To: 999 (all members)
From: 3SQ (Tim Parsons)
Subject: HELP
Tim Parsons
40 Coniston Road
Flitwick
Beds
MK45 1QH
01525-715013
Dear Members
Can anyone please help me with
locating the following:-
1> Some ready made Data Files for the
KEY database made by the ITV for
schools. I have an original ADFS
version of this package but have never
got it to work, mainly I think,
because I haven't got any Data files.
2> I have Fun School 3 (original) aged
5 to 7, when Booted the menu just
keeps on scrolling very fast, over and
over again, in other words it don't
work!. I have all the other Fun school
programs (2 & 3) which work OK, they
ALL worked OK when I had a "B", but
now I have a Master 128, this
particular disc doesn't work at all?.
3> I have just been "given" a package
called "MUSIC MASTER" which consists
of a box with microphone attached, the
box plugs into the User Port, the
microphone fixs on a "Recorder", the
disc when Booted, enables a Recorder
beginner to learn how to play their
instrument, BUT my disc doesn't work,
I have lost the all important MENU on
it.
Can anybody help me on either, any or
all of these above requests. TA.
Can I take this opportunity to wish
all our members, New and Old a Happy
Christmas.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3SQ (Tim Parsons)
Subject: M128 New starters pt1
Dear Members
Below is/are extracts from recent
letters to new Master owners that I
have written recently,to some of our
new members who have come by their
Masters without really knowing how to
use them.
You can select ADFS with Crtl/A/Brk or
A/Brk or *ADFS otherwise if ADFS disc
not in drive you can use Ctrl/F/Brk or
F/Brk or *FADFS
Similarly, you can select DFS with
Crtl/D/Brk or D/Brk or *DISK
If in doubt when booting a disc with
(*OPT4,3 set), try Shift/D/Break for
DFS disc and/or Shift/A/Break for an
ADFS disc.
In ADFS with Double sided Drive, both
sides of the disc are only seen as one
side therefore Drive 0 is both sides
of the first drive, with Drive 1 being
both sides of the second drive.
SWRam banks are numbered 4, 5, 6 and 7
use the *SRLOAD command like this
*SRLOAD WW+ 8000 7 Q which as follows
means, WW+ is the filename of the Rom
image, 8000 is the location in memory
of the Sideways Ram Bank, 7 is the
number of the ram bank (try *ROMS) and
the optional Q means Quick but it WILL
overwrite a Basic program if you have
one loaded, otherwise leave it off.
Each Cartridge has connections that,
depending on which of the two slots it
is in, will either be applicable to
Sockets 0 and 1 or 2 and 3, a single
cartridge obviously has two sockets,
there are other types of cartridge
available which have four sockets
(QUAD), these have switches fitted to
switch between each pair, these QUAD
cartridges are also taller into which
you are able to plug in the "piggy
back" type of roms such as a "TRUE"
Interword Rom which has Two 16k Roms
put into one 32k Rom which plugs into
one 16k Socket, this is why the Rom
images of Interword that you have on
Disc consists of two 16k images which
take up two 16k SWRam socket. Beebug
Master Rom and View Professional are
other Roms which were "originally" on
a 32k Rom, which work perfectly as
(two) Rom images loaded from disc.
This is very fortunate because NOT ALL
Roms will work when copied to disc and
loaded into SWRam, because some crafty
folk incorporate a kind of SWRam
Protection into ROM's !.
BEFORE you try to Copy, Tape to Disc
and RUN them with any success, you will
have to be more experienced about the
INFO details.
Under normal circumstances the first
Column shows the HEX number relevant
to the memory location the file was
Saved at, for a Basic program on your
"B" it will be &1900 on your Master it
will be &0E00 (This is PAGE). The
second column, in the case of a Basic
Program gives the Execution Address
should it be CHAINED, this is probably
&8023 which is the location in the
"Basic" Rom which will be called to
RUN a Basic Program. Are you still
with me ????. The third column gives
the length of the file in HEX, the
fourth and narrowest column is the
sector number (in HEX) where the file
begins to be stored on the disc.
For normal (non View) text files the
first TWO columns will normally be
FFFF or FFFFFFFF or 0000FFFF when
there are eight characters the leading
four are usually irrelevant, when the
first column is something like 0900 or
0C00 or 0B00 these are usually Machine
code routines and again the second
column is usually the Execution
address, often the same as the first
column.
We haven't yet touched on Function
Keys and defining them, Function key
definitions are kept in different
places on the "B" and Master, any
definitions are not interchangeable,
have you programmed your own Function
keys yet ?
Chris I have included on the disc an
Interword EXEC file "Z88keys" for
defining function keys 0, 1 & 2 to be
operated in numerical order for
deleting the extra carriage returns
that are in VIEW text files.
EDITOR...... The above file is saved on
to this disc.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4V (Trevor Crapper)
Subject: View Professional Problems
This article arose from the letter
sent in by Richard Chamberlain and
published in the Help! section of
issue 45.
Although I am unable to answer the
queries made specifically having never
had this type of problem occur. I am
aware that there are some bugs around.
I suspect the reason for this was that
whenever using VP, both MOSPLUS and
VIEW were UNPLUGged and as soon as my
work with VP was finished MOSPLUS was
immediately INSERTed, and I rarely had
VP in sideways ram.
When I decided to use VP in earnest, I
had the two roms VP2TOP and VP2BOT
blown onto eproms, These are mounted
in a rom cartridge which is left in
one of slots permanently.
I also exchanged the MOSPLUS rom for
ADU which can be left 'on'. Since I
don't know what else Richard has in
sideways could only suggest taking
everything else out and leaving VP on
its own and give this a try.
This also includes the other two rom
images on this disk. These have got
nothing all to do with the normal
operation of VP and are best left
unused.
The purpose of these rom images is
more to do with the Z88 laptop than
View Professional. I was confused
myself when first encountering them
and thought they must belong to VP but
could not figure out how.
These roms carry out specific tasks
such as the transfer of data between
the Z88 and the BBC. Printing Z88
files via the BBC and other things.
In addition there is an emulation of
the Z88 program Pipedream, which in
reality is VP in Z88 clothing. The
reason for the emulation is to allow
Z88 Users to 'use' Pipedream in the
BBC.
There is no point in trying to learn
how to use this program unless you
happen to own a Z88. VP does exactly
the same things as Pipedream does and
vice versa.
However, if you do decide to have a
play, be very careful indeed. In the
first place read, and I do mean read
all the text files thoroughly. To be
perfectly honest apart from the Pipe-
dream emulation these programs should
not be used at all.
So the bottom line is this only use
the two dedicated VP roms, unplug the
View and MosPlus roms and then try
using VP.
Trevor Crapper
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4V (Trevor Crapper)
Subject: View Professional Part 5
This was supposed to be a simple guide
and no more, unfortunately nothing is
ever that simple! However, with a bit
of luck I will be able to get started
on that letter, which was my original
intention. That was before other items
suddenly popped up!
You can tackle this job in several
ways, for an absolute no nonsense
letter, get into View Professional and
just start to write.
I normally write my name and address
on the right hand side at the top,
then below this todays date in the
centre. And finally below this on the
left hand side the name and address of
the person I am writing to.
In order to save time what I have done
is to write down all the names and
addresses of people I write to often
and save them as the persons name,
TimsAdd, ChrisAd, etc. I also have a
sample of my address on its own and
use it when writing to anyone else.
However, at this point it would be
better not to start writing and saving
addresses. When saving anything VP
saves what it sees on the screen and,
this is important to remember. Because
you can alter things around the screen
saved may not look like the original
one anymore. And this could have an
effect on your printer!
So for the time being we will write
using the standard screen, this also
means we shall be printing in PICA
style which is 10 characters per inch
across your paper. If you count the
letters and dots at the top of screen
the total comes to 72. This is the
number of letters that will be printed
across the paper.
However before we do start press the
ESCAPE key and look at the Options
page, and in particular at the margins
in the centre, you want a column of
0's down to the last one 'Left' and
this needs to be either 4 or 5. What
this does is give a margin of 4 or 5
spaces on the left hand side. You can
leave it as 0 of course and start your
letter from the extreme left hand side
this would leave 8 spaces over on the
right hand side. It is up to you.
Decide what to do and when finished
press the ESCAPE key again to re-enter
the writing screen.
Now to start writing a letter, have
you decided on a heading, your name
address etc., or something entirely
different, the choice is yours to
make.
If you want a quick short cut to
writing in todays date type in @d@ on
line on its own. If you want to centre
it then type the backslash just below
the BREAK key and when this shows up
above the dotted line type CA next to
it and press RETURN, making sure the
cursor is next to the @D@, before
doing so. Something to play with!
The rest as they say is up to you, now
you can save your letter by pressing
the backslash and typing SA together
with a file name, make sure there is a
space after SA though. You can save
any of your files using this method be
they letters, addresses or whatever.
And to load them backslash L. Before I
forget put the letter(s) next to the
backslack mark otherwise you will get
an error message.
Printing your piece, with the printer
on, press the backslash key and type P
and press Return.
EDITOR...... Don't forget, I have typed
the VP manual in now, available as
TBI-74-2
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4V (Trevor Crapper)
Subject: Z88
To Z88 Users and anyone looking for a
Z88 or hardware to look no further. Is
anyone interested in a lot of valuable
information about these machines and
what they are capable of doing?
For the price of a return postage I
can put you on to a source of top
quality information. Queries on any
subject pertaining to the Z88 answered
in depth.
This gentleman may even be able to
provide a breakdown service if your
Z88 has gone on the blink, and mend it
for you.
The person to write to not forgetting
to enclose a stamp is:
Jack Lawrie
15 Sycamore Grove
Southam
Leamington Spa
CV33 0EY
To: 999 (all members)
From: D2B (D.Hooper)
Subject: HELP
I have obtained a ROM of 8k static RAM
but unfortunately without
instructions. So I would be grateful
if anyone could please advise me on
how to CALL and use it, as due to my
set-up I am short on memory on
powering up.
I Wish You All a Very MERRY CHRISTMAS
To: 999 (all members)
From: 4WL (Martin Wilson)
Subject: Packet Radio
What is packet radio? How does it
work? How much does it cost to run?
What equipment do you need? I keep
hearing it mentioned but I've never
seen it fully explained? Can someone
write an idiots guide to it whose in
the know?
PRESS SPACE