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Archive Magazine 1997
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1995-02-16
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Hints and Tips
1.1
Using Electrohome Monitors
1.1
Ian Nicholls of Kidderminster says that the öElectrohomeò colour
monitor, as sold by Opus, works OK on the Archimedes. All you have to do
is make up the appropriate connector. (Or purchase one from CJE Micros
or somesuch.) The pin connections for the Archimedes are given on the
inside back cover.
1.1
Using Modes 18 - 20
1.1
Whilst on the subject of monitors, let me clear up the confusion there
seems to be in the computer press about the high resolution modes and
the extra video hardware which the 400 series machines are said to have.
This extra hardware is NOT for driving modes 18 - 20. Even on the 300
series, there is all the hardware needed to run these modes on a multi-
sync monitor.
1.1
The extra hardware in the 400 series is actually for even higher
resolution graphics Ö it will go up to 1280 by 976 pixels in monochrome
(160 characters by 122 lines of text) and, as with modes 18 - 20, it
requires a special monitor. There is no industry standard for such
monitors, and Acorn are still looking into providing a suitable monitor
with their own badge on it. This extra high resolution is of course
aimed at the CAD (computer aided design) market, and it is said that
AutoCAD is being translated onto the Archimedes.
1.1
Using a Multi-sync Monitor
1.1
If you have a multi-sync monitor and want to get it working on the 300
series, all you need to do is to switch the computer on whilst holding
down the <R> key. This resets the CMOS RAM settings (so if, like me, you
had changed them, you will have to re-configure again!) and it changes
the configuration of the RGB output to run in multi-sync mode. It then
allows you to access the extra screen modes that had been previously
forbidden to those of us who only have standard monitors. If you should
want to change the machine back again to run a standard monitor, you
have to do another <R-power-up> which switches it back again (and re-
sets the CMOS RAM settings AGAIN!). In other words each time you do an
<R-power-up> it toggles between the two monitor settings.
1.1
Using View
1.1
Gerald Jones of Northampton tells us that only those of you who have
gone from a Master Compact to an Archimedes will be able to get View
going Ö for the time being, at least, because the ROM versions of VIEW
will not work under the emulator. If you do have a disc version of View,
Acorn tell us that the way to get it going is to copy 65ARTHUR from the
MODULES directory on the Archimedes Welcome disc onto another disc and
VIEW from the Compact Welcome disc and then use *BUILD !BOOT to create
a boot file which consists of:
1.1
*65ARTHUR
1.1
*GO F800
1.1
*LOAD VIEW 8000
1.1
*GO 8000
1.1
and then remember to type *OPT 4,3 to set it up so that it will execute
the boot file on <shift-break>. All you have to do then is to chop up
your VIEW keystrip and stick it together in the Archimedes keyboard
format remembering that the f0 key functions are now on the <print> key!
1.1
Attaching a 5.25ö drive
1.1
Have you tried to get a 5.25ö disc drive linked up to the Archimedes?
Presumably, you did the obvious thing and removed the cable from the
p.c.b. to the 3.5ò drive and plugged in the cable from the 5.25ö drive.
And you too found that it didnæt work! Well, the official answer is that
it is possible to connect a 5.25ò drive but that there are ödifferent
connectionsò. Actually, it seems that the only difference is that they
have put the connector in the opposite way round!
1.1
Unfortunately, you canæt just turn the connector round because of the
location lug on the side of it. The solution is either to file the notch
off the side of the connector so that it will go in either way round, or
buy a new 34-way insulation displacement connector which you can crimp
onto the end of your disc cable, the opposite way round from the
existing one, or buy a disc extension cable from a supplier such as CJE
Micros (ú15 + ú1 p&p Ö address in Fact-File at the back of the
magazine). The advantage of doing it that way is that the extension
cable is long enough to stick out at the back of the computer through
the podule connection slot so that you can connect and disconnect the
extra drive without taking the lid on and off.
1.1
You can, if you want, put a single 5.25ö drive as drive 1 or a pair of
drives as drives 1 and 2. The extra drives must, of course, have their
own power supply units and you need to type *CONFIGURE FLOPPIES 2 (or 3)
so that the ADFS knows how many drives there are. You will also need to
get inside the 5.25ò drives in order to change the link settings to
configure them as drives 1 (and 2) and you should also, theoretically,
remove the terminating resistors Ö usually a set of resistors (dual-in-
line or single-in-line) near the drive-select setting links. This is
because there are already terminating resistors in the internal 3.5ö
drive and you should not have two sets. If you have a dual drive where
they are on top of one another rather than side by side, you may find it
difficult to get at the second drive in order to change the link
selection. If so, the easiest solution is to make the top drive 2 and
just remember that the lower drive is drive 1.
1.1
One problem you may still find (which Acorn havenæt yet managed to
explain) is that if you switch on the power to the disc drive before or
at the same time as the computer, the computer seems unable to start up
Ö you just get a blank screen. All you have to do though is to make sure
you switch the computer on first and then the disc drive. You will also
find that the desk-top program does not recognise the third drive Ö even
if you have typed *CONFIGURE FLOPPIES 3, it only displays two disc icons
on the screen. (If anyone works out how to modify the program to
recognise all three, let me know.)
1.1
ADFS bugs
1.1
There are one or two bugs in the ADFS, though they are apparently
reasonably obscure. The only one I have found myself is that if you try
to *BUILD a !BOOT file onto a disc that already has a !BOOT file and you
have left the disc write-protected, when you press <escape>, the system
hangs up and you have to press <ctrl-break> or reset to escape. Some of
the bugs have been corrected on the 0.03 version of the ADFS that you
will find in the MODULES directory on your Welcome disc. This version
will have to be *RMLOADæed, then to check that you have got the right
version installed, type *HELP MODULES which gives you the current
version numbers of all modules. It should say ADFS 0.03 (17 Jun 1987)
instead of ADFS 0.02 (05 Jun 1987). Incidentally, the file name on the
Welcome disc is Adfs0-03, not Adfs0_03 as you might tend to expect, so
if you get a file not found error, check that you have typed it
correctly.
1.1
Have you discovered╔?
1.1
Iæd like this to be a regular feature. It consists of the sort of things
that may be obvious to some people, but perhaps that youæve noticed from
reading the User Guide (or the Programmersæ Reference Manual when it
becomes available). If you find something that you thought, öWell, I
didnæt realise that!æ, let us know. Iæll start it off this month with
things that were new to me.
1.1
Å The pad character ö|ò which is the shifted back-slash character (the
key just above the return key) can be used to öpadò out those incredibly
long VDU codes that end with lots of zeros. For example, to switch off
the cursor, you can use VDU23,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 which can admittedly
be shortened to VDU23,1,0;0;0;0; can now be reduced to VDU23,1| which
has the extra advantage that you donæt have to try to remember exactly
how many zeros it needs to complete the command.
1.1
Å Instead of saying value=value+extra, you can use the new operator
ö+=ò and say value+=extra which is a significant saving if, like me, you
tend to use long variable names; likewise with Ö=extra. (Well with
ö604412 bytes remainingò, it may not be worth worrying about memory
space, but it does save on printer ribbons!)
1.1
Å DANGER! Å BEWARE! Å WARNING!!!!!
1.1
Newcomers to ADFS beware! If you have been using *WIPE * and looking
through and saying öyesò or önoò to each, Donæt try it on ADFS! You will
find that *WIPE * deletes ALL the un-locked files in the current
directory. Itæs like *DESTROY * but without even displaying a list of
all the files it was about to delete and asking for confirmation. I
discovered this Énastyæ the hard way Ö I lost about 10 programs at a
stroke.It wasnæt too bad though as I had copied them across from DFS and
only modified one or two.
1.1
What you should say is *WIPE * C where the C stands for öConfirmò Ö then
it asks you about each file in turn. Ö You have been warned!!!!