Archive Magazine 1996/ARCHIVE_96.iso/text/magazine/volume_06/issue_04

Text File | 1995-06-25 | 212KB | 4,840 lines

Volume 6 Å N║ 4 Å January 1993
6.4
All change!
6.4
More changes are taking place at the Archive office. During the
Christmas holidays, we will, hopefully, have completed the installation
of our new telephone system to improve the service we offer to sub
scribers. In particular, we will have a special Technical Help phone
number that will be released in confidence to subscribers to our
Technical Help Service.
6.4
Archive BBS is born again?
6.4
A few weeks ago, the hard drive on the Archive bulletin board suffered a
fatal crash. We tried to give it the kiss of life but to no avail. We
decided, therefore, that it was time we re-vamped the BBS. We have
installed some new phone lines here in the office (the old board was run
from Adrianæs home) so 745932 is no longer available. The new number
will be 0603Ö766585. We hope to get the system up and running again very
soon but please bear with us.
6.4
The new board will have a new emphasis. We are hoping that its main use
will be as a technical forum. To this end, all discussions which can be
classed as just Épassing the time of dayæ Ö i.e. using the BBS just for
fun Ö will be discouraged. We will try to put all the latest Careware,
Shareware and Program Disc software up on the board as soon as it
becomes available. We will also try to check the mail daily (Monday to
Friday) to ensure a good turn-around for your technical queries.
6.4
In case you havenæt accessed the Archive BBS before, you will need some
scrolling terminal software (not Viewdata) with the data format set to
8n1 and the speed at up to 2400 baud. There will be two lines at first
but if the board gets enough use to justify it, we will install a third
line and put a higher speed modem on it.
6.4
More staff !?!
6.4
Our third major change this month is another new member of staff! We
will soon (we hope) be welcoming Vera Cooke as our new Business Manager.
She is currently in a job that has a 3 month notice period and they are
hanging onto her until the very last minute but we hope she will start
here some time next month.
6.4
I trust that, as a result of these and other changes, Norwich Computer
Services will continue to grow and improve the service it offers to the
Acorn 32-bit community.
6.4
With best wishes for 1993,
6.4
Products Available
6.4
Å    Aldebaran Ö In this new game Éthat shows what the Archimedes is
capable ofæ, you explore twelve fractal planets, fight off various
enemies and save a star from destruction. It is produced by Evolution
Trading in Switzerland and is available in the UK through MAPS Ltd for
ú34.90 inc VAT.
6.4
Å    Aleph One PC card under ú400 Ö While stocks last, we have some Aleph
One 386 1Mb PC podules for ú395 due to over-stocking just before the 486
appeared on the scene! (We are having to sell these at a loss!!)
6.4
Å    Archive price rise Ö As we said last month, the price of the Archive
annual subscription (12 issues) is increasing from ú17 to ú19 as from
1st February 1993. All subscriptions received before that date will be
honoured even if they are not actually due. The new overseas rates are
ú26 for Europe, Australia/N.Z., etc ú37 and the rest of the world ú34.
6.4
The Technical Help Service is also going to be increasing from ú10 a
year to ú15 a year. However, this is to reflect the fact that we are
installing a dedicated Technical Help Hotline. The main NCS phone line
is usually fairly busy, so we will issue THS users with a special
confidential phone number which they can ring to get solutions to their
technical problems. We are hoping the line will be open by the end of
January and all holders of a current THS subscription will then receive
a letter informing them about the new service.
6.4
Å    Atomwide VIDC enhancer Ö Atomwide have stopped producing their VIDC
Enhancer and have released the VIDC Plus software into the public
domain. This is now available as Careware Disc 18 (ú6 to subscribers Ö
see below). We have also been given permission by Atomwide to get
another company to make them for us (in any case, the enhancers and hope
to have some VIDC enhancers made up shortly. This will allow us to
fulfil existing orders and to continue to supply enhancers in future.
6.4
Å    BBC Acorn User Show Ö In April 1993 (15th Ö 17th) Safesell Exhibi
tions, who have been responsible for the London Acorn User Shows, will
be organising an Acorn User Show in Harrogate at the International
Exhibition Centre. This has come out of the fact that the London
exhibition has been taken over by Acorn themselves and will, from 1993,
be The World of Acorn. We hope that Norwich Computer Services will be
represented at both exhibitions.
6.4
Å    Careware Disc 18 Ö This disc contains the public domain version (1.61
16-Mar-92) of Atomwideæs VIDC Plus software. This supports a host of
monitors giving a wide range of extra modes for all A-series computers.
There are two versions of the software on the disc:
6.4
The A540/A5000 version does not need any additional hardware and
supports the following monitors: Eizo 9060, Eizo 9070, Eizo F550i, Eizo
T560i, HP-D1187, MicroHL, PanaSync, Quadram (AKF 18), Taxan 1095, Taxan
770, Taxan 775, Taxan 795, Taxan 875, Taxan 970.
6.4
The A400/A3000 version must have the Atomwide VIDC enhancer hardware to
support the following monitors: Eizo 9060, Eizo 9070, HP-D1187, MicroHL,
PanaSync, Quadram (AKF 18), Switcher, Taxan 1095, Taxan 770, Taxan 775,
Taxan 795, Taxan 875, Taxan 970.
6.4
Å    Chatter is 4Mationæs new comms package. This is a full RISC-OS
compatible program providing ANSI, Viewdata and Teletel display
protocols, and Campus 2000, X, Y and Z-modem transfers. The price is
ú37.50 from 4Mation or ú35 through Archive.
6.4
Å    Desktop Tracker Ö This is Leading Edgeæs RISC-OS compatible version of
their Tracker software which allows you to enter your own music and
sounds, and also to play existing Tracker music of which there is a lot
available in PD libraries. If you have a Midi interface, you can play
the tracker tunes through a Midi instrument. Desktop Tracker is ú69 inc
VAT from Leading Edge or ú63 through Archive.
6.4
Å    EFF fonts Ö There is now a range of over 500 RISC-OS 3 fonts available
from EFF. They have also dropped the price of their RISC-OS 2 fonts by
30%. The new fonts have automatic kerning so that, for example, the word
öAWAYò transferred into RISC-OS 3 fonts would automatically come out as
öAWAYò.
6.4
Å    Eureka! Ö I have a real live copy of Eureka in my hands. It is
available NOW.
6.4
Å    Game Makeræs Manual Ö For those who want to write their own games for
the Archimedes, this new book will provide some of the basics to get you
started. The price is ú14.95 from Sigma Press or ú14 through Archive.
6.4
Å    Games galore Ö There are various games for the Archimedes that we have
missed out on along the way. The following have now been added to the
Archive games list:
6.4
Black Angel, the 3D space combat simulation from 4th Dimension is ú32
through Archive.
6.4
Chopper Force, the 3D futuristic helicopter simulation from 4th
Dimension is ú32 through Archive.
6.4
Galactic Dan is a 3D arcade adventure combat game from 4th Dimension and
is ú24 through Archive.
6.4
Gribblyæs Day Out is an arcade action game from CoinAge. This is ú24
through Archive.
6.4
Krisalis Compendium which includes Mad Professor Mariarti, Terramex,
Pipemania and Revelation (the game, not the art package!). This is ú28
through Archive.
6.4
Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 the driving game from Krisalis with a Turbo
Esprit or Lotus Elan is ú24 through Archive. (This is currently making
life a misery for the adults of the Beverley household Ö öIf you donæt
come for lunch now I shall switch the so-and-so computer off!ò)
6.4
Omar Sharifæs Bridge is a bridge game from Krisalis including on-line
help for ú28 through Archive.
6.4
Å    Hawk V9 Mk II Ö Wild Vision have produced a new version of their well-
established Hawk V9 digitiser. It is now a single width podule which
saves a podule slot (Mk I was a dual width podule). The software has
been upgraded to offer a live display window in the desktop. The grabbed
video picture is then displayed with full dithered colours. There is
also a special mono format useful for preparing material for monochrome
DTP work. It comes with fully RISC-OS compliant software providing an
öextensive range of image scaling and enhancing optionsò allowing
sprites produced to be dragged straight into whatever desktop appli
cations you are using. The price is now ú269 +VAT from Wild Vision or
ú305 through Archive.
6.4
Å    IDE internal drives Ö Yes, weære finally succumbing to pressure to
stock internal IDE hard drives for the A3000 (and A3010). We want to
assess which we consider to be good enough quality and low enough power
consumption to be a reasonable risk for putting into a computer without
a fan. If readers have a drive they would like to recommend from their
own experience, let us know. If suppliers would like us to consider
their IDE drives, they too should get in touch with us to arrange a loan
of one of their units for assessment.
6.4
Å    Joystick interface Ö The new Leading Edge Joystick Mk2 is now
available. It plugs into the printer port and takes two Amiga/Atari type
joysticks. With the software provided, it claims to be able to be used
with övirtually any piece of softwareò. It includes a switch so that the
interface does not have to be removed in order to use the printer port
as normal. (I tried it with an Artworks and an Impression dongle hanging
off the back and they worked fine.) It is compatible with all Acorn 32-
bit computers and with RISC-OS 3.1. The price is ú38 through Archive.
6.4
Å    Landmarks Civil War Ö The latest in Longman Logotronæs series of
Landmarks packages is Civil War. The price is ú24 +VAT from Longman
Logotron or ú26 through Archive.
6.4
Å    Midi Tracker Ö This software from Leading Edge allows you to play
existing Tracker music, of which there is a lot available in PD
libraries, through a Midi interface to a Midi instrument. It gives you
the ability to add keyboard setups, several being pre-defined. Midi
Tracker is ú19 inc VAT from Leading Edge or ú18 through Archive.
6.4
Å    Midi Interface Ö This is Leading Edgeæs Midi interface. It has Midi in
and out, conforms to Acornæs Midi standard and is cheap! Midi Interface
is ú42 inc VAT from Leading Edge or ú40 through Archive. The other
advantage/disadvantage is that it does not take up a podule slot but
uses the Econet interface. The Midi in and out sockets are on short
flying leads that plug into the Econet socket.
6.4
Å    Midi Sampler Interface Ö This is a combination of a Midi interface (as
above) and an audio sampler. Again, it has Midi in and out on flying
leads and an audio plug for the sound input. It can sample up to 50 KHz.
(If you are wondering who would want to sample frequencies that high,
Leading Edge assure me that someone is using one of these samplers for
his research into bat sounds!) The Midi Sampler Interface is ú94 inc VAT
from Leading Edge or ú88 through Archive.
6.4
Å    Picture it! Ö This is an object-oriented drawing package aimed at
education. It takes drawfiles as objects and allows pupils to make
drawfile pictures by combining the objects and then colouring them,
arranging them and even animating them. The price is ú29.95 +VAT for a
single user or ú49.95 +VAT for a site licence from Appian Way Software.
They also do topic disks at ú8.50 +VAT each. These include buildings,
ships, birds, clothes (4 volumes), mini-beasts (2 volumes), dinosaurs,
transport and Christmas. You can, of course, make up your own sets of
objects from any source of drawfile clipart.
6.4
Å    SCSI cards and drives Ö We are now stocking Leading Edgeæs SCSI cards
plus their 80Mb SCSI drive solutions for the different Acorn 32-bit
computers.
6.4
For A300/400 there are 80Mb drives with standard podules: Internal 8-bit
ú405, internal 16-bit (i.e. a faster interface) ú460, external (which
has its own p.s.u.) 8-bit ú555, 16-bit ú605.
6.4
If you just want the SCSI card, the 8-bit version is ú105 and the 16-bit
version is ú145.
6.4
For A3000 owners, there is a Hardbox which is an 80Mb drive in a metal
box with its own p.s.u. that attaches to the external interface. This is
available as 8-bit at ú485 and 16-bit at ú530. There is also an 8-bit
Turbo external version at ú605. This uses a separate external cased
drive with its own p.s.u. which links via a cable to an internal 8-bit
interface. The interface has extra hardware that makes it rather faster
than the standard 8-bit SCSI interface Ö though not as fast as the 16-
bit interface.
6.4
If you just want a SCSI card, the internal A3000 8-bit version is ú105,
the external A3000 8-bit version is ú115 (including case) and the 16-bit
external version is ú155 (including case). The 8-bit internal turbo
version is also ú145.
6.4
There is also a special version of the 8-bit internal (non-turbo) SCSI
card which includes a User Port. This is ú150. This is particularly
useful for schools, for example, where they want to use something like a
concept keyboard or an interface box as well as having a hard drive.
6.4
Another option for A3000 owners is to buy an empty hardbox with its own
p.s.u. You then buy your own SCSI interface (not necessarily a Leading
Edge one) and a 3╜ö SCSI hard drive and put it all in the hardbox. This
costs ú125 for the box and p.s.u.
6.4
N.B. ALL Leading Edge SCSI cards are CD-ROM compatible, i.e. they do not
need any extra software, whether in ROM or on disc, in order to connect
to CD-ROMs. (The 16-bit card is ú145 which, if you need to use CD-ROM
compares very favourably with the Morley 16-bit card at ú160 plus ú22
for the CDFS filing system.)
6.4
Å    SpySnatcher is Topologikaæs latest addition to their range of classic
text adventures. Your job is to help MI7æs chief, known as ÉZæ, to
unearth a Émoleæ. The price is ú15 inc VAT from Topologika. (Send to
Topologika for their free Adventure Games catalogue.)
6.4
Å    TechWriter Ö Icon Technologyæs TechWriter builds on their successful
EasiWriter wordprocessor and adds mathematical typesetting with the
addition of a fully integrated WYSIWYG equation editor. The price is
ú250 +VAT from Icon or ú270 through Archive.
6.4
Review software received...
6.4
We have received review copies of the following: Ancient Greece, Arcade,
Chaos (game), Drop Rock, Fantasy + Fiddles & Drums (SmArt files), Help3,
Impact, NetView, Oh no! More Lemmings, Polyominoes, Precision, Punc
tuate, Soapbox, SpySnatcher, The Puddle and the Wardrobe, ThinkLink,
Tiles, TV Fun & Games, Whale Facts, Yes Chancellor II.ááA
6.4
Government Health Warning Ö Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
6.4
As you will probably have gathered from the last few monthæs editorials,
Norwich Computer Services is expanding quite rapidly at the moment. Why
are things going so well for us in the midst of a recession? Is it
because we try to run the business on Christian principles? Does God
somehow favour us because we pray about business decisions before we
make them? Do we get special divine business guidance?
6.4
Well, I donæt think God shows any favouritism towards us but I do think
that if a business is run in the way that God (in the Bible) says is
best, it will tend to flourish. This business is not immune to the
difficulties of the current economic climate but I believe that if we
seek to bring honour to Him by the way we run our business, He will, in
one way or another, look after us. I have seen the truth of this over
and over again in the years I have been in business. Trust Him Ö He
wonæt let you down!
6.4

6.4
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD.
0603Ö766592 (Ö764011)
6.4
4th Dimension     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742Ö700661) (0742Ö781091)
6.4
4Mation    11 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon  EX32
8PA. (0271Ö25353) (0271Ö22974)
6.4
Abacus Training     29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts  SN2
6QA.
6.4
Acorn Computers Ltd     Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge  CB1 4JN. (0223Ö254254) (0223Ö254260)
6.4
Aleph One Ltd     The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge  CB5 9BA.
(0223Ö811679) (0223Ö812713)
6.4
Appian Way Software Ltd     Old Co-
operative Buildings, Langley Park, Durham  DH7 9XE. (091Ö373Ö1389)
(091Ö373Ö0731)
6.4
Arachne Software     Orchard Cottage, East Morden, Wareham, Dorset  BH20
7DL.
6.4
Atomwide Ltd     23 The Greenway, Orpington, Kent  BR5 2AY. (0689Ö838852)
(0689Ö896088)
6.4
Avie Electronics     7 Overbury Road, Norwich. (0603Ö416863) (0603Ö788640)
6.4
Clares Micro Supplies     98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire  CW9 7DA. (0606Ö48511)
(0606Ö48512)
6.4
Coin-Age Ltd    23 Cooper Street, Nelson, Lancashire BB9 7XW.
6.4
Colton Software (p7)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge  CB5 8LA. (0223Ö311881) (0223Ö312010)
6.4
Computer Concepts (p32/33)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts  HP2 6EX. (0442Ö63933) (0442Ö231632)
6.4
Dabs Press      22 Warwick Street, Prestwich, Manchester  M25 7HN.
(061Ö773Ö8632) (061Ö773Ö8290)
6.4
Electronic Font Foundry     Granville
House, 50-52 Upper Village Road, Ascot  SL5 7AQ. (0344Ö28698)
(0344Ö872923)
6.4
Evolution Trading AG     Industries
trasse 12, CH-3178 B÷singen, Switzerland. (010Ö41 +31Ö747Ö6531)
(+31Ö747Ö6596)
6.4
ICS Ltd (p16)    1 Kington Road, West Kirby, Wirral  L48 5ET.
(051Ö625Ö1006) (051Ö625Ö1007)
6.4
Icon Technology     9 Jarrom Street, Leicester  LE2 7DH. (0533Ö546225)
6.4
    (or Mike Glover on 057Ö286Ö642)
6.4
Krisalis Software     Teque House,
Masonæs Yard, Downs Row, Moorgate, Rotherham  S60 2HD. (0709Ö372290)
6.4
Lambda Publications     194 Cheney
Manor Road, The Green, Swindon SN2 2NZ. (0793Ö695296)
6.4
Leading Edge     376 Meanwood Road, Leeds  LS7 2JH. (0532Ö621111)
(0532Ö374163)
6.4
Longman-Logotron     124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4
4ZS. (0223Ö425558) (0223Ö425349)
6.4
LOOKsystems (p19)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich  NR5 9AY.
(0603Ö764114) (0603Ö764011)
6.4
MAPS Ltd     P.O.Box 2841, 87 Vivian Road, Harborne, Birmingham  B17 0DL.
(021Ö428Ö2696) (021Ö428Ö2696)
6.4
Mijas Software     Winchester Road, Micheldever, Winchester  SO21 3DJ.
(0962Ö774352)
6.4
Minerva Systems     Minerva House, Baring Crescent, Exeter  EX1 1TL.
(0392Ö437756) (0392Ö421762)
6.4

6.4
Computer Concepts
6.4
From 6.3 page 40
6.4
Computer Concepts
6.4
From 6.3 page 41
6.4
Paul Beverley
6.4
Hints and Tips
6.4
Å    Refilling BJ300/330 Ink Cartridges Ö The cartridges have a ösoak upò
pad in them as well as the ink sachet so if the pad is black and full of
waste ink you canæt refill them! or can you? This is how to do it.
6.4
Split the cartridge along the seam and lift off the top. It is only
lightly tacked together so its quite easy to prise apart.
6.4
(The next bit is messy so use disposable gloves so you do not get ink
over your hands.)
6.4
Lift out the ink sachet (keep it the same way up) and then the pad and
wipe clean the cartridge. Dispose of the pad in a plastic bag, trying
not to get too messy.
6.4
I used kitchen roll for the new pad. Cut about 12 pieces to the size and
shape of the pad then place in the cartridge, now place the sachet on
top. Keep it the same way round to make sure the needle hole lines up
with the needle in the printer.
6.4
Thatæs what the safety flap is for that drops down when you remove the
cartridge so you donæt jab yourself.
6.4
Replace the top of the cartridge, securing it with just a couple of
drops of glue so it can be removed again, it is now ready to be filled.
6.4
I took the advice of Stuart Bell (Archive 4.5 page 7) and used Quink
Permanent Black @ ú1.70p for 54ml. The sachet takes 40ml, so donæt over-
fill it. Obtain a 20ml syringe and 21 gauge needle from your chemist. (A
20ml syringe is about the best as larger ones tend to be very
expensive.)
6.4
Carefully fill the sachet making sure the needle goes in the same hole.
If you make another hole, air can get in and cause problems.
6.4
Donæt forget to wash out the syringe and needle afterwards.
6.4
So, at the cost of approx ú1.70p plus the syringe and a few sheets of
kitchen roll, you now have a refilled ink cartridge which would normally
cost about ú10 to refill and between ú15 Ö ú20 for a new one.
6.4
If any of you wonder what the soak up pad is for, when the printer is
switched on, ink is jettisoned through the nozzles to clean them and
this then runs down into the cartridge.
6.4
Å    D-type connector problems Ö In Archive 4.8 p7, there was a tip about
taking the washers from under the hexagonal pillars of the D-type
connectors. I think it is worth re-stating it for those readers who
missed it. My A310 was in a Énot workingæ state the other day Ö it
refused to produce any green. I checked that the two screws holding the
D-plug into the socket were tight and checked out the monitor and lead
which worked fine, but still no green. A few days later, I remembered
the tip, removed the washers and the green returned.á Les May,
RochdaleááA
6.4
Small Ads
6.4
(Small ads for Archimedes and related products are free for subscribers
but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the material
you send, as we think fit. i.e. some people donæt know what Ésmallæ
means and there are certain things, as you can imagine, that we would
not be prepared to advertise as a matter of principle. Sending small ads
(especially long ones!) on disc is helpful but not essential. Ed)
6.4
Å    A5000 4Mb, 100Mb HD, Panasync C1381 Multisync monitor ú1395. HP
DeskJet 500 printer ú250. All immaculate condition, boxed, manuals, etc.
Phone 0782Ö771914 or 412515 ext 4034.
6.4
Å    Acorn DeskTop Publisher ú40. Minerva GammaPlot ú20, System Delta+ ú30,
Mailshot (for SD+) ú15. Games: Nevryon ú8, Powerband ú8. CC ROMs (for CC
ROM/RAM podule): InterChart ú10, InterSheet ú15, InterWord ú15,
SpellMaster ú20. Phone 0737Ö832159 evenings.
6.4
Å    Acorn monitor, medium resolution, boxed, complete with cables, ú100.
Phone Michael Rutland on Basingstoke 0256Ö881338 evenings.
6.4
Å    Atomwide ARM3 + RISC-OS 3.10 upgrades, ú150. Syquest 44Mb removable
SCSI drive, new, ú350. Eizo 9060SZ low radiation monitor, as new, ú400
o.n.o. Phone Ian on 0245Ö325205.
6.4
Å    CC BJ10ex Turbo Driver never used, unwanted present, ú35. Contact
Chris on 081Ö856Ö4732.
6.4
Å    IFEL 2Mb RAM board (upgradable to 4Mb), with MEMC1A chip for A310,
ú90. Acorn ROM podule with optional RAM chips, ú25. Impression Junior
ú40. Phone 051Ö606Ö0289.
6.4
Å    Oak 16-bit SCSI podule for A5000. Unused, still sealed, with utilities
disc and manual, ú70. Phone 0302Ö722781 after 6.
6.4
Å    Wanted Ö Reasonably priced s/h mono monitor for word-processing on an
Archimedes. Phone Des Woon on 0255Ö880257.
6.4
Å    Z88 notebook computer, 128Kb RAM pack, adaptor, charger, cover,
leather case, ÉZ88 Magicæ book and BBC transfer kit, ú150 o.n.o. Phone
Frank Mulholland 0734Ö875181 (office hours).
6.4
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.
6.4
(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.)
6.4
Hearsay ú15, Pace Nightingale modem (300/300, 1200/75) ú25, Artisan
Support Disc ú5, ArcTiculate ú15, !Help Ö Intro to Archimedes ú5,
Snippet ú10, Screened printer data cable ú1 per metre.ááA
6.4
Colton
6.4
From 6.3 page 5
6.4
Oak
6.4
From 6.3 page 26
6.4
Using RISC-OSá3
6.4
Hugh Eagle
6.4
I hope that all who have ordered RISC-OSá3 upgrades will have received
them by the time this issue is published and that those who have been
waiting to make up their minds about upgrading will have been suffi
ciently encouraged by now to go ahead. There will be considerable
advantages to all Archimedes users if we all use the same operating
system: above all programmers will be able to use the new improved
features without having to worry about backwards compatibility.
Inevitably, this column will tend to contain quite a lot of negative
material about difficulties that some people have had, but it is
important to appreciate that most upgraders have had very little real
trouble (some inconvenience, perhaps, but not insuperable problems).
There are genuine advantages in RISC-OSá3, most programs work well and I
believe that most users are pleased with it.
6.4
The deadlines for the December and January editions of Archive have been
concertinaæd close together (because of Christmas, etc) so there has
been no time for any reactions to the first RISC-OSá3 column. However,
contributions have continued to arrive in response to the original
request ù several more problems, criticisms, etc but also some interest
ing hints & tips.
6.4
Please send anything that you think may be relevant either to Archive or
to me, Hugh Eagle at 48áSmithbarn, Horsham, Sussex  RH13á6DX.
6.4
Fitting the chips to an A310
6.4
The upgrade to my A310 with an IFEL carrier board was quite straightfor
ward, with the help of good instructions. IFEL recommend that you remove
the motherboard, as a fairly good pressure is required to insert the
carrier board. I encountered no problems but the soldering of three
wires from the carrier board on to the legs of a chip, is not for the
faint hearted. (Memories of my Beeb days came flooding back). (Roger
Power.)
6.4
Configuring for a SCSI hard drive
6.4
The configure application is OK apart from the settings appertaining to
my Oak SCSI filing system. I have overcome this by a separate !Config
Obey file that I run as well as Configure and which reads as follows:
6.4
*configure drive 4
6.4
*configure filesystem SCSI
6.4
*SCSI
6.4
*configure SCSIDrive 4
6.4
*OPT 4,2
6.4
This is obviously only needed after a factory reset which shouldnæt be
very often. Unfortunately, at the moment it is, as further problems have
now occurred. Namely my Impression doesnæt read the Dongle all the time
and appears to require a factory reset. This is only since the arrival
of RISC-OS 3.1 and I have yet to find out whether or not the Dongle (or
maybe even RISC-OS 3.1) is at fault. Obviously I have checked all the
connections over and over again. (Roger Power.)
6.4
(Roger, I suspect itæs more likely to be a hardware problem on the
p.c.b. after fitting the I.F.E.L. ROM upgrade in your A310. There are no
problems, that we know of, with dongles. Ed.)
6.4
5╝ö floppy drive
6.4
My external 5╝ö floppy drive is too slow for my Archimedes, with the
result of the heads chattering alarmingly. I had previously got round
this problem with the command *Configure STEP 3 6. However, RISC-OS 3.1
does not appear to accept this, only STEP 3 3. Can anyone help, please?
(Roger Power.)
6.4
LaserDirect printer driver
6.4
(Incidentally, Computer Concepts have told me that öRISC-OSá3 compatible
printer drivers should be available around the middle of next year. This
will cover TurboDrivers, FaxPack and LaserDirectò HE)
6.4
In RISC-OS 2, I solved the problems of using a LaserDirect printer on a
machine to which a parallel printer is also attached, by including a
simple driver in an application which resides on the iconbar and does
lots of idiosyncratic things which suit my personal use of the machine.
The driver stores data dragged to it in a buffer and outputs it to the
dot-matrix line by line on each Wimp_Poll with reason code 0. This
enables me to leave the LaserDirect on the iconbar. If I want to print
some text or Basic, the data is dragged with <shift> held down,
otherwise the data is presumed to represent an address, which is
formatted for the 9-line labels with which, by default, the printer is
loaded. This is very handy, because I can drag the address directly out
of a DeskEdit or Impression window. My beef is that my routine orig
inally tested for a connected printer, thus:
6.4
DEFPROCChPr:*FX5,1
6.4
VDU2,1,0,3
6.4
SYSöOS_Byteò,152,3 TO ;f%: f%=f%AND2
6.4
IFf%=0SYSöOS_Byteò,145,3
6.4
*FX5,5
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4
Thus, if the 0 byte inserted into the printer buffer is still there, the
printer is not on and the data are output to screen via a command
window; otherwise, they go to the printer; f% being the determining
flag. Now, I can understand that it is an enhancement to RISC-OS to wait
if the printer is off, but I find it is wholly unacceptable that the
machine is locked up by so simple an event. The OS_Byte no longer works,
since presumably the machine is stuck at the end of line 3200! Now, the
RISC-OS driver is not stopped by such an event, but multitasks happily
waiting for the printer to be switched on. Clearly some routine is
available to deal with the situation; why could the release documenta
tion not give a clue?
6.4
I have had to abandon the routine temporarily because, if I wished to
display a file on screen, the printer was incidentally tested first.
This is no longer possible, unless I validate <escape> with *FX229
before calling the routine and reset on exit; this means exiting via the
error handler, however, and is one of the more difficult parts of Wimp
programming, I find! Any suggestions? (Mick Day.)
6.4
LaserDirect and ROM fonts
6.4
As mentioned last month, the current version of the Computer Conceptsæ
LaserDirect printer drivers are not fully RISC-OS 3 compatible. Thus
they will not cope with the extra features of Draw such as rotated text
or sprites. Furthermore, they will not find all of the fonts in the ROM-
based resources filing system. In particular, the italic versions of
both Homerton and Corpus are not seen. It is necessary to have the old
copies of the Homerton and Corpus fonts installed in the disc !Fonts
directory. (Brian Cowan.)
6.4
(I find that if I try to print these fonts from Impression, it refuses
to print but does allow me to carry on, whereas Draw locks up the
machine. If this is a printer driver problem it makes Computer Conceptsæ
apparent lack of interest in bringing out new drivers all the more
frustrating. If they do appear in öthe middle of next yearò that will be
about 20 months after the original release of RISC-OSá3! HE)
6.4
Dot matrix printers: formfeeds
6.4
I have yet to find a way of stopping the RISC-OS dot-matrix printer
driver from issuing a concluding formfeed when a short piece of text is
dropped on the icon and printed. I prefer to control such things myself;
any ideas? or am I, after all, an idiot? (Mick Day.)
6.4
DFS discs: donæt try öfreeò space
6.4
Put a DFS disc in drive 0 and click; the error window tells you it is an
unrecognised format. However, if you put a DFS disc in drive 0 and click
on ÉFreeæ you will crash the machine with ÉFile core in useæ rearing its
ugly head! Couldnæt the existing disc checking routines have been
invoked before plunging into the ÉFreeæ sequence? (Mick Day.)
6.4
Naming the RAM disc
6.4
RISC-OS 2 used RAM:$ as the prefix on the RAMdisc filer window and
Filer_OpenDir worked with it quite happily. However, you had to find out
by trial and error what discname to use in order to get sense out of,
e.g.
6.4
SYS öRamFS_FreeSpaceò,öRamDisc0ò TO room% : IFroom%>X% room%=0 : ENDPROC
6.4
Acorn could have detailed this irritating time-waster somewhere (like
the PRM). Now, I appreciate that RAM::RamDisc0.$ is generically the
correct format to use in the Acorn file system protocols and clicking on
the icon in RISC-OS 3 opens a window with that title. For backwards
compatibility, *Filer_OpenDir RAM:$ still works; jolly good. However, if
your software issues the command and you have already opened a window,
RAM::RamDisc0.$, from the iconbar, you get a second window identical in
all save the title, RAM:$! (Mick Day.)
6.4
Operating system version
6.4
The PRM tells us that SYSöXOS_Byteò,0,0 prints the version string: so it
does. However, SYSöOS_Byteò,0,1 TO ,A is supposed to return the OS
version number in A but it does not seem to do so. RISC-OS 2 and RISC-OS
3 on my machines both return 6 (the SYS number for OS_Byte)! However,
SYSöXOS_Byteò,0,0 TO A does return, in (A+4), the address of the version
string, so it can be extracted in the time-honoured manner. (Mick Day.)
6.4
MS-DOS: file extensions and formatting
6.4
The MultiFS utility is not required in RISC-OS 3; DOS discs and DOS
partitions on hard discs may be read directly with the new operating
system. I think that what Acorn have done is to integrate MultiFS into
the machineæs filers as an Image filing system. However, I cannot obtain
all the old facilities of MultiFS. In particular, it is not clear
whether the hierarchical method of dealing with file extensions can be
used; this was particularly useful. Also, I see that you can copy the
boot sectors from one DOS disc to another from the command line using
*CopyBoot, but I donæt know if this can be done from the desktop as an
option while formatting. Does anyone know? (Brian Cowan.)
6.4
Compression
6.4
CC have told me that there is a bug in version 1.10 of Compression which
can cause a corruption if a file is dragged between a CFS window and the
corresponding uncompressed filer window. If this is not done, Compres
sion should work OK. (Brian Cowan.) (See also the comment by Jochen
Konietzko in last monthæs column.)
6.4
Wish list for RISC-OSá4 (R. W. Darlington)
6.4
Å    When I use Name Disc from desktop, I want to see it display the
present disc name in the writable icon. (With my setup it does display
the name of the hard disc but not that of a floppy! HE)
6.4
Å    When I copy across a group of files from one directory to another, I
want to see the Filer check that there is sufficient disc space for the
copied files to fit before it starts to copy them. (Also, in the case of
D format discs, that the disc wonæt need compacting.)
6.4
Å    I want to see it copy a group of files from one disc to another a
little more intelligently than it does at the moment. I wish to see it
write all the directory information in one go, then write all the files,
instead of continually moving the heads across the surface of the disc
for each little file it writes to disc, which takes it an age!
6.4
Å    When I Set Type from Desktop, I want to see a list of possible
options, along with their icons, like !SetType by Emmet Spier.
6.4
Å    In !Edit, I want to see an option to ÉSelect Allæ.
6.4
Å    In !SciCalc, which uses BASIC64, I want to see it display figures to
the full precision of the Basic, 18 significant figures or so and not
the 10 displayed at present. Also, I want to see it display exponents
like this ö╫1018ò and NOT öE18ò. I also want to see an option to select
engineering or scientific notation.
6.4
Å    When deleting columns at the far right hand edge of a sprite, it
deletes too many columns.
6.4
Å    If I save a sprite (using !Paint) of just one pixel in height (any
length?) and colour it a different colour than desktop grey, then when I
use this sprite to create a backdrop using the !Pinboard, not only does
it take an incredible amount of time to draw the backdrop, it also uses
the wrong colour. It comes out in desktop grey! Is this a problem with
!Paint or !Pinboard? (Or is the user making unreasonable demands? HE)
6.4
Å    In the Set Copy Options, I want to see an option whereby it can be
made to ask for confirmation only if a deletion is being made, rather
than just an access request or a copy command.
6.4
Å    Now that some fonts are inside RISC-OSá3 itself, I want to see a
configure option to set the desktop default font to other than the
system font.
6.4
Å    I also want to see a new MODE equivalent to MODE 31 in every way
except that the pixel units are set such that all icons and everything
on screen appears half the size. Or, do the same for MODEs 18, 19, 20,
and 21.
6.4
Å    When I insert a disc with a foreign format, e.g. an IBM formatted
disc, into the drives, I want to see a little more obviously that it is
a foreign format. Why not have the window header in a different colour,
e.g. red! Or do it some other way if you must, but make it immediately
obvious that it is not a native format disc.
6.4
Å    When a window now goes off screen and the bottom right-hand Ésizeæ
control is grabbed, the window increases in size upwards when it should
not. (Isnæt this one of the intended improvements in RISC-OSá3? HE)
6.4
Pinboard backdrop sprites
6.4
R. W. Darlington has also sent in a collection of 74 sprites suitable
for tiling the backdrop, a voice module (which sounds to me as if it
might have been generated not a billion light years from the Sirius
Cybernetics Corporation) and some suggested modifications to the !Boot
file which will sound the voice module and display a different backdrop
each time the computer is re-booted.
6.4
The modifications to the !Boot file read as follows:
6.4
RMEnsure PinVoice 0 RMLoad PinVoice
6.4
CHANNELVOICE 1 10
6.4
SOUND 1 &FFF1 60 160
6.4
WimpMode 31 :REM to suite my sprites
6.4
Run ADFS::HD4.$.PinSp.RenSprites
6.4
Pinboard
6.4
Backdrop -T ADFS::HD4.$.PinSp .Sprit01
6.4
This assumes that the PinSp directory contains the backdrop sprites and
an Obey file called RenSprites which simply cycles the sprite names and
reads as follows:
6.4
Rename ADFS::HD4.$.PinSp.Sprit01 ADFS::HD4.$.PinSp.Sprit00
6.4
Rename ADFS::HD4.$.PinSp.Sprit02 ADFS::HD4.$.PinSp.Sprit01
6.4
......
6.4
Rename ADFS::HD4.$.PinSp.Sprit00 ADFS::HD4.$.PinSp.Sprit74
6.4
Screen blanker configuration
6.4
Does anyone know which *configuration command sets the blank out time,
or where this appears in the *Status data. I can set it using Acorns
!Configure program in the Apps directory, but cannot find it elsewhere
for use by a star command. (Roger Darlington.)
6.4
*Filer_Run syntax
6.4
My tip last month about using *Filer_Run with a variable application
name was unnecessarily convoluted. Although *Filer_Run <App$Dir> doesnæt
work, *Filer_Run <App$Dir>.!Run does.
6.4
Fitting RISC-OS 3.1 to Computerware/Avie/Atomwide RAM upgrades
6.4
The new RISC-OS ROMs are easily fitted into the four sockets provided on
the main RAM board. The ROMs should be fitted as described in the
instructions supplied with the RISC-OS upgrade.
6.4
Locate the two links on the RAM board and swap the jumper to position B
for both.
6.4
Locate LK12 on the main PCB, this is just under the RAM PCB where the
cable enters from the left. There should be two links placed in the
east-west postion. Remove these links and replace them in the north-
south position.
6.4
LK12 is not always fitted and exists as a pair of PCB tracks on the
topside of the main PCB. These can be cut using a small sharp knife. The
new links can then be made on the underside of the PCB using tinned
copper wire and a soldering iron Ö as shown below.
6.4
A310 Issue 1 PCBæs do not have LK12 fitted at all and require more
difficult modification. Please contact Avie for assistance.
6.4
The fitting of RISC-OS 3 will be performed by Avie for ú6.50 + VAT Ö
this charge is simply to cover return carriage.ááA
6.4
Å    ABC Compiler Ö Iæve followed the discussions in Archive about the
relative merits of the RiscBasic and ABC compilers with interest
(Archive 6.1 p49). I donæt feel that there is much weight to the
argument that ABC is compiling a language different from Basic V. The
differences are quite small. The evening I received the ABC package, I
got a program of over a thousand lines running with the compiler in
about an hour which included writing some code to initialise several
arrays and removing some redundant code. When I write programs under the
Basic V interpreter, I just take the differences into account.
6.4
My major grumble is that even when I bought the ABC package a year ago,
it had a minor bug which shows itself sometimes when the object code
icon is dragged to a directory Ö it requires the machine to be reini
tialised. An upgrade to the latest version, which presumably will have
corrected this bug, will cost me ú40, which I think is a bit steep if
itæs only the bug fix that is any help to me.á Les May, Rochdale
6.4
Å    EasiWord 2 up(?)grade Ö I did have version 1.07 of Minervaæs EasiWord
and, after seeing the adverts for the WYSIWYG version, EasiWord2, I
decided to go for the upgrade.
6.4
Now, I do not know anything about 1st Word Plus, so the fact that
EasiWord2 was similar conveyed nothing to me. However, when I tried this
new version, I was niggled to find that I couldnæt print without a RISC-
OS printer driver being installed.
6.4
What was much worse was the fact that I could no longer send control
codes to my printer! Horror of horrors Ö I had lost the ability to print
in double height and in a choice of seven colours on my old Epson
LQ2500+. Let readers be warned!
6.4
I wrote to Minerva and expressed my dismay about their new package. They
very kindly invited me to return version 2 for a refund or part
exchange. I took up their offer and they even gave me a new package of
their old EasiWord 1.07. Well done, Minerva!
6.4
So, before you upgrade, be sure that it actually is an UPgrade for your
purposes.á Keith Lowe, Pickering
6.4
Å    Scheme Ö If Sue Lawley asks me which book I want to take to a desert
island, without hesitation I will have to say ÉStructure and Interpreta
tion of Computer Programsæ by Abelson and Sussman. I reckon that after a
few years of studying it without any distractions, I would know how to
set about programming a computer. The language used by these authors is
Scheme, a stripped down, elegant and refined version of Lisp.
6.4
If you think Lisp is just an acronym for ÉLots of Irritating Single
Parenthesesæ, think again. With even a simple parentheses-matching text
editor as supplied with EdScheme, that bogey disappears and you quickly
come to realise that the apparently strange syntax of Lisp-like
languages such as Scheme is in fact a very consistent and clear way of
expressing a computer program. Indeed, just as we in Britain are used to
seeing a Pascal-like pseudo-code used to express a fragment of code, US
books aimed at the academic community often use Lisp for the same
purpose.
6.4
I had read about the first third of the Abelson book before taking the
plunge and buying EdScheme. What arrived was the Scheme optimising
incremental compiler and associated editor on a single disc, a thinnish,
100 pages plus, User Guide and Reference Manual, and a thick, 300 pages
plus, Schemeræs Guide. This package is, in fact, a complete programming
course at a total cost of ú60 plus p&p.
6.4
The guide is aimed rather firmly at the late secondary school market and
starts with a deceptively simple approach to programming by asking the
programmer to construct pencil and paper machines capable of performing
given tasks. Even when programming has been introduced, the guide
continues to use the Émachineæ diagrams alongside the Scheme code.
6.4
This approach has much to commend it. We are familiar with the idea of a
machine which carries out some operation on the raw materials fed into
it. Cans of beans are constructed from a supply of beans and empty cans.
The filled cans are transported as a package but, to make use of them,
we need another machine, a can opener, to open the package and get at
the contents. Much of Scheme programming is concerned with building the
machines to construct packages of data, machines to check their contents
and machines to open up the packages and make use of the contents.
6.4
One quickly comes to realise that within those intimidating parentheses
is the name of a machine which carries out some operation and the names
of items upon which it operates. That applies to arithmetic operations
too, so the label for the operation comes before the operands, so called
Polish or pre-fix notation.
6.4
By chapter 3, you are being asked to write an interpreter to add
fractions (try that in Basic!) and have been introduced to the concepts
of data abstraction and recursion. On the way, you have visited some
slightly eccentric ways of representing numbers in Lisp which, though
really of historical interest only, do force you to sharpen up your
programming skills. Gradually, a mental tool box is built up containing
procedures for selecting, removing, counting, substituting and reversing
elements in lists. The inner workings of the interpreter, ÉThe Scheme
Machineæ, are explained in chapter 5.
6.4
The machine analogy is explored further in chapter 6 and the problems of
handling infinitely large objects in chapter 7. As a finale, a game is
developed in the last chapter which embraces topics like artificial
intelligence and object-oriented programming.
6.4
Scheme seems to me to be one of the best kept secrets of the computing
world. This implementation is inexpensive and, though not multitasking,
can be entered from the desktop and cleanly exits back to it. It is
hoped that a RISC-OS compliant version will be released during 1993
though the cost will be slightly higher. This will enable Scheme to run
at the same time as other applications and allow code to be dragged into
a Scheme window and compiled. At present, there do not seem to be any
plans for a version which enables the user to create, close or resize
windows from Scheme, though the Macintosh version allows this to be
done.
6.4
I have learned a lot from my experiences with Scheme. Even when
programming in Basic, it has forced me to ask questions like, ÉIf I
store data in this way, how much of the code which accesses this data
will I have to rewrite if I decide I want to store my data in a
different way?æ My appreciation of the virtues of a highly consistent
syntax, with few exceptions, has made me more critical of other
languages to which I have access. It has also made me realise just how
much code I have to write which has nothing to do with expressing how I
want the data to be operated on (my model) but is necessary just to tell
the machine how to do it. I think Iæm a better programmer for having
taken the time to study Scheme.
6.4
It has also left me with a profound sense of despair. When I was
involved in education, I consoled myself with the notion that, for all
its faults, the A level system produced students who were much better
educated than a High School student in the USA, where the EdScheme
package has its origins. Yet Scheme seems to have made a negligible
impact in this country, probably because those who control education
believe that so long as we can produce GKOs (pronounced Geckos) Ö
Glorified Keyboard Operators Ö everything will be all right. With that
in mind, the decision has been taken to ignore the discipline of
programming and concentrate on IT Ö whatever that is. I think we are
making a big mistake.
6.4
EDScheme is available from Lambda Publications at a cost of ú60 plus
ú2.50 p&p. A 300 page copyable Resources Pack and a Teacheræs Guide is
also available at additional cost.
6.4
 Les May, Rochdale.ááA
6.4
Comment Column
6.4

6.4
Spacetech
6.4
From 6.3 page 32
6.4
ICS
6.4
From 6.3 page 39
6.4
Creating Signs and Printing Posters
6.4
Tord Eriksson
6.4
There are many ways of printing a drawing bigger than the paper your
printer can handle Ö at least three offerings from 4Mation, two from Oak
Solutions and one from Ian Copestake.
6.4
Three in 4Mation
6.4
All the 4Mation printer routines are fairly similar whether it is
Poster, Vector or DrawPrint you are using (DrawPrint is part of the
Chameleon 2.00 package, the version with fountain fills Ö upgrades are
ú12.50 from 4Mation.)
6.4
If using DrawPrint, you simply drop the drawfile on the DrawPrint icon,
in Vector you use the printer setup menu and in Poster you just select
print Ö after a couple of secondsæ hesitation, you get a miniview of the
file in question with the paper size plotted on top of the drawing. You
simply click over the parts of the drawing you are not interested in and
off you go. To access the menu you press <menu> over the iconbar icon or
by dragging a drawfile on to it (See Oak below!).
6.4
Overlap and butt marks are optionally available in Poster and DrawPrint
and printout speed is very similar. Both prints 4Mationæs compressed
drawfiles, Poster files and, of course, normal drawfiles.
6.4
Vectoræs printer routines naturally handle the effects unique to it
(such as Radiate) excellently. Most of the time it works as well as the
others but at times it seems hesitant to start printing. (I have no
explanation for this!)
6.4
DrawPrint, again!
6.4
Unfortunately, one of the products from Oak is also called DrawPrint.
(This led to some misunderstanding between Paul and me!) It uses exactly
the same icon and behaves in a similar manner. The Oak offering does not
have the option of overlap marks, nor can you cross out those parts you
are not interested in, something I missed because it is a waste of time
and paper to print blank pages!
6.4
Page size is either selected from a short list of A sizes (A0 to A3),
printer page size or custom. The menu is accessed by either clicking
<select> on the iconbar icon or by dropping a drawfile onto it.
6.4
There are two more utilities on this disc, called DrawPrint&Plot, a
plotting program and a font manipulator similar to FontFX (more about
these later!).
6.4
Placard from Ian Copestake
6.4
Placard comes with a typically flimsy Copestake manual, (like an English
newspaper which lacks staples or glue to hold it together) but it is
well laid out and contains all the necessary information.
6.4
In contrast to those above, you cannot click to choose what areas to
print or not to print, you activate öNumbersò and each paper, that makes
up the full poster, will get a little number. These numbers are then
included in a list, so if you want to print out papers 1, 2, 3 and 6,
you just fill those numbers in: ö1, 2, 3, 6ò of you could write ö1-3, 6ò
or ö1-3 6ò Ö it doesnæt matter.
6.4
Mr J. McCartney of Shifnal has written to me, via Archive, and said that
Placard does not like DrawPlus files. I havenæt used Draw for a couple
of years, but I have had no trouble with DrawPlus files (my version of
DrawPlus is 2.10). Even Vector files work flawlessly (Vector is 1.00
presently), if saved in Draw format. Has anyone else had problems? If
so, check that you have the latest versions of DrawPlus and Placard.
6.4
The information Placard writes on the overlap areas (the name of the
drawing, page number and other useful information like öAttach to page
12ò) is not available on the 4Mation offerings. It is quite useful at
times but it takes some time to do it. This information can be reduced
to a minimum by changing the settings.
6.4
First round
6.4
The DrawPrint utility from 4Mation wins Ö it has few thrills and is easy
to use, even without a manual. The advantage with Oakæs DrawPrint is
that it can handle just about any size of page and that you can choose
the size of the final print at printing time. Nice!
6.4
Placard seems to be designed with schools in mind and the program is a
bit of an overkill for normal use. It also crashed Impression when
started up together with both DrawPrints. (Stupid of me, I know, but I
prefer well-behaved software that doesnæt ruin my reviews!)
6.4
4Mationæs Éclickingæ method for choosing which pages to skip is much
easier than the Placard method Ö it took me ten tries to realise that I
had to click on the Numbers icon before I could enter any numbers!
6.4
DrawPlot and ArcSign
6.4
These two utilities from Oak Solutions, that comes free with DrawPrint
(confusing isnæt it?) are gems in their own right.
6.4
Does not plot dotted lines
6.4
First the plotter driver: This will work with almost any plotter that
understands HPGL commands, no matter if it is serial, parallel or on
your network. Again, you can set the size of the finished work and you
can set a number of options as you wish: Filled text, outline text,
filled areas, page orientation, pen speed, origin, which pen to use and
its width and colour and so on.
6.4
In short, it is a very competent program that can reproduce almost
everything in a drawfile, except dotted lines and text in columns.
6.4
Create signs
6.4
ArcSign, according to the iconbar info box, öcreates signsò. Well, so
does Poster and this is certainly not as powerful a program as that.
FontFX is the program that comes to my mind, and this little utility
manhandles text in a similar fashion, setting it in circles or in
straight lines, etc.
6.4
However, there is one improvement over FontFX that I first came across
in ArtWorks and that I immediately took to heart. Computer Concepts call
it the perspective tool. This is an instant moulding tool that works by
making the four corners of the selected area individually movable, the
draw object being distorted in the process. An example explains it
better Ö letæs start with a leaning and rotated text:
6.4
By just moving the four corners of the selected area you can get this:
6.4
It couldnæt be much easier. There are two restrictions to this program:
It only accepts around fifty fonts (each variation, such as bold or
italic, counts as one font) and it gets stuck when you clear the drawing
window with öDelete Allò Ö it always leave one object on the board!
Otherwise, you have to reboot the utility to continue. Hopefully, this
will be corrected in later versions (1.00 tested).
6.4
Final round
6.4
There is no clear winner, as usual. For schools, Poster is the natural
choice, as it is very helpful in telling you in which order you should
assemble your poster from your printed pages. Vector produces equally
good results, except for gigantic prints, as there is no custom size
option.
6.4
4Mationæs Chameleon with DrawPrint, and Oakæs DrawPrint&Plot with
ArcSign, both cost less than ú40 and the printer drivers are fairly
similar. For the user of plotters there have been few available plotter
drivers (GammaPlot and Super-Plot come to mind) and they all cost around
ú40, so you could say you get DrawPrint and the excellent ArcSign
absolutely free when you buy Oakæs DrawPlot.
6.4
For those without plotters, I would recommend either of the DrawPrint
utilities, ArcSign and Chameleon are both very good programs.
6.4
P.S.
6.4
In my last review, I promised to answer any letters but said that SAEs
(Self-Addressed Envelopes) would help. I didnæt mean they should have
Swedish stamps on them! (I always assumed that SAE stood for Stamped
Addressed Envelope Ö but perhaps Iæm wrong. Ed.)
6.4
Yours, from overseas: Tord Eriksson, ╓vralidsg. 25:5, S-422 47 Hisings
Backa, Sweden.ááA
6.4
Angled and rotated text is as easy as it is with FontFX Ö if not easier!
6.4

6.4
By manipulating the selected area box, many unusual effects can be
obtained very quickly! This one took less than a minute!
6.4

6.4
This gives some idea of ArcSign in action. The primary menu looks quite
like FontFXæs, the additional Options menu is, like the program, simple
but does a very competent job. The selected area with its unusual
operation is visible immediately below.
6.4

6.4
ArcSimp Ö Simulation Software
6.4
Jochen Konietzko
6.4
What itæs not ...
6.4
As a physics teacher, I still use my old BBC Model B just for one
purpose: To run the classic simulation package Dynamic Modelling System.
So, when I heard about ArcSimp, I hoped that it would turn out to be
something like a desktop version of DMS. I couldnæt have been more
wrong.
6.4
... and what it is
6.4
ArcSimp can do the same things as DMS Ö and lots more Ö but its approach
is radically different. What it does is simulate an analogue computer.
6.4
The program needs 480 Kb of RAM and, when you run it (from floppy or
hard disk) by double clicking and then clicking again on the iconbar,
you will see two windows, the main and the tool window. The latter gives
you a choice (in version 1.52) of 33 modules which can be combined in
the main window through Édrag and dropæ.
6.4
The modules range from elementary ones like Sine and Integrator to very
complex and wholly mysterious ones which were, I am told, written to the
specifications of ArcSimp users and then included in the general
library.
6.4
Here the manual should spring into action but, unfortunately, it doesnæt
even hop!
6.4
It starts by addressing readers who have never heard of control systems
and simulations (there is an example of someone who tries to keep the
light at his desk just right for reading throughout the day and night).
The physical handling of the various elements of the program is then
described quite clearly but the rest of the manual simply consists of a
list of modules (called function blocks), with descriptions such as:
6.4
    Sample Ö
6.4
    Input I1 & I2
6.4
    Output Ö
6.4
    I1 when I2 was last + ve, ELSE zero.
6.4
ArcSimp is obviously aimed more at university people who deal with
differential equations, analogue computers and the like all the time,
rather than at school teachers. Small simulations (like the motion of a
pendulum) are very easy to achieve but, for anything else, a thorough
knowledge of such things as Laplace transformations and Bessel equations
is indispensable.
6.4
A very basic example will show how ArcSimp operates Ö see the window
below.
6.4
In the main window (upper left) are the actors Ö two Ésineæ function
blocks. The properties of each function block (here amplitude, frequency
and phase) are defined, and then one decides how to link them and which
blocks to display.
6.4
In this example, the sine and cosine functions draw their graphs and
give their values in the lower half of the picture. I have squared both
functions and added up the results. This gives the straight line in the
lower left (sin2x + cos2x = 1).
6.4
In addition, there is the graphics window on the right, where a small
Éwheelæ has been told to take its horizontal movement from the sine, its
vertical movement from the cosine. This causes the wheel to move in a
circle around the point which I have placed at the center of the
movement and then linked to the wheel with a Érubber bandæ.
6.4
Limitations
6.4
Models can be as complex as the programmer can make them; the only
limits are available RAM and time. (Each function block needs about 640
bytes and takes 0.4 milliseconds to run on an ARM3 which means that, on
an 8 Mb computer, roughly 1000 blocks could be connected but, a single
result would then take about half a second to compute (yawn!). Typical
simulations are said to contain about 100 blocks.
6.4
Price
6.4
ArcSimp is produced by Mijas Software and costs ú50. There is also a
demo version Ö restricted to 10 blocks Ö for ú5, refundable when you buy
the full version.
6.4
Conclusion
6.4
ArcSimp is extremely powerful, yet (as far as the handling of the
software is concerned) very easy to use. If you have the necessary
mathematical knowledge, I can highly recommend it. If you donæt, but are
still interested, it might pay to have a look first at some relevant
literature, such as ÉModern Control Theory and Applicationæ by
S.Shinners.ááA
6.4
Mijas say that the manual will be improved, in later releases, by adding
more pictorial explanation. They have also done some tidying up of the
Wimp interface to make it more user-friendly. Ed.
6.4
Display Technology
6.4
Roger Spooner
6.4
The Archimedes is generally a good computer system. Unfortunately, it
has been condemned by an old-fashioned video display system. This
article discusses what is wrong with the current system, what other
people use and what could be done instead.
6.4
There are a few graphics enhancers available for the Archimedes. These
fill various market niches but it would require a major effort from
Acorn to bring the graphics quality up to something Égoodæ.
6.4
The Good Old Days
6.4
On the BBC micro, the screen memory was the same as the main computer
memory. This meant that the higher resolution graphics that were used,
the less memory was available for programs and data. In fact, up to 20Kb
of its 32Kb was used for the screen display. For each of the 163,840
pixels, there was one binary bit of memory which indicated whether it
was to be colour 0 or colour 1. A video chip, the 6845, in combination
with a palette chip, converted the 1æs and 0æs into the colours on the
screen, like black and white, or blue and cyan. The image was not
compressed because it was accessed so fast. The memory was also faster
than the processor, so the video chip took the image from memory on the
Éoff beatæ of the clock, and the processor only accessed it on the Éon
beatæ. Thus they could both run at full speed and the only problem was
the lack of total memory.
6.4
1987
6.4
With the release of the Archimedes in 1987, there was plenty of memory
(between 512Kb and 4Mb) and the same resolutions were used. Thus, 20Kb
was an insignificant amount but could be used to store an adequate image
in the same way. More modes were also designed which used up to 320Kb of
memory in the same way. These, and those which we canæt have, are the
ones causing the problems.
6.4
Unfortunately, with the Archimedes, the processor is as fast as the
memory, so whenever the video system wants access to it, it has to hold
up the processor and perform DMA; Direct Memory Access. This means that
the more bytes used for the screen, the less time is available for the
processor. This can, sadly, get quite serious.
6.4

6.4
The processor shares memory with the videoásystem on the Archimedes.
6.4
Eating up bandwidth
6.4
It seems that in mode 21, the all-singing all-dancing mode with
640╫512╫256 (X╫Y╫Cols), you end up consuming 77% of the processor time
just displaying the screen. In other words, the processor is denied
access to the memory for 77% of the time, and it just has to wait. This,
combined with the increased number of bytes which have to be altered to
display something of a certain size on the screen (e.g. clearing the
screen which uses 320Kb) means that things go much slower. (This applies
to the ARM2, but with the ARM3æs onboard cache, there is a lot less
speed loss. Ed.)
6.4
Dual port memory
6.4
To avoid holding up the processor with video memory accessing, it is
possible to use Édual-portæ memory. This has the advantage that the
processor can still write to the screen memory using all of its power
and might, and the video system can read as much as it likes without
affecting the processor bandwidth. The second port of the memory is
read-only and it must be read in sequential order (not random access).
This causes no problem for display systems.
6.4
The remaining problem is that the main processor is still having to
write to the entire memory array, so to clear the screen, it may consume
large fractions of a second (1/10th perhaps) and thus delay other
operations which may be going on (like thrashing the hard disc).
6.4

6.4
Dual port memory allows access to some ofátheámemory by two devices.
6.4
Even further away
6.4
The solution to this is to keep the video image in a different memory
bank, accessed through a video processor. Thus, to draw a line on the
screen (regardless of the resolution), the central processor (CPU) says,
ÉDraw a line from here to hereæ, by sending a message. The CPU then
proceeds immediately with its work and the video system works out which
bytes of its own memory have to be altered to perform the operation. Its
memory will also be dual port because there is no point in slowing it
down unnecessarily. Thus, the CPU simply issues a request for a graphic
operation and is otherwise completely unbothered by the screen.
6.4

6.4
A video processor takes almost all theáweightáoff the CPU.
6.4
There is a slight problem with displaying sprites; these involve large
chunks of memory and are therefore somewhat unwieldy to send. This can
be solved by leaving it in the main memory and telling the video system
ÉThere is a graphic command for you at this address in main memoryæ. The
video processor then looks there, finds the coordinates of the line, the
whole sprite, or whatever, and plots it at its own speed. It gets it
from memory using DMA so as not to trouble the CPU as much.
6.4
Colour
6.4
The other problem hitting us, other than the ever-falling amount of
processor time, is the lack of colours. This is easily solved by using a
better video chip; one which can take three bytes (well, more often
four) and can turn this into a signal for each of the red, green and
blue monitor guns to provide a precise 24ábit colour. The fourth byte is
either ignored or used as a transparency mask for genlocking. This
method allows for any of the 16 million colours to be used as there is
no palette to restrict it. The technique does, of course, use more
memory than we have available now but that is easily solved.
6.4
Alternatively, a palette can be maintained for 256 entries. This would
use the same amount of memory as is currently available, but you (or the
software) would be able to choose which colours you had. This does exist
now in the PCATS Graphics Enhancer, amongst others, (which I reviewed in
Archive 6.2 p68) but it is not popularly supported and it still canæt do
lots of pixels.
6.4
What else is available?
6.4
At the top of the heap is Silicon Graphics, selling workstations whose
processors are in boxes bigger than the one your whole computer came in,
and which sell for about ú60,000. These have 1280╫1024╫16M screens which
can (with an unknown amount of extra software), do full anti-aliasing of
the whole screen. This means not just the text but everything visible. I
saw it doing a wireframe model at about 2 frames per second in this
anti-aliased mode and the pixels were totally invisible. It could also
do normal images at about 100 frames per second.
6.4
Typical good X-window workstations have 1024╫768 screens with a full
palette of 256 from 16M colours. Some cost as much as ú5,000. (Mind you,
I gather that there are now PCs available that now offer 1024╫768 with a
full palette at around ú1,000. Ed)
6.4
Whatæs the problem?
6.4
Of course, all this costs money and circuit board area. The computer
companies are not keen on using equipment which may cost literally
dozens of pounds to attain this quality.
6.4
Well, it would be a major effort to include this sort of technology but
it is commonly available in the Unix workstation market. We are
currently stuck with a real problem; Archimedes users can have neither
colour nor resolution which are up to modern standards.
6.4
G8Plus Graphics Card
6.4
Mike Hobart
6.4
When I bought an A310 for my laboratory about five years ago, it was the
fastest machine around for any sensible price (and had next-to-no useful
software). I believed that it was pretty clear that such a powerful
platform would attract good software writers but there was a strong
feeling among the lemmings (sorry, my colleagues) that maybe we should
have bought a PC instead, so we paid extra for a Mk I NEC Multisync
monitor because that, at least, would be useful for any alternative
computer. The PC never happened, but Impression, Artworks, Pipedream,
DrawPlus and Vector all did. So did a SCSI drive, extra memory and RISC-
OS 2 and the programs multitasked. And the wonderful, fast machine got
slower Ö so we bought an ARM3. Then we bought a VIDC enhancer and the
screens were big and beautiful Ö and the machine got slower again. If
this sounds familiar, help is at hand in the form of two (at least)
competing graphics enhancer cards.
6.4
What they do and roughly how
6.4
Both the G8 series of cards from State Machine and the ColourCard from
Computer Concepts make a copy into their own RAM of the screen memory
which, on the Archimedes itself, is used to feed the VIDC. The chips on
the cards then process the contents of their RAM into analogue signals
for the monitor. Both cards have the ability to use a wide variety of
palettes, produce 256 grey levels on screen, to refresh the screen at a
high rate which eliminates flicker and to do so without making extra
demands on the main memory bus. I have the G8Plus, not the Colour Card
so I wonæt try to compare them but just give you my views of the G8Plus.
6.4
The benefits
6.4
As you will have gathered, the benefits are high screen resolution
modes, a wider range of palettes than VIDC can support, high refresh
rates and a reduced demand on the data bus. The VIDC is clocked to only
25 frames per second and this completely rejuvenates the computeræs
performance. The display really is superb and rock-steady, and the new
palettes are a bonus. The effects on sound production of reclocking VIDC
with an enhancer are eliminated.
6.4
The package
6.4
The G8Plus card seems well-made, densely packed with modern-looking
surface-mount ICs. Even the ROM bearing the software has a couple of
tiny ICs lurking beneath Ö so take care with your software upgrades! I
have had one, so I can vouch for the efficacy of registering your
ownership. State Machine obviously mean to provide continuing support.
The G8Plus card sports two external connectors: 9-pin (standard
Archimedes) and 15-pin D. Also supplied is a ring-bound manual,
registration card and the genlock lead. It was all heroically well-
packed!
6.4
Installation
6.4
You require RISC-OS 3.1 and a slot on a backplane. It is hard to imagine
that owners of standard resolution monitors will benefit from these
cards unless they want the palettes. If you own a very old machine, the
genlock connector on the motherboard will need to be completed with an
IDC header, so serious soldering skills will be required. Thereafter,
installation is simple enough, just involving attaching a flying lead to
the genlock, and some rune typing at the command line. It helps if you
have a copy of your monitoræs instruction book so that you can choose
the right parameters without too much experimentation.
6.4
The software (version 1.3) installs itself in the Resources filing
system, popping up when you click on the Apps icon of RISC-OS 3. It
offers choosers for resolution (see screenshot) and for palettes.
6.4
The manual is very clear, if obviously not written by English scholars.
It has a very informative introductory section on the principles of the
device.
6.4
In my case, there were some hassles with installation, and I can commend
State Machineæs helpful telephone advice. The problem was a poor
connection on the genlock (ömyò end), leading to some dramatically
repulsive palettes.
6.4

6.4
Limitations
6.4
RISC-OS 3 supports 24 bit colour descriptions but also only allows a
maximum of 480Kb for screen memory. Consequently, there is the inevit
able trade-off between number of pixels to be displayed and the
precision of the colour information for each. Then there is a whole
science of actually rendering the colours on screen and, even worse, on
paper. Make no mistake, true 24 bit colour on screen is expensive and
the G8Plus card is a compromise tailored to reality. Games enthusiasts
will probably be worse-off with a card, as many use standard TV modes,
and some may do önaughtyò things.
6.4

6.4
Conclusion
6.4
If you have a similar history to mine of paying for presentation
performance with diminished speed performance, or if you need good sound
as well as vision, or better palettes including 256 greys or to say
ögoodbyeò to screen flicker, then you have a choice: purchase a graphics
card (two or three to choose from) or await the hypothetical önew
machineò whose (?) VIDC20 was covered in last monthæs Archive. Either
G8Plus or ColourCard will cost ú249+VAT (or ú280 through Archive) and
are now available. The new machine will cost ???? and be available ????
(I heard a rumour that it would have a 60MHz Inmos RISC processor in it
to drive the graphics controller as well as, obviously, an ARM-
something-or-other as the main processor.) I suspect that most of us
will covet but not afford.ááA
6.4
CCæs ColourCard
6.4
Charles Moir
6.4
Charles Moir of Computer Concepts has very kindly written a rather more
technical explanation of how the CC graphics card works...
6.4
The ColourCard graphics enhancer works by indirectly mapping the VIDC
video memory into another off-board 512Kb video frame store. The
important point about this is that the video memory still appears to be
memory-mapped into the ARM address space so that existing software will
work unchanged.
6.4
(In my view, graphics boards that do not offer memory-mapped solutions
are not going to be practical since a large amount of the OS and
application code has been written assuming direct access to video
memory. If a graphics board has its own memory, not addressable by the
ARM, all the OS graphics code and a number of existing applications
would have to be re-written to run on another processor. Even if this
other processor were an ARM, it would still be impractical since so much
code, i.e. the font manager, sprite module, draw module and kernel
graphics, expect to use other OS facilities such as memory management.)
6.4
The main limitations of the current VIDC are that (a) it does not offer
high enough resolutions Ö it is not clocked fast enough for that, (b) it
does not offer a fully programmable palette (in the days of VIDC design
it was too expensive to implement the 768 byte look-up tables on chip)
and (c) it does not support dual-ported video memory. This last point
means that, at the higher resolution modes, the VIDC needs to read so
much memory, so quickly, that it has to hold up the main processor
memory accesses. This is more important with an ARM2, but even with an
ARM3, you canæt help but notice that, for example, mode 28 runs rather
slower than mode 27. Lastly, it does not offer true colour screen modes
such as 15 or 24 bits-per-pixel.
6.4
The ColourCard overcomes all these restrictions. It uses an Inmos video
controller that can be clocked close to 100MHz (compared with 36MHz for
newer VIDCs). This chip also offers a fully programmable palette for the
256 colour modes so that each of the 256 colours can be selected from
16.8 million, and it offers support for 15bpp true colour screen modes
where each pixel can be one of 32,000 possible colours.
6.4
By clocking the video controller at such high rates, it is possible to
offer very high resolution video modes such as 1152╫848 or, more
conventionally, 1024╫768 with 16 colours, and it can do so at flicker-
free refresh rates of 65Hz or more. Since RISC-OS works just as well in
2:1 aspect ratio screen modes, such as mode 12, we can offer a resolu
tion of 1600╫600 pixels in 16 colours for an absolutely huge desktop Ö
this has to be seen and experienced to know what a difference this makes
to the Archimedes). (Amen to that! Iæm using 1600╫600 to edit this
article and lay out the magazine and itæs wonderful! Ed.) The maximum
256 colour resolutions possible with this amount of video memory are
800╫600 pixels or 1152╫424 pixels. Since the palette of colours is fully
programmable, all 256 colours can be set, for example, to levels of grey
which is perfect for working with greyscale scanned images.
6.4
Lastly, and visually most impressive, are the true colour screen modes.
Two of the true colour modes offer resolutions of 576╫424 or 800╫304
pixels. They are called true colour modes since there is no palette
involved, the values stored in each pixel directly control the colour Ö
five bits for each primary R, G and B Ö making a total of 32,768
different shades. True photographic quality colour images are possible.
6.4
Unfortunately, the desktop doesnæt yet work in 15bpp screen modes.
However, Acorn and Computer Concepts are working on this. In the
meantime, itæs easy to access the modes from Basic or your own programs
and software can be written to take advantage of the modes. For example,
we supply a simple preview utility called !Clearly for use with Clear-
file 24-bit images. A new version of ArtWorks is soon to appear that
offers full-screen true-colour preview in the 15bpp modes. (I have seen
some of these images displayed on my T560iT and they are absolutely
stunning. Ed.)
6.4
While some high end graphics systems offer 24 bits per pixel displays,
it is my belief that the advantages of the extra colours are easily
outweighed by the disadvantages. It may seem strange but 24 bpp modes
usually require twice the memory of 15bpp modes. 24 bpp modes nearly
always use one word (4 bytes) per pixel instead of two for 15 bpp. They
just use three bytes and throw one byte away. This means that, for a
given amount of video memory, 24bpp modes would be half the resolution
of 15bpp modes, or twice as much memory would be needed for the same
resolution, which costs twice as much and takes longer to update.
Lastly, by dithering 15bpp modes, it is possible to produce images that
are visually indistinguishable from 24 bpp ones. If youæve seen some of
the example PhotoCD images we supply with the ColourCard, youæll agree
itæs difficult to imagine better quality.
6.4
The ColourCard dramatically reduces the load put on the Archimedes
memory and so increases the speed of the computer. (To be more accurate
it doesnæt decrease the computer speed at the higher resolutions but the
net effect is the same.) Using a little-known feature of the Genlock
connector on the computer pcb, it is possible to copy the VIDC memory
across to the ColourCard video memory. By copying the data across far
more slowly than the normal VIDC requirements, the bandwidth loss is
reduced. In fact, the ColourCard updates only around 12 times a second.
In normal use, this is hardly noticeable, since updating the screen a
dozen times a second is still plenty fast enough to give all the
necessary visual feedback when, say, typing text into a word processor.
(Donæt confuse the screen update speed with the screen refresh rate. The
ColourCard refreshes the screen at 60Hz or more, so you donæt get any
flicker.)
6.4
The only drawback of updating the screen contents 12 times a second is
that it is not really sensible to run animation software (e.g. Replay)
in ColourCard modes. There is a straight trade-off between update speed
and computer speed. The faster you update the screen the slower the
computer runs.
6.4
Lastly, the ColourCard offers a video pass-through. This means that,
when not in one of the ColourCard modes, it passes the video signal
straight through from the standard Acorn video output to the monitor.
This guarantees compatibility with all software Ö even naughty software
that controls VIDC directly. Without video pass-through, it would be
either necessary to emulate all Acorn screen modes (not easy) or
disconnect the monitor every time you changed modes.ááA
6.4
ColourCard versus G8Plus
6.4
Paul Beverley
6.4
Finally, here are Paul Beverleyæs first impressions of CCæs ColourCard
and the State Machine G8Plus for general DTP work. (We have asked Neil
Whiteley-Bolton to look at the cards from the point of view of someone
doing colour printing work.)
6.4
Most of the advantages of the ColourCard that Charles has described
apply to the State Machine G8Plus so I will just concentrate on the
differences between the two rather than raving on about the advantages
of both. Are they worth ú249 +VAT or ú280 through Archive? (Both are the
same price and both are available through Archive.) Let me put it this
way, if they were twice the price, I would still have bought one for my
own use. (I am not saying at this stage which one I have chosen to use.)
6.4
Video switching
6.4
As Charles has said, the ColourCard switches automatically between the
Archimedesæ own video output and that from the new controller. This is
done by taking the video output via a short cable into the back of the
ColourCard. The other socket on the card is the output signal that goes
to the monitor.
6.4
The G8Plus card ignores the Acorn output and generates its own output
for all the modes Ö the Acorn ones as well as the new ones. This,
according to State Machine, provides a potential improvement in quality
because the signal does not have to go through an electronic video
switch. I have no way of assessing whether this is at all significant Ö
to my eye, the signal looked pretty good on both cards. One practical
difference, though, is that with the CC card, the final output going to
the monitor is provided on a 15-pin socket. Users of the older machines
(A300/400/540) will therefore have to get a 9-15 pin adaptor but CC
offer one free of charge if you send off the voucher that comes with the
card. The G8Plus has two sockets on the back, 9-pin and 15-pin, so you
just use whichever is appropriate.
6.4
Another difference relating to the video-switching is that, as Charles
said, without switching, you have to simulate all the Acorn modes as
well as the new modes. On some monitors, this can actually be an
advantage. On my T560iT, modes 12 and 15 come out as a Életter-boxæ
modes Ö the maximum attainable height is less than half the full height
of the screen. With the G8Plus, this has been re-programmed so that I
get an almost full-screen display. However, it does mean that Énaughtyæ
software that accesses the VIDC directly will not work on the G8 card.
Unfortunately, this doesnæt only apply to games even some Éprofessionalæ
packages such as Cable News use direct VIDC access.
6.4
15 bpp colour
6.4
Another difference is that the ColourCard offers 15 bpp colour modes but
these do not work in the desktop Ö you have to use special software.
When I started talking to CC and State Machine about the relative merits
and de-merits of this, I rapidly got out of my depth and decided I would
leave it to Neil Whiteley-Bolton. All I will say is that both companies
were able to produce some absolutely stunning demonstrations of colour
pictures on their respective cards. Very impressive, but not relevant
for the kind of DTP work that I do.
6.4
Speed
6.4
The G8Plus updates the screen about 25 times a second instead of 12╜ as
with the ColourCard. This means that, on an ARM3 machine, the processing
speed will be reduced by about 2Ö3% (State Machineæs figures) compared
to the ColourCard. With an ARM2, the reduction is about 10%. Funnily
enough, in actual use, I prefer the G8Plus. The reason is that, with the
ColourCard, I am rather more aware of the screen update, e.g. moving a
window across the screen gives more visible Étearingæ of the image, so
it feels slower even though it is actually slightly faster. This is
obviously a subjective view.
6.4
(CC say that they can re-program their card to update at 25 times a
second and will offer that as an option if people prefer it.)
6.4
Setting up
6.4
When setting up the two systems, I had a few problems with the Colour
Card Ö though this should now be documented so that those who try it
later will find it easier. My T560iT, needs a VIDCmode module (now on
Careware 18, thanks to Atomwide) to make it work properly with any of
the Archimedes computers. Also, both State Machine and CC have had
problems (now solved) with these newer Eizo monitors. CC have provided a
special modes module on disc that will make it work properly. Unfor
tunately, it took me quite a lot of messing about before I discovered
that, because it uses the normal Acorn modes, (a) you have to continue
to use your existing VIDCmodes software, (b) the VIDCmodes module has to
be fired up by your boot file before the ColourCard modes software and
(c) you have to configure Émodeæ to a standard Acorn mode, say 27, even
if you want to configure Éwimpmodeæ to one of the new modes. Otherwise,
it starts in a new mode using the ROM module but then refuses to load
the new CC module from disc because it is already in a CC mode.
6.4
The relevant section of my boot file looks like:
6.4
Run <Obey$Dir>.VIDC.T550iT
6.4
Run <Obey$Dir>.CC.Eizo560
6.4
Configure WimpMode 117
6.4
Configure Mode 27
6.4
Mode selection
6.4
Both cards come with an application that provides a way of selecting
modes from a table showing the resolution and number of colours. They
are very similar in the way that they operate except that the G8 one is
in ROM so it is always available via the Apps directory. Although it is
an advantage to have it in ROM, it does mean that updates, should they
be needed, would involve a ROM upgrade.
6.4
One thing to watch with the G8 application is that it mentions, for
example, a 1600╫1200 mode. However, if you look, it says on the window
that it is the öLogical Resolutionò. This means that 2:1 pixel modes
(marked by an oblong in the selection window of both manufactureræs
applications) have a physical resolution of half what it says in the
vertical direction. CC have chosen, instead, to quote actual resolution
on their selection table rather than logical resolution.
6.4
One neat trick that CC have done with their mode selection program is
that by clicking the icon on the iconbar in different ways, you can
switch between different numbers of colours at the same resolution. This
is very helpful in applications like Artworks where, for speed, you
might work in a lower colour mode, switching to more colours for the
occasional preview or colour check.
6.4
As you may have guessed, I have chosen to use the G8 Plus rather than
the ColourCard though it was a close-run thing. Whichever one you
choose, I donæt think you will be disappointed. If you are interested
mainly in the colour side of these new cards, it may be worth waiting
for Neil Whiteley-Boltonæs comments.ááA
6.4
(Iæm not basically disagreeing with what Roger says, but donæt you think
that the VIDC20 mentioned last month (pp 35Ö38) bodes well for the
future? Ed.)ááA
6.4
Aliped
6.4
Alan Highet
6.4
Aliped, ú14.95 from Dabs Press or ú14 through Archive, is a graphics
adventure played on a sideways scrolling screen where you play the part
of wing-footed Aliped roaming the castle to find the antidote to the
spell which prevents you marrying princess Natasha.
6.4
The scrolling area takes up a quarter-screen area in the centre of the
screen and is surrounded by the control area consisting of thirteen
icons. Clicking on these with the <menu> button allows you to load or
save a game or leave the game entirely. The other ten icons control the
actual play.
6.4
To progress through the game, you have to collect various keys and
objects which will all help you. To pick these items up you can use your
<select> or <adjust> mouse buttons which mimic Alipedæs left or right
hands, each of which can be chosen to throw, drop, pick up or activate
an item. Obviously, there are more than two items to use so you also
have a backpack which enables you to store items when they are not in
use and also enables you to swap hands.
6.4
The mouse is used exclusively to move around the board although control
is also possible with the keyboard. The controls take some getting used
to but enable a quick passage around the board. When using the keyboard,
changing the use of the hands can be achieved using the function keys, a
point not mentioned in the instructions.
6.4
Good mapping is of the essence as there is a lots of backtracking
required to negotiate your way around the castle and the screens all
look the same although the room name is displayed at the top of the
screen.
6.4
You have five days to accomplish your task (in fact, you can save and
load a game five times) and after that you have to start again.
6.4
I have to say that although the graphics are good, and clever use is
made of stereo sound to guide you around, I didnæt find the game had
what it takes to hold my interest and even with the solution in front of
me, I found it difficult to reach the end.ááA
6.4
Saloon Cars Deluxe and Extra Courses
6.4
Martin Thorpe
6.4
This article is a review of the deluxe version of Saloon Cars, and the
associated Extra Courses Volume 1. Both of the programs were written by
Andy Swain for the Fourth Dimension.
6.4
The programs are supplied in a video case-style box containing various
pictures of the game in action. The box claims compatibility with all
Acorn RISC-OS computers and the ability to use a hard disk, ARM3 and 2Mb
of memory. Two features carried over from the old program, to quote the
box, are an inability to provide a realistic simulation of a full time
office job and the lack of a coffee-making facility. Fortunately,
neither of these prove to be disastrous failings.
6.4
I ran Saloon Cars Deluxe and the extra courses on an Archimedes A540
(running a pre-release version of RISC-OS 3) and an Archimedes A440 (old
model) with ARM3. Both of the computers have Eizo multiscan monitors
with scanning ranges similar to the Taxan 795, and SCSI hard disks. The
hard disk installation program coped perfectly with both hard disks.
6.4
Having installed the game on the hard disk, I double-clicked on the
!Saloon icon. The copy-protection system asked me for the original Disk
1, which I found to be a slight annoyance. Remember to save any work you
have on the desktop, as the only way I could find of quitting Saloon
Cars Deluxe was to press <ctrl-break>.
6.4
The game introduces itself by showing a view from the inside of a lorry
similar to those used by the Formula 1 teams, as the rear door/ramp
opens. If enough memory is available for the 2Mb version, the car
proceeds to drive out of the lorry and away down the race track. The
loading screen appears to have been pre-generated and, unfortunately,
the loading screen car graphics are not as good as those in the actual
game.
6.4
(The manual states that the 2Mb version will be loaded automatically if
there is enough memory. I found that I had to drag the Task Manager
ÉNextæ slot up to at least 1536Kb to use the 2Mb version.)
6.4
Pressing any key loads the game. The player file which was last in use
is loaded, or the !Automatic file is loaded if there are no player
files. The race track picture is shown briefly and then the main menu is
displayed. It would be nice to be able to study the track picture at
length at this point, as you can when loading a new track from the
course menu.
6.4
The first option is ÉDemo Modeæ. The first time I selected this option,
I was rewarded with a corrupted display. This was due to my using VGA-
compatible display modes on the monitors, and Saloon Cars suspension
system, which bounces the display about! I was able to produce a
replacement mode 13 module which will make Saloon Cars work on any
multiscan monitor (including the Taxan 795). This module is on this
monthæs magazine disk, with instructions for use.
6.4
Having loaded the replacement mode 13 and Saloon Cars, I selected the
Demo Mode again. This produced a demonstration of Saloon Cars. Unlike
some demonstration options, the demo driver in Saloon Cars is quite
good. You can return to the main menu from the track at any time by
pressing <Q> and <F12>.
6.4
The next option is ÉRace Menuæ. Selecting this option provides four
options and a return to the Main Menu. ÉSolo Practiceæ puts you on the
start grid of your selected track, as the only car. This gives you an
opportunity to struggle around the track, free from any other cars
intent on running you off the road.
6.4
ÉNormal Practiceæ lets you practice on the track with other cars. In
Normal Practice, you start in the pits and must drive out onto the
track.
6.4
ÉRaceæ puts you in for the qualifying sessions of the race. This is
achieved by selecting ÉEnter Raceæ. ÉHot Tweaksæ allows you to modify
the caræs brakes, clutch, engine, gearbox and tyres.
6.4
ÉTune Gearsæ has the same effect as ÉHot Tweakingæ the gearbox. It
allows you to change the gear ratios, as described in the manual.
6.4
The third option on the Main Menu is ÉPlayer Menuæ. This allows you to
create new player files, and to change the various names and nicknames.
6.4
The fourth option, ÉCourse Menuæ, lets you select a new course, load a
course disk and see the best four lap times for the selected course.
6.4
The ÉMoneyæ option lets you hire a new mechanic, perform the ÉHot
Tweaksæ described above or buy a new car, customising it as you go. Be
warned Ö buying a new car is an expensive business.
6.4
The ÉControl Menuæ lets you select how the car is controlled Ö mouse,
keyboard, joystick or a steering wheel and three pedals described in the
manual. The DIY wheel and pedals should provide the most realistic
control, especially with the throttle control. I did all my testing
using the mouse.
6.4
Driving
6.4
As in any car, the first thing to do is start the engine. This is
accomplished by holding down <S> for several seconds. The car starts in
neutral, so select Drive (the default car is an automatic) by pressing
<D>. Release the handbrake with <H> and apply the throttle. The best
advice I can give is to use the practice track and potter around the
track for several laps getting the hang of the controls. I would suggest
you then proceed to Silverstone and enjoy some of the long straights and
tight bends. If you have a violent impact, your head moves forwards,
hits the steering wheel and blood goes everywhere Ö if that happens, you
know youære dead!
6.4
When (if) you feel confident enough to race, select the Normal Practice
option and get used to driving with other cars. Then you can enter a
race and qualify in as high a position as possible.
6.4
When driving, you can use as much throttle as you like on straight
sections but do as the Formula 1 drivers do and enter the bends on the
outside, aim at the inside point of the track and continue to the
outside.
6.4
This line reduces skidding to a minimum. If you want to overtake, try to
place the other driver on the inside of the track, then accelerate past
him on the ideal line, forcing him to slow down.
6.4
Saloon Cars takes a great deal of practice but I wasnæt able to get very
far in the time available for the review. Despite this, I was extremely
impressed with both the gameplay and the finish of the product. The
graphics in the game are excellent and the sound adds atmosphere to the
game. It is a great improvement over the original program.
6.4
I would like to see Saloon Cars modified to be compatible with multiscan
monitors. This could be achieved by doubling the VIDC clock rate and
updating the screen every 2 frames (i.e. having two WAIT commands
instead of one.)
6.4
The Fourth Dimension is promising a Formula 1 simulation which will
integrate with Saloon Cars. This should be available later this year and
if it is anything like Saloon Cars Deluxe, it should be extremely good.
6.4
Extra Courses Volume 1
6.4
The Extra Courses Volume 1 disk provides simulations of Donnington Park,
Oulton Park and a Seaside track, to add to the simulations of Silver
stone and Brands Hatch. These add greatly to the enjoyment of Saloon
Cars Deluxe and provide for a more varied racing season.
6.4
I would like to see simulations of some of the continental racing
circuits such as Monaco and Indianapolis. Perhaps some of the more
popular circuits will be supplied with the Formula 1 upgrade. How about
it, Fourth Dimension?
6.4
Saloon Cars Deluxe costs ú34.95 (an upgrade is available from 4th
Dimension for the original version), and the Extra Courses are ú19.95.
Both of these are well worth the money! (Archive prices are ú32 and ú18
respectively.)ááA
6.4
2067 BC
6.4
Alan Highet
6.4
After a couple of average opening screens and a nice piece of music, the
start of the game has you controlling a cute pterodactyl called Terrance
who flies around the prehistoric landscape carrying out various
missions.
6.4
There are eight levels and the first has three missions, as does the
second, and in between are bonus levels helping you to amass points.
6.4
Terrance starts with a certain amount of energy and a finite amount of
time to complete each mission but these arenæt his only enemies as there
are a host of flying insects and birds all intent on seeing his demise.
Along with that there are volcanoes shooting lava, caves dripping lava,
spear throwing cavemen and even flying fish! However, Terrance isnæt
completely helpless as he can pick up various items such as rocks and
drop them on his assailants. This takes some practice as all the objects
follow gravitational law and so, if you are moving when you release the
object, it will continue in flight for a short time before heading
earthwards. If the aim is true, the insect or bird will fall to the
ground leaving something behind. In most cases this will be a treasure
which, if swallowed, increases your score and elicits a ÉLovely!æ vocal
response from Terrance but beware Ö occasionally, a bottle of poison is
left which is obviously fatal.
6.4
The controls are easy and simple, letting you travel left and right and
flap your wings which makes you rise. The only way to go down is to stop
flapping (what else!) and, again, gravity is mimicked so a delay occurs
before Terrance heads down. The only other keys are to let you pick up
and drop objects and to enter the passages between levels.
6.4
Make sure you try picking up other things as they are all useful at some
point. The graphics are good with parallax scrolling adding realism and
smooth sprite movement. The sound effects are minimal but are right for
the game, adding to its playability without becoming annoying. All the
puzzles are quite logical and the sense of humour is good throughout the
game. I wonæt reveal too much but after solving the pulley problem, take
a look at the bushes at the start of level 1, mission three. Itæs also
worth playing the game every day as the graphics arenæt always the same
especially around the end of December. The later levels do not have any
special missions but there a lot of problems to get past, if you want to
finish the game.
6.4
Overall, I liked the game which starts off at a fairly simple level and
the difficulty increases steadily making it very playable. There are
password facilities for all levels and my only real criticism is that
the game reloads after you have been killed and it does take some time
although the copy I used would run from a hard disc, or a ram disc,
which speeds it up.
6.4
As to its longevity, some friends came to stay for the weekend and their
son, Dominic, spent almost the whole weekend playing the game and when
he was called, the reply was always ÉJust one more go!æ so I think that
says it all.
6.4
2067 BC costs ú16.95 (no VAT) from Oregan Developments.ááA
6.4
Artworks Column
6.4
Michael Carter
6.4
Welcome to the start of what is hoped will be a regular new Archive
column, devoted to Computer Conceptsæ Artworks, the new Égraphics
illustrator program for the Archimedesæ.
6.4
I donæt know whether there will be a need for a column, but as with all
regular columns within Archive, it depends on your contributions to make
it successful.
6.4
Ideally, the column will (1) provide a forum for the exchange of Éhints
and tipsæ to enable all users to obtain the maximum productivity from
Artworks, (2) maintain a Éhelp lineæ to enable users to overcome
problems, (3) describe drawing styles and techniques using the variety
of tools and (4) discuss the pitfalls and joys of colour printing.
6.4
(To save magazine space, in future Iæll use AW for Artworks and CC for
Computer Concepts.)
6.4
Getting started
6.4
One of the initial hurdles, for many people, is to justify purchasing
what must be one of the more expensive software packages for the Acorn
machines. For at ú180 (from N.C.S.) one has to dig deep. Commercial
organisations, on the other hand, will wonder why itæs so cheap,
considering the veritable cornucopia of tools which the AW package
contains. Wherever you fit in, if you need to produce illustrations, AW
will be more than powerful enough, yet it is easy enough to Éget
startedæ Ö although I say that with some reservations which I will
mention later.
6.4
Hardware
6.4
The hardware platform used will have serious repercussions on your
budget. 2Mb of RAM is CCæs quoted minimum. I have found that even 4 Mb
is a squeeze especially when using other programs, such as Impression.
Floppy disc systems can work, but with major reservations (see below). A
multisync monitor is essential, not just for clarity of the drawing, but
to read the text CC use in the info bar alone. I did use a standard
monitor to test AW, but my eyes suffered horribly as a result. Anyway
the ECæs January 1993 directives make standard monitors obsolete!
6.4
Artworkæs program suite
6.4
Upon opening the AW box, you are confronted with two program discs, five
discs of artwork, eight discs of RISC-OS 2 fonts, three manuals, a
dongle and a dangle. All the fonts and AW itself are compressed. The
programs and utilities supplied are:
6.4
    Åá!Artworks Ö the drawing program
6.4
    Åá!ConvPrint Ö PostScript to AW text importer
6.4
    Åá!FlipTop Ö screen mode change utility
6.4
    Åá!NewModes Ö larger screen modes
6.4
    Åá!System Ö new system modules
6.4
    Åá!FontInst Ö Font decompressor & installer
6.4
    ÅáProcessPal Ö screen palette
6.4
    ÅáFive discs of example artwork
6.4
Most are self-explanatory, others will be discussed another time, but
three items need some thought. The AW package is a huge suite of
programs and data. Some thought is also necessary on how it can be set
up on your system, what fonts you should use and the learning curve
involved.
6.4
Where to put it?
6.4
The easiest part was using AW decompressor program which, once given the
details of where AW files and modules were to end up, just got on with
it. On a hard disc, it is very slick!
6.4
The AW program itself is 704Kb in size. As CC state, you may remove some
modules from the program to save disc space. Even so,where does one put
all the fonts?!?
6.4
Fonts
6.4
The fonts are a huge problem area. AW comes with 220 fonts. Many are
headline fonts, as one would expect. In total, uncompressed, we are
talking of 6Mb of disc space, just for these. With all the other fonts
available, the sheer number of fonts is beginning to get difficult to
organise. Added to this there is a severe problem with the Font Manager.
It cannot cache more than 250 font variants at any one time. Some
programs set an upper limit of 255 fonts, some behave themselves and
ignore any extras but others do unspeakable things Ö even crashing the
computer!
6.4
CC do say that it is undesirable to have all these fonts on your hard
disc. Having said that, I loath the thought of hunting through floppies
just to find a particular font and, on a network, this would be very
tiresome.
6.4
!FontInst
6.4
In a valiant effort to find a solution, CC have supplied !FontInst. The
idea in theory is that, for any given document, you transfer the
compressed fonts to a new font directory and use it as normal. Another
document may require a different set. You modify the font directory to
suit, deleting those not required. Simple? Iæm afraid not.
6.4
Most programs, if they load a document and cannot find the font
required, change it to some base default (Trinity or Corpus). To return
the document fonts, it may be necessary to reload the complete program
and data file.
6.4
So how does one avoid this? One method is to have the Drawing data and
required Fonts together on a floppy or removable hard disc. (I can see
removable hard discs becoming even more popular.)
6.4
Another method is to have a separate note of a documentæs fonts and
fiddle with the font directory, making sure other programs do not crash
through doing so. A far from elegant solution. (Where is Roger Spooner?
Iæm sure he would have a solution! Ed.)
6.4
Where to put the fonts?
6.4
My solution ignores CCæs advice Ö Iæve put the AW fonts onto a hard
disc, along with others, grouped in styles. They are compressed using
ArcFS as this normally resides on my iconbar. I re-compressed the fonts,
placed the font archive inside the Font directory and then altered the
Font !Run file to open the archive and then add the fonts to the
FontList as required. With each document, I save a text ReadMe file
listing the fonts used. I can then read this before loading any new
document and add any necessary fonts to the FontList.
6.4
Unfortunately, floppy-disc-based users are going to find it less and
less practical to use modern software like AW and multiple fonts without
much disc swapping. Hard discs are no longer a luxury but more of a
necessity Ö just witness the huge size of programs in the PC world, e.g.
2.6Mb for Deluxe Animation alone Ö and Acorn software and data is
beginning to follow this trend. I would suggest that it is well nigh
impossible to run AW from floppy disc.
6.4
The learning curve
6.4
Other articles have described AW but little has been offered about how
quickly one may start drawing. I read with interest reviewer Neil
Whiteley-Bolton (Archive 6.1 p35) stating that within half an hour he
was doing productive work. I would like to suggest that for many,
including employees of commercial organisations, that is rather an over-
simplification.
6.4
The day after I received my AW package, I sat down with the computer on,
manuals in my lap (sorry EC but itæs too heavy for my copyholder) and
plenty of tea. It took me one working day to set up AW on the hard disc
and to go through the manual. Yes I know, I could have started drawing
sooner, but with a package as comprehensive as AW, I reckon itæs time
well spent in the long run.
6.4
In a commercial environment, the time I took would be quite acceptable
and realistic. A large time factor was reorganising the hard disc to
hold the fonts. Students will, of course, not have organisation problems
and it should take supple minds only a short while to understand AWæs
fundamentals.
6.4
Finally, itæs over to you
6.4
To make the Artworks Column work, we need items from readers with
experience of various aspects of AW. Let us know how you manage your
fonts. Someone, somewhere must have the answer. (How about it Acorn, why
only 250?!)
6.4
Have you discovered something which we could all benefit from, then let
us know, so that your pearls of wisdom can be passed on. A one line
comment or a page full, it makes no difference Ö please share it with
others. Remember it may be obvious to you, but not others. Just look
back through past issues of Archive to see what I mean.
6.4
My opinion!
6.4
AW is just the tool Acorn graphic illustrators have been patiently
waiting for. Am I happy with it? Yes! From an artistæs point of view CC
have created a highly intuitive program which makes the creation of
artwork for publishing and others areas, a pleasure. Whatæs your
opinion?ááA
6.4
(Since Michael started work on this column, he has had an accident and
injured his back. Hope you are soon back on your feet again, Michael.
The result of this is that he is not able to continue doing the column.
Is there anyone who would be able to take up the mantle? It would
involve collating ideas and suggestions and producing a column,
hopefully monthly, to pass on the information gained. Give me a ring if
you are interested. Ed.)
6.4

6.4
PipeLine
6.4
Gerald Fitton
6.4
This month, we have a couple of requests for help, some home spun
philosophy and printing PipeDream (and other) files with the new RISC-
OSá3.10 printer drivers. Thereæs plenty here for you even if you donæt
have PipeDream so, this month at least, you wonæt be disappointed.
6.4
The future
6.4
Paul Beverley has asked me öWither PipeLine? Is it going to become Pipe-
Wordz?ò The quick answer is öYes!ò but Iæm not sure I want to change the
name of my column from PipeLine to Pipe-Wordz yet. The reason is that I
donæt know the names of the other members of the Wordz family and, when
I do, Pipe-Wordz might be inappropriate!
6.4
Regular readers of this column will be used to seeing a little home-spun
philosophy tucked away here and there. From your letters, I see that
several of you empathise with the sentiment I expressed in last monthæs
Archive, ömy favourite package begins to look dated just as soon as I
begin to feel that Iæve mastered it.ò Although I was referring to
exporting my data files from Impression to Wordz, my correspondents seem
more interested to know how they will benefit if they export their files
from PipeDream to Wordz! I suppose I ought to have thought of that Ö but
Iæve just got used to PipeDream, so the idea that I might want to use
something better instead (the Wordz family) came as a shock!
6.4
I suppose that, when I work it out, although I have invested time in
getting to know PipeDream, and many of you will have invested money, the
truth is that nothing, not even PipeDreamá4, is forever. My consolation
is, as Iæve said before in this column, that the data contained within
my Wordwise files have been useful to me long after I stopped using a
BBC B (or Master) and long after I stopped using Wordwise. Why? Because
I was able to export the data to PipeDream on the Archimedes. I need the
information in those data files whatever new package I decide to use in
future.
6.4
When I work it out, I discover that, when costed in any reasonable way,
the time and effort which I put into the creation of those data files Ö
say handouts for students Ö that notional cost far exceeds the value of
the package and even the hardware. I remember saying to a company I was
advising about ten years ago that the hardware and software they had
just bought became obsolescent the day it was installed Ö but that what
they will still be using in ten years time (on a new machine with new
software) is the data which they were about to start entering into that
obsolescent system. What would be important to them was to be able get
the data out and into the next system! (Actually, their system was so
non-standard that, five years later, it was going to cost more to get
the data out than to install a new system!) Your comments about
exporting data files from PipeDream to the Wordz family (together with
Paul Beverleyæs öWhither PipeLine?ò) have brought home to me my own
prejudice towards using PipeDream for ever!
6.4
So, whither PipeLine? I hope that, in this PipeLine column we can help
each other to export files from Impression, from 1stWordPlus, from
Graphics Writer, from EasiWriter and even from PipeDream into the family
of Wordz packages and then learn how to get the best out of your
investment in such an Éupgradeæ. Nevertheless, I have a sentimental
attachment to PipeDream and I donæt want to abandon it!
6.4
Compression
6.4
In answer to many letters, let me assure you that PipeDream files can be
put through Compression; however, itæs hardly worth it. PipeDream files
are compressed by PipeDream and trying to compress them further wonæt
have a lot of effect. I think that Compression is fairly intelligent and
doesnæt attempt to compress files which might finish up longer than they
started.
6.4
Draw to Paint
6.4
Why have I been asked how to convert drawfiles to sprites so many times
this last month? My reply has been öLoad the drawfile and then use the
Snapshot utility from Paint (or use ScreenGrab)ò. You can always trim a
Paint file by using the Paint tool called Copy (it looks like a camera)
with the Export option enabled. Save the portion of the sprite you want
to keep to a directory window.
6.4
Football
6.4
Philip Tolhurstæs daughter is a keen supporter of Tottenham Hotspur. He
has created a database of the matches played in the Premier League and
now wants to use the results from the individual matches to create a
Éhot linkedæ league table. For example, one of his records reads across
five columns of a row:
6.4
    Date    Home Team    Away Team
6.4
15áAugá1992    Arsenal    2
Norwich City    2
6.4
What Philip wants is to use these rows of results to create a standard
league table (as shown in many newspapers) with matches played, won,
drawn and lost as well as goals for and against with a final column for
points. He wants the league table Éhot linkedæ so that, as extra match
results are typed in, the league table is updated automatically.
6.4
If you are interested (even if unable to help) then Philip is most
willing to let you have a disc copy of his version of the database.
Please contact him at 29áHigháStreet, Lode, Cambridge, CB5á9EW.
6.4
DataBase
6.4
Roger King has written to me with a problem which involves changing the
format of a database. He has a number of records in a format similar to
the one below (four columns) with one record per row:
6.4
ColáAááColáBááColáCááColáD
6.4
What he wants to do is to change it to a format which uses two rows per
record but with only three columns:
6.4
ColáAááColáBááColáD
6.4
            ColáC
6.4
Roger does not want to type all the records again but wants way of
transferring the data from his Éoldæ database to the new one. I have a
very messy solution which uses a lot of memory using the index(,,)
function. We would welcome a simpler solution. Please write to me if you
have any ideas.
6.4
PipeDream and RISC-OSá3.10
6.4
All versions of PipeDreamá4 and all but the earliest versions of
PipeDreamá3 are totally compatible with RISC-OSá3.10. In fact,
PipeDreamá4 works Ébetteræ (faster, more smoothly, etc) with RISC-
OSá3.10 than with RISC-OSá2. I strongly recommend anyone who has not
upgraded to RISC-OSá3.10 to send ú50.00 to NCS at the Archive address
and get one as soon as possible. (They are now actually in stock. Ed.)
6.4
Date function Ö @D@
6.4
Have you just fitted RISC-OSá3.10 and found that the date function, @D@,
of PipeDream now returns a date in April or May 1994? Weæve received a
lot of correspondence about this, as have Colton Software. One corre
spondent writes, öIæve changed the date using !Alarm, from Basic, from
the command line and directly into the CMOS RAM but I canæt get @D@ to
give the correct date!ò.
6.4
There is a simple answer. When you install RISC-OSá3.10 you must execute
a ÉPower on <delete>æ to clean up the CMOS RAM. If you do this, the @D@
problem will be solved. (To execute a ÉPower on <delete>æ, hold down the
<delete> key whilst switching on the computer. Make sure that you
continue to hold down the <delete> key until all activity has ceased Ö
donæt be tempted to release the <delete> key too soon.)
6.4
Itæs no good trying to use the !Configure utility to save your con
figuration settings because when you reload them after a ÉPower on
<delete>æ exactly the same (inappropriate) CMOS settings are restored.
To obtain a permanent solution you have to execute the ÉPower on
<delete>æ and then use *Configure from the command line or the
!Configure utility, section by section, to restore your desired *Status.
6.4
Printing problems
6.4
Many correspondents are having problems printing PipeDream files using
the new RISC-OSá3.10 drivers. A common one is the ejection of a blank
page after every correctly printed page. The usual advice is to shorten
the page using Edit paper size. Although this does cure the problems of
some there are still those for whom it does not. I have received a
letter from someone who had tried everything (so he said!) without
success. Then, since all else had failed, he decided to read the
installation notes! He had not executed a ÉPower on <delete>æ; he did so
and his blank page problem went away! (If only people would read the
manuals, it really would save a lot of grief for us too Ö the Technical
Help Service would be far less well used! Ed.)
6.4
Others are not so lucky. However, I have sent to some of you who have a
laser printer which emulates the HP LaserJet, copies of my LasJet-II
PrntDefn file and my !Printers file (containing my Paper size defini
tions). For some, using my files has solved their printing problems.
6.4
One more hint. Try printing a PipeDream file without the Impression
dongle. If removing the dongle solves your problem (after a ÉPower on
<delete>, etc) then get in touch with Computer Concepts. It did help one
of my correspondents Ö he received a replacement dongle by return!
6.4
On the Archive monthly disc, you will find my files in the PipeLine
directory. You can also obtain them by writing to me at the Abacus
Training address enclosing a blank formatted disc, an address label and
return postage.
6.4
The KX-P1124 printer
6.4
My laser printer PrntDefn files will not work with a dot matrix printer
but I can send you a disc copy of Ian Williamsonæs files (send me a
disc, etc). He recounts his story in the following paragraphs which I
include here as an example of problems arising from trying to set up the
RISC-OSá3.10 !Printers package to print PipeDream (and other) files. I
include my own comments in square brackets.
6.4
Introduction
6.4
I have recently fitted RISC-OS 3.10 to my A410 and had considerable
difficulty setting up the printer driver so that my Panasonic KX-P1124
printer would print and advance correctly to the top of form, with 12
inch fanfold paper. The printer was either stopping short or ejecting
nearly a whole extra page.
6.4
This article describes my experience and how correct printing was
eventually achieved. To the expert, I may be exposing my ignorance and I
am shamefaced about the time I wasted and the number of trees I have
destroyed trying to sort out the problem. My only consolation is that I
heard that others have had similar problems, including Gerald. Hope
fully, this article may help those who are still struggling.
Incidentally, I had also heard that there may be bug(s) in the printer
driver code; whilst that may or may not be true, I cannot use that as an
excuse for my problems because I eventually got my printer to print
correctly and I have resolved to read the User Guide very carefully in
future.
6.4
PrintEdit
6.4
Despite the large number of printer drivers in the Printers directory on
the Appá2 disc, would you believe there was nothing for Panasonic
printers! The Panasonic KX-P1124 is compatible with the Epson LQ-2500,
which was not in the App2.$.Printers.Epson directory but apparently is a
sub-set of Epson LQ-860 colour. I did not know that when I started, and
I was at first confused by the colour modes, but I chose to produce my
own printer driver based on Epson LQ-860 colour.
6.4
Having double clicked on the file icon, I was pleased at the ease with
which I could find my way around the editing windows. The instructions
on PrintEdit in the Acorn Applications Guide were easy to follow. First,
I changed the printer description, class, type etc, and then went
through each of the graphics modes in turn and switched off the colour
options.
6.4
Out of interest, I had a look at the printer escape sequence (Acorn
calls them Dump strings) for both text and graphics modes. Apart from
the fact that I could not understand some of the graphics mode dump
strings or, to be more accurate, reconcile some with the printer manual,
I was puzzled that I could not find escape sequences for either Set or
Release skip perforation, in either text or graphics mode. I thought
this would be important because I use 12áinch fanfold paper and have my
KX-P1124 set up so that it skips perforation. As it happens, this is
crucial Ö but more of this later.
6.4
I saved the printer definition, file name KX-P1124, with the original
paper X and Y offsets.
6.4
!Printers
6.4
Having loaded !Printers, I dragged the printer definition into the
Printer control window and the printer icon changed from grey to
glorious technicolor with the name KX-P1124. I clicked <menu> on the
icon and selected Edit paper sizes. At this point I repeated what I had
successfully done with PrinterDM. Thus I set up paper name User with the
following dimensions:
6.4
Paper size:    Width 210mm, Height 279.4mm
6.4
Graphics margin:    Top 2mm, Bottom 0mm
6.4
Text margin:    Height 66 lines, Top 2 lines, Bottom 2 lines
6.4
(I have not quoted the left and right margins here because they are not
pertinent to the problems I had been experiencing or to this article.) I
am using 12 inch fanfold paper which is 210.0 ╫ 304.8 mm, (8.27 ╫ 12
inch), and have set my KX-P1124 to skip perforation (1áinch), which is
why I had set up the paper height to 279.4 mm (11áinch). Likewise, I had
set the text height to be 66 lines.
6.4
I selected OK on paper sizes. Next I clicked <menu> on the printer icon,
selected Configure and selected Paper User, 180 by 180 dpi resolution,
and Mono, small halftone quality, and then clicked on OK. Finally, I
saved my choices via the printers icon menu.
6.4
The next time I double clicked on !Printers, I was pleased to see an
icon with the name KX-P1124 and the paper size I had saved. That was the
easy part, my troubles started when I tried printing.
6.4
Printing from within PipeDream
6.4
I had done all the obvious things, loaded my RISC-OS printer driver onto
the iconbar, and from within PipeDream set the Printer config Printer
type to RISC-OS, and clicked on OK. When I printed a page of text in
14ápt Trinity, part of the page was missing and the printer stopped
about an inch short of the top of form position. I increased the paper
size and was then horrified when text was printed over the perforation
and the printer ejected an extra page. I was startled because I had
successfully printed it several times before with !PrinterDM (on RISC-
OSá2).
6.4
Incidentally, I was also rather distressed that it now took far longer
to print than before, despite the fact that I had fitted ARM3 and
increased the memory to 4 MbáRAM at the same time as fitting RISC-
OSá3.10. I had also upgraded to PipeDreamá4. Thus it seemed as though I
had spent a lot of money to get grossly degraded performance and was not
best pleased.
6.4
(I eventually sorted this out and have achieved quicker printing than
before the upgrade, but not dramatically! The other thing I resolved was
that in future I would fit only one new item at a time, otherwise there
is too much to learn at once and too many chances of getting something
wrong.)
6.4
Draw
6.4
In desperation, I phoned Colton Software and Robert Macmillan suggested
I use Draw to sort out the setting of the printer, since it would show
the limits of the paper chosen. He suggested I draw a rectangle and
start with a paper size much smaller than used, then change the paper
size, margins and offsets to see what happens. As it happens I chose to
use DrawPlus because it can show the X and Y coordinates.
6.4
Initially, I tried printing a square from within DrawPlus but found it
took such a long time to print that I decided just to draw a line at the
top and bottom of the page. That certainly speeded things up, but I
still wasted hours and piles of paper! [I use a file I have called
Rectangle which is included on the Archive monthly disc. Also I used 75
dpi for speed. GLF]
6.4
I experimented with Y offset, paper size and graphic margins: I kept a
note of all the values, including the positions of the lines at the top
and bottom of the page in DrawPlus. After printing each page, I measured
the positions of the lines at the top and bottom of the page, and the
position of the paper relative to cutting edge. The printer either
stopped short by between 8 mm and 25 mm, or ejected the paper by
approximately 250 mm. I could detect no correlation between any of the
settings and the distance that the paper stopped short or overshot. 8 mm
was workable but not good enough, so I tried to gradually reduce the
shortfall and then suddenly it would overshoot; what was most dis
concerting was that I could not get it to repeat the previous 8 mm
shortfall, despite resetting the computer.
6.4
Problems printing text files
6.4
At this point, I decided to look at the ReadMe file in the
Printers.Epson directory on the Appá2 disc and loaded it into Edit and
pressed <print> to get a hard copy. Although I had come to expect
problems with graphics printouts I was startled to find that there
appeared to be a problem with page lengths and offsets in the text mode
as well.
6.4
After experimenting with different paper sizes, I concluded that
!Printers disables the skip perforation command of the printer, although
I could find no reference to that in either the User Guide or, as I
explained above, by examining the list of escape sequences in the
Printer definition editor. I found that the physical paper length had to
correspond exactly with Height in the Paper size box, and the Height in
number of lines in the text margins box.
6.4
Y offset
6.4
I had measured the Y offset using Top_Left in accordance with Acornæs
instructions and found it to be between 9.5 Ö 9.8 mm. I had previously
set this value in the Paper Y offset box in the Printer definition
editor. Incidentally, I had found that the Y offset value that was
actually saved was of the order of 0.07 mm less than I had put into the
box: there seemed to be some rounding (to number of points?) but I never
worked out what was happening.
6.4
On the Panasonic KX-P1124, there is the facility to advance the paper
exactly to the perforation to enable it to be torn perfectly; this means
that printer head is at the top of form position. The consequence of
this is that the Y offset value measured by Top_Left gives misleading
(irrelevant?) information. Setting this value in the Paper Y offset box
shifted all the printing down the page by that amount. This is what I
would have expected, but I understand Gerald Fitton has the opposite
effect with his LasJet-II. [Yes, I confirm that with my laser printer
the effect is in the opposite direction. GLF]
6.4
That is not necessary with the KX-P1124, so I decided to reduce the
value drastically: but because of a comment from Gerald Fitton that
unpredictable things happen with a zero offset, I chose to set the Y
offset to be equal to one dot pitch, 0.14ámm vertical. Again, after
saving this value, on reloading the Printer definition file into the
editor I found that the Yáoffset had actually been saved as 0.07 mm.
6.4
My printer definition file, KX-P1124, is included on the Archive monthly
disc. Instructions for loading it into the Printer control window are
given in the ReadMe file.
6.4
With this printer definition, I set up the following values for 12 inch
(fanfold): Paper height to 304.8 mm, Text height to 72 lines and the Top
and Bottom text margins 0 and 6 lines respectively. This gave a full
page printout with a skip over the perforation in the right place.
6.4
Correct graphics printing
6.4
At this point, I noticed that the RISC-OS User Guide p.73 states that
the Text height is used to tell the printer how long the paper is for
both text and graphics printing. This point was hidden in the section
headed Text margins and there is no mention of it in the section headed
Graphics margins: I had originally skipped this section because I was
not interested in printing text with the RISC-OS printer driver.
6.4
As mentioned above, I had already set the Paper height to 304.8 mm and
Text height to 72 lines for 12 inch (fanfold) paper, and I set up the
graphics margins and the DrawPlus file as follows:
6.4
Paper Y offset: 0.07mm, Paper Height: 304.80mm
6.4
Graphics margin: Top 0.40mm, Bottom: 25.00mm
6.4
Draw file Top: 304.00mm,   Bottom: 28.00mm
6.4
After printing, the paper advanced correctly to top of form! The Top
Graphics margin was set to 0.4 mm, again to have a small value, but also
to enable the Bottom Graphics margin to be set to 25 mm to approximate
the 1 inch skip perforation. It worked perfectly!
6.4
My paper settings for 12 inch (fanfold) paper are given in the Paper
definition file, PaperRW, included on the monthly disc. It should be
copied into the !Printers application directory viewer before loading
Printers; instructions are given in the ReadMe file on the disc.
6.4
Printing from within PipeDream
6.4
After all this, I was delighted and relieved that printing a Text_font
file from PipeDream with the RISC-OS printer driver worked perfectly. I
was also delighted to find that, with the margins I had chosen,
PipeDream works out the page length at 66 lines with 10 pt font size and
a 12 pt line height. I wanted to have the ability to print documents
with this font size and get the same page layout as when using PipeDream
printer drivers and the KX-P1124 resident fonts; that way I could save
time by draft printing.
6.4
I have found that PipeDream does make use of the paper size graphics
margin settings when printing with the RISC-OS printer type, and not
only the paper offset values: this is at variance with what I believe
Gerald Fitton has found with LasJet-II. [Correct. I find that the X and
Y offsets are used by PipeDream. GLF]
6.4
Conclusions
6.4
You must set the paper height to the exact paper paper height. Also the
text height in number of lines must correspond exactly with the paper
height.
6.4
!Printers cancels skip perforation if you have it set on your printer.
Thus, to achieve the same effect asáskip perforation, you must allow a
large bottom margin for both text and graphics.
6.4
Ignore the information given by Top_Left. This is because you are likely
to have your printer set up with the top of form in line with the paper
cutter (with fanfold paper in the KX-P1124 at least), and the printer
starts printing immediately. Thus, set Y offset to a very small value
e.g. 0.14 mm (this will save to 0.07 mm).
6.4
Lessons Iæve learned the hard way
6.4
Donæt try to do too much at once, i.e. only make one change to the
hardware or software at any time.
6.4
Read the User Guide very carefully and look for information in unlikely
places. Donæt assume you know it all!
6.4
Thanks Ian for sharing your experiences Ö I hope they will prove useful
to others.
6.4
Contacting PipeLine
6.4
Although my telephone number is getting known to you (it is not
published in Archive at my request), I would prefer you to write to me
rather than telephone. The address is on the inside back cover of
Archive. If you have something substantial then I would like a disc file
with an example so that I can see exactly what it is you mean.
6.4
You will generally get a reply within a day or two unless I am com
pletely stuck. In those cases, I often send a copy of your disc to
Colton Software for comment and advice. Please be patient.ááA
6.4
The DTP Column
6.4
Richard Else
6.4
Following my review of hand-held scanners in Archive 5.12, I had hoped
to be able to review two of Irlamæs colour scanners for this monthæs DTP
column. The company have offered to loan me the equipment in question,
but despite a number of phone calls and letters, they have still not
materialised. I will keep my fingers crossed that they will still
appear, because interest in colour printing is certainly a developing
area.
6.4
Poster Review
6.4
Back in Archive 3.11, there was a review of an early version of Poster
(v1.02), and in the intervening two years, 4Mation have undertaken
further development, so I thought it would be useful to look again at
this innovative program. It seemed most beneficial to undertake a full
review for those not familiar with it but have noted the main points of
the recent upgrade (see insert) for existing users. This review is based
on an A440, ARM3 and RISC-OS 3.
6.4
I, and no doubt others, might have overlooked Poster under the misappre
hension that it was a program allowing the printing of posters comprised
of a series of smaller sheets. Indeed, I seem to recall the original
advertising fostering this view but, in fact, this is just one of the
many facilities provided by Poster.
6.4
As with other 4Mation applications, the program needs to be initialised
by typing your name or other identification and this is then embedded
into the master disc, after which it can be freely copied onto hard
discs, etc. Reflecting their educational background, all 4Mation
products are priced to include a site licence.
6.4
What do you get?
6.4
The package comes on three discs with disc 1 containing the main
program; two fonts; a set of moulds and paths (of which more later); a
useful utility entitled NoFonts (which removes any fonts previously
resident in the program) and for RISC-OS 2 users, there are System and
System merge folders. Disc 2 contains an additional 18 fonts and over 20
examples of borders in drawfile format, whilst disc 3 has additional
examples of moulds and an extensive range of clipart ranging from
symbols to animals. This wealth of pre-existing material, together with
an excellent manual and a series of worksheets (which may be photocopied
Ö presumably for school use) mean you can get Poster up and running with
the minimum of fuss. You may wish to take 4Mationæs advice and not try
everything at once!
6.4
For new users, some familiarisation is necessary because whilst some of
the menu dialogues look familiar from Draw (options of line colour,
width, pattern, type of join etc), other choices are more usually found
in text-based programs. What is fascinating is the way Poster (working
in some instances alongside Draw) can handle text, sprites and bit-
mapped images in a powerful way and also offer an unparalleled number of
printing options. Much of Poster is based around paths and moulds: the
former is a single line along which text can be made to flow; the latter
is either two or four lines between which either text or objects are
shaped. The mould option is a powerful one requiring some care in use
(particularly in the way lines are created to form the mould), but the
manual explains this very clearly with copious illustrations.
6.4
What does Poster offer?
6.4
Text may be created and edited within the program and there are a number
of ways of doing this. For example, larger passages are best inserted
with the text area option, where options exist to justify, set line
spacing and, very usefully, define the number of columns. Text can also
be made to follow any path or moulded into a variety of shapes;
facilities are offered to justify, slant or add shadows. This so-called
Éplastic textæ has an alterable x:y ratio and may have its size or width
adjusted to fit the full length of a path. You can, if necessary, hang
the text below a line, print it back to front and/or upside down!
6.4
Objects can also be made to follow paths or shaped by moulds. This
sounds simple but can be used to produce some stylish effects. It is not
easy to describe this in print but placing, say, a flower within an arc
not only produces an exciting result, but this resultant image can be
resized, rotated and moved with ease.
6.4
Style is a concept used by Poster Ö it is an easy method of defining a
number of parameters that include line width, colour, pattern and how
those lines start and end. There are two particularly interesting
features: any changes are shown instantly in a preview window and
previous styles, even from other documents, can be retrieved and used
again.
6.4
Borders will be familiar to users of other DTP packages. These are
stored in Draw format and 77 borders come with the package, covering
almost all needs. It is possible to design your own and the manual
provides detailed instructions. However, with commendable honesty, it
does warn that this is a job requiring some patience and determination.
6.4
Put it all together...
6.4
That brief overview describes Posteræs main points but, as with other
packages, it is the combination of facilities that often really
impresses. How does Poster rate in this respect? Personally, I found
that I needed to adjust to a program that handled both text and graphics
with such ease. Once I had fully understood its scope in this respect,
it became possible to produce a wide variety of interesting graphics.
Initially, I was also worried that the program was only able design a
single page, although it does have the enormous advantage of allowing
the page to be virtually any size. Also, in fairness, the usual
facilities of multiple views and document scaling are implemented. The
most important factor, as far as I was concerned, was the ease of layout
which makes it especially appropriate for newsletters and similar
publications.
6.4
First the bad news
6.4
However, as might be expected, there also some niggles. For example, the
width of text columns appeared to be defined not by a menu option, but
by the amount text in the frame. (I was also worried about spelling when
creating large blocks of text, but discovered that David Pillingæs Spell
will work when entering all types of text.) Similarly, you can only
check the positioning of boxes by counting up the grid squares Ö some
form of measurement would have been helpful. With the mould facility,
inexperienced users need to be careful about the order in which lines
are drawn. The first time I tried a simple example, I drew the top line
first with the following result:
6.4
I then tried again drawing the bottom line first and achieved success:
6.4
However, the package comes with over sixty existing moulds, so this will
not trouble many users. Finally, and possibly most importantly for some
prospective purchasers, Poster offers a number of facilities also
present in other programs, so does it offer enough extra to justify its
price tag of ú104.58  (ú95 through Archive)?
6.4
And the good news...
6.4
The answer, I think, is a virtually unqualified Éyesæ. It is an easy
package to use, particularly in terms of its layout facilities. I found
the visible line grid is an especially valuable feature. Moving objects
around to make the desired page layout could not have been easier. In
fact, it is this user-friendliness that has converted me to the package.
Moreover, resizing the Poster window automatically does the same to the
document, so the whole page is always kept in view. I think Poster
offers more facilities within one package than any of its rivals and I
found the ability to combine both text and graphics was what really set
it apart. If you need the elaborate printing options, then the price
becomes even more competitive.
6.4
And finally...
6.4
Two final points Ö firstly, by their very nature, Acorn-based products
tend to be used by both youngsters and adults alike, and Poster offers a
range of facilities that would be equally applicable to school-based
project work as to professional DTP. Secondly, a number of companies
supplying products for the Acorn range offer a personal service that is
virtually unheard of on other platforms. I often check companies out
before buying their products to see how they compare in this respect.
From my telephone calls to 4Mation (in the first two calls, I remained
anonymous!) I have no doubts about the quality of their after-sales
backup and advice Ö which makes Poster a real winner.ááA
6.4
Help!!!!
6.4
Å    Amstrad Notepad Ö Does anyone know how to link up to the Amstrad NC100
Notepad? Is the IBM link supplied usable on Archimedes?á Barry Wilson,
Lewes and S Hasselton, Abbots Langley.
6.4
Å    Copyright issues Ö Is there anyone who could give us some sort of
explanation about the copyright and intellectual property rights
situation in relation to fonts? It would be good to put something in the
magazine about it. Thanks. Ed.
6.4
Å    IDE drives Ö Would anyone be bold enough to say which makes of IDE
drive work as a second drive on the A5000? We decided we didnæt want to
pronounce on the issue but people do ask us which drives they can use,
so is anyone prepared to tell us which drives they have used success
fully and/or which ones have caused problems? Thanks. Ed.
6.4
Å    Music typesetting Ö I am trying to develop an application (to be
released as Public Domain) which will take Rhapsody files (and possibly
Maestro files) as input and will output the music in drawfile format. I
have a working prototype of the program and if anyone would be inter
ested in helping me to test it, find the bugs and improve it, I should
be very grateful for the help.á Hugh Eagle, Horsham
6.4
Å    Packet radio Ö Has anyone written/used/know of the existence of any
software for driving a packet radio modem (preferably a PK232) other
than through a PC emulator? Nick Perrott, 23 Wynnstay Road, Mt. Eliza,
Victoria 3930, Australia.
6.4
Å    Technical articles Ö We have said before that weæd like some more
technical articles. Well, Dr Chris Johnson has offered to write
something but he wants to know what you would be most helpful. Why not
drop us a line with the sorts of things you would like to read about?
Ed.ááA
6.4
New features of v1.6 onwards
6.4
ÅáText areas can be created & edited within Poster Ö originally this had
to be done within Edit
6.4
ÅáDrawPrint is a new utility enabling Poster and drawfiles to be printed
over any number of pages. This should be of particular interest to
educational users.
6.4
ÅáCompressed files may be saved and loaded into Poster. These files are
compatible with Vector and Chameleon. Whilst on compatibility, Fountain
Filled objects from Chameleon can be moved, scaled and rotated in
Poster.
6.4
ÅáExtra features for RISC-OS 3: text and sprites can be rotated and
flipped, and RISC-OS 3 fonts can be used for putting text on paths or in
moulds.
6.4
ÅáLine, fill and text colour selectors have been expanded from 16 to 256
colours, with 256 shades of grey.
6.4
ÅáThe program is said to be faster in many respects, although I could
not check this.
6.4
ÅáText objects can be converted to path objects.
6.4
ÅáThe limit of ten posters with eight views on each has been removed.
6.4
ÅáOther smaller modifications affecting menu options; full view; saving
choices, zooming, etc have been made.
6.4
Registered owners should return disks 1 and 3 directly to 4Mation. The
upgrade costs ú15 + VAT. If youæve bought the package fairly recently,
please contact 4Mation Ö your upgrade may be free!
6.4

6.4
Fonts Workshop Ö Using Fonts from Basic
6.4
Roger Spooner
6.4
The Archimedes font manager is a beautiful piece of programming which
allows you to use all sorts of fonts in your work. Normally, people only
use them inside applications like Draw or Impression, but (as I will
show) it is easy to use them in your own software. With just a few SWI
commands, you can set up and start displaying text in any font at any
size on screen, or even on the printer if you want.
6.4
A program outline
6.4
We will need a program to work on. Iæll use a clock which displays the
time somewhere on a black screen. (To get into Basic, press <f12>, type
BASIC and press <return>.) To enter the program, type AUTO, and to quit
from that press <escape>. Many other commands like LIST and SAVE are
beyond the scope of this article.
6.4
Using fonts
6.4
There are a number of functions which a program using fonts will have to
use, and a few that it may want. As this is a completely original
Archimedes facility (the BBC Micro did not have a Font Manager), it has
been written with the future in mind. It is free of restrictions on the
colours (at the program level), as you can define the colour of the text
appears as a 24 bit colour number. You can also let it use whatever
screen or printer resolution you have, so you are not restricted to
640╫256 or whatever.
6.4
The first thing to do is to find out what fonts are available. If you
know which you want, you can ask for it immediately but you should
beware of it not being available, perhaps using ÉXæ SWI calls (which I
wonæt go into here). SYS öFont_ ListFontsò is the command for finding
the names of all available fonts. In RISC-OS 2, it insists that you look
at the list starting at the top and going down to the bottom. Thus you
should beware that there may be more fonts available than you can store.
The demonstration program continues to call the SWI, but does not store
more than the maximum number of fonts.
6.4
Parameters to Font_ListFonts are:
6.4
R1=pointer to buffer for name
6.4
R2=count (0 for first call)
6.4
R3=pointer to path string or -1 for default
6.4
On Exit:
6.4
R2 = updated counter
6.4
The next thing required is to pick a font. That is up to you or the
user. The clock program picks one at random from those whose names it
remembers. This must then be selected with SYS öFont_FindFontò. This
call tells the computer which fonts you are going to be using and at
what size. It returns numbers, like file handles, to refer to them. It
does not actually allow you to write immediately.
6.4
Parameters for Font_FindFont are:
6.4
R1 = pointer to font name
6.4
R2 = X point size ╫ 16
6.4
R3 = Y point size ╫ 16
6.4
R4 = X resolution (or 0 for default)
6.4
R5 = Y resolution (or 0 for default)
6.4
On Exit:
6.4
R0 = font handle number
6.4
From the parameters, you will see that you can easily make the width
different from the height but itæs best not to do so.
6.4
You can Find as many fonts as you like, so long as you remember what
their handles are. The computer will keep them in memory for as long as
they are Éfoundæ.
6.4
Next, choose one and select it as the current font. Only one can be
current at any time but there is no problem in swapping them round
quickly or frequently. This is done by using SYS öFont_ SetFontò
6.4
Parameter for Font_SetFont
6.4
R0 = handle of font to select
6.4
With a font selected, it is still necessary to choose the colours. This
can be slightly difficult because the current palette is not necessarily
good for anti-aliasing. Because of this, you can ask the ColourTrans
module to do it for you. This (which must be loaded for the clock
program) is able to read the palette and decide which colours should be
used. It has a call specially for choosing font colours when you know
the 24 bit colour you want: SYS öColourTrans_SetFontColoursò is the one.
A note about colours: The 24 bit palette entries are given in hexadeci
mal as &BBGGRR00 so there are 2 digits each of red, green and blue. In
hexadecimal, this gives the full range. Do note the 00 on the end. This
is reserved for future use (transparency, probably). Full strength in
any colour is FF, half is 80 and none is 00 so white is &FFFFFF00,
strong blue is &FF000000 and black is &00000000.
6.4
Parameters for ColourTrans_SetFontColours
6.4
R0 = font handle or 0 for current
6.4
R1 = background palette entry
6.4
R2 = foreground palette entry
6.4
R3 = maximum anti-aliasing (0-14)
6.4
On Exit:
6.4
irrelevant
6.4
Finally, we are ready to draw the text on the screen. This is done with
SYSöFont_Paintò which simply draws your text on the screen (or printer
if thatæs where itæs going). This takes the text, the coordinates and
some option flags. It will draw the text using all the features already
defined such as colour and size.
6.4
Parameters for Font_Paint:
6.4
R1 = pointer to string to write
6.4
R2 = flags, 1<<4 for OS coordinates
6.4
R3 = X coordinate
6.4
R4 = Y coordinate
6.4
There is also a complicated series of control codes which can be
included in the text to change effects as you go but that is beyond the
scope of this article.
6.4
You can call Font_Paint as often as you like, so if you initialise all
the previous commands, you can use this one alone from there on until
you stop.
6.4
To finish using a font, you must declare it no longer needed with SYS
öFont_LoseFontò. This means it can be released from the font cache
memory and the file containing it is closed.
6.4
Parameter for Font_LoseFont
6.4
R0 = Font handle.
6.4
There are also a number of other commands you can issue to help with
more complicated operations. Only a couple can be covered here but they
include the ability to find the width of a string of text, and even tell
you how much you can print inside a certain width. This is done with SYS
öFont_StringWidthò.
6.4
Parameters for Font_StringWidth:
6.4
R1 = pointer to string
6.4
R2 = maximum X offset in millipoints
6.4
R3 = maximum Y offset in millipoints
6.4
R4 = ÉSplitæ character (e.g. Space) or -1
6.4
R5 = Index of character to terminate by
6.4
On Exit:
6.4
R1 = pointer to last examined character
6.4
R2 = X offset after painting string
6.4
R3 = Y offset (of cursor) after painting
6.4
R4 = number of Ésplitæ characters painted
6.4
R5 = index in string to last OK character
6.4
Another SWI that is of interest is SYSöFont_ ConverttoOSò which
translates millipoints into theoretical pixels. This allows much easier
calculations for most of us:
6.4
Parameters for Font_ConverttoOS
6.4
R1 = X value (millipoints)
6.4
R2 = Y value (millipoints)
6.4
On Exit:
6.4
R1 = X value (OS units)
6.4
R2 = Y value (OS units)
6.4
Well, after all that heavy load of information, hereæs the program.
Improvements like multisync monitors are up to you!
6.4
REM > FontClock
6.4
REM by Roger Spooner ⌐ 25/7/92
6.4
REM to demonstrate use of the font manager
6.4
PROCinitialise
6.4
PROClistfonts
6.4
ON ERROR PROCerror
6.4
REPEAT
6.4
  newfonttime%=TIME
6.4
  handle%=FNrandomfont
6.4
  REPEAT
6.4
    PROCshowclock(handle%)
6.4
    PROCwait
6.4
    PROCunshowclock(handle%)
6.4
  UNTIL TIME>newfonttime%+1000
6.4
  handle%=FNlosefont(handle%)
6.4
  CLS
6.4
UNTIL FALSE
6.4
END
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCinitialise
6.4
REM  Sets up variables that matter
6.4
maxfonts%=100
6.4
MODE 12
6.4
*RMensure ColourTrans 0.51 RMload System:Modules.Colours
6.4
OFF
6.4
DIM fontname$(maxfonts%)
6.4
DIM buffer% 256
6.4
FOR i%=0 TO 15
6.4
  VDU19,i%,16,i%*16,i%*16,i%*16
6.4
NEXT i%
6.4
textx%=300:texty%=500
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROClistfonts
6.4
REM  This procedure prepares an array and lists all the
6.4
REM  font names into it.
6.4
index%=0
6.4
fonts%=0
6.4
WHILE index%<>-1
6.4
  SYSöFont_ListFontsò,0,buffer%, index%,-1 TO ,,index%
6.4
  IF index%=-1 AND fonts%=0 THEN PRINTöNo fonts available!ò:END
6.4
  fonts%+=1
6.4
  REM Increment total font count
6.4
  IF fonts%<=maxfonts% THEN fontname$(fonts%)=$buffer%
6.4
  PRINT $buffer%
6.4
  ENDIF
6.4
ENDWHILE
6.4
CLS
6.4
PRINTöYou have ò;fonts%;ö fonts.ò
6.4
IF fonts%>maxfonts% THEN fonts%=maxfonts%
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCerror
6.4
IF handle%<>0 THEN handle%= FNlosefont(handle%)
6.4
PRINT REPORT$;ö (error ò;ERR;ö)ò
6.4
END
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFFNrandomfont
6.4
index%=RND(fonts%)
6.4
size%=RND(10)+10  :REM from 11 to 20
6.4
size%=size%*16    :REM 1/16th point
6.4
SYSöFont_FindFontò,0,fontname$ (index%), size%,size%,0,0
6.4
 TO handle%
6.4
SYSöFont_SetFontò,handle%
6.4
textx%=RND(1000)
6.4
texty%=RND(900)
6.4
=handle%
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCshowclock(handle%)
6.4
SYSöColourTrans_SetFontColoursò,
6.4
handle%,&00000000,&FFFFFF00,14
6.4
text$=TIME$
6.4
SYSöFont_StringWidthò,,text$,1E8, 1E8,-1,1E8 TO ,,xoff%
6.4
yoff%=size%*1000/16
6.4
SYSöFont_ConverttoOSò,,xoff%,yoff% TO ,xoff%,yoff%
6.4
IF textx%+xoff%>=1240 THEN textx%=1200-xoff%
6.4
SYSöFont_Paintò,0,text$,1<<4, textx%,texty%
6.4
SYSöColourTrans_SetGCOLò,&80808000
6.4
RECTANGLE textx%-20,texty%-20,xoff% +40,yoff%+40
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCunshowclock(handle%)
6.4
SYSöColourTrans_SetGCOLò,&00000000
6.4
RECTANGLE FILL textx%-20,texty%-20, xoff%+40,yoff%+40
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFFNlosefont(handle%)
6.4
SYSöFont_LoseFontò,handle%
6.4
=0
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCwait
6.4
LOCAL t%
6.4
t%=TIME
6.4
REPEAT UNTIL TIME>t%+100
6.4
ENDPROCááA
6.4
Rhythm-Bed
6.4
Stewart Watson
6.4
The latest music package from Clares is Rhythm-Bed, a stand-alone drum
sequencer. It enables the user to create percussion backing tracks using
either internal voices or a MIDI instrument which can then be run from
Rhythm-Bed or from Rhapsody or Serenade (the forth-coming sequencer
program from Clares).
6.4
The package
6.4
Rhythm-Bed comes in the usual Claresæ package which contains a single
disc and a 52 page A5 manual.
6.4
The manual
6.4
The manual is, on the whole, clear and concise Ö the instructions on
getting started are particularly good. There is a tutorial section which
goes through the various functions of the program in a systematic and
methodical fashion. A strange omission is that of a keystrip, as the
function keys are quite extensively used. There are also a good number
of hot keys which make life easier for the operator. Iæve included a key
strip drawfile on the monthly program disc. The sequencer mode, in which
bars are chained together to form songs, is one feature which I do feel
needs more explanation in the manual.
6.4
The disc
6.4
On the disc, you will find a read_me file, the main application folder,
a system folder and the system merge application, a directory of drum-
kits, a directory called Voxbeat which contains five relocatable module
drum-kits, and a directory of short, but impressive, demos.
6.4
Using Rhythm-Bed
6.4
The program uses a grid system for entering and editing scores. Entering
sounds is done simply by clicking on the required boxes with <select>
and deleting is done with <adjust>. There are fifteen volume levels,
which are shown in shades of grey, so a reasonably high resolution mode
is required Ö a 256 colour mode is recommended.
6.4
As well as step-time editing, there is a facility to record from a MIDI
keyboard in real-time. This is very similar to that found in Rhapsody,
so anyone familiar with Rhapsody should find Rhythm-Bed simplicity
itself to use.
6.4
Within minutes of loading the program for the first time, I had
constructed a rhythm track, saved it as a MIDI file, loaded it into
Rhapsody and was able to record into Rhapsody over the Rhythm-Bed
backing track.
6.4
There are basically two modes of operation Ö an 8-voice mode, for use
with internal voices, and a 64-voice mode for use with external Midi
equipment. However, the window in 8-voice mode is still 64 boxes deep
and I do feel that this is something which could have been tidied up.
6.4
Demos
6.4
The Midi compatible drum-kits provided are for a Casio CT660, Roland
E35, Roland E70, Roland U20 and Yamaha QY10. These are easily editable
to whatever other keyboard or sound module is available. The Rhythm-Bed
demonstration files are all very short and donæt really do the program
justice. They can either be played in pattern or sequencer mode Ö
something I donæt think is mentioned in the manual. As many people make
a snap judgment about a program on the strength of its demos, I do feel
that a couple of hours work to add a stunning demo track would not have
been wasted. Iæve included an alternative demo for inclusion on the
monthly program disc.
6.4
Summary
6.4
As a rhythm sequencer, Rhythm-Bed does about all you could wish for.
However, Iæm not sure who this product is actually aimed at because a
full blown sequencer should surely have its own facilities to set up
rhythm sequences. Then again, there are probably quite a number of users
of Rhapsody who might want the facilities of Rhythm-Bed but not of a
real time sequencer. If you use Rhapsody and want to improve your
rhythmic accompaniments, Rhythm-Bed is for you.
6.4
Rhythm-Bed is available from Clares Micro Supplies at ú49.95 inc VAT
(ú46 through Archive).ááA
6.4
The Draw Module
6.4
Roger Spooner
6.4
The Draw module may sound like the application !Draw, which we all know
and love, but it is actually a deeper part of the computer; one which
allows programmers to plot complicated shapes on the screen or printer.
It is used by !Draw to render (plot) the paths and by the Font Manager
to create sprites of characters defined as curves.
6.4
What can it do?
6.4
The Draw module takes a description of a path: a sequence of instruc
tions to move, draw straight or curve to new coordinates, and plots it
on screen, or in memory. It can either draw the lines themselves or fill
the area inside. It uses the currently selected colours and does not
consider things like text or sprites at all. It will send the output
either to a buffer in memory, for some commands, or more likely to the
screen. This is often redirected to places like a sprite, especially for
font cacheing, or to a printer to print.
6.4
Some commands
6.4
The Draw module really only has one command: Draw_ProcessPath which can
do any of the Draw functions. It is easier, though, to split this up
into a few others:
6.4
Draw_Fill will draw on screen the filled interior of the given path.
6.4
Draw_Stroke will draw the line round the edge of a path.
6.4
Draw_StrokePath produce a path which it saves in memory, having
partially processed things like line width and scaling.
6.4
Draw_FlattenPath will turn each curve into a series of straight lines,
and save it in memory as a path.
6.4
Draw_TransformPath will move or scale the path according to a transfor
mation matrix and will then put it in memory.
6.4
These commands are in decreasing order of complexity; Draw_ProcessPath
will do anything and the remaining ones will do just some of the
operations, saving time later. Most of the commands have a similar
structure, so Iæll describe only Draw_Stroke.
6.4
A path buffer
6.4
A path is stored in an area of memory, a buffer. Each piece of informa
tion is stored in a 4 byte word and the coordinates are Draw Units,
where 256 draw units equal one OS pixel.
6.4
A typical path might be:
6.4
2          Move command
6.4
1000             X coordinate of move
6.4
1000             Y coordinate of move
6.4
8          Draw straight command
6.4
10000            X coord to draw to
6.4
1000             Y (from move position)
6.4
6          Curve (3 points follow)
6.4
10000            X of control pt 1
6.4
10000            Y of control pt 1
6.4
1000                 X of control pt 2
6.4
10000            Y of control pt 2
6.4
1000                 X of end pt
6.4
1000                 Y of end pt
6.4
0          End of path
6.4
0          Dummy parameter
6.4
So the Draw module goes through each command, collecting the right
number of coordinates after each.
6.4
A command in detail
6.4
Draw_Stroke is a SWI command. It can be used from Basic as SYS
öDraw_Strokeò followed by these parameters,
6.4
R0 contains a pointer to the buffer in memory containing the path.
6.4
R1 is the fill style. This decides whether an area with two parts of the
path round it is filled or not. I will use 0, the default.
6.4

6.4
A non-filled interior: your choice!
6.4
R2 points to a Transformation Matrix in memory. It can move the output
round the screen, for example to accommodate the Zoom setting and scroll
bar position of a window. I use 0, to plot it straight out (no matrix).
6.4
R3 is the Flatness. This controls how curved the curves are and hence
how slowly they get drawn. This is in Draw units; the resultant line
must always be closer to the exact curve than the given number, so the
larger this is, the more jagged the curve. 0 means default. The
recommended value is about 1 real pixel.
6.4

6.4
A flatness of 15000 gives rough curves
6.4
R4 is the line thickness, in Draw Units. 0 means Éthinnestæ. Something
like 100 would come up as a dotted line as it is thinner than one screen
pixel, and 2000 is a nice thick line, about 4 pixels wide.
6.4
R5 contains a pointer to the line cap and join specification. This,
sadly, has to be defined, so you need a buffer of 16 bytes which can
contain, at its simplest, 2 in the lowest byte. In summary, this is Join
Type (Mitre, Round, Bevel) in byte 0, Leading Cap in byte 1, Trailing
Cap in byte 2, Mitre Limit in bytes 4Ö7, Cap Size in bytes 8Ö15.
6.4
R6 is a pointer to the dash pattern buffer, or 0. Briefly, it is: 0
(word), numbers of elements until repeat, then the length of each
section (black then white) of each piece.
6.4
What?
6.4
All that sounds rather complicated, but it isnæt. The difficult ones can
be ignored and the important ones are easy. Most SWIs use some or all of
the same parameters, e.g. Draw_Fill does not require a line thickness.
6.4
The transform matrix, although interesting, is too complicated for us.
6.4
The program below, when run, allows you to define a path and then shows
it to you. You should click once, then press <L>, then click a few times
round the screen. You will see a yellow line appear Ö this is your path.
Pressing <C> makes the next part a curve (involving 3 clicks) and <M> is
a move. When you click <adjust>, it will redraw and thicken the path
then quit. Itæs not much fun on its own but it has potential for
development!
6.4
REM > DrawDemo1
6.4
REM To show use of Draw Module
6.4
REM LEN 1992 Roger Spooner
6.4
MODE 12      :REM change to 20 for multisync
6.4
OFF          :REM disables cursor
6.4
PROCinit     :REM sets up variables
6.4
PROCdraw     :REM designs line
6.4
thickness%=2000 :REM thicker line
6.4
PROCfill     :REM draws thick
6.4
END
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCinit
6.4
REM initialises variables
6.4
maxpts%=100
6.4
DIM dx%(maxpts%),dy%(maxpts%), dt%(maxpts%)
6.4
DIM pathbuff% 1024
6.4
DIM joinbuff% 16
6.4
joinbuff%!0=2
6.4
joinbuff%!4=0
6.4
joinbuff%!8=0
6.4
joinbuff%!12=0
6.4
points%=0
6.4
pathtype%=2:REM move
6.4
flatness%=250:REM for curves
6.4
thickness%=0
6.4
MOUSE ON
6.4
PROCinfo(öClick at point or (L)ine, (C)urve, (M)oveò)
6.4
changed%=TRUE
6.4
nowpt%=1
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCdraw
6.4
REM defines nature of shape
6.4
REPEAT
6.4
REPEAT
6.4
k%=INKEY(0) AND &DF
6.4
CASE k% OF
6.4
WHEN ASCöLò
6.4
pathtype%=8:PROCinfo(öLine selectedò)
6.4
WHEN ASCöCò
6.4
pathtype%=6:PROCinfo(öCurve selectedò)
6.4
WHEN ASCöMò
6.4
pathtype%=2:PROCinfo(öMove selectedò)
6.4
ENDCASE
6.4
MOUSE msx%,msy%,msb%
6.4
PRINTTAB(0,1);öx=ò;msx%;ö y=ò;msy%
6.4
;ö    ò
6.4
UNTIL msb%<>0
6.4
IF msb%=4 THEN
6.4
nowpt%=points%
6.4
CASE pathtype% OF
6.4
WHEN 2
6.4
PROCinfo(öMoved to ò+STR$(msx%)+ö,ò +STR$(msy%))
6.4
dx%(nowpt%)=msx%*256
6.4
dy%(nowpt%)=msy%*256
6.4
dt%(nowpt%)=pathtype%
6.4
nowpt%+=1
6.4
PROCreleasemouse
6.4
WHEN 6
6.4
PROCinfo(öCurving to ò+STR$(msx%)+ ö,ò+STR$(msy%)+ö. Click on
6.4
 Control 2ò)
6.4
dx%(nowpt%)=msx%*256
6.4
dy%(nowpt%)=msy%*256
6.4
dt%(nowpt%)=pathtype%
6.4
PROCreleasemouse
6.4
PROCgetmouse
6.4
PROCinfo(öCurving to ò+STR$(msx%)+ ö,ò+STR$(msy%)+
6.4
ö. Click on end.ò)
6.4
dx%(nowpt%+1)=msx%*256
6.4
dy%(nowpt%+1)=msy%*256
6.4
dt%(nowpt%+1)=-1:REM Éthis is not new path elementæ
6.4
PROCreleasemouse
6.4
PROCgetmouse
6.4
PROCinfo(öCurved to ò+STR$(msx%)+ö,ò +STR$(msy%))
6.4
dx%(nowpt%+2)=msx%*256
6.4
dy%(nowpt%+2)=msy%*256
6.4
dt%(nowpt%+2)=-1
6.4
nowpt%+=3
6.4
PROCreleasemouse
6.4
WHEN 8
6.4
PROCinfo(öDrawn to ò+STR$(msx%)+ö,ò +STR$(msy%))
6.4
dx%(nowpt%)=msx%*256
6.4
dy%(nowpt%)=msy%*256
6.4
dt%(nowpt%)=pathtype%
6.4
nowpt%+=1
6.4
PROCreleasemouse
6.4
OTHERWISE
6.4
ERROR 99,öUnknown path element
6.4
type ò +STR$(pathtype%)
6.4
ENDCASE
6.4
points%=nowpt%
6.4
CLS
6.4
PROCbuildpath
6.4
PROCfill
6.4
IF pathtype%=2 THEN PROCinfo(öNow please use (L)ine or (C)urveò)
6.4
ENDIF
6.4
UNTIL msb%=1
6.4
IF points%=0 THEN ERROR 99,öNo points entered!ò
6.4
REM adjust pressed
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCinfo(m$)
6.4
PRINTTAB(0,0);m$;TAB(79);ö ò
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCgetmouse
6.4
REPEAT
6.4
MOUSE msx%,msy%,msb%
6.4
PRINTTAB(0,1);öx=ò;msx%; öáy=ò; msy% ;ö    ò
6.4
UNTIL msb%<>0
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCreleasemouse
6.4
REPEAT
6.4
MOUSE msx%,msy%,msb%
6.4
UNTIL msb%=0
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCbuildpath
6.4
LOCAL nowpt%,ptr%
6.4
ptr%=0      :REM memory location
6.4
nowpt%=0    :REM current point no.
6.4
GCOL 0,1
6.4
WHILE nowpt%<(points%)
6.4
CASE dt%(nowpt%) OF
6.4
WHEN 2
6.4
pathbuff%!ptr%=dt%(nowpt%)
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+4)=dx%(nowpt%)
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+8)=dy%(nowpt%)
6.4
ptr%+=12
6.4
nowpt%+=1
6.4
WHEN 6
6.4
pathbuff%!ptr%=dt%(nowpt%)
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+4)=dx%(nowpt%)
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+8)=dy%(nowpt%)
6.4
ptr%+=12
6.4
nowpt%+=1
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+0)=dx%(nowpt%)
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+4)=dy%(nowpt%)
6.4
ptr%+=8
6.4
nowpt%+=1
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+0)=dx%(nowpt%)
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+4)=dy%(nowpt%)
6.4
ptr%+=8
6.4
nowpt%+=1
6.4
WHEN 8
6.4
pathbuff%!ptr%=dt%(nowpt%)
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+4)=dx%(nowpt%)
6.4
pathbuff%!(ptr%+8)=dy%(nowpt%)
6.4
ptr%+=12
6.4
nowpt%+=1
6.4
OTHERWISE
6.4
PRINTöUnknown path element ò+ STR$(dt%(nowpt%))+ö at
6.4
 entry ò+STR$(nowpt%)
6.4
PROCshowarray
6.4
ENDCASE
6.4
ENDWHILE
6.4
pathbuff%!ptr%=0
6.4
ptr%+=4
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCshowpath
6.4
i%=pathbuff%
6.4
end%=FALSE
6.4
REPEAT
6.4
PRINT !i%
6.4
i%+=4
6.4
UNTIL i%>(pathbuff%+100)
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCshowarray
6.4
FOR i%=0 TO points%+1
6.4
PRINT dt%(i%),dx%(i%),dy%(i%)
6.4
NEXT
6.4
ENDPROC
6.4

6.4
DEFPROCfill
6.4
GCOL 0,4
6.4
SYSöDraw_Fillò,pathbuff%,0,0, flatness%
6.4
GCOL 0,3
6.4
SYSöDraw_Strokeò,pathbuff%,0,0, flatness%,thickness%,joinbuff%,0,0
6.4
ENDPROCááA
6.4
Ovation Column
6.4
Maurice Edmundson
6.4
The line drawing tool
6.4
The line drawing tool, together with the object manipulation techniques
described in last monthæs column, make form design and printing a
relatively simple task. I am secretary of a small group which meets once
a month, and I find that a membersæ grid for such things as register of
attendance, subscriptions, library loans and so forth, is a useful
document to have. The grid is printed on an A4 sheet. There is a main
heading at the top of the sheet and, a little further down, a space for
the title of the sheet, e.g. subscription list, register, etc. An
alphabetical list of names is listed down the left hand side, and the
grid fills the rest of the page. A (fictitious) example is shown here:
6.4

6.4
Bring up the default document page. Give the main frame a 0.25mm border
(Object Menu). From the View option in the main menu select Show Rulers.
These are helpful to have on screen for form design. I drew a text frame
along the top to take the name of the group and a heading for the
current sheet Ö in this example the register of attendance for 1992-3.
Then the grid was drawn using the line drawing tool.
6.4
Most of the operations for frames also apply to lines. The tool box
always returns to the text insertion tool after using any of the other
tools. To activate a previously drawn line whilst the text insertion
caret (the large black one as opposed to the small red one) is in the
window under mouse control, move it slowly across the line until it
suddenly changes to the standard mouse arrow. At this point click
<select>, and the red handles will be seen at each end of the line
showing that it is active. Moving the pointer to either handle will give
the re-size tool for lengthening or rotating the line and using <adjust>
will allow the line to be slid about the page into other positions.
6.4
Click on the line tool in the Ovation tool box. As with frames, keeping
<shift> pressed restricts the line being drawn to the horizontal or
vertical. Holding down <shift>, draw a line across the full width of the
page just below the text frame. Press <return> as often as necessary to
bring the caret to the line where you wish to print the first name in
the list of members. Typing a 10pt character may help. Now use the line
drawing tool with <shift> depressed to draw a line across the page just
a little above this letter, i.e. you are ensuring that the type will be
at or very near the centre of the grid spaces. (In practice, I find this
precaution is rarely necessary. The type nearly always lines up
accurately anyway!) Make this line 0.5mm thick so that it will stand
out. This choice is made from the Modify Line option in the Object menu.
Here is the dialogue box:
6.4

6.4
The default thickness is 0.25mm. Note that you can choose various line
styles, with or without endcaps, by using the radio buttons and you can
define the position and length of the line accurately just as is
possible with frames. Since the start and endpoints of the line can be
chosen, the slope too is under the useræs control.
6.4
We have to duplicate this line once again but with carefully chosen
parameters. As the names will be typed in the left column, the spacing
of the lines must match the point size of the type, otherwise they will
rapidly get out of step with each other as we move down the page. Also
if we printed all the horizontal lines 0.5mm thick the effect would be
too dark. We need thinner lines for the rest of the page.
6.4
(With some printers, for example a dot matrix printer, the thickness of
the lines cannot be varied as subtly as when using inkjet or laser
printers. To some extent therefore the fine tuning of line thickness
which I am describing is more appropriate for the second group of
printers.)
6.4
Correct line spacing, however, is necessary whatever the printer type.
Ovation, with its intelligent use of dimensions, makes this task
straightforward. If the printed names are to be typed in with 10pt type,
and allowing 20% leading, this gives a spacing from one line of print to
the next of 12 points. However, in a grid of the kind we are construct
ing, it will be more appropriate to have double line spacing. Therefore
we require the lines to be 24 points apart. There is no need to change
the global Units setting to points; it is left at the default setting of
mm.
6.4
From the Object menu, choose Duplicate Line and fill in the dialogue box
(shown last month) to duplicate once with a vertical offset of 24pt and
zero horizontal offset. After duplication, the new line remains high-
lighted so choose Modify Line and select a width of 0.2mm. Now choose
Duplicate Line again and write in 20 times (or whatever), zero horizon
tal offset, and a vertical offset of 24pt. All the horizontal lines will
be filled in correctly spaced. A word of caution Ö there is no global
öundoò function so make sure your values are correct before duplication
takes place.
6.4
We use similar techniques to complete the grid with the vertical lines.
Holding down <shift>, draw the first upright as a full line leaving
enough space for the longest name. Duplicate it once, and modify this
line to a dotted line 0.2mm thick. Now duplicate this across the page as
many times as necessary to fill to the right margin, with a spacing of
say 10mm. The form is now complete.
6.4
Check that the text you are using is 10pt. Bring the text caret to the
first line and type in the first name. Pressing <return> twice will move
the caret to the correct position on each line for subsequent names.
From the View option in the main menu select Hide Guidelines, and check
on screen that the form is correctly drawn with no missing borders or
lines. Save it, and it is ready for printing.
6.4
The examples given here and in last monthæs column should have indicated
how versatile and useful are the frame and line drawing tools for
producing all kinds of tickets, lists, bill-heads, class-lists, mark-
lists and so on. However, I must conclude with an apology. In spite of
taking (as I thought) every precaution to prevent a mistake occurring,
the first column (in the November issue) gave flawed details of how to
set the font parameters for Local Styles and for Paragraph Styles. In my
description concerning Local Styles, I said that Format had to be set
separately from the other parameters. There is a way of avoiding this,
enabling all four functions to be set without losing the window. The
secret is to use <adjust> on Format first of all. So click <adjust> on
Format and then move upwards to the other three in turn, (in any order)
using <select> for the final one. When <select> is pressed, the fonts
are cached and applied immediately at the highlighted text. When
choosing the same four functions in the Paragraph Style window, the
order of choice is immaterial. The commands are stored but no cacheing
takes place at that time.
6.4
One or two queries have arrived on my desk and I shall do my best to
answer them next month. A Happy New Year to all Ovation fans!ááA
6.4
Molecular Modelling
6.4
David Kent
6.4
I have been a dedicated supporter of Acorn computers since I bought a
BBC B about twelve years ago. In all the years of defending the BBC B
and then the Archimedes against PC pests (ö...well, just how many
wordprocessors and spreadsheets do you actually need then?ò), there was
only one bit of software I coveted from the PC world. That was a tool
for modelling and manipulating molecules.
6.4
At last, not one but two molecular modellers have been released for the
Archimedes. One is being marketed by Scottish Schools Equipment Research
Centre (SSERC) and the other is a release by Arachne Software (whose
logo, not surprisingly, is a spider).
6.4
The packages
6.4
SSERC: Chemical Modeller V2.0 contains:
6.4
Å    a mini jewel case containing a single disc with the application and
example directories of molecules (38) and ring fragments (20)
6.4
Å    photocopied joint teacher guide and pupil guide on A4 paper stapled in
one corner obviously intended for producing worksheets, plus a 37-page
photocopied instruction manual on A4 paper, stapled in one corner
6.4
Å    green and red coloured gels for use with stereo view option
6.4
Cost: ú50 +VAT with a site licence at ú80 + VAT
6.4
Arachne: Molecular Modeller V3.04 contains:
6.4
Å    single disc containing the application, plus !Scrap, !System,
!Sysmerge and two directories containing fragments (6) and molecules
(16) respectively.
6.4
Å    24 page A5 tutorial booklet plus a high quality 33-page A5 manual.
6.4
Å    green and red coloured gels for use with stereo view option
6.4
Å    keystrip
6.4
Cost: ú5 for a demo disc and manual, deducted from the cost of the full
version: ú39.50 + VAT.
6.4
Upgrades and extras
6.4
Arachne says that it intends to follow the same philosophy as Computer
Concepts, offering upgrades at nominal or no cost. SSERC will contact
users when a new release is available and will offer upgrades at a
Énominal costæ.
6.4
The authors of both modellers promise discs of molecules in the near
future, priced at about ú10 each. SSERC is about to release three discs
each containing 200 compressed sprites of molecules in a variety of
display types. They are also developing extra discs of fragment and
molecule data files including biochemicals. Biochemicals in particular
will be welcome given that they usually contain several hundred atoms.
6.4
What is a molecular modeller?
6.4
A molecular modeller has two basic functions. One is to construct
computer models of molecules and the other is to manipulate the
resultant models. Each modeller will be described in terms of how
molecules are built and how the view can be manipulated in terms of
rotation, translation and zooming and how it can be saved and printed.
This covers the minimum basics for building the molecule and setting up
the desired view. Some of the more advanced options will then be
examined.
6.4
The SSERC Chemical Modeller is being developed by Advanced Processor
Research. It was written in Fortran and with PCs in mind. It has been
compiled for use on the Archimedes in native mode and therefore does not
need the PC emulator. Its PC origins are very apparent since it doesnæt
use the desktop, taking over the whole machine. It runs in mode 15 and
requires at least 900Kb of memory and therefore needs a 2Mb machine. An
ARM3 machine is recommended. The program has a very definite PC look and
feel. Chemical Modeller is targeted more at the university user as is
apparent from the great array of more advanced options it offers. It
should prove to be very useful at A-level for a variety of jobs ranging
from diagram creation through to the exploration of a number of more
advanced molecular characteristics. I suspect that most students would
find it hard to use interactively to explore structures, stereochemistry
and so on because of its comprehensive range of options and because of
the unhelpful manual.
6.4
Unfortunately, the author does not seem to have heard of SI units. The
program expects energy to be in kcals and length in angstroms. Although
it is not particularly difficult to convert to the SI units, kJoules and
nanometres, it does complicate things when trying to use the modeller as
a teaching tool with A-Level pupils.
6.4
Arachneæs Molecular Modeller is multi-tasking and conforms to all RISC-
OS conventions. The program occupies 640Kb and again an ARM3 machine is
recommended. It uses SI units. Molecule creation is very simple but,
having created them, the modeller offers only a limited range of further
options. It allows animations and the measurement of bond lengths and
angles. Pupils would find the modeller friendly and easy to use to
explore the basic shapes of simple molecules.
6.4
Building a molecule
6.4
SSERC Ö Chemical Modeller Ö After a basic introductory screen, you are
presented with a menu screen offering a number of options. The cursor is
a small flickery cross. All the program menus are presented as permanent
lists down the left-hand edge of the screen. Clicking on the Create
option opens a blank screen and another menu. From this screen you
create your molecule. Options available allow you to build a molecule,
atom by atom, or to use a very extensive selection of pre-prepared
aromatic rings. Atoms are chosen from a reasonably comprehensive list
but you have to know which version of the atom you want. For example,
single, double and triple bonded and aromatic carbon atoms are included,
as are five varieties of nitrogen atom. However, only diagonal and
tetrahedral sulphur and tetrahedral phosphorus are offered. The list is
less comprehensive than that available in Arachneæs Molecular Modeller.
6.4
After an atom is chosen, you click on the atom to which it is to be
bonded and it is added to the molecule. You cannot add more atoms than
the normal valency number of the target atom but the program doesnæt
stop you adding fewer. A useful, quick option for finishing alkanes is
ADD Hæs which fills any unused bonds with hydrogen atoms.
6.4
When the molecule is complete, a scaled, colour-coded stick bond version
is displayed. The molecule can now be manipulated in a variety of ways.
The view can be rotated about the three orthogonal axes. It is possible
to zoom in or out and move the molecule around the screen. All manipula
tions are done on the stick version of the molecule.
6.4
The display options offered (in increasing Érealismæ of view) are: bond
only, bonds with atom numbers or with element symbols, ball and stick
(using solid, open or hatched circles), dot surface, space-fill and van
der Waalæs surface. A final option produces a stereo view using a red
and a green stick bond or space-fill display. By wearing green and red
filters in front of your eyes, your brain is tricked into Éseeingæ a 3D
view of the molecule. This view can be rotated and the effect is
convincingly 3D. The simple space-fill uses solid-colour spheres of
covalent radius, whilst the van der Waalæs view gives a full-blown
space-filled view of the molecule but more slowly. This is a very
comprehensive set of display options. Chemical Modeller has the option
to switch hydrogens off in a view so that the main backbone is clearer.
It is possible to give an illusion of perspective to the molecule.
6.4
Arachne Molecular Modeller Ö In comparison, the Molecular Modeller is
very easy and intuitive to use (or is it that the WIMP is just more
familiar?). Double click on the application icon to load the program or
onto a molecule file to load the program displaying that molecule. There
are draggable rotation bars along the bottom and right hand edges of the
work area which can be used to rotate the molecule at any time.
6.4
Creation of a molecule is simple. A Tool Window (as in Draw) is
available. All manipulation and building is done on the one screen and
the toolkit remains displayed at the side of the work area. Word-
processor-style cut, copy and paste facilities speed up the creation of
larger molecules
6.4
Elements are chosen from a display of the Periodic Table. The table
includes the bulk of the elements in the first four periods and includes
a wider range of atoms than Chemical Modeller. Atoms are positioned on
the screen in roughly the right positions by clicking. Bonds are created
by clicking on the two atoms to be joined. Single, double, triple and
aromatic bonds are available. Unused bonds (e.g. when only using three
bonds on a nitrogen atom) are treated as lone pairs when the molecular
shape is being calculated. Even when alkanes are being produced it is a
rapid process to add the hydrogens. At this point, the molecule will
look far from correct. Unfortunately, many molecules will still not look
right even after the program has altered their shape.
6.4
Wrong angles = wrong shape!
6.4
There is no limit to the number of bonds an atom can have, but adding
too many produces molecules which never settle down in the shape
optimisation part of the Molecular Modeller. The program iteratively
calculates the correct bond lengths and bond angles for the molecule. If
a particularly strained molecule is made, it can wander about the screen
at this stage because each attempt to improve the angle makes the length
worse and vice versa. In fact, I couldnæt make molecules with more than
four bonds to the central atom settle down. SF6 and PCl5 were close to
the ideal shape but never quite got there as they wandered slowly round
the screen. In fairness, these two structures cannot be built in
Chemical Modeller without using the keyboard to enter crystallographic
data directly Ö which is definitely not a job to be undertaken lightly.
The program really only managed to predict the correct bond angles for
small molecules like water, carbon dioxide, ammonia, etc. Chain alkanes
were also OK but cycloalkanes and aromatics were wrong. This inability
to get the molecular shape right is obviously a fatal flaw for a program
whose job it is to predict the shape of molecules!
6.4
Displaying the molecule
6.4
The display options offered are very similar to Chemical Modeller. There
are bonds only, bonds with element symbols, ball and stick (using solid
or open circles), simple space-fill (called quick-fill) and van der
Waalæs surface (called space-fill). A final option produces a stereo
view using a red and a green display. There are a number of options to
give some perspective to the molecule.
6.4
Saving and printing
6.4
In the Chemical Modeller, all images are printed using the programæs own
printer drivers. RISC-OS printer drivers are not supported and the
quality of the printouts does not do justice to the displays Ö not on my
24-pin dot matrix printer. However, the displays can be saved as
sprites, and so they can be edited if necessary and then printed from
Paint or a DTP package. All sprite displays take up 160Kb regardless of
how big or small the molecule is or which display style is used. Sprites
are saved as Sprite-A, Sprite-B, etc. It is a great pity that the
program cannot save drawfiles. SSERC is vigorously encouraging the
author to add this feature and to make the front end of the Chemical
Modeller more Archimedes-like!
6.4
The Molecular Modeller can save molecules either as sprites or as
drawfiles. Printing utilises RISC-OS printer drivers. Four print options
are offered: crude (but fairly quick), and dark, light and white
backgrounds. Drawfiles of space-filled molecules are created by
overlapping a large number of filled circles. The molecule is built up
from the back to the front so that the merged Éspheresæ really look
merged. The drawfiles are very much smaller than the equivalent sprites
for small molecules. For a molecule containing 14 atoms, the drawfile of
a space-filled view was 24Kb compared with the spritefile at 117Kb. When
saved as a stick model the drawfile was only 348 bytes long! With larger
molecules, savings are less or even negative! For comparison, a space-
filled view of buckminsterfullerene containing 60 odd atoms was 153Kb
for the drawfile and 114Kb for the spritefile.
6.4
I will ask Paul to see if he can fit two examples (caffeine and a fat)
on the monthly program disc.
6.4
Other Options
6.4
The SSERC Chemical Modeller offers a comprehensive selection of very
useful options which more than compensate for the less flexible front
end it presents. It will calculate and display the electronic charges on
each atom. This can be viewed with colour coding or with numerical
values. This option could very useful when teaching about bond polaris
ation, electronegativity or when looking at the effect of substituent
groups on the reactivity of the benzine ring. Two or more molecules (for
example, methane and chloromethane) may be built and their charge
distribution compared.
6.4
Bond lengths and bond angles can be measured easily. In each case, the
appropriate atoms are chosen by clicking with the mouse. The program can
superimpose two molecules so that differences between them can be seen.
A least mean squares method is used to calculate the best fit. This view
can be made to flick from one molecule to the other so that the
differences can be seen even more clearly. Chemical Modeller can also
calculate the Ébestæ shape of the molecule by minimising its energy.
Like many of the advanced features of this modeller, it is not very
friendly in use, but is very powerful.
6.4
The Chemical Modeller can calculate torsional angles within the
molecule. This is the angle between two planes or axes and can be used
to measure twisting within a molecule. This could be useful to demon
strate stearic crowding. This option can also be used to show internal
rotations within the molecule, though it is a bit of an awkward to set
up.
6.4
It can handle ionic structures like sodium chloride. It is necessary to
type in crystallography data from the keyboard. It would also be
possible to create molecules like SF6 and PCl5 by this method if you
have access to the appropriate data. (I could not get Arachneæs
Molecular Modeller to create ionic structures because of its assumption
that any Éunusedæ bonds within an atom are to be treated as lone pairs
of electrons. This obviously changes the actual bond angles and
therefore Molecular Modeller insisted on making the linear Na-Cl-Na
ionic bonds in sodium chloride bend to about 109░. Still, it does call
itself a molecular modeller.)
6.4
Chemical Modeller also has a number of options which are really too
advanced for A-Level use. If you do not know what they are, then it is
unlikely you would want to use them anyway! They include two dimensional
energy contour maps (Ramachandran Maps), stearic congestion calculations
and dihedral angle calculations between two arbitrary planes in the
molecule.
6.4
Arachne Molecular Modeller Ö Arachne can produce a variety of simple
animations of the molecule by rotating it around one of the three
orthogonal axes or an arbitrary axis specified by the user. Small
molecules can be rotated in real time but larger ones require a Éfilmæ
to be made to animate smoothly. Unfortunately, these animations films
cannot be saved and so have to be calculated each time. This can be
quite slow for a large space-filled molecule. The animations are very
smooth. The real time animations are particularly useful because the
angle step and axes can be altered as the molecule rotates.
6.4
Conclusion
6.4
Both programs have their strong points and their drawbacks. Buying the
two together would still be cheaper than an equivalent PC program, and
with the cheap upgrade policy offered, when the glitches are smoothed
out, you would be left owning a very powerful set of tools.
6.4
Arachne have made modelling very easy indeed. However, before the
program can be used for A-Level work, the problem of getting the correct
shape for all molecules will have to be sorted out. There is an energy
minimisation option in the shape calculation menu but it is Égreyed outæ
and is not mentioned in the manual nor the tutorial. Presumably this
aspect of optimising a moleculeæs shape will be added as an upgrade in
the future. Perhaps this option will solve the Éwandering moleculeæ and
bond angle problem. It would be very nice to see the ability to handle
ionic structures added as well.
6.4
The SSERC Chemical Modeller is not as friendly to use but does have a
very wide range of very useful features. Its drawbacks are its non-SI
handling of units, its inability to save drawfiles and a restricted
range of atom types in the quick build section. Perhaps the biggest
problem is the manual which is positively user-hostile! It is vital that
it is rewritten with lots of step by step examples and clear, simple
explanations of some of the more advanced ideas. After several attempts,
I still could not add extra atoms to a completed structure at a later
time. I also found it almost impossible to predict which internal
rotation I was choosing in the energy contour section. If the author is
willing to sort these points out and perhaps make the program look a bit
more RISC-OS like, then he is onto a real winner. The price is a
fraction of the equivalent PC modellers.ááA
6.4
Castle Life
6.4
Charles Hill
6.4
The contents of the Castle Life pack are: manual, 12 worksheets, startup
disk with !System, !GenLib and !Browser and the Castle Life disc with
the !Castle application.
6.4
Introduction
6.4
The package is designed to allow exploration of a medieval castle and it
is based on Barnard Castle in County Durham. It contains pages on castle
architecture and plans as well as pages on various aspects of life in
the castle. Oak Solutions claim that it addresses Key Stage 3 Medieval
realms, Britain 1066Ö1500 and especially Castles and Cathedrals 1066 Ö
1500. Oak also claim Technology Attainment Target 5 Ö IT capability Ö
this is rather obvious! It also helps to meet the requirements for
database and simulation use detailed in the programme of study for the
History National Curriculum.
6.4
Although I am not a historian, I have reviewed the package with the
involvement of my children aged 5, 7 and 9 who enjoyed it, particularly
the eldest who has a keen interest in history and found his way to the
more obscure pages long before I did!
6.4
Setting up
6.4
The start up disc is used to load the !Browser application. When
!Browser is installed on the iconbar the !Castle application is dragged
onto it. I ran the software both from floppy disks and from hard disk on
an A5000 without any problems. Installation and startup procedure are
clearly detailed in the manual. The !System. modules directory had
nothing newer than available elsewhere for some time Ö the inclusion of
!SysMerge would have made the checking easier.
6.4
The manual also refers to a !Palette icon on which to double click Ö
this was not on either disk. I found that mode 27 was not suitable as
the page windows were never full size making scrolling necessary, modes
12, 15 and 20 worked OK although the flicker is a little irritating
after being used to mode 27.
6.4
The pages
6.4
These are clearly listed with brief notes in the manual. The pages
include plans of the castle (some labelled), views of the castle at
different dates and from different directions, construction of towers
and walls and methods of siege (including animations), the interior of
buildings within the castle and a number of pages detailing various
activities such as music, archery, falconry, knights and armour,
cooking, spinning, forging, etc. Some of these are attractively animated
Ö although medieval music played by a computer sounds a little strange!
Perhaps a sound sample would have been better here. One or two frames
were a little difficult to get to at first (e.g. the dovecote) but it
was OK once you knew which tower to click on.
6.4
The worksheets
6.4
These are designed to be used both on and off the computer. Some, such
as the plans, are specific to Barnard Castle, although one sheet showing
views at different dates did not correspond with all the dates on the
screen; some are loosely related to the castle life including working in
the castle, coats of arms, illuminated writing, medieval games and there
is a castle design kit Ö probably better copied onto card Ö and a map
showing the distribution of castles in England. The worksheets are
clearly set out and my 9 year old son had no difficulty with the ones
that he attempted. I am pleased to see activity sheets which can follow
on without the need for a computer.
6.4
Using Castle Life
6.4
As with other Genesis applications, my children and I found the package
easy to use and attractively presented. The text on the introductory
pages should not prove difficult for a junior school pupil but large
amounts of text on some pages might cause difficulty for poor readers at
secondary level, especially as reading from a screen is probably more
difficult than from a textbook. Initially, I found the lack of labelling
on the first plan diagram annoying. However, having used the package
more and having seen children using it, I can see that the package is
designed so that pupils can explore on their own and find their own way
through the castle. There are labelled plans further into the package
which could be used to fill in a worksheet which could then be used for
a more structured exploration. This would also encourage the transfer of
ideas from screen to paper. On pages with animation, it was generally
appropriate and added to the interest of the pages. (I have commented on
the music above!) The date discrepancy between the worksheet öHow the
Castle Changedò and the page on screen did cause some confusion. Most of
the worksheet activities are probably relevant to Year 7 and 8 pupils
and perhaps also younger, rather than older, pupils and they do seem to
cover a range of ability.
6.4
A page printed out well using a HP Deskjet 500C printer. The colour
rendition was accurate but the choice of colour for text and its
background on screen in some cases might cause legibility problems and
anyone wishing to print out many pages might need to edit pages in
Genesis to improve the colour contrast between print and background.
6.4
Oak claims that pages can be edited in Genesis II or Genesis Plus, so
keeping backup copies of the software would be highly desirable if
pupils have access to such editing facilities!
6.4
The Find option available from the iconbar menu might be useful in some
cases and seemed to work well. However, with floppy disks, it took a
considerable time to find and load an appropriate page.
6.4
Conclusion
6.4
At ú50 plus VAT for what is effectively a site licence and copiable
documentation, this seems a worthwhile package and good value for money.
As an IT coordinator, I shall certainly encourage my History colleagues
to use it!ááA
6.4
Southern Printersæ Buildings Drawfiles
6.4
Dave Wilcox
6.4
A new name has entered the world of drawfile clipart Ö Southern Printers
which is run by Steve and Karen Southern. Their new disc is one covering
the topic of buildings. The cost is ú9 inclusive.
6.4
What you get
6.4
For ú9, you get a disc containing 46 drawings of buildings ranging from
terraced houses to elaborate castles. These files are compressed using
Spark from David Pilling. The PD decompression program, Sparkplug is
also included on the disc. In another directory, called ÉBitsæ, are some
useful component parts that were used in the construction of the
drawings. Altogether, the files amount to approximately 1.5 Mb of
drawings.
6.4
Drawings
6.4
The main drawings have been created using Vector from 4Mation. Appar
ently, you gain extra space with this program if you use the path merge
facility. This has been done to the main drawings, so if you donæt have
Vector, editing these drawings can be a complicated process. This is
another reason for the inclusion of the Bits directory on the disc.
Personally, I still use DrawPlus and this lends itself nicely to using
the Bits directory because it is a simple matter to make a library from
it. It then becomes a quick and easy matter to design a building for
yourself.
6.4
What else is available?
6.4
There are, currently, three discs available from Southern Printers, all
of which are available only by mail order. They are SP1 and SP2 which
contain general drawings which fall into no specific categories and SP3
which is the buildings disc under review here. The prices are SP1 Ö
ú5.50, SP2 Ö ú9 and SP3 Ö ú9. (SP1/SP2 ordered together are ú12.50.)
6.4
Conclusion
6.4
If you require a drawing of a building and are not artistically minded
or simply donæt have enough hours in the day, this is the disc for you.
The drawings are precise, tidy and pleasing to the eye. If you wish to
see for yourself, before you buy, you can obtain printed samples from
Southern Printers Ö simply send them a stamped address envelope
requesting sample sheets.ááA
6.4
Screen Turtle
6.4
Hilary Ferns
6.4
The thought of using turtle graphics in the primary classroom fills many
teachers with anxiety and children with confusion. It is encouraging to
see programs coming onto the scene to make this a Éfriendlyæ area of the
curriculum. You may have come across Topologikaæs ÉTeddyæs Playgroundæ
for younger children and Sherston Softwareæs ÉThe Crystal Rain Forestæ
for the older juniors, both of which are good introductions to turtle
graphics. I consider ÉScreen Turtleæ from Topologika to be an excellent
follow up to these. Its main aim is not to present adventures or puzzles
as Crystal Rain Forest does but simply to provide the environment for
the children to explore turtle graphics on the screen.
6.4
Getting started
6.4
The program comes on a single disc, accompanied by an A5 instruction
booklet, a thinner booklet of classroom ideas and a few worksheets. The
latter are also provided as drawfiles on the disc so that they can be
edited to your own requirements. A separate card is provided with
details concerning registering and loading the program. Once the disc
has been registered by typing in a name in response to a prompt, a
backup copy can be made to use as the working copy. The program can be
run from floppy or hard disc.
6.4
Screens are saved in a compressed form to save disc space, but even so,
there is very limited space on the disc if you want to keep all the
example files as well but you can, of course, move the drawfiles off the
disc. A further way to free more disc space is suggested by eliminating
the title screen from the startup sequence.
6.4
The program loads in the usual way but takes the user out of the Desktop
environment. During the loading process, you are prompted to load a
printer driver if you wish. I was pleased to see that the program makes
use of the usual RISC-OS printer drivers, and I got good results on both
a Star LC10 colour and an HP Deskjet. The screen display is simple but
enhanced by the use of Éplinthæ effects. Two Émodesæ are provided:
ÉCommand modeæ, in which the typed commands take immediate effect, and
ÉDefineæ mode which is used to build procedures. In ÉCommandæ mode, you
can choose a screen layout with a large graphics area with only two
lines of text at the bottom, or a slightly reduced graphics area with a
six line text window. In ÉDefineæ mode, where you can build your own
procedures, the text window is down the lefthand side of the screen.
6.4
Communicating with Screen Turtle
6.4
All the commands and their permissible abbreviations are listed and
explained in the booklet. However, I felt that a few step by step
tutorials would have been useful for the absolute beginner. Several
versions of each command are accepted. For example, ÉFORWARDæ can be
written as ÉFDæ, ÉFORæ, ÉFORWARDSæ or ÉAHEADæ. I should imagine that you
would need to agree on a version for use in the classroom and stick to
it. Several of the common commands are available through the function
keys Ö for which a keystrip is provided. The program will accept any
mixture of upper and lower case input. (It actually converts any lower
case commands to upper case.)
6.4
If Screen Turtle doesnæt understand your input, it will either tell you
so by a printed message or make an intelligent guess by looking at the
beginning of your command. In ÉCommandæ mode, the program will take each
command as you type, putting a tick beside each when it has been
accepted. I found this most helpful, particularly at times when I was
moving around the screen with Épen upæ.
6.4
Commands
6.4
All the usual turtle graphics commands are available via the keyboard,
and the turtle moves smartly round the screen. Some of the more complex
sequences are rather slow but can be speeded up quite significantly by
Éhidingæ the turtle. Building nested ÉREPEATæ loops in Logo can often be
confusing and this is made simpler by starting each line in the loop
with a É>æ character. The nested loops then use É>>æ, É>>>æ, etc which
helps to keep track of loops.
6.4
ÉERASEæ is a very useful little command which erases everything you
Édrawæ over. A clock is supplied as an example. At each tick, the last
line is deleted to give the appearance of the hand moving onwards. This
is not the same as setting the pen colour to the background colour; in
such cases, the lines will still be there and so will respond to any
subsequent ÉFILLæ command.
6.4
Building and saving procedures
6.4
One of the great strengths of any turtle graphics program is in its
ability to Ébuildæ up a list of commands to produce your own procedure.
Terminology becomes important here. ÉWordæ is used rather than
ÉProcedureæ, recognising that any such defined routine can be called
with a single word. This seems quite a logical term to use in the
classroom, although I found it a little confusing at first. To ÉBuildæ a
word you go into Édefineæ mode. Each line of the Éwordæ is entered from
the keyboard, and the mouse is used to select ÉRunæ, ÉStepæ, ÉClearæ,
ÉPrintæ, etc from a menu.
6.4
There are one or two minor problems concerned with editing and then
running nested repeat loops while in define mode. These are addressed in
the instruction booklet and are simply remedied by clicking on ÉRunæ a
second time. However, it is a little annoying at first.
6.4
Words built up at any one session can be saved as a file. Existing words
in memory can be deleted and a new file loaded from disc. If any of the
new words loaded have the same name as any already in memory, the
incoming ones will be suffixed with an Éxæ. This seems quite a reliable
method. However, when you quit the program you are only asked ÉAre you
sureæ. No direct mention is made of unsaved work.
6.4
As well as saving words, it is possible to save a ÉScreenæ Ö i.e. your
completed picture. These are saved in a compressed form and you can then
use the ÉTurtleConvertæ program provided on the disc to unpack them so
that the resulting sprites can be exported for use elsewhere. The
screens provided on the disc are mazes of varying complexity. They are
all fairly plain but, with a little imagination, could be edited in
É!Paintæ (or other mode 12 art package), to provide interesting topic-
based mazes.
6.4
Further refinements
6.4
ÉUNDOæ is a useful command which works on up to ten of the recent
commands.
6.4
Variables can be set using ÉMAKEæ or ÉLETæ.
6.4
A logical AND is provided by embedded ÉIF . . .THENsæ.
6.4
Random numbers are catered for with the RANDOM command.
6.4
A grid can be used to make some drawing processes easier. The lines of
the grid are 100 screen units apart.
6.4
Colours can be added in two ways. You can use the FILL command with the
turtle inside the area to be filled or you can use PAINT mode, where the
mouse is used to click on each area to fill. (This is a very ÉUn-Logo-
like command but it is very useful.) One slightly annoying thing about
the latter method is that once an area is filled, you cannot change it.
Instead, you have to go back to the unfilled version and start filling
your picture all over again.
6.4
ÉHEADINGæ turns the turtle a defined number of degrees from North Ö this
is a useful command to include in a classroom topic concerning naviga
tion or map work. ÉVECTORæ, ÉMOVEæ and ÉDRAWæ all require a knowledge of
the screen coordinates.
6.4
Finally, text can be placed anywhere on the screen in system font, by
using either the ÉLABELæ command, which places it at the turtle
position, or the ÉTYPEæ command which uses the mouse.
6.4
In conclusion
6.4
This is an excellent program, fulfilling the need for an Éeasy to
learnæ, but fairly extensive, turtle graphics program in the junior
classroom. (Perhaps at ú44 the price is a little high for this kind of
program for many primary schools.)ááA
6.4
Brian Kerslake of Topologika, saw a copy of the review so here are some
comments in response....
6.4
From my experience of Screen Turtle being used in schools, I would say
that when Hilary describes the Écommand modesæ, she has omits the mode
which kids seem to find most useful Ö when the text window is down the
left hand side of the screen Ö just as it is in Define mode.
6.4
Hilary asks for a step by step tutorial. In my opinion, the worksheets
which she describes elsewhere (and which we supply on disc as well as on
paper) are just that.
6.4
It is true that when you quit the program, although Screen Turtle asks
you if youære sure you want to finish, it doesnæt directly remind you to
save unsaved work. We will implement this in future versions.
6.4
Hilary wishes that the PAINT command allowed her to change the colour of
an area she had already filled. So do we, but we couldnæt implement this
and make it work on a 1 Mb machine along with all the other facilities.
6.4
I strongly disagree with Hilaryæs comment on the price. It is almost
half the cost of other Logos, and we include a site licence giving
schools the right to make as many copies as they wish. Other publishers
charge at least double for site licences. We think the price is about
right. Brian Kerslake, Topologika.ááA
6.4
Omar Sharifæs Bridge Program
6.4
John Wallace
6.4
The game is supplied in a cardboard box containing one diskette, a slim
Archive sized manual, a registration card and a card giving loading
instructions for the Archimedes. This starts by stating there should be
three icons and the user should double click on the ReadMe icon. There
is only one icon and no README icon. Not a good start! The card goes on
to say that the disc may be copied to, and run from, a hard drive and
used without the need for the original 3╜ö disk to be present as a key
disk. That is not true, the original disc must be in the drive for the
program to be used!
6.4
The game has been converted from the DOS/Atari/Amiga version and the
manual covers only those versions. There is no information about which
of the many features are available on the Archimedes. By trial and
error, I think that only the Alt-key combinations are available.
6.4
So what can it do? It will bid using either the öAcolò or ö5 card Majorò
system and it understands öStaymanò and öBlackwoodò conventions. The
deals may be random dealt, manually entered or recalled from disc. The
computer can play any or all of the other hands. The default is random-
deals with the computer playing the West, North and East hands.
6.4
This program is not intended to teach people how to play bridge. There
is a brief synopsis of the rules and of the history of the game in the
manual but it very wisely states that ö...it is not a comprehensive
guide to all the facets of the gameò!! It does provide some tutorial
hands on the disc and if you play these, you are only permitted to play
the cards it expects. If you fail three times then you are told which
card to play and briefly why you should play that card.
6.4
<Alt-P> brings up a menu that allows you to save the current hand to
disc as a text file including the bidding and scoring. There is a write-
to-port option which I assume is intended to send the output to a
printer but nothing happens on my machine.
6.4
The main playing screen is a green background divided into nine areas by
yellow lines. The centre area is the main playing area with the hands
displayed top, bottom, left and right as you might expect. The four
corner areas are used for information. Bearing in mind that it is
presumably in mode 12, the quality of the cards and the presentation is
good.
6.4
Once you have made your selections, the main screen is displayed with
only the South cards face up. The cards for any hand can be revealed or
hidden by using <Alt-W>, <Alt-N>, etc. We are now introduced to the
digitised voice of Omar Sharif announcing who is to start the bidding
and I thought it sounded quite reasonable. The bidding and game play is
best controlled by using the mouse to click on the card or bid (only
<select> seems to do anything). Alternatively, the keyboard may be used
as described in the booklet. Illegal bids are ignored. Omar then
announces the final contract and who is to lead. After the opening lead,
the Dummyæs cards are revealed.
6.4
I have only had a few hours with it so far but the game play seems
reasonable. When I get time, I will investigate it thoroughly and report
back. Once you start play, the worst feature of the game is revealed. At
the end of each trick Omar solemnly says öThat was good playò if you win
the trick or öThat was not quite rightò if you lose the trick Ö even if
you lose it to the Ace of trumps!! This gets incredibly wearing after a
while! Surely it should be possible to provide the comments only when
the play is thought to be below or above par? Once the bidding has
started, one cannot exit from the game other than by pressing reset.
6.4
So what is my overall first impression? On the plus side, I can now do
simple bidding and play a game of bridge on my computer, but as a
spokesman for the keen duplicate bridge player and dedicated Archimedes
user, I think we deserve better. I would like to see a conversion from
one of the dedicated bridge playing computers with many more bidding and
playing conventions. Also, it would be good to have an option to use
mode 20 for people with multisync monitors.
6.4
On the minus side, I think the conversion from the DOS version could
have been a lot better. I object strongly to having to put the original
disc in every time, whatæs the point in having a hard disc? Omaræs
comments at the end of every trick must be removed.
6.4
Omar Sharifæs Bridge is ú29.99 from Krisalis Software or ú28 through
Archive.ááA
6.4
Oak Solutions (p8)    Suite 25,
Robin Enterprise Centre, Leeds Road, Idle, Yorkshire BD10 9TE.
(0274Ö620423) (0274Ö620419)
6.4
Oregan Developments     36 Grosvenor
Avenue, Streetly, Sutton Coldfield  B74 3PE.
6.4
Ray Maidstone     421 Sprowston Road, Norwich  NR3 4EH. (0603Ö400477)
(0603Ö417447)
6.4
Risc Developments    117 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts  AL1 4JS.
(0727Ö40303) (0727Ö860263)
6.4
Safesell Exhibitions     Market
House, Cross Road, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 5SR.
6.4
Sigma Press     1 South Oak Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire  SK9 6AR.
6.4
Southern Printers     47 Drake
Road, Willesborough, Ashford, Kent TN24 0UZ. (0233Ö633919)
6.4
Spacetech (p15)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset  DT5 2EA.
(0305Ö822753) (0305Ö860483)
6.4
SSERC     24 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh, EH8 9NX. (031-668-4421)
6.4
State Machine     75 Upper Wellington Street, Luton, Bedfordshire  LU1
5AA. (0582Ö483377) (0582Ö480833)
6.4
Topologika     P.O. Box 39, Stilton, Peterborough  PE7 3RL. (0733Ö244682)
6.4
Wild Vision      15 Witney Way, Boldon Colliery, Tyne & Wear NE35 9PE.
(091Ö519Ö1455) (091Ö519Ö1929)
6.4

6.4
(Very) Silly Competition
6.4
At the Archive Christmas Luncheon, we had Christmas crackers with the
usual groan-making jokes. One of the Éjokesæ left all twelve of us
completely bewildered.
6.4
The first person to write in and explain why it is supposed to be funny,
will receive a free Archive mug. If your explanation makes us laugh, we
may even send you two! Anyway, here goes...
6.4
Definition of fish: The only animal that keeps growing after itæs dead.
6.4
Howæs that for an obscure joke?!ááA
6.4

6.4