Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/hints/volume_8

Text File | 1995-08-02 | 79KB | 1,662 lines

Hints and Tips
8.1
•  Disabling capslock − It has been pointed out that the capslock key is
not used very often, and usually only causes confusion when you hit it
accidentally. (This is a polite way of saying that there had been
another emission of blue smoke from the Editor’s desk as I HAD JUST HIT
<CAPSLOCK> ACCIDENTALLY AGAIN!!! Ed.)
8.1
To solve this problem, a short module was written to disable the
capslock key. When the module is loaded, the key will act as a Caps key,
but will not lock, i.e. it acts like a shift key but only affects
letters − the numbers and symbols are unchanged. If you need to re-
enable the capslock function, press <f12> and type *rmkill disablecaps.
8.1
The module, which works on all Archimedes and Risc PC machines, is on
the monthly program disc.  Matthew Hunter, NCS.
8.1
Peace has now been restored in the Editor’s office! As far as I’m
concerned, this module is the best thing since sliced bread. Thanks,
Matthew!!  Ed.
8.1
•  Risc PC hard disc power-saving – Since the advent of RISC OS 3, there
has been an option in the IDEDiscs section of Configure for setting the
spin down delay on the hard drive − similar to the screen blanker. This
is almost always greyed out, preventing it from being used, the
exceptions being the A4 portable and some A3020s. (Some third party
interfaces also support the option, but this hint does not apply to
them.) This makes sense since, with portables, the battery life needs to
be preserved. This is less important on a desktop machine and, also,
there is some question as to the long term effects of spinning the drive
up and down more than necessary.
8.1
It is possible, however, to control the drive in this way even if you
have a different machine, providing that the drive supports the
powersave IDE commands. On the monthly program disc is a command line
program “powersave”. Double click on “!SetDir” which will make sure you
are in the correct directory, press <f12> and type “powersave 4”
<return>. This will give you the list of options and the current spin
status for drive 4 (which will be meaningless if you are not using ADFS
to control the drive). There are three control options detailed below.
8.1
“powersave spindown <drivenumber>” will spin down drive <drivenumber> (4
or 5) immediately. If the drive is not spinning and you try to access
it, there will be a pause while the drive is spun up before the access
takes place (occasionally you can open a directory without spinning up
the drive since it is cached in memory and the drive is never accessed).
8.1
“powersave spinup <drivenumber>” will spin up drive <drivenumber> (4 or
5) immediately.
8.1
“powersave delay <drivenumber> <delay>” will set the power-saving delay
for drive <drive number> to <delay> seconds − note that it is rounded
down to 5-second accuracy but the timing is not particularly accurate
anyway. This will not be configured, so if you want to use this feature,
you will need to run powersave during the boot sequence. It is worth
making the delay longer rather than shorter since continually spinning
your drive up and down could reduce your drive’s life expectancy – you
do this at your own risk.
8.1
One area where this does have a major impact is on the Risc PC − most of
the noise comes not from the fan but from the hard drive, so if you spin
down the drive, you can hardly hear the machine at all.  Matthew Hunter,
NCS.
8.1
•  Splitting Impression documents over several floppy discs − Over the
past six months, I have spent a lot of time working with Tony Tolver of
T-J Reproductions and one thing that always amazed me was the number of
methods used by people to split an Impression document over two or more
discs − after all, how do you get a quart (or 10Mb) into a pint pot (or
800Kb/1.6Mb)?
8.1
The methods I have seen include: PacDir, ArcFS, CFS, Squash and breaking
down the document and moving the contents of Chapter2 onto further discs
and then compressing them all.
8.1
All of these are relatively time-consuming, particularly the last one. I
was sure there ought to be a better way and then I found it by accident
after upgrading to Hard Disc Companion v2.50 from Risc Developments. I
read the manual and found that it was easy to back up just one file or
directory, so here is an easy way for you and for the recipient of your
file to split Impression documents.
8.1
1  Install Hard Disc Companion on your iconbar in the usual way.
8.1
2  Single click on the icon which opens a window.
8.1
3  Click <menu> and choose Destination, Floppy0 and 800K or 1.6M as
appropriate.
8.1
4  Under Preferences, you can select how you wish to make the backup,
i.e. Very Quickly but with no compression or relatively slowly but with
maximum compression. The choice is yours.
8.1
5  Under Files, choose Backup and a window opens onto which you drag
your Impression document.
8.1
6  Finally, click on Start on the main window and simply follow the on-
screen prompts.
8.1
7  Send your file to the destination address.
8.1
Upon receipt, all that needs to be done is to insert the last disc (so
it helps if you label them, 1,2. . . etc) and open the window. Two files
are seen: !Restore and Data. Double click on !Restore to install it on
the iconbar and drag Data over the icon. Click again on Restore and a
new window opens. Simply drag the icon to a new directory or the root
and follow the on-screen prompts. The document will be fully rebuilt on
the recipient’s computer.
8.1
It may interest you to know that I created a dummy Impression document
to test this. It was 20Mb long and I used Hard Disc Companion v2.50 to
split onto six 800Kb floppies at maximum compression − it worked
faultlessly.
8.1
Hard Disc Companion v2.50 costs £45 +p&p +VAT from Risc Developments or
£52 from NCS.  Keith Parker, Southall.  A
8.1
With Risc Developments going into liquidation, we aren’t sure about the
availability of Hard Disc Companion but, presumably, Beebug Ltd will be
taking it over.  Ed.
8.1

Hints and Tips
8.2
•  A3000 bulging case − My early A3000 had, from the start, a standard
Acorn monitor stand upon which was a AKF17 monitor. Of late, I found the
upper case section, on the left hand side by the power supply, had
started to bulge out from the bottom section. This was caused by the
weight of the monitor supported by the Acorn stand only on the extreme
edges of the case.
8.2
In my job as IT Technician at school, I had noticed (having removed
countless covers for various reasons) there have been two upgrades to
the cases, and one of the upgrades had special strengthening and
interlocking around this area, no doubt with this in mind. The latest,
Mk 3 version is available as an Acorn spare part. The base of the new
case requires a lot of work in removing the PCB and any upgrades, and
the power supply design has changed making the changeover awkward.
However the new case lid will fit onto the old base and this alone
offers enough strength to cure the problem.  K R Coton, Solihull.
8.2
•  Disabling POST test (and other useful ‘bits’) − One of our customers
found that because the POST (Power On Self Test, or the software that
makes the screen flash pretty colours at switch on and flashes the
floppy light at you when things go wrong), had been partly disabled,
meaning that his SCSI drive was not given sufficient time to get ready
before the SCSI card demanded its attention. Some people may have
disabled this after installing certain versions of the VIDC enhancer.
The POST will always be reactivated by a delete-power on, but there is a
more subtle way of switching it on or off. Byte 188 (&BC) of the CMOS
RAM contains 8 bits which affect various miscellaneous configuration
options.
8.2
  Bits 0-1  ROMFS Opt 4 state
8.2
  Bit 2  cache icon enable state
8.2
  Bit 3-5  screen blanker time: 0=off, 1=30s, 2=1min, 3=2min, 4=5min,
5=10min, 6=15min, 7=30min.
8.2
  Bit 6  screen blanker/Wrch interaction: 0=ignore Wrch,
8.2
    1=Wrch unblanks screen
8.2
  Bit 7  hardware (POST) test disable: 0=full tests, 1=disable long
tests at power-up.
8.2
RISC OS 3 PRM, 1-358, Acorn Computers Ltd.
8.2
The program disc contains a simple program for altering the state of any
of these bits.  David Webb, NCS.
8.2
•  Inkjet printers and paper quality − A number of items have appeared
here and elsewhere on how to realise to the full the potential quality
of printouts with ink-jet printers. At 300 dpi, one would think it ought
to be indistinguishable from the output from a laser printer with the
same resolution.
8.2
Why is there a problem? All papers are made from fibres, matted
together; thus, if you put a drop of liquid onto a piece of paper, the
fluid will flow between these fibres, carrying with it any dye or
colourant: hence the fuzzy edges of the output from inkjet printers with
unsuitable papers. Coating the paper can eliminate the problem, but at a
substantial cost. However, with careful design of the paper making
process, it is possible to minimise (though not eliminate) this
‘bleeding’.
8.2
I wrote to Hewlett Packard and asked for their recommendations They came
up with two types of paper and their suppliers. I got some samples, and
both were very good but, by a small margin, ‘Versoix Copy’ seemed to me
the better (and cheaper). The other, ‘Reyjet’, is close behind and both
are streets ahead of most ordinary photocopier paper. Neither is very
expensive (about £3.00 per ream for Vesiox and £5.50 for Reyjet) but
neither are very readily available. If you write to the distributors,
they will send you samples and the name of your nearest stockist.
8.2
Versoix Copy − Darent Paper Agencies, Wandle House, Riverside Drive,
Mitcham, Surrey, CR4 4SU. (0181-640-4102)
8.2
Reyjet − Denian Paper Ltd, Unit D2, West Mill, Imperial Business Estate.
Gravesend, Kent, DA11 0DL. (01474-569919)  Barry Humpidge.
8.2
•  Irregular text frames in Publisher − In response to one of Keith
Parker’s wish-it-did-that moans in the Comment Column (8.1 p31), I would
suggest that whilst irregular text frames would be nice, the use of a
regular frame “framed” by a couple of repelling irregular graphics
frames (drag an empty drawfile into blank frames) does the job, with a
little fiddling.  John McCartney.
8.2
•  Large banners in Impression − To create a six foot long banner, or
similar, using Impression, create a new master page, “Banner”, width
72“, depth 8”, Landscape, margins 0.5 with one column. Quit the master
pages and alter the chapter of the document, selecting “Banner” as the
master page. Change the font size to around 400 point and centre the
text. Type the banner message. Print out on tractor fed continuous paper
(sideways!). Vector offers some useful banners ready made, or you can
use Impression’s Borders in ‘Alter Frame’, to enhance the finished
article.  Irene Quinn, Thetford, Norfolk.
8.2
•  Laser Direct on the Risc PC − If you are upgrading to a Risc PC and
have an elderly Laser Direct card, it will not work if it is “Issue one”
(the computer will not initialise after the board has been plugged into
one of the expansion slots). This type can be quickly identified by the
fact that it is the only version where there is a ribbon cable
connecting the circuit board to the printer output socket. Computer
Concepts will exchange this type of board for the latest version for
£100. You will probably also need a copy of the most recent version
(2.63) of the printer driver disc at £10.  David Smith, Edinburgh.
8.2
•  More Sleuths on the case − If you are lucky enough to have lots of
memory on your machine you can run two or more copies of Sleuth at the
same time, so that if you are OCRing several pages of text, the rate of
OCRing can be considerably increased. On a simple test run, two copies
running saved 36% on the time taken and three copies saved nearly 50% on
the time! It then occurred to me that using more than one copy might be
infringing the software licence, but on checking with Risc Developments,
I was assured that this was not the case.  Philip Foster, Cambridge.
8.2
•  Turbo charging draft printing with a Deskjet printer − What I didn’t
realise, until I tried it by accident, was that the ‘Draft’ button on
the printer worked with graphic (e.g. output from Impression), as well
as ‘straight’ printing. Thus, with your printer driver set to 150 dpi,
and the ‘draft’ light on, you can produce readable copies for proof
reading in virtually no time at all!  Barry Humpidge.
8.2
•  Turbo Driver v4 and Dongles − If you are using CC’s Turbo Driver v4
on a computer with a bi-directional parallel port, via a dongle, the
status signals don’t get through. This includes signals, such as “paper
out” and “printer offline” etc. If the driver software is looking for
these signals you may find that printing is blocked. To bypass the
problem call up the configuration dialogue box and configure to ignore
status signals.  Nick Harris, Norwich.  A
8.2

Hints and Tips
8.3
•  A3000 bulging case (Archive 8.2 p62) − In the hint last month, I
suggested replacing the plastic cases of A3000 computers. In the text I
sent to Paul, I made some mention of safety aspects but Paul edited them
out. (Oops, sorry!) Please note that, for a variety of reasons, you
should not attempt to change the bottom case if your power supply is the
cardboard-covered type. If you are unsure, I would be happy for you to
write to me or ring me on 01564-776745.  Keith Coton, 118 Purnells Way,
Knowle, Solihull, B93 9ED.
8.3
•  Binder problems − A number of people have said that, when they
reached the end of Volume 7, the last magazine wouldn’t fit into the
binder. Let me assure you that they do fit in the binder (well, just).
If you can’t get them in, it could be because you have been putting the
rods into the holes instead of into the slots. The holes are there only
for use when the volume is incomplete, i.e. with a half-full binder, the
magazines tend to flop about and the rods easily come out unless you put
the rod for the top issue into an appropriate pair of holes. I suppose
we ought to send out instructions with the binders, but having used the
same binders for 8 years, I forget that they are new to some of you.
Sorry! Ed.
8.3
•  Day of the week function − I agree entirely with the basic message of
Cain Hunt’s article, “Why bother programming?” (8.1 p29). When I write
number-crunching programs in Basic, I ‘print’ the results to a spool
file, which I drag into Impression and format into a suitable
presentation document.
8.3
One helpful comment, if I may, is that the calendar shouldn’t need to be
told the day of the week of January 1. The function to use (which
returns a value in the range 0=Sunday to 6=Saturday) is:
8.3
DEFFNNewYear(Y%)=(1+1461*(Y%−1)DIV4−(1+ (Y%−1)DIV100)*3DIV4)MOD7
8.3
Colin Singleton, Sheffield.
8.3
•  Impression’s single-file document icon − In Archive 8.2 p.19, Paul
complained about the very dowdy grey icons that Impression Publisher and
Style use for their documents.
8.3
Fortunately, this is easily changed: All you have to do is look for the
sprite called file_bc5 in the three directories !Sprites, !Sprites22 and
!Sprites23 inside Impression’s application directory, and the sprite
called docsprites inside Resources.Sprites; you can replace them with
whatever icons you prefer − I took the Impression II document sprite and
changed its background from white to pale yellow to be able to tell the
two types of documents apart.  Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany
8.3
This was one of many similar suggestions. Thanks to all who attempted to
put me out of my misery. My desktop is now resplendent with white I’s
and yellow I’s, so now I can see which I is which. Ed.
8.3
•  Inkjet paper quality (8.2 p63) − Reyjet paper can be obtained from
‘Staples (Office Superstores)’. The price, a few months ago, was £2.39
(+VAT) per ream. I have found these stores to be well worth a visit, in
terms of both choice and price. Their catalogue contains a paper/printer
type compatibility chart and lists five types suitable for b/w inkjets
(from 80gsm to 100gsm, one in A3 size) and three for colour inkjets. The
Superstores tend to be Home Counties-based (Croydon, High Wycombe, and
Staples Corner in London) but they have other stores through the country
(e.g. Leeds, Cambridge, Swansea, etc.) though I do not know if they
carry full stocks.  Bob Bourne, Ware.
8.3
If anyone can’t get Versoix paper locally, it is readily available from
Viking Direct at £5.49 per ream or £19.95 per 5 reams, both excluding
VAT and delivery. Eight reams or more are delivered free, usually
overnight. Viking Direct are on Freephone 0800-424444 and have a very
wide range of general computer and office supplies.  Jim Nottingham,
York.
8.3
•  Impression’s “Some fonts not found” − Since the arrival of Impression
Style and Publisher, I have read repeated complaints about the fact that
both versions still replace fonts that have been used in a document but
are currently not available, with the default font. Coupled with this
complaint, usually, is a wish that there should be an option to abort
and install the missing fonts (most recently in Archive 8.1, p.31).
8.3
I can’t quite see the point of these complaints. I work with just three
or four fonts most of the time, so that one of the all-singing, all-
dancing font handlers like FontDirectory would be a waste of money for
me. Therefore, I have simply distributed my fonts over four directories
− a small one with those few fonts that I use most often and, one step
down in the directory structure, the rest, grouped according to their
general look.
8.3
When Impression Style now gives out its “not found” message, all I have
to do is let RISC OS 3.10 “see” the relevant font directory, then press
<f12><return>, and the missing font will be loaded into Style.
8.3
Problems really only occur when you load someone else’s document with
fonts which you don’t have. In this case, it would be nice if Impression
gave the option to choose the replacement font. You could then use
something really noticeable like Dingbats, so that it would be easy to
locate the style or effect that needed changing.  Jochen Konietzko,
Köln, Germany.
8.3
•  NoCaps II − After the hint in Archive 8.1 regarding disabling the
capslock key I had a request for a version that would respond normally
to capslock, but turn it off when shift was pressed. This could be
useful for things like postcodes, where it is easier to turn capslock on
than to get confused about when you need to press <shift>. Rather than
adding this functionality to the original module, I generated a new
version, which is more economical on space than having both in one, and
you are only likely to use one or the other. The two modules are on this
month’s disc as NoCaps (disable capslock as before) and SNoCaps (shift
disable capslock).  Matthew Hunter, NCS.
8.3
•  Powersave & libraries − Several people have expressed interest in the
powersave program from issue 8.1 of Archive, but have had difficulty
incorporating it into their !Boot sequence. I will therefore describe
how to install it. (The methods apply equally to other command line
programs you may wish to run − just replace powersave in the description
below with the program you wish to install.)
8.3
There are three basic ways around this problem. The first thing to do
(whichever method you use) is to find your boot file. If your machine
has RISC OS 3.11 or earlier, the boot file will be in the root directory
of your hard disc (unless you have moved it). On the Risc PC you will
have to hold down shift (to open application directories) and double-
click on !Boot, Choices, Boot, Tasks, in that order, as you go down the
directory structure (clicking with <adjust> each time will close the
previous filer window − useful in this situation). Once you have located
your boot file (called ‘!Boot’) hold shift and double-click on it to
load it into !Edit. Find where in the boot sequence you wish to run the
program and insert a blank line. Make sure the cursor is at the start of
the blank line, ready for the command that will execute the desired
program.
8.3
Probably the easiest method is to use an absolute reference. Copy
powersave somewhere ‘safe’ and preferably out of the way so that it does
not clutter the hard disc. Type “RUN ” and then hold down <shift> and
drag the ‘powersave’ icon, from where you put it, into the text window
containing the boot file set up above. When you release <select>, you
should see the full pathname appear in the text file following the run
command. You can then set up the parameters as described below.
8.3
The second possibility is to set aside a special directory where you
keep all your command line programs. Fortunately, Acorn provide such a
system, the Library directory, which on pre-Risc PC machines is, by
default, a directory called ‘Library’ in the root of your hard disc. On
the Risc PC, there is a directory inside the !Boot application, also
called ‘Library’. Open the appropriate Library directory and copy
powersave into it. You can then type ‘powersave’ into the blank line in
the boot file ready for the parameters to follow.
8.3
This is fine except that it relies on default settings, and puts
programs into Library that you only use very rarely. The method I use
therefore is to put the programs, and utility applications that I load
only during the boot sequence (backdrop picker, configuration tester,
for example), into a directory, say ‘BootLib’. I then have a line in my
Boot file ‘set BootLib$Path full::pathname.$.for.BootLib.’ as
appropriate for the location of the BootLib directory. Again, this can
be found by Shift-dragging BootLib into the text editor, but note that,
to be successful, the path must end with a full stop. I can then run any
program in Bootlib with the command ‘BootLib:progname’. This is longer
for a single program, but I only have to set bootlib once, and then
reference it several times. I have an absolute reference, so the default
settings do not affect it, and the library directory is kept for
frequently used programs. It is also far simpler to move the directory −
if you use the first method, you have to re-enter the full pathname for
every program that has moved. If I move BootLib, however, I only have to
change the line where BootLib is set, and all the programs will work as
before.
8.3
Once you have got the program ready to run by one of the three methods
above, all you need to do is to add any parameters to the end of the
line as appropriate for the program. In the case of powersave, an
example would be ‘delay 4 120’ for a two minute inactivity delay before
spinning down the drive. Do not use ‘spindown’ in your boot sequence.
Doing so will force the drive to spindown part way through the boot, and
immediately spin back up again, causing unnecessary strain.  Matthew
Hunter.
8.3
•  Publisher: editing effects − It is possible to edit effects as if
they were styles and even then to turn them from effects into styles. If
you look inside !Publisher, in the Resources directory is a file called
UK. In it is a line: “Cnf1:” and if you change this to read “Cnf1:E” and
re-save it, then from the next time you load Publisher, you will find
that effects become editable just as if they were styles.
8.3
This partially solved a problem caused by the change to Publisher.
8.3
With Impression II, when articles came in that had bits in bold, I would
just put them into the magazine and the “bold” bits would come out as
Plantin.Semibold. (I prefer to use Plantin.Bold because the body text is
Plantin.Light and the full bold face, although OK for headings, looks
too dark within the body of the text.) This worked because, prior to
Style and Publisher, anything using the bold effect was given the name
“bold” and, in the magazine, the “bold” style was defined as using
Plantin.Semibold.
8.3
However, if contributors us <ctrl-B> for bold, when I load it into the
magazine, it forces the text into Plantin.Bold. At first, I had to edit
“by hand” every single occurrence of the bold effect, changing it into
my bold style! The way I now get round it is to go to the incoming file,
click on a piece of “bold” text and press <ctrl-f6> to edit the style.
The effect then appears in the style editing window as something like
“Effect17”, or whatever. All I have to do then is to change this name to
“Bold” and this then becomes a style rather than an effect and, when
loaded into the magazine, it automatically assumes my Plantin.Semibold
style.  Ed.
8.3
•  Publisher: finding styles and effects − If you are given a document
that contains a huge range of effects and styles, as I often am, it is
good to simplify it before pasting it into another document. (You would
be amazed at the complex combinations of styles and effects people use
in their documents!!) You have the choice of a quick <ctrl-A><ctrl-N> to
remove all styles and effects and then re-insert the styles you really
want or of leaving in some styles and removing others. But how do you
know which style/effect does what? Well, styles are easy because you can
use search and replace to find them. The menu button next to the “Find
what:” box allows you to enter the name of a style. Then add an “@” and
it will find the first occurrence of anything in that style.
8.3
Finding effects is more tortuous and can only be achieved if you have
used the Cnf1:E trick mentioned above. So, if you press <ctrl-A> and
look across on the Style menu, you will see a list of ticked styles and
effects. Suppose you decide you want to find what and where “Effect 598”
is. The trick is that you double-click on a word and use the Style menu
option to apply Effect 598 to it. Pressing <ctrl-f6> will then bring up
Effect 598 on the Edit style window. Click on “Show on style menu” and
OK it. Now you can go to the top of the document and use <f4> to find
that effect as it will now appear on the find style menu. The only bit
of really bad planning here is that, if you want to look at each of the
occurrences of this effect and get rid of some of them, you cannot use
<ctrl-N> to remove the effect because <ctrl-N> is taken to mean “next
match” when you are searching! Drat! Keystroke to the rescue again. I
have programmed <alt-N> to give me the menu selection, Style − Clear all
styles. Ed.
8.3
•  Screenload on the Risc PC − It has been pointed out that the
*screenload command appears to work differently on the Risc PC from
previous machines, in that it no longer loads into the current graphics
window but loads at the bottom left corner of the screen instead. In
fact the operation has not changed, but is modified by the new mode
system. A screenload will load the sprite to the screen, changing mode
if necessary, and it is the mode change that causes the problems. For
example, if, while in mode 31, you screenload a sprite, defined in mode
27, the computer will change to mode 27 first. Changing mode redefines
the graphics window, so you will find that (on any machine) the result
of the following program will be to place the sprite in the bottom left
hand corner of the screen (assuming there is a sprite called ‘test’,
defined in mode 27 in the currently selected directory).
8.3
MODE 31
8.3
VDU 24;100;100;600;600;
8.3
*SCREENLOAD test
8.3
This is because the graphics window set by the VDU 24 is reset by the
mode change implied in the *screenload. Adding the lines.
8.3
VDU 24;200;200;600;600;
8.3
*SCREENLOAD test
8.3
to the end of the program will successfully move the sprite to 200,200
before plotting... except on the Risc PC. This occurs because the mode
is already set to 27, so the mode is not changed, and the graphics
window remains intact. The problem with the Risc PC is that when the
machine tries to change into mode 27 (after the first screenload) it
ends up as a 640 by 480, 16 colours, 60Hz mode. Therefore, although the
sprite is loaded, the machine is not actually in mode 27, so the next
screenload also tries to change to mode 27, resetting the graphics
window again. Unfortunately changing the mode in which a sprite is
defined is does not cure the problem. If you need to move the sprite
away from the bottom left corner, you will need to use sprite calls to
load and plot the sprite yourself.  Matthew Hunter, NCS.
8.3
•  Style file size − The Impression Style manual says that: “Deleting
unused master pages does not make the document significantly smaller”
(page 180) and “Single file format has the advantage that files are
smaller. This is useful for short documents such as letters” (page 17).
However, there is no comment on the merits of deleting unused styles, so
I thought I would check it out.
8.3
Taking a two page letter built on a letter master page and with a sprite
picture (25,240 bytes), I have tested these statements out. The Info Box
gave:
8.3
Document  Pages: 2  Size: 171Kb
8.3
Text  Stories: 19  Memory: 6Kb
8.3
  Chapters: 1  Words: 452
8.3
Graphics  Pictures: 5  Memory: 147Kb
8.3
When saved, the document took up 175,912 bytes (single file) or 176,543
bytes (directory)
8.3
The reason for the massive size is that I had four master pages for
different letter-type documents, each with the logo graphic. So, after
removing three unused master pages, the document took up: 42,792 (single
file) or 44,367 (directory).
8.3
The document had fifteen other unused master pages which took up between
188 and 1,216 bytes each − when all were removed, the document shrank
to: 35,316 (single file) or 36,851 (directory).
8.3
If I saved the text only, with no style information, it only occupied
2,332 bytes.
8.3
As I already have the picture stored elsewhere, I only need to keep the
text and that does not need any style or frame information and so my
final storage needs will not be 176Kb but about 2Kb which can then be
very effectively archived.
8.3
What I have learnt from this: (1) save all writing as text files if
possible, (2) redundant styles do not take up a large amount of space
and there is no benefit in removing them for storage reasons and (3) be
careful how many times you save graphics, especially in dormant master
pages!
8.3
I will now remove many of the master pages from my default document and
save them in separate documents (or in useful groups as I don’t think
you can merge master pages into one document!) for when I need them.
This will also have the knock-on effect of having smaller initial
documents in memory which will load more quickly!  Robert Lytton,
Leeds.  A

Hints and Tips
8.4
• Risc PC monitor configuration − One of the biggest problems people
have had with the Risc PC is finding that their machine will not drive
the monitor correctly, either because they are using a non-standard
monitor, or they have accidentally configured the machine incorrectly.
The !Mon application aims to rescue you from this situation.
8.4
The program has a number of local monitor definition files, which it
will try in turn. One of them should give a usable display on your
monitor, after which you should set up your machine again so that the
configuration is correct.
8.4
In order to use the program, you will need to do the following, typing
blind where necessary:
8.4
a) Turn on the computer and wait for it to finish booting up (wait until
the hard disc activity stops).
8.4
b) Insert the program disc into the floppy drive.
8.4
c) Press <f12>.
8.4
d) type “adfs” and press <return>.
8.4
e) type “mount 0” and press <return>.
8.4
f) type “start” and press <return>.
8.4
This will start the program and try the first monitor definition file
AKF11/12 which will not work on the AKF60’s/85’s supplied with the Risc
PC, but it is better to try this one first than a high end monitor
definition file which could damage a TV resolution monitor. You can
cycle through the available monitors by pressing <space>. Alternatively
you can jump to any of the files by pressing the appropriate number key,
the most useful are 4 (AKF60) and 5(AKF85). When the program loads a new
monitor definition file it will pause for two seconds, to give the
monitor time to catch up, and then beep. If you have a stable picture€,
press <y> to finish, followed by <return> to get back to the desktop.
Note that this will not reconfigure your machine – if you switch off
without reconfiguring, you will have the same problems next time – but
it will get you a working system. This program is on the monthly program
disc. Matthew Hunter, NCS.  A

•  DPatch/DongleKey – This program was on the Archive 7.9 Program Disc
to unlock Impression/Artworks dongles which otherwise can prevent
printing taking place.
8.5
If all CC dongles are removed from a machine, DPatch must be deleted
from the !Boot file. Without a dongle fitted, DPatch will cause all
printer output to be corrupted. I discovered this when transferring
Publisher and Artworks from A5000 to Risc PC and attempting to set up
the A5000 with a Star XB24-10. The Risc PC does not need the patch to
allow printing to go ahead in the absence of Publisher or Artworks. S
Goddard, Bury St Edmunds.
8.5
•  Garbled *Screensave: This is a cross between a bug-report and a note
saying, “If this happens to you, you’re not going mad”. I’ve just
started using !Quickshow, a neat little slide-show utility from DeskTop
Projects. When it saved a completed screen to disc, it seemed to write a
garbled sprite, with blocks of the sprite moved around internally.
Examining the code showed that the program simply displays the sprite on
screen and then does a *Screensave to write the sprite to disc.
Furthermore, the corrupting of the sprite didn’t occur when I wrote to
floppy rather than to my hard disc. Writing a one-line Basic program to
perform a screen dump replicated the bug absolutely consistently, and
only in mode 15. I conclude that, on my A310, RISC OS 3.10, with version
1.16 of the Oak SCSI software, with a 270Mb Quantum drive, in mode 15,
*SCREENSAVE to the hard disc has a bug – somewhere! I don’t know what to
suspect, but if you ever encounter garbled sprites, don’t blame the
application – or tear your hair out!  Stuart Bell, Horsham.
8.5
•  Tablemate warning − Unless your table is small, DO NOT type your data
directly into Tablemate. Instead, type it into a CSV file using Edit and
import that. I have two tables several pages long and did not import the
text. As a result the only way I can now edit them is by exporting
drawfiles and patching them back together.  Peter Bond, Carnforth.  A
8.5

Hints and Tips
8.6
•  DPatch/DongleKey − Contrary to S Goddard’s comments about DPatch (8.5
p32), in my experience, DPatch is needed on the Risc PC if a Publisher
dongle is fitted, but Publisher has not been loaded. Any comments?  F
Jukes, Leeds.
8.6
•  Mode summary − This was written for those with hires/multisync
monitors and shows what is available.
8.6
The choice of screen mode is a trade-off between the various factors and
how much you want to get on the screen and one time.
8.6
Refresh speeds depend on the individual, but I find the 51Hz of mode 102
flickers too much on my monitor, so I designed 107. The higher the
better with refresh rates.
8.6
Speed refers to how much the screen mode slows down the ordinary Acorn
computer. To keep the screen re-drawing quickly, use a mode with a
higher figure.
8.6
Square screen modes give a better idea of what the final result will be
like, though rectangular modes are usually quite adequate except for
accurate graphic work.
8.6
All the information was gathered using Flip Top from Computer Concepts.
Steve Hutchinson, Gloucester.
8.6
•  Style/Publisher file sizes − Robert Lytton was writing about graphics
eating up disc space when used on several master pages within an
Impression document. I had the same problem with my “stationery”
document, containing master pages for A4 letterhead, A5, US letter (for
sending a fax to North America), comp slip, etc − each had my squiggly
logo − about 30Kb compressed.
8.6
I was pleased to find that Impression’s ‘Select-Adjust trick’ works:
Make a blank frame on each master page, drop the graphic into one of
them, then click <Select> on it and <Adjust> in all the others. Bingo!
The graphic appears wherever you want it but only once in memory. The
“master” chapter behaves in the same way as ordinary chapters in the
document. Jim Nagel, Glastonbury.
8.6
•  Updating software − When updating a piece of software, it is tempting
to simply copy the new version over the old version with the newer
option set. This is not ideal, however, since it leaves old redundant
files in the application, taking up space. Therefore it is better to
delete the old version (or move it elsewhere if you are worried about
losing it) before installing the new. Roger Darlington, Manchester.  A
8.6
Mode  Size  Memory   Refresh  Speed  Colours   Shape
8.6
Acorn standard modes
8.6
12  640×256  96k  100Hz  4.79  16  Rect
8.6
20  640×512  160k  51Hz  4.7  16  Square
8.6
21  640×512  320k  51Hz  2.59  256  Square
8.6
27  640×480  160k  59Hz  4.57  16  Square
8.6
28  640×480  320k  59Hz  2.12  256  Square
8.6
31  800×600  256k  37Hz  4.69  16  Square
8.6
39  896×352  160k  60Hz  4.51  16  Rect
8.6
40  896×352  320k  60Hz  2.08  256  Rect
8.6
Modes from Newmodes, VIDC enhancer or WW modes
8.6
66  832×288  128k  79Hz  4.57  16  Rect
8.6
67  832×288  256k  79Hz  2.03  256  Rect
8.6
98  800×600  256k  57Hz  4.99  16  Square
8.6
(99 should be 256 colour version, but my Taxan 770+ won’t work with it)
8.6
102  1152×448  256k  51Hz  5.06  16  Rect
8.6
107  1088×432  256k  60Hz  5.13  16  Rect
8.6

Hints and Tips
8.7
•  Desktop Font − If you find you are losing information on RISC OS 3.5
because your desktop font means that characters are truncated in icons
designed to take the System font, remember that you can select the
system font, until software producers catch up. Alternatively you can
edit the offending templates using FormEd, or similar. Peter Prewett,
South Australia.
8.7
•  “Gang screen” in RISC OS 3.5 − In RISC OS 3.10 there is a hidden
“gang screen”, showing the names of the people who worked on the
version; does anyone know if such a thing also exists in version 3.5? Or
can it be that the developers have, this time, only put that picture
into the “50-99” directory of !SlideShow images?  Jochen Konietzko,
Köln, Germany.
8.7
If you open the RISC OS 3.5 info window (press <menu> over the iconbar
acorn) and use the menu button to click out the word “team” on the
letters of “Acorn Computers”, it will initiate a list of names for you.
Matthew Hunter, NCS.
8.7
•  !KeyStroke’s KeysLib − If you use KeyStroke, you should take a close
look at the small Basic programs inside the KeysLib library − some of
them are very useful!
8.7
My personal favourites are forceAback and forceAfront which give you
quick access to parts of the Pinboard hidden by a window. ForceAback
puts all windows behind the Pinboard (you can see that they aren’t
simply closed if one of them extends down onto the iconbar) and
forceAfront reverses the process. To hide the windows, you define a
keystroke for a *Command:
8.7
Text: *Run <Keystroke$Lib>.forceAback
8.7
The equivalent text for forceAfront will make the windows reappear. Of
course, you must make sure that the filer has ‘seen’ KeysLib for this to
work.  Jochen Konietzko, Köln.
8.7
•  Long file names in RISC OS 3.5 − In Archive 8.6 p.68, Keith Hodge
made a little wish list for future versions of RISC OS; one of those
wishes was ‘long file names’. The manual for the German RISC OS 3.50D
does indeed state that a name must be between one and ten characters
long but this does not seem to be the whole truth. I have grown
accustomed to using the Cropping option in RISC OS 3.10, which meant
that I did not have to count if the intended name had exactly ten or
maybe more letters but on my Risc PC those slightly too long names are
not cropped!
8.7
As the picture shows, it is possible to type in up to 30 characters
before there is an error message “Name too long”. This seems to work
only in MemFS − surely there should be a way to implement it
everywhere?  Jochen Konietzko, Köln.
8.7
(This doesn’t seem to work on the UK version of RISC OS 3.5. Ed.)
8.7
•  Saving Wolfenstein games − Have you, too, noticed that sometimes,
when you save a game in Wolfenstein 3D, the name disappears, giving an
‘empty’ slot in the Save window?
8.7
If you have, you probably use CC’s !Compression. I have found that on my
RISC PC, as long as the !CFS.!Run file is open, the save option of
Wolfenstein 3D does not work properly (If you don’t know how to find out
which files are open, there’s a little PD utility called !FileMan which
lists all open files and allows you to close them one by one.)  Jochen
Konietzko, Köln.
8.7
•  Talking !Alarm − I have always wanted to have alarms which spoke to
me but I could not find a way to do this. When I dropped sound files
onto the Alarm Set window, all I got was a silent graph from Audioworks
or Soundlab. However, there is a way, thanks to an idea given to me by
David Pratt who used to run GemPD. I have used this on the Risc PC, but
I see no reason why it shouldn’t work on any other machine. There is
probably a clever ‘programmers type’ way to do this, but I am a simple
‘drag and drop’ person with no programming skills at all. You just need
two small Utilities obtainable from PD. They are !Compress and !Player
both by David Radford and obtainable from Datafile.
8.7
Using the Oak Recorder and !Soundlab, make Armadeus files of anything
you want Alarm to tell you. My first recording was of my wife saying
“It’s midnight − time to come to bed!” I also recorded snippets like
“Coffee time” and, I have to confess, “Time to watch Neighbours”.
8.7
Using !Compress, make compressed versions of these files. You must not
keep the uncompressed files in the computer or !Player seems to get
confused and an unholy row erupts!
8.7
Now load !Player into your Risc PC Bootfile in Choices.Boot.Tasks. When
you drop one of the compressed sound files into the Alarm Set window,
choose Task alarm and set the time and day, !Player in the boot file
activates the sound exactly on time.
8.7
“Are there any drawbacks?” I hear you cry. Well, I found that having
done their job, the compressed sound files seem to remain open, so that
when the computer boots up each morning it goes happily through each
recording again playing them until finished. But a small price to pay
for having a talking chum who tells you what to do each moment of the
day. No doubt there will be someone who can tell us how to stop this
little problem.  Christopher Jarman, Winchester.
8.7
•  Turbo Drivers and Printers 1.28 − the current versions of the Turbo
Drivers complain that they need a later version of !Printers when you
try to install them into the latest version of !Printers, currently
being shipped with new Risc PCs. This can be circumvented by copying the
install program to your hard disc, and editing the copy by removing line
91 of the !RunImage file (that is the 91st line of the program, not
Basic line 91). The Turbo Drivers should then install correctly. If you
do not wish to attempt this then get in contact with Computer Concepts.
CC Technical Support.  A

Hints and Tips
8.8
CC Turbo Driver v4 − I’d like to pass on to other Archive readers some
answers that I received from CC.
8.8
1) The command *Printer$BlackScale is no longer supported by the v4
TurboDrivers; instead, CC offer “sophisticated colour correction
tables”; those for HP printers are “shortly” to be released.
8.8
2) The Turbo module which could be used in earlier versions of the TD to
enable other printer drivers to use the dongled cable has been replaced
by the program !PrintQFS, which is cunningly hidden within
!System.!CCShared.
8.8
By the way, CC informed me that Style has reached version 3.07. Free
upgrades from v. 3.04 can be obtained in the usual way − by sending in
master disk 1. (Don’t forget to send the return postage!)
8.8
Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany u
8.8
Fireworkz Pro − I reported some problems with version 1.20 to Colton
Software and was told (in a letter dated 15th March) that the latest
version, 1.20/50, fixes most of these problems. Version 1.21 “is due out
in about three weeks”. (Colton are currently saying, “it will be
available during April”. Ed) The upgrade procedure here is to send in
both program disks − don’t forget − return postage!
8.8
Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany u
8.8
Printing from text editors − I mentioned, in my review of lottery
packages, that one of them would not print on my LaserDirect, because it
‘prints’ to a null file instead of to the printer. I have now stopped
trying to use Zap for the same reason. If I drag a text file to the
printer icon (with Zap installed instead of Edit), it prints properly
but if I try to print the document currently displayed on the screen, it
does not. I don’t know whether this is a general problem or whether I
have overlooked some control parameter.
8.8
Colin Singleton, Sheffield u
8.8
Many text editors, including both Edit and Zap, cheat when you try to
print and send the data directly to the parallel port. This is fine if
you have a standard printer, but if you use a different connection (e.g.
serial or laser direct), the file will not be printed. Also, if you use
a Turbo Driver, it is circumvented by Edit, so the text is corrupted.
There are a couple of ways around this.
8.8
You can save to a file and drag that to the printer icon, or try
dragging the file from the save box to the print icon. This should have
the same result and it means that you don’t have to delete the file
afterwards. With Zap, you can also press <shift-print> rather than
<print> which will force the printout to go via the printer driver.
Since Zap allows you to reconfigure the keyboard shortcuts, you can set
<print> to print via the printer driver. (Choose Edit keys from the
options submenu, find the print keymapping which, by default, will be
set to Quickprint and change it to Printfile. Save the keys file and
choose Reload keys again, from the options submenu for the change to
take effect).
8.8
Matthew Hunter, NCS u
8.8
Wolfenstein bugs − A few days after I had sent my Wolfenstein hint
(Archive 8.7, p.12) to Paul, I found that sometimes the saved files
remained open even though the !Cfs.!Run file was not.  I turned to
PowerSlave for help and this is what Eddie Edwards told me:
8.8
There is a bug in Wolfenstein’s code which means that the files are only
closed when the current directory is on the same filing system as
Wolfenstein. Since I use ADFS and SCSI, this would often not be the
case.
8.8
The recommended remedy is to add, at the start of the !Run file, a
Dir<Obey$Dir> command.
8.8
This fix seems to work perfectly.
8.8
Another problem I have is that Wolfenstein always kills my computer’s
beep. This bug can be fixed by adding:
8.8
Channelvoice 1 MyVoice
8.8
to the end of the !Run file.
8.8
Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany u
From COmment COlumn
Turbo Drivers (not a) problem − The problem of Printers 1.28 with the
current versions of the Turbo Drivers has, apparently, now been fixed,
so please do not remove line 91 (as we stated in Archive 8.7 p13) of the
!RunImage file! If you still have a problem, contact Computer Concepts.
8.8
CC Technical Support u

Hints and Tips
8.9
Canon BJ200 + CC TurboDriver − I have had a number of problems with this
combination, and thought my solutions may help others.
8.9
The first problem concerned the output of IBM ProPrinter strings. These
occur because the BJ-200 printer definition file supplied is an IBM
definition file, and should therefore be labelled as BJ10 since IBM
strings cannot be used in BJ200 mode. The converse also applies, i.e.
BJ-10 mode cannot handle Epson strings. I then used an Epson printer
definition file from the Acorn supplied discs, and all the problems
disappeared.
8.9
The second problem concerned printing from Basic. I have written a WIMP
application which writes out a series of results for the bridge club of
which I am a member. I need to write direct from Basic so that I can
alter the print style and line and row spacing to produce the best
layout, using the comprehensive spacing and styles provided in BJ200
mode. It makes no sense to write these strings to the screen so I use
*FX3,10 to start the printed output and *FX3,0 to stop it. Everything
prints perfectly, but a drawfile will not print afterwards. I eventually
discovered that the *FX3,10 caused a Turboqueue file to be created, but
the *FX3,0 command leaves the file open and thus hangs the printing
process. I finally received a letter from CC today and I quote:-
8.9
“Regarding the Basic printing ‘problem’. The operating system itself
will not close the printout file after a *FX3,0. Indeed, we have
reported this as a bug to Acorn. However, if you immediately follow the
*FX3,0 command with a VDU3, then the file will close correctly.”
8.9
I have tried it and it works!
8.9
John Wallace, Crawley
8.9
CD-ROMs − With the advent of magazine CD-ROMs, which usually come in a
soft plastic sleeve, the safe storage of these can be made using a 5¼“
disc box.
8.9
Ted Lacey, Southampton
8.9
Cursor movements in Publisher − There have been moans about one aspect
of Impression Publisher in various Acorn magazines: <shift-cursor> no
longer moves the cursor by one word, but is used for selecting text.
8.9
In the latest version (1.05) of Publisher, the Preferences dialogue box
contains the option “Shift Cursor Word Move”, so you can take your pick.
8.9
Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany
8.9
Debugging via the serial port − Why has no-one extolled the virtues of a
second machine connected via the serial port? Even on the old BBC B,
this can be very useful. A trivial Basic program on the second machine
will print out the incoming data stream. Debugging time can then be cut
by such simple things as
8.9
os_cli(echo Start of initialise() {serial: });
8.9
in a C file. Clearly this is rather basic; a variadic function like
printf() is much more flexible, but the general usefulness, especially
when working on desktop applications, is considerable. Besides, there
must be lots of old machines around gathering dust. I use an old mono
Kaga monitor I’ve had since soon after the BBC first came out, and an
old 310 with no disc drive.
8.9
John West, Surrey
8.9
Deskjet 540 problems − I recently bought an HP DeskJet 540, the
replacement for the DJ520 and then spent a frustrating weekend trying to
get it to work with my A5000. I got beautiful printouts but it took half
an hour to print an A4 page. I tried the latest Acorn DeskJet driver
sent to me by Gerald Fitton, but it was no better than previous
versions.
8.9
As soon as Monday came, I phoned Acorn and they had just heard from
their Australian office that other people had similar problems. Since
the DeskJet 540 is software controlled and the Centronics protocol has
been slightly modified, the 540 and A5000 were incompatible.
8.9
The earlier Deskjet 520 was perfectly suitable to work with the A5000
but it was now officially off the market. Fortunately, the shop where I
purchased the 540 gave me a full refund when I explained the dilemma,
and I knew that I had seen a 520 recently in another store. I was lucky
and purchased the last one in stock − its monochrome resolution 600 by
300 is the same as the 540 but it does not have the colour upgradability
of the 540.
8.9
Acorn say that the 540 should work satisfactorily with the Risc PC but
not with earlier computers, due to hardware differences in the
controller.
8.9
(I gather that, after further investigation, it seems that the problem
is only with certain A5000s, not with all of them. Ed.)
8.9
Michael Nurse, Cambridge
8.9
Gang Screen in RISC OS 3.5 − With reference to Hints & Tips (Archive
8.7), the list of names can be initiated by four clicks of the menu
button over any part of © Acorn Computers Ltd, 1994, although it
sometimes refuses to work again until after a reboot.
8.9
M R Buckland, Daventry
8.9
Impression printing − Now, I know you all know this, but... for months,
I have been cursing the fact that, with Acorn’s new printer drivers and
LaserDirect, printing one file too soon after another causes a “not
enough memory to print” error and you have to wait and try again. Well,
I discovered today that if you grab several files together and drop them
on the printer driver icon, they print off, one after the other, without
so much as a hesitation. I wish someone had told me before!!!!!!!
8.9
Ed.
8.9
More uses for the serial port − One of the pieces of software built into
the A-Link is the terminal software which could be used to receive the
debugging data, described by John West above, on a Pocket Book.
8.9
I find this combination useful for another task as well. There are at
least two PD applications which allow you to set up a task window (as
you get from ctrl-f12) which takes input from, and outputs to, the
serial port, which means I can run command line utilities without taking
up desktop space, and even if someone else is using the computer for
other tasks.
8.9
Matthew Hunter, NCS
8.9
Printing from text editors − Contrary to Matthew’s comments (Archive 8.8
pp28/29), in my experience, Edit does print in response to <print> but
Zap does not. Dragging the file-save icon to the printer icon does work
with both packages. I will stick well clear of <shift-print>, however.
Zap prints a black (NOT blank) page!
8.9
There remains one problem, however, which is common to Edit and Zap. If
the document contains a line of text which is too long to fit on one
line, it is truncated! This did not happen before I upgraded to RISC OS
3 Laser Direct and Printers 1.22. Previously, Edit inserted a CR/LF to
print the rest of the line (I did not have Zap then).
8.9
Colin Singleton, Sheffield
8.9
Risc PC Apps directory − As Keith Hodge has pointed out in his excellent
Risc PC column, the correct place to add applications into ‘Apps’ on the
iconbar is in !Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDeskTop, by adding lines such as:
8.9
AddApp adfs::HardDisc4.$.Utilities.!ArcFS
8.9
You may have noticed that the first line of this section reads:
8.9
AddApp Boot:^.Apps.!*
8.9
which displays any application, i.e. a directory whose filename begins
with a ‘!’. This means that any normal directory whose filename does not
begin with a ‘!’ will not be displayed inside Apps on the iconbar. So,
if there are any applications there which you never use, you could place
them in a directory (called ‘Not Needed’ say) and they will not be
displayed, although they are still accessible through Apps on the hard
disc.
8.9
The converse of this is that lines such as that given above for adding
applications into Apps need not, in fact, be placed in the file
PreDesktop − they can be anywhere. Therefore, you can have a small Obey
file which adds a selection of your favourite applications at any time.
This saves cluttering up the Apps directory display with everything you
might conceivably need until you actually need it, and it saves on
memory and time taken to Boot the machine, as the !boot files of your
chosen applications are not run, and their sprites are not loaded, until
you choose to add them to Apps by using your Obey file.
8.9
Matthew Hunter, NCS
8.9
Risc PC audio expansion − The audio header required by the audio mixer
for the Cumana Indigo CD-ROM drive, and the identical Acorn and ESP 16-
bit sound upgrades, is link 14 which was not fitted on some early
machines. The link is located at the top right corner of the motherboard
if you are looking at the machine from the front. It is a row of five
pins, with links connecting 1-2 and 2-4. Pin one is closest to the back
of the machine. If this link is not fitted, get in contact with Granada
who will replace your motherboard for one fitted with the correct
connector. Currently, the Cumana and 16-bit upgrades are mutually
exclusive, but ESP are working on an audio mixer to enable the 16-bit
sound and CD sound from any CD-ROM drive to be combined.
8.9
Matthew Hunter NCS
8.9
Risc PC font size − There was a request in Archive 8.8 p38 regarding the
font size for the outline font used in place of the system font. Full
details are given on pages 220 and 221 of Volume 5 of the RISC OS 3
PRM’s, but the following example Obey file will demonstrate the method.
It should be placed in the PreDesk directory of the !Boot sequence.
8.9
configure wimpfont 0
8.9
set wimp$font Trinity.Medium.Italic
8.9
set wimp$fontsize 192
8.9
set wimp$fontwidth 160
8.9
The last two lines allow you to alter the height and width of the font,
as desired.
8.9
It will only have an effect on text which an application regards as
system text − an application which uses its own fonts in icons will not
be affected.
8.9
David Springle, Cheshire
8.9
Window behaviour − I found that, when two windows containing a word
processor are open, it is possible to scroll one window and
simultaneously type into the other window. Further investigation has
shown that it is possible to do this with Zap (v. 1.20), Edit (v. 1.50),
Desk Edit (v. 3.00) and Publisher (v. 4.01). These are the only ‘word
processors’ (for want of a better collective name) I have access to. It
is also possible to mix the WPs in the windows, e.g. the scrolling
window could contain a Publisher document and the typing window could
contain a Zap page. This only breaks down with Edit as the scrolling
window. When the Edit window is scrolled, this becomes the active window
and typing is not possible in the other window. (Why? Can it be
changed?).
8.9
Dave Livsey, Devon
8.9
Window behaviour II − Usually, if you have clicked on a window titlebar
(using select), to move it, or bring it to the front of the window
stack, processing will continue in the background − this can be seen by
having !Alarm counting seconds on the iconbar. If the window you are
using has a pane attached, however, you will find that the processing
stops. This is because clicking on the titlebar brings the window to the
front of the window stack, and the application then brings the pane to
the front. The window holding the pane is then no longer at the front,
and the WIMP tries to bring it to the front again, and so on. Using
<adjust> does not have the same effect, since it does not try to alter
the order of the windows.
8.9
Matthew Hunter, NCS
8.9
Hints & Tips
8.9
Exporting text − When exporting text from HolyBible into Impression, I
suggest that you use an intermediate ‘template’ document. There are two
reasons for this. First of all, you may not like the style definitions
that ExpLAN have provided. So, in this dummy document, you can edit the
definitions to taste. Then, as you export the DDF text into that
document, it will take on your own style definitions. The second reason
is that when you export some DDF text, it brings with it thirteen style
definitions. When I want to quote a single verse in the God-slot, I
don’t want the Archive magazine style-sheet clogged up with all of those
styles, so I drop the DDF text into the dummy document. I then mark the
text <ctrl-A>, copy it and paste it into the God-slot. That way, it only
brings with it the styles it actually uses.
8.9
HolyBible problem − Has HolyBible hung up on you? It has stiffed my
machine twice now and both times it occurred when I was marking some
text ready for export. Now I know that this isn’t a statistically
significant sample(!) but I wonder if anyone else has had similar
problems? I was working on a 10Mb Risc PC and (I think) the only other
applications I had running at the time were Impression, Edit and
Keystroke. If you get hang-ups too, please report them to Gabriel,
giving as much detail as possible: what machine? memory configuration?
other applications running? what you were doing at the time? etc.
8.9
Paul Beverley, NCS u
8.9

Hints and Tips
8.10
Debugging via the Serial Port − (Unfortunately, we had problems
importing the text into Impression when we put this hint in last month’s
magazine. Sorry for any confusion that we caused − it was our fault and
not John West’s! The correct version is as follows...)
8.10
The os_cli line makes use of the system redirection to send the text to
the serial port, and so it should have read:
8.10
os_cli(“echo Start of initialise()
8.10
{serial: }”);
8.10
More details of redirection can be found on page 419 of the RISC OS 3
User Guide. The new Acorn C/C++ does not support os_cli, so you should
use _kernel_oscli instead.
8.10
From Basic, the OSCLI command is the direct equivalent.
8.10
OSCLI “echo Start of PROC_init
8.10
 {serial: }”
8.10
John West, Surrey
8.10
Disc protection − Of the 100+ readers’ floppy discs I’ve processed over
the last few months, there was a fair smattering of broken cases,
mangled sliders and disc errors. In every case, the defective discs had
been sent in paper envelopes without further protection from the rough
and tumble of Her Majesty’s mails. This prompts me to repeat Ed’s
recommendation of many moons ago that it is well worthwhile giving your
discs adequate protection in the post. Jiffy bags or board-backed
envelopes cost only a few pence from stationers and, provided any
covering documentation is limited to a couple of pages, you are unlikely
to exceed the 60g limit for 19p/25p postage.
8.10
Jim Nottingham, Pocklington
8.10
Impression borders − The built-in borders in Impression provide ¼ point,
1 point and 4 point thick black borders (numbers 1, 2 & 3), but how do
you get a 5 point border? There is no way for the user to specify the
thickness and, also, the lines don’t join properly at the corners, as
you can see...
8.10
Here is a simple way to make your own line borders using Draw:
8.10
Create a new Draw document and set the zoom to 8:1. Show the grid and
lock to it. Set the grid spacing to 0.125 inches with 9 subdivisions −
since one point equals 1/72 inch, each subdivision is one point. For a 5
point line make a rectangle 5 squares wide and about 30 squares deep. To
make the corners square, you need to make a 5 by 5 square immediately
above the rectangle.
8.10
Finally, set the fill colour of both to black and the line colour to
none and save the file in your border directory.
8.10
You can also make curved or bevelled joins by changing the corner square
into a sector or a triangle.
8.10
To get half point thicknesses, you need to set the number of
subdivisions to 18.
8.10
Unfortunately, the 8:1 maximum zoom in Draw is too small to do quarter
point lines directly, so you need to construct them double size and then
“magnify” them by 0.5, or else use Artworks with a 4000% magnification.
On the monthly disc is a selection of plain rectangular borders from ¼
point to 6 point thickness.
8.10
The only remaining problem is that Impression puts the borders around
the outside of the frame so, with thick borders, you can’t use the “snap
to frames” feature to get your alignment right when the frames have
different borders, as you can see from the frame opposite.
8.10
Cain Hunt, Cambridge
8.10
Mouseballs − Logitech mice sometimes begin to slip when a glassy film of
material builds up around the periphery of the rollers which contact the
mouse ball. This can be as little as 0.5mm wide but is very tenacious.
Using a piece of metal or wood to dislodge the material can easily
damage the rollers. With a bit of patience it can be softened using
isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud. Lint free cloth is even better. This
takes a few minutes of gentle rubbing to do the trick. One of the
rollers is spring loaded and is a little more difficult. A clean cotton
bud holding a little IPA can be used to rub around the mouse ball to
remove the stickiness. If an Archive type mat is used, a gentle wash
with warm water and detergent will delay the problem recurring.
Everything has to be completely dry before reassembly.
8.10
Les May, Rochdale u

8.11
LaserDirect double flush − I asked for help last month (8.10
p25) with what to do when I get a paper jam on my LaserDirect LBP8.
(This turns out to be one of those everybody-knows-about-it-except-me
problems.) Apparently, all I have to do is click on the LaserDirect icon
on the iconbar while holding <alt> down. This brings up a LaserDirect
Status window telling me the paper is jammed and offering me a way of
escape which I accept gratefully.
8.11
Many thanks to all those who wrote or phoned to tell me what a
gumby I am. I had been using the ‘Flush printer’ menu option from the
‘Printer Queue’ window (adjust-click on the iconbar icon) instead of
LaserDirect’s own flush system − you stupid boy!
8.11
(Mind you, from some of the suggestions people made, like “hit
<f12><return>”, I suspect that I may not be the only person to have had
this problem and not realised how simple the solution was!)
8.11
Ed.
8.11
Printing from Basic programs (e.g. 8.10 pp21/47) − Here are a
couple of short points which may help. Firstly, ‘Page printing’ via a
printer driver.
8.11
The key SYS calls recommended for ‘proper’ printing via the
desktop still work in non-Wimp mode, so it is fairly straightforward to
produce hard copy of text output directly from Basic programs − albeit
in ‘graphic/page printing’ style.
8.11
A sequence which certainly works is:-
 DEF PROCprint
 SYS “PDriver_PageSize” TO width%,
 height%,left%,bottom%,
 right%,top%
 pf%=OPENOUT(“printer:”)
 SYS “PDriver_SelectJob”,pf%,
 “Printer Test”
 LOCAL ERROR
 ON ERROR LOCAL:SYS “PDriver_AbortJob”,pf%:CLOSE#pf%
 :
 ENDPROC
 rect%!0=0
 rect%!4=0
 rect%!8=(right%-left%)/400
 rect%!12=(top%-bottom%)/400
 trans%!0=1<<16
 trans%!4=0
 trans%!8=0
 trans%!12=1<<16
 plotat%!0=left%
 plotat%!4=bottom%
 SYS “PDriver_GiveRectangle”,0,rect%
 ,trans%,plotat%,&FFFFFF00
 SYS “PDriver_DrawPage”,1,block%,0,0 TO more%
 WHILE more%
   SYS “ColourTrans_SetGCOL”,0
   MOVE 0,(top%-bottom%)/400
   ............
   (BASIC print commands − see text)
   ............
   SYS “PDriver_GetRectangle”,,block% TO more%
 ENDWHILE
 SYS “PDriver_EndJob”,pf%
 RESTORE ERROR
 CLOSE# pf%
 ENDPROC
8.11
The above assumes that you have a global error call in
operation, and you will need to add to the ON ERROR LOCAL line to
restore to that call. Also, you need to have declared certain variables
earlier in the program, such as...
8.11
DIM rect% 16
 DIM trans% 16
 DIM plotat% 8
 DIM block% 16
8.11
All the normal Basic printing commands seem to work OK, i.e.
PRINT, PRINT TAB(), VDU8, 9, 10 and 11, but be careful of VDU28 and 31
(and, of course, VDU1).
8.11
With care, you can therefore merely insert (at Basic’s print
commands above) the call to whatever routine puts your required text
onto the screen.
8.11
Secondly, what about using of text files? Although it isn’t
printing directly from Basic, there are some advantages in using text
files, as others have noted − not least being that your printer driver
is likely to use ‘character printing’, and you can view and edit via
Edit, if you want.
8.11
Extending the thoughts offered by others (and assuming you want
to get a hard copy of something you’ve put on the screen) then the
following PROCs can be used to put text line by line on the screen in
the way you want it and, at the same time, construct a corresponding
text file for subsequent dragging to your Printer Driver or into !Edit.
8.11
 10 MODE27
 20 file%=OPENOUT(“textfile”)
 30 CLOSE#file%
 32 *SetType textfile Text
 40 PROCfile_and_centreprint(“Text File Test”)
 50 PROCfile_and_blankline
 60 PROCfile_and_printtab(10,“First Line at TAB 10”,TRUE)
 70 PROCfile_and_printtab(10,“Second Line at TAB 10, but held ”,FALSE)
 80 PROCfile_and_printtab(50,“to await this at TAB 50”,TRUE)
 90 END
 10000
 10010 DEF PROCtextfile(textline$, return%)
 10020 REM return% is TRUE/FALSE flag
 10030 REM to tell BPUT# to make
 <RETURN> action after text or not
 10040 file%=OPENUP(“textfile”)
 10050
 10060 REM Put pointer to end of file ready for more text.
 10070 PTR#file%=EXT#file%
 10080
 10090 IF return% THEN
 10100  BPUT#file%,textline$
 10110 ELSE
 10120  BPUT#file%,textline$;
 10130 ENDIF
 10140 CLOSE#file%
 10150 ENDPROC
 10160
 10190 DEF PROCfile_and_centreprint
 (string$)
 10200 REM Prints a string centred on screen,
 10210 REM and puts a corresponding string into a text file.
 10220
 10230 LOCAL tab%,screenwidth%
 10240 REM First find screenwidth in Mode being used,
 10250 SYS “OS_ReadModeVariable”,-1,1 TO ,,screenwidth%
 10260
 10270 tab%=((screenwidth%+1)-LEN(string$)) DIV 2
 10280 PRINT TAB(tab%)string$:REM To screen
 10290
 10300 line$=STRING$(tab%,“ ”)+string$
 10310 PROCtextfile(line$,TRUE):REM Corresponding string to text file
 10320 ENDPROC
 10330
 10360 DEF PROCfile_and_blankline
 10370 REM Prints an empty line on screen,
 10380 REM and puts a corresponding string into a text file.
 10400 PRINT:REM To screen
 10420 line$=“”
 10430 PROCtextfile(line$,TRUE):REM Corresponding string to text file
 10440 ENDPROC
 10450
 10480 DEF PROCfile_and_printtab(tab%,string$,crlf%)
 10490 REM Prints a string on screen at the designated tab position,
 10500 REM and returns a corresponding string for a text file.
 10510 REM ‘crlf%’ is TRUE/FALSE flag to determine if screen printing
 10520 REM** is to end with <Return> or not (i.e. semi-colon or not).
 10530
 10540 gap%=tab%-POS
 10550 REM ‘gap%’ needs to be calculated before printing to screen.
 10560
 10570 IF crlf% THEN
 10580  PRINT TAB(tab%)string$
 10590 ELSE
 10600  PRINT TAB(tab%)string$;
 10610 ENDIF
 10620
 10630 line$=STRING$(gap%,“ ”)+string$
 10640 PROCtextfile(line$,crlf%):REM Corresponding string to text file
 10650 ENDPROC
8.11
I am still trying to get ‘character printing’ via a Printer
Driver direct from Basic!
8.11
(We have one that we have used at NCS for years. I’ll put it on
the monthly disc. Is that what you want? Ed.)
8.11
Ray Favre, West Drayton
8.11
Runny letters − Some people don’t realise that the ink used by
inkjet printers is water-based and is therefore not waterproof. This
isn’t normally a problem but it can become one when addressing
envelopes! In rainy weather, my postman often delivers letters where the
address is all but illegible, and if the ink had run in this way before
it had reached my local sorting office, I would probably never have
received it.
8.11
The solution is very simple. Most stationers sell a ‘fixer’ for
use with rub down lettering (Letraset etc.). This is actually a very
fine, clear, varnish in aerosol form. It’s quite expensive, around £3,
but a can will last many years. Just lightly spray it on the address or
label (it dries in a few seconds) and your letter will arrive safely
even in a monsoon.
8.11
David Holden, APDL
8.11
Transferring text files using Hermes − There is an increasing
interest these days in exchanging text files between Acorn RISC
computers and PCs. There are two major differences − PC text files end
with a ctrl-Z (ASCII 26) character and have CR LF (ASCII 13 + ASCII 10)
characters at the end of each line. Acorn text files have only an LF
character at the end of a line and have no special end character. Hermes
(v1.22 onwards) is able to handle most of the conversion in either
direction.
8.11
To convert an Acorn file to PC, open the Hermes application
window and display the Pipe parameters. Change the Line End to CRLF and
click on “OK”. Drag the text file to Edit, use <ctrl-down> to move the
cursor to the end of the file and add ¤CTRLZ¤, then resave. Ensuring
that no application has the input caret, drag the text file onto the
Hermes iconbar icon. After a few moments, the converted file will be
piped to Edit where it can be saved to the DOS disc.
8.11
To convert a PC file to Acorn, change the DOS file to Text
(&FFF) and open an Edit document, making sure it has the input focus.
Drag the DOS file onto the Hermes iconbar icon and the converted file
will be sent direct to the edit document with all the CR characters
stripped out. The ctrl-Z character at the end can be deleted manually.
8.11
Hermes raison d’etre is to facilitate transfer between packages
and this cross-platform interchange is an extension of that philosophy.
8.11
Mike Logan, Base 5 Technical Graphics
8.11
Underlining Impression’s bugs − If you are editing a style, and
adding ‘Underlines 2’ to it in Publisher (4.05), make sure that any
existing text in that style does not have underlines set as an effect.
If the effect is set, strange things happen, and the window goes black!
8.11
Brian Cocksedge, Midhurst, W Sussex u
8.11
Hints and Tips
8.12
‘Bad compression field’ − We have had a number of comments on the
subject of the Bad compression field error produced by Laser Direct and
the TurboDrivers, so many thanks to everyone who wrote in − too many to
mention you all.
8.12
The main causes seem to be either a lack of memory, or a lack of disc
space. The usual memory saving techniques apply, quitting unused
applications, reducing the screen resolution or number of colours and so
on. Lack of disc space is most frequent on floppy-only machines for
obvious reasons. During printing, a file is placed in the !Scrap
directory, so to ensure that you have as much space as possible, create
a scrap disc (preferably 1.6Mb if your computer will support it),
containing only the !Scrap application, and make sure that you double
click on that version before attempting to print. This will require
additional disc swapping, but should allow printing to continue
successfully.
8.12
NCS.
8.12
Booting problems − When exchanging the 80Mb hard drives in our two
A5000s for 430Mb drives, I reset the machine to auto boot, and had the
desktop auto boot option set, but do you think it would boot? The
solution was to issue a *OPT 4,2 command, from which point everything
behaved as anticipated. There were no discernible differences on
*STATUS.
8.12
This is a known bug in RISC OS 3. When you tick the auto boot option,
this should be set, but unfortunately it is not. The reason it makes no
difference to the status is that it is not a configuration option, but,
in fact, it writes the option to the disc. (If you do a *CAT then the
top line should read something like  Dir. SCSI:: Words.$ Option 00
(Off); the option given will be the second number in the *OPT command.)
MH.
8.12
Alan Jackson, Oamaru, NZ.
8.12
‘Formatting’ hard discs − This has been covered several times in the
past but, unfortunately, we have had a number of people recently who
have experienced difficulty in preparing hard discs for use. While we
cannot provide a step-by-step description, since all the controller
cards are supplied with different software, many of the operations which
need to be completed are similar.
8.12
Remember that, for your particular system, you will need to read the
manual supplied with your hard disc controller card, or the HFORM
section of the manual if you are using a native drive (for example an
IDE drive on the Risc PC).
8.12
The most important point is that you MUST NOT actually format the drive.
If you do, you are more likely to damage the drive than make it usable!
All modern drives have the low level formatting laid down during the
manufacturing process, and trying to reformat the drive is likely to
damage the original formatting, but not completely replace it, rendering
the drive unusable.
8.12
Instead you need to initialise the drive. The precise wording will
depend on your controller card − Morley SCSI and HForm give you an
option to “Format or just Initialise the drive”, and the Cumana SCSI 2
card requires that you set up ‘partitions’ on the drive. The
initialisation process involves writing out RISC OS information about
the position of files on the drives, contents of the root directory and
so on, but does not do the potentially dangerous low level formatting.
8.12
NCS.
8.12
Quicksort − An error crept into Colin Singleton’s Programming Workshop
last month − at some point, the Basic program detokenised incorrectly.
All the ASC commands should be replaced with a minus sign to make the
program work. Thank you to all those who rang or wrote to point out the
error.
8.12
NCS.
8.12
Screenbanks − Following on from Matthew Hunter’s Programming Workshop
article on screen banking (Archive 8.8 p69), errors may not be displayed
because the error is written to the screen bank being updated, and not
the screen bank being viewed. By using the following procedure, you can
link both screens back together.
8.12
DEF PROCresetscreens
8.12
SYS 6,113,SB_bank%
8.12
SYS 6,112,SB_bank%
8.12
ENDPROC
8.12
The procedure could be called via the ON ERROR mechanism, or at the end
of the program.
8.12
Peter Prewett, Stirling, South Australia.
8.12
Snippet − Snippet is still a useful utility for screen grabs etc, but
refused to perform with my Risc PC. I queried 4Mation and obtained the
latest upgrade (in very short order and at no cost, which prompts me to
raise my hat to them), but still found the same problem of freezing the
machine when I tried to save a screen. The solution to this seems to be
to select a screen mode of no more than 256 colours, upon which, Snippet
behaves like the old friend it has always been.
8.12
Alan Jackson, Oamaru NZ.
8.12
Upgrading Video RAM − When upgrading the VRAM in your Risc PC from 1 to
2Mb, it is necessary to remove the 1Mb board and return it to be
upgraded. You should make sure that you reconfigure your computer to use
a screen resolution/number of colours which is possible even with no
VRAM, before removing the 1Mb board. If you do not do this, you will
find that you will need to reconfigure the computer ‘blind’, as the high
resolution modes are not available if there is no VRAM present, and no
picture will be displayed.
8.12
Fred Williams, Staffordshire.
8.12
Wimp bug (RISC OS 3.10) − If you are a Wimp programmer and have
experienced apparently inexplicable ‘Abort on data transfer’ and
‘Address exception’ errors ‘at’ addresses in the Window Manager module,
especially just after your program has quit, you may be interested (or,
like me, relieved!) to know that the problem may lie in a bug in the
Wimp.
8.12
According to a letter from Acorn, “there was a bug with ‘slabbed’ icons
(those with the R option in the validation flags). If you click on a
slabbed icon, and the program deletes the window it is on, or quits
before the wimp has a chance to redraw it, problems can arise.”
8.12
Hugh Eagle, Horsham.
8.12
Windows on the Risc PC − I would like to warn CD-ROM users that, due to
the fixed palette on the PC card, many CD programs will not work
properly − giving psychedelic colours which can lock up the computer. We
have found by pressing <f1> (in Windows) that the Windows help will be
opened, from which you can return to Windows. This prevents having to
reset the computer. Acorn/Aleph One are working on a fix for this
problem.
8.12
Peter Hughes, Desktop Laminations.