PD World

Paul Brett features the work of Jochen Lueg.

Its been a quite couple of months on the PD front. It would seem that all the normal PD, shareware and Freeware authors have been roped in to work on commercial projects of one sort or another. So instead of our usual pick and mix round up we are going to concentrate mainly on the work of one author. So this issue we are going to take a long hard look around www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor/english/sharerw.htm the shareware website of prolific author Jochen Lueg. You can register all of Jochens' shareware programs for a one off £15 fee.

ByJupiter

This program will only work on a RiscPC. (The version on the RISC World CD needs to be run in 32,000 colours). It supports interactive help via the Help application. At www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/dialimages.html you can download a series of 120 computer generated images showing the Galileo satellite swinging into orbit around Jupiter. (but you don't need to as I have done it all for you - PB). Now run the program. The buttons are more or less obvious. The 'Step' choice allows you to single-frame through the film, 'Animate' will run the film at a speed adjustable with the speed bump buttons. Two limit icons allow a restricted part of the film to be played. More than one movie at a time time can be run.

FSI Batch

FSI_Batch will convert any group of files that ChangeFSI understands and convert them according to the options selected. These options are much like in ChangeFSI. The converted files are stored in an internal directory, or a directory of your own choice if you prefer. The program will work with an A5000 as long as your version of ChangeFSI is a recent one (1.15 or later) and the SpriteExtend module is in the system directory. Just drop any group of images (not directories) into the window, set the options and click on convert. Sit back and watch in amazement. The program installs in the usual way. There is a single window, divided into three sections. As an added feature, FSI_Batch will now convert Acorn sprite files that contain more than one image. A handy feature which allows you for instance to get at the individual images of a multi sprite file very easily.

NoButton

Modern printers have all kinds of different functions which on a PC would be selected with a mouse from within the Properties window of the printer driver program. Some printers give access to these functions via the control buttons, but the sequences are tedious and hard to remember. My program enables you to perform most of these test functions with the mouse in the comfort of your chair (if indeed you are sitting down at the time!) At the moment supported printers are Canon S450, 2100, 4650, 7000, 7100 and 8200. In addition the Epson 750 Photo and Stylus 850 are also supported. It is up to the user to select the correct printer. Default is the Canon 4650, but the iconbar menu opens a small Epson 750 window. The !Printers application does not have to be installed when you use the program. The program is written in such a way that Jochen can easily update it for other printers. Drop him an e-mail if you have a different printer and he will see what he can do.

NumberFix

Certain programs, Spacetech's !Photolink is one of them, output files numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ..... 10, 11 and so on. !NumberFix was written to help with the manipulation of such files. Often one deletes some of the files and wants to renumber the sequence. Sometimes one wants to insert sprites at the beginning. To do this one has to renumber all the files to, for example, 31, 32, 33, 34. Often one wants to add extensions to the files, i.e. 12/jpeg. One might even want to call them Hol_12/jpeg where 12 is the number of the file. When files are called 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 12, the filer will list them alphabetically and 10 is in front of 2 and 3. This can only be fixed by renaming all single cipher number to 01, 02, 03 etc. All these operations have one thing in common - they are a pain in the neck. NumberFix was written to easy this neck pain considerably. It will do all the above operations with a click of the mouse.

Planets

The program demonstrates a three body planetary system. The mass of the first two bodies (yellow and red) can be adjusted with the bump buttons. Clicking 'Show map of known space' will display their positions and velocities. The program places all bodies in a stable orbit, though this can change as they interact. The parameters of the third body can be adjusted. In addition to the mass, its position and velocity can also be changed. The velocity of the planet is indicated on the map by the length and angle of the white line originating at the centre of the red planet. All the bump buttons increment by a small amount when using SELECT and by a larger amount when using ADJUST. The three 'Universe' buttons give different views of the same solar system. 'Normal' places two of the bodies at either end of the screen. 'Huge' puts them in the middle so that larger or very erratic orbits can be followed. Massive makes the place even larger. The three 'Mode' buttons display solid bodies, dot traces or a mixture of the two. This comes into effect as soon as 'Animate' is pressed. The 'Solid' button will display three coloured circles for the system. This option is very fast. The 'Trace' button will trace the orbits. This makes it easier to understand the mechanics of the system. This also is very fast. If both buttons are on, both traces and solid circles are displayed. The '3D' button displays three 3-dimensional spheres instead of circles.It also activates the name icons. Sprites of various well known celestial bodies can be made to ply their orbits. Galactic hitchhikers should experiment with this option, it might refresh some old memories as both whales and petunias are catered for. Pressing the 'Menu- middle' mouse button during an animation will return you to the desktop. Pressing the 'Select - left' button will pause the animation. In trace mode, pressing 'Adjust right' will clear the screen of all previous traces.

Target

This is a game Jochen wrote more than 16 years ago and it used to be very popular with his students. When he showed it to the current generation they became just as addicted, so he decided to let other people try it. The game involves firing a large gun - cleverly sited on a mountain - at ships of different sizes. A nasty balloon gets in the way and suitable insults are dished out to bad shots. The Risc OS version looks a bit better than the BBC version and uses sound samples. However, I've kept a deliberate 'BBC look'. It should work with any 32 bit Acorn computer in working order.

That's it from me for this issue. If you like the idea of featuring one particular authors work in the PD column then let us know, indeed if you think we might like to feature your software, or have a suggestion for who we could feature, then get in touch with the Paul Brett