To: 999 (all members)
From: K2K (Peter Davy)
Subject: A new member's first message.
I am very pleased I responded to that
advertisement for 8BS which appeared in
a recent BEEBUG magazine. I must admit
that I found it quite a challenge to
find my way around the items on the 8BS
magazine disk. I knew I needed help but
I was unsure what form it would need to
take. Now I know! The new MenRead
program on issue no.32 makes all
abundantly clear. Many thanks to the
member who asked for it and to the
editor who wrote it.
Many years ago I used to enjoy playing
with programmable calculators. I used
to search for numbers with odd
properties. I remember wondering if
there existed a ten digit number which
is a perfect square (i.e. its square
root is a whole number) and the digits
themselves comprise two of each of the
digits 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8. I wrote a
program to make the search and left it
running overnight. If a number meeting
the above requirements were found the
program would stop with the number in
the calculator display. I was delighted
the next morning to find the program
had stopped with a ten digit number
containing two zeros, two twos, two
fours, two sixes and two eights. A
quick test showed that the square root
of the ten digit number was a whole
number. At the outset I had no reason
to think that such a number existed but
now I had found one. My pleasure at
finding this number was compounded
when, as a result of running the
program to the bitter end, I discovered
that there were no other ten digit
numbers meeting the specified
requirements. The number I had
discovered is unique!
The subject of "my number" happened to
cross my mind recently and I decided it
would be interesting to re-discover it
by writing a program for the Beeb. This
is the program I wrote:
10 FOR I%=44748 TO 94162 STEP 2
20 S$=STR$(I%*I%)
30 PRINT S$
40 RESTORE
50 REPEAT
60 READ A$:IF A$="99" THEN PRINT"Note
the displayed value"'"then press any
key":G=GET
70 X%=0:T%=0
80 REPEAT:X%=X%+1
90 IF MID$(S$,X%,1)=A$ THEN T%=T%+1
100 UNTIL T%>2 OR X%=10
110 UNTIL T%<>2
120 NEXT I%
1000 DATA 0,2,4,6,8,99
Although not an overnight job, this
program is quite slow at reaching the
number sought. Members may like to
devise something quicker.
The principle of the program is to
square all the numbers between 44748
and 94162 and to test each answer to
see if it contains two of each of the
digits 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8.
A possible problem is that the Beeb
displays numbers only up to 9
significant figures and we need 10.
However we need a string representation
of the ten digit number to test it for
the presence of 2 zeros, two twos etc.
and we get this using the trick shown
in line 20 of the program. When S$ is
printed in line 30 it contains all ten
of its digits.
If you wish to know what the sought for
ten digit number is you will need to
type in the program and RUN it.
I have now finished talking about ten
digit numbers!
For the last eleven years or so I have
written for the BBC-B (and
subsequently for the Master-128) more
than 140 programs for Adult Basic
Education, mostly literacy but some
numeracy. The programs are usable by
primary and junior school children.
All of my output is now available from
8BS - Catalogue numbers TBI-46-1 to 5.
I am always keen to consider changes
to existing programs or ideas for new
ones. Please contact me if you have
any suggestions.
Peter Davy 68 Headlands Road Ossett
West Yorkshire WF5 8HX 0924-274403
To: 999 (all members)
From: 4MD (Graham Gallagher)
Subject: Data DUCK and power DUCK
I have 2 No. 40T/80T switchable disk
drives (5.25") which I am wanting to
connect together to use as dual
drives. I am aware that VIGLEN used to
sell Dualling Up Connector Kits (DUCK)
and was hoping someone might have both
the data DUCK and power DUCK which
they no longer have a use for. I
realise that it's a bit of a long shot
but you never know.
CONTACT Tel 0788 823214
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2V (Bill Jowitt)
Subject: Broken Directories
I sometimes get the above error
message when trying to enter a
directory after saving a file to it.
I am using ADFS. I cannot delete the
directory because I cannot empty it.
Is there any way round this?
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3WU (Fred Price)
Subject: VERSE < PPETE >
All my bits of of Verse are in View
and Basic programes so I have decided
to instead of typing it out I will
send in the complete Basic programe so
that the member can print it out
straight away if you put the paper in
before running the programme, And if
you can center your printer first as
the programme is set to the left.
If by any chance you have a dog and
you call it Pete as the name of this
one is Pittling Pete and you will find
it listed as PPETE
I am always on the lookout for little
bits of verse and if anyone has any of
them they are always welcome to send
then to me. So drop me a line or disc:
Fred Price
8 Orchard St
Pallion
Sunderland City
Wearside
SR4 6QL
EDITOR... 3WU also sent this...
Coin Weights in Grains No 1 2 3 4 Coins
5p 50.7 100.3 151.0
10p 100.8 200.9 301.5 401.1
20p 78.0 155.2 233.2 309.4
50p 208.9 416.6
75p ie 50p + 20p + 5p = 334.1 Grains
Coins can vary in weight by a few
grains.
BEAR THIS IN MIND WHEN SENDING COINS
THROUGH THE POST.
To: 999 (all members)
From: Adrian Mews
Subject: For Sale
For sale. Z80 second processor with 5
discs and manuals. Will work on a
Master but needs a ROM for a BBC. Needs
OS 1.2 or higher. £25
Enquirers through the editor please.
To: 999 (all members)
From: Adrian Mews
Subject: For Sale
For sale. LC20 printer £70.
Enquirers through the editor please.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3PM (DP-J)
Subject: Info. Wanted
I have some Acornsoft Business Soft-
ware DFS disks: Invoicing, Mailing,
Order Processing, A/c Payable and
Purchasing. Probably a part-set. Of
1983 vintage. Anyone got a manual or
any details of package please?
Also my Novacad, 2nd Edition Nov 85,
manual has page 23/24 missing. Any
offers please? It does have two pages
27/28 however!! DP-J, 69 Ashley Road,
Lytham St Annes, Lancs. FY8 3EL. or
0253 723074
To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3
Subject: Masterdisk and TBI pool
I have been in contact with Andy Nibbs
who produced a series of discs for the
Master on ADFS. The discs are called
Masterdisk.
Masterdisk has ceased trading, however
Andy has kindly allowed 8BS to put the
series into the TBI pool. They are
available on 3 ADFS discs at the
usual prices.
M.Bobrowski has also sent us his
version of an Acorn User Package
"Poster". This is an excellent suite of
programs to produce A4 size posters
using 100 fonts borders and boxes to
enclose text. A printer dump routine
and full info are included. 2 Discs are
required for the DFS version due to the
large number of fonts supplied.
1V5 has sent a full ADFS disc of
digitised pics taken from Archimedes
PD. They are mostly of vintage cars.
This disc is one of many that will be
in the new Archimedes PD library
"Phoibos" that 1V5 is very busy setting
up. He reckons that things will be
ready about April time. Watch this
space!
All of these discs are in the TBI pool
as:
TBI-49 Posters ADFS/DFS
TBI-50 Digitised Pictures ADFS
TBI-51-1 Masterdisk 1 2 3 ADFS
TBI-51-2 Masterdisk 4 ADFS
TBI-51-3 Masterdisk 5 ADFS
To: 999 (all members)
From: Roger Brinton
Subject: For Sale
BBC + Acorn DFS 40/80 Disc Drive+PSU.
Quest Paint + mouse. Wordwise. Lightpen
(W.E) Firmware. Lots of software on
disc. £140. Contact:
Dr. Roger Brinton.
The Old Mill House, Nottington,
Weymouth, Dorset, D73 4BN.
Tel. 0305 813346
To: 999 (all members)
From: L1J (M.Bobrowski)
Subject: CATER Program (8BS v.32)
I and my 5-years-old grand-daughter
Monica have found the 'Cater' program
to be very enjoyable. However, you can
easily break your fingers using the
H, J, U and N keys to control the
game. The only solution is to change
the lines 1670 - 1673 as follows:
1670 IF Q=90 THEN anders=0:GOTO1680
1671 IF Q=88 THEN anders=1:GOTO1680
1672 IF Q=47 THEN anders=2:GOTO1680
1673 IF Q=58 THEN anders=3
With these amandments you can use the
so called Snapper's keys (ie. Z, X, /
and : keys) to control caterpillar
movement.
If you want to hear sounds effects you
should introduce further amendments in
lines 370, 1410, 1470, 1530 and 1900.
370 FOR N=1TO100:SOUND1,-12,100+RND(2
00),1:NEXT
1410 FOR N=200TO10STEP-4:SOUND1,-12,
N,1:NEXT
1470 SOUND0,-12,20,5
1530 FOR N=1TO20:SOUND0,-12,N,2:NEXT
1900 IF POINT(X,Y)=2 SC=SC+1:SOUND0,
-12,20,3
Met hartelijke groten,
Mirek.
EDITOR.... Just to remind you all,
the info at the start of the game says
that the arrow keys can be used for
movement too.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3 (Chris Richardson.)
Subject: ONERROR
I discovered something whilst checking
out issue 33 for BBC compatibility. The
ONERROR in the cassette database
"CasTore" (I nearly called the datafile
"oil" by the way) causes the BBC
version to miss the next line out. This
happened to be H%=1 which caused one
part of the screen not to be printed as
H% was not initialized to 1.
I think this was because my Master was
happy with ONERROR on its own, but
the BBC needed something after the
ONERROR and therefore ignored the next
instruction unless there was an error.
The problem was circumvented by
inserting a REM after the ONERROR.
Further to this, the self same thing
has just appeared in the program
"Patterns". Funny how you never come
across something and then it happens
twice in 10 minutes.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3 (Chris Richardson.)
Subject: Charging.
I have left discussing this subject
until as late as possible so that I
could get a good sounding from all
members. Of the eight opinions so far
expressed, 4 say put up the TBI charge.
One suggestion of a yearly extra
charge. Three donations.
However, a better guide has been the
actual payments enclosed with orders.
There have been plenty of orders from
the pool with most people paying what
they feel like. Very few payments of
10p, most are 50p per disc. One member
even sent one pound per disc for six
discs including p+p and their own
discs.
It would seem that the general trend is
towards 50p per disc with p+p and disc
supplied by the member. This seems
quite fair to me. However I think that
not enough members have made their
views known yet for me to commit to any
particular charge. I shall leave it to
you for the moment to continue voting
with your payments.
A decision WILL be announced in the
next issue. Until then PRICES ARE AS
STATED IN TBI-00.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3 (Chris Richardson.)
Subject: Prisoner's Dilemma Competition
Ok! I get the message. Your response to
The Prisoner's Dilemma competition has
been zero! So what we need is a new
competition announcing in issue 34. Any
suggestions please? I have a few ideas
rattling around but thought that it may
be best to throw it open to you to
decide on it so that a response is more
likely.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3 (Chris Richardson.)
Subject: TBI Pool again.
6EE Has just sent me a program that
came from the early days of 8BS. I had
totally forgotten about it. I have now
put it onto 8BS-01. This turns 8BS-01
into a double sided disc. Anyone
wanting an update should send their
copy to 8BS with return p+p. The
program is a Bulletin Board database
complete with info.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3 (Chris Richardson.)
Subject: De Archiver
Thanks to Roger Smith who rang up to
ask how to get the dearchiver to work
in ADFS. The de-archiver has appeared
on recent 8BS issues under various file
names, DeArc ARC and so on. And would
not work in ADFS due to a *DR. command.
The problem has now been cured. The
only point to note is that ADFS users
MUST use the full pathname in reply to
the program question or it will make
that appalling noise.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K3U (Lol)
Subject: WAPPING EDITOR (SWR)
First of all, hello everybody I'm a
new member of 8BS, I first heard of
you in 'BEEBUG' (the good guys...)
Which brings me to Watford Electronics
(the bad guys, boo hiss...) Yes I've
experienced their non-existant after
sales service too. My problem is this;
I use WE's Wapping Editor (and a jolly
good piece of software it is) but I'd
like to be able to load pages into my
home-built (as per BEEBUG) 32K SWR
(2x16k units) It seems that the
Wapping Editor can't differentiate
between the different banks of SWR and
pages turn out jumbled up. If there's
anybody out there who can help at all,
please, please, please etc 'phone me
(or message me through 8BS) my phone
number is:- 081-337-4731, I look
forward to hearing from you. (I've
included on this disc artwork scanned
using my WE hand scanner).
EDITOR.... No room on this issue, the
pics are earmarked for issue 34.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K3U (Lol)
Subject: WANTED!
WANTED, hard drive & interface for use
with BBC B fitted with Aries B20 & B12
expansion boards and Watford
Electronics 1772 DDFS, phone me on
081-337-4731 ask for Lol.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2B
Subject: WANTED!
A program that will *SPOOL a file to
disc when the PRINT option is chosen
from not only basic but a word
processor such as Interword.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3
Subject: STOP PRESS
Lastest last last message now. To come
in issue 34. A program to turn one of
these *RUN files into a BASIC program.
Also the message files are getting too
large to be generalised, so I shall
seperate them into ads, tips, etc.