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 loading
it from the utilities menu. It
is designed to be easily understandable
and simple to fill in, and shouldn't
take you more than ten minutes or so to
complete.
There are just over 50 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 (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.
For the question,"Which of these
computers do you own - BBC B, Master
128, Master Compact, Master 512", if
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. games, 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
filled-in questionnaire (the file
QUEST) onto the BLANK FORMATTED DISK
that you are going to send for one of
the next issues, along with any
submissions (text, articles, software
etc).