8 BIT SOFTWARE
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: Peter Davy's Talking Clock
I was glad to see that someone had
taken up the challenge to modify the
program. I must apologise to BBC users
whose computers wouldn't run the
original, unfortunately, they don't
seem to like this interpretation
either.
I must give thanks to Peter Davy for
his rewrite and an excellent program
it is too!
The original Speaking Clock program
will be submitted to 8BS for inclusion
in a future issue with an article I am
currently working on which deals with
implementing real-time clocks within
programs and ensuring they work with
all BBC (and Electron) computers! (The
clock, not necessarily the rest of the
program!)
To: 999 and 20G (Roy Dickens)
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: HELP! My keys don't work!
A recent letter I wrote to an 8BS
member was odd in the fact that there
were very few S's in the letter. In
fact, at the time in writing my S had
stopped working. Leaving me to use a Z
in place if the missing Ss! 'Twas
quite an odd zight!
In response to Roy Dickens helpful tip
whereby, if, for example, your A key
stopped working you could type...
OSCLI("KEY0 A")
And then use f0 instead to produce the
A.
Hmmm, I wonder...Oh, by the way you
might have noticed that it is in fact
impossible to type the A in the above
example because, remember, the A key
doesn't work!!!
Instead you should use the following:
OSCLI"Key0 "+CHR$65
CHR$65 produces the character A. If,
instead a different key stopped
working you can change the 65 to the
VDU code of the corresponding letter.
This code is at the back of the BBC
User Guide, instead you can use this
simple sum to work it out: 64 + the
position of the letter in the
alphabet, A being 1, B - 2 ... and
finally Z would be 26, to get the
lower case letter, add 32 to the
value.
If RETURN stops working you can press
CTRL+M to get the same effect.
Some people might recall an issue of
Micro User where the above error was
printed, the story goes that someone
in the proof reading department thought
that OSCLI"Key0 A" was better than
OSCLI"Key0 "+CHR$65. The error wasn't
noticed until someone wrote in to
point it out. To this day no one knows
who that proof reader was.
From: D4H (Paul Smith)
Subject: Comment on Times Table
Just wanted to say how useful the
program by Andrew York (K8M) was to
give our kids a bit of extra tuition.
Thanks Andrew.
But did anyone else notice anything?
Nothing wrong with the program you
understand. However, our local school
only teaches up to the 10 times table!
Is this the same throughout the
country?
When I were a lad (yes that was before
decimalization) we were taught up to
the 12 times table. And if we reached
those dizzy heights fairly easily we
were taught the 13 times table and
added 13 to all the others!
I suppose we don't really need more
than 10x10 in everyday use these days.
That's progress.
Regards, Paul (D4H)
BLAM!