Apple 2000 Vol 1 No. 2 1986 10 BASUG GB

- - —~ 4 - Bre trees ASC DS Meera ao A sm "GUERRA g ait AKO ee Qe yf D i Serr vied eh THE NATIONAL APPLE USERS GROUP OCTOBER Tose VOLUME I) a All Ree need to know about Desktop Publishing can be said in two words Computer City Computer City can offer you the best advice, the best deals, the most professional service, and the best selection of software. We have the highest standards and we love our work. With centres both in Widnes and in Liverpool University, we are all set to open our new store in Manchester. As long-established printers, our sister company “Design and Display Associates” used Apple computers to good effect. So much so that, 5 years ago, we decided to go all out with Apple and become dealers. Success breeds success, and we are now the longest-established Apple dealer on Merseyside and No. 1 in the North West With this combined experience and expertise in the areas of printing and computers, Desktop Publishing became a natural market in which we would lead the way Desktop Publishing is the latest and most exciting development in office automation, equal in importance to the evolution of the typewriter, the calculator, and the photocopier. It’s going to give you the power you need to effectively and efficiently create the image you want. You no longer have to rely on others - you can do all this yourself, giving you more flexibility, time, productivity, and security The Desktop Publishing system is simple enough for anyone to operate, but that’s not the point! The point is that it enables you to produce work that a professional printer would be proud of. We know this is true because we sell our systems to printers, graphic design studios and advertising agencies - as well as to people like yourself. Learn to get more miles from your Macintosh at the UK’s first Desktop Publishing demonstration and training centre here at Computer City, where our experienced team can evaluate your needs and advise you on the best combination of available hardware and software to meet your requirements. We can’t say more here. Visit us. Write to us. Give us a ring. Find out what we’re all about! Educational and Overseas enquiries welcome (CONTENTS 7 Apple2000 Editorial 2 Club News 3 Special Offers 3 AppleWorld 4 P.O.Box 177, St Albans, > | Le Lssovict ‘ | Herts AL2 2EG | Reckoning with the Foree Ewen Wannop 6 | a9 935 Not another spreadsheet template! Richard Daniels 8g WHET Fam | News 10 —————e Resolaicn 64 Cad -A Review Deve Ward i Apple2000™ is a trading name of BASUG Lid, 2 non- pplebits a Computer Glossary Ewen Wannop ie rls Lea sos Page acta a Pat) Beas Wane tt profit making independent company limited by guarantee. The Chameleon - A Review Tony Game 16 : Omnis Conversion - // 10 Mac Keith Chamberlain 17 The front cover artwork and Apple2000 logo Lctter Quality Printing - Appleworks Paul Ross 18 design are by Stefan Mucha. DMP Utilities - A Review Harry Gardiner 2 ‘The contents of this joumal are copyright of BASUG Lid Capea COM Es Cae Ceae Ker = and/or the respective authors, Permission is granted for pee ar Ae Joon Wag bal non-commercial reproduction providing the author and sing AppleWorks Enhancements Harvey Nyman 23 4 The Graphics Department - A Review Tom Wright 6 source are properly credited and a copy of the relevant Scroling the High Resolution Screen Graham Keeler (28 joumal is sent. The opinions and views expressed are Apple Elbow - A Health Waming! Tom Wright 2 those of the various contributors, and are not necessarily Apple Announces IGS Preview Jim Panks 30 supported by BASUG. Se ee cific manta This journal is published bi-monthly by BASUG Ltd as a ZBASIC - A Review ‘Terry Cymbalisty 34 benefit of membership in February, April, June, August, Omnis SIG News Odette 36 October and December. The copy date is the Sth day of Letters 37 the month preceding publication. Advertising ratcs arc | MacCHAT Norah Amold 40 available on request. reer ‘ensHamin ok Apple™ and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Saale RHiew Nee Here ey Computer Inc. Macintosh™ is a trademark of McIntosh Fyactal Ervgewa <A Review John Amold 50 Laboratory Inc and used with the express permission of Apple2000 20MEG SHD - A Review Ivan Knezovich 52 the owner. Telecome Gold™ is a trademark of British Network News 54 Telecom PLC. The FORCE™ and Apple2000"™ are MacNosy - A Tutorial Steve Jasik 58 trademarks of BASUG Lid. Book Reviews Irene Flaxman 62 Local Group News Tom Wright 65 Printed by Target Litho, Cottenham, } ‘The Back Page Jim Panks 68 Cambridge. (0954) 51189 : Wis * —— Advertisers - —~ ee Apology \ Please support our advertisers and let them 1 iiss. dni al rptnie errors “the: “Slephionsy amber et \ ‘h: 2 icnoyy that souareis member of Anple2000 C.LCAYMAN was incorrectly shown in the August Issue. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Computer City Front Inside Cover | | Apple (UK) Led 5 * The correct number is iit? 77 Keyzone Limited Hg ge — Blyth Software Lid i 7 . . Rosco 13 & 17 \ Comtec 15 December Issue \ DMS Electronics Lid 21 | Cirtech (UK) Lid B | Articles for the next issue include: Etcetera Lid % Elite Softwares 'Format-80 Scientific’ | C.L.Cayman Lid - 3 AppleWorks Tips and articles Holdens Computer Services 35 | ‘A Users View of the Apple IIGS | psetipthtant Leche ogee ee Inside the GS - A Technical Look ei iia o : 4 Apples Accounting package for the Mac. MacSoft 63 Apple /// News Celtip Computers 67 More Special Offers | Elite Software Back Inside Cover AppleWorld Report P & P Micro Distributors Back Cover MacChat - The Macintosh News & Views Area DarkStar Insert Plus all the usual tips, letters and news. MGA Insert Apple2000 - October 1986 Y C his issue starts with a bang - we have first hand news of the new Apple IIGS which was released World-Wide on the 15th September after much rumour as to its exact specification. We have news of the Apple World Show in London at the end of this month, it is being sponsored by Apple and will be the largest Apple Show in this country. Apple2000 will be there with everyone that is anyone on the Apple scene. We launch the Apple][GS Club which is our response to the new machine and which will be a Special Interest Group. The FORCE has changed into the most powerful Apple Information System in the UK with COMPUSERVE - like facilities. It now includes a Macintosh Developers Area and the Apple // has an area to keep you all informed of the latest news. New changes to the magazine include the use of better quality paper to enhance the readability and we have also started to use copy readers in an attempt to improve our content quality. New page layouts and the added ease of using a MacPlus and Hard Disk are all helping in our effort to provide you all with Value, Information and Quality. The new image went down well and J am pleased that so many members wrote, telephoned and told me so - it does make the effort worthwhile when you hear that it is an improvement. We would like to hear from any member that may be interested in helping us with the various services we offer, we need members with a couple of hours a month to do tasks that will allow the committee some freedom to organise new and better things. If you have some time to spare why not drop me a line or phone Sheila ? In this issue we hopefully have covered a very wide audience with articles and tips on varied subjects from Spreadsheets to Printer Utilities - A badge has been designed for contributors, we are waiting for it to be delivered and all those that have contributed from this issue will receive one in due course. We are planning some other special things for regular contributors ! I hope to see you all at the Apple Show at the end of the month, @ 4 uw ene Next Issue. Copy Date 5th November Contributions Any Apple related articles, tips to The Editor at the with hard copy . Jim Panks =< ABOUT...) EDITORIAL »—— pple have left the // range virtually untouched for two years - why? The answer is now apparent - they have spent two years developing the fourth generation, The Apple IIGS is a proud son of the Apple)[. Many of our members have been waiting for a machine that improves the basic design and facilities of the Apple][ range yet lets them use the equipment that they have bought over the years. I can reveal that not only is the IIGS almost fully compatible with ][ software it will also run with ][ cards and drives. This will please all those involved with the old J[ range, USERS, Dealers and manufacturers alike. Just after the launch I spoke to one manufacturer who had started to look towards the IBM and Amstrad for salvation; he thought that the ][ was dead and that any new machine would use an entirely different hardware system. However Apple have come to the rescue and allowed him to stay with the Apple machines - he can still manufacture old cards whilst designing new and more powerful ones for the new processor. Apple have really scored - they will keep loyal all those who have been involved with the old ][ and allow a wide range of third party equipment to be developed in a short time. On the software side the news is even better - already Appleworks is being released to work faster and use the extra memory of the IIGS - Apple expect forty new packages to be released by the end of the year - the field is wide open. Over 200 companies are already writing new programs or updating old packages to take full advantage of all the extra features; just think of your favourite WP program running faster, with colour and real pull down menus and larger disk based files! I was shown a package in late Beta Test stage that was a full colour version of MacPaint; it really demonstrated the ability of this new machine in the graphics field. However, many members do not want graphics they want business programs - I saw an excellent WP program which uses colour to good effect and looked great in black, grey and white. The last bit of good news is that Apple have invited us to be involved with producing a compatability chart showing what works and in which mode - we will hopefully have comprehensive details prior to the GS being distributed. _— The Editorial Team ( Managing Editor Jim Panks Assistant Editor Graham Attwood | MacChat Editor Norah Amold Advertising Sheilah Hirst - Julie Panks Assistants Ivan Knezovich Keith Chamberlain hae Articles prefered on (any Apple format) disk \ 2 Apple2000 - October 1986 Club News. What's been happening ? here are two kinds of volunteer, the one who does not know any better, and the one who knows he's | volunteered when somebody asks " where's that column then ?"", this month I'm onc of the latter and you're stuck | with me again folks. Our new name, the introduction of colour, and the new | paper stock appear to have met with almost universal approval. The system error which resulted in some | members learning of the new name before receiving the last issue of the magazine was beyond our control and left | us relying on users of The Force and BABBS to spread the word as far as possible. As I said in the last issue we hope to provide you with some pleasant surprises in the future and will try to keep you informed. A wide range of topics was covered during the July committee meeting with plans for the PCW show as one of the major items, we hope that visitors to the show will have been pleased with the display. Ivan Knezovich accepted responsibility for co-ordinating reviews of Macintosh material and investigations were initiated to prepare for replacement of the aged Apple //+ which is used to run BABBS. Norah, Ewen and Ivan are pursuing ideas for a new BB service for Mac users. The treasurer's report again confirmed that control of the group's finance still looks good, various aspects of expenditure, fund raising and pricing policy receiving continued close examination, No committee meeting was scheduled for August but the majority of the committee spent most of Sunday 17th thrashing out standardized format procedures for the magazine. Graham's work on the preparation of pens, badges and sweatshirts has produced some attractive items, not least of which is a special version of the enamel badge for contributors of articles and reviews to this magazine. Force users will have already seen the menus which have been introduced by John Lee and Ewen (with more changes to come), and BABBS users will be aware of Tony Game's continuous efforts at improving the U.K's best Apple BB. By the time you read this column the mystery surrounding whether or not Apple intend to launch a new something at some time in the future should be cleared up for Apple ][ fans. The PCW show will be history and hopefully more of us will have had the chance to meet (and recruit more friends to Apple2000). I hope to sce you all at the Apple World Show at the end of the month. ) Tom Wright. @ Se oe —— a Micol Basic Did you read Dave Wards review of Micol Basic in the last issue ? If you did and found that it is the answer to your needs then we can help you. Apple2000 will be anouncing shortly that it is the sole distributor in the U.K. for all Micol products and as a SPECIAL OFFER to our members we are offering the latest version (Version 2.0) at a special price until Ist Novernebr 1986. The US price is $89.95 - we can offer it to you at an amazing all in price of £50 plus £2.00 postage and VAT. This is a SAVING of £15 on the US price and the normal retail price in this country. So you can save over half your membership by rushing your order off to us. Software Library Disk Prices DOWN Better value on bulk disk prices has allowed us to REDUCE ALL software library disk prices. As from Ist October 1986 the disk prices will be: 5.25 Disks - £3.95 inclusive of P&P and VAT 3.5 Disks - £5.95 inclusive of P&P and VAT Bulk order rates still apply - that is order 10 disks and receive 10 ina plastic library box for the price of 8 !. Our disks are full of outstanding software and we have the best choice in the U.K. & Hard Disk for SCSI Mac Apple2000 have negotiated a special deal with a well known hardware supplier and manufacturer which allows us to offer to members only a 20MB Hard Disk for only £699 plus VAT. We will pay the postage and you will receive a top rate hard drive which really sets the Mac going. We have tested this drive and have found it to be quick and reliable it is covered by a one year warranty. @ Macintosh Special Release New to the Special Relcase Software Library and the first for the Macintosh comes a package full of uscful Spreadsheet Templates. Chris Burridge has provided two types, one for Excel and one for Multiplan. The areas covered are StockMarket Investment, Budgets for Electricity etc, Petrol Economy Calculator and a Company Balance Shect. This is excellent value at only £8.50 and will provide some clues to getting the best from your spreadsheet. = e - “Apple2000 - October 1986 Special Offers 3 \ | n under four weeks the largest ever Apple Exhibition and Conference will be in full swing at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, The dates for your diary are Wednesday October 29th to Saturday Ist November 1986. Apple (UK) are running the exhibition which will have many areas of interest for all Apple Users. The first public showing of the new Apple IIGS will be the highlight of the show for many, although on the Saturday (1st November) we will be enthralled by one of the founders of Apple 'Woz' Yes Steve has kindly agreed to rush over from the States to give us an insight into the world of Apple. His address will be the opening of the User Day - Apple have given over the conference to User Groups and we have a top line up of experts for you to meet, question and obtain advice from. The exact format of the day is not known yet but it will be a day for everyone. On Wednesday October 29th the main theme will be on Education with key speakers from the U.K, and leading Colleges in the US, including Drexel University. This should be interesting if the AUC conference in April was anything to go by. Thursday October 30th is set aside for Desktop Publishing and should attract a large gathering, Apple lead the PC market in this field and I for one will be very interested to see the experts perform. Friday October 31st brings us to the Business Conference which will include speakers from major corporations and will examine how to overcome specific problems. This is in line with the Apple theme of solutions for business. The show will be attended by all the major suppliers of Apple equipment and Ashton Tate are expected to release ‘DBASE’ for the Macintosh at the show. Other interesting items at the show will be a release version of 'HabaWrite’, large screens for the Mac, software for the new machine ? and many of the old favorites. The new generic devices that Apple are turning too will kick off with the new Hard Disk. This will be shown for the first time and should provide interest for both ][ and Mac Users. We hope to have supplies of the latest version of Micol Basic for sale and we will be offering it at substantial savings to members. Planning of our stand is well under way and we plan to give both old and new members a warm reception - so pop along have a chat and see the special bargains we will be selling to members. The Apple2000 stand will be a joint venture with the local groups taking part - this will hopefully give the whole USER GROUP area a new image. We look forward to seeing all our members at the show - see you there. © 4 7 Apple2000 - October 1986 from the WEST COAST of WORCESTERSHIRE ecently | was shown by my wife an Agony Aunt letter from one of the weekly television magazines, concerning husbands with computer occupations. The letter implied that computers had changed her husband into a bore, made him ratty and reduced his interest in the family. Without repeating it, the issue discussed involved the whole family and can be typical among individuals, male and female who are engrossed in the new technological revolution. To put it simply, its WE they are discussing. How many times in the past have you heard your wife or companion say "Not @#&*#~ computers again |!" With a guilty conscience | must confess that | sometimes over indulge in my computer hardware and software, forgetting that there is more to life than just Apples. GASP / Yes it is tue ... there is life after Apples. I found out the hard way when I was forbidden to include my silicon pet with the holiday luggage. After settling down into the holiday routine | soon began, like a junkie without a fix, to suffer from withdrawl symptoms. Every free moment was agony, even Jeffery Archer proved no placebo for my keyboard itch. I even tried crosswords and puzzles but they just added to my frustration. By now different pieces of software were fighting for pole position in my RAM areas, unfinished reviews were crowding my internal clock and adventure games were offering me endless clues. At the limit of my endurance I almost resorted to an overdose of Spectrums, (foreigners use them as door stops you know ! ) but I had visions of being driven away in a CS with doctors mumbling under their breath "Amstrad, Amstrad ... give him a shot of Amstrad", Breaking out in a sweat, my knees trembling I juggled the options. I had my Access card, all I had to do was find a computer shop that stocked the forbidden fruit, or if the worst came to the worst, buy a return ticket home. It was no use, my situation was hopeless. I took stock of the situation; at my feet a huge pile of Heinekins ( Boy have I got news for them! ), to the north sweet home, in between DIVORCE ! Well that was that. Resigned, I just had to face the music, life without an Apple. At first it was like being on another planet. People were everywhere, having fun, playing, discussing the weather and some, just laying motionless, recharging in the sun, I felt lost, and then as my senses slowly adjusted to this new freedom, the holiday spirit overpowered me and | lost all contact with rainbow coloured Apples. And Holiday | did ! I returned home, cured of a bad habit, recharged and full of life, For a while all was well and even the neighbours got their first ever glimpse of me out in the garden sun. But you see I had this column to write ... and a deadline to meet ... and ... Oh well, I might as well admit it, | am a computer addict and there seems little chance of a permnanent cure unless someone opens a rehabilitation centre for silicon junkies, @ ‘ Apple ; world _ You've got just 4 days to discover the power to succeed. October 29th, 30th, 3Ist and November Ist are the days. _ unveiling of the revolutionary new Apple Il product. We can't The Business Design Centre in London is the place. say anything about it here. except that you'll see it in action And Apple™ World is the event — the most important — at AppleWorld. .. and be impressed personal computer event ever held in this country To get in on AppleWorld, contact your local dealer. Whether you're now using a Macintosh™ or an He'll give you more information about registering for the Apple™ I™ in business or education, youll find a mind- — most important Apple event this year. Or dial 100 and ask boggling amount designed to fascinate you for Freefone Apple All of the major software developers will have a stand After all, as an Apple user, you're already part of the to demonstrate their products. The very latest solutions for Apple world. business, communications and education will be on display 4 And products that you've read about — like Apple's DeskTop ¢é A le Publishing System — and perhaps considered buying, will pp: be on show. + hi d We'll also be using the exhibition for the public e power to succee . Agile andi the Apple Logo ave rademarks of Apple Computer inc. Macintosh is a tademarh cf Mint _Apple2000 - October 1986 Communications RECKONING WITH THE FORCE Spreading Your Wings Ewen Wannop == The Menus Big changes were promised on the FORCE, and when you read this, we will already have had the new menus working for over two months. I cannot give you a definitive guide to these menus, as they will keep changing as we add further facilities. The general structure should be simple enough to follow. When you log on to the system, you enter the menu ‘shell’. Unless you leave the menu with a <Q>uit command, you will have the menu sitting underneath the surface at all times. You will sce a menu when you first reach it, or you issue a command that it does not recognise or you give the global 'MM' command. If you have left the menu shell, then simply type 'MM'° at the usual Force prompt '>' to re-enter. These menus as I have said, will be constantly changing and improving. We want to keep the FORCE as up to date and active as we can, We need to know from you what you would like to sce in the way of features. Leave us a message at the ‘Feedback’ prompt. Update Those of you who have been struggling to use the Editor after my piece last time, may like to know that it really is easier if you prepare what you wish to send beforehand. Upload as you would a message. There is one pitfall here though, the command to switch the Editor from Input to Edit mode, is a single carriage return! This means that any material you upload, must have no returns on their own. Replace with a space and then a return (note: Appleworks treats a line like this as an empty line and changes it back to a single return), The same rule about lines longer than 100 characters also applics. To upload follow this procedure: >ED <CR> INPUT [enter your File send routine and upload) <CR> [to retum to Edit) EDIT SAVE FILENAME <CR> > That is all there is to it, and with the command 'F' you will sce the new file added to your list. Some of you have been concerned at your storage charges. As I said last time, you can remove any files that you wish other than your 'NUMB', 'PARAMLINI', 'C_ID’, ‘C_DO files or any bracketed with asterisks like this *MAILSAVE*. However this last one CAN be deleted if you wish. It is generated automatically if something happens while you are entering a message. For instance, as is not unknown, the line is dropped by BT out of the blue! This file holds the text that you had entered up to that point. To retrieve the text, start the message . You will be informed of the number of lines recovered, and you may then continue. Not all your message may be recovered, as it saves in chunks of ten lines ata time. Once you have used the file, or if you dont want it any morc, delete and save the storage charge: >DEL *MAILSAVE* <CR> . On the subject of storage charges, some of you will have noticed a difference between the blocks shown at the 'F command, and the blocks given at the ‘STORAGE’ command. There is an overhead of 1-2 blocks for a normal mailbox, and a further 7-9 if you have Telex facility. You should be charged a minimum of 2-3 blocks for a basic mailbox. Delete your own files to keep the storgae charges down, but let the SYSOP know if you need any further help in this, tell him which files you would like left behind. Showing your Files off What use is it having a File in your mailbox you may ask, well, normally you are the only person who can see thesc files, if however you have some good programs you wish to share, you can arrange for others to peek into your mailbox in a very controlled way. As you will appreciate, the security on the FORCE depends on the password system. To get access to your mailbox you must use your unique password (You do have a unique one don't you, and you do change it regularly as well ..). But suppose you wanted someone to be able to get access without knowing this password. Well it is possible, and it has its own built in protection. You will need to use the secondary password function, This is what you will see and what you should do: >PASSWD - LONG <CR> Do you wish to change your owner password? <N> <CR> Do you wish to allow other users to attach to your ID as owner if they know your owner password? <N> <CR> Do you wish to allow other users to attach to your ID as non- owner? <Y> <CR> Non-owner password (hit RETURN for none): <password> <CR> Enter it again: <password> <CR> Now your mailbox is setup. You can of course remove this facility any time you like by saying 'N' to non-owner password. By entering a <CR> only when prompted for the non-owner password will allow people to <A>ttach without a password, Once you have prepared your mailbox this way, all you need to do is tell your friends this secondary password. All they then need to do is to <A>ttach to your ID in the following way: >A BSG999 password <CR> >WHO >A.N.OTHER (<S84-4>BSG999 ) Now for all intents and purposes, we have logged on to your friends mailbox, but cannot as yet do anything useful. We find that access rights are still preventing us from doing anything other than issue a <F>iles command to see what files are present. To return to your own mailbox issue >AL at the next prompt. Make sure you type "WHO" to check you have returned. Back to you as owner now. Having sctup the password for outside users, you must enable things for them to be able to sce at the "'YPE' command. First use the Editor to upload as Files all the programs, messages or other things you wish to put on show, and save them with a suitably descriptive filename, You will now need to change their protection level so 6 ~ Apple2000 - tober 1986 that others can get access. When you did an <F> command, you will have scen that after various other bits of information, there were three letters following all your files 'D W R'. These refer to you as owner having the rights to <D>elete <Worite or <R>ead these files, We are now going to change the protection level to allow others similiar access: >PROTECT filename 7 7 <CR> >F <CR> filename 001 6/19 9.07 ASC DWR dw r . You will notice that we now have three more letters, this time in lower case, at the end of the file entry. These are the non-owner access rights that you have just allowed by means of the PROTECT command. Now anyone from outside can <D>elete, <Wo>rite or <R>ead that particular file. To protect it from them once more: >PROTECT (or PROT) filename 7 <CR> Let me explain those numbers. The first number refers to YOUR rights, and the second number if it exists, refers to non- owner access, The number is made up of adding the following together: Right to DELETE = 4 Right to WRITE =2 RighttoREAD =1 All rights =7 So:>PROT filename 7 1 <CR> allows your friends to read that file only, probably what you would normally wish. If you want them to be able to write to a file, you must have a suitable empty file which has access of:>PROT emptyfile 7 3 <CR> allowing read and write from outside. Well that is it, you can share your programs with all your friends. MAC users will need to use BINHEX to prepare a suitable ASCII file, Apple II users should use one of the many text generators or simply make an ‘Exec’ type of file listing. In this way, your friends need only download those programs that they wish. It is a good idea to put up an explanation file to describe what is available, and most importantly their length, so they know how long they will take to download ... Finally just to recap, to actually see a file you need to: >TYPE (or TY) filename <CR> Postscript This is the second in a scrics of articles. If there is a specific subject about the FORCE you would like covered, please send me a message on the FORCE, either through Feedback to the SYSOP box, or to my own mailbox BSGO0S. For other problems or enquiries, mail to John Lee the SYSOP or Scth Proctor for ACCOUNTS. No need to cnter their mailbox number, just give the appropriate title. See you on the FORCE ...... é THE | WORDSMITH a_|f The creative writer's magazine. Published bi-monthly and costing only £6.75 per annum, The Wordsmith allows writer's to keep up with the ‘electronic age’. | Send your cheque for £6.75 to: The Wordsmith, The Old House, Church Road, | Kennington, Ashford, Kent TN24 9DQ 4 \_keyzone — —_—— ——— { MANUAL & AUTOMATIC DATASWITCHES AND BUFFERS ¢ HERE’S THE SOLUTION ) NOW, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLE DON’T WANT TO SPEND ON ADDITIONAL PRINTERS? Keyzone solid state, manual, automatic, buffered, multi port Data Switches POA. CABLE LENGTH? Keyzone Centronics Data Flow Booster withPSU £40 Keyzone Serial RS232 Data Flow Booster with PSU £50 PRINTER PORT? Serial RS232 to Parallel Converter with PSU £65 Parallel to Serial RS232 Converter with PSU £70 SEX? Serial RS232 25D Gender Changer (shielded) MIM & F/F £10 Centronics 36 pin 3ft. ribbon cable M/M & F/F £10 SURGE & SPIKES? RS232 Serial 25D Surge Protector (shielded) M/F £20 Surge Cube 2 way adapter £8 Surge Cube 3 way adapter 912 RS232 CROSSED WIRE? Multi Link switch selectable Serial cable £24 SPECIAL CABLE? 24 hours custom cable-making service available } U14, Acton Business Centre = | Schoo! Road, London NW10 6TD Telephone: 01 965 1684/1804 Telex: 8813271 GECOMG FULL TWELVE MONTHS GUARANTEE PHINTEHSHAHER™ Severa’ Micros 1o one Printer PRINTERCHANGER” One Micro to several Printers. PRINTERCROSSOVER” Two Micros to two Printers SERIAL PRINTERCROSSOVER SReaX Serie NS232-250 © SR4I2X Serial pn DIN £45, PSI 28 3 £60 SA29K 9 PinD. (Mac) £62 BPSIC "WITH INTERLINKS £75 BRQCX SPinDINY/e) 5 BPSR 26 6 £110 BP36C WITH INTERLINKS £140 PARALLEL PRINTER BUFFER/SHARER APS? 36 2 £75, inp Ontput APS3 (36 3 £05, PBO4 Parallel Paiailel OAK e140 iso BSD(1BM) 2 £70 185 WSs 500HM) 3 £40 £220 PARALLEL PRINTERCHANGER e289 ‘SOLID STATE MANUAL £190 eres 26 3 i APC 36 2 75 £239 APCS 36 3 a5 pce spaKM) 2 a MULTIPORT BUFFERS 163 250(8M) 3 £00 BFE4MO-PP 4 Paralcl input 2 paral output SERIAL PRINTERSHARER/CHANGER ‘with 250K Utter ess nego 280 2way £5 BFEAMO-4S 4 Sonal input 230 away £65 2 Serial outout 250 4way £75 ‘th 258K butlor cans SOIMBRC) Quay — £40 9O(Mac) 2way £52 ACCESSORIES (Mac) Sway 50 KSMIO1 “Sonal to Paratiol SH2G — SOINWic) Sway £40 Converter wi PSU 65 KSM104 Parallel Serial Converter win PSU i) AUTOMATIC PRINTERSHARER KSM103——_—Dalafow Booster pin way £110 Contrones with PSU a0 3epe_ Sway E115 KSM109——_Dataiow Booster e\ 260 (IBM) 2way £95 Serial RSZI2-V24 wih PSU C50 3A Pavaiol 250 \8M) Sway £110 KSM110—— MultcLnk Serial 124A Sena 250 Away C245 Switch Soigctable Cable £24 PARALLEL PRINTERCROSSOVER GABLES (6ft, Long) ID STATE MANUAI KPCIOAR Ribbon cable 36 pin-3Bpn C12 ox “oo Be 70 KPCIO4F Flex cable 36 pn-36 pn £16 x 38 2x2 £98 KPCIOS FlexlorIBM26pin-36pn £15 (Px 50H) 2X2 BS KPC105 Flex(Z5tines) 25p0-25pn E14 KSC103 Flex(12lines) 25pir2ipn EP ‘Aaa postage. Switches & Bult €3.00 each, & cable £0 75 each + 15% VAT KEYZONE LIMITED J Utd. Acton Business Centro fh i 06TD _/ BOA Telex: A819971 GECOMG Apple2000 - October 1986 Zz SPREADSHEET - USE Not another spreadsheet template ! By RICHARD DANIELS I like many other houscholders have the unpleasant task of paying bills which are issued on an irregular basis and therefore result in uneven outgoings throughout the year. The Banks and Building Societies offer Budget Accounts which allow you to even out your expenditure against income and in some cases charge you for that service. With the aid of my Apple and a spreadsheet package I felt I could produce a template to indicate my expenditure against income and to check that if expenditure exceeded income at any time it could calculate the necessary adjustments that would have to be made. This spreadsheet used in conjunction with a Building Society or Bank account can monitor its balance. * File Edit Select Format Options Calculate Each of these separate sections have their own formulae and the Account Balance inter relates the two. The operation of the spreadsheet is simple, income is credited to the account initially as in opening a bank account with a single payment and from that point on, is transferred from the previous months balance after deducting the expenditure. Cell Formula R[6]C[3] =R(+34]C[-1] R[11}c[2] =R[(-5]C+R[-4]C+R[-3]C+R[-21C R(35]C[2] =SUM(R[-18]C:R[-2]C) R[40]c[2] =R[-29]C-R[-5]C These formulae are copied to adjacent right hand cells. As previously mentioned, the (es ]] account or spreadsheet is initially set Figure 1: Layout and spreadsheet headings The principle of the spreadshcet is that it represents a bank account with its income in the form of Twelve monthly payment. The outgoings or expenditure are in the form of payments of bills for gas, electricity, water, rates, car expenses and insurance etc. ‘The spreadsheet template is prepared with the spreadsheet set for manual calculation with headings for income and expenditure forming the left hand column and the income and expenditure periods in months forming the headings on the top row. These headings should be fixed to keep them on screen at all times. To simplify the display the spreadsheet is divided into three separate sections, Income, Expenditure and Account Balance . == 15 Coronation Street SS) up by inserting an account balance and T from last years paid bills or an 1 E estimated amount, figures can be put 2 in the appropriate spreadsheet cells 15 corresponding to the date for payment 16 making an allowance for a single 18 years inflation and any known change 19. of circumstances. By calculating the = total yearly expenditure and dividing 2210 Bi by 12 you can calculate an 23 approximate monthly income required = to balance the account. Insert this or 26 |. vv Boat ins, a slightly higher figure in the account 21 Life.ing, credit column under each month and 28 Car Ins, 29 | House ing, then with the formulae entered 30 Contents ins, calculate the spreadsheet. As new bills are presented and paid new amounts can Substitute those previously recorded to provide an accurate balance. It is very likely that on some months expenditure will exceed income and therefore place your account in the red and overdrawn. For this reason I wanted some form of forecasting and semi-automatic adjustment. It is easy with most spreadsheets using the IF statement to check a value in a particular cell and automatically make adjustments but not many spreadsheets can make any further alterations. I was already using Microsoft's Multiplan for this spreadsheet and reading through their manual I found a section describing the use of Iteration, On further examination I found this was exactly what was wanted, a routine used in conjunction with the IF and other statements to check a value of a particular cell and if not meeting a pre-defined condition, such as being a negative number, incrementing that value with a pre-defined amount. 8 _________ Apple2000 - October 1986 @ File Edit Select Format Options Calculate This would then be included in the total income and consequently would increase the balance by that amount. 3 Coronation Street 14 I 16 13 DECEMBER: SC/FORWARD 'SUM This operation would be continued until the balance is positive. As an alternative, instead of using positive/negative as a check point, any value can be substituted such as the minimum account balance required by some banks to avoid paying bank charges. Two further columns are added to the end of the spreadsheet, the first showing a carried forward (c/forward) figure and a second which indicates the total of all expenditure items and income, a sobering thought! This article details only one account spreadsheet and this simple [a template can be adjusted in many Figure 2: Formula for iteration calculation After this value is added to the spreadsheet, the spreadsheet would re-calculate. It will continue this process until the cell meets this pre-defined condition. The use of this function can be seen in the Extra Required heading where it is used to check whether the account balance is negative and if so, it adds £10.00 to that cell. Cell R[9]C[2-13] This formula is copied over to adjacent right hand cells. & File Edit Select Format Options Calculate subtle ways to increase its efficiency and to simplify its display of information such as the use of the Window function and I would be pleased to hear through this magazine any alternative suggestions. This spreadsheet used in conjunction with a Building Society or Bank Account can monitor its balance. Formula =IF (AND ([+31]C>10,RC>9.99), RC-10, IF(R[+31]1C<0.01,RC+10 This spreadsheet was originally prepared on an Apple // 7RC)) using Multiplan version 1.06 but has now been transferred to run on a Macintosh and despite the arrival of deluxe spreadsheets such as Excel, Microsoft's Multiplan is large and powerful enough to calculate humbler day to day tasks such as working out personal accounts. [Les TT im 13 Coronation Street Sewer Rate The Editor would like to hear from any member who has any useful spreadsheet templates or tips. These will be used in a new series of articles on Spreadsheets in our new look Magazine ! Spreadsheet templates are required for Appleworks, Multi-plan, Excel and Jazz. If you use any spreadsheet for any type of work send it in NOW. Coming next issue a full article of useful tips on using a spreadsheet. Figure 3: Formulae for balances and totals | Apple2000 - October 1986 The /// Magazine. We have received information from The /// Magazine, 3201 Murchison Way, Carmichael, CA95608 (tel:916-485-6525) that there is still a magazine for Apple /// Users. It is monthly and you can subscribe from the U.K. for $60. Subscription allows you also to purchase Pair Software at a lower price. They have sent details of the software but we can not photo-copy it, they have printed it in brown ! Bag of Tricks 2 P&P Micro Distributors have announced a revised version of Bag of Tricks. The new version contains four programs called TRAX, INIT, ZAP and FIXCAT If you need to modify, analyse or restore data on your 5,25,3.5 or hard disk then this is what you need. 10 il CIRTECH * Spy date The program will work under all operating systems on the Apple //, Comprehensive instructions and ‘tutorials’ to help the beginner are included in the manual. Price is £40..00 + VAT from P&P Micro Distributors Appointed Dealers. Apple2000 - October 1986 l>— rr cov Cachebo intelligent Print buffer cachebox A new intelligent printer buffer has been launched in the U.K. by those profilic manufacturers of Apple add-ons Cirtech. The Cachebox sits between the computer and printer and is compatable with most computers, printers and plotters. There are three models: Parallel, Serial (RS232) or Paralell & Serial with either 256k or 512k memory available. The prices range from £198 (Parallel 256k) to £328 (Parallel & Serial 512k). We have received one for review and this will appear in the December issue. For more details contact: Cirtech (UK) Ltd, Currie Road Industrial Estate, Galashiels, Selkirkshire, Scotland, TD1 2BP Tel: 0896-57790 NEWS fully ¢ or! the ‘eae - | 5 you s yw you te on oO = c combin aul ere ic B 3 ae aa SALES SPRO ee action rep mi aximi able for prts bt ny font avail sed for easy A comprene any bus! ines vs, Wil jrandle a transfe! ¢ data Wil other oh packages, Ne og ord pro ocessi™ ely compat ced users ades from “heir rhroug) piyth ‘Softw 1) price Lot sstomnis™ ch for wales DUE” | nomin’ | reer Fiv at's five © good good re: r HOO rest casons for t rate for hetie ing ‘eaaneomn Omnis 3 | ¥ minis 3 user. dealer atler today B mN Ale Omnniy is Onin iv eepisered! trader he tr kel erg emma FOE Nt Hold Dlobh anarseee Blyth Softw: the Benhall, pA teas Limited mite Telephone ham, Suro Telex 98’ 7015 if Resolution 64 Card A 0 A review by Dave Ward Per rrenrnrnpel Hardware RESOLUTION 64 - an 80 column card for the Apple //e and enhanced Apple //e with 64K bytes of memory. Supplier: ROSCO Ltd. 289 Birchfield Road Birmingham B20 3DD hen asked to review the Resolution 64 extended 80 column card for the Apple //e computer I said that I would be delighted to do so. Unfortunately, when the card arrived a few weeks later I had a number theory program running on my machine which had run about 10 days of an estimated 35 days! Luckily I knew an Apple //e owner who had not yet purchased an 80 column card, mainly on cost considerations, and asked if they would mind if I tried it out on their machine and as compensation try it themselves for a few weeks. Four days later I received a message requesting that I return and collect the card . Being a little surprised | returned to collect the card and was told that it did everything that they required and so they had purchased one of their own and therefore had no use for the review card! The Resolution 64 card is about the smallest Apple card I have ever seen, It is certainly smaller than any other 80 column card with or without the extra 64K of ram memory. The card measures just 8cms long by 5.Scms and has only 4 chips on it. The card and manual are packed in a rather large foam polystyrene box in a cardboard outer. There are two reasons for purchasing the Resolution 64, one is that many of the programs for the Apple //e require that you use 80 columns and secondly some of these programs have been enhanced so that they can make use of the extra 64K bytes of memory on board. For instance AppleWorks can only be operated in 80 columns and provides a desktop of just 10K if the extra memory is not present. However, AppleWorks recognises the Resolution 64 and automatically provides a desktop of 55K bytes! ProDOS too recognises the extra 64K bytes of memory and automatically configures this to a ramdisk of about 60K. Apple2000 - October 1986 Soon after the introduction of the Apple //e computer in 1983, double hi-resolution graphics were made available to machines with an extended 80 column card. Since then many graphics packages and certain adventure games support this feature, making the installation of an extended 80 column card well worthwhile. Resolution 64 supports double hi-resolution graphics. The only problem occurs if your Apple //e has a revision A motherboard, apparently these are as rare as 1933 pennies, but should you have one (revision A motherboard that is) the manual informs you clearly how to proceed. This, by the way, is a problem with all 80 column cards for the Apple //e computer. I have tested the Resolution 64 in both an Apple //e and an Apple //e enhanced. As far as I can tell there is no difference between Resolution 64 and two other high quality extended 80 column cards. The 80 column screen produced by Resolution 64 is crisp and flicker-free with Pascal, CP/M, AppleWorks, AppleWriter, Zardax, Format 80 and many others. The Manual is well written and clearly describes the installation and features of the 80 column card. For a mere £55 you cannot go wrong! In view of the miniscule size of the card perhaps the next revision will result in a reduction in height so that the card will fit flush with the top of the slot enabling us to use slot 3!!! « Apple & Education In this country Apple have never been as dominant in the educational field as they are in the States. There has been a lot of compctition from the 'BBC’ and of course many education authorities have insisted on buying British even when an extraordinarily high proportion of the parts are made in the Far But there are several reasons why some teachers have chosen the Apple route and have stayed with it. 1. Its a hardy, reliable machine. 2. Most of the software is upwardly mobile. (ie. if you buy a newer machine the program still works). 3. There's a great deal of supporting hardware. 4. There are several user groups with educational sections. OK, but what do they do with one when they've got one? The main usage is obviously in the classroom but an Apple will happily run the timetabling, maintain the accounts and the student records, prepare hand-outs and OHP's whilst keeping an eye on temperatures and pressures in the lab. It's a versatile beast! In the future this column will be devoted to examining some of the new software and hardware available, looking into different ways the computer can be used in schools and colleges and putting forward some of your ideas and thoughts on the education scene. @ = Humour APPLEBITS a Computer Glossary Ewen Wannop = BOOT. To boot a machine, is to kick it into submission when it fails to start first time, BACKUP. To give a copy of the original copy protected disc to a third person, to keep for you in a remote place. SOFTWARE. So called because the discs can be sat upon without breaking. HARDWARE. So called because they hurt the foot when Booted. ENHANCED. A term applied to the updating of a machine so it will not run your present software. COPY PROTECTION. So called because it protects you from even the remote Possibility of copying the master disc. When the disc is then sat upon (see Software), it costs you an excessive amount in Customs duties. UNIDISC. So named because it is unclear if it takes 5.25 or 3.5 inch discs. MACHINE LANGUAGE. The language used to address a malfunctioning computer. HARD DRIVE. So called, because when it goes wrong it is very hard to retrieve the lost data. DATABASE. A name given to an adventure game that is impossible to solve, KEYPAD, Something where you keep your little bit on the side. WIMP. A person who keeps mice for a hobby. PORT. A glass of this speeds up your typing while on-line to the Force. BAUD. A name used to describe a juicy piece of Clip Art. APPLEWORKS. What we all hope for in the morning. BUG. What software writers introduce to programs to keep you on your toes. FANFOLD PAPER. So called because it fans all over the place instead of folding neatly. SINGLE SIDED. A double sided disc with only one notch. TRACK, The groove cut in a disc surface by a wor disc drive head. DISC BOX. A plastic box overfilled with discs you will never use again. ONE WAY OF GETTING AN 80 COLUMN DISPLAY INSTANTLY AUTO-SCREEN 80 It's amazing the lengths to which some people go and prices they pay to get a sharp 80 column display on the Apple ][, ][+ and Eroplus. Rosco now have the complete answer - AUTO-SCREEN 80. The on-board softswitch will instantly take you from the 40 column screen to the 80 and back again, without any lead changing. The display is sharp and pleasing to the eye. Upper and lower case characters are available in normal and inverse, and the card is compatible with all 80 column applications. All this plus a comprehensive manual, 12 months warranty, customer support and a price tag of a mere £44 goes to show AUTO-SCREEN 80 is the complete answer to the 80 column problem. amy“ DEALER HOTLINE (021) 356 3828 Rosco Ltd, 289 Birchfield Road, Birmingham B20 3DD. Tel: (021) 356 7402. Apple2000 - October 1986 75; Disk Operating Systems DISC ZAPS AND ALL THAT (Part 5) Let your fingers do the walking .. the Prodos Directory. A $ you will have already seen, Prodos is considerably more powerful than its predecessor DOS 3.3. It has a greater flexibility built in to itself, and has very few rigidly defined values in its disc structure. This allows devices of very different kinds to be easily attached. Most devices will however follow the normal structure that we see on a standard 5.25 inch disc. I have not yet had experience of a 3.5 inch Unidise drive, so the following notes refer mainly to the structure of a 5.25 inch disc. The required information is there however, for you to see how any other device is handled. If you are using a DOS 3.3 disc zap, such as DISK MANAGER from the library, you will need to translate the Prodos block numbers into DOS 3.3 sectors. Refer to article number 4 in the August issue of Apple2000. Blocks 0-2 on a Prodos disc are unique. Block 0 is the boot image needed to load Prodos. Block 1 is reserved for, but need not contain, a boot image for SOS on an Apple ///. Block 2 is always the first block of the Prodos directory, and contains all the pointers necessary to define the disc structure. The first block of any directory, whether the main Volume directory or a Sub directory, is also unique in its construction. It may also be the only block, if required, to save disc space. Each block of any directory has the first four bytes 0-3 reserved for pointing to the other blocks in that directory. The first two, 0-1 point backwards, and the second pair, 2-3 point forwards. If either of these pairs is zeroed, then it indicates the end of the chain. So the first block will always have the first two zeroed, and the last block will always have the second pair zeroed, A directory with only a single block, would have both pairs zeroed. You will find that in every case where a block number is to be pointed to, there will be a pair of bytes. This allows block numbers up to 65535. Remembering that blocks have 512 bytes of data, this gives a possible volume of 32 megabytes. Quite ample for most purposes! The next $27 bytes of the first block are rigidily defined, and describe the Volume Directory Header. This is then followed by the file entries, which are usually $27 bytes long, but as you will see may be of any length. These bytes are defined as follows. For convienence | will refer to their offset from the start of the block, ie. the first byte of the entry will be offset w. OFFSET $04 Storage type and name length. The top four bits describe the entry type, in this case $F as it is a volume directory. The bottom four bits are the length of the Volume name, this means a maximum of 15 characters. $05-$13 Volume name of length pointed to by previous byte. Max 15 bytes. Garbage fills the rest of the entry. All volume and filenames are entered with the Hi-bit off. $14-$1B Reserved, Usually zeroes. $IC-$IF Date and time of creation. Zero if no date was By EWEN WANNOP ==! written, The bytes are a packed form of the date. Each bit has the following representation: BYTE 0-1 yyyyyyymmmmddddd year/month/day BYTE 2-3 OO0OhhhhhOOmmmmmm hours/minutes These bytes should be read with the highest bit to the left, so the y/m/d has byte 1 as the yyyyyyym part and byte 0 is mmmddddd. The sequences of bits should be read as a two byte HEX number. 4th July 1986 at 6 minutes past noon will therefore look like this: In decimal 86/7/4 12/6 In binary 1010110/0111/00100 +: 00001100/00000110 InHex $ACE4 $0C06 This gives four bytes 0-3 of $E4 $AC $06 $0C $20 Version number of Prodos under which the disc was formatted. Under Prodos 1 series, this has a value of 0. $21 The minimum version of Prodos that can access this volume. Usually zero. $22 Access byte. The bits refer to the access rights to the file. If set, the bits are as follows: Bit 7-Volume may be reformatted. Bit 6-Volume may be renamed . Bit 5-Volume directory has changed since last backup . Bit 1-Volume directory may be written to. Bit 0-Volume directory may be read. All other bits are reserved $23 Entry length of file entry in the directory.Usually $27. $24 Number of entries in each block. The header is included in this count. Usually $0D. $25-$26 The number of active entries in the volume directory. The Volume header is not included, but any subdirectory entries are. $27-$28 This points to the first block of the volume bit map. Usually block 6. $29-$2A The total number of blocks on this volume. On a 5.25 inch disc, this will be $0118 or 280 decimal. It is used while computing with the disc map. Using the value gained from the ‘entry length’, usually $27, we now see the filename entries ranged sequentially through the block. Remember that a block is two sectors long and should be considered as one long block of $200 bytes. You will need to wrap the entries from one sector to the next to span the break. Each filename entry is structured in a similiar way to the Volume directory header. | give the offsets in this case from the start of the entry, OFFSET $00 Storage type and name length. The bottom four bits are the length of the following filename. The top four bits refer to the type of storage of this entry: $0 Deleted entry, may be reused. $1 Seedling file, only one block. $2 Sapling file, 2-256 blocks. $3 Tree file, 257-32768 blocks 14 Apple2000 - October 1986 $D The file is in fact a subdirectory $E This is a Subdirectory Header. SF This is a Volume Directory Header. $01-$0F Filename. 15 byte max. $10 Filetype. There are a potential of 256 file types... Some 30 are defined between the SOS and Prodos systems. The main ones are: $04 - TXT file in ASCII $06 - BIN file $0F - DIR Directory file $1A - AWP Appleworks file $FC - BAS A/soft Basic file $FF - SYS Prodos Sys file $11-$12 Pointer to either the data block of a seedling file, or the first index block of any other file. If a subdirectory entry, then it points to the first directory block. $13-$14 The total number of blocks used by the file including any index blocks. If a subdirectory then the total number of directory blocks. $15-$17 Three bytes to give the position of the end of file. This is the length of a sequential file in bytes. This gives a maximum size of 16 megabytes to a file. This will not give the correct length of a random access file. $18-$1B Creation date and time encoded as before. $1C The version number of Prodos that created this file. $1D The minimum version of Prodos which can access file. $1E Access rights to the file. Bit assignments as follows: Bit 7 File may be deleted. Bit 6 File may be renamed. Bit 5 File has altered since backup. Bit 1 Fle may be written to. Bit 0 File may be read. All other bits reserved. In an unlocked file that you can read/write to this will be $C3 $1F-$20 Depending on the file type, these (wo bytes will represent various parameters. TXT - Random access record length BIN - Load address of the binary file BAS - Load address of the program SYS - Load address of the System program, usually $2000 $21-$24 Date and time of last modification. $25-$26 The block number of the Directory Header block that describes this file. As you will now have seen ProDOS really is an extremely powerful system. It holds much more information in its directory than any other disc system for the Apple II. It is interesting to note that Subdirectory entries look like actual file entries. In fact this flexible construction runs through the whole system. There is a considerable amount of echoed structure, subdirectories for instance are virtually the same as the main directory. The directory itself is seen as a file by Prodos and it is possible to open and read a directory from the MLI as though it was itself a file. This is the method you would use if you wished to display a Catalog from a program. Prodos itself does not actually provide this function. The files themselves other than a single block seedling file, will always have one or more Index blocks. As of course Prodos does not know the length of file until it is closed, you will find that the first block reached on free disc space, will always be a data file. On any other file than a seedling file, Prodos will need to provide pointers to the other blocks, and so _____ Apple2000 - October 1986 makes a sapling file by creating the first Index block. It then follows this block with further data blocks. If the Index block is filled up, then a tree file is needed and more Index blocks must be added. A Master Index block is then created to point to all the Index blocks, and the directory altered accordingly to show a tree file. The two byte pointer to the key block will now point to this master index block. An Index block itself is interesting in its construction. It must of course consist of pointer pairs to block numbers. However to make program- ming easier, the least significant byte is placed in the lower half of the block, and the most significant byte in the same position in the upper half. All the data blocks of files are constructed in the same way, there are no bytes describing length or load address as in DOS 3.3. The hi-bit is not normally set on text files. There are however some peculiar file constructions amongst the special file types. Have a look at an AppleWorks AWP text file for example. I was going to discuss the MLI in this article, however I think you have had plenty to digest so far, so will leave it till next time. Happy zapping « eieieis is COMTEC COMPUTER REPAIRS * FAST TURNAROUND - NORMALLY 2 DAYS * 3 MONTH WARRANTY * COMPETITIVE PRICES ON ALL APPLE REPAIRS AND UPGRADES EXAMPLES Apple ][ + or //e Power Supply £32 Apple }{ + or //e Motherboard £32 Apple Interface cards (most makes) £25 Disk Drives - cleaned/aligned £25 Please ring for other prices or post equipment for free estimate. Quantity discount available. Prices include P+P and 15% VAT Also MACINTOSH UPGRADES 128k to 512k 128/512k to MACINTOSH PLUS RING FOR MOST COMPETITIVE PRICES. COMTEC, ST GEORGE'S MILL, 3 ST GEORGE'S STREET, MACCLESFIELD, CHESHIRE, SK11 6TG Tel (0625) 34691 Software Review The Chameleon A file transfer tool. By Tony Game I n the current wave of euphoria about the imminent new machines from Apple, it is very easy to forget that progress in software matters is every bit as significant to the user, even if itis not so obviously exciting. I remember once, years ago, needing badly to convert a Wordstar file to AppleWriter text. I sat down with Bag of Tricks booted up, and after studying the manual for a very long time eventually came up with a macro which I believe did the job, and which I suppose T still have somewhere. I can remember nothing about how successful the conversion was. Someday I expect I shall discover the macro lurking on its disk and chuckle to myself as I delete it. Ewen Wannop, the author of Data Highway in case anyone does not know, has waved his magic assembler yet again, and produced a program aptly called The Chameleon, and a program of many changing colours it certainly is! One of the great strengths of the Apple is the fact that it can run a number of different operating systems. As one progresses from basic to Pascal, and then CP/M, taking on ProDOS on the way, one tends to forget just how useful a facility this is, and how few other machines in fact have it, It does however bring problems with it. All these operating systems use their own file formats and structures, and transferring from one to the other tends to be difficult if not impossible. That is until now and the advent of The Chameleon. With a single boot, because it is memory resident, though you will need 64k, this miracle, with a few key strokes, will allow you to convert any disk file in Apple format, from any Apple operating system to another. This means CP/M, Pascal, SOS, ProDOS and of course the evergreen DOS 3.3. The only other program I have seen which sets out to attempt this, requires One to shuffle disks in and out of the drives like a demented postman, and even then manages to turn wordstar files into DOS binary files! Even the ProDOS convert program is much slower and harder to use than this one. In short at the price it is now being offered to Apple2000 members no-one can possibly afford to be without it. The Chameleon comes on a single disk with the program, which runs under ProDOS, on one side, and detailed instructions in a DOS text file on the reverse. The instructions can be printed out or read to the screen, and will be needed eventually, though in the early stages the program is so easy to use that the menus themselves will be enough, Ideally AppleWriter should be used to produce a print out of the ten page manual, I shall not attempt an explanation of the actual working of the program since this will inevitably make a very simple process sound complex. Suffice it to say that all is menu driven, and that the menus are descriptive and easy to follow. They use the arrow keys and space bar to choose options, and the key board is seldom touched. The program is basically intended for the transfer of text files which is what generally needs to be done, but in fact it is perfectly possible to swap binary files around if one wishes to do so for any reason. This needs a little knowledge of when high bits are set or not set, but have no fear, the instructions make all this eminently understandable. An example of when this facility is uniquely useful, is when one has downloaded a binary file from a bulletin board, and to one's horror finds it on one's disk as a text file. | know no other way in which one can easily correct this situation, on which I have spent hours before The Chameleon appeared on the scene. The text file transfers are perfectly simple and work beautifully. Anyone using Dark Star's shuttle with CP/M in one memory chunk, and ProDOS in another, could now have the Chameleon in a third, and convert files in a matter of minutes with an almost unbelievable simplicity. As with all good programs the simple options are backed up by those which are more complicated and require a greater study. One of the menus is called Special Options and although this will not allow you to turn a 5.25 inch disk into an 8 inch one, it will do practically anything else! Normally the program recognises the disk types quite automatically, and you are not involved in the process at all. However you can opt to take over if you wish and tell the program to do many exotic things, including the aforementioned changing of a text file into a binary file. Some study of the instructions is required here but is extremely worthwhile. For instance it is possible to change a DOS text file into a Wordstar file, changing all the single hard returns into soft returns. Anyone who has struggled to take the hard returns out of a Wordstar file in order to reformat it will presumably rush their cheque to Apple2000 for The Chameleon on just reading this. I know of no other facility for doing it. Pascal and ProDOS files may be read from, or transferred to unusual devices such as ram disks and hard disks, but this does not extend to DOS or CP/M, where the file structures differ according to the storage media. However a transfer could of course be made to a standard 5.25 disk, and then copied onto the other medium. ProDOS produces large numbers of unusual file types, as shown by their various suffixes. Appleworks in particular uses unusual formats for its files. These may be copied into other Operating systems, although it may be useful to first print them as disk files, but the reverse does not apply. That is to say a DOS or CP/M text file cannot be turned into an Appleworks file. It seems that this is something that is next door to impossible to accomplish, In fact it seems to be about the only limitation I have realistically found to The Chameleon, which is useful since a reviewer likes to manage at least one! This program would be a bargain at many times the asking price. I suggest you send off for your copy at once, even if you have no need for it just at the moment. The time will come when you will have, and when it does come it is likely to be urgent! I speak from bitter experience. @ beleleieieleleieielelei ei! 16 __ Apple2000 - October 1986 == Database - Omnis CONVERSION TO OMNIS3 ON THE MAC A Users's experience of Omnis and the change from Apple // to Mac. By Keith Chamberlain AS some of you may know, during October 1985 the club membership database was converted from D.B. Master to Omnis2, both running on an Apple II+ with three disc drives. Because of the different amounts of infor-mation required in the new database the information was transferred by typing it in from a printed listing, which involved both considerable time and the inevitable typo's. It soon became apparent (running Omnis2 with only 3 disc drives and the amount of data held) that the system was becoming unmanageable and cither a hard disc or a different machine would be required. In February 1986 I became the proud owner of a 512k Mac with an Imagewriter II, 800K external drive and Omnis3 (donated by Blyth), and therefore set about the task of setting up a new database on the Mac. The information required by the Mac was identical to that held on the }[+, I decided to find an easier way of converting the data. Armed with Omnis2, Chameleon, Data Highway II, Mac- terminal, Omnis3 and a cable connecting Apple )[+ to the Mac I set about the conversion, From the Utilities on Omnis2 I was able to create DIF files in Pascal format and decided to split the size of each file thus creating 15 small files AB, CD, etc. This was due to the length of time it takes to transmit files between machines and my fears of power cuts during transmission. I needed to convert the resulting Pascal text files to DOS text files for transmission by Data Highway. I chose Chameleon for this task. I will not go into the details of the conversion (this is covered on page 16) but the end result was 15 DOS text files, produced in a very short time. Using Data Highway, Mastercard and a serial cable the files were sent in turn through the Mac modem port into Mac- terminal. Eventually 15 Mac text files were produced. This was the longest part of the process taking about six hours, so you can see my worry over transmitting long files. The final leg was now to use the option to insert records from a DIF file in the Omnis3 utilities menu and the new database was complete. The complete process took about 20 hours, but unlike the manual method, I was able to let the machines do all the tedious work while amusing myself gardening ( a boring but necessary task ). The end result has slowl: transformed my life, the power and speed of Omnis3 is a bonus I could not have imagined. The upkeep of the database has decreased from about 40 hours per month to about 20 hours per month, I hope Jim does not read this or he will find work for me elsewhere. & Ed: I have noted that you arc now available for more work !!! PERIPHERAL SOFTWARE FORMAT 80 Enhanced £99 CARDS Flasheale 00 BASE Il $290 VISION Ormbota Dstalio Sofware POA ‘Colour Modulator ‘Systematics (per package) 219 + sound for ‘ia £25 Decathlon eS PAL tor usewth colour TV for £62 ‘Super Expander £19 RESOLUTION (80 co! 70) 228 ‘Super Expander 80 23 RESOLUTION 6¢ ‘Super Expander 802 ox (@ 001 & Bak RAM) £55 ‘Screen Director tor App Ii £75 SCREEN 80 fori 29 PRASO Ill for Ape Ill £19 NEW AUTO SCREEN 80tor!] 44 DMS C12 RGB tor lhoriie us ACCESSORIES Graphic Mouse + Software £59 PRINTER CARDS Numeric Keypad for ie £24 Paragraph cards are CP/M. Pascal, Power Scocly £59 DOS and ProDos compatible wth full ‘AC Coaling Fan 24 graphic dump faciitios ey PARAGRAPH Oe cass Printor + 16k £70 Onieee Peirce ae - Wabash SS/SD (10) 13 SorialCommunication us Debtes PACT Serial Printor 22 S202 Sorial Cabo (2m) 14 Dataife SS/00 (10) 019 DISK DRIVES MEMORY EXPANSION 16k RAM CARO For Il 93 cols Nocipaite dere 420K RAM CARO For £95 Wapenese TEAC mechanism) £99 0 COLUMN + 64k For “ie £55 ee ae MULTIRAM ie 256 £179 ask rive £109 MULTIRAM i/o 512k £219 MULTIRAM i/o 768k £259 MONITORS MULTIRAM /ic 256k £229 KAGA MULTIRAM Jic 512k £209 JZ HIRES (green or amber) £109 MULTIRAM RGB 2564 e219 14" Colour from 209 MULTIRAM RGB 512% £259 MULTIRAM RGB 1MB £399 DATA SWITCHES 650816 for ‘io £159 PARALLEL. all 36 ines switched, 650816 for ic £149 ‘Two way communication 1102 £49 INTERFACING & CONTROL 1103 £59 EEE488 £79 1104 £69 ‘Clock Card (batiery back-up) fsa Croce Over £69 Za0 Cecuh Erasstor e198 Printor Buttor 64h 149 ‘Ato D (16 channel 8 bi) £59 Ato DD 10 ADM) as SERIAL. two way comunication VO Card (4 ponsi2 timers) £99 AS r= Ste nao Be ea Pe PAL Programmer Care 29 oy 4 Logic Analyser Card 209 pula ro Others ZB0.CPIM (Ir /o) 35 Disk Controlier 28 EPROM writer up to 2764'e 47 EPROM writer up to 27128 75 EPROM writer up to 272563 099 PRINTERS EPSON Lx80 e199 FX85 £359 FX105. 479 . ERI oe DEALER KAGA 1ES ee ee enauines KP910 (132 Column NLQ) oma WON DEALER HOT LINE (021) 356 3828 {> Rosco Ltd Tel: (021) 356 7402. | 289 Birchfield Road, { Birmingham B20 3DD. =— Telex: 334303 TXAGWMG “Apple® is the Trade Mark of Apple Computer Inc. Apple2000 - October 1986 17 Appleworks Letter Quality Printing with AppleWorks and the Epson FX80 I just switched from Homeword to Appleworks for word processing. Homeword was too much like a toy and I wanted a word processing program that would take full advantage of all the print enhancements available on my Epson FX-80 dot matrix printer. Appleworks was very disappointing. The most obvious problem was that it would not print consistently with my Grappler+ interface card and the Epson FX-80 dot matrix printer. It seems that Apple did not program AppleWorks for non-Apple parallel interface cards. Fortunately, Walt Mossberg published a fix for these problems in the November 1984 Washington Apple Pi Journal. After putting Walt's fixes into AppleWorks I was still disappointed. Although | could print in 6 widths from 5 to 17 characters per inch, none of the printing was "letter quality." The FX-80 printer provides three degrees of boldface but AppleWorks used none of them except for “emphasized” type which was available at 5 and 10 characters per inch. There were no italic typefaces at all and it was not possible to change type sizes within a paragraph. This last problem not only ruined the fun of using type size for emphasis, it also meant that superscripts and subscripts had to be the same width as the other characters on the line even though they were only half as tall. (In fairness to AppleWorks I must say that there is one "letter quality" type style available - proportional. However, proportional is not useful for technical work because the columns do not line up and there are no boldface, superscripts or subscripts. These are limitations of the Epson FX-80 dot matrix printer, not AppleWorks.) A (probably) harmless peculiarity was that I could intermix paragraphs printed with different type styles freely except that proportional could not follow 6 or 12 characters per inch. A solution for most of the above problems would be for Appleworks to send user-defined strings to the printer, but AppleWorks does not provide this capability - at least not explicitly. AppleWorks does provide for user-defined custom printers. Appropriate use of that customization feature can allow your FX-80 printer to produce "letter quality” print, Italics, continuing boldface (in everything except proportional spacing), and intermix proportionally typed paragraphs with other paragraphs at random. It will even make superscripts with width in proportion to their height. About the only feature I have not been able to obtain is the intermixing of different type sizes within the same paragraph. Here's how I did it: (If you have any trouble following these instructions, see Appendix B, pp 281-293, AppleWorks Reference Manual.) Go to the "Add a Printer" menu. Add a custom printer. Give it a name. (I named mine "LETTER QUALITY.") Your new printer is accessed exactly the same way your old printer is; By Paul Ross - Washington Apple Pi both from the same slot - probably slot 1. This new printer does not need a line feed after each return and does accept top-of- form commands. Proceed to the "Printer Codes Menu." This is where the real work is done. A. Characters per inch. § characters per inch: Enter "ESC !( 4", (""4" is the character which ends the entry process.) These characters instruct the printer to print emphasized enlarged type when you specify 5 characters per inch in the text of the document. The AppleWorks built-in driver uses draft mode at 5 characters per inch, which is not dark enough on the page. 6 characters per inch: Enter "ESC ! ! *". This produces enlarged Elite type which is useful for material, such as speeches, to be read aloud. 8 characters per inch: Enter "ESC ! $ *". This produces enlarged condensed type. 9 characters per inch: Enter "ESC ! CTRL-H ESC 4", This produces emphasized Italic type at 10 characters per inch. This is your new "global Italics" command. After you specify 9 characters per inch in a document everything will be printed in Italics for the rest of the document or until you specifically tum it off. To turn on global Italics, specify 9 characters per inch in the document and print at least one character, You can then switch to any other type size you want and it will appear in Italics. If you do not switch type sizes you will get emphasized Italics at 10 characters per inch with the margins just a little off. To get the margins just right, specify 9 characters per inch; print a single period; and then specify 10 characters per inch. You must actually print a character; just a space or return will not turn on the Italics. If you adopt this global Italic feature, you must also have “local” Italics (see below) because the only way to turn global Italics off is to turn local Italics on and off in immediate succession. 10 characters per inch: Enter "ESC ! CIRL-H *". This produces emphasized (letter quality) Pica type. It will be the AppleWorks default typeface. This is not true letter quality but it's as close as you can come on the FX-80. 11 characters per inch: Enter "ESC ! CTRL-@ ESC p 1 “". (Note the lower case "p".) This produces proportional typing at about 10.2 actual characters per inch. 18 ~__ Apple2000 - October 1986 12 characters per inch: Enter "ESC ! CTRL-A *", This produces standard Elite type which prints quickly and looks good but is a little small for my old eyes, This is the same as with the AppleWorks driver except that boldface works with this. 17 characters per inch: Enter "ESC ! CTRL-F *". Produces condensed type. B. Lines per inch. 6 Lines per inch: "ESC 2 “" (Remember, "*" is the indication that you are through making entries.) 8 Lines per inch: "ESCO", C. Boldface - Superscript - Subscript. Boldface: Boldface begin: "ESC G “". Boldface end: "ESC H *". These codes will produce boldface with type sizes 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17 characters per inch - everything except 11 characters per inch. (proportional), In contrast to the boldface supplied in the AppleWorks driver, this boldface will continue to the end of the paragraph or until specifically ended. Superscript: Superscript begin: "ESC SO 4". Superscript end: "ESC T ", Superscripting terminates at the end of the line or when specifically ended. These superscripts are the same width as the rest of the characters on the line; that keeps the right justifications correct. If you rarely right justify, usually use 10 characters per inch, and you would like superscripts that are appropriately proportioned according to their height, try: Superscript begin: "ESC ! CTRL-F ESC SO “". Superscript end: "ESC T ESC ! CTRL-H “". This begin command installs narrow characters when superscripting is started. When superscripting ends the printer does not have any way to know what width you were using before and so it reverts to 10 characters per inch. This is rather useful for equations but only if you are using the 10 characters per inch typeface. Subscript: Subscript begin: "ESC 4 *". Subscript end: "ESC 5 *". This produces Italics, not subscripts; this is how I get ‘local’ Italics. These Italics appear in whatever typesize and boldface is in effect when you tum them on. Like super-scripting, this will not continue beyond the end of the line so it is not auseful way to get Italics for more than a few words. These characters are also required in order to turn off global Italics which are set by specifying 9 characters per inch, above; use ‘subscript begin’ followed immediately by ‘subscript end’. (If you want real subscripts use "ESC $ 1 “" to begin ant "ESC T * wo end. If you set this up for real subscripts there is no way to turn off the ‘global’ Italics set by specifying 9 characters per inch, above.) D. Underlining Choose option 2, "Printer has start/stop underline commands.” For underline begin, Enter "ESC - CTRL-A *". For underline end, Enter "ESC - CTRL-@ *". Note the '-' following the ESCAPE. Underlining and boldface are the only actions that continue beyond the end of a line; if not specifically ended both will continue to the end of the paragraph. That's all there is to it. After you have installed this driver into AppleWorks, it will ask where you want to print the document, Old Name or LETTER QUALITY? If you specify LETTER QUALITY you will get 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 17 characters per inch of nicely matched type including Italics - all of which is more or less letter quality and can be boldfaced , italicized, superscripted, and underlined. Boldface and underline will stay in effect until the end of the paragraph if not specifically ended. Remember, you get ‘global’ Italic type by specifying 9 characters per inch and printing at least one character before you switch type sizes. You tum off global Italics by turning ‘local’ Italics on then off. Local Italics have replaced subscripts. You also get letter quality proportional spacing by specifying 11 characters per inch but proportional cannot be boldfaced or superscripted. This is the first in an occasional series of articles which we shall be publishing from our friends in Washington Apple Pi. We hope you like the new idea. Ed... & acceccing The Force, Bulletin Boards, Data Bases, ete from App Hand Macinioxn UC ARPLE IN Demonstration of new Appie IX machine ‘due to be announced in September jal, Magiale Apple2000 - October 1986 19 = Utility Review DMP UTILITIES By Harry Gardiner. CUSTOM CHARACTER SETS FOR THE FX-80 T he Vilberg Brothers in the USA have produced a package to exploit a little used feature of Epson's FX-80 printer. Their DMP Utilities program allows you to download a variety of twenty ready made character sets into the printers memory or you can create your own sets. Getting started with DMP is fairly simple. First make a working copy by COPYA. Next read the first sections of the manual to check how to configure the disk for your printer interface card. This is important as certain interfaces could ruin the program if you do not use their special configure routine. Fonts come on side two of the program disk. Specialist character sets are - Phonetic, Greek, and NEC. The others are a variety of different styles of font. In addition to these, DMP Utilities includes ‘foreign’ character scts for each font. French, German, Danish, Spanish, Swedish and real English. To these, Vilberg Brothers have also added the characters to enable Standard Epson print command codes to be used such as enlarged, condensed, emphasised, double-strike, Super-script, sub-script and of course, underlining. Some codes are incompatible with each other, in true Epson style. For example Proportional spacing cannot be used with 12 characters to the inch as in the “elite” font. My first problem came with the Epson printer card and 1 found the program would not work with it. Apparently these cards are not sold in the States so the program was not configured for them. Frustrated, I borrowed a Tymac PPC 100 printer card, and things thereafter went very smoothly, Other printer cards are supported and they include the Fingerprint, Grappler+, Microvitek, MPC AP-80, PKASO, Prometheus, Seriall, Skyman and Wizzard. The manual gives advice if your card is not compatible, - but you will need to understand ‘status bytes' and the like. Program menus are good and operate by the items selected being highlighted by an inverse bar. A small sub-menu appears at the bottom of the screen. Several menus are offered. Firstly setting up for printing (which font etc.), Next, editing/creating a font and lastly converting into DMP form one of the many hi- tes fonts available with the Applesoft Toolkit Editor, or the Higher Text II Editor. The Set Up Printer menu is very comprehensive, allowing you to control the number of characters printed per inch, the left margin, the number of lines per inch, lines per page, print enhancement ( bold, double-strike, etc.), national character set, fonts held in computer memory ( two ). You can change these settings, save them to the program disk, or load a setting from disk. 20 Working your way through the menus is fine but learning by exploring would improve if the escape key were to be Programmed to take you back to the item you previously chose. Another problem is the long time taken to load the program overlays and the font sets. Most users will only load one character set, but it took me hours to load and print several, using DMP and then a word-processor. The manual recommends Diversi-Dos. However if you have a hard disk or memory card it would speed things up considerably. CONCLUSIONS At £39.95 + VAT you can have a lot of printing fun or tailor-make those one or two special characters you always wanted. As the copyright date is 1983 I wondered if the Vilberg Brothers have done anything since for the 24 pin NEC P6 printer or 27 pin Epson LQ1500. Some of the slightly rough edges of the characters I saw could be smoothed out by those smaller pins, The character editing was well set out and carefully organised. However a demo printing out all variations of each set would help sell this interesting and attractive product. Overall I was impressed. It put some of the power of the Mac into an Apple II - Epson combination. @ Program loaned for review by: MGA Microsystems, 140 High St. Tenterden, Kent j= Quick Tip ProDOS patch ProDOS will not normally run on non-Apple machines because of a routine in the startup sequence which checks to see what computer is present. This may be simply overcome by applying a patch to the disk, and then ProDOS and programs like AppleWorks (via PlusWorks) will run on the Basis, Franklin, and other compatibles. Using a sector editor (Disk Manager will do nicely), and working with a copy of the disk NOT the original, find the occurrence of the following bytes on Track 1 and replace with NOP's:- From Toe fa) AE B3 FB AZ BA EA (p) 69 0B DO 03 = 69: OB EA EA Depending on the version of ProDOS you are patching, these bytes will be in different sectors:- version rack Sector Offset change 1.0 a1 c 57 (a) on A FC tp) 1.0.2 02 ¢ B4 (a) 01 9 59 (b) 1.1 01 a oe fa) 2 9 9c (b) « o «» Two for the Price of One? ~ rd» DMS 20SHD The DMS 20SHD 20 MByte SCSI Hard Disk has been designed to provide an economical mass storage device for the Apple Macintosh Plus computer and is a stand alone unit. * Uses Latest SCSI Parallel Port and Protocols * Economical low cost, designed and built by DMS in the UK * Plugs into the Macintosh SCSI port * No Pre Boot Disk - It boots straight in with HFS & Finder 5,3 * Can be used as a shared disk on the AppleTalk Network using MacServe * Housed in a robust attractive case * Uses its’ own internal power supply operating off 240V or 110V Why pay nearly £1500 for other hard disks when for a limited period, whilst initial stocks last, we are selling our DMS 20SHD at £750 + VAT. With MacServe software - £950 + VAT. With MultiUser Omnis 3 Plus (2-5 users) - £1600 + VAT. Send full remittance to DMS who will despatch your unit carriage free in the UK. Please add £15 for overseas carriage. DMS SABRU The DMS SABRU, Stand Alone Barcode Reading Unit reads practically all world wide barcodes automatically. It sends the characters out via either a serial or parallel port - enables it to be used with most computers. Designed and built by DMS in the UK, No other barcode reader combines all these features at the same price. * Reads 8 & 13 digit EANA, 13 digit ISBN, 12 Digit UPCA, 6 digit UPC- E (with or without 2 and 5 digit price addons), 14 ITF, Variable length 3 of 9, 2 of 7, Monarch, Codabar, 2 of 5 Industrial, 2 of 5 Matrix, 2 of 5 Interleaved and Plessey * Serial, DTR or Xon Xoff at 300, 1200, 2400, 4800 Baud Rates * Diagnostic Barcode Read Facility * Self contained with its' own CPU * Metal Bodied, Sapphire Tipped, High Definition Industrial Barwand * Scans forwards or backwards * Parallel Centronics Port — * 240V or 110V operation The cost of the DMS SABRU including Wand is £460 + VAT carriage free in the UK. Please add £10 for overseas carriage. The DMS SEALER is ideal for all businesses, Use it to shrink wrap and professionally seal DMS SEALER your products. The cost of the DMS Sealer including 1 Roll of 14" Wide film is “% £200 + delivery of £15 in the UK + VAT. Please add £30 for delivery overseas. QUIK CIRCUIT This is professional PCB drafting software for the Macintosh computer and outputs to a plotter. Create Libraries of Layouts and produce Multi Layer boards. The cost of Quik Circuit software is £695 + VAT, carriage free in the UK. Please add £10 for delivery overseas. Complete Hardware/Software System - £4,595 + VAT. Why pay £11,000+ for PC systems? Coming Sorn The DMS Point of Sale System - DMS POS This is based around a MacPlus with our DMS 20SHD and DMS SABRU, Tally printer, Till and ImageWriter II printer to provide a FULLY INTEGRATED SYSTEM using Barcodes as data input for high speed Till use. The system includes the following features: Open Ended Invoicing (eg for Hotels and Professional Practises), Point of Sale Invoicing supporting up to 25 Macintoshes and Tills for Multiuser supermarket use. Facility to give detailed Till Messages + VAT Analysis (for cash and carry) or abbreviated till receipts (for general stores), Message Lines on the receipts for advertising, Sales Invoicing & Ledger, Telephone Sales, Statements, Stock Control & Movements, Alternative Stock Group, Back Ordering System, Reports of Stock Movements through each till (for high volume restocking procedures), Purchase Ledger, Nominal Accounts, Aged Debtors & Creditors, Job Costing, Agents Commission, Vat Returns, Balance Sheet and Management Accounts, Handles 25 Bank Accounts and 10 different Credit Cards, Cut and Paste Results to other software e.g. Excel, 2 Years Accounting on Line to ease year end procedures, supports up to 32,000 stock items and 32,000 accounts (depending on disk storage). Total ease of use. Complete system cost - £6,300 + VAT (2nd User System - £2,600 + VAT). Versions being prepared in French, German, Danish, Swedish, Spanish and Italian. This is todate the most powerful software system on the most powerful micro. The above items, plus the rest of the DMS product range, including our RGB Colour Cards for Apple //c + Apple //e, Data Capture Devices, Presfax® KeyPad, 10 Cards ete. are available direct from us. We have been established since 1973 and are the largest Apple only dealer in the North - 5 minutes off Junction 31 on the M1. We stock the full range of Apple equipment and have full showroom, training, workshops and warehousing facilities with Inhouse programmers and engineers. We would be pleased for you to visit us - telephone for directions. Send a SAE for further details. We reserve the right to alter specifications without notice DMS Electronics Ltd, Bretton Court, Manor Road, Wales Village, Sheffield, England, S31 8PD. Tel: Worksop (0909) 773399 “Apple2000 - October 1986 __ 21 = Apple // Hardware Review CIRTECH //e CP/M PLUS By Chester Kemp T he product title does not lightly trip off the tongue, but the product itself is pretty nimble! It consists of a fast Z80 card using a Z80H running at 8mHz, which implements CP/M Plus version 3,0 and runs on an Apple //e with at least 128k and a single disk drive. The package cor s of the Z80 board and 56 page User's Manual which describes installation, the new CP/M commands, Cirtech 'Toolkey' features, System Master and System utilities disks. The card is not placed in a slot, rather it is fitted on the motherboard; the 6502 chip is removed and replaced with the board, the 6502 is then plugged onto the card, finally a small clip is attached on to the PAL/HAL chip. The procedure is relatively simple and clearly explained in the manual. The temporary removal of the 80-col extended memory card from slot 3 will make it easier. Apple users have always been content with an inferior performance than on most other CP/M micros because of 6502 timing problems halving the Z80A/4mHz speed, the new Z80H is about twice as fast and further enhanced by special screen- handling (rather than using the 6502 ROM based routines). I did a series of benchmarks using Wordstar, MBASIC and dBase || against the typical Z80 Softcard: the slowest at 1.4x faster was a simple loop in MBASIC; the fastest at slightly over 2x was a screen-intensive test using Wordstar; the average was a respectable 1.7x though. Cirtech provide a patch for MBASIC to get round Microsoft's Apple-specific modifications for their Softcard but otherwise all commercial packages run without any modification whatsoever. Benchmarks can be something of a sterile game, but subjectively I felt that the improvement of performance for spreadsheets and database manipulation were very satisfying. The most dramatic improvement was in using Wordstar: on the old Softcard cursor movement was relatively sluggish, and screen refreshes tedious with even a poor typist typing faster than the processor could respond; on the Cirtech it was immediate in action and highly responsive. Cirtech have added an extra feature called 'Toolkey” which by pressing the "Closed-Apple" and a letter allows you to interrupt whatever program you are running and optionally: toggle the cursor; duplicate disks; format disks; print a snapshot of the screen. You can then carry on as if there had been no interruption. This facility can be quite useful, for example many have got disk overflow at an inopportune moment with no formatted disk available - the Toolkey gets rid of that problem. The card allows you to run CP/M 2.2 if you wish, but with the superior CP/M Plus being available why bother? CP/M-3 does not support the RAM drive so this could be an important reason to remain on the lower version, On a 128k system I did not find the RAMdrive too useful, however wict a 22 ~ Apple2000 - October 1986 larger memory then activities such as complex database access or lengthy compilations could make a significant difference. Cirtech have utilised the extra memory and provide a 12k printer buffer and a 4k auxiliary output buffer enabling printing whilst the program continues. The length of user area under CP/M is the Transient Program Area (TPA) and CP/M Plus provides 54k, which is more than the so-called 56k system under 2.20 which actually gives about 50k. Digital Research have an on-screen HELP system and this is available on the Utilities disk which gives the purpose and syntax of all commands and their various options. This system is said to be fully expandable in that it automatically recognises "Flipper", the Apple extended memory card, and supports all ProDOS storage devices such as Unidisk 3.5 and hard disk drives. [I did try the system with some Eicon 8" drives, but the Eicon disk ROM used memory locations also used by the CP/M Plus system and so no solution was directly available.] Whilst writing this, | came across Max Parrott's review of this card in Apple User (Sept.86) wherein he records that he had problems with Turbo Pascal accessing the printer - I have tested this and get no problems. CP/M Plus has a number of differences with 2.2, the most immediate and welcome is the removal of pressing control-C whenever you change disks which was always so irritating! STAT has been withdrawn and most of its dutics done by SHOW, although some of them are harnessed by an enhanced DiRectory command. DEVICE replaces CONFIG for baud rates. The maximum size for a file increased from 8mb to 32mb (big deal for most Apple users!). Most commands are more useful and friendly, eg the TYPE command stops when a screen is full rather than dashing on (although this can be deselected). CP/M Plus has a potentially useful addition for small businesses which allows you to add passwords to files. The User Manual is surprisingly informative despite its apparent brevity, The information on the commands including syntax, options and examples appear to be drawn directly from Digital Research and these are reflected in a very useful on-line HELP system on the Utility disk. Commercial packages need to be "installed" before use and you are advised to choose the Soroc 120/140 option, but this is not enough for some packages, and it would thus have been useful if the screen-handling codes had been given. For those interested in more technical access to the system you can get the CP/M Plus Programmer's Pack consisting of: a disk of utilities, a 36 page manual and a Cirtech ring binder containing three Digital Research manuals (Programmer's Guide, Programmer's Utilities Guide and Symbolic Instruction Debugger Reference Manual). The utility disk includes a normal and a relocating macro assembler and linker, an 8080 and a Z80 debugger. There are differences between 2.2 and 3.0: DDT is replaced by the more versatile SID (and ZSID for Z80 codes). DUMP has been enhanced to add ASCII translations to the hex codes, The Cirtech manual includes the CP/M Plus memory map, terminal emulation codes, various BIOS calls, some useful Apple addresses and assembler examples, etc. To summarise, it is an excellent card and package; it easily displaces my Softcard and I would recommend this to anyone interested in using CP/M packages. Open the Window on Today’s Revolution! To use today’s and tomorrow's high-power software you need more than just a simple Ramcard. The Flipper System boosts the performance of today’s programs and is equipped to take on tomorrow's. The combination of unrivalled compatibility and the versatility of the RamDesk Manager makes this system the most powerful productivity tool available for your Apple. 4 Horkfireas Slot/drive Activate Restore Backup Nase Clear With one MegaByte of low-power RAM, the Flipper system is automatically used by a growing range of today’s advanced programs such as AppleWorks, PinPoint, Mouse/PFS series, etc. \t has been designed to the new Apple standard for memory cards, and is automatically recognised by ALL ProDOS, Pascal 1.3 and CP/M + based programs, comes complete with RamDisk support for Pascal 1.1/1.2, SoftCard CP/M 2.23/2.20b and has inbuilt support for DOS 3.3. Fler RaaDesk Hanager by CTRTECH Bich heres setup do yoo uch to use? 3 m 5 | ta || he PB lorifreas Slot/crive Unleash the Potential a The deer et you sp beeen EE ccscene. shown of your Apple I % GfFerent prograas and/or eperating systens in % are from an WorkAreas in the Flipper menory. You can also enhanced 128K fd use it to Backup and Restore data to/froa Flipper Apple //e” The revolutionary RamDesk manager with its Macintosh-like window environment, lets you instantly switch between 4 005 Hork Fea 1 different programs or operating 4 Bog) Sstea- 00533 Sue- 2G Free- 0? | [7 systems WITHOUT re-booting File Nawe from disk! RamDesk can load and save data from user- a defined Program Areas to 5.25 or UniDisk 3.5 disks or ANY ProDOS compatible Hard Disk in a fraction of the normal time! All of RamDesk’s powerful features are easily —4 controlled using Mouse or keystrokes and jj ft Fal $C the unique DeskTop display lets you see jj} pnpont the full status of each Program Area. SYSTEMAPPLE NOTEFROEP SYSTEPRSCAL CALCULATOR: Suatemency col The AppleWorks Advantage The Flipper system automatically expands the DeskTop to a massive 1012K. It will even let you use AppleWorks on a 64K Apple Il +. The number of database records can be expanded to an incredible 4,200! All these features are available with ANY version of AppleWorks. The revolutionary new Flipper system is available from your nearest Apple dealer or direct from CIRTECH for only £350.00 + VAT. CORTE CH CIRTECH (UK) LTD., Currie Road Industrial Estate, Galashiols, Selkirkshire, Scotland, 101 2BP Tel: 0896 57790 Telex: 265871 (MONREF G) ATTN 84:CPD001 Source Mailbox AAHS55 supplied for use 8. Uns I Games Review Rescue Raiders By Tom Wright ==!) ir-Tech Software Inc., have supplied us with a review copy of RESCUE RAIDERS which was briefly reviewed some time ago in Apple User and A+ magazines. If the Apple User review left you thinking that RESCUE RAIDERS is just another " shoot-em-up " game I suggest that you think again. I strongly recommend this excellent game and just hope that I can pass on some of its flavour in this review. RESCUE RAIDERS can be played on any Apple // series machine with a minimum of 64k RAM, one disk drive and a two-button joystick. A colour monitor or T.V., will produce the best display but a monochrome display will suffice. A useful taining guide is provided with the game which is contained on a single disk. RESCUE RAIDERS is a strategic war simulation game set in 1944. The general scenario is that the player controls air and ground forces with which you must win eight successive battles to complete the game. Your opponents, are led by a group of time terrorists who have taken modern weapons back to 1944 with the intention of changing the course of history. You as the player have also taken similar weaponry back to 1944 in order to prevent the terrorists from achieving their objective. You will find that resource management is a major feature of this game. Both sides are evenly matched in types of weapons which include Helicopters, Tanks, Mobile Launchers, Demolition Trucks, Infantry, and Combat Engineers. During the first battles the player's helicopter is armed with guided missiles, machine guns and bombs, while the terrorists helicopter has only bombs and a machine gun. This happy situation is short lived however and by battle number two the terrorists also have guided missiles on their helicopter. In later battles both sides replace the machine guns with unguided missiles. 24 At the start of the first battle each side has a number of pillboxe