85.08 apple bug

the newsletter of apple-q the Brisbane Users Group In this issue... From the Tech Notes * Random number generation on the Apple // Secretary's Notes * New members * User group publications round the nation * Advertisements received On-line * Public access bulletin boards MacsStuff * New software products The Rumour Mill * 4Megabyte Macs * A4screens * MS-DOS compatability * New vitality for the // series Aug 85 Credits Word processing: MacWrite Editor: Peter Pegg Page Layout: ReadySetGo Assistant Editor: Graham Hannam Copy Printing: LaserWriter Chairman: Peter Newland Printing & distributing: Hooper Centre Published by Apple-Q, the Brisbane Users Group Applel[, //e, He, & Mac — P.O. Box 721 South Brisbane, aid | 4101 Australia the reason for it alll Registered by Australia Post -Pubjicatlon (and Apple/// & Lisal) Editorial Peter J.Pegg This issue represents an experiment in using the LaserWriter printer and Ready Set Go to create a new look for apple-bug. It may be several issues before we get the new look right, so | would be very pleased if you could provide feedback on the experiment. Please tell us if you like what is being done (or if you don't!) Let us know what you would like to see in the newsletter, and please, write articles or contribute ideas to apple-bug! While we are thinking about feedback, it is probably a good time to ask again about meetings and meeting format and features. We have had some special interest groups and some changes in membership of those groups. It would be good to hear again from the Education Group, and from some of the other groups. It's your user group, so let's hear from you! What's When Sunday 18 August Open Day at the Hooper Centre Monday 19 August Committee Meeting Sunday 22 September Open Day at the Hooper Centre Monday 23 September Committee Meeting apple-bug August 1985 apple-bug August 1985 notes SE@DETADY"S LXKOuULSS DAVID BOURNE Since my last report we have had 4 new members, from Springwood, Cunnamulla, Ipswich, and Bright (Vic). Welcome to the new members. For older members, remember to look at your mailing label before you throw it away. A renewal reminder will be printed on the label when you have less than 3 months to run on your present subscription. Membership is still $18 per year, $9 for students. If your membership is to expire soon return the mailing label with your payment to ensure continued club benefits. Piease let me know if you change your address or if there is any problem with the delivery of your newsletter. Advertisements were received from: Ashtron Software (P.O. Box 579, Gosford, NSW 2250) for educational software; The Computer Trader (3 Bowen Cres., Melbourne, Vic 3004) for hardware, software, and supplies; AHWARE (805 Luz Court, Danville, CA 94526) for Mouseprint; Calypso Jane Software (P.O. Box 160, St. Peters, 2044) for educational software; and Micro-Educational (40 Laman St, Newcastle, NSW 2300) for software, hardware, and supplies. | will bring these ads and earlier ones to the club meeting for your perusal. Alternately, you might directly to the advertisers. Listing of these advertisers is for interest only. | have no particular knowledge of any of these suppliers. This month we received a number of club newsletters/ magazines. The July issue of Applecations, from the Sydney Apple User Group contained articles about Sorting, game paddies and fast loops, RUNX-public remote access system, MacPaint tips (in German?), technical data of MacDraw and Microsoft Word, and reviews of JANE - MACJACK - SKY FOX. Eight Public Domain MACdisks were described in an insert to Applecations. The June and July issues of the W.A. Apple User Group were received this month. The June issue of the Auckland Apple User Group included a utility to print DOS 3.3 catalogs in two columns. AUSOM NEWS, July issue, from the Melbourne Apple User Group contained articles about Applesoft, Undeleting ProDOS files, and CPM 3.0 timestamp. That's all for this month. The Trading table = 3 = hours:— 11.30am. — 4.00pm. PPLE//e@Q 4 GOODIES TABAE | rn Graham is on leave this month, so there will be no trading table for August. When he comes back we should see new items and probably some revised prices. Graham's energy in under- taking the many onerous tasks connected with maintaining the trading table service are much appreciated by the committee, and we look forward to his return in September. Advertisements Members may place private advertisements In these columns. Members wishing to place commercial advertisements should contact the secretary. For Sale Apple 80 column card, suit Apple //e. $75.00 Contact John Thompson (076) 35 2727 apple-bug August apple-bug August 1985 On-line Communications Modems Bulletin Boards etcetra Bulletin Board phone numbers Bill Bolton's Software Tools (07) 378 9530 [24 hours] BEX Il (07) 395 1809 [24 hours] COMPETRON (07) 52 9498 [1100 ~ 0800 weekdays} [24 hours weekends] TEXAS INSTRUMENTS (TIRCP/M.BBS) (07) 263 6161 [2100 - 0600 weekdays only] HI-TECH (07) 38 6872 [24 hours] COMMODORE (CCUGQ) (07) 808 2125 (24 hours — | think] These are just a few to start you off. There are more opening all the time, and | will leave it to you to find the numbers on these systems. If you want to know more about it, then give me a call on (07) 269 9126, any day after mid-day, except Fridays, and ! will tell you what I can. [This list was inadvertently omitted from Graham Black's report last month. Information was valid at the time of writing. | have not checked any of it for this month. - Ed] Canpeter Gite BA) 20a Auto-Ice Printer Cards parallel] & serial $ 85.00 Extended 80 column card $150.00 tHe TECH NOTES Random Numbers The reason that the random numbers in the first program to be tun follow the same sequence is that neither DOS nor Applesoft initialize Applesoft's random number seed. This seed is stored in locations $C9 to $CD Whatever condition your memory comes up in will determine what the random number sequence will be. The Applesoft random number generator, like all such routines, is only a pseudo-random generator, and non-random patterns will eventually occur The frequency of repetition of these patterns will vary from program to program. Proper reseeding of the random number generator during a program wili help prevent the appearance of small repeating sequences Here are two suggestions 1 Use the monitor's random seed at locations 78 and 79 to initialize Applesoft's random number seed. The monitor's seed is constantly being incremented while waiting for a key to be pressed. This will start you on one of 65536 different sequences. 10 X= RND (-PEEK (78) - PEEK (79) * 256) 2. The random sequence can be lengthened by re-seeding the generator occasionally within the application program. Add the statement X = RND (-RND (1)). Please note that no method will completely eliminate patterns in the random numbers generated, but we can lengthen the sequences until they aren't recognizable. The algorithm that Applesoft uses is: Multiply the random seed by 11879546.4 Add the result and 3.92767778 E-08 Swap the most and least significant bytes of the result Force the exponent into the 0..1 range. apple-bug August 1985 apple-bug August 1985 This issue of apple-bug has been prepared using ReadySetGo, one of a new class of software products available for the Macintosh. These products are page composition applications which allow blocks of text and graphics to be arranged on a printed page as desired. There are three such applications currently available in this country: MacPublisher, PageMaker, and ReadySetGo. PageMaker is reputed to be the easiest to use and most powerful. | am hoping to be able to evaluate it fully in the near future. Of the others, RSG is probably the more useful, although it has some annoying quirks. ReadySetGo has a menu item Create which allows the creation of the four basic block types, Text, Frame, Solid, and Picture. Text is as you would expect. Frame creates a border block of defined width. Frame blocks can be placed behind smaller text or picture blocks. Solid creates lines and blocks of shading. The vertical bar on each page was created with the Solid command. Picture blocks accept either MacPaint or MacDraw pictures. When each block is first created, it is one inch square. [This is the first of RSG's little annoyances. It is resolutely imperial and does not recognize the metric system. Fortunately for us the Macintosh is cosmopolitan, and the printer drivers recognize international paper sizes such as A4] The program is intended to be used with the LaserWriter, and allows fonts of virtually any size to be printed. A useful desk accessory is Art Thief which allows pictures and picture elements to be taken from a number of MacPaint documents without the hassle of closing the picture being worked on to open the various source documents. It is active under MacPaint, MacDraw, and when a Picture block of RSG is being accessed. | have found it to be a genuine productivity booster. On a lighter note, the game Airborne from Silicon Beach has attracted a lot of attention with its use of digitized sounds. It has to be heard to be believed! Enthusiastic EAMON Adventurerslll to write a short article on how to use the EAMON series. Please contact the editor |i} EAMON Update A brief article on EAMON appeared on page 94 of the January 1983 issue of Creative Computing. This article provides background to the development of the series as well as a good description of the ideas behind the game system. What is still needed is someone who knows how to use all the features in constructing adventures to tell the rest of us some of the secrets. A very large text file on the master disk provides documentation for the series. apple-bug August apple-bug August Riverview Shopping Centre Price Street Riverview 4303 Phone 282 6233 Boards Disk interface Printer card with cable 80 column card 280 card Colour card 16K RAM card 128K Ram card RS232 card 64K printer buffer card Other items Joystick Printer (CPA-80) Disk drives (slimline) Monitors (amber/green) Printer ribbons (CPA-80) Paper (2500 sheets) RF mod Power supply space! Watch this $ 55.10 $ 72.50 $ 85.55 $ 62.35 $ 53.65 $ 60.90 $214.60 $ 65.25 $210.25 $ 15.95 $337.85 $207.35 $188.50 $ 12.50 $ 45.60 $ 20.30 $ 84.10 Ep Still the rumours come! One of the most persistent is that the 4Mb Mac is just around the corner. The format of this machine is supposed to be anything from ‘just like the fat Mac' to a twin disk drive box with removable monitor. Time will tell - say January 1986. Another strong rumour is that future Macintoshes will have A4 sized screens. This is usually coupled with the stories of twin internal 800k drives. The 800k drive is almost certain and should be a plug-in upgrade for the existing drive. MS-DOS compatability for future Apple products is strongly rumoured. What this means is unclear. We've seen the ads for MacCharlie - an aptly named device if ever there was one! which is supposed to allow a Macintosh to use IBM programs. (At least the Mac part of it is the real thing!) Compatability for the // series should be no great problem; as we have seen so often in the past, the machine is infinitely expandable. The colour Mac rumour is on again! The machine is reputed to be able to display 32 colours at any one time. Announcement date is —- guess when? If you thought January 1986, you'd be fight in tune with the latest rumours. Confirmation of rumours of a Brisbane-produced 4Mb RAM disk for the Macintosh will have to wait for next month, but some very interesting things are happening locally with at least two home grown software houses and some peripheral developments.