Archive Magazine 1997/ARCHIVE_97.iso/text/magazine/vol_05/issue_10

Text File | 1995-06-25 | 202KB | 4,426 lines

5.10
Portable Power is here
5.10
Acorn have finally released information about their new portable
computer Ö and it looks good, very good! Last week, we went down to
Cambridge for a hands-on session with the öAcorn A4ò. The only stipula
tion Acorn made was that we should not publish anything before 1st July.
5.10
So this issue of Archive (which is slightly earlier than usual!)
contains eleven pages of detailed information about the A4. However, as
a result, quite a few reviews have had to be left for succeeding months.
I know it is frustrating not to be able to read reviews of all the
latest products (and doubly so for all those waiting for their own
reviews to be published!) but we judged that information about the A4
ought to take priority.
5.10
Very many thanks to all who have written reviews and articles. Once
again, there are a lot waiting to be published. I may have to do another
80-page issue to try to fit them in. However, I have done two 80-page
issues already this year and they are rather more expensive to print and
post.
5.10
Archive is on the up and up
5.10
I am pleased to say that, despite the recession, Archive subscriptions
are increasing. It seems that much of the growth is by personal
recommendation so, if you think that Archive is good, why not take
advantage of the offer on the back of the Price List and earn yourself
an N.C.S. voucher?
5.10
Eddy Roberts
5.10
It is with great sadness that I write of the death of my father-in-law,
Eddy Roberts. After a relatively short illness, he died of cancer in
early June. It is difficult to find the right words, but I just want to
express my gratitude for all that he has done for me and my family Ö and
for Norwich Computer Services. We loved him very much and will miss him
greatly.
5.10
Many thanks for all your expressions of love and concern.
5.10
Yours, as ever,
5.10
5.10
Products Available
5.10
Å    Acorn Portable Ö The new Acorn portable computer is here! Turn to page
5 for full details.
5.10
Å    Animals Ö The latest offering in 4Mationæs set of SmArt files is
Animals which provides nine animals with various backdrops to put them
on and a set of ideas for their use. The price is ú16 +VAT from 4Mation
or ú18 through Archive.
5.10
Å    ARM3 prices down Ö CJE Micros have again dropped the price of their
ARM3 upgrade Ö this time to ú169 +VAT or ú195 through Archive. Aleph One
are maintaining their price of ú199 +VAT on the basis of their belief
that it is a technically superior product. We are making a slight
concession to CJEæs price drop and reducing the Archive price of the
Aleph One ARM3 to ú215. (The A3000 version remains at an Archive price
of ú285 including 2-way carriage.)
5.10
Å    Banner Ö Kudlian Soft have produced a RISC-OS compliant banner-maker
which uses outline fonts and RISC-OS printer drivers to create banners.
You can either print them on fanfold paper along the length of the
paper, or on page-based printers such as Deskjets or Laser Directs,
ready to fix together to make up a composite banner. The price is ú15
+VAT or ú17 through Archive.
5.10
Å    BasShrink Ö After the review in Archive 5.8, Architype have modified,
improved and enhanced their Basic program compressor and produced
BasShrink 2.14.
5.10
Å    Calligraph 600 d.p.i. laser Ö Calligraph are now selling a (true) 600
d.p.i. A3 size, 8 p.p.m. direct drive laser printer, the TQ-1200. This
is true 600 d.p.i. and, with image enhancement, can give a simulated
1200 d.p.i. (In the same way, the CC Laser Directs are really 300 d.p.i.
but with image enhancement give a simulated 600 d.p.i.) The TQ-1200 has
a 250 sheet paper cassette, can handle paper sizes from A6 to A3 and has
a 150 sheet multi-purpose feeder option which enables it to take
envelopes, transparencies, labels and also paper plates and Plazer
plates. You can also add an extra 250 sheet paper cassette for dual bin
use or for heavy network use. The output is VERY impressive. I am hoping
to do some blow-ups next month to show the difference between 300/600
d.p.i. printing and 600/1200. The price is ú4995 +VAT from Calligraph or
ú5650 through Archive. If you want to use it at full resolution, I guess
you will need a machine with at least 8M of RAM.
5.10
(Å    Carewares 17 & 18 Ö There has been a delay in the production of
the two Careware discs we mentioned last month, so this is to say that
Carewares 17 and 18 are NOT available yet.)
5.10
Å    CSVtoText Ö This application was written, initially, to solve the
problem of getting PinPoint output in CSV format and converting it into
a sensible format for putting into Impression. However, it can be used
for any such conversion from CSV to text. The price from Architype
Software is ú9 for business, secondary or tertiary education and ú5 for
home, primary, infant or junior schools. (A PD version of CSVtoText is
included on this monthæs program disc.)
5.10
Å    Eizo 9070æs Ö Yes, that does say ö9070ò. Eizo have found a number of
the very popular 16ö monitors that they discontinued in favour of the
new F550i. The rrp was ú899 +VAT (ú1056). We sold them at an Archive
discount price of ú790 inc VAT (rrpæs on monitors are never very
realistic!) and can offer these monitors at ú690. However, if you want
one, you will have to move fast Ö indeed they may all be gone by the
time this gets into print.
5.10
Å    ExcellonDrill Ö Anyone using ArcPCB and having access to an Excellon
automatic drilling machine will be pleased to hear that Silicon Vision
have produced a driver to enable you to create drill files. The price is
ú75 +VAT from Silicon Vision.
5.10
Å    Floating point co-processor Ö If you want a 387SX floating point co-
processor for the Aleph One 386 card, they are available for ú108
through Archive.
5.10
Å    Gods Ö This is an arcade game converted from the Atari by Krisalis. As
Hercules, you have to search the depths of an ancient city in search of
immortality. The game boasts 15 different weapons systems plus 20
potions and power-ups plus a host of intelligent monsters. The price is
ú25.99 from Krisalis or ú24 through Archive.
5.10
Å    Interface podules for A3000 Ö Commotion now sell two interface podules
for the A3000. The original user/analogue port podule at ú49.95 +VAT is
now joined by a user/analogue/midi port podule at ú79.95 +VAT.
5.10
Å    Nebulus Ö Another arcade game from Krisalis. This one involves
destroying giant towers that someone has built in the sea. You start off
in your mini-sub and try to demolish the towers without getting wiped
out yourself. The price is ú25.99 from Krisalis or ú24 through Archive.
5.10
Å    Ovation 1.3 Ö By the time you read this, Risc Developments should have
released an update to Ovation. This will now include mail-merge,
pamphlet printing, rotating pictures, First Word Plus importing and a
Thesaurus hotlink. The price is still ú99 +VAT or ú110 through Archive.
5.10
Å    Removable hard drives Ö There has been another drop in the price of
the removable hard drives. The 42M drives are now down to ú455 inc VAT
(cf Morleyæs 42M at ú499 +VAT) and the 84M down to ú670 inc VAT (cf
Morleyæs 84M @ ú699 +VAT). The cheapest we could find elsewhere for the
42M drives was ú449 +VAT = ú527, so we are still keeping Archiveæs
prices well below the competition.
5.10
Å    RISC-OS Turbo Driver for BJ10ex Ö This is the first in a series of new
printer drivers produced by Computer Concepts. The idea is that they use
CCæs FastText rendering technique developed for the Laser Directs and
now benefiting users of other printers. They print up to three times as
fast as the standard Acorn printer drivers. The driver for the BJ10ex is
the first of a series and provides half tone printing in up to 128 grey
levels as well as plain text printing in any font style, portrait or
landscape. The drivers come bundled with twelve Acorn outline fonts plus
the Acorn outline font manager. The software plus lead costs ú49 +VAT
(ú53 through Archive) or you can buy it with the printer for just ú249
+VAT (or ú275 through Archive).
5.10
Å    ScanLight Junior 256 Ö After a long delay due to difficulty of supply,
the ScanLight Junior 256 scanners are available again. Supplies are a
little bit limited because the demand is so high but, as of today, I can
say that they are actually öin stockò. There is also a price drop.
ScanLight 256 is now ú199 +VAT or ú225 through Archive.
5.10
Å    Toner cartridges for Telethon Ö Are you wondering what to do with
those used toner cartridges? Surely, they should be able to be re-
cycled? Well, they can and you can make some money for the ITV Telethon
fund-raising marathon. The EcoCare Group will give about ú3 to ú4 per
cartridge to charity. If you live in East Anglia, they will collect the
cartridges from you Ö just ring 0263Ö513553 to arrange collection.
Otherwise, you can send your old cartridges to us and they will collect
them from here.
5.10
Å    SPECIAL DEALS Ö One of the three Acorn distributors is closing down
and is selling off Archimedes hardware and software. For example,
Prolog-X, which sold at ú179, is available for ú25. Marconi Trackerballs
(normally ú56) are ú35. PrimeArt (was ú87) is ú25 and Numerator (was
ú80) is ú25. For a full list, see the extra sheet in the Price List.
5.10
Review software received...
5.10
We have received review copies of the following:
5.10
Aliped, Banner, !BBCLink, Control Logo (needs Longman Logo), Crystal
Rain Forest, CSVtoText, Diction, Disc Rescue, Graph-IT, ScreenTurtle,
Shareware 44, Shareware 46, Shareware 47, SmArt files in French &
German, Supermarket (English, French, German & Spanish).ááA
5.10
5.10
Government Health Warning Ö Reading this could seriously affect your
spiritual health.
5.10
At the end of last year, a close friendæs father died of cancer. During
the time of his illness, and after his death, I felt a real sense of
frustration at not being able to do anything to help. Not having been
through the experience of watching a loved one suffer and die, I could
only really guess at how she was feeling before and after his death.
5.10
However, as you will gather, we have just been (are going) through a
similar experience ourselves. We have found tremendous strength through
the love, prayers and practical support of our friends here in Norwich,
and our Archive friends, too! Your prayers too have been a great
strength to us over this difficult time Ö we donæt know how we would
have coped without all the support we have received.
5.10
The suffering we have been through has, in no way, lessened our faith.
Indeed, I just donæt know how people who donæt know Godæs love in Christ
actually get through such times! I know that it doesnæt prove that
Christianity is true just because it helps me. Never-the-less, because I
believe that Christæs claims are true, experiences like this help to
confirm the truth of the biblical claims.
5.10
öPraise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
compassion and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our
troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort
we ourselves have received from God.ò 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3
& 4.
5.10
5.10

5.10
Norwich Computer Services 96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich, NR2 2SD.
0603Ö766592 (Ö764011)
5.10
5.10

5.10
5.10
Computer Concepts
5.10
From 5.9 page 32
5.10
5.10
Computer Concepts
5.10
From 5.9 page 33
5.10
5.10
Paul Beverley
5.10
5.10
ICS
5.10
New artwork
5.10
5.10
Acornæs New Portable Computer
5.10
Paul Beverley
5.10
In mid-June, Adrian and I took a trip down to Acornæs Fulbourn Road
factory where we were able to öget our hands onò one of Acornæs new
portable computers. Iæm sure you have lots of questions about it, so
Iæll see if I can answer them. I will start with some factual informa
tion including Acornæs own spec sheet and then give some more subjective
views of what we think of the new machine and its future.
5.10
The name
5.10
The name of the new computer is the öA4ò.
5.10
The size
5.10
The size of the new computer is also A4!
5.10
Lay a sheet of A4 paper on the desk and that is the footprint of the new
A4 computer. As you can see from the pictures on this page, Acorn have
gone for a fairly conventional layout with the LCD screen (no, sorry,
itæs mono, not colour) on the underside of a flip-up lid revealing an
83-key UK PC keyboard.
5.10
The basic specification
5.10
The A4 is in no sense a cut-down machine. It runs on a 24MHz ARM3 and
has 2 or 4M of RAM running at 12MHz; RISC-OS 3 is in a 2M ROM and the
display is VGA Ö 640 ╫ 480. The hard drive is a 60M 2╜ö IDE and the
floppy drive is 2M, as per the A5000, so it will handle all the Acorn
formats plus the MS-DOS formats up to 1.44M.
5.10
In other words, in terms of processing power, this is an A5000 in a
notebook case! It even has a bigger hard drive than the A5000 Ö 60M
instead of 40M.
5.10
The price
5.10
The basic configuration (model I) with 2M and no hard drive is ú1399
+VAT (ú1644) and the model II with 4M and a 60M hard drive is ú1699 +VAT
(ú1996). The education prices are ú1099 +VAT and ú1399 +VAT respec
tively. The price includes a mouse and a mains operated battery-charger.
5.10
The weight
5.10
The A4 with 60M hard drive and including the battery pack, weighs almost
exactly 3kg.
5.10
The wait (!)
5.10
How long will you have to wait to get hold of one of these new compu
ters? Well, official Acorn sources say that they will be going into
full-scale production in September. Basically, there will be just about
a couple of hundred made over the next month or so and then the full
scale production will start in September. What it boils down to is, if
you want one, send a cheque into us a.s.a.p. and we will service orders
in strict rotation as we get stocks.
5.10
The screen
5.10
The display is produced on an LCD screen 182mm ╫ 137mm consisting of 640
╫ 480 cells. This is a so-called 9ö screen, i.e. 9ò across the diagonal,
compared with the standard Acorn 14ö monitors which are more like 13ò
across the diagonal. (The tube is 14ö diagonally but only 13ò is used
for the display.)
5.10
The standard screen mode for the A4 is mode 27, the 16 colour VGA mode.
It is possible to display other modes but the low resolution modes like
12 and 15 come out as a half-height screen which is quite difficult to
read.
5.10
The technology used for the screen is ötwin layer Formulated Twisted
Nematicò. (No, it doesnæt mean anything to me either!) What Acorn have
done is to write a special 15-grey-scale driver for the screen to get
the best effect of displaying a colour signal on a monochrome screen.
You may wonder why it is 15 and not 16 grey levels. This is explained in
a technical note at the end of this article but it is to do with the
fact that the grey scales are obtained on what is basically an on/off
matrix of pixels, by switching each pixel on and off all the time. It
leaves each pixel on for a greater or lesser proportion of the time in
order to give the effect of various shades of grey.
5.10
For those of you not familiar with LCD screens, it is worth pointing out
the limitation of this kind of display. First of all, you will find them
difficult to use where there is a high level of ambient lighting. The
display is artificially lit with fluorescent edge-lights. The brightness
of this lighting can be adjusted but, even at maximum brightness, as the
ambient light level rises, the display becomes less clearly visible
because of the lack of contrast.
5.10
The other limitation is that there is a slight time delay as the display
changes. This means that moving objects leave a track across the screen
Ö only for a fraction of a second, but it can render some software
(especially games!) unuseable on an LCD screen. The A4 has a standard
video output as well, so if your portable is to be used between, say,
two different sites and you can afford to have a conventional monitor
available at each, you can avoid the problems of having to use an LCD
screen.
5.10
To illustrate the limitation of the LCD screen, when we first sat in
front of the A4, we couldnæt find the pointer on the screen. How do you
find the pointer normally? Well, what I do is to wiggle the mouse about
and look for a moving object on the screen. If you try that on the A4,
you will never find the pointer! The only way to find it is to move it
hard over to the left of the screen and leave it stationary and look up
and down the edge of the screen until you find it. (An Acorn spokesman
said that, on the production machines, there would be a re-defined mouse
pointer which would be more easily visible.)
5.10
Connectivity
5.10
Working round the edges of the computer, on the front is an on-off
(rocker) switch and an LCD display of the battery state showing 20, 40,
60, 80 and 100% charge.
5.10
Along the right hand edge is the floppy drive and, underneath a flip-
down cover, a headphone socket, a socket for an external AT-type
keyboard (see under Comments below), a mouse socket and an RS232 serial
port. Apart from the external keyboard socket, these are functionally
identical to those on the A5000.
5.10
Along the back of the case, again hidden behind a flip-down cover, are a
standard bi-directional Centronics parallel printer port, a battery
charger input socket (9-pin D-type socket) and an external monitor
socket (15-pin D-type socket). There is also a reset switch on this back
panel.
5.10
The fourth side is where the battery pack slides out and it has a
removable cover where an Econet upgrade can be fitted. This is not the
standard Econet circuit board as used on all Acorn machines since the
Master 128. There is nowhere near enough room for a circuit board of
that size!
5.10
The only other controls are on the underside of the lid alongside the
LCD display. There are controls for the brightness and contrast of the
display Ö brightness being the strength of the side-lighting of the
screen Ö and five LEDs which are actually duplicated on the top of the
lid so that they can be seen even if the lid is down. The five LEDs are
power ON/OFF, battery state (see below), battery charger status and
activity light for the floppy and hard drives.
5.10
The battery and charger system
5.10
The battery lasts between about 2╜ and 3╜ hours depending on how much
use you make of the hard drive and how high you have the side-lighting
on the LCD screen. Charging takes about 7 hours from empty to full. You
can get a spare / replacement battery pack for ú50 +VAT. The battery
packs have a finite life, said to be around 1,000 complete discharge/
recharge cycles.
5.10
The A4 has a sophisticated system for reducing power consumption. First
of all, there are obvious things like automatically switching off the
hard drive when not in use. This can be set to happen after 1, 2 or 5
minutes of non-use. (You can also force the drive to spin down by using
a keyboard short-cut.) The LCD screen switches off after a period of
non-use and there is also a mechanical switch which operates when the
lid is closed.
5.10
The more sophisticated system is the dynamic power management. What
happens is that, as long as the computer is doing something active, the
processor and memory operate at the full 24MHz and 12MHz. However, as
soon as the computer idles Ö even for, literally, a fraction of a second
Ö the speeds are dropped to 6 and 3MHz respectively, thus saving more
power.
5.10
If you want to keep track of the amount of power remaining in the
batteries, there are several ways. We have already mentioned the LCD
display on the outside of the case showing 20% charge bands. Then there
is the LED indicator referred to above. If it is green, it means it is
on trickle charge, amber means it is on quick charge, flashing green
means you have some sort of fault, flashing red means the battery is
getting low and blinking red means that the computer has been forced to
shut down!
5.10
The computer is quite intelligent about shutting down. If the battery is
getting low, it suggests, quite politely, that you ought to shut down or
plug in the power connector. If you ignore that warning (which is
difficult because the LED flashes, the screen flashes on and off and the
loudspeaker gives a double-bleep) it will, after a few minutes, shut
down automatically with the loss of any un-saved files. Some appli
cations, however, have been set up to take this eventuality into account
by providing an auto-save facility. When you subsequently start up the
system, a dialogue box will alert you to the fact that it has previously
been shut down because of battery discharge, so you can then go and see
whether your file(s) have been saved successfully.
5.10
The mouse
5.10
The mouse supplied with the A4 is a Logitech mouse, as are the ones
supplied with current machines, but it is a new design. It is, appar
ently, a ösculptured mouseò. In other words, instead of being angular
like the existing Logitech mice (which are shaped vaguely like a segment
of cheese, come to think of it!) it is rounded to fit into the palm of
the hand.
5.10
The keyboard
5.10
If Acorn have reduced the keyboard from 103 to 83 keys, does that mean a
reduced functionality? Actually, in some ways, the functionality has
actually increased Ö but let me explain, first of all, how the missing
functions have been implemented. It all revolves round a new key that
doesnæt appear on standard Archimedes keyboard Ö the <FN> key. If you
hold this key down, many of the existing keys take on a new definition
which is printed in green on the front side of the relevant key-tops.
5.10
Numeric keypad emulation
5.10
Because there is no numeric keypad (which actually accounts for 18 of
the 20 missing keys) Acorn have provided a numeric keypad emulation.
This is done by using <FN> (like <shift> or <alt>) with keys 7, 8, 9 to
give... 7, 8, 9(!), then U, I, O for 4, 5, 6, and J, K, L for 1, 2, 3.
The keys around them are used for the keys around the matrix of numbers
on the keypad.
5.10
It is obviously going to be a nuisance to have to hold down <FN> all the
time, so you can ögo into FN modeò by holding down <FN> and pressing and
releasing <Numlock>. Repeating the process switches FN mode off again.
5.10
Mouse emulation
5.10
In case you donæt want to get the mouse out of its carrier, there is a
keyboard mouse emulation provided. Again you use <FN>, or switch into FN
mode, and then the cursor keys move the mouse pointer and <Q>, <W> and
<E> perform the functions of <select>, <menu> and <adjust>.
5.10
Extra keyboard functions
5.10
The addition of the <FN> key has enabled Acorn to provide some extra
functionality. There are hot keys: <FN-f9> inverts the video and <FN-
f10> blanks the screen and puts the hard drive to sleep. The <FN> key is
also used to make up for the lack of <f11> and <f12>. The <FN-f1>
combination is equivalent to <f11> and <FN-f2> simulates <f12>. So, for
example, you can shut down the computer with <ctrl-shift-FN-f2> which is
equivalent to <ctrl-shift-f12>.
5.10
The other way in which the keyboard is improved is via the use of the
<alt> key to give special characters including accented characters. For
example, <alt-4> gives ╝, <shift-alt-R> gives «, <alt-M> gives ╡, etc.
The accented characters are produced by using <alt> to generate the
accent followed by typing the character onto which the accent is to be
added. This includes acute, grave, circumflex, umlaut, tilde, cedilla
and the one on top of the ┼ whose name I do not know!
5.10
The case
5.10
The case is covered with grey Ésuedecoatæ epoxy resin bonded paint. This
gives a velvety look to the surface which is quite stylish. The only
clue to the contents of the box, when it is closed, is a single Acorn
logo. Once the lid is lifted, you can see the word öAcornò, another
Acorn logo and, on the opposite side, the simple legend, öA4ò Ö but
nothing to say whether it is a model I or a modeláII.
5.10
The carrying case
5.10
Acorn have produced a custom-designed carrying case for the A4 (costing
ú35 +VAT). The main compartment of the case houses the A4 and has a
separate subsection for the mouse. On the inside of the lid of this main
compartment are pockets for floppy discs, pens, etc and a large pocket
that would take papers and/or thin manuals. There is then a separate
compartment, with its own zip opening, to take the battery charger and,
possibly, a spare battery-pack. One nice touch is that the case has both
a hand-grip and a shoulder strap Ö and the shoulder strap is easily
detachable via two very firm plastic clips.
5.10
Documentation
5.10
The A4 comes with a Welcome Guide, which includes a RISC-OS tutorial, a
RISC-OSá3 User Guide, a RISC-OSá3 Applications Guide and a Portable
Guide. This öportable guideò is well named as it is both a guide to the
portable, and also it is a portable guide Ö i.e. it is only about 25cm ╫
10cm and would slip easily into a pocket or handbag. It is wiro-bound
and has sections marked with cardboard tags so that you can quickly turn
to the section you require. It does not seem to contain any information
that is not included in the A4 Welcome Guide but it represents a very
helpful extract from it for reference purposes öon the moveò.
5.10
Acorn A4 Technical Specifications
5.10

5.10
Central processing unit
5.10
ARM3, 32bit RISC processor with integrated 4kácache, clock rate 24MHz
(6MHz in automatic powersave mode)
5.10
Memory
5.10
2Mbyte OS ROM.  2Mbyte RAM (model I), 4Mbyte RAM (model II)
5.10
    Öá32bit datapath throughout, all memory directly addressable
5.10
    Öáclock rate 12MHz (3MHz in automatic powersave mode)
5.10
Floppy disc drive
5.10
3╜ö 2Mbyte (unformatted)
5.10
    Öá1.6M, 800k and 640k ADFS formats
5.10
    Öá1.44M and 720k DOS formats
5.10
Hard disc drive (model II)
5.10
2╜ö 60Mbyte formatted capacity internal hard drive (IDE interface)
5.10
    Öáauto-parking
5.10
    Öáautomatic powersaving, software configurable spindown delay
5.10
Parallel interface
5.10
Industry standard Centronics« compatible (25pin D-type female)
5.10
    Öálow level bi-directional capability via OS interface
5.10
Serial interface
5.10
Industry standard RS232 (9pin D-type male, ATápinout)
5.10
    Öá75-9600 baud via OS interface, software rate selectable
5.10
Sound system
5.10
Two channel, 7 position, 8 voice, full stereo sound system
5.10
    Öácompact internal mono speaker
5.10
    Öástereo jack socket (32W 3.5mm, for headphones or amplifier)
5.10
Display system
5.10
Twin layer Formulated Twisted Nematic (FTN) LCD display panel
5.10
    Öáfluorescent edgelighter with brightness adjustment
5.10
    Öá640 ╫ 480 (VGA) pixel resolution
5.10
    Öá182 ╫ 137mm viewing area (4:3 aspect ratio)
5.10
    Öá15 greyscale shades via Acorn patented greyscaling engine
5.10
Industry standard video interface (15pin VGA D-type female)
5.10
    ÖáVGA, VGA+ (256 colour) and SuperVGA (800 ╫ 600)
5.10
    Öáautomatic monitor detection and identification
5.10
Keyboard
5.10
Internal 83 key UK PC layout with embedded numeric keypad
5.10
    Öáfull 3mm travel, force reflex curve
5.10
External AT-type keyboard port (6pin miniDIN, PS/2 pinout)
5.10
Mouse
5.10
Three button ergonomically designed mouse, 200TPI resolution
5.10
Battery pack
5.10
1800mAh rechargeable Nickel-Cadmium, solid block construction
5.10
Mains supply / Charger unit
5.10
Separate mains supply / charger unit
5.10
    Öáquick and trickle charge rates under control of the power management
system         (around seven hours to full charge)
5.10
    Öárecharge time independent of system operation
5.10
    Öáauto-ranging mains input (100-240Vac), IEC320 inlet connector
5.10
Power management system
5.10
On-board independent microprocessor management of battery charging and
power utilisation enables battery life of between 2╜ and 4hrs, dependent
on use)
5.10
    Öáminimises power consumption, even between keystrokes
5.10
    Öáuser-configurable powersave settings for display blanking and hard
disc spindown delay
5.10
    Öáseparate LCD five segment indicator reflects battery charge state
5.10
    Öáiconbar battery monitor provides graphical display of charge status
5.10
Networking
5.10
Via optional Econet network interface module
5.10
    Öáfull Econet network filing system included in RISC-OS ROM
5.10
Operating System
5.10
(in 2Mbyte ROM plus applications on disc)
5.10
RISC-OS 3.10 second generation co-operative multi-tasking Operating
System, executing directly from     ROM
5.10
    Öáseamlessly integrated graphical WIMP user interface
5.10
    Öáalmost instant availability (no loading from disc)
5.10
    Öásecure (far harder to corrupt than disc-based operating systems)
5.10
    Öáuses substantially less RAM and disc space than disc-loaded
alternatives
5.10
    Öákey base applications, outline font manager and three font families,
integrated multi-tasking file management system and interactive help
application ù         all in ROM
5.10
    Öámultiple character sets (ISO8859 Latin1 to 4 and Greek)
5.10
    Öáadditional applications suite (pre-installed on hard disc model)
5.10
In ROM:
5.10
Task and memory manager, palette utility and Basic V language
5.10
Alarm    Öáclock and multiple alarm application
5.10
Calc    Öásimple four function desktop calculator
5.10
Chars    Öáfacilitates input of any characters from the set
5.10
Configure    Öádesktop and system configuration utility
5.10
Draw    Öáobject orientated drawing package
5.10
Edit    Öáfully featured text and Basic program editor
5.10
Help    Öáwindow based context sensitive help application
5.10
Paint    Öápixel and sprite editor
5.10
Pinboard    Öáenables objects to be Épinnedæ to the desktop
5.10
On disc:
5.10
a number of applications including:
5.10
PrintEdit    Öácreate new dot matrix printer definition files
5.10
FontPrint    Öádownloads font definition files to PostScript« printers
5.10
Printers    Öáprinter manager, supports multiple independent printers
5.10
Squash    Öáfile, application and directory compression utility
5.10
Maestro    Öácreate, edit, play and print music definition files
5.10
SciCalc    Öáfully functional desktop scientific calculator     application
5.10
ChangeFSI    Öáhigh quality image manipulation application
5.10
T1ToFont    Öáconverts Adobe« T1 font files to RISC-OS outline fonts
5.10
Manuals (included)
5.10
    Ö Comprehensive Welcome Guide (including RISC-OS tutorial)
5.10
    Ö Portable Guide (ready reference to key aspects when on the move)
5.10
    Ö RISC-OS 3 User Guide
5.10
    Ö RISC-OS 3 Applications Guide
5.10
Physical
5.10
Robust polycarbonate main unit enclosure, sub-micron copper plated with
nickel overplate inside and out; Ésuedecoatæ epoxy resin bonded paint on
external surfaces.
5.10
Computer unit: 297 ╫ 210 ╫ 53mm, weight 2.3kg (excluding battery)
5.10
Mains supply unit: 147 ╫ 74 ╫ 44mm, weight 420g (excl. 2m mains lead)
5.10
Battery pack: 140 ╫ 111 ╫ 25mm, weight 720g
5.10
Mouse:  100 ╫ 60 ╫ 30mm, weight 120g (including 1.8m lead)
5.10
Environmental
5.10
Operating: +5 to +35░C, 10 to 80% RH, up to 2,500m altitude
5.10
Non-operating: Ö10 to +60░C, 5 to 95% RH, up to 10,000m altitude
5.10
Standards Compliance
5.10
Designed, manufactured and type-tested to EN60950 (BS7002).  Manufactur
ing facility registered to BS5750 part 2.
5.10
Options
5.10
ALA67    Shoulder bag ù for ease of transporting system, manuals, charger
unit and accessories such as spare battery packs Öáú35 +VAT
5.10
ALA60    2 Mbyte RAM upgrade (i.e. model I upgrade to 4 Mbyte) Ö ú110 +VAT
5.10
ALA62    60 Mbyte internal Hard Disc upgrade Ö ú350 +VAT
5.10
ALA65    Additional battery pack Ö ú50 +VAT
5.10
ALJ22    Acorn A4 Technical Reference Manual ú65 (no VAT)
5.10
AKA70    PC Emulator (v1.8) ú99 +VAT
5.10
Comments
5.10
Looking at the information we have got so far about the A4, various
thoughts come to mind Ö here they are, as random jottings...
5.10
The opposition
5.10
I went along to the local Apple Centre to have a look at the Powerbook
series of computers Ö the direct rivals to the A4. The A4 is certainly
more powerful than the mid-range 140 series Powerbooks and is roughly
comparable with the top-end 170 series. Certainly, the screen display of
the A4 is very noticeably faster than the 170 although, having a maths
co-processor, the 170 may have the edge on computation speed.
5.10
To set the comparison in context, the Powerbook 140 with 4M RAM and a
40M drive costs ú1995 and the 170 with 4M RAM and an 80M drive is ú3150
Ö getting on for twice the price of the 4M/60M A4 at ú1699. Remember too
that 4M ram on an Apple is NOT equivalent to 4M on an Acorn machine. The
operating system on the Apple consumes a huge amount of RAM (in contrast
to Acornæs OS which is in ROM and uses RAM only for workspace) and the
Mac applications take up a lot more RAM than Acornæs applications. For
example, on a 4M Mac, I could only just fit PageMaker and MS Word with
not a lot of room to spare.
5.10
The display resolution of the Powerbooks is only 640 ╫ 400 Ö even on the
170 series Ö whereas the A4 is 640 ╫ 480. The 140 series screens seem to
be the same as the A4 in terms of the way that moving objects are rather
blurred. However, the 170æs screen uses a different type of LCD screen
which seems much more responsive and doesnæt have the same blurring
effect on moving objects.
5.10
External keyboard
5.10
What a good idea it was to provide the facility for an external AT-type
keyboard! Now anyone who wants a really top-notch keyboard can buy one
and can attach it to an A4. For high-speed secretaries used to using
high-quality keyboards, this is good news. (I wonder if this means that,
when RISC-OS 3.10 appears, we will be able to add an AT keyboard to the
A5000? The hardware is there already Ö itæs just a question of whether
we will be able to get at the RISC-OS code needed to run the external
keyboard.)
5.10
Wot! no trackerball?
5.10
Acorn have gone against the norm by choosing to provide a mouse with the
portable and not a trackerball as, for example, with the Powerbook
computers. They have a 64-key keyboard at the back of the case with a
trackerball right in the middle of the front of the case. The idea is
that, as your fingers are over the keys, your palms can rest on the
edges of the case and your thumbs are over the trackerball. I didnæt
like this arrangement as it requires a completely different technique
for operating the trackerball Ö very different from the way you use a
mouse. It certainly wouldnæt have worked well for the RISC-OS desktop
because of the use of three buttons instead of the Macæs single button.
5.10
In the circumstances, I think the choice of a mouse was a wise move. The
case is VERY tightly packed already and the addition of a trackerball
would have necessitated a bigger case. Also, it is difficult to see
where, ergonomically, you could have placed a three-button trackerball
relative to the keyboard.
5.10
If you only want to start up an application and get typing, the
keyboard-mouse simulation will be quite adequate and if you really need
to do some heavy mouse-work, all you need to do is find a space to lay
down an A4-sized book and do your mousing on the back of that Ö it forms
quite an effective mouse mat for the Logitech mice because they use
rubber balls.
5.10
All-in-all, I think it was sensible to go for keeping the mouse-addicts
happy at the risk of incurring the wrath of trackerball fans. In any
case, they can still take their trackerballs along with them and plug
them in instead of the mouse. (Does anyone know of a smaller, self-
contained trackerball than the rather bulky Marconi one?)
5.10
Connectivity issues
5.10
One possible criticism, especially when comparing with the Powerbooks,
is the lack of connection to an external hard drive. The Powerbooks have
a SCSI drive (albeit rather slower than the A4æs IDE drive!) and also
have a connector for an external SCSI drive. This makes transferring
data to and from the portable much easier than on the A4.
5.10
Acorn would argue that you can use the Econet interface for data
transfer but thatæs no better than the Powerbook which has an Appletalk
connector. Also, what about customers who have a single Archimedes of
some sort and want to use it with an A4? It isnæt going to be economical
for them to buy a complete Econet system just to transfer files from one
to the other.
5.10
What we need is some enterprising programmer to write an RS232 filing
system and sell it with an appropriate lead to link two Archimedes
computers together. At 9,600 baud you would be transferring at about 8
kbytes/second and if the file transfer had automatic compression/
decompression, this could probably be doubled. (There is no shortage of
processor speed at either end!)
5.10
The only other possibility I can think of is using the Centronics
interface, which is bi-directional. However, this would only work
between A4 and A5000 as they are the only Acorn computers that have the
bi-directional facility. I have no idea what sort of speed could be
achieved. Does anyone else know?
5.10
Stone me! Literally a couple of hours after I wrote that last section, I
was given details of Atomwideæs forth-coming öRemoteFSò. This is a
filing system that will allow two computers to access each otheræs
drives independently, from the desktop as a multi-tasking background
task. The physical link could be two modems or a direct RS232 link,
Ethernet interfaces or a direct connection via the parallel port . The
latter interface would give transfer speeds in excess of 300 kbytes/sec
i.e faster than ST506 hard drives and about the same speed as a small
SCSI hard drive.
5.10
öAh, but the A4 only has an Econet interface, not Ethernetò Ö if you
hang on, there will soon be an Ethernet interface for the A4 that runs
via the parallel printer port Ö those clever chaps at Atomwide again!
5.10
Both products are supposed to be available in the fourth quarter 1992,
i.e. they should be in good time for the A4 itself.ááThe cost of the
software plus a parallel printer cable will be ösomewhere in the region
of ú50ò.
5.10
Hardware notes
5.10
For those interested in the internal hardware of the A4, the first and
most obvious comment is that the circuit board is very compact.
Virtually all that goes on an A5000 pcb has been fitted into a space no
more than 280mm ╫ 85mm. (The A5000 keyboard measures 300mm ╫ 240mm and
the 2M to 4M upgrade is on a separate p.c.b.)
5.10
We didnæt dare take a screwdriver to the portable we were examining (one
of only two at Fulbourn Road at the time) so all we could do was to lift
off the hatch into which the Econet interface is fitted. The RAM seems
to consist of four 1 Mbyte RAM chips and the 2 Mbytes of ROM are set up
on an amazing header mechanism so that the ROM chips are actually
stacked on top of the RAM chips. There is an auxilliary ROM socket (as
on the A5000) and that contains a ROM with the battery manager utility
and a few other portable-specific modules in it.
5.10
The only other point to note is that all the components that we could
see, apart from the ROMs, were, not surprisingly, soldered directly to
the circuit board.
5.10
Software notes
5.10
It may be of interest to some of you to see the modules list for the A4.
Those in italics do not appear, as far as I can see, on the A5000.
5.10
MOS Utilities    3.10 (30 Apr 1992)
5.10
Podule Manager    1.26 (09 Dec 1991)
5.10
FileSwitch    2.08 (15 Apr 1992)
5.10
ResourceFS    0.14 (12 Mar 1992)
5.10
UK Messages    0.45 (03 Apr 1992)
5.10
MessageTrans    0.23 (30 Mar 1992)
5.10
Territory Mgr    0.13 (25 Apr 1992)
5.10
UK Territory    0.18 (30 Apr 1992)
5.10
Window Manager    3.16 (30 Apr 1992)
5.10
Desktop    2.43 (02 Apr 1992)
5.10
Task Manager    0.75 (25 Apr 1992)
5.10
!Alarm    2.37 (24 Apr 1992)
5.10
!Calc    0.52 (01 Apr 1992)
5.10
!Chars    1.13 (01 Apr 1992)
5.10
!Help    2.19 (01 Apr 1992)
5.10
Printers    0.34 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
ADFSFiler    0.61 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
ARM3 Support    1.09 (11 Dec 1991)
5.10
BBC BASIC V    1.05 (10 Apr 1992)
5.10
BASICTrans    1.00 (05 Mar 1991) English
5.10
Buffer Manager    0.22 (14 Apr 1992)
5.10
Colour Selector    1.07 (15 Apr 1992)
5.10
Debugger    1.39 (13 Apr 1992)
5.10
DeviceFS    0.26 (09 Mar 1992)
5.10
Drag A Sprite    0.03 (12 Dec 1991)
5.10
Drawing Module    1.05 (03 Mar 1992)
5.10
FileCore    2.41 (06 Apr 1992)
5.10
ADFS    2.67 (28 Apr 1992)
5.10
Filer    1.64 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
FilerSWIs    0.03 (04 Mar 1992)
5.10
Font Manager    3.07 (30 Apr 1992)
5.10
FPEmulator    2.87 (09 Dec 1991)
5.10
Free    0.21 (11 Apr 1992)
5.10
Hourglass    2.08 (27 Mar 1991)
5.10
IIC    0.12 (28 Apr 1992)
5.10
International    1.24 (22 Apr 1992)
5.10
IRQ Utils    2.50 (11 Sep 1989)
5.10
NetFiler    0.72 (03 Feb 1992)
5.10
NetStatus    2.06 (01 May 1991)
5.10
Obey    0.29 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
Palette Utility    0.45     (24 Mar
1992)
5.10
Parallel Device    0.34 (17 Mar 1992)
5.10
Printer sharer    3.18 (30 Mar 1992)
5.10
Printer driver    3.28 (31 Mar 1992) for bit image printers
5.10
PDumper Support    0.11 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
PDumperDM    0.34 (25 Apr 1992)
5.10
Intæl Keyboard    0.31 (04 Mar 1992)
5.10
Pinboard    0.50 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
PipeFS    0.13 (11 Dec 1991)
5.10
Portable    0.29 (22 Apr 1992)
5.10
RAMFSFiler    0.28 (12 Mar 1992)
5.10
ResourceFiler    0.12 (03 Feb 1992)
5.10
ROM Fonts    0.14 (01 Apr 1992)
5.10
RTCAdjust    0.03 (27 Mar 1991)
5.10
ScreenBlanker    2.15 (25 Apr 1992)
5.10
Serial Device    0.21 (06 Mar 1992)
5.10
Serial Support    0.17 (03 Feb 1992)
5.10
ShellCLI    0.25 (10 Dec 1991)
5.10
SoundDMA    1.20 (01 Mar 1992)
5.10
SoundChannels    1.27 (22 Apr 1992)
5.10
SoundScheduler    1.17 (30 Apr 1992)
5.10
SpriteExtension    0.46 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
SpriteUtils    1.09 (10 Dec 1991)
5.10
Squash    0.21 (27 Feb 1992)
5.10
SuperSample    0.07 (12 Dec 1991)
5.10
System Devices    1.25 (02 Sep 1991)
5.10
TaskWindow    0.47 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
Window Utils    2.50 (11 Sep 1989)
5.10
Filter Manager    0.08 (22 Apr 1992)
5.10
WaveSynth    1.13 (20 Mar 1992)
5.10
StringLib    1.11 (23 Mar 1992)
5.10
Percussion    1.10 (23 Mar 1992)
5.10
C Library    3.99 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
Filer_Action    0.29 (13 Mar 1992)
5.10
!Configure    1.41 (30 Apr 1992)
5.10
!Draw    0.88 (25 Apr 1992)
5.10
!Paint    1.61 (23 Apr 1992)
5.10
!Edit    1.44 (09 Apr 1992)
5.10
DOSFS    0.43 (26 Apr 1992)
5.10
BatMgr    0.07 (25 Apr 1992)
5.10
Technical note
5.10
Tim Caspell of Acorn answers two technical questions about the LCD
display.
5.10
öWhy 15 greyscales, not 16?ò
5.10
RISC-OS maps the 8 grey tones and 8 colours through VIDC into a
luminance value. Greyscaling is then achieved in hardware using a ratio
of OFF to ON time. This ratio has to be sensible and 50:50 mid-grey is a
sensible mid-point to achieve the best contrast. Accordingly, the
hardware divides the 100% ON and the middle 50% ON point into 8 shades
and then inverts to achieve the other 8 shades. Thus 50% ON, inverted,
is also 50% OFF, i.e. greyscales 7 and 8 are the same shade:
5.10
100% ON         50% ON   50% OFF       100% OFF
5.10
|                    |   |                    |
5.10
0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7 = 8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15
5.10
                      ÿÿ-
5.10
              identical mid-grey
5.10
öWhy not 32 or even 64 shades?ò
5.10
Time domain multiplexed greyscaling is a compromise between contrast
ratio and the onset of perceptible flicker or graining. It becomes
progressively harder to distinguish between adjacent shades as the
number of shades increases, but flickering of individual pixels becomes
more obvious on passive display technology as the ON time becomes
shorter relative to the OFF time at a given frame rate. The font manager
uses only 16 shades for good anti-aliased text and little is gained by
doubling the number of shades whilst flicker starts to become apparent.
5.10
Conclusion
5.10
Compared with the opposition Ö the Apple Powerbooks Ö the A4 looks
really impressive. Once again, in terms of speed (and that includes
processor speed, display speed and hard drive speed), Acornæs RISC
technology wins again. If you need high computational speed for maths-
intensive applications, the 170 series may have the edge over the A4 Ö
but it costs nearly twice as much.
5.10
My only reservation is whether there are enough people out there who
actually need (want?) a portable. Will Acorn sell enough to pay for the
development costs? If you just want a portable for remote text entry,
the Z88 represents a cheaper alternative, albeit with an inferior
keyboard. Is a powerful portable like the A4 more than just an executive
toy? (Iæd be interested to hear your views on this issue.)
5.10
Anyway, if you do want a örealò portable computer and not just a remote
text entry system, the A4 is a winner Ö it is a portable power-house!ááA
5.10
5.10
The
5.10
Acorn A4
5.10

5.10
An A5000
5.10
 ináan
5.10
A4-sized
5.10
box
5.10
5.10

5.10
keyboard
5.10
5.10

5.10
3╜ö drive
5.10
5.10

5.10
battery pack
5.10
5.10

5.10
2╜ö hard drive
5.10
5.10

5.10
main p.c.b. (280mm ╫ 85mm)
5.10
5.10
The A4æs basic layout showing how Acorn have squeezed the A5000 quart
into an A4 pot.
5.10
5.10
    Powerbook 170    Acorn A4
5.10
RAM    4M    4M
5.10
ROM    Start-up only    2M
5.10
Hard drive    80M    60M
5.10
Display    640 ╫ 400    640 ╫ 480
5.10
Keyboard    64-key    83-key
5.10
Input device    Trackerball    Mouse
5.10
Price    ú3150    ú1699
5.10
Education price    ú2362    ú1399
5.10

5.10
5.10
Powerbook
5.10
photo
5.10
5.10
A4
5.10
(reduced from page 5 picture to same size as powerbook)
5.10
5.10
A4 computer photograph with the background masked out.
5.10
Make it as big as possible without getting too close to the text.
5.10
5.10
A4 back view
5.10
arranged as you think best
5.10
5.10
A4 side view
5.10
arranged as you think best
5.10
5.10
Minerva
5.10
From 5.7 page 11
5.10
5.10
Hints and Tips
5.10
Å    RISC-OS 3 & DOS filenames Ö DOS filenames (including extensions) are,
in general, longer than the maximum length of a valid ADFS filename (10
characters). It is not always possible to copy or move DOS files from
hard disc partition or floppy discs directly to the ADFS.
5.10
The !MultiFS utility, as supplied with the PC Emulator, solves this by
allowing you to truncate the DOS filename while the translation process
takes place. Another very useful option (which I often use when copying
files from C programs) is to force !MultiFS to handle DOS extensions as
directories (hierarchical).
5.10
However, when the filetype of a DOS partition on your ADFS hard disc is
set to ÉDOSdiscæ, RISC-OS 3 will display a filer window for the
partition when you try to open the folder, while !MultiFS just ignores
it (i.e. no :C drive on the iconbar). This is all very nice but RISC-OS
3 doesnæt offer the nice name translation options mentioned above. To
enable !MultiFS to display your DOS partitions just set their filetype
to Édataæ before you start !MultiFS. Remember to use the command line
and not the filer menu, because the latter doesnæt allow you to change
the filetype of DOSdiscs. I inserted three lines for each DOS partition
in the !MultiFS !Run file to swap between ÉDOSdiscæ and Édataæ type
partitions when !MultiFS is started:
5.10
*Filer_CloseDir <PCe$Drive_X>
5.10
*SetType <PCe$Drive_X> Data
5.10
directly after setting the system variable <PCe$ Drive_X>, and
5.10
*SetType <PCe$Drive_X> DOSDisc
5.10
at the end of the !Run file (although the comment tells us not to do
so).
5.10
Unfortunately, there are some bugs in !MultiFS: When you copy to a
MultiFS filer window, you must ensure name translation is not set to
hierarchical, otherwise you will end up with wildcards (É?æ) in
filenames. When this happens, you must use DOS itself to delete the file
because RISC-OS fails to wipe those objects. Another bug appears if you
shut down your system after using !MultiFS. This results in an error
report and a task manager crash.á Paul Groot, Holland.
5.10
Å    Sprite does not exist error Ö In answer to last monthæs query in the
Help! section, the ÉSprite does not existæ error only occurs with the
old version of the printer drivers. It can be solved by simply using a
later version of the printer driver e.g. v2.44 or later (as per
Shareware Disc 17).
5.10
Progammers take note: The error is cause by programs that print sprites
using their names and not their pointers.
5.10
Many thanks to all those who called Ö too numerous to mention!
5.10
Å    High resolution PostScript? When printing sprites to !PrinterPS, the
resulting output may be lower quality than, for example, a 600 dpi
LaserDirect (using !ShowPage), even when printing at 300 dpi. A solution
is to change the configuration file of !PrinterPS to make it think the
resolution is higher e.g. change the Épxresæ and Épyresæ parameters to
600.á J Thorn, Cardiff.
5.10
Å    Problem with Font$Path Ö I recently experienced a problem with
Impression 2.16 that took a long time to solve. The problem manifests
itself by Impression, on starting, reporting an error ÉNot Foundæ. If
you select OK to continue, the following error is reported ÉIllegal
window handleæ and at this point you have to quit, because continuing
results in the second error message. After about two hours of trying to
find the problem Ö as the error messages are not particularly helpful Ö
I discovered that the problem lay with Font$Path.
5.10
I have two !Fonts directory, one with a small number of outline fonts
and one with a large number. Also, my second font directory pulls in the
fonts in my first directory by use of the Font$Path variable. I had
moved the locations of these directories from an Apps folder to the root
folder of my hard disc and this was causing the problems. The ÉNot
Foundæ error is caused by Impression not finding the first directory in
the Font$Path and the second error is caused by the fact that a Font
Menu canæt be created, as the specified directory does not exist.
Indeed, most applications that support outline fonts will also give
similar error messages.
5.10
I have written a small program (on this monthæs program disc) that will
test the validity of Font$Path and a call to this program should be
placed as the last line in any !Fonts.!Run file. A copy of FontTest will
need to be copied into all !Fonts directories i.e.
5.10
| !Run file for !Fonts (version 0.11, 10-May-89)
5.10
|
5.10
Iconsprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
5.10
|
5.10
| Kill newer versions of Font Manager
5.10
|
5.10
RMKill FontManager
5.10
RMKill SuperSample
5.10
|
5.10
RMEnsure FontManager 2.42 RMLoad <Obey$Dir>.Fonts
5.10
RMEnsure SuperSample 0.04 RMLoad <Obey$Dir>.Super
5.10
|
5.10
SetMacro Font$Path adfs::
5.10
HardDisc.$.!Fonts., <Font$Prefix>.
5.10
Set Font$Prefix <Obey$Dir>
5.10
|
5.10
<Obey$Dir>.FontTest
5.10
The program firstly checks that Font$Path exists and then reads the
environment variable and checks its size. The length of this variable
has to be greater than zero for it to point to a valid !Fonts directory.
5.10
It then checks that every reference in Font$Path points to a valid
directory. This is done by an OS_File call (line 680) which will return
2 if the filename given is a directory. If the file reference does not
exist, an error will be generated and the Fonts directory !Run file
needs to be modified.
5.10
I have included an example of the problem on the program disc in the
ÉExampleæ directory. If you click on !Fonts2 an error will be generated
as the Font$Path contains a reference to a file !Fonts3 (not a direc
tory). Andrew Ferguson, London.
5.10
Å    ArcFS and sticky backdrops Ö I have a backdrop application on my
machine with all the sprites for the various applications held in an
archive in order to save disc space. In order that the sprites can be
seen, in theory they should be de-archived first. Thanks to my son,
Neil, I have the following set of ArcFS commands in the !Run file of my
!Boot application on the hard disc.
5.10
RMEnsure ArcFS 0 RMLoad System: Modules.ArcFSMod
5.10
RMEnsure ArcFS 0 Error I cannot find the module
5.10
OpenArchive <Boot$Dir>.SpriteLib Sprites
5.10
IconSprites ArcFS#Sprites:$. !Sprites
5.10
CloseArchive Sprites
5.10
C Walker, Wymondham.
5.10
Å    Elite Commanders Ö On this monthæs program disc, there is a program
which allows you to edit Elite commander files. There are also three
commander files with missions to accomplish. S Edwards, StourbridgeááA
5.10
5.10
Help!!!!
5.10
Å    386 podule printing?  Has anyone else had problems printing from the
Aleph One 386 PC card?  C E Watt Ltd, Sunbury-on-Thames.
5.10
Å    Archway Ö Is there anyone out there who could offer help to Archway
users? Simtron seem unable to help Ö they are too busy developing the
RISC-OS 3 compatible version to be able to help users of existing
versions, it seems. Would anyone be interested in forming an Archway
Usersæ Group? If so, please make contact via the Archive office and we
will pass names and addresses on to interested parties so that you can
organise yourselves. Perhaps someone could do an Archway article or
series of articles Ö a sort of öArchLineò or whatever.
5.10
Å    Basic V rounding errors?  Does anyone have a program, perhaps in
assembler, which avoids the rounding errors caused by the Basic V STR$
command?  Contact E Hollox, 78 Grove Lane, Holt, Norfolk  NR25 6ED.
5.10
Å    Fonts Ö Does any one know of any good screen fonts and/or outline
fonts which can be licensed at a reasonable price, or is there an artist
out there willing to design some?  Contact Peter at Storm Educational
Software, Coachmanæs Quarteræs, Digby Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3NN
(0935Ö817699).
5.10
Å    PC link-up Ö Has anyone successfully linked up an Archimedes (A5000 in
particular) to (dare I say it?) an Amstrad PC? I want to be able to
transfer files directly using the LinkMaster system under the PC
emulator.á B.áB.áWarren, Lymington.
5.10
Å    Science teachersæ Shareware Ö If you have any science programs or
support materials, please send them to Oliver Linton, Greenacres,
Quatford, Bridgnorth, Shropshire  WV14 6QG. It could be a worthwhile
investment. (See Archive 5.7 p53 for more details.)
5.10
Å    Using !FontEd Ö When using !FontEd to set up a completely new font,
does any one know how to set up the corresponding IntMetrics file?  ú10
sent to charity for the first reasonable explanation!  Contact Ronald
Alpiar, 84 Dudsbury Road, West Parley, Dorset  BH22 8RG or telephone
0202Ö575234.ááA
5.10
5.10
Colton
5.10
From 5.9 page 28
5.10
5.10
Comment Column
5.10
Å    Archway support Ö Am I the only one having problems with Archway? Iæm
not saying that the program is useless Ö quite the contrary. Itæs just
that when I do have problems and try to ring Simtron to get some answers
to my problems, all I ever get is an ansaphone. Has anyone managed to
get any software support from Simtron? Is there an Archway usersæ group?
Could someone form one? (Iæd like to, but havenæt got the time.)á Tim
Edwards, Northampton.
5.10
Timæs comments are, sadly, fairly typical. We cannot even help people
who subscribe to our Technical Help Service as we donæt use Archway
ourselves and we cannot find anyone who does use it and who would be
able to field questions. Can anyone help? Ed.
5.10
Å    Eriksson/Brightman speed comparisons (See Archive 5.9 p29) Ö There is
a need to be specific about the hardware if these things are to be of
any use. The article compared an Intel 486 with the A540. Was that a 25,
33 or 50MHz 486? It makes a world of difference. You also tested a 486
ö+ácoprocessorò. The standard 486DX has the maths coprocessor built in,
so what does this mean? Maybe that you werenæt using a DX but the cut
down 486SX which lacks the coprocessor and may be clocked as slow as
16MHz? No, Acorn machines feature secondary cache but so do most high
end PCs. It can easily make a 50% difference on CPU/memory benchmarks.
Was there any and if so how much? On PCs, hard disc and screen perfor
mance have got little to do with CPU power Ö it has much more to do with
bus architecture, speed and bandwidth, access time, hardware disc
cacheing and so on. Saying that the machine is a 486 conveys nothing on
these matters. As it is, thereæs comfortably a boiled-down performance
differential of 400% between the extreme possibilities for the machine
you were matching with the A540.
5.10
Brightman, of course, is right in his point that interpreter-based
benchmarks tell you next to nothing about the underlying hardware unless
you can run the same interpreter on all the target machines. That was no
problem for the PCW benchmarks, since they were always testing PCs using
GW Basic, but with Archimedes versus other architectures, youæve got no
common language implementation, even when youæve got a common language.
The idea, for instance, that an ARM3 is intrinsically 5 times faster at
integer maths than any i486 would be fantasy, although thatæs what your
first test table would suggest.
5.10
Sadly, however, Lawrence is too credulous when it comes to using diverse
compilers to pace diverse machines. His own C benchmarks have the
striking feature that on all the tests which appear to reflect CPU/
memory function (i.e. the first four), the 25MHz ARM3 comes in slower
than the cached 33MHz 386, while all those which reflect peripheral
performance, or floating point emulation, make the ARM3 substantially
faster. Five years ago, by common consent, the 8MHz ARM2 was faster than
the 25MHz 386, so it is difficult to believe that trebling the clock and
putting 4K of primary cache on the processor have achieved so very
little.
5.10
In fact, the Archimedes lack-lustre showing on CPU/memory function
reflects the relative merits of the two C compilers and not the
capabilities of the hardware. Dhrystone is the key metric of CPU/memory
performance. (Ackermann, Int Math and Sieve are frivolities by compari
son.) Here we have a rating of 10,204 for the cached 386 and a mere
8,620 for the ARM3. The 386 figure was doubtless delivered by a rather
good American 80x86 C/C++ compiler Ö the competition among them is
savage and has bred quality. The ARM3 figure was obtained, I suggest,
with the Beebug C Development System, about which one can only say that
it is rather inexpensive. For preference, I use the Acorn C compiler and
with it I get different results. A vintage 1988 A310 with an ARM3
upgrade, but still of course running the old 8MHz memory bus, tops
15,400 Dhrystones/sec in mode 12, courtesy of Acorn C Release 3 or 4. In
mode 1, it beats 16,100 (exact numbers varying slightly from run to
run). An A5000 with the new 12MHz memory system rates above 18,200 in
mode 12. Turning off all the default compiler optimisations (which
incidentally is explicitly NOT demanded by the Dhrystone spec) makes
precious little difference to this result. To get down around Lawrenceæs
number I have got to disable the ARM3 cache.
5.10
We cannot meaningfully (never mind effectively) isolate relative
processor performance from the efficiency of language implementations.
The only alternative to talking language-based benchmarks is to talk
MIPs, and MIPs arenæt portable: one ARM MIPs is not the same quantity of
anything as one Intel 286 MIP or one IBM 3090 MIP. This does not mean
that the goal of making objective comparisons across diverse architec
tures is hopelessly compromised but it does mean that comparisons have
to absorb the language variable. Adopt a stable and searching benchmark
like Dhrystone (for integer), one with goals it can defend against a
specially optimised compiler; then it is reasonable to say that a
machine is as fast as the best compilers can drive it. On that basis,
the A5000 would be around 80% faster in CPU/memory function than a very
fast 386. That is technically credible. For further context, the Compaq
Deskpro 486/25 rated around 19,000 Dhrystones/sec in the Byte Benchmarks
(although any 486DX will walk away from the ARM3 at floating point
maths, thanks to the integrated FPU).
5.10
Exercises such as Lawrenceæs, need to employ language implementations
which at least are not materially worse than the best, and the language
variable needs to appear in the picture. To be sure, hardly any
Archimedes owners will be any the wiser for knowing which compilers
produced the figures used to compare it with a 386, but letæs face it,
the game of inter-architecture metrics Ö irresistible as it is to
enthusiasts in all camps Ö just does not yield any useful information
that the technically innocent reader can understand without a lot of
help.á Mike Kinghan, Oxford
5.10
Å    MIDI Ö Iæve often wondered about the actual size of the Acorn market.
It would be interesting to know just how many copies (of various
software titles) have actually been sold (registered?!). I would
particularly like to know just what level of interest there is in MIDI,
in Archimedes circles, e.g. how many copies of Inspiration, Studio 24+,
Rhapsody, etc are actually in use.
5.10
MIDI is very well supported on the Mac/ST/PC and, to a lesser extent, on
the Amiga but the Archimedes just doesnæt exist in the eyes of the major
MIDI software producers. One of these, a German company (Steinberg
Research) has ported its world-famous ÉCubaseæ sequencer from the ST to
the Mac and now also the PC, so itæs not a case of these software houses
dealing with just one brand of computer. With the Archimedesæ apparent
popularity in Europe, I find it surprising that Steinberg (at least)
have not ventured onto the Archimedes.
5.10
Most of the companies which support the Mac/PC are based in America,
where Macs/PCs are cheaper than Archimedes are here, so theyæve no
reason to write for the Archimedes (or to even consider it). Iæve harped
on about this subject before but the level of my frustration grows as
time passes. I bought an A310 in March 1988, upgraded to an A410/1 and I
now have an A5000 (i.e. I like Archimedes). However, this may well be my
last Archimedes machine. MIDI is failing to happen on the Archimedes
whilst, on the Mac, the applications are getting better all the time
(some quite astounding, though at a price). Iæd prefer to stay with
Archimedes, as I share Paul Beverleyæs opinion that the Archimedes is
better than the Mac in terms of its firmware, price and useability. (The
smaller Mac Quadra costs about ú5,500 and thatæs without a hard disc or
monitor!) A number of MIDI sequencers on Mac, PC and ST platforms can
now operate alongside a 16 bit A-D-A card providing 2 or 4 channels of
CD-quality digital audio recording at the same time as MIDI data
recording and playback.
5.10
Paul has done more than his fair share in terms of promoting DTP on the
Archimedes (with the help of a really strong product like Impression).
To effectively promote MIDI on the Archimedes, a sequencer of the same
calibre as Impression is needed. Pandoraæs Inspiration showed a lot of
promise and was definitely a move in the right direction, though the
support and development has not been forthcoming Ö a great shame, in my
view. EMRæs Studio 24+ deserves a mention, though it is targeted mainly
at the education sector, which is EMRæs forte.
5.10
The MIDI standard itself has developed since its inception in 1983. In
particular, ÉGeneral MIDIæ proposes a standard whereby each MIDI voice
change message will select a voice of a predetermined type (string,
piano, flute, etc) irrespective of the manufacturer of the synthesizer
device. This is aimed squarely at multi-media applications where a tune
could be sure of having the piano parts played by a piano and flute
parts by a flute whether using a Roland, Yamaha, Korg or whatever
synthesizer (provided it sports the ÉGeneral MIDIæ logo). If multi-media
is to take off on the Archimedes (as it hopefully will) the state of
MIDI will have to improve, if weære not to lose out to the Macs and PCs
in this new race. MIDI is a fascinating marriage of music and computers,
and it can be very satisfying to produce Éworks of artæ which can sound
just as professional as many of the pieces youæll hear on the radio.
David Lenthall, Walworth, London.
5.10
Å    PD TeX Ö The JANET address we gave last month (page 7) for obtaining
the public domain TeX program was, apparently, wrong. Instead of:
5.10
[e-mail]
5.10
it should have been:
5.10
[e-mail]
5.10
Sorry if we caused any confusion, but we had no way of checking whether
the information we were sent was correct. Ed.
5.10
Å    Power Search Ö Part 3 Ö In Michael Holderæs article last month there
was a typographical error caused by pasting the text in and out of
Impression. On page 57, in Pattern Program 1, the first line should have
been
5.10
ö{òheadingö Off}
5.10
and not
5.10
ö{{ Style òHeadingö Off}.
5.10
It was the curly brackets that confused Impression! Sorry about that.
Ed.
5.10
Å    Software support Ö (Dave Clare writes...) I am writing in connection
with the Pipeline Column (Archive 5.8 p17 ff) which I consider to be
grossly misleading, incorrect and unprofessional.
5.10
On page 18, Gerald Fitton states that ArcWriter, Graphic Writer and
Acorn DTP are no longer supported by the writers. I cannot speak for the
others but for Graphic Writer this is totally untrue. In fact, we issued
a new release only last week to deal with its use on RISC-OS 3. Had your
reporter checked his facts with us then he would have known this.
5.10
As a reputable software house, I am most annoyed at Gerald Fittonæs
implications of lack of support. It may be uneconomical for us to
support older packages but this is a service that we provide to our
customers as a matter of good business practice. In fact, we even
support all of our BBC products right back to the first release 10 years
ago.
5.10
On page 19, Gerald Fitton says öwithout revenue from new sales, Schema
will not be supported by the writers for long. I believe that Schema 2
will not be developed simply because revenue has or will Édry up before
then.ö Where does Mr. Fitton get his information from? He certainly does
not have access to our sales figures, so how can he make such ridiculous
statements? Nor does he have access to our plans for software develop
ment of Schema or any other product.
5.10
I am not prepared to say, at this stage, what our plans are for future
products but I can say that what Mr. Fitton is saying is total hogwash.
His comments about our products and others are not based on knowledge
but on speculation and his comments are dangerous and harmful to our
industry in general and to Clares in particular. I am amazed that you
chose to print such an article in Archive.
5.10
Most of the software houses in the Acorn world offer backup on their
products. I have always been satisfied when contacting other software
houses as a user. It is no fluke that most of the top Archimedes
suppliers were also supplying software for the BBC all those years ago.
5.10
I trust that you will make the position of Clares clear to your readers
and I am sure that most of the other software houses will be in
agreement and offer similar service to their customers. If they donæt
then the customer has the ultimate sanction of not purchasing any more
products from that company.  Dave Clare, Clares Micro Supplies.
5.10
Gerald Fitton replies... I am grateful to Dave Clare for having written
to Archive about my May 1992 article. Iæm not sure who originated the
saying öThere is no bad publicityò but I first heard it said by
President De Gaulle. Letæs hope that both Daveæs company and my PipeLine
Column will benefit from an airing of our views but letæs also hope that
readers of Archive will have revealed to them a greater truth than
either Dave or I could bring to them on our own.
5.10
Dave considers my article ögrossly misleading, incorrect and
unprofessionalò. Let me start with the easy bit. We all make mistakes
and for my errors I sincerely apologise.
5.10
One advantage for the readers of a magazine such as Archive is that,
when I make a mistake there is always someone out there to tell me about
it; the subject is aired and the readers benefit. For example, I had no
idea that Graphic Writer had been upgraded to run under RISC-OSá3 and
(although it might be a risky surmise on my part inviting further
criticism of my remarks) I suspect that many Archive readers have now
had this brought to their attention for the first time. (Daveæs letter
was the first time I heard about the Graphic Writer upgrade and we still
(on 22nd June) have not had a press release about it. Ed) I look forward
to a review appearing in Archive. Making mistakes that can be put right
is called Égaining experienceæ.
5.10
Now for something which was harder for me to take Ö ömisleadingò. Well,
I hope not. Perhaps some of my words failed to express what I meant as
clearly as I believed they had Ö so letæs try again. In the world of
Acorn products there are very few (if any) disreputable software houses.
Certainly, it was not my intention to imply that any of the companies
whose products I mentioned were in any way disreputable. In particular,
Clares have a very good reputation for good products and good product
support. The point which I was attempting to make was that, however
honourable the supplier, if the company fails to generate new revenue
from profitable products, it will be unable to continue its support for
öolder packagesò that ömay be uneconomicalò (I quote from Daveæs
letter). It is fortunate for users of Clares öolder packagesò that
Clares has Énewæ profitable products which ensure the continued
existence of that support.
5.10
As an aside, another of my points was that support for PipeDreamá3 (such
as a telephone help line at Colton Software) does not necessarily mean
further development of PipeDreamá3. There are products that I, and Iæm
sure many Archive readers, have bought which were produced by honest
suppliers (whose names are now history) and for which current support is
no longer obtainable not because of any wish to cheat the customer but
because those companies no longer exist.
5.10
What I was trying to get across was that part of the money you pay for
an upgrade from PipeDreamá3 to PipeDreamá4 is paid as an expression of
your faith in continuing user support for both PipeDreamá3 and
PipeDreamá4 from Colton Software. My (only partly) substantiated view is
that when it is explained to potential users, they would rather pay a
bit more for a product which they believe will get continuing support
into the future than they would pay less for a product which they
believe will not Élastæ as long.
5.10
Finally, the part that hurts Ö unprofessional. Well, I suppose in the
sense that all contributors to Archive give their services freely, I am
truly an Amateur. However, Iæm sure that that is not what Dave means.
Let me take the proverbial Bull by its proverbial Horns!
5.10
Schema is a direct rival to PipeDream and I am well and truly biased in
favour of PipeDream. Let me be completely unprofessional and say that it
is my unsubstantiated belief that most readers of my PipeLine column
will accept that I am totally biased in favour of PipeDream. What I
expect is that they will take into account my irrational bias when
reading my comments about the future of Schema. I am sure that this
exchange (Daveæs letter and my reply) will give readers of Archive
something to think about. In particular, Iæm sure that many more of
those people who have not yet bought a spreadsheet will have a good look
at Schema and treat all my remarks about it with well deserved (and even
invited) scepticism.
5.10
To underline my total bias and lack of professionalism, let me get one
last comment in about PipeDream versus Schema. What Schema could do with
is a Schema-Line in Archive Ö come to think of it, wasnæt one proposed
in a readeræs letter to Archive a couple of monthæs ago? (James Buckley
tried to start something in February Archive 5.3 p27 but there was
little or no response. Another mention in Archive 5.5 p14 brought little
response either. Ed)
5.10
In conclusion, let me repeat my thanks to Dave for airing his views. It
is such exchanges of diverse views which leads to greater truth and I
welcome such opportunities; maybe Dave does too (see De Gaulleæs
remark). My intention was to be a little controversial, even biased but
not malicious. I intended to lead readers to an understanding of the
life cycles of different types of products and services Ö I hope I
succeeded Ö but Iæm sure weæll both find out soon after our letters are
published!
5.10
It was not my intention to upset Dave (or anyone else) and, to the
extent that I have done so, I am truly sorry. Gerald Fitton, Abacus
Training.
5.10
Å    Whither Acorn? etc Ö I accept regretfully that we shall have to wait
for the önew machineò before we get 3╫8 bit colour. You ask why we want
it. Certainly I cannot use the colours effectively (I am colour-blind!),
but I would like to be able to render greys at more than 16 levels
without fudges and dithers. I have a colleague who really needs this for
his work on images of the eye. I also suspect that we shall öneedò it
when we have it! How often does any Archimedes owner sit down first at
their old model B? I could even write this letter with a pen Ö but you
would not be able to read it!
5.10
Frustrating as it is to have to wait, I think that Acorn users are in
better shape than their DOS (or Mac) counterparts. We have a 32-bit
machine which has been largely stable in its hardware since its
introduction and which has an operating system about four years old
which gives very full downward compatibility and still beats the
opposition. The opposition have a constantly-evolving set of processors
which have been 32-bit for a while, but whose programs and operating
systems are largely written down to earlier standards and which benefit
from the modern chips largely by their raw speed, rather than their
internal sophistication (complexity?). They still have no competitive
operating system, not Windows, nor OS/2 nor System 7.
5.10
We should also be sensitive to some inevitable facts and remember what
has really happened. The bigger the change in complexity of systems, the
longer it takes to make full use of them. The step from 8-bit to 32-bit
processors was a very large one and, as I suggest above, the process of
digestion is still incomplete in other computing circles. It has been
quite slow in the Acorn world also. Arthur was a stop-gap operating
system which made the ARM chip set do everything a Master could do
(ADFS, etc) and supported windows. We loved to write little graphics
programs and to wonder at the speed of it all, but we word-processed
under the 6502 emulator using View or Interword. Then we got Arc-Writer
for free and wished we hadnæt, and a discount on First Word Plus.
PipeDream 2 competed with Logistix and various other PC öportsò did
their jobs and the delete key did not and the backspace arrow did.
Euclid was, if I remember rightly, the first program to use the WIMP at
all seriously.
5.10
RISC-OS 2 was a huge improvement and gave us a usable form of multi-
tasking. RISC-OS 3 offers a little more, but packs in some applications
and tidies up some loose ends and supplies a few wishes. We have some
outstanding programs at good prices and are still getting major new
applications: Art-Works, for example. It is only two and half years
since Impression became available and it has been stable and widely used
for only about 18 months. Most users are still finding ways to get the
best from it, and will be for some years to come. Good, powerful
programs take time to write even if their authors are very clever and
hard-working. They also take time to use to advantage and although the
fun of learning a new package and doing unheard-of things with it
diminishes, the usefulness increases, albeit more slowly. The machine we
have is a little less exciting than it was a couple of years ago and we
still need some really good software, especially a database manager of
true quality but it is only less exciting because we are used to it. I,
for one, look forward to affording a personal direct-drive laser printer
and some more software.
5.10
If the next or next-but-one machine is halfway to a supercomputer, we
shall still be hoping to run Impression and Art-Works on it: faster and
prettier, by all means, but we shall not be expecting a newspaper page
layout program or virtual reality games on release day. I hope it is a
sort of supercomputer, with facilities for an ARM for each application,
fancy threaded multi-tasking and multi-processor task-sharing for the
hard jobs, but if it is, the beastæs life will be long because no-one is
about to put that sort of power into your spectacle frames with a head-
up display so that you can compute as you walk along the pavement or
produce the Starship Enterpriseæs computer for you to chat to.
5.10
Five years from model B to Archimedes was technologically reasonable but
the finances collapsed and threatened the project. Seven years from
Archimedes to whatever is next is reasonable too, provided that next is
really quite a big change. It is good news that there have been no
horrible öflopsò in between. (Remember the B+ and the Master compact, to
say nothing of the Acorn Business Machine?) Certainly, it would have
been nice if A5000 had had a new VIDC, but it just does all the old
things a bit better and for a more reasonable price. It is the Master to
the A310æs BBC B. It and the portable should keep Acorn afloat until the
next big step. Let us hope it will be as amazing as were the model B and
the A310 in their day. Perhaps we shall have to be satisfied running
öportsò from a Cray until the real stuff arrives in five or eight
years!á Mike Hobart, Cambridge.ááA
5.10
5.10
PipeLine
5.10
Gerald Fitton
5.10
This month I want to concentrate on printing from PipeDream since, over
the last two years, it has resulted in more correspondence than any
other single topic. First, though, here are a few other points.
5.10
Charts
5.10
If you can produce a good chart with PD 4, you can win a prize from
Colton Software. The figure called Humber Bridge has been created that
way; it looks even better in colour. The file of data producing it is on
the Archive monthly disc.
5.10
Labels
5.10
The current version of PDá4 is version 4.13. Send both your program and
examples disc to Colton Software for a free upgrade. In the Labels
directory of the Archive monthly disc you will find a file called
[labelsheet] which was inadvertently omitted from early copies of PDá4.
5.10
Options
5.10
Peter Blenkinsop has sent me a letter which I have included on the
Archive monthly disc. It describes an application which keeps a record
of the choices that students have made for their option subjects and
generates lists from the data.
5.10
Future support for the Archimedes
5.10
Have I stirred up a hornetæs nest? Your views on the future of the
Archimedes and Acorn are certainly strongly polarised. You believe one
attractive feature of the world of the PC is that there is ölots of
software and hardware availableò but you also believe that, with a few
notable exceptions, when it comes to specialised packages (e.g. DTP or
spreadsheets) the software available for the Archimedes outclasses
software for the PC in performance and often in price. Most of you, but
not all, believe that the Desktop compares favourably with Windows 3.1
(and equalled by the Mac). With the exception of the Archimedes computer
itself, you seem less sure about hardware (such as scanners), particu
larly if you are interested in colour. The ARMá3 hardware upgrade and
the RISC-OSá3 operating system receive unstinted praise, ARMá3 more than
RISC-OSá3 but that might reflect their relative availability rather than
their value.
5.10
However, I am sure I detect an undercurrent of apprehension about future
support for Archimedes users. The basic concept of the Archimedes (a 32
bit reduced instruction set computer with up to 32M of RAM, É64 coloursæ
and the potential for Émulti-taskingæ) is now as old as Acornæs original
BBC was when the Archimedes was launched. What is the next revolution?
Is it parallel processing distributed amongst many machines or
ARMáchips? Is it multi-media (CD-ROMs full of data)? Will you want to
buy it? What would you use it for if you bought it? One thing all of you
are most positive about is that, unless you can Éexportæ your personal
data files to packages (maybe different ones from the ones you use now)
which run on the next generation of machines, you wonæt buy one!
5.10
What has this to do with PipeDream?
5.10
If you own PipeDream then I think that you can be more confident about
the exportability of your data files than with most other Archimedes
packages. Why? The track record of Colton Software starts with PDá1.
That first version of PipeDream was called View Professional and ran on
a BBC computer. With a minimum of modification, all data files created
in View Professional will still load and run in Écurrentæ versions of
PipeDream.
5.10
I believe that, if Acorn develop a Socrates (philosophical), Newton
(mathematical), Gaussian (probabilistic) or even a Cantor (infinite
arithmetic) machine, Colton Software will be there with their
ÉSmokeRingæ or ÉMirageæ package. Furthermore, I am sure that you will be
able to Éexportæ to Acornæs newest machines the personal accounts
application which you first tinkered with using View Professional,
enlarged into a useful spreadsheet with PDá2, made into a multi document
application when you bought PD 3 and then later added easy to read
charts and custom function analysis with PD 4.
5.10
Printing from PipeDream
5.10
Enough of these visions of the future. Back to printing in the present.
What happens when you print from PipeDream depends on whether you have
selected printing to be öParallelò or öRISC-OSò. You select which form
of printing you want from the dialogue box which pops up when you hold
down the <Ctrl> key and tap <P> (upper or lower case) and then <D>
(usually referred to as <Ctrl-PD>).
5.10
PipeDream printer driver printing
5.10
If, when you execute <Ctrl-PD>, the first dialogue box reads öParallelò,
this form of printing is that referred to in the PipeDream user or
reference guide as öPipeDream printer driver printingò. You have to use
a suitable PipeDream printer driver, the name of which is either typed
into (PD 3) or is an option selected from (PD 4) the second dialogue
box. Although it is possible for you to start with a blank sheet and
define the characteristics of your PipeDream printer driver (from within
PipeDream) it is almost certain that you will find that one of those
supplied with PipeDream (or made available by PipeLine contributors)
will suit your printer. For example, most dot matrix printers use the
Epson codes, so you can use the FX80 printer driver for all of those.
Another printer driver supplied suits daisy wheel printers such as the
Juki and yet another the Hewlett Packard range (LaserJet, DeskJet, etc).
You will find one of the printer drivers supplied with PipeDream a good
starting point for developing your own if you feel you must.
5.10
One important thing which you must understand about using PipeDream
printer drivers is that PipeDream does not receive any information from
the printer. In particular, it does not receive information about the
width occupied by a printed character and so it is more than a little
difficult to reproduce on the screen character widths used by a printer
printing proportionally-spaced text. I am often asked how to generate
fully justified proportionally spaced printing using a PipeDream printer
driver. The quick answer is, öWith very great difficulty and very
unreliable resultsò. My strong advice to you about PipeDream printer
driver printing is that you use it only for evenly spaced (ie mono
spaced) printing. Fonts such as Courier, Pica and Elite (found on
printers) are monospaced.
5.10
I suggest that, if you are going to print using PipeDream printer
drivers, you should use only the System font for the screen display. If
you do this, you will find that, in mode 12, a PipeDream screen
(including the borders) will accept a page width of 72 characters
without losing anything off the right hand edge of the screen. If you
use condensed printing, you might find a mode 16 screen useful.
5.10
So, you might ask, öIf you canæt use all the clever features provided by
the more sophisticated printers then what are the advantages of
PipeDream printer driver printing?ò The answer is that it is fast. This
is because only one 8 bit ASCII code is sent to the printer for each
letter printed. Typically, a page of A4 requires about 3,000 characters
to be sent to the printer and this takes seconds. The speed of printing
is limited by the printer, rather than the speed of data transfer, and
printing takes place at about a line of text per second.
5.10
The major disadvantage of PipeDream printer driver printing is that you
cannot print any graphics (draw files, sprites or charts) and this is
something that, with increasing frequency, many of you now want to do.
5.10
RISC-OS printing
5.10
RISC-OS printing does not use any of the text features of the printer.
In fact, each printed letter is created out of a thousand or more small
dots. Typically, there are about 300 dots per inch both across and down
the page. Some printers produce sharper outlines than others, not
because of the so called Éresolutionæ (measured in dpi, the number of
dots per inch) but because of the diameter of the dot. For example, it
is possible using an Epson FX80, which uses 8 pins, to print at a
resolution of over 200 dpi but the effect is generally Éblurredæ because
the dot diameter is substantially larger than a 200th of an inch. The 24
pin printers are much better at the same resolution because the dots
have a smaller diameter. Better still are the bubble and ink jet
printers because the dot diameter is even smaller. Laser printers have a
dot diameter not much larger than a 300th of an inch, so printing at 300
dpi produces a Écrispæ outline.
5.10
A page of A4 is about 8 inches by 11 inches and typically each square
inch will contain 300 by 300 (= 90,000) dots. I will save you the
arithmetic; this is about 8 million dots per page. When RISC-OS
printing, not only do these 8M bits have to be sent to the printer in 8
bit bytes but also the values of the 1 million bytes have to be computed
by the Archimedes! A million bytes for a RISC-OS printed A4 page is
about 300 times greater than the 3000 bytes required for PipeDream
printer driver printing. No wonder it takes ten minutes or more to RISC-
OS print an A4 page.
5.10
Generally, what frustrates you is not so much the actual time it takes
to RISC-OS print but the fact that printing is not multi-tasking. By the
way, even in RISC-OSá3, printing from most applications, including
Impression and PipeDream, is still not multi-tasking. Well, as we shall
see, something can be done about that but first a bit more about the
support that PipeDream needs if you are to use RISC-OS printing.
5.10
Fancy fonts
5.10
There are two (some would say three) types of fancy fonts available for
the Archimedes. If you have RISC-OS 2, resident within the ROM chips, is
a Ébit-mapped font manageræ together with some typefaces (Iæm not sure
how many) including Trinity and Homerton. This is the first type of font
and, although you may get acceptable results on the screen, you will not
get good results when you come to print. The reason is that each letter
is designed as a fairly course matrix of dots which probably doesnæt
match your printer resolution. If these are the only fonts you have,
RISC-OS printing will give poor results. I still receive many letters
from readers who are using RISC-OS printing of bit-mapped (RISC-OSá2 ROM
based) fonts asking why their printed results are so bad. If you have
this problem then read on.
5.10
The second font manager is generally referred to as the ÉOutline font
manageræ. Most people who have this second system received it, together
with a Éstarteræ set of typefaces (including Trinity and Homerton), as
part of a desk top publishing package such as Impression or Ovation. It
is supplied on disc as an application directory called !Fonts. Each
character is Édrawnæ as a set of Bezier curves similar to a Draw file.
It is only after being drawn at the correct size that the character is
converted to a bit-map (dots) at exactly the resolution required by the
printer (a similar, faster but slightly less accurate process is used
for the screen display). You will see that, using this approach, the
printer receives the Ébestæ dot pattern for every character at every
point size.
5.10
Now hereæs a solution to the Époor quality printingæ problem which has
been the subject of much correspondence. The !Fonts directory must be
shown to RISC-OS 2 before PipeDream is installed on the icon bar
otherwise PipeDream may use the Éoldæ bit-mapped font manager. The
outline font manager, but without any typefaces, is supplied with PD 4
but not with PD 3. The outline font manager will use the bit-mapped
fonts in the RISC-OS 2 ROM set (e.g. Trinity and Homerton) if it cannot
find those typefaces within the !Fonts application directory. Perhaps
you can see that, if you first install PipeDream and then use your
Impression fonts disc to Éshowæ your fonts to the operating system, you
might get Ébit-mappedæ fonts (from the RISC-OS 2áROMs) rather than
Éoutlineæ fonts (from the Impression disc) sent to the printer by the
RISC-OS printer driver! Not what you wanted (or expected). I bet Iæll
still get letters about it though!
5.10
What some would call the third type of font is just a variant of the
second. It is the font manager supplied with RISC-OS 3 on the A5000. It
is possible that RISC-OS 3 will be available as an upgrade for earlier
Archimedes by the time this article reaches you. (Nope, sorry, not yet!
Ed.)
5.10
(By the way, when it does become available, RISC-OS 3 is a straight
plug-in replacement for the RISC-OS 2 chips on those Écheapæ A540
machines still available from NCS; another reason why an A540 is such a
bargain!) (I still have a couple left, but when these ones have gone, I
donæt think there will be any more available for as little as ú1925 inc
VAT. Ed)
5.10
You can use the RISC-OS 3 font manager with RISC-OS 2 fonts but the
RISC-OS 3 font manager supports new features such as auto-kerning. The
RISC-OS 3 ROM set includes improved versions of Acornæs ubiquitous
Trinity and Homerton typefaces which (I believe) make use of these new
features.
5.10
One point I must make about RISC-OSá3 is that, if it Éseesæ them, it
will use modules from disc rather than modules from ROM because it
assumes that they are newer. I can foresee problems here for PDá4 users
with RISC-OSá3. Do not use the font manager supplied with PDá4 (or
Impression for that matter Ö delete it from your working disc) if you
want to use the RISC-OSá3 font manager.
5.10
RISC-OS printer drivers
5.10
If you want to use the RISC-OS option (rather than PipeDream printer
drivers) to print from within PipeDream then you need not only an
outline font manager and some outline fonts but also a RISC-OS printer
driver. Once again, most people who have these, received them with a DTP
package such as Impression but the chances are that, when you had your
Impression (or whatever) upgraded, you did not get the RISC-OS 2 printer
drivers upgraded! The early versions still work OK but they are
generally much slower than the later versions.
5.10
RISC-OS printer drivers are not supplied with PDá4 but Acornæs latest
printer drivers are supplied as part of the RISC-OS 3 ROM set. I do not
know if the RISC-OS 3 drivers work with RISC-OS 2 but I know that the
RISC-OSá2 printer drivers will not work with RISC-OSá3. I suggest that,
if you do intend to upgrade to RISC-OS 3, it might be as well to wait
for that chip set with its new font manager, fonts and printer drivers
before expending time and effort tuning up your RISC-OSá2 system.
Perhaps the Archive Editor has some idea of how long youæll have to
wait. (September would be my guess. Ed.)
5.10
You should be able to obtain recent versions of RISC-OS 2 printer
drivers from your Élocal Archimedes supplieræ (available from N.C.S. as
Shareware 17) but, if you do have problems, write to me and I will let
you know the best way of obtaining them.
5.10
Background printing
5.10
When you RISC-OS-print from within PipeDream (or Impression for that
matter) the printing Étakes overæ the machine so that it stops multi-
tasking Ö it stops you doing anything else.
5.10
One excellent way of speeding up printing is to use a Laser Direct.
These consist of a Ébareæ laser printer and an expansion card which fits
inside the Archimedes. I am told that it is possible to RISC-OS print a
page of A4 in a minute or two rather than the ten or fifteen minutes
taken by a more typical laser. (Mine takes 20 or 30 seconds. Ed.)
5.10
If you havenæt got, or canæt afford a Laser Direct then try the
following method which will Éworkæ for a single A4 page but is not
likely to work if you want to print much more than a single page
(because you may run out of memory).
5.10
From within PipeDream, set your printer dialogue boxes to RISC-OS-print,
not to the printer, but to a file. You should give the file a name; such
as [PrintFile]. I suggest that, if you have enough memory, it is best to
set up a RAM disc of about 1200k and save the [PrintFile] generated to
the RAM disc. If you donæt have enough memory but do have a hard disc,
save to that. It is unlikely that an 800k floppy will have enough space
to accept the rather large file and, in any case, floppies are slow.
Although the Éprint to disc fileæ operation takes over the machine (so
that it will not multi-task), the time it takes is only a fraction of
that taken when printing to the printer. You will probably find it
acceptable. You can now drag the [PrintFile] onto the installed
!PrinterLJ (or !PrinterDM) icon and printing will proceed in the
background, allowing you to continue using the machine for something
else. Beware, the files generated are large, typically 1M per A4 page
using a 300 dpi resolution.
5.10
Although it does not give the same benefit, you can save a PipeDream
printer driver Éprintedæ file to disc and then drag it to the installed
!PrinterLJ icon. I have not tried it but I have been told that you can
Équeueæ such files by dragging them one after the other onto the
!PrinterLJ icon. (If you do try any of these techniques, with or without
success, please let me know how you get on so that I can report your
findings to others.)
5.10
Printing problems
5.10
Using PipeDream printer drivers, the problems range from difficulties
printing top bit set characters correctly (such as the ú symbol) to an
inability to select a non-default typeface at the printer. These
problems usually go away with a little gentle adjustment to the
PipeDream printer driver.
5.10
The most common problem with RISC-OS printing (excluding those I have
mentioned above) is spare blank pages. Generally this is because of page
length mismatches. One method which is often successful with both
PipeDream and Impression is to reduce the size of the image sent to the
printer. Change the scale in the Print scale dialogue box to, say, 97%.
The longer-term solution is to adjust the page size either at the
printer itself (on some printers you can set the page size with dip
switches) or by using the page and border settings in the RISC-OS
printer dialogue boxes.
5.10
If you have a printing problem, even better if you have a solution too,
then please write to me and Iæll include your remarks in a future issue
of PipeLine.
5.10
In conclusion
5.10
In many of the paragraphs above, I have referred to Impression as well
as PipeDream. In this, I have been encouraged by the correspondence you
have sent me. It seems that many of you who have PipeDream and read this
PipeLine column also have Impression; many of the comments you have made
to me apply to both. As I said earlier, I must be careful not to upset
the Editor (who has a dedicated DTP column) but by all means write to me
about those things which PipeDream and Impression have in common and I
will see what I can do.ááA
5.10
5.10
Apricote
5.10
From 5.9 page 20
5.10
5.10
Spacetech
5.10
From 5.9 page 6
5.10
5.10
Vector Ö A Winner on RISC-OS 3!
5.10
Tord Eriksson
5.10
Writing a review of a piece of software that you really like is often
more problematic than writing an angry, defamatory piece.
5.10
Vector, programmed by Jonathan Marten of DrawPlus fame with contribu
tions from Mike Matson, Paul le Beau, Don Slaven and Geoff Preston, all
from 4Mation, is a program that I like enormously and will probably
spend hundreds of hours using.
5.10
At ú85 +VAT from 4Mation it is not cheap but for those who like vector
graphics (i.e. in draw format), it is just perfect! This is especially
so for the owners of RISC-OS 3, as some features are not available with
RISC-OS 2.
5.10
So, if this review is overly critical, it is not due to what Vector does
but what it omits to do!
5.10
Unpacking
5.10
Vector arrives in a slender wallet with lots of impressive graphics on
the outside. Inside, there are two discs, a registration card, a leaflet
about computer fraud and a manual. After having initialised your program
disc by writing a unique identification text into a window (and sending
that text off to 4Mation on your registration card) you are able to run
and copy the program as much as you want.
5.10
If you send off a copy illegally to a friend, 4Mation will be able to
trace you through the ID number and your text. The initialisation ought
to be done in the shop, to save the buyer from temptation...
5.10
This is the best copy-protection scheme I have come across. Not fool-
proof, but not idiotic, like the one Ovation used to have (RISC
Developments now sells Ovation without copy-protection.
Congratulations!).
5.10
Manual excellence
5.10
This is one of the best manuals Iæve ever come across. It is well
organised, clearly written, has clear illustrations, mainly in colour,
and is made to last. In short: öPerfick!ò.
5.10
It is a bit surprising that there is no list of key short cuts on the
outside back cover, as that is the 4Mation tradition. It would have been
easy to do as the cover is white, so there would be no problems of
contrast as on the dark cover of the Poster manual! (There is a list but
it is on pages 100 and 101).
5.10
Vectoring
5.10
A lot of Archimedes users have come across DrawPlus, so most would feel
at home using Vector, even if the toolbox is now incorporated in the
window border, in true Apple Mac fashion.
5.10
There are numerous new functions included, such as interpolating between
two draw objects (see öVector hintsò overleaf), radiating a single
simple form to make a complex pattern or making multiple copies of a
single object.
5.10
Radiating problems
5.10
The problem with the radiate function is that it is not possible to
radiate text if you have RISC-OS 2.0. A simple graphic form is easy to
radiate, but text has to be converted first to a path with some other
package, such as DrawPlus, DrawFont or Fontasy.
5.10
No öText to Pathò for RISC-OS 2!
5.10
The Archimedes user who hasnæt got an A5000 or a pre-release set of
RISC-OS 3 ROMs, will not be able to do very much manipulation with text
characters, because the original DrawPlusæs öText to Pathò function is
not included.
5.10
There is a öText to pathò for RISC-OS 3 owners, but it does not work
with RISC-OS 2. (Any of the following packages will do the conversion:
DrawPlus, DrawFont, FontDraw, FontFX, Fontasy and TypeStudio.)  Kerning
and dithering are similiarly for RISC-OS 3 owners only.
5.10
Replication Ö advanced copying
5.10
Another new function is replication. This is a method of making multiple
copies of an object, in varying sizes if you want, without having to use
the copy function (<ctrl-C>) again and again. It is best described by
giving an example:
5.10
Path merging
5.10
It is often a great help if you can take a number of different paths and
combine them into a single path. The merged paths take less space and
are sometimes essential, e.g. for producing masks as shown in the
illustration top right of this page.
5.10
Masking pictures
5.10
In addition to making your own mask by using the method shown in the
illustration, there is now a built-in masking facility that is very
powerful. With Draw or DrawPlus you could, with a great deal of effort,
split a path into two parts and then make a path like the merged one in
the following example...
5.10
In Vector, it is very easy and the advanced masking feature can create
stunning effects, but it will not be reproduced in an Impression
document, sad to say. Weæll have to wait for the next version of
Impression! (Not even DrawPlus managed it!)
5.10
Reversing paths
5.10
In DrawPlus, you can reverse paths by flipping objects over, say a
circle. More complex objects, like a graph, could become silly if you
flipped them. Why would you then want to reverse paths, the learned
reader asks, quite reasonably.
5.10
Well, firstly, it is essential for some programs to have the path the
right way. For example, DrawBender doesnæt work very well if the path is
the wrong way round.
5.10
Secondly, if you want some text to follow a path, using TypeStudio or
Fontasy, it is quite annoying to get the text reversed.
5.10
Thirdly, it affects the results when you interpolate. If the result
looks a mess, try reversing one of the paths! (See öVector hintsò
opposite.)
5.10
Zooming in and out
5.10
Zooming is now much easier with a multitude of ways to do it (function
keys, PageUp, PageDown and menu). You can zoom quickly and easily from
5% to 2000% Ö enough for most users!
5.10
No moulder nor pather
5.10
To my surprise there are no tools for moulding a draw object, nor is
there a tool for letting text follow a path as in Poster, Fontasy or
TypeStudio. So, I still recommend buying DrawBender and FontFX or, if
you can afford it, TypeStudio. Poster and Vector can interchange files
in Poster format. As an excellent öpatherò, there is Fontasy. (Fontasy
plus DrawBender costs the same as the excellent TypeStudio alone.)
5.10
Printout
5.10
At printout time, the program can handle draw files bigger than your
printer can. There is no need to buy a special printer driver to provide
tiling facilities Ö itæs part and parcel of Vector.
5.10
If you just want to print part of a huge drawing, you can easily tick
off which printed pages you are interested in and the program will
prompt you when to change paper. The paper margins are shown in the main
window (see below).
5.10
4Mationæs own !DrawPrint and Ian Copestakeæs Placard are functionally
very similar, but they draw the object on the setup menu so that you can
see exactly which pages you are interested in. Vector buyers get this
built-in! It couldnæt be easier!
5.10
Iæve used this function to make templates for a parafoil kite and it
certainly turned a slow and painful process, doing it manually, into a
speedy and far more exact chore for the printer!
5.10
Conclusion
5.10
I have only really touched on a few of Vectoræs features, as it takes
time to learn such a comprehensive package as Vector.
5.10
The present version is the original version and, as such, might have
some defects. (I recommend you use it separately from Impression as it
once upset the window handling with text spilling over onto the
background, etc. I saved, rebooted and could not make the computer
repeat the odd behaviour Ö I probably need new ROMs Ö Is anyone willing
to give me some RISC-OS 3 ROMs? Mike Matson of 4Mation has come across
the problem when using early versions of RISC-OS 3, before 3.10 but I
was using RISC-OS 2.)
5.10
For the RISC-OS 3 user, it is very good value for money, even if
DrawPlus costs much less. It is easier to use than the old classic and
can save files in a number of different formats, including compressed
files that Chameleon can use directly.
5.10
There are one or two restrictions for RISC-OS 2 users, including no
text-to-path function, no kerning and no dithering, so it is not as good
value for money for those who havenæt yet got RISC-OS 3.
5.10
The text-to-path function α la DrawPlus could easily have been included
Ö a shame it wasnæt!
5.10
However, most of us will change to RISC-OS 3 in the near future and then
the value automatically rises.
5.10
I can only congratulate 4Mation and Jonathan Marten for producing such a
powerful drawing package. Vector is a must for your Christmas list to
Santa Claus!
5.10
(Illustrations were either Vector samples saved with Snippet, also from
4Mation, or made by me with Vector.)ááA
5.10
5.10
The basic form, a wavy blob, has been replicated eight times and turned
45░ at each replication. Rotated text can only be printed from within
Vector, if not converted to draw objects first.
5.10
5.10
Vector Hints Ö not in the manual!
5.10
If the paths rotate the wrong way, you get...
5.10
5.10
If the paths rotate the örightò way, you get...
5.10
5.10
If the paths originate at the same point, you get...
5.10
5.10
Remember, always have the same number of points in the paths. The
interpolation in the first example was without reversing or flipping
either of the paths.
5.10
5.10
The paper margins are shown on the main window and the printer setup
menu is used to deselect those pages you donæt need.
5.10
The Eppler profile was öplottedò on an A0 page. The paper margins shown
are A4 size.
5.10

5.10
5.10
Screenshot: This is the most impressive piece of vector graphics I have
seen. It consists of hundreds of objects and is very lovely in any 256
colour mode. Sprite programs for Amiga used to show off with this King
Tutankamen casket, but this is almost as good and can be zoomed without
losing any detail!
5.10
5.10
Ace
5.10
From 5.9 page 6
5.10
5.10
Oak
5.10
From 5.9 page 20
5.10
5.10
Using the Shared C Library
5.10
Simon Callan
5.10
One of the biggest problems with programming in assembler is having to
write all the code used in the program, as there is no library of useful
routines for the programmer to use, and the programmer has to develop
these all himself. However, a complete library of almost all the
routines that a programmer could need have been provided by Acorn in the
Shared C Library.
5.10
The Shared C library contains all the routines that comprise the ANSI C
library. This covers input, output, string manipulation, handling of
times and dates, and access to files, all in a neat, easy to use package
that requires little space. This is especially so in RISC-OS 3, where
the library is held in ROM.
5.10
To use the Shared C library, you will need any assembler that produces
AOF object files and a copy of Acorn ANSI C (release 3 or 4).
5.10
APCS-R call standard
5.10
When you use the Shared C library, you have to follow the same standards
that the C compiler uses. The most important of these is the APCS-R call
standard, which defines the use of the ARM registers and the handling of
the stack.
5.10
Under APCS-R,  the registers are split into three groups; the argument
registers Ö a1 to a4, f0 to f4, the variable registers Ö v1 to v6, f4 to
f7 and the call-frame registers sl, fp, ip, sp.
5.10
On entry :
5.10
    a1 to 4 contain the first four arguments, with any further arguments
being held on the stack
5.10
    fp contains 0 or points to the stack backtrace
5.10
    lr contains the return address and processor flags for the return
5.10
    sl points 512 bytes above the end of the current stack chunk.
5.10
On Exit :
5.10
    a1 or f0 may contain the returned value (if appropriate)
5.10
    fp, sp, sl, v1-v6 and f4-f7 contain the same values as they did on
entry.
5.10
When the routine is called, it should generate a stack backtrace
structure or frame so that it can return correctly to the calling
routine.
5.10
Once the frame has been created, the routine must check that there is
sufficient space on the stack and call the stack extension code if
necessary.
5.10
On the return, the routine should restore the registers from the stack
frame.
5.10
Using the Shared C Library
5.10
The other main requirement for using the Shared C Library is that the
entry point for the assembler program must be called main and this must
be exported so that the library initialisation code can call this point
at the start of the program.
5.10
On entry to the main code, a0 and a1 will contain the values that
correspond to argv and argc in a C version of main.
5.10
To call a Shared C Library routine, you need to import the routine, set
up the arguments and call the routine using BL.  If the routine has four
arguments or less, these are placed in a1 to a4 while further arguments
are placed on to the stack. As an example, the C function call printf
would be coded as follows.
5.10
printf(ö%d %d %d %d %d\nò,1,2,3,4,5);
5.10
IMPORT    printf
5.10
LDR    a2,#5
5.10
LDR    a1,#4
5.10
STMFD    sp!,{a1 ,a2}
5.10
LDR    a4,#3
5.10
LDR    a3,#2
5.10
LDR    a2,#1
5.10
ADR    a1,format
5.10
BL    printf
5.10
ADD    sp,sp,#8
5.10
The final line ADD sp,sp,#8 is needed to remove the two parameters from
the stack.
5.10
On return from printf, a1 will contain the result from printf while a2
to a4 will all contain undefined values.
5.10
If a function returns a structure of more than one word in length (4
bytes), it is represented as an implicit first argument which points to
where the result is to be stored.
5.10
i.e. struct a func(int b) is rewritten as void func(struct a * , int b).
5.10
And finally ...
5.10
As the RISC_OSLib and UnixLib (mentioned in Archive 5.6 p7 and 5.7 p54)
libraries also conform to APCS-R, the full contents of these libraries
also become available to the programmer, making the writing of desktop
programs in assembler much easier.
5.10
I have written a few example programs that are included on the monthly
program disc.
5.10
If anyone would like further help, I can be contacted at 2 Malden Road,
Borehamwood, Herts  WD6 1BW, or via E-Mail ZSJC@UK .CO.GPT.
5.10
References
5.10
Acorn Desktop Development Environment
5.10
    Appendix F Ö ARM procedure call standard
5.10
RISC-OS PRMæs
5.10
    Appendix C Ö ARM procedure call standard
5.10
Acorn ANSI C release 4
5.10
    Assemble language interface
5.10
    Machine-specific featuresááA
5.10
5.10
Small Ads
5.10
(Small ads for Archimedes and related products are free for subscribers
but we reserve the right to publish all, part or none of the material
you send, as we think fit. i.e. some people donæt know what ösmallò
means and there are certain things, as you can imagine, that we would
not be prepared to advertise as a matter of principle. Sending small ads
(especially long ones!) on disc is helpful but not essential. Ed)
5.10
Å    3╜ö external drive + interface for A3000. Epson LX400. Phone
0773Ö872927.
5.10
Å    A3 concept keyboard + overlays ú100 or will swap for 20M+ hard drive
for A3000. Phone Tracy on 0362Ö691745 (eves).
5.10
Å    A3000 with 2M Acorn multi-sync monitor, VIDC enhancer, serial u/g, +
software and games ú800 o.n.o. Phone 081Ö898Ö0447.
5.10
Å    A3000 with 4M, second 3╜ö drive, user port / midi Ö ú475. Phone
021Ö744Ö4879.
5.10
Å    A310 with colour monitor, 4-slot bp + software, ú525 o.n.o. Armadillo
A448 Audio Sampler + s/w, ú70. Phone 071Ö703Ö5675.
5.10
Å    A5000 Learning Curve new in February. ú1250. Phone Chris on
0276Ö412643 (daytime).
5.10
Å    A5000 Learning Curve brand new. ú1545. Phone Nick Baker on
081Ö944Ö7154 (day) or 081Ö946Ö2860 (evening).
5.10
Å    Acorn colour monitor ú100, GEC Datachat modem ú30 ono, Prism modem
ú20, 4 slot backplane ú30, 20M ST506 NEC 3╜ö 28ms drive ú120, Atomwide
(Avie) ST506 podule ú100, Acorn PC emulator (1.80) ú65, Arthur P.R.M.s
(offers?), Mig 29 ú30, UIM ú10, Twinworld ú10, Zarch ú8, Tactic ú7,
Stranded! ú15, 40M ST506 drive ú200. Phone 0247Ö457655.
5.10
Å    Amstrad FX9600T fax machine/telephone suitable for use with FaxScan
interface ú200. Phone Keith Parkes on 0684Ö565516. (We still have one or
two Faxscan interfaces on offer at ú50. Ed)
5.10
Å    Atomwide 4-slot backplane ú15. Phone 0332Ö557751.
5.10
Å    Citizen Swift 24 colour printer inc sheet-feeder ú160. Phone Mike on
0844Ö237348.
5.10
Å    CC ROM/RAM podule with battery back-up, InterWord & SpellMaster, 2 ╫
32k RAM. ú45. Phone 0272Ö736237.
5.10
Å    CC ScanLight Plus as new ú120. Phone Jonathan after 5 on 081Ö451Ö0471.
5.10
Å    G-Draft Demo Ö A PD demo copy of the G-Draft technical drawing program
is available from G-Soft, Runkeler-Str. 3a, W-6251 Beselich 4, Germany.
(Also on this monthæs program disc. Ed.)
5.10
Å    Pace Linnet 24 modem Ö unwanted, unopened prize. New styling V22 ú175.
Phone 0603Ö 872071 (evenings).
5.10
Å    Sony HVC 3000P colour video camera, ideal for digitising ú145. Hard
Disc Companion latest version 2 ú30. Saloon Cars, Break147+SuperPool and
Arcticulate ú17 each. Phone 0932Ö245301.
5.10
Å    Wanted ARM 3. Phone 0247Ö457655.
5.10
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.
5.10
(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.)
5.10
Alerion ú3, C-Front ú3, Corruption ú3, Insight ú45, Holed-Out Compendium
ú12, J programming language + öTangible Mathò ú20, Archimedes Masterfile
II ú8, Screened printer data cable ú1.50 per foot.ááA
5.10
5.10
The MsgTrans Module
5.10
Chris Johnson
5.10
Browsers of application directories may have noticed in some appli
cations a file called Émessagesæ, which appears to be simple ASCII text.
In it, one finds the text of error messages, etc that the application
may pop up. You may also have noticed that these same applications load
a module MsgTrans. This module provides an interface between the
messages file and the application. (MsgTrans presumably is an
abbreviated form of message translation.)
5.10
The messages file is a resource file of the application, as are the
templates, !sprites files and so on. One of the advantages of holding
the text of all error messages, help messages, and even menu items, in a
file separate from the program code itself, is that it is then a simple
matter to update the text. More importantly, it can be customised to
languages other than English.
5.10
The A5000 has the MsgTrans module in ROM, and the standard error
messages exist in a number of different languages, the appropriate one
being selected as part of the machine configuration.
5.10
Acorn has provided library routines for using the MsgTrans module for C
programmers in release 3 and 4 of the C compiler, but there has been
little information around for users of other languages Ö not even in the
Programmeræs Reference Manual.
5.10
The information below is based only on my own experience and has been
gleaned by trial and error and some guesswork. However, the routines
appear to work without any problems in my own software although there
may be errors and omissions, for which I apologise in advance!
5.10
Overview
5.10
A text file of messages, usually (but not necessarily) called Émessagesæ
and contained in the application directory, is loaded by MsgTrans into
the RMA area. Any particular application may have only one message file
open but different files could be loaded at different times if
necessary.
5.10
Each message has a tag or identifier associated with it. The tag may
consist of up to ten alphanumeric characters terminated by a colon (:).
The message is terminated by a control character such as carriage return
or line feed (newlines can be incorporated in the message by the usual
means, i.e. |M). The application passes the tag, together with an
address at which the extracted message is to be placed, to the MsgTrans
module by way of a SWI call. MsgTrans then looks up the message and
transfers it into application workspace for the application to make use
of as it may. Since the message file is in RAM, the lookup is very fast.
The message file can be used to provide interactive help messages, error
messages, etc.
5.10
MsgTrans has more tricks up its sleeve. Some error messages may wish to
display, e.g. a file name, or some other dynamic parameter. This is
possible, since you can pass up to two further string arguments to
MsgTrans, which are inserted into particular positions in the message
(marked by %0 and %1 in the original message text).
5.10
Several procedures must be provided by the application to interact with
MsgTrans. These are outlined below.
5.10
Loading the message file
5.10
To load a file, the MsgTrans module must be informed of the file name,
and also the file length, so it can reserve sufficient RMA space for the
file. A possible procedure to load a message file is shown below.
5.10
DEF PROCload_messages(name$)
5.10
LOCAL ERROR
5.10
ON ERROR LOCAL RESTORE ERROR: ERROR 255,öCannot open message file Éö+
name$+òæ (ò+REPORT$+ö)ò
5.10
SYS öMessageTrans_FileInfoò,, name$
5.10
DIM msg_blk% 256
5.10
SYS öOS_Moduleò, 6,,, 17+LEN(name$) TO ,,msg_desc%
5.10
$(msg_desc%+16)=name$
5.10
SYS öMessageTrans_OpenFileò, msg_desc%, msg_desc%+16
5.10
ENDPROC
5.10
In this PROC we first of all set up a local error handler in case of
problems. We then ask MsgTrans to read in the file info for the file. We
reserve 256 bytes to hold the message text using the DIM statement (If
you are going to use more than one message file, then this DIM statement
should be in the program initiation, since we do not need to keep
reserving more memory.) The SYS öOS_Moduleò, 6 call is used to reserve
some memory in the RMA. We need 16 bytes for data used by MsgTrans to
identify our message file and where it is in memory, plus sufficient for
the file name + the CR character (i.e. 17 + LEN name$). The address of
the memory reserved is returned in R2. We then poke the filename into
the memory block, having left the first 16 bytes for use by MsgTrans,
and load the message file, passing the address of the memory block in R0
and the pointer to the filename in R1.
5.10
Looking up a message
5.10
A function that returns the appropriate message is given below.
5.10
DEF FNlookup_message(tag$,arg1$, arg2$)
5.10
LOCAL flags%,length%,msg$
5.10
SYS öXMessageTrans_Lookupò, msg_desc%,tag$,msg_blk%,
5.10
 256,arg1$,arg2$ TO ,,,length%;flags%
5.10
IF flags% AND 1 THEN
5.10
   msg$=öThis is the ò+task$+öapp-lication. Consult the
5.10
 help notes for further information.ò
5.10
   ELSE
5.10
   msg_blk%?length%=13
5.10
   msg$=$(msg_blk%)
5.10
ENDIF
5.10
=msg$
5.10
The function is passed three arguments Ö the tag, together with the two
additional strings to be inserted into the message. These can, of
course, be empty if there is nothing to be inserted. The MsgTrans module
is invoked using the SYS öXMessageTrans_Lookupò call, which is passed
the following parameters in order. R0 Ö the message file info block; R1
Ö pointer to the message tag; R2 Ö the block of memory where the message
is to be placed; R3 Ö the length of the message block; R4, R5 Ö pointers
to the two additional argument strings. The length of the actual message
is returned in R3. We also need to check the processor flags on return.
Note the semi-colon before the variable flags.
5.10
If the message is not found (i.e. the tag cannot be matched), then the
overflow flag (V) will be set on return. We check for this by ANDæing
the flags with 1 (in any SYS call the flags value returned corresponds
to the binary number %NZCV, where the flags NZCV have the usual ARM
meanings). If no message is found, we can either return an empty string
or, as in this example, we can substitute a standard message. In the
normal case, there will be a message found, and this is dealt with by
the ELSE part of the conditional statement. We ensure that there is a CR
at the end of the message and then extract the message using Basicæs $
indirection operator.
5.10
Closing the message file
5.10
This is a very simple operation. Note that we use the X form of the SWI
calls, since we do not wish to generate any errors at this time.
5.10
DEF PROCclose_messages
5.10
SYS öXMessageTrans_CloseFileò, msg_desc%
5.10
SYS öXOS_Moduleò, 7,, msg_desc%
5.10
ENDPROC
5.10
SYS öXMessageTrans_CloseFileò releases the memory used to store the
message file, while the SYSöXOS_Moduleò,7 call releases the other block
of RMA memory we reserved for the message file information back to the
common pool for further use.
5.10
PROCclose_messages would normally be called when the task was about to
quit but remember that an application can only have one message file in
operation at once, so it might be needed if we wish to change the
message file while the application is running.
5.10
A typical application close down sequence might look like the following
(see previous articles on WIMP programming).
5.10
DEF PROCresetWimp
5.10
ON ERROR SYSöXWimp_CloseDownò :END
5.10
PROCclose_messages
5.10
SYSöWimp_DragBoxò,,-1
5.10
SYSöHourglass_Smashò
5.10
$wBlock%=öTASKò
5.10
SYSöWimp_CloseDownò,task%,!wBlock%
5.10
ENDPROC
5.10
MsgTrans on the A5000
5.10
Anyone who has an A5000, and has had a look at some of the messages
files may have noticed that there may be many occurrences of e.g. \S or
\a, which are actually abbreviations for often used phrases. For
example, \S is expanded to Click SELECT to, while \a becomes ADJUST.
This use of abbreviations reduces the amount of RMA space needed to
store the message file.
5.10
I include a function which will do the same thing for a RISC-OS 2
machine. I have tried to include in it any expansion carried out by the
A5000 (found by trial and error). You could modify the function to
recognise your own abbreviations. Since the MsgTrans module has already
done any expansions it recognises, this function will not interfere with
the newer version of MsgTrans on the A5000 but simply becomes redundant.
In use, the message returned by the lookup function is passed to
FNexpand_msg before being displayed.
5.10
DEF FNexpand_msg(h$)
5.10
LOCAL s$, m$, index%
5.10
s$=öò
5.10
WHILE INSTR(h$,ö\ò)>0
5.10
  index%=INSTR(h$,ö\ò)
5.10
  s$+=LEFT$(h$,index%-1)
5.10
  m$=MID$(h$,index%+1,1)
5.10
  h$=MID$(h$,index%+2)
5.10
  CASE m$ OF
5.10
    WHEN öAò:s$+=öClick ADJUST toò
5.10
    WHEN öaò:s$+=öADJUSTò
5.10
    WHEN öDò:s$+=öDrag with SELECT toò
5.10
    WHEN ödò:s$+=öDrag with ADJUST toò
5.10
    WHEN öGò:s$+=öThis option is greyed out becauseò
5.10
    WHEN öRò:s$+=öMove the pointer rightò
5.10
    WHEN öSò:s$+=öClick SELECT toò
5.10
    WHEN ösò:s$+=öSELECTò
5.10
    WHEN öTò:s$+=öThis is theò
5.10
    WHEN öWò:s$+=öThis window isò
5.10
    WHEN öwò:s$+=öwindowò
5.10
  OTHERWISE
5.10
    s$+=ö\ò+m$
5.10
  ENDCASE
5.10
ENDWHILE
5.10
=s$+h$
5.10
In order to make use of this function, it is necessary to modify
slightly the code given in the earlier article on interactive help. The
new version of PROChelp_requested() is given below.
5.10
DEF PROChelp_requested(block%)
5.10
LOCAL help$
5.10
LOCAL window%, icon%
5.10
block%!16 = &503
5.10
block%!12 = block%!8
5.10
window% = block%!32
5.10
icon% = block%!36
5.10
help$=FNget_help_text(window%,icon%)
5.10
help$ = FNexpand_msg(help$)
5.10
$(block% + 20) = LEFT$(help$,232)
5.10
!block% = (LEN help$ + 25) AND NOT 3
5.10
SYSöWimp_SendMessageò,17,block%, block%!4
5.10
ENDPROC
5.10
A simple application is included on this monthæs program disc to
demonstrate the use of MsgTrans, as well as interactive help, using
routines very similar to those described in these articles.ááA
5.10
5.10
Multi-media Column
5.10
Ian Lynch
5.10
A recent press release from Acorn describes a project supported by
öLinguaò an EC organisation which promotes language learning and
cultural exchange throughout Europe. The project is designed to develop
multi-media language learning materials in support of vocational
language learning and its history might be of interest to Archive
readers.
5.10
Chance meetings
5.10
There must be a lot of technological progress which never comes to
fruition because people with relevant expertise never actually meet.
Eloquent came about because I was talking to Malcolm Bird, Acornæs
Technical Director, and my languages colleague Stephen Hagen about
language laboratories. It seemed strange to me that the basis of these
has hardly changed since I was at school in the late sixties Ö audio
tape, microphones and exercises which I found to be the most completely
boring lesson of the week. I could never work out why a subject which
was based on communication insisted on wrapping me up in a sound proof
booth for 40 minutes unable to communicate with anyone but the damned
tape which kept asking the same silly questions. There has been some
progress, with a degree of computer control for the teacher, piped video
and different ways of scheduling lessons but it is surprising that Sony
and Tandberg, the major players in this market, have not capitalised on
the recent advances in the audio and video capabilities of computers.
5.10
Digital languages
5.10
Stephen was already thinking about interactive learning particularly
after seeing the ILP laservision discs and some language discs on the PC
from Vector. I thought we should investigate a possible situation where
a fully digital system based on a low cost computer system could be
implemented. This would have the advantage that all the added value of
E-mail and DTP would also be available to students. At this time !Replay
and the A5000 were not known to us but Malcolm seemed sure that most of
the technical requirements would be available by the time the project
was due to start.
5.10
Contacts
5.10
Funding a development project is always difficult but Stephen approached
Lingua with a brief outline of what we proposed to do and they were
immediately interested. Firming up the details required several meetings
in places as varied as Gateshead, London and Brussels. A critical step
required Acorn and Stephen to find interested parties abroad since
Lingua funding is dependent on cooperative ventures. A meeting of
interested parties from Crete, Italy, Belgium and UK was held at the CTC
Trust in London. There was some debate about IBM compatibility but since
language laboratories are not currently PC compatible, I argued that for
development purposes, this was not a major issue. I then gave a
demonstration of an A540, indicating the potential for moving pictures
and audio and this seemed to convince those present that this was the
best way forward. Once the methodology is established, no doubt
materials can be ported to other platforms if there is a demand and it
is cost-effective to do so.
5.10
Filling in forms
5.10
The next step was to fill in the necessary application forms for Lingua
assistance and again Stephenæs knowledge of the way to do this combined
with my technical knowledge and DTP skills meant our application would
stand out both in terms of procedures and presentation. Almost a year
after the first meeting and discussion of the project, the news came
through that the application had gone through without amendments. I am
told that this is quite unusual and there were similar bids on other
platforms which were unsuccessful.
5.10
What will be done?
5.10
Without going into too much detail, materials will be developed which
support specific vocational courses in several languages, notably Greek,
Italian, German, English and French. These will be interactive and will
make use of digital audio and !Replay for digital video. In parallel
with this, a language learning network based on A5000s and Ethernet will
be used at Thomas Telford School in order to explore and experiment with
the possibilities of a digital language laboratory. It will, of course,
be possible to use this multi-media network for other functions since
the methodology developed for languages is likely to be transferrable to
other subjects such as science and engineering.
5.10
Further information
5.10
If you want to find out more about this venture, contact Stephen Hagen,
Project Manager, CTC Trust, Emmanuel College, Consett Road, Gateshead
NE11 0AN (091Ö460Ö2031).ááA
5.10
5.10
The DTP Column
5.10
Richard Hallas
5.10
A rather curtailed column this month, Iæm afraid, due to a number of
factors, not least the bringing-forward of the publication date to
accommodate the news of the Acorn Portable!
5.10
The reason for the absence of the Readersæ Write section, though, is
that I have not received any letters! This may possibly be due to the
slight confusion following Rob Sherrattæs decision to leave us, so
please make sure that in future you write to the DTP Column c/o Paul
Beverley at the usual Archive address. Your correspondence will then be
passed on to whoever is editor of the month (unless of course you
specify one of us by name). Please keep sending your hints and tips for
Ovation and Impression, along with your other points and queries.
5.10
News and Views
5.10
ÅáOvation 1╖3 Ö This latest version of Ovation is just being prepared
and should be available by the time you read this. The numerous new
features include the following: Mail merge of CSV files; Pamphlet
printing; Rotated draw file illustrations (and sprites with RISC-OS 3);
Importing of FWPlus files; Thesaurus hotlink; Improved key short-cuts;
Faster draw file rendering; Fast draft printing via RISC-OS printer
drivers. The price remains fixed at ú99 +VAT, and users of previous
versions can upgrade by returning their original program disc to
RiscáDevelopments (not Archive) enclosing payment of ú5 + VAT + ú1
carriage (ú6╖88 inclusive).
5.10
ÅáThesaurus 1╖10 Ö The latest version of Risc Developmentsæ Desktop
Thesaurus has been expanded to included over 13,750 keywords and nearly
135,000 synonyms (compared with 11,000 keywords and 90,000 synonyms in
previous versions). An improved compression system means that the entire
application now occupies under 450k of disc space. The new version
incorporates an Ovation 1╖3 hotlink for users with both packages,
allowing instant transfer of words between the two. The price is still
ú19 +VAT and upgrades are available by returning the original disc to
Risc Developments, along with payment of ú2 + VAT + ú1 carriage (ú3╖35
inclusive).
5.10
ÅáScanLight Professional Ö Computer Concepts will be launching a new
version of this desirable piece of equipment in August. It will utilise
a new model of scanner from the ones issued previously, although it will
be functionally the same: an A4 flat-bed 300dpi SCSI device. However,
the new model will have a number of advantages over the old one. Its
economic dimensions make it only a little bigger than actual A4 size,
and it operates marginally faster than the previous model. Most
importantly, from the buyeræs point of view, it will be 33% cheaper than
its predecessor! This new version will cost ú595+VAT (ú665 inc VAT
through Archive) and it should work with all SCSI cards, provided the
manufacturers have followed all Acornæs guidelines. (It has been
successfully tested with Oak, Acorn, Morley and Lingenuity cards.)
5.10
Impression Hints & Tips
5.10
Å    Mailmerge in Impression: So it seems that there are no tips like old
tips (Archive 3.9 p20). I claim that Charles Moir learned the trick he
uses from me! Just one point to add, though. You have a choice between
linking frames on a master page and not linking. If you link, the text
flows through the frames on a page and then on to the first frame of the
next page. This is probably convenient for small mailing lists without
use of a database. If you do not link frames, text flows from page to
page within the homologous frame. I recently helped to run a biggish
scientific meeting which involved mail shots to about a thousand
potential delegates and a full feedback of booking information to about
450. The database resided on a Mac, the most widely-used computer in the
lab, and an output file was generated in <Tab> separated format, ported
to a DOS disk, then to PipeDream. Individual columns (fields) or groups
of columns were then extracted, linefeeds replaced by
5.10
s, and the fields dropped into the right frames of the first page.
Perfect registration was retained: the last personæs details did belong
to him! All I had to do was to edit some of the less wise entries in the
öcommentsò field of the database, which might have been taken as casting
aspersions on the intelligence, rationality and financial or moral
rectitude of some the participants! This method obviates the need to
generate a report format for your database. You just extract the data
you want for each of your frames and drop it in. Some fields get used
twice, such as parts of names, once for the address (lined up with an
envelope window), and once for the Dear... line.
5.10
We also produced sheets of individualised meal tickets. The purpose here
was to ensure that none of the three eating places got all the dele
gates. We operated a öswap-shopò but needed to know who was swopping
with whom. Named tickets solved this. In this case, I extracted the
names once and dropped then into the first (unlinked) frame. To make a
copy in the next frame (╫450), <Ctrl-T> to mark all the text in the
frame, 450 pages deep, <Ctrl-C> to copy it and then <Ctrl-V> to paste it
into each frame. The printer who perforated the sheets was quite
impressed by the product: he had never seen the like. He certainly had
no idea how easy it was (save for feeding 450 sheets of card into the
laser printer).á Mike Hobart, Cambridge.
5.10
Image setting Ö Another firm which does image setting is Stylus
Publications Bureau of 98 Wilberforce Road, Finsbury Park, London N4
2SR. They also do colour slides and CibaChrom prints and overheads from
Draw and Impression. However, they covered so much of their literature
with gold leaf that I wonder if they are still trading!á Mike Hobart,
Cambridge.
5.10
Points of Style
5.10
This time Iæm going to have a brief look at something very basic to all
DTP:
5.10
General legibility
5.10
By this I am not referring to page composition itself, as that is a
subject in its own right. Whilst the overall legibility of a page can be
affected by the way in which text flows from one area to another, or
indeed the way the blocks of text on the page are laid out, this would
come under the heading of Épage layoutæ.
5.10
Legibility is not a very precise term, because it can be affected not
only by the design of the page and the type sizes and styles used, but
also by the colours of the page and the conditions under which it is
viewed. A well-designed page may nevertheless become illegible if it is
printed on excessively white or shiny paper and viewed under unfavour
able conditions.
5.10
In typography, the term Élegibilityæ refers to the ease with which text
may be read. The two most common styles of typefaces in current use for
reading matter are Éromanæ and Ésans-serifæ. Seriffed faces incorporate
small finishing strokes at the ends of letters, derived from the pen and
the chisel, whereas sans-serif faces omit these. In fact, sans-serif
faces are quite modern and have only been in general use from the early
years of this century, although the first sans-serif face to include
lower case letters appeared in 1835. Interestingly, the first modern
sans serif face to come into general use was the one designed in 1916 by
Edward Johnston for use by the London Underground Railway; it is still
being used today for this purpose.
5.10
Sans-serif faces were originally known as Égrotesqueæ because of their
sharp difference to their seriffed counterparts and were designed for
their attention-drawing qualities, rather than as body text in their own
right. Today, of course, sans-serif body text is seen quite frequently
but seriffed text is definitely preferable for body text. Serifs are,
after all, there for a purpose: (a) they help to keep letters a certain
distance apart; (b) they help the eye to track from left to right in a
uniform manner, thereby making for a less stressful read; and (c) they
help to differentiate between the upper halves of individual letters,
since we recognise letters by their upper rather than their lower
halves. (You can convince yourself of this by covering up the top half
of a line of text and then trying to read it. You may succeed, of
course, but if you were to cover the lower half instead, you would find
it much easier to read the text.)
5.10
This preamble is building up to a set of three rules which are basic and
essential to publishing and which are very well-known to all traditional
typographers. It is worth dedicating a short article to them, as they
can easily be overlooked by computer users who have a temptingly large
selection of fonts at their fingertips.
5.10
1.    Sans-serif type is intrinsically less legible than seriffed type.
5.10
2.    Well-designed roman upper- and lower-case type is easier to read
than any of its variants, e.g. italic, bold, caps, expanded or condensed
versions.
5.10
3.    Words should be set close to each other, and there should be more
space between the lines than between the words.
5.10
These rules may seem so obvious as to be not worth stating but they are
absolutely basic to the art of typography and should not be overlooked.
The very fact that they are overlooked prompts me to write this article.
I shall say a little about each of the rules in turn.
5.10
1.áAs mentioned above, serifs are there to help the eye track along the
line without skipping or getting lost and, generally, seriffed letters
are more easily distinguished from each other than are their sans-serif
counterparts.
5.10
Of course, this does not mean that sans-serif text should not be used as
body text; it is perfectly suitable for this purpose, and lends a more
modern feel to the page. However, the absence of serifs does make the
text a little more difficult to follow and, for this reason, a larger
line spacing setting is advisable if much sans-serif text is to be used.
It is also a good idea to break up such text with illustrations and
cross-headings.
5.10
It has become quite common, particularly in magazines, to mix seriffed
and sans-serif type in different sections of the same page, although
this should be done with caution. A ready example of this idea being
used well is BBC Acorn User magazine, which uses seriffed type for its
main text, but tastefully employs sans-serif type for individual text
boxes and captions.
5.10
2.áThis rule is really only a general principle which can be seen not to
hold true universally. In particular, oblique faces, being only slanted
versions of roman faces, are easier to read than true italics. True
condensed faces are also often as easy to read as roman faces, as they
have been specifically designed as body text. The EFF fonts OldSchbook
and NewSchbook (originally named Century Old Style and New Century
Schoolbook) provide a good example of this: OldSchbook was designed in
1894 for Century magazine and was designed to be slightly condensed to
suit the publicationæs dual-column layout. It was succeeded only about
six years later by its uncondensed counterpart, NewSchbook. The rule
certainly holds true, though, for Impressionæs Condensed and Expanded
effects available from the ÉEffect Ö>Text sizeæ menu and also for the
rather more refined ÉFont aspect ratioæ setting in the ÉEdit styleæ
dialogue box. These options simply pull or squeeze standard font
definitions and, whilst they can be useful when used with discretion,
they do not form true condensed faces. They certainly should not replace
a true condensed font if one exists.
5.10
3.áThe width between words should normally be about the same as the
width of the letter Éiæ. This is of course taken care of for us computer
users by the font definition. What is not taken care of, however, is
line spacing and, in general, the longer the line to be read, the wider
should be the gap between successive lines. Impression provides a
helpful 120% switch in the ÉEdit styleæ box. This is a very good overall
compromise but it should not be taken as a hard and fast setting. Books,
for example, are frequently set in 10pt type with an 11pt line spacing.
It all depends on context, and a narrower line spacing is more accep
table for a dual- or triple-column layout than for a single-column one.
Again, it has to do with making it easy for the eye to track along the
lines of text without slipping.
5.10
However, the space between words should never be allowed to exceed the
space between lines and, if a mono-spaced font such as Corpus (Courier)
is to be used, the fact that spaces in such fonts can be quite wide
should be taken into account when considering an appropriate line
spacing. The eye reads words in clusters rather than letter-by-letter
and if the gaps between words become too large (particularly in
combination with an inadequate line spacing) it becomes easy for the eye
to skip down a line by accident. It is surely better to overestimate the
line spacing than to make it too small. I have occasionally seen amateur
documents in which the ascenders of one line of text actually overlap
the base line of the line above. This should be avoided at all costs.
5.10
Final word
5.10
There are countless types of reading matter, intended to be read in just
as many ways. It is impossible to lay down universal laws, and common
sense and taste must prevail. These rules are intended for larger-scale
projects such as books, magazines or journals, and apply to subjects
intended for continuous reading. Obviously, it would be silly to take
them to heart when designing an eye-catching poster. Rules are there to
be broken, of course, but as with all arts and crafts (and typography is
both), before one breaks the rules, one should first be the master of
them.ááA
5.10
5.10
The Public Key Ö Issue 3
5.10
Colin Singleton
5.10
It took the advent of the computer to inspire something fundamentally
different from the elaborate replacement codes used by the intelligence
services during and after the Second World War. Messages could now be
treated, not as discrete letters, but in blocks as large numbers. With
this insight there came a change of name. Coding gave way to Cryptogra
phy [Greek kruptos hidden + graphos writing]. In 1977 Rivest, Shamir and
Adleman (now known collectively as RSA) devised a system of cryptography
based on a problem which mathematicians had wrestled with for centuries.
It is virtually impossible to factorise a large number if it has just
two very large prime factors. The result is the most secure encryption
system yet devised.
5.10
What RSA did is explained in Issue N║ 3 of The Public Key, recently
published by George Foot and Roger Sewell. With this issue, you also get
software on disc so that you can use the latest and most secure form of
cryptography on your Archimedes. The literature and software are
essentially free, except for a charge to partially cover production
costs. Issue N║ 3 costs ú3 (ú4 in the EC, ú5.50 elsewhere). The software
is supplied with the magazine, on a free disc (though this policy will
be reviewed at the end of August). Cheques please, in Sterling or US$,
to G Foot ÉWaterfallæ, Uvedale Road, Oxted, Surrey RH8 0EW.
5.10
The principle of the RSA system was explained in Issue N║ 1. Anyone
wishing to join the club must calculate for himself (using the software,
which does everything for you) a pair of parameters, satisfying the
necessary mathematical relationship, known as the Public Key and the
Private Key. The Public Keys for each person are so-called because they
are published openly, as in a telephone directory. Each personæs Private
Key, however, must be kept a closely guarded secret. The mathematical
requirements are built into the program. The user needs no knowledge of
the technicalities.
5.10
To encrypt a message, the sender must present to the software, disc
files containing the text of the message and the Public Key of the
intended recipient. The program uses the key to encrypt the message. The
disc supplied contains, as well as the software, a directory of Public
Keys for all current participants. New readers are invited to generate
their own keys and submit them to the directory.
5.10
The recipient presents to the software the encrypted message, together
with his own Private Key (stored on disc by the software when it was
first generated). The program uses this key to restore the original
message. Readers who already have the first version of The Public Key
software will be interested to know that a new version is now available.
It works in the desktop and is generally more user-friendly.
5.10
Itæs as easy as that and it really works! Although the encryption keys
are public knowledge, as is the method of calculation, the message is
secure. This is because, in order to calculate the Private Key from a
Public Key, a Éspyæ would need to find the prime factors of the Modulus
Ö a large number held within the Key Ö and that is well nigh impossible.
For those who are interested, the mathematical principles, including the
restraints on suitable key values, and an explanation of ÉWhy it Worksæ
are set out in the magazine, in much greater detail than in previous
issues.
5.10
The Public Key caters for all levels of interest. Plaudits received
include ö... such a lot of good material and up-to-date news ... a most
informative and interesting copyò, from a professional security
consultant, and öThereæs a lot of really interesting material in it.
Youæll be turning commercial, if you keep up that standard!ò, from a
well-known software producer.
5.10
The cryptograhy software necessarily includes some fairly hairy large-
integer arithmetic routines. Issue N║ 2 explained how these could be
used, via the software provided, in Écalculator modeæ. Issue N║ 3
explains how the individual routines can be used in your own Basic
programs.
5.10
Previous issues of the magazine (reviewed in Archive last year) devoted
themselves to the mathematical principles and the software. Issue N║ 3
turns to the practical considerations. The authors admit their failure
to find a practical application to interest users of home computers.
Nevertheless, a substantial part of the magazine (including a twelve
page Stop Press!) is devoted to reports of commercial applications,
either implemented or proposed, mainly in the USA. Much of this material
was received just before publication (some of it after distribution had
started!) and is presented largely as received with minimal editorial
review.
5.10
Careful reading reveals a wealth of information about what is happening
in this field, including the in-fighting, both mathematical and
commercial. It seems clear to me, from all this activity, that a public
system will come. In years to come, it will be accepted as readily as a
fax machine and be virtually as easy to use. But how a public system
will work and, most importantly, which mathematical principle will be
used, is far from clear. At first reading, all this literature is a
little overwhelming, but it is essential reading. After all, we will
probably all be using cryptography before too long.
5.10
I found the article on the USA Federal Standard for Digital Signatures
somewhat worrying. This proposed Standard seems to me to be a Great Leap
Backwards. It employs a very cumbersome mathematical process (which is
explained in detail in the article), apparently for no better reason
than to avoid paying royalties to RSA, which is patented in the States
(though not elsewhere).
5.10
What is a Digital Signature? It is a very important technique within the
cryptography system (whichever system it is) to enable the recipient to
be sure that a message really has come from the stated author, and not
from an impostor. To find out how it works, and to make use of it, read
The Public Key.
5.10
This issue enlightens us to the fact that RSA is not the only crypto
graphic principle being proposed, and not just for patent reasons. In
the States, the Data Encryption Standard (DES) is already in being and
in use. The calculation is simpler than RSA and the computing much
quicker. There is, however, considerable doubt being expressed as to the
level of security which it offers. I hope a future issue of The Public
Key will explain the mathematical background to DES, since this appears
to be fundamental to the debate.
5.10
The current leaders in the race for a public system apparently employ a
hybrid system in which the highly secure but slow-to-process RSA
technique is used to encrypt a secret key needed to decrypt the actual
message using the faster DES system. I would like to see The Public Key,
in a future issue, summarise the various cryptographic techniques
proposed, identifying the mathematical principles of each, the level of
security and the practical benefits or otherwise.
5.10
The proposed hybrid was devised some years ago because the computer time
required to encrypt a message of any length using RSA made that system
impractical. It is therefore of great interest to learn from the
magazine that Thorn-EMI (in the UK!) have produced a prototype for a
custom-built slave processor to fit inside an IBM PC (inevitably, I
suppose), which will handle RSA encryption and decryption. It is claimed
to work at around 30Kbits/sec, which is faster than public Éphone lines
can transmit the data. This, surely, should signal the end of hybrid
systems in favour of the simple and flexible, but very secure, RSA
system?
5.10
Watch this space! Better still, read The Public Key!ááA
5.10
5.10
The Childrenæs Graphics Pack
5.10
Joe Gallagher
5.10
The Archimedes is attracting a respectable range of clip art selections
both from commercial and public domain origins. As a teacher, I have
felt that few of them were that appropriate for primary age school
children. The Childrenæs Graphics Pack of clip art from Micro Studios is
an attempt to redress this deficit. It consists of a two disc set
costing ú19.99. Both discs are uncompressed which, while making life
easier for novice users, does mean that there isnæt room for an awful
lot of files, especially where sprite files are concerned.
5.10
The package isnæt simply a bundle of clip art. The compilers have
included sample narratives in the form of several !Edit files, the idea
being that these will be used in conjunction with the Draw files and
!Paint files to produce simple stories. Instructions are given on how to
import both types of file into !Draw. The idea of including the text
stories is quite a nice one, although I doubt if many schools would be
using !Edit as their sole vehicle for text processing. Nevertheless, it
does provide a common format which all purchasers can use. What does
seem redundant, given the intended age range of the users, is the
detailed instructions on how to import text blocks into !Draw including
setting up headers for different fonts and text sizes, a difficult
enough feat for adults! Maybe it points to a need among Archimedes
wordprocessing / DTP packages to be a bit more ösmartò at importing
plain text files.
5.10
The collection
5.10
The first disc is comprised of Draw files and is divided into three
sections; People, Animals and Objects. While there are some quite well
drawn pictures in it, notably the clown Charlie Chalk, there is much
which feels like padding. For example, there is a directory of shapes
which includes several pictures which, one feels, would not take any
user very long to knock up with the aid of !DrawPlus. There is also a
directory of drawn names on flapping flags as well as three files
consisting solely of drawn letters and numbers. Many of the drawings are
very cartoon-orientated to the point of being stereotypes. They remind
me a bit of those very bland Dick Bruna drawings which used to prolifer
ate in infant schools. This is even more the case with the sprite files
on the second disc. Thereæs a silver lining on every cloud though and,
due to their simplicity, the sprite files do translate very easily into
Draw files using David Pillingæs !Trace utility.
5.10
Conclusion
5.10
All in all, itæs a pretty eclectic compilation. I like the idea of clip
art around themes, especially for the early years of education. It could
be developed more fully though, perhaps with pictures with more explicit
links, say built around well known stories (copyright permitting!). As
it stands, this set of discs offers a reasonable collection of early
yearsæ images although itæs by no means cheap at the price. If youære
prepared to hunt around a bit you can find much more of a variety of
such images in shareware collections from the PC world, not to mention
those available for the Archimedes.
5.10
The Childrenæs Graphics Pack costs ú19.99 and is available from Micro
Studio. (Or ú19 through Archive.)ááA
5.10
5.10
Grievous Bodily æARM
5.10
Myles Thorne (aged 13)
5.10
Grievous Bodily æARM (ú24 through Archive) comes on two discs which are
handily numbered. With the discs you get two leaflets, one explaining
how to re-load if the game does not boot up first time. It also contains
useful facts about the computer.
5.10
The second leaflet describes how to play the game and it explains in
detail what the game is about. The basic idea of the game is that a mad
scientist has developed a cheap and easy way to manufacture illegal
narcotics. You have to find and destroy him, going through certain
levels as you do so. The leaflet also tells you the default keys and
explains how to change them.
5.10
!Keys
5.10
Boot up the first disc and you will get an option of redefining the keys
or playing the game. A double click on !Keys will send you to a bright
blue screen with the current keys written on it. To change the keys
press the space bar and then type in the keys you want for each action.
When you have finished, press <return> and it will send you back to the
option of re-defining the keys or playing the game.
5.10
Loading the game
5.10
When the option of !G.B.A. is chosen, the game loads and goes through
several stages of telling you who made the program and other informa
tion. The last screen is a picture of a fist with Grievous Bodily æARM
written boldly round the edge. While all this happens, the music for the
program is playing. The music is of excellent sound quality. At the
bottom of the screen, in purple, it asks you to insert disc two and then
press any key after doing so. When you boot this disc up several options
are shown.
5.10
Options
5.10
There are four options displayed, of which one is to exit to the
desktop. The last choice is to play the game.
5.10
Playing the game
5.10
The first level starts outside Byfords with a cat standing near and the
droning sound of a manhole cover popping up and down. After passing both
of these you are confronted with three cats and two ladies with whips.
Beware! The cats are not as friendly as they look! I find that if you
get a drug addict to the corner of the screen he can be punched without
any harm to yourself. After those obstacles, your timing and rhythm will
become very important. There are two more manhole covers going off
together with cats sitting near them. A flying kick is the best way of
disposing of these. Then two men will appear, one at the front and one
at the back. If you punch these alternately they will fall to the ground
and disappear. Then your timing will again become important as two more
manhole covers stare you in the face. These go off at a different speed
to the other ones so donæt be fooled. After this you have two ladies
with whips and a man to contend with. Completing this will take you on
to the second level. On the first level you had manhole covers to look
out for but in the Warehouse (second level) you have gas lamps and band-
saws to dodge. In the office, (third level) you have secretaries
throwing typewriters at you and tea ladies running very fast.
5.10
Conclusion
5.10
At first, the frustration of not being able to play the game prevented
me from enjoying it. As I got better, it started to grow on me. I think
the sound quality of kicking and punching is very good but the sound of
hitting someone was the best. The first two levels were easy but the
third level was very hard. The graphics were quite good, especially on
the second level in the warehouse. I enjoyed the game and still have not
completed it. A note for worried parents is that I donæt think it would
teach children to become violent any more than cartoons of Turtles.
Overall, I think this is an excellent buy.ááA
5.10
5.10
Acorn Ö The Future?
5.10
Ian Lynch
5.10
There has always been a critical element both inside and outside the
Acorn fraternity and Acorn, like IBM, have undoubtedly made some bad
decisions (certainly from the usersæ viewpoint) in the past. However, I
wonder if the present criticisms concerning bringing out new machines
are really warranted. Since 1987 weæve had the 310, 440, 410/1, 420/1,
440/1, A3000, A540 and A5000. We also know (well at least some people
think they do!) that a portable is imminent. (This was written before
Acornæs embargo date for releasing information about the portable. Ed.)
I would say that this compares favourably with Apple, IBM, Commodore and
Atari in the desktop microcomputer stakes. I would also be very
surprised if there were not other machines due for release within the
next 12 months and donæt forget RISC-OS 3 development, !ChangeFSI,
!Replay and the PC Emulator. Considering the size of Acorn, I am frankly
amazed that they get so many new and innovative products out at all.
5.10
Of course, size canæt be an excuse. Acorn have to compete with the likes
of Apple and IBM on a product basis and I can already hear echoes of
full 8-bit colour palettes, 24 bit per pixel colour graphics display,
machines people want, etc. I would argue that IBM compatibles are not
necessarily the machines that people want Ö they are the machines that
they deserve because they are gullible enough to believe the marketing
machine of the computer industry. Admittedly, many PC users have no
choice if they are linked into large corporate decision-making which
dates back to the early eighties. However, many PC users who are not in
this situation, believe that there is no alternative and most of them
have no experience of anything else with which to compare their systems.
Even if Acorn had a 20 MIP, 24-bit colour, 16-bit audio all-singing,
all-dancing workstation, some would still buy a 386 SX with Windows
because itæs the industry standard. I occasionally have doubts myself
but all I know is that as soon as I start using Windows, I realise that
while it is in its present form, my own preference for work-efficiency
is to use RISC-OS.
5.10
Machines or applications?
5.10
Paul rightly pointed out the benefits of DTP on Acorn systems. How
important is displaying 24 bits per pixel on a colour monitor? Well, in
my view, not as important for real practical operation as high speed,
high quality, low cost output, which outline fonts together with
Calligraph and Computer Concepts printer technology makes possible. OK,
Acorn need to support a better palette and bring out a new VIDC soon
(and 16-bit audio will also need to be part of this to compete in the
multi-media stakes) Ö otherwise, they wonæt stay in the game. However,
the storage and processing demands of huge colour graphic files has made
systems which can handle them in anything more than a token way, very
expensive Ö and this is not Acornæs market (yet).
5.10
I canæt see how 24 bit per pixel colour is of practical use without a
high quality monitor, a lot of RAM and a very big hard disc. A single
300 dpi, A4 page with 24 bits per pixel requires 24 M of storage. A
24bit VGA screen needs 1 M of video memory and probably a separate
graphics processor, if it is to be manipulated in real time. With
limited resources, priorities have to be set and ARM 3, MEMC1a, RISC-OS
3 and an improved PC Emulator must have been thought more important than
colour palette restrictions.
5.10
Usable technology is about Élimiting factorsæ and a balance between cost
and benefit. End users should think about what they want to do and look
for systems which provide for the needs in the most efficient and cost-
effective way Ö although this is complicated by support needs and
previous history. The Archimedes used to be an enthusiastæs machine with
little software but a lot of horsepower. The horsepower argument is now
less significant but low cost, high quality software which takes maximum
advantage of the processing power is making the RISC-OS machine a much
better choice for ordinary end-users, particularly in certain specific
areas of application. Undoubtedly, the relative merits of one system
against another is subject to some fairly violent variation when a new
machine is launched. Things change and so should attitudes.
5.10
Continuity
5.10
I couldnæt understand Mike Cookæs argument (Archive 5.8 p13) that Acorn
were not developing new machines because they were locked into their
chip set. PCs are locked into Intel, Apple into Motorola and Acorn into
ARM. Acorn could, of course, design a new machine and start again from
scratch (I am sure Roger Wilson would love to do this) but would it
really be in the best interest of current users?
5.10
The 8-bit BBC Micro had a severe bottleneck on addressing memory and all
sorts of convoluted and innovative ways were found to get round this
problem. The main limit on the development of applications in those days
was the restricted addressing range which IBM unfortunately allowed
Microsoft to build into MS-DOS. Even 16-bit processors are not normally
memory bound in themselves. How many people have 16M in their A540 and
regularly run out of memory? Memory refresh speed is another limiting
factor which was not a problem with older systems. Acorn made a brave
decision to stay proprietary and to go to 32-bit processing, missing out
the 16-bit stage when the 8-bit BBC had been stretched to its limit.
They could have become another clone manufacturer but I for one am glad
that they didnæt.
5.10
Limiting factors
5.10
So what are the limiting factors now? The answer depends on what you
want to do with your computer. For monochrome DTP and document produc
tion, the hardware is probably good enough and major improvements will
come from better software, better ergonomics and lower cost, higher
quality peripherals. It could be argued that good optical character
recognition (OCR) software is a greater need than better colour
resolution, for example. I have talked to several small printers who say
they are not interested in colour at present.
5.10
Third parties are still bringing out innovative software which is better
and less expensive than that on other platforms. If you get a chance,
take a look at TechWriter from Icon Technology, Image Outliner from Iota
and Vector from 4Mation, not to mention Artworks from CC (when it
becomes available). For high quality colour and volume sales in markets
realistic for Acorn, data transfer to peripherals needs to improve,
storage costs need to be reduced and high quality monitor prices need to
come down. Most of these are beyond Acornæs control.
5.10
Another developing field is multi-media and I have done quite a bit of
delving into this for the Eloquent project, to which I have had
considerable input. As far as digital video is concerned, CD-ROM is, at
present, the only viable source with enough capacity at low enough cost
and this has some severe limitations. Data access and transfer speed is
limited by CD technology and the size of affordable memory buffers and
so there are limiting factors beyond simple processor speed. !Replay is
as much about clever coding as it is about ARM3 and we should not forget
that Acornæs innovation is often as much to do with software as it is
hardware. Witness BBC Basic, RISC-OS and ChangeFSI.
5.10
I have no doubt that Acorn could produce a new hardware platform which
would provide hundreds of MIPs. (DEC already have Ö but power consump
tion and heat dissipation is a tremendous problem.) It would perhaps
have a software emulation of the ARM in order to run existing software.
However, there would be many other technical problems beyond simple
processing speed. This is, in my view, looking at things from the wrong
end of the telescope. The first question is, what would we do with such
a machine? Also, how much would it cost? What would the cost of
peripherals be in order to support this amount of processing power? How
easy would it be to program? and so on. From a marketing point of view,
Acorn have to consider which markets are most appropriate and then
ensure that their products are competitive within these markets.
5.10
Past to present
5.10
Education is Acornæs biggest market and they canæt afford to abandon it.
This is well understood in the company and all the evidence I have shows
that Acorn staff are well ahead of Apricot, ICL, IBM and Apple in their
approach to educational computing. Research Machines (RM) are possibly
more vulnerable to PC clone manufacturers because they are selling the
same product and RM, like Acorn, are small. However, it is an unfor
tunate fact of life that there are teachers who believe the industry
standard rhetoric, even in primary schools. For this market, a wide
variety of generic and low cost software tools and peripherals is needed
with as much connectivity as possible. Some specific tools in some areas
of the curriculum, realistic site licence prices for quality appli
cations and low cost support are all important and Acorn are generally
ahead in most of these areas. In this respect, magazines such as
Archive, Risc User, Archimedes World, Micro User and Acorn User all do
their bit. The days of IT being wordprocessing, databases and spread
sheets should be long gone.
5.10
Present and near future
5.10
DTP is a very promising area where potential customers may know little
about computers. For this reason, a complete end-user solution that can
be sold to small companies and printers is a very good idea. Price
becomes more important in a recession and this might actually help
divert Apple sales to Acorn. Without doubt, better colour support and
more support from typesetting bureaux are needed but there is neverthe
less still a substantial and untapped market.
5.10
A consistent development route should include targeted advertising in
non-Acorn magazines and the trade journals that printers read. It is
absolutely essential to have support and training built into system
sales and a continued commitment to development of supporting software
such as OCR, fax, PostScript, fonts, higher resolution printers, better
design software, colour printing and, of course, better colour support
for the display.
5.10
Present and further into the future
5.10
Multi-media is the most hyped area in computing to-day. In many
respects, it is still at the stage of a solution looking for a problem.
As Commodore have found with CDTV, the public are not prepared to pay a
lot of money for something they donæt really need. Involvement with
focussed developments such as the Eloquent project for multi-media
language learning is more likely to bear fruit than simply marketing
something for a generic multi-media consumer market which does not
exist.
5.10
The multi-media machine of the near future needs to cope with hi-fi
audio and digital video without any hassle to the user. It will
therefore be capable of CD-quality audio (both sampling and playback)
displaying moving colour pictures which are of TV quality and perhaps
digitising and compressing video in real time too. Such a machine will
need to be at a cost similar to the current price of an A5000 if Acornæs
traditional markets are to benefit. These facilities are available today
albeit at very high cost.
5.10
The potential to revolutionise educational and training applications
will only be realised if (and it is a big öifò) storage and data
transfer facilities are available which are low cost and capable of
matching the demands of applications. In other words, future products
will have to match needs and be offered at the right price.
5.10
Summing up
5.10
In my view, Acornæs future is dependent on three things:Ö
5.10
Å    maintaining high performance at low cost related to identified needs,
through a combination of software and hardware innovation,
5.10
Å    identifying markets in which they are realistically competitive,
5.10
Å    ensuring better support and training for end-users than that provided
by their competitors.
5.10
Acorn have a better track record in the first of these than in the other
two, but selling to technically enthusiastic individual users needs to
be maintained. After all, this group is largely responsible for a lot of
the innovative software applications running under RISC-OS and hardware
sub-sytems. There will always be some of us who prefer to have a machine
which is interesting because it is different Ö in the same way that we
do not all want to drive Ford Escorts.
5.10
It has taken time but Acorn has woken up to the idea that complete
solutions in specialised markets such as the Acorn Publishing System (in
partnership with Computer Concepts), is a potential way of going beyond
their traditional markets when constrained within tight budget limits.
5.10
With the increase in the number of grant-maintained schools and
weakening back-up from LEA advisory services, it is those dealers who
can offer educational support who will benefit in the educational
markets. Also, Acornæs arch rivals, RM, have a major problem in that
they supply directly to schools, with support coming from LEA advisers.
So, Acorn should capitalise on securing the educational market by
targeting schools who have, in the past, had to buy RM under LEA
pressure and who now have a free hand. They also have to realise that
the same argument also applies to their competitors and so they need to
maintain a value-added element which PCs and Macs do not have. A lot of
this value-added element is enthusiastic users such as you, the Archive
readers, who realise that one personæs standard is anotheræs monopoly
and who have a genuine interest in a öcomputing cultureò for its own
sake.ááA
5.10
5.10
Iæm not sure that multi-media really needs a new VIDC, 16-bit audio,
etc. As Ian says, multi-media is, to some extent, a solution looking for
a problem. I personally think that its acceptance will depend on low
cost turn-key systems being offered rather than some of these expensive
over-hyped Édemoæ systems you see at multi-media shows. Write to Ian to
tell him what you think. Ed
5.10
5.10
PD Column
5.10
David Holden
5.10
Mistakes Dept
5.10
I received several letters (most on A4 fanfold paper!) complaining that
my remarks about A4 paper in last monthæs column were wrong. Sorry about
that. What I had meant to say is that some so-called A4 fanfold paper
isnæt true A4, which is 112/3 inches long, but actually 11╜ inches. The
way to spot the difference is to look at the punch holes. If they are
all neatly lined up when the paper is folded, as happens with 11 and 12
inch paper, then it canæt be true A4.
5.10
New libraries
5.10
Itæs nice to see that the recent diminution of the number of PD
libraries is beginning to reverse. This month, I received two catalogues
from new(ish) libraries.
5.10
The first was from Equinox. This library specialises in individual
programs. Most applications cost 30p each, with smaller files, most
Tracker and Maestro tunes, artwork, etc at 12p each. There are also a
number of compilation discs of clip art and sampled tunes at 70p per
disc. There is a minimum charge of ú1.20 inclusive.
5.10
When I wrote to Equinox pointing out that 30p each would work out rather
more expensive than many other libraries for someone who wanted a lot of
applications, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an almost immediate
reply. They had obviously taken my criticism seriously and now intend to
introduce a new series of discs made up of compilations of applications
at 80p per disc. This is cheaper than most libraries and certainly
answers my earlier complaint.
5.10
The catalogue is fairly comprehensive and the choice of compilation
discs and pick-your-own makes it well worth a look. The catalogue/demo
disc cost 70p from Equinox Public Domain Services, 27 Station Road,
Earls Barton, Northamptoná NN6 0NT.
5.10
The second catalogue was from RML which is a more conventional library.
The printed catalogue doesnæt fully describe each discæs contents and
the on-disc catalogue, which does, isnæt yet complete so itæs a bit
difficult to be sure exactly what is on each disc Ö although most appear
to be full. There has been an attempt to put similar items on the same
disc which is more than many libraries bother to do. Catalogue and
sample disc costs 90p from RMLPD, 24 Penryn Close, Norwichá NR4 7LY.
5.10
Free PipeDream demo
5.10
You may have noticed that a PipeDream 4 demo disc was given away with
this monthæs Acorn User. I have also been told by a couple of libraries
that, as a result of my earlier comments, they contacted Colton Software
and asked for permission to include this disc in their catalogue. All
were pleasantly surprised by the reaction after experiences with other
companies. So, if you missed the cover disc itæs now widely available
from PD libraries.
5.10
On the subject of PipeDream, I should like to endorse the comments made
by Gerald Fitton recently in PipeLine. PipeDream 4 is a major upgrade
from version 3 and the work put into it is probably greater than into
most completely new programs. If you need the extra features then the
price asked is not excessive. If you donæt then why complain? The fact
that version 4 exists doesnæt make version 3.14 work any less
effectively.
5.10
It is quite common for well known names to sell programs for PCæs which
have serious flaws. When people complain, they are told that the bugs
have been fixed and the upgrade to the new version is available at a
cost of ú40Öú60. When they get the upgrade, they discover that the bugs
have been fixed but the program has been Éenhancedæ and new ones have
appeared. When they complain, they are told the bugs have been fixed and
the upgrade to the new version is available at acost of...  ...and so
on.
5.10
Experienced purchasers of PC software give the advice that you should
never buy version x.0 of a product. Wait for version x.01 or even better
x.1 Ö that way, at least it will probably work. The people who produce
software for Acornæs computers have always resisted this type of
extortion. Companies like Computer Concepts, Clares and Colton Software
have offered us free or nearly free upgrades as their products have been
improved and faults eliminated. The step up from PipeDream 3 to
PipeDream 4 is a major enhancement and, as such, it has a price.
5.10
ÉFreeæ software again
5.10
The trend that I wrote about recently of obsolescent versions of PC
software being given away or released as Ö more or less Ö Shareware is
continuing. The June issue of PC-Plus came complete with version 2.2 of
Lotus Symphony. This was not drastically cut down or crippled, although
the manuals and spelling checker are not included. Anyone who has a copy
of this program will be regarded as a Éregistered useræ and can obtain a
cheap (by Lotus standards) upgrade to version 3 for ú99.
5.10
Lotus Symphony is a popular integrated suite containing a spreadsheet
(123 compatible of course), a wordprocessor, a database, a graphics
presenter and a comms program. Itæs certainly not second rate and the
Énormalæ price is around ú600. In the version supplied, itæs perfectly
useable and although there are no proper manuals, comprehensive on-
screen help is available and the main operations are described and a
function key strip is provided. Iæm disappointed, but not surprised,
that no-one is doing anything similar for the Archimedes.
5.10
With the great power and complexity of modern programs, I donæt think
the old methods of selling software are always the best. When it first
appeared, I obtained the Ovation demo disc. Like most of these discs,
including the PipeDream demos, it had nearly all of the features of the
full program but you couldnæt save your work and the printing function
was crippled. This might seem like a good idea to the people who produce
these discs who are paranoid about software piracy and Éinventæ
statistics to reinforce their paranoia, but it makes it impossible to
evaluate the program properly. I played with the Ovation disc several
times. Each time, because I had been unable to save what I had done
before, I had to start again from the beginning. Had I been able to use
the program properly, I might have actually bought Ovation because,
having spent time learning the program and found it satisfactory, why
buy another and start the learning process all over again?
5.10
I would suggest that it is much better to restrict these demos in some
other manner. (I shall continue to use the PipeDream demo as an example
because it is one with which I am most familiar.)
5.10
What if it had a reasonably full manual on the disc and most of the
functions of the full program but was restricted to around 8 columns by
60 rows. That represents about one normal page and is enough to be
actually useful. Shock and screams from the people who sell software.
öIf you give people a program that actually works theyæll use it.ò
Correct! öThen they wonæt buy the real thing.ò Wrong! The whole idea is
to give them a program that works. If you only need a spreadsheet that
is limited to one page itæs most unlikely that you would buy PipeDream
anyway, so no sale has been lost. However, once youæve become used to
your single-sheet PipeDream, what do you do when your business expands?
Thatæs right, you buy the real thing because, by that time, you have
become used to it and all your old work can still be used.
5.10
In fact, that is one of the ways in which Shareware works. Many people
use a Shareware program for some time without registering. When they
want an improved version or their use increases and they feel that the
program has Éearnedæ its cost they register. I know itæs not the correct
way but itæs what many people actually do and at least they register in
the end.
5.10
To illustrate the point, I shall confess what happened when I bought my
first BBC computer. I had spent all my available cash on the computer
and a cheap printer and could only justify it by my intent to use it for
my business. I needed a decent wordprocessor but I was determined not to
spend any more money until I had proved that the computer could earn its
keep. What solved the impasse was a friend who gave me a copy of
Wordwise blown into an EPROM. Yes, pirated software. What was the
result? A few months later, when Wordwise Plus appeared, I bought a copy
and wiped the old EPROM. Later on, when Interword appeared, I bought
that, too. If I had not Éborrowedæ that original Wordwise chip, I might
have found a cheaper alternative and so never purchased the later
Computer Conceptæs products.
5.10
Companies like Lotus, Borland and Computer Associates arenæt allowing
their programs to be given away like this from philanthropic motives.
They have discovered that once someone has actually used a piece of
software in the real world ,rather than just playing with it, they soon
discover that they want the latest version and the proper manuals. You
donæt Éloseæ a sale by giving away a complete obsolescent or old version
of a program. The person who continues to use that old program wouldnæt
have bought the latest version anyway, but once you have him using the
old version, he might buy it in the future, and meanwhile he hasnæt
bought the competition. In fact, you havenæt lost a sale by giving away
the old version, youæve Éhookedæ a potential future customer.
5.10
Please keep writing to me at 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, Londoná
SE26 5RN.ááA
5.10
5.10
Arctist
5.10
Marc Young
5.10
At only ú24.95, Arctist from the 4th Dimension may sound like a bargain
when compared to other art packages on the Archimedes, but does it
measure up?
5.10
It arrives in a video box on a single disk with a fifty page manual. The
manual describes the facilities one by one but explains nothing that
cannot be gleaned with a little experimentation. When I encountered
problems, the manual offered little help.
5.10
Loading
5.10
As Arctist runs only in mode 15, I initially had my desktop set to mode
15 before running. In this event, the software loads up onto the icon
bar, from where it can be run as normal. I tried it, to see what
happened in mode 12. Surprisingly, after a message informing me that it
would not run in non-256 colour modes, my Archimedes needed to be re-set
before any other software could be used.
5.10
Features
5.10
On paper (or, more importantly, on the back of the box) Arctist has
quite a good range of features. It boasts rotation up to 28 times faster
than !Paint, masking tape, zooming, proportionally spaced outline fonts,
etc, etc. Just take a look at one of the adverts Ö looks quite impres
sive, doesnæt it?
5.10
Unfortunately, in use, the package is seriously flawed. There are a
number of serious bugs, some causing the program to crash the entire
machine with complete loss of data. There are also a number of problems
which simply make the software unpleasant to use. The majority of these
points could easily have been sorted with the minimum of fuss. It seems
almost as if the program has been rushed out with little or no testing.
5.10
In use
5.10
When run, the program clears the entire screen except for a column down
the left of the screen. At the top of this column is the 256 colour
palette. Beneath this is a bar showing the currently selected colour and
beneath this is a list of all of the options available. Each option is
selected by clicking with <select>. Some options have further sub-
options which may be accessed by clicking on the main option a second
time.
5.10
There is no differentiation made between the Éphysicalæ functions, such
as Rectangle, Draw, Circle, and the others, such as Palette, Disk, etc.
For example, having selected the Circle function, if you then want to
use the Palette option to select a new colour, you will have to re-
select the Circle option after selecting your chosen hue. This problem
also effects the Undo option. Undo simply takes the screen back to the
state it was in prior to the last menu option selected Ö even if no
changes were made to the screen using that menu option. Also the Undo
option does not undo itself Ö a real pain if you select it accidentally.
5.10
Conclusions
5.10
Unfortunately, I could find little to recommend this package. Almost
every aspect is flawed in some way or another. Even the features which
could have made this an exciting package are implemented poorly. Take
the spray gun for example. There is an option to allow the spray to use
different shades of the selected colour, rather than simply randomly
plotting pixels of the colour. I would expected that, as the colour
built up, the shades would become darker. Instead they grow lighter. Add
to this the occasional random pixel appearing, cursors left behind,
crashes, divide by zero errors, circles plotted incorrectly (and believe
me, I could go on, and on!) and you will see why not only can I not
recommend this package but I must positively advise you to steer well
clear!
5.10
Epilogue
5.10
Because of the negative nature of this review, I contacted Paul before
sending it in and I agreed to write to the 4th Dimension to get their
comments. In the meantime I also experimented with two öfreeò 256 colour
art packages Ö one Careware offering and one, surprisingly called
Arctist Plus (but no relation) which is on a Shareware disc.
5.10
Of the two other art packages, I felt they both compared favourably with
Arctist. They lacked some of the features of the commercial package but
then they contained features that Arctist lacked. The Éfeelæ of an art
package is obviously a very personal thing and I confess I found none of
the packages particularly pleasant to use. Having used many art packages
on other computers, I feel that there is certainly a gap in the market
for a well-planned, fully featured, cheap package on the Archimedes.
5.10
I received a prompt reply from the 4th Dimension (which came by post,
rather than Tardis) containing two disks and a short note explaining
that I appeared to have an early version of the package. The second disk
was simply a collection of clip-art and I am unclear whether this
accompanies the standard package. The program disk was certainly a later
version and the bug encountered when loading in a non-256 colour mode
had been fixed. Unfortunately, none of the other bugs seem to have been
corrected. This version had the Basic program unprotected, so I suppose
it would be possible to hack about and fix the bugs if they cause
annoyance. Personally, I felt that the package as a whole was not good
enough to warrant this degree of effort.ááA
5.10
5.10
Charm Enchants Students
5.10
Robert Chrismas
5.10
Charm is a compiled high level language from David Pilling. Davidæs
products are always good value and Charm, costing only ú5.99 is no
exception.
5.10
Who needs Charm?
5.10
After playing with Charm, I decided I would like to show it to one of my
computing classes at Portsmouth College. We spent about eight hours of
lesson time on Charm. My main aim was to give practical experience of
using a compiler and linker to students starting the A level computing
course. As a bonus, although we only scratched the surface of Charm, the
students did find out what is was like to start a language they had
never seen before.
5.10
Programs can be compiled and linked from the desktop or from the command
line. A text editor is included in the package but my students preferred
to work from the desktop, writing their programs with Edit.
5.10
Documentation
5.10
The documentation is contained in text files on the disk, about 60k
altogether. Although there is lots of information, I found it hard to
use. I wanted to know how to write programs in Charm; instead I was told
a lot about how the compiler worked. I gave my students copies of the
manual but I also provided work sheets which summarised parts of the
manual and provided simple example programs and exercises.
5.10
Charm comes with many library functions but I am not sure the documenta
tion covers all of them. I would not be able to write anything as
ambitious as the example provided on the disc Ö a RISC-OS compliant
chinese checkers program Ö without more information.
5.10
Thanks to Charm, my students gained confidence in their programming
skills and they seemed to enjoy learning Charm despite the occasional
frustrations.
5.10
User feedback
5.10
Here are some of their comments:
5.10
Henry Deane: I have never tried anything like Charm before but it is fun
and has helped my programming structure. Definitely worth a try!
5.10
Mark Puddick: I quite liked Charm as it was more interesting than Basic.
At first it was a little complicated linking programs.
5.10
Gavin Dolling: I had never written in a high level compiled language
before. Charm was a challenge.
5.10
Louise Kelly: I thought it was quite difficult and complicated to learn.
5.10
Stephen Chan: A very good language which enables you to write modular
code. This was very useful when writing programs because you could link
them together without writing the code again. This made programming much
simpler. The listings looked more professional.
5.10
Andrew Goodale: I enjoyed Charm because it gave me an insight into other
high level languages apart from Basic. It also allowed me to use a
compiler and to link modules from separate programs, although at times
it did prove quite tough to do so. It was a worthwhile vacation from
Basic, enjoyable and educational. It improved my programming.
5.10
Conclusion
5.10
Louise is right, Charm is difficult, especially if you are used to using
an interpreted language, but Henry is right too, it is fun. The only
person who was disappointed was our bursar, Charm was so cheap that I
bought the site licence with petty cash, so she could not reclaim the
VAT.ááA
5.10
5.10
Printer Drivers for DJ 500 Colour
5.10
Mary Hudson
5.10
There are two printer drivers available for the HP Deskjet 500C colour
printer, Ace Computingæs at ú16 + VAT or ú17 from Archive, and Risc
Developments at ú15 + VAT.
5.10
Both come without documentation but have a Readme file on the disc. Risc
Developmentsæ is much more detailed than Aceæs and would be very helpful
if you want to do more than use the <print> option from a package like
Impression.
5.10
Both drivers installed happily on my hard disc; the Risc driver needed
an updated !System (provided, with !Sysmerge).
5.10
Once installed on the icon bar, clicking <select> on the printer icon
brings up a window with the name of the driver. Clicking on this cycles
through various options. The Ace gives you two resolutions for the
Paintjet but only one (300 ╫ 300) for the Deskjet, while the Risc gives
three resolutions (75 ╫ 75, 150 ╫ 150 and 300 ╫ 300) for the Deskjet
only, and options for monochrome graphics and choice of paper feed
(normal or envelope). Clicking on <menu> brings up the usual dialogue
for setting up paper size and margins; again the Risc driver has more
options than the Ace.
5.10
To test colour printing, I tried a page in Impression (in mode 15) using
coloured text and a sprite imported from Paint, and both drivers enabled
the printer to produce first class results on the high resolution
setting, each taking ten minutes or more for a single page. On its lower
resolutions, the Risc driver did a draft print much more quickly but the
quality was obviously poorer.
5.10
Colour graphics from !Draw were very well done too, with nothing to
choose between the drivers. A page from !Genesis printed out with
background colours but text was all in a greyish-black instead of the
multi-coloured text on the screen. A graph from !Schema printed out
perfectly. Again there was no difference between the drivers.
5.10
Using the black cartridge both drivers accepted a test file from Edit
dropped directly onto the printer icon, though when using the Ace driver
I had to press the <eject> button on the printer to get the paper out.
It was not possible to print black text from !Impression (except for
draft printing using the printer modules) or black and white graphics
from !Draw using either driver. I was immediately prompted to change the
cartridge. If you used the colour ink cartridge, the page was printed in
a greyish black, very slowly. This seemed a waste of expensive coloured
ink and time. !PrinterLJ copes perfectly well with black printing.
5.10
 Conclusion
5.10
As a colour driver, either one gives excellent results in the highest
resolution, but only the Risc driver enables you to do a draft colour
print. Neither is much use for black printing but !PrinterLJ will cope
with that. Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to have both
PrinterLJ and a colour driver on the icon bar together. (It is now
possible on RISC-OS 3. Ed) As the prices are very much the same I would
choose the Risc driver as it has slightly better instructions and more
options available.ááA
5.10
Since the version Mary reviewed, Ace have added the extra 75 ╫ 75 and
150 ╫ 150 and their price includes both a RISC-OS 2 and a RISC-OS 3
driver on the same disc for the Archive price of ú17 inc VAT. To the
Beebug price of ú15 +VAT, you have to add ú2 p&p, so at ú17 +VAT
(=ú19.98) the equation is changed in favour of the Ace driver. Even the
Risc User membersæ price is ú13.50 + VAT + ú2 p&p which comes to ú18.21.
Ed.
5.10

5.10

5.10
5.10
Tiny Draw and Tiny Logo
5.10
Simon Anthony
5.10
Topologika have updated their early learning programs to version 2.00.
Tiny Draw is a simple draw package and Tiny Logo is a mathematical
computer language introduction which has quite extensive educational
uses because Logoæs industrial incarnation can be used to do anything
from scanning brains to building cars.
5.10
Both programs come on the one disc. The first thing you must do before
using either of them is to register it. This is a one off event which
takes a bit of courage, but there is really nothing to worry about. It
simply involves running the program !Register which burns your inputted
details on to the master and onto any subsequent copies of the program
as a security measure before it can be used.
5.10
What do you get?
5.10
There is plenty of room to spare on the disc so some of the rest holds
various application programs such as a configuration utility, a sprite
converter and a Big Pointer. However, the programs are not Éstand aloneæ
to start with because they also need to see !Fonts before they will do
anything. There is an !Install program that copies the relevant Trinity
font to your master disc but only from the Apps1 disc supplied with the
computer.
5.10
How does it run?
5.10
Once it is registered and the fonts have been installed on the disc, the
computer end has to be sorted out. When you click on Tiny Draw, the
program asks you to select mode 15 or it wonæt run. So you set that, as
it says, with the pallet icon. Re-run it and it says it needs a font
size of 72k, so you set that with the task manager. Then for a third run
attempt you give it a try and it asks for sprite size of 72k or more as
well. Once all is ready, the menu comes up. Why couldnæt they have used
the Memalloc module? Even stranger, the Basic installation program MK2
proudly boasts that Memalloc is not needed Ö this seems very odd.
5.10
How does it feel?
5.10
Anyway, once it is running, Tiny Draw is a delight to use, save for one
thing. The screen update is so slow that even very gentle movements of
the mouse produce a string of dots rather than a constant curve. This
does lend a certain childish charm to the pictures but I found it
irritating and restrictive of free artistic movement. However, my
students didnæt, and the program was, after all, designed for them, not
for me.
5.10
The colours are bold and well chosen. They are displayed as an easy to
select column to the left of the drawing area. A black hole helpfully
marks the colour menu as a colour is selected from it but the response
is again rather slow as if lots of things were going on in the back
ground. The tool kit is displayed beneath the drawing area. It uses
simple icons which need no explanation. Provision is made for square,
rectangle, triangle and circle drawing each with two selections of size.
5.10
Updates?
5.10
There is a review of the previous version of Tiny Draw (and Logo) in
Archive 4.3 (December 1990). The only update I can tell from reading
that previous review is that there is now a Édelete last alterationæ
function, done by clicking on a cross. Also, there are now three line
thicknesses, not two.
5.10
Tiny Logo
5.10
What is it? Well, read the 1990 review for a brief description. Not much
has changed since then. For those of you who donæt know what Logo is,
Tiny or otherwise, I will simply say it is a computer language which can
be used to control the movements of a robot. Simple commands like up, 3,
right, 7, etc move a ÉTurtleæ (in this case, a blue arrow) around the
screen leaving (or not leaving) a coloured line behind it. These
commands can be strung together and then repeated to make patterns or to
teach shape recognition. Tiny Logo does not allow angles other than
multiples of 45. These are shown as a menu at the top of the screen with
a choice of Édistancesæ. There is now a delete facility as requested but
it does not go as far as an edit mode for strings of commands. The
maximum length is still only 20 so maybe itæs not that much of a
problem.
5.10
Error!
5.10
From time to time an error window comes up.
5.10
ÉTiny Logo has had a problem with what you were asking it to do. Please
inform Topologika so that they can rectify the problem (933,6170)æ
5.10
In this case my investigations showed that the problem was in using the
function keys when running from the network. Until this message came up
it had looked as if the program would run easily on a network. Since
then the message has not reappeared but, dutifully I hereby inform
Topologika.
5.10
Function keys form a large part of the operation of both programs. Disc
filling and quitting can only be done this way so donæt lose the
keystrip!
5.10
I canæt say I like that much, but then the standard menu button method
could confuse a child.
5.10
Conclusions
5.10
This disc is a low price, easy to use package for the early learner. My
students rapidly lost interest with Tiny Logo which was sad. They needed
time to be told why it was useful to draw lines on the screen in a
repeatable way. There just isnæt the time in class these days to manage
that, at least not with my groups. Tiny Draw fared better. The start up
reconfiguration of the font size, sprite size and Mode puts them off
even now. It is not the complexity of doing it themselves that is the
problem here, just the irritation. They have now graduated to ProArtisan
and poor old Tiny Draw isnæt used much if at all now.
5.10
So, good to start with, but be ready to move on!ááA
5.10
5.10
Micro Studio Ltd     22 Churchgate Street, Soham, Ely, Cambridgeshire.
(0353Ö720433)
5.10
Minerva Systems (p16)    Minerva
House, Baring Crescent, Exeter  EX1 1TL. (0392Ö437756) (0392Ö421762)
5.10
Oak Solutions (p40)    Suite 25,
Robin Enterprise Centre, Leeds Road, Idle, Yorkshire BD10 9TE.
(0274Ö620423) (0274Ö620419)
5.10
Ray Maidstone    421 Sprowston Road, Norwich  NR3 4EH. (0603Ö400477)
(0603Ö417447)
5.10
Risc Developments Ltd     117 Hatfield
Road, St Albans, Herts  AL1 4JS. (0727Ö40303) (0727Ö60263)
5.10
Silicon Vision Ltd     Signal
House, Lyon Road, Harrow, Middlesex  HA1 2AG. (081Ö422Ö2274)
(081Ö427Ö5169)
5.10
Simtron Ltd     4 Clarence Drive, East Grinstead, W. Sussex  RH19 4RZ.
(0342Ö328188)
5.10
Spacetech (p34)    21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset  DT5 2EA.
(0305Ö822753)
5.10
Topologika     P.O. Box 39, Stilton, Peterborough  PE7 3RL. (0733Ö244682)
5.10
4th Dimension     P.O. Box 4444, Sheffield. (0742Ö700661) (0742Ö781091)
5.10
4Mation     11 Castle Park Road, Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple, Devon
EX32á8PA. (0271Ö25353) (0271Ö22974)
5.10
Abacus Training     29 Okus Grove, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts  SN2
6QA.
5.10
Ace Computing (p39)    27 Victoria
Road, Cambridge  CB4 3BW. (0223Ö322559) (0223Ö69180)
5.10
Acorn Computers Ltd     Fulbourn
Road, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge  CB1 4JN. (0223Ö245200) (0223Ö210685)
5.10
Aleph One Ltd     The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, Cambridge  CB5 9BA.
(0223Ö811679) (0223Ö812713)
5.10
Apricote Studios (p31)    2 Purls
Bridge Farm, Manea, Cambridgeshire  PE15 0ND. (035Ö478Ö432)
5.10
Architype    54 Parkes Hall Road, Woodsetton, Dudley, West Midlands
DY1á3SR.
5.10
Calligraph Ltd     53 Panton Street, Cambridge CB2 1HL. (0223Ö461143)
(0223Ö316144)
5.10
CJE Micros     78 Brighton Road, Worthing, W Sussex  BN11 2EN.
(0903Ö213361)
5.10
Clares Micro Supplies     98 Mid
dlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire  CW9 7DA. (0606Ö48511)
(0606Ö48512)
5.10
Commotion     Redburn House, Stockingswater Lane, Enfield  EN3 7TD.
5.10
Colton Software (p20)    2 Signet
Court, Swanns Road, Cambridge  CB5 8LA. (0223Ö311881) (0223Ö312010)
5.10
Computer Concepts (p32/33)    Gaddesden
Place, Hemel Hempstead, Herts  HP2 6EX. (0442Ö63933) (0442Ö231632)
5.10
David Pilling     P.O.Box 22, Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool, FY5 1LR.
5.10
EcoCare Group     Unit 3C, Cromer Business Park, Middlebrook Way, Cromer
NR27á9JR. (0263Ö513553)
5.10
Electronic Font Foundry    Granville
House, 50-52 Upper Village Road, Ascot  SL5 7AQ. (0344Ö28698)
(0344Ö872923)
5.10
ICS (Ian Copestake Software) (p4)    1 Kington
Road, West Kirby, Wirral  L48 5ET. (051Ö625Ö1006) (051Ö625Ö1007)
5.10
Krisalis Software     Teque House,
Masonæs Yard, Downs Row, Moorgate, Rotherham  S60 2HD. (0709Ö372290)
5.10
Kudlian Soft    39 Dalehouse Lane, Kenilworth, Warwickshire  CV8á2HW.
(0926Ö55538)
5.10
LOOKsystems (p19)    47 Goodhale Road, Bowthorpe, Norwich  NR5 9AY.
(0603Ö764114) (0603Ö764011)
5.10

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5.10

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5.10