of the U.K. Ö the Norfolk Broads.
Norwich Computer Services is going to be putting on some training
courses here in Norwich. You can choose the type and price of your own
accommodation from a list (which we will provide) of hotels and guest
houses as well as camping and caravan sites.
6.8
We are hoping to start this summer, but what we need to know fairly
urgently, is:
6.8
(1) What subjects should we cover? Applications such as Impression,
PipeDream, PinPoint, PenDown, Vector, Squirrel, S-Base, PC Emulator,
Revelation, Magpie, etc? Beginners courses, e.g. Introducing RISCáOS?
Programming, e.g. BBC Basic V or C or WIMP Programming?
6.8
(2) How long should the courses be and when? e.g. mid-week or weekend?
How about a Bank Holiday weekend with course work on Saturday and
Monday, leaving Sunday as a day of rest?
6.8
Tell us what you want and we will see what we can arrange for you.
6.8
Å    DataPower, Iota Softwareæs new Éeasy-to-useæ database, is available
now. It is RISCáOS compliant, uses outline fonts and has features which
include unlimited length of field, unlimited number of fields in a
record, unlimited number of views of a database, has multi-line text
field-type which accepts an unlimited amount of text. It offers
mailmerge and WYSIWYG labelling. It offers a range of graphing
facilities and can be used over a network. The price is ú149 +VAT (ú160
through Archive) for a single user, ú347 +VAT (ú375 through Archive) for
a site licence for up to 10 machines and ú599 +VAT (ú650 through
Archive) for an unrestricted site licence.
6.8
Å    Double-life ink cassettes Ö We are now stocking double-life black ink
cassettes for the Deskjet 500s. Standard cassettes are ú18 and double-
life are ú25. (We havenæt tested them, so we cannot guarantee that
ödoubleò actually means what it says!)
6.8
Å    Eizo prices up again Ö Because of the strength of the Yen against the
Pound, monitor prices are going up again. The 9060SZ is now ú600 (these
are also in short supply), the F340i-W is ú720, the F550i-W is ú1020,
the T560iT is ú1560 and the T660iT is ú2260. The Taxan 795 has also gone
up in price to ú640.
6.8
Å    Ethernet interfaces Ö EtherLan 100 is an A3000 version of i│æs
EtherLan 200 interface. The EtherLan 100 costs ú220 +VAT although there
are educational prices. Ring i│ for details.
6.8
Å    FontWay is a font managing application from XOB (which works only with
RISCáOS 3.10 onwards). This allows you to set up pre-selected sets of
fonts and add and subtract fonts easily. It also gives you a font-
viewing window. It costs ú16 +VAT from XOB or ú18 through Archive for a
single user licence. A site licence is ú64 +VAT from XOB or ú72 through
Archive.
6.8
(Keeps your eyes peeled for an extremely powerful font filing system
that should be available soon from another software house. It even
allows you to drop an Impression or Artworks document, for example, into
its window and it will automatically select and load the fonts needed!
It sounds too good to be true! Ed.)
6.8
Å    Karma Ö We have had some enquiries recently about the progress of
Karma. We are extremely sorry to have to report the death of one of the
two programmers, Rick Delarre, in a motorcycle accident recently. We do
not yet know how this will affect the future of the project but if we
get any further news, we will let you know. We would like to express our
sincere condolences to Rickæs family and friends.
6.8
Å    Knowledge Organiser 2 Ö Clares have released an updated version of
their Knowledge Organiser which is a free-form text database. Clares
describe it as being örelationalò and say that the search engine is
ömore powerful than any yet seenò. The price is ú99.95 inc VAT or ú93
through Archive.
6.8
I have had a chance to play with KO II and am writing a review of it for
the magazine. It seems to be an extremely versatile and powerful
application and I am hoping to use it to create and distribute an
Archimedes hints & tips database. Clares are providing us with a licence
so that we can distribute the read-only version of KO II with the hints
& tips database Ö watch this space! Ed.
6.8
Å    Microvitec Cubscan 1440 Ö Microvitec have now produced a 14ö multisync
monitor aimed at the Archimedes market. It has the same resolution as
the Eizo 9060 with dot pitch of 0.28mm and scans from 15 to 40 kHz but
it is rather cheaper. The Eizo 9060 has just gone up to ú600 whereas the
Cubscan 1440 will sell at an Archive price of ú480. The scanning range
is slightly higher at 40kHz compared to the 9060æs 38.5 kHz but it
shouldnæt make much practical difference. It also has the advantage over
the 9060 of having electronically control picture positioning. It senses
the different signals that come in and sets up the screen to a preset
position which you can program into it. These presets only apply to the
size and position of the picture and not to the huge range of parameters
that can be preset on all the Eizo monitors from the F340iW upwards.
6.8
If it costs ú120 less than a 9060 and has electronic position control,
are the days of the 9060 numbered? Well, we put the Cubscan 1440 next to
a 9060 to compare them. First of all, although the dot pitch is supposed
to be the same, the 9060 is definitely clearer when viewing small text
and secondly, we feel that the styling of the Cubscan leaves a lot to be
desired Ö but that is obviously a lot more subjective than the picture
clarity. Also, the control of the Cubscan has no audible or tactile
feedback Ö you just press a button and watch the screen shrink or grow.
Is the 9060 worth ú120 more? Hmmm, itæs difficult to say Ö I think it is
too much of an individual decision to make any general pronouncement
about it.
6.8
Å    NetChat Ö This is a real-time electronic mail and peer-to-peer file-
space sharer, mentioned last month as being available from Archive for
ú92. What we forgot to say was that it was produced by XOB Ö sorry about
that!
6.8
Å    NetGain for Ethernet Ö Digital Services have launched a new product
that speeds up loading times on Levelá4 Fileservers using Ethernet. Data
rates can be increased markedly and application loading times
correspondingly reduced. This costs ú200 for the server pack and the
first ten machines. Additional 10 station packs are ú100 +VAT from
Digital Services.
6.8
Å    North Sea is the latest curriculum datafile from Anglia Television.
For ú22 +VAT, you get a 28-page workbook and a datafile disc. This is
for use with KeyPlus version 2.5 or later.
6.8
Å    PassMan IV Ö This is XOBæs password management software. It provides
facilities on Level IV fileservers to view and set usersæ passwords,
boot option, free space, etc. PassMan IV costs ú49 +VAT from XOB or ú54
through Archive.
6.8
Å    PC386/486 cards for A3020/4000 Ö Acorn are now selling PC cards for
the A3020 and A4000 computers. The costs are ú275 +VAT (ú310 through
Archive) for the 1Mb PC386 and ú499 +VAT (ú560 through Archive) for the
4Mb PC486 card. (In case you are wondering, these cards are supplied to
Acorn by Aleph One Ö there is still no sign of the long-lost Watford
Electronicsæ PC card.) The 486 price includes the Windows driver
software which speeds up Windows applications.
6.8
Å    !Perform Ö This is a utility, normally supplied with Claresæ VoxBox,
which allows up to twelve Rhapsody scores to be played in sequence.
Clares have very kindly released it into the public domain and it is
available on this monthæs program disc.
6.8
Å    ProCAD Ö This is the professional version of Minervaæs CADet 2D
draughting package. Facilities include multiple drawings, fast zoom and
pan, 32 layers, BS308 automatic dimensioning, ruled line and graphic
fills, user-designed symbols, multiple line types, four plottable fonts,
bill of material type reports, roll-back undo, on-the-fly snaps, import/
export of DXF, advanced construction tools, CSV import, multitasking
plotter driver. The single user price is ú495 +VAT (ú535 through
Archive) and a site licence for up to 30 machines is ú1580 +VAT from
Minerva.
6.8
Å    QuickType is a touch-typing tutor that allows the teacher to set up
exercises tailored to the pupils rather than being limited to the
exercises specified by the programmer. This costs ú32 +VAT from XOB or
ú35 through Archive. A site licence is ú99 +VAT from XOB or ú108 through
Archive.
6.8
Å    RemoteFS is now available. Atomwideæs inter-computer communication
software was described by Brian Cowan last month (Archive 6.7 p55). It
is now available for ú49 +VAT or ú53 through Archive. For that price,
you get the software plus a serial lead and a parallel lead although you
should remember that the parallel lead will only work on the newer
computers with the bidirectional parallel port (A5000/4000/3020/3010).
The serial cable will work on all Archimedes computers although the
A3000 must have a serial port upgrade fitted (ú21 through Archive).
6.8
Å    Removable drive price up Ö The price of 42Mb removable drive has
followed the general upward trend of imported goods. The new Archive
price is ú485. The cartridges are still ú75 each and the 84Mb drives
remain at the price stated last month of ú590 for the standard drive and
ú670 for the enhanced version that writes as well as reads the 42Mb
cartridges.
6.8
Å    Sherston software prices up Ö There has been a small across-the-board
rise in prices of all Sherstonæs software. New prices are as per the
Archive Price List.
6.8
Å    SimCity Ö Krisalis Software have produced an Archimedes version of
this famous city-simulation game. It is claimed to be the best-selling
computer game ever with sales in excess of half a million copies
worldwide! The price is ú34.99 inc VAT from Krisalis or ú32 through
Archive.
6.8
Å    SUMthing Ö From the same author as Droom and Dust comes SUMthing, a
maths program with a difference. Thee six different programs in the pack
involving placing numbers in order, number sentences, reading numbers,
digital roots and number bonds. It can be set up for the individualæs
particular level within National Curriculum levels 2 to 4 and the
pupilæs work is recorded for the teacher to check later. It is aimed at
Maths AT2 & 3 at Key Stage 1 & 2. It costs ú19.95 +VAT from RESOURCE or
ú22 through Archive.
6.8
Å    SuperMon II is XOBæs Network Manageræs utility which allows you to
monitor and control remote stations. It lists logged-on users and
stations, opens any directory on the network, has a digital clock,
calculator, protect facility. With it you can log off selected stations,
halt and restart stations, view and/or blank remote stationæs screens,
send text messages, force commands on remote machines and zap
(irreversibly!) software running in a remote machine. SuperMon II is ú89
+VAT from XOB or ú98 through Archive.
6.8
Å    Switch Ö This is a new game from Soft Rock Software (whose motto is
ösoftware on a shoestringò!) costing just ú3.49 inclusive. It is öbest
described as an on-going puzzleò. From the description, it sounds like a
glorified Tetris.
6.8
Å    TechnoDream is here Ö What was going to be Nevryon 2 has now appeared
as TechnoDream published by Superior Software. The price is ú24.95 or
ú23 from Archive.
6.8
Å    Topographer Ö Dave Clare writes, öDue to the tragic death of Ricky
Delarre, Clares Micro Supplies have delayed the release of Topographer.
The Clares team found working with Ricky a very rewarding experience. He
was a very professional programmer who took a pride in his work.
6.8
Topographer was literally hours away from being finished. It is a
reflection of Rickyæs popularity that his colleague, Ian Robinson, has
immediately stepped in to complete Topographer so that it can be
released as a fitting tribute to Ricky.
6.8
He will be missed by all at Clares, and his death is a great loss to
everyone in the Acorn world as well as to his family and his wife,
Jayne.ò
6.8
Review software received...
6.8
We have received review copies of the following: ArcTrack, BattleChess,
Choices, Crossword, First Logo, Insight, Ixion, Landmarks Ö Civil War,
NetManage, Numerator Workcards, Picture It!, Punctuate, SatPack 1,
Screenplay Training Video, Soapbox, Splash, SpySnatcher, Squish,
SUMthing, Switch, ThinkLink, Through the Dragonæs Eye, The Spoken Word,
Switch, Tiles.ááA
6.8
Government Health Warning Ö Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
6.8
öYou Christians are so negative. We have, as a society, just about
managed to shake off the manacles of the Victorian attitude to sexuality
and you are trying to restrict us again. We have won the freedom to have
whatever loving relationships we want to, gay or straight, casual or
permanent, young or old and you are trying to restrict us to a life
sentence in a monogamous, straight marriage. No thanks!ò
6.8
Iæm sorry you think Iæm negative Ö but Iæm going to be negative again.
In case it has escaped your notice, we have, in the UK today (a)
increasing teenage pregnancy rates, (b) increasing abortion rates and,
in particular, increasing teenage abortion rates (OK, youæve won the
Éfreedomæ to have abortions but are abortions Égoodæ for mothers?), (c)
increasing rates of Aids-related diseases and death, (d)áincreasing
divorce rates (OK, youæve won the Éfreedomæ to have divorces but are
divorces Égoodæ for the adults or for the children involved?) and (e)
increasing child abuse.
6.8
Now let me be positive (if a little personal). I donæt have any personal
experience of the Éfreedomæ of casual relationships but I can speak from
experience of the first twenty years of a life-long (hopefully!),
committed, Christian marriage. I would say that the physical aspect of
the relationship is really wonderful and, if anything, it gets better!
The reason for that, in my view, is because of the security we feel in
the commitment we have to each other and to God.
6.8
It depresses me no end to see the example we give to our teenagers.
Instead of teaching them the beauty, sanctity and wonder of sex within
marriage we tell them to use a condom.
6.8
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD.
0603Ö766592 (Ö764011)
6.8
4th Dimension     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742Ö700661) (0742Ö781091)
6.8
4Mation     11 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32
8PA. (0271Ö25353) (0271Ö22974) Mike Matson 0825Ö732679
6.8
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
6.8
Acorn Computers Ltd    Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 4JN. (0223Ö254254) (0223Ö254262)
6.8
Aleph One Ltd     The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(0223Ö811679) (0223Ö812713)
6.8
Anglia Television      Education
Department, Anglia House, Norwich, NR1 3JG. (0603Ö615151) (0603Ö631032)
6.8
Architype Software    54 Parkes
Hall Road, Woodsetton, Dudley, West Midlands DY1á3SR.
6.8
ARMen Software     Laxton House, Milton Road, Oundle, Peterborough, PE8
4AQ. (0832Ö273444) (0832Ö273259)
6.8
Atomwide Ltd     23 The Greenway, Orpington, Kent, BR5 2AY. (0689Ö838852)
(0689Ö896088)
6.8
Clares Micro Supplies     98
Middlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (0606Ö48511)
(0606Ö48512)
6.8
Colton Software (p11)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA. (0223Ö311881) (0223Ö312010)
6.8
Computer Concepts (p21/22)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 6EX. (0442Ö63933) (0442Ö231632)
6.8
Dabs Press     22 Warwick Street, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 7HN.
(061Ö773Ö8632) (061Ö773Ö8290)
6.8
Dalriada Data Technology     145 Albion
Street, Kenilworth, Warkwickshire, CV8 2FY. (0926Ö53901)
6.8
David Pilling (p7)    P.O.Box 22,
Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
6.8
Desktop Projects Ltd     Unit 2A,
Heapriding Business Park, Ford Street, Stockport, SK3 0BT.
(061Ö474Ö0778) (061Ö474Ö0781)
6.8
Digital Services    9 Wayte Street, Cosham, Portsmouth PO6 3BS.
(0705Ö210600) (0705Ö210705)
6.8
Emerald Publishing     P.O.Box 324,
Cambridge, CB1 3HB. (0223Ö355399)
6.8
HS Software    56, Hendrefolian Avenue, Sketty, Swansea, SA2 7NB.
(0792Ö204519)
6.8
i│     Unit J1, The Paddock, 347 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge, CB1 4DH.
(0223Ö413717) (0223Ö413847)
6.8
ICS (p12)    1 Kington Road, West Kirby, Wirral, L48 5ET. (051Ö625Ö1006)
(051Ö625Ö1007)
6.8
Iota Software Ltd    St Johnæs Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge,
CB4 4WS. (0223Ö421542) (0223Ö421543)
6.8
Irlam Instruments    133 London Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 4HN.
(0895Ö811401)
6.8
Krisalis Software     Teque House,
Masonæs Yard, Downs Row, Moorgate, Rotherham, S60 2HD. (0709Ö372290)
6.8
Longman-Logotron     124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4
4ZS. (0223Ö425558) (0223Ö425349)
6.8
LOOKsystems (p31)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603Ö764114) (0603Ö764011)
6.8

6.8

6.8
Paul Beverley
6.8
Drop Rock
6.8
Ulf Svensson
6.8
Drop Rock for ú3.49 from Soft Rock Software comes on a single disc.
Double click on the program icon and the game takes over the whole
screen. If you have a hard disc, you can install the program without any
problem. Press <escape> if you want to quit and you are back to the
desktop.
6.8
The game
6.8
In this game, you have to go through 40 screens and collect scrolls and
jewels. There are safes in each level that contains scrolls. To collect
these scrolls, you must get all the keys on that screen and avoid
falling rocks and yellow devils. The devils in most cases can be guided
into cages and they turn into scrolls which you can collect. The score,
and how many lives you have left, is displayed at the bottom of the
screen.
6.8
Conclusion
6.8
The graphics are quite simple. It is similar in concept to Bobby
Blockhead but lacks complexity, which would make the game more fun to
play. I tried some levels several times and managed to collect some keys
before I was killed by a falling rock. The game was not very addictive Ö
maybe it would have been more fun on a BBC B? This game is not
stretching much of the Archimedesæ capabilities Ö which I think a good,
addictive game on this machine has to do if it is to be reasonably good
value for money.ááA
6.8
David Pilling
6.8
New artwork
6.8
SpaceTech
6.8
From 6.7 page 34
6.8
Ovation Column
6.8
Maurice Edmundson
6.8
Draft Printing
6.8
This facility was added to version 1.36 and later and is intended for
those who use a dot matrix printer. When a dot-matrix printer is used in
the graphical mode for printing higher quality WYSIWYG output, the
slowness is tolerable, but where a rapid draft of the text is wanted,
the printer must make use of its normal, usually Epson emulation, fonts
and speeds. If the screen document uses proportionally spaced fonts, the
formatting will probably be disrupted in the draft mode print. Often
this does not matter. All you want is the text for checking. Layout in
the draft copy is not so important but if you want to minimise the
differences from screen to paper, the Ovation draft mode can help.
6.8
A special style-sheet has been designed which makes use of a mono-spaced
font called SystemB (supplied) which, of course, must be in your !Fonts
directory. Two style sheets are provided on the Work Disc, one for A4
paper and the other for the slightly larger Letter size. The draft print
option can be selected in the Print menu.
6.8
Preparing for draft printing
6.8
One possibility is to type a new document from scratch into the special
draft style sheet, make the draft print and amendments as necessary,
then when you are satisfied, re-load it into your own style sheet or
document and modify it to its final WYSIWYG style.
6.8
Alternatively if you have already prepared your document in its final
form, save it as a text file. Then you can re-load it into the draft
mode style sheet, where it can be tidied up on the screen, and the
layout modified to suit the available draft codes for bold, italic,
subscript etc. The fast draft print will then match it in both layout
and style.
6.8
Printing large documents
6.8
Sometimes one wants to print a sheet which is larger than A4, such as a
news broadsheet or a poster. Ovation allows you to do this. The page is
divided and printed in parts, which are pasted together using a slight
overlap to make the finished sheet. The technique is called ötilingò.
6.8
In attempting to write down my (admittedly limited) experience I soon
realised that the great variation between printers and the way they
handled the margins, etc meant that no single description would be
applicable to all of them. So I outline below only the principles which
must be adopted for the tiling process.
6.8
I will consider the rather extreme case of a news sheet or poster equal
in area to four A4 sheets i.e. size A2, 420mm ╫ 594mm. In Ovation, we
can construct a document page of this size and then print out the four
quadrants on A4 sheets of paper which will paste together into the full-
sized sheet, either as a one-off or as a master for photocopying. The
finished sheet will be slightly under-size depending on how much overlap
we have at the joins, and this is mainly governed by the minimum
distance the printer can print to the edge of the page.
6.8
This minimum is not necessarily the same on all four margins. For
example, a dot matrix using single sheets might be able to print to
within 8mm on the sides, to 12mm on the bottom but only to 25mm along
the top. This dimension is governed by the gap between the print head
and the feed rollers or bail bar. On the other hand, a laser printer or
bubble jet might be able to print to within 8mm all round. Obviously, if
a margin is 25mm wide on a sheet that has to be pasted over the edge of
another one, this 25mm will have to be cut away if the text is to
continue seamlessly from one sheet to the other. The finished page will
be shorter by the sum of the margins.
6.8
Your printer parameters should have been set in the printer drivers.
They are not modified for this exercise Ö as far as the printer is
concerned, it is still printing onto A4 sheets.
6.8
The widths of the outer margins on the finished poster are under your
control and these, coupled with the print limits just described, will
help you to decide how large to make your new document page. If the
outer margins are, say, 25mm then, provided the total of the print
margin in any one direction is less than this, you can construct a
document page which, on screen, is full A2 size. Otherwise, it would
have to be smaller. This is rule number 1. If the sum of the print
limits in either the vertical or the horizontal directions is more than
the outer margin on the finished sheet, the overall document page in
that direction has to be shorter by at least the difference.
6.8
The wide outer margin can absorb the unwanted print margins provided
rule 1 is obeyed. In the diagram, sheet D will be pasted on to flap x on
sheet A. Sheets B and C (not shown) will be pasted onto flaps y after
they have had their left margins trimmed away. Provided (z + x) is less
than w, you can make your new document page on screen, full A2 size. It
will help you to understand this point and also help in deciding what
co-ordinate X/Y offsets to use if you mock up a guide page before
designing your newsheet or poster. Open a New Document window from the
iconbar menu and select the overall size and the outer margins. I made
the margins 20mm and the overall document 420 ╫ 594mm. My print limits
are 8mm on all sides. On the new page, which is now more conveniently
viewed at 50% reduction, draw in centre lines and other guides using the
line tool as in the diagram. Select <Show rulers> for convenience, and
also <Show margins> (both in the View menu). The area to be printed will
show in white and all the rest will be grey. By default you will
probably get the bottom left quadrant white (D).
6.8
From the File Set Up box (File menu) enter the new X/Y coordinates. They
have to be negative. To start with, you can enter X = 0mm; Y = Ö297mm.
6.8
Now modify these until the white area just touches the guide lines on
sector A. Check that it also overlaps the outer margins. (If not, you
will have to start again with a smaller document page.) Make a note of X
& Y. These are the values to use for the final document. (Typically in
this quadrant, with my printer they were X = Ö8; Y = Ö291.) Repeat the
process for the other quadrants. You can do a trial print on the test
page to check that all four sheets line up correctly.
6.8
Now design the news sheet on exactly the same size page as the guide
mock-up. Carry out the above procedure one quadrant at a time, using the
noted offsets in each case. Trim the unwanted margins and paste the four
together on the flaps left for this purpose. They should closely match
with smooth joins.ááA
6.8
Colton
6.8
From 6.7 page 33
6.8
ICS
6.8
From 6.7 page 26
6.8
Comment Column
6.8
Å    Fun School 4 Ö My daughter and I reviewed FunSchool 3 (under 5æs) for
Archive. We were, on balance, in favour of the program despite several
reservations, so I decided to buy FunSchool 4 for Lisa.
6.8
The reservations I had in the original review (5.8 p66), apply to this
set of programs, in particular about them being incoherent in their
style Ö and I still do not like being told to imagine I had a Commodore
and use those controls!
6.8
The öfit-allò manual, there is a long list of computers supported Ö with
the notable lack of any mention of the Archimedes. The only mention of
it being an Archimedes version is in a loose-leaf insert. This gives the
user a very bad feeling about the program even before he starts to load.
6.8
Within the programs, there is a remarkable lack of standardisation in
the controls used. Sometimes it seems properly designed, with everything
done with the mouse but sometimes cursor keys are used and sometimes the
space bar is used to give movement down through the menus and to change
the pointer position on the screen!
6.8
Occasionally, use is made of the function keys, to allow teachers or
parents to move up and down levels for instance, but these do not work
with all the sections in the program. This is very odd Ö you would have
supposed if it were possible to implement this facility in one section,
it would have been provided in all the others! This just emphasises the
inconsistent nature of the set of programs Ö to call them a ösuiteò is
rather optimistic, for that implies some coherence in design, appearance
and use, which these sadly lack.
6.8
I have some thoughts about the ability requirements of the specific
tasks compared to the age range stated; but that sort of criticism
invites comment about the abilities of the children concerned, so I
shall try to remain objective. Suffice it to say that the tasks vary
considerably in the expertise needed for the child to achieve
satisfaction Ö after all, that is what itæs all about, isnæt it?
6.8
Specific problems which we encountered included: In the section called
Opposites, where the child has to choose from a set of words made
available, it would appear that the programmer is not an english-
speaker. Would you say that the opposite of öActò is to öHideò? How
about the opposite of öHopeò? Would you choose öFearò? The opposite of
öSenseò appears to be öNumbnessò and öSkilfulò is paired with öStupidò!
6.8
Needless to say, there are far better pairs of words that could have
been chosen, with better effect Ö it was at this point Lisa said that
the computer was stupid and we abandoned that part of the program with
disgust while I explained the first principle of computers (Garbage in
Garbage out), i.e. the computer is only as clever (or stupid) as the
person who wrote the program.
6.8
After the highest level, some sections of the program automatically
return to level 1, whereas others return to the top level. This is very
confusing. One section, on successful completion of the level,
progresses to the next level but, as it does so, the next question
appears briefly on the screen only to fade out as part of the change to
the next level! This sort of bad programming should have been weeded out
at the development stage and indicates the slack nature of the
presentation.
6.8
The review was carried out on a 4M A3000 with standard colour (Philips)
monitor, but none of the FunSchool programs behaved properly on my
office hi-res multisync which uses MonitorType3. I didnæt want to
reconfigure it to MonitorType1, so I canæt comment on the programæs
suitability for hi-res monitor types.
6.8
Conclusion: barely worth ú20.á Bob and Lisa Ames, Huntingdon.
6.8
Å    G8 Graphics Card & Sampo Alphascan Monitor Ö I have recently upgraded
my 440/1 system from the original standard monitor to a 14ö  multiscan
with a G8 graphics card from State Machine, and I am most impressed with
the results. I can now comfortably use a resolution of 1024á╫á768 giving
a much larger desktop using every millimetre of the screen and, with a
screen refresh rate of 72 Hz, the display is rock steady with no
apparent flicker. The monitor I selected was a Sampo KDM-1466 AlphaScan
plus costing ú304 inc VAT from Evesham Micros. The total cost of the
upgrade therefore was just under ú600 which I consider a bargain.
6.8
The G8 card has some advantages over its rival from Computer Concepts,
the main one being that it allows me to keep my standard monitor plugged
into the normal video socket and instantly revert to the standard
display if necessary for mode 12 games. (You can actually do the same
with the CC card. Ed.) Since the G8 emulates the low resolution modes, I
can also display mode 12 at full screen on the multiscan which would not
be possible with the CC card. (It is now! CC have produced software to
do it. Ed.) Also the G8 gives you a choice of 15 or 9 pin video sockets
so there is no hassle with extra leads to suit your choice of monitor.
(Yes, OK, with the CC card you do have to get an adaptor if you have a
lead with a 9-pin plug on it! Ed.)
6.8
When selecting a monitor to use with the G8 card, there are two
important specifications to check. The first is the dot pitch. For a 14ö
screen, this should be no more than 0.28 mm. This allows a maximum
resolution of 1024á╫á768. Anything higher than this needs a larger
screen. The second specification to check is the line-scan frequency
range. For full use of the G8 card, a range of 30 Ö 60 kHz is needed,
the following table shows why:
6.8
Resolution    Screen refresh    Line
frequency
6.8
640╫480 (VGA)    60 Hz    31.5 kHz
6.8
800╫600 (SVGA)    72 Hz    48.0 kHz
6.8
1024╫768    72 Hz    59.0 kHz
6.8
70 Hz seems to be a magic figure for the screen refresh rate. Above
this, the flicker totally disappears which makes 72 Hz well worth
achieving. Monitors such as the Taxan 770 and the Eizo 9060 have a lower
line-scan range with a maximum of less than 40 kHz and therefore cannot
achieve these high refresh rates.
6.8
The Sampo 14ö monitor referred to above, although very good value, has a
few snags. The main one is that, in some modes, the display cannot be
expanded to cover the whole screen, so you are left with a narrow black
border. Also, the controls, although front-mounted are a little small
and fiddly to use. I donæt personally find this much of a problem as I
rarely have any need to change modes. The Taxan 795 costs over ú100 more
but is better in both the above respects.
6.8
I would like to applaud the technical support that State Machine
provide. I rang them on several occasions while searching for a suitable
monitor. Each time, I was quickly connected to the same friendly expert
who was willing to discuss technicalities at whatever level and length I
needed. I wish them well and hope they succeed.á Mike Lane, Stockbridge.
6.8
Å    Squirrel Ö Gerald Fittonæs recent aside in PipelineZ (6.7 p21) about
software upgrades and when to release versions, etc was a well-reasoned
piece which I wish some software developers would take to heart.
Confident in the supplieræs ability to provide upgrades when the
inevitable bugs surfaced, I have happily bought early versions of some
major packages. I knew that, by the time I became familiar with the
package, most of the major bugs would have been ironed out.
6.8
Unfortunately, my experiences with Digital Services and Squirrel have
not been of that ilk. I bought Squirrel (v1.07) around October 1991. I
soon found that, although the package had promise, there were several
nasty bugs which generally made the package less friendly than it ought
to have been. I was not unduly worried since Digital Services claimed to
be working on fixes for all the bugs I had brought to their attention.
They already knew about most of them, although one or two were new to
them.
6.8
However, time dragged on, and on. Problems which were an annoyance when
I was getting used to the package were proving to be real stumbling
blocks and Digital Services could still not give a date for release of
an upgrade to fix at least some of the problems. Eventually, of course,
version 1.21 came out with not only the bugs fixed, but many lovely
enhancements.
6.8
It is obvious that Digital Services combined bug-fixing with enhancing
the package. Indeed, their stated policy is öto produce infrequent major
upgrades, rather than bug-ridden, frequent, minor upgrades.ò Whilst this
may be a sensible approach when releasing enhancements I do not believe
it is in the best interests of users to leave them without fixes for
significant bugs.
6.8
It would seem that Digital Services fell into the trap of starting to
make enhancements before having a stable enough base from which to work.
Presumably, they did not want to spend time fixing bugs in sections of
the software which they intended to rewrite anyway. The bugs would get
fixed in the upgrade so why do double work?
6.8
However, in taking this approach, they inevitably extended the period
that customers had to wait for fixes. I for one would rather have the
fixes as soon as possible, even if this delayed the release of
enhancements. And I would have been prepared to pay a small sum to help
offset the extra development costs.
6.8
By adopting Digital Servicesæ approach, you risk alienating your user-
base who are fed up with waiting for the fixes. I hope Digital Services
will reconsider their approach to upgrades because I believe it is
letting down their products badly. I am glad that they have finally come
up with the goods in the case of Squirrel but I am extremely wary of
buying any other product from Digital Services, lest I should experience
a repeat of the Squirrel saga.á Tim Nicholson, Cranleigh.
6.8
Å    The truth about OCR? Ö öGreatò, I thought when I saw the cover of the
May Acorn User, öOCR has finally arrived on the Archimedes Ö and for
under ú60!ò Turning to page 21, I started to read Mark Moxonæs article.
6.8
Mark tells us that there are now three contenders in the Archimedes OCR
race. Risc Developments is set to release its package öwithin the next
few monthsò, Irlam Instruments released Elucidata several months ago
(but it still only seems to work well with an expensive high resolution
scanner) and a new company, Neurotron Software, is working on a product
called Optical. It sounds as if Iota, who did some initial development
work on an OCR program, have more-or-less given up on it, preferring to
concentrate on other products. (I confirmed this in a conversation with
them at the Acorn User Show in Harrogate.)
6.8
The main body of the article concentrates on Risc Developmentsæ, as yet
unnamed, package. After using a pre-release version, Mark reckons that
the results were good but I would like to examine Markæs claims and
perhaps bring a dose of reality into his assessment.
6.8
In a passage of 6,000 characters, i.e. about 1,000 words, the OCR
process apparently made öonlyò 84 errors Ö 98.7% accuracy. However, if
you work it out, that is about one word in ten that was in error Ö and
all those errors have to be spotted and corrected!
6.8
In terms of speed, he says that it can read 1,200 characters per minute
which is about 200 words per minute. He compares that with the speed of
a ödecent typistò at 40 wpm and says that the OCR öwins hands downò.
6.8
Mark then admits that if you add time for setting up the scanner
contrast, doing the scanning and correcting the mistakes, it brings it
down to more like 30 wpm.
6.8
So how does that work out for the passage in question? Letæs look at
those speeds...
6.8
1,000 words at 30 wpm = 33 minutes
6.8
1,000 words at 200 wpm = 5 minutes
6.8
So the OCR took only 5 minutes and the setting up and editing took 28
minutes. Not having access to a pre-release copy of OCR, I cannot say
how long the contrast setting and scanning would take. However, I set up
a 1,000 word passage, containing 84 errors of the type mentioned in
Markæs article and gave it to three guinea-pigs Ö Vera Cooke, Simon Moy
and Dave Webb. I asked them to spot and edit out as many errors as they
could find and the results were:
6.8
    Spotting    Editing    Total    Errors Found
6.8
ááA:    8 mins    12 mins    20 mins    54
(64%)
6.8
ááB:    12 mins    13 mins    25 mins    68
(81%)
6.8
ááC:    24 mins    16 mins    40 mins    84
(100%)
6.8
(Iæm not going to tell you who is who!)
6.8
If you compare that with Markæs 28 minutes for the editing and setting
up, it makes you realise that he must be pretty good at proof-reading
and editing Ö but thatæs not surprising since he is an experienced and
professional Technical Editor.
6.8
What conclusion do I draw from this? First of all, donæt under-estimate
the time, effort and inaccuracy associated with editing the OCRæd text Ö
weære not all budding Technical Editors.
6.8
Secondly, 98.7% accuracy sounds impressive but you ought to think in
terms of percentage inaccuracy to get a better judge of an OCR package.
I would say that 1.3% inaccuracy is really quite poor Ö you need to be
well down below 1%.
6.8
Thirdly, you need to realise that Markæs test was carried out on text
from the Acorn User magazine which uses a fairly standard typeface Ö and
it was produced using Acorn computers! If you take any old book down off
the shelf, you may well find that the OCR doesnæt recognise the typeface
and ends up with several percent inaccuracy Ö which would be totally
unuseable. It would be much quicker to re-type it.
6.8
Admittedly, you can öteachò the OCR a new font but, to do that, you have
to scan and identify every individual alphabetic character, upper and
lower case, numeric, punctuation Ö and all that in plain, italic and
possibly bold Ö literally hundreds of characters. Mark doesnæt say how
long that would take!
6.8
The other factor in this (which Mark admits) is that the more fonts the
OCR öknowsò, the longer it takes to do the OCR. So some skill would be
needed in recognising the font type and selecting the font types for the
OCR to try to match.
6.8

6.8
Mark Moxon sees Risc Developmentsæ OCR as being both quicker and cheaper
than hiring a typist. I have to disagree. Whether you agree with me or
not, I hope that I have introduced an air of reality into the euphoria
of the Acorn User article.
6.8
It is my view that Acorn software developers have a long way to go
before they produce really viable OCR such as is available for PCs. Why
do you think that OCR packages on the PC are so expensive despite the
huge potential market? They have whole companies dedicated to writing
OCR programs.
6.8
If you can afford a high quality scanner and Irlam Instrumentsæ
Elucidata software, you will have a usable system. If you want to spend
öless than ú60ò on an OCR package, donæt inflate your expectations or
you may be sadly disappointed!
6.8
Paul Beverley.
6.8
(By the way, if you reacted as I did when you first saw that it was Mark
Moxon who was hailing the advent of Risc Developmentsæ OCR, you can
relax! Although Mark used to be employed as by Risc User, he was
recently appointed as the Technical Editor of Acorn User so I donæt
think he can be accused of writing what we call öadvertorialò i.e.
advertising under the guise of editorial comment.)ááA
6.8
Help!!!!
6.8
Å    Barcode Ö Has anyone got any experience of using barcode readers on
the Archimedes? Or of writing barcode? Does anyone know if it would be
possible to fit one of the PC-type keyboards, that have built-in barcode
readers, onto an Archimedes? If you have any information, please let us
know or let the Archive office know.á Glynn Parry, Dauntseyæs School
(0380Ö818441)
6.8
Å    BJ10ex Ö Can anyone provide more information about control codes? The
manual is a bit thin! Also, can anyone help on getting it to work with
FWPlus not using LQ mode?á Paul Pibworth, Gloucester.
6.8
Å    Conner IDE drive Ö Does anyone have any data on the Conner CP3044
drive used in the A5000? What do the jumpers on the back do, e.g. öH/Sò,
öACKò etc? Nick Chalk, 9 Clementson Road, Sheffield, S10 1GS.
6.8
Å    Disc-based Archive magazine Ö Anyone interested in starting a disc-
based Archimedes magazine, contact James Riden, 294 Cyncoed Road,
Cyncoed, Cardiff, CF2 6RX.
6.8
Å    Gear calculations Ö Has anyone written a program to calculate the
gears required (from a pre-determined list) to cut metric and imperial
threads on a model engineeræs lathe, giving the closest combination and
any error?  Brian Cocksedge, 0730Ö812341 ext 5059 evenings.
6.8
Å    Impression borders Ö Is it possible to put more than 40 borders in
Impression? There are numbers for 256 but 40 seems to be the maximum.
Any ideas, anyone?á Mike McMilan, Reading.
6.8
Å    LabelMaster Plus Ö Does anyone know if LabelMaster Plus was ever made
RISCáOS compliant? Will !LM+ work with RISCáOS 3.1? Has anyone
successfully exported data from !LM+ to another package?á Tim Hicks,
Deal.ááA
6.8
Hints and Tips
6.8
Å    A5000 serial port problems Ö Several of you will have experienced
problems with dead or dying serial ports on their A5000s. Acorn are
aware of problems on early A5000 p.c.b.s and have a fix for them.
However, there are still some problems with static. Until Acorn find a
solution, the best we can do is take suitable precautions. (1) Use
braid-screened cable and connect the braid to the connector shells at
both ends. Also, never connect a cable when the machine at either end is
switched on. Always switch on both devices after the cable has been
connected.
6.8
Å    Filer_CloseDir Ö On my 4Mb A3000, I like to open Érelatedæ windows to
various programs and then close them again when finished, by using
Filer_OpenDir <pathname> <position> and Filer_ CloseDir <pathname>
respectively. I put these commands in the !Run file of !BJ10e Turbo
Drivers, one before the command to run !Runimage and the other after.
Readers should be warned that the command Filer_CloseDir clashes with
CCæs Turbo Driver (v2.09b) when using their Compression filing system
(CFS) (v1.17). If the Turbo driver is loaded first and then CFS, you
will find that, when trying to quit the Turbo Driver, it goes into an
error loop with SWI &43303 not known and only a <ctrl-break> or <reset>
will release the computer so you lose all unsaved files, etc. No problem
occurs when they are loaded in reverse order or when Filer_ CloseDir is
deleted from the !Run file of !BJ10e.
6.8
Does anyone know whether any other programs clash with Filer_CloseDir?á
Brian Cocksedge, Midhurst.
6.8
Å    Filofax printing Ö We had a letter printed on a piece of Filofax paper
which proved that you can do so with a Canon BJ200 with CCæs Turbo
Driver software using a custom page size of 95 ╫ 165 mm. If you use
Impression (II or Junior), it shows the print area so it is easy then to
create a suitable frame and choose a small typeface (say, 8 pt) and view
the page at 200%.á Brian Stewart, Nairn.
6.8
Å    Inkjet printing Ö When inkjet/bubblejet printouts need a relatively
large amount of ink, the paper can become a little wrinkled. To remove
the wrinkles, pass the paper through a laser printer by printing a blank
page. This calendars the paper to its original smooth finish.á George
Foot, Oxted.
6.8
Å    Laser toner cartridges Ö The first sign you get that a laser toner
cartridge is about to run out is a line down the paper which is
obviously very low on toner. If you örock the cartridge gentlyò, you may
be able to spread the toner out sufficiently to get a few more sheets
out of it. Try rocking first but then eventually, try shaking. Beware,
if you shake too soon, you can end up with toner all over the place!á
Colin Singleton, Sheffield.
6.8
Å    ShowPage confusion Ö It has been said within the pages of Archive that
öShowPage does not work with RISCáOS 3ò. This is not entirely correct.
It will not work with RISCáOS 3 fonts, i.e. those which have their own
kerning tables, and it will not work with RISCáOS 3æs ROM fonts.
However, if you want to use ShowPage, all you need to do is to replace
the in-built fonts (Corpus, Homerton and Trinity) with ones within your
own font folder and included a FontRemove command to remove the ROM
fonts.ááA
6.8
Oak Solutions
6.8
From 6.7 page 17
6.8
Genesis/Magpie Column
6.8
Paul Hooper
6.8
Cistercian Abbeys Ö Review
6.8
This Genesis application is designed for Key Stage 3 and 4 and as an
introduction to the Medieval Core study unit. It covers the middle and
early high school range. As the name implies, the emphasis is on the
Cistercians but the other orders are given a few lines each. It was
tested on my A5000 with 2Mb by both myself and my sixteen year old
daughter.
6.8
The application
6.8
After an opening page and the instructions, you move on to the main
menu, the heart of the application. This allows you to move around the
application, investigating the abbey buildings, the organisation of the
abbey, Saint Benedict and many other subjects. Clicking on the monk
himself will provide you with an outline of his day, and you can follow
his movements around the abbey buildings. You can also investigate the
main buildings by clicking on either a three dimensional view or a plan.
6.8
The glossary provides help with difficult words and the database
provides information on almost all known abbeys in Britain with an
option to plot them on a map, although the size of the dot used means
that this is not very accurate. You can search for all the abbeys in
your area or even particular orders. The screen shots will give you some
idea of how this works, and because you can export the database in CSV
format, you can also investigate in a more advanced database. (I
exported it to Key Plus and managed to save the result although I
havenæt attempted to plot the Abbeys on a map yet!)
6.8
If you have a CD-ROM drive, you can also play a series of tracks from a
named CD through the computer. For lesser mortals like me you have to be
content with some Maestro files. There are one or two niggling problems
with my copy of the program. For example, on the ÉJobsæ page there is a
blank frame which I think should have an illustration of an illuminated
manuscript. Also, I found that when I tried to get the page on ÉHealthæ,
all I got was an internal error message, but neither the machine nor the
program seized up. By the time you read this, these problems should have
been cleared up.
6.8
The grey backdrop on the program looks very good on screen and provides
a continuous thread throughout the program but it does make the printout
of a page more difficult to read. This can be overcome using the Genesis
editor and a little thought.
6.8
Conclusions
6.8
This is an excellent little application which can and should be used as
the basis for the exploration of monastic life. The ability to export
draw and sprite files from the pages can provide ready-made clip art
which can be incorporated into other work. It is a must for any school
which wants to explore this topic. Cistercian Abbeys is available from
Oak Solutions for ú45.00 including a site licence, photocopiable
worksheets and teachersæ handbook.
6.8
Genesis/Magpie conversion
6.8
Having rashly offered the two-for-one-swap last month I thought I had
better convert my existing Genesis applications to Magpie binders. This
I found surprisingly easy. All I had to do was to have both programs
running at once, create a Magpie page which resembled the Genesis page
and, using the resources extraction on Genesis, drop the ÉSave asæ icon
directly into the frame or onto the Magpie page. Hey presto! The text/
drawfile/sprite appeared in the correct place and I saved the Magpie
page. It was then just a matter of going back and setting up all the
links and the conversion was complete.
6.8
Feeling pleased with myself, I thought I would write a Magpie binder and
convert it to Genesis. Out came the Magpie manual and I soon had a
Magpie binder ready for conversion. I set up both applications on my
iconbar and created a blank Genesis page and exported across a sprite.
Then I discovered that you cannot export text from Magpie. Drat!
Luckily, I had used Edit to put most of the text into Magpie and I still
had most of these on disc so I was able to import them into Genesis. So
be warned!
6.8
Magpie hints
6.8
When using Magpie to make a carousel, you can set any sound samples or
music to start automatically as soon as the page is opened. However, if
you hide the speaker button by making it transparent, it fails to play.
The way to overcome this is to place the button on a text or sprite
frame and then put it behind the frame using the Pushdown tool.
6.8
You can create sub-sections within sections of Magpie binders, but to do
this you need to alter the configuration of your copy of Magpie. Click
on the Magpie icon whilst holding down <shift> and open up the
directory, drag the file labelled !Run into Edit and add -h to the last
line of the file. this should then read as follows:
6.8
Run ö<Magpie$Dir>.!runImageò
6.8
-g60 -r120 -a -h
6.8
ö<Magpie$Language>ò. %*0
6.8
Save the !Run file and from now on you can create sub sections. You can
also compact binders if you add the parameter -c between the -a and -h.
The !Run file does contain instructions on how to do this.
6.8
Genesis hints
6.8
You can use the shared resources index to create your own customised
buttons. First create your buttons in Draw or Paint and then drop them
into a frame on a page. Call up the Frame menu and click on the Shared
option and your button will be moved to the shared area. The next time
you require your button, click <menu> over the Genesis icon, select Show
Resources and just drag the required icon into the frame.
6.8
The Swap Shop
6.8
As I am writing this on the day Aprilæs Archive dropped through my
letter box, I have yet to receive any applications/binders, but I note
that there is an appeal from Chris Johnson for Science software in the
Help!!! section. Now this is an ideal subject for either Genesis or
Magpie, so if you have written any send them to both Chris and me and
wait for the bumper bundle to come back.
6.8
Finally
6.8
Send your applications/binders, hints or questions on Genesis or Magpie
to Paul Hooper, 11 Rochford Road, Martham, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, NR29
4RL. Telephone 0493Ö748474.ááA
6.8
Computer Concepts
6.8
From 6.7 page 14
6.8
Computer Concepts
6.8
From 6.7 page 13
6.8
Using RISCáOSá3.10
6.8
Hugh Eagle
6.8
Encouragement for the faint-hearted!
6.8
Peter Young says that he is not only electronically illiterate but also
notoriously clumsy and so he left fitting the upgrade for over three
months. When he finally did dare to do it, he found it a lot easier than
he had dreaded Ö he broke nothing and it all worked first time. The only
worrying bit was changing the links, because the diagram was not clear
but a quick call to the suppliers (Beebug) soon put him right. So his
advice for others is: donæt be scared!
6.8
RISC OSá3.11
6.8
Newer machines and upgrades are now being shipped with version 3.11 of
the operating system. Barry Thompson says that this clears up a NetUtils
problem which occurs when computers equipped with RISCáOSá3.10 are used
on a network. The problem was that if you opened or extended a file
longer than 64Kb, anything beyond 64Kb was filled with null characters.
Existing network users can obtain a module (NetUtils) from their local
Acorn dealer.
6.8
Comparing the 3.11 and 3.10 Release Notes, the only other differences I
could find were the following brief notes:
6.8
Å    DOS partition size ù DOSFS cannot be used with DOS partitions of 32Mb
or larger.
6.8
Å    Acorn Lisp ù you must issue a *FXá13,11 command before loading Acorn
LISP.
6.8
Å    Inspiration ù versions of Inspiration up to 1.03 will not run with
RISCáOSá3.10 or later.
6.8
(I gather that 3.11 also improves the situation with the ADFSbuffers
problem. On a 1Mb machine with 3.10, you are still advised to set
ADFSbuffers to 0. This is no longer necessary with 3.11. Ed.)
6.8
Programs that work
6.8
Mah Jong, The Game: Peter Young reports that the problem he mentioned
last month was caused by an inappropriate *FX call which he had inserted
in the !Run file ù so there seems to be nothing wrong with Mah Jong
itself.
6.8
Hard Disc Companion: Peter Young says that setting an IDEFS cache (see
below) has speeded this up considerably.
6.8
Ovation: In Archive 6.3 p14, we reported a problem with the printing of
indented lines from Ovation. Ken Cowap has now received a new version of
the program (version 1.37S) which, amongst other things, specifically
cures this particular problem. He says the problem turned out to be due
not to Ovation but to the RISCáOSá3 printer drivers. Although Acorn
acknowledged this, they saw no immediate possibility of a fix, and Risc
Developments very commendably undertook to rewrite part of Ovation.
6.8
Program problems
6.8
Aldebaran: Atle Mjelde Bσrdholt says that you must quit all application
tasks first (enter the Task display and Quit all tasks including
Pinboard), then run the game and it will install itself on the iconbar.
He says another solution is to exit the desktop and then type
*!Aldebaran at the command prompt. (Surely, Aldebaran is one of the most
recent games. Can it be true that it doesnæt run from the desktop?)
6.8
Atle Mjelde Bσrdholt also says that old Minerva games generally
reconfigure your machine. To avoid this, skip the !Boot file and click
on the next file in the sequence (e.g. in Hoverbod BS1 and in Missile
Control Title).
6.8
Ralph Gibbons finds that Break147 doesnæt work and would like to know if
there is a fix.
6.8
Mike Cook of Musbury Consultants repeats the point made by David Holden
last month: one reason older programs may not work is that the
abbreviations for some * commands have changed (e.g. *CHA. used to be
*ChannelVoice but is now *ChangeDynamicArea). Running the Obey file
Commands on the RISCáOSá3 support disc is supposed to help but if that
doesnæt, he suggests editing the program. This affects the PD sample
player !DSedit and his own !Sample.
6.8
Mike Cook also says that another change in the new operating system
resulted in the sampling part of his software not working. This also
affected the real time sound manipulator !Echo and the !Scope storage
oscilloscope. Any readers with the original programs can send him a disc
for a free upgrade. His address is 5áHelmshoreáRoad, Haslingden,
Rossendale, Lancashire, BB4á4BG.
6.8
Last month, we listed Powerband and Saloon Cars as not working. Rob
Brown says that Fourth Dimension can supply RISCáOSá3 compatible
replacements (for ú2 per program, he thinks).
6.8
Donæt forget that Rob Brown would welcome any contributions to his
compatibility chart, periodic updates of which will be included on the
Archive monthly program disc. His address is öValtaneeò, BrightonáRoad,
LoweráKingswood, Tadworth, Surrey, KT20á6UP.
6.8
Printing
6.8
öVDU 2ò printing
6.8
David Holden says that, although VDU 2 printing still works with
RISCáOSá3, it appears to monopolise the computer until printing is
finished. He has noticed that a couple of his programs that used to
multi-task, no longer do so and BBC emulator programs take a lot longer
to return control to the operator, even if using a printer buffer.
6.8
Printer buffering
6.8
Are the points in the previous paragraph perhaps connected to the non-
functioning of the RISCáOSá3 printer buffer mentioned last month? Or are
there further problems? Has anyone got a fix for it or them? The
questions seem endless!
6.8
Ralph Gibbons used to find a printer buffer routine (written by Anton
Calver and on Careware 5 & 7) very useful under RISCáOSá2. Does Anton
read Archive? Has he updated his routine to run under RISCáOSá3?
6.8
BJ330
6.8
In answer to Tord Erikssonæs plea (Archive 6.6 p56), Brian Cocksedge
recommends the Computer Concepts Turbo Driver (ú53 through Archive).
This produces much quicker printouts. The printer should be set to IBM
emulation (he understands this gives a better quality printout). The
stripes in graphics areas are a feature of the BJ printers due to minor
mechanical errors in the feed mechanism and the momentum of the print
head.
6.8
To print A3, as well as setting the paper size in the printer
preferences window, you have to tell the printer the size. Brian does
this by sending öEsc,C,99ò to the printer via a small Obey file
containing the commands:
6.8
*FX 138,27
6.8
*FX 138,67
6.8
*FX 138,99
6.8
LaserDirect
6.8
Steve Hutchinson experienced the same spurious lines that Roger King
reported in Archive 6.5 p31. He was told by CC that this was due to the
LaserDirect card not being happy in its podule slot. Rearranging podules
solved it for him.
6.8
Photocopying via LaserDirect
6.8
Tim Powys-Lybbe received version 2.09b of the LaserDirect software,
which cleared up the problems with print quality. However, his scanner
will now not do a photocopy at all, reporting (even with 3 Mb free) that
there is not enough free memory to do a photocopy. If he reverts to
version 2.05a, photocopying continues to work fine.
6.8
Disc drives
6.8
Speeding up an IDE drive
6.8
After he upgraded to RISCáOSá3, Peter Young initially found his IDE
drive (with a Beebug interface) to be very slow but eventually
discovered that setting an IDE cache speeded things up considerably. The
command to set it is:
6.8
*Configure IDEFSDirCache 16k
6.8
Before he created the cache, Peter was getting strange messages like dir
ö@ò not found when he specified directories at the command line with
references like $.xxx... rather than IDEFS:: IDEDisc4.$.xxx.... Since he
is now religiously using full pathnames, he doesnæt know whether
creating the cache might have solved the problem.
6.8
Peter says he still doesnæt really know whether what he wants is a cache
or a buffer. Can anyone throw any light on exactly what they do and what
the optimum sizes are for each in different circumstances? (Since
configuration options are provided, presumably one is expected to use
them, but when and how?)
6.8
SCSI discs
6.8
Andrew Shell encountered the same problems as Philip Lardner (Archive
6.6 p56) with copying, moving or deleting files to, from, or in the root
directory. By resetting his configuration so that *Status reads:
6.8
    SCSIFSDirCache     16k
6.8
    SCSFSdisks         1
6.8
    SCSIFSDrive        4
6.8
    File System    SCSI
6.8
(and using !Configure to set öSCSI hard discsò toá1) he thought he had
solved the problem. All now seems to work correctly so far as saving,
copying and deleting are concerned. However, when he tried the Find
command on the !FONTS directory he got a sequence of finds reading
ö...!Boot.!FONTSò, ö...!Boot.!FONTS.!FONTSò, ... ,
ö.....!FONTS.!FONTS,!FONTSò, etc. He also had a similar problem with the
Stamp command. Does anyone have any solutions?
6.8
SCSIFiler and Set Alias$Free
6.8
Following the hints in past months involving these, P. N. Cousins would
like to know: what is the SCSIFiler module for and how does the Set
Alias$Free hint (Archive 6.5 p27) work?
6.8
Tim Nicholson has noted that using the SCSIFiler module (as recommended
in Archive 6.7 p44 and elsewhere) has the added advantage that it gives
the interactive window for Verify and reads the disc name at start-up
and shows the name under the iconbar icon.
6.8
5╝ö drive interfaces
6.8
Gordon Lindsay-Jones has found, with the help of his dealer, a
replacement for his Watford interface: the one from Risc Developments
works and is, he feels, a superior product. Apart from other advantages,
it has seven switches with which to set the external drive
configurations and comes with instructions on the settings required.
6.8
D. S. Allen and Philip Foster have both written to say that the Watford
interface can be fixed by cutting some wires! D. S. Allen knows of ötwo
people that have cut the right hand two wires (as viewed facing the
computer front) of the cables from the Watford board to the computer
board and also the one from the Watford board to the internal disc
drive. Both drives work all right after this.ò Philip Foster describes
the solution as öcutting through the two end wires (furthest from the
red marker wire and next to the 20ápin removable PAL ROM) of the ribbon
cable running from the mother board to the interface board.ò He adds
that öas this is clearly a somewhat irreversible actò he would suggest
ringing Watford to confirm before you do it.
6.8
Miscellaneous hints and tips
6.8
Use of the Copy key
6.8
Richard Torrens writes: öWe all know that, in a writable icon, <Copy>
deletes the character to the right of the caret. Did you know that
<Shift-Copy> deletes to the end of the current word and <Ctrl-Copy>
deletes to the end of the current line?ò
6.8
How much space for a desktop program?
6.8
P. N. Cousins would like to know how you know how much memory you need
to use when writing programs that run under the desktop. In my
experience, allocating too small a WimpSlot can lead to some most
perplexing error messages, so I would certainly like to know if there is
a foolproof answer. My solution is trial and error: first I estimate how
much space is needed for the program code plus variables and workspace
for sprites, etc, then I set the WimpSlot somewhat larger than my
estimate and repeatedly reduce it (32Kb at a time) until the program
crashes. Not very scientific, but it generally works.
6.8
Miscellaneous
6.8
All these hints are from Rob Davison:
6.8
I have a couple of lines in my application !Run files like this...
6.8
SET Titler$RiscOs3 yep
6.8
RMENSURE UtilityModule 3.10 SET Titler$RiscOs3 nope
6.8
...and near the start of !RunImage, something like the following:
6.8
DIM block% &C00
6.8
SYS öXOS_GSTransò,ö<Titler$RiscOs3>ò,block% ,&C00 TO,,l%
6.8
block%?l%=&0D
6.8
IF $block%=öyepò THEN newos%= TRUE ELSE newos%=FALSE
6.8
SYSöXOS_CLIò,öUNSET Titler$RiscOs3ò
6.8
Å    There are several other configuration options which are not accessible
in !Configure that allow you to setup your system more exactly in the
area of double-click delays, etc.
6.8
One of the more interesting ones which may be useful to those people who
are new to RISCáOS, is WimpMenuDragDelay which sets the time in 1/10
second units for which menu activity is disabled after a menu has been
automatically opened. This enables the pointer to move over other menu
entries without cancelling the submenu. To change it, you need to use
the command line (remember that thing?) Syntax:
6.8
*Configure WimpMenuDragDelay <delay>
6.8
Å    There is an in-built rolling credit list of all the people involved in
the creation of the Operating System. It is accessed by bringing up the
Éinfoæ dialog box for the operating system (accessible from the task
manager menu) and clicking with <menu> on the characters Étæ Éeæ ÉAæ and
Émæ in that order in the string É⌐ Acorn Computers Ltd 1992.æ If nothing
happens after a couple of seconds, re-open the menu and try again.
6.8
(Click with <menu>? Ö thatæs against Acornæs guidelines surely?!)
6.8
However, if you just bring up the dialog box and click <menu> off any of
the icons (e.g. on the grey window background) then the Task Manager
aborts and the only way to recover a normal machine is to press <ctrl-
reset>. (Oops!)
6.8
Boot-up options
6.8
An item on Peter Youngæs wish list for RISCáOSá4 is the ability to call
different !Boot sequences by pressing user-defined keys at power-on. I
agree that it would be useful to have this built into the operating
system. However, it is already quite easy to achieve a similar result. I
know that some people find Ian Copestakeæs !TWO very useful for this
purpose. Alternatively, you can ödo it yourselfò without too much
difficulty. Assume, for example, that you have saved two Desktop boot
files called Plain and Fancy in a directory called BootFiles. Then
create a Basic file in the root directory called !Boot reading as
follows:
6.8
CLS
6.8
PRINTÉæöChoose one of the
6.8
following sets of
6.8
Boot-up preferencesöÉæ
6.8
PRINTö   1.  Plainò
6.8
PRINTö   2.  Fancyò
6.8
PRINTÉæöType 1 or 2ò
6.8
A$=GET$
6.8
CASE A$ OF
6.8
 WHEN ö1ò:OSCLI(öDesktop -File $.BootFiles.Plainò)
6.8
 WHEN ö2ò:OSCLI(öDesktop -File $.BootFiles.Fancyò)
6.8
 OTHERWISE: OSCLI(öDesktopò)
6.8
ENDCASE
6.8
There are numerous variations on this theme. You can use negative INKEY
values to test for a key being held down rather than waiting for a
keypress with GET$. If you like, you can put Plain and Fancy in, say,
the !System directory instead of creating a new directory, or you can
rename the Basic file !Run, create a directory called !Boot and move
!Run into it along with Plain and Fancy.
6.8
Obviously, you can adapt this idea to suit your purposes, but beware of
pressing R or <Delete> when you switch the computer on, since these will
reset your configuration!
6.8
Splitting the boot sequence into two parts like this was recommended
last month for making sure that the SCSIFiler module is properly
installed before the desktop is initialised.  It also opens up a number
of other possibilities....
6.8
It has always seemed to me that the usefulness of the facility for
automatic saving of desktop boot files is limited (a) because they tend
to get cluttered up with unnecessarily opened directories and booted
applications, and (b) because they omit necessary things like virus
protection modules, extra screen modes, etc. Problem (a) can be reduced
by making sure that you only open those directories that you want open
and boot those directories that you want booted before you save the
desktop boot file (the equivalent of Plain or Fancy in the above
example); (b) can be solved by following the two-stage approach and
putting the more technical bits in a hand-crafted pre-desktop !Boot
file, which you will probably not want to change very often, while the
desktop boot file is left simply to run applications, open directories
and fire up the pinboard.
6.8
So far as I can see, you will still need to do some hand-editing of the
desktop boot file if you want a nonö-RISCáOSá3 awareò application to be
booted or run automatically. Alternatively, you can get an application
to auto-boot by having the desktop boot file automatically open the
directory that the application is in. Furthermore, you can get the
application to run automatically by editing its own !Boot file to run
the !Run file.
6.8
Tim Nicholson notes that you must also split the boot sequence into two
parts if you want to follow the suggestion in the March Acorn User for
altering the desktop initialisation banner.
6.8
In Archive 6.5 p33, Colin Singleton reported problems with trying to
switch from one öworldò to another by double-clicking on a second boot
file. He has concluded that you must reset the computer first, since
running the second boot file doesnæt clear memory first: it simply tries
to add the applications listed in it to those that are already running.
6.8
Finally, to end this section on boot files, a quote from Colin
Singleton, with whom I have a lot of sympathy: öThe autoboot facility is
not much use if it does only half the job. I need to be able to
understand what it has produced and to patch it up accordingly. I might
as well carry on using my old boot file, which is what I am doing. The
new feature is useless (and very confusing) for those users who do not
know how to build a boot file. Perhaps in time all software will be
Éawareæ of boot files, then the feature will be useful.ò
6.8
ARM3 too fast for Watford scanner (?)
6.8
Mr A. Shell found that, after he upgraded to RISCáOSá3 and installed an
ARM3, his Watford Electronics Hand Scanner 1990, Issue 2 (using a Geni
Scan-4500) stopped working. However, he has found that after entering
the command *Cacheáoff, the scanner works perfectly. When the scanning
is finished, *Cacheáon  speeds the processing up.
6.8
Zooming in Draw
6.8
When I acquired Artworks, I thought one of its neatest features was the
ability to use the mouse to mark the area into which you want to zoom.
Now, I have found while reading the manual (Applications Guide p48) that
Draw does just the same ù in fact, it goes one better, because you donæt
need to select a zoom tool first, you just hold down <shift> and drag
with <adjust>. To return to your previous scaling you use <Ctrl-R>; the
manual also describes various other hot-key combinations to adjust the
scaling.
6.8
Turning CapsLock off
6.8
Peter Young has a few old, and some not so old, programs which will only
take upper case input, and putting *FX202,1 into the !Run file meant,
with RISCáOSá2, that he didnæt have to remember to press capslock first.
In RISCáOSá3, this call seems to turn off keyboard input entirely,
though it occasionally produces input different from what is typed for a
couple of presses before it crashes the machine.
6.8
I think, if I have interpreted the Programmersæ Reference Manual
correctly (pages 511-512 in the RISCáOSá2 manual), that the correct code
to turn capslock off while leaving the other keyboard settings unaltered
is *FX 202,16,239; the command *FX 202,16 will turn capslock off but may
alter some of the other settings.
6.8
What *FX 202 does is to alter the ökeyboard status byteò. If the command
is given in the form *FXá202,R1,R2 then R2 controls which bits of the
status byte are changed and R1 supplies the new bits. In technical
terms, the new value of the status byte is made equal to
6.8
(the old value AND R2) EOR R1
6.8
Therefore, to force a particular bit in the status byte to adopt value n
(either 0 or 1) you leave that bit unset in R2 and made equal to n in
R1; to leave a bit unchanged you set it in R2 and unset it in R1.
6.8
Capslock is controlled by bit 4 (the one with value 16), so to set it
(thus turning capslock off) you use the values 239 (= 255 minus 16) and
16 for R2 and R1 respectively.
6.8
The shortened form of the command, *FX 202,R1 has the same effect as *FX
202,R1,0
6.8
(Itæs not clear to me why *FX 202,1 should have worked either in
RISC¡OSá2 or on the BBC.)
6.8
Editing !Run files
6.8
Peter Young asks if one is allowed to amend the !Run files of commercial
programs. My answer is that there is no reason at all why you shouldnæt,
so long as you know what you are doing. You could, for instance, include
a command to turn capslock off (see above) or a command to run a printer
driver automatically. Some programs allow you to change preferences by
setting up system variables in the !Run file. In RISCáOSá2, some people
even amended the !Run file of Acornæs !Edit to make it run on a system
with lots of fonts.
6.8
ROM Speed
6.8
Seßn Kelly writes that the old ROM speed up trick still works on some
computers with RISCáOS 3.1. On an Archimedes, the ROM speed can be read
with the following Basic lines:
6.8
SYS öOS_UpdateMEMCò,0,0 TO R%
6.8
PRINT (R% AND &C0) DIV &40
6.8
The lowest speed is 0, the highest 2 Ö the MEMC data sheet defines a
value of 3 as Énot meaningfulæ although it appears to have the same
effect as 2. The speeds are not absolute, but depend on the computeræs
memory clock speed. On old A440, RISCáOS 3.1 selects a value of 2, so no
speed up is possible, but on an A5000, a value of 1 is set by RISCáOS
3.1 and changing this to 2 increases the machineæs speed by about 5%.
6.8
The ROM speeds can be set by using:
6.8
SYS öOS_UpdateMEMCò,&00,&C0: REM slowest, speed 0
6.8
SYS öOS_UpdateMEMCò,&40,&C0: REM speed 1
6.8
SYS öOS_UpdateMEMCò,&80,&C0: REM fastest, speed 2
6.8
These lines are included as programs on the monthly program disc,
together with the short program called ACK which, on Seßnæs un-sped-up
A5000, executes in about 1 second. Double-clicking on one of the speed
changers followed by ACK will show how the different speeds affect your
computer. An A5000 appears to run at speed 2 with no problems. Program
Speed2 can be automatically run by !Boot, providing a slight performance
boost to A5000s.
6.8
RMFaster-ing
6.8
Seßn Kelly also reports that *RMFaster on certain modules, such as
Basic, can produce a useful increase in speed for applications that read
the ROM a lot. Without an ARM3, the speed increase can be very large Ö
with the cache off, he has found Basic programs that run over 30% faster
with Basic in RAM. With the cache on, the increase tends to be about 5%,
so RMFaster-ing on an ARM3 machine is really a waste of memory unless
time is really important.
6.8
Interestingly, both ROM speed-ups and RMFaster-ing only produce a slight
speed increase, typically 5%, on an ARM3 machine. This appears to show
that the cacheæs hit rate is very high.
6.8
Also on the program disc ...
6.8
Also on the monthly program disc are a number of utilities from Rob
Davison: SmoothM ù a relocatable module which averages mouse coordinates
and is ideal for use in pixel-based art packages such as Paint or
Artisan. To use it, double click on the module and enable averaging with
the command *SmoothON. To restore normal use, enter the command
*SmoothOFF. This module is public domain and is, in fact, based on an
article which appeared in Archive 1.5 (February 1988) by Malcom
Banthorpe.
6.8
SolDrag and NormDrag are short programs to turn solid sprite dragging on
and off.
6.8
Tools and 22Sprites are modified toolsprites and high resolution icon
sprites.
6.8
Some Bugs
6.8
First, from Rob Davison:
6.8
There are quite a number still in the operating system. Most are very
obscure, but some are quite serious and one may be slightly embarrassing
to Acorn! Hopefully, they will do a ÉRISCáOS 3 Extras discæ to fix the
more important ones.
6.8
Å    Impression style icons Ö There is a serious bug in this part of the
window manager. If the application you are writing uses a dialog box
similar to the in-built applications (e.g. Edit) when quitting, but
including the new style icons, the operating system reports an abort on
Data transfer after the application has quit. The solution is to close
and delete all windows yourself and call Wimp_Poll enough times to
ensure that they have all gone before quitting.
6.8
Å    Paint Ö Load the application and repeatedly create 256 colour sprites
of 128x64 pixels. Paint bombs (usually) when the sixth sprite is created
with an ÉUnrecoverable internal error SpriteExtend: Bad pixel
translation tableæ.
6.8
The only good point is that your file is preserved in Wimp$ScrapDir
before Paint dies.
6.8
The problem mentioned in Archive, where the name in the save dialog box
is corrupted in some circumstances, still exists.
6.8
Å    !Edit Ö This is a fairly worrying one (R.áW.áDarlington has found
similar problems). Edit has had the same bug since its first release in
RISCáOS 2.00. Sometimes, the text window is not redrawn properly and the
caret can appear to be on a different line. Text is deleted or inserted
at the wrong place and it can sometimes be quite a while before you
realise what is going on. I encounter this problem much more now because
of the excellent facilities for editing Basic programs. If Acorn canæt
get windows to redraw correctly in all circumstances, what chance do the
rest of us have? (Quick fix: press <f12>, <return>, <return> before
doing any major editing.)
6.8
Å    Operating system bugs Ö I have one (and only one) 800Kb ÉEæ format
disc which works and verifies fine on RISCáOS 2.00 whereas RISCáOS 3.00
and 3.10 absolutely refuse to look at it and tell me ÉDisc not
formattedæ.
6.8
I have managed to get the dreaded ÉAbort on Data transferæ while using
interactive file copying but only under extreme provocation. It was much
more common in 3.00!
6.8
There is another problem where, if you set the MOUSE RECTANGLE to allow
the pointer off the left of the screen and then record button clicks,
the y-coordinate is set to Ö1 with the first returned button click. E.g.
6.8
*POINTER 1
6.8
MOUSE RECTANGLE -1000,-1000,2000 ,2000
6.8
MOUSE TO 100,500
6.8
REPEAT
6.8
MOUSE x%,y%,b%
6.8
PRINTTAB(0,0);öx=ò;x%;ö  ò
6.8
PRINTTAB(0,1);öy=ò;y%;ö  ò
6.8
PRINTTAB(0,2);öb=ò;b%;ö  ò
6.8
UNTIL b%<>0
6.8
END
6.8
Run this and move the pointer off the left of the screen. Click a button
and the displayed y coordinate changes to Ö1 regardless of the last
position. (The solution is to do another mouse read immediately after
the UNTIL and use the values returned from that.)
6.8
Next, from Seßn Kelly:
6.8
!Paint has two bugs related to deleting rows and columns in sprites. The
first is that when columns to delete are selected by dragging right with
the mouse, it is not possible to delete the rightmost column of the
sprite (no matter how far it is zoomed in). The second is that, when
dragging rows to delete downwards, the topmost row (where the operation
was started) is not deleted.
6.8
If there is data in the RAM filing system, RISCáOS 3.1 complains if you
attempt to leave the desktop by selecting EXIT from the task manager
menu, although the RAMFS is not affected.
6.8
Sometimes, a RAMFS filer window stays on screen when the RAMFS has been
killed.
6.8
Finally, from R. W. Darlington:
6.8
When I load so many items on the iconbar that it has to scroll to reach
opposite ends and I then delete an item from the middle of the list, I
sometimes finds that as well as the deleted one disappearing, other
icons disappear leaving only their names. Also, all the directory icons
and application icons disappear from directory viewers leaving only
their names as reminders as to what is there.
6.8
In !Paint, when I try to x-scale or y-scale a sprite, I find that it
takes one column off the right hand edge and puts it at the left hand
edge.
6.8
Has anyone else experienced these or other bugs?
6.8
Matters Arising
6.8
Alarm (switching between GMT and BST)
6.8
(Archive 6.3p15 / 6.5p35) Colin Singleton confirms that the alarm set
for 1áa.m. on 7th Februaryá1994 is to remind you to set the BST on and
off dates in 1994.
6.8
Donæt worry: you donæt have to stay up to catch this alarm: it will come
up when you next switch the computer on.
6.8
Ken Cowap has sent in a description which he hopes will complement the
rather brief instructions in the Applications Guide (p132) on this
rather convoluted facility:
6.8
When this option is selected, Alarm will automatically switch between
GMT and BST times on the dates you specify. Click on the arrows to
change the time, day, month and year.
6.8
Entries must be for one calendar year only even though the öBST starts
on:ò date may already have passed. Any such past date will be ignored
but must be entered nevertheless.
6.8
As the changeover dates are liable to undefined variation from year to
year, Alarm will issue a warning during the month prior to that of the
next yearæs first expected changeover.
6.8
The warning will be recorded in the Alarm Browser Window as öApplication
alarm set by Alarmò, and the dates/times of valid changeover(s) will
still be activated. These alarms appear in dark grey and cannot be
selected. When the warning is activated, a message appears saying: öThe
dates for entering and leaving BST are no longer valid and should be
reset as soon as possible.ò and two options are offered: öReset them
laterò and öReset them now.ò The warning will be repeated automatically
at 24 hour intervals until öReset them nowò is selected and the dates
and times are reset.
6.8
Ken warns that anyone wanting to experiment by setting the system clock
into the future should take care to back up their alarms first, since a
ömove into the futureò will activate and lose all alarms set to go off
before that date. Also note that there is a long delay accompanied by
unexplained hourglass activity before the warning notice appears.
6.8
Impression dongle
6.8
(Archive 6.5 p32) Colin Singleton has been assured by Computer Concepts
that shorting the pins of the Impression dongle can do no harm.
Switching the computer off while Impression is running can cause
problems. Apparently, the reason is that Impression continually checks
that its dongle is present and, if it happens to be checking when power
is lost, the dongle is liable to receive a burst of static which renders
it inoperable. This will drain away if you leave it for a time (perhaps
a few hours) but the quick cure, according to CC, is to short the lines
to each other using a small coin rubbed against the rows of male pins.
Colin recommends removing the dongle from both the machine and the
printer first.
6.8
Getting the hare and tortoise into step
6.8
(Archive 6.6 p59) Jim Nottingham has written in response to my plea...
öthe solution is to fire up the computer in slow mode with a *Configure
Cache off command and run the !Arm3 application in the Boot file. This
brings up the computer with the cache on and the hare on the iconbar. If
you want the computer to boot up with the Arm3 cache off, add *Cache off
to his Boot file after running the Arm3 application.ò
6.8
Well! I must be completely dense. Iæve tried to follow these
instructions to the letter. I have typed *Configure Cache off at the
command line (and *Status confirms that the cache configuration is
öoffò) and I have a !Boot file (file type öDesktopò) the first two lines
of which read:
6.8
Filer_Boot ADFS::Four.$.!System
6.8
RUN system:!Arm3
6.8
When I boot up, the cache is off and the tortoise on the iconbar. When I
click once on the tortoise, the cache is turned on, but the tortoise
stays. When I click a second time, the hare appears but the cache is
turned off. Adding Cache on as the next line of the !Boot file doesnæt
seem to help. What do I do next (apart from swapping the names of the
two icons as Iæve suggested before!)?
6.8
Pinboard backdrop sprites
6.8
In Archive 6.4 p12, R. W. Darlington gave a suggested modification to
the !Boot file which results in a different backdrop being shown each
time the computer is reset. His method causes the available sprites to
be chosen in strict rotation. Geoffrey Rimmer has suggested a variation
of the same idea which would choose one of the sprites at random.
6.8
Assuming, as before, that there are 75 sprites called Sprit00 to Sprit74
in the directory PinSp, his suggested code is:
6.8
Set S$ <Sys$Time>
6.8
SetEval S$ S$ RIGHT5
6.8
SetEval NN STR(VAL(S$ RIGHT2 + S$ LEFT2)MOD 75)
6.8
If LEN(NN)=1 Then SetEval NN ö0ò +NN
6.8
SetEval Tile$Name öSpritò+NN
6.8
Pinboard
6.8
Backdrop -T ADFS::4.$.PinSp. <Tile$Name>
6.8
Finally ...
6.8
Page 140 of the User Guide says that the example commands to set
Alias$@PrintType and Alias$@RunType variables must have trailing spaces.
Does anyone know why?ááA
6.8
Supermarket Ö In Four Languages
6.8
Alex Thomas
6.8
This review is a language teacheræs perspective on the ÉSupermarketæ
language programs produced by New Era Software in four languages
(English, French, German and Spanish).
6.8
Surely, I thought, this must be every modern language teacheræs dream
software for the Archimedes. Just think of the realistic situations set
against the background of shopping in a supermarket which could meet the
demands of the National Curriculum (Modern Languages and IT) and the
GCSE syllabuses. This disc must, I thought, deal with asking for
particular items, quantities, containers, problems at the checkout,
queries about the bill, breakages, complaints, special offers, coupons,
shoplifting, advertising, job vacancies Ö the potential is tremendous.
6.8
With my mind buzzing with such expectations, I was eager to try out this
program with a class, so I sat down after school to run through it and
plan some meaningful tasks. I was hoping to use the German version, so
that was where I started. I needed to enter the shop name and a message
to go on the till receipts Ö everything was in German, so I was feeling
very positive about the program. (The function keys are used for accents
in all the languages.) The next screen asked for information about what
is bought, the price, the amount tendered, method of payment Ö still all
in German, as are the print commands, etc.
6.8
Having entered some information, I printed it out Ö a very basic till
receipt with my list of items and prices, which are totalled with the
amount of change calculated and my message from the first screen (thank
you). It was much the same as all those till receipts I have brought
back from various trips in recent years, except that at least the pupil
has to enter the items bought and understand approximately twenty items
of vocabulary which appear on the screen for each öcustomerò.
6.8
I began to plan tasks for my beginners using the printouts. One pupil
could produce one and the others ask questions to find out the prices.
We could produce them for different shops and compare prices.... but
then, I have a cupboard full of attractive, colourful supermarket
advertising leaflets from Germany, in class sets, surely it would be
better to use them!
6.8
I decided to go back to the program to see what else it has to offer
which the GCSE sets could use. I pressed öclearò to see what happened Ö
the chance to enter another list of items and prices! Since the computer
totals the prices and works out the change, you canæt even work on
complaints at the checkout, except by pretending that the wrong price
was entered.
6.8
There is no list of acceptable items, so there is no spellcheck, it
accepts complete nonsense Ö an item is any set of letters, a price any
number. There are no graphics, no variations on the basic layout and
content, nothing which will interest the pupils or give them a sense of
achievement, unless the teacher spends hours devising speaking tasks
based on till receipts.
6.8
Is it worth taking the whole class to the computer room to produce a
till receipt, or devising a flexible learning lesson with a variety of
small group activities so that this program can be used on the one
computer in my room? No, definitely not. I have some much better ideas
based on my wide selection of realia!
6.8
The programæs handbook suggests many sophisticated possibilities using
product files and bar codes which may be valid for teachers of
Technology, etc to develop. However, as a language teacher, I have not
yet found the time to work on these areas which seem to have little to
do with communication, verbal or written. In case I was too hasty in my
rejection of this program, I decided to use it with a class anyway. The
first pupil (below average year 9) got to the printing stage and said
öNow what?ò Ö öThatæs all it doesò, I replied. He returned to his group
to do the structured oral tasks I had set up, showed them his till
receipt and the rest asked, öWouldnæt it be quicker if we just wrote one
out miss?òááA
6.8
A-Linkæs Hidden Software
6.8
Mark Godwin
6.8
Last month, I reviewed PocketFS. This month I aim to explain the
Éhiddenæ software within the A-Link for use on the Series 3 and the
Pocket Book. I have tested it on the Series 3 and am assuming that the
menus will be the same on the Pocket Book.
6.8
In addition to the necessary support software to drive the link, the A-
Link also contains two pieces of software that can be used on your Psion
Series 3.
6.8
The first piece of software is a simple but useable terminal emulator
which allows you to configure the serial port and send/receive data.
6.8
The second is a script editor and translator. These scripts, when
translated, can be executed from within the terminal emulator.
6.8
This month I will concentrate on the terminal emulator and printer
support and, next month, will explain the script processor/translator.
6.8
The Terminal software
6.8
The terminal software (ÉCOMMSæ) resides on drive C of the Series3. In
order to use it, you will need to use the Éinstall applicationæ option
from the system menu.
6.8
Once it is installed and selected, you will be using a simple 80 ╫ 25
character terminal. As the Series 3 screen is 38 ╫ 8, you will have to
use the cursor keys to view the parts which are hidden.
6.8
I will now explain all of the menu options starting with the main menu.
As you may know, you can use key combinations (displayed against each
menu item) to get straight to the option. The special symbol that
proceeds these combinations is known as the Psion or Acorn button
(bottom left) depending on the machine.
6.8
Pressing <menu> will display the main menu with the following options:
File, Edit, Transfer, Names and Special.
6.8
Selecting one of these will produce other menus with the following
options:
6.8
File Ö gives you Execute script, Save settings, Load names and Save
names.
6.8
Edit Ö gives you Pause screen, Clear Screen, Bring in and Bring margin.
6.8
Transfer Ö gives you Protocol, Transfer, Receive and Capture.
6.8
Names Ö gives you Insert name, Delete name, Modify name and Password.
These options are linked to scripts which will be explained next month.
6.8
Special Ö gives you Port, Handshakes, Translates, Hangup and Exit.
6.8
Finally, selecting one of these options will result in the following:
6.8
ÉExecute Scriptæ, ÉLoad namesæ and ÉSave namesæ will be explained when I
detail the Script editor and translator.
6.8
ÉSave settingsæ allows you save you current configuration (e.g. baud
rate, bits/word, parity, etc). It is worth mentioning that the settings
are saved as a script.
6.8
ÉPause screenæ stops the transmission of data to the Series 3 by using
the control lines on the serial port. This gives you time to read the
text as it comes arrives.
6.8
ÉClear screenæ does just that.
6.8
ÉBring inæ works in the same way as all the other applications. It
allows you to copy highlighted text from any other application to the
current cursor position within the comms screen but not from the comms
screen to other applications. Word-wrapping can be set by use of the
ÉBring marginæ option which allows you to specify at which column words
should be wrapped onto the next line.
6.8
ÉProtocolæ will allow you to choose one of the communications protocols
below. In order to see the complete range, press <tab> or use the cursor
keys to cycle through them.
6.8
Protocols:
6.8
ASCII (no protocol), XModem 128byte CRC, XModem 1Kb CRC, XModem 128byte
checksum, YModem 128byte, YModem 1Kb, YModem-G 128byte, YModem-G 1Kb.
6.8
Explaining each of the protocols is beyond the scope of this article.
Suffice to say that most communication software and bulletin boards use
these protocols and that XModem allows you to send just one file while
YModem sends a group of files.
6.8
I should point out that using YModem on the Series 3 will only allow you
to use a group of files from the same directory.
6.8
ÉTransmitæ will be present you with a file selection box which you can
navigate to select the file(s) you wish to send. If you are using YModem
and wish to send a group of files, you should press the plus (+) key
over the files you want Ö these will be ticked. If you make a mistake,
the minus (Ö) key will deselect them and remove the tick. Once this is
complete, press <enter> once to accept the files and again to start the
transmission.
6.8
A window will now appear detailing the file being sent and how much has
been done (a block count). When the files have been transmitted, it will
display the message, öSend OKò.
6.8
ÉReceiveæ works in a similar manner to transmit, except that you select
a directory for YModem receive and a file name for all other types.
6.8
This directory or file name is where the received data will be placed.
6.8
ÉCaptureæ allows incoming data to be saved to a disc file on the Series
3. Selecting this option for the first time produces a dialog box
allowing you to specify file name, drive, whether the file should be
appended or not and how to show the control codes. Selecting this option
for the second time will stop the capture and close the capture file.
6.8
The option for show control codes is either yes or no, where öyesò will
notate the control codes as <$0B> (in text) for chr$(11) and önoò will
leave it as received (in hex).
6.8
ÉPortæ presents you with a dialog box containing five selectable
entries. These will allow you to configure the serial port on the Series
3 to match that of the attached computer/device.
6.8
Ö The first entry is ÉBaud Rateæ which allows you select a baud rate of
300, 600, 1200. 2400, 4800 or 9600. The baud rate applies to both input
and output.
6.8
Ö The second entry is ÉData bitsæ which allows you to select how many
bits will be used for the data. You can select from 5, 6, 7 or 8.
6.8
Ö The third entry is ÉStop bitsæ which allows you to specify either 1 or
2 stop bits.
6.8
Ö The fourth entry is ÉParityæ which allows you to select either None,
Even or Odd as the required parity.
6.8
Ö The fifth option allows the Series 3 to ignore the parity.
6.8
ÉHandshakesæ presents you with a dialog box containing four means of
handshaking. These are either set to yes or no in any combination to
meet your own needs. You may use Xon/Xoff, RTS/CTS, DSR/DTR and DCD.
6.8
ÉTranslatesæ presents you with a dialog box containing three options
which basically dictates how the Series 3 will translate the enter key,
backspace key and whether local echo is required.
6.8
ÉHangupæ will attempt to hang up the phone by dropping the DTR line for
3 seconds. Most modems will comply with this.
6.8
ÉExitæ leaves the Comms application and returns you to the System
screen.
6.8
Parameters required to link the Series 3 to your Archimedes
6.8
Below are the parameters I use on my Series 3 to speak to ARCterm 7.
6.8
   Port, Baud rate   : 9600
6.8
   Port, Data bits   : 8
6.8
   Port, Stop bits   : 1
6.8
   Port, Parity    : None
6.8
   Port, Ignore parity : Yes
6.8
   Handshakes, Xon/Xoff : Off
6.8
   Handshakes, RTS/CTS : On
6.8
   Handshakes, DSR/DTR : Off
6.8
   Handshakes, DCD   : Off
6.8
   Translates, Local echo  : On
6.8
   Translates, Enter key   : <$0A><$0D>
6.8
   Translates, Backspace key : <$08>
6.8
How to use you the A-Link as a serial printer driver
6.8
This is another feature not mentioned in the PocketFS manual and I can
only assume that it will work on the Pocket Book. However, parts of what
I am about to explain may exists in the Pocket Book manual or in the OPL
manual (when the OPL editor/translator is purchased).
6.8
On the main system menu is an option called ÉSpecialæ which has within
it an option, called ÉPrinter Setupæ. Selecting this will display a
dialog box containing five options. We are only interested in the first
three, which allow us to select Éserialæ as the printer type and then
its configuration. The configuration should be set to the same as the
terminal detailed above.
6.8
With that now set, the A-Link can be used as a serial printer driver.
6.8
Most applications on the Series 3 have an option of print and this will
simply print to the printer (previously defined), in this case a serial
printer.
6.8
If you have the OPL editor/translator, you can use commands within your
programs to print directly to the printer. As we are dealing with the A-
Link, I will only detail how to use the serial features.
6.8
Printing from within OPL is achieved by the use of LOPEN, LPRINT and
LCLOSE. When using OPL to print, the options from ÉPrinter Setupæ are
ignored.
6.8
LOPEN is used to open the printer device for output and, in this case,
it would be LOPEN öTTY:Aò. This has now set up the serial port with 9600
baud, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and RTS handshaking.
6.8
In order to print, you simply use the LPRINT command in the same way as
the PRINT command except that LPRINT goes to the printer and PRINT goes
to the screen.
6.8
When you have finished with the printer, you must use LCLOSE or nothing
else will be allowed to access the serial port.
6.8
If you want to change the configuration of the serial port from within
OPL you will have to use the below procedure. This must be executed
immediately after the LOPEN.
6.8
PROC SerSet:(Baud%, Parity%, Data%, Stop%, Hand%)
6.8
Local Frame%, Parms%(6), Temp%, Err%
6.8

6.8
Rem Baud; 1=50, 2=75, 3=110, 4=134
6.8
Rem    5=150, 6=300, 7=600, 8=1200
6.8
Rem    9=1800, 10=2000, 11=2400,
6.8
Rem    12=3600, 13=4800, 14=7200,
6.8
Rem    15=9600.
6.8

6.8
Rem Parity; 0=None, 1=Even, 2=Odd
6.8
Rem Data; 5, 6, 7 or 8.
6.8
Rem Stop; 2 or 1.
6.8
Rem Hand; 0=RTS, 3=Xon + RTS,
6.8
Rem      4=None, 7=Xon, 8=RTS + DTR
6.8
Rem    11=All, 12=DSR, 15=Xon + DSR
6.8

6.8
Frame%=Data%-5
6.8
If Stop%=2 :Frame%=Frame%OR16 :ENDIF
6.8
If Parity% :Frame%+Frame%OR32 :ENDIF
6.8

6.8
Parms%(1)=Baud% or (Baud%*256)
6.8
Parms%(2)=Frame% or (Parity%*256)
6.8
Parms%(3)=(Hand% and 255) OR $1100
6.8
Parms%(4)=$13
6.8

6.8
Err%=IOW(-1,7,Parms%(1),Temp%)
6.8
If Err% :RAISE Err% :ENDIF
6.8
ENDPROC
6.8
So far, what I have detailed will allow the Series 3 to send print data
via the A-Link. You can either connect the end of the A-Link, intended
for the Archimedes, to a serial printer, or use a program that runs on
your Archimedes to copy data from the serial port to the parallel
printer port.
6.8
For those of you who do not feel up to the task of writing a program, I
intend to do one which will be given to Archive to administer however
they think best.
6.8
Next month, I will detail how the script editor and translator.ááA
6.8
PipeLineÖZ
6.8
Gerald Fitton
6.8
Thank you for all the many interesting letters I have received. Donæt
think Iæm complaining but, hereæs a way you can help me to help you. If
you need advice on a problem, please create an example (that I can work
through) and send it to me on a disc. Sending me a disc helps in many
ways. Firstly, by trying to run your file I can see immediately whether
I get the same effect or whether your problem is related to your Éset
upæ. Secondly, if it is something about the way you are using a package,
I can modify your file and show you, using your example, how it can be
done. Thirdly, if the problem is a feature or bug in the package, I can
send a copy of your file with my comments to Colton Software; they too
much prefer a disc file example of a problem. Fourthly, I find that, in
nearly all cases, the easiest way to demonstrate to you the solution to
your problem is to send you a disc containing a worked example. If I
have to create the example from a blank sheet then it does take more
time and, I donæt know what Iæm doing wrong here, but Iæm getting fewer
and fewer of my own discs back when I send them out with worked examples
on them!
6.8
Finally on this subject, please send your disc in a MailLiteá00 (or
similar) rather than a paper envelope because, as the post gets more and
more automated, the percentage of damaged discs is increasing. Push your
disc to the bottom of the bag, wrapped in your letter or compliments
slip to keep it in position, and put the postage stamp at the other end
of the bag. A blank self addressed label will help and, if you live in
the UK, then return postage (18p or 24p) will help reduce the mounting
costs of supplying the service which so many of you find useful,
interesting and helpful.
6.8
Whilst on the general subject of Help, I am thankful to those of you who
have expressed your willingness to help others with particular types of
problem from RISCáOS printing to work sheets for students. If you are
willing and feel able to help in any specialist area then please drop me
a line.
6.8
PD command key combinations
6.8
In PipeDream, you can completely change the whole of your Ctrl key
combinations to suit your own set of acronyms. Keith Matthews has been
working hard on this for some time and you will find the results of his
work to date on the Archive monthly disc. The files supplied by Keith
include ones for you to print out with the complete key combinations and
the PDCmdFil which will set up your machine to use those key
combinations. He invites your comments.
6.8
Wordz version 1.03
6.8
Those of you who bought Wordz direct from Colton Software should have
received a letter notifying you of the latest version of Wordz. If you
have not received such a letter (maybe because you bought your Wordz
through a retail outlet and then didnæt register your purchase with
Colton Software) then hereæs what you should do to obtain your free
upgrade. Send both your Wordz Program and Examples discs back to Colton
Software in a MailáLiteá00 together with a self addressed label and, if
you live in the UK, an 18p or 24p stamp. In particular, they request
that you do not place any sticky tape on the disc and that you do not
seal the bag with a large number of staples. The Examples disc contains
about twice as much material as the original issued with version 1.00
and, when you get your upgrade, it is well worth reading since its
contents help clear up many of the difficulties experienced by users of
the earlier versions.
6.8
Apart from some general clearing up of a few Ébugsæ, version 1.03
improves on 1.02 with two new features.
6.8
The first is that you can turn off automatic kerning of RISCáOSá3 fonts
so that your document looks as though it was created with RISCáOSá2
fonts. By the way, I think that Wordz is the only package which uses the
kerning tables of the RISCáOSá3 fonts. Is that so? The Archive editor
uses Impression to create the Archive magazine so, if he wants to kern
the first two letters of Wordz then he or I have to kern manually to
move the W closer to the o as in Wordz.
6.8
The second is that Wordz 1.03 includes links to the Risc Developmentsæ
Desktop Thesaurus. If you have the Thesaurus on the iconbar, you can
find a synonym for the word at the cursor and return it to your
document. Already Iæve been asked (by many of you) if it is possible to
use the WordHound thesaurus instead. At present, the official answer
from Colton Software is öNoò but Iæve always found them willing to
listen so, if you want to prove that the demand for linking to WordHound
is there, please write to Colton Software with your views. (I donæt mind
you writing to me as well.)
6.8
The upgrade from 1.01 to 1.02 included mailshots, user dictionary
browsing and more Ctrl key short cuts. The demo disc, which some of you
have used to try out Wordz, corresponds to version 1.01.
6.8
Hyphenation
6.8
You can insert a soft hyphen in a Wordz word by holding down <Alt> and
tapping the hyphen key. Generally, a soft hyphen will not show on screen
(nor will it print). However, if your word is at the end of a line then
it will split at the soft hyphen.
6.8
Dictionaries
6.8
PD and Wordz dictionaries are interchangeable. In PD, you can Édumpæ
dictionaries in ASCII format, you can select and remove individual
words, and you can create specialist user dictionaries. I find it easier
to Éplay withæ my Wordz dictionaries using PD than to do so in Wordz.
6.8
Removing styles in Wordz
6.8
Applying styles in Wordz may require different key presses and mouse
clicks from Impression but the same principles apply to both packages.
You mark an area of the document and then apply the style. The style
which you apply overlays all styles previously applied to that area. If
there is a conflict, the most recently applied style is used.
6.8
Let me give you an example, with three screenshots, which might have
been taken from Wordz or Impression. There are two styles, the first is
a Base style and the second is a Right style that has a slightly
different left margin. The default, screená1, has the base style applied
to all five lines. I then mark lines two, three and four. I apply the
Right style to those three lines of the document to obtain the layout of
screená2.
6.8
I then discover that what I really want is the layout of screená3! In
Impression, I would mark line three and remove the Right style from that
marked block. In Wordz, after marking line three, I might apply the Base
style to just that line (or do something more complicated that weæll
come to later).
6.8
Although there is no difference between Wordz and Impression on screen
nor when you print it out, there is a difference in the structure of the
document. In Impression the ÉRegionæ containing the Right style (lines
two, three and four) has been split into three regions (the three middle
lines) and the Right style has been removed completely from line three.
In Wordz, the Region containing the Right style remains intact (the
three middle lines) but line three has been overlaid with the Base
style.
6.8
On the Archive monthly disc, you will find a directory called Styles
which contains a Wordz file called [ZLine] in the form shown in the
screenshot screená3. If you donæt have the monthly disc then, to follow
through the next part of this tutorial, you will have to create such a
file from the instructions above.
6.8
Place the cursor in line three. Donæt be tempted to mark any block.
Press <Ctrl-R>. You will find yourself with the layout of screená4. Note
that a ÉRegionæ is marked automatically by Wordz and at the top left of
the screenshot it reads öRegion: Style ZLBaseò (my Base style). You will
also see on screená4 a sub menu called Region. Click once on ÉInæ and
you will produce screená5. Study the screenshot and notice that the
region marked consists of the three lines to which we applied the Right
style (I called the Right style ZLineRight). If you click on ÉInæ once
more you will produce the layout of screená6. You are ÉInæ as far as you
can go because the ÉInæ is Égreyed outæ!
6.8
I hope that the short exercise of the previous paragraph shows you how
Wordz handles styles by overlaying one style over another. The most
important point for you to realise is that line three Écontainsæ three
styles and not one. The three styles, from the innermost outwards, are
the Base style, the Right style and a second application of the Base
style which is the topmost style. A good analogy is to think of the
styles as layers of paint. First the Base style is washed over all the
document, then the Right style is painted over the middle three lines.
Finally another coat of the Base style is painted over the third
(middle) line. It is important that you realise that Right is not
scraped off the middle line but painted over with Base!
6.8
In Impression documents produced by a reasonably proficient user, you
would find that the Épaintæ had been scraped away from the middle line
by Deleting the Right style and so revealing the Base style underneath.
6.8
So, how do you remove styles in Wordz? Well, you can only remove a style
from the whole of a Region because Regions cannot be Ésplitæ. What you
can do from the layout of screená5 is to click on Remove to remove the
Right style from the marked region. If you do that, you will find that,
although the Right style is nowhere in the document, the Base style has
been applied twice to line three. Have a look at screená7 and youæll see
that ÉInæ is not Égreyed outæ. If you click on ÉInæ then youæll find
that the whole document is marked in inverse video and the Region has
the Base style!
6.8
To stretch my painting analogy beyond practicality, you cannot remove
parts of a layer of paint but only the whole of the layer or nothing.
When you clicked on Remove (in the previous paragraph) you gently
Éliftedæ the painted Base style on line three, scraped away the middle
layer of Right style, and then Édroppedæ the outer layer of Base style
back over the Base undercoat! If you have the Archive monthly disc then
have a look at the file [ZLine2].
6.8
Anyway, what do I recommend? Firstly, plan your document to use Styles
rather than Effects. Secondly, it is better to split a large Region into
three rather than (lazily) overlay another style into the middle of the
region. Yes! I realise that it means having to remove a style from a
large region and then applying it piecemeal to the parts where you want
it. Be ruthless about removing styles. In my tutorial example, it would
have been better to apply the Right style separately to lines two and
four (two regions) rather than apply it as one Region to lines two,
three and four and be forced into making corrections such as a second
application of the Base style to line three.
6.8
You may think that the example I have given is trivial and that Iæm
making too much of the problem. I agree that, in my example, either
method could be used efficiently but that is not the case in more
complicated documents having many styles. Also, bear in mind that
everything that I have said about styles can be repeated but referring
to different effects on small overlapping regions. You must be even more
ruthless about removing effects than about removing styles! For example,
I received a disc file in Wordz format and I think my correspondent had
been trying every font he had! Every new font had been painted over the
previous font using a new effect without using <Ctrl-R> to remove the
old effect. Add to this complex structure, the fact that some regions
included a carriage return and others didnæt, and you will appreciate
that when inserting new text in the middle of the document, it sometimes
appeared in a totally unexpected font to the utter disbelief of my
correspondent!
6.8
Finally
6.8
I have a Éday jobæ teaching at the local college and I work several
evenings a week, so trying to telephone me either day or evening will
more than likely lead to disappointment. Send me a letter or better
still a disc and youæll get a Éthought outæ reply and probably a worked
example. I know it takes a bit longer than a ÉHot Lineæ but itæs what I
and (because the reply is given in depth) many correspondents prefer.
6.8
If you need instant help on the telephone then there are two
possibilities. The first is to subscribe to Norwich Computer Servicesæ
Technical Help Service at ú15 (I receive good reports about it) and the
second is to ring Colton Software on 0223Ö311881.ááA
6.8
Screen 1
6.8
Screen 2
6.8
Screen 3
6.8
Screen 4
6.8
Screen 5
6.8
Screen 5
6.8
Screen 7
6.8
Wortgut
6.8
Dave Morrell
6.8
Wortgut is described as a topic-based German¡ English, English¡German
dictionary for home, office or classroom. It comes from New Era
Software. I have no experience of office work so cannot comment on its
suitability for that.
6.8
The dictionary loads in the normal RISCáOS manner and sits quietly on
the iconbar. It has not caused any problems with any program I have had
running whilst it was in the machine. It has interfaced quite happily
with Ovation, Impression and PipeDream.
6.8
Clicking with <select> on the iconbar icon gives a window containing the
main dictionary work area.
6.8
The radio buttons towards the bottom of the window change from the
English/German to the German/English variation. This also applies to the
iconbar menu.
6.8
Typing a word into the writeable icon containing the cursor and pressing
<return> gives the translation in the box underneath.
6.8
The larger box below gives extra information about the word and
sometimes an example of how it is used.
6.8
If, like me, you are prone to typing errors, or even spelling errors,
the large window above the word gives the part of the dictionary in
which the word can be found.
6.8
Clicking <menu> over the main window gives a quite long menu of topic
groups into which the dictionary is split. These topics include people,
home, school, travel, etc and if one of these is selected, only the
relevant part of the dictionary is loaded. Any of these topics can be
selected and then printed out or saved from the iconbar menu.
6.8
The complete dictionary contains about 2,500 words. This compares rather
poorly with my Collins College Dictionary which contains about 110,000
translations. It is, however, very easy to add new words, delete words
and change existing words. These can all be saved back into the main
body of the dictionary, into the relevant topic set.
6.8
In use
6.8
During the last two years, I have been attending a German conversation
course at a local night school. All the homework from this course I have
done on the computer. Using the Collins Dictionary often lost my train
of thought. Using Wortgut, the translation, if available in the
dictionary, was there instantly. Speed was very impressive. I found it a
joy to use. Eventually, I will increase the vocabulary contained in the
dictionary up to the level of a paper dictionary.
6.8
WortGut will also set up four of the function keys to give the German
characters Σ, ÷, ⁿ and ▀ with the shifted keys giving the capitals. This
I do not use, having already adapted a public domain program (similar to
Polyglot) to do this for me.
6.8
For individual use, I was very impressed with this program. I am not too
sure how well it would fit into a classroom situation. To be at its most
useful, it needs to be used by an individual, or very small group,
working on a single computer or network station. How many schools have
the necessary equipment in the IT department for each user to have
access to a computer individually? I cannot see this situation being
better in a language department. This does not mean that the program has
no use in schools. If a language department has a computer, this
program, and its sister language dictionaries, could well find a place.
I think they would be useful in any school that offers foreign
languages, especially considering the price of ú25 (no VAT) which
includes a site licence.
6.8
Linking with other programs
6.8
Wortgut will link with several other programs, such as word processors,
DTP packages, etc. The manual gives two methods but I could only get one
of them to work.
6.8
öTo take a word from ÉWortgutæ into another program, either: 1. Point to
the word in the dictionary and Drag it to the other program.
6.8
or: 2. Click the Adjust button when the word is in the entry window.
This will place the word at the caret position.ò
6.8
I could only get the first method to work with Impression, Ovation,
PipeDream and Edit. The manual does advise checking these methods before
using them for a large amount of data.
6.8
Conclusions
6.8
Overall, I like this package for personal use very much. I can see
advantages in using it in an educational environment. I would like to
see more vocabulary contained in the dictionary but I regard this as a
minor point as it is so easy to add extra words and meanings. If a
package of this type is required, I can recommend this one.ááA
6.8
Learning the Hard Way
6.8
Tord Eriksson
6.8
I am one of those people who do some of the dumb things in life, so I
thought that others might learn from my mistakes. My two hard drives,
both Seagates, were getting just too full for comfort and I had never
made a backup Ö I couldnæt face the idea of backing up over 120Mb of
data onto floppies.
6.8
My bank account is never healthy these days but I decided that I could
just about afford a SyQuest drive. (Mac versions are easily available in
this land of Apples, but no Acorns.)
6.8
Enter the SyQuest
6.8
With a rather empty bank book, I returned from town with my SyQuest 44Mb
removable drive, some connectors, cables and a smile on my face. This
would be a simple operation Ö just make a new cable and connect the
Tantech-made external SyQuest box to my old Oak interface and the two
Seagates in the Oak box. A child could do it!
6.8
My A3000 now had four boxes: a Datatronics modem, the SyQuest, the two
Seagates in an Oak box and an old 5╝ö floppy drive. Four boxes are just
too many, so I decided to take the two Seagates out of their box and
make an extension to the SyQuest box so that all of the SCSI drives
would be together in one assembly. Fitting the Seagates on a thick
aluminium plate took care of the cooling, plus having painted the 45Mb
drive black with special heat-emissive paint.
6.8
The already black 82Mb Seagate 1096N drive never gets over 25░C anyway,
so no worries. This is a much nicer drive than the older 157N drive.
Itæs as fast in mode 15 as it is in mode 0, and only slightly slower in
mode 21. The 157N is noisy and slower than a floppy at mode 21 (57Kb/s)!
6.8
When it was finished, I had a very elegant arrangement with the two
Seagates hiding side by side behind the SyQuest. I turned on the power
and waited for the drives to come on line...
6.8
The Seagate saga
6.8
For the last 12 months, I have had the two Seagate drives mounted
vertically Ö not a recommended practice! When I tried to run it in the
horizontal position, the 1096N refused to boot Ö but this problem
disappeared when I turned the box onto its end.
6.8
Now, with hindsight, I realise that this should have spelled danger and
prompted me to back up the drive immediately. I was going to do it, with
the help of the SyQuest, after a year on borrowed time. As I had to take
out the terminating resistors, I had to disassemble the Oak box anyway,
so I didnæt think much about the rearrangement, one way or another. Most
of my artwork and texts were on that drive, including an article for Air
International, that I was working on Ö plus some texts for Archive, of
course!
6.8
I found out that the 1096N was consuming an amazing amount of current
but, being more modern, it still booted. So I tried disconnecting the
(what I thought was) healthy drive and tested the old drive alone (they
used the same p.s.u.). No problem Ö but they would not work together.
6.8
I disconnected the old drive and tested the newer 1096N alone. Suddenly,
frantic noises but no hum from a spinning disc. Belatedly, I tried to
mount the drive vertically again. No use! As a last, desperate solution,
I connected the SyQuestæs p.s.u., as it is a much heftier power supply.
(The Oak unit could barely manage 2 volts with the sick drive
connected!)
6.8
The most expensive sight I have ever seen, when it comes to computers,
was the acrid smoke which came billowing from the dead driveæs belly.
The only help which an expert on stuck Seagates could offer was a
recommendation to give it a heavy jolt Ö no joy!
6.8
I had so very nearly done my backups before the crash... Rats! Not
trusting the other Seagate one bit, I went back to the shop and bought
another drive, digging even deeper into my savings.
6.8
Discs galore
6.8
The only drive available at short notice in the shop, a Mac specialist,
was a 170Mb Conner Ö a very unassuming drive, half the height of the
Seagates. I soon had it fitted onto the lid of the Oak SCSI external
podule and connected to the podule with an inch-long ribbon cable.
6.8
Itæs twice as fast as the Seagates and it consumes very little power Ö
its 5V drain (less than 300 mA) is so small that it could be run by the
A3000æs power supply. The trouble is that it needs 12 volts, too, so I
use the old Oak p.s.u. which is now vastly over-sized.
6.8
The Conner has many power-saving features Ö which is not surprising as
it normally lives in the more expensive versions of the Apple Power
Books. It powers down when you dismount it and automatically mounts if
it is requested by any program, such as ArcFax or Impression. I have had
no problems when saving to disc with a dismounted drive, as the disc is
mounted automatically but to be on the safe side, itæs better to turn it
on by clicking, before trying to scroll a long text. If you access a new
font or scroll across an illustration, with the drive dismounted, you
are bound to end up in trouble as the font manager doesnæt want to wait
for the drive. Saving and rebooting usually solves the problem. If you
do not change fonts or size and have no illustrations there is no
problem!
6.8
Disc speeds
6.8
All hard drives seem to come from Singapore these days Ö at least mine
do, including the SyQuest box. How quick the two younger Singaporeans
are is best shown by comparing with the four year old Oak-supplied
Seagate drive Ö also a native of Singapore. Using Oakæs classic
performance test, in modes 0, 15 and 21, the results were quite
revealing.
6.8
Type of drive:     Mode:    0    15
    21
6.8
SyQuest 44Mb,    590    588     365
    Kb/s
6.8
Conner 170Mb    1122    1116     689
    Kb/s
6.8
Seagate 157N, 45Mb,    659
    607    57    Kb/s
6.8
The Conner is a clear winner, being over ten times faster than the
Seagate in mode 21 and the SyQuest is a steady performer, if no speed
wizard.
6.8
Epilogue
6.8
Four lessons from this adventure:
6.8
If your hard disc starts to misbehave, back up immediately! This is the
easiest lesson to forget and the most important to follow. I didnæt do
so and have had to pay dearly for it. Sometimes itæs enough to reformat
the drive, as any defective sectors will be mapped out. Remember to back
up before that or your files will be lost for ever!
6.8
Never mount hard drives in the vertical plane Ö they should always be
seated horizontally.
6.8
By using a low-power, but very fast, Conner drive, you can have silent
computing, as it can be powered down by dismounting and doesnæt need a
fan. It gets 10 out of 10 for speed, silence and portability.
6.8
The SyQuest drive is excellent for backing up. It is a 5╝ö drive with a
very sturdy aluminium disc, it consumes a lot of power and generates a
lot of heat and noise. My box has a noisy fan and the drive is quite
noisy too, so dismounting does not help a lot! For general ease of use
though, it gets 10 out of 10!
6.8
If you need a new SCSI drive, I can heartily recommend both types but
please remember to back up in good time!ááA
6.8
ArtWorks Column
6.8
Trevor Sutton
6.8
This particular column has been prepared in haste. Several factors
conspired to make its conception difficult, the main one being the lack
of a computer. Well, not exactly a complete and utter lack Ö I did still
have my sparkling new Acorn Pocket Book, though that was the reason why
my faithful A5000 required a trip back to Cambridge! My A5000 is, as it
happens, a very early version and it seems that the serial port was
incompatible with the A-Link and therefore the Pocket Book. This ruined
my chances of composing AW columns in traffic jams, dull meetings or
episodes of sun-bathing! I realised very quickly that sending my Pocket
Book down to Norwich Computer Services was totally out of the question
so a solution had to be found. The solution was most humbling and held a
lesson for all of us with lots of memory and big hard drives.
6.8
AW on the A3020
6.8
I was fortunately able to borrow an A3020 (from my wife) and was
determined to connect all the dongles and just see whether AW and
Impression could be run effectively from floppies. Impression 2.18 takes
just 496Kb with some module area taken for Impulse and the Spelling
module and so writing this is fairly painless, but what of AW?
6.8
Well, of course, the first job was to install it to a floppy disc. I
decided to use a 1.6Mb disc as this would be available to users of the
A3020. I didnæt quite manage to get everything and a System directory
loaded, so I settled for just AW. I was able to run it without any
problems and I printed successfully. This is a credit to CC and Acorn
when one considers the competition from other computer companies. These
use vast disc space and have a considerable memory requirement. I am
running at this moment (albeit without a few AW modules) both Impression
and AW. Having outline fonts in ROM makes this a viable option though it
is unlikely that many people would need to multitask these applications.
6.8
In conclusion, most people who own and use AW and Impression are, I
think, very likely to have hard drives and increased memory. However, if
schools with A3020s are wondering if it would work, well, it does!
6.8
I would be pleased to hear from anyone with more experience than I have
with other Acorn machines and AW. The only real challenge to AW seems to
come from other Acorn software.
6.8
AW Ö ÉThe Rough Guideæ
6.8
Several people have written and spoken to me about the ÉRough Guideæ
booklet, now included along with the other manuals with AW. I, too,
bought AW as soon as it became available and the booklet containing
sample print-outs of the fonts proved to be a draft document. If that is
all you have, I recommend that you write to CC and ask them for the
ÉRough Guideæ booklet which is a useful introduction to all the
facilities of AW. Similarly the ÉCommercial Printing Guideæ gives useful
support for colour separation techniques and approaches to professional
printing. I had to ask for my copies, so make sure that you get yours
too!
6.8
The power of rotation
6.8
After selecting an object using the rotate tool, AW places a target
point in the centre of the chosen shape. This allows rotation similar to
dragging the Étop right handleæ in Draw. However, AW offers a powerful
variety of alternatives. By dragging the target point with <adjust>, the
centre of rotation can be changed, X and Y positions are given on the
info bar.
6.8
There is also a series of 3 by 3 buttons (described as blobs in the
rough guide!) on the info bar which allow rotation about accurate
positions.
6.8
I have found these very useful for creating fancy borders. Just draw one
corner, find a suitable central point, then copy with <ctrl-K> and
rotate through 90░. Do this a couple more times and then join up the
corners with straight lines.
6.8
Coda
6.8
Well, this month we have a short piece and one of the conspirators
mentioned above is Aphrodite. For those of you who do not enjoy cryptic
comments, I will point out that my Pocket Book will be in Cyprus for the
next two weeks and I only wish it had a version of AW too! Please keep
sending in your comments Ö you should have more time now the deadline
for the AW competition has passed.ááA
6.8
Small Ads
6.8
(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 donæt know what Ésmallæ
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)
6.8
Å    A310 4Mb RAM, ARM3, RISCáOS 3.1, 40Mb ST506 Hard disc, Brainsoft I/O
podule, Joystick, software, Taxan 770 monitor, ú700 o.n.o. Euclid +
Mogul ú20. Acorn ANSI C v3 ú20. Karma Flight Trainer ú10. Acorn PRM v2
ú20. Archive issue 1 to current, ú20. Phone 0272Ö498531 after 6pm.
6.8
Å    A4 model II (4Mb, 60Mb HD) mains adaptor, manuals, software, soft
case, mouse ú1780.  5╜ö disc interface, manual and software ú15. 5╜ò
floppy for BBC or Archimedes with interface ú20.  PC Emulator (V.1.82)
ú60. Euclid ú30. Superior Golf, Trivial Pursuit, Interdictor (un-
opened), TurboType typing tutor, ú8 each. Phone Basingstoke 0256Ö467574.
6.8
Å    A410/1, 4Mb RAM, 20Mb Hard disc, colour monitor, ARM3, RISCáOS 3,
external floppy interface, 9 pin dot matrix printer, ú1000 (o.n.o.).
Phone 051Ö734Ö5989 after 4pm.
6.8
Å    Aleph1 PC386 4Mb podule with Cyrix co-processor and Windows software
(v1.0), ú325. Oak 150Mb tape drive with 8╫150Mb tape cartridges, offers.
Phone Chris after 7pm on 0276Ö20575.
6.8
Å    Computer Concepts Colour Card, ú200. Revelation Image Pro ú100. Eureka
ú85. PinPoint ú65. Squirrel ú95. All latest software. Phone 0923Ö820651
after 8pm.
6.8
Å    Hearsay II, never used, ú40. Investigator v2.0, never used, ú14.
Snippet v1.0, ú15. Poster v1.04, ú25. Also RISCáOS 2 PRM, ú25 + postage.
Phone Chris after 7pm on 0276Ö20575.
6.8
Å    Helix Basic. Offers or swap for Beebug ÉCæ. Phone 0366Ö501001.
6.8
Å    PC Emulator 1.8, unopened, ú70. BBC B Acorn teletext adaptor ú50.
Phone 0684Ö73173.ááA
6.8
Eureka! Ö Excel 3 for the Archimedes?
6.8
Mike McNamara
6.8
My first reaction on seeing Eureka was ÉHey! this looks like Excel 3 for
the Archimedes!æ. (See for yourself from the illustrations.) Excel 3,
for those of you who are not familiar with PC or Mac software, is one of
the leading spreadsheet packages for these machines and is produced by
one of the biggest software companies, namely Microsoft (of Windows
fame!).
6.8
The initial comparison with Excel 3 comes from the way in which Eureka
presents itself when launched. The extended title bar with its edit bar,
style menu and Équick selectæ icons (also used, I notice, in Wordz) is
strikingly reminiscent of Excel 3, where many of the more commonly
needed functions are represented by icons along the top of the
applicationæs window. New to Eureka, however, is the ability to move
this section independently of the worksheet itself, as a separate
window.
6.8

6.8
Eureka
6.8
Having been struck by these visual links between Eureka and Excel 3, I
naturally approached my initial examination of Eureka on the basis of
Éhow deep does the likeness go?æ. To my surprise and delight, the
likeness is a great deal more than skin deep. Eureka carries with it the
same basic feeling of being designed for the user, rather than by the
programmer. In the main, it allows you to do things in the way you would
most naturally wish to do things.
6.8

6.8
Excel 3
6.8
Furthermore, the controls and effects available in Eureka are so similar
to their counterparts in Excel 3 that users of Eureka could quite
happily buy one of the many books dealing with the basics of Excel 3 and
use them to support their use of Eureka. The likeness therefore begs the
question ÉIs this RISCáOS, Mac-OS or Windows 3.1?æ. In the main, RISCáOS
conventions have been followed, with some notable exceptions such as,
for example, where dialogue boxes contain a ÉCancelæ button. According
to Acorn, using <select> on this should abort any selections made and
close the dialogue, while using <adjust> should abort any selections but
keep the dialogue open. In Eureka, the <adjust> feature has not be
implemented and acts in the same way as clicking Select. In fact, all
the normal <adjust> effects that I tried, failed to do what they should
Ö all doing the same as <select>.
6.8
In many areas, the facilities of Eureka fall short of their Excel 3
counterparts in scope, versatility or variability. In some cases,
however, they exceed Excel 3. For example, where, in Excel 3, the Fill
option offers only Fill Right and Fill Down, Eureka also offers options
to Fill Left and Fill Up (Oops! Just found these hidden within <Shift> &
ÉFileæ!). In Excel 3, you have an option to set the format of a cell to
ÉWrapæ where text entered into the cell will wrap to the width of the
cell, as if it were a mini wordprocessing area. However, Excel 3 has a
fairly small limit to the amount of text that can then be entered into a
single cell (about 256 characters) with larger blocks of text having to
be placed into separate Étext framesæ placed on top of the worksheet. In
Eureka, this limit doesnæt seem to apply or is, at the very least, much
greater. Once entered, the cell contents can then be formatted both
horizontally and vertically.
6.8
Unfortunately, and particularly given the arrival of RISCáOS 3.1, cell
contents cannot be rotated as they can in Excel 3.
6.8
One of Excel 3æs most powerful features is the way it handles the
production of graphs from worksheet data. Eureka too offers some
impressive plotting options although they are considerably less
extensive than those in Excel 3. Missing are the 3D options and along
with them options for rotation of viewing angle. Also missing is the
ability to plot data from rows or columns not side by side on the
worksheet Ö a rather major omission. In both packages, you can mark
several unconnected cells or cell ranges by pressing <Ctrl> while
clicking on or dragging through cells. In Excel 3, it is then possible
to plot these to a graph. Eureka will not allow this which means that if
you have, say, a column of headings followed by several columns of data,
you would need to do rather too much cutting and pasting if you wanted
to plot each column of data against the same column of headings.
6.8
OK, so Eureka and Excel 3 have a great deal in common, but can they
share data? The simple answer to this is a resounding YES! Although,
rather strangely given its obvious pedigree, Eureka can neither export
nor import Excel 3 files directly. Both packages are, however, able to
read and write files in Lotus 1-2-3 WKS or WK1 format. Using WK1, I was
able to move some fairly complex worksheets (complete with text, numeric
data, formulae and named cells) back and forth with no problems at all.
6.8
If the Excel 3 worksheet contains additional Excel 3 graphic elements,
such as text boxes, lines, rotated text, etc, you will find these
elements missing when the file is imported. In one test file, areas of
the Excel 3 worksheet had been outlined and the background shaded grey.
Although these effects did not come over in the imported WK1 format
file, they were very easy to recreate in Eureka, using an almost
identical process to that used in the original Excel 3 format. With the
additional option of saving in CSV, it should also be a simple task to
move data to almost any PC or Mac (not to mention Archimedes)
application you might want to use.
6.8
The similiarities with Excel 3 are quite extensive but it might be
fairer to compare it with the spreadsheet module within Microsoftæs
Works for Windows package, as this is, in effect, Microsoftæs own
reduced feature version of Excel 3. And, like Eureka, probably its
greatest loss is the lack of the Macro, Macro Recorder and Macro Button
facilities. These allow you to Éprogramæ regularly used routines and, if
you wish, link them to a Ébuttonæ (icon) placed into the worksheet.
Hopefully, the rumours that Eureka 2 might include such facilities are
true, as this would elevate an already excellent package to new heights.
6.8
One further loss in Eureka is the ability to save worksheets as part of
a ÉWorkgroupæ. Both Excel 3 and Eureka, as with many other spreadsheet
packages these days, allows cell references between different
worksheets. The ability to save as a Workgroup in Excel 3 means that,
when re-loading, all the component worksheets are loaded automatically
(including macros if they exist). In Eureka, such collections of
worksheets would have to be loaded individually by the user.
6.8
To finish, I have one rather curious observation to make with respect to
printing Eureka worksheets. Having imported and reformatted a file from
Excel 3, I proceeded to print it to my Cannon BJ10ex, via CCæs Turbo
Driver. On screen, all elements of the worksheet appeared as required.
However, when printed, some cell contents were truncated (missing the
last few characters) and some of the cells containing values were
printed as #### strings. This string is used to indicate that the cell
contents are too large for the cell width setting. I thought that the
whole idea of a WYSIWYG display was to ensure that, once the screen
display is as required, the printout would follow suit. Can anyone
explain why this does not seem to follow in Eureka?
6.8
Eureka is certainly a move in the right direction towards being Excel 3
for the Archimedes. So much so, in some respects, that I cannot help but
wonder if Microsoft might have something to say about it. Maybe those
wishing to buy Eureka would be advised to do so fairly quickly, before
Microsoftæs legal team get wind of it! (Only joking....... I hope!).ááA
6.8
A Dabhand Guide to Impression
6.8
Robert Chrismas
6.8
ÉThe Definitive Guide to the Premier DTP Package for Acorn Machinesæ
says the front cover. Well, who would buy a book which described itself
as ÉQuite a Good Guide to Impressionæ?
6.8
The Dabhand Guide to Impression is Published by the Dabs Press. It costs
ú14.95 and there is a support disc that you can get from Dabs that costs
ú2 inclusive.
6.8
Surprisingly readable
6.8
The Dabhand Guide to Impression is written by Anne Rooney who also wrote
ÉThe RISCáOS Welcome Guide.æ She has written a number of other books for
Dabs Press including one of my favourites, ÉArchimedes First Stepsæ.
6.8
She probably blushed when she saw the blurb on the back cover which
claims that the guide Éwill help you get to grips with Impression so
that you can use its power to create the documents you wantæ Ö fine
promise, leaden prose.
6.8
The content and the appearance of this guide make it surprisingly
readable. Computer manuals are not supposed to be light reading. Long
passages of technical information written with the style of a Brussels
bureaucrat can be pretty daunting. Anne Rooney has the happy knack of
writing technical material in clear attractive english. This is enhanced
by the page layout: a single, fairly narrow column of text with generous
leading (the space between the lines) and wide margins.
6.8
Contents
6.8
The first few chapters introduce Impression and explain how to set up
the discs and get started. Chapter four has an outline of Impressionæs
main features. It describes how they are covered in the later chapters.
6.8
Next comes the main part of the book containing detailed descriptions of
different aspects of Impression. As well as the Émainstreamæ subjects,
styles, frames, master pages, etc, it includes topics like creating an
index, hyphenation, uses of !FontDraw, enhanced graphics features,
importing and exporting files (find out how to import files from
Ventura, conserving styles and format) and multi-chapter documents.
Printing is covered in special detail Ö there are sections on
downloading fonts to a PostScript printer and preparing files for
imagesetting.
6.8
The chapter of examples was disappointing. The business stationery for
Aardvark Earth-Moving Equipment would have been suitable for a staid
firm of chartered accountants.
6.8
It is followed by an excellent chapter on the Impression Business
Supplement which also included useful advice on different systems of
colouring and arranging for professional printing.
6.8
Differences between RISCáOS 2 and RISCáOS 3 are explained wherever they
are relevant.
6.8
Not a tutorial
6.8
The guide book is not a tutorial. You are not expected to work through a
series of exercises. You will not find many passages with a list of
instructions of the Énow drag the second tab ... notice that ...æ
variety. There are more general descriptions like, ÉThere are two ways
you can remove any items from the ruler. You can drag items from the
ruler and drop them ...æ The emphasis is usually on why you would choose
to do something. A typical passage starts ÉSometimes you may want to
group several frames together so that ...æ
6.8
A natural way to use this book would be to read half a chapter or so and
then to try out what you have learnt on the computer by making up some
tasks for yourself.
6.8
Whether you find this style more helpful than a conventional tutorial,
which expects you to use the computer every few minutes, probably
depends on your personality. I like to learn by sitting and thinking, I
would certainly have enjoyed learning about Impression from this book.
If you prefer to learn by doing (teacheræs clichΘ) you will probably get
on better with Stephen Ibbsæ ÉFirst Impressionæ (reviewed Archive
5.1p17).
6.8
There is, however, some tutorial material on the support disc (see
later).
6.8
You canæt please everyone
6.8
Neither a conventional tutorial nor the more reflective style of the
Dabhand Guide would satisfy some users. One of my neighbours recently
bought a computer Ö a 286 grey. He was new to computing, so I went round
to help him set it up. I planned to show him how to connect the bits and
to explain a bit about parking hard discs, using Gem and so on. I found
that he expected to print three letters that same evening. It was like
someone who turned up for their first driving lesson and said Éteach me
to drive by showing me how to get to Liverpoolæ. (We did print his
letters, but there are better ways to get started.)
6.8
Organisation
6.8
Anne Rooney has tried to arrange the chapters in the order that a
typical user might need them. However, she has also tried to group
together related material. An example of the problems which these
incompatible aims create appears in one of the early chapters called
ÉStarting Workæ. Since starting work involves entering text, this
chapter also includes a description of !Chars and a discussion of the
importance of distinguishing between the letter O and the number zero.
Most beginners would be content to leave these niceties, at least until
after they had learnt to save and to print.
6.8
When I reviewed ÉFirst Impressionæ, I said that Éhasty personalitiesæ
might find it hard to wait for section seven to learn how to change the
font. In the 450 page Dabhand Guide, you must wait until page 261 to get
to the chapter on printing. I do not now think this a fault. In any
book, half of the chapters come after the middle!
6.8
Pages fell out
6.8
My copy of this book has made a couple of journeys through the post in a
jiffy bag. However the cover was not badly marked, so I was surprised
when some of the pages fell out.
6.8
Other publishing aberrations include an errata sheet with a corrected
table of contents and a diagram which was omitted from the text.
6.8
Support disc
6.8
The book does not assume you have the support disc. The disc contains
all the example documents referred to in the text, including a mail
merge example for owners of the Impression Business Supplement.
6.8
Tutorial files
6.8
There are some tutorial files which are completely independent of the
book. They comprise five main documents dealing with Word Processing,
Effects, Styles, Frames and Master Pages. These are more conventional
tutorial material. Each document starts with an estimate of the time it
will take. These files only occupy 200Kb so they can only cover some
features. However, the lessons cover a sensible range of topics and they
seem well thought out.
6.8
The most annoying trait of the files was the way, whenever I loaded one,
Impression complained that it had not seen the Newhall font. None of the
files seemed to use Newhall.
6.8
Conclusion
6.8
The Dabhand Guide to Impression is very readable. It begins with
instructions for readers who have never used Impression before but it
includes many advanced subjects in its comprehensive contents.
6.8
The guide is not organised into tasks like a tutorial. It spends as much
time explaining why you might want to do things as it spends on
explaining how to do them. I enjoyed reading it but some people might
prefer more step-by-step instructions. Experienced users could keep it
to look up the features of Impression which they do not use regularly.
6.8
Provided it keeps its pages, ú15 is a reasonable price for a book. If
you buy it to learn Impression, buy the support disc as well Ö the
tutorial on the disc is worth ú2.ááA
6.8
Image Discs for Primary Schools
6.8
Alan Wilburn
6.8
Image Discs are sets of clipart produced by John Beattie of Primary
Educational Services to support curriculum areas in the Primary School.
I reviewed the first twenty-one discs in Archive 5.12 p37 and, to save
repetition, I suggest you look at that for information on my testing,
judging criteria and general information on packaging, marketing, etc.
This time I am reviewing the new release of thirteen discs which are
mainly black and white drawfiles, some with greyscale shading from
ArtWorks which, in my opinion, give the best results in DTP with the
equipment available to the average person and school.
6.8
Birds
6.8
There are thirteen very good, detailed drawfiles about Sea Birds in
realistic positions covering the most common. There are Black/Common/
Herring Gulls, Terns and others including Shag, Cormorant, Avocet and
Sandpiper.
6.8
Garden Birds are covered in thirteen detailed drawfiles plus two
outstanding duplicates in colour. The most common species are
represented including Crow, Black Bird, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Sparrow,
Robin, Swallow and Thrush.
6.8
Birds of Prey 2 has seven detailed pictures of: Buzzard (illustrated),
Long Eared and European Eagle Owl, Goshawk, Hobby, Peregrine Falcon and
Spotted Eagle all of which are of a high standard.
6.8
Animals
6.8
On the Domestic Cats disc are fourteen files mainly of pedigree cats and
not the common moggy. Some of the breeds covered are: Burmese, Egyptian,
Blue and Chocolate Point and Sphynx.
6.8
The Endangered Species disc has thirteen files plus three duplicated in
greyscale colour. Water animals are represented by the Dolphin, Otter,
Sea Cow, Seal and Whale. Land animals feature Bison, Elephant, Polar
Bear and Rhino amongst others.
6.8
The twelve Animal Skeletons on the disc are detailed and shaded in, to
give a 3D view and cover, among others reptiles, bird, cat, elephant,
rhesus monkey and a seal. My reference books confirmed that the
skeletons I could find appeared to be accurate (I have no expertise in
this area). The teacher in me would have liked identical pictures of
fully-fleshed animals to compare with the skeletons but I imagine this
would require another disc.
6.8
History
6.8
The Tudors disc has nine files on clothing including separate items and
people. There are two detailed drawings, one line and the other shaded,
of Henry VIII and drawings of three of his wives. The rest of the disc
contains files on plants and a few household items.
6.8
Victoriana has eight files on fashion, five on lamps and the other
sixteen mainly covering everyday items. Fashion has four drawings of
women in a variety of everyday dress, Ms Bloomer and a crinoline basket.
Three men are depicted in casual day dress, formal frock coat and
working class (a locksmith). Transport is covered by a baby carriage,
bone shaker, penny farthing, automobile, The Rocket and an excellent
detailed drawing of a fire engine. Pictures of the Albert Hall, a
gramophone, a mangle and Disraeli are some of the other files.
6.8
Victorian 2 contains 22 files on a number of categories. Household items
are represented by a brooch, statue, bath, phone, sewing machine, wash
basin and stand. Street items are: pillar box, postman, peeler, house
and hansom cab. Industry and Trade items include a mine shaft, Telford
Bridge, a viaduct and a Tea Clipper. Famous people are present in the
form of WáGáGrace, Florence Nightingale and Queen Victoria.
6.8
General
6.8
The House disc is mainly for Special Needs but I could see many uses for
it, one being to prepare customized work in My World (Archive 5.4 p36).
The files would be also be useful in Picture It. There are two
directories Objects and Rooms. Objects contains files of items seen in
the home such as: apron, frying pan, strainer, mug, toothbrush and
towel. Rooms contains thirty files of furniture including: bath, chest,
fridge, fireplace, TV, sofa and sink. The drawfiles are shaded and are
ideal for classroom use as they can be printed out at large sizes (they
are very impressive at A3 and A2) for wall display or used in personal
picture dictionary lists. They are obviously ideal for rebus work which
could be tailored for individual children across the primary range and,
with one of the applications to print large pictures, can be large
enough for wall display or as individual work sheets.
6.8
The European Community disc contains directories for each country and an
EEC map puzzle where coloured overlays and names have to be placed onto
an outline map. Each directory contains the flag, simple information
sheet (easily added to for your specific requirements) and pictures of
objects/places representative of that country. As an example, Denmark
has files on 17th Century House, a Viking Longboat and the öMermaidò.
6.8
Flags of the World contains 181 coloured flags in the following
directories: Africa, Americas, Asia, Australasia and Europe. The four UK
flags are included, as are the flags of islands such as Alderney and
Sark. At the time of going to press, all those I checked were correct
but I would think upgrading, with the prevalent World conditions, is
akin to painting the Forth Road Bridge.
6.8
The Planets disc contains three directories. The Solar System contains
three files showing relative sizes and orbits. Two are quizzes where you
have to place the given name against the correct planet. The Planet
directory contains nineteen files of all the planets viewed from space
in b/w and colour. Spacecraft has six files including Saturn 5, Apollo
and the Shuttle.
6.8
Update
6.8
Circulatory System from the first set has been upgraded with additional
files and digestive system files added. To obtain your upgrade for this,
or for any other disc, return your master disc to P.E.S. with ú1 p&p.
6.8
Conclusions
6.8
I was very impressed with the standard of the drawings. I did not see a
single one that I thought mediocre and most were highly detailed and
impressive. I strongly recommend them for classroom use and to other
users who need this type of clipart. At ú5 +ú1╖50 p&p (+VAT) these discs
are good value for money. If you want to see before you buy, sending ú2
(refunded on first order) to P.E.S. will get a catalogue of all
drawfiles, from which you can buy a customized 800Kb disc full of files
for ú15, if you wish.
6.8
An example of a coloured image picture can be seen as the centre piece
of the current Art Works advert. This is a coloured version of the fire
engine from the Victoriana disc.ááA
6.8
Itæs a Revelation...
6.8
Gabriel Swords
6.8
Last month I looked at Imagery, a paint program designed to take you
from where Paint leaves off to somewhere just short of professional.
This month I am looking at Revelation ImagePro, a program in another
league Ö and so it should be Ö it costs rather more! If Imagery starts
where Paint left off, ImagePro starts where Imagery left off.
6.8
The first thing you notice is the box it all comes in. With its dark
blue and orange colouring, the Longman logo and slip-out A5 manual, this
box has been designed to look professional. Itæs a bit of a
disappointment then to find that the manual only takes up about one
tenth of the space available to it! Oh well, at least thereæs room for
upgrade materials. Never mind, you wonæt be disappointed for long as
soon as you start to use the program.
6.8
What you get is: three 800Kb discs with main program, loads of tutorial
material, colour samples, an 82 page manual, registration card and the
usual !System, !SysMerge and !Scrap.
6.8
The manual is divided into four sections; Getting Started, Essential
Skills, Menus in Detail and Guided Tours. I was very impressed with both
the layout of the manual and the inclusion of notes and examples to help
explain some of the functions.
6.8
Getting started
6.8
Getting Started shows you how to load, set screen mode, adjust the mouse
settings for left or right handed use and choose options for keeping the
menu displayed (as per Macs) or hidden (as per RISCáOS). Essential
Skills 1 introduces you to page creation. The default page is roughly 9
╫ 7cm but you can go down to 4.5 ╫ 4.5cm, or in my case up to 49 ╫ 48cm,
or any size in between Ö including a button to give you a full screen
picture automatically. Additionally, if you have a printer driver open,
you can set the page size to correspond to a full sheet of printer
paper, either tall or wide. Essential Skills 2 takes you through some of
its basic structure, including the ability to Étear offæ menus and leave
them scattered around the screen. Essential Skills 3 gives details of
loading, saving and printing. You can load sprites or drawfiles either
to the Revelation icon or straight to the page Ö I had no problems with
either, including scans. Drawfiles are converted to sprites.
6.8
Tools
6.8
The next 42 pages take you through the menus in detail Ö so here goes...
The Tools Menu contains twelve basic tools, plus a host of accessory
options associated with each tool. Crayon produces a continuous line in
the current colour or motif. Brush does the same but as a series of
blocks Ö square or oval. Spray Éspraysæ a colour or motif. With each of
these tools itæs possible to alter the density of the image, change the
size of line, spray, square or oval and lock the direction the tool will
follow Ö up, down, left or right. The same applies whether you are using
a colour or motif.
6.8
At this point, itæs probably worth explaining what Revelation means by a
motif. Motifs are created when you cut an area from a page using the
scissors or knife tool, or from other applications using the ÉCutoutæ
function from the icon menu. Once you have a motif active, you can
Épaintæ with it in the same way you would a colour. Hereæs a piece of
clip art I prepared earlier...
6.8
You can do the same with a scanned photograph Ö the results can be truly
amazing! Thereæs a motif menu where you can save motifs you have created
Ö once they are saved, you can open the motif directory and see
Éthumbnailsæ of the directory contents. You can also turn them into
patterns, randomise them or dither them.
6.8
The Fill Roller fills an area with a colour or motif. Again, there are
several options associated with the fill, allowing you to fill to a
boundary, fill everything, create a graduated fill, or even fill shapes
with active motifs.
6.8
DrawPen lets you draw lines freehand or using any of the pre-defined
shapes which appear on the tools menu when drawpen is selected. Among
the pre-defined shapes are: square, rectangle, triangle, parallelogram,
circle, ellipse and regular polygon. These can be in outline, or filled
with colour or motifs. The line thickness and fill density can also be
altered.
6.8
Scissors and Knife let you cut areas with varying degrees of accuracy.
Once cut, they can be pasted back into the picture with paste tool, or
Épaintedæ with crayon, brush, spray, fill or drawpen. If you choose
Paste, you can also take your image and flip it horizontally or
vertically, scale it, rotate it or blend it into the page background. In
256 colour mode, you get even greater control over the type of blend,
and degree of blending, by use of a blend graduation editor.
6.8
With the Effects tool, you can trace, edge, blur, sharpen, dither or
create mosaic patterns with your image Ö the last two options are only
available in 256 colour mode. Sliders allow you to alter the degree of
any effect. A Ruler option allows precise measurement of distances using
X, Y co-ordinates and angles either in a clockwise or anti-clockwise
direction.
6.8
Inside the Motif Menu thereæs an option for Text Ö clicking text opens a
dialogue box into which you type your text and choose size, font, and
whether to apply kerning, etc. Once youæve OKæd it, the text box
disappears and your piece of text becomes a motif.
6.8
In the Page Menu, thereæs a Zoom slider with eight presets from ╫╝ to
╫8; an Undo function Ö though it only has one Éundoæ; a New View so you
can work on a ╫8 view and see it alter at ╫1 view; and thereæs Save and
Print.
6.8
Also there, tucked away quietly and greyed out Ö unless youære in 256
colour mode Ö are Colour Shift and Grey Shift. ImagePro really excels in
its ability to deal with colour and greyscale. It supports RGB and CMYK
via the colour shift dialogue box Ö sliders allow you to alter the
amount of each colour, producing some quite interesting results. The
whole feel of an image can be changed depending on what you do with
these sliders. Effects can be applied globally, selectively or by using
one of the tools from the tool menu. You can also adjust the contrast
and colour saturation.
6.8
Using the grey shift allows you to change the look of black and white
photos or improve the quality of poor images. There are eight pre-set
greyscale profiles and a grid panel which can be modified to create new
ones.
6.8
The final section of the manual is made up of three Guided Tours. Tour 1
deals with image-making and colour processing; Tour 2 deals with colour
separations; Tour 3 deals with using measures. The tours are illustrated
in the manual as well as on disc, so you get a real Éhands onæ feel to
them.
6.8
Conclusion
6.8
The thing I really like about ImagePro is the fact that it assumes you
might want to do something Éprofessionalæ with it Ö unlike some other
Archimedes programs I could mention! You can use it to Épaintæ some very
imaginative pictures, tidy up clipart, produce better looking scans and
photos and even print four-colour separations. The manual is good Ö
thereæs plenty of advice and examples to help you see how different
functions can be used. Itæs easy to use and has just about everything
you could ask for in this kind of program. My only gripes (and this
first one is a little unfair) are that it does nothing to help me
produce PostScript files for my local printer Ö I still have to use
ExpressPS, Acorn Printer Drivers... and keep my fingers crossed! It
would also have been nice to have had some keyboard shortcuts. Apart
from that I really do like it.
6.8
According to Longman Logotron, Revelation ImagePro will work on any
RISCáOS machine with 2Mb of memory, though RISCáOS 3 is recommended. If
you want to use all the features, especially colour and grey shift,
youæll need to work in a 256 colour mode.ááA
6.8
Scanned clip art Pasted, part Sprayed and Brushed
6.8
Tools menu with Brush selected
6.8
Motif menu
6.8
Main menu
6.8
Status display
6.8
Page menu
6.8
TV Fun & Games
6.8
Richard Rymarz
6.8
Fun & Games is produced by HS Software and costs ú22.95 (ú21 through
Archive). There are three separate programs on three discs which,
according to the advertising blurb, Émakes the most of the Archimedesæ
sound and graphic capabilitiesæ.
6.8
Kevinæs Quiz
6.8
This program is designed to practise the basic number skills of
addition, subtraction and multiplication. What eventually transpired was
quite a surprise. Having placed the disc into the disc drive and clicked
on the !HS icon, the program took some time to load. Eventually, a
rather garish (but appropriate) screen presented itself. The top half of
the screen showed Kevin himself, a very cool customer indeed, sitting at
his desk with a pile of questions in his hands. The desk alongside him
was empty. The lower half of the screen displayed six characters Ö
including Tommy Cooper.
6.8
There were a number of buttons allowing the teacher to choose the type
of problem, the difficulty level, the number of questions and whether
speech is used. On the desk panel were three slots for names and
underneath each one a score card and timer. I was instructed to enter my
name. This I duly did and then I had to choose a picture. I became Tommy
Cooper and was soon sitting at the desk.
6.8
Another weird character soon joined me and as soon as I had entered the
third, Kevinæs picture moved fairly convincingly and he shouted (my
internal speaker was turned on fully) the first question in the most
extraordinary Birmingham accent that I have ever heard. I typed in the
answer which my character also yelled in a similar fashion. Having
recovered a second time, I found that the other characters did the same.
Furthermore, I discovered that if time ran out, the question was offered
to the other players. Upon completion of the quiz, we were asked to öHum
along with Kevinò. A weird rendition of the ÉBlue Danube Waleæ finished
what for me was a strange and amusing experience.
6.8
All in all this was great fun. Not only were basic skills being
reinforced but three children could use the program at once Ö great for
busy classrooms.
6.8
Gnomework
6.8
This time I was ready. I double clicked on the now familiar HS icon and,
after another longish wait while the program loaded, was greeted with
virtually a full screen picture of a garden. In the centre sat a very
rustic looking gentleman with a garden fork. In the corner was a gnome
who I soon learned was called Gerald. To the left of the screen were
three lifts. Along the bottom were the usual HS buttons which allowed me
to set the skill and game level. Another button allowed me to include
speech and another to end the game. Sadly, there was no button to switch
off or adjust the sound level of the music.
6.8
Being ambitious, I tried game one at its simplest level. Soon the
gardener was telling Gerald, in appropriate rustic tones of course, to
collect certain items in the garden such as fruit, animals and flowers.
Clicking on the item had Gerald scampering across the garden with his
wheelbarrow, collecting it and then delivering it to the lifts. When he
had deposited it, some of his mates pulled on the rope to lift the item,
making room for another one. Upon completion of the game, noisy music
accompanied some acrobatic movements of these helpers (at this point I
wished I could have turned down the volume).
6.8
Gnomework is a sorting, counting and matching activity, accompanied by
speech and animation. It has a wide range of games and levels that
should suit younger children. However, it has one quirk: it does not
allow input from the numeric keypad and why oh why canæt the music sound
level be adjusted?
6.8
Weatherman
6.8
Weatherman has already been released as a stand-alone program. Those who
already own it can return it and receive all three programs for ú14.95.
6.8
Weatherman allows children to create weather maps, answer questions
about the weather, reinforce directional skills and name the countries
within the United Kingdom. Types of weather can be configured and the
skill and game level set. Speech is effectively used as the animated
weather forecaster states the kind of weather in different parts of Gt
Britain Ö North, South, East and West. (Later levels include the
secondary directions as well.) This time a north country accent is used.
The children choose the appropriate symbol and place it in the correct
region. More difficult levels may require two instructions to be carried
out and mistakes are taken into consideration. When a game is completed,
the Éshowæ button allows the forecast to be run again Ö this time
without interruptions. Finally, there is an option to save the forecast
as a sprite. This can then be transferred to any other application.
6.8
Weatherman is a useful program to help younger children to understand
weather types. It has limited use but would bring an element of fun to a
project on weather which, of course, is a major component within the
National Curriculum.
6.8
Conclusions
6.8
All the programs take over the whole screen. This does not matter much
but when I finished the program and clicked on ÉEndæ, I was not returned
to the mode I was in when I loaded the program Ö it left me in mode 15.
Furthermore strange things happened to the text in this review. Being
cautious, I had saved my work and, after re-booting my machine, all was
well but this is a little irritating. The documentation is adequate but
produced, pamphlet style, on an ordinary piece of photocopying paper.
6.8
The programs themselves at a little over ú7 each represent very good
value for money. They were fun to review and, when I tried them with
groups of children aged between 6 and 9, I had problems dragging them
away Ö they loved them. All three are well suited to the target age
group of 5 to 9 and I thoroughly recommend them.ááA
6.8
Principles of Desk Top Publishing Ö Part 3
6.8
Mike McNamara
6.8
In Part 1 of this short series, I commented on the importance and
central role played by frames in the DTP process. This month, I wish to
return to this topic and examine, in more detail, just why this is the
case.
6.8
To begin with, as indicated in Part 1 of this series, ALL items within
the DTP page are placed within frames. For this reason, if for no other,
the DTP user must be able to manipulate frames Ö create them, move them,
resize them and fill them. However, their value to the DTP designer goes
a great deal further than this simple Écontaineræ role. To illustrate
this, I would like to refer you back to the last section of Part 2 of
this series. (Archive 6.7 p35)
6.8
The explanation which followed described how this could be achieved
using the leading, kerning and tracking facilities of DTP software.
However, the same effect can be achieved in a far simpler way, as
follows ....
6.8
Create three new frames.
6.8
Into one type ÉLeading, Kerning &æ
6.8
Into the next, type Érackingæ
6.8
Into the last type ÉTæ
6.8
Size the text in each as required.
6.8
Make each frame Épassiveæ
6.8
    i.e. Transparent & No repel
6.8
Move the frames to give the desired effect.
6.8
In Impression, it is then advised to create a fourth frame to surround
the first three, place it behind the first three and then group all four
frames together. In Ovation, you should begin by creating a large enough
frame to contain the main three. These must then be created within this
Éparentæ frame. In both cases, the user will then be able to move all
parts together, should that be necessary.
6.8
This fairly simple example should begin to show the real power of the
frame within DTP. In many cases, quite complex effects can be achieved
within a single frame, using mixtures of sizes, leadings, kernings, etc.
In almost all cases, however, splitting the material up into more than
one frame can make the task very much more simple (and, as it happens,
more flexible!).
6.8
And finally ....
6.8
To end this short series, let me give a reminder of the value of
ÉDefined text stylesæ and ÉMaster pagesæ. On their own, the use of
ÉDefined text stylesæ enables the user to standardise the presentation
of text throughout a document. For this article, for example, I have
three main defined styles.
6.8
Base Style: for the bulk of the text and set to Trinity.Medium, 11pt on
13, fully justified.
6.8
Indent: based on Base Style with a 3mm left margin indent.
6.8
Sub¡Heading: for the short topic headings in Homerton.Bold, 11pt on 13,
left align.
6.8
In Ovation, these styles are applied to full paragraphs and any one
paragraph has only one style. In Impression, styles can be used
collectively (more than one style applying to a given section of text)
and do not have to apply to whole paragraphs. Either way, the time taken
to define a collection of text styles makes the subsequent DTP process
far more efficient.
6.8
As for master pages, these are used to define the basic structure of any
subsequent pages generated. Thus, the master page will define the size
of the page, its margins and columns. In addition, any other items
placed on the master page will become part of the Étemplateæ for new
pages. This is then used to generate items which are to appear on all,
or most, of the pages within the document, such as page-numbering,
headers and footers, etc.
6.8
Over the course of time, most DTP users will build a collection of
master page definitions covering the page formats commonly used. Again,
Ovation and Impressions approach this differently. In Ovation, you have
ÉSave Stylesheetsæ which allows you to save files containing master page
and defined text style information, while in Impression, you have the
ÉEdit, View Master Pagesæ giving access to a collection of numbered
master page definitions. (Why havenæt CC used named master pages Ö a far
more logical and user friendly approach?) In both cases, the user can
then have their most commonly used document format as the default when
the software is launched.ááA
6.8
               Leading, Kerning &
6.8
Tracking
6.8
Let the frame ... ... take the strain!
6.8
By using the power of the frames in DTP, the user is very often able to
achieve far more flexible effects.
6.8
Chopper Force
6.8
Robert Fuller
6.8
Chopper Force was released by The Fourth Dimension last autumn, and
costs ú24.95 (ú23 through Archive). Along with other Fourth Dimension
games, the first disc of the two is copy protected, so cannot be backed
up. A small manual is included, which contains a minimal amount of
information and does not really do justice to the game.
6.8
This is the first helicopter simulator game to be released on Acorn
machines, and differs from those on other computers by the fact that the
player takes the role of a police, not a military, pilot. You take the
place of a new recruit, working in an area in which a group of
terrorists operates. They have a wide variety of equipment, including
jets, cars, anti-aircraft guns, tanks and seemingly limitless
helicopters. This all leads to a highly unbelievable plot but a very
interesting game.
6.8
There are two modes of flight. Hover mode gives a great deal of
manoeuvrability but is very slow. The cursor keys are used to turn and
change altitude. The second mode uses the jet engine which is fixed to
the back of the helicopter and, like traditional flight simulators, is
controlled with the mouse. Even in jet mode, the helicopter does not
travel as quickly as a fighter plane and cannot, for obvious reasons,
fly upside down. This makes it easier to control than Interdictor II,
for example.
6.8
Anyone who has seen advertisements for the game will know that the whole
screen is used to view the outside world, although there is a small box
containing messages from the control centre and other helpful
information. The radar is transparent, being superimposed on the bottom
corner of the playing area. The only problem with this is that the blips
on it are black so that, when flying over a road or other dark surface,
enemy aircraft are effectively invisible to you. A little more careful
planning on the designersæ part could have avoided this.
6.8
The missions can range from simply destroying a target vehicle to
transporting a vital piece of equipment across country. They become
progressively more difficult to achieve, though the skills needed are
introduced gradually. I expect to complete a mission on the third or
fourth time of trying it, but some people will possibly be able to
progress through the game much more quickly than this.
6.8
There is a lot of attention to detail in this game; some nice touches
are the traffic lights on the road which change periodically, the sheep
which can be heard to baa if you are close enough to hear them, and a
scrolling textual message on the side of a building. The sounds are also
quite detailed but are not of a very high quality (although a pair of
external speakers helps matters considerably).
6.8
The one major problem with the game is that too much time is spent in
travelling to the target for each mission. It can take up to five
minutes in real time to get to each target point, and it is almost
guaranteed that an opposing helicopter or two will arrive on your tail
somewhere along the way. There is no automatic pilot mode and, at high
speeds, concentration must be kept all the time to avoid going off
course.
6.8
When the action does come, it is fast and furious. Most combat takes
place at very short ranges, as it is easiest then to hit the vulnerable
rotors or engine of the opponent. Different enemy aircraft employ
different tactics, although it is soon possible to learn how best to
deal with each one. Probably the most fearsome adversaries are homing
missiles, which can lock on to you if you fly above one hundred feet on
certain missions.
6.8
I cannot really comment on this gameæs Élastabilityæ, as The Fourth
Dimension have avoided mentioning anywhere how many missions there are.
From my experience, the game develops well as it goes on, and I cannot
see that it would become monotonous. After some levels, you can be
awarded with a promotion, or extra equipment (such as access to
satellite pictures of the area). There is also a competition based on
achieving the highest score on completion of all the missions.
6.8
This game is very playable Ö my only reservation being that it takes so
long to complete, with relatively short periods of action. I am someone
who has never been able to accomplish anything on either of the
Interdictors, and yet I picked up the basics of this in minutes. Even
so, I do not think that more experienced players would be bored, as
there is such variety in it.
6.8
I would have no qualms about recommending this to anyone who enjoys
flight simulators, or who would like to purchase one. I have spent many
hours playing Chopper Force and would say that it is good value for
money compared to many other games on the market. It is the first time I
have seen playability successfully combined with vector graphics Ö it is
a game for PC owners to envy.ááA
6.8
S-Base
6.8
Brian Barr
6.8
S-Base is the new database application from Longman Logotron of
Cambridge. It seems to be part of a second generation of databases
written for the Acorn 32-bit machines. It arrived in a sturdy
reinforced, glossy, white cardboard box with a somewhat highly coloured
(some might say garish) logo on the front. Inside are two volumes with a
combined total of some six hundred pages. The first is a Tutorial Guide
and the second a Reference Manual. A sticker marked öPersonal Editionò
festoons the spine of the box, indicating which of the three versions
has been purchased. Also enclosed are the three system discs which
contain the operating software.
6.8
Installation
6.8
On opening the Tutorial Guide, I found installation instructions which
were brief and to the point. öHard disc users should create a separate
directory for S-Base and copy the contents of the supplied discs into
this directory.ò The manual also states that floppy disc users can also
use the programs but a hard disc is recommended. After the programs were
copied, the !System was upgraded to the latest version using the
supplied !SysMerge program.
6.8
Concepts
6.8
Double clicking on the !S-Base application brings up the usual icon on
the iconbar. This simple introduction belies the complexity and
flexibility of what was to be found later.
6.8
Clicking on this icon brings up a dialogue box marked öNew Applicationò.
This gives a clue to the main concept behind S-Base. It is not merely a
card-index system for entering and storing names and addresses, but an
application-generating environment. The system is based around the
creation of öresourcesò which can be tied together to form a whole
program that uses S-Base as an operating system. A resource can be
anything from a screen with boxes, windows, arrows and text, to font
styles, data types and file formats. The system has thirteen types of
resources in all, which are used to construct an application.
6.8

6.8
Resource List Viewer
6.8
Tools
6.8
Each resource has an in-built editor to control its construction, and
numerous screens are presented to define each resource. Many readers who
program their machines will be aware of the ubiquitous Acorn
application, FormEd which is used for creating templates, or screen
layouts, for new programs. The template editor built into S-Base, makes
FormEd look primitive. Designing screens is now pure pleasure as all the
tools required for lining up boxes and placing text correctly are at
your finger tips. You can even work on several boxes (or icons) at once.
Other tools include text editors that operate virtually the same as
!Edit and öPop upò dialogue boxes for specifying parameters used in each
resource. If all of this sounds complex, it is! There are several
features, however, which provide a short-cut to creating some resources.
6.8
Flexibility
6.8
This is where S-Base comes into its own. Each application that you
create can have programs attached to it to make it do something. The
programs are a series of commands written in a language called öSò. This
language has some three hundred commands in its vocabulary and the
majority of the reference manual covers the explanation of these
commands. S is very C-like in its construction and if you are a C
programmer, I am sure you will feel at home. The system also supports a
resource called a handler. These handlers are mini programs that are run
when the user clicks in one of the boxes in your new application. If the
box was marked öSaveò, its handler would issue the relevant commands to
output to disc the contents of what is to be saved.
6.8
RISCáOS compatible
6.8
This is an understatement, as S-Base uses the RISCáOS environment to the
full. The style of keypresses and mouse handling follows Acornæs style
conventions to the letter. The rule seems to be that if you want to do
something, then you can. I had some programs that I had written in Basic
and wanted to see if I could edit the screen templates using S-Baseæs
template editor. I found no problems at all in importing the original
templates and then re-exporting them back to my Basic application.
6.8
Examples
6.8
The supplied discs contain several example applications that show how to
construct an application of your own. Indeed, you can even use these as
a basis for a new program. The tutorial explains how to create an
öaddress bookò and takes you step by step through its inception,
construction and completion. The manual recommends that you read through
most of the text before starting any real programming and, as it is
about 250 pages long, you are in for several nights of bedtime reading.
6.8
Conclusion
6.8
I am very excited by this new program as it seems to do everything
anybody would ever need in a database. My only worry is that quite a bit
of knowledge of the system is required before you can put together even
your first address book or philatelic catalog and this may put some
people off.* S-Base comes in three versions, personal single user for
ú99 +VAT (ú105 Archive price), S-Base for developers at ú199 +VAT (ú215
Archive price) and S-Base for developing network applications at ú299
+VAT (ú325 Archive price). You also need a network site-licence to run
S-Base applications on a network. It costs ú299 +VAT (ú325 Archive
price) for an education S-Net Server licence and  ú600 +VAT (ú650
Archive price) for a business S-Net Server licence. S-Base for
developers contains a örun-timeò compiler for producing stand-alone
applications that can be sold by the developer without any further
royalty payment to Longman Logotron. All I will say is that I am
ordering my developer edition of S-Base from Archive straight away.  A
6.8
á* Longman are aware of this problem and have an S-Base 2 at a late
stage of development which provides a high level method of öpaintingò
applications. The S-Base code is generated automatically but can be
modified manually later if you have the necessary S-language programming
skills. Ed.
6.8
TableMate
6.8
Ray Dawson
6.8
Those of you who, like myself, have spent hours fiddling with Impression
IIæs unfriendly tablemaking facility can now breathe a sigh of relief.
Also, Impression Junior users can now enjoy a facility so far denied to
them.
6.8
TableMate is a new application from Dalriada Data Technology, designed
to help make professional looking tables for Desktop Publishing, word
processing and graphic design. It produces tables in Draw format, as a
text file, or in the Impression Data Definition Format, (DDF), ready to
drop into Impression documents.
6.8
The software reviewed was version 1.04b with a pre-release 16-page draft
photocopied manual. In spite of being draft, the manual was explicit and
easy to follow. A keystrip was provided in the form of a drawfile on the
disc. A proper manual will be supplied with the final version. No copy
protection was incorporated.
6.8
First Impressions
6.8
The application installs itself on the iconbar with a Draw-based icon
and consumes 224Kb of memory, although this figure does increase when a
large number of columns and rows are used. At the same time, a window is
opened showing the default ruler called Standard.
6.8
Clicking <menu> on the iconbar shows Info, Configure, New and Quit
options. Configure allows you to select the ruler units to either inches
or centimetres, but not points. New brings up a new table window Ö after
asking for confirmation about discarding the previous window.
6.8
In the table window, the ruler is shown above the window display area
which contains one cell of a table with the caret positioned ready to
make the first entry.
6.8
At this stage, I decided that a look at the documentation might be
useful. Basically, if you press <tab>, another column is created the
same size and to the right of the one you are in and pressing <return>
creates another row below. Keyboard shortcuts are also available to
create rows or columns before or after the caret position. There is no
restriction, apart from memory, on the number of rows or columns that
you may create.
6.8
Editing
6.8
Pressing left and right cursor keys moves the caret between cells
horizontally, and the up and down cursor keys move the caret vertically
between rows.
6.8
Text may not flow across column boundaries but the column may be as wide
as you require it to be. A cell may be more than one row high to
incorporate several lines of text by hiding the line bounding the bottom
of the row(s).
6.8
The column widths can be altered by moving the pointer over the
adjoining line between cells it changes shape to show the directions of
change available. Dragging with <select> or <adjust> decides which
column will change and the width can be altered to an invisible grid of
1/24th of an inch. You cannot change a cell width on one line only. All
changes affect the whole of the column that the cell is in. Unlike
tables in Impression, a cell boundary must coincide with a column line.
6.8
Rulers from the Ruler Menu may be assigned to a highlighted row and new
rulers may be created. Columns in any ruler may be joined together to
make a wider column or they may be deleted, although deletion affects
the whole column and not just the cell in that ruler. Each row may, if
you wish, have a different ruler, although it is not possible to assign
more than one ruler to a row.
6.8
Text entered in a cell formats to the tabs on the current ruler, which
is displayed at the top of the window. The tabs change between left,
right and centre justified by dragging them to the relevant point above
the cell. Decimal tabs may be added by dragging the icon above the ruler
onto the ruler above the relevant cell, and removed by clicking <adjust>
on them.
6.8
Menus
6.8
Menu options include editing of columns and rows and the usual copy,
move and clearing of selected areas. The Style menu allows you to change
the font name and size and also allows you to hide the ruleoff below the
current line. The default font may be defined by editing the !Run file.
The Ruler menu, apart from letting you select and delete rulers, also
gives you the facility of joining or splitting designated columns, but
only in a created ruler and not the default.
6.8
Tables may be saved as a TableMate file, a drawfile, or as a DDF file
for importing directly into Impression. The drawfile facility will be of
particular interest to non-Impression users.
6.8
TableMate can load its own files, Comma Separated Values (CSV), or
Software Independent Data (SID) allowing you to create tables from your
database or spreadsheet.
6.8
Keyboard shortcuts are used for most functions and conform to the
RISCáOS standard, where applicable.
6.8
Conclusion
6.8
I found the application very easy and intuitive to use and a quick way
of making up tables for use in Impression II. Although I found the
column editing facilities slightly restricting, these are easily carried
out in the style editing facility within Impression II. Impression
Junior users, (versions 1.14 and later), will be especially interested
as previously they have not had a table facility at all.
6.8
The application is based on rulers rather than styles as styles cannot
be altered in Impression Junior. Although this does impose a certain
amount of restraint on Impression II users, it is the only way that the
one application can serve both. This, and the cell boundary restriction
mentioned above, are more than compensated for by the ease with which
all other table-making functions are carried out.
6.8
The software has been well tested, with no obvious bugs, and comes from
a well-established software writer, George Buchanan. He has listened to
users of the application in different specialist areas, including
education and the desktop publishing field and has managed to
incorporate their requirements in an application that is extremely
versatile. Some compromises have inevitably had to be made to encompass
both Impression II and Impression Junior users, but both should be more
than satisfied with the facilities offered.
6.8
Price
6.8
TableMate is available from Dalriada Data Technology for ú21 (no VAT
chargeable) in single units. Site licences are available for schools and
other organisations.ááA
6.8

6.8
    General Election Results
6.8
    Year    Tory    Labour    Lib.Dem.
6.8
    1983    46.0%    27.0%    25.0%
6.8
    1987    42.3%    32.0%    22.0%
6.8
    1992    43.0%    36.5%    18.5%
6.8

6.8
Food for Thought
6.8
Peter Thomson
6.8
Food for Thought is a nicely presented package of clipart and two fonts
from Sherston Software and costs ú16.95 +VAT.
6.8
The clipart is almost all based on a food theme, with files of kitchen
equipment and food. These are split into bakery, dairy, fish, poultry,
meat, vegetables and fruit. There are over 120 objects in total.
6.8
I was slightly disappointed that a package of four discs did not contain
a bigger selection of clipart. Instead, the same drawings are repeated
three times: as coloured objects, as grey shaded objects and as black
and white objects. There is an advantage to this approach, in that the
grey shaded and black and white objects print well in black and white
but the colour has more appeal to children using the clipart.
6.8
High quality
6.8
The drawings are mostly of high quality with a lot of care taken in
their construction. This is well illustrated by part of a bunch of
grapes and a microwave cooker.
6.8
Out of perspective
6.8
The perspective of many of the objects could have been improved (see
below) so that they would fit together in a scene. The variation here
detracts from an otherwise very useful selection.
6.8

6.8
Fonts included
6.8
The two fonts included with this package are called Lamont and
Montclair. Both will be useful additions to my font library.
6.8

6.8

6.8
Tutorial
6.8
The guide book is well presented, mostly covering the use of the program
Draw and illustrating most, but not all, of the clipart. Disc 4 is
labelled as a tutorial disc and groups together copies of those files
that are used as examples by four A5-sized work cards. I particularly
liked the teddy bearsæ picnic although I looked in vain for a jar of
honey to add to the scene.
6.8
Other scenes included on the disc are a kitchen, which hides a dining
room behind the far wall, and two settings for a dining table.
6.8
Conclusion
6.8
I will make a lot of use of this package to illustrate a series of food-
related worksheets. It has also helped in the design of my Christmas
party invitations. I have no doubt that this clipart will appear in many
of the childrenæs work and will save us all a lot of time.
6.8
It is good value for money.ááA
6.8
SmArt Ö Fantasy & Egypt
6.8
Ian OæHara
6.8
For those of you who havenæt, as yet, come across SmArt or read my
previous reviews, it is described by 4Mation as a linked graphics
system. In simple terms, it is a program which allows you to make
changes to a picture in order to produce new ones. The pictures can then
be saved as drawfiles.
6.8
In addition to the files which come with the program, there are discs on
particular topics. Fantasy and Egypt are two of the newest members of
this growing range of topic discs.
6.8
Fantasy contains eight files based around the theme of öDungeons and
Dragonsò type fantasy. The files consist of three types of goblin, a
wizard, elf dragon and two weird beasts. The goblins you will probably
recognise from the early SmArt adverts that appeared in the press. They
are fun and range from one that looks like a pirate to others in armour
and wellington boots. Unfortunately, the other files left me rather
disappointed. All one could change about the dragon was its head and
tail. No chance to have it curled up on a hoard of treasure or flying
through the night.
6.8
One problem with this disc is that the topic is very broad and the disc
small. I personally would rather have seen a smaller number of files but
with more choice in each file. The beasts could have done with the
alienæs treatment, ie just two files on the disc, but with a very wide
choice of different aliens. The pictures themselves are of a very high
standard Ö the dragon is shaded rather than a flat colour.
6.8
The Egypt disc is directly targeted at National Curriculum Key Stage 2
History. There is one very large file (780Kb) on the disc divided into
five sections; Ancient Egypt, Buildings, Hieroglyphs, Object and Tomb.
The Ancient Egypt file, unfortunately, is just the title screen and so
is not really a useful section. The buildings include the pyramids,
sphinx and a couple of temples. I think that potentially the most
interesting thing in this section is the pillar. This comes in a number
of styles and can be saved out as a drawfile. Load this into Draw or
Vector and you can make up your own temples and other buildings. The
Objects are just various objects from ancient Egypt such as a Scarab, a
bust of Nefertiti and the mask of Tutankhamen. Apart from adding
information, the objects cannot be changed. This section acts rather
like a bank of clipart for pupils to use.
6.8
Now enter the tomb if you dare and manage to survive the curse. The
walls are covered with pictures of the various gods. Initially, all the
pictures are of Anubis but this is easily changed and one gets a choice
of Isis, Osiris and Horus. Each god or goddess can be customised. You
can even have a real live mummy on the wall, complete with curlers,
beater and ciggie. (The author has a fine sense of humour.) Also inside
the tomb are various objects such as a chair and a sarcophagus. The tomb
does offer quite a lot of scope for customisation.
6.8
The last section, hieroglyphs, I can imagine children really enjoying.
You are presented with a stone tablet onto which you can place 32
different hieroglyphs. Writing messages in hieroglyphics is great fun. I
have found one problem with this though Ö the colours chosen (light and
dark sand) do not give much contrast when printed. Even getting rid of
the stone background does not improve matters much. To give the
impression that the hieroglyphs are carved, 4Mation have superimposed
the light sand image over the top of a dark brown one. The only way I
managed a decent printout was by saving the picture into Draw or Vector
and getting rid of the lighter image. I would have thought this a little
complex for the average primary school teacher to cope with Ö and that
is who the disc appears to be aimed at. It might have been better to
forgo the nice effect on the screen to get a good printout.
6.8
There are discs of Egyptian clip art about, but the one main advantage
that smArt has is that each child can modify the basic picture and
produce their own unique picture. I would certainly recommend that any
teacher who has to cover this topic has a close look at the SmArt Egypt
disc.
6.8
(SmArt files are ú18 each through Archive and you need the SmArt Filer,
which costs ú59 through Archive, to enable you to use them.)ááA
6.8
SmArt Modern Languages Pack
6.8
Alex Thomas
6.8
This is a review by a Modern Languages teacher with basic IT skills!
6.8
The pack contains a number of examples of SmArt files in different
languages, most of which are used in the normal way. The menus show all
items in the target language although, for some reason, the main
headings in the first menu e.g. öObjectsò are in English, while the
subsequent sub-menus are in the appropriate language.
6.8
The öMealsò software allows the user to set a meal at a table. The menu
items are in the appropriate language (French, German, Greek, Hebrew,
Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or Turkish) and the foods used vary
according to the chosen language. The öLabelsò software has the same
format and content but the menu items are in English. The meal and table
can then be labelled in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or
Spanish. Thus, by combining the two pieces of software, it is possible
to produce a picture of a meal and table in any of the above languages
and then label it. Blank labels can be attached to each object so that
the pupils can then write in the vocabulary.
6.8
The other pieces of software I had at my disposal were actually more
interesting and useful. These were entitled öLeisureò, öFacesò and
öHomesò and were available in French and German. All the items on each
disc are listed in the appropriate language (see contents lists below).
On opening each file, a given picture appears on the screen, e.g. if you
load the German öLeisureò disc and click on öAnsichtenò, you get a
picture of a view with sky, hills, foreground, etc.
6.8
There are then two methods for working on this picture. Either you can
bring up the main menu and select öObjectsò (A) which in turn produces
an extensive sub-menu (B) from which one specific item can be selected
producing a final more specific sub-menu (C). This method is most useful
for the Modern Languages teacher preparing tasks based on this software,
as it presents the entire list of vocabulary available for any one file.
However, it is rather too detailed for many language learners and often
presents too much new vocabulary at a time.
6.8

6.8
The alternative method of working on the initial picture is perhaps more
appropriate for the students to use, particularly if they are at an
early stage in their language acquisition. By clicking over a particular
section of a picture, the small sub-menu for that section is displayed,
e.g. if you click over the hair öHaareò of the picture produced on the
öFacesò file, you get a sub-menu which lets you choose hair-colour,
type, style, etc. Students have some chance of actually acquiring the
small number of words used to describe hair, whereas there is no way
they can acquire all the possible words for all the categories listed on
the main sub-menu (B) and the specific sub-menu (C).
6.8

6.8
Using SmArt files in modern language teaching
6.8
As a teacher of German and French in a state comprehensive school, I am
always looking for attractive and interesting materials for pupils of
all abilities. These discs certainly satisfy that requirement. The
pictures are attractive and colourful, the software is easy to use and
accessible to all students, whatever the level. The pictures produced
provide instant pleasure and the language is not a barrier to success in
creating new pictures Ö I tried the öMealsò package in Turkish and could
create the desired meal and table setting without knowing or
understanding one word of the menus Ö simply by trial and error. In
terms of language acquired, this possibility is definitely a
disadvantage, as it means that we, as teachers, have to create tasks
which cannot be completed by trial and error without any record of what
the student did to complete it.
6.8
However, there are many language activities which can be devised in
conjunction with these files, such as simply öfind the French / German
forò worksheets, a written description which the student has to read and
then reproduce as picture (e.g. er hat braune Haare, etc), a print-out
of a picture created by the teacher or another student which has to be
reproduced, leading to a written description, two different pictures
produced by two students, which they can then compare (seine Haare sind
lΣnger, etc) or asks questions about (Hat er lange Haare? etc) or, once
the students are very familiar with the vocabulary in a file, they can
write a description for which another student then has to produce the
matching picture.
6.8
It is possible to use these programs to practice a particular language
structure or point of grammar. Obvious ones are adjective endings (often
used in the menus), prepositions plus the dative (German), perfect
tense, comparatives, superlatives, question forms, imperatives and
pronouns. Some areas of vocabulary are repeated frequently, so they
should be well-known, e.g. clothes, colours, parts of the body,
household objects, etc. Some files are not what they seem! On the
öLeisureò discs, the file entitled öAuf Urlaubò / öEn Vacancesò, which
you might expect to be a holiday scene of some kind, is actually a
picture of a boy wearing holiday clothes which can be changed.
6.8
Conclusions
6.8
I can think of many speaking, reading and writing tasks which could be
based on these files, but the major disadvantage, as far as the teacher
is concerned, is the preparation involved. This could be speeded up if
there were a booklet with copies of all the menus and sub-menus, instead
of having to work through them all on the computer to prepare an
activity. Just as language teachers need tape transcripts to prepare
listening activities, so we need software transcripts if we are to be
attracted to the use of IT in the classroom. Language teachers are used
to preparing activities in detail, using a limited area of vocabulary or
a particular language structure, and we need an overview of all the
material so that we can select what we want to use and how, and so that
we can assess what the students produce. Our IT specialist managed to
make print-outs of what was on the screen (attached) for me to use, but
I, along with most language teachers, do not have that level of skill.
An accompanying transcript would enable many more teachers to use these
files, which students really enjoy (even my low ability year 9 set!) and
which have the potential to stimulate a wide range of language learning
tasks and activities.ááA
6.8
Contents
6.8
Leisure:    Views    Homes:    Household
items
6.8
    On holiday        Kitchen
6.8
    Camping        Bedroom
6.8
    Objects        Room
6.8
    Barbecue        At home
6.8
    Boy
6.8
    Small girl    Faces:    Face
6.8
    Older girl        Profile
6.8
    Mother
6.8
    Ships    Meals:    One file for each of
6.8
    Swimming pool        eight
languages
6.8
    Beach        (listed in para 2)
6.8
Splosh
6.8
Bob and Lisa Ames
6.8
Splosh is an art package for younger users of the Archimedes computer.
This review of Splosh Version 1.07 (20 Nov 1992) was carried out on a
4Mb A3000 (RISCáOS 2) with SCSI hard disc, CD ROM drive and CM8833
monitor. The compatibility was also checked with a similar system, but
with an AOC multisync monitor. We werenæt able to test it on RISCáOS 3
but, from the presence of a !Scrap file on the disc, we assume that it
is compatible.
6.8
Contents
6.8
The review copy of Splosh came as a program disc with an extra disc of
picture files. Both discs were öon-bodyò printed with the logo and title
Splosh and WECCæs logo Ö I prefer the on-body printing as it avoids all
possibility of labels peeling while in a drive Ö something which has
happened too often in the past, especially with cheaper labels. (I have,
in fact, started to supply discs for student use with small labels which
donæt fold over Ö this helps the labels stay on the discs.) An eleven
page manual with good quality printed cover Ö no doubt partly designed
with Splosh. Simple instructions are given to help installation onto
hard disc Ö and the plea to save student work onto floppies and not to
hard disc is well founded. The effort of cleaning out hard discs is
rarely rewarded because, the moment it is done, the plea comes for that
item öwhich I left by accident on the workstationò Ö now wiped of
course!
6.8
Some example palette files are included. This idea lends itself very
well to colour coordinated designs, for the same palette can then be
used for several items. The Archimedes palette utility is used to change
the colours, so that, for example, sixteen shades of green may be
selected for a tree picture. Picture files are notorious for eating up
disc space, and Splosh files are not much different. However, the size
of files compared to Draw should be carefully monitored Ö my 3.5Kb text
file in Draw translated to 94Kb in Splosh! The average non-text file in
Splosh seems 51Kb long.
6.8
Lisa, just 5 years old, opened the envelope to find the two discs and
manual; along with an introductory letter from WECC with a contact
number. The letter describes the package as being for the young, the new
to Archimedes and for those with special (learning) needs Ö although it
may be used by older people too! Indeed, I found it to be like a cut
down, but colour, Draw; and so very simple to use. In fact, drawfiles
may be loaded into Splosh for colouring, as may other sprite files. Both
are scaled and centered to fit the painting area on loading Ö there is
no manual control.
6.8
Hard disc
6.8
I donæt use the suggested menu system for a hard disc, so a new folder
was called Splosh, inside which I copied all the files from the two
discs. There is no copy protection. (I find this easier than other
approaches Ö it keeps applications and their files together.) At first,
I forgot to include the Jotter font in my Fonts directory Ö the
resulting error message ömissing variableò didnæt help much.
6.8
Features
6.8
Splosh installs on the iconbar and, once open, shows the painting area
with the tools permanently down the right side. (Drawæs tools are
optional, on the left.) There is also a colour palette bar along the
bottom of the picture. Tools are all similar to Draw and consist of a
brush size selector, spray can /brush /roller (for fills), a grid lock
icon, circle, rectangle, rubber banded triangle and straight line tools.
There is also a text selector, (default uses the supplied font, Jotter)
and an Undo tool which, if used twice, Undoes the Undo. The Undo only
Undoes the very last action Ö there is no Edit control, though mistakes
can be covered by painting over with the background colour. Unlike Draw
there is no paper size control, or paper orientation control. The
pictures are always landscape, the shape of the monitor, and so are
printed that way too. Pictures or objects cannot be scaled or magnified.
6.8
Painting is performed with <select> Ö held down for continuous lines,
clicked for dots. However, even mild movements of the mouse renders dots
rather than lines. The brush size selector and the brush tip indicate
the colour in use. The size increments in 24 steps.
6.8
Text is typed in from the keyboard. Before <return> is pressed, it can
be changed in size, moved or the font changed. Text size is selectable
between three presets, or user selected. The size ranges from 10 to 400,
where just two letters fill the page. The grid lock can be changed in
size also. These last two are called advanced features. Other functions
are accessed by use of <menu> over the picture area. Menu entries are
Save, Print, Font selection (Name & Size) & New picture. The way to load
a file seems to be to drag it either to the Splosh icon on the iconbar,
or to the painting area. (If there is existing work, the user is asked
if it should be saved.)
6.8
Lisa then took over, as suggested by a slight change in tone in the
manual, and away she went. I introduced the tools in stages; her first
efforts were concentrated on dotty pictures, then she easily went on to
the use of shapes, drawing thick borders round her earlier work;
concentric frames, different colours giving the effect of depth.
6.8
Printing
6.8
A range of RISCáOS2 printer drivers are supplied; !Printer -DM, -IX, -
LJ, & -PS but notably not -DJ (for Deskjet). However, I used the -LJ
which is nearly DJ, especially for graphics, and the results were as
expected; colours rendered as different (darker) patterns of dots.
6.8
My attempts to cause a clash failed. The program coexisted happily with
Draw, Edit, PipeDream, etc. My office computer with AOC multisync showed
no problems with Splosh, even with mode 16 and monitortypes 1 or 3. I
have many fonts in my directories Ö Splosh had little trouble with such
a large number; the only problem was the time it took to load the fonts
when Font Name menu option was selected, but then I was expecting that Ö
Draw canæt cope at all!
6.8
The future?
6.8
Access to the program is very easy, as it is written in Basic, just 415
lines. Presumably, as Splosh comes from an educational centre, upgrades
will incorporate features at the request of users, but I hope it doesnæt
get too complicated Ö the appeal is in the simplicity. However, I would
like to see a few things: the usual RISCáOS window is not complete Ö all
the right side icons are missing from the painting window Ö size,
scroll, etc. It is not possible to move the painting area window, to see
a directory viewer, or cover the iconbar Ö although the öbackò icon does
work. A copy facility would be nice Ö the manualæs cover was, after all,
produced with such a facility.
6.8
Problems
6.8
The painting area can be closed, and reopened. Only trying to quit from
the iconbar causes the SAVE dialogue box to appear. (The usual short cut
to delete the entire existing file name <ctrl-U> is mentioned.) If you
are saving work and, after deleting the default filename öSploshò, you
insert, say, öLISA1ò and press <return>, you get the usual warning
dialogue box which states öto save drag Icon to directory displayò. If
the OK box is clicked, the default filename reappears! This overwrites
previous files that have the name Splosh without warning which caused us
to lose quite a bit of work. It took us quite some time to spot, because
other programs I have used (e.g. Draw) are rather more helpful and
remember the replacement filename.
6.8
We did spot one serious fault. After showing a painting to Mum by double
clicking on the filename, something Lisa has learned by trial and error,
we found that the new picture option didnæt behave properly. (I had
radically changed the palette Ö I discovered young people generally
prefer bright colours to eight shades of grey.) The colour bar and
palette showed one set of colours, the brush and size icon followed, but
the colour actually painted was totally different (in fact, it followed
the old displayed spriteæs palette). This was quite confusing. However,
I am told by WECC that is a RISCáOS problem. I was also told that the
spotty effect when painting lines at speed will be addressed öin the
next versionò; it seems there are moves afoot to produce a secondary
product, which will have more advanced features, while retaining the
simple version. I consider that very sensible.
6.8
Conclusion
6.8
The price of ú19 +VAT from WECC (including a free site licence) seems
reasonable. I could use it as a simple border-making tool for notices,
and for quick cartoons for a newsletter Ö quite easy to grasp and very
quick and easy to use. That is, if I can get my computer back from
Lisa!ááA
6.8
SoundLab and QuickSnd
6.8
David Shepherdson
6.8
I shall start this comparative review with SoundLab. This is the updated
software for the Oak-Recorder (reviewed in Archive 5.8 p78) and is
available through NCS for ú18. To use it, you do really need to have the
original Oak-Recorder. The new software arrived in a padded envelope on
a single disc with slim-line booklet. Oak have been very nice to us and
allow the user to make a back-up copy and it can also be very easily
installed onto hard disc. The software supplied was version 1.31.
6.8
The microphone plugs into the Printer Port on your Archimedes and will
fit into the back of a dongle. One problem I ended up with was that I
kept forgetting to re-connect my printer so I now use a data transfer
switch unit!
6.8
SoundLab in use
6.8
The basic idea of SoundLab is that it allows you to speak into the
microphone and ösampleò your own voice or other sound effects, such as
your favourite stars from the TV.
6.8
To use SoundLab, simply double-click on the filer icon then click on the
new iconbar icon. This gives you a Sample window in which your samples
are displayed. There is also a toolbox on the left for recording,
playing and zooming in or out for greater detail of the sample. By
default, clicking on the Record toolbox icon starts the recording
immediately, with a two second duration.
6.8
As with the original software, this is recorded at 9,900Hz, although now
this can be altered to any value between 4,000Hz and 10,500Hz. Higher
values mean better quality but also more memory is required to store the
result.
6.8
Problems?
6.8
I have found that there is quite an audible click at the beginning of a
recorded sample. This can sometimes be edited out Ö though not easily.
It is not a result of the data switch because using the old software on
the same sample does not produce such a click. Iæve even taken the
sample with the older software (Oak-Recorder), edited out all blank
areas and saved the result into SoundLab and, lo and behold, the click
returns. However, once converted to a sound module, providing you have
edited out all blank spots, the click is not heard.
6.8
By zooming in, you can see the sample is much more detail, then simply
mark the start of it and listen to your selection. If necessary, delete
this, re-mark the start and continue until the annoying click has been
removed.
6.8
You may also find that the two seconds duration means a blank or even a
hiss at the end of the sample. Again, this can be removed by marking,
listening and deleting the selection. Your sound sample will probably
need some editing regardless of the source.
6.8
Recording options
6.8
You have the option to set the length of time of the recording but
remember that each second of a sample uses around 10Kb of memory. You
can also alter from Instant Recording to Triggered Recording. On the
former, as soon as you click on Record, sampling starts, while with
Triggered Recording, it waits until either you slide the on/off switch
on the microphone or there is a loud noise which causes recording to
start.
6.8
Once you have your sample, to hear it in its entirety, simply click on
Play. Unlike the old software, you can now stop the sample being played
by clicking on the Stop toolbox icon. You can alter the playback rate in
a similar way to the recording rate. By following the menu to playback,
you can change the Hz rate. Basically, if you playback at a higher rate
than it was recorded at, the sample will be played faster and at a
higher pitch, while if it is lower, the resulting sample will be slower
and deeper.
6.8
Loading and saving
6.8
Previously, you had to save samples in Armadeus format but you now have
the option to save your sample as a standard Voice Module. Loading is
also different now Ö by double-clicking on an existing Armadeus sample,
it loads it into SoundLab. However, if you were to drag it into the
Sample window, the new sample would be merged with the existing sample
at the point where a special target cursor is placed. In this way, you
can add one, or more, samples to an existing one.  The target cursor is
also used to copy or move selected parts of your sample.
6.8
Apart from the much needed öSave as Moduleò option, another new part of
the software is the Real Time Display. You can choose to display either
or both of two graphical displays as your sample is played. One shows
the amplitude and the other is a spectrum analyser.
6.8
Rather than record your voice, you can opt for an oscilloscope display
or even a VoicePrint display. In my earlier review of Oak-Recorder, I
did mention a couple of points where I felt Oak could have been a little
more helpful. I am very pleased to see that, with SoundLab, my comments
have been noted and thereæs a couple of pages on how to play an Armadeus
file sample from disc or RAM as well as the Voice Module creation.
6.8
As a point of interest, you are not actually restricted to your own
samples. If you have Armadeus or get a disc of (PD) Armadeus samples,
you can also load these and play around with them or make Voice Modules
for use in your own programs, etc. Because of the way SoundLab plays the
samples, the Tuning setting of your computer makes no difference,
although it will once it is converted to a Module. So you may need to
reset your Tuning, if it has been altered, either by yourself or by a
program.
6.8
QuickSnd
6.8
The other item I looked at was QuickSnd from Desktop Projects (ú10 plus
VAT) Ö it is advertised as the perfect companion for Oak-Recorder. The
copy I have is Version 1.00 and I bought this as soon as it was
released. The idea behind this piece of software is to allow you to
load, play, convert and resave sound samples from Armadeus or the Oak-
Recorder as Voice Modules. However, it does much more than that.
6.8
Again, the disc may be backed-up or installed on a hard disc. The manual
is a text file on the disc and there are also a number of pre-recorded
Armadeus samples on the disc.
6.8
Loading and saving options
6.8
Unlike SoundLab, QuickSnd also allows you to load öSound Synthò, Tracker
and Raw Data files. You may save as Armadeus, Tracker, Module, Utility
or as Raw Data.
6.8
The Tracker sample needs to be a sample, not a Tracker Tune.
6.8
The Module is saved as a normal Voice Module, just as in SoundLab. I
used the same sample in both SoundLab and QuickSnd and the resulting
Module was very similar in size.
6.8
The Utility option is claimed to be unique to QuickSnd. Saving in this
format allows it to be run as if it were an OS command from disc.
6.8
The explanation in the manual for Raw Data is that it is useful for
exporting samples to other computers. This may be so but it is also
ideal for acting on or creating samples for use in the Playfields
Coconizer.
6.8
QuickSnd in use
6.8
To use QuickSnd, load it into your computer, then drag an Armadeus
sample, (or Tracker/Sound Synth/Raw Data) which causes a small window to
open. This shows a vu-image display. To play it, click <select> over the
window. To stop the sample, click <adjust> over the window. Unlike
SoundLab, if the Tuning on your computer has been altered, you may find
the playback unintelligible. If so, press <f12> and type *TUNINGá0 and
press <return> twice, then try again. Having this problem on my own
computer I have made the necessary amendments to my copy and have
informed the author of this possible problem and he has already been in
touch to say that he agrees and hopefully it will be corrected in future
copies. Having said that, it is unlikely that you will need to alter the
tuning anyway, itæs only awkward souls like me who do such things!
6.8
If you are trying to listen to a Data sample, such as one from
Coconizer, it will probably sound awful! If so, click <adjust> to stop
it, then click <menu>, go down the menu to Convert and select Log to Lin
which converts the sample to ölinear signedò as needed by QuickSnd.
(Donæt forget to convert it back with Lin to Log before re-saving it for
use by Coconizer.) The speed of such conversions is very impressive.
6.8
Apart from the extra types of samples that QuickSnd can cope with, both
loading and saving, the other big way in which it scores over SoundLab
is in the effects sub-menu.
6.8
Special effects
6.8
In addition to being able to alter the replay rates, in a similar way to
SoundLab, you can reverse the sample, instantly. If you reverse it by
accident, just reverse it back again Ö itæs as quick as that. By
altering the replay rate, you may speed up or slow down the sample,
while by re-sampling the sample (without a microphone), you can alter
the size of the sample without changing its speed.
6.8
The effect I enjoyed most was the Echo option. By clicking on Echo and
clicking on the radio buttons, you can select how much or how little
echo is added to your sample. Once Echo has been added, you may also
find that the playback volume is reduced slightly. However, if you use
the MaxVol effect, the program will, if possible, boost the volume up a
bit.
6.8
There is also a VIDC option which, when ticked, is supposed to allow
samples to run at the correct speed on a VIDC enhancer machine. Not
having a VIDC enhancer myself, I cannot comment on that but by ticking
the VIDC option, I did find that the sample ran a lot slower!
6.8
Keyboard option
6.8
All the above applies to Version 1.00 of QuickSnd but Paul has just sent
me Version 1.01 which seems to be the same apart from a new option on
the vu-level windowæs menu Ö öKeyboardò.  Clicking on Keyboard brings up
a new window with the representation of a piano keyboard showing note
letters against the keys. When you click over a key, white or black, it
plays your sample. The further left on the keyboard, the slower and
deeper the sample sounds, the further right, the faster and sillier it
sounds!
6.8
There is also an Auto Key option which is supposed to play the sample at
the keyboard just by moving the mouse pointer over the keys without
clicking. Somehow, I managed to confuse the program at one point and
reverse this action. Mind you, it was only the once and I did have both
Draw and DrawPlus running at the same time.
6.8
How do they compare?
6.8
Iæve created voice modules from both, using the same sample, and the
results are quite similar in size. The difference, I believe, is due to
the different length of the messages put in by the different software.
6.8
Overall, if youæve got the Oak-Recorder and you want the facility to
create Voice Modules, then QuickSnd is the best. When you add in the
effects that QuickSnd offers and the option to create Utilities, to
alter Coconizer sounds, and Trackers too, the balance goes in QuickSndæs
favour Ö also, QuickSnd is about half the price of SoundLab!
6.8
However, if you want to be able to merge samples, or you want to have
options such as Oscilloscopes and Voice Prints, upgrade to SoundLab. For
the best of both worlds, get them both! The speed and extra effects that
come with QuickSnd are excellent not to mention the extra formats it can
deal with and, at under ú12, itæs a bargain!ááA
6.8
DrawBook Ö Budget DTP Utility
6.8
Peter Jennings
6.8
The purpose of Emerald Publishingæs DrawBook (v1.04) is succinctly
summarised in the first paragraph of its 15-page User Guide. It says:
öDrawBook enables you to use Draw as a simple desktop publishing
package. It makes it possible to add header and footer text, including
page numbers, to a group of pages created with Draw and print them in
sequence. You can also use DrawBook to print a batch of Draw files one
after the other without needing to send each one to the printer
separately.ò
6.8
This is not a program which pushes back the frontiers of computing and
enables you to use your machine for some new purpose. It was developed
specifically to help schools using Draw for simple desk top publishing
and its purpose is to automate processes that can already be done
manually.
6.8
DrawBook, which comes on a single unprotected disc, costs ú15 +VAT (or
ú16 from Archive). Site licences are free to schools but they must
register with Emerald Publishing to help prevent illegal use. With the
program there is a six-page sample file, called Egypt, which has text
and pictures about hieroglyphics, and a tutorial text file.
6.8
Designed in Draw
6.8
The pages for your öbookò (which can, of course, be a magazine or any
other publication) have to be designed in Draw as separate files. These
can, as usual, include other drawfiles, sprites and text. They are then
dragged into a DrawBook window where headers and footers can be set and
made to generate running page numbers if required. The headers and
footers can be positioned at the left, right or centre of a page at a
chosen distance from the top or bottom.
6.8
Earlier versions of DrawBook suffered from not having a way of showing
the position of the headers and footers in relation to the other text or
illustrations before the page was printed and they could too easily be
accidentally superimposed. The current version has solved this problem
by adding a preview option.
6.8
The pages are printed out in the order they appear in the DrawBook
window but they can be rearranged and pages can also be deleted, copied
within the book or exported. A page copied inside a book window keeps
its original file name and produces the odd sight of two or more
identical icons with identical names in the same directory. If you
already have a version of DrawBook earlier than 1.06 it is well worth
exchanging it for an upgrade with the preview facility. This will cost
only ú1.50 from Emerald Publishing, to cover post and packing, and the
return of your old disc. Existing DrawBook files made with the earlier
versions need to be converted for use with the upgrade and a program to
do this is now supplied on the disc.
6.8
Easy to use
6.8
DrawBook is a modest little program, deliberately limited to adding
headers and footers, with page numbers, and batch printing of files.
Emerald Publishing say they do not want to complicate it with further
features as they believe a main advantage is that it is easy to use and
performs a simple, but necessary, function.
6.8
It can be useful within the intended educational field and anyone else
with an occasional multi-paged illustrated document to produce could
also find it a time-saver and cheaper than buying a DTP program.
Otherwise, I feel that its facilities are too limited and not innovative
enough to be of general use. If there are only a few pages to compile,
it does not take much longer to add the headers and footers and drag the
files to the printer individually.ááA
6.8
CSV to Text
6.8
Jochen Konietzko
6.8
Architype Software have produced a neat little utility for, as the name
suggests, the conversion of CSV (Comma Separated Value) files to Edit
files.
6.8
The output can be extensively configured, as you can see in the
Configuration Window and the Main Window.
6.8
There are two restrictions:
6.8
Å    The maximum number of fields that CSVtoText can accept is 50. Files
with more than 50 fields have to be edited before being imported into
CSVtoText.
6.8
Å    The program always puts each field into a different line. It is not
possible to convert a CSV table into a tabulated table.
6.8
On the whole, the program works very well although the error messages
could be somewhat more informative. For example, the separator between
fields with numbers is öCommaò and between fields with text is öinverted
commas, comma, inverted commasò. If a field itself contains inverted
commas, this makes trouble for any converter. CSVtoTextæs reaction is
the error message öEnd of file (internal error code 10790)ò and the file
is saved as Data instead of as Text.
6.8
Other than that, I have no complaints.
6.8
CSVtoText is produced by Architype Software and costs ú5 for home users
and primary schools (ú3 each for 10 or more copies) and ú9 (ú6 at 10+)
for business, secondary schools and higher education.
6.8
This report is based on version 1.01, 14-Jun-92.ááA
6.8
WindowEd
6.8
Thomas Down
6.8
This is a review of WindowEd, a new RISC-OS window template editor
costing ú35 from Armen Software (ú32 through Archive). I have tested
version 1.13 (dated 8th September 1992) on an A440/1 with RISC-OS 3.1,
but it should work on any RISC-OS computer. It is, primarily, a
replacement for Acornæs FormEd program (supplied with Acornæs Desktop C
and also available in the public domain, e.g. Shareware 20) but it
provides considerably improved functionality.
6.8
A brief history of templates
6.8
As anyone who has ever tried writing even the simplest of WIMP programs
will know, the blocks of data which control the creation of windows and
icons are extremely complex. Luckily, Acorn realised this early on in
the development of RISC-OS, and provided a simple (by WIMP standards!)
method of loading window definitions from disc. It is these definitions
Ö known as template files Ö which WindowEd is designed to create and
edit.
6.8
What you get
6.8
WindowEd is supplied, along with several utilities, on a single disc.
Also supplied are two manuals, one for the utilities and one for
WindowEd itself. Both manuals seem to be produced with Impression and
are generally of a good standard. Unfortunately, the staples used for
binding the main manual are only just big enough, so it must be handled
with some care.
6.8
There are four utilities Ö a dustbin, a magnifier, a desktop star
command utility and a program to lock the mouse pointer to move only
horizontally or vertically. None of these is a particularly new idea,
but they all seem well implemented. Two of them Ö Hotspot and Mouselock
Öácould be useful in aligning icons in your templates.
6.8
In use
6.8
When loaded, WindowEd briefly displays a copyright message, then
installs its icon on the iconbar. Unlike FormEd, WindowEd can cope with
several different files simultaneously. This is useful if you want to
reuse a single window from an old template file. The content of each
loaded file is displayed in a filer-like window, with an icon for each
window definition within the file, in much the same way as Paint. Window
definitions can be created in two ways. Firstly, a blank window can be
created, looking much the same as Editæs text window. Alternatively, any
window currently displayed on the screen can be Égrabbedæ, complete with
all the icons within it. Either way, the window must be given a name
which is used when your program wishes to access the templates.
6.8
Editing
6.8
To edit a window, you double-click on its icon in the Édirectory-
vieweræ. The window then appears on screen, exactly as it will be when
displayed in normal use, except that non-icon graphics (i.e. anything
that is drawn by the program itself) are replaced by a cross-hatching
pattern.
6.8
Up to this point, WindowEd is much the same as FormEd. However, as soon
as any editing is attempted, the main differences become obvious. Gone
are the long and cryptic editing menus that characterised FormEd. They
have been replaced by new dialog boxes. At first, these look complicated
but each option is well labelled and there is more detailed information
about the function of each option in the manual.
6.8
Having used the program for some time, my only quibble about these boxes
is that it can be quite hard to find the option you need. I feel that
Armen Software should consider an alternative approach to structuring
them Ö perhaps involving a number of separate dialog boxes editing
different aspects of window and icon behaviour.
6.8
Also, it would be useful to be able to apply changes to a group of
icons, instead of having to alter each individually. Fortunately, this
is not a major problem, since it is easy to make copies of existing
icons.
6.8
While using the program, I have found only one bug: when using the
colour picker, clicking on any of the buttons which should close it (OK,
Cancel or the window close box), produces a (non-fatal) error. Although
this does not make the program unuseable (since colours can be set in
another way), it is irritating and I would like to see it fixed in the
next version.
6.8
Tools in the box
6.8
An extremely useful feature of WindowEd is the toolbox, designed to
allow scrolling and resizing of templates which have had their scroll
bars edited out. However, the various tools can be applied to any
window, irrespective of its owner. This ought to be supplied as a
separate utility.
6.8
The main program also includes a useful sprite viewer. This is extremely
helpful if you need to check the names of sprites before inserting them
in your templates.
6.8
Interfacing
6.8
WindowEd uses 3D icons throughout and provides the option for your own
programs to use them too, via Simon Huntingdonæs Interface module. The
module is supplied but, unfortunately, no documentation is included.
Although this is available through public domain libraries, many people
have not got it, so I would like to see a copy supplied. Better still,
the border type could be set graphically from the Éedit iconæ dialog
box, removing the need to type complex text strings for each of the
icons which needs the borders.
6.8
Conclusions
6.8
For beginners, WindowEdæs self-explanatory editing dialog boxes are a
huge improvement on FormEdæs menus. To make it even easier to get
started, the manual contains an excellent tutorial explaining how to
create a simple set of templates. The manual also refers to an example
application with which to test the templates you produced in the
tutorial. Unfortunately, this was not supplied on the review disc. I
have contacted the programæs author but, so far, have not received a
reply.
6.8
More experienced users will appreciate the numerous extensions provided,
as well as the generally more friendly and consistent approach of
Armenæs offering.
6.8
This is an extremely useful package that will make the development of
windowed front-ends far easier. It definitely ranks alongside DeskEdit 2
as a vital tool for the serious programmer.ááA
6.8
Have Pocket Book, Will Travel
6.8
Trevor Sutton
6.8
I always felt that to have a small computer which could up and download
programs would be exciting and perhaps even useful.
6.8
The Z88 proved to be far too cumbersome and the keys had that rubbery
feel which failed to inspire confidence. The Acorn Pocket Book seemed to
be an attractive solution.
6.8
I realise, of course, that it will never run ArtWorks or Impression and
any thought of Revelations or Rhapsodies are quite out of the question.
No Lemmings here I might add, though, perhaps there is a chance of
chess. (A chance of chess??!!)
6.8
I was, however, charmed by the prospect of writing to something smaller
(yes, smaller) than my diary and then passing it to my main computer for
printing or whatever. Well, it didnæt quite work out like that so, all
you eager beavers who bought early A5000s, beware Ö it might not happen!
My serial port was not happy with the A-Link and the machines failed to
communicate. I found this frustrating, as you might imagine, and so off
went my A5000 for a fix! Meanwhile, back at the Pocket Book I was
becoming more and more (and more) impressed.
6.8
Abacus, the spreadsheet, is very powerful and conversions between it and
PipeDream have been made. (I borrowed an A3020 to make the A-Link
connection.) The word processor does its job economically and, after a
suggestion from our local Acorn dealer, I created a 2-year diary (via
Abacus) which takes just 14Kb. Into Cards, the database, I managed to
export a file containing all the birds of the Western Palearctic.
öWhere?ò, I hear you call! Never mind about that, it does constitute
over 800 records. The file takes 38Kb of memory. I then needed an
address book and so another 12Kb was taken for my 90 card address
database.
6.8
Just then, frustration set in Ö the A3020 had to go back to its owner!
So what should I do? No ArtWorks, no Impression! I went back to my
dealer, only to be convinced by Paul Scott of Resource Facilities that
what I really needed was the OPL Programming Language for the Pocket
Book. (This is now available from NCS for ú65.) I realised that evening,
that Shareware for the Pocket Book was indeed possible. For, after
playing with some of the Basic-like language of OPL, I thought to myself
that it would be relatively easy to write useful applications in Edit.
These could be downloaded via the A-Link to Write on the Pocket Book and
thence transferred using the Pocket Bookæs Bring command into the OPL
editor. This can then be translated and subsequently run. It works! I
did it after borrowing the A3020 again.
6.8
This suggests that OPL programs could be written in Edit, then easily
saved and shared as text files. These can then be downloaded via the A-
Link as described above.
6.8
The potential for Archimedes/A-Link/OPL/Pocket Book shareware is,
therefore, very great.
6.8
So, come on, write me a diary or a game or a sophisticated vector
graphic program. (Well, it is April the first, as I write, and I am
suffering from ArtWorks withdrawal symptoms!)ááA
6.8
!Help3 Ö Guide to RISCáOS 3
6.8
Peter Jennings
6.8
Those of us who worked our way up from the BBC B and the Master found it
quite a leap when we reached the Archimedes and were faced with the
intricacies of RISCáOS. For anyone coming into computing with the new
range of Acorns, RISCáOS 3 must seem rather bewildering. To help them,
Sherston Software have published !Help3, a 100-page book by David
Eccles, aimed at guiding the newcomer through the öjargon and mysteryò
in easy steps.
6.8
The book, which is a stapled paperback with a glossy cover, comes in a
soft plastic folder accompanied by a quick reference card and a disc and
is priced at ú9.95, with no VAT payable (ú9 through Archive).
6.8
The reference card has a labelled illustration of a directory viewer, a
mouse, a filer menu and its display options and some of the main RISCáOS
icons. The disc is for use in working the exercises in the book and
contains copies of some of the Acorn RISCáOS 3 resources plus a few
Sherston drawfiles and sprites.
6.8
Easy-paced
6.8
The book, sub-titled öAn introduction to the Archimedes range of
computers and RISCáOS 3ò, is written as an easy-paced tutorial, assuming
no prior knowledge and just enough ability to have plugged the various
components of the computer together. After the introduction, it starts
with instructions for switching on Ö a reassuring beginning that nothing
is being taken for granted.
6.8
The first illustration in the book shows how the screen should look
after powering-up and there is also advice on what to do if this has not
been achieved. Then comes two pages of explanation about the mouse,
followed by two pages on the keyboard, all suitably illustrated. Discs
and formatting get ten pages of detailed explanation to complete a
thorough grounding before the reader is finally introduced to the WIMP.
6.8
This lengthy and detailed introduction to the computer, sets the style
for the whole book. Everything is clearly explained in simple terms and
well illustrated on almost every page. The easy pace led me to think, at
first, that some of the information was being skimped. But it was soon
clear that it was being spread out, for easier assimilation, rather than
omitted. For instance, the first time a writable icon was introduced,
the instruction was to change the default name by first using <delete>.
There was no mention of the quicker <ctrl-U> method for clearing the
default wording but this was then explained a couple of pages later when
dealing with the next writable icon.
6.8
Extra detail
6.8
Throughout the book, there are numerous examples of where a little extra
detail is added to help the beginner on his or her way. For instance, an
explanation of screen modes ends with a note that some applications
which provide a printout, may use a mode which gives a poor screen
display. This, it explains, is to save memory which can then be used for
the printing process and it reassures that the appearance of the work on
screen will not affect the quality of the printout.
6.8
This is then followed by seven pages about fonts, with illustrations of
them, and nine more on printing. The book concludes with a chapter on
the purpose and use of the supplied applications.
6.8
This is by no means a full list of the subjects covered but all are
given similar, clear and detailed, treatment.
6.8
Anyone who has been confidently using RISCáOS 2 will not need this book
to upgrade to RISCáOS 3 as its intention is to simplify rather than add
to the massive documentation already supplied by Acorn. This it does
very well, to provide a clear and comprehensive introduction to Acorn
computing. If you have any doubts about using an Acorn RISCáOS computer
(other than programming it) !Help3 should solve your problems and will
be a tenner very well spent.ááA
6.8
Noot
6.8
Richard Rymarz
6.8
Noot is the latest program from 4Mation catering for all ages. !Noot
itself is meant for younger children and !Nootpad is intended for older
students and adults. Together, they form a suit of programs to produce
and run animations.
6.8
The package
6.8
Noot costs ú45 +VAT (ú48 through Archive) and is presented in a rather
flimsy plastic wallet in which there are six discs. Disc 1 contains the
!Noot and !Nootpad applications and some Tracker music files. The other
five discs contain a selection of interesting, ready-made Noot files.
Disc 1 has to be initialised and can be copied to hard disc but, as is
increasingly common with many programs today, it has to be present each
time the applications are started. This is contrary to most other
4Mation products where a site licence is included in the cost. Noot
licences cost ú45 but extra master discs can be bought for ú10 each. For
another ú10, there is a Noot art disc containing 120 compressed
drawfiles of pictures from the packaged Noot files.
6.8
There is a well-produced manual containing simple instructions to run
Noot files, a Tutorial explaining how to use Nootpad, a section on
creating static and animated pictures, a reference section and two
appendices. Finally, there are two booklets accompanying the Noot files:
ÉPoweræ and ÉIt works like thisæ. All in all, the documentation is very
comprehensive.
6.8
!Noot
6.8
Having followed the instructions carefully, I loaded !Noot, happily
discovered that it was a fully RISC-OS compatible, and double clicked on
the file on Disc 5 called Playroom (I am a primary school teacher). I
was greeted by some chirpy music and a picture of (guess what?) a
playroom. Ten toys lay scattered on the floor each with a blank box
beneath it with an arrow pointing to the right. Clicking on the arrow
resulted in some instructions appearing in the blank box: What could I
see? I entered Éteddyæ and pressed <return>. The scene changed and Teddy
sprang to life running in and out of his cave winking happily. The box
also accepted Éteddy bearæ, Ébrown bearæ, Ébearæ and even Écuddly toyæ.
(It also accepts ÉYogi Bearæ.) Other toys behaved in their own
delightful ways.
6.8
Clicking <menu> on the picture brought up a window from which the
picture could be saved as a sprite and used in other applications, a
ÉFull Screenæ option and a Remote Control bar. The latter is very useful
since it allows the music to be toned down and even silenced (Yippee!).
It also allows the animation to be stopped and stepped forwards and
backwards, one frame at a time. This is useful for seeing how an
animation works and also allows screen saving of different frames.
6.8
Other interesting files for primary school children include ÉFarmæ where
children discover what animals and machinery are used on a farm and
ÉDweekæ and ÉDweepæ who are cute characters created, I believe, from
4Mationæs ÉSmartoonsæ. These characters move and act in a number of ways
which the children have to discover by entering verbs in the dialogue
box. This is an excellent way to learn about synonyms and antonyms and
reminds me of a very popular program called ÉPoddæ. Anyone who used and
enjoyed Podd will love these cute characters.
6.8
Upper primary and lower secondary school children (Key Stages 2 and 3)
will find the files on ÉPoweræ and ÉHow it worksæ useful as well as
using !Nootpad to create animations themselves.
6.8
!Nootpad
6.8
Having enjoyed the enclosed files, I decided to produce a simple and
attractive animation myself. So, on to !Nootpad and the tutorial.
6.8
The program loads onto the iconbar in the usual way and a new file is
created by clicking <select> on the !Nootpad icon. It is then dragged
into the directory to which the file is to be saved. The first two pages
of the Nootpad open and guess what Ö it looks like an opened note pad
with pages numbered 1 and 2. Page 2 is entitled ÉTitle Pageæ which gives
the option of having a title or not and the amount of time it is to be
displayed. Page 1 displays the contents of the title page which has to
be a drawfile (picture or text) and allows the user to select a tracker
music file and its duration.
6.8
Pages 3 and 4 are always displayed when a word (or words) is to be
entered. A drawfile that may or may not be animated is dropped into the
appropriate box and music can be added. As instructed by the manual, I
dropped a picture of an elephant into the box and entered the
appropriate text. I moved on to the next two pages.
6.8
Pages 5 and 6 allow what the manual terms recognised input Ö words that
will be included in the Noofileæs word list; while pages 7 and 8 require
a sentence that will answer unrecognised input.
6.8
Recognised words and their pictures are displayed on pages 9 and 10. The
drawfile is dropped into the box to match the word and one of two kinds
of movement applied. Further options include the number of times an
animation will move, whether a foreground or background is to be added
and the time between each cycle.
6.8
Further pictures and words can be added on pages 11 and 12, 13 and 14
and so on. Each word list can have up to 12 items so that other words
for Ébusæ such as Éomnibusæ can be used. Associated adjectives can be
included such as Ésmall busæ, Élittle busæ, Éred busæ or even Élittle
red busæ.
6.8
Upon completion, a file can be saved as a source file so that it can be
edited or as a completed Nootfile to be run in !Noot.
6.8
Other features
6.8
More pictures can be added in Draw, Vector or Poster format as long as
the pictures are A5 landscape. This ensures that drawings in the
Nootfile window remain in proportion.
6.8
Other facilities include the ability to alter grammatical accuracies
such as Éaæ and Éanæ, a large section on using ready-drawn or original
pictures for animation and a quick reference section.
6.8
I followed the tutorial and had few problems. I soon had an elephant
nodding its head, waggling its tail and shaking its trunk. However, the
real test was to create a Nootfile myself.
6.8
The real test
6.8
Without reference to the manual, I managed to create a simple file which
was dealt with recognising a parrot. Any drawfile can be used and with
the huge number of drawings available from various sources, there is no
need to be an artist to use !Nootpad. Just use a ready-made drawfile and
off you go. I forgot about the page size restriction but soon rectified
it by dropping the picture into !Draw and re-scaling it. Feeling quite
pleased with myself, I decided to try a piece of animation. Having
already seen ÉDweekæ and ÉDweepæ, I turned my attention in another
direction. Could !Nootpad be used for Éseriousæ purposes?
6.8
Animated graphs
6.8
I wondered whether I could produce some animated graphs which could show
my declining disposable income for 1993. I created some simple graphs
using !PipeDream, edited them so that only the relevant information was
displayed (the manual is quite helpful, giving tips on lining up
drawfiles, Vector files, etc), linked them together and dropped them
into !Nootpad. Before long, I had a series of 3D bar graphs shooting up
and down like some demented sound tracker program playing the Flight of
the Bumble Bee. I managed to slow down the animation remembering that
the delay in the Nootpad is measured in centiseconds. However, it worked
and I felt quite pleased with myself (although my bank balance still did
not look any healthier).
6.8
Conclusions
6.8
Noot is different and, although there are other animation programs using
vector graphics (!Picture It and Tween spring to mind), the ease with
which the user can produce simple or complex animations must make it a
success. I loved the program and shall use it in my school with all age
groups. I am sure that more imaginative and skilled users could extend
its use beyond the classroom.
6.8
Noot is the latest in a long line of excellent draw-oriented packages
from 4Mation. Those familiar with Chameleon, Smart, Poster and Vector
will expect something a little different and Noot will not disappoint
them.ááA
6.8
Gods
6.8
Alison Eagle & Luke Hares
6.8
The object of this game is to guide a Greek öheroò in his quest for
immortality, searching through a lost city for treasure and keys. The
game needs quick reflexes in dodging enemies and throwing weapons at
them, and considerable ingenuity in solving various puzzles such as how
to get past obstacles or which combination of switches you need to throw
in order to open a trap door.
6.8
Alisonæs comments first:
6.8
It is a very exciting game and I found that I could not Éput it downæ
until I had had at least two goes.
6.8
However, I did find that the instructions were not very clear. One
problem is that it can get quite confusing at times and also it would
help if you knew what the mission was.
6.8
I would recommend the game for anyone who could keep calm and not freak
out when surrounded by monsters or whatever they are!
6.8
My friend and I both agreed the sound effects are very good especially
when the hero is killed or when he is killing a monster.
6.8
The music at the beginning is very good and mysterious.
6.8
Now Lukeæs comments:
6.8
There is a lot to be said for Gods. As a platform style arcade
adventure, it is good. The game play is slick and fast and the animation
is excellent. The problems usually consist of taking the right object to
the right place and can often be solved by trial and error. Graphically,
the game is very impressive in the traditional Bitmap Brothersæ colour
scheme of grey and brown. The main sprite is well animated and grunts
satisfactorily when climbing ladders and taking hits. The enemies are
many and diverse with my particular favourites being some of the variety
of fliers.
6.8
On the whole, Gods is a large and satisfying game, so large that even
with the password facility, a lot of time is spent repeating areas that
have already been completed if you should fail to complete a level. The
game gets progressively harder and is soon very challenging. I enjoyed
it and would recommend it to anyone who likes this style of game.
6.8
On the down side, the manual is not very clear on some things and it can
get a bit laborious from time to time.
6.8
For those who are unfamiliar with the Archimedes games scene, Krisalis,
the company which produced Gods, has specialised in converting to
Archimedes format some of the more successful games which were
originally designed for other computers (Amiga, etc). In our experience,
the quality of the Krisalis games has been uniformly very high and we
can highly recommend this one. It costs ú24 from Archive.ááA
6.8
Word Hound
6.8
Jim Wylie
6.8
Word Hound is a desktop dictionary (over 30,000 entries) and thesaurus
(over 33,000 keywords) with over 60,000 indexes and almost 100,000 words
and phrases in total. It connects superbly with many DTP and word
processing packages including Impression, Poster, Edit, First Word Plus
and EasiWord. I currently use version 1.17 running on an A440/1 (RISCáOS
3.10) but have observed it working on A5000s and A540s and it also works
just as effectively with RISCáOS 2.
6.8
The package comes on five discs and can only be operated from a hard
disc as it needs 3.5Mb. (On the desktop, Word Hound works happily with
192Kb of memory.) You can add to the dictionaries, make up your own or
even set the colours for each window to your own specifications.
6.8
Word Hound has been designed to allow two-way communication with other
applications, including using a special software link. This uses the
Impulse II module to connect with Impression where words can be passed
efficiently between two applications using a combination of hot keys.
6.8
In use, Word Hound resides on the iconbar, accesses the user-specified
dictionaries and works within three windows which automatically close
after a word has been transmitted to the host application. The first,
bypassed if using Impression, allows you to type a word to be found in
the search and accepts the use of wildcards and even a Ésounds likeæ if
you canæt spell (like me!). The main selection window now pops up,
giving the option of the wordæs definition or the thesaurus keywords.
Selecting the definition by using the mouse gives you the very detailed
dictionary whereas selecting a keyword brings you to a full page of
possible replacement words or phrases, each in lists of verb, adverb,
etc.
6.8
Once you have made your selection, one mouse click and the word, or
phrase, replaces that chosen in the main document. It could not be
easier.
6.8
I strongly recommend this piece of software, no matter what your skill
with words is.
6.8
How much does all this cost? If you just want to get the discs to try
it, you will have to find someone with a copy or a PD library that
stocks it. (David Holden is offering to supply it Ö see the PD Column
last month Ö Archive 6.7 p32. Ed.)
6.8
It is classed as a piece of Shareware and there is a registration fee of
ú5 (ú10 for a site licence) if you decide you want to use it seriously.
Having paid that money to the author, Ian Palmer, you also get some
extra tools for use with WordHound. If you want to register at the same
time as getting the software, you can send Ian five blank formatted
800Kb discs (or three 1.6Mb discs) with the registration fee, plus ú1 to
cover administration, and he will copy the software for you. i.e. send
Ian the blank discs with either ú6 or ú11.
6.8
Word Hound is available from Ian Palmer, 40 Birch Crescent, Aylesford,
Kent, ME20 7QE.ááA
6.8
Badger Trails
6.8
Hilary Ferns
6.8
This is a fascinating educational pack with an environmental theme. It
consists of a video, a short story book and the computer program, which
can all be used sequentially or as separate entities. There is also a
map and instruction book to accompany the program, with ideas for
further topic work.
6.8
The half hour video shows the discovery of a remote badgersæ sett in a
wood in Gloucestershire. It shows the building of a hide to observe and
film the badgers in their habitat, and is a lovely educational tool in
its own right, providing lots of interesting information about badgers.
There are some lovely shots of the badger family coming out to feed. A
short story book imagines the situation from the badgersæ point of view
and turns it into an adventure to be continued by the children, either
by writing a story or by working through the computer program. One of
the young badgers has been accidentally driven away while asleep in the
back of a horse box and the program allows the children to imagine life
as a young badger, no more than 1 metre long and 40cm high, trying to
find its way home to its sett.
6.8
Two discs are supplied: the main work disc and a protected key disc
which is always needed to start the program running. You can leave the
adventure at any time by pressing <ctrl-Q> and you can save your
position to continue another time. Many of the screens can be printed
out during the adventure using standard RISC-OS printer drivers.
6.8
The program is easy to use; it is one of those programs that you can
just sit down to and get on with. It loads onto the iconbar but, when
running, it takes over the whole screen. The design is of the same high
quality, and very similar to, both Viewpoints and The Crystal Rain
Forest. (All of these are by Simon Hosler.) The top half of the screen
is a birdæs eye view of the countryside, which automatically scrolls as
the little badger scuttles around in response to N, S, E, and W
direction commands. The layout and order of tasks are the same each time
the program runs, but the available foods vary. It is up to you how
often you check your senses for the whereabouts of food, drink or
danger, at which point the screen display changes to show what you can
see, hear, smell, feel and taste. Apart from thinking about how to
survive, the main skill involved in the program is map-reading.
6.8
On your travels, you often see ducks on the water or a couple of rabbits
quickly scurrying past, perhaps with a fox in hot pursuit. To make the
scene even more realistic, the farmer appears with his gun and there is
a barking dog. These things were all fascinating at first, but a little
frustrating subsequently, as the interruptions slowed down the badgeræs
progress. Also quite slow are the times when the badger stops to dig,
eat or drink. However, the badger is remarkably sweet, and you
definitely become determined to help him find home, carefully avoiding
the road and many other dangers. By the end of the adventure, I am sure
children will have thought fairly carefully about how man, encroaching
upon the countryside, can be such a threat to wildlife and about
predator-prey relationships.
6.8
I would be keen to include the whole multimedia pack in topic work to
enhance teaching of parts of the Programme of Study in both Geography
and Science. There is also a lot of language and art which could come
out of such a topic. Generally, it has great potential for use in the
primary classroom at all ages, and I thoroughly recommend it.
6.8
Badger Trails costs ú39.95 +VAT from Sherston Software or ú44 through
Archive. ááA
6.8
Whale Facts
6.8
Richard Rymarz
6.8
ÉWhale Factsæ is a ömulti media, multitasking disc-based encyclopaedia
with artist-drawn pictures and sampled soundsò about cretaceans (whales,
dolphins and porpoises). It contains a booklet explaining how to get the
best out of whatever computer system you have, explanations on how to
use the program including searching, saving and printing information and
how to use the quizzes. There is a set of six A3 worksheets which
contain written information, activities and tasks which could easily be
used at Key Stage 2 and early Key Stage 3 in schools.
6.8
The software is fully multitasking and consists of three discs: disc 1
contains Longman Logotronæs !MagpieRead, system folder, !Sysmerge and a
Primary Font: disc 2 contains Whalefacts; and disc 3 contains the
quizzes. The whole package was produced with the help of ÉFriends of the
Earth, Liverpoolæ, costs ú29.95 +VAT from Topologika (or ú32 through
Archive) and is distributed by Topologika Software.
6.8
Whale Facts
6.8
After clicking on the MagpieRead application, the Whalefact file can be
loaded. A title page opens with a hand-drawn picture and an impressive
digitised sound of a sperm whale. All the pictures are drawn sprites and
are reasonably impressive. Clicking again on an arrow leads to the index
page from which can be chosen a large variety of facts from whale
groups, (there are two main species Ö toothed whales and Baleen whales)
to feeding habits, beaching problems and conservation issues.
Altogether, there are sixteen chapters allowing children to move freely
between them. The Magpie browser is very easy to use.
6.8
Worksheets
6.8
There are six worksheets, the first of which helps to distinguish
between mammals and other groups in the animal kingdom. It offers
information, asks questions, encourages information gathering and gives
ideas for language work. This is particularly helpful for a busy teacher
who could quickly use or adapt them thus providing lots of ideas for
cross-curricular work. Sadly, sheets 2 and 3 were missing from the
review pack; sheet 4 looks at whales in detail; sheet 5 encourages the
children to act like a whale using the senses that are highly developed
in whales and sheet 6 looks at the whaleæs intelligence in detail. They
are all very impressive Ö much thought must have gone into their
preparation.
6.8
Quizzes
6.8
There are three quizzes which add an element of fun to the suite of
programs. The first one is a language recognition quiz where five clues
are given for a particular species and the children are asked to guess
from a choice of three. The second quiz is similar except that it
concerns recognising pictures. The last has seventy questions which are
quite detailed. All in all, they add an extra dimension to the programs
and there is even a separate scoring program which could be used for all
sorts of activities.
6.8
Conclusion
6.8
Whalefacts cannot be used in isolation. It will be highly suitable in
schools as a basis or extra dimension to a topic concerning the
environment, mammals or the animal kingdom. Like most good, theme-based
educational software, work away from the computer is just as important
as the program itself.
6.8
The program is a good way of showing how Magpie can be used to create
useful information files. It uses text, pictures and sound fairly
effectively and should encourage schools who have the full version to
attempt their own folders. Of course, with Magpie, the children could
extend the Whalefacts data bringing it fully up-to-date.
6.8
Providing that children are interested and inspired by an appropriate
topic, Whalefacts will be warmly received by pupils and teachers alike.
On this basis, I would recommend Whalefacts as a useful addition to a
schoolæs software library.
6.8
Finally, Topologika state that 5% of all royalties from the program will
be given to ÉFriends of the Earth, Liverpoolæ to continue their work.ááA
6.8
Micro Studio Ltd    22 Churchgate Street, Soham, Ely, Cambridgeshire.
(0353Ö720433)
6.8
Microvitec Ltd    Bolling Road, Bradford, BD4 7TU. (0274Ö390011)
(0274Ö734944)
6.8
Minerva Systems     Minerva House, Baring Crescent, Exeter, EX1 1TL.
(0392Ö437756) (0392Ö421762)
6.8
New Era Software    204 High Street, Woodville, Swadlincote, Derbyshire,
DE11 7DT. (0283Ö812818)
6.8
Oak Solutions (p18)    Suite 25,
Robin Enterprise Centre, Leeds Road, Idle, Yorkshire BD10 9TE.
(0274Ö620423) (0274Ö620419)
6.8
Primary Education Services    72 Kimberley
Road, Leicester, LE2 1LF. (0533Ö733063)
6.8
RESOURCE     Exeter Road, Doncaster, DN2 4PY. (0302Ö340331)
6.8
Risc Developments     117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727Ö840303) (0727Ö860263)
6.8
Sherlock Rehab Data
    Rehabsenteret, N-1450 Nesoodtangen, Norway. (47Ö09Ö912926)
(47Ö09Ö912045)
6.8
Sherston Software     Swan Barton,
Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH. (0666Ö840433) (0666Ö840048)
6.8
Software 42     109 Ferry Road, Hullbridge, Essex, SS5 6EL.
6.8
Soft Rock Software     FREEPOST
(BS7978), Westbury-on-Trim, Bristol, BS10 7BR.
6.8
Soft Rock Software     124 Marissal
Road, Henbury, Bristol, BS10 7NP. (0272Ö491634)
6.8
Spacetech (p8)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305Ö822753) (0305Ö860483)
6.8
State Machine     75 Upper Wellington Street, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1
5AA. (0582Ö483377) (0582Ö480833)
6.8
Superior Software     P.O. Box 6,
Brigg, S Humberside, DN20 9NH. (0652Ö658585) (0652Ö657807)
6.8
Topologika     P.O. Box 39, Stilton, Peterborough, PE7 3RL. (0733Ö244682)
6.8
WECC     Manor Hall, Sandy Lane, Leamington Spa, CV32 6RD. (0926Ö413741)
(0926Ö413748)
6.8
XOB     Balkeerie, Eassie by Forfar, Angus, DD8 1SR. (0307Ö84364)