Archive Magazine 1997/ARCHIVE_97.iso/text/hints/vol_10/issue_06

Text File | 1997-08-11 | 14KB | 331 lines

Hints and Tips
10.6
AMD 5x6 devices Ö Anyone who purchases a 5x6 card, or upgrades their
current card to a 5x6, should be aware that if it is an AMD device,
it will not work if you have the PCSleep directory in your !Boot.
Choices.Boot.Predesk directory. It is not always obvious that you
have this chip, as it is covered with a fan.
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The symptoms are that, on boot up, the PC device will be reported as
a 486SXLC2, and you will receive the message ÉUnable to set
parameters IDE drive 0, error code 0080hæ. Then it will report ÉNo
boot device Ö Retryingæ.
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Removing the PCSleep directory cures this problem. You must, however,
close down and switch off your machine to reboot, before trying to
run the PC Card without PCSleep.
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This is apparently typical of cards supplied by CJE Micros and Q-
Tec/MCS.
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Thanks to Aleph One for sorting this out for me.
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Eddie Lord <[e-mail]>
10.6
Deleting text in writeable icons Ö Do you ever tire of having to
accomplish <ctrl-U> with one hand? (Everybody does know you donæt
have to use delete repeatedly, donæt you?! Ed.)
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Try putting the following in your boot file:
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Key 11 |U
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|F11 = <Ctrl-U> Ö RISC OS delete line
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I chose <f11> as it was available (to me) and near the backspace key.
So, when offered öTextFileò or, worse, something like öSCSI::Hard.$.
Clipboard.ScratchPad.TaxReturnò, simply hit <f11> and the text will
be deleted Ö it seems to work in most writeable icons.
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Unfortunately, applications such as Impression use the function keys
for all manner of purposes, and so <f11> on its own does not work.
What a shame! (Now, whereæs my copy of the Style Guide?)
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[e-mail]
10.6
Duff RiscPC mains switche(r)s? Ö If you have had trouble with the
mains switch on a RiscPC, you may be able to learn from my
experience. The switch on my computer sometimes didnæt work first
time I pressed it Ö what is more, over a period of a week or so, it
seemed to get worse.
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As it got worse, I pressed the button more and more firmly to make it
work, but still it just seemed to get worse and worse. Then the penny
dropped. (Iæm a bit slow you see!)
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I then tried pressing the button slowly and gently... and it now
works perfectly, every single time!!!
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P.S. Well, actually, not every time. Iæve also now discovered that it
tends to catch if you push towards the left, so gentle pressure
towards the right (i.e. the edge of the computer) helps ensure smooth
action.
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Ed. <[e-mail]>
10.6
Interactive help Ö It is always a good idea to add interactive help
to an application, to be used by !Help. Hopefully, the application is
so intuitive that it is superfluous, but it may quickly inform
someone of a function or shortcut that is only obvious by Reading The
Fine Manual! Much of the help text can become repetitive and take up
a surprising amount of memory. However, you can use the following
code to shorten the writing and storage space for these terse phrases:
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\S Ö Click SELECT to
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\R Ö Move the pointer right to
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\A Ö Click ADJUST to
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\T Ö This is the
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\G Ö This option is greyed out because
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\W Ö This window is
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\D Ö Drag SELECT to
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\d Ö Drag ADJUST to
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\w Ö window
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\s Ö SELECT
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\a Ö ADJUST
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All the phrases will have a trailing space except \w, \s and \a.
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The help messages use ÉGSæ strings to receive codes that are not
available from the keyboard. To add any ASCII codes from 1 to 26, you
have to use the codes |A to |Z. So, for a new line (ASCII 13) use |M.
If you wish to use the | character, you must use double ||, similarly
with |ö for ò.
10.6
Robert Lytton, Leeds
10.6
Ovation spelling checker hint Ö In checking the spelling of a
document, I have often come across the problemáof a word, which is
listed as incorrect, but which needs to be left as it is. One example
of this is if you are writing about the misspelling itself, and
another is where such things as file or variable names are very close
to the correct spelling of some word.
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I donæt want to add the word to the dictionary as it is Éwrongæ, and
if I tell the checker to ignore it, any further misspellings in the
same document will also be ignored. At Acorn World, I was talking to
John Wallace of Beebug about this, and asking for a skip button to be
added to the dialogue box. He mentioned some of the difficulties of
changing the program and then, suddenly, said öYou donæt need it!
Just press the replace button and the checker will Éreplaceæ the
incorrect word with the copy of itself which is sitting in the
dialogue box.ò Now that I know, it is obvious, and I have checked
that it works with Ovation, but it does not work with either
Impression or Fireworkz. In these two programs, the main possible
replacement is put into the dialogue box automatically, whereas in
Ovation you have to select it first.
10.6
David Wild, Hemel Hempstead
10.6
PCPro problem Ö I installed !PCPro recently and was happy with its
performance except that, whenever I wanted to close down the PC
window, my RiscPC 700 locked up and needed a full reset. After much
trial and error, I was able to fix the fault when Iáremoved the non-
standard screen mode definitions that I had installed a year earlier,
and reverted to the normal Acorn modes. The definitions that caused
the problem were from Andrew Newton (on the Archive 8.5 program disc)
and were originally designed to avoid letter box presentation when
using the old Archimedes modes 1Ö15. This is not a criticism of
Andrewæs work, just a note on incompatibility!
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Jim Davies, Paignton
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PipeDream function keys Ö Having upgraded to PipeDream 4.5 to work
with StrongARM, I was disappointed that all the useful PD3 function
keys had been lost. They can be reclaimed as follows: Move the
PD3Keys file from the !PipeDream.Resources.CmdFiles directory to
!PipeDream.User and rename it ÉKeyæ.
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(Michael Nurse)
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Michael Nurse, Cambridge
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Polling the wimp Ö In Archive 10.5, p31, Polling the Wimp, Robert
Lytton commented that scanning with Twain is slow due to the presence
of other tasks which slow down polling. This is a common observation
and there is a solution. To quote the ImageMaster !ReadMe file:
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In release 1.05, a new variable has been added to the !ImgMaster.
Resources.Config file Ö ÉPollCountæ controls how often ImageMaster
will give control back to the desktop. The reason for this is that,
on the RiscPC, polling is slow, and scanning can be a lengthy process
if other tasks are running. By increasing PollCount, you can reduce
this effect.
10.6
David Pilling <[e-mail]>
10.6
Random backdrop textures Ö In RISC OS 3.6, if you set random backdrop
textures in Configure and then save a Boot file, you will always get
the same backdrop. What happens, it seems, is that Configure saves
the file ($.!Boot.Choices.Boot.Tasks.Configure) with the line öRun
BootResources:Configure.Textures.RTextureò, which runs a small Basic
program to select a random backdrop. However, the Boot file saves
whichever texture you had when the file was saved, and as this is run
after $.!Boot.Choices.Boot.Tasks.Configure, you are stuck with this
backdrop for ever.
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To get round this, put the line öRun BootResources:Configure.Textures.
RTextureò in your Boot file in the Pinboard section.
10.6
Peter Young <[e-mail]>
10.6
Soft cases for the Psion Siena Ö these cost upwards of ú20, but for
about ú2, I bought a Specsavers soft case for spectacles and it takes
the Siena snugly. The spring-mouthed pouch (in a variety of colours)
excludes dirt, provides some physical protection and disguises the
expensive gadget sitting on the desk! Iæm sure other opticians do
their own equivalent.
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David Andrews <[e-mail]>
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StrongARM öfunnyò Ö I have a number of PC CD-ROMs with clipart, and
so I bought ImageFS2 so that I could get at them without using the PC
card. After my StrongARM was fitted, ImageFS2 wouldnæt work, so I had
to wait for the upgrade from Alternative Publishing.
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However, I was consoled by the fact that the new version would add
WMF files to the list of those types to be converted automatically.
When the new version arrived, it came with new versions of CD_Fix and
CD_Type, as the old versions would not work with the new operating
system.
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Because I am not using the CD system all the time, my practice had
been to click on CD_Fix as I needed it, and this had worked from the
day I received my RiscPC over a year ago. So, I installed the new
versions of the programs, clicked on CD_Fix and, after about ten
minutes, I switched the machine off, as nothing would work at all.
After several retries, all with the same result, I remembered that it
might change things if I turned the cache off before loading CD_Fix.
There was a change Ö <ctrl-break> would now work, but nothing else!
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I telephoned everyone who might be able to help, but no-one seemed to
have met the problem before. Cumana sent me a disc with the latest
version (2.04) of the SCSI II software, but this just made the
machine completely unusable, so I had to go back to the previous
version (2.03). Robin Watts of Warm Silence Software eventually gave
me the vital clue, which caused me to transfer the calling of CD_Fix
from öas requiredò to being included in the boot file ADFS::HardDisc4.
$.!Boot.Choices.Boot.Desktop. Some of my hair has now started to
regrow, and everything seems to work the way that the book says.
10.6
David Wild, Hemel Hempstead
10.6
StrongARM patch Ö I have a StrongARM RiscPC on which I run
PipeDream4, which occasionally crashed mysteriously with the message
öNo stack for trap Handlerò. On the advice of Colton Software, I
obtained a copy of the software patch from Acornæs FTP site,
advertised thus:
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riscos370sa: Patch for RISC OS 3.70 StrongARM users which improves
printing speed and in-use stability. It is very, very strongly
recommended that RISC OS 3.70 users install this!!
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I installed it in PreDesk as per instructions. However, to remind me
of the process, I copied the ReadMe file into PreDesk as well. This
completely disrupted my Boot sequence, which failed to recognise VRAM
or monitor, and refused to accept that I wished a RAMDisc to exist.
It was unreconfigurable, because no pathname had been set for the
data. A 640╫480, 16 colour mode was all that 2Mb VRAM and an AKF85
could manage!
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Removing the ReadMe file (filetype TEXT) eventually resolved the
problem. By experiment, I found that it did no harm in Boot, nor in
ROMPatch, but was fatal in PreDesk.
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Page 5-229 (!Boot Application) of the PRM states, in respect of the
PreDesk directory:
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Action taken on files and subdirectories Ö The files and directories
held within the PreDesk directory are acted on in the following Order:
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Any files of type Module are run using *RMLoad.
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Any files of type Sprite are run using *IconSprites.
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Any files of type Obey are run using *Obey -c.
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Any directories are run using *Run.
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All other files are ignored.
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Donæt you believe it!
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Mick Day <[e-mail]>
10.6
Email editing with StrongED Ö When quoting a long section in
someoneæs email, rather than [SNIP] it completely, I use StrongEDæs
wonderful ability to mark a block of text as shown overleaf. (Drag
with <alt> held down.)
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I then cut that section, thereby reducing the bulk of the message,
but allowing enough for the sender to recognise what the original was
about.
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I also add a ö.......[SNIP]ò message so they know that the email
hasnæt been garbled in transit. Needless to say I only have to type
ö`1ò, and StrongEDæs abbreviation system leaps into action to type
the required snip text!
10.6
Ed. <[e-mail]>
10.6
Windows 95 file transfer Ö There have been a few articles in the past
that explained how to transfer files between two PC partitions. The
methods explained are OK if you are using Windows 3.11 or below, but
not for Windows 95 using long file names (i.e. files that donæt use
the 8.3 format that DOS uses). When you view Windows 95æs LFNs in any
OS other than 95, you can only see its truncated version.
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For example, a file called ÉA very long storyæ viewed in DOS, Windows
3.11 or RISC OS would appear as ÉAVERYL~1.DOCæ. Copying the file in
this form destroys the LFN, and so the file ceases to function
correctly.
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There is, however, a way to copy these truncated files by using a
utility that comes with Windows 95 (CD version only) called LFNBK
(Long File Name Backup). All you have to do is to copy it into your
Windows 95 directory. If you then run it from a DOS session inside
Windows 95, with the parameter /b (b for backup), i.e.
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LFNBK/B
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then all the LFNs are truncated, and the tail-ends are stored in a
ÉLFNBK.DATæ.
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Remember though, that for every directory you wish to copy across,
you must copy the LFNBK utility into the respective directory and run
it.
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Now copy across all you wish to transfer to your new partition, in
the usual RISC OS fashion, by opening up the two partition windows
and dragging the files across.
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When all the files are in the new partition, run the LFNBK utility
again but this time with the /r (r for restore) option. All the LFNs
are now restored.
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The last thing to do is to setup up the new partition with !PCconfig.
10.6
Jochen Konietzko <[e-mail]>
10.6
Zap Basic editing Ö I recently needed a small Basic program to do a
calculation for me, and created it using Zap. When I ran the program,
I had a ömissing TOò error, because I had forgotten to put the word
in capitals. I went back into Zap to correct the error, and used
<ctrl-S> to change the case.
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The Basic system still refused to accept my program until I deleted
the word completely, and retyped it in upper case. It would seem that
once it has registered the presence of a variable, which ötoò would
be, it will not recognise the alteration.
10.6
David Wild, Hemel Hempsteadáuá