softalkv2n06feb1982

a fantasy role-pla designed by . LORD BRITISH { gANTOP of.THE onCH FEBRUARY 1982 Exec Muse: Through Robots and Castles to Electronic Business Follow one of the older softwore Heavy Traffic and Apples in the Sky Metro Troffic Control keeps fobs on joms from sky ond sur- foce, reports problems ond ol- fernotives to rodio stotions DAVID HUNTER ...... 86 houses from eorly experimento- fion to present sophisticotion— ond beyond CRAIG STINSON ...........-30 Conferences Grow on Trees You ‘coll 0 CommuniTree on your modem, just like o bulle- fin boord, but who! you get is a different world JEAN VARVEN .............102 Visions of an Apple IV: One Apples See, Hear, and Touch Stockholder’s Fantasy for Those Who Can't Aston eunat (of Apple Inc! Breokthroughs in progrom- stock (very few shores), Chris ming for hondicopped people Light imogines his compony’s bring sci-fi 0 life, beneficiolly next product os he'd like it MELISSA MILICH.......... Seer CHRISTOPHER U. LIGHT ......134 Guest Contest from Penguin Software ....scssseeerssseeees See gore scumnes BL teed appleby Ws tr % ‘A Love Poem: Moin Frome/Metol/Me (ond Apple I!) .....FRANK MALONE 34 Sout! Miners. ae een ree yp aca Wesee, He jentures with VBiCoke Newspeak 130 ‘A Powerful Word Processor You Didn't Know You Had ....ALLEN MUNRO 39 ventures with ViiCol Giese ides nea? 12 Sottcrd Symposium, by Greg Tibbetts 43 beginner’ Corner, by Crolg Stinson 152 The Edsel Becomes 0 Mustong: the New Apple ill .......MELISSA MILICH 138 Morketol Reviews 3 The Poscol Poth, by fim Merit 167 ‘ind Your Business, by Peter Olver 75 Third Bose, by Taylor Pohimon 176 Secrets of the Whispering Disk: How Floppies Are Made . DALE ARCHIBALD 160 — Al’About Applesof, by Doug Corton 79 Bestelers 185 ET BS ke a) Ly. 0 En Coe | ®Morking Morch ... Apple Broves the Front Lines of West Point Exec Stonewore: They're Trying Horder ... Go Aheod ond Interrupt Your Apple ... Beginners’ Guide to the Apple Ill... ond more. pe a Accent eR Advanced Business Technology Adventure International/Softse! Hate Great takes Digital =.) Highlands .. Elphinng 80 ‘Sontware » Enteprises.....cccccc0sc00 L&S Computerware Math Clty ... Micro Co-op Corona Data System: Grane Software ......cc0scsccsssscoc Dana Industries. 200000000001 ee) isis WH =. 118, 162 113, 47,64, 72,80, Orange Micro......4....- Osborne McGraw Hii. Pear Software ... Penguin Software Phoenix Software : Piccadilly Software ..-+ Professional Medical Software 62, 98, 123, 141, 151, 166 Softpak Associates .... Software Publishing Corporation . Sorrento Vailey Associates ...... Southeastern Software .....s..s.+ Southern Calif, Research Southwestern Data Systems ... Spectrum Software SSM Microcomputer . Steilation Two ... Stoneware . Strategic Simulations Street Electronics . Vagabondo Enterprises .. Village Software . Vital Information .... Wheaton . Yucaipa Software... 2 @TOrTALY FEBRUARY 1982 ‘ Chairman John Haller Publisher Al Tommervik Editor Margot Comstock Tommervik Managing Editor Craig Stinson Art Director General Manager Kurt A. Wahiner Editorial Associate Jean Varven Special Assignments Melissa Milich David Hunter Copy Editor Andrew Christie Art Assistant Donna Siebert Contributing Editors ‘Assembly Language Roger Wagner Pascal Jim Merritt Business Peter Olivieri Apple CP/M Greg Tibbetts Apple II Taylor Pohlman Hardware Jeffrey Mazur Applesoft Doug Carlston Investing Kenneth Landis Basic Solution Guest Reviewers Wm. V. R. Smith Dale Archibald Allen Munro Special Projects Greg Voss Office Manager Jo Hilliard Circulation Ron Rennells Robert Mann Circulation Assistants Hal Schick Dierdre Booth Patty Wilson Systems Wm. V. R. Smith Ken Williams Advertising Coordination and Sales David Hunter (213) 980-5074 Cover design and 1982 Rose Parade photo by Kurt Wahiner. Helicopter provided by Metro Traffic Con- trol and piloted by Jaime Namson. Composition by Photographics, Hollywood, California. Printing by Volkmuth Printers, Saint Cloud, Minnesota. ‘Apple and Applesoft are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, Callfornla. UCSD Pascal is a trademark of the University of California ego. VisiCalc is a trademark of Personal Software, Sunnyvale, California. SoftCard is a trademark of Microsoft, Bellevue, Washington. Softalk,. Volume 2, Number 6. Copyright © 1982 by Softalk Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN:0274-0629. Softalk is published monthly by Softalk Publishing Inc., 11021 Magnolia Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601. Telephone, (213) 980- ‘5074. Second-class postage paid at North Hollywood, CA, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Softalk. 11021 Magnolia Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601. Free Subscription: Complimentary for one year to all owners of Apple computers in the USA. If you own an Apple, but you've never recelved Softalk, send your name, address, and Apple serial number with a request for subscription to Softalk Circula- tion, 11021 Magnolla Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91001. Softalk is totally independent of Apple Computer Inc.; sending your warranty card to Apple Computer will not Inform So/talk of your exlatence. Pald Subscription: After one free year, $24 per year without sponsor, $18 per year with sponsor. At the end of the free year, each subscriber will be notified; response is required only If you wish to con- tinue receiving Softalk. Lack of response will be taken as your cholce to discontinue the magazine. For multiple subscriptions, deduct $6 per aubscrip- tion, Special rates for schools and libraries, $8; mul- tiple subscriptions for schools and libraries, $5 each. $2 through February 1981; $2.0 through July 1981; $3.60 thereafter, November and December 1980 and January, March September, and October 1981 are sold out. October 1980 and February 1981 are in short supply. Problems? If you haven't recelved your So/talk by the fifteenth of the month, or it you have other problems with your subscription, Ron Rennells ot Robert Mann can help out. Call (213) 980-5099. Moving? Send new address and old to Softalk Cir- culation, 11021 Magnolia Boulevard, North Holly- wood, CA 91601; telephone, (213) 980-5009. Mary Sue Rennells Contest: ASCII RR Alan Nayer was a close runnerup for first prize in the Contest Contest with his contest, ASCII Railroad. It’s a word game and a number game and a com- puter game all rolled into one. And it’s hard. First prize in the contest will be $100 worth of the Softalk advertisers’ prod- ucts of your choice. Up to five runnersup will win an extra year’s free subscrip- tion to Softalk. In case of ties, the Apple random number generator will deter- mine the winner and the runnersup. Beginning with this month, all sin- cere contest entrants who were not already eligible for the $18 subscription rate for Softalk will become so by virtue of their entry in a contest. Deadline for the contest is March 15, 1982. Here are the rules for ASCII Rail- road, as Alan Nayer wrote them. Fill each of the 27 “railroad cars” in the chart with a decimal digit. Hach pair of digits forms the decimal representa- tion of an ASCII code. Except for the first and last digit, each pair of digits over- laps with its neighbor; the second digit of a number is also the first digit of the next number, Clues may relate to the meaning a character has in one of Apple’s lan- guages or operating systems, the char- acter name (nul, soh, and so on), or the character itself. Sometimes, poetic li- cense was used, or even abused. Re- member: the digit pairs are the deci- mal, not hexadecimal representation, and the code 0 through 9, when used, should contain a leading zero. Here is a brief example (with answers) : ABCD eee ues BOBHE A. Some languages prefer this as the lit- eral delimiter (the apostrophe char- acter ’ which is decimal 39) B. Enticement to a horse (carrot... carat or 94) ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS TUVWXYZ SERRGERRREREREDRARERRSEE EERE C. Basic subscript delimiter (end pa- rentheses, 41) Its name is a holdover from the type- writer (CR, 13) io] Alarm clock for DOS Footnote Underwater vessel (abbr) Prompt character Computerized eraser Arithmetic operator Realistic minimum number of drives for Pascal Oops! Golfers need this to boot up Immediate AND opcode New England state (abbr) Down, but not back Hara-kiri in Pascal Hara-kiri in Basic Pascal default exec delimiter Innocent exclamation Spanish affirmative Statement separator Second person singular or plural Default maxfiles ‘There’s more than one way to go home Half of our northern neighbor Like F String suffix It prints in Applesoft It's NOT in Integer; it’s not in Applesoft PRSSE Os eoOW> SavrevoZzE NMME< Send this entry form or a facsimile to Softalk Railroad, 11021 Magnolia Boule- vard, North Hollywood, CA 91601, by March 15, 1982. Name: Address: City/state/zip: Phone: Prize desired: Dealer: Jumbled Jumble Extends Deadline Any of you who sailed through most of last month’s Apple Jumble only to be stumped on Hector Plagbits can quit pull- ing out your hair. Yes, old Plagbits suf- fers from a typo. His name should read: Hectar Plagbits That's Hectar with an a instead of an o. Because of our error and your torn fingernails, the deadline for Apple Jum- ble entries is extended to March 1, 1982. CAVALIER COM 2 P.O, BOX 2032 — DEL MAR, CA 92014 — ( THE LIBERATOR, A SUBROUTINE LIBRARY SYSTEM Use a routine over and over - store it for immediate insertion. Save your time and creative energy! There isn’t enough room to list all the subroutines you will get with this program (over 50!) Here’s a few: tab field line print, dollar format, decimal rounding, calendar, get loops, quick sorts, system menus, control state- ments, disk access commands, hex converter, Line print pagi- nation and much more! Merely ‘‘exec”’ any subrou- tine you want to reside in memory - it’s available immediately when you're working on a program. Systematic and fully docu, mented approach to subroutine libraries. » PEAR SOFTWARE ADIVISION OF MULTI DATA SERVICE 407 TERRACE - ASHLAND OR 97520 (503) 482-8122 ALSO NOW AVAILABLE: 48K Apple Il w/ DISK 3.2/3.3 THE MANIPULATOR A TEXTFILE UTILITY SYSTEM THE COUNT A WINNING BLACKJACK SYSTEM ORDERS & PRODUCT INFORMATION - CALL OR WRITE - ADDRESS LISTED ABOVE ADD 2.50 SHIPPING & HANOLING - NO SALES TAX 34.95 24.95 @ SOFTALK FEBRUARY 1982 Contest Special Somewhere in this issue appears a picture of Pascal Path author Jim Mer- ritt. Can you identify it? The first read- ers from each continental U.S. time zone to specify correctly the exact location of Merritt's photograph will win a $25 gift certificate at their local retailers. In case of ties, the Apple random generator will Orocle ‘81 winner Jim Gonz (left) shown with AM Com- puter Products President Dove Alfono (right). Gonz, of West Hortford, Connecticut, took home © second disk drive for his prophetic onswers to our yeor-long contest. Oracle ’81. ‘When everybody around here first found out I won, we were all going crazy! Now I'm kind of nonchalant about the whole thing.” So said eighteen-year-old Jim Ganz of West Hartford, Connecticut, when he claimed his new disk drive last month at AM Computing in Southington, Connecti- cut. Ganz was the grand prize winner of Softalk’s year-long Oracle '81 contest. Ganz figured out the answers to the con- test during breakfast the morning before the final postmark deadline date. He only spent about five minutes filling out the entry form and never expected he had a chance to win. $ But as the months went by and Ganz’s name was still in the running for the grand prize, he started paying attention to the contest with considerably more in- terest. Now, one extra disk drive richer, Ganz plans to spend a lot more time on Pascal. When asked if he had entered Oracle "82, Ganz replied quickly and without hesitation, ‘‘No way! determine the gift certificate winner. All who tie for winner will receive an extra year’s free subscription to Softalk. Entries from outside the continental U.S. will be counted with the Eastern time zone. Send your answer to Merritt's Mug, Softalk, 11021 Magnolia Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601. a “Not only because I don’t need three disk drives or because this year’s con- test is really tough,” he said. “But every month last year when my Softalk would arrive, I had to flip open the pages and check the Top Thirty list and the contest winners [the last part of the contest dealt with which company would appear most often on the Top Thirty]. I’ll be glad when I get Softalk this year just to be able to sit back and relax with it.” City Hall. Lou Meiss, winner of the Bonus Contest that ran in last Septem- ber's Softalk, chose a copy of the book Apple Monitor Peeled as his prize, which Sottolk Photo Denby the Robot (left) wos on hond to congrotulote Lou ‘Meiss (on the right), winner of the Bonus Contest pub- lished in the September issue of Softolk. Meiss r his prize, $25 worth of goods, ot Roinbow Computing in Northridge, Colifornio. he picked up at Rainbow Computing in Northridge, California. Meiss correctly identified Los Angeles City Hall as the major city hall hidden in a photograph in the September issue. Winning this type of a contest wasn't hard, according to Meiss. He is a profes- sional photographer and has an eye for fine detail. In addition, Meiss works in a building situated right across the street from the city hall he correctly identified. The lucky winner used his $25 gift certifi- cate for the book, which he hopes will help him with programming. BT Explosive hi-res action from Bréderbund Software! Your civilization is under attack by the stinging space meanies and vicious thudputters. A pro— tective shield slows their assault, but without quick counteraction your defenses will crumble one by one. Requires 48K Apple II Integer or Plus ane will boot on either: DOS 3.2 or 3.3. 29.9. Brdderbund . \\ Software -\ PRESENTS ae Pan <a . i Bas Space Warrior by Marc Goodman “On the far outposts of the galaxy the Space Warrior waits — protecting the Empire from the attacks of the dreaded ram ships. Requires 32K Apple II Integer or Flus and will boot on either DOS 3.2 or 3.3. $24.95 oe vcccceccoccccecceococcooscccecooscoesooocooscs Each game is fully guaranteed. If it ever fails to boot, for any reason whatever, $ & return the disk to Brbderbund Software, Inc. for a free replacement. If the disk © A has been physically damaged, you will be charged the cost of a replacement © disk. 4 Seeccccccvccecoccccceccsecoveccsoseccsesceoocces Ask your dealer or send check or money order to: 2 Vista Wood Way ¥4f ¥ Brgderbund Sof l ee We rgogeroun oftware, INc. © San Rafoel, (415) 456-6494 Z Apple and Apple Il Plus are trademarks of Apple. Computer Co. @TOFTALK It's not surprising that Mark Pelczarski, author of the Complete Graphics System and Special Ef- fects, is an art lover, Some of us might be a bit sur- prised, however, that he's willing to consider lov- ing our art. Well, he'd like to see it anyway, and the guest contest he’s sponsoring this month guaran- tees he’ll get the chance. The Penquin Computer Art Competition has three parts, any or all of which you can enter. Contest 1: Computer Drawing. Prize will go to the best full screen picture created using any graphics program on the market or one written by the contestant. Drawings may be in color or black and white. Originality will weigh as heavily as execution in the judging. Contest 2: Computer Calligraphy. Prize will rec- ognize the best original type font (of text charac- ters). Font must be compatible with either Pen- guin’s Character Generator or Synergistic Soft- ware's Higher Text. A written statement accom- panying the entry disk must specify which char- acter generator the entry will work with and whether it is a small or large font. In addition to the prize, the best fonts entered will be included in a fonts disk Penguin will pro- vide to users of their graphics products, with full acknowledgment of the contributors. If you want to enter this contest but do not want your font includ- ed on this disk, simply specify this; it willinno way affect your chances of winning. Contest 3: Computer Animation. Prize will go to the best moving screen picture, moving sculpture, or animated drawing that runs without any user in- teraction. Entries that require user input will be disqualified. Time limit for the entire program from start to finish is two minutes. Entry disks must be accompanied by written title of program and all files needed by the program must be loaded automatically by the program. General Rules: 1. All entries must arrive at Softalk no later than March 31. (The gremlins are apt to get them if they arrive the following day... .) 2. All entries must be submitted on disk, but multiple entries are permitted on one disk as long as a written and clearly understandable catalog ac- companies the disk. Penguin promises to return any disks that are accompanied by proper postage and proper packaging; disks not so accompanied will not be returned. 3. Any entrants wishing to be considered for Softalk’s Bonus (explanation follows) must put their entries to all three contests on the same disk. 4, Penguin will be the final judge. Entries will be judged on originality and creativity in the use of the Apple hi-res graphics capabilities. All deci- sions are final. 5. Entries must be accompanied by your name, address, and phone number, both in writing and on any submitted disk. Prizes. First prize in each category will be $150 worth of any software advertised in Softalk. Sec- ond prize winners will receive copies of Penguin's package, The Graphics Magician; third place prizes are copies of Penguin's Special Effects. If a second or third place winner already owns the prize they've won, Penguin will substitute another Pen- guin product of the contestant’s choice. Mark Pelczarski and the Penguin wish you good luck and happy creating. . Softalk’s Bonus. If any one individual should place first, second, or third in all three contests, Softalk will award that person $100 in prizes chosen from any of Softalk’s advertisers. In the event that more than one person achieves these lofty heights, the random number generator will be put to work again to choose the bonus winner. FEBRUARY 1982 THE FLOPPY UN-PUZZLE for any data or word- processor... ( the right media ; 7 goes then you'd better go back. .. or mini- or micro-. . . TO SQUARE ONE (and look again. . .!) THERE'S NO PUZZLE. . . when you ask us for a Verbatim catalog and price sheet. Or we can answer most questions by phone. WE PLAY IT BACK . . Verbatim. Every bit of every byte of every track of every disk is pretested. Meets all requirements for IBM, Shugart, ANSI, ECMA, ISO and APPLE. HEAD CLEANING KITS feccjurtehoadstord" ond 51/8 oes FULL LINE . . . ALWAYS IN STOCK OVERNIGHT DELIVERY* —* If order phoned in before 1 p.m. same day shipment. 6901 Canby Avenue, Reseda, CA 91335 (Los Angeles) Phone (213) 705-4202 2680 Bayshore Frontage Road, Suite 1030, Mountain View, CA 94043 (415) 962-9275 LARGEST MASTER DISTRIBUTOR FOR VERBATIM REMOVABLE MAGNETIC STORAGE MEDIA ° ixius Tools Audex E-Z Draw E-Z Draw is a graphics editing package for Apple II BASIC with simple one character commands so it can easily: © Draw dots, lines, parallelo- grams, triangles, circles and ellipses on the screen, Move any area of the screen to any other area, Transform any area of the screen into its mirror image while expanding or compress- ing its width or height or rotat- ing it 90 degrees, Draw text on the screen using any of 20 original and imagina- tive type styles using the Higher Text Character Genera- tor by Ron & Darrell Aldrich, Save images and complete pictures to the disk for use within BASIC programs, and Draw using any of the Apple BASIC colors. This program has been used by professional programmers to generate spectacular hi-res pic- tures for use with their games, professional packages and edu- cational software. It can be used to create professional illustra- tions, graphs and slides in addi- tion to adding hi-res graphics to BASIC programs. E-Z Draw re- quires a 48k Apple II or Il+ and one disk drive. Audex is a collection of utility pro- grams that allow you to create sounds, shape them, edit them and play them back in your own Applesoft BASIC programs. The only tools required are an Apple II computer with Applesoft BASIC, 48K of memory, one or more disk drives with DOS 3.3 and an op- tional tape player. Included with this disk are: - @ DRAW-A-SOUND, a program for creating and editing sound pulse patterns using the key- board and hi-res screen. These sounds can be tones, squalks, thumps or anything you choose. EXCERPT-A-SOUND is a pro- gram for getting sounds from the cassette port and excerpt- ing portions of this audio data for use as sound effects. Ex- cerpting produces more un- iform tones and uses less memory. @ BUILD-A-SOUND is a program to connect sounds and tones together into extended pat- terns to form or emulate speech. @ AUDIO OPCODES is a collec- tion of relocatable machine language routines that allow you to easily reproduce in your own Applesoft programs any sound effects, music, speech, etc. created using the above utility programs. A user manual is provided that includes many programming examples and complete instruc- tions for using all the utility pro- grams. PGE The Pascal Graphics Editor is a complete graphics editor with command and menu structures modeled after the Pascal text edi- tor. It Features: @ Commands for drawing dots, lines, rectangles, parallelo- grams and circles @ A routine to fill any closed area with any of 720 color combina- tions @ Protective viewports which allow selective filling, erasing, or drawing without disturbance of other screen areas @ Easy moving, rotating, invert- ing (upside down and/or mir- rored), crunching, expanding (horizontally or vertically), color separating and saving to disk any portion of the graphics screen @ A built in font generator which can be used to define fonts with cell sizes ranging from 1x 1 to 16 x 16. Fonts can be drawn onto the screen in any of 16 different DRAWBLOCK display modes with optional proportional spacing Return of the included license agreement entitles you to a free back-up diskette and Pascal utili- ties package which includes two library units that expand TURTLE- GRAPHICS: @ The GEOMETRIC UNIT simpli- fies the drawing and filling in of simple geometric shapes and aids in creating DRAWBLOCK arrays and saving pictures to disk with commands: PROCE- DURE TRIANGLE, PARALLEL- OGRAM, ELLIPSE, PFILL, COPYBLOCK; FUNCTION PICREAD AND PICWRITE. @ The TEXTWRITER UNIT allows you to load and use multiple fonts including all fonts defined by PGE with commands: PROCEDURE WFCHAR, WEFSTRING, FONTYPE, PRO- PORTION; FUNCTION FONTREAD. The Pascal Graphics Editor re- quires a 64K Apple II or ll + and ‘one disk drive. The Joyport The Joyport is the most signifi- cant new input device for the Ap- ple computer since the keyboard. A wide variety of software is ra- pidly being developed to take ad- vantage of the Joyport’s features: e@ Apple game paddle sockets that can use 4 game paddles @ 2 Sockets to accept Atari type joysticks Connections for Apple and Atari paddles and joysticks that are easily accessible without opening the Apple case (no more dissecting the Apple each time you want to change paddles) Complete compatibility with all existing BASIC, Pascal and machine language programs and games @ 2 Switches to select between Apple type paddles and Atari joysticks @ Custom designed enclosure that complements Apple case Acomplete users’ manual includ- ing installation and programming examples is provided with each Joyport. For a limited time only, included with the Joyport will be a free copy of Computer Foos- ball. Sirius Software, Inc. 10364 Rockingham Drive Sacramento, California 95827 (916) 920-1195 SS The Pascal Graphics Editor, Joyport, E-2 Draw, Audex, and Computer Foosball are copyrighted products of Sirius Software, Inc. Higher Text is a copyrighted product of Synergistic Software. Apple ll, || + and Applesoft are copyrighted products of Apple Computer Inc. Trademark of Atari Inc. Atari isa I FEBRUARY 1982 TOFTALLS War... I am an Apple owner, a university in- structor, and an avid reader of your magazine. I feel that Softalk is one of the finest magazines available for the Apple computer. I wholeheartedly recommend it to all Apple owners, and I have learnt a great deal from reading your articles and software listings. But I must tell you that I feel that the advertisement for Street Life that you al- lowed to run on page 175 of your Decem- ber issue and which also ran in the No- vember issue on page 107 is not good. In fact I feel that it is really bad. I neither care what consenting adults do, nor would I try to dictate my morality on anyone else. But I have two sons (ages 11 and 15) who are also readers of Softalk and as a conscientious parent it is my re- sponsibility to concern myself with what they read, do, and what they expose themselves to in general. As publishers you must realize that a great deal of your reading audience and the personal com- puter constituency is made up of teen- agers who are influenced by the things that you print and the software that is made available to them through your magazine. The ad clearly shows a street walker and the text tells how this game ‘puts you in control of up to ten ladies of the night.”” I can't believe that you are so de- sirous of advertisers that you would not realize that this kind of ad glamorizes pimps and sets a very bad example for minds in general and young minds in par- ticular. It is not desirable to depict nor to use women as sexual objects that are to be used to earn money with. Even to en- courage people to fantasize in this activity is a great misdirection of energy and values. I realize that the ad is probably geared to adults (although nowhere does it so specify—nor can anyone control who mail-orders) but, none the less, children and teenagers will read the ad if it’s in your magazine and will be tempted to buy and/or trade this program. I for one do'not want to encourage my sons to play at ‘being pimps, avoiding police, and looking for eager ‘johns,’ ’’ etc., as is ad- vertised in this ad. I guess that computer magazines will have to face the fact that a time of deci- sion making is fast approaching, and that software will be becoming more and more sexual. Are you an adult magazine or a family magazine? Will you adver- tise for anyone who is willing to pay you money or will you insist on a certain level of truly useful, educational, and benefi- cial products to serve the real interest of your clientele? Istrongly recommend, therefore, that you and your staff take another look at this ad and really think about whether this is the type of material that you wish to make available to your readers. Lawrence Galante, New York, NY De a Gea | I feel I must respond to two letters in the November 1981 ‘‘Open Discussion.’ They are ‘‘A Letter to On-Line” and “Vacuous Sex Symbol Misrepresents Women,” both on page 22. Incidentally, I am not associated with On-Line Systems or with any other software publisher. Richard Gillett objects to the Soft- porn Adventure ad turning Softalk into “‘cheesecake."" This reminds me of a Popular Science article on color photog- raphy being criticized for using pictures of a girl in a modest two-piece bathing suit to demonstrate flesh tones. If the Softporn models were actually posed any lower in the hot tub, they would drown. You can see considerably more bare flesh at any public swimming pool. As a recent Softalk recipient, I don’t have any back issue with an ad on page 70 that Mary Miller Smith could find of- fensive. Her comment, ‘‘Women will never get out of the bedroom if this type of advertising is continued,” suggests it was Softporn, Street Life, or, most like- ly, Interlude. These two letters present variations on the theme that sex is essentially bad. Mr. Gillett feels Softporn, a “product which is as useless and unnecessary as its ad" is lowering the computer indus- try to the ‘gutter level.'’ Ms. Smith finds a sex-related computer game a “put down.” It puzzles me that I have heard so many protests against sex in computers and other areas, and so few against violence. How socially desirable is it to glorify nuclear destruction. (ABM and Missile Defense), piracy (Shadowhawk 1), robbery and violence (Zork—my per- sonal favorite), and warfare (Sabotage, Bomber, Tank War, and Star Trek)? One of my feminist friends has a T- shirt that reads, ‘‘Woman's place is inthe Bedroom and the Boardroom." Certain- ly, the time for women's social and economic equality is long overdue. But that doesn't mean that a woman is neces- sarily being exploited when she enjoys sex. One of the major advances of Wom- en’s Liberation has been the number of women now insisting on their right to a satisfying sex life. This assertion is shocking in a culture that raises its chil- dren with the myth that there is some- thing wrong with a girl who desires sex, while a boy’s ‘‘animal” lusts are normal and inescapable, although not something to be discussed in mixed company. I find it interesting that, according to Time, Softporn author Chuck Benton has been deluged with requests for a female ver- sion. OPEN mol On| War games can be a harmless outlet for aggression. Surely it's better to come home after a rough day and blow away a few Klingons than to take it out on the family. Maybe the sex games will help people defuse some of the sexual/ emotional time-bombs our culture has attempted to install in our psyches. If Interlude helps couples overcome a few of the sexual incompatibilities that are rending families in epidemic propor- tions, more power to it! Sex is one of God's greatest gifts to humanity. It can be a physical expres- sion of love. It can also be perverted. I feel the greatest perversion is to try to make it ‘‘dirty."’ As God said to Saint Peter, ‘What I have made clean, do not call ‘unclean.’ " James K. Olinger, Austin, TX Should Softalk Rate Adventures? With the large interest in adventure-fan- tasy simulations, I feel that the time has come for some kind of standardization. In the old days, it wasn't too hard to choose what games to buy because only a handful existed. Today, there are nu- merous games to choose from. I myself am a fairly experienced adventurer and prefer to play those games that will offer me a challenge. On the other hand, many of my friends who are just starting out would prefer a game that is more forgiv- ing to their beginning adventuring style. I recently ran across Birth of the Phoenix by Phoenix Software and was very impressed by the program and by this company’s attempt to indicate by a numerical rating system the relative dif- ficulty of some of their adventures. I be- lieve this is a step in the right direction. As all neophyte adventurers already know, it can be quite frustrating to play an adventure that may be far too diffi- cult for their skill level. Many beginners, who would eventually become good ad- venturers, get scared off because they get in over their heads. Some of the ad- ventures on the market today are very sophisticated and at anywhere from $15.00 to $100.00, buying the wrong pro- gram can be very costly indeed. While Phoenix Software is moving in the right direction, the majority of ad- venture and fantasy producers are very vague as to the relative difficulty of their programs. What I propose is that an in- dependent reviewing group such as Sof- talk come up with a numerical rating sys- tem and rate all adventure-fantasy games in this way. Please understand that this would not be a system to rate the quality of the programs, just the relative difficulty of play. A system such as this 10 would make it much easier for the begin- ning, average, and advanced adventurer to make a correct choice in what kind of skill level they want to play at. Ideally, all companies would submit a final version of their program to the re- view board and this board would then as- sign the proper difficulty number. When the program was made available to the public, it would bear the difficulty rating on the package and in advertisements. I would like to encourage Softalk or anyone else who may be interested in making adventure-fantasy simulations ® TSOFTALK FEBRUARY 1982 adventurers as well as the views of the program authors themselves. Joe Balsamo, San Diego, CA Furthering Fortran The Fortran review by Coats and Wald- man in the December issue is one of the better articles on such a subject. Anyone considering the purchase of any of the products in the review will be well warned of the pitfalls. The numbers shown in the bench- marks caught my attention. I couldn't understand how the Z80 could be ten times faster than the 6809 for bench- marks 2 and 3. Apparently, The Mill is more enjoyable to feel free to contact me. I am anxious to hear the views of other MENU GENERATOR™ CAN ORGANIZE YOUR APPLE MENU GENERATOR is an exciting new software package for developing menu programs on your Apple. In fact, MENU GENERATOR contains its own menu system to lead you through the development process, which involves filling in several forms on the screen. On request, MENU GENERATOR will compile your inputs and write a menu program in Basic. It will also store your inputs in a data base for later editing. The menu programs developed with MENU GENERATOR display completely formatted screens, process user input commands and perform the required DOS operations to run other programs. MENU GENERATOR requires a 48K Apple Il Plus, one disk drive, DOS 3.3 and optional printer. Suggested retail price is $39.95 for MENU GENERATOR on disk with instruction manual, GIVE YOUR (ff Menu A LIFT rane oftware, Inc. of Apple Computer, Inc, Menu G. of Crane 16835 ALGONQUIN SUITE 611 HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA 92649 (714) 846-8005 DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME Direct Orders Accepted with Check or C.0.D. ator is a Trademark Software, Inc interpreting the code while the SoftCard is executing the code directly. Out of curiosity, I produced two 6809 assembly language versions of bench- mark 3. The result from the first version, in which I emulated a very crude Fortran compiler (no sophisticated code and no optimization whatsoever), was a run- ning time of ten seconds. The second ver- sion, in which redundant operations were removed and initialization of the FLAGS array was optimized, resulted in a run- ning time of less than five seconds. I also ran benchmark 3 on a Xerox/ Honeywell Sigma 5 and got a running time of about five seconds. This test was in a time-sharing environment with no other active users. E. M. Greene, Ridgecrest, CA Pioneers Together I often read letters submitted to this magazine from users of software who are very unhappy about the support they re- ceive from the various software houses, I would like to take this opportunity to write a letter of praise for the support I have received from Continental Soft- ware in Culver City, California. Recently I purchased Continental Software’s Home Money Minder for $34.95. I found the software I purchased to have some marginal program loads and actually found a possible bug or two in the logic of the program. Needless to say, I was very unhappy! My first in- stinct was to return the software to the store and get my money back. Instead, I contacted Continental Software. I was immediately rushed a new diskette that eliminated the marginal program load problems and was put in contact with the programmer to resolve the “bugs.” When one considers that the Home Money Minder has been essentially re- placed by Continental Software’s new money manager, The Home Accountant, the support I received was above and be- yond the call of duty. We are often quick to criticize. In- stead, we should be trying to work out problems with the software houses. The home computer industry is a new fron- tier and we, the pioneers, must work to- gether with the manufacturers (who are also pioneers) to produce working prod- ucts. In the future when we have problems with software, I feel we should attempt to contact the software house about the problem. If we do not receive support then let's write letters to this and other magazines about that software house. If however, we do receive support from the manufacturer, let's hear about these companies, too. For now, thank you, Continental Soft- ware, for your support! Joe Goebelt, Boulder Creek, CA Making Learning Fun T've just come across what I feel to be one of the best programs available for the Introducing The Grappler’: The only interface that makes computer graphics easy as Apple pie. Orange Micro offers the only universal parallel interface card that simplifies high resolution graphics for Apple™ computers. No longer does the user need to load clumsy software routines to dump screen graphics — it’s all done by the Grappler’s exclusive E-PROM chip. There are versions to accommo- date the Anadex, Epson Mx-100, MxX-80* and MX-70, IDS PaperTigers, Centronics 739, NEC 8023 and C. Itoh Prowriter, and future graphics printers. The Grap- pler” accepts 18 simple software com- mands accessible through the keyboard or user program, making it the most intelligent Apple Interface available. Order The Grappler” through Orange Micro direct, or authorized dealers. “Requires Graftrak-80 Dealer inquiries welcome to: Waybern Corporation (714) 554-4520 CompuCable Corporation (714) 635-7330 Kal Tronics (312) 291-1220 FEATURES — User Benefits GRAPHICS SCREEN DUMP—Choice ot Hi-Resolution Graphics page 1 or page 2. INVERSE GRAPHICS — Provides reverse graphics of black-on-white or white-on- black. EMPHASIZED GRAPHICS —Allows high density graphics on certain printers. DOUBLE SIZE PICTURE—Doubles the graphic screen representation vertically & horizontally. 90° ROTATION—Rotates the screen pic- ture 90° CENTER GRAPHICS—Accomplished through setting left margin thereby center- ing the graph. CHART RECORDER MODE-Successive horizontal pictures are combined continu- ously simulating a chart recorder. Uy i @ Orange Micro inc. 3150 E. La Palma, Suite G, Anaheim, CA 92806 (800) 854-8275 toi FREE (714) 630-3322 ca, ak, HI ACTUAL APPLE II”. PRINTOUT USING GRAPPLER™ AND EPSON MX-100. BLOCK GRAPHICS—For printers with block graphics (e.g. Epson MX-80, Okidata M80), the high order bit can be controlled. BELL —For printers with a bell, bell charac- ters are deleted during user prograt . MARGINS — Set left and right mat SKIP-OVER-PERF—Set page length; printer will automatically skip 6 lines between each page. VARIABLE LINE LENGTH —For user pro- gram listings, sets line length and wraps around with breakpoint at nearest blank. TEXT SCREEN DUMP The text from a user report or page of program listing can be dumped directly from the screen. WORKS WITH PASCAL & CPM The Grappler inti © 1981 Orange Micro, Inc 12 Apple. It’s the Word Scrambler and Su- per Speller by Avant-Garde Creations. This program teaches spelling, but with the fun of a video game, and costs less than one too. In the future I would like to see a best- sellers list devoted to educational soft- ware. Also I would like to say that I think Softaik is a must for all Apple owners. Gordon Lurie, Skokie, IL. Watch for The Schoolhouse Apple, a new column coming soon in Softalk. The Oracle Flunks Arithmetic After reading and rereading both the S TOFTALK FEBRUARY 1982 September and December 1981 issues of Softalk, I cannot understand the Decem- ber standings in the Oracle ’81 contest. My understanding is that Part 5 was worth either 0, +10, +20, or +30 to any contestant. Unfortunately, adding any of these to all of the leader's totals as pub- lished in the September issue fails to yield a single match with the December issue. If, for example, Jim Ganz’s total after Part 4 was —13, the most he can have after Part 5 is +17. This assumes that he guessed the Dodgers would triumph over the Yankees. However, in December you reported his score as +22. Similarly, Daniel Tobias’s September score is repeated in that issue as —15%, by Paul Lutus The only two-voice music synthesizer for the Apple computer that does not See and hear it at your Apple dealer. require additonal hardware. Only $29.95 implying that the only scores above zero he could have would be +4% or +14%, not +9% as shown in December. Although both of the above examples seem to indicate that a constant error of +5 is present, my score is indeed above zero but less than +2 after Part 5 (+15), as Softalk correctly indicated in December. Finally, it seems I was left out of the September issue even though my score after Part 4 was —18%, indicat- ing I was third at that point. Could you please help me to under- stand the published results? Michael B. Preston, Culver City, CA September’s information was in error; the error was often in scores recorded as five less than they ought to have been, but some could have been ten or fifteen less as well. Inadvertently, in updating for part 2, scores had been in- creased by 0, +5, +10, and +15. Only the first figure is correct. Scoring entries should have been increased by +10, +20, and +80, respectively. We caught this only during the preparation of the December issue and updated all scores, contenders or not, accordingly. Inciden- tally, congratulations on a fine entry. Circle the Day I noticed that your magazine has grown to more than two hundred pages, and I congratulate you on the success of your excellent product. I was wondering, would it be possible to add one of those ad- vertiser's reader service cards at the back of the issue similar to Byte maga- zine’s, where readers could inquire about several products without writing to each advertiser individually? Steve Brodsloy, Stanford, CA Where an action or policy might en- courage or discourage Apple owners from supporting their local dealers, Softalk has always opted for the course that favors the dealers. In this infant in- dustry, most users benefit from the sup- port and assistance of an expert they can contact personally; many local dealers are set up to give this aid, but the more time and effort they are willing to contrib- ute this way, the more expensive it is for them. If, as soon as they are relatively familiar with their computers, such a dealer’s customers begin dealing direct- ly with publishers, manufacturers, or mail-order houses, service of this nature will no longer be feasible. More Apples Choose Engineering I obtained a May 1981 issue of Softalk at the Toronto Apple Expo, November 1981. In the Open Discussion section, page 8, I read with great interest J. W. Yee’s letter entitled ‘‘An Engineering Apple.”’ I am in the same position as J. W. Yee. I would like to request, if possible, the address of Johnson W. Yee, in San Fran- cisco, so that I might get in touch with him. They have landed and are taking over the city. Steadily they are making their way across the city, destroying everything in their paths. The town has been evacuated and your regiment has retreated leaving you, alone in the city, at the mercy of the aliens. . The aliens have you surrounded; and laser shots fly from all directions. Your movements are confined but you haven't given up. If you’re going to live, you'll have to concentrate on where the shots are coming from and where you're going because if you don’t, you'll get caught in the CROSS FIRE. CROSS FIRE is a unique new game by JAY SULLIVAN featuring HI-RES graphics and sound, siaaath quick . animation, and some of the best arcade challenge available anywhere. CROSS FIRE runs on any 48K APPLE IM PLUS DOS 3-2 or 3-3 and is available now for $29.95 on disk from your local computer store or you may f order directly from...... IN-LINE systems 36575 Mudge Ranch Road - Coarsegold, CA 93614 - 209-683-6858 ADD $1.00 FOR DIRECT ORDERS. VISA, MASTER CHARGE, C.O.D. or CHECKS ACCEPTED 14 Also, I bought a 48K Apple II-Plus used, and this May 1981 issue is the first I've seen. Could you let me know the sub- scription rates? V. Siciunas, Toronto, Ontario, Canada We are presently exploring distribu- tion arrangements for Canada, Austra- lia, Sweden, and the Orient. As soon as these are firm, they'll be announced in Softalk and inquirers will be individually notified. Meanwhile, an independent company, Bite-soft, has arranged a for- eign subscription plan of their own for which they buy magazines from us. You can write to Bite-soft at Box 175, North Hollywood, CA 91603. Crystal-Clear Controversy I read, with interest, the letter headed “Trust Is Best Protection" in your De- cember issue of Softalk. Strangely enough, I have suffered the same experience at the same hands with the same lack of success. I bought a copy of Sands of Mars from Crystal. It didn’t work. Nor did the replacement. Nor did the replacement’s replacement. Some- what miffed, I sent a letter (copy en- closed) with the software to Crystal ask- ing for a refund. The result? Five weeks later I got the whole lot back with a rather nasty letter sticker that said, in es- sence, ‘once you've bought it, we can't be responsible." Frankly, their attitude & TOFIALK FEBRUARY 1982 stinks. The trouble is, I really have no re- course, unless there are enough ticked Crystal software buyers out there to start a class action suit?! I do think that it has to be, in part, your responsibility, Softalk, to screen your advertisers and protect your read- ers from these sort of unscrupulous get- rich-quick merchants. Maybe you need to set up a watchdog line to allow readers who have been gypped to complain. At least demand a sample of the ad- vertised software and make sure it runs. The Sands of Mars still crashes happily, and the graphics/animation are puerile! Please, Softalk, see what can be done to protect us from these rip-off kings—at least get their programs and try them. John Lillicrap, Eden Prairie, MN In reference to the letter printed in your December issue, I would like to say afew words in the behalf of Crystalware Inc, To the best of my knowledge, with the conversion of our game software for the Apple II to DOS 3.3, all of the trouble- some bugs have been taken care of. Although we've found the majority of software buyers to be honest and ethical, we still run into a great deal of ‘‘White Collar Crime"’ and software piracy. I will only be too happy to speak to any of our unhappy purchasers out here if they will call (408) 788-3125. It is much easier for our competitors alike. Some of its outstanding features: Fast interactive debugging of APPLESOFT™ programs SOFT-STEP™ — anew easy-to-use debugger for the expert and beginner STEP—single-step thru your BASIC programs BREAK—set breakpoint at any line LIST—list next line to be executed. TRACE—trace all or only chosen lines EXAMINE—see the values of variables or memory DEFINE—change values of variables or memory Requires 32K APPLE (only 2.7 kbytes long). No modification to your source pro- gram needed. Fast Assembly language. $39.95. See your dealer today LOOP-HOLE™ — a fast, Mi) fun, hi-res action game for two. {| You win by trapping your oppo- nent ‘in your trail—if his bul- iH} lets don't get you. Play with game paddles or keyboard com- mands. $29.95 to produce what we consider to be very primitive games and debug and test their products. The more complex a program the more difficult it is to totally debug. We feel it ethical to provide a work- ing, playable copy of our product. It seems at times there are individuals who are more interested in finding fault than appreciating our product and experienc- ing and enjoying them as is our inten- tion they should. We always are receptive to com- ments and useful suggestions but some- times cannot process orders quickly and at the same time argue on matters of suggestive opinion and personal taste. Again my lines are open for your en- couragement and suggestions. Please say ‘‘Code Blue"’ when calling. John Bell, President, Crystalware, Mor- gan Hills, CA Several individuals, including some retailers, have offered us unsolicited comments on Crystal products. Two re- tailers sent us unopened packages of sev- eral of the Crystal games. Both sets of packages are 3.2 version, When John Bell of Crystal called Softalk to ask for “equal time” to offset the negative letter in De- cember’s Open Discussion, we offered him more than equal time. Believing that the best argument for a negative com- ment is a good product and that a review of such a product would be far more in- fluential than a letter stating unbacked opinions, we informed Bell of the soft- ware we had received and of our intent to review some of the products. Bell was distressed that we did not have the new, “bugfree’’ 3.3 versions, and we expressed full willingness to review those versions rather than the ones we had if he cared to send them to us. If the new versions were fully cleaned up, we would be most pleased to announce that; we far prefer publishing good news than bad. However, no 3.3 versions—in fact, no versions at all—arrived from Crystal; so we proceeded to testplay the 3.2 version of Crystalware’s six-disk-side role-play- ing game, Fantasyland 2040 A.D., which is, indeed, rife with bugs. Softalk does not print responses that are highly negative to a company with- out first so informing that company; John Bell’s response to that reading was to ship out a set of the 3.3 Fantasylands by express mail, in the hope that we could include it in our review. In the interest of being absolutely fair, Softalk’s review of Fantasyland, includ- ing 3.3, will appear next month. We take issue with John Bell’s impli- ACCU-SHAPES™ — the ultimate shape- building program. Shapes are constructed on the lo-res screen with simple keyboard commands to unparalleled accuracy. Save tables to disk. Add, delete, insert, edit, move, etc., at will. Construct on lo-res, view on hi-res. Fast 8K Assembly language. 48K APPLE required. $39.95. See your dealer today. cation that bugs are more acceptable in complex software than in simpler prod- ucts. No program is worth the price, whatever that may be, if it doesn’t run properly. If authors’ programs are too complex to be debugged, those authors need to lower their expectations tem-~ porarily and work on less complex pro- grams that they can produce perfectly. ACCENT Software 3750 Wright Place Palo Alto, CA 94306 (415) 856-6505 APPLESOFT and APPLE are trademarks of Apple Computer Quality Disk Software from SPECTRUM PERSONAL FINANCE MASTER: UNIVERSAL BUSINESS MACHINE: MATHEMATICS SERIES: The premier personal and small business financial system. Covering all types of accounts including check registers, savings, money market, loan, credit card and other asset or liability accounts, the system has these features: Monthly Transaction Reports Budgets Income & Expense Reconciles to Bank Statements Prints Checks & Mailing Labels Automatic Year-End Roliover Prepares a Net Worth Report Searches for Transactions Handles Split Transactions User-Friendly Data Entry Forms Fast Machine Language Routines Extensive Error Trapping HI-RES Eicanee income Plots For Applic i (48K)...-...--s2es.eeeeeres COLOR CALENDAR: $29.95 Got a busy calendar? Organize it with Color Calendar. Whether it's birthdays, appointments, business meetings or a regular office schedule, this program is the perfect way to schedule your activities. The calendar display is a beautiful HI-RES color graphics calendar of the selected month with each ‘scheduled day highlighted in color. Using the daily schedule, you can review any day of the month and schedule an event or activity in any one of 20 time slots from 8:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. BUSINESS SOFTWARE: Both Programs $249.95 user-friendly yet comprehensive double-entry ac- counting system employing screen-oriented data input forms, extensive error-trapping, data valida- tion and machine language routines for high speed operation. The series includes these two modules: GENERAL LEOGER: A complete accounting system with these features: + Up to 500 accounts and 500 transactions per month. « Extensive check register management system (Similar to our PFM). * Prints checks and mailing labels. + Produces these reports: Transactions Journal Account Ledgers Income Statement Balance Sheet Account Listings Requires Apple Il, 48K RAM, 1 disk drive. .... . $149.95 ‘ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: A flexible system with these features: * Up to 500 accounts and up to 500 invoices per diskette. + Prints invoices and customer statements & address labels. + Interfaces to General Ledger. + Interactive screen-based invoice work sheet. + Produces these reports: Aged Receivables Sales Analysis Customer Listings Invoice Search Requires Apple Il, 48K RAM, 2 disk drives. : - $149.95 Both Programs. $249.95 An electronic spread sheet structured around a 100 row x 20 column table. User defines row and column names and equations forming a unique template. Table elements can be multiplied, added, subtracted, divided, summed, averaged and accum- ulated, Hundreds of unique templates can be created, used, stored and recalled for later use. Supplied with 8 standard templates ready for use covering these subjects, Cash Flow Analysis Proforma Profit & Loss Proforma Balance Sheet Real Estate Investment Sales Forecaster Source and Use of Funds Job Cost Estimator Inventory Analysis Price (Apple Il, 48K) .. ELECTRONICS SERIES VOL! & Il: Entire Series $259.95 LOGIC SIMULATOR: SAVE TIME AND MONEY. Simulate your digital logic circuits before you build them. CMOS, TTL, or whatever, if it's digital logic, this program can handle it. The program is an inter- active, menu driven, full-fledged logic simulator capable of simulating the bit-time response of a logic network to user-specified input patterns. It will handle up to 1000 gates, including NANDS, NORS, INVERTERS, FLIP-FLOPS, SHIFT REGISTERS, COUNTERS up to 20 user-defined random, or binary input patterns. Accepts network descriptions from Keyboard or rom LOGIC DESIENER fr simulation (48K) . . - $159.95 LOGIC DESIGNER: interactive HI-RES graphics program for designing digital logic systems. Draw directly on the screen up to 10 different gate types, including NAND, NOR, INVERTER, EX-OR, T-FLOP. JK-FLOP, O-FLOP, RS-FLOP, 4 BIT COUNTER and N-BIT SHIFT REGISTER. User interconnects gates using line graphics com- mands. Network descriptions for LOGIC SIMULATOR generated simultaneously with the CRT diagram being drawn .. oe +» $159.95 MANUAL ANO OEMO OISK: Instruction Manual and demo disk illustrating capabilities of both pro- grams) $29.95 ELECTRONIC SERIES VOL Ill & WV: Entire Series $259.95 CIRCUIT SIMULATOR: Tired of trial & error circuit design? Simulate & debug your designs before you build them! With CIRCUIT SIMULATOR you build a model of your circuit using RESISTORS, CAPACITORS, INDUCTORS, TRANSISTORS, OIOOES, VOLTAGE and CUR- RENT SOURCES and simulate the waveform res- ponse to inputs such as PULSES, SINUSOIOS, SAW- TOOTHS, etc. ..all fully programmable, The output is displayed as an OSCILLOSCOPE-STYLE PLOT of the selected waveforms or as a printed table of voltage vs time. Handles up to 50 nodes and 100 components. Requires 48 RAM... eee ccseeeeeeeees $159.95 CIRCUIT OESIGNER: Interactive HLRES graphics pro- gram for designing electronic circuits. Draw directly on the screen up to 10 different component types, including those referenced above. Component inter- connect list for CIRCUIT SIMULATOR generated auto- matically, Requires 48K RAM . - $1591.95 Entire Series $49.95 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS |: This menu driven program performs LINEAR REGRESSION analysis, determines ‘the mean, standard deviation and plots the fre- quency distribution of user-supplied data sets. Prin- ter, Disk, 1/0 routines. EON ee ++ $19.95 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS: HI-RES 2-Dimensional plot of any function. Automatic scaling. At your option, the program will plot the function, plot the INTEGRAL plot the DERIVATIVE, determine the ROOTS, MAXIMA, MINIMA, INTEGRAL VALUE ................. $19.95 MATRIX: A general purpose, menu driven program for determining the INVERSE and OETERMINANT of any matrix, as well as the SOLUTION to any set of SIMULTANEOUS LINEAR EQUATIONS ......... $19.95 30 SUFAACE PLOTTER: Explore the ELEGANCE and BEAUTY of MATHEMATICS by creating HI-RES PLOTS of 3-dimensional surfaces from any 3-variable equa- tion. Disk save and recall routines for plots. Menu driven to vary surface parameters. Hidden line or transparent plotting....... $19.95 ACTION ADVENTURE GAMES: Entire Series $29.95 REO BARON: Can you outfly the REG BARON? This fast action game simulates a machine-gun OOGFGHT between your WORLO WAR | BI-PLANE and the baron’s. You can LOOP, DIVE, BANK or CLIMB-and so can the BARON. In HI-RES graphics plus sound ..... $14.95 BATTLE OF MIDWAY: You are in command of the U.S.S. HORNETS’ OIVE-BOMBER squadron. Your targets are the Aircraft carriers, Akagi, Soryu and Kaga. You must fly your way through ZEROS and AA FIRE to make your DIVE-BOMB run. In HERES gronhics ine sound. $14 SUB ATTACK: It's April 1943. The enemy convoy is headed for the CONTROL SEA. Your sub, the MORAY, has just sighted the CARRIERS and BATTLESHIPS: Easy pickings. But watch out for the DESTROYERS - they're fast and deadly. In HI-RES graphics plus sound. . $14.95 FREE CATALOG-All programs are supplied on disk and run on Apple Il w/Disk & Applesoft ROM Card and require 32K RAM unless otherwise noted. De- tailed instructions included. Orders shipped within 5 days. Card users include card number. Add $2.00 postage and handling with each order. California fesidents add 6%% sales tax. Foreign orders add $5.00 postage and handling per product. SPECTRUM SOFTWARE 142 Carlow, P.O. Box 2084 Sunnyvale, CA 94087 FOR PHONE ORDERS: (408) 738-4387 DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED. 8 \q HORIZON V NASIR outdoes himself again... this time with three-dimensional effects ina simulated space battie that fivals the best of arcade machines. From the open plains of alien planetoldsto the twisting vortex of time, this game Is destined to be the measure of three- dimensional simulation. Requires 48K Apple II or Ils with disk drive. RUSSKI DUCK Introducing a new concept in computer games... . the real- time adventute. As a secret agent working for the DIA you must recover the jolen LX missile plans before foreign agents can smuggle them out of the country hidden in a duck . By Eric Knopp and Alan Merrell, (e- “1981 Gebelli Software, Inc. Apple Il and II: are registered trademarks of Apple Computer. Inc. FIREBIRD An exciting new arcade game by the master of Apple animation: NASIR. PIGGO, the fearless firefighter battles blazes left in the flery wake of the incredible FIREBIRD. Requires 48K Apple Il oF ll+ with di drive FEBRUARY 1982 SOFTALK & In addition, from all we have seen of Crystal’s products, we believe that there is not one game publisher represented in the Softalk Bestsellers whose products could be considered primitive compared with Crystal’s. Some of Crystal’s pro- grams are sophisticated, but so are Ras- ter Blaster, Crossfire, Zork, Cyborg, Cas- tle Wolfenstein, Ulysses and the Golden Fleece, Ultima, and Wizardry, to name just a few; and all of these are essential- ly bugfree. Seek and Ye Shall Find The writer of this letter is executive edi- tor of The Living Light, an interdisciplin- ary review of Christian education. Inter- ested readers can contact him at the Catholic University of America, Wash- ington, DC 20064. I was intrigued by an advertisement in the November 1981 issue of Softalk publi- cizing the wares of Cross Educational Software in Ruston, LA (page 182). I have placed an order with them for sev- eral of their Christian education pro- grams. Although I suspected that such programs existed, these were the first I have seen advertised. Some months ago we received an un- solicited manuscript from someone at Control Data ballyhooing some of the ef- forts made by churches to employ com- puters. The applications that he cited all dealt with data processing and manage- ment—which is not very different in churches than in business (I was going to say, other businesses). We rejected the manuscript because we didn’t think it would interest our readers. It did set me to wondering, however, about what pro- grams have been developed for religious education. It seems to me that if there is a market for educational software in gen- eral education, there is also a potential market in religious education. Who might know what is being done along these lines? When I phoned Cross Educational Software to place my order, the lady who answered told me about GRAPE (‘Group for Religious Apple Programming Exchange’’). She prom- ised to send me some material on it. To your knowledge, are there other private groups or commercial companies that are producing software that could be used in religious education? The Living Light attempts to provide @ forum for catechists and professional religious educators, designed to present developments and trends, to identify prob- lems and issues, to report on research, to encourage critical thinking and to con- tribute to decision-making in the field of religious education. There must be others like us who bought a computer for one purpose, only to realize that we have not begun to ex- ploit its full range of possibilities. In our case we use our two Apples largely for word-processing, but we could obviously be experimenting with them for use in re- ligious education. (I am also chairman of the graduate program in religion and religious education here at the Catholic University of America.) Berard L. Marthaler, Washington, D.C. Remember the Controller Even McGraw Could Make? The article by Silas Warner in the Octo- ber 1981 issue entitled ‘‘The Controller Even You Can Make”’ was a very inter- esting and useful article regarding appli- cations of an I/O board with the Apple computer. However, Mr. Warner's flip- pant remark on page 134, ‘‘This principle can be expanded easily to cover eight col- le umn lines,” writers. As suspected, it was not easy, in fact three of us have worked on this for two weeks. We are quite certain now that we do not have a hardware problem, but that the difficulty lies in the software. Perhaps you might be able to prevail on Mr. Warner to furnish the necessary changes to the program to read and print correctly an eight-by-eight matrix of chess board squares. I know how to do the data, the problem is with the ex- pected code changes we have made, we get stepping up the data table on a diagonal basis, not on a row basis. is typical of many computer og SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . memory 3.3 DOS. Wo! aye De | FINALLY. | Y- 4 hat will fou suppl MLA Sutorat ically ink Noe te ach ANY SUBJECT at words from_ANY. subject, rconnects them to e-computer orprinta EACHING AID: FOR TM with 14 graphics printers. See your local dealer/for more informatign.or.a.demonstration. TO ORDER DIAL DIRECT! (408) 73: (800) 227-1 IN CALIFORNIA (800) 772-3545 EXT, 481 COD ORDERS WELCOME 1589 Fraser Dr., Sunnyvale, Ca. 94087 Apple Il and I+ fs a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. 18 I have to assume there is a program error. That being the case, Iam sure you have heard enough complaints from dis- gruntled readers of your great magazine that you don't need any more abuse on the subject, but really, until they come out with Apple IV with the “OGT’’ mnemonic button—‘‘Ought To Run"— any help you can provide would be appreciated. Ralph McGraw, Arlington Heights, IL Maybe The Typos Were Trying To Tell Us Something Referring to the Basic Solution in the De- cember 1981 issue of Softalk, I regret to have to inform you that the Catalog Hel- lo program submitted by Brad Stone is in all probability a plagiarism. I have had this program for at least ten months. I do not know who wrote it originally, but I got it from a local Apple dealer as part of a free collection offered to regular customers. Since Mr. Stone says he developed it after reading the May issue, it certainly could not be his original program that I have. The usual evidence is available: the program is exactly the same; the same line numbers, the same variable names, the same format. I'd send you a listing but it wouldn't prove anything since it is exactly the same as the one in your col- umn. I don’t know what “the basic solu- tion’’ might be to such a problem. It must take guts if not foolishness on Mr. Stone's part to take a chance to have this pub- lished where thousands of readers have the opportunity to recognize it! Jerome I. Weintraub, El Cajon, CA Being an avid reader of your magazine, I was very surprised to discover that the “Hello Program" in the Basic Solution column of the December 1981 issue was an exact copy, except for many errors, of a program that appeared in Creative Computing’s ‘Apple Cart" of September 1980. I’m sure the person given credit would be very embarrassed if Bob San- der-Cederlof, the real author, pointed this fact out to him. Tenjoy your magazine very muchand hope you continue its many fine and in- teresting articles, but please be more careful! Paul R. Mueller, Muskego, WI The subroutine from the December 1981 Basic Solution, as corrected in the January 1982 column, was indeed the product of Bob Sander-Cederlof, a soft- ware publisher known for Assembler 4.0 and publisher of a newsletter on assem- bly language programming. With San- der-Cederlof’s permission, the routine was published in Creative Computing. But it is a public domain program, as far as Sander-Cederlof is concerned, and he had no problem with its appearance in Softalk. Brad Stone is a thirteen-year-old from FEBRUARY 1982 @ SOFTALK Utah who attends university-level pro- gramming classes. He and a friend used to write and modify programs together up to sixteen months ago, when the friend moved, This program was primarily the friend’s, and Brad thought it was origi- nal. Brad uses his programming knowl- edge mostly to help in his father’s real estate business. There appears to be no way to pre- vent the possibility of a similar problem occurring again, as long as we’re willing to print the programs of our readers. While we regret greatly having pre- sented you a program that was not origi- nal, and while we regret equally the fail- ure to credit the proper author at the time, we believe your participation in Softalk is important, and we’re willing to take the chance. We have confidence that very few of our readers would consider sending us unoriginal programs as their own, especially with today’s evidence that the rest of our readers won’t let them get away with it. Printing Out Programs Has Its Ups and Downs Like others, I have been frustrated by not being able to output both upper and low- er case on my printer from Basic or Ap- plesoft programs. After a short study of the assignment of the ASCII codes, I was able to come up with a very simple sub- routine that allows me to output both up- per and lower case on my printer with a minimum of complication and overhead. To use the subroutine, one merely de- fines the string SENT$ as the phrase to be printed with the letters to be capi- talized preceded by an @. Letters not preceded by an @ will be printed as lower case. Setting the variable ZN=10 is the same as HTAB (10) and starts the phrase in the tenth character position. GOSUB 9000 to the subroutine then causes the phrase to be printed as desired. This works well for me and has been tested on an attached IBM Electronic 60 and an Epson MX-80. I’m sure that it will work for most printers hooked to an Ap- ple, with lower case capability of course, with little or no modifications. A copy of the subroutine with a sam- ple program and phrase follows. I hope that this can be included in your Open Discussion section. 10 SENTS = “@THE @UNITED @STATES OF @AMERICA” 20 IN=5 30 GOSUB 9000 40 END 8000 REM. 8010 REM 8020 REM 8030 REM 8040 REM 8050 REM 8060 REM. 8070 REM 8080 REM 8090 REM 9000 REM eee teeter rere teres PRINTER UPPER AND LOWER CASE ‘SUBROUTINE DIANE DURBECK DECEMBER 26, 1981 JARO EOI SAI ISO II III 9010 9020 9030 REM. REM REM SENTS IS THE PHRASE YOU WANT TYPED WITH UPPER AND LOWER CASE LETTERS REM LETTERS WILL 8E PRINTED ON THE PRINTER IN LOWER CASE UNLESS A LETTER IS PRECEDED 8Y @ p REM ZN=5 IS EQUIVALENT TO HTA8 5 REM THE PHRASE MAY 8 UP TO 255 CHARACTERS LONG INCLUDING @ AND SPACES 9070 DIM ZWRDS (255) 9080 DIM ZC (255) 9090 ZM = LEN (SENTS) 9100 FOR ZK = 1TO ZM 9110 ZWRDS (ZK) = MIDS (SENTS,ZK,1) 9120 NEXT ZK 9130 ZI = 0 9140 ZI = 21 +1 9150 IF ZWRDS (Zl) = “@” THEN GOTO 9190 9160 IF ASC (ZWRDS (ZI)) > 64 THEN ZC(ZI) = ASC (ZWRDS(21)) + 32 IF ASC (ZWRDS(ZI)) < 64 THEN ZC(ZI) = ASC (ZWRDS(ZI)) 9180 GOTO 9240 9190 FOR ZK = ZITO ZM 9200 ZWRDS(ZK) = ZWRDS (ZK + 1) 9210 NEXT ZK 9220 ZM = IM — 1 9230 ZC(ZI) = ASC (ZWRDS(Z!)) 9240 IF ZI = ZM GOTO 9260 9250 GOTO 9140 9260 PRH 1 9270 2RS =" 9280 FOR ZK = 110 ZM 9290 ZRS = ZR$ + CHRS (ZC(Zk)) 9300 NEXT ZK 9310 HTA8 ZN — 1: PRINT ZRS 9320 PRO 9330 RETURN JRUN The United States of America ‘***BEGINNING OF SUBROUTINE*** 9040 9050 9060 9170 Diane E. Durbeck (age sixteen), San Jose, CA Another Way To Chase the Blues I refer to your October 1981 issue of Sof- talk, page 14, ‘‘The Ol’ Reset Blues.” Reset blues have been experienced by most Apple owners. As medicine for the “Ol’ Reset Blues,”’ I have seen several articles describing solutions, but the best T have tried is as follows: Start by purchasing, from your local hardware store, a % inch O-ring gasket. (5@” is an approximate size.) Then re- move the reset button by gently prying upward with a smail screwdriver, place the O-ring gasket over the button shaft, and replace button cap. This modification allows full use of re- set button without the need of a special device, such as a pen. The modification requires a little extra pressure to actu- ate the reset, but accidental reset is near impossible, unless you are a gorilla of a typist. Todd S. Douglas, San Jose, CA Volume What and Print Where? I have a question the answer to which is probably painfully obvious but which has escaped my notice utterly. In Pascal, disk drives are referred to by “Vol 4" and “Vol 5”; the printer by FEBRUARY 1982 SOFTALK & SOFTALK CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Register for free educational courseware infor- mation—receive catalog up-dates sent to your home free every other month. Highest quality courseware used by professionals in public & private schools. Back issues of up-dates sent free when you call or write: Southwest Microcom- t Systems, 16776 Bernardo Center Drive, San Diego, Calif. 92128—(714) 487-8104. Professional Statistical Analysis Packages. HSD ANOVA: 8 factors, any combination of between and within. HSD STATS: 3 t-tests, Chi-Square, frequency distribution, graphics, ete. HSD REGRESS: multiple regression, descriptive stats, grapl HUMAN SYSTEMS DYNAMICS, 9249 Reseda Blvd., Suite 107, Northridge, CA 91324. (213) 993-8536. Frustrated with complicated information sys- tems? FILE WHIZ may better suit your needs. Send for free information or order today $61, includes shipping. SOFTHOUSE, FWH, PO Box 6383, Rochester, MN Softalk’s new classified advertising section offers a considerably less expensive way, than display advertising, to reach tens of thousands of Apple owners Softalk’s circulation is growing every month, with the January issue going to approximately 60,000 Apple owners and retail stores. No other magazine offers such a thorough penetration of the Apple mar- ketplace Classified advertising space is available at the rate of $10 per line for the first ten lines, with a five line minimum. Each line over ten lines is $25 per line. Ad copy should be received no later than the 10th of the second month prior to the cover date of the issue you want the ad to appear. Payment must accompany ad copy. The publisher reserves the right to reject ARE YOU SERIOUS ABOUT PROGRAMMING YOUR APPLE Il? So are we. That's why we developed our Integer BASIC compiler. You won't find a better com- t on the market. Why don't you check it out. FE. for the latest info. GALFO SY. TEMS, 6252 Camino Verde, San Jose, CA 95119. Phone 408-2. 377. LIBRARIAN—Filing and keyword retrieval sys- tem for books, articles, excerpts, etc, Produces automatic bibliographies. Initial data base included. $69.95. CONTOUR MAPPING—High quality con- touring system for printer, plotter, or CRT. Data and grid transformations, trend surfaces, resid- uals. Data and file manager. GEOLOGICAL and GEOGRAPHICAL soft- ware for Apple and other systems. GEOSYSTEMS, Inc., 80: Grand River, Wilhamston, MI 48895. (517) 655-3726. any advertising that he feels is not in keep- ing with the publication’s standards. Softalk’s classified ads will be set in Elec- tra and Electra Bold type face. Body text for the ads is 8 point on 9 point leading. Italics are available for body text only; please underline the portions you would like italicized. Heads will be set in 10 point bold face, all capitals only. The body text of the ad will hold roughly 53 characters per line. Spaces between words are counted as one character. Heads will hold roughly 25 characters per line, with spaces between words counted as one character. Please indicate if you would like the head centered or run into the text. Please write or call for additional infor- mation. Softalk Classified Advertising 11021 Magnolia Boulevard North Hollywood, California 91601 Attention: David Hunter 213-980-5074 Ve) 20 “Vol 6’; and so on. In the transfer utility I can get list- ings by transferring to ‘‘printer:'’. Out- put goes to the screen with a ‘‘writeln'’— but would somebody please tell me—How do I get output to go to the printer or disk file? Where do the volume numbers come into writing where I want to? Please be as specific as you can; I feel that the manuals dodged a straight explanation. PS. It is driving me nuts to figure I've just missed seeing it. Jay Weston, Gainesville, FL The Pains of Imperfection Is the Apple Pascal IORESULT function really broken, or is this another one of those petty oversights on my part? The most elementary concern for the user of a program would dictate that he/she not be punished with a fatal run time error every time a mistake is made in entering a numerical value. Under program control, Apple Pascal does not allow a single error—an unacceptable situation for input intensive programs. Taking the Apple Pascal Language Reference Manual at its word, the fol- lowing function would make life a lot easier for the user: function ENTER(VNAME:string) :real; (*$I-*) (*turn off the fatal IO feature*) var X:real; begin Earthware brings you a new program for your Apple* computer: VOLCANOES Set in the mythical land of Wrangelia, 25 volcanoes test your skills as a volcanologist. Can you accurately predict which will erupt and warn the people? You conduct real investigations at nearly ac- curate costs. A computerized mailbox notifies you of your “popularity” within the region. This is a challenging and fun game to be often played either at home or at school. Every game is different; save any game to play again. Two to four players; colored hi-res drawings, maps, volcanologist’s handbook. $49.50 plus $3.00 postage. Applesoft, 48 K RAM, DOS 3.3 Earthware P.O. Box 30039 » Eugene, Oregon * 97403 (503) 344-3383 Dealer inquiries welcomed. VISA/MasterCard FEBRUARY 1982 @ SOFTALK write(‘THE VALUE OF’, VNAME,? :’); readIn(X) ; while IORESULT<>0 do begin write(chr(7), VNAME, ;? : readIn(X) end; ENTER:=X end; (*$I1+*) (*in case you want your program to go belly up for a simple error elsewhere*) However, this procedure does not work. It will gladly accept the literal A as a “real number," returning an IORESULT value of 0. The same function without I- will give a “bad format’’ runtime error (IORESULT = 14). A variant of this function for avoiding runtime errors due to the unavailability of a requested disk (IORESULT = 9) works fine. Summarizing: The I- compiler option changes the behavior of the IORESULT function some of the time. Seems like nonsense. Does anyone know of a fix or a dodge? E. Kurt TeKolste, Mililani, HI Hello, Dolly? T have a hobby that I feel may be of some interest to your readers. This hobby is more fun than any hobby I have ever had, and I seem now to know more peo- ple across the country than I ever dreamed of. I haven't met most of the people in person, I know them only from their typing. I know this will sound con- fusing, but I am the Matchmaker of “Dial-Your-Match.”” What I'm going to attempt to do is explain my hobby in more detail. The excitement lies in a type of com- puter program commonly known as a CBBS. This stands for Computer Bulle- tin Board System. Anyone who has a computer can run a CBBS. A person can write a CBBS program or purchase a prewritten one at a computer store. This program turns the owner’s computer in- to a type of phone answering machine. Once properly set up, people with ‘‘re- mote terminals” can call up the comput- er over the telephone and operate the computer from anywhere in the world they happen to be. Most CBBSes are run by private individuals as a club meeting place or just as a message system. As a caller, depending on the type of Compu- ter Bulletin Board System, you can read messages or enter messages, and some- times the system will even give you free computer programs. A sysop {for system operator] is the term given to the person who runs the CBBS. Sometimes a CBBS will allow the caller to communicate with the sysop in “chat” mode. This allows the user to talk to the sysop by typing in the conversa- tion over the terminal. The sysop can im- mediately respond by typing back. Of course, a better way to communicate with the sysop would be for both parties to pick up‘the telephone, but this is just not as much fun! As I said before, Iam a sysop. Iruna CBBS known to people throughout the United States as Dial- Your-Match. I don’t like the name “‘sysop,’’ so I go by the name of ‘“‘Matchmaker.”’ Dial-Your-Match, a CBBS, is a pro- gram that was not purchased. It is a com- puter program that took me two months to design and write. It runs on my Apple computer. Anybody, anywhere in the world, can call Dial-Your-Match. It’s free, other than long-distance phone charges, and available to anyone with ac- cess to a ‘remote terminal.” Dial-Your-Match is not like most CBBS systems. The first thing my com- puter does when a person calls is have them answer a personal questionnaire. This questionnaire gets information such as your name, age, sex, sexual prefer- ence, height, values, hobbies, and so on. It also asks questions relating to the per- son’s personality. When complete, this questionnaire is filed and is used to lo- cate possible matches from the list of other people who have called Dial-Your- Match. Once the person has a list of matches, they can selectively ‘‘browse’’ any or all of those people’s question- naires. If a good prospect is located, the person may want to send private mail. The computer stores this mail internally and will list it out only when the ad- dressed person calls the system again. People who are not satisfied with their matches can also advertise themselves on a ‘‘Public Bulletin Board.’’ When per- sons are finished with the system, they are encouraged to leave comments to me, the Matchmaker. (Here followed a lengthy list of positive comments. | I'd like to share an interesting experi- ence that occurred on my system a few weeks ago. On the public bulletin board was posted the following message (of course I’ve changed all the names): “Well, Matchmaker, the system has real people on it. Just thought I would let you know that you have brought people to- gether, And across 3,000 miles. This af- ternoon, John from California flew to Florida. We met him at the airport and have been partying ever since.” A few days later, the bulletin board contained the following message from John: “I have to write and tell you that I am extremely pleased with your board and the fact you made me a good match. I just got back from a trip... I1hopetogo again soon. I am in Atlanta right now, but you made me a match that is 100 percent great!” And a few days after that, I received the following comment from John: “Please erase this account. My match and I found each other. Don't need this service anymore. Thank you very much THE NEXT GENERA TION. : OF COMPUTER GAMES IS HERE e APVENTURE TO ATLANTIS is a new fast action apventure game, by Robert Clardy, continuing the Odyssey Apventure series. The forces of sorcery are gathering to repulse the marauding scientific Atlan- teari Kingdom. The epic battle can end either in the enslavement of the world.or the absolute’ destruction of Atlantis. ¢ Computer adventuring has been good, Synergistic Software has just made it ‘better. Can you imagine the most exciting adventure game ever composed with more *Apple Il is a trademark of Apple Computer inc. color and sound, highly detailed animation, - arcade like action, true role playing, greater challenge, unending variety and endless enjoyment? That's what the Next Genera- tion of computer games is all about. This professionally designed adventure was specifically written to take full advantage. ‘of all the Apple's capabilities. Requires careful planning and:strategy; quick think- ing and reflexes, as well as a 48K Apple |I* with DOS.3.3 and: paddles. Only $40.00 - - FROM | ‘THE KERS OF THE FIRST. ANIMATED ADVENTURE GAMES Synergistic Software — From. _ Synergistic Software f _ 5eel 120TH AVE. S.E, 22 for being here."’ I've operated Dial-Your-Match for six weeks now [mid December] and my com- puter has received more than 4,500 tele- phone calls. There is never more than a one-minute delay between the time one person hangs up and the next person calls. I turn off the ring on the telephone at night so I can sleep, but the match- making process goes on, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You see, I am not required to do anything; the computer answers the phone, hangs it up, and keeps track of all calls. If you have a modem for your Apple and want to find a match for yourself, the telephone number for Dial-Your-Match is (213) 842-3322. I would be very happy to answer any question you may have in regard to com- puter bulletin boards, Dial-Your-Match, microcomputers, or anything you are curious about. I would appreciate not having my name published without first contacting me; there are a lot of weirdos out there. Please just refer to me as the Match- maker. The Matchmaker, Burbank, CA Hi-Res Help for Ace Teems In Many letters have arrived to answer Ace Colter’s letter in the December issue, in- cluding some as many as eleven pages long, and a fine one from a young man in Huntington, West Virginia, who forgot to include his name. Following are repre- sentative, and, while somewhat repeti- tive, offer unique approaches. This is a response to Ace Colter’s letter in the December '81 Softalk, asking for the locations of the Apple’s hi-res routines. This is something that I feel Apple should have included in the Reference Manual along with the lo-res routines. These are: HGR $F3E2 Both of these routines act HGR2 $F3D8 just like the Applesoft commands of the same name, clearing the ap- propriate screen to black and switching to it. Sim- ply do a JSR to the loca- tion. This will just clear the page to black if it is JSRed to. ‘This will clear the page to the last color plotted. To use it, hplot a dot some- where, then JSR to here. This is the subroutine used to tell the Apple where it will Aplot or where it will draw a shape. The X coordinate should be in the X and Y registers (most signifi- cant bite in ¥) and the vertical coordinate in the accumulator. Then sim- ply JSR to the address. This does just what it says, using the coordi- HCLEAR $F3F2 HCLEAR2 $F3F6 POSTN $F411 HPLOT $F457 ® TOFIALK FEBRUARY 1982 nates given to postn, and the hcolor set. ‘This will draw a line from the last plotted point to the point sent to the sub- routine. This point should have the X coordinate in the X register and the ac- cumulator (most signifi- cant byte in X) and the vertical coordinate in the Y register. Note the dif- ference here from postn setup. This will draw or adraw a shape. Use postn to tell the Apple where to draw the shape, then place the address of the shape to be drawn in X and Y (most significant byte in Y). Note that this address is the address of the shape itself, not the shape ta- ble. The rotation value goes in the accumulator, and the scale should be placed in location $H7. ‘Then simply JSR to the routine. To use this put the num- ber of the color in the X register, then JSR. Using these routines will speed up the drawing/xdrawing somewhat, but there is still the annoying flickering. Using hi- res images is much more satisfactory, but how to do that is even harder to find out than these locations. I wish to concur with Ted Young’s let- ter to Roger Wagner, asking for some hi- res instruction. The routines I mention here can of course be used, but they ob- viously do not rise to the challenge of wanting to program Gorgon or Raster Blaster. I hope that these are still found useful by Ace Colter and other readers out there. One other location which I failed to mention earlier: If you want to draw on one page while displaying the other, location $E6 will do the trick. This is where the Apple tells it- self which screen is to be drawn on. A $20 will force the Apple to draw on page 1 and a $40 will do page 2. Also, the Apple decides its color from what is in location 28 (decimal). This lo- cation contains a value from 0 to 255. But there are only seven hi-res colors, you say. Sort of. Without going into a long, drawn-out discussion on how the Apple does its graphics, there are simply many different combinations possible. To see the possible things you can do, try pok- ing anything into 28, and Call 62454, which is the fill screen routine mentioned above. Or try this program: 10 FOR X=0 TO 255 20 POKE 28,X:CALL 62454 30 NEXT X The normal colors, as you will see, are as follows: 0=black 42=green 85=pur- ple 127=white 128=black 170=orange HLINE $F53A DRAW XDRAW $F601 $FesD HCOLOR $F6FO 213=blue 255=white. By poking a value into 28 and hplotting, you can achieve some very strange effects, some of which could be useful in games. Mason Jones, Ann Arbor, MI I have recently read many letters from people who are interested in the loca- tions of the Applesoft ROM graphics rou- tines. The only list I have found was in the March/April 1980 issue of Apple Or- chard, but almost all of the entry points it listed were incorrect, so I spent several hours attempting to correct them. The correct routines are: HGR, $F3E2 same as Applesoft com- mand HGR2 —- $F3D8 HCLR — $F3EC clear screen to black clear screen to color in sic BKGRND $F3F6 HPOSN —$F411_ position the hi-res cursor without plotting. A = vertical, ¥ = high hori- zontal coordinate, X = low horizontal coordi- nate. A,X, and ¥ must be set on entry. HPLOT —$F'457_ positions the cursor with hposn, and then plots a dot of color in $E4. A, X, Y registers same as in hposn. HLINE $F53A drawsa line from the last plotted or positioned point to: ¥ = vertical coordinate, X = hi horizontal, A = low horizontal. SETHCOL $F6EC _ sets hi-res color to X(X is 0 to 7) Hex values of colors: 01234567&02A557F 80 AA D5 FF DRAW _has two entry points: $F601, and $F605. Use $F601 if the shape definition (not the start of the table!) you want to draw is pointed to by ¥,X (¥ is high, X is low). The conventional shape drawer (Applesoft draw) is first a JSR $F730 followed by the JSR $F605, where X is the shape number to be drawn, and the start of the table is pointed by $88.89. For both, the cursor must be hposned, and A = the rotation factor, $E4 = the color, and $E7 = scale. XDRAW identical procedure as draw, but exchange $F65D for $F601, and $F661 for $F605. The $F730 is the same. The value of byte $E6 decides what hi- res page you plot on: $20 for page 1, or $40 for page 2. On the draw function, the ro- tation you just used is stored in $B5, and the last color plotted is $1C. The func- tions above are nearly identical to the ones described by the January 1978 Apple II Reference Manual on page 46. In response to Ted Young's letter in Softalk's December 1981 issue, which asked why Apple did not say where their GOTO 82 What do we mean by that? Yau chase the Apple Il, and it’s a gaad camputer chaice But Apple diskette drives play hide-and- seek with your valuable data And if yau'te nat lacking for a diskette, yau'te warying abaut scratching ane. Besides, they/te just too slow and hold too little, That's why yaur Apple Il needs a REAL business partner. Like Starfire 5, the 5 Megabyte Winchester disk fram Corana. The one that holds 38 diskettes of data, ‘available instantly, and can alphabetize ‘a mailing list § ta 10 times faster The one that seals your data off fram danger and insures it with DataGuard autamatic data pratectian. Double-volume data files. And best of all, Starfire 5 lets yaur files be twice as long, beating a crucial limitation of Apple's disk operating system, without abandoning it That's the kind af partner your Apple I needs talet it fulfil ts camputer pramise. At $2995, it's quite a deal So ask your dealer to show you Starfire 5 from Carona Or call us for the local dealer wha can Because Starfire 5 is the BUSINESS partner for your Apple II corond 213-998-0505 21541 Norchoff St. Unit B, Chatsworth, CA 91311 Many people think just because a computer does difficult things, it must be difficult to operate. Not so. At least not with PFS™ and PFS: REPORT. PFS and PFS: REPORT let you concentrate on doing your work, not on working your computer. There's no complicated programming or computer language to learn. Using the PFS Series is so straightforward, you can learn it in as little as 20 minutes, and that’s some- thing both experts and beginners can appreciate. Design your own management system, simply. PFS lets you arrange your information in “forms” you design yourself. Once you've created your form— with spaces for all the necessary data—you simply fill in the blanks. If you don’t like the original form, PFS lets you change just the form, without having to totally re-enter the information on it. To use your forms, just call up the information you want in a variety of ways such as “less than,’ “more than,’ “equal to,’ “between” or “not:’ You can even find specific charac- ters, words, names or num- bers. And PFS can also sort labels, change its Hardworking software for Apples that isn't a lot of work. 40-column format to accommodate larger printouts, and tell you how much room you have left on your disk. Get more out of what you put in. PFS: REPORT sorts, calculates, totals, formats and prints presentation-quality reports with up to 9 col- umns, in alpha or numeric order, with automatic entering and justification. With your information in this format, you can analyze it quickly to help spot trends, plan and make decisions. A whole family of software for Apple® II and III. PFS consistently ranks among the 5 top-selling business software packages for Apples. Because you can use it for almost anything—from chemical analyses to keeping track of your wine collection, from bal- ancing your checkbook to computing your payroll. And there are more programs on the way. For a free, hands-on demonstration of PFS and PFS: REPORT, stop by your local computer store. If they don’t have it yet, tell them to call Software Publishing Corpora- ation at (415) 962-8910. Or write 1901 Landings Dr., Moun- tain View, CA 94043. You'll be amazed at how much youcan bite off. S: Software Series *Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. “PFS isa trademark of Software Publishing Corporation. FEBRUARY 1982 SOFTALE & 25 BY CRAIG STINSON It’s hard to do compound interest calculations in your head. Probably that’s because the arithmetic weight-training that we do early in our lives rarely gets beyond linear functions. That is to say, all of us—or at any rate those of us who grew up in precalculator days—developed at least some familiarity with multiplication tables. Hence it’s not too hard for us to fig- ure out in our heads that if Uncle Sam and his ilk are going to take away a third of a $27,000 income, we're going to be al- lowed to keep $18,000, and that if we double our income and have to give up half of it, we improve our position by only $9,000 or 50 percent. Even if we have to assist ourselves with paper and pencil to do them exactly, we usually have a fairly good notion of where such calculations are going, because they only involve simple multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. Calculations concerning compound interest get us into deeper water because they involve exponentiation, or taking something to the power of something else. Few of us learn'the powers of five—let alone the powers of one-fifth—the way we learn times tables. Most. of us are content to leave that kind of figuring to accountants, or to our banks and their computers. Yet a lot of us are paying 20 percent of more these days for credit, so the powers of one-fifth do indeed have some rel- evance to our lives; they have a lot to do, in fact, with those shocking numbers that appear on the MasterCard bill at the end of the year, under the heading, ‘‘Total interest paid in 1981.”” One of the great virtues of VisiCalc is its ability to reveal the long-range consequences of financial decisions we make. The program is an especially valuable tool when applied to those problems, like compound interest, where our own intui- tion tends to be a little imprecise. We're going to look at interest from a positive point of view this month, as we build a VisiCalc model to calculate the fu- ture value of an investment. The banks were busy touting In- dividual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) around the beginning of the new year, so we'll use our model to check out the long- range consequences of opening and maintaining an IRA. First, the mathematics. If you invest $1,000 and get a 10 percent annual return on your money, then at the end of a year, your investment will be worth the original $1,000 plus 10 percent more, or a total of $1,100. Calling the original investment P and the interest rate I, the value of your investment, V, after a year would be deter- mined by this formula: V=P*(1 +1) At the end of a second year, the value of the investment would be 110 percent of what it was at the end of the first year. That value, call it V(2), could be found by this formula: V2 =P L$ *(1 +0) But (1 + I) * (1+ I) can be written as (1 + I) A 2,80, to state the case more generally, the value V(Y) of an investment P that earns interest I compounded annually for Y years after Y years is found by the formula: VY) =P H(TEINAY If the interest is compounded more often than annually, the picture becomes only slightly more complex. If our ten per- cent annual interest were compounded quarterly, we would plug a rate of 2.5 percent into the formula and multiply the ex- ponent by four. If we let N represent the number of compound- ing periods per year, then the general formula for the future value of our investment becomes: vy) = P (1+ IN) AY *N This is the formula we'll use in our VisiCale model. Clear a worksheet and set recalculation to manual, with a /GRM. The automatic recalculation feature tends to slow things down when you're building a complex model. You can always set it back to automatic later, if you wish. We're going to need space for some fairly wide numbers, so set the column width to twelve with a /GC12. And since most of the information on the sheet will represent amounts of money, ia ~) Get MORE out ot WISICALC with | VoOPILUEY | eoe.e6 ALL PROGRAMS AVAILABLE V-UTILITY CONSISTS OF THE FOLLOWING APPLE Ir Mt PROGRAMS AVAILABLE PROGRAMS THAT EXPAND THE USB OF VISICALC. PROVIDES THE FOLLOWING SELECTION OF OVERLAYS T0 LOAD ON TO THE VISICALC SHEET. MOVING AVERAGES, EXPOTENTIAL SMOOTHING EQUATIONS, STOCK AND COMMODITY TREND EQUATIONS, DATE COLUMNS FOR DAYS MARKET IS OPEN, A REAL TIME SAVER. (T-OVERLAT THIS PROGRAM AUTOMATICALLY INPUTS DATA FROM A VISICALC COLUMN, PERFORMS AUTO SCALING THEN PLOTS EITHER 1 OR 2 COLUMNS ON A REGULAR LINE PRINTER (GRAPHICS PRINTER NOT REQUIRED). IDEAL FOR QUICK ANALYSIS OF UP TO 254 NUMERICAL DATA POINTS. PROGRAM COLLECTS DATA AUTOMATICALLY FROM THE VISICALC COLUMN AND CALCULATES ‘J NUMERICAL DISTRIBUTION, CORRELATION COEFFICIENT, REGRESSION ANALYSIS, CHI? TEST AND T-TEST. YOU SELECT THE COLUMNS FOR DATA ENTRY AND SPECIFY THE ROWE TO START AND ROW? TO END DATA COLLECTION.A VALUABLE PROGRAM FOR RANUFACTURING ENGINEERING, EDUCATION, AND STOCK ANALYSIS, PROGRAM IS EASY TO OPERATE. WITH THIS PROGRAM YOU MAY SELECT THOSE COLUMNS YOU WANT TO PRINT AND PLACE THEM IN ANY ORDER YOU SELECT. A VERY FLEXIBLE VISICALC PRINTING UTILITY, WUCAIPA SOFTWARE 12343 12TH ST- YUCAIPA-CA-92399 PHONE (714) 797-6331 APPLE II is a Trademark of APPLE COMPUTER INC VISICALC is a Trademark of PERSONAL SOFTWARE INC J a DOS 3.2 OR DOS 3.3 26 ® SOETALK FEBRUARY 1982 you can do a /GF$. We’ll override that format in a few loca- tions. A typical IRA account advertised in Los Angeles offers 14 percent interest compounded daily. The law permits a maxi- mum annual investment for a single person of $2,000; working couples are allowed to invest $4,000 annually. We’ll work with the former figure first. Let's start by putting some labels in the area from Al to A6. Type in the following: >AT:PRINCIPAL >AZ:INTEREST >A3:PERIODS DAS: TERM. >AS:INT/PERIOD. >AG:FUTURE VALUE You can either type that in literally, using the greater-than symbol and the colon to move your cursor to the appropriate coordinates, or just set cursor movement to vertical and hit the right arrow after each line. We'll plug our data into the corresponding cells of column B. Let’s assume that our hypothetical working depositor is now twenty-one years of age and that he or she is going to make a single deposit this year of $2,000 and let that money ride until retirement day, forty-four years from now. We'll also make the assumption, for the sake of simplicity, that the money will earn a full year’s interest for 1982. Plug in the values 2000, 14, 365, and 44 at locations B1, B2, B3, and B4, respectively. At B3 and B4, you'll probably want to override the dollar format with a /FR. At location B5 we want to show the interest rate per com- pounding period, so type in the formula: +B2/B3/100. You need the division by 100 to convert the percentage rate into a decimal. When you hit return, you should get 3.835616E-4 for an answer, meaning that your money will earn about four hun- dredths of a percent interest per day. Finally, at B6, plug in the formula that calculates the fu- ture value of the investment. That formula should read: +B1*(1+B5) A (64*B3)) Note that VisiCalc’s order-of-precedence rules are a little different from Applesoft’s. In Basic you could state that formula as B1*(1+B5) A (B4*B3) and everything would come out fine. Basic woul