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Archive Magazine 1997
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vol_04
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issue_12
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1995-06-25
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See you at öThe Showò?
4.12
I hope that a good number of you will be able to pop down to the Acorn
User Show to see us. (See page 8 for details.) Hopefully, Ali, Adrian
and I will all be there together with one or two of the regular
contributors. You will be able to buy your Archive mugs at a special
show price and we will be selling off one or two items of hardware and
software at special prices.
4.12
We raised a lot of money at the show last year by selling charity items
that you donated. In terms of raising money for charity, this works a
lot better than just putting them in the magazine because we put each
item at a high price first then, if no one buys it, we drop the price a
little until we find someone who would value it at the given price. If
we over-price something in the magazine, we have to wait a month and
then drop the price, or if we under-price it, we get inundated with
phone calls!
4.12
So please send your charity items (hardware as well as software) as soon
as possible, or just bring them to the show Ö on the first day, if
possible. (In this last year we raised almost ú23,000 for charity. Many
thanks to all who contributed!)
4.12
Donæt leave us!
4.12
This is the last issue of Volume 4 so, for quite a large number of you,
this will be your last issue Ö unless you send in another yearæs
subscription. We thought about copying other magazines and offering a
free this or a free that if you re-subscribe but we decided against it.
The way we see it is that those people who really value Archive will
remember to re-subscribe. However, some of us have short memories, so we
have provided three aid-memoires. Firstly, if this is your last
magazine, there should be a renewal letter in with it, secondly, it
should say ö4.12ò on the bottom right hand corner of the address label
and, thirdly, it should have arrived in a white envelope instead of the
usual buff one.
4.12
I trust that, if you enjoy reading Archive (as much as we enjoy
producing it!), youæll stay with us a little longer at least.
4.12
Best wishes to you all,
4.12
Paul Beverley
4.12
P.S. Thanks for all your good wishes Ö we had a really great holiday in
U.S.A. (and managed to arrange some even better prices on removable hard
drives! Ö See Products Available.)
4.12
4.12
Products Available
4.12
Å 4M upgrades for A310 Ö Over the last few months, we have had a lot of
very positive feedback from readers about the I.F.E.L. memory upgrades
for the A310 and so we decided to have a look at them ourselves with a
view to stocking them. (We have in the past stocked other A310 memory
upgrades but stopped because of the difficulties we experienced.) We are
very happy with the quality of the I.F.E.L. upgrades and have therefore
arranged a deal with them so that we can offer the 4 M memory upgrade to
members for ú350. This includes the cost of collecting the computer from
your home (or place of work), installing and testing the upgrade and
returning the computer to you, hopefully within a couple of working
days. The upgrade is soldered in which minimises the risk of things
working loose in transit (which was the problem that we had with the
other upgrades). I.F.E.L. do also sell a plug-in D.I.Y. type of upgrade
but that is NOT the one that we are supplying.
4.12
If you want to have ROM sockets that take the larger RISC-OS ROMs, we
can fit them for you. However, we do not advise plugging these sockets
into the existing sockets because you are then back to the potential
problems we had before. What we will do is to desolder the old sockets
and solder in the new ones. This is labour intensive and increases the
cost of the ROM upgrade to ú35 but it will give you a much more reliable
end result.
4.12
Å A3000 ARM3 upgrade Ö Aleph One and Atomwide are now offering an ARM3
upgrade for the A3000. It involves desoldering the ARM2 and fitting a
socket that will take the ARM3 board Ö a technically difficult task as
the A3000 uses so-called surface-mount components. Donæt worry, Atomwide
collect your computer, do the upgrade, test it and return it to you all
for ú399 +VAT.
4.12
Å A4 flatbed scanners Ö DT Software have produced an interface and
software to run an Epson GT4000 (or GT-6000) from an Archimedes
computer. The main features are: 25 to 400 (or 600) d.p.i., 24 bit
colour, 256 grey scales, full RISC-OS application. The prices are ú1299
+VAT for the GT4000 or ú1699 +VAT for the GT6000. This includes software
and the interface board. (These prices compare rather favourably with
Clares GT4000 with interface for ú1799 +VAT. The list price for the
GT4000 is ú1499, so DTæs is a very good price.)
4.12
Å Acorn Desktop C and Acorn Desktop Assembler Ö Acorn is releasing major
upgrades to its C and Assembler programming development software which
integrate the software development tools into the RISC-OS desktop.
4.12
Each package contains öall the tools needed for software development in
that language for debugging, editing program source, generating object
code, managing the construction of applications from multiple source
files and using support utilities.ò
4.12
Hardware requirements: You need at least 2M of RAM to run the desktop
language products. For professional development, a hard disk is advised
and it is required if you wish to use both products together.
4.12
Upgrades: Existing owners of previous language products can upgrade
through Vector Services as follows (the prices include postage and
packing):
4.12
inc VAT
4.12
C release 3 to Desktop C ú85
ú99.87
4.12
C release 2 or 1 to Desktop C ú105
ú123.87
4.12
Assembler to Desktop Assembler ú75
ú88.12
4.12
Software Developers Toolbox
4.12
to Desktop Assembler ú75
ú88.12
4.12
To obtain your upgrade, you should send to Vector Services:
4.12
áÖááyour name and address
4.12
áÖááyour original disc (disc 1 only for C release 3, the utilities disc
for the Software Developers Toolbox.)
4.12
áÖááa cheque or postal order, made out to öAcorn Directò for the inc VAT
price indicated above.
4.12
The offer expires 31st December 1991.
4.12
Å ARCtist Ö The 4th Dimension have produced a 256 colour RISC-OS
compatible art package for just ú24.95 (ú23 through Archive). The
package includes several hundred kbytes of clip art. (This has no link
with the original program of the same name Ö one of the original art
packages produced for the Archimedes.)
4.12
Å ArcRecorder(s) Ö The sound sampler produced by Oak Solutions (which is
now called ÉOakRecorderæ) is available in small quantities though not
yet enough to match the demand. Hybrid Technologyæs offering will be
available within a few days, possibly by the time you read this, I donæt
know what sort of quantities they are producing, but I doubt whether
they will be able to meet initial demand as this is proving to be a very
popular product. The important question is how do the two products
compare? It does look as if Hybrid Technologyæs software is more
extensive but all we have to go on at the moment are the manufacturersæ
claims! As soon as we have a review copy of either (or both) weæll get
something into print.
4.12
Å ARM3 prices down again Ö Aleph One have reduced the price of their
ARM3 upgrade to ú389 + VAT (ú459) so we have been able to bring the
Archive price down to ú390 inc VAT.
4.12
Å BlastOn Ö Another offering from Eterna Ö a shoot-em-up game with what
Micro User reckons are ögood graphics and sound, making a professional-
looking packageò. ú19.95 from Eterna or ú19 through Archive.
4.12
Å Break 147 / SuperPool is out at last and itæs very impressive. You
have a complete 3D view of the table which you prowl around studying the
options for your next shot. Once you take your position for the shot,
you line up the direction plus the point on the ball which you are going
to strike for your stun shot or to screw the cue ball back for your next
shot etc. You can play against other humans or the computer by arranging
tournaments. There is action replay so you can see what went wrong (or
right) with your last shot. The referee speaks the score and tells you
when you have fouled or have a touching ball etc. ú24.95 from the 4th
Dimension or ú23 through Archive.
4.12
Å Bubble Fair Ö This is the latest offering from Eterna. I havenæt been
able to find out much about it yet except that it has 72 levels, 3
tunes, 256 colour overscan screen, challenges and bonuses! The price is
ú19.95 from Eterna or ú19 through Archive.
4.12
Å Design Concept Fonts price increase. Design Concept have increased the
range of their decorative fonts (see Archive 4.8 p53 for a review) to 14
and have extended and improved some of the original ones and they have
put up the price from ú1.50 per font to ú2.50 Ö but thatæs still
incredibly cheap! Site licences are available for ú5 per font. The other
related software that Design Concept produce has also been improved and
updated. (No VAT is charged as Design Concept are not VAT registered.)
4.12
Å Einstein Ö Ace Computing have produced an all-in-one multi-dimensional
design and animation package for just ú120 +VAT (ú125 through Archive).
It presents a öhighly consistent world for 2, 3 or 4 dimensional graphic
designò (!) and claims to be öthe first product for the Archimedes which
allows interactive manipulation of Bezier surfacesò. The press release
talked about using Bezier surfaces to produce such things as car body
shells, which was fine, but when it talked about ö4D Bezier
hypervolumesò I gave up trying to understand it. I suggest you contact
Tony Cheal at Ace for further details but it certainly sounds
impressive!
4.12
Å FaxScan Ö Keeping up their reputation for innovative design ideas,
Spacetech have taken advantage of Amstradæs ability to produce cheap
volume products to provide a versatile add-on for the Archimedes. If you
have an Amstrad FX9600T (now discontinued) or an FX9600AT fax machine,
Spacetech can sell you an interface which plugs into the Econet space in
the A3000 or Archimedes and links to the serial interface on the Amstrad
fax. Spacetechæs software then enables you to use the fax as a 200
d.p.i., sheet-fed scanner and, by adding a standard parallel printer
cable, to send faxes direct from the desktop so that output from DTP,
Paint or Draw can be faxed without having to print it Ö a time saver for
those with dot-matrix printers and a revolution for those without. You
can even use the fax machine as an Epson compatible 216 d.p.i. printer!
The interface and software costs ú99.50 +VAT. If you buy it with the
FX9600AT, which is a fax and an answering machine, the total price,
including carriage and one yearæs on-site maintenance, is just ú490.75
+VAT.
4.12
(See what I mean about innovation! We are trying to make this available
through Archive, so check the Price List for prices, assuming we get it
organised by the time we have to go to press.)
4.12
Å Hawk V9 software upgrade Ö Wild Vision are offering an upgrade to
their Hawk V9 colour video digitiser. For ú29.90 inc VAT, you can get a
new ROM, a new version of !FastGrab which incorporates the !ChangeFSI
routines and a new manual. ChangeFSI is available separately from Wild
Vision for ú22 +VAT. This is the new desktop version.
4.12
Å Landmarks Ö Two more Landmarks packages have appeared from Longman-
Logotron: Rain Forest and The Victorians. ú19 each (+ VAT) from Logotron
or ú21 through Archive.
4.12
Å Master Break is a snooker style trivia quiz for 1 to 4 players. It has
over 2,000 questions on science & nature, pop music, geography, sports &
pastimes, arts & history. ú19.95 from Superior or ú19 through Archive.
4.12
Å RenderBender II Ö Clares now have a RISC-OS compliant version of their
RenderBender package at ú135 (inc VAT) or ú120 through Archive. It has a
new front end which allows you to draw the scenes (a bit like !Draw)
before converting into 3D by the ray-tracer part of the package (which
can work in multi-tasking mode). There is also an animator included and
you can animate manually by in-betweening or by assigning formulae to
the objects.
4.12
Å Rhapsody II Ö Clares have released version two of their their music
system, Rhapsody. Full details are given in the review on page 56. The
upgrade price is ú15.50 (inc VAT) from Clares (only) and the full
package is ú61.95 from Clares or ú57 through Archive.
4.12
Å SCSI Drives Ö Continuing what has become a well-established Archive
tradition (!), we have worked some better prices on SCSI drives Ö most
notably on removable drives. Itæs a long story involving various
contacts with U.S.A. but the bottom line is that we are now able to
offer two alternatives on removables and some good prices on external
fixed hard drives.
4.12
Removable drives Ö We now offer a choice between the Atomwide removable
drive and a öMac-typeò drive. Both are the same price Ö ú525 inc VAT &
carriage and this includes one 42M cartridge and a data cable (please
specify podule type). If you want an Oak podule with the drive, add ú200
or for a Lingenuity A3000 podule, add ú160.
4.12
So what is the difference between the drives? Firstly, the Mac-type
drives are öMac shapedò Ö 10ö x 10ò and 2╜ö high (to sit underneath a
Mac computer) whereas Atomwideæs drives are 6ò wide, 4ö high and 10ò
deep Ö much better suited to putting alongside the Archimedes computer.
The second difference is that the Mac drives are plastic cased whereas
Atomwide use metal cases. Finally, Atomwide have used a more powerful
fan and placed it square on at the back of the drive unit whereas the
Mac drives, being flat, have the fan by the side of, and at right angles
to, the drive unit. They point downwards so the positioning of these
drives is more critical.
4.12
External fix hard drives Ö We have found a supply of fixed hard drives
(from a company called Frog Systems!) that are very competitively
priced. The only disadvantage I can see is that, like the Mac removable
drives, they are the öwrongò shape Ö i.e. 10ö x 10ò and 2╜ö high Ö and
therefore take up more desk space than those drives specifically
designed for the Archimedes. If you buy one of these drives as a first
drive (i.e. with a podule) there is a certain price advantage but if you
already own a podule and just want a second drive, the price advantage
is huge. For example, we sell Oakæs 100M Worrawinnie drive (their
economy version) at ú630 without a podule whereas the 100M Mac drives
are only ú470 and are slightly faster! The 200M Frog at ú730 compares
well with the 100M High Speed Oak drive at ú700. More details are given
in the price comparison chart below. (WW = Oak WorraWinnie, HS = Oak
High Speed, AW = AtomWide.) Firstly, Archive prices including an Oak
podule....
4.12
WW HS Frog AW
4.12
20M 395 490
4.12
45M 500 530
4.12
50M 600 620
4.12
65M 560
4.12
80M 615
4.12
100M 730 800 670 790
4.12
200M 1030 1200 930
4.12
300M 1900 1390
4.12
640M 2500 1790
4.12
1000M 2390
4.12
If you look at the prices without podule, i.e. for those of you looking
for a second SCSI drive, the differences in price are more marked....
4.12
WW HS Frog AW
4.12
20M 295 290
4.12
45M 400 330
4.12
50M 500 420
4.12
65M 360
4.12
80M 515
4.12
100M 630 700 470 590
4.12
200M 930 1100 730
4.12
300M 1800 1190
4.12
640M 2400 1590
4.12
1000M 2190
4.12
The other advantage of the Frog drives when compared to the Worrawinnies
is that they have dual connectors at the back which makes daisy-chaining
easier and they also have a push-button ID setting which aids setting up
when you have a number of different drives. (The Worrawinnies donæt have
any SCSI connector on the back. For cheapness, they just have a cable
coming out of the back with an IDC connector on the end Ö i.e. to plug
straight into the Oak podule.)
4.12
We have done some speed tests on the 100M drives so that you can relate
speeds to prices. The first is the raw data transfer rate in kbytes/
second. The Oak HS and the Atomwide are the same because they are using
the same Quantum drive mechanism. The Worrawinnie is only tentative
because Oak are changing the type of drive they use so this information
will be out-of-date by the time you read it!
4.12
mode WW HS Frog AW
4.12
0 ?650? 1170 884 1170
4.12
15 ?650? 1156 884 1156
4.12
21 ?530? 735 286 735
4.12
We also did our other speed test where we copy the contents of the
Applications 2 disc (i.e. lots of files) from one directory on the drive
to another. We have in the past quoted these as the time in seconds but
to make it easier to judge the speeds we have divided the time into the
total data copied (420k) to give a rate in kbytes/second.
4.12
mode WW HS Frog AW
4.12
0 ?42? 70 56 70
4.12
15 ?40? 65 53 65
4.12
21 ?36? 51 36 51
4.12
The Frog drives run at about 80% of the speed of the higher speed drives
in modes 0 and 15 and 70% in mode 21. (This suggests that they have a
smaller ram cache and so cannot ötake up as much slackò as the other
drives when the computer is busy updating the screen.)
4.12
Å Top Banana Ö öJoin the frantic fruit fight to save the planet.ò A
company called, simply, öHexò has joined the Archimedes games fraternity
with this arcade style game which boasts four worlds, three level
parallax scrolling in 256 colour mode. The sound is ösolid sampled
cyber-mixedò and the graphics use colour sampled video. It comes in
öecologically friendly packagingò and includes a free loose-fit T-shirt.
What more could you want for just ú25.99 or ú24 through Archive?
4.12
Å World Championship Squash Ö Play club level or championship level
squash without even a single bead of sweat on your forehead! Play
against the computer or another human being. Various options including
ball speed and type of competition Ö knock out or ladder. The price is
ú25.99 from Krisalis Software or ú24 through Archive. (öAvailable 6th
Septemberò, they say.)
4.12
Å Zelanites the Onslaught Ö MicroPower have entered the Archimedes games
world with their first game which follows the basic formula of space
invaders with variations similar to Arcadians where the baddies come
sweeping down at you from the midst of the hoards tracking across the
screen and working their way down towards you. There are also various
bonuses to be had by shooting other objects which make their way across
the top of the screen. Finally, there are a number of different objects
which you can catch as they fall from the sky. These offer some positive
helps such as extra shooting power or a protective umbrella but donæt
catch them all Ö some are distinctly unhelpful such as one which makes
the controls operate the wrong way round! The price is ú24.95 inc VAT or
ú23 through Archive.
4.12
Review software received...
4.12
We have received review copies of the following software and hardware:
ARCtist, Imagine, Cross 32 meta-assembler, Animynd Life, Master Break
(Quiz), OutLook for Eizo 9080i.ááA
4.12
4.12
Government Health Warning Ö Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
4.12
öYou can prove anything from the bible.ò How many times have I heard
that? Well, yes, thatæs true to an extent but only if you pick some bits
out and ignore others and if you are prepared to take passages out of
context. For example, youæve probably heard the quotation öMoney is the
root of all evilò but the full quotation is that öthe love of money is a
root of all kinds of evilò (1 Timothy 6 v10) and that is certainly true
today Ö as much as it was almost 2,000 years ago when it was written.
4.12
What started me on this tack? Well, the bible passage I was reading this
morning included Jesusæ oft quoted words, öDo to others as you would
have them do to youò Ö a good principle, Iæm sure we would all agree.
However, the rest of the passage says things like, ölove your enemies,
do good to those who hate youò and öpray for those who ill-treat youò.
That puts a whole new complexion on it!
4.12
Donæt rely on mis-quotations, read for yourself what Jesus actually
said.
4.12
4.12
4.12
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD. 0603-
766592 (764011)
4.12
4.12
4th Dimension P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742Ö700661)
4.12
Abacus Training 29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, SN2
6QA.
4.12
Acorn Direct 13 Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2RL.
4.12
Acorn Computers Ltd Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 4JN. (0223Ö245200) (Ö210685)
4.12
Ace Computing (p22) 27 Victoria
Road, Cambridge, CB4 3BW. (0223Ö322559) (Ö69180)
4.12
Aleph One Ltd The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge, CB5 9BA.
(0223Ö811679) (Ö812713)
4.12
Alpine Software P.O.Box 25, Portadown, Craigavon, BT63 5UT.
(0762Ö342510)
4.12
Atomwide Ltd (p7) 23 The Greenway, Orpington, Kent, BR5 2AY.
(0689Ö838852) (Ö896088)
4.12
Avisoft 11 Meadow Close, Wolvey, Hinckley, LE10 3LW.
4.12
Beebug Ltd 117 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. (0727Ö40303)
(Ö60263)
4.12
Clares Micro Supplies 98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 7DA. (0606Ö48511)
(Ö48512)
4.12
Colton Software (p21) 2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LA. (0954Ö311881) (Ö312010)
4.12
Computer Concepts (p30/31) Gaddesden Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2
6EX. (0442Ö63933) (Ö231632)
4.12
Data Store 6 Chatterton Road, Bromley, Kent. (081Ö460Ö8991)
(Ö313Ö0400)
4.12
David Pilling P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
4.12
Design Concept 30 South Oswald Road, Edinburgh, EH9 2HG.
4.12
Domark Ferry House 51Ö57 Lacy Road, London SW15 1PR. (081Ö780Ö2222)
4.12
DT Software 13 Northumberland Road, Leamington Spa CV32 6HE.
4.12
EMR Ltd 14 Mount Close, Wickford, Essex, SS11 8HG. (0702Ö335747)
4.12
Eterna 4 rue de Massacan, 34740 Z.I. Vendargues, France. (010Ö33 +67Ö70
Ö53Ö97)
4.12
Hex 41a Charleston Street, London SE17 1NG. (071Ö701Ö5384)
4.12
Hybrid Technology 88 Butt Lane, Milton, Cambridge CB4 6DG.
(0223Ö861522)
4.12
IFEL 36 Upland Drive, Plymouth, Devon, PL6 6BD. (0752Ö847286)
4.12
Irlam Instruments 133 London Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 4HN.
(0895Ö811401)
4.12
Krisalis Software Teque House, Masonæs Yard, Downs Row, Moorgate,
Rotherham, S60 2HD. (0709Ö372290)
4.12
Lingenuity (Lindis) (p38) P.O.Box 10,
Halesworth, Suffolk, IP19 0DX. (0986Ö85Ö476) (Ö460)
4.12
Longman-Logotron Dales Brewery, Gwydir Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LJ.
(0223Ö323656) (Ö460208)
4.12
LOOKsystems (p11) 47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603Ö764114) (Ö764011)
4.12
MicroPower Ltd Northwood House, North Street, Leeds LS7 2AA.
(0532Ö458800)
4.12
Oak Solutions (p37) Cross Park
House, Low Green, Rawdon, Leeds, LS19 6HA. (0532Ö502615) (Ö506868)
4.12
Ray Maidstone (p6 & 47) 421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603Ö407060) (Ö417447)
4.12
Safesell Exhibitions (p8) Market
House, Cross Road, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 5SR.
4.12
Sherston Software Swan Barton, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(0666Ö840433) (Ö840048)
4.12
Silicon Vision Ltd Signal
House, Lyon Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 2AG. (081Ö422Ö2274) (Ö427Ö5169)
4.12
Spacetech (p12) 21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305Ö822753)
4.12
Superior Software Regent House, Skinner Lane, Leeds, LS7 1AX.
(0532Ö459453)
4.12
Techsoft UK Ltd (p27) Old School
Lane, Erryrs, Mold, Clwyd, CH7 4DA. (082Ö43318)
4.12
Vector Services Ltd 13 Denning
ton Road, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2RL.
4.12
Westland Systems Assessment Telec House,
Goldcroft, Yeovil BA21 4DQ.
4.12
Wild Vision 15 Witney Way, Boldon Colliery, Tyne & Wear NE35 9PE.
(091Ö519Ö1455) (Ö1929)
4.12
XOB Balkeerie, Eassie by Forfar, Angus, DD8 1SR. (0307Ö84364)
4.12
4.12
Safesell
4.12
New
4.12
4.12
Hints and Tips
4.12
Å Basic line lengths revisited (Archive 4.10 p7) Ö The Basic line input
buffer is 238 characters and so this is the most you can type in from
the Basic prompt. Once entered, this line is tokenised before being
stored as part of a program. Most of the keywords are reduced to only
one byte, so the line ends up taking up much less room in a program. The
maximum length for a line in a program is 255 bytes, but four of these
bytes have special purposes (one is a line terminator, one the line
length and two the line number). This leaves 251 bytes for the rest of
the line. So whatæs the point in allowing bigger lines in the program if
you canæt type them in? Well, you can by being devious. Try typing the
following at the Basic prompt:
4.12
10E.:E.:E.: etc
4.12
until you hit the line limit and then press Return. Listing your program
now should reveal:
4.12
10ENDPROC:ENDPROC:ENDPROC: etc
4.12
up to a length of about 790 characters! This line is perfectly valid and
would run OK (although I canæt think of a program where 79 ENDPROCs in a
row would be useful!) but is much too long to edit at the Basic prompt
or in the Basic Editor. It wouldnæt be sensible for the Basic Editor to
limit you to 251 characters since, once tokenised, your line would be
much shorter, so it allows you to type up to 369 characters hoping that
tokenising will bring it back to 251. It objects if you try to type in
more than 369 characters; it also objects if you type a shorter line
which would be longer than 251 characters once tokenised (try REM
followed by 300 letters). As for solving the problem, if you have a copy
of Twin, you could try loading your Basic program into it. Twin has no
line length limit and will cope with anything. Returning to Basic will
always work provided the resulting tokenised lines would be no longer
than 251 characters. Lorcan Mongey
4.12
Å Citizen printer spare parts Ö You may be interested to know that you
can get spare parts for Citizen printers from XMA Ltd, Ruddington Lane,
Wilford, Nottingham, NG11 7EP. (0602 Ö818222) Rob Brown, Tadworth,
Surrey.
4.12
Å Fatal error type = 5 Ö !Edit will report this error if you have too
many outline fonts in your !Fonts folder. This will prevent you from
editing any documents within !Edit. The following Basic program will
solve this problem by hiding the !Fonts folder before running !Edit and
then restoring it once !Edit has been run.
4.12
1. Rename the É!RunImageæ file inside the É!Editæ folder as ÉEditImageæ.
4.12
2. Type the following program in and then save it as É!RunImageæ in the
É!Editæ folder.
4.12
REM ><Edit$Dir>.!RunImage
4.12
SYS öWimp_Initialiseò,200,&4B534154, öEditStartò TO ,taskid%
4.12
*Set temp <Font$Prefix>
4.12
*UnSet Font$Prefix
4.12
*WimpSlot -min 160k -max 160k
4.12
*WimpSlot -min 160k
4.12
SYS öWimp_StartTaskò,öRun <Edit$Dir> .EditImage ò+FNenv_string
4.12
*Set Font$Prefix <temp>
4.12
*Unset temp
4.12
SYS öWimp_CloseDownò,,taskid% ,&4B534154
4.12
END
4.12
4.12
DEFFNenv_string
4.12
LOCAL env$,x%
4.12
SYS öOS_GetEnvò TO env$
4.12
IF LEN(env$)<6 THEN =öò
4.12
WHILE INSTR(env$,ö ò,x%)>0
4.12
x%=INSTR(env$,ö ò,x%)+1
4.12
ENDWHILE
4.12
=RIGHT$(env$,LEN(env$)-x%+1)
4.12
Å Locating the I/O podule (a SWI number change) Ö Those writing code
for the I/O podule for use on different machines should note that Acorn
made a SWI number change between version 1.04 and 1.06 of the software
(use *Help Modules to find what version you have). Earlier issues of the
podule use &4043F for SWI öI/O _Podule_Hardwareò whereas the later
versions use &40500. ARM code assembled on a machine with one version of
the software will not work on another machine with a different version
without changing this SWI number. Richard House, Surrey.
4.12
Å PC screen fonts Ö If you are not overly fond of the chunky IBM
character set in the PC emulator, the following few lines of Basic will
modify the emulator ROM file with the BBC font of your choice.
4.12
REM >PCFONT
4.12
REM Merge BBC FONT file into !PC ROM file
4.12
REM N.B. *** COPY ORIGINAL ROM FILE BEFORE RUNNING THIS ***
4.12
:
4.12
DIM rom% &2000 : offset%=&166E
4.12
R$=ö:4.$.!PC.ROMò
4.12
OSCLI(öLoad ò+R$+ö ò+STR$~rom%)
4.12
A%=OPENIN(R$) : r1%=EXT#A% : CLOSE#A%
4.12
:
4.12
F%=OPENIN(ö4:.BBCFONTS.NEWFONTò) : REM file of type &FF7
4.12
REPEAT
4.12
A%=BGET#F%
4.12
IF A%<>23 THEN PRINT öThis is not a BBC font file!ò : END
4.12
C%=BGET%F%
4.12
FOR I%=0 TO 7
4.12
rom%?(offset%+((C%+128) MOD 256) *8+ I%)=BGET#F%
4.12
NEXT I%
4.12
UNTIL EOF#F%
4.12
CLOSE#F%
4.12
:
4.12
OSCLI(öSave ò+R$+ö òSTR$~rom%+ ö + ò+STR$~r1%)
4.12
END
4.12
This program has been used successfully on the ROM files supplied with
version 1.33 and the latest 1.60 (large and small) Ö each version stores
its VDU 23 character definitions from offset &166E onwards. Pete Bready,
Glasgow.
4.12
Å Impression Junior styles? Ö In the June 1991 edition of Archive, it
was pointed out that Impression Junior does not have styles. Although it
does not have styles, it does have rulers. These are intended to define
margins and tab-stops, but they can be used for other things.
4.12
If you save a text story with effects, you will see the definition of a
ruler, which looks like:
4.12
4.12
There will also be the definition of the BaseStyle, which contains a
number of additional commands. By copying some of these to the ruler
definition, you can create the equivalent of a style. As an example, a
Éstyleæ that changes the font of the text subject to the ruler to greek,
could be, for example:
4.12
4.12
As Impression Junior does not have the facility to create rulers with
these extensions, they must be written using an ordinary text editor
(such as !Edit) and imported into Impression where they become rulers.
4.12
The commands that I know work are:
4.12
font <font name> Ö e.g. Greek, Trinity.Medium, etc
4.12
fontsize <size>pt Ö 8 to 20 is reasonable
4.12
fontaspect <size>% Ö
100 normal, 200 stretches to twice size
4.12
fontcolour rgb = (<n>,<n>,<n>) Ö n is from 0 to 1 or 0 to 100 (both
appear to work)
4.12
linecolour rgb = (<n>,<n>,<n>) Ö as above
4.12
justify [left, right, centre, full] Ö full is to both margins
4.12
underline [0,1] Ö other
values also work but give strange underline
4.12
strikeout [on, off] Ö
writes É-æ over characters
4.12
script [off, sub, super] Ö
sub and super-scripts
4.12
leader ö<text>ò Ö overwrites
tab character
4.12
By using these additional commands, it is possible to generate some very
useful rulers.
4.12
Simon Callan, Borehamwood.ááA
4.12
4.12
CC
4.12
From 4.11 page 31
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4.12
Spacetech
4.12
New
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4.12
Comment Column
4.12
Å Impression is incredible Ö I have come to this conclusion after a
lengthy and involved operation involving conversion of 37 separate
chapters of a book written with WordStar to hard copy output as a single
243 page document from a LaserDirect LBP-4 printer. In case the
experience helps others, this was the sequence:
4.12
a)áAn MS-DOS utility STRIP.COM was used to strip out WordStar control
codes and convert the 37 chapter files into .txt files. (The WordStar
version was V3.something and thought unlikely to work with Computer
Concepts new WordStar loader file which is intended for V4.0 and later).
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b)áUsing !PCDir and with Preferences on the icon menu set to Smart
Quotes, each chapter file was loaded into 2 Impression documents as an
ASCII text file. Due to the original typistæs idiosyncrasies, there were
still extra CRs and spaces in the text. Working on one copy, these were
removed with Ctrl-F4 (Find/Replace) in the following sequence; replace
space
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with space; the same again; replace 4 spaces with 1 space; 3 spaces
with 1 space and finally 2 spaces with 1 space.
4.12
c)áUsing the other copy to indicate the authoræs intentions, the first
copy was finally tidied for spaces, paragraph breaks, foreign accents,
italics and quotation marks and then saved as a text story. This was
repeated for the remaining chapters.
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d)áHaving designed a Master Page with page numbering, the 37 text story
chapters were loaded into it sequentially, with Smart Quotes set to OFF.
After setting Style for font and paragraph inset (Ruler) etc require
ments the 243 pages took just under 90 minutes to print.
4.12
All logical and relatively simple, you may say, and so it was: it worked
like a dream. Thanks to the logic and clarity of Impression, it could
hardly have been easier.
4.12
I did come across a couple of oddities. The word count of the chapters
individually, after they had been tidied up and before being saved as
text stories, totalled 50,217. Against this, the figure for the final
consolidated document was 77,191, which is probably nearer the true
figure.
4.12
After calling up two blank Impression pages at stage b) above, the
second copying of the ASCII text file sometimes put two or three ghost
images of the file rectangle on the document and occasionally after this
the program crashed. My machine is a 440/1 with ARM3.
4.12
Smart Quotes for importing text worked quite well but sometimes when it
failed it was hard to see why. At the end of a paragraph, a final single
quote would be pointing the wrong way, in the same direction as the
opening quote, although there were no apostrophes in the passage to
confuse it. Jack Evans, Bristol
4.12
Å LBP4 v LBP8 Ö Further to the comments in Archive 4.11 p2 about the
relative merits of LBP4æs and LBP8æs, I agree basically with the
conclusions but would make one or two extra observations from my
experience of using both types of printer. The straight paper path of
the LBP8 is particularly important if you are trying to print on
envelopes or on thick card. However, with 130 gsm card, I have found
that the LBP4 is better at feeding it from its paper feed tray than the
LBP8, despite its more tortuous paper path. Mike Hobart, Cambridge.
4.12
(On the other hand, I have used my LBP8, admittedly with a straight
paper path, on 190 gsm card and it seems OK though it is difficult to
double side it. Ed.)
4.12
(With Laser Directæed LBP4æs selling at ú1255, Iæm having difficulty
selling the LBP8æs that I have in stock at ú1595. Would anyone be
interested in helping my cashflow by buying one at ú1495? If so, give me
ring. Ed.)
4.12
Å Mig 29 Ö The Best Simulators Yet? Ö Having done some flying in my
youth, I must agree with the review of Mig 29 (Archive 4.10 p24) Ö it is
without doubt the best flight simulator program for the Archimedes
currently available. However, I just wanted to add some comments:
4.12
Cockpit unrealistic Ö The instrumentation isnæt very realistic, the
opposition flies mainly along the deck, as they say, and the scenery is
a bit boring, as usual, but the colouring is now better. The headup
display is vastly improved with an angle of attack indicator, the
graphics are smoother and the aircraft itself handles almost perfectly.
4.12
Inertia Ö The only thing that really irritates me is that the aircraft
does seem to have constant inertia irrespective of having a full load of
fuel and arms or being without both. No aircraft I know of will take a
full load of rockets, AA missiles, AS missiles, ammo and full fuel. Very
few can take rockets, Air-to-Air and Air-to-Surface missiles in one go,
as you canæt dogfight with all that hanging on your wings.
4.12
On other modern simulator programs for PCs etc, you have to trade
between range, speed and load, just as in the real world. If you didnæt
have to do that, every Air Force would just use one type of armed
aircraft. Sweden tries that with the Saab Viggen and Britain with the
Panavia Tornado, but they certainly do not even pretend to be fighters
and attack aircraft at the same time!
4.12
Radar from the Forties? Ö Also, the radar seems unusually primitive for
a modern aircraft: It seems able to ground-map (otherwise you couldnæt
use it for ground targets), but it doesnæt have a clue at what altitude
a bogey is.
4.12
When locking a radar to a target, this usually alerts the bogey as his
radar warning system sounds the alarm. So if the enemy is within visual
range, or at a known position, the prudent fighter pilot turns the radar
off until it is needed or used passively in a ösilentò mode Ö no signals
coming out of the system.
4.12
Chocks Away 2 and Extra Missions Ö The different views from the exterior
that are now available are similar to Chocks Away Extra Missions (and
the updated Chocks Away) and are as good. It is certainly delightful to
watch your own aircraft turning off its burners, stowing its gear or
firing its armaments.
4.12
The fine art of landing Ö The real beauty is the way the aircraft
behaves with everything hanging out, as the jocks say, when you set up
the aircraft for touch down. As with all real jet fighter aircraft, a
normal landing is made with a lot of power as the drag of the aircraft
is tremendous in the typical nose up landing attitude.
4.12
So the engine is used to control the rate of descent and the elevator is
used to control the speed. The angle of attack indicator (the AOA bug)
on the headup display (HUD) shows where you are heading and it is a real
help when you are trying to avoid smashing yourself to pieces. In a real
aircraft, you get lots of visual cues of this through your peripheral
vision, so the AOA bug on the HUD isnæt essential in real life, but
makes life easier.
4.12
This said, it does not behave as the highly efficient aircraft it is
when flown power off. It seems to settle for a speed of 900 indicated
and a glide ratio of about 1:2 (for each mile forward, it falls half a
mile). This is worse than the Challenger-type aircraft and that canæt be
a realistic figure. An SR-71 has a glide ratio of around 1:11 and a
modern parachute 1:4. My guess is that a realistic glide ratio is around
1:7. Does anyone have any hard facts?
4.12
Some minor flaws Ö The most irritating features are the fonts used and
the illustrations, neither of which are optional. Being a former
illustrator, I love pictures, but having to watch the same illustration
each time you crash is a bit off-putting, even if it is well done.
4.12
The font is supposed to imitate the Cyrillic alphabet, by turning
certain letters in reverse, but it is also boring and hard to read,
especially when used in dark red on dark green (That is a typographical
taboo Ö never write with red on green background Ö as it is very tiring
to read!). Why not use real Russian captions, with optional translation
as a subtitle?
4.12
The simulators we used in 1971 certainly had a realistic cockpit, being
part of an old aircraft, but the graphics were far behind this! Then a
group of analog and digital computers controlled the very first Viggen
simulator; today you can use a cheap PC and Flight Simulator for parts
of your IFR licence. What will tomorrow bring?
4.12
The best is yet to come... You can be certain that Simis, the program
mers, will improve their simulators further, in due time. Maybe add some
weather, as in Chocks Away! Extra Missions or present more interesting
scenery, with a !Lander-like landscape. Simisæ earlier efforts (Inter
dictor 1 and 2) had their bugs but I have yet to come across one while
using Domarkæs MIG 29. At almost ú40 it is a bit pricey, but it is also
much better than Interdictor 2, as that is really too difficult to
master and the aircraft not too realistic.
4.12
So buy MIG 29, itæs really one of the best fighter simulators on any
computer (Well, not counting professional equipment, of course!)
4.12
Tord Eriksson, Sweden
4.12
Å RISC-OS Dreaming Ö I have some suggestions for a future upgrade to
RISC-OS 2.01. Some of these suggestions may already have been imple
mented in development versions of RISC-OS modules but some ideas will
not.
4.12
Appearance Ö RISC-OSæs appearance was designed by the RISC-OS develop
ment team, i.e. programmers and not by graphic artists as were Windows
3.0, NextStep and Macintosh System 7. Standard RISC-OS windows make no
use of 3D effects as do all the above alternative Graphic User Inter
faces (GUI). The use of 3D icons and borders, as used in Impression,
make for an easier package to use and one that looks much more pleasing.
3D icons can be used to highlight default options, and borders can be
used to show which icons belong together. If you did not use 3D icons,
the only other way to represent default selections would be to use
colour but this would mean that everybody would have to buy a colour
display. A portable Archimedes in the future may mean more people using
B&W displays.
4.12
RISC-OS has almost no support for high resolutions screen modes. True,
every RISC-OS compliant applications will work in high resolution modes
but very few take advantage of this. Almost all software is supplied
with mode 12 sprites. What is needed is for the Operating System (OS) to
tell applications what type of screen mode is being used and allow the
applications to supply high resolution sprites. Thus, when you used mode
20 you would get mode 20 sprites not low resolution mode 12 sprites
scaled to mode 20. When Windows 3.0 is run on VGA hardware, almost all
the sprites are of VGA resolution and not CGA.
4.12
RISC-OS was one of the first OS to have support for outline fonts but
90% of the text displayed in the desktop is in system font which is a
horrid BBC bit-mapped font. In high resolution modes, you can see the
individual pixels that are used to make up a letter. This is because the
vertical scale is doubled to keep the aspect ratio correct.
4.12
My suggestion is to use an outline font like Trinity to replace the
system font. The font name to replace the system font could be stored in
cmos ram so that the system font could be still used if required. The
new font could be in the new OS, i.e. in ROM. It is likely that the new
OS should be 2 Mbytes in size, so there would be room for a bitmap of
Trinity at, say, 14 points. Thus you would not have to wait for the font
to cache and, if you wanted, you could change the screen font to any
other you had available. The font would be anti-aliased and so would
look good even at low resolutions.
4.12
When an icon is being dragged, the solid icon should be drawn and not a
dotted outline. It is strange that RISC-OS will do instant re-draws of
windows when they are being dragged but not of much smaller icons. Even
Windows 3.00 manages this.
4.12
If a program looks more visually appealing, the user is more likely to
use the program. When RISC-OS windows are displayed in magazines they
always look ugly in comparison to other GUI.
4.12
Virtual memory Ö The Archimedes memory controller, MEMC, has hardware
support for virtual memory but there is no OS software to take advantage
of this. If this extra software was included in the next release of
RISC-OS, a portion of a hard disc could act as part of the main memory
of the computer to be used when its real memory was full. There would be
no more Éout of memoryæ error messages, just a degradation in speed as
the data was fetched from the hard disc.
4.12
The task display could be enhanced by using a different colour to
represent virtual memory in any of the normal memory bar graphs. Thus it
would be possible to see which programs were using virtual memory and
possibly be able to change the allocation.
4.12
The task display should also contain additional information on each
task. This could be accessed via a menu entry. The extra information
could include the time that the task started, the amount of time that
the task has been running, the amount of processor bandwidth the task is
consuming as a percentage, the version number and data and the full path
name from which the task was run. You should also be able to save this
information as a text file for diagnostics purposes.
4.12
Interprocess communication Ö RISC-OS is quite good at communicating
between tasks. This is done whenever we save data from one task to
another but what we need is much more support for hot links. For
example, when I am writing technical reports on Impression, I often use
Draw to produce my diagrams. What I want is the facility to tell
Impression and Draw to hotlink my diagram. The drawfile that has been
imported into Impression (in a frame) would come under the control of
Draw and I would be able to edit it within Impression because Draw would
think that one of Impressionæs frames was a Draw window. The drawing
could be edited in Impression without having to export it back from
Draw. Of course, I would not want this to be limited to just Impression
and Draw but any applications that use the same type of data.
4.12
A RISC-OS script language could be produced to aid in hotlinking which
could be an extension of obey files. This script language could be used
to produced simple RISC-OS applications that a non-technical user could
produce. This script language could also be used to create macro or
task-automation features. If the OS also made use of this script
language, it would make a system easy to customise for personal
preferences.
4.12
RISC-OS desperately needs an on-line manual reader which could be
included in ROM. Most PD applications supply a !Help text file. What is
needed is an extension to !Help with support for unlimited on-line help.
The on-line help would consist of sprites, drawfiles, text and sound
samples, which would all be hot-linked together. Thus wherever the
pointer was, you would get the relevant manual entry. Alternately, the
manual entry could be read like a book with detailed indexes and search
facilities and the ability to print out the the book using the current
RISC-OS printer driver.
4.12
The big difference would be that the the manual would be a multi-media
presentation like Genesis, so when you clicked on an entry from the
index, the corresponding page appeared. This page would contain
pictures, text and possibly sounds.
4.12
RISC-OS also needs better support for inter-machine communication. Two
machines running RISC-OS on a network should be able to communicate and
share data with the hot links extensions already mentioned. More support
is also needed for Ethernet type networks. Econet is now too slow for
serious use, yet even with Acornæs TCP/IP protocol suite, a UNIX server
is required to network two RISC-OS machines using Ethernet. This
software support should be included in a new OS release.
4.12
Filer Actions Ö All filer actions should now multitask, i.e. copy, move,
delete, count, format, free and access. Any displays in bytes should
easily be switched to Mbytes and kbytes with a simple click on the
number with <select>. Where possible, displays should give a graphical
representation, e.g, a bar graph. The ability to set a file type on a
file and to open filer windows where you want also need to be included.
4.12
Aliases need to be included as on the Macintosh System 7 so that a filer
object could be aliased (pointer made) and objects could be grouped
together. To set which tasks are started up at switch on, an alias to
the task would be put in a boot folder.
4.12
A program like ArcDesk (from DataStore Software) should be used to
provide a backcloth filing system (sticky board) so that the desktop
background becomes like a filer window. You can save files and aliases
to it. It would also be great if normal windows could be minimised to an
icon on the background. (ArcDesk is, in my view, the best sticky
background, with loads of features.)
4.12
Multitasking Ö Co-operative multitasking is only as good as the worst-
written program being run, but, thankfully, most RISC-OS applications
are well behaved. What we need is a mixture between pre-emptive
multitasking and co-operative multitasking. Thus you would be able to
set a time limit of, say, 1 minute and if a task did not return to the
OS Wimp_Poll routine, the OS would put up an error box asking if you
wanted to kill this task or carry on. This would mean that a task which
had got stuck in an endless loop could be killed without resetting the
machine and losing un-saved work.
4.12
4.12
4.12
4.12
4.12
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4.12
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4.12
4.12
Fig. 1 shows the structure of a simple ready queue as used in a time
slicing multitasking system (pre-emptive because control can be taken
away from a task at any time). The Archimedes, with its simple co-
operative multitasking, only uses two states: Ready and Running (in
effect, variable time slices) but more efficient multitasking could be
employed if a third state, Blocked, was used. A task, whilst waiting for
some I/O to complete, would allow other tasks to execute. This would
mean that when a task is loading or saving a file, instead of the system
being halted, other tasks could be allowed to execute. This system could
also be used when tasks are executed from disc.
4.12
Applications suite Ö If the new OS is to be 2 Mbytes in size, it would
be logical to put the majority of the Applications Discs in ROM. For
people without a hard disc and with only 1 M of memory, the advantages
would be significant. Edit, Draw and Paint, the main applications, are
really good but there is still room for improvement. I would like Edit
to replace the use of the Basic Editor. I would like to be able to save
my most used options in Draw and have all the features of Draw Plus.
What is most annoying is that Draw always zooms in or out at the bottom
left of the diagram and not where the pointer is. Draw should also be
able to rotate sprites and text. Paint should have the ability to
convert a spriteæs mode. You should also be able to make multiple
selections of sprites, as you can on files in filer windows, using
<adjust>.
4.12
The printer drivers have an option to save to a file but they do not use
the standard save dialogue box. You should be able to set an auto save
time in cmos ram and, when this time is reached, the OS would send a
message to every task requesting that they save any unsaved data. Draw
should ignore extra information that it finds in drawfiles without
generating an error, thus Equasor, Poster and DrawLib could all be
changed to drawfiles. The OS should also work with 12-bit colour boards
like the one from The Serial Port.
4.12
Conclusions Ö Please note I am not a programmer, so it is quite likely
that some of the suggestions would be impossible to implement. My
background is in electronics having just graduated in Electrical and
Electronic Engineering.
4.12
Many of my ideas have come from using and reading about other GUI,
notably Windows 3.0, Macintosh System 7, X-Windows and NextStep. There
was a very good article in Byte June 1991 Ö Window Wars (pp 124) but,
unfortunately, it did not cover RISC-OS.
4.12
Does Acorn listen to its customersæ suggestions on the future of RISC-
OS? Will Acorn take into account any of these ideas? Will the RISC-OS
development team be open to suggestions?
4.12
Hopefully, an upgrade to RISC-OS will be released in the not too
distance future (maybe at the Acorn User Show) but, until then, we will
be left dreaming about RISC-OS 3.
4.12
If you have any suggestions, please write to me through Archive or E-
Mail me on Arcade (#17). Oliver Gunasekara, Sevenoaks.
4.12
Å RISC-OS styles Ö In reply to your letter from Jochen Konietzko in
Archive 4.10 p17 I would like to make the following points:
4.12
1. It is wrong to assume that Impression constitutes the new accepted
style. On the contrary, it is third party software which breaks the
existing house rules.
4.12
2. If Acorn were to adopt the house style of one third party software
supplier from a range of competitors, it would be unfairly damaging to
the business of those competitors who may well have an equally valid
alternative style of their own.
4.12
3. By changing the stylistic guidelines in this way Acorn would
öpunishò those software developers who had complied with the published
guidelines. This would be both morally wrong and commercially
unacceptable.
4.12
4. As Jochen himself implies, there are many Archimedes users who are
not familiar with Impression or Ovation, or any other particular
package. Every Archimedes user is, however, familiar with Edit.
4.12
In conclusion, I would agree that a consistent user interface is
necessary for a system but I would contend that the only possible set of
rules which can be applied are those rules laid down by Acorn. Ed Harris
(Royston, Herts)ááA
4.12
4.12
Available in September for only ú35 (all inclusive) ì cheques and postal
orders only
4.12
LOOKsystems, 47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY. tel.
(0603) 764114
4.12
4.12
Help!!!!
4.12
Å Archimedes User Groups Ö It would be very helpful to have a list of
local Archimedes User Groups which we could print occasionally in
Archive. We have a willing volunteer to collate the information, so if
you are running such a group or know of one, send the information to Mr
R Corderoy, 13 Church Walk, Worthing BN11 2LS.
4.12
Å HP LaserJet 2 problems Ö Has anyone managed to print to a HP LaserJet
2 compatible using the RISC OS drivers? If so, please contact Aasim
Ashraf, 69 Caerleon Road, Newport, Gwent, NP9 7BX.
4.12
Å Materials Science software Ö There is a bank of software produced by
the ÉInstitute of Metalsæ Software Committee (These are academics who
use microcomputers in the teaching of materials science.) This is mostly
for first year University work but we have also made software for ÉAæ
level use and a ÉSchools Discæ with more general topics in physics and
chemistry loosely related to materials science. This software is sold at
nominal prices because our main interest is in promoting greater
enthusiasm for materials science.
4.12
There are many exciting new materials these days and we need more
research workers to find ways of making all sorts of materials, ranging
from ecologically safe new detergents and longer lived batteries to
higher technological things such as high temperature superconductors and
better materials than silicon for even smaller electronic circuits. We
are keen to make more software for the secondary level and are looking
for active secondary school or H.E. teachers who might wish to join our
committee. Anyone interested should contact me at the address below.
4.12
We started writing for the BBC-B, in the days when it was the cheapest
colour graphics microcomputer and hence affordable by many educational
establishments. We converted most of the titles to the BBC Master but
then decided that there was a much bigger market for software of this
type on the IBM PC clone!
4.12
However, last year, I bought an Archimedes because I thought it had
superior graphics, being better integrated with the system than the PC
clones with their multiplicity of graphics boards. I have now converted
my program, ÉAtomic Packing and Crystal Structureæ, to run on the
Archimedes, and am trying to persuade my fellow committee members that
we should convert the rest of our software. They remain unconvin-ced, so
I should like to ask your readers whether any of them would be inter
ested in using such software on their Archimedes for teaching Materials
Science. (If anyone would like to review Atomic Packing and Crystal
Structure, let me know.)
4.12
Please send your comments on the need for such software for the
Archimedes to: Kate Crennell, ÉGreytopsæ, The Lane, Chilton, Didcot,
Oxon OX11 0SE or by electronic mail on JANET to KMC@UK.AC.RL.DE
4.12
Å Software suggestions needed Ö Do you see software on other computers
and wish something similar was out for the Archimedes? Do you have any
ideas for software for the Archimedes but not the knowledge to program?
If so please contact Mr W Drury, ArcRealm Software, 2 Torridge Close,
Greenmeadow, Swindon, Wilts, SN2 3PW.
4.12
Å UNIX C Ö Has anyone produced an Archimedes version of the UNIX
Écurses.hæ file? I need this to recompile a PD suite of UNIX C programs
provided with a book called öExplorations in Parallel Distributed
Processingò by Rummelhart and McLelland. These are all for simulation of
neural network processing systems. Is there any other Archie user out
there interested in neural network computing? If so, please contact
Julian Campbell, 20 The Hamlet, Champion Hill, Camberwell, London, SE5
8AW.
4.12
Å Watford ARM3 Ö Has anyone got any comments about experiences they have
had with installing and using the Watford Electronics ARM3 upgrade for
A310s within the past six months? If so, please contact Stuart Bell, 56
Crescent Drive North, Woodingdean, Brighton, BN2 6SN.ááA
4.12
4.12
Small Ads
4.12
Å 2M A3000 upgrade (expandable to 4M) ú55, Holed Out ú8, both ú60. Phone
0454Ö772159 (evenings).
4.12
Å A310, 4Mb RAM, 20Mb hard drive (with Acorn controller card), hi-res
monitor, 3╜ö disc drive, joystick, software e.g. PC emulator, etc ú995.
Contact Paul on 041Ö777Ö6608.
4.12
Å A440 (RISC-OS), boxed, as new, perfect condition, ú900. Phone Steve
Frost on 081Ö 743Ö8000 ext 5844.
4.12
Å A410/1, 4Mb RAM, 20M hard drive ú850, Laser Direct Qume (inc. original
toner & drum) ú800, Armadillo A448m MIDI / stereo sampler & software
ú120, Impression II ú100, Tracker ú25, Armadeus ú30, Splice ú15. Contact
Glenn on 0932Ö567614 (near Staines, Middlesex).
4.12
Å Canon BJ130e bubble jet printer 360 d.p.i. wide carriage (A3+), built
in sheet feeder, offers around ú400. Contact Mike Battersby on
081Ö841Ö1463 eves/weekends.
4.12
Å Cumana 5╝ö disc drive 40/80 track and buffer podule ú85; 1Mb unused
RAM for A410 ú40; Interdictor I with Voltmace analogue joystick ú15; E-
Type, PacMania, White Magic, Hoverbod, Artisan (version 1) ú5 each; Twin
editor, RISC-OS Companion Vol. 1 ú10 each, PipeDream (version 1) ú25;
30+ Archive back issues + 2 binders ú20; 20+ Risc User back issues + 2
binders ú15; and Microsoft Word v3.0 (sealed) for Apple Macintosh ú35.
Contact Keith on 0762Ö333872.
4.12
Å First Word Plus release 2, unopened ú35, Genesis unused ú20, Interdic
tor 2 as new ú20, The Wimp Game as new ú9. Contact Mike Battersby on
081Ö841Ö1463 eves/weekends.
4.12
Å Morley Teletext adaptor complete with software, excellent condition
ú35. Contact John Wimsett on 081Ö898Ö0447.
4.12
Å NEC 40M ST506 hard drive with cables (suitable for an A410) ú150,
Watford Electronics Mk2 hand scanner ú100, First Word Plus release 2
ú40, The Wimp Game, E-Type, Chocks Away ú8 each. All prices o.n.o. Buyer
collects (London Area) or postage extra. Contact Miles Sabin on
081Ö980Ö2455.
4.12
Å NEC Multisync II 14ö colour monitor ú200 o.n.o. (upgraded to 20ò) lead
and original packaging. Contact Derrick Grimmit on 0286Ö871181.
4.12
Å Olivetti DM124 Ö 24 pin printer as new ú150, Panasonic KX-P1124 with
sheet feeder ú200 (will split), Microsoft Word 5 and Excel 2.14 ú100
each, Interdictor I and French Correspondence ú5 each. Various user
guides, magazines and books including C: A Dabhand Guide ú15 including
discs. A3000 carrying case ú10 and Acorn umbrella ú15. Contact Geoff
Bailey, 9 Kingcup Drive, Bisley, Surrey, GU24 9HH.
4.12
Å Panasonic KX-P1081 printer, Archimedes lead, stand, fan fold paper ú65
(buyer collects), Wonderland ú26, Tactic ú12, Tracker ú35, 600 d.p.i.
laser printing services. Contact Michael Pargeter on Hitchin
0462Ö434061.
4.12
Å PC Emulator and DR-DOS (never used) ú90 or may split. Also profes
sional C.V. compilation service (dtp). Contact Robin on 0925Ö764832.
4.12
Å Scanlight Junior A3000 ú160, Interdictor 2 ú20, The Wimp Game ú12,
Games Minipack 2 ú12, Jet Fighter ú10. All include postage and packing.
Contact John on 0472Ö600647.
4.12
Å Star LC24-10 24 pin dot matrix printer, 1 year old. Excellent
condition + 3 ribbons + paper ú125. Contact Steve Couldstone on 0224Ö
643575 (days) or 0224Ö323589 (eves).
4.12
Å Swap Ö In exchange for an A3000 or A410, I have an Amiga A500 Screen
Gems + ╜M + Midi + MusicX, all worth ú600. Any offers to Matt after 6
p.m. on 0272Ö844388.
4.12
Å Twin 5╝ö Cumana disc drives 40/80 track plus interface for 400 series
ú140. Contact Paul on 041Ö777Ö6608.
4.12
Å Wanted Ö ST506 hard disc interface podule for A310. Phone 0420Ö83473.
4.12
Å Z88, 2 x 128k ram, withered toad, PC link, BBC link, printer cable etc
ú200. Phone 0706Ö521397.
4.12
Å Z88, 128k RAM pack, PSU, Archimedes link (PC Link II), hard case, soft
case. Can supply BBC link and software. Little used and boxed. Phone
Archie McDonald on 041Ö762Ö1593.
4.12
Å Z88 + 128k RAM + 32k RAM, printer lead, serial interface, main adaptor
and battery charger with Nicad cells. Complete with user manual, Z88 to
Arc software and leatherette carrying case. ú150 o.n.o. Contact Mark on
0384Ö452925 (work) or 0384Ö257438 (home).
4.12
Charity Sales Ö The following items are available for sale in aid of
charity. PLEASE do not just send money Ö ring us on 0603Ö766592 to check
if the items are still available. Thank you.
4.12
(If you have unwanted software or hardware for Archimedes computers you
could donate for charity, please send it in to the Archive office. If
you have larger items where post would be expensive, just send us
details of the item(s) and how the purchaser can get hold of them.)
4.12
A440 computer (yes, a complete A440 computer with 20M drive!) offers
i.r.o. ú900 (our engineer has checked it and it is in good working order
though we cannot, of course, offer any guarantee), User Guides ú1 + ú3
postage, ArcWriter ú3, PC Emulator 1.34 (not upgradable) ú25, Acorn
Assembler ú60, Brainsoft Multi I/O podule ú50, Ibix the Viking ú9.ááA
4.12
4.12
Colton
4.12
New
4.12
4.12
Ace
4.12
From 4.1 page 16
4.12
4.12
Hardware Column
4.12
Brian Cowan
4.12
RAM upgrades for the 310
4.12
I have recently fitted an IFEL DIY four Mbyte RAM upgrade to an old
Archimedes A310 for a colleague. Essentially, I followed the instruc
tions and it all went OK, but it was an interesting and enlightening
experience. The comprehensive instructions started off by warning that
although the procedure seemed complex it was not difficult!
4.12
Disassembly
4.12
The first thing was to get the board out of the case. The instructions
made good sense and after removing a host of podules, the various cables
were disconnected and the circuit board eased out. The memory upgrade
consisted of two boards connected by a ribbon cable. One board plugged
in the four ROM sockets. I had to remove the four ROM chips from their
sockets, plug in the new board and then insert the ROM chips into the
new board. This is a clever way of accessing the 32 data lines and, as a
bonus, the new board has the extra tracks for the two Mbyte ROM of the
yet to be released new RISC-OS. This part of the operation was straight
forward, if a little scary; quite considerable force had to be applied
to insert the round pins of the new board into the old ROM sockets.
4.12
Chip extraction
4.12
The memory expansion comes with a MEMC1a upgrade. The instructions say
to use an extractor to remove the old MEMC chip from its socket. Well,
luckily, I had an extractor but if I hadnæt, I would have been rather
annoyed to have got so far and then to be stuck. I used the cheapo (well
relatively speaking) extractor from RS Components Ltd. To start with it
didnæt work. Each time I inserted the hooks and squeezed, the hooks
simply jumped out of the holder and skidded across the top of the MEMC
chip. Finally, I carefully placed the hooks in position, forcing them
under the bottom of the chip. Then the MEMC chip came out reasonably
smoothly. Next to the MEMC chip is a PAL and this was replaced quite
simply.
4.12
The other board of the upgrade contains the MEMC1a chip and this fits
into the old MEMC socket on the main board. It is vital to align the
plug in the socket correctly but, with a little care, it went in quite
easily. Well that was all there was to it, except for reassembling the
whole thing.
4.12
Reassembly
4.12
Replacing the circuit board in the case is not a trivial task, particu
larly with the two chunks of the memory upgrade sitting on it.
Eventually, I decided to remove the hard disc drive to obtain access, to
position the board correctly and to replace all the cables which had to
be plugged into it. The hard disc was reinserted, the backplane fitted
and the podules installed. This was the moment of truth.
4.12
Resetting
4.12
Since the circuit board had been disconnected from the battery, the CMOS
RAM was corrupt and it had to be reset. So a quick turn off and on with
the delete key pressed. For some strange reason everything booted up OK
in the desktop except that there was no floppy disc icon shown. Doing a
*Status showed that no floppies were configured. I donæt know why this
was but the problem was quickly rectified with *Configure, and all was
well. Finally, looking at the task manager showed that there was indeed
four megabytes of RAM available.
4.12
Conclusion
4.12
So what is my verdict? The IFEL upgrade is well made and the instruc
tions are good, except for the appalling öphotographsò which were not
really needed. You must have a chip extractor for the MEMC, a few pairs
of pliers and a couple of screwdrivers. They say a bad workman blames
his tools, but for so many things you have to have the right tools
otherwise you can really ruin things. Conclusion: good, but not for the
faint-hearted.
4.12
PC Emulator
4.12
Strictly speaking, this is not a hardware topic but there are hardware
aspects and anyway I have always interpreted my brief in a liberal way.
4.12
New Version
4.12
So, after many delays, the new PC emulator is finally with us. Of
course, the main feature of the new release is that it is a true
multitasking RISC-OS application. Although called version 1.6, this is a
completely new product; it should have been called version 2.0 or
something. The old emulators were written in Modula 2, the language of
many of Acornæs older projects but, as we all know, the current flavour
of the month is C. The new emulator has been completely re-written in C,
except for those parts which are in Assembler.
4.12
MS or DR?
4.12
Funnily enough, we are back to Microsoft MS-DOS after Acornæs brief
flirtation with DR DOS. I think the reason here is purely financial,
relating to the deals Acorn was able to strike with Microsoft and
Digital Research. Essentially, I think the decision to go for MS-DOS is
correct. DR DOS may be a better product but it is not standard. In any
case, MS-DOS version 5 (if we can use it on the emulator) is everything
that a DOS should be.
4.12
CPU
4.12
To answer a few questions I posed last month, the CPU being emulated is
still an 80186. For the life of me, I canæt imagine why that is, except
that it is the only DOS-like chip which Acorn have any experience of.
There is now an emulation of a É87 maths coprocessor which is most
welcome.
4.12
Speed
4.12
Last month, I expressed reservations about the emulatoræs probable speed
and I speculated that using the Archimedes own font manager should
speed-up the display side of things. I was right there. Although I was
not able to do any benchmark trials, the perceived speed was quite
acceptable; certainly faster than the old version of the emulator. In
fact, when writing text to the screen it appears to run very fast
indeed.
4.12
One has the option of running DOS as a single task where it takes over
the whole system Ö much like the old emulator. In this mode, graphics
run much faster. And one can swap between window-operation and single-
tasking at the click of a button.
4.12
Partition problems
4.12
I wonæt go into all the various details of this new product; I am sure
other reviews will cover them. However, there are some points of
interest and some problems I encountered. When you run with a DOS
partition (you can now have up to four) on your hard disc, the DOS
partition file remains open for the duration of the DOS session. So you
canæt read or write this file from a native Archimedes application
(using MultiFS for example). This is most annoying and limiting of the
potential versatility of the emulator.
4.12
It turns out that this restriction has to be imposed because DOS caches
all sorts of filing information (in an undocumented fashion) and it
would thus become confused if foreign operators interfered with files or
directories. I tried, for devilment, doing a *Close, but following this
the emulator was not able to re-open the partition file when needed.
4.12
Considering all this, you would certainly not expect to be able to run
two or more instantiations of the emulator from the same hard disc
partition. However, using separate partitions, you would hope (memory
permitting) to have no problems in using multiple virtual PCs. Unfor
tunately, a bug in the emulator causes the extra DOS windows to ignore
keyboard input even when having input focus Ö you must close all DOS
windows except the one into which you want to type.
4.12
Solution?
4.12
One might expect these file-access difficulties to be circumvented by
using a floppy disc. Running this way, it appears that you can transfer
data between DOS instantiations or in and out of DOS (using MultiFS, for
example) Ö but beware!! The proper way of transferring data between DOS
and a native RISC-OS application is using the old DOS PutFile and
GetFile programs which Acorn still provide and, using a double appli
cation of this, files can be exchanged between different DOS windows.
4.12
Conclusion
4.12
I must say this is an absolutely superb product. If you show this
emulator to your DOS-only friends it will turn them into a salivating
heap! Also, the manufacturers of hardware DOS cards will certainly have
something to think about if they are to do better.ááA
4.12
4.12
Chess3D Ö The Challenger
4.12
Tord Eriksson
4.12
The first serious challenge to David Pillingæs !Chess that has come to
my notice is Chess3D, from Micro Power: This is an icon-based program
that comes in a big box that just contains a single disc, nothing else.
The program is totally controlled by the mouse, showing the chess board
both in 3D and in ordinary fashion at the same time (the latter in a
reduced scale in the left topmost corner of the screen). Just as !Chess,
it conforms to RISC-OS rules and the two can easily be run at the same
time (if the screen is big enough!). There is no computer versus
computer mode, a great shame!
4.12
It can be installed on hard disc, but still need access to the original
disc to function properly.
4.12
Complications
4.12
The game is not easy to set up, even if the text file on the disc is
thoroughly read. (I personally think manuals-on-disc should be banned
from commercial products.) If just one pound had been spent on printing
a manual, the impression of the product would have been so much better,
especially when considering the price of Chess3D compared with David
Pillingæs offer!
4.12
There is a row of tape-recorder style buttons on the screen, with a
traffic light function on the play and stop buttons: these control the
replaying of a move or an entire game.
4.12
A speaker icon and a disc drive icon control the output to said items.
The disc drive can be substituted by a printer if you want, by clicking
repeatedly on the drive icon Ö an ASCII table of the moves will be
produced.
4.12
Neither I, nor the reviewer in Risc User, have fully understood the
intricacies of the traffic light system (we are equally stupid, I
guess?), but if you start moving a white piece, it changes the play
button to green and off you go. Or you can change the light manually, to
make the computer do its first move when it is playing white.
4.12
Computer chess of yesterday
4.12
Pitting different computers and software against each other in the noble
pursuit of chess used to be a big event, so big that Personal Computer
World used to have a standing column about it in the golden days of
computing. International Computer Chess Championships abounded, with
specially built computers battling with supercomputers, such as Crays.
The software was generally the same as that found on home computers.
4.12
(Now PCWæs staff seems to have forgotten all about chess or anything
else but PCs, Macs and laptops running business software.)
4.12
Back to the chess board... Having pitted the two games against each
other a number of times, I found some aspects of Chess3D that endeared
it to me and some that did not. (Why isnæt there a CPMI Ö a Chess-
Playing Moves Interface? It would make testing so much easier and more
fun.)
4.12
Chess3D always hints what you should do on the board by making a red
outline on the piece it thinks you should move and a green on the square
where you should go Ö this is much more elegant than !Chessæ verbal
hinting. It also does this when considering its own next move Ö very
nice!
4.12
In battle, the two games use different tactics, so the games becomes
more fun than when pitting !Chess against !Chess (Chess3D has no
Computer versus computer mode, as already mentioned), but with both used
with their default settings !Chess is generally the better player of the
two.
4.12
It was interesting to see that after the standard opening moves, chosen
from a öbookò of openings, the two games seldom agreed what to do next.
Usually the opponent hinted something similar, but not exactly the same.
If both go by the same rules, the game tends to deteriorate into trying
to take as many as possible of the opponents pieces. It almost always
ends in a draw with just two kings left.
4.12
This was not the case here: When !Chess played white, it fairly and
squarely beat !Chess3D by better tactics. Sometimes, with !Chess3D
playing white, it ended in a draw after both programs repeated their
moves in a very complicated situation, with most pieces left on the
board, just like grandmasters tend to do!
4.12
At no time did it turn into a war of attrition Ö this was two öbrainsò
pitted against each other, fighting as well as they could.
4.12
Conclusion
4.12
If the two games retailed at a similar price I would be hard pressed to
choose a winner, but with Chess3D more than twice as expensive there is
only one verdict: Buy !Chess.
4.12
This is even more true if your VDU is a low resolution type or mono
chrome. The 3D view was very hard to use and the 2D view was too small
to be really of any use with my medium resolution multisync and mode 12.
With a high resolution multisync, ARM3 and a VIDC Enhancer things might
be different, but I doubt it!
4.12
Chess3D, after some polishing off at the edges, might become a classic.
As it stands it is just overpriced, gimmicky and 3D.
4.12
If you havenæt bought David Pillingæs !Chess yet, do that and give the
price difference to charity. You pay the same then, but get a better
game and do some good at the same time!ááA
4.12
4.12
Matters Arising
4.12
Å !Calc Ö Here are a few comments to update my review of !Calc (4.10
p37) relating to version (2.20). The sheet windows now auto-scrolls so
that the cursor and axis rulers are always visible. There is now a 22
page A5 spiral bound Impression generated tutorial manual as well as the
reference manual already quoted. You can now use the RISC-OS printer
drivers. The price has gone up to ú25 to cover the cost of the manuals.
4.12
I understand that 2.22 is actually the latest version and that it has
the promised extra functions plus a few others but I have not seen this
yet. Edward Naish
4.12
The author, Colin Turnbull, has written to say that öindependently of
himò, the tests referred to in Archive 4.11 p20 (which referred back to
4.10 p27) have been done on !Calc and have come up with: 5s, 5s, 37s,
50k and 176k. Ed.
4.12
Å Econet User Group Ö Sadly, I have just heard of the demise of öThe
Econet User Groupò and its publication, öNEUSò. Michael Ryan, who has
been running it for the last 5 years has had to give up due to pressure
of his other activities, including running a company, XOB, which
supplies Econet products and services.
4.12
Å PC emulator upgrades Ö We mislead Learning Curve owners into believing
that the free upgrade offer applied to them. Sorry but it is only open
to those who purchased their computer between 15th July & 31st October
1991. Itæs not the offer that is open between those dates. We claim that
Acornæs information sheet was ambiguous... öThis offer is only open to
purchasers of Learning Curve products during the period 15th July Ö 31st
October 1991.ò
4.12
Å Reflections on the Prism review Ö (It was a long review article
(Archive 4.10 p45), so we have allowed Michael Ryan a long response
which also has some helpful comments about RISC-OS compatibility/
compliance.)
4.12
This short (sic!) article seeks to clarify some issues raised in Victor
Russellæs comparative review of art packages, in particular our package
Prism. His review was fair and extensive and XOB is pleased that he
found Prism so much to his liking. Prism is actually being subtly
modified continuously as we get feedback from the people who matter Ö
the users Ö and it may be that some of what appear to be minor errors of
fact in the article can be put down to such changes. In any event, it
would be unreasonable to expect Victor to have found everything Prism
has to offer.
4.12
The most serious point was a suggestion that the software crashes when
using the magic colour with disjoint regions. We have been unable to re-
create this and suspect local factors Ö RISC-OS does occasionally behave
in an unpredictable way. The essential feature of bugs is Ö Are they
repeatable?
4.12
Victor suggests that you cannot use masks when spraying with the brush.
You certainly can in the current version and if there were bugs in
related features in his copy these have been corrected.
4.12
In one respect, Victor over-estimated Prism Ö it displays 32 default
cycles not 64 (though you can of course create your own).
4.12
We recognise certain deficiencies in the original documentation Ö which
is why it is supplied in a ring binder. This is being improved and, as
each section is reviewed, we shall be issuing the revised copies free of
charge. New users will, of course, be able to benefit immediately from
the improvements.
4.12
It may be because of a deficiency in the original documentation that
Victor believed that the sketch pad could not be created. In fact, Prism
comes supplied on the assumption of a 1 Mbyte machine but may be readily
configured to use any amount of memory. By assigning this memory as the
user wishes, it is possible to assign whatever is available to any
combination of screen, sketch-pad and brushes. Prism can actually work
with images larger than the physical screen size Ö a way of getting
improved definition. Clearly, memory was not available for the sketchpad
in Victoræs machine Ö but the option does work Ö and the sketchpad can
be saved.
4.12
Though not mentioned, both triangles and user defined shapes are
available from the shapes menu.
4.12
The current release of Prism does have radial fills.
4.12
Pressing <adjust> over the brush menu does take you into the brush
select editor.
4.12
Victor correctly identifies one or two facilities not provided by Prism
but which are available in the more expensive packages Ö how important
these are is a matter of opinion but it should be remembered that it is
the end effect which matters. For example, Prism does not explicitly
offer pixelation Ö but this can be achieved very easily by grabbing part
of the screen as a brush and simply using the brush magnification
facilities.
4.12
The question of the inclusion of function key access to facilities is
perhaps worth mentioning briefly. One reason we provide extensive
function key control is because much complex software is now throwing
menu after menu after menu at the poor users. Our approach is ÉHere are
your menus Ö but when you get familiar with the package you will want
the speed that direct keyboard access to facilities allowsæ. At least
this way the user can decide what suits him/her.
4.12
I am afraid I feel Victor was a little hard on us in one respect Ö on-
screen help. He says our tape tutorial is too easy but then says he
wants on-screen help. Whilst I take on board his comments, I feel it
should be recognised that with a complex package, the textual descrip
tion of the operation will often be meaningless if kept to a manageable
length, and overwhelming if the operation is described to perfection.
Many potential users will have had long standing difficulties with
textual material Ö hence the audio tape. Yes, this is intended for use
by absolute beginners Ö but it also represents the quickest and most
effective way of finding out just what Prism allows one to achieve. It
may be used immediately and effectively by school pupils (saving the
teacher preparation time) and by private buyers who do not have the
support of an educational institution.
4.12
During the Autumn, we will be steadily issuing free upgrades to the
latest version to existing users though anyone needing that version now
can send an SAE to get a copy more quickly.
4.12
Finally, and more generally, it is perhaps worth clarifying a possible
misconception about software designed for use with RISC-OS.
4.12
Acorn recognise only two levels of RISC-OS software. RISC-OS Compliant
software is multitasking and should follow the suggestions in their the
RISC-OS Style Guide. RISC-OS Compatible software need only be capable of
being started from the Desktop and returning to it cleanly. In practice,
there are sometimes good reasons for being RISC-OS Compliant at one time
and RISC-OS Compatible at another. The reason that all truly creative
art packages do not multitask during the creative phase is that they
require the full power of the processor in order to provide the Éfeelæ
of immediacy that creative work requires. This situation will change as
machines become faster and as we (and our rivals) find ways of squeezing
more apparent speed from the desktop. For the moment, we follow all of
Acornæs RISC-OS Compliant rules during filing operations and provide the
user with Éfeelæ during the creative period.
4.12
The RISC-OS Desktop is a big improvement over most previous user
interfaces but one should not assume that it represents the final word.
Software developers need to look to what users need as well as to be
guided by Acornæs laudable appeal to standardisation. We know we have
not created the ultimate in user friendly art packages Ö but we will
keep working on it.
4.12
Michael Ryan, XOB
4.12
Å SolidsRender Review (Archive 4.11 p48) In his comparative review, it
appears that Malcolm Banthorpe is using an old outdated version of
SolidsRender (V1.2) originally priced at ú79.95 and seems to be unaware
of the new release of SolidsRender (V2.00) priced at ú149.95 that has
been available since October 1990 as shown in Archive 4.1 p5. Existing
users have been able to upgrade for just the price difference of ú70
(Inc VAT) by returning their original disc.
4.12
This new release has significant improvements over the original which
include:
4.12
(i)áDot diffusion dithering which provides even better image quality
than the Équick-and-dirtyæ Floyd Steinberg Integer (FSI) error diffusion
algorithm implemented in ChangeFSI. Most Archimedes raytracers rely on
ChangeFSI to boost their image quality. SolidsRender V2.00 not only has
the FSI algorithm built-in but also surpasses it through its own ÉDot
diffusionæ algorithm for even less jagged-edges and better overall image
quality.
4.12
(ii)áInternal computation of 64 bits per Red, Green, Blue (RGB)
component making a total of 192 bits of precision per RGB screen pixel,
while maintaining high speed ray-tracing, to provide even greater
computational accuracy for the anti-aliasing, texture-mapping and
diffusion algorithms.
4.12
(iii)áA documented 24 bit RGB screen output format for use by other
utilities to drive colour framestores for more bits/pixel or use by an
updated É!Processæ application which is included. This provides RGB
signal processing operations for filtering, colour enhancement, etc. and
a choice of dithering techniques for display ranging from ÉPatterningæ,
ÉOrdered Ditheræ, ÉFSI Error Diffusionæ and ÉDot Diffusionæ. The
!Process application alone significantly improves the imaging capability
of the Archimedes over and above that provided by ChangeFSI from which
any application generating 24 bit RGB data can benefit Ö even rival
raytracers!!
4.12
(iv)áA new É!Animateæ application takes image sequences generated by
!Process in either image or delta compressed form and allows full slide
animation control on the desktop from memory or disc for very long
sequences.
4.12
Given that the review has been published 11 months after the launch of
SolidsRender V2.00, one can only wonder in amazement as to why an old
SolidsRender V1.2 was compared with the latest offering from a rival
especially since V1.2 was no longer supplied after the launch of V2.00!!
4.12
Dr. Y. Nadiadi, Director, Silicon Vision Ltd.ááA
4.12
4.12
Techsoft
4.12
From 4.11 page 8
4.12
4.12
Multi-Media Column
4.12
Ian Lynch
4.12
As promised last month, a more detailed look at Avanti, the Computer
Based Training (CBT) software from Westland Systems Assessment.
4.12
Purpose
4.12
Avanti is a RISC-OS environment for developing CBT resources. It was
developed by Westland initially to provide a training resource for the
technical staff of customers buying their products such as helicopters,
for example. The system is now marketed to other third parties who have
a need for authoring their own instructional software and Westlands
provide training in CBT techniques as well as in how to operate the
software.
4.12
Approach
4.12
Avanti provides a means of generating the code necessary to run a self-
contained computer based training session using standard RISC-OS
dialogue boxes, menus and windows. In fact, the code generated is BBC
Basic V and this can be loaded and edited by more advanced users to
provide the maximum degree of flexibility. However, reasonably compre
hensive treatments can be given to subjects without ever resorting to
directly editing the Basic code.
4.12
The applications generated are not RISC-OS compliant. This is deliberate
since it is envisaged that the recipients of the courses will never use
RISC-OS for any other tasks and so the overhead in learning window
dragging etc is avoided. Instead, each page of the training materials
has a straightforward and consistent layout with simple icons to click
on to input responses or turn to the next page.
4.12
Structure
4.12
Courses are structured by means of a layout window which provides a flow
chart style view. Each of the flowchart boxes provides a module of the
course. These are usually menus, lessons and tests. The menus provide
access to the various lessons and tests comprising the course and the
course designer can give the student as much or as little freedom as
desired in this respect.
4.12
Each module can be divided up into a number of related frames each of
which provides a screen of text, graphics, motion pictures or audio. A
session is built up from a system of menus and modules which guide the
student through the desired route.
4.12
Data types
4.12
Avanti supports all the data types required for full multi-media: Sprite
and Draw files, text in a variety of fonts, sound sample modules, Euclid
and Tween films. I was a little surprised to find Porterhouse standard
font being used extensively in the DEMO applications. Avanti is an
expensive system designed to run on upper end machines probably with
MultiSync or VGA monitors, so why use a font designed for standard
resolution monitors? Well, it does have the advantage of providing clear
text on standard resolution monitors. In fact, supplying the outline
font manager would be more sensible. (Personally, I think it would be a
lot less confusing if Acorn ditched bit map fonts altogether).
4.12
Although all of these data types are supported, editors are not
supplied. In the case of Drawfiles and Sprites, this is not surprising
since everyone has !Draw and !Paint. However, Euclid and Tween will be
needed for any animations (apart from palette and bank switching which I
will come to later) and a sound sampler would be needed for audio. Since
Oak now produce a very inexpensive sound sampler, basic additional
hardware and software resources are not a significant cost. Avanti does,
however, support analogue LaserVision type discs and CD-ROM and costs
will rise if these additional pieces of hardware are required. A colour
scanner and video digitiser would also be useful for serious work. Irlam
and Clares supply very good colour scanners. WildVision, Pineapple and
several other companies supply video digitising equipment.
4.12
Clever animation
4.12
Palette switching is used to animate in a similar way to switching bulbs
on and off in advertising displays. Avanti uses this technique to
animate flow through pipes and engines. It is very effective and very
quick to set up. A series of three colours is repeated along the length
of a pipe and the colours are redefined rapidly so that the illusion of
pulses passing along the pipe is created. Palette switching is rapid to
achieve and very economical in memory, but is not suited to many types
of animation.
4.12
Animations can be produced by switching between banks of memory but this
is very memory intensive and RISC-OS limits the screen to 480k. It is
also possible to display frames of digitised video rapidly after one
another but this too is very expensive in memory. Euclid/Mogul films are
probably the best if longer sequences are needed.
4.12
Restrictions
4.12
As with all authoring software, there is a price to pay for the ease and
speed of setting up applications. That price is flexibility. In theory,
one could customise an application to any degree by adding to the Basic
code which Avanti generates. In practice, it is likely that most users
will use the structure provided to deliver their lessons in a format
which is östandard Avantiò. This is no bad thing in training environ
ments, but may be less desirable in more generalised educational
environments. Having said this, a lot depends on the teaching approach
and philosophy of the course designer which goes well beyond the scope
of this column.
4.12
Genesis v Avanti
4.12
This brings me to the inevitable comparison with Genesis II. A number of
people have asked me if Avanti is ten times better than Genesis since it
is about ten times the price. I admit to asking myself this question
early on. In fact, Genesis II and Avanti are different products and
although there is overlap, they are not really aimed at the same market.
I suspect that Genesis II is actually a more sophisticated piece of code
in many respects, but it is aimed at volume markets primarily in schools
and with the home user. Avanti is a very powerful application and it is
aimed at a quite specialist market with different budgets and different
requirements. It compares very favourably with similar products on Macs
and PCs. If you want to author CBT materials, use Avanti. If you want a
generalised multi-media toolkit use Genesis.
4.12
The decision becomes less straightforward if, for example, one requires
an instructional presentation system which does not conform to the
Avanti structure. In this case, it would be possible to construct the
application by editing Basic code in Avanti or by writing scripts in
Genesis. Which would be easier and more efficiently coded is unknown to
me at present and would depend on the exact circumstances.
4.12
One final consideration is that Genesis II produces RISC-OS applications
whereas Avanti locks the student out of the desktop. Again both
approaches have pros and cons in different situations.
4.12
As I said in last monthæs Archive when discussing !Tracer, make sure you
know what you want to do before purchasing any software. With expensive
applications such as Avanti, you need to see the software working and be
sure it is what you require to do the job before you purchase it.ááA
4.12
4.12
Oak
4.12
From 4.11 page 19
4.12
4.12
Lingenuity
4.12
(Lindis)
4.12
From 4.12 page 12
4.12
4.12
Developing a RISC-OS Utility Ö Part 3
4.12
Darren Sillett
4.12
This month, I am going to look at template files and how to incorporate
a simple window into the application. In addition, I have provided a
small routine to help you track down the errors that occur when you are
developing applications.
4.12
Template files
4.12
To facilitate the creation of windows, a Étemplate editoræ, called
!FormEd was released by Acorn. Adrian Look at Archive produced an
improved version of this utility called the WIMP Template Editor (ú8
through Archive) which offers numerous extensions to the Acorn one.
4.12
The template editor allows you to create your own window layouts
interactively. Once a window Étemplateæ has been designed, it can be
given an identifier and saved in a template file along with any other
templates that have been set up.
4.12
Instead of creating a template, we can Éborrowæ one from !Edit and
tailor it to our needs. To do this, you will need to load the template
file contained inside the !Edit directory and alter it. It is advisable
to make a copy of this file in case you overwrite the original
accidentally.
4.12
You will notice that this template file contains a dozen or so windows,
but as we only want the ÉAbout this programæ window, the rest can all be
safely deleted. You can now change the text on the icons to reflect the
application under development. Do not change the text in icon 4 as this
is added by the program later.
4.12
Finally, save the modified template inside the !Ultimate directory using
the filename ÉTemplatesæ.
4.12
Accessing the template
4.12
The additions to Wimplib this month provide us with a method of
accessing the template file and the template inside it.
4.12
The procedure PROCopen_template opens the template file and initialises
the data areas for reading in the templates. The parameter taken is the
name of the template file.
4.12
The function FNload_template reads the template information from the
file and creates the window. It takes the template identifier as a
parameter and returns a handle to the window.
4.12
Lastly, the procedure PROCclose_template closes the template file.
4.12
Updating the icon
4.12
One other routine is provided which is of general use in any window.
This routine takes a window handle, the number of an indirected text
icon and a string to display on the icon. It is used here to add the
version number and date to the information window.
4.12
The routine to attach two menus together, which was developed in part 2,
can also be used to attach a window to a menu. This is how we manage to
display the information window as part of the icon bar menu.
4.12
Error handling
4.12
As tracing errors in desktop applications is a difficult task, the last
routine provided this month gives some indication of where in the
program the error has occurred.
4.12
It uses the desktop error boxes to display the appropriate error along
with the line number at which the error occurred. This line number,
according to Acorn guidelines, is displayed as the Éinternal error
numberæ.
4.12
Clicking on the OK button displayed on the error box causes the program
to try and continue execution, though it will probably fail again if the
error was serious. The Cancel button causes the program to be aborted
and removed from the icon bar.
4.12
Task size
4.12
Due to the extensions published in part 2 and those this month, you will
probably need to amend your !Run file to allow the application some more
memory. Amending the values of 16k to 32k should be sufficient.
4.12
If errors occurred, like ÉToo many nested structuresæ, after entering
the extensions published in part 2, the aforementioned alteration should
fix this.
4.12
My apologies to anyone who experienced problems with this and my thanks
to John Pickles for bringing it to my attention.
4.12
Additions and amendments to !RunImage
4.12
To incorporate the information window and the error handling into the
application you will need to add the following lines:
4.12
35 ON ERROR PROCerror
4.12
235 icon_menu% = FNcreate_menu( öUltimate,Info,Options,
4.12
Quitò)
4.12
245 copy_options_menu% = FNcreate_menu(öCopy,Access, Con
firm,Delete,Force,Look, Newer,Prompt,Quick,Recurse,
Stamp,Structure,Verbose$
4.12
,Defaultò)
4.12
280 PROCopen_template( ö<Ultimate$Dir>.Templatesò)
4.12
281 info% = FNload_template( öprogInfoò)
4.12
285 PROCclose_template
4.12
286 PROCicon_string_set(info%,4, ö1.00 (18-Jul-1991)ò)
4.12
287 PROCmenu_attach(icon_menu%,1, info%)
4.12
4.12
Additions and amendments to Wimplib
4.12
To add the template and error routines to the Wimplib program, the
following additions should be made:
4.12
45 application$ = app_name$
4.12
46 application_id% = task_id%
4.12
1700 DEF PROCopen_template(file$)
4.12
1710 DIM icon_space% 512, template% 1024
4.12
1720 icon_space_end%=icon_space%+512
4.12
1730 SYS öWimp_OpenTemplateò,,file$
4.12
1740 ENDPROC
4.12
1800 DEF FNload_template(name$)
4.12
1810 LOCAL handle%
4.12
1820 SYS öWimp_LoadTemplateò,, template%,icon_space%, icon_space_end%,-
1,name$,
4.12
0 TO ,,icon_space_end%
4.12
1830 SYS öWimp_CreateWindowò,, template% TO handle%
4.12
1840 =handle%
4.12
1900 DEF PROCclose_template
4.12
1910 SYS öWimp_CloseTemplateò
4.12
1920 ENDPROC
4.12
2000 DEF PROCicon_string_set(window% ,icon%,text$)
4.12
2010 !data_block% = window%
4.12
2020 data_block%!4 = icon%
4.12
2030 SYS öWimp_GetIconStateò,, data_block%
4.12
2040 $(!(data_block%+28)) = text$ + CHR$(0)
4.12
2050 data_block%!8 = 0
4.12
2060 data_block%!12 = 0
4.12
2070 SYS öWimp_SetIconStateò,, data_block%
4.12
2080 ENDPROC
4.12
2100 DEF PROCerror
4.12
2110 !wimp_block% = ERR
4.12
2120 $(wimp_block%+4) = REPORT$ +
4.12
ö (internal error code ò +
4.12
STR$(ERL) + ö)ò CHR$(0)
4.12
2130 SYS öWimp_ReportErrorò, wimp_block%,3,application$
4.12
TO ,result%
4.12
2140 IF result% = 2 THEN PROCclosedown_wimp(
4.12
application_id%) : END
4.12
2150 ENDPROC
4.12
4.12
What next?
4.12
You will have probably realised by now that these articles appear
bimonthly. This is to allow enough time between articles to get some
feedback from readers. To this end, I am leaving the topic of the next
article open to you. If there are any specific areas of the desktop
which you would like me to cover next please write to me and let me
know.
4.12
Some possible topics are:
4.12
Å Simple file load/save using file icon drags.
4.12
Å Interactive help.
4.12
Å Windows which are not totally icon based and require some updating by
the program.
4.12
Å RISC-OS printer drivers.
4.12
So if anyone has any ideas, problems or suggestions, I can be contacted
either through Archive or at 43, Kingfisher Walk, Ash, Aldershot,
Hampshire GU12 6RF.ááA
4.12
4.12
Data (Text) Entry by Mouse
4.12
Mike Hobart
4.12
One of the problems of the work I do is that colleagues send their data
on DNA sequences to each other, or publish it, in the form of paper
text. It is conventional to send the data to a public access data bank,
but processing the data onto the database is surprisingly slow, so there
is little alternative but to enter the sequences of chunks of DNA into
the computer by hand so that they can be analysed and compared with our
own, especially if it is exciting. The problem which arises is that DNA
sequences are written in a four letter code (A, C, G and T), with no
punctuation and no easy-to-understand order. Try typing a page or so of
that and your mind and hands go numb with monotony and accuracy
disappears... help! mutations!! Also, unless you are a touch typist, you
will loose your place on the source page several times... and thatæs no
fun. The obvious solution is to get an Optical Character Reading
program, (?Irlam Instruments?), but it would have to be really good to
cope with the difference between C and G in either dot matrix or a
grotty photocopy of 4pt Helvetica Ö and it must be right, or it is
useless (or worse).
4.12
A solution
4.12
The accompanying program is pretty grotty, but it more or less does what
I wanted: it allows the four letters to be entered by mouse movement in
a simple quadrant:
4.12
The program provides a kind of gate mechanism (like a gearshift) and
auto-bounces the pointer back to the origin when a letter has been
entered. Consecutive similar characters are simply entered by a
continuous movement in the right direction. öMusicò is played to
indicate that an entry has been made. This allows you to keep your eye
strictly on the origin page while your ear monitors your entry. It takes
a little getting used to, but it sure beats the keyboard.
4.12
Obviously, mistakes happen, so I started to write a simple edit
procedure, but then it dawned on me that I could do the whole job within
an !Edit task window. (Click <menu> on the !Edit Icon, choose öCreateò
and önew task windowò, then Type öBASICò at the * prompt and öCHAIN
öMouseditò ò). This makes the screen entry a bit jerky and it slows the
program down a bit, but there is no serious problem, especially as the
screen is ignored during entry. When you need to edit, just suspend the
task and use the normal !Edit functions.
4.12
The program itself could be cleaned up and improved by a competent
programmer and could obviously be adapted to other functions: other
characters, more characters. A steady hand could probably manage 8, just
right for direct entry of hex code in combination with the shift key?
Seriously, it might be very useful for those involved in monitoring
child, animal or motoristsæ behaviour (note the descending order).
4.12
The take-home points
4.12
1. Remember the beautiful tools we all have (RISC-OS, Basic5 and !Edit).
4.12
2. The application illustrates how a complex task can be solved by a
very mediocre programmer by dodging most of the issues and combining a
little code with a lot of other peopleæs effort.
4.12
3. I am sure that you can buy a Mac program to do the same, and that it
would be more beautiful. I reckon that it took me not much more effort
to write the program than it would have to find a Mac version. Also, I
had a working version within a few hours, so I could find out what I
wanted quite a bit sooner, for nothing.
4.12
10 REM >$.MOUSEDIT
4.12
20 REM MIKE HOBART AUG 1991
4.12
30 *POINTER
4.12
40 DIM seq% &100
4.12
50 in$=öò:inl$=öò:ptr%=0:in%=0 :inl%=0
4.12
60 gsound%=160:csound%=80:asound% =240:tsound%=40
4.12
70 PROCintro
4.12
80 PROCgetdata
4.12
90 END
4.12
100
4.12
110 DEFPROCintro
4.12
120 PRINTöThis program allows DNA sequence entry by mouseòÉöIt is
4.12
best to run it as a task from within EDIT, as you can
4.12
then edit.òæ
4.12
130 PRINTömove the mouse N,S,E or W toòÉ
4.12
140 PRINTöenter A,T,G or C respectively.òÉ:REMöAdjust (right
4.12
button) deletes one.ò
4.12
150 PRINTöPRESS Éselectæ (left button) to start or stopò
4.12
160 ENDPROC
4.12
170
4.12
180 DEFPROCgetdata
4.12
190 MOUSE ON
4.12
200 MOUSE x%,y%,button%
4.12
210 REPEAT:MOUSE x%,y%,button%:UNTIL button%=4
4.12
220 bbutton%=0
4.12
230 *FX 21,9
4.12
240 *FX15,0
4.12
250 REPEAT
4.12
260 MOUSE x%,y%,button%
4.12
270 WAIT:WAIT:WAIT
4.12
280 *FX 21,9
4.12
290 *FX15,0
4.12
300 MOUSE X%,Y%,bbutton%
4.12
310 bbutton%=0:MOUSE X%,Y%, bbutton%:incx%=X%-x%
4.12
:incy%=Y%-y%
4.12
320 inl%+=1
4.12
330 IF inl%>55 THEN squeeky%=12 ELSEsqueeky%=0
4.12
340 IF inl%>60 THEN PROCstash
4.12
350 CASE bbutton% OF
4.12
360 WHEN 0:PROCgetlet
4.12
370 WHEN 2:PROCmenu:REM REDUNDANT
4.12
380 WHEN 1:PROCdellet:REM -ditto-
4.12
390 ENDCASE
4.12
400 UNTIL bbutton%=4
4.12
410 ENDPROC
4.12
420
4.12
430 DEFPROCsavedata
4.12
440 PROCstash
4.12
450 OSCLI öSAVE ò+file$+ö ò+ STR$~(seq%)+ö +ò+STR$~(ptr%+1)
4.12
460 ENDPROC
4.12
470
4.12
480 DEFPROCgetdat
4.12
490 inl$=öò
4.12
500 PROCgetlet
4.12
510 ENDPROC
4.12
520
4.12
530 DEFPROCgetlet
4.12
540 in$=öò
4.12
550 IFABS(incx%)>(ABS(incy%)+5) THEN
4.12
560 IFX%>700 in$=öGò:MOUSE TO 640,540:SOUND 1,-10,
gsound%+squeeky%,3
4.12
570 IFX%<580 in$=öCò:MOUSE TO 640,540:SOUND 1,-10,
csound%+squeeky%,3
4.12
580 ENDIF
4.12
590 IFABS(incx%)<(ABS(incy%)+10) THEN
4.12
600 IFY%>600 in$=öAò:MOUSE TO 640,540:SOUND 1,-15,
asound%+squeeky%,3
4.12
610 IFY%<480 in$=öTò:MOUSE TO 640,540:SOUND 1,-15,
tsound%+squeeky%,3
4.12
620 ENDIF
4.12
630 IF in$=öAòTHEN SYS 00,65
4.12
640 IF in$=öCòTHEN SYS 00,67
4.12
650 IF in$=öGòTHEN SYS 00,71
4.12
660 IF in$=öTòTHEN SYS 00,84
4.12
670 ENDPROC
4.12
680
4.12
690 DEFPROCdellet
4.12
700 inl$=LEFT$(inl$):WAIT:WAIT:WAIT: WAIT:WAIT:WAIT:WAIT
4.12
710 *FX21,9
4.12
720 bbutton%=0
4.12
730 ENDPROC
4.12
740
4.12
750 DEFPROCstash
4.12
760 inl%=0
4.12
770 ENDPROCááA
4.12
4.12
PipeLine
4.12
Gerald Fitton
4.12
One of the things which continues to surprise me month after month is
the number of you who write to me to say that you read this column but
do not have PipeDream. For example, I wouldnæt have expected as many
letters about complex numbers as I received from users of Viewsheet (run
with the emulator), Logistix and other spreadsheets (!), and even Basic
programmers! Of course, Iæm prejudiced but I think you should give
PipeDream a try using the Colton Software Demo Disc. With the Demo Disc
you can load files (e.g. from the Archive monthly disc or from the
Abacus Training Introducing PipeLine Disc), you can amend those files
and you can create new documents. What you can not do is to save files
nor can you print them nor do you have access to the dictionary
facilities. However, you can do almost anything else that you might want
to do with PipeDream, so the Demo Disc does give you an opportunity to
discover whether PipeDream is worth buying Ö an opportunity that I wish
was available for other software. Write to me if youære interested.
4.12
Printer font
4.12
Alan Highet would like to alter the Printer Font (which applies to the
font shown on screen as well) with a macro but canæt find a way of doing
it because there doesnæt seem to be a command which can be entered into
a macro for changing the font. The nearest I can get to solving this
problem is to find that, in my ini file I have the command
%OP%FGTrinity.Medium which sets the font in my default document as
Trinity .Medium.
4.12
Alan has done one better really. Here is his partial solution. He uses a
macro to load a sheet which has all the default options he wants
(including the font). This sheet is not blank but contains external
references to all the data he wants to print. The data he wants to print
is in the external (original) document. Now, having Écuredæ one problem,
Alan finds he has another. He wants the macro to print the newly loaded
file (with its external references) in the new font but the print
command operates before all the external references have been evaluated
so the printout is just a block of zeros!
4.12
I havenæt tried this next idea but I wonder if it is possible to arrange
for the macro to go through the following sequence: mark a block in the
original document using <Ctrl-CGS> and <Ctrl-Z>, copy it to the paste
list with <Ctrl-BF>, load the new document (which contains the font
required), go to some appropriate slot in the new document using <Ctrl-
CGS> and then paste the marked block back with <Ctrl-I>. If anyone has
any other ideas then I and Alan will be most interested to hear from
you.
4.12
Slow dictionary
4.12
Roger King has a Gripe which is the speed of the dictionary when using a
wild card for the first letter. He says, for example, that ^?er^?^?ct
returns the word Éperfectæ but only after 20 minutes. Since one of
Rogeræs pastimes is to compile crosswords he finds this delay somewhat
infuriating. Does anyone have any suggestions?
4.12
Automatic SAVE
4.12
Once again, I have Élostæ the letter in my filing system about this. The
correspondent has a copy of an automatic save utility which (I think) he
obtained from BeeBug which works with all applications except PipeDream.
Has anyone else discovered this and, if so, is there a Écureæ?
4.12
Two discards
4.12
John Harrison wrote to me originally on the 22nd October 1990 about this
problem. John records the results of competitive dingy races (times in
seconds) and analyses them. Typically, the competitor is allowed to
discard the worst two results from a series of ten and average (or
total) the remaining eight. How do you find the winner?
4.12
Well, for one discard, finding the value to discard is easy because the
function max(list) finds the largest value of a range so all you need is
sum(range) Ö max(range). For two or more discards max(list) wonæt find
the second discard unless you can somehow delete the value found with
max(list) from the list.
4.12
Here is Johnæs latest solution which he sent me in May this year (sorry
for the delay but Iæve been trying to find a better solution)! Create a
spreadsheet using one row for each competitor. Enter the competitoræs
name in column A and use the next ten columns for the results of the ten
races. To the right of these first eleven columns use one column for
each combination (some people would call it, incorrectly, each permuta
tion) of eight from ten (there are 45 of them!) so that in each of the
next 45 columns you have the sum of a different 8 of the 10 ten races. I
think John has a way of automatically generating the 45 columns but, on
his own admission this solution is rather inelegant. Sorry but I donæt
have a disc file of an example, so I hope that this written explanation
is clear enough.
4.12
I wonder if there is a way of using an Éifæ function in a second column
to find the second largest value in the first column? I can think of an
if function which will do this if the maximum value is not duplicated
but my simple function fails if this happens.
4.12
Another idea I have is to use one column per competitor and set up a
macro that ranks the whole sheet on the column corresponding to the
first competitor, then, having done that you sum the best eight results
at the bottom of the column and snapshot this sum with <Ctrl-BSS>. The
macro then goes on to repeat this ranking, summing and snapshotting
until all contributors have been dealt with.
4.12
If any of you have another solution then please let me have a disc copy
of an example which I will send on to John and also publish. This must
be a problem for the expert (or maybe the ingenious beginner who wonæt
be confused by Éstandardæ techniques)!
4.12
ArcScan
4.12
Joe Hertzberg and Frank Lawson have both produced catalogues in ArcScan
format of the first four PipeLine discs. Maureen Whitaker believes that,
because of the different approaches of the two compilers, both are
useful to her (and others). If you have your own ArcScan contents
catalogue of the PipeLine discs and PipeLine articles (from Archive)
then I shall be most grateful for a disc copy to pass on to others. The
ArcScan program is copyright and costs ú18 through Archive.
4.12
Flat files
4.12
Tony Cowley has sent me a most witty letter explaining how to file
(hardcopy) paperwork files in a way he believes might be unique. He
stamps each document with a serial number and files them in chronologi
cal order. I suppose you could use the date for the stamp provided that
you have some sequential subscript. (How about hours, minutes and
seconds? Ö See last monthæs integer arithmetic tutorial for details.)
4.12
The problem most people have with such a chronological filing system is
in finding a document from way back. Tonyæs solution is to use PipeDream
as a computerised database of the documents. Each document is treated as
a Érecordæ having a row of the database to itself. The Éfieldsæ are
columns which contain say the document serial number, date, name of the
sender, subject matter, etc. Now, by using Block Search, <Ctrl-BSE>, or
by sorting, <Ctrl-BSO>, you can find all the relevant references.
4.12
I think that the idea of combining a Ésequentialæ hardcopy file with a
computer file which can be searched or sorted with ease shows a degree
of pragmatism that could originate only from a computer Éuseræ rather
than a computer Éexpertæ! It appeals to me because of its simplicity and
elegance.
4.12
Selecting a block
4.12
Steve Knattress reminds me that, whilst it is possible to mark blocks
with the mouse, an alternative for long documents is to use <Ctrl-Z> to
mark the left top and bottom right corners of the block. In conjunction
with <Ctrl-Z>, you can use <Ctrl-CGS> to go to a slot.
4.12
Printing
4.12
It is only recently that I realised that I donæt have to use <Ctrl-PO>
to get a print out. The Print key (next to the Scroll Lock key) has the
same effect and is easier to use.
4.12
Dates
4.12
Brian Edwards bought an A3000 because he was so impressed with PipeDream
on the Z88. On the Z88 dates back to 1753 can be computed. You may
wonder why such an odd number was chosen for the cut off; I know but if
you can tell me Iæll give you an honourable mention Ö a clue is öHow
many days had September 1752?ò On the A3000, only dates this century can
be computed so some of Brianæs applications (e.g. a database of a Parish
Baptism Register) can not be ported directly from the Z88.
4.12
Brian would like to know what you think is the best way of storing
historical dates in PipeDream 3. If you write to me, Iæll include
anything useful in my tutorial on integer arithmetic that goes into
dates as an example of a Éstrangeæ number base (the number of days in a
month are Éstrangeæ). I have heard of something called a Julian Date
which used to be (and maybe still is) transmitted by various radio and
TV stations. If there is anyone with knowledge of Julian Date conversion
formulae (particularly if it is a PipeDream spreadsheet) then I shall be
most interested to hear from you (and so, maybe, will Brian).
4.12
CCTV/Multisync switch
4.12
Malcolm Brown uses a closed circuit TV as a glorified magnifying glass
because he needs things such as handwritten letters or small print
larger than life in order to be able to read them. He has sent me a
photograph showing an Alpha Vision traveller (the TV camera end) hooked
up to something like a 20ö monitor with the name Alpha Vision on it. The
photo is rather old because it includes a BBC Master computer. Malcolm
used to switch between the TV camera output and the Master with a foot
switch but now he has an Archimedes. Hereæs Malcolmæs question. Does
anyone know how to channel the output from his TV camera into a
multisync on the Archimedes (so that he can switch between the Archi
medes and the TV camera)?
4.12
PipeDream Lotus 1-2-3 comparisons
4.12
Malcolm will be sending me his opinion but, if you have comments, then
send them to me so that I can put them all together in one big bundle!
4.12
The Poll Tax
4.12
On the Archive monthly disc I have included a database of Poll Tax rates
for 1990-91. This has been Édonatedæ by Robert Macmillan of Colton
Software but has quite a few omissions. Does anyone feel up to complet
ing the table and, perhaps, adding the data projected for 1991-92?
4.12
Labels
4.12
A letter I have had from Steve Harratt reminds me that most people use
labels with 21 labels per sheet rather than the 18 labels per sheet
which I do. The consequence is that the detailed instructions I have
given elsewhere need modifying. Rather than me go through what is, to
me, a hypothetical exercise, I thought it likely that one of you might
already have modified my instructions for a different label format. If
you have then please send me details and I will make a suitable
compilation.
4.12
HP DeskJet 500
4.12
Roger Lines has one of these and comments favourably about the output
quality. He, like many others of you, I suspect, wants to use it with a
suitable PipeDream printer driver. Has anybody got one? (We have just
started stocking the DeskJet 500æs as various people seemed very
impressed with them. They are ú395 through Archive.)
4.12
Epson GQ-3500
4.12
This is my printer. It is a laser printer with a 300 dpi resolution. I
use it in HP emulation mode, mainly with !PrinterLJ and outline fonts.
However, I do use it often enough with a PipeDream printer driver to
want one which works properly. The driver provided by Colton Software
called HPjet assumes that the HP printer has access to the ECMA-94
character set (the ECMA-94 character set is practically the same as the
Archimedes System font) and so the driver does not require a translation
table. My printer (with HP emulator) doesnæt have the ECMA-94 character
set so I have to use a translation table from Roman8 to ECMA-94. I have
one which produces most of the System font characters but not all. Once
again, I am collecting together information on PipeDream printer drivers
so, if you have anything to offer on this or any other printer, please
send me your printer driver on a disc.
4.12
I have asked this next question before but received no response. Has
anyone got, or does anyone know how to write a RISC OS printer driver
for my Epson-GQ3500 so that I can discard the emulator. I canæt help
thinking that, since practically all the printer graphics control codes
are similar to those of the FX80, that I ought to be able to make a few
changes to !PrinterDM and run my GQ-3500!
4.12
Multifile documents
4.12
I have said little about this subject in the past. For those of you who
can still find your handbook, turn to page 210; only three pages are
devoted to this interesting facility but references to it appear
throughout the user guide.
4.12
Each file in a multifile document can have its own page layout and
default options. For those of you familiar with DTP jargon, each file
can be a Chapter with its own column structure, wrap margins, default
printer (and screen) font, grid (present or absent), insert on return ON
(or OFF), headers & footers, etc. The multifile document can consist of,
say, a title page as one file, a page of two column text as a contents
page, a different layout for the main body part of the report, tables of
numbers (or a database) included as separate files followed by more text
(to another layout), and an index at the end with yet another layout.
The multifile document can be spellchecked or you can use Search and
Replace throughout the whole document as a single entity; page numbers,
page breaks, etc, can be harmonised.
4.12
The commands <Shift-F5> and <Shift-F6> move the ÉInput focusæ (the place
where the caret appears) from file to file through the document. A
couple of notes you should be aware of but might have missed appear on
pages 249 & 256. When you change the input focus with either of these
commands then, if you have made any changes to a file, it will be saved
automatically (whether you like it or not!) as the input focus moves to
the next or previous file.
4.12
Now that more of you are familiar with DTP and understand the advantages
of being able to vary the page layout whilst staying within the same
document, I shall be writing more about the use of this facility.
4.12
Multifile documents have always been a part of PipeDream so, if you have
used them and found them useful, I would like to hear from you (prefer
ably with a disc based example).
4.12
Finally
4.12
I had hoped to include more about integer arithmetic or complex numbers
this month but I think Iæve probably run out of space. Keep those discs
(and letters) coming in and let me know what subjects you prefer to read
in a column such as this!ááA
4.12
4.12
DT-Talk
4.12
Robert Chrismas
4.12
DT-Talk is a speech synthesizer program. It is produced by DT Software
and distributed by Atomwide. It costs ú14.95+VAT.
4.12
What you get
4.12
There is a disk with a 16 page A6 manual. The disk contains:
4.12
!TalkLoad Ö loads the two modules used by the speech system (they occupy
about 60k).
4.12
!FileTalk Ö sits on the icon bar and reads aloud any text file dropped
on to the icon.
4.12
!HelpTalk Ö reads aloud the help messages which !Help (on Applications
1) displays.
4.12
!System and !SysMerge Ö because !FileTalk and !HelpTalk require Clib
(version 3.66 is supplied on the disk)
4.12
ReadMe1st Ö Information about the new Clib
4.12
ReadMe Ö Information about changes to DT-Talk
4.12
Allophones
4.12
DT-Talk is unlike the speech programs previously reviewed in Archive
because its speech is based on allophones, not phonemes.
4.12
There are rather more sounds in our language than letters in our
alphabet because we make our letters work overtime. So we use Ésæ for
the first sound in Ésingæ and Éhæ for the first sound in Éhatæ but put
together as Éshæ they make that sound of the sea with which we start the
word Éshoreæ. The vowels are particularly hard pressed; consider the
letter Éaæ which sounds quite different in Ébatæ Ébarkæ and Éstareæ. In
fact there are about 50 basic sounds in spoken English. They are called
Éphonemesæ. Most speech synthesis programs are able to produce more or
less accurately these 50 sounds and, by putting them together, with
appropriate pauses, you can get recognisable speech.
4.12
However, we have to produce speech using our lungs, throat, and mouth.
This imposes certain mechanical limitations on the sounds which we can
produce. Each phoneme requires the speakeræs throat and mouth to be in a
particular position, and then they have to get into position for the
next phoneme while the sound is still being produced. At the start of
each word, we have to get up some pressure in our lungs and, at the end,
we have to stop and perhaps take another breath. It is not surprising
that the sound of a phoneme can vary slightly depending on its position
in the word and the phonemes around it. The differences are usually
quite small but they do exist. Say the word Ékickæ and listen to the Ékæ
sound at the beginning and the end, both sounds are represented by the
same phoneme, but most people pronounce them slightly differently. All
the different possible sounds of the phonemes are called Éallophonesæ.
So how many allophones are there? Well, it probably depends on how
different is different. DT-Talk uses 59 allophones, 22 vowels and 37
Éconsonantsæ.
4.12
So for example DT-Talk has two different Ébæ sounds and three different
Ékæs described in the manual as:
4.12
/BB1/ Blight, criB
4.12
/BB2/ Front of word before vowel: Boat
4.12
and
4.12
/KK1/ Word start; before vowels not in KK3
4.12
/KK2/ End of word
4.12
/KK3/ Before AO, AR, OR, OW, OY, UH, UW
4.12
Producing your own computer speech
4.12
The *SAY command will convert English text to speech. To help C
programmers, the applications !FileTalk and !HelpTalk are supplied with
their C source code. If you produce speech using Basic, the ReadMe file
advises you to use OSCLI (öSAYá...ò) and not *SAY. The ÉBad Programæ and
other errors which occur if you do use *SAY make me a bit suspicious of
the module code.
4.12
There is a SWI which will pronounce one allophone. None of the programs
on the disk allow you to input speech in allophones. It is quite easy to
write a few lines of Basic to do this but I think it would have been a
good idea to include such a program in the package. The ReadMe file
describes a second SWI which provides information on the length of the
speech queue.
4.12
The manual
4.12
The manual is by no means as comprehensive as that provided with
ÉSpeechSystemæ but it is rather better than the documentation provided
with ÉSpeech!æ. It is clear and helpful and it manages to be friendly
without being offensively Échattyæ.
4.12
Quality of speech
4.12
The speech sounds a little less Émechanicalæ than PEPæs ÉSpeechSystemæ
but it is no clearer. It is a rather subjective judgement, but I find
Superior Softwareæs ÉSpeech!æ the most Énaturalæ.
4.12
The recognition of some words was difficult because they were not
translated into allophones very successfully. For example Éballæ sounds
quite close to Ébullæ which is fine for Éballoonæ but not for Éballæ.
Other speech programs reviewed in Archive have similar problems, but
they have dictionaries which allow you to supply the correct pronuncia
tion. However, you can often improve the sound by spelling the words
phonetically.
4.12
You can produce an improvement in the quality of the speech using
allophones, but it took me much longer to translate words into allo
phones than phonemes and you must write your own code to pronounce them.
The use of allophones may seem to give this program the edge over its
rivals, but in fact the most important factor does not seems to be the
range of sounds available, rather it is the accuracy with which they are
reproduced.
4.12
There is no control over pitch or stress although the documentation
suggests that future versions may include this.
4.12
Conclusion
4.12
DT-Talk is slightly cheaper than the other three speech synthesizer
programs.
4.12
Because it is based on allophones, it offers a wider range of sounds
than its rivals but the speech it produces is of similar quality. It
does not offer as many features as the others and the accompanying
desktop programs are much more limited.ááA
4.12
Robertæs review of ARCticulate, the forth speech package arrived just in
time to get into this current issue. He has also included a comparison
table for the four. See page 51. Ed.
4.12
4.12
ArcComm2
4.12
Alan Highet
4.12
ArcComm2 is a fully multi-tasking videotext and scrolling text terminal
aimed primarily at the educational market which is obvious from the fact
that the first 18 pages of the manual are devoted to a Curriculum guide
taking you through accessing and using Prestel and the Campus 2000
database.
4.12
The scrolling terminals available are Teletype, VT52, VT102, ANSI and a
reasonable VT220. The 3 videotext terminals allow you access to Franceæs
TΘlΘtel, Germanyæs Bildschirmtext and the U.K.És Prestel which is the
one most people will use.
4.12
Videotext
4.12
After accessing Prestel, you can move around the pages using the normal
commands and a numeric keypad is also available on screen which can be
selected by the mouse. There is a facility to save viewed frames to disc
in ÉStoresæ which can then be replayed offline and some sample ÉStoresæ
are provided on a utility disc. There is a print text or graphics
facility which will print individual frames while online but itæs
probably cheaper and quicker to store them and print them later on.
4.12
Screens may also be printed or saved as text files or as graphic files
(sprites).
4.12
A facility, unique to this program and only required when using the
Campus 2000 system to my knowledge, is the ability to automatically
switch from videotext to scrolling text under the control of the host
although some characters may be lost in the transition.
4.12
One nice touch is that you can reply to a mailbox by placing the mouse
pointer over the mailbox number on the screen and double clicking
<select> while holding down the Shift key. You are then taken to a
preselected mailbox frame and the number selected is inserted in the
first field.
4.12
There is also a comprehensive off-line mailbox editor and a utility to
create multi-page mailboxes.
4.12
Scrolling text
4.12
This terminal offers all the usual functions found in similar software.
Again, stores are provided, in this case two, which may be replayed
later when you are off-line. These stores may be redirected as text
files for viewing in a text editor.
4.12
The screen may be printed as a text file using its own print routine but
there is no facility to print the screen as a graphic. Instead you must
save the screen as a sprite and use the RISC-OS printer drivers.
4.12
File transfers
4.12
There are various file transfers available: Xmodem, Xmodem-1k and Ymodem
for uploads and downloads, and a mailbox upload and CET download for
videotext frames.
4.12
There are two icons on the icon bar with the right hand one being the
program control and the left one being the file transfer icon. Clicking
on this icon lets you set the required transfer protocol freeing the
user from having to choose each time a file is transferred.
4.12
Procedures
4.12
This is a powerful feature of the software which allows you to configure
the program to do almost anything required. You can, for instance, start
up the software in your chosen style, log on to a bulletin board,
download your mail and log off again all automatically with one double
click.
4.12
Miscellaneous
4.12
There is a new screen modes module which contains 12 modes, some of
which are available with Impression.
4.12
There is an ISO1 module which allows you easy access to foreign
characters using a combination of keys. This is a useful module which
can be used with other software applications.
4.12
There is also information on the various modem drivers supplied along
with details of how to wire up a modem lead.
4.12
Conclusions
4.12
I cannot say the software worked faultlessly but then I havenæt used any
comms software that does. The problem is that there are so many things
that can go wrong like the modem, the software, the telephone line etc.
that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to trace the fault.
4.12
Having said all this, I found ArcComm2 relatively easy to use and it
performed very well with all the different boards I tried.
4.12
What I wasnæt so happy about was that to use VT220 emulation I had to
alter the run file instead of it being accessible from the menus, and
132 column mode wasnæt supported which I use a lot for connection to a
mainframe.
4.12
Documentation
4.12
The A4 handbook was quite good but I do not like their style of column
headings as it was difficult to tell where the text continued with the
result I often missed out bits of text. I also felt that the section
dealing with procedures should have been much more comprehensive with a
lot more examples. Some procedures are provided on the disc but a
written step by step guide would have helped.
4.12
If you want the use of the procedures then this product will be very
useful but as a comms package I thought it overpriced alongside
something like David Pillingæs RISC-OS Terminal software which supports
a simple configuration language and costs ú59 through Archive.)ááA
4.12
4.12
4.12
ARCticulate
4.12
Robert Chrismas
4.12
ARCticulate is The Fourth Dimensionæs Éanimated speech synthesizeræ. It
costs ú24.95. The distinctive advertisements showing rather ominous
faces (itæs the sun glasses which do it) are hard to miss.
4.12
The package
4.12
You get a disk and six A6 sides of documentation in a video-type box.
The disk has 10 applications. !Share contains the speech module and all
the sound samples. !ARCtic is a Éfront endæ which allows you to enter
text from the desktop. There are separate applications to control the
four faces, a dictionary program, a program which tells jokes, sound
effect for the desktop and a demo.
4.12
You can copy the applications to a hard disk but the original floppy
disk must be present when you start the program. The !Share application
includes a ReadMe file explaining how you can use ARCticulate speech in
your own programs.
4.12
The documentation
4.12
The manual has six A6 sides of documentation. It explains the purpose of
each of the ten applications and includes a table to identify the
phoneme codes and the corresponding mouth shapes for the talking faces.
There is enough information to use the applications but not enough
background information and advice to help people unfamiliar with speech
synthesis to get the most from the package.
4.12
Sampled phonemes
4.12
Unlike other Archimedes speech synthesis programs, ARCticulate uses
samples, digital recordings, of real speech, instead of synthesising the
sounds. The samples are very short, each one being just one phoneme. The
program allows you to Éplay backæ the phonemes in any order so it can
say anything you choose.
4.12
In fact, there are four different sets of samples, so the program will
speak in four distinct voices. We are not told the names of the people
who supplied the male and female voices, nor am I sure where The Fourth
Dimension found a ÉDroidæ and the Alien for the other two, but the
Édroidæ sounds a bit like K9 from Dr Who.
4.12
There is a paradox here. Most speech synthesizer programs sound a bit
mechanical though the good ones sound less mechanical than the others.
Fourth Dimension have developed a technique which should reproduce
speech more accurately and have then used it to reproduce speech which
deliberately sounds artificial! I would have preferred a wider range of
human voices.
4.12
However, this method certainly works. Sampled phonemes sound more
natural and are clearer than synthesized phonemes. Other programs sound
mechanical, but this program sounds sufficiently natural for me to find
the male voice slightly nasal (could it be a Sheffield accent?).
Incidentally, he also fails to sound his ÉRæ clearly.
4.12
One disadvantage of using this method to produce computer speech is that
sampled sounds occupy more memory than the code to synthesis sounds.
Each voice requires a set of phoneme samples which occupy about 65k of
memory. With the 35k controller module ÉSpeechModæ and a desktop front
end, ARCticulate speech will require more than 100k of memory. All four
voices requires at least 300k.
4.12
The talking faces
4.12
Each talking face is controlled by a small application requiring about
25k. The application animates the face if the computer is speaking.
4.12
Each phoneme is associated with one of eight mouth positions. For each
face there are eight small sprites showing these mouth positions. As the
voice speaks, the application changes the mouth shape to match the
phoneme. It seems to work rather well Ö the face does appear to talk.
4.12
The face sprites will only work in 256 colour modes. The applications
only recognise their own voices if all four voices are loaded so by
loading just one voice you can have any of the faces speaking in any of
the voices.
4.12
By altering the sprites in one of the applications, you could produce
your own talking face without much difficulty. You could even use a
human face without sunglasses, but I suspect that a talking mouth with
motionless eyes would look a bit creepy.
4.12
Your own words
4.12
!ARCtic is a desktop program which allows you to enter speech in plain
text or phonemes. You can also drag text files onto the icon to hear
them. I recklessly dragged quite a long file onto the icon only to
discover that to stop the speech I had to quit the program. Surprisingly
!ARCtic does not accept text files directly from other programs, not
even using Wimp$Scrap.
4.12
!ARCtic makes use of a number of calls to a module called ÉSpeechModæ Ö
you can include these calls in your own programs. The most important is
an OSCLI/SWI call Ö ÉSAYæ Ö which speaks text. If the pronunciation is
unsatisfactory, you can try spelling the words phonetically or you can
embed phonemes in the text by preceding each phoneme with a É/æ.
4.12
The 40 phonemes used by this program are represented by codes of one or
two letters. This set of codes is different from the sets of codes used
by the other speech programs.
4.12
As with some other speech programs, you can change the pitch of the
speech, but ARCticulate also has codes to change volume and the speaking
voice. So for example É{the volume and É}æ decreases it. When these
codes are included in ordinary text, they are sometimes displaced
slightly when the text is converted into phonemes.
4.12
For example
4.12
listen to {this }
4.12
is translated as
4.12
.LIXSUHN{.towdhixs }.
4.12
Translating text to phonemes
4.12
The task of translating plain text to phonemes is carried out by the 35k
ÉSpeechModæ module. Despite its size, it seemed to me that it was less
successful in translating plain text to phonemes than some of the other
speech programs. However, it may just be that failures are more
noticeable because ARCticulateæs phonemes are more clearly pronounced,
so poor translations are more obvious.
4.12
ARCticulate has slightly fewer phonemes at its disposal than the other
speech programs, and even when I entered phonemes directly, I was not
always able to find exactly the sound I wanted.
4.12
The !Diction program allows you to create a dictionary with translations
of difficult words into phonemes. However, it only handles whole words,
so you would need separate entries for Éroughæ, Éroughlyæ, Éroughenæ etc
and there is limited of 600 words. The dictionary supplied with the
program seems to have a very odd choice of words but, in fact, they have
been carefully chosen to match the words used by the !Jokes program. The
advert says that you can have as many dictionary files as you want. This
is true, but only one dictionary can be active at a time.
4.12
Hasnæt got an Éologyæ
4.12
The SpeechMod module which handles translation from plain text to
phonemes has at least one serious bug. It translates ÉOGYæ into É/O/J/
EEæ. Unfortunately, É/Oæ is not a valid phoneme code, so whenever it
tries to say a word with ÉOGYæ in it, the program stops speaking and
generates the error message ÉIllegal phoneme in speechæ. When I phoned
Fourth Dimension and pointed this out, I was told that I could fix it by
adding any words which were not pronounced correctly to the dictionary.
In vain, I repeated that the problem was not that words were mispro
nounced but that the program gives up altogether when you ask it to say
them. You can correct individual words by adding them to the dictionary,
but since the dictionary only handles whole words you would have to
enter all the Éologyæs from astrology right through to zoology to be
safe!
4.12
I suspect you could tinker with SpeechMod itself Ö the translation table
is easy to find Ö but this may upset the protection built around this
module.
4.12
Conclusion
4.12
Each of the other programs has some features which this program lacks
but ARCticulate produces clearer and more natural speech than any of its
rivals. It also has talking heads. However a fault in the translation of
text to phonemes prevents it saying words with Éogyæ in them. If Fourth
Dimension corrects this fault, ARCticulate will probably be the speech
program which most users choose.ááA
4.12
Comparison of Speech Synthesis Programs
4.12
The table compares the main features of the four speech synthesis
programs. The marks are out of ten. So far as features like
Énaturalnessæ are concerned, the marks are no more than my own subjec
tive judgement.
4.12
4.12
!Speech SpeechSystem DT-Talk
ARCticulate
4.12
Supplier Superior Software PEP
Associates DT-Soft 4th
Dimension
4.12
Price (inc VAT) ú19.95 ú25
ú17.57 ú24.95
4.12
Speech Clarity 5 5 5 7
4.12
Naturalness 5 4 4 8
4.12
Variation controls6 2 0
8
4.12
Documentation 3 9 5 4
4.12
Desktop front end 5 7 4 5
4.12
Dictionary facilities 8 6 0
5
4.12
4.12
Other features
4.12
ARCticulate talking faces
4.12
DT-Talk allophones
4.12
!Speech sings
4.12
SpeechSystem speaks text under cursor and
4.12
speaks as you typeááA
4.12
4.12
Fast Array Sorts
4.12
Ashley Bowden
4.12
It is rather difficult getting started with the Fast Array Sorts disc
from Avisoft. There is no autoboot option set and so the user has to
hunt around to see what is on the disc. The documentation does not help
greatly here. It would appear that the author is not a devotee of the
Desktop since clicking on the various program icons often produces a
display which scrolls rapidly by in a small window. Also, other programs
do not run because you are not in the correct directory.
4.12
Having eventually sorted out what was where, I attempted to put the
software through its paces. Essentially there is a relocatable module
which is responsible for the ARM code sort and a number of programs to
demonstrate sorts in action. Even so, the programs are not as user
friendly as they might have been and some are just plain awkward. The
author states that the point of the software is to allow the user to
incorporate the sort code in Basic, so I decided to give this a go.
4.12
All you have to do is include four lines in a Basic program Ö three are
to load the module and to prepare it and the fourth is to do the sort on
the arrays specified. The author suggests that you look at the programs
supplied to see how this is done in practice. These examples are models
of clarity and good programming and I managed to write a program to sort
an array of random numbers with no trouble. You can, in fact, sort on
any type of array (integer, real or string) and you can sort on several
arrays in an intelligent way.
4.12
For example, suppose you had an array which contained a hundred surnames
and another with the corresponding forenames. You could do a double sort
so that the surnames where put into alphabetical order and, if any of
these were identical, they would be sorted by forename. This all worked
well, so I decided to try some of the more advanced features.
4.12
It is possible to set various options to control the sort. These include
ascending or descending, whether the whole array is to be sorted or just
some of it and whether the case of letters in a string is to be taken
into account. You have to create a Éflagæ value which tells the sort
module which options you want. This caused more problems, I am afraid.
4.12
According to the documentation, a value of 128 signifies a descending
sort. So it appears that
4.12
CALL sort,test%(),128
4.12
will sort the array test%() in descending order. This I tried and got
the message ÉSyntax Erroræ. I struggled with this on and off for a
couple of weeks, feeling ever more guilty about how the long the review
was taking and was on the point of admitting defeat when I realised how
to get the thing to work. The flag must be passed using a variable name.
4.12
flag%=128
4.12
CALL sort,test%(),flag%
4.12
does the trick!
4.12
This does strike me as very unorthodox and mention should be made of it
in the documentation. My feeling about the software is that the author
has produced a very powerful module and is, with some justice, proud of
it. It can sort 10,000 integers in less than 1.3 seconds. However, the
user has not been catered for adequately. The disc structure needs
tidying up, the sample programs made more friendly and the documentation
needs improving with actual examples of how to use the sort code. The
Archimedes version of the software costs ú15 from Avisoft and, to
justify this, the package needs to be made much more professional.ááA
4.12
4.12
!Draw_Help
4.12
Robert Chrismas
4.12
!Draw_Help is a tutorial guide for !Draw. It is produced by Sherston
Software and is intended to be a sequel to !Help, their guide to the
Archimedes and A3000.
4.12
Most computer enthusiasts (Archive readers) learn to use programs by
trial and error with occasional peeks at the manual. If you are using a
computer for fun, learning like this is all part of the enjoyment.
People who are not interested in Éfiddlingæ with computers or who cannot
afford the time, find this a slow and often discouraging method.
4.12
Tutorials for computer-related products try to offer a reasonably cheap,
easy way to learn about a computer or a particular program. A tutorial
is not like a manual. A manual can just list and describe the effects of
the options offered by a program (although most manuals are more helpful
than this). A proper tutorial should guide the user through carefully
structured practical exercises which illustrate all the major features
of the program.
4.12
What a tutorial should do
4.12
Anxious new users sometimes say things like Éjust tell me what button to
pressæ. They do not understand that the ways you can combine options in
a program, and the things which can go wrong, are legion. It is not
possible to give a list of instructions to cover every contingency. So a
tutorial must not only tell you which button to press, it should also
explain why you are pressing it, and to give some idea of the things you
might do instead. The activities should be organised so that they do not
assume skills or knowledge which have not yet been explained and the
writer must try to foresee and warn against difficulties. The material
needs to look attractive and interesting and to be written in an
encouraging style. In addition to all this, most tutorials aim to help
users whose intelligence, skills and background experience vary across
the full range in our society. Thus it is virtually impossible to write
a perfect tutorial.
4.12
By these high standards, !Draw_Help is a good attempt. There are some
aspects which I find unsatisfactory but the overall standard is high. It
is reasonably well thought out and carefully organised. The presentation
is clear and helpful.
4.12
What you get
4.12
You get a 95 page A5 booklet, two disks and an A4 reference card showing
the structure of the Draw menus. The package costs ú15.99.
4.12
The first disk contains: !Draw, !System, Integrex printer driver, dot
matrix printer driver, !Fonts and some files for use in the tutorials.
The second disk has a range of clip art files. The version of !Draw is
the same as that on Applications 1. The fonts are Olivia, a traditional
ÉChristmas cardæ style and Junior, the simple printing style usually
used in books for young children. The booklet confusingly calls the
Junior font ÉPrimaryæ. You are encouraged to back up the unprotected
disks and you are allowed to use copies within your institution. This is
not as good as it seems because the booklet itself is copyright and, as
far as I can see, you are not allowed to copy it.
4.12
The text
4.12
After an introductory section, the guide takes you through loading Draw
and opening a Draw window Ö É... if you double click you will open two
new draw files ...æ. Next come eleven pages introducing the toolbox and
the menus. The practical activities are not too challenging, É...click
the select button a few times moving the mouse between clicks.æ Filing
operations, (Loading/Saving) is covered in two pages. The largest part
of the guide comprises ÉTutorialsæ which explain how to create five
interesting files. It says you can tackle the tutorials in any order.
The tutorials are followed by an example, with hints and tips, of a
cartoon strip which uses some of the clip art. Printing is covered in
four pages and is followed by a chilling section entitled ÉNational
Curriculum Ö Referencesæ which will scare ordinary users and probably
terrify teachers. Finally, there is a section on configuring the
computer, appendices and an index.
4.12
Good points
4.12
The presentation shows considerable care and the guide is well illus
trated. It is particularly encouraging when you first use a menu to see
it printed next to the text. The tutorials show the finished product
first then, near the text describing how each effect is achieved, you
can see the file in various stages of completion.
4.12
The use of good quality clip art from the disk, enables even inexperi
enced users to produce attractive results. There is plenty of good
general advice on creating graphics.
4.12
The guide has many useful hints and notes; when the main menu is
introduced, the note about using <adjust> on menus to keep the menu open
was typically helpful.
4.12
Drawbacks
4.12
Some topics are dealt with rather superficially (perhaps they were
covered in !Help), there were a few inaccuracies and some possible
difficulties were not guarded against. For example, I could not find any
warning that clicking select on a path object will not let you edit it
if you are in select mode. Despite what the guide says, you cannot
change the font in a text area using the style menu. It is astonishing
how such details can bring a novice to a grinding halt.
4.12
There is a more serious problem with the fonts. The first tutorial, and
some of the later ones, require the Trinity Medium font which is not
supplied on the disk. At the start of the first tutorial there is a note
referring you to Appendix 2 (Copying fonts) which a novice might find a
bit daunting. However, he/she would be better off than someone who
started at one of the later tutorials which do not include any warning.
Even more seriously, the version of Trinity Medium on my Applications 1
will not fit on the work disk. One reason for the lack of space on the
disk is that one directory (Vehicles) contains duplicate copies of all
the files. I found this surprising.
4.12
These criticisms may seem overwhelming but the fact remains that
tutorials are very difficult to write Ö I have never seen a perfect
tutorial.
4.12
Schools
4.12
The inclusion of the section on the National Curriculum suggests that
schools are a major target audience. Three pages outline areas in which
the tutorials might support the National Curriculum, a half a page deals
with support from more general uses of Draw. Before buying copies of
this book to use with pupils, you should consider the reading level of
the text. I thought it might just be suitable for able upper secondary
pupils and some standard reading tests confirmed this impression. The
sixth formers I teach would not feel that they were being patronised by
the style. However, members of staff might like a copy if they are
unfamiliar with Draw. Sherston Software do not seem to offer a site
licence. You do not want to read what I think of the National
Curriculum.
4.12
Value for money?
4.12
At ú15.95, it is tempting to compare it with a typical ÉTeach Yourselfæ
book, 200 pages for ú3.00, or ÉArchimedes First Stepsæ, the Dabhand
Guide, 240 pages for ú9.95, but the market for a specialist guide like
this is probably small by comparison. Archive readers can probably use
Draw already, the english is a bit complicated for children, but it will
probably sell to teachers desperate for any help they can get. A
4.12
4.12
Rhapsody II
4.12
Stewart Watson
4.12
Clares have issued an upgrade for users of Rhapsody. Existing users can
upgrade for ú15.50 including VAT and carriage. The new version, if
bought directly, costs ú61.95 including VAT.
4.12
There are several significant improvements on version 1 which, I feel,
make the upgrade an essential purchase for Rhapsody 1 users and should
make those who were not convinced by version 1 look again.
4.12
Firstly, the sprites have been improved giving a significantly improved
printout. I felt that Rhapsody 1És weakest feature, as a music notation
program, was the printout and Iæm delighted to see that usersæ sugges
tions have been acted upon. Apart from the improved sprites a new page
format window has been added to give more control over printer set-up Ö
an extremely useful improvement.
4.12
Input of notes to scores has been improved in two ways. Notes can now be
dragged from the panels onto a score. This greatly speeds up input of
symbols to scores, particularly when used in conjunction with the
keyboard short cuts.
4.12
More significantly, it is now possible to Écaptureæ notes from a Midi
keyboard in step-time. This is a boon when writing small melodic scores
with a wide range of note values because, once the note value is
selected, when you play the correct pitch on your keyboard, a note of
the correct pitch and length is inserted in the score. I have found this
the quickest and easiest way to input scores as it avoids the problems
associated with quantise, when one has to play in an artificially
robotic rhythm to avoid major problems with adjusting note lengths when
the score is transcribed.
4.12
The Midi facilities have been greatly enhanced and multiple Midi ports
are now supported allowing access of up to 64 channels but, more
significantly, Midi program changes are now possible at any place on any
stave. This is done by selecting a Midi channel and voice number, which
will instruct your Midi instrument which sound to use for which stave.
The Midi channels and program change numbers are shown under the stave
names at the start of each stave. This is useful when you have a large
score with several different Midi channels.
4.12
(Iæve prepared a Rhapsody file for inclusion on the monthly disc, with a
basic set up for a Roland MT32, or any compatible piece of equipment,
using a range of Midi channels and voices.)
4.12
Several other improvements have been made, including a new ÉBlock Re-
tailæ routine and a !Config program to set your own program defaults
including maximum number of staves, default stave height, Midi on/off,
Midi beat channel and pitch etc.
4.12
Clares hope to have available soon a program called ScoreDraw which will
convert Rhapsody files into Draw files. This, as well as giving Rhapsody
files access to laser printers, will mean that all text can be converted
into outline fonts and both text and music can be edited in Draw.
ScoreDraw should cost ú61.95 inc VAT.
4.12
Clares deserve congratulations for taking on board users comments and
producing a fairly major upgrade at a very reasonable cost. Rhapsody II
is available from Clares Micro Supplies, 98 Middlewich Road, Norwich,
Cheshire, CW9 7DA. Prices are ú61.95 from Clares and ú57 through
Archive.ááA
4.12
4.12
CC
4.12
From 4.11 page 30
4.12
4.12
Fortran Friends
4.12
Kate Crennell
4.12
I wrote in Archive in the July issue asking for ÉFortran Friendsæ to
contact me; several did, and I have distributed a short newsletter to
them. The Editor asked if I would like to go a bit more public and put
some information in Archive, so here I am.
4.12
Bug list
4.12
I am trying to create a list of known bugs in Acorn Fortran77 release 2.
I only have two so far which are;
4.12
(1) In Archive 4.6 p8, Raymond Wright reported that DACOS(Ö1.) gives the
wrong answer but
4.12
X=Ö1.
4.12
Y=DACOS(X)
4.12
the right one. See PRM page 1706.
4.12
This problem applies when any of the Éimmediate operandsæ which are
(0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 0.5, 10.0) are used in negative form as
arguments to fortran functions, e.g. the result of this code below is
1.0
4.12
PRINT *, É the square root of -1 is æ, SQRT(Ö1.)
4.12
END
4.12
(2) J.P.Davey reported a problem passing functions as arguments. The
following code will not compile Ö it stops with an error, Fatal Error
(Code 930): Internal Error.
4.12
SUBROUTINE TEST(F1,X)
4.12
EXTERNAL F1
4.12
F(Z)=F1(X,Z)
4.12
A=F(2.0-1.0)
4.12
RETURN
4.12
END
4.12
Fortran Public Domain Library
4.12
It would be good to get some PD material available for Fortran, so if
you have anything suitable, send it to me for distribution. Routines
must obviously be your own copyright, accompanied by a text file
describing, briefly, what the routine does, defining the parameters and
any error returns, and giving your name, address and telephone number if
possible, so that users can contact you if they have any queries. I
shall not attempt to fix any problems in your routines, nor remove
duplicate entry points.
4.12
If you send routines on a guaranteed virus free disc, with a return,
stamped addressed label, I will send you the current set of libraries.
If you want routines but have none to contribute, I think it reasonable
to charge for making the copy. If you send a disc and a stamped,
addressed return label, the charge will be ú3. If you want me to supply
the disc and postage, the charge will be ú5 for addresses within the UK
or ú6 outside the U.K.
4.12
If I get a lot of requests, I shall probably deposit the whole collec
tion in a public domain library who will do the distribution.
4.12
Here is the current list of routines:
4.12
Å Fortran77 Desktop Tool allowing compilation, linking, and execution
4.12
(The following libraries are written in Assembler for speed.)
4.12
Å 33 Graphics Routines which emulate the similar Basic commands
4.12
e.g. CALL LINE(IX1,IY1,IX2,IY2)
4.12
Å 44 SpriteOp routines for all the SpriteOps. Names of the form SPOPnn,
02 < nn < 62
4.12
Å 8 Utilities e.g. J = IGET() simulates the Basic GET command
4.12
Any comments?
4.12
Please send your comments on any aspect of the use of Fortran on the
Archimedes to:
4.12
K M Crennell, ÉGreytopsæ, The Lane, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0SE or by
electronic mail on JANET to KMC@UK.AC.RL.DEááA
4.12
4.12
Competition Corner
4.12
Colin Singleton
4.12
Life was rather hectic around here just at the time Paul asked for
contributions to the August issue to be submitted early and unfor
tunately I missed it. I donæt know what Schroeder is saying, that was
nothing to do with me! (I cannot tell a lie, it was me but Iæve only had
two entries so far. Ed.)
4.12
Prime numbers seem to go down well with Archive readers, so see how you
get on with Prime Gaps. A gap is the difference between consecutive
primes, hence a gap of N implies N Ö 1 consecutive composite numbers.
4.12
By my definition, GN is the prime number preceding the first occurrence
of gap N. Hence G2 = 3 G4 = 7 G6 = 23.
4.12
This monthæs problem is to extend this list as far as possible for
(preferably consecutive) even values of N. The largest gap I have seen
reported is 784, and the prime concerned (which has not been proved to
be the smallest) exceeds 215.
4.12
Entries and comments please, either via Paul at NCS, or direct to me at
41 St Quentin Drive, Sheffield S17 4PN.
4.12
Results
4.12
Now a couple of results, starting with the May competition, the Eulerian
Square of order 10. There is a simple technique to generate such squares
of odd order. Examples can easily be found for orders four and eight.
There is also a simple technique to create a Eulerian Square of order
m.n given squares of orders m and n.
4.12
This leaves the Éinterestingæ problems as orders 10 14 18 22 26 etc. Our
regular correspondent Dr Riha of Leeds asked me why I restricted the
competition to order ten, without my usual clause Égo as far as you
canæ. I suspected that order 10 would prove difficult enough, and so it
proved. Dr Riha was the only entrant with a correct solution of order
10, and the only one to attempt order 14.
4.12
He uses a fairly straightforward technique for orders of the form 3k+1,
of which I was unaware when I set the puzzle. This only leaves orders
14, 18, 26, 38, 54, 62, 74, 78, 86 up to 100.
4.12
He then produces a technique which produces a square of any order,
provided the numbers 2, 3, 4 ... n Ö 2 can be placed (by trial and
error) in a sequence which satisfies a fairly complex set of rules.
Using this he has produced solutions for orders 14 18 (whence 54 = 3 *
18) 26 (whence 78) and, after some struggle, 38. An order 10 solution is
given below.
4.12
00 76 85 94 19 38 57 21 42 63
4.12
67 11 70 86 95 29 48 32 53 04
4.12
58 07 22 71 80 96 39 43 64 15
4.12
49 68 17 33 72 81 90 54 05 26
4.12
91 59 08 27 44 73 82 65 16 30
4.12
83 92 69 18 37 55 74 06 20 41
4.12
75 84 93 09 28 47 66 10 31 52
4.12
12 23 34 45 56 60 01 77 88 99
4.12
24 35 46 50 61 02 13 98 79 87
4.12
36 40 51 62 03 14 25 89 97 78
4.12
Now the June competition, to find the number of fundamental solutions to
the Queens problem of order n.
4.12
Dr Riha sent me a list up to n = 16. J R Ormond of Ludlow sent a list up
to n = 15, and a program which will calculate for any order (if you wait
long enough). The lists agree up to 15, though, surprisingly, they
disagree with my Écrib sheetæ for order 12. Since the latter was
calculated in 1874, I suspect that Dr Riha and Mr Ormond are more likely
to be correct. Joint winners, I think. These were the only correct
solutions beyond order 10.
4.12
Dr Rihaæs list is as follows, for orders 5 to 16 : 2, 1, 12, 46, 92,
341, 1787, 9233, 45752, 285053, 1846955.
4.12
Finally, I seem to be building quite a collection of discs from
competition entrants. I will get round to returning them in due
course!ááA
4.12
4.12
UltraSonic V1.0
4.12
Tristan Cooper
4.12
One of the aspects of the Archimedes that really impressed me and led to
my buying one was its incredible potential for sound implementation. In
fact it was EMRæs Studio 24 that originally caught my eye and which I
now use for recording and editing of music using inputs from a MIDI
keyboard and the wonderful Yamaha WX11 wind instrument. The recent
proliferation of SoundTracker software and samples has added to my
interest in creating sound and musical effects and, of course, what was
needed was an effective means of editing and manipulating this wide
variety of sounds.
4.12
Peter Gillet has produced an extensive package of applications designed
to ease the production of complex pieces of music, especially where
these have frequently repeated patterns of sounds. The package, called
!UltraSonic, occupies two discs of which one holds the various appli
cations programs and the other a wide variety of sound samples. These
sound samples are in 5 directories Ö Basses, Instrument, Looped,
Percussive and Strange, containing a total of 148 different voices.
4.12
There are also another 65 sounds that are used in the very impressive
demos Ö thus we have a total of 213 available Éinstrumentsæ to play
with. Included in these are not only a selection of conventional
instrument sounds, synthesized instruments and percussive effects, but
also several samples of possibly well-known origin, including öHey kids,
what time is it?ò, öYou got itò and one sampled from a stereo demo LP of
about 25 years ago : öThis is a journey into soundò Ö very nostalgic!
4.12
Apart from the main application program, !Ultra, disc one includes a
facility to play the demos, a new disc creation utility, various notes
on using Ultra and the extension sound modules provided and converters
for Armadeus and SoundTracker samples. Loading any of these is straight
forward enough, most installing themselves on the icon bar, or just
getting on with their task. Actually getting to use !Ultra is the
interesting part.
4.12
Using !Ultra
4.12
Clicking on !Ultraæs icon brings up a Pattern Editor window, with a
piano keyboard along the top and a number of symbols down the side
representing note volume, length, smoothing and stereo position. The
body of the window is a grid covering 4 bars. But nothing much seems to
happen, so what next? Pressing <menu> allows you to bring up windows for
Play, Sounds, Step Editor, Info, Settings, Input and other items. In
fact, you will need at least the first four of these as well as Pattern
Editor in order to get anywhere creating a piece of music. Accommodating
all these windows is a bit of a hassle and frankly, since theyære all
required together, I canæt see why they canæt be assembled as one.
Additionally, you will need to access the disc directories in order to
select the various voices required, so a rather jumbled screen can
easily result.
4.12
As to actually starting editing; first select a voice from the Sounds
window, (you can hear what it sounds like just by clicking on it in this
window) then it can be inserted into the Pattern Editor at any required
pitch and position in the 4 bars. In this way you build up a grouping of
notes that can then be inserted into the Step Editor. So, for example,
you might like to start with a drum back-beat. You can have this playing
at the same time as you make it; it will repeat over and over as you
edit it. Once youære satisfied with it, put it into the step editor on
any of 4 tracks and in up to 241 step positions. Now add some more
percussion perhaps or a throbbing bass. This can go into another track
or fill empty slots in your percussion track. A melody line can then be
added and more and more 4 bar groups assembled and inserted, to a
maximum of 255 different patterns. Each pattern can have its own tempo
and length specified. If you wish, the music can be left to play
continuously while you are adding to it. There is a choice of three
methods of inputting the notes. By using the mouse, you can place each
one in the Pattern Editor. Using the computer keyboard, you can play
along with the music but this is limited to one octave. For full range
playing, you can use an external MIDI instrument Ö I used both a Casio
keyboard and the Yamaha WX11 to good effect.
4.12
The end result can vary from a very pleasing and well balanced produc
tion, such as the Time Traveller or Axel-F demos, to a somewhat
appalling cacophony like my early efforts! A degree of practice would
clearly help here. Of course, outputting the sound through a good
quality hi-fi system helps enormously, especially in producing the
smoother bass sounds which the Archimedesæ tiny speaker simply canæt
handle. Work can be saved to disc at any time, of course, and Sound
Tracker tracks can be loaded and edited if you like.
4.12
Good and bad points
4.12
This package is most impressive. It has had a great deal of work put
into its creation and I have yet to discover a bug in it. The author,
Peter Gillet, is clearly well acquainted with the Archimedesæ sound
facilities, has provided some additional commands for your use and knows
a thing or two about music.
4.12
I have already expressed my reservations about the excess of windows but
I feel I must also comment on the instruction manual. A complex piece of
software naturally takes time to learn and one cannot expect to dive
straight in and produce masterpieces in a few minutes. However, in order
to learn to use such software, one most certainly needs an explanation
of what it does and how to make it work. Some applications are more or
less intuitive in their operation, but one as complicated as this needs
a description of its operational philosophy as well as detailed
instructions on how to use each of its functions. In other words, a
well-written and comprehensive manual is essential. Sadly, in this case,
the manual is rather brief and not particularly helpful. I am assured by
the author that this matter will be attended to in time but, as it
stands, you will have to spend some time experimenting in order to get
the hang of this otherwise excellent package.
4.12
Conclusion
4.12
Subject to the reservations above, it is well worth the asking price of
ú30 from Alpine Software if youære into music making. (ú28 through
Archive)ááA
4.12
4.12
Further Thoughts on FontEd
4.12
Keith Raven
4.12
Whilst it is true that designing a new font is beyond most of us, it is
not actually all that difficult to use FontEd to transcribe an existing
font (e.g. from a printeræs sample) to the outline font format.
4.12
Like Robert Christmas (Archive 4.10 p55), I recommend starting from an
existing font, rather than with a blank FontEd window, since the latter
gives no indication of what size to make your new font. As a precaution,
make sure you are working on a copy of the master font disc, just in
case you accidentally save your modified font without giving it a new
name!
4.12
Preparation
4.12
First find your font. For the Old English font which I transcribed, I
started from the sample font in a Letraset catalogue (Old English should
be safely out of copyright!), and photocopied it a couple of times,
enlarging it to give letters about one inch high. I then prepared two
grid patterns using Draw, one a one tenth inch grid, and the other
quarter inch squares. I printed the tenth inch grid on top of the
enlarged font sample, and printed the quarter inch grid onto a sheet of
thin cel, which I then very lightly sprayed with fixative to stop it
smearing, and Blu-tacked to the monitor screen. A laser printer, or a
photocopy (making sure you use the proper heat resistant cel!) would
give a better result.
4.12
Scale
4.12
In order to achieve a consistent scale, I copied a suitable character
from my Édummyæ font index window to a spare character position, loaded
it into a skeleton window and then adjusted it until the size Ö relative
to the grid Ö matched the corresponding character in the enlarged Old
English font. I was thus working (on screen) with a character about two
and a half inches high. Now I drew a ten by ten grid-square box around
the letter, and deleted the actual letter. Since I was using a PD font
there were in fact no scaffold or skeleton lines; this seems to be
typical of most Ébargainæ fonts.
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Transcribing
4.12
You can now load characters one by one and drag your scale square as a
guide character over each, so that you can adjust the window to exactly
the right scale before proceeding to modify (or draw from scratch) each
character, using the grid as a guide. This is surprisingly straight
forward Ö even the more elaborate characters took less than about half
an hour each, so that a minimal font of about 70 characters took around
25 hours. A more geometric font should be much quicker.
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Frequently, the segments you create will not meet accurately at the
junctions, so if you open a Éfull characteræ window, the character will
not appear solid. If this happens, simply work around the skeleton
character Édraggingæ each junction slightly in turn, until the offending
ones are found and corrected.
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Clearly, this same technique can be used, with Draw, to copy any
suitable artwork into the Archimedes.
4.12
Width
4.12
The one remaining item is to set the width of each character. If there
is no width line shown in a skeleton window, then try dragging the
IntMetrics file to the main FontEd Font Index window. To adjust the
width, use the (undocumented) width option in the menu; the left end and
vertical alignmentáof the width line should be set correctly relative to
the grid before drawing each character, and the right hand end adjusted
as necessary afterwards.
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Final adjustments
4.12
Inevitably, when you first try the font, minor width adjustments will be
needed. More seriously, the height of the letters may be slightly
uneven, or their alignment either vertically, or relative to the Éwidthæ
assigned to a character may be wrong. All this can be adjusted by using
the Élink to scaffold lineæ feature, and dragging the character into
position. Fine adjustments are best made by lifting the mouse clear of
its mat and using the cursor keys. If the height needs slight adjust
ment, then it is usually possible to achieve this by linking only half
the character to a scaffold line, and moving it slightly. Once you
realise the possibilities of this technique, the text file manual is
sufficiently clear. Finally, delete any scaffold lines you have created
during these adjustments.
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Now give the font a new name within FontEd and save both the outlines
and IntMetrics files to a new sub-directory with the same new font name
Ö donæt make the mistake of using the default save and overwriting your
original Édummyæ font.
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On my 24 pin printer at least, there is virtually no difference in the
printout from Éproperæ fonts with full scaffolding and skeletons, and
look-alike PD fonts lacking these features, although I imagine a nine-
pin printer might be less happy at small point sizes.
4.12
So, donæt ignore FontEd, or regard it as just suitable for one-off
special characters etc. There may be plenty of fonts available,
including PD fonts at nominal prices, but you can still create the font
of your choice with just a few hours work.
4.12
Old English
4.12
This is a text sample in this font:
4.12
the quick brown fox jumpeth over the lazy dog. A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.
4.12
This font could still benefit from further tweaking!ááA
4.12
4.12
4.12
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LOOKsystems (p11) 47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5 9AY.
(0603Ö764114) (Ö764011)
4.12
MicroPower Ltd Northwood House, North Street, Leeds LS7 2AA.
(0532Ö458800)
4.12
Oak Solutions (p37) Cross Park
House, Low Green, Rawdon, Leeds, LS19 6HA. (0532Ö502615) (Ö506868)
4.12
Ray Maidstone (p6 & 47) 421
Sprowston Road, Norwich, NR3 4EH. (0603Ö407060) (Ö417447)
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Safesell Exhibitions (p8) Market
House, Cross Road, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 5SR.
4.12
Sherston Software Swan Barton, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 0LH.
(0666Ö840433) (Ö840048)
4.12
Silicon Vision Ltd Signal
House, Lyon Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 2AG. (081Ö422Ö2274) (Ö427Ö5169)
4.12
Spacetech (p12) 21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA.
(0305Ö822753)
4.12
Superior Software Regent House, Skinner Lane, Leeds, LS7 1AX.
(0532Ö459453)
4.12
Techsoft UK Ltd (p27) Old School
Lane, Erryrs, Mold, Clwyd, CH7 4DA. (082Ö43318)
4.12
Vector Services Ltd 13 Denning
ton Road, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2RL.
4.12
Westland Systems Assessment Telec House, Goldcroft, Yeovil BA21 4DQ.
4.12
Wild Vision 15 Witney Way, Boldon Colliery, Tyne & Wear NE35 9PE.
(091Ö519Ö1455) (Ö1929)
4.12
XOB Balkeerie, Eassie by Forfar, Angus, DD8 1SR. (0307Ö84364)ááA
4.12