From 0E7
CPR TEST
As a training aid, would it not be
better if one had to give the correct
answer, assuming that there is one,
before the program moves on to the next
question? As it is, there appears to be
more than one answer, or is it safe to
assume that the answer given, if not
100% correct, would not harm the
patient and it would be safe to carry
on in reality?
DATABASE
I have experienced quite a bit of
trouble with this program.
If I add a record, then return from
Menu to VIEWrecords and attempt to
backstep, an error message is received
and no Last Record message is added to
the record number.
If a record is deleted, the next record
to be added takes on a totally new
number. If the records are accessed the
deleted number shows up as Deleted, and
it does not appear possible to re-use
that number again. If this is correct
and I am missing nothing I think I
would like to be able to use the
deleted record number again.
I also find that it is not possible to
build this program into a !BOOT file.
If this is done the disc will boot up
and the first record appears on the VDU
but the instructions at the bottom
flash and the program hangs up.
I have just attempted to place some
records of importance in this database
and have discovered the following bugs.
If I press E to edit a record I get the
message "Which field a-n(0=end)".
If I attempt to use lower case, which
one would from the field letters which
are themselves in lower case, the
program does not respond. I have to use
upper case to progress. I would have
expected to use lower case.
If I press "A" the Message "Enter new
data or (000) to leave" is given, and
the record in field "A" can be amended.
On completion message "Again(Y/N)" is
received. If I press "B" the existing
data clears, but there is now no output
from the keyboard and the program locks
up. When attempting to amend field 'L'
the screen clears, except for the
message "Enter new data". In view of
these difficulties, I have abandoned
any further attempts to input any data.
I will await a reissue of this
promising database.
ISSUE 25
I liked your new presentation of issue
25. The program details are easier to
follow, making identification on disk
for copying etc. much easier.
I have tried out your new way of
printing out some text and it is quite
good. The only problem is that the
printout then carries on to the end of
the article unless one presses Break
etc. after the piece of text required
is printed. Is it possible to mark the
end of the text required, so that only
the piece needed is printed?
ELECTRONICS
The first screen states "Press Letter
Now" to find Ohms from colours. When
the letter is pressed the screen then
shows values of individual colours.
It is assumed that figures should be
pressed and not letters. Should not the
input from alpha keys be suppressed?
Apart from this a very nicely presented
and very useful program.
JOKER
It functions very well, and is nicely
presented with some quite amusing
jokes. How does one improve it
technically, assuming it is possible to
do so, as it appears to do everything
efficiently as it is. Presentation is
the only other possibility for
improvement and I do not think much
more could be achieved.
SHAPES
The menu presentation of the programs
is a very good idea and works fast and
efficiently, far better than having
separate programs.
DIVING / TEST DATABASES
These look nice databases, and should
be easily adapted to meet ones own
parameters as per the authors
instructions.
PRESS SPACE
A nicely presented informative program
which will be hard to improve on.
CATALOGUE
A useful utility in which the
presentation could be improved by
colour. A change of mode for a larger
display would be an advantage if this
is possible.
ANIMATION DEMO
Very good but on the slow side. Is it
possible to speed it up?
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
PRESS SPACE
I thought this was excellent, but I do
have one or two very small suggestions.
Firstly, it would probably be a good
idea to put *FX21 before each of the
REPEAT UNTIL GET=32 or similar lines,
because it's quite easy to press SPACE
early and then miss something. For
instance, during the man walking across
the screen, I pressed SPACE to see if
it would let me continue without
waiting for the whole thing. It didn't,
so the SPACE was left in the keyboard
buffer. I then tried again, just to be
sure that the program hadn't missed the
first one, which meant that I also
missed the following screen because the
second SPACE was still left in the
buffer.
Secondly, how about modifying the
longer routines (such as the animated
man) to allow SPACE to interrupt them
before they are completed - if the user
has to wait each time, he or she could
get extremely annoyed with the program
- especially if these routines are used
in introductory screens which must be
read each time a program is run.
SHAPES
It's such a long time since I came
across a simple graphics program of
this type that I was very impressed by
the images produced. I'd forgotten how
a nice simple routine can produce very
impressive displays. Has anyone else
got anything like this - for some
reason, I can never seem to write this
sort of thing myself!
VERSATILE DATABASE
I thought this was quite good, but I do
have a couple of suggestions. Firstly,
it might not be a bad idea to disable
the ESCAPE key within the program - it
doesn't seem to be trapped at the
moment. Secondly, when editing a field,
there is no way to leave it as it is.
Perhaps ESCAPE could be used to abort
the editing of a field, or maybe a
blank entry when editing a field could
be regarded as an instruction not to
change that field. Of course, if this
second method is used, it will be
necessary to add a "Blank field" option
to the menu, because it won't be
possible to edit a field and enter
nothing.
From 176
ISSUE 25
All in all a very worthwhile disc. I
look forward to the text content of the
magazine and enjoyed "Please Recycle".
I moved from a Spectrum 128 to a Master
128 using ADFS and only changed to DFS
because 8BS and others were using DFS
only. However, I enjoy 8BS in ADFS but
can see that DFS is simpler.
ADFS CATALOGUES
Brilliant!! What an advance on CATALL.
One small suggestion. It would be very
convenient to have the disc name at the
top of the catalogue.
PRESS THE SPACEBAR
Excellent. There is very little scope
for improvements to be suggested.
TAPE BACKUP
"Broken Directory at line xx" keeps
coming up after "SEARCHING , FILE XXXX
now XX". I tried 3 tapes and 2
formatted discs with the same result.
ARCHIVED PROGRAMS
44! some of these are over my head but
I can see that many are for
incorporation in programs. A number
reported "Not LOCAL at line XX" which
puzzled me, while occasionally "No such
variable" appeared.
SOUND SAMPLES
Interesting
GRAPHICS John Ilsley
Beautiful
TONKINS COMPUTER DICTIONARY
I had heard of it but had not seen it
before. Enjoyable.
CATALOGUES
How can this be printed? I have tried
several methods and failed.
FIREWORKS
All I get is FIREYWORKS
JOKER
Well done. On a Master it seemed to
take quite some time to load.
From 19F
PRESS THE SPACEBAR
I liked this one. Very well presented
with plenty of good ideas.
ANIMATION DEMO
This was good once the picture had been
drawn. Can't this primary drawing of
the main picture be put onto a separate
picture file which could load in a
matter of seconds, as this would stop
people not wanting to bother with it
ever again.
From 3SQ
FIREWORKS DEMO
All I got from it was a lot of terrible
noises from the speaker. I had great
difficulty in getting it to run in the
first place, the program correctly
spotted that I was using a Master but
it didn't say it needed 64k of SWRam to
be able to work, could have been more
user friendly in this respect.
From L1L
COMMENTS ON SOFTWARE FROM ISSUES 20,21
& 22
WORDSEARCH GENERATOR
Very well put together and fully
optioned.
PRESENTING POLAND pt.1
Rather well done, having a graphical
element certainly maintains one's
interest, especially with children who
normally steer clear of otherwise large
uninterrupted pages of text. The sound
effects are good also as they are not
too loud, but simply and quietly draw
one's attention as needed. I look
forward to Part 2.
ECG SIMULATION
I found this simulation both
interesting and educational. I can see
a further educational application - if
rhythms are displayed on screen and
then the user is asked to identify
them. This being after becoming
familiar with the waveforms and
descriptions from the first part of the
program.
CHAIN LETTERS
Well done D. Shepherdson. I found this
quite compulsive with the selectable
levels resulting in the right mix of
knowledge, memory recognition and
manipulative skills. It is better than
quite a lot of other educational
software that has been sold
commercially. I notice that this
program was written in 1990, if anyone
else has any gems like this hiding away
send them in to 8BS.
FANTASY ADVENTURE CREATOR
While adventures are not really my
thing, I found this system rather easy
to use and understand and should enable
someone with few programming skills in
this field, to easily create quite
challenging games - as all the hard
work has been taken care of. I expect
quite a few people will take advantage
of this system.
PUSH THE BALE
Very compelling with a good level of
problem solving required. An
improvement could be the use of sound
which I believe would create that extra
dimension to the game. Another possible
feature that could be included is a
timer for each screen. There is often
several ways of completing a screen -
but which is the quickest?
AREA CALCULATOR
A good feature of this program is that
it actually displays the area formula
when performing the calculation for a
given shape. Perhaps to make this
program a more involved learning aid,
the user could be asked for the formula
and either be congratulated if right or
corrected if wrong.
NUMBER CONVERSION
Good and well presented. Although
obviously aimed at programmers (?) a
possible variation could be the
conversion between degrees and radians
(and dealing with polar coordinates).
From 20G
PRESENTING PROGRAMS SERIES
Steven's series has been of great help.
I am a great believer in friendly
programs that tell you the next step
and are easy to understand. I have used
the 'Titltop' and LISTing from a
program (Issue 22) in a recent program.
I also found the MENU article in the
last issue interesting. Will Steven
soon show us all how Miroslaw got his
rolling bar menu in BIGBEN? It looks
good.