Archive Magazine 1996/ARCHIVE_96.iso/text/hints/volume_9

Text File | 1996-08-28 | 94KB | 2,153 lines

Hints and Tips
9.1
Alt(ernative) characters Ö (This is a reprinted and updated version of a
hint from Archive 6.1 Ö many people seem to be unaware of these special
characters.) On upgrading from RISCáOS 2 to RISCáOS 3.1, I thought I had
lost my É╫æ character. I eventually found that it had moved from <alt-,>
to <shift-alt-,>. So I investigated all the other possible
ALTernatives(!). Here are all the ALT characters I found. They are laid
out in QWERTY order but where no special character appeared, the key is
not included in the list.
9.1
  key  alt  shift-alt
9.1
  `  ¼  ░
9.1
  1  ╣  í
9.1
  2  ▓
9.1
  3  │
9.1
  4  ╝
9.1
  5  ╜
9.1
  6  ╛
9.1
  9    ▒
9.1
  r  ╢  «
9.1
  y    Ñ
9.1
  o  °  ╪
9.1
  p  ■  ▐
9.1
  \    ª
9.1
  a  µ  ╞
9.1
  s  ▀  º
9.1
  d  ≡  ╨
9.1
  f    ¬
9.1
  z  ½
9.1
  x  ╗
9.1
  c  ó  ⌐
9.1
  m  ╡  ║
9.1
  ,    ╫
9.1
  .    ≈
9.1
  /    ┐
9.1
(On the RiscáPC, you also get ñ with <shift-alt-3>. The A4 also has some
different characters, Iábelieve, but we donæt have one available for
test.)
9.1
There are some additional Alt-key characters that donæt actually produce
a character themselves Ö they just set up an accent so that the
following character is changed into an accented character. This only
happens if the accent is suitable for the following character.
9.1
For example, to type an Θ, hold down <alt>, press and release <[>,
release the <alt> and then press and release <e>. Characters available
in this way are:
9.1
  alt-[  Θ ╔ φ ═ ≤ ╙ · ┌ ² ▌
9.1
  alt-]  Φ ╚ ∞ ╠ ≥ ╥ ∙ ┘
9.1
  alt-;  δ ╦ ∩ ╧ ÷ ╓ ⁿ ▄
9.1
  alt-É  Ω ╩ ε ╬ ⌠ ╘ √ █
9.1
  alt-,  ± ⌡ ╒
9.1
  alt-.  σ
9.1
  alt-/  τ ╟
9.1
The only other Alt-key character missing from the previous list is Alt-
hyphen which gives character 173. In the Acorn fonts, this looks exactly
like a normal hyphen, but is a non-breaking hyphen, i.e. it does not get
split across two lines when it occurs near the end of one line. (But
does anyone know how to avoid the slash character splitting at the line
end, as öaround 4/5 of them are splitò?)
9.1
Ed.
9.1
Archive CD Ö Some of you may have difficulty in accessing some of the
Spark format archives if you only have ArcFS. The solution is to use
SparkPlug which (space permitting) you will find on the monthly program
disc. The other problem that has come to light is that, because ISO
standard filenames do not allow hyphens (ASCII 45), they are converted
to underscores (ASCII 95). This means that some of the Genesis
multimedia applications are not able to locate their internal resources.
The solution is to copy the application to another disc and then rename
any of the files within it which have underscores, back to hyphens.
9.1
JamesáTaylor, NCS.
9.1
ATAPI CD-ROMs Ö Following the warning last month that not all ATAPI CD-
ROMs would work on Acorn machines, I thought you might like to know that
I put a quad speed Mitsumi FX400 drive in a RiscáPC 700 and it seems to
work fine. It cost me ú105 +VAT from a PC Éboxshifteræ.
9.1
Malcolm Churchill, High Wycombe.
9.1
BJC-600 ink cartridges Ö I had some trouble with my BJC-600 colour
bubble jet printer after replenishing inks from a refill kit. Some
colours refused to print, despite repeated nozzle-cleaning operations. I
eventually found the trouble Ö there is a filter pad for each colour on
the print block that holds the four ink cartridges. When the cartridge
is snapped into place in the print block, this filter projects slightly
into the cartridge and is supposed to make contact with the sponge
filling which is saturated with ink. Perhaps I was heavy-handed with the
syringe supplied for filling with ink. This has a hypodermic needle
which has to be passed through the sponge into the rear ink compartment.
It appears I had pushed the sponge in so that the filter was failing to
contact it. Teasing it out slightly with a pin cleared the trouble.
9.1
Eric Ayers, Ipswich.
9.1
Directory and filenames Ö How do you force directories or files to the
top (or bottom), so that they are easy to find (or are out of the way)?
Iáused to use Éaaæ or Ézzæ at the beginning of the name, then I started
using É!æ. This is OK for files, but not for directories as they become
applications and you have to <shift> double-click to open them.
Recently, I discovered É~æ which pushes files to the end and found that
the hard space, <alt-space>, which I had used regularly within
filenames, could be used to pull the file to the beginning of the
directory. The only disadvantage of using the hard space is that it is
invisible and may therefore be a little confusing.
9.1
(P.S. Why not use É<hardspace>!Nameæ? Although you canæt see the hard
space, at least the exclamation mark would remind you that there is
something odd about the name and you wonæt be fooled into thinking
youæve left the files sorted by date or something.)
9.1
Ed.
9.1
Image scanning Ö It is becoming increasingly commonplace to introduce
photographs into DTP documents by using a scanner so that the photograph
can then be processed. Recent advances have made it possible to handle
24-bit colour photographs (16 million colours) and to print the document
in colour with equipment of modest cost.
9.1
As always, it needs experience to learn the Éwrinklesæ necessary to
obtain the best results. An intriguing example is the fact that Kodak
paper, as used for normal colour prints, is mottled, although only to an
extent indiscernible in its normal use. However, if a photograph is
scanned and is then magnified several times, the mottle is also enlarged
and will entirely spoil the picture which will appear very Égrainyæ.
9.1
The only real way to avoid the problem is a big enough photograph so
that it doesnæt need to be enlarged electronically.
9.1
You could scan from a negative or a transparency which, of course, has
no mottle, but the equipment required to scan small size negatives at
high resolution is elaborate and expensive.
9.1
Another solution is to download from a Kodak PhotoCD which Kodak produce
for you on high¡resolution scanners. However, unless a Kodak PhotoCD is
required for other purposes, this would be a complicated and expensive
procedure.
9.1
However, in most circumstances, 4ö ╫ 6ò prints will suffice because
computer prints larger than this are not likely to be required.
9.1
George Foot, Oxted, Surrey.
9.1
Impression borders (Noel Williams, Archive 8.12 p19) Ö It seems that
when Impression imports a border of 3pt or less, it ignores rounded or
mitred corners and substitutes squared corners. It is rather strange,
therefore, that the standard, built-in, borders do not have squared
corners, as Cain Hunt pointed out in Archive 8.10 p14. 3pt is about 1mm,
so you need a magnifying glass to see the difference. Iáwonder how many
users had noticed the messy corners of the standard borders?
9.1
It is possible, if you really insist, to create a border 2pt thick, for
example, with rounded or bevelled corners. Draw a rectangle 2 pts wide
(see Cain Huntæs article), no line colour, filled black. Group with it,
on its right-hand side, an invisible rectangle two pts wide, no line
colour, no fill colour. The group object is now four pts wide, and will
not be trapped by Impressionæs 3pt limit. The corner shape should be as
shown (for a bevelled corner), no line colour, filled black. Although
the two objects do not overlap, it is important that the corner shape
should be defined in Draw as being Éin frontæ.
9.1
The only possible disadvantage of this is that this border will appear
two pts outside the defined edges of the Impression frame, rather than
immediately outside the frame.
9.1
Colin Singleton, Sheffield.
9.1
Impression: spurious styles and effects Ö Having discovered the Cnf1
trick in Impression (8.3 p29) Ö thank you, Paul Ö I can now see all the
years-old effects, generally unused, which are cluttering up my
documents.
9.1
With a bit of research, I now have a better idea how they arise. If I
select a piece of text and centre it, Publisher creates a new effect in
my document, appropriately named Centre. If I then centre another piece
of text in the same document, Publisher assigns the same named effect to
that text. If I change the size of a piece of text, Publisher creates an
effect named 10pt, or whatever. Similarly, underlining text creates an
effect named Underline. All very helpful.
9.1
However, if I select a piece of text and italicise it, Publisher creates
an effect with the un-helpful name Effect 298, or some such. Similarly,
if I select Bold, Superscript or Subscript. If I italicise another piece
of text, Publisher applies the same numbered effect to this text, so
there is only one numbered definition for each effect. Can I put
Meaningful Effect Names on my wish list for the next Publisher upgrade?
9.1
I can change the name of an effect using the Edit Style feature, though
in order to select the effect for editing I must first apply it to a
piece of text, since it does not appear on the list of styles shown by
the Edit Style feature. There are, however, a few pitfalls.
9.1
An edited effect becomes a style, which is handled slightly differently.
It does now appear on the list of styles in the Edit Style function, but
it does not now appear in the style menu where Cnf1 originally caused it
to appear! The latter can be remedied by setting Show on style menu in
the Edit Style options.
9.1
If I change the name of an automatically-created effect, Publisher will
not then use it when I try to apply the same effect again Ö it will
create another numbered effect. This can be partially remedied by
assigning the standard keyboard short-cut (<ctrl-I> for italic) to the
re-named Style, using Edit Style. This will cause the re-named style to
be used in future if I select italic by <ctrl-I>, but if I select italic
from the toolbar, I get a new numbered effect!
9.1
In my master document for contributions to Archive Iáhave created styles
called Heading MathGreek, Dingbats and Program. These define fonts only
(superimposed on my Normal style), which Paul can, I hope, easily change
to his choice of font.
9.1
I have also created Styles called Italic, Bold Superscript, and
Subscript. These define the appropriate effects only, and provided I
remember to select Italic and Bold by <ctrl-I> and <ctrl-B>, Paul will
not be confused by mysterious effect numbers.
9.1
Colin Singleton, Sheffield.
9.1
PC mice Ö Richard Torrensæ article on mice (8.12 p31) was interesting,
but for those of us who donæt know which end of a soldering iron is
which (Ouch!), there is a plug-and-play alternative. APDL has a PD
program called SerialMse by Stuart Tyrrell which allows a serial PC
mouse to be used with an Acorn computer. (!SerialMse is on this monthæs
disc. Ed.)
9.1
Sudipta Sarkar, Chester.
9.1
Printing from Write Ö Regarding Keith Hodgeæs query about printing from
the Risc PC using Windows Write, I had the same problem myself; after
consulting the Oracle (MS Windows guide), I discovered a DOS command to
test the printer to computer interface. The command from the DOS prompt
is
9.1
COPY C:\WINDOWS\SETUP.TXT LPT1
9.1
Full of anticipation, I tried this Ö zilch. Further consultation Ö yet
more zilch. Stopped to think, applied logic. öIf it is possible to copy
to LPT1, it must be possible to copy to LPT2ò. Changed 1 to 2, pressed
<enter>, öEureka!!!ò Ö reams of printed matter everywhere.
9.1
A quick check in the !PCconfig doodah and there it was, a choice of
printer outputs, an equally quick change to LPT2, start Windows again,
type rubbish into Write (eminently suitable), choose PRINT, even more
EUREKA, success!
9.1
I checked with my computing comrade and found that he was using LPT1
without any problems, the only difference being that his Risc PC was one
of the first and mine is a Dec æ94 vintage.
9.1
B. Coleman, Cleveland.
9.1
RISCáOS <ÖÖ>áPC interchange Ö I have used the Risc PC (8Mb+2Mb VRAM)
with a PC486 coprocessor running Windows 3.1 and several bits of
commercial software, such as MS-Word, as well as some specialist
freeware scientific software for fluorescence cell analysis. I have been
most impressed and have found very few problems.
9.1
However, I still like to do as much as I can under RISC OS and this
requires data transfer between the PC partition and RISC OS. I know of
several people who have reported problems with corruption of their PC
partition, but I have found that the following seems to work well and
avoids problems.
9.1
1) I have avoided installing options for disc compression under DOS/
Windows.
9.1
2) If I use the RISC OS filer to transfer files to and from the PC
partition, I always quit from !PC rather than just freezing the
application.
9.1
3) Better still, for data up to 1.44Mb, you can transfer data whilst
multitasking using 1.44Mb DOS formatted discs. The trick is that, once
you have modified the disc under RISC OS, you must click on Édismountæ
under the RISC OS filer menu before you modify the disc using PC
software. If you donæt, you will find that RISC OS gets confused about
the disc contents and may corrupt the data! This is, of course, exactly
the same problem as using one disc in two computers without dismounting
in between, except that, in this case, the disc doesnæt physically move
from one drive to another!
9.1
Mike Clark, Cambridge.
9.1
Runny letters Ö David Holden suggested spray fixative to stop inkjet ink
from running. At school, I use the cheapest hair spray I can find. Does
the same job, quarter of the price and comes in bigger cans so lasts
longer. However, like the fixative, use as little as possible and keep
the target flat if possible. (The only problem I have is going into the
local chemist to buy a product I obviously donæt use!)
9.1
Jim Wyllie, Edinburgh.
9.1
SlideShow problems Ö The version of SlideShow that comes with the new
RISCáOS 3.6 machines contain an absolute reference to the JPEG
decompression code within ChangeFSI, and this means that if you move
ChangeFSI from its original position, you will get the error öCouldnæt
find <JPEG$File>ò. You can correct this quite simply by altering the Run
file within ChangeFSI. The current Run file looks like this:
9.1
Set SlideShow$Path <Obey$Dir>.
9.1
Set Images$Dir <Boot$Dir>.^.Images
9.1
Set JPEG$File <Boot$Dir>.^.Utilities.!ChangeFSI.
9.1
CFSIjpeg
9.1
Set Shell$Messages <Obey$Dir>.ShellMess
9.1
WimpSlot -min 32k -max 32k
9.1
Run SlideShow:!RunImage
9.1
...and it should look like this:
9.1
Set SlideShow$Path <Obey$Dir>.
9.1
Set Images$Dir <Obey$Dir>.^
9.1
If ö<ChangeFSI$Dir>ò=öò then Error
9.1
 Open a directory containing
9.1
 ChangeFSI and try again
9.1
Set JPEG$File <ChangeFSI$Dir>.CFSIjpeg
9.1
Set Shell$Messages <Obey$Dir>.ShellMess
9.1
WimpSlot -min 32k -max 32k
9.1
Run SlideShow:!RunImage
9.1
James Taylor, NCS.
9.1
Upgrading VRAM Ö Surely Fred Williams is wrong regarding reconfiguring
the machine before removing your VRAM. If I remove mine, when I turn the
Risc PC back on, it automatically detects the lack of VRAM and defaults
to a lower resolution. (Yes, I get the same behaviour. Perhaps Fredæs
monitor simply cannot cope with the mode to which it defaults. JT.)
9.1
Dave Floyd, London.
9.1
PC486 Card Ö Hints & Tips
9.1
Jim Nottingham
9.1
I was sorry to read that Simon Coulthurst had had to call it a day,
because I always found his RiscDOS Column very valuable (thanks, Simon).
I do hope someone will be able to take over the reins but, in the
meantime, I trust the following notes will be of benefit to anyone who
has installed a shiny new PC486 card and isnæt too sure where to go from
there.
9.1
Iæm a reasonably experienced user of PC applications (bleghhh...) but
probably fall in with the majority of Archive subscribers in that I had
no previous experience of the rigours of installing DOS, Windows and the
like, having either used machines where these were pre-installed or
having had it done for me by a competent person!
9.1
Inevitably, I ran into some problems which I had to resolve by using a
modicum of gumption, a lot of trial and error, comparing notes with
other users and, as a last resort, asking the PC fraternity for help. So
hereæs a few hints and tips, doæs and donæts:
9.1
Buying Windows
9.1
Do shop around for Windows, as prices range from under ú60 to over ú100!
I bought mine from ESL in London for ú58.76 inclusive and they supplied
overnight; an excellent service. They sent Windows for Workgroups which
is the network version (v3.11), but this also works fine on a single
machine, automatically detecting and configuring itself for the stand-
alone platform. (We gave up selling Windows when Greyhound Marketing,
our main software distributor, went bust. Ed.)
9.1
Documentation
9.1
Donæt be put off by the dreadful Microsoft PC DOS and Windows user
guides; the Acorn user guide and the helpful on-screen prompts should
make installation a straightforward process. But do follow the
procedures in the Acorn user guide to the letter as there are some
fairly critical configuration options to be set.
9.1
Jargon
9.1
Donæt be put off by the PC jargon. In very general terms, the
öAUTOEXEC.BATò file equates to an Acorn main !Boot file, the öWindows
desktopò is a poor-manæs RISC OS desktop, the öMS DOS promptò is where
we can type in DOS commands (similar to pressing <f12> and typing RISC
OS *commands), and the öDOS shellò screen roughly equates to our icon
bar display of drive icons and directory displays.
9.1
Storage
9.1
Do believe everything youæve heard about PC applications being very
memory-hungry. PC DOS and the configuration files come to some 3Mb and a
full Windows v3.11 installation takes a hefty 25Mb (Win95 is reportedly
90Mb)!! Your typical PC application is 8Ö30Mb so, clearly, all this may
have your hard disc drive bulging at the seams, even before you start
using the kit.
9.1
Second partition
9.1
To ease the storage problem and if you have the bonus of a second drive,
do consider having just DOSáin a partition on your main drive (drive_c
in DOS-speak), with Windows, PC applications and your data files in a
second partition on the second drive (drive_d). Similarly, if you have
the luxury of having a removable media drive (e.g. Syquest or magneto-
optical), do consider having a separate cartridge or disc dedicated to
PC stuff.
9.1
Partition size
9.1
The !PCconfig program supplied with the card makes it very easy to set
up the partition(s) and the Acorn user guide is very clear. With a
single partition, Acorn recommend a size of at least 80Mb but, looking
at the numbers in the previous paragraphs, and if you have the capacity,
do consider something bigger. With two drives and partitions, you can
split the applications as you think fit; Iæve taken my own advice and
gone for just DOS and the configuration files in a 5Mb partition on my
hard disc, with Windows, a number of PC applications and all the
document files being given lots of elbow room in a large partition on a
270Mb SyQuest cartridge. This arrangement works very well.
9.1
Drive formatting
9.1
If you decide to dedicate a storage device to PC stuff, as suggested
above, you may see a formatting funny. When you format a device, it is
quite usual to Éloseæ a few Mbytes. For example, on my 270Mb Syquest,
both Size and Free come up as 256Mb. So when I configured the PC
partition for the drive, I selected the (apparently) full 256Mb as the
partition size. This seemed to work OK in that performing Count on the
partition came up with 256Mb. However, if I click menu on Free on the
iconbar, Used comes up as only 243Mb, leaving 13Mb Free! Iæve no idea
why this happens but, by a process of trial and error, I found I could
create a 270Mb partition even though, on the face of it, this exceeded
the free space available. This also seems to work on other devices,
regardless of their type (fixed or removable media) or whether they are
SCSI or IDE, so is well worth trying. Does anyone have an explanation
for this strange behaviour?
9.1
(No, I donæt have an explanation, but counting files and free space
rarely work out because directories themselves take up, sometimes, a
considerable amount of space. This is not consistent, however, as small
files may be fitted into the space that might otherwise have been
allocated to the directory. JamesáTaylor, NCS.)
9.1
Configuring for Windows
9.1
One command described in the Windows manual but not included in the
Acorn guide is that, for the PC card to boot up with the Windows desktop
display, you have to add a öWINò command at the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT
file (this is the equivalent of adding *Desktop as the last line in our
main !Boot file). To do it, find the AUTOEXEC/BAT file in the drive_c
partition (note: /BAT, not /BAK). Load the file into !Edit and, at the
bottom, type in C:WIN. Save the file and, when you next start the PC
card, you should finish up with the Windows desktop display.
9.1
DOS shell
9.1
I say öshouldò but, if you finish up with the DOS shell display instead,
donæt panic... The probable reason is that, when installing PC DOS, you
opted to select the DOS shell instead of the DOS prompt. As a result, a
DOSSHELL command will have been added to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and
Windows will not get a look in. Quit the PC card and re-load AUTOEXEC/
BAT back into !Edit. Look for a line (probably immediately preceding the
C:WIN command) which reads something like C:\DOS\DOSSHELL.EXE[0d] and
delete it. Re-save the file and now, when you start the PC card, you
should finish up with the Windows desktop display.
9.1
Display resolution
9.1
At this stage, donæt worry if the Windows display resolution looks less
than the screen mode string you specified when first using !PCconfig
(pageá9 of the Acorn manual). This is because you havenæt yet installed
the enhanced Windows 3.1 Screen Driver supplied with the card. Follow
the procedure on p22 of the manual (also described in Archive 8.9 p38)
and everything should then come good.
9.1
CD-ROM drive
9.1
If you configure the system to use two partitions (i.e. drive_c and
drive_d) and also have a CD-ROM drive, leave setting up the CD-ROM until
last. Configure it by following the procedure on p24 of the Acorn user
guide. However, although logically the drive will finish up as drive_e,
do not change the various commands shown in the user guide from
        /D:MSCD000 to /E:MSCD000; it wonæt work. Enter them exactly as
shown in the guide and it seems the system detects the presence of
drive_d and automatically configures the CD-ROM drive as drive_e. Clever
Stuff.
9.1
I hope all this helps and that, at the end of the day, you will be as
enormously impressed with Acornæs implementation of the PC card as I am.
9.1
Hints and Tips
9.2
Alt(ernative) characters Ö (Thanks to John Woodgate and Jim Nottingham
for stretching my list of special characters in 9.1 p17.)
9.2
I missed out several accented characters out, so here is the full list I
can now create:
9.2
  alt-[  ß ┴ Θ ╔ φ ═ ≤ ╙ · ┌ ² ▌
9.2
  alt-]  α └ Φ ╚ ∞ ╠ ≥ ╥ ∙ ┘
9.2
  alt-;  Σ ─ δ ╦ ∩ ╧ ÷ ╓ ⁿ ▄
9.2
  alt-É  Γ ┬ Ω ╩ ε ╬ ⌠ ╘ √ █ é ü å à
9.2
  alt-,  π ├ ± ╤ ⌡ ╒
9.2
  alt-.  σ ┼
9.2
  alt-/  τ ╟
9.2
To get the accented wæs and yæs for use in Welsh and Spanish, I had to
go back to using Trinity as Plantin does not have them.
9.2
Ed.
9.2
ArcTFS, from Texcellence, was written to run under Arthur on the old
A310 machine, so it will not run from a hard disc. If you happen to have
an old copy, it can be given a new lease of life by a simple brute force
kludge.
9.2
Copy the program to RAM disc and drag it into Edit. Create the following
two extra lines and save the modified program to the RAM disc.
9.2
81 *DISC 0
9.2
82 *MOUNT
9.2
Using Edit, create a simple !Boot file:
9.2
| !Boot file for TFS
9.2
IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
9.2
and a simple !Run file,
9.2
| !Run file for TFS.
9.2
| Alter WimpSlot as required.
9.2
WimpSlot -min 1100K
9.2
IconSprites<Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
9.2
Run <Obey$Dir>.TFS
9.2
Save all three files to the RAM disc.
9.2
Either create a new icon sprite with the name !tfs and save it under the
name !Sprites, or rename an old one and save that.
9.2
On the hard disc, create a new directory called !TFS and drag the four
files to it. Donæt worry if the new icon does not appear; it will, the
next time you switch on. Finally, format a disc using 800Kb (D) option.
9.2
The program can be started by double clicking on the !TFS icon, and the
first thing it will do is to look at drive 0. If it finds your blank
disc or one of your old data files, it will run without any problems.
All the data files must be saved on 800Kb (D) format discs.
9.2
Les May, Rochdale.
9.2
Cleaning HP cartridges (A last ditch measure) Ö Most articles I have
read on the subject of refilling mention that it is not possible to
refill the big HP cartridge because it is manufactured under reduced air
pressure.
9.2
This is not true; all you have to do is find an ink provider who sells
the right equipment (there are at least two in Germany, so there should
be some in the UK, too).
9.2
The trick is simply to blow 5 cm3 of air with a syringe (external
diameter of the needle provided with my refill set is 1.25 mm) through
the hole in the middle of the cartridgeæs cover (in the centre of the
light grey plastic circle) and then plug up the cartridge (I prefer to
use a piece of adhesive tape to cover the hole in the rear right hand
corner which, in a new cartridge, is closed with a little grey plastic
ball pressed into it.)
9.2
After the hole has been covered, both the syringe and the adhesive tape
across the ventilation opening in the bottom of the cartridge can be
removed, and there should be no leakage at all.
9.2
I find it far easier to refill the big cartridges than the smaller ones
which have a sponge inside. Because you can see through them, and
because you simply fill an empty container through a hole, a refill is
completed very quickly Ö I timed the last one I did for a colleague and,
altogether, it took me about 2╜ mins.
9.2
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germany
9.2
Coloured card Ö I found a source of cheap, coloured card that is fully
inkjet compatible. It is from Staples, called Adagio, weighs in at 160
gsm and is available in about half a dozen colours. 500 sheets cost
ú7.39 inc VAT. Another tip is to ignore Canonæs warning that paper over
100 gsm wonæt work in the BJ200 Ö this card works quite happily, as long
as you remember to set the feed selector to manual (the front position).
9.2
Nigel Caplan, Leeds.
9.2
ÉDeadæ mouse button? Ö If the select button on your mouse wonæt work
with, for example, the Éformatæ button on the floppy disc format window,
first check that you havenæt got Édrag delayæ and Édrag start distanceæ
in the Émouseæ part of !Configure set to zero. It took me a long time to
find that one!
9.2
Stuart Bell, Horsham.
9.2
Hard slash Ö Paul mentioned the splitting of things like É4/5æ across
the end of a line. This seems to be a Publisher Éfeatureæ. One possible
solution is to use the | character (shift-\) for the divider and
italicise it, as: 4|5. This acts as a Éhard slashæ Ö not elegant Ö but
it works Ö except that not all fonts change the vertical line into a
diagonal when italicised. (In Plantin light italic, the | is straight,
as you can see! The one above is a cheat using Trinity. Ed.)
9.2
Jim Nottingham, York.
9.2
Resetting the System beep Ö Lots of programs do horrible things to the
System beep, from changing the tempo to switching it off altogether. One
way to get it back easily is a one line Basic program, affixed to the
Pinboard.
9.2
As my computer stands in a rather noisy room, I load a module öGunshotò
in my Boot sequence to make sure I hear it Ö especially the Alarm Ö even
if I am, at the time, in another part of the room.
9.2
10 OSCLI (öChannelVoice 1 ò+öGunshotò):SYS
öSound_Configureò,0,0,100;SOUND 1,&17F,&4700,1
9.2
The last numbers determine the pitch of the sound Ö you can find the
details in the BBC Basic Guide.
9.2
Instead of öGunshotò, you can use any voice name the computer knows,
including the dull öWaveSynth-Beepò. The built-in voices will need a
different pitch setting though Ö experiment!
9.2
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germany.
9.2
Risc PC monitors and power saving Ö Have you bought a Risc PC with a
modern monitor (with power saving options), and does the monitor refuse
to switch off if you activate the RISC OS 3.5 screen saver? If so, you
should take a look at your monitoræs definition file which is hidden in
!Boot.Resources.Configure.Monitors.
9.2
One of the first lines in this textfile reads DPMS_state:x, where x (a
number between 0 and 3) defines the behaviour of the monitor.
9.2
0 Ö use just the standard screen blanker
9.2
1 Ö switch the monitor to standby mode
9.2
2 Ö interrupt all signals to the monitor
9.2
3 Ö turn off the monitor completely
9.2
The number you prefer can simply be typed into the file in any text
editor Ö there is no need to use the likes of !MakeModes.
9.2
Of course, if you use one of the many screen-savers on the market, you
can still continue to do so. My personal settings are: Out-to-Lunchæs
fish tank to come on after four minutes, the RISCáOS 3.5 saver (with
DPMS_state:2) after 15 minutes.
9.2
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germany.
9.2
Snippet and PC486 Ö Snippetæs screen grabbing facility seems to stop
working when the !PC486 software is run. This is, however, only a
question of choosing the right hot keys. <Tab-left-alt>, for instance,
works perfectly even in single tasking mode, as does <capslock-left-
alt>.
9.2
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germany.
9.2
SyQuests in RiscáPCs Ö A warning to all RiscáPC owners with a 3╜ö
SyQuest in the top right drive position. I have my machine with such a
configuration and a fairly long SCSI lead. An extra connector sits on
top of the SyQuest. It stopped working with what the system said was a
fatal hardware error. I tried to eject the cartridge to find out what
was wrong. The eject lever wouldnæt release to its full extent. The lid
which I had just replaced was pressing the connector of the cable on to
the SyQuest and preventing movement. Rerouting the cable fixed the
problem.
9.2
Chris Walker, Norwich.
9.2
Switching !PC486 to single tasking mode Ö This is one of those bits of
information in the manual that are very easily overlooked. If you want
to change !PC486 to single tasking mode (even if the window is currently
frozen), a double click somewhere on the window is enough Ö there is no
need to go through the iconbar menu. A single click will unfreeze a
window without leaving the multitasking mode.
9.2
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germany.
Hints and Tips
9.3
DFS on RiscáPC Ö I recently installed an ActiLead 5╝ö to get a second
floppy on my Risc PC ACB45. Despite HECæs disclaimers, I thought it
should be possible to handle BBC discs by third-party access software,
such as I have used regularly on an A440. Three programs scored varying
degrees of success:
9.3
DFSReader (Beebug Ltd), non-WIMP, 1988 Ö Installs a module giving star
commands *DCAT, *DEX, *DINFO, *DBACKUP and *DCOPY. Copy allows Éreadingæ
to an ADFS disc etc (no Write). It seems OK with Actilead on both 5╝ö
and 3╜ò BBC-80 floppies in drives 1 and 0 respectively. I cannot verify
its claims to handle also Watford 62-Cat DFS & DDFS & Solidisc DFS, nor
have I tried 40-track discs.
9.3
DFSReader (Freeware by Emmet Spier), 1990. Ö This was on Shareware No.
31, now available from APDL. A desktop application that puts one extra
floppy disc icon on the bar. <Menu> allows choice of: Drive (0 to 3),
Name Disc, Free, & Import Dir (?). <Select> gives a filer window, with
menu choices of Display, Rename, Delete, Access and Count. Read and
write work by usual drag-and-drop to the filer. It is restricted to 80-
track BBC DFS and has no format option. It reads/writes all the 5╝ö BBC
80-T DFS discs I have tried. It also works on drive 0 (3╜ò).
9.3
!DFS (Dabs Press), 1990. This is also a desktop application and has four
icons on the bar for drives 0-3. <Menu> offers Disc Info, (Un)Protect,
Swap Cats, Dismount, Format, Backup, Verify, Free. <Select> gives a
filer window with read/write by drag and drop as usual. Format offers
Acorn (DFS), Solidisc or Watford formats each in 40- or 80-track. I
proved 80-T DFS format and verify OK via the Actilead on 5╝ö drive 1 and
on 3╜ò drive 0. Read/write failed with original BBC discs, but was OK on
discs formatted with this program.
9.3
I thus use !DFS only to format/verify a disc and !DFSReader to read/
write BBC DFS 80 discs. The 5╝ö drive is a Cumana 40/80 (Mitsubishi
mechanism) but the 40 option is not used!
9.3
Eric Ayers, Ipswich.
9.3
Drawing ellipses Ö Acornæs Draw program allows ellipses to be drawn very
easily when using orthographic projection. However, when drawing
isometric views, it may be easier to use the Éfour arc methodæ to
construct an isometric circle, as this allows the size of the ellipse to
be fixed by using an isometric square. Here is the method I use.
9.3
1. If using Draw, set up an isometric box of equal side and include the
axes, centre O. (Fig 1)
9.3
2. Use the arc-tool to draw the arc from Éaæ to Ébæ, tangential to each
axis.
9.3
3. Repeat the same process for arc Ébcæ. (Figs 2 and 3) It may be
necessary to adjust the arcs to form a figure that Élooksæ OK.
9.3
4. Now group together the two arcs and copy them. (Fig 3a)
9.3
5. Rotate the copy through 180░ and move to join at Éaæ and Ébæ to form
the complete figure. (Fig 4)
9.3
6. Group the two halves together to form the complete isometric circle.
(Fig 4a) The combination of the two arcs can also be used to draw the
corresponding isometric circles on the other two faces of the isometric
cube as shown in Figs 5 and 6.
9.3
Les Lewis, Sheerness.
9.3
Envelopes Ö Some advice was given in Archive recently regarding
addressing envelopes on a printer. I appreciate wanting a Éneat jobæ,
but it can still be rather fiddly. Personally, for all my average
letters Ö whether personal or business Ö I use white window envelopes,
having printed the address at the start of the letter on the left, in
the usual Ébusiness letteræ format.
9.3
You quickly learn the distance needed from the top of the page, to
enable a neat fold to position the address in the window. It looks
professional and also avoids the risk of printer ink being smudged by
rain.
9.3
Elma Alexander, Crail, Fife.
9.3
Flashing colours on RiscáPC Ö If you run a non-Wimp Basic program in an
Éoldæ 16-colour mode, you will find that the default flashing colours Ö
colours 8 to 15 Ö donæt flash!
9.3
Using OS_Byte 195 shows that the default setting of ÉDuration of first
colour flash is 0æ, which holds the first colour indefinitely Ö thus
stopping the flashing.
9.3
Using OS_Byte 9 to reset the first colour flash duration to 25/50ths
sec. effectively switches the flashing back on. The instruction is SYS
öOS_Byteò,9,25.
9.3
There is no need to worry about setting the second colour flash duration
as its default value is already 25. I find this latter a little strange.
Itæs as if someone set the first colour duration to zero to disable
flashing temporarily and then forgot to reset it to 25! First and second
colours both at 25 were the Éoldæ default settings for BBC B and later.
9.3
Using OS_Byte 9 in a program as above will activate the flashing colours
for all subsequent non-Wimp programs run in any 16 screen mode until you
switch off or reset, so you may want to prevent this by also including
SYS öOS_Byteò,9,0 in your program closedown sequence, to restore things
as they were.
9.3
Ray Favre, West Drayton.
9.3
Fractions (p 23) Some Acorn fonts do have a Éfraction baræ as Alt-140.
It is in MathGreek, and in my EFF fonts, but not in Trinity or Homerton.
It makes fraction look better than the conventional slash, and does not
break at the end of a line.
9.3
Colin Singleton, Sheffield.
9.3
New life for dead HP cartridges Ö HP (and probably other inkjet printer
producers as well) warn most emphatically against touching the copper
foil with the tiny nozzles. There is, however, one situation where this
warning can be disregarded Ö when some nozzles are really hopelessly
clogged.
9.3
This happened to me this summer when, during a four week absence, the
printer had stood unused in a room where the temperature was almost
constantly above 30░C. After my return, most nozzles were blocked, and
three of the telltale white lines were proof against alcohol, warm water
and even a special cleaning fluid which I sometimes use to good effect.
9.3
Rather than throw the useless cartridge away, I made one last attempt Ö
I bathed the bristles of a new soft toothbrush in alcohol and very
gently brushed over the nozzles.
9.3
The next test print showed no more white lines, and now the cartridge
works faultlessly again.
9.3
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germany
9.3
Turbo Driver hazard warning (8.11 p26 + 9.1 p44) Ö There is an option
öIgnore statusò on the Turbo Driver menu (<shift-select> on the icon)
which means the Turbo Driver does not attempt to report whether the
printer is out of paper, turned off, etc. Set this, and the problem
should be solved. On my Epson Stylus Color with Risc PC and Impression
Publisher dongle (not the new Color II), Iádo not set this ignore, and
get some messages back. Some messages are useful, but not all, and they
are not always the right ones. Does anyone have similar problems, or a
solution?
9.3
Mike Clarkson, Shrewsbury.
Hints and Tips
9.4
Basic programs Ö When writing a basic program, one is encouraged to keep
each procedure down to a manageable size. In real life, I suspect that
most of us often end up with procedures covering several screenfulls.
9.4
It can then be very difficult to keep track of what is going on in
multiple-nested loops, even when you have written the Éexitæ from the
loop before going back a line and writing whatever has to be
accomplished within that loop.
9.4
It is much easier to follow the logic if each entry and exit is REMmed
with a reference to the corresponding exit and entry. As an example:
9.4
IF variable% > 100 THEN
9.4
ááREM Start of loop testing variable%
9.4
áá(Lines of program)
9.4
ááFOR loop% = 1 TO 100 : REM Start of
9.4
 xyz
9.4
áááá(Lines of program)
9.4
ááááCASE variable2% OF
9.4
ááááááREM Start of testing variable2%
9.4
 loop
9.4
áááááá(Lines of program)
9.4
ááááENDCASE : REM End of testing
9.4
 variable2% loop
9.4
áááá(Lines of program)
9.4
ááNEXT loop% : REM End of xyz
9.4
áá(Lines of program)
9.4
ENDIF : REM End of loop testing variable%
9.4
(Lines of program)
9.4
It is easy enough to follow the logic in this simple example, but not so
when the (Lines of program) start to mount up! The REMs make debugging
much easier and can always be deleted when youære sure it all hangs
together.
9.4
Note that you need to put the REM at the start of an ÉIF Ö THENæ loop on
a line after the statement; the ÉTHENæ MUST be the last item on the
line.
9.4
Roger Williams <[e-mail]>
9.4
Drawing ellipses (9.3 p20) Ö Here is a quicker method of producing an
Éisometric circleæ. The required ellipse can be drawn accurately,
without having to adjust it Éuntil it looks OKæ, and it can be drawn as
one object which can then be colour-filled if required.
9.4
Using the isometric grid in Draw, draw the Éisometric squareæ, which is
actually two equilateral triangles joined at the bases. Then draw an
ellipse centred at the centre of the Ésquareæ and with the control point
as shown in the diagram (below left). This ellipse is the right shape,
but the wrong size and orientation.
9.4
Rotate the ellipse through 30░, and magnify it by 0.8165, which is ┌2î3.
The ellipse now needs to be dragged to the correct position Ö if the
Ésquareæ and the control points were locked to the grid, <ctrl-s> will
finally make the ellipse snap to the correct position.
9.4
Colin Singleton, Sheffield
9.4
Faster PC cards Ö With regard to the recent article in Archive about the
upgrading of issue 1 PC cards with new processors, I would like to say
that I have got Windows running at nearly twice the speed it was, simply
by upgrading from !PC486 version 1.87 to !PCx86 version 1.91. Like
Jochen Konietzko, I havenæt run any speed tests but it is definitely
much faster.
9.4
I would suggest that anyone wanting more speed from the IBM side of a
Risc PC should certainly try out the latest PC Card software before
paying for a processor upgrade! (!PCx86 cost ú10 through Archive,
including printed documentation, but it is also available on Acornæs ftp
site for the cost of the phone call.)
9.4
Paul Hobbs. <[e-mail]>
9.4
RiscáPC replacement keyboard Ö The keyboard of the RiscáPC is a standard
PC keyboard with a standard 6¡pin mini-din plug on the end instead of a
5¡pin din plug. If you want to connect an IBM PC(AT) compatible keyboard
to the RiscáPC, here is a wiring diagram for an adaptor (although these
adaptors can be bought from PC suppliers for about ú5).
9.4
Robert Burnell, Bristol.áuá
9.4
Hints and Tips
9.5
Archiving to floppy Ö If you want to archive a large directory from a
hard disc onto floppies, (a) give all the floppies the same name,
(b)ácopy onto floppy 1 until Édisc fullæ message, (c)ádismount the
floppy, (d) mount the second one, (e) click on ÉRetryæ and away you go,
(f) donæt forget to give the floppies a meaningful name once you have
finished.
9.5
Wouter Kolkman, <[e-mail]>
9.5
CC Turbodrivers Ö You may find that you get different paper margins when
using the standard !Printers application compared with CC settings. CC
helpline was right: the Acorn driver does not check for the printer DIP
switch settings! The printer I tried was an HP Deskjet.
9.5
Wouter Kolkman, <[e-mail]>
9.5
Display of large row numbers in PipeDream 4 Ö I have read several times
in your magazine about how PipeDream 4 will not display large row
numbers correctly. During an idle moment recently, I experimented with
this anomaly and found that the effect is dependent on the Desktop
display font used (obviously only applicable to RISC OS 3.5 or later).
9.5
A monospaced font (System, Courier etc) give the worst results, chopping
off all but the last two figures in the row number. Proportionally
spaced fonts are much better, displaying at least the last three
numerals.
9.5
However, for some unknown reason, the outline font öSystem.Mediumò
supplied with RISC OS 3.5 allows at least four numerals to be displayed
in the row border. System.Medium is not a particularly attractive choice
for the desktop font but as it is so easy to change it, very long
PipeDream files can be quite simply viewed in System.Medium, before
reverting to oneæs favourite font. Changing the desktop font does not
alter the font in which the PipeDream file itself is displayed.
9.5
Robin Hampshire, Devon.
9.5
Network cards on RISC OS 3.6 Ö Please check the file
!Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk.SetUpNet, otherwise you may find that quite a
few modules are Éunpluggedæ.
9.5
Wouter Kolkman, <[e-mail]>
9.5
Night Sky and the system date Ö Some time ago, my version of Night Sky
suddenly refused to load, and nothing I tried (from starting the program
directly from floppy to a complete reset of my computer) helped.
9.5
Since yesterday (New Year) it works again; the trouble lies in the
(German RISC OS only?) system date; Night Sky checks the date while
loading and, for some reason, canæt handle December! Clares have
promised to look for a solution. So if, in December, Night Sky gave you
trouble, try it again in January!
9.5
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germany.
9.5
9.6
No Hints & Tips this month!
9.6
Hints and Tips
9.7
Audio balance Ö I recently bought an audio mixer card for my (early)
RiscPC 600. I have just Ö finally Ö managed to balance the output of
left and right audio channels from my CD-ROM drive through the audio
mixing card. The method given in the instructions requires repeated
dismantling of the computer. I gave up after five attempts.
9.7
I have just noticed that !SCSIMgr for the Cumana SCSI 2 cards has an
option for adjusting the audio output. It only took three attempts
(fifteen seconds in total), to get the output accurately set!
9.7
David Crossley <[e-mail]>
9.7
ANT Internet Suite Ö One or two hints, having used this a fair bit for
email and news...
9.7
Old news Ö When you subscribe to a new newsgroup, it will download news
from that group starting from the last time you downloaded any news. If
you want to pick up news from that group from some time ago, you have to
do it by fiddling with the relevant files. (Iæll tell you how to do it,
but canæt accept any responsibility if you mess it up. OK?)
9.7
Assuming you have just subscribed to the new group, go into the
!InetSuite.Internet.Spool.News directory and copy the /active file as /
activeOLD, or somesuch. Edit the original /active file and delete all
the groups you donæt want. Now go into the !InetSuite.Internet.Files
directory and copy the !InetNews file as, say, !IntNewsO. Edit !InetNews
and change the line:
9.7
Last: 960215 140659 GMT
9.7
to read whatever starting time/date you want. (As you can probably
gather, the format is yymmdd hhmmss.) Then load up !IntSuite, connect to
your provider and download mail and news. Finally, go back to the two
files you changed, delete the edited versions and restore the original
versions by renaming them as      /active and !InetNews.
9.7
To avoid duplicating news, you may want to download the news normally
before following the above procedure so that you donæt duplicate the
news from the new group when you download normally next time.
9.7
Mailshots Ö (There may be an easier way, if so, tell me, please, but...)
If you want to mail to a number of different people, you can obviously
have aliases and type, into the CC box on the öMail to fileò window:
9.7
fred, bert, harry, etc
9.7
To simplify it even more, you can set up an alias such as blokes which
is defined as:
9.7
fred, bert, harry, etc
9.7
and then just type blokes in the CC box of the Send Mail to File box.
9.7
If you want to send postings to multiple news groups, you can, again,
either use aliases to avoid all the typing, or prepare the message and
then edit the OUTNEWS file. Simply extend the line:
9.7
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.misc[0d]
9.7
to something like:
9.7
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.misc,comp. sys.acorn.apps,comp.sys.acorn.
advocacy[0d]
9.7
Note that there are no spaces between the newsgroup names, just a comma.
9.7
Set alias Ö I hope you have discovered this wonderful command! Click on
a window in which a posting or an email is displayed, click on <menu>
and then select ArticleÖ>Set alias or MessageÖ>Set alias and up comes
the Address Book window with the name and address neatly typed out
waiting for you to add an appropriate alias. Wonderfully simple!
9.7
Editing aliases Ö Iæm sure everyone else had sussed this except me! It
seemed that sometimes when I edited an alias, it created a second
version and so I had to delete the first, but then when I wanted to
create two different aliases, it simply edited the one! öWhatæs the
rule?ò, I asked the excellent ANT support team (always, only an email
away!). Itæs simple, and logical, and obvious Ö once you know. If you
alter the alias name, it creates a new definition, in addition to the
old one, but if you edit the definition, it has to just change it Ö it
cannot create a complete new alias, otherwise you would then have two
definitions of the same alias name.
9.7
Ed.
9.7
ScanLight 256 Ö I remember recently an article saying that version 1.15
of the ScanLight 256 software needed upgrading to 1.59 to work on the
RiscPC.
9.7
My scanner is secondhand so I cannot do that. When I tried to load the
application, it put its icon on the iconbar, but clicking on this did
not give the relevant dialogue box. However, when I got my RiscPC, I had
some funnies with Ovation, and one comment from Beebug was to use one of
the old modes. So I thought I would try this with ScanLight.
9.7
Typing in öMode 27ò (rather than 16 colours and 640╫480) allowed me to
get a dialogue box which was partly off the bottom right hand corner of
the screen but could be dragged into full view and seemed to behave
normally.
9.7
Then one day, I had been using Artworks and loaded the scanner, having
forgotten the above. After some time, I realised it was working
perfectly normally despite the fact that I was in a new mode (256
colours, 600╫800). When I loaded ScanLight and then tried to load
Artworks I got an error relating to a module called ABIMod. The version
in ScanLight was an older version than the one in Artworks, and when I
updated the one in ScanLight it worked as it did previously on my A5000.
9.7
So the new version 1.59 of ScanLight may have some tweaks to the
software, but doing the above (if you have Artworks) gets it working and
it saves you ú11.75!
9.7
Keith Baxendale <[e-mail]>
9.7
Toggle-size answer Ö (RiscPC only) Thanks to all those who sent in an
answer to Paulæs toggle-size trouble in last monthæs Help! Column. It
was, indeed, a CMOS RAM configuration setting. However, there is no
simple way of altering it without using a small Basic program of the
following form, but I must warn you that, before playing, you should
save your configuration by using !Configure, so that you can restore it
if you make a mess!
9.7
Byte%=28
9.7
Bit%=4
9.7
SYSöOS_Byteò,161,Byte% TO ,,CMOS%
9.7
IF CMOS% AND 1<<Bit% THEN
9.7
 PRINTöWas 1 now set to 0ò
9.7
 CMOS%=CMOS% AND NOT 1<<Bit%
9.7
ELSE
9.7
 PRINTöWas 0 now set to 1ò
9.7
 CMOS%=CMOS% OR 1<<Bit%
9.7
ENDIF
9.7
SYSöOS_Byteò,162,Byte%,CMOS%
9.7
This program swaps the state of bit 4 within byte 28 of the CMOS RAM
each time you run it, and has the immediate effect of making windows
that are toggle-sized, open as far as, but not obscuring, the iconbar.
Holding <shift> down reverses the behaviour.
9.7
This is by no means the only configuration setting not available by any
other method. If you alter the program so that Bit%=1, it will change
the setting for solid icon drags, so that, when you drag a file icon,
you will either get a moving icon or just a dotted box. This option also
takes immediate effect.
9.7
When Bit%=0, this tells RISC OS whether to truncate filenames that are
too long (i.e. greater than ten characters) and therefore potentially
overwrite an existing file, or to give a (rather meaningless) error
message to prevent you from saving a file unless it has ten characters
or less in the name. You need to reset the computer before this option
will take effect.
9.7
There are several others, and they are all documented on page 1-356 of
the PRMs. I will put a copy of the program on the monthly disc.
9.7
James Taylor, NCS
9.7
Impression non-smart quotes Ö Having crowed about how wonderful it was
that Impression (4.08/5.08) now produces automatic smart quotes, I am
recanting slightly. How are you supposed to get unsmart quotes, e.g. for
5╝ö and 3╜ò, without switching the smart quotes off and on again?
9.7
My partial answer is the abbreviations function. I use ö5oò as
abbreviation for 5╝ö and ö3oò for 3╜ò. But what about 14ö and 17ò
monitors, etc? Well, I tried defining öoò as a single unsmart double
quote, but if you type ö17oò, it doesnæt expand the öoò, so you have to
type 17<space>o<space><left><left><delete><right><right>! Anyway, I have
now defined ö21oò as 21ö, ö17oò as 17ò and ö14oò as 14ö, so thatæs OK
until someone wants to talk about a 19╜ò monitor!
9.7
Ed.
9.7
RiscPC hole cutting Ö I keep reading how difficult people are finding it
to cut the openings on the RiscPC for new drives etc. I must admit I
donæt agree. Forget drills/hacksaws/ordinary knives Ö the tool to use is
a laminate cutting blade in a standard Stanley knife. This is the blade
which looks like a small blade set at a angle (not the curved one). It
is used by scoring through the plastic, it is very controllable and it
doesnæt wander easily as it locates nicely in the grooves. It only takes
a few strokes along each groove to cut through. I then use a small craft
knife to trim any slightly uneven edges and into the very corners. I
have now cut two openings like this and have had no problems. The
computer is the RPC600 and is 12 months old, so I believe it is one of
the thick plastic ones.
9.7
Malcolm Sanders, [e-mail]
9.7
PCx86 Cards Ö Hints & Tips
9.7
Jim Nottingham
9.7
The article in Archive 9.1 p41 led to a fair amount of correspondence
with readers continuing to have problems in setting up their PC cards
and others coming up with excellent advice, so this is a follow-on
article to bring everyone up to date.
9.7
One thing I hadnæt made clear in the original article was that the hints
and tips were aimed at configuring the Acorn PC card for the RiscPC.
However, a reader pointed out that the majority apply equally well to
Alephæs range of standard-size expansion cards.
9.7
Erratum
9.7
Thanks to Mike Clarkson for correcting my careless error in linking
Microsoft with the DOS software issued with the PC cards. In practice,
we get PC DOS which is produced by IBM Ö sorry about that.
9.7
Software and documentation
9.7
There are reports of Acorn cards being sent out with two versions of
support software and user-guides, marked öPC 486ò and öPC x86ò
respectively. Not unreasonably, some PC486 card buyers have used the
former to set up their card. This is a bit naughty of the suppliers as
it should be noted that the PCx86 software (v1.91 or later) and user-
guide supersede those marked PC486 and are applicable to all Acorn PC
card variants.
9.7
Drive formatting
9.7
A number of people responded to my request for a reason for the
formatting funny described in the original article and elsewhere.
Especial thanks go to John Woodgate whose technical explanation not only
fitted the numbers perfectly but was sufficiently clear even for a
simple chap like me to understand! As John points out, there are two
definitions for a megabyte in general use:
9.7
Å The first (which Iæll call Defn 1 for reference) is the simple one
which is that a Mb is a million bytes. Seems reasonable... In decimal
terms, this could be expressed as 106 bytes. So, for example, a 270Mb
SyQuest cartridge would cater for 270 ╫ 106 bytes, or 270,000,000 bytes.
9.7
Å The second definition (Defn 2) is that, in computer terms (i.e.
binary), a megabyte is 220 bytes or 1,048,576 bytes. I hadnæt met this
one before, but we may be more familiar with the equivalent figure for a
Kb which is 210, or 1,024 bytes.
9.7
From these numbers, we see that, numerically, there seems to be roughly
a 5% difference between the two definitions used for a Mb, and this is
what we get in practice. So, for the nominally 270Mb SyQuest cartridge,
we may see either of the following:
9.7
Å Defn 1: 270,000,000 bytes ≈ 106 = 270Mb
9.7
Å Defn 2: 270,000,000 bytes ≈ 220 = 257Mb
9.7
In practice, we see both definitions being used and this has led to the
confusion about drive formatting. For example, if I stick a 270Mb
cartridge (using Defná1) into my SyQuest drive and click on Free on the
drive icon, Size will return only 256Mb. So this appears to be using the
Defn 2 method. However, it seems that, when we come to use !PCConfig to
set up a disc partition, this uses Defn 1 for the partition size. Very
confusing for the punters!
9.7
So Johnæs explanation clarifies why, if the SyQuest cartridge returns
only 256Mb free (using Defn 2), it is possible Ö and indeed sensible Ö
to use !PCConfig to set up a full 270Mb PC partition (using Defn 1). As
proof of the pudding, once the partition has been set up on the drive,
we can perform Count on the partition icon (drive_x) and get ö270xxxxxx
bytes totalò.
9.7
I think itæs worth noting that, although the two definitions apparently
give different capacities, we arenæt actually losing out if we use Defn
2; in principle, we will still be able to squeeze the full 270 million
bytes onto the drive, even though Size suggests only 256Mb are
available. In practice, however, there will always be the additional
overheads for directories and file block size to contend with, reducing
the space actually available for data.
9.7
Configuring for Windows
9.7
The Éfeatureæ of DOS which has caused readers most problems is how to
finish up with the desired Windows desktop display following boot-up
(using Windows v3.xx). As described in the original article, this is
achieved by adding the C:WIN command at the end of the DOS main ÉBootæ
file (AUTOEXEC.BAT). In the event, all the reported problems proved to
have only two root causes, so Iæll look at these in some detail:
9.7
Line terminator
9.7
The first one is my fault (sorreeeee...). Iæd said to add C:WIN to the
end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file but omitted to say that, if you are using
!Edit to do this, you should end the line with the [0d] line terminator.
Until you do, the WIN command will have no effect. Unfortunately, some
readers had added the [0d] by typing it in as a 4-character string. The
[0d] is in fact Editæs way of displaying the Carriage Return code in
hexadecimal (described in the Text Import article in Archive 8.3 p65). I
should have suggested the complete procedure:
9.7
Å Load the AUTOEXEC.BAT file into !Edit.
9.7
Å With the mouse, <select-drag> to mark a [0d] character present on any
line (any one will do Ö note that it is a single character; not a 4-
character string).
9.7
Å Type in C:WIN at the bottom but, before pressing <return>, press
<ctrl-C>. This will copy the marked [0d] command and add it to the end
of the C:WIN command.
9.7
Å Press <ctrl-Z> to deselect the marked [0d].
9.7
Å Press <return> to terminate the C:WIN[0d] command line.
9.7
Å If present, delete the DOSSHELL command by deleting the line (probably
immediately preceding the C:WIN[0d] command) reading something like
C:\DOS\DOSSHELL.EXE[0d].
9.7
Å Save the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
9.7
Some other text editors (e.g. StrongEd) automatically sort out correct
line terminators so, if you modify your AUTOEXEC or SYS files etc using
an alternative to !Edit, you may find you donæt need to follow the above
procedure for entering the [0d] command.
9.7
Errors in AUTOEXEC.BAT
9.7
This is one of the areas where DOS is not very friendly. If there is an
error in our main RISC OS !Boot file, for instance, this will be
detected during boot-up, RISC OS will bring up an explanatory error
message box and politely wait for us to click on OK.
9.7
Not so with DOS! Any problems in AUTOEXEC.BAT will be detected, and DOS
will throw up an error message (e.g. öInvalid commandò) Ö but will keep
on going. So it is very easy to miss an error message in the fog of the
numerous copyright messages etc and, when everything stops, wonder why
we havenæt finished up with the Windows desktop.
9.7
The only thing I can suggest here, if you hit problems, is to keep a
very beady eye on all the messages that scroll up the screen while DOS
is booting up Ö the cause of the problem may well be embedded somewhere
in there. Indeed, as boot-up progresses, it might help to either click
on Freeze or take one or more screenshots of the DOS window, using
!Paintæs snapshot feature (I find !Snippet ideal for this purpose). Then
you can read the start-up script at leisure and, hopefully, spot any
problems.
9.7
CD-ROM drive
9.7
Configuring a CD-ROM drive so that it has a unique drive letter, and
doesnæt clash with other drives, is another area which seems to have
caused readers no end of problems. My recommendation to leave it until
last and follow the procedure on p24 of the original Acorn PC486 user-
guide to the letter didnæt work for everyone. Colin Bucklandæs method
described in Archive 9.6 p26 worked for him, but didnæt work for me or
others who tried it!
9.7
So where does that leave us? Acorn seem to have picked up the problem by
modifying the procedures as given in the current user guide (PCx86), and
also adding further advice in the Read_Me file included with the CD-ROM
installation files that come with the card.
9.7
Should you continue to have clashing drive problems of the type
described by Colin Buckland, it seems the definitive answer is to add an
extension to the relevant command line in AUTOEXEC.BAT to specify the
CD-ROM drive letter. Thus, for example, if you already have two PC
partitions set up as drive_c and drive_d respectively, and therefore
wish to configure the CD-ROM drive as drive_e, you would add the
extension so that the command line reads:
9.7
C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD000 /L:E
9.7
The final letter E specifies the drive identifier. This is a handy
option because one reader mentioned that some early CDs for PCs assume
the CD-ROM drive is identified as drive_f. So you could cause your drive
to be correctly identified by giving the command line the extension /
L:F. However, in that event, there will be a Égapæ in the drive
lettering and, for this to work (as described in the Read_Me file), you
also have to add the cryptic command LASTDRIVE=Z to your CONFIG.SYS
file. Isnæt DOS friendly...?
9.7
Boot-up time
9.7
There were various rather uncomplimentary comments about the sheer time
taken for DOS and Windows to boot up. Welcome to the wonderful world of
PCs, say I! Iæm afraid this is an inevitable result of using a complex,
inelegant, disc-based operating system and GUI. So, to a large extent,
we are stuck with it.
9.7
However, there are a number of things we might do to prune at least some
of the excess, and here are a few suggestions:
9.7
Memory allocation Ö During DOS boot-up, much of the time is taken up by
HIMEM testing the extended memory. This appears to be almost directly
proportional to the amount of RAM allocated for use by the PC card. This
is adjusted using the Memory section in !PCConfig, so it is easily
reduced or, if you then find yourself short of memory, just as easy to
restore.
9.7
Single user Ö If you are running the network version of Windows (v3.11)
on a stand-alone machine, you can trim a few seconds by adding an
extension to the C:WIN command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that it
reads C:WIN /n[0d]. A by-product of this, is that the pretty Microsoft
logo welcome display is omitted Ö but I think we can live with that...
9.7
Start-up configuration Ö Acorn have given us an extremely flexible set
of options for initiating and modifying the PC card start-up routine.
These have major effects on the time taken, so having got used to how we
wish to use the card, we can configure the start-up to give us the
preferred optimum. This is easily achieved using the three options in
the Start-up section of !PCConfig.
9.7
Start up on iconbar Ö This option is probably best for those users who
wish to go straight into using RISC OS with minimum delay, but who may
wish to use the PC card at some later stage in the session. It is near-
instantaneous in that it simply loads !PCx86 onto the iconbar without
starting up DOS/Windows. When you eventually wish to use the PC card,
clicking on the PC icon as normal initiates DOS/Windows start-up, but
the downside is that it will then take some time to complete the start-
up routine.
9.7
Full screen Ö This option is probably best for those users who wish to
go straight into using the PC card from switch-on. The full screen is
taken over by DOS/Windows but the time taken to complete the start-up
routine is minimised. If, during this process, you wish to revert to
RISC OS, this is achieved simply by clicking <menu> which transfers the
DOS/Windows display into a RISC OS window. Start-up will continue albeit
at a slower rate but, in the meantime, you can use the RISC OS desktop.
9.7
RISC OS window Ö This option is perhaps the most convenient compromise
for general use as DOS/Windows will start up from switch-on and in the
background, albeit at a snailæs pace (time for a cuppa?). But if you
then want to use the PC card straight away, and wish to speed things up,
simply double-clicking in the window converts it to a full-screen
display and minimises the time taken to complete the remainder of the
start-up. However, if you want to use the RISC OS desktop instead, and
the PC window intrudes, simply click on the latteræs close icon to
remove it. This freezes the DOS/windows start-up but, next time you
click on the PC icon to re-open the PC window, start-up resumes from
where it left off.
9.7
Altogether a very flexible and user-friendly set of options; thanks
Acorn.
9.7
Windows 95
9.7
I havenæt yet installed or used Windows 95 on an Acorn machine, so
cannot comment on compatibility etc. However, Mike Buckingham has
written a very helpful article which is published in the February 1996
issue of Acorn User (pp54/55).
9.7
The end bit
9.7
Please keep further queries and ideas coming, either to me at 16
Westfield Close, Pocklington, York, YO4 2EY or to Michael Clarkson at
Riggæs Hall, The Schools, Shrewsbury, SY3 7AZ.áuá
Hints and Tips
9.8
ArcFax <Ö> Met Office Ö Users of David Pillingæs ArcFax system may be
finding it impossible to access the Met. Officeæs suite of MetFax
transmissions. These cover a vast number of products including satellite
pictures and plotted weather charts. The problem is that most automatic
Édial and receiveæ attempts are foxed by the first few seconds of the
MetFax broadcast which is a voice message saying öPlease press startò
(or something to that effect).
9.8
The solution is simple Ö dial the number (say 0336-400-400 for the index
page) from the handset, listen to the connection, and click on ÉReceiveæ
when instructed. David says that a string of commas after the dialling
code should work, as each comma introduces a short pause between the
Édialæ and the Éreceiveæ. However, I have not experimented enough yet to
know how many commas are needed.
9.8
Rodney Blackall, Battersea.
9.8
Artworks centring Ö In using ArtWorks to create a mini poster for a
friend of mine, I needed to centre several objects on the page. I used
the align command, but found that the objects were aligned around their
centres while still not being centred on the page.
9.8
I solved the problem by drawing a rectangle round the print margin
outline and then selecting all the objects and aligning them. The outer
rectangle could then be deleted, leaving the remainder correctly
positioned on the paper.
9.8
David Wild, Hemel Hempstead.
9.8
CD-ROMs Ö Now that CD-ROMs have become very cheap I have wandered round
such shops as GAME looking for sources of clipart and photographs for
use in DTP work. There is quite a lot of clipart available and, although
it does tend to have an American bias, much of it is quite usable in
Britain. Although you may need a Windows program on the PC card to use
the browse facilities, such programs as WMF->Draw will allow the files
to be transferred without difficulty.
9.8
For photographs, ChangeFSI will work on almost all of them. There are
many interesting photographs available but I donæt feel that they are,
generally, as useful as the clipart. This is, perhaps, because a
photograph is too realistic. A drawing of a shop assistant will
illustrate almost any article about shops, but a photograph tends to
attract questions about the particular subject.
9.8
Whilst looking at various collections of photographs in GAME, I bought a
cheap disc called ÉPhoto Gallery #2æ from Expert Systems. This claimed
to have ömore than 3,000 photographs... in full colourò and
öprofessional qualityò. According to Count, there were exactly 3,000,
but many of them were in black and white, and any professional producing
work like that would soon find himself looking for another job. The
quality of them was Évariableæ!
9.8
I wrote to the importers, with a detailed list of comments, and they
promised to pass on my comments to the firm in the United States. This
was well before Christmas but I have heard no more, and donæt suppose
that I will.
9.8
Clipart and photographs from Keysoft seem quite good and I have used a
number from the Corel Draw! 3 disc. I then bought Corelæs ÉGallery IIæ
clipart disc which has some useful pictures on it. Unfortunately, the
files on this disc are stored in ÉCMXæ format which, until the updated
version of ImageFS appears, needs the Windows program to get at it. On
just two occasions, I managed to get files out of it, but every other
time it has collapsed with a ÉStack faultæ when Iáhave tried to extract
any data although it displays the Éthumbnailsæ without any difficulty. I
wrote to Corel about the problem but have had no reply.
9.8
An interesting point about ÉClipartæ is that the phrase is often used
about work to which it doesnæt apply. The work of Christopher Jarman is
often given away by the magazines under this heading, but I feel that it
is misclassified. I have no complaints about the pictures, except that
they make me very envious, but to my mind, clipart is something that you
use for incidental illustration, while these are pictures to look at and
admire.
9.8
David Wild, Hemel Hempstead.
9.8
Email accessory Ö An essential (for me!) email accessory is a little
program called !PtrCopy, written by Ran Mokady in about 1991. What it
does is, when you press <alt> and <ctrl> at the same time, it looks at
the bit of screen under the mouse pointer and if it finds a letter in
system font, it puts that letter into the keyboard buffer. If the
pointer then slides over some more system font letters, it adds those
into the keyboard buffer too. Can you see the application?
9.8
Suppose I have an email on screen and someone says, öI suggest you email
Fred Czyzechoski <Czyzechoski @Pzyzorkzy.noyta.cccp>ò and you want to
type the email address into a ÉSend Emailæ window, youæll be jolly glad
you donæt have to type it!
9.8
Seriously, any time I have one bit of text in an email and I need to
type it somewhere else, <ctrl-alt> and slide the pointer does it
quickly, easily and accurately!
9.8
I managed to track Ran down and he kindly agreed that we could put the
application on the Archive monthly program disc.
9.8
Ed.
9.8
Email English Ö I take what Paul says about the standard of English in
emails and, in particular, correct spelling. One way is to use a word
processor of some description and then drop a text file into the email
window of the Internet application.
9.8
This is OK, but it is more effort Ö itæs much easier just to type a
reply using the text editor which the Internet software pulls up. I have
found something better Ö ÉSpellæ from David Pilling (ú10 through
Archive). When running, as it is now, it is clever enough to
continuously check anything typed into an icon or window and beep on
wrong words. It even has a Éforesightæ window to guess what I am about
to type.
9.8
Itæs just what I needed. I would recommend it to anyone. I will be
setting it up to load automatically when I run my Voyager internet
application.
9.8
(Great idea, Clive, thanks! Iæve tried it myself and find it works very
well indeed. Ed.)
9.8
Clive R Bell <[e-mail]>
9.8
Formatting v initialising Ö With any new hard disc (or removable
cartridge), you will first need to Éprepare it for useæ. This is
variously termed formatting, initialising, partitioning, and many other
things besides. Unfortunately, the terminology is used in contradictory
ways depending on who you talk to, and this causes a great deal of
confusion. Most manufacturers refer to the time-consuming low-level
process of marking the disc surface with tracks and sectors as
formatting. This is what you do with new floppy discs (which come
unformatted). However, the difference is that all hard discs and
removable cartridges are formatted in the factory, and do not need to be
formatted again, ever! It may even be a rather bad idea to reformat a
disc Ö I have had people claim that since they did this, their disc has
become very unreliable.
9.8
All that needs to be done to a new hard disc is to write onto it the map
and catalogue information which tell the RISC OS filing system what is
stored on the disc and where it is. To start with, there is no data on
the disc, of course, but that fact still has to be recorded in a form
that the filing system understands. This process of initialising the
disc to indicate that there is nothing on it, is most often called
initialising but, unfortunately, not everyone calls it that.
9.8
Unlike formatting, initialising is a more or less instantaneous process,
and that can be quite an alarming thing as Paul found out last month
when he initialised his main data disc! Fortunately for him,
initialising a disc does not actually remove data from the disc surface,
it merely tells the disc to forget that there is anything on it.
(öMerelyò, he says! Huh! Ed.) It is therefore possible to recover many
files from an accidentally blanked disc using a utility such as Disc
Rescue (ú33 through Archive).
9.8
Partitioning is a term used in association with SCSI discs, and is
closely related to initialising. You can designate different parts of a
SCSI disc to behave as if they were discs in their own right and, under
RISCáOS, they actually appear as separate drive icons. The process of
partitioning is the initialisation of each of these parts of the disc
and, theoretically, each partition can be initialised for use under a
different system (such as RISC OS, UNIX, DOS, etc). So, to initialise a
SCSI disc so that it shows as a single drive icon, you would still
partition it, but with only one RISC OS partition and no others.
9.8
The software that you use to do all this for IDE discs is !HForm. SCSI
interface cards, however, each come with their own very individual disc
management software Ö and this is where much of the confusion lies. Some
use the terms Éformatæ and Éinitialiseæ in completely the opposite
sense, or they mix and match other terms with these in such a random way
that they cease to have any meaning at all. The important thing, when
you attempt to Éprepare a disc for useæ, is that you read the SCSI
management instructions analytically to work out just how confused the
author was before you attempt to follow them.
9.8
(James has had to Éinterpretæ the makersæ instructions to confused
customers on a number of occasions Ö I think you can detect the note of
exasperation! Ed.)
9.8
James Taylor <[e-mail]>
9.8
Impression problems Ö If you have upgraded Publisher beyond 4.05
recently (or 5.05 if you have Plus) and started getting errors about
missing fonts, and such-like, at fairly regular intervals, youære not
alone! CC changed the software because of problems with RiscPCs of more
than 20Mb (or some such) but it seems to have introduced problems for
those of us with more modest amounts of memory!
9.8
The solution is to stop it using the dynamic memory areas. This will
slow it down a bit, I was told Ö although I havenæt really noticed any
speed decrease. Load the !Run file and add the following as the very
first instruction in the file:
9.8
Set Impression$NoDynamicAreas 1
9.8
Ed.
9.8
Printers 1.52 and Paint Ö If people are complaining that Printers 1.52
will not print sprites in colour from Paint (as I found on my A5000/
HP500C), there are two workarounds:
9.8
a) Drop the sprite in Draw and print it from there.
9.8
b) Put the following into an Obey file and run it before starting
Printers:
9.8
  Set Printers$DPLJfullQ Full
9.8
This gives you back the 256 colour option in the Printers control panel,
as well as the three dithering options, which was available in previous
releases of Printers. As Paint is not as clever as Draw about rendering
colour information (so I have read), it can only handle 256 colour
modes. If you now set Paint to a 256-colour mode, it will print in
colour.
9.8
John Jervis <[e-mail]>
9.8
Programming Errors Ö This is something Iáuse for programming, to help
with sorting out Basic programming errors. I put the following two
lines:
9.8
OSCLI öSet Alias$? Show Program_errorò
9.8
ON ERROR OSCLI(öSet Program_error ò+
9.8
REPORT$+ö at line ò+STR$(ERL)):END
9.8
at the start of my Basic Wimp program, and add:
9.8
OSCLI(öSet Program_error ò+REPORT$+
9.8
ö in line ò+STR$(ERL))
9.8
to my Basic error handling PROC.
9.8
If the program encounters an error, it stores the error report and line
number in a system variable. The variable has a nice meaningful name,
but typing all that out is too much bother, so a question mark is
defined as a system alias. All you need to do is to press <f12>, type a
<?> and <return>, and your error info is presented. I use Edit, by the
way. Of course, you could open a task window and enter ? there instead
of via <f12>.
9.8
This little tip saves me a lot of trouble, as I keep forgetting what
error occurred, or at which line.
9.8
Anton Mans <[e-mail]>
9.8
Pure printing colours Ö With a colour printer, colour can often be used
to enhance text, for example by emphasising headings. In these
conditions, the precise hue is usually not important, but arbitrary
choice of hues often results in disappointing results. The appearance
tends to be Édottyæ or muddy, because the hue is approximated by using a
mixture of different colours, and does not match the resolution and
crispness of black text.
9.8
To avoid this, use the CMYK palette option in your word processor, etc,
and select only saturated C, M or Y by dragging the colour sliders to
100% for the chosen hue and 0% for the others. The print will then
consist of dots all the same hue and will appear bright and crisp. You
are, of course, limited to four colours (including black).
9.8
Eric Ayers <[e-mail]>
9.8
Reading DOS format hard discs Ö An undocumented bonus feature of the
Alsystems Powertec SCSIá2 card is that, if you present it with a hard
disc in DOS format, it will recognise this and access it through DOSFS.
I only noticed this recently while setting up an internal 270Mb SyQuest
in a RiscPC due to go out to a customer. I like to make sure that all
the configuration, SCSI device settings, termination links etc are set
up correctly, and also that all the cartridges are initialised for use
under RISCáOS. At one stage, I put a cartridge in that was Épreformatted
for DOSæ and, to my surprise, a directory display appeared with several
SyQuest ReadMe files in it! It was possible to read and write to the
disc, but a phone call to Alsystems revealed that they are still working
on being able to initialise discs to DOS format.
9.8
James Taylor <[e-mail]>
9.8
Hints and Tips
9.9
Impression shortcuts Ö I used to find it difficult in Impression to
remember which was which of the two key shortcuts for super- and
subscripts, <shift-ctrl-J> and <shift-ctrl-K>, until I decided to let
<J> stand for ÉJumpæ and <K> for ÉKneelæ. Now I have no problems anymore
with that!
9.9
(Similarly, for kerning, thereæs <shift-U> and <shift-J>, so I think of
<U> for ÉUpæ and then as <J> is below <U> on the keyboard, thatæs easy
to remember. Then there is <shift-E> which Expands the gap between
letters and <shift-R> which Reduces it. Ed.)
9.9
Christian Puritz <[e-mail]>
9.9
Marcel help Ö Because I send and receive so many emails, Marcel soon
begins to slow down due to the huge mail files created. (I checked my
ÉSentæ file today and it had 190 messages in it, covering the last two
weeks.) I therefore have to Éemptyæ it reasonably regularly. Also, I was
rather exercised by the fact that I wasnæt archiving my in-coming emails
Ö just replying to them and deleting them. What happens if I want to
refer to them again later? I would be interested to hear other peopleæs
solutions, but mine is as follows...
9.9
On a separate hard disc, in a ÉBackupæ directory, Iáhave two text files;
SentEmails and Received. All Iádo is double-click the SentEmails file
which loads into Edit and then drop the Marcel Sent file into it, press
<f3> and save it again. This works because, although Marcel mail files
have a different filetype, they are basically just textfiles. Finally, I
delete the Marcel Sent file. Next time I send an email, Marcel notices
there is no Sent file and prompts me, and I let it create a new one. I
do a similar thing to archive the incoming email by dropping Marcelæs
INBOX file into a textfile called Received in the same backup directory.
9.9
I suppose you could do a similar sort of backup system within Marcel,
but the files would have to be kept within the Marcel directory. So, you
could put a backup Marcel file called, say, S, in a sub-directory of the
Mail directory called, say, Z. You would then open the Sent file in
Marcel, Select All and then Move To Z.S and then click on the Ébinæ in
the Sent file display.
9.9
The drawbacks with this are (a) it only works if using a subdirectory,
i.e. you canæt put it on a different hard drive and (b) you have to
actually open your Sent file in Marcel (rather than in Edit) which, with
190 messages, can take quite a few seconds. Also, if you ever tried to
open the Z.S file with hundreds of messages in it, youæd need to go for
a long tea-break. You can, of course, open a Marcel file in Edit by
holding down <shift> and double-clicking, but if your finger slips off
the shift key or if you forget to press it, the resultant hold-up can be
very frustrating!
9.9
Ed.
9.9
Sibelius lyrics Ö In Sibelius, lyrics below a stave can be deleted by
clicking on a word until it goes red ... then pressing Édeleteæ. When
the word extends over more than one note, it is followed by a Élyric
lineæ (word_______,). Usually, clicking turns the word and the lyric
line red at the same time.
9.9
I deleted a word... but the lyric line remained black. Clicking on this
lyric line did not turn it red for deleting, and the more I clicked, the
longer the lyric line extended! It reached the end of the piece, and I
thought I was stuck with it and would have to type the piece again.
9.9
Then, by chance, I clicked on the extreme righthand end of the lyric
line... Four pages of lyric line turned red... and I deleted it. Phew!
9.9
John VEG Mitchell, Wishaw
9.9
9.10
Sorry, no Hints and Tips this month.
9.10
Hints and Tips
9.11
C/C++ Books Ö I found öC For Dummiesò from IDG Books a perfect tutorial.
Itæs informal and American, but it explains everything in a very
comprehensible manner. The ISBN is 1-878058-78-9 and it costs ú18.99,
although IDG Media in the UK (the publisher of Acorn User) may be able
to do you a special deal. The company also produces a öFor Dummiesò book
on C++.
9.11
IDG Media, Media House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP.
[e-mail], http://www.idg.co.uk, or http://www.idg.com.
9.11
Alex Singleton, Surrey
9.11
A circle in perspective Ö Most drawing programs can draw an ellipse.
Most artists will use this when drawing (say) the top or bottom of a
vase, but a circle in perspective is not an ellipse!!
9.11
Firstly, choose a square to fit the circle. Draw this square, with its
diagonals, in perspective to a suitable vanishing point, as shown. Where
the diagonals cross, draw the line marked Édiameteræ. Draw the line OA.
This is used to draw an octagon in perspective.
9.11
Construct the octagon ... Where the line AO cuts the diagonals, draw
horizontal lines to D and C. Do similarly for E and F on the other side.
9.11
Draw a continuous curve to touch the centres of the sides of the octagon
(where the sides cut the diagonals and diameter).
9.11
Click on the bottom icon of the toolbox to get the dotted box around the
drawing. Use the Éhandlesæ to alter the size and shape! Copy it, then,
anywhere you like!
9.11
John Mitchell, Wishaw
9.11
Internet data overload Ö I found that I was keeping more and more items
from the internet newsgroups, just in case I needed to refer to them
again, such as FAQ, useful contacts, or WWW addresses. But, of course,
trying to find anything with only file names to go on was impossible.
9.11
I thought about designing a database in my database package, but then a
Clares advert suggested Knowledge Organiser II. I found someone who had
a demo, but that only showed searching, not creating a database, but I
took a chance anyway and decided to buy it with the aim of getting
organised. I havenæt regretted it Ö the demo does not do it justice!
9.11
KO II is all about storing text and giving it references to make it easy
to find again. Perfect for this use. As well as the built in context
code fields, you can add your own Ö which I didnæt realise at first. So
my database has a field for the news item title, plus date downloaded,
and then uses the KO II context code fields to Édescribeæ the entry. You
can also add more codes as you gradually learn your search requirements.
Iæve already been able to search for things I stored days before, going
straight to the article instead of guessing, wrongly, where I put it.
9.11
The package could do with a couple of improvements which I have
suggested to Clares, but I would certainly recommend it for anyone
struggling as Iáwas. KO II costs ú75 through Archive.
9.11
Clive Bell <[e-mail]>
9.11
Hints and Tips
9.12
C++ Operator Summary Ö Itæs a bit late to go with my series, but C++
programmers who read Archive will probably find this information handy.
Itæs a cut down version of the table that appears in Bjarne Stroustrupæs
ÉThe C++ Programming Languageæ (2nd Edn) 1994, Addison Wesley.
9.12
::  scope resolution
9.12
::  global
9.12
.  member selection
9.12
->  member selection
9.12
[]  subscripting
9.12
()  function call
9.12
()  value construction
9.12
++  post increment
9.12
ÿ  post decrement
9.12
sizeof  size of object
9.12
sizeof  size of type
9.12
++  pre increment
9.12
ÿ  pre decrement
9.12
~  complement
9.12
!  not
9.12
-  unary minus
9.12
+  unary plus
9.12
&  address of
9.12
*  dereference
9.12
new  create (allocate)
9.12
delete  destroy (de-allocate)
9.12
delete[]  destroy array
9.12
()  cast (type conversion)
9.12
.*  member selection
9.12
->*  member selection
9.12
*  multiply
9.12
/  divide
9.12
%  remainder
9.12
+  add
9.12
-  subtract
9.12
<<  shift left
9.12
>>  shift right
9.12
<  less than
9.12
>  greater than
9.12
<=  less than or equal
9.12
>=  greater than or equal
9.12
==  equal
9.12
!=  not equal
9.12
&  bitwise AND
9.12
^  bitwise exclusive OR
9.12
|  bitwise inclusive OR
9.12
&&  logical AND
9.12
||  logical inclusive OR
9.12
?:  conditional expression
9.12
=  simple assignment
9.12
*=  multiply and assign
9.12
/=  divide and assign
9.12
%=  modulo and assign
9.12
+=  add and assign
9.12
-=  subtract and assign
9.12
<<=  shift left and assign
9.12
>>=  shift right and assign
9.12
&=  AND and assign
9.12
|=  inclusive OR and assign
9.12
^=  exclusive OR and assign
9.12
throw  throw exception
9.12
,  comma (sequencing)
9.12
Each box holds operators with the same precedence and has higher
precedence than the box below.
9.12
Unary and assignment operators are right associative.
9.12
All other operators are left associative.
9.12
Tony Houghton, <[e-mail]>
9.12
Bitfolio clipart Ö The Bitfolio Edition 7 CD¡ROM, reviewed in Archive
9.6 p9, has quite rightly come in for many plaudits. The high quality of
the images and the sheer value for money, in my view, really puts all
other collections well in the shade. Some problems have come to light
but, fortunately, aásimple workround seems to apply to nearly all cases.
A few drawfiles on the CD wonæt load (a few out of 10,000? I think we
can live with that!). However, others hit problems when dropped directly
into applications such as Artworks, Impression, Ovation, etc.
9.12
Fortunately, applying what appears to be a universal workround, is a
trivial task. Simply double-click on the drawfile icon to load the image
into Draw, call up a Save...File dialogue box and drag the Save as icon
to its destination (Artworks, Impression etc). Hey presto! Ö no Artworks
crashes, and the graphic loads into the DTP frame at exactly 100% scale;
problem solved.
9.12
Jim Nottingham <[e-mail]>
9.12
Cumana SCSI 2 upgrades Ö Whilst browsing on Acornæs FTP site, I
discovered two upgrades for the Cumana SCSIá2 card, versions 2.00 and
2.01. I tried version 2.00 first and then 2.01 Ö dated 7 June 96. Both
worked fine. However, when Iácame to use the SCSI manager program to
format and partition a new 650Mb Panasonic cartridge for my ProTeus
drive, I discovered, to my amazement, that I could obtain 8 (yes eight!)
partitions Ö the original SCSI4 to 7 plus SCSI0 to 3. There is no
mention of this in the read me files. I phoned Cumana support, who
confirmed that eight partitions were now available, in spite of !Help
and other documentation still insisting that, because of RISCáOS
restrictions, only four partitions out of a possible 64 can be obtained
with this card. Anyway, Iáhad a device, partitioned into eight sections,
running for several days without any problems.
9.12
Later, however, I encountered a small problem when switching on my
machine. It started to hang, and Iáneeded to switch on and off two or
three times before I could get the !Boot running from my ADFS HardDisc4.
After a lot of trial and error, I found a small item in the Read Me file
mentioning that some SCSI hard drives did not like SCSI resets on power
up. From the SCSI manager screen, I selected the Host and then clicked
on Set Host ID. Under SCSI Reset, I changed the selected button from
Enabled to Delayed Ö problem solved.
9.12
The upgrades can be found on the Acorn FTP site ftp://ftp.acorn.co.uk/
pub/riscos/thirdparty/cumana. Any members, who are not on the Net, can
get a copy from me at 50 Cornwall Road, Southampton, SO18 2QZ, sending a
blank formatted disc and return postage.
9.12
Ted Lacey <[e-mail]>
9.12
New TurboDrivers Ö Following an email exchange between James Taylor of
NCS and Kate Moir of Computer Concepts weæve acquired the following
information about the new versions of the TurboDrivers:
9.12
New versions of Computer Conceptsæ TurboDrivers have recently been
released.
9.12
The latest shipping version of TurboDriver (4.05) will only install to
versions 1.45, 1.52 and 1.53 of !Printers. The TurboDriver installer has
to upgrade the !RunImage file of !Printers, and Computer Concepts are
limited Ö by disc space Ö to the number of replacement !RunImages they
can offer. They decided that as versions 1.45Ö1.53 constituted the
latest versions of !Printers, it made more sense to support them and
drop support of the previous versions.
9.12
The TurboDriver uses !Printers as a öfront endò but uses its own
rendering and queueing system. The rendering system is quite different
from the standard Acorn system, and the queueing system complements and
interacts with the Acorn system, actually improving printout times from
applications which do not use the Acorn graphics output mode (i.e. Edit,
First Word Plus, etc).
9.12
As to a comparison of quality, Computer Concepts feel that the
TurboDriver is better, and certainly, the full control of halftone
angles, that the TurboDriver offers, provides the user with much greater
control over the output quality. However, assessing quality of output is
very subjective.
9.12
All the TurboDrivers have been upgraded (Epson, Canon and HP). An
existing user of, say, the Canon TurboDriver can purchase the Epson and/
or HP printer engines and definition files for an additional ú11.75each
(inclusive) from Computer Concepts.
9.12
It is possible to have two (or more) different types of TurboDriver
resident in !Printers at one time. The only requirement is that the
TurboDriver definitions be the same version, i.e. Epson TurboDriver 4.05
and Canon TurboDriver 4.05. Epson TurboDriver 4.04 will not work with
Canon TurboDriver 4.05.
9.12
When using a non-TurboDriver printer definition files with a copy of
!Printers which has had the TurboDrivers installed into it, RISCáOS
printing is via Acorn code, and queueing via TurboDriver code.
9.12
Recent improvements in speed and quality have been made to !Printers.
There has been speculation that !Printers has closed the gap, or even
overtaken, the TurboDrivers in terms of speed.
9.12
Speed of output is dependent upon too many variables to quote specifics.
An additional 100Kb of free memory can make a significant difference in
the time to output.
9.12
Computer Concepts claim that the TurboDriver is still significantly
faster than !Printers 1.53 in most areas of printing. Multiple copies of
multi-page documents will always be faster via the TurboDriver, as will
ArtWorks images and RISC OS text documents. Single bitmap (and JPEG
bitmaps) may be faster via the standard Acorn drivers.
9.12
Alex Allen <[e-mail]>
9.12
Upgrading PC cards Ö Readers who install 486-100 or pentium processors
may like to be warned; if you have already upgraded your software to
!PCx86, do not be tempted to skip installing this when you receive your
new processor package. There are bits and pieces in the latest version
without which you will have trouble, so install the lot (!PCx86, PCDos7
and all).
9.12
Colin Buckland <[e-mail]>
9.12