8-bit Software Disc Magazine (c) Duncan Webster September 1991
Issue 15 September 1991
ACORN USER SHOW 1991
A lot of members have asked me if I shall be attending the Acorn User
show this year at Wembley. I cannot arrange a formal meeting like I
did last year, but I shall probably be at the SATURDAY show from
12.30pm until the show closes. However I cannot guarantee this as I
am scheduled to work that Saturday morning - If I am able to transfer
this then I shall certainly be at the show and would love to finally
meet you all. Would you beleive that I have never met a single member
of 8BS face to face??? Please come along to the show if you can, but
not especially to meet me as I MIGHT not be able to make it.
Assuming I am at the show this year, the arrangements will go
something like this... I shall be at the bar, or cafe for 10 minutes
every 1 hour (ie. from 1.00 to 1.10pm, then 2.00 to 2.10pm etc. right
through the day). I shall be wearing a GREY jacket and a RED badge
with the words "The more People I meet the More I Like my Dog"
embossed all over it (don't take this personally), and I shall
probebly have my nose in a TODAY newspaper. If you notice me and I am
asleep, then don't wake me up.
There will be no set program. I will probably just buy you a drink
and have a chat (maybe whilst walking round the show). I might even
have an advance copy of issue 16 I can let you have, but don't bank on
it. I shall do my VERY BEST to attend - if you would like to be sure
I am attending, then give me a call the SUNDAY before the show,
bearing in mind the new times for phoning (see NEW 8BS PROCEDURES
section of the magazine).
Actually, having thought about it - if I have a drink with every
member I meet then you'd better get there early whilst I'm in a legal
state of mind.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCUSSIONS
K1P: Rob Bathgate
I've had a quick playabout with that weird file. As countless others
have probably told you, the hex value for the 1st letter of the file
is often stored in memory as the higher character value (ie 128 is
added to it). So for the file weird, the w can be stored as &F7 as
well as &77. I'm not sure what exactly causes the different value,
but I think if you do a *. it causes the higher value whilst, say, if
you just save a program then you get the lower one. As you can
probably tell, I'm not very knowledgeable in these technical matters!
Anyway, to overcome this the easiest way I can think of is to AND the
value read from memory with 127. SEE ALSO MESSAGE FROM 105 BELOW...
K1P: Rob Bathgate
I'm currently working on a pretty massive football program. Its a
sort of combined results stored, league tabler and a few other little
goodies if I can fit them in and get them to work! Unfortunately the
current season has started and so it wouldn't be much use to other
members. I will send it in eventually anyway, even if it is for the
start of next season! I'm open to suggestions, what do members think?
YJ2: Andrew Snodgrass
Does anyone know what the AMX Pagemaker/StopPress equivelent is of the
AMX ART ROM command *UPDATE?
105: Duncan Webster
On behalf of Alex Savvides (Y80), I would like to say a big THANK YOU
to all who replied to the "Weird" program problem. Many of you sent
in corrected versions. I actually received 25 replied to this
problem, and 15 of these replied had a fixed program saved to disc.
Obviously I cannot publish each solution. I beleive that Hugh
Williams had the honour of telephoning the member concerned in order
to help with the problem. It just goes to show how much help is
readily available for anyone who want's it, so if YOU have a problem
or a question, then write in and I can ALMOST guarantee your problem
will be solved by somebody. Thanks to you all once again.
105: Duncan Webster
I have had numerous enquiries about how the mailbox system works. I
will put my hands up to this at once, as the present system is being
severely tested due to the volume of mail received. There is to be a
new system introduced within the next few months. Until the new
system is implemented, please consult the NEW 8BS PROCEDURES section
of this magazine for details of the temporary procedures I have
implemented.
105: Duncan Webster
I must apologise to members who became increasingly annoyed with the
KICKSTART routine employed when booting the issue 14 disc. For those
of you who do not know, here is what to do if you would like this
routine moved ...
Insert the issue 14 disc into drive 0
Press CTRL and BREAK together to return to BASIC
Enter the following ...
*ACCESS !Boot <Return>
*BUILD !Boot <Return>
You will then see the figure 0001 (or just the number 1) appear on the
screen. I have given an example below of how you should complete each
line .... <Return> means you must press the RETURN key.
0001 *BASIC <Return>
0002 PAGE=&1900 <Return>
0003 CHAIN"!Menu" <Return>
Now press the <Escape> Key once. When the cursor (>) reappears enter
the following ....
*OPT 4,3 <Return>
If you now boot up your disc again the KICKSTART should be omitted.