I would like to clear up some of the
debris from issue 25.
The bulk of the comments that I have so
far received concern a couple of my
programs. As I cannot claim they were
nothing to do with me, which at this
moment seems the favourite option, I
suppose I shall have to make some
inspired comments/excuses/explanations/
apologies.
(Delete inappropriate section/s)
It must not pass this point without
thanks to the members who offered their
comments on the programs. So - Thanks
to the members who offered their
comments on the programs.
Fireworks sound sample demo. Seems to fail on a couple of people's
machines. Try this:
LOAD"firerun"
GOTO 70
If this does not work, please let me
know.
I hold my hands out to the problem with
the program not sussing out RAM banks
properly, future samples will hopefully
have corrected this. Out comes the
manual.
Diving Database.
Well fancy that! I forgot the error
trapping! My apologies. Try this:
LOAD"Dbase"
145 ONERROR
SA.FNS
That should do it.
I owe an apology to 0E7 who no doubt
spent hours entering reams of data into
the database to discover that it wasn't
suitable for his needs.
I must have omitted to mention that,
the maximum number of records the
database could handle would be about
80, maybe a few more, maybe a few less.
The reason for this is that all the
data is held in memory.
I have now started writing disc based
databases.
Catalogues OK. I take the point, the presentation
was rubbish. It was an experiment.
There was no hard copy option, very
remiss of me. The presentation was
flat. Better luck next time. I hope the
content was helpful though.
To go back to the article for a second.
Can anyone tell me where the ADFS
catalogue is held if fitted to a BBC B?
CPR test Yes! Sometimes the Question can have
more than one correct answer.
There is one point in the program that
springs to mind as an example:
When I originally entered the data for
the program, it was my understanding
that after the initial approach and
assessment of the patient, after
checking the respirations to discover
APNEA you give 4 inflations of the
lungs.
However, during the program development
I attended an annual re-qualifing
course. I discovered that new protocols
have us giving 2 inflations to start
with. I was now faced with the quandary
of leaving the program alone and being
strictly incorrect, or amending it. If
I amended it, then "First Aider's" may
perceive my answer of 2 as being
incorrect.
What's to do? I thought. Oh well, both
answers will do. So there you go, you
can enter 2 or 4 as the answer to the
initial number of inflations.
As to the point about harming patients
with the wrong treatment. I reckon that
if you are sure that the patient is
pulseless and therefore not breathing
either, the worst thing that you can do
is leave them alone!
Before leaving the subject of Cardio
Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) I would
like to remind everyone that the best
way to learn CPR or any other first aid
is to contact your local Ambulance
service, Red Cross or St Johns.
Bouncing ball demo. If I had saved the screen data so that
it could have been *LOADed into memory
(therefore being much quicker as
suggested), then the program would have
taken up too much room on the disc.
The ASCII article by Steven Flintham
Sorry about the format Steven, for some
reason I managed to get the un-edited
version on to the issue disc rather
than the formatted one. As a result,
the text looked a bit odd, with no wrap
around. My fault.
That brings me to this point:
When editing an issue, space is an all
important factor. 27N has suggested
compacting the whole of the software
collection, therefore leaving more room
for more software and the all important
text.
Going by comments received from other
members, I think that the balance has
been struck. De-compacting can be a
real pain. I say this having just spent
the morning de-compacting 7 DFS discs
from 1 ADFS for the software pool.
Some members may not bother with
software if it is in an archive, this
would be a shame.
Members are also at this very moment
being asked if they would send 2 discs
if it was considered necessary. So
maybe in future the DFS version would
be on 2 discs, DFS owners would then
get the same software as ADFS owners.
Two points raised by issue 26: Text from other formats Daniel Shimmin mentioned about transfer
of text between computers via discs.
If anyone has a disc of PD text from
ANY other machine that they want to put
into ADFS or DFS format for the BBC and
the 8BS mag, send it to me, and I will
gladly attempt to transfer it.
Sum ov us ejucaytid pipple can spel
summert wikid an yoo lot out ther carnt
spel fer tofee an wen we se sumwone hoo
carnt spel we larf and larf at it.
But seriously, I dread spelling
incorrectly incorectly.
I apologise for anything speld bad.
I glance at the well fingered
dictionary balanced on top of my modem
and make a self doubting grab for it.
My daughter came home from school last
week (OK OK I'm 37), and told me that
she had taken a spelling test. She said
that she had scored 93 out of 100. Very
good I said, what did you get wrong
then? She proceeded to tell me that
firstly the teacher had told her that
she had left the "e" out of mountainous
and the "r" out of rather. So according
to my daughter's teacher it's:
I would rarther live in a mountaineous
area.
Humm....
Yes, Daniel Shimmin was correct about
my tolerance, I always thought that you
could spell disc and program either
way, I prefer spelling them this way. I
try to leave people's text alone as
much as possible, warts and all.
The ADFS debate.
Well, that caused a bit of a stir
anyhow. A recent addition to my
collection of roms is ADFS utilities.
This rom nullifies the complaints that
I had about ADFS. I deny any
association with the person that
whinged on about ADFS being a load of
tosh (even if it was me).
Considered the benefits of HADFS? Any comments on HADFS? The PD system
which allows DFS users with SWR or an
EPROM to have a similar system to ADFS.
Have any of the BBC B users tried this
format out?
If there was enough interest, it may
be worth considering transferring the
ADFS version of the 8BS disc to HADFS
for users without ADFS. You need 16k
of SWR to load the rom image, or the
rom can be blown onto an EPROM. The
software is PD. Here is a bit of info
from the info file by Mr Harston:
The HADFS system will be familiar to
anyone who is used to using ADFS or
Econet. It is a full hierachial filing
system (ie it has subdirectories).
It is a ...method of sqeezing more than
31 or 62 files onto a DFS disk. Note
that HADFS does not allow you to read
ADFS disks. To do this, you need ADFS
as well as the 1770 FDC.
HADFS is really happy using 80 track
doubles sided drives, but you can also
use single sided disks and 40 track
disks.
HADFS runs on the following machines:
BBC, DFS 0.90 slight problems.
BBC, DFS 1.20
Master, DFS 2.24
also with:
Watford Rom/Ram board
Aries-B32 sideways Ram
6502 second processor (BBC)
Z80 second processor (BBC)
Shadow screens are recognised on:
Master computers
Aries-B32
Watford 32k Ram card
HADFS needs the Osword call &7F
provided by Acorn DFSs to read and
write to disks.
Me again...
Each HADFS formatted disc contains the
software needed to run the system. So
all you do is !BOOT up in DFS, the rest
is done for you.
Anyone interested in following this up,
please contact me. If you haven't got
the necessary 16k of SWR fitted,
several people offer an EPROM blowing
service. The software itself is all PD.
If you just fancy a look at HADFS,
contact me, and I will supply the full
setup complete with very comprehensive
manuals and utilities.
10 point guide for computer wives
or
The first seven years are the worst.
by
Gillian Richardson. 1. Positioning of the computer. So that the occasional conversation can
be held it is advisable to place the
computer desk in a highly visible place
where an eye can be kept on him, rather
than it being in the loft, bedroom or
"computer room". Otherwise contact will
be totally lost with only the
occasional glimpse of a dishevelled,
tired, smelly male with bloodshot eyes
and sprouting bristles.
Life started to improve after the
computer desk was bought. Avoiding any
necessity to switch off whilst eating.
Our computer used to be on the dining
table.
Place the desk in a position where air
will circulate freely, next to the door
or opening window, to keep the room
fresh.
2. Conversing with computer husband.
Persistence is advisable, because any
answers to questions asked for instance
are extremely unreliable.
Teaching the youngest child where BREAK
is is always a good idea.
Switching the power off is only to be
undertaken as a very last resort as
this doesn't lead to any useful
conversation anyway. However it may
make you feel an awful lot better.
3. Going out. Unless you are going to a computer
shop, forget it. It must be appreciated
that having got the person out into the
wide world, he will not be able to
converse in a normally accepted manner
and will show severe withdrawal
symptoms.
4. House and garden.
What garden? Maybe the wilderness.
Short jobs can be undertaken whilst
discs are formatting or being backed
up. Decorating is definately out.
5. Holidays. Despite what he may say, it is not
essential to take the computer with
you. Camping and caravanning (as long
as there are no hitch up points on the
site) is a good idea. Try to avoid
areas of the country where you know
"computer friends" live.
6. Finances. No! The 100 discs are not essential and
there is no need to live on baked beans
for three weeks to be able to afford
them. Pay day is FRIDAY, not Wednesday.
7. Educational software. There is no need for this as the
children will never get to the computer
anyway. EVEN if you have 2 computers as
he will invariably have both switched
on, backing up on one and running a
mandelbrot on the other.
8. Visitors.
Only have them on the strict
understanding that the computer is
turned off.
9. The Telephone/bill. When he shows you the telephone bill
and complains that you have spent 10
minutes chatting to your mother,
highlight his calls to outer Mongolia
for three hours and add them up.
Encourage him to take a job where he
has to leave the telephone free, then
under no circumstances allow a second
telephone line to be installed. If he
uses a modem, talk to him whilst he is
using it.
10. Handling the programming. When he leaps up in the air and wails
that he has just suffered a major
disaster/loss by overwriting a whole
evenings work, either make a run for it
or explain to him gently that he is so
clever that surely he made a backup of
it all somewhere. This appeals to his
vanity and diverts his grief for a
second to allow him to concentrate
correctly. He will now not be able to
admit that he was too stupid to ensure
that he regularly backed his work up
because the same thing has happened so
many times before
Well, it amused my wife anyway.
Here is the simplest answer to your
question as far (as I am concerned
anyway).
Place your copy of 8BS issue 23 in the
disc drive. Type:
LOAD":2.basread"
590.l21:LDA#0:JSR&FFEE:DEX:DEX:BPLl20:
LDA#0:JSR&FFEE
Be very careful to enter this line
exactly. Note the lower case "l" in L20
and l21 especially.
This will list basic programs from disc
without printing the line numbers. Use
CONTROL+B to send output to the printer
before entering the file name to be
listed.
However, I have had a go at doing the
job in a different way, and have
come up with an assembler interrupt
program to remove line numbers when you
list a program. It has a lot of flaws
really, but nearly achieves the end!
Two points of interest here:
1. I apologise for any confusion caused
by myself issueing ID's to people
who I thought did not have them.
ID's really do help the editors when
organising an issue.
2. Please use your ID on all
communications with me as well as
Daniel. ID's make the job of
organising an issue about 5 million
time more simple! (Slight over
exaggeration here)
The Quantities debate. Size doesn't matter so I am told,
surely, the MOST important factor on
the 8BS disc should be quality, not
quantity. When editing a disc, I just
clap stuff on until it's full, it's as
simple as that. If noboby sends
anything to me, then the disc fills
very slowly. The point of this
paragraph is: Please keep your
submissions rolling in!. Even if you
think that it is not up to much! Let
the Editors decide.
This is enough of the ramblings for the
issue, thanks to your contributions, it
would seem that this issue is going to
be bursting with text! Bye for now.