P R E SS 9 770263 74511
ISSUE 213 NOVEMBER 1999
The best-selling RISC OS magazine in the world
Power
Modelling
• DrawV
® Anthe
Acorn H computers
the complete solution from just
Sprinter networked computer
Rise PC 233T
A7000+
Upgrades
Spares and accessories
Technical support
ChefeR/out our new
for the latest prices on
•' hardware and peripherals
plus dpefcigl offers and
technid^iipdates! ; 1
CASTLE
Computers for Education
Business and Home
Call 01728 723200
Freefax 0800 783 9638
Castle Technology Limited
Ore Trading Estate
Woodbridge Road Framlingham
Suffolk IP13 9LL UK
email: acorn@castle.org.uk
http://www.castle.org.uk
To receive more details on any or all of
our products and services please
complete this tear off slip and send,
email or fax it to:
Name
P ositio n
Establishment
Castle Technology Ltd Address
FREEPOST ANG 8148
Framlingham
Woodbridge IP13 9ZZ Postcode
Email sales@castle.org.uk
Freefax 0800 783 9638
Telephone 01728 723200
Please send me further information
on the following products: (tick boxes)
□ A7000 +
□ Rise PC
□ Network Stations
i j Hardware upgrades
□ Spares for Acorn computers
□ WWW and Internet products
Telephone
Fax
E-mail
CASTLE
Computers for Education
Business and Home
Acorn computers are manufactured by Castle Technolopy Limited. ‘Acorn* & the acorn nut device are trademarks of Element 14 Ltd
November 1 999
Features
20 Rise ° s 4
More about installing the new
operating system - caveats and cautions
22 Reflex action
““ Who does the repairs under Acorn's
guarantees? And will they still do it?
RISC OS '99
Find out all about the fantastic new show
taking place this October - be there
Published by
tau
P R E SS
Media House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP
e-mail enquiries@acomuser.com
http://www.acornuser.com/
Tel: (01625) 878888 Fax: (01625) 859808
Printed by Apple Web Offset, Warrington
Editor Steve Turnbull
Deputy Editor Dunstan Orchard
Production Manager Alan Jones
Art Editor Anthony Broughton
Contributors
Simon Anthony, Alasdair Bailey, Ian Burley,
Mike Cook, David Dade, Andrew Green, Richard
Hallas, Gareth Moore, Max Palmer, Jill Regan,
Greg Scott, Pam Turnbull, Paul Vigay
Account Manager David Brad forth
Ad Production Dunstan Orchard
Finance Manager Charlie Moran
Subscription Manager Richard Siggee
Circulation Director Darren Whiteman
Distribution COMAG (01895) 444055
Managing Director Steve Turnbull
Subscriptions:
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13 issue subscription rate: £45.99 (UK),
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Acom User is available as speech from the
Talking Newspaper Association UK
©1999 Tau Press Ltd.
No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without
written permission. While every care is taken,
the publishers cannot be held legally responsible for
any errors in articles, listings or advertisements and
the views of contributors do not necessarily reflect
the views of the publishers
Internet Services provided by Argonet, www.argonet.co.uk
! —
Regulars
£ News
Latest news on the 600MHz
Strong ARM, new Psion and faster
Acorn machines
1 3 Comms
Home networks, RISC OS Internet
security, tracking webcams and Net
traffic
15 Graphics page
Returns again with news on Cerilica
Vantage, Publish Art and our new
columnist
16 Public domain
New ways to create Web pages easily,
the moon's phases and ANT help
19 Cover disc
What's in it for you? This month
we have a special version of
DrawWorks
Reviews
26 TopModel2
Starting an extended review of the 3D
application with a lot of features
DrawWorks
Millennium
Andrew Green looks at an updated
design package giving new life to Draw
Irlam il6
Need sound input but not video -
this could be the card for you
CQ Mercurial
Messenger
When a product goes from freeware
to commercial it had better be good
Anthem
Gareth Moore falls in love with
R-Comp's MIDI sequencer
32 Game show
Interviews with Martin Piper and
Andrew Rawnsley plus news on Quake
for RISC OS - at last!
78 Subscriptions
Take advantage of our fantastic
subscription offers and get yours today
3^ Letters
Your chance to get your news, views
and opinions into print about the RISC
OS world
82 The Regan Files
Mike Glover and Bob Pollard
interviewed about their life with
Tech Writer
Education
£Q Education news
Pam Turnbull lets us know what's new
in the world of education
70 Education reviews
Tudor times and medieval moments
plus maps and contours examined
Hands on
54 oop
^ “*■ More on how to use the powerful
object-oriented programming approach
*7 A Run the Rise
/ ^ Beating out a significant set of sounds
for the budding drumming superstar
Rambles
Mike Cook explores another set of
interesting hardware questions
Free ads Page 62
Advertisers' Index Page 72
Contact us Page 72
Back issues Page 78
Subscriptions Page 78
Next month
Second half of the TopModel review; Digital
cameras; Noticeboard Pro; Pholodesk plug-
ins; Conipo and much much more
December issue on sale 28th October
http://www.acornuser.com November 1 999
EMAIL: sales@cta.u-net.com http://www.cta.u-net.com Tel - 01942 797777 Fax - 01942 79771 1
Curriculum Training Associates
Dept. AU10, 168 Elliott St.
Tyldesley
Gtr. Manchester
M29 8DS
0% Interest FREE credit (6 months) or LOW cost finance available on all new systems.
6 months Interest Free Credit On All Systems inc peripherals, software and 2/3 vr optional warrantie s (minimum spend £800 inc Vat)
™. Ti RiscStation RiscStation
08 II Rise Based Technologies p^oo
Networx 50 mip
Ami7500 system with
built in Midi, sound
sampler, lObaseT
network port, High speed
serial & parrallel ports,
RISC OS 4
Major Software Bundle
Networx base only £399 + Vat (£468.83)
Networx 14" system £479 + Vat (£562.83)
Networx Plus base only £499 + Vat (£586.33)
Networx Plus 14" syst. £579 + Vat (£680.33)
See www.riscstation.co.uk for more details
R7500 50 mip PCI
based system with Midi,
sound sampler, lObaseT
network port. High
speed serial & parrallel
ports, RISC OS 4
Major Software Bundle
Base only £579 + Vat (£680.33)
14" monitor system £649 + Vat (£762.58)
15" monitor system £675 + Vat (£793.13)
17" monitor system £725 + Vat (£85 1.88)
See www.riscstation.co.uk for more details
SA233"T" Web Wizard A7000 + Series Machines
34Mb/8G/DvdCD/17" mon/Stcrco Spk, Ant
Internet & Java with a 56K modem for only
£1145 + VAT
(includes RiscOS 4)
On L.C.F. for only £34.00
per month
233Mhz SA RiscPC Offers
RPC SA bases from £850 inc VAT or
£22.00/month via L.C.F. * AND we will
match or beat your best offer
We can supply any combination or
configutration you require.
A7000+ Classic 29 Mips R03.7 8M /
1G HD /no CD £449.00 (£527.58)
A7000+ Classic 29 Mips R03.7 I6M /
2G HD /24x CD £499.00 (£586.33)
A7000+ Odyssey NETWORK
50 Mips R03.7 (4.0) 16M
£525.00 (£616.88)
A7000+ Odyssey CD
50 Mips R03.7 (4.0) 16M / 4G HD /
40x CD £549.00 (£645.08)
A7000+ Odyssey Primary or Sec. Pack
50 Mips R03.7 (4.0) 16M /4G HD/
40x CD £599.00 (£703.83)
A7000 + Odyssey Surf
50 Mips R03.7 (4.0) 16M/4G HD/
DVD £699.00 (£821.33)
Above prices Jo nol include monitors
see seperate price list
RISC OS 4
£99.00 +vat
(£116.33) place your
order now
n
Fitting & data transfer, if required, £25
inc vat (£15 with new HD). Stock
Available NOW
PaII monitors inc 3 yrs
wty unless specified 1VIU13II I WIVO
Ex VAT
Inc VAT
I 1 4” SVGA 0.28 (3yr on-site)
£79.00
£92.83
14" SVGA 0.28 Multi-Media
£99.00
£116.33
15" SVGA 0.28 (3yr on site)
£99.00
£116.33
15" SVGA 0.28 Multi-Media
£129.00
£151.57
17" SVGA 0.28(1 yrRTB)
£129.00
£151.57
17" SVGA 0.28 (3yr on-site)
£149.00
£175.08
1 7* SVGA 0.28 m-media(3yr)
£179.00
£210.33
1 19* SVGA 0.26(1 yrRTB)
£270.00
£317.25
! 19" SVGA 0.26 (3yr on-site)
£329.00
£386.58
21 "SVGA 0.25 (3yr on site)
£540.00
£634.50
I 38" SVGA (lyr on-site)
£1450.00
£1703.75
15" liyama Vision Master 350
£125.00
£151.27
17" liyama Vision Master FST
£235.00
£276.13
17" liyama Pro 410
£269.00
£316.00
I 19" liyama Pro 450
£415.00
£487.63
21" liyama Pro Diamondtron
£659.00
£774.33
AKF53 Multisync 1 4" 1 yrRTB
£160.00
£188.00
I AKF50 Multisync 14" 1 yrRTB
£195.00
£229.13
I AKF12PAL M"rofurb90days
£65.00
£76.38
I AKF52/53 M/sync rolurb 90 days
£99.00
£116.33
1 AKF60 SVGA M’roturb 90days
£65.00
£76.38
Multisync A300/A3000 cable
£8.50
£9.99
1 THE BEST PRINTER PRICES
( Please ring for latest prices )
Ex VAT
Inc VAT
Canon BJC 1000 colour A4
£77.00
£90.48
1 Canon BJC 2000 colour tt A4
£89.00
£104.58
Canon BJC 2000 Scan ft 1 A4
£158.00
£185.65
I Canon BJC 4650 colour tt A3
£228.00
£267.90
Canon BJC 4650 Scan ft ! A3
£275.00
£323.13
Canon BJC 7000 colour # A4
£169.00
£198.58
I Epson Stylus 440 colour A4
£85.00
£99.88
Epson Stylus 640 colour A4
£99.00
£116.33
Epson Stylus 850 colour A4
£195.00
£229.13
Epson Stylus 1 520 colour A3
£350.00
£411.25
Epson Stylus Photo 700 ft A4
£135.00
£158.63
I Epson Stylus Photo EX ft A3
£265.00
£311.38
HP 420C A4
£65.00
£76.38
HP 61 0C colour A4
£75.00
£88.13
HP 895CXI colour A4
£200.00
£235.00
HP LASERJET 1100
£249.00
£292.58
HP LASERJET 2100 PS
£579.00
£680.33
I Photo drivers for ft
£58.72
£69.00
I Scanner drivers for 1
£29.79
£35.00
•••FREE Acomi driver by request* ••
Casio OV10Q
Digital Camera
PC s/w only £170.00
exc vat (£199.75)
Acorn & PC s/w
£255.00 (£299.63)
ACORN
TRACKBALL
& MOUSE
£29.79 + VAT
HARD DRIVES AND SUB-SYSTEMS why pay more???
A3000/A3010 A3020 I A4000/A5000/A400 RPC / A7000 / RiscStation
Ex. VAT
Inc. VAT
Ex. VAT
Inc. VAT
Ex. VAT
Inc. VAT
Ex. VAT
Inc. VA‘
170Mb
£85
£99.88
£49
£57.58
210Mb rofurb
£25
£29.38
512Mb
£50
£587!
340Mb
£99
£116.33
£65
£76.38
420Mb
£40
£47.00
2.1Gb
£60
£70 5C
512Mb
£115
£135.13
£79
£92.83
540Mb
£49
£57.58
4.3Gb
£70
£822!
810Mb
£125
£146.88
: #
£99
£116.33
730Mb
£80
£94.00
6.4Gb
£80
£94 OC
1Gb
£135
£158.63
i #
£109
£128.08
1.2Gb
£95
£111.63
8.4Gb
£89
£104 5E
2Gb
£150
£176.25
#
£125
£146.88
2.1Gb
£100
£117.50
10.1Gb*
£100
E117.5C
3Gb
£155
£182.13
! tt
£130
£152.75
3.2Gb
£105
£123.38
16.8Gb*
£115
£135.13
4Gb
£175
£205.63
n
£149
£175.08
4.0Gb
£115
£135.13
25.0Gb *
£200
£235.00
A3000/A3010 version includes CD ROM i/f
which can also be used in A3020 or A4000.
For external A3000 i/f add £20.00 +VAT
# includes partitioning software
* inc. internal removable HD
& CD ROM i/f.
For partitioning software only
deduct £25.00 + vat (£29.38)
* requires RISCOS 4 or
Partitioning software for
RISCOS 3.5/ 3.6/ 3.7
only £25.00 + vat (£29.38)
Removable Drives
IDE Drives
SCSI Removable Drives
IDF. drive* require mtuNe driven o» hardware
Zip 100M int
Zip 100 in, £65.00 (£76.38)
Zip 250 int £85.00 (£99.88)
Parallel Drives Nomaizso
Parallel drive* include Acorn Software JflZ 2G int
Zip 100 £99.00 (£116.33) Jaz2Gext
Zip 250 £159.00 (£186.83)
Jar 1G £239.00 (£280.83)
Jaz 2G £299.00 (£351.33)
£85.00
£135.00
£139.00
£165.00
£235.00
£235.00
(£99.88)
(£158.63)
(£163.33)
(£193.88)
(£276.13)
(£276.13)
SCSI HARD DRIVES
540Mb # limited supply
1Gb
2Gb (5400 rpm)
2Gb (7200 rpm) #
4.3Gb (5400 or 7200rpm)
9.1Gb (7200rpm)
18.6Gb (7200 rpm)
£50.00
E60.00
£90.00
£ 100.00
£140.00
£199.00
£399.00
(£58.75)
(£70.50)
(£105.75)
(£117.50)
(£164.50)
(£233.83)
(£468.83)
For EXT. SCSI I case £50.00 + VAT (inc. cable)
For EXT. SCSI I! case £55.00 + VAT (inc. cable)
CD-ROM WRITERS
■ Prices Start
V.-..
from
£170.00 +
2x2x6x £149.00 (£175.08)
4x4x1 6x £199.00 (£233.83)
CD-BURN £49.00 (£57.58)
CD-SCRIBE 2 £49.00 (£57.58)
6 Drive
40x
SCSI
CDROM
Towers
£499
(£ 58633 )
SCSI 8x
Autochanger
£85.00 + vat
(£99.88)
CD-ROMS
IDE
48x £39.00 (£45.83) 40x
40x £35.00 (£41.13) 32x
8x £30.00 (£35.25) 8x
SCSI
£65.00 (£76.38)
£55.00 (£64.63)
£30.00 (£35.25)
For external IDE or SCSI 1 add £50.00 + VAT (inc.cablc)
For external SCSI II add £55.00 + Val. (inc. cable)
IDE driver for RiscOS 3.5 £15 + vat
IDE int. fitting kit £5 inc. Int. SCSI fitting kits from £10 + va
Removable Drive Media
ox VAT
Inc VAT
ox VAT
Inc VAT
100Mb Zip
£8 00
£9.40
5 2Gb OVD RAM
£25 00
£29 38
Zip 5 pack
£35 00
£41.13
250Mb Zip
£1276
£14 99
COR CO ROM
£128
£1 50
120M LS 120
£7.00
£8 23
COR 10 pack
£10 00
£11.75
650Mb PD
£1900
£22 33
COR 25 pock
£21 28
£25 00
750Mb Nomal
£38 00
£44.65
COR BOriiin lOpck
£12.00
£14.10
1Gb Jazz
£58 00
£6815
COR 80m in 25 pek
£25.53
£30 00
2Gb Jazz
£69.00
£81.08
CDR/W CO ROM
£5 00
£5 88
1 ,5Gb Syquest
£58.00
£68.15
COR/W 10 pock
£40 00
£47 00
Desktop FAX MODEMS
56k X2/V90 3Com USR
£118.30
£129.00
56k Flex/V90 (Rockwell)
£55.32
£65.00
ISDN modem (external)
£99.00
£116.33
ANT Internet Suite
£94.05
£110.51
Webster XL
£21.28
£25.00
IJava CD
£33.19
£39.00
ArcFax Fax software
£26.38
£31.00
Interface Adapters
EESOX SCSI 32-bit DMA
£84.26
£99.00
Storm SCSI 8-bit (A30x9 int)
£88.00
£103.40
Storm SCSI 16-bit (podule)
£96.00
£112.80
Storm SCSI 32-bit DMA (podule)
£128.00
£150.40
Powertec SCSI3 32-bit DMA(podule)
£170.00
£199.75
Simtec 8-bit (A3000/A301 0)
£55.00
£64.63
Simtec 16-bit (AX00/A5000/RPC)
£45.00
£52.88
APDL 16-bit DMA
£45.00
£52.88
APDL BlitZ 32-bit DMA
£99.00
£116.33
Removable IDE or SCSI housing unit
B
O
b
o
£23.50
High speed serial cards single
£67.23
£79.00
High speed serial cards dual
£75.75
£89.00
High speed serial cards triple
£84.26
£99.00
3 y r Warranty on ALL Acorn MEMORY why Pay More??
NETWORKING
High Quality MEMORY
NEW LOWER PRICES
Ex VAT Inc VAT
A310 4Mb Upgrade *£35 £41.13
A310 RISC OS carrier board *£19 £22.33
A310MEMC1a upgrade kit £20 £23.50
A400/1 1Mb Upgrade (per Mb) £25 £29.38
A3000 1-2Mb Non-Upgradeable £15 £17.63
A3000 1 -4Mb Upgrade £35 £41.13
A3000 Serial Port Upgrade £1 9 £22.33
4-8Mb Up. (A310. 440. 3000’) £55 £64.63
A3010 1 -2Mb Upgrade £20 £23.50
A3010 1 -4Mb Upgrade £45 £52.88
A3020/4000 2-4 Mb Upgrade £40 £47.00
A5000 2-4Mb Upgrade £45 £52.88
A5000 4-8Mb 25Mz* & 33Mhz £55 £64.63
NEW A540 4Mb £45 £52.88
FPA1 0 for A5000 or Arm 3 Card £45 £55.88
Replacement VIDC or IOC chips £20 £23.50
* rework if required £25 £29.38
RISC PC MEMORY
Also for A7000
Ex VAT
Inc VAT
8Mb SIMM
£10.00
£11.75
16Mb SIMM
£20.00
£23.50
32Mb SIMM
£42.00
£49.35
32Mb high clearance
£53.00
£62.28
64Mb SIMM
£85.00
£99.88
128Mb SIMM
£160.00
£188.00
1Mb VRAM
£38.30
£45.00
2Mb VRAM
£76.00
£89.30
1-2Mb (exchange)
£66.00
£77.55
ETHERNET INTERFACES
Ex. VAT Inc VAT
A3000 int. 10base2 or T. Accoss* £89.00 £104.58
A400/A5000 10base2 or T Access* £89.00 £104.58
A400/A5000 1 0baso2 A T Access*- £99.00 £1 1 6.33
A3020 10base2 AccessWext. MAU £99.00 £116.33
A3020 lObaseT Accoss* etx MAU £99.00 £116.33
Rise PC/A7000 10base2 A T Acc* £99.00 £1 16.33
Rise PC/A7000 10base2 Access-* £89.00 £104.58
Ant Access*- ROM upgrade £10.00 £11.75
Network Hubs (more available)
RiscOS 3.11 Rom upgrades
£25.00 exc Vat (£29.38)
33 Mhz Ami 3 upgrade SPECIAL
with FPA socket
FPA 10 (25Mhz)
£45.00
£84.26
£55.88 inc.
£99.00 inc.
RPC 16 bit audio & mixer £59 inc
RPC audio mixer £35 inc
Ex VAT
Inc VAT
8 Port 10 base
£39.00
£45.83
8 Port 100 "special*
£125.00
£146.88
8 Port 100/10 Auto
£149.00
£175.08
18 Port 10 16T+ 2BNC
£75.00
£88.13
16 Port 100/10 Auto
£249.00
£292.58
16 Port 100/10 Auto
(inc 3 port switch)
£299.00
£351.33
24 Port 100/10 Auto
£389.00
£457.08
24 Port 100 "special*
£349.00
£410.08
Cables
2M
£3.00 £3.53
3M
£5.00 £5.88
5M
£6.00 £7.05
10M
£10.00 £11.75
20M
£15.00 £17.63
State 10basc2 or lObaseT
any size made to order
We supply and / or install all
network components please
ring for your requirements
NETWORKING SOFTWA RE
Topcat site licence
NTfilor slto llconco
Omnldient site licence
Lanman98 single user
Win95FS single user
Lanman or Win95FS
10 user silo licence
Lanman or Win95FS
20 user site llcenco
£489.00 (£587 50)
£97.00 (£113 98)
£489 00 i £587 50)
£35 00 (£4113)
£35.00 (£41.13)
£110.00 £129 25
£156.00 £183 30
MICE & KEYBOARDS
High Quality
Acorn ERGO
Mouse £12.00
(£14.10)
Ex. VAT Inc. VAT
£29.79 £35.00
%
Acorn TrackerbalLMouse NEW
Acorn Original Mouse
Acom ERGO Mouso NEW
A7000 replacement Mouse NEW
Ergo (std) Rise PC Keyboard
Ergo curved Rise PC Keyboard
A400i A5000 replacement K/brd
A400/A5000 Ergo Keyboard
£25.00
£12.00
£12.00
£21.28
£29.78
£59.00
£69.00
£29.38
£14.10
£14.10
£25.00
£35.00
£69.33
£81.08
Replacement Floppy Drive s
A3000/400/500 £29.00+vat (£34.08)
A30X0/4000/5000 floppy allows
cross - formatting of HD and DD
discs £29.00+vat (£34.08)
POWERED SPEAKERS
Ex. VAT Inc. VAT
60 watts with PSU £13.50 £15.86
240 watts with PSU £21.00 £24.68
Subwoofer system £42.00 £49.35
Consumables
Premier Quality Ink Refills
Single refills (1x22ml) £6.00 inc
(2x22ml)
(3x22ml)
(C.M.V)
(C.M.Y.K)
Twin refills
Triple refills
Tri- Colour
Quad-Colour
125 ml
250ml
500ml
1 litre
£10.00 inc
£14.00 inc
£15.00 inc
£20.00 inc
£21.00 inc
£38.00 inc
£50.00 inc
£70.00 inc
COLOUR SCSI SCANNERS
All scanners inc Acorn Software
Character Mouse Mats
Southpark Kenny
£4.99
Southpark Cartman
£4.99
Disney Mickey. Pooh. Donald, etc
£4.99
X-Files (four types)
£4.99
Garfield or novelty
£4.99
Standard mat £1 .00 / Econ. £0.65
All sizes available in C.M.Y.K
FLOPPY DISKS @ 20p!!
P'llel Mustek 600dpi £99.00 (£1 1 6.33)
Mustek A4 600dpi £1 1 9.00 (£1 39.83)
Mustek A4 1200dpi £149.00 (£175.08)
Epson GT7000 £199.00 (£233.83)
Epson GT7000P £249.00 (£292.58)
l max etnas ter & Twain also available
separately
Switch Boxes
2-1 with cable £15.00 £17.63
2-1 Auto with cable £15.00 £17.63
4-1 with cable £19.00 £22.33
2-1 Monitor/K'board £29.79 £35.00
R-Comp CD-ROM Software
DD Re-label Acorn fmt 10
DD Re-label Acorn fmt 100
HD bulk Acorn or PC 10
HD bulk Acorn or PC 100
HD Branded 10 pack
20 cap Disk Box
40 cap Disk Box
100 cap Disk Box
Mouse cleaner
3.5" Floppy head cleaners
CD-ROM cleaner
Ex VAT
£2.00
£17.02
£2.00
£17.02
£3.00
£1.69
£2.54
£2.98
£4.99
£2.50
£4.25
Inc VAT
£2.35
£20.00
£2.35
£20.00
£3.53
£2.00
£2.98
£3.50
£5.86
£2.94
£4.99
ABUSE
Descent
Doom* Trilogy
(£32.50 with book)
Horoos of Mighl
and Magic 2
£22 00
£27.00
£30.00
Quake (due soon) £33.00
Syndicate £26.00
Towers of Darkness £30.00
(Hexen Triple)
Doom secrets Book £10.00
(CTA Special)
Printer Ribbons, Inkjet
Cartridges,
New/Recycled Laser Toner Carts
Prices available on request
(All Prices below include VAT)
THE BARGAIN BASEMENT
Acorn Software Bin
Acom Pocket Book .Schedule £10.00
Alone in the Dark £29.00
Arm Tech Labeller £9.00
Arm Tech ClipArt (various per pack) £8.00
Birds of War £20.00
Boxing Manager £8.00
ChildPlay (desktop) £14.95
ColourSep (Colour Separation Software) £8.00
Creator 2 £25.00
D’File Font Pack (Academy) £10.00
D'File Font Pack (Balmoral) £1 0.00
D'File Font Pack (FroeStyle Script) £10.00
D'File Font Pack (Manhattan) £10.00
D'File Font Pack (Mastercard) £10.00
D'File Font Pack (Old Towne 536) £1 2.00
Diary * £9.00
Drifter £30.00
FIRE and ICE £15.00
Frak (for RPC) £13.00
Galactic Dan £10.00
Game ON (lor RPC/ A7000) £1 5.00
Global Effect £25.00
Guile £10.00
HERO QUEST £15.00
Imagery Art Package £25.00
Jahangir Khan Squash £8.00
KV ( Platform Game) £8.00
My World Support Disc Ancient Egypt £1 2.00
My World Support Disc Ancient Greece £1 3.00
Nuclides II and Elements II (save £5.00) £25.00
Quest for GOLD
£5.00
RAMplify
£17.95
Revelation 2
£29.00
Shuggy
£14.95
SitverBall
£9.99
StrongGuard
£25.00
T.A.N.K.S.
£16.95
TURBO DRIVER • Epson Stylus
Visual Backup
£45.00
Wavelenth
£12.00
World Class Loadorboard (GOLF)
£10.00
Zool (on HD)
£10.00
Acorn CD-ROM Software
Crystal Maze
£15.00
D’File PDCD 3 or 4
D’File PDCD 5
£10.00
Hutchinson Encyclopedia
£39.00
Robert Duncan Cartoon KIT
£39.00
TopicArt CD
£5.00
Tots TV ABC
£15.00
YITM Electricity and magnetism £15.00
YITM Elements
£15.00
YITM Materials
£15.00
YITM (all three titles)
£35.00
CD General Resource Titles
10000 Clip Art (Draw Format)
£5.00
550 fonts
£5.00
Symphony Music collection
£5.00
Internet Clipart (new)
£25.00
COREL DRAW 5
£29.00
1/2 price (or less) Book Bargains
Dabhand Guide "Budget DTP"
£3.00
Dabhand Guide ”C" ver 3
£8.50
Dabhand Guide ”C" ver 2
£3.00
Dabhand "Graphics on the ARM
£7.50
Dabhand Guide "Impression"
£7.50
Internet info server
£20.00
SQL
£17.50
Various Hardware bargains
A3010 2Mb bases from
£85
£99.88
A3020 2Mb bases from
£125
£146.88
A4000 2Mb bases from
£150
£176.25
A5000 4Mb bases from
£225
£264.38
A7000 4Mb bases from
£275
£323.13
A4 Portables (6 months wty)
£500
£587.50
RPC bases from
£435
£511.13
SVGA Monitors Various from
£45
£52.88
Pioneer SCSI 4x 6x stack
£139
£163.33
ARCSHARE
Acom networking for PCs
£29.95 exc Vat £35.19 inc Vat
see network section for Cards etc
StrongARM Rev "T"
£259.00 inc VAT
(with any Hard Drive / Memory
purchase)
RiscPC PC Cards
DX2-66 £145.00 inc VAT
DX4-100 £195.00 inc VAT
586-1 00 (Acom) £290.00 inc VAT
586-1 33 (CJE 51 2) £300.00 inc VAT
We can repair/upgrade your
machine(s) and monitors at
competitive prices please ask
All Acorn’s, BBCs & PCs
Refurbished RiscPCs
Available now refurbished RiscPC
Systems with AKF60 Monitors
only £499 + Vat
We have a large collection of
Budget PC software suitable for
RPC Pc Emulators and PC clones
inc, Education, Home, games an
utilities please ring for list
Alternative PC Bases
i.c. Siemans Nixorf Pentium
200 MMX from ONLY £249.00
+ VAT ring for latest prices.
HOW TO ORDER
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BY EMAIL: sales@cta.u-net.com
OFFICIAL ORDERS by MAIL or FAX please
Carriage charges inc. ins. & packaging charged at cost
Small items (under 2Kg) no more than £6 + vat
One box of items totalling upto 25kg.. .£6.50 + vat
Computer systems £13 + vat
All prices are correct going to press. E&OE
All goods are fully guaranteed but not supplied on
approval
600MHz StrongARM
Intel has started to make some noises
about introducing next-generation
StrongARM technology, calling it a
'quantum leap in performance
without trade-offs in low-power
capability/ Today's StrongARM
processors deliver over 200MHz and
draw just 650mW power. Intel say's
the mid-range performer in its new
StrongARM processor line-up will
deliver twice the performance with
one-third the power consumption, at
45 percent less voltage.
Intel will implement an ultra-low
power 32-bit RISC
architecture, helped
by Intel's new 0.18p
fabrication process.
600MHz will deliver
750MIPS performance
and yet the 500mW
power consumption
barrier will remain
un-touched. The
family will range
between 150MHz, consuming 40m W
power, to the 600MHz part
consuming 450mW power, less than
a tenth that of a typical Intel or third
party Pentium compatible at the
same clock speed.
Intel also point out that
compatibility with the current ARM
architecture has been agreed,
suggesting that the new chips won't
lack the 26-bit operational mode
currently required by RISC OS.
If true, this is excellent news for
the RISC OS market since the
conversion from 26-bit to 32-bit
addressing is the most serious
problem facing the RISCOS Ltd
programmers. It would mean that
the existing operating system should
work without further
modification - giving
more breathing space
for the necessary
future changes to
RISC OS.
Next-generation
StrongARM
technology features
the Intel Super
Pipelined RISC
Architecture implementation,
including a seven-stage integer and
eight-stage memory pipeline for
dramatically faster processor clock
rates. Integrated caches have been
expanded to further enhance
performance. 32Kb 32-way associative
instruction and data caches and a 2Kb
2-way associative mini-cache will be
implemented. These caches represent
significant increases over the current-
generation StrongARM architecture
implementation.
The Internet and voice recognition
are used by Intel as an indication of
the importance of the new chips.
Intel gives the example of a palm-
size device capable of taking
dictation. It requires about 250MIPS
for voice recognition, enough all by
itself to push the performance
envelope of today's processors. Since
it would be impractical for a single
function like voice recognition to
consume all of a device's available
processing capacity, it's clear that
more headroom is vital.
Among other applications, these
performance advances will enable
developers to build a whole new
class of faster programmable,
intelligent Internet access devices
capable of simultaneously
supporting multiple windows for TV
and digital video content.
RISC OS in Rwanda
We've all heard the horror stories from the central African
state of Rwanda in the news since 1994. Ethnic tribal rivalry
resulted in the slaughter of possibly millions. At last the
region is getting back to a semblance of normality, enabling
various aid and redevelopment agencies to carry out their
work there.
ExpLAN Computers of Tavistock in Devon, is well
known for its Church links and the company's Paul
Richardson was part of a five-person team from two
churches in Devon who went out this summer to provide
assistance to a group of churches headed up by Pastor
Sadike Zacharie. They took with them an A4000 and an
A7000 for use in producing small print-runs of Bible
teaching materials. As far as he knows, Richardson
successfully installed the first RISC OS computer in
Rwanda. Apparently, there has been a rapid increase in the
demand for Bible-teaching resources in Rwanda.
ExpLAN equipped the computers with their own
HolyBible software in French, the official language of
Rwanda. It's also possible the text will eventually provided
in the native Kinyarwandan language. Requests were also
made to other RISC OS developers for specific items needed.
Every company approached gave the products requested,
either free of charge, or at specially reduced prices.
Computer Concepts gave two copies of Impression Style,
EFF some keyboard drivers, Argonet offered internet
software and David Pilling, fax and SparkFS software.
Other contributions were made by Interconnex, IFEL and
Castle Technology. Richardson was able to train about two
dozen Rwandese to use the equipment, including a
PostScript laser printer. "It's important to remember that
they must continue to keep this system running," explained
Richardson. "I have no doubts as to the ease of use and long
lifetime of RISC OS computers and the laser printer will
continue to operate for many years on the level of finance
available in Rwanda."
Life may be getting back to normal, but there are still
dangers to be faced: "We only got accosted by one bandit,
and that was in the centre of the capital city. I think he was
after the A7000 he spied on the back seat of the car."
November 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com
Psion leaps to generation 7
Just a couple of months after
announcing the refreshed Series 5mx,
Psion has announced a new, bigger
and more powerful StrongARM-
powered sibling, the Series 7. Psion
has also announced the opening of a
Psion user-dedicated Internet portal
at http://www.planet.psion.com,
complete with free Internet service
designed specifically for Psion users.
Since the Series 3 /Acorn Pocket
Book generation, Psion has now
skipped two even-numbered
generations. Number 4 was supposed
to be considered unlucky in some
Eastern countries - 6 has been
skipped too. But the Series 7 itself
looks rather familiar. In fact, it's a
consumer-version of the Psion
netBook which the company
announced at the same time as the
Series 5mx.
Both the Series 7 and netBook are
larger than the Series 5, sport 60x480
resolution colour touch screens and
are driven by Strong ARM processors;
the netBook gets a 190MHz SA and
the cheaper Series 7 a 133MHz
processor. You also get a full-size
PCMCIA Type II slot and a voucher is
included for a special offer on a Psion
Dacom Gold Card PCMCIA modem.
A Lithium-ion rechargeable battery
pack is also part of the specification,
which Psion claims will last two to
three times longer than that in your
typical notebook PC, which could
translate into 6-10 hours of
continuous use; the best part of a
working day, if you like.
16Mb system memory is standard,
expandable to 32Mb and along with
the PCMCIA slot, there is a
CompactFlash for extra non-volatile
storage.
IrDA-compliant wireless infra-red
networking is built in alongside a
serial port. The Series 7 weighs in at
1.15Kg. At £699.95 inc.VAT, it is
priced to compete with the mid-to-
high end specification Windows CE
market.
At the time of writing, the Psion
netBook's price wasn't known,
though estimates suggest £800+ VAT.
For the extra £140 (inc.VAT), you get
nearly twice the processor power,
32Mb RAM as standard, plus Java
and Ethernet support. It could be a
tough choice between the two for
some.
Meanwhile, Planet.Psion is a free
Internet service for Psion users
provided in conjunction with Line
One, a fast-growing ISP in the UK.
Slightly amusing is the fact that the
Planet.Psion Web site is mostly
designed in shades of grey and is
devoid of design features, like frames,
superfluous graphics and animations,
which would tax Psion's existing
Epoc Web browser. Planet.Psion will
also function as a central news and
information service for Psion users.
Users can register with the service,
which includes up to five mailboxes
and 10Mb of Web space, online.
Welcome to PLANET PSION
EPOC portal for the Series 5.
This website was last updated on 1QW1999
I WM& EE
!2Ji
V^HOOf
uk*iwund
WebSearch |
S earch Yah o ol fo} Psion
Sp<?rt- U K B v s lnfiss.find s i
US Jobs - UK Jobs
QtherYahool Services
advert
EPOC news feed supplied by
TUCOWS.COM, EPOC Ttnes.
Copyright 1999.
Good morning and welcome to Planet Psion.
» NEW S FROM PSION
www.psioacom
Psion and IBM provides solution for mobile workers
Enfour supports Hong Kona University EPOC development
Prism Computer Supports Oracle8i Lite For EPOC
Sfaham Tgchno joflia n d . P a ! mt.Q p_a n no u n ce p a rtnership.
Psion technology helps reunite Kosovo Albanians
Protect vour privacy with DATASAFE
» News about SERIES 5 Software
New version of Tester
Updated - Quote On
In Development - Lister
»ewy £S|on_ Pf Mentor
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New: Paddle
Oerman 5mx Pro users benefit from EPOC upgrade
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Docketinfo .on
PSION
Psion
$1 3 million for E-1 4
Elementl4 Ltd - the company which likes to describe itself
as "a start-up formed from the remains of Acorn Computers
Ltd" - has raised $13 million in financing and revealed
more details about its future plans to produce an innovative
DSP (digital signal processor) chip family under the code-
name of RrePath. The financing deal is said to be the
largest for a chip-design company start-up in Europe. The
company also speaks of its ambitions to emulate the success
of ARM Ltd.
E14 will use the money for operational expenses as it
expands its architecture and chip design teams in Bristol,
where earlier this year the company acquired design
engineers from the 64-bit Chameleon CPU design group of
ST Microelectronics. "The simplicity of the architecture is
the key. We're taking a RISC-like approach to the design of
DSP," said Stan Boland, chief executive officer of Elementl4.
He added: "We've been assembling the company over
the last three to six months by bringing together engineers
from Acorn and a CPU design team from STM. It means
we've got excellent silicon, software and systems expertise.
The plan is to produce a chip in summer 2000 as an
evaluation platform for the architecture."
Like ARM, E14 will design its chips but let others license
the technology and make the final product.
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
ime In 1 or m a l r nn System
RISC OS
around the home
The great thing about having one is
that a butler can be summoned to
where you happen to be. This hints
at why Octopus Systems has named
its new home information system
product "TeleButler".
The package combines Octopus
Systems' Caller ID and Teletext
products originally designed as
separate Acorn computer peripherals
and allows caller information to be
displayed on any TV in your home
using a dedicated channel.
A special "information channel" is
generated by the computer and
available on Channel 9. The system
is able to display the caller's name
and number when the telephone
rings, the number dialled on any
telephone extension in your home,
the name of the person being called,
when the telephone is in use and
when the call has finished.
It can also display a customised
TV and Radio guide
listing your favourite
programmes, plus other
useful information you
may wish to link to in
other RISC OS
applications. Octopus see
the product as appealing
to all sorts, but especially
home workers.
The TeleButler system
can be bought as a
complete package priced
£285 inc. delivery and
VAT, or you can build it
up item by item, though
separately the total cost
is higher. For more
information, check the
Web at http:// www.
octosys.co.uk/ tb Octopus systems is
on tel: 01473 728943
Octopus Systems Teletext*
f^iWTciTihTIF T _>■ ... _ . :i
10.00 STAR TREK - The Next Generation
19.00 WATCHDOG
21.00 TAGGART Final part.
21.25 HORIZON S/N features Acorn’s new
22.30 NEUSNIGHT S
Thursday
09:08 01473-720943
09:31 01473-640000
09: 52
10: 17 01354-680432
10:42 0101-231 9191
11:25 01473-270643
11:37 01223-725725
Octopus Systems
BT Research
INTERNATIONAL
Apricote Studios
BBC Engineering
Tracey Skirrow
Acorn Computers
This display can appear on all of the
TV sets in your home - see page 50 of
the Teletext**- manual.
GIF worries return
We thought this story was dead and
buried. We were wrong. It's back and
it's beginning to scare some software
developers and users in the RISC OS
and other software platforms.
Five years ago, Unisys - a large US
computer firm which invested in
patented technology intellectual
property, woke up to the fact that the
Internet was making one of its
patents rapidly increase in value.
This was the LZW (Lempel Ziv
Welch) loss-less image compression
algorithm used in a variety of image-
related application programs and
image file formats, including the
popular TIFF (Tagged Image File
Format).
Even more popular than TIFF is
GIF, commonly known as the
CompuServe Graphic Image File
format. GIF uses LZW compression
and the GIF format, along with the
JPEG format, forms the basis for Web
page imaging on the Internet.
At the end of 1994, Unisys let it be
known that they would be seeking
licence fees from those people its
legal advice had defined as
commercially liable through the use
of LZW compression in file formats
like GIF. The announcement caused a
storm of protest as it directly
challenged the notion of the Internet
as being a largely free entity. There
was also confusion as to who was
actually liable - end users, BBS
operators, Web site owners: all feared
the consequences.
The uproar seemed to cancel out
the licence issue and once the noise
had died down, Unisys' LZW claims
were forgotten by most. In fact,
Unisys continued to pursue its claims
a little more discreetly, but targeted
bigger firms like Microsoft and IBM.
Now, five years later, Unisys has
issued further press releases
indicating that it is continuing to
pursue un-licensed use of the LZW
algorithm.
Unisys points out that it recently
succeeded in defeating resistance
from Corel Corporation, a major
developer of graphics software, over
the issue through legal action. Several
hundred big name software
companies have quietly paid their
licence fees, but there are thousands
of others and many can't afford the
apparent minimum $5,000 charge.
Many of these companies are in the
RISC OS sector.
Unisys also warns that users'
ignorance of their software's licensed
status is no excuse. While stressing
that most licence arrangements with
ordinary end-users will not require
any fees at all, Unisys still wants
anyone using LZW-based
technologies to check that their
software is licensed. It reads a lot like
veiled threats to any GIF user.
Five years ago, as soon as the
original Unisys/LZW furore made
the headlines, enthusiasts rebelled
and invented their own, improved
alternative to GIF and called it PNG -
officially called Portable Network
Graphics and cheekily nick-named
PNG is Not GIF. It's a recognised
Web graphics file format supported
by many browsers, including some
RISC OS ones like Fresco, Acorn
Browse and ArcWeb, for example and
it is totally free of any licensing
concerns. PNG is widely supported,
but GIF continues to rule alongside
JPEG. Now maybe PNG will come to
the fore after all.
For more information on LZW
licensing, check
http://corp2.unisys.com/LeadStory/
lzwfaq.html
The official PNG Web site is at:
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png/
November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
3.5" IDE Hard Discs
Drive Plus i/face
leases
El tTSIEfflEH H il tL-JL^ ^-gjgg
210 Mb
£39
£81
420 Mb
£49
£87
540 Mb
£57
£105
1.2 Gb
£69
£116
2.1 Gb
£76
£123
2.5 Gb
£79
£126
3.2 Gb
£82
£129
4.2 Gb
£89
£136
6.3 Gb
£95
£144
10 Gb
£117
£164
12.7 Gb
£139
£186
17.7 Gb
£191
£238
18.8 Gb 5-
£197
£244
Plus U face' price includes an
Th* PO LUH-r
fData file
Prices include VAT and UK carriage except hard drives add £5 for internal drives, £8 external
This is only a fraction of what we have available. We also have thousands of discs PD and Shareware and around 500 discs of
Acorn format clip art. For a full catalogue on 800K or 1.6Mb disc please send 50p or two 1st class stamps or see our web site.
p APDL, 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26 5RN mm
Jm Phone: 0181 778 2659 Fax: 0181 488 0487 www.apdl.co-.uk/
APDL fast IDE interface.
Part-exchange available if
you need a bigger drive .
Please phone for prices.
2.5" IDE Hard Discs
30 Mb
80 Mb
120 Mb
170 Mb
210 Mb
250 Mb
330 Mb
420 Mb
512 Mb
1.8 Gb
A301 0/3000 includes APDL
interface, A 3020 includes fitting kit
Larger sizes and 11D+CI) available
APDL
APDL
PD-1 Issue 4
PD-2 Issue 4
DTP-1 and DTP-2
DTP-3
£12.50
£12.50
£14.50
£17.50
The best PI) CD from the best PD library. Over 1.800 programs and utilities,
more than 100 novels, etc. No games, clip art, music, or other non-serious stuff.
Around 700 games and novelties, over 250 games cheats and over 200 demos,
plus over 2,000 music files and more than 550 digitised sound samples.
Each have over 500Mb of clip art files, all ready to use in Acorn Draw, Sprite
or Artworks format. Ideal for use in education.
Third highly acclaimed APDL clip art CD. Over 720Mb of material. Great for
schools or anyone who needs a huge collection of clip art at a sensible price.
DTP-1 plus DTP-2 plus DTP-3, just £34.50
Our latest clip art CD. Over 12,000 images, plus more than 400 Artworks files
and 170 high quality colour pictures. All catalogued complete with thumbnails
A collection of twenty of the best PI) games of all types. Ready to run direct
from the CD on almost any machine. Hours of fun for an unbeatable price.
Our Games Collection No. 1 CD was so popular we’ve done it again. Another
twenty of the best best games at a real budget price.
A great budget priced games CD from APDL. Full versions of three popular
games from Skullsoft, !Arya, IXenocide and !PIig
Six classic games from Soft Rock Software, plus a new version of Trellis, the
adventure game creator/interpreter with two adventures
By request from our customers, the pictures from the Fantasy section of the
APDL catalogue. Lots of Sword 'n Sorcery pics and many others
DTP-4
Games CD 1
Games CD 2
Skullsoft Collection
Soft Rock Collection
Fantasy Pictures
Education
Earth in Space
Earth Data
New Ergane
£16.50
£9.90
£9.90
£7.90
The ultimate super fast IDE
interface for your Rise PC.
Over 7 M/b per second!
SCSI Hard Discs
£16.50
A CD ideal for schools. All the things we know you want. Over 5,000 Acorn
format clip art images, 100’s of e-texts, over 300 useful programs, and more.
Pictures, databases, information on stars, planets, moons, space missions, etc.
etc. A massive uniount of data at a realistic price.
Geographical database with a huge variety of data and statistics on every
country. Simple menu-based interface. Including lEarthmap
Translating dictionary program by David O'Shea with dictionary files for over
50 languages, although some are limited to a few' hundred words.
Now with eight games. AlfaXL5, Pharoahs Secret Tombs, Last Cybcrmoch,
Sea Trek, Caves of Confusion, Robocatch, Gold Run and Jewels of Jezabar.
210 Mb
£29
420 Mb
h/h
£49
1Gb
£74
4.2 Gb
h/h
£149
4.2 Gb
£159
8.7 Gb
li/li
£229
IDE CD ROModrives
Internal
Drive with all cables and drivers
for RO 3.6 4- where required
36x £47
40x £49
Drive including APDL IDE interface
36x £94
40x £96
External
Drive in case with power supply and
including an APDL IDE interface.
Probably the best way to fit a CD to a
pre- RISCPC machine.
36x £151
40x £153
C l) ROM driver softwa re
Works with most MAPI CDs eg.. Pit niter
Goldstar, Panasonic. Lite-on, Milsinni,
• Sony. Hitachi, NEC. Toshiba, Sanyo, etc.
! Includes CDh'S for use with RO 3.5.
Intended for RPC but can be used with
j an A 500(1. Only £8 or £7 with u drive
APDL ideA fast IDE interface
• No complicated setting up. It’s self-configuring so just plug it in!
• Uses DMA (Direct Memory Access) on Rise PC. Over twice as fast as the
built in IDE interface or others which don’t use DMA.
• Includes CDFS and ATAPI CI) drivers for many popular CD ROMs.
• Four devices, any combination of CDs and hard drives.
• Up to 8 partitions, so you can have large drives on pre RO 3.6 machines
• Software in flash EEPROM for easy update (including VProtect).
• Supports the new' range of Syquest SparQ low cost 1Gb removable drives.
• Connectors are available for external drives or CD ROMs
• Fits A3 10, A400, A5000, A540, A7000 and any RiscPC.
AH these features for the incredibly low price of just £52
A version for the A3000, A4000, A3010 or A3020 is available with all the
above features. Supports two internal and two external devices - £62
RiscPC and A7000 RAM
8 Mb
£8
16 Mb
£25
32 Mb
£47
32 Mb High Clearance
£52
64 Mb
from
£79
128 Mb
front
£139
2 Mb VRAM
£69
I Mb to 2 Mb exchange
£47
APDL Paralell Port Syquest drive
The 1Gb SparQ drive is the ideal solution for backing up larger hard drives
where old technology like a Zip drive just isn’t realistic. Big enough to hold
lots of data, and with our software you aren't restricted to just RISC-OS 3.6+
but can use it on any machine with a bi-directional printer port including the
A5000, A3010 etc. as well. With Acorn and DOS driver software, just £199
Ancestor +
We’ve promised it before, but it's available at last! The long awaited successor
to Graham Crow's highly popular genealogy program Ancestry, previously
sold by Minerva. Upgrades from Ancestry 1 and Ancestry 2 available. Can use
Ancestry 1 files und we're working on a converter for Ancestry 2. Only £59
ACE 586 PC cards
Available with from just £199 with trade in against your old card, which
makes it even cheaper. Good performance for Windows at a sensible price.
I28K to 512K cache upgrade (fits most cards with socketed processor) £99
Faster PC - £20 The alternative XT PC
emulator. Works on any model with 2Mb
RAM from A30(H) to Strong ARM RPC.
Power Base - £15 Popular extremely
powerful but very easy to use database.
With examples, tutorials and printed
manuals. Better thun most products costing
many times the price. Does everything that
99% of database users will ever need.
MenuBar - £15 The very best pull-down
menu system. An absolute essential for any
hard disc user. You can switch between up
to 30 different menu bars. Incredibly easy to
set up, add items to menus, move them, etc.
Tiger - £15 Lets you use very long
descriptive filenames. Unlike some products
this is very robust as it works in parallel
with the filer so can’t corrupt discs.
WorkTop - £15 Switch between up to 30
different environments with a single mouse
click. Stars the tasks you require, opens
directories, loads files, changes screen mode.
Just like moving to another computer. An
essential productivity tool.
Joy Connect joystick podule
Works with most games. Podule with one
joystick £42 Extra joysticks £4 each.
Connect 32 fast SCSI
We have a limited number of these very fast
interfaces (up to 7.5 Mb/sec) at only £99
®o
Datafile PD CDs
PD CD -3
PD CD -4
PI) CD -5
£6.50
£8.50
£6.50
(Data (0) SAFE
Data Safe - A new concept in backup and data security
A new idea from APDL, Data Safe consists of an external case to hold a 3.5" IDE
hard drive, connected to your machine's printer port. This gives a large capacity
portable drive, movable between machines and locations. Ideal for backup, secure
data storage and transport. The filer has all the features of our ideA card so you
can partition drives, password protect partitions, etc. Great for schools. Supply
your own drive or we'll fit one for you.
Data Safe Super has the drive fitted in a removable drawer. You can fit a similar
drawer to your Rise PC (best if you use our IDE card) and then just unplug the
drive from the RPC and transfer data to another machine using the Data Safe.
Prices start at £104 or w ith 3.2Gb drive just £185 6.3 Gb only £199
Faster A7000+
Castle Technology Limited (CTL) has
announced a faster A7000+ which
incorporates the latest 50mips (million
instructions per second) ARM 7500FE
processor. The new A7000+ Odyssey
benefits from raw processing power
boosted by over 70 percent from the
previous model's 29mips.
The extra oomph also translates
into better screen mode options,
ranging from a full 16 million colours
in 640x480 mode, through to a
1024x768 mode in 32,000 colours and a
huge 1280x1024 mode in 256 colours.
Performance and usability also gets a
Acorn users have used Wacom
graphics tablets for years. Now
Wacom is widening its market from
a core clientele
of mainly
professional
graphics artists
to the general
consumer
market with its
new Graphire
mouse and pen
set. In the box
you get a
1,000dpi A6
format graphics
tablet, a cordless
pressure-
sensitive pen
and a cordless mouse with a wheel
button. The pen has 512 levels of
pressure, which is half that of the
more up-market Wacom Intuos
tablet range, but still promises to
satisfy the majority of uses.
The mouse has no ball or internal
boost through CTL's adoption of RISC
OS 4 as a no-cost option to the
standard RISC OS 3.71 .
RISC OS 4 can, in certain
circumstances, accelerate performance
by almost 50 percent. Free bundled
software includes Icon Technology's
EasiWriter Professional and Colton
Software's Resultz spreadsheet
package.
The Odyssey is available in a
number of configurations for
networking, Internet access, and so on,
with prices (without monitor) starting
at £525+VAT. CTL is currently offering
rollers to get dirty, so its operation
should be smooth and glitch-free for
life. Both input devices
communicate with the tablet using a
low-power radio
communication
system and
neither require
batteries.
A choice of
USB or serial
connection is
offered and the
Graphire will be
available from
October, priced
£84.99 inc. VAT.
RISC OS
support software
will be required and we must hope
that the existing software support
can be adapted easily for the RISC
OS market. The UK distributor is
Computers Unlimited, tel: 0181 358
5857. Wacom on the Web:
http:/ / www. wacom.co.uk
discounts on monitors until the end of
November.
Customers who order a new Acorn
computer (Rise PC or A7000+) from
Castle, or one of its dealers, can choose
a 14in monitor for an extra E50+VAT, a
15in unit for E75+VAT or a 17"
monitor for £125 +VAT.
All these have digital controls and a
0.28mm dot pitch screen, plus a 3 year
warranty. Min flat screen LCD
monitors are also available at
E550+VAT.
Jack Lillingston, CTL's managing
director, commented: "Castle have
taken up the challenge to continue the
development of the Acorn range of
computers.
The Odyssey is just the first in a
series of improvements that we have
been working on. Castle will release
details of further technological
developments before Christmas 1999".
CTL, tel: 01728 723200, fax: 01728
621179, e-mail: sales@castle.org.uk,
Web: http://www.castle.org.uk
Acorn searches
made easy
AcornSearch, is set to become the
'Yahoo!' of the Acorn world. It's a
search engine dedicated to the
Acorn/ RISC OS area of computing. It
can search through Web, FTP, and
News items, helping to fitter out
other non-relevant material and
return clearer results.
The engine itself now indexes over
7,500 items, over some 170 individual
sites. Users can submit their RISC OS
related homepages by sending an e-
mail to g0tai@acornsearch.com with
their website in the subject of the
message. Developers may be
interested to know that the engine
scrapes the web pages for
downloadable files (for the file search
engine) and may wish to read the
instructions provided at http: //www.
acornsearch.com/submit.html
Wacom's pen
and mouse
Eizo's budget monitor paiy m
A year ago, you'd be doing well to find
an up-to-date 17in monitor of any
description under E200+VAT. Today,
several manufacturers are offering
models at nearing the E150+VAT mark.
Eizo is not noted for budget-priced
product, preferring to concentrate on
high-end feature-rich models instead.
But now the company has announced a
budget model of a sort. The list price of
the Eizo F520 is E239+VAT, which
makes it a mid-price 17in unit.
However, you do get features which
are unusual for this price point,
including a short-neck tube which
saves on space, 0.26mm dot pitch
screen instead of the usual budget-
priced 0.28mm specification and TCO
'99 radiation emissions compliance.
Maximum refresh rate at 1024x768
resolution is 89Hz. Options include a
modular USB hub and add-on speakers
and microphone. Eizo monitors are
distributed in the UK by PDS, tel:
01483, 719500, Web:
http: / / www.pds.co.uk
Game Boy ARMed
and dangerous
It has been revealed that Nintendo has
chosen an ARM processor to power its
successor to the highly successful, multi-
million seller. Game Boy hand-held
pocket game console. Code-named
Game Boy Advance, the new device is
designed to be configured with the aid
of add-on modules as a mobile phone,
providing Internet communications for
software downloading and e-mail. A
digital camera add-on is planned too.
Multi-player real-time games will
include the ability to see the face of your
opponent. The new Game Boy will have
the capability of running current Game
Boy games using an emulator, but new
games specially developed for the
'Advance' unit will not be backwards
compatible with the existing Game Boy.
A special feature will see the new
Game Boy working in tandem with
Nintendo's still-secret next-generation
'Dolphin' home entertainment console.
The 'Advance' unit itself will have a
240x160 pixel TFT LCD display, have a
capacity of 20 hours of continuous use
and weight about 140g. Don't hold your
breath, however, the first production
units, which will ship in just less than a
year's time, will be for Japan only,
though the rest of the world is
scheduled for Christmas 2000.
Vacancies at Oregan
We've mentioned their recruitment
needs in the news pages before, but
Oregan Networks Ltd continue to have
have several full time job vacancies for
software engineers with RISC OS
experience. According to Oregan,
positions available will require working
on-site at the Oregan Networks
Leicestershire offices, with involvement
in a number of Internet STB (set top box)
related projects.
Qualifying for the jobs is quite tough:
At least a BSc/BEng Degree within
a suitable discipline, excellent
knowledge of C and the Acorn or
ARMTools compilers, experience of
developing RISC OS-based WIMP
applications, some experience of porting
C code to the RISC OS platform and
some some knowledge of Unix,
networks and Internet technologies is an
advantage.
If you're interested, e-mail nbourne®
oregan.net, or telephone 01530 563311.
Freeze your machine
Having been involved with
Acorns for longer than I care to
remember, sometimes, this news
item reminded me of those wire-
infested gadgets for your BBC
Micro you used to be able to buy
in order to stop games at critical
moments, change the lives
memory value to 'infinite' and
then proceed to become a
champion Elite player or
suchlike.
Like Arm's Tech's new
product, called Freeze, these
games cheat devices were
designed around the ability to
freeze the state of the host
computer and then enable the
entire memory contents to be
saved out as a file and tampered
with as necessary.
Freeze can save the state of a
machine and restore it back at
any time, but Arm's Tech appears
to have developed the application
more for convenience than games
cheating. Using Freeze, a long
boot sequence can take less than
5 seconds. You can, freeze as
many different sessions as you
like and re-load them when
needed. Freeze is a shareware
program and the full registration
costs £10. For more information,
contact Arm's Tech via the Web
at: http://aglaee.imag.fr/
ArmsTech/GUS/Freeze.html
David Watkins
It is with sadness, shock and
surprise that we have learned
that Dave Watkins, who was the
last editor of Archimedes World,
had passed away. Dave was a
familiar and enthusiastic figure
among the small band of people
who make up the core 'Acorn
press'.
He endured a difficult time
keeping Archimedes World going
while its then publishers were
negotiating to close or sell it.
Acorn User's own publishing
company, Tau Press, eventually
acquired the magazine and it was
merged with Acorn User. We will
miss Dave's thoughtful but laid
back presence at press meetings.
Our thoughts are with his family.
http://www.acornuser.com November 1 999
Icon Technology
New Pro+ version of Easiwriter and Techwriter now available
EasiWriter professional
• Powerful, fully featured, multi-column word processor.
• Reads and writes MS Word 6, 7 & 8 (Office 97/98).
• IMPRESSION text files with styles are imported complete with formatting.
• Reads and writes HTML. Splits large documents with automatic generation
of forward /backward links and contents.
• Reads RTF (Rich Text Format).
• Creates Hypertext documents.
• Built in Table Editor.
• Automatic bulleted and numbered lists.
• Mail merge.
• Automatic numbering of Lists, Sections etc.
• Powerful spell checker.
• Style editor.
EasiWriter professional
£119.84
Easiwriter Pro+
£139.00 (offer)
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"Its great! At the risk of writing advertising copy for
Icon Technology, no piece of software on any platform has
made me grin with delight as I discover new features as
much as TechWriter has." Archive
All the features of EasiWriter professional plus a pow-
erful easy to use equation editor.
Writes TeX.
Saves equations as GIF's (using TechWriter professional
InterGif) when writing HTML. £178 59
Used by the Mathematical
Association to produce the Techwritei Pro+
Mathematical Gazette. £199.00 (offer)
New! Pro+
Text flow over graphics
Paragraphs can contain multiple graphics which can be left and right aligned
with text flowing over them. Allows drop caps.
Java enabled
Run Java Applets inside an Easi /Techwriter window
Plus...
Over 100 new user definable keyboard shortcuts, runs animated GIFs and
Animator files, 300/360 dpi equation resolation when saving as Word.
Upgrade your Start Write or
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Icon Technology Limited
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email: sales@IconTechnology.net
comm*
Net gains and losses
In brief
More Net-work
Andover.Net operates Websites offering
on-line Internet resources for Website
builders. It also hosts the advertising
space that pays for free use of these
tools. Their Internet traffic report
monitors the flow of data around the
world checking response time and
packet loss, expressed as a Traffic
Index. Get it at http://www.
InternetTrafficReport.com
The MediaBuilder site offers free clip-
art, animated GIF library, icons, borders
and backgrounds, as well as free TrueType
fonts and image creation tools. The 3D Text
Maker at http://www.3DTextMaker.com/
A bit more work needed perhaps?
can produce headlines and banner graphics
which can be edited and tweaked in
another online tool called GIFWORKS,
which for Acorn machines needs a
JavaScript Browser such as WebsterXL or
Fresco 2.03.
Button Maker can convert an existing
Web-published image into a bevelled
button with an optional sharp drop
shadow. Animated banner GIFs can be
created with your own text with a
number of moving effects. Their
Dingbats font face mapper needs using
with care, as its HTML won't display
correctly on an Acorn Browser. If you
must use the face attribute, only use
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica">, as no
other fonts can be expected.
MediaBuilder offers an interesting
selection of browser-independent tools
for Web graphics creation, but the image
quality isn't brilliant, and most actions
take quite a time to achieve. Much better
results would probably be obtained
using one of the low-cost packages such
as DrawWorks for Acorns or Xara3D and
WebStyle for the PC.
Andover.Net MediaBuilder
http://www.mediabuilder.com
YoUR List of
http://www.alant.demon.co.uk
Alan Brown's Postscript Printer
Description files for distilling pdf files, his
Acorn software and Simpsons guide.
http://www.archchancellor.demon.co.uk/
Edward Noakes' RISC OS software and
coding tips, his selection of other authors'
Acorn software and Angband links.
http://www.suit-u-sir.com/
riscos/ comp.html
The computer adventures of Simon E.
John, including his JavaScript digital
clock, Perl and Java demos.
http://www.bitsmart.com/acorn
Bryn Evans' collection of scripts and
information for using Acorn ! Connect
with free ISPs, also Interesting sites for
Schools.
http://mars.spaceports.com/~kez/
Kez's Corner (thankfully not /Corner);
Kerry Floyd's site includes Acorn
sites to visit
games to download, desktop sillies and
Java chat page.
http://welcome.to/benbrook/
Ben Brook's site contains images and info
on the range of Acorn machines, links and
a beginner's guide to Acorns.
http://www.bravenet.com
Free tools for Webmasters including Web
forums, reasonably discreet hit counters,
guestbooks, mailing lists and E-mail forms.
http://www.argonet.co.uk/
mabel/programs/html3/
IHTML by Richard Goodwin is a very
comprehensive macro-inserter for
creating Web pages with your favourite
editor.
Contacting AU j
David Dade at:
comms@acornuser.com
During the day Ian Jeffray designs
digital set-top TV software, but his
home interests include Formula 1
Grand Prix, ARM Linux , and
writing Acorn software. His
FreeUK Web site features well-
illustrated information on setting
up small home Ethernet networks
with Acorns and PCs. Topics
discussed on his "Basic home
networking" pages range from
choosing cable types through
allocating IP addresses to
networking software configuration
of both Acorns and PCs.
Basic home networking
http://www.jeff ray. freeuk. com/
networking.html
Keep track
with Camtrack
Hans de jong plays a lot of tennis,
but his other leisure moments in
The Netherlands are taken up by
RISC OS programming. CamTrack
is his latest project, which fetches
and stores images from WebCams
- those peeping Internet eyes that
show you what's happening right
now in places all over the world.
Camtrack initiates periodic
Web fetches and stores the images
where you want them. In concert
with David Thomas' NetFetch and
your Internet software, up to 50
separate WebCams can be
scheduled. There's a good selection
at "Around The World in 80
Clicks" at
http://www.steveweb.
com/80clicks/index. h tm.
CamTrack
http://home.planet.nl/~hjng
Security breach
There has been much recent e-
discussion about Secure Sockets
Layer connections; the encryption
of data sent via Web browsers for
e-commerce purposes. UK-based
users of Acorn ’.Browse have the
40-bit standard, but the full
'strong' 128-bit encryption is not
available. ANT © Suite and Voyager
Fresco© owners have been
champing at the bit for any level of
secure transfer. You can test the
strength of whatever SSL version
you may or may not have 'found',
at a number of Web sites including
the Harvard University FAS site at
http://www. fas. harvard, edu/
security/test.html
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
Acorn User Awards 1995
Best product
runner up • PubllshART
Acorn User Awards 1995
Best business software
runner up • TableCalc
Tel 01344 455769 email atimbrell@aol.com
? 6 http://members.aol.com/isvproduct/ 1
4.$.SaleProgs.DWori<sSE.DWSE/ARC
IDWmanual IDWorksSE Worksheets
DrawWorks bitmap/vector graphics package
Mr Cllppy clip art manager
Over 1000 pieces of high qualify clip art
Over 21 00 supert outline fonts
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VIVID Graphics enhancers
Art Lesson CD-ROM
For Acom
by Christopher Jarman
Key Stoge 2 and above
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Over 6000 graphics
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Over 2100 fonts &
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The complete guide to
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Original RRP £31.50 Original RRP £31.50 Original RRP £21.50
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All quoted prices (unless stated)
are for single users versions only.
Special offers relate to single
user versions only.
Overseas orders please add £2.00 carriage
All details correct at the time of going to press E&OE
NDT & Typography are trademarks of iSV Products. All other trademarks are acknowledged
This advert was produced using NDT fonts
and DrawWorks Millennium
iSV Products
86 Turnberry • Home Farm
Bracknell • Berks • RG12 8ZH
Tel 01344 455769
Graphics back
Well, after a break of a few months, the
graphics page makes a welcome return
to Acorn User, with a new column editor
at the helm. In fine tradition. I'd like to
start things off with a brief introduction
to myself. I'm Andrew Green, RISC OS
user and graphic designer, in that order.
I run a graphic and Internet design
agency, Article Seven, based almost
entirely
around an
antiquated-
but-\ovely
Rise PC
machine.
I'm not
alone in
doing this -
it's always
refreshing to
hear of
other
graphic designers working with RISC
OS equipment, many with great success.
The focus of my business is,
admittedly, Internet design, meaning
that for some tasks (CSS and Flash to
name the primary two), I need to resort
to using a PC. It's an uncomfortable
experience: I find the RISC OS
development environment second-to-
none, which is why I choose to only use
alternative platforms when I absolutely
have to.
Article Seven is just over two years
old now, which I'd like to think
constitutes proof that it is possible to run
a professional graphics business without
needing to be Macintosh-based. And,
despite the loss of Acorn, I can't help
feeling that
the next few
years are
likely to prove
very
interesting for
RISC OS
graphic
design, with
the eventual
release of
Cerilica
Vantage and
Millipede's new Imago motherboard.
If RISCOS Ltd can secure a future for
our operating system, engineering for
hardware independency and the ability
to use faster processors than the current
StrongARM, the platform could well
find a new niche in this very market,
which in turn would be extremely good
news for the whole RISC OS community.
article seven
Vantage progress
It's painfully slow, but there are signs
that a finished release of Vantage, the
new vector art program for RISC OS, is
finally on the horizon.
Pre-release copies have been available
for some time now, but these lacked
several key features which prevented the
package from being truly comparable, in
design terms, to its only real rival,
ArtVS/orks.
Although many of the features
promised by the application have been
written and working for a while, it's
apparently been a slow process to
incorporate them smoothly into the
package proper, and to provide a full
user-interface for them. One example is
Vantage's graduated fills. Most art
packages allow fills to graduate from
one colour to another, and some allow
more than two colours to be used in the
fill.
I've yet to see one that can perform
such a blend using anything other than a
straight line - except Vantage, which
allows graduated fills to follow any
curve you like, and radial fills to use
shapes other than simple concentric
circles.
Watch this space.
Cerilica Ltd
http://www.cerilica.coin/
Publish Art
iSV Products have acquired the
distribution rights to the Publish
Art clip art library, following
the closure of its previous
distributor, Smart DTP. The
library features over 15,000
images, in a variety of vector
and bitmap formats (all RISC
OS compatible, of course), and
costs £20 for a single-user
license. More information can
be found on the iSV Products
Website.
http://members.aol.
com/isvproduct/
Print and publish
Micro Laser Designs have
launched an electronic mailing
list for those involved with, or
interested in, printing and
publishing using the RISC OS
platform. The list covers many
design-related issues that aren't
necessarily specifically
concerned with printed media,
and has already found a
comfortable niche alongside the
likes of the Photodesk users' list
and the Ovation Pro users' list.
To subscribe, e-mail
listserver@mld.co.uk with
subscribe print+publish in the
subject line of your message.
Your work here!
One of the most pleasurable
aspects of RISC OS culture, for
me, is the sense of community
it affords. To that end, I'd be
more than happy to mention
any on-line portfolios of work
any of you have - just e-mail
me the URLs or write to the
Acorn User office.
Similarly, I hope to be able
to kick-start the Pic of the
Month feature again: let's see
those entries coming in. The
prize of Phantasm is no longer
available, so printed offerings
will receive a £10 cheque
instead.
Contacting AU J
Andrew Green:
graphics@acornuser.com
J
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
HTML3
By far the most actively pursued
aspect of computing these days is the
Internet; The Global Information
Super Highway. Sometimes however.
Acorn users must be wondering why
they seem to be stuck on the hard
shoulder while Bill Gates' station
wagon rushes past in the fast lane.
Luckily there are a great many
enthusiastic RISC OS programmers
writing Internet utilities and
applications to make life slightly
more luxurious for Acorn owners. Of
course, the more people who become
'wired up', the more people think
they'll have a go at producing their
own 'home page' on the World Wide
Web.
Some die-hard Internet boffins
might argue that coding in raw
HTML (Hyper-text markup language
- the language of the WWW) is
relatively straightforward and the
only 'real' way to write web pages. It
can however, be daunting to the
novice newcomer and even some of
the old die-hards can come unstuck
when trying to remember the syntax
of that elusive or obscure tag.
Although RISC OS users haven't
gained the sophistication of large
scale packages such as DreamWeaver
or PageMill on other platforms, there
are a number of excellent utilities to
make life that little bit easier for RISC
OS web designers.
One such utility
which deserves a
mention is HTML3
by Richard
Goodwin. Richard
is a professional
web designer - and
like all serious
programmers
decided to write an
application to
make his job easier
- thus the birth of
HTML3.
The idea behind
HTML3 is simple;
It's essentially a
macro inserter containing a vast
library of useful and handily
organised HTML commands. Being a
macro inserter means that it works in
conjunction with your favourite text
editor (in which your HTML is
written) and simply inserts the
relevant tags or commands as if you
had typed them from the keyboard.
It's difficult to explain all the
features of an application this
comprehensive in a limited space,
but you'll find that just about every
combination of HTML design is
catered for, ranging from tables, form
creation, links, image insertion,
entity insertion and a comprehensive
Tidbits update
As mentioned in the September
issue, an impressive looking
spreadsheet called Isis is
being developed by
Nicholas Marriott of
Alpha Programming. As
I write, a second RFC
(Request For
Comments) version has
just been released. Nick
has obviously been
busily coding for the
past few months
because it has loads
more features and
options than the original
version. Keep an eye on
http:/ / www.alphapro.demon.co.uk/
Acorn/ isis.html for updates.
Another useful little app I have
permanently installed on my
computer has recently been updated
and is even nicer than the original is
MoonTool. This is a simple little
application which displays the
MEL
Phases (UTCj j
Last New Moon
»
T1.09 11 Aug 99
First Quarter
01:47 19 Aug 99
•
•
Pull Moon
23:49 26 Aug 99
Last Quarter
22:19 2 Sep 99
Next New Moon
22.-03 9 Sep 99
moon in a small
window.
It's a new moon as I
write this. However, the
latest version - updated
from Eduoard Poor's
original by Musus
Umbra, aka Adny
includes several new
features, most notably
the fact that the moon is
now displayed from the
correct viewpoint for
the northern
hemisphere (Eduoard lived in New
Zealand).
Download it now from
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/
musus/ and check out when the
werewolves will start howling...
selection of styles, fonts, colours and
effects. There is also support for
server side includes (SSI) manage-
ment and third party addons -
although Richard has thought of
most options himself.
As can be seen by the range of
options in the 'effects' window
(below) - and this is just one of
several comprehensive control
windows - virtually every aspect of
web design is catered for, including a
range of preset functions to simplify
complex effects.
The accompanying picture
demonstrates two of the preset
effects showing colour and size
variations using a user defined
sentence of text. The resulting raw
HTML code is also shown in the
larger Zap window.
A lot of HTML consists of shared
routines so that you can combine
different styles or effects from a
common pool of pre-defined sources.
For example, many of the text input
fields are accompanied by a little
'claw' icon, allowing the text to be
grabbed from other sections of
HTML3 or from custom presets -
such as your e-mail or web address.
The effects window.
HTML3 is a worthy addition to any
collection of RISC OS Web design
tools and makes an ideal mid -way
complement between hand-
designing Web pages using a text
editor and some of the more
powerful, but ultimately limiting,
WYSIWYG page layout editors.
HTML3 is available to download
from Richard Goodwin's site at
http:/ / www.goodwin.uk.com/
richard / progra ms /
y November 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com
AntUtils
ANT Suite wasn't actually loaded
when it decided to activate the task
alarm.
Over the following few months it
evolved into a general purpose
application to handle anything I
thought was remotely Internet-related
- as can be seen from the choices
window:
This is far removed from the original
version which only had the two
options for checking mail and news.
It can now work across a LAN,
automatically quit itself when the
AINS quits, work with Pluto as well
as Marcel and even attempt to fix
some of the DLL crashing problems
that early versions of the AINS
suffered from.
The current version is also capable
of toggling on and off Javascript in
the latest version of Fresco , as well as
altering Fresco's identification text in
an attempt to fool "designed for
Microsoft Explorer" Web sites into
Help2
Another useful application to undergo an overhaul in the last month is Help2
by Rik Griffin of Squeaky Software. This is a replacement for the interactive
Help application originally supplied with RISC OS.
The biggest benefit over the original is that the help text is displayed
relative to the cursor position rather than in a bulky window. This works in a
similar way to the Windows help system on "computers that we don't talk
about". Again, loads of options allow you to set it up exactly how you want,
changing the font style, size and background colour.
One very useful feature is the ability to filter out help requests from
common applications such as Zap, Filer windows or any other application that
you're familiar with. This makes it much more appealing to people who want
the occasional help on more complex applications while avoiding the irritating
message that pops up when you're trying to type some text into an editor
window.
Help! can be downloaded from http://www.cheesey.demon.co.uk/
help2.html
As always, these and more RISC OS applications can be found by visiting
my comprehensive RISC OS links page at http://www.vigay.com/riscos/
links.html
mi
AntUtils Choices
Check online mail; \V every | 5 | minutes.
Check online news \V every | 10 | minutes.
Use random s ig. | every | 5 | minutes.
Auto status: [y* Quit with INS:
LAN connection: | Multi-users:
News reader: Marcel Paths... j
Log crom :
Quick mail send: | Monitor RMA:
Cancel | Save j |
OK
One of the benefits of writing this
column for Acorn User is that I can
occasionally give myself a gratuitous
pat on the back and take a look at one
of my own applications. A lot of
people ask me about this application
so I thought it was time to explain
some of the thinking that went
behind it and to reveal some of the
features that casual observers might
have missed.
AntUtils originated from my wish
to make the ANT Internet Suite
(AINS) that little bit better and fix
some of the shortcomings in the early
versions. As I'm one of those eager
people who tend to check e-mail
about every five minutes while I'm
online web browsing - in the hopes
that someone might have sent me a
message in the few short moments
since I checked the last one, I initially
wanted an application to automate
this process and tell the suite to fetch
e-mail every, say, five minutes and
newsgroups every ten.
ANT's official recommendation at
the time was to set up task alarms
using the standard Alarm application
but I disliked this because it was less
than elegant and could sometimes
throw up un-friendly errors if the
EH
Ar.tUttls URL Sever
m
MtUtdi has detected that you've ctckrd
on a URL without being online
Store within AnlUtits internal Hotbt?
URL: | http ///reespae .vtryianet/dgvid.kingiton/indcx.htm
Notes: I David Kingston’s web site
launch anyway '
!?ubl
. do
)IIC
oma/n
allowing access to RISC OS users.
I've also added a feature for
quickly creating an HTML page
containing graphics images in a
specified directory as thumbnails. I've
tried to make the whole thing as
flexible as possible - simply because I
know most people like to tailor their
Internet requirements to their
individual needs.
Another criteria for the application
was to make it as small as possible so
that it can still be used on older
machines with only 4Mb of memory.
When I have needed to increase the
wimpslot size to accommodate a new
feature, I've usually added several
other new features as well so as to get
the best Value for memory', so to
speak. One of the newest features
(and one, with hindsight, I don't
know why I didn't add ages ago) is
the ability to enter some text and
AntUtils will automatically launch
Fresco to take you to any of up to 15
different (user definable) search
engines on the Internet.
Another new feature is what I call
"URL capturing when offline".
Basically this allows AntUtils to
intercept a click on a URL, perhaps in
an e-mail message, when you are
offline and give you the option of
storing it for later examination or to
attempt to load it anyway (just in case
you visited it just now and it's been
stored in Fresco's cache).
Although most of AntUtils'
features are customisable from the
choices window, more advanced
users can edit the 'messages' file
within AntUtils itself. This will allow
you to edit things like whether or not
you can have multiple copies
running, the action of the select and
adjust buttons on the icon bar,
whether or not to perform an
immediate news or e-mail check as
soon as AntUtils is loaded, or a host
of other lesser used options.
No doubt by the time this issue
hits the shelves I might have added
yet even more features, so whiz along
to http://www.vigay.com / riscos/
comms.html to download a copy -
and get those suggestions coming in
if you have any more ideas that I may
have missed out.
Contacting AU
Paul Vigay:
pdpage@acornuser.com
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999 ^
Reflex
Electronics
The Official Service & Support Centre for all Acorn products
Extended Warranty
Purchase extended warranty or renew your existing warranty on all Acorn computers.
A7000 and monitor (one year) £59.00
Rise PC and Monitor (one year) £89.00
S.A. Rise PC and monitor (one year) £99.00
Reduced rates available for 2nd and 3rd year warranty
Free inspection / service of your computer when you purchase our extended warranty.
Acorn Repairs
Acorn Computer repairs from £70.00*
Monitor repairs, prices from £45.00
We also offer part exchange on Acorn computer PCBs and PSUs (ask for prices)
‘includes BBC Bs, Masters, A3xxx series, All Archimedes, A4, A4000, A5000, Rise PC & A7000.
Acorn Original Spares
We are the sole UK authorised distributor of Acorn Spares.
Acorn Original Mice (£ P.O.A A7000 mice) £15.99
We also carry spares of many other Acorn items, such as Power Supply Units, Floppy drives,
keyboards, master battery packs etc..
Please call 01438 317200 for a full price list or to place spares orders.
All prices exclude VAT and delivery. E.& O. E.
All the Acorn Support you need...
Call now on 01438 311299, spares 01438 317200
Fax 01438 31 1286 http://www.reflexel.demon.co.uk
service@reflexel.demon.co.uk
Reflex Electronics Service Limited, Unit 18,
Gunnels Wood Park, Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Herts, SGI 2BH.
DrawWorks SE
Disc information
The software on the cover disc has
DrawWorks SE ( DWse ) is a bolt on
addition to Draw, and is a cut down
version of DrawWorks Millennium,
iSV's professional level graphics
package.
DrawWorks Millennium itself is
reviewed on page 48 of this month's
magazine, and in an effort to enhance
^|>4 Inform V3 View
Saw all | Save page | Print | Find
j The DWse toolbar
the review iSV were kind enough to
provide this cut-down version of their
software. This is a fully functional
program, complete with saving and
so on, but it is obviously lacking some
of its larger brothers features.
DrawWorks Millennium is supplied
on CD and is over 420Mb in size, so I
didn't have much
hope of squeezing on
the cover disc, even
with the help of
ArcFS. If you have
RISC OS 3.5 in your
computer please
note that DWse
111** 5 u
ZZM
cannot be used on
your machine.
DWse can
however be
used on RISC OS
3.1, 3.6, 3.7 and of
course RISC OS 4. The
full version (DrawWorks
Millennium) can be used
on RISC OS 3.5 with no
problems).
As you can see the DWse toolbar has two rows of icons with a sac! I bar
below the 2nd row. DWse has its tools arranged in groups. In the example
shown above the 2nd row of toots are al to do with edging. The tools
shown on the 2nd toolbar depend on which button is dicked on on the top
row.
ArcFixer
This program, by Paul F. Johnson, is really for people who do most of their
Web downloading on a PC. Some Websites still use the standard Acorn
extensions for archives such as .spk and .arc. While these cause no problems
for Acorn browsers, it's a different story on most PCs.
When IE or Netscape hit these extensions, they normally download to the
screen a pile of gibberish which can't be dearchived.
This small command line program fixes these gibberish files into
something which SparkFS (and presumably ArcFS) can handle. Just
download the archive and save as text - very neat
been compressed using ArcFS 2
from VTi, and are opened by
running a copy of ArcFS then
double-clicking on the archive to
open it. There is a copy of ArcFS on
each disc. Most software will run
straight from the archive, but some
programs may need to be copied
out of the archive before being run,
uncompressing them in the process.
Any program that saves a file to
disc, for instance, will be unable to
do so into the archives on the disc.
Faulty disc?
If your disc is faulty, test whether it
will verify by clicking with Menu
on the floppy drive icon and
choosing Verify.
If it fails to verify or is physically
damaged you should return it to
Acorn User, Media House,
Adlington Park, Macclesfield
SK10 4NP.
The Acorn User cover discs have
been checked for viruses using
Killer version 3.001 from Pineapple
Software.
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
I t was almost a year ago that I
first road-tested the emerging
RISC OS 4, and now the world is
a very different place - even the
sprites have changed. After so long a
gestation period just how well does
RISCOS Ltd's offering hold up to the
original Acorn (RIP) promise? From
my point of view the answer is very
well, in fact better than expected.
Every upgrade has it's problems
and yet even though I've only been
using the new OS for a month now,
from the start I would not have gone
back to the old system - this one is
just too good not to use all the time.
This article is not a review of the
product as that it is too big a task.
This is a guide to getting going and
why it's a good idea to do so.
The task of upgrading the chip set
is similar to, but less problematic
than that of installing and setting up
a new StrongARM processor. The
procedure is as complex but it's less
likely to fail, so if you managed the
StrongARM upgrade by yourself you
can expect to handle this too.
A few questions
Do you have a CD-ROM drive? All
the software is on a CD and so
without one you won't get
anywhere. CD-ROM drives can be
had for £30 or so, which means that
A new disc
Choose your new drive with care,
it is probably a good idea to avoid
Western Digital drives as they
have had problems in the past
coping with earlier RISC OS filing
systems.
As far as I am aware any other
type of IDE drive will do. I know
little of SCSI drives, but IDE is far
less expensive, is what the
machine uses normally and it is
very fast these days.
The installation CD comes with
a new version of HForm which
gives the option of using long
filenames. Harddiscs always come
pre-forma tted and so you only
need to use the 'Initialise' and not
the 'Format' option to get them
going - even when changing the
settings.
For large drives enter
9999999999 or larger for the
number of cylinders as there is
still a bug in the software which
RISCOS Ltd does not have the
licence to fix as yet. If you just
accept the default numbers which
Hform gives you then you will
'only' be able to format drives up
to 7Gb or so.
now would be a good time to get one
or even upgrade to a 48X speed
device. (Though these fast drives do
tend to whine and take longer to get
up to, and slow down from, their top
speed). Speed is not a problem for
the upgrade task however, my 2X
speed drive had no trouble at all.
Do you want to use long file
names? Here you have a choice
about the answer. The new Filer in
RISC OS 4 can do many things which
adds on to what OS3.7 has done for
years and at first it may look as if
this is all OS4 can do, but there is a
new and massively powerful feature
in the Filer which is not obvious
unless you know about it.
New RISC machines, post OS 3.5,
can use large discs (very large discs),
but not at anything like high
efficiency. In the September Acorn
User I talked at length about the
LFAU and how the old Filer will
allocate a larger and larger chunk of
disc to a file as the size of the drive
increases - a function which almost
wipes out any extra space you think
you will be getting by fitting a large
drive. In RISC OS 4 the LFAU can be
set when you initialise a new drive
for use (it can then only be used with
RISC OS 4 though). I now have a
17.2Gb drive with the LFAU set at
2K, that is half the size of most
'small' drives' LFAU.
The upshot is a terrific increase in
space on existing drives and a
colossal amount of usable space on
the new big drives. For me the cost
of RISC OS 4 is covered twice over
by reducing the number of drives
physically in the machine. I have
even been able to remove my
backplane - thus further reducing
the load on the power supply and
increasing its life expectancy at the
same time.
Starting work
As with the StrongARM upgrade the
software side of the upgrade must be
done first, but before doing anything,
check that your system already
works perfectly. If the machine has
problems before the upgrade it is
tricky to sort out pre- from post-
upgrade errors. To check that there is
nothing wrong with your hardware
you can simplify matters by doing
what the install program will do for
you anyway and remove all your
favoured boot-up configurations and
everything which you may have
added to the Tasks directory. The
instructions leave nothing to chance
- as long as you read them.
However, just in case you don't,
it is important to back up your
software and un-install protected
programs before you start the
upgrade proper.
Figure I shows the contents of the
CD. Double-click on IR04INSTAL
and you will see the window below
which is self-explanatory and should
be examined by any PC Windows
upgrade writers to see how it should
be done.
Don't whatever you do put the
contents of your task directory back
yet. If you did not remove them
yourself they will have been moved
anyway and placed in a new
directory called 'IimctiveRes', so don't
wipe it! Just check that everything
still works by resetting the computer,
for a moment you should see
something like Figure I, next turn off
again. The big shock here is the new
start up screen. Acorn is dead. Pace
live. Assuming all is well it's time to
November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
RISC OS 4
Simon Anthony installs RISC OS 4
do the hardware mods.
Another big shock was seeing my
first set of Flash ROMs. These are
nothing like the ROMs of old, being
so small that they need a daughter
board to get the pin-outs of the chip
to fit the old holes. The chips
themselves stick out at the left-hand
end of the boards, (you get two of
them).
However, by the time you read
this, it is quite possible that the next
batch of chips will be the normal
large beasts which look like the RISC
OS 3.x chips we already have. The
first release of the chip-set as Flash
ROMs comes with a Strong ARM
Compatability sheet. This small print
A5 single page holds dark secrets
which may cause a good deal of hair
pulling and may even result in a
phone call to the extremely helpful
OS4 help line. In essence it warns
that the Flash ROMs can cause
'instability in the system'. Nah I
thought and popped them in, and it
didn't work. My machine hung-up
even before booting, showing a solid
green screen. I didn't think that my
system was overly loaded with
hardware add-ons as the warning
sheet hinted, but it turned out that
my old CD drive did something odd
to the power lines
which the new
chips didn't like.
Other culprits could
have been 'high
speed' PC cards,
large chip count
memory boards and some
combinations of podules and
backplanes.
Removing one of my two 32Mb
SIMMs also cured the problem and
allowed a full boot with the CD-
ROM installed, but I'd rather have
64Mb so I took off the CD for the
moment and put the second SIMM
back. My SIMMs are not matched,
which, had they been, would
probably have avoided the problem.
If you have decided to use the
new filing system facilities then
you'll probably want a new, larger
harddisc. Before charging off to get a
new drive please note that there is a
hidden problem with RISC OS 4's
massive ability to handle files, and
that is your problem of finding them.
PC users have had to cope with
this for a long time and I don't think
they have a good solution yet. RISC
OS users have had fewer files until
now and have also had a decent Filer
to find them with, but now I fear
finding one file in a directory
containing hundreds will irritate a
lot of people. Anyway, this is a
solvable problem with care and
planning, and so I would firmly
suggest getting a new drive. You can
put the old one in your old Acorn
and give it to the kids - once you
have transferred the data that is.
After fitting the chips you are told
to do a Delete-reset. This will also
reset the clock, oddly to 1995 as did
OS3.7. Don't forget to reset the clock
to 1999 or all your new directories
sr*T
CDFS::RISCOS4.$
r: I
0 CONTENTS
WR/
1834 Text
14:56:11 19 Jul 1999 l
£3 Y2K
/
Directory
14:12:5218 Jul 1999
XTRAAPPS
/
Directory
14:12:47 18 Jul 1999
1^, RECOVERY
/
Directory
14:12:44 18 Jul 1999
£3 PLUGINS
/
Directory
14:12:40 18 Jul 1999
£3 IMAGES
/
Directory
14:04:37 18 Jul 1999
^ FREESOFT
l
Directory
13:54:0018 Jul 1999
DISCI MAGE
t
Directory
13:53:2818 Jul 1999
£^3RDPARTY
/
Directory
13:53:2618 Jul 1999
IR04INSTAL /
Application
15:57:11 09 Jul 1999
i
and files will be five years old. In-
depth reviews of the new facilities of
RISC OS 4 will soon be published,
but with luck you should have your
own set of chips in and working by
then. I urge you to do so, order now
to shorten the wait for a noticeably
faster, even more responsive, feature
packed and, most importantly,
stable and intuitively usable
computing tool.
Figure I: What you get after installing RISC OS 4
Contacting me J
Simon Anthony
sranthony@innotts.co.uk
J
htt|)://www.acornuser.com NovcMiiher 1999 VA
R eflex Electronics Ltd have had
close links with the Acorn
market since their foundation
in 1995. The Stevenage-based
company was originally set up as a
manufacturer of printed circuit
boards for the electronics industry.
David Hughes, former production
engineering manager at Acorn,
founded the company along with
Iain Dacre, an expert on the
workings of the financial world who
had spent a number of years
working overseas.
After about a month, the two
founders were joined by David
Lumley, another ex-Acorn employee
who had been responsible for quality
control and also repairs, both in and
Alasdair Bailey
acts on reflex
out of warranty. David brought with
him considerable expertise at a time
when Acorn were looking for
someone to really take control of the
servicing/maintenance side of the
operation.
The servicing side of Reflex
started out in a small area of the
manufacturing unit, but within three
months the decision was made to take
over the neighbouring building and
form a dedicated service company.
Service and repair quickly became a
large part of the Reflex Electronics
Group's business. Numerous Acorn
staff moved over as Reflex's
relationship with Acorn bore fruit and
more and more warranties and on-site
service contracts were administered
by Reflex.
Who?
Reflex Electronics Servicing are
perhaps the best kept secret of the
Acorn world. Prior to 'Black
Thursday' last year, almost all of their
action
servicing/repair work was carried
out under contract with Acorn. This
meant that when Reflex answered a
call with regard to honouring an
Acorn product warranty, they would
answer as if they were Acorn, so the
customer would often have a fault
fixed without even realising they
were speaking to Reflex rather than
Acorn themselves. This sort of system
is common in industry and still goes
on with the 'Computers for Schools'
support line which is manned by
Reflex.
In the early days. Reflex mainly
serviced the Acorn-badged Olivetti
JP360 printers and A4000 power
supplies. However, Acorn's
"wise" decision to use the
Liteon AKF18 monitors
with the A5000 series
meant that Reflex were
inundated with repairs.
A modification was
eventually sanctioned by
Acorn which was then
applied by Reflex to all
faulty monitors that came
through the door. Some of
you will no doubt
remember these notorious models
which were plagued by dry joints
that heated up and often caused
smoke to rise from the back of the
monitor.
Today, more than 30 people are
employed at the Stevenage site,
which is currently being modified to
include a reception area along with
improved communications between
the two adjoining units. During busy
times, the company receives up to 30
calls an hour which are all dealt with
by four dedicated personnel.
Some may wonder why Reflex are
located in Stevenage when they had
such strong links with Acorn. The
reason is simple: both founders lived
in Stevenage so it was really the only
sensible option.
At one point relocating the firm in
Cambridge was considered but when
the factory unit next door became
available there was no longer any
need to move. Besides, some ex-
Acorn people found a 15 mile
journey into Cambridge took far
longer than the 40 or so down to
Stevenage. Acorn's decision to
abandon the desktop market will not
November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
really be felt at Reflex for a couple of
years yet. The warranties and on-site
support contracts which Reflex deal
in are mainly done on a two, three or
five year basis which gives the
company plenty of time to find a
new direction if need be. However,
Reflex do remain committed to the
Acorn market. They have taken on
all the spares formerly stored at
Acorn and are now offering to repair
Acorn kit directly, rather than
through sub-contracts with Acorn.
David Lumley, Operations
Director at Reflex was keen to stress
that they would be continuing to
support the market place, "We're all
still Acorn people" he remarks
during the interview.
Reflex are indeed true Acorn
people, the company is still run
using RISC OS software for all
manner of applications, including
day to day word-processing needs
along with the comprehensive
customer database and goods in/out
system.
However, two PCs are in use but
only in the accounts department and
spares stock keeping where,
unfortunately, the required software
just isn't available for RISC OS.
Reliability
The old adage that Acorn kit is more
reliable than the PC alternative is
backed up by the experiences of
those at Reflex. A brand of PC, which
Reflex recently carried out warranty
repairs to, showed a failure rate of
about 10%. Compare this to a failure
rate of only about 2% with the A5000
series once the monitor problem was
remedied and you can see why some
Caring for your computer
When sending in an item for repair ensure that is it packed securely - not
in bin bags.
No display on monitor? It sounds silly but before raising the alarm, make
sure you've done the following:
• Check that no leads have become disconnected;
• Check settings on the monitor, changing contrast to one extreme can
reduce display to a blank screen;
• Restart the computer with the shift-key held down;
• Restart the computer with the delete-key held down;
• Try a different monitor on computer if available;
• Try the troublesome monitor on another computer;
Computer asking you to insert a disk that was used during the last session?
Before saving a Desktop boot, make sure the computer hasn't seen any
media that you don't want it to remember on subsequent boot-ups. A safe
procedure to prevent this is to restart your computer before saving the
desktop boot.
Computer crashing on boot-up?
Check the following:
• Turn on with the shift key held down, OK this time?
Y: Something loading from IBoot sequence is causing a problem, remove
files/commands until the problem goes away. Perhaps run IResetBoot
after backing up your existing IBoot structure.
N: Hardware problem, turn on with the delete-key held down - OK this
time?
Y 1 : Re-boot computer for a second time - OK this time?
Y 2 : Your computer is now fixed.
N 2 : something in the boot sequence (not necessarily within IBoot itself) is
changing the CMOS and the computer doesn't like it!
N 1 : Hardware problem. Send to Reflex for repair.
If experiencing problems with RAM recently added to your machine, verify zvith
the supplier that the specification of the RAM is correct for the computer (as
detailed in the Welcome Guide).
Computer locks up zolien dcletmg/copying files on an IDE harddisc formatted
larger than 2Gb?
• Configure ADFSBuffers to OK. If this doesn't fix the problem, format
the harddisc again with version 2.50 of IHForm.
schools just keep on using their old
Acorn kit.
David Lumley has a theory which
goes towards explaining this
observation: "The thing about an
Acorn machine is that when they're
put together they go through what's
called 'DRAT testing' - (Design
Reliability Assurance Testing) where
all the components have to go
through vendor approval, and units
were tested in an environmental
chamber where they would be
subjected to drastic changes in
temperature and humidity.
"With a PC, a bloke will buy that
power supply for it one week but
he'll change his supplier next
week. ..they never have the design
reliability testing, so it's obvious
Acorn machines have to be more
reliable."
David Hughes, managing director,
continues: "As a manufacturing site,
we were never allowed to change
any of the components without
permission from Acorn - in fact the
test software was designed so it
would throw it out".
He goes on to describe how
Conner once changed the firmware
on one of their harddisc drives
without changing the revision
number on the outside. This resulted
in the test software saying an
unknown drive had been fitted and
rejecting them.
Another reason cited for the
reliability of Acorns is that the
operating system is completely
housed in ROM. On a PC, meddling
children or poorly written software
can easily mess things up in the
Windows registry and the like. This
means that many of the problems
with PCs are purely software issues.
It must be a pain for a repair
company to be working with such a
reliable product, during the
interview someone joked "We wish
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999 ^
who is really interested gets behind
the manufacturers, why not? We
don't have to sell millions of
computers all round the world, we're
not going to beat Bill Gates and his
PC market, but I believe there's a
strong enough contingent and enough
applications out there for RISC OS to
have a reasonably bright future".
During my visit, Iain Dacre,
Commercial Director, was arranging
for a new telephone system to be
installed. It's worth pointing out that
the company were doing their
utmost to avoid using a touch-tone-
based call handling system. Iain
commented that he felt they were
very impersonal yet nobody seems to
sell the traditional systems anymore.
This policy is sure to win custom,
there's nothing worse than calling to
see how a repair is going and coming
up against a brick wall of "Press 1 if
your computer won't turn on... Press
2 if your monitor is on fire...".
Strange fixes
During their short history, Reflex have
come across many strange objects
inside machines. Two notable examples
are a packet of mints which had
perhaps been left in the case on the
production line and also some primary
school playing cards which a child had
posted into a floppy disc drive! Some
customers' apparent lack of care for
their computers also strikes the staff at
Reflex from time to time. Occasionally,
machines will be sent in packaged only
in a bin bag, hardly sufficient
protection for a piece of kit that's
worth over a grand. Certain users
attempts to upgrade their computers
also provoke concern amongst staff; an
8Mb RAM upgrade for an A5000 was
once seen held in place by huge
amounts of hot-melt glue.
Reflex are often willing to give out
free advice even if it doesn't result in
your computer coming in for a repair.
Take their Website for example, it
contains plenty of information on
diagnosing and fixing problems
which is unavailable elsewhere. The
company were also willing to let us
include hints for good computer care
in this article, some of which can be
seen in the panel.
Hopefully, the Reflex Electronics
Group will continue to grow and fly
the flag for RISC OS kit in industry
for many years yet. Following
Acorn's withdrawal from the market.
Reflex are now more than willing to
handle individual repairs out of
warranty, as well as administering
and auctioning existing warranty
commitments under the Acorn name.
It is worth pointing out though that
your local dealer may also still carry
out a range of repairs. Many thanks
to all the people at Reflex for their
cooperation and assistance ___
in writing this article.
Company details J
Name:
Reflex Electronics Group Ltd.
Address:
Units 17/18 Gunnels Wood
Park, Gunnels Wood Road,
Stevenage, Herts. SGI 2BH
Tel:
01438 311299
Fax:
01438 725158
E-mail:
support@reflexel.demon.co.uk
Web:
http: / /www.reflexel.
demon.co.uk/ j
they weren't so reliable!"
So, we know that Acorns are very
reliable when compared to your
average PC. However, experienced
users also know that there have been
plenty of common faults in the
hardware over the years. The problem
described earlier with the AKF18
monitors must weigh-in at number
one, with various power supply unit
problems following a close second.
The early Rise PCs featured a mere
70 watt power supply in the base
model, this was not quite sufficient
once users started to add extra drives
and expansion cards. Furthermore, a
faulty diode meant that
Reflex saw these
machines come flooding
in for repair until Acorn
standardised on the
higher power unit.
Acorn also benefited
from the partnership
with Reflex. On a
monthly basis, a report
on the top ten causes of
failures was sent back to
Acorn in order for them
to consult their suppliers
and manufacturers and see that
problems were rectified. One
example of this process working well
was the problem which early Rise
PCs suffered whereby a part in the
hinge on the door flap was too weak
and often snapped. This was
promptly rectified by Acorn who
changed their moulding in order to
beef up the offending component.
Not just Acorn
Almost since the start, Reflex have
been looking after more than just
Acorn kit. Most of the other support
contracts have in fact stemmed from
their dealings with Acorn. For
example. Reflex coordinates all
technical support for Tesco's
Computers for Schools venture. Their
work with the Acorn-branded
monitors has resulted in warranty
repairs on Iiyama monitors whose UK
arm is also based in Stevenage.
This extra business should ensure
that Reflex are able to continue
supporting the Acorn/ RISC OS range
for some time to come. With the
future now looking quite bright for
RISC OS based hardware, Reflex
were in negotiations to offer
technical support to RiscStation Ltd
as well as having their engineers
trained in fitting the RISC OS 4
upgrade.
Those in charge at Reflex seem to
share the opinion that RISC OS as a
platform will be with us for some
time to come: "So long as everyone
November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
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(all prices in this advertisement are inclusive of VAT at 1 7.5%)
Part I of Max Palmer's TopModel2 review
T opModel, the 3D modelling
application from Sincronia, has
been around for a number of
years. While the development
of many applications of a similar
vintage has long since ceased TopModel
has continued to evolve and promises
to do so for a good while
vet. Given this state of
and the
time since it was last reviewed, now
seems an appropriate moment to
revisit this elegant, graphical
workhorse.
While one of the application's
strengths is its innovative approach to
modelling, it is also, paradoxically, one
of its weaknesses. The user interface in
the original version of TopModel was
cluttered, hard to get to grips with and
restricted the user to 16 and 256
colours. TopMode.12 brought a vastly
improved look and feel. However the
interface still breaks many of the rules
laid down by the RISC OS Style
Guide.
As a result of this maverick
approach many users, while
wooed by TopModeH's power
and elegance, have
struggled to get the most
from the software and
expressed a desire for
a series of tutorials to
help them get started.
Indeed, it was one such
posting on the TbpModel
mailing list a few months
ago which, by way of the
weird and wonderful
fashion in which
electronic-based
discussions seem to
wander, prompted the
idea for a series of
tutorials in Acorn
User, the result of
which are set to
grace these pages
over the next few
months.
But before we
begin the series, 1
would like to take
those RISC OS users,
both new and old, on
a guided tour of
TopModel in the hope
that I might whet the
appetite and fuel the
thirst for the third
dimension. The latest, publicly
available version of TopModel2 stands
at 2.14c, the one reviewed here.
Improvements over previous
releases include new transparency
options, extra keyboard shortcuts, flat
shaded movement mode, the ability to
save resources and scaling options on
multiple copies, among many others.
Existing users may upgrade older
versions of TopModel 2 for around £30,
alternatively they can acquire a 'free'
upgrade to 2.14 when they buy the
latest plug-in - TopFonts - which ships
on CD-ROM. The latter costs a shade
under £60 and is pretty much an
essential purchase if you need the
capability to produce 3D text, albeit
with some restrictions (which I shall
discuss later).
As yet, the only other plug-in that
is available for purchase is TopDeform,
which provides a number of different
methods of distorting meshes.
However, as some of you who went to
the Wakefield Show might already
know, TopBones and TopAnimntion are
coming along nicely and should
hopefully be with us in the near
future.
Out of the box
Installation of TopModel is now,
thankfully, much easier than it once
was. Gone are the days of the
horrendous Gordian protection
system, which caused many users
havoc, especially when upgrading. In
its place stands a much more logical
installation program. Just double-click
on the program to start, type in your
name, drag the directory icon to the
location you wish to install TopModel
in and then click install .
In addition, TopModel comes with a
utilities disc, this provides a number of
very useful stand-alone programs to
convert TopModel files to and from
other graphics formats, plus with a
few example files. Finally, the
resources disc provides extra example
Shortcuts to menus for
attributes, paths, coordinates, <
object information and file
saving
^ Select
I vJu, Create
\ Edit
1&3 Deform
\ Special
Lights
|lfl$ Library
^ Animate
Virtual
Plug-ins
_J ••«£»- _ J
| Object* into •
&»v* tile
View shortcut
files and three tutorial scenes.
In addition to the above, TopModel
ships with a manual. While the
manual is fairly comprehensive at 120
pages, including sections on each of
the tool groups and a step-by-step
tutorial, it suffers from being written
by a non-native English speaker which
makes it hard to follow in places.
This is unfortunate since the
operation of some of the more
complex tools is difficult to explain
and I would urge Spacetech or
Sincronia to consider revising a
number of sections to improve the
flow and clarity. The manual has been
updated since the first release. If
you're still struggling with the first
edition contact Spacetech to get an
update.
On launching TopModel, you are
presented with the memory setup
window which prompts you to
configure the amount of memory that
is reserved for storing points and
polygons. Once done, the main
TopModel application springs to life,
installing itself on the right hand side
of the iconbar and presenting a single
pane with two toolbars, one below the
pane and another to the left,
reminiscent of Artworks (Figure I). It is
worth noting that the main pane has
no window furniture for resizing or
scrolling the work area, however, the
size of the main window may be
changed by dragging the bottom and
right-hand edges of the window.
While this approach is a bit unusual
for a RISC OS application, once you
get used to it, it works well. If the
default style and layout doesn't meet
with your approval, you may adjust a
number of properties of the
application, for example the
background colour, using the
preferences window - accessed from
the iconbar icon menu. These
preferences may be saved as the
defaults for future sessions. Unlike
many other three dimensional
modelling applications, TopModel
provides only a single view of the
scene being edited.
In most packages three or four
simultaneous views are displayed,
namely two orthogonal elevations, a
plan view and an isometric view.
While the Top Model approach may
seem a bit daunting at first, it works
well and provides a more natural
modelling environment, you can
Breakdown of tools toolbar groups.
Provides a number of modes by which selections can be made,
including selection by colour, point or primitive. Also contains
tools for creating and arranging groups.
Tools for creating basic objects and primitives.
Supplies tools for manipulating objects once created. Tools for
copying, mirroring and joining points can be found within this
group.
Deform: Contains tools for distorting a selection. Namely, linear
distortion, bezier distortion, torsion and bevelling.
Specials : Encapsulates a series of lesser-used tools for manipulating
objects, for example inverting/repairing polygon normals,
sub-dividing polygons and joining points to create new
polygons. Also contains the sweep and extrude tools.
Governs the creation of extra lights (radial, point and spot).
Provides access to pre-defined object libraries. Thumbnails of
objects can be dragged directly into the view to add them to the
scene.
Animation: Basic animation controls.
Virtual: Simple console for navigating through a scene.
Plug-ins: Leads to a sub menu listing all available plug-ins.
adjust the view to suit the
crea tion / placement of an object or
quickly check the scene from any
angle.
Having said this, in practice the
vast majority of modelling will be
carried out using a plan or elevation of
the scene. With this in mind Sincronia
have provided an icon at the right
hand side of the lower (main) toolbar,
a picture of a cube with one corner
missing, that may be clicked on to
automatically switch the view to one
of eight different directions,
depending on the face of the cube
selected and mouse button used.
For example, select-clicking on the
top face of the cube would provide a
view of the scene from the top, looking
down, while adjust-clicking would
provide a view of the scene from the
bottom, looking up. Just below the
cube are three buttons, labelled X,Y
and Z that may be used to select the
active plane. Alternatively, a fourth
button - cunningly labelled 'auto 7 -
delegates the decision to Top Mod cl.
"Hang on a minute. What's all this
talk of an active plane?", I hear you
cry. The term 'active plane' describes
the plane in which we are working
and is used to overcome the problem
retire 111: Bezier cube (from left lo right ) : Before distortion, during distortion
(using bezier control {Hunts to control surface shape) and after connrsion to polygons
of manipulating objects in a three
dimensional world when we only
have a two dimensional, monitor
screen, representation of that world.
For example, imagine we had
somehow managed to create a model
of a table with a cup on top and were
viewing it in 3D in TopModcl. For some
reason or another, we decide that
we're not happy with the position of
the cup and would like
to move it from one
corner of the table to
another. One method of
doing this would be to
switch to a plan (top)
view of the table and
7 then adjust the position
j of the cup. However, if
/ the currently active
plane were selected to be the
horizontal plane, that is to say the
same plane as the plane in which the
surface of the table top lies, we could
simply select the cup and drag it
around within our current view, safe
in the knowledge that our cup was
only moving about on the surface of
the table, rather than up, down or any
other direction.
In this example the active plane has
constrained any adjustments that we
make to the horizontal plane (within
the scene), in spite of the fact that we
might have been dragging the cup in a
vertical direction in the display. YVhile
this may seem pretty confusing, you'll
never really notice the active plane in
action since in practice virtually all the
adjustments you make to objects
within your scene will seem perfectly
natural, which is the whole idea.
To the left of the active plane and
view selection controls are a group of
buttons that each lead to a new pane
representing a group of related tools.
When selected, the pane replaces the
main pane options, presenting the user
with another group of options or tools.
To go back up a level you simply
select the cross (close window icon) in
the left-hand corner of the pane, a bit
like navigating a directory structure
using Adjust clicks.
Below these buttons are another set
of thin buttons which represent short
cuts to five pop-up menus. Finally, at
the base of the tools-toolbar is a
context sensitive help display which
helps explain the action of any tool the
pointer might be hovering over.
While the tools-toolbar mainly
deals with options for creating and
manipulating objects, the TopModeU
toolbar, to the left of the main pane,
presents options for interacting with
the scene and adjusting the properties
f igure It: Realtime display
modes include ( top lift to
bottom left): coloured
mire frame, flat -tilled, gouraud
shaded and pltong shaded
Figure V: The extrude tool cun he used to create the body of a shake
by extruding a profile along a path , using a user-defined envelope
Length 10 |
jxtrusion obj J Linear, on
d Follow path
ZlBL ^ Apply:
1 10.0000 j /_\ pr stepping (7* Envelope R Bevelling
Select to view the scene from a 45 degree; Adjust for the opposite direction.
Cancel
Extrude
of the display. For example, there are
short cuts for entering the selection
mode, as well as tools for adjusting the
current render style, display options
and for manipulating your viewpoint.
As you may have gathered, there is
an vast array of tools available in
Top Model - too many to cover in detail.
For this reason I have decided to
present a brief overview of the
principal tool groups in the
accompanying text box, and will
concentrate on a few of the more
commonly used and useful features in
the main text. The tutorial series that
starts in the Christmas issue will
provide a more in-depth look at some
of the functions not covered here. The
idea for now is to outline the kind of
things that are possible in TopModel ,
and some that are not.
Although TopModel is perfectly
happy running in a 16 colour mode, I
would strongly recommend using a
minimum of 256 colours, or - if
VRAM permits - a 32 thousand colour
mode. In addition, TopModel supports
a number of different render styles,
each of which gives slightly better on-
screen results, at the expense of
redraw speed (Figure II).
Unlike some modelling
applications, all of the rendering
modes allow real-time, interactive
modelling. That is to say, you may
create and edit objects in any of the
rendering modes, including the
perspective mode.
However, from a practical point of
view it is much easier to select points
and edit objects using a wire frame
display, even on a Strong ARM
equipped machine. Once you have
finished an edit you may then switch
mode to preview your results. A
relatively recent and useful addition to
the options that greatly aids this
process is the flat-shaded movement
mode.
This setting allows you to edit your
scene in wireframe mode and then
preview a 'solid' version of the scene
whenever you rotate, zoom or
translate your viewpoint. This is
particularly handy if you use the
keyboard and mouse shortcuts -
Control* Select for zoom,
Control* Ad just for rotate.
Object manipulation
While talk of rendering modes is all
very well, it doesn't matter a jot if you
can't create anything to place in your
view. Fortunately, TopModel offers
ample options for this purpose. At the
lowest level there are tools for creating
the basic primitives, namely: cubes,
spheres, cylinders (encompassing
pyramids), tori (doughnut-shaped
objects), pipes, paths, surfaces and
polygons. Furthermore many of these
tools support creation of both
polygonal and bezier forms.
The latter are essentially objects
which describe a surface and have
control points which may be moved to
distort their shape. Once you are
happy with the result the bezier
representation of the object may be
converted into a polygonal model,
with a selectable level of detail, as
shown in Figure III. While these
objects sound a bit esoteric (and they
are) they allow distorted, smoothly
curved variants of common shapes to
be created, which might otherwise be
difficult to produce.
My only niggle, other than trying to
grasp the sheer range of possible
applications, is that the bezier shapes
are often composed of a number of
pieces which pull apart when using
the primitives selection tool. While this
behaviour is fair enough, it feels
slightly inconsistent, since I would
expect the primitive tool to select the
whole of the bezier shape, rather than
part of the object. On occasion I have
also had difficulty converting a mesh
to polygons and keeping it as
polygons. However, this problem has
usually been solved by repeating the
conversion.
It would be great to have enough
time and patience to model everything
we need to make our perfect scene, in
reality though, time is precious and
some tasks too complex or tedious to
contemplate doing ourselves.
Furthermore, the growth in the
Internet has led to the creation of a
number of Web and ftp sites which
contain an impressive array of pre-
made, ready-to-download, 3D meshes.
Fortunately, to ease our dilemma,
the creators of TopModel have
produced a couple of utilities for
converting a few of the more popular
3D geometry formats into TopModel
files, including the ubiquitous DXF
format. In addition, the library option
on the Tools toolbar provides access to
a series of predefined object categories,
from which individual objects may be
selected and dragged directly into a
scene.
Finally, it is possible to import
sprites as heightfields and extrude
(give depth to) shapes created in Draw,
Unfortunately though, the
triangulation algorithm used to 'fill in'
shapes with polygons can often
produce mixed results, particularly
with complex shapes, yielding objects
which may require some manual
editing within TopModel.
This is particularly true of objects
which contain holes. While the
import of drawfiles is a very useful
feature, it could be improved a lot.
Hopefully Sineronia will oblige and
J Step editor
fi Envelope editor
,J Bevelling editor
extrusion curves
Bevelling (%)
Step bevelling
*i tm
Path pi -
Segment s [
[7 Normal t
Line |
Circle |
/_! Reset
3 /S
o path
Polygon
Spiral
Rounded
polygon
Lock rotations on
XLXL1L
Figure IV: Example objects created using the sweep twl
Figure VI: Tlte illustration shows the effect Hint different hevel sl\/Jcs hnvc
on the appearance of some of the fonts supplied with the plug-in TopFonl
turn what is a useful, if somewhat
unpredictable feature, into a truly
powerful tool.
Aside from the creation of simple
shapes or the import of models,
TopModel provides a number of high-
sweep can be
performed using a
bezier curve, yielding
an editable bezier
surface, which can be
further adjusted to
create even more
complicated objects -
powerful stuff, yet
extremely easy and
quick.
The extrude tool
permits you to take an
object or, more
commonly, a cross-
section, and smear it in
one direction to
produce an elongated version of the
object. For more dazzling results, you
can also opt to use a predefined path
from the paths menu and set up an
envelope, the latter will be used to
apply a scale factor to the cross section
the standard tools are bezier distortion
and the new bevelling tool.
When invoked, the bezier distortion
tool divides the bounding volume of
the selected points into 64 rectangular
zones (each axis is subdivided into
four). Each corner of a zone has a
bezier control point which may be
selected and moved to distort the
shape of the overall volume.
The resulting spatial deformation is
then applied to the selected points
contained within the volume. Once
you are happy with the results you
can elect to permanently apply the
distortion, or alternatively you can
cancel the operation. This tool is ideal
for bending and twisting a shape to
produce a more organic or curvaceous
look.
Bevelling is the most recent
addition to TopModel' s stable of
distortion tools. Although some of the
Product:
Price:
Product:
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Supplier:
^ Select
I B Ubfaf Y
Click to (rnaUe/disabiw nut ©selection of active plane.
level tools which permit the creation
of more complex shapes and
structures, using primitives as a basis.
Of these, those that are likely to be
used most often are the sweep,
bevelling and extrude tools.
One typical application of the
sweep tool would be to create a
nationally symmetrical object, say a
vase. To do this, you would create an
outline (cross section) of the vase
using the line tool, then position the
profile at the appropriate distance
from the origin and invoke the sweep
tool, using a 360 degree sweep,
covering - for the sake of example - 18
divisions.
By adjusting the number of
divisions, steps and envelope even
more complex shapes may be created,
a number of examples of which are
shown in Figure IV. Furthermore, the
during the extrusion, while the path
defines the trajectory along which the
profile will be drawn out.
Circumstances in which the extrude
tool might be used include creating a
hosepipe or the body of a snake
(Figure V), or perhaps, in the case of a
simple linear extrusion, a plinth or
curbstone. There are a number of tools
in TopModel that, while not strictly
object creation tools, are very useful
for creating interesting shapes. These
tools are collectively known as
deformation tools and are split
between the standard tools that come
with TopModel and the deformation
tools that are supplied with the plug-
in TopDeform.
Their actions range from simple
linear distortion of an object, to
complex torsion distortion which is
unwieldy to use. The most useful of
TopModel : ADFS::FirebaH S 30 Fysan
other utilities provide support for
bevelling, this new distortion tool
makes the process of creating objects
with complex edges much simpler. A
selection of pre-defined profiles are
available for use, including rounded,
gothic, base relief and cut-off edge
styles (see Figure VI for examples of
bevel styles applied to fonts).
You can even modify existing styles
or create your own, although I feel the
user interface to the edit window
could be improved to make this
process easier.
Having said that, despite its quirks,
this tool is a great addition to
TopModel's already impressive feature
set and is yet another example of
Sincronia's commitment to continually
enhancing TopModel's power.
Well I'm afraid I've run out of room
for now - I did say there was a lot to
cover. Next month I'll continue the
review by seeing how TopModel copes
at adding a touch of realism to objects,
and how Sincronia have planned for
the future by taking the plug-in
route. Do join me then. end
M H; .
Product details
TopModel2
£152.75
Top3DFonts (Plug-in)
£58.63 (includes CD
colIection2 and free v2.14
upgrade)
TopDeform (Plug-in)
£28.79
Spacetech, 1 The Courtyard
Southwell Business Park,
Portland, Dorset DT5 2JS
(+44/0) 1305 822753
(+44/0) 1305 860483
sales@spacetech.co.uk
www.spacetech.
co.uk/topmodel/
Tel:
Fax:
E-mail:
Web:
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Epson Scanner GT7000 SCSI 1200x600 with S/W £260 inc Film unit £325
PC Card 5x86 133MHz 512k Cache £225 NEW Price
With Part exchange:- £90 CJE586 128k, £125 Acorn 586 & £170 DX2/66
Second Hand 100MHz cards from £100
IIYAMA 17" Visionmaster Pro 0.25mm ag £350
32 Speed IDE CD ROM Drive £60
CD ReWriter SCSI Yamaha 4416 with S/W (needs SCSI interface) £345
Acorn C++ HALF PRICE £125
RiscOS PRMs Vol 1-4 HALF PRICE £55
56K V90 Modem £80
RiscPC backplane £30 A7000 Backplane £30
8.4GB IDE IBM/Quantum Fireball Hard Disc £135
Second Hand RiscPCs
600s from £480, StrongARM from £800
(when available)
A7000s From £350
A7000+‘Foundation’ or ‘Extreme’ £825
StrongARM
Upgrades
Revision T'
Now available
£292
RiscOS 4 £120
Fitting & HD reformatting Service
£25 or £15 with New Hard Drive
Courier collection & return also available.
100MB Zip Drives from £85
NEW 250MB Zip Drive SCSI Ext. £185, Printer Port version with S/W £215, Int. IDE £165
17.2GB IDE Hard Disc £280 18.2GB SCSI Hard Disc £680
Acorn Access+ Interfaces RiscPC NIC l0b2&T £110, 10b2 only £80
Access+ A3020/4000 10b2 £90 A3000/3020/4000 10b2&T £90
DRAM SIMMs for RiscPCs 32Mb £60, 64Mb £95 & 128Mb £200
Acorn Advance Wordprocessor, Spreadsheet, Database &Graphs £58
EAGLE M2 Video & Audio Digitiser RRP £387 S/H £250
S/H Acorn
A4
£550
All prices INCLUDE VAT @1 7.5% 78
& Delivery. Official Orders Welcome E&OE Worthing
Prices subject to change & stock. West Sussex
BN11 2EN
CJE4DV34 Tel 01 903 523222 Fax 01903 523679 sales@cje.co.uk http://www.cje.co.uk
ICRO
StrongARM Compatible Game Compendiums
Saloon Cars Deluxe £25 Holed Out Comp. £25 Chocks Away Comp. £25
Upgrades available from £6
Other StrongARM Compatible titles
Anagram Genius £20, Cataclysm £20, Chopper Force £30, Cyber Chess £30.
Demon’s Lair £20, Drifter £30, Groundhog £12, Logic Mania £20,
Pandora’s Box £20, StuntRacer 2000 £25, WimpGame £20.
The Fourth Dimension,
78 Brighton Road,
Worthing, West Sussex
BN11 2EN
Tel: 01 903 213361
Fax: 01903 523679
Email: 4d@cje.co.uk
Web: www.cje.co.uk/4d/
Prices and specifications are correct
at the time of going to press. All price
are fully inclusive. E&OE.
T he time has come at last.
Quake is finally with us! My
predecessor first announced
plans for the conversion way
back in the spring of 1997 and now
the product is finally on sale. Well,
that's all true except for the fact that
this is not actually the completely
native engine re-write we've been
waiting for from Martin Piper, but
rather a smartened-up version of
Peter Teichmann's freeware RISC
OS player app.
As far as we can tell, the
freeware player will remain
available while the slightly
enhanced version is sold along with
CDs containing the game's huge
level files. This means that it is still
possible to get a fully working copy
of Quake on your Acorn by
purchasing a copy of the PC version
on the High Street then
downloading the freeware player
app from the Internet.
R-Comp are still committed to
improving their version but seem
eager to get some form of product
onto the market as soon as possible.
This is not necessarily a bad thing,
it will gain them some revenue for
the PC version CDs which have
been waiting in storage for almost
one and a half years now. In this
/VI art in Piper so he iloes get out of work oeeosionnlh/
issue, we have exclusive interviews
with Martin Piper and Andrew
Rawnsley so that you can get both
angles on this RISC OS debacle
which is finally coming to a
peaceful end. There's also a full
review of the R-Comp product.
Martin Piper
AU: Tell us a little about the
problems which slowed your
conversion of the Quake
engine.
MP: Where do 1 start? Like a lot of
other RISC OS coders 1 also
have a proper job, at Argonaut
Software in London, which
pays the bills. For what seems
like a long time now the
project I'm working on ( Alien
Resurrection for the PSX) has
been taking nearly all of my
time. Last year I also ended up
in hospital after collapsing at
work due to working too
much and stress.
I decided back then to re-
evaluate my priorities and not
work 14+ hours a day on
maintaining my day job and
RISC OS stuff. After all I
don't want to kill myself.
AU: How close to completion is
your conversion of Quake?
MP: I would need a week all to
myself to finish off the code
but since I can't take a holiday
at the moment that isn't going
to happen.
AU: What sort of performance do
you estimate your conversion
would have achieved once
fully optimised on a 233MHz
StrongARM processor?
MP: Well I can't give exact figures
November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
because I don't have a 233 SA
but those who have seen the
speed an early version was
getting would tell you it's
noticeably faster than
ArcQuakc. I couldn't comment
on that because I haven't seen
the latest version of ArcQuakc
myself but it's entirely
possible. Probably because
I've had the time to
completely redesign and
implement a new rendering
pipeline which is much faster
on the ARM chip architecture
than Carmack's original code.
AU: Did you have any extra
features planned for your
Quake engine over and above
those in the PC version?
MP: Yes. Because of the way the
Tenderer was designed Quake
would use a separate device
driver module for the screen
device. In simple terms this
means that I can add a high
colour rendering mode or
support PCI 3D acceleration
just by adding a new device
driver module. The beauty of
this is that if a machine came
out that did actually use extra
processors or had fast floating
point the device driver would
just need to be changed, not
the entire game.
AU: Will TBA Software be
releasing any more products
for RISC OS?
MP: Yes we want to do some more
games. Probably using a
version of our new 3D engine
technology that was
developed for Quake.
AU: Many thanks for your time,
we wish you every success
with your work at Argonaut.
MP: Thank you for the interview.
Hopefully Aliens will be
finished soon and I can get
back to my normal life.
Andrew Rawnsley
AU: Why did RCI end up
publishing the RISC OS
version of Quake when TBA
had been working on the
engine for quite some time?
AR: TBA had been working to
produce a Quake ’player’ from
scratch with the TBA TAG
engine. While this was a good
stop-gap solution, it was only
suitable for ’techie’ users, who
would be happy to buy the
necessary investments in
RISCOS Ltd made life rather
uncomfortable.
For the previous year, we
had had repeated promises of
demo versions, and full
releases always "in 2 weeks".
These never happened, and
while I am very sympathetic
to Martin's health problems
(for goodness sake, I've had
enough of them myself) I
would have preferred a "it'll
be 6 months" or whatever.
This made things very
frustrating, and I gradually
began to lose hope of ever
releasing the product.
I contacted Peter
Teichmann who developed the
freeware version. I make no
comment on the legitimacy of
the freeware release - the
Quake sources are still
officially unreleased, and
access to the source still costs
a lot of dollars. However, this
release of Quake allowed
people to play the game when
they otherwise couldn't, and
was released well before
anyone else got involved, and
as such it was important for
the market.
Anyway, Peter was very
helpful, and prompt with
delivery of demo versions. We
sent him all the resources
needed to produce a player
that would run the extra
expansion packs supplied
with our pack, and Peter
rapidly returned a working
version. Since then, there have
been various bugs fixed.
Andrew RawnsICy, the self-made
king of RISC OS gaming
game from one place, and the
driver from the other.
Following Doom , we had a
good relationship with the PC
publishers, GT, who
practically force-fed us the
Quake packs. They were
worried that with just the
driver available, piracy would
be rife, as people would buy
the RISC OS driver (out of
loyalty) but rip off the level
data.
One of the big points about
dealing with us (as far as GT
were concerned) was that we
would buy the PC kits off
them, and only sell the full
product. This minimizes
piracy, and provides an
effective route to market. TBA
were to get a very healthy
royalty per copy sold.
At what point and for what
reasons did you adopt a
version of the freeware engine
rather than the TBA engine?
We finally made the decision
in May/June this year. Readers
should remember that we
purchased the Quake packs
right at the start, on the
assurance that the TBA Quake
driver would be ready for the
Wakefield show - 1998. That
was over a year ago. Given
that the units are how GT
make their money on the deal,
they aren't cheap, and we've
had endless copies holed up
in a warehouse for 12 months,
all paid for!
Since then, many of you will
know that I have become
significantly involved in
RISCOS Ltd. Given that we
(R-Comp) were already well
out of pocket on Quake , my
Why should users buy your
pack for £20-25 rather than
obtaining the PC version at a
high street store for £15 and
using the freeware engine?
The version we supply will be
enhanced above the freeware
Quake - bi$$cr Hum an eclipse on a cloudy day
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
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version: Support for Malice
and Q-Zone; Much improved
front-end; Proper installation.
Quake installation is a non-
trivial process, thanks to the
files being compressed and
split on the CD; and the game
will store more information
about configuration and so on.
A lot of people have asked
for a good front-end and this
is very important to us.
Improving the installation is
also necessary and is actually
the biggest thing delaying
release.
I'm trying not to use the
’support the market’ line, but
it is a fact that dealers require
significant margins on games,
and with that in mind there is
no way that we can drop the
price too far.
We would hope to release a
Quakc+ upgrade at some
point, which also contributes
to the drop in price. This may
be TBA's Quake if it is ever
finished, or we may optimise
the game ourselves. I cannot
see this happening for quite a
while, but it is something that
I would like to see happen. I
feel that the game ought to
run smoothly and well on a
233Mhz SA.
games basically involves moving
around a simulated world killing
anything that obstructs you and
solving a few puzzles along the
way. The progression from those
early days through to the current
state of the art on the PC, the Quake
III engine test is illustrated well by
the screenshot below.
ID Software (and John Carmack,
3D engine coding guru) are almost
the unrivalled masters of this
domain, there have been others
such as Duke Nukent 3D and Half
Life but none of these have yet
made it to RISC OS. R-Comp have
stated that a Duke Nukent 3D
conversion would be possible in
theory but they fear that its 18
certificate would cripple sales on
such a small platform.
Quake reviewed
R-Comp are now selling the Quake
Resurrection pack along with a
player application for StrongARM
Rise PCs for an as-yet unannounced
price in the £20 to £25 region. This
pack contains three CDs containing
level data, one for Quake and one
for each of Malice and QIZone .
Malice and QIZone are both third
party modifications to the original
game and are bundled with the
RISC OS release in a similar
fashion to other R-Comp
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
optimisation required.
In some ways I feel that we
have swamped the market
with titles, so we won't be
releasing products quite as
rapidly as we did last year. In
football metaphor, it was
necessary to get our first team
up and running immediately,
and we can now add players
as required. Rest assured that
these players will be added! I
would, however, like to see
some of last year's titles sell
before releasing more new
titles which steal the
limelight!
Thanks for taking the time to
complete this interview, we
look forward to seeing all
these new conversions you're
keeping secret from us!
No problem! But which
conversions? <cough> <grunt>
Ah, yes Alasdair, those
conversions...
What's next on the RCI release
schedule?
Your readers know that we're
working on F16 but this is
proving tough. The game is up
and running, and the
resolution and detail are
impressive, but the frame
rates are low. Peaking at 8fps
at the moment, there's a lot of
A brief history
of 3D walkabouts...
Ever since Wolfenstein 3D was
released on the 5th of May 1992,
what we now know as 3D
walkabouts have gone from
strength to strength. This genre of
conversions. They each constitute
complete new level sets so are
considered separately here.
Quake
Quake is a first-person 3D shooter
from id Software, producers of such
smash-hit first person games as
Wolfcnstein 3D and the Doom
series. Sensible game plots have
never been id's strong point so I'll
spare you the details on this one.
All you need to know is that some
guy by the name of Quake has
started pumping his baddies
through slipgates (read: teleporters)
into some military bases.
Playing Quake is a completely
different experience to Doom or
other earlier incarnations of this
genre. The game's engine (the bit
that does all the clever stuff) is far
more advanced and allows for such
things as jumping, freedom of
vision (your character can look all
around, and is not restricted to
looking solely in the direction of
travel) and last but not least, proper
3D levels which can now have
floors overlapping each other.
As well as featuring a very nice
engine, the gameplay itself is also
very good. The game offers a very
nice range of weaponry including a
grenade launcher and a rocket
launcher, two of my personal
favourites. The super nailgun is a
lethal weapon if there ever was one
but unfortunately the supply of
ammo is somewhat limited in most
levels. That's not a bad thing
though, in fact it is perhaps one of
Quake's strong points because there
isn't always loads of ammo lying
about so it's necessary to conserve it
at times. Your adversaries in Quake
are both imaginative and well-
drawn. The mixture of close range
nasties which need to get right up
to you to cause damage and long
range ones makes gameplay
challenging in places. The situation
often arises where you'll get
attacked by monsters on the ground
at the same time as having things
fire down at you from above. Add
to this the all-new ghost-type
nasties which fly about while
spitting down on you and you'll get
some pretty interesting situations.
The level designers have used
this range of monsters to give a very
challenging gaming experience.
Certain creatures will even
reincarnate unless physically
blasted to bits by a rocket or
grenade.
One of Quake's main down sides
is that the monsters still jump out
in front of your gun. This does get a
little tiresome after playing through
other games of this nature. Why, oh
why, don't they hide and use cover
to their advantage rather than just
waiting to be killed? This has been
achieved in games on other
platforms to great effect and it
really does make the game feel that
bit more realistic.
Quake features a nice system of
power-ups. Different grades of
armour may be gathered up along
with a massive health bonus which
grants the user 200% health (how
this works in real life, I don't
know). The other bonuses such as
the bio-suit to protect from
drowning and the 'Pentagram of
Protection' also add a little
something to the game.
However, the most noteworthy
bonus has to be 'Quad Damage',
this affords the
bearer's weaponry
four times as much
punch as is normally
experienced. This
renders the lower-
grade weaponry
such as the double-
barrelled shotgun
useful once again
later on in the game.
Plus, it's bloody
good fun to be able
to strafe with the
super nailgun and
wipe out a whole
room full of baddies
then continue
merrily on your way.
Quake's levels are organised into
episodes, each of which features a
fitting finale leading up to the final
level where you're pitted against
the mother of all baddies, Shub
Niggurath. I won't spoil this bit but
when you come to it, perhaps try
methods other than simply
discharging all your ammo at the
beast.
No review of Quake would be
complete without a mention of its
multi-player capabilities. OK, so
Doom included multi-player
support but Quake really is an
exhilarating experience when
played against fifteen or so mates
over a network. The game is just so
flexible and the add-on system
allows for far more tactical game
play thanks to the addition of
’capture the flag’ and paintball-type
variants.
The RISC OS conversion of
Quake currently supports a range of
network play options but,
unfortunately, it lacks compatibility
with WinQuake, the PC multi-
player version commonly played
over the Internet. Serial cable,
modem and network play are
supported as is Internet play on
servers which don't rely upon
WinQuake .
In addition to its support for
third party levels. Quake also
features its very own variant of the
C programming language: QuakeC.
This allows for the addition of
comprehensive new features to the
game. Most are only useful in
multi-player situations but a few
such as weapon modifications and
bots (simulated human opponents)
can be put to ample use, even
without access to more than one
computer. This feature along with
Quake's excellent multi-player
experience must be what has made
the game so popular in the PC
market and is sure to affect the
RISC OS gaming community too.
Not all additional levels and
QuakeC patches will work with the
RISC OS conversion of Quake, but
most well-written ones will be fine.
Be sure to check out the selection at
Acorn Arcade's own Quake site
should you buy the game.
The current RISC OS
implementation of Quake is
currently available in two forms.
There's the freeware player app
which is on slightly dodgy legal
ground and also R-Comp
Quake III: si ill undergoing testing on the PC, t/ou'll havegraudehi/dren hi/ the lime
I his one's playable on i four Acorn. A Pentium III 451) anil a meat}/ graphics can! is
needed before il will reen consider running on the dark side.
November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
o
Product details
Product: Quake Resurrection
Price: around £20-25
Supplier: R-Comp Interactive, 22 Robert
Moffat, High Legh, Knutsford,
Cheshire WA16 6PS
Tel: 01925 755043
Fax: 01925 757377
E-mail: rci@rcomp.co.uk
Web: http://wvvvv.rcomp.co.uk/
Interactive's own commercial
product which is basically the
freeware player bundled with
legitimate level files in a deal
sanctioned by the original
publishers, GT Interactive. You'll
have to pay a little more for the R-
Comp product over the price of
buying the PC pack on the high
street. However, you will benefit
from a proper installer, technical
support, windowed play, a slightly
improved engine and compatibility
with Malice and QIZonc, both of
which are well worth acquiring.
It looks like we're stuck with this
situation until Martin Piper has
time to complete his
implementation of Quake for RISC
OS. Unfortunately, the R-Comp
product is currently only playable
in low resolution and lacks the
improvements over the original PC
incarnation which we've seen in
other R-Comp conversions.
Development is still continuing
though. At the time of writing, the
engine does have a tendency to
crash every now and again but the
game is still playable albeit with
regular quicksaves.
Malice
Malice is billed as a completely new
game based upon Quake's engine
and it is, more or less. Almost every
aspect of the gameplay is changed
including all weapons, monsters
and levels.
The basic plot behind Malice
goes something like this: you're a
hired mercenary working for the
interests of a huge corporation by
the name of B.O.S.S. Your work for
them entails killing lots of bad
guys. Haven't we been here before?
Unlike its host game, Quake,
Malice treats the player to a nicely
made full screen intro sequence
before the game kicks off. The
movie gives the player a good
overview of the storyline as well as
having a subtle stab at the original
game through a scene where your
Quake character is blown away by
our new heroine. Damage.
Unfortunately, the intro movie uses
the game engine for real-time
rendering rather than a dedicated
movie player so things can get a
little slow.
The new monsters offer a rather
refreshing change after defeating
the populous of Quake. The
weapons also provide for
some light
refreshment
with a nice D Of
flame-thrower f
(fire extin-
guishers also
provided) and i
a decent 1
shotgun |
thrown in for !
good measure. B
The need to
re-load some j
weapons
manually adds
to the realism f
but can be L
annoying if
you like your F ^
rounds fast. ^ ^
Another Quake jump* on the rcaumx
major feature
of Malice is the addition of 'toyz' -
don't worry, I can't stand people
replacing s with z to make things
sound cool either. These are bits of
kit which will come in handy
during your assignment with
B.O.S.S. There are five 'toyz' at your
disposal, one of the most original
being a probe which may be piloted
around the level scouting out
enemy positions prior to your
assault. I won't list the others here
but they do add to the game in a
special way and the additional keys
to cycle through and use them are
also a boon.
A couple of the more dubious
items to be found in Quake and
other games of this genre have been
stripped away for Malice. For
starters, the Mega-health bonus is
gone, hands up those who
understand how one may pose
200% health! The Pentagram of
Protection and Quad Damage will
also be missed by some but have
been removed for the simple reason
that they act against fair play in the
eyes of the authors.
Overall, Malice is a very
worthwhile addition to this pack
and it could almost be argued that
it's more playable than Quake itself.
However, it is worth pointing out
that the game runs a little slower
than Quake but this isn't a major
issue unless you have a real
problem with playing on a slightly
lower resolution.
and feel. In the trade, it's referred to
as a partial conversion because
unlike Malice (a total conversion)
not every aspect of the game is
changed.
The changes do include a
completely new set of levels, four
new monsters and also one new
weapon.
QIZone's levels do play well but
their design is perhaps a little
inferior to that seen in Quake. The
new weapon replaces the rather
under-powered standard nailgun
with a nice little number which
fires spiky discs. It might not sound
much but they do bounce around
corners - a definite bonus over the
old nailgun. The other weapons
remain unchanged from the original
game.
The new monsters aren't really
much to write home about. Many
are brightly coloured and whether
this is through diet or breeding, it
does make them look odd alongside
the surviving Quake monsters.
QIZone is definitely worth
a look. Perhaps play through
the slightly superior Malice
and, of course. Quake first
though.
QIZone
QIZone doesn't go quite as far as
Malice in altering the game's play
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
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22 Robert Moffat, High Legh, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 6PS
Tel: 01925 755043 Fax: 01925 757377 Email: rcomp@rcomp.co.uk rci@rcomp.co.uk
Interactive
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Cheque/postal order (made payable to Tau Press Ltd)
j Credit card (Visa/Access/BarclayCard/Mastercard/Eurocard/Connect)
Card No,
Postcode
Name on card
Country
Ref: RISC0S/1
Expiry date
Signature
Credit card billing address if different from above,
\isci |
SHOW
upgrades to existing products.
Then there are the user groups:
The ARM Club, of course, are still
going strong as is the Association
of Acorn User Groups, run by Neil
Spellings, with its ever increasing
number of associated clubs,
combining and providing benefits
to all the RISC OS clubs across the
world.
It's true that the last year has
taken its toll, 'there have been
victims of the uncertainty, whether
individuals who have turned to
the other side or businesses who
did not adapt fast enough.
There are those who dubbed
the attempts to raise Phoebe from
the ashes of Acorn as the Phoenix.
But it's not any small group of
individuals who are rising up, it's
the RISC OS market as a whole -
that's you and me - who are the
real Phoenix, for coming out of
those dark days and making RISC
OS live on.
Welcome to The ARM Club's
RISC OS '99 Show.
Steve Turnbull
Editor, Acorn User magazine
there
T he last year has been a
difficult one for the RISC
OS market and if you were
that way inclined it would look
like the death knell had finally
sounded for the most user-friendly
operating system in the world.
But the non-appearance of the
Phoebe Rise PC 2 and the
disappearance of Acorn have
instead resulted in the re-birth of a
market long-suppressed by
Acorn's unwillingness to take
chances and invest in the future.
What has happened is that the
operating system has been
licensed and RISC OS 4 released -
along with a roadmap for future
developments that will finally
break free of the hardware
stranglehold that has always
made Acorn machines so
expensive to buy.
Simply plugged into existing
hardware (the Rise PC, A7000 and
A7000+) RISC OS 4 gives
increased speed and great new
features, but coupled with the
new machines being released we
can once again jump into the
How
Directions from
M25 Junction 8
# Exit at Junction 8 and head
northbound on the A217
Brighton Road dual
carriageway - signposted
A217 Sutton & London.
• Continue northbound
through Lower Kingswood
and straight ahead at the
next two roundabouts - still
signposted A217 Sutton and
London.
# After 2.8 miles from the M25
take the third exit (straight
ahead-ish) at the Tad worth
roundabout - still signposted
A217 Sutton and London.
• After 1.0 mile turn left at the
traffic lights at Burgh Heath
on to Reigate Road -
mainstream of power computing.
At least three companies are
releasing new hardware: firstly,
two affordable machines based on
the ARM7500 chip (now being
allowed to run at full speed) and
bringing new industry standards
with them - the USB system for
plugging in peripheral devices
and PCI to allow PC-cards to be
slotted straight in. These two
options alone open the RISC OS
world to vast amounts of
previously unusable hardware.
Then there is the Rise PC
replacement motherboard that
promises to take the system to
new heights of power by
removing the bottlenecks and
providing virtually unparalled
video and audio power.
Along with this new hardware
is the software: Companies such as
R-Comp, Icon Technology,
Cerilica, Spacetech and many
others provide the software that
we have used and still use - but
they are not resting on their
laurels. More software is being
released every month, as well as
signposted A240 Epsom and
Kingston (there is a Shell
petrol filling station on the
lefthand side just the other
side of the traffic lights).
• Follow this road across a set
of traffic lights (after which
the road starts going
downhill) and after 0.9 mile
turn left on to Yew Tree
Bottom Road - signposted
B284 Epsom Downs
(immediately after the keep
left arrows where the main
road continues bearing
round to the right).
• After 0.5 mile take the
second exit at the
roundabout on to
Grandstand Road -
signposted Grandstand
and Ashtead.
After a further 0.6 mile both
the Epsom Racecourse
Grandstands and Queens
Stand are located straight
ahead adjacent to another
roundabout (the Queens
Stand is on the right and is
more modern) - nearby car
parking will be signposted
and marshalled.
Beware - the A217 is a dual
carriageway with a 40mph
speed limit and there are two
separate police speed
cameras located along this
stretch of road.
By train
Nearest mainline station is
Tattenham Corner
to get
The Companies involved
RISCa
ASSOCIATION OF
ACORN USER
GROUPS
ACORN USER
The biggest and best magazine in
the RISC OS market. Packed with
news, reviews and special features.
Come to our stand and see what
we have on offer for the show.
Back issues will also be available,
as well as the opportunity to
subscribe to the magazine.
Acorn User, Tau Press, Media
House, Adlington Park,
Macclesfield, Cheshire SK10 4NP
Tel: 01625 878888
Fax: 01625 859808
E-mail: enquiries®
acornuser.com
Web: http://www.acornuser.
com/
AKALAT PUBLISHING
ALEPH ONE
We continue to supply Acorn
computers with the ability to run
Windows (and DOS) applications.
We offer both Second Processors
for Rise PCs and are constantly
developing software to support
them. Podule Cards are also
available for A3x0, A4x0 and
A5000 machines. Special Offers are
usual at Shows like this!
Aleph One Limited, The Old
Courthouse, Bottisham,
Cambridge CBS 9BA
Tel:
Fax:
E-mail:
Web:
01223 811679
01223 812713
saIes@alephl.co.uk
http://www.alephl.
co.uk/AcornProd/
APDL
APDL will have their full range of
Acorn CDs, including clip art, PD,
games and others, plus hard
drives, interfaces, and CD-ROM
drives, all at special show prices.
You will be able to see the
DataSafe parallel port IDE drive
system and several new products
(hardware and software).
APDL, 39 Knighton Park Road,
Sydenham, London SE26 5RN
Tel: 0181 778 2659
Fax: 0181 488 0487
E-mail: info@apdl.co.uk
Web: http://www. apdl.co.uk/
APRICOTE STUDIOS
Apricote Studios will be
demonstrating their ever popular
accounting applications: Personal
Accounts 4 and Prophet3f
professional. They are also hoping
to have a new version of Personal
Accounts ready for the show
which should fulfil a number of
’wishlist’ items requested by users
(unfortunately the ability to print
bank notes has not been
completed, but they should save
you from paying bank charges by
telling you if you are likely to
become over-drawn!). Apricote
Studios will be situated in the
RiscStation Village.
Apricote Studios, 2 Purls
Bridge Farm, Manea, Cambs PE 15
OND
Tel: 01354 680432
E-mail: info@apricote.com
Web: http://vvww.apricote.
com/
ARCHIVE
Archive Magazine, the
subscription magazine for RISC OS
users. New subscribers (£25 for 12
issues) can have a FREE CD
(worth £12) which contains huge
amounts of RISC OS-related
information, several volumes of
back issues of Archive, utility
programs, PD, etc. Alternatively,
try the next four issues for only £4,
so that you can see just how good
it is.
Archive Publications, 18 Mile
End Road, Norwich NR4 7QY
Tel: 01603 766922
Fax: 01603 460736
E-mail: paul@archivemag.
co.uk
Web: http://www.
archivcmag.co.uk/
CASTLE
The Castle stand will feature a
wide range of Acorn and other
related products. Castle's new
build specification Rise PCs in
various guises will be available to
purchase.
The new A70(X)+ Odyssey will
also be on show. As usual Castle
will also be demonstrating its wide
range of Scanners, CD Writers and
other peripherals and upgrades.
Castle Technology Ltd, Ore
Trading Estate, Woodbridge Road,
Framlingham, Surrey IP13 9LL
Tel: 01728 621222
Fax: 0800 783 9638
E-mail: jack@castle.org.uk
Web: http^/www.castle.
org.uk/
CJE MICROS
CTA DIRECT
CTA will have a number of new
products for sale. This will include
new RISC OS machines, hard
drives, CD-ROMS, CD-ROM re-
writers, memory for all RISC OS
machines, mice, keyboards, MKII
Trackball, printers consumables,
and many other items. The team
looks forward to meeting you at
the show.
CTA Direct, 168 Elliott Street,
Tyldcsley, Greater Manchester M29
8DS
Tel: 01942 797777
Fax: 01942 797711
E-mail: sales@cta.u-net.com
Web: http://www.cta.u-
net.com/
RISCSTATION
On show will be the new range of
machines including the R7500, the
first RISC OS PCI machine, and
the RiscStation Network machines.
A network of machines running
the latest software bundles will be
on demonstration. Also the
unveiling of new products and
enhancements for all RISC OS
machines.
RiscStation Ltd, 168 Elliott
Street, Tyldesley, Greater
Manchester M29 8DS
Tel: 01942 797777
Fax: 01942 797711
E-mail: sales@riscstation.co.uk
Web: http^/www.
riscstation.co.uk/
CUMANA/CANNON
COMPUTING
At RISC OS '99 we will be
dedicating the stand to Thin
Client Technology'. We will be
requesting anyone who is in
educational circles to come along
to the stand to see Citrix and
TopCat running both RISC OS and
Windows on new and old
Acorn /RISC OS machines.
We will also have all of our
general products for sale with a
bargains being offered at the show.
Cumana, Whitegate, Dunmow
Road, Hatfield Heath, Bishops
Stortford, Herts CM22 7ED
Tel: 01279 730800/730900
Fax: 01279 730809
E-mail: saIes@cumana.co.uk
Web: http://www.
cumana.demon.co.uk/
ELECTRONIC
FONT FOUNDRY
EFF offers a huge library of high
quality fonts, including a wide
range of educational, specialist and
foreign typefaces and font
converting software: EFF TrueType
Translator, EFF PostScript
Translator and EFF Font Table. The
new CD, EFF2 Professional
Typography, with 8(X) fonts in
Acorn and Windows format, will
be available at the show.
Electronic Font Foundry, 11
Silwood Road, Ascot SL5 OPY
Tel: 01344 875 201
Fax: 01344 875 202
E-mail: saIes@eff.co.uk
Web: http://www.eff.co.uk/
ICON TECHNOLOGY
Icon Technology will be showing
TechWriter and EasiWriter the
powerful, yet easy to use, word
processors which have been voted
first and second best word
processors on the Acorn platform
and best commercial software.
• Reads and writes Microsoft
Word 6, 7 and Office 97/98
• Style Editor
• Automatic Tables and Lists
• Imports Impression text files
complete with formatting
• Reads and writes HTML
NEW: EasiWriter and
TechWriter Pro p with
improved graphics, text flows
round pictures, also runs Java
applets and animations.
Show offers will be available.
Icon Technology Ltd, Church
House, Carlby, Stamford, Lines
PE9 4NB
Tel/Fax: 01778 590563
E-mail: sales®
IconTechnology.net
Web: http://www.
lconTechnology.net/
IRLAM
INSTRUMENTS
JONATHAN
DUDDINGTON
Speak software speech synthesiser
will 'talk-as-you-type' and read
out text for proof-reading. Pluto is
a text database and powerful
Internet news and mail reader. It
can be used to replace Marcel,
Posty/NewsAgent and so on
E-mail: jsd@argonet.co.uk
Web: http://www.argonet.
co.uk/users/jsd/
MILLIPEDE
ELECTRONIC
GRAPHICS
The highlight of the Millipede
stand will be the Imago Concept
Motherboard. Mechanically
compatible with the Acorn Rise
PC, Imago forms the basis for a
number of products to be
produced by Millipede. Imago
exploits the latest technology to
propel RISC OS computing into
new and exciting territory. Not to
be missed.
E-mail: richard@millipede.
co.uk
Web: http://www.millipede.
co.uk/
Theatre timetable
Saturday
Sunday
11:00
Castle Technology
Castle Technology
12:00
13:00
RISCOS Ltd
RISCOS Ltd
14:00
RiscStation Ltd
RiscStation Ltd
15:00
TopModel
R-COMP/R-COMP
INTERACTIVE
R-Comp will be showing latest
versions of its ever expanding
range of Internet and Web
authoring products. Visitors
should expect some exciting new
developments, including new
versions of WebsterXL and
Messenger Pro.
Check out RCI's range of
sound and music products,
including the powerful Anthem
sequencer, for quality and value.
Special show offers on graphics
tablets too. Oh, and of course,
there will be at least one great new
games release, but that goes
without saying!
R-Comp Interactive, 22 Robert
Moffat, High Legh, Knutsford
WA16 6PS
Tel: 01925 755043
Fax: 01925 757377
E-mail: rci@rcomp.co.uk
Web: http://www.rcomp.co.
uk/
REALLY GOOD
SOFTWARE
Launched at the Wakefield Show,
NoticeBoard Pro will be featured
on our stand; alongside the rest of
our range including Picture Book
2, the Triple 'R' Education titles
and Notes.
Really Good Software
Company, 39 Carisbrooke Road,
Harpenden, Herts AL5 5QS
Tel/Fax: 01582 761395
E-mail: saIes.rgsc@argonet.
co.uk
Web: http://www.argonet.
co.uk/users/salcs.rgsc/
RISCOS LTD
Visit the RISCOS Ltd stand to see
the latest developments on RISC
OS 4. Upgrades will be available to
take away at £99 + VAT for Rise
PC and A7000/A7000+ users. Join
The Foundation for £30 + VAT (£25
+ VAT for ex-Clan Members if you
bring your membership card
along).
Get the RISC OS World
wallchart for just £4.50, listing all
the companies offering products
and services for your favourite
operating system. We've got RISC
OS 4 - have you bought yours yet?
RISCOS Ltd, 3 Clarendon
Road, Cyncoed, Cardiff CF3 7JD
E-mail: paul@riscos.com
Web: http://www.riscos.com/
SIMNETT
SOFTEASE
SPACETECH LTD
Spacetech are showing their range
of studio-quality graphics software
for RISC OS including Photodesk3
with layers. The Digital Art CD-
ROM by David Cowell, featuring
bitmap and vector graphics
tutorials is shown as well as his
brand new second CD shown here
for the first time. Watch out for the
latest in Digital cameras from
Olympus including the new C2000
Zoom 2.1 Megapixel compact also
a new tiny megapixel camera and
a multi-mega pixel replacement for
the C1400XL!
PhotoReal drivers for the
Canon BJC7000/7100 and BJC2000
will be shown. OHP, the
presentation maker for RISC OS is
demonstrated with some new
features. Some attractive show
discounts are offered.
Spacetech Ltd, 1 The
Courtyard, Southwell Business
Park, Portland, Dorset DT5 2NQ
Tel: 01305 822753
Fax: 01305 860483
E-mail: sales@spacctech.co.uk
Web: http://www.
spacetech.co.uk/
THE ARM CLUB
Organisers of this year's show. The
ARM Club, will be on hand with
membership offers, club products
(including the latest PDCD3), help
and advice. A year's membership
of the leading user group costs
only £15 (£12 renewal) and
includes four issues of our
magazine, Eureka. Watch out for
special show offers, or just pop
along for a chat!
The ARM Club, FREEPOST
The ARM Club
Tel: 07050 679262
Fax: 07050 679263
E-mail: info@armclub.org.uk
Web: http://www.armd ub.
org.uk/
WARM SILENCE
SOFTWARE
WSS will be showing new versions
of much of their acclaimed
software, including CDROMFS
(updated to handle Packet written
UDF discs), CDBurn, LanMan98
and a new NFS client.
E-inail: robin@wss.co.uk
Web: http://www.wss.co.uk
“Many thanks for
an excellent publication
which I enjoy reading
and which gives the
most help of any of
the magazines on
computing which I
read”
P. Tucker, Jersey
Acorn
Publisher
Isn't it time you treated yourself to
the best?
Write, phone or email us now for more
information or visit our stand at RISC OS '99.
First issue of volume 6 due out October 1 999.
/IKALATV
XjL Publishing
P.O.Box 231, Barton, Bedford MK45 4110.^
Tel. 01582 881614 fax 01582 881614
Email: akalat@kbnet.co.uk
RISCa
Entrance & Stairs
RlscStatlon
and
CTA
Bar and Eating Area
RlscStatlon Village
The RISC OS '99 Show - Lower Floor
Alephl
RISC OS Ltd.
The RISC OS '99 Show - Upper Floor
^RISCG
SHOW
RISC OS Awards
In the best traditions of the RISC OS world you have the opportunity to vote six categories - how you
interpret them is up to you and you don't have put an entry if you have no answer.
Send in your answers to RISC OS Awards, Tau Press, Media House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10
4NP or hand them in to the Acorn User stand at the show before midday on Sunday Oct 31st.
i 1
i Best Dealer !
i i
I Best Non-game software release in 1999 !
i Best Non-game hardware release in 1999 !
! Best Game release in 1999 !
i
Most popular RISC OS personality !
i Best Non-game release ever, for RISC OS 1
I Best Game release ever, for RISC OS !
i i
I I
Elvis Lives!
But does he read Archive Magazine?!
Archive contains...
• Hints & tips
• Articles for learners
• Information for the more technical
• Readers’ comments
• Averages over 45,000 words per issue
• Over 70 pages of articles
Send no money - just
send your address.
To: Archive Publications, 1 8 Mile End Road, Norwich, NR4 7QY.
Phone: 0\ 603-441 777 Fax: 460736 Email: info@archivemog.co.uk
Please send me the next two issues of Archive FREE OF CHARGE on the
understanding that (a) I have not subscribed to Archive before, (b) I have
not taken advantage of any other such free trial offer, and (c) if I do decide
to take out a subscription (£25 in UK, £30 Europe, £38 elsewhere), these
two magazines will be the first of the twelve issues for which I will be paying.
Name:
Address:
Or email your address to: Paul Beverley ; paul@anchivemag.co.uk
The future starts here . . .
Specifications
RISC OS 4
16 Mb EDO Memory
4 Mb Flash Memory
43Gb e/D€ Hard Drive
40x Atapi EID€ CDROM
Onboard
4 x 33 bit PCI Slots
2 x High Speed IDE Port
2 x Serial Port
I x IO baseT Network
I x Parallel Port
/ x Infrared Port
/ x PC Style Gameport
/ x Microphone Port
/ x Audio Line In Port
/ x Headphone Port
/ x PS2 Style Keyboard
1x3 Button PS2 Mouse
Midi In/Out/Through
Casing
Micro Desktop layout or
Tower configuration
Software
Full RISC OS 4 retail
pack as standard
DrawWorks Millennium
Fireworkz Professional
PipeDream 45
Easi Writer Professional
Ankh
Botkiller 2
Frak I
More titles yet to be
confirmed as well as an
extensive shareware
and demo collection
PCI Upgrades
(Available soon)
StrongARM Card
Multiprocessor SA Card
PC Card
32bit SCSI Card
IOO baseT Network Card
MPEG Decode/Encode
AT A 66 IDE Card with
multi I/O expansion
USB Ports
Int. 56k & ISDN Modems
3DFX Voodoo GFX Card
Video Digitiser
Other Upgrades
32 Mb Flash ROM
SoundCard Wavetable
.... and so much more
*cS ta*
” o
Supporting your local dealer
From £579 + VAT
For more information contact your local RISC OS
dealer or RiscStation on +44 (O) 1942 797777
SO OSVtt
incl VAT & delivery
See http://www.riscos.com
for ordering details
Draw for
T he draw file in RISC OS is a
godsend - a standard way of
communicating vector
information from one package
to another, that doesn't have the
fragmented nature of EPS, and
manages to maintain bezier curve
information (unlike WMF).
Unfortunately, actually having to
use Draw on more than a purely
casual basis can result in bleeding
from the ears. iSV's latest incarnation
of their illustration software,
DrawWorks Millennium, promises to
Andrew Green takes a look at an updated
package providing new life to Draw
Toollo! I
01
HU
m
EH
□
fSL
s
Sav*
HIM
¥
ffi kn p° rt B 8 SI
g
j DwWorta MdJcrrkm On-fcn* Help
&
Figure l: The DrawWorks Millennium toolbar
alleviate this, by operating as a
welcome adjunct to Draw, and
providing a vastly improved feature-
set to boot.
The software comes on a CD and
includes a wealth of subsidiary
applications from the iSV stable: the
love-it-or-hate-it clip-art manager, Mr
Clippi /; the outline font editor. Dr
Fonty; 2100 high-quality outline fonts
with an associated installation
manager and viewer, a selection of
vector and bitmap clip-art, together
with one of the best help systems
I've seen for any collection of
software. All in all, this is a huge
package.
At the core of the product,
though, is the new version of the
DrazvWorks application itself.
DrazvWorks provides an additional
set of functions to Draw - it isn't a
J fry.
Q
Top T 9 from our RAO d*p»on*m
Con** • ch««M m*k«t »n oxetitne
tubttftuto for grout whon re-oftn* *
bathroom.
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Figure 11: Top Tips
complete vector art package in its
own right. Nevertheless, these
functions range from the trivial to
the impressive, and by making use of
the Draw interface, iSV can guarantee
a certain amount of familiarity with
the way the software can be expected
to work.
Running Draw with DrawWorks
loaded produces
an additional
toolbar (Figure I)
at the top of the
window.
This toolbar
disappears when
the input focus is
in another application's window, and
if you move or resize the Draw
window, the toolbar hovers in its
original place for a while and then
jumps to the new position.
This is hardly a problem, but can
be a little disconcerting at first, and
emphasises the parasitical
relationship between DrazvWorks and
its host, Drazv. Happily, though, the
toolbar can be dragged away from
the main Drazv window if required.
Toolbars and tools
DrazvWorks splits its functions into a
number of principle areas: File, View,
Text Style, Object
Style, Grid
Settings, Select and pj| e
Edit, and a couple
of special ones I'll
describe later. The
top row of the
DrazvWorks toolbar
is used to navigate
between these
areas, whereas the
bottom row features the actual
functions in each. Sensibly, the
bottom row features a horizontal
scrollbar to allow access to buttons
that don't fit into the window
you're using. Many of the functions
to which DrazvWorks provides toolbar
access are functions of Drazv itself -
but having a simple system to get at
quickly with the mouse can be
extremely useful.
DrazvWorks' Select and Edit
toolbar provides shortcuts for
copying, grouping, interpolating,
and adjusting the stacking order of
any selection you've made, allows
quick access to line editing functions
(change line to a curve for instance),
and allows certain operations to be
undone.
It would be useful if the toolbar
greyed-out functions that aren't
available in the current context.
Similarly, many of DrazvWorks' path
editing buttons, such as the (very
useful) ability to enter the X,Y co-
ordinates of a point, cannot operate
when creating a path, only when
editing it subsequently. This is a
minor user-interface niggle, but
would help with the responsiveness
of the package as a whole.
There are other quirks to
DrazvWorks' user interface - not least
of which is the 'Top Tip' the package
provides on startup (although this,
thankfully, can be turned off). The
File toolbar, which provides access to
DrawWorks file importer
Drop file here...
Figure III: The file import mechanism
import and export features, includes
an 'Insert Named File' button to
allow non-drag-and-drop insertion of
elements to a page, which would
appear to be contrary to the typical
November 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com
Original Image Saved as a Sprite
Figure IV: The results of exporting as an anti-aliased sprite
RISC OS ethic (although Edit has it
too) - it's nevertheless a feature
which works very successfully,
should anyone want to use it.
Import and export
The toolbar provides a convenient
way of importing foreign file formats
into Draw, through the use of an
additional dialog window for drag-
and-drop purposes. It's a somewhat
non-standard method, as dropping
documents into the main window
would be the conventional way of
achieving the desired result, and all
this further underlines the status of
DrawWorks as an add-on to an
existing program.
That said, it's hardly a great
inconvenience for being able to
achieve easy file import without
needing programs such as ImageFS,
and works very well for most of the
formats it claims to. I had no
problems importing TIFFs, WMFs or
BMPs this way. I did, however,
struggle greatly with the import of
anything beyond the simplest of EPS
files (even ones Artworks manages to
cope with).
Some files rendered correctly,
while reporting an error, and other
files rendered incorrectly, or not at all
- regardless of whether the EPS
included a preview image or not.
However there is a patch on iSV's
Website that improves EPS import
and export.
Sadly, DrawWorks' EPS export
HIM
CMYK:
S
a
m
Cyan
Key
*-»! - I
Magenta
facility is also
troubled. It's a
great shame about
that, as the ability
to deal with EPS
images would
initially have
appeared to be
one of DrawWorks '
great strengths.
EPS files are a
standard way of
delivering vector
images from one
package or
platform to
another - although they come more-
or-less in just as many varieties as
there are packages which handle
them.
I tested an EPS exported from
DrawWorks in a number of Windows
applications (perhaps a Mac would
have been a more useful real-world
test of this, however), and some
packages coped well, others didn't.
FreeHand and Flash rendered the file
admirably, PageMaker gave up and
just displayed the dreaded grey box
(indicating that it couldn't build a
successful preview image), and
Ghostscript failed altogether,
reporting errors in the PostScript
code.
The patch to DrawWorks available
from the iSV Products Website was
unable to help with the files I tried,
unfortunately.
iSV say that this problem is not
theirs, the output is based on
Adobe's own documentation but
there have been undocumented
changes in the various target
applications. What's certainly the
case, is that DrawWorks suffers from
the same problem Artworks does, in
that its EPS export facility doesn't
ever include a preview image within
the file. DrawWorks contains tools to
allow the creation of sprites, GIFs
and JPEGs from any selection on the
canvas. Sprites and GIFs can be anti-
aliased (JPEGs sadly can't), but it's
first necessary to drop down to a
256-colour screen mode to achieve
this - images acquire
a strange yellow hue
if you don't.
Certain colours
respond very poorly
□1
□*
□*
oft
oft
oft
Black
SDU Ladder SDU Swirl _
Figure V: CMYK and Spot colour separations windows
t&Jxl Named Spot Colours
1 1 l e n rTJ T mJ - f i' uvc?
D
SDU Swirl
SDU Swirl (90%)
SDU Swirl (80%)
SDU Swirl (70%)
SDU Swirl (60%)
SDU Swirl (50%)
SDU Swirl (40%)
SDU Swirl (30%)
SDU Swirl (20%)
SDU Swirl (10%)
SDU Ladder
SDU Ladder (90%)
SDU Ladder (80%)
SDU Ladder (70%)
SDU Ladder (60%)
SDU Ladder (50%)
SDU Ladder (40%)
SDU Ladder (30%)
SDU Ladder (20%)
SDU Ladder (10%)
Figure VI: Auto-generated tints of named colours
to this approach - Figure IV shows
the result on two test images. The
girl's green face is an artefact of the
dithering required for a 256-colour
image.
Because Draio can't edit bitmap
images, except for scaling and
rotating effects, DrawWorks
conveniently introduces a bitmap
OLE (Object Linking and
Embedding) tool. Any sprite image
selected when using the tool is
exported to Paint or, with a bit of
preferences jiggery-pokery. Photodesk
- and when returned retains its
original position, scale and rotation
(this will soon work for JPEGS as
well).
This is a strong feature for an
illustration program, and emphasises
the way in which RISC OS
applications can be expected to work
happily alongside each other.
Colour editing
DrawWorks provides an excellent
range of colour generation, selection
and manipulation tools in its own
special toolbar, that push this
application into the Actually Very
Useful category. To begin, the
program comes with a set of colours
named PureTint pre-installed -
colours which bear an uncanny
resemblance to Pantone, without any
noticeable trademark infringement.
A very happy coincidence indeed.
The application also provides a
straightforward method of
introducing named colours to Draw,
any of which can be treated as an
individual spot colour. Sadly,
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
Original
Colour Balanced
Figure VIII: Printing on tinted stock
PureTint colours don't seem to
respond as spot colours which would
initially have appeared to be their
primary use - however there would
be a silly increase in separations if
the colours overlapped.
Nonetheless, DrawWorks can
create new named colours from a
selection (and, very usefully,
generate 10% tints of such colours
automatically), creating spot colours
from a specific PureTint tone is made
easy, allowing PureTint tones to be
used for more general colour
purposes.
Although DrawWorks refers to
named colours as 'Named (Spot)
Colours', it doesn't seem to be the
On Tinted Stock
On Tinted Stock
case that named colours have to be
treated as spot colour separations.
The application provides two
methods of generating separation
files - as standard CMYK
components, or as spot colour
separations. Named colours appear
in both, but only named colours can
appear in the latter.
The separations thus generated
appear in their own pseudo-filer
window, and thoughtfully the
software allows grey component
compensation - meaning that the
muddiness that can occur when
equal values of cyan, magenta and
yellow are combined is largely
avoided.
I re-coloured a simple logo design
using PureTint colours, and only the
black lines of the swirl produced a
spot colour separation. Converting
from the PureTint colours to named
colours produced both CMYK and
spot colour separations properly
(Figure V), and Figure VI shows the
resultant new named colours. These
colours, incidentally, are stored
within the application itself, rather
than on a file-by-file basis, meaning
that any named colours you define
can be transferred to other files with
supreme ease.
Further colour tools include the
ability to adjust the contrast,
brightness and tint of any selection,
including the ability to colour an
entire selection as tints of a further
colour. There's also a few bizarre
options available as standard (tinting
a selection to seemingly-random
PureTint tones, or psychedelic
colours, for example), but in general
all these tools work magnificently -
and work on non-JPEG bitmaps too,
such that ArtWorks - like contone
effects can be achieved with ease
even on non-greyscale bitmaps. I
wouldn't recommend random
colours on a bitmap, though.
Figure VII shows a few
transformations applied to the same
logo. Happily, the Undo function
seems to work on all of these tools -
allowing for easy experimentation
with settings - unless you're
transforming a bitmap, which
probably has everything to do with
the complexity of such an operation
and the size of Draiv's undo buffer.
Not so happily, the program
consistently decides to de-select any
objects to which a transformation is
applied, meaning that multiple
transformations require re-selecting
everything. Again, this is hardly a
big deal - but it could eventually
prove to be infuriating.
Special features
The package offers a method of
simulating the results of printing
objects on coloured paper, together
with a simple technique for
The Original Logo
As a 60% Tint
With CMYK Balance As Tints of a PureTone
Figure VII: Some colour transformations
V November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
rn
Business and Utilities
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166.32
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31.50
116.32
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HTML Edit 4
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28.79
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27.00
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54.70
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66.96
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13.73
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50.53
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52.87
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50.00
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42.30
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UC TTTiTWrr
DrawWorks
infoemxtan
Style Number 018
| Make these settings transparent
Name
New Style 18
Font
Celery. (Rcgubr)
S
Sire
14
Height
14
Colour
■Msl
Background
t
(• PureTnt D Named J RGB/CMYK
Transformation Matrix
A=
0.961090 B=
0.276229 i
Change to jE
C=
-0.27622 D-
01961090
E=
0 F=
0
J Make these settings transparent
e Changes j
Figure IX: The text style definitions window
compensating the colours of the
objects so that they retain their
original tones on such paper (as
much as is possible). Figure VIII
shows this in action.
Unfortunately because Draw can't
compensate well for the difference
between screen representation of
CMYK colourspace and the real
thing, it's always possible that the
end result would suffer a marked
difference in colour from the screen
appearance.
A further boon to Draw users is the
incorporation of text styles, which can
be defined from the current selection,
and applied to any subsequent text
object. The style system even accounts
for shape transformations such as
rotation and scaling (although the
syntax for manually defining these
could take some learning). There are
also tools for applying kerning to any
selection of text, and to generate a
text spiral - which to create by hand
would be a chore of the highest
magnitude.
In that vein, DrawWorks offers a
great many distortion and
transformation features through its
DrawWorks Millennium 'Special'
toolbar. Instant drop-shadows can be
added to a selection - including floor
shadows and 'in the air' shadows -
although the shadows thus
generated don't have soft edges.
That's hardly surprising, but if the
program were able to achieve this
with the ease it currently offers, it
would be worth the asking price
alone. Well, nearly, anyway.
The bulk of the Special toolbar is
dedicated to the purpose of
distorting objects according to
defined, and definable, parameters.
Objects can be moulded along a
path, subjected to 3D
transformations (such as being
projected onto a sphere), scrunched,
curved, mirrored, distorted to a
bump map, and generally beaten
senseless in the name of design.
Figures X and XI show a couple of
the effects easily applied this way. These
features are a great strength of the
package, and offer a degree of flexibility
and experimentation hard to beat.
The verdict
Although graphics professionals
would be by-and-large disappointed
with the limitations of the
package imposed
by its reliance
DrawWorks offers to make use of
Draw just that little bit more
enjoyable, more productive, and
frankly more of a viable proposition.
In combination with something
such as ArtWorks, DrawWorks could
come into its own. Its distortion and
colour toning capabilities are very
useful additions to your repertoire,
and the application provides enough
features that ArtWorks doesn't to
make it a sound investment.
There's no doubt that the package
represents phenomenal value for
money, especially when you consider
the extra software, and the huge
number of fonts, supplied with the
core program. User interface irritants
and troublesome features aside, this
new version of DrawWorks
has much to recommend it. L=L£l£?
on Draw (an
abomination of a path
editor, weak undo
capabilities and complete lack of
screen anti-aliasing - none of it
DrawWorks ' own fault), together with
frustration at some of the features of
the program that fail to work
correctly in many places, such as the
export of EPS files or bitmap images,
there's enough in this package that
delivers interesting and useful results
to make it worthwhile.
If you simply need a program for
illustration purposes on a more
occasional basis, there's plenty that
Figure XI: Logo replicated a few
times (another tool), and bent
along a circular path. Alternate
logos had the 'swap red and green’
colour effect applied.
Product details
Product:
DrawWorks Millennium
Price:
Normal price £61.50, current
offer price £46.60
Supplier:
iSV Products, 86 Turnberry,
Home Farm, Bracknell,
Berkshire, RG12 8ZH
Tel:
01344 455769
E-mail:
a timbrell@aol .com
Web:
http:/ / members.aol.
com/isvproduct/
IFEL
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Other drive sizes available. Part
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In order to use an IDE drive, the A3000, A3010, A300 and 400/1 machines require an IDE interface (i/f).
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An IDE interlace suitable for most of the
above drives can be purchased for only
£29.37 when bought with one of the above
drives. Larger units (>500Mb) may require
partitioning software when used on pre-
RISC PC machines. Please phone for
details. A mounting bracket is an additional
£1.76. Example price: 40Mb Seagate with
interface and mounting bracket £42.88.
Various
Various Cont.
1 Mb A30 1 0 computer
£125.00
Backplane A7000
£45.82
Hewlett Packard SVGA monitor
£65.00
Rise PC PSU (Second user)
£70.50
Both the above, only
£150.00
Alsystems SCSI 2 card
£111.62
Strong ARM inc R03.7
£273.77
PC Keyboard
£17.62
170Mb Hard Disc for A3 10
£81.07
Keyboard encoder A300- A4000
£45.82
l-2Mb A3010
£17.62
PLCC extraction tool
£2.35
4Mb A3000 ram upgrade
£23.50
ROM extractor tool
£2.35
A3000 PSU
£17.62
56K modem
£69.32
400/1 -Rise PC floppy drive
£23.50
Fan kit (300 scries)
£8.22
Mouse A300-Risc PC
£14.10
Fan filters (pack of 5)
£3.52
Mouse A7000/A7000+
£17.62
486 clip-on cooling fan
£7.05
RISC OS 3.11
£29.37
Dongle Dangle
£7.05
RISC OS 3.70
£45.82
VIDC (New)
£34.07
RISC OS carrier board A300/400 £11.75
VI DC (Second user)
£8.22
Input/Output (I/O) card
£34.07
IOC (Second user)
£8.22
A5000 2-4Mb ram upgrade
£23.50
ARM3 25Mhz
£57.57
Backplane for Rise PC
£34.07
540Mb 3.5" SCSI drive
£58.75
Tel. (01752) 777106. Fax (01752) 777830.
email: sales.ifeI@argonet.co.uk Web: http://www.argonet.co.uk/ifel
L ast month, we saw how virtual
functions were used to achieve
run-time polymorphism, or
what is known as "late
binding". This is opposed to normal
"early binding" - events and function
calls which occur at compile-time.
Virtual functions give greater
flexibility, because the object type to
be called is not resolved until run-
time. You might recall that we
handle virtual functions via a base
class pointer, and that the function to
be called is governed by the type of
object it points to (which may be a
derived type). Because this can't
always be assessed at compile time,
the object-function link must be
made at run-time.
Virtual functions allow the
programmer to define from a single
foundation class, a "chain" of
derived class types which can all be
accessed as if they were equivalent
(Figure I). This is a direct application
of the "one interface, multiple
methods" philosophy of OOP which
is used in a moment for the project.
Pure virtual functions
It is often the case that we don't need
to access the base class, and that it is
used as a template for subsequently
derived types, each with their own
redefinition of virtual functions. To
ensure that all derived classes do
provide their own version, we use a
pure virtual function within the base
class. It has no definition, just the
prototype and parameter list. Here is
an example:
class base
{
public:
virtual void check (int value )=0;
class tens : public base
{
int n;
public:
void check (int value)
{ if (value>n)printf( "greater than\n"); }
}?
To declare a virtual function as pure,
we add "=0" to the end of the
Greg Scott continues
his foray into OO
programming
interface —
abstract base
virtual functions)
derived layer 1
derived layer 3
Figure l : A common interface to derived class types
function prototype. If we hadn't
provided a new version of checkO in
the tens class, a compile-time error
would have resulted.
Because the base class contains a
pure virtual function, we call it an
abstract class. Instances of an abstract
class can't be created because pure
virtual functions do not have
function definitions. However,
pointers and references to an abstract
class are allowed, and by reassigning
pointers to derived objects, run-time
polymorphism is achieved.
Project Matrix
Our project is a Matrix Class Library
in C++. C++ lacks any native
support for matrices whatsoever, so
it make sense to account for them.
Matrices are used in many scientific
fields, from fluid dynamics to
population modelling. Although a
description of a matrix was given in
the earlier stages of development
(found on past coverdiscs). Figure II
illustrates some of the basics.
So, on to the system design of
things. At this stage we must
consider the objects which we shall
use to represent different entities
within our library. Square Matrices -
where the number of columns and
rows is the same - are
most common, but we
must allow facilities for
extending classes to
cater for individual
needs.
Our class structure
will eventually follow
the diagram shown in
Figure III. All class
types will be derived
from the abstract matrix
class. By using this
derived layer 2
. 2 o \ 2 x 2 matrix
* 0 2
. 0 \ 2 x 1 matrix
( 2 )
matrix types (rows x columns)
/ 3 1\ / 2 0 \ / 5 1\
<1 3 + 0 2 = 1 5
addition (add corresponding elements)
( 3 1 )x( 2 °)=( 6 2 )
'1 3' 'Q 2 '2 6'
multiply (times row by column)
Figure II: Simple matrix operations
system of inheritance, all classes
within the library belong to a single,
root interface, so run-time
polymorphism can easily be
facilitated.
You will also notice the inclusion
of the coordinate derived types.
Matrices by themselves cannot be
used to great effect, they can only
alter and operate on themselves. To
make proper use of matrices, we
need to incorporate external data.
Commonly, particularly in
mathematics, matrices are used in
conjunction with coordinates in two
or three dimensional space.
Readers of the old *Info pages
should remember countless graphical
demos making use of matrices in this
way, and we shall do the same. Two
dimensional coordinates are treated
as 2 x 1 matrices, and three
dimensional coordinates as 3 x 1 (see
Figure IV).
Let's take our first look at some
real working source code. We'll start
with the definition of the abstract
matrix class.
class matrix
{
protected:
/ November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
OOP
float xl,yl;
char *name;
public:
matrix() { name=0; } // name to 0,
no name.
virtual display_as_text ( ) =0 ;
virtual inputtextvalues ( ) =0 ;
name_it(char *str){ name=str; }
}?
The first thing to notice about this
base class is that no elements are
declared as private. This should, by
now, make perfect sense - private
elements are not directly available to
a derived class.
The variables *2,1/1 and name are
the three protected members of the
matrix class. These variables will be
found in all subsequent derivations,
which implies that all matrix types
will have at least two elements and a
naming facility. Notice the use of
floating point variables.
The public functions laid out by
the base class act as an interface to
programs making use of the matrix
library. A simple constructor is
included to act as a default for later
classes - some readers may have
questioned the role of a constructor
function within an abstract class
(instances of which cannot be
created).
The two pure functions are used
to display and change each of the
values of the matrix. They are
declared as pure (with no definition)
because at this stage the size or
content of the matrix is not declared,
so no provisions for input or output
can possibly be made. The thing to
appreciate is that by declaring the
functions at the base of the structure,
all following class types will make
use of these function names - a re-
occurrence of the one interface,
multiple methods philosophy.
The last function declared is used
abstract base
4,2
(!)
V 2 >
2-D coordinate
2 x 1 matrix
, o
2,4,12
3-D coordinate
4 )
'12'
3 x 1 matrix
two X
arrow indicates derivation
three x thiree
derived types
four x four
Figure IV: Coordinate
and Matrix equivalents
Figure III: Class structure for the Matrix Class Library
to name the matrix itself, a feature
which could be helpful if the library
were used, say, in a teaching
environment.
Before considering the next layer
in the class structure, C++'s input
and output facilities must be
explained, because the library will
make used of them.
C++ I/O
Without spending too much time on
the subject, C++ I/O is based around
streams. Streams were used to an
extent in C, to distinguish between
types of input and output. C++ uses
streams to achieve all interfacing -
file, keyboard - any input and
output devices.
For text I/O, we must make use of
the cout and tin functions, both
defined in the iostream.h header
(which is now included in our source
code) these make use of operator
overloading to provide an elegant
interface. The logical shift operators
'«' and '»' are overloaded for
output and input respectively. Here
are some output examples:
cout « "Hello, Acorn World!";
Writes 'Hello, Acorn World!' on
screen
cout « "00P\nArticle number 5";
The \n adds a new line.
cout « "Text can be " « "Separated";
Writes 'Text can be Separated'.
The overloaded shift operator
makes this new form of output far
easier to comprehend than the old
printf() method. To output the
contents of a variable we need only
specify its name instead of string
constants:
cout « "The variable value was " « n;
Input is achieved using cin and the
opposite shift operator:
cin » xl;
Gets a value (after enter is pressed),
stores in xl.
cin » x » y;
Gets two values, stored in x then \j.
This is a much more attractive
method than the C's scanfO
implementation. It used to be that
the address of a variable was
required for input. The new
characteristics of C++ means there
are now ways around this syntax.
The Matrix Class Library will not
use more complicated forms
of text input and output.
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
O ne of Irlam Instruments'
recent releases is a sound
sampler, called il6. It fills a
gap for those who want this
facility, but do not need anything as
comprehensive as Irlam's
video/audio product 24il6. It
comprises an expansion card plus
software on floppy disc, and can be
used to save analogue sounds from
any normal stereo or mono source,
such as CD players, radios,
microphones and computer sound
outputs.
It can also handle digital audio
(from DAT recorders for instance),
and will run in Rise PC, A7000,
A5000, and A300/400/500 machines
with RISC OS 3.10 or later. Minimum
system requirements are 2Mb RAM
and a harddisc. Captured sound
samples can be stored as Wave files
or in Replay format.
Like all Irlam products, il6 is easy to
install and use. It has an on-screen
manual, currently being expanded - the
Figure I: Settings for a sampling
run in the Audio Choices window
tiny screen text is unreadable, but any
or all of its pages can be printed out to
A4. Limited space on the expansion
card dictated 3.5mm stereo sockets for
analogue input and output, and an
additional socket is provided for the
computer's headphone output.
Phono sockets are used for digital
input and output signals. A MIDI
connector is provided for a possible
future expansion, but has no function
at present. Mono inputs are accepted
from the left channel only, but play
back through both channels.
il6 has two windows, shown here.
One handles various options, and the
other collects the sound samples. The
first, headed 'Audio Choices', has
sliders to adjust the signal levels for
recording and playback modes
separately. Above each slider is a
stereo balance control.
The sampling format can be
chosen from 16-bit linear, 8-bit linear
or 8-bit logarithmic. 16-bit is the
industry standard, used in CDs and
DAT recordings. 8-bit linear gives
audibly poor sound, but needs only
half the memory. 8-bit logarithmic
takes the same memory as 8-bit
linear, but gives better sound quality.
Sampling for quality
The fidelity of the recorded sound
depends on the sampling rate, which
is the number of times per second
that the sound wave amplitude is
measured. A well-established rule
states that the sampling rate must be
at least twice the highest frequency
to be sampled, for accurate
reproduction. This applies to random
noise, but music may contain steady
tones, which theoretically require
sampling at three times their
maximum frequency.
The industry standard rate is
44,100 per second, which allows
frequencies up to 14.7KHz to be
rendered precisely. With a maximum
sampling rate of 50,000, il6 can
handle 16.7KHz, giving excellent
sound reproduction. In fact only a
LV November 1999 blip //vnvvw m omusrr « om
Figure II: A
recording in
progress, showing
left and right
waveforms. Note
the small white
'peak program
meters'.
Photo: The H6
expansion card, resting
on a score of Max
Reger's Phantasie und
Fuge Op29 for organ.
This piece, and other
genres, were used in the
H6 listening tests.
(Photo: Trevor Attewcll)
very few youngsters can hear tones
above about 18KHz.
In il6 the rate can be selected
either by dragging a slider, or by
selecting it from a menu. In the latter
case the choice is made either by
clicking on a number, or by
selecting a named source, such as
Voice' or 'CD'.
It is tempting to use the highest
rate for everything, but that
demands about 200K of harddisc
space per second, and would be
wasted on speech, for example. The
second window has a display similar
to that of an oscilloscope, showing
Trevor Attewell
makes some
7 6-bit sounds
the incoming left and right sound
waveforms. Two small indicators, on
one edge of the display, follow the
peak positive and negative
waveform levels very rapidly, but
fall back slowly. They make it easier
to avoid clipped peaks, which might
result in distortion.
Below the window a red bar
indicates the length of a recording in
progress. The precise timing is
shown separately in minutes and
seconds. Above and below the red
bar are black lines which can be
dragged to limit the recording, or the
playback, to any chosen start and/or
end point. There are also nudge
buttons which can be used to make
fine adjustments.
These timing additions appeared in
the latest version 1.03, reviewed here.
They make it possible to define the
desired sample accurately from a
longer section saved previously. Under
this window are the usual controls,
Stop, Play, Pause and Record.
But how's the sound?
Sound cards in a computer are subject
to noise pickup, some from the mains,
and a lot more from high-speed
digital signals, especially in Rise PCs
with StrongARM, as used for this
review. il6 is built on a four-layer
board, with separate analogue and
digital copper screens between layers.
This improves quality on unscreened
cards, but cannot be a complete cure.
Experimenting with the layout of
external cables may also help.
Finally, for those who like to see
actual measurements, the overall
frequency response relative to OdB at
lKHz was -lOdB at 20Hz, -3dB at
50Hz and -1.8dB at 20KPIz. Noise
was better than -50dB at the
standard output of lmW into
600 ohms. LaZED
Product details
Product: il6
Price: £149 + VAT (£3.50 p&p)
Supplier: Irlam Instruments Ltd, Brunei
Science Park, Brunei
University, Kingston Lane,
Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PQ
Tel/Fax: 01895 811401
E-mail: sales@irlam.co.uk
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999 k.
Mercurial
messenger
A lthough the RISC OS platform
is not exactly renowned for its
widespread support of all the
latest Internet standards, one
area in which it has always fared
surprisingly well is its e-mail and
newsgroup-handling software.
One of the earliest pieces of really
comprehensive and well-written
Internet software for RISC OS was
Neivsbnse, the freeware e-mail and
news database application which for
a long time formed the backbone of
most users' e-mail setups.
Ncwsbase, though, only stored the
messages themselves; in order to
actually read them, you needed a
newsreader application. There were a
few of these, but the best was
undoubtedly Messenger, which was
one of the most professional-looking
pieces of free software ever to grace
the RISC OS platform.
If, like me, you are one of those
people who considers Messenger a
favourite piece of software, then
prepare yourself for a new favourite,
because Messenger Pro is finally here.
And if you're not one of those
people, it's about time you checked
this software out.
Getting going
Let's start with the bad news.
Messenger Pro is now a commercial
product which, surprisingly enough,
means that you have to pay money
for it. Luckily, you get a lot for your
money. What's really remarkable to
my mind is that Messenger was ever
free in the first place.
I started off by talking about
Neivsbnse, and that was important
because Messenger used to rely on it.
However, one of the most significant
improvements in Messenger Pro is
that Neivsbase is no longer needed.
Messenger Pro can now do all the
work of filtering and storing
messages itself, so not only does that
make for a tidier solution, but it also
allows Messenger Pro to offer a
Richard Hallas
reviews the
commercial
release of
Messenger Pro
number of facilities that weren't
previously possible, such as editing
queued messages directly.
On the other hand, if you're a
long-term Neivsbnse user with a
sprawling e-mail setup that you
don't want to be forced to change,
Messenger Pro can carry on using
Neivsbnse instead of its own database
system. Messenger Pro now comes on
a single floppy disc in a standard
R-Comp plastic wallet with lo-tech
packaging and a brief printed guide.
This explains how to install the
software, and the basics of its use,
but the main online documentation
is provided in StrongHelp format and
is one of Messenger's great strengths.
With software as complex as
Messenger Pro, it's not reasonable to
expect to master (or indeed even use)
every facility from the start, but each
dialogue window in the program has
a little blue information icon, and
clicking this opens the appropriate
page in StrongHelp. This online help
is both comprehensive and
comprehensible, which is an
admirable combination. The fact that
it's also hot-linked to exactly where
it's needed makes it indispensable,
and means that you can learn about
Messenger Pro as you use it.
Messenger Pro works with all RISC
OS Internet software packages, so it
doesn't matter whether you have the
ANT Internet Suite, Voynger, Termite or
a set-up based on freeware software.
Installation is a delightfully simple
operation (particularly so given the
inherent complexity of Internet
software). You do need to read and
follow the installation guide, but the
process has been made about as
automatic as possible.
Many users will previously have
used Neivsbnse, and if a Neivsbnse
set-up is present. Messenger Pro will
allow you to use it. Moreover, if
you decide that you want to use
Messenger Pro's own database
functions instead of Neivsbnse, then it
Threads: Messenger Pro's ability to group related messages
into threads, and handle them in a helpful way, is second to none
^ November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
Com ms
Tip for ANT users
If you want to use Messenger Pro with the ANT Suite instead of Marcel , you'll
also want to set up your software so that Messenger Pro is launched when you
double-click on the E-mail & News icon in the ANT front-end. It's easy to do
this.
Find the UnetSuite application on your harddisc, and Shift+double-click it
to open it up. Look inside the Internet directory, then inside Files, and find a
text file called UnetPanel. Make a backup copy, just in case. Now load
UnetPanel into a text editor; you'll see an entry for each of the icons in the
front-end window. Simply edit the mail&news line so that it points to
Messenger Pro rather than Marcel . In my version of the file, the line reads:
mail&new BOOT InetApps :Apps. Tools. ! Messenger
(The BOOT bit is optional, and just means that Messenger Pro's IBoot file is
executed when the ANT Suite starts up.) Resave the file, quit and reload the
ANT Suite, and you should find that you have a convenient short-cut to
Messenger Pro.
is able to import your entire
collection of e-mail and news
messages as part of the installation
process. So, both the installation and
the transition to a new system are
made only minimally painful, and
this ease of installation is something
that counts very strongly in
Messenger Pro's favour.
Untangling the string
Messenger Pro is a multi-user system,
and very powerful. Even if there's
only one of you, having multiple e-
mail identities can be useful, and
clearly a multi-user system is very
helpful in a classroom environment.
(Educational users may also like to
know that an online version of
Messenger Pro is available at a small
extra cost).
If all you want is a single e-mail
address, though, you can forget that
the multi-user facilities are there, as a
default user is set up as part of the
installation process. Regardless of
whether you set up multiple users,
you can also create archive groups for
backing up messages of your choices,
or for keeping archives of e-mails from
mailing lists or whatever.
Once you're set up, it's time to
open a group of messages. The
presentation of Messenger Pro's
windows is very attractive and
helpfully laid out, and the
comprehensive button bars have
brief online help to remind you what
everything does. Icons indicate the
status of messages (read, unread,
deleted, for attention, replied to,
attachments included), and there are
many viewing and sorting options,
all of which can be fully customised
for each group (be it e-mail or news).
One of Messenger Pro's great
strengths, though, is its handling of
article threads. If you're not familiar
with this concept, it relates to
messages on the same subject, where
someone has started a discussion
and other users have replied to it at
different times. Messenger Pro
handles such threading superbly. It
collapses all messages relating to
each subject into a single line, so that
all you see initially is the name of the
topic (along with the number of
messages relating to it).
Double-click on the entry and it
opens up to show all the messages in
the thread, and each one is indented
to an appropriate level so you can see
at a glance which of them relate to
each other. Superb. Also, when
reading any message, a pop-up menu
shows exactly which other references
and replies relate to the current
message, allowing you to navigate
between them easily. This is all
excellent stuff, and makes Messenger
by far the best threaded newsreader
I've ever used.
In a vaguely similar vein, the
display of the messages themselves is
very helpful because you can view
text quoted from other messages in a
variety of colours. This is excellent for
distinguishing who's saying what in a
heavily-quoted section of text.
Messenger Pro also supports Jonathan
Duddington's Speak, and can read
different quoting levels in different
voices. Headers, signature and URL
information within messages is also
shown in different colours - URLs can
be launched with a single click.
Messages can be bounced,
forwarded, archived off to folders,
dragged out to other applications,
read aloud and otherwise
manipulated. The only major action
which is not part of Messenger Pro is
the actual editing process when
creating or replying to messages. As
with most other RISC OS newsreaders
(except Pluto) this is left to the user's
personal choice of external editor. I
favour Zap with Darren Salt's HTML
mode, but some users prefer StrongEd.
Once you've written a message and
are ready to send it, Messenger Pro
offers spell-checking facilities, and
will also (optionally) warn you if you
have broken any 'netiquette'
protocols. If you want to attach files to
your message, just drag them to the
same window where you enter the
message subject and recipients.
Messenger Pro can handle messages in
MIME and UUencoded formats.
What's the score?
One of the most innovative things
about Messenger Pro is its concept of
scoring rules. The idea is that
messages can be given priorities
according to a set of rules that you
define; so, if you know that e-mails
from a particular individual require a
more urgent reply than e-mails from
other people, you can set things up
so that that person's e-mails appear
first, for example.
Scoring rules can be quite
complex, and can be used in
combination with threaded displays
(each thread receiving the total score
value of the messages within it), so
you could theoretically perform
simple automated e-mail surveys by
setting up a few scoring rules and
leaving Messenger Pro to do the hard
work. It's a fairly complex system,
and not for the faint-hearted but
powerful. (Daunted users can safely
ignore it.)
Along similar lines. Messenger Pro
also offers message filtering if you
use its own internal database system.
(Newsbase offers similar facilities if
that's what you use). This allows
messages to be killed before they're
even read, or siphoned off into more
appropriate archive groups. Filtering
is quite powerful, but if all you want
to do is send messages from a
particular address to a particular
archive folder. Messenger Pro has a
built-in mailing list facility which is
easier to use.
Shortcomings
Currently Messenger Pro has a small
number of shortcomings, although
none are serious. For instance, while
the status icons alongside e-mail
messages are very helpful, I find
them quite hard to distinguish from
one another; ironically, the older
icons used in the pre-Pro version of
Messenger were very much clearer,
and it's a shame that they weren't
retained. More seriously, the search
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
facilities are rather basic. What
happens is that you enter some
search criteria and a new message
group is created to contain the
results.
That's fine as far as it goes, but
there are two major limitations.
Firstly, the found messages are
aliases to the originals, and there's
no way to work on the originals
themselves.
While this avoids irretrievable
errors, it doesn't allow you to do
things like physically moving
messages between folders or deleting
unwanted messages. Secondly, you
can only search using one criterion at
a time, which is very limiting, and
there's no easy way to search for
outgoing e-mails to specific people,
because you can't search for the
recipient of a message.
Overall
So, should you buy Messenger Pro ? If
you only use freeware Internet
software, the answer is a definite yes,
because it's better than anything else
and isn't expensive. If you use a
commercial Internet suite you may
feel a bit cheesed off at having to pay
out again, but it's definitely worth it
in terms of price and performance.
ANT users in particular are
strongly advised to get Messenger
Pro , as the bundled newsreader,
Marcel , looks decidedly amateurish
by comparison. The only people who
should really hesitate are those users
who have already bought Jonathan
Duddington's e-mail /newsreader
package, Pluto.
Here, a cross-grade is probably
not worthwhile unless you need
specific facilities that Pluto doesn't
provide (I'll back that up, 1 use
Messenger Pro for work where I need
multiple identities, but for personal mail
I use, and prefer, Pluto - Ed).
To my mind, there is little
doubting that Messenger Pro is the
superior of the two products: Pluto
doesn't do "proper" thread-handling
and isn't a multi-user system. Also, it
doesn't offer Messenger Pro's
compatibility with existing Newsbase
setups. I've been using the latest Pro
version for several weeks, and the
earlier freeware version for years
before that, so I feel confident in
saying that the package is solid,
reliable and a delight to use.
Not only is it my favourite e-mail
package for RISC OS, but it's also the
best such package I've used on any
computer. If I had to choose between
Messenger Pro and, say. Outlook
Express, I know which I'd pick (and it
wouldn't be the Microsoft
offering).
Product details
Product:
Messenger Pro
Requires:
4Mb RAM (8Mb
recommended); RISC OS 3.1
or later; Internet connection
and appropriate software
Price:
Single user £30;
Online /network version £40;
Site/network licence £100;
Supplier:
R-Comp, 22 Robert Moffat,
High Legh, Knutsford,
Cheshire WA16 6PS
Tel:
(+44/0) 1925 755043
Fax:
(+44/0) 1925 757377
E-mail:
rcomp@rcomp.co.uk
Web:
http://www.rcomp.co.uk/
to Install and stra c
;• -Ml
* b J -
Mouse Interfaces, Trackballs etc
PS2Moum U*» PS/2 ffMca on your Rise OS machin# £24.95
PS2Mou»o+ With through port to kaep Acorn mo us* C39 95
Touchpad Mous* roplacomont. Ut* with PS2Mouso* r?9 9VC34 9'
Trackball Larg* hosvy boll. No Intorfoco • otuos stroloht ml £34.95
Mo u«t ball Roptocamont heavy mouse bs
RED HOT Networking.
Works with all machines fitted with a W-alrectional
para«el port (A30*0/A4000/A500Q'A4/A7000/RlscPC).
Implemented as a fling system for transparent
file-sharing across machines.
No need for cumbersome and slow transfer programs.
Topically achieves access speeds of well above
configure and it has worked wthout a
PhiRp Perry. Archive 12.10.
£29 95 with a RED WOfconnection cable, or £22.95
for the program alone.
Easy Sharing!
Game Interfaces, Joysticks etc.
PCJoy Analogue Joystick Interface gives you a gameport!
PC Phantom Joysftck for above (4* auto «re, throttle etc)
Ttgon A’.smarve Joystick for above.
Solo Booget jcytfcx interface for atari-stye dgltal sbeks.
Apache joystick for above (microswltchea)
Python Alternative tor above (non-microswttched)
Nlnterface |oypeda (single, double)
Obsolete Dri vere Olek tor old joysticka/Joypada etc
£39.95
£31 85
£21 95
£14 95
£9 95
£6 95
£23.95X31 .
£7.96
Access Products
Share devices between a RiscPC and PC using our
range of quality switches. All include cables.
Keyboard. PS/2 mouse and serial switch -«9.95
(Ideal If your monitor has two inputs)
15HD to 5xBNC monitor cable for above t' 9
Keyboard & Monitor switch £.3^
b Keyboard, Monitor and PS/2 mouse switch ^
Printer (1 machlne->2 devices) £.VJ- 9 ^
Printer (2 machlnes->1 device) £2^ ,9 °
Holdfast Joy pad Robust Joyped tor use vrfO Soto £24 95 Many c
Switch Input leadset tor Soto (emulate mouee-Veyboard) £9 93 details.
Keyawttcn* Switch keyboard replacement (advanced order) £49 95
Many other combinations are available • call for
Stuart Tyrrell Developments
PO Box 183, OLDHAM OL2 8FB
Tel: 01706 848 600 (9am-9pm)
Fax: 0870 164 1604 (national rate)
Email: lnfo@atdavel.demon.co.uk
http://www.atdevel.demon.co.uk
Phone, Fax or email for a
free product Information flyerl
All prices Include P&P
Delta/Vlaa/Maatercard welcomed.
All trademarka acknowleged. E&OE.
Supporting users in Central and North England
Saturday 20th November 1999
The National Motorcycle Museum,
Birmingham
Doors open from 10am until 4.30pm
Adults £2.50
ARM Club members £1.50
Children under 16 FREE (accompanied by an adult)
# Latest products + Charity Bring & Buy
• Special show discounts • Demo your programs
# Hobbyist/Games area # Meet fellow enthusiasts
(Refreshments available)
Free bus shuttle from train station
Phone: (01785) 714535
Email: ralph@armclub.org.uk
http://www.armclub.org.uk/shows/midlands
Century House
Market Street
Swavesey
Cambs. CB4 5QG
Tel/Fax 01954 208208
sales@eesox.com
o Eesox have some offers too good to miss...
CD-REWRITERS
CD-ROM DRIVES
DVD-RAM
SCSI CARD
GRAPHICS TABLET
AUDIO
SOFTWARE
HARD DRIVES
o
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o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
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o
o
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...so check out our web-site now...
www.eesox.com
Eesox SCSI
Card
£ 99.00
Incl. VAT
INTERNAL DVD-RAM
DRIVES NOW ONLY
£389.00
See our new web-site for details on all our products
I 32-bit MIDI Sequencer
Poworful
Flexfbjt ,
Easy to vsu drng & drop
CorrtroHtr maps (e.g.
tempo and volocity)
easily alterable by
drawing with tho mouse
Patterns enn be linked to
retlecit changes made to
other patterns
tfandleafeystem Exclusives
iiing playback
fap&fy nny MIDI
interfaco. including
parallel and serial
Up to 192 MIDI channels
and no track limit
Free demo disc available
Howavajlable - £129.00
Recent/New Releases
Abuse - £23.00
Descent CDs - £28.00
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 - £32.00
Heretic & Hexen CD - £32.00
OHP CD (Spacetech) - £28.95
Photodesk 3 - £279.95
Sunburst -£12.50
Syndicate Plus CD - £26.50
&TDK
Discs (example lOx while discs - £4,60. 50x block discs - £15,10,
5x HD red/blue/groon/whlle discs - £2.49)
8atterios (o g. 4x AA Xtrn alkaline - £2.t8. lx 9V alkaline - £1.04)
Audio & Video Tapes - EVarious
re
Recent
Desc
PU Heroes of M
a Heretic
OHP CD
Phot
Su
5* s
S . ''I Discs (example lOx whi
5x HD red/b
Batteries (e g. 4x AA Xt
Audio i
. * *‘* s
We supply a range of CCD Mi
and laser bar code scanners
and include with theso our AH
tBarReador driver softwaro
which allows bar codes to control
most dosktop software.
Furthor Information is available.
Complete systems from £t 97.03
:ontrol WL
able. S
17.03 *
A FREEPOST EH2725
g. ^ Kirkcaldy, Fife, KY2 5BR
United Kingdom
Tel: 01592 592265 Fax: 01592 596102
email: Liquid@cableinet.co.uk
http://vwvw.cybervillage.co.uk/acorn/liquid/
Our bar coding
software produces
vVJpr Draw tiles ot tho
following formats: EAN 8.
EAN 13. UPC A. ISBN. ISSN.
' Code 39 (Normal and Full
ASCII), Tolepcn and Binary.
Further information is available
IBnrCodcr- £69.33
Computer Systems
Those prices do not Include monitors.
unless specified.
Rise PC 8+OMb 2Gb HD - £879.00
Rise PC 32+2Mb 8Gb, DVD CD - £1089.00
Web Wizard - 32+2Mb. 8Gb HD. DVD CO drive,
speakers. Rcsultz, Ensiwritor Pro. 56K modem.
ANT Internet Suite with Java - £1220.00
A7000+ Odyssey CD - 16Mb, 4Gb. 40x - £655.00
A7000* Ody3soy Primary/Socondaty - 16Mb.
4Gb HD. 40x CD & software - £713.00
A7000+ Odyssey Surf - 24Mb, 4Gb. DVD CD.
56K modem. ANT Suite- £831.00
• Sprinter" NC system - lObascT. 16Mb,
14" monitor, keyboard & mouse - £444.00
MIcroDIgltal Mlco - From £596.00
niscsiotlon H7500I - From £675.00
Monitors
(Either bought with computer or separatoty):
iiyama 350(15")- £170.00
iiyama 403 (17") - £283.00
iiyama Pro 410 (17*)- £319.00
iiyama 450 (19')- £467.00
Iiyama Pro 450(19')- £483.00
iiyama 502 (2V) - £749.00
Iiyama Pro 51 0 (22") - £772.00
Iiyama Pro-Lite 36a 14.1 " LCD - £687.00
iiyama Pro-Lito 38a 15" LCD - £910.00
iiyama Pro-Lito 38b 15" LCD - £945.00
iiyama Pro-Lito 39a 15" LCD - £1599.00
iiyama Pro-Lite 46a 18" LCD - £2469.00
Touchscreen monitors coming soon -
please ask for further details
PC cards
5x86-100 with PC Pro 3 - £285 00
PC Pro 2- £38.95
PC Pro 3- £70.50
PC Sound Pro 2- £39.95
Win95FS - £39.95
Windows 98 CD -£100.00
Psion Series 5mx
16Mb, with PC connection kit - £429.95
Parallel link - £34.95
Memory Upgrades
Please call to check current prices.
Other upgrades are avaitabfo.
A3000 1-4 Mb - £64.60
A3010 1-4 Mb - £66.00
A3020/A4000 2*4 Mb - £49.00
A5000 2-4 Mb - £55.00
A 300, 400. 5000 4-8 Mb - £128.00
Rise PC/A7000 FP.M SIMMs:
Call lor EDO SIMM prices
16Mb- £26.60
32Mb (not original RPCs) - C49.75
32Mb (high clearance)- £73.50
64Mb - £79.85
128Mb -£180.00
1Mb VRAM- £45.00
1-2Mb VRAM swap- £55.00
2Mb VRAM- £92.00
Music & Sound Section
Please call for other musical items
MIDI interfaces:
DMI 50 dual MIDI card (2x2) - £119.95
DMI 50 XG - £259.95
XG upgrade for DMI 50 - £151.95
1 6-bit sampler for DMI 50 - £87.95
MIDI Max II internal 1x1x1 - £92.75
Parallel Port 1x1x1 - £89.20
Synth 8 or Basic Synth - £46 95
Synth Plus- £58.65
Music & Sound Prog. Guide - £16.95
Other hardware:
Fatar SL 760 - £450 00
Fatar SL 880 - £600.00
Fatar SL 1100 -£800.00
Fatar SL 2001 - £1050.00
Irlam i16 sound sampler - £1 18.00
Digital-upgraded Irlam sampler- £177X0
MIDI upgrade for Irtam sampler - £Call
Sound Byte Recorder - £57.50
Yamaha YST-M8 speakers - £45.50
YST412Q DSP opeakors - £65.75
YST-MS20 speakers & uubw.- £79.93
YST-M100 speakers - Cl 17.00
YST-MSW5 subwoofer - £59.00
YST-MSW10 subwoofer - C71.20
Yamaha MU10 sound module - £169.00
Other softwaro:
MediaPack- £23.95
MIDI Support- £10.50
Prosound - £116.95
Rhapsody *1 - £94.95
Junior Sibelius - £49.00
Sibelius 6- £99.95
Sibelius 7 Student - £319.95
Sibelius 7 £625.00
Sibelius tor Windows is also available
Optical Manuscnpt - £259.00
Sound module serial driver - £37.95
Studiosound -£116.95
Other Hardware
Dual last serial card - £90 00
Ethernet card (Combi NIC slot) - £1 16.30
Hard drives & kits - £Cal!
RPC second slice (no PSU) - £90.00
RISC OS 4 (fitting available) - £120.00
StrongARM upgrade - £275 00
Other Software
Ankh - £23.00
ANT Internet Suite 2 - Cl 12 00
Brulal Horse Power - £26.00
DataPower 2- £165.00
Doom-COs- £30.00
EasIV/riter Pro- £129.00
Empire Soccer 94 - £22.00
Exodus- £21.00
•« Frak - £14 95
Impression Style - £88.00
Impression Publisher - £135.00
Inferno - £9.50
iXRC - £14.99
Ovallon Pro - £150.50
Personal Accounts 3- £43 00
Photodesk Light - £125 00
Prophet 3 - Cl 60.00
Schema 2 -£116.00
Slouth 3 -£110.50
Textease- £54.50
TopModel2- £145 00
Books & Manuals
RISC OS 3 PRM - £104.00
ThoTekkicCO- £45.00
Catalogue
Our free catalogue contains over 2000
items. Please ask for a copy.
We will attempt to match or beat any advertised price - even special offers.
All prices INCLUDE VAT & UK carriage
Official orders and callers welcome. Finance available.
• Rise PC 700 (4 years old) 450Mb hard
drive, 20Mb RAM, std. monitor, BJC4100
colour printer, Irlam colour mobile
scanner, Impression, ArtWorks etc.
E-mail: charlescollis@hotmail.com
• For Sale, A3010 4MB, 80MB HD, 24X CD
ROM, HP 320 printer. No monitor. £200.
Tel: 01925 571203 (Warrington)
• Rise PC 600, 20+2Mb RAM, 540Mb HD,
AKF60, CD-ROM, ScanLight 256,
speakers, lots of software including
Ovation Pro, ArtWorks, Personal
Accounts 4, SimCity 2000, Exodus,
StarFighter 3000. £400. Tel: 01923 779141.
(Watford). Andy Dickson.
• Acorn Rise PC 600 system 16Mb RAM,
1Mb VRAM, 420Mb hard drive, 16bit
sound, 24xCDROM, 486sx33 PC card,
two slot backplane, AKF60 colour
monitor, all clean and faultless. £400 inc
P&P. Tel: 0151 677 9585
• Acorn User magazines plus some discs
from 1991 - any offers? 01548 843 852
(Devon)
# Acorn Master 512 computer with
monitor, discs and ROMs in good
working order, free to a good home.
Ring 0151 355 3855 (Cheshire)
• ARM 610 processor, £35. 32Mb NEC
SIMM £35; 200 HD Floppy discs pre-
labelled £55; Elite £25; Starfighter 3000
£25; Tel: Christian 01285 659782
A5000, Learning Curve software plus
Advance, Multiscan monitor. All
original manuals boxes etc. Excellent
condition. Also dot-matrix printer.
Offers. Telephone 01429 836372 or
e-mail: robert@vardill.demon.co.uk
• WANTED: HyperStudio, version 3
or later. Contact Alan at
alan@rileyave.freeserve.co.uk
• For sale: A5000, 40Mb HD, 4Mb RAM,
monitor, BJC 600 colour printer,
Scanlight hand-held scanner, 56k
modem, Impression, Eureka, Pipedream,
DrawWorks, games etc. Manuals, books
and magazines. All in very good
condition. Offers please. Tel: 0118 988
6391 (Reading)
• Artworks Clip-art 1 & 2, £25; Image
Outliner £20; 1st Word Plus £10; Genesis
Plus £10. Tel: Christian 01285 659782
• Rise PC 600 2-slice, 40+1MB RAM,
850MB & 1.7GB HDs, CD-ROM, RAPIDE
card, 5x86 100MHz PC card, 16bit sound
u/g, AKF60, speakers, parallel port zip
drive, lots of software inc. PcPro3,
Impression Publisher, Easy C++, Java,
games. £800 ono. Tel: Damian 01225
318584 or e-mail ee6dflg@bath.ac.uk
• A3010, Min colour monitor. Original
manuals, disks and boxes, including
Easiword word processor plus games.
Excellent condition. £150. Phone after
5pm (Birmingham).
• Sibelius 7 music processing software.
Latest version complete with manual,
keys trip. Exactly the same as a brand
new copy but half the price, £250
Steve (0113) 226 4912, Leeds.
• For sale: A5000 with 40Mb HD, Min
Acorn monitor + original software,
Impression Style & Lemmings 1 & 2.
Hewlett Packard Deskjet 500 mono
printer. The lot for £100 + postage.
Contact ianstuart@tesco.net
• Acorn A410, 4Mb RAM, colour monitor,
210Mb IDE HD, external CDROM,
Publisher, Speak etc. Good condition
with manuals + BJlOex printer. £100
E-mail: mark@kruspe.in2home.co.uk
(Carlisle)
• Holed Out Compendium, E-Type
Compendium, E-Type 2, Black Angel,
Virtual Golf, £15 each. Compendium:
ARCticulate speech, Cyber Chess,
Apocalypse, Aldebaran £20. Tel:
Christian 01285 659782
• FREE to anyone who will collect. Old
computers with monitors, discs,
software, books: BBC Master, Texas 99,
Sanyo, RM Nimbus. 01455 552250
(Leics, Ml junction 20) Foster.
• A5000 2Mb RAM, 80Mb HD, monitor,
Citizen Swift 200 colour DM printer:
£200 ex-carriage. Will deliver free within
100 miles of Lancaster. Tel: 01524 34600
(Lancaster) Robin, after 7:00pm
• BBC Master, manuals, monitor. Single
& double density disc drives, joystick,
boxed games. Mini Office II and
manuals, ViewSpell, OverView.
Assorted games, educational discs,
Beebug mags, blank discs. Reasonable
offers accepted.
• A5000 kit incl Min monitor,
80Mb+350Mb HD. All manuals, some
software, clip-art and freebies. Exc cond.
£250 ono. May deliver. Tel 01296 426684
(Aylesbury).
• A7000, 8Mb RAM 515Mb HD & CD-
ROM drive. AKF65 monitor, keyboard
and mouse, plus software: £250.
Tel: 01553 675339, after 7:00pm
- 62 „
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• A7 000, KiV
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Acorn User Free Ads Service
coinp
Pr. Man. CSi
:°n £20; Q4G
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* lots of soft 2
magazine discs, man?;',,'* 0 '
nal hnvttc r*? n* ... .
nal boxes. £700. TeT£/ Ws
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session (newi
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Why not take advantage of our free reader ad service? Fill in your
details on this coupon (25 words maximum, one word per box below)
and send it to Free Ads, Acorn User, Tau Press Ltd, Media House,
Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP or by e-mail to:
freeads@acornuser.com. Only one ad per reader please. Although we
try to publish every ad we receive, we can make no guarantees;
,/sts SET flu ^l
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more.
Your name: Telephone no:.
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publication is entirely dependent on space and time constraints. We
may also publish free ads on the cover disc if magazine space is short.
Please fill in your name and telephone number below - these will not
be published, but they enable us to contact you in case of any queries.
Please include your town/county in each ad to help other readers with
their purchasing decision.
http://www.acornuser.com November 1 999
A7000+ Classic Computers W-
A7000+ Classic, 8Mb, 1GB HD £527.58
A7000+ Classic CD, 16Mb, 2GB HD, 24xCD £586.33
All above are 29MIPS 7500FE Processors
A7000+ Odyssey Computers *
A7000+ Network, 16Mb £616.87
A7000+ CD 16Mb, 4GB HD,40xCD £645.08
A7000+ PRIMARY, 16Mb, 4GB, 40x CD £703.83
A7000+ SECONDARY 16Mb, 4GB, 40x CD £703.83
A7000+ SURF 24MB, 4GB, dvdCD, 56K Modem £821 .33
All above are 50MIPS 7500FE Processors
RiscPC SA 233Mhz (T) Computers *
Rise PC 233T, 8Mb £880.08
10Mb HD 2Gb, 32x CD, Speakers £1045.75
34Mb HD 8Gb, dvdCD, 56K modem, £1350.07
Any other specification can be custom built £POA
All Acorn machines will include EasiWriter & Resultz
See bottom of advert for monitor prices
- All above Acorn machines come with OS 3.7
Place your orders now for RISCOS 4
£99.00 + vat
(£116.33 inc vat)
Fitting and installation service available
C LI K rv» iii n land)
RiscStation Now available
through us.
Specification
ARM 7500FE 56 MHz (50 MIPS with floating point)
16Mb 60ns EDO (RAM) Max 256Mb - Fast memory option
4Mb flash memory containing RISC OS 4 + utilities
4.3Gb EIDE Hard drive
CD ROM 40x Atapi EIDE
Case - Micro ATX in Desktop or Mini-tower configuration
Operating System RISC OS 4
I/O Devices
lx lObaseT Network port with Wake on LAN
lx Parallel port, 2x Serial port
lx Onboard Infrared port
2x High speed IDE ports (4 IDE devices)
Midi In/Out/Through ports
16 bit Stereo Sound Sampler & Mixer
lx PC Style Game Port
3x Audio Connections - Line in/Mic in/Headphone4x 32bit PCI
slots
PS2 Style keyboard
3-Button PS2 Style Mouse
Software
Includes all RISC OS 4 distribution software
EasiWriter Professional
Prices Start from £680.33 (base unit)
[(CUMANA
The best name in memory
The names you can trust for all
your computer requirements.
ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT
Desktop system prices include delivery!
Mou«e mat & IPrinters setup incliiue "*
* cl
( UK. mainland)
See our demos of Citrix, TopCat and the ability of using
older machines with Thin Client Technology.
Ask for your FREE 'ICT Planning' Document at the show
THIN CLIENT TECHNOLOGY
MTHMBBRtmUR ^ AcQm NC
CITRIX (Network Computer)
’Sprinter' - NC (Network Computer)
client station with 16Mb RAM,
QWERTY Keyboard,
Mouse & 14"monitor
(Ideal for Acorn RiscOS software, Windows PC software
when used with Citrix and also Internet & Web browsing)
£379.00 + VAT (£445.33 inc.)
[Please note : NCs require connection and configuration to
host server, locally or remotely]
**Hot News**
New RiscStation NetworX computer
£ 468.83 inc vat - Call for more information
LF>LEDRi LEEF^Z^LL.^
/a.\ El ) > I P?
CDR/W and CD-ROM Drives - All Prices include VAT
CD-R SCSI, (Panasonic 7503 8x24) Internal drive £314.31
CD-R SCSI, (Panasonic 7503 8x24) External drive £417.13
CD-RW SCSI, (Yamaha 4416) Internal drive £269.08
CD-RW SCSI, (Yamaha 4416) External drive £356.90
CD-R - Blank Writable CD's (Trust 80min pack of 10) £9.99
CD-RW - Blank Re-Writable disc (Trust) £3.50
ICDBIaze CD-R/W Software for Acorn £69.30
Oscar Encore - Parallel port External CD-ROM drive £198.58
Panasonic 32 speed internal atapi CD £81.08
All
CDR/VV
Drive
prices
include
a copy
of*
ICDBIaze
Monitors - All Prices include VAT
1 4" ViewSonic
£101.34
1 5" ViewSonic
£120.43
15" ViewSonic Stereo
£185.00
17" ViewSonic E70
£199.75
15" liyama Vision Master 350 FST 0.28dp
£146.88
17" liyama Vision Master 403 FST 0.26dp
£269.08
19" liyama Vision Master 450 FST 0.26dp
£468.83
60 Watt Speakers
£9.40
200 Watt Speakers
£17.63
Call us now on Tel +44 (0)1279-730800/730900 Fax +44 (0)1279-730809. sales@cumana.co.uk,
Cumana is a trading name of : Cannon Computing, Whitegate, Dunmow Road, Hatfield Heath,
Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, CM22 7ED. AU Nov 99.
Without Prejudice. All Registered Trademarks acknowledged. Partners: Nigel D. & Sara L. Cannon.
All prices are UK £ sterling &, unless otherwise stated, include VAT, exclude delivery. E&OE.
www.cumana.demon.co.uk
VISA
Anthem
Gareth Moore sings with a new voice
Figure II: Piano roll editor
O f the new RISC OS machines
set to launch this year, two of
them, the RiscStation and the
Mico, come complete with
something new to our community;
MIDI ports, placing the easy
connection of thousands of different
musical instruments just a single
cable away.
MIDI was originally designed as
an easy way to connect electronic
musical instruments to one another,
and over the past 18 years it has
established itself as a genuine global
standard. MIDI can also be used to
hook instruments up to computers,
allowing easy recording, editing and
playback of music - collectively
called 'sequencing 7 . This needs not
only suitable hardware but software
too, and Anthem is the latest RISC OS
application to do just that.
MIDI is innately fiddly, which
means it can be confusing to work
with directly. For one thing it can
only cope with the concept of 16
different instruments at once,
assigning each to a separate
'channel'. If you want literally
simultaneous control of more than 16
different instruments you need more
than one MIDI connection, but
usually it makes more sense to share
each channel among multiple
instruments, swapping the currently
active sound as and when you need
to.
Nowadays it's usual for all
instrument sounds to be provided by
just one actual MIDI synthesiser,
although there's no need for this to
be the case. You can do all sorts of
clever things via MIDI, and a good
MIDI sequencer will give you access
to this power while protecting you
from the technical realities as much
as possible.
Ultimately, MIDI is just a
sequence of commands. The success
or failure of a MIDI sequencer rides
solely on how easy it makes it to edit
all these commands.
Making music
Creating a piece of music can be as
simple as making a live recording
from a MIDI instrument, or as
complex as slowly building one up
from various elements entered
directly at the computer keyboard.
Usually it's somewhere inbetween,
with recordings edited and arranged
and then supplemented with
computer-entered drum
tracks, bass lines or
whatever is required.
A good MIDI
sequencer should
therefore make it as easy
as possible to both
record and edit music.
Like printed words,
MIDI sequencers tend to
display music written
from left to right, almost
always via a horizontally scrolling
timeline of music which is usually
split into a number of tracks.
Each track in a sequencer can
have MIDI music placed on it and all
tracks are played simultaneously to
build up a piece. Earlier MIDI
sequencers (such as Clares' Serenade)
force you to have precisely 16 tracks,
each of which corresponds to one of
the 16 MIDI channels.
Other sequencers allow more than
one track per channel, but better still
is to take a further step back from
this and use tracks as blank lines on
a sketchpad, instead making musical
phrases; the self-contained,
fundamental elements of the
arrangement.
Instead of having tracks with
individual notes on we place phrases
instead, making it much easier to
edit and arrange a piece of music. It's
this last and most powerful approach
which Anthem opts for.
Music almost always contains
repeated elements, whether it's an
obvious verse/chorus structure or a
subtle recurrence of a theme, and so
a good musical editor allows music
to be stored in a way that is easily
reusable. While it's all well and good
to cut and paste and then modify a
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Figure I: i\lain arrangement window
November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
Figure V: Event list editor
Figure III: Stove roll editor
section, it would be really nice if we
could use the same phrase (a bass
line, say) multiple times and have
just one master copy which would
change all the other instances if
modified.
Anthem lets us do this incredibly
easily through a part and phrase
hierarchy. In Anthem each musical
'phrase' is in turn assigned to a
'part', and it is the part which is
placed on the timeline - each phrase
is used in one or more parts.
The part adds extra commands to
its underlying phrase, perhaps
instructing it to repeat a number of
times or change the MIDI channel. A
repeating bass line only needs to
have its main theme entered once
since it can be placed repeatedly in
different keys, all simultaneously
editable.
Parts can also assign an
instrument (selectable from any
bank), volume, stereo pan, reverb
and more - you can even choose the
quantisation level per part, allowing
you to set how much the phrase is
forced onto the beat. You can also
choose to play just a particular
section of a phrase if you wish.
Next up in the Anthem hierarchy
are the actual tracks you place parts
on, which in turn can
overrule both parts and
their underlying phrases by
forcing the same channel,
instrument and MIDI
control settings. You're
unlikely to want to
simultaneously set controls
at all three levels of phrase,
part and track, but in
Anthem you are given the
freedom to choose the
method which you find easiest.
You can also mix and match
methods within a piece, using some
tracks for single instruments while
reserving others for a variety of
contents. It's incredibly flexible -
and, importantly, intuitive.
Using Anthem
The main window in Anthem (Figure
I) shows the various parts placed on
the tracks, and offers multiple routes
to the editing windows. Anthem has
five basic editing modes, and it's no
surprise that these include the
standard piano roll editor (Figure II).
This is a scrolling window with time
along the horizontal axis and pitch
along the vertical one - horizontal
bars represent notes of varying pitch
and duration.
You can drag notes around and
adjust their length, as you'd expect,
and create and delete them. A
vertical piano keyboard is shown to
help identify notes, although there is
also a live monitor box showing
details about the current pointer
position. Any number of resizable
graphs can be attached to the bottom
in order to edit extra parameters
such as pitch bend and note velocity
(which you can also edit by double-
clicking a note and using the sliders
that appear).
You just draw on the graphs to
alter the values, or touch the scale to
zoom in or out. It's all so
wonderfully easy - powerful
and very configurable without
adding any unwanted
complexity. You can also thin
out certain events
automatically if they're too
dense (moving a pitch bend
wheel can generate a lot of
data).
You can switch to a stave
roll editor (Figure III), which
is a sort of halfway house
between traditional music
notation a la Sibelius (which
Anthem does not directly
support, although you can
import and export to and from
Sibelius via standard MIDI
files) in which the piano roll is
still used but now horizontal stave
lines are drawn at the appropriate
pitch, along with treble and bass
clefs (no other clefs are supported).
Ledger lines are added as
appropriate.
I actually found it a bit confusing
initially because of the non-standard
spacings (even though I can read
music without trouble), but if you're
transcribing manuscript music by
hand it could make things very
much easier once you get used to it.
Along similar lines there is also a
drum editor (Figure IV). In this mode
the keyboard or staves are replaced
with a list of percussion instrument
names, indicating which drum is
linked to a particular pitch by your
MIDI instrument.
If you like looking at the raw
MIDI data or if you have ever seen a
music tracker editor you'll be at
home with the list editor mode
(Figure V). In this view each event in
the phrase is listed by itself on a
separate line, with all the data
associated with that event displayed
in adjacent columns. Note on and off
events are grouped into pairs for
ease of editing, but the real power of
this mode is to add in non-note MIDI
commands.
You can add quite literally
anything here that your synthesiser
supports - or at least you can long as
it does not require a System
Exclusive message, which Anthem
does not currently support. In
practice this is not a problem,
however, since unless you're doing
something very advanced with a
suitably powerful synthesiser you're
not likely to require it - and if you
ever do you could always send the
Figure VI: Step editor
htl|)://www.acomuser.com November 1999 ^
Figure VII: Power quantisation
necessary configuration settings from
a separate application, such as
ArmEdXG. If you don't know that
you need SysEx then you almost
certainly don't.
Anthem is particularly intelligent
in knowing about various MIDI
events, using descriptive text as well
as command numbers wherever
possible, and you can easily drop in
new events by clicking on one of the
options in the associated tool panel.
It's not until you try to edit an
existing event, however, that you
realise quite how clever Anthem is -
instead of forcing you to fiddle with
raw values Anthem instead pops up a
context-sensitive window which lets
you edit the value via an intelligible
list of options, or to adjust
magnitudes with a slider if you wish.
Not only this, but different event
types have different icons, making it
easier to read the display. If only all
sequencers were this user-friendly!
The final editing mode is the step
edit mode (Figure VI), which lets you
add to an existing phrase or create a
new one by playing an instrument -
but not in real time. You can also use
this mode to remove the notes that
you play if you wish.
As well as manual editing of
Figure VIII: Phrase processing
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Figure IX: Studio gadgets
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phrases you can also apply
automated procedures from
an impressively large
selection, including what
Anthem calls 'power
quantisation' (Figure VII), a
process whereby notes are
moved to nearby note
positions so as to correct
minor imperfections in a
performance or to add a
particular feel to a piece.
The options, which
include a clickable quantise point
display (like a ruler in a desktop
publisher) cover virtually everything
you could ever want to do. Other
options include adding echo (Figure
VIII), legato and humanisation
effects, and all procedures can use
event filters to decide just what they
are applied to.
Recording
So what about actually getting some
music into the phrases to edit in the
first place? You could just keep
clicking away in one of the editors,
but the most obvious method is to
record a live performance from a
MIDI instrument such as a keyboard.
Anthem provides the usual niceties
such as an optional metronome and
the ability to hear any existing tracks
at the same time, and, as you would
hope, its recording is very accurate.
Recording really is exceptionally
easy - just hit the record button and
you can play for as long as you like
(there's no need to set an end point if
you don't want to).
Once you're finished just hit stop
and choose where to store it. You can
also record over existing phrases if
you want, either replacing or
preserving existing data. And if
you're not much of a performer you
can use Anthem's step recording
mode to enter notes at your own
pace. Anthem also offers intelligent
options such as the ability to
combine sustain pedal and note
events to produce a clearer, more
intelligible score.
MIDI files are a
standard music file
format, and Anthem does a
very good job of loading
them - it's surprisingly
fast and it can even
analyse them and split
them up into phrases and
parts. Very clever! You can
also drag an existing
Anthem saved song file
into a phrase list window
and all the phrases from
that song are added into
the pool for the current
piece - the ultimate example of
powerful drag-and-drop!
Anthem's main window features
not only the track display and
gadgets to move parts around, but
also an associated set of icon
shortcuts and a transport toolbox
which controls playback. All the
usual stop, play and wind buttons
are present, along with repeat, solo
and synchronisation options.
The toolbox can be detached if
you wish, and the main and piano
roll windows intelligently follow
playback with a cursor or by
scrolling. You can also set repeat
points and flags, or use some of the
various gadgets available, including
VU meter monitors, a studio clock
display and an on-screen keyboard
(Figure IX).
Best of all, though, is a
comprehensive mixing desk which
can not only be used to dynamically
alter settings during playback but
can also be used to record those live
changes, making fiddly final song
settings a dream to configure.
Special tracks
Anthem divides time into bars, beats
and pulses. You can add a special
time signature track to your song
which lets you change time signature
as often as you like, but because
phrases are not themselves attached
to a particular point in time this
won't affect any phrase editor
display - in fact the only thing it
really affects is the metronome. You
y November 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com
Figure XI: Setting up instruments
can also add a master tempo track,
governing the playback speed of the
song. The tempo can change as often
as you like, or you can disable the
track and use a global setting.
However, you can't specify gradual
speed changes other than by entering
each individual tempo separately.
There is one other special track
which provides one of Anthem's
crowning glories. It is an audio track.
You can drag samples here and they
will become special audio phrases
and parts, and you don't even have
to make sure that samples are
recorded at the same rate as Anthem
corrects for this automatically.
Using this facility you can add in
a vocal line or drop in a looped bass
sample or whatever it is you require.
You are limited to just one audio
track but even so this is a really great
feature. Anthem stores a link to the
audio file on disc so file space isn't
wasted, and different segments of
the same sample can be used within
a song in the same way that different
Channel/Port
Phrase
Pad Backing
Voice I
26 SteeIGtr
si
Pan \7 si>| S|
| /}, Reverb fy" 43 |
/A
Chorus [✓" 72
J /A Volume
/A
Quantise \V 1 48
1 /A Transpose | 0 |
/A
Min velocity | 0
] /A Max velocity | 127 |
/A
Repeat \>/ | 4 |
f A teals 1 0 1 /A pulses
Offset | 0 |
/A beats | 0 | / Jk pulses
Cancel
Figure XII: Editing part settings
segments of a MIDI phrase can be
used by different parts.
Be warned, however, that it gives
a big speed hit, so if you have a
complex MIDI track then you may
need a StrongARM to be able to play
back a CD-quality sample at the
same time. 22KHz mono samples
seem to work fine on an ARM710,
however. If you're using samples of
tuned instruments - and you tell
Anthem the pitch of the original
recording - you can choose the
playback note for each part that uses
the phrase.
Sugar on top
Anthem has plenty of configuration
setup options (Figure X), including
provision of a wide range of
instrument definition files (Figure
XI), although some of the relatively
minor options annoyingly aren't
saved by the 'save' button.
Anthem supports up to four
separate MIDI ports (physical
connections) but unfortunately it
currently only lets you
choose one instrument
definition file to apply to
all ports, which is a bit
limiting if you have a lot
of MIDI hardware. The
author has indicated that
he will be improving
this soon.
During the time I
spent reviewing Anthem
various updates have
appeared, adding new
features I requested. As
a result I now have very
few criticisms of the
package since virtually
all of the complaints I
had have been fixed!
This bodes exceptionally
anyany
raid
OK
well for any future purchasers of the
software, and although there are
inevitably still some bugs remaining
they rarely get in the way.
From its attractive, modern
imagery through to its intuitive
interface Anthem is consistently well-
designed. It is so intuitive, in fact,
that you really can get by without
needing to read the supplied ring-
bound manual. At 120 pages it may
look intimidating, but it isn't - it is
one of the best-written manuals I
have ever encountered, and its
length is simply a result of the
surprisingly large number of features
packed into Anthem. It's well worth
browsing through because wherever
you look you are almost guaranteed
to find some new shortcut or quicker
way of working.
Anthem also supports interactive
help, so if you don't mind waving
your mouse pointer around then you
can pick up a lot using this method,
too. MIDI sequencers can often have
nasty learning curves, but Anthem is
a model of good design and a
shining example of how RISC OS can
provide a wonderfully intuitive
experience.
Many of the more esoteric and
rarely-used options are almost
hidden away, and yet they are found
without effort when you actually
want them. Each time I use Anthem I
seem to discover a new set of
features that I'd previously missed
simply through not having looked
for them.
Anthem is a triumph. Five years of
development have resulted in a
stunningly good product. There is a
danger that to enthuse about
something too much will engender a
degree of suspicion, but Anthem
really is that good. At £70 (including
VAT) it is extremely low priced for a
product of its capabilities. If you do
any work with MIDI music you
really owe it to yourself to give it a
go - in fact at that price I'd suggest
that it makes sense to buy it even if
you already own a different ___
MIDI sequencer!
Product details
Product:
Anthem
Price:
£70 inc. VAT. Overseas
customers must add £5
delivery. Site licence £170 inc.
VAT.
Supplier:
R-Comp Interactive, 22 Robert
Moffat, High Legh, Knutsford,
Cheshire, WA16 6PS
Tel:
01925 755043
Fax:
01925 757377
E-mail:
rci@rcomp.co.uk j
http://www.acornuser.com November 1 999
NoticeBoard
NoticeBoard Pro is one of the
most advanced programs for
creating and running stand-alone
rolling displays and slideshow
presentations on RISC OS
computers
Single user: £37.00
Site licence: £110
NoticeBoard Pro is a powerful yet easy to use
design and presentation system that will run on
all RISC OS computers from 3.10 up.
▲ Programs can be created using Sprites, Artworks,
Drawfiles, JPEGs and the new Cerilica Vantage
program, and you can add sound!
▲ The many in-built features give complete control
over presentations, including forward and backward
slide movement in slideshow programs, and production
of stand-alone programs to run on other computers and
with digital projectors.
NoticeBoard Pro enables you to present a series of
pictures and/or words with automatic or user-controlled
time delay between slides. Its many uses include:
▲ Product promotion at Exhibitions, etc. A School
Open Day presentations and other special events
A Information points in Offices, Libraries, Schools and
other locations A Fund-raising activities
The only limits are the size of your hard drive and your
imagination!
The Really Good Software Company
39 Carisbroke Road, Harpenden, Herts UK AL5 5QS
Tel/Fax: 01582 761 395 E-mail: sales.rgsc@argonet.co.uk
No VAT. Post & packing for UK and Europe add £1.50
Other countries £5.00
Monitors
Iiyama 15" 350
Iiyama 17" (S702GT) ,28dot
Iiyama 17" 400 Pro .25 dot
CTX 14" Digital Scan
CTX 15" Digital Scan
CTX 17". 28 70Khz Digital
CTX mons have (3 year on-site warrty)
Many other models available
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Switch Boxes
Parallel 2 way (25 w 'D' skts) £16.99
Parallel 4 way (25w ’D’ skts) £19.99
Serial 2 way (9w 'D' skts) £19.99
Monitor+Keyboard 2 way £19.99
Suitable cables and other boxes
available, please ask
VGA to PAL TV
Converter
The VGA Converter
allows the output of any Acorn running
in a VGA or SVGA mode (or PC comp)
to be displayed on a TV or recorded
onto a video recorder. Please ask for
more information.
Price £159.00 inc vat
Colour
Printers
Epson Stylus Colour 440 £105.00
Epson Stylus Colour 640 £135.00
Epson Stylus Colour 850 £199.00
HP Laserjet 1 100 (laser mono) £289.00
Virus
Protection
Pineapples Virus Protection
Scheme has been running for
over six years and is still
being updated with new
viruses on a regular basis.
New software versions are
sent out to members every four months
and the total number of viruses which
can be removed is well over 200. The
latest version is now scanning at up to
four times faster than previous versions
despite coping with many more viruses.
Joining fee just £28.20
'If you're interested in virus protection ,
join the Pineapple Virus Protection
scheme and buy Killer Accept no
alternative - 'Acorn User Feb 96
Inexpensive multi-user licences
Parallel to
SCSI adapter
A brand new product from Pineapple providing
an inexpensive alternative to a SCSI card when
using SCSI scanners. The SCSI adapter plugs into
the parallel port (with a 'through' printer
connector), and can be used directly with SCSI
scanners. Works with A30 10/3020/4000/5000/
A7000/RiscPC (inc StrongARM).
Price just £59.00 inc vat
Colour Scanners
The new Epson GT7000 is great
value and the Photo version with
transparency adapter gives excellent quality on
both transparencies and negatives. Our new SCSI
parallel port adapter cable makes this excellent
scanner very affordable. The Plustek 9636T
parallel port scanner also gives excellent quality
with built in transparency adapter. All scanner
prices include Imagemaster and Twain software.
Epson GT7000 - SCSI £259.00
Epson GT7000 Photo - SCSI £299.00
Plustek 9636 P - Parallel Port £139.00
Plustek 9636T - Parallel Port
(with transparency adapter) £189.00
Pineapple Software
Suite 1 , 310 Green Lane , ILFORD
Essex IG1 1XT
Tel 0208 599 1476 Fax 0208 598 2343
email:- sales@pineaple.demon.co.uk
www:- http://www.pineaple.demon.co.uk
Terms:- All prices include
17.5% vat. Carriage £5 on most
hardware. Small items £3 (or
less). Phone for quote outside
UK. Official orders, cheques
and all major credit cards
accepted at no extra charge.
Studio24Pro
'Many Acom User front covers have
fr' been created from scratch using this
program alone, concrete proof of the power of
this creative tool' - Acorn User Mar96
New low price - £59.00 inc vat
Intranet resourcing
Hertfordshire County Council
launched Hertfordshire
Learning Grid a network
offering educational resources
for students and teachers
including a range of popular
education CD-ROMs. This is
one of the largest educational
intranets so far to be linked to
the government's National
Grid for Learning.
One of Hertfordshire's
content suppliers is Granada
Learning who have put
together an Intranet Content
solution available to any LEA.
The Hertfordshire solution
consists of 34 CD-ROMs
covering Science, Geography,
has
History, Religion Education, Personal
and Social Education, Modern
Foreign Languages,
Business Studies,
Physical Education and
the Environment. Stored
on the County Council's
LEA Web server,
resources are accessed by
all connected schools
within the authority.
Meanwhile Granada
Learning's Internet
Odyssey and Odyssey
Indexes enable teachers
to select specific activities
to suit pupil's individual
needs and to make the
most of the resources on the Internet.
Eye catchers
Struggling with your ICT planning? Then
take a look at Project Presenter from
SEMERC (0161-827 2927). Designed for
Key Stage 2 and above, this meets all the
requirements of Unit 6A (Multimedia
Presentation) in the Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority's ICT Framework
Document.
Make as simple to use as possible all
you have to do is drag and drop pictures,
video clips and sound files into the file
window and choose the length of time
you want each to be displayed. You can
make the presentation more professional
by selecting a transition between images
from a dissolving screen to raindrops.
Now all you have to do is move
forwards and backwards through the
presentation by clicking on the on-screen
arrows. Simple. If needed a switch can be
used instead of a mouse and there is a
closed-loop continuous presentation
option available too.
The QCA document recommends that
children should use a program to
organise, refine and present information
in different forms while being sensitive to
their audience. SEMERC assures us that
Project Presenter does just that while
ensuring that students are aware of the
relevant technical vocabulary and the key
idea that software can include a range of
media. Prices start at £29 for a single-user
version.
A case in point
The Headteacher at Sutton-on-Sea
County Primary school, Chris Flanagan,
is waving the flags for ArgoSphere since
he has been successfully using the service
in school for over a year: "At the time
(and still) the interactivity of the site
stood it apart from the rather static and
dull examples of many education sites."
What impressed him was that
teachers can download activities locally
to run on the school Intranet, ensuring
that the environment in which the
children learn is safe and secure.
Downloading also helps save money
and allows teachers to adapt activities
for different lessons. However, his
personal favourite is Test Maker which
lets you create tests on whatever subject
you want.
"For now the Internet is rather like a
large stone - it is only just beginning to
roll and the National Grid for learning
has been the lever which has overcome
its mass to get in rolling into schools.
Sites such as ArgoSphere reveal
something of the real potential of the
Internet." You can access ArgoSphere for
yourself on www.argosphere.net
In brief
Making learning fun
Education Minister Charles Clarke
and TV personality Loyd Grossman
have been lending their support to a
campaign bringing American-style
children's museums to the UK.
The Kids' Clubs Network, the
national charity for school age
childcare, has launched a project
aimed at encouraging museums in
Britain to develop fun, interactive
exhibits teaching children about
science, technology and the arts.
Loyd Grossman is chairman of the
Campaign for Museums, and Mr
Clarke launched the project with a
visit to the Museum of Me, in
Bargehouse Street, on London's South
Bank. Other museums are coming on
board too with the Children's
Discovery Centre in Stratford,
Lewisham's Horniman Museum,
Quarry Bank in Dudley, Thetford
Partnership in Norfolk, Royal
Cornwall Museum, Truro and the
Sheffield Children's Centre already
signed up.
Morale and standards
Most people believe the status of
teaching as a profession has fallen in
recent years, according to recent
opinion poll conducted by Gallup for
The Daily Telegraph. It reported that
70 per cent of adults felt teachers
had a lower status than when they
were at school while only 21 per cent
believed teaching now had a better
reputation.
In addition 69 per cent thought
the Government had "not made
much difference". One in five
believed Labour had succeeded in
delivering higher educational
standards while 6 per cent believed
standards had fallen. Views were
mixed about long-term standards
with 45 per cent of seeing the
standard of education in schools
today as "better", while 47 per cent
believed that standards had declined.
Almost half of the people
surveyed by Gallup felt children now
did more homework than they
themselves had, compared with 36
per cent who believed today's
children did less homework.
Diary date J
BETT 2000 - The Educational
Technology Show
12-15 January 2000
Grand Hall, Olympia, London
Admission: Free
Contact: 01203 426458
www.educa tion-net.co.uk
http://www.acornuser.com November 1 999 V*
Find your
way around
Don't know your OS from your
contour? Pam Turnbull looks at a
package to help
C reated to support and extend
the BBC Schools TV series, Zig
Zag: Village, Town and City
stands very well on its own.
Its manual is very nicely set out
allowing you to cherry-pick activities
to practise the skills of making maps
and plans, using symbols, giving
directions, as well as using co-
ordinates and grid references.
Alternatively, you can explore a
Village, Town or City and discover the
same range of activities but related to
a different environment and to
different levels of complexity.
You are advised to start with the
Village and here (as in the town and
city) you'll find four locations to visit.
Choose the school, for instance, and
there are three activities: take a child
from the hall to
Class 1 and then
the playground
using a plan
map, match an
aerial view of
the classroom to
a plan and
finally design
your own
classroom. The
latter two
activities were
very popular, though not as easy as
children initially thought.
Items have to be moved and rotated
using the Turn button and it led to
some good ideas for work off the
computer. In addition when they are
designing their own classroom (nice
small class sizes too) there is an Ask
your teacher button, this allows a
teacher to view their proposed layout
and make suggestions or print off the
screen before the children move on.
The Village Bus Stop asks you to
match symbols with buildings you can
see in the picture of the village. This is
further developed in the Town
Supermarket and the City Tourist
Office activities. Staying in the Village
for a while, the Pond offers you fun
and games with a Duck or a Frog.
Both introduce the concept of the four
compass points as you guide the
creatures around the pond. Again this
is developed further in the Town
Church and City Railway Station
activities.
Final stop in the village is at the
Farm and here children work on three
activities reading co-ordinates, reading
letter/number co-ordinates and
writing co-ordinates. This is all very
straightforward
though the tractor
activity becomes
tedious very
quickly. My only
niggle is that you
enter co-ordinates
throughout the
program by
choosing a letter
and digit from a
list, which in itself
is fine. However,
having decided on A 2 as your first
point, you'll have to re-enter both
elements even if your next point is A 3.
Just change the 3 and nothing
happens, there is no error message or
friendly advice and the program
doesn't clear the boxes to encourage
you to enter elements afresh each time.
Children (and adults) found this very
frustrating. The graphics are very
attractive and though sound is
minimal and all instructions are
written rather than spoken it is a very
easy program to use. You will need to
plan carefully which activities to use
as some require more additional
information and work than others. In
particular, the Town Supermarket
where you plan the ideal car park
layout. This works best as a follow-up
activity having analysed and
discussed parking patterns and needs.
A range of attainment levels are
addressed and some activities are
quite challenging. From the basic N S
E W instructions at the Village Pond,
the Town Church requires children to
use the four compass points to find
places in relation to one fixed point.
This then leads to a second activity
where they have to find places from a
variety of different points on the plan.
This can be quite difficult, for instance,
north of the church may not be at the
top of the map. This is taken further at
the Railway Station in the city where
the eight points of the compass are
used to find the route a train must
take around Britain.
A lot of thought has gone into this
package providing everyday problems
children can relate to, plus a range of
maps and plans. The manual too
comes with suggestions of the type of
questions children and teachers should
be asking, as well as extension ideas
for the activities on the computer or
whole-class discussion. Some
excellent ideas, well executed. 13SU9
Product details
Product:
Zig Zag Maps and Mapping
Ages:
7-11
Price:
04
Supplier:
Logotron, 124 Cambridge
Science Park, Milton Road,
Cambridge CB4 OZS
Tel:
(+44/0) 1223 425558
Fax:
(+44/0) 1223 425349
E-mail:
Web:
info@logo.com
vvvvvv.logo.com
y November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
ducatior
T his CD-ROM contains a range
of original documents,
photographs of artefacts,
maps, illustrations and video
clips from the Hampshire County
Council archive. In this product they
have created two separate programs
using their archive material
pertaining to the medieval and
Tudor periods. In addition there is a
manual and online guide to the work
of the Hampshire Record Office and
how and why archives and
conservation work is undertaken.
The applications have been
written using Textease with all links
spoken when clicked. The Textease
Browser (you don't have to have a
copy of Textease to access these
programs) allows you to alter the
scale, save and print pages as well as
keeping track of the pages you've
such as what the place looks like
now. The alternative chapter on town
life is divided further into sections
on Domesday and Town Charters, and
Shops, Trade and Industry. The former
provides information on what
Domesday and town charters were
using images of original documents
and even a list of the Domesday
questions asked of the populace.
If you are interested in manorial
life there are sections on the lords
and the bishops using the original
documents (with translations) to
describe and explain what was
happening in 14th and 15th century
Hampshire. Although these all relate
to one specific county, the parallels
are clear with the rest of the country
and should inspire you to access
information from your local county
record office. Textease has been used
Times are
a-changing
Pam Turnbull surveys a new package
to make sure your Tudor and medieval
knowledge is up to scratch
accessed so far. Certain pages will
advise you to alter the scale - using
the eye or magnifying glass icons -
to zoom into certain images to get a
closer look at the wood carvings or
how the roof has been designed.
Starting with Medieval
Hampshire I found four chapters to
choose from: Medieval Towns,
People, Religion or Manors.
The Medieval Town section itself
is sub-divided into two further
chapters, How were towns defended?
and What was life in medieval towns
like? Using original drawings and
photographs of artefacts, additional
information is given in the text, or
you are asked to access the labels on
a drawing to see more detailed
sketches and find more information.
well and I particularly liked the
video clips of early twentieth century
farming methods and their
comparison to medieval farming.
For more detail on everyday life,
the chapter on medieval people looks
at households using the surviving
wills and inventories from the time
as well as the place of women in
society. Then there are further
chapters on religion and in particular
monasteries, abbeys and parish
churches.
Tudor Hampshire follows the
same design, but here chapter
headings are: Three Tudor monarchs.
Two Tudor Men, Three Tudor
Houses and Three Tudor Towns. In
particular, this program concentrates
on the reigns of Henry VIII, Mary I,
and Elizabeth I. There is some
general information but this is not an
in depth study of the Tudors but
rather concentrates on their
relationship with Hampshire.
Henry was very fond of
Portsmouth due to the naval
connection, but the section also
covers Henry and the dissolution of
the monasteries. There is also a nice
case study of Bramley Church and
how it has changed and survived
through the ages.
Everyday inhabitants of the area
are not covered, as documents only
usually survive concerning the rich
and famous. Two of these are John
White and his mentor Thomas
Wriothesley.
Both families profited during the
Tudor period and while the Whites
did well from the dissolution of the
monasteries, Wriothesleys spent time
in the Tower of London for their
Catholic beliefs.
The three properties covered are
Elvetham Hall, Bramshill and The
Vyne. Using original letters and
accounts you can tell just how
expensive entertaining royalty was.
The program is also more helpful
with its advice telling you to increase
the view of the Bramshill four-poster
to 200% for a better view of the
carvings.
The three towns covered are
understandably Portsmouth,
Southampton and Winchester. Using
a range of maps, hotspots have been
added to make these maps and plans
interactive. These can then be
explored and compared to see who
our major trading partners were and
what has survived through the
intervening years.
This is a unusual but useful
resource and if you want more
information HRO have resource
packs entitled Medieval Realms and
Life in Tudor Times which complement
the resources on the CD-ROM
and cost £15 each.
Product details
Product: Zig Zag Maps and Mapping
Ages: 7-11
Price: £34
Supplier: Logotron, 124 Cambridge
Science Park, Milton Road,
Cambridge C134 OZS
Tel: (+44/0) 1223 425558
Fax: (+44/0) 1223 425349
E-mail: info@logo.com
Web: wvvvv.logo.com
http://wwW.aCOrnuser.com November 1999
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Drums along
Mike Cook JL mtM df^Sk. w am
to«« the mersey
F ollowing on from last month's look at
an eight channel A/D (Analogue to
Digital converter) let's see what we
can do with it. For starters here's how
to make a MIDI drum kit. Those of you with
very long memories will no doubt recall the
December 86 issue of The Micro User where I
described a simple drum kit. This was
simple because it only sensed if a drum was
hit and this was used to make a sound from
the sound chip in the Model B.
Nowadays a MIDI system will give a
much better quality of sound, not only that
but the thing with MIDI is that as well as
signalling a drum has been hit it also has to
be told how hard it's been hit. This changes
not only the volume of the sound but also
the nature of the sound itself. For example,
a cymbal makes a different sound if gently
tapped as against being given a hefty
thwack, it's not just louder. This means that
any electronic drum kit circuit has to not
only detect a hit but also measure the
size of it.
First we need a transducer that produces
an output, proportional to how hard it is hit.
Next we need a circuit that monitors the
signal from each transducer and sends the
appropriate MIDI command whenever it
detects a voltage peak. This means that the
Figure I: The MIDI Drum Kit
A/D converter has to be continuously
driven, a simple but time-consuming task.
That's why it is best to use a micro
controller, however unlike our standard PIC
circuit this only requires a MIDI output, see
Figure I. As you will see there is just a single
bit output used to generate the MIDI signal
through a PNP transistor.
The A/D converter uses four of the
controllers I/O pins leaving lots of free
lines. I have used two of these to allow you
to change the MIDI mapping - which drum
pad produces which noise. With two
switches you get a total of four different
mappings, if you add another two switches
to pins 12 & 13 you can get sixteen different
mappings, enough for anybody I think.
There is no need to use pull-up resistors
here as the internal pull-up resistors are
enabled in the software. As we saw last
month the multiplex inputs of the A/D in
the single-ended mode are not altogether
straightforward, therefore I have
renumbered the drum pad inputs to reflect
the channel number that will be generated.
As in my earlier design I have used some
piezo-electric transducers which are
available very cheaply from Maplins. In fact
they have various different sizes of
transducers but the smallest and cheapest
work as well as any of them. They
can cost as little as 20p in a sale
and are normally less than 40p
each. Looking at the output of
these on a storage oscilloscope
shows that you can get voltage
peaks of around 20V from just a
simple tap with a finger.
Fortunately the input stages of
the A/D converter are clamped
with diodes to the power rails, so
no damage will occur if an over or
under voltage is fed in. The signal
goes both positive and negative
and surprisingly enough you get a
bigger positive signal from the
black wire of the sensor.
While you can feed the sensors
directly into the A/D you get better
results with the circuit shown in
Figure II, note you need eight of
these. Basically what it does is to
take the piezo-electric pulse, rectify
November 1 999 http://www.acornuser.com
Sensor
1N4148
■w
T
To A/D
10 nF
1 M
Figure 2: The sensor circuit
it and by using a capacitor holds the voltage
long enough for it to be measured.
The resistor ensures that the voltage
decays, ready for the next hit. You might
want to alter these values to get the best out
of your system. This is because the exact
mechanical arrangement will alter the
voltage shapes. You should increase the
resistor value for a longer hold time and
reduce it for a shorter one.
While you can hit the transducers
directly, it is generally too sensitive if you
do. Therefore, you need some sort of
sandwich arrangement like that in Figure
III. Mount the transducer on a solid base of
wood with a little glue, then fix a pad of
rubber over the top. It is best to mount each
transducer separately to prevent the hitting
of one pad triggering an other. Music shops
sell drummer's practice pads that could be
easily converted.
Now on to the software, which is not
quite as straightforward as you might think
or, perhaps, hope. The basic idea is that the
voltage from each sensor is measured in
turn, and compared against a threshold
value held in memory. If the new input is
bigger by at least three units than last time
it was measured we know something is
happening on that input.
The software then branches to the Play
routine which continues to read that one
input until it reaches a peak or starts to fall.
At that point we know the pulse has
reached it's maximum extent and the A/D
reading is now proportional to how hard
the pad has been hit. Now we have all the
information to send to the MIDI system so
we send three bytes off.
The first byte is the combined message
note on and Channel 10. On a MIDI system
any note sent on channel 10 is treated as a
drum, so we have no need to send any
sound defining message. This byte works
out to be a hex value of 99, note for channel
10 (decimal) the channel bit pattern is 1001
and not the 1010 you might expect, this is
because musicians can't cope with the
concept of channel zero so every number is
out by one.
The second byte is the number that
indicates the pitch of the note to play or, in
the case of drums, the drum sound. This
depends first of all on
what sensor is hit and
secondly on what the
mapping switches are set
at. The mapping switch
inputs are shifted one
place to the right to give
a number that increases
in steps of eight.
-* If you are adding extra
mapping switches you
will need to change the
value that is used in the
AND instruction to 38h
for three switches or 78h for four switches.
The mapping switches number is added to
the channel number and a look-up table
routine is used to return the resulting drum
sound number. This look-up table routine is
called map and is placed at the end of the
code and is very easily changed to any
mapping you require.
The final number sent to the MIDI
system is the velocity or A/D measurement.
This is only a seven bit value in the MIDI
system and so our eight bit reading is
converted into the required range by
shifting it one place to the right. Note in the
case of MIDI drums you never need to send
a MIDI note off command as you do with
other instruments.
Well that's it for the simple system but
what about enlarging it. The most obvious
one is to add another A/D converter to
allow sixteen drum pad inputs. You can do
this by paralleling up all the input signals to
the converter (pins 16 to 18), and feeding
the output (pin 14) to one of the spar PIC
controls. You will also, of course, need to
modify the software to read the two serial
bytes at once.
You can get commercial MIDI drum kits
but they will set you back at least £1000 so
there is an opportunity of saving yourself
some money. The other great advantage
is that you can practice drumming with
headphones on giving innocent passers-by
the minimum of inconvenience.
run
the
Figure 3: The sensor sandwich
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999 V*
M aybe I should call this
column Grumbles Through
Acorn Wood because
something else has been
worrying me lately. It's software that
is being too helpful in installing
itself. It's not so much as a problem
with RISC OS as on other machines
but it's creeping in. The other week I
was asked to try a free internet
service provider, nothing to lose?
Except once I had inserted the
software CD and clicked on the icon
all reference to my original provider
had been wiped, and I had to spend
ages reinstalling preferences and
scripts to get back to my machine's
original state. I know developers are
convinced that once you have their
software you will want no other but
they are wrong. I find this practice
both ignorant and cynical.
First a bit of feedback from Tarquin
Mills:
"In August's 1999 Rambles
in answer about Pascal it is
stated that Norcroft Pascal
requires Acorn C to work but it
works in command line mode (like
GNU compilers) without it. You
only need Acorn C if you want to
run it from a GUI interface."
And another bit from Ray Favre:
"In September 1999 you
referred to my Wimp
Programming book (which
is indeed still available) but
you quote a well-out-of-date URL.
My current Website is
http://www.argonet.co.
uk/users/rayfavre/ or tel: (+44)
(0)1895 444410. Many thanks for
the mention."
Stuart Nundy wants to listen to the
radio:
"I've been aware of the
RiscTV hardware produced
by Irlam for some time, but
I was wondering whether you also
know whether it is possible to
obtain an FM radio receiver, for a
Rise PC, as well? I'm not
desperately interested in TV but
would be in a radio card. I
understand that Irlam do produce
an external FM tuner that plugs into
the serial port.
"The problem with this is
that, firstly, I already have an
external modem that uses the
serial port, and I don't want to
be constantly swapping leads
and, secondly, the Irlam tuner
does not utilise the internal
sound system of the Rise PC, but
requires a second pair of powered
speakers. I don't really fancy more
and more leads and objects
extending around the computer.
Ideally, therefore, I'm after an
internal solution - an expansion
card. Any suggestions?"
One product springs to mind
TO B DeskFM by Yellowstone,
costing £59 incVAT. I
reviewed this in May 1997, and it’s
still available. Yellowstone,
tel: 01582 656000, or e-mail:
sales@yellowstone.co.uk
Dave Braine is having trouble with
the Net:
"I have access to the Internet
via a PC. Could you tell me
how I can run Acorn files,
on my Rise PC 600, that I've
downloaded on the PC?"
Most RISC OS files on the
Web are enc °ded using
ES&5 Spark (SparkPlug or SparkFS)
you simply copy the files onto
your harddisc and drag them
onto the icon. Alternatively use
Robin Hutchinson has lost something but has not looked under the bed:
"Although I am a long-term RISC OS user I am not that
knowledgeable about details so please could you advise me how
to reinstall Draw. I get a missing file message when I try to run
Draw. The computer is a Rise PC with StrongARM upgrade and RISC OS
3.7, also a 586 co-processor. I have the discs of 3.7 but would rather not
have to re-partition my harddisc."
While Draw has been moved in and out of ROM over the years, in
version 3.7 it is in the ROM so is difficult to loose. However, there is
a module that could be disabled which would give an error
message. Press F12 and get into command line mode. Then type:
*Unplug
and you should get a list of disabled modules. If Draw is among them type:
*RMInsert ! Draw
Go back to the desktop and double-click on the icon in the Apps folder
should bring up the application.
November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
ArcFixer by Paul F Johnson which
is hopefully on this month's cover
disk.
James Scott has acquired the
reputation as an expert, now he has
to live up to it:
gKgftgfi "My Headmaster, forever at
Efijj the cutting edge of
BbiKtfl technology, has just given
up the pleasures of working with
an Amstrad 8512. As he thinks that I
am the school's computer whizz-
kid, he has asked me to try to save
his work. Therefore, it would do me
no harm if I could succeed in
recovering his Locoscript v.1.2 text
files from the Amstrad which are,
obviously, stored on the 3 inch CF2
Amstrad floppy disc.
"I have an Acorn 310 with RISC
OS 3 but can see no obvious way to
connect the two to allow the 310 to
read the Amstrad files. How do I do
this? Is there an Acorn external
floppy disc reader for the Amstrad
disks? By the way, if it will help, I
also have BBC Micro, an Amstrad
PC2086/30, an Acorn 3000 and 3010
and a Cyrix 686 333+ PC."
I As far as I know there is no
3in drive interface available
I for any Acorn product
anymore - though they were
available once and a reader may
have one. You would need to write a
software disc driver as well as make
any hardware changes. A company
called Officeland - based in Poole,
Dorset - may be able to help e-mail:
pcwusers@lds.co.uk or phone
(+44/0) 1202 666155.
Finally a nice change in the modern
world of the internet and word
processors, a handwritten letter from
Sion Evans:
'I recently bought a
| StrongARM upgrade,
! and while I am delighted
with it, when I try to access files
off the floppy disc I get a disc
error message.
However, I can access them
from my A310. Another question
is how can I access mixed format
CDs such as audio CDs with video
clips.
"Finally I was wondering if
anyone knows of a utility to enable
various sounds to be played when
various actions are performed like
Robert Beech is having a problem with faxing:
"Using a Rise PC 600 and a Dynalink 56k modem supplied by
Argo with David Pilling's ArcFax I can usually send a fax, but the
failure rate when some people (not all) try to send me a fax is
becoming serious. All starts well the sender gets a message saying No
acknowledgement received . All I get is his identification on the screen and
occasionally about 2 cm of fax. I have sent David Pilling a debug file but
he cannot help.
"Now, I believe, in addition to your Acorn expertise, you are
involved with Pace. A Pace Solo modem is not cheap, but would be
worth it if it solved my problems. Would it reliably receive faxes
from anywhere? Could I connect a Pace Solo in parallel with a
couple of telephones and my existing modem and, if so, would voice
callers hear bells and whistles or would the Solo be sufficiently
selective?"
To start off with the Pace that makes modems is Pace Micro
Communications, the Pace I work for is Pace Micro Technology
although started by the same person they have been totally separate
companies for a long time. Anyway late in August PMC went into
voluntary liquidation so there is likely to be a flush of surplus modems on
the market.
That aside, there can be many things affecting reception of faxes. For a
start there are two classes of fax modem: Class 1 and Class 2. In fact most
modems are capable of operating in both modes. The difference between
them is that with Class 2 all the protocol is handled by the software in the
modem whereas Class 1 has the software in the computer in control. This
means that the Class 2 protocol is a fixed, rigid thing where as Class 1 can
cope with all sorts of additions and extensions.
As it is the software that decides what mode to put the modem into, it is
likely that you could still have the same problem with another modem.
While it is most likely that this is a software issue there are some hardware
things that could mess you up. For example if you have too much loading
on your phone line. Each device has a REN (ring equivalent number)
indicating the loading, the maximum loading for a line is four and some
modems have a REN of two.
That means two phones and a modem is your limit, so connecting all
that in parallel is not a goer. Even so, some modems are not happy working
at the limit so you could try removing a phone or two. Another thing that
messes up faxes is the call waiting system, this can also disrupt Internet
connections.
There is always going to be some combination of modem and software
that prevents faxes being 100% compatible. Even commercial fax machines
occasionally come up with an incompatible combination. For example my
Motorola modem running on my Mac won't connect to the fax machine in
the Acorn User office. Why? No one knows. Sorry but it's an area where
there are no guarantees.
boot up, shut down and opening
windows?"
1 1 am not sure if you are
I trying to access the disc files
I from an application. To see if
the disc is okay copy the files onto
your harddisc.
If that works try to use them
from the application. If that fails
then your application might need
upgrading to cope with the
StrongARM processor.
If you can't even copy them onto
the hard drive it looks like the disc
drive has not been put back correctly,
probably the connection leads have
not been pushed home. Alternatively
you could have put the drive out
of alignment, in which case see a
dealer.
Video clips are a bit tricky, WSS
does have software with various
video capabilities that will allow you
to play most but not all videos.
Finally, there is a sound effects
program on P F Johnson’s Kosovo
CD called Events (part of CC’s
Audioctrl).
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999 V/
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Issue 212
October 1999
# Detailed
TechWriter review
# Flat screen
monitors
# Viruses feature
# TechWriter demo
on disc
• First look at
RISC OS 4
• DataSafe review
• Home Networks
Part II
• Eurofighter
Typhoon reviewed
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Issue 208
June 1 999
• Film Trailer CDII
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• APDL games CD's
• DigSigGen review
• !ProCAD+
• Heretic & Hexen
• Acorn Confidence
Part II
• Fishy Disk
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Issue 210
August 1 999
• Nctpiilot Internet
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July 1999
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Country .
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April 1999
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Parti
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letters@acornuser.com
W
Do you do
voodoo?
I n reference to your article on
RiscStation's RS7500 PCI-slot capable
machine, and announcements on their
Website concerning Voodoo graphics
cards.
An anonymous developer of drivers for
3DFX has claimed that as far as drivers go,
"the Voodoo 3 2000 is the only card feasible
for the RS7500 PCI slot system". This is
because the Voodoo 1 and 2 are 'loop back
cards' which means they run through a
separate base graphics card. The Voodoo 3
2000 on the other hand is an 'all in one' base
card and 3D Accelerator. The RISC OS
drivers are apparently available on the
Voodoo developer website.
In a separate conversation an unnamed
spokesman for Creative Labs - a company
famed in the PC world for sound cards, DVD
players, MPEG Cards and Graphic cards -
was reported to have said that "the Acorn
market's size is far more extensive than I
realised. To ignore it would be passing up a
great marketing opportunity, although much
would depend on how the PCI system
development progresses, the further
development of the operating system and the
potential cost for driver conversion".
This is definitely food for thought as
Creative is one of many companies using the
NVIDIA graphic chipset - currently the PC
markets Open Graphics Language Standard
- and support from this area would be a
major boost for the Acorn market.
This is especially true when you take into
consideration that, as well known a
company as 3DFX are, their reluctance to
licence the Voodoo 3 chipset to other card
manufacturers in the PC market has raised
questions about their long term future. This
in turn has seen a rise in NVIDIA's profile
Slayer correction
Last month we ran an article on virus
killers, and one of them. Slayer, had a bit
chopped off it's Product box. The correct
e-mail address for Slayer's authors is
unciscy@eh.org Dunstan Orchard
and on the 31 January NVIDIA announced a
new generation of GPU (graphic processing
unit) cards. These are due to be released by
most of the major graphic manufactures by
the beginning of October 1999.
A.D. Fector, by e-mail
Podules, what fun
I read in one of my game instructions that you
can make a set of pedals and a steering wheel
to plug into an old (but nice) A3000. One
problem. I need an I/O Podule. What is an
I/O Podule? Apparently without it the said
pedals and steering wheel will not work.
Secondly, is it possible to do some DIY
software conversion? Thirdly why won't High
Street steering wheels/pedals work on an
Acorn (RiscStation R7500 and so on)? Fourthly,
won't someone up there at Acorn User please
create a series with a theme of game design/
programming or maybe some Run The Rises
for the younger readers of the magazine - just
like a certain Mike Cook did in the Let's
Compute! magazine.
Kevin McMullin (13), by e-mail
An I/O podule is a card that plugs into your
computer that gives you some input/output
(I/O) ports that are the same as the old model B.
Basically this is an 8-bit digital User Port and a
4-channel 12-bit A/D (analogue to digital)
converter. These cost about £50.
The reason you can't plug in a High Street
steering wheel is that there's nowhere to plug it in.
PCs have a joystick which contain a simple bit of
electronics that the software knows how to drive.
So any scope for DIY? Well yes, I did an article
in June '96 on how to use PC-type joysticks you
can get it on the Web from http://www.doc.mmu.
ac.uk/Physics/Acorn/RTR96.html however
remember any software will have to know how to
drive it. Another one in October '95 showed the
Acorn standard way of connecting joysticks you
can find that on http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/
Physics/Acorn/ RT R95.html
I do include some 'low tech' construction articles
from time to time although I haven't recently, so I
will think about a few. Hope that helps.
Mike Cook
http://www.acornuser.com November 1999
interne!
'Mike Glover
and
Bob Pollard
t
'It's funny
- people
think of
DTP as
making
small
documents,
no one
thinks of it
on a novel
scale/
9
JR person can fool you into thinking that
Ift they're a nice guy if you meet them at
^^k a show, but it's hard to keep up the
^ ^^k pretence when you spend four hours
in the same car. I spent four hours driving with
Mike Glover and I can confirm he is officially a
nice guy. This interview is a tale of two cities,
Stamford and Holmes Chapel, and two
partners in Icon Technology: Mike Glover and
Bob Pollard.
Most people will admit to doing a bit of
DIY and many have a few tools or even a small
workshop, but what you don't expect is to find
a full tool shop complete with wood-cutting
machines capable of making window frames.
Mike and his wife Angela are renovating their
'country cottage'. This not just painting, this is
fitting windows, taking down walls and roofs.
The first thing after the tour I am shown is
the office, and then EasiWriter, which I have
been finding out does exactly what it says on
the box.
'We started on the Mac, with Mac Author/
Mike explains. 'Douglas Adams used it to
write Dirk Gently' s Holistic Detective Agency,
and was probably the first author to typeset his
own novel. It's funny - people think of DTP as
making small documents, no one thinks of it
on a novel scale. These days we are just on the
Acorn platform but another platform as well
would be fun ... perhaps when we've made
more money. Both EasiWriter and MacAuthor
are different from other programs because they
are written from a writer's viewpoint, not a
programmer's.'
Mike met Bob through a mutual
acquaintance when Bob was working for ICL.
Bob lives in Holmes Chapel, and Mike gives
me a lift over to Bob's house, telling me what
he's done in previous lives on the way.
'I have been to the same party as Bill Gates,
back in 1979. Gates and Scully were wandering
around saying hello to everyone. In those days
I was living in Brazil. It was the usual story, I
went for two years and ended up staying for
nine. I was a regional manager for Dunlop. I
looked after the whole of South America.'
Mike tells me that he will show me what
his factories used to make when we pass the
next electrical transmission line. Another hour
later we eventually see some; the black anti-
vibrators which are needed when you
conduct high voltage electricity. Without them
the vibrations caused by conducting a high
voltage alternating current would cause the
conductors to fail and fall down.
We eventually arrive at Bob's house: 'Bob is
the chief programmer and I'm the other one',
jokes Mike.
'I worked for ICL straight from University,'
says Bob, 'must have been for about 20 years.
In those days computers were room-sized.'
'Its your fault we got into the Acorn
market,' Mike reminds him.
'Acorn has been my hobby since the BBC
Micro came out,' agrees Bob. 'I was actually
working in the factory where they were made.
Unfortunately no discount, but it was
interesting.'
'What also happened was that someone at
Acorn was using MacAuthor. So Acorn came
to us and commissioned us to to do
something with the functionality of MacAuthor
and Formulator - something Bob wrote in a
year by himself which just did mathematical
formulae. As with all good software
developers we were a bit late on delivering so
Acorn asked us to drop the maths bit and
come out with the word processor part, then
get on with TechWriter.
'Then Acorn decided that they really did
not want to be in the business of publishing
their own software, so they gave it back to us
- which was nice. We have done other stuff
for Acorn like the word processor in the
Network Computer.'
Icon would like to make more money so it
could employ some people to program for
them. It's Bob who does it all at the moment.
'I program in C++, we have been doing
C++ from the start...'
'Now don't be modest,' butts in Mike.
'On the Mac,' continues Bob, 'we used
Object Pascal. We needed something object-
oriented on the Acorn so I thought let's go for
C++, but there was no compiler so I had write
my own. Five years later Acorn got around to
doing it.'
The interview turns to chatting and I find
out that Bob the hoarder still has his original
Sinclair calculator. Bob and Mike chat a little
about business and I get see how well they get
on as a team. Then it's back to Stamford with
Mike giving me a classical music lesson on the
way.
That 'nice guy' image Mike projects at
shows? It's genuine. Trust me.
Jill Regan
November 1999 http://www.acornuser.com
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