Apple 2000 Vol 2 No. 4 1987 08 BASUG GB

ple2000 NATIONAL APPLE USERS GROUP AUGUSTI987____ VOLUME2G | Sil RBS SES es es ee EM Ae ih SHO0CH The hard disk piace’, « gh a ial No Jasmine announce the first successful, reliable, affordable combination of hard disk speed = and the endless expansion and Serebars Eee) security of a race le floppy. Reliable because MegaDrive is extremely crash resistant, unlike previous attempts to achieve the elusive goal. Fast because you get SCSI performance. Expandable because each floppy is a rugged 10MB disk, toughened to protect your data against extreme mishandling, yet light enough to carry around or post. Affordable because MegaDrive is just £875, MegaDrive possibilities are limitless: lawyers, doctors, designers, artists, business users, accountants -everyone- can guarantee data security by removing their disks when they quit. And occasional users, such as students, each unable to justify his own hard disk, can easily share a drive without clogging up costly online disk space. With MegaDrive, your data library expands inexpensively. 10MB floppies allow endless storage of data, high-res scanned images, clip-art, and archived material at a far lower cost/MB than hard disks without sacrificing speed of operation or involving you in a confusing jumble of 800K disks. And LOMB is a sensible size to ensure against the soft floppy shuffle whilst you're working, MegaDrive makes a superb backup device for your hard disks. Faster and cheaper than tape when you consider your backup device is a production device, too, This ad prepared! by the Robin Ray Panrersbip with JustTeat from MacEurope MacEurop MegaDrive from e’s MegaDrive For many, security will be a key reason to choose MegaDrive. Sharing disk space always involves the risk of deliberate or accidental exposure, modification or total loss through reinitialization. MegaDrive offers the ultimate in security: the drive doesn’t exist which can read data riding around in your pocket or locked in your safe or everyone, MacEurope’s MegaDrive from Jasmine offers high performance in a compact package half the height of Apple's hard disk, with the same footprint. Careful design ensures protection extends to isolating your data from power surges, by providing full protection on all 3 power lines. And there's excellent resilience to physical shock. Every single unit is tested with real time diagnostics prior to shipping, unlike manufacturers who cut costs by testing random samples. MegaDrive is a great solution to your storage problems, It’s only available from MacEurope, Jasmine’s partners in Europe, who provide all the sales and engineering support you expect from a major manufacturer. Give Colette Fanning a ring on (01) 965 6905 for a data sheet and the nearest MacEurope dealer to you with MegaDrive to demonstrate. Demand for this successful drive is very high, so please do not delay seeing for yourself how your system can benefit from MegaDrive. MacEurope Ltd, Crown House, Abbeydale Rd, London NW10 7PN, England Tel: (01) 965 6905 Telex 265871 Ref 72:MAG20278 Apple2000 CONTENTS Po RVOLUME2 ISSUE The Editorial Team Editor Editorial 2 Jim Panks Club News 1 - Local Group Scene Tom Wright 3 Mcotnemrger - ____ Club News 2- Local Group Update —_ Tom Wright 4 Assistant Editors Club News 3 - From the Hotline Dave Ward 6 Graham Attwood PlusRam GS2 & GS8 Dave Ward 7 Keith Chamberlain : Ivan Knezovich 7 The Games some of us play Tom Wright 10 Protogtanhy, News Bytes Jim Panks 12 oid 5 aves ~~ Whats ina Language ? Dave Miller 14 Advertising —= 5 Julie Panks - Pinpoint 2.0 Nigel Bradley 16 | a ETE, ; Seria The Serial Interface - 2 Dougal Hendry 18 vere cease = (Of Hila Software Offer & GS Corner 22 Hotline Phantasie II _ Angela Wright 24 Dave Ward - iii. 2 ‘ A A , Monday - Friday shaken hours Pinpoint Spelling Checker 2.0 Nigel Bradley 25 BABBS Letters to the Editor 27 Tony Game - lita! 27aiitie The Ultimate Apple Trivia 28 side the Macintosh II Dougal Hendry 30__ Apple2000™ is a trading name of BASUG ltd, a non-profit making independent company limited by guarantee. The contents of this journal are copy- tight of BASUG Lid and/or the respective authors. Permission is granted for non- commercial reproduction providing the author and source are proporly credited and a copy of the relevant journal is sent Tne opinions and views expressed are those of the various contributors. and are not necessarily supported by BASUG. This journal |s published bi-monthly by BASUG Ltd as a benefit of membership in February, April, June, August, October and December. The copy date is the Ist day of the month preceding publication. Advertising rates are available on request, Apple™ and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Computer inc Macintosh™ is a trademark of Mcintosh Laboratory Inc and used with the express permission of the owner, Tolocom Gold™ is a trademark of British Telecom PLC. The FORCE™ and Apple2000™ are trade- marks of BASUG Ltd, LSS aaa Apple2000 P.O.Box 3, Liverpool. L21 8PY BS Gi BH ~ ij Printers: Beckenham Print Finishers @ 001-659-8617 Visualiser GS Graham Attwood 34 Looking - Up & Things Look Up Tom Wright 36 Small Adverts = 37 Mac2000 Norah Arnold 38 Learn Word 3.0) _ Irene Flaxman 40 Macintosh Library Update = a. Lets Rip open the Mac - 3 Cliff Wotton _ 44 The European Connection _ 47 MacPower - MacMemory Upgrades __ Peter Trinder_ 50 Network News _ _ 52 Some thoughts on the SE Allison Davies 53 ZBASIC Paul Russell 54 MacTel News — 55 MSC/PAL John Arnold 58 DrawArt Norah Arnold 61 Adobe Illustrator Irene Flaxman 62 Ike from TWCOW Ivan Knezovich 64 Apologies — _ 64 Advertisers Index bs 64 Copy Dates 64 Editorial Quality not Quantity ! The summer issue of your magazine is slightly thinner than normal but still contains a wide range of topics. We have sliced a few pages off so that we can try and get the publica- tion date back to its normal date - the first week of the month. I thought that the job of putting a sixty four page magazine would be easier than the normal eighty pages but this has proved to be unfounded - it still takes a lot of time. In this issue you will find two new series starting - the first is on languages and the second on Simu- lation games. The authors are new to the magazine and I welcome them both - well Tom Wright is not that new but it is a change from his normal Local Group Column, Trusty old Dougal Hendry has written part two of his piece on Serial Interfacing and this makes good reading especially if you know nothing about the hardware side. We have a major article explain. ing the Macintosh II internals and also have some inspiring stuff in the last of the 'Lets Rip open the Mac’ series, The usual crop of reviews appear from both the II section and the now renamed 'Macintosh2000' section. Hopefully you find them unbiased and useful when selecting from the vast array of software now available. Since the last issue I have had to train some new Macintosh DTP users in my own ‘firm'. The number of systems that are coming to light in some obscure areas is amazing. Our organisation has taken on a DTP system and before it had been installed a month were looking to expand it to cope with the extra work the Mac has produced. Amaz- ingly the door was never closed - members of staff kept popping in and saying 'can you do this for me ?" Needless to say the answer was 'yes' but when ? ‘The standard of presentation in our organisation has doubled and when time allows a system will have to be implemented to ensure fair use of the already overworked Mac. Page 2 Right I had beter get back on tack, so your magazine is slightly smaller but we have made some changes to keep the quality up. Much of this issue has been sct using a Beta version of PageMaker 2 and | am pleased to say that it has not fallen over once. You should see the real version 2.0 out by the time you read this, the improvements were really worth waiting for. Also a font change has taken place to make the text more readable! The editorial team is still finding difficultics in making the magazine as representative as it should be and we therefore still need input from you the membership. It would be nice to hear from some of you - maybe you have found a new use for software or have a novel applica- tion that would interest others. Whatever it is please send it in - if you are worried about your writing style - DON'T - we have ways of making it pure poetry !. While I am after some input we could do with some graphics - anything MacPaint - Illustrator or plain old hand drawn, anything that has relevance will do - how about some icons for the various sections - Apple II - Macintosh - Club News - Editorial - education - Reviews - Games - Spreadsheet - DTP - WP and the list goes on. Anything is gratefully received and acknowl- edged. The next few months look busy with the PCW Show in September, the DTP Show in October and the Mac User Show in November. We will be at PCW and hopefully at Mac User so you must look us up, I am not that happy with some of the timings of these annual shows - the Mac User Show held mid-week precludes visitors from the Midlands and the North because of the time, distance and the amount of lost work attendees would suffer. I hope that in future, the planning of such events take into account those that live outside the Home Counties, € eee Jim Panks Comment Prices - Support - Prices The marketing men will tell you that the British Marketplace will stand substantially higher prices than elsewhere in the world. And if you have ever compared prices you will see that many companies take advantage of this situation - some- times to the extreme. The Apple User has been at the forefront of this policy for almost a decade now- the Apple II was overpriced for longer - the software aquired a 60-200% increase on the US price and still this trend goes on. 1 at first thought that it was greed but have now changed my opinion and would call it 'fraud' - we pay more for less - most products from the States and exported has less value - the reason is that here in the good old U.K. we do not get the same value in support. Phone Microsoft or any of the other major U.S. Software houses with offices in the U.K. If they answer, you will be given a straight 'I dont know’ or you will get the company shuffle, yes you know, the pass the buck, so and. so will know. A glimmer of hope is on the horizon - firstly SuperMac Technologies have opened up in the UK and are setting up a massive supportware depart- ment - the second is with small mail- order houses selling sofiware direct at almost U.S. rates - and there are the reasonable distributors like MacEurope and Heyden who are playing as fair as they can. So my comment is that the member- ship should show support to the reasonable members of the trade - the ones that support users and do not just care about the profit side - 1 am not advocating buying CHEAP - I am advocating FAIRNESS in PRICING with reasonable SUPPORT. Why rip off users now - you may need them in a few years and people that have been ripped off remember, Do you have a comment that | represents the USERS point or are you a member of the TRADE who would like to reply - if so please take an opportunity to air your views - write to the editor now. Local Group News Tom Wright updates the local group scene and gives some useful tips. So there I was a few weeks back wondering how long it would take us to reach 30 in our listing of local groups/clubs. In the last issue we actually reported 27 group contacts with the introduction of the Crewe Computer Users Club and the Essex Mac Group; this issue apart from correcting the title of the Essex Mac Group to South East Essex Mac Group. I also have to correct a misunderstanding about the Apple I Programmers Club. Philip Dixon, who started the Apple Il Programmers Club, has corrected my error by pointing out that the club is still running as a newsletter based club which does not hold meetings. A2PC is intended to provide a forum for programmers throughout the country not just within Northumbria, and the club is progressing very well to date. North East Apple User Group is actually the group that I have previously reported as A2PC and is a separate organization (although Philip is also largely responsible for the appearance of this group as well. The North East Apple User Group is a Local Group holding regular meetings and is now in- cluded in the list of contacts under the correct title. At the North East Groups last meeting an enjoyable evening included a Comms demon stration covering software, hardware and BB's, and a partially successful exercise in communicating between a IIGS and a Mac SE (anybody able to offer help or advice regarding suitable software please contact Philip), NOTE FOR PHILIP, if your telephone number is likely to change please let me know. Correction of my error actually brings the contact list to 28, so we are nearly there, come on folks, get the bloodhounds out and let's find s few more. ‘The South East Essex Mac User Group was formed on 28th July, 1986 and already has about 20 members. Apart from providing the venue for the groups meetings D.P.S are very supportive of the group and have provided valuable help which is much appreciated. D.P.S are Mac dealers as well as being software developers. In addition to the groups formal monthly meetings informal evenings in members houses are common on Sundays. This group has provided me with my first opportunity to offer my congratulations and best wishes for a non-Apple event. Mick Foy will be getting married at the end of July and I have no doubt that his future wife will be delighted when she fully understands what is involved in marriage to Mick and his Mac ! For a change this month a few observations on group related topics instead of meeting news. Recently while reading an American magazine I came across the following state- ment : “I head straight to the software reviews in the local group's newslet- ter every month. ‘Their insights help me to understand what software has captured the group’s leading-edge interest - and why. This information has helped me make the right marketing decisions on a number of occasions, and helps my salespeople know the features and benefits that customers are going for.” The statement was made by an American dealer. Why is be babbling on about that? Well folks the moral of the tale is that newsletters are not only essential to the long term well being of your groups, they can also obviously help to improve your groups standing in the minds of dealers. You can in fact develope a useful system of mutual help with many dealers by helping them to understand that there is a market for products within your group and what is likely to be attractive to users within their area. Where's the mutuality in that ? A number of dealers are already offering various assistance to some groups including venues for meet- ings, product demonstrations, ideas for potential guest speakers, etc. If you can make your dealer aware that your group is effectively an unpaid ‘after-sales’ facility for them you may even find that they will be willing to help by loaning equip- ment for an evening, provide some access to their duplicating facilities, elc. Why not offer to run an adver- tisement for them in your newsletter? Might sound a bit ambitious but several groups now have large membership rosters which are big enough to interest local dealers. The only things to remember when ap proaching your local dealer are that however well disposed they may be to your group, they earn their living by selling Apple products and they are always understandably looking for a pay-off, the other thing is that some dealers see user groups as always wanting something for nothing. So be prepared to work at the relationship. What about the groups that don’t produce a newsletter? Well as I have said in the past start one. Some groups have operated for years without a newsletter but in general the vigorous groups which achieve long term development are those producing newsletters. The newsletters do not have to be very large and the content can be what you make it, the main point with them is that they provide an addi tional point of contact for group members, keep the group in mem- bers minds, and ensure that meeting dates are not forgotten. The amount of work involved in producing them is really dependent on what you want to put into them, but can also be influenced by mundane things such as the typing proficiency of the person producing them. Newsletters are also some- times a useful vehicle for getting shy people to pass on their knowledge in writing when they would never dream of getting up and speaking in front of a group of people. If any group is thinking of starting a newsletter let me know and I can provide samples of some produced by various groups. If you need help with the first issue I'll see what I can do. I see that it is now heading for 2am again so I had better get this lot off to the editor before he gets militant again. Wonder if we will see 30 groups on the list by the next issue, Bye for now. é Page 3 App Nes 000 Loc IhGroup Update APPLE Il PROGRAMMERS CLUB CONTACT Philip Dixon Tie (GGA tee) | MEETS: Operates through newsletter published quarterly. lbp aarihtes USER GROUP Thomas fans (Battie Serial venue R.A.F. Woodbridge MEETS 7.00pm Ist Tuesday of each month BRISTOL GROUP (B.A.U.D.) 7 CONTACI Mike Farmer i] i VENUE Bristol Maternity Hospital (may change) MEETS 7th of each month, or nearest Friday CAMBRIDGE APPLE USERS GROUP CONTACT Ian Archibald VENUE Isons cer 72 Chesteton Road, Camorldge MEETS Fortnighti CREWE COMPUTER USERS CLUB 7 CONTACT Paul Edmonds ane Tas inne (Cher, (ChE, (C0 VENUE Christ Church Hall, Crowo. MEETS Fortnightly, Fridays, 7.30pm to 10.00pm CROYDON APPLE USER GROUP CONTACT Graham Attwood ie (Gi) siiiarne VENUE 515 Limpsfield Road, Warlingham,Surrey MEETS 7.30pm - 3rd Thursday of every month EAST MIDLANDS MAC USER GROUP CONTACT Nick Helm Fiat» (Ran VENUE Wilford Cricket & Rugby Club, Nottingham MEETS 8.00pm - Ist & 3rd Wednesday of month EDINBURGH GROUP CONTACT Adam Gllinsky Tee) Gh Bhd VENUE Proteus Micro Systoms, 55 Frederick Street. Edinburgh MEETS Monthly - check with Adam ESSEX GROUP CONTACT Pat Bermingham Tail ine VENUE The Y.M.C.A., Victoria Road, Chelmsford MEETS 3rd Friday of every month FURNESS AREA CONTACT Alan Curtiss fe) Geni eatin There is new activity in this group. Contact Alan GATEWAY COMPUTER CLUB CONTACT Robert Hall tial). (GR VENUE Bob Hope Recreation Centro, R. MEETS Variable - check with Bob GLASGOW GROUP CONTACT = Donald Davidson Teas) ali Sah. jp VENUE Proteus Micro Systems, 17 Park Circus Place, Glasgow MEETS Quarterly - check with Donald HANTS & BERKS : ; CONTACT = Mike Hollyfield esi) | Gah AHH) VENUE TV.S., 128 High Street, Maidennead MEETS 7.00pm - 2nd Monday of each month HARROGATE AREA x CONTACT Peter Sutton fisi| uiziitityreat No active group in this area. Share ‘are a number of keen Apple users in contact with each other. HERTS & BEDS GROUP CONTACT — Norah Arnold Heh VENUE The Old School, | Branch Road, Park Street, St.Albans. Herts MEETS 8.00pm on Ist Tuesday of each month KENT GROUP CONTACT _ Richard Daniels Tesi, (GiaUSiRe sah aeete VENUE Microspot, 5-11 London Road, Maidstone MEETS 7.30pm on last Monday of month LEICESTER GROUP CONTACT Bob Bown fe Gh aa VENUE Shakespeare Pub, Braunstone Lane, Leicester MEETS 7.30pm - 1st Wednesday of each month LIVERPOOL GROUP CONTACT Irene Flaxman he) i VENUE Check with Irene MEETS 2nd Monday of each month LONDON APPLE COMPUTER CLUB CONTACT — Chris Williams Tia Bi VENUE Studio 8, Wharfedale Projects. 47, Wnarfedale ROad, London, N1 9SE MEETS Ist Wednesday of month.6.00pm LONDON MACINTOSH GROUP — CONTACT Maureen de Saxe Tia) Piha ats VENUE Room 683, London University Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London WC1 MEETS 6.00pm on 2nd Tuesday of each month MACINTOSH USERS GROUP (CAMBRIDGE) CONTACT Patrick Winterson Tea ct Sf VENUE Cambridge area - check with Patrick MEEIS Every 3 months - check with Patrick MIDAPPLE CONTACT — Tom Wright Field VENUE \.T.E.C., Tildasley Street. West Bromwich MEETS 7.00pm on 2nd Friday of each month THE MIDLAND MAC GROUP CONTACT ivan Knesovich Teal CAR AT VENUE Spring Grove House, Safari Park, Bewdley MEETS 7.00pm on Ist Tuesday of each month NORTH EAST APPLE USER GROUP CONTACT Philip Dixon iy) pn amon VENUE AppleCentre North East, Ponteland Road. Ponteland, Newcastie-upon-Tyne MEETS Ist Wednesday every month THE NORTH WEST APPLE COMPUTER a CONTACT — Jim Roscoe VENUE Horse & Jockey Pub, Winwick Road. Warrington MEETS: Ist Monday of each month THE NORTH WEST APPLE USERS GROUP. ss = CONTACT = Mox Parrot Tig) , (Eid AT ATA pene VENUE Staff House (2nd floor), U.M.I.S.1., P,O.Box 88 Sackville Street, Manchester MEETS 8.00pm on last Thursday of each month MACTAFF - S.WALES MAC GROUP CONTACT Lorrain Thornback Tai VENUE AppleCentre, 47 Newport Road, Cardiff MEETS 7.00pm on Ist Thursday of each month SOUTH EAST ESSEX MAC GROUP CONTACT Mick Foy anita VENUE D.P.S., Acorn House, ute Oaks, Basildon, Essex. MEETS Ist Monday every month ‘ Is your local group advertised yet? If not contact Tom Wright NOW. The Apple Directors Chair -just one of the superb items available in The Apple Collection. Apple are pleased to announce the launch of The Apple Collection, a special range of items designed with the needs of Apple enthusiasts in mind, each one carrying the Apple name as a guarantee of the highest quality. The Apple Collection is available exclusively through Authorised Apple Dealers, so for full details of the Collection range and how you can order your items, pull up a chair at your nearest Apple dealer now. Take your Pick from The Apple Collection e Apple and Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc ©1987 Apple Computer U.K. Lid. HotSpot from Dave Ward our Hotline Wizard Weekdays 7-9 p.m. Some months ago Jeremy Quinn contacted the Hotline with quite a regular question regarding the compatibility of the Simon Aris- tocard with AppleWorks. Of course, the only answer I could give was the negative one that it didn’t appear to follow Apple Computer Inc. rules and was there- fore ‘blown-out-of-the-water’, Jeremy contacted the manufac- turers of the Aristocard who in- formed him that they could supply an upgrade enhanced chip for the fine of just £11. If you have an Aristocard that won't work with AppleWorks and find that good value you now know what to do!! As many of you know the Apple J[ computer had in it’s ROM a mini- assembler invoked from the | monitor by FF69G. This mini- assembler disappeared with the introduction of the Apple ][ plus computer - the mini-assembler and other ROM routines were replaced by Applesoft. The mini-assembler reappeared in late models of the Apple //c computer and the en- | hanced Apple //e computer. So early Apple //c computers didn’t have the mini-assembler but the later versions did and recognised the new 65C02 OP codes. Strangely enough the 65C02 Apple //e (enhanced) version of the mini-assembler does not recognise the extra 65C02 OP codes! The Apple IIGS does, of course, have a much enhanced mini- assembler that not only recognises all the 65C816 OP but also formats | the ProDOS 8 and 16 MLI calls, A number of callers have alluded to the fact that Applewriter version 2.0 (ProDOS version) will not print through the Apple IGS printer ports. One simple solution is to connect your printer to a card in slot 1 and adjust the control panel to recognise ‘Your card”, Open Apple magazine have published a method and we will supply an Applesoft program that will automatically patch your Applewriter disk to correct this in the next issue of Apple 2000. If you have an Apple IIGS try the following which is based upon a note in a recent Open Apple maga zine :- 1. Make sure that you don’t have a disk in your 3.5" drive. 2. Change the Control panel so that the machine boots from slot 5. 3. Boot the machine with open- apple + control + reset. 4. When the open and close apples are flying back and forth across the screen press open- apple + option + control-N. If you can help Dave with your expertise or have a query - ring him between 7-9 cach weekday evening, ROSERVE MICROCOMPUTER ENGINEERING "ON-SITE" THE On-Site microcomputer repair Specialists. We'll be there when you need us. MAINTENANCE *First Year FREE !! *For more information and a quote on your configuration please phone. CONTRACT i (047 485) 4311 In addition to the full range of Apple equipment we also repair IBM, IBM Compatible, Hard Disks, and Network systems. ON SITE or Per Call rates available. Discount available to all Apple 2000 Members. 1 BLUE CHALET IND. EST., WEST KINGSDOWN, SEVENOAKS, KENT N15 6BT Page 6 the ONLY RAMcard you’ll ever need! plusRAM-GS8 is the on/y RAMcard that lets you add up to E/GHT extra Megabytes of RAMAND half a Megabyte of ROM to your Apple lIIGS — the maximum memory possible on the IIGS! There are two plusRAM-GS'cards designed to suit your specific memory needs: plusRAM-GS2, supplied with 256K and expandable to 2 Megabytes; and plusRAM-GS8, designed to get maximum performance and expandability from your IIGS, with ONE Megabyte and expandable right up to a huge EIGHT Megabytes! plusRAM-GS — GREAT PERFORMERS! Simply plug a plusRAM-GS card into the IIGS memory expansion slot for up to 8 Megabytes of instantly recognised RAM, fully compatible with all IIGS software, like AppleWorks, as well as ProDOS, DOS3.3, CP/M and Pascal 1.3 programs. Use all or part of the plusRAM-GS memory as a RAMDisk to give old-favourite programs a new lease of life or use new programs, with advanced desktop displays, graphics and sound, which address the plusRAM-GS memory directly. Either way, you won't believe the extra power and speed! AppleWorks POWER Each plusRAM-GS comes complete with support software to enhance the performance of AppleWorks. As well as increasing desktop size, plusRAM-GS cards boost AppleWorks 2.0 beyond all limits: Use the IGS mouse to move 2.549114 A full function, memory _-~~—_the cursor around or to 7\/8|9|x|soelv-xg§ resident calculator pops up — 7 select menu items 4|s[6|xl7 onto the screen the instant QoHf 1[2[3]- you need it! YY | - fer = [eax] 7 ns Adds a massive 42K printer buffer which you can assign to any printer. This lets you carry on AppleWorking while it handles the printing — no more waiting for a slow printer to finish! Large desktop files are Date and time are displayed on automatically saved onto the AppleWorks screen at a// multiple disks. times e (/0b/a7 12:04 EASY EXPANSION Both plusRAM-GS cards are fully socketed for quick and easy expansion using readily available standard RAM chips. plusRAM-GS2 grows in 256K steps to 2 Megabytes, and plusRAM-GS8 in big 1 Megabyte stages to a massive 8 Megabytes. INSTANT PROGRAMS You can also expand your plusRAM-GS cards with a PROMDisk or ROMDisk Adaptor, giving up to 256K battery backed-up static RAM or 512K ROM. . just think, your favourite programs. stored in the Adaptor, ready for use the instant you switch your GS on! GET THE RAMCARD OF THE FUTURE RIGHT NOW! plusRAM-GS2 — £99.00 plusRAM-GS8 — £249.00 GS2 256K Upgrade - £20.00 GS8 1 Meg Upgrade — £125.00 (Pnces exclude VAT} CIRTECH (UK) LIMITED, Currie Road Industrial Estate, Galashiels Selkirkshire, Scotland, TD1 2BP Telephone (0896) 57790 71 (Attn. 84:CPD001) - Telecom Gold Source Mailbox -AAH555 Dave Ward takes a close look at two new memory expansion cards for the APPLE IIGS, As we all know the Apple IIGS computer contains at its heart a 65C816 micro-processor that can directly address 16 Megabytes and that Apple Computer Inc. have conveniently arranged that only 8 Megabytes of this can be RAM. Depending upon how your Apple IIGS was purchased a 1 Megabyte expansion card populated to 256K bytes is supplied or available as an optional extra. An unexpanded Apple IIGS computer contains just 255K bytes of memory which can be increased to 1255K bytes if a fully expanded 1 Megabyte card is installed. This latter figure may seem excessive to some. Cirtech, however, must have seen that not too far in the future 1 Megabyte of memory in an Apple IGS will be paltry! Cirtech have designed and producedtwo memory expansion cards to address this perceived gap in the market:- PlusRAM-GS82 is a single 2 Megabyte card populated to 256K bytes that can be expanded in sets of 256K bytes consisting of 8 by 256K bit chips. PlusRAM-GS8 is a single 8 Megabyte card populated to 1 Megabyte that can be expanded by increments of 1 Megabyte using 8 by 1 megabit chips. (All he Both cards fit into the special memory expansion slot in the Apple IIGS. Note the caveat that these cards are only compatible with the Apple IIGS and should not be put Page 8 into any other slot. Placing any of these special Apple IIGS cards into any other slot or for that mater in a slot in any other Apple // computer is an expensive way of producing a small puff of blue smoke! Whichever card is purchased it arrives in a very well padded box with an accompanying 3.5" diskette of utilities and a 15 page manual, The manual describes the cards, in glowing terms, of course and then goes on to clearly describe the installation of the card. Near the end of the manual a very detailed description of how to expand your card is presented with diagrams to make the simple process clearer. Tables of suitable DRAMs (Dynamic RAMs) are given for those users, who presumably, can purchase such DRAMs at a lower price than those supplied by Cirtech. All you have to do is to fit the new chips correctly ( no extra plugs arc required ) and the extra memory will be found auto- matically the next time your machine is switched on. There are diagnostic routines for testing the plusRAM-GS cards supplied on the disk and Cirtech advise you to carry out a test. We were loaned by Cirtech (UK) Ltd, both a plusRAM-GS2 and a plusRAM-GS8 cards each populated to 2 Megabytes for this and another review. Both cards when installed (1 at a time, of course) were instantly recogni- sed by the Apple IIGS and produced a ‘largest selectable’ RAM disk of 2048K when the Ramdisk option on the ‘Control Panel’ was interrogated. I tested many programs and found them to work perfectly, indeed AppleWorks 2.0 recognised the cards and pro- duced an enormous desktop of 2113K! If you leave the lid off your Apple IIGS the plusRAM-GS cards are almost the only components that don’t get hot. Before attempting to analyse the reasons why anyone should want so much memory let's look at the three ways in which Cirtech have made software and hardware enhance- ments. 1, Using plusRAM-GS cards with AppleWorks The 3.5" diskette supplied with each plusRAM-GS card contains programs that patch AppleWorks files to give many enhancements. Enhancement is a quick and painless process: just boot up the diskeue and choose option 3 from the menu, in this case. Always use a copy of your AppleWorks master diskette for the enhancement! I tested out the procedure using 5.25", 3.5" diskettes and a RAMdisk; all were correctly enhanced. The box to the right contains a page from the enhanced Apple- Works main menu which shows two of the enhancements. Note first the pop-up calculator RAMCALC in- voked by pressing closed-Apple+C and secondly the date-time which always appears in inverse replacing the right-hand end of the dotted line above the command line. The RAMCALC pop-up calculator may be moved all over the screen using the arrow keys and all entries are made from the keyboard or keypad, Much easier, in my opinion, than pointing out each entry with the mouse. RAMcalc has many features that other pop-up calcula- tors don’t have and is extremely easy to use. RAMcalc has :- Memory Percentage % Square roots Exponents Exchange of display and last entry. Numbers are entered from the keyboard or keypad and arithmetical Operators as you might expect to enter them: Multipy : * Xx Divide :/Dd ‘The rest arc just as simple. Calculations are performed in the order that they are entered. When you are done just hit ESCape to exit back to AppleWorks, You will notice when you later recall the RAMcalc Resident Calculator that it was exactly the same as when you left it. A rather nice feature is the ability to move the cursor quickly around the screen using the Apple IIGS mouse. The button acts as ‘RETURN’ or ESCape (single or double clicks respectively). The AppleWorks Printer Buffer is a part of the new enhancements. The printer buffer is 42K bytes in size and this is ‘lost’ from your desktop. I can assure readers that this works perfectly with an Apple IGS and an Imagewriter printer. Cirtech claim that it will work with any printer providing that the interface card conforms to the Pascal 1.1 protocols. If your card does not follow those aforesaid protocols then there will be no buffer and you will just have to wait! If, of course, you attempt to print a file or files some of the expanded memory card as a RAM disk from OK to the maximum memory found in incre- ments of 32K. If you wish to alter the RAM disk size it is best to switch the machine off then on again (leave the machine off for at least 10 seconds). A> ProDOS instantly recognises this RAM disk which will be format- ted at the first access and given a volume name of /RAMS . You can use a suitable copy program to transfer files to this disk ; if ProDOS is transferred the disk will be bootable, and you can select this option from the Control panel. B> CIRTECH CP/M Plus auto- matically recognises and formats the Disk Disk 1 (Slot 6) MAIN MENU Tain Menu 2 Work with one o Save DeskTop fil 4 Remove files fro 5. Other Activities} 28/06/87 1731 + O© use arrows, then press Return _ @-2 for Help greater than 42K bytes in size you will have to wait until the buffer can contain the remainder to,print Saving larger than 135K byte desktop files is possible as Cirtech have added a patch which allows such files to be saved onto one or more 5.25" diskettes. This feature is one of the less useful enhancements on the Apple IIGS because most users will have at least one 800K byte drive. This enhancement has also, unfortunately, introduced a bug which results in the inability to load ASCII text files into wordprocessor, database or spreadsheet. Cirtech have been informed of the bug and have promised to squash it. This may not be as simple as one might assume. Since few users will be continually loading ASCII text files the simple way of overcoming this problem is to convert the files using the unenhanced version. 2. As you know the Control panel has an option for RAMdisk which allows you to partition off available RAM in the RAM disk. You can then transfer all the necessary files to this RAM disk and boot from this after making the appropriate adjustments to the Control panel. This will be discussed further when we review the CIRTECH CP/M Plus system for the Apple IGS computer. The manual covers this very well too. C> PASCAL 1.3 is the only version supported which is reason- able because it is the latest version and the only one I know of that can be booted from a slot other than slot 6. It also recognises other disk drives such as RAM disks and 3.5" drives. Pascal 1.3 will only boot from slots 4,5 and 6 and will work well from the RAM disk which will be desig- nated slot 5, drive 1 when you choose the option from the Control panel to boot from the RAM disk. This setup is clearly described in the manual. D> Dos 3.3 is also supported ; the method, although a little compli- | cated, is clearly described in the manual. The maximum RAM disk size is 400K with a minimum of 164K. Since Dos 3.3 is patched and INIT command disconnected it may not work with modified Dos 3.3. Tests I have carried out indicated that it won't work with 64K Dos 3.3 variants but will work with Diversi- Das 48 3. Hardware enhancements are in the form of ‘piggy-back’ cards which are plugged into a port on the plusRAM-GS cards, and recognised by the Apple IIGS as a ‘ROM disk’. The idea, of course, is to allow you to store your favourite programs in these ROM disks and arranging, by altering the Control panel, that these programs ‘boot’ when the machine is switched on. Three cards are available :- (a) Promdisk adaptor is a ‘piggy- back’ card that pice into both cards which has upto 256K of battery backed memory. These cards are supplied with 64K bytes though. (b) Romdisk adaptor is similar to the above but uses EPROMS which can have programs or data ‘burnt’ onto them. (©) Romdisk-512 adaptor is similar to the above but can be expanded to 512K. This is the apparant maximum for a ROMdisk on the Apple IIGS. This ‘ROMdisk’ feature is useful because if the Control panel is set so that on switching on the machine boots from the ROMdisk your specific program will be almost instantly loade Why so much memory? At the present time a few users will be able to get along quite nicely with just the 256K expansion card but this is set fair to change in the not too distant future :- 1, Some users already require a larger desktop than that produced by just a 256K expansion card, It also appears that a sixteen bit version of AppleWorks is ‘on-the- cards’ which will again tempt yet more users to require larger desk- tops. 2. When you create a RAM disk that memory is paritioned off by the Memory manager and is , therefore, not available to programs. 3. Already Desk Accessories are becoming available which when installed appear under Control panel options when the Control panel is invoked. When a Desk Accessory is installed the Memory manager allocates some memory to it which will not be available for use by your programs. One such Desk Accessory creates a memory cache up to 800K Page 9 bytes to enable Apple IIGS 3.5" drives to load 3 times faster. That 800K would become unavailable for use by program If you've got two drives it even prefers 1.6 Megabytes! 4. It can be envisaged that future programs will allocated whole blocks of memory for their own ‘personal’ use. This will enable ‘switching’ between programs or applications. With such memory requirements even 8 Megabytes could look sickly! 5. For those who don’t want to purchase a second 3.5" drive but do want to backup 3.5" diskettes without swapping disks up to 48 times they will be able to copy 3.5" diskettes if they have at least 1 Megabyte of free memory and a copy program such as Diversi-COPY. If you are thinking of purchasing a new Apple IIGS or just considering the addition of a memory card it is worth a little extra thought as to how much memory you might need in the near future. The plusRAM-GS2 populated to 256K bytes is a similar price to an Apple memory expan- sion card populated to 256K, for instance. If you already require 1 Megabyte or more it is worth seriously considering the plusRAM- GS8 since it is almost certain that more memory will be required before too long. In conclusion the two plusRAM- GS cards are excellent memory expansion cards for the Apple IIGS which appear to work perfectly well with all programs that run on an unexpanded Apple IGS. They present a very good buy when one considers the software supplied with them. « plusRAM-GS2 ( 256K) £99.00 plusRAM-GS8 (1024K) & 249.00 Upgrade GS2 (256K) £20.00 Upgrade GS8 (1024K) £125.00 CIRTECH (UK) LIMITED, Currie Road Industrial Estate, Galashiels. Selkirkshire, Scotland, TD1 2BP Telephone (0896) 57790 Telex 265871 (Attn. 84:CPD001)~Telecam Gold Source Mailbox AAH555 (cURTECHIID Page 10 The games some of us play ! a a ee ome ee a | Tom Wright gives an overview to a new series of reviews on SSI's simulation packages. Strategic Simulations have very kindly supplied a number of SSI games for review which should interest most of our game playing fans; the games which are all suitable for the Apple range include: Warship Phantasie II Roadwar 2000 Rebel Charge at Chickamauga Mech Brigade Kampfgruppe Bate of Antietam Phantasie II is reviewed elsewhere. in this issue and Warship will appear in the October issue. Here are brief details of the games. ROADWAR 2000 ROADWAR 2000 is a hi-res action adventure set in the year 2000 in a U.S.A which has experienced the effects of bacteriological warfare. Social order has been reduced to a level reminiscent of the Mad Max scenarios, the player as the leader of a gang has been asked by what is left of the Federal Government to locate eight scientists. The scientists are to be taken to a laboratory where they are expected to produce a vaccine to neutralize the deadly microbes remaining from the war. Graphics are very good during the game during which you will hunt through various kinds of terrain in your search and subse. quent transport mission. Vehicles can be found in various locations as can food, fuel and weapons but you not only have to hunt for them but also fight off mutants, cannibals and rival road gangs in the process. Looks good, more news later. REBEL CHARGE AT CHICKAMAUGA REBEL CHARGE AT CHICKAMAUGA should be of interest to wargamers (and you can count many chess players in that category after they have encoun- tered this kind of game), Chicka- mauga was the last major offensive thrust by the Confedracy during the American civil war. The game covers the two-day battle by means of a 64x54 grid map and to simplify the players task a laminated card map is provided with the game. Screen display provides two ‘scales’ of view for part of the full map (40x20 and 20x10), while the card covers the full map. The player really gets three games in one package with this one as there are three different levels of play. MECH BRIGADE MECH BRIGADE is a simulation of modern armoured warfare played with the aid of an excellent manual and prompt card. The player com- mands either NATO or Warsaw Pact forces which include a wide range of armoured vehicles and other weapon systems in a game which includes what appears to be some excellent command options and engagement rules. The hypothetical time frame is the 1990's and the theatre of combat is Europe. KAMPFGRUPPE KAMPFGRUPPE won the 1985 Game of the Year award from Computer Gaming World and has | TESTING RAM ON Ile or Ic AUXILIARY MEMORY already established a reputation as being a very interesting game. This The following program (by Glen Bredon of WAP) uses mousetext characters so its messages are only legible on a IIc or an enhanced Ile. one is a tactical game set against the background OF the Eastern Font Enter the following to create a BRUNable program. during the second world war. Choice CALL -151 OF command for tne Prayer includes | Guia: 29 00 65 éz As O9 a5 43 36 20 11 C3 38 BE 48 29 both. German and Russian armies. 0823: 00 8D ED 03 AD 09 GD EE 03 68 4C 14 C3 20 2F FB The list of weapons and vehicles 0833: 20 93 FE 20 89 FE &D OF CO 6c F2 03 2C 81 CO 8D included in this game is very large 0843: 09 CO 20 89 FE 20 93 FE 20 2F FB 8D 0C CO 8D 01 and watching the demonstration 0853; CO 8D OF CO 20 D2 OC AO Cl DS D8 AO D2 C1 CD AO 0863: D4 C5 D3 D4 8D 8A 56 57 56 57 56 57 56 57 56 57 Sven ee as shown se us ef 0873: 56 57 AO E2 F9 AO C7 EC E5 EE AO C2 F2 ES B4 weapon simulation that is beyon 0883: EE AO 57 56 57 56 57 56 57 56 57 56 57 56 8D anything that I have seen before. 0893: E8 E9 F3 AO FO F2 EF E7 F2 El ED AO F4 E5 F3 Looks like a must for tactical war- D2 Cl CD AO El E2 EF F6 E5 AO Ad B2 BO gamers. E9 EE 8D El F5 F8 E9 EC E9 El F2 F9 AO E2 ¥9 AO El EC F4 ES W2 EE EL EC F9 AO F3 F4 EF F2 £9 EE E7 8D A4 BO BO BATTLE OF ANTIETAM & 8 3 EJ BSssg oT — 4 Ad BS BS AC AO Ad C6 C6 AC AD Ad C1 Cl AO AO E2 EC EF £3 EB F3 AO El EE 4 EF F6 E9 EZ E7 AO F4 ES ES F3 ES E& £9 F2 E5 F3 AO F3 E3 AO El EE AO ES F2 F2 EF E6 EF FS EE E4 AC AO E9 F4 F3 AO EC EF E3 RO EE ES BATTLE OF ANTIETAM won the = E9 F3 8D FO F2 E9 ao E 1986 Consumer Electronics Show- case award and appears to be at least as interesting as the Chicka mauga game. The American civil war is the setting for this game which also provides three games in one via its three levels of play. Various kinds of artillery, cavalry and infantry are available for control by the player who has the option of Union or Confederate control, Again an excellent manual is pro- vided, together with a useful lami- nated map. WARSHIP EE E4 AO F4 ES E5 AO E2 FO Fa E4 AO CS CF D2 A7 E4 AO F7 ES F4 EG OD F4 AO E3 EF F2 F2 ES E3 F4 AO E2 F9 F4 ES AO AO E4 ES F3 FO EC El F9 B5 E4 AE F4 E@ ES AO E6 ES F2 F3 F4 F3 E5 AO E9 EE AO El EE F9 AO BS CR ¥3 EB AO EQ F3 8D ¥3 ES EF 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 8D CB ES F9 AD D8 AO F4 E7 E7 EC ES F3 AO E6 FS EC EC AF ED E9 FS ES AO F3 E3 F2 ES ES EE AE 8D CB ES F9 AO AF AO EF E7 E7 EC ES F3 AO E4 ES EC El F9 AO AB 43 AO E2 ES F4 F7 ES ES EE AO E2 EC EF £3 EB F3 8D 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 6D AO AO AO AO AO AO CS D3 C3 Cl DO C5 AO ES F8 E9 F4 F3 AO F4 ES AO FO F2 EF E7 F2 El ED AE 8D 8A 53 53 53 53 53 55 AO C8 E9 F4 AO F3 FO El E3 E5 AO E2 El AO F4 EF AO F3 F4 El F2 F4 AE AO 48 53 53 53 53 53 8D 00 AD 00 CO C9 AO DO F9 2C 10 CO 2c CO A2 01 86 E7 86 ED A2 20 86 El 86 E4 AO 00 ES 84 EO 84 42 98 8D 04 CO 91 EO C8 DO FB ES CA DO F6 2C 57 CO 2c 53 CO 2C 50 CO BD 05 CO 00 85 ES 20 C3 0B AD 55 85 ES 20 C3 OB AD FF ES 20 C3 OB AJ AA 85 ES 20 C3 OB 4C Ad OB AZ 86 E6 BD 83 CO AS 20 85 E4 20 82 OC 20 67 OC 51 0C AD 40 85 E4 20 82 OC 20 67 OC 20 51 0c 60 85 E4 20 82 0C 20 67 OC 20 51 OC AS 80 85 20 82 0C 20 67 OC 20 51 OC AY AO 85 E4 20 82 20 67 OC 20 51 OC AD DO 85 E4 20 82 OC 20 67 20 51 OC A9 EO 85 E4 20 82 OC 20 67 Oc 20 51 A2 08 86 E6 BD 83 CO AD DO 85 E4 20 82 OC 20 0c 20 51 0c 60 2c 82 CO 2c 51 CO 18 BE 48 AD 8D ED 03 AS 08 8D EE 03 68 4C 14 C3 AS Ed 85 Bl EO 45 E5 FO 03 4C 5D OD C8 DO F4 E6 El CA EF 60 AS E4 85 El 8D 04 CO Bl BO 91 42 C8 DO E6 E1 E6 43 CA DO F2 8D 05 CO 4c 97 OC 85 £1 20 AO 00 AS ES 91 EO C8 DO FB E6 El CA DO F6 F7 OC AO 00 24 ES 30 OF A2 04 98 18 69 01 DO 8 DO F8 CA DO F5 AD 00 CO 10 1D 2c 10 co co FO 83 C9 AF DO 04 45 EB 85 E8 CO DB DO OA AD 45 B7 85 E7 AA BD 52 CO A2 20 86 43 60 20 58 A9 OD 85 24 68 85 F2 68 85 E3 DO 03 20 ED FD 00 E6 E2 DO 02 E6 E3 Bl E2 DO Fl AS E3 48 AS 48 60 2C 81 CO AD 14 20 SB FB 20 6E FD 24 E8 ED FD 20 D9 OC AO 8D 00 AS ED 20 ED FD A6 ES EO 27 08 90 04 AD 00 E9 E6 E9 28 BO 06 20 D9 0C 46 47 00 20 D9 oc D4 ES F3 F4 E9 EE E7 RA AO Ad 00 AS E4 A2 00 41 F9 20 D9 OC AD A4 00 AS E4 16 69 1F A2 FF BD RO AS WARSHIP as the name implies is a naval game, set against various combat episodes during the second world war the player has a choice of any of four scenarios, or they can elect to construct their own, During play ships can be controlled indi- vidually or in groups as units of various divisions. Weapon control and manoeuvre offer some interest- ing challenges to the player and there are no easy wins in this game. 79 different vessels are listed in the manual which lives up to the normally high SSI standards. oMDCOQO—-DIFO0O4 & It is hoped to review one or two of these simulation games per issue until we exhaust the supply. You should be able to get them via your Apple dealer or through the mail from MGA MicroSystems at Tenterden. 41 F9 AG E6 BD 83 CO 60 2C 81 CO 2c 53 co 48 EA 20 D9 OC AO AO C5 F2 F2 EF F2 AO El F4 AO 87 87 87 00 El A6 BA 20 41 F9 AS BA 20 68 20 DA FD A6 E6 BD 83 CO 60 RAM. TEST, AS0803, L$04CB Page 11 A compilation of news and product announcements. News Bytes Micot Systems Macro AsseMBLer FoR IIGS Micol Systems of Toronto, Canada announced the introduction of Micol Macro. Micol Macro is a fully integrated monitor/shell, full screen text editor, and macro assembler package which has been written on the Apple IIGS for the IIGS. ‘The minimum requirements for Micol Macro is a IIGS with a minimum 512k memory, a Unidisk 3.5 and a monitor capable of displaying 80 columns. Micol Macro is written in assembler for speed and is fully integrated. All commands whether accessing the full screen text editor, the auto relocating macro assembler or talking to the operating system are instantaneous. Full professionally written documentation is included and this contains useful examples to help make the best use of the program. Price on Introduction is $69.95 + Shipping. Applc2000 will have full details of U.K. prices in the next issue. DIMENSIONS ON THE MACINTOSH 512K OR Mac II Dimensions is a three dimensioanl design and modeling tool which uses the Macintosh Inter- face. Using all the magic of the Mac this new package will allow you to visualise pictures and drawings with accuracy and speed. The Macin- tosh II colour and other enhancements are catered for and you can print to ImageWriter, LaserWriter or Plotter. Up to 16 windows on a scene are allowed with a choice of 18 views for each window. Other features include free form curves, auto conversion of curves to surfaces and shading. For price and details contact DeskTop Engineering - 0895 637037 New HFS Socater Pws 2.0 AND APPLESHIARE. The latest release of this Hierarchical File System that sits under the @ Menu from PBI Software Printrix Personat TyPsetrinG SoFrwaRE FOR THE Appte IT FaMiLy. Printrix is a ProDOS program which accepts textfiles from AppleWorks, AppleWriter, Word Perfect and any standard ASCII file. You can then format the files according to your page design. Prinurix comes with 43 fonts and 25 pieces of Clip Art. It can also use Fonuix onts and graphics through @ conversion utility. You can print in full colour on colour printers and it will nin on the Apple IIGS. Price £54.99 from MGA MicroSystems 05806 4278 now includes full support under AppleShare. If you have ever lost a file somewhere on your hard disk or on the network then you will appreciate this excellent utility. Price $34.95 DeskSCENE BRIGHTENS UP YouR DeskTop. Replace your boring grey patterned DeskTop with any MacPaint picture. DeskScene allows you to make any picture (Paint format) into a background for the DeskTop. Created for PBI Software by Bruce Horn (the Macintosh Finder co-author) you can now have pretty pictures to identify your disks on startup. Price $29.95 Nores* N * FILEs The latest file management program for the Apple IIGS has arrived from DataPak Software - ‘Notes n Files ’. The screen display represents a filing cabinet and through the use of graphics, the mouse and keyboard allows you to organize, manipulate and cross reference files of various types. Mailing labels and form letters are possible and the program has a text editor as well as Database Manager.Price £99.99 from MGA MicroSystems 05806 4278 HD Back-up uppaten To Version 1.6 Support for 400k, 800k and Hard disks are included with the new version of HD Back-up, it now works on the Lisa using MacWorks. Perform both global, incremental and single file back-ups on your data. HD Back-up is another PBI Software masterpiece. Price $49.95 SupeRMac’s New Diskrrr. A new version of Diskfit has been released that will work under Ap- pleShare - called ‘Network Diskfit’ it allows an individual user to backup both files at his workstation or his personal files on the server. Diskfit also keeps all folder attributes intact. Diskfit is also available as a single user version. Price £49.95 (single user) £299.95 for AppleShare Multi User. From SuperMac Software, 01-847-2101. SEND your BITS & BYTES via PRoLink. ProLink is the easiest way to uansfer files between the Apple II and Macin- tosh. Put your Apple II @.5) disk into the Macintosh and using ProLink transfer the files to a Macintosh floppy or Hard Drive. Requirements are a Macintosh with external floppy or Hard Disk. Price £39.95 from MGA MicroSystems 05806 4278 SUPERLASERSPOOL UPDATED. SuperMac have announced that SuperLaserSpool version 1.2 is now shipping and has many enhancements including: Now works with Aldus driver; Improved portability of files; Preview of files in print queue. Two versions are now available single & multi user. Bas £99.95 (single) £299.95 (multi user). From SuperMac Software, 001-847-2101 Deater's, DisTRIBUTORS AND MANUFACTURERS ARE ASKED TO SEND FULL DETAILS OF NEW OR ENHANCED PRODUCTS FOR INCLUSION IN THIS MAGAZINE, WE ARE ALSO. WILLING TO REVIEW PRODUCTS - FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT THE EDITOR VIA THE P.O. Box. gQaaa o0o0aga BIDMUTHIN SMASHES THE HARD DISK PRICE BARRIER 20MB SCSI Drive for Macintosh & IIGS 20Mb SCS! Drive Two SCSI interfaces (for daisy-chaining) Attractive Apple Styling Compact Footprint Width: 2.5" Height: 6.5" Depth: 10" Plug and Play - Pre-formatted Complete with software Internal 220V-50Hz power supply Compatible with Mac Plus, Mac SE, Mac Il via SCSI port Compatible with IIGS and lle via Apple SCSI card (not supplied) nTROBUCTORY : SPECIAL + coriage & VAT. _ Specify whether for Mac orGs__ | 10 day money-back. guarantee ° Available only from: BIDMUTHIN TECHNOLOGIES P.O.Box 264, Harrow, Middlesex, HA3 9AY Tel: 01-907 8516 Telex: 8950511 ONEONE G(Ref: 22554001) (atpHATRONICS) (ALPHATRONICS) (ALPHATRONICS ) (ALPHATRONICS ) (AtpHaATRONICS) (ALPHATRONICS) (ALPHATRONICS) (ALPHATRONICS } ( ALPHATRONICS ) (Please note all items are compatible with all versions of Apple DOS, ProDOS, CP/M and Pascal unless otherwise stated) RAM MEMORY EXPANSION 16K RAM card I/II Europlus/Il+, gives 48k CPUs the extra memory to run CP/M and Pascal op systems. £25 64K/80 COLUMN extended text card Ile, gives 55k with AppleWorks, 60k ramdisk with ProDOS. £25 128K RAM card IV/Il Europlus!ll+/lle £69 1MB RAM expansion/80 COLUMN for Ile RAMWORKS compatible, RAM disk facility - the latest addition to our range and astonishing value, populated with 1MB RAM £89 MASS MEMORY 140k half height floppy drive, pancake motor high quality direct drive XM4 mechanism - Japanese origin £89 13/16 sector, twin port disc drive controller £25 (suitable for use with both standard Apple or half height drives) 2-80 coprocessor card, to run CP/M software £25 PRINTER / SERIAL INTERFACES Epson/Centronics incl cable, supports all standard control codes and graphic manipulation features £29 Grappler + compatible incl cable £29 Grappler + compatible with 64K printer buffer inc! cable £59 RS232 serial printer card £29 Serfal plus card - suitable for use with modem, with software selection of protocol and full Apple super serial emulation £49 80 COLUMN 80 column Videx compatible for II+/I/Europlus (has built in 40co/80col softswitch) £35 80 column extended text card for lle, with 64K memory, gives 55K with AppleWorks, 60K ramdisk with ProDOS £25 80 column text card for lle £19 KEYPADS / KEYBOARDS lle keypad, 16 keys: plugs directly into port on lle mother board, has following keys + -* =. ENTER0 12 3456789 £19 Replacement keyboard for Ile £49 OTHER HARDWARE FOR II + AND Ile Heavy duty power supply 7.5A output £49 ALPHATRONICS Wolverley House, 18 Digbeth, Birmingham BS 6BJ Phone: 021 643 9866 (4 Lines) All prices exclude VAT. Delivery: £3.00 + VAT for orders less than £100. over £100 delivery free (Items by carrier £8.95 + VAT extra) (AtPHATRONICS ) (ALPHATRONICS ) (atpHaTRonics ) (ALPHATRONICS) (ALPHATRONICS) (ALPHATRONICS) (ALPHATRONICS) (ALPHATRONICS ) WHAT'S IN A LANGUAGE? Dave Miller introduces his new series on languages. How many of you, I wonder, have ever used a non-Apple machine? I doubt if very many have. There is a great big world of varied computing just waiting to be explored for those who are lucky enough to have been put in the position of using several different and conuasting machines. Since not everyone is fortunate enough to own their own Cray II, VAX 11/780, ICL 2976 or IBM 360 to play with I hope that the following series of articles might convince the more insular of our members that there is life outside of the Apple. I shall be tying to cover some of the most commonly used languages found in the computer world at large, as well as some of the more exotic. I will not attempt to write a user guide for each language but I hope to impart some of the flavour of the language. I shall begin with the first lan- guage in the next issue, for the rest of this month's instalment I shall deal with some (hopefully) useful background information. I feel that at this point I should say that a working knowledge of BASIC is advisable before reading on (quick! find that manual!!). When computers were first de- veloped, programming was a matter of wiring up the computer's compo- nents in a particular way. This made it rather expensive and time-con- suming to reprogram the computer since it entailed rebuilding a large section of it. Later developments were to use a series of circuit boards with many holes in each board’s surface, all arranged into rows and columns. A program was defined by inserting conductive pins into some holes and leaving other holes empty Later programming was done by flicking a serics of switches on a ‘front panel’. This had two sets of switches, one to indicate which part Page 14 | | of memory was to be modified, and the other to indicate the new value to be placed in the particular ‘mem- ory location’. These methods all had onc thing in common: they were incredibly la- borious. It was soon thought a good idea to automate the setting of the front panel switches by punching the various switch positions on a paper tape: a hole usually meant ‘switch on’ and no hole usually meant ‘switch off. Paper tape and its much older cousin, punch cards, ‘were soon adopted as the main way of entering programs, and data, into a computer and for storing them between runs. International Business Machines (who?) had, and still has, a great effect in the computing industry and it was the first body to produce a ‘standard’ form of punch card. This had eighty columns of possible hole positions; the number of rows varied from eight to up to twenty-four which allowed for eighty characters per card (80x24... those dimensions remind me of something clse). Whats in a Language ? Rg * ‘ Roy Or eT CPY wes & Fer” of C ‘Those veterans of this era often wax lyrical about its excitement and its ‘this has not been done before’ atmosphere: it was a time when pro- grammers were also mathematicians or electricians (or both), software gurus could speak in fluent binary machine code and a software patch was applied with scissors and sticky tape. Fortunately, such days have passed, Up to this point (the early 1950s) programmers programmed in binary: there was no such thing as an as- sembler and the idea of a computer language was unheard of. Raw binary machine code was the only programming medium. The intro duction of punched card and paper tape made it possible to enter some sort of textual code rather than a | continual stream of binary or, if one of the new state-of-the-art machines were being used, octal (base 8). It proved relatively easy to convert the paper tape produced by a teletype into a form readable by a computer. ‘The teletype acted as both input device and printer and so allowed characters, rather than numbers, to represent programs. Later developments included a | specially designed keyboard and card-puncher which was used to punch programs onto punched cards. Computers had printers attached directly, allowing much more data to be output in onc time. It was not long before the first simple assemblers were developed, followed fairly quickly by the first real computer languages. Scores of ‘data entry personnel’ were employed to sit at keyboards and type in programs written by programmers on ‘coding sheets’. The resultant paper tapes or punched cards were then given to the com. puter operators who were under pain of death not to drop the punched cards or get them out of order. They then stuffed them into a tape drive or card reader, ran them all (in one complete batch) and then, often several days later, gave any output back to the programmer. It must have been bad enough pro- gramming in an environment where it took you a couple of days to remove one bug from your program but can you imagine trying to learn how to program using such a system? Only fairly recently has the modern method of using a Visual Display Unit and keyboard become standard: many computing centres until recently still used paper tape or punched card and most mini and mainframe machines still have a front panel which may have to be used when booting the machine. The idea of using coding sheets | is still not dead: some establishments have data entry staff and prefer its users to enter their code via these sheets. The development of the com- puter language has, by and large, followed the developments in processing power and in the ease of entering programs into the com- puter. As computers and their input and output devices have become more powerful, so have the com- puter languages. ‘This is generally because the computer has become powerful enough to support the demands of the newer languages. For instance the Windows, Icons, Mice and Pull-down menus (WIMP) environment of the Mac is not new, as most people believe. It was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by Xerox at their Palo Alto Research Centre. Only recently have small computers become powerful enough to support WIMP. The same was true with some of the early languages, most notably with ALGOL: it was some time after the publication of the language specifi- cation before a full ALGOL compiler was properly implemented. The development of newer lan- guages depends upon the develop- ment of effective and powerful translator programs. These tansla- tors effectively automate the act of writing machine code: their input is a computer program in a language such as FORTRAN (the source file) and their output is the translated machine code program (the object file). Generally the source file is a text file and the object file is a binary file. At first, the only translators avail- able were assemblers, which convert an easy to remember mnemonic into the actual binary numbers which make up the machine code. Later translators used an abbreviated, coded and formalised form of English which it analysed and converted into machine code. This special form of English is the com- puter language. These translators are rather differ- ent to the translator used in Apple- soft BASIC. Most BASICs use an INTERPRETER. An interpreter translates a language statement just before it is about to be executed. Most translator programs are COM- PILERS. A compiler converts the whole program, en masse, into machine code before any of it is executed. The machine code is then saved so that the program need only be compiled once, The difference between the two can be best envisaged by imagining that two people, A and B, are uying to converse but each does not speak the other's language. A translator, is called in to mediate. This transla- tor is an interpreter: A says some- thing to C, C translates it and then passes it on to B, B, in turn, says something to C and C translates the message and relays it back to A. In this situation, where the messages are undefined until they arc actually spoken, an interpreter is ideal: each message is translated just before it is passed to the recipient. Imagine now that the two people are corresponding to each other. Each person writes a letter contain- ing all that he/she wants to say about a series of topics. He/she then gives the letter to the translator which converts it, en masse, into the other person’s language. In this situation, where the messages are previously defined, a compiler is ideal: all the messages in each letter are translated at the same lime, before the letter is passed to the recipient. Obviously a compiler does not duplicate the translation work unlike an interpreter which has to re- interpret cach statement it reaches even if has already executed the statement before. This is one of the reasons why compiled languages are so much quicker to run: the transla- tion has already been done before- hand, Usually, compilation is by far the best way to convert a program into machine executable form. Interpret- ers are gencrally reserved for those languages which, such as BASIC, were originally aimed at being both easy to use and not requiring a large amount of memory. Interpreters are also sometimes used for debugging a program which, when debugged, is compiled. Most systems adopt a three-stage process in translating a program from the source language into its executable form, First it is compiled. This produces an object file. Usually this is the machine code but without any external references. Thus common routines such as file handlers and mathematical functions are not actually included in the code. Often the code is also relocat- able, in other words the machine code does not refer to any particular area of memory. The second stage is called linking. Here all external routines such as mathematical functions are linked into the code. Some systems actually link the routines themselves whilst others just ‘tag’ the routines: their location is noted so that they can be found later (usually when the code is actually loaded into the computer's memory). Some sys- tems include this stage with the next. ‘The last stage is called loading. This is where the code is made to refer to a particular area of memory. The result is directly executable code. Many systems only perform this stage when the pro- gram is just about to be run because only then can its exact position in memory be calculated. In this case loading results in the code's place- ment in some section of the computer's memory and has to be repeated each time the program is run, One of the reasons why some languages use interpreters, at least when developing software, is because the above operations can be rather cumbersome on some machines. The time taken to modify a program and rerun it via an interpreter may well be less than the time taken to edit the source file and then compile, link, load and run the program. All compiled languages are usually developed via an editor, This is similar to a simple word proces- sor. This means that line numbers are not needed in the code for editing purposes. Some editors provide their own line numbers but an increasing number of editors are screen-orientated and so do not need line numbers. One thing that I feel is worth stating is that the much vaunted ‘language standards’ one hears about are really a myth. There is no such thing as a standard language be- cause different manufacturers insist on developing different compilers with extra features for their own particular hardware/software con- figuration. ‘The standard language is really a uniform subset of the language which is met by all con- forming compilers. They may, or may not, provide extra features which are non-standard and unsup- ported on other machines. I think that that is enough back- ground to be going on with. Stay tuned to this magazine for the next exciting instalment: FORTRAN- the most ancient, and long-lived of languages. Dave Miller is supplying us a whole series of articles on various languages, we anticipate publishing one each issue. Many thanks to Dave for getting our grey matter going. Whats in a Language ? Coming next Issue: FORTRAN Page 15 PINPOINT 2.0 Nigel Bradley takes a look at the latest AppleWorks Desktop accessories. For any mortal (that is any Apple Nut) obsessed with AppleWorks, the PINPOINT Desktop accessories are just what the doctor ordered. Inroduci) With PINPOINT the Apple user has eight accessories available for instant use in the AppleWorks word proces- sor, database or spreadsheet. The accessories are: Appointment calendar. Calculator Communications. Telephone dialer. Graphmerge. Notepad. QuicklabeL Typewriter. PINPOINT also works with Pro- DOS Basic, AppleWriter (ProDOS version), and Word Perfect. The package includes a non copy protected double sided disk and a well bound manual of over 200 pages which has many pictures of the ‘accessories in action’. The tutorial seems a litle superfluous due to the fact that PINPOINT is so easy to use. When booted a menu screen allows selection of either the tutorial, an exit to ProDOS basic with PINPOINT or the main installation menu. hsv) Installation is fairly straightforward and uses the well known Apple- Works filecard approach, first a printer set up routine which caters for most commonly used printers and interface cards. (Pinpoint version 1.3 or lower required a Page 16 separate printer enhancement disk). Next comes the modem set up routine for the communications accessory and dialer. This set up is typically American and at first a little confusing with regard to area codes. The modems that will work with PINPOINT are the Apple modem or any Hayes compatible modem. A modem enhancement kit is available as a separate program to enable fine tuning of your modem should it be a different type to the ones mentioned above. The third step is to tell the PINPOINT program where to look for the accessories. This will nor- mally be slot 6 drive 2 but can be altered to suit individual require- ments. For the super rich people out there who own Unidisk 3.5's or the Apple IGS then the accessories can be moved onto the AppleWorks disk. (Ram disks come later you'll have to carry on reading). The last step is to install PIN- POINT on to the application pro- gram. Assuming AppleWorks is chosen the user is prompted to put the AppleWorks startup disk in Drive 1 press return and pray that every- thing will go well. Assuming all went well playing can now com- mence. A quick word here to say that should you require to change any of the set up parameters say a different printer, then the installation routine must be repeated. A good idea is to make a number of disks with differing set-ups. Boot the modified AppleWorks and you will be greeted with a short message that the PINPOINT accesso- ries will be recognised. Pressing ‘solid-apple-P’ will cause a pop-up menu to appear, the accessory required can be selected using the arrow keys or by pressing the initial | letter of the accessory and pressing return, However you cannot use key presses to select Communications because if you do you will get Calculator. Pinpoint have missed this one. Appointment calendar A large calendar is displayed which shows the current month provided a clock is installed and recognised by AppleWorks. Otherwise April 1985 is displayed from which you may move to the date you require. Displayed to the right of this are three smaller displays showing the previous month and the next two months. On the current month display the current day is highlighted in inverse and any appointments entered are marked with an asterisk in the appropriate day. The calendar can be incremented or decremented by using the open-apple and the up or down arrows. ‘The calendar decre- ments as far as April 1985 and extends up to December 1990. (I suppose the Apple will be out of date by Jan 1991). By using the open-apple-? (help) keys a help menu appears. Only 255 days can be scheduled for appoint- ments at any one time and therefore old appointments must be deleted | should this limit be reached. Each appointment can be 32 characters by 32 lines. This I think will be quite acceptable for most people. Qluhttt The calculator is very basic with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and a cancel last entry key. It is shown to the right of the display and although basic can be very useful when in the word processor for doing a bit of simple arithmetic. Communication __—_—— This allows the user to set up his terminal to match the system he wants to call. A phone directory is also part of the communications accessory enabling a ‘name’, ‘phone number’ and ‘logon’ macro to be stored for PINPOINT to automati- cally dial when requested, The sending and receiving of files is also possible from this accessory. DV Now this is just the job for lazy people. The Dialer will scan the monitor screen and highlight any number it thinks is a phone number, if you accept this number the Dialer will ring it for you. (he phone will require picking up when someone answers.) mee _ __———— ‘The Graphmerge accessory allows the printing of graphics into word processor documents. On selecting this accessory a catalog of word processor files on your data disk will be shown. After choosing a file in which to add a picture open-apple- M (merge) will allow selection of a picture from another disk. Once this selection is made the picture will be displayed, at which time you can choose to take only a portion of the picture by using a cropping cursor or in fact all the picture. The word processor file will then be re-displayed and an ‘L’ shaped cursor will show where the top left of the picture will start after pressing return. The picture can be placed anywhere within the word processor file and then printed. Pictures can be printed in differing modes of half/full width, half/full height or normal / inverse. Pictures created using DazzleDraw or MousePaint can be used with Graphmerge. Noe This accessory is a way of jouing down any thoughts that one may have whilst working on a file and will save on numerous scraps of paper. A note can be 32 lines long with 62 characters across. The Notepad also incorporates full word wrap-a- round. Any note can be printed or saved for later retrieval. Vkbh With Quicklabel, an address on a single label or on an envelope can be printed very quickly indeed. Just make sure that the informa- tion required on the label is shown on the screen, select Quicklabel from the accessories, move the cursor to the first character required on the label and hit <return>. A highlighted portion of the screen appears, this portion is what Quick- label thinks is the area that needs printing. If it is wrong then you can expand the area up to 8 lines by 80 characters or contract the area to 1 line and 1 character. If more than 1/ 4 of the screen is selected then it will be printed with no more input from the user. If less than 1/4 of the screen is selected then a display of an envelope appears complete with stamp and the information can be moved to the desired printing position. yt] —— This turns your printer into a typewriter but allows full cditing before printing. A line length of 70 characters is allowable and after typing the information required, editing as necessary all that needs to be done to print is press <return>, Printing can be in numerous styles and character sizes, all se- lected from an option screen just below the typewriter display. Requrenens PINPOINT can be run on an en- hanced Apple //e, //c or GS and provided you can wait around for most of the evening waiting for accessories to load from disk you'll enjoy using it. But of course if you have a super add on RAM card (ideally 512K or larger) then things can really start to move. Enter the PINPOINT RAM Enhancement kit. This disk will allow the PINPOINT accessorics to be loaded to a RAM drive and will greatly improve the speed (eg most accessories will load from disk in under 30 secs, Graphmerge takes nearly a full minute). The RAM enhancement kit allows selection of the required accessories (you may not want them all) to be automatically loaded on start up of AppleWorks. The RAM cards that work with PINPOINT are:- Apple memory expansion card. Z Ram. RamWorks or RamWorks II MegaRamplus or SprintDisk MultiRam | On booting the RAM Enhance- ment kit a menu is shown which allows selection of accessories for autocopy. Number 2 on the menu allows ProDOS file autocopy - the user must type in the full Path name of the file to load. This option is required for loading some accessory data files (eg logonmac.pp is the communications phone directory and appointments.pp is the calendar data file). Step 3 is to set up information about the Ram card. Which type you are using and the size of RAM drive you require. (A table at the back of the manual gives Ram disk size versus AppleWorks desktop size to help determine this). Once done, the RAM parameters are installed onto the copy of AppleWorks that has PINPOINT already installed on it. Boot AppleWorks and all the accessories are copied to RAM for instant access. Condi In general the PINPOINT package has been put together well, although from a personal view I would have difficulty in finding a use for some of the accessories. Notepad and Appointments for example, | nor- mally keep a very good Diary. The manuals for PINPOINT and the Ram Enhancement kit are well laid out and easy to follow. Although PINPOINT works from drives I would say that a 512K Ram card is necessary to avoid the obvious delays in disk access times and in the numerous disk swapping operations that would be inevitable whilst using the accessories. All in all a good buy for all serious AppleWorks users. « PINPOINT 2.0 and the RAM Enhancement Kit was supplied for review by and is available from: Bidmuthin Technologies, P.O, Box 264, Harrow, Middx, HA3 9AY Tel : 01 907 8516. Page 17 The Serial Interface- 2 Is this communicating ? a ro Ts Dougal Hendry clears up some more Serial problems and concentrates on the Modem. In a previous article, I considered the requirements for making a physical RS-232 serial data link between two devices, I also mentioned character formats and software handshaking. This time, I will show how these tools are used in linking different computers, but first a couple of other short points and a request. The request is for information. Byte in December '86 carried a review of 23 American modems, It concluded “The rigorous testing ... revealed differences between mo- dems that simple ‘use testing’ did not find.” The reviewer had access to laboratory equipment for introducing precise and reproducible separate “Handshake” wires which are used to temporarily stop the flow of data. But for a successful link, all of the following conditions must be correct for the entire link up - Data rate, Data (character?) format, Handshake method and Cable wiring. It is important to note that it does not matter what is “hidden” behind this interface, ncither unit need know, as long as the partners abide by the same rules. This leads to the first method of computer communication, hard wired direct connection. Once the Essential Conditions have been satisfied, data can be output from the scrial port of one, along a few feet of cable, and into the serial port of the other, This method is commonly used for “porting” large files between computers using incompatible disk systems, Maximum data rates can be used because of the lack of interfer- ence noise on the link. (Once you have tried this, using nothing more than Applesoft/Dos IN# and PR# commands, you may begin to realise what a Communications Program must do... ) At this point, let us note that printers usually only accept ASCII characters, which can be expressed in 7 bits, but computers may be re- quired to swap 8 bit data, (whole bytes), and so the data format needs Page 18 to be set appropriately. Also, charac- ter data can be error checked by reading, but that is inadequate for anything other than printable charac- ters. Remote Communication most commonly means use of a telephone connection between the machines. The serial port to telephone interface is a modem, (modulator/demodula- tor). Of course, a modem is needed at each end of the ‘phone line! The output section generates different audio frequencies, (af), in response to high or low input data bits. The output is AC electricity to the phone wires for a “direct connect” modem, and sound for an “acoustic coupler” which squalks into the telephone handset. The input section uses audio frequency filters to discrimi- nate between the tones, and accord- ingly outputs high or low bits to the computer, Note that acoustic mo- dems are prone to interference from room noise, and the hi-fi inadequa- cies of telephone microphones and earphones. ‘These af signals carry the data, but what of the handshake signals? The answer is that hardware hand shaking is used between the com- puter - or terminal, and it’s local mo- dem, but software handshaking must be used to the remote system. This brings us to the confusing term “Duplex”. So far we have always included a simultaneous receive and transmit channels. This means they can use “Echoplex” operation, whereby the remote system echoes back everything it gets. Thus the connection between your keyboard and screen includes the remote system. It provides a direct indication of the quality of the circuit, but it may seem sluggish... double letters (ddoouubbllee) are a sure sign that you ought to be in echo mode, but aren't! So how can we get two inde- pendent data channels on one ‘phone line? Male and female voices on a phone line can be easily distin- guished by their pitch, and modems use the same trick. One modem transmits high pitched tones, the other low tones - which is which depends on who originated the link- yu e The precise frequencies for origi- nate and answer at each of the various standard speeds are specified by an international committee, the CCITT. The USA have different tones, specified by the Bell telephone system. (By the way, “tone” dialling in the USA uses a completely differ- ent set of tones to the UK.) The most common data rate of 300 baud, (“CCITT V21”) is pretty slow compared to the speeds used with hard-wired direct connections because of the limited bandwidth of a phone line, Bandwidth is simply a measure of the data throughput capacity (or requirement) of a com- munication channel. A massively greater bandwidth is required for a TV signal than Morse code. The bandwidth offered by a BT ‘phone line is simply not quite enough for two channels of 1200 baud with the Frequency Shift Keying method, as described above. Where communication is going to be predominantly in one direction, a greater bandwidth can be allocated to that direction. This is the basis of 1200/75, (‘CCITT V23"), used most notably by Prestel. You recieve data fast, at 1200 baud, but transmit slowly at 75 baud, tolerable for slow typing and perfectly adequate for tapping in page numbers. It is impor- tant lo note that this requires either a “split-rate” serial port - unusual, or a “speed buffering" modem - not the cheapest. The former is self-explana- tory, the latter holds your 1200 baud outgoing message in a buffer store and slowly spools it out at 75 baud - you'll need a hardware handshake to warn you when your buffer is full! Incidentally, Prestel itself uses non- ASCII graphic and colour (“Vie- wdata") characters, so you will need the appropriate software to handle that too. And being peculiarly British, don't expect it to be an option on any US software... 1200 and even 2400 baud full duplex is possible on an ordinary BY line by encoding the data using Differential Phase Shift Keying, rather than FSK. The standards are: called CCITT V22 and V22bis. The bad news is that suitable modems cost more than double the price of those offering just V21 and V23. Good news is that the yanks use V22bis for their 2400 full duplex standard,and with standardisation comes economy. Ihave heard of a new way of us- ing 1200/75, using a special “Over" protocol to swap to 75/1200, thereby faking 1200 full duplex. Does anyone know any details? Protocols. The necessity of error checking in non-character files has lead to a number of file transfer protocols. One does not need to understand their inner workings, but both Xmodem, also known by the name of it's inventor Ward Chis- tensen, and the newer Kermit are commonly used. Both were estab- lished by being placed in the public domain. There is a special Macintosh variant of Xmodem, called MacBi- nary, which handles Icons and Re- sources. You should have guessed that we need to use exactly the same protocol at each end. These proto- cols should be offered by good comms software. The other feature that is often trumpeted is terminal emulation. This is mainly the ability to respond to screen control codes in the same way as a named terminal, typically Digital Equipment Corp, (“DEC”), VT52 and VT100, This emulation is required for screen formatting and chunky graphics. If you plan to log on to your company’s mainframe from home, then this might be needed. Almost all public systems work well when you emulate a simple teletype terminal (ITY). Software features that 1, person- ally, have found most useful are sim- plicity of reviewing text scrolled offscreen, automatic archiving of the complete transcript and the ability to easily upload my pre-prepared text, without having to close any other file. I am still discovering the useful ness of Red Ryder’s command scripts, but can see that such a feature would be essential to serious users performing routine sequences, for example collecting their (elec- tronic) E-Mail. British Telecom's “Gold” is the premier E-Mail system in this coun- tury. Apple 2000 offers free member- ship of this, and much has already been written on the subject. “May the Force be with you!” In the States, there are similar sys- tems - notably CompuServe and The Source. Their British members can reach these, cither by dialling the USA and using Bell modem tones, or dialling a Packet Switching node - a computer in Britain linked to the US computers among others. In this case CCITT tones would be required, since the modem you are calling is in the UK. On-line information sources can be found on the E-Mail systems, Prestel, and on their own dedicated systems. Regrettably, these systems are frightfully expensive to use. Do any of them offer “amateur” rates out of office hours? The americans call public notice- boards, of the type you might see in supermarkets, “Bulletin Boards.” When a modem-equipped computer was programmed to receive, store and display similar short messages from all-comers, they called it a bulletin board, and the name has stuck. These dial-up computers con- tain messages ranging from things you might not be surprised to read in academic journals, to things that would surprise you in a ‘phone box at Kings Cross station! Most boards are free. However, most are for onc user at time, so that you may hear many engaged tones before you get through. BABBS, Apple 2000’s own board is an excellent place to advertise your computer sales and wants, get information, leave messages for ME: ‘The single best tip I was ever given is to run a stopwatch on your connect time. Those minutes will slip by too easily, unless you can clearly see the money running away. @ Elite Software Company 4 Hawthylands Drive, Hailsham, East Sussex, BN27 1HE Tel: (0323) 845898 FORMAT-80 USERS If you are using a PC compatible computer, FORMAT-PC offers you the same ease of use and power that you currently enjoy with FORMAT-80. There are generous discounts for registered FORMAT-80 users, and a conversion service for text and mailing lists is available. For more details contact : Page 19 Letters to the Editor Peter Arnold Channel Islands Dear Apple 2000, I'm having problems with OMNIS 3+ Of all the simple tasks one might set, surely printing address labels should be easy? With AppleWorksanda IIc there was no problem at all, except that to sort by surname one had to add a code. With Omnis, great heavens! You must set up a library, a file format, a data entry layout, systems for sorting, searching, parameters, customised menu, sequences, then to print anything you go through a similar rigma- role all over again, and heaven help you if you get anything wrong because it beeps, but does not tell you WHAT you got wrong.....well, after all that, and after find- ing that I had to look up the meanings of all that stuff about paper sizes (US letter, US legal, Computer paper and so on) in MacDrawl... there still seemed to be no way to tell the printer that I wanted it to print in nice readable type at 6 lines to the inch, and to start the next address 1.5 inches below the start of the first. You just can’t get at it, and the manual! Well I asked my dealer, but he said “Oh no, don’t put spaces after the address to add up the usual nine lines. Put the section heading ‘End of Report’ immediately after the last line of the address”. “Then how does the printer know where to put the next address?."Oh, put that as New Page” he said, “Thanks” I said lamely, and put down the phone. I've never seen anything about New Page, I mutter to myself, now quite resigned to continuing all the address labelling on my IIC, but not liking to be defeated, I turn to the thick and expensive book ‘The Com- plete Guide to Omnis 3 It tells me how to print three labels across, and how to fiddle about with the number of columns until addresses are in roughly the right starting place on all three. Now what does dear Donna say about lines per page ? Standard 66, she says for an 11" page. “Sorry dear, our's are 12" pages”, not that that should affect things when printing labels, which are spaced uni- formly across the perforations. No, I’m stuck. So let's see what happens when I print to the screen. One address comes up, but for this test | entered twelve, Try again, this time on the Imagewriter. It tries to do the same, but the paper snarls itself up on the left. “Never had this sort of trouble with my old Epson MX80, and it didn’t Page 20 form-feed unbidden as the Imagewriter seems to do". Check the file in ‘Enter data’ Yes, all the addresses are there. Have | messed about with File Format and not reorganised? No, ‘No reorganisation neces- sary’ it says. Well, I have to admit that for the moment I'm baffled, and the depress- ing thing is that my other files are far more complex, and extensive, but then they do not need to be printed on address labels, so I don’t anticipate any problems there. ‘Oh have a rest! Try out the new ‘Cricket Graph’....this looks great fun. Try the example with ‘column graph’ and do what they suggest with the Y axis label. Double click it and type ‘Sales (Millions $). Hello, what's happened. The space bar functions like the Return key, the Return key is /, so where is the Space bar? Ah! the new Space bar is the Enter key, just to its right. So lets try again. Double click on the vertical label and type the new name. Sale...Enter key...(nilliobs $)...thats got it. All the same, it is a bit of a nuisance having to mentally re-label the botom row of keys, Return, Enter and Space bar, and one wonders what clse does not work as it should. I'm glad I have only borrowed these programs.MacDraw surely does what it should. Try it. All's well up to page 14, but what's this? Select an object ... right, heres a nice big rectangle, now select the Text Tool, and type, and the words should wrap when they reach the edge of the rectangle and carry on to the next line. Do they? No they do not. Then why in heaven's name print in the manual that they do? (My dealer also says that don't) What's up Apple? The chatty style in manuals is only mildly irritating. The paucity of the index aggravating. The total lack of any systematically arranged infor- mation on hard or software seems bound to lay tremendous burdens on dealers (and user groups). Yes, one can drag icons around in less time that it takes to do the equivalent key strokes on an Apple 2, but not if you put them into macros, Even my IIc, with mac- ros, can knock spots off my borrowed Mac on all the elementary office work. Yes I suppose it took a while to get used to the Meand AppleWorks after a II+ with Zardax, Visicale and Visidex, so if 1 can find some- ‘one at Apple 2000 to give me a bit of help, maybe I will eventually buy a Mac, but not as things are.. New Barnet - Herts Dear Sirs, lama fairly recent member of BASUG and new to programming of any sort. Never- theless | have been working hard on an Applesoft program to handle the very com- plicated routines required at a Hire Desk (Peter runs a tool hire company Ed) Although the program is notyet'upand running’ it soon will be and I have every reason to believe it will achieve all the aims I have set. I write to acknowledge unreservedly the unfailing assistance provided by Dave Ward of the Hotline. He has been quite superb, and aside from his uemendous actual know-how, he has assisted me fre- quently and patiently with the minimum of fuss. If he found my IQ lacking sometimes (and he must have) he never allowed it to show, It is not untrue to say that without his help I would have given up some 9 month ago. Peter Edwards Another of Dave's satisfied customers! ..... Ed Thorpe Bay - Essex Dear Mr Panks, I joined your club when you were at Olympia; I was in a wheelchair and we spoke at the Apple2000 stand. I also met at the exhibition Ewen Wannop and we talked of some of the problems | had encountered with my Apple II Europlus and as I explained I use a specially devel- oped expanded keyboard which I use with my feet. I have twin disk drives of the large version and a normal monitor with printer. Due to my financial situation, as | am unable to work at present due to my disability, lam unable to expand my Apple computer any further. Ideally, what I would like to do isto be able to expand the memory to a 64K level and additionally an 80 column card would make it easier to use on Apple Writer. I understand that there is a feature on the Spectrum which allows you when entering a long program to shorten this laborious process by touching keys which represent certain words, i.e. for Enter, N for Next. | would ask whether somebody can write a machine code pro- gram to assist me with this problem. Failing this a program which allows voice input. Also I would like to convert my colour TV into a colour monitor. Would you know of anybody who wants to sell a second-hand card? Hugh Slater There must be lots of spare 16K RAM, 80 column, and PAL cards around - any offers to help out Hugh? A keyboard macro program would solve his other problem - any suggestions of which would be best? “\ 7” LEAP AHEAD) OF THE GAME The Gazelle is an integrated communications program written in Assembly Language for APPLE //e,//c and//GS The Gazelle offers BRILLIANT COLOUR -and a Viewdata Frame Editor with Carousel. Download as many frames as you like, WNyp edit them then carousel the display ape with timer control. @ EASY TO USE The Gazelle Select Commands with Mouse, is State-of-the-Art Prodos Alphabetic or Cursor Keys . . @ UNIQUE FRIENDLY INTERFACE communications software. Pull-Down Menus @ WRITTEN BY EWEN WANNOP Leap sure footed Bt Lalani with the GAZELLE from any point in program into File Transfers , Telecom Gold, @ SENDS APPLEWORKS files and Telex and Prestel ! DOWNLOADS Email as AWP files @ STATUS BAR DISPLAY Shows Buffer, Speed, Date & Time Stays active while online @ FAST IN USE Memory-resident Program @ FILE CONVERSION from DOS 3.3 @ CONTINUOUS SPOOLING Up to 30 Megabytes @ BUILT-IN CLOCK (for Mousecard &//c) Special @LARGE 44k CAPTURE BUFFER @ TEXT EDITING & MACRO FACILITIES Trade-In Offer Upgrade your existing comms Send us the original dise from ANY comms package fora £20 Trade-In !! Order by Cheque or Postal Order £75.00+VAT (£55.00+VAT if with Trade-in) rom KOLOUR SOFTWARE LIMITED i I ee] ati Page 21 Apple2000 Special Software Offer Super Script by MicroPro This is a powerful package for the Apple //e or ¢ with 64k or 128k. It supports the mouse and will work on a IIGS provided you have a 5.25’ drive connected to a standard drive card. The features include built in spell checker, dic- tionary, mail merge and a useful 5 function calculator within a document. You can cut and paste just like the Mac! Other special features include a help facility, keyboard macros, proper decimal tabs and the ability to add columns of figures. Most printers are supported or you can define your own driver. Lots of power for a reasonable price - thats what buying from Shop2000 mcans. ON LY $29.99 inclusive of P&P & VAT, PE GS CORNER The Stars in the ROM's To see who worked on the development of the GS, just press OPTION Open @ CONTROL N when the bouncing Apple is on the screen! PRODOS 1.3 BUGS - BEWARE DONOT use ProDOS version 1.3 on the GS. Ithas a number of bugs including unnecessary multiple polling of drives, and can trash disks. Use instead a version of ProDOS 8 from any true GS applica- tion disk. Inbuilt Tool Handler - Try this! For those interested in poking around inside the GS you may like to have a look atan inbuilt toolkit handler, From the prompt } CALL -151 O-e FF/1800x <CR> O-A Ctrl Esc(together) and select it from the menu Page 22 Home Connection by Penguin Software An all purpose communications package for the II+,e and c with a minimum of 64k. (GS requires a 5.25” drive and controller). This comms package allows you to work with Hayes or other modems and supports a wide range of serial cards. It includes a built in text editor, text buffer, and alternative transmit modes for sending any type of file to another Apple. This is another steal at an all in price of only £24.99 including P&P & VAT. “SPECTRAGRAM” — INTELLIGENT ) RGB COLOUR CARD FOR APPLE II & Ie 255 user definable colours — 16 text/foreaground colours 16 full flood background colours — reduces or removes colour anomalies — colour under full software control — commands in programs can change colour while running — simple pseudo- animation of graphics by changing colours without re-plotting — included monitor cable and demonstration disc with utility programs to control colours — extensive manuals explains programing, animation, true 3D pictures. £99 RGB COLOUR CONVERTER FOR He & Ic (TTL OR LINEAR) Plug in module for /le connects to slot of the mother board OR | plugs to video socket of Ilc — no additional power supply required — XR XG XB X4 TTL available - SOFTWARE TRANSPARENT ~ high definition, saturation & sharpness 240 useful combinations of colours — switch selectable functions: 16 foreground/text colours : 16 full flood background colours ~- DUOCHROME - cleans up fuzzy hi-res text — solid or striped video reduces fringes. Prices are exclusive of VAT (Postage £1.50) KEYZONE LTD U14, Acton Business Centre, School Road, Park Royal, London NW10 6TD Tel: 01-965 1684/1804 Tix: 8813271 y, | kapzona HOLDENS SUMMER APPLE SALE In response to many requests we are repeating our yery popular list of used Apple Computers, peripherals and software. At the time of going to press all items are in stock, and carry our three month warranty. Used Computers Apple I+ £95.00 Apple He 295.00 Apple Ie (Enhanced) 325.00 Apple He 128k 325,00 Apple IIGS 495.00 Lisa 1Mb with SMb Profile 1500.00 Macintosh 512/400k 695.00 Macintosh 512/800k 895.00 Genuine Apple Disk Drives Disk I with controller £100.00 Disk IL 80.00 Duodisk 295.00 Unidisk 3.5 250,00 Profile SMb 350.00 Macintosh 400k 125.00 Monitors Apple I Green Screen 75.00 Apple IIl Green Screen 65.00 Haga Green Screen 45.00 Kaga Groen Screen 45.00 Sanyo Green Screen 45.00 Zenith Green Screen 45.00 Microvitec. RGB 150.00 NE i] & Used only for demonstration O NLYe full twelve month warranty A] = |) $6 £3250.00 q LaserWriter Plus Please add VAT to all prices Description Model Price Business Graphics 1 39,00 Lisa Draw Lisa 30.00 MacPascal Mac 79,00 MacWrite Mac 45.00 Quickfile lle 19.00 Quickfile tl 29,00 Senior Analyst " 39,00 Super Pilot WW 30.00 Lisa Call Usa 30.00 Lisa Graph lisa 30,00 Lisa List