From: L1M (Janny Looyenga)
Subject: Andrew York Menu (Issue 56)
It's nice to see that there are still
people enjoying the 8 Bit computers,
either writing programs, or using the
programs. The whole menu looks very
good and is built for not letting you
destroy things, returning to the menu
when you make a mistake.
I tried the programs on a Master 512
and most programs -even the Teletext
Editor -worked. All looking very good.
There crept in some mistakes in the
Capital Tester - CapQuiz
The capital of the Netherlands is
AMSTERDAM, not The Hague
The capital of Iceland is Reykjavik,
starting with R, not K.
It might be a good idea to tell people
that they can use the CTRL + FKeys or
SHIFT + FKeys to get the special
characters in the FONT program!
The members with ADFS who want to see
the picture that Andrew made, can see
it by deleting 210 or put a REM at
line 210 in the LOAD program!
To: 999 (all members)
From: D2G (Neil Parry)
Subject: Comments on Mag Search
This is just a short message to
anybody out there who received a copy
of the program I wrote called Mag
Search, I would like just a few
comments on the program Good, Bad
absolutley rubbish or any comment will
do.
I would like to know whether I should
keep on developing this software or
give it up as a bad job.
Thank You
Upset From Harwich
To: 999 (all members)
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Subject: Lottery Checker (Issue 57)
Thank you FRED PRICE (3WU) for
the comments about the header for the
"Lottery Checker". RAY THOMAS put in a
good program for a syndicate to use.
I do not run a syndicate but I do run
Ray's programme with the new Saturdays
numbers to see if his syndicate has
won ten million between them. So that
I can send Ray a begging letter!!
To: 999 (all members)
From: D7Y (Andrew Medworth)
Subject: Witz - April Fool?
When I tried the Witz spell checker
and found that it didn't work, and
tried every possible way I could think
of to make it work, I started to write
a letter to be published in 8BS asking
what was wrong. But just before I did
I remembered the date when the program
came out in 8BS. I also remembered the
"whiter than white" approach that was
used in the documentation. And I
remembered the message sent to the
"comments on programs" the next issue,
which couldn't praise it enough. And I
checked the code in a machine code
monitor.
What did I find? The hex codes for
the words "April Fool" in the code. I
looked no further and wondered whether
to faint, scream, or laugh. I decided
to laugh. Just as well it wouldn't run
on my machine, giving me a bit more
time to think about it, or I'd have
been completely suckered, instead of
just slightly suckered. So, to the man
who has a great future in advertising
(I've forgotten his name),
Cheers (and commiserations to my
fellow suckers),
Andrew Medworth D7Y
Gosh, I hope it was an April Fool
after all that...
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Program: Speeling Cheka!
Excellent april fool from Paul Clucas
in issue 55, a bit old I know but I've
been waiting months to say so!
It was well thought out and I
especially like the care taken to
write the documentation, not to
mention that the program itself has
the funniest memory checker I've ever
seen.
Well done! (Here's looking forward to
next year!)
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Program: Multi-mode teletext...
Brian Raw's program from issue 55 was
a refreshing change to the norm. It is
nice to see a major new program for
the Beeb that everyone can use.
I am sure that all of us have - at
some point - wanted the ease of
teletext graphics without the
constraints of mode 7.
I hope that people use it in their
future submissions!
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: Messaging system f-keys
There has been a lot of debate in
recent issues over the fate of the
function keys used by the messaging
system.
It seems to me that the most useful
change that I would find would be to
keep all the definitions the same
aside from the ones to choose text
colours (and maybe the graphics colour
keys).
Before After
f0 - Red > f0 - Green
f1 - Green > f1 - Yellow
f2 - Yellow > f2 - Magenta
f3 - Blue > f3 - Cyan
f4 - Magenta > f4 - White
f5 - Cyan > f5 - Red
f6 - White > f6 - Blue
Now the graphics colour select keys
(Shift + f-key) could either mirror
the new colour scheme or stay as they
are now.
My reasoning for the new arrangement
comes from the fact that we have been
asked, very nicely by Chris not to use
Red and Blue in our messages as some
members cannot see these colours with
their monitors. It stands to reason
that these colours should be out of
the way leaving the 'nice' colours
easier to get at.
At the moment when I am colouring in
my messages I have to remember to skip
over f0 (Red) and f4 (Blue) each time,
slightly annoying!
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: Scrabble...
Has anyone else seen Derek Hills'
challenge in the previous issue. I
don't have an answer myself yet but
here's hoping that alongside my
message there will be a bundle of
super answers from oodles of
members...!
To: 999 and D2G (Neil Parry)
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: Thanks!
Just a quick note to Neil Parry to say
thanks for using my disc ID program in
your 8BS magazine search program.
When a routine or a program from one
person is forgotten it is a pity, but
when it crops up again and again it is
refreshing to see that people are
still interested in the BBC range of
computers.
To: 999 (all members)
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: The new messaging system!
The new messaging system from Steven
Flintham is great, it is nice to
finally be able to put all your
programs on the same side of the disc
as the messages themselves!