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-
- • Floppy programs on hard discs − Here’s the best method I’ve come
- across of getting floppy programs to run on a HD machine. You need two
- FFF type files (or Obey if you want) One called ‘Floppy’ should contain:
- 2.8
- *CON. Drive 0
- 2.8
- *CON. NoBoot
- 2.8
- The other called Hard should be:
- 2.8
- *CON. Drive 4
- 2.8
- *CON. Boot
- 2.8
- If you put these in the library you can then
- 2.8
- *Floppy
- 2.8
- <ctrl-break>
- 2.8
- <shift-break>
- 2.8
- do whatever else
- 2.8
- <ctrl-break>
- 2.8
- *DIR :4
- 2.8
- *hard
- 2.8
- <ctrl-break>
- 2.8
- (This assumes you have a !Boot on your hard disc.) Martyn Lovell
- 2.8
- • Head alignment problems? − If you are getting disc errors and
- suspect that the problem might be head alignment, one way of confirming
- this is to use the disc copier program that you will find on Share-ware
- N¼2. The program does a check of the whole disc to find bad sectors. If
- one of the heads is misal-igned, you will probably find that all the bad
- sectors reported are on one or other of the heads. Then it’s time to
- take it off to your local dealer for repair.
- 2.8
- • Hearsay − If you need to change modem baud rates with ATB3 or ATB0
- after calling one remote system and before calling another, you can do
- so by using a dial prefix in the modem driver edit screen by putting
- “ATB3D” or “ATB0D” as appropriate.
- 2.8
- • Matrix Procedures and Functions − This was prompted by Steve Drain’s
- article in Archive 2.1 p.17 where he stated that a numerical method for
- the inverse of a square matrix needs a good guess of the inverse and
- uses the transposed matrix as a starting point. His excellent program
- has been timed to invert a 20 x 20 matrix to 1 part in 10^9 in approx-
- imately 10 seconds.
- 2.8
- A good guess or even a desirable result can be ob-tained by a procedure
- described below. It calculates an inverse of 20x20 matrix in about 280
- centisec-onds giving an error in the non-diagonal elements of the
- identity matrix of less than 1 part in 10^6.
- 2.8
- The method used is based on the following. The matrix M to be inverted
- is premultiplied by its transposed M‘, giving M’M. The result is
- decomposed in a lower triangular matrix L satisfying the identity
- LL’=M’M. Then I, which is the inverse of L, can be determined in a
- straight forward way. Matrix I’I thus equals the inverse of M’M, and
- finally I’IM‘ gives the result wanted. This is correct as can be seen
- when premultiplying a vector x by M giving a vector v, and solving for
- x.
- 2.8
- Mx=v ==> M’Mx=M’v==> LL’x=M’v ==> I’ILL’x=I’IM’v ==> x=I’IM’v
- 2.8
- In fact, this is the least square solution for vector x, i.e. r
- equations with c unknown variables ( r>=c ) are solved using the
- criterium that the sum of the squares of the deviations to a solution of
- vector x obtains a minimal value.
- 2.8
- The program presented below uses PROC lst_sq_inv to determine the
- ‘inverse’ Mi of any matrix M. If M is a square matrix then MiM = E and
- also MMi = E, E being the identity matrix. As an ‘extra’, the determi
- nant of the square matrix M can easily be calculated. To my knowledge
- the method is numerically very stable.
- 2.8
- 10 REM >Matrix_Inv
- 2.8
- 20 :
- 2.8
- 30 *********************************
- 2.8
- 40 REM Inverting an arbitrary matrix
- 2.8
- 50 REM E.D. Engelhardt, March 1989
- 2.8
- 60 *********************************
- 2.8
- 70 :
- 2.8
- 80 REM *** Generate random matrix M,
- 2.8
- col% columns and row% rows
- 2.8
- 90 CLS
- 2.8
- 100 PRINT‘“ Inverting an arbitrary
- 2.8
- matrix“‘
- 2.8
- 110 REPEAT:INPUT“ Rows :
- 2.8
- “row%:UNTIL row%>0
- 2.8
- 120 REPEAT:INPUT“ Columns <= rows :
- 2.8
- “col%:UNTIL col%<=row% AND col%>0
- 2.8
- 130 CLS:PRINT‘“ Rows : ”STR$row%
- 2.8
- ‘“ Columns : ”STR$col%
- 2.8
- 140 row%-=1:col%-=1
- 2.8
- 150 DIM M(row%,col%)
- 2.8
- 160 FOR r%=0TOrow%:FOR c%=0TOcol%:
- 2.8
- M(r%,c%)=RND(1)*SGN(0.5-RND(1)) :NEXT:NEXT
- 2.8
- 170 :
- 2.8
- 180 start%=TIME
- 2.8
- 190 :
- 2.8
- 200 REM Determine the ‘least square’
- 2.8
- inverse Mi of M. Result : Mi.M is equal to the identity matrix E.
- 2.8
- If rows = cols also M.Mi = E.
- 2.8
- 210 :
- 2.8
- 220 DIM Mi(col%,row%):PROClst_sq_inv
- 2.8
- (M(),Mi())
- 2.8
- 230 end%=TIME
- 2.8
- 240 :
- 2.8
- 250 PRINT‘“ Time(centisecs) : ”;
- 2.8
- STR$(end%-start%)‘’
- 2.8
- 260 :
- 2.8
- 270 PROCprint
- 2.8
- 280 END
- 2.8
- 290 ————————————————-300 DEFPROClst_sq_inv(R(),Ri())
- 2.8
- 310 REM Ri is ‘least square’ inverse
- 2.8
- of R, i.e. Ri.R = E (identity matrix). If rows = cols
- also
- 2.8
- R.Ri = E.
- 2.8
- 320 REM Dimensions R(v%,h%),Ri(h%,v%)
- 2.8
- ==> v% : rows , h% : columns
- 2.8
- 330 REM E.D. Engelhardt, March 1989
- 2.8
- 340 :
- 2.8
- 350 LOCAL RtR(),L(),I(),v%,h%,c%,r%,t%
- 2.8
- 360 v%=DIM(R(),1):h%=DIM(R(),2)
- 2.8
- 370 DIM RtR(h%,h%),L(h%,h%),I(h%,h%)
- 2.8
- 380 :
- 2.8
- 390 REM Determine transpose of R
- 2.8
- 400 FOR r%=0 TO v%:FOR c%=0 TO h%:
- 2.8
- Ri(c%,r%)=R(r%,c%):NEXT:NEXT
- 2.8
- 410 :
- 2.8
- 420 REM Calculate square matrix to be
- 2.8
- inverted
- 2.8
- 430 RtR()=Ri().R()
- 2.8
- 440 :
- 2.8
- 450 REM Calc lower triangle L of RtR
- 2.8
- 460 FOR c%=0 TO h%:FOR r%=c% TO h%
- 2.8
- 470 L(r%,c%)=RtR(r%,c%):t%=c%-1
- 2.8
- 480 IF t%>=0 FOR t%=t%TO0STEP-1:
- 2.8
- L(r%,c%)=L(r%,c%)-L(r%,t%)*
- 2.8
- L(c%,t%):NEXT
- 2.8
- 490 IF r%>c% THEN L(r%,c%)=L(r%,c%)
- 2.8
- /L(c%,c%) ELSE L(r%,c%)=SQR L(r%,c%)
- 2.8
- 500 NEXT:NEXT
- 2.8
- 510 :
- 2.8
- 520 REM If R is square (rows = cols)
- 2.8
- its determinant equals the product of the diagonal elements of L. The
- determinant of RtR equals the
- 2.8
- square of the determinant of L.
- 2.8
- 530 :
- 2.8
- 540 REM Invert triang matrix L to I
- 2.8
- 550 FOR c%=0 TO h%:FOR r%=c% TO h%
- 2.8
- 560 FOR t%=c% TO r%-1:I(r%,c%)=
- 2.8
- I(r%,c%)-L(r%,t%)*I(t%,c%):NEXT
- 2.8
- 570 IF r%>c% THEN I(r%,c%)=I(r%,c%)
- 2.8
- /L(r%,r%) ELSE I(r%,c%)=1/L(r%,r%)
- 2.8
- 580 NEXT:NEXT
- 2.8
- 590 :
- 2.8
- 600 REM Determine transpose L of
- 2.8
- inverse triangle I
- 2.8
- 610 FOR r%=0 TO h%:FOR c%=0 TO
- 2.8
- h%:L(c%,r%)=I(r%,c%):NEXT:NEXT
- 2.8
- 620 :
- 2.8
- 630 REM Inverse matrix of R is Ri
- 2.8
- 640 RtR()=L().I():Ri()=RtR().Ri()
- 2.8
- 650 :
- 2.8
- 660 ENDPROC
- 2.8
- 670 ————————————————-680 DEFPROCprint
- 2.8
- 690 VDU 14
- 2.8
- 700 PRINT“ ******** Elements Matrix”‘
- 2.8
- 710 FOR r%=0 TO row%:FOR c%=0 TO
- 2.8
- col%:PRINT M(r%,c%):NEXT:PRINT:NEXT
- 2.8
- 720 PRINT“ ******** Elements inverse
- 2.8
- Matrix“‘
- 2.8
- 730 FOR r%=0 TO col%:FOR c%=0 TO row%
- 2.8
- :PRINT Mi(r%,c%):NEXT:PRINT:NEXT
- 2.8
- 740 DIM E(col%,col%)
- 2.8
- 750 E()=Mi().M()
- 2.8
- 760 PRINT“ ******** Elements of
- 2.8
- Inverse_Matrix.Matrix“‘
- 2.8
- 770 FOR r%=0 TO col%:FOR c%=0 TO col%
- 2.8
- :PRINT E(r%,c%):NEXT:PRINT :NEXT
- 2.8
- 780 VDU 15
- 2.8
- 790 ENDPROC
- 2.8
- • Repton 3 − There is a bug in screen E of WORK, so to get past it,
- you will need to know the next password which is COUNTER.
- 2.8
- • Three floppies under Arthur − Here is a solution to the problem of
- three floppies on the desktop (Archive 2.7.12). Enter the following in a
- file called ‘Desktop’ in the library directory, use *BUILD or a text
- editor such as Twin to enter it.
- 2.8
- *BASIC
- 2.8
- LOAD “DESKFS:DeskTopMgr2”
- 2.8
- 11 OSCLI “DESKFS”
- 2.8
- 12291 IFfloppies%>2 THEN PROCsys_
- 2.8
- addtoiconbar_left(“floppy2”,
- 2.8
- “disc3.5”,&301A,icon_fgcol,
- 2.8
- icon_bgcol, icon_width%)
- 2.8
- 28600 DEFFNselect_floppy2
- 2.8
- 28610 =0
- 2.8
- 28620 DEFFNmenu_floppy2
- 2.8
- 28630 PROCsys_definetextmenu
- 2.8
- (“floppy2”,“floppy :2”,“Format”)
- 2.8
- 28640 =0
- 2.8
- 28650 DEFFNaction_floppy2
- 2.8
- 28660 =FNfilehandler_open_dir
- 2.8
- (“-adfs-:2”,“Floppy :2”,0)
- 2.8
- 28670 DEFFNmenuselect_floppy2
- 2.8
- 28680 CASEitem0% OF
- 2.8
- 28690 WHEN0: PROCfilehandler_
- 2.8
- formatfloppy(“2”)
- 2.8
- 28700 ENDCASE
- 2.8
- 28710 =0
- 2.8
- RUN
- 2.8
- When you wish to use the three floppy version of the desktop, instead of
- typing *DeskTop, enter */DeskTop, this will ensure that the upgrade
- program in the library directory is run instead of activating the
- desktop in the normal way.
- 2.8
- Unfortunately, there is no way of permanently updating the desktop so
- that you can power up into the desktop with three floppies since it is
- held in ROM which obviously cannot be changed.
- 2.8
- If you wish to power up in the desktop with three floppies then you
- could do the following:
- 2.8
- *Configure Boot
- 2.8
- *Configure Language 0
- 2.8
- and setup a !Boot file as follows:
- 2.8
- */Desktop
- 2.8
- ensure that when you switch the computer on, your boot disc is in drive
- 0 (or your default drive as configured with *Configure Drive) and the
- desk top will appear after a short delay.
- 2.8
- N.B. No damage will be caused to the disc in powering up with the disc
- in the drive since the latch will be across the disc surface and the
- disc heads not in contact with the disc surface.
- 2.8
- The other solution is to upgrade to RISC-OS which can support up to four
- floppies! Darren Jackson
- 2.8
- • Zarch − To put Zarch onto a hard disk, use....
- 2.8
- *UNPLUG SoundChannels
- 2.8
- *ZARCH
- 2.8
- When error occurs type the following,
- 2.8
- *RMREINIT SoundChannels
- 2.8
- *SAVE :4.ZARCHcopy 8000+20800
- 2.8
- *BUILD :4.ZARCHgo
- 2.8
- LOAD ZARCHcopy
- 2.8
- MEMORYA E1AC E1A0F00E
- 2.8
- CHANNELVOICE 1 6
- 2.8
- CHANNELVOICE 2 7
- 2.8
- CHANNELVOICE 3 8
- 2.8
- CHANNELVOICE 4 9
- 2.8
- GO 1FF30
- 2.8
- Then press <escape>. Type ZARCHgo to run the copy from hard disk. Tony
- Porter
- 2.8
-
- 2.8
- First Word Plus Extended Dictionary
- 2.8
- I was asked to review the First Word Plus Extended Dictionary which is
- available from Science Frontiers. It seems unfair to review it in only
- one paragraph, but Paul’s maxim is, “Space in Archive is at a premium,
- so say what is worth saying as briefly as possible, then shut up!”
- (Well, that’s the jist of what I say! Ed.)
- 2.8
- First Word Plus Extended Dictionary comprises an 80,000 word dictionary
- which replaces that in the Acorn package, and three specialized
- supplementary dictionaries covering computer terms, geographical
- locations and Christian names. It is an entirely competent package,
- though necessarily not the most fascinating in content. If you need more
- words in your dictionary, buy it, but if you need to work with large
- documents, do not load it, as bigger dictionaries do take up more space.
- 2.8
- FWP Extended Dictionary costs £6.95 (£6.50 from Archive) and is produced
- by Science Frontiers.
- 2.8
- From FWP to DTP?
- 2.8
- Although it is not strictly the business of the First Word Plus column,
- I took a good look at the Desktop Publishing program when visiting the
- Acorn stand at the Which Computer? Show. It should be available a few
- weeks after RISC-OS and is reported to be “finished” and about to go
- into production. However, it was apparently not the “finished” version
- at the show. My informant assures me that the production version will be
- even better, which should certainly be good indeed. Even the present
- version has a ‘secret’ feature which is quite impressive and even Apple
- cannot match it.
- 2.8
- <ctrl−A> Solution?
- 2.8
- I have discovered why my “<ctrl-a> makes a bleep” modules reported in
- Archive 2.5 p. 18 absolutely refused to work: the answer is on the top
- of page 34 of the Programmer’s Reference Manual: never use OS_WriteC
- routines when you have intercepted an interrupt. The solution (but don’t
- hold your breath) is to insert a <ctrl-g> into the input buffer. This
- works absolutely perfectly − except in FWP, where it is interpreted as a
- call to read the ruler!!
- 2.8
- No-one else has produced a solution which actually works, so the small
- prize is still unclaimed.
- 2.8
- Shareware disk N¼6
- 2.8
- We get a lot of enquiries about printer drivers. The problem is that we
- do not have that many different kinds of printer, so cannot help much.
- Besides, printer drivers are (however necessary and satisfactory a
- solution they may be) a pain and a bore, except when they are to drive
- the printer you use. I am trying to compile a disk of all the contrib
- uted “goodies”, especially printer drivers and related information and
- ideas. If you have a contribution, please let me have it in the next
- couple of weeks. We have printer drivers for: Taxan-Kaga KP810 = Canon
- PW 1080; Citizen 120; Epson LX800 and LQ500; Star LC10 and NL10;
- Panasonic KXP1080; H-P DeskJet. Quite a few of these have interesting
- variants and associated ideas which may be useful for doing the special
- things you want to do with your printer.
- 2.8
- Once the shareware disk is available, printer driver enquiries will be
- at the bottom of the pile!
- 2.8
- (Mike sent me a pre-release version of this which I published as
- Shareware N¼6, thinking it was the finished article. Ooops! We will
- continue to supply N¼6 as it is and then offer free up-grades when the
- final version is ready. Sorry about that! Ed.)
- 2.8
- Two related matters
- 2.8
- • If you get the monthly disk, you will probably have installed the
- IntModule from Steve Hoare (Archive 2.6, p. 44), and you will agree with
- me that it is quite the best thing that has happened to First Word Plus
- since its launch! I am sure that my life-expectancy has been increased
- by being able to access the “*” commands we all love (and hate). If you
- have not installed it, copy the IntModule to your 1st Word startup disk,
- then modify !boot by adding lines 23 and 26 as follows:
- 2.8
- 23 *rmrun IntModule
- 2.8
- 26 *Interrupt 15
- 2.8
- Now if you press <ctrl-o>, the screen goes bright blue and gives you a *
- prompt. Create your directories, mount disks or whatever, then just *
- <return> and you are back. Wonderful. If you do not get the disks, more
- fool you, this one was worth a year’s subscription, but it will be on
- the proposed “shareware” disk.
- 2.8
- • Just who do you think we are? Not very different from you is the
- answer, I guess. I suspect that most of the contributors to Archive are
- either people who enjoy computers as a hobby which can be useful, people
- who use computers as part of their work, but are not professionals in
- computing, or students or teachers of computing. I am actually a vet.
- who does human genetics and immunology research, approaching fifty, bald
- and paunchy! The point is, please do not expect too much from us/me. I
- actually took this column on when a broken collar-bone got in the way of
- decorating! Sadly, bones healÉ
- 2.8
- Two quickies
- 2.8
- • If you have more than one sprite in a file, FWP only loads the first
- sprite.
- 2.8
- • There is a funny bug in the spelling list : FABRICATION is flagged
- as wrong, but it appears when you browse. To add confusion, when you ask
- to guess, it comes up with faArication, which is unbrowsable!! Thanks to
- Colin Garlick. A review of letters received earlier reveals that the
- problem is more widespread than this: Kenneth Gardner rep-orts that the
- same (?) bug affects fable, fabric, -ate, -ated, -ation, fabulous, -ly,
- fab, haar, maar, nascelle, oaf, zag. Kenneth provides more data on
- making merged supplementary dictionaries, but the problem is obviously a
- bug. Over to you Acorn!
- 2.8
- FWP and RISC-OSÉ
- 2.8
- The support disk which comes with RISC-OS has the necessary instructions
- for conversion and the files. It is in the Acorn directory.
- 2.8
- It may be easier to have Edit installed and the mode set to 0 before you
- start. Then you can have a decent RAMfs space for the copied files
- (assuming you do not have two drives). You can keep the instructions in
- sight this way.
- 2.8
- Éand the IntModule
- 2.8
- It is all quite smooth, but if you want the splendid IntModule facility
- to give you access to the OS, it is a bit more complicated. Edit has no
- “load” command. You load things by grabbing their icons and dropping
- them on the installed Edit icon. But it is not obvious how to get at the
- “Obey” files in the !1stWord+ directory from the desktop. The secret is
- to hold down shift while clicking on the !1stWord+ directory. You should
- be a bit careful about what you do, so make a backup before mucking
- about. Now edit it as follows:
- 2.8
- a) (This is most important.) Rename the !Run file you got from the
- Support Disc as, e.g. !RunAcorn.
- 2.8
- b) Insert tthree lines before that beginning “run” (next to last) (the
- third line is optional − it turns the caps lock off)
- 2.8
- rmload $.intmodule
- 2.8
- interrupt 15
- 2.8
- fx202,48 REM
- 2.8
- c) Save as !Run
- 2.8
- d) Check that the file type is obey. If not, get an OS prompt by
- pressing f12 on the desktop and “Setfiletype !run obey”.
- 2.8
- e) Remember to copy IntModule onto the disk in directory $.
- 2.8
- It should work, accessing the OS when <ctrl-O> is pressed, though I get
- a white border around the top and right after going to the OS but it
- seems to go away, though.
- 2.8
- I suspect there are a few missing twiddly bits about ensuring that the
- correct directory names are used, so I still have some reading to do.
- More next month!
- 2.8
- It also happens that you can edit obey files in FWP, and further, FWP is
- not squeemish about loading the “Obey” files from an application
- directory. If you do this you will certainly have to set the filetype.
- 2.8
- First Mail
- 2.8
- Here are a couple more tips on 1st Mail from Glyn Emery:
- 2.8
- Mail merging normally means sending the same, or very slightly differ
- ent, letters to a number of recipients. I recently had occasion to turn
- this process on its head and send several different letters to the same
- recipient; but I found 1st Mail up to the task. The occasion was that I
- had to write reports on a batch of candidates, which, for the conveni
- ence of his filing system, I prepared in the form of a batch of separate
- letters all addressed to the administrator involved. To print them I
- prepared a “merge from” file as follows:
- 2.8
- read text
- 2.8
- display “text letter started”
- 2.8
- includefile letterhead
- 2.8
- includefile dat.administrator
- 2.8
- Dear Mr Administrator
- 2.8
- includefile doc.text
- 2.8
- Yours sincerely
- 2.8
- display “letter finished”
- 2.8
- repeat
- 2.8
- “text” here is used as a 1st Mail keyword. The file “letterhead”
- incorporates the date. I put a hard page break just before the repeat
- command to make the sheet-feeder on my printer pick up the next piece of
- A4. The “display” commands were put in during development and proved to
- be too confidence-giving to be deleted. The file dat.administrator is
- the administrator’s address.
- 2.8
- The reports, together with a covering letter were prepared as separate
- files; and a datafile was prepared listing the file names. This was
- saved in the dat. directory, not forgetting to switch off WP mode before
- saving it. If you don’t switch off WP mode the merge tends to “hang”. I
- don’t know why.
- 2.8
- The second point is that I have incorporated Steve Hoare’s IntModule
- (Archive 2,6 p44) into the libraries of my letter-writing discs.
- Unfortunately Steve’s suggestion to use <ctrl-@> does not quite work for
- me, because the £ key seems to return ASCII 0 in the First Word Plus
- context, presumably in order that different codes for £ can be included
- to satisfy different printers. Steve, being in America, probably had no
- occasion to notice this. What I did in the end was to include
- 2.8
- *RMLoad %.IntModule
- 2.8
- *Interrupt 205 1stMail
- 2.8
- into the startup program for First Word Plus, and
- 2.8
- *RMLoad %.IntModule
- 2.8
- *Interrupt 205 1stWord+
- 2.8
- into the startup program for 1stMail. I can then use the “insert” key to
- toggle between the two, and save quite a lot of keystrokes in doing so.
- Notice that I had to use % in the RMLoad command but not in the
- Interrupt command because % appears in my Run$Path but not in my
- File$Path.
- 2.8
- An interesting application for FWP
- 2.8
- Dave Livsey
- 2.8
- Those of you who, like me, have to report on the progress of large
- numbers of individuals of various levels of ability (i.e. teachers!) and
- are the proud possessors of an Archimedes and First Word Plus now have
- the means to reduce the increasingly onerous task of reporting, imposed
- by the introduction of ‘records of achievement’ (ROA). (If you do not
- have First Word Plus, or something better, you deserve all the hard work
- you have to do!) Using First Word Plus, it is fairly easy to set up a
- ‘Mail merge’ which will print out the documents required for the ROA.
- 2.8
- The clue to doing this lies in the example mail-merge letter on the
- First Word Plus disk. As with most problems, there are probably many
- (or, at least, a few) different solutions − this is one. I hope it will
- help reduce your load as much as it has mine!
- 2.8
- In all that follows, the underlined words below are supposed to be in
- light type which I am unable to print in Elite type. The page numbers
- refer to the First Word Plus handbook.
- 2.8
- In outline, you will need to set up four files: a command file, a data
- file, a file containing the com-ment bank and the ‘main’ file (which
- corresponds to the letter in the mail-merge example).
- 2.8
- The command file (called ‘command’): This needs to contain the informa
- tion which indicates the location of the data file (see below), any
- individual input to the ROA document (‘input’ typed in ‘light’ type
- p.165 − 169 ) and a reference to the basic form as an ‘includefile’
- statement. The WP mode can be left switched on when creating this file
- and saving it.
- 2.8
- The data file (‘formdata’) must be created in the dat. directory and
- contains only the data you wish to be inserted into the final document
- as it is printed and is simply a list of names (firstname, secondname),
- sex (He/She), tutor group (or Form, or whatever cockeyed system your
- educational establishment has decided to inflict on you), date and any
- other required information. As pointed out in the handbook, each item of
- data must be separated from the next by a comma. There is also a problem
- of commas in an item of data but this is catered for by enclosing them,
- as explained on p.165. A specimen layout could be as shown :
- Fred,Bloggs,He,4Z,Nov 1988,Swahili
- 2.8
- Note that the data fields are comma separated fields and may include
- spaces (p.165). This file must be created in non-WP mode and the mode
- left switched off when saving; ignore the pop-up reminder which appears
- when you try to save the file.
- 2.8
- The comment bank file (‘ROA’), obviously, contains all the comments
- which you may wish to make about any group of students. Each comment is
- prefixed by a suitable identifier e.g. K1. In order to be able to use
- these comments, each identifier must be set up as a keyword (p.163) by
- preceding it with ‘setval’ in light type e.g.
- 2.8
- setval K1, “name1 is a complete idiot when it comes to practical work.
- sex is a complete liability as sex has 11 thumbs on two left hands.”
- 2.8
- Note the <,> and the <“>. I found that it was easier to type the comment
- with the WP mode switched on and then to switch the WP mode off and move
- all the text onto one line. The WP mode was then switched on again as
- the document does not print out correctly otherwise.
- 2.8
- The setval definition seems to need all the text on one line but as this
- can be 160 characters long, that is not too much of a problem. These
- definitions can also contain key words, in light type, for insertions
- from the data file into the final document. This is useful as it means
- that you can specify he or she along with the name in the data file.
- N.B. Changing the ruler turns off the ‘light’ type causing the defini
- tions and insertions to be ignored in the final print-out.
- 2.8
- The final file (called ‘form’); the document you are going to print,
- contains very little other than keywords spaced out as is appropriate
- for your ROA. The first line must be a read statement which, being a
- keyword is in light type. Following this is a list of fields in ordinary
- type and in the same order as in the data file. The rest of the file is
- mainly spaces preceded by a keyword placed where you want your printing
- to be done. Eg.
- 2.8
- read name1,name2,sex,date,tutor, subject (reads from ‘formdata’)
- 2.8
- name1, name2 tutor subject date
- 2.8
- includefile ROA (this reads in the comment bank)
- 2.8
- name1 K1 (prints “Fred is an idiot .....”)
- 2.8
- sex C3 (prints in the comment on comprehension)
- 2.8
- sex I1 (prints in the comment on intelligence) etc.
- 2.8
- This file will, of course, need the WP mode swit-ched on in order to
- retain all the formatting infor-mation which is necessary for the
- automatic form-atter to work when insertions are made in the text.
- 2.8
- The ROA is printed out by clicking on ‘form’ and ‘formdata’ (from the
- doc. directory) using the mail-merge facility on the First Word Plus
- disc. Full details of this are given in the Handbook.
- 2.8
- Font Fiddling on First Word Plus
- 2.8
- Reg Dalton (& Steve Bass)
- 2.8
- Reg tells us the saga of creating character sets for First Word Plus and
- his NEC P2200. A sample printout is shown opposite, and the programs and
- printer drivers are on the program disc and downloadable from Eureka II.
- 2.8
- In an earlier edition of Archive (1.12 p 7) was printed a short routine
- to convert the extra fonts, supplied on the Master Welcome disc, from
- BBC to Archimedes format. On the face of it, this looked as if it would
- be a useful little routine but there was a problem; only half of the
- character set was defined. i.e. characters 32 to 126. My friend Steve,
- in his wisdom, decided that one of the fonts (7by8) looked very good
- with First Word Plus and decided to redefine the rest of the characters
- to match the ones already done.
- 2.8
- The next step in the story was when I foolishly mentioned that it would
- be quite simple to set up First Word Plus to utilise the IBM graphics
- available in one of the alternative character sets within the printer we
- both had (NEC P2200). We then decided that redesigning the fonts using
- the Master was not the way to do this, mainly because the fonts would
- then have to be converted to Archimedes, so we converted the CHARDES
- program, which was mainly in BASIC, to a form that would save fonts in
- the correct format and also run with the Archimedes mouse.
- 2.8
- The problem of modifying the program to work on the Archimedes was not
- too difficult by even an amateur programmer’s standards but to make it
- save the font in its correct form for the Archimedes proved more
- problematical. A number of abortive attempts were made to rewrite the
- save font routine but each time nothing was achieved except making the
- computer’s character set look like hieroglyphics. Eventually, it all
- fell into place and we had a working program.
- 2.8
- We then decided that a program for transposing characters within the
- character set itself might not be a bad idea. This was written fairly
- speedily, but then the next task was to create the printer driver for
- First Word Plus. This marathon is usually achieved by modifying an
- existing wordprocessor/printer driver file, which involves changing the
- relevant values for the various functions listed within the file, e.g.
- superscript, subscript, nlq etc. After this fairly simple part comes the
- task of entering all the codes to achieve the extra characters which
- cannot enter from the keyboard. For characters 32 to 127 this was
- obviously quite simple as all that was needed in this instance was each
- character’s number, but it was soon noticed by both of us that the
- characters between &80 and &9F (decimal 128 to 159) were not defined by
- the existing list. After an abortive attempt to define these characters,
- and failing to get them to install, it was decided that we would have to
- discard 32 (yes a whole 32) of the characters so lovingly designed by
- Steve.
- 2.8
- Notes on the font fiddling programs
- 2.8
- (These refer to programs on the monthly disc.)
- 2.8
- 1 !BOOT is the program for interchanging the position of the
- characters.
- 2.8
- 2 After running the above program, the Acorn Character Designer
- Program (modified for use on the Archimedes), Chardes_C, can be entered
- and 1 above repeated as many times as necessary.
- 2.8
- 3 The modified Printer driver for 1WP is in the CFG directory.
- 2.8
- 4 The modified Printer driver hex file for 1wp is in the HEX
- directory.
- 2.8
- 5 Before booting the disc, the font style to be modified must first be
- loaded e.g. by using *NEC_Afont.
- 2.8
-