Hardcore Volume 4 No. 4 1984 08 BASUG GB

hard core THE JOURNAL OF THE BAITISH APPLE SYSTEMS USER GROUP August 1984 £1 VOLUME 4 No. 4 Page 2 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Augus Aa1) HEMEL HEMPSTEAD. Tae HOW -O FIN iadi2) === Lux —*Compute> Services | ‘r| COLONIAL WAY, WATFORD, HERTS. Wio2 4.4 | (Fst gate or Litom Radlett Road) | TEL: WATFORD (0923) 7367 LC Call in now for a Macintosh demonstration BASF DISKS - ‘eS @ - 4 - individually numbered 5.25" single sided, {A specist purpose language for multiple ‘ : choice teste and quizzes, questionnaires and single density Computer aided learning (CAL) - £50 + VAT - suitable Apple 1[,//e & /// MCKIE progam van be woitten by prot wit 9 - box contains 10 disks je to master AS ot Cases 1 BOX £ 15.50 NO 10 BOXES £140.00 EXTRAS solutely Necessary about computers and computer WE PAY VAT, POSTAGE & PACKING languages ——$—. # Onginally daveloped for medical history taking Send order & remittance to: Ted in hospital, schools end San eee enero SYSTEMICS LIMITED, Pian Comeny ur oe ton oe onigone: Crore 21-23 THE BRIDGE Fecal Oboe Ae eee ate ioe HARROW The Making of the Micro) MIDDLESEX HA3 5AG 01 863 0079 Full Apple implementation trom SYSTEMICS LIMITED 21-23, The Bridge, Harrow, Middiesex HAI BAG aor 003 0078 [ae ee Access & Barclaycard accepted es ~— amar of tne nations Prrvce! aturtery ES August 1984 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-profit-making company limited by guarantee. Basug Committee Bob Raikes Chairman Norah Arnold Secretary Roger Gear-Evans Treasurer Graham Attwood Software Library Richard Beck Courses Richard Boyd Mectings, Loca! Groups KeithChamberlain Membership Tony Game Press Officer Roger Harris Jim Panks Quentin Reidford John Rogers Peter Trinder EwenWannop Literature Library Software Library Bulletin Board Special Release Software Updates Prestel FranTeo Administrator Yvette Raikes Hardcore Editor Jen Bettle Tony Game Peter Blair & Jim Panks Assistants HOC U EOC UCSC U EEUU UU U UE EEUU EEO REDE BASUG Telephone No.: Bracknell |(iiit#)) 447118 Please note: This number is administration ONLY. Bulletin Boards ({ji#) aint Founder members of Computer Clubs, the Association of fare copyright of the British Apple Systems ser Group and /or the respective authors. jlowever permission will normally be granted for non-commercial reproduction by user Rroups affiliated to the International Apple| ore, provided the author and source are Properly credited, [The opinions and views expressed are those lof the various contributors, and are not Necessarily supported by the British Apple Systems User Group. CONTENTS 4 Editorial Chairman's Corner 5 Minutes of the AGM 8 Boole Rules - OK? 11 Competition Roger Mather Richard Teed The Rest of the Press Tony Game 12 Special Release Software John Rogers 14 Bulletin Board Update Quentin Reidford 16 Printer Card Survey 18 Exhibitions 20 Macintosh Alarm Clock 22 Mac Notes 23 Word Wrap 24 Book Reviews 33 Education 35 Local Groups 36 Ramdrive //e Review 40 Course Review 41 Multi-switched Inputs 42 Beginners’ Pages 45 Prestel Software Review 48 Repairing your J{+ Keyboard Roger Harris Bob Raikes Tom Warrick Tom Warrick Tony Game Norah Arnold Graham Ashdowne Or. John Marr John Sharp Tony Game 50 Printer Glossary 53 Readers’ Letters $8 Diary INTERNATIONAL = APPLE CORE =— 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: Produced by John Sharp of Epson UK on the new Epson HI-80 Plotter duc to be released in September. Page # HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 Editorial 1 am pleased to be able to put out a bumper issue this time. Unfortunately, the article ‘on Expert Systems has had to be delayed until the next issue, but I hope there is enough here to keep you interested. Many thanks to those who contributed to our Printer Card Survey. I hope this will help those trying to decide the card for them, There are several areas where articles would be especially welcome. As you can see from the letters pages, linking to the BBC machine is one of these. I would also like to see more on utilities. Besides reviews, it would be usetul if someone could write on why we want utilities, the uses to which they are put or even uses to which they could be put if only someone would program them! Again from our letters you can see a request for games reviews to help people avoid buying expensive games which are not particularly good. 1 am not looking for long screeds, only a short paragraph on what sort of game it is and whether it is value tor money. Basically, for utilities and games it is the user viewpoint | am looking for. This is after all a User Group. Let us exchange information. You can never guess what you have to tell that someone else wants to hear, or what someone else may be able to tell you. Paul Hartley from Merseyside has asked why we have no FORTH SIG. Good question. Finally, thank you for all the offers to review hardware and interfacing books. All the ones I had have now been distributed but I will be keeping all your names on file for the next batch that come in. If you offered help but no longer wish to or have the time to review just let me know so that 1 can cross your name off the list. Lonely Apples Mr. Jose Richter would like to contact Apple users in the Bilbao area of Spain, His address ist Chairman's Corner As you will see, this is another Bumper issue of Hardcore, the second in the last 9 months. Thanks to all those who have contributed. It would be nice to have a large issue every time, One of the limits on the magazine — is availability of advertising, so please patronise our advertisers, and when you buy from them, please make sure that you mention Hardcore. a Since the fast issue we have held the AGM. Despite some problems with noisy phone lines and being let down by a number of people who had promised to bring equipment, there was a lively atmosphere, and a very good turn out. Thanks to all those who came, especially those trom as far as Bristol and Glasgow. We have a pair of glasses that someone left, contact Fran if you are the owner, There was an amazing response to our plea for help on the committee, and 1 welcome a number of new (and used!) faces. We say goodbye to David Bolton, one of the founder members ot BASUG, who did not stand again. The new committee has already made a good start in continuing the process of improving the services to members. We expect great things from the new Software group. We have had a great response to our request for volunteers to help get the software library up to date, We are starting a database of volunteers so if you would like to yolunteer to help in some way, let us know your level of expertise and if you have any specialist knowledge. Beginners are also welcome. In September (12th-16th) we will be exhibiting at the PCW Show. If you can help man our stand please get in touch. (Having an exhibitors pass saves hours in the queue) It's. great fun and only enormously exhausting. If you can help for a couple of hours or more, we would be very grateful. We now have our first Macintosh users in BASUG, and our first article on Macintosh in Hardcore. We will be relying on those who have Macs to let us know the pros and cons of the machine and its quirks, it's bound to have some, We have already heard, tor example, that the newly released Microsoft Basic does not support a number of Mac instructions, including the, one, that ejects a disk, This means that with 4 Basic program you have to keep your program and data on ‘one disk, As new idiosyncracies come to light, please let us know- August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 5 AGmM Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of BASUG Ltd. held at the Central Institute, Longford St., London on Sat. 16th June 1984. The meeting was opened by Bob Raikes, chairman of BASUG Ltd., at 3.03 pm. Approx- imately sixty members were in attendance in- cluding 8 members of the outgoing committee. 1. No apologies for absence were received. 2, Frank Everett proposed and Martin Rogers seconded that the minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting held on Saturday 2nd July 1983 be taken as read. This was carried unanimously. 3, There were no matters arising. 4, Chairman's Report. The chairman began by pointing out that members now had a new freedom of access to the committee and this had led to improved relationships and the discovery of new sources of expertise among the membership. The creation of the technical hotline organised by Martin Rogers had been a great success judging by the number of members making use of it day by day. The chairman thanked all those who had helped with the hotline, Another new enterprise begun during the year was the bulletin board run by Quentin Reidford. This reflected the growing interest in communications, Thanks were expressed to Quentin for the hard work involved in getting the bulletin board started. It was hoped that other bulletin boards would be started so that more members could reach the board by a local telephone call. BASUG Special Release software, available to members, had created a new avenue through which members could market their own software. The quality of the programs was excellent. Ewen Wannop's Prestel software was mentioned. Hardcore had flourished during the year. All issues had reached the printer on time. This represented a great effort on the part of those concerned. BASUG now had 50% more members than at the last AGM, The steady growth of membership was due to better administration by Fran Teo and a great effort on renewals by Keith Chamberlain. The representation of BASUG on Prestel and courses for members were two areas where improvements could be made. The South West London local group had ended but it was hoped to start a new group in Central London. The chairman welcomed a new group, Mid-Apple. During this year it had become evident that the software library needed updating and that this was too much work for one person. Twenty seven people had now volunteered their assistance to Jim Panks and the software library catalogue was due for renewal. BASUG now had a Macintosh introductory disk donated by Apple UK. Help was requested for the coming PCW show. Thanks were expressed to the exhibitions organiser for his help. John Wellsman had left the committee during the year. Tony Williams had also left but was helping at Earls Court so that others could attend the AGM. David Bolton was not standing for re-election, The chairman described the part David had played as a founder member of BASUG and the hard work he had put in during the carly days, particularly as editor of Hardcore. The chairman expressed his thanks to the outgoing committee. 5. Secretary's Report. The secretary reported that BASUG had maintained a successful presence at several computer shows including PCW, The Apple Village at Ashford, the North West Computer Show, the London Computer Fair, the Midland Computer Fair, Apple '84 and the Earls Court show now on, The secretary thanked those helping with shows. Several successful courses had been held during the year including beginners and advanced Visicalc courses given by Fran Teo, a Wordstar course by Bob Mould and a course ‘on dBase II by Martin Rogers. National meetings had been held in South London, Liverpool (communications), Maidstone (databases), Cambridge, Bristol, Milton Keynes and Hatfield. At the last AGM the secretary had reported Page 6 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 an improvement in the attitude of Apple UK towards BASUG. This improvement had continued throughout the year, thanks mainly to Steve Holmes of Apple UK. The success of the Hatfield meeting was due to Apple gencrously supplying two Lisas, three Macintoshes and a //e and [+ fitted with the Mouse Il, An Apple I+ had been given to BASUG by Apple UK for use on the bulletin board. They had provided publicity material for shows and had cooperated in publicising BASUG to new owners of Apple products. Most important of all, Apple UK had become more accessible to BASUG which could only be a good thing for the membership in general. 6. Treasurer's Report. The treasurer drew the attention of those Present to the accounts published in update no. 19, to the deficit of almost £8000 and the accumulated deficit of £4000. As a result of a query trom the floor, the chairman explained that consultants fees were payments for work done by various people prior to June 1983. The auditors had done the best they could with the figures available. Seth Proctor asked whether a full year's figures would be available for the next AGM. This depended on the date of the AGM. Frank Everett asked the treasurer if he could say how BASUG's finances stood at the present. The treasurer stated that, in his opinion, at the end of June 1984 BASUG would be in a loss position, the amount of which could only be estimated but which again may be around £4000, Obviously we could not continue in this way. In response to a query the treasurer explained that the money that BASUG owed was money owed to members who had paid th subscriptions and not yet received all the services due to them, e.g. Hardcore. Alick Elithorn asked if the treasurer could say where the loss was occurring and how it was subdivided, The treasurer explained that BASUG did not have that kind of financial control during the period before June 1983. Alick Elithorn suggested that the level of renewals would act as a measure of dissatisfaction and the chairman stated that renewals were cunning at 70% in recent months. The treasurer pointed out that those members not using the hotline, bulletin board and administration probably did not get back all their subscription in services, but those using the facilities and frequently ringing for advice obviously gor back more than their subscription was worth. Ray Harris requested that in future auditors reports a note be included on consultants fees, The treasurer replied that although this was not a statutory requirement it could be arranged if required. It was agreed that in future, consultants fees would he itemised in a note to the accounts. John Rogers pointed out that BASUG was trying to provide a service, not to make a profit. The aim was to ‘break even. A discussion was held between the treasurer and Alick Elithorn on the pricing of various items. 7. Adoption of Accounts. Peter Trinder proposed the adoption of the accounts. John Dolan seconded. This was carried unanimously. * The outgoing committee resigned at this point. 8. Election of officers. Bob Raikes announced that one nomination had been received for each of the positions of Chairman, Secretary and —‘Treasurer respectively. Eleven nominations had been received for the committee. Norah Arnold was asked to read out the nominations, They were as follows:- Chairman Bob Raikes. Secretary Norah Arnold. Treasurer Roger Gear-Evans. Committee John Rogers, Keith Chamberlain, Jim Panks, Quentin Reidtord, Tony Game, Ewen Wannop, Richard Boyd, Richard Beck, Peter Trinder, Roger Harris, Graham Attwood. Fran Teo proposed the acceptance of the nominations ‘en bloc'. This was seconded by Graham Wood and passed unanimously. 9. Appointment of Auditors. Fran Teo stated that a member's wife had said that she was willing to be the auditor. The treasurer and the administrator both wished to keep the same auditors for the sake of continuity. Graham Wood enquired as to whether the auditor's fees were reasonable and the treasurer replied that future fees August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 7 should be less since the information would be presented to the auditors in better order. Mike Jones proposed that BASUG kept the same auditors for a further year. This was seconded by Martin Rogers and passed unanimously. 10, Subscription Proposal. The chairman reminded those present of the state of the accounts and pointed out that many large firms who were members could afford to pay more. Firms sending people on Visicale courses saved about £75 a day. The chairman read a letter trom Gerry Corti who wished to amend the proposal as Published in update no. 18 as follows:- "A business member shall be defined as a person or firm which sells the output (in whatever form) of their computer, or which charges for the time employed at the computer, or for preparing computer inputs and outputs". No seconder had been found and Mr. Corti now wished to withdraw the amendment. The chairman explained that it was not intended to distinguish between personal and business/educational use in the way Mr. Corti had done. The intention was to distinguish by the method of payment i.e. if a business cheque was submitted and/or a VAT invoice required, then the business category would be assumed; if a personal cheque was submitted then the personal subscription would be charged. The treasurer pointed out that in the case of small businesses, it would be up to the consciences of those concerned. If the subscription was claimed as an expense on Inland Revenue returns, then it should be paid as for a business member. John Rogers described himself. as a self-employed computer user and a member of the Sirius user group. He stated that the Sirius group offer fewer services to members but charge a much higher subscription and higher course fees. Some discussion then took place as to the nature of educational use. David Moore proposed an amendment to the original Proposal:- "that business/educational should be changed to business/institutional", This was seconded by Seth Proctor. The amendment was passed. Alick Elithorn proposed a change in the business/institutional subscription but no change in found. the personal, No seconder was David Wood proposed that the amended proposal be accepted: i.e. "that the subscription should be changed from the Ist September 1984. There will be two classes of membership _- personal and _business/ institutional. The revised amounts being:~ Renewal New Member Personal £15 £ 20 Business/Institutional — L 25 L 30", The seconder was John Dolan. The proposal was carried, The treasurer stated that in his opinion it was difficult to assess the right amount to charge businesses such as Abbey National and Ford's and he proposed that for each additional membership required, businesses be charged an appropriate rate at the discretion of the committee. This was seconded by Graham Wood. The proposal was carried. 11, Any _other_business. a. Charitable status and covenants. W. Marks raised the question of whether BASUG members could raise more money by covenanting their subscriptions. The chairman replied that BASUG did not qualify for charitable status. b. Marketing. Richard Boyd raised the question of the marketing of BASUG disks etc. and offered help in this area. The chairman stated that selling to non-members would lose BASUG tax advantages enjoyed at present. Martin Rogers, Peter Trinder and Mike Salem offered Suggestions to improve revenue. c. Editor of Hardcore. Ray Harris proposed a vote of thanks to the editor of Hardcore, 4. The outgoing commit: Peter Trinder proposed a vote of thanks to the outgoing committee, seconded by John Dolan. The meeting closed at 4.35 pm. Page $ HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 Boole Rules - OK? by Roger Mather Our four friendly binary operators, plus, minus, multiply and divide are so called because they operate on two numbers (binary means two) to give one number. The problems arise when they are combined together. e.g. calculate 4+8x3.... is the answer 36 or 28? It depends on whether you do the + or the x first. Those of you who are good at sums will have got the answer right. It's 28 because the x is more powerful than the +. The sum really means 4 plus 8 lots of 3, Those of us who aren't good at sums have problems, particularly if it's something like 14-843 - is the answer 3 or 9? Brackets help because they mean "do me first" so (14-8)+3 is easy. Learning and using the rules of number combination cause untold misery to maths students, Our friendly Apple computer uses the same rules. PRINT 4+8%3 PRINT 4+(8*3) gives 24 gives 24 (the rules are the same; the multiply and divide symbols are different). Why not try PRINT 4*8/2 PRINT 4/8*2 PRINT 4*(8/2) and so on, shifting the brackets round? The answer may not always be what you expect but the basic rule is clear; brackets are always worked out first and avoid a lot of confusion, WHAT ABOUT MR.BOOLE? Mr.Boole was a gentleman with a very pronounced idea of right and wrong; things were true or false, no other choice, no maybes, no ifs or buts. Imagine a truth tester, a black box into which you can shout a statement like "BOB LIKES BLUE SPAGHETTI". The machine considers this and then holds up cither T for true or F for false - and nothing else. Simple, too simple for Mr.Boole, his truth tester gives 1 instead of T and 0 instead of F. The Apple acts like a Boolean truth tester. It really prefers to combine numbers together mathematically but if it can't do that, it's second preference is to pontificate on truth and falsehood. Of course it won't tell you its conclusion unless you ask it to. PRINT 2:2 means “test the statement 2=2 and tell us whether it is true or false", so the answer comes back "I", PRINT 2=3 will give 0. PRINT "BASUG"="BASUG" will give 1. We're not using the Apple in program mode but directly, of course. Question:- Truth testing can be used in programs. Suppose the value of A has to depend on the value of B; A is 4,15,34 when B is 1,2,3 respectively. You can do this with 100 IF B = 1 THEN A = 4 110 IF B = 2 THEN A = 15 120 IF B = 3 THEN A = 34 OR 100 A = 4*(B=1) + 15*(B=2) + 34*(B=3) to understand the single line effect, remember that brackets mean ‘do me first’ and that if the Apple can't work something out it treats it as a truth statement to be tested. If B=1 then only the first bracket is true, and this takes the value 1, the other two brackets become 0, we have 100 A = 4*1 + 15*0 + 34*0, which gives A=4 The IF....THEN statements themselves in the first program are also truth statements to be tested, if the statement is true, it takes the value | and the line proceeds, if false the value 0 stops the line. A truth value of 1 allows the line to continue, a value of 0 doesn't. Understanding this point explains why a line like 240 IF H THEN CS = "TRUE" works. If H already has a value 0 the line doesn't proceed, if it has a value of I then the line does proceed. Try this- 10 INPUT H 20 IF H THEN PRINT "TRUE FOR H = "; GOTO 40 30 PRINT "FALSE FOR H = 40 GOTO 10 "SH August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 9 ELITE SOFTWARE COMPANY. S-C Macro Assembler: Full macro assembler with 1U0 page manual. Operates in any II or //e. Source files may be in core or on disc. Object files may be assembled directly to memory, or to disc. Can read or write standard text files. Editor and assembler are co-resident, all Apple DOS and monitor commands are available. Price £60.00 + VAT. Appli-Kit: Applesoft utility. Appli+<it is a package designed to aid the writing and debugging of Applesoft Basic programs. All commands are typed in as if they are part of the standard Applesoft set. Price £25.00 + VAT. Wildcard: plugs into any slot and copies the program in core onto a standard DOS disc. Copies 48K core resident programs. No parameter list needed. Copies most programs requiring RAM card. Copies made with the Wildcard can be copied with standard copy programs. Copies even the bit copiers. Works with any RAM card - plugs into any slot. Price £80.00 + VAT. ( Now works with //e.) Wild-Word: a 40 column word processor for the Il or //e. True SHIFT key operation. Built-in mailing list and merge. Core-resident. Price £35.00 + VAT. Format-80; 80 column word processor for II and //e. What you see is what you get. Editing and formatting achieved with single keystrokes. Supports all Apple compatible printers. Mailing list and merge feature. Core-resident. Price £129.00 + VAT. Ramview: 80 column board for the //e, upgradeable to 64K. Price £80.00 + VAT. All Elite Software Company products are not copy protected. Elite Software Company, 30 Guildford Street, Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 9PQ Tel: 09328 67839 Page 10 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 By putting various values for H you can test which values pass the truth test and which fail. (Use reset to jump out of the program). The answer may not be quite what you expect. Truth tests can be combined eg. "If it's raining, or it's a Thursday, or I had prunes for breakfast, | will not go out today". They are combined using the two words "AND" & "OR". AND is simple - both statements must be true to continue e.g. if the sun shines and you're ready before 10 o'clock, we will go out. OR is used in two ways. Either ONE and only one of the statements must be true (called exclusive OR); or one or both can be true (inclusive OR). In truth tests the inclusive OR is the one used by Apple basic. The rules can be summarized:- AND true AND true = true true AND false= false false AND true = false false AND false= false incOR true OR true = true true OR false= true false OR true = true false OR talse= false remembering that true is | and false is 0 LAND L=L IORI «1 1ANDO0=0 1ORO0=1 OAND IL-0 OORI=1 OANDO=0 OORO-0 These are some of THE RULES OF BOOLEAN LOGIC! Expressed in the numerical way they are helpful in the machine code manipulation of binary numbers. ‘There are other operators called NAND & NOR, which are the opposites of AND & OR but they are not used in Applesoft so we can (thanktully) ignore them. Combining AND & OR together is rather like using MULTIPLY and PLUS in sums, you have to remember which is more powerful, or use brackets (safer). In fact AND is more powerful than OR e.g. in a program we could have 20 IF A= 4 AND B= ORC = 6 THEN PRINT "BOOLE WINS" If A = 4 and B = 5 (both these must happen together) then BOOLE WINS is printed, whatéver the value of C. If C = 6 then BOOLE WINS is printed, whatever the values of A and B, Convince yourself with this program. 10 INPUT A,B,C 20 IF A = 4 AND B = 5ORC = 6 THEN PRINT "BOOLE WINS" 30 GOTO 10 It's clearer with brackets, 20 IF (A=4 AND B = 5)OR C = 6 THEN PRINT "BOOLE WINS" is the same as before because AND is done before OR anyway, but 20 IF A= 4 AND (8 - SORC = 6) THEN PRINT “BOOLE WINS" is very different - go on try no-one's looking. it and see, One other word - NOT, reverses a test. Putting 20 IF A = 4 AND NOTB = 5ORC = 6 THEN PRINT "BOOLE WINS" means that instead of B having to be 5, now the value 5 is forbidden, B can be anything that's not 5. If you worked through the program with H above, you will have found that the Apple treats any non-zero number as 1 in a truth test, so we can use AND & OR in mathematical computations 50 PRINT 4+ 5 AND 2 gives 1. The Apple works out the + first giving 9, then 9 AND 2 is interpreted as TRUE AND TRUE giving TRUE or a value of |. The order for working out expressions is given in the Applesoft manual page 36. The really enterprising programmer will litter his lines with vast quantities of ANDs & ORs to make his scheming incomprehensible to all but the most patient Boole buffs. Sorting out a line like 235 IF SC% = 12 AND AS(13) = "CHRISTMAS" OR HY% = 0.8 OR ((PS = "XXX" AND ZS = "42.3") OR TY% = 4) THEN GOTO 235 is really a matter of patient endeavour and black coffee, once you understand the basic RULES OF BOOLE. August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 11 Competition by Richard Teed Here is the full the BASUG competition of why story for 100 GET A$ 110 PRINT VAL (A$) gives a value of IIIIIIIIIIIIIII1 (or would if it had sufficient precision, it therefore gives L.IIIII1E16 instead) when a one is pressed. As (I am glad to say) your winner points out the error is due to string storage starting at location $BFFF. Moving it down a single byte is sufficient to correct the problem. One puzzle is however: why does it work with "INPUT"? If you examine memory after execution with "GET" and then with "INPUT" you will find it identical with the strings in the same place and their descriptors the same, The reason for the different answers hinges ‘on locations $C000 to $COUF. As you probably know $C000 is the keyboard input port, any key pressed appears here. Also it seems that memory locations $CO01 to $COOF also contain the ASCII of the last key pressed. Now "VAL" takes the location at the end of the string plus one (in the competition program this is $C000) and saves it. It then replaces this location by a terminator ($00) but in this case it can't because you cannot write to location $C000 so after the "GET" it will still contain a value of $31. The floating point input routine clears a bufter starting at location $99 and length 16 bytes for a floating point number. The first character of the string is read and converted to a floating point number, Next the second character of the string is read. This should be a terminator but is a $31 in this case and so combining it with the number already in the floating point accumulator we have an answer of 11, The next time round we have a result of 111. The floating point input routine continues this way until either a terminator is read or sixteen characters have been read in and so this accounts for the result of IITIIIIINIIIIIII, With "INPUT", in order to terminate the input a <RETURN> must be pressed and this is a valid terminator to the floating point input routine, so after reading the $31 of the string it picks up a SOD from location $c000 and stops reading numbers, giving a correct answer, As an aside you may be interested to know that because the character after the string is replaced by a $00 while "VAL" and "Floating Point Input" do their bit, pressing Reset at the correct moment will corrupt the string above the one "VAL" is acting on. Probably the best fix to all this is to use "The Rest of the Press by Tony Game I have often thought that the word BASUG, considering its great importance, does not appear early as often as it should in the lesser computing press. | should like to feel that something can be done to put this right. With the advent of the //c large numbers of entirely new owners are likely to appear, whose only interest initially is in running things like APPLEWORKS. I think it essential that these people should see in whatever magazine they happen to pick up, references to our existence, so that they will know that there is more in Apple ownership than the running of a few commercial packages. I obviously can only see a few of the computing mags, but our combined membership must between them see pretty well all that is published. Will any of you who believe that something ought to be done in this respect cither do it yourselves, and let me know that you have done so, or just tell me what it is so that I can write something myself? Perhaps especially the members of SIGS, whose specialised literature 1 am — obviously unlikely to see, can help with this project. 1 feel sure that a great chance exists to raise our membership very considerably by some opportune publicity. Let us all make sure that the chance is not missed. TUE EOE IORI IEE EEE OEE EE DEFINITION wysiwyg = what you see is what you get. Page 12 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 Special Release Software by John Rogers With your magazine you should have received the new BASUG Special Release Software catalogue. There are three additions since the last one, ASE (Applesoft Screen Editor), a full screen editor for Applesoft, the Prestel Driver for use in accessing the Prestel system and thirdly, the only game at the moment, Helicopter Rescue. We are hoping for an Applewriter // pre-boot disk for the Centronics and Epson printers. The BASUG Special Release Software consists of software written by BASUG members that is well tested and documented and does not infringe any existing copyright or licensing agreement. The BASUG Special Release Software is not limited to Apple I+ or similar machines, but Apple CP/M, Apple //c, Apple ///, Macintosh and even Lisal The BASUG Special Release Software will give the author a good return, free adverts in Hardcore, help in producing the manuals, and be of benefit to BASUG and its members, Members who are willing to review any of the software for Hardcore will not only get the credit as usual for the article but will also be able to keep the software that they have reviewed. A number of local groups have taken up my offer of attending one of their meetings with various items for sale, including special release software, disks and back issues of Hardcore. The offer is still open on a one meeting a month, first come first served basis. If anyone out there has software that they feel is good enough - remember that a good manual can make or break software - or if you can review any of the existing programs, or wish to have the special release software and other items on sale at a local meeting, then please contact John Rogers via the PO Box or on 05827-5100. We are always willing to hear your hints and tips for using the special release software, like the one below, so please do not keep them to yourselves, write to Hardcore! Those of you good people with ITT 2020s I have one or two tips for you! 1, A 16K RAM card is required for Business BASIC, Graphic Pad and Helicopter Rescue. 2. Applesoft MUST be loaded into the RAM card for the Graphic Pad and Helicopter Rescue to work. 3. The Helicopter Rescue has a number of little problems because the author has hidden the 'HELLO' program and not called it HELLO! Also he has used Diversi-DOS which also must be loaded for the program to works You have to reveal the hidden program (use Locksmith or similar), then using the arrow keys, BRUN the revealed program (it is called *XHHHHHHHH'- H = Cntrl-H). Steps for getting Helicopter to run :- 1. Boot Helicopter rescue disk. 2, Load Applesoft into RAM card. 3. Brun XHHHHHHHH, 4. All of Ian Trackmans' programs have still got the copy protection on them, therefore you will require a bit copier to make back-up copies. Special Release roo Soft mare sou Applesoft soneen editor 1 = Full screen editor for Applesoft. 1.50 Business BASIC = Enhanced BASIC for business use. Graphics pad "1. ~ii-res drawing aid, many features. icoper rescue 9.95 “‘Helicoper: Landing game. lacking suite 11.50 = Conpresses BASIC programs. Prestel driver %.00 - Prestel viewing program. dit sf SUBRSIE dine editor. Te t SYReplesoft debugging aid. po Supdis. 2"Disassenbler. 11.50 0+ R11 prices include YAT and P&P sue DERING PC2000 A new concept 64K RAM, twin disk drives £795 Complete business system with software, from £1236 reese DERING STEMS =: Unit 22¢é, tow: nbeslcibenilin (oa ae te ae ri ae = fifo) evar ee fe | Phone (0924) 499366, ext. CC | ee / ah hon Telex 83147 VIA OR, Runs BASIC, CP/M. PASCAL Multi-operating systems board RGB, composite monochrome 10 MByte hord — disk available Fully guaranteed Page 14 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 Bulletin Board Update by Quentin Reidford BABBS our Bulletin board has now been running more or less continuously for six months. There have been over 3,000 callers and over 2000 messages posted. Callers have been mainly from the UK but we have also had about a dozen Norwegian, German, Dutch and Finnish callers. For those members without the equipment to access the bulletin board then I should add that the board has a ‘front page’ of general messages and cight sub-groups for special interests, Pascal, sales & wants etc. The main message area is the most heavily used and occasionally there is a sequence of messages which develop between users, for example we had a series of lively discussions on Bell tones and communications software for the Apple, and there are two people who spend a lot of time tapping in screeds of stuff on Pink Floyd! It was always my intention that the bulletin board should be run by BASUG as a free access system, not restricted to our members and not restricted to Apple users although it would appear that the majority are. Although your subscriptions have paid for this free service to anyone with a modem it has meant that BASUG has become much more widely known and in fact there are many new members who only heard of us through ringing up the bulletin board. I am particularly pleased about this as it shows that, contrary to common belief, there are still many people who wish to support the service by joining the group and their support will benefit us all through not only the increased revenue but also the knowledge that many have and are happy to share. The main bulletin board will continue to function in Sheffield as an open system and during this year I know that many more members will manage to scrape together the equipment and join in. The open nature of the board has also caused problems which 1 had under-estimated, and the _ original ability of all new callers to leave ot <P>ost messages has had to be changed. The ‘Wally factor' has caused all kinds of problems, some just operational such as filling up the user log-file with Donald Ducks and the like. Also some enterprising playmate decided to log-on as ‘SYSOP! (the system operators universal name) and as | hadn't thought of that he was accepted and proceeded to leave messages to everyone to do various things all seemingly from me! Recently however some of these antics have become more serious and bounded on the libelous (if that is possible on an electronic message system). To stop this, I have had to introduce a registration system without which a user cannot post any messages at all, except to me on leaving, in which he/she can register. This is still open to anyone regardless of computer persuasion, but unless they leave a sensible name anda telephone number they won't be allowed on, The great pity about this is that the Australians, for instance, who have called, cannot leave a general message to record their expensive ‘phone call and say ‘Hello! It always seems to be the few who spoil things for the majority. However on to other things... I have had fone or two requests from some members who want to run a bulletin board in their area to serve local BASUG members and as the main board is rather stuck together by sticking plaster and brown paper I have been withholding its distribution. Also it needs a lot of disk storage to be viable and most people don't have 1 Megabyte just lying around for that. Enter our trans-Atlantic friends at Washington Apple Pi - their Communications wizard, Tom Warrick, wrote their bulletin board software and judging by my own experiences has made such a thorough job of it he can't have had much sleep for about two years! Anyhow, Tom has made his excellent software available as public domain, which for something that would cost between £80-100 commercially is very generous. At present the software will only work with the Hayes Micromodem and as I have a Taiwanese modem card which in sottware terms ‘looks’ like the Hayes, the software works a treat. I have spent some time modifying this to conform with my own ideas of menu selection, using <P>ost instead of <E>nter for writing messages etc. However the basic essence of Tom's software remains intact (and therefore works!). The beauty of the program is that it will run on a two-drive Apple system, a clock card is a nice but non-essential addition and the only other requirements are an auito-answer modem and a phone line. August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 1> There is now a version available which I have sent for which will allow the software to be used with a serial card, certainly the CCS7710 card and I think the Super Serial card. There are other additions to the software which 1 don't have details of yet but which may include the use of a ram-disk if available. The major difference between the Washington software and ‘Big-BABBS' is that any user must be registered and assigned a password which he uses to log-on instead of the more usual first, last name. In practice this may seem a pest but it makes the messaging and indexing of mail very much easier and compact, and as you can search to see who is on the system file it is quite simple once you use it a couple of times. This all leads to the proposal that BASUG will use this software to create a network of small (MEMBERS ONLY) bulletin boards. These boards can be run by any of our members who are prepared to commit their phone, equipment and time. I hope that we can develop a unique service throughout the country to BASUG members, with perhaps each board having its own theme which would encourage members from other areas ringing more distant boards either to contact a local user or to extract information he knows is likely to be on that particular board. I would ideally wish to distribute a User file to all the SYSOPs which would contain the same USER IDs so that each member would be registered on each board. The user id for each member would be his BASUG membership number preceeded by either BAB or BB, depending on whether his/her number was under or over a thousand, For example member no. 576 would have the ID BAB576 and member no. 1236 would have the ID BBI234. The ID would then have a full stop and a four character password e.g. BABS76.FROG . Any member wishing to register would leave his name and BASUG number along with his desired password in a message to the SYSOP and that would be processed within a day. Here then are the simple rules for any members who want to run one of these regional boards; a) You must be prepared to run the board at regular times either during the day or in the evening or during the night. These times and the 'phone number will be posted in the UPDATES which appear between issues of Hardcore and therefore will not be available for public consumption. There is no requirement to run a board on a 24 hour basis although this would be very desirable. b) You must not run a board based on any undesirable aspects of computing i.e, pirating software. ©) The user log file will be supplied by me although there will be lots of latitude in choosing your own helpers who have access to maintenance bits of the software. d) The MINI-BABBS boards will be run only under the auspices of BASUG and for the benefit of BASUG members. Any SYSOP wishing to allow access to other groups or individuals may do so on a ‘blanket’ basis ise. Washington Apple Pi Users have the overall ID of BABO5O rather than individual IDs for each caller. If members want to run one of these mini-BABBS then please 'phone me on (0742) 661096 - between 8 & 10pm - or leave a private message on the main board to me. Any member with BELL 103 capability can phone (0742) 661096 after MIDNIGHT and try the MINI-BABBS out, also (0225) 742616 again ‘on BELL tones. Remember these are our HOME numbers so don't call (with a modem!) before Midnight or after 8am and if the 'phone rings more than twice something has gone wrong and the board is off-line, so hang up! They will run for a few weeks as an experiment until the serial card version is available and probably after that they may run at different times on CCITT tones. If we can get this facility running then BASUG will be the first user group to have a nationwide network of dial-up _ bulletin boards for its members. Hopetully we will have them from Wick to Plymouth offering interesting topics and local events for any of us to call up and use. I particularly hope that the more Northerly members will participate as there is a distinct lack of support for them at the moment, and this may stimulate interest for those Apple users who feel left out of things at the moment. Page 16 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 Printer Card Survey Thank you to all those who contributed. KEY: Y = yes G = Grappler routine works with this. N = no + = Can be bypassed with two User Defined P = parallel Commands which jump to routines (which S$ = serial you must write the code for) starting B = both at $300 or $0000 in RAM card in slot 0 2 = some success, more work to do - = would be welcomed if available WARE MANUFACTURER T MANOA] PT aed slale} seis Ty CCS 7728 TACIFORNIA COMPUTER SYSTEMS| SO |FATR P W CENTRONICS PRINTER INTERFACE (2) APPLE/EPSON 8132 EPSON GO| INDIFFERENTIPIY|Y|Y|N (3) WESPER WIZARD BPO WESPERCORP USA 120]HAS INFO. Y BUT BADLY PRESENTED (4) ARISTOCARD SIMON COMPUTERS LTD. 80] ADEQUATE Plyiyly|n ly (5) PRINTMASTER DIGITEK 70} BAD PIYIY]Y IN [(6) GRAPPLER PLUS ORANGE MICRO INC., ANAHEIM, |110)GO0D PIYIYIVIN2IN CALIFORNIA, USA (7) CPS MULTIFUNCTION MOUNTAIN COMPUTER 1G0]FAIRLY GOOD|BIN|Y|Y|N JN (8) CW/P SUPER PARALLEL CARD! 72) INDIFFERENTIPIYIYIY|N IN (9) APPLE JC INTERFACE KIT JEPSON 98|BAD Ply NIN TYPE 2. (A) APPLE II AP-PAK MICRO PERIPHERALS INC. 99}GO0D PY 3 4426 S. CENTURY OR., SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84107, USA August 1984 — HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 17 R = rotation # = 90 degrees $ = scaling X = some versions 0 = different densities 1 = 32k I = inverse 2 = buffer add-on & buffered card available M = margins 3 = 2k * = double size 4 = Silentype % = independent.X & Y scaling 5 = Grappler 1 = both pages 6 = Apple Centronics o SCREEN DUMP [UT BAUD RATE: COMMENT: & | TO[S0]LOPAT-RES ay MINT MAX [S = Ty TE Ts not a card supported by the DIVERST-D0S buffer which one member uses, (2) YY IN |Y Printer: Epson FX-80. LCC chip largely overcomes screen dump limitations except 90 degree dumps. CP/M needs patch. (3) Y IN |IRAMI LY Printer: Epson FX-80. Features: extended width listings WITHOUT word splits, sets page lengths, processes mode commands & allows high order bit Output and graphics in Pascal. (4) Y No problems. (5)]G }¥ |X JN | L#*MIDIS. Printers: Epson FX-80 & MX-80 F/T Type III and Shinwa CP-80 type 1. Features: page length, auto line feed, eight bit mode, line length, suppres- sion of syntax error flag, Silentype emulation with Visiplot. No problems, (6)}Y¥+/Y |Y¥ |N |!#$4D JY Printers: Anadex 9000(&A) ,9001(8A),9500(&A) ,9501 (8A) ,9620, Epson MX-80,MX-80 F/T with Graftrax80 or +,MX-100(& with Graftrax+) ,FX-80,RX-80 F/T, NEC 8023 & DMP 85, Apple DMP, C.ITOH 8501A, OKIDATA 82A,83A(+ upgrade) ,92,94,84, Star/Gemini 10/15. Pages 1 & ? can be printed side by side. Colour version for IDS printers. 8th bit output. (7)|N-]N [NIN TN Y | 50]19200 |N|For Pascal/CP/M you need extra set-up disks at £15 each. Clock/calendar & facility to load dev- ice parameters from disk (with battery back-up). Can be used in terminal mode & linked to modem. (8)|G2/¥ JN IN | !#DI* ly Printer: Star 0P510. Card supplied with PROM for Anadex, Epson or Microline printers (Star uses Epson) which can be replaced by RAM with user's routines. 8th bit output, printer bell control. (9) NIN JN JSD Printer: Epson MX-82 type 2. Features: print formatting routine, Prints pages 1 & 2 alongside (A) Y Price includes FONTWRITER disk. Printer: MP1 996 Does not support AW2 conventions. Very reliable. Page 18 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 NAME MANUFACTURER r MANTAL [Pfs] 1c siskhves Sis |ps Fes (B) BLACKBOARD TETCESTER COMPUTER CENTRE ct) PYY|Y|YIN |Y (C) CCS SERIAL 7710A CALIFORNIA COMPUTER SYSTEMS| 99] INDIFFERENT|S|N|Y|/Y|N [N (D) APPLE SUPER SERIAL APPLE. 109}GO0D SIYIYIYIN IN (E) PKASO INTERACTIVE STRUCTURES INC.}130|G00D PIYIYIYIN IN (F) GRAPPLER ORANGE MICRO PLYIYIY)N Exhibitions It is a beautiful Sunday morning with the sun streaming its rays through the window. A cassette on ie tape recorder is quietly playing Bach's 'Air from suite No. 3 in D* and I have to turn my thoughts back to the innumerable, discordant noises and hundreds of queries and questions of a week ago. It is a hard life. Exaggerations, of course, as the two most recent exhibitions have shown. Members who have answered the call for more assistance at the various shows we attend around the country have not only said how much they have enjoyed themselves but have actually returned for more. Apple 84, our most important show of the year, was a great success. In the course of the three days that the show ran, we gained approximately fifty new members who actually signed up at the stand. Hopefully, a number of others who took our application forms away with them to fill in later have also joined our ranks by the time that you read this. Besides signing up new members we were kept extremely busy answering queries and giving advice. It is not until you have ever tried this that you discover how much more you know about the Apple than you could ever have guessed, The show itself appeared to be smaller than the 1983 version but this may have been because the stands were more tightly packed together than they have been in the past: Certainly the quality and the number of products on display had not diminished. Apple UK took pride of place on the stage showing their full range of equipment. This included the new Mac, the Apple //c and a number of software packages for their machines. Appleworks, the integrated Word Processor, Spreadsheet and Database program that the company hope will do for the new range of Apple // systems what Visicalc did for the original Apple [ and X+, was also much in evidence on the stand. Over forty other exhibitors were showing their wares. They included Pete and Pam (now P & P Micro Distributors), Robocom, who were showing the new Bitstik 1500, Dark Star with its new product ‘The Shuttle’ and Keyzone with their new Spectragram RGB card for the T and //e, The company were also showing a colour converter for the Apple //c which, they claim, is the first of its kind on the market. Greengate, a new company, had the Rock/Pop duo 'MAINFRAME! demonstrating the new DS3 digital sound board which was also featured on the Tomorrow's World programme during the evening of the first day of the show and since then on Yorkshire television's 'Me and my Micro’. Symbiotic were also there registering the name of each new visitor to the show on a hard disk via their Symbnet networking system ing Apple //c's. Thirteen lucky names were later selected at random from this database as part of a draw for prizes ranging {rom a complete Apple system to an Apple User sweatshirt. All in all, this was a very pleasant show for those of us on the stand. Not having to August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 19 SCREEN DUMP [rq BAUD RATES BOTLOTHT-RES MINT MAX COMMENTS: ~ByPAs: [C)) VY {Y [WN PRTOMT]S Has “hex mode”. AlTows any ASCIT character to be sent from a text file. Can convert $ to £ automatically. cooly [nu [nw [Nn [in n | 50]19200]N (D)]Y JN IN [NIN Y | 5o/i9z200]y|split baud rates under software control. //c has emulation of serial card built in. (Ed]Y JY IN TY [RSIMD! 6 Printer specific. You must buy the version to match your printer. Lo-res is printed with grey scale. cro] ly Possible fault in CP/M & Pascal compatibility. The Grappler+ allowed CP/M and Pascal to output to printer but reduced 80-col screen to 4 ‘shimmering snowstorm’. The Grappler cleared this but its failure to support 80-col cards can be irritating. suffer the noises of guided missiles and fighter aircraft of Sinclair, Commodore, BBC and Oric nachines. «= was~—greatfully appreciated. Thanks yo to all those members who stopped by to help even for a short time. Unfortunately there is not enough space to mention you all but special thanks go to Mike Dawson and John Rogers who spent a full day on the stand, also to Fran Teo, Peter Trinder and Dick Pilgrim who were at the show for all three days. Dick, who recently arrived back from the Middle East where he and some triends have their own very knowledgeable user group, travelled all the way from Middlesbrough mainly for the exhibition. By contrast, the London Computer Fair at Earls Court in June was very much the noisy, non-Apple event that it always is. Despite the fact that it has grown five or six times the size it was three years ago, the show still looks a little fost within the vastness of the hall that annually plays host to the Ideal Home Exhibition, Only Ozwise Computers of Harrow and Silicon Vatiey of Holborn, London were showing Apple hardware in the torm of Macs and //c's although Dave Tsang of Stack Computers took over a cancelled stand at the last minute and was selling a number of add-ons and manuals for the // series of machines at very low prices indeed. The Boot Out company were one of the few selling Apple software and Saga Systems of Surrey, who were supposed to be showing an Apple compatible keyboard amongst other things, were only able to set up a static display due to pressure of work. Look out for a review of this keyboard in a later issue. ‘One stand that caught the eye of many of the user groups at the show was that of Honeyfold Software. The company were showing their brand new assembly language course for 4 wide range of systems including the Apple. Being sold under the ‘Dr. Watson’ banner, it contains a complete 6502 assembler on disk and a 200 page tutorial for the all-in price ‘of £14.50 A copy of the Apple version has been presented to the group for evaluation and review by Kerr Borlandf the managing director of the company. Thanks are in order to Bob Thong, Mike Dawson (again) and Tony Williams who, despite the Chairman's comments in the last issue, is once again a fully paid up member. Thanks also to Gilbert Waterman and our administrator Fran Teo who both spent three of the four days of the show talking to people about a wide range of subjects and recruiting even more members. If you would like to join the growing number of our members who are finding out how interesting it can be on the other side of the stand then drop us a line or ring Fran on the administration phone number for details, The next two exhibitions this year are The Personal Computer World Show at Olympia London 19th to 23rd September and the Northern Computer Fair at Manchester Z2nd to 2uth November. See you there. Page 20 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 Mac Alarm Macintosh Alarm Clock by Tom Warrick Reprinted by kind permission of Washington Apple Pi (April 1984). One of the more useful features on Apple's new Macintosh computer is an alarm clock. The alarm clock is a "desk accessory" that can be called up for viewing at any time, even during the execution of an application program such as MacWrite or MacPaint. The alarm clock sets up a small window containing the time, and the window can then be moved to an out-of-the-way location on the Macintosh screen (called the "desktop") where it will continue to provide the current time. The alarm clock's utility, however, is diminished by the fact that the alarm feature is not explained in the otherwise excellent Macintosh documentation, In all likelihood, the alarm feature was added at the last minute after the documentation was sutticiently advanced such that it would have been too costly to revise it. As things stand, the alarm clock is an extremely pleasant feature that a user can discover for him or herself. Figure 1 shows the alarm clock window open while MacWrite, a word processing program, is in operation. Tormat_tont stale The small square at the left of the window allows the user to "close" the clock window by pointing to the box using the mouse and pressing the mouse button. In the centre of the window the current time is displayed in hours, minutes and seconds in standard twelve-hour notation. (Astute readers will be able to determine when these figures were printed out.) The final symbol, above the pointer arrow, is supposed to be a lever that opens the "Change" portion of the window. Pointing to the lever and clicking the mouse button reveals four additional arcas, as shown in figure 2, The three bottom areas indicate and allow the user to select what will be in the middle area. Clicking on the clock face in the lower-left area puts the current time in the middle window so that the user can change the time. (Changing the time can also be done from the Control Panel, another desk accessory.) Clicking on the calendar pages in the lower-centre area, as was done in figure 2, puts the current date in the middle window so that the date can be changed. (Changing the date can also be done from the Control Panel). Figure 2 Clicking in the lower-right area, as has been done in figure 3, brings the current alarm setting into the middle area. The time is shown in standard fashion. Whether the alarm is set or not set is shown in two ways. As it appears in figures 2 and 3, the alarm on top of the clock in the lower-right area seems quiet. As shown in figure 4, although it can barely be seen in this reproduction, dotted lines radiate away from the alarm bell. This indicates that the alarm is set to go off. O 1:03:59 AM ¢ @ 8:08:00 PM Q| a Figure 3 The little pictogram to the left of the time in the middle window is the on-off switch, and provides a second indication of whether the alarm is set to go off. "Down", shown in figure 3, indicates that the alarm is off. Pointing to this pictogram and clicking the mouse button flips the switch to the up position, as shown in figure 4 and sets the alarm to go off at the appointed time. The display in the lower-right-hand window is WILD-WORD The cheaper alternative in word processing, without sacrificing efficiency. Wild-word is a powerful 40 column word processor for the Apple I! and //e. What you see is what you get. Over 20 format and editing commands with three modes give total editing flexibility, and have immediate effect on the screen. Wild-word features true SHIFT key operation using a simple clip-on modification. Lower case is generated in software using the graphics screen. Any character, including printer control codes, can be inserted into the text. Wild-word also features a built-in mailing list and merge feature, and can store over 1000 names and addresses on each disc. It is also core-resident, leaving all drives free for text and mailing list data. Header with automatic page numbering is available for print-out. Wild-word is not copy protected, and is supplied complete with keyboard modification and full reference manual, for £35 + VAT. Contact your local dealer or ELITE SOFTWARE COMPANY, 30 GUILDFORD STREET, CHERTSEY, SURREY, KT16 9PQ Tel: 09328 67839 August 1984 — HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 21 Page 22 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 198% changed accordingly. If the alarm is set, clicking on the switch clears the alarm. O 1:04:47 AM ft © 9:00:00 PM 3 hia Figure 4 To change the time, the date or the alarm setting, the user points to the portion of the time or date to be changed and selects it by clicking the mouse button. The month, day, year, hour, minute, second or am/pm are each selected ‘separately. Selecting one of these fields “highlights" it. ("Highlight" is the Macintosh word for inverse, or white drawings on a black background.) When a field is selected, two arrows appear to the right of the date or time, as shown in figure 4. Pointing to the up arrow and clicking increases the number shown in the highlighted field, and pointing to the down arrow and clicking has the opposite effect. When the alarm goes off, the effect is subdued as is appropriate in an office environment. The speaker sounds once the same pleasant bell tone that appears when the Macintosh is powered on. In addition, the Apple symbol on the left of the Menu Bar (see figure 1) flashes repeatedly from inverse to normal and back to alert the user to the fact that the alarm has gone off. The flashing Apple can be cleared by turning off the alarm using the procedure described above. Because the flashing Apple is sufficiently distracting to have always attracted my attention, | have always turned ‘off the alarm myself, | have not yet been able to discover whether the alarm will go off every twenty-four hours if the flashing Apple is not cleared. Mac Notes by Tom Warrick Reprinted by kind permission of Washington Apple Pi (April 1984). Macintosh owners should note that there appear to be two different and somewhat incompatible versions of the Macintosh operating system. The first appears on the Guided Tour disks and the second is on the System Disk. Attempting to read a disk created with the first operating system while running the second destroys the hierarchical structure (the “file folders") of the disk’s primary file directory. This is not fatal to the information on the disk, however, as the Macintosh disk operating system has saved a secondary file directory elsewhere on the disk, and when the primary directory is destroyed, it can be recreated using the secondary directory. While the files on the disk are recovered intact, all file folders are lost. In normal use this would be a_ trivial inconvenience, as file tolders can easily be recreated, but for the Guided Tour disks, the placement of particular documents in particular folders and the placement of folder icons on the desktop are important to the proper operation of the Tour. Further, Guided Tour disks are copy-protected and so cannot be backed-up. As a result, users should exercise caution when using Guided Tour disks. Errata to the Macintosh manuals advise turning off the Macintosh before running the Guided Tour, and this caution should be extended to turning off the Mac betore even inserting one of the Guided Tour disks. Loss of file folders on the Guided Tour disks will not make the Tours meaningless, but it will make several of the demonstrations pointless or confusing, as the Mac will attempt to point to a non-existent pull-down window or open a non-existent file folder, Note also that it appears that Microsoft's BASIC for the Macintosh also uses the earlier operating system, and should be treated in the same way until an update comes aut. On a separate subject, it appears that there is a major bug in the initial release of Microsoft's Multiplan for the Macintosh, As 1 understand it, the bug materialises when the user attempts to force recalculation following a cut-and-paste operation. The effect of the bug may he the complete and irretrievable loss of data in memory. Microsoft is reported to be aware of the bug and has a team of programmers working on a fix. Indeed, by the time this appears, they may have solved the problem. People interested in purchasing Multiplan should make sure that the copy they purchase has the correction. August 1986 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 23 Word Wrap by Tony Game In response to the appeal for more listings in Hardcore in the last issue, here is a handy little routine to print strings to the screen or a printer without breaks in the middie of words. Put the routine at the start of the program for speed, define PL as the print length, and send the string to the routine as NS. Much more can be done, for example left margins can be set by POKE 36,X in lines 90 and 140. Concatenating the strings on the page gets complex fast but I have a routine for it if anyone is interested. How about some of you Assembler nuts producing a relocatable M.C. routine for us to do this? It needs to count back to a space and then carriage return, as padding with spaces inevitably leads to STRING TOO LONG. 10 REM WORD WRAP - TONY GAME ul 20 TEXT : HOME : GOTO 1010 30 LN = LEN (NS) 4O IF LN < PL THEN 140 50 AAS = LEFTS (NS,PL) 60 IF RIGHTS (AAS,1) = CHRS (32) THEN 80 70 AAS = LEFTS (AAS, LEN (AAS) - 1): GOTO 60 80 IF LEFTS (AAS,1) = CHRS (32) THEN AAS = RIGHTS (AAS, LEN (AAS) - 1): GOTO 80 90 PRINT AAS 100 IF LEN (AAS) = LEN (NS) THEN 150 NS = RIGHTS (NS,(LN - LEN (AA$))): IF LEN (NS) > - PL - 1 THEN 30 120 IF N§ = CHRS (32) THEN 150 130 IF LEFTS (NS,1) = CHRS (32) THEN NS = RIGHTS (NS, LEN (NS) - 1): GOTO 130 150 RETURN 151: 1000 REM PROGRAM PROPER 1001 = 1002 : 1010 PRINT : PRINT : INPUT "HOW MANY CHARACTERS TO THE LINE ? ";PL: PRINT 1020 N$ = "THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED O VER THE LAZY GREEN DOG WHICH WAS A STUPID THING TO DO, AS THE LAZY GRE EN DOG WAS ACTUALLY A DECOY FOR A YELLOW, SHARP PANTHER. 1030 GOSUB 30: GOTO 1010 The Blackboard The most advanced text/graphics printer card yi produced for the Apple | [ & //e qT 5 «0 Text/Graphies commands mak ‘ext Features y Set Left/Right Margin, line length, form length ford wrap, “Ex utomatically substitut jor S's, * Text screen dump works from any language F and all 80 column cards ‘or Programmers Hex dump mode ¢ Transpar RAM * Mask or set high bit Price £99.00 plus VAT Epson FX 80/100 Editor ts are provided on the nters graphic mode to print jandard sot a Hardware requirements The minimum requirements tor the FX-80/100 editor 3 48k Apple nd, of course, an Epson FX fer with a parallel interface card in slot £19.95 + VAT EICESTIER computer centre limited LVE Building 9 arrom Site DH Page 24 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 Book Reviews 2 books received, and put in the literature library. Reviewed by Bob Raikes. Titles M68000 16/32-bit Microprocessor. Programmers Reference Manual. Author: Motorola. Publisher: Prentice-Hall. Price: £15.25. Paperback : 9.2" x 7" + 218 pages. This is the manufacturers manual, and is a little dry. Not for the faint hearted or beginners. Title: The Apple Almanac. Authors: Eric E. Goez & William B. Sanders. Publisher: Reston Publishing Co. Inc. ‘A Prentice-Hall Company. Price: £17.95. Paperback + 8.25" x 11" : 240 pages. Apple I, //e reference manual. Usual Hex/ ASCII charts, Applesoft Integer tokens, Peeks Pokes & Calls, DOS memory usage & Tables, Graphic address charts etc. Quite @ lot on Shape tables including an ASCII character set table. A useful chart is given, showing the bytes that are different in the //e monitor. A cross between the Apple reference manual, 'What's where in the ‘Apple! and the quick reterence from ‘Beneath Apple NOS'. If you have these then it's not worthwhile, if you haven't, it may be if you want all the information in one book. Title: Applesoft BASIC for the Apple II & Ie. Aurthors: Lois Graff and Larry Joel Goldstein. Price: £14.35. Paperback : 9.25 x 7 inches + 328 pages. Publisher: Robert J. Brady Co, (Prentice-Hall). Reviewed by G.H. Ashdowne, A first look at the Contents, then a glance at the Index. Looks impressive, Then into the preface. If this book does what it claims, then the intending buyer need go no further than the nearest Cash Point. This book maintains the standards usually associated with the Publishers, No error could be found, and the programs worked, The real questions are whether this was just another book, whether it was value for money, and why should this book be chosen in preference to others. A step by step progress through the pages does not cause any hassle. If you thought of @ question, and wanted to search back to refresh your memory, you need not bother, because the point was cither explained again, or a reference was given. The type and layout are cleverly altered to make a neat presentation, and assist the reader in knowing whether he is learning facts, or should be copying for the hands on experience. No learning experience is extended, as each subsection when completed gives the reader a sense of satisfaction. Do this - the computer will expect - do that - and the computer does. No concept could be easier. And it is done exactly as the print in the book expects it to appear. The conclusion is therefore that this is not just another book, but one in which the authors have seen other books and their shortcomings or limitations, and have set out to overcome them, They have succeeded. You would wish that you had seen this one first. Is it a book to buy, on top of the others you already have? If somebody else in your family wants to learn Applesoft Basic, then do not hesitate. It is a good excuse to supplement your own reference library. It will soon become the most frequently used. Do you need any more excuses? By page 66 you will be writing a program to check your Bank Account, and by page 71 your first simple game. By page 96 you will be checking on your Hire Purchase Company, and by 106, your Mortgage. You will then be keeping monthly records, and tabulating them (197); have a simple Word Processor (237); be = making animated pictures and doing other graphics and finally be a budding Tschaikovsky . The whole process will have been a lot easier than relying on the books supplied with your Apple. Title: Disks, Files & Printers for the Apple II Authors: B. D. & G, H. Blackwood Publisher: Howard W. Sams & Co. (Prentice-Hall International) Price: £13.55 Paperback: Spiral bound, 9" x 6", 262pp. Reviewed by Brian Whalley In the first sentence of their preface the August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 25 itroducing the APPLE lic Friedman Wagner-Dobler - an invaluable introduction to the features and capabilities of the amazing new Apple lic Whether you'rea potential buyer, a current owner, or if you just want to find out more about Apple's latest, this book will tell you all you want to know Covers - hardware and peripherals - software applications languages - operating systems - and much more Paper 128pages ISBN027302227 X Published by Pitman - 14th June Available from all good booksellers. Pitman Publishing Page 26 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 authors say that this book was written "for students of all ages who are interested in studying the first level of list processing, or files". After some standard introductory chapters on disks, DOS, and the loading and saving of programs, the book deals first with sequential files and then with random access files and the "linked list" technique for handling them. They use an approach which involves the development of programs to handle the “business records" of a small wholesale company. A final chapter on printers is followed by an Appendix on decimal/hex conversions. Whether the book really succeeds in teaching file handling I shall never be sure, because the way the authors use language repeatedly distracts me from what they are trying to say. To be fair to the authors; they have been very badly “served by their editor and publishers. Listings of program — sections (some typeset, in a different font trom the main text, some reproductions of dot matrix output) are haphazardly mixed not only with the text but also with sample program runs apparently printed on a daisywheel printer (with the print sometimes reduced by about 50%). Add to that the use of capital letters for commands and every program, file, record or variable name, plus the use of bold face type of various sizes for headings and figure titles, and it is not surprising that it's possible to open the book on what seems like total contusion. Ungainly or obscure use of the English language, however, is the responsibility of authors rather than of publishers. Statements like "the computer user should learn to think in hexadecimal to understand the computer, so decimal must be converted to hexadecimal and hexadecimal must be converted to decimal must be responsible for de-activating many of those "students of all ages" they want to reach. After meeting two types of file, sequential and random access, | am confused to be told later that “files are classified according to the way they are built or used" and "the four classifications are: (1) source, (2) destination, (3) source-destination or (4) piggyback" with the last of these described as "a file built one section at a time", This is my first contact ever with the term "piggyback file" and I've not been able to find it in any computer book index, not even that of the one under review! After pointing out quite reasonably that in computer publications “references are continually given to the binary, decimal and hexadecimal representation of the ASCII code" (though I'm not aware of binary references being all that common), the accusation is made that references to ASCII seldom provide a figure or table relating fumbers to characters, What a pity the reader is not directed to Tables 2 and 3 in the Apple Il Reference Manual or Appendix K in the Applesott Manual. However, the Blackwoods are in some ways thorough, presenting their readers with “ASCII Character Codes"and "Bit Positions of Binary ASCII Code" in Tables 1-4 and 1-5 and again identically in Tables 7-4 and 7-5. 1 wonder why only Table 1-4 is indexed under ASCII? 1 also wonder why the authors bother to index variable names used in their sample programs, but not PR#, IN# or DS? Some of their advice is confusing and ignores obvious simplicity. One example relates to reclaiming disk space when a large program has been edited. Saving the new shorter version with the same name as the old will leave the same number of sectors allocated and thus wasted. So, they suggest, with the fnew shorter version in memory, delete the existing longer disk version and then save the new version. This technique, they say, “is very good, with one exeption. Should power be lost to the computer before the SAVE is complete, the program will be lost" = very truct yet the simple device of saving the new version under a temporary name (like NEWPROG), then deleting the original version and RENAME-ing the new one, has escaped them! By far the most puzzling feature is the final chapter of twenty-six pages devoted to printers. In their Preface, the authors state clearly that "a record stored on disk must be printed in hardcopy form to be of general use" and that "the printer is the final destination of the file". Why, oh why, in that case, do their two major file handling demonstration programs —_ (for sequential files and random access files) not include printout options? In a tutorial book of this kind, sending the reader to his or her particular printer's. manual for specific guidelines after a brief introduction to printer initialisation and control codes, would have been perfectly acceptable. As i is; we are shown the results of "formatting" plus the use of codes etc. for three specific printers, Little is said about the actual hardware and no conclusions are drawn about the output or printer characteristics. KKK x ** THE WILDCARD Now available for the Apple //e Copies 48K core resident programs. No parameter list needed. Copies most programs requiring RAM Card. Wildcard copies may be copied with standard copy programs. Copies even the bit copiers. Programs copied are saved as standard binary files. Works with any RAM card — plugs into any slot. NEW FEATURES Auto selects screens on //e. Extracts foreign DOSes. Patches to the Inspector. Creates ‘BRUN’able files. Recovers listable, runable Applesoft programs. System requirements: 64K Apple + Disc Drive Price: £80.00 + VAT KKK KK Available from your local dealer, or contact: ELITE SOFTWARE COMPANY, 30 GUILDFORD STREET, CHERTSEY, SURREY, KT16 9PQ Tel: 09328 67839 August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 27 Page 28 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 What conclusion shall 1 express about this book? Visually, it is terrible. Technically, it is weak, and there are better books on file handling and the writing of data file programs (David Miller's "Apple Files", for instance, or even Finkel & Browns rather odd self-teaching guide). As a learning tool, it fails to motivate, and it mixes obscurity with pedantry, For me, the — following sentences from the first page of the Preface (which is the author's chance to catch the attention of the bookshop browser) epitomise this book: "The linear, bidirectional, motion of tape required that records be placed one after the other, or sequentially. If the first record in the file was read, and the next record to be read was the last record in the file, it took a long time to get from the first record to the last record, To get from the first record to the last record, the tape had to run sequentially from beginning to end. This took a relatively long time. The time to get from one record to the next is called the access time. The access time of a sequential access record file is slow". Title: Exploring Applesofy Author: Roger McShane Publisher: Prentice Hall Price: £13.45 Paperback : 23x15cm (9x6ins) : 170 pages Reviewed by Dave Miller Exploring Applesoft has been written in response to the needs of three groups: first-time students to computing, students who would study programming for fun rather than as a discipline and people who find the more traditional approaches to programming hard to understand, The methods adopted by this book to get programming ideas across are not heavily biased on syntax but concentrate on fun: syntax is introduced incidentally. The book is split into six lessons, Each lesson has exercises dispersed throughout it. Lesson one has a useful section headed ‘Teacher activity’, unfortunately the only occurrence in the whole book. Each lesson (except six) is followed by an_ interlude where the topics covered in the lesson are supplemented. There is no introduction, the reader is thrown in at the deep end. There is no information on turning on the computer and starting up Applesoft. 1 can see many readers struggling to get their machines up and running ("Why do the disk drives go on?" or "Why does the machine print a '*' and print odd numbers and letters?"). Assuming the reader managed to set the machine up, | wonder how many were waiting for their machine to do something while it is waiting for them to press RETURN for some time. Also there is some ambiguity: does the reader type 'GR' or 'JGR'? This is not trivial to a novice, Lesson one deals with GR, PLOT and COLOR=. The idea of writing programs by prefixing commands with line numbers is dealt with along with RUN, NEW, TEXT, variables, looping and conditional commands. This might seem like a lot but cach topic was dealt with simply and not in the thorough nature common in most other books, This is intentional. Use is made of ‘programming models’ quite unlike the models 1 am familiar with. They consist of apparently free-hand cartoons showing little apples doing various things. The first model shows an apple (fruit) drawing on a squared paper with a pencil to illustrate PLOT. The first interlude discusSes the use of TEXT, LIST and line numbers. The concept of reserved words is touched upon since they cannot be used as variable names. The second lesson introduces high resolution graphics. HGR, HCOLOR= and the available colours are covered along with various forms of HPLOT. A program is developed which involves the further use of variables, The second interlude covers the use of STEP in FOR loops, STOP and CONT.PRINT are introduced as a debugging aid and DATA, READ and INPUT are briefly touched upon. For most readers these commands would be too advanced at this stage. Lesson three introduces HOME, VTAB, PRINT, NORMAL, INVERSEandFLASH.Thedemonstration programs are already quite advanced: one in this lesson simulates a digital clock on the text screen. The third interlude discusses some of the intrinsic functions offered by Applesoft; mainly RND, INT and ABS. The book is specifically non-mathematical so the trigonometric functions are only listed, In lesson four the INPUT statement is described along with the string functions: LEN, CHRS, LEFTS, MID$ and RIGHTS. The final | | August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 29 example program simulates word wrapping found in most word processors. This gives an indication of the level the reader has been brought to with very little concious effort on his/her part (assuming he/she understands the example!). The — fourth __ interlude introduces the REM statement, Lesson five introduces arrays. A very good Programming model uses the -analogy of a Broup of hotel rooms to put across the idea of a group of variables all with the same name indexed by a ‘room number’, It also briefly introduces sorting (the ‘algorithm looks like the bubble sort) and how to extract the maximum and minimum values from a list of data, The fifth interlude talks more about program documentation and Suggests a structured approach to line numbering (similar to that imposed by Basic code-2), The last lesson discusses the idea of Subroutines and the use of Applesoft shape tables. I was very impressed with the graphic demonstrations used to show the use of shape tables. Following this are four Appendices. Appendix A contains a command summary. This is a cut down version of the Applesoft reference manual with the mathematical functions omitted. Each command has a brief explanation, some examples, some ‘hints' and a few exercises. While most of the explanations were reasonable, some used unexplained terms e.g. the explanation of CLEAR is: "This command zeros all variables and arrays and sets all strings to nulls. It also resets all pointers and stacks", There is no explanation of 'pointers', ‘stacks’ or ‘nulls'. Appendix B is a list of error codes (including DOS errors). Again it is on the whole clear but terms have been used with no explanation. Appendix C contains a list of ASCII characters. Since the book was written for the Apple II the list is incomplete but I would like to have seen a complete one anyway since quite a few Apples now either use hardware or software to get full ASCII sets. Appendix D contains two subroutines which will set up the shape tables used in the book, Thankfully the reader does not have to know how the Apple actually constructs shape tables, The book itself is easy to read and neatly Presented. The style of writing is informal but not too casual. The listings were in the same type style as the text which could account for the few errors 1 found (such as the '=3' missing from 'HCOLOR=3'). All the Programs worked and miost used the graphics and text facilities of the — Apple imaginatively, I have only two criticisms: the referencing of GOTOs to REMarks and a jump made out of an active FOR loop. The latter is very bad, even if the Program looks impressive when it's running. 1 also feel that this book makes the mistake of saying that subroutines are only useful to remove code repetition, Although program modularisation is mentioned 1 feel that it should have been stressed more. I have one major complaint: there is no glossary. The text of the book is good since it discusses technical terms before they are used but I feel that any book which teaches novices should contain a glossary even if the author feels that the text renders it unnecessary. To sum up I feel that this book is very good bur not faultless. It introduces programming using an informal approach which will only work if the reader uses the book while at the keyboard, The cxamples and exercises are, on the whole, very good and illustrate points in the text. The Appendices are Slightly high level and I feel that some readers will not be able to use them to the full. This is not helped by the absence of a glossary, The book is ideal for the novice computer user who wants to learn something about programming but does not want to learn about computer science. This book seems especially ideal for use at a computer camp or at school, where the computer tutor/teacher is experienced in computing and can give additional information which would be inappropriate in the book. Gourmet Note from Roger Harris. Ice Cream with your Apple Sainsbury's 4 litre plastic ice cream carton will hold over fifty 5.25" floppy disks when emptied. It costs £1.58; the flavour is vanilla. NEW FRO “nicHt| MULTI BAUD, Ile Price on Application remem i ‘ . 8 2S] NIGHTINGALEN “~ . “1 PACE SERIAL € MACINTOSH Price on Application Quanx WORD JUGGLER era een! @ ALL ITEMS FULLY GUS WORD JUGGLER He £128 + VAT VISION 80 £185 + VAT Paeacon Application can brani Ait VISION 128 £240 + VAT ATALYST ile + 1 £99.98 + VAT for the 1984 range of puters & accessories eco eee AppleWorks > APPLEWORKS £160 + VAT te modem from P: aud. 1200/75 baud and @ state of the art modem ‘minimal support clreustty snsumption, high quality Our new price list 1ODEM £119 + VAT available on request ARD £60 + VAT MICROSOFT MULTIPLAN £170 + VAT Pivacesorwaresurrues IO e™ = 9 PACE SOFTWARE SUPPLIES LTD. 82 New Cross Street. West Bowling. Bradtord BOS 68S C006 NO. nescmenon Net WNCVAT RANTEED FOR ONE YEAR@ IMMEDIATE DELI vEnY@ FREE POSTAGE & PACKING WITHIN UK IDEVISE for Visicalc users SIDEVISE allows APPLE Il, II+ and Ile users to print their VisiCalc spreadsheets sideways. No longer does the width of the printer limit the size of your spreadsheet. 40) ius var Available from PACE SOFTWARE LTO. 92 NEW CROSS STREET BRADFORD BOS 88S, Tel. (0274) 729306 Telex 51564 0274 729306 Tora 1 enclose my cheque payable to PACE SOFTWARE ‘SUPPLIES LTD. Product for use with [Jil | Jie {_]ite (Jit) Mac Name Address Town, County Postcode Tel. No. FSS PE ES SS OA Se ee. r Page 32 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 Title: Apple II Applications Author: Marvin L. De Jong Price: £11.95 Paperback : 8 x 6 inches : 236 pages Pubisher: Howard H. Sams Reviewed by David Moore This book will appeal to all Apple owners who want to know how their computers work. It is assumed the reader has a working knowledge of electronics. The first chapter covers RS232, modems and V/O facilities provided by these devices. Most of the references are to American systems and devices but it is quite easy to equate these to the UK and European systems. All aspects of using and installing are demonstrated by sample programs and associated hardware. Chapter two deals with the games 1/O port and is filled with lots of DIY projects which are easy to understand and build, Chapter three covers Eproms, their functions and programming requirements. It describes the 2716 in detail and its many uses. A very useful DIY Eprom eraser is described as are two proprietary Eprom Boards. Chapters four and five cover A/D and D/A converters - again, a very thorough description of these devices and their uses. There are some very interesting projects _ that demonstrate the various functions that can be performed by these converters. Chapter six covers timing and counting and discusses the 6522 Versatile Interface Adapter (VIA). All aspects are covered together with numerous programs that show why it is called versatile. The book is well rounded off with two worthwhile Appendices. Appendix A is a two-page aide-memoire on the loading and execution of machine language programs and Appendix B is a reproduction of the programmers reference for the 6522 VIA. References are made to components which could be supplied by Radio Shack. Many of these components can be obtained from the UK branch of Radio Shack (Tandy UK). A visit to one of these stores could prove rewarding if you are going to construct any of the DIY projects. A word of warning - some of the projects described require hook-ups to be made to the Apple Jl. Remember to switch off before making any connections. Apart from these obvious points, a very interesting book packed with lots of useful information. Title: Animation, Games and Sound for the Apple Il/Ile. Author: Tony Fabri. Price: £14.35. Publisher: Prentice Hall. Softcover: 178 pages : 6.75 x 9 inches. Reviewed by Patrick Bermingham M.Sc.,D. .Eng.,M.I.Mech.E. This is a book for the beginner, the person who has just acquired an Apple, who has no knowledge of computers or programming, and who wishes to learn about computing in an interesting but non-academic manner. The author entices the reader to work through a cleverly planned set of simple Basic programs, each of which builds something onto the preceding one. First comes a program to print one's name on the monitor screen. This is then modified to print the name at various positions on the screen; and almost unconsciously the reader becomes familiar with the TAB function and the DO LOOP. From this simple beginning the reader is led effortlessly through programs which create simple shapes on the screen, using keyboard characters only, which are later animated. Game programs follow, involving sounds and falling —_ objects, culminating in the design of games programs based, in turn, on a _ racing car, an aeroplane and a ship which has to avoid falling bombs. It is the sort of book that I would have liked to have had by me when | first got my Apple I and its overwhelming set of manuals. The author lets the reader do exciting things with the computer and as a consequence the reader is bound to learn about computers and enjoy using them. It is certainly a book for the young at heart, An interest in games programs has been the launching pad for many a career in computers. Although a useful book, at 414,35 it is overpriced. August 1984 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 33 Title: p-Source (A guide to the Apple Pascal system). Author: Randall Hyde Publisher: Reston Publishing Co. Inc. (A Prentice-Hall Company) Price: £22.45 reviewed by Richard Beck This book is subtitled "A guide to the Apple Pascal system" and fulfils that claim admirably. Its intended audience is probably the experienced Apple Pascal programmer who wishes to both know more about and get more from the P-system. The book's 450+ pages are divided into 3 sections written in a lucid “reference manual" style and not, thank heaven, in the more usual American "laugh a minute" style. This added to its readability as far as | was concerned. Section one of the book deals with advanced Pascal programming techniques, optimisation and the generated p-code patterns of common Pascal control structures; thus ving guidance tor choosing the most time/space efficient construct. Some ot the optimisations are based on a knowledge of the generated p-code and hence were not immediately obvious, so this section was very useful. Section two describes the various p-codes much as an equivalent assembly language guide would. The action of cach op code is explained on one page and its effect on stack and register contents represented diagrammatically on the facing page. The — final interpreter. It gives section explains the p-code the start address of all major subroutines and explains their usage. All the routines that cmulate the P-machine on the 6502 are also detailed. Part of this section also deals with the otimisation of the p-code emulation by rewriting certain routines. The method of attaching various forcign devices to the p-system is also given. In short, the internals of the p-code interpreter are mapped out. This is an excellent book by an obviously accomplished programmer and 1 would recommend it to anyone with a desire to really understand the p-system on the Apple. Education by Norah Arnold FOUR PRIMARY MATHS PACKAGES microAddition microSubtraction microMultiplication microDivision Hayden Software Available from Dark Star Price £20.95 + VAT each, These four packages are aimed at children between the ages of four and ten years. They are an aid to learning rather than a sophisticated practice package. One of their main attractions is the graphic scenario associated with each package and aimed to catch the interest of small children. Fach package has four options on its main menu. The first two options teach the values of the numbers one to nine. the third option teaches the child how to add, subtract, multiply or divide, while option four gives a choice of a quiz on what has been learned, or a calculator which gives answers to problems you type in, @©TESCO) 1 BitStik 500, Latest software. £175 + VAT Applewriter //e £55 Quickfile //e £35 Davong 16k RAM Card £20 Apple IC Business Graphics Multiplan //e 1 Apple /// system COMPLETE (including software) = enquire for keen price, Contact: Peter Mead Bessemer Road, Welwyn Garden City. Horto., AL? 1HB ‘Telephone; 07075-25161 Page 34 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 microAddition The four options on the main menu are APPLES, NUMBERS, ADDING BALLOONS and ADDING NUMBERS. If you choose the first option you are presented with an apple tree and you are asked to type in the number of apples you want to see fall to the ground. The apples drop one by one, then they are counted as numbers appear in the fallen apples. (oie If you choose option two the same apple tree appears but apples are already on the ground and you are asked to enter the number of apples shown. If you are correct the apples are counted and a happy tune is played. If you are wrong, a sad tune is played and you are given two more chances to get it right before being shown the correct answer. Option three gives you ADDING BALLOONS. You are asked whether or not you need help in adding the balloons and if you say yes the screen will appear as below, with the total number of balloons above the question mark. a If you say that you do not need help then no balloons will appear after the equal sign. Option four, ADDING NUMBERS, gives you the choice of an addition quiz or an addition calculator. If you choose the quiz an addition problem will appear on the screen with themessage FNTER ANSWER. The format of the problem is that of a normal addition ‘sum'. There were two things which I particularly liked about the quiz. Firstly, the program is fussy, as it should be, about the unit value being entered first. Secondly, when appropriate a carrying figure is shown ‘on the screen. The calculator option aks you to enter a number which may be from 0 to 99999, press the space bar, then enter the number you wish to add to the first. microSubtraction The format of this package is very similar to the previous one. The main menu options are BIRDS, NUMBERS, SUBTRACTING BALL- ONS and SUBTRACTING NUMBERS. The BIRDS option gives a screen with another tree and also nine eggs lying on the ground beneath the branch, You are asked how many eggs you wish to see hatch. As the eggs hatch the birds fly up into the tree one by one. When the bird has landed on the tree branch a number appears next to it so that it may be counted. If a young child was working with an adult then the screen presents an opportunity for the adult to point out to the child that five taken from nine leaves four unhatched eggs. The second option gives counting practice by presenting the birds already on the branch for the child to count. The third and fourth options are very much the same as those on the addition pack. microMultiplication This package is really quite delightful with little white rabbits popping out of burrows all over the place. They not only pop up for you to count but also in groups to help you ication. August 1986 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group Page 35 epee Cua) ue hei yoo '2'e'ee 4999 YYYYYYY YY r£¢2'9'4'9'9'9 4 'e's's'e's'9'9' 9's PERE eee s YYY YY yyy microDivision Fish appear for you to count and if you need help with division they arrange themselves beneath cach boat, demonstrating the ways in which four can be made as they do it, hall A NER number of fiSh to appear i ae i ‘ i i The four packs are well thought out and would give a child an enjoyable introduction to the four rules of number. When the basic concepts have been mastered the quiz sections give ample practice for young children up to the age of ten, Even the tunes played are not boring as they change all the while, but even so you can use the program without having the sound switched on if you choose. As the graphics are colourful a colour monitor will obviously display them to advantage but they do come over well in black and white. The little booklets that come in each box have an outline picture on the front, just the kind that children love to colour in. 1 would certainly use these with my own children if 1 could put the clock back. local Groups Middlesbrough Group. Dick Pilgrim would like to start a local group in or around the Middlesbrough arca. Anyone up there who is interested please contact: HH) Westin sya HHehay yeast isettyi ahsidtt austin crane Essex Group. After successfully launching in October 1983 the Group is active and thriving with fortnightly meetings. The default venues are at Colin Poynder's "Tree Top Hotel" in Epping at 8pm on the first Wednesday of the month and, alternatively, every _ third Wednesday of the month at Havering College of Technology in Hornchurch and at ITEC, Harrow. It is very easy to generate a discussion in the group on any interesting aspect while there is serious work going on in the background. Subjects for discussion vary. In the past subjects have included networking, modems , graphics and Pascal and the next is "Computer Control of Machines". Contact: Abe Savant {iil fai) WR errrrrrrrrrttrtrrtttt Other addresses: Herts Group meets at: The Old School 1 Branch Road Parkstreet Village St. Albans Hants and Berks Group Meets at: Reading University APPLE, for Birmingham and West Midlands. Contacts: Bill Watson on Helnysnitistand (HN) # or Mel Golder if i) Wait: S22" Kent Group is peripatetic. Check with Jim Panks on Hpee 9778! or with Dougal Hendry on ‘hilt “hii, Croydon Group's meeting place: The Shirley Poppy Wickham Road Shirley Page 36 HARDCORE - The Journal of the British Apple Systems User Group August 1984 Software Review Program: RAMDRIVE //e. Author: Richard Kraemer. Company: Precision Software. Distributor: CCS & S. Price: £29.95. Description: Disk emulation software for the Apple //e. Many of you will have seen adverts for moving DOS on to a RAM card so that more space is made available for your programs. A new theme on the old idea now exists for those users of the Apple //e with an extended 80 column card, RAMDRIVE //e, instead of moving DOS, turns the extra memory into a pseudo disk drive capable of holding up to 49 files. On an extended Apple 80 column board the free space available, once the program has been activated, is 242 sectors or the equivalent of approximately half a floppy disk. On the 128K variation, 496 sectors are free or about the same amount as one complete disk. The double sided, unprotected, and therefore copyable disk supplied for review came with the DOS 3.3 and the PASCAL versions of the program. CCS & S, who are the sole suppliers of RAMDRIVE, tell us that a CP/M 2.2 version is also available complete with a turnkey facility to provide auto booting of CP/M utilities or programs. This is also priced at £29.95. For the purposes of this review only the DOS 3.3 side of the di