Archive Magazine 1995/ARCHIVE95.iso/text/magazine/volume_08/issue_08

Text File | 1995-06-25 | 275KB | 5,573 lines

The book that changed my life
8.8
No, this is not a sneaky infiltration of the God-slot Ö Iæm talking
about Robin Williamsæ Non-Designeræs Design Book. I use DTP a great deal
but, like many people, have never had any training. I read Rob
Pickeringæs book that came with Impression and that taught me a few very
basic things Ö but that was it.
8.8
Robin Williamsæ book has given me some basic design and typography tools
to enable me to start thinking about DTP rather than just doing it. As
you can see, I have changed the layout of Archive somewhat as a result
of reading the book. What do you think of the result? Is it any better?
(See page 25 for more details.)
8.8
NCS Ö still short-handed
8.8
Andrew and Sue are doing a wonderful job having taken over from Vera and
Amanda but I still havenæt been able to replace David. If anyone knows
of a good, keen (young?) person who knows about Acorn computers and can
communicate effectively with human beings(!), please let me know.
Norwich is a fine city and weære a happy team (most of the time!). If
youære interested, send me a CV.
8.8
Special offers policy
8.8
Have you ever wondered about our special offers that are linked in to
reviews? Could the Éreviewsæ be little more than Éadvertorialæ? In the
current moral climate in the UK, you could be forgiven for being
suspicious. However, as some of you may have noticed, we do try to
maintain a high moral standard at NCS. Besides, we have a better plan...
...when we receive a glowing review about a particular product, we
contact the supplier to see if we can arrange a special offer. That way,
thereæs a much higher probability that those who take up the offer will
get a product that is, actually, worth the money. Then, next time we
make a special offer, they will be more likely to trust us and part with
some more of their hard-earned cash.
8.8
This month we have a good price on the new budget DTP package, Textease.
The review (page 43) says it is good value for money anyway. Also, we
have an excellent offer on Datapower Ö ú55 off the r.r.p. and we also
still have one month to run on the Personal Accounts offer. (Update
review on page 61.)
8.8
Thatæs it for now. Happy reading!
8.8
Products Available
8.8
Acorn Replay Starter Kit Ö Not really a new product, but new to Archive
is this package from Acorn. It includes a CD containing sample videos,
stills and examples of multimedia applications, plus AREncode which
allows you to compress your own films or add/change the accompanying
soundtracks. There are also two manuals: the user guide, which has
details of the software supplied, and ÉA Guide to Desktop Multimediaæ
with advice on creating your own multimedia applications, shooting
video, locating material as well as tips on layout and style, etc.
8.8
Archive BBS closing Ö Sadly, we have decided that we cannot justify the
cost of keeping the Archive BBS running for the very few people who are
using it. If you want to send messages to us, leave articles, small ads,
etc, then please either use email ([e-mail]) or log
onto Arcade BBS (0181Ö654Ö2212 Ö user number 21) which Paul accesses a
couple of times a week or Archiboard Central (01603-744231) which, if
people use it, I will also check reasonably regularly. Keith Marlow has
also kindly agreed to put the Archive Monthly Disks on Archiboard
Central. So if you need anything in a hurry, give Archiboard a ring on
01603-744231.
8.8
AVP Picturebase CDs Ö This range of multimedia resources has been
enlarged to cover additional topics. Each disk, containing video, sound
images and text is controlled by database software, allowing the user to
customise their own encyclopedia. Grouped appropriately for National
Curriculum use, disks currently available are Britain Since 1930,
Victorian Britain, The Era of the Second World War, The First World War
and its Consequences, English Architecture, World Habitats, UK Habitats,
Expansion, Trade and Industry, Earth and Atmosphere which are all ú99
+VAT for a single user copy (ú115 through Archive). Also, there are two
art-based disks, Art in the National Curriculum and Impressionism up to
the Twentieth Century which are available at ú75 +VAT for a single user
copy (ú86 through Archive).
8.8
Buttons Ö A simple application launcher and hard disk protection system
for classroom use. It has a window which opens when the machine starts
up, before any other windows. Listed in the window are the applications
necessary; single clicking will load the task. Other actions can also be
linked, so the same click could, for example, also load the printer
driver and open a work directory. The hard drive is protected by either
removing the hard drive icon or limiting its use (for example, it could
open the work directory rather than the disk root). Other areas of the
hard disk are only accessible via Buttons, so that hidden applications
can be loaded. The price is ú24.95 +VAT for a single user licence and
ú75 +VAT for a site licence, from Lindis International.
8.8
CD-Circle Ö Last month we had a review of CD-Circle (p68) but we didnæt
give the address of the producers, Desktop Laminations. We have
corrected that in this monthæs Factfile at the back of the magazine.
8.8
CD drivers Ö VTi have released four drivers for SCSI and IDE drives Ö
Sony CDU55-S and CDU-55E, Toshiba 3401, 5201 and 4101, NEC SCSI drives
and Wearnes CDD-120 series (IDE drives). The drivers cost ú19 +VAT each
from VTi.
8.8
ClassRom upgrade Ö Oak Solutionsæ ClassRom products are now supplied by
Network Solutions, who have announced the upgrade to version 1.28.
Additional features are CMOS RAM protection and restoration (also
prevents factory resets), optional machine protection via password, two
physical drives can now be seen as two ClassRom partitions, as well as
being able to partition single drives. Support for the Risc PC is now
also available. Existing ClassRom cards can be upgraded for ú15 +VAT.
The upgrade consists of a new EPROM, updated ClassRom software and
manual. The upgrade is also available for Oak Ethernet cards (ClassNet).
8.8
Cross Stitch Ö iSV Products has launched XStitch, a cross stitch design
package for RISC OS. Any sprite can be used as input, to produce a full
cross stitch pattern, using up to 64 colours from 512 named industry-
standard thread colours. The design can be saved as a drawfile for
importing into DTP packages, as a colour or black and white design. A
wide variety of materials are supported, automatic conversion of sprite
colours to named colours, automatic calculation of finished design size,
definable background colour and over 10,000 stitches per pattern. The
price is ú21.50 including p&p from iSV or ú20 through Archive.
8.8
Cumana Bravo Ö This CD drive comes in two variants Ö the first connects
via the computeræs bi-directional parallel port and is therefore not
suitable for the A3xx/4xx/5xx or the A3000. The second uses an SLCD
interface available as a standard podule or an SLCD upgrade for an EMU
interface card. The drive is a double speed, draw loading device and has
a built-in audio mixer so that the computer and CD sound are combined,
so both are available through the same headphones or speakers without
needing to swap cables. Either type costs ú254.47 +VAT + p&p or ú300
through Archive. If you do not have an EMU card fitted to your machine,
the drive, EMU board and EMU upgrade will cost ú297 +VAT + p&p or ú350
through Archive.
8.8
Cumana Indigo Ö The Indigo CD drive is an internal drive for the Risc
PC. The 300iA is supplied with an IDE interface and therefore does not
need an additional interface. It is also supplied with an audio mixing
board to allow computer and CD sound to be merged. The cost is now
ú211.91 +VAT + p&p or ú250 through Archive.
8.8
(There is a problem here in that the board requires the same sound
connection on the pcb as the Acorn/ESP 16-bit sound upgrade. If you want
to use both, you will need a small adaptor board for which Cumana are
charging ú10 +VAT, although, it is possible that they may be supplied
f.o.c. with the drive if you need it.)
8.8
Cumana Oscar Ö The Oscar CD drive is an external, double-speed device
which connects to the computeræs bi-directional parallel port (so it is
only suitable for use with the Risc PC, A5000, A3010, A3020, A4000 and
A4 models). A second CD drive or a printer can be daisy-chained via a
through-connector, so you do not lose use of the parallel port. The
price is ú211.91 +VAT + p&p, or ú250 through Archive.
8.8
Cumana Victor Ö These CD drives require a SCSI interface to work, and
there are a large number of options available. Stand-alone drives start
at ú299 +VAT + p&p. Auto-changer drives are also available with double
and quad-speed 6-disk versions as well as an 18-disk quad-speed drive.
For situations where the time taken to change between disks is
unacceptable (for example, on a network) multi-drive units are available
with six separate mechanisms.
8.8
Cumana SCSI cards Ö The price of the Cumana SCSI cards has now dropped.
The SCSI II card is now ú169.36 +VAT + p&p or ú200 through Archive.
(Remember that you need the SCSI II cable if you wish to attach external
devices Ö ú27 through Archive.) The original SCSI I podule is now ú84.26
+VAT + p&p from Cumana.
8.8
Datasafe Tapestreamer Ö i│ have released a tapestreamer package, which
includes software for backing up over networks for both Acorn and PC
machines. The system needs a bi-directional parallel port, so you do not
need a SCSI card (although you will need a A3010, A3020, A4000, A5000,
A4 or a Risc PC). Software is supplied for both Acorn and PC compatible
systems so dual platform schools do not need to buy a backup system for
both machines. The price is ú430 + p&p +VAT or ú505 through Archive.
8.8
DMI / PowerWAVE Ö Audio Dynamics have a new range of audio cards. The
DMI (Dual MIDI Interface) card has two independent Midi interfaces (each
with an in and out connection) The PowerWAVE board is an upgrade to the
DMI cards and contains a 32 channel Ensoniq general Midi synthesizer
with 128 instrument and 49 percussion sounds, removing the need to have
external sound modules. The 30 range are for computers with a mini-
expansion card (A3000, A3010, A3020, A4000), the DMI 30 card is ú74 +VAT
or ú85 through Archive, the PowerWAVE 30 is ú182.97 +VAT or ú215 through
Archive. The 50 range will be for computers with a standard size podule,
and have the added benefit of an optional 16-bit sampler port on the
same card, and should be available shortly Ö prices will be announced.
Or, to save the complication(!) order them from Archive for ú36, ú40 and
ú36 respectively.
8.8
Droom Trilogy Ö This set of educational adventure games from Resource
has been upgraded with music, enhanced graphics and easier to read text,
and all three titles will run on the Risc PC. The characters in the
games pose various problems for the pupils to solve, particular emphasis
being placed on developing skills in mathematics and logical thinking.
The games are Dragon Droom (ú30), Dragon Droomæs Revenge (ú34) and
StarDust (ú30). Upgrades from an earlier version, ú10 per package.
Primary and Secondary site licences are also available. To those prices,
add VAT and 4% of the order price for p&p Ö minimum ú1.50.
8.8
Eesox Gold CD drive Ö Eesox can no longer get the style of CD drive they
were using as their Gold drive and have replaced it with a caddy-less
drive. This means that you cannot use it in the ötowerò mode. However,
it is faster Ö 4.4 speed with an access time of 150ms compared with 4
speed and an access time of 225ms. The price is unchanged at ú360
inclusive for an internal (Risc PC) drive and ú440 for an external drive
through Archive.
8.8
Full-colour poster printing Ö Acorn have added an A0 colour poster
printer to its range of pre-press products Ö the NovaJET III large-
format inkjet printer. Acorn has combined its Risc PC-based Publishing
System with the NovaJET III to provide the Acorn Poster Publisher, a
complete poster creation and printing system for öunder ú11,000ò.
8.8
The NovaJET uses European standard CMYK inks, operates at 300╫300 dpi
and is suitable for producing everything from simple text and line art
to colour proofs, graphic design visuals as well as short-run, full-
colour posters up to A0. Acorn have specifically developed one of the
standard Risc PC printer drivers to increase the speed and enhance the
colour calibration for the NovaJET III.
8.8
The system will be targeted at large retailers, corporate publishers,
quick printers and commercial printers. In addition to marketing the
complete solution, Acorn will offer individual printers to existing
Acorn users. So, if you already have a RiscáPC and would like a 14Mb
NovaJET III printer plus driver, we can sell you one through Archive.
The cost would be about ú7,500 +VAT. Let me know if you are interested!
8.8
Acornæs press release says that öinitial tests with Risc PC have shown
significant improvements in both speed and quality compared to the
results achieved when the NovaJET is driven by a Mac or PCò and talks
about öphotographic quality imagesò. Having seen the output, I would
agree and can say that it is nothing less than stunning. Iæll bet it
eats up the ink but that will be nothing compared to the cost of getting
posters printed commercially. To give an example of the speed, the
NovaJET can produce an A1-format, photographic quality poster in
approximately 20 minutes.
8.8
This is actually a very significant announcement because it is another
example of something you can do on Acorn machines that canæt be matched
on other platforms, i.e. itæs an example where someone would buy a
RiscáPC in order to run the application.
8.8
If you want to run one of these printers to use with a Mac or a PC, you
would need to have a separate computer entirely dedicated to driving the
printer (probably a Pentium or a ÉBig Macæ of some sort) so the cost of
that would probably be ú15Ö16,000. Also, you would have to use
networking to throw PostScript at it from your separate design station.
This means that, to run it, you need (a) about twice as much money as
using an Acorn and (b) someone with networking expertise because the
task, even in networking terms, is not a simple one. With the Acorn
solution, the printer is (almost) just like any other printer attached
to your workstation computer Ö thereæs no need to have someone with
specialist knowledge of networking and/or PostScript to run it.
8.8
I say öalmostò because there is the issue of colour calibration. The
resultant colour does depend to a great extent on the type and quality
of paper used. Acorn provide preset calibration files for a number of
standard types of paper but if you choose to use different paper, you
will need to go through a calibration procedure.
8.8
For further information, please contact Simon Woodward, Publishing
Manager at Acorn Computers on 01223-254460.
8.8
Hazelnut CD Ö Hazelnut have released a CD which includes all three of
their multimedia learning packages. Times Tables: 12 disks covering 2╫
to 12╫ tables, 132 different animations, text and sound (disk price
ú30); Number Bonds, ú15 Ö three disks covering addition and subtraction
bonds up to 10, plus two worksheets (disk price ú15 for all three, or ú5
each); and a new release, Tell Time with four disks covering hours,
half-past and quarters (disk price ú20). Any of the above can be bought
as separate packages (add ú2.50 p&p) or all three on one CD costs ú50 +
ú1.50 p&p. (No VAT as Hazelnut are not VAT registered.)
8.8
Lambda 16 Ö The Irlam 16-bit sound sampler/player on a standard
expansion card. The included software controls the settings for the
card, and sampling is via a simple-to-use tape recorder-style interface.
The card has stereo line-in phono connectors, 3.5mm Mic, 16-bit stereo
line-out (3.5mm jack), variable input gain and line-out volume. Stereo
and mono file formats are supported, in 16 or 8-bit, from a wide range
of sampling rates, from 5.51kHz to 48.0kHz. It integrates the standard
sound system, allowing the computeræs sound to be sampled or the 16-bit
and VIDC outputs to be mixed. The introductory price, including
expansion card and sampling software, lead and manual, is ú99 + ú3.50
p&p +VAT or ú118 through Archive. Tsunami, the sound editing software,
is not yet ready, but when it is, a joint package will be available for
ú159 + p&p +VAT (standard Tsunami price will be ú99 + p&p +VAT). The
samples created can, however, be edited using other packages such as
!AudioWorks in the meantime.
8.8
Landmarks: PinPoint data file Ancient Civilisations Ö Information in
this datafile covers eleven civilisations, such as the Egyptians, Aztecs
and the Romans. A number of activity sheets are included, focusing on
historical and geographical aspects, covering river valleys, landmarks,
leaders, Egyptian writing and numbers, beliefs and customs, and also a
quiz. To use the data, you will need either Junior PinPoint or PinPoint.
This costs ú14 +ú3 p&p +VAT from Longman Logotron.
8.8
Landmarks: Victorian Era Ö New to Longman Logotronæs Landmarks series of
TV tie-in educational software, the Victorian Era allows children to
investigate English village life at various times between 1780 and 1880.
The effects of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, represented
by the arrival of a mill, canal and railway, can be seen, showing both
the impact on the people, and the changes to the village itself. A top-
down view of the village is used to discover information about the
scene. Worksheets are also included. This costs ú25.50 +ú3 p&p +VAT from
Longman Logotron.
8.8
Mechanisms CD Ö This graphical demonstration of mechanical theory and
practice is ideal for maths, technology and physics. Suitable for use on
either an Acorn Computer or a Windows machine, the price is ú49 +VAT
(single user) and ú99 +VAT (site licence) from Creative Curriculum
Software. (ú57 and ú115 through Archive respectively.)
8.8
PC card for RiscáPC Ö Acorn say... öInitial stock is expected during
April with a steady ramp-up in production during the next few months. If
you have already purchased a RiscáPC, you are entitled to buy a PC card
for ú99 +VAT (ú116.32) within the next three months. After that time,
the price will be ú199 +VAT if purchased separately.ò Presumably, it
will be ú99 if actually with a RiscáPC.
8.8
The problem which NCS now have is that there is no discount on the PC
cards Ö Acorn are charging us ú99 +VAT which means that we are making a
loss on every PC card we sell, especially when you take into account the
admin and the cost of postage and packing. Weære not asking for sympathy
or any extra cash but just that you bear with us as we handle the huge
backlog of orders. In particular, may we ask you NOT to keep ringing us
up. We will send the cards out to you as soon as we possibly can, and we
will let you know in the magazine where we are up to by saying things
like öwe have so far supplied all PC cards ordered before May 13th 1994ò
or whatever. Also, weæll put that information on the ansaphone so that
you can ring up out of office hours and find out what is happening.
8.8
One other problem is that some of you sent cheques which are now more
than six months old! They will have to come back to you to have the
dates changed. Thanks, in advance, for your cooperation.
8.8
Pocketbook leather cases Ö Network Solutions can now supply leather
carrying cases for the Acorn Pocketbook and Psion Series 3. The student
holster is a padded case with a belt loop, for ú12.20. The Executive, a
wallet style case, holds the Pocketbook and up to two PCMCIA cards, and
costs ú22.20. Finally, the storage card holds up to six PCMCIA cards
(but not the Pocketbook itself) for ú17.00. Carriage at ú1.50 per order
and VAT need to be added to the above prices.
8.8
RiscáPC Acorn Access Ö The price has changed on the Acorn Access card
for the Risc PC. The new price is ú140 through Archive. However, it
isnæt actually available yet as there are still various issues to be
resolved about Ethernet revisions, etc. In the meantime, we can get a
RiscáPC Access look-alike from Atomwide which will cost ú150 through
Archive.
8.8
RiscáPC case expansion Ö If you want to expand your RiscáPC to three or
four slices (i.e. to take six or eight expansion cards), they are now
available through Archive. To upgrade an ACB15/25 to two slices, as
previously, costs ú116, to three slices costs ú316 and to four slices
ú352. If you already have a two-slice machine then to go to three slices
will cost ú257 and to four slices ú316.
8.8
SAS2 Ö Morley Electronics have updated their SAS backup software. It has
been completely rewritten for enhanced performance and offers a flexible
and easy-to-use system. Timed backups, either using a proprietary format
or the Unix standard TAR format can be configured and data can be
compressed using the RISC OS 3 !Squash application. A Log file is saved
to aid restoration, allowing individual or multiple files/directories to
be restored. Possible target devices include SCSI tape streamers, hard
drives, removable hard disks and floppy disk drives. The cost is ú99
+VAT from Morley or ú110 through Archive (or ú49 +VAT for an upgrade
from version 1 from Morley).
8.8
TeleText Turbo Ö XOB have a new version of their TeleCard Network
software. The TeleText Turbo can capture and distribute eight live and
eight local services from each of up to six TeleCards. Data is cached at
the server, so access, even from a remote client, is regularly quicker
than a teletext television. The cache is updated automatically so each
page will, on average, be no more than a few seconds out of date or, if
desired, the client can request that pages are grabbed directly off air.
A viewdata editor is supplied to permit the setting up of local services
for departments, for example. The server can coexist with other servers,
such as level 4. The Card and software costs ú299 from XOB. The standard
network version of the telecard is now available for ú190. The Teletext
Turbo software costs ú169.
8.8
Tesco scheme starts again Ö The Tesco Computers for Schools scheme
starts again on 24th April and runs up to 2nd July. Schools requiring
additional packs or with enquiries about the scheme can contact the
Schoolsæ Helpline on 0171-580-9370 or send an email to
É[e-mail]æ. With Tescoæs recent
acquisition of over fifty William Low stores, the scope of participation
is extended in Scotland.
8.8
VerbMaster-French Ö This is a multitasking verb management and learning
application, which supports a range of tenses and features automatic
conjugation of regular verbs, easy entering of irregular verbs, addition
of new tenses, and production of printed verb tests and verb tables. The
supplied version includes a help file and a selection of conjugated
verbs. The registered version has additional verb files, along with
text-only and Impression DDF format versions of the manual for printing.
Registration of VerbMaster costs ú7.50 single-user, or ú15 for a site
licence, and will offer a discount on VerbMaster-German when it is
available. Unregistered versions are available from APDL and other PD
libraries or direct from the author Nigel Caplan.
8.8
VZap Ö The shareware virus killing software from Digital Phenomena has
just been updated, although the price remains at ú5. New features
include redesigned windows (using NewLook), and suspicious !Boot files
are no longer deleted, but suspicious lines are commented out for later
inspection. Automatic virus elimination is available and there are, if
required, free upgrades and support for registered users. It can scan
all known filing systems with a single click, and it prevents known
viruses from loading.
8.8
World War II on the Home Front Another in the set of Anglia Televisionæs
Key datafiles, this CD contains a number of resources. Aálarge selection
of photographs from the Hulton Deutsch Collection which illustrate the
period between 1938 and 1947 are included, along with their own
historical text, with captions often written by the photographers and
additional comments from todayæs perspective. The price is ú40 +VAT or
ú45 through Archive.
8.8
Review software received...
8.8
We have received review copies of the following: ÅCDFast (for Networks)
(u), ÅGarden Wildlife CDá(e), ÅMore Stage 2 Talking Stories (e),
ÅPicturePoint (e), ÅRainbow Multimedia (e), ÅPIMSá(Primary Management
System) (e), ÅTableCalc (u), ÅTalking Animated Alphabet (e), ÅVerbMaster
(French) (e).
8.8
e=Education, u=Utility.
8.8
If you would like to review any of these products, please contact the
Archive office. Potential reviewers will need to show that they would
use the product in a professional capacity or that they have some
knowledge of the particular field.áu
8.8
Government Health Warning Ö Reading this could seriously effect your
spiritual health
8.8
Last week, I had a couple of dreams in which I was deliberately doing
something I knew was wrong Ö I canæt remember the details but, after the
second one, I woke at 5 a.m. and thought, öI wonder if God is trying to
tell me something?ò As I lay there, it didnæt take me long to work out
what I thought it might be.
8.8
When the RiscáPC first came out, Acorn sent us one of their Éloan
machinesæ for review purposes. When we had finished with it, someone at
Acorn said it would be collected. It stood, in its box, by the door for
some months. I reminded them about it a couple of times but still no-one
came. öWell, thereæs no point in it sitting there by the door, doing
nothing.ò I reasoned. So, for the last few months, I have been using it
in the office to produce the magazine Ö indeed, Iæm typing this piece on
it now!
8.8
However, I decided that what I was doing was, effectively, stealing and
so, the same day, I rang Acorn to Éconfessæ and offered to buy it off
them. After I had done that, I felt such a sense of joy and relief that
I was sure that it really had been Godæs prompting through those two
dreams.
8.8
Now, March had been a pretty duff month for sales Ö we were well below
our targets. That same day, I made three sales Ö two big RiscáPC systems
and two A4000s to a school. Coincidence? Yes, probably, but as thereæs
no way I can be sure, I know what Iæll do next time I think God might be
prompting me!
8.8
P.B.
8.8
Fact-File
8.8
(The numbers in italic are fax numbers)
8.8
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
8.8
Acorn Direct   FREEPOST, 13 Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants,
NN8 2BR.
8.8
  (01933-279300)
8.8
Acorn Computers Ltd    Acorn House, Vision Park, Histon, Cambridge, CB4
4AE. (01223-254254)
8.8
  (01223-254262)
8.8
Anglia Television   Media Development, Anglia House, Norwich, NR1 3JG.
(01603-615151)
8.8
  (01603-631032)
8.8
ANT Ltd   P.O.Box 300, Cambridge, CB1 2EG. (01223-567808) (01223-567801)
8.8
APDL    39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London, SE26 5RN.
8.8
Apricote Studios (p18)  2 Purls Bridge Farm, Manea, Cambridgeshire, PE15
0ND. (01354-680432)
8.8
Arnor Ltd    611 Lincoln Road, Peterborough, PE1 3HA. (01733-68909)
(01733-67299)
8.8
Atomwide Ltd   7 The Metro Centre, Bridge Road, Orpington, Kent, BR5
2BE. (01689-814500)
8.8
  (01689-814501)
8.8
Audio Dynamics    10 Durnford Close, Norden, Rochdale OL12 7RX. (01706-
868803) (01706-868803)
8.8
Avie Electronics (p17)  7 Overbury Road, Norwich. (01603-416863) (01603-
788640)
8.8
AVP   School Hill Centre, Chepstow, Gwent, NP6 5PH. (012912-5439)
8.8
Beebug Ltd    117 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (01727-
840303) (01727-860263)
8.8
Ben OllivΦre   6 Truro Close, East Leake, LE12 6HB.
8.8
Cherisha Software   51 Swallowfield Road, Charlton, London, SE7 7NT.
8.8
Colton Software   2 Signet Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA.
(01223-311881)
8.8
  (01223-312010)
8.8
Computer Concepts (pp23/24)   Gaddesden Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts,
HP2 6EX. (01442-63933)
8.8
  (01442-231632)
8.8
Creative Curriculum Software   5 Clover Hill Road, Savile Park, Halifax,
HX1 2YG. (01422-340524) (01422-346388)
8.8
Cumana Ltd   Pines Trading Estate, Broad Street, Guildford, GU3 3BH.
(01483-503121)
8.8
  (01483-503326)
8.8
Dalriada Data Technology (p33)   145 Albion Street, Kenilworth,
Warkwickshire, CV8 2FY. (01926-53901)
8.8
Datafile   71 Anson Road, Locking, Weston-super-Mare, Avon, BS24 7DQ.
(01934-823005)
8.8
David Pilling   P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
8.8
Desktop Laminations    P.O.Box 332, Bristol, BS99 7XL. (0117-97-999-79)
8.8
Digital Phenomena   104 Manners Road, Southsea, Hants, PO4 0BG.
8.8
Digital Services   9 Wayte Street, Cosham, Portsmouth PO6 3BS. (01705-
210600) (01705-210709)
8.8
EESOX   5 Hillfield Road, Comberton, Cambridge, CB3 7DB. (01223-264242)
8.8
Electronic Font Foundry   Gibbs House, Kennel Ride, Ascot, SL5 7NT.
(01344-891355) (01344-891366)
8.8
ExpLAN   St Catherineæs House, 20 Plymouth Road, Tavistock, Devon, PL19
8AY. (01822-613868) (01822-610868)
8.8
Expressive Software Products   21 Beech Lane, West Hallam, Ilkeston,
Derbyshire, DE7 6GP.  (0115-929-5019)
8.8
  (0115-929-5019)
8.8
Hazelnut Software   197 Blackshots Lane, Grays, Essex, RM16 2LL. (01375-
375514)
8.8
Hodge Electronic Services    16 Mold Road, Mynydd Isa, Clwyd, CH7 6TD.
(01244-550803)
8.8
i│   Unit J1, The Paddock, 347 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge, CB1 4DH.
8.8
  (01223-566113) (01223-566313)
8.8
Irlam Instruments   133 London Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 4HN.
(01895-811401)
8.8
iSV Products   86, Turnberry, Home Farm, Bracknell, Berks, RG12 8ZH.
(01344-55769)
8.8
Kudlian Soft   8 Barrow Road, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8á1EH. (01926-
851147)
8.8
Lindis International   Wood Farm, Linstead Magna, Halesworth, Suffolk,
IP19 0DU. (0198-685-477)
8.8
  (0198-685-460)
8.8
Longman Logotron   124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge
CB4 4ZS. (01223-425558) (01223-425349)
8.8
Minerva Systems   Minerva House, Baring Crescent, Exeter, EX1 1TL.
(01392-437756) (01392-421762)
8.8
Morley Electronics   Morley House, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne &
Wear, NE29 7TY.
8.8
  (0191-257-6355) (0191-257-6373)
8.8
Network Solutions   2 The Borough, Aldreth, Haddenham, Ely, Cambs CB6
3PJ. (01954-212083)
8.8
  (01954-212083).
8.8
Oak Solutions   Dial House, 12 Chapel Street, Halton, Leeds, LS15 7RN
(0113-232-6992)
8.8
  (0113-232-6993)
8.8
Octopus Systems   9 Randwell Close, Ipswich, IP4 5ES. (01473-728943)
(01473-270643)
8.8
Pineapple Software   39 Brownlea Gardens, Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex IG3
9NL. (0181-599-1476)
8.8
  (0181-598-2343) ([e-mail])
8.8
Powerslave Software   P.O. Box 175, Enfield, Middlesex, EN2 6RD.
8.8
Repair Zone   421 Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (01603-400477)
(01603-417447)
8.8
Resource   51 High Street, Kegworth, Derbyshire, DE74 2DA. (01509-
672222) (01509-672267)
8.8
Safesell Exhibitions (p12)  Market House, Cross Road, Tadworth, Surrey
KT20 5SR.
8.8
Shenley Software   5 Coombefield Close, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 5QF.
(0181-949-3235)
8.8
Softease (p11)  The Old Courthouse, St Peters Churchyard, Derby, DE1
1NN. (01332-204911)
8.8
The ARM Club   Freepost ND6573, London, N12 0BR. (0171-624-9918) (0181-
446-3020)
8.8
VTI (Vertical Twist)   Unit 1, The Shopwhyke Centre, Shopwhyke Road,
Chichester, PO20 6GD.
8.8
  (01243-531194) (01243-531196)
8.8
W. C. Smith & Associates   40 Royal Oak, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66
2DA., (01665-510682)
8.8
  (01665-510692)
8.8
XOB   Balkeerie, Eassie by Forfar, Angus, DD8 1SR. (01307-840364)
8.8
Archive Monthly Disk
8.8
u Files from Keith Hodgeæs RiscáPC ColumnáÖápage 53.
8.8
u RiscáPC games compatibility list from Dave FloydáÖápage 57.
8.8
u PhoneDay-ready STD applications from Jim Nottingham Ö page 67.
8.8
u Two character-selecting applications from Jim Nottingham Ö page 64.
8.8
u Lottery program from Apricote Studios reviewed by Colin Singleton  Ö
page 71.
8.8
u Sample program from Matthew Hunteræs Programming Workshop Ö page 69.
8.8
u Egyptian fractions from Colin Singletonæs Puzzle Corner  Ö page 30.
8.8
Å  Text import example from Jim Nottinghamæs article Ö page ????.
8.8
Å  Various files and applications from Paul HobbsæáAdvanced Basic
Programming ColumnáÖápage ????.
8.8
Å  Monitor recovery program from Hints & Tips Column Ö page ????.
8.8
Å  Sample program from Matthew Hunteræs Programming Workshop Ö page
????.
8.8
Å  Glossary, latest versionáÖáIt has now reached over 9,000 words and is
still growing. Please keep sending us words and acronyms that you want
defining.
8.8
Paul Beverley
8.8
Norwich Computer Services     96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD.
(01603-766592) (764011) email: [e-mail]
8.8
u Archive Special Offersáu
8.8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8.8
Datapower Database
8.8
u After the good review which Datapower received (8.6. p43), we have
arranged a special offer price with Iota. The full price is ú149 +VAT =
ú175.08, the normal Archive price is ú160, but foráoneámonth, it is
onáspecialáofferáatáú120 Ö an excellent saving!áu
8.8
öMy final choice is Datapower. Whilst I dislike the copy protection
method used (at least it is not as bad as Squirrelæs), and although it
is not a relational database, I found the lookup facility was adequate
for my needs. The design process, reporting facilities and general look
and feel of the program were such that I found myself turning more and
more to this package as the review period went by. You will not be
disappointed if you follow my example and purchase this program for your
computer. Simon Coulthurst.ò
8.8
Textease
8.8
u Weæve also managed to arrange a special limited offer on Textease, the
budget DTP package. Once again, theáreviewá(seeápage 43) was very
positive.
8.8
The full price is ú39.50 but for two months, it is
onáspecialáofferáatáú35.áu
8.8
Personal Accounts v3
8.8
u The full price of Personal Accounts is ú49.95 and the special price
(for Archive subscribers only) is ú35. The only difference with this
special version is that, to save costs, it will not come in a
presentation case. The offer lasts for one more month, i.e. until the
June issue of Archive is sent out from NCS (midáMay). To take advantage
of this offer, just send in your order for Personal Accounts to NCS in
the normal way but simply do so at ú35 instead of ú49.95.áu
8.8
Charity Bring & Buy Sale
8.8
Come to the Acorn User Show in Harrogate and bring your old Beeb/
Archimedes software, hardware, computers, monitors, books Ö anything
that you think someone else might possibly want to buy.
8.8
u Sponsored by Acorn User and Archive Magazineáu
8.8
u Acorn User Show, Harrogate Ö 6/7th Mayáu
8.8
u If you canæt come, send bits direct to NCS (by 3rd May, please)áu
8.8
u In aid of Henshawæs School for the Blind, Harrogateáu
8.8
Help!!!
8.8
Can you come and help us on the stand? We need help Ö taking delivery of
what people bring, putting prices on them and selling them to others.
David Holden will be there as the main organiser of the stand but he
will need help for the two days. If you can help, ring/fax/email us and
let us know when you can help. I think it will be good fun for all
concerned and it will be doing something to help those less fortunate
than ourselves. Thank you!
8.8
APDL Ö PD software
8.8
At the show, David Holden will also have his full range of APDL public
domain software available, so pop along to the Archive Charity stand and
see if there is anything you need there.
8.8
Give us æyer old Beebs!!!
8.8
(and A310, A3000, A400, etc, etc.)
8.8
We have had an overwhelming response to our suggestion last month that
we might re-cycle old computers and peripherals for charitable purposes.
So PLEASE, if you have any old Beebs, Masters, printers, user ports,
concept keyboards (especially useful for special needs applications),
small hard drives, colour monitors, floppy drives, etc, etc just send
them in to us at NCS. Potential users include: Downs Syndrome
Associations, Mencap, Special Needs Departments in schools.
8.8
It wonæt cost you much to stick them in a big box, take them along to
your local post office and send them by parcel post... weæll get them
eventually!!! Alternatively, telephone Parcel Line, Target Express or
any other carrier who has a depot near you (see your local Yellow Pages)
and they will come and pick up the box from you for ú10 or ú15 or so
(especially if you say itæs for a charity scheme!).
8.8
If you are feeling really generous and have any old RISCáOS computers of
any vintage that you donæt want, we can certainly find them a good home,
so just send them in to NCS.
8.8
N.B. If any of the things you send donæt work, please mark them as such
Ö and send them anyway because we can probably put together two duff
ones and make a working one.
8.8
Also, whether the items work or not, please mark the box öFor Charity
Useò Ö otherwise we might think they have come in for repair, fix them
and send them back to you with a bill for the repair costs!!
8.8
(If you are a school or a charity and want to take advantage of this
scheme, drop us a line telling us what you are looking for and weæll see
what we can do. Next month, if we have some computers without buyers,
weæll advertise them in the magazine.)áu
8.8
Norwich Computer Servicesæ Repair Policy
8.8
Owing to staff reduction, very little repair work is now done on NCS
premises and most of it is currently being done by Repair Zone, an Acorn
Service Centre here in Norwich. If you want NCS to handle the repair and
to be your point of contact, thatæs fine but we have to add an
administration charge to the price that Repair Zone charge us. Also, as
Repair Zone are not VAT registered, if you come through NCS, we have to
charge you an extra 17.5%.
8.8
For example, if a repair costs us ú40 and we add a ú5 admin charge plus
VAT, that comes to ú52.87, so, it would make good sense for you to go
straight to Repair Zone (or Avie Electronics for fixed-price repairs).
That would also help us because we cannot make a profit from handling
repairs, so it just represents a drain on our resources as things stand.
8.8
We will, of course, continue to handle all warranty repairs ourselves.áu
8.8
Small Ads
8.8
(Small ads for Acorn RISCáOS computers and related products are free for
subscribers but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the
material you send, as we think fit. Sending small ads (especially long
ones!) on disk is helpful but not essential. Ed)
8.8
512Kb RAM disk & new battery (for Pocket Book/Series 3/Series 3a Ö ú140
new) ú100, Psion games disk one (7 games) ú20. Phone Mark after 6pm on
01905-754277.
8.8
A3000 4Mb, RISC OS 3.1, 20Mb IDE drive, Ovation, PC Emulator, Taxan
Multivision monitor ú650. Phone [phone].
8.8
A410/1, 4Mb Ram, 33MHz ARM3, 50MB HD, NewLook desktop, I/O podule, Midi,
Sound sampler, keyboard extension cable ú525 o.n.o. Phone Mark after 6pm
on 01905-754277.
8.8
A410/1, ARM3, 20MB HD, RISCáOS 3.1, Beebug VME & 5╝ö interface, Taxan
770+LR monitor, Panasonic KX-P1124 printer ú550. Phone [phone]
eves.
8.8
A5000 4Mb 80Mb HD + AKF50 Monitor ú600, Pocket Book + A-Link ú140,
Colour Card Gold ú175, 20ö Sony Monitor ú700, HP500 Printer ú150, HP550C
Colour Printer ú225, 632Mb SCSI drive ú125, Aleph One 486 PC Card 4Mb +
Windows 3.1 + MS DOS ú325, CC Hawk V9 MkII Video Digitiser ú90, Acorn
Replay DIY Board ú180, 14ò Opus Multisync for Risc PC ú180. All v.g.c.
Phone Russell on 0131-658-1225 (eves, w/e)
8.8
A5000 4Mb, 120Mb HD, FPA, Acorn Multisync, Learning Curve (less 1st WP),
PC Emulator + Games ú900. ProArtisan2CD ú40. ANSI C Release 3 ú50. Taxan
795 monitor ú200. Phone David on 01722-338981.
8.8
A5000 8Mb, 120Mb HD, internal IDE 105Mb Syquest (no cartridge), Eizo
F550i 17ö multisync. A highly capable system Ö can be viewed at NCS.
ú1300 complete, or ú400 for monitor alone. Phone Iain Cameron 01483-
751251.
8.8
ARCticulate ú7, Enter the Realm ú7, Sensible Soccer Ö International
Edition ú10, Archive Mousemat ú1.50!, Cover disks (1991+, Archimedes
World, Acorn Computing and Acorn User) ú1 each Ö write with your wants.
Jon Aylwin, 4 St Margarets Close, Hemyock, Devon, EX15 3XJ.
8.8
CC Laser Direct 4 600dpi laser printer, Series 2 controller, v.g.c,
boxed with manuals and latest software, on-site maintenance contract
until Feb 96. Can be used with others computer. Offers around ú400.
Phone [phone].
8.8
Genesis Plus ú15, 1st Word Plus brand new, unregistered ú10, E-Type
ú7.50, PowerBand ú7.50. RISC OS Applications and User Guides ú3 each or
ú5 the pair. Phone [phone] eves.
8.8
Qume Laser Direct 300dpi, includes spare toner cartridge. Recent new
drum. (will run on Risc PC with Calligraph card) ú395. Pay over 3
months! Acorn Advance (release 2) unopened and unregistered ú70. Phone
Paul Cayton 01943-878133 eves or 0113-277-7711 day.
8.8
RISC OS 3 Style Guide with New Look disk, new & unused ú6. Phone Mark
after 6pm on 01905-754277.
8.8
Taxan 795 Trinitron 15ö multisync ú200, Impression dongle Ö no software
or manuals ú25, ram chips for A400/1 series ú20 per Mb, VidiArch Colour
Video Digitiser for A400/1 ú20, Vision Colour Digitiser for A410/1 or
A5000 ú25, Oak SCSI card for A410/1 with version 1.16 Eprom ú20,
Archimedes Econet interfaces ú10, CC ScanLight A4 with feeder ú150, Oak
Recorder for A410/1 ú10. All new or as new. Phone Warrington 01925-
837607 eves.áu
8.8
Charity Sales
8.8
No charity bits this month as they are all going into the Charity Bring
and Buy which NCS and Acorn User are co-sponsoring at the Acorn User
Show in Harrogate on 6/7th May. If you have things to contribute, please
send them direct to NCS Ö to arrive by 3rd May, please. Thank you!áu
8.8
Acorn and the Internet
8.8
Adrian Bool
8.8
In this series of articles, I hope to describe to you all aspects of
linking your dear little Acorn onto The Net Ö from the current ways of
accessing the networks to the impressive technology that is just round
the corner. I also aim to satisfy both sides of the Internet divide Ö
the dial-up user, using either a modem or ISDN, and the permanently
connected user, using an Ethernet card to access the rest of the world.
8.8
Often we Acorn users are proud of the ground-breaking design of our
machines Ö whilst the so-called industry standards try to catch up.
Sadly, however, I have to report that, in the case of software to access
the Internet, we are well behind many other operating systems. However,
all is not lost! The new generation of Internet Access Software that is
soon to be released for RISC OS should place Acorns as the perfect
platform to access the Net.
8.8
This month, I shall introduce my simplified notions of several of the
concepts that underlie the implementation of networking software Ö to
help readers into an understanding of the apparent over-complexity of
computer networks.
8.8
Future months will then concentrate on the more Acorn-specific aspects
of the Internet.
8.8
Networking
8.8
The most important concepts in networking Ö and, indeed, in many other
areas of computing Ö are Stacks and Protocols which go hand-in-hand to
create a better world.
8.8
Microsoft Ö Striving to create The Perfect World
8.8
Stacks evolved largely because the perfect application does not, and
never will, exist. The perfect application would do everything you ever
wanted, do it efficiently and operate seamlessly with any hardware you
have now Ö or ever will have. Despite Microsoftæs constant efforts at
writing such applications, they will never appear.
8.8
The stack concept attempts to alleviate the problems incurred by not
having the perfect application by stepping through a particular
production cycle:
8.8
u The problem is analysed then split it into several separate layers.
8.8
u The task that each layer needs to perform is then decided upon, but
how that task is implemented is not specified.
8.8
u Once the task that each layer is to perform is known, Éprotocolsæ are
defined that provide an interface between each layer.
8.8
u Only when the protocols are decided upon may an implementation of each
layer be written.
8.8
Just as the perfect application is an impossible entity, so is the
perfect layer, but that is no longer a problem! All that is required is
a new layer Ö small in comparison to the whole application Ö which
performs your newly defined task.
8.8
This new layer implementation then simply needs to be slotted into the
stack and, since the protocols have not changed, the new layer happily
talks to the rest of your application and vice-versa.
8.8
Back to the Net
8.8
The Internet itself is held together by a stack and the protocols that
bind it together. There are many, possibly hundreds, of protocols in use
over the Net, but most of these are fairly abstract, largely optional,
protocols existing only to implement a particular application over the
network. There are, however, a core set of protocols that bind the
Internet together. These protocols are referred to as TCP/IP (Transfer
Control Protocolá/áInterface Protocol).
8.8
TCP/IP
8.8
The TCP/IP protocols specify the mid-range of the network stack Ö not
specifying the very low level hardware details. This enables the
Internet to travel over a wide range of hardware Ö Ethernet networks,
wide area networks, analogue phone lines, ISDN lines and carrier
pigeons! Nor does TCP/IP specify the application (high) level protocols
Ö thus not limiting the applications that may be run over the Internet.
8.8
TCP/IP consists of two main protocols, IP and TCP, together with several
other ancillary protocols used largely for the control of the network.
8.8
IP
8.8
IP is the basis of the whole Internet. The IP layer of the stack defines
the structure of a packet. The data that one wants to send gets inserted
into a series of packets. Around the real data is ancillary information
that describes to anyone handling the packet, from where it is going and
to where it has to go eventually. A rough approximation of an IP packet
is,
8.8
+ÿÿÿÿ+ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ+
8.8
+ header + data to be transmitted +
8.8
+ÿÿÿÿ+ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ+
8.8
When the IP protocol receives the data that is to be sent across the
networks, the IP layer forms the appropriate packet and sends it out.
However, this is all that it does. This means that:
8.8
u It does not guarantee the packet will arrive at the destination.
8.8
u It does not guarantee the packets arrive in the order they were
transmitted.
8.8
As you can imagine, using IP to communicate between two machines would
be extremely precarious, and so, to save the day, here comes TCP.
8.8
TCP
8.8
TCP is a layer that sits on top of IP. Unlike IP, the TCP protocol
provides a two-way stream of characters between two processes on two
separate machines. Again unlike IP, TCP guarantees that the characters
will be received correctly and in the same order as they were
transmitted. TCP is known as a connection-oriented protocol.
8.8
It is immediately obvious that TCP is a far more secure basis onto which
to build further levels and their associated protocols, and indeed many
of the Internetæs most important higher level protocols rest on top of
TCP; these include:
8.8
SMTPáÖáSimple Mail Transfer ProtocoláÖáthis protocol is used by all of
the machines on the Internet to transfer mail from one site to another.
8.8
POPáÖáPost Office Protocol Ö used to transfer mail on demand from a
central mail server to a PC for reading by the user.
8.8
NNTPáÖáNetwork News Transfer Protocol Ö this defines the interaction
between machines on the Internet whilst transferring Usenet news.
8.8
HTTPáÖáHyperText Transfer Protocol Ö used to transfer World Wide Web
information across the Internet.
8.8
FTPáÖáFile Transfer Protocol Ö a protocol for transferring files!
8.8
TelnetáÖáA protocol allowing a user on one machine to log onto another
machine and use that machine as if they were sitting directly in front
of it.
8.8
UDP
8.8
This protocol, like TCP, sits atop IP. It differs greatly from TCP in
that it provides a connection-less, Édatagram-orientedæ method of
communication, similar to the IP protocol itself.
8.8
Many of the Énuts and boltsæ protocols of the Internet are based on UDP.
One of the most important of these is DNS.
8.8
DNS
8.8
Every port of every machine on the Internet has an IP address, so the IP
layer knows where to send a packet. The IP address is a 32-bit number
and is written, by convention, as
8.8
193.119.176.64
8.8
i.e. each byte is written in decimal, each separated by a dot.
8.8
Humans have great difficulty remembering such addresses accurately, and
so there is an alternative textual format for referring to a port. The
textual name for the machine whose IP address is given above is:
8.8
oveja.u-net.com  (oveja is spanish for sheep!)
8.8
Naturally, there needs to be some way for the computers to change the
name that a user types into an address and that the IP layer can
understand. This method is known as the Domain Name Service (DNS). This
is a truly massive distributed database containing all the name and IP
addresses of every machine on the Internet.
8.8
For more information...
8.8
All of the official protocols that are used over the Internet are
described in a set of documents known as the RFCs Ö Requests For
Comments. A subset of the many hundreds of RFCs are the STDs (standards)
documents which describe the latest versions of the major Internet
protocols. All of these documents are available over the Internet from a
number of sites.
8.8
Following this basic background information about the Internet, next
monthæs article will focus on getting Acorns onto the Net, hopefully
with reviews of Doggysoftæs Termite Internet and ANTæs Internet Suite,
both of which should be released very soon.áu
8.8
Safesell
8.8
New artwork
8.8
Chess II Ö The Champion
8.8
Tord Eriksson
8.8
Having reviewed a number of chess programs through the years, I think
David Pilling has, yet again, produced a winner. This review is based on
a beta-test version, but I am quite convinced that his new chess program
is going to be the most popular yet.
8.8
Manual
8.8
As before, the program comes with a manual and the program itself on an
800Kb disk. The manual is, as yet, only a provisional version, but it
covers things like importing text files, mate puzzles and printing.
8.8
Buttons galore
8.8
The much-improved Chess program has, like Impression, grown buttons.
What is more, as you would like to happen to your fiancΘe, Chess II has
become more intelligent, grown new features and looks smashing.
8.8
Letæs begin with the buttons on the vertical icon bar. They include
everything you might want, and thereæs a menu to boot, as you can see
above.
8.8
The buttons are, from the top: 2D or 3D-view, rotate the view (90░ at a
time), suggestion, step back one move, number of steps done, possible
steps with the chosen piece, and human or computer to play black or
green. The little dot on the white Éhumanæ button means it is waiting.
8.8
The menu is mainly self-explanatory, ÉGame Historyæ being a list of all
moves done so far, in a scrollable window. This can be saved separately
for further study.
8.8
In the Choices column, you can select row numbers (1-8, A-H) on/off,
show mate sequence on/off, beep (very helpful when playing at tournament
strength, as the moves take some time), level of play (from novice to
tournament, or a certain number of draws in a set time).
8.8
For those who have the old version, it is possible to import saved
games. The ambitious can write their own text files, using a number of
formats explained in the manual, to import directly into Chess II.
8.8
At any time, you can stop a game and replay parts of the game or the
entire game Ö changing the events if you want to. I certainly used the
öone step backò button a lot.
8.8
Playing and enjoying
8.8
The most enjoyable part of the new Chess II is the speed with which it
plays and the fluent moves of the different pieces.
8.8
At tournament level, play does take some time, but it usually beats me
on novice or beginner level (Grumble!) so I donæt mind. I am no chess
master, but I think the game plays more strongly than ever, even at
novice level.
8.8
When I reviewed Chess-3D, I stated that I would love to have the
graphics of that game, maybe a bit better implemented, combined with the
battle strength and the speed of Chess. Well, I must say that David
Pilling has done just that and added a bag of extra features, just to be
on the safe side!
8.8
Using mostly Macs today, I must admit that, as a chess game, this is
hard to beat in any way, on any computer. Just as Impression Publisher
has become as nice to use as Quark Xpress, Chess has now matured into a
truly great chess program.
8.8
The only drawback, compared to the original version, is that the game
now needs at least 640Kb to start up, meaning that I can just cram in
one Chess II together with the latest version of Impression Publisher+
on my 4Mb A3000.
8.8
I remember fondly running eight copies of the original Chess at once!
Today you can cram 8Mb into an A3000 or buy one of those fancy new
machines and fill it with 16Mb or more, so if you really need multiple
Chesses it is still possible!
8.8
Conclusion
8.8
Chess II will be the perfect software for your local chess club. Novices
can train on the basics, without the opponent getting bored, the club
magazine editor can produce examples in sprite or draw format and the
theorists can set up classic problems.
8.8
As drawfiles are easily converted into other formats suitable for Macs
or PCs (using ArtWorks or similar), even national clubs and papers will
be greatly helped in producing their chess columns. Fully recommended
for novice, enthusiast and pro, even if the price were more than it is Ö
ú16 through Archive!áu
8.8
In addition to playing even more strongly than it predecessor, Chess II
gives the dedicated chess player numerous options: You can save an
entire game as a file, and a certain position as a sprite or as a
drawfile, or just save a list of the moves in a game.
8.8

8.8
This is an example of a drawfile and overleaf are the sprite versions.
8.8
Two versions of sprites are available: Either 2D or 3D view, both well
rendered.
8.8
Avie
8.8
From 8.7 page 11
8.8
Apricote
8.8
From 8.7 page 4
8.8
Online Media
8.8
Graham Jones + Adrian Bool
8.8
Welcome to our short series of articles about Online Media and its
related partners and technologies. This first article looks into our
thoughts about the ideas behind Online Media and the myriad of other
companies that work with (... and against!) Online Media. The next
article will be about the technology that makes it all possible and the
third, well I donæt plan that far in advance.
8.8
I am sure many of us Acorn enthusiasts (with a big or little ÉEæ!) are
greatly interested in both the technology that Online Media are
developing and how Online Media themselves fare. The more Set Top Boxes
(STBs) sold, the cheaper our beloved Acorns may well become... There is
also the wonderful thought of plugging our current machines into these
new high speed digital networks, using technology pioneered by Online
Media. Maybe some of you may even like to own an STB!
8.8
TV how it should be
8.8
The idea is very simple: why do I need to watch the TV programmes when
some bloke at the BBC decides I should watch it? What sort of a free
country is that? Currently, we waste a lot of time waiting for our
favourite programmes to appear on the box. Imagine what it would be like
if you could come home in the evening, watch all the programmes you
wanted consecutively and then disappear off to the pub or your favourite
abode!
8.8
Sadly, there are several unavoidable reasons, notably bandwidth, why TV
utopia is not with us yet. However, with the abilities of fibre-optics
to increase the available bandwidth to unprecedented levels, and the
emergence of MPEG technology to drastically decrease the amount of data
that needs to be transmitted, utopia is getting ever nearer.
8.8
Risc PC meets TV
8.8
Armed with Acornæs powerful Risc PC architecture and the expertise of a
host of other companies, Online Media is at the forefront of delivering
heaven into each TV vieweræs home. And, indeed, some viewers are already
experiencing the fruits of Online Mediaæs labour. These viewers are part
of ÉThe Cambridge Trialsæ. This is a trial service run by Cambridge
Cable using the technology of Online Media and its associates to provide
an interactive TV service to a number of families, not surprisingly, in
Cambridge.
8.8
Whoæs involved?
8.8
Involved in the trials in Cambridge are several companies well known in
the Acorn area. Online Media head the consortium, with Anglia TV and ITN
providing some of the initial services, and S J Research and ATM
providing the ability to supply the high speed data transfer. The
Cambridge Cable fibre-optic cable network is central to the current
trials, supplying a route for data to be transmitted to homes throughout
the Cambridge area. Naturally Acorn, ARM Ltd and Olivetti are part of
the group. Online Media is an off-shoot of Acorn, as is ARM Ltd, and
Olivetti currently own 80% of Acorn. Olivetti also have their own
Telecom and Multimedia division, with Online Media leading their
initiative in digital interactive TV. That just leaves Denton Hall, a
media lawyer providing legal support in the content rights and
regulation area.
8.8
Many other companies are involved in supplying different aspects of the
initial services. The strength of the group seems to grow by the day
with more and more companies showing an interest in the interactive TV
phenomenon Ö certainly judging by the never-ending flow of press
releases coming through my door.
8.8
How much will it cost?
8.8
At the moment, the viewers participating in the Cambridge trials pay
absolutely nothing for the service. After the Online Media consortium
has received enough feedback from the current users on the feel of the
the new media, they are then going to try various charging models on the
users. Charging for the system will be awkward. Currently, the public is
used to paying its annual licence fee, then having unlimited viewing
time. For the current TV companies, this works out fine because it costs
exactly the same and uses exactly the same resources to broadcast to one
or one million viewers over the air waves. With the cable system, where
each viewer watches what they want, when they want, things are very
different. Every second that a user is watching a TV program or a movie
or listening to an online CD, it costs the cable company in used
bandwidth, since a copy of the data has to be relayed to each user
separately, as opposed to the same data being broadcast to all viewers.
8.8
Online Media and their consortium
8.8
Despite the current range of Online Media Set Top Boxes being basically
customised Risc PCs, it appears that Online Media have purposely
disguised the powerful computer nature of the box, making it seem to the
casual viewer like an altogether simpler affair Ö little do they know
the complex and powerful technology that sits behind the simple video-
like remote control that they use to control the Set Top Box.
8.8
One of the main services that the Consortium provides is video on
demand. At the demonstration I attended, only a few movies were
available; but when the system is running normally, I would imagine that
the range available would be the same as you would find in a video shop.
8.8
Recent developments include the announcement of a joint development
agreement between Online Media and Macromedia. Macromedia are described
as a Éleading multimedia application developeræ. Online Media is now a
full implementation partner in the ÉPortable Player programmeæ. I have
little knowledge about this but I understand that, in combination with
new standards being set, this will allow multimedia productions to be
available on many different platforms with no alterations when moving to
a new setup. Macromediaæs products seem to cover every aspect of
developing multimedia products, sound recording/editing, 3D design,
animation, etc.
8.8
Recently, Online Media and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) signed a
co-operative development agreement. This will initially involve a
Étechnology swapæ; DEC supplying server equipment (getting the
information to the Évieweræ), Online Media supplying the set-top boxes
able to interpret and present the information to the Évieweræ.
8.8
What about the competition?
8.8
BT have just begun trials of their own interactive TV system.
Information is fed to your home via a phone line using a system that
allows 2Mb per second in one direction, along with some slower control
signals and the normal telephone service. The STB used in their trials
is based on an Apple Mac LC475, modified to support the new services.
This service sounds very similar to the Online Media trials, including
Home shopping, movies, music, education and sport. Interestingly enough,
Anglia are supplying material for the BT trials, as is the BBC.
8.8
Apparently, a company called Videotron UK have had interactive TV
available in London for around three years now. This seems to be a
simpler system, allowing selection of one program from a menu, whereupon
the interaction ends. Alternatively, a question and answer system may be
used, for example in educational programs. Videotron have recently
introduced a newer mode of operation in which extra information is
transmitted along with the main program Ö for example, different camera
views or action replay from a live sports match. There is also an
interactive news, travel and weather service.
8.8
Using a different approach, systems such as Philips CD-i, advertised as
ÉOne player, countless opportunitiesæ are competing in the same area.
These systems confine you to playing the games or movies you have
available on CD-ROM. Interactive TV with the STB should eventually allow
greater choice of movie, and the possibility of multiplayer games with/
against people with similar systems, and extra services like shopping.
In fact, Philips Media are likely to supply material created for CD-i
and VideoCD for the OnLine Media tests, so they are clearly looking to
the future. CD-i is available now, whereas it will be a year or two
before the STB and interactive TV are widely available Ö so we might see
a shift by Philips to their own interactive TV system, or a greater
involvement in current projects as time goes by.
8.8
Viewer or user?
8.8
To be honest, TV bores me silly most of the time. What I prefer is a
good old-fashioned computer! öBut why?ò, I ask myself.
8.8
Think about the title of this section Ö ÉViewer or Useræ. Viewers
participate in a one-way session with the TV, whilst users participate
in a two-way conversation with their machine. Are Online Media creating
an exciting new two-way communication, or a slightly more pedestrian
one-way system? From what I have seen of Online Media, the system is
going to be leaning towards the one-way communication Ö with the
interactive part of the system amounting to the sort of interaction one
presently has with a video recorder Ö and that doesnæt drive me wild.
8.8
Conclusion
8.8
What are the implications for the Acorn world in general and for the STB
user in particular?
8.8
Acorn hardware and software developed for the STB could filter back to
the Risc PC Ö weære already seeing this happen with CCæs MPEG video
card, which is a development of hardware built into the Online Media
STB. Other hardware and software could be treated in this way, providing
a great source of expansion requiring little extra development.
8.8
There is no real need for the interaction to be one-way, as suggested
earlier. If the facilities currently available on the Internet could be
transferred to interactive TV, and expanded, making them easier for the
general man in the street to use, the potential for true interaction is
enormous. Individual users or groups should be able to contribute to the
information available, allowing the views of people worldwide to be
combined. The potential for business is vast. A bank of information
could be prepared which the user will investigate; far better than
producing an advert which must incorporate everything required in a
static image or a few seconds on TV.
8.8
In addition, as the STB takes off, maybe Acorn will gain some serious
respect in a world which normally brushes them aside.áu
8.8
Latest news
8.8
In the last issue of Archive (8.7 p31) Paul reported on the recent
licensing of the ARM Ltd RISC technology by Digital Semiconductor. The
development of a high speed but not power-hungry processor could be a
big influence on the success of the Online Media STBæs. Commenting on
the agreement, Malcolm Bird, Chief Executive of Online Media, said: öThe
ARM processor was the obvious choice for our digital set-top products.
Now, the combination of the benefits of the ARM architecture with the
performance available from DECæs processes and technology shows the way
for the future. Our interactive TV products can use all the performance
that results. We like the price and low power consumption on offer as
well!ò
8.8
Online Media and Viewcall Europe plc have recently signed a supply and
co-operative development agreement under which Online Media will design
and supply digital set-top boxes for Viewcallæs specific requirements.
The Viewcall service is intended to go to commercial trials later this
year. The STB to be used will incorporate the ARM 7500. This is a
combined processor/memory and video controller similar to the ARM 250
used in the A4000/A3020 series of machines, except that it is based on
the ARM 7 processor core. Viewcall have also implemented their own
fractal compression software on the Online Media machines. The
combination of these factors will allow TV-quality still images to be
transmitted down an ordinary telephone line. The services provided will
include local and national services, including catalogue shopping and
Internet access. Since the STBæs will be based on Online Mediaæs
existing hardware, they will be compatible with existing software
packages for Acorn computers and Online Media designs, andáalso with
cable and other transmission media asárequired.
8.8
Finally, Oracle Corporation have announced that Online Media will port
the Oracle New Media software to its machines. öThe Oracle environment
allows software developers to write interactive multimedia applications
without limiting the set-top devices with which they can work. End-users
donæt want to concern themselves with connectivity; they want to know
that the set-top box will talk to the infrastructure that is provided,ò
said Malcolm Bird, chief executive of Online Media. öOracleæs
environment makes it possible for set-top designers to be innovative in
their product architectures, which means that new families of products
will emerge with additional capabilities, while retaining
compatibility.ò
8.8
Oracle, which is based in California, is the worldæs leading supplier of
information management software. The Oracle New Media suite of software
provides a means of creating broadcast-quality multimedia applications
for both CD-ROM and interactive television. It represents a library
which can manage all forms of information: video, audio, text, etc.
Lastly, STBs are able to access the library of data and present it to
the viewer/user.áu
8.8
Map Importer
8.8
Mike Samworth
8.8
Map Importer is produced by Minerva Software and works with all RISCáOS
machines, having been trialed on A3000, A4000 and Risc PC. In essence,
it is a simple piece of software that performs a single function, that
of converting Ordnance Survey data into drawfiles for further use.
8.8
Ordnance Survey produce map data in a number of forms, one of which is
National Transfer Format (NTF). It is this type of data that Map
Importer converts into drawfiles. Once the data is in Draw format, it
can, of course, be manipulated, printed, enhanced or moved into a DTP
package, database or whatever. The use of the software depends on the
possible uses to which drawfiles of maps can be put. Depending upon
which digital data file is processed, it can provide geographical
information such as buildings, roads, fences, rivers, railways, places
names and county boundaries.
8.8
The program is very simple to use. It is supplied on a single floppy
and, once installed, an icon appears on the icon bar in the usual
fashion. NTF files are dropped onto this, whereupon the hourglass
appears as the program converts the data. When this is complete, a
window appears giving details of the resulting drawfile, including type
and size. The usual Draw icon can then be dragged to a filer window to
save it.
8.8
Menu options, accessed from the icon bar, include being able to choose
the area of the map converted, the detail (which is items to include,
such as roads, boundaries, etc) and some control over output, the
thickness of the lines, for instance. Obviously, resultant drawfiles can
be printed using the standard printer drivers.
8.8
The package comes with two data files (NTF) on the disk, neither of
which are particularly inspiring, and the manual includes a short
tutorial. Anyone familiar with RISCáOS will have no trouble at all with
the package.
8.8
The package was tried by a number of Secondary Geography teachers. They
seemed quite impressed by the principle of the package and by its
execution but a little short of ideas on how it would enhance learning
in their subject. One criticism was that contours do not appear on any
of the map data supplied. Also, they seemed to know little about the
availability of data files, though the manual states these are freely
available to LEA-funded establishments (which we are not). The package
seems to perform its function admirably but will stand or fall on the
ease with which teachers are able to obtain the data files, particularly
of local areas.
8.8
There is a very bold statement in the manual! öThe impact of this unique
software will be wide ranging and Minerva guarantee that teachers will
use OS data in many exciting ways which have not been previously
possible.ò
8.8
Perhaps it would have been a good idea for them to give examples of this
type of thing in the manual, ideally linked to better suited data files
on the disk. Map Importer costs ú29.95 for a single user copy, ú45 for a
primary site licence and ú120 for a secondary site licence. (All + p&p
and VAT).áu
8.8
CC
8.8
From 8.7 page 28
8.8
CC
8.8
From 8.7 page 27
8.8
Non-Designeræs Design Book
8.8
Paul Beverley
8.8
The Non-Designeræs Design Book was reviewed a couple of months ago (8.6
p23) but I want to draw attention to it again because I think it is so
good. I thought Iæd check whether it was just me who was so enthusiastic
about it, so I wrote to ten of the people who had bought a copy through
Archive to get their views.
8.8
Usersæ views
8.8
I asked them to say, on a scale of 1 to 5, (1= Poor, 2=Fair, 3=Average,
4=Good, 5=Excellent) what they thought of the book in terms of
(a)ácontent, (b) readability, and (c) value for money. I also invited
them, if they had time, to offer their own personal comments. Here are
the responses I have had so far...
8.8
(5, 5, 5) öI bought it on the strength of the review Ö which struck me
as a good assessment of the book.ò
8.8
(5, 5, 4) öComing from a design-oriented background, Iæm always amused
by peopleæs assumption that buying a computer activates a fully-fledged,
but latent, design ability. There are an awful lot of magazines,
posters, leaflets, etc being produced by computer owners who have no
appreciation that type and layout have to be learnt, even if you are
gifted with natural ability to start with. Robinæs book should be
compulsory reading.ò
8.8
(5+, 5+, 5++) öIf I had had this book a year ago, I wouldnæt have wasted
ú300+ on a DTP correspondence course.ò
8.8
(5, 5, 5) No comment
8.8
(6, 6, 6) öItæs made a complete difference to the way I look at text Ö
even with ordinary wordprocessing, let alone page layout.ò
8.8
(3, 5, 4) öCompared with other books on a similar theme (especially Into
Print by Quilliam & Grove-Stephenson) this one is a little limited in
content Ö but then it deals with that content well.ò (Sadly, that book
is now out of print. Ed.)
8.8
(4, 4, 4) No comment
8.8
(5, 5, 5) öAn excellent book which I expect to be in regular use.ò
8.8
(5, 5, 4) öA pleasure to read and, consequently, easy to digest. I
learnt more from this book (and remember) than from other sources I have
read in the past. Thanks for bringing this book to my attention.ò
8.8
(Not a bad response rate (90%) to my request for comments Ö many thanks
to all those who responded so quickly.)
8.8
So thatæs one Éaverageæ (4%) for content but nothing less than Égoodæ
(22%) from anyone on any of the three criteria and 74% of the
assessments were Éexcellentæ or better so I think we can safely say that
they liked it!
8.8
The Editoræs view
8.8
The main reason I think it is so good is that it is simple. OK, itæs not
a textbook for a design course, and OK, it might not be as full of
content as some books but it presents you with the basic principles.
Whatæs more, it does it simply and with lots of example, so that you can
see what she means. The result is that (a) you can understand them, (b)
you can remember them and (c) you can apply them.
8.8
Just to show you that even I can remember them, the main design
principles that Robin suggests are Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and
Proximity Ö and I know what each means and I can, and do, apply them.
(She even suggests an acronym to help us remember them Ö although I
donæt think CARP is terribly memorable, do you?!)
8.8
Also, I can remember and identify the five main categories of type Ö Old
Style, Modern Style, Sans Serif, Slab Serif and Script. (Drat, I did
that from memory and there are actually six Ö I missed out Decorative Ö
but I never use them in any of my work so I can be forgiven, canæt I?!)
8.8
Finally, I can identify and explain the three main ways of combining
different typefaces: Concord (OK), Conflict (Bad) and Contrast (Good).
8.8
The proof of the pudding...
8.8
(This is probably dangerous but...) I have used what Iálearned from the
book to make changes to Archive this month. Now itæs possible that you
may not like the changes Ö although I hope you do Ö but the point is
that, having read Robinæs book, I felt confident to have a go at
fiddling things around and trying to improve the look of the magazine.
In other words, I am now able, consciously, to make changes and have a
vocabulary for discussing the changes.
8.8
For example, in terms of using type, I have moved away from the Ésafeæ
technique of using Éconcordæ (different weights and styles of the same
basic face, Plantin) to the bolder and more interesting use of
Écontrastæ Ö using Plantin (an old style face) for the body text with
Gill Sans (a sans serif face) for the titles and Éboldæ bits. For added
contrast, I have even gone up to the UltraBold weight of Gill Sans.
8.8
For those who already have a copy of the book, see if you can see what
principles I have used (well, tried to!) in making other changes. I have
consciously used repetition and proximity Ö although the latter is
difficult in a document that is so jam-packed with information. I think
the alignment was there already in the original design.
8.8
The offer
8.8
As you will have gathered by now, I think that this is a book that every
WP and DTP owner should have. Iæm so convinced that you will find it
useful that I am prepared to offer a complete money-back guarantee.
8.8
  uáyou pay ú13
8.8
  uáwe send you the book
8.8
  uáyou keep the packaging
8.8
  uáyou return the book within 14 days
8.8
  uáwe send you a full refund Ö i.e. ú13
8.8
No questions will be asked Ö thereæll be no need to give reasons for
returning it and thereæll be no deduction for postage or admin.
8.8
Iæm even prepared to extend this outside the UK although, obviously, the
initial cost is higher because of the extra postage:
8.8
    uáEurope ú14
8.8
    uáAustralasia ú17
8.8
    uáElsewhere ú16
8.8
What is more, we wonæt make any surcharge on credit cards for this one
purchase.
8.8
Anyone can use it
8.8
Remember that this book applies to any type of computer, not just Acorn.
As you can see from the responses I have shared with you, people will
thank you for recommending the Non-Designeræs Design Book to them Ö and
the sales will help to keep Norwich Computer Services afloat!! So feel
free to offer a copy to a friend, giving them the same money-back
guarantee as weære offering you.áu
8.8
Club News
8.8
Wakefield Acorn Computer User Group will be changing its meeting night
from the first Thursday of each month, to the first Wednesday of each
month, with effect from the July meeting.
8.8
Meetings are held at the West Yorkshire Sports & Social Club, Sandal
Hall Close, Walton Lane, off the A61 Barnsley Road, Sandal, Wakefield at
7.30 Ö 9.30/10p.m. Membership is ú6 p.a. for Full or Corresponding
Members, and we have a Family Membership at ú10 p.a. Visitors can come
on the night and pay 75p at the door.
8.8
The User Group will be having a stand at the Spring Acorn User Show in
Harrogate, where anyone interested may visit the stand and find out more
about what we do.
8.8
Contact address for details is: 95 Cumbrian Way, Lupset Park, Wakefield,
WF2á8JT.áu
8.8
Help!!!!
8.8
Articles wanted Ö Thanks for all the response to the request last time
for (ideas for) articles. Iæve had a few articles Ö for which, many
thanks Ö and Iæve been given a few ideas.
8.8
Printers Ö Could someone give advice about the choice of printer Ö dot
matrix, inkjet and/or laser printers? (I realise this is a big job!)
8.8
Educational jargonáÖáWeæve had a very useful glossary of Acorn computing
terms but what about someone explaining the educational jargon used in
Archive? What is a Key Stage, for example?
8.8
Ed.áu
8.8
Business Strategy game Ö Does anyone know of a business strategy game
for RISCáOS computers? Something like öDetroitò on the PC is what weære
trying to find.
8.8
Ethne Scott, Norwich.áu
8.8
Changing Style Ö I recently purchased Impression Style, and, on the
whole, I find it very good except for an annoying tendency it has to
unexpectedly jump out of whatever condition has been selected on the
button bar. For example, in composing this, I had initial difficulty in
getting it to stay in 14pt as it kept going back to 12pt unbidden! The
same thing happens with the various fonts, the bold button, etc. I wrote
to CC about it but they appear to be unable to answer queries at the
moment.
8.8
I have heard of others experiencing the same problem and wonder if it is
caused by a software bug in Style. However, I noticed a similar problem
with First Word Plus. When selecting italics, for example, it would
sometimes jump out of it without warning, or revert to it later after it
had been deselected.
8.8
Gerry Muldowney, Reading.áu
8.8
I frequently have similar problems with Impression; I find it one of the
most annoying features. Early wordprocessors had definite markers where
styles and effects changed Ö embedded commands in Wordwise for example.
WYSIWYG editors, however, hide this information, and many packages seem
to have rather random methods for handling the changes.
8.8
Take the text Éstylechangeæ, for example. If I click between the Étæ and
the Éyæ then I would get (and expect) the bold effect to be present.
Similarly, I would expect it to be absent between the Éhæ and the Éaæ.
What about between the Éeæ and the Écæ? In this case, the bold is used.
8.8
The situation is further complicated if there is a space, since it is
not apparent whether the effect is applied to the space or not. In
Impression, text entered at the caret seems to take the style
information from the character to the left, but if you change the style
at a point in the text, and move the caret (even to the same place, for
example if you open another window and the caret is Élostæ) then the
style change will not appear in the text, which frequently causes
confusion. Another effect can occur if you have floating blank lines,
particularly at the end of the text, you find that they can have styles
from earlier in the document attached.
8.8
Matthew Hunter, NCSáu
8.8
Commodore emulator Ö Does anyone know of a Commodore 64 emulator for the
Acorn machines so that I can run my old games and other software? Also,
is there any way of linking a Commodore 1541 Mk2 5╝ö floppy drive to an
Acorn computer?
8.8
Thomas Nelson, Nottingham.áu
8.8
Midi, Sibelius, etc Ö I am a computer programmer, musician and devoted
Acorn user. Iáadmit to a brief affair with a PC but soon saw the error
of my ways. I now have a Risc PC and use Sibelius 7 for writing music
using notation. It has basic Midi playback facilities but it lacks the
real-time input of note data and there is no control over Midi events
such as aftertouch, pitch bend, and program (instrument) change.
8.8
Sibelius say that real-time input and standard Midi file import/export
are coming, but Sibelius 7 is not a sequencer, it is a score editor, and
any Midi input/output is a bonus.
8.8
There is a gaping hole in the Acorn user market for a new kind of
sequencer Ö fast and intelligent, fun to use. I have loads of ideas but
neither enough time to develop them nor the necessary knowledge of wimp
programming. I do have a good grasp of data design and I know what the
product should do.
8.8
I am looking for any number of partners to help me produce a suite of
packages that will provide music composition and Midi sequencing/editing
facilities Ö Midi file import/export is a must. My interest lies in
having the package to use. Your interest may be likewise or, if the
product is saleable, maybe you want to make some money.
8.8
Please contact me, either by phone or by letter. Let me know what sort
of programs you write. Perhaps you could send me a disk.
8.8
Steve Atkinson, 8 Beechwood Mount, Burley, Leeds LS4 2NQ. (0113-275-
7325)
8.8
Printing problems Ö I have a font called Zapf. However, when using the
Canon BJ Turbo Driver from CC, Zapf will not print. It does appear
correctly on screen, both in Impression II and Draw. However, when told
to print, Impression just brings up an error ÉCanæt find fontæ, while
Draw just ignores it when printing. I have written to CC but have
received no answer. Can anyone else help?
8.8
Paul Pibworth, Gloucesteráu
8.8
Could this be related to the half-toning problems that have arisen
previously? Some fonts do not contain all the necessary information to
print. This can sometimes be solved by setting half-toning to Égraphics
onlyæ via the printer configuration window.
8.8
(If it is the Zapf Dingbats you want rather than the Zapf Chancery,
there is a font called just Dingbats that doesnæt suffer from this
problem. Ed.)
8.8
Matthew Hunter, NCSáu
8.8
Hints and Tips
8.8
CC Turbo Driver v4 Ö Iæd like to pass on to other Archive readers some
answers that I received from CC.
8.8
1) The command *Printer$BlackScale is no longer supported by the v4
TurboDrivers; instead, CC offer ösophisticated colour correction
tablesò; those for HP printers are öshortlyò to be released.
8.8
2) The Turbo module which could be used in earlier versions of the TD to
enable other printer drivers to use the dongled cable has been replaced
by the program !PrintQFS, which is cunningly hidden within
!System.!CCShared.
8.8
By the way, CC informed me that Style has reached version 3.07. Free
upgrades from v. 3.04 can be obtained in the usual way Ö by sending in
master disk 1. (Donæt forget to send the return postage!)
8.8
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germanyáu
8.8
Fireworkz Pro Ö I reported some problems with version 1.20 to Colton
Software and was told (in a letter dated 15th March) that the latest
version, 1.20/50, fixes most of these problems. Version 1.21 öis due out
in about three weeksò. (Colton are currently saying, öit will be
available during Aprilò. Ed) The upgrade procedure here is to send in
both program disks Ö donæt forget Ö return postage!
8.8
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germanyáu
8.8
Printing from text editors Ö Iámentioned, in my review of lottery
packages, that one of them would not print on my LaserDirect, because it
Éprintsæ to a null file instead of to the printer. I have now stopped
trying to use Zap for the same reason. If I drag a text file to the
printer icon (with Zap installed instead of Edit), it prints properly
but if I try to print the document currently displayed on the screen, it
does not. I donæt know whether this is a general problem or whether I
have overlooked some control parameter.
8.8
Colin Singleton, Sheffieldáu
8.8
Many text editors, including both Edit and Zap, cheat when you try to
print and send the data directly to the parallel port. This is fine if
you have a standard printer, but if you use a different connection (e.g.
serial or laser direct), the file will not be printed. Also, if you use
a Turbo Driver, it is circumvented by Edit, so the text is corrupted.
There are a couple of ways around this.
8.8
You can save to a file and drag that to the printer icon, or try
dragging the file from the save box to the print icon. This should have
the same result and it means that you donæt have to delete the file
afterwards. With Zap, you can also press <shift-print> rather than
<print> which will force the printout to go via the printer driver.
Since Zap allows you to reconfigure the keyboard shortcuts, you can set
<print> to print via the printer driver. (Choose Edit keys from the
options submenu, find the print keymapping which, by default, will be
set to Quickprint and change it to Printfile. Save the keys file and
choose Reload keys again, from the options submenu for the change to
take effect).
8.8
Matthew Hunter, NCSáu
8.8
Wolfenstein bugs Ö A few days after I had sent my Wolfenstein hint
(Archive 8.7, p.12) to Paul, I found that sometimes the saved files
remained open even though the !Cfs.!Run file was not.  I turned to
PowerSlave for help and this is what Eddie Edwards told me:
8.8
There is a bug in Wolfensteinæs code which means that the files are only
closed when the current directory is on the same filing system as
Wolfenstein. Since I use ADFS and SCSI, this would often not be the
case.
8.8
The recommended remedy is to add, at the start of the !Run file, a
Dir<Obey$Dir> command.
8.8
This fix seems to work perfectly.
8.8
Another problem I have is that Wolfenstein always kills my computeræs
beep. This bug can be fixed by adding:
8.8
Channelvoice 1 MyVoice
8.8
to the end of the !Run file.
8.8
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germanyáu
8.8
Since 74% of the assessments were Éexcellentæ or better, I think we can
safely say that they liked it!
8.8
Norwich Computer Servicesæ Repair Policy
8.8
Owing to staff shortage, very little repair work is now done on NCS
premises and most of it is currently being done by Repair Zone, an Acorn
Service Centre here in Norwich. If you want NCS to handle the repair and
to be your point of contact, thatæs fine but we have to add an
administration charge to the price that Repair Zone charge us. Also, as
Repair Zone are not VAT registered, if you come through NCS, we have to
charge you an extra 17.5%.
8.8
For example, if a repair costs us ú40 and we add a ú5 admin charge plus
VAT, that comes to ú52.87, so, it would make good sense for you to go
straight to Repair Zone (or Avie Electronics for fixed-price repairs Ö
see the advert on page 17). That would also help us because we cannot
make a profit from handling repairs, so it just represents a drain on
our resources as things stand.
8.8
We will, of course, continue to handle all warranty repairs ourselves.áu
8.8
Puzzle Corner
8.8
Colin Singleton
8.8
I have been inundated with Lottery Packages recently (well, four
anyway), but no further help with my minimum-entry problem. Anyone
attempting last monthæs pangram puzzle might try looking in old issues
of the Guinness Book of Records, and see if they can gain a place in
that publication by improving on the two published offerings.
8.8
Here are this monthæs two puzzles...
8.8
(13)áMultiple shifts
8.8
The number 179487 can be multiplied by four simply by moving the last
digit to the beginning. 179487á╫ 4á=á717948. Can you find the smallest
number possessing this property? If you manage that, can you find the
smallest such numbers for any other integer multiples? Some are fairly
easy to find, some are not, so please send any solutions you find!
8.8
(14)áVery acute
8.8
A simple geometrical question. What is the smallest number of acute-
angled triangles into which a square can be dissected? An acute-angled
triangle is one in which all three angles are less than, not equal to,
90░. I seem to recall this problem being posed by Martin Gardner in his
column in Scientific American in the 1960s, and discussed in our
personal correspondence, but I donæt recall anyone proving a minimum
solution. So send the best solution you can find. After studying this
frustrating puzzle for a while, you may find yourself asking, öWhy
didnæt I think of that earlier?ò
8.8
... and a couple of Éunofficialæ quickies (?)áto test the water...
8.8
(a)áWithout calculating either, which is larger, the tenth root of ten
or the cube root of two?
8.8
(b)áThirty-two snooker players of equal strength, including Smith and
Jones, have entered a knockout tournament. What is the chance that Smith
and Jones will play each other at some stage?
8.8
...and last monthæs two solutions...
8.8
(11)áPrime square
8.8
A four¡digit prime must end with one of the digits 1, 3, 7, 9áÖ hence
the numbers in the right¡hand column and the bottom row must contain
only those digits. There are 22 numbers (11 reverse pairs)ácomposed of
these digits which are primes and the reverses of primes. The rest is
trial and error, probably by computer. The solution shown is unique,
apart from its reflection about the main diagonal.
8.8
(12)áAnagram dictionary
8.8
I donæt think there is much doubt about the first three entries in the
anagram dictionary. They are a, aa and aaaaabbcdrr. Aa, derived from
Hawaiian, is a type of volcanic lava. Aaaaabbcdrr, in case you hadnæt
realised, is the anagram dictionary entry for Abracadabra! This is the
word with the largest number of As.
8.8
My answers for the last three were tttuy, ttu, and ttuu. These represent
tutty (crude zinc oxide), tut (equivalent to tut-tut, which is not
allowed in this puzzle because it is hyphenated)áand tutu (a ballerinaæs
skirt). I have since discovered, however, that Chambers Dictionary
includes tuzz (a tuft of hair), and the OED also lists the related words
tuz and tuzzy. These would appear in the anagram dictionary as tuz, tuzz
and tuyzz, which all follow ttuu. These words are highly obscure, and
probably obsolete, being apparently based on just one occurrence in
English Literature (by Dryden, in 1693). I therefore propose not to
adjudicate between the two sets of three words, and will accept tuzz and
its variations as Éoptionalæ.
8.8
...and congratulations to the previous monthæs two winners...
8.8
(9)áEgyptian fractions Ö Winner Ö John Banks of Rickmansworth, whose
program is included on the monthly disk.
8.8
(10)áMagic hexagon Ö Winner Ö Robert Newmark of Sunderland.
8.8
Comments and solutions
8.8
Two more repeat-winners. Surely there must be more puzzle addicts out
there? Please send your comments, contributions and solutions (including
the quickies)áto me at 41 St Quentin Drive, Sheffield, S17 4PN.
Solutions to me by Friday 12th May, please.áu
8.8
Pocket Book Column
8.8
Audrey Laski
8.8
After all the negative reporting of Acorn matters, rightly complained
about in recent issues of Archive, it was pleasant to see the Pocket
Book getting a very good press in an article on home/school computing in
The Observer in February. John Davitt, the author of the article,
suggested that the Acorn Pocket Book might be the öTrojan mouseò (his
words) to bridge the home-school divide, and reported the experience of
a fifteen-year-old girl pupil at the Lord Grey School in Milton Keynes,
who keeps her Pocket Book by her while watching television so that she
can type notes on interesting science programmes and download them at
school. She was also quoted as preferring to use the Pocket Book to her
familyæs PC because the PCæs Éhard drive is full, and itæs very slow and
has printing problems.æ
8.8
An outbreak of worms
8.8
Writing, appropriately, from a veterinary clinic in Stocksfield,
Northumbria, Christine Shield reports that her Psion 3 has worms. ÉBlack
vermiform tightly-bunched lines are appearing within the screen ... they
are opaque, present even when the screen is switched off, and they
obscure the display.æ This seems a serious problem which I have not
heard of before, and I wonder if any Psion or Pocket Book users have any
experience or information which could be useful to Christine.
8.8
Pocket Book uses Ö A portable librarian
8.8
David Wild writes of the way he has been using his Psion 3a in
association with a Squirrel database on his A540 to catalogue his
collection of books, Éwhich is threatening to take over the houseæ. To
avoid carrying books to the computer, he transfers the information via
the Psion, where he has created three database files, Booklist,
containing all the books recorded to date, Newbooks to receive new
entries, and Bookmast, a write-protected file containing a record
template. (Incidentally, is there an agreed name for such a dummy
database file, invaluable for avoiding having to edit the Cards labels
every time? Iæve heard it called a descriptor file but is that the
official name?). He can then transfer Newbooks to the A540 via the A-
Link, edit it appropriately and import it into Squirrel. Merging
Booklist and Newbooks gives him an updated Booklist on the Psion, useful
for simple searches in a bookshop, while a copy of Bookmast becomes the
new Newbooks.
8.8
He mentions some problems and wishes. When using the facility to copy
text from one entry to another, there is a danger of material turning up
on the wrong line if there have been empty lines in the copied text.
There is a warning about this in the Pocket Book manual. It would be
good to have a facility to copy individual records from one file to
another, and Éa facility to create a new file with the labels of the old
one, but no records or, failing that, aábulk delete program which would
let you copy a file with a new name and then empty it.æ Bulk deletion
would obviate the need for the dummy file.
8.8
Pocket Book uses Ö Managing charity
8.8
Several months ago, I made a couple of enthusiastic mentions of John
Whitingæs Outline, one of the programs available from 3-Lib. Recently,
Iæve found a new use for it. Like many people, I manage my small
contributions to charity via a Charities Aid Foundation account,
contracting to pay in a certain amount each year which then gets topped
up by the tax man, and writing CAF cheques to various charities. I
wanted to spread these over a range of issues such as development, human
rights, housing, arts and others, and to achieve some kind of balance
between these, but it was hard, over the months, to keep track. Now I
record the cheques in an Outline file under appropriate headings as they
go out, and can easily see whether some areas are much more neglected
than others. Clearly, this kind of organisation could be applied to many
other aspects of life.
8.8
Another quirk of Spell
8.8
Peter Young, of Cheltenham, who has discussed Spell in this column
before, writes to note that, while the manual records its maddening
habit of saving a word with its immediate punctuation unless you edit it
out, it doesnæt mention that it also insists on including punctuation
when you use the Acorn-L option to get it to ignore a new word that you
donæt want to add to a dictionary. If the word is attached to different
punctuation each time it occurs, it will keep being queried. As he says,
Éthis is infuriating and there doesnæt seem to be a way round it.æ Does
anyone know one?
8.8
He also complains of problems when trying to print semi-directly from
the Pocket Book, usefully mentioning that Éyou canæt print from the
Pocket Book (or indeed use the öCommsò application) when the Remote Link
is on,æ but referring also to more intractable difficulties. John, of
the other side of the bed, is working on an article on problems of
printing and configuration which, I hope, will deal with his and other
readersæ difficulties when it comes through.
8.8
Contrite dunceæs endnote
8.8
I was sent, via Archive, an enquiry about a plotter problem, and Iæve
somehow managed to lose it before recording the writeræs details. If
there is someone out there waiting for such a problem to be raised,
please forgive me and write again.áu
8.8
The Engineer Speaks
8.8
Ray Maidstone
8.8
How to Éwringæ your A3000!
8.8
In last monthæs comments on the A3000 RAM expansion intermittency test,
I told you to Éwringæ your machine! This is achieved by placing
something like a cassette case under the front right hand corner of the
computer, pressing gently down at the front left and rear right hand
corners simultaneously, and watching the monitor for adverse effects. It
is not necessary to disassemble the machine to see the symptoms and you
donæt need to press very hard!
8.8
A4 battery usage
8.8
Further to last monthæs comments about A4 battery usage, it is possible
to confuse the A4 if you reinstall the battery when the machine is
switched on in mains condition, or if you allow the PSU to become
unplugged. It is a bit of a grey area, but I would recommend switching
off the machine before fitting a battery. It is advisable to screw in
the mains plug adaptor retainers.
8.8
System life, heat...
8.8
Is it better to leave equipment on all the time or only to switch on
when needed? The full answer is complicated. Basically, the various
components that go to make up a computer system all have different
needs.
8.8
u Hard drives wear out in proportion to the time they spin, although,
with modern drives being able to spin down, this is no longer a problem.
8.8
u Switch mode PSUs donæt like being left on any longer than necessary.
They have to handle rectified mains Ö typically 400 volts DC Ö with the
odd spike thrown in for good measure! They warm up nicely, overheating
the smoothing electrolytics, which deteriorate over the course of time.
8.8
u The computer pcb itself basically comprises a processor driving some
RAM, and this is designed to go the distance.
8.8
u Monitors have a switch mode PSU (covered above), and an EHT unit
delivering the tens of thousands of volts needed to give you a picture.
New style monitors have EHT cut-off, so this problem is only relevant to
older models. Screen savers donæt really help much in prolonging
equipment life as they are primarily to stop phosphor burn of repetitive
screen displays, and this effect is sometimes undesirable to certain
parts of the EHT circuitry.
8.8
So, I would advise that if you can organise your computer use to two
well-spaced sessions a day rather than just leaving it on, this would
reap eventual rewards in longer life of the equipment. (E.g. give your
computer the same lunch-break that the employees expect!) If you are a
company always needing instant access, you have no choice but to leave
the equipment on most of the time... and pay the eventual repair bills!
8.8
... and cooling fans
8.8
With the exception of Morley external hard drives, all equipment
containing a fan suffers in the following way. The speed of the slightly
imperfect plastic fan blades is too high for the air to flow smoothly
over its surface, so the blade makes a noise as it breaks the air. As
there are so many blades, you end up with a rushing noise. To provide
cooling for power supply heat sinks and hard drive cases, requires air
change at a steady rate, but it doesnæt need a Harrier Jump Jet air fan!
The airflow actually needed for complete cooling safety is achieved long
before full fan speed, which is why we came up with our fan quietener
many moons ago. It had the twofold effect of less noise and more
efficient airflow. As the fan moved the air more smoothly, less dust
ended up in the filters and various parts of the machine, particularly
the floppy drive. This does not apply to Acorn alone.
8.8
(For details of the fan quieteners, phone RepairZone on 01603-400477.)áu
8.8
Dalriada
8.8
From 8.6 page 41
8.8
Please can you remove the bit which says, öuntil 7th March 1995ò Ö for
obvious reasons?!
8.8
Geraldæs Column
8.8
Gerald Fitton
8.8
First some comment about FireworkzáPro and then to my monthly discourse
on a more general subject. What will it be about this time? Wait and
see!
8.8
FireworkzáPro
8.8
Each month, I try to classify the letters I receive by subject so that I
can discover what is topical. There is no doubt about the top-of-the-
list subject for this month. It is Colton Softwareæs recently released
FireworkzáPro. Letters range from requests asking me to help with the
creation of an unusual type of document starting with öHow can I ...á?ò,
through wish lists for the next version, to massive detailed comparisons
with earlier Colton Software products.
8.8
So far as help goes, where I know how to do something, I am only too
pleased to help Ö but please send me your problem with a disk example,
self addressed label and, if possible, return postage. In some cases, it
is not possible to do the thing you want to do, at least not in the way
you want to do it. In many of these latter cases, I have found that
youære asking me the wrong question. This is because you have already
made up your mind how you are going to do something Ö then you find that
Fireworkz wonæt do it your way! Often, when I find out exactly what
youære trying to achieve, I can suggest an alternative approach which
not only works but is usually much better and simpler to execute.
However, I must admit that there are some occasions where Iæm no help at
all!
8.8
Let me turn now to your praise and criticism of FireworkzáPro. I think
the fairest thing to say is that your reactions are mixed; an even
better description is that your views are polarised. I have to
generalise and, as with all generalities, there are exceptions. In
general then, those of you who have come to FireworkzáPro directly
(without the intermediate stages of Wordz, Resultz and Fireworkz) are
most impressed and those who have taken the long road with Colton
Software from PipeDreamá3 (or 2), through PipeDreamá4, Wordz, Resultz,
Fireworkz and now to Pro are generally the most disappointed.
8.8
If, like me, you have used Colton Softwareæs products for a long time,
let me ask you to step back and look at FireworkzáPro from a distance.
The fact that new users are impressed and like the package is because
(a) learning to use it is relatively easy and (b) it has many excellent
features you wonæt find elsewhere. In the first draft of the Fireworkzæ
specification, what these days is called a Éshort learning curveæ was
high on the list of priorities. Aásecond important part of that
specification was that it should have more useful features than any
similar package. To my mind, the positive reaction of new users to
FireworkzáPro shows that these two major objectives have been achieved.
For new users, FireworkzáPro is an excellent package Ö and they sayáso!
8.8
So why are we long-term Coltonites disappointed? Part of the reason is
that we expected something better! When PipeDream was launched it was
unique. It was by far the best spreadsheet for the Archimedes and,
whatæs more, it could be used as a word processor and simple database as
well! PipeDream has so many features that, even with many years of
experience, aficionados are still discovering short cuts and methods of
improving the way they use it! A long time ago, I said that, with
PipeDream, you can do things which are impossible with other packages.
That is still true.
8.8
I think we all expected that Fireworkz would have all the good features
of PipeDream plus many more. It hasnæt happened because, in changing to
and concentrating on a page-based layout, styles using fonts, variable
height rows, variable width slots and button bars, some of the
versatility of PipeDream has been lost Ö if only temporarily. From my
correspondence, the three features of PipeDream which are missed most
are keyboard shortcuts, command files and fast character printing (using
PipeDream printer drivers).
8.8
There is good news; I am assured that, in some future version, the first
two of these three features will be added; the underlying structure of
the program code is there, it just needs refinement. Iæm sure many of us
look forward to the day we can use these highly desirable features.
Although fast character printing is possible from Fireworkz (through
Acornæs RISCáOS drivers) many with experience of PipeDream find it too
difficult to get to grips with it properly. For others it does work!
8.8
Apart from loss of functionality (such as that Iæve just described)
perhaps the greatest complaint from ex-PipeDream users is that Fireworkz
is slower. Iæve also received reports that, with some machine and
spreadsheet configurations (but not all), a direct comparison of
Fireworkz and FireworkzáPro shows the latter to be noticeably slower. In
word processing mode, unfavourable comparisons are made with Style and
Publisher. One thing we can be sure of, Colton Software are acutely
aware of this complaint and are working on it.
8.8
The most serious criticism of FireworkzáPro which Iæve received is that
the integration of the card database is nothing like as seamless as
Colton Software devotees expected from the company which created the
leading integrated package. Most of us expected that we would be able to
mark a block in a Fireworkz spreadsheet containing, say, names and
addresses and, with a few deft mouse clicks, convert the marked block
into database format. Disappointingly, it is necessary to use an
intermediate CSV format file. I have spoken to Mark Colton about this
and Iæve been assured that a ÉMake databaseæ command (from a marked
block in a Fireworkz spreadsheet) will be included in the next version
of FireworkzáPro.
8.8
So what is my summary of FireworkzáPro, not for those new to Colton
Software (who are generally most favourably impressed) but to long term
devotees (who are generally disappointed)? Yes! It has bugs (more than
you and I expected at this stage); it lacks features which PipeDream has
and which you believe you need; it is slower than youæd like it to be;
the database feature is not as seamlessly integrated as you expected it
to be.
8.8
In spite of these deficiencies, my advice is that you should wait a
while before scrapping your investment of time and money in
FireworkzáPro and looking for something else. The grass might look
greener on the other side of the fence ù a new package might not do what
you want. My view is that FireworkzáPro has the makings of a good
integrated packageáÖáall it needs is improvement!
8.8
So, in the meantime, what should you do? Colton Software have a
reputation for listening to their customersæ criticisms, particularly
those who they regard as Éfamilyæ (the word they use to imply a long
term commitment between them and their faithful users). So, if you are
disappointed, donæt give up, write to them with your suggestions for
improvements. Iæm sure that theyæll listen and that when the next
version is released, youæll be pleased that you did.
8.8
Finally, if you are about to buy FireworkzáPro, donæt be put off by
these criticisms I have voiced. My information is that, by the time you
read this (or shortly afterwards), there will be a new release which
will have the most annoying and mystifying of the bugs removed.
8.8
Topic Number 2 Ö Introduction
8.8
One of the questions I am asked with increasing frequency is öWhy should
I buy an Archimedes (for my next machine) rather than a PC?ò Most of the
people who ask this are not intending to buy a PC; theyæve already made
up their mind to buy an Acorn machine. Their difficulty is that they are
being confused by facts thrown at them by PC users, and what they need
is reassurance that the decision theyæve already made is the right one.
8.8
I give different answers to different people. These range from
considerations of the price of comparable software, to the way in which
all packages and utilities (including Style, Draw and the Acorn Font
manager) work harmoniously with each other to make the whole system
greater than the sum of the parts. However, there is one type of user
for whom I have a more unusual answer. Those users (a) receive a lot of
software on disk or over the phone and (b) send software to others.
8.8
To these people, I sometimes say that one big advantage of buying Acorn
is that: (a) itæs much harder to catch a virus (b) the viruses generally
do less damage (c) there are fewer viruses and the ones that exist are
well documented, and (d) the cost of keeping your system clear of
viruses is much less.
8.8
The PC has an operating system that has to be held on disk (the Acorn
machines hold their operating system in ROM) and when it gets infected,
youære in real trouble. There are many PC viruses and the degree of
protection which you can get depends upon how much money you can afford.
Some commercial organisations using PCs (who must keep free of viruses)
spend hundreds of pounds every year on anti-virus utilities. On an Acorn
machine, you can get a better degree of protection for less than ú30 a
year than you can by spending hundreds of pounds a year on protecting a
PC.
8.8
What is a virus?
8.8
Referring to computer systems in general, there are three types of
Énastyæ which you catch Ö only one of these is correctly called a virus.
8.8
The first is more correctly called a Trojan Horse. These nasties
masquerade as one thing, probably something useful, but do something
nasty as well. An example of such a nasty is a utility which you install
so that your backspace key (just to the right of the ú key) deletes
backward but the <Delete> key deletes in the forward direction (just
like <Copy> does in Style). You might install such a utility because you
think itæs useful. Another useful utility is one which grabs the screen
as a Sprite. Of course, the Trojan Horse utility you buy does work and
does exactly what you installed it to do. What you wonæt discover until
itæs too late, is that it does something nasty as well. (See below for
nasty things which can happen.) Usually, the Trojan Horse doesnæt make
copies of itself and you have to be running it before it can do its
dirty work! In the Acorn world, there are Trojan Horse types of nasty.
8.8
The second type of nasty is more correctly called a Worm. If you have a
Worm in your system, you probably have only one. If you have a network,
it might move around on the network. On a stand-alone machine, it may
move from one package or data file to another gobbling up bits of
program or data as it goes. Most Worms donæt reproduce. As far as I
know, the only Worm nasty on Acorn systems operates on networks and not
stand-alone machines.
8.8
The third type is the true Virus. If you have one, youæll soon have many
copies spread throughout your hard and floppy disks. Generally, the
Acorn viruses are stand-alone relocatable modules or they are lines of
code added to existing modules. An example of a module is the Colours
(ColourTrans) module which youæll find in your !System directory.
Modules such as Colours can be infected by having a virus added to it.
8.8
Some stand alone viral modules have a Sprite filetype, some the Data
filetype and others the Basic filetype Ö but they arenæt what they seem!
They are modules written in machine code. As a general rule, the viral
module (or the legitimate module which has been infected) is called into
action by adding an extra line to a !Boot file. What the module does is
to reproduce itself and place a copy of itself in another packageæs
directory. For example, a copy called from within the !Style directory
might be placed in the !Fireworkz directory (and the !Fireworkz !Boot
file modified). When you switch on next time and run the
!Fireworkz.!Boot file, the copy (from within the !Fireworkz directory)
will be copied somewhere else (e.g.áinto the !DrawPlus directory). In
the meantime, as well as making copies of itself, the virus will do
something nasty.
8.8
What do viruses do?
8.8
From here on, let me concentrate only on those viruses which can affect
an Acorn machine.
8.8
Nearly all Acorn viruses enter the useræs system through packages (which
Acorn call applications) rather than through data files. So something
starting with a É!æ such as É!Styleæ can be infected whereas something
such as a ReadMe file is much less likely to be infected.
8.8
Some viruses have a trigger date which is activated by the real time
clock in the Archimedes. Until then they do nothing except reproduce
themselves so that, by the time something happens, you will probably
have multiple infections.
8.8
Some viruses change the datestamp of a file so that when you upgrade by
dragging a new version of, say, Colours, over the old one, the old one
fails to be overwritten because its datestamp is newer than the new
version of the file! Iæve known many people whoæve failed to upgrade
their !System modules because of this type of virus.
8.8
Other viruses only do nasty things now and again. For example, they may
do something nasty only when itæs the 13th (or 113th) time you call
them. Once again, you can have these viruses for a long time before
anything nasty happens.
8.8
Some viruses do simple things such as grabbing memory every time you
load a file; the result is that you seem to use up memory far too
quickly! Others do very nasty things; there is one which will format
your :0 floppy disk (unless youæve write protected it); another will
delete part of a data file (and you wonæt notice it until you reload it
and find that itæs corrupted); there is one which modifies your
configuration or your (switch on) !Boot file Ö so that your !System
directory canæt be found!
8.8
Some history
8.8
Both as an author for Archive, and in running our User Groups, we
receive and send out many disks. It would cause us no little discomfort
if we contracted a virus; it would be disastrous if we sent out a batch
of disks containing a virus. Although we havenæt done it yet (and I hope
we never will) many magazines, including Archive (a long time ago) have
had the misfortune to send out a virus infected disk.
8.8
My recollection is that, at first, Acorn ridiculed the idea that viruses
could exist on the Archimedes. Even when the first ones appeared Acorn
(in my view mistakenly) tried to keep the lid on this information, since
they thought it might cause a panic. When the news broke, it did!
8.8
Acorn developed the first Virus protection utility for their machines
and then hastily appointed (if that is the right word) a company called
Pineapple Software to continue further development.
8.8
What do we do?
8.8
For our part, we subscribe to the Pineapple protection programme. This
Acorn-approved scheme costs less than ú30 a year. As part of this
protection programme, we receive about four disks from Pineapple each
year; these disks contain the latest version of a virus detection and
remover utility called Killer.
8.8
When any of you send me a floppy disk, I write-protect your disk (so
that I canæt infect it) and then I always run !Killer over it before I
click on the :0 disk drive. If I find anything nasty on your disk, I let
you know right awayáÖ by æphone if possible.
8.8
You will appreciate that !Killer can protect me only from known viruses
(i.e.áviruses known to Acorn and Pineapple); however, the module
VProtect (part of the protections system), which I always load at
startup, is much better since it prevents my machine becoming
contaminated with the most common types of unknown viruses (ones which
load through an Obey file such as !Boot files). I do realise that there
is still a chance of infection but I have no doubt that I am using the
best virus protection available for the Archimedes.
8.8
I keep the masters of my packages (such as !Style) write-protected and I
keep back ups of all my data files. If my system does get infected (it
hasnæt yet), I can rebuild it from the master and backup disks.
8.8
What can you do?
8.8
Ideally, subscribe to Pineappleæs virus protection programme. Write-
protect all incoming disks before you insert them in your machine. Keep
only packages (not data) on your hard disk. Keep data files on floppy
disk. Keep a backup copy of all your data files.
8.8
If you do those things then, if an unknown virus strikes, you will be
able to rebuild your system from the master disks and from the backup
dataáfiles.
8.8
Enquiries about the operation of !Killer, and administrative/sales
enquiries (e.g. area/site licences) should be made to Pineapple
Software.
8.8
An interesting example
8.8
Recently, one of my correspondents (who wants to remain anonymous),
contracted a version of the Module virus. He tried unsuccessfully to
kill his viruses with !Killer and, in desperation, asked for our help.
We did help him and we asked him to write a few words on the subject.
8.8
He writes: öI had !Killer installed on my hard disk and I managed to get
it to run but it failed to find a virus I was sure I had. When I
finished checking my hard disk, all the signs and symptoms of viral
infection, including a message from the virus, were still there, indeed
the situation was worse than when I started. Gerald suggested that I
look in my System.Modules directory. I did and found that the virus had
datestamped many of my modules.
8.8
I decided that I must have an unknown virus but Gerald had a different
idea. I was wrong Ö he was right (as usual)! What had happened was that
a System module needed by !Killer was infected and was (a) preventing
!Killer doing its work and (b) infecting everything else! With Geraldæs
help, I put together a Ékilling systemæ on a write-protected floppy disk
which removed over 90 copies of the virus off my hard disk. The moral of
this story is to keep an infection-free copy of your !Killer on a write-
protected floppy, together with an infection-free copy of all the
!System modules it needs.ò
8.8
The PC Emulator
8.8
The PC side of the Archimedes can contract PC viruses. You canæt kill PC
viruses with !Killer. If you receive and send out much PC material, you
are likely to get your PC side infected with a PC virus. If you decide
to go for protection, it will cost you lots of money. If you still
insist on using the PC emulator, make sure that you can rebuild your
DOS, Windows and PC Packages from the original masterádisks.
8.8
There is an alternative to buying expensive viral protection for your PC
side. My son, who works professionally in the PC world, suggests that
everyone who uses a PC should reformat their hard disk and install all
utilities, packages, etc from the master disks every six months (or more
often if itæs important to remain virus free). He says, öKeep only
packages, etc, on the hard disk; keep data on floppies! That way youæll
be able to rebuild your system at any time you think you might have
beenáinfected.ò
8.8
I think heæs right and that, in the case of the PC, reformatting and
reinstalling from (write-protected) master disks regularly is the most
cost-effective method of keeping a PC system clean. I know that many of
you will disagree Ö I can only give you the opinion of myself and that
of my son.
8.8
In conclusion
8.8
Contracting a virus is a traumatic experience; it can happen to you. If
it does, donæt jump to the conclusion that it has only just happened and
blame the last disk you received.
8.8
If you donæt have protection then, when you catch the virus, copy any
unique data files (as far as I know data files can be infected only with
a worm) from your hard disk onto floppies, reformat your hard disk and
then reinstall all your packages from your (write-protected) master
disks. Alternatively, telephone Pineapple and order Killer on your
credit card.
8.8
PipeDream and the RiscáPC
8.8
Is there a problem? I still donæt have a RiscáPC yet, so the following
is second-hand. The RiscáPC doesnæt use the system font but an outline
font which you can choose for yourself. Iæve been told that, when the
row numbers exceed 99, the leading numbers are lost so that row 1234
will appear as 34 (without the 12 in front). If you have found this to
be so, and particularly if you have any solution or advice for a work-
around, please write to me.
8.8
(Yes, it is a problem, although I get three out of four characters and,
no, I donæt have a solution. Sorry! Ed.)
8.8
Finally
8.8
You can write to me at the Abacus Training address given on the back
cover of Archive; it is quicker than writing via the Archive office.
8.8
If you write to Colton Software about Fireworkz Pro (or PipeDream and
the RiscáPC or anything else) then please let me know how you get on.
8.8
And (but not as an afterthought) thanks again for all your letters;
theyære always good fun toáread!áu
8.8
... there are three types of Énastyæ... ...only one of these is
correctly called a virus.
8.8
Write-protect all incoming disks before you insert them in your machine.
8.8
HolyBible from ExpLAN
8.8
Gabriel Swords
8.8
Iæve seen some quite impressive Bible programs in my time, but I think
HolyBible could be the one to beat them all! Certainly, there is nothing
on RISC OS to beat it but there are many Mac and PC programs which
HolyBible leaves standing.
8.8
What you get...
8.8
The HolyBible Ébase packæ comes on six disks, made up of the Installer,
the HolyBible application (400Kb); the King James Version of the Bible
(2.7Mb) and Strongæs Lexicon (3.2). The software is compressed onto High
Density (1.6Mb) disks Ö if your machine canæt read HD disks, ExpLAN will
exchange them for 800Kb disks. The package needs to be installed using
the installer and although you do not have to load all three items, you
do need to have the base pack before you can go on to purchase/load any
of the other modules, available separately.
8.8
The final manual isnæt ready yet so you only get a photocopied one Ö the
printed manual will be sent later, free of charge. At the moment, the
only other module available is NIV but the NSRV, with study notes, and
the Russian version, with Cyrillic font, are going to be available
within a couple of weeks or so, we hope.
8.8
Installing is straightforward enough, providing you donæt get confused
with the first installer window Ö it shows you a window with two
apparently writable fields (Application Path and Font Path). Naturally,
you feel the need to put something in them, but you can safely ignore
them until a bit later Ö just follow the on-screen instructions and
carry on.
8.8
(I had a problem installing mine in that the instructionsásaid Ö yes, I
do read instructions Ö that when a particular logo appeared, you had to
drag it to a directory. I tried in vain to drag this icon but it
wouldnæt drag. I quit and started again Ö still no joy. Eventually, I
realised that this wasnæt the right icon Ö yes, it was a picture of the
Bible but it didnæt have an arrow on it Ö but as it was the first time I
had seen the icon, I could be forgiven for thinking that this was the
draggable one! Could you make it clearer for wallies like me, please,
ExpLAN? Ed.)
8.8
Once itæs installed on your hard disk, youære ready to go. Double click
and it loads, very quickly, onto the icon bar. It loads quickly because
what you actually load is the HolyBible application which is only 400Kb
Ö the rest of the program works by accessing the hard disk. Surely, that
must slow things down, I hear you say. Not so.
8.8
In fact, the first thing you notice about HolyBible is the speed at
which works. In single word search mode it will look through the whole
Bible in about five seconds. Even complex search strings take only a few
seconds more. Scrolling up and down takes no time at all Ö and it can be
speeded up by holding down <adjust> while you scroll. In fact, the whole
thing works extremely fast Ö even on my old A5000. With a faster
processor and hard drive, HolyBible fairly zooms along.
8.8
The display
8.8
When you click on the HolyBible icon, a scrollable window appears, with
a tool bar to the left and an info bar on the bottom. The default window
is Genesis 1, with verse 1 highlighted in a grey background.
8.8
The info bar
8.8
On the left of the info bar there is information about the current book
and verse. The current verse is known as the Éactive verseæ and is
always highlighted for easy reference. Below the book and verse
reference is the Choose book menu and up/down arrows for selecting a new
chapter or verse. The book menu, rather than being divided into
individual books, is divided into book categories Ö Pentateuch,
Historical, Poetical, Major Prophets, Minor Prophets, Gospels & Acts,
Letters of Paul, Other & Revelation. Moving across from one of the
categories gives you access to submenus listing individual books. This
type of submenu saves a long Éfont-typeæ menu but causes you to pause a
moment while you remember which category your book is in Ö personally, I
would prefer a long book list, but I can cope! When you choose your new
reference, you press the ÉGotoæ button for almost instant movement to
the new location.
8.8
Also on the info bar are 10 buttons. Eight control the up and down
movement of the page Ö you can move by a single book, chapter, page or
verse at a time. The arrow keys, and the page up, page down keys, give
similar results. Of the final two buttons, one allows you to toggle the
footnotes Ö off, separate from the text, or embedded within the text Ö
and the other button gets you back to the active verse, if you have
scrolled away somewhere.
8.8
The tool bar
8.8
The tool bar consists of eight buttons. The top button gives the same
access to books as the Choose Book menu on the info bar. The next button
allows you to switch between available versions, in my case, the King
James Version and the New International Version (this is also available
from the mouse menu). The third button opens a window giving access to
font information Ö the Choose font tool, or Style, as itæs called on the
mouse menu. Here you can change the main text font, as well as the bold
and italic styles. At the same time, you can alter the font size, aspect
and colour. You can also change the background and highlight colours.
8.8
The next button opens a Search tool dialogue box (this can also be
opened using the mouse menu button, under Utilities, or by pressing
<f4>. It gives you four search options: single word search, AND, OR and
NOT, and you can also use wildcards in your search. You can search all
books, the current book, sections or an editable range of books. The
search can be case-sensitive and, once found, verses can be displayed as
they are encountered, listed together at the end of the search or simply
counted. The search doesnæt do everything you might want, but itæs fast,
and I gather that ExpLAN are working on a new version of the search
module which could answer any criticisms you might have about its
inability to search easily for phrases, like ÉIn the beginning...æ, but
more on this next month!
8.8
Button number five opens another window on the bible text. This is
called the linked version, and becomes active as soon as you open it.
Itæs exactly the same as the original, and appears on screen alongside
it. Once it is opened, you can work on it independently of the other.
So, for example, you can scroll through it without affecting the other
copy, but as soon as you click on some text, and make a verse Éactiveæ,
the other version automatically catches up with where you are. As you
move from one verse to another in the active version, the linked version
moves with you. This is particularly useful if, say, you have changed
the active window to NIV and the other window is KJV. It allows you to
compare the two versions quickly and easily. With enough memory, and as
more versions become available, you could have three or four versions on
the screen simultaneously. Surely, thereæs no excuse now for
misunderstanding what a particular verse means!
8.8
Display notes is the next button. You can write your own notes about
individual verses and save them to disk. Once a note is written about a
verse, the verse is Étaggedæ for future reference. The tags disappear
when the note pad is closed, and reappear when it is opened again. Once
the notes have be loaded into memory and a verse has been made active,
you can use Édisplay notesæ to open the note attached to that verse.
Notes can also be cross-referenced and exported. Not only can you write
your very own Bible commentary, but some enterprising third party, or
ExpLAN themselves, could provide Bible commentary modules!
8.8
Reformat text re-formats the text display after scrolling Ö this is only
needed if automatic re-format isnæt set in Choices. The final tool is
Cross references. In HolyBible, cross references are not what you might
think Ö they are not the cross references you might find in your Éhard
copyæ Bible. These are references you either put in yourself or which
point to some resource elsewhere in the program. For example, you can
create a Bookmarkálist and drag the cross reference icon to it to make a
record of the active verse. Later, if you wish to go back to that, or
other book-marked verses, you just double click on the verse reference
and HolyBible moves the active window to that verse. This is potentially
quite a useful option, so weæll look at cross references in more detail
nextámonth.
8.8
Mouse menu
8.8
The mouse menu brings up five options: Version info, Export verse,
Version, Style, Utilities. Version info tells you which version you are
using, its release number and the copyright information. We have already
looked at Style and Version and both are available from the tool bar or
info bar. The two new options are Export verse and Utilities. In Export,
single verses or verse selections can be exported, either as plain text
or, if you have Impression, as an Impression DDF (document description
format Ö an Edit file with textual descriptions of the formatting). When
a verse or selection is exported, the version, abbreviated book title,
chapter and verse are also exported. The book is always abbreviated, but
the Bible version can be either full or abbreviated.
8.8
Utilities
8.8
The only new option on the Utilities submenu is the Strongæs dictionary
and lexicon. This only works with the King James Version, and can only
be launched from within that version window. Pressing <f8> displays the
KJV with certain words underlined; these are the words which have a
Strongæs definition available. When you adjust-double-click on an
underlined word, a Strongæs definition window opens almost immediately.
Within this window, there is information about the word on which you
clicked. On the top line is the Strongæs number and a transliteration of
the Hebrew or Greek word, followed by its pronunciation. The next line
shows the derivation of the word. The third line gives the translations
of the original Greek word, and the number of times that particular word
appears in the Bible. There are usually other Strongæs references
contained inside most windows and these can also be launched from within
an open reference. You can also launch a reference by typing in a
Strongæs number into the Display Strongæs definition window, from the
Utilities submenu.
8.8
Summing up
8.8
On screen, HolyBible is designed to look like a page from the Bible,
both in layout and in the way verse numbers and footnotes are
incorporated. At the same time, you have control over how it looks by
being able to change fonts, etc, so it doesnæt have to stay the way it
starts. The window is re-sizable, and the toolbox can be removed if you
donæt like it. It is well laid out with full use being made of Acornæs
new-look buttons etc. It has a very pleasing feel to it Ö rather like
Impressionæs Style/Publisher look. A lot of thought has gone into this
program, not only in what it can do, but also in the way it looks and
behaves. It is very good now but, for the future, there is plenty of
scope for add-ons and improvements. I like it very much and have no
reservations in recommending it.
8.8
HolyBible runs on any Acorn 32 bit machine running RISC OS 3.1 or later.
It requires a hard disk with at least 1Mb of space to install the base
package and anything up to 3Mb per Bible version. Additional space will
be required for maps and any other resources you acquire. The HolyBible
base pack costs ú80 through Archive and the NIV half module costs ú28.
REB, NRSV and Russian will be available at ú52 each.
8.8
Next month
8.8
Next month weæll have a look in a bit more detail at some of the things
it can do... including some of the Resources available from the icon bar
menu. Weæll also make some mention of the schools version soon to be
available. In the meantime, if you already have a copy, and have been
using it, send in your comments on how it works and what you think of
it. I know itæs still early days but you might also like to include a
Éwish listæ.áu
8.8
A lot of thought has gone into this program, not only in what it can do,
but also in the way it looks and behaves.
8.8
On screen, HolyBible is designed to look like a page from the Bible,
both in layout and in the way verse numbers and footnotes are
incorporated.
8.8
Contracting a virus is a traumatic experience; it can happen to you.
8.8
Textease
8.8
Chris Murray
8.8
Softease is a new company set up to write software for the Acorn
platform. (This is encouraging in these difficult times.) Their first
offering is Textease, a budget-priced DTP package. The authors
themselves admit that they are not trying to compete directly with the
likes of Impression Publisher for features but it is very easy to use,
with lots and lots of features, some of which are unique.
8.8
The package
8.8
Textease consists of one disk and a 26-page A5 comb-bound user guide
which contains an introduction, tutorials 1-4, quick reference guide and
hot key summary. The main application comes encoded with a unique serial
number and your own name Ö the software is not copy-protected. Also on
the disk is a directory of tutorials, various examples of what can be
done with the package, templates for a selection of Avery label sheets,
two fonts from Skyfall (Friendly & Cooperblac), a piece of clipart from
Desktop Projects and various borders.
8.8
Double click on the application and the icon appears very quickly on the
iconbar, taking up 320Kb of memory (480Kb with the spell checker). A
single click then loads a default document öuntitledò and you are ready
to begin typing straight away. There are no frames to be drawn or set
up.
8.8
The interface
8.8
The software is very easy to use, with a button bar and information
line. These can be turned off, if you wish, or customised to show only
those icons you want. This button bar is öactiveò in that, if the window
is not the full width of the screen, moving the pointer to one end of
the bar slides the icons along to allow access to them all.
8.8
Text is typed directly onto the page or imported from Edit, FW+, etc.
Drawfiles and sprites can be dropped onto the document, moved, resized
and can have frame lines added to them. Drawfiles can be imported and
set up to be borders. The view on screen can be scaled from 15% to 800%
with a key shortcut to toggle back to the previous zoom setting.
8.8
Features
8.8
uáStyles are used to bring consistency to the appearance of text. There
is control over typeface (height, aspect ratio, bold, italic, underline)
and spacing (text alignment, column width, first line indent, line
spacing, para spacing, tab and top/bottom margins). The colour of text
and backgrounds can also be set.
8.8
uáEmpty style files can be set up and dropped onto a document to change
all the styles in a file to some pre-defined requirement. An example of
this on the supplied disk is a 1995 calendar, laid out in glorious
colour. By dropping on a style file, it can be turned to black and white
ready for printing out on your mono printer. The effects option allows
the same control as styles but over selected areas.
8.8
uáNegative indents which indent lines not starting a new paragraph allow
bullet lists to be created. I have found this feature very useful.
8.8
uáShadows can be added to text and/or frames.
8.8
uáFrames can be click dragged to resize to a new width or, by using
<adjust>, the size of the font can be automatically scaled to fit the
new frame size. Frames are moved around in real time by click and drag.
8.8
uáThe date can be inserted automatically, along with different options
for page numbering (sequential, folded and bound pamphlet). Various page
sizes can be set, from A5 up to A0 (portrait or landscape).
8.8
uáHeaders and footers can be placed anywhere on a page and can consist
of text and/or graphics. They can be set to appear on every page or
alternate pages. This is excellent for making up a booklet where you
want the page number or title always to be on the outside edge.
8.8
uáMultiple views of the same document at different scales are available.
8.8
uáSimple lines and rectangles can be drawn with control over line
thickness, line type and the fill colour of rectangles. There is an
excellent tool for aligning and spacing objects and, with only a little
practice, I was able to create an assortment of grids and tables.
8.8
uáFrame lines, which are not normally visible, can be made visible with
control over line type, thickness and colour. Thereæs also an option to
have frame lines printable or not.
8.8
uáText is copied and moved around using the clipboard and you can cut
and paste between different documents on the same screen.
8.8
uáA öfind and replaceò facility uses replacement from the clipboard. It
can include effects and so can include colours, italics, underlines,
etc.
8.8
uáFiles can be saved as Textease, drawfiles, plain text (Edit format) or
template format. In the latter, letterheads or blank forms can be set up
ready to be loaded with live data and there is automatic renaming to
prevent accidentally overwriting the template file.
8.8
uáA word count of the whole document or selected areas is available.
8.8
uáThe XY coordinates of the pointer can be displayed on screen, which is
very useful for setting things up.
8.8
uáAutomatic page breaks allow text to flow smoothly from page to page
and it can be made to flow between frames, allowing quite professional
documents to be produced.
8.8
uáIf you get stuck, which is unlikely, there is a clue sheet icon always
available.
8.8
uáStandard Acorn keystrokes and fkeys are used but there is an option to
change the fkeys to <shift-fkey> for use with the Penfriend application.
8.8
uáAll colours and lines from the spell checker, print boundary, paste
marks, etc, can be changed to your preference, making the it very easy
to customise.
8.8
Spelling
8.8
The spell checker is optional (ú10 extra) and it can be turned off when
not required. It is interesting in that it highlights on the screen, in
a different background colour, the words that are misspelt. (See the
screenshot below.) You can even do a printout with the spelling mistakes
highlighted Ö this could be particularly useful in schools.
8.8
The document can be checked as you type (with optional beep) or checked
afterwards. Words can be added into a user dictionary. The spell checker
is easy to use and, I believe, well-nigh essential nowadays, and
certainly worth the extra money. There is a free upgrade for those who
purchased early versions of Textease, although the spelling checker is
ú10 as an upgrade.
8.8
Conclusion
8.8
My overall impression is that Textease is very easy to use and, at less
than ú30 inclusive (ú40 with spell checker), it must be the best budget
DTP around. It does not have all the bells and whistles or bundled
software that the excellent Computer Conceptsæ products have but it does
everything that most people need for DTP. Schools will like it with its
modern user interface and ease of use.
8.8
The ability to run on a 1Mb machine without a hard disk will also
attract those with basic machines who want to produce well laid out
letters, posters, booklets, etc and who have, like me, been making do
with Draw for their DTP work. If you do not have a font-based word
processor or DTP, I  thoroughly recommend it. Get the demonstration disk
if in doubt!
8.8
Textease is available from Softease at ú39.50 inclusive or ú29.50 or
without the spelling checker.áu
8.8
(Because this is such a positive review, we have arranged a special
discount for Archive subscribers Ö ú35 for the with-spelling-checker
version, for two months from publication of this magazine. This may not
seem like a very big discount, but it is already very good value for
money, so there isnæt much margin for giving massive discounts. Ed.)áu
(745987r9t79e79
8.8
Textease is very easy to use with lots and lots of features, some of
which are unique.
8.8
the best budget DTP around
8.8
Comment Column
8.8
Acorn awareness campaign Weáareástill getting quite a lot of response to
our campaign to try to increase awareness that öAcorn isáRISCò. We have
had people send us biased articles from:
8.8
  Physics World (Feb æ95 p69)
8.8
  The Economist (4/2/95 p8?)
8.8
  The Independent on Sunday (19/2/95 pp48,49)
8.8
and also some corrective articles and letters published in:
8.8
  Computer Shopper (April æ95, p589)
8.8
  Physics World (March æ95 p23)
8.8
  The Economist (25/2/95 p8)
8.8
So, if you see an article or a letter in print that is, in your view,
biased against Acorn, donæt let them get away with it. Write to the
editor and say why you think the article is biased Ö but beware of over-
stating the case, because they could accuse you of equal and opposite
bias!
8.8
Ed.áu
8.8
Black Hole (8.7 p57) Ö This utility looked useful, so I installed it and
started to use it. Here are some comments as a result... I have
shortened the names of my TinyDirs wherever possible to four or five
characters so that I can crowd as many as possible onto the icon bar
without it overflowing sideways. I have shortened the messages
associated with the Black Hole icon, but it still occupies more bar
space than the sprite needs. The others use only the space needed by the
sprite, provided the name isáshort.
8.8
If, like me, you have Cfs running all the time, make sure the filepath
of the bin (set using the Configure feature in BlackHole) is prefixed by
Cfs#. Then all files stored in the bin will be compressed. Worse, if you
do not set this prefix, any compressed files dumped in the bin will be
decompressed! Also, BlackHole includes an Ignore FS feature so that,
optionally, files deleted in RAMFS, ADFS (Floppy), etc, will not be
copied to the bin. Could we also have Ignore Directory (like the one in
!Backup)?
8.8
Incidentally, files stored in the bin are identified by their filename
only, not the full path, so if two files with the same name are Ébinnedæ
from different directories, only the second will be preserved in the
bin. If you delete a directory full of files, the bin will contain the
empty directory folder, side-by-side with the files it originally
contained!
8.8
I will have great fun trying out twelve different screen savers, each
with a string of variable parameters. Arrgghhh! A nasty little bug here.
When I clear the Configure screen saver window from the screen Ö even if
I have only looked at it and cancelled it Ö the whole machine goes dead
and needs a reset!
8.8
I have set my choice of screen saver, and it works perfectly. Return to
normal by hitting <escape> or touching the mouse, etc. Some of the
screen saver displays seem jumpy, presumably because all the
applications are still polling the Wimp in turn.
8.8
A question arises Ö if screen saver cuts in while a long job is running
unattended, but with a changing screen display, will it keep going? The
answer appears to be Yes. Screen saver obliterates the screen but does
not stop the program. The up-to-date display can be revealed by touching
the mouse.
8.8
Colin Singleton, Sheffieldáu
8.8
If you rely on the singularity feature to save your files then, when you
choose delete from the filer menu, a delete directory containing files
will indeed result in an empty directory side-by-side with the former
contents. If, however, Éretain structureæ is turned on in the configure
window, and you delete the directory by dragging it to the Blackhole
icon, the files will remain in the directory. (If the bin is on the same
device as the files to be deleted, they will be moved rather than copied
as well.)
8.8
I am unable to reproduce the crash from the screen saver configure
window.
8.8
If you use the password feature of the screen saver, it will
occasionally refuse the correct password preventing you getting back to
your data! That is not a big problem, however, as several mouse clicks
in quick succession will usually bypass the security anyway!
8.8
Matthew Hunter, NCSáu
8.8
Digital Services Ö Although Digital Services have gone into liquidation,
I understand after speaking to them recently by phone that Squirrel and
other software will continue to be supported. Also, they appear to be
attempting to sell off the software side to set up again.
8.8
Chris Hughes, Wakefieldáu
8.8
File transfer on PCs Ö The other day I needed to transfer a diagram,
created by a test data program, to a colleague who was compiling a
report in WordPerfect (on an öindustry standardò Iæve Been Misled). The
diagram was in drawfile format and consisted of arrowed lines showing a
vector displacement field. Shouldnæt be a problem, drop it into Oakdraw
and export it as a bitmap, I thought. However, (a) there was a bug in
the Oakdraw code that wouldnæt do this correctly and (b) the bitmap
would look Éblockyæ.
8.8
The bug was solved by a quick call to Oak  who revealed that my version
was out of date and they would upgrade it if I sent them back the disk Ö
brilliant! The trouble was that the report was due in that afternoon
and, even so, it would still look blocky. However, the ever helpful
Damian, (the author of Oakdraw) was able to point me in the right
direction to get me out of my fix, revealing that the clipboard file was
in two formats, one of which was a metafile. Exporting this to
W*@#Perfect gave us a diagram ╜ö ╫ ╛ò. This was then scaled by the
WordimPerfect editor but only to a maximum of A6 which, when printed,
looked like my two-year-old had drawn it with a blunt wax crayon.
Undaunted, I re-imported the original metafile to Corel where it had
suddenly acquired much more structure. Corel had added its own line
types to the original and now each arrow looked like a cubist
masterpiece done in black marker pen, but at least the diagram was the
right size. (A4 Ö I think this implies that the export of the metafile
was OK and it was the Wp import that was buggy.)
8.8
Altering the line types got us back to something resembling the original
but now the arrowheads were aligned with the horizontal and vertical
axes instead of in the direction of the line. So... right back to the
original data, re-draw using the default thickness and correct sense
(direction) for the lines but leave off the arrowheads. Export to
Oakdraw, thence to Corel, re-edit to have arrowheads and sensible line
thicknesses, thence to a CGM file, into Freelance to add the company
logo and some notes. Then finally into the industry standard package.
(N.B. heavy irony needed here.)
8.8
All-in-all this was several hours worth of messing about. I know some of
your readers would have been able to do it in five minutes but it is
worth considering that, had I been writing the final report in any of
the Acorn packages, it would have taken me just seconds. And for those
of you out there who would say, öWell, youæd have been better off to
write the original analysis program on the IBMò, I would only answer,
öHave you ever tried to write a program giving vector output on a PC?ò I
havenæt got that much time or patience. (Out of respect for Paulæs
beliefs, I wonæt say what I think PC stands for.)
8.8
John Molyneux, Runcorn.áu
8.8
Footnotes (DTP column 8.5 p36) Ö I use Aldus PageMaker under MS Windows
on PC in my day job, so I looked for footnotes when I read the enquiry.
No, there isnæt a footnotes facility. It could possibly be fudged by
using running footers, or by using index marks and placing the resulting
index at the foot of the pages. I do not know, but expect Ventura (now
owned by Corel) might handle footnotes because it has a reputation as a
technical/longer document package. Quark XPress is often cited as more
of a page layout or magazine package than even PageMaker, so it seems
unlikely that it would handle footnotes, but again I have no experience
with it.
8.8
Anthony Hilton, Leedsáu
8.8
Internet access Ö In the Archive office we are geting an increasing
number of enquiries regarding access to the Internet. Adrian Bool is
writing a series of in-depth articles, beginning on page 13. What I want
to give here is a brief overview based on the questions that I have been
asked, and is not intended to be complete (Iæm sure Adrian will correct
any errors). It should, however, help with some of the more immediate
practical questions rather than the technical areas.
8.8
Bearing in mind the excessive hype that has been built up around the
system recently, a large number of people want access because it is Éthe
thing to doæ. Unfortunately, the rapid expansion has taken its toll. I
recently saw a comment that, in a quick poll of colleagues, one user
found that 77% were intending to cancel their subscriptions to one of
the major service providers because the only time they were able to get
onto the system was very early in the morning. While the service holders
are trying to improve the service they offer, it does seem that,
currently, the user base is expanding more quickly than the
improvements.
8.8
Another problem is that the Internet was designed by, and for, the
computer literate. Whilst recent additions like the World Wide Web try
to get away from this, in most cases you do need to have some background
knowledge to get anywhere.
8.8
The first question to ask yourself when considering getting onto the
Internet is Éwhy?æ. If the answer stutters after ÉE-mailæ, you probably
donæt need access. A number of bulletin boards will give you access to
Internet E-mail, for a nominal fee, and some also download certain
newsgroups, so these are probably your best introduction. If then you
decide you want full access, you can go to one of the service providers
at a later date.
8.8
To connect either to the Internet via a provider, or to a bulletin
board, you will need a modem. As always, faster is better (and more
expensive) but bear in mind that on all RISC OS 3 machines (except the
Risc PC), you are limited to 9600 baud by the hardware, so a 28800 modem
probably wonæt give much of an advantage over a 14400 modem, unless you
are planning on upgrading to a Risc PC.
8.8
To use a bulletin board, all you then need is a piece of terminal
software. All the intelligence is at the bulletin board end of the link;
you just pick the right options from the menu. Internet connections,
however, are generally more complicated. Some service providers just
offer a phone line connected to one of their own machines Ö many
universities offer such a facility to staff and students. These work
like a bulletin board in that you type commands on your computer, but
they are executed on the remote machine.
8.8
This is particularly obvious if you try to download a file over the
Internet. You will find that the file is on the remote machine not on
your local computer, so once the Internet download is complete, you will
need to do a second download from the remote machine to your own
computer.
8.8
The large service providers offer a more complete solution. While you
are connected to their system, your computer is part of the Internet
(indeed, if the system is configured correctly, people can download
files to and from your computer). This requires more (and more complex)
software than a terminal package, but there are advantages. When you
connect, any E-mail or newsgroups that you have subscribed to can be
downloaded in the background while you get on with something else. Once
you have completed your activities, and all the mail and news has been
downloaded, the connection can be broken and you can read, send and
reply to mail in your own time. You can then make a second connection,
and messages you have written can be uploaded to the service provider
and posted appropriately.
8.8
The software to achieve this is split into sections. The most basic
simply calls the number of your service provider to make the connection,
then TCP/IP manages the link itself. Whereas a terminal package works on
sending and receiving individual bytes, TCP/IP deals with larger blocks,
and each block can be individually addressed so that parts of two
separate files, being sent together, are not put in the wrong places.
TCP/IP also has built-in support for some of the general Internet
commands such as Telnet (which allows you to log onto remote computers,
providing you have access) and FTP (for transferring files) facilities.
8.8
More complex tasks are handled by other applications. For example,
reading news articles will usually involve the application you Éseeæ
(such as TTFN) which relies on another application (NewsBase) to
retrieve the news from the remote site and convert it to a usable form.
NewsBase in turn relies on TCP/IP to handle the low level transfer of
the data between the two machines. World Wide Web browsers work in a
similar way, with one application displaying the pages, one transferring
the files (via TCP/IP) to your machine, and others for particular tasks,
such as converting foreign image formats for display.
8.8
All this can take some setting up, although fortunately there is a
package downloadable from many bulletin boards (just over 800Kb at the
last count) which has as much as possible preconfigured. This is the
Internet Starter Kit and is the best place to start once you have your
connection to Demon Internet. Currently, there arenæt any commercial
packages for Internet connection, but Acornæs package was announced at
BETT and is planned for release during the summer Ö so, hopefully, by
AcornáWorld?!
8.8
The Internet version of Doggysoftæs Termite package (announced at Acorn
World last year) is also not yet available. For the time being, you are
very much on your own. Unfortunately, most of the support for the
Internet Starter Kit seems to be via the Internet!
8.8
This should have given an overview of what is involved; if you have
specific questions please write in with them and we will try to include
them in a future issue of Archive.
8.8
Matthew Hunter, NCSáu
8.8
Modes summary Ö In Archive (8.6 p30) is a table of Archimedes modes
provided by Steve Hutchinson. It seems to me that either there are some
errors in the table, or else the same number can be allocated to
different modes according to the programs in use. Either of these
possibilities causes confusion. I have looked at mode characteristics
with the program FlipTop (as used by Steve) but with a ColourCard
installed; this provides a large number of new modes. With this setup,
mode 98 is a 16 colour 640╫512 mode differing from the native mode 20
only in its higher refresh rate of 65Hz. Mode 99 in the 256 colour
equivalent, and gives no problem on my monitor, also a Taxan 770+. The
ColourCard does offer some 800╫600 modes (100 to 103) but these do not
work on the Taxan, as predicted in the ColourCard manual. Steve has mode
102 as something quite different and not available on my system, thought
there is a mode 110 with 16 colours at 1152╫424 and a refresh rate of
71Hz. It is very clear and stable, but rather hard to read on a 14ö
monitor because the characters are soásmall.
8.8
Philip Draper, Herts.áu
8.8
A quick glance through the PRMs reveals the screen mode allocations from
Acorn. Modes 0-63 are reserved for use by RISC OS, and should not
change. Modes 64-95 are reserved for use by 3rd party applications.
Since they are allocated by Acorn they should also be Éconstantæ in that
a machine which supports a mode in that range should have the same
definition of the mode as any other machine, although not all machines
would support the mode. The final group, between 96 and 127, are
Éreserved for use by useræ and therefore could be defined differently
for any machine.
8.8
Steve Hutchinson was using the NewModes module supplied with several of
CCæs packages (including Impression), which defines modes in the 3rd
party area Ö no modes are defined above 96. The higher modes were
defined by the VIDC enhancer software which allows you to create your
own modes. The ColourCard provides a large number of modes. This is
partly because it has copies of the standard modes that take advantage
of the ColourCard hardware, while leaving the standard modes untouched
for compatibility. This is why it defines the higher modes. In general,
the only modes you should rely on being present are those in the range
0-63.
8.8
Matthew Hunter, NCSáu
8.8
New element discovered? Ö Atomic number: 586 PENTIUM P5 Ö derivation:
Pent up.
8.8
Pentium is a relatively new gold-coloured semiconducting element
discovered in 1993 by Intel inside a box with other obsolete
semiconductors. The thermal capture cross section of pentium is very
high and, if left to itself, it becomes extremely hot due to thermal
decay, and needs extensive cooling if it is not to burn out to become
pentium pentoxide, VO5, within an hour. It occurs as flat, square gold-
coloured platelets of chips with striations and other black markings on
the upper surface, and with grey-coloured stalactite-like formations on
the underside, probably due to excessive overheating. Pentium has a very
low melting point.
8.8
Pentium has an electronic configuration of 3,000,000 but, despite having
an electron spin resonance of 90MHz, it behaves as though it were
oscillating at more like 1MHz. Pentium exhibits an extremely high
refractive index because its electrons travel so very slowly; indeed, 95
percent of them are stationary at any one time.
8.8
Pentium has a high magnetic susceptibility, making it very vulnerable to
electromagnetic interference. Processing of Pentium involves floating it
on a very imprecise point, only four decimal places long (on which only
three Angels and Maxwellæs Demon can dance).
8.8
Pentium is soluble in air and water and crystallizes in the Penrose
pentagonal symmetry pseudo-crystalline system.
8.8
Pentium is highly radioactive with a very short shelf life and is not
expected to last more than three years before decaying into a newer,
more highly reactive semiconducting element with an even shorter shelf
life, called sexium, S6. It has found little use and it is unlikely that
any practical use will ever be found for it, because, although
elementary, it is a few marbles short of an atom. It has a very high
density and all its electrons are degenerate. Through the Es/Or
interchange interaction, the mesons in the nucleus of pentium have
transmuted into morons.
8.8
Pentium is frequently found in use as an inferior replacement for glass
in Windows, but is quite unsuitable even for this purpose because, in
operation, it is totally opaque.
8.8
Pentium is unstable and every precaution must be taken in handling the
substance. It is liable to spontaneously divide, (with the emission of
spurious wons, nons and other extraneous digitons) and when it does, the
result is always unpredictable. Handling it is a calculated risk.
8.8
Claim to fame: Pentium obeys Heisenbergæs uncertainty principle and all
known laws of quantum improbability theory to the highest precision
known and can be employed for use in electronic random number generators
with the utmost confidence.
8.8
Roger Darlington, Manchesteráu
8.8
PC Compatibility Ö I read many times of the old chestnut öis it PC
compatibleò referring to Acorn machines. But what is meant by
compatible? If you MUST run WordPerfect, buy a PC, but surely real
compatibility means sharing data without loss or extra effort in
conversion. By this definition, the PC I run at work is not compatible
with itself! Or rather, the various software packages I run are not
compatible and cannot easily share data because of the variety of file
formats and even flavours of one östandardò.
8.8
I would, therefore, prefer compatibility to be concentrated on by
software houses. Make Archimedes word processors able to read and write
files that MS Word, WordPerfect, etc have generated and can read back.
Similarly, spreadsheets need to understand MS Excel and Lotus 1-2-3
formats and databases need dBase, FoxPro, Access or whatever capability.
DTP software needs to do it all Ö read various word processor,
spreadsheet and even database files, and various graphic formats
including EPS. When this level of compatibility arrives, we can stop
ranting about 486 cards for Risc PC and ask for RISC OS 4 to make good
use of multiple processors (two ARM 600s or 700s etc) Ö that should make
Acorn machines real killers to PowerPC, Pentium, or whatever else people
put into desktop machines.
8.8
Anthony Hilton, Leedsáu
8.8
Polish Font (Help!!!! 8.6 p24) Ö I was able to telephone Charlie Alford
to tell him that Electronic Font Foundry sell fonts in a number of
alphabets suitable for a wide variety of languages including Latin 2
which covers Polish.
8.8
Anthony Hilton, Leedsáu
8.8
PostScript interpreter Ö Someone asked recently whether there was a
PostScript interpreter for RISCáOS. I think that the Freeware
GhostScript might fit the bill. The RISCáOS implementation (by David
Elworthy Ö I obtained my copy from The Datafile) will display a
PostScript file on screen and allow the result to be saved as a sprite.
There is also source code, needing to be compiled, to generate printer
device drivers for non-PostScript printers.
8.8
Anthony Hilton, Leedsáu
8.8
Protext 6 cancelled Ö The long awaited RISC OS version of the multi-
platform word processor Protext 6 has been cancelled. Arnor say that
they have now stopped work on the Acorn version which was originally
scheduled for release early last year, after the PC and Atari versions,
and then postponed until the autumn. Protext 5, which was issued for the
Archimedes in 1990 but does not multitask, was also promised in a new
RISC OS compliant version and this had reached the testing stage in 1992
before being abandoned in favour of work on Protext 6. Arnoræs decision
not to complete the Acorn Protext 6 could have been influenced by the
knowledge that the growing number of Risc PC owners would be able to use
the PC version on their machines. It remains to be seen if other
software producers now selling in the Acorn market will think the same
way.
8.8
Peter Jennings, St Albansáu
8.8
Pulp Fiction? Ö If I had to write a column, it would be the Égobble-de-
gookæ column, and would contain all the very worst computer jargon you
could find. It would fearlessly lay bare all those technical works of
fiction which masquerade as help manuals.
8.8
Gobble-de-gook comes about because of the complex structure of most
programmersæ brains. They are unable to make anything simple Ö and why
should they? If you had to spend all day and night writing complex
arrays and playing with your binary digits, youæd feel you had a right
to make everyone else suffer. Of course, as competent programmers, they
canæt make their software difficult to use, otherwise no one would buy
it, so they do the next best thing and complicate peopleæs lives by
writing ÉUser Manualsæ.
8.8
Now thereæs a euphemism if ever there was one Ö for user manual, read
ÉUser Muddleæ. The idea of these so called user manuals is not to get
you quickly into the program youæve just rushed home with; the idea is
to turn your brain into jelly and render you comatose to all reasonable
thought.
8.8
Take SCSIæs, for example. Recently I fitted a new removable drive to my
computer. In order to do it correctly, I thought Iæd better read through
a few ÉSimple-Introduction-to-SCSIæ type books. It was the second
daftest thing Iæve ever done. (What was the first, Gabriel? Ed.)
8.8
Page 1, paragraph 2, started with Éa simple description of what a SCSI
system isæ (paragraph 1 had already told me that SCSI stands for Small
Computer Systems Interface Ö that was very enlightening, thank you.)
Anyway, the definition goes like this:
8.8
ÉA SCSI system is made up of one or more initiator devices, and one or
more target devices. The number of initiators and targets does not
matter, but there cannot be more than eight devices altogether. Most
Acorn computers have the controller card in the computer as the only
initiator and one or more target devices...æ
8.8
Following so far?
8.8
ÉMost external devices have two SCSI cable connectors which makes
everything much simpler. These connectors are usually the Centronics (or
Amphenol) type (but sometimes they are IDC)æ. And this makes things much
simpler?
8.8
Thereæs lots more of this. Thereæs a discourse on termination; an
interesting little critique on Magneto-opticals; and a very useful
discussion on the differences between Drives, Devices and IDæs Ö none of
which made much sense. Anyway, assuming you actually manage to set the
right switches and get the thing into the SCSI chain (more jargon) you
then come to the next most important thing... configuring the SCSI
system.
8.8
You have to configure the system because, apparently, the poor old
computer doesnæt yet realise youæve just disrupted its equilibrium by
inserting a foreign body into its otherwise peaceful existence Ö and it
wonæt like it! Nowadays, most suppliers provide software which will do
the configuring for you Ö these do, of course, have their own little
idiosyncrasies but, on the whole, they do at least work. If you donæt
have this software, you have configure the system on your own. But donæt
worry, all you have to do is follow the instructions!
8.8
1. Press F12 and go to the Command Line. It is assumed that you know
what the command line is, and what itæs used for Ö if youære not sure,
take a couple of days off work and wade through the Acorn ÉUser
Manualsæ.
8.8
2. Type st. [RETURN] Ö st. is shorthand for Status. This displays a list
of more gobble-de-gook. It serves no useful purpose to the likes of you
and me Ö but it looks intimidating, so serves the programmeræs purpose
very well.
8.8
3. Find SCSIFSMap and re-configure it to the new setting, for example,
*config. SCSIFSMap 4=n 5=n,s Hx=n [RETURN]
8.8
It explains this procedure thus; ...n is the device number, s is an
optional switch that allows SCSIFS to cope with very slow devices (like
me?), 4 and 5 are the SCSIFS drive numbers and Hx is the host or
interface number (0Ö3)...
8.8
4. Re-boot your computer. Re-boot? This suggests that, at some point, I
must have Ébooted itæ Ö I guess I must have missed that. Back to the
Acorn manual Ö re-boot = hold down the Ctrl key and press the Break key.
8.8
Having dutifully obeyed, the machine Ére-bootsæ with a beep and a burp,
and hey presto... a new icon on the bar. Actually, in my case, there
were two new icons. I clicked on one and was burped at with a Éyouæve
done something wrongæ message. I tried the other icon, more burps. This
time it accused me of not initialising the drive. Back to the manual. It
was time to wade through the joys of initialisation, formatting,
sectioning and partitioning. More gobble-de-gook.
8.8
I did eventually get the thing going, though I still have two icons, one
of which doesnæt do anything except burp at me when I accidentally click
on it. Still, at least Iæm back to work again and next time, Iæll know
what to do, wonæt I?
8.8
In the meantime, just so you know, here are a few terms which all refer
to the same thing, namely, the SCSI card. It can be called, the Host,
the SCSI Expansion, the SCSI Interface, the SCSI card, the SCSI podule.
It can also be known as Éthat thing you bung in the backæ.
8.8
Finally, there was one really helpful thing I found in a book; it said:
8.8
ÉThe terms format, initialise, section and partition can have different
meanings depending on the literature you read... Literature supplied
with new drives probably refers to PCs or Macs and may be misleading.æ
8.8
Need I say more?
8.8
Gabriel Swords, Norwicháu
8.8
RISC chips discontinued! Ö (Not a problem which Apple are likely to have
for a little while yet!) VLSI have said that, after 8 years, they are
discontinuing production of ARM2, MEMC1a, VIDC and IOC. This could cause
a problem for some of the 7/8 year-old RISC-based Archimedes desktop
computers, many of which are still in regular everyday use. (How many 7/
8 year old Macs and PCs are still in use? says he, rubbing it in!) If
anyone has any secondhand chips they donæt want, please send them in and
weæll pass them on to our repair specialists so that they can keep the
old A310s and A440s going strong. Thanks.
8.8
Ed.áu
8.8
Sleuth 2 Ö In Peter Jenningsæ review of Sleuth 2 (Archive 8.7 p29),
there was mention of my pleasure at getting such respectable results
from processing faxes. Considering they had been sent in standard
resolution (100 dpi?) and that the user-guide recommends a minimum of
300 dpi, this really was impressive. Around the same time, Acorn User
also published a review which reported poor results from faxes. So why
the discrepancy?
8.8
Iæve been looking into this in some detail and believe the probable
cause is the scan quality and, possibly, the font(s) used (sans-serif
fonts seem to give better accuracy). Once again, the user-guide does
cover the need to optimise scan quality, and this has been mentioned in
an earlier Archive.
8.8
In my experience, especially if you are going to process multiple pages,
it is very well worthwhile doing two or three test scans with different
brightness/contrast settings to see which gives the most accurate
results. A little extra effort at this stage can pay large dividends and
you will soon get a Éfeelæ for what settings will consistently give good
results for different originals. Anyone with a Scanlight Professional
scanner, without the brightness control, may wish to consider getting
David Pillingæs Twain driver (ú19 from NCS) as this provides an
effective control in software.
8.8
Jim Nottingham, Yorkáu
8.8
Turbo Drivers (not a) problem Ö The problem of Printers 1.28 with the
current versions of the Turbo Drivers has, apparently, now been fixed,
so please do not remove line 91 (as we stated in Archive 8.7 p13) of the
!RunImage file! If you still have a problem, contact Computer Concepts.
8.8
CC Technical Supportáu
8.8
Had I been writing the final report in any of the Acorn packages, it
would have taken me just seconds.
8.8
RiscáPC Column
8.8
Keith Hodge
8.8
Floppy disk drives
8.8
Robert Cocks has written to say that, in a reply from Acorn, he has been
informed that the new Mk2 issue PCB (due into production now), will
allow a second 3╜ö floppy drive to be fitted, but not a 5╝ò (due I
think, to differences in the 32 core ribbon cable signal layout). This
is of no use really, as dual floppy drives were only used for copying
disks, and this, of course, is much faster now, using the hard disk as
intermediate storage. So, for those who need a 5╝ö drive, it still has
to be H.E.C. ActiLead.
8.8
As a result of further investigation, I have found that there are holes
provided in the bottom of the slices, which enable screws to be fitted
through into the underside of floppy, hard, and CD-ROM drives, to retain
them in place, and so the securing clips which were provided with the
machines are no longer required. Please note: If you are fitting a drive
using your own screws, it is essential to use screws which are of the
correct length, as it is possible with overly long screws, to damage
some makes of drives.
8.8
Software information
8.8
Rob Cowell (Design IT) has written after my comments last month, to say
that all owners of Design IT and Computer Conceptsæ Teletext cards can
receive the latest version of the support software (v1.88, 16th February
1995) f.o.c., provided that, when they return their disk in a jiffy bag,
they supply a stamped and addressed return label. This requirement
applies to all software returned for upgrading where the upgrade is
provided f.o.c.
8.8
As anyone who has read this column for any length of time will know, I
run a small electronic maintenance business as well as having a full
time position with a large plc. As I only have a limited amount of time
left after these two jobs, I find the 24th of April to be the worst date
of the year. Why? I hear you ask. Because, on this date I have to do my
income tax return and, without question, this operation cost me the
front inch of my hair and two weeks of almost non-stop panic in 1992, my
first year of trading (and it was only that little with considerable
help from the tax man!).
8.8
This year however, I have already done a trial tax return and it was
done in not more than two hours. How is this possible? Because, not long
after that tax return, I meet Quentin from Apricote Studios at the
London Acorn Show and, with his usual flamboyant style, he had soon
persuaded me that ÉProphetæ would cure all my headaches. Never has a
program saved me so much time and so actively forced me into being tidy
in my accounts Ö the bank balances will not tie up until you have
everything entered correctly!
8.8
So what has this to do with the RiscáPC, I hear you ask? Well, Prophet
worked well on my old Archimedes, but on the new machine the performance
is transformed. At the time I was doing my accounts, David Pillingæs
ArcFax was sending a large number of spare part order faxes in the
background, Rob Cowanæs TeleText Software was downloading the share
prices and spooling them to disk, and Comlink was downloading under
script control approximately 230Kb of files from my local packet radio
bulletin board and yet at no time did the computer become sluggish. This
level of power allows real improvements in productivity.
8.8
Hardware and software news
8.8
I am hoping that by the time you read the next issue of this column, I
will have been able to use my current copy of the RS CDáROM catalogue on
the PC card, as Paul has been asked by Acorn how many units he requires.
This is good news, as at the moment I am using it on a 486, which is
breaking my heart. I think that Acorn need to ensure that they get the
first releases out to the people who put cash up front when they bought
their machine. Certainly Apple (sorry Paul!) have released their own
hardware emulator (and, yes, I know it takes buckets of RAM etc) to the
public.
8.8
Some of the timings I have seen for the Apple emulator seem very suspect
and lead me to believe that the bios has been coded to flatter the test
software results. What we need now to redress the balance (I hope!), are
some timings for operation of a number of software packages, i.e.
wordprocessor, spreadsheet, etc so as to show the speed / cost
advantages of the RiscáPC emulator approach.
8.8
Other news from ESP (Expressive Software Projects) is that the Acorn
Sound Card is the same as their 16bit Minnie Audio Card (which has now
been brought down in price to match the Acorn Card). More interestingly,
if you have Cumanaæs Audio plug-in-kit to bring audio from an internal
Risc PC CD-ROM drive, you will find that the Acorn/ESP audio card wants
the same socket! Thankfully, Cumana and ESP have got together and
produced a piggyback board to solve this problem. The side benefit of
this is that you will be able to have full 16-bit stereo from audio CD
as well via the headphone socket on the back of the machine. ESP said
the cost of the piggyback board should only be a few quid!?! (Thanks to
Chris Hughes of Wakefield for this information.)
8.8
Questions of the month
8.8
(1) From Martyn Purdie Ö ÉI have been adding extras to my ACB45 (built
up from a base model) and have noted that the two slices are different,
in that one does not seem to have the anti-radiation coating (brown in
colour), which is sprayed on the inside of the other. Have any other
readers had a look inside there machine and, if so, what have they
discovered on this matter?æ
8.8
I myself, will be very interested to see readers replies on this
subject, as one of the reasons for choosing a RiscáPC was the promise of
low radio frequency interference which is so useful to Radio Amateurs.
Mine certainly is very much quieter than the Archimedes, but I have not
had a chance to look inside mine since Martynæs letter, to find out
whether it has the coating on all its plastic.
8.8
Request of the month
8.8
(1) From Australia! To be precise, from Simon Pockley, the secretary of
the ÉVictorian BBC Usersæ Group Incæ, who are an Acorn user group at 60
Bridge Street, Northcote, Victoria, Australia, 3070. They are hoping
that a mention in this column will attract the attention of software
houses etc, who will hopefully send demonstration disks to help increase
RiscáPC awareness in the southern hemisphere.
8.8
Tailpiece
8.8
Donæt all ring at once! But if anybody would like my July-October 1994
RS CD-ROM catalogue disk, just give me a ring to see if I still have it,
and itæs yours for free. It seems a shame to throw out all these useful,
but out-of-date information sources. The prices may be a little out of
date, but the content is still very useful. Will we start to see
libraries for this sort of material starting to appear?
8.8
As usual, I can be contacted by letter at the HES address on the back
page, by telephone after 7p.m., or by Packet Radio from anywhere in the
world, as GW4NEI@GB7OAR.#16.GBR.EU.áu
8.8
DTP Column
8.8
Mark Howe
8.8
Apologies to those who searched in vain for this column in last monthæs
magazine. I have now answered all the letters I can find, and will maybe
find some more when I move offices in the next couple of months.
8.8
Life seems good at the moment: summer has arrived in Provence, and I
have just produced a 6Mb two-page newsletter without experiencing a
single error from Publisher. Is this because I did not import any text
from earlier documents, or does the fact that I am now using a 16Mb
machine have anything to do with it?
8.8
Imagesetting Part 3: The printer driver
8.8
Last time, we dealt with item two on the CC imagesetting checklist.
Fortunately, the next few items are rather simpler than master pages and
overprinting.
8.8
Check the document!
8.8
If you produce artwork on a desktop printer and then find an error, you
can redo it quickly and cheaply. Bromides and films are two orders of
magnitude more expensive, and the turnaround is usually measured in
hours or days rather than minutes. I mentioned the uses and limitations
of spell-checkers in my last article.
8.8
Check that frames are still in the right order, i.e. that all the text,
borders and illustrations are still visible and that edits to text in
one place, have not changed the format in another. I still find
Publisher screen redraw slightly suspect when it comes to irregular
frames and thin borders, but pressing <f12> followed by <return> forces
a complete redraw.
8.8
Incidentally, a tiling option in Publisher would help with the proof-
reading of large documents. I am currently working on a centre spread
for a newsletter which I have to reduce to 62% to output on my laser
printer. Since some of the text is in 9pt and is overlaid on a photo, it
is difficult to check the punctuation!
8.8
Missing fonts
8.8
The Écompile font usage listæ option in Publisher was intended to
provide an easy way to check that all the necessary fonts are loaded. CC
insist that this utility has been extensively tested to ensure that the
lists are accurate, but I have several documents, some of them quite
trivial, where the list produced includes fonts which are demonstrably
not used. Has anyone else found this to be the case, or am I losing my
marbles?
8.8
In practice, Publisher complains vociferously if a document including
unseen fonts is loaded. Artworks files embedded in Publisher documents
do not, however, produce any error, and twice now Iáhave produced files
with chunks of text missing. Iánow routinely vectorise text in Artworks
which, in any case, saves memory if a few letters of an exotic font are
involved.
8.8
Colour table
8.8
Publisher gives the option to fine-tune the colour output for a
particular printer. CC recommend the ÉImagesetter, normalæ setting. I
would be interested in hearing from anyone who has actually printed the
same job using different colour tables to see what difference they make!
8.8
Acorn printer drivers
8.8
CC say that many of the problems with PostScript output that have been
attributed to Publisher are actually due to Acornæs printer driver. I am
usually pretty sceptical of this kind of explanation but, in this case,
they do seem to have a point.
8.8
Problem number 1: Pages which are larger than A4 used to generate errors
or were cropped. One reader contacted Acorn about this and was informed
that the Linotronic 300 imagesetter was not supported (this is rather
like not supporting an Epson FX80 or a LaserJet II). The solution, as I
mentioned in an earlier article, is to produce a dummy page size which
is too small for the document you wish to print. Publisher will then
offer to produce a new page size to measure. As well as producing
working PostScript, this also means that the minimum amount of film will
be used, which is one sure way to make friends at the imagesetting
bureau.
8.8
Problem number 2: Some versions of the printer driver have trouble
dealing with some fonts, notably with accented characters in EFF fonts.
This problem seems to have been dealt with in the v1.22ádrivers.
8.8
Problem number 3: Acorn printer drivers do not support background
printing. CC have no plans to produce a PostScript Turbo Driver at
present, arguing that Acorn should do this.
8.8
Problem number 4: There is currently no level 2 PostScript driver
available. Postscript level 2 is used by most imagesetters and an
increasing number of desktop PostScript printers. Its main advantage is
the use of compression algorithms which drastically reduce the size of
files containing scanned images. Shorter files mean less memory (and
therefore less errors on small imagesetters), as well as faster
downloading (and therefore smaller bills).
8.8
The Acorn world appears to be in a catch-22 situation regarding printer
drivers. Existing PostScript drivers are slow and flaky, so most of us
use Turbo Drivers or direct drive lasers, which means that there is
little incentive for anyone to produce fast, reliable PostScript
drivers. When false 600 dpi was better than most PCs and Macs could
offer, this didnæt matter too much, but 1200 dpi laser printers are
catching on fast, and most of them run PostScript. It is ironic that a
RiscáPC using the Calligraph PostScript RIP (Archive 8.7 p2) should be
able to imageset level 2 files that the RiscáPC cannot produce itself!
8.8
To return to the present, the v1.22 printer driver appears to work,
subject to the comments above. I use the generic PostScript definition
file, although others seem to use the Linotronic 200 file.
8.8
Set output to file by calling up the Éprinter controlæ dialogue box and
choosing Éconnectionæ over the PostScript printer. I recommend writing
to an Archimedes format hard disk initially, even if you plan to put the
file onto a floppy or a SyQuest afterwards. Make sure that the
PostScript printer is active. Set up and select a dummy page size. Save
the settings.
8.8
The next stage is to produce the PostScript, but this will have to wait
until next month!
8.8
Acornæs standards
8.8
Regarding potential problems with Styleæs use of !CCShared (Archive 8.7
p40), Publisher also uses this directory, presumably to avoid
duplicating CC modules which are used by several applications.
Unfortunately, the location of Publisher appears to be hard-wired
somewhere in this directory, with the result that moving the
application, upgrading your hard disk etc, generates the dreaded öThis
version of Impression is corruptò error. The message is misleading:
ÉSomething Impression has previously left elsewhere in the system is
corruptæ would be more accurate.
8.8
I discovered all this when moving from an A5000 to an A540. I copied all
my software across to the A540 using Access, and guess which application
would not work? I tried running !SysMerge, but presumably this utility
does not know about !CCShared. I would have re-installed from the
original disks, but I am using a beta-test version which was supplied on
one high density disk (which I could not read using the A540). The
solution was to reinstall an older version of Publisher to log the
correct pathname in !CCShared, delete it and then replace it with the
newer application from the other machine.
8.8
I would not mind so much if !CCshared actually saved space. The release
notes with the version 4 Turbo Driver explain that, after running the
!Install program, it was necessary to copy files out of !CCShared into
up to three other applications.
8.8
I can imagine that CC find this kind of criticism rather irritating,
especially as !CCShared was no doubt intended partly to answer
complaints about needless duplication of modules. The best way forward
would surely be for Acorn to define a standard way of sharing resources
which !SysMerge and other programs could handle sensibly.
8.8
I promised that this time I would not use the ÉDæ word, but I cannot
resist mentioning the ÉHardware key not foundæ messages which have
regularly interrupted my work since reconfiguring my two systems. The
official fix is to wash the transparent and convenient black boxes in
methylated spirit to remove any dirt. I do not understand why the
contacts are fine when I am using the printer port for more mundane
tasks, such as printing, and, if it turns out that dust is lodged in the
computer socket, I fear that dropping the computer in solvent will wash
the Acorn logo off the case.
8.8
Next month
8.8
Day job permitting, I plan to review EFF Publisher Fonts and delve into
the mysteries of PostScript. You can contact me at 2ámontΘe des
Carrelets, 84360 Lauris, France. Faxá00-33-9008-4139.áu
8.8
GameOn!
8.8
Dave Floyd
8.8
GameOn! is a utility from The ARM Club which allows some of the
Archimedes games that will not run on a RiscáPC to work on the new
machine. The software costs ú10 from The ARM Club.
8.8
Background
8.8
Many years ago, following the release of the BBC Master, I remember
there being many complaints from owners of the new machine that many of
their BBC games would no longer work. In Micro User, Mike Cook responded
to this by imparting the sage advice that when buying a new machine,
owners should be pleasantly surprised when old software works, rather
than expect it as of right. This piece of advice seemed so sensible that
I have remembered it to this day, and therefore when upgrading to a
RiscáPC late last year had prepared myself for the worst, at least as
far as my games collection was concerned. I was, therefore, pleasantly
surprised to find that most of my favourite and regularly played games
worked fine. There were exceptions to this, however, and once I started
to investigate those depths of my collection which I played more
infrequently, the drop out rate increased. To the rescue come The ARM
Club, with a utility that attempts to smooth over the incompatibilities
between new and old by simulating those parts of the Archimedes range
such as the VIDC and MEMC 1 chips, the lack of which, provides much of
the problem when trying to run games on the RiscáPC.
8.8
The software
8.8
GameOn! installs onto the icon bar and provides a control window via
which you can alter the options available to you. Each option is covered
in the small manual provided. Also provided is a database of games and
their compatibility with the RiscáPC, with or without GameOn!. This is
very useful and, although not exhaustive, contains a good selection of
the games which a RiscáPC owner could be reasonably expected to want to
play. Where I have been able to check the claims in the database, I have
found the information to be correct, and have included a slightly
expanded version of the list along with this review for inclusion on the
monthly disk, should there be space.
8.8
Conclusion
8.8
The most frustrating thing about GameOn! is that there is very little to
say about it, from a revieweræs point of view. It takes up 128Kb of
memory, does everything that is claimed for it almost seamlessly and
that is pretty much all that can realistically be expected from any
piece of software. If you own a RiscáPC and have a number of games that
will no longer work, but which become usable with GameOn! then, at ú10
it has to be rated as a bargain. It will not work on everything, but
given theáamount of unofficial routines used by games programmers and
software protection methods, I doánot feel that it could reasonably be
expected to do so. All in all, this is an excellent piece of
softwareáthat should be considered by every RiscáPC games player.áu
8.8
HP LaserJet 4P (+ Risc PC)
8.8
Charles Woodbridge
8.8
On my study desk, I have a Risc PC 600 with integral CD-ROM drive and a
600dpi Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4P. Having used this system for a few
months, I thought other readers might like to hear my impression of the
quality of the printer as an alternative to the Laser Direct system.
(This is especially relevant as CC seem unable to supply either LBP4 or
LBP8 at the moment and the future of these particular laser printers
seems uncertain. Ed.)
8.8
As an Advisory Teacher for IT, I used to have access to a range of
hardware including the full range of Acorn RISC computers and a Laser
Direct system. When I became Deputy Headteacher of a Infant and Junior
School I knew I would have to purchase a good system for home use
because I had an A5000 with a basic laser printer which was on its last
legs.
8.8
When the Risc PC was released I decided to upgrade but there is no point
in having a Rolls Royce computer if the paper output is poor, so I
decided to look for a higher quality black and white printer Ö true
600dpi and preferably under ú800 Ö a difficult task! Speed was not
essential but quality was and I also wanted a printer which was fairly
cheap to maintain.
8.8
The Laser Direct system was tempting but did not offer true 600dpi and
still cost around ú880 including VAT. The Canons have a good engine and
offer good economy on consumables. They are very fast Ö but that wasnæt
one of my criteria.
8.8
I looked at other printers and came upon the HP LaserJet 4 series but
these were very expensive. They did offer true 600dpi though and were
also good engines, offering good economy on consumables. A new toner/
drum cartridge costs ú66.50 and does around 3000 pages (2.2p/ page).
8.8
I then came across the HP LaserJet 4P, a non-PostScript printer offering
4 pages per minute with 2Mb RAM and 600dpi. I drove to the local large
PCástore to see the machine in operation. The demo pages were excellent,
just as good quality as its bigger brothers (4, 4M and 4Si). I looked
through the various computer magazines for companies offering the 4P. I
found a company selling it at ú703 inclusive of VAT. They had them in
stock too, so I bought one! Two days later it was on the desk with the
Risc PC. I had been told by CC that the TurboDrivers for the Risc PC
were needing a major upgrade because of the new 32-bit bus; they would
perhaps be available in July!
8.8
So I set up the Acorn driver. It was good. The printed text quality was
excellent Ö better than the Laser Direct. The graphics were also good
but not as good as the demo pages seen at the PC store. After a few
trials, I managed to get the graphics to be a lot better but still not
as Éstunningæ as those I saw in the shop. The TurboDriver would be
better I decided and waited for their release.
8.8
Much of the time our work is printed at 300dpi Ö which is very fast even
with the Acorn driver Ö and even at this resolution, the quality is
excellent with really strong blacks and smooth curves to the text at all
print sizes.
8.8
The TurboDrivers were completed by late September and I bought one
straight away. When it arrived I decided that I was so content with the
Acorn driver that the Turbo Driver would have to be particularly good
otherwise I would send it back and get our ú57.58 returned. I backed up
the !System and the !Printers just in case.
8.8
The TurboDriver is very good Ö but I did not think this at first. The
manual which was in the box was written in May 93 Ö before the Risc PC
drivers were completed. There were five(!) paper supplements. As an
Advisory Teacher, I had learnt the importance of reading manuals and so
I read through the documentation. Installing was easy. The initial
prints were fast but the graphics seemed no better that the Acorn
Drivers. I re-read the manuals and tried again Ö better. I tried
printing two copies of a document but 4 copies were printed Ö oops!
8.8
I rang CC and had a long conversation about the drivers. The technical
support was good (especially once I had established that I was past
Ébeginner levelæ) and a clear description of how to control the quality
of graphics on the driver was given. The doubling document print
problem; öThat is a known bug, sir. In fact, the TurboDriver is squaring
the number to be printed (e.g. 3=9pages, 4=16 pages)ò. With practice, I
have found that the amount of control offered by the TurboDriver is
excellent balancing dot patterns, lines per inch and resolution to
achieve the best results.
8.8
The printer uses data compression techniques which effectively enlarges
the value of the 2Mb of RAM and I have only once had the printer run out
of memory and that was by printing an unusually large and complex
graphic Ö the printer printed the page at 300dpi instead.
8.8
At last I have my desired system (except I need more VRAM... ...a
scanner would be useful... ...the hard drive could do with being
bigger... !). A Risc PC 600 and a good quality, reliable and economical
printer (approximately 2p per page excluding paper). The printing is
fast despite a relatively slow engine (4 pages per minute) and I have
included a table of results to show the speed increases I have
experienced.
8.8
I have a friend who has recently opened a sandwich shop in our local
town. I designed his logo, produced his menu and business card originals
which were then been printed at our local print shop. Everyone has been
very impressed with the quality of the artwork. Despite people in
Éindustryæ telling me that Acorns are not Éindustry standardæ Ö isnæt
this an Éindustry standardæ job?!
8.8
For school work, I have printed on acetates with no problems at all. I
usually print from the paper tray (which holds over 100 sheets of A4 or
smaller) but have occasionally used the single paper feed. This could be
better and takes a little practice to ensure that your paper goes
through straight. You can also feed through envelopes but I havenæt done
this yet. I have also done double-sided documents and find that you need
to use reasonable quality paper (80g or better) to avoid paper jams.
Paper jams are easily located and cleared.
8.8
If you are looking for a good quality printer at a reasonable price to
use with the Acorn RISC computers then the 4P with TurboDrivers is
something worth considering, the total cost has been ú761.40, plus phone
calls!
8.8
All timing are in seconds.
8.8
Figures in [ ] are speed increases compared with the Acorn Driver.
8.8
Description of Files:
8.8
A)áA large (891Kb) 256 grey sprite converted from the JPEG images
(number 9, fruit on a table) supplied by Acorn with the Risc PC.
8.8
B)áA single page of text (487 words) in one font only.
8.8
C)áThree pages of text (1700 words) in one font style only.
8.8
D)áOne page of text (487 words) with a 15Kb drawfile, a 221Kb 256 grey
sprite and 5 different font styles.
8.8
E)áA complex drawfile (27Kb); the famous Computer Concepts aeroplane at
almost A4 size.
8.8
All files printed on a Risc PC 600, 8Mb RAM + 1Mb VRAM, HCCS CD-ROM
drive fitted, 14in monitor, 800╫600╫256 colour screen mode with only the
TurboDriver and !Style or !Draw loaded.
8.8
Files A, B, C and D were printed from !Style and file E was printed from
!Draw.
8.8
The CC technical support suggested turning off the high speed parallel
port and retesting and so I have included those figures too.
8.8
When carrying out the tests, the computer was not being used once the
print job had started so I decided to retest file B and make the
computer do some other work at the same time. I used a star plotting
program !StarGazer to simulate the night sky changing at ╜ hourly
intervals; this involved lots of calculations by the computer and
regular screen redraws.
8.8
Turbo Driver low speed parallel port:
8.8
Returned Control 23 seconds (compared with 16 seconds when not
multitasking)
8.8
Printed Page 141 seconds (compared with 140 seconds when not
multitasking).áu
8.8
Murphyæs Law has struck: the HP Laserjet 4P is no longer available and
HP have not yet released an alternative!!! The nearest we can provide is
the HP Laserjet 4L which is 300 dpi (not 600) 1Mb (not 2Mb Ö but 300 dpi
needs less memory) and it is available through Archive for ú590. (Extra
1Mb memory is ú95.) I have to be honest and say that you will probably
get a better price than this if you shop around in the PC magazines.á
Ed.áu
8.8
Test Data
8.8
Personal Accounts v 3 Updates
8.8
Mick Burrell
8.8
I wrote the review of Personal Accounts v 3 which appeared in Archive
7.11 p65. Any of you who use Apricote Studiosæ programs will know that
they are constantly being improved and that updates to the latest
improved version are supplied free. (We all send an address label and
return postage with our disks, donæt we?) There have been many changes
since the review appeared, and I am currently using version 3.52. Some
of the additions have been made at the request of users, (there is
always a very quick response from Apricote) some to improve the
facilities offered, and others just to make life easier.
8.8
So what has been done? I understand that PA was not large enough for
some users and so the number of accounts handled has been increased to
24, and the number of standing orders to 96. You can now load another
file (only if you set the option) over the one in memory. This means
that if you keep two or more files, you donæt have to Ésave your work
and quitæ and then load the program again with the new file. There is an
obvious trap of not saving your work but, with care, quite useful.
8.8
The forecast section has been improved to make cashflow forecasting a
bit easier and there has been a change to allow you to have menus
opening either where the mouse pointer is or where the caret is. One of
the nice features that v3 has always had is the ability to start up with
all the windows open that were open when you last saved. I find this
very useful as I almost always leave the same windows on screen, opening
and closing others as needed. If, however, I wanted to look at (but not
alter) a standing order, just loading the file, opening the standing
order window and closing it again would result in another save. It has
now changed so that it only invokes the auto save (assuming you have it
turned on) if you have made alterations.
8.8
Not wishing to be left behind by the current Étrendæ, Apricote have now
provided a button bar to perform most actions; the icons being well
designed and self-explanatory. I must admit to not being a fan of button
bars generally, but I do find this one useful. I have spent the last few
minutes looking for an explanation for this, but it escapes me! I think
it may be that it is being used for opening and closing infrequently
used windows, and so makes the task very quick and simple. For me, many
button bars provide far too many options, clutter the screen and have
icons whose functions need to be looked up before use. This, however, is
not the case with PA.
8.8
The report window now has an option called Éscreenæ which will send your
report direct to Edit or similar Ö very useful if you just want to look
at some information and donæt intend to print a report at all. You have
always been able to do this but not as neatly as just clicking on the
icon. Your machine must know where your text editor is for this to work,
but for the majority of users who would use Edit, this will be the case.
You can also select ÉBalanceæ to give full debit and credit balance
columns in a report.
8.8
The next two improvements relate to reconciling accounts. The first is
that, on marking an item as reconciled, the cursor now moves
automatically to the next unreconciled one, thus allowing you to do one-
handed bank reconciliation! The second allows you to colour code all
reconciled entries for easy location of unreconciled ones. This is fine
if you choose a subtle grey as the colour, but a real shock to the
system if you are daft enough choose bright yellow!
8.8
Most banks now have sequential cheque numbering which has never
presented PA with a problem. Some, however, do not. This means that your
new cheque book could have lower numbers than your previous one. If this
were the case, having PA increment your cheque number by one, based on
the previous highest it had seen could cause a minor confusion. You now
have the option whether you use this method or enter the first cheque of
each book manually, and let PA increment from there, based on the most
recent entry.
8.8
The final modifications are a small change to the password entry,
toggling the decimal point on or off, automatic opening of either the
main menu window or the entries window, and fitting the window to the
screen size automatically.
8.8
Some of the improvements that have been made, I have found very useful;
others, whilst being just Éa nice touchæ to me, may be a much more
significant improvement to other users. Apricote already had an
excellent program here, as I hope my original review made clear and, if
nothing else, v3.52 shows their continued support and attention to
detail. My advice? If you have an earlier version, send in your disks
and return postage for the free upgrade. If you donæt have the program
at all, can I just say that it can be a lot cheaper than unknowingly
going overdrawn!ááu
8.8
This program is proving so popular that it is on special offer again at
ú35 instead of ú49.95 to Archive subscribers. Ed.áu
8.8
Apricote already had an excellent program here... ... v3.52 shows their
continued support and attention to detail.
8.8
A number of bulletin boards will give you access to Internet E-mail, for
a nominal fee.
8.8
Voyage of Discovery
8.8
Denise Bates
8.8
Voyage of Discovery by Sherston Software is an adventure in space which
teaches magnetism and electricity. It is applicable to National
Curriculum levels 3 to 5 but optimum use will probably be obtained from
the program with pupils of about eleven. Version 1.0 of the program was
reviewed using an A5000 (RISC OS 3.1).
8.8
Manual
8.8
The manual provided is comprehensive. It covers installation
instructions and gives full details of how to operate the software, the
solution to the adventure for teachers and parents, and several pages of
ideas for project work on the topics covered. There are also five
photocopiable worksheets, two challenge cards which are designed to
entice pupils into further practical research, and maps of the layout of
the spaceship where the voyage takes place. All documentation is of a
very high quality and should provide a wealth of ideas for a busy
teacher or an interested parent.
8.8
Installation
8.8
Voyage of Discovery comes on four disks. No problems were encountered in
installing the software to hard disk, but in order to run the software
you need the start-up disk. A copiable disk is only provided upon
purchase of a site licence although Sherston will sell a spare protected
copy for ú6. As someone who resents being prevented from using the hard
drive, I spoke to a representative of the company about this. He said
that anyone who felt strongly about having to use the start up disk
could obtain a copiable version if they contacted the company and
provided proof of purchase. All in all, it is a cumbersome protection
system because a school could conceivably set several copies running
with a single start-up disk without bothering to purchase a site
licence.
8.8
The voyage
8.8
Having expressed my reservations about the protection system for Voyage
of Discovery, I willingly admit that this program is more than worth
protecting. In the year 2056, the mission is to deliver an urgent
package to the captain of the spaceship Discovery. With only two hours
to go if the delivery companyæs agent is to collect a substantial bonus,
the agent arrives on board the spaceship to find that the crew have
disappeared. The only assistance comes from Boris, the on-board
computer, who is behaving in a peculiar manner (and communicating in
street-wise, idiomatic jargon which places the design prototype firmly
in the 1990æs!)
8.8
From this point, the delivery agent has to navigate his way around the
shipæs decks, occasionally assisted by Boris whose memory lapses are,
fortunately, intermittent. By going to the library and watching several
interactive, ÉOpen Universeæ videos, the agent is then able to apply the
principles learned to overcome several problems which are encountered
whilst searching for the captain and crew. Needless to say, the missing
captain is located and the parcel delivered, just in the nick of time.
The contents of the parcel, are, as you may already have guessed, memory
upgrades for Boris!
8.8
The interactive videos
8.8
These are terrific. The graphics are excellent and the subjects are
clearly explained. The subjects covered are magnetic attraction,
magnetic poles and compasses, electricity: making bulbs light,
electrical safety and fuses, electric circuits and symbols, and
electromagnets. Information is provided on screen with plenty of
opportunities for pause and rewind built in so that each pupil can
progress at their desired speed. Integrated with each lesson are a
number of exercises which must be completed before carrying on with the
voyage. In completing the exercises, pupils are asked to test various
ideas by manipulating drawings of magnets or pieces of wire to complete
circuits. My testers were fascinated by them and I am sure that they
will remember the principles demonstrated. My regret was that I didnæt
learn physics like this twenty years ago.
8.8
Operating the software
8.8
Voyage of Discovery has an intuitive feel to it and is generally
straightforward to operate by clicking on the on-screen icons or
prompts. Before use in a classroom situation, explaining what each icon
does will pay dividends, as would reproducing the relevant pages of the
instruction booklet and leaving it at the side of the computer for the
pupilsæ reference.
8.8
Assistance for teachers
8.8
The manual provides teachers with the solution. In fairness, groups of
pupils will probably need pointing in the right direction as it is
possible to wander aimlessly round the shipæs corridors for some time.
When we first tested the program at home, we tried to ignore the
solution but soon found ourselves resorting to it to complete the
journey in a timely manner.
8.8
The program also has a teacher control menu which can be accessed from
the iconbar thus allowing the teacher to control the amount of help
which Boris provides during the game. There is also the option of
turning the sound very low Ö invaluable in a classroom situation. The
starting position can also be varied which is useful if you wish pupils
to concentrate on the later stages of the game. It also allows just a
portion of the game to be used where a teacher wants to limit the
computer work to a particular topic which is being studied in class.
8.8
Use of the program
8.8
The program is intended to supplement other teaching and is not a
substitute for other forms of practical work. It will be best used by
small groups as this approach promotes collaborative problem-solving.
Although the software can be run to concentrate on different sections
(it is possible to save games to resume later) maximum benefit and
enjoyment is likely to be achieved if an afternoon is set aside for a
group to work their way through the adventure. I would also envisage
Voyage of Discovery performing a useful consolidation and revision role
after basic classwork had been done.
8.8
Ancillary aspects
8.8
Of the four disk set, disk four is a resources disk which contains a
number of sprites and drawfiles which are used in the main package.
These can be used in other work.
8.8
Throughout the program, the agent is periodically reminded how much time
is left. This is not a real time clock and the agent always succeeds in
delivering the parcel with minutes to spare.
8.8
It is worth bearing in mind that to go through the program from start to
finish will probably take a couple of hours even if teacher guidance is
given.
8.8
Conclusion
8.8
Voyage of Discovery is an excellent software package and worth a place
in any schoolæs software library. Other than my niggles about the
software protection system and Borisæs contrived streetwise language
(and I admit these are personal views) I have not been able to find
anything to criticise.
8.8
Voyage of Discovery costs ú31.95 +VAT or ú36 through Archive for a
single user. The cost of a site licence is double the single user price
for primary schools and three times for secondary schools.áu
8.8
Text Import and all that...
8.8
Jim Nottingham
8.8
My postbag was especially busy following publication of the Text Import
articles in Archives 8.3 to 8.5, much of it to do with using Editæs
Find/Replace function for general data-processing rather than purely for
text import, hence the open-ended title of this article. Many topics
were raised more than once, so it may be of general value if these are
included here as comments, hints and tips, etc.
8.8
Erratum
8.8
A careless error crept into Part 1 (Archive 8.3) for which I apologise.
The ASCII hex codes given for the top-bit set in the table on p64 were
screwy; against the decimal codes 160-255, they should have read &a0-&ff
inclusive.
8.8
Alt key inoperative
8.8
A couple of readers with RISC OS 3.10 said they couldnæt seem to get
their Alt keys to work in order to enter top-bit set characters. If you
hit this problem, the likely reason is that someone or something (often
a PD game) has rudely unplugged your International Keyboard module.
8.8
To check if this has happened, press <f12> and type unplug<return>. This
will tell you which modules (if any) have been unplugged. If necessary,
reinitialise the International Keyboard by typing rmreinit
international<return> at the prompt, and the Alt keys should then work.
8.8
Character select utilities
8.8
We discussed Acornæs !Chars utility in Part 1 and I was pleased that Ed
added the Health Warning about the Shift key! A number of readers were
critical of certain aspects of this utility, in particular that it was
often difficult to find a particular character in the Ébusyæ window. I
mentioned that there are alternative programs and you might like to
consider a couple of these.
8.8
Anyone using Ovation will have received !CharSel in the bundle. This is
similar in use to !Chars (including the Shift key gotcha) but adds a
couple of handy features. Firstly, as you point at a character in the
CharSel window, the ASCII decimal number is shown in a small Ébubbleæ
under the pointer. If you know the approximate ASCII code (öI think itæs
1-5-something...ò), this feature makes it much easier to find the
specific character, especially the Éinvisibleæ hard space (ASCII 160).
8.8
Secondly, if you point at a character in the CharSel window and click on
<adjust>, a save box is opened, allowing you to export the character as
a drawfile. You may find this is a convenient option to help introduce
drop capitals into a document, for example, especially as you can call
up a font in the CharSel window which is different from the body font of
the document.
8.8
Beebug have very kindly agreed to !CharSel being distributed to Archive
readers via the monthly disk (or available from me). However, copyright
must remain with Beebug, so please do not pass it on to non-subscribers.
8.8
The display windows of both !Chars and !CharSel present the full ISO
8859 character set (ASCII codes 0-255), including printer codes and all
the characters on our keyboard. A couple of readers mentioned that, as
we may wish to use the utility only for entering top-bit set characters,
(ASCII codes 128-255), this is a bit heavy-handed.
8.8
Gareth Edmondson has come up with a rather elegant solution called
!MultiChars, which not only restricts the available characters to the
top-bit set, but also thins out many of the more esoteric offerings
(e.g. í and ┐) and presents the remainder in seven Élanguageæ groups Ö
Danish, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh and what he
calls ÉCommonæ.
8.8
From the icon bar menu, you can select one or more of the window
displays. Characters can be entered into the document by clicking with
either <select> or <adjust> and, to preserve our documentæs health,
pressing <shift> does not enter a spurious character!
8.8
All in all, a very natty utility which is included on the monthly disk
(or available from me) but do please note this is Shareware, not
Freeware. That said, the registration fee is a mere ú1 and, as Gareth is
an impoverished student (shame...), Iæm sure he would welcome your
payment.
8.8
Accents
8.8
There seems to be some confusion about the way the Acorn font manager
handles accented characters. I believe that some other platforms
mechanise it by combining the base letter with a generic accent. Our
font manager relies on all these letters being included within the font
as composite characters, the obvious disadvantage being that, if the
accented character is not included in the character set, it canæt be
reproduced conveniently. For example, not all of the Welsh accented
characters appear in the majority of fonts. Indeed, letters such as ü,
é, à and å are not in the ISO 8859 character set and I think are
included only in System and some outline fonts of British manufacture
(e.g.áEFF fonts and the Acorn RISC OS 3+ set).
8.8
The main advantage of having the font include the composite characters
(such as Θ) is that the accent element can be designed individually, to
blend with the character design, rather than a generic accent having to
be used. For example, the circumflex in the Ω character is quite
different from the keyboard ^ácharacter:
8.8
If a particular character is not included in the character set of the
font we wish to use, one way of Étweakingæ it would be to modify or add
to the font set by using Acornæs FontEd or a similar utility.
8.8
ÉForeignæ text import
8.8
Turning to reader-comments from the main body of the articles where we
discussed converting imported text into Acorn-speak, these fell into
well-defined areas so it may be worthwhile discussing these in some
detail.
8.8
However, before doing so, I really ought to correct any impression I may
have given, in rather glibly using the term ÉAcorn-speakæ, that the
resultant text is readable only by Acorn machines. This is certainly not
the case. What we achieved in the massaging was to reduce the file(s) to
pure ASCII text, with all the Éscribbleæ (formatting commands, printer
codes and so on) stripped out. Apart from paragraph spacing, this
included removing the line-feeds.
8.8
So, if we wished, we could then re-export the file to any WP/DTP package
worth its salt where it would be fully readable on IBMs, IBM-
compatibles, Macs, Ataris, lap-tops, etc, etc. All we would first need
to do is to reset the filetype from Text back to DOS, using the reverse
of the procedure covered in Part 2, and save it on a disk, formatted to
MS-DOS. More on text export later.
8.8
Why use Edit?
8.8
A couple of correspondents asked whether they could do the text-
massaging within their WP or DTP package as these had a find/replace
function. In principle, there is no reason why not, and it may be very
convenient to do both the massaging and the editing/layout in the same
package.
8.8
However, although you may well find your package will allow you to
perform simple find/replace functions such as stripping out line-feeds,
more complex Éscribbleæ may prove impossible to remove. For example, in
both the packages available to me Ö Impression Publisher and Ovation Ö
embedded printer codes are not reproduced on screen whereas, in Edit,
they are clearly displayed by their hex codes (e.g. [0d]). The point
being that, if they are not displayed, we wonæt know they are there and,
more importantly, we wonæt know what to strip out. So when we come to
print the document, the result may well be corrupted by the Éhiddenæ
codes.
8.8
Which leads me to a further point about these unwanted codes possibly
being injurious to our documentæs health. I bought Impression Publisher
around the time I started working on these articles and, in so doing,
repeatedly imported many of the Éforeignæ samples. Much had been said in
Archive and elsewhere about Publisheræs instability, so I wasnæt all
that surprised that it kept crashing on me.
8.8
However, subsequently, I grew to suspect that, once the files had been
pre-massaged in Edit, Publisheræs crash-rate dropped markedly.
Unfortunately, the crashes were not consistent, so I was unable to give
Computer Concepts any definite clues but now, as a matter of course, I
always pre-load Éforeignæ files into Edit, massaging them into pure-
ASCII text as necessary, before transferring them into Publisher or
Ovation. I believe that this has helped reduce Publisheræs crash-rate to
an acceptable level and, in some ways, is similar to doing a virus check
before using unknown files.
8.8
(My theory is that as you go on using Publisher, you gradually use fewer
and fewer pre-Publisher files and it is this that reduces the error
rates. Certainly, CC have acknowledged that there was a bug in
Publisher, related to importing Impression II documents, although this
has now been fixed. Ed.)
8.8
öNot Foundò
8.8
The trouble spot which featured most regularly in correspondence was the
öNot Foundò message appearing in Editæs Find text window. As the message
suggests, it means Edit is not finding any occurrence of the Find string
although, somewhat confusingly, the message does not appear until we
fill in the Replace with box and press <return>.
8.8
Having looked at a number of samples readers sent in, I found virtually
all of the hiccups were due to one of two causes. Firstly, when the
magic characters system is being used, a backslash (ASCII 92) is used to
pre-warn Edit that the following character is a Écontrolæ, e.g. typing
<\n> will represent a linefeed (newline) command. The problem is that
the backslash also appears quite commonly in the Éscribbleæ of imported
text, so we will often wish to enter a backslash as part of the Find
string.
8.8
The catch is that Edit is unable to differentiate between whether the
backslash is actually part of the Find text string or whether it is
being used as the precursor to a Écontrolæ character. It therefore
assumes the latter, gets confused and puts up the öNot Foundò message.
To a lesser extent, using the wildcarded expressions system can lead to
similar problems. There are two ways of avoiding this situation:
8.8
Å If the ÉReplace withæ string does not need to contain any control
characters (e.g. Newlines), we can deselect both the Magic characters
and Wildcarded expressions radio buttons; this causes Edit to see the
backslash for what it is Ö part of the wanted Find string.
8.8
Å If we do need to enter control characters in the ÉReplace withæ
string, we can continue to use the Magic characters or Wildcarded
expressions options but, every time a backslash appears as part of the
Find text string, we should type in a double backslash Ö <\\>. This
tells Edit that the following character is not a Écontrolæ and will look
for it as a normal character (ASCII 92).
8.8
The same procedure applies to any other normal character we wish to put
in the text string which might interfere with the Écontrolæ characters
used in the Wildcarded expressions system. This includes the full stop
(representing ÉAnyæ), the ~ swung dash (representing ÉNotæ) and so on.
8.8
In every case, if we wish to input the character as an actual part of
the Find text string, preceding it with <\> tells Edit the character is
Énormalæ, not a control character.
8.8
The second common reason for Edit throwing up a öNot Foundò message is
where there is an error in the Find string we have entered, especially
if we use the Wildcarded expressions ÉAnyæ function, i.e. typing in a
full stop to represent Éany characteræ. Referring back to an example we
used in Part 3, we defined a complex, 17-character Find string by typing
the first and last characters, separated by 15 full stops (Archive 8.5
p17). It follows that we must correctly count and enter the number of
characters in the Find string Ö 17 in this example Ö otherwise Edit will
not do what we want.
8.8
Take the following as another example of where we can get it wrong; itæs
the string used as the paragraph separator in the Example 2 file which
we wished to globally replace with double linefeeds:
8.8
blah blah.....end of paragraph[0d]
8.8
[0d]
8.8
[1d]
8.8
[00][09]╨[02]@[02] [05]
8.8
[00][1d]Start of next paragraph.....
8.8
At first sight, this may appear to consist of 12 characters (each hex
code counting as one), so you might type in the first [0d] and last
[1d], separated by ten full stops Ö and wonder why Edit says öNot
foundò... However, if you look again, there are actually five Éhiddenæ
characters! Firstly, there is the space (ASC code 32) in the fourth line
Ö very easy to miss if you are using a proportional font in the Edit
window. Secondly, there are four linefeed characters, one at the end of
each line. So the whole string actually consists of seventeen
characters; twelve visible to us and five Éhiddenæ. Edit does not
differentiate between them so, in this case, we must type in the the
first [0d] and last [1d], separated by fifteen full stops.
8.8
Use of öany stringò
8.8
Following on from the above, two readers asked if there was an easier
way of entering a lengthy string such as the one above without having to
type in the exact number of ÉAnyæ full stops. Well, there is, but it
must be used with caution if you are to protect the health of your
document, so the usual rule of making a back-up applies even more here!
By exercising great care, Iæve used it successfully to reduce PostScript
files to the point where they could be read sensibly.
8.8
The procedure is to select Magic characters and use the öany stringò
option which allows you to enter \* to represent a string of
indeterminate length. Thus, in the above example, we would type \x0d in
the Find text box to represent the leading hex character, \* instead of
the fifteen full stops and \x1d for the last hex character. So the Edit
window would look like this:
8.8
Let me stress that using \* will Éfindæ any string of characters, of any
length, and only adding the leading and trailing characters will make
that string unique. Potentially, using this option can have a
catastrophic effect, so click on Replace once or twice, rather than ÉEnd
of file replaceæ. Then, before clicking on ÉStopæ, do carefully double-
check your Edit document has not been scrambled. If the worst does
happen, click on ÉUndoæ instead and the health of your document will be
restored, allowing you to revert to using the safer option discussed
earlier. You have been warned!
8.8
PhoneDay Ö update
8.8
In Archive 8.7 p17, I offered a DIY method of updating STD code
utilities to incorporate post-PhoneDay codes, using Editæs find/replace
facility, but mentioned that I couldnæt see a way of avoiding having to
make other changes manually. Well, Ted Lacey had already done the
considerable spadework to do just that (same issue, p9) and has very
kindly sent me a copy of the outcome. As a result of Tedæs efforts, this
version of !STDFinder (v2.01) is rather more up-to-date than the one on
the March disk, so the new version is included on this monthæs disk. It
is also available from me and, I understand, the APDL and Datafile PD
libraries.
8.8
Ted mentioned an ambiguity in the similar utility called !Exchange but
we now believe that there are two different utilities with the same
name. Very confusing for a simple chap like me!
8.8
Exporting text
8.8
I suppose it was inevitable that, having offered methods of making
imported Éforeignæ text readable by Acorn WP/DTP packages, I should be
asked about exporting documents from Acorn to other machines.
8.8
Apart from sending out PostScript files, I donæt do this as a matter of
course but, from an admittedly superficial viewpoint, I donæt think
thereæs a significant difference between import and export. That is, if
we simply export direct from an application like Impression or Ovation,
we will inevitably export all the formatting and printer commands
embedded with the document and, therefore, this will appear as the
equivalent Éscribbleæ to the receiving package. Iæve had a brief look at
using read and write versions of Rich Text Format (RTF) utilities
without a great deal of success but, to be honest, have not delved
deeply into the problems.
8.8
As far as exporting text is concerned, I believe that users of Acorn
machines have the advantage here in that, as far as I know, there is no
utility available for, say, IBM-compatible machines which is as
productive and convenient as Edit for removing the scribble Ö or as
cheap! Can anyone offer any ideas on this?
8.8
Perhaps, therefore, when we export a document to another user (including
Acorn owners who may not necessarily use the same WP/DTP package), we
should do the decent thing and make a point of making the document as
readable as possible to the person at the other end. Firstly, we can
separate the text from the illustrations which, in general, is very easy
to do. For example, in Ovation, instead of saving the full document to
disk as normal, we can save just the text by selecting Ö not
surprisingly Ö öSave as textò. The result is a simple stream of text, in
standard ASCII format, without printer codes or most formatting
commands. I say ömostò because, although end-of-line formatting commands
are stripped out, single or multiple linefeeds representing paragraph
breaks are retained.
8.8
This is great because we can put the file onto a floppy disk, formatted
to MS-DOS, and it should then be perfectly readable by anyone with a
Éforeignæ computer or WP/DTP package, if the filetype has been changed
to DOS.
8.8
Exporting from, say, Impression Publisher is almost as straightforward.
In this case, the equivalent save command is öSave text storyò (<ctrl-
f3>). In this case, before saving, it is necessary to deselect all the
radio box options (as applicable) to ensure linefeeds, carriage returns
and styles are not exported with the text. However, as with Ovation,
paragraph breaks are retained.
8.8
Exporting documents
8.8
Having exported readable text, it remains to export any illustrations in
ÉPCæ formats, using facilities such as John Kortinkæs !Creator or
Artworksæ Export options. Typically, this might be TIFF for bitmap files
and EPS for vector graphics.
8.8
A significant advantage here is that, having separated the document into
text and a number of graphics files, these can be exported via as many
floppy disks as are required; useful when Ö as so often happens Ö the
document is too big to fit onto a single floppy. In all cases, it helps
to send a hard-copy printout of your document, enabling the recipient to
reconstitute and reformat the document from the individual files.
8.8
As a corollary, I commonly find these procedures are a very convenient
way of taking a back-up copy of a document which is too large to fit on
a floppy. Saving illustrations as separate graphics files and then
regularly using öSave as textò ensures I can quickly reconstitute the
Ébig jobæ in the event that the hard disk falls over.
8.8
Please keep the interesting ideas and queries coming. If anyone still
wants a copy of the examples files used in the original Text Import
articles, !CharSel, !MultiChars or the updated !STDFinder utility,
please send me a formatted disk with return label and postage. Jim
Nottingham, 16 Westfield Close, Pocklington, York, YO4 2EY.áu
8.8
Beebug have very kindly agreed to allow !CharSel to be distributed to
Archive readers via the monthly disk.
8.8
Programming Workshop
8.8
Matthew Hunter
8.8
Since the last programming workshop column, many of the questions I have
received have again been about changes to graphics handling on the Risc
PC. While several of them have been covered previously, some new
information has come to light.
8.8
Changing mode
8.8
The biggest problem still seems to be the way in which the MODE öXx Yy
Ccò command works since it differs from the MODE m in several ways. The
palette is set to the Wimp palette appropriate for the number of
colours, and if text is displayed using PRINT, it appears in a standard
task window, rather than at the top left of the screen. Text size is
also affected Ö standard text is likely to generate a smaller font than
text printed at the graphics cursor.
8.8
The easiest way around this problem is to set the mode twice. If you
wish to use the older BBC palette, change by using the number the second
time, e.g.
8.8
MODE öX800 Y600 C16ò
8.8
MODE MODE
8.8
When used as a variable, MODE contains the current mode number.
8.8
You will find that the text window is full screen as expected, and the
palette will be set correctly. Text will also be the same size printing
at either the text or graphics cursors.
8.8
If you wish to use the Wimp palette, but do not want to have the
taskwindow set up, simply ensure that you create some output before
changing mode, e.g. using
8.8
PRINT öò
8.8
MODE öX800 Y600 C16ò
8.8
will set the mode as required with the Wimp palette, but a full screen
text window, and printing text at the graphics cursor, will scale the
text to be the same size as the system font appears on the desktop.
8.8
Sprites
8.8
Sprites have been covered in Archive previously, but we have had
enquiries regarding their use recently, so I will give a quick overview
here. In order to use sprites, they must be loaded into memory. For non-
desktop applications, this means creating a user sprite area and loading
a spritefile into it.
8.8
DEF PROCloadsprites(spritefile$)
8.8
DIM sprites% 32768
8.8
!(sprites%+0)=32768
8.8
!(sprites%+8)=16
8.8
SYS öOS_SpriteOpò, 9+256,sprites%
8.8
SYS öOS_SpriteOpò,10+256,sprites%,
8.8
 spritefile$
8.8
ENDPROC
8.8
Here a fixed amount of space is being allocated, although ideally you
would look at the size of the file and allocate enough space, otherwise
changes in the sprite file could require changes in your program. Before
the area can be initialised, the size of the area and the offset to the
first sprite must be filled in. The first SpriteOp (9) initialises the
area, and the second (10) loads the specified file. 256 is added, since
we wish to use a user sprite area rather than the system sprites.
8.8
A basic sprite plot can be achieved with SpriteOp 34:
8.8
DEF PROCplotsprite(sprite$,x%,y%,plot%)
8.8
SYS öOS_SpriteOpò,34+256,sprites%,
8.8
sprite$,x%,y%,plot%
8.8
ENDPROC
8.8
When using it, however, it is important to make sure that the mode you
are currently in has the same number of colours, the same pixel aspect
ratio and the same palette as the sprite being plotted. If you donæt,
the sprite may be stretched or squashed, and displayed in odd colours Ö
the simple plot used here assumes that no translations are necessary,
and is correspondingly faster. The plot code specifies how the sprite
will be placed on the screen. Any value between 0 and 7 is valid, the
most common being 0 (overwrite the current screen colours) and 3
(exclusive OR the current screen and the sprite). If you add 8 to the
code, only pixels which are not masked will be written.
8.8
Further speed can be obtained by using a pointer to the sprite rather
than the sprite name, which removes the need to search for a particular
sprite every time it is plotted. This makes the plot a two stage process
Ö first the location of the sprite in memory must be found, then the
sprite can be plotted.
8.8
DEF FNselectsprite(sprite$)
8.8
LOCAL ptr%
8.8
SYS öOS_SpriteOpò,24+256,sprite%,sprite$
8.8
 TO ,,ptr%
8.8
=ptr%
8.8
:
8.8
DEF PROCspritepointer(s%,x%,y%,plot%)
8.8
SYS öOS_SpriteOp,34+512,sprite%,s%,x%,
8.8
y%,plot%
8.8
ENDPROC
8.8
Initially, this appears to be wasteful, since there are now two
procedure calls. However, spritepointer can be called several times
after one call to selectsprite.
8.8
A couple of points that are worth noting. Spritepointer uses É+512æ in
this case, since the sprite is being accessed by pointer and not name.
The pointer returned by selectsprite is only valid until the sprite area
is changed, for example by merging a spritefile or deleting a sprite.
8.8
This should be enough to get you going. If you want to know something
more specific, please write in with your suggestions.
8.8
Basic animation
8.8
One question I have been asked involves moving sprites around the
screen. To move a sprite around a blank screen is quite simple.
8.8
FOR x%=100 TO 500 STEP 4
8.8
  CLS
8.8
  PROCplotsprite(ötestò,x%,y%,0)
8.8
  WAIT
8.8
NEXT
8.8
The CLS ensures that the previous sprite is removed, and WAIT causes the
program to wait until the beginning of the next screen refresh before
redrawing, to reduce flicker. It is more complicated, however, if you
wish to move the sprite across a background, since CLS will remove that
too. If you have a lot of moving objects it is probably more efficient
replot everything, including the background, each time round. However,
with only a few objects, it is better to grab the part of the background
which will be hidden. That section can then be plotted next time round
to remove the foreground sprite. The following procedure grabs an area
of the screen as a sprite.
8.8
DEF PROCgrabsprite(s$,x0%,y0$,x1%,y1%)
8.8
SYS öOS_SpriteOpò,16+256,sprite%,s$,x0%,
8.8
y0%,x1%,y1%
8.8
ENDPROC
8.8
As long as the sprite ötestò is less than 100 OS units in the x and y
directions, the animation loop can be written
8.8
FOR x%=100 TO 500 STEP 4
8.8
  PROCgrabsprite(öbackò,x%,y%,x%+100,y%
8.8
 +100)
8.8
  PROCplotsprite(ötestò,x%,y%,0)
8.8
  WAIT
8.8
  PROCplotsprite(öbackò,x%,y%,0)
8.8
NEXT
8.8
You can experience speed problems with this technique, especially where
large sprites are used, and the movement occurs close to the top of the
screen. The reason for the first is obvious; the larger the moving
sprite, the larger the amount of background that needs to be grabbed and
replaced.
8.8
The second problem is far more evident on the Risc PC, although the
earlier machines can suffer from it. The WAIT command halts the program
until the computer starts the next screen refresh, the old background is
then plotted, the new background is grabbed and then the sprite being
animated is plotted. During this time, the computeræs video system is
reading the data from the screen memory, and sending it to the monitor.
The problem occurs because the two are happening simultaneously. If the
area you are changing is close to the top of the screen, it may already
have been displayed by the time the changes are complete, so the result
flickers.
8.8
This is worse on the Risc PC since the frame rate can be higher, and
therefore the screen is read from memory more quickly; therefore the
Édanger areaæ (i.e. the area from the top of the screen to the position
of the scan when the update is complete) covers more of the screen. You
can reduce this by specifying a frame rate in your mode string, to slow
the scan down and reduce the danger area.
8.8
Dual screen banks
8.8
A common practice for animation is to use two screen banks, the first
visible while the second is updated, and vice versa. That way the screen
is not changing under the scan. This requires two procedures; the first
sets up the screen banking, and should be called once at the beginning
of your animation, the second swaps banks, and needs to be called
between each frame, usually the first command after the WAIT.
8.8
DEF PROCscreenbankinit
8.8
PROCsbasm
8.8
SB_bank%=1
8.8
SYS 6,113,SB_bank%
8.8
SB_bank%=3-SB_bank%
8.8
SYS 6,112,SB_bank%
8.8
!(bank)=SB_bank%
8.8
ENDPROC
8.8
:
8.8
DEF PROCswapscreens
8.8
SYS 6,113,SB_bank%
8.8
SB_bank%=3-SB_bank%
8.8
SYS 6,112,SB_bank%
8.8
ENDPROC
8.8
The monthly disk contains an application (!Smiley) which demonstrates
these effects. It is designed to be run in a 640╫480, 16 colour mode
(Mode 27 for pre-Risc PC machines) but does not change mode itself, so
you will have to set it first. There are a couple of minor changes. The
first checks to see that there is enough screen memory to hold both
screen banks, and tries to allocate more if not. The second is that the
screen banking code has been rewritten in Assembler, since the Basic was
not fast enough in the high refresh modes on the Risc PC. You can see
the difference by un-REMing the PROCswapscreens line and REMing the CALL
screenswap.
8.8
That should be enough to be getting on with, so keep the ideas coming in
for next time.áu
8.8
Lottery Software
8.8
Colin Singleton
8.8
PC software associated with the National Lottery started appearing
before the Lottery got under way, including, sadly, some charlatans
claiming to tilt the odds in your favour, or some such phrase. Acorn
software arrived more slowly, and the four packages currently on my icon
bar appear ethically clean, although the accompanying texts do betray
some misunderstandings of probability, and two of the packages declare
their purpose to be to win lots of money.
8.8
The first arrival on my doormat was !Otteryl, ⌐Cherisha Software
(Rebecca Shalfield), at ú3.00, plus the same again for each new version.
The latest release of this package appears to have corrected the bugs in
the program, but not in the literature! The number of different possible
entries is designated mathematically as 49C6, which you can evaluate by
selecting this function in !SciCalc. It is (49╫48╫47╫46╫45╫44)á/
á(1╫2╫3╫4╫5╫6) = 13983816, not 14003300 Ö the divisor is 720, not 719.
8.8
Then, priced at ú1.50, came !Lottery ⌐Ben OllivΦre, who seems so
determined not to receive any correspondence that he has omitted both
the post town and the county from his published address! No such bugs in
his program Ö it doesnæt do much, but it does it very prettily.
8.8
Next, !ApriLot, PD from Apricote Studios. Quentin Pain has offered this
for the Archive Monthly Disk, and asked me if I can suggest any really
constructive features for Lottery software. In the absence of any data
indicating puntersæ most (and least) popular numbers and combinations, I
am rather at a loss. I have written to Camelot, and am keeping my
fingers crossed.
8.8
Finally (to date) !Lottery, Shareware ⌐Paul Vigay (aka Digital
Phenomena), Registration Fee ú5.00, upgrades free in exchange for a
blank disk. The clash of unimaginative names produces two identical
icons on my bar, but no more significant problem. This package has the
best displays and the most interesting statistics.
8.8
Three of the packages (not OllivΦreæs) require me to enter the results
of each weekæs draw, but only ApriLot tells me the date of the next draw
(the others expect me to enter it, and allow me to get it wrong). Only
Vigay allows me to correct earlier errors Ö with the other two, itæs
just tough luck!
8.8
Then come the Éstatisticsæ. For Otteryl and ApriLot this is merely a
pretentious term for counting the number of times each number has been
drawn. Aprilot offers a choice of logical sequences for this list.
Otteryl offers only one, very strange, sequence, and also allows me to
save the list as a CSV file for export to a graphs package. Vigayæs
program is more informative Ö it displays the frequency data as a natty
bar chart, though I havenæt figured out the significance of the choice
of colours. It also tells me the split between odd and even numbers, top
and bottom halves of the ticket, and blocks of ten numbers (but donæt
forget that there are more odd numbers than even, etc). He also lists
every combination of two or more numbers which have occurred in the same
draw twice, but unfortunately does not explicitly identify those groups
which have occurred three times. At present only one sub-set of four
numbers has been drawn twice Ö 3, 5, 14 & 30 were drawn in Week 1 and
Week 5. I think the list of pairs could quickly become excessive, and
uninteresting.
8.8
All the packages offer Épredictionæ facilities, indeed, this is the only
function of OllivΦreæs program. At this point, can we please get one
thing straight? Previous winning numbers cannot in any way affect future
draws! All the packages except OllivΦreæs offer an option to give
preference in their predictions to Éhotæ or Écoldæ numbers Ö those which
have been drawn more or less frequently than average. Vigayæs notes
clearly intimate that combinations which have been successful in the
past should have a better chance than others in the future. ApriLotæs
notes, less clearly, suggest the opposite!
8.8
Forget it! The next draw is just as likely to be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 as 13,
20, 28, 34, 42, 46 (unbiased random numbers) Ö or an exact repeat of
last weekæs draw! For those who are interested in hot and cold numbers,
Otteryl gives precise yes/no definitions of hot (a number which has been
drawn three or more times in the last five weeks) and cold (not drawn in
the past nine weeks). The first is so restrictive as to be useless Ö
only one week in three will there be more than one hot number on this
definition, and one week in three there will be none. The other packages
refer vaguely to numbers drawn frequently or infrequently, and such
Éfuzzy logicæ, if suitably programmed, is surely appropriate.
8.8
OllivΦre, unlike the others, proceeds by generating thousands of random
numbers (how many is up to you) then offering as his prediction the six
which occurred most frequently. The program displays, and progressively
updates, a graph showing the frequency of each number, which can be
printed at the end. A bar chart would, I think, have been more
appropriate. That, basically, is all there is to it! May I suggest an
alternative? FOR I = 1 TO 6 : PRINT RND(49) : NEXT I. Try again if it
gives any number twice. Sorry, but I can see no effective difference
between six random numbers and the most frequent six of several
thousand.
8.8
ApriLot offers no parameters for its predictions. It always offers five
lines, one random, one Éhotæ, one Écoldæ, one mixed hot and cold, and a
fifth (questionably labelled Ébestæ) combined from the first four. Vigay
offers single, optionally biased, lines and a ÉBlock Guessæ facility.
This comprises several entry lines which, collectively, would have been
very successful in the draws to date Ö deliberately based on the fallacy
noted above!
8.8
Otteryl offers a choice of 1, 4, 7, 10 or 13 prediction lines. The
multi-line entries are obtained, Football Pools style, by selecting 8,
9, 10 or 11 numbers, then selecting the appropriate number of lines of
six from these, designed to ensure that if the overall selection
contains three correct, then these will appear together in at least one
line. This, according to the blurb, ö... maximises your chances of
winning one or more ú10 prizesò. Another goof, Iæm afraid. Overlapping,
rather than independent, entries reduce your chance of winning one prize
or more (at any level except Jackpot). To put it another way, this
technique increases your chance of winning nothing!  By way of
compensation (and by the laws of probability there must be one) it
increases your chance of winning more than one prize in one week.
8.8
Otteryl is the only package of the four which allows me to enter my
proposed entry and read its comments. A sneak peek at the Messages file
reveals its repertoire of responses, and suggests that this feature is
rather less helpful than perhaps it might have been. About 99% of the
time it will reply öYou have chosen your numbers wellò. [P.S. What,
please, is the Éfizz-buzzæ sequence? Is it good or bad?]
8.8
Vigayæs !Lottery offers an option to print its guesses directly onto the
Playslip [N.B. not Payslip!], but it doesnæt seem to be on speaking
terms with my LaserDirect. It apparently insists on changing my Direct
connection to File: Null, so nothing happens, except that my printer
goes dead!
8.8
Three of the packages, very sensibly, come with disclaimers repudiating
any suggestion that they might help you win the Lottery. Otteryl and
ApriLot, nevertheless, acknowledge in their notes that you can influence
your potential winnings by choosing unpopular numbers or combinations,
although there is little any program can do to help. Your chance of
winning a ú10 prize is once in 56+ entries. Similarly, your chance of
winning a Match¡4 prize is one in 1032, Match¡5, one in 55491, Bonus
Prize, one in 2330636, and the Jackpot, one in 13893816. You cannot
change these odds, but you can, perhaps, reduce the number of others who
will share your prize if you do win (except for the ú10 prize, which is
fixed).
8.8
An unpopular combination of numbers is just as likely to be drawn as a
popular one, but there will be fewer winners to share the Prize Pools.
The Match-4 prize, for example, has varied from ú16 to ú164, solely
because of the numbers of winning entries. The statistically expected
average is ú62. The highest (but fewest) prizes were paid in the week
when all the numbers drawn were in the bottom half of the ticket, the
lowest when the numbers were 7, 17, 23, 32, 38, 42 Ö I am at a loss to
know why these should be so popular! In one week, the small prize
winners were more numerous than expected, but the higher ones less
numerous, caused by popular numbers in an unpopular combination. There
is more to this than meets the eye, and a very comprehensive analysis of
actual entries would be needed to offer any advice to punters.
8.8
The National Lottery is frustrating, and not just because of the
elusiveness of its prizes. It seems such an Éobviousæ candidate for some
form of software but, on further investigation, it appears that your
computer can do little which cannot be done almost as easily with pencil
and paper. I kept asking myself öWhy has anyone bothered to write this
program?ò They are all WIMP compliant and multitasking, and represent a
lot of effort for, seemingly, little benefit. They would probably be
best distributed either as advertisements or disk-fillers.
8.8
Conclusion
8.8
Paul Vigayæs !Lottery has the edge over the others by a reasonable
margin.áu
8.8
Previous winning numbers cannot in any way affect future draws!
8.8
TableMate 2
8.8
Dave Floyd
8.8
TableMate 2 is a package from Dalriada Data Technology which aims to
simplify the creation of tables for use in Impression or other DTP
packages. It costs ú32.50 or ú17.50 as an upgrade to TableMate for a
single user copy. A primary site licence costs ú40, a secondary licence
is ú70 and there is also the option, in addition to the licence, to pay
an extra ú5 or ú10 respectively which allows the teacher to use the
software at home and make copies of the manual. Discounts on the site
licence prices are also available for owners of the original TableMate.
8.8
Improvements
8.8
Those who own a copy of Impression will have found the original
TableMate bundled in as part of the package. As an occasional user of
tables within documents, I thought that this was a most useful idea,
until I actually came to use it. A couple of attempts later, TableMate
was unceremoniously deleted from my hard disk and I contented myself
with creating styles within Impression whenever I needed to present data
in tabular form. TableMate 2 is a vast improvement over its predecessor
and it is pleasing to see that, what was undeniably a good idea, has
also developed into a very useful utility.
8.8
Word wrap within columns has now been implemented with the rows
automatically expanding to accommodate the extra lines of text. This can
be very fiddly to do within Impression or with many spreadsheets and it
allows for large savings in time when creating tables. Tabs can be set
to allow the display in any column or individual cell to be left or
right justified, centred or, for numeric entries, a decimal tab is also
provided.
8.8
Drawfiles can now be placed inside a cell, if you need to add graphics
to your table. Sprites can also be used, although you first have to drag
them into a draw window and save the resultant drawfile. Full scaling
facilities are provided in TableMate 2 so you can adjust the size of the
image without having to keep going back to Draw. The graphics side of
TableMate 2 works very well indeed and I am sure that this will be of
much use to primary schools, especially.
8.8
The addition and deletion of multiple rows and columns has now been
implemented and full colour control is now available, allowing you to
adapt the colours of the cell background, text and separating lines
(rule-offs) within your table. The width of rule-offs can also be
adjusted and cross column headings can easily be added, to provide the
final polish to your table.
8.8
The cut and paste facilities will be familiar to any Acorn user who has
used Impression or Edit, amongst others, and conforms to the generally
accepted standards set by these packages, such as <ctrl-X>, <ctrl-C> and
<ctrl-V> as key combinations to cut, copy and paste respectively. Row
height and vertical positioning of text can, should you so wish, be
specified in absolute measurements, and the package now allows multiple
document editing, up to a limit of sixteen tables at any one time.
8.8
Data can be imported into TableMate 2 in the form of CSV, TSV or SID
files or entered directly as you would into a spreadsheet, for example.
The importing of data works perfectly, with both rows and columns being
automatically added by the software as required. Saving of completed
tables can be in Impression DDF format, Draw format or as a TableMate
file, essential if you may need to modify the table at a later date.
8.8
Criticism
8.8
There is very little to criticise about TableMate 2 as a package. The
only problem I had was with the manual. Forty pages long, it is not so
much a manual as a tutorial. Whilst this may be ideal for a beginner to
computing, it can become frustrating when trying to find out how to use
one specific function. The addition of a quick reference section at the
back and a detailed index would improve matters greatly in this respect.
Having said that, the software is reasonably intuitive and the only real
need I had to refer to the manual was due to the visual similarities
that TableMate 2 shared with Impression. It can be very easy to forget
that it is not Impression at times and that, in order to achieve a
desired effect, you have to approach the problem slightly differently.
8.8
Wish list
8.8
Following the great strides made by Dalriada Data between the releases
of version 1.10 and 2.0, I hope they do not now rest on their laurels
and stop upgrading TableMate. One extra function I would like to see in
version 3 would be fully justified text within columns. The addition of
simple spreadsheet functions, such as the ability to automatically total
columns as you enter the data, would also be very useful, especially if
this were expanded to include addition of time as well as decimal
values. Even a function that allowed you to select a range of cells and
total them all after entry could only enhance the usefulness of what is
already a very useful utility.
8.8
Conclusion
8.8
If you have any need to compile tables for use within a DTP environment,
TableMate 2 should prove to be an indispensable addition to your
software collection. Those who tried and could not get along with
version 1.10 should not allow themselves to be put off by the
inadequacies of the earlier release. TableMate 2 supplies almost
everything one could wish for and, with such ease of use, that even the
awkward manual does not hold back productivity for long, if indeed, you
need to refer to it at all. Possibly an essential purchase.áu
8.8
Andrew Rawnsley
8.8
The release of Wolfenstein 3D represents the culmination of about a
yearæs work porting the game from its PC roots. However, the company
behind this conversion isnæt one of the regulars Ö Krisalis, GamesWare
or VTi, but a newcomer Ö PowerSlave Software, headed up by Eddie
Edwards, a new talent in Acorn programming.
8.8
The PC origins
8.8
Wolfenstein 3D has been available on the PC since the middle of 1993. In
its day, it was thoroughly ground-breaking, being the first game to make
use of ray casting and texture-mapped graphics. For the first time,
players could have freedom of movement in 3D worlds. The first ten
levels were also released as shareware Ö a shrewd move on the part of
the publishers.
8.8
The game has now been superseded by the Doom series, from the same
company (ID Software) but it is still a classic game, and great fun to
play.
8.8
Acorn users have only been exposed to a small amount of this kind of 3D
environment. 4th Dimensionæs The Dungeon achieved it quite well, but was
let down by the artwork.
8.8
The game
8.8
OK, so itæs technically ground-breaking and graphically impressive but
this doesnæt automatically make it a good game.
8.8
The plot has you taking the part of an American soldier locked away in
the dungeons of Castle Wolfenstein. However, one hapless guard made the
unfortunate mistake of opening your cell door to feed you. His early
demise equipped you with the cell keys and, rather more usefully, a
pistol.
8.8
Your objective, then, is to explore the castle and try to escape but, at
the same time, load your pockets with Nazi gold, and dispatch as many
enemy scum as possible. You might even get a crack at old Adolf himself.
8.8
This is an outline to the first scenario (the shareware 10 levels), and
is the main storyline. The five extra levels supplied in the full
version (the only version available on the Archimedes) have you going
back into different parts of the castle with the objective each time of
stopping yet another Nazi masterplan. Needless to say, the original had
a few problems in Germany.
8.8
For once, the background is fairly sensible, rather than being a load of
codswallop about saving the known universe.
8.8
Installation
8.8
Wolfenstein 3D comes on three disks (big for an Arc game!), which can be
installed onto a hard drive, but youæll need the main program disk to
navigate the protection.
8.8
Running the game installs it on the icon bar (a good habit), so that the
options can be set up, and a further click takes over the full screen
and starts the introduction.
8.8
Once the game has loaded, you can set up the gameæs options: keys, sound
and music levels and, for users of slower machines, the size of the view
window. The smaller the window, the faster the game runs on a lower spec
machine. An ARM 3 machine or Risc PC can easily cope with the maximum
window size.
8.8
Finally, you select which episode to play, and the degree of difficulty.
8.8
Gameplay
8.8
Needless to say, the main priority in the gameplay is to shoot the
guards and finish the levels. However, puzzles are introduced by the
need for keys to open locked doors and, for those not content just to
finish the level quickly, there are mazes leading to better weapons,
extra lives, food and treasure. Oh, and donæt forget the secret doors
and levels containing even more goodies.
8.8
Provided you have set the viewing window size to suit your machine, the
game runs very smoothly, and at a good pace, allowing you to get fully
immersed in the proceedings.
8.8
Sound and music
8.8
The music takes the form of Soundblaster tunes, so Eddie was forced to
write a Soundblaster emulator. Unfortunately, the music is pretty
unimpressive, but I think this is a flaw in the original. The sound
effects, however, are top notch and the samples of the Nazi guards are
very atmospheric.
8.8
Criticisms
8.8
Iæve tried to refrain from saying it up till now, but this game is
violent. Shooting a guard releases a fountain of blood (red pixels,
actually), and the corpse lies there until you finish the level. For
this reason, I find it difficult to recommend the game to young players,
as the graphics are quite realistic. Fortunately though, the levels of
realism and gore arenæt up there with Doom, so itæs unlikely that youæll
confuse reality with fantasy.
8.8
Conclusions
8.8
Wolfenstein 3D is an excellent game, with plenty of life in it Ö when
youæve finished the supplied levels, you can download extra ones from
bulletin boards or Internet ftp sites. The violence makes it unsuitable
for younger children, but for everyone else, the game is fun and
exciting. Only the price is a little off-putting Ö ú29.95 + p&p (ú29
inclusive through Archive) Ö at a time when lots of excellent titles are
appearing.
8.8
However, if you can afford the price tag, youæll get a lot of fun from
this superb conversion.áu
8.8
Wolfenstein 3D
8.8
CASA-II and CASA-III
8.8
Richard Fallas
8.8
CASA from W.C.Smith & Associates is a Structural Frame Analysis
application, which was first released some years ago. W.C.Smith and
Associates (formerly Vision 6) have now released CASA-II. They have also
provided for review a pre-release version of their new three-dimensional
package, CASA-III. These programs are currently marketed in two
versions: an entry level version of CASA-II, and a full version of CASA-
II packaged with the entry-level version of CASA-III which is a
completely new application for three-dimensional frames. Prices are ú400
and ú800 plus VAT respectively.
8.8
This review has been in gestation for some months: waiting first of all
for time on my part, then the latest documentation, followed by much
trying out and discussing foibles of the 3-D package, etc, etc. In the
middle of all this, I have agreed to go and work in New Zealand for a
few years... and of course there was Christmas! However, I now feel I
can comment on both packages, consistent with their current state of
development.
8.8
I reviewed CASA in Archive some years ago (Archive 4.8 p27) and later
briefly reported on various enhancements (Archive 6.9 p48), since which
time many new members of Archive will have arrived. CASA-II warrants
further mention as it has now been polished to a commendable degree.
Although clearly representing a minority interest, it adds to the RISC
OS platformæs armoury of quality software. Its main application will be
by engineers and students wishing to know what forces and displacements
will arise when a structural frame or grid is loaded. For anyone
requiring such a facility, a program such as CASA-II will be as
indispensable as a word processor.
8.8
I have used CASA in my professional practice for several years, and
frankly would be at a loss without it. It ranks second only to
PipeDream3 as the most used program on my machine (except perhaps
Keystroke!) and, to date, its output has never been faulted by either
Local Authorities or other checking Engineers. Obviously, therefore, it
works! The screen shot opposite of a typical portal frame is included,
in lieu of a thousand words! This shows the frame after analysis with
several relevant windows open, including the Member Forces output
window.
8.8
Two dimensions
8.8
CASA-II retains the split application approach to enable its use on 1Mb
machines; editing the frame, members and loads is done within the front-
end application, while the appropriate analysis application handles the
computation of either a 2-D frame (or truss), or a 2-D grid with loads
normal to the plane of the members. The front end has been visibly
enhanced in many ways, such that the options for adding and manipulating
nodes, members, and indeed sub-structures, are now more capable than my
needs require.
8.8
It is possible to create a simple portal frame, for example, using just
five nodes and four members. These members can then be split with ease
into shorter members by specifying either the fraction, distance, number
of sections, etc. Node geometry is thus sensibly handled by the
computer. Similarly, loads can be replicated by clicking on existing
entries. Nodal entry may be by coordinates, clicking on other nodes to
copy X or Y values, or by array. All of these apply to both frames and
grids.
8.8
Member type selection has always been assisted by data files of hot-
rolled steel sections. The user may now add to these using ASCII files,
in my case created using PipeDream. For example, timber or concrete
member sizes and modulii may be tabulated and stored in the appropriate
directory. They will be loaded automatically on startup. Several
loadcases may be created with differing load factors for each. These are
applied during analysis with output being available for each,
individually or in combination. Some care is required to plan loadcases
to simplify data entry, yet retain clarity of the final output for
checking.
8.8
CASA-II will carry out a second (or more) pass during analysis if
required in which the deflected shape from the previous pass is used as
the starting point for the next. Most structures converge quickly, i.e.
results do not differ greatly between say second and third passes, but
some may tend to diverge Ö a potentially disastrous condition which, as
far as I am aware, cannot be automatically checked by any other analysis
software.
8.8
Other enhancements include a new manual, which includes a full worked
example showing data input and results after analysis. More scaling and
redrawing options are available, and output to PlotMate and HPGL
plotters is now possible. Normal output is via RISCáOS printer drivers.
Full renumbering, transformation/mirror, etc facilities are now
available and there is a bandwidth reducer to improve analysis speed.
8.8
A stability check can now be specified which applies a proportion
(usually 1.5%) of the applied vertical loads (including gravity loading,
if active), as a horizontal loading at the appropriate level, in
accordance with current practice. Applied loads andáreactions are summed
and compared Ö essential for checking.
8.8
The analysis routines are now much faster (up to 500%). Detailed results
for points along each member are available so that intermediate nodes
are not required. Zooming of the display, as in Draw, is now possible.
Analysis can now occur in the background if required. Many, many more
detailed improvements are listed in a text file, which should be read in
conjunction with the manual, as there may be new, undocumented features
available.
8.8
And so to three dimensions
8.8
Why 3-D? This is a harder question to answer than it might seem.
Virtually all of my design requirements are for 3-D structures, so how
can a 2-D package have been adequate? The answer is that there is
generally a core Ébitæ of the structure which is not easy to resolve
statically (i.e. with just a few equations, although wl2/8 gets you a
long way!). These bits are soluble using 2-D analysis, and the effect
of, and on, the other parts can be predicted with reasonable confidence.
The virtue of this is simplicity.
8.8
No one wants to pay a designer more than the absolute minimum to justify
their valuable structure Ö cheque book engineering is the name of the
game in Britain these days. Also, it is important to check that the
analysis reflects reality. Hence, it is vital that the analysis be kept
as simple as possible, even if simplification may involve a few extra
kilos of steel, timber or concrete, etc. Materials are reckoned by
clients to be cheap (often this is totally incorrect!) Ö whereas
engineering is seen as wasted expenditure. I wish it were not so, but
thatæs the way things are heading.
8.8
A 2-D package used to analyse a simplified structure is quick and
repetitive. There are cases, however, where this is just not close
enough to the reality for confidence in the answers; or, alternatively,
the benefits from full consideration are likely to be worthwhile. It
would be nice, therefore, if oneæs favourite analysis program also
covered the 3-D case, without being unduly laborious to use for the
simpler 2-D stuff. Enter CASA-III, to fanfare...
8.8
Booting the application installs a öwee-houseò on the icon bar, and the
initial window contains X/Y/Z axes references on a white background.
Reference to the main menu reveals a simple but much needed change Ö
Save via F3 is implemented (although not on the latest CASA-II). Menu
item öViewò permits control of viewpoints, scales, printing, etc. Entry
of title info, nodes, members, sections, loads, etc is made within
various windows accessed via the öEntryò menu item. The node-load-only
restriction of the entry version may seem a serious limitation.
Iásuspect, however, that much can be achieved perfectly well using this,
and I often simplify my analyses to just such an arrangement. For one
thing, it is easier to check that the correct loads have been entered
and that they tally with the reactions after analysis. (More of the
dreadfully named KISS syndrome!) The remaining two menu items lead to
Analysis and Results respectively. It is also worth noting here that the
full and entry versions both fitted onto a single 800Kb disk Ö this is
unheard of in PC-land!
8.8
I understand that CASA-II is more-or-less the end of the line in terms
of development of the 2-D application. The full 3-D package is currently
being finalised but, in its current form, it is usable. Although a
little rough in places, it shows great promise. As the advert in Archive
8.1 p22 indicates, the 3-D entry level application is provided free with
the full version of CASA-II. I wanted to see if it would be viable
within a busy office, on tight budgets, to use one program for all
situations, i.e. 2-D and 3-D frames. The answer is that the 3-D program
can be used for 2-D work, but I have yet to be convinced that it would
be cost-effective. Perhaps familiarity, and further work on the front-
end, will change this. Here I should say that engineering users of
RISCáOS machines are in a fortunate position in so far as access to
software houses is concerned. W.C.Smith & Associates, like many others
in the Acorn orbit, are very responsive to suggestions, and you can be
sure that valid comment will be considered and, where possible, acted
on.
8.8
CASA-III is different from CASA-II in that it comes as a single
application. Much of the flavour of CASA-II is retained, but virtually
every aspect of the front end has been changed Ö not always for the
better in my view. The second partial screenshot shows some of the
different input windows. I think a little further thought is required as
to the best combination of menu structure, default window size, etc. I
also suspect that the Acorn official style guide is partly responsible
for some of the less convincing changes!
8.8
Be in no doubt: three dimensional analysis is no easy matter. Nor is the
discipline required for conceiving and entering the model by the user.
It becomes vital to be absolutely clear which axis must be referred to
for each part of the process. My first attempt at entering a skewed
bridge deck had it standing vertically in the air! What is more, it
wasnæt absolutely obvious that it was, and I even managed to get some
Éresultsæ from the analysis. To be fair, this was operator ignorance.
8.8
One of the extremely clever aspects of CASA-III is the perspective
transformations used for graphical output. Time has not permitted a full
bench-testing of the application against other packages (in the PC
world). This will happen in due course Ö I expect to be able to do this
in my new office in Auckland Ö and I will advise further when it is
done.
8.8
Summarising the contrasts between CASA-II and CASA-III (full version)
may be useful:
8.8
u  Combined editing and analysis in one application
8.8
u  Background printing has been implemented
8.8
u  Analysis results may all be seen together
8.8
u  Point to a member: the appropriate row in the results is highlighted
8.8
u  Restraints are now user defined: change the definition, they all
change
8.8
u  Virtual memory is used i.e. via hard disk: this has speed
implications but gives access to much bigger frames
8.8
u  <Shift-adjust> can be used to zoom into the structure
8.8
u  Display position settings can be edited
8.8
u  Data entries are carried over when the option box is NOT highlighted
Ö yuck!
8.8
u  <F3> now opens a file save dialogue box
8.8
Several features are of more general note and indicate the way forward
for RISCáOS-based programs, although I understand that full Acorn
support cannot be taken for granted. In particular, the use of virtual
memory is a PC-type approach, which is new in my experience of RISCáOS
machines. I have not, however, had much opportunity to test it out by
analysing a suitably large frame. Background printing also works well
and is a timely inclusion. Very few RISCáOS programs have an UNDO
feature, and CASA-III also lacks this. I believe it is essential that
UNDO becomes a universally available feature to allow confident
experimentation with ever more complex applications. I wish Colton had
included it in FireWorkz! Minervaæs ProCAD is almost unique in having
the magic button to undo mistakes.
8.8
Conclusions
8.8
As I typed this review, a further update of CASA-III arrived, together
with some much needed extracts from the manual, giving tutorial
information. I have to stop somewhere in order to get this off to the
editor, but suffice it to say that I am convinced that CASA-III will
continue to be refined and improved, and potential users should be
encouraged by this.
8.8
I am not yet convinced that a 3-D package can be suitable for all 2-D
and 3-D frames, but it is certainly a good target. An intermediate step
might be to have a common file structure for both, i.e. 2-D files can be
recognised as such and read into CASA-III. I believe that W.C.Smith and
Associates are intending to accomplish this via a separate utility Ö
which would suffice.
8.8
As to availability, CASA-II is firmly a reality. CASA-III is usable but
not yet fully tested and polished, but with the latest version (2.12),
it is very close. Demonstration disks can be obtained from W.C.Smith &
Associates on 01665-510682.
8.8
Vital Statistics
8.8
Entry Level 2-D: will run in a 2Mb machine; limited to 32 nodes and
members;
8.8
Full Version 2-D: will run in a 2Mb machine but structure size limited
only by memory;
8.8
Entry Level 3-D: will work on a 2Mb machine (800Kb free Min); up to 50
nodes, 50 members, 50ánode loads etc; 12 load and 12 settlement cases,
64 case combinations;
8.8
Full Version 3-D: 1Mb free memory + Hard disk absolute minimum, 2Mb free
memory is recommended; structure size is limited only by available
memory.áu
8.8
CASA-II adds to the RISC OS platformæs armoury of quality software.
8.8
the spell checker is easy to use... ...and certainly worth the extra
money
8.8
Fully recommended for novice, enthusiast and pro, even if the price were
more than it is Ö ú16.
8.8
Maybe Acorn will gain some serious respect in a world which normally
brushes them aside.
8.8
For new users, FireworkzáPro is an excellent package
8.8