Australian Apple Review The Vol 1 No 5 1984 06 Gareth Powell AU

Registered by Australia Post Publication No NBG6313 &% “us, v) "ij, a The Australian Apple Review The Independent Magazine Vol 1No5 June Sor commended retail pric -s+bblia, Ghu _ world ofr si our eyes)’ & -astud~ ons Adven. w.:e~*. corner computing Worm in the Apple An oto Fortran Program contest Writing chine language Notes from Software De\ yers’ Conference The new Apple Tic Chan 5 world of printers 1! ows Are you damagin ur eyesight? |.c' ters Computer languages tudy in comparative religions Adventurer’ mer Levels of Apple computing Worm / An approach to Fortran Progr: est Writing in machine language No Software Developers’ Conference ' pple Ile Changing world of pri’ xé you damaging your eyesigh ~uter languages-a study in’ 2s Advent-===~’s Corne: CompuMusic 103 ST JOHNS ROAD - GLEBE NSW 2037 - TELEPHONE 692 9875 APPLECARD ™ The next generation in CP/M® cards for your Apple® featuring extra speed and additional optional memory enabling it to act as a pseudodisc under DOS or CP/M. 6MHz 64K .............fepeeceene 6MHz 64K w/64K Extender . a 6MHz 64K w/128K Extender . 80/88 CARD” This card upgrades the Apple to the speed, power and larger memory space of a 16-bit system. 64K and MBASIC are standard, CP/M 86 is also available. 80/88 Card ....:.s050. Sipe $801.50 FLASHCARD Disc emulator for Apple computers. Drive discs for DOS 3.3, CP/M & Pascal supplied with the card. Runs programs up to 10 times faster. 144K .. $630.00 288K... $907.00 ULTRATERM ™ Revolutionary video display peripheral, features from 40-160 characters across and 24-48 lines. UGS ee $470.00 ULTRAPLAN ™ The complete ebiessheet program. Ultraplan ... $220.00 w/Ultraterm -. $615.00 RANA SYSTEMS Floppy disc drive w/652K unformatted. Uses DOS 3.3, CP/M & Pascal, PRODOS coming. EQS 0. ee $950.00 COLOUR FLOPPIES Solid colour floppies, in 12 colours enabling rapid identification, colour coding and filing. 5%” SS/DD, 40 TPI $ 5.50 5%” DS/DD, 40 TPI $° 7.20 DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME ‘the ultimate in affordable digital synthesizers’ alphaSyntaur] A 16 oscillator, 8 voice polyphonic computer music system that can: CREATE * sounds : envelopes : effects PLAY + full polyphony : 3000 note sequencer RECORD « 16 tracks : full multitrack functions COMPOSE ~ play it and print it in 8 note polyphony, EDUCATE + aural visual education programs for classroom and home VICTORIA Music Junction, 204 Camberwell Road Hawthorn East 3123 Telephone: 82 7331 Brashs 108 Elizabeth Street Melbourne 3000 Telephone: 63 6701 Troy Music 568 Chapel Street South Yarra 3141 Telephone: 63 6701 WESTERN AUSTRALIA QUEENSLAND Zenith Music 309 Sterling Hwy Claremont 6010 Telephone: 383 1422 336 Flinders Street Townsville 4810 North Australian Audio Video Telephone: (077) 72 4747 DEALER SOUTH AUSTRALIA M ohone: 223 5533 ENQUIRIES WELCOME te Australian Apple Review The Australian Apple Review Top Rear, 4 Carrington Rd, Randwick NSW 2031 Phone: (02) 398 5111 Published by Gareth Powell Pty Ltd Editor: Gareth Powell Art Director: Avrille Goldsworthy Production Managers: Brenda Powell, Gary Williams Photographer: Gary Williams Subscription Manager: Tina Spathos Advertising Enquiries: Craig Hoskinson, Patricia Barr Gareth Powell Pty Ltd, Top Rear 4 Carrington Rd, Randwick NSW 2031 Phone: (02) 398 5111 Typesetting: Printaction Distribution: GORDON & GOTCH LTD SYDNEY Printed by: lan Liddell Commercial Printing Contents EDITORIAL HARDWARE REVIEW The most important computer in the history of Apple — the Apple IIc HARDWARE REVIEW The Apple IIc — review NEWS LANGUAGES Computer languages — a study in comparative religion LANGUAGES An approach to Fortran LANGUAGES Writing in machine language WORM IN THE APPLE LETTERS HARDWARE REVIEW The changing world of printers ARTICLE Levels of Apple computing PROGRAMMING The Australian Apple program contest ARTICLE Are you damaging your eyesight? SOFTWARE REVIEW Software Developers’ Conference GAMES Adventurer's Corner EDITORIAL s we go to press the news has A come that the appeal by Apple against the “Wombat” decision has been successful. No one is yet in a position to make formal pronounce- ments on the probable results of this decision, but it seems very likely there will be no more copies of Apple brought into Australia, at least in commercial quantities. This is further underlined by the statement by the Attorney-General, Gareth Evans, that new legislation was ready to be hustled through parliament to give copyright pro- tection to programs incorporated in ROM. Taking these two factors together, it can be assumed that the days of the “el cheapo” Apple are over. Anybody buying a fake Apple at this stage would be putting them- selves at great risk, because the freezing up of supply of fake Apples also means the freezing up of the supply of spare parts. It is important to note that this will not in any way affect peripherals for adding on to genuine Apples. Owners will still have a wide range of printers, plotters, screens, boards and modifications that will not in any way upset the Applecart. Indeed, Apple have shown them- selves most willing to encourage manufacturers and suppliers of such peripherals. It also means the end of Software Liberation, as people selling broken software will do so at their peril. It is interesting that the actions taken in Australia have been almost exactly duplicated by similar legal action in the United States of America and, to a much lesser extent, Taiwan. If you have a fake Apple and it breaks down - as it most surely will — do not throw it away. Hang on to it. One day it may be a valuable memento of a short period in the history of Australian computing. personal Gareth Powell Name:... Address:.. . Postcode ... Rates within Australia Subscription rate for 6 issues $18.00 Subscription rate for 12 issues $36.00 DIRECT SUBSCRIPTION The Australian Apple Review Please enrol me for .. Apple Review, commencing with the ... postal order/cheque for$... ... (Please print in BLOCK letters) The Australian Apple Review Top Rear, 4 Carrington Rd, Randwick, NSW 2031. . issues subscription to the Australian . issue. | enclose HARDWARE REVIEW The most important computer in the history of Apple - the Apple IIc by Gareth Powell he Apple llc marks a signifi- t [ Veant point in the history of a manufacturing company that has changed the face of computing world-wide. When the Apple I! was originally launched it soared away, making personal computers respectable and Wozniak and Jobs millionaires many times over. It brought computing within the reach of millions. From 1977 until the beginning of this decade, Apple led and the others followed. But, as the years passed, the dream inevitably began to fray at the edges. Cupertino ceased to be a com puter Camelot. The perceived tech- nological lead started to diminish. Marketing decisions were imple- mented which in retrospect seemed to have been mistimed. Apple share prices on the United States stock market started to sag. It was not so much that the Apple was getting oldér but rather that new and exciting machines were popping up all over the place. That they were soon to pop down again did not alter the fact that they began to give Apple the image of a company falling behind in the computer race. The image of the company was not enhanced by the launch of the Apple ///. \t had none of the fizz and sparkle we had come to expect from Apple. Incorrect forecast There were many who at that time started with a secret glee to forecast the demise of Apple. Then came the Lisa. The first sign of a new day dawning. This most remarkable of machines showed that Apple still had the corporate computer genius which could project into the future and then produce a machine which would fit and tailor that future. E 4 True, the Lisa was not for everyone. True, the pricing policy at the beginning was off the mark. But the concept, the design, of the machine was so breathtaking in its innovation that the Lisa gave‘a much needed face-lift to the Apple image. At the same time, new professional managers had arrived on the scene who could connect technological genius with the real world and make it acceptable. From this came the Macintosh. Sales target Apple announced that if they sold 50,000 of the Macintosh in the first 100 days they would consider they had a success on their hands. They sold 72,000, and would have sold many more if it had not been for supply problems. In Australia the Macintosh has yet to completely find its feet — again, simply because of supply problems. Customers cannot buy machines that are not there. Shops cannot supply from stocks that are unavailable. That this will change there is no doubt. Probably well before the end of this year. The launch of the Macintosh had a secondary effect on the fortunes of Apple in that it gave the Lisa a new lease of life. Retrofitting the Lisa with new drives made the two appear part of a coherent family. The Macintosh and Lisa together gave Apple a full range of 32 bit machines. Most importantly, the Macintosh announced to the world that Apple had no intention of bowing down to the might of IBM and that in the world of the personal computer Apple was, at least in the technical sense, the game to follow. The Macintosh addressed itself to that most modern of diseases, computerphobia. Apple went out of their way to produce a machine which an absolute beginner could master in hours rather than days. A machine that could be looked on as a part of a senior executive's desk furniture. A machine that implied its owner 3 HARDWARE REVIEW had computer sawvy. Little wonder it was a tearaway success. Education market This 32 bit line of machines was targeted directly at the tertiary education market. Apple set their sights firmly on that goal and in the United States made it almost totally theirs. In Australia the jury is still out, but we believe that the Mac/Lisa line will be the dominant force in tertiary education computing for the next ten years. In the short term we are seeing a large percentage of students in America and Australia working away diligently at their Macintoshes. In the medium term we are going to see hordes of new graduates coming into the marketplace with their major experience in personal computers being in Apples. Having control of this area effectively means that Apple has secured its prospects for the foreseeable future. (That future is also secured in many other ways. Apple has one of the lowest debt ratios of any American company. It has a massive financial reserve which could, on our computation, keep it going for three years without it having to sell one computer. When a company has got to that state it will need war and pestilence and flood and famine to stop its momentum.) Having cornered the educational and scientific markets (and several other markets as well) with the technological brilliance of the Macintosh/Lisa line, Apple has now elected to show another area of its talents —- marketing knowhow. Sales sense There is not much debate that from the beginning Apple needed profes- sional help to maximise the sales of its salesworthy products. When John Scully arrived from Pepsico to run Apple with a The CPU of the Apple //c. The built-in disk drive is on the right-hand side of the unit. 4 The portable Apple //c, showing easily portable flat display monitor (to be available late in 1984), modem, carrycase and Apple Mouse II. reputation as big as all outdoors, he set up a marketing strategy plan which is now starting to bear results. We believe that if the Apple || was Act |, Scene 1, then the Macintosh and Lisa brought that first act to a successful close. Curtain descends to tumultuous applause. The interval has passed and now the curtain is rising on the second act — Apple launching the llc and a range of peripherals to complement it The IIc is, in our opinion, the most important machine in the history of Apple. It contains very little new and exciting in the way of technology. Rather it is a synthesis of what the market needs now, not what it may need in some ill-defined future. When we first saw the machine we said that in our considered belief it would within one year break the sales record for Apple in Australia - computing the figures from the date that Apple first started here, and given the provisio that sufficient numbers of the machine were available. Early dealer reaction shows we were not wrong. We do not know what Apple have targeted as their sales figures for the coming fiscal year. If they have set their sights at less than 30,000 Apple lIcs, then we believe they have underestimated the potential of the market. What is this remarkable machine and why do we think so highly of it? Read the following story. HARDWARE REVIEW The Apple IIc -— review ‘Apple lic are as follows. The CPU is a 65C02 eight bit microprocessor. This is a logical extension of the standard Apple 6502 CPU but, essentially, uses CMOS technology to allow it to operate with far less power and far lower temperatures. As it is a lineal descendant of the 6502, almost every program for the Apple II (and there at least 15,000 of them) will run happily on the llc. The exceptions are few and far between, but unhappily include Zardax, our favourite word-process- ing program. No doubt lan Phillips, the man who is responsible for Zardax, will be offering a new version. Tl standard features of the Thanks for the memory There are 128K bytes of RAM, which is an elegant sufficiency. It shows how times are changing when no one comments on the size of this memory working with an 8 bit chip. It is only eight years ago that we were delighted because we put together a machine with a massive 1.5K bytes of RAM. And went round boasting about it. This size memory means that no matter what program you are using — be it word processing, spreadsheets or databases - there is very little likelinood of you ever running out of memory. If you do, you probably shouldn't have been using an Apple llc in the first place for the task you have tackled. However, Powell’s Third Law of Computing says: “Programs always expand to fill available memory.” There are programs available on other machines which require up to 200K RAM to work properly. This is not always due to sloppy writing on the part of the programmer. Fre- quently it is because there are more and more desirable features that can be added. An example is the word process- ing program MultiMate, used on the IBM PC. This uses up nearly 200K of RAM when loaded. You might think this a profligate waste of memory except that the result is a program that turns the computer into the most powerful word processing unit we have ever tested. So although 128K bytes of RAM \ seems — and indeed, is — a lot, it may start to look less bountiful in a few years’ time. By then we will have seen the Macintosh memory retro-fitted with 256K RAM chips. And we will almost certainly have entered the era of one megabyte memory chips. No doubt the Apple llc will be modified as such memory expan- sion improvements become avail- able and programs that require these vast amounts of memory become commonplace. That time is some considerable way down the track. There are 16K bytes of ROM with Applesoft BASIC, the machine language monitor and disassembler built into ROM. Disk drive The disk drive is a_ built-in Shugart drive, and takes what everyone illegally refers to as five and a quarter inch disks. The logic behind the choice of this disk drive is impeccable. It means that the standard Apple programs can be used without a hiccup. It is a fair bet that there was much agonising in Apple over this decision. What might be referred to as the 32 bit push would undoubtedly like to have seen a version of the small drive, which is used in the Macintosh and the Lisa, used in the IIc. Looking at the Ilc carefully and using a metric ruler and a cal- culating machine, | think it just might marginally have been possib- le to squeeze two of the small disk Sharp originated drives into the IIc. But | have no doubt whatosever that the decision made was the right one. Technically the other disk drives have the edge. But the hassle involved in getting programs sorted out would have negated all the advantages these drives would TTT PTET TTT OO ee» © em @On HARDWARE REVIEW have brought. Fitting this drive appears, to an interested outsider, to have been a pure marketing decision. As such, it is an interesting aspect in the continuing process of the maturing of Apple. The IIc has, of course, a built in 80 column facility. Those of us who say “about time” are elderly carping critics who should be ignored. The display, which has quite elegant and eminently readable letters, is, of course, in upper and lower case. The keyboard has 63 letters. Because the Apple llc is, in intent and in effect, a portable, the keyboard does not have a separate numeric pad, an understandable and acceptable decision. But we hazard the guess it is only a matter of time before some entrepreneur offers it as an add-on, possibly working through the port used for that damned mouse thing. Keyboard | seem to spend my life writing. | have used keyboards of all shapes and sizes. | have wept tears of distress at the design of the IBM keyboard, on which the return key has been moved so that you keep banging the wrong key by mistake. | have been immeasurably dis- tressed by the Sord portable (which exists) because it has no space bar. Even on the original Apple II | was less than pleased with the keyboard — the lle was a major advance. The llc is better yet. It is almost the perfect keyboard. Indeed, | think it is the state of the art as far as personal computer keyboards are concerned. It has slightly dished keys (rather more dished than those on the lle) and they have an excellent feel. | sat down at the llc for the first time and within two minutes was typing in a longish article with no problems whatsoever. It fits into the overall design of the machine, which is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. There is a builtin loudspeaker, only one channel but it has a volume control, a blessing in these days of noise pollution. You can fit a joystick or a mouse or any other type of handcontroller. There is a built-in serial interface for a printer — for which relief, much thanks - and a builtin serial 6 interface for a telephone modem. Portability The machine works from 12 volts, at the moment supplied through a transformer. There is no doubt that this machine will work extremely well on batteries and, indeed, on at least one occasion in Australia it has already done so, using the battery pack from a video recorder unit. We understand that towards the end of this year the llc will be available with a battery pack, an LCD screen and a keyboard which can be changed over from QWERTY layout to the infinitely preferable Dvorak. The story has been going around for some time that Apple was going to make a big technological break through in flat screens, and the fact that they have opted for the something less than perfect LCD screen has caused some raised eyebrows. In fact, it fits in well with the whole philosophy behind the llc. It is not on the cutting edge of computer science — that is where the Lisa and the Macintosh have staked their claims. Instead it uses modern but tried and true technology to bring the mostest machine to the public for the lowest price. When the machine with the flat screen becomes available before the end of this year, we will have a true Apple portable which, in truth, is going to destroy the market for a large number of other machines. There will still be room for the smaller lap machines such as the TRS80 100 and the NEC, but the portable market - computers which are fully self contained and portable but are still full computers in their own right — will, | believe, be almost totally dominated by the llc. In my case, as an_ itinerant journalist and publisher who con- centrates on computers and travel, the machine is the answer to all my prayers Wherever | go | can take a fully- equipped office with me. All built into an Apple lic. The design of the Ilc comes from a German company called Frog (strange name that) which was responsible for the design of the Sony Walkman. (One day | must write the story of how the concept of the Sony Walkman came about and why one airline has learned the sad lesson that you must always keep your big mouth shut when you have a good idea.) It is a magnificent piece of design and is, in truth, a timeless work of art. Simple features delight. Take three factors. The machine needs air circu- lation under the base to keep it cool. The keyboard needs to be angled for the best ergonomic positon. A portable needs a carrying handle. In the Apple llc all these needs are catered for with one neat design feature. The handle props up the case to the correct angle, allowing air circulation. And at the same time it makes the Ilc as easy to carry as a medium weight brief case. Documentation The Apple Ilc comes with the most comprehensive set of docu- mentation and learning programs that have ever been seen for a portable computer. They have set a standard which will be difficult for other manufacturers to attain. They are, in a word, superb. If you read the books and follow the disk introductions you will know all you will ever need to know about your machine. And the process will have been painless. For the fringe of computer maniacs like myself and for pro- grammers, there is the Apple lic Reference Manual which tells you more about the IIc than is decent for a young lad to know. To complement the Apple llc there is a new printer, the Scribe, referred to elsewhere in this issue. There is also a monochrome monitor. The design of all these peri- pherals is of the same standard as the Ilc, and | have absolutely no doubt that the whole assembly will be added to the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection of su- perbly designed machinery on display in New York. To sum up, if anyone had any doubts about Apple's ability to turn out a magnificent machine for al reasons and all seasons, those doubts have now been set per manently to rest. Do When (@) b| C ant Because the computer - industry cannot afford , variation in the quality of afford I I | 1 stake Ss. diskettes, at Nashua we — looked for, and founda way to ensure absolute consistency. Here's how we do it. Quality At Nashua we've found to attain this 5 to ensure that at each stage of production our diskettes are statistically checked to make sure the quality is ‘built-in’ every step of the way. Rather than long production lines, we have ‘Quality Circles’ — small groups of people whose job itis to make sure that each Nashua diskette is right in the first place. The result is a diskette with such consistency, that itis chosen by those people who can’t afford mistakes. Phone Sydney 958 2044, Melbourne 428 0501, Brisbane 3694244, ; een o Adelaide 42.0021, Perth . ee e 3281888, Hobart 34 3761, eee. a ___ Darwin 816204. sie BEFORE YOU BUY. ALL ADVERTISED ITEMS NOW IN STOCK! EAGLE ELECTRONICS intropuces Y A SENSIBLE ALTERNATIVE TO THOSE FAR-AWAY @ MAIL ORDER SUPPLIERS! CALL INTO OUR A COMPUTER CENTRE FOR A DEMONSTRATION THE BEST QUALITY FLOPPY DISK DRIVE FOR YOUR APPLE° IS THE Safer 5 SUPER 5 SYSTEM (T-40) (Red Label) e Direct Drive TEAC mechanism. Metal Band positioner. e 13 or 16 sector. 40 tracks — density 48 TPI. e Track to track—less than 6ms. only $379 MULTIFUNCTION BOARD For IBM-PC or compatible gomputer only $549 including 64K-256K RAM s _—_ Centronics printer interface Pe 128K RS232 Port (2nd RS232 optional) i Real time clock with battery backup As used in CONDOR computer APPLE POWER! CP=80 PRINTER —has your Apple power supply given up? Ask us for a demo of this very popular i printer — you'll be surprised by its THIS ONE won't! advanced features and low cost. * Thumping 60 watt rating. Interfaces to all popular computers like * Fuse protected. APPLE and IBM with Centronics * No cooling fan required. interface — RS232 interface also available. only $399 aia Disc Controller ¢ 80 Column Card QS 780 (CP/M) Card &£ ge Epson Printer Controller R) (with cable) G ¥ RS-232 Card EPROM Burner G PAL Card + modulator a So layaticeges See & ® Apple is a registered trademark of Apple computer inc. Eagle Electronics Computer Centre Eagle 83 Princes Hwy., St.Peters. (cnr. Short st) & P.O, BOX 161, ST. PETERS, N.S.W. 2044, AUSTRALIA. TELEPHONE: (02) 516 4540 Errors and omissions excepted Apple make Samurai agreement Hands up those who thought they would never see it happen. In the past, Apple have shown signs of advanced xenophobia. No more. Now they seem to be well and firmly entrenched in the land of the geisha house and “zaibatsu” Latest news is that Apple have got into bed with Sony Corporation to share existing research on hard disk technology. To quote from the information given by Apple: “Apple will provide Sony with its existing research on hard disk technology, enabling Sony to expand its product line of computer peripheral devices.” Nothing is said about what Apple are getting out of the deal, but you can make the presumption it will be a similar amount of research nformation. Sur is the result will be hard Gmves in the 3.5 inch range (as they are still called) which will fit exactly where the Sony 3.5 inch drives fit in the Lisa and the Macintosh, but these drives will give memories of several megabytes each — probably four. It is interesting to see that industry newsletters in the United States have stopped using the phrase megabytes and are now on to gallons. So our guess is that the first fruits of this cooperation will be a four gallon job on a 3.5 inch hard disk. Could even be five gallons. | Hitachi for Apple For owners of Apple Iles the following announcement, though short, is only slightly short of momentous. Hitachi has introduced a 3 inch Hitachi Compact Floppy Disk (72 mm for the enlightened) disk drive for the Apple Ile at about $300 a pop and you can use them with a standard drive or you can use two of them as drives one and two. Maxell have produced the disk to go with it. This disk has, and here we must give you the advertising copy in all its full, florid beauty, “epitaxial magnetic material, the first of its kind to be used for consumer products, consists of cobalt ferrite encap- sulating the gamma ferric oxide”. And we always thought it was the same sort of stuff they put in Vegemite. This exotic blend allows you to put about 286K, unformatted, on a disk, which as Damon Runyon is wont to say is more than somewhat. The suggestion exists that in the near future this will be increased to over 500K. And why do we write about these wonders in an Apple magazine? Because this device hangs on to an Apple Ile with the minimum of fuss is why. It fits right on to your present disk controller card as to the manner born. If these become readily available at the cost of $300 each — and that is the price we have heard suggested — then we are going to think very carefully about switching to the new technology. Because in our opinion these smaller drives will inevitably be the way of the future. It is possible, if not probable, that the Apple Ile will move in_ this direction over the next year or so. If that were to happen then the lic could possibly be supplied with two builtin disk drives, which would make it the best personal computer in the world. For Apple paragraph is lle users this short momentous news indeed. Remember you read it here first. Classroom magazine Ashton Scholastic is the Australian subsidiary of the American publish- ing company Ashton Scholastic. They now have a new magazine called “Classroom Computing”, intended for the use and benefit of teachers. Many of the programs and books discussed are either produced by Ashton Scholastic or distributed by them. This does not in anyway lessen the worth of the magazine, which is well written and designed. If you are of a cynical turn of mind you can catch, when leafing through the pages, a faint echo of the desperation which many teachers feel when faced with teaching a class on a computer. Because in most cases members of the class know far more about computing than the teacher does. It would be like teaching German to a lot of German migrants. Not a happy thought. The magazine takes infinite pains to reassure the teacher every step of the way. In many cases where it is showing the sort of information that can be taught to students, there is no doubt that it is subtly teaching the teachers first. In a Sydney school which we know quite well, a youth managed to manipulate the school’s computer so that the end of term tests set by the headmaster were locked with an encryption code, and the combined efforts of the teachers and the headmaster could not crack the code. - \ : ie] People who hear stories like this shake their heads in rueful admira- tion and say how smart the children are becoming. The headmaster was made of sterner stuff. He caught the culprit and set him a small task - writing a program in BASIC to forecast population growth within selected areas of Australia. Each time it is finished the headmaster finds at least two bugs and sends it back for rewriting. As we go to press the lad is moving in to his ten thousandth line of programming code. That will keep the little ankle biter in line. Apple publish for education A new magazine called “Apple Australia Education News” is being published by Apple Australia. It is edited by a lady called Diana Ryall, and is more of an eight page newsletter than a magazine. At a quick glance, this magazine seems to contain nothing but information on Apple products which, it is true, is of great interest and benefit to teachers. But articles about the place of the computer in education would not come amiss. They could still be Apple orientated but be of more direct practical value. It is true that the Apple is probably the best personal computer for schools, and it is also true that a magazine showing how to make a personal computer work in schools would be a good thing. Ashton Scholastic with “Class- room Computing” appear to have caught the hang of the idea. Apple with its “Apple Australia Education News” has some way yet to go. As only a few issues have been produced, it is early days yet. We will watch progress with great interest. If you are a schoolteacher, your school gets a copy free. AX. 10 Wider still and wider Apple have announced a new printer that will take paper up to 38 centimetres wide. It is called an Imagewriter and uses a 7x9 dot matrix (which gives damn near letter quality printing) at up to 120 characters per second. It is, of course, a wide bodied version of the standard Imagewriter. We were never overly impressed by this machine, considering it but a clone of the C.ltoh 8510 which we already use to our total satisfaction. A bit noisy but relentlessly efficient and totally dependable. Our eyes were opened by Apple Australia’s Mike Bolan, who showed us what the machine could do in the way of type and graphics. It was a revelation to us. The Imagewriter in this size is perfect for producing spreadsheets and accounts. Price is $1,195, which makes it probably the cheapest printer of its size available in Australia. With it you can produce a set of accounts which will convince your bank manager about your aesthetic qualities, if not your financial capability. It is a better bet than buying the equivalent C.ltoh direct from War- burton Franki, the Australian distri- butors. The prices are just about the same, but the Imagewriter works far better as an Apple peripheral. Elsewhere in this issue we review Apple’s new printer, just released for the IIc, which prints in colour. Not yet available with a wide carriage but definitely a sign of things to come. In our next issue we will be reviewing a Hewlett Packard ink jet printer specially configured for the Apple, which from first appearances seams set to become a major best seller. Awesome Ausom Tne Apple Users’ Society of Melbourne (membership enquiries to Grahame Willis, home number 03 878 0219 or David Halprin, business number 03 387 3221) produces a lively magazine called Ausom News. In their magazine library (run by Peter Eanins, home number 589 2072) they keep copies of Australian Apple Review, which may not help us financially but is very good for the ego. They run a_ pretty lively magazine, and we have asked one of their writers to provide an occasional article for us. As well they have a sub- group for the MedFly — the machine we keep forgetting to review. This sub-group is called MEDUSA — which, as does AUSOM, sounds like a terrorist organisation in a James Bond movie - and reading their report one can see hints that the major problem with the Medfly is documentation and manufacturer support. As we know much of the history of MedFly we are not surprised. Sleekit beastie We have an awful feeling we are losing our mouse extermination campaign. Now it is available on the lle and according to Apple “will be offered as an option with most new software packages from Apple for the Apple I! series computer’. Apple Ile, DuoDisk drive, mouse and monitor showing MousePaint graphics In the picture is an Apple lle system with an Apple DuoDisk - an add-on about which Apple Australia appeared to have been strangely reticent. In fact, it was launched one week before the Macintosh, with the result that its announcement was overshadowed by the appearance of the mighty midget. On the screen is an exploded view of the mouse (we'll drink to that) and the worktool menu for the Mouse- Paint graphics package. Not a million miles away from the MacPaint package on the Macintosh. Readers who are also amateur photographers are asked to consider the clarity of the screen. Bearing in mind this is a green phosphor screen, how did they get such clarity of detail in the picture? If you light the computer enough to bring out the detail then you must get reflections on the screen even if you are using a tent or a spray to kill reflections. We are almost certain this shot was taken in two stages. In the first stage, a piece of black velvet was cut to the exact shape of the screen and held in position while an exposure was made to show the machine. Then the velvet mask was re moved, the lighting illuminating the machine switched off and the second part of a double exposure made to reveal the details on the screen. There may be other ways of doing it. Any suggestions? Apple news At the University of Wollongong, NSW, there are now 30 Macintosh computer work stations in operation. This is the first major Australian installation of the new machines. The new laboratory has, informally, been called “Skylab”. It may be considered strange that Wollongong University should have the first major batch of Macintoshes, but that university has always been at the forefront of matters scientific in Australia. For example, in 1976 the computer science department was the first in Australia to introduce regular, super- vised laboratory classes in com- puters for first year students. In 1977 they were the first in the world to make the Unix operating system transportable between computers. We are not quite sure what good this did for the world at large, and we would never accept the university's assertion that the Unix operating system has significantly reduced the complexity of using sophisticated computer systems. That is, in our unhumble opinion, a load of old cobblers. If anything, Unix compli- cates matters. However, Wollongong is the first cab off the rank with the Macintosh. It will be interesting to see how many Australian Universities follow their lead. For what it is worth our guess is that the major sale of Macintoshes will be into universities and we think within the year we will be able to announce that every university in Australia is equipped with Mac- intoshes. a A word on the care and maintenance of your micro computer... Rexel | A regular maintenance program helps prevent data loss. ,errors and expensive service calls. And more — you can actually extend the life and improve the performance of your micro computer with Rexel Wilson Jones computer care products: @ Wilson Jones Head Cleaning Kits for 5¥4” mini disk and 8" flexible disk drives. @ Wilson Jones Micro Maintenance Kit for computers, word processors, terminals and peripherals. @ Wilson Jones V.D.U. Cleaning Kit for terminal screens and keyboards. @ Wilson Jones Anti-Static Kit — for surrounding are: @ Wilson Jones Type Element Cleaning Kits for print vheel and golf @ Wilson Jones Anti-Static Desk Mats prevent charge sparking through micro-circuitry. From office and computer supply specialists and wherever quality office equipment is sold. Getting the whole world organised New South Wales (02) 7361888. Victoria (03) 3298966. Queensland (07) 527866 1 LANGUAGES Computer languages — a study in comparative religions by Duncan McCann languages are like religions. Discussion on the subject, whilst starting out rationally, rapidly turns into a series of accusative assertions and emotive statements. A person’s chosen language often reflects deep aspects of their personality and a vision of the hereafter — or rather what sorts of rewards we think are deserved for what sorts of effort and privation. There are punitive lan- guages demanding long and painful devotion for little reward and there are pie-in-the-sky languages promis- ing wonderful rewards for little effort. Why is this and why are there any languages except BASIC anyway? Each different computer language has its own particular strengths and also weaknesses. A language for music synthesisers probably won't be too useful in controlling the space shuttle, so there are many languages available to us. To explore this matter, all we need to know is that a language allows us to write a list of instructions or program. Let’s explore further... L: has been held that computer Machine language (binary) The computer itself doesn’t res- pond to anything except a series of electrical impulses. These impulses can be represented as 0 or 1, either there's an impulse or there isn't. Incoming Electrical Signals MicroProcessor The Microprocessor modifies signals it receives according to how it is micro programmed by the manu- facturer. OK. Now let's take a look at how we can use this information. Suppose you wanted to send a message at night to a passing aircraft but you couldn't use radio. You could arrange to switch on lights in some tall building and have the pattern created form a pre-arranged message: Although controlled only with on/off light switches, complex messages can be built with patterns. Computers use this method of saving and using information except KEY Il No signal = 0 | Signal = 1 Outgoing Electrical Signals 12 instead of light switches they use microscopic circuits which either contain an electric charge or not and are interpreted as 1 or 0. If we had paid the caretaker of a building to set the lights for us, we would have had to give him a list of how to set the lights for each floor. This list is the same as our computer program, which is also a list of binary machine code instructions. Naturally you'd have to take care that you only turned on the appropriate lights; if you made a mistake then your message would be different from the one you intended. If this occurred in a computer program it would be called a “bug”. Complex messages can easily be coded using other patterns. Checking that the caretaker hadn't made any mistakes in a complex message would be a_ tiresome process indeed. Machine language programs are hard to “de-bug” for the same reason. Assembly language The list we'd have given the caretaker would show the light switch settings for each floor. Somewhere, however, we'd need to have another list which told us what each of the patterns stood for, so that we could set the switches accordingly. This list would have the word corresponding LANGUAGES to each setting and would enable us to compose our messages more easily than trying to think it through in switch settings. An assembler is a_ translation program that converts our com- mands into switch settings (or binary), thereby saving us a lot of trouble and reducing the likelihood of mistakes. The language is known as assembly language. It is fast, efficient and usually takes up a relatively small amount of space in our computer but it is also complex, tricky to learn and hard to understand once written. Assemblers let us write instructions like JUMP instead of 01001100 because the assembler program translates JUMP into binary code. There are relatively few instruc- tions that a computer can carry out, perhaps 40 to 80 depending on the type of computer. This is not enough to calculate things like % or the sine of an angle or even to multiply. To do this kind of thing programmers use the instructions provided with the computer in groups or lists and call the sequence of instructions when- ever they need them. A typical multiplication routine can take 10 to 50 lines of code in assembler. FORTH Forth is a language based on Assembler which allows the pro- grammer to group instructions any way she wants. She may want a group which draws a square on the screen, for instance. With FORTH she can build up such a group and identify it with a unique name such as “square”. Later when she uses the word “square” in a program the computer automatically carries out the instructions in the list. This would also be a handy facility for our caretaker setting the lights if he often had to repeat switch settings for different floors; certainly it would save us a lot of writing if we directed him to set floors 18 to 23 the same as floors 7 to 12 for instance. Knitting patterns work the same way, as do other lists of instructions such as those used in cooking. With this technique the computer language: can be extended to our own particular needs, and computer languages which have this facility are known as “extensible”. Extensibility saves the programmer much work later on and greatly increases her ability to solve problems. Each new command can become part of the FORTH language and the user can build up different versions for different problems, eg a_ word processing language and a graphics language. In this way FORTH can become a very “personal” language and very efficient for the individual. Some high level commands are already part of the language, multiply is just one instruction for instance. c C is a more structured language which also gives the programmer access to many of the features of assembly language without its great detail. Because of the design of the language it is usually relatively easy to run C programs on different computers, a process called “port- ing”. C is mainly available to users of the UNIX operating system found on large computers, but is just becom- ing available on microcomputers. BASIC A “shirtsleeves” language which allows a beginner to do rough and ready problem solving. BASIC also has relatively few commands and, unlike FORTH, is not extensible. BASIC comes in two major flavours: Interpreted — each instruction is carried out by the computer one line a a time, just like a pocket calculator, R Compiled —- first you type in the whole list of instructions, then the computer runs through them all at once. The compiled method is faster, but you don't find out about mistakes until you've typed everything in. An interpreted BASIC can tell you if you've made an error each time you enter a line. Since beginners, for whom BASIC was designed, are prone to making errors, most people prefer interpreted BASIC, at least to start with. Because of the limited number of commands, BASIC can get very complicated when writing long programs. Everything tends to look the same and understanding the program after its written can be tough. New versions of BASIC are being written which offer “advanced features” contained in other lan- guages. Sort of like sawing the top off your Holden wagon because you want a sports car or building a camper on your Ferrari! Pascal An extensible language designed to help people learn better pro- gramming. Pascal features English like commands and programs which are easily understood. Pascal is becoming very popular with the availability of larger memories for micros. It is also a language of choice for many business applica- tions. Major drawback is that only compiled versions are available, although Macintosh will have an interpreted version available soon (see BASIC types above). Fortran A language designed mainly for scientists and engineers and hence popular in University environments. Some micro implementations exist but have a limited market. It's the language of choice for solving scientific equations. Lisp Lisp is a complex language that produces programs which can modify themselves. This “symbol manipulation” language is very What’s a revolution without a emonstration? A Lisa demonstration, that is. It’s our way of introducing you to Lisa, Apple’s revolutionary new personal computer. So powerful, it lets you control many major management functions at one time. And so simple you can run it with one hand (Literally!). All of which you’ll experience for yourself, at Zofarry Enterprises. So come and see Lisa. It’s the best step into the future. UU Zia @ (2 ZOFARRY ENTERPRISES PTY. LTD. Commercial Microcomputer Systems Corner of Burwood & Parramatta Roads, Burwood 2134 PHONE 745 1888 14 LANGUAGES popular with Artificial Intelligence researchers and_ simulation pro- grammers. Logo A language marketed for edu- cating children, but useful for any age level as it also has many elements of Lisp. Logo features ease of use (children age 6 can use Logo) and stresses learning by discovery and graphics. Logo is extensible and very powerful although the system is usually big and relatively slow. Logo is extremely popular in schools, particularly primary, for teaching maths, physics and problem solving skills. SmallTalk SmallTalk is an innovative lan- guage designed for ease of use, graphic output and relatively easy programming of complex pheno- mena, and is therefore most useful for complex simulations. Most beginners don’t need to concern themselves with this type of language as itis very hard to obtain. Many of the features of the Mac/Lisa product range are based on SmallTalk principles. What to choose We've surveyed the major lan- guages from lowest to highest level, ie those having instructions most like machine language (switch settings) to those with very English like structures. What to buy? If you are a beginner unsure of your abilities and you'd like a powerful but easy to use language you should consider Logo. Perhaps as you gain more skill you may want to switch to a compiled language like Pascal. Remember that writing long programs is a complex and time consuming job, and you may want to buy a program which has been designed to solve your particular problem without learning a computer language at alll o LANGUAGES An approach to Fortran by Tony Cane The programs | had been writing were to analyse informa- tion gathered from instruments, and | felt that BASIC did the job well. In any case at the time | wasn’t aware that any other programming lan- guage would be superior at the tasks involved. However, recently in a new job, | began to use FORTRAN. While initially FORTRAN and BASIC looked as though they were dialects of the same language, noticeable differ- ences emerged when | began constructing my second program. When you write a program using BASIC, unique numbers are given to each line of the instruction and unique names to each variable. This makes BASIC easy to use and debug because you can follow the values of specific variables while tracing the path the computer is taking by having it print line numbers as it works. However, as programs begin to get complicated, this advantage of BASIC begins to lose its value. Instead it is easier to assemble together sections of code each of which does a specific job, such as sorting a list of names or plotting a graph, that have already been tested and debugged. Such mini programs are called subroutines or procedures. But when this is done using a learnt to program with BASIC. BASIC it means that all code must be given line numbers that allow the block to function within the program, and variable names that match those in the main program. Worse yet, if the same operaton is to be done to many different variables, either separate blocks of code must be used or complicated transfer subprograms written. And even worse still, if you have a useful subprogram or function it must be rewritten every time you want to use it in different programs to ensure that it has the correct names and suitable line numbers. In contrast, with FORTRAN, sub- programs are written as blocks of code to do a specific job, and the whole block is given a name. When that operation is required, it is called to do its function by this specific name. To overcome the problem of mismatching variable names, one part of the subprogram name is a list of the variables required from the main part of the program. When the subprogram is called, this list of variables is filled in with the names used in the main section of the program, and when the subprogram matches this list with the values -it uses, away it goes. This means that after the code for an operation has been written and checked to be sure it works, it will never need to be rewritten; instead it can be put into a library till needed. So while BASIC is useful in the environment of a microcomputer where simple programs can be written and run by a line number based interpreter-operating system, for complicated tasks the so-called high level languages such as FORTRAN reign supreme. a mI 0, 0, ‘a > “0; i >M-onT, Oro! > a) be) um Lea BAt ata oo. mM “Oy! BALE ABAL ee OMm-o' VPI USI VPMp>r-v; Meet the new range of STAR dot matrix printers. We offer you a constellation of choices including 120, 160 and 200 cps, all available ini both'10 and 15 inch models. Double speed and quadruple density graphics (a rornartable240 dois por men) sejaeta few ol the extras that are taking STARS into every office — and home. Please see your nearest computer retailer orring the STAR hotline for details, T p TALK TOUS "© IN STAR WORDS Distributed exclusively by Case Communication Systems Ltd. 1-3 Rodborough Rd; Frenchs Forest 2086. Phone (02) 452 5231 15 LANGUAGES by Gareth Powell ands up all those who have a LH igrenseus feeling of in- adequacy when they read that a program should be written in assembly language or machine language. It would be the vast majority of readers of this magazine, including the publisher and editor. We all know that snazzy arcade games are written that way. As are many serious business applica- tions. And yet we trudge along using BASIC and swearing at its slowness and limitations. It is my personal theory that writing or assembling a whole program in assembly or machine language is not the way to go. With BASIC you can write a program using lots of REMS - those splendidly named remark lines which do nothing to the program except remind the programmer what he was doing when he wrote a short cut that would speed up the program by a factor of five and ended up going in to a perpetual loop with the only escape route the Control and Escape buttons. With BASIC you can, using those REMS, get all the major bugs out at an early stage. With BASIC you can easily modify a program after you have run it for a while to incorporate improvements of an operational or stylistic kind. Show me a pro- grammer who is totally satisfied with a program after he has finished and | will show you a programmer with no soul. Why then do we need machine language? Speed, speed and more speed. Writing relevant parts of the program in machine or assembly language when speed is of the essence, and the rest in BASIC or any other High Level Language, appears to my simplistic mind to be the way to go. When you need speed you have it - between ten and a hundred 16 times faster than BASIC depending on the routine - but the rest of the time you have debuggable clarity. Anyone who tells you that programming in machine language is easy is talking through the top of their pointy head. On the other hand it is not beyond the average intelligence either. Regard carefully any machine language programmer and you will not be impressed by a_ blazing intelligence. Programming in machine lan- guage requires a methodical approach and a willingness to learn systematically. Knowledge does not in this case come as a burst of blinding light. It is a steady acquiring of understanding. With the Apple the only way to learn is by hands-on experience. Doing is learning. Most of the books on machine language are obscure and obtuse to a degree. Far better is a program called “The Visible Computer’ by Charles Anderson, which was awarded the title of “Best Microcomputer Soft- ware of the Year, 1983” by a group of computer education journals in the United States. It is an excellent program. It consists of a 142 page spiral bound paperback and a floppy disk. The Visible Computer starts off on the premise that you understand at least the fundamentals of BASIC. Then it takes you firmly by the hand and guides you through the intricacies of machine programming for the Apple. The book starts by going through the standard material on computer architecture — the way the memory is stuck together - and number systems. After you have finished the first few chapters you will understand quite clearly the difference between binary and hexadecimal and why the Roman Empire could never have invented computers (have you tried dividing LCXXXII by CCXXII lately?) After that the book gets stuck into teaching machine language ina most readable way, and uses the program to emphasise and under- line and explain the difficult steps. This is one of those rare packages where the program and the book work together and are written as a cohesive whole. The program uses the Hi-Res graphics screen to display a diagram of the 6502 processor with its internal registers. It brilliantly simulates the action of the processor, showing all the internal changes that occur during execution. It doesn't just give you an overall, broad, simplistic view. It gets right down to the nitty gritty of showing you the individual steps within the execution of a single instruction. It is all done with a sense of lightness that is pretty to watch. To show data transfer to and from memory you have jolly little anim- ated hexadecimal digits nipping backwards and forwards across the screen. The program allows you to dissect a machine language pro- gram to any level. As you progress through the book you load sample programs into your machine and then work your way through the examples. If you buy this package and logically and carefully go through the book and through the examples, you will almost certainly end up being able to handle machine language. Not perfectly, not with total ease and facility. But adequately. o THE WORM IN THE APPLE here is certainly less than a t l V ciear agreement throughout the computer industry as to the meaning of the word standard. This Worm was present at a meeting when a major car company made loud noises about having broken car records which, as far as this worm could ascertain, had not even been set. How you break records that do not exist bewilders me. The timing of these records, if that is the word | am looking for, was left in the hands of a gentleman using a computer that shall be nameless, a Hewlett Packard. This worm, who has a more than passing interest in matters of this sort, inspected the machine closely and saw it had two drives for the small floppy disks which are encased in a rigid plastic housing. (And, yes, | agree. In that case they are no longer floppy). A charming gentleman of saturnine appearance — caused no doubt by an over-indulgence in yachting — came over and told me these were three inch disks and that they were the new industry standard. | am never one to argue with a man who is obviously both my elder and better. But have the other manufacturers been told? Are they still manufacturing disk drives which are quarter of an inch or half an inch bigger, in complete ig- norance that a new_ industry standard has been set? Why, if Hewlett Packard know there is a new standard, why do they not tell everyone? There is a lot of expensive machinery out there that has to be scrapped so we can all toe the line. Rumours have been circulating that the Apple /// is moving towards the end of its useful life. A fellow Worm in Cupertino — that heavenly land across the sea from which all good andi truth emanates - tells me Apple management have moved even further on their position that Apple /// is now an independent cost centre, and must make a profit or else. | am told they have decided that not only will it never become a major profit centre (no argument about that one), but that it is affecting the Apple image in a detrimental way. Being a Worm and therefore of a low level of intelligence, | have the greatest difficulty in following that argument. True the Apple /// had a launching which could be called less than felicitous. True the early models had enough bugs in to send a computer programmer into a frenzy. But now the machine has been sorted out, it is ideal for use in vertical applications in small busi- nesses such as service industries. This is a role that this Worm can hardly see the Lisa fulfilling — it is too sophisticated a machine for, say, a garage. And yet the Ile may not be quite powerful enough. | am willing to accept that image is everything nowadays. But | feel Apple would be making a premature mistake if they shot the Apple /// down in flames. After all, there are well over a hundred thousand users out there. What will happen to those poor benighted devils? Decisions to drop machines are often made for the wrong reasons. | hope Apple have very carefully thought this one all the way through. The new Ilc has been greeted with raptures by all and sundry - sundry being the prematurely aging editor and publisher of this august magazine. As always, it is left to a Worm to add a querulous note to the proceedings. Why didn’t Apple produce the IIc three years ago? None of the technology is that new. None of the concepts are earth-shattering. There is nothing basically that could not have been marketed a considerable time ago. If they are that clever why did it, take them so long? And all | hear is silence. This Worm has heard Bill Gates speak, and indeed he is Jack-the- lad when it comes to computers and programming. And he is still in his twenties. But he must have been blushing furiously when he found out that MultiPlan, which his company MicroSoft produced for the Apple, had enough bugs in it for it to have to be withdrawn. No doubt harsh words were spoken. | am not a Macintosh fan. Worms do not relate to mice easily and well. Recently, an Apple employee demonstrated to me the wonders of a program called MacPaint. It can draw lines, circles and patterns with shading and other nice things. But | can do the same with a pencil and get an immediate hard copy. And a pencil costs less than a dollar. And itis far quicker. Or is this just a worm’s eye view of things? Possibly. oO Kork Dear Sir, Probably by now you have been made aware of the mistakes which occur on page 8 of your March issue, but just in case you haven't, the following may be of interest. 230 400 000 is equivalent to 230 400k, while 230.4k is equivalent to 2,304,000. Note also that in the SI system which this country has officially been using for several years, there are no commas used to separate the thousands columns, and the suffix used to designate one thousand units is ‘k’, not ‘K’ (Kelvin, a unit of temperature). Congratulations on producing such a fine publication, and please find enclosed my subscription for the next twelve months. Ken Batt, Wagga Wagga, NSW. Ed: The sort of letter that makes you glad that you are a publisher. Taking the three points separately. Accepting for the moment that “k” exists, then “k” equals 1,024. And 230.4k is 230.4 x by 1,024 which is not, according to our calculator, 2,304,000. It is true that when we print thousands and millions we should use spaces instead of commas. We don’t and we are in the wrong. What was 1,000,000 should now become 1 000 000. We would like some reader reaction before we make the change. We know the standard exists because we printed a book in Hong Kong following this convention, and we had a hell of a job explaining to irate readers who didn’t know what the hell we were talking about. The key to the acceptance of a new standard is that everyone understands from the word go what is meant. With decimal coinage we have been assured that $12 million was spent in educating the public. The same effort went into metrica- tion (but note that computer manu- facturers still say 3 inch disk drive in blatant defiance of the law). We asked News Limited what standards they used on their news- papers. They have someone whose only job is to monitor style to see that 18 such rules are closely followed. No spaces for them, still commas. Because they want their readers to understand instantly and unambigu- ously what is being said. And readers understand 1,000 as a thousand much more easily than 1 000. But we would be interested to hear a case for the other side. Finally, it is true that K stands for Kelvin, but k is not, as far as we can ascertain, officially accepted by anyone as meaning either 1,000 or 1000 or 1,024 or 1 024. It is merely an useful device which has grown with computing. And it is used normally as a capital K We have been ruminating on these points for some time. Ken Batt's letter brought our thoughts into focus. Likes and dislikes Dear Ed, Your specialist magazine is much appreciated. No longer must | munch through acorns, peaches, peanuts and apricots to find my favourite fruit (| own a//e with a PX-80 printer). I'm sure you like to hear your readers preferences, so here’s my tuppence worth. LIKES: (in descending order) Assembler and Pascal articles, list ings, technical information, utilities, word processing, adventures, hard- ware reviews, © communications, industry comment (hang in there, worm). DISLIKES: Spreadsheets, Apple- soft, Logo, QWERTY keyboards (should be first on the list), the pirating mentality, Albert Langer, IBM, crummy lookalikes, CP/M. A special commendation to AAR for its matt pages — | notice YC has recently followed suit. A pox on glossy paper in magazines! Some observations on the March issue: Numeric keypad — great idea, no listing!!?!! Communications on the Apple II — Philipson promises to look at some packages, but somehow doesn't get around to it. Maybe rectify in next issue? Martin Doherty Hurstville, NSW. Ed: Martin Doherty places his finger on several errors of omission and commission. The Numeric Keypad program by Bevan Ting was mislaid by the publisher's wife, who is responsible for editing all copy. Many apologies. We got another copy from the author, and it is reproduced below. The communications story is a long and complex one. We thought we would do it once over lightly. As we dug into it we started to become convinced that communications is the way of the future for personal computers. We tried the “Australian Beginning” and were less than impressed. And many of the communication packages we have seen leave something to be desired. So we have gone flat out trying to assemble a definitive study of communications and, at the same time, do something practical about it More on this including the wonders of microwave communication with your Apple, in our next issue. We're with you on some of your dislikes — C/PM, QWERTY, crummy lookalikes. But we are quite fond of Logo, and spreadsheets have sold more Apple computers than any other type of program. Indeed, if it wasn’t for VisiCalc it is unlikely that Apple would ever have made it in a big way. o Numeric Keypad asm * ICALL-151 *300.37F 3B AO 5 AO O1 8 85 08 ce BO A4 05 FO 06 5 AA 06 60 A BO 60 38 IPRHO - HARDWARE REVIEW The changing world of printers by Gareth Powell changing so fast | sometimes feel Alvin Toffler wrote “Future Shock” with me in mind. Take the simple world of printers. Every time | finish an article on the state of printers for microcomputers, the whole scene changes and | find what | have written is out of date. This article applies only to this issue. By the next issue there will have been major changes. No one has told me there will be major changes. | just know from the experience of the past few months that there will be. An Apple without a printer is only half a computer. You need a printer to list programs, write letters, produce fancy drawings, compile a mailing list. No matter how poor the quality of the print or the slowness of the printer, it is almost essential. It is an interesting philosophical thought that the computer does not save paper, does not banish the written word. Instead it uses paper in a profligate manner. An office with a computer will go through far more paper than an office without. Pundits promise us that we are heading towards the paperless office. We will see the day of the paperless office on the same day that we see the advent of the paperless toilet. Ts whole world around us is Bewildering choice If you intend to use your Apple in business, eventually and inevitably you are going to need a printer. The choice bewildering. In our continuous search for simplification, here is a quick run down on what is currently available this month - and some indications of which way printers will go, which means what we expect to see next month. First came thermal printers. | remember using my Apple Silent writer with joy and pleasure. It was not easy to load the paper and the type faded after six months. But it produced listings to my great satisfaction. Thermal printers still live. They work on the basis of producing type and graphics through heating the paper on a selected dot basis. Their problems and their virtues have not changed. They are silent, which is their big plus. They need special paper which reacts to heat and is more expensive than ordinary paper — upwards of $2.50 a roll — which is their big minus. Useless for writing letters on, marvellous for doing quick print-outs of programs and inter-office memos which have a limited life span. (It is possible to make the image on thermal paper permanent by means of photocopying it. This is a system | used for years until | worked out a proper costing and realised it was wildly extravagant). Internal memos OTC, who are responsible for telecommunications from Australia to the rest of the world, use them a lot in their internal office memo system. It is of more than passing interest that OTC, instead of transmitting information from office to office by Local Area Network — which you would confidently imagine would be the cheapest and quickest method — actually send their interoffice memos on their Mercury system via the Midas satellite and can show that this is cost efficient. For that sort of inter-office communication use, thermal printers are excellent, principally because they are silent and do not wake the over-stressed executive when he is having a well earned siesta after lunch. But just as we finish writing this, we hear from Apple that they have a heat sensitive printer that works on plain paper. It turns out that this is a bit of a false lead. As soon as | saw the word thermal | leaped to the conclusion that the technology had something to do with the Silentwriter. In fairness, so did some of the executives of Apple Australia. Now that | have played with the Scribe | find that, yes, it uses thermal transfer but not in the way | thought. Hot dot matrix The easiest way to think of it is as a dot matrix printer— of which more in a moment - which uses heated pins onto a ribbon to deposit a wax image on to plain paper. At least, that is how | think it works and nobody has yet told me otherwise. Publicity hand outs have claimed that it is as “quiet Apple’s new Scribe plain paper printer for the Apple llc 19 HARDWARE REVIEW as a whisper’. No, it’s not. But it is far faster than any other comparable printer (but not quieter than the Silentwriter). All of the noise comes when the head bounces back on the carriage return. When it is traversing the paper it is so quiet you are tempted to lift the lid just to see if an image is being printed on the paper. It comes with two speeds. Draft at 80 characters per second, better quality at 50 characters per second. Because itis, in effect and in reality, a graphics printer, there is effectively No limit to the number of type faces you can use, although certain typefaces which are built in are more Suited to the macjhine's capabilities. The Scribe is designed by the people who designed the IIc and is in the same off white finish. It decorates a desk rather than detracts from it, and you could quite happily work at your computer while the Scribe prints out if you have a buffer. This printer does not appear to have a buffer of any size built in, which with a quiet printer like this would seem to me to be an absolute necessity. (Next month we will be testing and reviewing an Australian made and designed buffer with 64K of memory which is a good thing. With a buffer like that you will never need to hang around waiting for the printer to finish). In typing mode the Scribe works on a9 x7 matrix which gives pretty high resolution. | don’t want to get into an argument here about what is typewriter quality, but this machine can print out letters which you will not be ashamed to send to your bank manager. Colours galore The Scribe can be either a colour printer, using tri-colour ribbons which on a mix and match basis will give you seven colours, or can be used with an all black ribbon. Here is where we come up against the only snag involved with this printer. The ribbons are one time use only. In fact, we have seen samples where the ribbon has been wound back three times and the results were still very acceptable. But the intention is that the ribbons should be one time use only. Therefore this printer is not going to be ideal if you use printers pretty much non-stop. In_ this publishing office we switch on two of 20 our printers when we get in and they don’t seem to stop working until we knock off in the early evening. The Scribe was not designed for that sort of use. It was designed with the personal user very much in mind. Someone who sends off a few letters a week, but also does graphics and wants to be able to use colour. For that sort of purpose the Scribe is ideal. The amazing news is that the Scribe, which should be on sale by the time you read this, will be available for something around $500. Which is a small miracle. Let us now consider converted electric typewriters and get them out of the way. They do not work. Please accept the fact that it is almost impossible to connect a personal computer to ‘an electric typewriter and to run that set-up for any length of time. Yes, it has been and is done. But it does not work — not for long. Electric typewriters were simply not designed for the steady pounding they get as copy comes from the computer. Especially in an office. | have never come across an authentic case of one working happily and contentedly - but, as always, | am open for correction. Until someone proves otherwise | sincerely recommend you give them a miss. Electronic typewriters Do not confuse electric typewriters with electronic typewriters, many of which — Olivetti, Olympia and Brother - are specifically designed to have a dual life and can be used either as a typewriter or as a printer. These are often the ideal answer if you need a printer for correspon- dence and also need to do some quick typing from time to time. They are not designed, and are not suitable for, non-stop pounding. But they produce beautifully typed letters Different pr Dot Matrix Apple ile i Pp relatively quietly. Secretaries love them. For example, | use an Olympia linked to my Apple lle, and very satisfactory it is too. The link between my typewriter and my Apple was designed and made by Olympia in Australia, and the machine types out letters of excellent quality, if slightly slowly compared to other machines. Next come the dinosaurs - the daisy wheel printers. These print in much the same way but usually faster and noisier. They do not normally have a keyboard, although there are exceptions like the Qume in our office. Noise and price are the great problems with these printers. One of the answers is the use of acoustic hoods, but these are bulky, com- paratively expensive and can inter fere with the way that you work. And | have found daisy wheel printers less than reliable. Indeed, in the office with one of our machines we found that choking it down to half speed was the only way we could get it to operate without constant calls to the service mechanic. Dying like the dodo In my opinion daisy wheels are headed the way of the dodo and will soon be extinct. This will endear me not to daisy wheel manufacturers. But somebody has to tell the emperor he is not wearing any clothes. Then there are dot matrix printers. They used to be cheap and cheerful and the print style they provided looked exactly what it was — a string of dots linked together in the shape of a letter. This has improved. tremendously in the last few years and now some dot matrix printers produce copy which is almost, not quite, up to the standard of the daisy wheel printer. In fact, the Apple Imagewriter is in my not sizes on rinter Different print sizes on Dot Matrix printer & Apple Ile Different print sizes on Dot Matrix printer & Apple Ile Different print sizes on Dot Matrix printer & Apple Ile HARDWARE REVIEW Olympia ES100 electronic tvpewriter opinion capable of producing work of such a high quality that it would be a nitpicker who said it was not suitable for correspondence. Dot matrix printers have an advantage in that they are not tied to any particular type style. The dots are patterned through signals sent from the computer. The number of type styles you can use is, effectively, limitless. However, the number of type styles that look acceptable is rather more limited. Where dot matrix printers miss out is in proportional spacing. | have yet to see propor- tional spacing effected on a dot matrix printer which is up to my, admittedly high, standards. | cannot for the life of me see why this is. It can’t be a killer of a program to write. And it would improve the quality of the output by a very large margin. No doubt we will see this improvement in the near future. Into colour To slightly complicate matters, the dot matrix has now gone into colour, which will be of relevance if you produce graphs or other documents which need colour to get their point across and if you are not using the printer full blast all day. If you are, the cost of the ribbons will become prohibitive. So far they are few and far between and they are being up- staged by the Scribe, as discussed earlier. For example, the C. Itoh 8510C is priced some considerable y over the $1,000 mark and works on the principle of using four colour ribbons, producing colour typing with consummate ease. But it does PeEREN MEET C.ltoh M8510 colour printer nothing at that price tnat the Scribe doesn’t do for around $500, so | can't see it being a starter for Apple enthusiasts. Hewlett Packard have got a colour dot matrix printer which | understand will be well under the $1,000 mark and | hope to test it before the next issue. The laser Coming up fast over the horizon is the laser printer. We have seen a demonstration of one by Rank Xerox which is the state of the art, But expensive. However, we will see laser printers from Apple Australia this year — probably October/November — that will sell for under $6,000. This is my forecast and not the official word from Apple. However, they do admit that a laser printer is in the wings. Information from other sources suggests the price and the timing. The great advantage of the laser printer is that it operates at speeds vastly exceeding that of the dot matrix but with the quality of the daisy wheel. It is relatively silent and will use any reasonable quality bond paper. In some cases the paper can be fed in by sheet, and the system used to feed the sheets in - based on the principle used by the Heidelberg printing machine - appears to obviate any paper jams. When these printers appear we would like to use them to set the type for this magazine. Because they can produce type of a quality that rivals any phototypesetter. We would need a range of types to achieve this, but we know that it is more than theoretically possible. Ink jets Then there is the ink jet printer. When | started writing this article | was going to introduce a throwaway line saying that ink jet printers were not suitable for Apple computers. And at the time, last week, | would have been right’ Now, Hewlett Packard have announced an ink-jet printer at well under $1,000 and we will be testing it for the next issue. It is, so | have been told, almost totally silent and very compact. | am also assured by an ex-journo who works at Hewlett Packard that the machine prints to typesetting bromide quality. Knowing _ that Hewlett-Packard have never let a badly designed or built piece of equipment come out of the factory, | am willing to believe him. Big test coming up next month. All these machines will see the deaitf of the daisy wheel printer in a relatively short period of time - especially in the higher price brackets. The daisy wheel will be squeezed in two directions. From above, by laser printers which will compete on price and be far superior in terms of quietness, quality and speed. From below by dot matrix printers which are getting cheaper, faster and better all the time. From one side by multi-coloured machines like the Scribe. And from the other by ink jet printers by Hewlett Packard. That is the news as of this moment. Next month undoubtedly the scene will have changed and there will be full tests of at least two, and possibly three, new printers. These are exciting times we live in.o 21 ARTICLE Keeping your Apple cool, clean and carefree by Gareth Powell hen | was a young lad and W there were wolves in Wales my Apple started to act up and | took it into Computerland in Sydney. There behind the service counter was the hawk-visaged Felix Marci, who explained to me that my problem lay in getting hot and bothered. Being Welsh, | am noted for my natural phlegm and sanguine attitude towards life, and | took exception to this remark. Felix explained it was not me that was getting hot and bothered, it was the computer. | was using too many cards and restricting airflow. Being always willing to give a new idea a try | took a large hacksaw, cut a quite nasty hole into the side of my Apple and installed a fan. And it turned out that Felix was right. My problem was indeed overheating. Since that day | have modified every Apple | have in the company to have either a fan or fans plus, sometimes, extra ventilation slots. Heat was not the only problem | was to encounter. Since those distant days of my departed youth | have learned that the four major rules of computer care are: keep it cool, keep it clean, keep magnets away from it and avoid static electricity by not wearing nylon knickers. This is over-simplifying the situation, of course, but if you follow these rules you will avoid most problems. Keep it cool Australia can be a hot place. Temperatures can get tropical. Com- puters do not like the heat. Indeed, Many computers when they get hot and bothered simply refuse to work at all. This is especially true of most Apples — not the IIc for reasons which we will explain in a moment. First, the power supply warms up. Then the boards warm up, then the inside of your computer is a hot 22 house, which is not a good thing. When you have trouble with your Apple the first problem to look for is a heat build-up. As | write this the temperature is low enough for me to need my thick fisherman’s cardigan and my uggie boots, so | know the Apple | am using is contented. In the summer the situation would be altogether different. Then | would have at least one and sometimes two fans going full blast inside the Apple, sucking in air at one end and blowing it out at the other. Because otherwise the Apple would get overheated and sulk. Why is this? Most Apples were not designed for continuous use under arduous conditions. Especially if they have been heavily modified - as my machines have — to expand the memory and increase the speed of operation. To cope with this extra heat many programmers leave the covers off their Apples, to let the warmth dissipate naturally. This is not a good idea, as ina moment of excitement at finding the secret of the universe and everything else you can drop your morning coffee into the works — nota recommended practice. CSIRO recommend that you fit two fans to an Apple if you use more than four boards. You can buy fit-on fans of assorted shapes and sizes or you can fit your own. Most dealers seem to be happy to fit one for around $70. Please note these problems only apply if you have extra boards and the weather is relatively warm. | have known people who have run their Apples without any problems what- soever. The heat problem in the Ile is less than in the II-, mainly | think because the 80 column board is smaller and cooler. On the IIc there is no problem whatsoever as the chips are CMOS based and their heat output is far less. If you have an Apple Il+, and it starts acting up during the summer, always suspect over-heating first. Keep it clean Nothing damages disks and machines as fast as cigarette smoke. Don’t smoke near your Apple, and don't let anyone else do so. Computer disks are platters of thin plastic covered with rust. Your everyday common or garden rust which is ruining your lawn mower. Avoid static electricity Static electricity can bomb an Apple out just like that. Being of a nocturnal habit, | do most of my writing at night. | used to wear a blue nylon dressing gown which | discarded when the static electricity it built up shot from me into the Apple and zapped two chips. | actually saw the electricity and thought it was a modern version of St Elmo's fire. Quite eerie. Since then I've become intensely interested in the problems of static electricity. Computer chips get sick and die at the sight of it. Honeywell recently produced a study to show that problems caused by static electricity made more computers break down than mech- anical and power failures. Static electricity can be caused in many ways, but with personal Apples the problem is, appropriately, people. Walking around you can build up a charge which will typically be around 7,000 volts but can get as high as 10,000 valts. The drier the day the more likely it is you will build up a large static charge. Humidity reduces the problem. When you learn that anything over 200 volts can damage Apple circuitry you realise the extent of the problem. Static electricity can not only zap your chips so that the Apple doesn’t work, it can also change the information within a chip so that the problem may not show up for months afterwards. Static electricity can make circuits lose memory, affect data that you have entered and mess around with a printout. Static electricity is to Apples what ARTICLE the demon booze is to the brain. Only faster. The damage occurs when you pick up a charge and earth yourself through the Apple. It was once explained to me that the ideal place to handle chips would be sitting in the middle of a field with one foot in a bucket of water on a dampish day. This is not always convenient. The molecules of rust — the manufacturers call it iron oxide but it is still rust - have their polarity changed when information is recor ded, just like a tape recorder. In order to be able to cram on more and more information the rust is being made into finer and finer particles. Some manufacturers, Nashua are a good example, are now getting them to stand to attention like soldiers on parade. Imagine the problems created by microscopic smoke particles landing on these disk surfaces. We suffered from an immense number of disk problems in my office until we totally banned smoking. End of disk problems. Some members of staff have since been sneaking a fag when | am out. Disk problems have started to come back. You cannot smoke near an Apple and expect it to perform properly. Nor do these machines like dust. When an Apple is not in use it should be covered. In the United States they have a greater respect for Apples than we have here, and machines are covered and disks are put into boxes when closing down after every session. Not in Australia. You see disks scattered on desks — and they are not even in_ their envelopes. From such dirty habits come disk crashes and data losses. The head that picks up the information from the disk is very similar to a tape recorder head and should, in exactly the same manner, be cleaned. One way of doing it is to dismantle the whole disk drive and use cotton buds and alcohol. Which is how | do it. If that is too much of a hassle there are several cleaning disks available. Rexel supply theirs sealed in a package so you can be sure that after use you have an ultra clean head. How often you perform this chore depends on how often you use the machine. | do it weekly. You may only need to do it once a month. Keep magnets away from it If you put a magnet near a disk yo wipe it clean. Indeed, this is the way that many commercial companies recycle their disks after use. The biggest culprits are paperclips. In many cases these are kept in a plastic container that you shake like a salt cellar to get the clips to. protrude through the top aperture. When you do this you are sending them up toa magnet and magnetising them. Place one of these clips on the top of the disk and the disk is ruined. If you are using an Apple and one of these paperclip dispensing devices, get rid of one or the other. You may also find your office scissors have become magnetised, so keep them well away from your disks. | have also abandoned the idea of permanently earthing myself by trailing a piece of copper wire on the ground. The suggestions regarding where | should stick one end of the wire have been vulgar and not, in my opinion, funny. The bad effects of static electricity can be minimised during dry spells — the problem is not so bad when it is raining or there is high humidity -by not having your Apple in a carpeted room, by making sure the wiring is properly earthed and by not wearing clothes made from artificial fabrics. Far better is to use an anti-static mat. Rexel import one which costs something under a hundred dollars. This is certainly a good investment in an office where an Apple breakdown can leave you floundering at con- siderable cost in time and money. The operator touches the mat before starting and taps it every now and again to get rid of any static build up. The mat has an earth wire which has to have a good earth connnection, not always an easy task in Australian buildings. Dirt, magnetism and static elec- tricity are an Apple's worst friends. The best advice | have ever heard is to treat your disks with the same care and attention that you would treat your favourite long playing record and your Apple the way you would treat a top quality camera. And please don't smoke around the Apple. If the state of your lungs doesn't worry you, think of the health of your disks. They certainly aren't covered by Medicare. a TIPS AND TECHNIQUES by Graham Black hin RECOVER (from disaster) Have you ever deleted a program by typing NEW or INT accidentally? It happens to the best of us at the most inconvenient times. Here is a good little machine language program that will restore it for you. To use it, BRUN RECOVER from your disk directly after your accident. When you type LIST your old program will be back again. NOTES: 1. Only APPLESOFT programs can be recovered. 2. If you typed INT you must type FP to return to APPLESOFT before BRUNing RECOVER. 3. To execute the program just BRUN RECOVER or BLOAD RECOVER and CALL 768. 0300- A2 00 86 06 A2 08 86 07 0308- AO 05 B1 06 C8 DO 02 E6 0310- 07 c9 00 DO F5 8D 00 08 0318- 8C O01 08 A6 07 BE 02 08 0320- A2 02 DO 02 A2 03 BI 06 0328- C8 DO 02 E6 07 C9 OO DO 0330- F3 CA DO F2 84 69 84 AF 0338- A6 07 86 6A 86 BO 60 BSAVE RECOVER, A$300, L$3E. 23 ARTICLE by Don Pugh eople have told me_ that P computers are one of the most challenging and _ frustrating inventions of the twentieth century. As | scratch my head and struggle over some maddening problem, I’m inclined to agree. Here’s a simple model which has helped me to straighten out my progression in computing. There appears to be a logical series of steps which almost all users go through in learning how to use their Apple and Apple pro- grams. As an Apple user, it's useful to know where one’s at in order to determine where one should go. This may be done by finding out your level of use, particularly if the computer is being used to assist others, be it one’s children or perhaps the secretary at the office. By being able to ascertain your friend's level of use of the Apple, it is easier to help by providing relevant information. For instance, your secretary may be struggling at a mechanical level, trying to learn the numerous commands of a new word processing program. She'll probably throw a flower pot at you, or burst into tears and resign, if you provide her with information on some new and more sophisticated program designed to do word processing better. You need to know where she's at in order to help effectively. | have found satisfaction in reviewing my gradual progress through a series of levels in word processing on my Apple. Non-use Until 1980 | had no interest in computers and indeed was not really aware of the micro’s uses. Their existence was brought to my attention following an accident in which | became a quadriplegic as a result of a car roll-over. Finding myself in a wheelchair with very little hand movement, | needed to be able to improve my typing skills. Through the help of friends | 24 developed an interest in computing. This led me to the second level of computer use, orientation. At the orientation level | was interested in seeking out more information concerning computers. At this time | had not yet decided on which computer to buy. After examining the advantages and disadvantages of using a cassette operated Pet Commodore, | pur- chased an Apple on the advice of a friend who was already using one. Back in 1980, when | made this purchase, prices were astronomical. | had a hard time convincing my bank manager to loan me $4,000 for an Apple with two disk drives and a black and white monitor. | then had the problem of choosing which word processing program to purchase. | didn’t know anything about word processing. There were very few articles on word processing and the only programs that | knew about in 1980 were the Apple Writer and Sandy's. | was sold on Apple Writer simply because it was readily available at my local computer store. Arriving at home with the program and the manual, | was ready to move to the next level of computer use. At this point | had reached the preparation level. At this level the user is preparing to use his innovation. Putting a disk into the disk drive, | was pleased to find the Apple Writer Tutorial program which guided me through all the basic stages of this early but useful program. | was delighted. | found that within a couple of hours | had mastered all the basic commands to correct all my typing errors, to move blocks of texts around, or to do _ word searches. With some extra work | learned about text embedded commands and various ways of formatting my printing output. | was rapidly moving beyond the preparation level to that of mechanical usage. Mechanical use At the mechanical level the user uses the innovation in an un- coordinated manner and makes frequent changes in his usage. | found that to remember the com- mands and to be able to function effectively | had to use Apple Writer for forty minutes a day for about a week. | found | frequently forgot commands or used the wrong command at the wrong time, wiping out blocks of text. | was still learning about disk care and found all the problems which one can have if disks are poorly cared for. Slopping port or coffee, leaving disks in the sunshine on the table led to considerable problems. After a number of disk failures and much profanity, | started becoming very tidy and careful in my care of equipment. Gradually over a month | became familiar with the commands and got my typing speed up to about 10 words a minute, not bad for a one fingered typist. | had moved from the mechanical level to that of the routine level. ARTICLE Apple Ile. monitor and disk drive Routine At the routine level the user makes few or no changes and has established a pattern of use. In using Apple Writer | found that | maintained routine usage for a period of about two years. | had learned the commands, could use them quickly and efficiently and felt familiar and comfortable with the program. It seemed to do all the jobs that | wanted for word processing. Nevertheless, after a year | began to encounter a few problems. | really wanted to underline titles, which | did not seem to be able to do with Apple Writer. | also wanted to be able to use two disk drives easily. | wanted to use lower case. Con- sequently | began asking other users how they dealt with these problems and began to search computer magazines for answers. | was moving beyond the routine level to that of refining my use. Refinement At the refinement level the user makes changes to increase -his efficiency and output. In my use of Apple Writer | have found a small program which enabled me to underline titles. This program was easily added to my Apple Writer disk and effectively solved that problem. | also found that by purchasing a lower case chip | obtained lower case for use with Apple Writer. By playing around with the control “D” Apple Writer command | found it was possible to leave my data disk in drive 2 and my Apple Writer disk in drive 1. | had refined the program far beyond its original package format. | was so excited by these changes that | shared them with other people in the Apple Users Club. This behaviour was leading me into the integration level of use. Integration At the integration level the user makes deliberate efforts to co- ordinate with others in using the innovation. | found that | was led into teaching short courses in word processing using Apple Writer. The program was very useful but I found through my contact with other people that it really did have very serious shortcomings. | was very impressed by friends who were using 80 columns in their word processing and had such features as micro justification. Apple Writer for me was rapidly losing its appeal. | was moving onto the final level of use, renewal. At the renewal level the user seeks more effective alternatives to the established use of the innovation. | found a friend using WordStar. He seemed to be able to do everything that | couldn't with Apple Writer. It was pleasant to see words not split in half. It was nice to see the page formatted the way the printout would appear with the page breaks marked. At this point | bought myself an 80 column and CP/M card and got into CP/M in a big way. My Apple Writer disks were consigned to the back of the disk box where they have been collecting dust. Meanwhile | suffered all the anxiety which comes from once again moving myself through the lower levels in my use of WordStar. | am probably now at the routine level although | occasionally refine my usage through discovering new commands. I’m moving towards integration by meeting with friends to discuss difficulties. | also have some renewal interest when | see some of the newer word processors that present an entire A4 page on the screen or offering a windowing facility involving merging spread sheets and graphics. Being able to analyse your level of use is a skill which could prove helpful. If you have been sitting at the routine level for a number of years perhaps it's time you thought about doing some research to improve your efficiency. Perhaps you should investigate a new program. By gauging your friend’s usage you may also become a better facilitator. Now, how about giving me a hand with dBase II programming. a 25 CIVILIZATION DISCOVERS ; XIDEX. Like the discovery of fire, Xidex Precision Flexible Disks herald a new era for civilization. They are the most advanced and durable disks technology has produced and far exceed all known Industry standards world-wide. Even the disk jacket is 33% thicker than the industry standard for greater protection from contaminants, and extended handling. Xidex 51” and 8" disks carry a 10-year warranty. They are guaranteed 100% error-free and 100% precision made with a range to suit all Computer and Word Processing systems. Phone Magmedia and discover Xidex yourself. ss Sere SYONEY MELBOURNE BRISBANE (02) 8163222 (03) 6999688 (07) 2291600 CANBERRA PERTH ADELAIDE (062) 472322 (09) 3283311 (08) 2236261 HOBART (002) 34.4522 Starting with the next issue we are reserving some advertising space for you, our readers. Our new Apple classifieds will have buy, sell and swap sections, so if you are interested in upgrading your setup, swapping programs or buying something new, this is the place to advertise. Remember that all our readers either own or intend to own Apple equipment. Turnover your Apple The rates are reasonable, too. $10 for 30 words, (which works out to about one column inch; easily readable) and 30¢ per word over the 30. So place your advertisement (send payment and wording to over your Apple”, Top Rear, 4 ston Rd, Randwick, 2031) and wait for the calls to come flooding in. 26 PROGRAMMING The Australian Apple program contest By e have had_ several Australian Apple Review Vol 1 No 4, St Clair NSW comes this neat W entries worthy of note for our April issue) program which allows you to design program writing contest. (See From Douglas Dearinger in West your own Hi-Res picture easily. Bra 350 IF & THEN PRINT GS LIST 360 IF Y THEN PRINT G& 374 IF THEH GOSUB 1145 5 REM BY DOUGLAS DEARINGER 388 Hi 6 REM 47471983 330° Hi 1@ REM FOR APPLE““e COMPUTER 408 GOTO 148 26 ONERR GOTO 1240 414 REM COLOR CHANGE 30 GS = CHRS (7>:DS.= CHRS (13) + CHRS (49426 PRINT "NEW DOT COLOR <8 TO Fae"; 4@ TEXT : GOSUB 76a 43Q IHPUT PC 68 HOME 449 HCOLOR= PC 7@ «INPUT "DOT COLOR = "sc 450 HOME 3@ HOME 46@ RETURH 99 HCOLOR= C 470 INPUT "COLOR TO FILL SCREEN?":S 19g PO =C 480 HCOLOR= S