Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/magazine/volume_08/issue_10

Text File | 1995-06-25 | 213KB | 4,294 lines

Products Available
8.10
Acorn PC cards − Acorn say that they have now distributed all of the
first 10,000 Risc PC 486 PCcards and that there won’t be any more
available now until August. If you are still waiting for one, the only
option we can offer is to supply an Aleph One version at cost. The DX40
is £406 and the DX2-66 is £466 (i.e. £290 and £350 respectively if you
have already paid for your Acorn card), but this does NOT include a copy
of DOS. (N.B. We can only sell at this price to those already on the
waiting list.)
8.10
Ancestry II − Minerva have updated Ancestry, based on feedback from
users. Features of particular interest are import and export of GedCom
data, variable field lengths and linking of text files. Ancestry II is
also fully multitasking. The price is £99.95 inc VAT or £95 through
Archive. Registered users of Ancestry should have received details of a
special upgrade offer.
8.10
Bell-ringing simulator − John Harrison has developed a program called
Strike which is designed to help develop bell-ringing listening skills −
basically a self-teaching aid for bell ringers presented in the form of
a game. This costs £15 inclusive from John, and £10 of that goes to
restoration work. You’ve heard of shareware, freeware and careware,
well, this is belfryware! Send cheques to John at 2 Murdoch Road,
Wokingham, RG40 2DA.
8.10
CD-ROM Mastering − Eesox are continuing to offer a CD-ROM mastering
service, costing £60 +VAT. Data can be submitted on 650Mb
magneto-optical disc, or SCSI or IDE hard disc. Most jobs can be turned
around within 24 hours. As an added incentive, anyone purchasing an
Eesox CD-ROM drive will receive a voucher giving a 50% discount on the
production of a CD-ROM.
8.10
Celebration − A collection from Clares Micro Supplies of four
applications on the theme of celebrations. Banner can be used to create
both horizontal and vertical display banners using outline fonts, draw
and sprite files. Calendar is designed for monthly or yearly calendars −
a number of formats and languages can be used. Certify will produce
personalised certificates with the names being entered individually or
from a text file for multiple names. Giftwrap allows the creation of
wrapping paper, as well as other pattern creation and textile design.
A single user version costs £34.95 including VAT. A site-licence,
covering an unlimited number of machines within the named site is
available for £82.25 inclusive.
8.10
Cine Works − Oregan Developments have produced a sophisticated 32-track
video mixing and editing studio, combined with 16-track audio
capabilities. Video clips may be mixed together using a variety of
transitions which are typically found in professional video editing
environments. Transitions range from standard wipes and fades, to more
adventurous central zooms and mosaic cuts. Full vision correction
controls are provided so that Replay and MPEG clips may have their
brightness, colour and contrast adjusted at any time after they have
been captured, and even varied throughout the clip. The price from
Oregan Developments is £159.95 inclusive or £152 through Archive.
8.10
Composition − This is a new art package for the Risc PC which enables
object-based operations to be carried out on bit map images. Each image
is treated as an object and effects applied appropriately. Features
include image processing options, tints, shadowing, gamma and colour
curve correction, sprite trimming, mask editing, rescaling and
distortion, OLE of sprites to other applications, fully adaptive
anti-aliasing of text using outline fonts, import of sprites, clear,
JPEG, TIFF, TGA, PCX, PBM, BMP, PhotoCD, Draw and Artworks files, export
of Composition format (retaining effects and features) or sprite, JPEG,
Clear, TGA or PBM formats. The price from Clares is £169.95 including
VAT (or £158 through Archive) and special offers are available for users
of ProArt24, and other art packages − contact Clares for details.
8.10
Digital Darkroom − A new company, based in Kent, the Digital Darkroom
offers a conversion service for Acorn Computers. Colour slides or
negatives can be produced from sprites and drawfiles images − especially
useful for presentations. A single slide costs £7.50, but orders for
larger quantities will be considerably lower (20 or more will cost no
more than £3.50 per slide). Regular users will also be offered a
preferential rate. Documents, film and video taped images can also be
transferred to Acorn format files. Quality of such images will be
dependent upon the source quality.
8.10
Digital Symphony Masterpieces
8.10
Collection − We mentioned this CD-ROM last month but, unfortunately, got
the price wrong. It costs £24.95 inclusive from Oregan Developments or
£24 through Archive.
8.10
DTP book − Following the success of Robin Williams’ book on DTP design
(“The Non-Designer’s Design Book”) we got hold of a copy of “The Mac is
not a Typewriter” to which she refers several times in NDDB. Although,
as the title suggest, the book is aimed at the Mac market, there is very
little that is different on the Acorn machines, and I have prepared a
supplement sheet to go with it so that it can be used for those using
Acorn machines for DTP. Here’s what the official blurb about it says...
8.10
“The Mac is not a Typewriter” by Robin Williams is one of the most
popular Mac books ever sold (over 300,000 now in print). It covers the
top twenty things you need to know to make your documents look clean and
professional: em dashes, curly quotes, spaces and indents, white spaces,
etc. It’s a primer that novices can pick up quickly, and that pro’s can
keep going back to. It is the winner of the 1991 Benjamin Franklin
Award, Computer Book Category.
8.10
My view, for what it is worth, is that it’s another excellent book by
Robin Williams. I have to admit that it it can’t compare with NDDB in
terms of value for money (£10 including p&p through Archive cf £13 for
NDDB) but, to be fair, NDDB is exceptional. So I would still say that
The Mac is not a Typewriter is well worth the cost and, to support my
claim, I will again make the same offer of a complete money-back
guarantee if it is returned within 14 days. I know I’m on a winner there
because, out of the hundreds of copies of NDDB we have sold, we haven’t
had a single one returned.
8.10
Graphing and Charting − As mentioned in last month’s !Help column, Chris
Johnson has released his collection of graph and function plotting
applications. The applications are Graphdraw, ChartDraw, Multiplot,
FnPlotter, Surface, 3DFnEdit and Text>Draw. The price is £4 inclusive,
direct from Chris Johnson, 7 Lovedale Grove, Balerno, Edinburgh, EH14
7DR.
8.10
iSV Product Guide − iSV have produced issue 3 of their product guide,
containing details and samples of nearly 600 RISC OS 3 fonts, along with
information regarding their software products. The product guide is free
and a demo disc is available for £2, both direct from iSV.
8.10
NetMail − An extension to Archiboard, this package offers a consistent
WIMP front end to email and news groups within a school. It is designed
to operate over any AUN compliant network, allowing email and conference
articles to be retrieved from the Archiboard server. Due to the
consistent interface, information can be retrieved from Internet,
FidoNet or the local system in the same way, so staff and pupils do not
need to learn separate systems. MIME support is also included, which
allows files to be attached to messages for sending via any of the
networks, although the recipient will need MIME support to extract the
message. (MIME clients are available for most platforms including Mac,
PC and Unix workstations.) Prices start from £80 +VAT + p&p from Supreme
Software Solutions.
8.10
Network Cybernetics VR
8.10
CD-ROM − Lambda Publications can now supply this CD-ROM which holds a
collection of virtual reality, telepresence and computer simulation
development tools. Included are virtual reality development tools and
sources, VR hardware interfacing source code and documentation, VR &
simulation research papers and conference reports, simulation packages
for many different fields of science, simulation development tools and
sources, 3-D modelling utilities, development tools and sources, and a
collection of 3-D object data in several file formats. The CD costs £65
including p&p and is supplied on 30 days evaluation. Existing customers
and Archive readers can purchase it for £45.50.
8.10
Oxford Talking Infant Atlas − Sherston Software have released an updated
version of their Oxford Infant Atlas, aimed at Key Stage 1 Geography.
The software features optional labels for country, places and other
geographical features, quiz questions to ask children to identify
geographic features, sampled human speech for all sentences, place names
and labels, along with animations and sound effects. The price is £20
+VAT for a single user version (or £22 through Archive) and an
accompanying paperback atlas is available from Sherston for £2.80.
8.10
Patience Addict − Creative Curriculum Software have released a
collection of twenty patience games, including one and two pack games,
of varying levels of difficulty and complexity. The single user version
is £12.73 +VAT.
8.10
Plantwise − Sherston Software have produced an interactive graphical
database designed for 9−14 year olds, similar to their earlier database,
Bodywise, with the addition of an interactive experiment section.
Included in the pack are three discs, a set of experiment cards, a set
of question cards, a user guide, and a booklet showing how to use
Plantwise in the classroom. It costs £44.95 +VAT from Sherston Software
or £50 through Archive.
8.10
Purple Software − A range of products from Purple Software is available
now for the Psion series 3 and Acorn Pocket Book range. There are
currently five products: DataView (£59.95), an enhanced database with
table view, sorting, label printing and mail merge; File Manager
(£39.95), for extra control of files, directories and SSD’s; FloChart
(£49.95), a free-form flow chart designer; OrgChart (£49.95), a
free-form organisation chart designer; DrawIt (£49.95) an object-based
drawing package.
8.10
RecordZ − The database section of FireworkZ pro is now available as a
stand-alone database from Colton Software. The price is £99 +VAT or £110
through Archive.
8.10
Report − This is a program for hard-pressed, report-writing teachers. It
has been designed as a tool to speed up the process of writing reports,
by inserting often used phrases and comments into a sentence. The writer
reckons that the whole report-writing process can be speeded up by a
factor of 10. The price is £14.95 for a single user or £29.95 for a site
licence. Until August, there is a special launch price of £9.95 and
£19.95 respectively. A demo version is available for £1 (refundable on
ordering) or by sending a stamped addressed envelope and disc requesting
it. Report is available from: Robert Lytton, 7 Helmsley Drive, West
Park, Leeds, LS16 5HY. (The demo version is on this month’s program
disc.)
8.10
Sibelius showroom − Sibelius 7 now has a dedicated London high-street
showroom at Turnkey, 114-116 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DT
(0171-379-5148) (0171-379-0093). The new showroom gives customers the
opportunity to compare Sibelius on the Risc PC with a 486 PC running
Windows software so that they can judge for themselves which is best!
8.10
SOS − Save our Squirrels!! − Denis Bastaple, a former director of
Digital Services Ltd, bought out the rights to Squirrel and other
software when DSL went into voluntary liquidation. Squirrel, Armlock,
Netgain (Econet and Ethernet), Waiter, Digistore and Archway are now all
available from, and fully supported by, DSL Supplies.
8.10
Studio 24 has had some major updates and the new version will be
available very soon. The full price is £199, or £189 through Archive.
The upgrade for existing users will be FOC through Pineapple Software.
8.10
TableMate 3 − Dalriada Data Technology have raised their comprehensive
table-making application to version 3, which incorporates some
worthwhile improvements and is available from Dalriada for £32.50
inclusive. Anyone who bought TableMate 2 on or after 1 March 1995 may
upgrade to version 3 for £2.50, otherwise the upgrade from v2 costs £5.
Send your remittance and original disc to Dalriada. Upgrade from earlier
versions is currently £10-£20, depending on the variant (e.g. as bundled
with Impression). Contact Dalriada for an upgrade price.
8.10
New features include: button bar similar to Style or Publisher, use of
desktop interactive help with button bar, OLE to !Draw, Formulix etc,
simple spreadsheet, right & left justified and centred text, import &
export of CSV files, automatic addition of quotes for headers in CSV
files, vertical ruler, vertical tab (top, middle or bottom of cell),
vertical joining/splitting of cells, multiple rule-offs between columns
and/or rows, reorganised menus, currency character control, £ default,
colour picker RGB, HSV, CMYK, more Impression compatible keystrokes with
the option of using the old TableMate2 ones.
8.10
Technology and Design CD-ROM − NW SEMERC has set up this CD-ROM to make
pupils at Key Stages 2 and 3 think about technology and design in
everyday life. The CD isn’t just confined to the Design and Technology
department, but can be used in Maths, English, Geography and History.
Everything is based on the town of ‘Skegton’, with pupils seeking ways
of improving the daily life of its inhabitants. The Technology and
Design CD-ROM is available from Northwest SEMERC, price £49 +VAT.
8.10
Teletext+ − Octopus Systems, who purchased the remaining stock of Ground
Control Teletext adaptors, have announced a new version of the
controlling software, which incorporates a number of new features.
Frequently used pages are cached on disc, thereby improving response
times. Sub pages are also cached, so you no longer need to wait for the
page you just missed to come round again. Keywords can also be searched
for to find important information automatically; the search can take
place over all pages or just on likely pages, so you can search for a
particular television programme, for example. Pages can be exported as
teletext, sprite or plain text formats. The software upgrade for
existing Ground Control teletext cards is £39, including p&p and VAT. If
you would like the teletext hardware as well as the software, the
package is £165 inclusive, while stocks last.
8.10
TEX and LATEX for RISC OS − A new implementation of the powerful
typesetting language TEX, complete with the latest version of LATEX and
lots of other goodies is now available for RISC OS computers. It has
been ported from the world of Unix by Mark Sinke in Holland, and is
coordinated in this country by Robin Watts at Oxford University. It is
freely available by ftp from ftp.comlab.ox.ac.uk in the directory
/tmp/Robin.Watts/TeX, or from good PD libraries.
8.10
UK Habitats − This new resource CD-ROM from AVP Picturebase gives
details of a number of habitats in the UK. The aim is to give an
understanding of the variety of living things, and of the way they
survive and compete for resources. Habitats covered include Deciduous
Woodland, Urban, Farm Land, Sand Dune, Fresh Water, Salt Marsh, Sand and
Mud, Roadside and Hedgerow. The single user educational price is £99
+VAT or £150 +VAT including a site licence from AVP.
8.10
World Data for primary schools − The Centre for World Development
Education (CWDE) have now released the World Development Database for
use in primary Schools. This is the result of a collaboration with
Sheffield Hallam University who produced the Database Project book
included with the pack. The book includes ideas for data handling in
English, Geography, Mathematics and Science at Key Stage 2. The User
Handbook contains practical information about the datafiles and fields.
The large amount of data in the original version is retained, but a
SlimWorld file has been added with easy-to-understand field names. Acorn
and PC versions are available, with data in KeyPlus/KeyNote (Anglia),
CSV and Text formats for import into most databases. A single user pack
includes a User Handbook, a Database Project book, the World Bank’s
“Development Data Book”, supplemental 1991 Data Sheet and data disc, and
costs £25 +VAT. A class set containing all the above, reproducible data
disc and two extra Data Books, is available for £45 +VAT from CWDE.
8.10
World Habitats − This is another CD-ROM in the AVP Picturebase series,
containing pictures, written text and spoken word, covering the world’s
major habitats. Comparisons can be made by choosing elements from
different modules. Possible uses include covering impact of human
activities on environmental systems, the occurrence and effects of
natural hazards, and the need for management and conservation of fragile
habitats. Habitats included are Mountain, Alpine, Desert, Mediterranean,
Tropical Mountain, Savanna, Polar and Temperate Forest. The single user
educational price is £99 +VAT or £150 +VAT including a site licence from
AVP.
8.10
Review software received...
8.10
We have received review copies of the following: •CineWorks
(pre-release) (m), •Composition (a), •Graphs & Charts (eu), •Report (e),
•Strike (ge),•Textease Templates (u).
8.10
e=Education, b=Business, bk=Book, c=Comms, g=Game, h=Hardware,
l=Language, m=Multimedia, u=Utility, a=Art.
8.10
If you would like to review any of these products, please contact the
Archive office. Potential reviewers will need to show that they would
use the product in a professional capacity or that they have some
knowledge of the particular field. u
8.10
Hardware Jottings
8.10
Brian Cowan
8.10
One of the reasons for the disappearance of my Hardware Column has been
the fact that I am no longer in the forefront of computer technology.
I don’t have a Risc PC and, at present, I have no plans to buy one. I am
certainly very happy with my old Archimedes machines but all recent
purchases have been 486-type PC computers (ugh! I hear you utter). I was
tempted to buy a Risc PC but, with the delay in the appearance of the PC
card, and the still-nonexistent Acorn Internet software, my purchases of
PCs have been well-justified. Just think how embarrassed I would have
been trying to hold up the Acorn banner to my PC and Mac-user
colleagues.
8.10
Although I am happy with my second-generation Aleph One PC podule and
the PD version of Internet software, the latter is certainly no
substitute for the real thing. So I am afraid these jottings will be
concerned with hardware mainly for the old-style ARM computers.
8.10
270Mb SyQuest cartridges
8.10
About a year ago, I rather hesitantly decided to invest in one of the
new 3½" 270Mb SyQuest drives. The old 44Mb 5¼" drives are getting a bit
old and, in any case, 44Mb is rather small by today’s standards. I had a
further reason for trying these drives since I spent last summer abroad,
taking my A4 with me, and I reasoned that a SCSI SyQuest together with
an Atomwide Printer-SCSI dongle was the best answer to mass storage.
What I really wanted was access to all the software on the hard discs of
my computer at home and those at work.
8.10
Power requirements
8.10
I initially thought about powering the SyQuest from the A4. The drive
specification stated that it required a little over one amp from the 5
volt supply which I decided was too much for the poor A4’s battery. And
a little research showed that, in quiescent mode, the drive drew some
700mA. So I decided that for use with the A4, an external power supply
was called for. (I determined that the power could not be obtained from
the A4’s mains power supply.)
8.10
Disaster
8.10
This was all a great success. In particular, the printer-SCSI dongle
worked like a dream. For some two weeks, I used my A4 extensively for my
writing work, using the SyQuest, when required, powered from an external
5volt supply. However, all I had been doing was to read from the
SyQuest.
8.10
At the end of two weeks, I wisely(?) decided to back-up the A4’s meagre
40Mb hard disc to the SyQuest. Disaster!!! The SyQuest went berserk, its
access light flashing on and off, with the mechanism clicking wildly.
After resetting the machine, I discovered that I had trashed the disc,
although I could still read from the second cartridge I had brought with
me. I tried to back up to it and trashed that one as well.
8.10
As you can imagine, I was feeling pretty sick, although I had not lost
anything irreplaceable. So long as I did not need anything that had been
on the discs, I was OK. So I left the SyQuest alone until my return
home.
8.10
Problem solved
8.10
I had plenty of time to muse on my misfortune and eventually things fell
into place. The power supply was supposed to deliver a maximum of 1.2
amps. So when the head was moving, when maximum current is drawn, the
supply was operating at its limit. Maybe it could not cope with the
load. At home, I tried a more beefy power supply (actually, I pinched
the 5volts from the A540) and the drive spun up OK and I was able to
reformat the discs with no problem. After that, reading and writing them
was no problem. The moral of the story is that although the newer
SyQuests have relatively modest power requirements, you stint at your
peril.
8.10
Second problem...
8.10
The next problem was rather strange. The SyQuest was mounted in an old
3½" disc drive case which used to hold a drive for a BBC. There was a
SCSI connector to attach to the computer’s SCSI bus and a power lead
which plugged into a socket connected to the computer for the 5 volt
supply. I discovered that, after disconnecting and reconnecting the
drive, it would not work. It seemed completely dead! Once again, I was
feeling rather sick. So I left the drive and continued using the big
44Mb ones. A few days later, I decided to try the 270Mb drive and
I found it was functioning perfectly. The same problem occurred on a
number of subsequent occasions. I gather other people have also observed
this. The usual observation is “sometimes the SyQuest seems dead”.
8.10
...and explanation
8.10
Here again, eventually the penny dropped. The problem was some sort of
static paralysis (rather like what sometimes happens with dongles). No
permanent damage is done. I should add that with permanently installed
drives, as I now have, there are no such problems.
8.10
Permanent installation
8.10
On the A5000 machines, there is space for a second 3½" drive below the
existing one. It is possible to install a second 3½" drive in the older
machines, but only if you don’t have a second hard disc drive. As my
home A540 has two hard drives stacked to the left of the floppy, there
is certainly no room for the SyQuest to be mounted internally. Or is
there? On careful measuring I discovered that you could mount a 3½"
drive above or below the existing floppy if both are mounted
horizontally. In other words the floppy is no longer sloping at an
angle.
8.10
Plastic surgery
8.10
I removed the dark beige part of the front plastic housing and enlarged
the hole above and below the floppy drive. Then I removed the floppy
drive from its metal cradle and drilled new holes so that the SyQuest
sat below, and the floppy above, in the cradle. Everything was screwed
together and it has been functioning ever since − without the beige
front moulding. Well almost! Actually, when everything was assembled and
switched on, the SyQuest did not work. But this was just the static
paralysis after all the handling during mounting. After waiting a few
hours it did work and it has functioned perfectly ever since − some nine
months. My computer at work has the external SyQuest, powered from the
computer. Without interfering with the connections, that also has
functioned without difficulty.
8.10
Auto eject
8.10
Readers might recall that I am a devotee of the Oak SCSI interfaces.
Incidentally, these are now no longer sold by Oak, but they can be
purchased from IFEL. These interfaces provide an option, really for CD
ROMs, for automatic eject upon dismounting the disc. I discovered that
this also works with the 3½" SyQuests (not the 5¼" ones). When you
configure the interface’s CMOS RAM you simply reply “Yes” to the prompt
“Eject on dismount”. I find this a very convenient feature. (Nice one,
Brian! Thanks for that! Ed.)
8.10
High density floppies
8.10
Most PC software these days comes on 1.44Mb floppies. I originally
purchased an Arxe systems combined SCSI and high density floppy
controller. This was good because it provided two functions in a single
podule. Eventually, I returned this card because of problems with the
SCSI part. Also, the floppy implementation was a bit clumsy, with its
own high density filing system, although it did operate OK with the PC
card.
8.10
When I decided I had to have a high density floppy, I discovered that
the Arxe card was no longer available and I kicked myself for returning
the one I had. The alternative was the Beebug high density interface.
With my experience of the Arxe, I ordered the Beebug interface with
trepidation. It arrived and installation was painless. (I was able to
purchase a high density drive that was significantly cheaper than the
one Beebug had on offer.) Upon switching on, I observed nothing unusual
− no new drive icons or anything. This is as it should be. The high
density drive, which replaces the old one, is integrated into RISC OS
and it is just as if you had an A5000. Also, access from the PC card is
transparent. My only complaint is that the system uses up a valuable
podule slot.
8.10
Cheap(ish) scanner
8.10
Another hardware purchase of mine has been a scanner. I chose a Mustek
Paragon scanner which I found advertised quite cheaply in the PC press.
Actually, it is quite a bargain since it comes complete with a PC SCSI
interface and retouching and OCR software. Unfortunately, I could not
get it to work with the Oak SCSI interface.
8.10
I had purchased David Pilling’s ImageMaster and Twain interface software
to drive the scanner. Over email, David was most helpful and it was he
who suggested I try another SCSI interface. Thanks David. I discovered
that everything worked perfectly using an Acorn SCSI interface. So the
scanner is connected to a different machine. Not the same one as the
LaserDirect, so I can’t use the “photocopy” option. I am absolutely
delighted with the results. The ImageMaster program is a delight to use,
and it is a pleasant surprise to find software which automatically
configures its SCSI settings.
8.10
The scanner has been used for such unusual things as scanning printed
circuit boards and PCB masters, as well as the usual scanning of
pictures and text. With a scanned PCB, with tracks changed to a colour
such as orange, it is a rather quick process to trace over in Draw
locked to a 0.1" grid to produce new masters. We need to do this since
we have changed from a negative to a positive process, and it also
provides an opportunity to modify old circuits.
8.10
Optical Character Recognition
8.10
Scanned text has been converted to machine-readable-form with Sleuth
OCR. This also has been remarkably successful, as long as there are not
too many scientific symbols. As well as providing the text in ASCII
form, Sleuth has the facility to provide “style” information: bold,
italic, large text, etc. It does this by exporting in RTF (Rich Text
Format) − the document interchange format used by Microsoft’s Word for
Windows. However, the standard (such as it is) seems to be gaining
popularity, with more programs supporting it. Impression now has very
good RTF loaders and savers and the new version of Ovation will support
RTF. Colton’s Wordz and Fireworkz also claim to have RTF facilities.
I have used Sleuth RTF output to import into Impression and the results
are quite staggering.
8.10
Colour Card Gold
8.10
Having spent most of this article telling you that while remaining
firmly rooted in the past, I have endeavoured to bring some of my
machines up to date, I suppose I should finish by talking about graphics
display and Computer Concept’s Colour Card Gold. I don’t particularly
want millions or even thousands of colours. What I do want is good
screen resolution and no screen flicker. My colour card provides this on
my Eizo 9070 monitor to perfection. I think I have explained before that
there is software available to create your own colour card modes,
although it is rather complex to use (at least I found it so!). However,
with perseverance, I have created a 1024×768 square pixel mode with
sixteen colours. This has a non-flickering refresh rate of 65Hz. The
display is crystal clear and, as a bonus, there is no CPU speed
degradation. For this alone, the colour card is worth every penny.
However, for use with the PC card’s programmable display facilities,
I have created an 800×600 square pixel mode of 256 colours for a really
good Super VGA display in Windows. This also has the position adjusted
so that the picture stays centred on the screen when the mode is
changed. u
8.10
Acorn World 95
8.10
Beverley Adams
8.10
Beverley Adams from Acorn Computers lets us in on what’s in store at
Acorn World 95...
8.10
Great fun, entertaining and educational... is the only way to describe
this unique event!
8.10
All that’s best and new in home and educational computing from Acorn and
over 100 other exhibitors, plus the chance to explore the Information
Superhighway, the emerging technology set to revolutionise the way we
all communicate.
8.10
It’s hi-fun as much as hi-tech, and there’s something for everyone − all
under one roof at Wembley from 27 to 29 October.
8.10
Technology City is the hub of the show. It’s the place to preview the
latest Acorn technologies and products, get into cyberspace, and find
unrepeatable Acorn show offers.
8.10
But it’s not all for the experts: The Friendly Face of IT is a special
area of the event packed with advice and help for those just starting
out.
8.10
For parents
8.10
...with younger children − the free, colourful, toy-packed creche,
leaves you free to meet educational experts, and look at and try out
products specially developed for early learning.
8.10
...with computer whizz kids − Acorn World 95 is an ideal venue, they get
into cyberspace, while you broaden your knowledge and develop an
up-to-date understanding of the important role of IT in school, linked
with home and business.
8.10
For children
8.10
A games arcade running the latest tests of skill, the Cyber Cafe where
you can “Surf the Internet” and browse the Blue Peter World Wide Web
pages, competitions with prizes, face-painting, jugglers, magicians and
lots more.
8.10
For educationalists
8.10
Topical theatre discussion on issues of the day, the latest in
portability, multimedia techniques, and in educational hardware and
software, with many exhibitors timing the launch of new products for the
event.
8.10
For experts and enthusiasts
8.10
A chance to preview Acorn prototypes and the latest new products due for
launch during the final quarter of ’95, plus a special technology
seminar for Clan Acorn members.
8.10
And for everyone
8.10
See a demonstration of the Set-Top Box technology from Acorn’s Online
Media division which is leading the way in the rapidly developing global
marketplace for integrated home services − TV banking, shopping, video
and educational programs, news services and networked games, all from
your armchair at the press of a button!
8.10
Plus
8.10
u The Multimedia Gallery
8.10
u Special training sessions
8.10
u Topical theatre presentations − the Information Superhighway and a
variety of other topics
8.10
u Advice Centre − no question they can’t answer!
8.10
u Special Education Conference 27th October at Wembley − a must for
parents and teachers of children with special needs
8.10
So take a step on the highway to the future, book advance tickets now
and save £££’s, plus it entitles you to a special P&O cross-Channel
offer.
8.10
Take 10 children or more, and your ticket is free.
8.10
Advance ticket and information hotline: [phone].
8.10
Ticket type    on the day price    advance price    saving
8.10
adults    £6    £5    16%
8.10
children    £5    £4    20%
8.10
family    £20    £16    20%
8.10
   ‘Family’ = 2 adults + 2 children
8.10
Make cheques payable to Acorn Direct, and send them to Acorn Direct, 13
Dennington Road, Wellingborough, Northants NN8 2RL. u
8.10
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

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
8.10
Puzzle Corner
8.10
Colin Singleton
8.10
Interest seems to be picking up, so I will stick with this format for a
while. Contributions, particularly for Quickies, would be appreciated.
8.10
(13) Multiple Shifts
8.10
Several readers suggested variations on this puzzle. If leading zeros
are permitted, solutions can be found for multiples greater than nine.
The technique I outlined last month (among others) will work. The
problem can also be extended to involve shifts of more than a single
digit. Readers with long memories may recall that this was my
number-crunching competition in Archive 4.3.
8.10
Cornelia Rösch also investigated numbers which are multiples of their
reversals, and noted the near miss 12345679 × 8  = 98765432. She could
have added 123456789 × 8 = 987654312. Indeed, if you multiply 123456789
by each of the numbers 1−80, 33 of the products are pan-digital. There
is scope here for considerable time-wasting, for man and machine. The
prize goes to Richard Lyszkowski, of Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, one
of a number of readers who listed all non-repetitive solutions without
leading zeros.
8.10
(14) Very Acute
8.10
Several readers found solutions with ten triangles, but no-one matched
my eight-triangle solution. The most popular solution was the left-hand
one, below. The winner is Graham Jones of Durness, Sutherland, the only
reader who found any other solution. His dissections are shown, centre
and right.
8.10
(16, 17) Roots & Knockout
8.10
Several readers solved these non-prize puzzles. From now on, quickies
will earn small prizes − provided there are enough entries.
8.10
(18) No Progress
8.10
Lists of 4×N numbers appear to be the only ones with unique minimum
solutions, though I haven’t managed to prove this. In the table below,
the first three columns contain the number of numbers in the list, the
minimum value of the largest number, and the number of such solutions. A
specimen solution is given for each length of list.
8.10
(19)  Waterfall?
8.10
Yes, the water level does fall. Overboard, the brick displaces its own
volume of water. In the boat, it displaces its own weight of water − a
larger volume.
8.10
(20) Till Death Us Do Part
8.10
Let Smith’s chance of winning the duel be S. His chance of winning with
his first shot is 1/3. His chance of failing with that shot, and
surviving Jones’ first shot is 2/3×1/2. His chance of winning the duel
must then be the same as it was at the start. Hence S =
1/3 + 2/3×1/2×S. Hence S = ½, and the duel is an even match.
8.10
(21) Loony Post
8.10
If the stamp values are X and Y (which must have no common factor), then
the number of impossible postage values is ½(X−1)(Y−1). The only values
of X and Y which give exactly 38 impossible values are 2 and 77, so
these are the Loony stamp values.
8.10
(22) Differences
8.10
This month’s Prize Puzzle. Select four positive integers at random, e.g.
32  67  62  11. Now calculate the absolute differences between adjacent
numbers, in this case 35  5  51  21 (the last of these is the difference
between the last and first in the original list). Again − 30  46  30
14. And again − 16  16  16  16. And finally − 0  0  0  0. This example
produces all zeros in just four operation cycles. Try a few more random
selections − most produce zeros in four cycles, some six, rarely more.
The problem is to find four numbers each less than one million which
require the largest possible number of cycles to produce all zeros.
8.10
The second prize will be awarded to the best trio of solutions to the
following Quickies (23−25).
8.10
(23) Similarities
8.10
Two similar triangles with integral sides have two side-lengths in
common. Their third sides differ by 387. What are the lengths of the
sides?
8.10
(24) Rhymes
8.10
Many English words pronounced “~shun” end in ~tion. How many can you
find which are spelled ~shion? And how many English words rhyme with
month?
8.10
(25) Pythagorean Fractions
8.10
We are all acquainted with the Pythagorean equation X² + Y² = Z², for
which the simplest integer solution is 3² + 4² = 5². But what is the
simplest integer solution to 1/X² + 1/Y² = 1/Z² ?
8.10
Comments and Solutions
8.10
Please send comments, contributions and solutions to me at 41 St Quentin
Drive, Sheffield, S17 4PN. Solutions by Friday 7th July, please. u
8.10
Comment Column
8.10
BBC bits (where NOT to send them) − In a small ad in Archive 8.5, we
mentioned an organisation called “Family Missions” in Shipley as being a
suitable recipient of any spare BBC stuff. Unfortunately, it seems that
this may NOT, in fact, be terribly suitable. They have disappeared to
“somewhere down South”.
8.10
Please therefore only send BBC software and hardware to NCS marked “For
Charity”.
8.10
Ed.
8.10
BJ200 + Turbo Driver problems? − (8.9 p50) Computer Concepts have
produced a new version of the main disc with the ‘PrintDefns’ directory
dated 21 Mar 1995. In it is a new ‘BJ200’ printer definition file (dated
07 Mar 1995) which is now OK. The accompanying letter says the disc
‘contains the latest beta release of the software and will probably
become the next full release version’.
8.10
I haven’t investigated the full equivalences used but I do note that the
mapping for characters above &FF is different from the Acorn ‘standard’
Epson printer mappings. I assume that they are correct for the Canon
BJ200 when set up in the ‘Epson Italics Character Set’ mode. However,
I have not tested this.
8.10
John Wallace, Crawley
8.10
CD hell − My college uses both IBM compatibles and Acorn computers. The
library, which makes extensive use of CDs, has opted to be exclusively
IBM. You borrow your CD and put it in a drive local to the computer.
8.10
The arrival of a new CD is a time of distress for the computing
department. The director of computing and our technician (an IBM
specialist) have been known to hide from the librarian. I try to look
blank and to pretend I have no understanding of IBMs (it’s a bit
worrying that this deceit is so readily believed). The trouble with the
library’s CDs is that each one take ages to install, and each one
requires special machine configurations which conflict with the use of
other CDs. Some CDs seem to take weeks to get going.
8.10
Our technician, an IBM specialist who is rapidly becoming an Acorn
enthusiast, was taken aback when I first set up the application
accelerator software to export CDs on an Acorn system. It was so quick
and easy. Run the AA server software, drag a CD onto it, and instantly
any station running the application accelerator software can access it.
For native Acorn CDs, that was all I had to do.
8.10
A student even brought in an Amiga cover CD. Could he get JPEG files
from the CD on to a disc his Amiga could read? Easy − it took about five
seconds to set up, and a few seconds later, the first graphic was over
the network and there on the screen of a Risc PC.
8.10
If in college we costed the support for IBM compatibles and Acorn
computers separately, I think it would be obvious that IBMs cost much
more. Yet I still hear arguments about the relative costs of these
systems, only considering the base cost of the machine.
8.10
Robert Chrismas, Gosport
8.10
CD-ROM speeds − Fred Grieve’s interesting review of CD Fast (Archive 8.9
p76) raises a crucial point which I think may not have received enough
attention, and that is, the relative speeds of the two sets of
interfaces and drives which he used. The IDE system was 50–400% slower
than the SCSI one, although both were double-speed drives. If any
processor, printer or hard drive was four times the speed of another,
the benchmarks would be very well publicised. But for someone who is
contemplating a CD-ROM drive, how do I make sure that what I buy takes
0.58 secs, and not 2.22 secs, to open the root directory of the PDCD-1
CD? This seems to me to be a crucial area that needs some feedback from
users, and the simple tests that Fred used could be an effective
benchmark suite.
8.10
(If anyone has any information that they could pass on, please send it
to Andrew Flowerdew, 1 Crane House, Golford Road, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17
3NP, our CD-ROM Column Editor − or via the NCS office if you prefer.
Thanks, Ed.)
8.10
Stuart Bell, Horsham
8.10
ClicBack − Last month, David Holden was, in his PD column, quite
unrestrained in his praise for this Careware back-up utility. I write
simply to say “hear, hear”! It is brilliant. Having bought a SCSI 105Mb
SyQuest drive from NCS, about 160Mb of data compresses to 70Mb on the
SyQuest for a full back-up in about 2 hours – the time taken being
largely to compress the data. I simply leave it running when I don’t
need the computer for a while. Differential back-ups scan the whole
160Mb for changes, and take a couple of minutes. At £10, it’s the
bargain of the year, and all in a good cause.
8.10
Stuart Bell, Horsham
8.10
Drag & drop in ImageMaster − One of the niggles in all the reviews
I have read about David Pilling’s ImageMaster concerned the program’s
inability to load an image which was dropped onto its window.
8.10
If you try this in version 1.05, you will find that Mr. Pilling has once
again listened carefully to criticism and has integrated this feature
into his program!
8.10
Jochen Konietzko, Köln, Germany
8.10
EasyFont 3 − Further to the problem I reported in 8.9 p25 about using
archived fonts with !EasyFont3, I have now received a reply from Mark
Smith, the author of ArcFS.
8.10
He states: “ArcFS will not normally be able to compress font
directories, at least not by very much.
8.10
However, the real overhead in large font directories is the amount of
space occupied by large numbers of directories that only contain two or
three files each, and this is why archiving fonts can save significant
amounts of disc space. That said, ArcFS is not intended to archive font
directories, and I wouldn’t recommend that you do it − in particular,
you could find ArcFS using a lot of memory to store open font files if
you are using a wide selection of fonts in a document. I don’t have
!Easy Font, but I understand that version3 uses its own font archiving
system, which is dedicated to dealing with fonts and is therefore much
better suited to the task.”
8.10
I have reviewed my archived fonts, and I find that the average saving is
only around 15%. These remarks explain some errors that I have had in
the past relating to memory, and I shall not be archiving fonts in the
future. For the information of ArcFS users, the latest read/write
version is 2.55 and the read-only version is 0.73; they contain a few
bug fixes which relate particularly to the RiscPC.
8.10
Ted Lacey, Southampton
8.10
Floating point hardware − There is a certain amount of confusion
surrounding the use of floating point hardware. One reader states that
it is hard to choose between an ARM700+FPA running at 33MHz and an
ARM710 running in excess of 40MHz. The only programs which would run
faster with the FPA option would be those concerned primarily with
number crunching. This would really mean home-written single tasking
calculations − possibly fractal calculation programs. However, once you
are using the multitasking desktop, almost all commercial RISC OS
software will run faster with the FPA-less CPU running at the faster
speed. Remember that even programs such as Draw and Basic V make no use
of floating point operations. The only time you might do better in the
desktop with floating point hardware is when using some CAD programs.
8.10
Brian Cowan, Wembley
8.10
Importing and exporting text − Following Jim Nottingham’s series, which
I found very helpful, I thought readers might like to hear about my
experience. Briefly, I write (and edit) a house journal, and see it
through its editorial and pre-production stages. These are:
8.10
1. Writing − I have Impression Publisher and MS Word 5.5 (an advanced
non-Windows version) at my disposal, but for this particular job,
I prefer EasiWriter as being more fluent and practical. Each of the
40-odd stories, ranging from 30 to 800 words, gets a separate EasiWriter
file.
8.10
2. Approval − I present mss (hard copies) of the stories to my clients
for approval, and later make any amendments they ask for. The mss
(written on an EasiWriter ‘stationery’ form) are vital; the early, and
intermediate, versions serve as approval ‘manuscript’. The definitive
version is a guide for the typesetter/DTP operator. The header carries:
8.10
− RISC OS and DOS filenames to identify the story
8.10
− a provisional headline, written before the story, to keep my eye on
the ball as well as to help identify the story for the
non-computer-literate
8.10
− automatic dating to avoid confusion between versions. Before we
refined the procedure, this confusion happened several times and
resulted, embarrassingly, in unapproved copy being published.
8.10
− the folio number
8.10
− A footer contains a message asking recipients to confine themselves to
matters of fact and to keep their well-meaning paws off the prose!
8.10
3. Delivery etc − Using the Selection—Save—Text procedure in EasiWriter,
I make ASCII copies on my hard disc of the approved files, and copy them
to a DOS format floppy which I deliver to my client with the definitive
mss. At this stage, in theory, I have largely done my bit.
8.10
The Communication Dept import my text into Word for Windows for final
checking and last-minute alterations. The (absolutely!) definitive
versions are then handed, on a DOS format disc, to the Print & Design
section, who put them in a Mac and import them into a Quark ExPress file
(incidentally, just one file for the entire publication!). So all told,
my files undergo four metamorphoses between the original form and the
typesetting bureau: (RISC OS) EasiWriter—ASCII—(DOS) Word for
Windows—(Macintosh) Quark ExPress— PostScript!
8.10
It works. The only noticeable, and minor, problem compared with earlier
exercises when I used to start from MS Word 5.5 or IBM DisplayWrite 4,
has been that the ‘£’ sign, en-dash and em-dash (ASCII 151 and ASCII
152) translate incorrectly but, as Jim Nottingham has pointed out, such
things are easy meat for search & replace.
8.10
Peter Robertson, Tewkesbury
8.10
Microwriter Information − The company once known as Microwriter have
been through a number of changes. It brought out a wonderful machine
called the AgendA which I reviewed in Archive (3.11 p48). This machine
is a seven key, one hand, quick entry, portable wordprocessor which can
be linked to any computer with an RS232 type serial port. That means
that it can be used on anything from a BBC Micro up to a Risc PC. I know
− I still do it. It took one hour to learn to use, and I can’t type
properly either. It is almost entirely the same code as used on the
Microwriter.
8.10
Unfortunately the company went bust, but, as I was the writer of the
software for making Acorns talk to Microwriter/Agendas, I still have it.
If you would like the new Risc PC version, please send an SAE and blank
formatted disc to me and I will provide my software. It only allows
downloading from the AgendA/Microwriter to the Acorn, but if you want
full communication and have an IBM PC or PCcard, full facility software
is still available from the inventor of the QuinKey Chording Keyboard
which is at the heart of the machines.
8.10
I only use the downloading facility myself. It generates raw ASCII which
is good enough for anything. The inventor will charge a modest price, as
he is doing it in his spare time to support AgendA users who have been,
like him, badly let down by the company. If anyone has won the lottery
recently and wants a new AgendA Mk3, talk to him − he has great plans.
I can be contacted at 62 Rutland Road, West Bridgeford, Nottingham, NG2
5DG. The inventor is C. Rainey, Bellair Electronics, 4 Broadgate,
Pilton, Barnstaple, North Devon, EX31 1QZ.
8.10
Simon Anthony, Nottingham
8.10
Music printing − With the aid of my A3000, I have become a ‘hobby
composer’! I have used the five different music programs as they
appeared on the scene: Maestro, Notate, Rhapsody, PMS and Sibelius.
8.10
The Sibelius music program is marvellous. I like the radar scroller for
locating a note anywhere in the score in seconds... the automatic
calculation of the ‘rest values’ in the bar following note insertion and
the professional look of the printout. I can play a single note anywhere
anytime... a single bar... a single stave... the complete work... but
I have not found how to check the sound of two staves played together.
Is it possible, please? I would like to hear (say) the Soprano and Tenor
tunes sung together, free from the Alto and Bass parts.
8.10
Notate is more elementary but it has two features I like. (1) It has a
‘mixer’, allowing one or more parts to be played together (see above),
each part with its own ‘sliding’ volume control on the screen. (2) It
has a note input through a screen keyboard, in real or step time, as
well as ‘dragging’ notes onto the stave. I use it for working out simple
themes before transferring to either PMS (Philip’s Music Scribe by
Philip Hazel) or Sibelius for printing with the trickier parts!
8.10
PMS allows notes and expression marks etc to be typed in using text in
an Edit window. Sibelius, by contrast, uses the function keys for note
length and dragging to pitch on the stave with the mouse. Sibelius
thinks for you... but I think that PMS allows more control (if you are
prepared to take the time).
8.10
I use two important features from the PMS program... (1) I can arrange
for two staves to be printed on top of one another! This allows me to
reduce a four-staved choir piece into a two-staved piano accompaniment.
(2) If I type the @ symbol, the rest of the line becomes a ‘comment’ and
has no effect on the notation. So, by typing or deleting the @ in front
of the <linespacing> command, I can change from four to two staves and
back at the drop of a hat! (Or even at the drop of an ‘at’? Sorry! Ed.)
8.10
I save a lot of time by using a ‘Standard Layout’ for all the ‘headings’
and the information needed for key, time, line-spacing, systems-spacing,
brackets, etc, and the information needed for each stave. The ‘Standard
Layout’ is copied for each new piece. Included in my standard layout are
some lines starting with @ for all unusual or alternative ‘headings’.
Then I can call them up by just deleting the @.
8.10
Then I can get into the ‘music...’ with a minimum of typing!
8.10
PMS Specimen program
8.10
(The Standard Layout has been copied... Bold type has been used to pick
out the text needed only for entering the notes.)
8.10
heading “John Veg’s Tune ?”
8.10
heading “in four (two) parts”
8.10
breakbarlines
8.10
notespacing *1.1 (magnifies the note spacing by 1.1).
8.10
key G (the key with one sharp).
8.10
time 3/4 (three crochets in a bar).
8.10
@ stavespacing 1/0 2/48 3/0 4/48 (... stave spacing)
8.10
(The number after the slash gives the distance to the next stave. So
‘1/0’ has ‘0’-space, i.e. zero space, between stave 1 and stave 2. So
stave two will be printed on top of stave one. ‘3/0’ prints stave four
on the top of stave three.)
8.10
(The ‘@’symbol at the start of the line turns it into a ‘comment’. So
the default spacing for four staves will operate.)
8.10
[stave 1]
8.10
[treble 1 stems up]
8.10
g-;a-;b-;c`;d`-;e`- |
8.10
 (‘-’ key for a quaver, ‘`’ key for an octave up).
8.10
G’r|
8.10
(upper case for a minim)
8.10
[endstave]
8.10

8.10
[stave 2]
8.10
[treble 1 stems down]
8.10
g g b-a- |
8.10
 (lower case for two crochets... followed by two quavers.)
8.10
Br |
8.10
[endstave]
8.10

8.10
[stave 3]
8.10
[bass 0 stems up]
8.10
e’d’c‘ |
8.10
Gr |
8.10
(The ‘r’ is a crochet rest.)
8.10
[endstave]
8.10

8.10
[stave 4]
8.10
[bass 0 stems down]
8.10
e-e-;d-$d-;c-b`- |
8.10
(The ‘;’ key controls the beaming of notes).
8.10
G`r |
8.10
(The ‘$’ key ‘flattens’ the following note.)
8.10
[endstave]
8.10
John VEG Mitchell, Wishaw, Scotland
8.10
Printing from Basic programs − (8.9 pp10 & 50) I have found a completely
different way to solve my problem. In the Basic program, I create each
line of text that I wish to output and save it in an array ‘line$(N%)’.
While the lines are being created, I update a variable ‘L%’ to the
length of the longest line. I then create a drawfile using the routines
in the ‘CDraw’ library that was published in Risc User some time ago.
Since the output lines must be correctly spaced horizontally, I can only
use a monospaced font for the data. I use a nicer font for the header.
First the header is created and then the text point height is calculated
from the available height left (if there are not many lines, the point
height is set to 12), and then the point width is calculated from the
length of the longest string. Finally, for each line of text, a
‘text-object’ is created and then the drawfile is closed and saved.
8.10
This method has two advantages: (1) Because the font height and width
are adjustable in very small increments, full use is made of the
available space. (2) You can view the drawfile before printing to make
sure that there are no errors. The one disadvantage is that, as far as
I know, Corpus is the only monospaced font available.
8.10
Would these techniques be of interest to people? If so, I could provide
a skeleton program on disc which would supply the necessary PROC’s to
produce the drawfile. I would also be prepared to write an article for
the magazine, describing the method and use of the program. (Would
anyone find that of interest? If so, please let me or John know. Ed.)
8.10
The Bridge Scoring program is fairly robust now, so if anyone is
interested, do contact me.
8.10
John Wallace, 1 Evans Close, Maidenbower, Crawley, RH10 7WN.
8.10
Promoting Acorn − I’m nearing the end of an Electronic Engineering
degree, and would love to promote Acorn in this field (especially to
“The world is a PC” Electronics and Wireless World). However, there is a
slight problem − lack of engineering applications.
8.10
There are, I believe, three PCB design packages, one of which appears to
be a fairly professional piece of software (that is, CadMust). Apart
from this, there’s nothing! Yes, there’s Frank and Erik van de Pol’s
port of the simulation program Spice − and an excellent piece of
software it is (I know; the success of my Final Year design project
rested on it!). The problem here is that it’s not a commercial package,
and so the support is only as good as the authors have time for. This
isn’t acceptable for companies.
8.10
I believe that this could be another niche market for Acorn; every
Analogue (and quite a few Digital) Engineer needs to use Spice − for me,
it was at least ten hours every day. The options for running the package
at the moment are either a PC or a Unix Workstation. The PC option could
cost £2,000 to £3,000, whilst most of the Unix options start at about
£20,000; how about someone pitching a system in the middle? Acorn! Any
software companies care to take up the challenge?
8.10
Nick Chalk, Sheffield
8.10
Promoting Acorn 2 − I’ve just received the latest edition of Creative
Technology and in it is an excellent editorial and a review of an Acorn
system for use in design work. At last, some positive press for Acorn,
albeit in a heavily Mac-dominated area. More power to Acorn’s elbow!
8.10
Neil Fazakerley, London W2.
8.10
Rounding errors in balance sheets
8.10
− In Archive 8.4p33, Gerald Fitton identified a problem associated with
rounding errors in a spreadsheet, which he presented in the form of a
puzzle attributed to me. My version was in fact rather different, as
explained in my column in Archive 8.5p30. The solution described here
solves neither of these puzzles, so let’s start again...
8.10
Balance sheets − The trading account and the balance sheet are vital
financial documents in any business, and are scrutinised avidly by the
auditors. The trading account comprises a list of turnover figures for a
specified period of time. The balance sheet lists balances as at a
specified date. In each, the figures are pigeon-holed into a list of
nominal accounts, each normally identified by a numeric code and an
associated description to identify its accounting significance.
8.10
Accountants usually list the figures in two columns, debits and credits,
side by side. The grand totals of the two columns should be the same. To
a systems designer (or a mathematician) it is more logical to arrange
the figures, each with the correct sign, in a single list. The grand
total should be zero.
8.10
When designing accounting software, I have always adopted the latter
technique internally. The software can, nevertheless, be written to show
the figures in debit and credit columns, if required − this is
essentially a matter of presentation.
8.10
The rounding problem − Each figure on the accounts file is a sum of
money, held precisely to the penny. However, since the figures are
hundreds, thousands, or even millions of pounds, the odd 37p is
insignificant and the accounts are easier to comprehend if the figures
are printed as round £s (or £000s for a large company). Now, consider a
simple example of three figures and their total −
£31.97 + 87.80 + 42.56 = £162.33. Round each figure to the nearest
pound. £32 + 88 + 43 = £162. Help!! It doesn’t add up. The accountant
will launch an inquisition.  How can the computer adjust(!) the figures
so that they look right, and are right within a set of rules simple
enough for an accountant to understand? (Do accountants read Archive? If
so, sorry!)
8.10
‘Flexible rounding’ is a term I have just invented, though I invented
the process several years ago to solve this problem, and have recently
re­discovered my notes. Flexi­rounded figures are each rounded to an
adjacent integer (or thousand, etc), but not necessarily the nearer of
the two. Thus £42.56 may be rounded for printing to £42 or £43, as we
wish, but to no other figure. A figure which, by chance, is already an
integer must not be changed. The maximum rounding error is thus 99p,
rather than the usual 50p, though, in practice, errors approaching £1
will be rare. We can now present the above addition in flexi­rounded
form, £32 + 88 + 42 = £162, which is true!
8.10
DIM Exact(Num%), Round%(Num%)
8.10
Adjust = 0.5
8.10
FOR I% = 1 TO Num%
8.10
Adjust = Adjust + Exact(I%)
8.10
Round%(I%) = INT(Adjust)
8.10
Adjust = Adjust − Round%(I%)
8.10
NEXT I%
8.10
The above Basic code generates a flexi­rounded version of a list of
exact figures, each of which may be positive or negative. Programmers
should note that, for this purpose, when the INT function is applied to
a negative number it must round down, towards −fi. Acorn Basic, in common
with many other dialects, rounds INT towards zero, so this coding must
be modified to give the correct answers. Equivalent coding can be
devised for any other language.
8.10
Subtotals − If our balance sheet comprised only a list of values and a
grand total, there would be little problem, and this routine might be
viewed as the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut. In practice, a
typical set of accounts includes numerous nested subtotals corresponding
to accounting categories at various levels, The strength of the
flexi­rounding technique lies in its treatment of subtotals.
8.10
Having rounded the list of exact values using the above procedure, each
subtotal should be calculated by totalling the rounded values, not by
rounding the total of the exact values. Provided that each subtotal
represents a selection of consecutive values in the list, it will be
found that any total obtained in this way is always a flexi­rounded
version of the exact total, i.e. the error in the total never exceeds
99p. By comparison, the error in a total obtained by adding
conventionally-rounded values is theoretically unlimited. The rounded
values, as printed, always total correctly to the printed subtotals, and
these in turn total correctly to the next higher level subtotal, right
up to the grand total, which will, in fact, be conventionally rounded to
the nearest integer.
8.10
If you can persuade your accountant to accept flexi­rounding as a
slightly liberal alternative to nearest­rounding, you, and he, may never
again need to explain rounding errors to those who seem unable to
understand this simple problem!
8.10
Colin Singleton, Sheffield
8.10
RTF/savers and loaders from CC − I was involved in some of the beta
testing on these and I was very impressed with the ease with which
I could exchange data with my colleagues, most of whom use MS Word or
WordPerfect. Now that I have my PC486 card in my Risc PC at home, I’ve
installed Word for Windows on my DOS partition and I can convert between
different document formats much more easily. I don’t need to ask my
colleagues to give me RTF files but instead I export them from Word
myself.
8.10
I’m still disappointed with Fireworkz Pro though. The RTF features of
Fireworkz seem to be full of bugs and it’s almost impossible to exchange
data between Impression and Fireworkz using RTF. Sometimes it is
possible to filter the RTF files through Word and get some sensible
transfer between the two Acorn products.
8.10
As Gerald Fitton often points out, it’s the ability to port your data
easily which decides the best software in the long term. In this respect
I think that Colton ought to improve their Fireworkz package.
8.10
Mike Clark, Cambridge
8.10
SCSI-2 query − Regarding Chris Walker’s query, (Archive 8.9 p10) as
I understand it, there are several permutations of “Fast” and “Wide” in
the SCSI-2 standard...
8.10
Basic: 8 bit @ 5Mbytes/s
8.10
Fast: 8 bit @ 10Mb/s
8.10
Wide: 16 bit @ 10Mb/s or 32 bit @ 20Mb/s
8.10
Fast & Wide: 16 bit @ 20Mb/s or 32 bit @ 40Mb/s
8.10
From a review in the June issue of Acorn User, I believe that the Cumana
SCSI-2 card is 8 bit, Fast SCSI. However, to achieve anything like this
performance, you need a drive to match the interface. Usually, it is
only large, expensive drives that meet the Fast or Wide standards (e.g.
IBM or DEC). Acorn User quotes some transfer-rate measurements for the
Cumana card and an IBM 1Gb SCSI-2 drive...
8.10
With SCSI-1 i/f : ~1.0Mb/s
8.10
With SCSI-2 i/f : ~3.4Mb/s
8.10
Nick Chalk, Sheffield
8.10
VerbMaster-French review (8.9 p73) − Thanks very much for publishing the
review of VerbMaster-French. I felt it was, generally, a fair and
complimentary appraisal of the program, but may I be allowed to answer a
few points?
8.10
1. The bug in the ‘cyclic-add’ feature has been fixed in the latest
version (1.01), as have the typing errors in the VerbFile supplied −
sorry!
8.10
2. Genders. I only used the masculine version of nouns (the il form) due
to lack of space in the main window, and because VerbMaster aims to help
you learn the conjugations of verbs; as the forms for il/elle/on are
generally the same, there seemed little point in wasting space on
separate entries. Furthermore, the necessary agreements for verbs
conjugated with être are indicated in the main display window.
8.10
3. Testing of verbs. The decision to ask for verbs in the form: ‘Please
enter the vous form of the imperfect tense of the verb aller.’ was
deliberate. If it were to ask for the meaning of ‘you (pl) were going’
it would be necessary for me to program the conjugation of English verbs
(which is more difficult than French!) and for the user to enter English
translations in full for new verbs, which would be tiresome. The purpose
of VerbMaster is not to teach prose translation, but to help learning
verb forms; it is a grammatical approach, but I believe that this is the
only way to learn foreign verbs, and, as your reviewer concludes,
VerbMaster does do this comprehensively!
8.10
4. Sinners of the world unite! Mr Campbell quoted the phrase: Let him
who is without sin ..! and I am sure he is aware that there are few
Shareware writers who write perfect, bug-free programs − that‘s why
there are professionals! I would welcome enquiries from readers involved
in teaching/learning modern languages to try the program and suggest
advancements and improvements. The next version will have password
protection of certain features, the ability to turn tenses off and the
conjugations of the subjunctive mood (the Add Tense feature, which
Graham didn’t mention, allows you to enter it yourself, if you can’t
wait!). Upgrades will be free to registered users and will be sent to
APDL. It has to be said that I am not charging the earth for the program
(£7.50), and I hope users will find it good value for money.
8.10
Nigel Caplan, 33 Alwoodley Lane, Leeds, LS17 7PU.
8.10
WordPerfect? − I thought I really ought to weigh in on the WordPerfect /
Publisher argument. Christopher Wightwick (8.9 p29) might like to know
that the Journal of Physiology, the top academic journal in its field,
is prepared right up to CRC (Camera Ready Copy) using Impression
Publisher on Acorns. We handle the accents not only for French and
German, but also Spanish, Polish, Danish, Finnish etc, etc − frequently
quite a variety of languages in a single document. Greek and Russian are
no problem, nor even Hindi.
8.10
It’s all WYSIWYG on screen and can be typed straight from the keyboard,
with a minimum of keystrokes, and not arcane ones at that. We can
remember − and touch type − the ones we use a lot. All of them fit on an
A4 chart, in large type.
8.10
Greek, Russian, Hindi, etc, all use the correct typewriter keyboard
layout used in their home countries, making touch typing possible. Just
double-click on the Taj Mahal and away you go; Houses of Parliament and
you’re back. For an odd Greek character in the middle of English text −
common in scientific material − you don’t even need the Parthenon: hold
<alt> down and type the character.
8.10
Not that we type much − mostly just copy-editing corrections and
alterations. We accept authors’ papers on disc − almost any disc, any
word processor. We prefer 1.44Mb Mac discs, which we can read on the
Acorns, rather than the old variable-speed type that we have to convert
via our dusty Mac. We ask authors not to send 2.88Mb DOS discs; anyone
who uses them can produce a 1.44Mb disc for us. Obviously, we would be
very interested if anyone could produce a 2.88Mb drive for the Acorns.
About 94% of submissions are read straight into the Acorns, and it’s
over 99% if you include those that come via the Mac. This is
statistically significant: The Journal of Physiology has an average of
45 academic papers a month, totalling 600 A4 pages, from all over the
world. We do two other, smaller journals as well.
8.10
We often have to retype tables and the more complex mathematical
material, but Publisher makes a good job of them. I can tell how much
hassle the authors have had, often using WordPerfect, by the contents of
the files they submit.
8.10
Our import filter automatically recognizes and converts a total of 30
different file types. Some of these cover several versions of a word
processor, or even several different word processors with similar file
formats. In other cases, we need different modules for different
versions of the same package. WordPerfect 5.1 and WordPerfect 6.0 share
a second stage, but need different front ends, for example. The filter
also has switchable output stages according to which of our journals the
paper belongs to, so that it can format the output appropriately, and
use the right styles.
8.10
Finally − ‘amusing deformations’ − we can’t resist calling (guess what)
Windows for Playgroups whenever we watch people in a neighbouring office
‘using’ it, and compare it with what we can do in here, with much less
fuss.
8.10
Clive Semmens, Cambridge
8.10
Word Processing (8.9p29) − I don’t know about Fireworkz, but the error
“Archive amgazine” can be corrected in Publisher very simply by using
<ctrl-shift-Q> to switch the offending letters. (Can you do that in Word
Prefect (sic)? Ed.) Impression does have user-definable F-keys,
drag-and-drop and paragraph indent (Nos 6, 9 and 10 on Christopher’s
wish list), and it surely has a longer list of ‘Load from’ formats than
any other package! He should not judge “Acorn WPs” by just one example.
I back John Molyneux. I too have friends who use PC word processors
(though I do not do so myself), and they invariably breathe a sigh of
relief when they can use Publisher on my machine!
8.10
Colin Singleton, Sheffield u
8.10
Help!!!!
8.10
“Bad compression field” − Frequently (i.e. more often than not), when
printing long documents (using Impression II and a Canon LBP8
LaserDirect version 2.61), I get an error message along the lines of
“Bad compression field” and a page that is only partially printed. After
this, the printing (almost!?) always hangs, the rest of the computer
being fine. This seems to need a hard reset to cure, since neither
switching the printer off and on, nor quitting and restarting the
printer driver, cures the problem. Is there a less painful solution?
8.10
Torben Steeg, Manchester
8.10
I’m using Risc PC, LBP8 and 2.63 and I don’t have Torben’s problem but,
if I get a paper jam, any future attempts at printing produce zero
response at the printer. I have to do a complete switch off. Has anyone
else got this problem? Better still, has anyone got a solution?! Ed.
8.10
Bridge program − Does anyone know of a program, or has anyone written
one, running under RISC OS, that will calculate and print out the scores
for a Duplicate Bridge competition using either a Howell, Mitchell or
Swiss movement. (Bridge players will know what I mean.)
8.10
(I’ve no idea if this is the same thing, but look at John Wallace’s
offer on page 21. Ed.)
8.10
Graham Woolf, 4 Drake Close, Poulner, Ringwood, Hants, BH24 1UG.
(01425-471060)
8.10
Foreign Characters (8.9 p27). I assume this technique will only generate
those accented characters which are in the Latin1 character set. One
FFAQ [Fairly ...], especially among musicians, is “How do I print the
name ?” (Without cheating!) (It’s a drawfile embedded in the text, in
case you were wondering. Ed.) The character r-caron is defined in the
Latin2 character set and the outlines for Latin2 (and Latin3 Latin4,
Greek and Cyrillic) are hidden away somewhere in the ROM Fonts, Trinity
and Homerton, which come with RISC OS 3. Unfortunately, it seems to be
impossible for Impression (or anything else, except Edit) to get at
them. Can someone who knows how perhaps extract them from their hiding
place and store them under modified Font Names, so that we can all use
them on the rare occasions they are needed, alongside the Latin1
characters.
8.10
(Perhaps Clive Semmens, with all his experience − see Comment Column,
page 24 − would be able to help. How about an article on how you do it,
Clive? Ed.)
8.10
Colin Singleton, Sheffield
8.10
Printing Labels − Can anyone recommend a label printing program? I used
Quest very satisfactorily for some years but since changing from an
Epson dot-matrix to a Canon BJ200, I cannot get the labels to print
correctly. Perhaps someone could write an article on label production
and printing.
8.10
Several of my friends have PCs and have very good programs for making
and printing the draw for sports events. Is there anything similar
available for Acorn?
8.10
Roger Jackman, Slough
8.10
Ray Tracers − I wonder if there are any competent Illusionist/ray tracer
users out there in the Archive readership who would be willing to lend
assistance to a new PD/Shareware program that I am currently working on!
Work would basically involve drawing and rendering different room
scenes. I can’t offer a huge amount for your work, but I am willing to
share any shareware fees with you! If you’re interested, please contact
me for more details.
8.10
James Pullan, Neural Net Design, 23 Frayne Rd, Ashton Gate, Bristol BS3
1RU.
8.10
RS Components’ CD-ROM catalogue − I mentioned some time ago that I had a
surplus RS Components’ CD-ROM catalogue which I would pass on to anybody
who wanted it. In connection with this, Steve Williams rang to say that
he also has a few spare, so more are available if anybody else is
interested.
8.10
Keith Hodge, HES − see Factfile.
8.10
Statistical program? − Does anyone know of a statistical package with a
multiple correlation program in it? Commercial or PD − don’t mind.
8.10
Tony Cowley, Ipswich
8.10
Charity Sales
8.10
No charity bits this month as they are all going into the Charity Bring
and Buy which NCS is sponsoring at Acorn World ’95. If you have things
to contribute, please send them direct to NCS.
8.10
We ran a Charity Bring & Buy at the Acorn User Show in Harrogate and
raised over £1,300 (possibly £1,700 − see below) for the Henshaw’s
School for the Blind, Harrogate.
8.10
Many, many thanks to all those who helped by donating stuff and to all
those who worked so hard at the show. (I don’t even know the names of
all the helpers but thanks for your efforts!). Extra special thanks go
to David Holden who was there both days and organised the whole thing.
Well done David!
8.10
We are going to do the same thing at Acorn World 95 − but even better.
Please send us your unused software and hardware now − BBC or RISC OS.
8.10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8.10
We were given an A310, RISC OS 3.1, ARM3, 4Mb with 1.6Mb floppy which we
reckon is worth £400 of anyone’s money − especially for charity. We only
got it late on the Sunday and didn’t find a buyer. Any offers? If you
want it with a hard drive as well, DH will put one in at cost − a
bargain!!!! u
8.10
PD Column
8.10
David Holden
8.10
Shareware for the Archimedes is becoming much more common and,
thankfully, standards are rising. However, I am often dismayed by the
unprofessional approach of some authors.
8.10
For many years, I have tried to get Shareware firmly established as a
viable means of distribution for Archimedes software. This is not easy.
I am often told that ‘Shareware doesn’t seem to work for Acorn
computers’ or ‘no-one sends registration fees for my programs’. The
people who make these comments are implying that the blame lies with
those using their programs. They appear to have forgotten the first rule
of selling any product. The customer is always right. This may not be
literally true, but you can’t tell a prospective customer they are wrong
and still hope to make a sale. You might think this has little or
nothing to do with collecting registration fees for Shareware, but it
really is the key, and any Shareware author who forgets it, is doomed to
repeat those two phrases and blame everyone but themself for their
failure.
8.10
I shall try to explain some of the lessons that I have learned (often
the hard way) in the hope that prospective Shareware authors will
benefit from my experience. If you want to know what my credentials for
writing this are, then all I can say is that I’m not one of the people
who think that Shareware doesn’t work. If I can make it work, I must be
doing something right.
8.10
Next month, I will cover the physical aspects, inducements to register,
crippling, etc, but I will begin by considering the ideology of
Shareware. It is not just a matter of writing a program and asking for
money. The ‘state of mind’ of the author is probably more important than
anything else. If you can’t see how significant this is, I doubt if you
will have any success and, perhaps even more importantly, you will
probably not enjoy the experience.
8.10
Some of what I am about to write may offend. I don’t set out with that
intention but it is a possibility. If you do disagree with something I
say, I emphasise that these are my own opinions and not necessarily
those of the Editor, so please write to me personally to take me to
task, not to the magazine.
8.10
What is Shareware?
8.10
We all know what Shareware is, don’t we? I’m sure that if you are
actually writing programs, you must understand it. However, seeing, as I
do, dozens of Shareware programs sent to APDL, I have become aware that,
although most authors understand the concept in theory, they haven’t
really thought through the implications and how it must affect the way
they write programs and, more importantly, the type of programs they
write.
8.10
Most of these people seem to regard Shareware as any program which is
freely distributed and for which they ask users to send them a
registration fee. Anyone who has this attitude is doomed to failure.
That is not what Shareware actually is. Shareware is commercial
software. There is no difference between Shareware and the programs you
buy in a computer shop or via mail order. It is not ‘cheap software’. It
normally is cheaper, but that’s because the overheads are lower, not
because less effort has gone into producing it or because it is
inferior.
8.10
A Shareware program is a product
8.10
If you are thinking of writing a Shareware program, or if you have
written one, or if you have written one and not been very successful,
please read this sub-heading and think very carefully about it.
Shareware is not a ‘type’ of software, it is a means of marketing and
distributing commercial software.
8.10
Consider the following statement: A program that would not be a success
if sold by other means will probably fail as Shareware.
8.10
Let me relate this to the section heading. Many Shareware authors simply
take a program that they have written, add a bit to the !Help file
asking for money, and think that people will send it to them. When no
money arrives, they join the “Shareware doesn’t work” brigade. As a
Shareware author you are selling a product. In order to sell something,
certain criteria need to be met. There must be a demand, and your
product must meet that demand at a competitive price. There is no point
in writing the most wonderful program in the world if no-one has a use
for it. There is no point in writing a program that does what lots of
people want, if what it does is something they are not prepared to pay
for. These are self-evident, but how many programmers stop to reflect
upon them before they start?
8.10
When a company considers a new product, they undertake ‘market testing’.
This involves trying to find out what potential customers want, how much
they are prepared to pay for it and how many they would be likely to
sell. If the survey indicates that they couldn’t sell enough items of
the required type at a price that would give them a satisfactory profit
margin, the product is never made.
8.10
A product without a market cannot succeed. I have to confess that many
of my own programs didn’t start with a carefully considered attempt to
fill a gap in the market. Normally, they were something that I had begun
for my own use and which I then thought might be useful to others.
However, the Archimedes program that I have written with more registered
users than any other did start in just that way. I wrote Architype
because people kept asking me if there was a typing tutor available.
8.10
My latest Shareware program, a link for the Amstrad NC 100, was also
written because people asked for it. It took a long time to write, not
because it was particularly difficult (although there were a few
unexpected problems) but because I found it rather boring and didn’t
really want to do it, so I kept putting it off. But that’s the way it
often is with Shareware; it’s not meant to be enjoyable, it’s work.
8.10
Writing Shareware is work!
8.10
Writing Shareware is paid employment. If you are lucky, you will be in
the fortunate position of doing something you enjoy and having hundreds
of employers, but never lose sight of the fact that it is work and that
the people who use your programs are paying. It’s up to you to keep them
happy, and if that means including features you don’t think necessary,
or developing it in ways that you never intended, remember ‘he who pays
the piper...’
8.10
The sensible Shareware author quickly realises that this feedback is one
his most valuable assets. Large corporations spend thousands (millions?)
of pounds on market research, trying to find out what their customers
want. The practical Shareware author simply asks his users, encourages
them to talk and, more importantly, listens to what they tell him. Quite
often they will make suggestions that you would never have thought of.
They will also complain and find bugs. Always listen. Even if you don’t
like what you’re told, take notice. Sometimes, people will write a
letter telling you why they haven’t registered. This can be more
valuable to the shrewd author than one from a satisfied user telling you
how wonderful your program is.
8.10
I once had a five page letter from someone telling me everything he
didn’t like about a program and why he wasn’t going to register. I
agreed with some things he said, there were good reasons why others were
not practical, and a few had already been implemented in a later version
than the one he had. I modified the program to include some of his
suggestions and wrote back with a copy. He immediately sent the
registration fee, gave copies to some of his friends, and I later had
some more registrations. If I had reacted unfavourably to his
criticisms, I would have lost not only those registrations but perhaps
others in the future.
8.10
If possible, make your phone number available. Users with difficulties
(or suggestions) often prefer to phone. Frequently, a problem that would
require several exchanges of letters can be sorted out with a bit of
‘hands on’ work over the phone. Reply to correspondence. Nothing annoys
a user more than being ignored. If they haven’t paid, it’s almost
certain to put them off registering. If they have paid, they have a
right to have their queries answered. Allow a margin for this in your
Registration Fee − it’s part of the service and, as such, is part of
your business overhead and must be included in your costs.
8.10
Failure to register
8.10
There are many reasons why people don’t register, and no sensible person
would claim to have the answer. There are also many methods of
encouraging registration which, although they might appear superficially
attractive, are counter-productive. I shall describe some of these next
month and propose some possible solutions but, in keeping with the
general tone of this month’s section, I shall try to suggest ways in
which the author should try to approach the problem.
8.10
The first thing that you must learn is there is absolutely nothing you
can do to make someone register. Unenlightened companies spend fortunes
on software protection, and most of it is wasted. As a Shareware author,
you must learn to distance yourself from this paranoia. Someone who is
using your software without registering has not robbed you of your fee.
Legally and morally, that may be the case, but in reality it just isn’t
so. You must resign yourself to this fact and realise that such a person
would never pay the registration fee whatever you do. If you cripple the
program, or time limit it, or put in banner screens that pop up every
minute or so and cause real annoyance, he’ll use something else instead.
How will that help you? You might feel better because he’s not getting
the use of your program for nothing, but it won’t put an extra penny in
your pocket.
8.10
Remember, you are in this for the money, so don’t cut off your nose to
spite your face. The greatest asset a Shareware author can have is a
satisfied customer. He will tell others about your program, even give
them a copy of the unregistered version and, in that way, you will get
more registrations. All this promotion won’t cost you a penny. But the
second greatest asset is a user who hasn’t registered, and for exactly
the same reasons. He, too, may give copies to his friends, and they
might be more honest. It is also possible that, at some future date, he
might register. It is not unusual for someone to use a Shareware program
for months, even years, and then decide they need to use it more
intensively, or they want an additional feature that registration
brings, or they suddenly have some spare money, or simply that their
conscience pricks them, and they decide to register. A user who hasn’t
registered is still a potential customer but someone who has discarded
your program in favour of something else, is a lost opportunity!
8.10
Copy protection and Shareware
8.10
This might seem a silly heading since it is obvious that, by its nature,
you want to encourage the widest possible distribution of a Shareware
program, and so copy protection is impossible. However, to conclude this
section about the mental approach you need, I want to emphasise its
difference from that adopted by the conventional software industry.
Anyone who believes that copy protection of software is sensible, is
ideologically unsuited to the Shareware principle.
8.10
The Shareware author depends upon two things. Firstly, you need a belief
in your own abilities. Remember, you are going to give your work away.
You must be confident that it is worthwhile and that others will
recognise its worth. Secondly, you must believe in others. You must have
confidence in them, and trust that they will pay. The important word
here is trust. You need to realise that they are people just like you!
This means they are honest, will recognise the validity of your claim on
their money, and will pay what is owed. You don’t have to force them.
After all, no-one would have to force you to pay your debts, would they?
8.10
If you want to write Shareware it is essential that you are prepared to
trust. If you don’t feel able to do this, then don’t write Shareware!
You will never be happy. You will worry about people using your program
without paying and will feel driven to try to make them pay. Soon, you
will become as obsessed about this as some of the conventional software
houses, and your attempts to ‘encourage’ registration will actually do
exactly the opposite. Think carefully about this before you start. If
you can’t be philosophical and say ‘well, he hasn’t registered yet, but
one day he might’, then stay away from Shareware.
8.10
Competition winners
8.10
Last month’s special offer was a set of discs containing the winning
programs in the APDL competition. I’m not going to list them all again
but if you didn’t send for this collection, this is your last chance.
The price is just £3 (which is a bargain for over 3Mb of material), or
£13 if you want the fully registered version of the hard disc backup
program !ClicBack. The additional £10 gets you a laser printed manual
and all the extra money goes to the Cancer and Leukaemia In Childhood
trust. Please send either stamps or a cheque to the APDL address and
specify whether you want 1.6Mb or 800Kb discs. u
8.10
Gerald’s Column
8.10
Gerald Fitton
8.10
Since writing my articles on monitors and back-up storage I have had
many interesting letters about those two subjects and suggestions for
many more subjects. Sifting through the requests, it would seem that
what you want me to deal with next is printers. Firstly, here are some
other points.
8.10
Squashed lines
8.10
In Publisher, but not in Style, you can get the strange effect of lines
being squashed vertically (on screen as well as the printed version).
8.10
Choose your base (normal) style and edit it with <ctrl-f6>. Click on the
Paragraph radio button and you’ll see that one of the options is to lock
to the line space grid (not available in Style). If you do lock to the
grid then you’ll find the occasional line is squashed vertically.
8.10
Danny Lawrence reported this in last month’s Archive (issue 8.9 p10) but
attributes the problem to his BJ300. He doesn’t say what software he’s
running, and he may have an unrelated problem, but he does say that he’s
noticed it in Archive – and I know that Archive is produced with
Publisher.
8.10
The option to lock to the line space grid does not exist in Style but,
if someone sends you a document with that attribute to a style built
into it then Style will accept the lock just as if you’d created it −
but you can’t get rid of it!
8.10
A difficulty you’ll have with Style is that, if you created such a
document in Impression II (where locking to the line space grid worked
rather better than it does in Publisher), then you can’t get rid of the
lock in Style!
8.10
(Our squashed lines aren’t the same as yours, Gerald. Ours are more like
a horizontal line of dots missing on the printout, but not on the
screen, and if you print it again, it’s usually OK. Ed.)
8.10
A TurboDriver problem
8.10
A couple of people who had 2Mb machines have reported to me that
printing anything but the smallest files with their Turbo Driver caused
the machine to hang, with a variety of error messages. The exact nature
of the error message depended on what was running at the time. They
fitted more RAM (4Mb) and the problem went away (almost).
8.10
It seems to me that this is another example of memory management
problems (by RISC OS?) which seems to affect those packages such as
Fireworkz and Style which dynamically vary the amount of memory they
claim during execution. The memory management problem seems to arise if
two packages want to change the amount of memory they are claiming
simultaneously − if that’s possible. So, if you have one package working
away hard in the background (e.g. the printer) wanting to claim, or
release, memory and you have another package which also wants to do the
same thing, then RISC OS gets mixed up and (if there isn’t enough memory
to go round) it loses its pointers.
8.10
A work around seems to be to avoid doing two things at once. For
example, don’t try to scroll the screen whilst printing is taking place
in the background. But that workaround rather negates the usefulness of
background printing.
8.10
Fireworkz Pro
8.10
The latest version of Fireworkz Pro is version 1.22.
8.10
Colton Software have a special offer running between 1st June and
31st July. If you buy Fireworkz Pro, or if you upgrade to Fireworkz Pro
from an earlier Colton Software package, they will send you, free of
charge, a copy of Fireworkz for Windows, if you ask for it. Fireworkz
for Windows is usually £99 (plus VAT and postage). At some future date,
for a fee, you will be able to upgrade your Fireworkz for Windows to
Fireworkz Pro for Windows.
8.10
How much have I won on the lottery?
8.10
It’s only a few days since I received my Archive but already I’ve been
asked this question (and other similar or related questions). Perhaps my
remark “my second law of gambling will allow you to make an unfair bet”
was taken by you to mean that I was justifying to myself that it is OK
for me to bet on the lottery.
8.10
I’ve won nothing on the lottery because I’ve never bet on it. Winning
the lottery is a wish which I don’t want to come true! I’m not sure why,
but Paul’s comment on the inside cover of issue 8.9 has helped. Perhaps
somebody can explain to me why I don’t feel the same way about premium
bonds. Maybe I’m just being inconsistent but somewhere deep down I feel
the National Lottery is immoral.
8.10
Let me answer another of your questions briefly. My first law of
gambling is “Never bet on certainties”. After I’ve received enough
comments (and if Paul allows me space) I might tell you why. By the way,
this law, like my second law, is not moralistic but pragmatic and (hint)
part of my Management Decision Making course.
8.10
Systems – Some general principles
8.10
If there is one piece of general advice which you should heed above all
others it is that you should think in terms of the whole system rather
than just the computer box. By this I mean that you should think of the
monitor, printer, back up storage and your software packages not as
isolated parts, but as elements which contribute to the efficient
functioning of your whole system.
8.10
Back in the days of the BBC (around 1980), the things you could do with
a computer were very limited compared with the range of things that you
can do now. Features which we almost take for granted now such as
multitasking, high screen resolution, millions of colours and high
resolution printouts were dreams of the distant future. With these new
features, you can do new things − but only if the rest of your system is
of a standard such that you can take advantage of them.
8.10
The cost of the average home computer system has increased but this is
not just because of the increase in the cost of the main box. Let me
explain by using the monitor as an example. The cost of a monitor
suitable for an Archimedes is much higher than the cost of the monitor
for my old BBC B. This increase is not because the price of a 50Hz 14"
Microvitec (suitable for a BBC) has increased but because such a
Microvitec would not be suitable for an Archimedes. Fitting a cheap old
fashioned (modes 0 to 7) monitor to an Archimedes would drag down the
performance of the overall system to an unacceptable level. To take full
advantage of the Archimedes you really need at least a 17" multisync
monitor.
8.10
To a slightly lesser extent the same thing applies to back up storage
(floppy discs, hard discs and the like). If you want to store large,
multi-coloured sprites then, if your only back up storage is floppies
and a 40Mb hard disc, this will unacceptably limit your creativity.
8.10
Now to printers. Perhaps you are one of the few but growing number of
Archimedes users whose main output is video or music; perhaps you use
your Archimedes to do sums and just want to see the answer; but, if not,
it is almost certain that you don’t generate documents or pretty
pictures just to be viewed on screen. You want to print them out and you
want to print them out to a standard which reflects the quality of the
rest of your system. It is false economy to hook up your Archimedes to a
low quality printer!
8.10
Early printers
8.10
At the College where I have my day job, we still have a golf ball
printer! We also have a few daisy wheel printers. Every character is
perfectly formed and, particularly if a carbon ribbon is used, the print
quality is excellent. Even though they use the serial rather than the
parallel port, printing is fast; this is because the printer receives
8-bit character codes rather than building up the letters dot by dot.
(Incidentally, the golf ball uses EBCDIC rather than ASCII coding so we
have an old BBC computer which acts as an ASCII to EBCDIC converter
between the word processor and the printer!)
8.10
One shortcoming of these early machines is that printing is usually
mono-spaced (like Corpus) and often at only one point size. Such a
printer is fine if you are happy to limit your output to mono spaced,
single size text (without graphics) − if you use one regularly, I expect
that you have a simple word processor as your major piece of software.
Perhaps you don’t really need a high powered Archimedes − probably you
aren’t reading this! But let me know if you are.
8.10
The dot matrix printer
8.10
In the early days of PCs (early 1980s), the definitive dot matrix
printer was the 9-pin Epson FX80. I still have one and I use it with my
Archimedes for tractor feed labels. I remember how pleased I used to be
with the graphics output but, when I open my dusty files (usually to
look up an old college assignment) I find that they don’t look as good
to me now as they did at the time! I’m a lot more critical now.
8.10
Under my high power laboratory microscope, some many years ago I
measured the dot diameter of my 9-pin printer and found it to be about
0.015" (which is about 0.35 mm). The FX80 has a graphics printing mode
which professes to produce 216 dots per inch vertically. To save you
doing the arithmetic, 1/216" is about 0.0046", one third of the dot
diameter! At this dot pitch, the 0.015" dots overlap. This overlap gives
the impression that the image is smudged − you don’t really get a
resolution of 1/216".
8.10
During the late 1980s, I received documents printed on 24-pin printers
and I subjected them to the same microscopic treatment. What I found was
that the dot diameter is about 0.005" and, at a nominal resolution of
1/216", the dots appear to just touch. A 24-pin printer does give a
better graphics output than a 9-pin at the same dot pitch because the
dots don’t overlap. It gives a resolution equivalent to about 200 dpi.
8.10
During the last five years, I have received many documents produced on
24-pin colour printers. The better ones have a ribbon containing four
colours. I will deal in more detail with printing in colour and in
shades of grey later in this article. For now let me say that it is
difficult to produce the right colour balance with a dot matrix printer
unless you use a new (or nearly new) ribbon.
8.10
You can still buy dot matrix printers. The prices vary from £150 to
£500; the usual difference is the number of internal fonts. If your
interest is mainly character printing in monochrome, dot matrix printers
are fast and economical. However, if you want to print graphics in
monochrome or colour, you may be disappointed.
8.10
The laser printer
8.10
Laser printers used to be much more expensive than they are now.
Generally, the price included a set of PostScript fonts held within the
printer. For home DTP use, PostScript printing on the Archimedes has
never been as popular as it is on other machines. However, if your
interests are in professional printed output (through a print bureau),
you will need PostScript so that you can test the output.
8.10
I think it was at the end of the 1980s or early 1990s that I noticed
laser printers (without PostScript fonts) being offered for the
Archimedes at £1500 upwards. I bought an Epson laser printer model
GQ 3500 (at about half price because they were just bringing out a new
model) which is capable of a resolution of 300 dots per inch. Under the
high power microscope, the dots showed a slight overlap and measured
just over 1/300". The black is always the same colour of black. Unlike
the ribbon of the dot matrix printer, the colour on the laser does not
go grey as the toner runs out.
8.10
I have much experience of using a wide range of paper types with this
laser printer and I have received documents from others who have 300 dpi
lasers and the quality is totally consistent. The only differences I
have found with different paper types is that some tend to curl more
easily than others; some are totally unsuitable for double-sided use;
some papers tend to leave a lot of fluffy residue inside the printer. As
far as I can determine, these differences never affect the quality of
the print.
8.10
Some time ago I ‘lent’ that printer to my son David. He services
computer systems for a living so I asked him about laser printers. He
says “For home use don’t get one of the types where the toner, collector
and drum are separate (they’re separate in the GQ 3500 he’s borrowed).
Although running costs on such machines are cheaper than the ones with
an all-in-one cartridge, they tend to go wrong more often and in a more
expensive way than the all-in-one types. When the all-in-one types go
wrong you can usually fix it by buying a new cartridge.” My son also
says, “Don’t buy a clone; buy a known brand such as an HP or Epson and
buy branded cartridges. Budget for £700 to £900” The reasons for buying
a known brand, even if it is more expensive, are: (a) you’re more likely
to still be able to buy cartridges in the future (b) branded cartridges
tend to have a more consistent toner quality (i.e. diameter of grain)
and (c) they tend to have photosensitive drums which last longer than
the toner (rather than failing before the toner runs out)!
8.10
Unless you want to spend a lot of money, laser printers are limited to
monochrome printing.
8.10
Finally, although I have yet to receive any documents produced on a
600 dpi or 1200 dpi laser, logic tells me that, provided the resolution
is real and not fictitious (cf the 1/216" line spacing on the 9-pin dot
matrix) then the only problem you’ll have in realising this resolution
is memory, speed of processing and higher cost toner cartridges!
8.10
The inkjet printer
8.10
Well, after ‘lending’ my laser printer to David, I had to fall back on a
printer which I had bought primarily to experiment with colour, an
Integrex ColourJet Series 2 printer. It is a Hewlett Packard 500C clone
with a nominal resolution of 300 dpi. You can load it with either an
HP51626A black cartridge or an HP51625A three-colour cartridge but you
can’t have both the black and the colour cartridge in at the same time −
that facility came with the 550C onwards.
8.10
Unlike the laser printer, the (effective) dot diameter does vary with
paper quality. When I use some of the cheaper papers, I find that the
ink runs along the fibre of the paper − not very much but, when I look
at the printed output under my microscope, I find that the dot isn’t
round but it has elongated, sometimes as much as threefold, along the
grain of the paper. Sometimes, the ink runs out from the dot along the
paper fibres so that, under the microscope, it looks a bit like a
spider!
8.10
The dots on paper designed for inkjet use are just over 1/300" whereas,
with poor quality paper, the dots can be up to three times that size. If
you want the best (monochrome) quality, you really need to buy inkjet
paper.
8.10
I have tried cartridges other than the HP brand. Some are OK, but some
are not. What goes wrong with the poorer quality cartridges is that,
after a while, the jets become partly blocked. This can either reduce
the quantity of ink squirted into the dot or it affects the direction of
the jet so that the ink is deposited slightly out of place on the paper.
I have had no problem with the branded HP cartridges but they are
slightly more expensive than some of the other brands.
8.10
Many of my correspondents refill their black cartridges. I have tried it
− often successfully, but occasionally not. By unsuccessful, I mean that
at least one (and often more than one) of the jets becomes blocked
before the ink runs out. If the cartridge doesn’t work, the recommended
cleaning process (essentially pressurising the cartridge to blow the
debris out of the blocked jets) provides only a temporary solution. I
don’t know why but the jets soon block again. My best guess is that the
ink is no good!
8.10
Over the last few years, I have studied, with my microscope, many
documents I have received from correspondents with both 300 dpi and
360 dpi inkjet printers. There is no doubt in my mind that the nature of
the paper used (its absorbency) is the single most important factor
which determines quality and not the subtle difference between the
300 dpi and 360 dpi printers. That is not to say that the difference is
immeasurable. Not only can the difference be measured with a suitable
microscope but, for the same quality of paper, it is also noticeable to
the naked eye; I would describe this characteristic as crispness.
8.10
Canon were one of the first companies to introduce inkjet printers. They
chose 360 dpi as their standard whereas, when HP came into the inkjet
market, they felt that it was important that the printer programming
language which they used on all their lasers should run with their new
inkjets. Consequently, HP (followed by Epson) chose to retain the
300 dpi standard for their new inkjets.
8.10
So far as prices are concerned, £300 to £500 will buy you a monochrome
inkjet printer; colour versions cost £50 to £100 more than the mono
equivalent. Generally, the price differences relate not so much to the
quality of the print (nor the ink usage) but to such things as the
capacity of the blank paper tray, whether there is a facility for
feeding single sheets (e.g. envelopes) and whether there is a straight
through path. This latter is important if you want to print labels since
if the sheet of labels wraps around a roller as it passes through the
machine, you may find the labels unpeeling around a roller.
8.10
In spite of many reports to the contrary in other magazines, it is my
experience (and that of others who have written to me) that, even
allowing for using slightly more expensive paper for the inkjet (than is
needed for the laser printer), the running cost of monochrome printing
using the inkjet are less than that of the laser printer.
8.10
Monochrome summary
8.10
Don’t buy a dot matrix printer unless your only interest is fast text
printing. If you are interested only in the best quality and definitely
don’t want colour, you should consider buying a laser printer rather
than an inkjet. Lasers are just under double the price of an inkjet, so
you will have to have a definite need for the slight improvement in
quality if you are to justify the extra initial and extra running cost.
8.10
If you decide that you want to print at least some of your pictures in
colour, it is almost certain that you’ll find colour laser printing too
expensive and I suggest that you buy a colour inkjet instead.  Read the
section below.
8.10
Colour and shades of grey
8.10
Colour is built up from mixtures of three colours. A painter can create
shades of grey (or colour) by diluting black (or the colour) with white.
You can’t do that with the inks from an inkjet. As far as I am aware (if
it’s working properly) the inkjet delivers the same volume of ink every
time it is activated. Shades of grey and shades of colour are achieved
by the optical illusion of leaving out some of the dots.
8.10
What this means in practice is that, although the resolution of your
printer might be 300 dpi, the printer driver uses blocks of four or more
dots at a time to create a shade. Taking the case of four dots per
block, this effectively reduces the resolution from 300 dpi to
150 blocks per inch; there are 150 of these four pixel blocks per inch.
To generate more shades, you need more dots per block. If the driver
uses sixteen dots per block, this reduces the resolution to 75 blocks
per inch.
8.10
I find it interesting that, to my eye, for pictures which are coloured
or consist of shades of grey, poor quality paper which smudges the
coloured dots gives a better overall impression than the best quality
paper (which allows me to see the individual, 75 bpi, blocks). Let me
put it another way; coloured pictures don’t have to be crisp! I have
discussed this effect with a professional artist who has explained to me
that the eye detects edges (in monochrome), but prefers blended changes
between the crisp edges. She tells me that artists know and use this
fact by emphasising edges, perhaps even lining them in with black, but
deliberately blurring all the rest of the painting.
8.10
Again, over the last few years, I have studied colour prints sent me
from a wide range of correspondents and I have no hesitation in saying
that those who use a four colour machine (three colours plus black all
in the machine at the same time) produce better pictures than my three
colour machine.
8.10
My experiments with colour at 300 dpi on my three colour machine (no
black when I’m running colour) is that drawings produced by drawing
packages such as Draw (with blocks of colour created by filling with the
same colour) look good, but prints taken from digitised colour
photographs (where the colour is graduated across the sprite) are
generally disappointing. I also have a copy of ProArtisan. With it I can
produce excellent pictures on the screen but, when I print them out, I
am disappointed.
8.10
My conclusion is that, for digitised colour photos or paintings produced
by ProArtisan (or similar packages), my 300 dpi colour printer does not
have sufficient resolution − but I’m willing to be told I’m wrong.
8.10
Colour summary
8.10
If you produce your pictures from Draw (or a similar package), there are
areas of constant colour which are large enough for the optical illusion
of mixing to work. A 300 dpi or 360 dpi colour printer will probably
suffice.
8.10
If you are going to do a lot of colour printing then, for reasons of
economy, it is definitely better to buy a machine which uses four
separate cartridges rather than all three colours in one cartridge. The
yellow in my three colour cartridge always seems to run out before the
other colours. Because the colour cartridges are separate, I recommend
the Canon rather than the HP or Epson machines. Yes! I know that the HP
DeskJet 1200C uses separate cartridges but it costs over £1400 (because
it can take PostScript?) − I think most other HP and Epson machines use
a three-colour cartridge.
8.10
The Canon BJC600 series costs about £450 and cartridges cost about £10 a
time (you’ll need four − black, cyan, magenta and yellow). Quite a few
of my correspondents have sent me documents produced on the BJC600, many
in colour. I have looked at the paper and it seems to me that the inks
used by the Canon must dry more quickly than the HP inks I use because,
for the same quality paper, the dots are much smaller than I would have
expected. That said, the documents I receive on quality inkjet paper are
noticeably better than those on standard photocopying or laser paper.
8.10
My recommendations
8.10
If you have no interest in graphics printing, try to get hold of an old
golf ball or daisywheel printer. If you can’t find one then maybe a
24-pin dot matrix printer will do all that you need. You can still buy
them and they’re cheap.
8.10
If your only interest is monochrome and if quality is essential, you
need a laser printer. Buy the highest resolution you can afford.
8.10
Most of you will want to get into colour printing; the extra cost of
colour is small compared with the benefit and pleasure. Printing
drawings created in ProArtisan (or a similar package) may disappoint you
unless you buy a 600 dpi or higher resolution; on theoretical grounds
I’m not convinced that 600 dpi is enough! Pictures produced in Draw,
where the same colour fills a large enough area, reproduce well at
360 dpi.
8.10
For all the reasons given above, for most of you, I recommend that you
buy the Canon BJC600 (four colour 360 dpi) at about £450.
8.10
Multiple copies
8.10
A comment I’ve received is “many users want to produce at least two
copies of many of their documents. If you want to produce multiple
(RISC OS printed) copies, you’ll find that most laser printers do this
more quickly than inkjets. The reason is that the laser stores the whole
page in its own memory and then prints the extra copies (after the first
one) from memory. The inkjet has to recreate the page anew for every
copy.” My response is that, with an inkjet, you should print to a file
as one copy (as I’ve described in a previous issue of Archive) and then
drag the Printout file to the Printer icon as many times as necessary
for the multiple copies. Even if you want only two copies, you’ll find
that this ‘print one copy to file’ method will halve the time that the
machine is tied up.
8.10
Correspondence
8.10
Please write to me direct at the Abacus Training address rather than via
Archive. Return postage and an address label help more than you might at
first think; my thanks to all of you who do send address labels and
stamps. u
8.10
Risc PC Column
8.10
Keith Hodge
8.10
Software information
8.10
Whilst at the Harrogate show (see comments below) I purchased Sleuth2,
as it was well received by Jim Nottingham. I can only agree with his
report − it seems to cope with almost impossible originals, i.e. dirty,
creased, etc. The only thing that seems to confuse it slightly, is if
there are vertical lines mixed in with the text, but by using the rubber
banding facilities, even this can be worked around.
8.10
One thing that I find very good about the reviews in this magazine, is
that people report the snags as well as the good points of the software
/ hardware that they are reviewing and I know that this has led to some
heated exchanges between some suppliers and Paul. In my opinion, this is
to the long-term good of us all, because diligent authors will work to
improve the product and the poor products will fall by the wayside. This
attitude is, I think, one reason why Risc PC software often out-performs
PC and Mac software.
8.10
Hardware and software news
8.10
Jim Nottingham has sent me a copy of a letter he has received from
Atomwide. It provides an update on the information Martyn Purdie
requested last month about the internal screening:
8.10
“There are two types of Risc PC slice currently available: open and
closed.
8.10
Open slices have holes cut in the rear for access to power supply
connectors, and in the front for a 3½" drive. None of the Open slices
that have been supplied to us by Acorn have been sprayed with the dark
grey RFI screening paint. There is nothing that we can do about this; we
do not expect to receive sprayed open slices for many months.
8.10
Closed slices have no holes cut in the moulding at all. However, they
have all been sprayed with RFI screening paint.”
8.10
From Rex Palmer − “I have an ACB45 Rise PC with 2Mb VRAM and the Acorn
17" monitor. I have fitted a Cumana SCSI 2 card (in the bottom slot) and
it is working with a SyQuest 270Mb removable internal drive and a NEC
3Xi CD-ROM drive. Interestingly, the SyQuest announces itself (under
*devices and the Cumana set-up program) as a 256Mb device and it formats
to 255Mb with 66Kb taken up for housekeeping. Also, the data block size
that Cumana use is obviously different from that used on my internal
420Mb IDE drive (which only has 406Mb under Free), as a set of files
(over 3,000) when backed up to the SyQuest take up 151Mb as against
145Mb.
8.10
Cumana’s interface seems very good. It has (or does it come from the
Rise PC?) a special icon for the removable drive which initially
announces itself as SCSI 4. When a disc is inserted and the icon clicked
on, the legend under the icon changes to the name of the inserted disc.
When the <shift-ctrl-fl2> shutdown routine is called, the drive is spun
down and the disc ejected before the switch off message appears on the
screen.”
8.10
Another interesting letter has come from Ted Lacey, who has been
upgrading the memory of his computer, and has experienced a few
difficulties, the solutions to which he has passed on − “Having
purchased and installed memory upgrades to my Risc PC, may I pass the
following tips to other members. I purchased a Simtec l6Mb (upgradable
to 32Mb) DRAM module from NCS and although I am not a novice at
electronics, I did experience some difficulty in fitting it. No
instructions were supplied with a piece of equipment costing over £500
and you can easily be misled as to correct way to fit the upgrade.
Unlike the SIMM module already fitted, it does not go in to the slot
with the chips uppermost − it is the empty sockets that appear at the
top when the board is fitted. Admittedly, there is a notch on the board
but this is not all that obvious and could be very confusing to any
inexperienced user fitting the upgrade. I have spoken to Simtec and they
have promised to do something about it.
8.10
Secondly, I upgraded my VRAM module to 2Mb at the same time. As this
necessitated removing the existing board and sending it to NCS, I
couldn’t remember which way round the board should be fitted when I got
it back. I couldn’t find anything in the Acorn user guides, so I had to
dig out a copy of a magazine issued at launch time last year. To save
others the trouble, the “nobs” or capacitors on the board are fitted
facing the rear of the computer.”
8.10
I myself have discovered an interesting ‘effect’ using the Cumana SCSI 2
interface with David Pilling’s Twain driver and a Canon IX-4015 flat bed
scanner. I normally use a 256 colour 1024×768 screen mode with no
problems. However, I have recently started to use 32K colours at the
same resolution and find that this seems to be the cause thin vertical
black lines appearing on the scanned image. These lines do not appear on
every scan but, once they do appear, you have to reload the application
before clean scans can be obtained. The big question is, what is causing
the problem − RISC OS? Twain driver? or the SCSI interface? When I
return from holiday, I will write to each of the suppliers and report
back. Have any readers noticed this effect?
8.10
Wish list for the next Risc PC / New issues of Basic
8.10
The number one addition I would like to see, is a built-in programmable
timer, so that the machine can be programmed to come on at various times
of the day to allow batchs of FAXs to be sent during cheap line times,
and CEEFAX information to be read, but without the machine having to be
left switched on all day. I have resorted to using a programmable timer
of the type which goes between the wall socket and the computer mains
plug.
8.10
Questions of the month
8.10
Of those who have received their 486 card and, having started to use
Microsoft Windows, how many have suddenly realised just how good the
Acorn windows system is?!
8.10
Harrogate show
8.10
I dropped in for a quick look at what was on offer, but have to admit
that I left with one hour, as I found the noise from the Acorn stand
unbearable. It was, I have no doubt, great fun for the younger members
of the Acorn set, but I feel that if Acorn wish to enlarge their small
business operations, they need to have one / half a day set aside for
business users to have a nice quite chat with people who can answer the
type of questions that small business men would like to ask.
8.10
Tailpiece
8.10
Well, my 486 card has arrived and I must say that, so far, I am very
pleased. It is definitely faster than my Toshiba 486 portable when used
in single tasking mode and about the same speed in multitasking mode.
Dragging windows does, however, seem a little slow in multitasking mode.
One thing that I feel should be pointed out, is that you will have to
allocate at least 5Mb of RAM to the card to get consistent error-free
operation. I feel that, realistically, you will need at least 8+1Mb of
RAM in your machine. I will have had a chance to play by next month and
will report back further.
8.10
For those who have written asking what a Pietenpol Aircraft looks like,
see below. These and other more modern aircraft are manufactured by
members (like myself) of the Popular Flying Association under the
guidance of the their local PFA inspector. The aircraft in the picture
was build in about two years by the proud owner Alan James.
8.10

8.10
The image, by the way, is reproduced from the cover picture of “Popular
Flying” (the PFA magazine), scanned at 600dpi on a Irlam Canon IX-4015
flatbed scanner and reduced to 90dpi with ChangeFSI.  For further
information, the PFA can be reached on 01273-461616.
8.10
As usual, I can be contacted by letter at the HES address on the back
page, by telephone after 7p.m., or by Packet Radio from anywhere in the
world, as GW4NEI@GB7OAR.#16.GBR.EU. u
8.10
Interfacing the NC100
8.10
Les May
8.10
When I wrote my original article about the NC100 (8.3 p47), I intended
to follow it with a second one describing a couple of programs which can
be used to transfer files between a RISC OS machine and the NC100. It
has taken me a little while to get round to writing it, and I know that
one or two readers have asked Paul about when it was going to appear.
Please accept my apologies for the delay.
8.10
The NC100 has built-in software to transfer via the serial port both
ASCII and ProText files to and from another machine. The host might be
used for further processing, manipulation or storage of files, or for
downloading data files or programs to the portable. To do this, the host
machine must be equipped with suitable software. A brief description of
two commercial programs available for RISC OS machines is the subject of
this article.
8.10
PLink
8.10
PLink, which costs £32 +VAT from MCP Computing, Hampshire
MicroTechnology Centre, is supplied as a single disc, together with an
A4 instruction booklet of eleven single-sided pages and a one metre lead
equipped with a rather ‘chunky’ female 9-pin D plug on each end. The
fairly large typeface makes the instructions easy to read. Setting up
the appropriate options on the NC100, and the steps in transferring
files in each direction between machines, are dealt with simply and
clearly.
8.10
Appropriate diagrams are given, so that the user knows what should
appear on the small screen of the portable. The location of the
communication ports on the Amstrad is illustrated and the possible
labelling of the serial port on different RISC OS machines is described.
There are also sections on creating and using textfiles with PenDown,
Impression and First Word Plus.
8.10
The PLink icon installs itself on the right hand side of the iconbar and
gives access to various menu choices in the usual RISC OS fashion. One
option allows saving of the various default options which will be used
when the application starts up.
8.10
File transfer to the host machine is initiated from the portable. As
soon as the first few bytes are received, a small window opens in the
middle of the desktop and the progress of the transfer can be monitored
by the rapidly changing count of bytes received.
8.10
When transmission is complete, a save window opens, complete with
default name. This can then be dragged to a suitable directory ‘as is’
or renamed. One bug that did appear was that, unless the whole of the
default name is deleted and retyped, attempts at calling files PLink1,
Plink2 etc, will fail, because the second file ends up being saved as
PLink1, overwriting the first.
8.10
One option which can be set up from the iconbar menu is autosave. Each
file is given a name set to the current time. The destination of
auto-saved files can be specified by setting the NC100$Received system
variable. Although the manual ‘holds your hand’ throughout the actual
process of setting up the options and transfer, it simply refers to
<filepath> here. An example or two would have been useful.
8.10
To send a file to the NC100, it is dragged to the PLink icon and dropped
onto it. The user is then prompted to ‘Set the Amstrad ready to
receive’. Once this is done, file transfer is started by pressing
<return> or clicking the OK button. You get this even if the NC100 has
already been put into receive mode. I found this a bit irritating.
8.10
ArcLink
8.10
The second program is Archimedes Link, (ArcLink), which costs £45 from S
& S Computer Advice. This comes with a 34-page A5 booklet and a suitable
lead. I asked for, and received, a two metre lead, which is about the
minimum useful length. The plugs are less ‘chunky’ and are equipped with
long knurled screws easy to tighten with the fingers.
8.10
The application icon appears on the left hand side of the iconbar. This
is a bit cheeky because it implies that the NC100 is treated as just
another RISC OS filing system where files are shifted by manipulating
the mouse. In fact, the basic procedure for transferring files in either
direction is very much as described earlier.
8.10
When the RISC OS machine is to receive a file, it has to be named and
given a destination at the outset and there is no autosave facility.
Below the main icon, a count of the number of lines is given, which
makes file transfer seem to be slower than when bytes are counted.
8.10
The NC100 has to be set to transmit ProText files, but by choosing the
correct option from the iconbar menu, received files can be converted to
ASCII or First Word Plus format. A backup option allows the user to
upload to the RISC OS machine unconverted ProText files containing text
produced by the NC100 wordprocessor and data files for saving the
address book.
8.10
Files are sent to the NC100 by the usual drag and drop method.
8.10
Although the ‘manual’ has 34 pages, only eight are directly applicable
to the NC100. The remainder describe other programs which are supplied
on the ArcLink disc and allow the transfer of programs between a RISC OS
machine and Tandy WP-2, WP-3 or Z88 machines. In addition, there are
several utilities for converting text files and WP-2 files to FWP
format, loader modules which convert WP-2 or ProText files, uploaded and
saved using the Backup option, so that they can be loaded direct into
Impression, and a program which ‘filters’ end of line codes of files to
be loaded into Ovation. As I only have an NC100 and FWP, I was not able
to test most of these.
8.10
Which to choose?
8.10
Both programs make the transfer of files to and from the NC100 a trivial
task. PLink has fewer ‘features’ but is less expensive than ArcLink. The
auto-save facility of PLink is useful if a lot of small files have to be
transferred.
8.10
ArcLink cannot do that, but the ability to convert ProText files direct
to FWP more than makes up for it. (I’m a regular FWP user!) This program
is also a little more ‘polished’ than PLink, but that is just cosmetic
and has no bearing on utility. Mr Shore at S & S was very helpful and
clarified my queries before I placed the order for the NC100 or for
ArcLink.
8.10
The programs were tested on an A5000 with 4Mb of memory and a hard
drive. Both quit the machine cleanly and appeared to be RISC OS
compliant.
8.10
If anyone is using an NC100 (or any similar machine) in conjunction with
a RISC OS machine or knows of any books or articles dealing with getting
the best from the NC100, I would be interested to hear from them. I’ll
try to put together a third article from any responses I receive. My
address is 20 Crescent Road, Rochdale, Lancs. OL11 3LF. (01706-32119) u
8.10
David Holden has sent us his NC100 communication program. We have put
this on the monthly program disc. It is Shareware with a registration
fee of £8. David will also supply a lead to registered users for £7 −
contact David through the APDL address in the Factfile. Ed.
8.10
PDCD 2 from Datafile
8.10
Bob Ames
8.10
This is an attempt at a review of PDCD 2, with reference to the first
disc, PDCD 1. I say “attempt” because I really don’t know how to review
such a large amount of software properly and still get published this
century!
8.10
Better than PDCD1?
8.10
There was a review of the first in the series (PDCD 1) in Archive 8.2
p65 and David Holden has already said a few words about discs 1 and 2 in
Archive 8.6 p12. I’m glad that Dave at the Datafile is offering an
upgrade from the first issue of PDCD 1 to issue 2 with its improved
front end but I wish PDCD 1 had been archived as PDCD 2. The difference
in speed of initial access is very marked. With PDCD 1, I had to wait
well over a minute for the first directory display to appear. This is
because all the pretty icons for the different sections needed to be
loaded from CD before the directory display was available.
8.10
With PDCD 2, all entries in the first directory are archived, (with
ArcFS) so it is the ArcFS icon that is used for all directories. This
means that there is a comparatively short wait, in the order of a few
seconds when opening the root directory. This may not seem important
but, with hard resets necessary to escape from most of the games and
demos (see later), the time taken to overview software increases
dramatically when minutes are wasted waiting for the directory to
display.
8.10
Risc PC or pre-Risc PC?
8.10
The majority of programs on PDCD 2 have been tested for Risc PC
compatibility. A floppy accompanies it which contains a RISC OS 3
version of ArcFS which I needed to read the entries, as the version
otherwise supplied is Risc PC only. So with pre-Risc PC machines,
instead of double clicking on the archived icon, the file has to be
dragged onto the ArcFS icon on the iconbar. If double clicking is
attempted, a polite message appears reminding you that you don’t have a
Risc PC!
8.10
Duplication
8.10
There are some minor repetitions from PDCD 1 to PDCD 2. Some of the
games, for example, occur on both, and I spotted half a dozen duplicate
sillies and a couple of duplicate utilities, too. However, there are a
couple of games with very similar names and that causes confusion!
8.10
Considering the vast number of files on these discs, I don’t think the
duplication rate at all bad. There are a couple of deliberate
duplications, such Translator and FYEO2, without which the picture files
are difficult to use.
8.10
Documentation
8.10
The manual shows (perhaps?) a slightly hurried preparation to get the
library published on CD − the games, demos and utilities are not listed
in alphabetical order, but in sections which refer (although you aren’t
told this) to the contents of the individual directories. This should
have been tidied up before printing. The manual still refers to (floppy)
discs and is not thoroughly debugged − there are some spelling mistakes,
some contact telephone numbers only partly printed, and some other
strange references.
8.10
Locating the software
8.10
When I got around to using the built-in database to look for various
applications etc, I did have a bit of trouble with the search engine. I
could not get it to find any references to programs which I knew (from
the manual) were on the CD. This fault was not repeated, however, but
the search still only finds some of the references contained within the
descriptive text.
8.10
So what is on the CD?
8.10
There is a huge selection of good games and utilities on this disc,
although some of the games and demos still require a hard break to quit.
Yet more do not have an option for displaying the instructions at
loading and even more omit the vital volume control.
8.10
Notes to Game Authors:  1) Try overviewing games software (or just
enjoying yourself!) while the kids are asleep, and then, when the game
music plays at full volume, try to get them back to sleep again without
tears!
8.10
2) Please tell us how to avoid your long “ego trip” at the start of each
game − I refer to the interminable introductory scroll-text which claims
responsibility for the code, then goes on (and on and on) to thank “all
at home for the continuous stream of coffee and the dog for not biting
through the mains cable” etc, etc, etc.
8.10
I have been put off a large number of PD games because of these two
faults! They were probably otherwise quite good, but I didn’t have the
patience to find out!
8.10
The full contents of fifteen books are available, mostly Mark Twain
texts, and I’m still not sure about value of complete books being stored
digitally − I would rather read the printed page. Apart from the
facility of searching for all the occurrences of a particular word in a
novel, it would seem far better to input reference books onto computer,
however important each fictional work may seem to be.
8.10
Other contents include:
8.10
a large selection of clipart including 85 Artworks files, 900 drawfiles,
260 sprite files
8.10
18 film type animations
8.10
15 commercial demos (restricted versions of programs, sometimes known as
crippleware)
8.10
more than 35 demos (the sort of thing which I sit watching while part of
me wonders how long it took to program, and how I get out without
destroying the CMOS ram settings forever!)
8.10
There are some Morphs, but they seem to me to be quite poor examples. −
the subject’s eyes don’t stay in the same place while the image changes.
These are poor adverts for the Acorn’s capabilities − I’ve seen some
brilliant displays on the Macintosh!
8.10
The sound samples are in utility format which releases memory after use
and allows use in other programs. (However, most of these samples seem
to be from Star Trek TNG!)
8.10
Other headings include educational software; fractals; 50 Maestro songs;
PC Emulator software; ray-traced pictures; sillies; sound-trackers; and
Symphony files.
8.10
Overall
8.10
These two discs, PDCD 1 and PDCD 2 together, contain about 80% of the
currently available PD software for the Acorn machines; to quote Dave
McCartney of the Datafile, “another 15% is not worth disc room and the
last 5% is being considered for the next in the series” (PDCD 3?) along
with newly minted offerings.
8.10
This is great value for those who don’t have much PD software; still
quite good if the stuff you do have is a couple of years old. (For
example, my copy of !Translator was giving trouble, but then I
discovered it was four versions old!)
8.10
PDCD 2 costs £30 inclusive from The Datafile or £29 through Archive. u
8.10
Running Basic in a Task Window
8.10
Brian Cowan + Martin Dann
8.10
In our laboratory, we often run relatively simple Basic programs to
perform various calculations. A trivial example of this might be the
conversion of a temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius. If you click on
the program in a filer window, the program runs in a small window on the
desktop. The disadvantage is that all other tasks are frozen until the
Basic program is quit. The way round this problem is to run the program
in a task window. The task window is a convenient facility for running a
program in a window in the desktop without requiring the full complexity
of WIMP programming.
8.10
Opening a task window
8.10
In RISC OS 3.1, a task window is opened from the task manager acorn on
the iconbar. Clicking <menu> over the acorn opens a menu window, one of
whose entries is “Task window”. Selecting that option will open a window
displaying the command line prompt star. You will also see that
<ctrl-f12> is a short-cut to opening the task window. Once the window
has been opened, you can go into Basic by simply typing BASIC and
pressing <return>. After this, you have your own little Basic
environment from which you can run programs. Remember that Basic
commands must be typed in upper case characters.
8.10
From the Basic prompt, you can type programs, save and load them, as
well as performing star commands. So if you have a program saved, it can
be loaded and run in the usual Basic manner.
8.10
Automatic operation
8.10
What I wanted to do was to be able to click on a Basic program to get it
to run in a task window. I had a hint that this should be possible from
reading the RISC OS 3 manual which listed the new filetypes &FD7 and
&FD6 which are for Obey files and Exec files running in a Task window.
The reason these work in the way they do is because the run action for
these filetypes is defined in the system variables Alias$@RunType_XXX.
It would be a simple matter to redefine this system variable for the
Basic filetype &FFB. Unfortunately, this has the problem that all Basic
programs would then be run in task windows − even those which should run
in the conventional manner.
8.10
What we have to do is to define a new filetype for Basic programs that
we wish to run in a task window. For the purposes of this article, let
us adopt the filetype &0A0 which I shall give the textual equivalent
AutoBas. Then the system variable alias$@RunType_0A0 must be set for the
action required when clicking on files of filetype &0A0.
8.10
Building an application directory
8.10
The simplest way to implement the running of AutoBas programs in a task
window is by using an application directory. The diagram shows the
structure of the directory.
8.10
Start by creating a directory called !Auto. Then go into this directory
(by clicking on it with the shift key pressed). The !Help file can be
created using Edit. This just contains a few lines saying what the
application does, such as
8.10
Auto running Basic program in task window.
8.10
Set filetype of Basic program to &0A0.
8.10
This is saved with filename !Help in the !Auto directory. The file will
have the correct filetype, Text (&FFF). The !Run file is created
similarly using Edit. This contains
8.10
| !Run file for !Auto
8.10
set alias$@RunType_0A0 TASKWINDOW -quit |"
8.10
 BASIC -quit %%*0 |"
8.10
set File$Type_0A0 AutoBas
8.10
IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
8.10
In this case the file must be given the Obey (&FEB) filetype. Finally, a
!Sprites file must be created. This contains the sprite which will be
displayed as the application sprite in the filer window, named !auto and
the sprite which represents the new AutoBas filetype. This sprite is
named file_0a0. You can modify an existing sprite, but they must be
given the correct names, and the sprite file called !Sprites, when
saved.
8.10
Auto booting
8.10
As it stands, the application will be initialised by clicking on the
!Auto icon. After this, AutoBas programs will be run in a task window by
clicking on them. If you don’t want to have to click on the !Auto icon
to initialise things, you need to have an Obey file called !Boot with
the same contents as the !Run file. Then things are initialised
automatically, as soon as the !Auto icon is seen by the desktop.
8.10
Basic programs
8.10
The simplest way to create Basic programs to operate with !Auto is to
write them in Edit and to save them with filetype &0A0. When such
programs are run, the first line in the task window says “program
renumbered”. This does not happen if the program is in tokenised Basic
form. In that case, the program is run without the disconcerting
message. However, to create the program in tokenised form is a little
inconvenient. The program is still written in Edit, but it must then be
saved with the Basic filetype (&FFB). Then the filetype of the program
can be changed to &0A0. There is the further disadvantage that if such a
file is dragged to Edit for alteration, it will appear as garbage as it
is being displayed as Basic tokens. The filetype must be changed back to
Basic before editing.
8.10
This month’s disc contains the full !Auto application, complete with
sprite and an example program. Perhaps readers can come up with some
other uses for this small application. u
8.10
Pocket Book Column
8.10
Audrey Laski
8.10
Power pack blues
8.10
Dedicated readers of this column may remember that I had to get a faulty
socket in the Pocket Book fixed because of interruptions to the flow
through the Power Pack − I am a miser about batteries and so plug in
whenever possible. After its return, I had no problems for about three
months; then suddenly the little green light went out and stayed out.
This time it was the insulation of the lead at the APB plug which had
gone. Avie Electronics of Norwich could supply and fix a new lead for
£9.99, and they did so in stunning turn-round time. It was back in
excellent order on the second day after posting it to them. Since then
I’ve had one mysterious glitch when, for ten minutes or so, the light
was out though both ends were well plugged in; I’m at a loss to explain
this, but I’ll notify any developments.
8.10
A-Link speed
8.10
Julian Midgeley, a Psion 3A user, of Bovey Tracey, Devon, writes about
using the A-Link at 19200 baud to double the speed of data transfer. He
does this by loading !RUN from the !PocketFS directory into Edit and
changing the twelfth line from the top:
8.10
SetEval PocketFS$Baud 0
8.10
to read
8.10
SetEval PocketFS$Baud 8
8.10
and saving. He then changes the remote-link baud rate option on the
Psion 3A to 19,200 before turning it on. He says, ‘I don’t know why this
wasn’t mentioned in the manual as I have had no difficulties whatsoever
at the higher speed. I suspect that 19,200 baud wasn’t available on the
original Pocket Book or Series 3.’ Having tried in vain to emulate him,
I think this must be the case, and wonder whether Pocket Book II has
this capability. Perhaps a user will test this out and let me know.
8.10
Spreading the word
8.10
He mentions in his letter how useful the Psion 3A is ‘on board a 5000
tonne ship at sea’, supported by a Canon BJ-10sx. Similarly, John
Woodthorpe praises it as a travelling companion, enabling him to check
local times when he was in ‘a different time zone each day’, write
reports in airport departure lounges, keep track of expenses, and, with
a modem, ‘log on to CompuServe to keep up with my email!’ In “Any
Questions” on Radio 4 the other week, Ann Robinson, formerly of the
Institute of Directors, spoke warmly of her ‘tiny computer’, mentioning
Psion by name with a slight hesitation as to whether it was proper to do
so in a BBC broadcast, and a few weeks before that, the Guardian’s “Me
and my Gizmo” column featured a 3A. Psion’s new advertising campaign is
punching the message home, graphically demonstrating the advantage of a
palmtop, which increases its information without increasing its size and
getting stuffed with papers as file/diaries do. I’ve heard it suggested
that the best use of the Lottery Millenium Fund would be to put a
computer on every school pupil’s desk − perhaps we should campaign for
the more affordable aim of a Pocket Book II in every satchel.
8.10
Endnote
8.10
This is a very short column. Can it really be that all the enthusiastic
Pocket Book/Psion users out there have run out of problems, tips and
experiences, or is it something I’ve said?! u
8.10
Font Emporium CD-ROM
8.10
Ted Lacey
8.10
For those DTP buffs who like to have a lot of fonts but lack the storage
space, the new CD-ROM from Zenta Multimedia is the answer to your
prayers, always assuming that you have access to a CD-ROM drive on your
setup.
8.10
Basically, the CD-ROM contains the 500 PD fonts regularly advertised by
Skyfall, plus another 50 or so additional fonts. (Yes, there is a
business connection between Skyfall and Zenta.) This large amount of
fonts will surely meet the needs of those who, like me, wish to have
variety. Fonts are like clipart − you can have a lot of them taking up a
large amount of your hard disc space, but most of them are only used
occasionally. A CD-ROM gets round this problem.
8.10
The main program, !Emporium, is organised into 15 directories, such as
3D, Heavy Assortment, Script and Sans Serif. The names of the
directories generally describe the type of font. Broadly speaking, this
difficult job of placing the fonts into arbitrary directories has been
well done, but as this is a matter of individual taste, there are bound
to be a few cases where one is not in agreement with the programmer.
8.10
Loading the main program follows the usual pattern and one is presented
with the well known blue folder, with the letter ‘Z’ superimposed, on
the icon bar. Clicking on this brings up a screen selector, divided into
15 sections, one for each of the directories. They are marked with the
name of each directory. Click <select> on your choice and this menu is
replaced with another menu of the fonts directory you have chosen. On
the left hand side is a list of the fonts with a slider bar to enable
you to scroll through the list. Clicking on the name of a font shows
details of the available font characters, and how they actually look, in
a window on the right hand side of the display. If the chosen font has
more than one face or style, the facility is available to select the
different styles for viewing. Clicking <select> on the box to the left
of the font name will earmark that font for downloading.
8.10
The program offers four different ways of exporting the chosen font or
fonts from the CD-ROM.
8.10
− Raw directories can be exported by clicking on the appropriate button
and then dragging the down arrow to the directory of your choice. You
are warned to take care with this option in order to ensure that the
directories go to the right place.
8.10
− Selecting Directory of Fonts and choosing a suitable name will create
a directory containing your selected font folders.
8.10
− Selecting !Fonts Folder and again choosing a suitable name, prefixed
by ‘!’, will create an applications directory with the necessary extra
bits of program, so that clicking on this application, when saved, will
load the fonts into your computer.
8.10
− The exporting option only applies to those who are in possession of
the font manager program !EasyFont3 produced by Fabis Computing. Due to
a delay in production of the CD-ROM, Zenta issued the compact disc
without an instruction leaflet, as they felt that customers who had had
the item on order for some time had waited long enough. There is an
adequate !Help instruction on the CD-ROM and I understand that the
leaflet will be despatched to customers later in April. (See below. Ed.)
In the meantime, the !Help section provides sufficient information. It
states that users of EasyFont3 require version 3.11 or later.
8.10
Herewith the first problem, as I needed to upgrade my version but, after
a phone call to Fabis, this was achieved in less than 48 hours, with the
arrival of version 3.14. Then more problems as I was getting a lot of
error messages when trying to export selected fonts from the CD-ROM into
EasyFont3. I wrote a letter to Fabis Computing giving full details of
these error messages and, within 3 days, I received version 3.15, with
the explanation that there appeared to have been some inconsistencies
between the original specification and the release version of !Font
Emporium. I have checked this version out and everything now works fine.
8.10
So to anybody who is going to use Font Emporium in conjunction with
EasyFont3, make sure that you upgrade to at least version 3.15. Fabis
Computing will do this upgrade for you; simply return your original disc
with two first class stamps to them. These arrangements apply to all
versions of !EasyFont3 − anything earlier than this and you will need to
contact Fabis Computing first. If you haven’t got !EasyFont3 and are
considering the purchase, hold fire for the present. I have been told by
Fabis Computing that they are producing a special version of !EasyFont3
for use with !Font Emporium. It is in the final testing stages and, if
all goes well, it will be available at the Spring Acorn User Show. I
understand that this version will enable one to access fonts directly
from the CD-ROM. No decision has been made on the price at the moment.
My thanks to Sean of Fabis Computing for his prompt assistance with the
problems.
8.10
So back to FontEmporium. The Examples directory contains examples in
both Draw and Artworks format together with a list of all fonts and
their styles or faces in an !Edit program. The !Groups help application
contains a list and descriptions of the fifteen directories, with the
!Help application providing adequate program operating instructions.
8.10
On the subject of Public Domain fonts, one should bear in mind that some
of them are incomplete in that you will not always find upper and lower
case, and many do not support the additional characters, such as the
accented letters found in foreign alphabets. Apart from this, a lot of
them are useful additions to one’s collection of fonts.
8.10
This CD-ROM is a well-presented and economical package and is thoroughly
recommended to those who want a lot of fonts, but wish to conserve their
precious hard disc space. It would probably be useful in the educational
world in meeting the varied requirements of pupils and staff. The fonts
are copyright by Zenta and Skyfall and may be used without a site
licence, but not commercially.
8.10
The CD-ROM costs £29.95 inclusive from Zenta Multimedia. u
8.10
Font Emporium & EasyFont3CD
8.10
Ted Lacey
8.10
Since writing the review above, I have discovered a problem with the
Oxford font on the CD-ROM. When attempting to use it with Publisher, I
get a long message which, briefly, states that the area of memory
reserved for fonts is full or that a font error has occurred. I have
tried increasing the font cache to as much as 8Mb, but the error still
occurs. I have tried the font with Ovation, with similar results.
8.10
However, I am drawing the attention of Zenta Multimedia to this in the
hope that the problems may be corrected on a future production run.
Perhaps a corrected version could be put on a floppy disc and sent out
to existing purchasers of the CD-ROM. Incidentally, the promised
instruction leaflet has so far (mid-May) not yet arrived.
8.10
As regards EasyFont3, the latest version, mentioned in the June
magazine, is 3.17. There are only minor changes to version 3.15 quoted
in the review, but v3.16 or later is essential if you are using the new
CD version, in order to achieve interaction between the two
applications.
8.10
In the review, I mentioned that Fabis Computing were working on a
version of EasyFont especially for use with Font Emporium. I have now
received EasyFont3CD, have tested it with the CD-ROM and found that it
works very well indeed.
8.10
Installation is quite simple and clicking on the icon on the iconbar
brings up a lengthy list of the fonts on the CD-ROM, all 550 of them,
even if you have forgotten to put the CD in your drive! The list of
fonts is displayed using the selected font. I found that reading some of
them in this format is difficult, but clicking <menu> on the font list
gives you a small menu which is self-explanatory.
8.10
Accessing ‘Display’ gives you the option of changing to a normal display
which is readable. This sub-menu also allows you to get rid of the font
group names, and all the fonts are then displayed in alphabetical order.
It is possible to view a font and its styles from this menu, as well as
the iconbar menu. The sub-menu also displays key shortcuts, but care
must be taken to position the arrow over the font display when using
these, as the same control keys may be used by the text-producing
application that you are using.
8.10
One point that really impressed me was the fact that, when working on an
Impression Publisher document, you can change your mind and add or
delete fonts as you go along; if you don’t like the look of the font,
try another, all without leaving the document or having to find font
directories on your hard disc! Unfortunately, the same cannot be done
with an Ovation document, although this may be corrected when OvationPro
eventually appears.
8.10
When a ‘saved’ document is required again, dragging its file icon onto
the EasyFontCD icon before loading will install the fonts used in the
document. Clicking on the documment file will then load it with all the
necessary fonts displayed. This facility also applies to files saved
using EasyFont3, version 3.16 or later, and providing the fonts used are
those from Font Emporium or RISC OS3 ROM Fonts.
8.10
Fabis Computing are offering the following:
8.10
1. EasyFont3CD software and Font Emporium CD­ROM − £35
8.10
2. EasyFont3CD software only for registered users of EasyFont3 − £10
8.10
3. EasyFont3CD software and manual only for non-registered users − £15
8.10
4. EasyFont3, EasyFontCD and FontEmporium − £60
8.10
All prices include postage and packing, and items are available direct
from Fabis Computing.
8.10
All testing was done on a 26Mb RiscPC with a 410Mb hard drive. u
8.10
WYSIWYG for £-sign
8.10
Ray Favre
8.10
If you like to dabble with your own programs, you will surely have
sometimes deliberately produced printer output directly from your
program without using a Printer Driver − and have then run into the
problem of getting some characters (e.g. the £­sign) to be the same on
both the screen and paper.
8.10
With progress(!) the problem seems to have got worse rather than better,
because there are quite a number of keyboard presses/ASCII numbers which
show one thing on the screen and something different on paper. (Which is
why we should all use printer drivers, yes, I know! But it is sometimes
a lot of bother to arrange that with your own small programs.)
8.10
(Is there scope here for an article? − “How to use printer drivers from
your own programs.” Anyone prepared to write it for us? Ed.)
8.10
Overcoming the problem is not difficult in principle: “Just re-define
the appropriate printer character” they all say! But getting hold of the
information to do it in practice is not always easy − certainly the
standard printer user manual doesn’t cover it sufficiently well.
8.10
With the aid of the Epson ESC/P Reference Manual (which is, nonetheless,
still a little obscure on a few of the points), I’ve put together a
Basic routine that solves the problem for Epson ESC/P2 compatible
printers e.g. the Epson Stylus. The solution ought to be general (for
compatible printers), but I haven’t tried it out over all the
‘difficult’ characters. In doing so, several other areas of possible
interest arose concerning changing Epson character sets and typefaces by
ESC codes. The program comments cover these briefly.
8.10
(The listing is too long for the magazine but is on the monthly disc. If
you don’t want to buy the disc just for this one listing, send in a
blank formatted disc and we’ll give you a copy of the program. Ed.)
8.10
The listing
8.10
The listing comprises two PROC definitions: ‘PROCprepareprinter’ and
‘PROCrestoreprinter’ − the former having some DATA lines associated with
it. You need to include those two definitions and DATA lines in your
program and call ‘PROCprepareprinter’ just before activating the
printer; then call ‘PROCrestoreprinter’ when you’ve finished with it.
I’ve commented the procedures fairly well to help with your own
dabbling.
8.10
I’ve included a rudimentary demonstration in the listing. It prints and
puts on the screen the result of calling four ASCII numbers three times
in succession: before redefinition, after redefinition, then again after
restoration to the default state. The important thing is to compare your
hard-copy output with what is on the screen. You’ll find that, for ASCII
163, they are identical only on the second call, i.e. after
redefinition.
8.10
More detail
8.10
The following additional explanation may help:
8.10
(a)  Firstly you do need to know the ASCII value returned by your
keyboard when the £-sign is pressed (or whatever other character is
causing you a headache). On the A5000, it is 163. You then need to
subtract 128 from this and note the answer: 35 in this case. (You used
to get a list of keyboard ASCII codes in the User Manual − more
progress!)
8.10
(b)  The recommended sequence, assuming you have the default settings of
your printer as you like them, is then:
8.10
1.     Reset/Re-initialize printer to defaults.
8.10
2.     Cancel Italics, Super/Sub script etc (usually a “just-in-case”
action).
8.10
3.     Select required print quality, e.g. LQ/Draft.
8.10
4.     Copy the definitions of Characters 0 to 127 of selected ROM
Character Set (& typeface) to RAM.
8.10
5.     Redefine the required character(s), using the ASCII number 128
less than the character number to be changed. i.e. 35 rather than 163,
in this case.
8.10
6.     Copy the new RAM set up to ASCII Character numbers 128 to 255.
8.10
7.     Select User-Defined Characters for printing.
8.10
(c) All of these steps can be carried out by sending the right ESC codes
to the printer, and this is what ‘PROCprepareprinter’ does.
8.10
(d) Step 5 is the time consuming one. You have to design the dot pattern
of each replacement character and convert that to the right data values.
It’s not difficult once you’ve found out the format, but it is a bit
tedious. I used !Paint with a grid equal to the required character grid
(blown up to see each pixel easily) − then calculated the numbers ‘by
hand’ from that. It’s no real problem if you’ve only got one or two to
do.
8.10
For fixed-pitch, 24-pin, LQ at 10 cpi, the grid is 36 dots wide by 24
high.
8.10
Each 24-element vertical strip is split into three 8-element parts
(numbering them 1 to 3 from the top) and each of these is assigned an
8-bit number representing which dots/pixels are to be filled in. (You
mustn’t fill in horizontally adjacent dots for 24-pin printers.)
8.10
In each 8-element part, the bottom element represents the least
significant bit. After a simple 3-number header, you then send the
numbers for each vertical strip to the printer in the right sequence −
left to right, top to bottom within each strip. So you end up with the
3-number header plus 3×36 numbers for each character definition (111
numbers in all).
8.10
You need to watch the vertical position of the shape because those 24
vertical elements cater for descenders, subscript, superscript etc. (For
guidance, the top-most and bottom-most ‘filled-in dots’ I used for the
Pound sign in the example were in Row 4 and Row 20 respectively. Row 20
is the baseline for characters.)
8.10
(e) The Epson Reference Manual is a little obscure in describing Steps 6
and 7. It states clearly what will happen, but the manual’s separate
explanations of the two steps do not match their effect in combination.
I half expected both characters 163 and 35 to become Pound signs − but
they didn’t.
8.10
This explains why the example program also uses ASCII 148 and 193 − I
wanted to check the end-result at 35 and also at a value I had not
altered (arbitrarily 193). Including 148 showed that its lower
complement (20) is, as expected, not printable normally, and therefore
produces a blank when copied up to 148. You could, of course, redefine
this if you wished. u
8.10
NetCDFast
8.10
Robert Chrismas
8.10
NetCDFast is a module which is supposed to improve the performance of
CDs over networks.
8.10
There are many CD-ROMs which can be used in schools and colleges. If the
CDs are available over a network, lots of students can use the same CD
at once. However, CDs can hold very big files − a few students reading
Replay files can bring a network close to a standstill.
8.10
At my college, we started to experiment with CDs and networks a few
years ago. I remember how disappointed I was with our first attempts to
read Creepy Crawlies over an Econet. It was agonizingly slow even with
just one user and a quiet network. Since then, we have changed to
Ethernet and the software has improved, but I was still keen to find
ways to read CDs more quickly.
8.10
Cache memory
8.10
NetCDFast runs on the computer acting as a CD server, maintaining a
cache of CD data in memory. When a request to read the CD is received by
NetCDFast, it first checks whether the data is in the memory cache. If
the data is in the cache, it can be transmitted without reading the CD
at all. If the data is not in the cache, NetCDFast reads a block of data
from the CD into the cache. This block will include the required data
but it may, with luck, also include data which is required next. Thus,
even a single user browsing through a CD may experience some speed
improvement.
8.10
The most significant increase in speed should occur when one user, or a
number of users, repeat a request for data. Then NetCDFast does not have
to access the CD at all.
8.10
CDFast
8.10
CDFast, the version for a stand-alone CD system, was reviewed by Fred
Grieve in Archive (8.9 p76). Fred published detailed timings and
concluded that the stand-alone version of CDFast ‘works extremely
effectively’. NetCDFast is a version of the software which is optimised
for network use.
8.10
The package
8.10
NetCDFast has two parts, (1) a cacheing module and (2) the !NetCDFast
application. The application is used to configure the module and to
monitor its performance. If memory is tight, the module can be used
without the application.
8.10
The NetCDFast application has two windows. The configure window allows
you to set how much memory will be used for the cache. It will also
switch the cacheing off and on. The statistics window reports on how
many requests for CD data could be satisfied from the cache.
8.10
The manual is just ten pages. However, it contains all the information
you need to use NetCDFast. It also includes some tips to get the best
from your CD-ROM system.
8.10
Timings
8.10
I attempted some timings of NetCDFast. It wasn’t easy. The network I was
using is about 100m long. On it there are two Level 4 file servers as
well as the upgraded A300 which I was using as a CD server. The network
runs through four rooms, including the resources area, and students have
access to all these rooms unless they are already being used for
lessons. To perform a test, I first had to run through all four rooms
begging everyone present not to use the network for a few minutes. Then
I rushed back to do some tests. If the results seemed odd, I would visit
all the rooms again to see if new arrivals had been logging on.
8.10
To serve CDs, we normally use the ‘application accelerator’ software
which came with the Level 4 software. The application accelerator sends
data over Ethernet in much larger packets than Level 4, but it is
read-only. The Level 4 file server software can be used to serve CDs but
it is slower. I tested NetCDFast with both systems.
8.10
The test was to copy a directory containing twenty files, totalling
about 600Kb (the Granny’s Garden demo from the Acorn User CD, if you
must know) from the CD to a RAM disc on a Risc PC. I timed the whole
operation which including writing to the RAM.
8.10
The version of NetCDFast was 2.01. The CD server was an A300 with 2Mb
memory connected via a SCSI 1 interface to a Cumana 6 Tower CD drive.
8.10

8.10
These results show that NetCDFast can achieve significant speed
improvements. However, they can only be a rough guide to its
performance. There are so many variables, including the network
hardware, other activity on the network, the size of the CD cache and
the access pattern for the CDs. Repeated requests for the same part of a
CD are best for NetCDFast.
8.10
Quite small speed improvements can make major differences to the
performance of a network. If requests for data are received at one
second intervals by a server which can satisfy each request in
0.99 seconds everyone is happy, but if it takes 1.01 seconds to handle
each request then, before long, someone will be unhappy. Mr Micawber
said something like this.
8.10
In use
8.10
NetCDFast was simple to use. It was copied to a hard disc on the CD
server and run from there. On our system, we decided to increase the
cache from the default 256Kb to 1024Kb. You can save the configuration.
The manual suggests that you set up your computer so that NetCDFast is
run on start­up.
8.10
We have been running NetCDFast for two weeks without any problems. About
half of the requests for CD access have been satisfied from the 1024Kb
cache. When asked, students have said that CD access seems faster − but
then they would probably say that anyway to humour me!
8.10
The manual says ‘NetCDFast will run on any version of CDFS, all CD-ROM
applications, CD­ROM drives, any Acorn Archimedes or Risc PC and any
network system in any combination. NetCDFast has no restrictions on the
number of users, CD-ROM drives or the way CD-ROM applications are used
over the network.’
8.10
Before using any CDs on the network, you should check that this is
permitted by your licence.
8.10
Conclusion
8.10
NetCDFast does speed up CD access over a network. In ideal situations,
it can be as much as six times as fast. It seems reliable and it should
work with any combination of hardware/software. It is produced by Eesox
and is available from Archive at £148. u
8.10
Clan Acorn Column
8.10
Simon Ogilvie
8.10
In last month’s Archive, Paul appealed for someone to edit a column
dedicated to the Acorn Clan. He had several responses, and three of us
will be trying to put together information for a monthly column from now
on. That’s Roger Woodhouse, Sam Gardner and myself − email addresses
below, should you want to contact us.
8.10
As the main thrust of the Clan is dialogue, any of us would be happy to
receive email, and we will also be keeping in contact with Chris Cox,
the Acorn Clan Manager whose email address is also given below.
8.10
Clan history
8.10
To begin at the beginning (as they say), and for the sake of those who
are unsure what Clan Acorn is, here is a brief recap. Acorn realised
that there was a wealth of largely untapped resource in the form of
enthusiastic users whose ideas and reactions to the release of the
Risc PC might be useful in its future development. The idea of an
enthusiasts’ club was thus conceived and, after adding flesh to the
bones, Clan Acorn was announced and then launched at the October ’94
Acorn World exhibition.
8.10
For a one-off fee of £15, Acorn enthusiasts were given an information
pack, a high density disc of interesting software and information (to
the dismay of those without HD disc drives!), a Clan tee-shirt,
sweatshirt, lapel badge and mouse mat! We were also tempted with the
promise of discounts, pre-release information, competitions and
exclusive deals for Clan members.
8.10
One of these was the release of Acorn C/C++ which was offered to Clan
members at a 30% discount, and this was well received, with a large
number of members taking up the offer. Subsequent Clan information packs
were sent out to members in February and April, and the next pack should
be out by the end of June.
8.10
ARM700/710 imminent?
8.10
All of this has generated quite a bit of interesting discussion on the
Usenet newsgroups, which Acorn keeps a close eye on, and posts articles
to from time to time. A recent posting from Chris Cox announced that the
ARM700 series processor cards would shortly be released, and he
requested feedback on whether users felt a fixed point ARM710 card would
be more attractive than a slightly more expensive (and slower clocked)
ARM700/FPU combination. This prompted a lot of discussion, but a
majority thought the fixed point 710 card would be more useful, so that
is the card that will be made available first, hopefully in July and
running at 40MHz, with the 700/FPU card following on later.
8.10
Internet access
8.10
Acorn is obviously heavily committed to the Internet in all its forms.
The Acorn World Wide Web site, which was previewed at the recent
Harrogate show, will shortly be coming on line in its full form. Acorn
plans to make this the primary means of communication, and there will be
an area specifically for Clan members which will be password-protected
from everyone else! This area will contain much of the information in
the Clan mailshots, and you will also be able to download software, such
as that on the Clan discs and on the Acorn ftp site.
8.10
Acorn’s news and mail package “Intertalk” is soon to be released and
will allow Acorn machines to dial up to news and mail servers, and
download unattended. This means it can be done at night when the calls
are cheapest and the machines least heavily loaded, making downloads
faster.
8.10
New filecore?
8.10
Another development frequently talked about on the Usenet newsgroups is
the rumoured replacement to the filecore. With easy access to cheap
large hard disc drives, the main problem with the current filing system
is its limit of 512Mb per disc. This has been partially overcome in some
SCSI implementations which allow larger discs to be partitioned into two
or more parts, each of less than 512Mb, but the core limit still
remains.
8.10
A new version of the filecore has been under test at Acorn for some time
now, and Clan members will soon get the opportunity to be the first
users to try it out! Initially, this will take the form of a
soft-loadable module, but eventually it will be incorporated into future
operating system releases. Acorn is deliberately being very cautious
about the release of the new filecore, as any bug in the code could have
potentially disastrous consequences on users’ data.
8.10
Feedback
8.10
The primary driving force behind all areas of the Clan is for Acorn to
get feedback from its users. Clan members can take advantage of all the
special offers Acorn provides, but if they never give any feedback, they
and Acorn will fail to benefit from what is a pioneering project in the
computer industry. Acorn doesn’t have the advertising revenue of its
larger competitors, and so is dependent in part on word-of-mouth
advertising.
8.10
They are also keen to hear of any stories of Acorn computers being used
for interesting or unusual tasks, or where they make the job easier than
if a different computer had been used, which generates its own
“real-life” advertising.
8.10
Chris Cox’s diagram from last month’s Archive (p24) showed Acorn’s
development program being fuelled by feedback from Clan members based on
information supplied to them by Acorn. The cycle is dependent on a
constant dialogue between Acorn and Clan members, and it’s the Clan
members who stand to gain most from it in the end! Hopefully this column
can become part of that cycle. u
8.10
Roger Woodhouse: [e-mail]
8.10
Sam Gardner: un9l@rz,uni-karlsruhe.de
8.10
Simon Ogilvie: [e-mail]
8.10
Chris Cox: [e-mail]
8.10
To join Clan Acorn costs £15 (or £20 if you want a sweatshirt as well).
Either write to Acorn Direct in Wellingborough or phone [phone]
with your credit card details. u
8.10
NStore − Version 4
8.10
Richard Rymarz
8.10
As an (overworked?) headteacher with a full time teaching commitment, I
am always looking for ways of making my life that much easier. One area
of classroom planning that has proved to be particularly vexing is that
of recording children’s attainment across the National Curriculum and
issuing reports for parents. If any regular reader has noted my comments
in other reviews, they will be aware that I am not a fan of the National
Curriculum. However, I have learned to live with it and when I was given
the chance to review NStore, I hoped it would make my planning easier
and help organise my recording much more efficiently.
8.10
The program
8.10
NStore comes on an 800Kb disc (in fact, there are two discs and
registered users can order more for £1.95 each) which cannot be
installed onto hard disc. However, the data and ‘comment’ files can be
backed up, and this should be done regularly, in case the program disc
becomes corrupted. The master disc should be kept inside the drive at
all times.
8.10
Aims
8.10
NStore allows teachers to keep a record of up to 108 pupils and their
achievements on the Statements of Attainment in all National Curriculum
subjects, including RE. It can store basic information about each child,
record attendance levels, SAT results and exam and classwork percentages
for each subject. Information can be stored of up to 72 Topics and the
Statements of Attainment they cover. There are 800 teacher’s comments
which can be used for reporting and can be amended using !Edit. Reports
can be automatically generated by being placed into logical order taking
into account the child’s age and progress. Finally, all these records
can be exported to other packages for final presentation.
8.10
Getting started
8.10
What is immediately obvious upon loading the program and clicking of
!NStore is that it only works in modes 12 and 27. Furthermore, the
program does not run within the desktop. This is disconcerting at first
since we are all used to the luxury of a full RISC OS environment.
However, I soon adjusted to this and was presented with the Child Menu.
Basic information − name, age, sex, class name and teacher, etc, is then
entered. The general class level can be set and there are further
features which become useful when more information is added. The menu is
quite long and it takes some time to navigate around the various
options.
8.10
I entered the children in my class and moved on to the Topic Menu. Here
I typed in the topics I would cover for the Autumn term and set the
attainment targets covered by each of the topics. Reverting back to the
child menu, I then marked the children’s progress through a simple set
of mouse clicks. This process is fairly tedious especially since each
subject has to be accessed for each child. However, there are short cuts
that save some time but, basically, entering the data for the first time
is time consuming and a little daunting (I think that is the same with
any database). This screen also allows the teacher to enter general
comments on attitude, effort, attainment, presentation, a specific
subject, as well as SAT data.
8.10
Reporting
8.10
I eventually completed this for a number of children in the core
subjects and clicked on the ‘Report’ menu. Various options are offered,
including a direct print to any Epson-compatible printer. Those with
RISC OS printers will have to export files in ASCII or CSV format to
another package. Reports are quickly generated and I must say I was
quite impressed with the results. The format was well structured and in
acceptable English although there were too many sentences beginning with
the child’s name or the word ‘Her’. There is the option to export
reports as CSV files to Impression or Style using the mailmerge
facility. Presentations can then be prepared in Impression, and the
accompanying literature suggests that single or batch reports can then
be very quickly produced. I do not use either program, so I cannot
comment on how efficient this process is.
8.10
Other features
8.10
Other features include the ability to enter exam results, update old
data files from previous versions, obtain simple graphical data, move
data between groups (useful when children move between classes), sorting
and searching facilities and the ability to alter the teacher comment
file.
8.10
Conclusions
8.10
I was apprehensive about using a package such as this since I was uneasy
about its claims and its usefulness. However, having used it for some
time now, I feel it has real value, especially if the user is prepared
to spend time learning how to use it. Whether less committed teachers
can be persuaded to use it is dubious because of its complexity. I feel
that a better designed manual would be of great assistance. A
step-by-step guide is really needed to direct less confident users.
Perhaps a dummy file could be included to see the possible uses and
outcomes of the program. As it stands, the manual covers all there is to
know but it is not easy to follow. An index would also help. However, as
I discovered, NStore can save time in the end.
8.10
I have one or two other improvements that would help the user. I do feel
that there should be a better structured set of menus leading from the
three main areas: Child Menu, National Curriculum Menu and Topic Menu;
any new version should be fully RISC OS compliant; printing should
involve the standard RISC OS drivers; and the program should be able to
be installed on to hard disc. I also managed to crash the program on my
Risc PC − but this was very rare. I have spoken to the author who says
many of these suggestions are on his wish list to develop the program.
However, time is his greatest enemy but he hopes to include some of them
in due course.
8.10
Registered owners will receive a post-Dearing upgrade at nominal cost.
This should happen in Spring 1995 so that users can prepare for the new
curriculum that comes into force in September 1995. Another new feature
which may be ready is the facility to store individual records of work
for special needs under the new Code of Practice. My advice to
prospective purchasers is to wait until the new version arrives, and if
you need an aid to National Curriculum management and access to
impressive reporting, then at £44.95 inc VAT from HS Software (or £42
through Archive), NStore is well worth it. u
8.10
Rainbow
8.10
Richard Rymarz
8.10
This is another new program for younger children from Longman Logotron.
It is designed as a “simple multimedia program” that will “allow
teachers and parents to produce exciting activities on any subject,
quickly and easily”. So says the introductory passage in the
accompanying manual. Intended for use at Key Stage 1 (5-7 yr olds), it
is claimed that the program can be used for any age or ability, since
the content is created by the maker of the activity. Not only can words,
pictures and sound be used, but video pictures using Replay can also be
included. Grand aims and wonderful, if true. So I set about
familiarising myself with the programs.
8.10
!Rainplay
8.10
This application allows children to use the activities designed within
Rainbow. Three sample files are included which give a fair overview of
what can be achieved. Two are similar to My World, an excellent program
designed by SEMERC. Having used both, I have to say that at a simple
level, My World is easier to use and more flexible. However, if more
complex and full multimedia options are needed, then Rainbow uses
sprites as well as drawfiles; involves sound; links with other screens;
defines actions such as quitting, removing objects, scaling objects,
stopping sound and music; and uses movies. Altogether a more
comprehensive package.
8.10
!Rainbow
8.10
!Rainbow allows teachers to create activities for children to use. I
began by working my way through the tutorial, opening a window
containing three folders. I clicked on the Screens folder, and the
Tutorial Screen opened contained the words, “This is the tutorial
screen” and a tool box. I now clicked on the resources folder. I soon
had a ‘Type’ sprite and a ‘Delete’ sprite on my screen. All straight
forward so far.
8.10
Using the arrow icon on the tool bar allowed me to change the position
of the sprites. Now I doubled clicked on the ‘muncher’ (the delete
sprite), and a dialogue box opened, which actually did not quite
correspond with the manual. Undeterred, I continued and assigned the
command ‘Remove Object’ to this icon. I confirmed my choices and did the
same with the Text icon by allocating ‘Text Style’ to it. I also chose
the font I wanted to use. Deleting text is simply a matter of
highlighting the words and using the menu or <ctrl-X>. Now clicking on
the smiley face icon on the tool box allowed me to test my screen − all
worked well.
8.10
Another option on the toolbox is a text icon. Clicking on this opens a
now familiar dialogue box and an appropriate action can be assigned to
it. Other actions include rotating and scaling objects. Each is easy to
understand and follow. Sampled sounds and Maestro files can also be
consigned to any object. Animation results from the creation of a sprite
file containing a number of sprites, each of which is slightly
different. Replay files are also easily included and there is direct
support for Artworks files.
8.10
Quite soon I had a tessellation activity which allowed me to rotate
objects, ‘bong’ each time I used the red square and send a raft down
some rapids when I clicked on a Father Christmas. I did not try any
animation, because I did not have the patience to create my own sprite
files.
8.10
Conclusions
8.10
Well, after some work and a steady read through the manual, I managed to
create my own multimedia, interactive, all-singing, all-dancing activity
which was fun to use even if it was simple. The main thing is that it
all worked and without too much trouble. If you are an experienced user,
you will be able to set up your own activities very quickly. If you are
a beginner, be prepared to spend some time experimenting with the quite
comprehensive list of options. It is certainly easier to use than some
other multimedia authoring packages such as Genesis or Key Author (I
have not seen Optima) although, to be fair, these are designed for older
children.
8.10
Finally, I would have liked more example folders and some guidance on
using the program with children at home and at school. However, at £29
+VAT +p&p from Longman Logotron or £33 through Archive, this is
excellent value for money. u
8.10
EasiWriter Professional Upgrade
8.10
Andrew Berry
8.10
During the last three years, I have used EasiWriter versions 2 and 3
extensively, and was therefore interested to hear about EasiWriter
Professional, the latest release from Icon Technology. Although the
title Professional implies a completely new product, the program is in
fact just an update of version 3, albeit one with many improvements.
This article deals with the changes made since 3.01 up to the present
version 3.16.
8.10
Index generation
8.10
Previously, the only way to create an index for a document was to go
though the text, picking out the important words and typing them into
another page. EasiWriter Professional contains a very helpful feature
which takes most of the work out of index generation. Any word or phrase
in a document can be highlighted and inserted into the index. The index
entry can either be the same as the highlighted word or any other string
up to 59 characters, and the page number is entered automatically.
Further occurrences of the same word or phrase can be found and inserted
in the index, in which case, the entry will contain more than one page
reference.
8.10
Most indexes are more complex than just a list of subjects, and
EasiWriter Professional caters for this by using an optional qualifier.
For example, a main index entry might be Mouse, with qualifiers buttons,
cleaning and holding. This type of index is very easy to create with all
qualifiers being automatically indented and arranged alphabetically.
8.10
The final type of entry is ‘See...’ which is used to point to another
index entry. If this is selected, the page reference is replaced by a
pointer to another entry in the index, which must already have been
created.
8.10
A useful feature allows any words or phrases in the document which have
index entries to be highlighted by setting the background colour. This
way it is easy to see which words or phrases have already been added to
the index.
8.10
The index can only be saved as a text file, although this is probably
the most versatile method available. If you want to save the index
directly into the document then the icon can be dragged straight onto
the page − a nice touch.
8.10
Contents generation
8.10
This feature makes a list containing any chapter, section or sub-section
headings in the document. Providing your structures contain sensible
headings, this will create a contents page which can be inserted at the
start of the document with little alteration. The exact types of
structure to be included can be chosen, and the resulting file is saved
as a text file in the same way as an index.
8.10
Numbered lists
8.10
Numbering of items in a list is now supported, a great improvement on
earlier versions where only bullets were available. The options for this
are very comprehensive, and include Roman numerals, numbers, letters and
even Dingbats symbols which can begin at any character. Text can be
combined with any of the above; so, for example, combining letters with
a closed bracket would produce a), b), etc. Any font can be used for the
bullet or number, as with previous versions.
8.10
Bookmarks
8.10
Bookmarks can now be inserted into documents to enable specific
positions to be located quickly and easily. Each bookmark can be named
and a list of names appears on the Search menu. Moving to a particular
part of the document is achieved by clicking on the name in the menu.
Bookmarks are saved in the file so any that are set up will be available
each time the document is loaded.
8.10
Improved text saving
8.10
A new dialogue has been added to fine-tune text output. Options are now
available to specify the way ends of lines and paragraphs are saved
(e.g. CR, LF, etc) and an option is also available to expand tabs in the
output − very useful for those using Edit.
8.10
Other improvements
8.10
Many other improvements have been made to EasiWriter, including the
following new features:
8.10
    Improved search
8.10
    OLE support
8.10
    Crop marks
8.10
    Improved German hyphenation
8.10
    More flexible white space
8.10
    Output as PostScript
8.10
    Auto kerning
8.10
    Specify start number for footnotes
8.10
    Draft printing
8.10
According to the Fact Sheet sent to me by Icon Technology, we can also
expect the following in the future:
8.10
    Auto numbered Chapters and Sections
8.10
    Fancy borders
8.10
    RTF import and export
8.10
    Pamphlet printing
8.10
    Background colours
8.10
Conclusion
8.10
It’s good to see that EasiWriter is still being developed and improved,
and I am certainly looking forward to the new features. If you upgrade
to Professional now, then new versions incorporating the above features
will be sent free of charge when they are completed.
8.10
The cost of upgrading is £30 + £1 p&p +VAT for single licence users, or
£120 + £1 p&p +VAT for a site licence. If you are currently using
version 3, I strongly recommend that you upgrade to Professional.
8.10
EasiWriter itself is now £89 +£3 p&p +VAT from Icon Technology (£102
through Archive) and EasiWriter Professional is £119 +£3 p&p +VAT  (£136
through Archive). For the record, Techwriter is £149 +£3 p&p +VAT from
Icon Technology (£169 through Archive) and Techwriter Professional is
£199 +£3 p&p +VAT  (£225 through Archive). u
8.10
Shares from Apricote
8.10
Dave Wilcox
8.10
Shares, version 4.04, is a package aimed at the small investor, with the
intention of helping them keep track of their investment portfolio. It
is produced by Apricote Studios and currently sells for £39.95
inclusive, or £38 through Archive.
8.10
The software comes on one disc and is accompanied by a 37-page A5
manual, presented in a plastic fold-over type wallet. On the disc is the
program, two demo files to practice with, and a text file giving all the
recent upgrades. This takes up approximately 218Kb, leaving plenty of
room for data storage on your program floppy if you so desire. The
manual is well written, easy to follow and has been well proofed prior
to its release.
8.10
The program
8.10
Firstly, backup and/or install to hard disc − preferably both. The
normal disc filing system can achieve both of these options, as the disc
is not copy-protected. To run the program, double-click on the
application icon to load it onto the iconbar. The programming strays
slightly from the norm here because, to setup a new portfolio, you have
to use setup from the iconbar menu. This isn’t a problem, but a click on
the icon for setup would have been more usual. If your portfolio is
already constructed, a double click on the file icon or dragging the
file to the program icon will set the program in motion.
8.10
On starting the program you are greeted with the main menu as a window
(see diagram opposite). This is broken into three sections, Tools,
Shares, and Reports.
8.10
Tools − This area allows for the entering, editing or viewing of data.
Also in this section is a radio button for rights issue transactions,
which basically is where companies wishing to raise funds, issue new
shares and offer them to holders, dependent upon their present holdings.
Selection of the printer output option lets you select LowRes for dot
matrix or inkjet printers or similar, whilst HighRes caters for the
Laserjet owner. Also in this section is the selection of company or date
filters to be applied to your data. Clicking on the company icon, a
window opens listing all companies in which you have shares. All that is
required is for you to highlight by clicking the companies for which you
wish to see the output. The date filter works in a similar manner,
requiring you to enter the start and end dates for the period you want.
Both of these filters can be combined to achieve a desired result.
8.10
Shares − There are three options here which work in conjunction with the
selected tool. These are options for buying/selling, prices and
dividends. With the ‘Enter’ radio button selected, you can enter the
details of shares purchased or sold, i.e. company name, number of
shares, date of transaction, prices paid for these shares, expenses
incurred in dealing. ‘Enter’−‘Prices’ lets you update the current prices
of your shares and ‘Enter’−‘Dividend’ lets you enter any dividends
received, along with the date of receipt. The edit option lets you make
amendments to incorrect entries and works similarly to ‘Enter’. ‘View’
gives screen output summaries.
8.10
Reports − Again, these options work in conjunction with the options set
up in Tools, bearing in mind that this is for report output. The default
tool is ‘View’, and all text or tabular output and most graphs can be
printed using the appropriate radio button. If used with the company
filter or date filter, it is possible to obtain summaries for a single
Company or for the whole portfolio for a specific date range or the life
of the portfolio.
8.10
In use, it is possible to set up indexes like companies. This enables
you to enter values for the R.P.I. or the F.T.S.E., for example. You can
then use these when producing a ratio graph for comparison purposes, to
give a better illustration of share performance. The program also has
the facility to cater for the issue of free or bonus shares usually
associated with privatisation issues, and caters for part payments made
as part of these dealings.
8.10
As the file path for your data is established when you set up your
portfolio, or as you load it, changes made to your data are saved as
they are made. There is an option to output data as a CSV file for
import into other applications or to save a screen as a text file. CSV
files can also be imported into a current file by dragging to an open
window or to the iconbar icon. There is no mention of Teletext in the
manual, and I have to admit that I do not know the format of saved
teletext information pages. If this is CSV or can be converted to CSV, I
can see no problem importing the current share prices in this way. If
not, you will have to update the prices manually but, for the average
investor, I cannot foresee a problem.
8.10
Summary
8.10
The program is initially set at source to cater for a portfolio of 60
companies, which should be sufficient for the small investor. If not, a
quick letter to Apricote will have a modified version sent out for the
number of companies you request or, alternatively, you can store as many
portfolios as your disc system will hold, each obviously holding a
further 60 companies.
8.10
The presentation on screen is clean and tidy, and considerable thought
has been given to the layout. When displaying text output, the package
uses a similar look to the pages in a Genesis file, with next and
previous page buttons to move through the output.
8.10
From the ReadMe file attached to this program, it is quite apparent that
the author, Frank Clayton, is still making fine tuning amendments to
this package, as and when required. I have setup and run my copy for a
couple of weeks and have not had a crash... yet!
8.10
This package does the job for which it was designed, keeping track of
your investment and giving you a textual or visual display of
performance. It seems solidly programmed and reliable. If you like to
play the market as a small investor, this package is for you.
8.10
Comparison
8.10
There are two other shares packages available for RISC OS computers
dealing with the same job, Shareholder and Shareholder Professional from
Silicon Vision, priced £79.95 and £125 respectively, the latter having
been reviewed for Archive (8.9 p61). It is unfair to compare this
package directly with Shareholder Professional as the latter is aimed at
a different customer, i.e. the larger investor and, as can be seen from
the review, it has several other facilities programmed into it for the
extra outlay. Yer pays yer money... u
8.10
Hermes − The Desktop Messenger
8.10
Peter Jennings
8.10
Hermes is the first software I have seen whose manual has a paragraph on
Greek mythology to preface an explanation of what the program does:
8.10
“Hermes was the ever-ready, swift-winged messenger and interpreter of
the Gods of Ancient Greece, son of Zeus, God of Science, inventor of the
lute and discoverer of fire. The Romans called him Mercury.
8.10
!Hermes is a fully RISC OS compliant application that can control tasks
on the desktop with simple text files, examine many standard filetypes
including directories, monitor and record desktop events, and perform
measurements and timing. All aspects are under the complete control of
the user via easy-to-use but comprehensive option windows and menus.”
8.10
A few pages further on, the overview becomes more specific: “Have you
ever needed to put a text file already prepared by another package into
a Draw document or create a directory listing as a text file? Hermes can
do all that. Tried disassembling a transient utility file, then adding
your own comments to it later? Now you can. Have you ever wanted to load
a PC graphics file straight into your DTP without having to convert it
to a sprite first? Hermes is the answer!”
8.10
The program, which comes from Base5 Technical Graphics and costs £25 (no
VAT), is on a single disc, accompanied by a 65-page flat-opening manual
and a double-sided A4 quick-reference card of commands. Interactive help
is supported. The manual, which could be a little more detailed in
places, continues its Greek God theme, with sections entitled Hermes the
Messenger, Hermes the Interpreter and Hermes the Scientist.
8.10
The messenger
8.10
Programs which provide new commands for Acorn owners have been appearing
since BBC B days. Hermes, in its messenger role, offers more than 300 of
them, using words bracketed by a special character. By default this is
“¤”, which is easy to enter from an Archimedes keyboard, being on the
same key as the £ sign, but Risc PC owners, who do not have this key,
have to use the less convenient <shift-alt-3> combination. Fortunately,
any other character can be defined by the user.
8.10
The commands are not entered into the document where they are to appear.
They have to be written in an ordinary text “control file” and this is
dragged onto the Hermes iconbar icon to cause the commands to be
interpreted and entered into whichever document has input focus. Any
text not bracketed by the special character is copied as written. As an
example of how this works, here is a text file containing Hermes
commands as it appears when read in a text editor or word processor in
the normal way.
8.10
Demonstration 2
8.10
This transmission is timed at ¤TIME1¤ ¤ZONE¤ on the ¤DAYTH¤ day of the
month of ¤CMON¤ in the year ¤YEAR¤
8.10
¤NOSEND¤
8.10
This is a comment. Because it is between NOSEND and SEND commands, it is
not transmitted.
8.10
The following commands illustrate how OS variables can be included.
8.10
¤SEND¤
8.10
¤Obey$Dir¤ is the directory where the last Obey file was executed.
¤Edit$Detokenise¤ is a numeric OS variable while ¤Sys$Time¤ and
¤Serial$Path¤ are macro variables re-evaluated each time they are
encountered. ¤CTRLLEFTARROW¤¤CTRLF6¤
8.10
¤STOP¤
8.10
Note the two commands at the end of the last paragraph. They are
intended for Edit and cause it to format the paragraph without
word-wrap.
8.10
This is how the file is interpreted on a word processor page with input
focus when the file is dragged onto the Hermes iconbar icon.
8.10
Demonstration 2
8.10
This transmission is timed at 03:25 pm GMT on the 25th day of the month
of March in the year 1995
8.10

8.10
ADFS::HardDisc4.$.Apps.!Edit is the directory where the last Obey file
was executed. 59604772 is a numeric OS variable while 15:25:39 and
devices#:$.Serial. are macro variables re-evaluated each time they are
encountered.
8.10
It will be noted that there are commands which work in a similar way to
the control codes often used to enter the current date or time into word
processor and DTP documents, but Hermes provides different commands to
enter them in different formats. Other commands substitute names for
less easily remembered ASCII codes, such as ¤copyright¤  instead of
<alt-169> for a © sign. OS variables can also be called by name so, for
example, ¤File$Type_FF5¤ is interpreted as PoScript. Another very useful
group of commands provide automatic paragraph numbering with renumbering
if paragraphs are inserted or removed.
8.10
However, the commands do not all immediately work with every
application, as Hermes has to be programmed with those codes which are
not the same in all applications, such as for end of line, delimiter and
font styles. A selection of programmed-in applications is provided and
others can be added if you know the code numbers they use. Also, the
need to put the commands into a separate control file, rather than being
able to type them directly into the document you are working on, rather
limits their usefulness. Many characters can already be entered from
Acorn’s !Chars utility, and lists of their ASCII codes, which can be
entered by typing <alt> and the appropriate keypad numbers, are given in
computer user guides. The addition of a !Chars-like window for Hermes is
being considered for a future upgrade.
8.10
The interpreter
8.10
If anything other than a text file is dragged onto the icon, Hermes will
interpret the contents according to the filetype. Text will usually be
copied into the receiver document, but certain filetypes will trigger
off other actions and show details of their contents. So, for example, a
template file will list the windows defined in it with, optionally, the
size of the indirected data. Relocatable files are disassembled but the
build-up on screen is very much slower than using a normal disassembly
program. The recognised filetypes which can be interpreted are:
absolute, applications, code, directory, draw, palette, relocatable
module, squashed file, sprite, template and transient utility. Hermes
offers a range of options as to which of the available fields of
information are to be shown (too many to be detailed here) and there is
also a choice of units, such as metric or imperial measurements, and
standards such as RGB, CMYK, HSV or CIE for palette files.
8.10
The scientist
8.10
In its scientific role, Hermes undertakes an interesting variety of
tasks. It offers a desktop log which will record and time-tag desktop
activities in a special file. These include: filer systems starting and
ending, tasks starting and ending, slot size changes, remote alarms,
printer drivers changing, system device claims, palette and screen mode
changes, application specific messages and directory windows closing.
There is an event timer which can be started and stopped manually or
triggered by mouse clicks or desktop events. A desktop monitor will
display any one of the following: current or elapsed time, the
co-ordinates of the mouse pointer, the window handle, icon handle or
icon button type under the pointer, the task owning the input focus, the
value of the last keypress broadcast by the Task Manager or any message
in hexadecimal broadcast by it or an application.
8.10
There is a very useful facility to move the mouse pointer in steps of 1,
4, 16 or 256 screen units at a time by using an arrow key either on its
own or with <shift>, <control> or <shift-control> respectively. Window
capture, a versatile snapshot feature, allows individual windows, the
icon bar or the whole of the desktop above the icon bar to be captured
as a sprite without need to define the required area, and this
complements rather than duplicates the snapshot facility in Paint.
Non-Acorn graphics files are recognised, and Hermes uses ChangeFSI to
convert them to sprites or AIM images before loading them into your
document. I could not get the graphics conversion to work (using Hermes
version 1.20) on my Risc PC and this is being looked into by the
program’s author, who developed and tested it on an Archimedes.
8.10
The target
8.10
Hermes is an unusual utility with some interesting features for those
who can make use of them. Some, such as automatic paragraph numbering,
keyboard control of the mouse pointer and window capture, are useful
facilities for any Acorn user but most of Hermes’s features are clearly
aimed at the more serious computer enthusiasts who will get the best use
from them. u
8.10
Garden Wildlife CD-ROM
8.10
Peter Jennings
8.10
Anglia Multimedia’s Garden Wildlife (version 1.00) comes on a CD-ROM in
a new range which can be used on an Acorn, PC or Apple computer. It is
designed to help children of primary school age to become familiar with
the wildlife found in their own garden or local park and has information
on more than 130 creatures. The text is illustrated with photographs,
videos, animations and sound, and students are allowed to save out text
and graphics to use in their own work. The price is £40 +VAT, or £45
from Archive.
8.10
On an Archimedes or Risc PC, it needs a minimum of 4Mb of RAM and,
despite its multi-platform use, it works in a completely normal way.
There is a recognisably Acorn type icon, called !Garden, which puts its
ladybird illustration onto the iconbar and clicking on this leads to a
menu window (see on the previous page). This is a picture of one corner
of a town, complete with a garden, a park, a library, a cinema and the
home of an animal expert called Mike. All can be visited and there are
little “i” icons outside each which, when clicked on, explain what you
can see and do there. Everything can be viewed either full screen or in
a desktop window. A toolbox provides a search facility and a notebook
whose contents can be saved before leaving the program.
8.10
Day and night
8.10
Visiting the garden or park produces a picture of it, with an invitation
to find the animals, and this is done by clicking on any of a number of
named areas, such as lawn, hedge, tree, shed and even compost heap.
There is also an option to hear the general sounds, which turn out to be
exactly the same in both park and garden! Both scenes can be toggled
between day and night, by clicking on the sun or moon, to see the
different creatures active at each time. Each area has captioned
pictures of the animals and insects which can be found there and
clicking on a picture leads to a larger version of it, accompanied by
information and icons which lead in turn to other photos, videos and
sounds.
8.10
The cinema offers a choice of 40 short video clips but the low
definition of Acorn’s Replay system makes it difficult to see the detail
in many of the smaller creatures. Sound quality was generally poor and
bird and animal calls difficult to recognise on my Risc PC, which does
not have any hifi enhancements.
8.10
The animal expert, Mike, is introduced with a photograph and an offer to
identify any unknown specimens you have seen. This is done with a series
of questions on the lines of whether it has fur or scales and how many
legs, and then a suggestion of possible identities.
8.10
In the library, you can refer to a wildlife database with more than 100
entries, learn how to classify animals into  groups, read a short book
list and attempt a quiz with two sets of questions.
8.10
Snail racing
8.10
Finally, there is a directory of activity sheets in Draw format with
suggestions for some enjoyable ways of learning about wildlife, ranging
from bird watching to snail racing.
8.10
Being intended for children of primary school age, the information in
Garden Wildlife is brief enough to be easily absorbed by them, rather
than encyclopedic. It is all attractively designed and very
professionally presented and nature lovers of all ages will find it
enjoyable browsing, although its appeal to older users will be more as a
picture book with interesting notes. Even so, any adults who do trespass
in the garden may still learn some fascinating facts, such as that the
champion breeder, the rabbit, can produce more than 20 young in a year
but is well beaten for the productivity title by the common house mouse,
which can have five to ten litters with about six young in each. u
8.10
Two PAL Encoders
8.10
Stuart Bell
8.10
First of all, what is meant by a PAL encoder? “PAL” is the acronym for
the way in which, in the UK, the TV is encoded in the signal broadcast
by the TV transmitters and received in our homes. The technicalities
need not concern us, save to note that other countries use different
systems; France has SECAM, and USA has NTSC (commonly misinterpreted as
“never twice the same colour”!). However, the video signals which are
produced by our computers use separate connectors for each of the main
colours in our displays (Red, Green and Blue), and also extra lines for
timing signals. Thus, no ‘coding’ is necessary, with the consequence
that few TVs can directly display the output of a computer. (Some
machines, including the A3010, do include the necessary encoding
hardware to do this.)
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My current project – which may well feature in a later Archive article –
is to produce a fairly complex ‘slideshow’ display on my A310, and
record it to a video recorder for easy repeated viewing. Hence, I needed
a PAL encoder to take the signal from the video output of the computer
and add the necessary PAL signals so that it could be recorded by the
VCR. One further point: PAL encoders produce a video signal, not a UHF
TV signal. That is, they can connect to a VCR or TV via their SCART or
phono ‘video i/p’ sockets, not via the aerial socket. (The A3010 adds a
modulator to its internal encoder to allow a TV aerial socket to be
used.)
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I bought one PAL encoder, and then Paul sent me another one for review.
Hence, I was able to compare the two devices for this article.
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Pineapple PAL Coder PLC/3
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As the name suggests, this is the third incarnation of an encoder
designed specifically for Acorn machines. It comes in a standard beige
plastic box 5" × 3" × 1", with inputs for the 15-pin video signal from
your computer (a suitable lead is supplied – users of older machines
will need a 9-15 pin adapter), and also a 7.5–12v DC power supply, for
which a plug-in mains adaptor is supplied. Outputs are for the 15-pin
video lead to your monitor, PAL coded output via a BNC socket, and Y/C
high quality output for use with S-VHS and similar equipment. I was not
able to test the Y/C output. Switches are provided for selecting
interlace on/off and standard/multisync monitors. Setting up the encoder
is no problem. The two A4 pages of documentation are adequate and should
enable all users of Acorn machines to get it working.
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Rombo VGA Buster (Pro)
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This is nominally a PC-specific device, and I am grateful to the Archive
reader who advised that it works OK with Acorn machines. Not
surprisingly, it is very similar to the Pineapple unit, with similar
inputs and outputs, but without the switches. The input signal lead is
captive and, at 9" long, inconveniently short. The standard output
socket is of the phono type – more practical for most users than
Pineapple’s BNC – and a phono-phono lead is supplied. The plug-in power
supply is of fixed voltage and with a captive lead, which minimises the
potential for silly mistakes in comparison with the one supplied by
Pineapple. A disc of PC-specific software is supplied, but could not, of
course, be used on my A310.
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The encoders in use
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Both worked pretty well. Because they are simply encoding ‘TV standard’
video signals, they will only work with video modes that can be
displayed on ‘ordinary’ (type 0) monitors. The obvious ones are 12 and
15 and their wider equivalents, 35 and 36. If your monitor is a
multisync, VGA or SVGA that displays these modes in letter-box format,
you will not be able to use your monitor at the same time as an encoder.
(My old Phillips green screen monitor came out of the loft!)
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The second thing to remember is that the inherent quality of TV images
is not a patch on what we expect from even the cheapest colour monitor.
For TV pictures, with images that lack the detail of, say, the RISC OS
desktop, and are viewed from 8 feet away, that doesn’t matter. When you
compare the prices of 21" TVs and 21" high resolution monitors, it’s
hardly surprising. So, don’t expect a wonderful, crisp 21" display on
the family TV. The lack of sharpness inherent in the TV tubes will show
up, as will the loss of quality inherent in the PAL encoding process
which intentionally sacrifices signal quality to enable the signal to be
broadcast at all. I seem to recall that the bandwidth of a PAL signal is
8MHz: the effective bandwidth of an RGB ‘TV standard’ signal is roughly
3 × 16MHz = 48MHz. Six pints are squeezed into each pint pot, and the
cost of the encoding is the loss of quality.
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In testing, I found that two issues are of importance when evaluating
the encoders. The less obvious one is that of picture position. Picture
position controls are becoming less common on TVs, and you cannot assume
that the encoded output from the encoders will centre the image on the
screen. With the Rombo unit came a disc full of PC-specific software to
fine-tune image position, but I couldn’t use that. The default position
wasn’t bad but it wasn’t quite centred. The Pineapple instructions
explain how to tweak the horizontal picture position by turning an
internal coil in the encoder. This worked well. For both units, I used
the mode definition and tweaking software supplied with the Watford
Electronics SVGA VIDC enhancer to produce tailor-made modes that put the
images exactly where I wanted them on the TV screens. Similar software
is obtainable from PD libraries, and makes using the encoders much
simpler. Particularly if you want to avoid black margins, which we don’t
normally expect on TVs, a way of centering the wide mode 36 is highly
desirable.
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Finally, there is the question of image quality. With both my 10" Matsui
portable TV and my Sony VCR, the Pineapple PLC/3 produced visibly better
results. The picture was sharper and had less colour bleed. It is not
inconceivable that, with other equipment, the Rombo device would produce
better images but that wasn’t my experience. Given the Acorn-targeted
nature of the Pineapple product and its documentation, I conclude that
if you need a PAL encoder for use with your Acorn computer, then that’s
the one to go for. A disc with simple mode-tweaking software would
enhance the product further, as would supplying a BNC-phono adaptor for
the output socket.
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The Pineapple PAL Encoder PLC/3 is available from Archive, price £104
inclusive. u
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