Archive Magazine 1996/ARCHIVE_96.iso/text/magazine/volume_09/issue_03

Text File | 1995-11-10 | 325KB | 6,745 lines

Products Available
9.3
A4 portables Ö Due to popular demand and to satisfy outstanding orders,
Acorn is building a further 400 or so A4 portables. In addition, Acorn
has made spare part provision to support the product for three years.
However, this will be the final build of the A4 and is the final
opportunity for customers to purchase the portable. The A4s are now
available at the special price of ú1350 inclusive through Archive. A 3-
year extended warranty is available for a further ú150. The A4 is 4Mb
RAM, 80Mb HD and comes with Acorn PC Soft and MS DOS as standard.
9.3
Statement from Acorn... Acorn is continuing to research and develop
notebook portable technology, recognising that there is a requirement
for desktop equivalent notebooks in education, in small numbers, as a
specialist resource. However, there are currently no plans to market a
successor to the A4 until the price of colour screen technology comes
down and the performance of notebook battery technology improves to
allow use of long lasting, long battery life portable product that
education needs.
9.3
Acornæs success with the Pocket Book has demonstrated that palmtop
technology offers a tremendous growth opportunity for the application of
portable IT in education. The Pocket Book performs most of the functions
that a Notebook system is typically used for, but at a fraction of the
cost, and with the advantages of greater portability and longer battery
life.
9.3
Acorn prices Ö At the introduction of the Acorn Education Agency scheme,
Acorn severely reduced the discount offered to non-Agency dealers. What
we were not told at the time was that the same discounts were applied to
ALL Acorn products including software. As a result, virtually all
Archive prices for Acorn equipment have had to rise, in some case above
r.r.p. because the prices we quote include carriage. Otherwise, we would
end up selling things like manuals and software at a loss because they
are so heavy and the p&p is so high. (Is there any other computer
company that sells software to dealers at the same, tiny, discount as
they do hardware?!)
9.3
ACross is a crossword program from Kudos Computing. It uses a dictionary
of answers and clues, plus a pattern-matching engine, to create fully
symmetrical random crosswords. The program has been designed in a
modular fashion to allow additional dictionaries of clues and answers to
be added later. The dictionaries themselves have been graded for
different ability levels and Kudos will be monitoring usersæ feelings
about the grading to ensure the methods they employ are fair. The first
dictionary supplied, Quick 1, is based around short answers of 3 to 6
letters and a grid size of 3 to 11 squares; difficulty levels are hard,
medium and easy. ACross costs ú24.99 inclusive plus ú1.50 p&p.
9.3
ANT Internet Suite Ö This is an integrated set of programs and utilities
to make Internet access easy for Acorn computer users. It includes:
Dialler Ö an easy-to-use setup utility to get on line without any fuss.
Fresco Ö a fast and powerful World Wide Web browser which fully
implements HTML 2.0, supports forms, HTML 3.0 and Netscape extensions,
and gives you access to mail, FTP and Gopher direct from the web. Marcel
Ö an advanced electronic mail and Usenet news program for sending and
receiving text and program files, and reading and posting news articles.
It features support for SMTP and POP3 as well as MIME and IMAP
protocols. FTP Ö file transfer for uploads and downloads from remote
computers. Utilities Ö search and set up utilities including Ping. All
the programs work together in a consistent and interface-compliant
manner. The price for the professional version will be ú99 +VAT from
ANT.
9.3
ARM700 upgrades Ö By all accounts, it looks as if this is a product that
will NOT be available. The pressure on ARM Ltd is to produce faster and
better non-floating point processors, so the next ARM upgrade is likely
to be an 810, although we donæt yet know when that will be coming. If
you are waiting for an ARM700, you can either have a credit or take an
ARM710 which is virtually the same price as the ARM700 was going to be.
Give us a ring if you are not sure what to do and want further advice.
9.3
ATAPI CD-ROM drives Ö (This isnæt a Product Available but I thought this
was the best place to put this comment to draw attention to it.) As I
understood it from an article in Computer Shopper, the point of ATAPI
(as on the new RiscáPC 600/700s) is that you can have a CD drive as well
as two hard drives. So this is what we have been telling everyone they
can do with their new RiscáPC! However, Acornæs Technical Support
Department assures me that they can only have two devices Ö two hard
drives OR the hard drive and a CD drive. That means you have to go to
SCSI for a second hard drive if you want to use an ATAPI drive. Sorry
for creating confusion!
9.3
If you want to use the CD-ROM that is currently sitting on your shelf,
you could buy a RapIDE32 IDE interface costing ú119 + ú5 p&p +VAT from
Yellowstone Educational Solutions Ö see Products Available for details.
This allows you to use four IDE devices in addition to the two provided
by the Acorn interface. They hope too that it will soon support
removable media.
9.3
Audio mixing card Ö This allows the older models of Risc PC (ACB15,
ACB25, ACB45) to take the audio output from a CD-ROM drive and channel
it through the computeræs internal sound system. It works happily with
or without the 16-bit Éminnieæ sound card and also has a gain control to
allow you to set the volume of the CD to best match the rest of the
sound system. The Archive price is ú44 inclusive.
9.3
Bible Picture Library CD-ROM for use on RISC OS machines, mentioned in
Archive 9.2, is available for ú49 inclusive from: Ian Gooding, 18
Larksfield, Covingham, Swindon, SN3 5AD Ö a CD on 30 day trial is also
available from the same address.
9.3
BJC4000 cartridges Ö When the ink runs out on your new BJC4000, the
first thing to do is buy some new ink tanks. These are available through
Archive at ú7 for a black ink tank and ú17 for the colour tank. When
youæve done so many sheets (the manual suggests 5,000, I think), they
say you should replace the printhead, so you would buy a Éblack
cartridge plus printheadæ for ú28 through Archive and a Écolour
cartridge and printheadæ for ú40.
9.3
BJC600 special price Ö One company still has supplies of the BJC600
which we can sell (while stocks last) for ú370. The BJC600 Éonlyæ does
360╫360dpi while the 600e (at ú430) does 720╫360dpi.
9.3
Doodle from SEMERC is a new musical painting package. It provides
nursery and reception children, as well as special needs students, with
a simple introduction to Paint-type programs. The program uses twenty
four colours, and comes with a thin and thick pencil tool and a fill
tool. Each colour is associated with a different sound which plays low
if the colour is placed towards the bottom of the screen, and goes
higher as you move up the screen. Pictures are saved as Paint files and
can be printed or placed into other software packages. Doodle also works
with SEMERCæs new Touch IT touchscreen. Doodle costs ú20 +VAT from
SEMERC.
9.3
Freddy Teddy from Topologika has a new title in the series called
Directions. Freddy has to find his way to various places in his town.
Movement is around a map using either up/down/left/right commands, or
Logo-like inputs such as turn left/right/forward/backwards. Children are
given a list of five destinations, chosen at random, which Freddy must
visit. Each place provides a simple animation to watch, and at the end
thereæs a certificate to fill in showing what happened at each location.
Directions is aimed at Key Stage 1, is available for all Acorn computers
and costs ú20 +VAT +ú2.50 p&p from Topologika or ú25 through Archive.
9.3
HolyBible is now also available in Greek, Hebrew and the Good News
Version. The GNB module costs ú45 +VAT or ú51 through Archive. The Greek
and Hebrew modules cost ú25 +VAT each or ú28 through Archive, and the
Greek and Hebrew fonts ú20 +VAT or ú22 through Archive. Output from the
Hebrew Old Testament can be output to Impression and Easiwriter Pro
although only in the latter can it be edited (because Hebrew is right-
to-left reading!).
9.3
Iiyama 21ö monitors Ö One customer drew our attention to the fact that
the specifications of the two Iiyama 21ò monitors are almost identical
except that one is 3kg heavier and costs ú100 more! The 0.30mm aperture
grille of the 21 Pro is about equivalent to the 0.27mm dot pitch of the
21 FST, so what is the difference in practical terms? Having talked
Iiyama, they say that the 21 FST is the better of the two in terms of
crispness of text display and the 21 Pro is better in terms of colour
definition. So, you pays your money... the 21 FST is ú1490 and the 21
Pro is ú1590 through Archive.
9.3
(We havenæt had a chance to look at the new 17ö Iiyama yet but we have
seen the new 17ò Pro Diatron monitor in action on a RiscáPC and it is
really excellent. If you put it alongside the Acorn 17ö, you can
certainly see the difference Ö it is a noticeably clearer and crisper
display, as visitors to the NCS stand at Acorn World 95 will be able to
attest. Ed.)
9.3
Mechanisms is the first CD-ROM in the Technology Series from Creative
Curriculum Software. It took two years to develop and contains over 1000
pages of information. Drawing on examples from the home, industry and
history, Mechanisms uses pictures, photos, diagrams and overlays to
display the material. To accompany the CD-ROM, Creative Curriculum
Software supply an educational Resource Pack which includes suggested
project work. Mechanisms costs ú69 +VAT for a single user version and
ú99 +VAT for a site/network licence. (ú79 and ú115 respectively through
Archive.) Both versions include the Resource Pack and come on a dual
format CD-ROM.
9.3
Occasion is a diary and personal organiser for RISC OS machines from
ExpLAN Software. It provides a calendar, diary, address book, phone book
and notebook and can be used by a single user or across a network. The
calendar can be set to any year from 1970 onwards and acts as the access
for the diary. Clicking on any day opens the diary page in one (or both)
of two formats, either a listing of the events for a single day split
into birthdays, anniversaries, reminders and appointments, or
appointments for a week at a time. The address book can assign names and
addresses to six definable categories, and the print facility can be
used for producing labels as well as pages for inclusion in a paper
diary. The phone book includes two diallers, either via DTMF tones on
the machineæs speaker, or via the serial port and a modem. The notebook
incorporates a text editor for writing short items of text. One of
Occasionæs major features is its ability to cross-update information
between Acornæs Schedule, running on a Pocket Book, or Agenda on a Psion
Series 3; data can be loaded into Occasion from either, and then
transferred to the other.
9.3
Occasion comes in two variants: Family Occasion operates on a single
desktop with cross updating to multiple Pocket Books and costs ú69.95
inclusive or ú67 through Archive. A second variation, Gala Occasion,
operates on networked computers and so costs more. For full details
about Gala, ExpLAN suggest you talk to them first to see if itæs
appropriate for your needs.
9.3
PC Card Cooler Ö If you are worried about the high temperature of the PC
card in your RiscáPC, the new PCáCard Cooler, costing ú21 from Repair
Zone is what you need. It consists of a fan which is attached to the
card, draws its power from the connectors on the main circuit board and
creates a continuous blast of air over the surface of the 486 chip. It
reduces the working temperature of the chip quite considerably.
9.3
If you would like to order a PC Card Cooler, send a cheque for ú21,
payable to öRepair Zoneò, either to the NCS office (and we will pass it
on) or direct to Repair Zone.
9.3
PC Cards from Acorn Ö Acorn are producing two faster PC co-processor
cards for the Risc PC. One is to be a 486DX2-66 and will retail for ú249
+VAT and the other is to be a 486DX4-100 and will be ú299 +VAT. Both of
these cards will have socketed processors so that you can upgrade them
at a later date. The current word from Acorn is that they will be
available by the end of November. Whenever they do become available, we
expect to sell them for ú293 and ú351 respectively, regardless of
whether they are bought with or without a computer.
9.3
Pentium class PC card Ö Aleph One are producing a Pentium class PC co-
processor card for the Risc PC. It uses the new Gemini 2 ASIC and the
processor is a Cyrix 5x86 running at 100MHz. This costs ú549 +VAT from
Aleph One or ú645 through Archive.
9.3
PC Exchange Ö This is a means of directly transferring text, graphics
and other data between the drag and drop environment of RISC OS and the
Windows clipboard. It consists of a RISC OS application which displays a
window showing the contents of the Windows clipboard as file icons which
you can drag in or out to wherever you like, and a Windows program öthe
inside manò to watch over the clipboard. ASCII text is automatically
translated between PC and Acorn format and sprites are also converted to
and from Windows Bitmaps on the fly. PC Exchange is ú26 inclusive from
NCS.
9.3
!PCx86 update Ö This is (currently) version 1.91 of the Risc PC co-
processor card software. It now supports SoundBlaster emulation for the
playback of .WAV files (sound samples) and also passes MIDI information
on to any MIDI synthesizer that you might have such as a PowerWAVE or
ESPæs exciting new software-only MIDI synthesizer which should be
available in time for next monthæs Archive. !PCx86 can be obtained from
Acornæs ftp server   (ftp://ftp.acorn.co.uk/pub/riscos/releases/pccard/
pcx86.arc) or, if you prefer to have printed documentation, it is
available for ú10 from NCS.
9.3
Pocket Book II Ö The 512Kb Pocket Book II has finally been withdrawn and
replaced by the 1Mb version at ú335 inc VAT through Archive. The 256Kb
version (ú241 through Archive) is stilláavailable.
9.3
RiscáPC extended warranties Ö A more flexible approach to extended
warranties has now been adopted by Acorn. The cost is, simply, 3% of the
purchase price of the computer and its Acorn-badged upgrades per extra
year of warranty, i.e. to extend the warranty to three years (two extra)
is 6% and to extend it to five years (four extra) is 12%.
9.3
SENstore is a program designed to help take the burden out of writing
individual education plans for special needs children. It lets you
create a report with up to five different report headings and fifteen
different topic headings of your choice, simply by clicking the mouse.
It comes with over 750 comments about Strengths, Weaknesses, Targets,
Action Plans, Monitoring, Review and Assessment, across a wide range of
subjects. Itæs easy to alter these or add your own, and you can store up
to 3,750 comments on a hard disc or 1.6Mb floppy disc. SENstore costs
ú34.95 (or ú5 for a working demo version) from HS Software.
9.3
Sibelius version 3 Ö The new version of Sibelius should be available by
the time you read this (ömid-Novemberò). The two main enhancements are
ÉFlexi-timeæ which allows you to use a Midi keyboard to enter music into
the computer in real time, and standard Midi file conversion so that
files can be transferred to Sibelius from other music programs.
9.3
Sibelius is also now available in three configurations with increasing
functionality (and increasing price!) Ö Sibelius 6, Sibelius 7 Student
and Sibelius 7 Professional. The prices are as follows (Archive prices
in brackets):
9.3
Sibelius 6 Ö ú179 + VAT (ú200)
9.3
Sibelius 7 Student Ö ú495 + VAT (ú550)
9.3
Sibelius 7 Professional Ö ú888 + VAT (ú990)
9.3
Site licences are also available although the new prices are not fixed
as yet. Ring the NCS office if you are interested in a site licence.
9.3
Speak is a software speech system which allows you to listen to text
files. Text may be spoken continuously, or a word or clause at a time.
Various talk-as-you-type options are provided, and simple editing may be
performed while the text is being spoken. The Speak speech system is
already being used within third party educational software, and can be
found in a number of products, including Clicker, Writing with Symbols,
TalkWrite and Talking TextEase. The Speak module and its data takes
about 150Kb, and will run on any Acorn RISC computer. Itácontains a
comprehensive pronunciation dictionary, as well as an exceptions editor.
It costs ú19.50 inclusive, or ú1.50 for a demo version from Jonathan
Duddington (address in Factfile).
9.3
Spobbleoid is the latest offering from Fourth Dimension and (so they
say!) carries an EC health warning Ö ÉThis game is highly addictive: Do
not start a game when you are restricted by timeæ!!! Apartáfrom the
usual Fourth Dimensional humour, Spobbleoid has 72 levels, set over 12
action zones; 2.5 Mb of visuals; 8 channel stereo FX, including 11
original soundtracks; a level designer where you can create your own
mayhem; and 50 fps action with three parallax scrolling, mixed by Graeme
Richardson. The game features a chap called Spobbleoid, a small robotic
orange, whose mission is to save Earth from the evil alien Pepperpots;
their aim is to steal all the edible things from earth. Your job is to
help Spobbleoid by collecting all of the objects on every level and
splat all the monsters on the way. Spobbleoid costs ú29.95 from Fourth
Dimension or ú28 through Archive.
9.3
The Big Picture is an image-processing package from Longman Logotron
that takes full advantage of the excellent graphics offered by the
RiscáPC, while remaining accessible to owners of single MByte machines.
With The Big Picture, it is possible to create and edit images in 16.7
million colours and print on any sized paper, even posters. Big effects
can be created on modest machined using The Big Pictureæs virtual memory
system. Images, including photographs and video stills, can be captured,
retouched and altered with the Big Picturesæs graphics capability. It
supports JPEG, PhotoCD, GIF, TIF, sprites, and Clearfiles. It can also
accept drawfiles which it translates into bit-images.
9.3
The Big Picture costs ú69 +VAT from Longman Logotron or ú77 through
Archive. For existing users of Revelation ImagePro, it is possible to
upgrade to the Big Picture by sending Longman Logotron the ImagePro
program disc and a cheque for ú37 inclusive. A site licence upgrade
costs ú84.60.
9.3
Timebase from Widget Software is a program for recording how much time
you spend on particular projects. Using the built-in clock of the Psion
3a/Pocket Book II, you can record how much time you spend on a job,
input the hourly rate you charge, then get a print out of how much to
bill clients. Timebase allows you to charge at different rates,
depending on what it is you are doing; it will even give you a summary
of work in progress telling you how much you would get if you billed
someone today. Timebase is for use on the Psion 3a/Pocket Book II and
costs ú49.95 inclusive for the floppy disc version or ú69.95 for SSD.
9.3
World Development Database from Worldaware Software has been updated.
The new edition has 20 more countries (bringing the total to 149)
including the Énewæ European countries. The data comes in several
formats, including CSV and Key Plus, and covers such things as: economy,
environment and health, population growth, school enrolment, access to
safe water, etc. The User Handbook has Key Stage 3 and 4 geography and
mathematics course-work, with teachersæ notes and photocopiable
worksheets. The World Development Database is available for ú35 as a
single user set, consisting of User Handbook, the Worldæs Bankæs
Development Data Book. The Environmental Data Book, and data disc. The
ú68 site licence pack includes extra Data Books and a copiable disc.
These are available from Worldaware Software.
9.3
Talking Calculator from Wyddfa Software is a large add and subtract
calculator for Key Stage 1 which uses sampled sounds to teach basic
numbers and number skills. Using the mouse and pointer, children select
numbers and operations to help them with their sums. The computer
displays the numbers as apples or coloured pencils, and speaks them at
the same time. Teachers can choose from four ranges of numbers, and so
vary the size, and hence the difficulty, of the sums that can be input.
Talking Calculator costs ú16 inc VAT from Wyddfa Software.
9.3
Review software received...
9.3
We have received review copies of the following: ÅACross (g), ÅAPDL DTP2
CD (aeu), ÅAPDL PDCD 1&2 (aeu), ÅMechanisms CD (e), ÅSpobbleoid (g),
ÅTalking Stories (Gwen goes to School and Gwenæs Nose) (e), ÅTrellis
(u), ÅVistamusic-3 (music package for the non-keyboard player).
9.3
a=Art, e=Education, b=Business, bk=Book, c=Comms, g=Game, h=Hardware,
l=Language, m=Multimedia, u=Utility.
9.3
If you would like to review any of these products, please contact the
Archive office. Potential reviewers will need to show that they would
use the product in a professional capacity or that they have some
knowledge of the particular field.áuá
9.3
Internet Glossary
9.3
Because the volume of Internet jargon is huge and growing, words keep
coming to light which are not yet in our Archive Internet Glossary. Some
are in our glossary although we havenæt yet found an adequate
definition, so itæs öAnswers on a postcard (or should that be email?!),
please!ò ([e-mail])
9.3
IMAP Ö Some sort of mail protocol. More detail?
9.3
IRL Ö Any ideas?
9.3
MIME Ö Someone said it was öTo link binary code into email.ò (Could
anyone give us a better definition, please?)
9.3
Netscape Ö A second generation PC browser for the Web. (Why ösecond
generationò?)
9.3
POP / POP3 Ö Protocols for transfer of textual mail. (Could someone tell
us how POP3 is different from POP?)
9.3
Web crawler Ö Anyone got any ideas?
9.3
If you come across jargon that you donæt understand, please let us know.
If we donæt know what it means, we donæt mind admitting our ignorance in
public in order to get a definition for someone Éin the knowæ. Ed.áuá
9.3
4th Dimension   1 Percy Street, Sheffield, S3 8AU. (0114¡276¡9950)
(0114¡278¡1091)
9.3
4Mation    14 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32
8PA. (01271¡25353) (01271¡22974)
9.3
Abacus Training    29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA. (01793¡723347) (01793¡723347)
9.3
Acorn By Post   FREEPOST, 13 Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants,
NN8 2BR. (01933¡279300)
9.3
Acorn Computers Ltd    Acorn House, Vision Park, Histon, Cambridge, CB4
4AE. (01223¡254254) (01223¡254262)
9.3
Aleph One Ltd   The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(01223¡811679) (01223¡812713)
9.3
ANT Ltd   P.O.Box 300, Cambridge, CB1 2EG. (01223¡567808) (01223¡567801)
9.3
APDL    39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London, SE26 5RN.
9.3
Atomwide Ltd   7 The Metro Centre, Bridge Road, Orpington, Kent, BR5
2BE. (01689¡814500) (01689¡814501)
9.3
Avie Electronics (p8)  7 Overbury Road, Norwich. (01603¡416863)
(01603¡788640)
9.3
Beebug Ltd    117 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS.
(01727¡840303) (01727¡860263)
9.3
Clares Micro Supplies   98 Middlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich,
Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (01606¡48511) (01606¡48512)
9.3
Colton Software   2 Signet Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA.
(01223¡311881) (01223¡312010)
9.3
Computer Concepts   Gaddesden Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 6EX.
(01442¡63933) (01442¡231632)
9.3
CPC Ltd   Component House, Faraday Drive, Fulwood, Preston, PR2 4PP.
(01772¡654455)
9.3
Creative Curriculum Software,   5 Clover Hill Road, Savile Park,
Halifax, HX1 2YG. (01422¡340524) (01422¡346388)
9.3
Cumana Ltd   Pines Trading Estate, Broad Street, Guildford, GU3 3BH.
(01483¡503121) (01483¡503326)
9.3
Dabhand Computing   5 Victoria Lane, Whitefield, Manchester, M25 6AL.
(0161¡766¡8423) (0161¡766¡8425)
9.3
David Pilling   P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
9.3
DEC_dATA   P.O.Box 97, Exeter, EX4 4YA. (01392¡221702)
9.3
Desktop Laminations    P.O.Box 332, Bristol, BS99 7XL. (0117¡979¡9979)
9.3
ESP    21 Beech Lane, West Hallam, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE7 6GP.
(0115¡929¡5019) (0115¡929¡5019)
9.3
ExpLAN   St Catherineæs House, 20 Plymouth Road, Tavistock, Devon, PL19
8AY. (01822¡613868) (01822¡610868)
9.3
Hampshire Microtechnology Centre,   Connaught Lane, Paulsgrove,
Portsmouth, Hants, PO6 4SJ. (01705¡378266) (01705¡379443)
9.3
HS Software   56 Hendrefolian Avenue, Sketty, Swansea, SA2 7NB.
(01792¡390198 or 204519) (01792¡298283)
9.3
Icon Technology   9 Jarrom Street, Leicester, LE2 7DH. (0116¡254¡6225)
9.3
Intelligent Interfaces Ltd   P.O.Box 80, Eastleigh, Hants, SO5 5YX.
(01703¡261514) (01703¡267904)
9.3
Iota Software Ltd   Iota House, Wellington Court, Cambridge, CB1 1HZ.
(01223¡566789) (01223¡566788)
9.3
Jonathan Duddington   6a Old Mill Avenue, Coventry, CV4 7DY.
(01203¡415535)
9.3
Kudos Computing   PO Box 193, Gloucester, GL3 2YG. (01452¡712600)
9.3
Longman Logotron   124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge
CB4 4ZS. (01223¡425558) (01223¡425349)
9.3
Midi & Computer Systeme   Baroper Bahnhofstr. 53, D¡44225 Dortmund,
Germany  (0049¡231¡759283) (0049¡231¡750455)
9.3
Mijas Software   Winchester Road, Micheldever, Winchester, SO21 3DJ.
(01962¡774352)
9.3
Oak Solutions   Dial House, 12 Chapel Street, Halton, Leeds, LS15 7RN
(0113¡232¡6992) (0113¡232¡6993) [e-mail]
9.3
R¡comp   22 Robert Moffat, High Legh, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 6PS
(01925¡755043) (01925¡757377) ([e-mail])
9.3
Repair Zone   421 Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (01603¡400477)
9.3
Resource   51 High Street, Kegworth, Derbyshire, DE74 2DA.
(01509¡672222) (01509¡672267)
9.3
Sherston Software   Angel House, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(01666¡840433) (01666¡840048)
9.3
Sibelius Software   75 Burleigh Street, Cambridge, CB1 1DJ.
(01223¡302765) (01223¡351947)
9.3
Spacetech   21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA. (01305¡822753)
(01305¡860483)
9.3
System Insight   Hillcrest House, Bishops Lane, Shirrell Heath,
Southampton, SO32 2JS. (01329¡835500) (01329¡835501)
9.3
Topologika   Islington Wharf, Church Hill, Penryn, Falmouth, Cornwall,
TR10 8AT. (01326¡377771) (01326¡377771)
9.3
Uffenkamp Computer Systeme,   Gartenstr. 3, D¡32130 Enger¡Dreyen,
Germany (00¡49¡5224¡2375) (00¡49¡5224¡7812)
9.3
Werewolf Software   23 The Spinneys, Bromley, Kent, BR1 2NT.
(0181¡467¡1138) (0181¡464¡7510)
9.3
Widget Software   121 London Road, Knebworth, Herts, SG3 6EX.
(01438¡815444) (01438¡815222)
9.3
Worldaware Software   1 Catton Street, London WC1R 4AB. (0171¡831¡3844)
(0171¡831¡1746)
9.3
Wyddfa Software   3 Preswylfa, Llanberis, Gwynedd, LL55 4LF.
(01286¡870101) (01286¡871722)
9.3
Archive Monthly Disc
9.3
u 24-bit I/O interface construction details from Nigel Brown Ö page 21.
9.3
u Ant program from John Temple Ö (No room for the article. Weæll try to
fit it in next month!)
9.3
u Beginneræs Basic programs from Ray Favre Ö page 48.
9.3
u Beginneræs Edit text from John Temple Ö page 51.
9.3
u Comms Column: Terminal program from Chris Claydon Ö page 43.
9.3
u Disc count utility and map explanations from Sergio Monesi.
9.3
u Education Column: Pinpoint notes from Joe Gallagher Ö page 61.
9.3
u Files from Gerald Fittonæs ColumnáÖápage 63.
9.3
u OPL sample programs from Govind Kharbanda Ö page 75.
9.3
u Pocket Book Column: Screenshots Ö> sprites converter by Steve Godfrey
Ö page 37.
9.3
u Printing Column: Ovation files for labels from Aneurin Griffiths Ö
page 66.
9.3
u Puzzle Column: Grid reference finder from Colin Singleton Ö page 26.
9.3
u Sample Rhapsody files from Peter Avis Ö page 59.
9.3
u Module for Taxan 770 Ö see Cain Huntæs ViVID review. (Hope to fit it
in next month!)
9.3
u Year Planner in Welsh and English from Aneurin Griffiths.
9.3
Norwich Computer Services    96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD.
(01603-766592) (764011)
9.3
email:  [e-mail]  OR  [e-mail]  OR
[e-mail]
9.3
Fact-File
9.3
(The numbers in italic are fax numbers)
9.3
Government Health Warning Ö Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health
9.3
From a conversation I had at Acorn World, I gather that my atheistic
readers sometimes have a good laugh when they read the God-slot. Iæm not
surprised! If God doesnæt exist, I really am making a bit of a public
laughing-stock of myself, arenæt I? Why do I do it?!
9.3
But let me say, Mr Atheist, (sorry, I didnæt catch your name) how much I
admire your faith! It canæt be easy to have real confidence that God
definitely doesnæt exist when ninety-odd percent of people think he
does. Iámean, what evidence do you have to support your faith?
Presumably, your only Éevidenceæ must be logical and philosophical
arguments. What else do you have to offer when someone challenges your
faith?
9.3
How can I be so sure that God does exist (and, more specifically, that
Jesusæ claims are true) that Iæm prepared to risk public ridicule. Well,
I know that I naturally tend to think Iæm right (sorry about that Ö Iæm
actively seeking help to correct that fault!) but my confidence is NOT
self-confidence, I have a lot of real evidence.
9.3
External evidence: Jesusæ claims are based on very strong historical
evidence. [Gales of laughter] æScuse me, but have you examined that
evidence yourself? Or are you just placing your faith in someone who has
told you that itæs not historically sound? If the evidence is not sound,
why has 2,000 years of scholarship not debunked it?
9.3
Circumstantial evidence: Look at the world around you. Look at its
intricacy and its beauty. Are you going to tell me that it all just
happened by the chance conglomeration of molecules?! It needs real faith
to believe that.
9.3
Personal evidence: (This is not something that proves anything to you
but it builds my confidence.) Iácan see God at work in the lives of
friends and family. I can see him changing them, filling them with hope
and joy and love, giving them strength in difficult situations. I have
seen him change the life an anorexic friend (weighing less than 6
stones) Ö she is now married,  the mother of three, and doing bible
translation in the Cameroon.
9.3
Internal evidence: Itæs difficult to know how to convey this, but I know
such joy and peace and love in my own heart that I could never doubt
that God is my loving Father. I love him and he loves me. He is my
confidence!
9.3
P.B.
9.3
Paul Beverley
9.3
Good Show?
9.3
Yes, thank you, Acorn World 95 was a good show Ö certainly it was for
NCS. The charity stall raised well over three thousand pounds (see page
9 for details), Archive gained literally hundreds of new subscribers and
we sold hundreds of Archive CDs and Internet Glossary discs. Other
stand-holders agreed too that this was one of the best shows for a while
Ö who says Acorn are on the way out?! Has anyone seen their share price
recently? During the week of the Show, it went up from 110p to a high of
159p. (See page 54.)
9.3
Internet Rules OK? :-)
9.3
What do you reckon to this Internet lark then? A bit of a gimmick? Will
it turn out to be a craze Ö like CB? Itæs difficult to know, but it does
seem to be the topic of the moment and we at Archive are doing our best
to keep up with things. Again this month, we have a number of articles
and comments relating to the Internet.
9.3
At last! NCS has finally got onto the Internet proper! (Thanks, Arcade,
for keeping the email coming!) Having given you our Énew email addressæ
in the Price List two months ago, it took until about a couple of weeks
ago to actually get it working properly! Internet is fine when it works,
but trying to get a modem, an Internet provider and a piece of Internet
software to talk to each other can be a bit of a nightmare.
9.3
Anyway, weæve got there now and you can contact me as
[e-mail]. If you want to send a message to our technical
department, use [e-mail] and to place an order, or make an
order enquiry, use [e-mail].
9.3
If 8╫12+3=99, then the next issue of Archive is a very special one. Hope
you enjoy this one!
9.3
Computer & Electronics Holiday for Young People !!
9.3
Scripture Union runs a Computer & Electronics Holiday for 13 to 16 year
olds (boys and girls) at an attractive school in the Hertfordshire
countryside.
9.3
The dates? July 29th to August 6th, 1995.
9.3
The price? ú119.
9.3
For details, write to Jim Maddox, S.U. Holidays, 69 Claverdale Road,
TubeáHill, London SW2 2DH or phone [phone].
9.3
Avie Electronics
9.3
New artwork
9.3
Acorn World 95
9.3
As I write this, less than a week after the Show, and you read it, just
over two weeks after the Show, I hope you will forgive the hasty way in
which it has been put together. I have comments from three people (plus
Mike Clarksonæs RiscDOS Column comments on page 15) and havenæt had time
to remove duplication etc. However, I think the fact that there is some
duplication shows what stood out!
9.3
NCS had a very good Show. Thanks for all your support and encouragement.
The Archive CD-ROM and the Archive Glossary are big sellers Ö both well
worth the effort of producing them Ö anyone wanting to review either or
both, please give me a ring.
9.3
Archive Charity Sale
9.3
The Archive Charity Sale was stunning! Thank you so much to all who were
so generous in giving products and Ébuying generouslyæ Ö öwell itæs in a
good causeò they said as they finally succumbed to the expert salesman
manning the stand!! And many, many thanks to those who risked life and
limb to man the stand. Thanks, especially, to Michael Binns of Newcastle
who masterminded the stand and was their almost all the time all three
days.
9.3
How much did we raise?
9.3
At the show, the stall has raised ú3,206 which is wonderful. However, we
still have some stuff left including two computers Ö an 8Mb A540 with
colourcard and lots of software and an A440/1 with a 15ö Eizo 9070
monitor Ö each of which is worth several hundred pounds if we can find
someone who wants them. Any offers? Give us a ring.
9.3
As it doesnæt look as if there is going to be a Harrogate in the spring,
I am loath to leave all this charity stuff in the office for a year.
(Yes, letæs have another charity stall at Acorn World 96 Ö and make it
even better!) So if anyone is having an Open Day (Are you listening
Beebug?) and would be happy to have a charity stall, weæll send you all
this stuff for you to sell.
9.3
Where is the money going?
9.3
Half is going to the Norwich Childrenæs Fund which is a charity giving
mainly medical help to children in and around Norfolk. Also, because I
have two very good friends with MS, weære giving the other half to ARMS
(Action for Research into Multiple Sclerosis).
9.3
Once again, a huge thank you to everyone involved.
9.3
So letæs hear what the first of our three commentators thought of Acorn
World 95...
9.3
Joe Gallagher
9.3
Hereæs some very brief notes from AW this weekend. I was looking mainly
at the educational exhibitors. This must have been one of the quietest
shows that I have ever been to although maybe most visitors decided
(sensibly) to avoid the Saturday session because of the little matter of
the centenary Rugby League World Cup that was going on next door.
9.3
Anyway, leaving that aside, it still seemed quite a tame affair in terms
of exhibitors. Sure enough, most of the old stalwarts were there but
there seemed surprisingly little new that was on offer. One item that
did catch my eye was Music Maker 1 from Resource. This is a music
program aimed at the Early Years and is intended to be part of a series
which will cater for children as they move up through the primary
school. One thing that makes this program stand out from the crowd is
its excellent presentation with arcade quality graphics. I only had a
brief look at it, but it did seem to be fairly versatile with
(configurable) musical quizzes as well as more standard activities to do
with pitch and composition. Resource seem to have given some thought to
how the younger user can cope with the RISC OS filing system by
providing a default directory for saving pieces of work. A single user
copy of the program costs ú35 although there is a special introductory
price of ú30 until the end of the year. Iáalso saw the new version of
Resourceæs wordprocessor, TalkWrite, with improved speech.
9.3
Innovative Media Solutions, an offshoot of Desktop Laminations, were
showing their reader for the Dorling Kindersley range of CD-ROMs. PB
Bear (currently available for ú39) was on show as was The Way Things
Work and Musical Instruments (nearly ready). IMS have a team of
programmers working on several of the major DK titles including
Dangerous Creatures, Ancient Lands and the EyeWitness series. Once
theyæve cranked up the process, they hope to be able to release these at
a rate of one per month and are investigating the possibility of
converting some of the Bronderbund Living Books series.áuá
9.3
Dave Walsh
9.3
Acorn World: What was it like? Well this account comes from a
contributor looking at the event as a whole rather than the products
available. Certainly, the publicity to the Acorn community could not be
faulted. I estimate that I received 24 or more of the öAcorn Highwayò
leaflets but I am on every conceivable mailing list going!
9.3
Most of you who read the Acorn press will know the perennial moan about
Acornæs publicity machine ökeeping the best kept secret in the worldò.
Well, the entry for Acorn World keeps up these fine traditions with
three carefully placed posters being the only indication that the show
must go on! Iæve been to car boot sales where there has been better
directions to the site.
9.3
In previous years, there has been a queue stretching from here to
eternity (moving just about as quickly as the World Wide Web at the
Cyber cafe did this year). Thankfully, the sales of pre-show tickets
enabled the queue to be retained at reasonable proportions this year,
allowing entry, with both cheque book and patience intact, to the mirror
ball world of Acorn computers. I have to say I really like the twirling
ÉAcornæ sign that is projected over the stand and carpet, catching
salesmen unawares as it gleams off their shiny new A7000 machines.
9.3
So, into the hall proper... Some of the prices are astounding Ö Sherston
(who donæt usually discount anything) were offering between 12% and 23%
off their range of products whilst the Long Company, tucked away at the
back of the hall, were offering a range of older software at real
cutdown prices like 4Mationæs Poster at ú30 and games from a fiver.
Taking pride of place for bargain hunters must have been the NCS charity
stall where products as diverse as hand-held scanners through to SmArt
linkage files could be had for ridiculously low amounts! The bargain of
the show must have gone to the kind person who walked off with my
Minerva bag, containing a Éjust boughtæ copy of Multistore which Iæd
bought to get around the frustration of using a key disc with Flexifile.
Arrgh!!!
9.3
Most of the suppliers of consumables also seemed to be doing brisk
business. Something Iæd always been interested in was the T-shirt
printing paper available from Quill Marketing. (Iæd like my T shirt to
look as distinctive as the ÉClanæ ones, but I think Iæll go for a
clearer message than the oblique öIæm a dedicated Acorn user so I have a
picture of a record player on my T-shirtò approach). Quill were also
providing pre-cut business cards in sheets of A4 for self-printing which
many small businesses may like to follow up with their Acorn-driven
colour inkjets.
9.3
The new(ish) medium of CD-ROM has arrived on the Acorn platform with
both Acorn User and Archimedes World selling issues of their magazines
with free discs (what an astounding Égive awayæ Impression Junior is
this month!) but lots of other firms were out in force as well. Anglia
were showing an exciting range, including their Seashore CD, at reduced
rates whilst Peter Hughes at CD Circle did an effective job showing his
conversion of the Dorling Kindersley title öPB Bearæs Birthdayò without
the benefit of a working sound system! This is, hopefully, the first of
many DK conversions that may be available. Already, the öHow Things
Workò title is reaching completion with more titles to follow. DEC_dATA
also spoke of their forthcoming CD title, based in Clearview, as a
launching pad for a whole range of school topic art and other resources.
9.3
Sadly, I learned of the demise of another Acorn PD library. Shaun Creech
of Archangel is running his operations down. Another absentee from the
Acorn world is the Canon Ion Camera whose remaining stocks have just
been snapped up by Acorn to fulfil their Tescoæs vouchers commitments,
whilst Canon supersede the model with a more advanced version.
9.3
If anyone read the bundles of publicity that came out about the show,
they would have known that products, such as the PC486 upgrade software
and the ESP sound card for the (old) Risc PC were due to be available,
but they obviously decided that a warm shelf in the Acorn warehouse was
a much more peaceful haven and decided (on Friday at least) not to make
an appearance after all. (But they have now finally come through and
will be available from stock at NCS assuming we get enough to clear back
orders. Ed.)
9.3
The show was billed as the Acorn Information Super Highway and certainly
the links to the Internet for Acorn customers were available from at
least three agents. I spent some time in the Cyber Cafe with a couple of
students from Southampton Psychology Department who demonstrated their
aptitude and ability at zooming around the world. I have to put my hands
up with the group who canæt quite convince themselves that the benefits
yet match up to the cost of joining (even though the prices are now
shooting downwards with Argonet being a mere ú15 a month). The quantity
of information is huge Ö a bit like walking into a library and trying to
find all the places where Étheæ is used. I did a search on ÉSleepæ to
see if it could help with research. Over 200 references came up Ö which
was very impressive, even if the first three followed up brought up
errors, as the information had been lost or removed!
9.3
A new addition to the show was the creche and its partnership with the
Pre-school Playgroup Association. It was therefore a little surprising
that this monthæs article in ÉParentingæ, about which computer to buy
for your child, gave advice along the lines of, ÉIf you wish to buy a
computer for your child, there are two main types, PCs or Applesæ.
9.3
As for new products, the Longman stand did show the successor to the
Landmarks series (currently there are two investigations of ÉBritain in
the War Yearsæ and the ÉVictoriansæ) which looked like a fun classroom
resource. Both show a plan view of an environment with the people moving
around within them. The user is then able to stop people and speak to
them or even Étake the tops offæ buildings or items. Iæm sure that a
full review will follow in due course!
9.3
So, was the show worth four hours travelling? An unqualified YES. I
spent too much, coveted too much and (apart from having a bag of
software carried away to lighten my load) thoroughly enjoyed the
experience.  See you next year.....
9.3
Stuart Bell
9.3
Since each visitor to a computer show will have a different view of it,
hereæs my recollection, with no claims to comprehensiveness or
objectivity, but in the hope that it might give a flavour of AW 95 for
those who werenæt there.
9.3
Arriving on the Friday at midday, the area outside Hall 1 of the Wembley
Conference Centre was dead. Where were all the milling crowds of
yesteryear? Is Acorn really having such a tough time? Entering the hall
proved simply that most people had got there before me, and it seemed
just as busy as usual. And thank goodness that the sound of mega-
amplified sound effects of the latest shootæ-em-up didnæt fill the hall.
Perhaps Iæm getting old...
9.3
Since Iæd bought a Risc PC (from NCS, of course) the previous week, this
was the Acorn World at which I shouldnæt spend too much. More
pertinently, since Iæd lost both credit card and cheque card 48 hours
earlier (only to find them again, but after theyæd been Éstoppedæ) this
was the show at which I couldnæt spend too much! So, a non-spending
reconnoitre of the show was the plan.
9.3
Starting at the NCS stall was my first mistake, for I got grabbed into
helping to man the ÉCharity Saleæ half. The trouble was that we had
enough stuff for two stalls, and I now know what it must be like for a
rugby referee trying to bring order to a scrum. Bargain hunters crowded
three deep. Much nostalgia flowed (if thatæs what nostalgia does). Games
for the Electron (remember that?) and Second 6502 processors for the
Beeb. Packs of 5╝ö discs ù some with Windows 2.x! Tall stacks of BBC
Micro User magazines. But also lots of more recent stuff for RISC OS
machines like PipeDream IV at bargain prices. The money came rolling in
at a good rate, and I personally think that itæs incredibly generous of
Paul to give so much valuable stall space for charity when itæs not the
easiest time to be an Acorn dealer. (Donæt edit out the last bit,
please, Paul.) I just hope that the rest of the NCS stand did as well as
the charity stall seemed to be doing.
9.3
After an hour, I made my excuses, and started my wanderings. First to
Acorn. Big stand, lots of machines, up-to-date ART T-shirts. But what
was new? No literature that I could see, apart from what was in the Show
Guide. Apparently, the new Gemini II ASIC has transformed the
performance of the PC Card, but there wasnæt much publicity. One new
product was PC Exchange which allows easy cutting and pasting of data
between RISC OS and Windows applications on PC Card-equipped Risc PCs.
(ú25 +VAT, ú29 from Archive).
9.3
Next stop, mundane things like software upgrades. Iáuse Impression
Publisher almost every day. I donæt need the pre-press facilities of
Plus, but like to keep up-to-date with the latest releases. Publisher
4.05 offers word count, conditional case swapping and smart quotes, and
the upgrade is ú15 +VAT direct from CC. (That went onto my Éwhen I get
homeæ list!) I also find FontFX indispensable. My old version wouldnæt
work on my Risc PC, so I took it along. Data Storeæs rep threw my old
disc in the bin and gave me the latest release. Yes, gave me. Brilliant
service!
9.3
The great improvement of the Risc PC over my old A310 is, of course, the
wonderful 16M colour graphics. In that area, Spacetech were offering
Photodesk II, and promise to continue to sell the original at lower cost
for less demanding users. However, what really caught my eye was The Big
Picture from Longman Logotron. Itæs an art package with virtual memory
and lots of tools, including user-defined ones, at a cost of ú69 +VAT.
The reality is that you canæt try any new application in the rush of the
computer show. However, Acorn User have a demo version on their December
magazine discs, and ù even better ù you could buy the discs without the
magazine for ú1!
9.3
In the last two days, Iæve Éplayedæ quite a lot with The Big Picture,
and am very impressed. In particular, the user interface is very
intuitive ù it has to be when thereæs only a read-me file to accompany
the demo version ù and, while Iæve no claims to be an artist, it seems
excellent value. Many different file formats are supported, the demo
version has no obvious bugs and, assuming that the virtual memory
implementation (which isnæt part of the demo release) works OK, The Big
Picture might turn out to be the quiet Éstaræ of Acorn World 95.
9.3
With a four-year old daughter (as well as a week-old son), my interest
next turned to educational stuff. Sherston had several good Show Offers
(up to 50% ù worth remembering for 96), but what was truly new was
Innovative Media Solutions (a.k.a. The CD Circle) with packages of CD-
ROMs for PCs together with readers for Acorn computers. (In fact, they
were so new that they were sticking the labels on the reader discs as
they sold them!) Dorling Kindersley have an enviable reputation for
beautifully presented childrenæs books and CDs, and IMS were selling an
Acorn reader for PB Bearæs Birthday Party with the CD. Three Microsoft
titles were similarly available, e.g. Dinosaurs, which looked and
sounded stunning. Those who argue that the PC Card makes such CD readers
irrelevant miss the point that many schools are full of A30x0 machines
which canæt take the PC Card, and others, like me, donæt want to have to
buy a PC Card and Windows, if we can stay in RISC OS to run PC CDs. I
understand that new DK CD titles may have the Acorn reader included on
the CD itself.
9.3
Finally, into the Éwhat Iæd buy if I won the lottery, even though Iæve
more sense than to buy ticketsæ section. Irlam Instruments had the
specifications of VideoDesk (available Ébefore the end of 1995æ). Itæs
an interface card that, in its most advanced form, with a Moving-JPEG
coder and decoder, will grab full frame moving video and, when itæs been
edited, play it out again through an on-board PAL encoder. Full-blown,
full-screen, non-linear editing has arrived. Total cost? ú1598 +VAT.
(And ú3.50 p&p!)
9.3
More realistically, Irlam were also offering the Primax Colour Mobile
scanner with Acorn software at ú199 + VAT. It connects to parallel ports
of all but A300, A3000 and A400 machines, and offers 400dpi and 16M
colours across a 4ö scanning width. Perhaps one for my É1996 wish listæ?
9.3
So that was Acorn World 95. That the Coke had run out by Friday
lunchtime was a Édowneræ. That a very nice Archive reader saw my
Contributor badge and said ÉSo youære the Stuart Bell!æ was an Éupperæ.
(Iæd always thought that the Stuart Bell was an MP from Middlesborough!)
But while the show itself seemed as busy as last year, there wasnæt the
excitement of the first year with the Risc PC.
9.3
There were some Éleading edgeæ products like the ISAdaptor from Atomwide
(to use PC-compatible peripheral cards with Acorn machines) and the
Multi-processor board for Risc PCs from Simtec (to take up to five ARM-
family processors) but neither is a really main-stream product of
interest to most Acorn owners. Atomwide/Aleph One had faster PC cards on
demo if not on sale, from 486DX/40 to 5x86/100 ÉPentium classæ
processors. Presumably, availability depends on quantity production of
the Gemini II device, but even those who need fast PC power on their
Risc PCs could hardly claim that such developments were truly exciting.
(Iæm not sure that everyone would agree with you there, Stuart. I think
itæs a pretty impressive achievement. Ed.)
9.3
In conclusion, it was an apparently more up-beat AW 95 than recent
developments led me to expect, but no great new product to grab the
attention of the average Acorn user. Thatæs what a show needs to be
truly memorable. How about a StrongArm processor board for Acorn World
96, Acorn? Iæll make sure I donæt lose my credit card next year, just in
case!áuá
9.3
Small Ads
9.3
(Small ads for Acorn 32-bit computers and related products are free for
subscribers but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the
material you send, as we think fit. 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.)
9.3
2Mb upgrade for A3000 ú20, Almanac 2 ú25, JP150 sheet feeder ú30,
Masterfile 2 ú5, ColourSep (for HP Deskjet) ú5, Graph-IT ú5, Holed Out
ú5, Quazer ú5, Inertia ú5, Pacmania ú5, Terramex ú5, Pysanki ú5, Caverns
ú5, HP Deskjet 500 ú125, HP Turbodriver ú51, PC Emulator 1.8 ú20, Acorn
PocketBook + mains + A-Link + Schedule + RAM SSD ú125. Phone Chris on
01933-674661.
9.3
A310, 4Mb, ARM3, RISC OS 3.1, 40Mb HD, AKF17 monitor, PC Emulator 1.6,
leads, manuals, discs/shareware, ú400 o.n.o. Phone [phone].
9.3
A310, twin floppy discs, monochrome monitor, Epson LQ850 24-pin printer,
First Word Plus, Schema, Lemmings, Zarch, Golf ú120 o.n.o. Excluding
delivery. Phone [phone] eves.
9.3
A3000, ARM3, 4Mb RAM, RISC OS 3.1, Eizo 9060S 14ö, Lindis SCSI card,
240Mb SCSI HD in PRES monitor plinth, external Toshiba CD-ROM drive,
MIDI interface and sound sampler, VIDC enhancer, double podule
expansion, lots of software inc PC Emulator, ú750 o.n.o. Phone 01454-
772159.
9.3
A3000, RISC OS 3.1, 4Mb, SCSI (with CDFS) and 40Mb HD, monitor and
stand, Swift 24e colour printer, new mouse, MIDI interface and Sound
Sampler (econet port - internal expansion slot free), boxed with all
manuals and software (games, First Word Plus, PC Emulator) ú450 or
offers. (May swap for hardware/software). Can deliver and set up if near
Cardiff. Phone James on 01222-754665.
9.3
Acorn C/C++, brand new, still in shrink-wrapped box, only ú150. Phone
01342-844673.
9.3
ACB25 Risc PC 600, 4Mb RAM, 1Mb VRAM, 425Mb HD, Cumana Indigo CD-ROM
drive, exc cond, ú1150. Extra 4Mb SIMM ú100. A5000 4Mb RAM, 40Mb HD,
RISC OS 3.1, 14ö multisync, external floppy interface ú550. A3000 2Mb
RAM (expandable), Oak SCSI podule and 30Mb HD, standard monitor,
external floppy interface, ú225. EasiWriter II ú30, RISC OS 3.1 PRMs
ú50, PipeDream 4 ú20, PC Emulator ú20, twin 720K floppy drives inc power
supply ú30, Acorn JP150 printer ú30, PrimeArt ú15, Imagine 2 ú15,
Talking Pendown ú12. 5╝ò drive (not fully functional) ú5, and more
software. Phone Steve on 01803-873073.
9.3
AKF60 14ö multisync ú250, CC ScanLight Video 256 (version 2.06 upgraded
for Risc PC) ú150, hardly used, exc cond. Phone G. Rhodes on
01302¡338312 eves.
9.3
Econet cards (ex A300 series) ú15 each, or ú10 each for five or more,
cables and manuals included. Phone [phone].
9.3
Filestore E01 and E60S hard drive for BBC Master and associated
installation manuals ú75. Phone [phone].
9.3
Fireworkz Pro, including all manuals ú95, Sim City 2000 (Risc PC) ú14.
Phone John on 01328-864177.
9.3
GammaPlot ú15, System Delta+ ú25, Genesis 2 ú20, ÉInvestigating Local
Industryæ ú20, Sporting Triangles ú5, The Art Machine 1 and 2 ú20, Word
Up Word Down ú3, MS DOS Quick Reference ú5, RISC OS 2 PRMs ú35. Phone
01737-832159 eves.
9.3
Microsoft FlightSim 5, will not run on Risc PC need version 2 will
exchange. Phone Chris on 01962-862227.
9.3
PC 486 card for Risc PC, unopened, including DOS 6, unwanted gift ú150,
210Mb IDE HD from Risc PC, exc cond. little use ú95. Phone [phone].
9.3
Printers: CC LaserDirect HiRes8 ú685, Panasonic KX-P1124 (24-pin dot
matrix) ú80. Phone David on 01908-501951 eves.
9.3
Rhapsody 3 ú49, RhythmBox ú24, Serenade ú49, Shares 5 ú39, all latest
versions, unregistered. Phone [phone].
9.3
Risc PC 600 (ACB45), 8Mb + 2Mb VRAM, 420Mb HD, internal dual speed
Cumana 300i CD¡ROM drive, PC Emulator, DR DOS, 8 months old, v.g.c. but
no monitor, ú1350 o.n.o. Phone Eddie on 01342-714905.
9.3
S-Base personal, brand new, unregistered ú40, Equasor original (not
bundled) version ú5, Schema spreadsheet ú15. Phone [phone].
9.3
ScanLight 256, upgraded for the Risc PC, ú80. ProArtisan 2 CD with
ProArt24 upgrade voucher, ú40. Revelation 2 CD with CDFS 2.21Y, ú40.
PinPoint 2.01d, ú40. Offers considered. Phone David on 01752-810027
after 6pm.
9.3
Star LS5-TT laser printer, 4Mb RAM, 600╫300 dpi output, LJ lll and
Postscript compatible, 8 LJ lll fonts and 26 Postscript fonts, orginal
cost ú935 + VAT, will accept ú325 o.n.o. (Upgrading to A3-1200dpi
printer). Regret buyer collects or pays for delivery. Call Keith on
0860-919216.
9.3
TurboDriver for Canon and HP ú25, Genesis Project ú25,WorraCAD ú25,
Irlam ProImage ú25,  PipeDream 4 ú20, Compression ú15, Keystroke ú10,
Impressive ú5, BubbleHelp ú5, printer switch box ú10, 2 slot backplane
ú10, MS DOS 6.2 / Windows 3.11 ú20. Phone [phone].
9.3
View, a Dabhand Guide ú4, BBC Master ref. manuals 1 and 2, and Welcome
Guide, ú14 the lot. Phone [phone].
9.3
Wanted Ö MIDI interface podule. Phone [phone].
9.3
Wanted Ö TurboDriver cable, Internet software, Star LC24-10 print head.
Phone [phone].
9.3
Z88 complete with 128K RAM pack, mains adaptor, leads, carry case, and
manual, battery link needs attention, ú85. ÉZ88 Computingæ by Ian
Sinclair ú3, ÉZ88 Dabhand Guideæ ú5. Phone [phone].áuá
9.3
RiscáPC Special Deals
9.3
As an alternative to the 20-month interest-free offer, Clan Acorn
members can get up to...
9.3
11.5% discount
9.3
Buy a RiscáPC 700 or A7000, as a member of Clan Acorn*, and Acorn will
give you EITHER...
9.3
Programmeræs Pack worth almost ú400 (See Clan Column, page 7, last
month)
9.3
OR...
9.3
ú150 cash-back if you buy an ACB70/ACB75
9.3
ú125 cash-back if you buy an ACB60
9.3
ú100 cash-back if you buy an A7000
9.3
This offer applies even if you buy a computer WITHOUT a monitor.
9.3
(If you want to buy a RiscáPC without a monitor or with a higher spec
monitor, you will need to fill in a ÉRiscáPC Specialist Purchaseæ form.
If you give us a ring on 01603-766592, weæll send you one.)
9.3
20 months interest free credit
9.3
This offer now applies even if you buy a computer WITHOUT a monitor.
9.3
(Both offers are only available until 31st December 1995.)
9.3
*For Life Membership of Clan Acorn, ring 01933-279300 and have your
credit/debit card ready Ö it will cost you ú15 (or ú20 if you want a
sweatshirt).
9.3
A4000 Computer Special Offer
9.3
Each A4000 (at new lower price of ú849) purchased from NCS will include
the following free software:
9.3
  StartWrite (Junior WP)
9.3
  Crystal Rain Forest (Award-winning educational package)
9.3
  Advance (WP/spreadsheet/database/graphs package)
9.3
AND
9.3
CD-ROM drive for only ú129 +VAT (= ú151.58) supplied through Cumana.
9.3
OR
9.3
CD-ROM drive (Eesoxæs new, higher speed parallel port type) for ú175
inclusive supplied with the computer, i.e. no waiting!!
9.3
Offer lasts ONLY until 30th November.
9.3
RiscDOS Column
9.3
Mike Clarkson
9.3
Acorn World 95 saw a variety of developments on the Acorn/PC
connectivity front. Most importantly, and impressively, Aleph One were
demonstrating a Pentium-class RiscáPC card. (In stock at NCS Ö a snip at
ú645! Ed.) (Aleph One do almost all the PC card design work and
associated software for Acorn.)
9.3
Also, Acorn released a new application, PCExchange, which ömakes Windows
a RISC OS application and RISC OS a Windows applicationò Ö well nearly.
(ú26 through Archive.)
9.3
2nd generation PC cards
9.3
Aleph One now have available RiscáPC 486 and 586 cards using the second
generation ASIC chip (which interfaces between the x86 chip and the rest
of the RiscáPC). The new design is, itself, more efficient, and also
allows much faster processors to be used with it, giving enormous speed
increases over the original Acorn card. Aleph One are shipping Cyrix
5x86/100MHz chips, while öwithin a couple of weeksò Acorn are set to
release 486DX2/66 and 486DX4/100 versions. (The 5x86 is Cyrixæs answer
to Intelæs Pentium and offers comparable performance.) (The Acorn cards
will be ú293 and ú351 through Archive when available. Ed.)
9.3
The software which drives the cards has also been updated (ödailyò
according to one developer), and now supports definable 256 colour
palettes, as well as 32,000 and 16 million colours (given a suitable
RISCáOS mode). Basic sound support is included and, I believe, there is
now soundblaster implementation for those with a 16bit sound card.
Windows 95 does now run, even in a Window, but is not yet fully
supported, i.e. a few minor problems may be encountered in this
implementation. The performance of the cards is impressive, as shown by
the following benchmarks released by Aleph One:
9.3
  KDhrystones  Whetstones  Windows User
9.3
586-100  64.1  2101  23.7
9.3
DX2/80  39.2  1496  15.8
9.3
Acorn SX/33  9.2  223  6.0
9.3
Upgrade your old PC card
9.3
For many, this could be more important news than the release of the
faster cards. No, you cannot upgrade an Acorn 486 card for one of the
faster versions. But Clares are acting as agents for a German firm, Midi
& Computer Systeme, who will upgrade your Acorn 486 card to a DX2/80 for
ú199+VAT, which looks like a real bargain Ö especially when the total
cost (ú99 for the original + ú199 upgrade) is compared with Aleph Oneæs
show price of ú399, also for a 486DX2/80. Of course, the Aleph One
version is upgradable (apparently), and uses the new ASIC which the
upgrade does not. For real power, go for the 586, but for a significant
speed increase over the Acorn card, this upgrade could be useful. (See
Jochen Konietzkoæs review opposite. Ed.)
9.3
Future hardware implementations
9.3
A year is a very long time in computing Ö particularly in this area Ö
from the non-appearance of the slow 486 last year to high end 586s this.
Will the next year see similar progress? Almost certainly not Ö the
Cyrix 586 is almost the fastest x86 processor available, and even though
Intel is due to release the P6 in the next six months, it will initially
be very expensive. Moreover, it seems unlikely that the P6 will (ever)
be implemented for use in current generation RiscáPCs, since it will
almost certainly require too much power and produce far too much heat Ö
the RiscáPC case, power supply etc. is, after all, designed for nice
power-efficient ARM processors.
9.3
However, this doesnæt mean that Aleph One are going to be resting on
their laurels. Their most immediate plans are for a software release to
optimise Windows 95 usage on the RiscáPC, including an updated version
of !PC486 (now renamed !PCx86 to reflect the entry of the 586 card) and
various drivers which are optimised for Win95 as opposed to 3.1 or 3.11.
These should be available within the next few months. After this, the
next development is expected to be a reworking of the floppy disc
interface code, which should lead to fewer problems in this area, and
could mean that games which require a key disc will function properly
(currently, quite a few do not), although some still might not. As well
as these software developments, we might see a slight increase in speed
of the 586 cards on offer and, almost certainly, the addition of further
486 cards to offer a wider range of speeds, both from Acorn and Aleph
One. In the more distant future, although anything much beyond the
currently available 586s is unlikely, there must be a chance of a
PowerPC implementation...
9.3
!PCExchange
9.3
I was hoping to be able to review the new Acorn application,
!PCExchange. Unfortunately, it doesnæt seem to run under Windows 95, and
certainly not under my old version of !PC486. However, hereæs a rundown
of what it aims to provide. In essence, it enables access to the PC
clipboard (and hence the PC environment) from within RISCáOS (and vice
versa). Data copied to the PC clipboard is available via a RISCáOS
window, from where it can be dragged and dropped, as if from a filer
window. Files within RISCáOS can be dropped onto this same window
(either from a filer window or an application save box) and are then
available on the PC clipboard. Some types of file are transferred direct
(e.g. RTF, which is understood by applications on both platforms), while
others are converted (e.g. sprites are converted to BMPs, a Windows
bitmap format).
9.3
This all makes data transfer between the two platforms very easy Ö take
text or a picture from e.g. the Microsoft Encarta CD, cut it to the
clipboard and drag the appropriate icon to an Acorn application. Almost
any sort of file can be transferred, although only some will be
converted. Those currently supported are text (which has carriage
returns and linefeeds sorted out), sprite/bmp, waveform/wav and RTF
(which although not converted is filetyped so the Acorn application
recognises what it is). These should, I think, be sufficient for most
uses, since most Windows applications put information onto the clipboard
using one of these formats.
9.3
This certainly looks to be a useful addition to RISCáOS/Windows
connectivity. My only initial reservation was that it could be done by
saving the text, picture etc. to a PC partition and then loading it into
the relevant operating system (since both Windows and RISCáOS can access
a PC harddisc partition) Ö so why buy !PCExchange? However, transferring
this way only really works for complete files, since Windows
applications, as standard, do not have the öSave asò option to save a
selected picture, section of text etc. The clipboard is the standard
mechanism for moving data between PC applications. Moreover, accessing
the PC partition from RISCáOS necessitates freezing the PC card, and
some correspondence I have had has suggested that even then, it may
cause problems Ö certainly using !PCExchange makes the whole process
much easier.
9.3
Tailpiece
9.3
Many thanks to those who have written recently, and my apologies for not
using their material this month Ö it will give me plenty to go at next
month. I hope you will agree that the show provided a good deal of
interest in the area of Acorn/PC connectivity. It also showed how RAM
and harddisc prices continue to fall, with some dealers offering, e.g.
16Mb of RAM for under ú400. Finally, I should mention that newer
versions of the !PCx86 application and drivers are continually being
developed (and made available), but the precise method of their
distribution is not quite clear. If you can, the best place to try is
probably ftp://ftp.ant.co.uk, which is an Aleph One site: the Acorn ftp
site may also have a version.áuá
9.3
Low Price PC Card Upgrade
9.3
Jochen Konietzko
9.3
Two German Acorn dealers, Uffenkamp Computer Systeme and Mike Saxtonæs
Midi & Computer Systeme, have joined forces to produce an upgrade for
the Risc PCæs 486 SX card.
9.3
How you get it
9.3
You send your old card to one of them, and it is then fitted with the
new processor (best phone first to talk about the method of payment they
prefer). Uffenkamp Computers sent my upgraded card back after eight
days, but from Britain, times of two to three weeks should be realistic.
9.3
What you get
9.3
The Texas Instruments CPU is replaced with a 486 DX2-66 or 486 DX2-80.
According to a diagnostic software I ran, my new processor is a Cyrix
486dlc, 80 MHz. The faster processor comes with an on-board fan (luckily
very quiet), to keep the CPU from boiling your Risc PC. The prices (inc
VAT, p&p extra) are 429 DM and 479 DM respectively. (Itæs currently
about 2.30 DM to the pound, which makes that ú186 and ú208 inc VAT
respectively. Ed.) The extra 50 DM (~ú22) for the DX2-80 seems many well
spent.
9.3
Installation
9.3
No problem here Ö just plug the card back into its old slot and connect
the power to the fan. This involves unplugging the power supplyáfrom one
of your disc drives. The cable attached to the fan has the two plugs
attached (male and female), and so it can be inserted between the drive
and the Risc PCæs power supply.
9.3
The card in use
9.3
When I ran my !PC486 application for the first time, disaster seemed to
strike. There was an error message which seemed to point to a serious
hardware defect. Luckily, a phone call solved the problem Ö the second
level cache has to be set to Write-Back. This happens in the text file
Config inside !PC486, where one of the first lines has to read L2Cache
2. Uffenkamp recommend that you set the first level cache to 1 (write-
through), but either 1 or 2 seems to work equally well.
9.3
The second nasty surprise was all my fault. A few weeks ago, the MPC
software for the Minnie 16 sound card had arrived, together with an
updated !PC application. The new card came with an even later version,
so I used this, and suddenly Windows reported an incorrectly installed
SoundBlaster 1.5 driver. The solution here was to look into the older
application which contains two modules PCSound and SSound. These modules
simply have to be moved to the new software, together with the lines in
the !Run file which load them.
9.3
Other than that, the new CPU has not given any trouble whatsoever.
9.3
Speed
9.3
I have not done any Éreal lifeæ speed tests on the old card (that is
jotting down the times taken for time-consuming tasks), so all I can say
is that the DX2-80 upgrade seems öconsiderably fasterò, though probably
not quite twice as fast.
9.3
A PD benchmark program gave the following speed index values (in single-
tasking mode) from !PCSoft 55:
9.3
  original 486 SX card    306
9.3
  new 80 MHz processor  866
9.3
  Future 386/40MHz    431
9.3
(This last one is just a quoted value for comparison.)
9.3
The Graphic benchmark suite of the test software compared the card with
an old Trident SVGA 9600. The original CPU showed values between one
third and two thirds of the Trident, while the new oneæs values lie in
the same range as those of the Trident.
9.3
Conclusion
9.3
This upgrade seems to be an excellent buy. You get a 486 processor near
the top of the range for relatively little money. I doubt that the
promised cards from Acorn (and, I think, Aleph One) with faster
processors will cost less, so the only reason for waiting for one of
those cards would be to upgrade to Pentium level.áuá
9.3
(As Mike Clarkson mentions in his RiscDOS Column, Clares are acting as
agents for Midi & Computer Systeme, who will upgrade your Acorn 486 card
to a DX2/80 for ú199+VAT (ú234) Ö cheaper to go direct, but less hassle
using Clares! Ed.)
9.3
Help!!!!
9.3
Amateur radio software Ö I have a fair collection of PD and Shareware
software for all the RISC OS range, from the A310 to the Risc PC. This
can be obtained in two ways...
9.3
Internet FTP: Log onto the ftp.demon.co.uk site and look in the
directories...
9.3
/pub/ham/archimedes and /pub/archimedes/hamradio (but download the file
!List.txt first)
9.3
Post: send me a return address label (or self-addressed mailer) and
2╫25p loose stamps (not 1╫50p), for a sample disc and list of available
software, stating whether you would prefer ÉDataCommsæ or ÉMiscæ
software. There is no need to enclose a disc or additional postage.
9.3
Richard Sterry, 1 Wavell Garth, Sandal Magna, Wakefield, WF2 6JP.
9.3
I can also be contacted on Internet or by packet radio as shown below.
9.3
ÉRickæ Sterry G4BLT / [e-mail]
9.3
BBC floppy drive? Ö Has anyone got an old (working!) 5╝ö floppy drive
for use with a BBC Computer? Iæd donate a few pounds to charity if
someone could let me have one.
9.3
(This is a young lad who came to the Charity Stand at Acorn World 95 and
was disappointed. Ed.)
9.3
Andrew Ghosh, 82 Vancouver Road, Edgware, HA8á5DF.
9.3
Large Impression documents Ö In the textbook editing I am doing, I have
created a mockup of the book using Impression Publisher. The document is
approximately 15Mb and so, on loading, Impression grabs all the free
memory (on an 8Mb A540). It is necessary to use Éminimise memoryæ
immediately to prevent problems (error messages from Impression or other
applications, the computer locking up, etc). When moving large blocks of
text or graphics with cut and paste, it is advisable to minimise memory
afterwards to release the memory again (making sure that the paste has
been successful first). To remove a large section of text, I delete it
(using <ctrl-k>) rather than cutting it (with <delete> or <ctrl-X>).
When printing, I would also recommend using minimise memory first.
9.3
Does anyone know a simple way to limit the amount of memory grabbed on
loading large documents? Is it possible to set a maximum amount of
memory that an application can use? This would help me considerably. It
can take several minutes to minimise memory with a complex document, 4+
Mb of which is in memory.
9.3
David Crossley, Middleton. [e-mail].
9.3
MicroWriter/Quinkey Ö Remember the five-button input device that used to
be used on BBCs? I have a friend who has MS and, as a result, has very
poor sight and her fingers wonæt operate a normal keyboard terribly
well. The MicroWriter/Quinkey would be just the thing but the company
went bust a couple of years ago. So, (1) does anyone know if they work
on RISCáOS machines? and (2) does anyone have one they could sell us,
please?
9.3
Ed.
9.3
Money, please? Ö (Iæll be honest... Iæm asking for money, so feel free
to move on to the next item.) Iæm asking for support for Alyn Haskey,
who is a remarkable man by any stretch of the imagination. Heáhas
cerebral palsy, is wheelchair-bound and yet is a para-Olympic medal-
winner, has several degrees and is a full-time Christian worker. He
spends his life sharing the love of God with other people, especially
children and young people, through his books, plays, poems and songs.
When he came to Norwich last week he asked about getting a new computer
as he currently uses a BBC B! I showed him the RiscáPC running
Impression Ö he was impressed. I showed him the ExpLAN HolyBible Ö he
got quite excited. Iáshowed him Sibelius Ö he was so gob-smacked he
nearly fell out of his wheelchair! All he needs now is money!!
9.3
I would like to help Alan but I donæt feel it is right to use any of the
normal NCS Charity Fund money because he is a specifically Christian
worker, so can anyone help, please? If you want to send a donation,
either send it to us or direct to Alyn. At the very least, how about
buying a copy of Alynæs autobiography, öFreedom Rideò? Itæs well worth a
read. Send ú5 including p&p (and/or donations) payable to ÉFreedom
Ministriesæ to PO Box 24 Nottingham, NG3 4LD, or send them to us if that
is easier and weæll pass them on to Alyn. Thanks very much.
9.3
Ed.
9.3
The Patience Addict Ö I have a review of this product from someone. I
even wrote to him to acknowledge it. Now all I can find is the disc with
the review on it and no name. Sorry! Still, the moral is, never send a
disc to NCS without putting your name on it or in one of the files
inside it. Could you let me know who you are, please? Thanks.
9.3
Ed.
9.3
Using Acornæs Toolkit Ö Can anyone write a definitive tutorial for
Archive on using Toolkit (with simple examples), please? (Tony Houghton
is intending to cover Toolkit in the C++ Column Ö is that any good, or
do you want to use it from Basic? Ed.)
9.3
Andrew Cordani, Tooting.
9.3
Hints and Tips
9.3
DFS on RiscáPC Ö I recently installed an ActiLead 5╝ö to get a second
floppy on my Risc PC ACB45. Despite HECæs disclaimers, I thought it
should be possible to handle BBC discs by third-party access software,
such as I have used regularly on an A440. Three programs scored varying
degrees of success:
9.3
DFSReader (Beebug Ltd), non-WIMP, 1988 Ö Installs a module giving star
commands *DCAT, *DEX, *DINFO, *DBACKUP and *DCOPY. Copy allows Éreadingæ
to an ADFS disc etc (no Write). It seems OK with Actilead on both 5╝ö
and 3╜ò BBC-80 floppies in drives 1 and 0 respectively. I cannot verify
its claims to handle also Watford 62-Cat DFS & DDFS & Solidisc DFS, nor
have I tried 40-track discs.
9.3
DFSReader (Freeware by Emmet Spier), 1990. Ö This was on Shareware No.
31, now available from APDL. A desktop application that puts one extra
floppy disc icon on the bar. <Menu> allows choice of: Drive (0 to 3),
Name Disc, Free, & Import Dir (?). <Select> gives a filer window, with
menu choices of Display, Rename, Delete, Access and Count. Read and
write work by usual drag-and-drop to the filer. It is restricted to 80-
track BBC DFS and has no format option. It reads/writes all the 5╝ö BBC
80-T DFS discs I have tried. It also works on drive 0 (3╜ò).
9.3
!DFS (Dabs Press), 1990. This is also a desktop application and has four
icons on the bar for drives 0-3. <Menu> offers Disc Info, (Un)Protect,
Swap Cats, Dismount, Format, Backup, Verify, Free. <Select> gives a
filer window with read/write by drag and drop as usual. Format offers
Acorn (DFS), Solidisc or Watford formats each in 40- or 80-track. I
proved 80-T DFS format and verify OK via the Actilead on 5╝ö drive 1 and
on 3╜ò drive 0. Read/write failed with original BBC discs, but was OK on
discs formatted with this program.
9.3
I thus use !DFS only to format/verify a disc and !DFSReader to read/
write BBC DFS 80 discs. The 5╝ö drive is a Cumana 40/80 (Mitsubishi
mechanism) but the 40 option is not used!
9.3
Eric Ayers, Ipswich.
9.3
Drawing ellipses Ö Acornæs Draw program allows ellipses to be drawn very
easily when using orthographic projection. However, when drawing
isometric views, it may be easier to use the Éfour arc methodæ to
construct an isometric circle, as this allows the size of the ellipse to
be fixed by using an isometric square. Here is the method I use.
9.3
1. If using Draw, set up an isometric box of equal side and include the
axes, centre O. (Fig 1)
9.3
2. Use the arc-tool to draw the arc from Éaæ to Ébæ, tangential to each
axis.
9.3
3. Repeat the same process for arc Ébcæ. (Figs 2 and 3) It may be
necessary to adjust the arcs to form a figure that Élooksæ OK.
9.3
4. Now group together the two arcs and copy them. (Fig 3a)
9.3
5. Rotate the copy through 180░ and move to join at Éaæ and Ébæ to form
the complete figure. (Fig 4)
9.3
6. Group the two halves together to form the complete isometric circle.
(Fig 4a) The combination of the two arcs can also be used to draw the
corresponding isometric circles on the other two faces of the isometric
cube as shown in Figs 5 and 6.
9.3
Les Lewis, Sheerness.
9.3
Envelopes Ö Some advice was given in Archive recently regarding
addressing envelopes on a printer. I appreciate wanting a Éneat jobæ,
but it can still be rather fiddly. Personally, for all my average
letters Ö whether personal or business Ö I use white window envelopes,
having printed the address at the start of the letter on the left, in
the usual Ébusiness letteræ format.
9.3
You quickly learn the distance needed from the top of the page, to
enable a neat fold to position the address in the window. It looks
professional and also avoids the risk of printer ink being smudged by
rain.
9.3
Elma Alexander, Crail, Fife.
9.3
Flashing colours on RiscáPC Ö If you run a non-Wimp Basic program in an
Éoldæ 16-colour mode, you will find that the default flashing colours Ö
colours 8 to 15 Ö donæt flash!
9.3
Using OS_Byte 195 shows that the default setting of ÉDuration of first
colour flash is 0æ, which holds the first colour indefinitely Ö thus
stopping the flashing.
9.3
Using OS_Byte 9 to reset the first colour flash duration to 25/50ths
sec. effectively switches the flashing back on. The instruction is SYS
öOS_Byteò,9,25.
9.3
There is no need to worry about setting the second colour flash duration
as its default value is already 25. I find this latter a little strange.
Itæs as if someone set the first colour duration to zero to disable
flashing temporarily and then forgot to reset it to 25! First and second
colours both at 25 were the Éoldæ default settings for BBC B and later.
9.3
Using OS_Byte 9 in a program as above will activate the flashing colours
for all subsequent non-Wimp programs run in any 16 screen mode until you
switch off or reset, so you may want to prevent this by also including
SYS öOS_Byteò,9,0 in your program closedown sequence, to restore things
as they were.
9.3
Ray Favre, West Drayton.
9.3
Fractions (p 23) Some Acorn fonts do have a Éfraction baræ as Alt-140.
It is in MathGreek, and in my EFF fonts, but not in Trinity or Homerton.
It makes fraction look better than the conventional slash, and does not
break at the end of a line.
9.3
Colin Singleton, Sheffield.
9.3
New life for dead HP cartridges Ö HP (and probably other inkjet printer
producers as well) warn most emphatically against touching the copper
foil with the tiny nozzles. There is, however, one situation where this
warning can be disregarded Ö when some nozzles are really hopelessly
clogged.
9.3
This happened to me this summer when, during a four week absence, the
printer had stood unused in a room where the temperature was almost
constantly above 30░C. After my return, most nozzles were blocked, and
three of the telltale white lines were proof against alcohol, warm water
and even a special cleaning fluid which I sometimes use to good effect.
9.3
Rather than throw the useless cartridge away, I made one last attempt Ö
I bathed the bristles of a new soft toothbrush in alcohol and very
gently brushed over the nozzles.
9.3
The next test print showed no more white lines, and now the cartridge
works faultlessly again.
9.3
Jochen Konietzko, K÷ln, Germany
9.3
Turbo Driver hazard warning (8.11 p26 + 9.1 p44) Ö There is an option
öIgnore statusò on the Turbo Driver menu (<shift-select> on the icon)
which means the Turbo Driver does not attempt to report whether the
printer is out of paper, turned off, etc. Set this, and the problem
should be solved. On my Epson Stylus Color with Risc PC and Impression
Publisher dongle (not the new Color II), Iádo not set this ignore, and
get some messages back. Some messages are useful, but not all, and they
are not always the right ones. Does anyone have similar problems, or a
solution?
9.3
Mike Clarkson, Shrewsbury.
9.3
A DIY 24 Line I/O Card
9.3
Nigel Brown
9.3
I am currently studying Computer Science at the University of Brighton
and one of the 2nd year assignments was to design an I/O card using the
Intel 8255A Parallel Interface Adapter (PIA) for an Intel Multibus
Computer. I did rather well in this and so I decided to try and build my
card. As I did not have access to a Multibus system, I adapted my design
to work with my A310. The expansion card I made is a half width device
which mounts internally in the normal way but does not use a custom-made
pcb, being constructed on Veroboard instead.
9.3
For those unfamiliar with the 8255A PIA, here is a very brief
description of its facilities. The 8255A PIA is a very flexible device,
having 24   I/O lines arranged as three 8-bit ports, labelled A to C,
and three different modes of operation, 0 to 2. In mode 0, groups A, B
and the top and bottom four lines of group C, can be set to either input
or output. That is, it is possible to go from 24 outputs to 24 inputs in
steps of four. Modes 1 and 2 allow Éstrobedæ I/O on ports A and B, with
port C being used for status and control signals. Access to the three
ports and the control register is controlled by two address lines and
the usual read, write and chip select controls. For full details on the
8255A PIA, you are are advised to obtain a copy of the relevant data
sheet.
9.3
Design considerations
9.3
The expansion bus provides 16 data lines (BD0-BD15), 12 address lines
(LA2-LA13) and a host of control lines brought out to 64-way DIN 41612ac
connectors on the back plane. This means that each expansion card has 4K
words of address space allocated to it and can be either 8 or 16 bits
wide. The control lines used in this card are:-
9.3
PS Ö Podule select. Goes low when it is our card that is being accessed.
9.3
PRE Ö Podule Read strobe. Goes low when data is to be read from a card.
9.3
WRE Ö Podule Write strobe. Goes low when data is to be written to a
card.
9.3
PR/W Ö Read / Not Write. Goes high if reading data, low if writing.
9.3
RST Ö Reset. Driven low on power up and by the keyboard reset switch.
9.3
In turn, each card must provide five things if it is to work correctly
in the host computer:
9.3
1) Tri-state buffers for the data bus lines it uses.   Tri-state
buffers, as the name suggests, can be in one of three different states:
input, output and disconnected. Tri-states have to be used as the data
bus is bidirectional (you can read from and write to it) and your card
must only connect to the data bus when it is selected. At all other
times your expansion card must Éfloat the busæ. A suitable chip is the
74HC245 octal tri-state buffer which contains eight such buffers in one
package, and its pinout suits Veroboard construction very well.
9.3
2) Input buffers for the address and control lines it uses. Address and
control lines are permanently connected to each expansion card, and
buffers prevent devices on your and other cards from overloading the
bus. A suitable chip would be the 74HC244 which contains eight buffers
in one package. However, the pinouts do not suit Veroboard construction,
so a 74HC245 was selected instead. It is connected as an input buffer
and permanently enabled.
9.3
3) Expansion Card Identity Byte (ECId). This is used by the host
computer to determine which cards are installed in which slots. There
are two forms this can take, a single byte broken into 5 bit fields or
an Extended ECId which comprises 8 or 16 bytes, plus paged ROM space if
required. This card uses only the single byte version.
9.3
4) The hardware. In this case, it is the PIA chip.
9.3
5) Address decoding circuitry. Devices within the cardæs address space
will be memory-mapped, so some form of decoder will be needed to select
the relevant device from the address present on the address lines. Even
a very simple card like this has two devices, the ECId and the PIA
itself.
9.3
ECId byte
9.3
The table below shows the layout of the ECId byte and the meaning of
each field. To construct this, I choose to use another 74HC245 tri-state
buffer, this time connected as an output buffer. Output values for all
fields other than the ID field are hard-wired to the correct values. The
ID field value can be set using DIL switches to any value other than 0.
9.3
Bit  Field  Value  Meaning
9.3
0  IRQ   = 0  Not requesting IRQ   0 on our card
9.3
     = 1  Requesting IRQ
9.3
1  P   = 0  Podule is present  Must be 0 on
9.3
        all cards
9.3
2  FIQ   = 0  Not requesting FIQ  0 on our card
9.3
    = 1  Requesting FIQ
9.3
3-6  ID[0:3]   = 0  Extended ECId   Any value
9.3
        other than 0
9.3
     <> 0  Single Byte Id Only  Set by DIL
9.3
        switches on
9.3
        prototype
9.3
7  A   = 0  Acorn Card  1 on our card
9.3
     = 1  Non Acorn Card
9.3
Address decoding
9.3
The PIA registers in the memory map are as follows:
9.3
  &200C  Control register
9.3
  &2008  Port C
9.3
  &2004  Port B
9.3
  &2000  Port A
9.3
The Podule ID byte is at &0000.
9.3
The ECId has to be located at address 0, and convention has it that the
bottom 2K words of the address space are reserved for this and any paged
ROM (called the Code space). This is why the PIA is located at address
&2000. As the address space has been divided into two halves, with one
device in each, to decide which is being accessed we only have to look
at address line LA13. If it is low (addresses &0000 to &1FFF), it must
be the ECId and, if high (addresses &2000 to &3FFF), it must be the PIA.
Additionally, we only want to activate either chip if the control signal
PS is low (see above). From this, we can draw up a truth table for the
address decoder. Please note that the chip select lines on the ECId and
the PIA, in common with most other devices, are active low.
9.3
Address Decoder Truth Table
9.3
  Inputs  Outputs    Comments
9.3
  PS  LA13  ECId  PIA
9.3
  1  1  1  1  PS high, so do nothing.
9.3
  1  0  1  1  PS high, so do nothing.
9.3
  0  1  1  0  LA13 high so select PIA
9.3
  0  0  0  1  LA13 low so select ECId
9.3
Written as Basic statements, we get
9.3
  ECId = NOT((NOT PS) AND (NOT LA13))
9.3
  PIAáá= NOT((NOT PS) AND LA13)
9.3
We have to convert this to use NAND functions so that it can be
constructed easily using cheap logic gates. If you note that X NAND X =
NOT X then this is easy. The above converted to NAND functions are:
9.3
ECId=(PS NAND PS) NAND (LA13 NAND LA13)
9.3
PIAá=(PS NAND PS) NAND LA13
9.3
The ÉPS NAND PSæ is common to both, and so we only require four NAND
gates to construct the address decoder. The chip selected is the 74HC00
which is a quad two-input NAND gate device.
9.3
This completes the design of the I/O card and hopefully it covers most
points of interest for people who wish to design and construct similar
cards of their own. Full details covering construction and testing of
the prototype are available on the Archive monthly disc. The information
includes a circuit diagram, Veroboard layout, parts list etc, along with
the source code for a device driver and various test programs. If you
have any comments, suggestions or corrections, or if you require any
further advice, I can be contacted via email as [e-mail], or
you can write to me at 56 Crisp Road, Landport Estate, Lewes, East
Sussex, BN7 2TX.áuá
9.3
Connecting an Acorn to Internet
9.3
Torben Steeg
9.3
First some words of warning. (1) This is a beginnersæ guide in the sense
that, when I started out, I was a beginner. What I hope this account
offers is some insight into how to get your Acorn connected to the
Internet, via a modem. It is written from the perspective of someone who
felt quite confused quite a lot of the time Ö but succeeded in the end.
9.3
(2) Dealing with the Internet means dealing with immature technology and
hence a lot of jargon. Iácanæt avoid the jargon but Iæll try to minimise
it. (Youæve already had Internet Ö do you really know what it is? And
modem.) You really need to get hold of the Archive Internet Glossary (ú5
through Archive Ö on disc or paper).
9.3
A further consequence of immaturity is that it is still a fairly
Étechieæ business. It is not as simple as buying and installing a
wordprocessor for instance Ö not yet, though the pace of change is
astonishing.
9.3
Background
9.3
I started down this road when I began to get involved in helping schools
find out what the Internet might offer them. Before that, I was familiar
with the net, as a user only, through JANET Ö the universitiesæ part of
it. However, it seemed clear that, in courses for schools, we needed to
be able to talk intelligently about the practicalities of establishing a
link to the Internet, as well as the educational pros and cons which are
much closer to my heart as someone deeply involved in IT in schools.
9.3
So a colleague and I took the plunge and set out to connect our home
computers to the net Ö he from his Windows platform and I from my
Archimedes. Where it is relevant to an Acorn audience, I will reflect on
his experiences as well as mine.
9.3
What you need
9.3
There are five essentials: a modem (and a phone line to plug it into), a
computer, a lead to connect the two, someone to provide access to the
Internet at the other end of the phone line (a service provider) and
some software. I will take these one by one as far as possible. I should
perhaps add persistence.
9.3
Modem
9.3
Here, the rule is, the faster the better. The reason for this is that if
your modem transfers data twice as fast, your phone bill will be half as
big.
9.3
Actually, this begs a few questions. Often, the limiting speed of data
transfer will depend either on how many other people are using your
Service Provider or on how many other people are trying to access the
same Internet site as you. Nevertheless, I believe the basic advice
stands.
9.3
There are (at least) two systems for describing the speeds of modems. I
prefer Ébaudsæ (= bits per second) as it is easier to understand than
the alternative system of ÉVæ numbers, although the ÉVæs tell you more
than just speed.
9.3
If you can afford it, go for a 28,800 baud modem. Most (perhaps all?)
Service Providers now provide connections at this speed. This is the
fastest modem speed available and provided you insist on it being
ÉV.34æ, it will also support data compression which will make data
transfer even quicker. Most V.34 modems also support fax traffic.
9.3
If you shop around in the PC magazines you will get a good quality one
for less than ú200 (+ p&p +VAT). I chose a Hayes one (Accura 288) simply
because they seem to set the standards and I had little other knowledge
to go on Ö I could have gone even cheaper.
9.3
The minimum possible speed for Internet use is 14,400 baud modem, but
no-one I know would recommend it, particularly if you want to use the
World Wide Web, whose files tend to be huge.
9.3
Computer
9.3
You need an Acorn with an adequate specification. For this purpose, the
serial port is an important feature of the specification.
9.3
Å  2Mb RAM is an absolute minimum. 4Mb is more realistic.
9.3
Å  A hard disc with around 10Mb free is necessary for anything more than
simple email access Ö I believe it can be done from floppy, though Iæve
not tried.
9.3
Å  The software requires RISC OS 3.1 or higher.
9.3
Å  You really need a fast serial port:
9.3
A3000: will need a serial port upgrade fitting (but see below).
9.3
A300, A400, A540, A30x0, A4000, A5000 and the A3000 upgrade all have
fairly slow serial ports Ö maximum 9600 baud. This is not recommended
for full Internet access. I gather too that the serial ports on some of
these machines are not well protected and easily collapse Ö I have no
other information on this.
9.3
For those machines that have expansion slots, fast (115,200 baud) serial
port upgrades are available, and are the only serious option Ö although
they are much more expensive than their IBM PC counterparts. These
provide two extra serial ports and the software to drive them.
9.3
I bought Intelligent Interfacesæ dual card for my A5000 (ú175 through
Archive). However, I subsequently discovered that the Serial Portæs dual
card was about to be sold through ANT even more cheaply. Too late for
me, but worth looking into.
9.3
All Risc PCs have fast serial ports that can be driven at up to 115,200
baud.
9.3
This figure of 115,200 baud seemed excessively high to me. However, this
is necessary because the data sent between modems at 28,800 baud is
compressed. Thus it needs to be delivered to, and received from, the
modem by the computer at much higher speeds.
9.3
Lead
9.3
For A30x0, A4000, A5000, Risc PC and fast serial port upgrades, the
standard IBM PC lead (usually provided with the modem) is suitable.
9.3
For A300, A400, A540 and the A3000 upgrade, a special cable is required.
An Acorn dealer will be able to provide this. If you already have such a
lead, it should also work on later Acorns, since most software asks you
which kind of serial lead you are using.
9.3
Service provider
9.3
For the latest details of available Service Providers, you are best to
turn to one of the many Internet dedicated magazines Ö have a look at a
few in the newsagent and pick the one you like the best. Almost all have
directories of Providers that are up-to-date.
9.3
Most Providers charge ú10-15 per month with a start-up charge of ú10-25.
This should include software to get you going. You will need this
software unless you really know what you are doing in the area of
communications. In most cases, providers expect you to sign up for a
year. Try to talk to someone who uses the service Ö or read the reviews
in the magazines.
9.3
A number of considerations to take into account:
9.3
Å  Do they support Acorns? The issue here is whether they provide a
starter pack of Acorn software. Even if they do, make sure that there is
someone in technical support who knows what an Acorn is.
9.3
Å  Can you dial in at local call rates from where you live? If you
canæt, they will be a bad buy. Telephone costs will, eventually, be the
most significant cost of the whole enterprise.
9.3
Å  What support do they offer? This requires you to consider how much
support you think you will need. Support inevitably costs money.
9.3
Å  How much do they cost?   Consider this one last. Telephone costs
really will be much more significant.
9.3
I chose to go to Research Machineæs ÉInternet For Learningæ service.
This was partly because I wanted first hand experience of a service that
was selling itself particularly to schools. Despite RM being the largest
seller of IBM PCs into education, they have recognised the Acorn
presence and provide the standard starter pack of software. They are
also at the bottom end of prices. Where I have needed support, it has
been a little slow (they claim this is the price of huge success!) but
is effective. The main feature of this service that is different from
most others is that, being education oriented, they attempt to filter
out Éunwantedæ material, i.e. pornography, drugs information, terrorist
information and so on. Their success in this is reasonably good Ö though
not watertight. It does put them in the uncomfortable position of being
censors, however.
9.3
Importantly, access to the service has always been instant (i.e. I never
get engaged tones) and fast. Iásuspect this is because I access it at
cheap times Ö when schools are closed.
9.3
My colleague went to Demon. This was to gain experience of a large
successful Provider with a reputation for being rather techie. The
reputation is fair. The software provided (for IBMs) is minimal Ö you
are expected to download your own. (Iæll let you think about that.) In
addition, the service is very busy at cheap times Ö it can take ages to
get a line in and even then they are often slow. I gather the software
provided for Acorns is essentially the same as I got Ö as described
below.
9.3
Software
9.3
Most Internet Service Providers provide the same starter kit of
software. From RM, this came with instructions for configuration and
setting it up.
9.3
The following list of software is all freeware (i.e. there are no
registration costs). Upgrades to the software seem to be announced
regularly and are also free by downloading the files through Internet.
What follows is my interpretation, as a user, of the functions they
provide.
9.3
!SLIPDial: This handles the dialling and access to your provider. When
contact with the provider is established it automatically runs !TCPIP.
9.3
!TCPIP: This handles all the Internet protocols and access to facilities
such as FTP (read the Glossary Ö you need to know about this stuff). It
can be configured to automatically upload and download mail and news.
9.3
!NewsBase provides management of email and newsgroups for multiple
users. It also stores mail and news created offline while it waits for
connection to a provider and organises mail and news as it is uploaded
so that it can be read offline.
9.3
!TTFN (The Thread Following Newsreader) allows reading and writing of
mail and news offline. This is an important feature to have since it
keeps phone costs to a minimum.
9.3
!ArcWeb: This is a browser for the World Wide Web.
9.3
There are also other freeware programs available on Internet once you
have a connection. When you feel in control of the software that you
start with, you are advised to upload some of these and try them. As
with wordprocessors, different people seem to like different things.
9.3
In addition, commercial packages seem to be coming onto the market that
provide all the wanted features from within one piece of software. I
have heard a lot of talk about ANTæs suite Ö but not bought it yet (it
is undergoing Beta testing at present).
9.3
First experiences
9.3
Inevitably, this part of the story will focus on the problems I had.
However, despite these problems, Iáhad Internet access pretty rapidly
once I had all the bits assembled.
9.3
Dual serial card Ö The documentation that should come with this is still
under development Ö hence what I got was arcane beyond belief.
Fortunately, there is a very friendly voice at Intelligent Interfaces
who will talk you through what you need to to do with the software that
comes with the card. This voice has enormous patience.
9.3
Modem Ö Plugging in the modem coincided with a fault on my line that BT
couldnæt trace until complete failure occurred. I think however that I
further confused my phone system by following the modem instructions and
plugging it into the wall and my phones into the modem. This didnæt seem
to be very successful. So I bought a É1 into 2æ socket from B&Q to keep
the phones separate from the modem. This seems to be fine. A modern
modem should have a REN of 1 and only cause problems if you have loads
of phones.
9.3
Software Ö This seems to work fine Ö though is less stable than I am
used to as a user of commercial software. The rules are:
9.3
1.  Read the online help files. There are so many different
applications, it takes a while to see the significance of each. There
are also other non-runnable applications that add to the confusion.
9.3
You will also need to spend time checking that the configurations are
what you want. Some of this configuration was done by the Configure
application sent with the suite Ö but not all. It took me a while to get
email right and I am indebted to David Pilling who has taught me how to
do a lot of things, in between providing support for getting ArcFax to
work efficiently with my modem.
9.3
2.  Persist. Often, I find I have to quit an application and start it
again. I donæt understand this but it works.
9.3
My only beef about the software is that it doesnæt let me do all the
things that I can do through Windows at the University. This problem may
however be solved when I download some of the alternative offerings and
upgrades.
9.3
The best thing about the software is that it has let me keep in cheap
and fast contact with my partner while sheæs been in the States for two
months. This has made all the pain worthwhile.
9.3
I hope Iæve made it clear that Iæm no expert. However, if there are
Archive readers, with email, whoæd like to correspond on any of these
matters, you can reach me on [e-mail].uá
9.3
Because Internet is Étaking offæ, we are selling a lot more comms
equipment and have again managed to reduce the pricing on modems. We do
a 14,400 modem for ú155 and a 28,800 for ú230. Remember that these
prices include VAT and carriage. Ed.
9.3
Puzzle Corner
9.3
Colin Singleton
9.3
In last monthæs Programming Workshop, I promised a demonstration of
rolling averages and exponential smoothing in action. I have used the
latter to build a league table of successful Puzzle Corner entrants,
borrowing an idea from an American puzzle magazine to which I used to
subscribe back in the æsixties. You can see the leader board in this
monthæs Programming Workshop on page 28.
9.3
Now Ö the latest winners ...
9.3
(34) Euleræs Magic
9.3
Sad news Ö nobody entered! This puzzle was more in the style of the old
Competition Corner number-crunchers. Clearly the mood has changed and I
need to offer less time-consuming exercises.
9.3
(35Ö36) Multiple Factors Ö Monkey Puzzle Ö Multiplication
9.3
No all-correct entry here either, because the Monkey Puzzle defeated
all-comers. Andrew Berry came closest Ö he identified equal and opposite
forces as being the key (Newtonæs Third Law), but then derived the wrong
conclusion! Because the forces are equal and opposite, the movements of
the monkey and the weight must be symmetrical. Andrew, nevertheless,
wins the prize.
9.3
... and last monthæs solutions ...
9.3
(38) Where on Earth?
9.3
Mathematically, the four locations are at the vertices of a tetrahedron
for which the surface of the Earth is the circumsphere. You can deduce
by trigonometry that each pair of locations must subtend an angle
2╖SinÖ1┌(2î3) £ 109.47░ at the centre of the Earth, each being 7558
miles from each of the others Éas the crow fliesæ (ignore the fact that
crows do not fly long distances over oceans). My first thought was to
place one at the South Pole and the other three equally spaced around
latitude 19.47░N. I managed to placed them all on land, but only one of
the four corresponded to a town (in Haiti). Two others are close to
American bases, the fourth is in a desert.
9.3
I therefore wrote a small program (on the monthly program disc) which
allows me to experiment by entering the Latitude and Longitude of one
point, plus a third entry which is the angle through which the imaginary
tetrahedron is rotated about the perpendicular determined by the given
point. The program calculates the Lat. and Long. of each of the other
three points, which can be checked in an atlas for nearby towns. The
program will also calculate the six distances between four given
locations. Its use calls for extensive trial and error.
9.3
My attempts to find suitable towns of reasonable size have revealed
Whitehorse (Yukon, Canada, 60░41ÉN, 135░8æW), Tamworth (NSW, Australia,
31░7ÉS, 150░57æE), Berbera (Somalia, 10░28ÉN, 45░2æE), and San Fransisco
(Cordoba, Argentina, 31░29ÉS, 62░6æW). The six distances (in miles) are
7563, 7559, 7516, 7595, 7523 and 7595, with a mean and standard
deviation of 7558á▒á31. The latter can no doubt be reduced by choosing
small villages near the Australian and Argentinian towns.
9.3
I had a friend some years ago who spent six months of each year here in
Sheffield, and six months in Tamworth, NSW, but that didnæt help me
solve the puzzle. Can anyone improve on my figures?
9.3
(39) House Number
9.3
A simple program will find the only three-digit solution Ö Fred lives at
N║ 204 in a road of 288 houses. Without the three-digit restriction, you
might have found N║ 6 of 8, N║ 35 of 49, N║ 1189 of 1681 ...
9.3
(40) Birthdays
9.3
This is a popular puzzle with a surprising answer Ö 23 people will
suffice. The chance that they all have different birthdays is
364î365╫363î365╫362î365╫...╫343î365ᣫá0.4927. There is therefore a
slightly better than even chance that at least one pair shares the same
birthday.
9.3
(41) Back-Tracking
9.3
Not a very clever clue, but if you write each of the numbers backwards
you find 16, 25, 36, 49, 64 Ö the two-digit squares. The next number in
the sequence is therefore 18.
9.3
... this monthæs prize puzzle ...
9.3
(42) !Draw a Rectangle
9.3
Another puzzle inspired by one in New Scientist Ö and I know that at
least one Archive puzzlist occasionally tackles the weekly Enigma in
that publication.
9.3
Using !Draw, I drew a rectangle with sides parallel to the grid lines. I
then copied it, and rotated and magnified the copy, with a magnify
factor less than one. I was then able to place the copy so that three of
its corners lay on sides of the original rectangle, and one diagonal of
the copy was parallel to the short side of the original, as shown in the
diagram.
9.3
I should have told you that the original rectangle contained a small dot
(exaggerated in the diagram) 2cm right and 1cm up from the bottom left
corner. This was grouped with the rectangle, and carried with it through
the copying and transformation process. You cannot see the copy of the
dot, because it is in the same place as the original.
9.3
What are the dimensions of the original rectangle? [Do not assume that
this diagram is accurate.]
9.3
... and this monthæs prize quickies ...
9.3
(39) Cubes
9.3
How many numbers are equal to the sum of the cubes of their digits?
[e.g. 153á=á1│á+á5│á+á3│á]
9.3
(40) Plus or Minus
9.3
1á+á2á+á34áÖá5á+á67áÖá8á+á9á=á100. Keeping the digits 1áÖá9 in order,
insert the smallest possible number of plus or minus signs to produce
100. Then repeat using the sequence 9á8á7á6á5á4á3á2á1.
9.3
(41) Triple Duel
9.3
Remember the duelists Smith and Jones back in issue 8.9? This time there
are three Ö Tom, Dick and Harry. Tom is a crack shot, 100% certain to
hit his target. Dick has a 75% chance and Harry only 60%. They agree to
fight a Éduelæ, each firing one shot at a time in rotation, Harry first,
then Dick, then Tom, until two are dead. Each may aim where he pleases.
Where should Harry aim his first shot, and who has the best chance of
surviving?
9.3
Comments and solutions
9.3
Better luck this time! What are your likes and dislikes? Please send
comments, contributions and solutions to me at 41 St Quentin Drive,
Sheffield, S17 4PN. Solutions by Friday 8th December, please.áuá
9.3
Programming Workshop
9.3
Colin Singleton
9.3
Last month, I promised a practical demonstration of Exponential
Smoothing Ö and here it is!
9.3
Puzzle entries
9.3
With issue 9.1, the Puzzle Corner column completed its first year, and
all the entries are now in, so I can analyse the successes and failures
of the 35 readers who have submitted at least one correct, or partially
correct entry. I have awarded marks out of 100 to each entry Ö to score
100, you need to answer the monthæs main puzzle and the quickies
correctly, so readers who only attempt the quickies can only score 50.
The average score per entry has been 59, but competitorsæ average scores
are pulled down by the zeros in the months when they didnæt enter.
9.3
I propose to calculate 12¡month rolling averages for each entrant Ö as
explained last month, this is simply the average of the entrantæs last
twelve monthly scores. If a reader decides never to enter again, his
rolling average will become zero after twelve months absence, and he
will disappear from the list.
9.3
I am also calculating each entrantæs exponentially smoothed average.
This is calculated each month by adding 15% of this monthæs score to 85%
of last monthæs smoothed average. In this case, if an entrant disappears
his smoothed average will reduce each month, but will never become zero.
In a real-life commercial situation, we would need to keep a note of the
date last traded, so that we can delete a Élostæ customer (or send him
some advertising!) after a certain number of months.
9.3
League tables
9.3
The league table (top ten names only) is shown below. Because only one
of the top ten sent an entry for issue 9.1, I have also shown the league
table for the previous month, which is rather more interesting.
9.3
The league table is sequenced on the latest (C/F) exponentially smoothed
average. You can see from the second table that, even though the C/F
figure comprises 85% of the B/F and only 15% of the current, very
substantial changes in scores are possible in a single month, with
corresponding changes in sequence. Note also that, because each new
entrant starts with a B/F of zero, his/her smoothed average can never
reach 100. The theoretical maximum (for a contestant who scores 100
every month) rises each month Ö after twelve months it is 85.78.
9.3
In a commercial trading analysis, this problem is different, because
there is no absolute maximum, but a smoothed average does show
misleadingly low figures for new customers. A popular solution to this
problem involves calculating a simple monthly average for the first
twelve months of a customeræs Élifeæ, then using that figure as the
first B/F for a smoothed average. It is not necessary to hold all the
individual monthly figures on file, as it is if we wish to calculate a
rolling average.
9.3
The heading 11¡Month Average in the second table is not a misprint.
Puzzle Corner was only eleven months old, so I could not start a
12¡month rolling average. The figure is a simple average of the eleven
months. Note that two contestants with similar simple (or rolling)
averages can have very different smoothed averages. One whose best
scores were in recent months will have a higher smoothed average than
one whose best scores were in early months. In a trading analysis, this
usually reflects what the user wishes to know, but it is important to
appreciate the significance of the figures.
9.3
Watch this space
9.3
You know what a pork chop is, and you may have heard of the Barnsley
Chop, but next month I will be returning to sorting, and introducing the
Binary Chop. Donæt miss it!
9.3
I am always on the lookout for new ideas. Please send any comments or
suggestions for this column to me at 41 St Quentin Drive, Sheffield, S17
4PN.áuá
9.3
Acorn C/C++ and Beebug Easy C++
9.3
Steve Poulard
9.3
This is the continuation of last monthæs review article comparing these
two C++ implementations.
9.3
Acorn C/C++
9.3
Acornæs product comes in a box featuring pyramids, bricks and beetles
and weighing nearly 4kg. Inside are four manuals totalling nearly 1400
pages and six discs in a plastic wallet. Disc 1 contains an installation
program which calls for the other five discs in turn, decompressing them
and giving a visual indication of progress. This should be familiar to
anyone who has installed Style or Impression. Installation takes a few
minutes and uses just over 3Mb of disc space. As well as the ÉAcornC++æ
directory created, files are added to System and the current Library ù
so may interfere with your existing setup. The installed directory
structure was not the same as the one in the manual.
9.3
Rather than just one or two applications, Acorn supply a Édevelopment
environmentæ, which consists of 19 interactive and non-interactive tools
designed to be used together on the development of a project. The
interactive tools are a C compiler, a C++ compiler, a debugger, a
project manager, a resource editor, a resource tester and a source file
editor. As well as a make utility, a linker and an assembler, there are
non-interactive tools for generating module headers, decoding AOF files,
comparing files, searching files, maintaining libraries, sizing object
files, squeezing files and converting C source code to ANSI and PCC
standard. It should be obvious from the preceding lists that Acorn
intend this product to be used for serious development work.
9.3
Of the libraries provided, CLib and C++Lib provide standard functions,
while tboxlibs provides a wide range of functions for Wimp applications.
A small number of examples are provided to demonstrate use of the
Toolbox functions as well as the various tools. Only two trivial
examples use C++ code.
9.3
Program development
9.3
The two compilers have very similar interfaces. Clicking <select> on the
application icon displays a dialogue box containing the following: two
writable fields for displaying the lists of source and include files, a
few option and radio buttons (ÉCompile onlyæ, ÉDebugæ and ÉThrowbackæ
for C++, ÉPreprocess onlyæ as well for C), ÉCancelæ and ÉRunæ action
buttons. There are a large number of options which are all set directly
from the main menu ù no additional dialogue boxes are used. (This is not
entirely true ù there is a single dialogue box which contains a 40
character writable field and a button labelled ÉRunæ.) The C compiler
has a number of menu items not available to C++, including ÉDebug
optionsæ, ÉProfileæ, ÉSuppress errorsæ and ÉErrors to fileæ. I assume
that most of the omissions are due to C++ not being a true compiler,
although I canæt think of any reason why C++ errors canæt be redirected
to a file. Due to the design of the interface, setting the options is an
extremely frustrating task; for example, there is just a 12 character
writable field for viewing and editing the list of libraries to be
included.
9.3
As has been reported in the Acorn press, the C++ tool is not a compiler
at all, but a front end that converts C++ to C source code before
compiling it in a special mode. Although this approach has come in for a
certain amount of criticism, it did not cause me any problems in
practice.
9.3
The source code editor is based on Edit, and at least has the advantage
that it should be familiar to most users. However, there are remarkably
few additional features, and it is not really up to the job of editing C
or C++ code ù Iæm not sure why Acorn bothered to include it. Zap is a
much better tool, although youæll have to spend a bit longer getting
used to it.
9.3
Confusingly, the project manager is called !Make and calls the make
utility (called !AMU) in order to carry out its job. Anyway, as the
manual states, ÉThe Make application aids the programmer in the
construction and maintenance of multiple-file programsæ. In other words,
this tool is used for creating, maintaining and executing makefiles,
which have their own filetype.
9.3
A new project (makefile) is created by specifying the project name, the
principle target name (e.g. !RunImage) and the tool used to produce the
target. Once a project has been created, source files and object files
(normally libraries) are included by dragging them to the project
window. Unfortunately, there is only a 30 character writable field for
viewing and editing these filenames (which are displayed using the full
pathname). It is possible to view the filenames in a window, but not to
make any selections, additions or deletions. There is really no excuse
for this sort of interface ù I can only assume that the writers couldnæt
be bothered to implement a scrolling list.
9.3
There is a corresponding writable field for removing files, and a line
displaying the name of the target, which is important because
intermediate targets can also be added to and removed from a project.
9.3
In order to define a project, Make needs to be able to set options for
all the tools that might be used, i.e. the C and C++ compilers, the
linker, assembler, module header generator, library maintainer and file
squeezer. From Make, selecting one of these items from a menu displays
the interface for the corresponding tool without loading the tool
itself. However, some of the items are greyed out where they would
conflict with Makeæs own settings.
9.3
It is possible to use makefiles not produced by Make, which should be
given a ÉTextæ filetype. These makefiles are run as soon as they are
dragged to the iconbar, regardless of the ÉAuto Runæ setting, which
means that there is no opportunity to change any of the options.
Frustratingly, two of the more complex examples use makefiles not
produced by Make, so in order to try different options or run these
applications under the debugger, the makefile needs to be edited by
hand.
9.3
In use, Make appeared to contain quite a few bugs. It crashed several
times when I removed a target after removing a file from a project, and
once when making a C++ application after making one of the C examples.
Also, it occasionally gave an address exception when accessing other
tools using the ÉTool optionsæ menu.
9.3
Resources
9.3
For me, the most interesting pair of tools are also the ones with the
furthest-reaching implications Ö the resource editor and resource
tester, ResEd and ResTest, which replace and go somewhat further than
FormEd, as the means for designing and testing Wimp interfaces.
9.3
Once loaded, clicking <select> on the ResEdæs icon merely opens an empty
window. But clicking <adjust> opens a window called ÉObject Prototypesæ,
containing fifteen items which are the base components (or Éobject
templatesæ) from which an interface can be constructed. Apart from the
ÉWindowæ, ÉMenuæ and ÉToolbaræ objects, these include more specific
components such as ÉIconbaræ ÉColourMenuæ, ÉQuitæ, ÉSaveAsæ, and
ÉPrintDBoxæ (aáprint dialogue box). To create an interface, objects are
dragged from the prototypes window to an empty resource window. This
resource window behaves similarly to a filer window ù objects can be
selected, copied, renamed and deleted. The contents of a resource window
are saved as a single ÉResourceæ file.
9.3
When opened, only the ÉWindowæ, ÉMenuæ and ÉToolbaræ objects resemble
the finished articles. Double-clicking <select> on any of the other
twelve objects, displays a dialogue box which is used to define the
various attributes of that component. For example, the ÉIconbaræ dialog
box specifies the iconæs position on the iconbar, the name of the sprite
to display, help text, and the actions of the three mouse buttons (as
well as a few other items). For the menu button, this action is just the
name of a menu, but the <select> and <adjust> buttons can have both the
name of an event to deliver and the name of an object to display.
9.3
The object names and menu names specified in an objectæs dialog box
refer to other objects in the resource file. Thus, as well as
constructing the individual components, the resource editor defines the
connection between the components and the overall behaviour of the
interface. Dragging a resource file to the resource tester, allows the
interface to be tried out as though it were a working application. In
addition, objects can be displayed by name, which is essential for
applications that would otherwise require some functioning code (such as
one that only responded to a file being dropped on its icon).
9.3
A dialogue box is constructed from a ÉWindowæ object and a number of
Égadgetsæ. These gadgets are positioned within the window by dragging
them from a separate gadget window. The gadgets supplied include labels,
sliders, adjuster arrows, number ranges, writable icons and option,
radio and menu buttons.
9.3
Another important function of the resource editor is to specify the
events that are sent in response to user actions. For instance, an
individual event can be defined that is sent when the user clicks on
ÉQuitæ on an applicationæs iconbar menu. As well as user-defined events,
there a wide range of predefined events. For example, there is an event
that signals the change in value of a number range gadget. These are not
ordinary Wimp events, but higher-level ÉToolboxæ events.
9.3
The Toolbox provides an extra layer of abstraction between an
application and the Wimp. Without going into too much detail, instead of
primitive Window Manager events (e.g. ÉMouse_Clickæ) and SWIs
(e.g.áÉWimp_SetIconStateæ), a Toolbox application receives Toolbox
events (e.g. ÉColourMenu_ Selectionæ) and sends Toolbox methods
(e.g.áÉColourMenu_SetTitleæ). The Toolbox is not anáapplication as such,
but a generic term used to describe an application which uses an
interface designed by ResEd and the associated events and methods. The
tboxlibs library defines the C structures and function veneers for these
events and methods.
9.3
The provision of the Toolbox (the interface objects, events and methods)
together with a decent resource editor, is intended to make application
development a quicker and simpler task. Acorn also hope that it
encourages more consistency in interface design.
9.3
Debugging
9.3
In order to work with the debugger, programs must be made with the debug
option selected, in which case the target file is given a special
filetype. (In keeping with the box design, the file icon resembles a
normal ÉAPPæ icon with a small insect on it). These files can be
<select> double-clicked or dragged to the debug icon to start a debug
session. However, unlike Easy C++, the debugger can also cope with
!application directories which contain a !RunImage file of this type.
9.3
On initiating a debug session, two windows are opened, one displaying
the source code or a symbolic disassembly (depending on the context),
and the other displaying status and all other debugging information. An
important feature of the debugger is that, although it appears to work
within the desktop, it does not really multitask. The manual states that
this is essential if multitasking applications are to be debugged
properly. Given the extent to which Easy C++ fails to cope with Wimp
applications, I would tend to agree. Not surprisingly, a major
consequence of this single-tasking is that other applications donæt work
while the debugger is active.
9.3
To remind the user of the abnormal state of the desktop, the debug
windows are given non-standard colours ù although the colour scheme
could have been better chosen. In addition, the mouse cursor is supposed
to change to a no-entry sign when outside the debugger windows. This did
not happen on my machine! There was also a discrepancy between the on-
screen position of the mouse and the position where mouse events were
registering, which was understandably irritating. I suspect that both
these faults were caused by the ColourCard I am using.
9.3
The debugger provides all the normal options to set breakpoints and
watchpoints, display variables and expressions, change memory and
variable values, and so on. A number of additional features are
provided, particularly suited to debugging Wimp applications.
Breakpoints can be set on named SWIs and 16ádifferent Wimp events (e.g.
ÉMouse Clickæ, ÉMenu Selectionæ and ÉRedraw Windowæ). SWIs and Wimp
events can also be traced, in which case messages are displayed without
halting program execution ù although this does slow it down a lot.
Strangely, there doesnæt appear to be any support for Toolbox methods
and events. I assume Acorn will be rectifying this in future releases.
9.3
While working largely as expected for C code, Iáexperienced several
problems using the debugger with C++ code. A serious problem was its
inability to properly recognise variable names, prefixing them with a
É__1æ. In other words, to refer to a variable Éfredæ in the source code,
I had to use É__fredæ in the debugger. There is an option on the options
dialogue box called ÉC++ namesæ, but this is not referred to in the
manual and, in any case, had no effect. I searched in vain for some
reference to this problem in the documentation, but was left feeling as
though I had overlooked something obvious.
9.3
While debugging even simple C++ code, the debugger hung occasionally and
crashed several times, repeatedly under one set of circumstances ù
probably from an address exception. On these occasions, the register
contents were displayed, together with a message stating that the error
should be reported to Acorn. Iæm afraid I didnæt have time to report all
the address exceptions that I experienced.
9.3
Although it provides a large number of features, the design of the
interface ù particularly the restriction to a single window for
displaying all debugging information ù makes the debugger unfriendly and
time-consuming to use.
9.3
Documentation
9.3
As stated earlier, the documentation consists of four manuals. The
information they contain is quite comprehensive, although not very easy
to locate. Aáseparate index (along the lines of the Programmers
Reference Manual) would have been useful. The documentation is not
designed for beginners, and assumes a certain amount of familiarity with
the subjects covered.
9.3
The installation procedure is described in the Desktop Tools manual.
This also describes the use of tools not covered by other manuals, and
includes a short chapter on adding tools to the development environment.
9.3
The C and C++ tools are described in another manual. Although the
details of the libraries, language implementation and errors and
warnings are covered separately for C and C++, the tools themselves are
covered together in a single chapter. Even though there is a certain
amount of common ground, I did not find this helpful. The assembler tool
gets a manual to itself.
9.3
At over 500 pages, the User Interface Toolbox manual is the largest of
the four. It starts with a short introduction to the concepts behind the
Toolbox, for which a knowledge of Wimp programming and object-oriented
terminology would be useful. This is followed by a short chapter on
building an application, using one of the examples supplied on disc.
Most of the rest of the manual describes the interface objects, and the
associated methods and events. The resource editor and tester are
covered towards the end.
9.3
One interesting aspect of the documentation is the terminology.
Particularly in the case of the Toolbox, Acorn have made a serious
attempt to increase consistency and reduce ambiguity. Although I think
some of the terms chosen are a bit clumsy, this does make talking and
writing about such matters clearer (Iáhope).
9.3
Conclusions
9.3
These two products appear to be aimed at different markets. Easy C++
should appeal to people new to C++, and who do not intend to produce
complex multitasking applications. Acorn C/C++ is aimed at programmers
and developers with more experience, particularly those who want to
produce Wimp applications.
9.3
On the whole, I was more impressed by Easy C++, despite its comparative
lack of features. The application interfaces are better designed and
simpler to use, and the C++ capabilities appear to have been more
thoroughly tested. However, if Beebug paid for the Vista library to be
completed, produced a Wimp-friendly version of their debugger and
updated the documentation, I would find this an even more appealing
product.
9.3
As things stand, Acornæs product is the only viable alternative for the
development of Wimp applications. Nonetheless, there is a rather serious
implication in the way the Toolbox libraries have been implemented. By
using C, Acorn have made this functionality more immediately available
to the vast majority of developers, but the underlying nature of Toolbox
interfaces (and graphical interfaces in general) is object-oriented.
Indeed, the manual explains the use of the Toolbox in terms of
Éclassesæ, Éobjectsæ and Émethodsæ ù words normally used to describe
object-oriented programming.
9.3
There is little doubt in my mind that an object-oriented approach is
more naturally suited to the implementation of Wimp applications; but
this is actively discouraged when the interface library routines do not
support object-oriented features. By using C for the Toolbox library,
and unless they bring out a C++ equivalent, Acorn are ensuring that all
serious development work will continue to be done in C. There is
absolutely no incentive for programmers to abandon the style they have
learnt and acquire new skills when they are unable to use them
consistently. Indeed, I talked to one major Acorn developer who said
they had no intention of using C++ in place of C. It is characteristic
of the Acorn market that the development of code that could change this
state of affairs has been left to one person.
9.3
Acorn C/C++ costs ú230 through Archive and Beebugæs Easy C++ is ú110
through Archive.áuá
9.3
C++ Column
9.3
Tony Houghton
9.3
This monthæs article is a direct continuation from last month and does
not stand alone. Please read last monthæs article first.
9.3
Assignment operators
9.3
Assignment operators are those such as += and *=. It is natural to think
of implementing, say += in terms of + and =, but it can be more
efficient to do the reverse, i.e. use += to implement +. Complex objects
are small, so little would be gained, but consider a class with many
data members, such as a large matrix. A suitable += operator function
would be something like:
9.3
Matrix &Matrix::operator+=(Matrix &m)
9.3
{each element of m to each
9.3
  // element of self (*this)
9.3
  return *this;
9.3
}
9.3
This saves creating a temporary object.  For + we cannot avoid creating
a temporary object, but to save repeating code, we can call += :
9.3
Matrix Matrix::operator+(Matrix &m)
9.3
// Must return object, not reference
9.3
// because temp will be destroyed
9.3
// after return
9.3
{= *this;
9.3
  temp += m;
9.3
  return temp;
9.3
}
9.3
Subscripting
9.3
The subscript operator is operator[]. This can be overloaded with a
subscripting operand (the expression inside the square brackets) of any
type. Aácommon use is for an associative array. Consider an example
which contains a set of strings, each string having an associated
number, being used to convert textual user input into something which
the program can make more sense of:
9.3
class Command {/*...*/ };
9.3
// representing various actions the
9.3
// program can perform
9.3
class CommandSet {of strings & Commands etc
9.3
public:
9.3
  Command operator[](char *str);
9.3
  // Find a Command to match str
9.3
};
9.3
extern CommandSet command_set;
9.3
void process_input()
9.3
{input[256] ;
9.3
  cin >> input;
9.3
  Command com = command_set[input];
9.3
  // Do something based on com
9.3
}
9.3
Function call
9.3
To enable overloading of function call, a calling expression of the form
function(expression list) is interpreted as
function.operator()(expression list), where function is the name of an
object.
9.3
In the above example, we would most likely want the Command returned by
command_set to perform an action depending on its internal information,
and on a parameter supplied by the caller. To simplify the call
notation, we could supply Command with a () operator:
9.3
void Command::operator()(char *carg)
9.3
{some action depending on
9.3
  // objectæs internal information
9.3
  // with carg as a parameter
9.3
}
9.3
and process_input() would become:
9.3
void process_input()
9.3
{input[256] ;
9.3
  cin >> input;
9.3
  Command com = command_set[input];
9.3
  cin >> input;
9.3
  com(input);
9.3
}
9.3
This is a good example of when to overload function call; one particular
method of the class dominates all others.
9.3
Dereferencing
9.3
Dereferencing is the name for Ö> statements; Ö> can be overloaded as a
unary operator; this is useful for a container class, where you could
use Ö> to access members of the contained object.
9.3
The dereferencing operator is redefined as a function returning a
pointer to some other class or structure. When the compiler encounters a
Ö> call for the container class, it applies Ö> (as known to C
programmers) to the object pointed to by the return value of
operatorÖ>().
9.3
struct X {{ Style öMain Headingò Off}  int a;
9.3
  float b;
9.3
};
9.3
class PtrToX {*x ;
9.3
public:
9.3
  // ...
9.3
  X *operatorÖ>()  {x ; }
9.3
};
9.3
extern PtrToX px;
9.3
int main()
9.3
{= pxÖ>a;
9.3
    // Equivalent to i = (px.x)Ö>a;
9.3
    // except the latter would not
9.3
    // be allowed due to a being a
9.3
    // private member
9.3
}
9.3
A quick recall of the rules for overloading clarifies the point that
there can only be one operatorÖ> for each class, because only the return
type could change.
9.3
Increment and decrement
9.3
The only difference between the operators ++ and ÖÖ and other unary
operators is that they can be postfix operators (e.g. a++) as well as
the more usual prefix (e.g. ++a). Since there can be no assumption that
++ and ÖÖ will always have similar meanings as when applied to an int,
it is necessary to define the prefix and postfix versions separately.
The prefix version is no problem Ö this is the same as for any other
unary operator. To define and declare a postfix version, you add a dummy
int argument which is never actually used. For stand-alone functions,
the int is placed as the second argument, while for member functions, it
is placed as the only argument. For example:
9.3
X *PtrToX::operator++()    // Prefix
9.3
{+ +x; }
9.3
X *PtrToX::operator++(int) // Postfix
9.3
{x++ ; }
9.3
A common application for the increment and decrement operators is in
conjunction with dereferencing and subscripting to implement a Ésmart
pointeræ. At its simplest, a smart pointer is essentially a pointer
contained within a class so that checking can be applied to ensure it
always points to a proper object etc. Overloading allows the creation of
an interface to make the class appear as a pointer.
9.3
Free store
9.3
It is possible to define new versions of new and delete as member
operator functions, but they are both special cases.
9.3
operator new() and operator delete() must be static members (they need
not be declared with the keyword static, as this is implicit).
Concentrating on operator new() for now, it takes an argument of type
size_t (an integral type guaranteed to be large enough to hold any size
the machine can cope with, defined in <stddef.h>) and returns void *, a
value pointing to the memory allocated. The size_t argument is
automatically given a value equal to the size of the object to be
created when called (multiplied by the number of elements if allocating
an array). The object pointed to by the return value cannot be allowed
to move because the new operator will not know where the resultant
pointer is to be stored; therefore you could not use new directly as an
interface to a shifting heap such as flex or Mem.
9.3
Reasons for taking over free store allocation include improving
efficiency (although you are unlikely to improve significantly on the
default) and placement, i.e. ensuring objects are created in a specific
area of memory. If you wanted to ensure all objects of a certain class
were placed in an area controlled by OS_Heap you could give the class a
base class OnHeap :
9.3
// Allow misc OS_Heap operations
9.3
// on a heap
9.3
// Error handling etc assumed
9.3
class Heap {public: 9.3
  // ...
9.3
  // Constructor must initialise
9.3
  // ...
9.3
  void *alloc(int reason, int size);
9.3
  // Returns block allocated
9.3
  void free(void *block);
9.3
};
9.3
class OnHeap {heap ;
9.3
public:
9.3
  void *operator new(size_t s)
9.3
  {heap.alloc(s) ;
9.3
  }
9.3
  void operator delete(void *block)
9.3
    // See below
9.3
  {heap.free(block) ;
9.3
  }
9.3
};
9.3
Operator delete cannot be overloaded as such, but redefined in one of
two ways, either with or without a size_t argument. In either case, the
first or only argument is a void * pointing to the block of memory to be
freed; the size_t argument follows this, if present, and will be given
the size of the block of memory to be freed.
9.3
The OnHeap example shows an implementation of delete without size_t.
Remember that if you supply a delete operator using size_t, you must
ensure any base classes using it have a virtual destructor to ensure the
correct size is always passed for derived classes (see Archive 9.1).
9.3
Placement
9.3
The concept of placement can be taken a step further by overloading the
global new operator. It can take a further argument after the size_t,
called the placement argument, to allow the operatoránew function to
decide where to place the object. For instance, to allow objects of any
type to be placed on Heaps :
9.3
void *operator new(size_t s,
9.3
                   Heap *heap)
9.3
{= (Heap *)
9.3
    heap.alloc(s + sizeof(Heap));
9.3
  *result = heap;
9.3
  return result + 1;
9.3
}
9.3
This has the overhead that the block allocated must be created with
enough room to also store the placement for use by delete, and the
pointers manipulated to allow for this. The fact that every object
created could theoretically be on a different heap makes it necessary to
store the placement alongside each object in this way.
9.3
Placement parameters (as opposed to arguments, see the introduction to
this article) are given as parameters to new, but the type being created
follows these outside the parentheses; the type name then takes any
arguments for a constructor in plain parentheses, or the number of
elements in square brackets for an array. (Remember you cannot have
arrays of objects whose constructors require parameters.) The type name
is used to create the size_t argument. For example, if you wanted to
create an Array on a heap called heap :
9.3
  Array *a = new(heap) Array(10);
9.3
would result in a call of:
9.3
  a = (Array *)
9.3
   operator new(sizeof(Array), heap);
9.3
Objects that have been placed in this way cannot be destroyed by the
standard operator delete. Instead, you would have to first call the
objectæs destructor explicitly then call a function to free the memory.
9.3
The global operator delete cannot be overloaded, but it does seem to be
possible to replace it. If you were absolutely certain that you would
only use your customised operator new you could provide:
9.3
void operator delete(void *block)
9.3
{= ((Heap *) block) Ö 1;
9.3
  heap.free(heap);
9.3
}
9.3
You are strongly advised not to overload global operatoránew. Where it
seems advantageous, you should try to find an alternative first.
9.3
Pocket Book Column
9.3
Audrey Laski
9.3
The OPL Column
9.3
The Pocket Book column gives a warm welcome to the OPL column by Govind
Kharbanda, of Edinburgh, first published in last monthæs Archive.
Regular readers will probably have noticed that Iæm not really a Pocket
Book programmer, but Iæm well aware that this is one of its most
important uses Ö Iæm always shocked to see shops advertising the Psion
as if it were only a rather superior organiser, rather than a fully-
fledged computer Ö and it is excellent that novice users will have
encouragement and advice from such a keen and clear-headed enthusiast.
9.3
PocketFS blues
9.3
James Ducat, of Bath, has been experiencing difficulties linking his
Pocket Book to an A310 using PocketFS (v1.03): örecently, every time I
try to load the Remote Link software via the desktop menu on the Pocket
Book, it bleeps and comes up with the message: Remote link is not
plugged in.ò NCS tested his A-Link and found the lead working
satisfactorily. Heæs tried the hard reset option and changing all the
batteries without consistent effect, öalthough, frustratingly, I have
been successful, once or twice.ò He has tried to ring Psion, but the
phone appears to be permanently engaged. He asks if anyone else has
experienced the same problem, and if they have any ways of overcoming
it. I have occasionally experienced the Pocket Book icon coming up on
the iconbar maddeningly draped in red to indicate that the connection
has not been made with a switched-on remote link, but have found that
re-plugging the A¡Link lead into the Pocket Book normally deals with
this; Jamesæ problem is clearly more intractable. Aávisit to Streatham
might help (see below).
9.3
Good service
9.3
London, or London-visiting, PocketBook/Psion users now have access to an
excellent repair service not far from Streatham Hill station. I first
heard of the Pinnock Organiser Service (0181-677-9246) from Mike Lane,
of Stockbridge, Hants., who had been much impressed by the way Paul
Pinnock dealt with a Psion 3a which was giving the low battery warning
before this was valid, and switching itself off unexpectedly. öIt turned
out that both faults had a single cause Ö the internal battery cable had
broken and was intermittently cutting off the power.ò Paul Pinnock
located the fault and repaired it öin about 10 minutes Ö marvellous!ò I
had been getting exactly the same symptoms from my Pocket Book recently,
so I took it along and had the identical experience: rapid diagnosis,
swift repair and cleaning, and agreeable conversation while the job was
being done. Highly recommended.
9.3
A query
9.3
Sudipta Sarkar, of Chester, is puzzled by the fact that there is no
follow-up to the Info Option ÉSet Owneræ, noting that the other options
provide extended activities. Iæve always assumed that the only real
purpose of this option was to provide a way of identifying the owner if
the Pocket Book was lost and found, corresponding to the first page of a
paper diary. If Iæm right, then once the information has been inputted,
there really is nothing else useful to be done with it. Has anyone else
found additional uses?
9.3
A palmtop from Santa
9.3
Stan Hasleton, of Abbots Langley, is planning to give his grandchildren,
a boy aged ten and a girl aged eight, a palmtop computer each for
Christmas. He wrote to ask about the comparative advantages of the
Pocket Book II and the Psion 3a, and about their compatibility with each
other and with desktops. I was able to assure him, drawing on my own
experience, and other peopleæs as recorded in the column, that the A-
Link seems to be fully compatible with Acorns and IBM PCs, and that
programs written for the Psion usually run happily on the Pocket Book. I
mischievously suggested that if he could not decide between the two, he
might try giving one grandchild the Pocket Book and one the Psion, so
that he could test satisfaction levels at the end of a year, but I
wasnæt serious, and trust he wonæt do it. Iæm hoping for future reports
on the experiences the children have with their new tools.
9.3
Screenshot problem solved
9.3
The invaluable John Woodthorpe of Rugby writes to respond to Peter
Youngæs problem about getting at Psion graphics. He recommends !Psion, a
PD Acorn application by Steve Godfrey which öwill convert screenshots
into sprites. It will also strip the pictures out of any Psion or Pocket
Book program and save them as sprites.ò (!Psion is on the monthly disc.
Ed.) He also points out that the latest version of !ChangeFSI (1.13S)
önow works properly with *.PIC files (if anything processing the greys
slightly better than !Psion), but wonæt deal with the pictures embedded
in applications.ò (If you want to upgrade to 1.13S, send a formatted
disc and a stamped, addressed paddibag to NCS Ö or send ú2 and ask for a
copy. Ed.)
9.3
Itæs very good when a question proposed in one monthæs Archive gets
answered so comprehensively in the next. Now, does anyone know of a
program which will work the other way round, i.e. turn a sprite into a
*.PIC file?
9.3
Endnote
9.3
Iæve now used up my backlog of letters, so Iæm relying on everyone out
there for material for 1996.áuá
9.3
Impression vs. Quark XPress
9.3
Keith Parker
9.3
I have recently been doing a lot of work comparing DTP packages on
different platforms and I want to share my findings with you over a
number of articles. Because packages are so very different in the sorts
of facilities they provide, it can end up as an exercise in trying to
compare chalk with cheese, so my aim will be to discover what we can
find in each package for the professional user. Iáwill not be detailing
the differences that result from the operating systems of the different
platforms on which they operate.
9.3
The competitors
9.3
On the Acorn side, the current baseline is Computer Conceptsæ excellent
product, Impression Publisher Plus. There may well be another product
from Beebug which we can look at in the future and it may well beat CC,
but my information is that, although it was being demonstrated at Acorn
World, it will be January æ96 before we can actually buy OvationPro.
9.3
So, in this first article, I shall be matching Impression Publisher Plus
v5.05 on a RiscáPC 600 (RISC OS 3.5) with Quark XPress running on a
PowerMac with System 7.5.
9.3
The starting point
9.3
Before we start comparing any software packages, there is one important
point that must be discussed first. öIn looking at these two particular
packages, are we comparing like with like?ò Although I use, and enjoy,
many CC products, I would class Impression Publisher (and Plus) as a
very powerful wordprocessor with excellent graphical capabilities and
very advanced printing abilities rather than calling it a DTP program.
CC themselves originally called it a ödocument processorò although their
adverts now say itæs a DTP package.
9.3
There are many areas where it can compete with XPress (or indeed, beat
XPress) but overall it is some way behind. I say that very reluctantly
because I am one who has always pushed the Acorn for DTP. Indeed, one
leading London teaching hospital has, after seeing my system, installed
two Risc PCs with Publisher Plus for all its internal document creation.
The real tragedy of all this is that, in 1991, CC won the prestigious
Computer Shopper ÉBest software on any platformæ award for Impression
ll, but even though we have seen improvements, there has been little or
nothing for the professional user to get excited about, and the gap
between these packages and the rest of the world has got wider and
wider.
9.3
Quark XPress
9.3
XPress was the first DTP package designed for use on PCs and it has been
constantly developed into what is now a very capable program. The main
problem is that a very capable program is let down by the operating
system of the platform for which it was originally written and, without
doubt, RISCáOS 3 is even better than the very latest Mac OS. In fact,
there are many users who feel that XPress is a better program on the PC
than it is on the Mac.
9.3
The other two problem for users of XPress are the cost involved which,
as we will see later, is considerable, and the inability of XPress to
admit there could possibly be any problems with XPress.
9.3
XPress has attracted numerous third-party software houses to provide
what, in actual fact, are upgrades, in the form of XTensions. Quark has
written XPress in modular form (just as CC wrote ArtWorks Ö except that
very few developers have written modules for it) which enables these
developers to integrate their product seamlessly. An example of this can
be seen in XPress v3.31 (the version especially written for the
PowerMac) by buying-in and supplying as standard the XTension that gives
XPress the ability to alter the screen angles of individual colours
prior to printing. This useful facility, previously only available to
users of XPress who purchased the XTension (at ú200), is essential when
outputting film designed to be printed on unusual materials, e.g. T-
shirts and sweatshirts when the existing colour angles are designed for
outputting film designed for printing on paper based materials. (This
facility has always been available, as standard, to users of Publisher).
9.3
What is XPress?
9.3
XPress is a page layout program with limited textual capabilities but
with a wealth of features to enable DTP practitioners to create anything
from a small advert through to a complex full-colour 600-page A4ábook.
9.3
XPress, like Publisher, is a frame-based program that enables users to
mix text and graphics on a page. It uses virtual memory to allow users
the luxury of having a document of almost unlimited size. It uses the
industry standard Pantone library of colours (as well as its own colour
picker) making it easy for printers to get the colours right Ö every
time!
9.3
For many users, XPress has features that they will never use, but have
to pay for, because XPress is a truly professional program.
9.3
So what are the professional features that mark out XPress as such a
professional program?
9.3
Page layout tools
9.3
XPress lets you use the drawing style tools to define the shape of a
frame (as Ovation always has). Putting in lines is easy as well. (Try to
do either of these in Publisher and Plus and youæll appreciate just how
useful these features are!)
9.3
Furthermore, XPress is streets ahead of Impression as regarding text
runarounds of irregular shaped frames Ö the defaults are superb but, in
the unlikely event of you being unhappy, you can modify this invisible
Érunaroundæ frame until the cows come home!
9.3
XPress also allows you to shift-drag to select frames Ö still not
possible in Impression.
9.3
These frames can hold (as can Publisher) text or graphics but, unlike
Publisher, the text frames can be rotated through 360░. If you have a
need for more than one or two words to be rotated, this is an absolute
godsend.
9.3
XPress also makes it easy to move whole pages around, so if you want to
move page 4, containing both text and graphics, to page 33, you simply
select it all and move it! (In Publisher, you need to select the text
and drag and drop it in place then move the graphics frames Ö all
tedious and time consuming!)
9.3
Finally, XPress sports one of my dreams Ö Undo/Redo! Some people make
the point, with some measure of accuracy, that not having an undo/redo
makes you much more careful but in a very complicated document, one
mistake can cost you a lot of time Ö and in professional markets, time
is money! The ability to change something and then go back if it does
not work is great Ö the funny thing is that ArtWorks (from the same
stable) has an excellent and definable undo/redo facility, but not
Publisher Ö a great shame!
9.3
So, having seen just how good XPress is when it comes to page layout,
letæs look at how XPress handles the essentials of obtaining hardcopy.
9.3
Colour printing
9.3
As already stated, XPress comes supplied with the Pantone Colour
Libraries which is considered as essential by many printers. If you do
not know what the Pantone Colours are, just go and see your local
printer Ö heæll know and show you his swatches of colours. These define
what colours are to be mixed (and in what proportion) to obtain the
colour your creation requires. Also, it defines how colours look on
coated and uncoated paper Ö Pantone (Yellow) 110c looks totally
different to Pantone (Yellow) 110u on paper (if not on the screen).
XPress also comes supplied with Trumatch, Focoltone, Toyo Libraries and
DIC Spot Colours Ö enough to satisfy every standard of user. All this is
on top of the standard HSV, RGB and CMYK colour models! If I was granted
one wish by CC on the subject of colour, Iáwould take the Pantone
Libraries (Coated, Process Euro, Process, ProSim Euro and Uncoated).
9.3
Trapping
9.3
Using colour, as we all know, adds emphasis and excitement to documents
Ö if done properly. If done badly, colour detracts from your
masterpiece.
9.3
Look at some of the magazines you have at home and you will see examples
of this. If these appear in an advertisement, you will be less than
Éimpressedæ. Iáhave tried to illustrate this and I hope it prints all
right in a mono magazine!
9.3
In the example above, we have a blue background with Key Black text.
However, if you look closely, you can see a little bit of white around
part of the text (exaggerated for the purposes of this article).
9.3
So what is the difference between these two? In the first, the colour of
the text (Key Black) was set to overprint Ö that is the black of the
text was printed over the dark blue background. In the second, however,
the background was Éknockedæ out and the text should have fitted exactly
into the gaps but this is extremely difficult, as any printer will tell
you. (Some call them öregistration errorsò.)
9.3
I know which I prefer and, for black over a colour, this solution of
overprinting is fine and available in Publisher. However, when you are
talking about a light colour over a dark background, things get more
complicated. If you overprint with a light colour, you will almost
certainly lose it in printing, even though you will still see it on the
screen.
9.3
A much better solution is called ÉTrappingæ Ö the system where the
colour of the text spreads out (slightly) all the way around thereby
ensuring that there are no unsightly white bands around the text Ö the
amount of spread is calculated carefully by the program. This facility
is welcomed with open arms by printers and DTP professionals alike.
Unfortunately, trapping is not available to DTP practitioners on the
Acorn platform.
9.3
Imposition
9.3
Another area where XPress shows us the way to go is that of Imposition.
We all know that most of the production of leaflets and booklets is on
pages of A4 or smaller. What most people do not realise is that all
imagesetters are A3 or larger, therefore lots of A5 pages (or smaller)
uses up proportionally more film or bromide than projects produced on A4
(or larger). One way round this Éwasteæ issue is imposition.
9.3
Let me try to explain imposition. A booklet of 32 (A5) pages is printed
double-sided on eight sheets of A4 paper and folded. Page 1 and page 32
are on the same Épageæ of film, likewise page 2 and page 31, etc, etc.
(Before anyone says look at Publisheræs pamphlet printing mode, this is
not Imposition in the true sense.) Imposition calculates how the pages
for the booklet need to be laid out and fits them economically on the
film (even taking into account the size of the imagesetter Ö A3, A2,
etc). It also puts in crop marks, and helps reduce the amount of waste
(not only film but also paper for cutting).
9.3
So, for an A3 film, we want four A5 pages imposed on it in the most
economical way:
9.3
This has two benefits. Firstly, it saves money on film and paper (which
can be a considerable amount if you are using four colour separations),
and secondly, it makes the printeræs life easier by planning the plates
for him, thereby eliminating mistakes. XPress has truly professional
imposition whilst Publisher has a basis for imposition. (By the way, in
Acorn Publisher 2.1, there is an article on this very subject which also
offers users a work-around and makes a plea for imposition to be
properly implemented.)
9.3
Creeping
9.3
Creeping is a feature which is vital in the production of booklets. Let
us consider a booklet consisting of 72 A4 double-sided pages, folded and
stapled in the middle. If the gap in the centre between the pages was
the same on every page, it would be fine on the few pages in the middle
of the booklet, but at the start and the end it would be difficult to
read the words nearest the centre gap. The program calculates carefully
how to make the pages Écreepæ towards to edge of the page at the start
(and end) but be exactly in the centre by the time you look at the
middle pages.
9.3
What about Publisher (and Plus)?
9.3
You may well be thinking öWhy does he bother with the Acorn platform if
he thinks so highly of XPress?ò The answer is simple: I hate Macs,
Iádislike PCs and Iálove Acorns Ö but I want our software (that is
generally easier to use and usually more cost-effective) to have the
professional features available to users of other, inferior platforms!
In fact, at the London hospital I referred too earlier, Iáproduced a
document for them more quickly in Impression than they could in XPress
running on a Pentium-powered PC! This demonstrated that Impression
Publisher is easier to use, has much more to offer öbeginnersò and is
generally much more user¡friendly.
9.3
What does Publisher do better?
9.3
Text entry Ö There is no doubt that only a masochist would consider
using XPress for text entry. Most users of XPress use a separate WP for
compiling the text. Publisher users do not need to use a separate WP
because the textual capabilities of the Impression range are superb!
9.3
Text display Ö The most annoying thing about XPress is its display of
text. If you reduce the scale, the text Égreeksæ. What is greeking? It
is when the text display becomes so small that they replace it with a
series of grey lines Ö even if the text colour is fire-engine red! Not
exactly what you call ÉWYSIWYGæ! In Publisher, you can reduce the scale
to say 10%, to view all the pages, and see the colour even if you cannot
read the text. Another thing, I am composing this on my Risc PC in
Plantin at 8pt with the scale set at 120% (and I have laid jobs out in
Frutiger at 7pt scaled at 100%) and itæs easy. You could not, even in
your wildest dreams, think of doing that in XPress.
9.3
Scale (Zoom) Ö Publisher has a much wider range of scales than XPress,
1% to 975% compared with 10% to 400%. This additional flexibility is
vital for ensuring good and accurate layouts.
9.3
Anti-aliasing on screen Ö Publisher makes use of anti-aliasing for its
screen and font display. If you look at a XPress display, you will find
it difficult to read and, as a result, you get two free gifts from Quark
Ö eye strain and headaches.
9.3
Speed Ö Complicated documents can be very slow in Publisher but I can
demonstrate an area where Publisher is definitely much, much quicker!
You would have thought that the PowerMac would be fast, especially if it
was equipped with a 2Gb, fast SCSIá2, hard disc and XPress 3.31 (the
version that runs natively on the PowerMac). Many measures are purely
subjective but we have found one that is easily measurable Ö the time it
takes to convert a file to PostScript ready for the imagesetter.
9.3
Our test file, which was exactly the same for the PowerMac and the
original RiscáPC600 with its Éslowæ IDE 420Mb hard disc, was a single
full colour 9Mb page. To produce a four-colour separation in PostScript
took XPress 2 minutes 12 seconds, while Impression Publisher Plus took
only 9 seconds!! Now, think of the difference if it were a magazine of
25 pages (say, 500Mb). According to our calculations, Impression would
do the job in about 3 hours, whilst XPress would need about 24 hours (or
use four machines to do it in 3 hours)!
9.3
Moving frames Ö In Publisher, you click and hold within the frame and
the frame moves around with the mouse. If a graphic has been inserted,
if you click, with <adjust>, on the centre of the graphics Éarmæ (the V-
shaped utility), the graphic and the frame are locked together and they
move together.
9.3
In XPress, you must select the moving tool (a hand) in the toolbox
window before you can move the frame.
9.3
Prices (all exclude p&p and VAT)
9.3
Impression Publisher  ú169
9.3
Impression Publisher Plus  ú299
9.3
Upgrade from Publisher to Plus  ú130
9.3
Quark XPress     ú799
9.3
Quark XPress (for PowerMac)  ú899
9.3
Upgrade for PowerMac  ú399
9.3
Minimum Hardware
9.3
Hard disc space
9.3
Impression Publisher Plus  4Mb
9.3
Quark XPress    5Mb
9.3
(small by PC comparisons)
9.3
RAM
9.3
Impression Publisher Plus  2Mb
9.3
Quark XPress    5Mb
9.3
What about educational users?
9.3
Impression Publisher Plus has, in its 18 months of life, established an
excellent reputation for its ability and flexibility Ö look at Mike
Williams and Acorn Publisher, Simon Birtwistle and the Liverpool
Champion and Richard Lambley and Land Mobile Ö all excellent,
professional and commercial publications produced (in very competitive
business environments) on Acorns running Impression Publisher Plus. All
could have used Macs running XPress (or PCs running PageMaker et al) but
they chose our favourite platform and software instead Ö more power to
their elbows!
9.3
Those who say (school governors especially, please note!) that our
children must have industry standard platforms and software Ö remember
that there is no such thing as a single industry standard and please
bear in mind that keeping up-to-date in the Mac and PC worlds is very
expensive! My wifeæs school has a school-wide network of Macs running
Claris Works v1.0 (the version currently being given away free on
various PC magazine cover discs or CDs). Unfortunately, they cannot
afford to pay for the upgrade to v3.0 and Claris Works is a cheap (by
Mac and PC standards) suite of programs.
9.3
I do not have the educational prices for XPress to hand but I know that
the educational price of PageMaker 5 is ú299 (single user), the
networked version complete with 50 user site licence is ú10,000. A
Publisher network of the same size would cost ú1,650. As an example of
the cost of upgrading Mac and PC software, Aldus wanted ú199 to upgrade
each copy of PageMaker 4.2 to 5 whilst CC charged ú29 to upgrade each
copy of Impression ll to Style or Publisher.
9.3
It is no good having a so-called industry standard if you cannot afford
to keep it up-to-date.
9.3
Conclusion
9.3
I hope you can see that, although Impression Publisher Plus is a good
program (yes! I do like it and I genuinely hope to be using it in years
to come) it is by no means a leading edge DTP program. What it does, it
does well, and it is better at outputting than any other WP I have used.
It also handles graphics better than most but it needs updating to match
XPress in the layout game.
9.3
Now that CC have sold the marketing rights of Xara Studio to Corel,
would it be too much to hope that Impression Publisher and ArtWorks
could be developed to redress the drift that has occurred in the last
few years! Like most Acorn and Impression users, I hope so, because we
would all like to see CC back at the forefront of Acorn software
development and innovation.
9.3
Finally, I would like to say a huge thankyou to Tony Tolver of T-J
Reproductions. Tony has unrivalled knowledge of Acorn and Mac, platforms
and packages, and his guidance, advice and assistance have been superb.
It is also true to say that Tony has been at the forefront of aiding the
development of Acorn as a credible DTP platform with his professional
publishing bureau services. His help with this article matches the
assistance that he gives every day to Acorn users nationally.
9.3
I hope that you found this of interest and are not too offended by my
daring to criticise our leading software house but if we want to see
Acorn being used by more and more professionals, constructive criticism
will, I passionately believe, do no harm. If you want to give me
feedback, please feel free to phone on 0860-919216 or write to me (SAE,
please, if you want a personal reply) at 33 Fieldend, Twickenham,
Middlesex, TW1 4TG.áuá
9.3
STOP PRESS. The new version of CCæs Impression Publisher and Plus uses
dynamic memory and, theoretically, should be quicker and more flexible.
A major reason to buy this upgrade comes from Clares who have launched
Virtualise, which is a module that brings us virtual memory at a very
reasonable price Ö only ú24.95 (inc. VAT and p&p). So another advantage
that XPress had over us Impression users has Ébitten the dustæ!
9.3
Well Done!
9.3
Image Outliner
9.3
Christopher Jarman
9.3
Image Outliner is a utility to convert sprites into drawfiles. I have
been reviewing it for a couple of weeks now because I read what Jack
Kreindler wrote about it in Juneæs Acorn User. It seemed that he had
complained in the May issue that the Acorn platform did not have a top
class program to convert bitmaps into vector graphics. I am always
wishing that I had such a utility, because when you are spending hours
messing about with graphics, and creating images, that is exactly the
sort of thing you want.
9.3
So Iota sent Jack a copy of Image Outliner by return, with the curt
message, öOy! What about this then?ò
9.3
As a matter of fact, I now see that Image Outliner has actually been
around since 1991, so clearly Acorn User was well out of order in not
noticing it earlier. But hey! Who else noticed it either?
9.3
Now come on Iota, with a super utility like this one, why hide your
light under a bushel for so long? Iæve never seen it advertised.
9.3
Documentation
9.3
I have recently criticised a number of printed manuals for being hard to
understand, and written by programmers for other programmers, so when I
spoke to Iota, they asked me to be kind about Outlineræs little manual
because it was not the kind of manual they would provide now. Actually,
itæs not too bad, and fits nicely inside the CD type case in which the
program comes. It is not a difficult utility to work out anyway, even
for a computer illiterate like me. (O.K. If I am so illiterate why am I
writing software reviews? The answer must be that Paul considers them to
be aimed at other computer duffers.)
9.3
Outliner in use
9.3
Outliner comes on a single floppy, and my only real complaint about it
is that even if you load it onto your hard disc, it still demands the
original disc to install it each time. I know it is a reasonable guard
against piracy, but I wish another method could be used, especially for
a utility which is to be used regularly.
9.3
It loads onto the iconbar in the standard way and, on clicking <select>,
you get a small window with three tools on the left Ö Sprite Mode, Knot
Mode and Draw Mode. The Knot Mode is the complicated one and concerns
the way in which paths are created from the sprite image towards the
Draw image, but the user does not need to know this at this stage, so I
ignored it.
9.3
Load in an 8-bit sprite. This one was digitised from a video camera
using HCCS Vision 24.  You can see eleven colours being tried out at
this stage.
9.3
All you do is to drop a sprite into the window, click on Draw Mode and
wait. Eventually, you will have a drawfile of your sprite and you can
drop it into Artworks or Draw and play about with it, distort it, and
change colours until the cows come trotting homewards. However, there is
more, because it will only accept 8 bit sprites Ö which is just as well
because things would take too long otherwise. Also, quite frankly, the
smaller and less complex the sprite you convert, the better.
9.3
Good use of !Change FSI helps a lot, but there is also a superb option
on the menu button which is a boon. It is called Posterise and allows
you to experiment endlessly with your chosen sprite to make it as simple
as you wish by cutting down the number of colours. Posterise the sprite
down to eight colours in this instance.  At this stage it can be saved
and used as it is, still a bit-map.
9.3
As it implies, it will make the sprite look more and more like a poster
or a print before you convert it. As a matter of fact, I liked this
aspect of the utility every bit as much as the actual vector conversion.
You can save your öPosterò sprite at any stage, and just use it as it
is. For converting a digitised image of human figure into a plain
graphical image, it is tremendous, and I shall be using it a great deal.
9.3
Altogether this is a lovely program, excellent value for money and a
delight both to use and to watch. The conversion process unfolds before
your eyes in a most elegant way and is entertaining in itself.
9.3
Image Outliner costs ú49 +VAT from Iota Software or ú54 through
Archive.áu
9.3
The final drawfile - vector image. This is a particularly complex one
and took a long time to process, half an hour; but very valuable and
manipulable when you have it.
9.3
Communications Column
9.3
Chris Claydon
9.3
This monthæs column will cover how you can get access to the electronic
communication revolution Ö what equipment and software you need and how
you can use it.
9.3
The hardware
9.3
Basically, you need a modem. This is a device which converts data into
sound, transmits it over a phone line to another modem, and converts
sound from that modem back into data. There are a wide range of modems
available at a wide range of prices. Almost all modems now have the
capability to send and receive high-quality faxes (using the ArcFax
software from David Pilling), and some can also act as an answering
machine (called voice modems). Unfortunately, there is very little
software support for these on the Acorn.
9.3
The speed of a modem is measured in bits per second (Baud rate).
Dividing this by ten gives an approximate number of bytes (characters)
transmitted per second. Most modems also compress the data as it is
transferred, giving even higher effective speeds. A 14,400 baud modem
which will transfer up to 2Kb per second is now considered the minimum
speed for general use. If you intend to transfer large files and/or use
the Internet, I would recommend a 28,800 modem which will do everything
twice as fast. Modems at 36,000 baud and faster are just becoming
available, but will be quite expensive as they are now Étop of the
rangeæ.
9.3
You could buy your modem from an Acorn dealer, and that means you would
get help if you have problems, but I think you will find that Acorn
dealers are quite a bit more expensive than PC dealers. If price is
everything, pick up a copy of MicroMart or a similar publication and
shop around for the lowest price, as modems are the same for all
computers, but be sure you are buying an external modem rather than an
internal card for a PC though! You can pay as little as ú70 for a 14,400
baud fax modem, or ú120 for a 28,800 baud fax modem. Voice modems are
generally around ú20 more.
9.3
(You can get modems as cheap as this but be aware that not all modems
are Éapprovedæ. Getting that approval for a product costs a lot of
money, so some companies donæt bother Ö which keeps the price down.
Although it is not illegal to sell such modems, it is illegal to use
them. Ed.)
9.3
You will also need a lead to connect the modem to your computer. If you
have a pre-A5000 machine you will need a special Acorn wired cable due
to a bug in the early serial chips. Also, these serial ports are too
slow to use 28800 baud modems. With an A5000 or later computer, you can
use a standard PC serial lead, usually supplied with the modem. You will
also need an adapter for your 9-pin serial port, although most modem
packages include one of these, as some PCæs also have 9-pin ports. It is
a common phenomenon in A5000s for the serial port to simply die after a
year or two (mine did!) and, in earlier computers, the serial port is
very slow, so you may wish to consider a high-speed dual serial port
card. Intelligent Interfaces and ÉThe Serial Portæ both produce such
cards Ö the Intelligent Interfaces one is available through Archive for
ú175. (Atomwide are doing one too. Ed.)
9.3
(Now you see why some people are prepared to pay more and buy a modem
from an Acorn dealer. Ed.)
9.3
The software
9.3
I will not be covering software for connecting to the Internet in any
detail Ö the suite of PD software for doing this is far too complex to
be within the scope of this column. Doggysoft produce a program called
Termite which is an easier-to-use interface for the Internet. I have
never used it myself, but users I have spoken to seem to either like it
or loathe it.
9.3
Ordinary bulletin boards require a simple coloured-text display system
called ANSI and a file transfer system called Zmodem. There is
commercial software available for this purpose: Chatter, ArcComm,
Hearsay II and ARCterm 7 are the most popular. However, these are all
fairly expensive (around ú70), apart from Chatter. You will find that
many PD or shareware terminals are almost as good, and in some ways
better than these packages. I use !Connector, a good PD terminal
program, which was released quite recently. I have included this on the
monthly program disc, ready set up with some BBS numbers in the address
book and some sensible modem settings.
9.3
Several BBS systems, including mine, now use my own ÉImmediateæ RISC OS
multimedia interface, which makes them easier and quicker to use. This
requires a special terminal program which you can download (copy to your
computer) from these boards using a normal ANSI/Zmodem terminal.
9.3
Ready to go?
9.3
So, you now have your modem, your software and your cable. You first
need to set up your software for your modem and serial port. You will
need to tell it what sort of serial port and cable you are using and you
will need to set the computer-modem baud rate. This can be much faster
than the actual speed of the modem, and you should use the maximum speed
you can Ö this will either be limited by your modem or by your serial
port. (19,200 baud is the maximum serial port speed on the Archimedes,
57,600 on later machines, and 115,200 on the Risc PC.)
9.3
Once you have configured your software, the first thing to do is try
calling a BBS. Try one of those listed at the end of the column. Some
terminals will do this automatically, just by selecting an option and
entering a number, or by using an Éaddress bookæ of BBSs. In others, you
can command the modem to dial by typing ÉATDT 01234 567890æ, or similar.
AT tells the modem this is a command, D tells it to dial and T selects
tone dialling. Refer to your modem manual for other similar commands.
9.3
There are a lot of things which can go wrong here Ö too many to go
through in detail Ö but here are a few common problems: software
configured for Acorn cable when PC cable is used or vice-versa; PC cable
used on incompatible machine; computer to modem baud rate set too slow
or too fast for modem, modem is not echoing what you type (send ATE1);
rubbish appears all over screen when you connect to a BBS (check data
format is set to 8n1); nothing happens at all (have you got a duff A5000
serial port?).
9.3
Also, in ARM2 machines, when using high resolution modes, the processor
sometimes canæt keep up with the data coming from the modem, and bits
get missed or corrupted. The solution is to change to a low resolution
mode and remove any unnecessary software which is running.
9.3
If you donæt have a hard drive, transfer files to and from the RAM disc
or Memphis disc, not the floppy. Transferring via floppy will slow
things down a lot.
9.3
If you still have trouble getting online, give me a call and Iæll see if
I can help you out.
9.3
Having introduced you to comms in general, what you need and how to use
it, next month the column will start properly carrying news, views,
reviews and anything else related to comms. If you would like me to
review a comms-related program, or you have some comms related news,
please let me know. I have decided that as the Internet is also covered
by other columns (Networking and Internet), I will concentrate mainly on
the BBS and Fidonet community, but I will cover just about anything, if
you ask me nicely!
9.3
If you have any feedback on how you would like me to develop this
column, or suggestions for topics to cover, you can contact me in the
following ways:
9.3
Voice phone: [phone] or 24hr ARMed Forces Multimedia BBS: 01962-
880003.
9.3
Email: [e-mail]
9.3
Web: http://www.icafe.co.za/mirage/ARMedForces
9.3
FidoNet: 2:252/501      RiscNet: 7:44/212.
9.3
Post: Chris Claydon, 38 Main Road, Littleton, Winchester, Hampshire,
SO22 6QQ.á
9.3
BBS Name  Location  Phone Number
9.3
Renegade  Aberdeen  01224-621956
9.3
Equinox  Portsmouth  01705-871531
9.3
StarNet  Norwich  01603-507216
9.3
Networking Column
9.3
Chris Johnson
9.3
I hope Paul will forgive me for straying a little away from the remit of
this column, and covering some Internet related items as well this
month.
9.3
Network links for PC cards
9.3
It is becoming more and more important to be able to use Acorn systems
on the same networks as PCs or Apple Macs. In our department we have
been successfully using Acorn systems attached to the main campus LAN,
and hence to JANET, for some time. Running Acornæs TCP/IP software, it
is possible to access the Internet, both locally and globally. Acornæs
Telnet and FTP capability, although rather primitive in look and feel,
allows terminal access and file downloading, while Stewart Brodieæs
ArcWeb gives full Web browsing facilities.
9.3
However, we have a number of PCs in the department running Novell
Netware. As the network supervisor, I used to have, next to my Risc PC,
a PC on which I did my network management act. This went against the
grain, to say the least. Since Aleph One now produce networking software
which allows connection of a PC card to a Novell network, (or a Windows
for Workgroups network), I thought it was time to get properly
connected.
9.3
I ordered the software from Aleph One. Here was a minor hiccup Ö I
received a fax back asking for details of the Ethernet card and the PC
card fitted to the machine. Presumably, the software includes hardware
specific code, so it is important to specify the manufacturers of the
cards and, where applicable, the version number of firmware, etc. Once
the details had been faxed back, the software arrived a couple of days
later. It comes in an A5 wallet, with two discs, and an eight page
pamphlet of (quite technical) instructions. One disc has the network
software itself, together with the latest drivers for Aleph One and
Acorn Ethernet cards, and the other contains the latest versions of
Aleph Oneæs PC card software. Since I had an Acorn Risc PC card, this
second disc was superfluous.
9.3
The network software I received had versions for use with the older
DCI2, and the newer DCI4 Internet software and drivers. Using the DCI4
drivers gives increased functionality. You can get the DCI4 version of
Acornæs !Internet (and !Bootnet) by downloading from the Acorn FTP site.
I had already installed the newer version on my own machine, since the
internal Risc PC card had a DCI4 driver.
9.3
The installation instructions are very clear, but some familiarity with
the PC side of networking is a help. As far as RISCáOS is concerned, it
is simply a case of copying three modules into the !PC486 (or
equivalent) application, and adding some lines to the !PC486.!run file
to make sure these modules are loaded when !PC486 is first run. In my
case, copying the Ethernet driver into !PC486 was not really necessary,
since all the Internet software and drivers are loaded at startup.
9.3
It is also necessary to install appropriate PC network software, for
which you must find a source. I simply copied all the Novell specific
software from my PC, and changed autoexec.bat as necessary to load it
when the PC card is started. The PC netlinks software appears to the PC
card as an NE2000 Ethernet card, so an NE2000 card driver was obtained
from another computer. It is necessary to edit the NET.CFG file so it
loads the correct driver, and uses the correct I/O port base and
interrupt number. All this is explained in the instructions. When I
booted the PC card, it found the Novell server immediately, and I have
had no problems since. I found the whole process was very painless, and
the PC addicts in the department are very impressed seeing me access the
Novell server in a window on the desktop, while fetching pages with
!ArcWeb.
9.3
In my experience, the netlinks software works well, and, once installed
and working, can be forgotten about. However, I would urge anyone
ordering the package to talk to Aleph One about their hardware, since
early podule PC cards may need some small hardware modifications before
they work satisfactorily.
9.3
If you have Ethernet cards such as Acorn Access, which load a number of
modules from the onboard ROM at bootup, and you need to load newer
versions of the drivers and IP software, then the situation is more
complex. A number of lines must be added to the RISCáOS boot file to
RMKill these modules, load in the newer versions as necessary, and then
RMReinit the modules. The instructions provided explain all this in
detail, so there should be no problem.
9.3
Web browser as a local information server
9.3
In the past, I have looked at several applications as candidates for use
as a basis for a local bulletin board or information service on our
local network. However, none of them have been suitable for the
applications I had in mind. With the introduction of the World Wide Web
has come the ready availability of a powerful hypertext display system,
which is ideal for such applications, and which has, dare I say it, an
öindustry standardò look and feel. The local home page facility of Web
browsers allows you to set up as many linked pages as you want, which
are completely independent of the Internet but, at the same time, will
integrate seamlessly with it, if necessary.
9.3
We have used !ArcWeb for all our Web browsing. The latest version (0.38)
appears stable and gives few problems, although some of the more
esoteric of the latest Netscape extensions cause it to use funny
colours, or get the formatting wrong. However, there are very few pages
indeed that it will not handle.
9.3
When ArcWeb is launched, a system variable is set to point to a local
home page. This page, and any linked pages, can be stored on any local
filing system, including network file servers. It is simply a case of
editing one line in the !run file to point to the local home page.
Whenever the ArcWeb icon is clicked on, this local home page is fetched.
I use the home page to point to a wide range of pages of local interest,
but of course there are many links within these pages to resources on
the real Internet. When the user clicks on a hypertext link, there is no
indication (other than looking at the URL) whether the page is coming
from the local fileserver or over the Internet. If you do not have a
direct Internet connection, the Web browser can still be used to provide
a local service over the network. An Ethernet system is obviously
preferable for speed, particularly if the pages contain a lot of
graphics. I should be interested to hear from any other readers who use
Web browsers in this way.
9.3
HTML documents
9.3
If you are going to produce your own Web pages, what tools are available
to make the task easier? HTML (hypertext markup language), the language
in which all Web pages are written, originated on Unix machines. It is
conceptually very simple. Documents are purely ASCII text throughout,
with all styles, links, etc included as Étagsæ. Traditionally, Unix
editors such as Vi or Emacs were used, but this required you to remember
all the tags, and enter them manually. Thus it should be feasible to use
any of the Acorn text editors (Edit, DeskEdit, etc) to produce Web
pages. All tags are enclosed in the Égreater thanæ and Éless thanæ
symbols, and a style is turned off by a slash (/) in front of the
appropriate tag. Thus the text
9.3
<B>This is bold</B>
9.3
would appear in the browser as This is bold. Some tags are easy to
remember, but when including links (anchors) or images, there is a lot
more to include. Thus it is perfectly feasible to use simple text
editors, but it is easy to get the format of the tags wrong, or forget
to turn off an effect.
9.3
HTMLEdit
9.3
I have been using HTMLEdit to construct Web pages, so I thought I would
comment on some of its features. The authors aim is to offer a complete
HTML document creation environment for the Acorn platform, comparable
with tools on other platforms which cost considerably more. Since I have
no experience of creating HTML documents on other platforms, I cannot
comment on whether that aim is achieved.
9.3
When I first purchased HTMLEdit, it was delivered by e-mail, and I
received a couple of upgrades the same way. Since then, the full package
has arrived, consisting of an A5 wallet, containing the program disc and
a manual of some 34 pages. The manual contains the usual installation
section, followed by a tutorial which leads you through the production
of simple Web pages. The manual is completed by a reference section
which covers the main toolbox and associated menus and dialogue boxes.
It is well laid out and easy to follow. The program is, in any case,
simple to use, so getting started should be no problem. The disc
contains the HTMLEdit application, together with some tutorial files and
an HTML primer, which is one of the many versions available on the
Internet. It is an HTML document, of course. There are also some
utilities, including the Web browser Webster, and WebGif, which allows
the conversion of sprites to GIF format, including a mask if required.
9.3
Installation is simple, just drag the !HTMLEdit application to any
suitable directory viewer on your hard disc, and it is ready to use. You
could also install it to a floppy disc. Double-clicking on the !HTMLEdit
icon installs it on the iconbar Ö yet another variation on the !Edit
icon. A click with <select> on this icon opens two windows. One is the
toolbox, and the other is the document window. The document window looks
exactly like a standard Edit document window, and the cloning goes much
further. The authors have deliberately made the look and feel as close
to the Edit standard as possible. Not only do all the standard key short
cuts work in an identical manner to Edit (ctrl-C, ctrl¡V, ctrl-X and so
on), but the menu structure itself is also identical. The only obvious
difference is that the Ésave asæ and Éfile infoæ dialogue boxes have the
HTML document icon, rather than the text icon.
9.3
All the HTML specific operations are accessed from the toolbox, which is
a collection of buttons. Some carry out actions directly on the text,
others raise a menu of alternatives, while others open a dialogue box.
There is no obvious indication from the buttons themselves which of
these three types of action will occur on clicking. The full syntax of
HTML 2.0 is supported, with some of HTML 3.0 also supported. As an
example of direct action, clicking on the bold button will enter <B></B>
into the text at the caret, and the caret will then be placed between
the central > and < ready for text to be entered. On the other hand, if
a section of text is selected when the bold button is clicked upon, the
tags are placed so as to enclose the marked section. This intelligent
behaviour occurs for all the tags for which it makes sense. When a
button such as styles or headings is clicked upon, a menu opens with a
list of alternative tags, e.g. heading1 to heading 6. The action on
making a selection is similar to that already given, depending on
whether text is selected or not. The full set of list styles is also
supported.
9.3
The final type of button opens a dialogue box from which anchors, or
image details can be entered. Forms, with gadgets, checkboxes, etc, are
also supported, as are top-bit set characters. It is very quick to enter
tags in this manner, and the main advantage is that opening and closing
tags are entered at the same time, and so you should never have unclosed
style structures. With the more complex tags, such as the document
header, the syntax should be correct, and it also saves a lot of typing.
9.3
An edit style document window is very far from Web style. How do we see
what the document will actually look like? HTMLEdit makes no attempt to
display the page itself, but passes it to your favourite Web browser for
display. There are two buttons in the tool window. One previews the page
from memory, via <wimp$scrap>. No images will be displayed, but the
textual part of the document should look correct. Links to other
documents will not work. The other option is to preview the saved page.
Assuming this is in the correct place with respect to the paths of
linked pages and images, this should be WYSIWYG, and all images will be
displayed, and links to other pages will work. In order for any
previewing to work at all, the Web browser must have been seen by the
filer.
9.3
Generally, HTMLEdit does all that is claimed for it, and I have found it
has significantly accelerated my production of Web documents. One
restriction is that, unlike Edit, only one document can be open at a
time. Therefore, if you wish to cut and paste between documents, the
second document must be loaded into Edit or Deskedit, etc, and the save
selection option used. This is a definite disadvantage, particularly if
it is a cut and paste, rather than a copy. One feature I find
infuriating at times is the fact that if you move a marked section
within a document using <ctrl-V>, the moved text remains selected
whereas, in Edit, it is deselected. On a number of occasions, I have
moved text, moved the caret somewhere else in the document and
subsequently clicked on a button to enter a style, only to find the
still-selected text has been wrapped up in the style instead. I have got
into the habit of using <ctrl-Z> regularly to make sure nothing is
selected that should not be selected!
9.3
Is HTMLEdit value for money? The current cost is ú30 from R-Comp which
is, I think, a little on the high side, but I suppose this is only to be
expected for a commercial product with an obviously rather small sales
market. If the upgrade policy in respect of the future versions that are
promised is generous, it may well prove to be good value for money, but
I think you would need to be serious about producing Web pages regularly
to get full value from such a package.
9.3
How to contact me
9.3
I should be pleased to receive anything in connection with networking.
My postal address is Chris Johnson, 7 Lovedale Grove, Balerno,
Edinburgh, EH14 7DR; Iácan also be contacted by e-mail as checaj@bonaly.
hw.ac.uk.áuá
9.3
Starting Basic
9.3
Ray Favre
9.3
This month I want to make a start on procedures and functions, but
first, the Éhomeworkæ...
9.3
Last time, I left you with some Éhomeworkæ, trying to get error messages
from the ÉLoan_2æ listing. If you did what I suggested, and in that
order, you would probably have got the error messages:
9.3
öUnknown or missing variableò or öMissingöòò (depending which end you
missed off)
9.3
öUnknown or missing variableò
9.3
öType mismatch, number neededò
9.3
öSyntax errorò or öUnknown or missing variableò
9.3
Taking these in order, without quote marks at the start of a string, the
processor thinks it has met another variable name, and one that hasnæt
been declared. So it tells you that. Had you, coincidentally, already
declared a numeric variable with the same name, the error message would
have been öType mismatch. String neededò. If you miss the quotes only at
the end of the string, the processor easily detects it and accurately
identifies the error. With this comment, the third and fourth items
should now be straightforward.
9.3
The öunknown or missing variableò error message occurs with several
sorts of typing errors, particularly if you run two items together by
missing out a colon, semi-colon or comma. As you can see above, you may
well have seen it more than once. With familiarity, youæll get used to
the most likely reasons for the various messages.
9.3
On the final question: if a real number is assigned to an integer
variable, the variable will be assigned with only the integer part of
the real number Ö without an error message. This is probably a sensible
compromise, but you need to be aware of it. It can result in a program
apparently working OK but giving wrong results, and it can be a real
pain to trace. It provides good reason always to check your program with
both real and integer inputs, against calculated answers. And now for
this sessionæs topic...
9.3
Procedures (ÉPROCsæ)
9.3
Procedures are self-contained user-defined routines, i.e. simply a
sequence of Basic instructions, and they have two main uses. The first
use is for routines which are going to be used repeatedly during a
program. By defining a PROC to contain such a routine, we can simply
Écallæ the PROC by name whenever we need it, rather than having to type
out the same sequence of instructions each time. An example of the PROC
definition format is:
9.3
DEF PROCprintDate
9.3
Date$ = LEFT$(TIME$,15) :REM** Produces todayæs date from internal
computer clock. **
9.3
PRINT TAB(10) Date$
9.3
ENDPROC
9.3
Every PROC definition must start with the line DEFáPROCprocName and end
with the line ENDPROC. (There need not be a space between the two
keywords DEF and PROC, but there must not be a space between PROC and
the name.) The lines in between contain your required sequence of Basic
instructions and these will be carried out each time this PROC is
called. We would use PROCprintDate to call the above PROC in a program Ö
and every time we did so, the date would be printed out on the screen at
tab position 10. The program would then continue from the point where
the call was made. In other words, calling a PROC causes the program to
divert from its line number sequence temporarily Ö resuming from where
it diverted after carrying out the PROC instructions.
9.3
PROC names are similar to, but a little less restricted than, variable
names (but donæt add É%æ or É$æ to them). They can start with a digit or
a keyword, for instance. Again, there is no length restriction and it
pays to name them meaningfully. We will use a similar format to that
adopted for variables, except that weæll always start the name with a
lower case letter Ö to contrast it with the keyword ÉPROCæ itself. You
can use the same name for a PROC/FN and for a variable e.g. PROCdate and
date Ö they will be treated as separate names.
9.3
PROCs with parameters
9.3
The use of procedures is extended considerably by using Éparameter
passingæ. We could change our example to:
9.3
DEF PROCprintDate(Tab%)
9.3
Date$ = LEFT$(TIME$,15)
9.3
PRINT TAB(Tab%) Date$
9.3
ENDPROC
9.3
In the DEFáPROC line, Tab% is called a Éparameteræ and can be any of the
three variable types, complete with % or $ name endings as appropriate
(see Part 2). If this PROC is then called by, say, PROCprintDate(22),
the value 22 is substituted for Tab% ( Épassed to the PROCæ) and the
date is printed on screen at tab position 22. Or, if called by, say,
PROCprintDate(Integer%), the date is printed at the tab position equal
to the value held in Integer%. There is no limit to the number of
parameters you can use (a dozen or more is quite common in Wimp
applications). When more than one parameter is used, they are separated
by commas in the DEFáPROC line, e.g. DEFáPROCprocName(Param1%, Param2,
Param3$, etc....). They can be a mix of the three types, but you must
make sure you use the right types in the right order when you call the
PROC Ö or errors will occur which may not necessarily cause error
messages.
9.3
PROCs as structural aid
9.3
The second use of PROCs is as a structural aid to programming. Youæll
recall that ÉLoan_2æ was deliberately written without PROCs and, even in
this short and simple program, you can see it would be easier to read
(and therefore to understand) if the program itself was reduced to
something like:
9.3
10 ON ERROR PROCerror
9.3
20 PROCsetUpVariables
9.3
30 PROCmenu
9.3
40 PROCchooseUnknown
9.3
50 PROCinputKnowns
9.3
60 PROCcalc
9.3
70 PROCresults
9.3
80 END
9.3
The detailed code is carried within the appropriate PROCs. The structure
can be seen better and we can change the structure or the detail much
more simply. We will shortly convert ÉLoan_2æ to this form.
9.3
Functions (ÉFNsæ)
9.3
Everything we have said about PROCs applies equally to FNs Ö except in
the final line of their definition, which reflects their slightly
different purpose. A FN Éreturnsæ a value (real, integer or string)
which needs to be incorporated (and matched by type) into the calling
instruction, rather like a variable. A typical, albeit short, FN
definition might look like:
9.3
DEF FNtodayDate
9.3
 = LEFT$(TIME$,15)
9.3
and would be called by a statement like Date$ = FNtodayDate. The last
line of a FN definition must always end with an Éequalsæ sign followed
by the result that is being Éreturnedæ to the calling statement. In this
case, the string variable Date$ will be assigned with the value produced
by FNtodayDate. FNs often contain just as many parameters and lines of
action as PROCs, but they must always end up by returning a value.
9.3
Further points
9.3
The definitions of PROCs/FNs can themselves call PROCs/FNs, e.g. having
defined FNtodayDate, we could now modify PROCprintDate(Tab%) to read:
9.3
DEF PROCprintDate(Tab%)
9.3
Date$ = FNtodayDate
9.3
PRINT TAB(Tab%) Date$
9.3
ENDPROC
9.3
When writing a program, the DEF PROC/FNs are always put after the main
program, separated from it by an END statement. As the Basic processor
tries to follow the program line by line in number sequence, it would
simply continue to step straight into the DEFs and be treated as part of
the natural program sequence unless the program is stopped (by the END
statement) before the definitions begin. Other than this, it does not
matter in which order the PROC/FN definitions are listed, although it
will help to keep them in some logical order.
9.3
One of the beauties of PROCs (not shared by FNs) is that you can define
them with nothing between DEFáPROC and ENDPROC and they will not halt
the flow of your program while you are developing it. This may sound a
daft idea, but it helps to get the main structure in place and it
reminds you that youæve still got something to do. In large programs,
this can be a great help, particularly when you have to leave the
programming for a while.
9.3
BBC Basic also supports a poor relation of PROCs, using the keyword
GOSUB. This is very much less easy to use than PROCs/FNs and has been
more or less superseded by them. Many other Basic dialects are still
limited to something like GOSUB. There is no doubt that PROCs/FNs are
probably the most important advantage of BBC Basic for the programmer.
9.3
Upgrading ÉLoan_2æ
9.3
Our first step in developing ÉLoan_2æ is to put in place a main
structure of PROCs (similar to the example earlier) and transfer the
existing program material into the corresponding DEFáPROCs. This, and
only this, is done in ÉLoan_4Aæ on the monthly disc, which is worth
studying to get used to the way PROCs are listed and called. As we build
the program, we will gradually include other PROCs and FNs into the
definitions of most of these initial PROCs.
9.3
In ÉLoan_4Bæ, the first real change takes place by putting a better
looking menu on the screen. This involves us in: display mode choice,
colours, better formatting of menu items, and pausing the program.
9.3
Display mode
9.3
Iæve chosen mode 12, as it is the lowest number giving us an 80-
character screen width and 16 colours, but any other mode with these
features will do.
9.3
Changing display mode actually does quite a number of things and can
affect how we program. (On top of this, there used to be restrictions on
changing it from within a PROC/FN.) So it is normal practice in non-Wimp
programs to set the display mode very early in the main program, so that
it is in plain view for all to see. Hence, MODEá12 will be our new first
instruction of the program.
9.3
Colour
9.3
We will say more on colour later but, for now, it only needs to be noted
that text and graphic colours are handled separately, and the keyword
COLOUR is the one for text. I find it helpful to try to get some
uniformity in the use of colour over different non-Wimp programs. (In
Wimp there is considerable pressure Ö and much help Ö to follow the
Acorn ÉStyle Guideæ, so it is easier there.) Therefore, I normally
define colours at the start of a program, by including them in an
Éinitiationæ PROC. Youæll find a PROCinit in many programs. Itæs a good
habit. You use it at, or very near, the start, to set up anything
applicable to the program as a whole Ö selection of colours is a good
example. It is also usually used to reserve memory for arrays and
suchlike, as we will come to later. So, a PROCinit is introduced.
9.3
Menu formatting
9.3
For neat menus, our need is usually to be able to centre text and/or to
be able to line it up at a desired tab position. (I feel a PROC coming
on!) Therefore, within PROCmenu, we will call a new PROC:
PROCcentrePrint(String$).
9.3
Pausing
9.3
The keywords GET and GET$ are the simplest way to make a program wait
until you want it to continue Ö but it should not be used in Wimp
programs. Weæll cover these in more detail next time but, for the
moment, we will use the simplest instruction pause%=GET, which will hold
things on the screen until we press any key.
9.3
Next time
9.3
Next time, we will take a look at selecting items from a menu/list,
which will include having a look at REPEAT... UNTIL loops and INSTR.
9.3
Listings
9.3
The listings are now on the disc only Ö there is simply not enough space
to include them in the column. However, it is very important that
beginners do type in listings themselves. There is no other way to learn
properly. Therefore, I am happy to provide a separate printed listings
service to anyone who cares to send an A4 size SAE to the address below.
You can either send one SAE each month (indicating which Part you want)
or you can send, say, half a dozen SAEs now and Iæll send one back each
month. My estimate is that there will be at least another dozen
articles.
9.3
The feedback received so far supports the need to keep this series aimed
firmly at the complete beginner and Iæm grateful to those who took the
time out to let me know. Keep the letters coming, to: 26 West Drayton
Park Avenue, West Drayton, UB7 7QA.áuá
9.3
Beginnersæ Corner
9.3
John Temple
9.3
How did you get on with the problems I set last time? Here are the
answers:
9.3
(1) In the font Corpus, the letters are all the same width, whereas in
Homerton and Trinity they have proportional spacing. The letter m is the
widest (w is not quite as wide), and i and j are equally the narrowest.
System font has equal spacing like Corpus. In Edit, try typing the
letter m twenty times in a row, followed by w and i and j each twenty
times. Then change fonts and watch what happens.
9.3
Another difference between the fonts is that Homerton is a sanserif
font. That means it doesnæt have the little squiggles on the ends of the
letters, whereas Corpus and Trinity do. The letters you are reading now
have serifs. The headings and subheadings in the magazine donæt. It is
easier to read words in a serif font. Sanserif fonts look more striking
and are often used (as in Archive) for titles.
9.3
[By the way, the word should actually be fount not font. A font is a
place where Christian baptisms take place. Look in a dictionary if you
donæt believe me!]
9.3
(2) To display text in an Edit screen in Homerton bold oblique, using
size 20, move the mouse pointer over the following menus and click on
Bold.Oblique.ëëë
9.3
Then in a similar way, choose DisplayÿFont sizeÿ20.
9.3
(3) To make the letters red and the background yellow:
9.3
DisplayÿForegroundÿ(Red) and then
9.3
DisplayÿBackgroundÿ(Yellow)
9.3
(4) To change the width of the left hand margin:
9.3
DisplayÿMargin and type in a suitable number.
9.3
(5) What does window wrap do? If you have a small window in an Edit
file, the text lines may be too long to fit in and they will disappear
over the sides. Switching Window wrap on stops this from happening. An
easy way to see the effect is to load OneTo50, the file we used last
month, and before you do anything else, click on Window wrap. With it
off, you are unable see the word ten in the first line. With it on, you
can.
9.3
(6) What about Invert? You probably noticed that it changes black to
white and white to black. But what if the foreground (i.e. the text) and
background colours are not black and white? The correct answer is that
it swaps the foreground and background colours. Award yourself a brownie
point if you got that.
9.3
Printing
9.3
None of the options in the Display menu makes any difference to what
comes out when you print an Edit file. It doesnæt matter if the letters
are enormous or tiny, black or red or green. The printed version stays
the same. The display relates only to the screen.
9.3
Why is this? Well, there are two ways or modes in which a document can
be printed, normal mode and graphics mode. In normal mode, the computer
sends ASCII codes to the printer; in graphics mode, it sends bit images
of pages or parts of pages.
9.3
ASCII codes are numbers. There is a different ASCII code (number) for
every letter, numeral and punctuation mark on a keyboard. In fact,
letters have two Ö one for the capital letter and another for lower
case. There are many other systems of numerical coding but it is the
American Standard Code for Information Interchange which has become the
standard for printers.
9.3
Edit files are printed in normal mode. ASCII codes are sent down the
printer cable and it is the printer which decides how to form the
letters. On most printers, you can change the font. So an Edit (text)
file can be printed with different fonts, but they have to be selected
at the printer. Some printers have a slot where you can plug in a card
to give additional fonts.
9.3
The other way of printing is to send a series of dots (pixels) to the
printer, which scans the page in much the same way as an electron beam
scans a TV tube or monitor. This is graphics mode. If you watch a
printer printing text in graphics mode, you sometimes see part of a row
of letters formed in one sweep of the print head and the other half in
the next sweep. Nowadays, most word processors and desktop publishers
print documents in graphics mode.
9.3
You can import a text file into a wordáprocessor or desktop publisher. I
am using Fireworkz to write this article. Archive is printed using
Impression. As I cannot make Impression files, I save the text as a text
file (as if I had used Edit) and that is what I send in to Paul.
Illustrations are sent as drawfiles (more on that later). Paul drops the
text file into Impression and re-creates my layout, which I send on
paper. (We did with this one, but weære going to try to get the
formatting across from Fireworkz to Impression, maybe using RTF files Ö
see the Archive Glossary Ö and weæll let you know how we get on! Ed.)
9.3
Editing and formatting
9.3
If you want to do serious editing, you must learn how to mark text. Itæs
not difficult. Load OneTo50 by double clicking on it.
9.3
Move the mouse pointer to the beginning of the twenties.
9.3
Press the left hand mouse button and, without releasing it, move the
mouse down until the twenties are marked. Then let go.
9.3
The text has been marked and is ready for you to do things to it. A
shortcut to marking in RISCáOSá3 is to click twice on a word to mark it.
If you click three times, you mark the whole line. (A line of text may
take up more than a line in a window.)
9.3
Leaving the twenties text marked, move the pointer to the end of the
file (after the word, fifty) and press <select> on the mouse. Hold down
<ctrl> and, without releasing it, touch <C>. What happens? [Iæm not
going to tell you. Try it out for yourself.]
9.3
The four keys at the bottom left of the keyboard, Z, X, C and V each
have an editing function. Here is a summary of what they do.
9.3
<ctrl-C> copies marked text to where you have put the mouse pointer.
9.3
<ctrl-V> moves marked text to where you have put the mouse pointer.
9.3
<ctrl-X> deletes marked text. Beware!
9.3
<ctrl-Z> removes the marking.
9.3
The best way to remember these is to use them, but these mnemonics might
help: Zap the black; Cross out the teXt; Copy; moVe.
9.3
There are some more editing features in the pop up menus. What is
available varies according to what version of Edit you have, so if you
cannot do all of the following, please donæt write to me.
9.3
Normally, if you press <tab>, the caret jumps to level with the next
word in the line above. If there are no words in the line above, it goes
to the beginning of the line. Any text in the same line as the cursor is
jumped over. If the beginning of the line is outside the window, the
text moves across the window to show the caret at the beginning of the
line.
9.3
In the Misc submenu, selecting Column tab changes all that. With Column
tab switched on, touching <tab> inserts spaces so as to move the cursor
to the next tab position. So you can use it to create columns. But you
will spoil it all if you try to insert anything anywhere in the
paragraph, before the tab.
9.3
It sounds complicated, but is easier in practice. Try it.
9.3
Also in the Misc submenu, Overwrite switches between inserting and
overwriting, and Wordwrap ensures that words are not broken at the ends
of lines. This feature only applies to text typed in after Wordwrap is
switched on. Note that Wordwrap is not the same as Window wrap, which we
looked at earlier.
9.3
The Select submenu has alternative copy, move and delete commands, plus
Indent. These only work if you have selected (marked) some text. Indent
has its own window, opened by moving the cursor over the arrow. You type
a number into the box and then click on [OK]. Marked text will be
indented that number of spaces. To make it work properly, however, you
should first Format the text, using the Edit submenu.
9.3
Format determines the length (in System characters) of a line. The
default is 76 so if you want to shorten the lines, type a smaller number
into the box opened by EditÿFormat.
9.3
The Find facility in the Edit submenu is very useful. Use it to find a
particular word (or group of characters), or to count the number of
occurrences of the word, or to replace the word with another word. It
scans from the position of the caret to the end of the text, so if you
want to scan the whole document you must move the caret to the
beginning.
9.3
Re-load OneTo50 to give you a fresh start. Switch Window wrap on so that
you can see the whole text.
9.3
Make sure the caret is at the beginning, click the menu button and
EditÿFind.
9.3
Type ötwoò in the Find box and click on [Go]
9.3
The first occurrence of two will be highlighted.
9.3
Click on [Continue] and the highlighting will move to the two in the
twenties, and so on.
9.3
Now put the caret back to the beginning and open the Find text dialogue
box again.
9.3
Click on [Previous] and then [Count].
9.3
The answer is 4. You knew that, of course, but isnæt it useful?
9.3
Now do it again, but try replacing two with ttwwoo, using the [Replace
with] box. This time, you have to click on [Replace] instead of
[Continue].
9.3
Before you leave the Text found box, try clicking on [Undo]. You may
have to click more than once to undo all the replacing you did.
9.3
If you like, you can [Redo] it all again.
9.3
If you have left the Text found box, you can undo what you have just
done by pressing function key <f8>. You can undo several previous
actions. <f9> will redo them. Fun isnæt it?
9.3
Magic characters
9.3
Magic characters are also very useful. They are indicated by the
backslash key, ö\ò , which you will find on the keyboard above the
<return> key. (Or to the left of <Z> on RiscáPCs. Ed.)
9.3
For example, \* is any string of letters and/or numerals.
9.3
t\*o will find two but it will also find three fo.
9.3
What else will it find? Try it.
9.3
Here are two little problems for you, using OneTo50.
9.3
1. Why are there 19 occurrences of t\*o and not more than 19?
9.3
2. How many newline characters are there?
9.3
Answers next time.áuá
9.3
Comment Column
9.3
Acornæs future? Ö It will take some time for the dust to settle after
Acornæs reorganisation, but at the beginning of October, I went to a
press briefing at Acorn and came away much more optimistic. ART (Applied
Risc Technologies) has been given its head and told that if it has
technology it can sell, it must sell it. So it will be selling business-
to-business to anyone interested in using ARM technology.
9.3
Acorn Education will continue to sell RISCáOS machines into education
but they will also be sorting out some PCs that they can sell with an
Acorn brand name on them. AE will also be responsible for selling to
enthusiasts. However, Chris Cox will be in close contact with Peter
Bondar, Head of Applied Risc Technologies, trying to get out of him
anything that will sell to enthusiasts. In other words, Chris will be
looking to Peter to provide him with the latest technology in computer
form before it is developed to the extent that Acorn Education will need
it. AE have to have computers that will survive in schools, so they have
to be physically robust and fully documented. Enthusiasts, however, will
forgive such things as long as they get the technology as soon as
possible. If they get the technology early, that will increase the level
of excitement which will, in turn, generate more interesting and
innovative applications based on these new technologies, so Chris Coxæs
vision of feeding new technology to the enthusiasts and them feeding
back to Acorn (8.9 page 24) is much nearer to reality now than when he
shared it with us.
9.3
Ed.
9.3
Acorn rumours (from a reliable source) Ö At the time of the
redundancies/reorganisation, the share price was 110p, in the week of
Acorn World 95, it hit a high of 159p. The story is that Oracle (the
worldæs second biggest software company) are putting out a spec for a
$500 risc-based home computer/web station. ARM Ltd would not confirm or
deny that they are involved but said that the ARM 7500 chip would
certainly be ideal for such an application.
9.3
Ed.
9.3
Acorn support Ö In Archive 9.1 p23, Jim Nottingham was quoted as having
complained about Acornæs support. This was an unfortunate mis-quotation
and Jim has asked Archive to make it clear that he has always enjoyed
highly satisfactory product support from Acorn. Archive is pleased to
set the record straight and regrets any embarrassment caused to Jim or
Acor Customer Services Department.
9.3
Ed.
9.3
Acorn? Whatæs in a name? Ö Have you noticed the very subtle way in which
the name ÉAcornæ has gradually disappeared? At first ÉARMæ stood for
ÉAcorn Risc Machineæ but the ÉARMæ in ARM Ltd stands for ÉAdvanced Risc
Machineæ. Similarly, ÉARTæ isnæt ÉAcorn Risc Technologiesæ but ÉApplied
Risc Technologiesæ. And Online Media never had a visible link with the
name ÉAcornæ! Older Acorn-ites may be horrified by the abandoning of the
name Acorn, but itæs quite understandable because Acorn are the victims
of their own success in the educational arena. In a business or
industrial setting, the name ÉAcornæ gets tarred with the brush of öOh,
yes, arenæt those the computers our kids used to play with at school?ò
This isnæt too helpful when you are trying to demonstrate a piece of
leading edge technology (because Éleading-edgeæ it most certainly is).
Does any other company have processors with such low physical power,
high processing power, low chip cost as ART? Why else would a huge
American company such as DEC Corporation license RISC technology from a
tiny British company to make the StrongARM?
9.3
Ed.
9.3
Apollonius PDT (Archive 9.2 p77) Ö I was interested in the review of
Apollonius PDT, having spent many a long evening battling it myself.
Before recently purchasing CAD software, I obtained demo versions which
enabled me to compare the following items. As a result, I eventually
purchased the two which are starred...
9.3
  Apollonius PDT *
9.3
  CADet
9.3
  G-Draft
9.3
  ProCAD *
9.3
  RiscCAD
9.3
  Techsoft Designer
9.3
  Vector
9.3
  WorraCAD
9.3
I chose Apollonius PDT because its parametric facilities mean that it is
the only product which allows true Computer-Aided-Design rather than
mere Computer-Aided Drawing. Its potential is enormous but Oak havenæt
finished fine-tuning it yet and it remains a little too unreliable to
use with confidence, even in its most recent incarnation (version 1.09).
Thus it really canæt be recommended yet.
9.3
ProCAD is recommended, however. It is a highly sophisticated package
which is very easy to use. For the production and manipulation of
technical drawings, it bears comparison with any of the DOS-box
heavyweights and can be put to serious professional use. And for less
demanding situations, its slimmed-down version, CADet, appears to offer
most of ProCADæs features at only a fraction of the cost.
9.3
Chris Bell, Lampeter.
9.3
Archive CD Ö The CD is good, but it really needs a way of searching
through it to find something. For example, if I want to find articles on
Risc PC screen mode definitions, I have to use Edit to search each
individual textfile. Some front end program that allows full searching
of the magazine would be really useful.
9.3
John Woodthorpe, Rugby.
9.3
Yes, John, we agree entirely. If you have any of the Acorn software
products that have the DDE, you can use the Find application which
allows you to search multiple files. Otherwise, youære stuck Ö unless
Acorn release Find into the PD or someone writes an equivalent. Or is
there already one in the PD? Does anyone know?
9.3
Ed.
9.3
Arnor / Protext Ö In 9.2 p17, Charles Martin asked for the new address
of Arnor so that he could upgrade from the RISC OS version to the PC
version. Arnor Limited was placed into liquidation on 28th July 1995. A
company called Compo Software Limited has agreed to deal with former
customers of Arnor Limited, and their address is Unit 3, Green Farm,
Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, PE17 2PF. (01487-773582)
9.3
P Swoboda, Cambridge.
9.3
Cumana SCSI 2 Ö Iæd like to add to my comments (9.1 p27) regarding
problems with my Cumana SCSI 2 card, and Stuart Bellæs comments (9.2
p64). Firstly, like Stuart, I regard reliability as paramount and if he
takes a closer look at my article, the speed thing became an issue only
in pursuing the problem of unreliability.
9.3
Secondly, like him, I have had good service from SCSI. No insurmountable
problems getting any device going, six makes and various sizes of fixed
hard drives, 5╝ö and 3╜ò SyQuests, three CD-ROM drives, tape streamers
and only one failure and that because the device I bought cheap second
hand was actually duff! So, no complaints about SCSI generally. Compare
that to the problems getting two IDE hard drives to work!
9.3
Next, Stuart does own what is widely regarded as the fastest of the SCSI
1 cards and, yes, heæs happy with that. Would he have been happy if heæd
bought a Risc PC at considerably more cost than an A5000 to find that
the Risc PC was no better and had more reliability problems?
9.3
I bought a SCSI 2 card to future-proof the connectivity for my sparkling
new Risc PC. My five year old A3000, with its Cumana 8-bit SCSI card,
was past its prime. The SCSI 2 manufacturers claim good speed from their
various cards and, as I understand, in the PC world these claims are
well founded but not, it seems, in the Acorn world, where devices are
not achieving the lowest rates claimed by their manufacturers.
9.3
As I said, the reliability was lacking and when I came to prove that, I
discovered that performance was also way down. That might be a backplane
or motherboard problem or whatever Ö I donæt know, but Cumana arenæt
saying itæs any of those things.
9.3
In my comments, I was attempting to get more information from other
users of the Cumana card, not trying to put people off. In fact, quite
the reverse Ö it is in my interest to have the card working well and
reliably. I am in contact with Cumana (and very amicably... at the
moment) who do not deny that problems exist and they say that there are
other users with problems. Because of feedback from these people, they
have been able to pinpoint certain faults which they have now fixed and
will give customers much better performance. It is up to you as an
individual to read Éperformanceæ as being either speed or reliability. I
am hoping for both!
9.3
I am awaiting this updated software from Cumana and I will let you know
how I get on with it.
9.3
Peter Young, Northallerton.
9.3
ExpLAN HolyBible Ö I saw this application demonstrated recently and it
really is an impressive system Ö more so than Gabriel Swords made it
sound in his reviews. I think some people would consider buying Acorn
computers in order to be able to run this software.
9.3
Anthony Hilton, Leeds.
9.3
I agree with you entirely. For anyone interested in using the computer
as an aid to studying the Bible, HolyBible is superb Ö almost up to the
standard of Sibelius in terms of Éuntil-youæve-seen-it-you-wouldnæt-
believe-it-and-would-buy-a-computer-just-to-run-itæ. I am told, by those
in the know, that PCs still have the edge in terms of the variety of
other resources such as bible atlases, etc but that HolyBible is better
in a number of ways: (a) It is easier to use than Windows and Mac
counterparts (b) It is available in more different translations
including Greek and Hebrew (c) It is available in English (as opposed to
American!!) versions and (d) It interfaces better to WPs Ö even giving
Hebrew in editable form (using EasiWriter Pro) which, as far as I am
aware, is not possible on any other platform. (Donæt forget that Hebrew
is right-to-left reading!)
9.3
Ed.
9.3
Fargo Primera colour printer Ö We got a call recently from the Head of
Media Studies at a local secondary school. He wanted to improve the
quality of the colour prints he was getting, particularly for the work
his ÉAæ level pupils submit for exams.
9.3
He already had a Canon BJC600 bubblejet, which is fine for draft prints
but was not doing justice to the quality of detail of the work of his
candidates.
9.3
Tentatively, I directed him towards the Primera dye sublimation colour
printer from Spacetech. I say Étentativelyæ, not because of the price of
the printer which, at under ú1000, is very reasonable for this kind of
technology, but because the cost of each copy in consumables is around
ú2.50 (ex VAT).
9.3
Undeterred by this, as he is only expecting to do a small number of
prints, he requested sample prints and, being impressed by what he saw,
decided to order one which I installed in September.
9.3
Setting it up is quite straightforward; just a few pieces of securing
tape to remove and the ribbon to be inserted into the ribbon cradle.
Although it is called a ribbon, it is not like the thin tapes you may be
used to in a typewriter or dot matrix printer. This ribbon is the width
of the printer and runs lengthways. It fits into a type of cartridge
called the ribbon cradle which then slots easily inside the printer.
9.3
With the printer come two alternative means of printing Ö dye
sublimation and wax thermal methods. Each method has its own type of
ribbon and its own paper. The printer is supplied with ribbons and paper
capable of producing 25 copies of each type. If you wanted to
interchange between the two types before a ribbon had run out, it would
be necessary to have a second cradle in which to keep the other partly-
used ribbon. This costs ú19 from the suppliers of Fargo printers,
Bannerbridge plc of Basildon, Essex. The cost of producing a wax thermal
print is only around 40 pence but does not match the quality of the dye
sublimation process, though is better than an inkjet colour printer.
9.3
The printer needs the Photodesk software (version 1.22 or later) to run
it, along with a printer driver supplied by Spacetech.
9.3
When printing, the printer loads a piece of paper and lays down the
yellow component of the print; it then reverses the paper back to the
beginning and lays down the red component, reverses the paper again and
does the blue component. The printing process is fairly slow, taking
around 5 minutes to process a complex A4 graphic initially and then
around 15 minutes to print it on the paper. Still, considering the cost
of copies, it is unlikely that one would want to öchurn them out.ò
9.3
So what about the result? It is one thing to see test prints provided by
a company to promote its product and another to see how your own turn
out. Is it worth nearly ú3 a copy and 20 minutes to print?
9.3
The teacher concerned had no doubt Ö he was delighted with the quality
of print and I was mightily impressed (and with a measure of relief
having suggested it!) The prints were quite stunning, on a par with a
glossy magazine and showing a degree of detail I had not anticipated. We
havenæt tried the wax thermal method as he has only one cradle at
present, but it is the better method he really wanted which shows the
pupilsæ work to best effect.
9.3
Mike Battersby, Northolt, Middlesex.
9.3
FreeNet Ö Since writing my article on FreeNet (9.2 p31), a number of
things have come to light.
9.3
Firstly, a change of address. I inadvertently issued an old address for
FreeNetæs author, Tom Hughes. His correct address is: 13 Priory Court,
Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire EN11 8DB. Apologies to the new residents of the
old address who are probably wondering why they have suddenly become one
of the largest mail users in Hertfordshire!
9.3
Secondly, an error which was pointed out to me by Philip Draper. I
stated that the RiscáPC Ethernet Card (ÉEtherBæ) was a DCI-4 device and
would not work with the current release of FreeNet, which is a DCI-2
stack. However, it would seem that early issues of the Atomwide EtherB
card were actually shipped with a DCI-2 device driver, which is good
news for prospective FreeNet users. Perhaps Atomwide would be prepared
to supply this module to owners using the card with the later DCI-4
driver, so that they can Éretrogradeæ the card for FreeNet use.
9.3
Finally, a new development. There is now a FreeNet Starter Pack which
includes the latest versions of FreeNet, SLIPdial, and the ArcWeb HTML
browser. The whole thing is tied together with a graphical front-end
program and a utility which aims to take the pain out of configuring
FreeNet.
9.3
The pack is designed for use with dial-up SLIP Internet Providers,
specifically Demon. However, the author, Phillip Temple
([e-mail]. co.uk) has offered to provide custom setups
suitable for use with any SLIP provider via email, even those using
dynamic IP address allocation.
9.3
The FreeNet Starter Pack is available from the following site by
anonymous FTP. Following the current trends, I present the address as a
URL: ftp://cslib.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pub/Acorn/freenet/p.temple/
freenet_starter_pack0.04.spk
9.3
Beware, however, when you download this file. It is over 800Kb long, and
may take quite a while, even with a fast modem! Also, watch out for
version 0.05 which may have been released by the time you read this, and
which fixes an unpleasant bug.
9.3
Richard Bradbury [e-mail]
9.3
Hard disc sizes Ö There has been some discussion recently of the
disparity between the sizes quoted by manufacturers and suppliers, and
the sizes displayed by e.g. free. There can be two reasons.
9.3
Some manufacturers (e.g. Conner) quote the total physical capacity of
the disc, including private space used by the disc hardware itself for
defect management. Thus the full capacity as quoted is not available for
the user.
9.3
Secondly, you must be careful to differentiate between absolute k or M,
and the k and M used by RISC OS. Manufacturers generally quote absolute
capacity to show their drives in the best possible light, so 400Mb means
just that, 400 000 000 bytes. However, RISC OS, through free, uses the
Ébinaryæ k or M. Thus when free reports 400Mb, it really means 400 ╫
1.024 Mb, i.e. 409á600á000 bytes. To see both uses on RISC OS, use the
free option from the iconbar menu, and then use *free from the command
line (press f12). My Risc PC 420Mb disc shows 345Mb used from the
iconbar, but 362 551 296 from the command line.
9.3
Chris Johnson, Edinburgh.
9.3
Hot PC cards? Ö A number of customers have commented that their PC cards
seem to run very hot. We have checked this with Acorn, and they assure
us that the working temperature of the PCácards is well within their
specified operating range. Also, two customers have had an ARM card
failure very shortly after installing a PC card. I admit that this is
not a statistically significant sample, and I know Iæll get in trouble
with Acorn for scare-mongering, but it does make us cautious.
9.3
If you feel nervous about this, we suggest you take advantage of the new
PCáCard Cooler, costing ú21 from Repair Zone (no VAT). This ÉRay
Maidstone specialæ consists of a fan which is attached to the PC card,
draws its power from the connectors on the main circuit board and
creates a continuous blast of air over the surface of the 486 chip. It
reduces the working temperature of the chip quite considerably.
9.3
If you would like to order a PC Card Cooler, send a cheque for ú21,
payable to öRepair Zoneò, either to NCS (and we will pass it on to Ray)
or direct to Repair Zone.
9.3
Ed.
9.3
Internet credit card fraud Ö (9.2 p16) How dangerous is it to quote your
credit card number over the Internet? There are two aspects to this
question: the possibility of the data being read and the potential
damage that could be caused by someone discovering your credit card
number.
9.3
How secure is the Internet? Ö Not very. The Internet was not originally
designed with security in mind. Most Internet providers make their
systems reasonably secure these days, but it only takes one insecure
site anywhere in the world and the hackers can get in. The
news.admin.net-abuse.announce and news.admin.net-abuse.misc newsgroups
often contain descriptions of insecure sites which have been discovered
to have been used by a net abuser. The recent Crusader email spammer
disguised his origin by making use of at least three insecure sites, one
in the USA, one in Italy and one in Korea.
9.3
Once an insecure site is found, anyone who knows Unix (or whatever OS
the site uses) can launch a little script to search any passing email
for patterns that look like credit card numbers. There also exists the
possibility that employees at Internet backbone sites might be
dishonestly searching the electronic packets that pass through their
site.
9.3
Even more dangerous than putting such information in an email, is
putting it in a Éformæ on a website. Iáknow of some websites where the
file that contains the information which has just been typed into a form
is held in a subdirectory, fairly close to the URL of the form. Some
browsers are capable of jumping out of HTML browsing, and accessing WWW
files and directories directly. So far, Iæve only found such files
containing the replies from forms which do not ask for a credit card
number, but there are lots of hackers out there who are smarter than me.
9.3
In general, the Internet is less secure than mailing the information on
a postcard. If you wouldnæt write something on a postcard, donæt write
it on Internet.
9.3
How secret does my card number need to be? Do I need to be paranoid
about all the shop assistants, waiters, supermarket checkout staff and
mail order processing people who have had legitimate access to my card
number? Could one of these people have made a note of my card number
with the intention of using it fraudulently?
9.3
If someone really wants to collect lots of card numbers, theyæd be
likely to have much more success by getting a job at a supermarket
checkout than by hacking the Internet, so I can only assume that it
isnæt really a problem. Does anyone know if this is so?
9.3
Mike Williams, [e-mail].
9.3
I havenæt had any experience of using the Internet but if there are
people scanning for four sets of four numbers, and using them as credit
card numbers, then maybe this calls for some lateral thinking!
9.3
1. Donæt use any set pattern for credit card numbers. e.g. 510 12 32398
7 600 12
9.3
2. Donæt use any spaces. e.g. 5101232398760012
9.3
3. Use a combination of numbers and words. e.g. five one zero one 2323
nine eight seven six 0012
9.3
I just thought of these in a few minutes and Iæm sure that there must be
many more variations. Or is the problem not as simple as that?
9.3
Gary Jones. [e-mail].
9.3
Image scanning (9.1 p18) Ö George Foot mentions that photographic paper
is Émottledæ, and that this becomes apparent if a small photo is scanned
and enlarged. He suggests scanning from a negative, or a photographic
enlargement to avoid this. I would suggest that this will help, but only
to some extent, since photographic negatives (and therefore
enlargements) do suffer from mottling Ö usually called the grain of the
film. This grain depends on the type of film used Ö the higher the ASA
number, the more grainy the image, so big enlargements from ASA 400 film
(not that uncommon) certainly show noticeable graininess, whereas ASA
100 film gives a much higher quality.
9.3
The same is true of scanned images Ö Iæve noticed big differences in the
quality of standard 6╫4 photos scanned at the same resolution and
enlarged to A4 size, and found that it is the type of film used which
makes the difference. Having said this, however, if you do want to
enlarge a small part of a scanned image, it will help to scan it at very
high resolution Ö the biggest the scanner and memory allow. When the
image is enlarged, the resolution decreases.
9.3
If you, like me, have to scan on one machine and work on another, and
have to use a floppy to move between them, use the JPEG format Ö itæs
quite possible to get 15Mb of sprites onto a 1.6Mb disc with little (or
no) noticeable loss in quality. You might also find it preferable to use
ChangeFSI to produce the enlargement, since it seems to produce better
results (via better dithering) than enlarging in, say, Impression.
9.3
Mike Clarkson, Shrewsbury.
9.3
Lottery fever (9.1 p18) Ö The combination of month-day-hour-minute-
second gives 31,536,000 different seeds not 17 million as stated Ö this
is the number of seconds in a year. Does the RND function repeat in a
loop Ö surely it must? How long is the loop? 231 numbers, perhaps, the
same as the number of possible seeds?
9.3
The simplest Lottery program is FOR I=1 TO 6 : PRINT RND(49) : NEXT I
9.3
If two of the numbers are the same, try again!
9.3
Colin Singleton, Sheffield.
9.3
Of mice and mend Ö There have been articles previously about the cost of
repairing or servicing mice and whether it is worth the time or expense.
In the Kingston Schoolsæ repair scheme, we have generally adopted the
policy of replacement as the more cost-effective method except for the
very simplest fault.
9.3
This has really been made economic by the purchase of the CPC Archimedes
mouse (order reference CSMOUSE-ARC). The price of this (ex VAT) is
ú8.99, or ú8.00 when bought in quantities of 25 or more. We have been
using them for about a year now so have had time to assess their
robustness and durability.
9.3
They are slightly heavier than the Acorn mouse, have a good quality
plastic body and positive tactile switches. They have proven to be
reliable and generally liked by users who have commented on them.
9.3
At one time, I was paying more than that just for replacement leads on
the older types of mice. These are very good value, particularly for
hard-up schools. You need to open an account to order from CPC but this
should be no problem for schools. Incidentally, they also do very good
value accessories of other kinds that can be used with Acorns, e.g.
their powerful Zydec amplified speakers currently costs around ú25.
9.3
Mike Battersby, Northolt, Middlesex.
9.3
Rhapsody 3 Ö I have an A440/1 with Midi interface, Rhapsody v3.01,
Yamaha Clavinova CLP-155, aided by TG100 and EMT-1 tone generators.
Iáthought about Sibelius, but 7 is too high-powered (and expensive) for
my simple needs, and 6 is too cut-down. (You need the new Sibelius 7
Student Ö halfway inbetween! Ed.) My objective is to produce music,
largely piano, from that equipment and, in fact, Rhapsody has done that
very well. I have been able, finally, to find out what certain pieces
really sound like since buying the scores, some well over 50 years ago.
It is also good at one-man duets!
9.3
I do, however, have some comments on Rhapsody 3:
9.3
1) Loading Rhapsody 2 files Ö this has resulted fairly often in the
complete deletion of the program from the machine. A re-load of both
program and file is usually successful. The conversion is not always
accurate Ö some accidentals are not converted. The same deletion
sometimes occurs when loading a Squashed file by clicking on it.
9.3
2) Moving a chord cluster into another slot has occasionally thrown up
an error Ö öA fatal error has occurred at ... etc.ò with a
recommendation to save but, of course, the current file cannot now be
saved. Moral Ö save, save, save before anything nasty happens.
9.3
3) Copying is not always accurate Ö in particular, Iáhave found that
copying a complete stave into another blank stave (to allocate to
another Midi instrument to be played simultaneously) occasionally
results in notes not correctly aligned. This is put right by editing
manually. Copying end-to-end to produce a file with several pieces seems
to be tricky; certain expression marks are not carried over (I would
like to use Perform but weird things have sometimes happened, which I
have not sorted out yet.)
9.3
4) The upper mordent sign turns into a trill on the score. I have found
it is sometimes more satisfactory to insert the actual notes to be
played.
9.3
5) The allocation of dynamic levels (p.92 of the manual) seems to be
faulty. For example, the allocation 4 9 13 15 shown in the manual gives
silence for mpÉ and mfæ, as do other combinations. This is a pity as my
instruments are just about inaudible at the quieter levels. This means
that I have to use the default setting (which works correctly) and avoid
the quieter dynamics. There is thus a much coarser gradation of
velocities.
9.3
6) Note-groups Ö for example, the insertion of some n-tuplets also
inserts trill and tremolo signs. Again, manual editing can delete the
unwanted signs, but it can be tricky. On some occasions I have altered
the time signature of a bar to something unusual (with a corresponding
tempo modification to that bar only) to get the notes in.
9.3
7) Some orchestral scores with a lot of notes and instruments hiccup on
playback now and then. Probably, something in the setup is being
overloaded, but I cannot decide what. A solution which sometimes works
is to split a 4 4 bar, for example, into two 2 4 bars or even four 1 4
bars, which might indicate too many bytes in a Rhapsody slot. This would
not give a satisfactory printed score, but Iárarely need to print.
9.3
What I would like in Rhapsody 4:
9.3
A real-time input system which will translate what is played at the
keyboard exactly into a conventional or similar score. Rhapsody and
other programs go some way, but even modern scoring leaves much to the
imagination and is a limitation on these programs.
9.3
Midi helps, and it is possible to work up programs which accept Midi
keyboard input and show exactly what is received as a graphical display
on a millisecond time axis. The underlying file can then be edited in
time, pitch and velocity from the display and played back with
millisecond timing. Key and time signatures, bars and conventional note
lengths are ignored which allows for rubato and off-beat piano playing
(which is what a lot of biological playing is Ö if looked at by the
millisecond).
9.3
I am sure that there is nothing new here, and if a professionally
written program on these lines exists which will record with sufficient
timing accuracy, perhaps you would be able to publish something about
it.
9.3
Peter Avis, Buckingham.
9.3
How about the new version of Sibelius? That provides Midi input but does
it provide what Peter is looking for? Is there a Sibelius user out there
who can tell us? Ed.)
9.3
System Insight have recently moved and their new address is in the
Factfile. Their Catalogue No. 10 is the latest but there is a recent
one-page Addendum to their wide range of printer consumables including
ink refills, papers and transparencies. As with most other suppliers,
there has been a big hike in paper prices in recent weeks but their
prices, which include VAT and carriage, remain competitive.
9.3
Jim Nottingham, York.
9.3
The Mac is not a typewriter Ö Iæve a few quibbles, but it really is an
excellent book. Everyone should read it, but donæt be bound by every
word.
9.3
A small error in Paulæs insert. The Em dash is Alt¡152, as stated, but
the En dash is Alt¡151, not Alt¡153. The latter is the minus sign. The
difference is slight, but can just be seen if you alternate the two,
thus ù Ö ù Ö ù Ö. The minus sign fits with the plus and equals signs + Ö
=, the en dash with the em dash ÿ ù ÿ. The hyphen fits with none of
these!
9.3
The Education Column
9.3
Joe Gallagher
9.3
The future of Acorn (again!)
9.3
I hope that this column will become a focus for the debate on Acornæs
role in education. Acornæs presence in the educational market is
something of a blessing as well as a curse. Undoubtedly it has helped to
keep the company going during the lean years but this has meant that it
suffered to a large extent from its image as an öeducational machineò
much in the same way as the development of the Amiga was undoubtedly
hampered by its tag as a ögamesò machine. However, the tie up with
education is not necessarily a bad thing as the efforts of the likes of
Microsoft in this particular arena demonstrate.
9.3
For us, in schools, Acornæs continuing commitment to education is
important as it will help to justify the not inconsiderable investment
made by our schools in IT. However, over the last year or so, it has
been getting gradually harder to justify the choice of Acorn equipment
in preference to other platforms for several reasons. While the original
Archimedes range left their rivals standing in terms of bangs per bucks,
this has not been the case in the more recent past.
9.3
True enough, the basic machines in the A30x0 range have tended to be
pitched at a considerably lower price than entry-level Intel-based
machines. Unfortunately, the specifications of these machines have, for
some time, been considerably superior to those on offer from Acorn. For
a start, all of them come fitted with a hard drive of at least 420Mb
capacity, 4Mb of memory (true, barely sufficient to run Windows), a
0.28mm resolution monitor as well as a fair smattering of expansion
ports and spare drive bays.
9.3
Although it has been a proud boast that, having the operating system
built into ROM along with basic applications such as Draw and Printers,
the Acorn range could be used without a hard disc and with less RAM than
their Intel counterparts, more recent applications are tending to be
considerably more resource-hungry. This is certainly true of programs
which make more intensive use of different forms of media and this
ölowest common denominatorò approach could prove to be a significant
limiting factor in the development of new programs.
9.3
Whilst it is understandable and laudable that Acorn machines do not tend
to become obsolete as quickly as their PC counterparts, I feel that more
programs should be able to take advantage of the fact that most newer
machines will have a hard disc and at least 2áMb of memory. Virtually
all Windows-based programs now come with an automatic set-up program
which takes care of all the housework of installing new software onto a
hard disc. Yet with many Acorn educational programs, you still have to
do it largely by hand. One or two megabytes of memory may have been
enough to get by on but, even taking into account the frugality of
Acornæs memory requirements, it is not really enough if you want to do
anything more adventurous with the machine.
9.3
For example, I recently created some Genesis Project applications using
256 colour graphics on the Risc PC for use on my schoolæs A4000 range.
Now 256 colours is hardly Éstate-of-the-artæ in this day and age, and
while I expected the applications to run much more slowly I was shocked
to find that they wouldnæt run at all because of lack of memory! I had
to re-edit the original files and convert all the pictures to 16¡colour
format. Although this could have something to do with the fact that
Genesis Project is rather greedy in terms of memory resources, it does
suggest to me that our idea of Éentry-levelæ may be just a tad on the
low side. The beauty, for me, of the Acorn range is the ease with which
you can run several programs at a time but you still need to have the
memory to do it.
9.3
The competition
9.3
On the processor side of things, the ARM 250 was beginning to look a bit
under-powered when compared to entry-level 66MHz 486 machines. The most
galling thing for Acorn users is the fact that these setups are not that
much dearer than the entry-level Acorn systems. This situation has, to
some extent, been remedied by the new, more competitively priced, range
of machines that Acorn has launched onto the market but will it be too
little, too late to stop defections to öindustry standardò platforms?
9.3
This probably sounds pretty familiar stuff. I can remember being told
nearly ten years ago by a salesman in a West End store not to touch the
then BBC range as they were obsolete and Acorn were ögoing down the
panò. What impressed me then, and still continues to do so, was the
range and quality of the educational software available for the Acorn.
This trend continued, and was even improved upon, with the advent of the
Archimedes which ushered in ground-breaking programs such as My World,
StartWrite and Pinpoint to mention but a few.
9.3
However, the last year or so has seen the progressive migration of many
of these developers to the PC market, and this is worrying. No longer
can Acorn rely on schools buying their machines solely for the fact that
it has the best and most reasonably priced software. It has to make sure
that these software producers continue to develop programs for the Acorn
range and, as the experience of Computer Conceptsæ Xara has shown, this
can no longer be taken for granted.
9.3
Acorn and CD ROMs
9.3
In fact, there is one area of software development in which Acorn is now
lamentably behind and that is CD-ROMs. Developing CD applications is
understandably quite an expensive business, so it is no surprise that
the Acorn market for them is minuscule in comparison to that of the PC.
Undoubtedly, many of those available for the PC are absolute rubbish
but, because there are so many to choose from, you can invariably find
something of a reasonable quality to meet your needs.
9.3
Perhaps of more significance in this age when the CD-ROM is replacing
the TV as the öbaby-minderò of the middle classes, is the fact that many
of the titles from the Microsoft / Dorling Kindersley stable are seen as
being somehow inherently öeducationalò. Iæve never quite shared this
enthusiasm. Slick presentation is not always a good indicator of
educational value but theyære definitely what the punters want, to
borrow a phrase from the chairman of Spurs.
9.3
In contrast, apart from a few notable exceptions such as Hampshireæs
adaptation of the Usbourne Exploring Nature books and the more recent
Guardians of the Greenwood from 4Mation, native Acorn applications have
been relatively few and of variable quality. When the Risc PC was
announced with its plug-in PC card, I thought that Acorn had finally
managed to get over this particular hurdle, albeit in a rather expensive
fashion. However, the protracted wait, first for the PC card itself and
then for the sound option, has left me rather disillusioned.
9.3
Actually, having purchased a set of PC cards nearly a year ago, my
school canæt afford the sound card upgrade now that it is available,
which is a bit ironic considering the fact that the only reason we went
for the PC option in the first place was to be able to use Windows CD-
ROMs! As it happens, it may be that we neednæt have bothered as the good
folk at Desktop Laminations are beginning to develop readers for all our
favourite Dorling Kindersley CDs. Whatæs more, they donæt just work on
the Acorn, they perform even better than on the PC platform. According
to DLæs Peter Hughes, they intend to extend their range to incorporate
the excellent Living Books series from Bronderbund. Now why couldnæt
Acorn have thought of that 18 months ago? At the very least, they should
be supporting the efforts of Desktop Laminations to the very hilt.
9.3
What can Acorn do?
9.3
This brings me to my final point, and I really will sign off after this.
If Acorn is (temporarily I hope) retreating to its educational
heartland, it does need to look at ways in which it can support its
users as well as making itself more attractive to educational
purchasers. I think it has begun to do this in its move to direct
marketing for schools along with preferential prices for education.
However, it also needs to listen to those users Ö and Iæm not sure if it
has always done this in the past. And thatæs where you, the viewers,
come in!
9.3
With your help, this column could become a means of articulating the
views of educational users as to the future of Acorn in education. In
what ways do you think Acorn should be supporting schools? How do you
think they should be packaging their systems? Would bundles of
educational software be attractive? Is there any mileage in training
vouchers for purchasing schools?
9.3
Another possible direction for this column could be to take a longer
term look at programs Éin the fieldæ. Reviews are useful as a purchasing
guide but they are, of necessity, the result of short term evaluation.
For example, some time ago, I wrote a not over enthusiastic review of
First Logo but are there teachers out there who have found that it works
for them in the classroom and, if so, what makes it work for them? Are
there öHint sheetsò or notes that colleagues have found useful in the
classroom or Inset sessions that they would like to share with others?
To get the ball rolling, Iæve included, on the monthly disc, some
(brief) notes on the use of Pinpoint, in Impression format and
StartWrite format. Theyære not very lengthy but they may do for a staff
workshop.
9.3
Please write with your comments to me at: 8áValentine Road, Hackney
London, E9 7AD.áuá
9.3
Geraldæs Column
9.3
Gerald Fitton
9.3
My column is a little shorter than usual this month Ö not because the
number of letters youæve sent me have reduced, but because the topics of
your letters have varied widely and so Iæve had to spend more time than
usual on generating individual replies. Anyway, what I decided to do was
to look at some of my earlier correspondence and select a couple of
items for this column which were previously omitted for want of space.
9.3
Impression as a graphics library
9.3
Roger King sent me this idea. Examples of the files to which I refer are
on the Archive monthly disc in the directory Library.
9.3
Essentially, what Roger has done is to use his Impression Publisher (it
also works in Style) as a database of drawfiles and sprites. He has
created a new master page which contains twelve graphics frames, each
50mmá╫á50mm. Above each graphic frame is a small text box, 50mmá╫á12mm,
containing the title of the graphic. The graphics are dropped into the
graphics frames and a suitable text inserted in the title frame. Choose
the text for these title frames with care since they are really an
Éindexæ to the library of graphics.
9.3
There are many advantages to using Rogeræs system for storing graphics
rather than the usual Acorn directory structure but the one I have found
most useful is the ease with which I can search through the database.
Since you will have chosen the titles for your graphics carefully, you
will be able to search for that text through your library document Ö
remembering to select ÉWholeádocumentæ when you do your search. Once you
have found your graphic, you can save it using <ctrl-f3>.
9.3
Precision
9.3
It seems years ago that I received a letter from Nik Kelly on this
subject. In his letter, Nik pointed out that, using a variety of
spreadsheets and calculators, he had tried calculating the standard
deviation of the following six numbers: 1.797, 1.797, 1.798, 1.799,
1.799, 1.799. He was surprised to find that the answers ranged from
9.8319áeÖ4 to 9.8336áeÖ4. He concluded that they are accurate to only
three significant figures.
9.3
Since I received Nikæs letter, I have had many more complaining about
the precision of certain spreadsheet calculations. Now I know that you
may not be interested in standard deviations, but this article (like
most of my articles) has a wider application than the calculation of
standard deviations. Indeed, I use it only as an example.
9.3
Nik concludes his letter with:
9.3
öWe must limit reported standard deviation results to three significant
figures, as recommended by HLRæs draft ÉPrecision & Accuracyæ SOP. We
need to challenge calculators and spreadsheets for arithmetic precision
and accuracy, and we must also check the integrity of their statistics
formulae. To establish benchmarks, we need sets of data calculated to
much longer precision than those shown above. How do we know which of
them were accurate?ò
9.3
I donæt wish to anticipate the detail of my answer but, using Fireworkz
and PipeDreamá4 the Érightæ way, the Éaccurateæ answer I get is:
0.000983192080250172. Iábelieve that my answer is accurate to much more
than the three significant figures quoted by Nik.
9.3
A digression
9.3
It was a long time ago when I was first confronted by this problem of
apparent lack of precision when carrying out particular types of
calculation. In fact, it was first demonstrated to me during a
ÉNumerical Methodsæ lecture given as part of my Maths Degree Course at
Imperial College.
9.3
Essentially, the reason for the lack of precision is this. If your
calculating equipment is limited to a fixed number of significant
figures, small differences between relatively large numbers cannot be
calculated to the same accuracy as the original data.
9.3
Let me give you an example which doesnæt need a calculator. Let us
suppose that you have two numbers which are close to 500á000, a and b.
Suppose a rounds off to 499á999 and b rounds off to 499á998. Both a and
b are accurate to six significant figures. However, the value of (aáÖáb)
is accurate to only one significant figure. We have lost precision
equivalent to five significant figures.
9.3
In the case of the SD calculation above, the original data differs only
in the fourth significant figure, even though most of the calculators
used have at least twelve digit precision. Calculating SDs involves
finding the differences between squares of numbers; in finding
differences between squares it is all too easy to choose a method in
which a significant amount of precision is lost!
9.3
The Fireworkz std(list) method
9.3
If you want to calculate the standard deviation of a list of numbers
then, in many spreadsheets, you can use a function similar to the
Fireworkz built-in std(list) function. Fireworkz gives the result:
0.00098319208141798 to the formula:
9.3
std(1.797,1.797,1.798,1.799,1.799,1.799).
9.3
I believe that the first eight significant figures are correct and that
the ninth is wrong.
9.3
Geraldæs method
9.3
The Écorrectæ method of calculating SD values which are small when
compared with the mean of the numbers, is that which I show in the file
[StdDev] which you will find on the monthly disc. It is the method
explained to me many years ago by my Numerical Methods Lecturer.
9.3
The first thing that you must appreciate is that, if you reduce every
value in the set of data by a fixed amount, the true value of the SD of
the modified data is equal to the SD of the original data. For example,
the SD of the three numbers 1001,1002,1003 is exactly the same as the SD
of the numbers 1,2,3.
9.3
The recommended method of calculating the SD of a set of data is to
first calculate the mean. Then you subtract the mean from each number.
Finally, you calculate the SD of the reduced data. The value for the SD
given by this method is: 0.000983192080250172. I believe that this is
about as accurate as you will get with double precision arithmetic.
9.3
When I reduced each of Nikæs values by 1.8 (which is close to, but not
exactly equal to, the mean), before using the Std(list) function I got
the answer: 0.000983192080250173. Compare this answer with that given in
the previous paragraph when the (exact) mean is deducted from the data
and you will see that it differs by 1 in the fifteenth significant
figure. Iáassure you that the number with the 3 at the end is slightly
less accurate than the 2 given by subtracting the exact mean.
9.3
The bi-directional parallel port
9.3
If I have to choose a single topic from this monthæs correspondence then
this must be it. I shall not relate all the many different ways in which
this topic has arisen. Iæll restrict myself to just one.
9.3
It would seem that a few of the well known printer manufacturers believe
that everybody must have a computer with a bi-directional printer port.
9.3
For very many years now, all parallel port cards for the IBMátype of
personal computer have been bi-directional. This means that the port
will accept data flow both out of and into the computer. As we all know,
PCs become redundant much more quickly than Archimedes do and, as a
consequence, the number of PCs with uni-directional parallel ports is
negligible. On the other hand, the parallel ports of many of the
Archimedes machines up to and including the A540 are uni-directional and
these machines still exist and, I have no doubt, will continue to do so
for many years to come.
9.3
The Éoldæ standard for a parallel printer port is one called
ÉCentronicsæ (after the company which first developed it). This is a
uni-directional standard. When you connect a printer built to the
Centronics standard to a more modern bi-directional parallel port it
still works.
9.3
Now here is the bad news. Until recently, all printers conformed to the
Centronics standard and all of them worked with all Archimedes
computers. It seems that some printers now appearing on the market are
no longer built to the Centronics (backward compatible) standard but to
a ÉBi-tronicæ standard. Of course, since nearly all PCs still in use
have a bi-directional parallel port, problems in that market are
practically non-existent. The owner of a PC can go to the High Street
store and buy a ÉBi-tronicæ printer with impunity!
9.3
If you buy a printer built to the ÉBi-tronicæ standard (from your local
supermarket!) then it will not work with those earlier Archimedes
computers, such as the A540, which have a uni-directional parallel port.
9.3
I had intended to include a list in this article of all those computers
which are known to be ÉCentronics incompatibleæ but my list would not be
sufficiently comprehensive to be useful. I think that my advice must be
that you buy your computer through an Archimedes dealer rather than at
the High Street store, since they are more likely to be aware of this
problem and they wonæt sell you a problem.
9.3
Marketing
9.3
This month, I shall briefly mention this topic in the hope that this
will solicit opinion from you and allow me to expand on the theme in a
future article.
9.3
Regular readers of this column will know that I teach öAnything to do
with Mathsò. One of my subjects is Marketing. In case you are wondering
öHow is Marketing linked to Maths?ò, the link is via Statistics. To
quote the textbook; öStatistical data and analysis is used to plan and
control marketing activitiesò. What even regular readers might not know
is that, in addition to being able to teach Marketing, I had much
practical experience when I worked in industry.
9.3
When it comes to pricing a new product, the classic teaching is that, in
the initial stage, you can Écreamæ the market at a high price. Later,
you want to pick up more sales and so, as time goes by, you gradually
reduce the price.
9.3
Although not in the textbook for the course I teach, Iásuggest to my
students that this classic scenario of a high initial price which is
gradually reduced to maintain sales, applies only in rare circumstances.
I quote counter examples where it is better to start at a low price so
that the market is established quickly, and then, when the market is
established and everybody wants the product, the price can be increased.
9.3
So that you can more easily understand what I mean, let us take the
Acorn upgrade from RISCáOSá2 to 3 as an example. By offering RISCáOSá3
to all users of RISCáOSá2 at a low initial price for a well defined
limited period, the change over from RISCáOSá2 to 3 was rapid. Because
many Archimedes users changed almost immediately, it wasnæt long before
software appeared which would not run on a RISCáOSá2 machine. Because
this new software was so desirable, those who had not upgraded decided
to do so, albeit at the higher price.
9.3
Let me take another example. Computer Concepts brought in an upgrade to
ImpressionáII, namely Style and Publisher. They marketed this upgrade by
offering a low price upgrade from ImpressionáII and Impression Junior,
but only for a well-defined limited period of time. The result was that
nearly all those who were regular users of the earlier version upgraded
within the time limit. This established Style and Publisher in the
market and allowed Computer Concepts to drop ImpressionáII from the
range of products they sold. More subtly, they were able to reduce the
technical backup for ImpressionáII to virtually zero without any
complaint from their customers. To my way of thinking, this is an
example of good marketing practice by CC.
9.3
From my correspondence, I have no doubt that you know of many examples
of companies who have made a substantial upgrade to their product for
which they can charge. Some have introduced the upgrade (or new product)
at a high initial price to existing users, only to reduce it later. Let
me know whether you think that this was good marketing.
9.3
I do not want to anticipate my conclusions but I will quote Bob Ardler
who regrets that he didnæt heed (or was it Éreadæ?) my advice to upgrade
from ImpressionáII to Style whilst the price was cheap.
9.3
Finally
9.3
Please write to me at the Abacus Training address given on the inside
back cover of this Archive magazine, rather than via the Archive office.
9.3
It does help me if you send me a disc containing a worked example of
anything even slightly complex. At the very least, it helps avoid any
ambiguity about what you mean. In many cases, if you include some
typical data (as a disc file) which you need processed, then it saves me
a great deal of time, since I donæt have to create dummies which might
not be representative of your problem.áuá
9.3
Printers and Printing
9.3
Dave Floyd
9.3
Printing directly onto envelopes seems to be the topic of the day, so
Iæll start there. Aneurin Griffiths from Haverfordwest supplied the
following method for printing addresses on DL envelopes using an HP550C
and Ovation, which itself is the result of help obtained from James
Mansfield of Churt. Aneurin would also like to thank John Temple from
Oxford who also responded to his request for help on this subject.
9.3
Printing on DL envelopes
9.3
1. Before switching on either the computer or printer, set dip switch A6
to the up position. (A5 should be set down.) (With my system, using an
A5000 25MHz, all switches are normally down.)
9.3
2. Switch on the printer, and then the computer.
9.3
3. Using Ovation, open a new document: A4 Landscape.
9.3
4. Draw guide lines: Horizontal 112mm down, Vertical 78mm across.
9.3
5. The top right rectangle corresponds to the front of the DL envelope.
9.3
6. Make a text frame about the size of the area in which you intend to
print the address and draw a guide line at the top margin, and
vertically along the left edge of the frame.
9.3
7. Make a new directory called Address (or Addr-A-C, with additional
directories as required).
9.3
8. Open the directory and move the address frame (6) into the directory.
Now make copies of the frame in this directory and type the addresses in
these frames.
9.3
9. Copy the frame into the correct position on the A4 Landscape window.
Set the öprinter set-upò to print Landscape.
9.3
10. Load the envelopes into the special section in the paper tray of the
printer. Remember that the envelopes must be placed in position with the
back uppermost, and the right hand edge in the tray will be the top of
the printed envelope.
9.3
11. It is possible to add graphics (e.g. öAir Mailò tag, or an advert)
to the window before printing.
9.3
12. After completing, return the dip switches to their normal positions
after switching off the printer.
9.3
13. There is no doubt that Mail-merge could be used to print a set of
envelopes, but as the tray holds a limited number of envelopes, it may
be advisable to pause between each print.
9.3
An Ovation demo file is on the monthly disc.
9.3
!Printers and paper sizes
9.3
Robert Lytton from Leeds also writes regarding envelope printing,
although his tips may interest anybody who has to print on non-standard
paper.
9.3
One of the joys of RISCáOS is that, for the programmer, much of the work
is done for you and, for the user, the whole system integrates very
snugly together. When it comes to printing, this is particularly true.
The heart of the printing process is done by an application called
É!Printersæ. This program does all the talking to and interpreting of
information between the applications and the printers that may be
connected. It is well worth understanding how to get the best out of
this hard-working go¡between.
9.3
Paper sizes Ö The paper size we use, on the whole, is A4, but sometimes
you will prefer to tell your application that a different page size
should be used, and likewise to inform your printer. One example is when
you are printing on continuous paper for a banner, or on smaller pieces
of paper, such as envelopes or labels. The !Printers application is
there to tell both the printer and the applications the current paper
size. To select a new paper size:
9.3
1.áWhilst holding down <shift>, click <select> over your printer on the
iconbar.
9.3
2.áTo the right of the ÉPaperæ box, click <select> over the menu icon.
9.3
3.áFrom the menu, click <select> over the desired paper size.
9.3
4.áClick <select> over ÉOKæ.
9.3
However, you will probably not find the paper size that you require!
9.3
New paper sizes Ö To add some new paper sizes to the list of available
paper sizes is a simple and very worthwhile thing to do.
9.3
To open the paper size window:
9.3
1.áClick <menu> over your printer on the iconbar.
9.3
2.áClick <select> over ÉEdit paper sizes...æ.
9.3
This window can be used to view the preset paper sizes that you have and
design some new ones. You can view and enter values in millimetres or
inches by toggling the unit radio icons.
9.3
1.áIn the top ÉPaper size nameæ box, click <select>, delete the current
name (<ctrl-U>) and type in a new name.
9.3
2.áIn the ÉPaper sizeæ boxes, enter the actual paper size.
9.3
3.áIn the ÉGraphics marginsæ boxes, you can specify a non-printable
margin around the edge of the paper. This is very useful to prevent ink
getting too close to the edge of the paper and being Ésprayedæ into the
printer if it misses the paper!
9.3
4.áThe ÉText marginsæ boxes are used in a similar way to the ÉGraphics
marginsæ, but only for ASCII text printing, e.g. from !Edit Ö but not
outline fonts from a DTP application! However, there is a very important
final box.
9.3
5.áÉText margins-heightæ should be set very carefully if you are using a
dot matrix printer. This is because the printer will use it to calculate
the form length (height of paper) and will not use the
ÉPaperásize¡heightæ measurement. The height works out at 1/6 inch or
4.2mm per line; e.g. for a 3ö label, you will need to set it to É18
linesæ.
9.3
6.áClick <select> on ÉSaveæ to add it to the list of paper sizes
available.
9.3
If you wish to delete it later, you can do so by viewing it in the
ÉPaper sizeæ window and clicking <select> on ÉDeleteæ!
9.3
For example, a DL envelope paper size for when you are using the
envelope manual feed slot in an HP inkjet printer could be:
9.3
Name:    Envelope DL
9.3
Paper size:  215.0  105.0
9.3
Graphics margins:    40.0  20.0
9.3
    20.0  100.0
9.3
Text margins:    5  10
9.3
    10  0
9.3
Height  26 lines (about 110mm)
9.3
N.B. I have found the choice of a ÉText margins-heightæ in relation to
the ÉPaperásize¡heightæ quite tricky to achieve at times. For my dot
matrix to form feed at the right time using continuous 3ö labels, I had
settings of ÉPaperásize¡heightæ 75mm and ÉTextámargin¡heightæ 18 lines.
I also had to use a ÉPaperásize¡widthæ of 91mm, as I could not set the
tractor feed where I required it and needed to create an Impression
Style master page of 90mm ╫ 74mm in order for it all to work smoothly!
If you are not using a dot matrix printer, or you are feeding the sheets
in separately or you are using Draw, some or all of the problems will
not worry you!
9.3
Graphics margins
9.3
John Wallace from Crawley writes in response to the Graphic positioning
item in my last column and would be interested in any comments relating
to his observations. John is using Turbodriver v4.02 and !Printers
v1.22.
9.3
I have the Canon BJ-200 with CCæs Turbodriver and experienced the
problem that some lines inside the grey printing limits did not print. I
created horizontal and vertical millimetre rules in Draw, starting at
the left and bottom edges of the Draw area.
9.3
Left graphic margin in the paper size editor of !Printers was set at
1.2mm. I printed in Portrait format and the first printing appeared at
approx. 3.5mm from the left edge of the paper but the 10mm line was 13mm
from the left edge. I reset the margin to 1.9mm and reprinted. The start
of printing was still 3.5mm, but the 10mm mark was now 9.7mm from the
edge. The Top graphic margin has a similar effect and alters the
printing position on the paper, but does not set the grey printer limits
to the actual printing area.
9.3
Further complications follow. With my BJ-200 printer, the horizontally
printed scale is accurate to the thickness of the printed line, but the
vertical scale produces 28.2cm of scale in 28cm. Also, Draw uses the
bottom left hand corner as its reference for both landscape and portrait
modes, but the printer uses the top left corner of the paper for its
reference. This agrees in landscape mode but not in portrait.
9.3
So what should be done? Ideally, I think that there should be six
Graphics margin settings. A left start, bottom start and left, right,
top and bottom margins. Also, there should be page length and page
height scale factors. This would enable oneæs system to be set up to
exactly match the printer. As far as I am aware, there is no paper feed
rate customer adjustment on the Canon BJ-200.
9.3
Since receiving Johnæs letter, I briefly played around with the Graphics
margins options from !Printers and results did at first appear to be
confusing. By removing the 3.5mm left margin, the image I was trying to
print actually moved 3.5mm to the right. The image also moved downward
when I removed my top margin. What I think is happening here is that
either !Printers or the printer itself is compensating for the non-
printing area where it is either not specified or under specified in the
set up. I will experiment further and report back, but in the meantime,
if anybody has any light they could shed on this subject, I would be
very pleased to hear from them.
9.3
HP compatibility
9.3
Last month, I raised the question of HP compatibility in relation to the
Turbo Driver not correctly printing multi-paged documents on a v1.xx
Panasonic KX-P4420 printer, while !Printers had no problems. John Evans
of Mijas Software suggests that CC may be justified in claiming that the
reason for this is that the drivers operate differently. Both drivers
treat pages of text as graphics and, while an A4 graphic at 300 dpi
takes something more than 1Mb, there are usually blank horizontal spaces
between the lines of text which the printer can skip, thereby saving
memory and making an A4 page of text less memory hungry. Later HP
printers also have several compression mechanisms which allow the driver
to minimize the size of the data in the interest of transfer speed.
9.3
John surmises, therefore, that CC and Acorn drivers use either a)
different compression or b) different skip methods, some of which react
unfavourably with the printeræs ROM software. This seems probable, in my
opinion, and the main fault for this seeming incompatibility would seem
to lay at the door of Panasonic for not implementing the full HP
language into the version 1.xx ROMs in the first place.
9.3
In response to the same subject, John Woodgate from Rayleigh writes to
say that if Panasonic cannot supply the upgrade themselves then they
should be morally bound to give each printer owner permission to either
make, or have made, a copy of the 2.xx software on EPROM. He suggests
that one way of achieving this would be for Panasonic to authorise one
technical supplier to make and supply such EPROMs.
9.3
I totally agree but think it unlikely to happen, especially in this
case. When his problem first became apparent, Mick phoned Panasonic and
was given the price of the upgrade and the number of a supplier who
stocked it. He phoned the supplier and they denied all knowledge of the
upgrade. On contacting Panasonic again, Mick was told that there had
never been an upgrade. Rather confused by this, he waited a couple of
days and rang back to enquire again about upgrading from version 1 to
version 2. This time he was told that the upgrade itself had been
discontinued at the same time as the KX-P4420 range. There you have it:
the upgrade costs ú52, it has been discontinued but, in fact, it never
existed in the first place Ö just so long as we are all clear on that
one!
9.3
Duplex printing
9.3
Anyone who has ever had the need to produce double-sided copies on a
laser printer will probably have experienced paper jams due to paper
curl. It is also not easy to restack a pile of paper before turning it
over, due to the electrostatic charges which make the pages stick
together. How much easier life would be if the printer itself handled
both sides at once.
9.3
If you regularly run into the problem, the answer may be a duplex
printer. Some of the HP series III and IV printers have optional
attachments which allow you to effectively print both sides of the page
in a single pass, automatically turning the sheets as required.
9.3
In order to take advantage of this, you will also need a printer driver
extension called LjDuplex, from Mijas Software. LjDuplex has recently
been upgraded to allow the use of the Acorn Laserjet 4 drivers and to
improve the look of the dialogue box on earlier systems. It also allows
a job separation sheet to be inserted if you have dual input trays.
9.3
John Evans of Mijas Software points out that by using duplex printing,
it becomes feasible to produce print runs of up to 300 or so copies on a
laser printer. This kind of print run is often too expensive to warrant
litho printing, and duplex laser printing compares favourably with the
cost and speed of photocopying, while avoiding the problem of
photocopying printed sprites.
9.3
LjDuplex is shareware, and a fully registered copy is available for ú10
from Mijas Software, Winchester Road, Micheldever, Winchester, SO21 3DG.
9.3
Mijas also have a program which can take an Impression text file with
styles, and format it for a printer running HPæs PCL language. This
could provide huge time savings for text-only printing as, instead of
compiling pages of graphics, the software uses built-in fonts, or fonts
downloaded to the printer. This software is not, as yet, ready for
release, but I for one hope that John finds the time to develop the idea
fully.
9.3
Help! Ö Lexmark 3049-12R
9.3
Scott Wren from Peterborough has an A5000 and a Lexmark 3049-12R
printer. He has connected it all up and followed the instructions in the
manual for printing. Whenever he tries to print anything, the computer
counts the pages that are meant to be printing and all appears to be
okay at that end, but nothing is happening at the printer end of the
equation. Have any other readers got a Lexmark printer who could
possibly give Scott any help with coaxing it to talk to his A5000? If
so, please let me know at the address below.
9.3
Finally
9.3
As I said last time, there is a need for an article or two relating to
scanning in sprites for printing, and printing sprites for photocopying.
If any Archive readers have any hints and tips along these lines, it
would be very useful if you would pass them on to me. After all, the
larger the pool of information I can draw from, the more diverse and
useful the end product will become. For these or anything else printing-
related, please write to Dave Floyd,             c/oáPOáBox 2795, London
NW10 9AY.áuá
9.3
The Graphics Column
9.3
David Thornton
9.3
This month, I will be concentrating mainly on ArtWorks, the graphics
illustration program from Computer Concepts. You can obtain ArtWorks on
either fifteen floppy discs or on CD, from CC for ú169 +VAT or at ú180
through Archive.
9.3
Two other CDs are also available, containing a variety of clipart and
24-bit colour bitmaps. These two discs are available from CC for ú19
+VAT each or ú21 each through Archive. The CD version of ArtWorks has
the advantage that it also includes the entire contents of the first
clipart CD, as well as RISC OS 3 fonts at no extra cost.
9.3
ArtWorks was launched in 1992, and several versions have appeared since
then, the most significant being the upgrade to version 1.5. This
version is the most stable version of ArtWorks and I strongly suggest
that all users of earlier versions upgrade. Contact CC, quoting your
ArtWorks serial number, for details. Itáincludes support for Édeepæ
colour sprites, TIFF support and colour correction, as well as bug
fixes.
9.3
As far as I am aware, the only other developments have been the creation
of two new tools, namely Arranger and the Pressure Sensitive Tool. (I
hope to have a look at the Pressure Tool at a later date.)
9.3
Arranger
9.3
Arranger is distributed by CC at ú29 +VAT. It is only available from CC
due to distribution rights and overhead costs. The package consist of a
single disc in a CD style gem case, complete with instructions.
9.3
Installing the Arranger tool is simply a matter of double-clicking on
!Arranger, and the tool is then installed inside ArtWorks. Once Arranger
has been installed, loading ArtWorks will automatically load Arranger,
and the new tool will be installed at the bottom left of the toolbar,
represented by a magnet.
9.3
The other change to your copy of ArtWorks is that an additional layer,
entitled Émagnetæ, has been added to the layers menu.
9.3
Arranger in use
9.3
To begin using Arranger, you must first add some magnetic objects to the
page. This can best be achieved by selected the magnet layer from the
Layers pop-up menu.
9.3

9.3
Assuming that you have not set ÉMultilayeræ, selecting the magnet layer
will activate that layer only, and so all other layers will not be
editable. You may now create some magnetic objects in this layer using
any of the drawing tools. It is probably best to start off by drawing,
say, a vertical line. This will appear slightly fainter than a normal
line, which helps differentiate between the two.
9.3
After you have drawn a line, selecting the magnet tool will change the
info bar to display the following window.
9.3
The field name in the centre will display the currently selected layer.
You can cycle through each individual layer using the two adjuster
arrows, so it is then possible to make the objects in any layer
magnetic. Even though a layer may be set to magnetic, the magnetism will
not function until the magnetic attraction icon is on. When magnetic
attraction is on, all magnetic layers will be activated and all objects
in these layers will become magnetic. The field extent option determines
how closely you can drag an object before it snaps to the magnet.
9.3
(One problem here is that entering a number larger than 255 produces an
error message stating that the number is too big Ö which is fair enough
Ö but the message says it is an error outside ArtWorks and gives you the
option to quit ArtWorks! Presumably, this is because the tool is a
separate application and is therefore Éoutside ArtWorksæ, but it is a
bit unnerving to get such a drastic-sounding message.)
9.3
Uses for Arranger
9.3
Arranger is useful for aligning objects or for construction lines. It is
very helpful if you need to accurately position lines and will save you
time and effort with many types of drawing, such as technical
illustrations and drawings with perspective. You can add a diagonal
magnetic line and use it for aligning objects when using the perspective
tool, as I have attempted to illustrate below.
9.3
Arranger is a very interesting tool and good fun to play with. It can be
used for many tasks, and even if you are not sure exactly what you might
use it for, it is a great addition to an already excellent application.
9.3
Xara Studio = CorelXara
9.3
Many of you will have heard of Xara Studio which is, effectively,
ArtWorks 2, but for Windows only. Unfortunately, CC have absolutely no
plans to port Xara Studio to RISC OS until they believe that Acorn have
provided a Éproper C++ compileræ with the correct class libraries. Once
this is available, they will be happy to consider a port. This
contradicts the claim in last monthæs Graphics Column about CC
developing ArtWorks Pro. CC say that ArtWorks Pro has never been
contemplated and is definitely not under construction. My apologies to
CC and the readership for this inaccuracy. (Donæt be too apologetic,
David. I heard the same piece of news, i.e. that they were doing
ArtWorks Pro, from a number of other sources. Ed.)
9.3
In CCæs Archimedean magazine (issue 11), it says that Corel, the large
Canadian corporation that manufactures CorelDraw, has purchased the
rights to distribute Xara Studio as a complementary product to
CorelDraw. CC will still develop the product, but Corel will be the
distributor. This is not an unusual deal because Corel already
distribute many other products from smaller companies. Xara Studio will
be renamed CorelXara and will be launched at Comdex, November 13th-18th
in Las Vagas.
9.3
CC say in the Archimedean that they are not abandoning the Acorn market,
but even if they are not, it is still frustrating that no major
developments have occurred for Impression or ArtWorks for at least a
year.
9.3
The deal with Corel is certainly good for CC, but in order for the
program to ever reach a RISC OS desktop, it seems that Acorn need to
produce what CC call a öproper C++ compiler.ò It would be interesting to
know why Acorn havenæt produced what CC require.
9.3
(Let me hazard a guess... Software development can cost a lot of money
and so Acorn have to decide whether they can justify the investment.
Will a öproper C++ compilerò help to sell more Acorn computers and
thereby generate enough revenue to pay for the development? Thatæs the
commercial judgement that Acorn have to make. Ed.)
9.3
If you want to run CorelXara, you will need a PC with at least 8Mb RAM.
CC are being very cautious about recommending running CorelXara on a PC
card Ö you would need at least 12-16Mb of memory, the performance will
only be comparable to ArtWorks for RISC OS and, in some cases, it will
be slower.
9.3
Perhaps CC would consider giving us at least some improvements to
ArtWorks even if it were not up to the standard of CorelXara. Maybe we
could have an improved user interface, a new colour selection system,
updated file format filters (including full support for WMF, CGM and
possibly elements of CDR) and a few new tools. (Nice idea, David, but it
would be interesting to know whether Corel have made any stipulations
about what CC can, or cannot, do in terms of developing art programs for
Éother platformsæ. Ed.)
9.3
New tools for ArtWorks
9.3
CC have made the ArtWorks SDK (Software Development Kit) available to
anyone wishing to develop their own tools. The product is available from
CC for ú40. I would like to see a polygon tool for easy drawing of
different shapes. At the moment, you have to use the grid, which is not
perfect and is also fiddly. Has anyone developed any new tools for
ArtWorks? A recent letter from Spacetech indicated that they might
consider developing new tools for ArtWorks after Photodesk 2 is
launched.
9.3
Bitmap editors
9.3
I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to examine all of the
main 24-bit bitmap editors available for RISC OS. Over the next few
columns, I hope to look at some of them, mainly focusing on the upgrades
that were released at Acorn World 95. After examining the current
versions of Photodesk, Studio24 Pro, ProArt24, Compo, PhotoTouch and
RevPro24, I am very pleased to report that they are all excellent
applications in their own way.
9.3
The different applications are all aimed at slightly different sections
of the bitmap market, so comparing them is not straightforward. For
example, whilst Photodesk and ProArt24 are both capable of photo-
retouching and original painting, it is probable that users would choose
one over the other for the two different fields of work.
9.3
Software integration
9.3
RISC OS users are very fortunate to have six excellent applications for
bitmap graphics, but that makes it difficult to choose which one to buy.
Perhaps developers should start to look at ways of improving their
applications other than just by adding more graphical features. I would
like to see applications adopt more of a modular approach, allowing
additional tools, designed as modules as in ArtWorks, to be easily added
without having to create a new version of the application.
9.3
I would also like to see applications supporting some more industry-
standard file formats. The new version of Composition, released at Acorn
World 1995, will support Adobe Photoshop files and also EPS files. Iáam
glad that someone has decided to do this. Other important formats
include Acrobat, PDF, CDR, CMX, WMF and CGM, although most of these are
meta or vector file formats.
9.3
As usual, I am interested in your comments. You can write to me at 1
Castle Court, Lower Burraton, Saltash, Cornwall, PL12 4SE.áu
9.3
Making Crossword Puzzles
9.3
John Evans
9.3
Crosswords are popular and your Club/Parish/Community magazine could
easily take advantage of this. We have been adding a crossword to ours
for about two years and offer a small book-token prize each month. This
has been very popular, and lots of people seem to try to solve it,
although the number of entries varies with the difficulty!
9.3
So why not become a crossword compiler and help your overworked editor
provide additional interest to your magazine? What me? Yes you! Itæs not
that difficult if you get help from a couple of super utility programs
available for any RISCáOS computer.
9.3
The first of these, David Pillingæs CrossStar, helps you build up the
word grid and find simple anagrams. The second, Supergram, from William
Tunstall-Pedoe, helps you find those elusive multi-word anagrams. The
output from CrossStar is a drawfile for the finished crossword grid and
a list of clues which can easily be imported into Impression, etc.
9.3
The programs help you design the grid, fill it with words and find
anagrams to assist with the clues Ö all in less than an hour. The clues
themselves are much easier to dream up than to solve! Anyone who is even
moderately good at solving crosswords can make a job of them. It wonæt
cost you an arm and a leg Ö the two programs together will leave you
with change from ú25.
9.3
Start with CrossStar Ö optionally, copy it onto your hard disc Ö double-
click to bring it onto the iconbar and then click on the icon. Itæs a
good idea to read the manual at some time, but this program is very
intuitive. You can change the number of squares in the grid both
horizontally and vertically in the range 8 to 99 Ö 11, 13 or 15 are good
choices.
9.3
Making the empty grid
9.3
Now make the grid, by clicking with Éadjustæ on the squares you want to
be black. This is the really hard part of the job Ö there is not much
help from CrossStar. Aim at a good range of word lengths Ö you donæt
want a grid with every other word-space going from edge to edge Ö this
would be very difficult to fill. On the other hand, you donæt want a
grid full of two and three letter words. If you need some help,  have a
good look at some examples from your favourite newspaper or magazine.
CrossStar has facilities for making symmetrical patterns, by copying
vertically, horizontally and diagonally Ö these can be used to
advantage.
9.3
Filling the grid
9.3
Now fill the grid. I usually start on the top left quadrant with the
longest word. This is often something seasonal like HappyNewYear (12
letters) and can be typed into the grid. Click with select on the first
square and type in the first letter. If the position of the next letter
is obvious, CrossStar will move the cursor to the next letter but, if
not, it will Ébeepæ and you will have to select the next letter. Carry
on until the entry is complete. Alternatively, click with select on the
position of the first letter and Édragæ the cursor to the end of the
word-space. The word-space will turn red. Then click with select on
ÉSolveæ and the lefthand window will fill with all the possible words.
If the red squares are all empty, you will get a very large number of
possible words! If, later on in the process, many of the red squares
contain letters, you will get fewer possible words, or even none! If
there is a word you like, click on it with select and it will be
automatically entered into the word-space.
9.3
If, at some point, CrossStar cannot find a suitable word, you have a
number alternative strategies. At the start of the filling process, it
is fairly easy to change an earlier word. Use <select> to put the cursor
onto letters which do not form part of other words and delete the
letters with the space bar. Then use <select> to colour the whole of
this word red, and click on Ésolveæ. Look at the letter which is proving
difficult in your new word and pick an alternative word with an easier
letter in that position. Then try the new word again. If this doesnæt
work, look down the word list in the left hand window and write down or
remember all the possible letters in the difficult position. Then go
back and colour the new word red, click on Ésolveæ and see if CrossStar
can find a word with one of those letters in the critical position.
9.3
(David Pilling points out that it is possible to highlight two or more
words in red and then CrossStar will solve them simultaneously Ö I have
tried this and it works well. If it seems to take a very long time,
press <escape> and you will probably find that there are already a good
number from which to choose.)
9.3
Sometimes, even this strategy does not find a solution Ö donæt despair Ö
there are two further strategies before you have to clear this area of
the grid and start again. The first is to find a multi-word solution.
Look at the first letter and think of a possible short word which might
easily be the first part of a double word. ┬lternatively, look at the
last letter and try for an ending word. If the first letter is, say,
Énæ, try for Éno xxxxxxxæ or Énorth xxxæ etc. The xxx bits can be solved
by turning them red, as before. The second alternative strategy is to
make a small modification to the grid. If the first letter or last
letter(s) can be easily blanked out, try a shorter word and so on.
9.3
After you have filled your first one or two grids, you will start to
visualise some of the hazards and learn to avoid them when you fill
earlier words. Some letters occur less frequently than others and, if
you see a word space building up with too many of them Ö beware!
9.3
When I first started making and filling grids, I failed to complete
about half of them. After two years, I seldom fail, but I do find that
some grids have poor word selections Ö so I still throw some out.
9.3
Making up the clues
9.3
I recommend starting by making a DTP document which includes the
finished grid and a numbered list of the words chosen in the grid. This
is used as a Éworksheetæ to generate the clues.
9.3
CrossStar will generate a drawfile of the filled grid and also a list of
the ÉAcrossæ and ÉDownæ words with their numbers in the grid. I take the
drawfile and, in Draw, ÉSelect allæ and ÉGroupæ to allow me to drop the
completed grid as a selection into an Impression Publisher frame. I then
create separate frames for the across and down clues and drop them in.
(Use select and save selection in Edit.)
9.3
I then go back to CrossStar and highlight each word in turn, in red as
before, and click on Anagram. If there are one or more single word
anagrams, I edit the Impression document by adding the anagrams and the
letter count found next to Ésolveæ in CrossStar. For multi-words, the
letter count is divided, e.g (2,3).
9.3
CrossStar as a Crossword Generator Ö wish list
9.3
Dave Pilling tells me that CrossStar was intended as a solving program
rather than as a crossword creator. Despite this I have found it a very
worthwhile tool in this new capacity. As ever, I have a wish list and
would suggest three things. (1)áA multi-word solving procedure, along
the lines of Supergram (see below). (2)áAn automatic empty grid
generator. (3)áThe dictionaries might be reviewed for creation. I
suspect that because they were intended to Écatchæ all options, they
sometimes come up with words which are not in my favourite reference
tome (The Shorter Oxford). You can, however, edit the dictionaries and,
for serious work, I would suggest this. They can be dumped as an ASCII
file (press <menu> over the edit window), updated and re-imported.
9.3
Using Supergram to help with the clues
9.3
Did you know that Éman so dumbæ is an anagram of ombudsman or Écon ariaæ
of ocarina (a ceramic whistle if you arenæt musical) or Éstay menæ of
amnesty. I also like ÉEvermore succinct worshipæ as an anagram of
Norwich Computer Services. I use the program to look for anagrams where
CrossStar couldnæt find a single word anagram and add them to my
worksheet.
9.3
Multiword anagrams can add spice to your crossword, and Supergram will
find them for you. It is very easy to use, and programmed very
efficiently to find them quickly. Various options, e.g. male or female,
business, computer etc, can be set to change the bias given to these
subjects. The program sorts the multiword anagrams it finds into a
biased priority order and rejects the ones lowest on the list Ö
retaining a maximum number, set by default to 500. The only problem I
found was that, amongst the real gems which the program can find, there
are also some less attractive solutions. The program can be set to
prevent vulgar words Ö useful in an educational environment Ö but in
searching as thoroughly as it does, some solutions may still offend, and
are best avoided. I found some of the examples given in the manual
slightly satirical Ö but there are plenty of more interesting ones out
there to be found.
9.3
The Supergram program
9.3
This program works well and fast; all praise to some very clever AI
programming Ö Écon ariaæ can be found from ocarina in seconds Ö a longer
word or phrase such as ÉNorwich Computer Servicesæ takes a few minutes
to generate several thousand anagrams and store 500 of them.
9.3
Supergram has many more features than I have time to describe here Ö you
can, for example, change the priority of the single words found in the
first pass. Space prevents a full description and, apart from the use of
the title ÉWeedæ on the icon which starts the anagram process, the basic
operation is so intuitive that the manual is hardly needed. A minor bug
on the Risc PC is that moving the Supergram window partly off screen Ö
to be able to see this and the worksheet on the screen Ö causes the sub-
windows to overlap. Clicking on the topmost window, if you can see it,
puts everything back in place.
9.3
Although Supergram can also find single word anagrams, it is slower than
CrossStar because (a) you have to type in the words (b) you have to
search the results. I find it marginally quicker to search for these in
CrossStar and use Supergram only for multi-word anagrams. Watchers of
Channel 4æs ÉCountdownæ program might like to know that Supergram will
also report on the longest word in a collection of letters.
9.3
Finishing the clues
9.3
The worksheet can then be used when generating the final clues. In our
magazine, this is done by separate teams of helpers. We find that
changing the team completely changes the character of the crossword Ö
and often results in an entirely different set of winners! Crossword
aficionados will know that there are conventions in clues; Éstay men
changedæ or Éstay men shakenæ might mean an anagram of Éstay menæ (no
prizes here) Ö Éa flower in he aroseæ might mean that a flower is to be
found somewhere in Éhe aroseæ (even fewer prizes!), and so on. Biblical
and other allusions often occur Ö ÉHe had a pushover victory with some
trumpetsæ and so on. Specialist clues can be found Ö ÉOr scsi opens your
window to multi-mediaæ (RISC OS).
9.3
Preparing for publication
9.3
There should be no problem in laying out the clues Ö CrossStar numbers
the grid and these numbers will also be on your worksheet text. Next
bring up the crossword into CrossStar and clear the grid to remove the
answers! Ö Donæt save the grid or you will lose your original Ö but do
save a new copy of the Draw file and exit. Open this file in Draw, as
before, and again Éselect allæ and Égroupæ. If you find the black
squares a bit too black on the grid, change the Éfill colouræ Ö there is
no need to ungroup to do this. Finally, use Ésave selectionæ and drop
the result into whatever DTP package you are using.
9.3
An example
9.3
Here is one for you to try. Built as described Ö it took a little longer
than usual because we were mostly looking for computer-oriented clues.
Mijas Software is offering a full educational/hobby copy of ArcSimp III
to the first correct answer Éout of the hatæ. The compileræs decision is
final Ö itæs his hat anyway! Anyone can enter, except those within the
Mijas or NCS domains. Please send answers to Mijas software by 8th
December. Good hunting!
9.3
CrossStar comes from David Pilling and costs ú10 through him or through
Archive, and Supergram comes from William Tunstall-Pedoe, P.O. Box 395,
Cambridge CB3 9PJ. The starting price is ú12 for a single user licence.
9.3
Clues across
9.3
1 & 9. So thrive Wimp occurrences (7,8,8)
9.3
11. Dark ants in these vessels (7)
9.3
12. All good systems grow like this (6)
9.3
13. O! use log to improve your image (3,4)
9.3
14. Make sure your laptop is this before a long journey (7)
9.3
15. Hay mincer (9)
9.3
19. The resistance is this (3)
9.3
21. We dunno who owns this clue! (7)
9.3
23. Get ArcSimp III here (5,8)
9.3
Clues down
9.3
1. The verification program for your hard disc must be this (14)
9.3
2 & 5. Choicely strong for super windows (4,10)
9.3
3. Eh! do I move with a set top box (4,5)
9.3
4. One of the topics needed by a CD-ROM drive designer (6)
9.3
5. (see 2)
9.3
6. Mine is RISC OS! (14)
9.3
7. Deer sounds like money! (3)
9.3
8. You want it! You have it! (3)
9.3
10. Some short, light musical pieces (10)
9.3
14. The actoræs prompt, the ballæs striker! (3)
9.3
16. The (low) power house in the box! (3)
9.3
17. They are on their bar! (5)
9.3
18. The tenth and smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet (3)
9.3
20. Have you room for this bleak land? (4)
9.3
22. ÿ- biscuits with tea! (3)áu
9.3
OPL Programming
9.3
Govind Kharbanda
9.3
Variables
9.3
In BBC Basic, there are three separate variable types: strings, for
storing pieces of text, floating point, for storing decimal numbers, and
integers (no prizes for guessing this one). Multi-dimensional array
variables are available for storing lists of values.
9.3
As shown in the table, OPL has few differences, but they are important.
As stated last month, new variables must be declared with LOCAL! If,
like me, Basic is your main language, you will find this annoying at
first, but it is like having to use DIM in Basic whenever we use a new
array. Note that string variables must be declared with the $ symbol
followed by the maximum length of string in brackets. Integer variables
are split into two types (small and large). Arrays are limited to one
dimension, which may seem a bit restrictive since you can have ten (or
more!) dimensions in BBC Basic if you really want to, memory permitting!
9.3
Why three different types of variables for numbers? Well, it is a matter
of preference. If you find it confusing, you can use floating point all
the time which shouldnæt affect your programs (but note the snag
mentioned below). However, short integer variables use less memory than
long integer variables, and both use less than floating-point. They can
also be processed faster. So if your program is dealing with ages,
quantities and so on, use short integer variables (as used in last
monthæs programs).
9.3
A word of warning
9.3
Since keywords can be entered in upper or lower case (print öhelloò is
perfectly acceptable), take care not to give variables names such as
print%, otherwise your poor Pocket Book will get confused between the
two! Variable names are limited to eight characters, which includes the
%, $, and & symbols. (This restriction does not exist in BBC Basic.)
9.3
There is an exercise on the monthly disc (along the lines of last month)
so you can get practice with variables in OPL. Apart from the points
mentioned earlier, variables can be used exactly as in BBC Basic, for
example: birthyr%=year%-age%, but please note this unfortunate snag...
9.3
Consider the following:
9.3
PROC multiply:
9.3
  LOCAL a
9.3
  a=200*300
9.3
  PRINT a
9.3
ENDP
9.3
Note that a has been used as opposed to a%, since the result is too
large for a small integer. At first glance, it looks as if there is
nothing wrong with the procedure. However, the Pocket Book sees two
integers (200 and 300) and so uses short integer arithmetic (for speed).
This will cause an error because the result is too large for short
integer arithmetic. If one of the variables is turned into a long
integer, long integer arithmetic would be used which would not give an
error. The INT function does this (e.g. a=INT(200)*300) would work).
Furthermore, INTF would convert an integer into a floating-point number.
This is covered in more detail on page 14 of the Psion Series 3a
Programming Manual. Another thing to watch out for, is that you canæt
use the shortcut a%+=1 which is available in BBC Basic V; you have to
use a%=a%+1 (as was needed on the BBC Micro).
9.3
Watch out when using strings!
9.3
This is similar Ö consider the following:
9.3
PROC addtext:
9.3
  LOCAL a$(8),b$(8),c$(8)
9.3
  a$=ögoodò
9.3
  b$=ö morningò
9.3
  c$=a$+b$
9.3
  PRINT c$
9.3
ENDP
9.3
This results in an error: c$ is not truncated to read ögood morò as you
might expect!
9.3
So now we have covered displaying text on the screen, simple loops, and
variables. However, what our programs need is some user input... unless
youære happy seeing it doing exactly the same thing again and again!
9.3
INPUT
9.3
This command is similar to BBC Basic, but it is usually used in
conjunction with a PRINT statement, since you cannot display text with
INPUT in OPL Ö INPUT öPlease enter your nameò would not work. Otherwise,
it works like Basic: INPUT name$,  INPUT age% and INPUT number& are all
fine.
9.3
Unlike with Basic, you can use the arrow keys when entering text for an
INPUT command, and can use ÉEscæ to clear what you have typed
(equivalent to pressing <ctrl-U> in BBC Basic).
9.3
GET, can be used to force the computer to wait for a keypress, and will
return the ASCII value of the key pressed, identical to GET in BBC
Basic. It does not display the key pressed on the screen, or require you
to press <Enter>. So, for example, you could write: k$=GET$, PRINT GET,
or even just GET which is equivalent to IF GET. The equivalent of INKEY
is KEY Ö it returns the key, if any was pressed, but does not wait for
one.
9.3
AT command
9.3
(Nothing to do with modems!) This positions the cursor Ö similar to TAB
in BBC Basic. AT 1,1 would position the cursor in the top left hand
corner.
9.3
A note about using PRINT
9.3
As in Basic, each PRINT statement ends by moving to a new line, which
can be stopped by appending a semicolon. If a comma is used, it stays on
the same line but displays an extra space. This is, in fact, incredibly
useful to programmers! Consider the following program snippets:
9.3
1. Basic
9.3
filename$=öletterò
9.3
PROCloadfile(filename$)
9.3
IF error THEN PRINT öFile ò;filename$;
9.3
 ö cannot be found.ò
9.3
2. OPL
9.3
LOCAL filename$(8)
9.3
filename$=öletterò
9.3
loadfile:(filename$)
9.3
IF error
9.3
PRINT öFileò,filename$,öcannot be
9.3
 found.ò
9.3
ENDIF
9.3
The comma saves all the fiddling about with spaces and semicolons that
you have to do in Basic. Note that there is no THEN with IF. Donæt worry
about the slight difference in using procedures Ö Iæll explain it.
9.3
In Basic, to call a procedure called, say Émenuæ, we use ÉPROCmenuæ. In
OPL, all you need is just Émenu:æ. OK so far, but hereæs the confusing
bit Ö to define the procedure in Basic, we use ÉDEFPROCmenuæ, but in OPL
itæs ÉPROCmenu:æ! I shall explain parameters and how you implement
functions next month.
9.3
This month, there are another three programming exercises on the monthly
disc, along with solutions in Basic and OPL. Feel free to adapt the
programs and explore for yourself Ö and persevere if it doesnæt work
first time! Many error messages seem quite cryptic (e.g. ÉType mismatchæ
for a small slip like writing a$=20) but they are all explained clearly
in the Psion programming manual. Any suggestions, programs, comments
etc, are welcome: please send them via Archive.áuá
9.3
Variable type  Basic    OPL
9.3
String  Symbol:  $  Symbol:  $(max length)    Example:áname$=öGovindò
Example:  LOCAL name$(15)  áááááááááááááááááááá  ááááááá
áááááááááááááá      name$=öGovindòáááááááááááááá  Maximum length: 255
Maximum length: 255
9.3
Integer  Symbol:  %  Symbol:
%ááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááá    Example:  number%=500
Example:  LOCAL number%ááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááá    áá
number%=500ááááááááááááááááááááááááááá    Range:  As OPL long integers
Range:  Ö32768 to +32767
9.3
Large integer  Ö    Symbol:
&ááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááá           á    Range:
Ö2147483648 to [phone]
9.3
Floating-point  Symbol:  None  Symbol:
Noneááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááá     Example:  height=1.75
Example:  LOCAL height, distanceááááááááááááá    á  distance=3.46E15
height=1.75ááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááá   á  á
distance=3.46E15áááááááááááááááááááááááá á  Range:  Ö1E38 to 1E38
Range:  Ö9.99E99 to 9.99E99
9.3
Arrays  Example:  DIM address$(10)  Example:  LOCAL
address$(10,40)ááááááááááááá áá      allocates memory space for ten
stringsáááááááááá áá      each up to forty characters in
length.áááááááááááá áá  Example:  DIM age%(30)  Example:  LOCAL
age%(30)áááááááááááá  á  áááááááááááá áá      (age& would not be used
since people doáááá  á       not exceed 32767 years in general!)
9.3
Note that, in Basic and OPL, 1E38 is short for 1╫1038.
9.3
CD Tracker
9.3
Fred Grieve
9.3
This has been a very pleasant product to review for the simple reason
that I wrote the actual review whilst playing some of my favourite music
CDs on my Risc PCæs internal CD-ROM drive. Not that thatæs anything
special Ö there are several audio CD players available for Acorn
machines. Most are PD but this is one of several which are commercially
available.
9.3
CD Tracker not only plays audio CDs but it also contains a database to
store information about your entire CD collection. Not content with only
playing audio CDs, CD Tracker will also do anything that an up-market
hi-fi CD player can do. It contains a powerful jukebox facility to play
a selection of your favourite tracks and the software is supplied with a
PD application, !Cassette, which can be used to print out audio cassette
tape liners.
9.3
This application can be used on any computer but if a CD drive isnæt
fitted, the player cannot be accessed. CD Tracker then resorts to its
original form Ö a database for cataloguing a record collection. This
rather small point is quite significant as it permits anyone to use CD
Tracker; not only those with CD drives fitted.
9.3
The player
9.3
Before any CD can be played, it must be stored in the database (see
under The Database). Once the CD is catalogued in this way, the player
can then be used.
9.3
The player window takes its name from the title of the CD in the drive
and opens to show the title of track one in the top left corner. The
program control icons are placed below this, and over to the right side
are 24 track Ébuttonsæ (icons). Icon buttons also exist for nudging the
current track up or down, jumping to the start of the current track,
jumping to the next track, stopping play, pausing and searching either
back or forward. If thatæs not enough, the CD can be played in several
different play modes, viz. single track mode which plays one track then
stops; continuous play, which plays the entire CD; shuffle play, which
plays all tracks in random order and programme mode, which plays a
selection of tracks!
9.3
Like any audio player, CD Tracker also displays time and this again is
very flexible as it can be done in four different formats. Mode 1
displays lapsed time and as every track starts, this zeros the time
counter. Mode 2 displays total lapsed time but, unlike mode 1, does not
zero the clock when a new track starts. Mode 3 displays the track total
playing time of the current track and decrements it Ö very useful for
seeing how much playing time remains. Mode 4 displays the total album
playing time and decrements it.
9.3
In single play mode, CD Tracker depresses the track icon so you can see
which track is playing. Continuous play mode does the same except that,
as each is track played, its track icon is depressed so once again a
simple glance at the player window shows which tracks have already been
played. In programmed or favourite tracks modes, the icon of the next
track to be played is depressed.
9.3
Favourite play permits a selection of your favourite tracks to be chosen
and saved to disc. Incidentally, these tracks need not be on the same
CD!
9.3
The database
9.3
Like most specialised computer databases, CD Tracker has the field
titles predefined. These include CD title, performer, CD label,
individual track titles, total number of tracks, individual track times,
the year recorded and the year of issue. The application is supplied
with most of the common CD labels already built-in, so clicking a menu
icon and making your choice is all thatæs necessary to enter the CD
label. The label list is held as a text file, so can be modified by the
user. If you have a CD drive fitted to your computer, the total number
of tracks and the individual track times can be read from the CD in the
drive, thus cutting out a lot of work.
9.3
In a database, a collection of records is called a file. CD Tracker
actually uses the term Écategoryæ (as in music category) as this is how
most people will file information about their CD collection. The program
can cater for any number of categories. Yet another nice touch is that
any category can be summarised when being created and, if this is done,
it provides a sub-menu off the main application menu which displays the
summary. The current category is ticked in the menu.
9.3
Once a category has been created, information need not be entered at the
keyboard. CD Tracker can accept CSV files or files from the Smart CD
application.
9.3
As with any database, CD Tracker will sort records into order. Once the
sort field has been selected, a simple sort changes the display order of
the records. For me, this was the only disappointment because, if there
are several CDs by one performer in the database and the sort is on
performer, they are displayed in order of entry. I would have preferred
a complex sort on two fields but at ú12.72, I am certainly not
complaining!
9.3
Searching is catered for by use of a Find command. Only the CD title,
track title and performer fields can be used as key fields. One surprise
here is that wildcard searching is used by default. For example, in my
rock collection, Iásearched for öMoneyò and the database found these
records:
9.3
In use
9.3
The player is absolutely first-class. Because the application includes a
database of track names, playing times, etc, accessing the player opens
the player window with all information about the current CD displayed.
9.3
When the drive is busy, the eject button on the drive is disabled by CD
Tracker, which has its own eject icon on the player window. When this
eject is selected, CD Tracker actually displays a warning message for
Risc PC owners to ölower the pulldown flap.ò Upon acknowledging the
message, the drive tray activates Ö nice!
9.3
The database creates its own record numbering with the first CD being
referred to as CD 1, etc. Deleting an entry unfortunately creates a gap
in this numbering system but an edit menu option, Tidy, is used to tidy
up any category after editing. There is also a field called Disc No.
which is used for multiple disc sets. Thus it is not necessary to use a
new record (CD) number for the second disc in a double CD set, for
example. Dynamic linking is used between the player front end and the
database, so opening the latter will show the record of the CD being
played. This is very practical because if, for example, a typing mistake
is noticed in the player display, opening the database immediately takes
you to the correct record. Amendments can therefore be made in a matter
of seconds.
9.3
I actually started to catalogue my CD collection when I started to buy
CDs instead of LPs almost ten years ago. The only method I seriously
considered then was to use a computer database and now, some three
computers later, all of that original data has found its way into CD
Tracker. My current CD database is housed in Squirrel 2 but, as CD
Tracker can accept CSV files, it didnæt take much effort to create a CD
Tracker version. I did have to spend some time Éreadingæ CDs in order to
set up the track times but this was well worth it as the player displays
accurate time information about the CD/track currently playing.
9.3
I do have one criticism but itæs very minor. Selecting the application
icon on the iconbar opens the database; the CD player must be activated
from the application menu. As I actually play CDs more times than I
access the database, I would have preferred this to be the opposite way
round.
9.3
The 31-page A5-sized manual is very thorough Ö principally because it is
written by the programæs author. It is laser printed and is therefore of
high quality. The first version of the manual lacks a contents page or
index but the author told me that these may be added to a future
version.
9.3
Overall impression
9.3
So why purchase something which you can get from a PD library? Well, how
about product quality Ö do not be put off by this packageæs ú12 price
tag because it has been extremely well thought out, programmed and put
together. Malcolm Knightæs attention to detail is to be commended and
goes to make CD Tracker quite simply unbelievable! It must rank as one
of the best value-for-money applications available for any platform.
Indeed, its ú12.72 cost may possibly put some people off, i.e. the if-
thatæs-all-it-costs-then-it-canæt-be-up-to-much brigade! I assure you
that nothing could be further from the truth.
9.3
Werewolf Software is a Éyoungæ company Ö this is its first commercial
venture, and I look forward to more. Starting out with an application of
this calibre can do them nothing but good.
9.3
Everyone with a CD drive and an Acorn computer should buy CD Tracker. It
is money well-spent.áuá
9.3
Me and my Acorn
9.3
Elma Alexander
9.3
Although Elmaæs article is not one of deeply technical, it should be
inspirational to a number of readers Ö for themselves or for a friend or
relation who is disabled. Anyone who has seen the difference that a
computer can make to the life of a disabled person will know what I am
talking about. Ed.
9.3
My Éaffairæ with my computer seems a bit dull compared to that of James
Miller (Archive 9.2 p19), but the computer is nevertheless the Ésub-hubæ
of my life Ö the Lord Jesus being the centre, of course!
9.3
Iæve been severely disabled since my teens, lying on my back and all my
joints virtually locked with arthritis. I used a typewriter by pressing
the keys with a cane, but it was slow and tiring Ö so over ten years
ago, I thought a computer would help. Just one snag Ö could an old dog
aged 50 learn such new tricks?
9.3
My social worker put me in touch with LEAD (Linking Education And
Disability) who loaned me a BBC B computer for three months, and
provided a volunteer tutor to teach me at home and find if Iácould
manage to use it. It was fixed to a vertical stand and the keys were so
light to tap with my cane, that I took to it like the proverbial duck to
water!
9.3
I was only learning Basic Ö I had no software, just blank floppies on
which to save my efforts Ö but a lot of midnight oil was burned. At the
end of the three months, my tutor recommended that I showed enough
capability to be provided with a computer of my own, a BBC B+ with disc
drive and a printer Ö Iáwas ecstatic!
9.3
I next took an Open Learning Course in Basic Programming and passed
Intermediate and Advanced Certificates. I also got myself the Mini-
Office software pack, so I could do all my letters, etc. and also teach
myself about databases and spreadsheets.
9.3
A friend who was Headmistress at a local school was virtually terrified
of their computer, but had an idea for a program she would like it to
do. I was never good at generating new ideas, but when she put it to me,
I was off Ö and the kids loved it. So, for several years until she
retired, she got the ideas for educational fun programs, I wrote them
and her school enjoyed them.
9.3
Meanwhile, Iæd extended my previous pastime of writing articles for my
Church Newsletter and other magazines, making up fund-raising quizzes,
and added any other charity work my computer could help with. Soon, a
BBC Master was necessary and was obtained with help from several
charities, plus LEAD.
9.3
Eventually, I was asked to take over as Editor of my Church Magazine,
joined the Fellowship of Christian Writers and did various voluntary
things. My computer had totally changed my life.
9.3
The next step had to be moving up to an A5000 and inkjet printer, but
this posed a new problem Ö I could not handle a mouse nor latch two or
three keys at once with my cane. Acorn were very helpful and referred me
to LeComputer, who provide a software pack called ÉAid Setæ for people
like myself. This uses keys on the key-pad to simulate mouse keys and
movement, while also Élatchingæ shift, ctrl and alt keys. It proved very
easy to use when, with my own savings and, again, help from some
charities, I got my A5000 over two years ago, followed by an HP 550C
inkjet.
9.3
Software in daily use includes Ovation DTP, Home Accounts, Easiword-
Office, Masterfile III and various PD fonts and clipart. Iæm now
seriously debating whether to go on to a top-of-the-range Risc PC, but
it would depend on being able to sell this A5000.
9.3
How can I justify the expenditure? Well, my love of country music and
doing a Country Quiz for Telethon three years ago (raising about ú800),
led to me starting a Éfanæ club for Neil Cordery, a young Country singer
from Surrey. Country music people being great charity supporters, I
decided to organise a gig myself with Neil, in aid of LEAD. Iæd recently
met two guys who had started ÉSound-Aidæ in their spare time, giving
help to charities in their fund-raising by providing equipment and/or
experienced advice with stage work, PAæs, recording, etc, at a much
lower rate than commercial studios or sound-hire places usually charge.
They recorded and put Neilæs live gig on cassette Ö which is still being
sold at his gigs, 50p from each going to LEAD. Then August last year
Iádid a similar gig with top Liverpool country band, the Hillsiders, on
my 60th birthday!
9.3
To put the rest in a nutshell Ö Sound-Aid liked what Iádid and thought
it could be good to continue; I was made a partner; weæve also formed
the Scottish Country Music Association and are well on the way to
building a unique business to aid charities, churches, and local
community groups. My part, apart from organising the country music side,
involves printing posters, brochures, booklets, etc for both ourselves
and anyone who needs them for fund-raising Ö just another service we
realised is often too expensive for charities.
9.3
The way things are going, I think the coming months will see me
definitely having to upgrade. I feel that, at an age when most people
are retiring, Iæm just beginning to really work Ö albeit unpaid meantime
Ö and doing something worthwhile with my life. Without my computer, it
would not be possible.áuá
9.3