Hardcore Volume 3 No. 6 1983 12 BASUG GB

hard core THE JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH APPLE SYSTEMS USER GROUP ® December 1983 £1 VOLUME 3 No. 6 Page 2 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Decem A411 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD ; Aa} AYLESBURY Ads SLOUGH \ < Py a y S yo \ m Soa the Ls rz ON 0) Stanan ap = F =“ eZ fj sp y Sv WATFORD eng) We S = nas tow <8 : Mi dein 6 eee 1 esrndane iaat2i Mt NORTH Z ——— oe & [ox computer [3 | SERVICES LiMiTED) COLONIAL WAY st gate on ight [trom Radlett Road) Wida Software Educational Software Development © Tel: 01-567 6941 CROSSWORD MASTER Create Your Crosswords On Your Apple II/Ile Special Christmas Offer to BASUG members! £22 Save £5.00! Barclay /Access 2 Nicholas Gardens, London W5 SHY Lux Computer Services Ltr COLONIAL WAY, WATFORD, HERTS. WO2 4 TEL: WATFORD (0923) 4 AMPLE : Amplifier & Volume contro for Apple 10 and /7e 40/80 Column switches only £ (state which card? Small run hardware a speciality STILL ONLY £65 TO BASUG MEMBERS : Sound effect & Music Board reenauigenwis = /EERROSE HOW TO FIND December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 3 hardcore THE JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH APPLE SYSTEMS USER GROUP P.O.BOX 174 WATFORD WD2 6NF BASUG Ltd. is a non-protit-making company limited by guarantee. Basug Committee Bob Raikes Chairman Norah Arnold Secretary Roger Gear-Evans Treasurer Tony Williams Press Officer Fran Teo Administrator Jim Panks Software Library John Rogers Meetings David Bolton & Quentin. Reidford Com munications Keith Chamberlain Lit. Library & Membership Alick Elithorn Medical SIG Yvette Raikes Hardcore Editor Tony Game, Peter Blair & John Rodger Assistants BASUG Telephone No.: St. Albans |(ii/2%}) «Hl Please note: This number is administration ONLY, BANKERS National Westminster Bank PLC, Brompton Square, London SW3 LHH. OPYRIGHT (C) - The contents of this journal lare copyright of the British Apple Systems User Group and /or the respective authors. However permission will normally be granted for non-commercial reproduction by user groups affiliated to the International Apple Core, provided the author and source are Properly credited, The opinions and views expressed are those of the various contributors, and are not necessarily supported by the British Apple Systems User__Group. CONTENTS 4 Editorial Chairman's Corner 5 Visicalc meets Applewriter II Roger Gear-Evans 11 Copyright 12 Lisa Reviews Richard Teed Jim Panks 15 Multiploy Review Tony Williams 16 Book Reviews: Engineering Dick Menhinick 18 Competition Presents ScfsGids 19 What is a Shift Key Mod? Peter Blair 21 More Apple Magazines Selwyn Ward 22 Apple Il v. Apple //e Peter Trinder 23 Sottware Library 24 Visicalc Book Review Bob Mould 25 Hodge Podge Tony Williams 26 Strings Update Richard Teed Exec Tip Martin Rogers 27 Book Reviews: Programming John Rogers & Yvette Raikes 32 WPL Richard Teed 37 Databases Jim Panks DB Master Jim Panks 39 Education 40 Gutenberg 43 Programmer's Aid 44 Lonely Apples Local Groups 45 Face to Face 46 Crossword 43 Apple /// Programs 30 Readers' Letters 54 Three Years of Hardcore 58 Diary Norah Arnold Peter Trinder Dougal Hendry Alick Elithorn P.N.Thurley MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL APPLE CORE HARDCORE is produced using Applewriter I, and printed on an APTEC Flowriter with a Madeleine Daisy-wheel Front Cover: Design by John Arnold using the Strobe Plotter, Page & HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Deceinber 9x5 Editorial 1 hope you enjoy this bumper Christmas edition. I make no apologies for the number of book reviews. First, many people buy books as Christmas presents and secondly, many people receive book tokens at this time. Judging by the number of books sent for review, the publishers agree with me. We have a good range of books including some on engineering, programming, logo and Visicalc. We also have reviews of a couple of children's programs and an article on games You can learn how to communicate between Visicalc and Applewriter or how to write in Word Processing Language. There is plenty more, too. We are including competitions so please have a go! There are no prizes for those who don't enter. Thank you to all those who contributed to Hardcore this year. Please don't stop. Any of you who would like to write something but feel worried that you are not “learned” enough, please put pen to paper, A lot of contributors feel like that when they first try writing. Also don't worry about doubts about your English! The job of worrying about spelling and grammar is mine. In response to a couple of people, let me point out that I do return the disks that are sent in to me. If you want any advice on writing articles, get in touch, I'll be only too pleased to help if I can. As the list of previous articles printed in last’ December's Hardcore proved very popular, I include the updated version for this year. As it takes up'a lot of space, it seems likely that only the last three years! worth will be printed in future. On a different note, don't forget to mention Hardcore if you use one of our advertisers. If they know that their advertisement in this magazine produced a response, they are more likely to advertise again. Without advertising there can be no magazine. Thank you to all our advertisers for your support. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year, Chairman's Corner There are a number of items to report to you. First there have been some changes in the composition of the committee. Eagle-eyed members will have spotted that Keith Chamberlain has taken over as Membership Secretary, following the resignation of John Wellsman. We have also taken on two new committee members, Roger Gear-Evans as Treasurer and Alick —Elithorn as og representative of the Medical SIG. Tony Williams will now be putting his journalistic skills to good effect as Press Officer. You will have recently received a membership card from BASUG. This shows the home phone numbers of committee members. Please only contact committee members about their own areas of responsibility. Normal rules of 7 to 10 pm, weekdays only, apply. Administrative queries should be phoned to Fran on our Admin number (see inside cover). Technical queries should be phoned to the new Hot Line. Apart from my duties as chairman, | will be taking a particular responsibility for local groups. To help us with completing the database of groups, a form has recently been sent out to all known local groups. If you have received such a form please fill it in, or return it. If anyone would like to discuss their own group, please give me a ring. The present committee is committed to continuing to improve the services available to members. You can help us by renewing your membership promptly (remember we now take Access) and by buying your disks etc from BASUG. The group can only offer the widest range of services to members if we have sufficient funds. We need the income generated by sales to support our activities. Have a happy Christmas, errr ree eee e eee eee ti et teeter treet iris Back Issues of Hardcore are available except Vol 1, no 3. Cost is £1.00 cach £5.00 for 6, P&P inclusive. December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 5 Visicale Meets Applewriter Il DIF Files and Datagrams By Roger Gear-Evans One of the very great attractions of Visicalc is the speed with which the beginner can quickly master the program and produce constructive results. The satisfaction of being able to manipulate numbers to fit different circumstances leaves one with the Today the su... , tomorrow the world!" syndrome, However, once one has learnt the commands and mastered the algebraic format of the formulae - an algebra unlike the perennial question asked at school “If it takes two MEN eens , how long will it take and the perennial answer "17.45 men" - there are = some — avenues open_— to investigation, particularly in the use of DIF files and the facility to be able to use DOS files in other programs which expand the use that can be made of Visicalc. As an accountant the emphasis of the avenues explored will necessarily be those from a business point of view - most of us in some way or another come into contact with business whether as a marketing executive or a lawyer. However, if you do not fit into any one of these categories do not be alarmed; all that is required is that you have some imagination and the facility to be able to adapt the items mentioned, cither now or in the future. Most of you will be aware of the Visicalc command /SS (/Storage Save) which saves your template or outline of your program with its associated formulae to disk. The /S#S (/Storage Hash Save) command is however different in that it does not save the formulae associated with every cell in your template but saves the results of those formulae to disk. To differentiate between the two types of storage the /S#S file is called a Data Interchange File (DIF file) and is used for the following reason. When you save a /SS file you save all of the template including its formulae; take a column i.e. delete a column from the template and you will get a different answer, in addition to which you can only save the whole template and not just part of it, The /S#S function allows you to save the results of a column or a block of cells on their own. The reason for this development is that a 64k Apple I soon runs out of memory and in addition there is always the situation that the results of one program are required for use in another. To illustrate this, let us assume that you have been asked to prepare a Sales Budget, a Cost of Sales Budget and a Gross Margin Budget. The first block of your first program is the number of units expected to be sold, spread over the months and the second block is those units multiplied by the sales price per unit to give you the value of your sales budget. Your second program is your Cost of Sales Budget with the first block being identical to the first block in the Sales Budget and the second block being identical to the second block in the Sales Budget, the only exception is that the sales price per unit is superceded by the cost of sales per unit. Your third program is the Gross Margin Budget which consists of the first block being the value of the Sales Budget; the second block being the value of the Cost of Sales Budget and the third block being the Gross Margin Budget ie. the difference between your sales and your cost of sales. See diagrams overleaf. The units in the first block of the Sales Budget will be identical with the Cost of Sales Budget's units. With a /SS you would have to enter the units for each program in turn and then enter the resulting second blocks into the Gross Margin Budget - a very time consuming activity. However with a /SUS the time can be cut down drastically; you only have to key in the units once, What you do is load up your Sales Budget program, enter the units then /S#S the units block as a file called Units and then /S#S the sales value block as a file called Sales Value. Clear the screen, Load up the Cost of Sales program and then /S#L (Storage Hash Load) the Units file into the waiting first block. Then /S#S the second block as a file called Cost of Sales Value. Clear the screen. Load up the Gross Margin program and /S#L the file Sales Value into the first block. /S#L the Cost of Page 6 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Deceinber 1933 A BO D o oP PROGRAM 1 Sales Budget Jan + Dec Total 2 Widgets 1 Widgets 50 Total Units Sales Price Jan Dee Total 1.00 Widgets 1 ¢ VALUE 0-75 Widgets 50 Total Value A B c D ° P PROGRAM 2 Cost of Sales Jan -+++++++seeee + Dec Total 2 Widgets 1 UNITS Widgets 50 Total Units Cost of Jan Dec Total 0-75 Widgets 1 : VALUE 0.50 Widgets 50 Total Value GROSS MARGIN BUDGET PROGRAM 3 A BoC) OD P Sales Budget Jan sresecsecesees Dec Total 2 Widgets 1 : VALUB Widgets 50 Total Units Cost of Sales Jan ........-.-... Dec Widgets 1 Widgeto 50 Total Units Total Gross Margin Widgete 1 Widgets 50 Total Units December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 7 Sales Value file into the second block and Hey Presto you have your Gross Margin for each product. (Do not forget to recalculate ie. ! at all stages). At this point your boss says "Do it again - we need more profit!", so off you go, but you should be back in half an hour, whereas in the past you would have been expected back in two days. As was mentioned at the beginning of this article, you can use DOS files in other programs and if you turn to your Visicalc manual you will find a section in there which describes the format of a DIF file and mutters about things called "Tupples". The importance of this is that if you can program in Basic the description of the file format enables you to be able to use the DIF file in a Basic program either written by yourself or as the input for another software routine. There is another application in which you can make use of DOS files to produce a unique result. It is something which is not described in the Visicalc manual but which Apple enthusiasts have discovered and | am indebted to Nick Levy of — Interface Management whose article in Windfall (October 1982) first introduced me to the basics of Datagrams. There is a facility in Visicalc to Print to Disk (/PD) or Print to File (/PF). The purpose is to print a text file to disk such that the data can be used by Applewriter Il. If you have used this procedure you will also know that you cannot under normal circumstances load the /PD file back into Visicale. However, using a Datagram you can use the /PD file to produce a very interesting result. In order to illustrate this routine clear your Visicale screen and in Al enter the following LABEL >Bl:#+Al. In A2_ enter >B2:+A2. Repeat this relatively to A9 and in A1O enter >B10:#+A10, Because your column width is at the default position of 9 characters you must go into B10 and enter the zero of Al0 as a label. The reason for this is that the whole label is ten characters long and any individual cell must not contain more characters than are displayed on the screen. Now go to Al and Print to File (/PF) what you have just entered and call the file Example. Your bottom right hand coordinate will be B10. Clear the screen and enter in the cells Al to AlO the numbers 1 to 10 respectively. Then ‘Command Storage Load (/SL) the /PF file you just saved. In column A you will have the numbers | to 10 and in column B you will have the numbers 2, 4, 6, etc, to 20. Go to BI and you will see that the formula is 1+Al with a result of 2; in B2 you will see 2+A2 with a result of 4 and so on down to B10. So you ask, how is it that by entering a series of labels, printigg them to disk and then reloading a file which is not able to be loaded into Visicalc, the labels have turned themselves into formulae? The answer is in the label and in order to illustrate this, let us look at the first label created ie. 2BL:AsAL, The > sign is a GO TO instruction, BI is the Visicalc address to GO TO and the colon : indicates that the following formula is to be put into the cell BI, ie. #+Al. The hash is an instruction to enter the result of any previous calculation found in cell Bl and then add (i.e. +A) to it. As an example application, refer back to the Sales Budget described earlier. Assume you had 10 sales budgets from 10 individual salesmen. In order to consolidate/add these all together, you would have to create a further number of programs to achieve this and you would have to use /Si#S frequently - however, if you were to create a template to the right of the sales budget which had the Datagram formulae of >U2:#+D2 - >V2:H+E2 etc., you could consolidate as you went along. See listing overleaf. The procedure would be to load up your first sales budget, then /SL the Datagram, then Command Blank (/B) your sales budget, leaving the consolidation block in columns R to AH. Load up your next sales budget, then load your Datagram and repeat until finished. You should bear in mind that the last sales budget may be added in twice ie.+D2, therefore before you /S#S the consolidated result for the sales budgets you should make sure that the result is correct by Blanking out the columns A to P thus ensuring that +D2-0. There is another way of achieving the same result. You could change the formula in the Datagram to >U2:#+D2#. This will place in U2 the result of the previous calculation, add D2 to it and place that result as a unique number in U2. Page & HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group December 1983 | EXHIBIT 1 NY {v] {es} {v] PND PPR VISICALC CONSOLIDATION ROUTINE PPR THIS IS A ROUTINE TO CREATE A VISTCALC DRIVER FILE FOR CONSOLIDATION PURPOSES. PPR ‘THE SYSTEM IS THE SAME AS REPLICATING DOWN A COLUMN IN VISICALC PIN PRESS RETURN =$A PPR YOU WILL BE GIVEN PROMPTS TO ENTER THE FIRST FORMULA WHICH MUST BE IN THE FORMAT OP FOR EXAMPLE :~ >W(X):#+E(X) PIN PRESS RETURN $A PND PGO START suBi PIN ENTER RANGE PROM :- $B PIN ‘0 PSX $B PSY $C LOOP4 P*SD*,*A PAS SASD=$B FPP SBtA pos/(x)/(¥)/ PRE PSK+1 PGO LOOP1 SUB2 PPR PIN DO YOU WISH TO ENTER ANOTHER RANGE Y/N ? =3B POS/$B/N/ PRT PSR SUBI POO SUB2 START PPR (v] (k} Cv] PIN ENTER THE FORMULA =SA (v] [x] [v PSR SUBI PSR SUB2 PPR SAVE THIS TO DISC DRIVE II USING A FILE NAME OF YOUR CHOICE {v] [x] tv] | PIN ENTER FILE NAME:- <SA tri Es vj ts] tv] sa,p2 | PPR END OF PROGRAM December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 9 Nee TN tas You can put any formulae you like into the Datagram and experimentation can produce some very interesting and useful routines. There are however some limitations to the use of Datagrams within Visicalc. As one begins to write more complex routines, and if you purchase an 128k expansion board, the need for the Datagram to expand increases accordingly. The problem that I encountered was that the Datagrams could not be expanded further than 254 lines of formulae which if you expanded your column width to say /GC 40 to cover a large formula, equated to Al to A254, There appeared to be no facility to be able to use column B as a further 254 lines of formulae - although there must be a link = so that when the /PF file was loaded there was a large amount of buzzing and the formulae did not work. Furthermore, because the original entries were labels, one could not use the replicate facility for numbers and consequently one was involved in a very laborious process of entering each individual entry. It was about this time that 1 bought Applewriter Il and while | was exploring its facilities, 1 discovered that I could read a /PF file and a Command Storage Save (/SS) file from Visicalc. If you do this yourself you will find that a /SS file has the same outline for formulae as the Datagram, ic. 2B2:+A2. On further exploration I began to use the Word Processing Language (WPL) for manipulating Applewriter text files and then realised that 1 could use the WPL to manipulate Visicalc files. With this in mind it became clear that one could overcome the problems associated with producing a Datagram mentioned above. The result was that, using the WPL, one was not subject to the laborious entering of formulae; one could use a sort of replicate facility, the program could be longer than 254 lines, it did not buzz when loaded into Visicalc and once set up could be used to easily produce numerous different Datagram models. The listing of the WPL program is in Exhibit I. It can be refined greatly but will serve as an indication of the application. The procedure is as follows:- First key in the WPL program and save it as a file called Title in Applewriter. Then Control P DO Title ie. (P] DO Title and the WPL routine will provide you with the first column of your Datagram model. Save this to disk [S] as a file called Driver - do not clear the screen - then using the Find facility in Applewriter (F) replace the W in Exhibit | with X ie. the next Visicalc column address and then similarly replace the E with an F. You should then add this new column to the Driver by using the add facility in Applewriter i.e. (S) Driver+. You should then repeat the procedure until you have all the columns of a Datagram that you want. Do not forget that Visicalc only uses labels/addresses in upper case. The possibilities for linking Applewriter to Visicalc do not stop here. Bearing in mind that if you can read a /SS Visicale file in Applewriter you can also create a /SS Visicalc file in Applewriter, it therefore becomes possible to produce menu driven routines for any number of applications either using data from Visicale tor use in Applewriter or data from Applewriter for use in Visicale or both. Using the Find [F] facilities in Applewriter ‘one could analyse a number of invoices by reference to a particular field, save them to disk using Applewriter and, by creating an appropriate /SS file, load it back into Visicalc to update the actual expenditure to date by category. Similarly, assuming one produced a detailed analysis of accounts for the various headings of Marketing, Selling, Product Promotion and Administration, one could produce excellent reports using Applewriter - all that would be required would be to save (/PF) the data regarding Actual, Budget and Variance and the WPL routine would sort the information into the correct report. Alternatively, files could be created on Applewriter which could be loaded into Visicalc and used to produce the number- crunching. A possible application could be To create a product file of, for example, Widgets and develop an Applewriter WPL menu routine which would throw up onto the screen the first product name, prompt the operator to enter the total budgeted units to be sold for the year, then ask for the phasing of the sales e.g. equally over 12 months, ask whether an emphasis was required for certain months and then automatically produce the formulae necessary to use this information in Visicalc. The possibilities are enormous and given a certain amount of imagination are unending! DESK-TOP] RINTER Avoids all the problems normally associated ~~” with printer paper management ‘Accommodates most @ Stands neatly on a desk top 80-character- @ Printed paper stacks neatly in the tray pmakes ot ‘2 ao printers including: ees @ Supply paper locates underneath — can conveniently remain in its carton @ Sturdy design — finished in brandy white @ Electric:cables run underneath — out of harm's way ORDER DIRECT FROM ADVANCED RESOURCES ON THE ORDER FORM BELOW. Discounts available. Please enquire for detail : . To: Advanced Resources,St. Gabriels, Much Birch, Hereford HR2 SHY. Name Telephone: (0981) 540 262 Position Please supply the ordered quantity of Advanced Printer Stands Orgonisation at a price each of £28.50 which includes VAT and delivery aaa (UK mainiand only). rr Ouey [ieee Toul Post Cove Telephone Number L J Address for deliver (t difrent rom above Nome Cheque enclosed for £ _ ——— Address My make and model of printer is: Post Code December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page IL Copyright Max Lemer, who is a solicitor, contacted me and confirmed that the whole subject of copyright is a difficult one. In English law there is no need to do anything at all! As soon as something is finished, then it is your copyright. In this respect a program is treated like a work of art. For American purposes you need to put the copyright sign (©) with your name and the date. The problem is how to prove copyright if this becomes necessary. Both the methods below are helpful because they help to date your work but neither is conclusive proof of copyright. Max also confirmed that the program must be original, Making it legal. by Graham H. Ashdowne. 1, Establish Copywrite. Merely post the article (disk) to yourself by ‘recorded delivery’ and on receipt leave unopened in a SAFE place. Make sure you have a copy of the contents to store with the original. 2. Pul h Copyright. In other words, tell people that you regard the item as your own original item and are prepared to stand by that ‘right’ legally; usually by clearly stating on the original and subsequent copies of that copyright i.e. © 1983 - copyright 1983. 3, Protecting Copyright. a) Hope that your copyright 1983 frightens off intending pirates. b) Buy all similar material and check carefully for pirating (impractical and expensive in time and money). Paying someone else to do it can also cost you. ©) Be prepared to litigate on the evidence of piracy. This can be very expensive, You can insure against court costs before the event. Usually the insurer will only cover you if you have a good chance of winning, and the costs can eventually be awarded against the pirate. In most cases it will not go to court - settled out of court, but insurance ensures you have the financial backing of going through the motions of preparing to go to court, ie. you are prepared to go to litigation (but hope it never gets that far). d) Protect your own copyright, i.e. never open the envelope containing the original except in front of legally recognised witnesses who will reseal the contents under legal contract, in case the copyright requires second or future establishment, Another Way. By Jeremy Greenwood, Most programs are not copyrightable. There are few programs that are really new, i.e. that do not incorporate any coding from elsewhere. Also litigation costs are usually in the region of £20-30,000. It is all very well to say that the costs could be claimed from the person who ripped off your program but, if that "person" is a small company which is quite likely to go into liquidation, you are probably going to have nothing back. It is often cheaper to allow the rip off to be circulated than to defend your copyright. If, however, you still wish to establish copyright, the best method is to publish a hard version of your program, ie. get a listing of your program and put 4 title page on the front including the name of the program and your name. You should then send a copy of this to the British Library who will send you a dated receipt. You can use this to establish the date of your copyright. It also helps to print a declaration on your program along the lines of: "Reproduction of this in part or in whole in any form whether electronic or otherwise is expressly forbidden". The British Library will also list your program in the computer program section of the British National Bibliography, which is free publicity for you but which may mean that you will be asked to send copies to up to 5 other libraries around the country. ‘On the whole, though, unless you have just written a "Visicalc" or similar, it is unlikely to be worth your while defending your copyright and while the laws remain as they are, it is virtually impossible anyway. Page 12 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Syste:ns User Group December 1983 LISA by Richard TEED. Jim Panks (our software librarian) borrowed a LISA for a weekend and allowed me to play with it for a few hours. The thing that seems to be uppermost in everybody's mind is, “Is it worth it?" To answer this, it is important to bear in mind just what the development for this machine has involved. First, there is the entirely new way of presenting the software and gearing. it for businessmen and secondly, there is the fact that Apple has commercial rights to both the UNIX operating system and its XEROX equivalent, neither of these will have been cheap to acquire. Therefore, considering the. money that must have been lavished on the machine during development and the fairly small volume of sales compared to the present range of micros that Apple produces, a fair amount must be added to each machine to recover development costs. The biggest problem that LISA will be facing is that competitors, knowing what is required, will be | able to _ develop look-alikes much more cheaply. LISA costs £6,500. What is interesting, is to compare it with minis from companies like Data General - machines such as their Eclipse 120 cost £12,000 with disk but without printer or vdu, and with about a tenth of the memory of LISA, which also boasts a far more powerful processor than the Data General machine. Although LISA is being aimed at the business market, it is an obvious choice for replacing minis in scientific environments due to its lower cost and greater processor power and memory. The business software that comes with the machine can hardly be faulted, It is very user friendly, has very comprehensive error checking and is very easy to ‘pick up'. The only fault with the software would appear to be that it is a little slow in places, but I think Apple might well be able to speed it up. All of the good software packages that I have come across so far, with the exception of the Bit Stick (which has a fair amount in common with the LISA concept), involve reading through a manual with upwards of one hundred pages, and- although the manual may be very good, it will almost certainly require at least half a day to get used to the package. With the various bits of software that came with LISA, instruction manuals were hardly necessary and it was ‘obvious how to use a package just by looking at the screen displays. Thus the claim by Apple that any one can learn how to use LISA in about 40 minutes is true. A nice touch to the system software is the ability to add new peripherals to the machine with the minimum of fuss. On many machines a skilled user has to spend a long time generating a new operating system to take advantage of a new peripheral. With LISA, all you have to do is to tell it that you have put it in a peripheral slot and that's it. In the case of printers you give LISA the size of the paper you are using so it is able to format printed pages correctly. Another nice touch is a similar set up menu to the above to allow you to specify things like: loudness of the bell, speed of auto repeat keys, screen brightness etc. Noticeable absences from the keyboard are function keys. However, the combination command line at the top of each screen for a particular software package and the mouse, is a far better combination because function keys can only be marked up with their action for a particular program with a certain amount of difficulty. The Apple solution seems to be much better. The biggest problem that I feel LISA has is its disk capacity. Profile just doesn't have the room. What I feel Apple must do soon is to scrap the Profile that comes with the machine along with the floppy drives and put a 5MB fixed, 5MB removable Winchester disk system in the place of the floppies. This will make the machine more usable, probably cheaper and make it easier to back the hard disks up. That said, I really have no other criticism of the machine. LISA REVIEW by Jim Panks I wonder what the snob value of having the use at home of a LISA is? Well, whatever it may be, I am indebted to Tim at Mass Micros for allowing me to borrow a LISA for the weekend and for his help in getting me flying! December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 13 Once home it took ten minutes to set up and get LISA off the ground, All plugs at the rear are labelled and on switching on you can find out what is plugged in. LISA also does a check on its hardware. You can change various comfort controls to suit your needs - this includes the screen brightness, beep level, mouse click delay and the screen darkness. "Screen darkness?", you might ask. Yes. This is set at what level you want the screen to dim too, The screen will dim if no activity is detected within a certain time limit set by the user. This machine has certainly put the user first. It is completely user friendly. No amount of bumbling could upset the system. It kept on putting things right. LISA is, at this moment, at the top of the micro tree, the Rolls Royce of micros if you like. Price comes into the debate, so what do you actually get for your pound notes: | meg of memory for starters, followed by a 5 meg PROFILE hard disk, two floppies at 800k each, a built in screen, a detachable keyboard, a mouse, a printer (depending on what system), ~anuals and last, but not least, a spare bail for your mouse. The memory is as large as you will need although I don't know how much is used to generate the screen. The PROFILE is quite good although it could be better (sce R.Teeds comments). The floppies are a great improvement although they are of a non-standard type. They are double sided with two heads on each side. The screen is something else! What you see is exactly as it will be printed. You can have various text sizes and fonts together with shades. This is the strong point of the LISA. It is very clear and makes using it easy. Imagine everything life-size on the screen. If you want a ten inch line, you just draw a ten Inch line. The screen will scroll down as you draw it. All text is put on the screen exactly as you want it. You can mix and make very effective displays when used with the versatile LISADRAW. The actual concept of LISA is overpowering. 1 watched, without comment, a twelve year old with no computer knowledge use with ease the LISADRAW facility. He had watched me for about half an hour, and then went on to make some very high quality pictures with text and all the advanced facilities available. LISA comes complete with an office system - this gives you the ability to do all office chores from within the system, no changing disks etc. The screen is like your office desk, it has a wastepaper bin, a filing cabinet, a clipboard, a clock, and a calculator. The tools available are integrated, in that you can be using one and then set it aside while you do something else. You can put parts of your work into a report. This allows you to put calculations in a document and then add graphs, text and pictures and align it so that the finished product Is very neat and presentable. The idea is that you have a folder for each subject or person using LISA and into that folder you put paper from various sources. So to start with you name a folder and then go to the stationary cupboard and tear off some paper. This can be LISAWRITE, LISADRAW, LISAGRAPH, LISACALC or LISAPROJECT paper. You then name the piece of paper using the mouse and keyboard in conjunction; you then do your work. All the various options are obtained by using the mouse to put the cursor over the icon (picture) of the option and then pressing the button on top to select it. The keyboard is only used to put text on the screen or to stop an option, If you want to discard something you simply take the icon with your page or file and put it into the wastepaper bin, and just like the real bin you can retrieve the last item discarded. You can have up to twenty windows on the screen at any one time. This means that you can have the clock in the top left corner, the calculator which is very versatile in the right hand corner and be using LISADRAW in the centre. This sounds complicated but it is not. LISA overlays the various screens and you can move the corners of the screen areas with the mouse, To review LISA is very difficult. There are so many revolutionary ideas put into practice that it is difficult to remember them all. I used LISADRAW more than the other sections, mainly because it is so easy to use. You can use it to write letters if you wish, the text facility on it is so good. I have included a sample of the type of work that can be produced in a fraction of the time taken by normal methods. The text can be —_ justified proportionally in both LISAWRITE and LISADRAW, Page 14 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group December 1983 —4 FROM LAYBY gr-~ DETLING Slight Gownnd13 aradient This is a sketen ~ plan of the scene Of @ one vehicle injury accident that i ocoured at 1835 nrs RII" on Tuesday 23rd of August 1983 on the A249, 400 yards Southbound Carriageway north of It's Junction with the M20 at : Narks on verge Detling : Fy 3rd August 1983 Police Constaple 67704 . Vehicle Size 5 Lengtn:15° width: 5*4* NOTES The total distance ‘te vehicle travelled fon Ge start of ue 0 Marks to the final position is a Me So NL] visibinity 200 yards | MAIDSTONE F © JWPANKS 1963 —NOLTO.SGALS December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 15 LISA is the ideal machine for the office and has set the other manufacturers a target to aim for. It is a triumph for Apple to have produced such a revolutionary machine where everything works together, and is so user friendly. This is the first of a very different generation of micro, where the power is available to make the user a priority. I look forward to the time when all machines follow this trend. Once again thanks to Mass Micros for the insight into Apple's magic machine, Multiploy A Review by Jacob Marley "Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? Mf 1 could work my will.. every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should." Such were the sentiments which overcame me when reviewing Multiploy for this month's bumper edition, Multiploy by Paul Coletta allegedly combines the excitement of an arcade game with the challange (sic) of learning and practising arithmetic skills. Even though the idea of using space invaders for problem solving may have a first glance appeal, we are actually looking at the same weary ‘old problems of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division upon which the changes have been rung ad nauseam by would-be educational software —_ writers without a single original educational idea in their heads. Need | go on? After an interminably long, flag-raising ceremony announcing the name Multiploy in lo-res and accompanied by the inevitably cute burbling jingles, we choose our problem and level. The screen clears, a problem (say 4 x 15) comes hovering in and we shoot it down by typing in the right answer. If the number goes into double figures don't press return, if it is in single units, you have to press return (except Level one division, where they decided not to bother about being consistent). If you have to type double figures, make sure to do it good and slow, because the response time is almost as longwinded as Applewriter Ie, which is saying a lot. Don't worry about losing - the Problem Ships are very loath to fire back and rarely hit. Sorry to be so po-faced about it but I have looked at so many of these beginners programs rediscovering the wheel, and I can find few that have progressed much beyond the old maths programs which Apple used to give away with every hardware package sold (except of course, that here we are not faced with the old division by zero problem which so bemused my kids). The game element has its drawbacks. For instance: as you are taking time over one problem, another one pops up into the field of battle and then another, and another, Since these are randomly generated, they can very well contain the same problems at any level (all are concerned with divisible integers - there are no problems with remainders, or anything difficult like that), So you type in a solution and it shoots down another problem you have not spotted yet. An casy success which involves no thinking at all, It goes without saying that there is no attempt to teach you any aspect of the problem or to guide to the right solution. Just drill and kill. A Merty Christmas to you Prentice Hall, to your daughter company Reston Publishing Inc, Virginia and to your team of authors for yet another pointless product. Editor's Footnote: | gave it to my 5 year old, who enjoyed the problem solving but found the response time rather slow. She seemed irritated with it, yet came back the next day asking to play it again. This time she seemed to get on better, at least she was less annoyed with it, but she would agree with most of Tony Williams’ comments. Page 16 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group December 1983 Book Reviews Engineering Title: The Apple II Circuit Description. Author: Winston D. Gayler Price: £19.50 Spiral Bound, soft cover, 10.5 X 8 inches 172 pages plus 44 pull-out diagrams. Published by Howard W. Sams & Co. inc. and distributed in the U.K. by Prentice Hall. A Review by Dick Menhinick. Any Apple user who is also an engineer must, at some time, have longed for an authoritative guide to the inner workings of his beloved machine. There has been a great deal of material published about the Apple's software and it's firmware, but the circuitry has been largely ignored. The Apple reference manual shows the schematic diagrams and gives a few brief details, but the diagrams often do not relate to every revision of board and many of the circuits are unrepresented. Here then, is the answer to the prayers of those Apple users who, like myself, love to ‘get in there’ and dabble - oscilloscope at the ready - with the little black chips that make the beast tick! 1 refer to Winston Gayler's superb book - 'The Apple Il Circuit Description’. Every revision of Apple Il is described, from RevO to the Rev7+ (RFI) versions which immediately pre-dated the introduction of the //e (the //e is not covered). Wherever the circuitry or timing vary between revisions, separate circuits and descriptions have been used to clearly identify them. The book jis divided equally between illustrated circuit descriptions. at — the front, and pull-out large scale diagrams at the rear. After introducing some of the terminology to be used in the comprehensive glossary in the first chapter, the Apple is introduced in ‘block’ form to prepare the reader for the detailed descriptions of the blocks in subsequent chapters. This contrasts with the more familiar (but less desirable) technique of leaving the reader floundering — in unfamiliar verbage until the glossary is found in some obscure appendix at the back! Description begins with a detailed look at the timing generation and provides a fascinating insight into the rather complex clock circuitry. The description is at the ‘gate by gate’ level and shows the considerable depth of the authors knowledge. Timing charts are given which clarify points raised in the text and allow the dedicated enthusiast to follow the description with an oscilloscope to really get the feel of the machine. The video timing follows on from clock generation but is given a chapter of its own to allow for a detailed discussion of sync and colour-burst timing generation. Timing is followed by a chapter describing the Memory system. Detail of refresh timing and address multiplexing for the RAMs is followed by the arrangements used to provide the various text and graphics display areas, The 6502 central processor is described at length in chapter 6. The system ROMS and the DMA and interrupt processes are also covered here with reference to their relationship to the special design features of the 6502, The Author is careful to describe the different cycles in a clear and unambiguous manner and makes extensive use of short machine code program listings to encourage the reader to use a "scope to see the operation of the processor at first hand. Chapter 7 looks at On-Board 1/0, the cassette system, the keyboard interface, the game port and the soft-switches. Both the one-piece keyboard design and the later two-piece keyboard and encoder are described in full, I discovered details of how to modify the keyboard encoder to give upper and lower case in this chapter, the circuit board already has the provision for this but no Apple-written documentation mentions it! The descriptions of the cassette and games port circuitry are supplemented = with explanations of how the circuitry is dependent on the software which drives them. The final chapter discusses the Video circuitry in great detail, showing how text is generated, and how the system switches between high and low res graphics. The most fascinating part of this description is an account of how the colour is produced and why the colours which the Apple is capable of producing are what they are. come — four techniques, After the main chapters appendices. Video _—_ display Summaries of differences between Apple revisions, Symbol descriptions for the Schematic drawings, and a Bibliography are the subjects covered, A comprehensive index follows the appendices and completes the December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systens User Group Page 17 descriptive part of the book. Following the text part of the book come the 4h pull-out large scale schematic drawings and timing charts. These are of a very high standard of both accuracy and clarity, and will prove invaluable to ‘chip-level’ fault finding. This book will satisfy any Apple user with a thirst for knowledge about the hardware of the Apple, whether the user be a service engineer, a circuit designer, or =a programmer. Winston Gayler is a first class technical author and this book is a lesson to all who would attempt to write technical publications, being accurate, _ informative AND = readable! Title: Interface Projects for the Apple II Author: Richard C. Hallgren Price: £10.79 Paperback, 9 x 7 inches, 170 pages Published by Prentice Hall inc. New Jersey A Review by Dick Menhinick. This is one of those books which needs to be read and then re-read to be really appreciated, The first time I looked through it and saw pages and pages of Applesoft listings and small uninteresting circuit diagrams, I formed the impression that this was going to be another of those boring "build your own Cray 1 for $50.00° publications, with which the American hobbyist press is infested. That title “Interface projects for the Apple II" conjured up an image of those little 'Babani' do-it-yourself constructor guides which show in 90 pages the very same ‘dark room timer’ circuit. which your favourite electronics mag covered on two sides! However, I thought that | must do my duty for ‘Hardcore’ and overcome my initial prejudice. So 1 sat down one evening and read the book from cover to cover ... and I am rather glad that | did! Richard Hallgren's book is best described as a very general guide to the design of custom peripheral interfaces for the Apple illustrated with some very _—_ specific examples. This apparent contradiction both the strength and the weakness of book. The particular examples used may tend to discourage the reader who stands to benefit most from the subject matter, and yet the concepts which are introduced can be reinforced by the simple practical exercises which have a high probability of successful operation, The Author discusses most of the hardware and software techniques necessary to interface a peripheral device to an Apple, and suggests the application of these techniques to some unusual peripherals, including biofeedback circuits and video equipment. On the’ way, analog to digital (and visa-versa) techniques, analog circuit design, sampling theory and serial data communications are explained in a concise and readable manner. Three useful appendices complete the book. The first - on construction techniques - details several methods of building Prototype circuits of the type described in the earlier chapters. Some of the photographs shown in this chapter are of a machine which is definitely NOT an Apple (Ah well - we all make mistakes!). Appendix B is a short treatise on Operational Amplifier theory, which is of some help to those engineers who have been brought up on logic _— circuits and Consequently fight shy of analog circuit design. The operational amplifier is the fundamental building-block of many analog interface designs. The final Appendix briefly introduces the design and choice of power supply circuits - a subject often overlooked in this type of publication, The book is well illustrated, the diagrams are clear, and the program listings are generously commented and clearly printed. Extensive use has been made of flowcharts in the discussions of interface driving software to develop the concepts gradually instead of presenting the reader with the solution to a problem as a 'fait-accomplit'. On my second reading of this book I learned a great deal about the development of an interface design from first principles to the finished product. 1 think that the book deserves a second glance from a great many Apple owners with an interest in connecting their machine to the ‘outside world’. ————= Page 18 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systeins User Group December 1983 Competition Here are two competitions, one tor programmers, one not. Enter one or both. The first prize in each competition is a choice between a joystick and a box of disks and runners up will receive a copy of "The Invasion of the Space Invaders" by Martin Amis, published by Hutchinson and kindly donated by Tony Williams of Wida Software. COMPETITION ONE 90 REM NOT FOR THE ITT 100 FOR N = 7676 TO 7695: READ A: POKE N,A: NEXT N 110 DATA 142,80,192,234,142,81,192, 76,252, 29,29, 142,81,192,76,253, 29,29,253,29 120 D$ = CHRS (4) 130 HGR + HCOLOR= 3: POKE -16392,0: FOR Y = 1 TO 191 STEP 3: HPLOT 0,9 TO 279,¥: HPLOT 279,0 TO 0,¥: NEXT Y: LIST 140 CALL 7676 Run this program. The effect it has is of a split. screen. How can this happen? Try re-running after resetting. How can the same piece of software produce different output each time it is run? Changes in the length of the delay destroy this effect. Solutions or suggestions will be judged by Richard Teed, who donated the puzzle. COMPETITION TWO What software would you like to see written? The prizes will go to the most original or interesting ideas. To be judged by the committee. Closing date for entries is December 16th. Address your entries tot Competition BASUG P.O.Box 174 Watford WD2 6NF and don't forget to include your name and address. Do any of you have strange programming quirks or any other suggestions for future ns? If so, do write in. Presents It's always difficult to know what to buy for Christmas. I asked the committee to think of two suggestions for Apple users - one inexpensive and one if money were no object. This is what they came up with! Both David Bolton and John Rogers thought a dec/hex calculator would be a good buy and John also suggested an Apple Plotter. Norah Arnold came up with a Computech Video Digitiser and a black and white camera or Ceemac. Fran Teo put forward a shift key mod and Jim Panks added a lower case chip to that. Jim said that Lisa would be his "money no object" choice and Fran suggested the Accelerator. Keith Chamberlain thought of the Bit Stik 1000 or a disk storage box. The game of Advice was Alick Elithorn's choice, alternatively how about a coffee machine and a hot towel! Bob Raikes suggested an Easiport or an Alpha Syntauri. Quentin Reidford and David both came up with a hard disk with Quentin's other gift being a year's subscription to BASUG. The Committee and the Editor would like to take this opportunity to wish all the members a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. $.1.G.s ITT 2020 sub user group Alan Hewitt has written in asking if there is any chance of a sub user group for the ITT 2020, If anyone else is of a like mind, Alan can be contacted at: Oakley ih Thaett WER sant velit Ela ie December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 19 What is a Shift Key Mod ? became the problem. Applewriter simply or My shift key works anyway. by Peter Blair One minor problem with a standard Apple keyboard is that the shift key does not work ‘at least not in the way that a typist would expect. To clarity this let's take a look at how the keyboard does work. Although it may not appear to be from the outside, the keyboard consists of two sets of wires arranged in a grid. At the points where the wires cross are the keys. This can be seen in the diagram on page 101 of the Apple Il Reference Manual. When a key is pressed the wires which cross at that point are connected together. This key press is sensed by the special processor chip built onto the keyboard circuit. When a key is. pressed, the keyboard processor decides which one it is and outputs a seven bit value to the computer. This value is the ASCII code for the key pressed (ASCIL American Standard Code for Information Interchange - which is the accepted standard for these things, unless you work for Sinclairl!). At the same time the processor puts a ‘high’ or binary 1 Signal into the eighth bit of the byte being sent to the computer. This signals to the computer that a new key has been pressed - Apple reter to this signal as the key strobe, Now, what about the shift key? Pressing this signals the keyboard processor which then alters the code to be output ONLY if the key being pressed has a dual use. For example SHIFT-; gives + and SHIFT-9 gives ). Other keys still output the same code as if not shifted, This means that you cannot type all 96 possible printable ASCII codes directly at the keyboard. Excluded are all the lower case characters and punctuation and some other punctuation such as the left square bracket [. This minor omission can cause problems with the programming of some applications in particular those requiring lower case input} Applewriter for example had to have a special means of allowing lower case text entry. Even though the Apple has no lower case display normally, this was overcome in software because lower case is essential for a word processor. At this point the keyboard assumed that all letter codes from the keyboard were for lower case letters. To get upper case the ESC key had to be pressed first, and the next letter was then taken as a capital. For a typist this is a real problem because capitals are normally produced by the SHIFT key being pressed with the letter, and this problem made Applewriter difficult to use. Some word processors have improved on Applewriter by using the High Resolution Graphics screen for output and programming their own lower case character set. This has also been done by Apple with the High Resolution Character Generator (HRCG) program on the DOS 3,3 Toolkit disk, But this still leaves the problem of the shift key. The ingenuity of Apple users and peripheral manufacturers being what it is, a number of solutions have appeared. The simplest is often referred to as the single wire, or clip-on shift key mod, These do vary slightly but essentially make a connection between the shift key and a pushbutton input on the game socket (usually button-2), Software then reads the pushbutton input, just after finding a valid key press, to determine if the shift key has also been pressed and if so makes appropriate adjustment to the keycode. A word of caution here to those bold spirits known as DIY enthusiasts, The shift key is connected to 0 volts (ground) when pressed and therefore uses negative logic, while the pushbutton inputs normally use positive logic. Connecting the keyboard to a push button that is already in use for something else will not only confuse the programming, but short-circuit the power supply. This type of mod does suffer from the possibility of the software missing the shift key press while reading the keyboard but this should be a very rare occurrence due to the speed of the software which would be in machine code. The clip on shift mod used to be available with some word processors and lower case character generator upgrades. | believe that this type of mod is supplied by the Leicester Computer Centre with their lower case chip, although 1 have not checked this with them and am ready to stand corrected if 1 am wrong (Moral = check first). As you will have seen from Page 20 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group December 1983 the last update, a shift key mod and lower case chip are also available from BASUG. A slightly more complex way of getting a working shift key can be found in my previous article ‘Polishing the Apple’ - Hardcore June 1982 (if you ask nicely there might be some back issues left). The left half of the circuit board shown will give a properly functioning shift key with a shift-lock function using CTRL and SHIFT together. Anyone using this should note the slight modification 1 made in the following issues' letters pages. The whole circuit gives lower case display as well, although I would have preferred a better lower case chip than the one I used but that was the Cheapest solution. If you are not particularly adept with a soldering iron then a commercial unit known as the Type-Right lower case adaptor (reviewed in Hardcore August 1982) used to be available although I have not seen it advertised lately. Finally the most expensive solution and one which I implemented myself a few days ago - the Videx Enhancer II keyboard and display enhancer for Revision 7 Apples and later versions. This comes as a4 circuit board which is a plug in replacement for the existing board on the back of the keyboard, and a chip with a complete upper and lower case character set to replace the existing character generator. The Enhancer provides not only a proper shift key and lower case, but a 128 character type ahead butter and user definable key sequences (like the BBC Micro's function keys). See the review’ in next issue, The only question remaining to be answered is why is a shift key mod needed. The main reason is for lower case. Whether in a word processor or a BASIC program, lower case can certainly improve the readability of your display, but haggling with the ESC key is no way to make input easy, and when it is used for editing as well then forget it! A working shift key is a thousandfold improvement. As for the lower case, if you cannot afford a chip then write your own for the Hi-Res screen (or use the HRCG program if, you have it), One point - the line input subroutine in the Apple ROMs converts all lower case input to upper case so you will need a little software to get round that. Even if you have no wish for lower case, the availability of an extra 26 keycodes Could be very useful. These could be made to act as function keys in complex programs without losing the ability to enter normal text. For example pressing the key A would enter a letter A as normal while pressing SHIFT-A might cause the program to switch to a different display, or tab across the screen, or read a disk file, or a thousand and one things limited only by the ingenuity of your software. In the end it comes down to individual needs and before spending your hard earned shekels, thus incurring the wrath of your spouse, bank manager or bookmaker, you must decide if the seemingly small problem of a shift key stands in the way of your enjoyment of the Apple. If you have stayed with me to this point and have decided you would like a shift key mod, then I will conclude by describing a simple single-wire mod. To do this you will need a piece of single core tinned copper wire about 12" long and not more than about 24 swg thick, so that it will push into an IC socket with the IC pin. After removing the lid and any expansion cards, carefully turn your Apple over and remove the three screws along the front edge. Now remove the six outermost philips head screws from the base (two from each side and two from the back). Do NOT remove any other screws. Holding the halves together turn the Apple over again. Gently lift the front edge of the top half just so you can see to unplug the keyboard connector. The top half should now be completely disconnected from the bottom. Turn the top half over so you can see the keyboard and the attached encoder board. Look at the back of the encoder board and you will see a row of soldered pads where the connector is fixed. These are marked with a ‘It at one end and '25' at the other. Find pin 24, Strip about 3 mm of insulation from each end of your length of wire and push it into the socket with pin 24. You may need to ease the encoder board out of its socket slightly to allow this. Be sure that the wire does NOT make contact with any other pin. Now route the wire towards the back of the Apple and plug the keyboard connector back in and fasten the two halves together again. Find the game paddle socket and locate pin one marked with a dot on the circuit board. Carefully unplug the paddles from the socket and push the other end of the wire into pin 4 of the socket (pushbutton 2 input). Reinsert the plug making sure all the pins are in the socket including pin 4 Switch on the Apple, if it does not beep then you have short circuited December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 21 the power supply (probably by pushbutton 2 already being in use, or connecting to the wrong pin). If all is well then whenever the shift key is pressed the value PEEKed from the PBZ input will be less than 128. If shift is not pressed then the value will be greater than 128, (As I said before this is the opposite of the normal pushbutton input). 1 will leave you to sort out the software, but to be sure of reading the correct condition of the shift key I would adopt the following scheme. First wait for a keypress (strobe high), then read the PB2 input, then get the key value from the keyboard and lastly clear the strobe. This will avoid the delay that would occur if the key were read first. and which might allow the shift keypress to be missed. More Apple Magazines by Selwyn Ward Keith Chamberlain's article in the last issue of Hardcore referred to several Apple- dedicated magazines, but it was by no means an exhaustive list. I certainly agree with his view of NIBBLE as being the best of the bunch, but I am less enthusiastic about Call-A.P.P.L.E. than Keith. The bias of Call-A.P.P.L.E. is very much towards lengthy assembly language programs; BASUG members who shy away from typing the dreaded command "Call -151" on their Apples should certainly be warned that Call-A.P.P.L.E. is as complex as WINDFALL is shallow! SOFTALK (published by Softalk Publishing Inc., 11021 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601, USA) is an Apple-dedicated magazine which new Apple users in the US get sent free for a year. It's supposed to be an independent publication, but it usually takes a ludicrously uncritical stance both of Apple and of any software which it reviews. If you can get hold of a copy, SOFTALK is definitely worth a look, but it certainly has the feel of a house magazine about it. Rather more objective in its approach to software is Peelings Il (published by Peelings I Inc., PO Box 188, Las Cruces, NM 88004-0188, USA).This is a magazine, again devoted solely to the Apple, which reviews and rates (usually quite reliably) new and established Apple software. Most usefully the magazine also publishes _ periodically comparison charts between similar programs listing the various features of each. As with most American magazines Peelings is expensive to obtain here in the UK, but if you spend significant amounts each year on software, you may well find that Peelings may merit the expense. BASUG members will already be aware of APPLE ORCHARD, which is available through BASUG, but they may not have come across a new Apple-dedicated magazine called "As" which is only now being launched in the US. The first issue is due out at about the same time as this issue of Hardcore so I've not yet seen it, but it looks from its pre-publicity as if it is simply going to be a slightly glossier version of WINDFALL. "A+" is available at PO Box 2964, Boulder, CO 80322, USA. Finally one general magazine —_ worth mentioning is CREATIVE COMPUTING. It is easily the best general computer magazine on the market, but being a US-based publication it is very much Apple dominated. The articles and reviews (as well as the ads) covering the Apple usually outnumber those covering all the rest of the computers on the market put together! Quite apart from this very healthy state of affairs, CREATIVE COMPUTING is far superior to any of the UK general computer magazines currently on the market and in my view clearly justifies the additional expense, particularly for "hobbyist" Apple users. In the UK, CREATIVE COMPUTING is available from Hazel Gordon, 10 Bishops Way, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands B74 4XU, A book, compiling together numerous Apple articles from back issues of CREATIVE COMPUTING, and called THE CREATIVE APPLE, is available. 1 have no doubt that there are endless other Apple-dedicated magazines which members will find of interest, but I can't say that I've come across them as yet. Perhaps other members will be able to report on them in future issues of Hardcore. See note on page 26. Page 22 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group APPLE i+ id APPLE //e 1G w "The Differences” The Editor has asked me to give som guidance to members about the difference between the J+ and //e. I do not propose to delve too deeply into the differences of the Honitor, but for the serious programmers a look at the new Apple //e reference manual is worthwhile. It is supplied in two parts, the main part is on the lines of the old reference manual and the second part contains the Monitor ROM Listings including the Monitor Firmware, and 80 Column Firmware Listings. (Apple part No. A2L2005) The first difference most users will Notice is the new keyboard. It has a full 62-Key upper and lowercase Keyboard including fully operational and Keys. Now I have used the //e since February and I have found the new Keys a delight, It took a few days to forget the old positions. When programming the colon [1] is shifted but I find the shift with fourth finger + colon with first finger a natural movement. and CBECETE) Keys have been and are implemented in Apple~ writer //e and Quickfile //. Other software being written by outside suppliers is also utilising the extra Keys. The other two Keys that have babadatd are the (OFEN-arPLE) ano CH keys. These Keys are connected to the one-bit game inputs. Pressing (REZET) boots the system, saving wear and tear on the mains switch, which I understand has been up-rated anyway. initiates a self test lasting about 20 seconds and displays on the screen if all is well inside, if not a ‘fault? message is displayed, I did get a fault message but this was after running a particular piece of software that had left some location set differently from the cold start. The and Keys are used in Quickfile// for the command sequences. They also serve as excellent firing buttons for zapping space invaders! The Ce] Ca) Keys have been joined by the Ca] and (a) Keys. These can be used for editing instead of the old (2) Cx] A) & (1) keys but these are still available. Auto repeat, of just under one second delay, is available on all Keys. The //e has a change of prompt or cursor. ‘The default is a flashing square chequerboard ( M), but when the 80 column firmware is active, whether in 40 or 80 columns, the cursor is a non flashing block ( @ ). Should you press the cursor will change to O (just like Applewriter 1). When the 80 column firmware is active (PR¥3) [By] restricts the text to capitals for Basic programming but will give automatic lower— case between “quotes”s, to do this the Key must be released. To return do (scare) (r). (Escare} (2) turns on 40 columns, back to 80 with w. Just under the right-hand side of the keyboard is a rocker switch which controls the screen output of the shifted [3] and will display either the £ or the 4. On the European Apple //e’s this switch gives the full national character screen set with accented characters (@, so for those into languages this is a line to follow. The Apple//e can display the full ASCII character set, upper and lowercase, and for compatibility with the older Apple JC the standard display character set includes flashing uppercase instead of inverse-format lowercase. You can switch to an alternative inverse lower and upper case but without flash. (use POKE 49166,0 for Primary and POKE 49167,0 for Alternative) The //e has optional 80 Column display. I tried a VISION 80 card in slot 3 and it worked excellently. However Apple have their ‘own 80 column cards, one plain, the other with 64k RAM. I am using the 90 column extended card with the extra 64K which fits into a new slot with a 50 pin edge connector, and on the Buropean //e’s the slot is in front of Slot 3 to prevent two 80 column cards being used at once (my assumption). The new 80 col cards are turned on by PR#3 but turned off with (ESE) [E1. Quickfile//e with the Extended 80 Col Card gives me 600 address records each with 13 fields (max fields 15). The Reference Manual and the 80 Column Card Manuals are a fund of information on the 80 column cards and the motherboard firmware that controls them, This includes information on using Double High Resolution Graphics. This will allow a display of 560 pixels horizontally instead of 280. The extended 80 column card has two MOLEX pins near the front bottom {connected to pin 50 CAN3] and pin $5 CFRCTXT’2 of the Auxiliary slot). These must be connected and AN2 turned ON with the appropriate POKE together with the correct soft switches that select the 80-column display and hi-res graphics. December 1983 December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 23 ‘The slots now only number 7; apart from the Auxiliary Slot mentioned above. Slot 0 has gone. The 16k RAM that could be added as extra RAM in Slot 0 is now built into the motherboard giving a standard memory size of 64K, This upper 16K is called Bank Switched Memory. The Extended 80 Column Card’s 64k RAM is also bank switched, the Reference Manuals give full details of how this can be used. The back-panel now has a metal panel with holes for “D’ connectors and the new Apple Peripherals have the connectors but this must add to their cost although it is tidier and the older cards can be used by threading the cable through the holes. The is a D connector for the Joystick but the old game port is still inside on the main board. The connector idea and the whole case design is intended to reduce R/F emmission. The additional display and memory features of the //e are controlled by soft switches like those on the Apple J{+ but on the //e programs can also read the settings of the soft switch The Reference Manual states that although most application programs don’t use interrupts the //e provides for interrupt- driven programs. For example the 80-column firmware periodically enables interrupts while it 16 clearing the display. I would however inject a note of caution here, for if you don’t understand interupts leave well alone and if you do please read Morgan Caffrey’s article ‘on page 70 of Apple Orchard Vol.4 No.2 (obtainable from BASUG). A program can now find out which Kind of Apple it’s running on by reading a byte at $FBB3 in the System Monitor. In the //e this byte’s value is $06; in the Apple Jt+ Autostart it is SEA. It is also possible for ‘the program to read whether the //e is plain 64K, 64k + 80 column card or with &0 column AND extra 64k RAM, and subsequently set it- self correctly. Test program examples are given in the Hanuals (Applesoft Tutorial and 80 Column Extended Manuals) in Assembly Language, Basic and Pascal. The most obvious feature of the Mother board is the uncluttered layout now that the chips have been reduced to 31, there really 4s no need, in my view for fans to cool an Apple //e. Only fans of a different Kind like me! Peter Trinder October 1767 8 Software Library Christmas is nearly upon us and as a special gesture, I have compiled a disk of software for this occasion. Hopefully it will keep the kids happy and may even keep one or two adults up into the early hours. Try your hand at Pinball. Yes, a special game written with the help of Pinball Construction is included. There is program material from other disks together with a fast example of Haunted Cave. By the New Year we should have a sample of CP/M software available. Contact with the CP/M User Group has been made and they have agreed to put some software into our software library. If you have any ideas, program material or offers of help, please write and let me Small Ads FOR SALE: (due to purchase of //e). Apple K+ (dual voltage 220/110), Hitachi Monitor Microhush, 40 col. Thermal Printer with Interface Card - £650 or near offer. OR sold with twin Apple disk Il and Controller Card - £1045, Software Selection (under half price). VisiPlot £40. DESK-Top PLAN E40, CCA DataManager (preceded Visifile) £50. Money Maestro, personal accounts package t 50. Various business software: Client Billing £50. Job Control £60. Store Manager £50. Order Scheduler £50. MicroTelegram (needs modem/comms, card) t 24. MicroCourier Electronic Mail £30, with WTelegram £49. Roland Saam. Tels fil) 12%, ITT 2020, Bought 10 months ago. Never used. £295, John Turner, Tel: St. Albans (172%) aieiili Page 24 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group December 1983 Visicale Corner Executive Visicalc for the Apple II Author: Roger E. Clark Price: £9.95 Published by Addison-Wesley, 1983 Reviewed by Bob Mould I'm not quite sure just who this book is aimed at. Is it the rank beginner? Or the user with some experience? The pre-requisite for learning from this book is having covered the four lessons that constitute the tutorial in the Visicalc manual. As the man rightly says, "There ain't no substitute for the manual". The only problem is that I learned Visicaic on a Hewlett-Packard 125, and the H-P 125 Visicalc manual doesn't have those four lessons! So I don't know exactly what they cover. However, Mr. Clark DISCOUNT SOFTWARE Over 20 % off popular lines eg Screenwriter II 70.00 Terrapin Logo 79.50 Bank Street Writer 39.50 Snooper Troops 24.00 SAM speech synthesiser 52.50 DB Master 130.00 Graforth 41.00 VAT inclusive Most gases & educational eg Xerox, Spinnaker ,Learning co ete ntye books etc. d Sae for detailed quot and Our awn Magic Blackboard for young childrens- £ Introductory disc 11,50 Coco the clown 12.95 Birthday aonster 12.95 P&P Upto £50 add 1.50 £ 50-100 add 2.50 Over £ 150 + post free. Cash with order. Delivery ~ 14 days. (UK) HAPPY APPLE SOFTWARE 84 Linden Avenue Ruislip Middl continues his introduction in a way that Suggests that they cover only the basics of Visicalc. He then goes on to discuss Apple "add-ons" such as RAM cards and 80 column boards in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 goes right back to basics by reminding his readers of the strict left-to-right calculation hierachy (not a bad idea) and then plunges into the complexities of nested @IFs. Chapter 4 is a list of hints and tips, most of which are old hat to those familiar with Visicalc but which may be of value to the newcomer, Chapter 5 introduces a "simple" template or model which takes 11 pages to explain and includes some very complex formulae. Under- standing is greatly hindered by the author's habit of referring to figures or tables out of sequence and the publisher's failure to ensure that the figures are placed adjacent to the related text. To take a slightly extreme example, page 29 refers to fig.5.1 which appears on page 23! What's more, page 23 refers to fig.5.2 which appears on page 24, and page 25 also refers to fig.5.1 on page 23. Mr. Clark introduces what is probably a rather clever dating routine, but 1 still don't understand it even after several readings. He may well be right in saying that it's extremely useful, but it's not the sort of routine that can be copied and used without being understood. Chapter 6 is. quite a good introduction to overlays. Chapter 7 covers profit and loss forecasting and “what if quite adequately. Chapter 8 explains how to set up a cash ledger. As an engineer I've no idea how good it is, nor am I particularly interested, but it does cover 18 pages! Chapter 9 discusses DIF files and their use in an invoicing system - and does it well, even though it needs 18 pages. Chapter 10 covers aged accounts. This engineer ain't interested in them. Chapter Il discusses manipulating the calendar. Maybe an understanding of this chapter would have helped me to understand chapter >! Chapter 12 covers peripherals for the Apple such as the numeric keypad etc. Summarising, this book is not for the beginner. Parts of it could be useful to those with some practical experience of Visicalc, and parts of it are definitely only for the expert with lots of time and an enquiring mind, At $14.95 in the USA (L9.95 in UK) I'm not sure it's good value for money but it's certainly different trom the usual Visicalc book. It's a pity Mr. Clark hasn't decided just who his readers really are - beginners or experienced experts. December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 25 Hodge Podge A Review by Tony Williams Good morning members, are you sitting comfortably? If so you cannot be using Hodge Podge, which is a "surreptitious learning” program for toddlers on their mothers' knee. The idea behind this ingenious early learning program by Marsha Meredith is that pre-school and pre-reading children can by an instinctive process of key pressing be guided toward = an_—understanding or appreciation of the alphabet, mathematical relationships, shapes and musical notation. An ingenious idea, you might think, and my guess is that it probably works to some extent. Since my youngest child is already trying to top me in height I neglected to field test it with her, and suggested that our editor might like to do so with her toddlers. Only a footnote will show whether she took up my suggestion, But I do have one or two relevant findings to report. The idea is that the toddler bashes the "A" key and a lores picture of an apple appears, press a "B" and a bear scowls at the child (until it "recognises" the child, when it smiles), Press a "D" and you get a dog, and so on. Some of the pictures are accompanied by sound, popular American ditties which we all know: Press O and you get "Oh Susanna" matching the picture of a straw boater, | think. Many pre-reading age Americans and all British children could be forgiven for failing to ake — that connection, —Disconcertingly, not_— alll pictures are accompanied by tunes, for no ascertainable reason. (Did the programmers run out of puff?), If our intuitively key- pressing tot should happen to press the space bar, the only effect is to superimpose a lo-res rectangle on the previous display. I can't think why, so what would your little nipper make of it? (On the other hand he or she might think it a pretty neat trick.) One feature | like was the musical stave that appeared when a number is pressed, with a note representing "doh" on it. Press 2 and you get "re", etc. It is presumably up to the mother patiently supporting baby's bot to explain what that is all about. We are obviously into primitive SUZUKI stuff here, and why not? You get numbers by pressing Shift 1, Shift 2 and so on, Might not the bright child believe that ! stands for ONE and " for TWO? On the other hand, press ESC (perilously close to the 1) and you get the program exit by mistake. Press RUN to restart - now we really see the need for mother, sorry, parent. Pre-reading age kids can't type RUN yet, I suspect. Now for the maths. You get this by pressing plus or minus, = sets off the equality sequence. The unequals sign (a difficult to read equals sign with a slash through it) shows us that the matchsticks on this side are unequal to those on that side, etc. Perhaps it helps, and it can't harm much. If the child does not like it, it can always press for another "vignette": "K" for Kiri the Koala Wally (sic) perhaps, and I'll give you one guess at the ditty that goes along with it! All in all an unassuming little program that might do what it sets out to do without heartache - although even here we had the expected hangups - situations where nothing whatsoever happens. Why do designers not understand that if a program is intended for “anything goes" hands-on discovery, you need a vast system of error trapping to let precisely that happen? But maybe | am just quibbling. 1 obtained my copy of Hodge Podge from the US directly some time ago so can't be much help on price or availability here, but it was fairly inexpensive and is distributed by Dynacomp inc, of 1427 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, New York 14618. Footnote: Yes, 1 did try it on my two youngest daughters - Alexandra, aged 22 months and Katherine, aged 3 years 7 months. Alexandra thought it jolly good fun. She isn't let loose on the computer all that often and this may have been part of the attraction, Her key-pressing can only be described as random and she thought most of the animals were dogs, so 1 doubt whether it meant much to her. On the other hand she liked the space bar rectangles. An older sister remarked that she was putting the animal in a cage. You obviously need a young imagination for this program! Katherine, on the other hand, soon had favourite keys and enjoyed the musical stave, She soon cottoned on to the shift key and the repeat key and yes, once she'd seen me key in RUN once, did that for herself too. One or two of the "americanisms" had me puzzled but she accepted that I didn't understand the connection and just enjoyed the pretty picture, It was extremely popular. Definitely a hit. Page 26 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group December 1983 Strings Update UPDATE TO PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY STRINGS by Richard Teed In the last issue 1 made a_ rather embarrassing mistake with the first program:~ 100 AS="ONE! TWO" :CS=AS+BS: GOSUB 1000:C$=B$+AS$:GOSUB 1000: C$=A$+A$:GOSUB 1000:END 1000 PRINT C$:RETURN Because I declare the strings as literals in the program the variables point into the code (this is probably the main reason for MID$= being illegal because it would corrupt the source code). If the following were added to the above program then it would be as described in the article. 90 A1$-"ONE":BIS$="TWO" AS=MIDS$(AI$, 1) :BS= 1D$(B1$,1) As a form of compensation I offer a routine that uses the "permanent and tempory string" article and the “improved eof" article. This routine reads in numbers from a text file and assigns them to a numeric array. 1000 REM INSERT IMPROVED EOF CODE POKES HERE 1010 EOFS= Set he t PRINT D$;"READ PL=PEEK(111):PH= PEEK(112): REM OPEN THE FILE AND MARK THE BOTTOM OF STRING STORAGE 1020 FOR N-1 TO 1000: INPUT AS: IF AS=EOFS THEN PRINT DS; "CLOSE. ILE$:GOTO 1040; REM IF END OF FILE THEN CLOSE AND RETURN TO CALLER 1030 A(N)=VAL(A$) :POKE LIL, PL: POKE 112,PH:NEXT N: STOP: REM ASSIGN THE STRING TO THE ARRAY AND KILL THE STRING 1040 REM PUT POKES FOR NORMAL DOS HERE 1050 RETURN The above program is a subroutine and has the advantage that no "ONERR" statement is needed. Although many strings may be created during execution the routine exits with the bottom of string storage no lower than when it was entered and consequently no nearer garbage collection. Exec Tip by Martin Rogers In my previous article, BE AN APPLE EXECUTIVE, | promised you more applications for the EXEC command. Here is a useful patch which will allow you to use the Apple to carry out those tedious Decimal/Hex and Hex/Decimal conversions. Save the following code in a text file called DECHEX and then EXEC the file intomemory. To carry out the conversion, enter &NNNN for Decimal to Hex or &SNNNN for Hex to Decimal. (NNNN represents the number to be converted!) CALL -151 3F5: 4C 00 03 300:C9 24 DO 28 AO FF C8 20 BI 00 FO 03 18 69 80 99 00 02 DO F2 20C7 FF 20 A7 FF A6é 36 A5 3F CO 03 BO 07 CO O1 DO 03 8A A2 00 4C 24 ED 20 7B DD 20 52 £7 A6 50 A5 51 4C 41 FO 3D0G HOME:VTABS:HTABI:2"&SNNNN FOR HEX TO DEC":?"&NNNN FOR DEC TO HEX":VTAB21: HTABI11:?"An M.C.R. Utility" Watch this space for more exciting utilities! Even better, write in with any that you have developed which you would like to share with BASUG members. Prrrrertierrtiiteriirctit itt tettert ttt) Note: Windfall are changing their name to Apple User in January. Deceinber 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Syste:ns User Group Page 27 Book Reviews Programming Title The Elementary Apple Author William B. Sanders Publisher Prentice Hall Price £12.70 Reviewer John Rogers Probably most of you out there know your way around the Apple BASIC Applesoft. This means that this book is a little late for you and most of the Apple buying public. This is a real pity because the book is just what the title implies, an elementary introduction to the Apple and more specifically Applesoft. It does not cover Integer BASIC, which is a shame. The style of presentation is of the humourous kind. This may put some off but I did not find it intrusive, in fact I found it quite agreeable and even amusing! Let's face it, computing is supposed to be fun(!?). The size of the book makes it handy (slightly larger than Hardcore), and using the spiral type binding allows it to lay flat, very useful if you are trying to type in one of the many examples. The author assumes nothing apart from a 48K system with disk drive, although there is a section on tape use, You will find it advisable to start at the beginning and READ through, doing the examples as you progress. | say this because many people (myself a prime culprit) think that they know the first half and begin in the middle, using it more like a dictionary. This they can do, but they are likely to miss the odd gem. Did you know that the comma inCATALOG, D1 is unnecessary? One of the two major criticisms of computer books that frequently come up is that the examples given are pitted with bugs, usually printing goofs, which can be very confusing to novice or expert alike! From the examples that I tried, this book appears free from such problems, The other criticism is the incomplete or lack of index. The book is fairly good but see my comments on the graphics. In addition to the index, a glossary of all Applesoft commands with examples is provided, e.g. DEF FN( ) - defines substitute function for real value DEF FN A(X) = X *X PRINT FN A(4) (Result = 16) Most beginners books have a very heavy bias towards the use of graphics. This book does not suffer from this; it is very balanced in the examples given. Although there is a chapter devoted to graphics where Hi-res and Low-res are looked at, the only mention of shape tables is that they exist and DRAW, XDRAW and ROT are the commands to use them. The book recommends that you buy a graphics package if you wish to use them - there may be some value in that approach, but to leave them out completely is a mistake because shape tables are as much a part of the Applesott command set as PEEK and POKE, referred to extensively. Something that I have rarely seen in other computer books are the contents of the last two chapters. The penaltimate chapter is entitled ‘You and Your Printer’, It is a very useful interface between the PR#l of the Apple manual and your all Greek printer manual (surely all ~— Japanese?), = The Centronics 737, Epson MX80 and Starwriter F10 are specifically mentioned. The last chapter deals with other general help and starts by telling you about the importance of user groups, quote ‘the best thing since sliced silicon! What a pity it is an American book, maybe we can persuade Prentice Hall to print our address along side that of the I.A.C. Finally a brief description of some useful software is given, e.g. DOS Toolkit, Wordstar. Some of the hardware add-ons are probably not available this side of the 'Pond', Perhaps there should be a Furopean version of this book to go with the Euro-Apple. To obtain the views of someone new to computing, I gave the book to my father to cast his eyes over. He liked the overall presentation and the glossary of commands, and was even able to put up with the style of writing, but felt the cartoons were a little unnecessary. I agree, in fact the drawing talents of the author could have been better spent. on more useful illustrations for the commands and examples! When I informed him of the price of the book, his comments were not exactly complimentary! For an introductory book to be sold for £12.70 is a little excessive. The Page 28 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group December 1983 suggestion was made that such a book should given away with the machine. It could replace the current Applesoft manual, leaving the more technical aspects to the other Apple reference manuals. In conclusion then, a well thought out book that would aid the complete novice or someone who knows the basics of computing, maybe from another machine. Unfortunately to the people at whom it is aimed, it may seem a bit too pricey. Programming the Apple - a structured approach J. L. Campbell & Lance Zimmerman Published by Prentice/Hall Price: £16.95 reviewed by Yvette Raikes "Books about programming are a dime a dozen, yet most of them are not helptul to someone who has no computer knowledge or who knows nothing about programming. This book teaches a method of programming". This quote trom the toreword intrigued me. | was certainly more interested in learning to Program than learning to "code", so I turned over and continued but not in comfort. The book was produced on Applewriter Jf with the built-in fill-justify and no attempt to compensate for the worst examples of this. As many of you will know, this is not very satistactory and 1 actually found it hard work just to scan correctly from one line to the next. The diagrams would have been much better properly drawn rather than relying on the character set from the word processor, there was also a very obvious "paste-in" and some of the programming examples were in the wrong place and therefore wrongly labelled. To add to this, there were numerous spelling mistakes, the grammar was bad and the style was apalling. These, plus the fact that the book is american, made reading irritating and explanations often ended up making things more obscure, e.g. "The more Sophisticated of which use the high- resolution graphics capabilities because the resolution capabilities allows for greater detail in picture presentation." This example was a complete sentence and the errors are all theirs. It is difficult to believe that this book has ever been proof-read by anyone, other than the authors. To return to the content, the book has 436 pages plus 67 pages of appendices, a glossary and a bibliography. It has 12 Chapters, each beginning with a quote and ending with a summary and a set of questions. The quotes are good and the questions are designed to see if you have understood what you have read. You are expected to re-read the chapter to see if your answers were correct or not. The humourous "note" at the end of the questions becomes irritating after the first couple of chapters and generally isn't very amusing anyway. The first chapter is a history of largely disconnected facts, not only boring but often irrelevant and/or incomplete. It says that things happened but not why. The second chapter deals with "fundamentals". There is little or no explanation of technical terms which is confusing for a beginner. The glossary is not very extensive and in many cases the definitions given are poor. The reader is often treated condescendingly, "If you choose not to obey the General Orders, you are not allowed to continue with this book". The next chapter continues with program development. There is a lot of referencing back and forwards and | found it difficult to have the book open at two places at once! Although a beginner, 1 had the benefit of the experience of an Applesoft user to refer To, but some of the section on interfacing is definitely not for beginners. In any case it is not clearly explained and contains errors, many of which are actually misleading. Besides being inaccurate, most of this section is irrelevant to programming and would have been better omitted or in an appendix. The fourth chapter goes into still more irrelevant depth. A skeleton program is discussed but not enough detail is given. Most of the comment on testing and errors is sound but it would be better with more examples. There are good explanations and examples of sorts and searches but the chapter is marred by the fact that s 1 and an 1 are printed identically in examples making them unnecessarily confusing. December 1983 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 29 The chapter on operating systems gives a fair introduction to DOS but it gets needlessly technical and again there appear to be some inaccuracies. If you initialised a diskette by their method, you would have problems if you had a ramcard, There is also no explanation of syntax so the use of Ctrl D for DOS is never even mentioned. Also there is no mention of how slow some of the processes are. It is worrying to a beginner if the disk drive starts and stops. It really doesn't help to build up confidence to try file handling and could put someone off completely. In contrast, other chapters go into over lengthy details. There are three paragraphs on why low resolution graphics are so called, There is a good section on documentation and then on to some code. The given programs are not terribly exciting but the purpose of them is to give practise in understanding code. In that they are successtul, if the reader has the patience to plough through them all. Then a package is used to demonstrate how it was designed, programmed, tested and documented. Unfortunately they used one of their own commercial packages which was far too long to be a reasonable example and, by their own admission, still contains some errors! Who is likely to read through 117 pages consisting of exceedingly unexciting coding plus a manual, with only sparse commentary? Frankly, a small custom-made system with two simple connected programs would have been far more suitable. The appendices follow including the syntax of the commands, which need far more explanation, The part on error messages is quite good but the one on 2 is not so hot. Although the approach was an interesting one, an integral part of programming is the actual coding. There is no point in completely ignoring syntax and explanations of how commands can vary. | still don't feel properly equipped to write my own programs. 1 ended up feeling that the authors wrote the book because they wanted to show off, I wasn't impressed. Intermediate Level Apple Il Handbook Author: David L. Heiserman Price: £14.40 Published by Prentice-Hall International Reviewed by Yvette Raikes Here is a book that leads you from writing simple Basic programs further along the path to the more complicated stuff! It shows you how to print to the screen in different formats, how to use pecks, pokes and calls, etc. Just what I was looking for or so I thought, but what a disappointment! The examples and demonstrations are worked around ROM-based Integer Basic and cassette. It even includes a chapter on the mini-assembler, Very few people are using that now. I went back and checked the date of publication - July 1983 - yes, this book was written several years too late. What a tragedy! The actual book is easily handled, being spirally bound AS. The quality of writing is excellent. The script asks pertinent questions that make you think, has good explanations and clear, _ precise examples. There were a couple of typing errors but the general presentation was very good. Other topics covered included playing about with lo- and hi-res graphics, an introduction to using _ machine-language routines and discussion of the memory. Please, Prentice-Hall, could you persuade Mr. Heiserman to write an updated version of this book for Applesoft Basic and disks? 1, and many others, would be most grateful. BARGAIN ** NEW *® Apple Disk Drive + Controller Card Only £200 Ring Roger Garner on ij/pii/ qld Page 30 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group December 1983 U ‘ LOOK! ... 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CARD AVAILABLE | jet_ VAT TOTAL smends incloving the ae een meee —— * The card cames complete with Cc ~ _ 0 des 2 comprehensive users manual. ie ~ ree * Totally compatible with Apple plus. and Apple //e. it = SNES RANE E SS FACE SONNE SUPE LSS LTE ta County Page 32 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group December 1983 WPL APPLE WRITER Il WORD PROCESSING LANGUAGE by Richard Teed. Many people have acquired Applewriter II and seem keen to learn the mysteries of Word Processing Language (WPL) but are put off partly by the manual, partly by not feeling that their programming is up to it anyway and partly by the difficulty of converting a concept into WPL. It is very clear that, when writing Apple- writer Il, Mr. Lutus was desperately short of memory and therefore had to make certain sacrifices. This has resulted in a fairly instruction set for WPL. Most but 2 commands may be used. When thinking of a use for WPL it is important to remember that it is not well suited to dealing with a file on a line by line basis: it r