HOW TO FILL IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE
You might want to print this article out so that you can refer to it.
Note : all information given will be held in confidence unless you say
otherwise (you can opt for either details of your interests and/or your
phone number to be included in the database for members' use). As an
unincorporated members' club, 8-Bit Software is exempt from registration
under the Data Protection Act 1984.
The questionnaire is entered by typing 104 <RETURN> from the magazine
menu. It is designed to be easily understandable and simple to fill in,
and shouldn't take you more than five minutes or so to complete.
There are 48 questions, most of which can be answered by a single
keypress, and each time you are asked one, its number will be printed
beside it. There are a number of ways that you can answer each question,
and in each case this will be made clear by the question itself.
For example, some questions will want you to simply press Y or N, some
will require you to press a number (0-9), some might want you to type in a
word or several words (use block capitals and finish with RETURN), and
some might want you to type in a number (use RETURN to finish).
You will notice, while you are going through the questionnaire, that each
question has a "default answer" indicated. If you just press RETURN, then
the default answer will be entered for you.
This is in case you wish to stop filling in the questionnaire half-way
through, and then skip the questions you have already answered when you
load up the questionnaire for the second time. To quit the questionnaire,
press ESCAPE. The answers you have entered so far will be saved, and these
will become the default answers. When you load the questionnaire up again
from the magazine menu, all you need to do is to press RETURN for each of
the answers you have entered already - you won't need to type them in
again.
You can also press RETURN if you don't want to answer a question for any
reason - I don't insist that you answer all of them - or if you don't know
the answer. But please bear in mind that a questionnaire with most
questions not answered will mean nothing to me, and this means your views
won't be properly represented in deciding how 8BS will be run in the
future.
If you make a mistake, you can go back and correct it. There are two ways
of doing this. If you are answering a question for which the answer does
not need to end with RETURN (for example, Y/N or 0-9), simply press
DELETE. This will take you BACK to the PREVIOUS question, so that you can
enter a different answer from the one you have put in. If you want to go
back again, press DELETE again, and so on. When you want to go forward
again, simply enter the correct answer in the usual way - or press RETURN
if you have already given the correct answer to that question.
However, when you are answering a question that requires a string or a
number to be typed in (for example, "What is your name?" or "How old are
you?"), you CANNOT move back by pressing DELETE. Instead, simply type in a
star (*) then press RETURN. This will move you backwards in the same way
as DELETE would in any other question.
Sometimes the questionnaire will automatically skip several questions when
going backwards or forwards - for example, if you had said that you did
not want 8-bit Software to know your phone number, it would not ask you
for it!
If you type in an answer that is too long, or obviously incorrect in some
other way, then the program will ask the question again. If you are
totally stuck then just press RETURN to move on to the next question.
Here are some explanations of some of the more difficult questions:
Is your disk controller chip an 8271 or a 1770?
To find this out, press CONTROL-D-BREAK together. If one of the lines on
the screen is "Acorn 1770 DFS" then the answer is 1770. If it is "Acorn
8271 DFS" then it is 8271. If it is just "Acorn DFS" then assume that it
is an 8271.
How many banks of sideways RAM does your machine have?
If your machine is a BBC B and you have never added any sideways RAM, then
the answer is zero. If your machine is a Master and you have never
disabled any of its RAM banks, then the answer is 4.
If the questionnaire asks a question like,"Do you have a 32016
co-processor?" and you don't know what it is, assume that you haven't got
one and answer no.
If the questionnaire asks a question with several responses, such
as,"Which of these computers do you own - BBC B, Master 128, Master
Compact, Master 512", and you have more than one of these, give the one
which you use most. For example, if you had a BBC B and a Master Compact
but used the Compact more, you would answer "C".
There is also a section of the questionnaire that asks you for your
interests. This is because I am planning to create a database of which
members are interested in what. This would mean that members could get in
touch with other members who have similar interests.
These interests are divided into computer-related (e.g. comms, business
programming) or general (e.g. PBM gaming, free-fall parachuting). If you
do NOT want to be included in either part of the database, then you can
opt not to by answering "N" to the appropriate question. There is space
for three computing-related interests and three general interests - don't
worry if you leave some blank! If your interest won't fit in the 15
characters allowed, then try to abbreviate it somehow.
When you get past the last question, the questionnaire will go back to the
first one. Keep going round and round (pressing RETURN to go past the
answers that are right) until you are sure that all the answers are
correct. Then press ESCAPE. Your completed questionnaire will be
automatically saved to the disk.
All you need to do then is to copy the questionnaire onto the BLANK
FORMATTED DISK that you are going to send to me for issue 21.
If you have a twin disk drive, insert the 8BS issue 20 disk into drive 0
and your blank disk into drive 1. Then go into BASIC and type:
*COPY :0 :1 QUEST
If you only have a single disk drive, go into BASIC and insert the 8BS
issue 20 disk into your drive. Type *COPY :0 :0 QUEST. Press a key when
the computer asks for the source disk. When it asks for the destination
disk, REMOVE the 8BS issue 20 disk and INSERT your BLANK disk - then press
a key. Repeat the process IF it asks you to insert the source disk again.
Once you have done this, simply place the disk onto which you have just
copied the completed questionnaire into an envelope, together with A LARGE
STAMPED SELF-ADDRESSED ENVELOPE for me to return it to you in, and a 50p
coin (securely stuck to something), and send the whole lot back to 8-Bit
Software at :
8-Bit Software
1 Oakwood Drive
Heaton
BOLTON
BL1 5EE
Remember that any other submissions (text or software) that you are
sending to me should be sent on the SAME disk - see "CHANGES TO 8-BIT
SOFTWARE" for details.