8 BIT SOFTWARE
From: 19F (Theo Gray)
Program: 8BS Messaging System
I have now, at last, begun to use the
messaging system. Before I had only
used TELEDIT, written by Chris. It
seems very good, apart from a small
bug. When you move up in the text
and then add spaces to a line of your
text with CTRL+f6, if the text needs
to go over the end of the line, it
just begins to disappear off the side
of the screen. Then when you move to
the far right, and the system notices
that the text at the end should be on
the next line, it copies the spare bit
of the word over the top of the first
few letters on the next line. I don't
know if there is any way to fix this,
but it is anoying if you want to add
something to the middle of your
message and have to compensate, by
moving all the lower lines on how ever
much to make sure that you don't lose
any of your message. Also, is it
possible to have a continuous insert
mode?
From: K3U (Lol Simmonds)
Program: JOYSTICK PROGRAMS
These programs were aimed at getting
kids interested in programing the ADVAL
port. The second of the programs
dosen't want the joystick plugged in!
The idea is to wave your hand near to
the input. The pickup is what is
displayed. The idea was for kids to
learn about A) simple programing B)
some electrical principles C) the idea
of bio-feedback. This program started
off when I had to interface a Gas
Chromatograph with a BBC B to record
and analyse the data. I discoverd that
the pickup from my fingers made a good
substitute for the detector output when
I was debugging the software. As I did
a lot of this at home on a Beeb using
the TV as a monitor I found that I
could keep my daughter amused by
runningit in mode2 and ploting it with
random colours. It looked like magic
to her to see me wave my hand and lots
of pretty coloured lines would appear.
From: 0E7
Program: 66
According to HOYLE a King beats a
Knave but that doesnt seem to apply in
this game.
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Program: Magic
Nice to see a program for producing
these - well done Lorin Knight. I
haven't had any luck seeing any of
these images yet, but if I ever get
the hang of them it will be nice to
have as many as possible around!
EDITOR....... I too had real difficulty
getting the swing of seeing the
patterns Steven, it must be something
to do with being left handed and very
clever Ahem... You have to go bozz eyed
at them (medical terminology there).
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Program: SIXTYSIX (adfs)
The card game from MIREK BOBROWSKI is
very very good. I like it because it
lets me win sometimes. We certainly
get some good games from Mirek.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Subject: Show Diary
Thanks ED. for giving us all the
lowdown about the show. I was unable to
attend but after reading the report
it seemed as though I had! Full marks.
All the anxiety with sockets that
won't work, Mick being late because of
his "I don't beleeeve it" troubles.
Then Frank fly-posta-sticking and
accosting passers by! After all that
it appears that things worked out OK.
Thanks to all the members and the ED's
family for help.
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Program: Digitised GIRL
An attractive picture by Mick Needham.
The ED. states that the next one will
be two former ED's and existing one!
Now please don't expect my old beeb to
do too much. Pretty girls yes... but
three ED's on the screen surely it will
crash, blow up or think there is a
virus!!!
EDITOR... Well there's one pretty
fizzog (pretty awful)
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Program: Tape to disc. article.
This is a very interesting subject
that ALBERT SCHOFIELD is doing for the
mag. I wish that I had all this
information a few years ago it would
have stopped me tearing my hair out.
It appears that Albert has certainly
got it taped. (Sorry about that)
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Program: Mode 7 Screen Editor
Now what a shame that L1M failed to
put some instructions on this. As the
ED. stated, "see what you can make of
it. "It looks good but unfortunately
I couldn't do much with it without the
instructions.
From: 19F (Theo Gray)
Program: Mandelbrots in seconds
I have been trying to find a program
which draws mandlebrots on a BBC this
well, for a long time. I will
definately be ordering a copy of TBI-54
as soon as possible.
From: 19F (Theo Gray)
Program: Dreamscape Demo
This was an excellent demo. Very
effective, with excellent music. Well
done. Another disc I think I will have
to order from the TBI pool.
From: 4MD (Graham Gallagher)
Program: PERFECT NUMBERS
Many thanks to Peter Davy for advance
copy of his faster/advanced version of
my program (not so - ) PERFECT. His
program GPERFN3 (on this months
issue disc) produces 7 out of the
known 32 perfect numbers and is
(probably) the limit for the BEEB.
As stated in the article in Issue 35 a
work colleague has run a program on a
486 PC and produced the 8th perfect
number fitting the assumed expression.
This uses QBASIC which is capable of
dealing with an extra power of ten
than the BEEB. Hence I can advice that
the 8th perfect number is :
1073741824 x 2147483647
Using PROCfermat as described in the
article by Peter Davy on Palindromic
Numbers (Issue 35) these two numbers
multiply out to give the following
perfect number:
2305843008139952128
I'm fairly sure that with a little
lateral thinking the BEEB could come
up with the same number by say
defining the perfect number as three
or four multipliers rather than two.
How long this would take to calculate
would be another matter.
Finally, perhaps, when you consider
the above it makes you wonder whether
upgrading to a PC would be worth the
expense. Long live the BEEB.
Program : Talk to Charlie
Comments from 483 (Daniel Shimmin)
A fascinating way of dealing with the
frequently-attempted problem of how to
write an "Eliza"-type program that
"talks" to the user. Having the
computer take the initiative by asking
questions and then changing the topic
of conversation is an excellent way of
preventing the conversation from moving
into areas too complex for it to cope
with.
I'm not sure if it was this program or
one shortly after it in the menu, but
something re-programmed the BREAK key
to re-run the same program, which then
also happened with all the other
programs I ran. This was extremely
irritating as the BREAK key is the
easiest way of re-starting the disk
menu. Please avoid doing this!
BLAM!