Archive Magazine 1996/ARCHIVE_96.iso/text/magazine/volume_05/issue_07

Text File | 1995-06-25 | 274KB | 5,400 lines

5.7
Reviews Special
5.7
The reason for the extra 16 pages this month is an attempt to get some
of the huge backlog of reviews into print. There is no extra charge to
you, but please donæt expect 80 pages every month Ö it costs a lot extra
in printing and postage. (Apologies to those who are still waiting to
have a review published Ö I suspect that we may have to have another 80
page issue next month!)
5.7
The DTP Machine
5.7
It has been quite an eye-opener, preparing the booklet, öDesktop
Publishing on Acorn Computersò. It has taken rather longer to write than
I thought, partly because of the difficulty of finding anyone who could
talk sensibly to me about using PCs for doing DTP. (I felt I had to do a
three-way comparison.) However, now that I have finished the booklet, I
am fully convinced that Acorn are onto a definite winner.
5.7
The basic conclusions of the booklet are as follows: You can use PCs for
DTP if you really have to, but it is better to steer clear. For high-end
DTP, especially where you are doing a great deal of artistic design work
or wanting 24-bit colour or vast ranges of fonts, the Mac still reigns
supreme. However, for 98% of potential DTP users, Acorn systems are as
powerful and as user-friendly as Mac systems costing more then twice the
price.
5.7
Why arenæt Acorn shouting this from the rooftops? I donæt know, but Iæm
not going to wait for them to get going. You may already have seen
adverts for free copies of the DTP booklet in the Archimedes magazines
but N.C.S. has started advertising in non-Acorn magazines as well as in
non-computing magazines like öWritersæ Newsò and öThe Authorò. Weære now
contemplating stepping into the lionæs den and advertising in Mac User!
5.7
If you can help to spread the good news to any potential DTP users, you
can have copies of the booklet to give to them. Just drop us a line.
5.7
Happy reading!
5.7
5.7
Products Available
5.7
Å    Aliped Ö A multi-directional scrolling game from Alien Images / Dabs
Press in which you wander around a castle trying to shake off the spell
that has been cast upon you by the evil step-mother of a fair princess.
The price is ú14.95 from Dabs Press or ú14 through Archive.
5.7
Å    Budget DTP Ö is a new book from Roger Amos, published by Dabs Press at
ú12.95 (ú13 inclusive through Archive). It shows how you can use Draw
and Edit to do DTP on Archimedes computers (RISC-OS 2 only) without
going to the expense of buying a DTP package. Chapters include, What is
DTP?, Draw in depth, Edit in depth, The font system, Page layout, etc.
5.7
(I was amused to see that although öthe authoræs text was prepared using
!Edit and !Drawò, the book was produced öusing an Apple Mac DTP systemò.
Ed.)
5.7
Å    Charm Ö This compiled language with assembler, linker, editor,
tutorial, two games (including source code) was mentioned by David Wild
in his Languages Column (Archive 4.11 p34). It now has a desktop shell
from which to run the utilities. The program is distributed by David
Pilling and is now available through Archive at ú6.
5.7
Å    Colony Rescue Ö This new adventure game from Alien Images / Dabs Press
is set in 2143 AD when the universe has started to contract, causing the
innermost galaxiesæ fine balance to be upset. Their only chance is you
in your humble rescue ship! The price is ú14.95 from Dabs Press or ú14
through Archive.
5.7
Å    Desktop Publishing on Acorn Computers Ö This booklet which I offered
free of charge two months ago is finally in print. I am sorry that it
has taken so long to produce but once I got started on it, it grew and
grew. I employed two consultants to give their expertise in comparing
Acorn systems with Mac and PC and the resulting document is 20 pages
long! The evidence as to the superiority of Acorn systems over Macs,
pound for pound, is quite staggering. If you know anyone who is
interested in setting up a DTP facility, let us know and weæll send them
a copy of the booklet. I have reproduced part of the booklet in this
monthæs magazine because I think it is important information. (See pages
69.)
5.7
(I offered the booklet free of charge and  will stick to that offer if
you are seriously interested in buying a DTP system. However, if all
subscribers asked for a free copy just because it was free, it would
cost me a couple of thousand pounds. So, if you felt you could contrib
ute to the cost, I would be most grateful. The cover price is 75p, but
50p would just about cover the printing and postage.)
5.7
Å    Grievous Bodily æARM Ö Fourth Dimensionæs latest offering is a
öbrutal, uninhibited arcade beat æem upò game. The excuse for the punch
up is that you are trying to save the city from an evil scientist who is
making vast amounts of cheap illegal narcotics and you have to Éget himæ
in order to save the city from his grip! ú24.95 from 4th Dimension or
ú23 through Archive.
5.7
Å    Newton Ö Longman Logotron have produced another package extending the
use of their Logo language. Newton enables pupils to study the concept
of forces. You can give your turtle mass, apply forces to it and see how
it behaves. You can also explore frictionless surfaces, bouncing balls
and collisions. The cost is ú19 +VAT from Longman Logotron or ú21
through Archive.
5.7
Å    (another) PC Emulator upgrade Ö Version 1.8 of the Acorn PC Emulator
(AKA70), which incorporates support for VGA graphics and Expanded memory
LIM 3.2, will be released on April 21st 1992. The RRP remains the same
at ú99 +VAT (or ú96 inc VAT through Archive).
5.7
The product includes the new version of the emulator, MS-DOS3.30, a
revised manual and MS-DOS CD-ROM extensions (MSCDEX 2.20). You can
configure the emulator to use VGA support, which allows you to run DOS
applications which make use of VGA. This includes many of the range of
CD-ROM titles listed in the NCET CD-ROM scheme for schools.
5.7
The memory requirements of version 1.8 when running without VGA support
are the same as version 1.7. You can run DOS applications in single-
tasking mode only in 1M but to use both multi-tasking and single-tasking
modes, you need 2M or more.
5.7
When configured to use the VGA support, some applications may need more
than 2M to run in multi-tasking mode, but will still run in single-
tasking mode. This includes the CD-ROM titles for which you need 4M, if
you want to run them in multi-tasking mode.
5.7
There will be an upgrade to 1.8 (AKA71) for existing owners of the PC
Emulator available from 1st June (sic) until 1st September 1992. It will
contain the 1.8 PC Emulator and manual only, with no CD-ROM extensions
or DOS disc; users retain their current DOS disc.
5.7
The price for upgrading to 1.8 is ú9 +VAT from version 1.6 or 1.7 and
ú29 +VAT from a version earlier than 1.6. This upgrade is available for
all existing owners of the PC Emulator, whether originally supplied with
MS-DOS or DR-DOS.
5.7
There is a special upgrade offer for Educational institutions which are
using version 1.6 or 1.7. This allows institutions to purchase one unit
of the upgrade for ú9 and copy the disc to replace all their units of
1.6 and 1.7.
5.7
The PC Emulator 1.8 manual (AKJ35) is available separately at ú8 (no VAT
payable).
5.7
Å    PDSview Ö Spacetech have produced a package which allows access to
data from NASAæs Planetary Data System available on CD-ROM. The viewer
allows you to enhance images, use false colour or construct true multi-
spectral colour images, to make ömovieò sequences as well as examine
features such a volcanoes or to make 3D projections of the surface of
planets. The package is fully RISC-OS compliant and the PC Emulator is
not required to run the package. PDSview forms a powerful image
processor in its own right. PDSview is ú99.50 +VAT (ú108 through
Archive) and this includes a disc full of sample images. If you have a
CD-ROM, you can then buy a two-disc sampler set of some 1,500 images
which includes various views of volcanoes and views from a range of
spacecraft including Voyager, Nimbus, Landsat, NOAA, etc. The sampler
set costs ú40 +VAT (or ú44 through Archive). The main database of images
Ö 26,000 in all(!) Ö comes on 12 CDs and covers the complete Voyager
mission. This costs ú200 +VAT (or ú220 through Archive).
5.7
Å    RISC-OS 3 printer driver Ö A5000 owners will be pleased to hear that
Ace Computing have now done a RISC-OS 3 printer driver for the HP
Deskjet 500C. It will also work on the HP PaintJet and the PaintJet XL.
The price is ú18.80 inc VAT from Ace or ú17 through Archive.
5.7
Å    Starch Ö An arcade action game from Alien Images / Dabs Press set in a
launderette! Harry and Dave are working through the night trying to
clear the backlog of unfinished washing. (Doesnæt exactly sound an
exciting scenario but Edæs two sons, aged 11 and 13, certainly enjoyed
playing with the review copy of the game.) The price is ú14.95 from Dabs
Press or ú14 through Archive.
5.7
Å    Titler Ö Clares Micros have released their new video titling and
presentation package called Titler. For ú149.95 inc VAT (ú135 through
Archive) you get two packages Ö Titler itself which you use to combine
input from Artisan2, Artisan, Illusionist and RenderBender II and add
titles in various fonts to create screens for display Ö and Sequencer to
combine the screens together with special effects such as fade, wipe,
scroll, etc. It also takes input from Tracker and Armadeus. Link it with
a genlock system and you can create professional standard video-titling.
5.7
Å    Vidi-Archimedes Ö A video digitiser for the Archimedes from Rombo
Productions. For ú149 +VAT, you get a digitiser that can grab frames
from moving video at 320 ╫ 256 pixels in 16 grey shades and can replay
frames at 10 per second. If you work from a still video image, you can
use the built-in electronic filters to build up a full colour image at
up to 640 ╫ 256 in 256 colour.
5.7
Review software received...
5.7
We have received review copies of the following: Aliped, Archivist,
Arctist, Control Logo, Creator, Grievous Bodily æARM, Newton, Starch,
Split an Image, Titler.ááA
5.7
5.7
Government Health Warning Ö Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
5.7
Weæve had a couple of complaints about this section of the magazine Ö
especially after last month. Some folk get really upset by it and write
very strong letters of complaint. Iæm sorry if my comments upset you but
you donæt have to read them! If you think itæs using up space that you
have paid for, the extra 16 pages this month, which you havenæt paid
for, should be more than enough recompense.
5.7
The way I see it is this, I use this section of the magazine to present
the claims of Jesus Christ to anyone who is prepared to consider them.
If Jesusæ claims are not true then these few comments wonæt do anyone
any real harm but if they ARE true then it is extremely important
information that I am trying to communicate Ö in fact, itæs information
with (spiritual) life and death implicatioms.
5.7
In the current climate in the UK, it is not the done thing to ötalk
about religionò Ö well, not in public, anyway Ö and you certainly
shouldnæt try to pass your ideas on to anyone else. This to me is
lunacy. IfáGod doesnæt exist then, fine, letæs eat and drink and enjoy
ourselves for tomorrow we may die. However, if God is real and can be
known as a person, as the Bible claims, then this is Public Domain
information that should be freely distributed without any financial
gain. Please donæt try to slap a copyright notice on Godæs truth as
revealed in the Bible. When God came to earth in the form of the  man,
Jesus of Nazareth, he firmly placed this information about himself in
the Public Domain.
5.7
5.7

5.7
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD. 0603-
766592 (764011)
5.7
5.7
4th Dimension    1 Percy Street, Sheffield  S3 8AU. (0742Ö700661)
5.7
4mation    11 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon  EX32
8PA. (0271Ö25353) (0271Ö22974)
5.7
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts  SN2
6QA.
5.7
Acorn Direct    13 Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants  NN8 2RL.
5.7
Acorn Computers Ltd    Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge  CB1 4JN. (0223Ö245200) (0223Ö210685)
5.7
Aleph One Ltd    The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge  CB5 9BA.
(0223Ö811679) (0223Ö812713)
5.7
Arxe Systems Ltd    P.O.Box 898, Forest Gate, London  E7 9RG.
(081Ö534Ö1198 evenings)
5.7
Base5    PO Box 378, Woking, Surrey  GU21 4DF.
5.7
Clares Micro Supplies    98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire  CW9 7DA. (0606Ö48511)
(0606Ö48512)
5.7
Colton Software (p22)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge  CB5 8LA. (0223Ö311881) (0223Ö312010)
5.7
Computer Concepts (p40/41)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts  HP2 6EX. (0442Ö63933) (0442Ö231632)
5.7
Craddock Computer Systems    20 Osyth
Close, Brackmills Industrial Estate, Northampton  NN4 0DY. (0604Ö760991)
(0604Ö761800)
5.7
Cream PD    38 Baunton, Cirencester, Gloucester  GL7 7BB.
5.7
Cygnus Software    11 Newmarke Street, Leicester  LE1 5SS.
5.7
Dabs Press    22 Warwick Street, Prestwich, Manchester  M25 7HN.
(061Ö773Ö8632) (061Ö773Ö8290)
5.7
David Pilling    P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool  FY5 1LR.
5.7
I-APL Ltd     2 Blenheim Road, St Albans  AL1 4NR.
5.7
Icon Technology    9 Jarrom Street, Leicester  LE2 7DH. (0533Ö546225)
5.7
IFEL (p34)    36 Upland Drive, Plymouth, Devon  PL6 6BD. (0752Ö847286)
5.7
Linear Graphics    Unit 39, Mochdre Industrial Estate, Newtown, Powys
SY16 4LE
5.7
Longman-Logotron    124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge
CB4 4ZS. (0223Ö425558) (0223Ö425349)
5.7
LOOKsystems (p29)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich  NR5 9AY.
(0603Ö764114) (764011)
5.7
Minerva Systems (p11)    Minerva
House, Baring Crescent, Exeter  EX1 1TL. (0392Ö437756) (0392Ö421762)
5.7
Oak Solutions (p24)    Suite 25,
Robin Enterprise Centre, Leeds Road, Idle, Yorkshire  BD10áá9TE.
(0274Ö620423) (0274Ö620419)
5.7
RISC Developments Ltd    117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts  AL1 4JS. (0727Ö40303) (0727Ö60263)
5.7
Rombo Productions    Baird Road, Kirkton Campus, Livingston  EH54 7AZ.
(0506Ö414631) (0506Ö414634)
5.7
Spacetech (p12)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset  DT5 2EA.
(0305Ö822753)
5.7
Superior Software    P.O. Box 6, Brigg, S Humberside  DN20 9NH.
(0652Ö658585) (0652Ö657807)
5.7
5.7
Computer Concepts
5.7
From 5.6 page 32
5.7
5.7
Computer Concepts
5.7
From 5.6 page 33
5.7
5.7
Hints and Tips
5.7
Å    A5000 floppy drive problems Ö There have been a number of comments in
Archive about the slowness of the A5000æs floppy drive. Could this be
due to a bug which RISC-OS 3 has with the ADFS buffers. There was a note
with my machine when it was delivered saying that the ADFS Buffers
should be configured to zero due to a bug which causes occasional data
errors. Configuring thus makes the floppy drive incredibly slow during
copy operations with a track access taking more than 2 seconds. I
preferred to have the speed and I spoke to Peter Dunn of Acorn at an
Open Day in Glasgow recently who told me that the adfs buffers problem
had only appeared with the Acorn DTP and that it shouldnæt be a problem
with other programs like Impression. Indeed they had their A5000s
configured with ADFS Buffers set to 16k so I copied them.
5.7
Then just the other day, Impression 2.16 dropped through my letter box.
A couple of days later, I had two relatively complex newsletters to
typeset. The first crashed during a save operation, losing most of the
text. I thought ÉThat will teach me to make back-up copies in future.æ I
remade the document successfully. The next job was done with two copies
on the hard disk, a main and a back-up. The main would auto-save and I
would make a back-up by adding a Ébæ to the filename. Well into this
job, it crashed. Both copies were corrupted, so I gave up and returned
to version 2.14f. No further problems. A word with Computer Concepts and
they suggested that I return the ADFSbuffers to zero.
5.7
Iæd be interested to hear if other A5000 and Impression users have had
similar or other experiences with their setup.á David Woods, Glasgow
5.7
Å    ArcDFS and !65Host Ö If you try to use ArcDFS with the 6502 emulator,
you may get a öBad DFS emulationò error. John Fletcher of Dabs Press
says: öThis is because the manual does not fully explain how to use
ArcDFS with the emulator. The way to access a DFS disc, is not to type
*DISC, but to type: *Dir dfs::<drive number>. You should also change
drive using the above command instead of *Drive.òá P Northing, Sheffield
5.7
Å    Bringing windows to the front Ö To move a window to the front, you
must click on its title bar. This often involves moving other windows to
get to it. However, I have just discovered that clicking on the windowæs
adjust size icon (bottom right) also brings the window to the front.
This Éobviousæ hint may help prevent too much window shuffling!á R
House, Andover
5.7
Å    Canon Bubblejets BJ300 & BJ330 Ö There are some undocumented features
on these machines that make cleaning and changing ink cartridges a bit
easier. The normal cleaning cycle is started by pressing the shift then
the cleaning keys. An extended cycle is started by pressing shift then
pressing and holding cleaning and then pressing shift again.
5.7
There is a function called reference aging which sprays ink all over the
printed area of the paper. Be warned though that this uses a lot of ink
and the ink is very difficult to remove from hands, etc so have a poly-
bag handy to pop the sheet in!! The sequence can be stopped by turning
the printer mains off. Press shift then press and hold cleaning and then
press card and paper together and release cleaning.
5.7
Iæve been using öReportò photocopier paper in my BJ300 and the print
quality is superb.á Ned Abell, Kidderminster
5.7
Å Changing the file allocation of a hard Disk Ö My A410/1 is equipped
with an internal 40M ST506 hard disk (NEC). Recently I added an external
SCSI hard disk (cached Morley öCheetahò, 100M, fitted with a Rodime
R3000 disk). When I compared those two drives, I made some very
unexpected discoveries.
5.7
I copied the entire content of the internal disk (39M) to the new drive,
because I wanted to soak test the old disk. To my amazement the SCSI
öfreeò window showed that I had already used up no less than 62M of
space! I phoned the (very friendly and competent) Morley help line, and
they told me that larger drives usually were formatted differently from
small ones (with larger blocks), because this improved their speed
performance.
5.7
They advised me that if the extra space was more important to me than
speed, I should use the formatter on the Morley support disk to alter
the size of allocated blocks. I fiddled around with this application and
found that it is indeed possible to change the space needed for a file
quite considerably; in the configuration that I finally chose, the 39M
from my old disk actually occupied slightly less space Ö below 38M!
5.7
What is more, the speed tester showed a slightly worse performance, but
any improvised speed tests I did myself (like copying 3M of files from
RAM disk to hard disk and back) showed these differences to be quite
negligible.
5.7
So: If you buy a new (second) hard disk, it might be a good idea to
check how it administrates data, before you do any serious work with
it!á Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germany
5.7
Å    DFS reader and A5000 Ö When the DFS reader (Shareware 31) is run on
the A5000, it fails with öUnknown or missing variable at or about line
260ò. This can be cured by adding the following line:
5.7
215 large% = TRUE : full% = TRUE
5.7
M Pullin, Cheltenham.
5.7
Å    Econet interface faults Ö We had a big mains spike that Étook outæ
twelve BBC B Econet interfaces. At first, the Masters and Archimedes
machines seemed OK but further investigation proved otherwise. The
findings may prove useful to others.
5.7
There are two types of Acorn Econet cards, (plus the XOB one) an old one
and a newer one. All the machines with the old type of cards seemed fine
after the spike but none of the newer ones worked! Our first thought was
that they were zapped by the spike. However, on closer examination, when
we disconnected the old type machines from the network, the ones with
the newer type card started to work. Looks like some of the old type
cards are faulty but still working. The old style cards definitely seem
more fault tolerant than the new ones! A faulty old style card can still
work but it will stop other machines with the new style cards from
working!á Dave Leckie, Fort William.
5.7
Å    HP Deskjet 500 & RISC-OS 3 Ö Here is a tip about the RISC-OS3 printer
drivers and the HP Deskjet 500. The graphics margins given in the HP
configuration for the A4 (Generic Deskjet) are a bit conservative.
5.7
    Top Ö 12.5mm
5.7
    Bottom Ö 19.9mm
5.7
    Left Ö 5.0mm
5.7
    Right Ö 7.0mm
5.7
From the manual and from my own experiences of using the printer and
seeing where it can print to, I have come up with new values which are:-
5.7
    Top Ö 1.5mm
5.7
    Bottom Ö 10.5mm
5.7
    Left Ö 3.2mm
5.7
    Right Ö 3.2mm
5.7
I have used these values very successfully ever since I got the machine.
The RISC-OS 2 printer driver for the Laserjet/Deskjet has problems when
it has different values for top and bottom margins because it prints out
in landscape mode in the opposite direction to the way the margins have
been set. i.e. it prints out last, the part of the sheet which is shown
by the print borders to be the top! RISC-OS 3 has sorted this out
allowing the maximum printing area to be available. It can be very
important when using Impressionæs Éfit lotsæ facility to reduce pages to
have as much room as possible as margins are reduced as well.á David
Woods, Glasgow
5.7
Å    Paper for inkjets Ö I too have had much trouble obtaining good paper
for my HP Deskjet 500. The manual recommends photocopy paper and that
you should use the paperæs correct side (as marked by the arrow on the
end of the packet). I have found photocopy paper to be poor no matter
what side I try. The results usually come out Éfurryæ where the
absorbency of the paper has caused the ink to creep by capillary action.
Prior to the type of ink sold by Hewlett Packard being changed to a more
permanent one, some photocopy paper gave white patches within areas of
black which I think was due to a degree of waxiness repelling the ink
from spots but this phenomenon happens no more.
5.7
(Acorn Inkjet owners can also benefit by using the HP DJ 500 cartridges
as they are the same fitting. Ed.)
5.7
The new ink seems to give good results with some types of paper but
rather Éfurryæ with others. Interestingly, I found that Croxley Script
80gsm, similar to that mentioned by Paul Bamberger in Archive to be very
poor. I have settled on two paper types for Écheap and goodæ and
Éexpensive and excellentæ printouts. The cheaper paper is ÉPlus Fabric
70gsmæ from Empire Fine Papers at about ú7.50 for 500 sheets. This gives
consistently sharp, even results although it does wrinkle if there are
large printed dark areas.
5.7
For printouts intended for further copying by a photocopier or at a
printing company (or for making letterheads for small businesses) I have
found that a type of paper generally described as Élaidæ paper,
available in various brands, is excellent, costing about ú15 a box. It
is smooth on one side and has a fine, ribbed pattern on the other. Both
sides accept ink very well and you often see the paper used for
prestigious company printed letterheads. I have used both ÉGB Classic,
White Laid, 100gsmæ and ÉConqueror, High White Laid, 100 gsmæ.á David
Woods, Glasgow
5.7
Å Printing on labels or A3 paper Ö Most RISC-OS printer drivers have
difficulty with anything other than A4 paper. Although they have a page
length setting, they do not tell the printer the page length to expect,
so the printer still assumes that it has 11ö or A4 size paper (usually
determined by a DIP switch). This is fine when printing on individual
sheets or when using a sheet feeder to feed labels or envelopes but it
causes serious problems with tractor feed labels or with A3 paper.
Imagine printing on 1ò tractor feed labels from Impression. The
Impression master page must be defined to be 1ö length and, similarly,
the printer driveræs page length must be set to 1ò. The first label is
printed and the printer driver sends a form feed character telling the
printer to advance to the next form (page). Unfortunately, the printer
driver assumes that it is using 11ö paper and feeds over the next 10
labels, simply because the printer driver did not define the printeræs
page length. Similarly, printing on A3 paper (using a Canon BJ330 for
example) fails because the printer thinks it is using A4 paper. The
solution is for the printer driver to pass on the page length setting to
the printer and this is a very simple change for Acorn to make.
Meanwhile, it is necessary to modify the page start and end strings
manually. With RISC-OS 2 drivers this can be difficult, but with RISC-OS
3 the printer driver editor allows it.
5.7
With an Epson compatible printer, the page length can be defined by
putting ESC,öCò,n in the page start string, where n is the page length
in lines (1/6ö per line). With an IBM compatible printer, an extra
ESC,ö2ò is needed on the end. Furthermore, it is sometimes necessary to
change the page end string which is often set to perform a printer reset
(ESC,ö@ò on Epson printers) after every page Ö this should be removed
completely. Note that these changes must be applied for each resolution
setting that is to be used and that a new printer driver file should be
saved with its name and type set appropriately to indicate that it is a
different version for a special page size.áá Paul Skirrow, Ipswich
5.7
(Acorn are aware of the problem and have found at least a partial
solution Ö see the comments below, page 9. Ed.)
5.7
Å    Mandelbrot bakeware Ö I have written a short PROC to improve Basilæs
Mandelbrot program (Archive 5.6 p57):
5.7
DEFPROCdebug
5.7
WHILE flour=flour+weevils
5.7
  REPEAT
5.7
    GETweevil
5.7
    BPUT# weevil ON blockA%
5.7
    BEAT blockB%
5.7
  UNTIL dead%=TRUE
5.7
  weevils-=1
5.7
ENDWHILE
5.7
ENDPROC
5.7
The variable declaration: Mouth_Open=FALSE is the best Iæve seen so far!
I have another for anyone who typed the program in:
5.7
Egg_on_face=TRUE.
5.7
Joseph Seelig, Harrow.
5.7
Å    Ten tips for larger memories Ö The article on better use of available
memory (Archive 4.6 p52) set me thinking and hereæs a tip for those of
us who donæt have a hard disc. I have 4M in a 310, two 3╜ö internal
floppies and an external 5╝ò drive.
5.7
If you look at what you use your computer for, it breaks down into a few
task areas as well as playing games. I create a Task disk for each
activity and that sits in the 5╝ö drive and I have one each for DTP,
business and drawing. Each disc has !System, different !Fonts and the
appropriate applications that I can cram on using !Compression.
5.7
Each task disc has two Obey type files called !boot and startlist to get
everything up and running and here I put in a plug for the excellent
!DeskEdit utility from Beebug which allows even me to get this working
quickly.
5.7
Letæs look at the business Task disc which is called öLrgeBus1ò.
5.7
The !boot obey file consists of one line...
5.7
Desktop-File adfs::LrgeBus1.$ .startlist
5.7
and clicking on this runs the second file called startlist. As you
probably know, if this Task disc were in drive 0 it could be set to auto
start each time the computer was turned on, by setting the disc to *OPT
4,3 and the computer to *Configure Boot.
5.7
The second obey file called startlist sets up the essential tasks that
you will need but some of these are squeezed on the disc under the
!Compression filing system. If you specify öcfs#adfsò as a filing system
to get them to load, the computer throws a wobbly so I set up two
aliases as the first lines of startlist.
5.7
Set Neds$Dir adfs::LrgeBus1.$
5.7
and
5.7
Set NedsCFS$Dir cfs#adfs:: LrgeBus1.$
5.7
you can then get the computer to find the bits you want by using:
5.7
<Neds$Dir>.!System
5.7
and to load various fixes found in the system modules directory into
memory like..
5.7
RMLoad<Neds$Dir>.!System.
5.7
modules.WimpUtils
5.7
and then to get !Compression up and running
5.7
<Ned$Dir>.!CFS
5.7
Now a word about !Fonts. I use Swiss as my main business font. You need
to edit the run file of !Fonts and put in a ödesktopò command at the end
after öFontCatòor it will stop and ask you to press space. I also tailor
the run file after the line öEcho Font Manager 2.42 installed.ò with the
lines
5.7
Echo Neds Business Fonts now available:
5.7
Echo
5.7
because I like to personalise things!!
5.7
Back in startlist, we can now run...
5.7
<NedsCFS$Dir>.!Fonts
5.7
which are compressed and then in a compressed directory called resources
5.7
<NedsCFS$Dir>.resources.
5.7
!PrinterDM
5.7
<NedsCFS$Dir>.resources.!Alarm
5.7
and anything else you need and the last line is
5.7
desktop
5.7
The whole process is very easy to achieve and each task disc can be
tailored. The drawback is that its a bit on the slow side and all my
fonts have to be uncompressed before I use them but I do set a large
Fontsize.á Ned Abell, Kidderminster
5.7
Å Transferring PC files with the Emulator Ö It is true that the multi-
tasking PC Emulator does prevent access to the PC hard disc partition
while it is running and it is therefore necessary to quit the emulator
before a file created by a PC program can be read in RISC-OS. This is
because RISC-OS does not know whether the PC hard disc partition is in a
valid state or not (i.e. a PC program may be writing to an open file).
However, it is possible to transfer files between RISC-OS and the PC
emulator by using floppy discs. After the PC has written a file to the
floppy it may be necessary to dismount the floppy disc (using the menu
item) and re-open it by clicking on the floppy icon to make RISC-OS read
the directory again (otherwise it may not realise that it has been
changed). This works with RISC-OS 3, but should also work with any of
the various PC disc readers.á Paul Skirrow, Ipswich
5.7
Å    Watford mouse Ö If you need to replace the plug on a Watford mouse
(old version) my experience may be useful. The original plug is moulded
onto the cable, and it took careful dismantling with a sharp knife to
discover where each wire went.
5.7
I purchased the replacement plug from Maplin Electronics (code JX19V
0.82p, page 177). This plug has three disadvantages; firstly it has no
cable strain relief, so you must be sure of your wiring, secondly, it is
extremely difficult to disassemble and thirdly you need to shave a small
amount from the front to fit it into the socket of an A310. (I donæt
think it would fit too well on an A3000!) The wire colours are as
follows (functions as on p469 of the A310 User Guide):
5.7
 Pin    Function    Colour
5.7
1    X Reference        white
5.7
2    Switch 1        yellow
5.7
3    Switch 2        red
5.7
4    0V return        brown
5.7
5    X Direction        green
5.7
6    5V supply        black
5.7
7    Y Reference        blue
5.7
8    Switch 3        orange
5.7
9    Y Direction        purple
5.7
M Angove, Caerphilly
5.7
Å    Wonderland on SCSI Ö Iæve managed to get Wonderland to work on SCSI.
What you do is:-
5.7
Obtain the SCSI öfixò, which Archive will supply if you send them a
charity donation (minimum ú2). However, itæs also on this monthæs
program disc.
5.7
Run the INSTALL program on the öfixò disk, using the öfixò disk when
asked for disk öONEò, then the original disk öTWOò, öTHREEò and öFOURò.
5.7
When the installation is complete, use !Edit to modify the öwinò
application code. Look for the second occurrence of the text öadfsò and
replace it with öscsiò. (If you replace the first one, it all seems to
work until you save or restore a game position.)
5.7
To get it to work on SCSI with 1M memory you need to unplug more modules
than you would with ADFS, because SCSI, SCSIFiler and SCSIDirCache take
up some space. I find that I need to unplug:Ö Debugger, Draw, EcoNet,
FontManager, IIC, NetFS, NetPrint, NetStatus, PaletteUtil, Percussion,
RAMFS, RAMFSFiler, ShellCLI, SoundChannels, SoundDMA, SoundScheduler,
StringLib, SystemDevices, WaveSynth.
5.7
Mike Williams, London N16.
5.7
The following hints and tips are taken from the February Acorn Customer
Services Newsletter.
5.7
Å    RISC-OS 2 printer drivers
5.7
1)áWe have had reports of the release 2 printer drivers producing the
following error message:
5.7
    öInvalid number of output bitsò
5.7
This error is produced when you attempt to print a sprite that was
created in a 256 colour screen mode such as MODE 15 in a 16 colour mode
such as MODE 12. The solution to the problem is to print in MODE 15 if
this error occurs, or to print the sprite in the mode in which it was
created.
5.7
2)áWhen attempting to load any of the many RISC-OS 2 desktop printer
drivers the following error message may be displayed:     öFiling
System or path ÉPrinter:æ not present internal error xxxxò
5.7
The error is caused by one of the printer driver support modules
becoming unplugged from the operating system. To resolve the problem,
the first action to take is to find out which modules are unplugged.
This information can be found by typing the following command from the
command line:
5.7
*UNPLUG
5.7
It is then necessary to re-insert the modules that *UNPLUG has shown as
being unplugged with the following command:
5.7
*RMREINIT <ModuleName>
5.7
Once you have used *RMREINIT to re-initialise all the modules, you
should then perform a <ctrl-break> to ensure all the modules have
started correctly.
5.7
3)áPrinting labels on small page lengths can sometimes cause problems.
5.7
a)á!PrinterDM (2.46) reads a system variable called PDriver$DMExtra at
the start of each print job and sends it to the printer before the
actual data stream. PDriver$DMExtra has to be set using GSTrans format
so, to set a page length of nine lines, you would use:
5.7
*SET PDriver$DMExtra |[C|I
5.7
You would use |[C|J for ten lines and |[C|K for eleven lines and so on.
This command can be executed explicitly from the command line (after
!PrinterDM has been loaded) or incorporated in the !Run file.
5.7
b) Set the (Graphics) clip window to the appropriate size from
!PrinterDMæs icon bar menu. If the stationery is continuous, you can
leave the top and bottom graphics margins set to zero.
5.7
c)áFinally, you need to tell the Wordprocessor you are using, the page
size of each label.
5.7
Å    RISC-OS 3 printer drivers Ö Loading RISC-OS 2 printer drivers into
Acorn A5000s with RISC-OS 3 can cause problems if an attempt is then
made to load the RISC-OS 3 !Printers application from the Applications 1
disc or directory if stored on the hard disc.
5.7
!Printers will report the error ö!Printers requires PDriver 3.16 or
laterò.
5.7
The error occurs because the RISC-OS 2 printer driver loads an older
PDriver module than 3.16. The solution to the problem is to type from
the command line.
5.7
*RMKILL PDriver
5.7
*RMREINIT PDriver
5.7
This will allow you to load the new !Printer application supplied with
RISC-OS 3 on the A5000.
5.7
Å    Maestro Ö Version 1.75 has a problem where notes are displayed at
double-height in certain modes. This may be fixed in the field by
deleting or renaming the sprites22 and !sprites 22 files.
5.7
Å    PC Emulator hints & tips
5.7
1)áDeleting an unformatted or non-system PC Emulator hard disc partition
on an A5000.
5.7
RISC-OS 3 looks at the PC hard disc partition (DOSDisc, &FC8) as if it
were a filing system and therefore before it will delete the partition,
it must look inside to find out what files are there. To be able to
delete an unformatted partition it is necessary to fool the operating
system into believing that it is not a PC partition, by changing its
filetype. However, it is not possible to change its filetype from within
the desktop and the following information gives details of how to change
the filetype from outside the desktop. The file can then either be
deleted from the command line as shown below or from the desktop.
5.7
a) Press <F12> from the desktop to get the command line (*Prompt)
5.7
b) Type:
5.7
*SETTYPE ADFS::4.$.PC.Drive_C TEXT <return>
5.7
*DELETE ADFS::4.$.PC.DRIVE_C <return>
5.7
2)áThe Archimedes keyboard has a U.S. style PC layout. You should not
therefore use KEYBUK or KEYB UK in the Autoexec batch file. Also, the ú
sign on an Archimedes keyboard doesnæt exist on a PC keyboard, so to get
a ú sign you will need to enter its ASCII code 156:
5.7
Under the emulator, hold down the ALT key and type 1 5 6 on the numeric
keypad. (Remember to have Num Lock on).
5.7
3)áConfiguration Ö ÉStartup Textæ Ö The startup text is only intended
for use with a hard disc partition, not for floppy based systems. The
problem is that the first characters of the startup text are lost
because they are taken as a reply to the ÉInsert DOS Boot Disc and press
any keyæ message which you get when running the emulator from floppy
discs.
5.7
The startup text should also not be used unless you have an Autoexec.Bat
and Config.Sys file. If you do not have these, the startup text is taken
as a reply to confirming the date.
5.7
4)áPC Software compatibility Ö there are some screen redraw problems
with WordStar 4 using the !PCEmS emulator. However, no problems have yet
been reported using the large !PCEm emulator.ááA
5.7
5.7
Animynd Life
5.7
Simon Anthony
5.7
I will not describe in detail John Conwayæs Life concept, except to say
that it emulates the effects of simple life-death rules which govern
single cell behaviour as seen amongst multiple groups of cells. The
resulting interactions between cells seem to show life-like responses to
overcrowded or growth favourable conditions. I am sure Archive has
carried a detailed descriptive article in the past but I canæt remember
when.
5.7
(In Archive 1.6 p 32, Tony Brain gave a machine code implementation of
Life and some description, though I wouldnæt call it ödetailedò. Ed)
5.7
Animynd Life came for review as a disc clipped within its 12 page white
paper instruction booklet. This A5 manual-ette is not very inspiring to
look at but it contains information to delight those already Éin the
knowæ concerning life implementations. All the instructions and general
information required to run this program are easily and clearly
provided, as is a history of ÉLifeæ itself. However, had I not already
known something of the fascination available from Life simulations, I
would probably not have gone much further than running the program once.
5.7
The program runs from either the desktop or the command line without
problem. It takes full control of the computer in order to run as fast
as possible. This lack of multitasking and the general appearance of the
entire package may put off some people but the beauty of Animynd Life is
in how it runs, not in how it looks. The screen is a simple two colour
(blue and yellow) display running under mouse control. Everything works
intuitively although sometimes the response of the mouse is a bit fast.
I found it far too easy to accidentally move through, and out of, the
options of a pull down menu.
5.7
Animynd Life uses a square but otherwise full screen at frame rates far
above any other Life implementation that I have seen. I believe it is
also unique in providing two different life-type algorithms, although
the author says the É3-4æ version is not very interesting. I must
disagree with him there because I have found diagonal gliders when
running in this mode which I think are not possible under the normal
rules.
5.7
The main difference between this and any other Life program, apart from
speed and screen size, is the ability to load, save, catalogue,
replicate, manipulate and generally muck about with the life formations.
The program comes with a library of 70 odd of the most famous life-
forms. The glider, glider gun, machine gun, aircraft carrier etc are all
included. This aspect definitely makes this program a winner for the
committed lifer but donæt expect to impress anyone who doesnæt realise
just what it is doing!
5.7
In conclusion, this is a dull looking package but it is very well worth
digging out its bright hidden qualities. In use, and in comparison to
other similar but more flashy programs, Animynd Life is a splendid full
screen, full feature, very fast scientific life implementation. I would
not want to be without it. At ú20 it is a bit pricey but the author, Mr.
R.R.Thomas, has written a winner which will grow and grow on you!
5.7
(Animynd Life is available from R.R.Thomas, 9 Oughtonhead Way, Hitchin
SG5 2JZ.)ááA
5.7
5.7
Minerva
5.7
New
5.7
5.7
Comment Column
5.7
Å    ArcFS Ö ArcFS is ideal for reducing the space occupied by users of
Impression who have a busy correspondence. Literally, it reduced the
space occupied by Impression documents on my hard disk from 10M to 2M.
Computer Conceptæs Compression made absolutely no difference to the
space occupied on the hard disk for this mass of correspondence, though
it did reduce the files sizes slightly but lost out on the directory
overhead. ArcFSæs speed seems comparable to that of Compression and is
perfectly acceptable in use on the hard disc. However, backing up the
resulting compressed directory to a floppy, a daily task for my method
of operation, is considerably faster on ArcFS than either ADFS or
Compression as only one file is saved, the compressed ArcFS file of all
the correspondence. It is also a winner against Spark for its speed and
ease of use. Finally, its price, ú6 (through Archive), compared with ú53
for Compression, means there is no competition; ArcFS wins hands down.á
Tim Powys-Lybbe, Windsor
5.7
Å    Archimedes software on JANET Ö Since January of this year, the
Lancaster University Computer Centreæs UK National Public Domain
software library has opened an Archimedes section which is updated at
regular intervals.
5.7
Readers with access to the Joint Academic Network (JANET) via UNIX can
transfer files to their local mainframe using the command hhcp
uk.ac.lancs.pdsoft:micros/arch/riscos/a/ödirectory nameò/öremote
filenameò ölocal filenameò.
5.7
Access to the Database which contains thousands of items of PD software
for all formats can usually be obtained from your local pad by typing
call lancs.pdsoft and then following the simple instructions on screen
to log into the library. Only 45 users are allowed on at any one time,
so avoid peak periods.
5.7
Sparkplug 2 is required on the Archimedes to Uuencode the files and de-
archive them. This is available in the directory micros/arch/riscos/
tools along with full instructions for its recovery. The Email address
for any queries is uk.ac.lancs. pdsoft.á Tom Waller, Aberdeen
5.7
Å    Apostrophes Ö Richard Hallasæ comments in the DTP Column last month
about the use of the apostrophe have produced some interesting reac
tions. Itæs always dangerous to make statements in print about what is
or isnæt good practice in terms of written English. It stirs up an
amazing amount of animosity, letters being written with almost religious
fervour. The letter following is one of the least vitriolic!
5.7
I am of the opinion that the section written about the use of the
apostrophe in the latest edition of Archive contains a number of
misleading remarks.
5.7
Firstly, in the interests of good style, let me point out that the use
of apostrophes to indicate contractions should be kept to a minimum in
formal writing. In most instances, phrases such as Éitæsæ should be
written out in full; contractions are best used to give a naturalistic
feel to conversation when writing out direct speech.
5.7
Secondly, there is no historical justification for adding an apostrophe
to single letters to indicate plurality, as was claimed in the last
column on page 41. The three examples quoted are all wrong! Each is an
ordinary plural, so the use of the apostrophe is incorrect in each case.
5.7
The first example should read: öSouthern Upholstery Sale! Save úúús!ò
5.7
The second is an example of sloppy style. Numerals should be written out
as words in prose. The example ought to read: öThere are two threes in
thirty three.ò
5.7
The third example is more complex, in that adding an Ésæ to the letter
Éaæ leaves the reader with a confusing sentence. However, this is no
justification for slapping in an apostrophe willy-nilly! The best
solution, in my opinion, would be to use single quotes or italics to
mark off the letter Éaæ. Failing that, why not rewrite the sentence
altogether?
5.7
It is important that you promote good writing habits in your columns.
Computers have a role to play in improving literacy, so I trust you will
publish a full retraction in your next issue.
5.7
I recommend that anyone interested in the historical development of our
language read Otto Jespersenæs excellent book öGrowth and Structure of
the English Languageò for further clarification. There is an excellent
section there on the development of Saxon Genitive to the modern day
apostrophe, which should satisfy even the most voracious curiosity.á
James Ducat, Bath
5.7
Jonathan Barnes of Watford suggested Fowleræs öModern English Usageò and
öYou Have a Point Thereò by Eric Partridge.
5.7
Richard Hallas replies: Let me deal with these points in turn. Yes, I
agree that in formal writing, contractions should be avoided except in
speech. However, my article was about how to use the apostrophe
correctly on the occasions it is used, not about the broad contexts in
which it should be used.
5.7
Regarding my three examples in the second column of page 41, I agree
that these are open to criticism, but if Mr Ducatæs sources categori
cally state these usages as being incorrect, then it is obviously one of
those blurred areas, because my own (recent) source states that they are
correct. Not all cases are clear-cut. In fact, before writing the
article and checking my own opinions, I would have agreed that öSave
úúús!ò was correct whereas öSave úúúæs!ò was not; I was forced to revise
my opinion and I would now accept either quite happily, with a marginal
preference for the former. However, the apostrophised version is not
incorrect according to my source.
5.7
The second example is indeed sloppy style but was picked simply to
illustrate the usage of the apostrophe in this context. I was not
passing judgement on when this form should or should not be used, but
simply showing how the apostrophe should be applied if this form is
chosen (which should, I agree, be in an informal context). As such, the
example as it stands is correct.
5.7
(As an aside, I would like here to answer Paulæs editorial remark within
the article itself. öTwo 3æs in 33ò is correct because there are two
figure threes in É33æ; Paulæs öthree 30æs in 90ò is a different case,
because it is mathematical. If I had written my example in the same
context as Paulæs question, É3æ would have been É11æ, because 33 is
divisible by 11 three times. My exampleæs meaning, however, is that the
number 33 contains two figure threes.)
5.7
As for the third example, I agree that if written out in formal English
this should read öThis sentence contains two occurrences of the letter
aò. As it stands, the example could equally well omit the apostrophe and
use italics in a word-processed document; but what if it were hand-
written? Single quotes could suffice, but would not strictly be correct,
and this is the precise reason for my example in the original article!
Consider the sentence öMind your Pæs and Qæsò, which could not be
sensibly rewritten. This example is correct, and rewriting the sentence
as öMind your ÉPæs and ÉQæsò would, taken in isolation, give it quite a
different inflection. The only other way this sentence could be written
correctly is to omit the apostrophes altogether, but if P and Q were
lower case, this would be less acceptable. If you look this sentence up
under öMindò in both the Concise Oxford Dictionary and the Oxford
Reference Dictionary, you will find that the Concise quotes öMind your
Ps and Qsò, whilst the Reference quotes öMind your Pæs and Qæsò.
Although curiously inconsistent, both are correct, and if the sentence
were written with lower case letters, öMind your pæs and qæsò would be
preferable. I therefore stand by my original example and I would
certainly never dream of öslapping in an apostrophe willy-nillyò.
5.7
Archive generally displays a high standard of English, and I am somewhat
distressed that Mr Ducat implies that my article promotes bad writing
habits. I wrote an informed article, not one off the top of my head.
Whilst I agree that some of the points raised above are open to debate,
for the most part my columnæs accuracy is indisputable and I have no
intention of retracting any of it. The apostrophe is a very subtle piece
of punctuation and, in certain cases, its correct usage is a matter of
opinion. I have presented my opinions, and Mr Ducat has stated his; I am
sure that neither one of us is in a position to lay down the law in
absolute terms.
5.7
(OK guys, thatæs it! I did hesitate whether to include Richardæs
original article in the DTP Column but after the effort he had put into
writing it, I hadnæt the heart to remove it. Anyway, I have now decided
definitely that there will be no more discussion of good and bad English
within the pages of Archive. Sorry! Ed.)
5.7
Å Compression Ö Following on from last monthæs comments about Compres
sion, I would like to add that there is another problem when Compression
is used with RISC-OS 3. The RISC-OS 3 filer copies files by reading as
many as it can into a buffer and then writing them out. If the last file
will not fit entirely into the buffer then as much as possible is read,
the buffer is written and then the filer carries on reading at the point
it had reached in the last file. If Compression is used to compress a
directory on top of itself the operation fails with a öFile Openò error
if a file is only part read before being written. This is because the
filer has left the file open and Compression therefore cannot overwrite
it. It does not corrupt the file, and clicking on the SKIP option will
continue with the other files. You can then go back and compress the
file which failed afterwards.
5.7
A better solution is to ensure that the buffer is big enough to hold all
of the files in one go and this can be achieved by increasing the size
of the Next slot in the task manager. Alternatively, you need to do what
Mike Hobart suggests and copy into another directory before deleting the
original and copying the compressed version back (all very tedious).
Fortunately it is not a problem with small files and directories which
can be read in a single pass. My compression ratios have been typically
3:1 on Impression documents, although a handful of special computer
generated digital audio files have actually been made bigger by
Compression!á Paul Skirrow, Ipswich
5.7
Å DOS Benchmarking, Part 2 Ö In his article in Archive 5.6, p.44,
Lawrence Brightman told us that the PC emulator, version 1.6, doesnæt
work together with QBasic and thus not with the MS-DOS 5.0 text editor.
The good news is: Version 1.7 does!
5.7
On the other hand, he told us that it is possible to increase the number
of lines on the screen to 43; well, not really. If you use programs
which support the mouse, then the mouse driver does not recognize the
mode change and looks for the screenæs contents in those lines where
they were in 20 line mode! (At least, this is what happens when I
configure the Norton Commander to 43 lines.)á Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln,
Germany
5.7
Å    Education statistics Ö I thought you would be interested to know that,
according to the Research Support & Marketing organisation, during the
last 9 months of 1991, the A3000 sold more than five times as many as
any other model of computer into the education market. The A3000 had 37%
of the market which was 6% up on last year.
5.7

5.7

5.7
Å HP Deskjet 500C Drivers Ö I recently bought both the Ace and the
Beebug printer drivers, but I was disappointed that neither provided any
control over the printeræs settings. They only provide one halftone dot
size setting and do not give any access to the printeræs ink depletion
modes (which control the amount of ink going onto the paper to give
better results). Furthermore, they both came with the wrong paper margin
settings (this really is inexcusable as the driver is being sold for one
printer which they must have tried...). Both of the drivers I received
were RISC-OS 2 drivers which cannot print text when used RISC-OS 3, and
although both companies promised an update öreal soonò, I havenæt
received either yet (7th March). Both of the drivers gave very dull
colours with my test printouts until I tried lightening my images with
Translator before printing. The improvement was staggering, but the
correction really ought to be done by the printer driver, so I hope that
the ones provide some control over the image brightness and colour
(especially as RISC-OS 3 provides a printer palette mechanism).á Paul
Skirrow, Ipswich
5.7
Å    J: An Advanced Programming Language Ö I have long been infuriated by
Acornæs attitude to programming languages. Their philosophy is to
provide a friendly environment in which the user is provided with easy
to use applications. This sounds fine... but where do these applications
come from? ...and what about ad hoc needs which donæt warrant long
agonizing and boring sessions struggling with the Wimp?
5.7
If the programmer is happy with C or Assembler, he appears to be well
looked after; although these are not suitable for many purposes and a
full set of tools does not come cheap. The Basic programmer is something
of a second class citizen and, nowadays, anyone else seems to be simply
ignored; Acornæs Éhead in the sandæ attitude to Fortran is incredible in
view of the huge base of existing scientific software. Do recent
complaints about the narrow range of serious software available on the
Archimedes not grate on the ears of Acornæs shareholders? A broader
capability could emerge much faster if a wider range of powerful
programming tools were made available and at low cost... otherwise the
Étoy computeræ syndrome must stick.
5.7
My support for the use of APL as a programming language (and disdain for
spreadsheets) has been voiced in Archive on a number of occasions. I
have, however, been rather disappointed with I-APL on the Archimedes,
even in its 32 bit version. Whilst waiting for something better to turn
up, I have developed a vision of the type of environment which I would
like to have. This comprises a window within which one may enjoy a
smooth dialogue with the computer via the medium of a highly expressive
and powerful interpreted language. From this window, one may interact
with the rest of the desktop world: external files are seen merely as
variables which can be manipulated at will. My cell editor (referred to
in a recent article) was developed as a key part of this external
environment.
5.7
This vision has now been more or less achieved. Thanks to J.
5.7
J is an advanced APL and includes virtually all the extensions to APL I
have ever imagined. It has an impeccable pedigree; coming from Ken
Iverson, the originator of APL. APL was developed at Harvard by Iverson
in the 1960s and J represents the culmination of Iversonæs many years of
experience developing and working with APLs.
5.7
J uses conventional ASCII characters and runs very smoothly in its own
window. It enables very rapid development. It costs very little and must
be the most powerful language available on the Archimedes. I find it
very difficult to describe J in a way that really does it justice...
although there are, of course, some negatives. However, more than
anything, I would say that it enfranchises the intelligent user in a way
that nothing else even approaches.
5.7
Whereas spreadsheets focus upon the data values, J focuses upon the
structure of the data and the processes to be applied to it. If you are
happy working in the abstract then J is for you. In fact, J is a
complete, unambiguous and exceedingly rich mathematical notation. If you
are seriously interested in mathematics or computing, you cannot afford
not to look at J. It will not, however, be everyoneæs cup of tea, nor is
it a panacea.
5.7
J is said to be Shareware, although you will have to buy the manuals,
without which it will be hard to make real progress. J and documentation
are available from I-APL Ltd.  J is designed to be used alongside other
applications such as text or cell editors and graphics packages. (For
some purposes !Transfer from Apricote Studios may be found to be a
useful additional utility.) It is almost trivial to get started... try
4+3! Importantly, any given version is absolutely standard across all
computers. J was programmed in C by Roger Hui and ported to the
Archimedes by Paul Chapman. I like to think that my initial letter to Mr
Iverson played a small part in bringing J to the Archimedes. Jim
Markland, Cirencester
5.7
A copy of J will appear on the monthly program disc. Ed.
5.7
Å    PC card panacea? Ö There is a lot of excitement over the announcement
of PC expansion cards from Watford and Aleph One. However, I would
question whether, for most Archimedes users, they represent good value
for money at the current price.
5.7
I realise that a lot of development has gone into producing these
products and both of these companies deserve to profit from this, so
please donæt think that I am criticising them. I am looking at the
products entirely from a useræs point of view.
5.7
For most users, the PC Emulator is reasonably satisfactory. Of course,
we would like it to be faster but it does run almost all PC software.
Very few programs I have tried give any trouble and all of those that do
also exhibit problems on some Énormalæ PCs. For the occasional user, it
gives access to the vast world of PC Shareware and PD and allows you to
bring home the odd bit of work from the office and at a reasonable
price.
5.7
What advantage do we get for the ú500 or so that the new boards will
cost? Both are based on the 386SX processor. This is a Écut downæ 386
which uses a 16 bit data bus in place of the 32 bit bus of the Éproperæ
386. It is regarded as the Éentry levelæ processor to run Windows on a
PC. I expect most people who will be interested in these boards will
want to use Windows. The recognised minimum requirement for this is 20M
of hard disk space and 2M of RAM, so you will lose a large slice of your
hard disk and need another 1M of RAM, about ú40, for the Aleph One card
(I gather that the Watford card will have 2M as standard). Remember that
I said öminimumò. You will also need a multisync monitor and, ideally, a
1.44M drive because you require VGA screen modes and most Windows
software is too big for 720k disks. So, unless you already have an
A5000, you will probably need to spend even more before you can even
begin to realise the boardæs full potential.
5.7
Because of the different approach used by the two designs, there may be
additional costs. As I understand it, the Aleph One board is intended to
work with the multi-tasking PC emulator as a Éhardware emulatoræ. If
this is so, you will obviously need the emulator and if you havenæt got
one this will add another hundred pounds to the price. The Watford board
apparently is more of a Écomplete computeræ with its own video driver.
One problem here is that it only has 256k of video RAM which, if not
expandable, means it will be right at the bottom end of the VGA standard
where 512k is the norm and 1M Super VGA is becoming increasingly common.
To run a 386 at anything above bare minimum level, you also really need
MS-DOS 5 to make use of extended memory, (normal MS-DOS only recognises
640k). I also donæt know what users who have DR-DOS will do because
Microsoft have so far been rather unco-operative with Digital Research
so you canæt run Windows with DR-DOS!
5.7
Now, most Archimedes users are probably not fully aware of the current
price of this type of computer, so I expect I shall shock many by saying
that you can buy a complete 386SX computer with VGA colour monitor,
keyboard, a 1.44M disc drive and a 44M IDE hard disc for about
ú650Öú700.
5.7
So for less than an extra ú200 or so you can get a Érealæ 386SX. Since
it will read and write 720k or 1.44M disks, you can transfer files to
your Archimedes and nothing multi-tasks as well as two separate
computers! You will also have a full 40M hard disk for your PC appli
cations without eating into your Archimedesæ disk. You will probably be
able to get a copy of MS-DOS 5 or DR-DOS 6 and Windows 3 either Éthrown
inæ or at vastly reduced price and these could cost you about ú150 if
bought separately, which narrows the gap even further or eliminates it
altogether.
5.7
The big advantage of the expansion cards is, of course, that they fit
inside your Archimedes. In my own case I have sufficient space for my PC
beside my Archimedes. so itæs no problem but I realise that others might
not be so lucky. For many people, especially A5000 owners, there will
also be a cost saving and this may be important if your budget is tight.
5.7
The two boards announced so far represent a similar proposition to the
80186 co-pro board for the Master computer. At ú400 this was just too
dear at a time when the Amstrad 1512 was available for less than ú500.
It was only when Acorn stopped production and reduced the price to ú200
to clear stocks that they sold like hot cakes. If these 386 boards were
on offer for around ú300, they would be good value for money. If you
think this seems too cheap, remember that a 386SX motherboard for a PC
with 1M of RAM can be bought for about ú170 one-off retail. At the
asking price of around ú500 I think they are just too dear, although I
predict that the price will soon come tumbling down as have the price of
ARM 3 upgrades recently.á David Holden, Sydenham
5.7
The next item is comment about the Aleph One card and this is followed
by a reply from Alex van Someren covering both sets of comments. Ed.
5.7
Å PC Emulator and the Aleph One PC Card Ö Brian Cowan was discussing the
speed of screen updates in the PC Emulator last month. As he pointed
out, all screen access from the emulated PC must be intercepted and
emulated to make it appear on the RISC-OS screen which slows down screen
access enormously. I find that text based programs are pretty good but
anything which is graphics intensive such as a graphics-based game or
Windows 3, runs pretty slowly even if you are using an ARM3.
5.7
However, I understand from discussions with Aleph One at the BETT Show
that they are working, with engineers at Acorn, on a Windows 3 display
driver to work with RISC-OS. Windows normally accesses screen memory
directly, but it does support display drivers to enable it to work with
intelligent graphics displays which would rather look after themselves.
This allows high resolution displays to use their own bit-blitter or
graphics processor to do fast screen updates. All that Windows 3 needs
to say is ömove this rectangle over thereò, ödraw this filled bezigonò,
öwrite this font string at 32 pointò, etc. and the display driver gets
on with it while the PC carries on doing its PC thing. By writing a
Windows 3 driver which simply passes all of the windows calls to the ARM
running RISC-OS, the ARM can take over and do what it is told. This
allows the PC to carry on with its program while the ARM does very fast
screen updates (similar to the old BBC Tube system where an I/O
processor looked after the screen and the second processor ran the
useræs program, issuing calls to do writes to the screen as necessary).
If Aleph One succeed with this project, their PC card will look like a
fast PC with a blindingly fast intelligent graphics system (the ARM).
This is similar to the way Acorn have intercepted the maths co-processor
calls and passed them directly to the ARM to speed up maths programs.
This works very well and some of my maths-intensive programs have
actually run at the same speed on my A5000 running the PC emulator as on
a real 25MHz 386. The Windows driver would also be useful to people
running the PC emulator with Windows 3 without the Aleph One card, and I
understand that Aleph One might release it separately when it is ready.á
Paul Skirrow, Ipswich
5.7
Å    386PC form Aleph One Ö Alex van Someren replies... Thank you very much
for the opportunity to reply to these two comments. Itæs good to air
these issues in public so that people can make up their own minds about
what is most suitable for them.
5.7
Aleph One does not intend that their 386PC should be seen as a direct
alternative to buying a cheap Taiwanese PC clone and nor have they
promoted it as such. Each approach has its pros and cons Ö you may well
be able to find an apparently cheaper PC clone. However, a stand-alone
PC alongside your Archimedes will never offer the close inter-operabil
ity that the Aleph One 386PC offers. Specifically, we see the 386PC as
having the following advantages:
5.7
1)áThe 386PC can operate as a multi-tasking RISC-OS application, which
means that it can remain on the screen at the same time as other RISC-OS
applications. This allows graphics and text from PC applications to be
imported directly into RISC-OS documents by simply bringing up a menu
and dragging an icon. It is worth noting that this is apparently not the
case with the (as yet unavailable) Watford Electronics product, which
switches screens wholesale.
5.7
2)áThe DOS partition file used by the 386PC and PC Emulator is also
directly accessible to RISC-OS 3 or !MultiFS. It is therefore unneces
sary to copy files onto a floppy and walk them from one computer to the
other. You can simply drag them back and forth on the desktop using the
mouse.
5.7
3)áThe 386PC allows users to benefit from their existing investment in
peripherals: you cannot use your direct laser printer on the PC, but you
can on an Archimedes with a 386PC fitted. Similarly, you need to move
your CD-ROM drive back and forth if you want to use it on two computers,
but not if you use a 386PC.
5.7
4)áThe 386PC offers more power than a PC of apparently the same
specification. In the first place, the Aleph One 386PC benchmarks show
it to be faster than örealò PCs of the same speed. This stems from the
superior disc and graphics capabilities of the Archimedes. However, this
is not the limit of the Archimedes involvement: Aleph One will shortly
release a software extension known as a öWindows driverò which will
allow the Archimedes to act as a graphics accelerator for Windows which
will be equivalent in performance to add-in cards for PCs costing
ú500Öú1,000. Similarly, disc cacheing and Novell network extensions are
also in the pipeline: equivalent PC add-in cards for these functions
cost further hundreds of pounds; for the 386PC these are simply software
upgrades.
5.7
Clearly, there will always be some users for whom the separate PC
solution is the more attractive, especially if they have the money and/
or technical expertise to take advantage of the Taiwanese clone or self-
assembly route to PC ownership. Our advice to them is: Go and buy a PC!
For Archimedes owners with a need for convenient, fast, well-integrated
DOS compatibility under RISC-OS we are shipping the product hundreds of
customers tell us they have been waiting for.
5.7
(386PC cards are available from stock at N.C.S. Ed.)
5.7
Å    PD Software Ö There has been quite a bit of discussion recently, in
various quarters, as to whether commercial companies ought to be
involved in selling PD software and, if so, at what price. Following
comments in this magazine about Beebugæs policy of giving away PD
software with computer systems, they have stopped doing so and have also
reduced the price of their PD discs to ú1.60.
5.7
This action on Beebugæs part and the general discussion on various
bulletin boards has caused us, here at Archive, to consider our position
and to wonder whether we should reduce the price of Shareware and/or
Careware discs. It could be argued that the cost of a disc plus a
paddibag, plus postage plus VAT hardly justifies the price of ú3.
However, there are other factors to be taken into account Ö for example,
the general over-heads in running a business. If you then add something
for specific staff involvement in setting up and maintaining the library
plus the cost of the auto-loader disc copier and a dedicated A440 to run
it, ú3 doesnæt sound too bad.
5.7
The other factor that has to be taken into account is that, each year,
Archive magazine raises of the order of ú20,000 for charity, mainly
through the sale of Careware discs. For each ú6 Careware disc, Archive
takes ú1 towards expenses and gives ú5 to charity. Take off the VAT
(15p) and that only leaves 85p which hardly covers our expenses. This
means that on Careware discs, Archive itself is effectively contributing
hundreds of pounds to charity (over 3,000 discs a year). On this basis
alone, we are happy that our current policy on Shareware and Careware is
öwithin the spirit of PDò.
5.7
In case you are interested, in 1989/90, Archiveæs charity efforts raised
ú19,600, in 1990/91 it fell to ú17,800 but in the first eight months of
our 91/92 accounting year, we have raised ú15,400. Assuming it continues
at that rate, we will have about ú23,000 to distribute this year. (N.B.
We try to donate the money as soon as it comes in so that we cannot be
accused of using the interest on the money for our own gain!) As it is
such a large amount of money, we try to spread it round as much as
possible, so that a wide range of different charities benefit. These
have included Spastics Society, R.A.D.A.R., British Blind Sport, Norwich
City Care, Mencap, Marie Curie Foundation, Guys Hospital, National
Federation for the Blind and P.H.A.B., to name but a few.
5.7
Å    SCSI/IDE compatibility Ö Here is an update to the hard disc compat
ibility table. New entries are in bold.
5.7
In general, there are no problems with non-games programs. The only
exceptions I know of are EMR Soundsynth, which only works from floppy;
and Ovation, where there is a problem with software protection, but
Beebug will promptly supply a version customised for a particular filing
system.
5.7
öYesò indicates that it can be from disk either by just copying the
files or by running a supplied installation procedure. öEditò indicates
that the !Boot or !Run files need to be edited. öProtò indicates that
the game can be run from hard disk, but that the original floppy is
still required for the copy protection mechanism. öNoò indicates that it
cannot easily be run from hard disk. (In some cases it may still be
possible to alter the code to get it to run from hard disk with
difficulty.)
5.7
 ProgramááááááááááááááADFSááSCSI áIDE    Comment
5.7
 Apocalypse    no    no    no
5.7
 Arcendium    edit    edit    ?
5.7
 Arcade Soccer    no    no    no
5.7
 Arcade 3    yes    yes    yes
5.7
 Boogie Buggy    no    no    no
5.7
 Break 147    no    no    no
5.7
 Cataclysm    no    no    no
5.7
 Chocks Away    no    no    no
5.7
 Chopper Force    no    no    no
5.7
 Conqueror    no    no    no
5.7
 COPS    yes    yes    yes
5.7
 Corruption    no    no    no
5.7
 Drop Ship    no    no    no
5.7
 E-Type    no    no    no
5.7
 Enter the Realm    no    no    no
5.7
 Fish    yes    yes    ?    Memory tight
5.7
 Grievous Bodily     no    no    no
5.7
 Herewith Clues    no    no    no
5.7
 Holed Out    no    no    no
5.7
 Hoverbod    ?    no    ?
5.7
 Inertia    no    no    no
5.7
 Interdictor 1    yes    yes
yes    Memory tight
5.7
 Interdictor 2    yes    yes
yes    Memory tight
5.7
 Iron Lord    yes    yes    ?
5.7
 Jet Fighter    no    no    no
5.7
 Lemmings    yes    yes    yes
5.7
 Man At Arms    no    no    no
5.7
 MIG29    yes    ?    yes
5.7
 Nevryon    no    no    no
5.7
 Olympics    no    no    no
5.7
 Pacmania    edit    ?    yes
5.7
 Pandoraæs Box    no    no    no
5.7
 Plague Planet    yes    yes
yes    Not early
5.7
 versions
5.7
 Powerband    no    no    no
5.7
 Pysanki    no    no    no
5.7
 Quazer    prot    prot    ?
5.7
 Saloon Cars    no    no    no
5.7
 Terramex    no    no    no
5.7
 Twin World    yes    ?    yes
5.7
 UIM    yes    yes    ?    Memory tight
5.7
 White Magic    no    no    no
5.7
 Wimp Game    prot    prot    ?
5.7
 Wonderland    yes    no    no    A
SCSI fix
5.7
 exists
5.7
 Zarch    no    no    no
5.7
On a 1M machine, there may be memory problems when a game requires so
much memory that there is little room for the SCSI or IDE controller
software.á Mike Williams, 111 Evering Road, London  N16 7SL.
5.7
Å    Screen sizes, A5000 monitors and the VIDC Ö Acorn have defined the OS
unit to be 1/180th inch. Pixels on higher resolution monitors are
usually 2 ╫ 2 OS units, which corresponds to 1/90th inch or 0.28mm
(using 25.4 mm/inch). This is an average to good resolution for multi-
sync monitors.
5.7
The problem with this definition comes when you work out the size of the
screen. A BBC sized screen mode (1280 ╫ 1024 OS units) has a diagonal of
SQR (12802 + 10242) = 1639 OS units or 9.1 inches. This is equivalent to
a cramped Mac Plus screen. An SVGA screen mode has a diagonal of SQR
(8002 + 6002) pixels =1000 pixels or 11.1 inches, which is still quite
small.
5.7
These numbers give a clue as to why Acorn broke its own rules and made
the pixels on the A5000 monitor 0.34mm across. This changes the size of
an SVGA screen mode to 13.4 inches, which fits nicely on a 14 inch
monitor. The drawback is that everything is displayed at 120% normal
size. This magnification also occurs on the standard monitor.
5.7
Acornæs video hardware is now starting to look quite dated Ö the PCW
Unix Column reviewed the R260 recently, and the reviewer was bemused by
the fixed 256 colour palette and the way the machine speed changed in
different screen modes. These hardware problems are coupled with a messy
and limited software interface. Perhaps when it is updated (hopefully in
the near future Ö keep an eye on ARM Ltd for the new VIDC), the hardware
will use dual ported video RAM so that screen DMA does not slow down the
machine the way it does now, and have many more than the current 16
palette registers (at least 256, for fully flexible palettes in 8 bit
modes) and expand their width from 12 bits to 24 bits allowing true
colour. The software needed to support this would be in the form of a
new bit map type to supersede the sprite file and improved colour
selection Ö perhaps using the ColourTrans module?á A Finch, Dorset
5.7
Å    Waiting for Acorn Ö I am sure that I am not the only person who thinks
that the Acorn market is all about waiting Ö waiting for Acorn to
deliver the goods!
5.7
Take three important products: the floating point accelerator, the Acorn
portable and RISC-OS 3. The most extreme example is the FPA. This was
first announced for the A540 way back in October 1990. When the A5000
was launched in October 1991, it even had a socket for the FPA which was
scheduled for release in the first quarter of 1992. However, there is
still no sign of it appearing.
5.7
The Acorn portable, surely a product badly needed in the Acorn range,
has been discussed for well over a year. Again, there is still no sign
of it appearing as a saleable product.
5.7
RISC-OS 3 did appear with the A5000 last October and, at the time, it
was announced that the intention was to provide it as a replacement for
RISC-OS 2 in existing machines. Still there is no sign of this happen
ing. The current rumour is that it wonæt be released until the Autumn.
5.7
Acorn really will have to sharpen up their act if they are going to
survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
5.7
Michael Lowe, Loughton.
5.7
I can understand Michaelæs sense of frustration, especially about the
FPA. Mind you, Acorn have never actually announced anything official
about the portable or even about the likely date for RISC-OS 3.
Companies often ötalk aboutò products as part of their customer
research, so talking about a product cannot even be taken as saying that
it is under development.
5.7
I gather that the hold up on the FPA is that it is just one of the jobs
on ARM Ltdæs books but that some of the other projects like ARM6 etc are
being given higher priority. Iæm sure we all feel that they ought to get
on with the FPA but, in a real world, companies have to make decisions
about priorities in terms of what is actually going to earn some money
and keep the share-holders happy and the company afloat.
5.7
From what I can gather, RISC-OS 3 is supposed to be Éalmost readyæ for
blowing into ROM but it will still be several months before quantities
of ROMs will be available for the market because of the time taken to
get the actual ROMs done. For both the FPA and the portable, obviously
Acorn would like them to be available tomorrow but my (slightly
educated) guess is that neither will be available until the autumn and
the portable might even be later.ááA
5.7
5.7
Please write or telephone for complete details about our wide range of
space science resources for the archimedes, including the new image
processing package, PDSview, that gives access to the massive databank
of NASA images that have been released as well as providing powerful
processing for weather satellite or any other digital image. Over 27000
raw data images are available from us on CD-ROM. Also ask about the
award winning !Orrery application which brings the planetarium into your
home or classroom.Our new weather satellite software which is compatible
with existing hardware will be out soon. This allows up to six animation
sequences, with unlimited frames, to be collected concurrently on the
desktop as a background task. This is truly a BREAKTHROUGH in the field
of meteorological satellite image data collection.
5.7
5.7
Colton
5.7
From 5.6 page 15
5.7
5.7
    Aleph One 386PC Card
5.7
Brian Cowan
5.7
As I anticipated last month, my 386PC card from Aleph One has finally
arrived. At present I have an extremely early version of the supporting
software, the final version of which is still under development. So this
must be regarded as a very preliminary review.
5.7
The product
5.7
The package consists of the PC card, a disc containing the software and
a slim eight page user guide. Not much in the way of documentation but,
to quote from the guide, öYou may be surprised that these instructions
are so brief; the fact is that the 386PC is so much like a real IBM-
compatible PC that very little extra explanation is required. And so it
proved to be. In particular, if you have experience of using the Acorn
PC emulator, then there is very little extra that one needs to know.
5.7
I eagerly installed the card in my A540 machine The actual card is
extremely densely packed with chips, having a single empty socket for a
æ387 maths coprocessor. The 1M of RAM is socketed so that it may be
changed for 4M if required. There are two connectors on the rear panel:
a parallel (printer) port and a serial port.
5.7
The PC emulator
5.7
As I understand it, users must have a copy of the PC emulator installed
on their machine in order to use the PC card. I think this is part of
the licensing agreement between Aleph One and Acorn. In practice, I
donæt think that the card uses much of the emulatoræs software, although
it might be planned to use the config files and the emulatoræs editor
for these files, which also creates and specifies the location of hard
disc partitions.
5.7
In use, the 386PC is very similar to the emulator. An icon appears on
the icon bar (with a green screen rather than the emulatoræs blue one).
Clicking on the icon then initiates the PC boot-up sequence in the usual
way.
5.7
Speed
5.7
There are two reasons why one might want to use the PC card; reasons why
the emulator might be inadequate. These are speed and compatibility. I
started with a few speed tests, comparing the time taken for the
emulator and the PC card to perform various tasks. I tried a range of
examples, from straight number crunching (no FPU present), to graph
plotting, algebraic computation and running the Autoroute program. I was
using an A540 and I expect similar performance would be obtained on
A5000 machines. I found a fairly uniform speed increase of between four
and five times. Of course, the speed increase compared with an ARM2
machine would provide a further factor of about four.
5.7
Compatibility
5.7
Turning to the question of compatibility, the PC card, unlike current
versions of the emulator, supports extended memory, although I have not,
as yet, tried that out. PC emulator users will know that the compatibil
ity of this software product is remarkably high. I found only one
program which would not run under the emulator and that functioned
perfectly with the PC card. Of course, having the true PC printer port
enables those products to be used which have hardware protection in the
form of a dongle.
5.7
As yet, the PC card does not run in a RISC-OS window. I am assured that
the next version of the software, due to arrive any day now, will
support this in the same way that the emulator does. There are other
facilities that future versions of the software will support. Currently
all PC printing goes to the PC cardæs printer port. The option to pipe
this to the Archimedesæ own printer port and/or print via RISC-OS
printer drivers, perhaps to a Laser Direct, should be available soon.
5.7
Conclusion
5.7
In all this is an exciting product, although its final appeal will rely,
to a large part, on the software support which becomes available for it,
particularly for cross DOS/RISC-OS operation. For a discussion of other
considerations see the comments by David Holden in the Comment Column on
page 17.ááA
5.7
5.7
Oak
5.7
From 5.6 page 10
5.7
5.7
Language Column
5.7
David Wild
5.7
Recently, I had a telephone call from a man with an unusual problem. He
was developing a Pascal program using his own A3000 and some of the
A310s at the school where he works. Sometimes, when he came to link the
compiled program, he would get a message that the ösymbol table was out
of dateò. What was especially odd was that, because these are all
floppy-only machines, he was actually using the same disks every time.
After a certain amount of digging, it transpired that on some of the
machines the clock had not been set correctly for the date and as this
doesnæt show up on the screen no-one had noticed. When all the dates had
been brought into line, the problem disappeared again. Iæm still not
quite sure why the linker should have cared about the date of the symbol
table, but there may be a slight clue in the next section.
5.7
On the principle that the devil shouldnæt have all the best tunes, I
spent some time trying to adapt Acornæs Desktop Development Environment
to accept Pascal as well as those languages for which tools are
provided. I have prepared a DDE tool for Pascal compilation and this
works as expected. By setting this up on the icon bar together with the
Link tool, you can develop a program with only the key-presses needed
for the source editing and then two mouse-clicks for compilation and two
more for linking. All this can happen with other tasks running as all
the DDE tools are multi-tasking. (A copy of this tool is included on the
monthly program disk.)
5.7
Another advantage of using the DDE method is that all the files
connected with the project itself are in one directory which can be kept
anywhere you like on the hard disk. (A hard disk is necessary for any
real use of the DDE anyway.) This means that there is no more trying to
sort out which of the source files belong to which project and no more
naming problems where a sensible name for a source file canæt be used
because it is already in use for another project. As the linked object
files turn up as a !Runimage in the same directory, everything is where
you need it for all the stages of editing, compiling, linking and
testing. Then, when you have finished with the project, you can move the
whole directory onto a floppy disk at one go without the risk of leaving
some of the files behind, taking up valuable space, or deleting files
which should have been left there. A great advantage of the RISC-OS
system is that you can keep your files where they are needed and let the
computer do the work of finding the programs. Far too often, on PCæs at
work, you are faced with a Supercalc or Wordstar directory with lots of
files in them and very little indication of what they are. How much more
civilised is the idea of a directory dealing with, say, a house move,
containing PipeDream files for the calculations, Impression for the
sales leaflets, Draw and Paint files for the illustrations and source/
object files for any programs which you needed to write Ö all in one
place.
5.7
Encouraged by the success of my DDE tool, I then set about registering
Pascal with the DDE Make tool so that I could bring the work down to a
double-click on a makefile. I found that I could get a makefile to work
for an initial compilation but for regular use there is a snag caused by
the fact that the Pascal compiler doesnæt date stamp the object files
that it produces. If the object files are not stamped the make utility
sulks Ö understandably Ö because the date is the only way of deciding if
this compilation is really necessary. While it would be nice to have a
Pascal compiler which offered rather more facilities such as giving
smaller finished programs by using the shared ÉCæ library, I would be
very grateful for a compiler which date-stamped the object files, and
generated code which observed the Acorn procedure call standard. With
the idea of öassemblyò, as mentioned in my last article, most of the
other things needed can be done by using libraries of separately
developed modules.
5.7
Another useful feature of the DDE is the facility for creating libraries
of object code from which the linker can extract what is needed. I feel
that these should be more efficient than the idea of grouped procedures
in largish modules that was the only way using the Pascal compiler
alone. The problem with the module is that the linker cannot extract
only those procedures which are required by the other programs and has
to link the whole module. It might be a good idea to include all your
modules in one large library as this would certainly simplify the
instructions for the linker. I canæt see any obvious disadvantages but
would like to hear your views.ááA
5.7
5.7
PD Column
5.7
David Holden
5.7
Regular readers will be aware that, despite the name of this column, I
am also interested in Shareware. Unfortunately, there isnæt much true
Shareware about for the Archimedes but in the last month or so there
have been some events in the PC world, the effects of which might (I
hope!) spill over into our comparative backwater.
5.7
In the past, a few PC Shareware programs have Égone commercialæ. That
is, the rights have been purchased by an organisation which has then
sold the program in the conventional manner. There are several programs
where early versions are available as Shareware but later versions are
marketed in the Énormalæ way. There have also been a few occasions where
the opposite has happened, when the producer of a hitherto commercial
product has announced that in future it may be regarded as PD. Normally,
this only happens when it is well past the end of its useful life and
the company no longer wishes to support it.
5.7
Recently, two commercial programs, one almost a household name, have
been Égiven awayæ on the cover disk of a magazine just like Shareware or
PD programs. The first to appear was Borlands famous ÉSidekickæ.
Admittedly, it was version 4 and the company have just released version
5 but it was the complete unabridged program with documentation on the
disk. Borland say they will regard anyone who has a copy as an author
ised user and give them a low cost upgrade to version 5, which is
similar to the Shareware method where registered users get an improved
version.
5.7
The second program is from the people who made waves last year by
reducing the price of their spreadsheet Super-Calc from over ú300 to
ú79. Computer Associates have allowed their wordprocessor ÉTextoræ to
appear on a magazine disk. Admittedly, it doesnæt have the manual but
this was apparently due to C.A. not really understanding what was
required rather than an attempt to avoid providing documentation and the
magazine contains instructions for using the program.
5.7
C.A. Textor is not Éstate of the artæ and has not been actively marketed
in Britain as an individual item but it has been sold successfully in
the USA and also in this country bundled with Super-Calc and a companion
database Super-DB as ÉC.A Officeæ for over ú150. It is, however, a
perfectly adequate product with mailmerging and some spreadsheet
functions, at least the equal of, or superior to, many existing
Shareware wordprocessors. Again, there is an obvious commercial motive
since C.A. have just announced a new version of Textor for Windows but
once again users who have a copy of the Égive-awayæ program get a cheap
upgrade.
5.7
So what does this have to do with the Archimedes since these are both PC
programs? Well for many years, the practice of software producers has
been to charge as much as the market would bear. Profits were therefore
very high once the original development costs had been recouped so they
could afford large advertising budgets. A few years ago, a considerable
amount of the advertising in magazines was for software. If you pick up
a PC magazine now you will find that most of the ads are for hardware.
Much of the software Éadvertisingæ is now being done via new product
news and reviews. If this indicates a certain amount of belt-tightening
amongst software producers it could be that they are looking for cheaper
and perhaps better ways to promote their products.
5.7
Releasing an earlier version of a program as (more or less) PD is one
way of doing this. Itæs very cheap, it reaches a large number of people
and they get to try it out at leisure. At first sight, it might appear
that it cuts out the retailer but not so. Since the aim is to increase
sales of the current, upgraded product, these need to be purchased from
somewhere and the retailer is the obvious place. Admittedly, he wonæt
get so much money for an upgrade as for a normal sale but then he wonæt
need to spend as much time demonstrating since the customer would
already be familiar with the package. This system therefore facilitates
the move towards warehouse and mail order sales which are becoming more
popular.
5.7
If this is the way things are going, I wonder how long it will be before
we see similar methods used for the Archimedes. For example, why not put
the manual for First Word Plus version 1 on a disk and allow it to be
distributed by PD libraries? Itæs now completely obsolete so it canæt
lose any sales but it might encourage some people to Éupgradeæ to the
current version. What about the now obsolete PipeDream II? Why not let
PD libraries distribute it with reduced documentation on disk and offer
registration with the printed manual for about ú40? There must be many
early pre-RISC-OS versions of programs which could be sold in this way.
It wouldnæt reduce sales of the later versions, quite the opposite,
because users who had the money would want the multi-tasking version
anyway and most people prefer to upgrade to an improved version of a
program with which they are already familiar rather than learning a new
package from scratch. It might also encourage people who would otherwise
simply Épirateæ a copy to make do with the legitimate if obsolete
version.
5.7
This would greatly swell the numbers of applications available from PD
libraries. At present someone can buy an Atari, Amiga or PC and get
plenty of good, cheap software from PD and Shareware. There are very few
Éproperæ applications available for the Archimedes in this way so unless
you are happy with !Edit, !Draw and !Paint, you must not only pay more
for your computer (even though itæs worth it) but before you can make
serious use of it, you have to pay out even more money for commercial
software. If decent, albeit obsolete, software was available for very
little outlay, it might encourage people to buy an Archimedes rather
than the competition. The more Archimedes sold, the bigger the potential
sales for software so everyone benefits in the long run.
5.7
Despite the apparent advantages, I suspect that the reluctance of the
software industry to have anything to do with Shareware will prevent it
from happening. I would certainly be interested to hear the views of
people both inside and outside the commercial world on the concept.
5.7
Clip art
5.7
Another new catalogue disk arrived and, as usual, I was more interested
in what was on the disk than reading the documentation. It was entirely
devoted to clip art, Draw files and sprites and this seems a very good
idea. Most PD libraries have a collection of this type of work but it
would be nice to have one that specialises in it.
5.7
The samples appeared above average and, at last, I looked more closely
at the documentation. It was then that I realised my mistake. The disk
was from a company called DEC-dATA and when I saw the price, ú6.95 per
disk of your own mix or ú4.95 for standard disks, I realised that it was
certainly not a PD library. At this point, I decided to have another
look at the samples.
5.7
Unfortunately, while above average for PD, Iæm afraid I didnæt think
that some of them came up to what I would require for commercial prices.
The drawing of a Thames Barge, while quite nice to look at, has quite a
few inaccuracies and the Tramp Steamer seems to have the hull and
superstructure drawn with a slightly different perspective. The scanned
sprites however appear to be of high quality and the catalogue is
certainly extensive. There is also a series of database files in various
formats which would be useful for educational perposes. If you are
interested in this type of item contact DEC-dATA, 60 Danes Road, Exeter
EX4 4LS.
5.7
Music only
5.7
I have just received a catalogue from a new PD library. This is not an
unusual event but the reason I mention it is because this is a library
with an important difference Ö it is devoted entirely to music.
5.7
Most libraries have lots of Tracker and STracker tunes but the Cream PD
catalogue contains almost nothing else. The advantage for computer music
(?) fans is that instead of buying a disk with the librarianæs choice of
tunes, you can select your own from the Cream catalogue and pay 30p per
tune, with a minimum charge of ú1.50 per disk. This could be a bit
dearer than the price per disk charged by some libraries but, since you
choose what you want, you donæt pay for a disk with ten tunes on it,
nine of which you already have. Cream also claim that they have the best
collection of tunes and, from a brief look at their catalogue, I
wouldnæt want to disagree.
5.7
The Cream catalogue disk costs ú1 and is available from Cream PD, 38
Baunton, Cirencester, Gloucester  GL7 7BB
5.7
New typing tutor
5.7
I have been asked, quite a few times, if there is a PD typing tutor for
the Archimedes. Until recently, so far as I am aware, there wasnæt. I
normally resist the temptation to use my privileged position to mention
my own programs but this time, in view of the interest in the subject, I
shall make an exception. As there is obviously a demand, I have just
written a typing tutor called ÉArchitypeæ. By the time you read this, it
will probably be available from some PD libraries and I expect it will
appear on an Archive Shareware or Careware disk in the near future.
5.7
Please write to me at 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26
5RN.ááA
5.7
5.7
Small Ads
5.7
(Small ads for Archimedes and related products are free for subscribers
but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the material
you send, as we think fit. i.e. some people donæt know what ösmallò
means and there are certain things, as you can imagine, that we would
not be prepared to advertise as a matter of principle. Sending small ads
(especially long ones!) on disc is helpful but not essential. Ed)
5.7
Å    2M A3000 RAM upgrade non-expandable ú30. Phone 0283Ö31403 anytime.
5.7
Å    A3000 with 2M RAM, bridge with extra 3╜ö and 5╝ò drives plus ScanLight
Junior ú650. Phone K Tompkins on 0276Ö28932.
5.7
Å    A3000 with 2M RAM, serial interface, Atomwide VIDC enhancer and Acorn
AKF18 multisync monitor ú695. Phone on 0242Ö234342 (after 6 p.m.).
5.7
Å    A310, 4M RAM, 20M drive, ARM3, CC ROM/RAM board, 4-slot bp, Taxan 795
+ VIDC enhancer, Qume LaserDirect + toner kit, Watford Hand Scanner II,
Impression II and other fonts and software, plus Z88 with 128k RAM card.
ú1,800. Phone Roger Bunnett on 0322Ö662642.
5.7
Å    A310, colour monitor, 4-slot bp, manuals and software ú550. Acorn
Inkjet printer (new) ú225. Armadillo A448 sampler & software ú70. Phone
Lenny on 071Ö703Ö5675.
5.7
Å    A310 with lots of software ú500 o.n.o. Phone 04617Ö398.
5.7
Å    A400 spares new: mouse (old type) ú30. 2M memory chips ú60. Phone
081Ö751Ö2120 (eves).
5.7
Å    A410/1, 2M RAM, 40M drive, colour monitor, Impression II, + 50M other
software inc. Tracker, PRM, Graphbox & Equasor ú990 o.n.o. Also Epson
LX80 NLQ with cut-sheet feeder ú70. Phone Tim on 0784Ö430198 or
081Ö560Ö7310.
5.7
Å    A410/1, 4M RAM, 20M drive, Acorn colour monitor, Beebug 5╝ö interface
ú950, Old PRMæs ú9, Chocks Away Compendium ú25, WorraCAD ú60, Zarch ú10,
Archimedes Assembly Language (2nd Ed.) ú10. Phone 0780Ö740363.
5.7
Å    A410/1, 4M RAM, 40M drive, ARM3, VIDC enhancer, 5╝ö interface, Taxan
775 monitor, PC emulator etc ú1,600. Phone Paul on 041Ö777Ö 6608 (after
8 p.m.)
5.7
Å    A420 ARM-3, 4M RAM, 40M hard drive, Watford VIDC enhancer. ú1100 ono.
Will throw in some free software (PD and registered commercial pack
ages). Phone 0256Ö54103, fax 0256Ö50575.
5.7
Å    A5000 2M 40M IDE plus multisync monitor with free software. Brand new,
unwanted gift! ú1699 Phone Roger on 061Ö799Ö9845 (eves).
5.7
Å    Archway II ú50. Phone Paul on 041Ö777Ö 6608 (after 8 p.m.)
5.7
Å    Canon BJ10ex with printer driver ú200 o.n.o. Acorn ROM podule with
optional ram chips fitted ú40. Phone 051Ö606Ö0289.
5.7
Å    First Word Plus II ú30, Tracker ú15, Pandoraæs Box ú10, Transfer ú2,
CrossStar ú2, Panorama ú2, Trace ú2. Phone Alan on 0233Ö629868 (eves).
5.7
Å    Graphbox Professional Ö unwanted gift, unopened ú75. Phone Dave on
0642Ö592161.
5.7
Å    PC emulator (1.60) ú50, Arthur PRMs Offers? Compression (uninstalled)
ú40, Arcterm 7 ú55, Mad Prof Mariarti ú10, Mig 29 ú30, UIM ú10,
TwinWorld ú10, Iron Lord ú8, Guild of Thieves ú10, Zarch ú8, Tactic ú7,
Stranded ú15. Phone 0247Ö457655.
5.7
Å    Philips standard colour monitor ú100, WS4000 modem ú80, GEC datachat
modem ú30, Prism 1000 ú20, 4 slot backplane & fan ú30, 40M ST506 NEC 3╜ö
drive ú200, Atomwide (Avie) ST506 Hard drive podule ú120, 5╜ò 40/80
drive + interface ú50. All o.n.o. Phone 0247Ö457655.
5.7
Å    ScanLight Plus perfect condition ú170. Phone Jonathan after 4.30 p.m.
on 081Ö451Ö0471.
5.7
Å    Wanted Ö Acorn Assembler or Desktop Assembler package. Phone
0283Ö31403 anytime.
5.7
Å    Wanted Ö Ground Control Teletext adaptor. Phone 051Ö606Ö0289.
5.7
Charity Sales Ö The following items are available for sale in aid of
charity. PLEASE do not just send money Ö ring us on 0603Ö766592 to check
if the items are still available. Thank you.
5.7
(If you have unwanted software or hardware for Archimedes computers you
could donate for charity, please send it in to the Archive office. If
you have larger items where post would be expensive, just send us
details of the item(s) and how the purchaser can get hold of them.)
5.7
Vox-Box ú35, ArcComm1 ú20, C-Front ú8, InterDictor 1 ú8, Masterfile II
ú18, Saloon Cars ú15, RISC-OS Companion Vol 1 ú3, Pacmania ú8,
FunSchool3 (Under 5s) ú15, A3000 2M upgrade (expandanble to 4M) ú35,
Morley 2M A3000 upgrade ú30, VIDC Enhancer ú18, Watford Electronics ú5
voucher ú2, CC ROM/RAM podule with battery backup + I-Sheet and I-Word
ú30, Screened printer data cable ú2 per foot.ááA
5.7
5.7
PipeLine
5.7
Gerald Fitton
5.7
Thank you all for your most interesting and kind comments about last
monthæs PipeLine. It seems that all too many of you have had problems
such as cryptic messages about swapping discs when RISC-OS is trying
(unsuccessfully) to find modules that are not where it thinks they ought
to be. I incorrectly believed that this problem was restricted to floppy
disc users but it isnæt. As a result of all the correspondence, I am
encouraged to extend my advice to hard disc users and then to give
advice on the related topic of PipeDreamá4æs ÉChoicesæ and related
default ÉOptionsæ. !Impression suffers in the same way so letæs have
something about defaults!
5.7
Hard disc users
5.7
One rule I suggest you adhere to is that RISC-OS must see the !System
directory on your hard disc before it sees the !System of any of your
other packages. Make sure you click on the hard disc icon (the one on
the icon bar) to open that window and show its contents to RISC-OS
before you open any other windows. Some of my hard disc correspondents
have auto boot sequences that almost work. Their difficulties have
arisen only when their auto boot sequences donæt work!
5.7
After a great deal of effort, I have a method which Éworksæ every time
(but it is not the only solution). I suggest that, if you are having
auto boot problems, you might consider mine as a basis for yours.
Although it is not essential, boot sequences are generally in two parts.
5.7
The first of mine I have called !Boot and you will find a screen shot of
it together with the PipeDream Layout menu on the next page. You will
see that the first line, Runáscsi::HD4.$.!System .!Boot, shows my
!System.!Boot file to RISC-OS; this is so that Modules, a sub directory
of !System, can be found. The second line, as I recommended last month,
shows the !Fonts directory to RISC-OS.
5.7
I bought one of Paulæs Écheapæ A540s about a month ago (Still one or two
available Ö see the back of the price list. Ed.) and hence my hard disc
uses the SCSI filing system. You might need to type ADFS where I have
SCSI. By the way, whilst I have heard the expression öAcornæs flagship
modelò used to describe the A540, I didnæt realise how good it is! My
quick comment is that, like multi scan monitors, you will only appre
ciate how good these machines are when you have one. They come complete
with ARMá3, 100M SCSI hard disc and built in öMulti scan VIDCò hardware;
they can be upgraded from the standard 4M of RAM to 16M. Donæt tell me
youæll never need more than 4M; PipeDream compresses files as they are
saved to disc and expands them in RAM. I have a 150k spreadsheet that
expands to over 500k in RAM and I got caught out with my first shot at a
PipeDreamá4 spreadsheet for predicting the result of the 1992 General
Election; it was 250k on the disc and expanded in RAM to a size that
wouldnæt run on a 4M machine! Finally, they have a SCSI port on the back
of the machine as standard so, when I can afford it, I shall be able to
plug in a CD ROM drive and call up paragraphs from the CD Encyclopaedia
Britannica straight into PipeDream!
5.7
The next two lines of my !Boot file load the modules necessary to run my
Eizoá9070S multi scan monitor (I agree with Paulæs implication that it
is a shame that this monitor has been discontinued Ö I donæt know what I
did without it). My final line, Desktopá-fileáscsi::HD4.$.!Boot1, calls
the second part of the boot sequence and runs a file called !Boot1 which
appears in the screen shot containing the PipeDreamá4 Font menu.
5.7
The first line of !Boot1 opens my HD4.$ (root) directory and, by so
doing, it runs the !Boot file of every package (called Applications by
Acorn) starting with a ! in the HD4.$ directory and so finds their icon
and displays it in the $ directory window. I like to have !Alarm,
!PrinterLJ and !PipeDream installed on the icon bar automatically, so
calls to the !Run files of those packages are in my scsi::HD4.$.!Boot1
file. You will see that I have disabled !VIDCplus by putting a | (just
above the return key) at the beginning of line 4 of !Boot1. If you want
!Paint, !DrawPlus, !Impression, or anything else booted onto the icon
bar then !Boot1 is the place to do it. I have temporarily disabled my
Atomwide !VIDCplus package because I found that it didnæt work with my
setup. You see, I have configured my A540 (by moving hardware links) to
monitor type 4 (to suit my Eizoá9070S) and it will be another week or so
before Atomwide have their mode designer working for type 4 monitors.
When I get the upgraded A540 version VIDC disc back from them I shall
reinstate !VIDCplus by removing the | (using PipeDream to do it).
5.7
HelpLine
5.7
Following on from my extensive Éstart up hintæ in last monthæs PipeLine,
I have had a most pleasant letter from Angus Mackenzie. He has offered
to öspend a little time on the phone with any new proud ownerá...áin
difficultiesò and suggests that a list of such phone helpliners should
be included in Archive. For our part, here at Abacus Training, I shall
include such a list on the PipeLine discs if only because, as a full
time lecturer, I am often not at home when Jill answers the phone.
5.7
PipeDreamæs start up options
5.7
Many attributes of a file are saved with PD3 files. Those attributes
which are not saved with the file can be found in a file called [ini]
which act as default options. I found that many of the problems
experienced by my correspondents Édisappearedæ when I loaded their disc
file into my PD3. After much heart searching, I traced most vanishing
problems to differences in our [ini] files where my correspondent,
usually by mistake rather than by design, had an unusual or unwise set
of Éattributesæ in their [ini] file.
5.7
Just as I got used to the full range of [ini] problems in PD3, Colton
Software decided to launch PipeDreamá4! The equivalent of PD3æs [ini] is
PD4æs [Choices] file. So, the possibility arises in PD4 of having
problems not unlike the [ini] problems of PD3 but often these are of a
more serious nature. For example, you may have many files you created in
PD3 which, when you load them into PD4 and try to print them, appear to
have a default of 99 copies; or you may find that Éwrapæ and Éinsert on
returnæ are always set to the Éwrongæ values and keep ruining your
carefully laid out work.
5.7
In PD4, more attributes are saved with the file you are working on than
in PD3 so, when a PD3 file is loaded into PD4, your [Choices] are used
to Éfill outæ the set of attributes. Also, if you drag, say, an obey
file such as !Boot into PD4 in order to amend it, then [Choices] will be
invoked! Iæm sure youæll see now why a careful choice of [Choices] is
important! What follows is a description of how to select and save your
[Choices].
5.7
Choices
5.7
Position the mouse over the PipeDreamá4 icon (the one on the icon bar),
click <menu>, run the pointer through Choices and you will be presented
with a screen such as Choices shown below. Set up your Choices from this
menu. For example, I use a paste depth of 50 rather than a smaller value
such as 10. To change the default paste depth, run the pointer through
the option Paste depth and enter your preference in the dialogue box
which appears.
5.7
Run the pointer through New document to choose what will become your
default template for obey files and the like. Click on the OK box and
you will have a blank PipeDream document on the screen.
5.7
Options
5.7
Position the mouse within this PipeDream window and use the menu button
and pointer to produce a screen similar to that shown in the Options
screen shot. Select your preferences.
5.7
At this stage (or later) you may also make changes to the number and
width of columns; you must do that sometime.
5.7
Font
5.7
Choose a font for your default document as shown in the screen shot
Font. RISC-OS must have seen your !Font directory before PipeDream is
loaded if you want to Éseeæ your fonts on this menu.
5.7
Layout and Printer
5.7
Choose your Print Ö Layout and Print Ö Printer parameters from the menus
shown in the screen shots headed Layout and Printer.
5.7
Print
5.7
This is a more difficult default Éoptionæ to set up. I switched off my
printer and sent my default file to the switched off printer (one copy!)
and then tapped <escape> to get out of the mess!
5.7
Template
5.7
Now you have set up your template, you should save it as a Template
file. You do this with the command <ctrl-FI> (hold down the <ctrl> key,
tap F then I and, finally, release <ctrl>). I suggest that you name this
template [Default].
5.7
Choices again
5.7
From the pop up PipeDream menu (the one which appears when you click
<menu> over the PipeDream icon on the icon bar) run the pointer through
New document and reload your [Default] document. Check the column and
wrap widths and check the Options, Font, Layout, Printer configuration
and the Print menus. If anything is not as you want it to be, make the
amendments before you save it again as a template file.
5.7
Finally, from the pop up PipeDream menu select Save choices. Now quit
PipeDream (from the icon bar). Double click on !PipeDream (or reboot the
machine with <ctrl-reset>) and drag to the installed PipeDream icon one
of your obey or text (!Edit type) files. If they have all the
Éattributesæ which you hoped for, try something more ambitious such as a
PipeDreamá3 file!
5.7
In conclusion
5.7
Let me say again that I was most pleased with the response to last
monthæs PipeLine article. Please let me know how you find this one. If
you have any comments, improvements, criticisms, etc then please write
to me at the Abacus Training address on the inside back cover of
Archive.ááA
5.7
5.7
IFEL
5.7
New
5.7
5.7
EasiWriter
5.7
Alan Highet
5.7
EasiWriter calls itself a word processor but it manages to display a lot
of the characteristics of a desktop publishing package and was written
by the same team that wrote MacAuthor, so it has a good pedigree.
5.7
Documentation
5.7
The box contains two discs with the main program on one and examples on
the other. As the program requires Clib 3.75 and font manager 2.44 these
are also included. There is a loose page giving all the necessary
installation information, a plastic function key card and a 161 page
handbook which was written and typeset on an Archimedes running
EasiWriter and printed on a Canon LBP-4 giving a good example of what
can be achieved.
5.7
The handbook is divided into three sections and is a model of clarity.
The first section is a tutorial which gets you started straight away and
only tells you enough to accomplish each task without weighing you down
with too much technical talk.
5.7
The program
5.7
Clicking on the icon bar icon opens a window with a red caret at the top
of the text area. Above that are various displays showing the Structure
in use and what is selected if anything. There are also options for
formatting text and increasing or decreasing the viewing window.
5.7
The first thing I noticed was the use of the backspace key rather than
the delete key to delete the previous character. This has been inherited
from the PC world but the Delete key also works.
5.7
Unlike some document processors, EasiWriter doesnæt use Frames and
Styles for the text layout but relies on Structures. A Structure can be
a Chapter, a Section or Sub-Section, a List or a Sub-List,  a Table, a
Figure or a Picture.
5.7
You can create a Chapter structure which automatically gives you a
heading and a body style. For instance, the first line you type may be
centre aligned in 14 point Trinity-Bold and on pressing <return> you
move to left aligned 10 point Trinity-Medium with three Tab stops set.
Sections, as the name suggests, are normally a small part of a chapter
and, as such, can contain their own styles. Lists are a particular type
of paragraph allowing the easy creation of, surprisingly, lists. Each
item in a list may be preceded by a bullet or any other character you
choose. The handbook suggests the use of numbers but this would only be
useful if the number increased automatically on each press of <return>.
5.7
A very useful facility is the ability to include tables of figures in a
similar fashion to a spreadsheet. The Table Structure allows you to do
exactly that but adds a very comprehensive set of formatting commands
allowing you total control over the placement and justification of every
item in the table.
5.7
Figure and Picture are very similar and allow the inclusion of drawfiles
or sprites in your document which can be inserted into a line of text or
positioned on their own. Once on screen, the pictures can be cropped and
resized although they cannot be rotated.
5.7
All graphics, paragraphs, lines and even documents may have their own
borders selected from a list of nine choices.
5.7
Having introduced you to all the various Structures, the handbook takes
you through the editing and spell checking of a document and altering
all aspects of text fonts, styles and formats. Finally, you are shown
how to create a Stationery pad which is a custom document containing all
the various styles you require for a certain type of document.
5.7
The spelling checker is a delight to use. Not only does it display a
list of possible words but it also display the word in the context in
which youæve used it. It will also prompt you for what it feels is
questionable capitalisation! English language is the dictionary supplied
but other languages are available from Icon Technology. All text styles
can be assigned a language and if that dictionary is available it will
be used. If it is not present then the words will be ignored.
5.7
Conclusions
5.7
There are far too many Äsmall things I keep finding Ö I cannot mention
them all but anybody wanting a full feature document processor would not
be unhappy with EasiWriter and it certainly matches up to its descrip
tion as a full WYSIWYG word processor with all the usual cut, paste,
copy and find options.  My only complaint, if you can call it that, is
that it requires 704k of memory and therefore requires a 2M machine to
run.ááA
5.7
5.7
Base5 DBMS and PairData
5.7
Rob Wears
5.7
These latest offerings from Base5 were reviewed on an A310 with 4M RAM
and an Oak SCSI drive. Base5 DBMS is the core of a database management
system but before you all yawn and turn to the next page, Base5 is
different.
5.7
Base5 has been designed with flexibility in mind. It is a set of
libraries of Basic procedures and functions which allow users to develop
their own database applications. As such, and providing you can program
in Basic, it is a truly programmable database system. The package
consists of spiral-bound (yellow!) A5 manual and a single (yellow!)
disc. As this is a review, I took the unusual step of reading the manual
first before having a go.
5.7
Documentation
5.7
The manual is well written and produced. It is divided into four
sections. The first deals with the jargon associated with databases, so
if Érelate fieldsæ, Érecord selectionæ and Éexportsæ mean nothing to
you, this section will provide guidance with the minimum of pain.
5.7
The second section deals with the stand-alone database provided on the
disc, !Base5 (please note the ö!ò). Whilst describing what this can do,
the manual also tells which of the Basic routines is used to achieve
each of the effects described Ö a neat little touch which I found very
helpful when it came to trying to program my own database.
5.7
The third section is a series of tutorials aimed at gradually producing
your own database. Be warned, however, the manual assumes that you have
a working knowledge of Basic programming, such as that required to
produce a WIMP based program, for example. The sophisticated routines
provided will be of no use whatsoever if you cannot integrate them
successfully into your own program.
5.7
Finally, the fourth section is a reference section, detailing in depth
the Basic routines supplied, together with brief descriptions of the use
of Base5 DBMS with compilers (ABC and RiscBasic) and the variables
supplied to make WIMP interfacing more manageable.
5.7
!Base5
5.7
The disc contains the stand-alone database application, !Base5, together
with the Basic libraries (data handling, relational database support,
maths and basic statistics), a module to support formatted input,
command files to start !Base5 automatically in various configurations
(e.g. to maximise memory on a 1M machine) and a marvellous directory
full of examples.
5.7
!Base5 would appear to be more than adequate as a database application
in its own right. All the usual features are there, including condi
tional searching, sorting and comparison but, unfortunately, there are
one or two unusual öfeaturesò as well (more on these later). Data fields
are of fixed length, which can be wasteful of disc space, but fields can
be of character, date or numeric format and can be modified (e.g.
lengthened or shortened) even if they contain data. Obviously, it is
quite risky to fiddle about with the structure of a database which is
actually in use but, in my opinion, the risks are far outweighed by the
benefits of not having to start all over again from scratch on finding
that the initial structure of the database doesnæt quite meet all your
eventual needs.
5.7
It is possible to import data in four formats (Text, CSV, SDF and
DataKing), and to export data in five formats (the four mentioned plus
PipeDream). Unfortunately, there is a öfeatureò with the export routines
in that attempting to save data in PipeDream format by simply specifying
the filename and dragging the icon to the appropriate directory is
unreliable and occasionally crashed the machine. However, typing in the
full pathname worked every time, and the data loaded as expected into
PipeDream (version 3.14).
5.7
Further problems came to light whilst working through the routines
described in the manual. Initially, I could not get the example
relational database to work at all, getting repeated öDrive Emptyò error
messages. I tracked the problem down to the relate file, which is ADFS
and drive specific Ö modification of this using Edit solved the problem
easily. I did find it somewhat irritating, however, as I had followed
the instructions in the manual to the letter. Subsequent examination of
other example files (such as the report files) revealed that they were
all ADFS specific Ö the manual should mention this.
5.7
Another öfeatureò cropped up amongst the various functions for analysing
data. When attempting to find the best fit straight line relationship
between atomic number and boiling point I somehow managed to delete all
the data in the öelementsò example database, but I was unable to
reproduce the error with any of the other data supplied. However, that
sort of occurrence can ruin your whole day if it happens to involve your
only copy of the öYellow Pagesò database that you have just spent a
month compiling!
5.7
The report designer functions adequately but does not support fancy text
effects. In fact, the manual proudly states that !Base5 does not require
any of the printer driver modules supplied by Acorn. I think this is a
mistake. Surely everybody has access to one of Acornæs printer drivers?
Still, you can direct the output to a spool file, and load this into a
package like Impression for smartening up.
5.7
Missing from !Base5 at present are a mail-merge facility, and the
ability to designate a field as a mandatory entry field (i.e. one in
which some data must be entered before the user can move on to the next
record). However, given the very nature of the system, these omissions
and öfeaturesò should be regarded neither as permanent, nor as
crippling.
5.7
Also contained on the disc are examples of what can be achieved with the
Base5 DBMS, including sophisticated manipulation of dates, control of
keyboard input and even a simple 29-line Basic program to draw a map of
the UK from information contained in a !Base5 database.
5.7
PairData
5.7
The other package supplied for review, PairData, is a smaller (but still
yellow) A5 manual and a single (yellow) disc. The disc contains a
library of Basic routines to handle co-ordinate pair data, together with
a utility, !MouseIn, to generate such data using the mouse, and a set of
examples which include mapping the rings of Stonehenge and the junctions
on the M25 Ö two cosmic mysteries to whet most peopleæs appetites.
Sensibly the package makes no attempt to deal with the mechanics of
traffic flow on the M25! Both the manual and the disc material are of a
high standard.
5.7
Conclusion
5.7
I have a confession to make. I still program in Basic. Itæs not that
Iæve got anything against any of the other languages, but itæs just that
I know how to do things in Basic, and see no need to learn another
language. I am also reasonably confident in my ability to produce a WIMP
based program. I like these products and feel that they have tremendous
potential for cavemen such as myself who still insist on programming in
Basic. I am concerned that a lot of people will avoid Base5 simply
because it is Basic and not something really clever, like C. In
addition, I am afraid that its quirky nature prevents me from recommend
ing !Base5 in its current form to anyone who wants a ready-made database
management system. I feel it functions adequately as an introduction to
the system but should then be left behind when you use Base5 DBMS to
produce your own database application. However, these reservations
aside, Base5 DBMS is incredibly flexible and, at ú69 for the core suite
of routines, it is reasonable value for money. I have no hesitation at
all in recommending it to those who are prepared to program in Basic and
to make the effort to develop their own applications.ááA
5.7
5.7
Hard Disc Companion v2.05
5.7
Rob Wears
5.7
The latest version of this hard disc backup utility from RISC Develop
ments Ltd was reviewed on an A310 with 4M of RAM, ARM3 and an Oak SCSI
drive.
5.7
Having bought a hard disc, you are immediately aware of how vulnerable
you have become to the loss of lots of important data at a stroke.
Wiping the root directory of a floppy disc would only lose a couple of
Mbytes of data at most (even with compression programs), but with a hard
disc you can lose everything very quickly.
5.7
Having spent all my money on the drive itself, I frugally decided to use
the !Backup 3 (v3.00) as supplied on Shareware disc 13. Initially this
was more than adequate, and I was very impressed with the way it
remembered about the free space on the floppies it had seen and kept
asking for the appropriate floppy back when it came to a suitably sized
chunk of data. However, as the amount of data on the drive grew, the
need to change the backup discs so often rapidly became a pain, and
greatly increased the time taken to make a backup. So I tried compacting
the data to be backed up using first !Spark, and latterly !ArcFS, on a
separate partition of my hard disc (thanks to the clever Oak SCSIFS).
5.7
That greatly reduced the number of floppies needed to make a backup, but
added another step in the path, so the time spent making a full backup
actually increased. It was also possible to make some of the Archives
too big to fit on a floppy, with the result that they werenæt copied to
floppy at all. !Backup 3 allows an exclusion list of files to be ignored
by the backup process, but this list has to be edited using !Edit, and
although not a technically difficult task, it is time consuming. The net
result of all this was that backups became less frequent and on more
than one occasion I accidentally deleted my only copy of important
documents.
5.7
Hard Disc Companion II
5.7
Then came Hard Disc Companion II. The package consists of a single
floppy disc and a very smart A5 manual supplied in a sturdy cardboard
box. The manual optimistically promises that the software will encourage
you to make regular backups. Personally, I found it hard to believe that
it would be able to persuade me to spend my time making backups instead
of having just one more go at that Anarchy system in Elite. The manual
itself is well laid out and describes in great detail most of the things
you will need to know in order to use the program effectively. The only
two omissions I could find will be discussed later.
5.7
The software
5.7
The disc contains the !Backup utility (which itself contains the two
other utilities concerned with extracting files from the backups, namely
!Restore and !Retrieve), !System containing the latest version of the
shared C library and !SysMerge. The disc is not copy protected but
!Backup does ask for your name on first use and subsequently incorpor
ates it into the program. Personally, I favour this method of software
protection as it in no way inconveniences the majority of legitimate
users.
5.7
Installing on a hard disc is simply a matter of dragging the application
to the desired directory. The promised flexible configuration of source
and destination is every bit as good as it sounds, with on-screen help
for those with advanced ömanual-phobiaò. My previous experience of this
was endless typing of alterations to script files in !Edit. It is
pleasant now to be able to use the desktop instead by simply dragging a
directory icon to the source and destination directories, in whatever
filing system you wish, e.g. another SCSI hard disc or ADFS for
floppies.
5.7
Three types of backup procedure are offered, Full (which is self
explanatory), Incremental and Differential. The latter two will only
backup those files which have been added or changed since the last Full
backup, and hence are less time consuming. Differential is supposed to
use the same set of floppies as the Full backup and is said to be slower
than Incremental. Either I was missing something or else there is a
problem in the current version of the software because I could find no
difference between Incremental and Differential backups, either in time
taken or in sets of floppies used.
5.7
Once you have decided on source, destination and type of backup, you
have the option of selecting specific files, directories or even
filetypes to ignore during the backup procedure. These choices are made
in a very friendly, desktop environment and can be saved as special
configuration files which allow you to start up the application with all
your favourite settings.
5.7
Initially, it left me feeling very relieved Ö perhaps the day of the
painless backup had finally arrived. Unfortunately, on further testing,
I discovered that if you were foolish enough to delete, move or alter
the name of any of your specified files or directories, !Backup sulks
when you load it, and tells you öFile not found at line 17ò before
loading without the script file. This is the first area in which the
manual is deficient. It doesnæt even hint at possible problems in this
area, let alone offer remedies, and the error message is one of the
least helpful that Iæve ever come across. After some detective work, I
found that this problem lies within the script file. If youæve only made
one change, you can load the script file into !Edit and adjust/remove
the offending item, but if youæve made wholesale changes, you will find
it easier to simply start again from scratch.
5.7
Archiving to floppies is remarkably easy Ö !Backup asks you for new
floppies as it needs them, and will format them as necessary. Files are
compressed as they are archived and long files can be split over more
than one floppy (but the manual does not recommend trying to backup your
PC partition this way). You are also given estimates of the length of
time and number of floppies needed to complete the backup. I think the
program assumes that the size of the floppies is 800k, but not having
access to the 1.6 M drives, I was unable to test this. The number of
floppies always seems to be over estimated, but that is the safest
option. The backup can be suspended and resumed later or aborted
completely. A record of all backups made is kept in a text file within
the application. Also hidden in here is a file called messages Ö editing
this will allow you to specify the minimum file size that you want to
try to compress and to encourage the program to attempt to compress more
files. The default options are that files less than 2k will not be
compressed at all and that no attempt at compression will be made if
!Backup thinks that it cannot reduce the size to 70% or less. These
figures are optimised for ARM2 machines and the program can achieve much
greater compression if you have an ARM3 and if you edit this file Ö the
manual does not mention this flexibility.
5.7
The !Retrieve and !Restore applications are stored in the backup
archive, so it should always be possible to get data out even if you
thought your only copies of these were on your crashed hard disc.
!Restore not only puts everything back, but it actually puts it all back
where it came from (except all the things that you told !Backup to
ignore). I was more than a little relieved to find that it did work
well, having reformatted my hard disc to test it. (Thatæs what I call
dedicated reviewing! Ed.) !Retrieve allows you to retrieve individual
files from the archive and allows wildcard searches. However, you cannot
retrieve groups of files at a time which means, for example, that you
have to reassemble your Impression documents manually.
5.7
Conclusion
5.7
Hard Disc Companion II is very good at what it does. It copes not only
with backup to floppies but also to other hard discs and is not filing
system dependent. Backing up to floppies is still slow and tedious but
at ú45 for Hard Disc Companion II and say ú40 for thirty 3╜ö discs, it
is still a lot cheaper than a second hard disc or a tape streamer. The
minor niggles that I have mentioned should not dissuade you from buying
it if you own a hard disc, and I suspect that those niggles will be
ironed out in future versions. It may not be the definitive package for
the Archimedes/A3000/A5000, but it is certainly the best hard disc
backup utility that I have ever used.ááA
5.7
5.7
Air Supremacy
5.7
Jahinder Singh
5.7
Air Supremacy, the latest offering from Superior Software is a cross
between Zarch and Conqueror. The year is 2150 and wars are being waged
over the Antarctic for control of what remains of the earthæs resources.
You are at Remote Combat Terminal J19 as part of a multi-national
coalition that is attempting to restore the balance of power in the
world. The terminal consists of two isolated airfields entirely
surrounded by enemy territory. Being heavily outnumbered, only the best
pilots, the Aces, are given access to the few remaining craft at the
terminal and allowed to enter the Combat Arena in the great battle for
Air Supremacy and overall victory. To graduate to Ace status, you must
carry out your training in the Combat Simulator, with scenarios based on
three 20th century wars. To complete a level, all enemy surface units
and aircraft including any reinforcements must be destroyed.
5.7
Each of the three levels within the Combat Simulator is based on an
infamous 20th century war. Level one is Europe 1918 which puts you in
control of biplanes and old tanks. Proceeding onto level two, Pacific
1944, you are in control of aircraft and gunboats. Level three, Arabia
1991, involves jet aircraft and desert tanks. Access to guided missiles
is also provided in this level. In each level, you can switch between
aircraft and ground or sea forces as the battle develops. However, this
is much more than a simple Éshoot-em-upæ game, being able to switch
between aircraft and surface forces requires a lot of thought and
strategy. To complete each level (not an easy task) requires the use of
each craft.
5.7
Planning your strategy is very important. The airfield control towers
relay your radar information and thus are important strategic targets
for enemy surface units. Loss of one control tower leads to interference
in your Global Radar and makes completing a level more difficult. The
two airfields are entirely surrounded by hostile territory and control
centres. A successful strike on any of these will temporarily relieve
the intensity of the attacks. However, as time progresses, the number of
enemy units will increase as reinforcements arrive. Thus it is in your
interests to complete a level in the minimum time. The limited fuel load
in the Simulator levels adds to the time constraint.
5.7
After having completed each level in the simulator, you are then allowed
to enter the Combat Arena in 2150. Here you control space-age fighters
and rapid attack hovercraft. There is a lot of activity within the
Combat Arena, everything is a lot faster and very dangerous. To assist
you in the Combat Arena with all this extra activity, access to special
offensive/defensive functions is available. A smart bomb destroys all
enemy units which, at the time of detonation, are within the view of the
landscape. The Quantum Leap allows your craft to jump to a new random
location. This is a last resort function as it is very energy demanding.
An Energy Shield is also available which, when operated, deflects enemy
fire but drains the energy resources.
5.7
Air Supremacy is similar to Zarch and Conqueror. Any vehicle can be
controlled by mouse or keyboard. Before playing the game, you can view a
demo mode to gain some understanding of flying and fighting techniques.
There is also a practice mode which is very useful. The game is very
fast with smooth scrolling and realistic sampled sounds. The graphics
(excellent shadowing) are also similar to Zarch and Conqueror. Unfor
tunately, there are no hills Ö everything is flat. Both Zarch and
Conqueror had realistic three-dimensional hilly landscapes and, for me,
this has made the difference between a very good game and an excellent
game.
5.7
Air Supremacy (ú23 from Archive) is a good buy, will run on all machines
and offers a mixture of arcade-style fighting and strategical planning
during these cold winter nights. If you manage to complete the Combat
Arena level, not only can you claim your congratulatory certificate from
Superior Software, but you can continue at the Super-Ace levels in order
to increase your credits and Order of Merit, until you reach the highest
possible order, AIR SUPREMO.ááA
5.7
5.7
The DTP Column
5.7
Richard Else
5.7
There has been a lot of response to previous DTP Columns Ö thanks very
much for all your letters. As a result, much of the column this month is
devoted to your comments and hints, together with news about Impression
and Ovation.
5.7
News and Views
5.7
Å Artworks and Impression ù Obviously, all Computer Conceptsæ efforts
are presently going into the release of Artworks, but there look like
being long term benefits for Impression users. Charles Moir tells us
that the colour separation system used in Artworks will eventually find
its way into Impression. This supports a more advanced colour handling
mechanism than currently available in Impression and would then give
Impression the same colour separating abilities as Artworks i.e. spot
and process separations directly from Impression and overprint control
on a style or on an object by object basis.
5.7
However, donæt hold your breath for Impression 3 (?), because Charles
adds, öExactly when this will happen is anyoneæs guess, but it is not
likely to be before the end of this year.ò However, perhaps now is the
time for Computer Concepts and the users of Impression to get together
to make sure that the new version fulfils as many usersæ needs as
possible. I personally would rate kerning tables as near the top of my
own particular list, but perhaps CC should invite registered users to
list their five most significant improvements. Getting the response of
over 10,000 users could be a daunting task, but if CC chose to use their
Archimedean newsletter, I am sure that comments of real value would
emerge.
5.7
Å Ovation protection Ö Following a query from reader Robin Mattocks who
wrote to complain about the protection system used on Ovation (and
checking that my copy, which is unprotected, was a standard version) I
spoke to John Wallace, software manager at Risc Developments. He was
able to confirm what I suspected Ö namely that there has been a change
of policy. Indeed for the last six months or so Ovation has been
unprotected and existing users can get this version if they return their
original disc with an SAE. However, before everyone rushes to the post,
John informed me that some minor enhancements are on the way and this is
why Risc Developments had not publicised this news. John said that they
are not undertaking a major upgrade, but are providing some enhancements
requested by users including pamphlet printing and draft printing,
together with one or two other improvements that he would rather not
reveal at this stage. It is thought that a small charge of about ú5
would apply to cover this upgrade. So watch this space!
5.7
I had not used Ovation in its protected form but having used System
Delta Plus (where the original disc needs inserting every time the
program is run) and having wanted to run Impression on other computers
(including one in my local library), it is clear that any copy protec
tion system makes a trade off between user friendliness and fairness to
a companyæs investment in its product.
5.7
So the policy change does mean that we, as users, have a responsibility
to use such software fairly and legally. Incidentally, I would be
interested to know what effect making Ovation protection free has on
Risc Developmentsæ sales!
5.7
Å High density interface ù Arxe Systems are releasing their interface
övery, very soonò and are presently putting the final touches to it.
They should start shipping öany dayò and the product is said to be
compatible with A300/A400/A540 and A3000 machines, although 300 series
machines will require a replacement front panel. It occupies a single
podule slot in 400 series machines with the new drive unit replacing the
internal drive. A separate version is planned for internal fitting on
the A3000.
5.7
However, it canæt read the new öFò format discs from the A5000, as these
are very dependent on RISC-OS 3, but an upgrade is planned when RISC-OS
3 becomes available separately. Customers purchasing the HDI before
April 30th will get a free copy of Multi FS 2 which is, in any case,
necessary for the 1.2 & 1.44 M formats. The price is ú199 + VAT, and
orders are now being taken for the product.
5.7
Impression Hints & Tips
5.7
Thereæs no shortage of hints and tips this month and there is a special
emphasis on mail merging, printing and uses of Impressionæs ösave
graphicsò facility.
5.7
Å     Mailmerge (1) Ö There have been some queries about mail merging
with Impression, so Rob Sherratt contacted Computer Concepts to outline
the problems. Rob wrote, öI have tried to use the Business Supplement
(Importer) and Impression to mailmerge a set of addresses to generate a
sheet of laser labels where each label contains successive fields from
the database. I have come to the conclusion that it canæt be done at
present Ö unless you tell me otherwise! I can print, say, a sheet of 24
labels for the same addressee (using a variety of methods) Ö but I
cannot print 24 labels for different addressees unless I enter the data
manually. Isnæt this a normal requirement for mailmerge programs?
5.7
öIt seems to me that Impulseæs ÉMergeæ command causes Impression to do a
ÉDelete then mergeæ operation, coupled with a small change to Importeræs
user interface to toggle the ÉDelete vs Duplicateæ option on and off. As
well as, or instead of this, you might like to consider adding a new
pair of methods to Importer ù :Importer Next record and :Importer
PrevRecord ù which would allow the user to build a composite É24-upæ
merge template where each frame in the template might contain the
following merge commands;
5.7
    :Importer Getfield 1
5.7
    :Importer Getfield 2 etc
5.7
    :Importer Next Record
5.7
On receiving the Next Record message, the Importer application would
reset its field counter to 1 and would scan forward for the start of the
next record.ò
5.7
Charles Moir agreed that !Importer would not allow different names and
addresses to be imported into different frames and thought that Robæs
new command to move onto the next record would work, but again thatæs
another improvement that will have to wait for Impression 3 (if that is
the correct title!).
5.7
However, Charles did have this useful suggestion, öwhenever we have had
a requirement to produce labels in this fashion (e.g. for mailing the
Archimedean magazine) we have gone about it in a different, and I would
suggest, a simpler way. First we create a master page that has separate
frames for each label. These are then linked together so they all form
part of one flowing story, so text will flow from one frame to another.
Presuming you have the name and address list in ASCII form with some
identifier between records Ö all you do is drop the file into the first
frame. All the names and addresses then flow into successive frames,
creating new pages as required. If the names and address are fixed
length records it is only a matter of making sure the label is the
correct size to hold exactly one record and it should all format
correctly. Even if the records are not the same length all that is
required is a single search and replace operation to replace the record
separator with a
5.7
 command to make sure each new record starts in a new label.
5.7
(If you use label sheets that have no selvedge, i.e. the whole A4 page
is divided into exactly 24 equal spaces, you just create one simple
master page whose size is just 70mm ╫ 37.1mm. Then all you do is ensure
you have öignore page bordersò set and öfit lotsò and it prints
beautifully. Ed.)
5.7
öThe only disadvantage of this system is that it loads all the names and
addresses in one go. However, we use this system for mailing 10,000
names and addresses on a standard 4M machine and so space is not a
problem. In fact, I donæt think something like !Importer would cope with
anything like that number of records satisfactorily. This method has the
advantage that you can see and edit each record individually if
required, and you can print any required range of pages or multiple
copies, etc.ò
5.7
Å     Mailmerge (2) Ö Stuart Bell had more modest needs. He wanted to
send a basic letter with a customized öDear ...ò beginning, and an
address in a box at the bottom of each letter. His solution to create
the skeleton letter as a master page <ctrl-F2 Ö Edit Ö New Master Page>.
In this master page type everything, except the names for the salutation
(the öDear . . .ò bit). Then create two frames on the master page, one
for the name, the other for the address box, and make text flow from one
to the other.
5.7
Now, leave the editing of the master page and return to your document.
Alter the chapter so that your newly created master page is the one for
that chapter and you will see your letter appear, with boxes for the
name and address. Type in the name of the first person, and their
address, using <ctrl-G> to advance to the next frame, as required.
Impression will generate new pages as necessary, each containing the
same letter.
5.7
In order to make the salutation look neat, you may need to move the
Énameæ frame on the master page, to line up öDearò with the name. Check
this with a large scale view of your document.
5.7
Now, the whole point of a mailing list is not to send one letter, but to
make it easier the next time you write to the same people. To change
your letter, save the original document under another name ù e.g. if
originally öLetter1ò, save it now as öLetter2ò to avoid losing the
original letter. Then simply change the letter on the master page of
Letter2 to produce your new letter. Alternatively, create another new
master page and alter your chapter to use it.
5.7
To produce a simple listing of your mailing list, create a master page
with many frames stacked in a vertical line (or any other close pattern
for that matter). You will then have a simple list of the names and
addresses in a tabular form.
5.7
I know that most mailmerge packages offer more complex facilities than
this penny-pinching approach, such as selecting certain names out of a
list. However, if your needs are as basic as mine, then it certainly
beats the laborious task of producing twenty (or two hundred) virtually
identical letters manually!
5.7
Å A merge program? Ö On a related note, identical pleas from Peter
Blenkinsop and P Closier: öhas anyone written a merge program for
Impression?ò Peter has several two page documents he would like to merge
into one (longer) document, mainly for ease of printing, although he
admits that a printer queue system might do just as well. No doubt other
users would also find this useful, so has anyone cracked this particular
nut? Batch printing would undoubtedly be useful for the next release of
Impression (with perhaps the incoming document forming a new chapter),
but we do also need a proper printer queueing system for Acorn printer
drivers. (Laser Direct owners already have one. Ed)
5.7
Å Viewing clip art ù Impressionæs ease of manipulating and printing
Sprite and Draw files has been touched on by others but the following
may be of interest. Just as with fonts, one really needs to see a print-
out of oneæs collection of clip-art files in order to pick out the one
thatæs just right for a particular job. I have done this by setting up
my collection on a set of standard Impression pages laid out with 5 rows
of 4 frames, each frame filled with a clip-art object. The sheets when
printed out then provide a ready reference and can be saved economically
as Impression documents using ArcFS/Spark/Compression.
5.7
The beauty of this is that in future you can ignore the individual clip-
art files and work from the saved Impression document. You choose the
frame you want and save it as a graphic to the RAM disc. Then drag the
icon from RAMFS to the Impression frame you have set up to receive it.
Note that you have to use the RAM disc as an intermediate stage for the
transfer. If you drag the icon directly across to the new Impression
frame you get a message to the effect that Impression cannot save a file
to itself. (Jack Evans)
5.7
Donæt forget though that there are a number of commercial programs that
allow you to view clip art and these might be more useful if you are
constantly adding new images to your collection. Incidentally, an
earlier version of Glimpse (Sherston Software) used to hang up the
computer if presented with a DrawPlus file. I am glad to report that
this was fixed (v1.02 and later) and, although the program ignores
unknown file types, it will not cause any other problems. If you have an
early issue of Glimpse, Sherston advise you to call them for advice and
they tell me that they are further developing the program.
5.7
Å Taking graphics from documents ù Paul Skirrow writes in response to
the Impression Hints & Tips by Jochen Konietzko (Archive 5.5 page 41)
and also makes use of the save graphics facility. It is true that
graphics cannot be edited within Impression, but it is a simple matter
to click on the graphic frame to select it and then use the <save
graphic> option on the document menu (or use <shift-ctrl-T>). I rarely
bother keeping separate copies of graphics files now, I just save them
from Impression directly into Draw, modify them and then save them back
again. (With PipeDream, things are different as it does not take its own
copy of the graphics file, but simply stores the filename, so modifying
the file on disc will change the image in the PipeDream document.)
5.7
It is true that the draw files are stored within the document directory
(called story1, story2, etc), but they should not be edited because
Impression stores information about them elsewhere (in the !DocData
file). It is possible to crash the entire system by modifying a graphics
file within an Impression document. I have always regarded Impression
documents as no-go areas Ö they belong to Impression and use Computer
Conceptsæ own format which is not published and which could be changed
between Impression versions.
5.7
The only disadvantage with using the <save graphic> option is that it
always saves the graphic as a draw file, even if it is a sprite. If you
want to edit a sprite, you must therefore drag the draw file from
Impression to Draw, select the object and then use the <save sprite>
option on the save menu to save into Paint. This is clumsy, especially
if memory is short, in which case you will have to save the intermediate
files to disc before loading into Paint. Computer Concepts do this
mainly to simplify the inner working of Impression (it means everything
can be regarded as a Draw file which may contain sprites). Another
argument for using Draw files to hold sprites is that they contain
absolute size information, whereas the sprite format does not. It
therefore makes a lot of sense for scanners to produce Draw files
containing the scanned sprite together with absolute size information
describing the resolution of the scanned image. The <save graphic> menu
item only appears when a graphic frame is selected (whereas the RISC-OS
guidelines suggest that unavailable menu items should be shaded so that
the user knows they are there).
5.7
Could Impression be made to pass graphics files to Draw and Paint when
they are double clicked? Perhaps Computer Concepts would be prepared to
implement this. I also think that there should be an easy way of
transferring data between applications generally without bringing up a
save menu. I know that we are all used to it now, but it is not really a
ösaveò operation that you are doing when transferring things between
applications, and the filename is certainly irrelevant when you are not
saving to a filer window. One approach, adopted by Squirrel, is to make
a click-drag from a Squirrel window to another application transfer the
data by doing a save automatically. This is extremely useful in Squirrel
and means that an address can be transferred to a letter very quickly
without using a menu. I have also adopted this technique in some of my
programs where <click-drag> is not used for something else, but
unfortunately, many programs use <click-drag> for their own operation.
What do other people think? Could we standardise on a <shift-drag> or
<alt-drag> to do a save. (This would also work with filer windows using
the default or last filename).
5.7
Å    Styles used and unused Ö When I am preparing the magazine, I use one
big file that contains all the things like hints & tips, comments, small
ads, products, etc, so I am forever importing new bits of text into it
and then exporting them back out into the magazine. This means that the
style list grows longer each month so, every now and then, I remove
unwanted styles. To do this, I select the whole text with <ctrl-T> and
pull up the edit styles window with <ctrl-F6>. I click on the style
selection menu button and there is a list showing which styles, in the
whole story, are used and which are unused. I can then select and delete
the ones that arenæt needed (remembering to click the delete button with
<adjust> so that the window stays on-screen).
5.7
Sometimes, I want to remove a style completely even though it is being
used. If so, I select all the text, pull up the style menu and click on
the style to be removed. That will remove all occurrences of it. Donæt
forget though that a style may also be used on a master page, in which
case it will not delete. This can actually be put to good advantage
because I donæt want to accidentally delete, say, öboldò just because it
is not used in the file as it stands. To prevent accidental deletion,
create a new dummy master page, create a text frame and type in a few
choice words and give them the styles that you want to maintain
permanently within the document. They cannot now be deleted acciden
tally. Ö PB
5.7
Å    Kerning Ö On Impression, kerning is extremely easy to achieve,
especially with the keyboard short-cuts. If you want to (R)educe the
space between adjacent characters, simply put the cursor between the two
characters and type <ctrl-R> a number of times. If you over do it,
simply (E)xpand the space a bit using <ctrl-E>. If you canæt make a fine
enough adjustment with <ctrl-R> and <ctrl-E>, go through the menu
options to call up the kerning menu and adjust the number. Remember that
if you want to try a particular number without losing the kerning
window, click on Set with <adjust>, not <select>. For vertical kerning,
use <ctrl-U> to move the text (U)p and <ctrl-J> to er... (J)ump
downwards?! (Can anyone think of a better mnemonic?)
5.7
The trouble with kerning being so easily available is that itæs easy to
hit <ctrl-R, E, U or J> by accident. I have tried to use search and
replace to locate any spurious kerning in a document but cannot find any
way to do it. You can, of course, export the text with styles and load
the text into Edit and search for ö{but I would have liked a simpler
way. Any ideas? Still, if you can see roughly where the spurious kerning
appears, simply go through the menu to get the kerning window up on
screen and use cursor left and cursor right to move the cursor around
through the suspect areas. If you move past a kerning statement, the
numbers will flick up in the kerning window. To remove the kerning,
click <adjust> on the Clear button and go back to using the cursor keys
to search for other kerning statements, finally clicking <select> on
Clear. Ö PB
5.7
Å    Impression speed usersæ tips Ö (Reprinted from Archive 5.5 where the
last two lines were accidentally omitted!) I find that having got into
the habit of using <adjust> for reverse scrolling, it really does save
time, especially when I am laying out the magazine and the screen is
cluttered with windows. Just press <select> to scroll down and switch
quickly to <adjust> to go back up again without having to move the mouse
and locate the other end of the scroll bar Ö which could be under
another window anyway.
5.7
Also, <adjust> can be extremely useful, again with a cluttered screen,
for moving windows whilst keeping them where they are relative to the
other documents. It takes practice, but it speeds things up in the long
run. Ö PB
5.7
Å    Search & replace on styles Ö Impression appears to have the facility
to search and replace on styles. Indeed, you can search for a style
using {nameò }@, where @ is the wildcard for öany textò but, sadly, you
cannot replace with another style name, despite the fact that there is a
menu button on the Search & Replace window to allow you to put a style
name into the Replace box. I donæt know why CC havenæt implemented this
facility. They obviously intended to do so because the menu button on
the Replace box has no other purpose Ö as it stands, it is totally
redundant. Perhaps it could be implemented in Impression III but, in the
meantime, you can do it in Edit, though itæs a bit cumbersome.
5.7
Suppose, for example, that you have a document with various headings all
using öHeadingò (marked on <F2> as Sub-heading) and that you want to
change some of them to a sub-sub-heading, letæs call it öSubHeadò. What
you will have to do is to click somewhere in the text and use <shift-
ctrl-T> to save the text. Save it with styles, perhaps into a ram disc.
Then load that into !Edit and use search & replace to, selectively,
change  into . (The reason for using  is to catch, in one go,  ON} and
OFF} and } all of which can occur in the document.)
5.7
To get it back into the original document, click back in the main text
in the Impression document, select the whole text with <ctrl-T>, set it
all back to base text with <ctrl-B>, delete it and then go back to the
Edit document and save the text into the Impression document. Remember
though to save the document before you start messing about with it in
this way. You can get in an awful mess if you edit the text file
incorrectly.
5.7
If CC canæt add the style search & replace feature into Impression,
perhaps someone could produce a simple editing application for us. As
the Impression text is loaded into it, it would create a list of the
styles available then it would allow you to search and replace using a
menu to provide you with a list of the styles it knows about. Could
someone write that for us, please? If youæd like to have a go, get in
touch with me at Archive. Ö PB
5.7
Å    Style problems Ö When I am preparing the magazine, I save the text of
each of the articles, with styles, as edit files in one directory. I
then have a dummy Archive magazine document into which I insert the
various edit files. If I have a particular space to fill, say about a
page and a half, I link together the title frame and the text frames
that are to make up the article. I know roughly how long each article
is, so I drop one of the edit files into the title frame. Sometimes, it
turns out to be just too short or too long and I want to delete it, but
if I just mark it with <ctrl-T> and delete it and then drop in another
edit file, I find that the whole text ends up in the same style as the
main heading Ö then it really is too long! As far as I am concerned,
this is a bug in Impression. Anyway, the öwork-aroundò is to mark the
whole text and press <ctrl-B> first, to change it all back to base
style, before deleting the text. On a long file, especially if a lot of
it is displayed on screen, this can take quite a time. Does anyone know
a quicker work-around?
5.7
Also, I find that, fairly often, the title is left justified instead of
centred as its style specifies. If I click on the title, type a single
character and delete it, it springs back to the centre Ö another bug,
but one thatæs easy to get round. Ö PB
5.7
Å    RTF loader Ö To transfer WP files from the Mac (or PC versions of
Microsoft Word, I guess) you can use the RTF (rich text format) loader
that comes with the Impression Business Supplement. The RTF loader is
fairly intelligent and knows to swap things like δ into æ because the
fonts on Mac and Archimedes use some different ASCII numbers. However,
unless it has been fixed, it sometimes hangs up with some of these ötop-
bit-setò characters. For example, I was trying to transfer a cook book
and it hung up (the whole machine!) every time it came across a degree
symbol as in 100░C. The answer was to search and replace the degree
symbol into, say, an equal sign or some other character not used in the
text, transfer with the RTF loader and then search and replace back
again. (Some of you may have noticed the repeated occurrence of δ
instead of æ in one of Risc Useræs articles last month Ö I guess they
are still using Macs for their magazine and the Archimedes to Mac
conversion is not as intelligent.) Ö PB
5.7
Å Blank pages printed Ö If your printer sometimes prints blank pages (as
Patrick Dowling explained in Archive 5.6) it is probably because the
printer driveræs bottom margin is set too small. The printer drivers
send all the data they are told to send for the page and then send a
form feed character. If they send so much that the printer just goes on
to its next page and the driver then sends a form feed character the
printer will eject a sheet. Make sure that the printeræs DIP switches
are set to disable perforation skip and check any others which determine
the page size. When entering the bottom margin into the printer driveræs
paper size entry, it is important to be on the conservative side and
make this a fraction larger than you think it ought to be (by a couple
of mm). The only disadvantage to this is that you will lose the ability
to print in this borderline area, but at least you will avoid the
mysterious blank pages which can otherwise occur. Unfortunately, printer
manuals are notoriously awkward, especially when you are looking for the
top and bottom margins, and most of the printer drivers are supplied
with the incorrect default settings (to be fair, some drivers are
written for a range of printers which each have their own unique paper
margins).á Paul Skirrow.
5.7
(I passed this hint on to one of our Technical Help Service members a
couple of weeks ago and she confirmed that it worked. All she did was to
increase the paper size from 297.00 mm to 299.00 mm and she got no more
blank pages. Ed.)
5.7
Å Entering special characters into Impression Ö There is an updated
version of !Chars on this monthæs disc which can enter special charac
ters into Impression without needing to tell Impression which font they
came from. It works just like Chars (or NewChars2 to be precise) and
provides quick selection of common fonts (Dingbats, Symbol, System and
Trinity) as well as passing the font information to Impression in DDF
form. Note that RISC-OS 3 defines the system font to be the same as the
Latin 1 fonts, complete with the ö and ò characters, but RISC-OS 2
doesnæt, so it will help if you use the new System font provided on the
Archive 5.6 program disc if you are using RISC-OS 2.á Paul Skirrow.
5.7
Å    PC file transfer Ö Impression saves text files with an LF-CR termina
tor rather than the CR-LF terminator which is used by most PC programs.
This can confuse a lot of PC programs which automatically ignore the
first character after a LF (which they expect to be a CR), and Computer
Concepts have agreed to fix this some time. áPaul Skirrow.
5.7
In the meantime, you can presumably use !Editæs search & replace
facility to change \x0A\x0D into \x0D\x0A remembering to set the magic
characters to ON. Ed
5.7
Ovation Hints and Tips
5.7
Å Master documents ù Hilary Ferns has sent details of master documents
she has created for use with Ovation. Her design for A4 and A5 letters
will be particularly useful for newcomers to either DTP or Ovation, and
her templates for an A5 four sided leaflet, an A5 booklet, A6 leaflet
and a greetings card or notelet are valuable time savers. With Hilaryæs
permission they are on this monthæs program disc in Ovation format, but
here is just one example of how Hilary used Ovation to produce an A5
four sided leaflet.
5.7

5.7
This is the format of our weekly church news-sheet, which displays news
about all the events in bordered frames Ö rather like the ads page of
the local newspaper. It is printed on A4 paper, photocopied and folded
neatly in half.
5.7
I use an HP Deskjet 500 printer, so all the margin settings are based on
this. Printer paper size is A4.
5.7
1. Set up a new document with the following settings:
5.7
        A4
5.7
        Landscape
5.7
        Single-sided
5.7
        2 columns
5.7
        Gutter 24mm
5.7
Margins ù Top 12mm, Left & Right 12mm, Bottom 8mm
5.7
2. Open up the Master page for your document and include on this any
regular heading, logo, etc. that you may require. We always have our
church logo at the top of the front page, together with a öwelcomeò
greeting. These are placed in picture frames at the top of the right-
hand column, i.e. the front of the leaflet when it is eventually folded.
5.7
3. Obviously, page two will not want these headings, so you will now
need to create a new chapter (öNew Chapter Ö After current Chapterò) and
specify chapter two starting at page two (öModify chapterò). Delete your
frames from page two. Remember too to think about any paragraph styles
that you are likely to use.
5.7
4. Go back to your document and delete the existing pages one and two.
You will now have a simple document with two A4 sheets, each with 2
columns and a wide gutter. Within this framework you can create text and
picture frames, making sure they do not overlap the central guidelines.
I tend to display most of my text in individual text frames with
borders, often with a nested picture frame for a picture or öFontFXò
generated heading. Only rarely do I type directly into the principal
text frame.
5.7

5.7
5. You may want to have text which flows from one page to the next.
However, using the principal text frame, the text will not flow back up
to the öbackò page of the leaflet. To do this you will need to create a
text frame to fit within each column and use the ölinkò tool to flow the
text from the front, to the middle and onto the back. This is quite
simple to work out. (see diagram).
5.7
6. Save your stylesheet. Printing out such a document is straightfor
ward. Change to ölandscapeò on the öPrint setupò before saving
stylesheet.
5.7
The Readers Write!
5.7
Å A first for Impression? Ö This month, Secker & Warburg will be
publishing Transit of Venus, Julian Evansæ account of his travels in the
Pacific which looks at the impact of the West on that part of the world
since Captain Cook first went to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus
across the sun.
5.7
Of particular interest to the DTP column, as the credit page of the book
records, is that it was designed and typeset on an A540 using Impression
II and LaserDirect HiRes, making it (until someone refutes the claim)
the first hardback produced with this combination. In passing, I would
also say that it was done the hard way, via a manuscript written in
Wordstar, which was multi-tasked with the PC Emulator to tidy up the
Impression version set up on-screen alongside. (see Jack Evansæ letter
in Archive 4.12 p13).
5.7
Å A History of Birding World Ö Roy Robinson is the graphics editor of
Birding World ù a subscription-only magazine with a print run of 5,600
and with subscribers in 45 countries. It is produced to a very high
standard and is a good illustration of a natural progression in DTP. It
was originally printed from an Amstrad PCW dot-matrix output with the
PCW being later coupled to an Epson GQ3500 laser printer. However, Roy
got hold of an A3000 & Acorn DTP in 1989 and progressed from dot matrix
output to laser printer. Eventually, he moved to Impression and the
magazine acquired 400 series machines. Since May 1990, the bulk of the
Birding World has been typeset from Impression by disc to a Linotronic
300. It is interesting to note that any last minute changes are pasted
in with text printed directly from CC HiRes Laser Direct Ö which sounds
a good testimony to the quality of that printer.
5.7
Å Computer transcripts of ancient languages Ö A most imaginative use of
FontEd and Impression to produce new fonts has been sent in by Ronald
Alpiar. Heæs undertaking an ongoing programme to produce computer
transcriptions of the earliest surviving New Testament languages e.g.
Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, etc. Heæs also undertaken
colour ink jet printing with his Canon BJ-10e by running each sheet
through the printer four times (for black, red, blue & green) and re-
filling the original ink cartridges. His method is to dismantle the
cartridge, thoroughly wash out the black ink from the cartridge and felt
using distilled water and, after drying, to recharge with coloured inks
from System Insight. If youæve the time for such work, the results are
highly impressive and its a real pity that Archive isnæt printed in
colour so you could appreciate the results! Incidentally, Mr Alpiar is
now experimenting with printing in other media including synthetic and
real sheep and goat parchment, calf vellum and Egyptian papyrus. I look
forward to hearing about the results of this work.
5.7
Å Typesetting bureaux ù There have been a number of queries about
typesetting bureaux and Impression. Does any one know of such bureaux
offering to work directly from Impression documents? If details are
forwarded to Rob, we will publish a list in the near future.
5.7
Linear Graphicsæ LinCAD
5.7
We briefly mentioned details of this package last month, but since then
Iæve had an opportunity to try out the package. I had hoped to write a
full report but for reasons that will become clear (I hope!) this is
more of an interim assessment. LinCAD is aimed primarily at the
education market but it may also appeal to a number of people who would
use it as a design tool or as a specialist graphics package or within
general DTP work. The program requires 2M of memory and the program
installs itself on the icon bar in the usual way, although two addi
tional boxes marked öcurrent actionò and öabsolute co-ordsò are also
placed on the icon bar and initially cover the disc drive icons. After a
brief panic, I found these can easily be repositioned Ö provided no
current action has been selected.
5.7
Initially, you are presented with a worksheet like that of Draw, but
there the similarity ends for LinCAD can be measurement driven, whereas
Draw is object driven. The program has an array of features commonly
used in CAD work; these range from lines with options for thickness,
style, colour, joined, parallel, bisector line, line at an angle,
bisector to two lines, tangent to arc/circle and, perhaps most impres
sively, freehand trace.
5.7
A similar range is also provided with the creation of arc, circle,
triangle, box, spline and bezier curves. Text can be input using both
outline and wireframe fonts Ö the latter are less detailed than outline
fonts (but quicker) and are a usual feature of design work. However,
using outline fonts, text can be manipulated in a wide variety of ways
with predetermined outline and fill colours, although it should be noted
that this colour infilling is restricted to text. You cannot, for
instance, colour shade a circle, although a number of hatching options
are available. To achieve colour filling, the object would have to be
exported to Draw. Perhaps designers donæt colour their objects in this
way, but for the rest of us this would be a bonus!
5.7
I found many desirable features in LinCAD. These include mirror line
which as the name implies, allows everything created on one side of a
line to be simultaneously mirrored on the other. A most impressive
feature is the facility to automatically extrude (either left to right
or right to left) an isometric shape from a block of items on the
worksheet.
5.7
Complete items are output either as LinCAD drawing files, block files
(these contain individual items Ö in effect, mini drawings Ö that can be
saved and re-imported into future work), and can be converted to Draw or
Sprite file format. However, the package does not use the standard RISC-
OS printer drivers, although a number of common printers are supported
e.g., Epson emulation, HP LaserJet/DeskJet and Integrex. Whilst this is
undoubtedly the most common hard copy for CAD work and provides schools
with high quality colour output, it would be good to see more printers
supported in a future release as more general users of the package,
including students, may wish to output using their own printer. A work-
around is to export completed work from the program (using the öconvert
& saveò option) as a Draw file and print that way.
5.7
Overall, LinCAD is a very capable package but I can see a number of
areas that would benefit from improvement in a subsequent release. It is
unfortunate, but not necessarily Linear Graphicsæ fault, that the
program operates in a different way from Draw. Users familiar with that
package, might find some operations (those involving editing, for
example) a little strange at first, although other users, such as school
children, will benefit from the immediacy of the öeraseò action where it
is not necessary to know the construction of the item. You simply point
and rub out! More significantly, I found that while some key short cuts
were supported, many operations involved extensive use of the menu tree,
and if you need to make two or more consecutive selections, that
involves starting from the beginning of the menu each time as clicking
<adjust> didnæt keep the menu on screen in the normal RISC-OS manner. I
am sure these points can be addressed in a future release.
5.7
If I had a wish list, it would include full örubber bandingò. To give an
example: if you have two objects, say a circle and square, joined by a
line and subsequently reposition one of those objects, then with rubber
banding, the line would automatically adjust to the new path. In the
meantime, I would recommend you try and see a demonstration before
purchasing. Its strengths lie in the ability to provide automatic
dimensioning of objects and construction of repeating patterns; its
ability to import pre-drawn objects into the worksheet and the large
range of the facilities built into the program.
5.7
So why isnæt this a full review? The program offers so many combinations
of features that its use can extend well beyond CAD work and I can see
many creative uses to which it can be put. That is the area I will now
begin to explore! I hope we can provide an update in a future DTP Column
and perhaps put some examples, in Draw format, on a future monthly disc.
5.7
The price is ú175 plus VAT for a single user licence and an additional
ú35 + VAT for additional programs on a site. There are also various
library packs to go with the package (e.g. Kitchen design, Electronics,
Pneumatics) and these are ú35 + VAT each but no additional fee is
charged for a site licence on these.
5.7
DTP Swap Area
5.7
This area contains the names and addresses of önewò people who have
agreed to swap DTP material they have published. The aim of this is to
improve one anotheræs skills by the exchange of printed ideas. No money
should change hands.
5.7
If you want to öswapò with anyone, you must ₧rst publish your name and
address and area of interest, and then write directly to whoever you
want to do a öswapò with. The other örulesò were printed in Archive 5.5
p25.
5.7
Just one additional name this month: Hilary Ferns, 9 Bramleys, Kingston,
near Lewes, East Sussex  BN7 3LF, uses Ovation and is interested in a
broad range of DTP work including church leaflets, advertising leaflets
and card design.
5.7
DTP Contributions
5.7
Iæm particularly interested in compiling an article for a future issue
of Archive on scanning and am looking for creative uses of scanning
devices and images. I would be interested in seeing examples of artwork
produced in this way and hope to provide an overview on what sort of
work is being done; what combinations of image, scanner, additional
image manipulation software and printer give good results. Please send
examples on both disc and print with details of the scanner and printer
used and mark them öAttention Ö Richard Else.ò
5.7
Fellow editor, Richard Hallas is compiling an article on the design and
use of fonts using Acornæs FontDraw and David Pillingæs DT2 Fonts. He
will also be making an objective comparison between Ovation and
Impression. Any contributions should be marked öAttention Ö Richard
Hallasò.
5.7
However, all contributions go via the coordinator of the column, Rob
Sherratt, 134 High Road West, Felixstowe, Suffolk  IP11 9AL.
5.7
An SAE guarantees a reply and return of discs. Until next month, when
Neil Whitely-Bolton (our fourth member) will introduce himself, thatæs
all for now and I hope all these names arenæt too confusing!ááA
5.7
5.7
Help!!!!
5.7
Å    A5000 compatibility Ö It would be useful to be able to publish a list
of products that do not work properly on the A5000 / RISC-OS 3. So, if
you have found problems with any software or hardware working on the
A5000 (including problems with RISC-OS 3 itself!) let us know and we
will (a) check them out with the supplier and (b) publish our findings
and their response.
5.7
This will be useful for warning potential purchasers against products on
which they would otherwise waste their money, it will enable suppliers
to report back as and when they get their products working properly on
A5000 / RISC-OS 3 and it will also bring public pressure to bear on
those suppliers who seem reluctant to update their products.
5.7
Å    Desktop Interword or Intersheet Ö Has anyone managed to provide a
desktop interface for either Interword or Intersheet, which allows files
to be double-clicked on or dragged to an icon in RISC-OS and then
Intersheet or Interword loaded from ROM with the appropriate file?á J
Bean, 1 Abrahams Cottages, Fordwells, Nr Witney, Oxford  OX8 5PP.
5.7
Å    !Diary Ö This is a program that appeared in Risc User some time ago
and appeared to work well. Unfortunately, with the coming of Impression
and PipeDream with new CLib, etc it has now started crashing the system.
The Risc User experts havenæt managed to sort out where the problem
lies. Has anyone else managed to get it working?á Danny Fagandini,
Dulwich.
5.7
Å    Hard disc comparison Ö Does anyone know of a program (or could anyone
write a program) that would compare the files on two hard discs by name
and datestamp, making a list (to printer or file) of the files on one
disc that do not appear on the other or have a different datestamp?á
George Foot, Oxted.
5.7
Å    Hardware developers wanted Ö AFE Computer Systems Ltd (Hong Kong),
suppliers of real-time Stockmarket information, are looking for hardware
developers to work as sub-contractors (in UK) on Archimedes communi
cations projects. Please contact Dr Andy Green on fax number
010Ö852Ö543Ö7886.
5.7
Å    Logitech Trackman Ö Is it possible to use the Logitech Trackman
(trackerball type thing) on the Archimedes? If so, can someone tell us
how to fix the connections, please?á Angus Mackenzie, Halesowen.
5.7
Å    MicroStudio Ö Is there any way to make the EMR MicroStudio program
compatible with The Serial Portæs Econet Midi card? R Raes, 29 Vier
Ambachtenstraat, 4551HA Sas van Gent, Holland.
5.7
Å    Science Teachersæ Shareware Ö Are you a science teacher? Have you
written any good science programs or other support material for science
teaching? Would you be prepared to share your materials with other
teachers and receive their materials in return? If so, I would like to
hear from you. I am looking for good quality programs which make good
use of the Archimedesæ facilities for use in secondary school science
departments.
5.7
In order to make the scheme really worthwhile, I will have to insist on
a minimum standard of presentation. Programs do not have to be long and
complex Ö often it is better to have a short simple program which makes
a single point effectively than a long and complex one which requires a
lot of getting used to (and probably doesnæt do what you wanted anyway).
On the other hand, programs must be user-friendly and, as far as
possible, self explanatory. The use of icons and the mouse rather than
the keyboard helps a lot in this respect. Programs which present a blank
screen saying öVelocity?ò will not even be given a second look.
5.7
All programs should be written as a desktop application with a !Run
file, a !Sprites file and a !RunImage file. They do not have to be
multi-tasking, but they should be RISC-OS compatible (i.e. they should
run from and return to the desktop without fuss). In addition, the
application directory should contain a !ReadMe file with a full
description of the purpose of the program, information about the target
age/ability range, etc, suitable NC attainment targets, instructions on
how to run the program and suggestions for its use in the classroom. If
possible, please include support materials such as worksheets. If the
program is compiled, please include the source code. Other types of
material such as worksheets (!Impression and !Draw files only), Genesis
files, etc. would also be welcome.
5.7
Unless you give me other instructions, I will include a standard
copyright message file which acknowledges the authorship and which
contains the following passage: öThis program is NOT public domain. The
copyright belongs solely to... You may copy this disc and give it to
someone else, and you may make small modifications to the source code
and other files on the disc provided that you do not alter this file in
any way other than by adding your own name to the end. If you have found
a use for this program, please send an appropriate sum to the author at
the following address....ò
5.7
All contributions will be acknowledged and eventually, authors should
expect to receive their discs back filled with goodies from other
authors. As editor of the scheme I shall reserve the right to modify,
combine or reject programs but all authors should receive something.
When I have built up a sufficient library of programs, I may be in a
position to advertise them more widely and I may have to make a small
charge to cover administrative costs but copyright and profits will
remain with and return to the authors concerned. I may, of course, get
no programs at all(!) but if you have an offering, send it to Oliver
Linton, Greenacres, Quatford, Bridgnorth, Shropshireá WV15 6QG.
5.7
(We hope this scheme proves useful but I thought I ought to point out
that it is Oliveræs own initiative. Archive has no involvement in, or
control over, this projected scheme. Ed.)ááA
5.7
Help Offered
5.7
Å    Screening cables Ö In Archive 5.6 p8 a suggestion was made about
screening printer/dongle cables. Rather than using a combination of
double-sided adhesive tape plus aluminium foil, why not try adhesive
aluminium tape as used, for example, for intruder alarms. One source of
this is RS Componentsæ stock N║ 609-994, öwindow foilò in 50m reels at
about three pounds a reel.á Bob Ames, Norwich.
5.7
We have also been given some screen ribbon cable for our charity sale.
This is normal printer ribbon cable but with a metal mesh screen layer
and then a strong plastic coating on the outside. You would have to fit
your own connectors onto it, but we can sell 12ö pieces at ú2 Ö in aid
of charity, of course.
5.7
Å    Unix C library Ö In answer to the query last month (Archive 5.6 p7), I
have obtained a copy of a C library that provides Unix system functions.
I will send a copy of this to anyone who sends me a disc (and return
postage, I suggest Ed). Simon Callan, 2 Malden Road, Boreham Wood,
Herts.  WD6 1BW.
5.7
Å    Wonderland on an IDE hard drive Ö Virgin Mastertronics (Magnetic
Scrolls) have now produced a fix which will allow Wonderland to be
installed on IDE hard drives. They can be contacted on 081Ö960Ö2255.ááA
5.7
5.7
Power Search: A Quiet AI Revolution Ö Part 1
5.7
Michael Houlder
5.7
The search and replace function in Twin, the original Arthur OS text
editor, has always been regarded as powerful. The new Desktop C, release
4 of the Acorn ANSI C compiler, has a new version of !Edit called
!SrcEdit which has a very similar, if not identical, function. This is
offered in addition to the rather limited öMagic Charactersò option
which is still supported. !SrcEdit is, in fact, part of the Acorn
Desktop Development Environment and is available also with the new
Desktop Assembler.
5.7
I have written a RISC-OS compliant compiler for a simple structured
language which has, as its basic expressions, search & replace sequences
using the same symbols and format as !SrcEdit. This compiler is now
under test and is awaiting some final interface decisions before
release.
5.7
Since use of the !SrcEdit search & replace function in the various forms
above could be pretty widespread, I thought I would:
5.7
Å    introduce the function to those who have not yet met it,
5.7
Å    give a different perspective for those who have used it before,
5.7
Å    show how experiments can be set up to find out how it works,
5.7
Å    try to identify exactly why the function is so powerful, and
5.7
Å    suggest how powerful filter programs can be built with the availabil
ity of a compiler.
5.7
!SrcEdit Ö a vital open standard
5.7
More and more major programs provide ASCII text data files either
directly or as alternative formats; e.g. Impression with its ÉDocument
Description Fileæ format (DDF), PostScript, Comma Separated Value files
(CSV) for database and spreadsheet software, etc. Text files, of course,
are the medium of exchange for most programming languages.
5.7
This provision is directed towards a need, always, to change data or
extract information from data in a way that suits the individual user.
However, individually tailored data, by itself, is not enough. The way
of changing things must be open and accessible to all potential users.
5.7
!SrcEdit provides the basis of an open standard and an opportunity to
become expert in that standard. It deserves detailed attention for this
reason and also for the reason that its search function is more powerful
than both its forbears in the UNIX world and the majority of similar
functions available on the Archimedes.
5.7
AI enters quietly
5.7
GREP, VI and LEX are program development tools available on all Unix
machines. They are part of the enormous strength of that working
environment. They are available also for the Archimedes under RISC-OS
and may be obtained from David Pilling. The search and replace function
in !SrcEdit descends directly from these and similar tools.
5.7
The language for creating or combining search patterns in these tools
stretches all the way back to 1951, to Prof S. Kleeneæs Éregularæ
expressions for describing just those events that could be recognised by
the simple neural network models available at the time.
5.7
While the search pattern language in !SrcEdit may be close to that of
LEX, etc, its interpretation by the software controlling the search is
open to question. Acornæs documentation is rather sparse and there is no
published specification. Also, some of the more esoteric parts of
!SrcEditæs interpretation appear to be contrived and arbitrary. For my
own purposes, I needed a strong, fully controllable implementation of
!SrcEditæs function. I wanted also to find precisely why the function is
so powerful. And so, I wrote my own code in C to emulate !SrcEdit
closely, but in a consistent and non-arbitrary manner.
5.7
My key experimental conclusion is that the !SrcEdit function is modelled
best by a Éback-trackingæ tree search procedure driven by a Énull
heuristicæ. LEX and the other Unix systems make use of what could be
described as Émaximum lookaheadæ search. (These terms will be explained
in the second instalment of this article.) A Éback-trackingæ tree search
is a standard AI procedure and is substantially more powerful than the
Émaximum lookaheadæ variant used by LEX.
5.7
Hence the title for this piece and my belief that this is how a quiet AI
revolution should happen: by increasing the power of apparently normal
tools with embedded and unannounced AI techniques.
5.7
Patterns and streams
5.7
Moving now to discuss use of the search function and its language, this
section will show the basic intuitions that are involved, as well as
simple usage.
5.7
The most important is the forgetting of any structure in the data. The
text being searched is considered as a stream or list of characters,
including tabs, line feeds, spaces etc. The search function is like a
pointer moving over each character of the stream in turn. A picture of
the process is as follows.
5.7
The movement is predominantly in one direction as shown by the arrow.
5.7
The search function attempts to accumulate a continuous match with the
characters of the search pattern given to it. As shown above, the
pointer is at the initial Élæ of the text string öline of textò. If the
pattern were öline of textò, we would expect the search function to
report success as soon as it had passed the final Étæ of ötextò in the
stream. It would have accumulated successful matches with the search
pattern as it passed over each character of the string öline of textò,
including the spaces and any other non-printable characters. The
following gives a picture of the requirement.
5.7
    Pattern:    l i n e   o f   t e x t
5.7
            ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡
5.7
            » » » » » » » » » » » »
5.7
    Target:    l i n e   o f   t e x t
5.7

5.7
Each character in the pattern is given explicitly. So the pattern
matches the target if, and only if, each character of the pattern is
matched by consecutive characters of the target location in the text
stream.
5.7
At each match success or failure, the pointer moves the target location
on to the next character in the stream. So, after a successful match
with öline of textò, the pointer will be testing a new target location
starting with the line feed character following the word ötextò. Since a
line feed fails to match the first pattern character, that target
location will fail immediately. The next target location to be tested
will start with the character Éaæ from the word öandò on the next line;
and so on to the end of the stream or text file.
5.7
The function is one of search and, optionally, replace. At every target
location that successfully matches the search pattern, the target may be
cut out and the replacement string is inserted in its place at the
useræs discretion. The next target location to be tested starts, as
expected, with the character following the replacement string.
5.7
Take, for example, the need to replace all or some instances of the text
string öline of textò with the string ömeandering streamò. !SrcEdit
offers a dialogue as shown below to control the user input required. The
pattern and replacement strings are inserted into the writeable icons
labelled öFind :ò and öReplace with :ò respectively. Care should be
taken to avoid insertion of unintended spaces as they may not be
visible. The command öGoò starts the search.
5.7
A further dialogue box offers additional control over the search; e.g.
should the search & replacement be selective with replacement of each
successfully matched target being at the useræs option or should all
successful targets be replaced without the need to involve the user?
5.7
Of the other controls shown in the diagram above, only the radio switch
that is labelled öWildcarded expressionsò will be discussed.
5.7
The strict equality between characters in the pattern and and those in
the target is a very limiting condition. Say, at some point in the text
stream, the string öline of textò occurred with a line feed in place of
one of the two spaces. The strict equality condition would cause this
target to fail; a failure which may be contrary to the useræs intention.
5.7
The radio switch öWildcarded expressionsò offers the opportunity to use
a very powerful language to create both search and replacement patterns.
5.7
Search pattern language
5.7
Selection of the radio switch causes a table of control characters to
appear as an extension to the dialogue box. The table is shown below.
Each smaller box in the table contains first a short one-word explana
tion of the function of the language control character which follows it.
So öHexò is an explanation or label for the control character É!æ. It
should be noted that !SrcEdit uses a non-ASCII graphics character
instead of the symbol É!æ.
5.7
The search pattern language consists of characters decided by the user
interspersed by control characters from this table.
5.7
Control characters in the table form five types, as follows, using
labels rather than the symbols themselves:
5.7
Åáoperators : Ctrl, Normal, Hex.
5.7
Åápre-defined sets: Newline, Any, Alphanum, Digit
5.7
Åáset constructors : Set (left), Set (right), Not, To.
5.7
Åárepetitions: 0áorámore, 1áorámore, Most.
5.7
Åáreplacement fields : Found, Field#.
5.7
The first four are used to make search patterns and will be discussed
now. Replacement fields will be described in a second instalment of this
article.
5.7
Search symbols Ö Operators
5.7
An operator transforms the meaning, or even the symbol itself, of the
character or characters following it. Within a search pattern entered in
the !SrcEdit dialogue, an operator symbol, not the corresponding label,
will change how !SrcEdit interprets the character symbols that follow
it. Operators are not part of the pattern to be matched against target
locations; but they help form such a pattern by allowing the entry of
character codes which could not otherwise be entered.
5.7
Ctrl, É|æ, must be followed by one character from the range É@æ to É_æ,
underscore. It transforms that character into the corresponding ASCII
format control code from the range 0 to 31. So ö|zò will correspond to
Ctrl-Z which could mean end-of-file depending on context.
5.7
Normal,É\æ, must be followed by any one character. Without the operator
Normal, the control character symbols from the table are always read as
such by !SrcEdit. Sometimes, the user will need to use one of these
symbols as an ordinary character instead. Normal forces the ordinary
usage of any character. So, ö\|ò will allow the symbol É|æ to be used as
just that character and without its special meaning.
5.7
Hex, É!æ, must be followed by two characters which must be in hexadeci
mal number format. i.e. the characters must be either numbers or letters
from the range Éaæ to Éfæ or ÉAæ to ÉFæ. So, ö!7fò stands for the
decimal number 127 and ö!09ò stands for the decimal number 9.
5.7
Search Symbols Ö Pre-defined Sets
5.7
Take the example we have been using, öline of textò. Assume that a line
feed, a tab, or space occurring between ölineò and öofò, or between öofò
and ötextò, is of no concern. We need to be able to say so in the
pattern language. The mechanism to do this is an ability to define a set
including these items. With a set, rather than a single character in the
pattern which must be equal to that of the target, there is a choice of
any member of the set: space, tab, line feed.
5.7
Four pre-defined sets are defined:
5.7
Å    Newline, É$æ, stands for the set containing only one character, line
feed.
5.7
Å    Any, É.æ, stands for any of the 256 one byte ASCII characters.
5.7
Å    Alphanum, É@æ, stands for the decimal numbers plus the lower case
alphabet plus the upper case alphabet and the underscore character; a
total of 63 characters.
5.7
Å    Digit, É#æ, stands for the decimal numbers, É0æ to É9æ.
5.7
Search symbols Ö Set constructors
5.7
As well as pre-defined sets, set constructors may be used to create sets
specific to the useræs requirements. There are four ways to make such a
user-defined set of characters:
5.7
Å    use the user set constructors [ and ] with a list of members. So [abc]
represents the set a, b, c.
5.7
Å    use the user set constructors [ and ] with a range of members using
the To control character. So [a-d] represents the set a, b, c, d.
5.7
Å    apply the Not operator to a single character. So ~a stands for every
character except a.
5.7
Å    apply the Not operator to any set. So ~# stands for every character
that is not a number.
5.7
So, a set containing space, line feed, and tab would be defined by the
pattern string ö[á$!09]ò where 09 is the ASCII code for a tab. The whole
pattern to ignore a line feed or tab instead of a space in either of the
two locations would be öline[á$!09]of[á$!09]textò.
5.7
Search symbols Ö Repetitions
5.7
The pattern above is still too restrictive. The user might not be
concerned at the number of spaces, tabs, or line feeds that occurred
between ölineò and ötextò. The above pattern will fail if more than one
from the set ö[á$!09]ò occurs in either of the two locations. The
mechanism for handling this problem is an ability to describe repeti
tions within the pattern. There are three different repetition forms:
0áorámore, 1áorámore, and Most. Each of the symbols corresponding to
these labels must be followed by either a specific character, a pre-
defined set symbol or a user-defined set.
5.7
0áorámore followed by the character Éaæ, i.e. ö*aò, will match öaò,
öaaò, öaaaaaò; any number of the character Éaæ occurring next to each
other. It will also match öò; i.e. zero characters, Éaæ, next to each
other. In other words, ö*aò acts as the null pattern which matches
anything at all.
5.7
1áorámore followed by the character Ébæ, i.e. ö^bò, will match öbò,
öbbò, öbbbbò etc; but will not match öò. The pattern requires at least
one Ébæ.
5.7
Most followed by the character Écæ, i.e. ö%cò, will match as many of the
character Écæ as occur next to each other. If it is possible to match
öccccò at a particular target location, then no match of less than four
characters will succeed. In general, saying what ö%cò will match is
difficult without knowing the rest of the pattern of which it may be
part.
5.7
Returning to the example, the user might require at least one space, tab
or line feed in the two locations, but be unconcerned at how many more
than this there are. The pattern in this case would be
öline^[á$!09]of^[á$!09]textò.
5.7
Search pattern grammar
5.7
An English grammar determines how valid language components may be
joined together to make a grammatically correct or valid English
sentence. Similarly, but at a much simpler level, the search pattern
grammar determines how a valid search pattern sequence may be made. A
semi-formal outline of the grammar follows.
5.7
Starting at the top, a valid pattern sequence consists of a number of
valid search components.
5.7
There are four types of valid search component:
5.7
Å    specific character; e.g. the Élæ of öline of textò.
5.7
Å    specific string; e.g. the whole of öline of textò.
5.7
Å    set of characters; e.g. ö[á$!09]ò or ö@ò or ö~#ò.
5.7
Å    repetition; e.g. ö*aò or ö^#ò or ö%[á$!09]ò.
5.7
A specific character is any ASCII character that is not a control
character or any character that has been normalised by the Normal
operator.
5.7
A specific string is any string composed of specific characters put
together.
5.7
A set of characters is either a pre-defined set or a user-defined set as
described in the two sections above on search symbols.
5.7
A repetition is a repetition control character followed by either a
specific character or a set of characters.
5.7
Experimental conclusions
5.7
It is relatively easy to set down a grammar for most simple languages.
The grammar, more or less, states what can and cannot count as valid. It
does not say how valid sentences or sequences are to be interpreted.
This is many times more difficult.
5.7
The easy answer is to say ölook at the softwareò. The way the program
behaves gives all the interpretation that is needed. This is certainly
true, but not very useful if our intention is to understand either how
to use the software or how the software works. We are left with the need
to extract our own explanatory model from what we see of the programæs
behaviour.
5.7
We have two problems in attempting to do this:
5.7
Å    we may experience only a small part of the behaviour of a complex
program. Therefore, we may build our own explanatory model on insuffi
cient information.
5.7
Å    we may find it difficult to integrate arbitrary and inconsistent
program behaviour into a clean and intelligible explanation. Our
difficulty may be subjective or objective. It is subjective if our
ability is insufficient to extract real explanations. It is objective if
the program was written in an arbitrary and inconsistent way. It should
be noted that any real engineering project is going to present both
subjective and objective problems in this area.
5.7
Interpretation for the search pattern language is saying how sequences
or sentences in the language match against a range of possible targets.
The difficulties lie in interpreting combinations of search components,
not the individual components themselves.
5.7
The following are the main interpretation rules that I have been able to
extract from experimentation with !SrcEdit and which have enabled me to
build an effective emulation:
5.7
Å    any 1áorámore repetition can be written as either a specific character
or a set of characters followed by a 0áorámore repetition. In other
words, ö^[á$!09]ò could be rewritten as ö[á$!09]*[á$!09]ò.
5.7
Å    any Most repetition that is not the last component in a sequence is
equivalent to a 1áorámore repetition. i.e. ö%abcò equals ö^abcò since
the repetition ö%aò is followed by öbcò.
5.7
Å    any combination of 0áorámore components matches by filling in from the
left. i.e. Extend the match of the leftmost component as far to the
right as possible before matching the next-to-leftmost 0áorámore
component.
5.7
Å    any 0áorámore repetition that is the final component of a sequence is
a null component. Any 0áorámore may match with a zero target but any
final such component must match with a zero or null target.
5.7
Å    the null pattern sequence is invalid. A null sequence is composed of
null components. i.e. only 0áorámore components. Such a sequence is
invalid.
5.7
Å    any Most repetition that is the final component of a sequence matches
as far as possible to the right.
5.7
With these rules, a very simple and clear model can be built for
interpreting search sequences. The next instalment of this article will
describe the model and explain the Éback-trackæ tree search algorithm
using this model.
5.7
The definition and interpretation of replacement patterns will also be
covered. Their use in experiments will be detailed and the practical
purpose behind my compiler will be shown. ááA
5.7
5.7
Snippet
5.7
Jochen Konietzko
5.7
Snippet, from 4Mation, is a combination of a screen capture program and
a sprite editor.
5.7
The package
5.7
The box contains a disk with the program itself and an installation
routine which vanishes after you have typed in your name. The handbook
(42 pages, table of contents, index), with lots of screen shots, is very
detailed Ö if sometimes a bit too basic (it even reminds the users to
switch on their machines before loading Snippet). My version of the
handbook came with two sheets of addenda; apparently, the fine tuning of
Snippet is still very much in progress.
5.7
Program features
5.7
Snippet is fully RISC-OS compliant. It installs an icon on the icon bar
and puts two modules into the RMA. Snippet needs about 190k of memory in
all but if you only want the screen shot facility, the amount of space
used is just 25k of RMA.
5.7
The screen shot module is very powerful; by pressing two keys at the
same time (by default both <Alt> keys) the whole screen or any part of
it can be saved or saved in compressed form or printed; this works not
only on the desktop, but also with Basic programs and the 6502 emulator
(these sprites may have to be edited because I found some strange colour
effects in some saved 6502 screens). According to the Snippet handbook,
PC emulator screens canæt be saved; with version 1.7 of the emulator,
however, there were no problems at all Ö both PCEm and PCEms screens
could be saved quite easily.
5.7
The second part of the program is öSnippet the Utilityò, which offers
all the facilities of Paint, and beyond this the following extras:
5.7
Åásprites can be combined to create montages,
5.7
Åáborders may be added,
5.7
Åácolours of sprites may be changed quite easily,
5.7
Åáthe Colours window does not have to be continuously on the screen; it
appears under the pointer every time you click <adjust>
5.7

5.7
Åáthe size of sprites may be changed (by zooming, then doing a renewed
screen save),
5.7
Åásprites can be rotated,
5.7
Åátext may be entered using any of the fonts in the !Font directory,
5.7
Åáone sprite may be used as background for another (you can, for
example, type in a text, and the letters are not black but show the
pattern of the background sprite, as if a sheet of paper, with cut-out
letters, had been placed onto a second, textured sheet),
5.7

5.7
ÅáBBC screens may be converted to Archimedes sprites,
5.7
Åásprites may be converted between modes,
5.7
Åáall sprites in the Pictures directory may be shown as an automatic
öslide showò with the Carousel option,
5.7
Åáoutlines can be softened with the ödisperseò option which is similar
to the spray can except that it just rearranges the colours by swapping
randomly selected pixels,
5.7
Åáfor exact positioning of any elements in a drawing, a grid can be
superimposed which separates individual pixels (only with magnifications
of at least 400%).
5.7
Problems
5.7
Colour handling is very simple in 16 colour modes, but not in 256 colour
modes: The palette shown always has just 16 colours, so that you have to
use the sliders if you need any other colours; you canæt just pick them
out by pointing at the right one.
5.7
I have found a few incompatibilities: The ZoomBoxer module which causes
a Mac style animation of opening and closing windows and the PlaceIt
backdrop program cause fatal errors and have to be removed before
running Snippet (neither Glynn Clementsæ SuperBD nor Martin Wⁿrthneræs
NeXT style AppDock create any problems), and the desktop must not be
configured in such a way that windows can be pushed off the edges,
because Snippet tends to place newly opened windows with their title bar
just above the upper edge of the screen (this may cause trouble with
RISC-OS 3! If you like a ölimitlessò desktop under RISC-OS 2 and still
wish to use Snippet, you should get hold of F.Oeinckæs NoBound module
which can be easily killed and then loaded again after leaving Snippet);
other than that, Snippet has never, in the first eight weeks of regular
use, produced any errors on my machine.
5.7
Conclusion
5.7
For those who want to capture screens where up to now they found it
impossible (in single tasking games, for example!), and for those who
found the sprite manipulations offered by Paint not quite sufficient,
this is an excellent buy!
5.7
Snippet is produced by 4mation Educational Resources and costs ú29 +VAT
(ú31 from Archive).ááA
5.7
5.7
Landmarks: Rainforest and The Victorians
5.7
Hugh Eagle
5.7
(Editoræs comment... Hugh sent in the following review which isnæt too
complimentary. When we get such a negative review, we try to double-
check to make sure that it isnæt overly critical. We have therefore sent
a copy of the review to Longman for their comments and have also shown
The Victorians to a practising teacher to see how she got on with it.
She did not see Hughæs review.
5.7
Longman Logotron and Stephen Grand, the software author, have been given
the öright of replyò which they have taken up and their comments follow
those of Andrea Rosinger.)
5.7
Landmarks: Rainforest and Landmarks: The Victorians are two programs in
a series of simulations designed to allow pupils to talk, through the
computer, to a girl called Betumi in the present-day South American rain
forest or a boy called Ernest in a Victorian mill town. The programs are
open-ended in that there is no specific plot or task to achieve. They
have no purpose other than to allow the user to find out as much as
possible about the worlds that they present. They are produced in
conjunction with a schoolsæ television series, but can be used indepen
dently of it. They are published by Longman Logotron and cost ú19 plus
VAT each (ú21 inc VAT through Archive.)
5.7
Our previous experience with öeducationalò software on the Archimedes
has been with Droom, which has given us all many hours of pleasure. As
three years have passed since that was produced, and vast improvements
have been made in the quality of Archimedes software generally, we had
great expectations of these two programs, especially bearing in mind
that they come from one of the most highly regarded suppliers in the
field. Unfortunately, we have experienced little but disappointment and
frustration.
5.7
Before I continue, I must point out that we have reviewed the software
as home users. We cannot comment on its value for use in schools. Our
children have looked at the programs both with their parents and with
their friends and have spent as much time on them as we imagine they
would have done in the classroom, if not more. Our idea was that they
would write the review themselves and, initially, they were quite
interested but they rapidly became disappointed and bored, and soon we
all felt that we were sticking with the software more out of duty than
pleasure.
5.7
So what is wrong?
5.7
First, the öuser interfaceò: apart from the fact that two windows are
displayed, one containing the text and the other pictures designed to
illustrate the text, no use whatsoever is made of the Archimedesæ
superior capabilities ù not colour; the pictures are in black and white
ù not the mouse; all the dialogue has to be typed in (although you can
use the cursor keys for Go North, South, etc.) ù not speed of response
nor the way the program conveys information: everything the computer
says to you is typed out at a snailæs pace (even with an ARM3).
5.7
You might just as well be using a BBC micro were it not for the
pictures, but they are of a dismal standard. They are monochrome, low-
resolution and dark ù with few exceptions it is difficult to make out
what they are showing. Theyære so depressing to look at that they
detract from rather than enhance the enjoyment of the program. They show
you hardly anything that is not mentioned in the text and contribute a
lot to the general sense of frustration. At the very beginning of öThe
Victoriansò there is a picture that clearly shows (well, not clearly,
but through the gloom all one can see is) a horse in the middle of the
road, so you ask Ernest to describe the horse. What does he say? öI
canæt see it.ò
5.7
These programs do actually achieve one thing that would not be possible
on a BBC and that is keep track of time ù if you switch off and come
back a day later, you find that a day has passed in the imaginary world.
Although this is initially mildly intriguing, so far as we can see, it
is merely a gimmick. You may find yourself in a new place on your
return, but otherwise the passing of time doesnæt seem to be used as an
opportunity to add anything to the experience. In fact, it can serve to
frustrate: in öThe Victoriansò on day four Ernest tells you it is Sunday
and he is önot allowed outò, and the program ends abruptly just when you
think he might be doing something interesting (at last!) like going to
church. Incidentally, none of the children was inclined to persevere
until day 4: only my wife, who says she has nothing better to do(!), had
the stamina.
5.7
The manual says that the techniques used in these programs öhave been
developed from the familiar computerised Dungeons-and-Dragons adventure
games, although at a level of sophistication well beyond all but the
very best.ò Have the authors seen Wonderland, I wonder?
5.7
This brings me to the second main complaint which is that the protagon
ists seem very stupid. They fail to understand half the questions you
ask, even the most obvious ones, and even when theyære about things that
the manual has suggested you find out about. They forget what they told
you only seconds before and once they have started their spiel there is
no way of interrupting them. Also, they refuse to describe things that
are in front of their noses.
5.7
A typical conversation proceeds as follows (bear in mind that the
pupilsæ booklet encourages you to find out as much as you can about
Victorian dolls and dollsæ houses):
5.7
Ernest:    I am in my sistersæ bedroom.
5.7
Us:    What can you see?
5.7
Ernest:    Thereæs only sissy girlsæ things in here. You know, dolls and
all that. I can see a doll-house and some dolls.
5.7
Us:    Describe the dolls.
5.7
Ernest:    Some of them have got china heads, but the best ones have got
wax heads. All of them have got bodies made out of cloth, filled with
stuffing. Theyære wearing old-fashioned dresses, with big crinolines,
like nobody wears no more.
5.7
Us:    What are crinolines?
5.7
Ernest:    Who cares? What shall us do now?
5.7
Us:    Describe the doll-house.
5.7
Ernest:    Some of them have got china heads ..... [ and so on as before,
with no way of interrupting the flow! ]
5.7
It may be that we are the stupid ones, and that if only we persevered we
could learn a lot from this software, but it didnæt take much of this
sort of thing to persuade us that we would be better off reading a book,
or going to a museum, or watching telly to find out about the Victorians
or the rain forest .... and we would certainly get more out of playing
Lemmings, which to my mind has far more educational content than these
most disappointing programs.ááA
5.7
Landmarks Ö The Victorians
5.7
Andrea Rosinger
5.7
The children (Year 6) already under way with their Victorian topic, were
enthusiastic to tackle the program. (Their thirst for using the computer
is insatiable and they even stayed in at playtime!) However, after two
or three short sessions their enthusiasm began to wane.
5.7
The information contained nothing really new to them, even after only a
short time on the topic, and they found ÉErnestæ a little bland! It was
good to have öphotographicò images but this undoubtedly encouraged the
children to want to see more Ö the inside of the school, the privvy,
etc!
5.7
It was a shame that the program was not more complex; the children
expected to be dealing with a simulation with a problem to solve, not
just find that they had to refer to books to answer questions that they
had no real motivation to answer. The cave was a repeatedly visited
locality and a great source of interest but it never really revealed
anything new.
5.7
The pupilæs booklet accompanying the program appeared boring to the
children although it covered several of the öquestionsò we were involved
with in our own research Ö it would have been more appealing if the
questions had come from the computer with ideas and help-lines in the
booklet.
5.7
The program was voted a poor second to our TV programme (How we used to
Live) Iæm afraid, despite their initial enthusiasm and eagerness to give
it a try.
5.7
Personally, I feel that it has possibilities if the Éstorylineæ is
developed, but it is rather shallow and undemanding for Upper Juniors or
any child with a good experience of computing and its possibilities.ááA
5.7
Longmanæs Response
5.7
Nicola Bradley of Longman Logotron replies.... Luckily, we donæt all
like the same movies or the same computer software, and Hugh Eagle and
Andrea Rosinger are fully entitled to their opinion of our Landmarks
packages. However, thank you for giving us an opportunity to comment on
their reviews. Our first point is that these programs have been very
well received generally by reviewers and teachers Ö selling more than
10,000 copies last year, with hardly any returns from dissatisfied
customers.
5.7
The second point we would like to make is that designing software for
the classroom is really not the same as designing an educational game
for home use. Interestingly, the Landmarks author, Stephen Grand, is
also a successful games author. To quote him on just one of the points
raised by Hugh Eagle: öThe output is not slow because the code is
inefficient, but because it is deliberately slowed to an average 9 year
oldæs reading pace. This helps to support the feeling that the replies
come from a human being ... Slow output always irritates adults, but
never the children. In the classroom, the children (working in a group)
tend to read the text aloud, then discuss their response at length.
Nothing would be gained by printing at a faster rate.ò
5.7
Our third point is that Landmarks has to be judged on its own terms: ö
... the children expected to be dealing with a ... problem to solveò.
This isnæt what Landmarks is for; it is designed to help children gain a
feeling for time and place, to provide a map for the imagination on
which later work can build. The middle of a project is probably not the
best place for a session with Landmarks; it would be more appropriately
used as a starting point. Anyway, thank you for noticing our soft
ware.ááA
5.7
Landmarks is also available for Nimbus and IBM which may explain why the
user interface is not as good as Archimedes users have come to expect. I
presume, too, that the program was prepared on Nimbus or IBM and then
ported across onto Archimedes because Stephen Grand points out in his
letter that, öI neither own, nor, if avoidable, use an Archimedesò.
Ed.ááA
5.7
5.7
Tower of Babel
5.7
Jochen Konietzko
5.7
Cygnus Softwareæs öTower of Babelò is a strategy game without any
element of chance. Each scene has a well defined goal (destroy some
objects, collect others, with or without time limit) and, in most
scenes, it is possible to look at the setup and devise a strategy before
the clock starts running.
5.7
The package
5.7
The game arrives in a black cardboard box which was reminiscent of the
old AcornSoft boxes for the BBC Model B.
5.7
It contains one disk Ö with 719 k of game and a module for streamlining
the RAM of 1M machines to make running the game a possibility Ö and a 45
page handbook which contains...
5.7
Å    the story behind the game; this is somewhat inconsistent, as there is
talk about a tower which was built with the help of three inter-galactic
robots who want to leave against the wishes of the locals, and who have
to reach the top of the tower to signal to their space ship; in the game
itself, however, each level contains nine scenes and each of these
scenes is called a tower.
5.7
Å    a detailed description of all the objects encountered in the course of
the game
5.7
Å    descriptions of the nine short tutorial games on the disk
5.7
Å    a tower designer(!) which can be used to build additional towers
5.7
The tower designer
5.7
The scope of the game is best understood by looking at the designer
first.
5.7
Each scene (tower) consists of up to four floors (levels), each with up
to 8╫8 squares Ö the whole setup resembles four chess boards, often with
squares missing, stacked vertically.
5.7
Traffic between floors is possible with lifts.
5.7
The player has at his disposal three specialised spider-like robots,
descriptively named Zapper, Pusher and Grabber.
5.7

5.7
They have to cooperate to reach the goal set but a large number of
nasties try to prevent them. There are fixed and mobile zappers, fixed
and mobile pushers (if a spider is hit by a pusher beam, it becomes
inactive until it has been pushed to the very end of the field and, as
the pushers are indestructible, this may be the end of the game if the
spider is pushed into a dead end), proximity mines and time bombs, floor
eating lizards, crawling worms and Éwatchersæ.
5.7
The last two donæt hurt but they get in the way, and sometimes it is
extremely hard to get past them. There are also helpful pieces like
glass blocks which can be pushed into the line of fire of the zappers,
reflecting their beams and thus destroying them, remote controls for the
lifts and Éfreezersæ which stop all enemy action for a few seconds.
5.7

5.7
Each scene can be tailor made with the help of several menus; every
surface can be coloured with one of 256 colours, and the sky can be
decorated with moons, meteors, thunder and lightning.
5.7
There is no music, just the sounds belonging to the individual scenes Ö
soft steps of the spiders, explosions, hum of large machines and
thunder.
5.7
The game
5.7
The game is completely mouse controlled. All operations of the game
itself can be performed by clicking <select>. The player can look at the
scene through any one of seven Écamerasæ, one for each of the three
robots, and four positioned outside of the tower to the north, east,
south and west. The robots can fire (shoot, push or pull respectively),
move forward, backward, turn left or right and the outside cameras can
be moved up, left, right and down with the same controls.
5.7
The screen can be configured in several ways. There are three styles for
the control panel, the robot cameras can be inside the robot or above
and behind.
5.7

5.7
The scenes are shown in full three-dimensional perspective Ö even the
sounds fit quite nicely into the geometry: An explosion that happens
nearby is very loud whilst one which occurs at the other end of the
field it is hardly audible.
5.7
All this needs an enormous amount of computation, with two consequences.
Firstly, all objects are strictly geometrical, so that the machine can
compute all changes (like the gradual shrinking of a retreating scene)
fast enough. However, I found that after a few absorbing minutes, that
the lack of cute pixel graphics does not really matter any more.
5.7
Secondly, ARM2 owners will notice a limitation on their machines: When a
scene is crammed with objects, only the ARM3 is able to handle fast
camera moves smoothly, without short stops.
5.7
The right hand side of the control panel is used for programming the
robots. Sometimes, in a scene with a time limit, all three robots have
to do things simultaneously to be finished in time and the player can
control only one robot at a time. However, each robot can perform up to
eight operations in programmed mode (bottom right).
5.7
The difficulty of the problems varies considerably; there are some very
simple scenes and others which I still have not solved after a dozen or
so tries. However, as you can proceed to the next group of nine scenes,
once you have solved seven of the nine in the present group, it is
possible to save the few very difficult ones for later.
5.7
Conclusion
5.7
Tower of Babel has me totally addicted Ö I had to limit myself to
solving one scene a day. Things will be even better for those who have
other game owners within reach, because they can exchange their own
scenes created (very easily) with the tower designer. The only (very
minor) niggle I have is the fact that the game was so very obviously not
written for the Archimedes (there is a credit for the ö68000
programmingò in the hand book); there are pull down menus (lots of them
Ö to leave a game that is still running you have to click on no less
than 8 fields in a series of menus) and the handbook keeps talking of
öthe left mouse buttonò.
5.7
Other than that, I can most thoroughly recommend it to anyone who loves
strategy games.
5.7
The UK price is ú29.95 inc. VAT (ú28 from Archive).ááA
5.7
5.7
Archway and HelixBasic
5.7
Brian Cowan
5.7
Many people would like to create their own desktop multitasking
applications. There are a number of different ways in which one could go
about such a task. At one extreme, the ösledgehammerò approach, would be
to read the Programmeræs Reference Manual from cover to cover Ö in other
words to start from scratch. At the other extreme, one can start with
some simple but well-written existing application and modify (cobble) it
to perform the required task. There is also a whole range of possibili
ties between these two.
5.7
Intermediate, but closer to the first suggestion, one could follow the
comprehensive series of articles on this topic which have appeared in
some of the magazines, including Archive. Nearer to the second extreme
is to work from a specially written application öshellò, the bare bones
of an application, produced specifically for developing into realistic
software. Two examples of these, which spring to mind, are the PD Wasp
(Wimp Application Support program) demonstration, written by Jan-Herman
Buining, and the Icon Bar Shell, written by Ben Avison and published in
the June 1991 Risc User and recently extended. This approach can be
quite a gentle and enlightening introduction to WIMP programming,
particularly if the shell program is well-documented.
5.7
The trouble with the sledgehammer-like approaches is that a large
investment in time and effort must be made before even the simplest of
applications can be produced. The other extreme seems attractive. It has
the (apparent) merit that one does not have to understand everything in
the programs and one proceeds on a trial and error basis. The disadvan
tage here is in the unforeseen problems which may arise; if you donæt
thoroughly understand your program then disaster will strike sooner or
later. Whichever of these approaches you adopt, your programs will
contain large chunks of routine WIMP-management code.
5.7
Archway and HelixBasic are systems for the production of desktop
application programs which have been designed to circumvent most of the
above-mentioned problems.
5.7
HelixBasic
5.7
HelixBasic is a Basic interpreter which is used instead of the Acorn
interpreter. Its intention is to do everything that the Acorn interpre
ter does, while providing an extensive range of commands for controlling
the WIMP. One review of HelixBasic said that this was the Basic
interpreter which Acorn should have provided with the Archimedes. I
could not agree more. However, if it had been produced by Acorn, I think
it would have been rather different Ö maybe this will give Roger Wilson
some ideas!
5.7
Programming environment
5.7
In fact, HelixBasic provides an entire environment for the creation of
desktop applications. There are standard !Boot, !Run and !RunImage files
which are part of a prototype application, and a !Sprites file which
would be created using Paint. The body of the program is in a text (file
type FFF) file called BasicProg, although it can be öcrunchedò for
security reasons if required.
5.7
One has the choice of using the HelixBasic editor for creating every
thing, or else the BasicProg may be written using a text editor. I chose
the latter option because there were some bugs in my first version of
the editor which caused it to crash without warning. I was later to
discover that only applications written using the HelixBasic editor can
be subsequently reloaded into the editor for modification.
5.7
Documentation
5.7
Initially, I was rather daunted by the HelixBasic manual. It comprises
some 240 pages and it is more in the nature of a programmersæ reference
manual: plenty of technical details but no overview or introduction to
the system. There was also a small addendum. Luckily there is a 28 page
tutorial booklet devoted mainly to the construction of an example
application: a graph plotter. This was all very instructive.
5.7
Getting started
5.7
I read the tutorial booklet, skimmed through the manual and started
creating my first HelixBasic application. One of the things I like about
interpreted languages is that you can try your program out as you go
along. I created an application which installed itself on the icon bar.
With a few extra lines I had produced the Info box with its text which
behaved in the standard RISC-OS manner. It was just as easy to create a
save box which opened up when required. The next job was to actually
make the application do something. I decided to reach for one of my
standard öworkhorseò programs: a fast Fourier transform. With the final
application, I would drag a file of data to the application, the Fourier
transform would be calculated and the file of results would be dragged
to a window to be saved.
5.7
Since HelixBasic is supposed to support the entire Basic V repertoire of
instructions, the next part of the job was easy. My Fourier transform
program already consisted of a procedure, so I simply included the text
version of this in the BasicProg, to be called from the body of the
program. With my finished application I was eager to try it out.
5.7
Debugging
5.7
Disaster! The program crashed and the process of debugging began.
Experienced WIMP programmers will know what a problem this is because
the whole machine can öhang upò. I had been warned that HelixBasic did
not, as yet, implement the returning of parameters from procedures, so
this was the first modification to be made. It then transpired that
arrays could not be passed in a procedure, necessitating further
alterations. By this stage, I was despairing of getting the thing
running. The final hurdle was overcome when I discovered that multiple
statements on a line separated by colons were not supported.
5.7
The acid test
5.7
Finally my application would run. I was quite excited at this and I
eagerly embarked on some speed tests to study the efficiency. Using my
Helix Basic application, a 1024 point Fourier transform took approxi
mately one hundred seconds. This is to be compared with a similar Basic
V application (using Archway) which completed the same tasks in under
two seconds.
5.7
The lesson to be learned from all this is that one departs from Acornæs
Basic interpreter at ones peril (unless it is to use a compiled language
such as C). I think that for all its attractions of simplicity,
HelixBasic is still at a very early stage of its development, with many
flaws remaining to be ironed out.
5.7
Archway
5.7
In philosophy, Archway is similar to HelixBasic except that it operates
within Acorn Basic V so that one has the full power and compatibility
from the start.
5.7
Archway comes on four colour coded discs. The programs must either be
installed on a hard disc, or a system floppy disc must be created. At
Archwayæs heart is a library of Basic V functions and procedures for
managing the WIMP side of things so that, again, simple applications can
be produced with only a few lines of code. However, Archway is much,
much more than just this; it is an entire application development
environment with utilities or ötoolsò to assist in almost every stage of
producing a complex piece of desktop software.
5.7
Complexity
5.7
I was initially rather intimidated by Archwayæs complexity. It seemed
that a fairly large investment in time needed to be made before the
simplest of applications could be created. The question is whether that
is worthwhile. Perhaps one would be better off studying the Programmeræs
Reference Manual and writing applications from scratch. However, it soon
becomes apparent that there is so much routine WIMP öbook-keepingò code
that is required in applications and that this is often rather similar
from program to program. Thus it makes a lot of sense to have a number
of different program öshellsò to which some ready-made procedures may be
added.
5.7
Program structure
5.7
Archway programs do not have a Templates file. Instead there Windows
file which is edited, not with Acornæs FormEd application but from
within Archway tools. As with HelixBasic, there are tutorial examples to
get you going, although they are much more extensive and they require
more concentration to get into them. The manual also provides much
useful information, although its 300 or so pages can be rather daunting
at first sight. Incidentally, there is also a most extensive collection
of useful functions and procedures covering such areas as mathematical,
statistical and calendar calculations. In all, Archway is a system which
will handsomely repay the investment in learning how to use it.
Ultimately, there is no limitation to its potential because new features
can be provided in Basic code if required.
5.7
Comparison
5.7
The areas of application of these two packages is rather different.
HelixBasic was originally seen as being suitable for teachers wishing to
write small desktop programs for school applications. This is quite an
appropriate task where it would function well. The idea of a Basic
interpreter which includes WIMP support in such a natural way is quite
brilliant. My reservations are in the areas of compatibility, speed and
versatility. However, for simple programs, this is not too much of a
limitation and the benefits of such simple programs are overwhelming.
HelixBasic is still under development and a new version of the editor is
currently being produced. I understand that a compiler may also become
available later in the year.
5.7
For those people wishing to produce more complex programs and programs
which run at full speed, Archway is the appropriate product. It is
possible to get a long way using the Archway manual, although eventually
most users will want to refer to the Acorn Programmers Reference Manual.
One of the beauties of the Archway system is that the full power of the
WIMP is always at ones disposal. Archway is also under continuing
development and I understand that the next version is being brought into
line with RISC-OS 3.
5.7
Archway costs ú99.95 inc VAT and is produced by Simtron, 4 Clarence
Drive, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 4RZ. (ú92 through Archive.)
5.7
HelixBasic also costs ú99.95 inc VAT and is available from Craddock
Computer Systems, 20 Osyth Close, Brackmills Industrial Estate,
Northampton NN4 0DY. (ú92 through Archive.)ááA
5.7
5.7
DTP Ö Acorn, Macintosh or PC?
5.7
The following is an extract from öDTP using Acorn Systemsò published by
Norwich Computer Services. It is 20 page booklet, price 75p, giving a
great deal of useful information for anyone thinking of buying a DTP
system and wondering what equipment and software is needed.
5.7
There is still a great deal of pressure to use Apple Macs or PC
compatibles (see the articles on pages 11 and 12 of DTP using Acorn
Computers). The reason generally given is the need to be compatible with
other users. Some people write off Acorn systems as being öodd-ballò and
therefore not worthy of consideration. We believe that compatibility
should taken be into account as one factor but it should not be allowed
to obscure the other issues. The questions is, which really is the best
DTP system for your particular needs?
5.7
öYouære biassed!ò
5.7
Some people will, quite reasonably, say that an Acorn dealer is not
exactly the best person to edit an independent review of the relative
merits of three systems, only one of which he sells! When you see the
price/performance figures, you will think we are exaggerating the claims
and fiddling the figures. In fact, we have done just the reverse. We
have been careful to take the lowest price figures we could find for
Macs and PCs and quoted list price figures on much of the Acorn
equipment and ignored available discount prices.
5.7
Also, to validate the comparisons, we employed two independent con
sultants. Steve Nichols, MAIE, DIP, who writes and lectures about DTP on
Mac and PC systems helped us to compare Macs and PCs. Because Steve had
no experience of the Acorn systems, we also employed Carol Atack, a
journalist and author. Carol uses Macs exclusively in her work but works
closely with several ardent Acorn system users. Carol is very strongly
pro-Mac so, as well as getting her to check the main three-way compari
son, we have given her space to explain why she prefers Macs. However, I
have taken the opportunity to put some counter arguments alongside her
comments. There are, of course, differences of opinion Ö some things are
a matter of taste Ö but Carol and Steve have been given opportunity to
check the facts which, we think, speak for themselves.
5.7
Other Contributions
5.7
We have also had considerable help from Rob Sherratt who spends much of
his time during the day doing DTP on a Mac IIci. He then comes home in
the evening and helps his wife Carole to run her commercial DTP business
in which she uses Acorn systems. (We also know him as the Archive DTP
Column editor and coordinator!)
5.7
We are also very grateful to Ivor Humphreys of General Gramophone
Publications Ltd who uses both Acorn systems and Macs in a professional
setting. He too has checked through the comparison for us.
5.7
The Comparison
5.7
The comparison was done by starting with a system specification and
seeing how well it could be implemented using each of the three types of
computer and seeing how much it would cost. The specification was as
follows:
5.7
Å    easy to use WIMP interface and filing system
5.7
Å    line / object oriented graphic drawing
5.7
Å    good document preparation system with English spelling checker
5.7
Å    display 256 colours at better than 640 by 480 pixel resolution
5.7
Å    scalable PostScript compatible fonts for screen and printing (about 5
font families)
5.7
Å    fast 600 d.p.i. laser printer
5.7
Å    scanning capability of 400 d.p.i. with up to 256 greyscale
5.7
Å    ability to create sprite (pixel) graphics in up to 256 colours,
capture screen images and edit scanned images
5.7
Å    as much compatibility as possible with other file systems and formats
to allow transfer of text and graphics.
5.7
5.7
Notes on the System Comparison
5.7
In a simple table, it is not really possible to do justice to all the
arguments, so here is some more discussion of various issues raised in
the comparison on the previous to pages.
5.7
Filing system speed
5.7
The reason for the speed difference between Mac IIci and A540 is partly
due to the way Apple have implemented the SCSI filing system which is
acknowledged to limit the speed more than it could. We measured the time
taken to load Impression II and a 2.8M document on an A540 and found
that they loaded into memory in under 10 seconds. To load PageMaker onto
a Mac IIci takes about 30 seconds and to load a large DTP file can take
a similar length of time. However, the difference in speed of response
is not just the speed of the SCSI filing system but is also partly due
to the way the two systems use memory. (See note opposite on memory
usage.)
5.7
Scalable fonts
5.7
Whilst it is true that the numbers of fonts available for the Apple Macs
must run into the thousands, there are one or two other points that
should be noted. First of all, the majority of DTP users are unlikely to
want more than a small handful of fonts Ö which are available on the
Acorn systems at less than half the cost of Mac fonts.
5.7
Secondly, the vast majority of the Mac fonts are Latin1 fonts, i.e. if
you are dealing purely with Western European languages there is no
problem. However, the number of Mac fonts available in Latin2, 3, 4 or 5
is much more limited as is the supply of non-Latin alphabets. The
Electronic Font Foundry has a list of 285 Latin 1 fonts, modest by Mac
standards, perhaps, but these same fonts are also available in Latin2,
3, 4 and 5. They also have 8 Cyrilic fonts, 6 Greek fonts, a Hebrew font
and 48 Indian fonts as well as several symbol fonts.
5.7
So, for the vast majority of users, the limited number of scalable fonts
is not a significant factor in the comparison.
5.7
Laser printer speed and cost
5.7
The reason that the Laser Direct printers are so fast and so cheap is
that they use a different technique from most laser printers. If you are
using a conventional PostScript laser printer, the computer ödescribesò
the page Ö i.e. what words in what sizes and fonts, and what lines,
shapes, shades, etc go where on the page. This page description is sent
down to the printer which has its own micro-processor and memory. The
printeræs processor then works out what dots go where on the page and
then prints the page.
5.7
With the Laser Direct, the computer does all the calculation of what
dots go where on the page and that information is then sent down to the
printer. This represents a lot of data to transmit, so Computer Concepts
have implemented a high speed parallel övideoò interface to the printer.
5.7
The first reason that the Laser Direct printers are so fast is that the
RISC processors in the Acorn computers are ideally suited to the task of
working out the dot patterns on the paper and do it very quickly.
However, this is not where the main gain in speed is experienced. When
you want to print pixel graphics (scanned images, for example) on a
PostScript printer, the whole of the scanned image data has to be sent
down to the printer as it cannot be ödescribedò by PostScript. As the
link to the printer is not a fast parallel link, this can take quite a
long time which slows down the printing process even further. This can
mean waiting minutes for a printout instead of seconds.
5.7
One other result of using the Laser Direct technique is that the printer
does not have to have a powerful processor with lots of memory Ö the
computeræs own processor and memory is more than adequate. This
therefore reduces the price of the printer. Also, because the fonts are
described by the computer, the printer manufacturer does not have to pay
royalties to Adobe for using PostScript, which again reduces the price.
5.7
Memory usage
5.7
When comparing systems, it is important to be aware of the amount of
memory used by the different applications. For example, on a Mac IIci,
even with 5M of RAM, it is not possible to have PageMaker and FreeHand
and Word all loaded at the same time. However, on a 4M A540, you can run
Impression DTP, Edit, Paint, Draw and PipeDream (a spreadsheet/WP/
database package) all at the same time and still have nearly 1M of RAM
available as a öfont cacheò to speed up the display of the fonts on the
screen.
5.7
The reason for this very economical use of memory is that the Acorn
operating system, RISC-OS, is in ROM. This also means that switching the
system on is faster as these routines donæt have to be loaded from disc.
5.7
(The other advantage of having the operating system in ROM is that it
makes the computer less vulnerable to viruses. On Macs and PCs, viruses
can modify parts of the operating system with unfortunate consequences.
The Acorn operating system, being in ROM, cannot be changed so the
viruses have to be somewhat Ésmarteræ if they are to do any real
damage.)
5.7
The new operating system, RISC-OS 3 (currently only available on the
A5000 but soon to come to the A540 as well) is held in 2M of ROM. This
is means that even more RAM space is saved because Draw, Paint and Edit
plus five other smaller applications as well as three complete families
of fonts (12 fonts altogether) are held in ROM. This again speeds up the
system and reduces memory usage even further.
5.7
The other advantage of the Acorn system is that it is very easy, if you
do run short of memory, to reallocate its usage. In a review article in
Byte Magazine, March 1992, Dick Pountain says of the operating system,
öRISC-OS provides an excellent interactive memory manager in its Task
Display window (streets ahead of anything on the PC or the Macintosh)
that allows you to free and reallocate memory on the fly without
quitting any of the programs.òááA
5.7
5.7
The Bible in ASCII
5.7
John Schild
5.7
The day of the Electronic Bible has arrived. Two products, BibleMaster
and the Electronic Bible are being marketed in the UK by christian
publishers Hodder and Stoughton, and the availability of a privately
produced Bible reader, Bible Base, was announced in Archive 5.6 p2.
5.7
The two Hodder products are not as similar as I had at first imagined.
The Electronic Bible is a small self-contained unit, 155 ╫ 90 ╫ 20 mm
closed, which opens to reveal a miniature qwerty keyboard, a set of
dedicated function keys and a 110 ╫ 35 mm LCD screen, carrying 8 lines
of 40 characters. Somewhere deep inside, it holds the entire text of the
New International Version of the Bible. Equally international is its
origin: made in Hong Kong, published in the USA and marketed in the UK
by Hodder and Stoughton.
5.7
BibleMaster is a PC software pack which arrives in a box positively
bristling with MS-DOS disks Ö nine 5╝ö floppies and six 3╜ò floppies. I
would award the accompanying manual only a Bù for clarity of communi
cation and purpose, but it was sufficient to guide me through a lengthy
programme of disk swapping and coffee drinking to install the software
inside the PC partition of the hard disk on an A440 machine. Whereas the
Electronic Bible sticks to Americanisms in the NIV Bible text Ö Joseph
predictably wears a coat of many colors Ö BibleMaster has accommodated
itself to anglicised spelling.
5.7
Bible Base is a collection of public domain ASCII text files of the 1611
Authorised Version of the Bible brought together by some neat and
friendly software for reading in a RISC-OS style window.
5.7
The Electronic Bible
5.7
Opening the tiny Electronic Bible and switching on brings to the screen
a list of credits and copyright details which helpfully fade before you
have time to read them, to be replaced by the passage of scripture which
was displayed at the last power-off. The inevitable trade-off for the
unitæs small size is that the keys are small and a bit vague and my
aging eyes do not find the screen very comfortable. Contrast is limited
and there are no descenders on the characters. Good incident lighting is
needed for clear visibility of the text, but the catch is that the
screen is highly reflective, which does not help when the light source
is behind you. Screen refresh is rather slow. The keys are rubber, a bit
squidgey in feel, and rather small for my stubby fingers to engage
accurately. Power is taken from 4 AAA size batteries or a mains adaptor.
5.7
The ten function keys provide a remarkably wide range of options.
Because of the limitations of the display I really canæt see anyone
sitting down with the Electronic Bible for a good read. However, for
rapid access to a desired passage and for word searches in the manner of
a concordance, it is little short of astonishing.
5.7
Scanning along the row of function keys, Find will probably be the most
used option. On selection, the display clears to bring up an input
screen, asking first whether the whole Bible or a limited range of books
is to be searched. Having established the search limits, up to four
words may be entered (employing öANDò logic only) and the search
commenced. Verses containing the chosen words (in any order) are then
displayed on the screen, the arrow keys providing for each occurrence to
be viewed in turn. The search words are displayed underlined and a list
of all the verses in the chosen books containing the search words may
also be brought to the screen. No concordance was ever as easy to use as
this! There is even a quaint little option among the function keys,
labelled SYN, which provides a glossary of antique words peculiar to the
Authorised Version and their most often used synonyms in the NIV. Sadly,
some things cannot be had at any price. I am not very familiar with the
NIV, and some verses I just could not find using the concordance alone
because there is no provision for wildcards or öfuzzyò searches.
5.7
Moving along the line of function keys, Book, CH,V will also be an
option in frequent demand. As the name suggests, it accepts in turn the
name of a book, a chapter and a verse, allowing abbreviations as soon as
they are unambiguous. It instantly displays the chosen text which may
then be paged up or down. Another function key accesses a Table of
Contents Ö that is, headings placed in the text but not part of the
text, which can then be viewed. So that if, for instance, you knew the
beatitudes were in Matthewæs Gospel, but not where, this option would
provide an access route. It is a bit confusing that headings are also
picked up in word searches although they are not part of the text.
5.7
Bookmarks may be placed at any point in the Bible text, and up to 800
words of notes may be stored using the built-in Note Pad facility,
related in memory to any chosen verses. The compilers have found space
somewhere to store some foot notes, identified by * in the text and
displayed by pressing the Foot Note key. With mysterious forethought,
the programmers of the Electronic Bible also provide, hidden under the
Mode button, an alarm clock and a calculator! Auto Scroll and Help
buttons complete the line-up of function keys.
5.7
I should mention that the editor has undertaken, if possible, to produce
a lead and software to link the Electronic Bible to your Archimedes, to
drag text across to your own documents. Its arrival will no doubt be
flagged up in a future issue of Archive. (We are having real problems
with it Ö not technical problems but communication problems Ö trying to
find someone at Hodder & Stoughton who knows what is going on. Weæve
tried contacting the States but they havenæt bothered with the serial
link there. Itæs only in the U.K. that they seem interested to do
anything about it but as yet we havenæt managed to find anyone who can
help us. Ed)
5.7
BibleMaster
5.7
BibleMaster (BM from now on) operates in the PC domain, on MS-DOS 2.11
and later, requiring 4M of space on a hard disk and at least 256k RAM
but preferably much more. It works very happily under version 1.7 of the
PC Emulator. Although identified as issue 1.0, on my short acquaintance
with BM, it seems to be free of bugs. Naturally, its presentation on the
Archimedes screen will depend on the chosen configuration of the
emulator. For my own use I chose EGA graphics in combination with
Computer Conceptsæ mode 82. The BM screen display was clear but somewhat
cluttered. Layout is typical PC style with lots of nice double line
frames drawn round everything in sight.
5.7
Under the BM default setting, two windows occupy the left and right
halves of the screen, which are used for the viewing of scripture texts.
Displayed along the top of the window are the eight principle options
which will be described later. A small text entry box opens up towards
the bottom of the screen to receive search strings or Bible references,
and a much larger text entry screen with full editing facilities may
also be opened to receive the useræs own notes which may be linked to a
Bible reference and saved to disc. A status line and a set of function
key operation reminders complete the screen.
5.7
Reading from left to right, the screen top options are Help, Search,
Display, Verse List, Notes, Utilities and Quit. Help brings up a screen
full of combination key functions and a reminder about a second
contextual help option, while Utilities and Quit allow alterations of
the BM screen layout, access to DOS, and temporary or final exit from
the program.
5.7
Search and Display will be the most used options and operate in a manner
broadly similar to that of the Electronic Bible, but with rather more
flexibility. Pressing <alt-S> brings up the search menu of three
options. A search range may be specified and either a Phrase or a Word
search commenced. A phrase search will seek out only a string identical
to that keyed in. Word searches are much more flexible, allowing
wildcards, AND or OR logic, to search for any number of words occurring
in a single or, by choice, several verses. These options are defined by
keying in special characters into the search string. In their absence,
the defaults seem to be quite sensible.
5.7
Once a search has been completed, all verses in the selected book range
are displayed in the left-hand window, with a verse identified as the
current verse by a cursor alongside the verse number. The search words
are highlighted. Various key strokes allow the paging and scrolling of
text in this window. Pressing <shift-tab> will bring the passage
containing the selected verse to the right hand window, where it can be
scrolled and studied. When the cursor stands against a verse in the
right hand window, pressing <F10> will bring up huge numbers of cross
references to that verse in the left hand window. The effect is to
reduce the most complex searches for words and themes to a rapid and
simple routine.
5.7
The Display option leads off to three menu choices, the first of which
brings up either a search or cross reference verse list to the screen.
The second option allows the reference of a passage to be entered and
brings that passage to the right hand window, while the third brings up
any useræs notes which might have been stored on disc, indexed to any
chosen text. The next option, Print operates similarly, allowing a
chosen verse list, passage, or notes to be printed, with some basic
printer configuration options, or saved to a disc file. This is the
gateway for transferring text or notes to RISC-OS. The text material is
directed to a disc file in the PC domain and imported into the RISC-OS
environment via a utility such as MultiFS or PCDir.
5.7
Verse lists in BM are lists of verses which have been compiled by
searches, and the Verse List option allows such lists to be managed Ö
edited, sorted, saved and retrieved from a filing system.
5.7
When the cursor is positioned against any verse displayed in a window,
pressing <F9> opens the text editor which takes over the whole screen.
Useræs notes may be written and edited in this mode and saved to disk,
indexed to the highlighted verse. <F8> displays useræs notes without the
editing facility. The Notes menu option allows for the management and
export of note files. A nice feature of BM is that notes do not need to
be stored on the hard disc, but can be tagged with an identifying name
and saved to a floppy disc. Thus different users of the same computer
can keep their own notes separate and in their own possession. What is
lacking in the manual is any simple instructions for non-expert DOS
users to back up their notes from the hard disc to a floppy disc as an
added security.
5.7
During my investigations, I encountered two öquirksò Ö text imported
into RISC-OS employs really strange quotation marks, which become even
more confused if Impressionæs ösmart quotesò facility is used. Secondly,
when the utility provided to exit temporarily to DOS was used, it was
not actually possible to get back into BibleMaster, an error message
being generated instead, indicating insufficient memory.
5.7
Bible Base
5.7
Bible Base is a much less ambitious application than BibleMaster.
Written specially for the Archimedes, it is described as a Bible reader,
and its primary use is to bring any chosen chapter or verse quickly to a
reading window and provide for a passage to be printed, saved to disc or
dragged via a filer icon to a word processor text window.
5.7
It comes on six floppy discs, disc 1 containing the reader program and a
hard disc installer, while the other discs carried the text files of the
King James version of the Bible. The whole package can either be run
from floppies or installed on a hard disc, where it occupies a little
over 4 M of memory. The good news, however, is that this memory demand
can be halved by running it under Computer Concepts Compression utility,
without any obvious penalty. When run from floppies, selecting a book of
the Bible from the index prompts for one of the text discs to be
inserted. When run from a hard disc, the appropriate text file is
automatically locatedáand brought to the screen.
5.7
Bible Base loads to the icon bar. Selecting it brings an index window to
the screen. From this, books may be chosen either from an index or a
GOTO box into which book, chapter and verse may be entered. Two reader
windows may be opened at once, the primary window being the larger with
its text loaded into memory for quick scrolling. The second reader is
smaller, and text is loaded from disc as it is scrolled.
5.7
Along the bottom of the reader window, a line of options is displayed in
menu style. Mouse selection enables the text to be scrolled, paged and
printed. Text displayed in the main window may in addition, have three
markers added for quick reference back. Clicking with the menu button
over an open primary reader window allows the display font and text size
to be altered at will as well as providing the save option and an
alternative route for printing.
5.7
Bible Base offers no word search facilities, but because the Bible books
are presented as text files, these may be extracted from the application
and loaded into a text editor, where they may be worked upon with the
editoræs own search facilities.
5.7
Conclusions
5.7
Ever since BibleMaster was introduced to the UK market, I have been
wondering whether I could run it under Acornæs new multitasking
emulator, dragging out verses or passages for quotation when keying
Sunday sermons and Bible studies into Impression. I am very grateful to
Paul Beverley for providing me with such an opportunity. My conclusion?
Yes, it can be done, parking text temporarily on a disk and accessing it
via MultiFS, the disc read/write utility supplied with the new emulator.
It is quite slow on an ARM3-less old 440 and I could not make it work as
I wished on less then 3 M of memory with just the emulator, Impression
and a printer driver installed.
5.7
However, with all these limitations, at under ú50, (now ú38, see below!
Ed.) BibleMaster has to be very good value for money if you have the
hardware to run it. It is powerful software, competently written, which
offers a range of Bible study tools never before available to the
scholar and expositor.
5.7
The Electronic Bible is not able to offer all the powerful facilities of
BibleMaster, but excels as a highly portable quick reference text and
concordance. It must surely find a place in the hands (and the pockets)
of those who must leave their PCs behind on the desk and who do not
aspire to a lap-top.
5.7
At ú12, Bible Base has to be a gift for readers who are still at home
with traditional language, and who wish no more than to bring a Bible
text to their desktop in an easy to read window, for browsing or
copying.ááA
5.7
The problem with BibleMaster, at the moment, is supply. Hodder and
Stoughton quickly sold out their first printing of the manual and have
been trying to decide what to do next! They have just decided to upgrade
BibleMaster by including the Good News version alongside the NIV. This
new version is not available yet, but when it is, it will probably sell
for ú60 +VAT (ú65 through Archive). In the meantime, they have reduced
the price of the NIV only version to ú35 +VAT (ú38 through Archive).
This re-printed version should be available by the time you read this.
We are also working on the possibility of doing a full RISC-OS compliant
Archimedes version for Hodder, but that is just at the negotiation
stage.
5.7
We havenæt given up on the project of doing an Archimedes link for the
Electronic Bible Ö but there are problems both of a technical nature and
of an administrative nature. I hope that Electronic Bible owners will
bear with us Ö more news will be sent to you as soon as we get something
sorted out. Ed.ááA
5.7
5.7
Pandoraæs Box
5.7
Richard Forster
5.7
Parkinsonæs Law states that öWork expands to fill the time available for
its completionò. I suppose that the computing equivalent would be that
öPrograms expand to fill the space available to themò. Archimedes games
are rapidly becoming larger, due mainly to large amounts of sprites and
sound samples, and there will no doubt come a point soon where software
will come with stickers bearing the legend ö2 Mbyte requiredò.
5.7
I mention all this because öPandoraæs Boxò is big. This is not so much
because it has more data than other games, but because it requires a
minimum of 780k free. As you might imagine, this stretches a standard 1M
machine.
5.7
The first time I ran the game it refused to run, so I reset my machine
by holding down <R> when switching on, ran the memory optimisation
supplied, *unplugged various modules, including the harddisc, and tried
again. It failed. Trying again, this time with the task manager open,
revealed that the process freed 792k, but that this was dropping to 776k
when the disc was catalogued.
5.7
After trying a few more things, I resorted to calling the 4th Dimen
sionæs helpline number, which was usefully stuck on the inside on the
box. The person I spoke to was helpful, suggested various things Iæd
already tried, insisted that it should run, and said no more. After a
final frustrating few minutes I did manage to hit upon a solution. If
you find yourself stuck in the same situation simply follow the
instructions to get as much memory as possible, and then before
cataloguing the disc press <F12>. At the prompt type !Pandora and then
when it crashes saying öMemory in useò, simply type !Pandora again.
(This is a typical comment we get from a number of readers about games
that are hard to load Ö mainly 4th Dimension.)
5.7
The game is an arcade adventure, set in a land where a great evil has
been unleashed. The objective of the game is to collect four amulets
which are scattered around, and use them to seal the infamous box. Your
surroundings are made up of five distinct sections Ö a village where you
start, a ruined temple, a mine, a castle and an interconnecting outside.
These are populated by a variety of helpful and dangerous creatures,
from shopkeepers and thugs to skeletons and lemmings.
5.7
The game is made up of over 200 locations which are individually
displayed in perspective as you enter them. You are able to move your
character, Merlin, around the rooms, manipulating objects and avoiding
nasties. A bar showing how much energy you have, is shown at the top of
the screen, and this increases or decreases depending on whether you are
being hit or are resting. Once your energy is gone, the game is over,
although fortunately there is a save game facility, so all need not be
lost.
5.7
The village area provides a gentle introduction into the game. It allows
you to become accustomed to movement and to handling objects without
having to spend all your time trying to stay alive. It also has a few
simple puzzles of the öfind and return objectò kind. These range from
returning a late library book to collecting, and then producing, a cake.
The first few of these are very simple, although others do require some
thought as to which object fulfils each of the various requirements. The
arcade element is, as already mentioned, quite gentle and although you
can find or buy weapons to defend yourself, it is possible to survive by
just dodging.
5.7
Once outside the village, the arcade element goes up quite a few notches
and youæll yourself biting the dust rather quickly at first. The puzzles
also get harder, becoming more cryptic, and some of them begin to
require some dexterity to navigate. The temple, which is really the next
major area, is almost entirely puzzles and offers a pleasant respite
from the outside area.
5.7
The graphics throughout the game are of a very high standard. Each of
the five areas has a different set of sprites and they are all atmos
pheric. The most impressive graphics are some of the animated
incidentals, the fountains being particularly good with the spray
shooting up and falling down in individual droplets. The only drawback
to the graphics occurs in a few rooms where the 3D perspective becomes
unclear, but this is used to good effect as the basis of some subtle
puzzles.
5.7
Use of sound is limited to the odd sample, most noticeably when you
sustain damage. These are effective, but their rarity value means that
the game does not have a very impressive audio side, although the almost
obligatory tune with the introduction screen is quite good.
5.7
öPandoraæs Boxò is supplied in a sturdy plastic box and comes with two
discs and a 5 page manual. The discs are very heavily copy protected,
which means that you will not be able to make backups and also that your
disc drive will make a rather unhealthy sound as it scrapes across the
disc surface. The other drawback of the protection is that you are
unable to run the game from a hard disc, or indeed from a ram disc. One
particularly annoying upshot is that, should you wish to save or restore
the game, you have to swap discs. Also, if you are unlucky enough to
mistype when restoring a position, youæll find yourself swapping discs
several times before you can play again.
5.7
The manual is extremely well written and very funny in places. It deals
with the basics of running and playing the game, before going on to give
a selection of twelve handy hints. It also mentions various curious game
statistics, such as öApproximately 789 million frames per year.ò
5.7
Overall öPandoraæs Boxò is an excellent arcade adventure, with a good
balance between thinking and action. The rising level of difficulty in
the game is about right and the later stages of the game should keep you
playing for a quite a long time. Various aspects of the package though
were poor, specifically the difficulty in getting it running and the
restrictive copy protection. Despite this, it offers good value for
money and, hopefully, more games in the same vein will appear.
5.7
öPandoraæs Boxò costs ú24.95 from The Fourth Dimension or ú23 through
Archive.ááA
5.7
5.7
Linking the Z88 and the Archimedes Link
5.7
Gordon Lindsay Jones
5.7
The Z88 is considered by many to be the most convenient addition to the
Archimedes as a mobile keyboard. This computer offers many self
contained facilities making it good value for money. It is the size of
an A4 notepad, powered by mains adapter or four MN1500 batteries which
allow about 20 hours of computing. In the switched off mode, the
batteries provide power for the RAM, maintaining files in memory for up
to a year.
5.7
The display is an LCD screen, eight lines of 100 characters, easily
scrolled to the required section. The full size keys of rubber-like
material make the keyboard silent in use. The default RAM is 32k but
this can be increased by inserting one or two 128k RAM packs into slots
in the Z88.
5.7
The Z88 offers PipeDream and a Basic similar to Acorn Basic, but using
different tokens for filing; obviously, colour and graphics are not
available. Desktop facilities include a diary, calendar, calculator,
clock and alarm. It can drive a printer directly; the inbuilt printer
driver can be edited to suit the printer and highlights required.
5.7
Z88 to Archimedes link
5.7
Because the files stored in the Z88 depend on the power of the bat
teries, some backup is advisable in case of battery failure. The obvious
procedure is to transfer the files to the Archimedes disc storage
system. Articles have appeared previously in Archive but they have
mostly been reviews of software available, giving the impression that
the transfer is straightforward and will work first time. There are many
difficulties which can trap the unwary. The purpose of this article is
to explain how to avoid or overcome them so that, hopefully, readers
using this link will succeed first time.
5.7
Systems available
5.7
There are two methods available. One is for those who have installed
Pipedream in the Archimedes, using an EPROM in the Z88, a suitable cable
linking the serial ports, and software in the Archimedes which comes
with PipeDream. Transfer is possible direct to PipeDream in the
Archimedes. The cable is not the standard nine pin, but the correct one
is available from Colton Software.
5.7
The other method, for those who do not have Archimedes PipeDream, uses
software in the Archimedes only and a suitable cable available from
David Holden. His system also allows transfer of Basic files in either
direction with conversion between the Z88 Basic and Archimedes Basic,
and he can supply, to registered users, software to convert Z88
PipeDream text to Interword, First Word Plus or plain text. Direct
printout of Z88 files is possible by transfer to the Archimedes RAM; the
printing takes place as a background task while both machines are
released for other use after the rapid file transfer.
5.7
Problems in the transfer
5.7
There are certain conditions which must be satisfied for a transfer to
succeed and these are not always obvious from the Z88 manual. The
transfer between serial ports requires the baud rates in both computers
to be the same for a given direction, although a different pair may be
chosen for the reverse direction. Most systems work at 9600 baud, but if
errors occur, especially in transfer of Basic files, use a lower rate.
As the Z88 does not use 4800 baud, this means dropping to 2400 baud.
Once a reliable rate is obtained, this can be set as default for future
use. Similarly, parity and other parameters must be set at each end and
generally the default values of the Z88 should be used.
5.7
The principle at the Z88 end is to set it to Import-Export mode, typing
<S> or <R> for send or receive, and the filename of the file to be sent
or received. The transfer takes place when the command is made on the
Archimedes but the Z88 screen reports on progress. If the transfer
fails, delete the filename from the Z88 file catalogue and try again, at
a lower baud rate.
5.7
The traps
5.7
Care must be taken when sending files from the Z88. If the file is Z88
PipeDream text, you must know how the text was saved from Pipedream.
When Saving, the option öSave as plain textò is answered. If the default
No is used, the file is a PipeDream textfile which can be fed directly
into Archimedes Pipedream or converted by software to other word
processor files or ASCII text. If the option Yes is taken, the file is
ASCII text and care should be taken when using conversion software. If
in doubt, the transferred file can be loaded into Edit and unwanted
Pipedream codes removed.
5.7
In the Z88 printer driver editor, the option ösend line feedsò must
always be set to Yes. The No option was intended to prevent double
spacing if a printer were set for automatic line feeds. However, this
option causes code zero to be sent but not the CR code 13, so text is
printed without line feeds; words are broken when the printer reaches
the end of a line and is forced to continue on the next line. Therefore
the printer used must be set to require external line feed command.
5.7
Direct printing from the Z88
5.7
In addition to adjustments above, the printer baud rate and other
parameters must match those of the Z88. Check that the printer and its
buffer are not set to 4800 baud, as this cannot be set on the Z88 to
match.
5.7
Printing from Basic is possible by a subroutine explained in the Z88
manual, but beware of an error in the instructions which come with the
Cambridge Computers Z88 serial printer cable. Printout is enabled by
writing to a file called :PRT so text is sent by the command used to
write to a file, e.g.
5.7
PRINT#ch,ötext1ò+ötext2ò+CHR$(10)
5.7
Line feeds need to be inserted, but note that only one string may be
sent, the + sign being used to combine strings into one. The method
valid for other files using commas and shown in the cable instructions,
does not work. If you attempt to use commas, e.g.
5.7
PRINT#ch,ötext1ò,ötext2ò+CHR(10)
5.7
to send successive strings to the printer, it will not print anything.
If you wish to print from Basic often, it is worth writing a procedure
called DEFPROCPRINT(Z$) which can be added to Basic programs so that
5.7
VDU2:PRINTötext1ò:VDU3
5.7
is replaced in the Z88 by
5.7
PROCPRINT (ötext1ò)
5.7
The steps required in this procedure will be found in the Z88 manual.
5.7
Help!
5.7
If these traps are avoided, Z88 to Archimedes transfer becomes straight
forward. The Z88 Dabhand Guide is a useful addition to the Z88 manual
giving more details and examples. After falling into so many traps
myself, I would be happy to try to help any readers still having
problems.
5.7
David Holden can be contacted at 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London
SE26 5RN.ááA
5.7
5.7
Guardians of the Labyrinth
5.7
Gareth Bellaby
5.7
This is a maze game with a degree of similarity to PacMan. The object of
the game is to find the exit from each of the six levels of a dungeon.
In your way, there are a number of special doors which can only be
opened by collecting a set number of shields. A further limitation is
your life energy. You lose energy by moving, opening normal doors or by
crossing the bones of previous explorers, although the amount of energy
lost in this latter case can be decreased by collecting individual bone
pieces. Energy is replenished by eating bowls of fruit and by collecting
the shields. Finally, there are the ubiquitous guardians who, if they
catch you, automatically kill you.
5.7
Guardians of the Labyrinth requires some degree of planning and is quite
fun to play, but play suffers, because the game takes a long time to
initialise. This is especially frustrating as the game has to re-
initialise each time that you die, and youæll die frequently. Also, the
keyboard does not seem to be very responsive.
5.7
The game starts from the desktop and will return you there without
disrupting any other programs. However, if you have any modules loaded
then you will either have to RMKill them or, if you have enough memory,
change the !Run file so that RMASize sets the relocatable module area to
200k more than your normal setting.
5.7
The game has the feel of a slightly superior Public Domain program, but
its extremely low price (ú3.49 including postage, no VAT) reflects this.
(A demo version of this program appears on Shareware 42. Ed.)ááA
5.7
5.7
 Paul B
5.7

5.7