To: 999 (all members)
From: D6A (Gordon WILEMAN)
Subject: ACORN Z80 Master Discs
A very big THANK YOU to all the
members who offered assistance to me.
However, top marks go, not
surprisingly, to Stephan
RICHARDSON(K20)who, without prior
contact and completely on trust, sent
me the complete CP/M set of Master
Discs. You are a real gentleman,
Stephan; perhaps the last of a dying
breed(?)
To: 999 (all members)
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: Program updates
Firstly, apologies to anyone who has
sent me a message recently; I've been
out of touch for a while so I haven't
received any recent 8BS issues.
Secondly, I have some time on my hands
at the moment so I'm hoping to be able
to do a bit of work on the various
programs I've written for 8BS. I can't
promise anything as I haven't
miraculously become a brilliant
programmer or anything, but if anyone
has any suggestions (particularly
small, easy to implement ones ;-) then
please let me know. I will try to bear
in mind any comments already made, but
I may miss/forget them so if you have
an old comment which is still relevant
then you might want to message me
pointing out which issue it was in
(and preferably where it was in that
issue).
I look forward to hearing from you
all!
To: 999 (all members)
From: D2G (Neil Parry)
Subject: Am I A Sad Person
After A conversation with Cris, Our
esteemed and highly talented President
(Thats got to be worth a few quid), I
thought I would ask all the members of
our highly qualified and talented body
of members.
What a load of twaddle.
Well anyway back to the point, I have
recently been on hoilday to Alton
Towers, The weather was wet,windy and
wild, but while I was there being
scared silly, soaked to the skin,
scared sillier, piged out on southern
fried chicken and freezing cold, all
for the bargin price of 37.00 I
thought about something I seem to do
quite a lot.
Now Here is the question you have all
been waiting for.
Do any of you, as you go about your
daily lives, think "I wonder if I
could turn that into a program for my
computer", While I was there being
spun around the Corkscrew it was going
through my head about how you could
create a program to create a Roller
Coaster, about friction, gravity,
Newton's theory of objects in motion.
It's not just while I was there I find
that I do this throughout my daily
life, Reading, Writing, Driving,
Watching the TV anything.
Please can you reassure me that it not
just me doing this.
Very Sad of Harwich
To: 999 (all members)
From: D6G (Sprow)
Subject: User ids
Am I alone in receiving the 8BS disks
with the text "I.D.***" in the corner.
A quick look at the !Boot program
reveals that the text required for
this ID (D6G in my case) is held in
REM statements at the start of the
program and is read using $(PAGE+&2F).
However the text held here is "***" so
I assume that the disks aren't being
customised at Chris' end.
It's not really a problem,I've only
just noticed it!
Any comments?
Sprow.
6 Bollinbrook road,
MACCLESFIELD,
Cheshire.
SK10 3DJ.
8BSmail D6G
EDITOR......... I used to enter all of
the User IDs into the REM statements
using a little program. On issue day it
would take fifteen minutes or so to
enter all of the IDs. Not a lot of time
on its own. Coupled with all of the
other jobs, it was one that could go.
It would be nice to have your User IDs
where they are supposed to be, but
there you go.
To: 999 (all members)
From: D6G (Sprow)
Subject: 6502Em
Last month this BBC emulator was
reviewed in 8BS,and I would like to
add a few views of my own:
1.Speed
Using a Risc PC 700 (ie.ARM710) I find
the speed of the BBC emulator still
FAR slower than the real McCoy.Master
128 mode isn't too bad as was forecast
in the article, but resetting
(ie.pressing break) takes ages.
2.Coding
The front end is written in BASIC, as
many desktop programs are. Support
modules are written in assembler, but
based on the speed factor I would tend
to agree that the actual emulator is
written in something like 'C'
3.VDFS
The Virtual DFS I find is the most
dire piece of filing system software
available. Even the *HELP code is crap
- showing text when not asked for and
not offering anything in response to
*HELP DFS the command *HELP DFS.
It just needed hacking.
A patched VDFS ROM appears elsewhere
on this disk.
4.Pros
Well,yes,I do still use it.It allows
me to develop programs very quickly,as
I can use !Edit to write the
software,drop the program onto the
emulator.Test it.Return to the desktop
by pressing F12 and still have the
source code on the screen.Very handy.
Sprow.
Contact:
6 Bollinbrook road,
MACCLESFIELD,
Cheshire.
SK10 3DJ.
8BSmail D6G
Fax 01625 431067
To: 999 (all members)
From: D6G (Sprow)
Subject: Summer contacts
Please don't email me using my
University of York address until
October.I won't be able to read them!
Emails should be redirected to the
address shown on my webpage.
jaffa@cryogen.com
Marked FAO Robert Sprowson,as this
isn't my email account!
Sprow.
Fax 01625 431067
To: 999 (all members)
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: Richard's Dilemma
In issue 54 Richard Harker sent in a
few questions for us to ponder over,
it was refreshing to see that so many
people chipped in to answer all his
questions.
In the past it seemed that even though
people knew the answers to the
questions they didn't take the time to
reply - just a few seconds to write a
message - and left it to others. Of
course, with everybody leaving it to
everybody else, nobody ever received
the answers to their problems.
In recent issues it is refreshing to
see that more and more people are
willing to help.
To: 999 (all members)
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: L O N G W O R D S I I
Seeing Paul Clucas's reply to Richard
Harker's
longest-word-from-the-top-row-of-the-ke
yboard-challenge in issue 55 (can it
really be that long ago?). I thought
I'd chip in a reply.
Not being a countdown mastermind I can
only offer these as the longest
words...
Typewriter, perpetuity and proprietor
with 10 letters.
Etiquette, pirouette, potpourri,
prototype, puppeteer and typewrite
with 9 letters.
Prettier, priority and property with 8
letters and about 17 words with 7
letters
Now for the
longest-word-from-the-middle-row-of-the
-keyboard-challenge...
Alfalfa was the only 7 letter word I
could find but three of 6 letter words
sprang to mind...
These being: Alaska, Flasks and
Salads.
There were around 18 five letter words
that I spotted, I'm sure that there
are more but I won't bore you with
them here.
Finally the not-too-easy
longest-word-from-the-bottom-row-of-the
-keyboard-challenge. I could only find
two words that fitted, Mmm and Zzz.
Both really are in the dictionary!
There were a couple of abbreviations
as well, BBC and BNC being the most
obvious.
I seem to remember that there is a
really, really long word to do with
volcano dust but I can't remember that
at the moment. I shall send it in as
part of the
longest-word-from-the-keyboard-challeng
e.
All challenges are in english apart
from the not-too-easy
longest-word-from-the-bottom-row-of-the
-keyboard-challenge which is in any
language - aside from gibberish!
I'm not sure whether Paul Clucas
actually thought he'd get a reply to
the last one!
To: 999 (all members)
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: I'm Back!
This was intended to be a quick
message but it grew a bit longer than
the system allows. It should be
elsewhere on this disc!
Unless Chris put it in as a message,
then you can ignore this one!
That is, if Chris hasn't deleted it!
To: 999 (all members)
From: D5B (Jon Ripley)
Subject: Archimedes Contacts Wanted
I have recently purchased a 2 meg
A3010 (RISC OS 3.1) and I am looking
for other members with Archimedes
computers who would be interested in
swapping software.
If anybody wants to send me any
questions about the Archimedes (not
hardware related) to me either
personally through royal mail - send a
stamped addressed envelope for my
reply - or through the 8-Bit messaging
system please feel free to do so. You
could even phone me up - I can't call
you back I'm afraid, I have recently
had to give up work due to illness and
can't afford a big phone bill.
My 8BS ID is D5B (obviously - it's at
the top of this message) and...
My address is:
Jon Ripley, BBC User Group,
15 Wexford Court,
12-14 Biddenden Close, Eastbourne,
East Sussex, BN23 7HX.
Or telephone: 01323 768421