AUGUST 1985 - Volume 8 « Issue 8 £1.00
PRACTICAL
COMPUTING
PRINTER SPECIAL:
DAWN OF THE LASER? Q
Compaq 286 e Kaypro e Vienna PC 45
Word Perfect e Mac music
A low-cost BBC mainframe!
The Great British
Laboratory Micro
A@ > @@ @ @ @ eS
area eegeeeaerse @ @
High performance hardware
and
Full laboratory software — including FFTs — is standard
Demonstration programs include Spectrum Analyser, Signal Averager
The 1401 is made in Cambridge, England—and runs just as fast with Apples and IBMs too!
- Tel: Cambridge (0223) 316186
-timM
Real tt 2 Science Park,
eae oe
COMPUterS BIE crete no. 10
o
| COVER FEATURE | | COVER FEATURE | RE
PRINTERS
This month’s special feature by
Tan Stobie looks at printers in
all their various incarnations.
Starting on page 85 there is an
introduction to the available
technologies and current
market trends. Then on page
88 Jack Schofield looks at
what’s happening among the
dot-matrix printers: NLQ is
becoming an almost standard
feature to be found on, among
many others, Epson’s new
LX-80. Finally, on page 92, we
report on our hands-on
experience with the hottest of
hot technologies: lasers, in the
form of Apple’s new 85
Laserwriter —
INSIDE
Vienna PC Outstanding
screen display — page 66.
eee
Omni-Reader Cheap text-
input device — page 57.
"PRACTICAL
COMPUTING
AUGUST 1985 CONTENTS
TWO AT-ALIKES
The elegant, sophisticated Compaq Deskpro 286 and
the workmanlike Kaypro 286i are leading contenders
for the title of top PC/AT clone.
Jack Schofield makes the comparison
GEM DESKTOP
Is Digital Research’s icon, mouse and window
environment the ultimate front end? Mike
Lewis assesses its chances of bringing Mac-
alike applications to each and every micro
OMNI-READER
Tan Stobie investigates a cheap text-scanning device
which enables your micro to read typewritten 57
copy —7
CMS 6502 RACK SYSTEM
This crate machine lets you build up a totally open
BBC emulator to meet your specialised 58
requirements. Roger Cullis takes the lid off —
VIENNA PC
Glyn Moody looks at this MS-DOS machine from
Northern Telecom, which has possibly the best 66
white-phosphor VDU produced so far
WORD PERFECT
Is Word Perfect really so good that you should
throw-out WordStar and start again?
Susan Curran believes it might be
MAC MUSIC
Turn your Mac into a revolutionary music processor,
of use it as a synthesiser. Glyn Moody with two 70
new programs =r
HOTLINES
Before you buy that micro Joia Shillingford gives 10
tips on what to ask the hotline services that go 74
with them —
TOP 10 NON-IBMULATORS
You don’t have to choose IBM. We give 10 good
reasons why you could be better off with 77
something completely different =
INTERVIEW — BILL GATES
Glyn Moody talks to the ever-youthful boss of
Microsoft, who gives his views on the Mac and
the IBM PC
50
=
68
NEWS
HARDWARE NEWS
Commodore’s C-900 and
Amiga machines
15
Flight Simulator on the AT.
IBM NEWS
Price cuts
SOFTWARE NEWS
How to match up
incompatible files
GENERAL NEWS
BTG’s £100,000 academic
enterprise competition 23
OPEN FILE
CONTENTS
19
21
This month’s details 99
IBM TO APRICOT
Writing portable code 100
CALLS FROM MBASIC
Calling machine code 102
BBC
ROM to disc transfer 108
APPLE
Reset problems solved 112
IBM
How big are your files? 114
END OF FILE
Printing Russian, Greek and
Cyrillic text 116
~~ REGULARS
EDITORIAL
Death of a nation
FEEDBACK
Your letters
ASK PC
You ask, we answer
NEXT MONTH
What's on the stocks . . .
CHIP-CHAT
5
6
Refreshing memories
SIW WORKSHOP
Basic style
COMMS LINK
Cellular radio
THE LEVY SERIES
Twixt
BOOK REVIEWS
Beesley on BBC books
LAST WORD
MS-DOS mysteries
121
125
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Le)
ELEPHANT printer ribbons, head cleaning disks and computer cleaning kits are now added to
the ELEPHANT family to provide you with a total computer supplies package. Together with
ELEPHANT MEMORY SYSTEMS disks — certified 100% error free and problem free and
guaranteed to meet or exceed every industry standard — ELEPHANT is now more than ever the
trusted brand that gives you the best from your computer.
Dennison Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
Colonial Way, Watford, Herts WD2 4JY, Tel: Watford (0923) 41244, Telex: 923321
France: Soroclass, 45, rue de l'Est - 92100, Boulogne.
Tel. Reseau de Distribution: 605.98.99, Administration des Ventes: 605.70.78, Telex: EMS 206 436 F
Germany: Marcom Computergubehor GmbH, Podbielskistr, 321, 3000 Hannover 51, Tel: (0511) 647420, Telex: 923818
Italy: King Mec SPA, Via Regio Parco 108 BIS, 10036 Settimo, Torinese, Tel: (011) 800.93.93, Telex: 211467 KIN MEC-I .
®@ Circle No. 136
Other Countries: Dennison International Company, 4006 Erkrath 1, Matthias-Claudius-Strasse 9, Telex: 858 6600
EDITORIAL
THE BRITISH WHAT?
Whatever happened to the British micro? A couple of years ago,
we seemed to be dominating at least the home micro business
through Sinclair, Acorn, Dragon, Oric and Lynx, with the Jupiter
Ace and Grundy Newbrain adding to the list. Since then five of
these seven firms have gone into receivership, Acorn has had to be
bailed out by the Italians, and Sinclair Research by a subsidiary of
the Maxwell empire.
British micros never had quite the same dominance of the busi-
ness market, but the story is little different there. The arrival of
the IBM PC and its host of clones cut a swathe through the ranks
of British manufacturers, and the number of bankruptcies doesn’t
even bear thinking about. There are still many small firms success-
fully making high-quality micros, but the only major manu-
facturer still flourishing seems to be ACT.
What are the prospects for the survivors? Sinclait Research, sad
to say, needs new products. The Spectrum is a micro of little
merit, which sold on good marketing, patriotism and price. Now
that it is being undercut by superior machines only the existing
software base supports it. Every Spectrum program converted to
another machine is another nail in its coffin.
As for the QL, this was spoiled by being released in a botched
form. Again, a new version is desperately needed, with a built-in
3.5in. disc and full Motorola 68000 instead of the cut-down
68008. Otherwise it looks likely to lose out in the battle between
the Amstrad CPC-664 and the Atari 520ST.
Acorn’s product line also looks weak, with the inept Electron
and ridiculously overpriced BBC B+ having limited appeal. The
immediate hope is that Olivetti can flog them in the under-
developed education markets overseas before an industry-
standard operating system catches on.
For the future, however, Acorn badly needs a BBC C. The only
obvious option is to redesign the B to incorporate the existing
National Semiconductor 32016 add-on. This would provide BBC
B compatibility with an extension of remarkable power and
educational appeal.
ACT is in no desperate need of new products, which is all the
more reason why it ought to launch some soon. The requirement
is an 80286-based machine to compete with the IBM PC/AT,
allowing ACT to slide imperceptibly into proper IBM com-
patibility. The only worry is that ACT will neglect its U.K. and
European user base while trying to crack the American market.
Look what happened to Acorn... .
There are two other major micro manufacturers active in the
U.K.: IBM and Commodore. IBM is continuing to expand its
operations in Greenock, Scotland, where it makes vast quantities
of IBM PCs, almost all for export. No one thinks sales of IBM’s
micros are going to stop.
Commodore, however, offers more cause for concern. It is not
the fault of the British workforce that Commodore’s product
planning appears to be a shambles, and that the company’s
declining sales look like putting it into the red this year. However,
the Corby factory appears to be churning out Commodore 64s in
great quantities for Europe and Australasia. And when
Commodore sorts out its product line, it should find itself selling
all the main industry-standard operating systems: PC-DOS on its
IBM PC clone, the Unix-like Coherent on the 900 and good old
CP/M on the 128. The other products can presumably be junked.
If it works, Commodore might do quite well.
The continuing success of IBM and ACT, and the possible
revival of Commodore’s fortunes, show that it is possible to
manufacture successful micros in the U.K. and to sell them
overseas. The real problems are getting both the design and
marketing right, and Amstrad has shown we can do that too. If
the CPC-464 was actually made in the U.K., that would be a
success worth bragging about.
FAYEARS AGO...
Here at last — the 64K RAM chip is finally being shipped to European
dealers and developers and is now available for the general market.
Manufactured by Motorola, it has, for some incomprehensible reason,
been called the MCM6665L25.
It is a 65,536-bit high-speed — 250 nanosecond access — dynamic
RAM requiring eight address lines. Complete address decoding is
done on-chip with address latches incorporated. Operating from a
single 5V power supply the chip dissipates less than 300mW. The only
reservation about this great advance in chip development is the price.
A quick calculation on our 16K RAM micro shows that the price per
byte of-a 16K RAM is 0.3p whereas that of the 64K RAM works out
more like 2p per byte. No doubt the price will eventually fall.
PC Volume 3 tssue 8
EDITORIAL 01-661 3609
Telecom Gold 81:JET727
Editor
ADVERTISING 01-661 3612
Advertisement Manager
NITIN JOSHI 01-661 3021
Assistant Advertisement
PUBLISHER GAVIN HOWE
PUBLISHED by Electrical-Electronic Press, Quadrant House, The
Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS. Tel: 01-661 3500.
Telex/grams 892084 BISPRS G
JACK SCHOFIELD
Deputy Editor
DISTRIBUTED by Business Press International Lid. Quadrant
Manager House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS,
NEIL MARCHANT 01-661 8626
GLYN MOODY : 2 SUBSCRIPTIONS: U.K. £15.50 per annum; overseas £30 per annum
Assistant Editor Advertisement Executives annum; selling price m Eire subject to currency exchange
IAN STOBIE JANET THORPE 01-661 3468 fluctuations and VAT; airmail rates available on application to
Z IAN WALKER 01-661 8425 Subscriptions Manager, Business Press International Ltd, Oakfield
Art Editor House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, Sussex RH16 3DH.
Advertisement Secretary
JOAN BORRELL
Midlands office
DAVID HARVETT 021-356 4838
HUGH ANDERSON
Production Editor
JOHN LIEBMANN
Tel: (0444) 459188
Printed in Great Britain for the proprietors Business Press
International Ltd by Greenaway Harrison Web Offset Division,
Sub-editor coin ffi Southend-on-Sea. Typeset by Lithotype Design, London EC1.
orthern office © Business Press International Ltd 1985
a dein GEOFF AIKIN 061-872 8861 ISSN 0141-5433
itorial Secretary Glasified
SUE JORDAN assitt - Would-be authors ure welcome to send articles to the Editor but
LUCY O’SULLIVAN 01-661 8163 PC cannot undertake to return them. Payment is at £35 per
‘Consultants Group Advertisement Manager published page. Submissions should be typed oc computer-printed
aeons CHRIS BIDMEAD SHOBHAN GAJJAR 01-661 8441 3nd shenld includ? 2 tape of dit of 20) Prsea
Cover Weatare? pale 65. PETER LAURIE very effort is made to check articles and listings but PC cannot
guarantee that programs will run and can accept no responsibility
for any errors.
Photo: Tony Hutchings.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985 .
Line Counter
I REFER to the program Line
Counter in the Commodore
section of Open File on page 138
of the May 1985 issue of Practical
Computing.
May I first point out an error in
the published program, said to
be for the Commodore 64. In
that machine, the address of the
ROM subroutine which converts
an integer in AX toa decimal
string and prints the string is
$BDCD, so the data in line 21
should be 205, 189.
I devised my own program for
the same purpose to help me
split up Basic programs into
handy sections for printing. My
version is shorter and more
elegant. Instead of plodding
through the business part of each
line and counting the zeros which
mark the end of the lines, it
jumps straight from one line to
the next using the next line
address placed at the beginning
of each line in Basic RAM, and
counts the jumps. To convert the
published program to be
equivalent to mine, the following
amendments afe required:
13 substitute 1 for 0 or, perhaps
better, 164, 43 for 10, 0.
14 DATA 72,200,208, 2,230, 89,
| 177, 88
15 DATA 240, 12,133, 89,104,
168, 230,
16 DATA 208, 2,230, 36, 208,
232, 104, 165
17 DATA 36, 166, 35, 32
delete 18 & 19
21 DATA 205, 189 (see above)
Consequentials are
7 891 instead of 905
23 118 instead of 132
For my own purposes I have
added a routine which returns
the number of the nth line,
where n is first Poked into
locations 251,252. For brevity
and convenience, the first 14
bytes of the line counter routine
are placed in a subroutine, which
also opens the nth line routine.
Then n is decremented by 1. The
same technique is used,
combined with a countdown, to
find the address pointed to at the
beginning of the (n - 1)th
line. Then 2 is added to obtain
the address of the line number
bytes of the nth line, and the
integer is printed as before.
HAROLD H BROWNE,
Maidstone,
Kent.
THE EDITOR REPLIES: You are
quite correct. We left the wrong
line 21 in place when making
the listing. It should read
21 DATA 205,189
as you point out.
FEEDBACK
Our Feedback columns offer readers the opportunity of
bringing their computing experience and problems to the
Attention of others, as well as to seek our advice or to make
suggestions, which we are always happy to receive. Make
sure you use Feedback — it is your chance to keep in touch.
Write to
Feedback, Practical Computing,
Quadrant House, The Quadrant,
Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS
WANTED...
I HAVE BEEN waiting expectantly for some years, cash in hand, for a
device which I really need to appear on the market. Because it seems
so extraordinary that I have not come across anything of the kind, I
appeal to your readership for a solution, which I feel very certain will
be of widespread interest.
What I seek is:
@ A standard QWERTY keyboard computer preferably CP/M,
having both a word processor, preferably WordStar, and a Basic,
preferably Microsoft, in on-board ROMs or ROM cartridges.
@ A composite video interface for use with a monochrome monitor.
@ Bubble memory or battery powered with CMOS circuitry.
Sufficient free memory to hold a few pages of text, say, 5/10K. As
third choice a built-in cassette system might be acceptable.
@ A serial interface and facilities to dump text or a Basic program
direct from memory to another micro having conventional discs.
The purpose? To enable me to draft at home the odd letter, brief
report or small segment of program. Then to carry only a single small
unit to the office next day, where either letter or program can be
transferred to the office micro for further editing and/or printing. I
feel certain that I cannot be the only person to whom such
equipment would be of the tremendous value.
PETER GOODE,
Hayes,
Middlesex.
THE EDITOR REPLIES: The Epson PX-8 and NEC-8401a both have
WordStar in ROM and would seem nearest to filling the bill. The
Epson is widely available, but the new NEC portable has only been
launched in the U.S. Unless, of course you know different.
build a fixed number system into
their languages. Perhaps it is
because they have failed to
distinguish between the syntax
and the semantics of arithmetic.
The rules of algebra concerning
+,-,*, but not /, are the
same whether they refer to
integers, complexes, elements of
an algebraic number ring, or
finite field, etc. All these humber
systems are useful.
The proper approach would be
to restrict the programming
language specification to
questions of syntax, and to leave
details of implementation to a
library module. The module,
selectable by the user and
perhaps held in ROM or on disc,
would deal with how numbers are
to be represented in memory,
how they are to be input, how
Matrices
and complex
numbers
IN YOUR March issue, page 59,
there appeared a letter enquiring
about matrix and complex-
number handling. May I bring to
your attention the Matrom, a
sideways ROM for the BBC
Micro, which adds matrix
handling to BBC Basic? It has
been used in teaching since
October 1984, and can be bought
for £25 from Matrom, c/o
Mathematics Laboratory, School
of Mathematical and Physical
Sciences, University of Sussex.
I have often been puzzled by
the short-sightedness of designers
of programming languages who
displayed on the screen, and how
the primitive arithmetic
operations are to be executed.
Integers and/or floating-point
numbers’could form a default
module.
Such a system is quite possible
with Forth, where any word can
be redefined. In Pascal you could
get by if you are prepared to put
up with clumsy prefix notations
like plus (x,y) instead of x+y.
It is not necessary for a
programming language to specify
a number.system, any more than
it should specify the computer it
runs on. It is even conceivable
that one could lay down
appropriate calling conventions
for each processor to enable
standard suites of machines-code
programs to be used with any
high-level language that has been
designed to take advantage of
them.
G C WRAITH,
Reader in Mathematics,
University of Sussex,
Falmer,
East Sussex BN1 9QH.
Finding out
the hard way
AS AN avid reader of your
excellent publication I have
always been disappointed by the
lack of in-depth review — or any
review — of the various
programming languages and
associated compilers and
development tools available.
Perhaps you feel that this is too
esoteric for most readers who
seem to be content with Basic. As
someone who specialises in
instrument interfacing via IBM
PCs to networks/ mainframes, I
_ had mote or less despaired of
being able to do such work in
anything other than Basic
assembler.
IBM’s Basica is so incredibly
powerful for interfacing and
communications work that this,
coupled with its interactive
nature, makes development work
simple. However, with complex
programs of, say, 48K and over,
the lack of global variables and
associated subroutines makes less
elegant coding than I would
prefer. The failure of IBM to
provide a version 2.00 compatible
compiler in the U.K. is a further
serious disadvantage; Basica is
painfully slow. The major
problem, as I see it, is that no
other development systems on
the IBM, such as Pascal, Fortran
and C, have intrinsic
communications/ graphics/screen-
handling support and one is at
the mercy of third-party suppliers
for these items. To my cost I have
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
FEEDBACK
discovered that the quality of
such offerings is rarely acceptable.
Even when they are available, the
endless compile/debug,
run/debug cycle is painfully slow.
The latest version of Borland’s
Turbo Pascal seems to change all
that, even more so with the
about-to-be-released Graphics
Toolbox. It is superb on all
aspects of screen-
handling/graphics/file-handling
and I have just discoverd that an
Asynch Manager is now available.
This package essentially replicates
the communications power
available in Basic. All this,
coupled with the almost
unbelievable speed of the one-
pass compiler, and the numerous
handles thoughtfully proved into
the BDOS/BIOS means that the
full features of the IBM PC are
available without need to
recourse to assembly language.
The low start-up cost of
Borland’s package puts it within
the reach of most programmers;
its specification must be one of
the most comprehensive
available. For programs of
medium complexity, where speed
of development, and indeed of
execution — use the 8087 version
for maths-based packages — is
vital, I doubt if it could be
rivalled.
The point, however, is this:
despite reading a whole host of
computing/IBM-related
magazines I still had'to find out
most of this the hard way. Indeed
I only discovered the Asynch
package because I had more or
less decided to invest in a
complete C development system
and the Borland version was
mentioned in small print at the
end of a flysheet. The resultant
saving in time/effort/money was
considerable. Publications, such
as yours, which cater for the
serious user, should perhaps
think a little more along these
lines and less along the
games/ business package
approach. After all, there are
only so many ways of watching a
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
THIS ONE'S AN
ABSOLUTE.
GEM!
business rise/fall, or solving the
Towers of Hanoi problem, vital
though it is that we understand
these things. There are a whole
host of areas where micfos are not
making any impact simply
because the right questions are
not being asked. Even if the
correct tools are being provided
for the job, who knows about
them? :
DR BARRY CLARK,
Glasgow.
THE EDITOR REPLIES: Turbo
Pascal looks outstanding,
especially for the low price, but
we are still waiting for our
reviewer to produce his report.
e e
Using Pip
e
instead of
é . 8
Typewrit
I WAS surprised to see the routine
Typewrit.Com to turn a micro
into a typewriter published in the
May edition of Practical
Computing. Has it been
forgotten that this facility exists
under Pip? Load a disc containing
Pip, and on the A> prompt type
PIP LST: =CON:
press Return, and the job is
done.
Different printers react in
different ways. The Microline 82
only prints a line when Return is
pressed. This is very helpful
because it is possible to correct a
line before printing. However,
you must use the space bar to
space across the paper as you
would do in envelope addressing.
The Tab key will not work. The
Smith-Corona TP-I prints each
letter as it is typed. In fact it
behaves as described by the Lees.
A BILBROUGH,
Callow End,
Worcestershire.
JOHN AND TIMOTHY LEE
REPLY: If you redefine the
devices with
PIP LST:=CON:
TALK ABOUT
‘USER-FRIENDLY...
oo
—
then the first line that you type
appears on the screen. But when
you press Return, the cursor
moves to the beginning of the
same line, so the second line you
type overwrites the first, and so
on.
Using two different daisywheel
printers set up correctly for
normal working with Basic or
WordStar, we found that the
lines overprinted one another as
they did on the screen. This
could be cured by changing the
switch settings on the printer to
Local Linefeed. An alternative is
to type Control-J after every
Return. This makes the printer
advance a line without requiring
switch changes.
The program Typewrit has the
advantages that each line is
shown on the screen, with no
overwriting, the switch settings
on the printer do not require
- changing, and no control
characters need be typed.
Using Pip you have to use the
space bar to move across the
paper to the starting point for
each line, which is a nuisance if
you are doing several envelopes or
a set of sticky labels. Typewrit
remembers how far across the
page you tabbed the first time. It
is also a nuisance remembering
that Ctrl-Z is needed to return to
CP/M, rather than the usual
Ctrl-C. Lastly, if you want tabs
expanded-under Pip, type
PIP PRN: =CON:
Comm +
WE READ with interest your piece
“Soft Options’’, page 105, in
June’s Practical Computing,
regarding IBM PC software. Your
list of British packages included
only Unicom Rap and the Braid
Mail Manager. You are clearly
unaware of Lion Micro System’s
Comm + package.
Comm + offers facilities for
uploading and downloading files
from systems such as Telecom
Gold; Viewdata access at
1;200/75 baud; error-checking
ITS THE ONLY
COMPUTER IN
THE ENTIRE
OFFICE ..-
file transfer, which is better than
Bstam in so far as we can transfer
all eight bits of a file over seven-
bit datalines as well as offering
XModem compatibility, and five
other terminal emulations
including ANSI. As far as we
know, Comm + is the only
package to include as standard an
integral programming language
of its own which isn’t merely a
script file processor, but is a
genuine language written for
communications. It does for
communications what dBase II
did for databases and offers
bespoke performance at a fraction
of the time and cost of writing
from scratch. We also include
integral text editing and
formatting, including a telex
formatter, as standard.
Comm + is available for 79
different CP/M-80, CP/M-86,
MS-DOS, PC-DOS, MP/M and
CCP/M systems, which is a range
unrivalled at present.
Lastly, we'd like to point out
that though Rap does error
checking on Gold, our own
algorithms for doing this are far
more efficient — we've been
asking Robin Oliphant to make
them available since the end of
1982 with no luck. If Telecom
Gold let users have access to the
language facilities that U.S.
Dialcom users have as standard,
such as the Prime Assemblers,
Fortran and Basic compilers and
so on, we could do it ourselves..
So Rap being able to do error
checking with Gold isn’t a
technical innovation but a
marketing coup . . . we could do
it better if they'd let us. And
Comm + isa better package than
Rap in all other respects — it’s
available on a far wider range of
machines, and if Gold are
genuinely interested in extending
facilities for users, they really
ought to let us put the other end
of our error checker on their
system.
ANDREW MARGOLIS, |
Lion Micto Systems,
London WCIE.
... THAT YOU CAN
PROGRAM To
GIVE YOUA 430
ALARM-CALL
b I use 2 CP/M machine
fe] for word processing with
WordStar, and running
Microsoft Basic programs. Please
can you tell me if it is possible to use
WordStar as a screen editor to edit
programs as I do on a mainframe.
Some Basic programs stored on disc
do not seem to be the letters and
numbers I would expect, so I can’t
edit these. Those programs that are
stored correctly appear to edit OK
with WordStar, but after such
editing Microsoft Basic loads
correctly but gives an error Direct
Statement in File when I try to run
the program.
as a word-processing
program, but it may also
be used as a sophisticated full-
screen editor for writing and editing
programs in Basic, Fortran, Pascal,
machine code or any other
language. Using an editor is much
better than altering a program
under Basic, since only the part of
a line that is wrong needs to be
changed. it is also possible to move
a line from one place to another,
change the line number, make
global changes throughout the
program, and so on.
Basic programs are stored as a
series of ASCII characters. The Basic
interpreter compacts the lines you
type, by converting keywords such
as Input, Print, Goto, and so on
into a single character. Numbers are
converted into binary. When you
have finished typing the program,
you generally save it on disc, and
with Microsoft disc Basic the
command is
SAVE “FILENAME. BAS”
This command writes the com-
pacted form of the program on to
disc, and it is very difficult to use an
editor to alter such a file, since the
lines of program do not look like
the text you typed in. It is possible
to save the program on disc using
ASCII characters rather than the
compacted form with the command
SAVE “FILENAME. BAS’’,A
The file produced in this way looks
just the same as the lines of program
you typed in, so it is easy to edit the
file using WordStar or any other
text editor. If you would like to use
the editor on a file you have stored
in compacted form on disc you just
first load the compacted file into
memory under Basic and then save
it on the disc in ASCII form before
using the editor. To run WordStar
you type the command WS, and
after the sign-on message has been
displayed the No-File menu
appears on the screen. If you want
to edit a program you must enter
the command N to edit a non-
document file. You can enter text,
MARTIN JOHNS
WordStar is primarily used
SORTING
METHODS
I have a problem sorting numbers into order on a computer.
I am using a bubble sort written in Basic and, while it works
correctly, the computer is unbelievably slow. I have been
told that there are much better ways of sorting a large number of
values. Please can you suggest reference books which describe these,
and explain how they work. Is there anywhere I can get these better
programs, either on disc or as listings which I can type in?
D OLDERSHAW
There are quite a lot of different sorting methods available,
and the bubble sort is the slowest. For general purposes, the
Shell sort is among the best, and always works. Hoare’s
Quickersort is often even better, but you may by chance get
pathological data — that is, data arranged in an unfortunate order
— which makes this very slow. If you have a special case such as
dealing with integer numbers which have a limited range, then an
address sort is the best choice.
Two articles on sorting appeared in Practical Computing, the first
in the March 1983 issue, pages 120 to 122, and the second the
following month, pages 136 to 138. Mike Lewis also wrote about sorts
in the February 1985 issue, page 53. The standard reference to
sorting methods is the book The Art of Computer Programming
volume 3 sorting and searching by D E Knuth, published by
Addison-Wesley. The Shell algorithm is described-in an article ‘‘A
high speed sorting procedure’’ by D L Shell in the Communications
of the Association for Computing Machinery, July 1959. The last two
references are technical, and an easier explanation is given in our own
book, Statéstics and Computer Methods in Basic published by Van
Nostrand Reinhold. it has a 17-page chapter on sorting techniques,
together with tried and tested Basic programs for five methods.
Alternatively you can buy sorting programs on disc for £75 plus
VAT, or listings for £25 from Micro Logic Consultants Ltd of
Horsham, Sussex. Telephone: (0403) 731818.
Finally, remember that whichever method you use it will work
much faster if you use a Basic compiler, rather than an interpreter.
move the cursor, add, delete, alter
and so on.
Programs are made up of lines of
code which comprise letters and
numbers, which are part of the
ASCII set of characters which
require only seven bits, so the
eighth bit is never set. Thus the
Microsoft Basic interpreter expects
to find a program where only seven
bits have been set. If you edit a
program in Document mode, you
may accidentally set the eighth bit
to some character in the program
file. When MBasic finds the
character with the eighth bit set it
thinks that there is a mistake, and
gives the error message Direct
Statement In File.
If you have always edited the
program in Non Document mode
this can never happen and there is a
very simple way to put the problem
right should you make this mistake.
Simply copy the file using the
CP/M utility program Pip, and
write it back on the disc with the
same file name, using the Z option
to zero the eighth bit. For example:
PIP FILENAME.BAS = FILENAME.
BAS[Z]
The file is now identical to the
original except that any eighth bits
that were accidentally set have now
been unset, and you can run MBasic
without any problems.
fe) in Practical Computing
on the maintenance and
repair of disc drives? I would like
to know, for instance, whether
there are any internal parts which
need cleaning and/or lubricating.
What disasters would be likely to
ensue if I took the cover off to
explore the working parts. Are
there such things as maintenance
kits, as there are for cassette
recorders?
A article on this subject in
Practical Computing,
and we do not know of one
anywhere else. We have not
heard of maintenance kits for disc
drives, though they are common
enough for tape and cassette
recorders.
We usually go to a reputable
Has there been an article
M J HOSKEN
There has not been an
{
dealer to get disc drives fixed.
There are programs sold for
Apple, CP/M systems and the
IBM PC that test a variety of
things to do with your discs.
They may test the speed of the
drives, the pressure the discs, the
alignment of the read/write head,
and so on. We can see little point
in buying these programs, since
we lack the expertise and the
specialist equipment required to
fix the fault.
However, there are some things
we will do. A number of
suppliets sell special discs to clean
the read/write head. In time, the
head may become dirty because
of the build-up of dust or from
oxide which wears off the surface
of the disc. The special discs are
similar to a floppy disc, but are
abrasive. Usually you put a
special disc-cleaning fluid on the
disc and run it in the drive. It is
worth doing this periodically as
routine maintenance or when you
suspect trouble.
The disc cleaning fluid may be
expensive, and you could save
money by going to your local
chemist and buying some
isopropyl! alcohol, otherwise
known as isopropanol, it is the
same as the cleaning fluid. ]
know of people who soak cotton
buds, intended for cleaning
children’s ears and noses, in
isopropyl alcohol and poke them
into the drive to clean the
read/write head. Be very careful
if you do this, lest you disturb
the alignment of the head. On
no account should you poke
round inside with anything rigid,
like a screwdriver or a pencil.
If you have disc-drive trouble,
it is worth checking the
connections where the ribbon
cable is plugged in. The plug
slides off the printed -circuit
board and reveals a set of gold-
plated contacts. If these look the
slightest bit black, oily, dirty, or
even dull, clean them using a
hard rubber. It is safest to rub
along the length of the gold
contact, rather than across them.
We once had a drive that
squeaked when it spun. After
checking that it was not just one
particular floppy disc causing the
problem, we unscrewed the
printer-circuit board from the
drive and used a pin to put a
single drop of very thin sewing-
machine oil on the ball race at
the centre. Too much oil would
be disastrous. If any gets on the
read/write head, it will not read
or write, and if any gets on a disc
that too will stop working -
permanently. Routine oiling is
not required, and in general you
will do more harm trying to oil it
than leaving it alone.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Computer Enterprises
international Ud.
OLIVETTI
QLIVETTI M21. OD. 128K RAM.
OLIVETT! M24 128K, OD. Mong/colour
OLIVETTI M24 128K, SD. 10MB HO Monovcolour
OLIVETTI M10 8K RAM/24K RAM
IBM
IBM PC 256K Double drives Monovcolour
(BM PC 256K SD. 10M0 HO Mono/colour
APRICOT
APRICOT PC 256K, 2X720, 9" Mono/12" Mano
APRICOT X1 10M8. 1X720, 9° Mono. 12" Mono
APRICOT XI10S 512K, 10MB HD
APRICOT X120S 1MB RAM, 20MB HO
APRICOT FRIFIE. . —
APRICOT Portable 512K, 720K. Colou:
POINT 7 Cluster Controtier with DOS
SIRIUS/VICTOR
VICTOR 1.2MB + 256K/2 4MB + 256K.
VICTOR tOMB HARD DISK ¢ 1.2MB Drive + 256K
COMPAQ
£1399 COMPAQ 256K RAM. 2 ORIVES,SDOS
£139971850 COMPAQ 256K RAM, 10MB HARD DISK + DRIVE
£30399 TELEVIDEO
TELE-PC 1605
129953390 OESKPAD MOO2DESKPRO MDD4 {2
19002150 TELEVIOEO TPC. PORTABLE
£2990 £3300 7ENITH
£1650
£2990
10024490
£1695
£1750
Desk Top Twin 320 360KB Drives IBM Comp Portabie £1795/1699
£1499/01550 Oesk Top 1 MB Hard Disk & Drive, i
£2170 £2220 COMMODORE
£2790
£2590 £2630 COMMODORE PC 256K RAM, 12° mona, Double dreves omnnnen 1299
£3395£4430 — COMMODURE 8296 £1000 worth Iree soltwate
£750)8525
1699 EPSON
£425 EPSON GX16 Taxi, Free Soltware
EPSON PX-8 64k, CPM. Basic, Wordstar’t20k RAM PACK, £699
£1695 £2050 Bad
fe3 KAYPRO
£1499
£1795
f 1 2 Twin single sided & tree Sott £699
TEAL eas nae pies KAYPRD 4 Twin double sided & free Sol! £1175
VICTOR VPC 15MB HD, SO. Mono £2550 KAYPRO 10 with 10Mb HO and Free sottwate £1895
PC Card {Makes Sinus (BM compatible} £950 _ KAYPRD 286 (IBM AT Compatible} £4250
SANYO NEC
SANYO 775 Colour with tree sottware NEW 11795 9) NEE apo nara ecm oa esos
SANYO MBC 2X720K DRIVES + monitor + Free Software.” £990 NEC PORTABLE PCO20I 1 £500 Fiee cotleare a
SANYO MBC 10MB HARD OISK + Monitor + Free Software £1990
SANYO 555 with £1000 worth soltware £790 et ee Genk RAM Twindrves = £1 Spree
pa NO S20 2 Soe EID art satiwae T7991159 | IVPERION 256K. RAM disk. 2 drives, Free softwar £1995
COLOMBIA SINCLAIR QL/OISK INTERFACE £320/0149
COLOMBIA Twin disks, mono, bundied sottware/Colour£ 1799 1895 88CB with OFS £399 COMMMODORE 64 £4500195
COLOMBIA 10mb + 320K disk +£1000 software Colour £2850/2940
COLOMBIA VP PORTABLE 128K RAM/256k RAM 4 Software £1299
1350
MACINTOSH Macwrite + Macpainté
MULTI-USER COMPUTERS
NORTHSTAR DIMENSION 15MB HO, 2User/each user £4995 £1295
TELEVIOEO PERSONAL MIN! £9750
ALTOS Xenix. MPMB6, 1 to 8 users, Elhernet £POA
Apple Nenlc £1399/£495/799 OLIVETT! 3B2 unix V tor UNIX SOFTWARE LRING
PRINTERS MONITOR Harward Project Manager
Hornet 79/021
DOT MATRIX MONOCHROME ea parr See
Smuth Corona F180/0100 0200 D300 Roland MB121 Green/Amber £120 EverymamKnowledgeman £379/5395
New LOW PRICES RING Sanyo OM8112 CX (18mhv) £89 RetiexEnsemble (Mac £375:£250
Canon PW1080A/11564 (NLQ) ..£285/375 Sanyo OM9112 12" 20mhz £110 Wordstar Professional £119
Canon PJ+080A {Ink Jet) £389 — Philips 7502/7522 £79285 — Multi Tool Word w'Mouse £275
Kaga Taxan KP810/910 (NLO) ~~ (289/399 Kaga 12G (Green) £98 £110 Munimate/Wordperiect £250 £399 | HT F R
Panasonic NLO 80.136 £275/375 Zenith Green Amber £90 Wordcratt/Samna + £299 £500 eee
Rrteman Nt NLQ.. £299 BMC 12” High Res ES2) Arshce Word Procecco
MP165 NLOAGSCPS waa £279 Zenith 12” Green/Amber £3 caveat £550 £500
Honeywell 32/34 499850 — Yanyen (Green/Amber/titt Sw) Pertect Il (W Cale fil x =H
Dataprodus 80508070 CALL Swwel Tit Montor Stand. £28 Pie*ton ah Matceoe be Accounting Mailing
Brother P48 KSKRUHRD £95439 COLOUR Sacedger ete
cee Ere y 4 Jazz/Oesq £395 £290 . .
Brother M1009 TC600 £189/£395 Roland CC-141 14° (640x200). £395 —_Energraptics/Heln £290/5290 Cate ring cA a rketing
Brother 202NLQ_ £850 Kaa Vision-PC £399 Crosstalk Sidekick 129/849
Hea a, La be Kaga K12R1X F RGB/PAL £249 Human Edge Sottware Each £195 .
Sinclair Vision QL 2) Expertease/Mind Propet £650 £39
Epon JX80 Coiou 298 Ree AG fase Resco sag «393 Employment agency Manufacturing
Epson RXBOFT + £219 Luxor 14" (Super Res, 800 dot} £495 Norton Utuities/Xenocopy £55 £135
Epson PAB ace meee Dyneer 14CMI £40%200 £399 Supercale 2/3 £195-£235 E tat c M edic | rofession
pson Dyneer 14CHt 720x350 57. Multiplan/Trigger £150/£450
Epson 01500 £895 Sanyo CD3117M (620 DOT) £295 Turbo Pascale uperkey . £45/£60 state agen y Ica Pp
ae CoA Roee ayn Sanyo CD3115H (720 pop £399 Delta 4 Retrieve £350/£350
Shinwa y Fidelity CM14 12mhz, AGB & COMP £185 Smart WP/DB/SS Each £295 i
Shwa CPB 136? ee = one feeptees (Farming ™ Personnel
NEC P2/P3 £650/£795 — Princeton HX-12/SR1Z £490/0645 Copy HIPC Copywineple ...£39 £50
peices eA ueocp) fe Think Tank’TR! Solver £1250190 aI wp aes
fet - e (Appi tight 179/01
Infoscribe 1100/1200 1100/1395 TERMINALS 1455 ae ites eM insurance rinting
preroncemn ET (Se eee pear hk Oume OVT 108 £590 Millionaire {Stock marke} simulation) £39 one
y Qume QVT 211GX (Tekironics) «£856. Chess 3D/Frogger/Pinbalt £95 £25 £29 cA
M Tally MTBO/180 £175499 Qume QVT 109 (DEC VTION| £898 Spotlight 199 Stock control Retailing
Settosha GP7ODA (Colour) tang Kokasi ICL 12" £350 Management training serves £350
ikosha Gi Televideo 924/925/950 Best Price 8ackgammon'Checkers Chess £59 - 1 1
Serkosha GP550A £219 5 ; ,
z 3 Zentec {Various Emutations) £495 Flight Simulator £59
Senora GPi0DR, us etic (Vanous Emulation) 8485 Fag Sulton Re Job costing Time recording
Ses a eee eaagzee. Hazletine Esprit il (TVi950) £655 News Agent System £500 7
at Tatung VT4200 C499 integrated Travel Agents System £750 5
Wein SP S3F fesse nN soWvis osaeinte8 oe elateet Legal professiun Travel agency
Microline 2410P £1590 Acoustic Couplers (CX21/KN) 60/0130
Star Gemin: 10X 15X f2ig0299 PLOTTERS & Buzzbox Modemiv21
Star Delta 10X/15X 3352429 OIGITISERS Auto Answer 900139
Star Radix 10X/15X £47595 Roland OXY800(8 Pen/A3) £495 Portman V2123/V2 123AA £125/£170 A
Toshiba 2100H (LQ £1349 Roland OXY880 (HP Compatible)....£795 Telemod V21AAV2123AA £130:£150
Texas Instruments 810/L0 £995 Roland OXY980 £1150 Minor Miracles V21/v22 £120
Texas instruments 855/L0 £695 HP 7470/7475 189501390 Steebek SB1212/V22AD £450/£650
Anadex OP9725 (240cps) £1195 Watanabe MP1000 £699 Mico Borer M4012/¥22 (AA) £600
Anadex WP6G00 (330cps) £1795 Watanabe WX4636 £2165 Micom Borer M3012/V21V23 (AA) £250 =
Anadex DP6500 (500cps} £1990 MT Pixy Plotter (with SF) £495 Master Systems V2123/
ORE-Newbury DAI 8925 240cps. £1445. ACT Writer 80/81 5280695 2123AD £235.£300
Newbury Data 8931 240cps + LO £1750 Epson H180/Expansion RAM = $365/£75 Oacom V2123A0/2123GT £330/450
Newbury Oata 8950 480cps £1990 Gold Bryans DP? £1255 Braid Telex System £1750 p n m soversatile
Hermes 6128 . £1690 Houston OMP42 (A2} £2990 plebox Hiya ry ) SISOn ae DataFlex A data manageme t syste se) e sa
Anadex DP9: 1801 £850 Houston DMP52 (41) £3990 ommunique (Sirus/Apnicol H *
Anadex Ohoee {240cps) E585 STRODE B Per crum plone: “Epsp Teecom GolEzeyinone'o one POA it can be adapted to most business needs. Plan the
Phitps Mullard GP300 from £1900 Summagraphics £595 Sage Communication Pack c A i
Siecnens PTEB & PT9 [Ink jttlnemnenee-£550 Houston H-Pad £899 [BM Internal Modem V21230 290 future around DataFlex and you're never tied
Diablo 150C Colour ink jet £890 Sweet-P £800 Pace Multifunction £137 5 5 Fi
Cannon Laser Printer £2900 PC-Pad Digitizer. £390 bi ;
HP Laser Binet £5185 Gator Cea reo Add-Ons and Accessories down to a single unalterable way of doing things.
lor IBM PC XT LRING er .
DAISYWHEEL PRINTERS Plea are any AGfiONES Merton triste its powerful set of software building bricks lend
Brother HA25/35 "$595£799 i pede fal a E Z ‘i
suk 6100'530 taanzeso Software for best prices), WMG ur. eee themselves to just about all applications where
need asta ree ago Cumana Disk for BBC at best prices RING . : : A
Dasysten 200 ie Lows icisymonony Eeaareggg EAN AKRAM or IA or Comp £76 fast efficient data retrieval and manipulation are
IME Letter-Pro20 £446 Open Access-2 (IBM/Apncot) abg) ae wor me kaeaian 3 . .
Otret BBD ae C788 Ramer ay sxiiciyy peeteuaurate es (p of paramount importance. Add comprehensive
QUME 9/45-55 £159502150 _ Dbase 1 Le mma 4 yet h
QUME 11/40-55 £11951379 Sensible Solution £600) neces .
a Eis Pe Pomeiue Ligh Mi. 18 0 fr ai calculating facilities and you've really gota system
2 hange (4 In). Package! £39 = s A
NEC 2050 {ir 164) fee Carcnoutnus-” gyagitaae Power Bankr power cash...” 590 for all facets of business. And, of course, DataFlex
Diablo 620 RO £695 Files & Folders/Ottx R250C450 fae hard dake to edu f
Dbl 630 AP sales Wousurter Dee. £190 Fatsamyergrca is portable. So you can move your data from PC to
icoh 1200/1300 5/79 por File Write/Gr 95 TOMB/20MB/Q0MB. 1000012950150 i
Ricoh 1600... £1375 — File Transter IBM/Apricot/Sinus 95 “
TECE10-40 0. igTI258 AulocadADEVADE? "”eoOitiondi00 Gere ane tears ONE Bs PC, from PC network to multi user system, from 8
Smith Corona TP 1.100. £189/0249 Doodle ‘ackage Tor a , . s o a
Silver Reed EXP. = NEW TCALL _ IBM/Aprico) esas Peete ne eee LOGIE bit to 16 bit, without ever having to re-key.
Brother EM101 KSA £799 Cadplan (CAD with SPECIAL DEA is
HP THINKJET £399 Autodimensionin £1500 . .
hese smarwort (ot Boa'd Des), £895 Complete 20 Colour Drain It really is the software for business on the move.
AUTO SHEET FEEDERS QED + Main Street Filer 90/8150 System £3950
Genesis Sage Accounts/Plus £239/£490 Circuit Board Desing System £2900
(Tec/Nec/Ricoh’Diablo) £299 Easy Junior £395 Macintosh with 15mb hard disk £3
Rutishauser Mechanical £395 Sycero/Crosstalk £499/£129 Televideo 1605 £1490
Rutishauser Electro Mechanical £479 —Pulsar/Pegasus (Each) £200 £230 Hyperion £1550
Tractor Feeds i159 Microsoft Proyect Apple ll€ {Lots of sotiwarep £250
Acoustic Hoodswith SSF (250375 Superproject L250/E295 — Smath Corona Fastext 0. £125
Printer Stand tor any printer £79 Pertmaster/Milestone L650/E295 Smith Corons O10 £9170 CALL US NOW
COMPUTER ENTERPRISES INTERNATIONAL LTD
01-543 6866/542 4850 TLX: 946240 CWEASY G (Quote: 19005565)
EASYLINK MAILBOX: 19005565 TELECOM GOLD MAILBOX:
SHOWROOMS (OPEN Mon-Sat 9 to 6)
85-85A QUICKS ROAD, WIMBLEDON, LONDON SW19 1EX UK
LESSINGSTRASSE 60, 5300 BONN 1 GERMANY
Tel: 0228/220297
——
oom [M
(INFORMATION MANAGEMENT) SERVICES LTD
16 Anning Street, New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3HB
Telephone: 01-729 4460 Telex: 27341
All trademarks are acknowledged
Export, Educational, Dealer, Governmental, Lease, Rent,
Consultant ENQUIRIES WELCOME. All items new and carry
manufacturers guarantee. Prices exclusive of VAT, Installation,
Training, Delivery and subject to change without notice. Delivery
£10 for each item in UK, £75.00 for Europe.
PAYMENT
By Eurocheques, Credit Cards LC, IMO, Direct Transfer
e Circle No. 120
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985 @ Circle No. 137 9
ALL £250
prinkers
print
eceeed
fesed
ee
t's
338
eovtes
3 3
Po
qeeet «
:
try
Only the
Epson LX-80
also prints
like this.
The print on the left is certainly legible, which is quite good
enough for most purposes.
But it’s nothing to write home about. Or with.
That’s why Epson have brought out the new LX-80.
The LX-80 is a dot matrix printer that can print in correspondence
quality (like this) as well as in draft. Yet atonly £255+VAT it’s
no more expensive than any of its less capable rivals.
This alone would make the LX-80 unique. But there’s more.
Changing fonts on the LX-80 doesn’t involve a complicated
rigmarole as it does on other machines. By simply pressing a
combination of buttons on the front, you can change from one font
to another to another to ancenr. AS easily as that.
The LX-80 will justify or centre type if you like. It will even
print your own symbols.
Alternatively, you can use the standard 1K buffer to free your
computer for other tasks more quickly.
The LX-80 takes plain sheets as standard, though a variety of
paper feed options are also available.
It should go without saying that the LX-80 is as reliable as
Epson printers have always been. But there, we’ve said it anyway.
There’s still more to tell, of course. But fill in the coupon -
in whatever style you like - and we’1ll fill you in completely.
To: Epson (UK) Ltd., Dorland House, 388 High Road,
Wembley, Middlesex, HAS 6UH. @ Circle No. 138
a Hs = ay
. errr yerrerrry.
> Bese Go eoa8
* BEB es eDoBes +
NET WORK
POWERFUL. FLEXIBLE. AFFORDABLE.
As a stand-alone machine, the brilliant
RM Nimbus has already proved itself superior in
performance/price terms to any comparable
microcomputer.
As a network system, Nimbus is even more
impressive. Because, unlike so many ‘networkable’
machines, Nimbus was designed from the
beginning as a network workstation, as well as a
stand-alone system.
TRUE 16-BIT POWER
As a stand-alone machine, the RM Nimbus
handles standard processing 2-3 times faster than
the IBM or Apricot PC's, and its graphics are over
ten times faster.
With the Nimbus network, this power can be
brought simply and economically to as many as
64 users simultaneously. Each Nimbus station is a
highly intelligent microcomputer in its own right,
with stunning graphics and a high-speed network
interface. So it is able to share expensive central
resources such as printers, Winchesters and plotters.
SUIT-YOURSELF FLEXIBILITY
Whether you want a network to share software
and data within a department, or a professional
i2-.
multi-user system across the organisation, the
Nimbus system will do it.
Your Nimbus network server can provide up to
80 megabytes for sharing. And you can connect up
numbers of peripherals simultaneously via Piconet,
Research Machines’ unique input/output system.
Locally, your stations can be discless, single-disc, or
Bice, with internal memory from 320K to one
megabyte.
The Microsoft Networks” operating system
allows you to run MS-DOS* software, with the
benefits of file and record locking, password
security, and full professional multi-user software.
All on anetwork which is easy to put together with a
single run of cable and connectors.
UNBEATABLE VALUE
Because it was designed for networking, with
Research Machines’ experience of 1000 installed
networks behind it, Nimbus becomes more
economical the more you demand of it.
Considerable savings can be made by sharing
software and peripherals, and these savings
become greater as you increase the number of
workstations.
On price to performance, the Nimbus network is
unrivalled. A 320K network station costs £1123**
and server prices start at £2635"*
To find out more about the RM Nimbus network,
phone Research Machines on Oxford (0865)
249866, or use the coupon below.
*Microsoft Networks and MS-DOS are (rade marks of Microsoft Corporation.
**Prices quoted exclude monitor and VAT.
To: Caroline Rawle, Research Machines Limited,
Mill Street, Oxford OX2 OBW.
Please send me details of RM Nimbus network O
TELEPHONE
IRESFARCH tiga
===============5
5
g
— anal
@ Circle No. 139
ADVERTISEMENT
WHAT IS MULTI-
PROCESSING?
Multi-processing is the best
possible technique designed to
achieve cost effective and high
performance multi-user
computing. Very many
advantages accrue over the
networking of Personal
Computers or Timesharing
micros. It is also, probably, the
most unknown and_ under-
estimated innovation of micro
computer technology. BROM-
COM are pioneers in multi-
processing technology.
MAIN BENEFITS
* Multi-access to a common
database with record and file
locking.
* Sharing resources, e.g.
printers, modems, telex line,
ete. 2
* Speed far superior to conven-
tional networking or time-
sharing micros.
* Cost much less than a net-
work of PCs and comparable to
timesharing micros.
* Ease and low cost of
expansion. Up to 16 users and
more by networking.
16-BIT MASTER
PROCESSOR
MAIN FEATURES
* Multi-processor system at its
best. It is totally BRITISH
designed and manufactured.
* 16-bit Master/slave-proces-
sor based on iAPX 186 running
at 8MHz with up to 1Mbyte
RAM. (8-bit slaves are also
available).
* Winchester/Floppy drives
operate in DMA-mode for fast
response.
* Choice of different operating
system CP/M, MS-DOS and
soon Concurrent DOS in slave
processors.
* Integral Tape Back-up
option with up to 40 Mbyte
capacity.
INTEGRAL 1/4in
CARTRIDGE
TAPE BACKUP
My
SuperStar-16 must be one of
the most powerful, flexible and
complete systems available on
the market.
Contact:
417-421 Bromley Road
Bromley, Kent BR1 4PJ
Telephone: 01-697 8933
ME SPECIAL SECTION
GRAPHICS
Business graphics is a fast-growing field, to judge
by the number of packages that incorporate or
add graphics features. But how useful, and how
cost-effective, are they? We look at the market,
from simple pie charts to special presentation
programs.
MB HARDWARE
Five new machines are due from Zenith,
including a trendy transportable — a new
implementation of the Morrow Pivot — an
improved IBM PC compatible 150, and an AT-
alike. We hope to preview the most interesting of
the bunch, the Z-200, to see whether Zenith can
follow up its achievements in the U.S. market
with success in the U.K.
WE SOFTWARE
ALL THAT JAZZ
Lotus has finally delivered Jazz, its much-hyped
do-everything business package for the Apple
Macintosh. Was it worth the wait, or are programs
of this size just dinosaurs on the Mac?
MTOP 10 SURVEY
TRANSPORTABLES
IBM has just slashed £500 off the Portable PC to
compete with the rival Compaq and Olivetti M-21
transportables, while Osborne and Kaypro are also
making an impact with both CP/M and IBM-
compatible machines. We check out the offerings
in this exciting market.
Don’t miss the September issue of
“PRACTICAL
COMPUTING
On sale at W H Smith and all good newsagents after August 14.
Contents may vary due to circumstances beyond our control and are subject to change without notice.
The world didnt need
another portable.
Just a better one.
* = Ee a a
The Bondwell 2 is a truly portable computer that offers
instant computing power when you're on the move.
And it offers some pretty remarkable features.
Small, light, powerful.
The Bondwell 2 is a 64K RAM portable that is the size
of an attache case and weighs just 5.5 Kg. The fold-up LCD
screen offers 80 characters X 25 lines with a brilliant
resolution of 640 x 200. It also tilts O° — 180° to offer the *
best viewing angle in all light conditions.
There's also a built-in 3%" microfloppy disk drive with a 360K formatted capacity.
So you get maximum software flexibility without the limitations of built-in ROM programs
on most portables
And because the Bondwell 2 has a CP/M 2.2 operating system you have access to
a huge library of business programs.
Five top programs are offered free with the Bondwell 2 — WordStar, Mailmerge.
DataStar, CalcStar and ReportStar. As well a ‘‘Scheduler Plus” program is yours, free. for
better organisation of executive time.
Features. Features. Features.
Other Bondwell 2 features include a full-stroke keyboard with 8 user-defined function
keys: ports for data transmission. printer and a second disk drive; expansion slots for
modem, ROM/RAM card: a built-in battery which gives 8 hours of continuous use with
each recharge
The Bondwell 2 Portable.
Heavy in features. Light in weight.
And equally light on the pocket
AT £1575
Barbatan
Limited
35 - 38 High Street
Bristol BS1 2AW
Tel: Bristol (0272) 213928
Attractive trade discounts are available.
Dealer enquiries welcome.
14 @ Circle No. 140 PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
CBM’S Z-8000
AND AMIGA
ANNOUNCED
COMMODORE has announced some
details of its unusual Zilog Z-8000
based machine, the Commodore
900. When it becomes available in
the autumn, it will have 512K
RAM as standard, upgradeable to
2Mbyte, and a 1.1Mbyte floppy; a
second floppy will be optional.
Ports include four RS-232s and a
Centronics. The operating system
will be Coherent, which is appar-
ently a close relative of Unix. It has
been acquired by Commodore
from an outside firm.
There will be two main versions;
the single-user as described, and
the multi-user which has a
20Mbyte, 40Mbyte or 67Mbyte
Winchester. Up to eight users can
be supported. A notable feature
will be its ‘extremely high-res-
olution graphics: 1,024 by 800
pixels and 16 colours. This suggests
the machine will be targeted at
CAD/CAM, scientific and busi-
ness- graphics applications.
The first rumours about the
Amiga, Commodore’s answer to
Atari’s ST, suggest that it too
will have high-resolution colour
graphics of the sme order as the
900. Indications are that it will
have a 68000 CPU and a 3.5in.
floppy. The U.S. launch is sched-
uled for the middle of July; it is
unlikely to appear over here before
next year. There have been con-
flicting reports on the pricing, but
it seems likely to be over £1,500.
Meanwhile, a novel scheme has
been announced to boost sales of
Commodotre’s old stalwart, the 64.
Every Commodore.64 pack, which
costs £199, will entitle the
purchaser to three nights’ free
accommodation for two people at
one of over 300 hotels. These range
from four star to guest houses, and
are located in France and Belgium
as well as the U.K. At the time of
purchase you are provided with
vouchers and a list of hotels. It will
be interesting to see how the
Opposition responds.
Details on all Commodore
products from local dealers.
HARDWARE NEWS
MICROSOFT has launched a hard-
ware expansion device that allows
Mac applications to use a wide
range of IBM-compatible printers.
The Macenhancer provides four
additional ports, giving access to a
total of five different peripheral
NEC APC Ill
THE JAPANESE electronics giant NEC
has launched what it believes to be
a major new onslaught on Euro-
pean business-micro markets with
its APC Ill. Rather unadvent-
urously this is just an MS-DOS
machine with 128K RAM, 640K
floppies and a variety of hard-disc
options. It: does at least use the
faster 8086-2.
There are RS-232 and Cen-
tronics ports and four expansion
slots. A colour board is available.
The high-resolution mode offers.
640 by 400 pixels in up to eight
colours, or in monochrome if you
prefer.
Mote interesting is the bundled
software, rejoicing in the name of
the NEC Foundation Package.
This has been commissioned and
written in the U.K., and as well as
the standard generic packages like
word processing, spreadsheets and
electronic mail, it also offers a
Gem-like front end called,
appropriately enough, Front End.
A mouse is available.
The dual-floppy model costs
£1,735 plus
included; the top-of-the-range
colour version with a 10Mbyte
Winchester costs £3,058. For more
VAT, monitor ]-
The APC II: the Japanese threat?
"| devices such as printers, modems
and general RS-232 equipment. In
particular, it allows the Epson
range of printers to be used.
Macenhancer
Software is also provided that
enables the Mac to emulate VT-52
and VT-100 terminals, allowing it
to be hooked up to mainframes.
The Macenhancer is accessed
through the Mac’s menus; active
devices can be changed without
dismantling equipment or exiting
from an application.
The price is £250 plus VAT.
More details on (07535) 59951.
SIRTON has added two new systems
to its Midas range of micros. The
Midas 286 has, unsurprisingly, an
80286 at its heart. Like the Jarogate
Sprite, it uses Concurrent CP/M
with PC-DOS emulation. Other
Operating systems include Xenix
and CP/M Plus. It is claimed that
up to 18 users can run off the one
Ethernet also comes as standard.
Options include an IBM PC
compatible graphics board, and an
processor. The one-chip version of
More Midases
eight-port I/O board. Prices for
the Midas 286 start around £6,000.
The similarly priced Midas
68/XE is based on the 68000 pro-
cessor. It runs Xenix, Unix, Idris
and a CP/M emulating operating
system. Unlike the Midas 286,
which is aimed at business users,
the 68/XE is geared more to the
scientific community.
Details on both systems can be
obtained on 01-640 6931.
(More news on next page)
HARDWARE
SHORTS
@ The Magnum portable
from down under is to be
distributed in this country by
PM Professional Micros.
Telephone: (0954) 81991.
@ In the U.S. Amstrad is
launching the CPC-6128, a
128K version of the CPC-664.
Price is in the range $600 to
$700; and all sales will be
| Indescomp. A U.K. launch is
unlikely this year.
@ The Q+4 from CST is a
multi-way expansion module.
the price is £150. More on
(0223) 323302.
@ A miniature line driver
from Picotech allows RS-232
equipment to be. connected
over distances of several
kilometres. Prices are from
£59. Details on 01-502 0728.
@ An Amstrad light-pen is
available from Dk’tronics for
information on (0799) 26350.
@ U-Microcomputers has
launched: hard-disc versions
of its U-Man series 1000
micros with 10Mbyte,
21Mbyte or 42Mbyte
Winchesters. Prices start at
£3,800. More on (0925)
54117.
@ Husky Hunters can now be
charged from vehicle
batteries. The necessary
power unit costs £95. More
information on (0203)
| details telephone 01-267 7000. through the U.S. distributor £24.95 including VAT.-More 668181.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
1§
HARDWARE NEWS
Honeywell
HCX-0940
THE unmemorably named
HCX-0940 from Honeywell is a
40Mbyte 8086 machine running
under Concurrent DOS. It sits at
the top of Honeywell’s business-
micro range.
Prices in this series begin at a
rather steep £3,245 plus VAT for a
twin 640K floppy version, and the
latest addition is £6,900. Sub-
sequent releases are likely to
include Gem software. Details on
(0442) 212781.
Gold
Octopus
LSI COMPUTERS of Woking has
launched a top-end model to its
Octopus range. The Octopus Gold
comes with 768K RAM as
standard, as well as the dual pro-
‘cessors of the earlier machine.
Winchester drives of 10Mbyte,
20Mbyte or 40Mbyte are available.
The entry-level Gold system starts
at £5,300 plus VAT. New ex-
pansion boards include an IBM PC
emulatot boards for £220. Details
on (04862) 23411.
Ba 7
IVAX is a selective compliance
assembly robot arm — Scara for
short — from Powertran Cyb-
ernetics. It is designed for educat-
ional and training purposes. In
industry, Scara precision-assembly
robots are becoming the norm.
Ivax aims to teach the principles
behind the work cells approach,
lvax the Scara robot
with its attendant high speed and
accuracy.
The basic robot arm costs £980;
the Z-80 based controller costs
£801.50 and the power supply unit
£136.50. Alternatively, it is
possible to use a BBC Micro or
Apple for control purposes. More
information on (0264) 64455.
BBC B + Z-80 =?
USERS who have connected up an
Acorn Z-80 second processor unit
to their shiny new BBC B+ may
have experienced difficulties with
CP/M software. This is due to a
minor incompatibility between
the 1770 DFS and the CP/M
BIOS. If it is any comfort, Acorn
has two solutions to the problem.
The first is a revised Disc 1 which
forms part of the bundled Z-80
software; the other is a modified
DFS EPROM which is currently
being developed. Availability and
upgrade policies will be an-
nounced shortly.
RM NIMBUS
POWERFUL. FLEXIBLE
AFFORDABLE
AVAILABLE
Research machines Nimbus: 16 bit super micro.
You’ve read the rave reviews — now try a demonstration. The new RM Nimbus can be seen and
tested immediately.
Complete with full range of software, including: word processing, spread sheet, database, accounts
and graphics.
« Interfacing up to 30 peripherals devices can be
attached, (printers, instruments, modem, etc)
RM graphics processor
*»e ee ee He He HH
16
The fastest 16 bit business computer
Built-in colour hi-resolution graphics
80186 Main processor running at 8 MHz
8051 peripherals processor running at 11 MHz
8910 sound processor running at 11 MHz
MS DOS version 3.05 operating system
192 K standard RAM expandable to 1 megabyte
2 x 720 K disk drives as standard
Hard disk option — 10, 20, 40 or 80 megabyte
Networking up to 64 stations
*' eee he be & &
And much, much more
Telephone straightaway for an instant trial
Regional Systems
2 Greenleaf Road, Walthamstow, London E17 6QQ
Telephone: 01-521 7144
Megabyte
Apple card
RAMWORKS is a memory expansion
card for the Apple Ile which allows
a desk top of up to 736K to be
set up within the Appleworks
program. It includes an 80-column
display facility, and larger sizes of
Ramworks will also simultaneously
act as RAM discs for Appleworks.
Prices range from £299 plus VAT
for the 128K Ramworks card,
giving a desk top of 101K, to
£1,199 for the 1Mbyte card, which
allows a 736K desk top. More
information from Bidmuthin
Technologies on 01-628 0898.
BBC’s Good
Companion
THE GOOD COMPANION for the BBC
Micro from Bevan Technology
adds a 100K 3.5in. floppy and the
ability to link up to a videotape or
videodisc machine. There are also
extensive digital-to-analogue facil-
ities which allow motorised units
to be controlled via a Logo-like
language. The cost is £347 plus
VAT, and more information can
be obtained on (0902) 23546.
Full range of software now available
MS WORD, Wordstar and professional word processors
MULTIPLAN Supercalc spreadsheets
Superfile, D Base If, Datamaster databases
PEGASUS, SAGE, MULTIPAC, EASY JUNIOR accounts
CAD packages, Colour screen dump
Mouse and joystick operated painting pacKages
Powerful RM basic, Logo and Pascal languages
® Circle No. 141
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
WordPerfect 4.0.
ur highest marks yet.
A perfect report card. It
wasn't necessarily our goal when
we added the most recent enhance-
ments to WordPerfect. We were
more interested in responding to
the suggestions of our users and
dealers.
But a perfect report card is
like icing on the cake. And it
makes us more confident than ever
that WordPerfect 4.0 is the most
perfect WordPerfect, yet.
Easier.
Most WordPerfect 4.0 functions
require only one keystroke, a
simple press of a finger. And new
comprehensive documentation
makes learning a
breeze.
Faster.
Document ori-
entation means ~~
WordPerfect 4.0 never makes you
Performance
Documentation
Ease of Use
wait between
pages. No
matter how
fast you type,
WordPerfect
won't slow you
down.
InfoWorld
Better.
WordPerfect 4.0 includes several
features not found on many word
processors. Like a 100,000-word
phonetic dictionary, multi-page
footnoting capability; table of
contents and index generation;
automatic outlining and para-
graph numbering;
and a 4.0 net-
work version.
Get the word
processor that
lives up to
its name (and
its report card):
WordPerfect 4.0. For more
InfoWorld
information, see your dealer.
Or call or write:
a
ei
SENT|
Wellington House
New Zealand Avenue,
Walton-on-Thames,
Surrey KT12 1PY.
Telephone: (0932) 231164.
Telex: 916005.
Fergus G.
NEL
oitware
Reaching for perfection.
@ Circle No. 142
UNBELIEVABLE
SAVINGS
COMPUTERS
APRICOT Fie 256K
APRICOT F1 256K
APRICOT POINT7
APRICOT PORTABLE 256K 1x720K Drive
APRICOT 256K 2x720K Drives & Monitor
APRICOT Xi 256K 10MB & Monitor
APRICOT Xi 512K 10MB & Monltor
APRICOT Xi 512K 20MB & Monitor
COMMODORE C16 STARTER PACK
COMMODORE PLUS 4
COMPAQ 2 2x360K drives
COMPAQ PLUS 10MB
COMPAQ DESKPRO 640K 10MB
ERICSSON 256K 10MB
ERICSSON 256K 2 x 360K
KAYPRO 286
OLIVETTI M21 128K 2 x 360KB Drives
OLIVETTI M21 128K 10MB
OLIVETTI M21 640K 10MB
OLIVETTI M24 128K 2 x 360KB Drives
OLIVETTt M24 640K 10MB
OLIVETTI 3B UNIX Range
SANYO MBC 555 128K 2 x 160K Drives
SANYO 775 256K COLOUR PORTABLE
VICTOR 128K 1.2MB
VICTOR 256K 10MB
VICTOR 256K 2.4MB
VICTOR VPc 256K 15MB
VICTOR VPc 256K 30MB
ZENITH 128K 2 x 360K
MAYFAIR
MICROS
BLENHEIM HOUSE, PODMORE ROAD,
LONDON SW18 1AJ
TEL: 01-871 2555 / 870 3255
We accept official orders from UK Government and
Educational Estabilshments. Mail Order and Export
Enquiries welcome. Callers by appointment.
Ret: 2.01
@Circle No. 148
MATRIX PRINTERS
ANADEX DP-6500 500cps
BROTHER HR5
BROTHER M1009 50cps (IBM)
BROTHER 2024L (190 cps) NLQ
CANON PW1080A 160cps (NLQ}
CANON PW1156A 160cps (NLQ)
CANON LBP Laser Printer
DATAPRODUCTS 8070 400 cps
EPSON RX 80T 100cps
EPSON LX80 100cps
EPSON FX 80 160cps
EPSON FX 100 F/T 160cps
EPSON LQ 1500 200cps (NLQ)
HEWLETT PACKARD Laser Printer
HONEYWELL From
MANNESMANN MT80 + 100 cps
MANNESMANN M7180 160cps (NLQ)
MP.165 165cps + (NLQ)
NEC PINWRITER P2(P)(NLQ)
NEC PINWRITER P3(PI(NLO)
OK! 84A 200cps
OKI 92P 160cps
OKI 182 (P or 1BM)
OKI 2410P 350cps
OKI 2350 (P)
OLIVETT! DM4100E 120cps
OLIVETTI DM5300E (P) 220cps
PANASONIC KX-P1091 (120cps) NLQ
PANASONIC KX-P1092 (180cps) NLQ
SHINWA CPA 80 100 cps
TOSHIBA 1351 136 Cols & Graphics
TOSHIBA TH2100H 192cps
TREND 930 200cps (NLQ) 80cps
STORAGE AND BOARDS
Pc NET STARTER KIT
PLUS 5 HARD DISK DRIVES FROM
512K MEMORY UPGRADES FROM,
20MB TAPE STREAMER £895
AST, QUADRAM, HERCULES ALL AT HUGE SAVINGS
**VDU's & TERMINALS**
CIFER T4
HAZELTINE ESPRIT I!
QUME QVT 103 (VT100 VT131)
TELEVIDEO 910
DAISYWHEEL PRINTERS
BROTHER HR15
BROTHER HA15 Keyboard
BROTHER HR25
COMMODORE
DPS 1101 Daisywheel Printer
DAISYSTEP 2000 20cps
DIABLO 630 API
-JUKI 6100 18cps
JUKI 6300
NEC 2030 Parallel 120cps
NEC 3550 Parallel 35cps
NEC 8810
OLIVETT! DY450 45cps
QUME 11/40 RO + i/Face
QUME 11/90 90cps
QUME LETTERPRO 12/20
RICOH RP1300S FLOWRITER 46K 1BM PC
RICOH RP1600S FLOWRITER 46K IBM PC
TEC A.10-30
TEC STARWRITER F1040 40cps
SOFTWARE
CAXTON CARDBOX
DBASE II
DBASE III
DMS DELTA 4
FRAMEWORK
LOTUS 123
MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR
MICROSOFT WORD
MULTIMATE V 3.2
OPEN ACCESS
PEGASUS LEDGER MODULE
SAGE ACCOUNTS
SMART SOFTWARE SYSTEM
SMART WORDPROCESSING
SYMPHONY
WORDSTAR
WORDSTAR MAILMERGE
WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL
WORDSTAR 2000
COMPLETE SYSTEMS SUPPORT AND
TRAINING AVAILABLE.
FULL MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY.
MOST ITEM EX STOCK.
Next day Insured delivery available.
“Accounting software above all others”
SINGLE OR MULTI-USER ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE
FOR THE IBM PC AND COMPATIBLES
SKYMASTER sets the standard
Perhaps the first true multi-user accounting sulte for the IBM PC and compatibles
available under standard PC DOS/MS DOS— SKYMASTER has been setting
the standard for affordable, top-of-the-range micro accounting software. Now
SKYMASTER II adds many more features with enhanced flexibility and reporting,
and with lower-price single-user versions.
Straightforward upgrade path
Start off with a single-user system and upgrade to multi-user when you're ready —
no re-entry of data or new software instructions to learn.
Powerful features
“SKYMASTER is by far the most comprehensive accounts system | have
reviewed to date’, said a PC User magazine reviewer.
SKYMASTER It has many sophisticated built-in features such as:- foreign-currency
accounting, multi-company/department capability, depot stocks, stock code up to
20 characters, eight period account ageing, design your own Invoices/orders/
statements, etc., report generator links etc.
Powerful reporting
The many standard parameter driven reports within Sy
SKYMASTER II, have been enhanced with the introduc-
tion of SKYGEN —a powerful Report Generator
module. SKYGEN links with all SKYMASTER modules
to produce tailored reports, credit control letters,
output via standard formats to other software etc.
Multi-User Specialists
The unequalled experience of SKY’s Team in five
years of working with Local Area Networks, means
that SKYMASTER II packages will always run with
the latest in network technology. The need forthe
true, record-locking skills of SKY are explained
in our ‘Layman’s guide to multi-user micro soft-
ware.
13 New Road
Bromsgrove
Worcestershire
B60 2jG
Telephone (0527) 36299
@ Circle No. 143
Foreign-currency accounting
Any company raising or recelving orders and invoices in foreign currencies will
benefit from the standard SKYMASTER abllity to handle up to sixteen currencies.
The system looks after currency rate fluctuation and automatically makes
appropriate adjustments. Audlt trails are in both sterling and foreign currency.
See SKY's ‘Layman’s guide to foreign currency accounting on the micro,
Flexible and easy to use
A PC Business World review, said “(SK YMASTER) achieves the difficult
feat of being both flexible and easy to use’:
Pp Features such as full integration, single-key menu selection, records accessed
by number or name and clear screen layouts make SKYMASTER Ila pleasure
= to work with.
Wide range of users
The experienced SKY team have been responsible for the successful installation
of many hundreds of micro accounting systems in a wide spectrum of businesses.
Whether you are a first-time user, an expanding
company or a corporate concern—SKY have a
solution for you.
Laymans Guide
Send for copies of SKY’s Layman’s guides to — ‘multi-
luser micro software’ and ‘foreign-currency accounting
on the micro.’
Choose from the following interlinked SKYMASTER It
modules:-
Sales Order Processing/Invoicing, Purchase Order Processing,
Sales Ledger, Purchase Ledger, Nominal Ledger, Stock Control —
with Stock History option, Contract Costing, Payroll —with
Absentee Records option, SKYGEN report generator.
For details of accounting software above all others, contact
your locaiSKY MASTER II dealer, or send for our Information
Pack (why not clip your business card to this advertisement).
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August | 985
IBM has improved the attractiveness
of its Portable Personal Computer,
the PPC, by slashing £470 off the
price. A single-disc PPC with
built-in screen now costs only
£1,419 plus VAT. The market for
IBM-compatible transportables is
very competitive, with rival mod-
els from Compaq, Olivetti
Flight
Simulator 2
THOSE unfortunate enough to have
bought an IBM PC/AT or com-
patible will have discovered the
major drawback — it doesn’t run
the Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Microsoft has now launched
version 2, which runs on the AT
and also the PCjr.
The only major difference is that
the RPM readout has been
changed from dial to digital,
though the single manual now
seems more accessible. Flight is the
same, so if you’ve learned how to
land you won’t need to go back to
flying school.
Olivetti
OLITALK is a new communications
program for the M-21 and M-24
IBM-compatible computers. - It
allows them to emulate almost any
asynchronous terminal, with DEC
VT-100, IBM 3101 and TTY
included as standard. It costs £99.
The M-21 transportable is now
available with a built-in self-
locking 10Mbyte hard disc for
£2,995 — which is claimed to be
substantially below the price of
competing products. The M-21 has
an 8MHz Intel 8086 and can be
configured with 640K of RAM.
Contact British Olivetti Ltd, PO
Box 89, 86/88 Upper Richmond
Road, London SW15 2UR. Tele-
phone: 01-785 6666.
Plus 5 has launched versions of
its hard-disc range in a case to
match the Olivetti M-24. Cap-
acities range from 5Mbyte to
110Mbyte, and prices from £1,195
to £6,350.
Contact Plus 5, Crowborough
Hill, Crowborough, East Sussex
TN6 2EG. Telephone: (08926)
63211.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
and Kaypro putting IBM under
pressure.
Several other IBM products have
had hundreds of pounds knocked
off their prices. The 10Mbyte ex-
pansion unit for a PC is down from
£1,954 to £1,275, and the one for
the XT down from £1,582 to
£1,071.
IBM SLASHES PRICES
A new product is the fixed disc
adaptor, which enables a PC to be
upgraded by adding a hard disc. It
costs £298. The 10Mbyte hard discs
themselves now cost £782.
The prices quoted are for IBM’s
own retail outlets and exclude
VAT. Local dealers may offer
different prices.
Three-speed PC printer
IBM LOOKS SET to make an impact in
the dot-matrix printer market with
the Proprinter, which offers several
facilities that make it particularly
attractive to users.
The Proprinter offers three
operating speeds: 40cps for corres-
pondence-quality work, 100cps for
memos and reports, and 200cps for
drafts and high-volume work. The
printer also has a neat dual paper-
handling facility, which means it
has a slot through which you can
slide single sheets of paper and
envelopes for printing, without
having to remove the normal con-
tinuous fan-fold paper.
The Proprinter has a buffer built
in, and it can also print graphics.
It is being made by IBM in
Amsterdam. Priced at a fairly com-
petitive £499 plus VAT, it may
even pick up sales from users of
non-IBM equipment too.
Micro Five’s AT-alike
MICRO FIVE of California has
launched a low-priced Series 5000
IBM PC/AT compatible micro
with a specification very similar
to the Compaq Deskpro 286
reviewed on page 47 of this issue.
The main features are an Intel
80286 chip which can be run at
6MHz or 8MHz, and a built-in
hard disc with tape streamer
backup. Micro Five offers a range
of hard discs from 27Mbyte
THE Personal Presentation System,
PPS, is a British graphics package
offering icons and symbols which
can be recalled from memory.
Frames can be grabbed from other
packages such as Lotus 1-2-3. Now
a series of library discs is being
introduced to extend the range of
symbols and icons available,
including maps and flags.
to 116Mbyte. The tape-streamer
capacity is GOMbyte, compared to
the Compaq’s 10Mbyte.
Micro Five’s name is not well
known because it operates as a
supplier to OEMs and _ value-
added resellers (VARs) who put
their own names on the machines
before selling on to end-users.
Contact Micro Five in Costa
Mesa, California on (U.S. area
code 714) 957-1517.
Contact The London Software
Studio on 01-935 3033.
VCN_ Execuvision currently
offers the largest library of graphics
images for the IBM PC. New sub-
jects include maps (illustrated
above), energy and utilities, and
The Sports Collection.
Contact Visual Communi-
cations Network Inc., Greyhound
House, 23-24 George Street,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 WY.
Telephone: 01-948 8601.
IBM NEWS
File transfer
M-MASTER is a disc-to-dise file-
transfer utility that allows a PC to
read, write and format discs in over
70 different CP/M and MS-DOS
formats. This enables files to be
transferred from other machines
without modems and cables.
M-Master runs in 128K RAM
and a PC or compatible with two
disc drives. The price is £65,
including VAT and postage.
Contact C+G Consultant
Services, PO Box 100-A, Surbiton,
Surrey KT5 8HY. Telephone:
01-399 8530.
PC2PC
NCR has launched a local area
network called PC2PC. It connects
up to 64 PCs together for £449 per
connection. The net is a version of
the Corvus Omninet, and one PC
must be designated as file server.
The NCR package comprises
interface boards, software, tap
box, cable, and everything else you
need, right down to wirestrippers.
It is claimed a network can be
installed in less than two hours.
Contact NCR Ltd, 206
Marylebone Road, London NW1
GLY. Telephone: 01-725 8337.
IBM SHORTS
@ Prospero’s Pro Pascal
compiler has now been
validated Class A for the IBM
PC and compatibles. Phone:
01-741 8531.
@ Cipher’s 5210 25Mbyte |
quarter-inch floppy tape
backup plugs straight into an
XT and costs only £995 plus
VAT. Phone: (0276) 682912.
@ Quantec Executive
Desktop, QED +, is now
available in a multi-user
version. Phone: 01-228 7507.
@ Practicorp has launched
an IBM version of Practibase.
It is claimed to read and
convert dBase It files and run
dBase tl programs. It costs
only £99.95, including VAT. |
Phone: (0473) 462721.
@ Bonnie Blue is a £99.95
plus VAT word-processing
program from Paperlogic. It
offers advanced facilities,
including mail merge, macros
and multiple windows.
Phone: 01-935 0480.
@ Golden Common Lisp for
the IBM PC supports more
than 400 primitives and is
described as an ideal Lisp-
learning/Al tool for novices.
It costs £545 plus VAT. E
Phone: (0923) 47707. ‘kt
Because every business is different. but a sensible, sensitive appreciation of individual
Not everyone, for instance, needs the full sophisti- needs and requirements. So whatever you want
cation of our remarkable 6100. (Though judging from your printer, you'll find a JUKI that's just right
from the fact that it's one of the best-selling printers for you.
in the UK, quite a few people do). But just because you're concentrating on their
And not everyone has an IBM* computer (though differences, don't overlook the important fact that
for those that have we've just introduced the two things, at least, never change.
brand-new, IBM* graphic printer compatible 6100-). Quality and value, for instance.
No, not for us the ‘take it or leave it’ approach, In these respects, all JUKI printers are the same.
*IBM is a trade-mark of IBM Corporation.
JUKI 6100: one of the best-selling letter
quality daisywheel printers in the UK.
Graphic mode and full word processing
-support.
es co
a5
- JUKI 2200: fully portable daisywheel Va «means
printer with 2k buffer memory and full _—
word processing support. Ideal for
use at home.
tA
PEOEDs)
yheal panterwith 3k buffer memory
pwrord processing support.
JUKI 6000: letter quality daisywheel
printer designed specifically for home use.
JUKI 5520: low-cost, high quality
dot matrix personal computer printer.
High speed (180cps}, graphic mode ;
and optional 4-colour print function. NLQ.
—- . , =
a
Oy fe *
er ‘ —s.. Ss
? by of
wh<ar Wi JUKI 6100-1: QF
US acaeapebey < _ version’ oF tie best-selling 6100. Graphic
~ mode and tull word processing support.
, : ~ cot
Rays et atn -
—
; ine
a Am
Technology true to type
JUKI (EUROPE) GMBH - Eiffestr. 74 - 2000 Hamburg 26 - F. R. Germany
Tel.: (0 40) 251 2071-73 - Telex: 2163 061 (JK! D) - Fax.: (0 40) 25127 24.
Sole distributor: Gy Micro Intec Unit 3, Hassocks Wood, Wade Road, Basingstoke, Hants, RG 24 ONE. ,
Peripherals Utd Tel.: (0256) 47 3232 (32 lines) - Telex: 859669 MICRO PG, Facsimile (0256) 461570 @ Circle No. 144
2¢
mESOFTWARE NEWS
DATA INTEGRATOR
TWENTY/TWENTY is designed to
retrieve data from incompatible
programs like Multiplan, Lotus
and dBase II. You can then query
the data on-screen or construct
printed reports with it.
Available for the IBM PC, with
an Apricot version on the way,
Twenty-Twenty addresses the pro-
blem that much business infor-
mation is locked up in completely
incompatible files. Much of its
value is therefore lost, as it is not at
all easy to spot how different pieces
of information relate together.
Twenty-Twenty consists of a file
integrator, a report generator anda
menu-driven query system, and it
also has facilities for setting up
regular jobs as simple-to-run tasks.
It can read data from a long list of
well-known programs, including
Delta, Framework, VisiCalc and
Supercalc, as well as files in the
common DIF and Sylk interchange
formats. It does not allow you to
alter the data stored with any
source program.
tart a New Line -
Move Pointer { > 4}
Move a Line
| Cancel Query
Run Query
0x | Start a Mew Selection |
Copy a Line “
| Save Query
[ Price less than or equal to 4008
— ee
@ - 68 Time wore ¢
Maxinun Spee
han or equal to 15
d equal to 95
a ca Ss ———
HPG 75 wph wore than or equal to 35
HPG Urban Cycle more than or equal to 35 }¢
| ete rm
Twenty/Twenty can solve compatibility problems.
Twenty-Twenty costs £345 plus
VAT and was developed by Inter-
active Software Products Ltd in St.
Albans. It should not be confused
with the similarly named 20/20
from Access Technology Inc. in the
U.S. which is a very powerful
spreadsheet program also running
on the IBM PC. More details on
Twenty/Twenty from ISPL, 1-4
Lloyds Bank Chambers, The
Maltings, St. Albans, Hert-
fordshire. Telephone: (0727)
36341
Easy
database
CLASMA RECALL is a record-handling
and mailing package aimed at the
first-time business user. It lets you
design your own record layouts,
and incorporates a diary which you
can link to your database. The
program runs on the Apricot and
IBM PC and costs £395. Details
from Clasma Systems Ltd, 10
Barley Mow Passage, London W4
4PH. Telephone: 01-994 4394.
Sage redesigns range
SAGESOFT has redesigned its entire
range of accounting software for
16-bit machines. The new range
starts with Bookkeeper, £295, a
package aimed primarily at the
cash trader operating under the
Retailers Special VAT Scheme.
Next up is Sage Accountant,
£495, which is the replacement for
the existing top-selling Sage Ac-
counts program. Sage Accountant
Plus, £695, is the same program
but with the addition of automatic
invoicing and stock control.
Top of the range is Financial
Controller, £995, designed for
companies with up to 10,000 ac-
counts and requiring a hard disc.
The programs run on most MS-
DOS machines including Apricot,
Sanyo and IBM PC, the first three
are available now, while Financial
Controller is due towards the end
of the year.
Contact Sagesoft plc, NEI
House, Regent Centre, Gosforth,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE3 3DS.
Telephone: 091-284 7077.
SOFTWARE
SHORTS
@Spellcheck II is an updated
version of Beebugsoft’s
spelling checker for the BBC
computer. Supplied on ROM
it comes with a 6,000-word
dictionary and works with
both Wordwise and View.
Price is £31 including VAT.
Contact Beebugsoft on (0727)
60263.
@ Tasman has released a disc-
based version of its excellent
Tasword word-processing
program for the Amstrad.
Called Tasword 464D, the
new program costs £24.95
including VAT and runs on the
664 as well as the 464
Amstrad machine. Contact
Tasman Software on (0532)
438301.
@Statcale runs on both the
IBM PC and Apple II and
provides a set of powerful
tools for statistical analysis,
including regression. The
Apple version costs £85 while
the program is £150 on the
IBM PC. Contact Dr Alan Lee,
Department of Maths and
Statistics, University of
Auckland, Private Bag,
Auckland, New Zealand.
Macintosh roundup
Animation Toolkit lets you
create continuous moving pictures
on the Macintosh. The program
costs £48.20 plus VAT and will run
on the single-drive 128K Mac.
Contact P&P Micro Distributors
Ltd, New Hall Hey Road, Rossen-
dale, Lancashire BB4 6JG. Tele-
phone: (0706) 217744.
Maclion is a very powerful data-
base package designed for creating
complete business applications. It
can handle multiple files and
produce customised reports, and it
helps you transfer data to it from
other Mac applications. Maclion
requires at least 128K and two disc
drives, and costs £379 plus VAT
from P&P.
Mactype is a typing tutor which
will teach you either the con-
ventional QWERTY keyboard or
the alternative Dvorak layout. Pro-
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
ponents claim that the Dvorak
layout encourages faster typing,
and the Mac’s completely soft key-
board can be redefined to work
Dvorak-style with most applic-
ations. Mactype costs £49 plus
VAT from P&P.
Maclink and Mactransfer are two
communications programs for the
Mac. Maclink lets you move IBM
PC files to the Mac, and consists of
a set of converter programs to
translate between specific packages
such as Lotus and Multiplan and
WordStar and Macwrite. Mac-
transfer is a similar program for the
Apple II; it lets you move most
Apple word-processing files, DIF
format files and also Applesoft
source code across to the Mac.
Maclink costs £119 plus VAT, Mac-
transfer £45 plus VAT. Cabling is
extra. Contact P&P.
Psion
3D chess
PSION CHESS for the Mac offets you a
choice of 2D or 3D display and has
28 levels of play. Price is £49.95
including VAT. Contact Psion Ltd
on 01-723 9408.
Mac colour
plots
MACPLOT enables you to get high-
quality plotted output, in colour,
from plotters connected to the
Macintosh. Version 1.5 costs £99
and works with 15 different types
of plotter. You transfer pictures to
be plotted from programs such as
Macdraw, Mac Chart or Jazz via the
Mac’s clipboard. More details from
Microspot, 9 High Street, Lenham,
Maidstone, Kent ME17 2QD.
Telephone: (0622) 858753
Free
software
THE Free Software Handbook des-
cribes 70 of the best American
public-domain programs for Z-80
based CP/M systems. The book
costs £17.95. For another £10 you
can get the programs too, though
you have to send your own discs in
— enough to take 1.2Mbyte. Most
formats are supported, including
Apple and BBC CP/M.
Contact Davis Rubin Associates
Ltd, 1 Canonbourne, Weston sub
Edge, Chipping Campden,
Gloucestershire GL55 6QH. Tele-
phone: (0386) 841181. PC
21
-BUSINESS SYSTEMS LTD
30 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9AE
Telephone: 01-636 7142/4102
?
ora business system‘
hel
the ft st floor fe for expert
oF price. “sua miei devin. <>
~ SPECIAL
2 IBM COMPATIBLE
C\/
SANYO 550.
108 v)
Features dual 360K disk
drive, 256K Ram.
Full IBM Colour Graphics
— (including IBM Compatible
Looking f
Come to Fi fir
advice and un
lapricot X110 WITH
| 40MB WINCHESTER’
|) ONLY £2195+ VAT!
‘PLUS
* FREE Monitor
* FREE Super Planner
INTEGRATED ACCOUNTS
PACKAGE
JEL
TT
Video Board and GW Basic).
MSDOS 2.11. Wordstar and Calestar.
FREE Hi-Res Green Monitor
Runs Lotus 123 etc
£895+VAT
Limited stock.
Offer applicable only
while stocks last.
FREE \nvoicing
FREE Stock Control
° FREE Sales Ledger
FREE Purchase Ledger
FREE Nominal Ledger
FREE Payroll
tle
SANYO 550
WITH 2x 800KB
FLOPPY DISC
ONLY £795+VAT!
1.4MB
owed GALAXY BARGAINS
SANYO with IOMB
Winchester 360K floppy, 256K
Ram, MSDOS 2.11, Wordstar &
Calcstar and Monochrome Monitor
£1495+ VAT
SANYO 775/10MX
SPECIAL OFFER i
Includes 256K Ram and MSDOS 2.11
* FREE Monitor (Philips V7001)
* FREE Wordprocessor (Wordstar)
* FREE Spreadsheet (Calcstar)
PLUS FREE
INTEGRATED
ACCOUNTS
PACKAGE
WITH THESE
SYSTEMS
The portable Sanyo with
1OMB Winchester disk.
Twin 360K floppies, 256K
Special Offer
while stocks
last
Ram, MSDOS 2.11, Integral
9 colour monitor, FREE
Software, FREE Colour Printer
£2495 + VAT
ay
—/
4 YEAR
WARRANTY &
MAINTENANCE
CONTRACTS
AVAILABLE
| e)
Bay 84h Keoes
TRAINING _
CAN BE We also stock a wide range of Printers, Monitors, Disc
Drives and Software Packages, plus many other
@ Circle No. 145 Computer Systems at bargain prices.
e ry
OPENING HOURS MON-SAT 9AM-6PM
MAIL ORDERS TO: West One Galaxy Business Systems Ltd,
230 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1
Cheques payable to: West One Galaxy Business Systems Ltd.
‘£100K COMPETITION
THE British Technology Group has
announced its 1985 Academic
Enterprise Competition with total
prize money of £100,000. There
are two classes of entry: the first is
for academic researchers who have
setup, or intend to set up,
a new business as a means of
commercialising their results. The
other is for all other methods
On-line
GAS
A WORLDWIDE consultancy and
information publishing service is
being launched purely as an on-
line service on Telecom Gold.
Global Analysis Systems (GAS)
offers a three-tier service providing
| economic consequences of political
and strategic events in 100
countries throughout the world.
Systematic analysis of significant
daily events is provided at
12.45p.m- every day, drawing on
consultants in London, Paris,
Bonn and New York.
Such. services do not come
cheap: the world is divided up into
four regions, and the annual fee
for information on each varies
from £2,000 to £3,000. The daily
analysis service costs £3,000. As a
small consolation prize you are
given a- Telecom Gold mailbox
free. Details on 01-606 7060.
Booming
BMMG
THE CREDIBILITY: of the British
Microcomputer Manufacturers’
Group’s claim to be the voice of
the British micro industry has
been strengthened by the recent
addition of ICL, Sinclair Research,
Future Technology Systems and
HM Systems to the group. This
brings the membership to about
50 percent of all British . micro
manufacturers. The most glaring
omission is ACT. Details on the
BMMG from (0763) 71209.
Appleca rd
NOT ANOTHER expansion board for
the Ile, but a credit card which is
claimed to have one of the highest
instant credit limits. Up to £2,500
can be obtained_.on the spot after
fulfilling ‘‘certain criteria’’,
allowing you to walk away with a
Macintosh if you so desire. Details
on (0442) 60244.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
of transferring technology from
academic institutions to industry.
The closing date for entries is 30
August 1985.
The competition is open to
members of staff of U.K.
universities and polytechnics, and
postgraduate students or post-
doctoral workers. It is also eligible
to anyone who has left any of
COMPUTERLINES is a new Prestel
service from’ Interlex which allows
used micros to be bought and sold.
Starting on Prestel page 36,019,
there are pages devoted to
machines available or wanted.
Anyone can access them. The cost
for one of these pages is £10 per
fortnight. There is also a charge of
£15 for setting up the page. This is
catried out by Interlex, which also
advises on suitable asking prices. It
is also possible to access a list of
these since 1 January 1980. Entries
must relate to commercial ex-
ploitation of work carried out in
such institutions, and is designed
to encourage such transfers. Hard-
ware and software products are
eligible. First prizes in each class
are £25,000, with £10,000 and
£5,000 for runners-up.
Details from 01-403 6666.
Saeed hand micros
used micros for sale via electronic
mail. More details on 01-943 4366.
A more conventional alternative
for selling your old and unwanted
micro is provided by a new section
in Exchange & Mart. Called Micro
Mart, it covers sales of hardware,
software, peripherals, books. and
magazines. This is in addition toa
computer category within the
business section. More infor-
mation on both services from
(0202) 670011.
Micro maintenance
GRANADA has launched a national
micro maintenance service under
the name of Microcare. Designed
for companies who require 24
hours a day, seven days a week
technical support with hotline
facilities for emergencies, the
service is costed on an individual
basis.
There is a network of service
centres around the country and a
team of mobile technicians. More
information can be obtained from
(0296) 84321.
THREE new services offer micro
users the possibility of convert-
ing computer files into typeset
documents. Type Club offers a do-
it-yourself mail order service: it
claims that no special software is
required. Micros for which the
service is available include the IBM
PC, Apple and many others.
Details from PO Box 186, Poole,
Dorset BH13 6DL.
Typeshare provides a photo-
typsetting service from financial
documents. More on 01-485 9515.
The service offered by Textech
allows you to send text files
produced on IBM, Apricot and
Apple computers to a typesetting
machine. This can be done by
telephone, by floppy disc or by a
portable capture device. More
information on (0580) 880421.
Golden
oldies
THE FRENCH firm Eureka has
bought Oric from its receivers,
including all stocks and parts and
the right to the company name
and its trade names. Eureka
Informatique is a Paris-based
distributor of Sinclair, Amstrad
and Enterprise micros. It also
manufactures monitors. Although
warranties have expired following
receivership, existing owners will
be able to apply for assistance to
the French company. More from
Eureka Informatique, 39 Rue
Victor Masse, 75009 Paris.
Telephone: Paris (010 331) 281
2002.
On the other-hand, the Super-
brain is now Officially dead. The
last batch has been bought by
Professional Micros from Intertec
in the U.S. Professional Micros will
continue to support existing users
for up to five years. Details on
(0954) 81991.
“a a =|
Typesetting from micros
Microsoft
education
discounts
MICROSOFT has joined the battle for
the minds of the U.K.’s youth
with a 30 percent educational
discount on a range of products.
The categories of end-user that will
qualify for discounts include
primary and secondary schools,
further education institutions,
polytechnics and universities.
Details on the range of hardware,
software and books covered by the
scheme can be obtained on
(07535) 59951.
directories
on disc
THE NATIONAL COMPUTING CENTRE
is issuing its present paper-based
directories of hardware, software
and training courses, on discs.
Each directory comes in the form of
a pair of floppy discs, with menu-
driven. file-searching programs.
Updates are similarly issued on
disc.
Formats available include the
IBM PC, Apricot and ICL PC. The
cost is £75 for single copies, and
£450 for annual subscriptions
comprising 10 copies. More on
01-353 0011.
23
APPLE COMPATIBLE
PERIPHERALS
NOTCHER disk capacity DOUBLER..
SATURN 128K RAM CARD for Ile...
128K RAM Card with manual & dis!
SNAPSHOT (i! & Il+) — Dark Star
SNAPSHDT Ile — Dark Star.....
COPYKIT Software — Dark Sta
SHUTTLE MULTITASKING Software Oark Sta
Auto Dial/Auto Answer MODEM Card.
COMMS software for above,
PRESTEL Graphics ROM for Modem Card
Disk Drive Controller Card
13/16 Sector Drive controller car
16K RAM (language) Card
80 Column Card (Videx Compatible) Il+/e
80 Col Card as above with Soft Contr
INVERSE Video ROM for above..
80/40 Column Hard Switch,
80 Column Card for Ile.....
80 Column Card for lle with 64K RAM
Z80 CP/M Card for-il+.
Z80 PLUS Card with Ma
CP/M Z80-B {GMHz) Card with 64K RAM Ii+
Z80 Card for lle
CP/M Module for Ii
Parallel Printer Card (Centronic:
Parallel Printér Card (Epson).
SUPER Parallel Card with manual.
Printer Buffer Card (64K dump)
Grappler+ Card.
Grappler+ 16K Bu
CHAMPION Parallel Interface {with cable
CHAMPION + 16K Buffer {with cable).
CHAMPION + 64K Buffer (with cable)
CACHEBOX 64K Parallel inline Buffer...
Communications Card
RS-292 Serial Interface Card...
SUPER Serial Card with manual
7710 Asynchronous Serial Interface
NTSC to PAL Converter + UHF Mod
NEW PAL Card with Sound,
RGB Card (TTL output)
RGB Card (LINEAR output)... a
IEEE-4B8 Controller, cabl, dsk & manual.
Eprom Blower Card (2716,2732,2764)...
MK2 Eprom Blower {2716,2732,2764, 27128
NEW EPROM controller/Parallel l/Face............
EPRDM Blower for 2716,32,32a,64,128,256
8748 Writer burns 8748,8749...
AID Card 16ch, 0-5.12v, 100 microsecs.
DIA Card 2ch Sbit, or Ich 16bit, O-10v...
8 BIT AD/DA (8 or 16ch a/d, Ich dia).
12 BIT AD/DA (16ch afd, Ich dia)
CLOCK CARD (TIME Il) Card....
MOUNTAIN Clock car ”
Music Card.
Wild Card...
Wild Card Plus
Four Port Twin 6522 Card
6809 Card
Integer Basic Card.
LOGD Card
Joystick (self centering).
Joystick (deluxe version).
Joystick extension cord...
Apple Compatible Power Supply 5A.
ASC Il Encoded Keyboard with lfc mod
IBM STYLE keyboard for Apple
AIC Cooling Fan {clip on) with supress.
Speech Card...
Replay Card.
Forth Card..
8088 Card with 64K (capacity 12BK).
Light Pen system
Graphics Table...
IMAGE Processor (colfmono/SSTV use
SATURNITITAN ACCELERATDR Card I+
SATURNITITAN ACCELERATOR FOR lle.
IC TEST Card TTL Version {send for info)
IC TEST Card D/SRAM, ROM/PROM/EPROM swar
ry
Mmmm mmiminmminmmmmm mm mm mmmmmimmim min me mmm mmm ee ee ee ee ee pe ee ee
3.99
199.00
HERICE)
52.00
99.00
19.95
19.95
125.00
25.00
19.95
34.95
39.95
39.95
44,95
59.95
5,00
6.95
44,95
84.95
39.95
49.95
169.95
44.95
86.00
34.95
34.95
89.95
129.95
84.95
149.95
45.00
89.00
125.00
125.00
32.95
34.95
89.95
79.95
44.95
49,95
49.95
49.95
149,95
49.95
59.95
32.00
53.00
149,95
79.95
98.00
59,95
119.95
44.95
179.95
44.95
69.95
99.95
34.95
119.95
32.95
59.95
14.95
19.95
3.99
49.95
54.95
89.95
24.95
79.95
79.95
- 89.95
365.00
159.00
89.00
199.00
269.00
299.00
119.95
169.95
APPLE STORAGE DEVICES
CUMANA full height drive for Apple.
CUMANA half height drive for Apple
AFO-2 half ht. SS/OD 320K floppy driv
AFD-4 half ht. OS/DD 640K floppy drive.
AFD-4 drive controller card
INTEC 5M8 Hard Drive tor App!
INTEC 10M8 Hard Drive for Apple
INTEC 10M8 Hard Drive KIT
5/10 MB Hard Drive Controller Card.
109.00
145.00
249.00
289.00
59.00
699.00
950.00
875.00
250.00
(Note: All INTEC drives are UK built and backed — Prices include
controller card, cables, power supply, utility and diagnostic software
for DOS, PASCAL & CP/M, together with 24 month service warranty.)
PRINTERS — DAISY WHEEL
BROTHER
HA-15 Parallel 20cps..
HR-15 Serial 20cps...
HR-25 Parailel 25cps
HR-25 Senai 25cps..
HR-35 Parallel 35cps.
HR-35 Sertat :
HR-15 Keyboard...
HR-15 Sheet Feeder.....
HR-15 Tractor Feed Unit.
HR 25/36 Sheet Feeder
HR 25/35 Tractor Unit...
TOWA
Datsy Junior 14cps BOcol, P11... .
Daisystep 2000 18cps 132col, P14.
DIABLO
630-AP! 40cps
630-API Sheet Feeders, from..
EPSON
DX-100 Parallel 20cps......
JUKI
6100 Pieceee
NEC SPINWRITER
3510/30/15 Ser/P11/Diablo 35cps.
7710/30/15 Ser/P11/Dlablo S5cps..
2000 Printer 2Ocps. .
Ser/P1 1/Diablo I/face for 2000...
8800 Printer.......
Ser/P1 1 /Diablo Iiace for 8800.
Accessories for NEC printers...
QUME
11/40 RO {without interface}...
9/45 RO full front panel
12/20 Letter Pro {S or P} 20cps.........
9/55 RO full front panel S6cps.
11/55 RO twnhout interface).......
QUEN DATA/UCHIDA
Daisy Wheel Parallel 18cps.
UCHIDA DAISY WHEEL 20cps parallel.
UCHIDA as above Sena! version
RICOH
RP-1200 ParalleSerial 20cps.
RP- 1300S Parallet/Serial 30cps.. -
RP- 1600S P11 or Ser 8K 6Ocps...........
FLOWRITER 1600 46K Multi I/face...
FLOWRITER 1300 46K Multi Vface...
Elec/Mech Sheet Feeder RP- 4600
Tractor Unit for 1600 Models...
SILVER REED
EXP-400 Paralle! 10cps
EXP-400 Serial 10cps.
EXP-500 Paralte! 1 Gcps.
EXP-500 Serlal 16cps.
EXP-550 Parallel 1 9cps.
EXP-550 Serlal 19cps..
EXP.770 Parallel 36cps.
EXP-770 Serial 36cps..
Tractor for $00......
Tractor for 550/770...
Cun Sheet Feeder for 500...
Cut Sheet Feeder for 560/770...
8K Buffer for 770...
16K Buffer for 770..
48K Buffer for 770.....
TEC STARWRITER
F10/40 Parallel 40cps..
F10/55 Parallel 55cps...
Elec/Mech Single Sheet Feeder.
Tractor for F10 unit.
WORDSTAR
DBASE U..
FRIDAY..
FRAMEWORK ..
LOTUS 123..
SYMPHONY
OMS-DELTA.......
MULTIMATE....
OPEN ACCESS
D BASE It...
SUPERCALC it...
SUPERCALC It...
MULTIPLAN
PEACHTREE ACCOUNTS..
PFS FILE...
PFS REPORT...
SIDEKICK ;
CARD'BOX PLUS..
CROSSTALK XVI.
WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL..
SIDEWAYS...
WORDSTAR 2000.....
FLIGHT SIMULATOR,
NORTON UTILITIES.
SPREAOSHEET AUDITOR...
TURBO PASCAL
NICEPRINT .
PC PAL
MONITORS
SANYO
DM-2112 40col 1S5MHz + P31
OM-8112CX 8Ocol 18MHz + P31.
C0-3125 14” Normal Res. RGB..
CD-3117 14” Medium Res. RGB
CD-3115 14” High Res, RGB...
DMC 7660 IBM/APRICOT Colour Monitor...
YAN JEN
GN 1211 12” Green or Amber 20MHz with tik & swivel base..
ZENITH
122€ 12” 15MHz AMBER..
123€ 12” 15MHz Green.
Tilt base for above
ZVM-133 13" Colour Hi, Res tIBM-PC).
Cable tor ZVM-133/IBM-PC.
PHILIPS
7513 12° Green. composite 20MHz...
7502 12” Green (BM Compatible 20MHz.
CT 2007 Monitor/TV RF, CVBS, RGB....
TAXAN
KX 1201G 12” 20MHz, Green. P31 tube
KX 1202G 12° 20MHz. Green, P39 tube...
KX 1212PC 12" (IBM) Z2OMHz, Green P39...
MONOCHROME CABLES
Phono/Phono
BNC/Phono...
Videolink for Commodore 64.
UNEF/Phono
INDESIT
APRICOT Display 12” (beige of black).
“WE OFFER EXCELLENT DISCOUNTS ON JUST ABOUT EVERY ’
BRAND OF SOFTWARE — CALL FOR QUOTATION —*
PRINTERS — DOT MATRIX
— NEW LOW PRICES
ANADEX — 100% DUTY CYCLE
ALL MODELS...
BROTHER
HR-5 Portable thermal transfer (P onS)..,...
HR-5 for CMB64/VIC 20.
EP-44 Thermal transfer (KSR)...
M-1009 Dual Interface..
M-1009 {IBM} SOcps..
2024L NLO 190cps draft.
TC 600 — Typewrher — printer
DISK DRIVE for TC 600.........
CANON — NEW LOW PRICES
PW-1080 160cps (NLQI
PW-1156 160cps (NLQ)
F-60 80cps Therma! ORAFT/NLO/LOVGR 1 10col,
PJ-1080A Seven COLOUR 37cps-.
DATAPRODUCTS — PAPER TIGER
8010 80col 180cps draft MLO both S&P.
8011 as above but 18M COMPATIBLE...
8020 132col 180cps draft both S&P...
8021 as above but IBM COMPATIBLE....
8050 132COL 200CPS + SSF both S&P..
8060 COLOUR as above but colour printing. .
8070 132coi 400cps draft LO both P&S.
8070 COLOUR as above but colour printing...
EPSON
* "NEW LX8O 80col 100cps {16cps NLQ)
Tractor for LX8O.
Sheetfeeder for LX80
FX-BO BOcol 160cps.
FX-100 F/T 136col 160cps...
LQ-1600 200cps (NLQ}4 to 16* paper width.
EPSON 8143 Serial I/Face OK.
EPSON 8145 Serial /Face 2K buttered...
EPSON 8148 Serial I/Face 3K bulfered.
XON/XOFF Serial Face 2K bulfer
EPSON/COMMODORE I/Face 2K buffer.....
EPSON B165 PET IEEE 2K W/Face 2K buffer,
EPSON PET IEEE Cable 8260.. .
EPSON APPLE Card 8132.
EPSON APPLE Cable 8321.
8K Buffered parallel or serial I/F
16K Buffered paraliel or serial WF,
32K Buffered paralle! os serial VF,
64K Buffered parallel or serial I/F,
HONEYWELL
ALL MODELS.
MANNESMANN TALLY
MT-80 + 100cps
MT-85 80col, 180cps. IBM (cor. quai 45cpsh.....
MT-86 136col, 180cps, (BM icorr. qual 4Scps)
MT-¥60 160cps...
MT-180 160cps {NLQ}.
MT-280 200cps, 132col, IBM (corr. qual SOcpsh...
MICRO PERIPHERALS
CPA-8OP Parallel 100cps, 8O0col.
CPA.8OS Serial version of above...
CPA-800 QL version of above..
CPA-80C Commodore version of above. ‘
CPB-BOP Parallel IBM COMPAT.130cps, BOcol......
CPB-BOS As above but Serial
CPB- 136 Parallel IBM COMP. 130cps. 136col..
MP-165 165¢ps 136col NLQ...,
MP-1650 OL version of above........
MP. 1651 1BM version of above
SERIAL Interface for 165 series
NEC
PINWRITER P2 8Ocol..
PINWRITER P3 132col....
Paraliet merface for P3/P2
RS232 Imtertace for P3/P2...
IBM PC Interface for P3/P2.
Sheet Feeder for P3
Tractor Unn for P3.........
NEWBURY DATA — avy Outy
ORE-8830 Paralle| 1BOcps 132col.
ORE-8840 Parallel 240cps 132col.
ORE-8925 Paraliel 240cps 132col.....
ORE-8850 Parallel 300LPM.
OK} — MICROLINE
OKI-82A P&S 120cps BOcol.
OKI-84A 200cps,
OKI-92P 160cps.
OKI-83A 120cps ..
OK}-2350 Parallel line printer.
OKI-2410P 350eps line printer...
PANASONIC
KX-P1091 120 cps NLQ, IBM COMPATIBLE...
X-P1092 180 cps NLQ. 7Kbuffer, IBM COMP,
RADIX
10 F/T 200cps.
RITEMANN:
PLUS — (MX-80 FT compatible) 120cps 80col,,
BLUE PLUS (RX-80 FT comp.) 140cps 80col...
i = (FX-80 compatible) 160cps 8Ocol. NLQ..
15 — {FX-100 compatible) 160cps 136col.
NEW F + 80col 1D5cps FRONT LOADING, NLQ, 2K.
SEIKOSHA
GP-100 VIC 50cps
GP. 100 Parallet or Serial,
GP-500a S5Ocps..
GP-250X 50cps..
STAR
SG-101{F/T) 120cps, BOcol {5O0cps NLQI...
SO-10 (F/T 160cps. 8Ocol (65ces NLQ),
SR- 10 (F/T) 2O0cps, 8Ocol {8Ocps NLQ)...
SG-15 (F/T} 120cps. 136coi {50cps NL)...
SD-15 (F/T) 160cps, 136col (65cps NLQ)..
SR-16 (F/T) 200cps, 136col {8Oces NLQI..
TAXAN
KP-B10 140cps 80co!l NLQ..
KP-910 140cps 156col NLQ.....
KP-810PC IBM VERSION.
KP-910PC jBM VERSION.
TEC
1550 Parallel...
1850 Serial...
TOSHIBA — 24 Wire Head
2100H Parallel) 100cps LQ.
2100H Serial 100cps (NLO/...
Auto Sheet Feeder for 2100...
Bi-directional Tractor for 2100.
P-1340 P11 of Senat, BOcol + Graphics.
P-¥351 P11 or Serial, 136col + Graphics,
mmm
PPP ROM
REMEMBER! Even if you don't see it advertised here we can probably supply it AND FOR
‘LESS. Problems with limited space means that we are only able to advertise a limited
range of products. Additional prices on application. Consumables, paper, ribbons etc.
supplied at exceptional prices, 24-HOUR DELIVERY on items ex stock.
CARRIAGE WITHIN UK: {tems which may be dispatched by POST (eg peripheral cards
etc.) add £2.00 per order for any order under £50.00. ORDERS EXCEEDING £50.00
CARRIAGE FREE.
SOFTWARE PACKAGES: CHARGED SEPARATELY MINIMUM CHARGE £4.00. Items co
which must move by CARRIER (such as printers, monitors etc.) will be delivered within
24 hours for a charge of £10.00. VAT to all prices given. Remember, VAT is also
applicable on carriage 15%. Terms STRICTLY CWO. DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME.
FOREIGN enquiries if possible by telex please. Favourable rates to most destinations.
CALLERS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
EPSON H180 Plotter
ASTAR MCP-40 4-Colour 80 character
ASTAR MCP-80 4-Colour full graphics.
SILVER REED EB-50 typewriter/plotter.
MANNESMAN TALLY Pixie-3...
RINT
SEIKOSHA GP-700A.
EPSON JX-80 160cps Text
DIABLO 150C,.
ANADEX D&-97258..
CPP-40 4-Colour prinier/plotter
AST:
SIX PACK PLUS with 64K & s/ware from
MEGA PLUS II with 64K & s/ware from..
VO PLUS II & software from
VO MINI & software
MP MINI {to 384K) with 64K
ADVANTAGE (128K to 3MB) with 128K..
PREVIEW (PC/XT/AT) mono & s/ware
MONOGRAPH PLUS (PC/XT/AT) & s/ware
GRAPH PAK with 64K & s/ware
AST-SNA PC...
AST-BSC PC.
AST PC OX...
AST $261....
HERCULES:
HERCULESigraphicsicard.....csiertetssvenvecanveesctervers
INTELLIGENCE UK:
PC EXPRESS 128K :
PCIEXFRESS 256K. -21.,.... MD secs tose ccrecsccroyensee
LAB-MASTER:
12 BIT DATA ACQUISITION
Above with 40KHz and prog. gain.
8 BIT DATA ACQUISITION
64 CHANNEL data acquisition..
DATA Acquisition with 8OKHz.
ORCHID TECHNOLOGY
QUADRAM:
QUADLINK (emulates Apple !l)
QUADBOARD Il with 64K
EXPANDED QUADBOARD OK..
QUADCOLOUR 1
SATURN/TITAN TECH:
ACCELERATOR PC board
TECMAR:
TECMAR RAM BOARDS -— too numerous please CALL
20029 FIRST MATE with 64K £ 319
21044 CAPTAIN with 64K
20005 SPEECH MASTER voice synthesizer.
21005 AUXILIARY VOCABULARY for above...
20015 PROTOZOA prototyping board
20017 Extender board for PC and compat...
20033 AMOEBA prototyping for baseboard
COMPUTERS
APRICOT
PC 256K + 2 x 315K + Monitor.
PC 256K + 2 x 720K + Monitor
XI 256K + 10MB + Monitor.......
X1512K + 10MB + Monitor....
X1512K + 2QMB + Monitor
SANYO
MBC 550 128K + 1x 160K + software
MBC 55 128K + 2x 160K + software...
MBC 550-2 as 550 but 360K Drive
MBC 555-2 as 555 but dual 360K dr.
CRT 36 Hi Res 12” Green Monitor...
CRT 50 Med. Res. Colour monitor
CRT 70HiRes. Colour Monitor,
MBC 232 — RS232 |/Face board.
64K RAM Plug In Module
EPSON
PX-8 Portable Computer
120K RAM Disk for above
PX8 + 120K RAM Disk.......
QX-10 Desk Top Computer c
PCs AND COMPATIBLES
CANON
A-200C as above but COLOUR
COMMODORE
PC-10256K + 2x 360K drives + monitor £1499
PC-20 256K + 1x 360K + 10MB + Monitor £2439
COMPAQ
PC-2 256K + 2x 360K drives
PLUS Portable
DESKPRO 1...
DESKPRO 2....
DESKPRO 3....
DESKPRO 4
IBM
Mono PC 256K + 2 x 360K drives + monitor £1575
Colour PC 256K + 2x 360K + monitor £1845
Mono XT 256K + 1x 360K + 10MB + monitor.....£3100
OLIVETTI
M24 128K + 1x 360K drives Mono............0..000.
M24 128K + 1x 360K drives Col i
M24 128K + 2x 360K drives Mono
M24 128K + 1x 360K drives 1O0MB Mono..
M24 128K + 1x 360K drives 20MB Col.
M21128K + 1x 360K drives
M21 128K + 2x 360K drives
SANYO
SANYO MBC 775 COLOUR PORTABLE IBM COMPATIBLE
256K RAM + 2 x 320K DRIVES, COLOUR MONITOR +
MS DOS and GW-BASIC
384K MULTIFUNCTION
CARD — SIX WAY!!!
* 64K to 383K RAM Memory
* RS232C Serial Port
* Real Time Clock/Calendar with Battery
Backup
* RAMDISK & PSPOOL Software
* Optional Games Port
Built & Tested £289.00
7-PLUS (TM) —
7-WAY BOARD!!!
* 2x serial ports
* 1 x parallel port
* Games port
* Clock/cal with backup
* 4 drive floppy controller
£299.00
4-LAYER PC/XT
MAINBOARD
64K to 1MB ON BOARD
8 Fully Compatible Slots
Built & Tested £295.00
PC/XT CASE
8-Slot
Hinged lid
Includes hardware
£99.00
XT CONVERSION KITS
FOR IBM’ AND
COMPATIBLES
NEW FAST CONTROLLER!!!
WESTERN DIGITAL 1002 SWX-2
SEGATE ST-506 STANDARD...£249.00
10 MEGABYTE MR-521 53”
WINCHESTER HARD DRIVE, 2-HEADS
AVERAGE ACCESS 85ms £399.00
20 MEGABYTE MR-522 53”
WINCHESTER HARD DRIVE, 4-HEADS
AVERAGE ACCESS 85ms £579.00
HARD DRIVE CABLE SET £ 25.00
* UPGRADE 130WATT POWER
SUPPLY £149.00
RAM CHIP SALE!!!
4164 64K DRAM 150Ns £1.99 each
4128 128K DRAM 150Ns.....£7.49 each
(for upgrade IBM AT)
41256 256K RAM 150Ns.....£5.99 each
(for upgrade Olivetti-M24, Compaq
Deskpro, etc.)
MAINBOARD B-103 4-Layer PC/XT
MEGA Mainboard PC/XT
SUPER Mainboard PC/XT
256K M/FUNCT. 1 par, 1 ser, cl/cal, OK
384K M/FUNCT. 6-WAY OK
512K RAMEXPAND (2 DIP SWITCH), OK...£ 95
Parallel printer card
Parallel card with 64K buffer (OK)
Monochrome (text) display card
COLOUR/GRAPHICS Card (2 layer)
640 x 200 b/w+ 320 x 200 4 colour
160 x 100 16 colour + light pen I/face
text: 80x 25 & 40x 25
will drive TTL MONO/COMPOSITE MONO
COMPOSITE COLOUR/rgb Monitors
SUPER COLOUR/GRAPHICS Card (4 layer)
64K Display Memory — TTL mono spec:
640 x 350 b/w with 2 pages
640 x 350 single colour 16 intensities
80 col x 25 rows with 32 pages.
COLOUR/GRAPHICS specifications:
640 x 400 mono with 2 pages
640x 200 16 colour 2 pages
640 x 400 16 colour
TEXT 40 col x 50 row
40 col x 50 row with 32 pages mono
PC, PC-XT, PC-AT COMPATIBLE
MONOCHROME GRAPHIC CARD VERSION II
720 x 348 graphic display, 2K static
RAM buffer eliminates scroll flicker
single parallel port standard.................0.. £229
MULTI I/O CARD — 5 WAY!!!
Dual floppy controller interface
Asynchronous RS23 2 serial comms port
Parallel printer port, games adaptor
Clock/Cal with battery backup
EPROM WRITER CARD up to 128K £175
MODEM CARD V21/V23 CCITT AA/AD.....£169
FLOPPY DRIVE CONTROLLLER (4 DRIVES).£ 75
TEAC FD-55B half ht 320K floppy dr
RS232 SERIAL I/Face, 1 port 50-9600......£ 49
SERIAL Async RS232C, 2 port 50-9600....£ 69
GAMES ADAPTOR
NetDISK Disk Server Software
NetDMS Data Management Software
NET BOOT ROM for floppyless ops
NETRSIARITIER Kiceeceenesseeeeeeteenae sashes
DX45 lockable 100pc DISKETTE BOX (3 ly
DX50 lockable 50pc DISKETTE BOX £ 15
(NOTE: We can supply most of the above as
UNPOPULATED boards for OEMs in quantity)
GET As
BUSINESS SYSTEMS LTD
TEL: (0342) 24631/313427
56 MAPLE DRIVE, EAST GRINSTEAD
W. SUSSEX RH19 3UR. TLX: 957547
@ Circle No. 146
PIAISING
1: ES ee Le eS wi nf
DISKING FREEPOST, LIPHOOK, HAMPSHIRE GU30 7BR, UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: (0428) 722563 (24 hours)
The
BEST
GOODS
VISKING
customers
win
POINTS
make
PRIZES
DISKING branded
diskettes qualify
for double points
Here is the DISKING points system,
remember Ten Diskettes = 1 Point
Code Description Worth Points
a. Sanyo Dictation cassette recorder £39.00 10
b. Lorus quartz Gents Gold plated analogue watch £26.00 10
c. DISKING gold/blue cuff links in presentation case £10.00 5
d. LCD watch, calculator & pen set (mens or ladies)* £ 8.00 5
To receive your FREE GIFTS...... e. Polaroid ‘Ali Seasons’ Sports Sunglasses Red/White £695 3
f. Polaroid ‘All Seasons’ Sports Sunglasses Blue/White £ 6.95 3
All you have to do is buy any of g. DISKING 15” x 11” gussetted Burgundy Document case £ 5.00 3
é h. DISKING 15” x 11” gussetted Gold Document case £ 5.00 3
our superb diskettes from the j. LCD Credit card Memory calculator with wallet £5.00 3
& k. LCD Travelling Alarm or Car clock, with hourly chime £ 4.00 7.
advertisement overleaf, and m. Silky smooth ‘Satin gold’ ballpoint pen £ 3.00 2
depending on the number of disks n. DISKING leather & gold/blue key fob £250 1
i - p. DISKING playing cards 2-pack set red & blue £ 2.00 1
you buy, just tot up your points to q. Satin chrome ‘Political’ ballpen, writes red or blue £ 2.00 1
; : : r. DISKING Ladies gold/blue stick pin £100 05
see which prize you can claim. s. Memorex dB series C-90 Cassette tape £1.00 0.5
Ten disks = 1 point and pro rata.
“Very limited quantity in stock
We reserve the right to substitute an alternative gift with the same points value. as gift Stock
becomes exhausted
Just tell us which gift you
want on the order
form overleaf - and it’s
‘oy — “tron NEW, LOWER PRICES
fs ) he | )) } est vents
N y EMCEE WS J BEST SERVICE
DISKING FREEPOST, LIPHOOK, HAMPSHIRE GU30 7BR, UNITED KINGDOM
How to contact us:
General Enquiries & Sales (0428) 722563; Trade/Government (0428) 722840; Telex 858623 Telbur G.
DISKETTES STORAGE & ACCESSORIES
Datalife DISKING
> AT ond ia aimee Ten Bock Prices exe VAT and quantities relate to Ten-Packs
Beg exe VAT on bi by oO Be $s —— 53” 24 2-4 5-9 10-19 204
51” DISKETTE STORAGE (BUY 2 GET 1 FREE)
WITHOUT LOCKS
525S/S 48+pi 20.90 18.90 17.90 16.90 15.90 DIDSIS 48 tpi = 15.90 13.90 13.40 12.90 12.40 Port No: Description Price exe VAT
550D/S 48 tpi 23.90 21.90 20.90 19.90 18.90 D2DDIS 48 tpi 17.90 15.90 15.40 14.90 14.40 FFIO Flip’n’File 10 for 10 disks 3.90
577 S/S 96 tpi —««- 23.90 21.90 20.90 19.90 18.90 DIQSIS% tpi 17.90 15.90 15.40 14,90 14.40 FFIS Flip’n'file 15 for 15 disks 5.90
557D/S96tpi «28.90 26,90 25.90 24.90 23.90 D2QDIS%tpi 22.90 20.90 19.90 19.40 18.90 Mini 50 Flip’n’File Box for 50 disks 16.90
High Density (IBM PC AT) Mini 100 Flip’n‘File box for 100 disks 32,90
5i"Diskettes 1 2-4 5:9 10-19 20+ B50 Budget 50 for 50 disks 8.90
MDHD1.6MB 46.90 44.90 43.90 42.90 41.90 JISIKING . WITH LOCK & KEYS
34” Microdisks 1 2-4 «5.9 10-19 204 ss COLOURED Disks KM25 Flip’n‘File lockoble for 25 disks 25.90
MF350 S/S 40.90 38.90 37.90 36.90 35.90 Prices exc VAT ond quantities relate to Ten-Packs KMS50 Flip’n‘File lockable for 50 disks 36.90
MF360 D/S 50.90 48.90 47.90 46.90 45.90 - ens P " of a + 2 2. abd ® “a JUMBO Our original box for 100 disks 18.90
: tpi . ' . . 5
Unlobelled'3; Microdisks 2DD/S-48ipi «23.90 21.90 20.90 19.90 18.90 3} MICRODISK STORAGE (BUY 2 GET 1 FREE)
UL350 S/S 34.90 32.90 31.90 90.29 29.90 1DD SIS % tpi —«-23.90 21.90 20.90 19.90 18.90 M10 Fininielelbaa tent Oreos 4.90
UL360 DIS 44.90 42.90 41.90 40.90 39.90 spn Disoetpi 28.90 26.90 25.90 24.90 23.90 M25 Flip'n‘File box for 25 microdisks 10.90
Bi ; M50 Flip’n'File Box for 50 microdisks 19.90
To order the colour of your choice, just precede the type number with the M40 Flip'n’File (latching) for 40
erex appropriate letter, (RJRED, (OJORANGE, (Y)YELLOW, (G]GREEN, ae 31.90
(B)BLUE.
Diskette Mailing ond Computer Care
Disking Supermailers
A clever capyright design, these immensly strong Supermailers offer full
protection for up to 4 diskettes.
Prices exc VAT ond quantities relate to Ten-Packs
+” Diskettes i] 2-4 5-9 10-19 20+
1509/5 $/D 14.90 12.90 12.40 11.90 11.40 WISIING
200S/SDID 15.90 13,90 13.40 12.90 12.40 BULK DISKETTES
250 D/S DID 20.90 18.90 17.90 17.40 16.90 10-40 disks gets you o FREE Flip’n’File 10 withe very ten-pack, OR Packed in 100’s for convenience
8” Diskettes — Coll for prices buying fifty disks entitles you to a FREE BUDGET 50 storage box. Part No: Description : Price exc VAT
All Disking bulk diskettes are supplied with user & write protect labels. No DSM 100 Supermailers 24,90
points with Bulk diskettes.
Prices exc VAT and quantities relate to Ten-Packs
Prices exc VAT and quantities relate to Ten-Packs
Memorex Cleaning Kits
A really comprehensive range of kits containing everything you'll need for a
sparkling computer.
54" Diskettes 1 2-4 5-9 10-19 20+ , i i
3481 S/S 48tpi «20.90 18.90 17.90 16.90 15.90 mi a XP ] | oo aesete — Price are
3491 DIS 48pi 23.90 21.90 20.90 19.90 18.90 MTV Wate cleaning ie 4.90
3504 S/S 96tpi 24.90 22.90 21.90 20.90 19.90 " rosa 50+ ep Dit deve end ce ing bi =
High Density (BMPCAT) TS 2889 ULID SIS 48m and bine SAVE NEARLY £4.00
eA UL2D DIS 48 tpi 12.00 10.58 ee
51 "9 Diskettes “1 2-4 5-9 10-19 204 ULIDD S/S 96 ri 12.00 10.58 Just buy all three kits together FOR ONLY £14.90
5500 1.6MB 46.90 44.90 43.90 42.90 41.90 UL2DD DIS 96 tpi 14.00 12.58 A BARGAIN IF EVER WE SAW ONE!
35" 1 2-4 59 10-19 20+ 34” SIS Disk Drive Head Cleaning Kit
6100 S/S 40.90 38.90 37.90 36.90 35.90 Prices and quantities relate to Ten-Packs At last, a Microdrive head cleaning kit, for 3.5” drives.
6120 DIS 50.90 48.90 47.90 46.90 45.90 5” Diskettes 1 2-4 5-9 10-19 204 Port No: Description Price exe VAT
MD1-D S/S 22.90 20.90 19.90 18.90 17.90 SDD 3.5” Drive head cleaning ki 8.90
MD2-DDIS 48 29.90 27.90 26.90 25.90 24.90
AYO | n MDI-DD $/$96 29.90 27.90 26.90 25.90 24.90
MD2-DDDIS 34.90 32.90 31.90 30.90 29.90
34” Microdisks 1 2-4 5-9 10-19 20+ ,
MF1-DD S/S 40.90 38,90 37.90 36.90 35.90
MF2-DD D/S 53.90 51.90 50.90 49.90 48.90
Prices exc VAT and quontities relate to Ten-Packs
55" Diskettes 1 2-4 5-9 10-19 20+
1O4ND S/S 48 22.90 20.90 19.90 18.90 17.90
WHOLESALE CORNER
104/2D DIS 48 29.90 27.90 26.90 90.24 24.90 3” Compact’ * | 2-4 5-9 10-19 20+
204/1D SIS 96 29.90 27.90 26.90 25.90 24.90 CF2 DIS 39.90 38.90 37.90 36,90 35.90 . :
204/2DDIS96 34.90 32.90 31.90 30.90 29.90 * “FREE Memorex VDU Cleaning Kit per pack If you are a government body or trader in computer supplies, and
8” Diskettes — Call for prices. 8” Diskettes — Call for prices Can always purchase in quantities of not less than 50 diskettes
at any one time (any size or mix of configuration) please write or
call for our wholesale prices on (0428) 722840. All bona fide
bulk diskette buyers will receive a FREE pack of Disking playing
HOW TO ORDER WwW uUK.P & P RATES
Official Government Orders Welcome UK Shipping Rates exc VAT
We supply all Government bodies including schools, 5}" Disks or microdisks Diskette Storage
Universities, Colleges, Hospitals, the Utilities, Research 1-2 pocks each pack @ 95p MIO, FFIO, FF15, SEE 10, SEE 10-3, SEE
Establishments, Armed Forces, the Ministries and Local ‘ace pack @ 75p 108
AG > ee es . packs each pack @ 60p 1.4 off @ 40p eoch
Authorities world-wide. If ordering in quantities of fifty 10+ packs POST FREE 5.9 off @ 30p each
diskettes or more, please ask for our wholesale price list. 10+ off @ 20p each
All Cleaning Kits
Credit Card Orders (0428) 722563 (24 hrs). i os M25, MINI 100, KM25, FFS10, KM5O,
ACCESS & VISA welcome, call any time but please -7 off 40p ead JUMBO
don’t whisper. Just leave the following details:- Si lle NaN
1 Day-time phone number, 2 Cardholder name & Disking Diskwriters 8+ off POST FREE
address, 3 Your Credit Card Number, 4 What you
want & how many, 5 Normal or first class post!
Leave the REST to US!
Urgent Orders
ee are peeing He order, leave out the word
POST from our address, and use our normal post inti i
code GU30 7EJ and do not forget to stamp it First Class. “\ ial ‘pies! Qty Gift Code Points
If you are telephoning your order, please make it clear
that you wish fo pay i your goods to be sent to you by
First Class Post.
50-poek £1.00
Disking Supermailers
100-pack £3.00
FLIP’N‘FILE 10, value 4.48 inc VAT.
To: DISKING, FREEPOST, Liphook, Hants, GU30 7BR U.K. (0428) 722563
Find enclosed our order, we claim the following gift(s):
First Class Rates ee ee ee Se ee
Minidisks & Microdisks:—
Firs! Ten-Pack £2.00 Total goods value exc VAT .
Second and subsequent Ten-Pack £1.50 eet ese Totalipoints actrees cecal =
Very Urgent Orders Sub Total exc VAT
If ordering by telephone, and by 3.00pm you may ur ee cere out
request Datapost which delivers the next morning at BECESSINISA
9.00am. Minimum cast is £10.00 for the first 5Kg — Value of cheque to DISKING Number: 4
please call. a
Name..
Desperate Orders
Just call and discuss your problem, and we will do Adresstzoeeentee ars P50 aaa RRS ME SEER Stn: noe
whatever we can to help. If you are not too far we can
probably organised a taxi or courier. eee eres CL ee ae | EN
@ Circle No. 147 RERIEE
BBC COMMODORE C-64
COMMODORE C-64
SPECTRUM
ZX81
COMMODORE C-64
28
PRODUCTS
for Spectrum
... The interface which likes to say...Ja
and Qui and Si and of course YES! A
Spectrum Centronics interface with
multilingual chars in EPROM, as in
EPSON FX80 printer. Printer driver also
in EPROM. User notes show how to use
ie for UTILS or down loadable
chars.
NEW POLYPRINT
POLYPRINT from Silicon City £44.95
PRINT-SP
Low cost Centr. I/F. with CABLE. S’ware on tape.
EPROM PROGRAMMERS
BB-PROM for the BBC. With fast gpm’g, ZIF skt, Vpp generator & s’ware in
S.W.R. for 2764/128 EPROMS. £29.95
Q-PROM for the QL. A powerful programmer with Fast and Smart pgm'g
s'ware in firmware. For 2764/128 & ‘A’ types, usable in ROM cartridge for your
own utilities, etc. CHECK, READ, CRC, BLOW & VERIFY part or ail
EPROM. £69.95
Q-CART ROM reader for QL. Takes 2764 or 27128 £5.95
PROM-64 for Commodore C-64. Fast pgm’g, ZIF skt, Vpp generator, s’ware on
tape for 2764/128 EPROMS. Full functions incl. C.R.C. £34.75
64-CART for 2X64K EPROMS for the Commodore 64.
BLOPROM-SP
A uniquely
sophisticate
EPROM
PROGRAMMER
m programmer for the
for Spectrum
£31.25
iit
Eprom prog
2516/32/32A/64/64A/128/128A.
CHECK, READ PROGRAM &
VERIFY all or part of EPROM.
So immensely user friendly you'll
hardly need the manual. Designed for
the beginner but includes a single ke
entry route for the professional,
Supplied as firmware, the m/c driver
routine alone is worth more than the
price of BLOPROM-SP. No
ersonality Cards, or other additions,
ee a Spectrum. Several inbuilt safety
features. Onboard Vpp generation. 28
pin ZIF socket. Cabled connector and
extender plug. ABS case. £89.95
STATUS NO. OF SYSTEM —HEX
EPROM TYPE —27128
RAM START ADOR —4900
EPROM ST. ADDR — e90¢
JOB LENGTH — 4900
TASK — CHECK
WHICH TASK DO YOU WiSK TO CO
W) CHECK THAT EPROM 1S CLEAN
X) READ THE CONTENTS OF EPROM INTO
RAM
%) BLOW AN EPROM WITH OATA FROM
RAM
2) VERIFY THAT EPROM DATA IS THE SAME
AS IN RAM
O70 oulT
FAST CODES AVAILABLE
4H POR WXYZ
RTO RESTART
AT LAST!
For the Spectrum user. Put your
rape utilities, Assemblers into
PROMS for instant load from the
unique ROM-SP.
ROM-SP for Spectrum
Ingenious unit for Spectrum with 2X28 pin sockets and a Reset Button allows up
to 16K of Basic or M/C program to RUN or LOAD instantly from EPROMs.
Cabled connector and flltexcentler card. NOTE: Does not disable Sinclair Dae
PROMER-SP for Spectrum
An economical Spectrum programmer for 2764/128. Zero insertion force socket &
software on tape. £29.95
PROMER 81-S
The very popular ZX81 programmer for 2761/32 EPROMs has been adapted to
the Spectrum and the price is kept low. £24.95
DHOBI1
Compact. Mains powered. Safe. Fully cased. Up to3 EPROMs.
UV ERASER
£18.95
DHOBI2 With automatic timer. £22.95
Only with a Camel Programmers & while stocks last.
* YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT! *
NEW 2764 or 27128.
CRAMIC-SP NEW for Spectrum
Ingenious software paged 16K non-volatile CMOS RAM to co-exist in the same
area as Spectrum ROM. Easy storage and retrieval of BASIC, M/C or DATA ona
48K Spectrum. £89.95
NIKE POWER BUFFERS
NiCd battery back-up for Spectrum ZX81/ATMOS. £17.35
DREAM-81 ZX81
64K Rampack with link options to disable 0-8-16K. Plus a 28 pin EPROM socket
for 2716, 2732/2764 and 27128. £59.95
£2.99 ea.
MEMIC-81 for XZ81
4K CMOS RAM with lithium battery. Easy SAVEing, 10yr storage and instan'
retrieval of programs. £29.95
Td UK. VAT extra.
NoVAT onexports
Overseas+10%
TLX81574 CML
Cambridge CB4 1UY
P+P UK Free
TEL: (0223) 314814
One Milton Road
CAMEL PRODUCTS
Europe+5%
@ Circle No.
348 v9-DAJHOGOWINOD
v9-D JHOGOWIWOD
N
x<
ioe)
—
TO
v9-D JYOGOWINOD odd
L8XZ
WAYLOAdS
149
SWAP-SWAP-SWAP*
a
=
1
Fa
:
T
=
=
T
MICROTOMICRO “\
FILE TRANSFER
SYSTEM
SWAP
“Get your microcomputers
talking to each other!”
SWAP allows you to transfer any programs and data between 2
computers of different manufacture. SWAP consists of 2 floppy
disks and a cable configured for your 2 chosen computers. Here
are some of the formats available:
IBM PC IBM Compatibles
Apricot Apple (CP/M)
Televideo Superbrain
Sanyo 555 DEC Rainbow
Sirius
HP150
BBC
Kaypro
If your format is not in our extensive range we can usually produce it at little
or no extra cost.
The price of SWAP is £158 (£135 plus VAT and postage and packing). Please
specify your computers when ordering.
MERCATOR COMPUTER SYSTEMS LTD
3 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bfistol BS8 1NU.
Telephone: (0272) 731079
Telex 44220 Comtel Ref 247
MIERTATOI
COMPUTER#*SYSTEMS
@ Circle No. 154
The Classic
Menu Generator.
liminate all user contact
with operating system
commands. Use MENUGEN
from Microft Technology to
create menus fo access all
your regularly used programs.
MENUGEN isa utility
which will create menus for
any activity. A menu selection
will run.a program, call another menu, return to a
previous menu, run a basic program, execute operating
system commands, or exit fo the operating system.
FACILITIES INCLUDE
UPTO 20 MENU OPTIONS PER MENU SCREEN
UPTO 15 LEVELS OF NESTED MENU
ANY NUMBER OF LINES OF HEADINGS AND FOOTNOTES
USE OF COLOUR - FULLY USER DEFINABLE
“ARE YOU SURE?’ MESSAGE OPTION AFTER ANY SELECTION
PROMPTING FOR UP TO 16 PARAMETERS AFTER ANY SELECTION
OPTIONAL PASSWORD PROTECTION ON MENU SELECTIONS
OPTIONAL LOGGING OF ALL SELECTIONS TAKEN ;
MENUGEN is available formost CP/M, MS DOS
orPC DOS micros including IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles, Sirius, Apricot, HP150, DEC Rainbow,
and many Z80 machines. MENUGEN costs £48 + VAT
(£55.20) forasingle userlicence, or£120+ VAT (£138)
foranetworklicence, andis available from Microft
Technology Limited, The Old Powerhouse, Kew Gardens
Station, Kew, Surrey TW9 3PS. To order, orforfurther
information, telephone 01-9488255.
MENUGEN
MENUGEN is a Trade Mark of Microft Technology Ltd and is a British product,
@ Circle No. 155
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
User Ltd, Selection Menu
ASPECT
Wordstar
Lotus 123
Disk formatting menu
Exit to operating system
Please type in selection number
uring the past few months I
DE devoted rather too
much space to interesting
new microprocessors and their
complex peripheral circuits, with
the result that memory com-
ponents have unfortunately been
rather neglected.
This has not been due to a
deliberate policy of victimisation
on my part. Each’ month, when
limbering up in preparation for
setting pen to paper, I sort through
a four-week hotchpotch of press
releases, data sheets and news
items. There are usually a number
of glamour items which catch my
eye, and I choose the one which
appears to have sufficient depth
and interest for me to then concoct
a distilled brew for this column.
Every month there are num-
erous items which by them-
selves are not adequate column
fodder, even though they may be
interesting in a somewhat limited
way. Now the pangs of guilt
presumably experienced by all
‘wielders of the censor’s blue pencil
have got to me, and as a penance |
offer this month a bumper com-
pendium of some of the smaller
items which were passed over.
MEMORY DEVICES
The theme — for there has to be
one — is memory devices, because
in recent months there have been
quite a number of interesting
developments. Memories last got
star treatment when I covered the
status of 256K dynamic RAMs. At
that juncture I predicted, I believe,
that before too long the price per
bit would drop below that of the
64K devices. That happy event has
now occurred, and as a result very
few designers will be bothering
with 64K RAM chips any more,
despite the fact that for some
considerable period many more
64K chips than 256K chips will be
sold for existing designs.
Surprisingly, some second-
generation 256K chips with
improved features are now be-
coming available. One such chip is
the Intel 51C256H, which offers
tipple mode fast addressing of a
random or sequential selection of
up to 512 bits within a row to
give cycle times of less than 65
nanoseconds. It is fabricated using
an advanced low-power CMOS
process.
For some designers however,
even 256Kbits per package are in-
sufficient, and as a result memory
suppliers have developed some
interesting ways of producing
tomorrow’s memory size today,
although unfortunately at a
premium price. Electronic Designs
Europe, for example, is selling
Mbit dynamic RAM devices
which are actually assembled from
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
four conventional 256K chips in
leadless packages mounted on a
22-pin single in-line ceramic sub-
strate along with appropriate
decoupling capacitors. Two
organisations are available, 256K
by 4 and 1M by 1, which cater for
most types of memory archi-
tecture.
SQUEEZED CHIPS
Another way to get a bigger
device is to use one of the Micron
Technology Inc. DRAM arrays
which actually utilise older, but
safer, unpackaged 64K chips
squeezed into a single lin. square
68-contact flat leadless chip carrier
package. The MT-8064 is
organised as G4K by 8, the
MT-1512 as 512K by 1, and the
MT-9064 as 64K by 9. In each case
10 64K chips are used to provide a
redundancy factor. The 64K chips
are squeezed together so tghtly
that it seems a shame that they ail
had to be sawn from their parent
wafer in the first place. Perhaps
this demonstrates that eventually
the logic of wafer-scale integration
will become inescapable.
All the devices mentioned so far
are, of course, dynamic in opera-
tion. This means that they have to
be refreshed continuously, or else
they lose their data. The advantage
of dynamic RAMs is that they
provide the highest memory
density of all, so the penalty of
having to provide special refresh
circuitry is usually acceptable.
But not always: the Hitachi
HM-65256AP is a dynamic RAM
device with on-chip refresh logic,
making it a so-called pseudo-static
memory afray organised as 32K by
8. For some small systems a single
28-pin HM-65256AP package is all
the RAM needed, and there is
therefore an important niche for
these designs. Better still would be
a truly static 256K chip, and
Mitsubishi has just announced that
it will have a CMOS device avail-
able soon with this specification.
Not all new RAM devices are
aimed at main-memory applica-
tions however. The CY-
7C401/2/3/4 series from Cypress
Semiconductor are designed to act
as buffers between processors and
peripheral functions operating at
different speeds, and are therefore
organised as CMOS first-in-first-
out (FIFO) memories with
completely asynchronous read and.
write logic. The very high speed
requirements and the need for on-
chip address logic means that
memories of this type are small,
typically organised as 64 by 4 bits.
Giant strides have also been
made in the other variety of main
memory, namely read-only
memory or ROM. Of course, ROM
has generally been used to hold
fixed system software such as a disc
operating system and a Basic inter-
preter, but today it is also
being increasingly used to hold
applications packages such as
spreadsheet, word processor and
database programs.
The current state of the art
seems to be about I1Mbit of
masked program ROM in a 28-pin
dual in-line package, fabricated in
either NMOS or CMOS techno-
logy. The MSM-531000P NMOS
device from Mitsubishi, organised
as 128K by 8, is typical. It offers an
access time of 250 nanoseconds
and is ideal for the mass
production of identical software —
more correctly called firmware —
for applications in personal com-
puters and the like. It is not well
suited for much else, however,
because it is necessary to order
many thousands of these devices
all containing the same code.
ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT
During development or field
trials it is often necessary to revise
ROM-based code. This is an
impossibility with masked devices,
so for this stage of design erasable,
programmable read-only mem-
ories or EPROMs are used. In the
EPROM field, developments have
been spectacular in recent months,
and examples of the latest state of
the art are the Intel 27512 and
27513 64K by 8 devices. They are
both fabricated using an advanced
The Intel 27916 KEPROM: hacker-proof code at last?
BBCHIP-CHAT
BY RAY COLES
MEMORY
REFRESH
Developments in RAM,
ROM and related
devices are just as
significant as new
microprocessor
technology.
NMOS process, and are erasable
using short-wave ultraviolet light.
The 27513 is particularly inter-
esting because it is organised as
four 16K by 8 pages, only one of
which occupies space in the micro-
processor memory map at any one
time. If the system software can be
organised to suit, the 27513 can
quadruple available code space
because the pages are not selected
by direct addressing, but are
instead selected by the generation
of a special page address sequence
on the control and data buses. It is
ideal for memory-limited eight-bit
systems.
Also from Intel, the world
leader in EPROM technology,
comes the 27916 KEPROM — an
unfamiliar acronym which stands
for keyed-access EPROM. This 16K
by 8 device is designed to dis-
courage hackers. It foils all
attempts to obtain improper access
by requiring the use of an
encrypted authentication hand-
shake sequence before the stored
data can be read or used as
executable code. All KEPROMS |.
contain encryption circuitry to
implement a proprietary logic
combination of a random number
together with a confidential user-
defined 64-bit key, which is
Programmed into a special
location on the chip.
In the future there will no doubt
be many more developments.
Already I have seen press releases
detailing soon-to-be-available
1Mbit DRAMS; they are Japanese,
of course. And perhaps before long
we shall even see the incredible
Sinclair/Catt wafer-scale mass-
storage devices. Stranger things
have happened. ‘
29
COMPUTING TITLES
FROM CHAPMAN AND HALL
The BBC
<)
tes
oY
RICHARD FORSYTH AND BRIAN MORRIS
This new version of one of the best ever
introductory books on BASIC — The BASIC
Idea — is aimed at BBC microcomputer
users.
The aim of this book is to turn a novice
computer user into a competent computer
programmer by ree readers how to
use modern methods of problem analysis
and design. With this expertise, readers will
be able to use BBC BASIC to solve realistic
problems, and have fun in doing so.
July 1985 234 x 156 ¢.278 pages
Paperback 0 412 249006 £6.95
Databases
How to manage information
on your micro
PETER LAURIE
Information management is one of the
things computers do well. Databases
explains clearly how information is
organised in microcomputers, how the
software works and how to get hold of
relevant data and keep it up to date.
June 1985 176 pages
Paperback 0 412 263807 7 £8.95
30 @ Circle No. 150
Which Peripherals?
How to choose them,
how to use them
PIERS LETCHER
This book will help you to find out just what
your needs are and how best to fulfil them. It
will save you time and money spentin fruitless
sifting through dealers lists. The book gives a
comprehensive guide to whatis available,
which add-on works with which micro; what
to look for and where to go when buying
peripherals for your micro.
February 1985 180 pages
Paperback 0412 265109 £5.95
C At A Glance
Cc
Adam Denning
ADAM DENNING
The computer language C is now regarded as
one of the most important systems
programming languages available, as it is
compact, economical and relatively easy to use.
This book aims to teach C to the beginner and
assumes knowledge only of the host
computer. The history of C, its basics and
fundamentals and more advanced uses are all
described with clarity and numerous examples
are provided which demonstrate the
techniques.
September 1985 234 x 156
180 pages Illustrated
Paperback 0 412 271400 £7.95
Chapman and Hall
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE.
The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide
to Artificial Intelligence
RICHARD FORSYTH AND CHRIS NAYLOR
This book is a practical, do-it-yourself guide
for home micro users who want to delve into
the exciting world of Al (Artificial Intelligence).
It begins with a clear introduction to the
principles of Al with an explanation of AY its
concepts are so important, how it can be fun
to explore on micros. The book avoids the
specialist Al programming languages and
presents all programs in BASIC.
August 1985 234 x 156 272 pages
BBC BASIC edition: 0 412 269708 £8.95
Apple BASIC edition 0 412 27090 0 £8.95
Expert Systems
Principles and case studies
Edited by RICHARD FORSYTH
This book explains the concepts behind
expert systems readers who know about
computing but are unfamiliar with the latest
research and with what they can do
themselves in building and using expert
systems.
An expert system is a software package which
encapsulates specialist knowledge about a
particular area of expertise and is capable of
making intelligent decisions within that area.
Areas in which real and working expert
systems are now used include medical
diagnosis, geology, organic chemistry and
computer fault-finding.
October 1984 234x 156mm 244 pages
Hardback 0 412 26270 3 £20.00
Paperback 0 412 262800 £9.95
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
asic might be the world’s
best-known programming’
language but it has an
awfully bad public image. How
many times have we heard it
described as unstructured and
spaghetti-like, with some critics
even claiming that Basic has the
same effect on your thinking
ability as poorly fitted spectacles
have on your eyesight.
True, Basic has many faults, but
to call it unstructured is surely to
blame the tool for the short-
comings of the product. It is in the
finished programs where you must
look for structure; the language is
merely a means to that end. To
criticise Basic for the mess that
some programmers make of their
coding is like blaming English for
the trashy novels that some writers
churn out. In fact, Basic programs
can be as well-structured as any,
provided you are prepared to
follow a few simple rules.
By far the most important of
these is to avoid the Goto state-
ment like the plague. This is easier
than you might think. Assuming
that you are using one of the many
implementations of the ever-
popular Microsoft Basic, you will
always be able to get by with three
control-flow constructs: If-Then-
Else, For-Next and While-Wend.
Over the last few years, 1 must
have written nearly a quarter of a
million lines of Basic. If you looked
through all these programs, you
would find scarcely half a dozen
Gotos in the lot. If you do not
believe me, just remember that
Pascal and C also support the Goto
statement, yet how many users of
these languages even know it is
there, much less rely on: it?
It is a different story, however,
with the Goto’s cousin, the
Gosub. The essence of modular
programming is to split large
chunks of code into small pieces, so
subroutines are pretty vital. The
problem with Gosub is that it
works with line numbers, and
these have no logical connection
with the job that the subroutine is
doing. If your Basic supports alpha
labels, be thankful and use them.
Better still, take advantage of
user-defined functions whenever
possible.
Make each Gosub routine a
distinct piece of code. Give it a
name, if only ina Rem; surround it
by blank lines to make it stand out,
and be sure that it follows the ele-
mentary rules of modular pro-
gramming. Each routine should
have just one entry and exit point,
a well-defined interface with the.
calling program, and no side
effects elsewhere.
Incidentally, putting a blank
line around subroutines is not
always possible, because standard
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Program: COUNTER
Counts the words in a text file.
Written by M.Lewis, July 1985. v
The program displays the nuaber
file is assumed to be ASCII, wit
carriage-return/linefeed or just
For compatibility with wordStar,
dot commands are ignored.
A word is defined as a string of
1020 °
Variables used:
INFILES
STARTLINEX
INWORDE
1035 ' FOUNDZ
CHARS
1040 " Constants used:
1050 pOTs="."
1060 LINEFEED$=CHRS(10)
TRUEX=-1:
Maln path of progras
GOSUB 4000
WHILE NOT EOF(1):
GosuB 5000
2030
2040
WORDSZ=WORDSZ+
WEND
2050 60SUB 6000
Initialisatlon routine.
Gets File name from user
4010
Get next word.
Reads one char. at a tia
takes care of high-order
FOUNDZ=FALSEZ:
WHILE NOT FOUNDZ AND NOT EOF(1):
CHARS$=INPUTS(1,81)
5020 CHARS=CHRS(ASC(CHARS) AN
5030 IF STARTLINEZ AND CHARS=
CHARS=IN:
WEND
5040 IF CHARS=LINEFEED$ THEN
STARTLINEZ=TRUEZ
ELSE
STARTLINEZ=FALSE
$050 IF CHARS<"A” OR (CHARS)™
INWORDX=FALSER
ELSE
IF INWORDZ=FALSE
INWOROZ=
$060 WEND
$070 RETURN
Display results and close down
6010
PRINT: PRINT “No. of words:", WO
CLOSE
RETURN
6020
FALSEZ=NOT TRUEZ
LINE INPUT “Please enter file name ~, INFILES
4020 OPEN "I",1,INFILES
4030 PRINT: PRINT “Counting in progress”
4040 STARTLINEX=TRUEZ: INWORDZ=FALSEX
4050 RETURN
WHILE CHARS()LINEFEEDS AND NOT EOF (1):
erslon 1.0.
of words in a specified file. The
h lines delimited either by
line-feed.
high-order bits are cleared and
letters dellaited by non-letters.
Input file nase
Start-of-line flag
Flag to say if current char is in a word
Flag to say new word has been found
The current character
"Introduces a WordStar dot command
"ASCII [Ine-feed
"Initialisation; open files
"Get next word
"Count it
"pisplay count and closedown
and opens file; initialises flags.
e until complete word processed;
bits and dot commands
"Get next character
iD &H7F)
"Mask high-order dit
DOT$ THEN
PUTS(1,81):
"Skip dot command
z
2” AND CHARS<"a") OR CHARS$)"z” THEN
2 THEN
TRUEZ: FOUNDZ=TRUEX
RDSZ
Listing 1. A short Basic program, written according to the rules of style
described in this article. The modular structure is emphasised by the
broken lines separating the various
Basic does not support such an
obvious requirement. In Microsoft
Basic, you can fake it by placing’a
Line feed character immediately
after the line number. This gen-
erates a physical line break without
ending the numbered program
line. If your keyboard has.no Line
feed key, use Control-J — or
Control-Enter on the IBM PC.
Alternatively, press the Tab key
until the cursor wraps to the next
line.
In fact, when it comes to
program style, the Tab and Line
feed keys are- pretty well in-
dispensable. By style, I mean the
subroutines.
way a program looks to a human
reader rather than the computer.
A well-styled program is one that is
easy to understand, and therefore
easy to debug and modify. Using
indentations and physical line
breaks to emphasise the program's
structure is. the first principle of
good programming style. ~
This is most commonly done in
the block statements like For-Next
and While-Wend. Listing 1, a
simple word-counting program,
has several examples. If-Then-Else
constructs are handled similarly,
with the If-Then‘ and the Else each
given a physical line to itself. This
HB SOFTWARE
dOHSAYOM
THE BASIC
RULES OF
STYLE
There is nothing wrong
with programming in
Basic, as long as you
observe some simple
ground rules.
arrangement can of. course be
nested, as line 5030 Shows.
Personally, I. like to go one
further by placing a Tab imme-
diately after the line number.
Given that these numbers have
nothing to do with the logic of the
program, they ought to keep their
distance from the actual code, and
hitting the Tab key is the easiest
way to bring this about. I also
make liberal use of tabs for lining
up comments. Another example of
the.use of this handy key is in Data
statements.
Comments, of course, are de
rigeur,even in the smallest pro-
grams. Just as a good book has an
introduction, so every program
should start with a comment block
which prepares the reader for what
is to follow. As a minimum, this
should contain the program name,
date written, version number, pro-
grammer’s name, and a short des-
cription of the program’s function.
Some programmers also like to
list all the variables in the
introductory comment, and even
the names of files, arrays, user
functions and the like. This might
sound like a lot of typing, but it
could save you, or someone else, a
good deal of time when you need
to alter the program in years to
come.
The next tule is to choose
variable names with great care.
They should be readable as well as
meaningful. A good test of a
program's style is to see if you can
understand it when it is read
aloud, so avoid unpronounceable
abbreviations. Virtually all mod-
(continued on next page)
3}
Hi SOFTWARE
WORKSHOP:
(continued from previous page)
ern Basics offer more than the two-
character variables of the original
standard, so take advantage of
them, Also, avoid using like-
sounding names for different
items: Total.Amount and
Totl.Amnt, for example.
It is a good idea to. make
constants into variables. After all,
a variable does not have to vary.
Your program might test for a
page break with a statement like
IF LINE.COUNT% =66 THEN
(new-page routine)
But it would be better to hold the
magic value of 66 in a variable, and
to do the test as
IF LINE.COUNT% =
PAGE.LENGTH% THEN
(new-page routine)
Apart from making the workings
of the program that tiny bit
clearer, this approach would help
you out if you ever decided to
switch to 72-line paper.
This rule should be followed
even if the constant is truly
constant. Rather than sprinkling
3.14159 around your program, set
up a variable called Pi and use that
instead. Nobody expects this par-
ticular value to fluctuate, but
coding it this way will lower the
tisk of a hard-to-spot typing error.
Another good practice is to
initialise variables and constants
close to where they are used. If
your program does all its printing
in just one module, it would be
better to set the line count to zero
and the page length to 66 at the
start of that routine, rather than at
the very beginning of the program.
This will help the reader to see
what the initial values are, and also
simplify the job of using the same
module in another program.
Always type at least one space
between each word in a statement.
It’s true that some interpreters
allow keywords and variable names
to run together, but the human
eye is less tolerant. Many Basics
also permit the same variable name
to be used for different data types.
Thus Count$ and Count% are
completely different objects. But
again this might be confusing to a
human reader and is best avoided.
Using constants for flag settings
is something you might like to
consider. In listing 1, the values
True% and False % are used in this
way, these being much more
obvious than their numeric values
of - 1 and 0.
As another example, suppose
your program analyses a cus-
tomer’s payment record in order to
set up a credit rating. You might
have a field called Status% which
contains, say, 1 for bad risk, 2 for
POWER SUPPLY
PROBLEMS?
@ BLACKOUTS.
@ MICRO BREAKS.
@ FREQUENCY VARIATIONS.
@ VOLTAGE SURGES, TRANSIENTS.
@ VOLTAGE SAGS.
unknown, 3 for OK, and so on.
Instead of assigning and testing
these numbers directly, try re
storing them in fields called
Bad.Risk% , Ok%, etc. You could
then use constructions like
IF STATUS% = BAD. RISK% THEN
(credit refusal routine)
which should be clear enough to
anyone. A similar technique can
be used for an index into an array,
the effect being a bit like Pascal’s
user-declared scalars.
Incidentally, if all the variables
in your program are integers, it is
worth putting
DEFINT A-Z
at the head of the program to avoid
the need for those irritating
percent signs after every data
name.
Flag settings, of course, do not
have to be integers. Some pro-
grammers prefer to use character
strings. So the credit status field in
this example would be Status$,
and it would hold actual words like
“Unknown’’ and ‘‘Possible’’.
This could give rise to
WHILE STATUSS = ““Unknown"”’
(perform status check)
This will serve just as well even if
the strings are not intended to be
seen by the program’s users.
One final tip: always use paren-
theses in complicated arithmetic
and relational expressions, even
where the interpreter does not
itself require them. I never feel
completely at home with the
ranking of operators, and I work
on the assumption that anyone
reading my coding might be
equally uncertain. Brackets are a
good way of breaking a com-
plicated expression into simpler
units.
By now you might be wondering
what effect all these Rems, long
vatiable names, character strings,
parentheses, etc. , will have on your
program’s running time. Good
style is indeed the enemy of
program efficiency. If your Basic is
interpreted rather than compiled,
most of the principles set out here
will result in bulkier source files
and slower programs; eliminating
the Goto, on the other hand, will
tend to speed things up.
If you are developing a highly
competitive mass-market package,
this could be a problem. But
nobody would use interpreted
Basic for a product that is to rival
Lotus 1-2-3. In most cases, the
additional running time of a well-
styled program will be tiny, especi-
ally when compared to the savings
in your own debugging and main-
tenance time that these principles
will help you to achieve. PC
Eliminate them ALL with an ‘ASM’ Uninterruptible Power Supply from LEROY SOMER, one of Europe’s
largest electrical machinery manufacturers. Simply plug your computer and it’s periphrals into the ‘ASM’
for COMPLETE PROTECTION from ALL mains disturbances.
@ True ‘NO-BREAK’ performance.
®@ Output totally independant of Input.
@ Self contained, zero maintainance batteries.
@ 15 mins battery back-up, in standard form.
® State of the art electronic circuitry.
@ Far smaller and lighter than comparable units.
@ Units O.5KVA to 5KVA.
@ Cabinet or rack mounting.
Far superior to a voltage stabilizer or a ‘line condition’, an Uninterruptible Power Supply is the ONLY way
to guarantee continuous PURE, CLEAN POWER to your business computer.
For colour brochure write or phone to;
LS LEROY SOMER itp, suoine no,
RIVERSIDE WAY, UXBRIDGE, MIDDLESEX, UB8 2YF. TEL: (0895) 72373.
32 @ Circle No. 151
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
POWER WITHOUT THE PRICE
THE NEW ATARI 520ST
Under the new leadership of Jack Tramiel! (former boss and founder of Commodore
Business Machines). Atarl Corporation have marked their entry into the world of
business/personal computers with a machine which leaves the competition standing.
Tramiel'’s slogan ‘Power Withoul the Price’ has been implemented In the manufacture
ATARI 520ST SPECIFICATION
MEMORY VIDEO PORTS ‘Imagine a Fat Mac - the $12K Appie Macintosh - but with a bigger screen, a far
St2K RAM (524,268 byt Display - Low Resolution - 40 columns bigger keyboard with numeric keypad, cursor and tunction keys. and colour. That of the new 512K Atari 520ST colour computer which offers the user amazingly high
16K ROM expangable to Bae Med/High Res - 40/80 plus cols gives you sore idea ey hat oe Atari ads is like, except for bno imponan vee performance at an Incredibly low price. Launched as a work-station, this new system
Pon for addn! 128K plug-in ROM cartridges Medium res AGB (Red/Green/Blue) output First the Atar: seems faster. Second ine Atari system is about One third of the price. incorporates seven software packages as well as the 520ST computer with 512K RAM,
200K TOS operating system High resolution monochrome (Black & White) June 1985 - Jack Schofield - PRACTICAL COMPUTING mouse Controller, high resolution monochrome monitor (640x400), 95 key keyboard
GRAPHICS COMMUNICATIONS (with 18 key numeric keypad), MIDI interface, GEM and a 500K 3%, inch disk drive, ail
individually addressable 32K bit-mapped Bidirectional centronics psraitel intertace tor pitta APPLE {Araicot ATARI for ine package price of onl £651,30 CvaE = £749). Dubbed the ‘Mac beater’ Cul the
screen with 3 screen graphics modes panters, or modems capable of input/output ‘Jackintosh’ {after Atari's Chief, Jack Tramiel), Atari's new machine has been directly
320x200 es 8 eet (low eee ete Se pace eee Lmnesiace Price Includes B/W Monitor YES AIG extra £200 = compared with the Apple Macintosh RRP £2595 (+VAT = £2985) which offers similar
640x200 pixels in 4 colours {med reBoiution| ‘erminal Emulshon re Ti features and capabilities but at a much highi . bly reviewed by the UK's
8405400 prxets in monochrome (high res) Maximum Baud Rate up to 19.200 meyer ece ment AOR) S30x167 x50 | _ AS05167 A286 1 70x 2tOR ES hight critical epechitiall a ney oe the 5208T is ely to ake a Ma ael in
des of grey in low res mode High speed hard disk intertace Keyboard size ins (LxDxH) 13x5!x2 | 17%exG'ex1 | 18exOVen2'e ighly p aa Puen arenes MY 9
Eblak\ cak/necioenires Floppy disk controller {Western Orgital) 314" D/Drive (Unformatted) T 500K 300K 500K this country as a sophisticated alternative to an IBM PC, APRICOT or APPLE
In red, green and blue 2 foyatich ports (one for 2 button mouse} ae rR 7 740K MACINTOSH. Unlike Its overpriced competitors, the Atari S20ST can be linked up to a
MID} intertace for externa! music synthesizers 3%" D/Drive (Formatted) | ae 315 } colour monitor to unleash a choice of up to 512 colours. The addition of colour brings
ARCHITECTURE WIMP (Window, Icon, Mouse ...} Apple | ACT-Activity| Gem out the full potential of graphics packages such as GEM.
4 custom designed chipa® GEM WIMP ENVIRONMENT Real-time Clock if YES YES YES
GLUE Chip - MMU Memory Mogmnt Unit WIMP - Window Icon Mouse Pop-down menu Poluphonic Sound Gererlior ves 1 ND il YES USER FRIENDLY GEM OPERATING SYSTEM
OMA Controtier - Graphics Processing Unit, Two button mouse controller {Polyphonic Sound Generato: +— The power of the ST is harnessed and made user friendly by the new operating
16/22 bit Motorola 68000 processor at BMHz ——_Icons/Pull down menua/Windows RS232 Seria! Port YES iT system ‘GEM' from Digital Research, GEM stands for Graphics Environment Manager
eight 32 bit data registers GEM VOI - Virtual Device Interface Centronics Parallel Printer Port NO YES YES c fri : BW i
eight 32 bit address registers GEM AES - Application Ennronment Services and allows a user friendly colour or B/W graphics interface which Closely resembles
16 bit deta bus/24 bit address bus GEM GBT - Bit Block Tra Dedicated Floppy Disk Controtier NO ie Yes YES that of the Macintosh. This similarity extends to the use of moveable resizeable
7 levels of wmerrupta/56 Instructions Real te clock & calend Hard Disk OMA interlace NO if YES YES windows, icons to represent objects such as disks and disk drives. and the use of pull
14 addressing modew/S data types Full stroke keyboard Yes YES YES down menus and a mouse. The advantage of all this is that the computer becomes
DATA STORAGE San Le NINE GUmaonkaioerd a T95 extremely easy to use. GEM has now been implemented for the Acorn, ACT, Atari,
High speed hard disk interface witht user trendly Macintosh styie operation Numeric Keypad [no YES (16 Keys) | YES (18 keys) ORee GE MLaHSnEericonEUMACRTRIG wal Shablosihe nreitaltuleay' erouuenad
Direct memory access 1.33 Mbytws per second TOS" - Tramiel! Operating Syatem [Cursor Gontrol Keypad NO ves | YES L y
CO (Gompact Blac) interface ‘Maris own spate busen On OPM 88K with SE Mw 3 7 large library of standard Interchangeable software.
Built in cartridge access Morarchical directory & We structure plus a FTW:
Dedicated tloppy disk controller nost of MS DOS & UNIX command structures 16-bit processor 88000 Intel 6086 e000 | FREE SO ARE AND FUTURE EXPANSION
‘BOS’ - Business Operating System Processor running speed BMHz 477MHr [ OMHz The Atari S20ST comes suppiled with seven free software packages as listed below:
DISK DRIVE to run any standard BOS business programs [RAM size 512K 756K — 12K 1) Tos poeamiel cipacally System based on CPM 68K. 2) GEM Graphics Environment
500K {untormatted) a/sided 34" lappy d/drive GEM desktop - + Manager by Digital Research (DR) giving a WIMP (Window, Icon, Mouse, Pull down
349K (formatted) storage capactty with GEM PAINT graphics mgmt system Number of graphics modes i 4 a menu) environment. 3) OR GEM Paint for creating graphics masterpieces. 4) DR GEM
° ND Must and GEM WRITE word processor Number/of colourals Monochrome 6 Write for word processing. 5) Logo learning language to enable you to write your own
SOUND AN USIC Personal BASIC and OR Logo - Max Screen Resolution (pixels) B12 x 342 640 x 256 640 x 400 programs easily using turtle graphics. 6) DR Personal Basic a powertul user friendly
ritten tal Research - P
Frequency control trom 30H:z to above audible Ver mich ie eaten dais ae [Mouse included Single Burton | NO = extra B86} Two Button Meee re cee ace epRU nO nuaie. 7) EUs pope sing iayeleu gungnyey
voices (channels) in wave shaping BOUND In except for tha extensive usa Of pull down Replaceable External Power Pack NO NO YES J access to dozens of business applications packages already available on the market.
addition to a noise generator menus) mouse control and windows Cartridge Socket NO NO Bi YES Designed with future expansion In mind, the ST also features a host of different
Separate frequency and volume controls ck P NO NO YES (two) interfaces to the outside world and an impressive list of accessories is planned, Atari
Oynaiic envelope controls VARIOUS ploystick Forts ~- - witl soon be releasing a 1000K (1MB} 3% Inch disk drive, and a 15MB hard disk
AOSR (Artach. Oecay, Sustain, Release) Demenstons47Ommx2¢omm<torm MIDI Syathesiner interface t “ te “e to storage system as well as a mass storage compact disk (CD) player capable of storing
placeable external power supphes lonitor Size - extra £200 an entire 20 volume encyclopedia on one disk, A full range of inexpensive printers are
MIDI intert - : k
OHI race for exmeinal music byninesizers Expansiccg repeal ebel dock paeal [RGB Video Output NO Yes yes planned including dot matrix, daisywheel and thermal colour printers. With its
KEYBOARD 34" 15Mb hard disk Syatem Coal wilh: Mouse - Monochrome Monitor - 512K RAM - 500K Disk Ortve unbeatable graphics, speed and software at a price which is far below that of any
Separate keyboard microprocessor CO (compact laser disc) 7] 7 $2505°VAT 505° VAT 652° VAT comparable personal computer currently on the market, the ST is all set to do baltle
Standard QWEATY typewriter styling Dot mainx & d/whee! prnirs (black) [Price of basic system (exc VAT) 595: T_]_ s6 Y with the competition. To receive further details of the ST from Silica Shop, just fill in
oorneeian height : eat] dot mains (eatin) + Mouse included £95+VAT Included the coupon below with your name and address details and post it to us.
" t lunction keys monochrome moni * hi Monit included £200°VAT Included
Numeric keypad — 18 keys including ENTER Eee ph —— Silica Shop Price: £651.30 + £97.70 VAT = £749.00 This price includes:
One touch cursor control keypad LANGUAGES + Expansion to 512K RAM Included £295+ VAT Included
MONITOR BASIC 8 LOGO suociied = Price of complete system (exc VAT)| _£2595+VAT | £1185+VAT | £852-VAT * 512K RAM * B/W MONITOR
y others ‘s00n valeble, luding
12" screen - high res monochrome monitor Assembler, BCPL. C, Cobol, Compiled Basic re
Doe ae fees Ss PRICE csze (£2,9041£1,362| £749 |B * MOUSE * 500K 3.5” DISK DRIVE
Note Some of the above specifications are pre-release and may therefore be subject to change,
*GEM * KEYBOARD (95 KEYS)
“Atad’s mew corporate Image as an aggressive tow cost “The new Atari ST computers truly represent to the consumer
computer maker is likely to mirror that of Commodore where wnat Jack Tramiel is saying — easy-to-use computing pawer
Mr, Tramiel established the maxim that ‘Business is war without the price March 1985 ANALOG COMPUTING
1 4
puaust ZIsIIEES FINANCIU TIES “The electronics in the machine work of art... The heart “jy (the ST) uses the most modern technology that bs
“This ta the only personal computer | know of that comes with of the S20ST is @ Motorola 63000, one of the most powerlul atiordable, In @ package that gives 8 professional impression.”
a Midi intertace es standard.” 16-bit processors @round and In many respects it a close to May 23rd 1985 POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY
Pelnr Bright March 1985 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD Ddeing @ 32-bit chip ... when the machine appears In the shops
TH be at the front end of ne queve to buy one. The Atari ST is one of the most elegant designs I have seen
At
Peter Bright June 1985 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD has used @n original and elegant method of memory
agement which should make the ST ‘aster than any other
“The (GEM) version running on the Atar 68000 machines will
have the additional advantage of teaving the PC version
Sianding.” april 6th 1985 PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS “This machine Ie signiticantly more powerlul than en !BMPC PC on the market - in any price bracket .. The 64K dollar
Gj 4 Wits po 10 design @ sure-fire winning machine, hiss question fe would 1 go out and spend money for one? To
Won bee: Sa a POI LAR oUt cera ft May 11th 1985 PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS which the only answer is “Try and siop mel’ ”
rc
ine use of GEM mekas the new range of Atari computers JON Lambert: July 1985 ELECTRONICS & COMPUTING
“I found (GEM) extremely easy to use and was very ao gimilar ta the Macintosn {with the added attraction of ~Th, 5
6 520ST is technically excellent ... The S20ST hardware iv
Improssed with the way in which it disguises the untrendly colour), tnat they are already being called ‘Jeckintoshes' ~ Ihe now's anderd iby Which ottere wallbe juogede
hardware and operating aystems lurking under the surtec May 200 1985 COMPUTING iene wGta comeOren
Peter Bright Feb 1965 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD
SILICA SHOP LTD, 1-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 4DX
| yr) ry
_ Is At 7 17 \ ft \ SEND FOR FREE ATARI ST LITERATURE
‘Saullo sil sadly q von Gea eS SSS SSS SSS ee =m
ARI WE ARE THE UK’s No1 ATARI SPECIALISTS ATARI ie Silica Shop Ltd, Dept PC 0885, 1-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 4DX zat
At Silica we have been successfully dedicated to Atari ever since their products first appeared on the UK f PLEASE SEND Al E FREE LITERATURE
market, We can attribute our success largely to the Atari specialisation which we practice and to the user
ON THE NEW ATARI 520ST COMPUTER
obs wl |
back-up we provide. Rest assured that when you buy a plece of Atari hardware al Silica you will be fully
supported. Our mailings giving news of software releases and developments will keep you up to date with
the Atari market and our technical support team and sales staff are al the end of the telephone line to
deal with your problems and supply your every need. With our specialist bias. we aim to keep stocks of
all the available Atarl hardware, software, peripherals and accessories. We also stock a wide range of
Atari dedicated books and through us, the owners on our list can subscribe to several American Atari
dedicated magazines. We can provide a full service to all Atari owners and are now firmly established as
the UK's NUMBER ONE Atari specialists. Here are just some of the things we can offer to our customers.
* FREE POST & PACKING ON MAIL ORDERS #f you would iike to be registered on our mailing
* FREE NEXT DAY SECURICOR DELIVERY ust as an Atari computer owner, or aS a person
* INFORMATION MAILING SERVICE interested in buying an Atari machine, let us
* TECHNICAL SUPPORT TEAM know. We will be pleased to keep you up fo date
* HIGHLY COMPETITIVE PRICES with new Atari developments free of charge. So,
* AFTER SALES SUPPORT SERVICE return the coupon today and begin experiencing
* REPAIR SERVICE ON ATARI PRODUCTS a specialist Atari service that Is second to none.
SILICA 2 91-309 1111
HOTLINE
ems =
es lik
@ Circle No. 152
COMMODORE
PC-10
(IBM Compatible)
>_>
ne
SYS TEM -. 3
APRICOT F1
720K Disk 256K Memory
includes Free Integrated Accounts
Software
a ee DB, ee!
APRICOT xX] |
<= Hard Disk + Free Printer \
\
+ Free Integrated Accounts Software |)
a —=o—_// including Payroll Training & Installation ,
I
‘a sYSTEM:4
256K ram
APRICOT
TWIN DISK
+ Free Word Processor
+ Free Printer
ALSO AVAILABLE
720K Drive version
sites TEM: 7
ZENITH Z150
(IBM Compatible) twin floppy
+ free accounts software
ALSO AVAILABLE
10 Megabyte
Hard Disk
£2,845 + VAT
@ Circle No. 153
— =
POA. |
Free Accounting Suite
including payroll
OLIVETT] M24
Twin Floppy
+ Free Accounts Software
a
\
ALSO AVAILABLE
10 Megabyte Hard Disk
£2895 + VAT
"sg yy S TED Es M °6 ="
SPERRY
—
250K ram
2315K 53” Drives
+ Free Accounting Software
+ Free Printer
—=—e
SYSTEM-8
EVALUATION aT
SYSTEMS
AVAILABLE FROM £100 per week i
ALSO AVAILABLE
RENTAL SYSTEMS
FROM
£40 per week
COMPUTER DISCOUNT STORE
58 Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff CF1 6DR
Tel:(0222)-488650/488641 |
ellular radio has been oper-
ating in this country for
almost half a year. For those
of you who have been on the
moon, in a coma or staying at Her
Majesty's pleasure I will give a
quick rundown on what cellular
radio is.
Many years ago someone had the
bright idea of making the tele-
phone into a compact, self-
contained, portable unit. The only
way for this to be done is, of
course, by using radio waves
instead of wires. The main
problem about this method is that
each telephone needs to use a
different frequency to communi-
cate. Otherwise, two telephones
working on the same frequency
would interfere with each other.
Yet separate radio frequencies
cannot be allocated to each and
every telephone ‘because there are
not enough to go around.
SAME FREQUENCIES
The cellular radio system was
devised to overcome this problem.
By using low-power transmitters
on the telephones and at the base
stations where the radio system
links to the normal telephone
network, the same frequencies can
be used several times over — so
long as telephones which use the
same frequencies remain outside
the radio range of each other. The
range covered by each low-power
base station is called a cell. Each
cell handles a set of frequencies;
the number of frequencies defines
how many people can be using
telephones in that area at any
one time. Adjacent cells handle
different sets of frequencies.
Problems inevitably arise when a
telephone moves from one cell to
another while it is being used. If a
telephone is being used in cell A at
a frequency understood by that
cell, when it moves to cell B it will
be ignored because it is not using
one of the frequencies used by
cell B. This flaw is overcome by
incorporating the appropriate
electronics into the base stations
and telephones in order to change
the frequencies as the user moves
from one cell to another. The
changeover takes approximately
300 milliseconds.
While changeover — or hand-
off, as it is called in technical circles
— takes place, the line drops. This
is imperceptible to the caller and
the called person, as the gap pro-
duced is extremely small compared
to the number and length of gaps
in human speech, I once heard
that well over 50 percent of human
speech is actually made up of
silence.
That then, is more or less how
the cellular radio system works.
The result is that an almost limit-
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
less number of people can have
telephones which they can carry in
their pocket or car.
Recently, while working on an
item for Thames TV's Database,
the director of the programme bor-
towed two Vodafones from Racal
to review. Racal is one of the
companies running a cellular radio
network in Britain; the other is
British Telecom/Securicor and
their system is called Cellnet.
Shortly before, I had placed an
order for a rather nifty looking
Cellnet pocket phone.
Anyway, the models we had
from Racal were called Trans-
portables. I have been slightly wary
of the word ‘‘transportable’’ des-
cribing a piece of equipment, ever
since the time I got on a train at
Charing Cross station and almost
left my arm on the platform
attached to an Osborne 1 micro-
computer. My fears were not
wholly unfounded: after carrying
the Vodafone around for two
weeks I was absolutely positive my
tight shoulder was perceptibly
lower than my left.
Each telephone came in a neat
looking designer shoulder bag,
with ‘‘Vodafone’’ emblazoned in
nice, big red letters across the side.
If you unzip the bag, you can
remove the phone and see it in all
its glory. Naked, the Vodafone is a
pretty unimpressive sight. I sus-
pect more design effort was put
into the bag than the phone. It is
made up of three parts: handset,
aerial unit and battery. The aerial
unit and battery are just slabs of
black plastic which lock together.
When linked, they are about the
size of a full-height disc drive —
and about 20 times as heavy. The
handset is grey and has a mouth-
piece and earpiece in the same
positions as on a normal telephone
handset. On the back is a matrix of
16 buttons, marked: 0-9, Snd, Sto,
Rcl, End, * and £. Above the
buttons is a two-line liquid crystal
display. The handset is connected
to the aerial unit by means of a
short, curly cable.
CALL PROCEDURE
The Vodafone is fairly easy to
use. To make a call, you type in the
number you want to dial. Each
digit is displayed on the LCD when
you press it. To dial the number
press the Snd button. If you are
calling another Vodafone, you will
be connected in a few seconds. It
takes up to a minute to connect to
numbers which are on the normal
telephone network. When you
have finished your call, press End
and you are disconnected. There
are 99 memories which can be
utilised with the Sto and Rcl (Store
and Recall) buttons.
Additional features are con-
trolled at the Vodafone base
station. These include outgoing
call barring, call diversion,
automatic alarm call, conference
calls, and hold for enquiry. These
functions are activated by sending
a string of numbers, interspersed
with * and £ symbols, to the
exchange.
So much for the use of cellular
tadio for voice calls. The computer
will be interested in the possibili-
ties of data communications over
the system. Sadly, cellular radio
has a number of characteristics
which make it an unsuitable
medium for data transmission.
There are four separate pheno-
mena which may contribute for
data corruption. Their effects are
magnified many times when data
transmission is attempted while
actually on the move.
The first is known as Rayleigh
fading, or sometimes as multi-
path fading. The effect of this
phenomenon is unpredictable
variations in the signal strength
when it is received. Rayleigh
fading is caused by the simul-
taneous reception of signals which
have travelled by different paths,
having been reflected off either
moving or stationary objects. If
different parts of a signal are
received at the antenna at the same
time, the signal can cancel itself
out. If you know about sine waves,
think of a trough and a peak being
received at the same time. While
Raleigh fading is not particularly
noticeable to voice users, modems
are extremely sensitive to varia-
tions in signal strength.
HAND-OFF
Hand-off, the second problem,
I have described already. The
300ms. break in transmission is
detectable by a modem. The
number of times that hand-off
occurs during a call depends on
whether the telephone is moving,
how fast it is going and in which
direction.
The third problem arises be-
cause it is sometimes necessary for
the base station and cellular
telephone to communicate with
each other. In voice calls, this
signalling takes place in the gaps in
speech. When modems are com-
municating, there are no gaps. The
number of times that this sig-
nalling will occur during a call
cannot be predicted.
Finally, there is interference. All
types of radio interference are
covered under this heading, but
the type which is come across most
of all is co-channel interference.
This occurs when different signals
using the same radio frequencies
interfere with each other. Remem-
bering that with cellular radio, the
same frequencies are reused as
CELLULAR
RADIO
DROPS
YOUR BITS
Thinking of hooking
up your micro and
acoustic coupler
through the cellular
radio phone network?
Then think again: life
is not that simple.
often as possible, you can see that
under certain conditions this type
of interference can be a major
problem.
For data transmission to be
possible over the cellular network a
system of error detection and cor-
rection must be introduced. Racal
data transmission division, Vo-
data, has come up with the
Cellular Data Link Control
(CDLC), which goes through a
number of contortions to provide
uncorrupted data.
To correct errors, CDLC uses a
technique known as forward error
correction. Simply, this means that
data is sent twice and the receiving
equipment selects parts of each of
the two pieces to reconstruct the
original data. If necessary, another
system called block retransmission
can be invoked. The receiving
equipment can request that a
block of data be retransmitted if
too many errors were detected in
the first transmission.
Other features of the CDLC
include resistance to hand-off and
blanking, asynchronous working,
1,200 baud data transfer rate, full
duplex, and RS-232 compatibility.
All in all, the CDLC system does
seem to have solved the problems
of transferring data over the
cellular radio system. All that
needs to happen now is for some-
one to convince British Telecom to
use CDLC on Cellnet, instead of
developing its own, incompatible
system.
35
Business
Computer Centre Ltd.
MAIN LONDON W1 DEALER FOR FUTURE COMPUTERS
The future computer is the only 16-bit processor supplied with concurrent CPM/86 as stondord allowing one terminal to run more thon one task at the same time
ond with the addition of DR-NET softwore provides o true multi-user environment for up to 256 user stotions. The mochine is olso supplied with o word-
processor, spread sheet ond o 100 cps 80 column dot-motrix printer which are included F.O.C. built in LAN and full modem communication ports.
FUTURERA- lil 2eilmagOO kK. ELOPPYDRIME. 00 98..20........coccs-.escoccesssdiecoereccasesoasaneccnenatens Sacchocecc ee See... .. eu el one
OPTIONS
EXPANSION RAMS UP TO 1MBYTE
All Single + Multiuser software available from stock.
OFFICIALERICSSON DEALERS
ERGs ss ©) MIAO RO Aurms OORMED RIV Ege tees eRe. 265. .07.. 200. suse canoe steeeeeeererrare te ceseetect tases ssondilesssceesrcoreacassocsssaesseessonsese@bredtisers £1550
EF RSs) Denies aes case KE FRU, Steet caste MERE «© Sec mee Zee «vec in smsrcn SARIN CUUNN « oPMERREGGECATN Geir eS ee cane ndWte conn esdibordstcessercnecsesaseseseMersssonees £1640
Bee Goa Oar 102. eye ncaees old BENIN) ( LSU) bs Meecatceme cae ns coe Sc rvucwe scene sunnltummawaualsover-n aay assereanel es ehesetedice cAbessccasvossatalsancasdansesecgesesaneetl £1945
BRIGS SON Z5OKe2 ea CORD RINGS (COLOUR) eve necatcseebncretsntacesssuoeetrashyaniitsleutst«csmbnnde¥eslssslsiasasesUsdee sas. s0:dieesesssesileedtissageesensacseogeoeanansé £2030
ERICSSON 128K 10MBH/D x 360K DRIVE.... Pee Teeeer eer rerrrrcs ee £2550
ERICSSON 256K 10MB H/D x 360K DRIVE............. CagELE PECEReR oc, eee Bree SRR Se «shia wvile eos naa tebs ote SMEs RRR £2690
Efalcoreves Oa II Uaea CNA IERAE) Se SO CHKs DRIVEN GOORIN nen sciazs. .-<ssere-- anes oWWE socks +s snsescesncecsncestydeneuGesssesesuasanscsissncaressssecsssssneaiganasesrseasaaaearee £2995
ER ees Ore SO MIENV TEN EO 7x SOO KI DRY Et COMO tte cs. 0ee ..cec-scen-olvessnusttcecsuanesscadercee«penedeeseeokscedessccsccscssasssecscaesesdseestastaredmeasosaesed £3280
All Ericsson Computers come complete with graphic cords as standards.
100% IBM COMPATIBILITY. alic Software available from stock.
MEMORY BOARDS
Ba aes er VE ema) Ss <ic, Seite ee Soa ea MMMM Ses. 5 SE. obits ees earen Pal og00 = caiemte« CAMs man E RAED ERE oalisawh iesSsaAGKARe vasstanense onsen ec: eee £ 149
256K MEMORY EXPANSION... .£ 210
OMI tae ES Ea) IN oe ea cere vse daccceetnace acerca esesyccuencc MMMMU cM 'esagcuguesevosccaweaseieisseMiiioiaeaserescasesM@ievarrsayes £ 450
BES NER SUARMER Wlliessccse:.csss-s.s00c0.cerepiecestesssedteecissys:Nesasssescsvsonees Fe ee ee MN cause nrenr cece eee ee NNE 0 in ORs aston anode otureerel £ 350
*Used in conjunction with Plus 5 Subsystems.
EXTERNAL STORAGE DEVICES FOR ERICSSON
PLUS 55MB + SMB CARTRIDGE (REMOVABLE).............. cece seetesexs Sh. Sedes Rien SPEEECECOO S00. < DECREL ACE EREEEEEEPRPE EER EERPEPECCE ECD OME e. Coen eee
PLUS 5 1OMB + 5MB CARTRIDGE (REMOVABLE)
PLUS 5 15MB + 5MB CARTRIDGE (REMOVABLE)
PLUS 5 20MB + 5MB CARTRIDGE (REMOVABLE)...
PLUS 5 30MB + 5MB CARTRIDGE (REMOVABLE).......... : i
BRU Sior4 O MELE sO habe min IOGE (REM OMABEE) butrctetessounsoy,.severdbeande-«.s«o-Clbieunesnessvetsnas\ueblewatcubewsitiwasaes catGle-ssescoseeseoesduescesgiese dpeiles SUG
Complete with all necessary software’ and connectors.
We accept officiol orders from Government and educotional establishments. (Special discounts apply).
TELEVIDEO (SPECIAL OFFER)
WS WS TOES MED IE [Ue paeShecenrser ebe cor econgan Ae ee een - BR ron 3 abe ato ena asco Re Ree een ae Ee eee. SeCERee Cr
TS-806 6 USER SYSTEM 10MB.
TS-800 SATELITES.................
a SO2H) 4 MBIRD as. < a0...
Urea es aeom Ole Per te reb MS MEATS OM BIGADD. cuecanca-nrsamaatt «vue gesicaeis+sars=s-cenrmuesianes->tesaasune=ccane de
ee ene EME CORIME RIMINI FLOPPY, 5. ccccccstsccches hostess soseeencs 020k sacezaae desea <eahemamesa las
TS-1603 16-BIT TWIN FLOPPY.........
TS-914 WORK STATIONG......
ANieee eae OS aD NODS een es easier asartesy «Suh «ave thle aaa cs Nericine s eeie eee t= mene PROS arated SEESOURSSSs.s-asrche-<asaeceeeretceecac daaiaege oe Ohce £ 550
PRINTERS
A lorge selection of Daisy Wheel and Dot Matrix Printers ore ovailable from stock.
All equipment corries o 12 month guarantee for parts and labour.
SOFTWARE
We can supply all PC Software single, Multi-User and Multi-Tasking. We write software for customers in twenty countries including General Motors, Fiat
Motor Company and National Airline where we are currently writing Software for the computerising of their ticketing operation and installing hordware in 40
of their worldwide offices which will all be online to the moinframe computer.
Installation are carried out by our own engineers. Finance ond training available.
Kindly telephone for demonstration at our W1 showroom for any of the above equipment by our professional staff who will be glad to discuss your
requirements with you.
Business Computer Centre Ltd.
66 WELLS STREET, LONDON W1P 3RP. 01-637 5666/7/8
36 @ Circle No. 104 PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
TABS,
Business Centres
At TABS Business Centres you’ll-get everything you
need torun a small business system.
TABS Business Centres provide a complete range of computer products
to help yourun your business more efficiently.
Whether you need a simple business computer to run your sales ledger and handle your
correspondence or a multi-user system with an integrated accountancy package, you
will find everything you need —all in one place.
You will get free expert advice from people who understand the business world,
and who have a thorough knowledge of accountancy and microcomputers.
You will also get expert training on how to use your system, a professional installation
service and full support for the hardware and the software.
OLIVETTI
PERSONAL Ff 7ARBS TABS
COMPUTER
PDQ Rental Systems
IBM Authorised Dealer
*IBM IBM PC 64, ACT APRICOT PC, OLIVETTI M24 (Typical TABSPDQ1.2,Mon0 TABS Business Centres offer a Rental
Monitor, Keyboard, 2 Disk Drives (Double System), Mono Display, Display, Keyboard + Plan which is ideal for companies
Mono Display Printer Sided), 720K + 9” High Keyboard+MSDOS, = MSDOS, 2 Disk Drives : : eens ;
Adaptor,00S2.0+ ResolutionMonitor- 2 Disk Drives 800K. preferring to keep their capital intact for
Tandon Drive. Mono. 360/720Kb. [ere + Wr use within the business rather than tying
“oer perweek + VAT | £21.30 perweek + 4 £20.69 per week + vat | Over 36 months it up in depreciating assets. The plan
Over 36 months Over 36 months Over 36 months | rentalperiod allows for the system to be upgraded at
rental period rental pertas rental period POG 10, Mono Display, ‘egular intervals without high
4
IBM XT, Monitor, APRICOT Xi 10,1 Disk M24 (Hard Disk Keyboard +MSDOS, cancellation penalties and includes ,
Keyboard, DOS 2.0, Drive + Winchester System), Mono Display, 1 Disk Drive 800K + maintenance and insurance.
Mono Display Printer 10Mb + 9” High Keyboard + MSDOS, —_1 Winchester 10Mb. a”.
Adaptor. Resolution Monitor- 1 Disk Drive 360/720Kb, figajipgperweek VAT
£37.38 per week + VAT Wise ‘ ju a _ | Over 36 months
Over 36 months | | £31.97perweek+VAT! | £41.62perweek + VAT | resital period
rental period |, | Gver36 months Over 36 months ;
= =< rentalperiod =| rental period |
~NB~_ }
For your nearestonestopjy .._,. +
FROM £10,000 CREDIT | — cs
Business Centre ’phone: ] c j ¢
Simply fill in the coupon and return it to:
0722 ay 338668 | TABS Ltd, Dolphin House, New Street, Salisbury, Wilts. Please allow 14 days for reply.
oog The TABS RENTAL CARD is valid at all TABS Business Centres,
, *The IBM PCand XT are only. , ; : : ‘
8 8 MV I WISH TOAPPLY FOR RENTAL CREDIT FACILITY. @ Circle No. 105
y R
available from TABS Business
Centre, Salisbury and those Name
TABS Business Centres who |
are IBM authorised PC dealers.
Address
wee eee ee |
| Tel No.
Company Business Name =
| Nature of Business ei _ Position __ —
| Bankers — Branch - __ wis
Account No. : Signature
PC 8 85
=
- THE NEW AMSTRAD CPC 664 WITH BUILT-IN DISC DRIVE
y = ™ e
30 4s So ONO ET TD QT |
$2 Te 1 HB ts Hie é
we 550 8 10 ea Aw 7
2700 2005 1750 65S se? NS e000
sare
wm
‘THE NEW AMSTRAD CPC 664: —
—- AVAILABLE AT BOOTS - COMET : CURRYS « DIXONS - GREENS : JOHN MENZIES - RUMBELOWS
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
THE LOW COST COMPUTER FOR HOME AND BUSINESS -
If you know anything
about computers you'll
know that disc drives are
up to fifty times faster
than cassette when you're
loading and saving
programs. In fact, a
disc drive makes
computing faster,
more reliable, more
efficient and more
only way to gain these
advantages for a home
computer was to buy a
separate disc drive
attachment. Now Amstrad
are pleased to announce
the first complete home
computer with built-in
disc drive: The Amstrad
CPC 664.
And when you buy a
CPC 664 you'll find it’s not
just the disc drive that's
built-in.
You'll get every-
WITH COLOUR MONITOR AROUND
- £449 - —
THE HOME
COMPUTER
THAT MEANS
WITH GREEN SCREEN AROUND
pects ole
BUSINESS.
famous-name software
houses. Few will cost
you more than £49 and
most will cost you con-
siderably less.
AN EXPANDING
—— SVS REM -==———
There is acom-
plete range of
peripherals avail-
which plug directly into
the built-in interfaces.
These include a joy-
stick, additional disc drive
(to double your on-line
storage) and the Amstrad
DMP-1 dot-matrix printer.
(There’s also a cassette
interface so that you can
use CPC 464 programs
on tape). And there are
many more peripherals from
Amstrad and other manu-
facturers which can be used
to enhance the CPC 664.
thing you need, including a monitor
(green screen or full colour). We'll eee as ee sit ai
even give you a free CPM and Logo * LOW COST -——¥—— Join the optional Amstrad
disc, so ail you do is plug in and ‘The one thing you won'tneed User Club
and we'll keep }
a computer to work out is that the
you informed
you're in business.
Amstrad CPC 664
BUSINESS OR represents outstand- with our
——: PLEASURE - —— ing value for money. monthly user
Although a disc drive You only have to Magazine,
will make games more fun check the cost of and infor-
mation on all
(and there are loads of
software as it
them to choose from) it
buying all the ele-
ments separately (64K
Figure analysis made easy
with Microspread. An easy to
Iso makes th computer, disc-drive, iS introduced. yse spreadsheet with pull,
also : es ie CPC 664 Wordprocetsiig with Arienord p ’ : Yourmember- own menus and a wide range
a serious proposition for ¢snimprove the productivity Monitor) to realise of mathematical options.
Around £49.
that the Amstrad
package is very
hard to beat.
With a green screen
monitor the cost is
just £339. With a
full colour screen it
costs £449. And after
the business user.
There are accounting,
word-
processing,
spread-sheet
and data-
base pro-
grams (to
of everyone from unskilled
typist to trained secretary.
Around £23.95.
ship details
: will be recorded on your
i personal club card, which
entitles members to various
privileges and offers.
name but you've saved money on | Name _ |
Amsoft Business Control, isa a few). the price of the computer | Add Ss |
complete sulte of programs The CPC itself, you go on saving | " |
e: i ty 0
auckcontolarierenteae? (O04 is also _on the price of software. | |
for around £99.(Requiresan supplied with There are hundreds
additional FD-1 disc drive * f f b : = |
around £159 and DL-2cable CP/M*tohelp of programs for business | |
around £7). make your or pleasure available A t d ( PC 664
business more efficient and effec- MS fa
tive by providin
B access to the
famous range 0
CP/M* software.
SPECTRUM - WH. SMITH - WIGFALLS - AND GOOD INDEPENDENT COMPUTER STORES -
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
on disc (and cassette) to
CPC 664 users. Many ae
Amsoft, others from other
Amstrad, P.O. Box 462, Brentwood, Essex CM14 4EE
18 aE
“CIM is a trademark of Digital Research lnc.
@ Circle No. 106 39
40
FIRST CLASS PERIPHERALS CREATE A NEW QUALITY/COST DIMENSION
Come with us into tomorrow
A totally new low-cost source of computer peripherals is available to you now.
FIRST CLASS PERIPHERALS.
With FIRST CLASS PERIPHERALS you get top-quality products direct’ from the manufacturer. And
the price we quote includes VAT, carriage, everything you need just to plug-in and play.
For starters, FIRST CLASS PERIPHERALS introduces the SIDER, a 10Mb hard disk add-on for your
Apple }[+ or //e for an amazing £899 including installation software for the four major operating
systems (DOS, CP/M, Pascal and ProDOS), host adaptor, power cable , manual and a full one
year’s parts and Jabour warranty. NO HIDDEN EXTRAS.
Very soon we'll be offering other exciting disk and tape products at equally astonishing prices.
OUR PEDIGREE.
FIRST CLASS PERIPHERALS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Xebec, the leading manufacturer of
disk controllers and subsystems for customers like IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba and Texas
Instruments. It is dedication to innovation and quality control that has brought Xebec to the top of
the OEM field. The same committment will make FIRST CLASS PERIPHERALS fiumber one in the
direct marketing of advanced peripherals in a value-class of their own.
For more information just dial 100
and ask for
FREEPHONE FIRST CLASS
PERIPHERALS
Apple DOS/ProDos are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.
CPIM is a registered trademark of Digital Research ~~ | R S “(A
SHS PERIPHERALS
4am LASS
First Class Peripherals Ltd
Cockayne House
Crockhamwell Road
Reading RG5 3JH
°
3
@ Circle No. 107 PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
wixt is another delightful
Tie invented by Alex Ran-
dolph, whose brick-dropping
game Pferdeappel appeared in PC in
March. The game is marketed in the
U.S. by Avalon Hill, and it sells so
well in Germany that there are even
Twixt tournaments for the really
setious players and Twixt experts
sometimes give simultaneous exhib-
itions against a number of weaker
players. But for some reason the
game cannot be found in shops in
the U.K., which is a great pity
because Twixt is great fun and intel-
lectually challenging.
The game is played on a 24- by
24-peg board. The two players, Red
and Black, take turns to put a peg
into one of the vacant holes. If a
player’s peg which has just been
played is then a knight’s move away
from one or more existing pegs of the
same colour, that player joins the
adjacent pegs with a horizontal
bridge, provided that this bridge
does not cross an existing bridge
belonging to either player.
Figure 1 represents the lower left-
hand corner of the board. Red has
created a bridge for d4 to €2, since
these two holes are a knight’s move
apart. Black could form a bridge
between c3 and dl, but it would be
illegal to make a bridge by playing in
e4 because the line from c3 to e4
crosses Red’s bridge from d4 toe2. A
player is allowed to remove any
number of his own bridges as part of
a move, but this rule can be ignored
when programming the game to
avoid making the task unnecessarily
complex.
LINE OF BRIDGES
The object of the game is to create
an unbroken line of your own
bridges twixt opposite edges of the
board. For example, Red might be
playing from north to south, in
which case Black will be trying to
create a bridge from east to west.
Once a section of bridge is in place it
may never be moved by the
opponeht, and a player may not
place a bridge so that it intersects
with any bridge already placed by his
opponent.
Since the Twixt board is even
larger than a Go board, the number
of legal moves at any stage will be
enormous in comparison with board
games such as chess, draughts and
Othello. Twixt is a good example of
the problems of searching large game
trees. Just how do you deal with a
game in which the branching factor
is so large that a full-width tree-
search would be impossible to any
substantial depth?
Consider the very first move of the
game. You might think that playing
a peg in one of the four central holes
is a very strong move, and in fact this
is true. But to take care of this situ-
ation one player places the first peg
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
and the opponent then decides to
which player that peg belongs.
According to the inventor, a good
first move in Twixt is m6 because it is
not so fantastic that the opponent
will certainly take it, but it is good
enough so that if the opponent does
not take it the peg on m6 will play an
important part in the game.
RAPID BRANCHING
When programming games which
have a very large branching factor,
that is, number of legal moves, a
sensible philosophy to adopt is to be
highly selective in the analysis. In a
chess program. where the average
branching factor is around 37, some
strong programs written for micro-
Processors can analyse the full-width
tree to a depth of seven-ply or more.
A Twixt program analysing a full-
width tree to the same depth, would
encounter around 50,000 times as
many terminal nodes. It might be
possible to write a Twixt program to
search fully to a depth of three- or
four-ply when playing at the rate of
three minutes per move, but 1 do not
believe that player would be happy
waiting so long for a response and |
am suspicious as to the resulting
strength of the program.
By being selective in the search
process, a game-playing program can
discard many of the obviously
bad moves, thereby reducing the
branching factor substantially. At
each ply in the tree the program says
to itself: ‘‘Which moves look worth-
while and which ones should I
ignore?’’. If its selectivity criteria are
accurate it will be able to discard a
large proportion of the legal moves
without any detriment to the final
result. You could also adopt this
approach in chess or any other two-
petson game, for example, by not
allowing the program to examine
moves which give away pieces for
nothing. What you gain is the ability
to search the game tree to a more
useful depth. However, there will be
Figure 1.
4
occasions when a superficially useless
or bad move actually turns out to be
the right thing to do but the program
ignores it.
One way to select the moves which
are to be examined further is to apply
the terminal evaluation function to
Positions at every stage of the tree
search. First the program generates
all the legal moves from a position,
and then it evaluates these moves
with the same evaluation function
that it applies to terminal positions.
The moves are then sorted, which has
the beneficial side effect of speeding
up the alpha-beta search. An
arbitrary cut off is applied so that the
program discards al! but the best n
moves, or all moves whose evaluation
is more than a certain amount below
that of the seemingly best move.
This approach was employed in
one of the earliest chess programs,
written in the fate 1950s for the
IBM 704 mainframe. The program
selected the seven best moves in the
foot position, then the seven best
replies to each of these moves, and so
on, to a depth of four-ply. Its search
process, with 2401 terminal nodes on
the tree, took around three minutes,
in which time today’s leading
microcomputer chess programs can
examine trees with around one
million terminal evaluations.
QUICKER EVALUATION
Another method of selectivity is
to apply a different evaluation
function, usually one which is more
sophisticated than that used for eval-
uating terminal positions. The
reason for this approach is that there
are many more evaluations carried
out at the terminal positions. Con-
sequently the terminal evaluator
should be quicker and less soph-
isticated than the evaluation
function used to select which moves
are to be analysed further.
A thitd approach to the problem
of selectivity, and one which is best
used for Twixt, is to use very simple
JUVMLIOS
BY DAVID LEVY
TWIXT
_A peg-board game for
two players.
heuristics to select those moves
which, without the benefit of eval-
uative heuristics, look as though they
might be worthy of further analysis.
This makes: the selectivity process
much quicker.
One simple heuristic which often
serves this purpose is to look at moves
which appeared to be quite good
two-ply earlier in the tree. If the
program applies its full evaluation
function to each of the moves in the
root position and then produces a |
sorted list, the moves which feature
in, say, the top 10 places in the list
will, in many games, have a high
correlation with the top 10 list two-
ply further on into the game. For
most strategy games approximately
half of the moves on the most likely
to succeed list normally reappear.on
the list two-ply later.
Another heuristic useful in Twixt
is to look at all moves which create
bridges immediately. A, less obvious
concept is to examine forking moves.
If in figure 2 Red were to place a peg
in g3, he would be creating a two-
pronged attack — hence the term
fork — on the holes at e2 and e4.
Placing a subsequent peg in either of
those holes would immediately
cteate two bridges, from c3 to the
new peg and from the new peg to g3.
Black would have no way to stop
both possibilities.
Another heuristic which seems to
work quite well is to look at moves
which are within a certain distance of
your opponent’s previous move.
This distance might be two rows and
columns either side of the previously
occupied hole, in which case there
would be a maximum of 24 legal
moves to examine as a result of this
particular heuristic. Extending the
distance to three rows or columns on
either side would increase this
maximum from 24 to 48, which is
already making the tree too bushy.
Having created the basis for a
selective search program, you must
consider how to evaluate positions on
(continued on next page)
4)
NTELLIGENT
SOFTWARE
(continued from previous page)
the game tree. The evaluation
function can be used in two different
ways: it should be applied to all
Positions at one-ply so that the root
moves may be sorted, thereby
speeding up the search process
because of the substantial number of
cut offs created by the alpha-beta
algorithm, and the evaluation
function is also applied to all
terminal positions. It might be
wotthwhile to use it to sort the moves
selected at ply 1, but experience from
chess suggests that this is only useful
for the replies to that root move
which is sorted to the top of the list.
It is worth using four features in
the evaluation function. An im-
portant aspect of playing Twixt well
is that wherever possible, moves
should not only help to make
progress towards your own goal but
should also impede the progress of
your opponent.
This is not accounted for in the
evaluation function itself, but will be
a by-product of the look-ahead
search. Asa result, on level 1, — that
is, a one-ply search — the program
may play aggressively but it will over-
look attacking possibilities by the
user.
The features in the evaluation
function are as follows:
Bridges. The number of bridges
already in place on the board; own
bridges minus opponent’s bridges.
Potential Bridges. The number of
different moves available which will
create one or more bridges for the
player whose turn it is to move
next. Count one extra move for
each bridge in excess of one that
can be created by a move.
Forks. The number of vacant holes
on the board that are a knight's
move away from two or more of a
player’s existing pegs, with no
intervening bridge: score own forks
minus opponent's forks.
Attack Strength. Some sort of
measute is needed for the extent to
which a player’s bridges are
working towards the ultimate goal,
that of creating an unbroken line
between the appropriate opposite
edges of the board. If the
individual bridges are well
connected to each other there will
be a relatively small number of lazy
pegs — that is, ones which are
attached to fewer than two bridges.
But this concept in itself is insuff-
icient because a ring of bridges
would have no lazy pegs but would
be of no real use to the player.
Another aspect of attacking
strength is the extent to which
bridges are forward looking, say,
from b1 to c3 for the player moving
north to south, rather than
sideways looking from, say, b1 to
d2.
Account of the number of forward-
looking bridges might also be a
useful measure to be included in the
Attack Strength feature. Score one
point for a forward-looking bridge,
provided that the row which it crosses
has not already been crossed by
another forward-looking bridge of
the same colour. Score 0.5 for a
forward-looking bridge if the row
that it crosses has already been
crossed once by a forward-looking
bridge of its own colour. Score
1/(n-1) if the row crossed by a
forward-looking bridge has already
been crossed by n forward-looking
bridges of the same colour. This eval-
uation will encourage the creation of
all forward-looking bridges, but will
put greater emphasis on moves that
extend over rows that have not yet
been crossed.
COMBINATION
You could combine the two
aspects of Attack Strength into one
feature: for example, forward-
looking score divided by number of
lazy pegs, but it is simpler to treat
each of these two aspects as separate
features, in which case the evaluation
function will have five features
altogether.
The program will then perform
the tree search. It generates, eval-
uates and sorts all the moves in the
root position. It then selects the best
n of these moves — you should
choose n to be in the range 20 to 30
— and discards the rest. Your level 1
search should now play the move at
the top of the list. For a higher level
of skill, the program should perform
a search to the appropriate ply
depth, selecting which moves to
examine further on the basis of the
ctiteria already described. In the
terminal positions the program
applies the evaluation function, in
which the weightings for each
feature have been arrived at largely
by experimentation.
LOOK FOR A WIN
One thing about the evaluation
function seems obvious: a fork
should be valued at something
between one bridge and two bridges.
For searches of five-ply and deeper,
apply the evaluation function at
four-ply, and extend the search only
to determine whether or not there
exists a simple forced win. The same
selection criteria are used to deter-
mine which moves should be
examined beyond four-ply, but the
termina! evaluation should consist
only of Win, Loss and Neither
values. This approach should ensure
that the program plays sensible strat-
egic moves, while leaving sufficient
computation time to detect straight-
forward races towards the edges of
the board. IPC}
THE MOST SOPHISTICATED DISC FILING SYSTEM 16K ROM EVER WRITTEN FOR THE BBC MICROCOMPUTER
OPERATING ALONGSIDE YOUR EXISTING ACORN TYPE DFS ROM AND OPENING UP A NEW EXCITING PHASE
AS A SUPERIOR OPERATING SYSTEM.
Fully compatible with any existing DFS and Torch CPN/MCP format.
Allows 255 file names on a CP/N and CP/M type screen format. CAN’T EXTEND banished for ever, COMPACT
redundant as the vacant areas on the disc are gathered to gether for economic file use automatically.
Designed to facilitate ease of use — vital in the area of business programs on the BBC. Will allow the mix of BBC and
Torch CPN programs on the same disc.
£39.50 inc. VAT, full fitting instructions and User Guide. C.U.C. Members only allowed 10% discount.
42
ONLY AVAILABLE FROM
=p
VISA
COMPUTER USERS CLUB
69a Hadlow Road, Welling, Kent.
Tel No: 01-311 2555
@ Circle No. 108
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Youre better connected
with Modular Technology
When it comes to computer communications, itll pay you to
communicate with us first. We're specialists in the field
and have developed a range of equipment unrivalled
for quality, reliability innovation - and value.
Shown here are just a few examples of
our wares. \ {Te ech
The Inter-Mover Series
of Direct Connect Modems
The very latest addition toourrange, {
this series is small in both size and Ss
price and yet offers a host of features which ~ so
preclude the need for any extras. CCITT V21, V22, a,
\23 transmission standards are available and all include auto- \
answer (complying with V25), answer/originate front panel selection ;
and (except V23) analogue loopback for modem testing. There's a daisy
chain connection, too, using the new BT modular jack system, front panel line
selection of telephone or Modem and default V24 interface to ease and minimise interface
patching. You can also benefit from V24 connect data set to line mode and the
LED status indicators include DATA, DCD, and RX.
. The Interdriver LD192 Mains Powered Base-Band Modem
=~ A rugged, self-contained modem-emulating line-driver for
= asynchronous or synchronous full or half-duplex data
* See= = transmission. Either over DC-continuous unloaded lines up to
DRS 20Km at 110bps or at speeds up to 19.2 Kbps over shorter distance.
—— Plus many other features. BT approved for connection to leased line.
M4000 Series Multi-Mode Modems Another recent addition, this series
of transmit and receive Modems are both BABT approved and conform to
CCITT requirements. They are microprocessor driven, switchable between [ij
V21/V23 and are capable of working to Bell standards, answer or originate. §j
The number of features i is astounding and includes auto-answer, self- ™
: diagnostics and a host of front-panel switches and inieatore:
Low-Cost Acoustic Couplers The 3000 series. You'd be hard
pressed to find another range of acoustic couplers that offers you so
* much - for so little. They're all instantly useable, highly reliable and
Ze completely portable. Choose from 3005 300bps/V21 originate only
3005/1 300bps/V21 Answer and Originate. 3 3005/2 300bps/V 2] Answer
and Originate with internal battery 3005/3 As 3005/2 plus external switch
“controls V2] or Bell 103. 3012 1200/75/V23 Originate only.
All are BT Pres and CCITT compliant.
Please send me further details. | am particularly interested in
Name:
OO i a a ee, sees
Tel:
Modular Technology Ltd
Zygal House, Telford Road, Bicester Oxfordshire OX6 OXB.
Tel: Bicester (0869) 253361. Telex: 837907
Modular Technology Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zygal Dynamics plc.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985 @ Circle No. 109 43
FORTH =
TOTAL CONTROL
FORTH programs are instantly
portable across the most popular
microprocessors.
FORTH is interactive and Y°'Y
fast.
FORTH programs are structured,
modular, and easy to maintain.
FORTH gives contro! of all
interrupts, memory locations, and
i/o ports.
FORTH gives full access to DOS
files and functions.
FORTH appliation programs can
be converted to turnkey programs.
FORTH Cross Compilers can
generate ROMmable code for:
6502, 6809, 68000, 8080, Z80,
8086, 6800, 6801/3, 1802, Z8,
8070, Z8000, 99%, LSI-11
Application Development Sys-
tems include FORTH with virtual
memory, multi-tasking, assembler,
fultscreen editor, decompiler,
utilities, and full documentation.
LMI Z80 FORTH - CPM
a2
: £95
LMI 8086 FORTH -
CPM-86, MSDOS £110
LM! PC/FORTH -
PC/DOS £110
MPE-FORTH 6809 -
FLEX, 0S9 £175
LMI 68000 FORTH -
CPM 68K £225
FORTH+ has 32-bit stacks and
directly accesses the whole
address space of the processor.
PC FORTH+ £225
8086 FORTH+ £225
68000 FORTH+ £225
Extension Packages include
floating point, cross Compilers,
8087 support, colour graphics,
interactive deluggers i
We are the FORTH specialists, we also stock a large range of
books, listings, and implementations for machines ranging from
Spectrums to Macintosh to VAX.
MicroProcessor Engineering Ltd
21 Hanley Road, Shirley
Southampton SO1 5AP
[Resor arn}
Tel: 0703 780084
EMSKENTES
Consumables!
pa
@ Circle No. 110
¥
COMPUTER AND
WORD PRO
‘SUPPL
44
Don't make a meal of ordering your
computer supplies phone
01 541 1188
For your free catalogue
IAW S AWS Computer Supplies, 57 Surbiton Road,
Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey KT1 2HG
CESSES
TES.
@ Circle No. 111
SOAISEL
It's available from your
local Softsel dealer.
BONSAI
112-116 NEW OXFORD STREET,
LONDON WCIA 1H]. TEL: (01) 580 0902
CHAMELEON BUSINESS SYSTEMS
72 RICHMOND ROAD,
KINGSTON-ON-THAMES, SURREY KT2 SEL. TEL: (01) 541 1541
COLSTON COMPUTER CENTRE
11 COLSTON AVENUE, BRISTOL, AVON BS1 4UB.
TEL: (0272) 276619
COMPUTACENTER LTD
290 HIGH STREET KENSINGTON, LONDON W14 8PA.
TEL: (01) 602 8405
COMPUTACENTER LTD
THEATRE SQUARE, CIVIC CENTRE. SWINDON, WILTS SN1 1QN.
TEL: (0793) 694997
COMPUTERLAND
59-60 HOLBORN VIADUCT, LONDON EC1. TEL: (01) 248 8385
COMPUTERLAND
114 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON WC2.
TEL: (01) 379 0855
COMPUTERLAND
38 EDGWARE ROAD, LONDON W2, TEL: (01) 723 3071
DATA BENCH
15-17 WEST STREET, MARLOW, BUCKS SL7 2LS
TEL: (06284) 75688
DATA SYSTEMS ELECTRONICS
41 THE BROADWAY. TOLWORTH, SURBITON, SURREY KT6 7D}.
TEL. (01) 390 4021
DIGITUS
10-14 BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON WC2.
TEL: (01) 379 6968
é ENTRE COMPUTER SYSTEMS
ENTRE HOUSE, 17 BATH ROAD, SLOUGH, BERKS SL1 3UL.
TEL: (0753) 31222
FDS MICRO SYSTEMS
6 SALEM ROAD, LONDON W2. TEL: (01) 229 9431
GRANADA MICROCOMPUTERS
25 NEW BROADWAY, EALING, LONDON. TEL: (01) 579 3003
GRANADA MICROCOMPUTERS
119 HIGH STREET, SLOUGH, BERKS. TEL: (0753) 820966
INGRAM MICROSERVICES
MIDDLESEX, TEL: (01) 958 5709
ISTEL
PO BOX 5, GROSVENOR HOUSE,
PROSPECT HILL, REDDITCH, WORCS B97 4DQ.
TEL: (0527) 64274
OFFICE EFFICIENCY MACHINES
150-152 KING STREET, HAMMERSMITH, LONDON W6.
TEL: (01) 741 7381
PLANNING CONSULTANCY
46-47 PALL MALL, LONDON SWI1Y SJG. TEL: (01) 839 8890
SIMMONS MAGEE COMPUTERS LTD
13 YORK STREET, TWICKENHAM, MIDDLESEX TW1 3JZ.
TEL: (01) 891 4477
SOFTWARE CITY
382 KINGS ROAD, LONDON SW3. TEL: (01) 352 9220
SOFTWARE CITY
14 THAMES STREET, KINGSTON, SURREY. TEL: (01) 541 4911
SOFTWARE CITY
47 CHEAP STREET, NEWBURY, BERKS RG14 SBX
TEL: (0635) 31696
SWW COMPUTERS
HASSET HOUSE, HASSET STREET, BEDFORD MK40 1HA.
TEL: (0234) 40601
TRISOFT LTD
CROWN SQUARE, MATLOCK. DERBYSHIRE DE4 3AT.
TEL: 0629 3021
WRIGHT COMPUTER LOGIC
1ST FLOOR, ORBIT HOUSE, ALBERT STREET, ECCLES,
MANCHESTER M30 OLJ. TEL: 061 788 7050
MultiMate
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
“THE PHOTO SOURCE”
4
Multim
Tees Gar pert
er wee netics
até? Out of the
question Miss Snodgrass.
At Faucetts Bathroom Fittings Ltd, office modernization
was a taboo subject. Chester Faucett the M.D. would sink into
a deep depression at the very thought of spending money.
In fact his wallet bore an uncanny resemblance to the
rubber washers he manufactured.
Totally leakproof.
A PLUG FOR MULTIMATE
But Miss Snodgrass explained to her illustrious employer
that the newest Multimate, V.3.3, is one of the most
sophisticated and powerful
wordprocessing software
packages available for the
IBM™'PC.
It can perform over 130
functions, most requiring just
one or two taps on the
keyboard, making it simplicity
itself to use.
‘Multimate has support
for proportional spacing, micro
justification and extended
character sets.
Not to mention advanced
printing capabilities; including
boldface, underline, subscripts
and various print fonts.
7)
°
=
PREM AINL
Su
Le 4
om
tas)
Lay
°
a
°
wn
SVEINIAL
DISPLAYWRITER IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATION
MULTIMATE IS A TRADEMARK OF MULTIMATE INTERNATIONAL CORP. IBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORP
INAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORP. DBASE If 1S A TRADEMARK OF ASHTON TATE
LOTUS 1-2-3 1S A TRADEMARK OF LOTUS DEVELOPMENT CORP.
OVERFLOWING WITH FEATURES
With Multimate you can send letters to suppliers called
from an existing database. Like dBasell for instance.
Or drain information from Lotus 1-2-3 and wordprocess
it as part of a report.
There's also provision for customized screen display, a
back-up file option (before editing) and a multiple directory
feature. So you can divide hard or crowded disks into smaller
workspaces. Which makes flushing out the required memo, for
example, simplicity itself.
And because ofits file conversion capability, you can
whisk data from an IBM Displaywritef'and use it on other IBM
compatibles.
Which makes the case for Multimate pretty watertight.
It's available from your local Softsel dealer. Along with
over 2,600 other titles from over 250 publishers.
Old man Faucett was so impressed he’s made Multimate
part of a massive new investment programme.
Along with three paperclips, a pencil and two rubbers!
Multimate — the last word.
-WANY OT!
(cn
@)
Seven ee 1 3 ut =
The number one distributor of software.
In the world.
Softsel Computer Products Ltd, Softsel House, Syon Gate Way,
Great West Road, Brentford, Middlesex TW8 9DD.
@ Circle No. 112
45
Intelpost delivers messages
around the worlid-
INS SSS
direct from: your computer.
At the touch ofa button,
text messages can be
transmitted direct from
your office computer
(Mainframe, Mini or
Micro)-even though the |
recipients may have no §
computer of their own.
This is a world-first service that enables
you to reach most urban areas in the U.K.
and 23 other countries, not to mention the
hundreds of thousands of private facsimile
machines worldwide. Your potential audi-
ence is enormous!
All that is required is a modem and your
ownoracommercially available software
package.
-
| Please send me complete details on your Text Data service
| Name
| Company
| Address ee
46 @ Circle No. 113
To: Royal Mail Marketing Dept., FREEPOST (no stamp required), Room 122, 33 Grosvenor Place, LONDON SW1X 1EE
Immediate enquiry service: Dial 100 and ask for FREEFONE INTELPOST. |
One page can be sent in
as little as six seconds.
Charges are based solely on
the amount of data sent, the
destination and mode of
delivery, with no mail box
costs, joining fees, etc.
This new text mess-
aging facility, like the established Intelpost
facsimile service is unique in providing
same-day delivery to many parts of Britain,
Europe and America; with next-day
delivery in many other countries.
Intelpost
Position : =
_ Postcode |
C121314629/5
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
REVIEW
COMPAQ DESKPRO 286
KAYPRO 286i
AT-EMULATORS: LUXURY v. UTILITY
By Jack Schofield
"FBM’s 80286-based BASIC BENCHMARKS
)PC/AT has set a new — an me
. Deskpro 286-8028 03 12 28 29 32 5.
standard for personal Kaypro 286i 802% 04 17 38 40 43
computers. Two new IBM PCIAT — 80286 05 19 46 47 52
* . Olivetti M-24 — 8086 0.5 : i : 5.2
atrivals both subscribe Headstart ATS — 80286 0.6 = 2. ; 62
to it, but are radically
different in other ways.
msi 1.
(© Gorges Reread! 195.1904
Gareth I tears Or Bass 92: a
Carpet i a
am rH ASSL sees Satay tweeter bn
18 tes tee
Peal
T
Mare soem ere *
le Be ee ty
-
he announcement last August of the IBM PC/AT Compaq Deskpro 286 emerged as a clear winner, being
threw all the major IBM-compatible manufacturers significantly faster than the IBM PC/ AT. The Kaypro and Olivetti
into a frenzy of activity. A dozen of them have since micros ran at roughly the same speed as the IBM, with the Intertec
announced new machines which emulate the PC/AT, Headstart slightly slower.
and samples are now starting to come through. The The Compaq’s advantage is that it runs the 80286 chip at a
first to atrive was the Intertec Headstart ATS, which slightly faster clock speed of 8MHz, compared with the GMHz of
offered very small size and network capabilities, plus a low prices. the PC/ AT. It can also be run at 6MHz if this is necessary to
The two latest releases from Kaypro and Compaq, are reviewed ensure software compatibility.
separately on the following pages. In terms of raw The Compag is the only one of the 286-based machines to offer
performance, however, both micros are very similar to the IBM significantly better performance than the 8086-based Olivetti
PC/AT. M-24. This is because the 80286 actually runs the PC-DOS
The standard eight Basic Benchmarks were run on all the operating system im a compatible mode where the chip emulates
available AT-alikes, plus the Olivetti M-24. On this basis, the (continued on next page)
BAGSHAW BENCHMARKS
BMO BMIl BM2 BM3 BM4 BM5 BM6 BM7 BM8 BM9 BMIO BM11 BM12 BM13 Total
Deskpro 286 — floppy 10.5 4 4 12.5 15 16.4 3 Wes) a2 8 13.4 75 45.5 18.2 250.3
Deskpro 286 — 30Mbyte hard 6.2 1.8 2.5 Ph) 2.8 3.6 2 3.8 11 0.8 16 11 a2 3.2 47.8
Deskpro 286 — RAM disc 6 1.5 2 1.5 1 1 0.7 ] Ore 10:3 1 2, 5.5 0.7 Sie)
Kaypro— floppy 12 12 VW 23 VW 24 4 26 14 8 16 89 57 21 328
Headstart ATS— floppy 16 i 10 14 14 38 12 65 18 8 7 70 48 32 393
Apricot Xl— 10Mbyte hard 16 6 7 11 7 26 ] 27, 2 4 9 50 20 6 192
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985 47
MBREVIEW
(continued from previous page)
an 8086. The enhanced Protect mode,
where the full power of che 286’s archi-
tecture is unleashed, is not currently
accessible from PC-DOS.
The second major advance offered by
the PC/AT standard, compared with the
PC standard, is much faster disc operation.
In most businesses, the extra disc speed is
far more useful than the extra processing
power.
The standard Disc Benchmarks devised
by Eric Bagshaw of the National
Computing Centre — see Practical
Computing, July 1984 page 99 — were
run on the Compaq, Kaypro and
Headstart models. Unfortunately, samples
of the IBM PC/ AT and Olivetti M-24 were
not to hand for these Benchmarks to be
tun. Again, however, the Compaq
Deskpro emerged as a clear winner.
One of the problems with PC-DOS and,
of course, the highly similar MS-DOS, is
that it cannot address more than 640K of
RAM. This is now seen as a major limit-
ation for three reasons. First, the 8086 and
80286 can address 1Mbyte of RAM, and
the 80286 can address 16Mbyte in Protect
mode. Second, memory prices have
dropped so rapidly that large amounts of
memory — over 1Mbyte — are now
affordable. Third, many software houses
now seem to be incapable of writing
programs chat are smaller than about
400K. :
The Compaq Deskpro 286 supplied for
teview actually had 2.2Mbyte of RAM
installed, which is 1,536K more than could
be accessed via PC-DOS. PC-DOS version
3.0 has a useful way of handling this. The
VDisk command in DOS 3 enables virtual
discs — also called RAM discs or silicon
discs — to be set up very easily. The
Compaq’s extra memory could therefore
be used to provide the maximum 640K of
RAM to DOS, plus the 512K RAM discs
addressed as D;, E: and F:. As an experi-
ment, both of IBM’s PC-DOS discs,
including the supplementary programs,
were copied into the virtual disc D:. This
comprises 50 files and a total of 450.5K of
code. Copying all this from D: to E: using
*.* took all of four seconds. With DOS or
other large programs run entirely from
RAM, the performance of a micro is
electrifying. For anyone with a suitable
micro and DOS 3, and who can afford it,
this must look like an attractive way to
go.
Future versions of PC-DOS will
inevitably be obliged to expand their
memory address capability above 640K,
and eventually provide proper multi-
tasking facilities using the Protect mode of
the 80286. Whether these enhancements
will arrive later this year with DOS 4, or
next year with DOS 5, is open to spec-
ulation and doubt. Until they do, in our
view the Olivetti M-24 still offers the best
price/ performance ratio in the IBM-alike
universe. However, 80286-based machines
are clearly where most of the business-
micro market is headed, and the progress
being made is exciting.
48
COMPAQ
DESKPRO
286-2
Compaq has made a fortune out of
making IBM-compatible micros better than
IBM. The Deskpro 286 model 2 is the latest
in what is now an extensive line-up and, true
to form, it beats the IBM PC/AT in almost
every department. And as with the Compaq
portable, the Deskpro offers better IBM
compatibility than IBM’s own micro.
Microsoft’s Flight Simulator was one of
the first guides to IBM compatibility,
because of the direct use it makes of the IBM
PC ROM. Nowadays all true IBM com-
patibles are capable of running it. However,
in launching the PC/ AT, IBM changed the
standard somewhat, and the Flight Sim-
ulator, FS-1, would not run. Therefore
Microsoft has produced version 2, or FS-2, to
tun on PC/ ATs and on the PCjr.
The clever thing about the Deskpro 286 is
that while it obviously runs FS-2, as an AT-
alike should, it also runs FS-1, like a real PC-
compatible micro. This is something that
the Kaypro 286i, Headstart ATS and the
PC/ AT itself cannot do.
In other departments, too, the Deskpro
286 offers more and better facilities than the
PC/ AT. One problem with IBM’s micros is
that the monochrome and graphics displays
KAYPRO
286i
Those who have used Andrew Kay’s trans-
portable micros will find the new 286i, a
desk-top IBM PC/AT-alike, very familiar.
Like other Kaypros it appeats to be made of
industrial-grade sheet metal. The finish is
black and utilitarian, with moulded rubber
edgings and cork discs to protect the desk
top.
The system box is huge: it takes up about
360sq.in. of desk top. This machine would
look perfect on a factory floor. Anyone who
wants a svelte, luxury micro like the IBM
PC/AT, or the almost equally stylish
Compaq Deskpro, should look elsewhere.
However, the Kaypro 286i does its job,
which is to emulate the IBM PC/AT. It
delivers a great deal of computing power,
including an excellent bundle of software, at
a quite attractive price.
Where the Compaq 286 and Olivetti
M-24 micros compete by offering sig-
nificantly better performance than the
equivalent IBM micros, the Kaypro is simply
a clone. The board design is very similar to
that of the PC/AT, and the ROM BIOS,
supplied by Phoenix Software, emulates
IBM’s. The colour graphics appears to be
driven by a Hercules Color Card, and this
leaves five of the eight expansion slots free.
In sum, the hardware is all pretty standard
SPECIFICATION
CPU: Intel 80286 running at 8MHz
RAM: 512K, expandable to 8.2Mbyte
Storage: 1.2Mbyte floppy disc,
30Mbyte hard disc, 10Mbyte tape
streamer; optional 7OMbyte hard disc
and 360K floppy discs
Display: 12in. dual-mode amber
monitor showing 80 characters by 25
lines and IBM-compatible graphics
Ports: parallel printer port, RS-232C
serial port, RGB and composite-video
ports
Availability: autumn 1985
Price: not known
Supplier: Compaq Computer Ltd,
Ambassador House, Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SQ. Telephone:
01-940 8860
@The Deskpro 286 model 1 is similar but
comes without the hard disc and tape
backup. Transportable versions will also
be available.
SPECIFICATION
CPU: Intel 80286 running at 6MHz
RAM: 512K, expandable to 15Mbyte
Storage: 286i B with two 1.2Mbyte
§.25in. floppy discs, 286i A with one
floppy disc only
Display: 13in. RGB colour monitor
showing 80 characters by 25 lines and
IBM-compatible graphics
Ports: parallel printer port, RS-232C
serial port, RGB port: no ports supplied
with 286i A model
Availability: now
Price: model B, £4,136 plus VAT; model
A, £2,674
Supplier: Kaypro (U.K.) Ltd.
Telephone: (06286) 67547
“unique selling proposition’’ of the 286i isa
bundle of Micropro software: WordStar and
Mailmerge, Calcstar, Infostar and Starburst.
The one important piece of software that
stuff. As with the Kaypro transportables, the -|_ you have to buy is a copy of IBM’s own PC-
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
COMPAQ DESKPRO 286
K2VERDICT
Performance
Ease of use
Documentation
Valueformoney [1] (1 OF
] Far superior to anything else in its
class. If reasonably priced, ‘this machine
should be a huge success.
are provided as separate systems, using
separate cards as drivers and separate
screens, Either you have the excellent mono-
chrome character set and no graphics, or the
colour-graphics facilities and low-resolution
text. Like other Compagqs, the Deskpro 286
combines them so you get both.
The Deskpro 286 also runs much faster
than the IBM PC/AT, thanks to its 8MHz
80286, where the IBM uses a GMHz version.
The Compaq chip will run at 6MHz, if the
software requires 6MHz for compatibility.
The Deskpro 286 runs the standard Basic
Benchmark routines in an average of 4.3
seconds, compafed with the 6.8 seconds of
the PC/ AT.
The Deskpro 286 is also a snappy
performer of the Bagshaw Benchmarks,
which measure the speed of disc operations.
The Deskpro 286's floppy disc ran the 14
KAYPRO 286i
KUVERDICT | = «
;¢ S €
&€ § §
Performance oF a Sie
Ease-of use Ee. G-
Documentation # OF OF O
Valueformoney [] [| # OO
|) Little more than an IBM PC/AT clone.
Its bundled software may not quite
compensate for its lack of finesse and
finish,
DOS version 3.. Unlike Compaq and
Olivetti, Kaypro does not supply its own
version of DOS.
The system supplied for review had an
Intel 80286 chip running at 6MHz, 512K of
RAM and two 1.2Mbyte half-height 5.25in.
floppy-disc drives. There is a battery- backed
clock/calendar, and space for an 80287
maths co-processor. RAM can be expanded
to 640K on the main board using 18 64Kbit
RAM chips and, it is claimed, to 15Mbyte
using expansion cards. The review sample
was set up to include an optional hard disc,
which can be added as an upgrade. There is
also a single-floppy version with no colour
board and no ports. In fact, on power-up the
hard dics’s red access light winked and we
thought one might be inside, but this was
not the case.
The system was run using the 13in. RGB
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
routines in a total time of 250 seconds —
faster than the IBM PC/XT’s hard disc,
which takes 254 seconds. When the same
routines were run from Deskpro 286’s built-
in hard disc, the time of 47.8 seconds was
nearly twice as fast as any other machine we
have tested, with the runners-up being the
Jarogate Sprite at 91 seconds, and the Wyse
PC at 178 seconds.
In terms of raw specification, the Deskpro
286 supplied for review offered considerably
more than a PC/ AT. Where the PC/ AT has
a built-in 20Mbyte hard disc, the Deskpro
286-2 offers a 30Mbyte model; 20Mbyte and
70Mbyte options are also available. Where
IBM offers mo means of backing-up
important data — except on to a mass of
floppy discs — the Deskpro 286 has a built-
in tape streamer with a capacity of 10Mbyte
per tape.
On test the Deskpro 286’s performance
was sparkling. The legibility of the amber
dual-mode screen was outstanding, all
operations were very fast, and the machine
ran virtually all software thrown at it. It did
not run the IBM diagnostics disc, but that is
only to be expected. There were no
problems reading 360K discs written by or
for other IBM-compatible machines.
The keyboard has the same layout as the
PC/AT, including the unimplemented Sys
Req. key, but with LED indicators actually
built into the tops of keys like Caps Lock,
etc. The PC/AT layout is superior to that of
the standard IBM PC, though it takes some
getting used to.
Two drawbacks to the Deskpro 286
colour monitor supplied. This required a
separate mains lead, unlike the Compaq
monitor which plugs into the back of the
Deskpro. The Kaypro also lacks a composite
video port. While it was nice to have colour,
as many of the newest IBM PC packages use
it extensively, the IBM’s sharp, high-
fesolution monochrome character set was
sadly missed.
On test, the Kaypro performed im-
peccably. For reasons unknown it ran the
eight standard Basic Benchmark routines
slightly faster than the IBM PC/AT: the
Kaypro’s average was'5.9 seconds, compared
to the PC/ AT’s 6.8 seconds. As the chip and
DOS are identical, this presumably means
that Microsoft’s GWBasic is just slightly
faster than its Basica.
The Bagshaw Benchmarks, which
measure the speed of disc operations, pro-
duced curious results, in that times varied a
great deal between tests. The total time of
314 seconds seems reasonable, though both
faster and slower results were obtained,
which could have something to do with the
buffering.
Another feature of the drives was that
they made embarrassingly loud scrunching
noises when the first few tracks of a 360K
disc were read, before they settled down into
quiet operation. The drives themselves were
efficient and reliable,.and there were no
problems reading 360K IBM PC discs.
The Kaypro’s keyboard is laid out like the
PC/AT, and feels quite good for typing. It
does have the same metallic construction as
the rest of the machine and, indeed, the rest
‘ does perform as an IBM PC/AT clone, it has
emerge when you try to move it about. Like
the PC/AT itself, the Deskpro 286 is very
heavy. But a 2.2Mbyte micro with a
30Mbyte hard disc, built-in tape streamer
and massive power supply could hardly be
expected to be light. Also, before you lift
the machine you have to release three screws
and slide the lid off, to lever a locking prong
for a hard disc into the Park position,
Another drawback may turn out to be the
price, which had not been divulged at the
tume of writing. Compaq is not known
for being noticeably cheaper than IBM.
However, you do tend to get more for your
money, and frankly the Deskpro 286 is
worth a premium over the IBM PC/AT.
Unless you have a ridiculous attachment to
the three little letters 1, B and M, the
Deskpro 286 is a far better machine to buy.
CONCLUSIONS
WiThe Deskpro 286 offers a high level of com-
patibility with the IBM PC and PC/AT micros, to
the extent that it could even be more IBM com-
patible than IBM’s own machines. This enables
it to utilse the large PC and PC/AT software
base.
WThe extra convenience of the dual-mode
screen display, built-in tape backup and
greater expandability make the Deskpro 286
model 2 clearly preferable to the IBM PC/AT.
@For single-user desk-top computing, the
Deskpro 286 is, in terms of specification, facil-
ities, speed and performance, the best micro
ever reviewed by Practical Computing. For
applications where the power is required, it
should sell like hot cakes, almost regardless of
price.
of the Kaypro range. You get serviceability
with little cosmetic finish and no ‘finesse at
all. Not everyone will like it.
No problems were experienced with
standard software packages, though the 2861
would not run the IBM PC diagnostics disc
nor Microsoft’s original Flight Simulator. It
did, however, happily run the new version
2, designed for the PC/ AT. In these respects
the Kaypto performed like the Intertec
Headstart, reviewed last month. Also like
the Headstart, the Kaypro is badly doc-
umented, with only preliminary notes
supplied.
There is little else to say about the 2861. It
useful free software. At a lower price than
the PC/AT, the 286: should also appeal to
those whose needs are for utility rather than
glamour.
CONCLUSIONS
MiThe Kaypro 286i is an IBM PC/AT clone, and
imitates its rival about as closely as is legally
advisable. This makes it a machine of huge
raw power.
MiThe Kaypro differs from the PC/AT in also
having a huge raw appearance. That it is util-
itarian is about the nicest thing one can say
about a micro that is prettier than only the
Advance 86B.
The bundled Micropro software is of known
quality and is an attractive extra.
Milf the price is aggressive it should appeal to
those who value functionality over glamour.
The quoted price is around 10 percent less
than the PC/AT. Even with the free software,
this may not be quite competitive enough. [k@
49
MB SOFTWARE REVIEW
GEM DESKTOP
WIMPS FOR ALL
By Mike Lewis
Digital Research’s Gem
brings a uniform Mac-style
graphics interface to a wide
range of personal
computers, including the
IBM PC.
he arrival of Gem marks the most
realistic attempt yet to bring the
marvels of overlapping windows, pull-
down menus and multiple founts to a wide
range of personal computers. It is a
strategically important product, for: both
programmers and end-users. If it succeeds it
will do for graphical interfaces what CP/M
did for operating systems.
The comparison is an apt one because,
above all, Gem is to do with portability. Just
as CP/M allowed software houses to write
a program for one computer in the ex-
pectations that it would run on many others,
so Gem gives them the world of Wimps —
windows, icons, mice and pointers —
without having to worry about the details of
widely differing graphics hardware.
Gem is not itself an operating system, but
rather a layer of software that lives between
the OS and an application program. The
hardware-dependent parts are provided by
Gem’s licensees — that is computer
manufacturers and OEMs — while writers of
application software gain access by means of
a programmer’s toolkit.
SOFTWARE YET TO COME
What Gem will do for the end-user
depends on the extent to which developers
of databases, spreadsheets, accounting
packages, etc. make use of the goodies that
it offers. So far, Gem-based packages have
come in a trickle rather than a flood, but it’s
early days yet.
In fact, the only Gem offerings to date
have originated, not surprisingly, from
Digital Research. These include Gem Draw,
Gem Paint, Gem Graph and Gem
Wordchart, all of which should be available
by the time you read this. At the moment,
the only established product is Gem
Desktop, which is in many ways the hub of
the system.
To run Gem, you will need 256K of RAM
and a graphics display. A hard disc is
advisable, but not vital. The version we tried
was for the IBM PC, but it ran quite happily
on the closely compatible Compaq Deskpro
and Olivetti M-24. Versions for other
Desk File View Options
O] smoKINs.00¢ © SPELL.COM SPELL. LP
Deere
& ida
6 bytes used in 3 items
ORAW.RSC
GENFILE.GEM
Wo. = WORD.COM -
.a separate scrollable window for each sub-directory. Each
wines represents either a file or another sub-directory. The
user is able to move windows to anywhere on the screen, change their size and
make poe overlap.
“Desk |
Fale View Options
DISK INFORMATION
Drive Identifier:
Disk Label:
Number of Folders:
Number of Itens:
tes Used:
Bytes
4 UTILITY WIRD
a — —==s
systems will be supplied by the hardware
manufacturers — they already exist for the
Atari ST series and the entire Apricot range
— but the IBM version is sold by Digital
Research itself.
Of course you will also need a mouse. In
fact, Gem can be made to work with various
pointing devices, such as joysticks and
touch-screens, provided the manufacturer
supplies the necessary drivers. We used the
vailable:
ANST.SYS — AUTOEXE
— pms
two-button Microsoft mouse, only the left-
hand button being operative in Gem. In the
IBM version you can get by with the cursor
keys instead of a mouse, but it is a slow and
clumsy alternative.
Installing Gem is simple, the whole
operation being carried out by a batch file
called GemPrep. If you are using floppies,
you end up with two discs: a startup disc and
the disc containing the Desktop program.
50
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
De Research’s version of Gem
runs on the IBM PC and com-
patibles. Versions for other systems
will be supplied by hardware
manufacturers.
Options
Desk File View
i (HAN
a9 bytes used in 43 itens.
i= E7 fs
4) itnenot GENCESE GEMEYS MEDIC
| | | ,
"| utiuity Wa ane]. §
Fo] Tif) Oo
by Contac [Bhi Clock 3 ‘ON FORMAT. COH
m 5/28/85
eee 6:
- ete
5 tpesb
Py r|
Pala ili:
WUTOENEC EAT
i, ter
D esk accessories may be invoked from Desktop or within a Gem
application. The clock and the calculator are supplied with the package.
Programmers who have the Gem Toolkit may add their own accessory
programs.
To start Gem itself, you place the startup
disc in Drive A and type GemRun. You are
then prompted to swap discs, after which
Desktop takes over the scteen. Drive B
remains free for other programs and data.
You can also start Gem from a hard disc.
The aim of Desktop, in a nutshell, is to
replace the DOS command line. It does not
replace DOS itself or even Command.Com,
but it does provide an easy way of carrying
out basic housekeeping tasks without hav-
ing to remember unfamiliar commands.
Experienced users might prefer the old-
fashioned A> prompt, but a newcomer
should find Desktop less intimidating and
easier to learn.
The initial Desktop screen shows an icon
for each floppy or hard disc and a trash can.
There is also a menu bar with four choices:
Desk, File, View and Options. To do
BESOFTWARE REVIEW
| SPECIFICATION
Description: Gem is an operating
system extension that lets programmers
use overlapping windows, icons, mouse
support, pull-down menus and multiple
founts; Desktop uses Gem to perform the
common DOS utility functions
Hardware requlred: IBM PC family
or compatibles, Atari ST or Apricot, other
versions available soon; bit-mapped
graphics display, 256K RAM, mouse or
other pointing device
Publisher: Digital Research, Oxford
House, Oxford Street, Newbury,
Berkshire. Telephone: (0635) 35304
Price: Desktop costs £49.95 plus VAT
| Available: now
anything useful, you have to select a disc by
moving the mouse pointer to the icon and
clicking the button. This switches the icon to
a dark picture on a light background, Gem’s
standard way of highlighting a selected
object.
To see what’s on the disc you open the
drive, either by double-clicking the icon or
by selecting Open from the File menu. Gem
responds by displaying the disc’s root
directory in a window, with an icon for each
file. These so-called directory icons come in
three varieties: folders, which are DOS sub-
directories; applications — Bat, Com and
Exe files; and documents, which are meant
to cover text and data files, but are in fact
anything that is not a folder or an
application.
BRANCHING
Since a folder is a sub-directory, it can
itself be opened to display a further window
of icons. Folders may contain other folders,
reflecting DOS’s tree-like structure. There is
a New Folder option in the File menu which
serves the same purpose as the DOS MkDir
command, and you can copy files between
folders, root directories and other discs.
Copying a file is simply a matter of
selecting the icon, then dragging it with the
mouse button held down to whete you want
it to go. Gem warns you if the file already
exists at the destination, and also gives you a
chance to rename the copy. You can copy
entife discs in this way, just by dragging one
disc icon on to another. If you drag an icon
to the trash can, it is deleted after a suitable
warming message.
The most important operation that you
normally carry out at the DOS command
line is to invoke an application program. In
Gem, this is done simply by opening the
application’s icon. Before handing over to
the program, Desktop invites you to enter a
parameter, the name given t6 a command-
line tail, for passing to the program.
Although the application takes complete
control of the screen, when it finishes the
Desktop reappears exactly as you left it.
The other type of icon which you can
open is a document. The aim here is merely
to see what is in it, via the DOS Type
command. Beat in mind that a Gem
document ts not necessarily text, so trying to
(continued on next page)
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
31
BB SOFTWARE REVIEW
(continued from previous page)
open a binary file will result in a screenful of
rubbish.
Opening a document in this way reveals
one of the main weaknesses ‘of Desktop,
something which is also evident when you
wish to format a floppy or carry out a disc-to-
disc copy. In each case, Desktop steps aside
and allows the equivalent DOS command —
Type, Format or DiskCopy — to take over,
exposing the user to precisely the sort of
cryptic dialogue that Desktop is designed to
avoid.
Having opened a document, it is a trifle
disconcerting to see your attractive Desktop
display disappear, albeit temporarily, to be
replaced by a monochrome text screen, with
the contents of the file flashing past and
only the Control-S key to stop the scrolling.
Would it have been so difficult for Digital
Research to have displayed the file in a Gem-
style window and to have given the user a
little more control over the scrolling? As it is,
telinquishing control to DOS in this way
gives Desktop a decidedly unpolished
appearance.
Fortunately, these are the only occasions
on which Desktop’s dealings with the user
are open to criticism. In general, you are
never left wondering what is going on and
most of the system’s messages are polite,
clear and to the point. When you start an
operation that might be either time-
consuming of destructive; such as copying
or deleting a file, Desktop issues an
unambiguous warning and gives you a
chance to back out. More confident users can
switch off this feature.
A particularly interesting aspect _ of
Desktop is the way in which documents with
the same file type can be linked to a specific
application. Once this is done, opening a
document of the relevant type will have the
same effect as invoking the application, with
the document’s name as a parameter.
For example, you could assign all
documents of type Txt to WordStar. Then
when you double click on a file named
Report.Txt, Desktop will load WordStar
which will in turn open Report. Txt ready for
editing. To help you remember which
documents work with which programs, you
can superimpose special icons on the normal
application and document icons. Thus there
is a typewriter icon which would be suitable
for a WP program, and one resembling a
sheet of paper for word-processed text.
RESUME LATER
Normally, this link-up between appli-
cations and documents survives only for the
current Gem session. The same is true of the
various toggles and switches which you can
set to disable the warning message before
file deletions, for instance. However, if you
use the Save Desktop function in the
Options menu, all these settings are written
to disc. The next time you invoke Desktop,
the system will be just as you left ic.
In any discussion of Gem, there is a strong
temptation to make comparisons with the
systems that has most furthered the Wimp
cause: the Macintosh. Certainly, Gem has a
great deal in common with the Mac, at least
from the user's viewpoint. This is no bad
thing, because once you have learned how to
operate one of these, you will know the
other too.
Windows have a near identical anatomy
in both systems. By manipulating the
vatious controls around the edge of the
window, you can scroll it any direction,
move it, alter its size or close it altogether.
The only difference is that Gem’s windows
also have a Full box: you click this once to
make the window fill the screen and click it
again to return the window to its previous
size. This would be a useful addition to the
Mac.
Another small difference is in the use of
pull-down menus. On the Mac, you pull
down a menu by pointing to it and holding
down the mouse button. You may then drag
the mouse to the option you want and
release the button. In Gem, the menu drops
iki VERDICT
A
< ¥ 2 g
SS €§ OD ¢
€ €¢ 6 &
Performance Oo OF @f@ O
Ease of use O O OO G@
Documentation Oo oO 8 O
Valueformoney (17 OF OF
C)Desktop provides a more natural way
of using DOS and its utilities than the A>
prompt. This way of doing things is likely
to become the norm.
down as soon as you point to it, and the
option is selected by a single click.
Desk accessories are also common to both
systems. These are mini-applications which
can be invoked from their own menu, either
from the desk top or within other programs.
Gem has just two of them, a clock and a
calculator, while the Mac sports seven,
including the indispensible scrapbook.
Gem also lacks the equivalent of the
Macintosh clipboard, a handy means of
cutting and pasting between programs.
Buc it is from the programmer’s point of
view that the real differences between Gem
and the Macintosh emerge. When you
program the Mac, you are locked into a fairly
fixed configuration. Access to the graphical
interface involves working closely with the
hardware and with the Mac’s ROM-based
service routines, and this can be quite an
undertaking. You can do a lot of Mac tricks
in certain high-level languages like Micro-
soft Basic and Mac Pascal, but these are
interpreted rather than compiled and so do
not appeal to software vendors.
The Macintosh is controlled by a piece of
software called the finder. This, together
with the ROM routines, serves as operating
system, Wimp manager, and desk top. It is
highly machine specific, and adding non-
Apple hardware like third-party hard discs .
generally involves obtaining a modified
version of finder.
By contrast, Gem.works in co-operation
with existing operating systems, its role
being confined to servicing programs that
want to use the graphics interface. The
programmer can communicate with DOS as.
before, and can continue to use all his or her
favourite tools like keyboard enhancers and
RAM discs. And you can use any language
that permits calls to compiled library
routines — although the calling sequence is
patticularly geared to-C.
HIGHLY PORTABLE
APPLICATIONS
Because all interaction with graphics
devices is routed through a set of drivers,
Gem programs can be highly portable. This
does not mean that you can port Gem itself
from an IBM to an Apricot and expect it to
work. But once you have Gem on both
systems, your application code can be
successfully transferred, which is more than
can be said for packages that try to do their
own clever displays by directly accessing the
computer's screen-mapped memory.
This approach also means that appli-
cations written for non-Gem environments
can be used in a Gem system without
change. Familiar programs like WordStar
and dBase will run quite happily whether
they were invoked from Desktop or the DOS
command line, and they will not be put off
by any Gem routines that happen to be
resident in RAM. What is more, the user is
not tied to Gem and can return to normal
DOS operation whenever he or she feels like
ite
But although these are important
advantages, Gem will not succeed if it
merely provides a standard, intuitive
mechanism for invoking non-standard, non-
intuitive applications. The future of Gem
depends critically,on how readily the likes of
Micropro and Ashton-Tate incorporate the
Gem brand of Wimps into their mass-
market products.
So far the prospects are good, with around
a dozen major houses promising Gem
adaptations of their packages. The products
include Thorn EMI’s Perfect range, the
Pegasus accounting system, Lifetree’s
Volkswriter, Plan from Chang Labs, SPI’s
Open Access, Compsoft’s Delta, and the
Prospect Graphics Library.
It is true that all these represent just
announcements rather than actual discs and
manuals on dealers’ shelves. But with this
sort of muscle behind it, Gem certainly
looks like being off to a good start.
CONCLUSIONS
@With its Mac-like user interface, its
availability on a range of business micros, and
its ability to work with existing applications
software, Gem certainly looks like being a
winner.
BAt first sight the Gem environment is nice
and friendly to programmers, especially those
who do not want to work too closely with the
graphics hardware.
Hiln spite of a few rough edges, Desktop is a
highly acceptable alternative to the DOS
command line. It can be mastered very quickly
and so should appeal strongly to computer
novices.
52
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Every option you'll ever need. S-100 buss with inexpensive boards management capablilties of
You're looking at ULTRAFRAME™ and a coaxial cable. TurboDOS™. Run MS-DOS™ and
a eealts ir nek multiprocessor Each PC can tap network resources CP/M 86 software plus true multiuser
you can configure to handle any including hard disks (10-300MB) and accounting and data base applications.
Tearont system printers with spooling. A
Srerucate system that can tackle The PC's gain the proven network The industry's longest warranty.
We've built the ULTRAFRAME to
last — and backed it with a full one
year warranty. Plus, we give a level
of old-fashioned factory support you
won't get from anyone else. And on-
ae maintenance is available nation-
wide.
ULTRAERAME”
a
your toughest jobs today with the
capacity to grow up to 36 users or
tasks — within the same chassis.
Get 5" & 8” Winchester drives from
10-300MB (formatted). And backup
systems appropriate to any system
you design.
Now run both MS-DOS
and CP/M software.
Our system lets you network IBM
PC’s, compatibles or other popular
PC's into a serious multiuser business
system. Tie PC's into the speed of an
FRONT
SUNOMCS
The multiuser system
that also networks
IBM PC's.
@ MAINFRAME-LIKE
CHASSIS & POWER
SUPPLY ENGINEERING.
Continuous-duty cooling
Capacity. Solid state power
upply circuitry for max.
reliability.
@ FAST, HIGH CAPA-
CITY HARD DISKS. Full
range of 5", 8" Winchester
models from 10 to 2.4 GB,
including new high-capacity
5" drives.
@ UP TO 36 USERS —
IN PARALLEL. Add 8 or
16 bit SLAVENET™ pro-
cessor boards — each a
complete 280 or 80186
computer — to maintain
fast, multi-user perform-
ance, Both 12 and 20 slot
S-100 models available.
@ CHOICE OF BACKUP
SYSTEMS. Integral 5” or
8" floppies to 1.2 MB.
BACKSTOP" video ar-
ivi . ™
m LOW COST PER = tee a el
USER. Higher perform- @ FAST, MULTIPRO- rere:
ance and lower cost per CESSOR OPERATING
user than any micro net- SYSTEMS. IBS p-NET™
work. True multi-user, and TurboDOS — access
multitasking operation to all UCSD Pascal'™ and
plus shared resources. CP/M™ software.
TurboDOS™ is a registered trademark of Software IBM PC is a registered trademark of IBM. ULTRAFRAME is a registered trademark of IBS, Inc.
900 CP/M and CP/M 86 are registered trademarks of Digital MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Digital Research,
Research
‘a am interested in: Berea?
SUNCI I ro Becomingadealer UC adistributor
! Cl More ae
| Name ......0. eee Address oo...
78 Buckingham Gate, ae
London SW1 6PD.
Telephone: 01-222 4701/4707
eee
Cee meme D Eee eee EEE DORE DESOTO DED EEEED SH REEE EE ED OTHE EEO OEE EE EERE OEE DEO EO EEE HEH ED
"TRWING asc sce ioc qetoceaneccesnies. ere ee iene
Se ee ee se
@ Circle No. 114
SB
WERE NOT JUST SAYING THEYRE 100% RELIABLE.
3A
WE GUARANTEE TT.
“
Kl
|
M
we
>
Not everything that claims to be totally reliable lives up to its promise.
But when you're choosing floppy disks, you have to be sure of 100% reliability.
Anything less can be expensive and damaging.
That's why every SKC disk goes through the most rigorous quality
control and is guaranteed and certified to be 100% error free.
SKC is one of the world’s leading chemical companies and all our disks
are made to the highest standards
SKC disks can withstand up to 5 million passes of continuous
operations on the same track.
SKC disks meet ansi, DIN, ECMA, IBM, jis and sHuGaRT specifications and are
available, unformatted, in 5%” Single Sided Single Density, Single Sided
Double Density and Double Sided Double Density variants. A 3” disk is also
available and they all have a full 5 year guarantee.
For more information contact Bridie Sumsion, Computermate Data
Product, Scotia Road, Burslem, Stoke On Trent ST6 4DX, Tel: 0782-811711 or
SK (Sunkyong) Europe Corporation Limited, Sunkyong House, Springfield
Road, Hayes, Middlesex.
scraene 18 SKC FLOPPY DISKS<SE>
Multi-User.
Single Choice.
A good Database Manager makes a multi-use
micro into a supremely powerful office tool.
Co-workers can not onlystoredata butshare i
-—~ instantly among themselves. That is
we ~=—__s the while point of having
“1 \§ rage | > Multi-Aiser or networked
( micros. With Superfile,
a busy office staff can
automate the flow
of paper easily,
quickly and make it
workithaway they
wantit to.
Reliality is
absolutely essenual a
* in multi-uger vas
software. Southdata, with its
advanced Superfile database
management package, has more
experience in this field than most
‘available (like 1 =
“Concurrent DOS on ~<
systems asthey become y | ft ! x |
the IBM PC AT). .
Of course,
multi-user
Superfile has ads
the advangédl
features that make
the single user version -
so successful, Variable aes records to
increase data Capacityhightningwdast searching.
Fuzzy matching. Direct interfaces to most
programming languages anda
multi-file database. The Superforms
utility gives you an easy to set up
screen forms and powerful data
validation. The Superiabaeport
generator is equally simple.
Superforgss TI will give multi-page
other companies. Our 8 bit multi-
user Superfile was first releasedarre™
1982. It works successfully under
five different multi-user Operating
systems and is used extensively hy ~
MoD and British Telecom.
Now we arebninging this expertise to bear on
themew 16 bit network and multi-user systems.
“Multi-user Superfile will work under Multi-
user Concurrent CP/M (MCCP/M), Omninet,
16 bit HiNet, Torus, Xen1xX, Uniixeidris and will
_.worl#on other
screenforms with large text fields
which are callable from programs
#©° — writteh inmost languages.
> 3) Youndatais y=
valuable. Toehare
it efficiently you
need the very oy
in database
software. That
leaves you with
just one choice —
Superfile.
DATABASE MANAGEMENT
For full details, phone or write to: Southdata Ltd, 166 Portobello Road, London W11 2EB. Tel 01-229 2724 & 01-727 7564
5b @ Circle No. 116
PC8
OMNI-READER
AUTOMATED TEXT INPUT
By Ian Stobie
By far the cheapest optical
character reader so far —
but one with severe
limitations.
mni-Reader is a very cheap optical
character reader, designed for use
with machines like the Apricot,
Macintosh and IBM PC. It lets you read the
information on typewritten pieces of paper
directly into the computer, without the need
to retype it. At £399 Omni-Reader is far
cheaper than any competing product, but it
does have significant limitations: for some
jobs it turns out to be genuinely useful, but
for others it is useless.
The problem Omni-Reader sets out to
address is an important one. Many tasks such
as maintaining membership lists or keeping
catalogues up-to-date are highly suitable for
computerisation but involve typing sub-
stantial quantities of data into the system in
the first place. Since most of this data
already exists on paper, a cheap way of
inputting it directly would save the cost of
retyping.
Optical character recognition (OCR)
systems designed to do this have in fact
existed for some time, but are expensive —
in the £6,000 to £15,000 price range. These
prices place them outside the reach of the
individual user.
Since Omni-Reader is intended for users
with comparatively small volumes of data to
SPECIFICATION
Description: input device which
optically reads typewritten text off pieces
of paper into a suitable computer
Hardware required: IBM PC,
Macintosh, or ACT Apricot; also will work
with any machine equipped with a
suitable RS-232 interface
Typefaces recognised: Courier 10-
and 12-pitch, Letter Gothic 12, and
Prestige Elite 12
Reading speed: 150wpm claimed by
the manufacturer _
Manufacturer: Oberon International
Ltd; made in U.K.
Price: £399 plus VAT; optional software
to support IBM, Mac and Apricot is £40;
available now
U.K. distributer: Oberon
International Ltd, 2 Hall Road, Maylands
Wood Estate, Hemel Hempstead,
Hertfordshire HP7 7BH. Telephone:
(0491) 34838
Mr. K. Spring
1S Montiose Gardeus
Lunduden
Dumfries
Dear Mr. Spring
Thank vou for seading the enciosed story for possible
publication, but after careful consideration unfortunately we are
-table to use it.
Yours sincerely
Jack Schotield
EDITOR
enter, Oberon, who manufacturers it, is
probably justified in making it slower and
less flexible to get the price down. Reading
proceeds line by line, and is almost a manual
process in that the user has to physically
move the read head over each line of text by
hand.
Omni-Reader’s other obvious limitation
is in the range of material itcan handle. You
ate restricted to reading the output from
typewriters, and only the more common
electric ones at that, but not printed
documents or poor-quality typescript.
Physically Omni-Reader has a flat base-
board on which you place the document you
wish to copy. A transparent ruler is free to
move up and down the document but is
kept strictly parallel to the lines of text.
Slotted losely on to the ruler, so that it is free
to move in a left to right axis, is a black
plastic box which contains the optical read
head. At the top of the baseboard are a set of
indicator lights, four of which show the pre-
programmed typefaces Omni-Reader is set
up to recognise: Courier 10- and 12-pitch,
Letter Gothic and Prestige Elite.
Connecting the Omni-Reader up to the
Mac we used for this review proved simple
enough: it just plugged into the Mac’s serial
port. We also had Oberon’s optional Omni-
Reader software, available for an extra £40,
which makes the installation process
telatively straightforward.
All the typewritten text in our office has
either been typed on old manual machines
or an Olivetti ET 111 electric typewriter with
carbon ribbon and Eletto 12-pitch print-
wheel. A look in the Omni-Reader manual
showed that Eletto is somewhat similar to
Prestige Elite 12, so setting the Omni-Reader
to this fount we tried reading several
documents. It takes a while to get the hang
of gliding the read head across the text at the
right speed. If you get it right the Omni-
Reader beeps once and the text appears
magically at your current cursor position on
the screen. However, we never got 100
The Omni-Reader is much better at reading some typefaces than others. With an
original typed in Letter Gothic results were almost perfect (left), but Eletto, the
typeface most of our documents are written in, confused it (right).
MBREVIEW
Mr. kK. Spring
ISMontrose Gardens
Lunduden
Dumfries
DearMy SpriaR
Thankyou for sendin
publication, but after
are unable 10 use iy
2 Yhe enclosed story for possible
caréful consideration unforY unately we
Yours sincerely
Jack Schofield
EDITOR
percent accuracy with Eletto, more like 90 to
95 percent.
Text typed with an Olivetti Letter Gothic
printwheel was much better — near 99
percent most of the time. But this was still
not much use to us as none of our existing
documents are typed in this face.
Oberon quotes a reading speed of 150
wpm, although we got nowhere near this. I
expect a few days practice would speed you
up, but I am not convinced that even then I
could achieve 150wpm.
Generally, Oberon is. realistic about the
limitations of its device. Previous claims that
the Omni-Reader would be able to read
otdinary printed text have been abandoned.
Such a task seems to be technically beyond
the device, as printed founts are generally a
good deal smaller than typewriter founts at
typically 16 to 20 characters. per inch as
against the typewriter’s 10 or 12.
OMNI-READER
ke? VERDICT
gS cE ¢
z © @
Performance B (ay (ee) h(a]
Ease of use Cj. i baa)
Documentation [] [] HF O
Value for money O oO DO @
LBrilliant value if you happen to be one
of the few people who wants to do
what Omni-Reader can do.
CONCLUSIONS
@Omni-Reader is too restricted in what it
offers to be of practical use to most people.
However, some users may have masses of
beautifully typed Courier documents which
they are dying to get into a computer system,
and for them Omni-Reader is worth a look.
@Omni-Reader is a cheap product and shows
the way technology is evolving. PC)
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
ay!
MBREVIEW
CMS 6502 RACK SYSTEM
NOT THE BBC MICRO
By Roger Cullis
This modular, rack-based system from Cambridge
Microcomputer Systems allows technical and industrial
users to build up a BBC-like micro tailored to their
specific needs.
s an input/output device, the BBC
Micro offer a wealth of facilities. It
has parallel and serial outputs for
printers, cassette, disc and LAN interfaces
for data storage, sound and speech for aural
communication and RGB, composite and
modulated UHF for visual display.
There is, however, a lack of flexibility
about the implementation. Regardless of
whether you need all the functions, they are
part of the package. You get the cassette
interface, for example, even though you
may always save your files to disc. Four-
channel sound is there, despite the fact that
your only application may be instrument
control. Should you require more than one
identical interface — to drive a serial printer
and a modem, for example — then you
would have to think again. There is no easy
way of adding such I/O controllers.
Hitherto, if you wanted to run BBC software
on a 6502 machine you had nowhere to turn,
unless you possessed your own manu-
facturing plant.
Now Cambridge Microprocessor Systems
(CMS) has come up with a modular system
which permits users to tailor the computer to
their specific needs. The CMS system is
based on a series of Eurocards, each one
performing a particular function or group of
SPECIFICATION
CPU: eight-bit 6502, clocked at MHz
Video: high-performance colour-
graphics card; low-cost 40/80-column
pixel graphics with teletex
Interfaces: comprehensive range of
\/O facilities including A/D, D/A, serial,
parallel, EEE
Manufacturer: Cambridge
Microprocessor Systems Limited, 44a
Hobson Street, Cambridge CB] INL
Prices: 6502 card with memory chips
and BBC Basic, £199 plus VAT; low-cost
6502 controller £119; BBC Tube interface
and cables, £79; digital I/O, serial and
parallel, £119; memory carrier, £79;
high-performance graphics card, £299;
40/80-column teletext card, £149; 13-bit
data acquisition, £189; high-performance
analogue card, from £205; keyboard,
£139; 8in. rack with power supply and
backplane, £299
58
functions. The cards are linked together by a
backplane which is either a simple pcb or a
mini-rack with its own power supply.
The heart of the system is a 6502 processor
card. Unlike the Acorn 6502 second pro-
cessor, which is simply a 6502 CPU with 64K
of RAM, the CMS controller has a much
more flexible memory arrangement, with
the 64K bank being divided into separate
blocks. The operating system is held in ROM
at the highest memory addresses, while the
lower addresses can be populated by
read/write or read-only memory, or simply
left empty.
The card has five 28-pin sockets which
setve as memory cafriets. To accommodate
different types, each socket is provided with
two banks of wire-wrap connector pins
which can be linked in the appropriate
configuration to suit the pin-out of
individual devices. The manual shows
arrangements for most popular byte-wide
ROM, EPROM and RAM chips. A pre-
programmed bipolar ROM controls the
addresses at which the memory devices will
be located in the memory map.
The CMS 6502 may be used as a second
rocessor to the BBC Micro or it may have
its own keyboard attached to a
40/80-column terminal card.
The system can be further extended by
using additional controller cards which
function simply as memory carriers when
their processor chip is removed. In this
manner, over 500K of memory can be
directly addressed by using a software
paging register to look after bank switching
control.
Memory socket 5 has been mapped to
support a 16K EPROM. The upper half is
devoted to the operating system and
monitor while the lower half is available for
CMS special applications packages. One
such package is a communications module
to permit networking of a number of 6502
systems. Other packages control specific
CMS I/O Eurocards.
If an application requires a host language,
this is mapped into &8000-BFFF. BBC Basic
is one language which is available.
CMS supplies a sideways ROM for use
when a BBC Micro model B or B+ is
employed as the base processor. The con-
troller card ts initialised with either a
Control-Shift or a *CMS command, and
responds with the message
BASIC present (if it is installed at
&8000-BFFF)
CMS (1.X)
Ram at XXXX — XXXX
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
EXPANSION CARDS
The High Performance Colour Graphics Card is based on the
Thompson EF-9366 graphics processor chip and has a DIN
connector for an RGB-drive monitor. It offers 512- by 256-pixel
resolution and is capable of drawing 1.5 million dots per second.
In monochrome there are 16 grey levels, while the colour mode
will support eight colours per pixel, eight flashing colours or
eight colours with intensity control. The ROM holds 96 ASCII
characters which may be displayed in a high-density text mode of
85 characters by 32 rows in any colour combination. Character
size and style — vertical, horizontal or italic — are fully user-
programmable. A hardware zoom capability allows characters to
be magnified in the X and Y directions by up to 16 times.
The 40/80-column Video Terminal is a low-cost alternative to
the graphics processor card. In combination with the processor
the video terminal card offers a convenient terminal emulator. It
includes a Centronics parallel interface and an RS-422/423 serial
interface. It has an 8K dedicated video memory expandable to
16K, full colour for foreground, background, border and palette,
pixel graphics, and user-definable and teletext characters. It
supports underlining, and reverse and flashing video.
On the Versatile Interface Board four 6522 versatile interface
MBREVIEW
adaptors (VIAs) provide 80 independent digital I/O and control
lines. A 6551 Asynchronous Communications Interface Adaptor
(ACIA) controls a serial interface in RS-422/423 configuration.
One half of a VIA drives a fully buffered Centronics printer port.
Serial transmit and receive rates and data format may be set
under software control.
The 12-bit/ Analogue Interface Card is designed for fast real-
time data acquisition. It has eight multiplexed ADC input
channels with true 12-bit accuracy and stability. There are also
up to four DAC output channels, each having an op-amp
current-to-voltage converter followed by an inverting amplifier
with potentiometer-controlled gain to provide an output voltage
of 0-10V at 10mA. There are seven TTL channels available for
extemal control.
The high-performance Analogue/ Digital Interface Board offers |
16 analogue input channels with 13-bit resolution and 16 digital
output lines capable of switching up to 50V at up to 0.5A. Each
line has an individual LED status indicator.
Based on the MC-68488 General Purpose Interface Adaptor,
the IEEE Talker/Listener Controller CMS IEEE card can act as a
talker, listener or bus controller. The card meets all of the
IEEE-488 1978 electrical specifications. As a bus controller it can
control up to 14 devices on the instrumentation bus.
Unlike the Acorn 6502 second processor, the
CMS device is endowed with a monitor
which will perform useful operations such as
memory dumps, priming CPU registers,
BENCHMARKS
The standard Basic Benchmarks were run — see Practical Computing January 1984,
page 102. The differences between the three systems are due in large part to
cyclic redundancy checks, memory moves
and verification, and screen mode changes.
The operating system implements standard
Acorn OS calls at the expected locations
and, in addition, has an extra call Osmon,
with a cofresponding indirection vector
Monv, at &FFC5 and &022E respectively.
These locations correspond to those of the
Acorn GSRead call and CNPV indirection
vector which are not required for a second
processor.
Another feature of the CMS card is a real-
time clock with battery backup. The clock
serves simultaneously as a watch/calendar,
alarm and timer. Each function ‘may be read
or set and enabled or disabled individually
by a defined monitor call.
The battery backup serves another
purpose. In conjunction with CMOS RAM it
may be used to preserve a transient program.
For example, it is quite feasible to load in a
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
differences in the clock speeds.
BMI
1.21
0.42
6.00
2.10
CMS 6502
Acorn 6502
second processor
BBC model B— 6502 0.65 3.16
BM2 BM3
15.67
5.49
8.20
BM5
19.89
6.96
BM6
29.44
10.30
BM8
95.11
35.37
10.42
—
15.41 52.55
Program using a BBC Micro base processor,
temove the Tube connection, unplug the
CMS 6502 card from the rack and power
supply and then replace it to continue
funning the program. This also provides a
stunning demonstration of the ruggedness
of the CMS system, breaking all of the
accepted rules about powering down before
making a disconnection.
Another indication that the CMS system
is intended for industrial control rather than
data processing is its performance in the
standatd Benchmark tests. It is slower than
the standard BBC model B by a factor of 2,
and than the Acorn 6502 second processor
by a factor of 3. The reason for this is that it
is clocked at 1MHz, rather than the 2MHz
and 3MHz of the Acorns. The slower clock
rate greatly simplifies the timing prob-
lems associated with the connection of
peripherals and makes the system less
susceptible to electrical noise, something
likely to be important in an industrial
environment.
There is a good selection of expansion
catds for use in conjunction with the 6502
processor. Some of those available are
described in the box above.
Hitherto, control applications have fallen
strictly within the province of the assembly-
language programmer. This restriction has
now been swept away with the launch of
Multi-Basic 85, an extension of BBC Basic
designed for the control of input/output
devices in the CMS system. Whereas pre-
viously it was necessary to spend several
months becoming familiar with the tech-
niques of low-level languages, now an
engineer with a knowledge of Basic and the
characteristics of the I/O devices can cobble
together a suitable program in a matter of
hours.
Multi-Basic is supplied in two forms,
either as a sideways ROM located at &8000
or as a normally mapped ROM at &4000.
The ROMs are initialised respectively with
the *Multt command or a Basic Call to
&4400. The language adds a block of
{continued on next page)
= —————————
59
MB REVIEW
(continued from previous poge)
commands suitable for particular peripheral
devices.
Up to 100 CMS systems equipped with a
Versatile Interface Board may be linked
together in an RS-422 network using the
Supervisor. RS-422 was chosen because it
uses balanced lines and will operate more
satisfactorily in the noisy envifonments
expected in industrial control applications.
The Supervisor applications software is
supplied with two powerful tools — a
screen-driven utility SNet to assist in the
installation and testing of a network, and a
subset of Multi-Basic commands, functions
and procedures for remote station access.
Seven procedures are provided for the
read/write of the system versatile interface
adaptors (VIAs). Typical of these is Con-
CMS 6502 RACK SYSTEM
VERDICT
&
a & Le) gS
Owe Pane
£ c & &
Performance Oo 0 O @
Ease of use (Pe | ee Lal
Documentation [.0 HP OF O
Valueformoney (1) OF @ O
Greatly simplifies design problems in
industrial control by combining flexible
hardware with an enhanced control
Basic extension.
figure which has the syntax
CONFIGURE [<register name>; <device
address>; <bit pattern>]
and is used to set up a 6522 VIA register. A
complementary command, Fetch, will read
a VIA bit pattern and save it to memory.
There are three procedures which init-
ialise, read from and write to analogue
devices. As there are two digital/analogue
cards in the CMS system, it ts necessary to
indentify which type is to be serviced.
There are six procedures by means of
which the time as HH/MM/SS, date as
YY/MM/DD, and period as week
number/day number, may be set or read.
Multi-Basic also provide six test functions for
comparing the date, time and period with
preset values,
The CMS system has five timers. Two of
them correspond to the five-byte timers in
the BBC Micro and the remaining three have
four-byte accuracy. Each timer may be
serviced by means of the commands
RD__Timer or Set_Timer accompanied by
the appropriate parameters.
A CMS system equipped with Multi-Basic
can perform a number of background
operations or tasks while it is running a
program in the foreground. This is made
possible by interrupting the foreground
program at intervals to perform the back-
ground task or tasks.
There may be any number of tasks,
defined in a manner similar to the pro-
cedures of BBC Basic, between the Task and
Exit keywords. A trivial example is
10 *EVENTSON :REM keyword to enable
EVENTS
20 TASK fred
30 I%=|I%+1: PRINT 1%
40 EXIT
Up to eight tasks may be active at any time.
They afe set in action by the Enable
command and this may be at regular inter-
vals or conditional on the pre-occurrence of a
particular event.
CONCLUSIONS
@ Although it will run BBC Basic programs,
the CMS 6502 system is not a substitute for the
BBC Micro.
@ {ts main strengths are its flexibility and
expansion capability.
@ It opens a new dimension in the de-
velopment of industrial control since it is no
longer necessary for the engineer to be an
assembly-language programmer.
DISKET
at unbeatable prices ———
OLVMPIC==:
COMPUTER MEDIA SPECIALISTS
LOW LOW PRICES 5%” DISKETTES
ssDD
15.00
18.00
18.00
19.50
20.00
(COKE.
Verbatim
Nashua
Dysan
Memorex
Prices per box of ten inclusive carriage UK and VAT
TE
SUMMER SPECIAL — FREE LIBRARY BOX
All orders received by 31 August, 1985
Official Orders from Educational and Government Departments Accepted.
Trade and Export Enquiries Welcome.
For complete list of Computer Media Products, eg Diskettes, Disc Packs,
Magnetic Tapes, Printer and Electronic Typewriter Ribbons, Listing Paper
and Accessories. Write, phone or telex
BOSTON ROAD, BEAUMONT LEYS, LEICESTER, LE4 1AA
ME Telephone: (0533) 358399 -
Telex: 342208 {LYMPIC G)
OLVINPIC===
Telephone :01-240 882
To: OLYMPIC SYSTEMS 42 Boston Rd, Beaumont Leys, Leicester LE4 1AA
Please Supply
1 enclose ChequelPO for £
Name
Address.
Signature
60
ao 43 NEW Saucers LONDON WCIA IBH, ENGLAND
Telex: 291088" MARINE G
PC{8/8s
Boxes, Type
inc carriage and VAT
Post Cade
®@ Circle No. 117
nascom-2
Still the most outstanding, single board
computer with thousands of satisfied
users in industry and the horne.
Full range of extensions and add-ons
also available.
‘Phone or write for further details now!
Lucas Control Systems e
Lucas Control Systems Limited
Welton Road, Wedgnock Industrial Estate, Warwick CV34 5PZ.
Telephone: 0926 497733. Telex: 312333.
@ Circle No. 118
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
a “wide’ range of video
terminals designed to
satisfy virtually every
application from word
processing to advanced
colour graphics.
7 /
SoMpu ct supp fire inclade —
Daisywheels, Ribbon Cassettes, add-on Disk Drives and Sheet Feeders
—all Qume original quality
8
neo
READING
Facility
Sales and
Marketing
NEWBURY
remember Qume= Qudlity
because it incorporates all the advantages of
a world- wide organization — extensive
technology resources, multi manufacturing
facilities —and Qume (UK) a British company
with customer service a priority.
“applications,
acompany serving British computer users
directly and through a Nationwide network
of appointed Distributors.
Qume.
The Quality Peripheral People
Qume (UK) Limited,
Marketingand Sales Service and Training Centre
Park Way, Newbury, Bridgewater Close, Reading,
Berkshire RG13 1 EE Berkshire RG3 1JT
Telephone: (0635) 31400 Telephone: (0734) 584646
Telex: 846321 Telex: 849706
A British Company of ITT
@ Circle No. 119
If you want it tomorrow ...
call us today
01-455 9823
COMPUTERS/CALCULATORS/PLOTTERS
Pixy Plotter (A4 3Pen8 Colour) £399.00
£858.00 EpsonH180 Plotter £375.00
£1225.00 SHARP PC 1500A (P/Computer with 8K
£1390.00 exto 24K £147.50
PL5000Portable Computer £1190.00
£1600.00 CE 158RS232 andCentIF £120.00
£2700.00 CE 150printer cassette IF £125.00
CE 159 8K Add on mem with BATE79.00
CE 152 Cassette £36.00
£1700.00 PC 1251 (Computer) £66.50
Caslo PB 750 New Computer £89.50
£169.95 Epson OX-10 idesk top comp) £1599.00
£259.00 EPSON HX20 Briefcase computer. 16K
£163.50 expandable. Serial and RS232 interface.
£410.00 £375
APRICOT
Fl 256K/7 20K disk
PC 256K/2 x 315K disks
Portable 256K/7 20K disk
COMMODORE
PC1018M compatible
PC201RM compatible
SANYO
MBC 775 portable (IBM
compatible) 256K
HEWLETT PACKARD
HP 4 1CV (SCI Computer)
HP 4 1CX (Computer)
HP 4 1C (Card Reader)
HP 71C (portable computer)
PLOTTERS
EPSON PX-B (portable 64K
HP 7470A (A4 2 Pen Plotter £918.00 Computer/Word Processor) £775.00
HP 7475 (A3 6 Pen Plotter) £1550.00 Epson ModemCxX21(300 Baud) 160.00
WORD PROCESSING PRINTERS/MONITORS
NEC 2000 (20CPS) £535.00 HR1(16CPS) £255.00
NEC 3530 (33CPS) £1200.00 4R15(3K Buffer 18CPS) £325.00
HR15 XL(20CPS) £433.00
SILVER REED
EXP 500(12CPS) HR25 (3K Buffer 25CPS) £555.00
£299.00
EXP 770(31CPS-2K Buffer) £850.00 Spt (35CFS)
Sheet feeder for above £185.05 CANON JetPrinter (7 colour)
MT EXP 50019 CPS)
£329.00 HP JetPrinter (150CPS)
SMITH CORONA HP Laser Printer
S/C TPI(12CPS)
£695.00
£450.00
£399.00
£2895.00
£154.00 DIABLO
S/C L100 (12 CPS-cmulats Diablo 630 620(RO)
£650.00
Protocols) £260.00 630(ECS/IBM) £1650.00
QUME 9/45 RO-FFP £1900.00 630(API) (IBMCOM} £1295.00
12/20 (20CPS) £499.00 630(KSR) £1840.00
11/40 RO (Also |BM-PC7 £1185.00 £195.00
TEC £1385 £999.00
TEC F10/40 + S/F
F 10-55 CPS (serial/parallel)
Tractor (Bi-Di)
Sheet Feeder
EPSON DX 100(13CPS)
£399.00
eet Feeder.
RUTISHAUSER
800.00 Sheer Feeders and Tractors tor
Qume, Diablo, NEC, Ricoh, TEC
most Starwriter, Olivetti, etc From £99.00
RICOH*
JUKI6 100(18CPS) £319.00 Model RP 1300 (S) (4K Buffer)...£875.00
£825, Flowriter (8K) PR 1600...........£1244.00
DYNEER range (X-Data) from £289.00 IBM-PC Version, £1500.00
COLOUR/MONOCHROME MONITORS 1600 Flowriter 46K £1349.00
PHILIPS/ZENITH/SANY O/TAXAN ETC. RP1200(20CP £555.00
OT MATRIX PRINTERS
JUKI 6300 (40CPS)
Ma2A (120CPS) £240.00 SR aGere).
ba : D100(120CPS) £249.00
M92P (160CPS)....... £360.00 SEIKOSHA from £99.00
MB3A (12CPS)....
M84P (200CPS)..
ANADEX*
OP-9000 B/(180 CPS)..
DP-9500 B/I{ 180 CPS).
OP-96 25 B/(240 CPS)
reorae MODEMS (Dacom/Master/Epson/
ps Interlekt/Steebek/Answercall etc.) from
aaa soc COLEPEO-PERERggP eC COS £79.00
.£850.00 MANNESMAN TALLY
£893.00 MT80(80CPS) i
.£1155.00 MT160(F/T)(160CPS)
BROTHER MT180 (160CPS 32 Col)...
EP44 (16CPS).... . .£189.00 EPSON
Brother M1009 IBM {(SOLPS)....... 159.00 Epson RX8OT Plus (100CPS)..... £190.00
STAR range from......... .....£156.00 Epson FX80 Plus (160CPS).. £320.00
CANON PW1080A (160CPS)...£274.00 Epson RX8OFT Plus.... aes2 15.00
CANON PW1156A (160CPS)...£355.00 Epson FX100FT Pius {160CPS).£425.00
NEC Pinwriter (132 cols) P3......£595.00 Epson RX100FT Plus (100CPS).£340.00
Epson LO1500 Plus (200CPS)...£875.00
Epson DX1 00 {(Daisywheel).......£433.00
.£165.00 TEC 1550({180CPS)..... >.» £975.00
TECHNICAL ADVICE
01-455 9824
This is only part of our range, a
telephone call will save you time and |
| money —4
.£177.00
.£495.00
... £549.00
SHINWA CP8O/II/FT...
This is only a selection of programmes available — telephone us for your specific
requirements.
1gM/COMPAQ
APPLE li/e
Mailmerge V.3.3...... £125.00 Worgstar ver ...£195.00
Wordstar V.3.31.......... --£270.00 Matimerge V.3.24. ..-£125.00
Wordstar/Mailmerge/Spellstar... £406.00 Lotus 1-2-3. ...£325.00
ACT—APRICOT Symphony ......... .. £425.00
Re ig weeeeeneess meeceicn dBase Il (CP/M86). £265.00
ail Merge..............5 “ 00 w, t c ...£295.00
Superwriter........ Peeemrenviog ost 200°
| EXPORT ORDERS |
WELCOMED
=
GOODS FULLY GUARANTEED
PRICES EXCLUDING VAT AND P+P.
Company and Government orders accepted by phone
Barclaycard Access Vise accepted by phone
al: 01-455 9823
MOUNTAINDENE
22 Cowper Street London EC2
62
PRINTER SWITCHES FROM
HOMESTEAD ELECTRONICS
LINK TWO OR MORE MICROS TO ONE PRINTER, PLOTTER, MODEM ETC. OR VICE VERSA
ROBUST CONSTRUCTION
SCREENED, METAL HOUSING
FULLY TESTED
BI-DIRECTIONAL
NO POWER REQUIRED
12 MONTHS GUARANTEE
OFFICIAL ORDERS ACCEPTED
24 HOUR DESPATCH
SERIAL DATA SWITCHES
PARALLEL DATA SWITCHES
RS 232/V24, 25 way‘D' sockets CENTRONICS. 36 way sockets
LINES 1 to88 20 Model C2 2 way switch
ModeiR2 2 way switch Mode! C3 3 way switch
Model R33 way switch 1 ModelC4 4 way switch
Model R4 4 way switch Model C5 5 way switch
Modei RS 5 way switch Model CX 2 way cross-over
Model RB 8 way switch ‘Dp
Model RX 2 way cross-over 1BM PC, 25 way ‘Di sockets
Model P2 2 way switch
be] ModelP3 3 way switch
ALL 25 LINES Model PX 2 way cross-over
Mode! V2 2 way switch
Mode! V3 3 way switch EEE-488, 24 way sockets
Model V4 4 way switch Model E2 2 way swilch
Model V5 5 way swilch ModeiE3 3 way switch
Model VX 2 way cross-over % Model EX 2 way cross-over
PLEASE ADD VAT AT 15%. ALL ITEMS CARRIAGE PAID
TRADE, EDUCATIONAL & EXPORT ENOUIRY WELCOME
CABLES ALSO AVAILABLE. EX STOCK & CUSTOM BUILT
HOMESTEAD ELECTRONICS
Trelawney Industrial Court
Trelawney Avenue, Langley
Slough, Berks. SL3 7UJ.
Telephone: (0753) 44269
® Circle No. 121
BETTER SERVICE BETTER PRICES
WIDER CHOICE
Mathes hy) SANYO {now including IBM compatible and 2 x 800k versions), APRICOT &
OLIVETTI pius widest choice of IBM COMPATIBLES. Tailored systems from under £1000.
PLUS NETWORK SYSTEM for any combination of these computers (up to 64) at £250 per station. PLUS
free on-site warranty. Hard disk systems, extra RAM (e.g. Apricot 128K £139). Multifunction boards,
etc. all at discount prices.
SAE Litas Full range of WP, spreadsheet and database software, etc., plus Accounts, Payroll,
CAD, Communications packages, etc. All at very special prices. — eg. Wordstar 2000 £299 Sage
Accounts £249 Supercale }) £145.
AGL REALE All the leading printers supplied. We specialise in Near Letter Quallty Matrix Printers
from under £200) and Daisywheels.
AMRMAACY We supply a full range of plotters from A4 — £169 (MCP-80 and SILVER REEO EB5O).
A3 — £275 (ROLAND) Al — £2995 (HOUSTON). Use independently or as part of a CAD system.
NASM Lad tuts) Serialiparallel in or out. 8k-512K, eg. 8K — £75 16K — £B5 32K — £95
64K — £119.
THIS MONTH'S SPECIAL OFFERS!
Shinwa CPA 80
Epson LX80 (NLQ) NEW!
Kaga Taxan KP810 (NLQ)
18cps QUME compatible daisywheel
Brother HR15 daisywheel
DISKS — SPECIAL OFFERS — POST FREE!!!
Bored DYSAN 100% guaranteed
in 10s Per box fer order
$S00 £14.40
0800 £20.90
ss00 £20.90
osoo £26.85
SONY ss £26.50 AMSTRAD 3”
3.5” os £36.50 £32.50 per box of 10
VOLUME DISCOUNTS. TOP QUALITY UNLABELLEO DISKS - EVEN LOWER PRICES
AUR 11" = 9.5" £9.75 A4 Clean Edge £11.69 2000 sheets per box. All sizes
available. Oelivery os. (fixed) + £1 per box. LABELS from £1.70 per 1,000. RIBBONS All types
available at low prices e.g. Juki 8100 — 99p. Shinwa CP/COA80 £3.79 Epson FX/MX/RX 80 £2.49.
Qume MS £2.65 Kaga/Canon £5.25. PRINTWHEELS from £3.79. Delivery 95p {any quantity
ribbons/printwheels).
Official GovernmentiEducational/Local Authority orders welcomed.
Please add 15% VAT to all prices (inc. carriage). Limited space precludes listing of our full range of
products. Please telephone if you do not see the item you require.
A.M.A. COMPUTER SYSTEMS & SUPPLIES
Dept. B, 8 Glebe St., Beeston
NOTTINGHAM NG9 1B2Z. Tel. 0602 255415
3M Lifetime guarantee
Per bon + ‘per order
£11.75 + £2.75
£16.25 + £2.75
£17.15 + £3.85
£20.15 + £3.85
® Circle No. 122
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Modem WS 2000:
You don’t need to be
told about the information
revolution — you
already know that
why
without efficient data the e Xx
communications, you
and your business may not
survive it.
And you know that a
modem will be a vital part of
your survival kit.
This is why you should choose Modem
WS2000 from Miracle Technology.
iw Quality — In concept and construction
Miracle Technology
sets the standards
other modem
manufacturers
aim for.
Quite.
simply, WS2000
is one of the best
designed, best
made modems
POWER
Tx DATA
_~=
RxDATA - 7 300/300
CARRIER
you can buy. Janie
It is ri
approved for TED use
PTT use in elecom ication m | Modem WS 2000
the UK con ao
,and Holland,
with approval pending in other European
countries.
ii Flexibility — As a multi-speed, multi-
standard modem, WS2000 enables data transfer
between almost any two computers — world-
wide.
WS2000 gives instant access to the vital
information sources of Prestel, Micronet,
Telecom Gold and a vast range of public and
private databases.
WS2000 can also convert your computer to
a telex terminal, giving you inexpensive 2-way
international telex facilities.
WS2000 is suitable for use with a wider
range of computers than virtually any other
modem, and we can offer software packages for
most makes.
it Versatility — No other modem offers all
the facilities available with WS2000.
Its unique versatility means it can be
expanded by the addition of autodial and
autoanswer options (presently undergoing
approval testing with BABT), plus direct
computer software control of the modem and
much more.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Rnertad
choice.
1200R 2-75 Tx
_—-VIEWTEXT
aie de
SEX nad NAL
“LOCAL TEST =| ORIG-
im Service — A large
dealer/distributor network
both in the UK
9 and abroad means
you’re never far
from a WS2000
stockist.
And our Customer
Service and Technical
Departments are happy to
give help and advice.
it The Experts — Thousands of users
depend on WS2000 — local authorities,
government departments, multi-nationals,
private companies
and individuals.
WS2000 is
the modem
chosen by the
BBC to
demonstrate a
UK-USA
datalink live on
TV; selected by
Cable &
Wireless/
Western Union
for their
Easylink Telex
Service; taken
round the world on Operation Raleigh; in action
for CBS News, sending front-line war reports
around the world.
WS2000 is the modem used by people who
need reliable data communications today — and
every day.
WS2000, with BT telephone lead, mains
power supply and comprehensive operating
manual costs only £129.95 exe. (£154.73 inc.
VAT & UK delivery) — you may also need a computer lead
(£10.35 inc.) — specify computer when ordering.
A small price to pay for survival.
it’s
JO0FULL
Order by cheque/Visa/Access/ Trade or
official order to:
it Miracle Technology (UK) Ltd,
St Peters Street, Ipswich IP1 1XB.
(© 0473 50304 [4] 946240 cweasy G 19002985
4 MIRACLE
TECHNOLOGY
we thought of tomorrow, yesterday.
®@ Circle No. 123
63
NO TEETHING
TROUBLE.
“eo
©
>>,
eo.
© NE
<
4
}
i
NO GROWING
Most accounting programs fall between two
stools- too complex for the fledgeling
business, too basic for the growing concern.
But not Sage.
Our new, improved family of compatible
computer programs will take your brainchild
through from first steps to full maturity.
You can cut your teeth on a system that’s
simple to learn and ‘use, then upgrade easily
as you grow bigger and stronger.
It’s the most up-to-date accounting program
on the market- the result of extensive
research and improvement, embodying three
years of customer feedback.
We’ve made computer operation even
easier and incorporated colourful
“ graphic displays, yet each
: : ‘program still uses only one disk!
y It’s Sage ingenuity at its best.
At a price that won’t stunt
yy your growth!
and my nearest dealer
i
s
«
*
\. ie
Please send me more details of Sage ae eer
_ Position:
PAINS.
SAGE BOOKKEEPER £295 + VAT
The computer program which keeps books for
small businesses and cash traders. Start here
and grow with SAGE.
SAGE ACCOUNTANT £495 + VAT
A full feature bookkeeping/accounting system
to put you in full control of your business.
SAGE ACCOUNTANT PLUS £695 + VAT
The next step up from the Accountant, for
the small to medium size business with an
above average invoice output.
SAGE FINANCIAL CONTROLLER* £995 + VAT
Top of the Sage range of computer accounting
programs. Bring the full power of a hard disk
computer to bear on your business.
SAGE PAYROLL £195 +.VAT
A full-feature payroll/personnel system which
will completely automate the payroll function
for companies of all sizes.
8 lh ——
= , 4 ps Company:
= = — ay) je Address:.___
Tel:
Sagesoft plc., NEI House, Regent Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3DS
Tel: 091 284 7077. Telex: 53623 SAGESL G.
BETTER SAGE THANSORRY_
@ Circle No. 124
|
|
- | Type of Computer:
|
|
|
|
as,
. =|
a
|
|
6S
MBREVIEW
VIENNA PC
WH
By Glyn Moody
TER THAN WHITE?
Designed as part of an integrated office automation system, this stylish 80186-based
micro with superb graphics can function equally well as a stand-alone machine.
SPECIFICATION
CPU: 80186 running at 8MHz; a second |
80186 is dedicated to graphics handling
RAM: 256K as standard, expandable
up to 768K
ROM: 16K self-test and bootstrap
Dimensions: main unit box 13.7in.
(350mm.) wide by 16.5in. (420mm.)
deep by 8.5in. (216mm.) high
VDU: 15in. white phosphor, 80 columns
by 27 lines, nine by 13 pixels character
matrix; overall resolution 800 by 420
pixels; refresh rate 71Hz
Keyboard: full QWERTY with numeric
keypad, 10 function keys, cursor keys,
IBM 3270 terminal-emulation keys
Mass storage: 1.2Mbyte floppies,
10Mbyte or 20Mbyte Winchester
Hardware options: optical mouse,
ink-jet, dot-matrix or daisywheel printers
interfaces: two RS-232s, with optional
further two
Software in price: none
Software options: MS-DOS 2.11,
Gem, Level II Cobol, MSBasic,
GWBasic, Vienna family of software
including word, diary, plan, chart and
paint options
Price: double floppy, 256K RAM
£3,100; 10Mbyte Winchester £3,760;
20Mbyte Winchester £4,563; VDU and
keyboard £446; MS-DOS about £58,
Gem and optical mouse about £300
Manufacturer: Northern Telecom
Data Systems Ltd, Maylands Avenue,
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP2
7LD. Telephone: (0442) 41141
The screen phosphor has been chosen to
be as easy on the eye as possible so that
prolonged use is less stressful.
66
ptfoduct from the international tele-
communications company Northern
Telecom. Conceived principally as part of
the Vienna Office, a complete medium-size
integrated office-automation system, the
Vienna PC can nonetheless function as a
stand-alone 80186-based MS-DOS micro. It
is notable chiefly for the fast high-resolution
graphics capabilities of its white phosphor
T:: Vienna PC is a stylish premium
screen. The cost for a system with 256K
RAM and a 20Mbyte Winchester is about
£5,000.
The Vienna Office represents a major
assault on the European market by Northern
Telecom, which ts the second-largest
manufacturer of telecommunications
equipment in North America, with total
revenues of $4.4 billion in 1984, and 47,000
employees worldwide. The Vienna system,
including the PC, has been designed
specifically for the European market, and
initially is only being sold there.
Apart from its name and the various
national keyboards and character sets
available, the European slant is also-evident
in the concern for neat good looks, and in
fact it won the European 1984 Ergodesign
Award. The overall look of the three-piece
setup is smart, and only marginally spoilt by
the bulk of the main system box.
At the front of the main unit is the on/off
switch and disc drive. The model reviewed
here had one 1.2Mbyte floppy and a
20Mbyte Winchester. There are also dual-
floppy versions and a 10Mbyte hard-disc
model. Apart from the cable which goes to
the power supply on the right-hand side
next to the fan, the rear panel sports only a
couple of RS-232 sockets and the main
cabling for the terminal.
The terminal port occupies one of five
expansion slots. Options available include
extra RAM cards, taking the basic 256K up
to amaximum of 768K, and two more serial
ports. No parallel ports for printers are
offered since Northern Telecom tends to sell
its own varieties of serial printers, which can
handle the full range of international
character sets. For example, it sells an ink-jet
printer from Siemens for about £600. There
is no Reset button, which can be
inconvenient.
The keyboard plugs into the VDU rather
than the main systems box. It is ultra-thin,
with keys that are nicely sprung but which
may rock slightly too much for some. The
keyboard layout is generous to a fault. In
addition to standard QWERTY keys,
numeric keypad and 10 function keys, there
is also a facility for emulating an IBM 3270
terminal. To this end there are extra
markings inscribed on the sides of many keys
as well as additional keys. There are
extensive soft-key definition facilities.
PAPER-WHITE SCREEN
Perhaps the chief point of interest of the
new system, and certainly its chief glory, is
the screen and graphics facilities. Northern
Telecom has made efforts to procure a very
high-quality display unit suitable for
intensive office work, the visual properties of
which match those of paper as closely as
possible. The unit chosen has a white
phosphor of a creaminess which makes even
the Mac’s white screen look garish. Easiness
on the eye is enhanced by the 71Hz refresh
rate for the screen, which makes for a rock-
steady picture. The overall resolution is an
impressive 800 by 420 pixels, with a nine by
13 matrix for alphanumeric characters. To
| save power and the precious phosphor, the
j screen automatically goes blank after several
minutes’ non-use. Pressing the Shift key
reactivates it.
ne
BENCHMARKS
MBREVIEW
The figures below show the time in seconds taken to run the standard Basic Benchmarks
— see the January 1984 issue of Practical Computing for details. The Vienna emerges as a
respectably fast machine, marginally slower than the RML Nimbus, also an 80186 MS-
DOS machine, and even closer to the IBM PC/AT.
BM1
0:6 2:2
0.5 1.6
0.5 1.8
0.5 1.9
Vienna — 80186
Sprite — 80286
Nimbus — 80186
IBM PC/AT — 80286
Wisely, Northern Telecom has capitalised
on this high performance by allocating a
second 80186 purely for screen graphics
handling. The results are impressive, and
nowhere is this more apparent than in the
implementation of Digital Research’s Gem.
This is available for about £300, which
includes the cost of an optical mouse. Like
the keyboard, the mouse plugs into the base
of the VDU.
OPTICAL TRACKING
Instead of using the trackerball principle
of measuring the movement of the mouse by
detecting how much a small ball in the base
has rolled, the optical mouse employs a
reflective sheet to work out the change in
position. On the plus side, problems of dirt
and slipping are avoided, but you are
restricted in movement to the mirror pad,
which may be useful on a crowded desk.
Gem is discussed in greater detail on page
50 of this issue. Whatever your feelings on
the wisdom or otherwise of this approach,
there is no denying that on the Vienna it
looks very plausible. In particular, Gem
graphics features, such as zooming, show
Northern Telecom's micro to tremendous
advantage. The images are drawn very fast,
with excellent Infill routines and clean
curved edges.
As a part of the Vienna Office, the Vienna
PC is able to run most of the constituent
application packages. These include al! the
usual options like word processing, spread-
sheets, graphing and databases. Function-
ing as async terminals, Vienna PCs can also
communicate with the Vienna Office central
controller. Eventually it will be able to com-
municate via Ethernet and Cheapemet.
not included in the price of the hardware,
opens up access to the large number of
programs written to run under the operating
system. Although the Vienna PC is not an
IBM compatible, Northern Telecom claims
it is possible to swap some data discs
between them.
Northern Telecom has recognised that
there is at least one PC-DOS product that
many Vienna PC users could well want to
use: Lotus 1-2-3. Therefore, it has adapted
the program so that the low-resolution
colour graphics will work on the Vienna’s
high-resolution monochrome monitor.
There is a uniform set of manuals for each
of the component parts of the system. The
user manual for the Vienna PC itself is well
produced and comes complete with tasteful
illustrations of Viennese sights but, regret-
BM2 BM3 BM4 BM5 BM6
BM7 BM8&
15.6 16.6
16 93
13.2. 13
14.6 13.5
4.8
3.5
3.9
4.6
5.0
3.5
4.0
4.7
5-2) N00)
4.2 7.8
46 8.5
5.2 Al
tably, without an index. If it seems rather
thin, this reflects Northern Telecom’s desire
to keep the user firmly outside the systems
box. Even taking the cover off is awkward
and for this review we decided not to viol-
ate the delicately textured paintwork.
Installation procedures are normally carried
out by an engineer from the company.
This whole approach reflects the fact that
the Vienna PC is conceived of as very much
an integral part of the whole office-
automation strategy of Northern Telecom.
That said, the PC exists in its own right as a
serious and viable business system. Its
overall design, its speed, and above all
its superb graphics facilities are strong
recommendations for it.
iH
&
%. 2 & £
‘OMe >; CO
& ¢ & F
Performance BM caer | |
Ease of use a= oe ial
Documentation [] $B OF 0
Valueformoney [] [1 § OF
OThe Vienna PC is an up-market MS-
DOS machine with an up-market price
tag. The graphics on its white phosphor
display are superlative.
CONCLUSIONS
The Vienna PC is stylish up-market MS-DOS :
micro, originally designed as part of a larger
ae system but quite able to stand on its own
eet.
ithe high-resolution white screen is one of
the best we have ever reviewed. It could well
overcome the continuing reluctance on some
people’s part to come to terms with the
dreaded VDU.
WAs befits such a classy system, the price is not
cheap at around £4,000. Similarly, the size of
the system box means that it is no retiring
wallflower.
Although it lacks IBM compatibility, the
Vienna PC is well enough served by MS-DOS
programs and the packages which form the
Vienna Office. Provided you are content with
functional rather than fancy software, being
locked out of the IBM-clone world should
prove no desperate problem.
Anyone impressed by the Mac approach to
micro life but wishing to remain within the MS-
DOS fold may well find the fast and effective
implementation of Gem very tempting on the
Vienna.
MMinor grouses include the closed box
approach and the lack of a Reset button.
67
BUSOFTWARE REVIEW
WORD PERFECT 4.0
THE ALL-ROUNDER
By Susan Curran
This word processor.for the
IBM PC and compatibles is
good enough to challenge
WordStar as the standard
general-purpose package.
otd Perfect is one of the many
U.S.-produced word processors
for the IBM PC and compatibles.
This review is of version 4.0, which I tested
on an IBM PC/XT with 256K of RAM. On
most compatibles, the program will work
with a minimum of 192K. It requires two
disc drives and will handle colour if you have
a colour monitor.
This is a general-purpose word processor,
with a great deal of power and a cortes-
pondingly high price tag. The normal cost is
£425, though it may still be available
through lower-priced launch offers. The
producer, Satellite Software International, is
also offering a special trade-in price of £250
for those who have a copy of various other
well-rated IBM word-processing packages,
including WordStar, Multimate and Samna
Word.
The version which I reviewed was not
anglicised. However, as we go to press SSI
has released the U.K. spelling dictionary,
along with a database and spreadsheet pack-
age which link to Word Perfect.
Word Perfect is a clean screen word pro-
cessor: it comes straight up with an editing
scfeen, which includes nothing but a brief
note of the document number, page, line
and cursor column position. It is possible to
swap between documents 1 and 2, but not to
window both at once. There is no ruler
marking tabs and margins, and there are no
on-screen control codes — not even for hard
Returns. As far as possible, text is laid out
on-screen exactly as it will be printed. Line
spacing is echoed correctly on-screen,
though justification is not reproduced.
SPECIAL CODES FOR
FORMATTING FEATURES
Almost all the formatting features are
handled by special codes. The: Tab key
produces a special Tab code, for example,
rather than a row of spaces; the Indent key
an Indent code. These codes are incor-
porated into the document, and have an
effect upon its format either immediately, or
when it is printed. The effect of many of the
codes, including header and footer codes,
Page positioning and page numbering, is
not obvious on-screen. In order to revise
such features it is necessary to inspect the
codes, and delete them if necessary before
entering new ones, on a special Reveal Codes
screen.
This should not be confused with the sort
of toggled Codes On/Codes Off arrange-
ment that programs such as WordStar
employ. The Reveal Codes mode is cumber-
some in the extreme, and cannot be used for
normal editing. Only a few lines are dis-
played at once, with the text often dwarfed
by a mass of lengthy narrative code des-
criptions. The cursor can be moved, but
haltingly, and with much screen flicker. It is
not possible to insert text or carry out other
commands in this mode, only to delete.
Almost all commands in the program are
handled via the function keys. The 10 keys
WORD PERFECT 4.0
KHVERDICT
XK
©)
: & &
go €
é
L
Performance
O
O
Documentation O
Ease of use
Value for money:
Dlf | were using Samna Word or
WordStar on a PC, I’d be inclined to
make the swap to Word Perfect.
are each given four different functions, used
alone and with Shift, Control and Alt. A
four-colour template is provided with the
program, which explains as clearly as is
possible which combination does which. All
the same, I do not like this arrangement. It is
inevitably confusing when, for example, f7
is used for Exit, Print, Math/Column mode
select, and Footnote select. Fortunately,
there is a Cancel key which enables you to
undo the effect of mistakenly chosen selec-
tions. There is also an Undelete buffer.
These provisions ensure that with familiarity
the program operation is not as horrendous
as it appears at first sight.
Like so many IBM word processors, Word
Perfect does not automatically reformat text
on-screen when amendments are made to it.
It is possible to reformat either by giving a
Rewrite command, or by scrolling the cursor
line by line down the text. Reformatting in
either case is moderately fast, but tends to be
a little hit-and-miss. If lines are shortened
by deletions, sufficient words are not always
brought up from the next line to straighten
the right-hand margin, and it is necessary to
fiddle around deleting spaces in order to
format adequately. I also found discon-
certing the program’s tendency to keep re-
formatting while blocks are being defined.
There is no way of switching off the re-
formatting during this type of operation.
One other formatting failing is the
tendency of Word Perfect to leave occasional
spaces at the start of lines in mid-paragraph,
producing a jumpy left-hand margin.
Again, it is possible to edit them out, but
they should not be there in the first place.
The program scrolls very smoothly in all
directions, and the cursor commands are
clear and effective, though not as copious as
in some programs. Word Perfect shows page
breaks on-screen, but it is not particularly
page-orientated, and text can be moved
acfoss pages at will. Page breaks are adjusted
dynamically as editing progresses.
The program defaults to right justifica-
tion, which is not echoed on-screen, and toa
very energetic hyphenation routine, which
perpetually requests hyphenation decisions,
not all of them sensible. I was relieved to
find that these and other defaults can be
altered in the setup program. The hyphen-
ation zone can be abolished or set to dif-
ferent widths. Word Perfect defaults to a
push-forward Insert mode, but it is possible
to toggle between this and an Overwrite
mode. Among other defaults which can be
selected are widow/orphan protection to
keep patagraphs.neat, underline style, and
page number position.
It is difficult to think of any command
that is missing, or that is not handled well.
There are all the usual block moves, copies
‘SPECIFICATION
Description: word-processing package
with built-in mail merge, indexing and
spelling checker
Hardware required: |BM PC with at
least 192K of RAM — graphics card is
optional; also available for various MS-
DOS machines including the ACT Apricot,
and some brands of local area network
Publisher: Satellite Software
International Inc., Orem, Utah, U.S.A.
Price: £425 plus VAT; £250 when
traded for existing word processors
U.K. supplier: Sentinel Software Ltd,
Wellington House, New Zealand
Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12
12PY. Telephone: (0932) 231164.
Available now
68
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
This is Word Perfect's
newspaper-style columns
feature. It is possible to
define up to five text columns
across’ the page, and the
program helps in calculating
suitable spacing for evenly or
unevenly sized columns. Here,
I am using two even columns
it is also possible
automatically from
subheadings.
This
editing.
text.
marqin
the edit) still
fections can be dealt
lengthy passages. ‘The’
xanple of what I mean.
tion zane‘
entry,
@ Multi-column printing: up to five columns are possible.
TH This is an automatically-numbered outline.
II. It provides for up to seven levels of
A. indentation, and the entire
B. outline can be revised and
cr renumbered again and again.
III. Though this outline is
generated directly on the keyboard,
to produce
documents
@ Flexible formatting outlines can be generated automatically or from the keyboard.
is how Word Ferfect text looks after light
I have made several insertions into this
paragraph in order to show the failings I mention in the
You can see that there is an occasional ragged-
ness to be seen in the left margin,
(though the text has been reformatted after
misses some short words that would have
fitted from previous sentences.
with manually (through deletions
and insertions) they are an annoyance when editing
a few lines above is an
For this sample I have switched on the
with its default size.
tion excessive during my normal work,
the program omits hyphenation in its default settings.
ime program asks for hyphenation decisions during text
as well as in subsequent reformats.
S$12€ can be varied to suit individual requirements.
with a three-character spacing
in between, and justification
to even up the effect. Column 2
appears on screen beneath
column 1, but on paper
the two will of course print
out side by side. It is easy
to move text from column to
column following edits.
tables of
contain
contents
which numbered
and that the right
Though these imper—
“hyphena-—
I find the hyphena-
50 my version of
The zone
and deletes, and no annoying restrictions on
their use. Search and replace has many
options, and works efficiently. There is a
handy Indent command, which will indent
either or both margins. Tab and margin
changes are easily handled, and ‘there is a
Binding Width command allowing for alter-
nate left and right wide margins. There are
headers and footers — up to three of each,
which will work on an odd/even basis — a
footnote or endnote system, provision for
producing tables of contents, a newspaper-
style columns feature, and a maths mode
which will handle simple calculations.
It is a pleasure to find a program with a
simple to use macro feature. Macros can be
used to automatically call up often-used
words, saving repetitive typing. For
instance, I used Alt-W as a macro name for
Word Perfect, in writing this review. More
complex macros can include command
sequences, and could, for example, stream-
line an elaborate form-letter operation. All
macro definitions are automatically stored
on disc.
File handling is sensible, and there is a
neat List Files menu from which it is possible
to edit, delete, rename or prepate outside
files for editing using Word Perfect. The
program will automatically back up files
during editing sessions,.and you can select
the backup interval for yourself.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
© Edited text sometimes ends up looking decidedly ragged.
The merge feature seems easy to use,
though I did not attempt to push it to its
limits. Text can be retrieved from a
secondary record file, or entered from the
keyboard. Fields in the secondary merge file
can be used in the primary document in any
order. Merged documents can be saved in
their merged form, or printed straight out.
It is not possible to select or sort records for
merging without using the additional data-
base package, which I did not test.
PRINT TIME
The program is very good on printer
support, and its printer section can be edited
to cater for special needs. It will queue files
for background printing, and there is full
support for queue handling. It is possible to
print blocks, pages or full documents
without first saving them. Special printer
commands, such as Escape sequences, can be
sent to the printer from within the program.
The spelling checker works fast and effi-
ciently, and all checking is done in context.
The program claims to have a 100,000-word
dictionary, but it seemed to offer a lot of
common words for confirmation, not all of
them obviously because the version I used
was unanglicised. It is possible to add to the
dictionary, edit it, or create subsidiary dic-
tionaries. There is a wild-card lookup, to
enable you to check the spelling of words
BBSOFTWARE REVIEW
when typing them. It is only possible to
obtain a word count as a side-effect of a
spelling check.
My only major difficulty with the various
commands came with the page formatting.
Endless attempts failed to position the text
properly on the paper in my FX-80, and I]
sometimes could not induce the Top Margin
command to work properly, or the con-
ditional End of Page command. As the
program ‘seemed so reliable otherwise, I
blame this on my own blindness to some
special requirement.
DOCUMENTATION
It seems to be obligatory now for word
processors to have fat manuals. Word
Perfect’s is at least well arranged, and the
reference section is cut down to a well-filled
112 pages. The tutorial section is much more
expansive, and I found it to be a. little
exasperating. It takes you key press by key
press through a fairly random selection of
program features, with the emphasis on rote
following rather than comprehension. How-
ever, I did not find the program difficult to
learn.
There are special training-orientated
manual sections to cover the more complex
features of the program, including the
merge facility and the maths feature. The
help features on disc ate comprehensive and
context-sensitive.
The program comes on unprotected discs,
unless you buy the special educational
version. I had no difficulty in installing it on
my computer, or in adapting the defaults. I
have used it almost full-time for a month,
and cafried out some very heavy editing of
long — up to 20 pages, single spaced —
documents on it. In that time, I have not
succeeded in hanging the program, or losing
more than a couple of words of text uninten-
tionally. In my opinion, it does a very good
job of sustaining reliability without hedging
users atound with too many festrictions and
confirmations of commands.
CONCLUSIONS
On first acquaintance, | found Word Perfect
a rather unattroctive program, with confusing
key assignments and appalling, clumsy code
hondling. With experience these prove to be
less of a drawback.
MThe formatting imperfections are ex-
asperating. Otherwise the program is
extremely usable, very reliable and very
powerful.
MAt £425 plus VAT it is expensive, ond its lock
of U.K. support is a foiling.
Overall, | have not seen a better all-round
PC word processor.
69
BR SOFTWARE REVIEW
MAC MUSIC
PROGRAMS OF NOTE
By Glyn Moody
Two music packages which
apply the Macintosh’s
visual interface to good
effect.
riting music on present-day
mit os ts a laborious process.
Either you have to specify each
note as a pitch aid a duration, «ir else there is
some complicated system uling a fecon-
figured compuler keyboard. Furthermore,
imitations in the character sets available
mean that, at the end of the day, the results
ate crude and of little practical use to a
musician. What is needed is a high-
resolution system that can cope with the very
special ¢haractets and layout lygic of notes
and staves, anid which also ‘has a way of
placing notes on sia that is natural to
the user.
The Mac is an obv’ ‘us contender. To start
with, its graphics+based 1con system parallels
the representation of music by an array of
functional symbols. Equally, the mouse is
ideal for placing notes on staves. To harness
these-capabilities for music processing, all
that is needed ts softwate that handles the
logic of note groupings, key sip haturé time
signatures and so on «
TRUE MUSIC PROCESSOR
Professional ©omposer is a package
offering just such facilities. It has been
written by Mark of the |’nicotn Inc. for the
Fat Mag It shold be emphasised that this is
not justanother music synthesiser package,
though, it does have limited playback
facilities. It is a true music processut which
allows you to eniter and manipulat= musical
notation as easily as spreadsheets an word
‘processors handle numbers and words.
Professional Composer cani cope with up
ws fourigingle staves, adouble pian stave, or
® single stave combined with @ piano stave.
Asa default, single staves bear a treble «lef;
you can change a clef by pulling down the
Symbols menu. Selecting Clefs causes a
palette bar to appear on the left-hand side of
the scgeen on which can be found altér-
arivelke bass, tenor, afto and unp*tched
percussion clefs{
Time and key signatures are called up
from the Basics menu, which is pulled down
in the same ‘way. ‘On selecting them,
windows appeat:which allow standard time
signatutes to be’chosen, of more unusual
ones to be €@ntefed by. hand. Another
window 4/lows you to scroll through the keys
— both major and relative minor — and
select the appropriate key signature.
The method of entering notes is similarly
mouse-orientated. A small cursor ts moved
around the stave and clicked to select a
particular pitch. Notes of various duration
can be placed at this pitch by pulling down a
Symbols menu, and selecting Notes. This
causes a palette bar to appear on the left-
hand side of the screen on which can be
found the musical symbols for notes ranging
in duration from a breve to a hemidemi-
semiquaver. Accidentals including double
sharps and double flats are also obtained
from here.
Other palette bars allow rests, dynamics,
ornaments and articulations to be added in
precisely the same way. Ornaments and
dynamics appear over and under the notes
respectively.
In addition to this visual, two-stroke
system of entering notes, it is also possible to
speed up the process by using the mouse in
conjunction with the keyboard. Pitches are
still chosen using the on-screen cursor, but
note-durations are determined by the key
which is depressed at the same time: D is
a crotchet and C a quaver, for example.
Holding down the Shift key as well gives you
fests instead.
A line of music can be built up relatively
easily and quickly. Errors can be corrected by
placing the cursor to the right of the
offending note and pressing the Backspace.
One problem with this is that deleting a
whole string of notes requires you to move
the cursor several times, unlike word pro-
cessing where Backspace/Delete moves the
cursor back for you.
| SPECIFICATION
Description: A music processor which
allows you to enter and edit music on a
conventional stave, play it back and gen-
erate high-quality printed output
Hardware required: 512K Apple
Macintosh
Price: £429 plus VAT
U.K. distribution: P&P Micro
distributors Ltd. Telephone: (0706)
217744
Description: Synthesiser with printout
facilities
Hardware: 128K Apple Macintosh
Price: £68.30 plus VAT
U.K. distribution: Softsel Computer
Products Ltd. Telephone: 01-844 2040 |
PROFESSIONAL COMPOSER
Postantianta Oo
Ease of use fe)
=)
Documentation
Value formoneyy MH | a
| ] A genuine innovation that could do
for composers what the word processor
has done for authors — if only it were
cheaper.
As well as the host speed and metronome
markings brought in from the Basics menu,
it ts possible to place text in a variety of styles
on the staves. This allows expression marks
and lyrics to be added.
The Edit menu allows you to cut and paste
or copy and paste just as with text systems.
Sections are first selected by dragging the
cursor over them. Transpositions by key or
by interval are available from the Variations
menu. Music can be saved at any time with a
single mouse operation.
INTELLIGENT ATTEMPTS
Chords can be built up on each stave, but
it is not possible to have simultaneous notes
of different duration in a chord on the same
stave. The program is sufficiently intelligent
to space out notes in an attempt to align
main beats. Initially no check is made as to
whether there are too many or too few notes
in a bat, though an option on the Extras
menu will carry one out. Bar lines must be
entered by hand.
On their own the features mentioned so
far would produce output that was func-
tional, but hardly exceptional or indeed
practical for the performer. Professional
Composer does, however, have many more
refining features that enable music entries to
be brought to printed music quality.
Most of the more advanced features are
called up from the Groupings menu. As its
name suggests, this is primarily concerned
with functions of groups of notes. For
example, the raw input of notes results in a
rather ragged row of separate heads and
tails. By selecting a group and then using the
Beam option from Groupings, the tails of
notes ate neatly joined up. Triplets and n-
tuplets can be specified if required; you can
mark five notes to be played in the time of
(continued on page 72)
FRACTICA AAPL TTA pB5
BB SOFTWARE REVIEW
PROFESSIONAL COMPOSER
€ File Edit EERTem Symbols Variations Extras Groupings
€ File Edit Basics Symbols Variations ExtrasMQenmure |
AAAS aft... ———s : test} “Beam eB E
| Beiete Staff bj Tripiet i]
Exareet Staves... [| Tupiet...
Key Signatures... Sa os
J ie
adie ao : Crescendo
Metronome Marking... Ds Secrescendo bs
lastruments... ‘YEA Stems Up #U
FYEA
LAL
Measure Numbers... 6 Stems Down XD
is 1 8va/sub
ano > [al 15va/15ub
db, sfz) A | Bs Ending...
ft F)ikees| 1 | Roti
18 [—T rH Bracket *
I iL. nq Grace Note .
Te
a
}
| ~ f
; ce om el
a4 x ——, Sa ah RePE. anton
Prvfesiona c Compdter alge you to b Mieet aribigl notes ‘iii Ate a group of notes has been sdlectbde the Beam
signs from palette bars called up from the Symbols command on the Groupings menu joins them up. é
menu. The Basics menu handles keys, tempo and metres. Similarly, slurs, ties and crescendos can be formed.
i
& File Edit Basics Symbols Variations Extras Groupings & File Edit Basics Symbols Variations Mageagm Groupings
_—————— Fugue in C Minor = =| = test3 Titie Page... a
Show Grid
eI igls ra
o| ne iss |}
iff *
img |
Rehearsal Mark
Go to Rehearsal Mark...
Go to Measure...
Insert Tex!
| Tent Style...
Show Names
| Hide Margin
Check Rhythm
Check Range
{+ [9 sfz| A
| * 4 K) bre
a
fi a
: ) ce See : Ee
Prvesionat Composer’s version of Bach’s fugue in C minor e Extras pull-down menu Hien text to be ae and
from The Well-cempered Clavier. The beams of note rehearsal marks set up. You move within the score by using
groups have been joined using the Groupings menu. the scroll bars at the bottom of the screen.
é
© File Edit Options ‘Windqws instruments Bariations
~ Panel
File Edit Options Windows Instruments Variations
Panel
aaa rh
Fa Hey [C} Sie Gao
Tempo uamme
[PLAY] Gia (REPEAT | Ria Eipc
AS, i a CS FATT TS) gigs gio
Tempo Volume
aligue in ( Min. Staff
Fue in c Min. Staff
lle l=[=[ NNN JID) Sd) [¢]h |) om OOOc
7 mat ROBE C0 toeres coe |
Fugue in C Min. Grid
Cio) sCA) =a =e) =
dis same Bach piece produced by Music Works. The tempo AS an alternative to conventional musical notation, it is
and volume can be altered using the cursor by sliding them
possible to use a piano keyboard to place notes by daubing
along. The musical Overview is in the top left-hand corner. them on a grid. Different voices use different shadings.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
71
BB SOFTWARE REVIEW
(continued from previous page)
four, and so on. Other features available
from the Groupings menu include cresc-
endos, 8va/8vb, rolls and slurs.
It, is details of this kind that make Pro-
fessional Composer such a considerable
advance. They allow you to cope with most
types of music likely to be encountered in
the ordinary run of things, though some of
the more adventurous experiments of con-
temporaty music are beyond the program’s
capabilities. Another limitation is that only
a maximum of four staves can be used.
Within those limitations, the quality of the
final printed output is excellent, and
certainly good enough to be played from.
Both full scores and parts can be produced.
In combination with, say, a laser printer it is
probably good enough to use as commercial
artwork.
Before initiating the printing process you
may invoke a Preview facility. This allows
you to view on-screen a reduced image of the
page as it will appear on the printer.
Although Professional Composer is not
intended as a synthethtiser, is does have a
very useful though limited playback feature.
It is not possible to change the speed or the
timbre, nor does the playthrough pay any
‘attention to markings on the score. But it
does provide a very simple and quick aural
check on the r’otes you are feeding in. In
piarticular, it is Very easy — and enjoyable —
just to throw in a few notes, see what they
sound dike, and then edit them as required.
To this extent, Professional Composer opens
up whole new ‘vistas in § omposition.
As befits a top-notch product, the manual
is exccHent. Atte! a short introduction —
enough to get. you up and playing — with
plenty of screen dumps and, white space,
there is a comprehensive run-through of the
tacilities. xA short reference’ ‘guide to the
various menus follows, then}a glossary and
list of symbols} used, and their meaning.
There is a good tfidex. :
BEYOND THE REACH
OF MOST MUSICIANS
The main problem with the whole pack-
age 1s the price; £429 plus VAT is quite
unrealistic. Ne’ composer short of! ndrew
Lloyd’ Webber is going to be able to afford
both a 512K Mac and this program. Music,
copyists, for whom potentially jt also
fepresents a breakthrough, will find icjway
beyond their means jit is probably \only
viable for music publishers and fat cats on
the rock and commeric#! music scene. None-
theless, Professional Composer gives a
glimpse of fedtures which the next gen-
eration; of music proctskors cbuld we ltoffer
for a-more affordablerprice.
In comparison, the price of Musx. Works .
from Hayden Softwate is something to sing
about: £68.30 plus VAT. But it should be
said at the outset that not only is it not in the
same class as Professional Composer it i§ not
strictly speaking competing. hoe
Music Works does offer extcnsiwe facilities
for entering music, but it is geared much
morejto making thé :Mac int» a easy-to-use!
synthesiser. As a rough indica ion, it can be
said that Music Works produces output at
about the first level of Professional
Composer — that is, without the subtleties
of note groupings and so on. Music Works
does, however, offer some interesting
additional features.
The main screen for note entry has two
staves, with fixed treble and bass clefs; up to
four voices can be added, all of which are
displayed on the two staves. As on Pro-
fessional Composer, 2 mouse-driven cursor
is used to place a note on the stave and to
select the duration from a small palette bar.
One refinement over the other package is
that the cursor rather neatly turns into the
symbol selected. Notes are removed from
the stave by selecting the Eraser symbol,
which in practice is more exact than
the backspace technique of Professional
Composer.
The range of symbols is more restricted:
the longest note is a semibreve and the
Performance
Ease of use O
Documentation (J
Value for money | Oo Te
A cheap way of turning the Mac into
an easy-to-use synthesiser.
shortest a semiquaver. There are no double
sharps or flats. In some other respects,
though, Music Works is more sophisticated.
For example, after you have chosen a time
signature from the Windows menu, any
notes you enter are automatically apport-
ioned within bar lines, taking account of any
notes already present. Similarly, bars are
filled out with rests where necessary. One
problem is that no matter where the other
notes in the bar are positioned, rests tend to
float upwards, which can make for a slightly
confusing layout.
Music Works also caters for those who
cannot read or write music. From the
Windows menu, selecting Grid causes a
small piano keyboard to appear at the left of
the screen. Notes are then entered by
daubing small blobs opposite the relevant
position on the keyboard. Durations are
determined by the length of the blob, and
the grid is used to set the temporal position
in the bar. The vertical and horizontal scroll
bats are used to move to different parts of
the keyboard or grid. An indication is given
of the current octave and note.
As with Professional Composer, thete is a
fange of cut, copy and paste facilities for
speeding entry of music. It is also possible to
transpose sections. One innovative feature is
the window dubbed Overview. Using dots
and lines it present a scaled-down version of
your score, giving you an interestingly global
view of a piece. Compositions are limited to
1,024 crotchet beats, that is 64 bars of 4/4
time or 128 of 2/4, which precludes the
possibility of setting up longer pieces on
Music Works.
Music Works comes into its own as a music
synthesiser. In playback, you can alter the
loudness and speed. If you are really
enamoured of your masterpiece you can loop
it indefinitely. As the score is played, a
vertical line moves across the Overview
window as an indication of relative position.
Double-clicking the Overview window
during playback causes the relevant bar to
appear in the main stave.
It is also possible to assign a number of
instruments to voices. These show up on the
grid version of the music by small letters that
appear within the heads of the blobs them-
selves. The range is rather limited: a piano,
organ, trumpet, chime and kazoo. Changes
can be made to the sound envelopes using
the Variations menu.
More interesting is the possibility of
setting up two synthesisets. The first starts
from a basic sine wave, and the second from
a square wave. Using the cursor it is possible
to modify these on the screen to produce
weird and wonderful waveforms which can
be tried out and modified if necessary in
another effective application of the Mac’s
visual approach.
A GOOD FIRST STEP
FOR NOVICES
All in all, Music Works is well suited to
anyone who wants to experiment with music
on their Mac. It would also form quite a
useful introduction to the whole world of
musical notation for someone with little or
No previous experience.
Instead of the grand ring-bound manual
of Professional Composer, there is a useful
down-to-earth stapled booklet which
includes a quick run-through of basic
musical terms and ideas. There are also
numerous examples included on the disc,
which should provide food and background
music for thought.
CONCLUSIONS
@ Professional Composer offers a simple and
effective way of entering and editing music. Its
range of facilities allow both full scores and
parts to be printed out to high quality.
WMusic Works uses similar techniques to turn
the Mac into a limited but eminently usable
synthesiser. There is also a printout feature.
@ Professional Composer is overpriced for its
likely end-market of musicians. Later products
of this type will probably be progressively
cheaper.
M@By contrast, Music Works seems very
reasonably priced at just under £80 including
VAT.
Limitations of Professional Composer
include only allowing a maximum of four
staves, and restrictions on how chords can be
built up.
BMusic Works is also limited to four voices,
which correspond to the four internal voices of
the Mac.
MThe manual accompanying Professional
Composer is superlative. That for Music Works
is workmanlike and quite adequate.
2
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
How much persuasion do you need
(o buy a world beating business computer:
1 Years Free Maintenance
In the unlikely event of your Sprite breaking
down, our free maintenance contract
guarantees an engineer at your site within
24 hours.
Based on Proven Technology
Sprite has been developed by Jarogate, a
leading force in the specialist computer
market. Clients include: Marconi, Duracell,
Vauxhall and other leading names.
Companies not easily persuaded.
Excellence at an Ordinary Price
Starting at £4,995 Sprite costs no more than
its rather ordinary rivals, it's just technically
far superior. Wee confident that a
demonstration will provide all the
persuasion you need to make the right
decision. Compare Sprites performance,
price and support package with anything
else. Then decide. For further details return
the coupon now, or telephone: 01 67] 6321.
New 80286 Super Micro with
Massive Memory and
Networking as Standard
Incorporating Intel§ new IAPX 286 high
performance chip, up to 6 Megabytes of main
memory, 256K of disk cache buffering, multi-
user and Ethernet networking facilities as
standard — Sprite is a fully developed business
machine packed with state of the art
technology.
CCP/M86 and IBM PC AT
Compatible
Sprite was designed specifically to support
concurrent and multi-user processing. The
next generation of increasingly sophisticated,
faster, more productive software packages
will demand more computer memory and
processing power. Sprite will run these new
programmes effortlessly, under concurrent
CP/M86 with PC mode or Xenix for IBM PC
AT compatibility.
ts
ey
I'd like to know more about Sprite: (tick as appropriate) |
Please arrange a demonstrationO Please send me more information O
| Please send me your dealer pack 0
eg es
Address
[
ompanyae es ee
!
Tel:
Return to Jarogate Ltd., 197-213 Lyham Road, Brixton, London.SW2 5PY.
Tel: 01 671 6321 Telex: 8950094
All software products described are covered by trademarks of the companies of origin.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985 ®@ Circle No. 156 73
74
HOW CAN you tell if a computer hotline is hot or just
lukewarm? Whether you are thinking of buying a
computer or already own one, it’s in your interest to
find out. The service you phone for advice on your
computer may come in many different guises. It
may be called a hotline, helpline, customer service
line or simply technical support. But beneath the
different titles these services all have the potential
to help you get the most out of your hardware and
software.
A wise computer buyer will
est the temperature of the
hotline before purchasing the
product, and the 10 questions
posed in this article should help
you to do so. Some of them
should be asked of a company
representative. Answers to
others can sometimes be
gleaned by phoning the hotline
itself and asking a few
questions.
The best way to find out
whether reality matches up to
the claims made by a company
about its telephone support is,
of course, to track down an
existing user. A good company
will help to introduce you to
some other users before you
buy, though arranging this
yourself obviously makes sure
you are not being palmed off
with someone who will just
feed you the company line.
Computer companies usually
opt for one of two approaches
in providing telephone support.
Some, like Digital and Tandy,
provide a hotline directly to
end-users, though Tandy
customers can also ring their
local store. Others such as
ACT, IBM and Apple have a
hotline for their dealers, who in
turn provide telephone support
to customers.
With effective dealer
communications both
approaches can be made to
work . All things being equal,
direct support of the end-user
will tend to have the edge in
terms of speed of problem
resolution and up-to-the-minute
product knowledge. However,
getting to know your local
dealer can also have its
advantages as you may be
able to pop in with your
computer and explain face to
face what the problem is.
At the moment the trend is
towards computer hotlines. As
computers become easier to
use, and manuals, training
discs and help files become
more straightforward, some
companies are hoping that
their hotlines may become the
primary means of customer
support. If it does happen a
number of computer firms
should start to rethink the way
that their hotlines are
organised.
How quickly is the phone
answered?
You would be
] surprised how
——~—) often customers
are kept waiting. Digital is one
company which has taken steps
to avoid these delays. Its PC
hotline staff pace themselves
using a traffic-light system. A
red light flashing indicates that
a call has been kept on hold
for more than 20 seconds.
Amber shows that a call is
waiting and a green light is the
all clear signal which means
that all calls are being
answered without delay.
A number of computer
hotlines have their own
switchboard. This means that
enquiries can reach the
appropriate person more
quickly than if they have to go
through the main company
switchboard. Apple has
installed a new switchboard to
improve the speed with which
calls to its dealer hotline are
answered during peak periods.
Do the hotline staff
know what they are
talking about?
It should not take
[ 9 | | you long to find
out if they don’t,
but there are also some
pointers to look for in advance.
The background of the hotline
staff is important. Typically this
will be in computer support or
engineering. Familiarity with
common customer applications
is also useful.
Perhaps even more
important is the aptitude for
acquiring new technical
knowledge, and the training
provided by the company. This
should be a combination of
structured courses and time for
the support person to
| experiment with the company’s
products on their own. They
should also have had a chance
to work through‘the manuals
and the records of common
problem solutions, and spend
some time answering calls on
the hotline while under
supervision.
Staff should be on the hotline
phones regularly, not just as a
fill-in between other tasks. This
will enable them to consolidate
their knowledge. Hotlines
which are answered by
whoever happens to be near
the phone when it rings are
unlikely to provide the user
with satisfactory support.
’
Will you get called back
if your problem can’t be
solved on the spot?
(oz )y Though most
| | 3 | computer hotlines
= say that they will
call back if a problem can’t be
solved immediately, the less
efficient ones sometimes forget.
It is time wasting and annoying
to have to keep ringing back to
get an answer. Talk to other
users to find out what a
particular company actually
does.
If the hotline staff can’t
resolve a tricky
problem, do they have
access to other technical
staff who can?
( 4 A good hotline will
be able to answer
most people’s
questions most of the time.
However, problems will occas-
ionally arise which require a fix
from the development team.
This means that there must be
clear escalation procedures for
problems that have been
reported to hotline but cannot
be solved by the hotline staff.
Tandy’s hotline telexes the
firm’s Texas headquarters
when it needs further
assistance. Apple U.K. uses the
phone or electronic mail to
contact its technical specialists
in the U.S. Digital has brought
a large number of its technical
specialists — including those
who operate the hotline —
under one roof. Previously they
had been scattered among
several locations up and down
the country. Customers benefit
from this policy of pooled
expertise because some
support staff of Digital’s PC
products will be close at hand.
At what times is the
hotline open?
A There is no point
| 5 | in paying for
=—— hotline support if it
is not there when you need it.
Apple offers an 8.30a.m. to
6.30p.m. helpline. Digital’s
customers can have the
support of a 24-hour helpline if
they are willing to pay extra
for cover outside office hours..
ACT and Tandy operate
hotlines during office hours,
but say that calls will often be
answered at other times. IBM’s
dealer hotline is staffed from
9a.m. to 5p.m. Messages cad.
be left with an answering
: service at other times.
Are the caller’s details
logged and analysed?
jy Many computer
{| 6 | hotlines make a
— note of the
customer's or dealer’s name,
company name, phone
number, problem and the date
of the call. Fewer make good
use of the information they
have gathered. Efficiently
managed customer records
mean that when you phone a
hotline twice in one day —
perhaps your problem wasn’t
solved the first time — you
won't have to explain yourself
all over again.
Any computer company
interested in making
improvements to its product or
service should not overlook the
importance of the feedback
provided by callers to its
hotline. Persistent calls about a
particular piece of software
may point to a bug, or an
inaccurate or misleading
passage in the manuals or help
files. They may even indicate a
need for simpler software or
new software that can cope
with a‘commonly required
application.
IBM, Digital and ACT
analyse hotline calls regularly,
breaking the calls down into
specific areas. Digital also
gains useful feedback from an
annual survey of how its
customers have fared.
ACT looks ‘at three main
areas; applications and
software, communications and
networking, and languages
and operating systems. Tandy
has plans to analyse its log of
calls, but does not yet do so.
Apple analyses its call records
from time to time.
NY
Are the solutions to
common problems
recorded for reference
purposes?
_ }) Both Apple and
| 7 © || Digital log the
—/ answers to
common questions in electronic
databases. Users benefit
because their questions can be
answered quickly, and the
company also saves money in
the long run.
Apple has recently added a
technical bulletin board to its
older problem database to
keep dealers informed of new
solutions to technical problems.
Apple’s bulletin board runs on
an Apple Ii and contains recent
problem solutions. !n the last
year, Apple has also added
technical agony aunt pages to
its dealer magazine Appletalk.
Is the hotline supplied
with all the necessary
manuals and
equipment?
}) The last thing you
{ 8 war to do when
= you ring a hotline
is to wait while someone tracks
down the appropriate manual.
If you are the first person to
explain that every time you hit
the circumflex key a light
comes on but nothing prints up
on the screen, the hotline
person should be able to copy
your actions on a terminal just
like the one you are using —
preferably without moving
away from a phone. In this
way, finding out the solution to
your problem should only take
minutes.
The customer service line at
Tandy has at its disposal every
piece of equipment and
software Tandy has ever sold
in the U.K. ACT equipment is —
also on order in anticipation of
the merger of ACT and Tandy
telephone support
departments.
Is there a charge for
using the hotline?
ft Telephone
+ lessstonce from
dealers is usually
free of charge. So is the hotline
service they contact when a
customer asks them something
out of the ordinary. It is worth
checking whether there is any
charge for a user hotline.
Tandy’s hotline is free of
charge, Digital’s is free for the
first 12 months; subsequently
customers can get hotline
support if they have opted for
an after-sales support contract.
The Fixed Fee service is the
cheapest of these and costs
£25. ‘
The benefits of a good
hotline in terms of reduced
down time and perhaps more
efficient use of your system are
likely to be well worth the
charges you will have to pay.
What is the attitude of
the hotline staff?
f If you feel
| 10 | potronised by the
—— Jhotline staff or
blinded by computer science
then their attitude is wrong.
Pitching an explanation at the
right level is a difficult skill to
acquire, but experienced
hotline people should have a
feel for the type of user they
are talking to. They should be
able to differentiate between
the boffin and the beginner,
and provide anyone with an
appropriate explanation.
The hotline person should
avoid jargon unless he or she is
sure fhat-the enquirer will be
able to follow it. A competent
hotline person should have a
friendly manner so that users
feel at ease with them. Staff
should not just be picked for
their technical agility, but also
for their ability to communicate
well. PC
PC communication
problems?
Asa professional, you needfast,automaticaccess By using our MULTICOM software (IBM
to your data source; typically, FINANCIAL & compatible) and COMPACT PLUS modems, life
BUREAUX services, TELECOM GOLD, is made very simple for you. From a single key-
PRESTEL, MAIL BOXES & MULTISTREAM. But board command, your data link is established, a
do you need the headaches and frustrations of dialogue opened with the remote end, and log-on
manually establishing a data link? procedures completed automatically. |t really is
that simple.
me Subs
OEIC rrPtion The Professional Way
| : to Communicate
Find out how you can enjoy FREE subscriptions to
TELECOM GOLD!
Tel: 0276 27122 or contact your local dealer
COMPACT COMMUNICATIONS LTD.,
Forum House, 1 Millmead
Staines, Middx.
=== _communicate—with_compact
errrrrractres
®@ Circle No. 157
PC SOFTWARE: OVER SOLID STATE DESK
TOP SWITCHING
40] DISCOUNT! DEVICES ‘vontis Guarantee) Boal
©
No Problems with Cable Lengths or Data Loss/Errors
Having Separate Ports, Avoids Over-loading Computer
Just look at some of our prices! Metal case with built-lIn power supply and fitted plug
DBASE III 290 RRP550 —47%! pig) A laa 7
FRAMEWORK 295 RRP550 —46%! PARALLEL: 3WAY GWAY “4”
6, (AS BBC £65-(b) £129-
DBASE II 222 RRP395_ —43%! Peete ower Swat
WORDSTAR PRO 242 RRP399 —39%! Poieess sa ENE
SUPERCALC 3.2 219 RRP 360 —39%! RS423 3 WAY — Eaosbl
LOTUS 1-2-3 265 RRP 430 —38%! —— THE PRINTCHANGERS
‘a } MICRO TO SEVERAL PRINTERS
SYMPHONY 385 RRP595 —35%! ain adh iil hn cree ay
MULTIMATE 263 RRP 399 —34%! et ae = Caan 4 we — £70-(b)
MULTIPLAN 129 RRP190 —32%! Eom & 2 WAY — £95-(c}
| 98%! sD 2 WAY — £105-(c)
FRIDAY! —s—s125-RRP175 ~26%! oa SERIAL RS232 3 WAY — £65-(b)
Most popular business micros supported! 'RS423 2 WAY — £40-(b)
Unlike some of our competitors, these prices will be
held until next publication date! (IBM-PC prices THE PRINTERCROSSOVERS
shown excluding VAT) (2 MICROS TO 2 PRINTERS} a La
PARALLEL— 26PIN £75-(c)
CENTRONICS —366PIN £95-(c)
SERIAL RS232 £70-(b)
PRICES ARE EXCLUDING VAT. Postage: (b) £2-{c) £2.50
. KEYZONE LTD =—_,
al t U 14, REGENERATION HOUSE, SCHOOL ROAD, ae KN
| eC Ol | ) U i S eI | IS PARK ROYAL, LONDON NW 10 6TD.
Telephone: 01-965 1684/1804 Telex: 8813271
40 SAPLEY ROAD - HARTFORD - HUNTINGDON - CAMBS PE18 7YQ
Call us NOW on 0480 - 53044 for further details!
@ Circle No. 158 @Cirele No. 159
76 PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1 985
s the business micro world turns a
deeper shade of Big Blue every day,
you might wonder if there are any
reasons left for buying other than IBM. Does
the adage ‘‘Nobody ever got fired for
choosing IBM’’ mean you have to be a
masochist to do otherwise?
The Apple Mac for one, shows you don’t.
There may have been a time when cynics —
and that includes the odd journalist — were
sceptical. Technically superb, the Mac was a
closed system and perversely incompatible
with the Apple II. Hence there were very few
programs available for it — generally the
kiss of death for a machine — and none of
the third-party add-ons which made the
Apple II so versatile and popular. It all
looked a little too like the sad and sorry tale
of the now-defunct Lisa.
But the biggest problem, software star-
vation, seems to have been fixed. A glance at
the Spring issue of the Macintosh’s Buyer’s
Guide reveals some 550 packages, not bad
going for a machine that is less than two
years old. Another small indication of the
Mac’s coming-of-age is Bill Gates’s enthu-
siasm for the machine. Coming from the
supplier of IBM’s PC-DOS, this seems to
pass beyond simple prudence in backing
both horses in a two-horse race — see this
month's Interview on page 81.
What is emerging in the Mac is an
innovative and stylish machine that is also
viable in a business context. if desk- -top
NON-IBMULATORS TOP 10
HOW TO AVOID
THE BLUES
Compatibility is not everything. Glyn Moody introduces
our selection of 10 micros from those you could dare to
buy instead of an IBM clone.
metaphors, mice and icons appeal, the Mac
has very definite advantages over the
stuffed-shirt approach of IBM.
Ironically, the biggest threat to the Mac is
unlikely to be the Big Blue bully, but Jack
Tramiel’s Mac-like Atari 520ST. Some un-
certainty still surrounds this product: for
example, can it possibly be that good at that
price, and will there be any software? If it
can, and there will, it could well be a very
serious business proposition. And at £700,
even the most hardened of IBM addicts
might well be tempted.
Even sticking with boring old MS-DOS
can have its advantages. If you make clones,
then you have succeeded if you are as near to
IBM as copyright laws allow — hardly a
recipe for innovation or excitement. But
without the Holy Grail of compatibility, you
are forced to offer a little extra to
compensate.
Most of the MS-DOS machines listed
overleaf have a more than a soupcon of
specialness. For example, there is the touch-
screen option from Hewlett-Packard, the
speech-recognition system from Texas
Instruments, the advanced graphics from
RML and Northern Telecom, the dual-
processor system from Epson, and the fully
integrated, upgradeable family from ACT.
Each of these are particular virtues not
offered by the IBM PC, yet which may in
specific applications prove perfect.
the world outside the IBM fold. A case in
point is the Pinnacle from TDI. Running
Specialisation is the keynote of survival in
under the powerful — but in business circles
relatively obscure — p-System, this very fast
machine is almost indifferent to the
concerns of clonedom. If you want a p-
System engine, perhaps for in-house
development, or just a system with little
degradation when supporting up to seven
users, you can concentrate on specifics such
as ‘‘Does it do what I want?’’ rather than
generalities like ‘‘How compatible is it?”’
Of course heterodoxy has its price. It is
true you are likely to be cut off from the
hottest mainstream developments, which
almost certainly will come through on the
IBM first. You will not be the first on your
street with the latest colour integrated
package complete with icons, pull-down
windows, built-in expert system, and bells
and whistles requiring the special 80386
board with 4Mbyte RAM expansion, But
then are you buying a computer to use now
or to be trendy with tomorrow?
Apple Macintosh: Apple Computer
(U.K.) Ltd, Eastman Way, Hemel
Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP2 7HQ.
Telephone: (0442) 60244. Circle no. 361.
Apricot: Apricot U.K. Ltd, Shenstone
House, Dudley Road, Halesowen, West
Midlands B63 3NT. Telephone: 021-501
2284. Circle no. 362.
Atari ST: Atari Corporation (U.K.), Ltd,
Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough,
Berkshire SL2 5BZ. Telephone: (0753)
33344. Circle no. 363.
Epson QX-16: Epson (U.K.) Ltd,
Dorland House, 388 High Road,
Wembley, Middisex HA? 6UH.
Telephone: 01-902 8892. Circle no. 364..
HP-150 Il: HP Ltd, PC Group, King
Street Lane, Winnersh, Wokingham,
Berkshire RG11 SAR. Telephone: (0734)
784774. Circle no. 365.
Pinnacle: TDI Ltd, 29 Alma Vale Road,
Bristol BS8 2HL. Telephone: (0272)
742796. Circle no. 366.
RML Nimbus: Research Machines Ltd,
Mill Street, Botley Road, Oxford OX2
OBQ. Telephone: (0865) 249866. Circle
no. 367.
Sprite: Jarogate Ltd, 197-213 Lyham
Road, London SW2 5PY. Telephone:
01-671 6321. Circle no. 368.
Ti Professional: Texas Instruments
Ltd, International Data System Division,
Manton Lane, Bedford MK4? 7PA.
Telephone: (0234) 67466. Circle no. 369.
Vienna PC: Northern Telecom Data
Systems Ltd, Maylands Avenue, Hemel
Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP2 7LD.
Telephone: (0442) 41141. Circle no. 370.
Yi)
NON-IBMULATORS TOP 10
APPLE MACINTOSH £1,795
The Mac represents the ne plus ultra of the non-IBMulators. Most other machines run
under MS-DOS — which is at least an approximation to IBM’s PC-DOS — but Apple
gives you idiosyncrasies all the way. The processor is a 68000, and the operating system
quite different from the staid approach of practically all other machines. Even if the Mac
did not pioneer the use of icons and the desk-top metaphor, it is certainly responsible for
its popularisation. If you like this approach, or just want to be different, the Mac could be
for you. The earlier problems of software starvation seem to have been largely overcome,
with new and exciting packages every month. The only disadvantage is the price.
FOR] Innovative and genuinely new. Sleek in looks and use.
PXeT VS EGE Limited expansion possibilities. Low disc capacities.
APRICOT PC £1,595
ACT’S Apricot is the U.K.’s one great hope among micro manufacturers. This
Birmingham-based company has progressed from selling the Sirius to designing and
building a very reasonably priced range of micros. At the bottom is the Apricot Fi,
costing just under £895 excluding a monitor, and offering a very cheap MS-DOS entry-
level system. The mainstays of the family are the semi-transportable PC and XI, dual
3.5in. floppies and Winchester versions respectively. More recently 40Mbyte file servers
have been introduced for the 32-user network which ACT also offers. More gimmicky and
more fun is the Apricot FP, the transportable with built-in limited voice-recognition
facilities. The fact that there is a complete compatible family is a tremendous strength.
GeT9 Compatible family. Large U.K. user base.
EXEXIXEG Poor keyboard on F series.
ATARI 520ST £699.99
The Atari ST is the joker in the micro pack at the moment. Its spec is amazing: for a mere
copper under £700, VAT included, you get a 512K micro with a 720K 3.5in. floppy,
monochrome screen and a bundle of Digital Research’s software including the innovative
Gem package — reviewed on page 50 of this issue. Gem provides a Mac-clone front end,
with all the paraphernalia of icons and a mouse. The question is: can Tramiel bring it off?
With memories of another wonder machine — the Sinclair QL — and its attendant
problems still fresh in the memory, a little scepticism would probably be advisable.
Another factor to bear in mind is that there will be relatively little software available for
the first year. But if the ST is still around after that, it could be unbeatable.
|FOR| Excellent spec. Cheap. Versatile.
PEF VINE Limited availability. Lack of software.
EPSON QX-16 £2,100
The QX-16 is something of a hybrid system. While it certainly goes well beyond mere MS-
DOS compatibility, it stops short of trying to ape the IBM PC even in simple matters like
the keyboard layout or accepting expansion cards. The Epson further hedges its bets by
including a Z-80 which eventually will allow you te.run CP/M. But perhaps the chief
interest of this system is its front end, called Taxi. Once again, this is modelled on flavour
of the month, the Mac. What is special about it is that it simply sits on top of MS-DOS
and lets you run unmodified files from it directly. This can provide a very soft and
comfortable interface.
GeLy !con-based front end to MS-DOS. CP/M capability.
EXEZNINEGY Price. Hybrid system.
HEWLETT-PACKARD 1501 £3,300
The HP 150 began life as a machine based around a truly innovative concept. Instead of
using an unfriendly keyboard — which many executives seem unwilling to do anyway —
and rather than opting for trendy mice, Hewlett-Packard went for a touch-screen. This
allows you to select the option you require, simply by touching the appropriate area on
the screen. A grid of infrared beams detects the precise position. This seemed a nice idea
in theory, but it has failed to win the hearts or the corporate desk tops of the world. Asa
result, HP has downgraded the touch-screen to add-on status. Nonetheless, if this
approach appeals to you, the HP 150 II which includes the touch-screen is a solid machine
with useful bundled software.
FOR| Fast processing. Built-in printer option.
EXEZNINEG Price. No parallel port.
78
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
PINNACLE | £6,690
The Pinnacle is a thoroughbred machine produced as a joint ventute between the British
firm TDI, which is based in Bristol, and Pinnacle Systems Incorporated of Dallas. It uses
the increasingly popular 68000, and is one of the first machines to push it to something
like its limits. For example, the processor runs at a cool 12MHz with no wait states, which
adds up to the fastest machine we have benchmarked. However, it is not a general
business machine like the others in this Top.Ten. In particular it is conceived of as a
p-System engine, and it is not possible to run standard MS-DOS software. However, more
standard operating systems like CP/M-68K and BOS are available, granting access to 4
number of ready-written packages.
FOR} Speed. Multi-user capability.
| EXSY Mainly a p-System engine. Not totally user-friendly.
RML NIMBUS £1,695
Hitherto Research Machines has been better known as a purveyor of high-quality
specialist machines to the educational market at an equally high price. But with the
Nimbus it has produced an impressively fast and powerful general-purpose machine that
could well appeal to a wide range of users because of its MS-DOS standard operating
system and its exceptional graphics. These are largely due to an 80186 running at 8MHz in
conjunction with a custom graphics chip designed by RML. The price is also very
attractive: about £1,700 for a system with two 3.5in. discs, colour monitor and IBM-type
keyboard. The machine is built to RML’s customary high standard.
|FOR| Price. Speed. Graphics.
ever is we Limited software on 3.5in. floppies.
SPRITE £5,630
Like the IBM PC/AT, Jarogate’s Sprite is based on the latest chip from Intel, the 80286..
Taken together with its 21Mbyte Winchester as standard, it provides a passable hardware
imitation of Big Blue’s next blockbuster, although it is not intended as a clone of any
kind. The Sprite does have a PC mode under its operating system, Concurrent CP/M.
During review, the operating system proved one of the few weak points in a generally
impressive and solidly built machine. Later releases of Concurrent DOS will presumably
have ironed out some of the bumps. A big plus is the built-in Ethemet interface, which in
conjunction with the fast multi-user capabilities of the machine, means that the Sprite
could well be a good buy for small- and medium-sized offices which are likely to expand.
[ZeLy Speed. Built-in Ethernet. Expandability.
EXe7 VS Eas Concurrent DOS is wobbly.
TIPROFESSIONAL £3,795
The TI Professional! stands out from the crowd of MS-DOS machines by virtue of an add-
on feature, its speech recognition. Using special circuitry you can train the micro to.
recognise groups of up to 50 words and short phrases, each one of which is assigned to a
string of ASCII characters. Particular applications might be setting all the common
functions like Block Move, Save, etc. in WordStar to be voice activated. In this way you
can keep your hands permanently on the keyboard. It is also possible to store chunks of |
continuous speech, though this is currently very memory intensive. The main drawback is
the price, which is a hefty £1,250 for the speech unit alone. ACT’s FP machine has some
of these voice facilities and costs about the same for the whole machine.
its
[ZeL] Several voice input and output features.
EXE NINES Cost of voice system. Memory-hungry.
VIENNA PC £3,100
The Vienna PC forms part of an office-automation system from the North American
telecommunications firm Northern Telecom. It is reviewed in greater detail on page 66 of
this issue. Apart from its 80186 main processor, its chief claim to fame is the very high-
gtaphics resolution of 800 pixels by 420 pixels, available on its white phosphor screen. A
further 80186 processor is dedicated to handling the bit-mapped graphics. These facilities
ate put to good use working with Digital Research’s Gem, which provides a mouse-driven
front end. The Vienna PC is unusual in that it offers a customised version of Lotus 1-2-3
which will run on its monochrome screen. There is a range of standard software
applications available as part of the Vienna Office system.
|FOR| High-quality screen. Good graphics.
ever Ui Rvs Price. Bulk of systems box.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985 79
80
WRiprectNctoc.
DAISY JUNIOR
FEATURES INCLUDE:
@ 14CPS (max. at 12CPl) @ Qume
Ribbon and Daisywhéel © Qume
Compatible @ 10” Platen @ Friction
and Pin Feed @ Bi-directional @ 7K
Memory @ Multi-copy Facility
@ Parallel or Serial Interface
@ Auto Underline @ Low Noise
@ Full compatible with all Software
including IBM
£199.00 + VAT!
MANNESMANN
LALLY
JULY-AUG SPECIAL
M1280
Bi-directional ® 16” paperwidth @
2030 character buffer ® 200cps @
50cps corres ® 10/12/16.6/20
character pitch @ serial V24/
RS232C + 8 bit parallel @
9x9 data processing 18x24
correspondence @ 6Q0dbA ®@
proportional spacing ® auto
right justification @ auto
centering @® 96 USASCII +
27 international characters +
IBM PC + 8 national sets @
LBP-8A1
Print Mode:
Landscape/portrait
Positioning: all point
addressable by 1/300
inch Character Pitch:
Multiple Character Pitches
in aline 10, 12, 13.3, 15
CPI, P.S. etc.Line Pitch:
Multiple Line Pitch in one
page 6, 8, 8.7 LP1 etc.
Multiple Font: Maximum
15 fonts/page {internal
font, font cartridge)
Overstrike Printing:
Available Character
Enlargement: Doubling in
two directions
£799 + VAT
£3195 + VAT
All prices exclude VAT and carriage. Add £3.00 parcel post. £8.00 special delivery. Make cheques/POs payable to:
MANNESMANN
TTiArT r<t7
MT-80 +
100 CPM, Bi-directional,
Alternative font — optional, 4k
buffer, italics, super/subscript and
bit image graphic | tor, 103
semigraphic units, international
specials US, German, French,
Spanish, Swedish, Greek, Danish,
Japanese, 192 ASC II characters.
£175.00 + VAT!
MANNESMANN
TALLY
MT 440 series
400cps Bi directional
650cps tabulation speed
Character matrix (H x W)
Matrix dimensions (H x W)
9 x 7/18 x 40 selectable
3.08 x 1.52 mm/
3.27 x 2.03 mm selectable
400/100 cps
Data processing/ correspondence
Print speed (10 cpi)
Print quality
OCR character fonts
Character set 128 characters
Character pitch 10/12/16.7 cpi with 9 x 7 matrix
10 cpi with 18 x 40 matrix
FROM
£1,795 + VAT
MANNESMANN
TALLY
Characters per line:
132 characters at 10 cpi
165 characters at 12.5 cpi
220 characters at 16.7 cpi
Large character printing
9x9
Character Matrix (H x W)
D.P.
Correspondence
Matrix Dimensions (H x W)D.P.
Print Speed @ 10cpi
D.P.
Correspondence
Printhead
Character Set
OCR-A. OCR-B
Barcodes
Large Character Printing
Characters per Line
@ 10.0cpi
@ 12.0cpi
@ 12.5cpi
@ 15.0cpi
@ 17.1cpi
Graphics Densities:
Horizontal
Vertical
Code Compatibilities
18x 48
3.25x 1.9mm
400cps
150cps
18 needles
128 characters (ISO
multinational
pilus IBM PC
Optional
N/A
132
158
198
225
60/120/240 dpi
72/144 dpi
ANSI/Epson/IBM PC/MT*
From £1845+ VAT
EWTREN
IyGipcctnctocy
NEWTRENDS TECHNOLOGY, SOUTHBANK HOUSE, BLACKPRINCE ROAD, LONDON SE1 7SJ Tel: 01-735 8171/01-582 9566 Telex 29 5555
@ Circle No. 160
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
LT PEN IER
VIEW
BILL GATES founder and President of Microsoft
How are things going to pan out
between the Mac and the IBM PC?
1 THINK that’s very clear: the Mac will be
number 2. The Mac plus Excel is a far
superior solution to the IBM plus 1-2-3. And
until you have serious software, a machine is
not a serious machine, despite the power and
ease of use the Mac has brought. A year ago
they had no software, now they’ve got a ton
of software and that’s helping a lot. But they
need a few milestone packages which push it
to the point where a guy who works with
numbers says, ’“Look, get me a Mac, because
the Mac with a Laserwriter lets me do my job
in a far better way than | could do in the
past.’”
In what way do you think Excel
moves beyond the previous
generation of packages?
OUR CLAIM is very simple: it’s the world’s
greatest spreadsheet, it’s the best way of
working with numbers. And that was our very
straightforward goal in doing the thing.
P... .cémming has
always been central to
Bill Gates’s life. He took a
programming job after
leaving school and before
going up to Harvard. He
left university after only
two years in order to set
up Microsoft in 1974.
Gates was also actively
involved in the writing of
code for Windows and
adapting MS-DOS for the
IBM PC. Today, looking
even younger than his
mere 29 years, Gates
presides over a company
whose latest turnover is
expected to top $140
million. He and his co-
founder Paul Allen remain
the majority shareholders.
How do Topview and Windows sit
together?
TOPVIEW is a very nice utility that allows you
to run multiple applications. | don’t know of a
single software company that’s writing
applications that require Topview because
there’s really nothing Topview lets you do
that’s unique. It’s not compatible with the
network, it uses up a lot of memory, it doesn’t
use batch files: there are some limitations.
Windows happens to run multiple
applications, but Windows is a sub-system
that supports graphics, and a graphics user
interface. So unless you like the graphics
applications we'll be including in with
Windows, then you shouldn’t buy Windows.
What has been the problem with the
release dates of Windows?
WHEN you’re building the foundation you’re
telling everyone to put their application on
top of, it’s a very significant responsibility to
get the thing small and fast and good. We
underestimated how tough that was going to
be to get it exactly right. We’ve had good
feedback from software developers in terms
of what they really want, and speed and
things like that. Also there were some things
about “’should we work with old
applications?’’ and we decided
we should; ’’should we work without
a mouse?” and we decided we
should. That’s one of the more
fantastic features we’ve put in.
In our case it’s a graphical user
interface that doesn’t require
the mouse to use the menus
although it supports it very
fully. And it’s a very substantial
system, not only Windows
INTERVIEWED BY GLYN MOODY
itself but the development tools that go with
it. We underestimated the process.
How important for Microsoft is
networking?
WE HAVE two real thrusts. One is graphics,
the other is networking. Networking has gone
so smoothly and we’ve gotten so much
support that it’s probably gotten a little less
attention. But it is one of our greatest
successes to have people like IBM, ACT and
HP — almost everyone is behind MS-Net —
and therefore having all the software
developers using the MS-Net protocols. It’s
gone super well for us. The key market right
now that DOS machines sell into is the office
market, and in the office market, all the
machines will be networked eventually.
How do you see that squaring with
the multi-user capacity?
THERE IS obviously some trade-off when
you're solving a particular problem. In the
long run, as people want to use graphical
applications we think that a single user,
networked, will be the dominant approach.
But we see a very significant role for multi-
user systems like 286-based systems running
Xenix where the cost per terminal is much
lower, and the ease of setting things up and
controlling the data is far greater today than
it is in the network case. So that’s a market
that will flourish. Because the 286 chip is
really great: it’s the first inexpensive
microprocessor that has the performance,
and the memory management. Coupled with
a 20Mbyte hard disc it’s the first popular
machine that’s adequate for Xenix and Unix-
type applications. Because we got IBM to
announce Xenix we’re going to get
applications momentum behind Xenix. It'll get
it to critical mass.
Do you think Xenix will take off
now?
OVER 70 percent of the Unix systems in the
world today are Xenix so we’ve done very
well with customers like Intel, Radio Shack
and Altos. But even so it’s fallen short of
market predictions. | think the 286 will help
that, and 1BM’s involvement will help that.
We need to get up to like 400,000 systems in
the next year-and-a-half to make sure that
the software companies involved make a
good living in Xenix applications.
How do you see PC-DOS developing
in the future?
I’VE TALKED about multi-tasking, and I’ve
talked about Windows being on top of that,
and there are some extensions we can do in
the network area. Another key thing is to
track the Intel chip developments, the 286,
and then the 386. That, in whole, is a full set
of activities for the next three years. PC
81
82
THIS WILL
DO NICELY?
Now you’ve seen the new (and
vastly improved) Practical
Computing, make sure you
receive it regularly every month
by returning this card.
You won’t want to miss what
we have lined up for the future -
more applications features, more
on multi-user systems, more
problems answered, more on
communications and more view-
points from industry leaders.
What more could you ask for?
Except to receive it regularly, of
course!
PRACTICAL
COMPUTING
Now you need not
pay through the nose
or a good face!
a
Fully PC compatible
4, versions now available!
ee
ES SS Se
Because Taxan dot * KP910 prints extra wide —156 char/line
matrix printers (normal) and 265 char/line (condensed)
combine quality, value fe po ie — ideal for Spreadsheets
for money and proven eee
reliability. | Value for money a
Print Quality _ | KP810 (80 column) around £339 (plus VAT)
Both the KP810 and KP910 have all the standard features KP910 (156 column) around £429 (plus VAT)
found in dot matrix graphics printers, but wnen it comes to
Near Letter Quality (NLQ) printing both really excel —
producing output equalling or exceeding the quality of much | PC compatible versions
higher priced units.
KP810PC (80 column)
[Features | KP910PC (156 cotumn)
* 140 cps print performance t-
“fe NLQ double pass printing rices correct at time of press
* Downloadable character sets (DRAFT standard, NLQ Distributed exclusively to dealers nationwide by DDL.
Call us for the address of your nearest stockists.
5 Kings Ride Park,
Ascot, Berks. SL5 8BP
-
around £399 (plus VAT)
around £499 (plus VAT)
optional)
+e Wide choice of optional NLQ typefaces available in ROM
* Unique incremental printing mode
* Friction and tractor feed
* Standard Centronics interface (serial option available) Tel: 0990 2892]
* Fully compatible with all popular software packages Telex: 846303 DD LIDG.
including Lotus 1-2-3, Applewriter, Wordwise etc. THE NEW FORCE IN DIST! mideess
@ Circle No. 125 x
e Hants RG21 3B2
sole UK distributor for Sakata peripherals. Datafax acknowledge all trade marks shown
Daisywheel and dot-matrix printers have
captured the upper and lower ends of the
printer market. Now they are being
threatened by other types of printer which
are quiet, cheap, fast and can produce
high-quality output. Ian Stobie looks at
the kinds of printer available.
PRINTER?
ot a long time daisywheel printers have dominated
the market for high-quality personal computer
printing, while dot-matrix printers have taken the
lower-quality high-speed end. This picture is now
changing. Daisywheel printers are under attack from two
directions: at the top of the price range by laser printers
costing little over £3,000 and at the bottom by a new
generation of much improved matrix printers with prices
starting below £300.
Noise is a fundamental attribute of daisywheel printers,
as they work by impact — banging fully formed embossed
characters through a ribbon on to the paper. It is not
unusual for an unenclosed daisywheel to put out around
65db(A) or more, making it too noisy to sustain a
telephone conversation in the same room. The only thing
you can do to overcome the problem is to put the whole
printer in an acoustic enclosure or a different room, which
adds to the expense and inconvenience.
Daisywheel printers ate slow because they work in
basically the same way as electric typewriters, spinning a
single character into position in turn and printing one
character at a time. The top speed attainable with this
technique is 90cps, but the more typical office machines
range between about 20cps and 55cps. In fact, quoting
speed in the industry-standard fashion of characters per
second tends to overrate the amount of actual printing
you can get through because cps figures make no
allowance for things like the time wasted at the end of
each line.
Despite their high-tech name laser printers are really
little more than photocopiers with the electronics to allow
computers to drive them. They print a page at a time and
are capable of producing letter-quality output at high
speed — from about the equivalent of 300cps. Because
they are based on photocopier parts they ate quite civilised
for the office environment. They are very quiet compared
ier 4 = a q er ema
Pe ESP ay Cate
a) i ot
to a daisywheel, coming in below the 55db(A) level, and
sounding about a quarter as noisy. However, despite
dramatic reductions in the price of the technology laser
printers are still quite expensive: the cheapest, like the
Canon LBP-8 and Hewlett-Packard Laserjet, still cost over
£3,000. These machines really make most sense for the
higher-volume daisywheel user, printing between 400 and
4,000 pages a month.
Dot-matrix printers have the reputation for being
almost as noisy as daisywheels while giving lower quality.
But they do print quickly, at speeds between 100cps and
500cps. Matrix printers mark the paper in a number of
different ways, but all build up the character from a
pattern of dots to get that familiar computer-printed look.
Yet far from becoming obsolescent, matrix printers are
going from strength to strength.
The latest machines have dramatically reduced noise
levels and offer much better print quality. The previous
generation of machines generally formed each character
from a seven by five or a rather more readable nine by
nine pattern of dots. The latest machines use nine by nine
for printing at high speeds, but also let you print using an
18 by 18 matrix giving near letter quality, although
admittedly at a slower speed. Characters formed on an 18
by 18 matrix still do not look as good as those produced
on a daisywheel, but more expensive machines get closer
using more complicated print heads containing 18 or 24
pins to mark the papet.
In this survey on printers we assess these two challengers
to the daisywheel, until now the workhorse of word
processing and other high-quality business printing. On
page 92 we look at laser printers, including the new and
very powerful Apple Laserwriter, while on page 89 we look
at what the latest low-cost dot-matrix printer from market
leader Epson is capable of doing for its price of £255.
continued on next p
Dot-matrix graphics.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
.
Epson LX-80: NLQ at low cost.
Apple Laserwriter: top quality and speed.
85
O®BOWVOO®®O
(continued from previous page
Apart from price, the most important
factors to consider when comparing
different types of printer are print quality,
noise, paper choice and running cost.
The high-speed Qume 11/90 Plus.
These printers work by
Daisywheel banging embossed plastic
or metal characters through an inked or
carbon ribbon on to paper. The characters
are mounted on the end of a multi-stemmed
disc which looks vaguely like a daisy, hence
the name. Print quality is excellent and in-
distinguishable from a good-quality office
typewriter. You can change the typeface by
changing the daisywheel and almost all
daisywheel printers offer proportional
spacing which makes the output look better
and saves space. Other advantages are the
ability to print on normal office stationery
and produce simultaneous copies with
multi-part stationery. However, daisywheels
are dreadfully noisy and slow. Speed is
related fairly directly to price. For example,
a cheap one like the £249 Uchida DWX-350
goes at 20cps while the faster £799 Juki 630
goes at 40cps. The Qume Sprint 11/90 Plus,
which is probably the fastest daisywheel on
the market at 90cps, costs £2,398.
Oki Microline 192: much quieter.
Mi The most common type of
matrix printer Eoche
impact dot matrix, which works by banging
a set of metal pins through inked or carbon
ribbon on to the paper. The print head con-
sists of a vertical line of pins which are
moved horizontally over the paper, selected
needles firing at each position to build up
the pattern of each character and eventually
an entire line. Print quality depends mainly
on how many pins there are in the head,
usually nine, 18 or 24. A modern nine-pin
head produces‘ readable output, forming
characters on a nine by nine matrix, which is
quite acceptable but not really good enough
for business correspondence.
Many of these machines offer a near letter
quality (NLQ) mode. Here print quality is
improved by making a second, third or even
fourth pass over characters already printed,
filling in the dot pattern but incurring a
speed penalty in the process. A more
expensive way of getting better quality
without speed loss is to have more pins in the
print head, 18- and 24-pin heads being the
most common. Such heads produce much
better print quality but it is still not up to
daisywheel standard.
Like daisywheels, matrix printers can
print on ordinary paper and can be used
with multi-part stationery to produce simul-
taneous copies, and running costs ate low.
Most people use special continuous fan-fold
paper rather than standard office stationery,
which means their printer has to be
equipped with a tractor paper-feed mech-
anism, as this allows the machine to print
unattended.
Normal print speed
Near Letter Quality
hes ~- 10,12,17 & S,€
NLQ output is more presentable.
joeree BPA
wel A Mag Mean rah
fea ae ne nea i
"Raye ma il rt lene am Pi
‘ir anaes eaten
“a ey it ‘ fom Bee ene
tet
Graphics ina from Henewel M-34.
Matrix printers are noisy, but the better
modern ones such as the Oki Microline 192
at £399 are getting close to 55db(A). This
machine has a nine-pin head and runs at
160cps normally, with a 40cps in NLQ mode
available. A faster printer is Honeywell's
M-34CQ, which also has a nine-pin head
but runs at 265cps normally and 70cps in
NLQ mode, and costs £945. One of the
fastest matrix printers is the Anadex
DP-6500 which runs at 540cps and costs
£2,730.
mg These work by shooting a fine
stream of ink directly on to the
paper without using a ribbon. In the most
common design, ink emerges from a vertical
bank of nozzles in a way analogous to an
impact dot-matrix printer. The technique
used to actually propel the ink varies;
Hewlett-Packard machines use tiny heaters
to literally boil ic out, while Epsons squelch
it out under mechanical pressure exerted by
a set of piezo-electric crystals.
The great advantage of ink-jet printing is
that it is quiet; the loudest noise usually
comes from the paper transport mechanism
rather than the printing itself. As most ink-
jet printers build up characters in exactly the
same way aS a miatfix printer the print
quality is little different. In the long term
ink-jet printers have greater potential as you
Nozzle Pieza crystal Ink from reservoir
\ ;
Chamber empty
aae marl
2
Poper
A Ink flows into chamber
3
Ink ejected
The piezo-electric ink-jet element.
can pack more tiny ink nozzles into a print
head than metal needles.
The big problem with ink-jet printers is
that they work best with very absorbent
paper, which means you probably have to
end up buying a special stock of ink-jet:
paper, which pushes up running costs. Most
ink-jet models will print on ordinary
computer paper or letterheads, but if the
paper ts at all shiny the ink tends to stay on
the surface, making your output easy to
smudge. Also it does not look so good when
it does dry because the dots do not tend to
spread out in the way that they should.
In speed terms most ink-jet printers are
quite good, at least up to comparably priced
impact dot-matrix printers. The Hewlett-
Packard Thinkjet, which costs £399, prints
at 150cps, using a 12-nozzle print head; HP
claims a noise level of only 50db(A) for this
machine. Epson’s new SQ-2000 prints at
176cps using a 24-nozzle print head and
costs £1,825.
Thermal transfer Epson P.80.
Works by melt-
Thermal transfer a gs
special ribbon on to paper. Like impact
matrix and most ink-jet printers the
characters are formed from a matrix of dots.
Thermal-transfer printers are quite and very
cheap to manufacture; the problem is the
running costs are high and there is a lack of
paper flexibility. The thermal ribbons can
only be used once and are relatively
expensive. Output quality tends to be best
on smooth papers.
However, thermal-transfer technology is
improving, and the best machines now offer
good results on the right paper. Another
advantage is that the technology does not
(continued on pdie 89)
86
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
= :
Sy oma
_THERMAL TRANSFER
PRINT QUALITY
QUIETNESS
SPEED
PAPER CHOICE
CHEAPNESS IN USE
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
ealeco DX 85
The lowest cost, most versatile high
speed Dot Matrix Printer yet.
most computers %* Robust construction
*% Latest technology %* Ribbon cartridge
or spools.
Specification:
Speed: 120 cps, bi-directional, short line
seeking. Columns: 80 to 136, (at 17 cpi).
Matrix: 9 x 9. Character set: Full 96 ch ASCII
with 11 language variants. Graphics: Uni-
directional, bit image. Forms handling:
Forward/reverse with programmable line spacing.
spacing. Interfaces: Centronics parallel, RS 232 serial,
Commodore. Size: Width 370mm, Depth 280mm, Height
130mm, Weight 6kg.
You told us what you wanted
so we went ahead and did it.
Features include:
* Automatic paper loading * Epson
compatibility %* Range of languages
% Normal, condensed and double width
characters % Full graphics *% Interchange-
able plug-in interfaces to suit all micros
% IBM PC Compatible version * Com-
bined friction and adjustable pin feed
* Suitable for all commercial and busi-
ness applications * Can connect to
Suitable for direct connection
to all leading PCs and Business micros using plug-in
interface cartridge.
UK MANUFACTURED
Someone had to do it... Samlecn Lid
9 Falracres Ind. Est., Dedworth Road, Windsor, Berks SL4 4LE, England.
Tel: Windsor (07535) 54717/8. Telex: 838791.
@ Circle No. 127
(continued from page 87)
fequire much power, so many battery-
powered printers use a thermal-transfer
mechanism. The Epson P-80X, for instance,
has a 24-element head, is battery powered
and costs £250. One of the most impressive
thermal-transfer printers is IBM’s Quiet-
writer for the IBM PC, which at £1,316
offers excellent print quality at 60cps.
; These machines work exactly like
Laser photocopiers but with a lot of
heavy computing power and a laser imaging
system. Laser printers offer very good print
quality, fast speed and quiet operation.
Running costs are low since you can print on
to ordinary copier paper, as well as letter-
heads and transparency foils. The price
depends partly on speed, which ranges
between eight and 12 pages a minute, but
rather more significantly on how good the
machine is at handling graphics and exotic
type founts.
The lowest-cost approach is adopted by
the Canon LPB-8, which at £3,195 produces
print which looks much the same as that
from a good daisywheel. Apple goes to the
other extreme with the Laserwriter, which at
nearly £7,000 lets you produce near typeset-
quality material. For the ordinary office user
Hewlett-Packard’s middle way may be the
most appropriate. Its £3,595 Laserjet prints
like an IBM typewriter but has optional
plug-in type founts and prints whole-page
graphics at a lower resolution than the
Apple offering — 75 dots to the inch, which
is similar to a typical matrix printer.
2 = These work by
photographing the
screen. No comparison of printers would be
complete without mentioning the option of
photographing a display. This approach
may make sense for preparing slides of
graphics screens for graphics slides to be
used in business presentations. If you know
what you are doing the results can be of
excellent quality, but the technique is only
suitable for special use. Apart from simply
using an ofdinary camera, as most mag-
azines do, there are a number of purpose-
designed camera systems on the market.
Best known is the Polaroid Palette, which
costs £1,395 and works with Polaroid print
or colour-slide film to avoid processing
delays.
Anadex: (025672) 3401
Canon: 01-773 3173
Epson: 01-902 8892
Hewlett-Packard: (0344) 773100
Honeywell: (0442) 42291
IBM: 01-578 4399
Juki: Micro Peripherals Ltd, (0256)
473232
Oki: X-Data Ltd, (0753) 72331
Polaroid: Sintrom, (0734) 875464
Qume: (0635) 31400
Uchida: CPU Peripherals, (0932)
246433
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
O®OVND©® ©
Impact dot-matrix printers are already unbeatable for
high print speeds at a modest price. Now their type styles
are being smartened up as well.
THE NEW
DOT-MATRIX
STANDARD
By Jack Schofield
hen Juki and Silver Reed launched their low-cost daisywheel
printers, it looked for a while as though the dot-matrix
manufacturers were in for hard times. Suddenly daisies
approached dots in terms of price and convenience, while the
image quality was far superior.
However, the dot-matrix market rapidly saw a dramatic improvement in
quality with the launch of the Canon PW-1080 and Taxan KP-810/KP-910
printers offering a near letter quality (NLQ) option. As well as printing in
ordinary dot-matrix type, these printers are able to print more carefully defined
characters in a slower mode. Epson’s entry into this market was the LQ-1500,
with a 24-pin matrix able to print draft quality at 200 characters per second
(cps) or near letter quality at 67cps. It is to take nothing away from the quality
of the LQ-1500 to observe that it is not in everyone’s price range.
the LX-80, is about one-quarter of the
price of the LQ-1500. It has a nine-
pin matrix, and the printing speeds are
100cps for draft quality, and 16cps for near
letter quality. The base price of this printer,
£255 plus VAT, should ensure it has a wide
appeal.
Unlike previous Epson printers, the
LX-80 has low, sleek lines — somewhat like
a sports caf, compared to the boxy look of
the previous models. The footprint is very
slightly larger. There is some fluting on both
sides, which is presumably there as much for
its cosmetic value as to dissipate heat.
The front right of the LX-80 has the usual
array of three buttons and four indicator
lights. Again they have been restyled to look
E pson’s new NLQ dot-matrix printer,
facy. They also have new functions, in that
they can be used to select the type style when
the pfinter is on. Pressing the top two
buttons at the same time makes the Ready
light go out and the On Line light start to
flash. This is the Selectype mode. The On
Line button can then be pressed up to six
times to select the print mode. The options
are: Reset, NLQ, Emphasised, Double-
strike, Condensed and Elite.
It is possible to combine more than one
of these options to get a grand total of
12. different styles, including double-
strike/condensed/elite, though actually
trying to do this gets very confusing. If you
try for a style that is not allowed, however,
89
OP®DHAOH®HO
continued from previous page)
the LX-80 simply ignored the incorrect
entries. Of course, these styles can also be set
by transmitting codes to the printer in the
usual way, including codes embedded in
text.
The LX-80’s ROM has 96 ASCII
characters in standard, italic and NLQ
forms, plus 32 graphics characters and 11
international character sets. The inter-
national sets include the usual European
languages with two sets to cover Danish and
Japanese. They can be selected via software
ot by using the DIL switches.
In NLQ mode, the printer also offers four
methods of justifcation. Text can be ranged
left or right, centred or filled — which ‘is
Epson’s term for justifying or aligning at
both sides. For justification by the printer,
text has to be sent to the buffer one
paragraph at a time. Underlining, sub-
scripts, superscripts, user-defined character
sets and dot graphics are also possible, and
the usual paper-spacing commands are
available.
Lifting the lid at the front of the LX-80
reveals the very small, new ribbon cartridge.
It is carried on the platform with the print
head, instead of being a separate carriage-
length ribbon of the usual Epson type. At
£3.95 it costs about half as much, and it is
easier to install. Sales of the LX-80 will
undoubtedly be such that the ribbon is easy
to obtain. However, there are already a
couple of dozen similar and incompatible
ribbons on the market. It seems a shame to
have added yet another.
The nine-pin print head prints bi-direct-
ionally at 10, 12 or 17 characters per inch. In
NLQ mode, the print head makes two passes
per line, and prints in one direction only.
The NLQ typeface has a total of 18 dots vert-
ically, with the two rows of nine dots
interlaced.
The back of the printer has a power
socket, an I/O port, and — wonder of
wonders — two small panels through which
you can change the two DIL switches SW1
SPECIFICATION =—_y
Type: impact dot-matrix printer with
nine-needle print head
Speeds: 100cps draft, 16cps in near
letter quality mode
Typefaces: Pica and Elite with
expanded, compressed and emphasised
modes
Features: roman and italic printing,
superscripts, subscripts, underlining, dot-
addressable graphics
Paper: single-sheet friction feed, up to
8in. wide; tractor option
Ports: Centronics eight-bit parallel port;
serial option; Commodore and Atari
options to follow
Dimensions: 85mm.(3.3in.) x
420mm.(16.6in.) x 310mm.{12.4in.);
weight 5.2kg. (11.5lb.)
Price: £255 plus VAT; tractor feed £20;
cut-sheet feeder £55; ribbons £3.95
Supplier: Epson (U.K.) Ltd, Dorland
House, 388 High Road, Wembley,
Middlesex HA9 6UH. Telephone: 01-902
8892
j
While the LX-80 replaces the current RX-80 model, tne rest of the range has been
upgraded, with a + added to the model number. The RX-80F/T + , RX-100 +,
FX-80+ and FX-100+ all now offer touch-selectable type styles as standard and an
NLQ option. The 8647 serial and 8177 parallel boards can be retrofitted to existing
FX-80 and FX-100 printers. The 8190 board offers a choice of two NLQ faces: roman
and sans serif. During NLQ printing, the paper is advanced by half a dot between
| es a
Gl
hagy cdacq
lazy dog.
The fine serifs of the LX-80’s NLQ type help
to improve readability.
and SW2. For those who have struggled for
years with old MX-80s and the like, it is a
boon to be able to change these switches
without unscrewing four screws on the base
of the printer and lifting the lid off.
The back of the LX-80 also has a parallel
interface, which peeps through a rather large
hole. This is ‘to allow room for an extra
printed circuit board to be piggybacked on
top, if this is required to provide a serial
port. We tried fitting the Hanzon serial
board, which provides full Apple Macintosh
emulation, and it worked fine. Either of the
Epson serial boards for the FX printers
should fit. Epson also plans to provide
boards for use with Commodore and Atari
printers, which are currently non-standard
in design. These boards should be available
later this year.
One tradition which has, regrettably,
been followed is that the ports are sited on
the back, where the printer cables may inter-
fere with the paper feed. Epson’s only con-
cession is a flimsy pull-out plastic paper
guide to hold fan-fold paper away. This is
marked ‘‘no handle’’ to discourage you
from using it to carry the printer.
The LX-80 also features a 1K print buffer,
which is very handy as it means you get back
conttol of the micro more quickly, so you
can start the next task. Epson also offers
optional 32K and 128K buffer boards, but
we did not have one to tty inside the LX-80.
The manual is spiral bound, clearly
printed, and vastly better written than some
previous Epson handbooks. It has nine
appendices, a good index and a useful Quick
Reference card.
In use, the printer works fast and
efficiently, as you would expect of an Epson.
There is nothing special about the 100cps
draft mode, and the italic fount is, as usual,
slightly gappy. However, the NLQ mode
produces a very attractive typeface, which is
made even more readable by the fine serifs.
The end result looks to be of a much higher
quality than you would normally expect
from a printer of this price.
There is only one major drawback to the
LX-80: it is noisy. In draft mode the sound is
somewhat high-pitched and penetrating; in
NLQ mode it has more of a rasp to it,
Standing the printer on a foam pad helps a
little. In many situations the noise will not
matter, but it is not ideal for a quiet office.
EPSON LX-80
Performance Oj
CJ
Ease of use
Documentation (]
Value for money
Very good all-round performance
and extra versatility at an attractive
price. It sets a new standard for low-
priced dot-matrix printers.
CONCLUSIONS
BiThe Epson LX-80 is versatile, thanks to its fast
100cps draft mode and lécps near letter
quality mode. The NLQ face is attractive and
very readable, though not really suitable for
business letters.
MThe design shows several improvements
over previous Epson models, and only the high
noise level lets it down slightly. The availability
of a low-cost cut-sheet feeder is a welcome
feature, and unusual at this price level.
MiThe LX-80 is good value for money at £255
plus VAT, though the tractor feed adds £20 to
the price for heavy users of continuous
stationery. P
90
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
‘The New
MT'85/86 printers
areas quielas a...
\ ake a listen to the new MT85 and
MT86 serial matrix printers.
They’re amazingly quiet. Which makes
their performance definitely something
toshout about.
The MT85 is acompact 80 column
printer, while the MT86 offers a full 136
column width. Both print high speed
draftoutputat 180cps. And high quality
correspondence at 45 cps in various
typestyles. Then there’s compressed,
expanded and bold print for even more
variety. And of course graphics.
Flexibility doesn’t stop there either.
Both printers take continuous fan fold
and single sheet stationery in their
stride. And they’re totally com patible via
plug-in interface modules—IBM PC
and Apple Macintoshincluded.
The new MT85 and MT86 from
Mannesmann Tally: Europe's leading
matrix printer manufacturer.
The quiet revolution in print.
Contact us now for our literature pack.
MANNESMANN
TALLY
MANNESMANN TALLY LIMITED, MOLLY MILLARS LANE, WOKINGHAM, BERKSHIRE, RG11 20T. TELEPHONE (0734) 788711
BM PC and Appie Macintosh are registered trademarks.
@ Circle No. 128
O®OWVDO®®
LASER PRINTERS:
PHOTOCOPIERS WITH BRAINS
By Ian Stobie
Speed, flexibility and outstanding resolution are what you get for the substantial asking
price of these units.
ith prices starting at around the cost of
many complete computer systems, laser
printers need more than just the glamour of
the word ‘‘laser’’ to justify them. In fact the
machines are from the outside rather unglamorous,
looking like small office photocopiers. However, inside
they are packed with electronics and they have unequalled
power to beautify documents sent to them for printing.
Laser printers are now cheap enough to compete with
the daisywheel for the top end of the high-quality word-
processing market. To the user, the laser holds out the
promise of greater speed and much reduced office noise
levels, as well as a great deal of choice in the final
appearance of the printed output. Laser printers are
inherently well suited to producing mixed text and
graphics, which is an increasingly important requirement
among business users. Most laser printers have no
difficulty producing overhead-projector transparencies, and
the more expensive machines like the Apple Laserwriter
can produce near typeset-quality artwork suitable for later
high-volume reprinting on a litho press.
Interestingly, the laser printer’s flexibility in handling
graphics and typography has little to do with the laser-
printing method itself, which is just a way of marking the
paper. The key thing is that a laser printer prints a whole
page at a time and holds a complete image at full
resolution of the page it will print in its own internal
buffer. With this complete dot-for-dot page image held in
its memory it makes sense to give the printer its own local
processing power to manipulate it. Most laser printers can
print in a range of different type sizes and styles, and
reduce, enlarge and rotate the printed image.
Laser printers are therefore quite intelligent. But as
memory and processor components are continuously falling
in price, what laser printers can do today many other sorts
of printer may be able to do tomorrow. Laser printers just
happen to be first to make full use of the possibilities
offered by the whole-page bit-mapped buffer.
Expensive laser printers have been around for the last 10
years, and it is still possible to spend several thousand
pounds on a laser printer. Such machines are used for
high-volume high-speed applications such as producing
mass mailings of personalised letters complete with
handwritten signature and company logo. Here we are
only interested in the new generation of low-cost office
laser printers, which all cost under £10,000.
One of the reasons laser printers have fallen in price,
apart from the falling price of the necessary electronic
components, is that photocopying technology itself is
getting cheaper. Canon has pioneered the throwaway
photosensitive drum, previously one of the most expensive
parts of a machine. To get good-quality copies you must
either have a really expensive drum which will last for
The Ricoh LP-4120 laser printer.
years, ot else one which is so cheap you can throw it away
before it starts to deteriorate. The Canon-built printer
mechanism used by both Apple and Hewlett-Packard uses
a throwaway drum built into the same unit as the toner,
which you have to renew periodically anyway. You replace
the dual toner/drum cartridge every 3,000 or so pages. A
new one costs just under £100.
Compared to a good daisywheel printer using carbon
ribbons, laser printer running costs are not excessive,
working out around 3p or 4p a sheet. The main difference
is in the initial outlay, which is obviously higher. Even so,
the comparison is more favourable to the laser than it
looks at first sight. You do not need to buy an acoustic
hood as the laser printer is inherently quieter, and a
single-sheet feeder is already built-in.
The greater speed of the laser printer means you can do
the work of several daisywheels. Assuming a full page of
text and eight pages per minute, a laser printer is going at
about 300cps, as against an absolute top speed of 80cps for
the very best daisywheel. Taking these considerations into
account the laser printer looks a good bet for anyone with
a fairly heavy print workload — from say 500 pages a
month upwards. At lower volumes a daisywheel printer
will still be the more cost-effective solution.
Speed Graphics Mechanism Price
(pages per
minutes)
Apple Laserwriter 8 excellent Canon £6,995
Canon LBP-8 8 poor Canon £3,195
Hewlett-Packard Laserjet 8 good Canon £3,595
Ricoh LP-4120 12 average Ricoh £8,500
Suppliers: Apple, (0442) 60244; Canon, 01-773 3173;
Hewlett-Packard, (0344) 773100; Ricoh from Nexel Ltd.,
(084421) 3151
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
HOW LASER PRINTERS WORK
Laser printing involves three
stages — preparing a page
image in memory, drawing it
with light and finally
transferring it to paper.
Stage 1. This starts with the
arrival of a string of
characters at the printer. In
addition to the text itself this
string might contain
information about the type
styles to be used, and
graphics encoded in some
form. The printer uses this
information to build up a bit
map of the complete page in
memory.
Stage 2. The bit-map image
is transferred to a light-
sensitive drum. The drum is
first given a uniform
electrostatic charge. As the
drum rotates it is scanned
with a laser light which
flickers on or off under the
control of the bit map held in
memory. Where the beam
strikes the drum, charge is
destroyed.
Stage 3. This stage employs
exactly the same technology
as many photocopiers. A
strongly coloured plastic-
based powder, called the
toner, is brought into contact
with the rotating drum. Toner
can be given an electrostatic
charge, and charged powder
sticks to the parts of the drum
which correspond to dark
parts of the image. The toner
image is then transferred to a
sheet of paper, and finally
melted on to it by hot rollers.
Different brands of laser
printer adopt slightly different
approaches at each stage.
Printers with good graphics
capability need much larger
areas of memory. The Apple
Laserwriter uses nearly
1Mbyte of RAM just for the
page map.
Different manufacturers use
different light sources at the
laser imaging stage. Canon
uses a semiconductor laser
while Ricoh uses a more
powerful gas laser which’
allows faster drawing on the
drum. Laser printers used
purely for typesetting may
take special papers to get
higher resolution, and so the
second and third phases may
be different.
Appearances can be deceptive — inside and out the Laserwriter resembles a photocopier.
APPLE LASERWRITER
ike several other new laser printers,
Apple’s Laserwriter is built around a
basic printing mechanism supplied
by Canon. But Apple’s printer is at £6,995
about double the price of most other Canon-
based machines. What accounts for the diff-
erence is the massive processing power which
Apple has added, making the Laserwriter
itself a more powerful computer than the
Macintosh it connects to.
The Laserwriter is designed for use both as
a dedicated printer for a single Macintosh,
and as a printer attaching to a local area
network, and thus shared between several
machines. It comes equipped with an
RS-232C interface so it can also be used with
other brands of computer, such as the IBM
PC. However, in this case you lose the
Macintosh’s graphics ability, and the Laser-
writer then functions more as a faster,
quieter daisywheel printer.
Used with Apple equipment the Laser-
writer offers the ability to incorporate
drawings into documents and to print
anything you can display on the Macintosh
screen. In addition you can print using the
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
same typefaces that traditional typesetters
use, such as Helvetica and Times.
Physically the Laserwriter looks like a
small photocopier. It takes up a similar
amount of desk space too, and weighs 77Ib..,
but considering what it contains it is quite
compact, It prints on to single-sheet paper,
either ordinary A4 copier paper or letter-
heads, and comes with a 100-sheet input
tray. You can also feed in envelopes and
ovethead-projector transparencies singly
through a manual feed on the other side of
the machine.
The Laserwriter connects to the Macintosh
through an Appletalk connector box and
cable. You need one box for the printer and
one for each Macintosh you wish to connect
to it; they cost £50 each. We were in fact
using Appletalk as no more than a printer
cable, as we only tried the Laserwriter with
one Macintosh. According to Apple the
system will still work with the printer placed
up to 1,000 feet away from the machines it
serves.
The way the Laserwriter and Appletalk
work are fundamentally related. At £50 a
SPECIFICATION
Printing technique: laser
xerography; uses Canon LBP-CX
mechanism
Print processing: Motorola 68000
processor running at 12MHz, 1.5Mbyte
of RAM, 0.5Mbyte of ROM containing
Postscript interpreter and founts
Print quality: 90,000 dots per square
inch; supports full-page graphics
Bullt-in founts: Times, Helvetica and
Courier plus a set of special symbols;
bold, italic, outline, etc. available for
each fount; minimum fount size 4 point;
other Mac founts can be printed at
slightly lower resolution
Speed: eight pages a minute once
printing commences; takes from a couple
of seconds to several minutes fo start up,
depending on the complexity of the
image
WNolse: same as quiet photocopier,
under 55dB(A)
Paper: A4 or foolscap photocopier
paper, letterheads or overhead-projector
transparency film; envelopes and labels
can also be used via manual feed
Consumables: replacement drum and
toner cartridge costs £99, last a claimed
3,000 pages
Interfaces: Appletalk and RS-232C
Compatibility: supports full Mac
graphics through Appletalk; supports
Diablo 630 daisywheel commands
through RS-232C
Size: 715mm.{28. 2in.) x
470mm.{18.5in.) x 410mm.(16.2in.);
weighs 37kg.{77Ib.)
Price: £6,995 plus VAT, available now
Manufacturer: Apple Computer Inc.;
made in the U.S.
Supplier: Apple Computer (U.K.) Ltd,
Eastman Way, Hemel! Hempstead,
Hertfordshire HP2 7HQ. Telephone:
(0442) 60244
connection Appletalk is a very cheap
network, which reflects Apple’s belief that
the real network market lies in ordinary cost-
conscious offices. But keeping the cost down
means accepting lower transmission speeds.
Appletalk is slow by network standards,
sending no more than 29Kbyte of data a
second.
The Laserwriter hardware can print at
90,000 dots per square inch, and ata full res-
olution this requires a bit map of almost a
megabyte for each page. To assemble the bit
map in the Macintosh itself would therefore
make no sense, as transmitting each page
93
O®#OVOO® ©
{continued from
across the network to the printer would take
over half a minute. Instead, the Mac sends a
compressed description of the page written
in a language called Postscript. Typically it
occupies less than 8K and transmits
across Appletalk in less than a second. Inside
the Laserwriter is a 68000 processor,
1.5Mbyte of RAM and 500K of ROM
containing some pre-defined founts and a
Postscript interpreter. The Laserwriter runs
the Postscript program to generate the page-
image bit map it needs to print from.
To use the Laserwriter with Mac software
you need first to install the Laserwriter
printer driver which generates the Postscript
page descriptions. The driver must be
present on every start-up disc you want to
use with Laserwriter. The installation process
is quite simple but it takes up a lot of disc
space — usually around 98K. You can
reduce this by throwing away founts you do
Not want to use.
Postscript is actually a proper pro-
gramming language, like Logo or Forth, and
the printer driver is really a program
generator. Postscript describes a page in
terms of the mathematical properties of the
shapes on it rather than as a bit map or any
other static data description.
The significance of Postscript is that it is
completely independent of the hardware
used, and a description in Postscript remains
the same whatever the resolution of the
system, unlike a bit map. Postscript is being
previous page}
APPLE LASERWRITER
Performance oO
Ease of use oO
Documentation O
Valueformoney (] # OF O
CA wonderful, creative tool from
Apple, but unless you can share the cost
among several users in a network it is
expensive.
adopted by a number of different
companies, and has some chance of
becoming an industry standard. It was
developed independently of Apple by
Adobe Systems Inc., a company formed by a
number of people from Xerox’s Palo
Alto Research Centre. Parc is widely
recognised as the source of many of the best
ideas in the computer industry, including
the windows, icons and mouse interface
adopted by Apple for the Macintosh itself.
This gives the Laserwriter good prospects
for broader compatibility outside the Apple
universe. After all, the Laserwriter just
expects a page to arrive in Postscript, it does
not matter where from. If, for example, you
have access to a proper typesetting machine
which runs Postscript, it may be possible to
typeset directly from Mac print files.
We used the Laserwriter with several
page.
One advantage
that it lets
page.
spaced.
a typewriter fount,
page.
Courier
EE
One advantage to using a fount originally designed
for typesetting Is that it lets you put more text on a
page. This is because founts such as Times and
Helvetica are proportionally spaced. By contrast
Courier, originally a typewriter fount, is monospaced
- each character takes up the same width on the
Helvetica
to
originally designed for typesetting is
you put more text ona
This is because founts such as
Times and Helvetica are
By contrast Courier,
is monospaced - each
character takes up the same width on the
using a fount
proportionally
originally
Laserwriter’s output: using founts designed for typesetting saves space and looks neat.
packages, including Macwrite and Mac-
paint, and there is no doubt that the output
quality ts impressive. The resolution of 300
dots per inch horizontally and_ vertically
compares very favourably with the 80 by 80
offered by the Imagewriter, Apple’s con-
ventional dot-matrix printer for the Mac.
The output generally looks like a very good
photocopy of typeset material, without the
random splodges found on many photo-
copiers. We did not have time to print
enough copies to see whether quality
degrades as the drum nears-the end of its life
after a claimed 3,000 pages.
While the Laserwriter’s resolution looks
good to the untrained eye, professional
typesetting systems generally start at reso-
lutions of 400 dots per inch. The difference
is noticeable, especially at the small type
sizes, but the Laserwriter is probably good
enough to allow companies to produce more
price lists, catalogues and reports in-house.
There are some definite drawbacks to
using the Laserwriter. Before printing each
new page there is a delay of about 30 seconds
on most of the text pages we printed, and up
to 10 minutes on some complex graphics
pages. Apple quotes a speed of eight pages a
minute, but this refers to subsequent copies
of the same page once the Laserwriter has
figured out how to print the image.
None of this would matter if you could do
something else on you Mac while waiting for
the Laserwriter to print, but on our setup we
could not. We understand that spooling
software to allow this is still being written.
Obviously, on a network several people have
to be able to send jobs to the printer and get
on with productive work while their jobs
wait to be printed. At the moment, this
problem restricts the Laserwriter to pro-
ducing multiple copies of fairly short
documents.
With text, best results are obtained from
the Laserwriter when you print in Helvetica,
Courier or Times, its built-in founts. You
can print in other Mac founts such as Venice
or Geneva, but these are not much
improved in resolution terms over the
Imagewriter. Normally the printer converts
any Mac fount, such as New York or
Geneva, to the nearest good Laserwriter
fount, unless you override this function.
The Laserwriter lets you scale the printed
image to make it either bigger or smaller, or
turn it sideways. This is particularly useful
for making overhead transparencies, which
we found came out very well. For producing
graphics, the Laserwriter works best with
Macdraw. The printer driver can easily
convert Macdraw images into Postscript
commands, producing very fine lines and
good resolution. The Laserwriter cannot do
much to enhance Macpaint pictures, as they
already consist of bit maps at about the res-
olution of the Mac’s screen; they come out
crisp and clear but still consisting of big,
discernable dots.
It is likely that we will be seeing a new
ctop of graphics packages that make full use
of the Laserwriter. One obvious application
area is page makeup for people who want to
produce professional-looking newsletters’
and brochures for volume printing at a
proper print shop. We hope to review
several such packages soon.
CONCLUSIONS
MUndoubtedly a superb printer, the Laser-
writer, has speed, quietness, stunning
graphics and professional-quality typefaces
going for it.
WThese spectacular features probably double
the price. Many Apple users might have pre-
ferred a more modest machine like the HP
Laserjet, at a price closer to a top-line daisy-
wheel printer.
HOnce it gets going the Laserwriter is quick,
but you may have to wait some minutes before
the machine starts to print a new page,
especially with graphics. It would help if the
machine let you get on with something during
the wait, but it does not. Print spooling is def-
initely a necessity.
WApple’s documentation for the Laserwriter is
superb. Itis full of helpful, illustrations and sug-
gestions, and is written in clear English. [K®
94
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Seikosha. Advanced business printers
for every size of business.
for the 8 built-in fonts, are located on the front panel
of the printer. Parallel and serial interfaces are
standard.
hether you're in business in a small way or
running a vast Multinational, you need the most
advanced, reliable, high performance printer you can
buy.
And that means Seikosha.
Because Seikosha produce a range of up-to-the-
minute printers to suit everyone, from the smallest to
the largest volume business user.
What all Seikosha printers share in common how
ever, is an unbeatable combination of high speeds,
superb quality printing (including NLQ), low noise
levels and the most advanced multi-function features
you'll find today.
Of course this is no more than you would expect
from the “House of Seiko”.
Take the BP 5420 for example.
Fast, quiet and designed for heavy duty use, it
combines high speed quality print at 420 cps (draft)
and 104 cps (NLQ) with an 18K buffer. For ease of
operation all user controls, plus the selector switch
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Then, exclusively for the IBM PC and compatibles
are the BP 5420] and BP 52001.
The BP 54201 combines most of the features of the
BP 5420 printer with all IBM characters, symbols and
graphics as standard. The BP 52001 operates at 206
cps (draft) and 103 cps (NLQ) and represents one of
the best value printers of its kind-on the market.
Finally, the compact SP NLQ printer series meets
the needs of smaller businesses
Available from all leading computer dealers.
Distributed exclusively by DDL. For details of your
nearest stockists contact:
5 Kings Ride Park,
Ascat, Berks. SL5 8BP
Tel: 0990 2892]
®@ Circle No. 129
Telex: 846303 DD LIDG.
is)
NATIONAL COMPUTER
SERVICES
LOWEST PRICED DOT-MATRIX PRINTER??!!
SMITH CORONA Fastext 80 cps £129
LOWEST PRICED DAISYWHEEL PRINTER??!!
DAISY JUNIOR 14 cps £189
LOWEST PRICED DAISY PRINTER/TYPEWRITER??!!
JUKI 2200 with internal serial/parallel interface £259
LOWEST PRICED NLO PRINTER??!!
MICRO P 165 16cps NLO 75cps £249
UK BEST SELLING NLO PRINTER — LOWEST PRICE??!!
CANON PW 1156A 160cps NLO 27cps £369
OTHER PRINTERS AT LOW LOW PRICES!!
EPSON RX80 £193 MICROLINE 82 £235
BROTHER HR25 £627
TRADE WAREHOUSE PRICES
UK ORDERS ADD 15% VAT & £7 + VAT for CARRIAGE
NATIONAL COMPUTER SERVICES
The Sussex Suite, City Gates, 2-4 Southgate
CHICHESTER, West Sussex P019 2DJ, England
Tel: 0243 778479 (5 lines)
Telex: 869181 Fax: 0243 780382
®@ Circle No. 130
OVER 220 AMSTRAD CASSETTE
TITLES IN STOCK
OVER 110 NOW AVAILABLE ON DISC
CPM SOFTWARE
Macro 80, Microsoft Basic, Microsoft
Basic Compiler, Turbo Pascal, BBC
Basic (Z80), Purchase Ledger, Payroll,
Database, other titles on request.
@ TAPE TO DISC TRANSFERS @
HARDWARE
CPC464 3” Disc, Timatic 53” 2nd Disc
@ £149, CPC664 now available and
Timatic 51” 2nd Drive @ £149. 3” 2nd
Drive £99.
RS232 INTERFACES
Full spec. dual RS232 £59, Full Board
includes RS232 and Rom Software, 8
bit parallel printer port, BBC
compatible user port £89.
Also available Maxam Assembler &
Quma Assembler.
Mail order welcome. Please send sae for full list to:
TIMATIC SYSTEMS LTD
NEWGATE LANE FAREHAM MARKET
FAREHAM, HANTS P014 1AN FAREHAM, HANTS
Tel: FAREHAM (0329) 239953 Tel: FAREHAM (0329) 236727
EN
@ Circle No. 131
%
TOP-LINE CHOICE / BOTTOM-LINE PRICES
Mancos Computers, Unit 3, Albany Road Trading Estate, Manchester M21 1BH
\/ENTGUARD
ACOUSTIC COVERS
The Sound of Silence
for the
Electronic
Office
Brother: CPT:
Diablo: Epson,
Facit: Honeywell,
IBM: JUKI,
Mannesman- Tally,
NEC: Olivetti: Philips,
Qume: Ricoh: Tandy,
Wang: Wordplex: Xerox.
Phone us now for
instant attention or write to:
T. MAT Limited, Sullivan Way, Loughborough
Leicestershire LE11 0QS
Telephone: Loughborough (0509) 217171 Telex: 341819
@ Circle No. 132
LOWEST PRICES IN
MATRIX PRINTERS
Mannesmon Tally ® NEC Pinwriter 8 OKI Microline ® Epson 8 Digital
Dataproducts Paper Tigers. NEW! Smith Corona
LETTER QUALITY AND LINE PRINTERS
VDUs AND MONITORS
Wyse @ Televideo 8 Tatung 8.Digital # Hazeltine 8 Dyneer
A
=~
HOHBURBEG8 ott oon onEA
@ Circle No. 133
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
PERIPHERALS LIMITED
TOTAL SUPPORT FOR QUALITY PRINTERS
CONSUMABLES AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT
READILY AVAILABLE.
a's
meat
it?
—
Conk 39 SPOR SO gine le AN ee re <. we 6 aye er Soest i: Se as
“ecireie 0, 194! > 0 PET mee oe i ek Tel, 0525371393 a
BRR een ad 35 Telex, 946240 REF. 190 10735.
R22 1 >:
ore
OX
\ wee
on 0 ONE. on
If your computer printer operates with a micro
running software written for the IBM Graphics
Printer, it won't be able to handle software produced
for the new IBM Colour Printer.
The new Dataproducts 8000 Series on the other
hand, will.
In fact, thanks to their unique built-in switching
capability, they're the only dot matrix printers on the
market to offer this dual mode capability.
And a whole lot more.
Superb colour graphics, superb mono graphics —
and a host of built-in features that you'd expect from
the world's largest independent printer manufacturer.
Features like three print speeds including letter
| in Er San a Ee ie a eS ae ES a
Please send me details on the only printer range that will
run IBM Graphics and IBM Colour Graphics at the flick of a |
switch.
Name
Position
Company
Address
Wig) EEE
To: Dataproducts Limited, Unit 1, Heron Industrial Estate,
Spencers Wood, Reading, Berkshire RG7 1PJ. PC Bias
98 @ Circle No. 135
quality, optional auto sheet feed and proven reliability.
Remember, for IBM PC, XT and AT or compatibles,
only the Dataproducts 8000 Series will run IBM
Graphics or IBM Colour Graphics at the flick of a switch.
Send for more information on the Dataproducts
dot matrix and daisy wheel printers, compatible with
IBM and other leading micro software.
—
/ \
\
| ( ——" |
Prod printers
Dataproducts Limited, Unit 1,
Heron Industrial Estate, Spencers Wood, Reading,
Berkshire RG7 1P]. Tel: (0734) 884777.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
OPEN FILE
I Open File we offer programming tips‘and free
Pi estvcrs to key in — from demonstration routines to
ready-to-use business programs. As well as major
feature programs, every month we publish a selection of
software written by our readers.
We welcome serious software for any of the micro
systems listed opposite, especially short routines and
utilities. Programs can be in machine code, Basic or any
other language.
Submissions should include a brief description which
explains what your program does, and how it does it. If
possible it should be typed, with lines double-spaced. We
need a printed program, which should be listed from a fully
debugged, working program. Hand-written listings
cannot be accepted. A tape or disc of the program helps if
it is in a standard format.
When printing listings, please remember to use a new
ribbon or double-intensity printing — faint listings
reproduce badly. Use plain paper only, cnd try to list the
program across either a 35-character or a 70-character
width. Also, make sure all special graphics, inverse video
characters or any other non-standard symbols are either
listed correctly or else include Rem statements to explain
them fully.
Each program listing, tape or disc must have your name
and address onit, or we cannot promise its safe return. A
stamped addressed envelope is appreciated.
If you write in with a comment, correction or enquiry
please state the machine and the program title.
We pay atleast £10 for any programs used, or £35 per
page and pro rata for part pages.
OPEN FILE MONITORS
Amstrad lan Stobie
Apple Bill Hill
BBC Nicholas McCutcheon
Commodore Mike Todd
CP/M Jack Schofield
IBM PC Jack Schofield
Tandy John Wellsman
Research Machines lan Stobie
Sharp John Hooper
Sinclair QL Glyn Moody
FEATURES
100
PROGRAM PORTABILITY
Writing programs on an IBM PC to transfer to an Apricot
102
MACHINE-CODE SUBROUTINES
How to link a machine-code subroutine to an MBasic program running under CP/M
BBC
108
ROM DISC: Transferring paged ROMs to disc
APPLE
112
ON RESET GOTO: A routine to disable the Reset key
IBM
114
DIR BYTE-SUM: A program to tell you how many free bytes there are on disc
KEY UTILITY: Work out when the special keys have been pressed
DOS PROMPT: Change the system prompt in PC-DOS
SYSTEM CHECK: Check the facilities of an IBM PC
END OF FILE
116
PRINTING FOREIGN TEXT: Extra characters for the Epson FX-80
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
99
SINALNOD
PEN PIE
APRICOT
PROGRAM PORTABILITY
Kenneth Haynes explains how IBM PC programs can be written with an eye to
transferring them on to Apricot micros.
PORTABILITY is mot simply a | TABLE 1.
question of choosing the right lan-
guage and the right compiler. IBM Apricot
What matters most is program- Clear Screen 10 CLS 10 PRINT CHRS$(&H1B) +CHR$(&H45);
ming technique. Position Cursor 20 LOCATE 20 PRINT CHRS$(&H1B) + CHRS$(&H59) + CHRS(ROW +32) +
When using Basic, machine- (ROW,COL) CHRS$(COL+32)
specific code should be avoided.
This is because this type of pro- TABLE 2. shown in table 1, in such a manner
gramming in Basic tends to use a that we may still utilise the same
surprisingly large amount of code 10 REM Program code. program code. Table 2 shows the
and leads to the inevitable path 20 ROW = 10: COL = 10 : GOSUB 1000
most commonly used solution for
of two separate program source such a problem: the Include state-
codes. It is a practice which should ment.
be avoided as it can lead to a host 999 Sin | ae This method is fine for most
: include: Stdi/o.inc ;
of problems when the time comes : : — programs, but large programs with
to modify or update your program Using the Include technique. The file Stdi/o.ine should contain tight memory constraints or pro-
code. If machine-specific code isto | | 0% of the machine-specific formats shown in table 1. grams with which the execution
be used, it would be advisable to speed is paramount should utilise
use a library-orientated language TABLE 3. an assembly subroutine. The
such C. push bp reason for this is that the Include
There is surprisingly little in- push ax ¥ sv register contents method involves the constant re-
compatibility between IBM Basic push dx assignment of the row and column
(Basica) and the Microsoft Basic mov bp,sp ; Copy stack pointer into bp co-ordinates prior to the cursor
supplied with the Apricot, mov —ah,06h ; Set up ah for function 6 addressing routine being called.
MSBasic, with the exception of mov dl, ibh ; Escape code Having utilised a cursor addressing
some display, communication and int 21h ; Send code to VDU assembly routine, the routine
initialisation functions. First, we mov dl,59h ; ASCII for ‘‘Y"’ would no longer be placed in the
will look at the two functions | | int 21h ; Send code to VDU Stdi/o.inc file — see table 2
which are the basis for most mov _al, byte ptr6 [bp] ; Move row co-ordinate into al and the call would remain resident
program incompatibility prob- | | 24d al,20h ; add 32 decimal to row co-ordinate in the program code.
lems; the Clear Screen and the || ™ov dual : The call would now read
cursor positioning screen ad- as siete ey : so ees awe A nnnn CALL LOCATE%(10, 10)
‘ : ; : : oe
presen Fanti. add al,20h ; Add 32 decimal to column co-ordinate uli lieecctaes Uses tnas as
As you can see from table 1, the
Basic formats for the IBM and
Apricot ate quite different. This is
because Basica is MSBasic which
has been adapted especially for the
IBM PC, whereas the version of
mov 8 Mat variable which contains the offset
= 21h sen alcodenonvDU to the assembly routine address.
pop bp : The segment to the address is set
pop ax Restore register contents to entry values using the Def Seg statement prior
pop dx to the call. Clearly, some assembly
ret 4 ; Number of arguments * 2 knowledge is required and great
Basic supplied with the Apricot has . cate should be taken to observe
not been modified. At first sight | | How the row and column co-ordinates can be picked up by the the Call statement’s conventions.
this may seem unfair. After all, if | | cursor position function. The row and column arguments are Table 3 shows one way of passing
IBM can do it, why not ACT? passed via their addresses. the row and column co-ordinates
While ACT has not modified the to the assembly routine and
supplied Basic it has, however, sending the appropriate codes to
supplied the programmer with a the VDU.
staggering number of Escape Manuals of previous releases of
sequences, some of which are so ree Basic have been less than helpful
powerful that the IBM equivalent Le Bt 19000 when it comes to explaining
would take up 10 times the pe RETURN nPEN WK #8#RRE assembly language interfacing
amount of program code. 12000 REM at 8 with Basic, and the Basica and
An example of this is Escape anos GeO MSBasic manuals supplied with
* "which copies the entire screen bee ALKE y=10_ g eADw CL) 21 3NEXT the IBM and Apricot computers
display into the keyboard buffer, 12040 FOR ar t@000 pie appear to be no exception. How-
which is 2K in size. Although this ier BOT URN nc FReee* ever, if you can lay your hands ona
is rather an obscure example, it Oe REM #ANRE* wee ee copy of the Sirus 1 Basic-86
does illustrate the sheer power and 13010 AL* et manual you will find that it covers
ease with which the Escape e028 oe(ayal the subject admirably, and is
sequences can be utilised. How- 3040 ASK CO)= useful even to the less experienced
ever, a full listing of the Escape 13050 ee assembly programmer. You will
sequences is not supplied with the 1390 SOT URN 4 =e a find all the information you will
Apricot’s documentation, thus 1B000 REM =e#2** CALL ame 4%(0) ,AEKCO)? need to utilise the technique des-
making the purchase of the 12000 Oe ee) 2460) ASK) «A : cribed on pages 16 and 104 to 107
Apricot Technical Reference icone GEE SEG: RETURN of the manual.
Manual, which retails for around ok Table 4 lists the compiler
£25, a necessity for the serious pro- compatible functions that 1s,
grammer. those functions which the compiler
will accept — which differ between
Basica and MSBasic. It is those
The main problem is to be able
Me ee, oe the Formats Machine-specific code should be avoided at all costs.
100 PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
functions which were added to
Basica to enable the programmer
to access some screen- and com-
munication-handling routines
which are the ones to avoid.
The Apricot functions in table 4
which have no Basic equivalent in
MSBasic should not be used. IBM’s
Pos function will return the current
column position of the cursor. On
the Apricot it will return a value
between 1 and 2,000, depending
on the position of the cursor,
relevant to the entire screen where
the screen display is 25 lines by 80
columns.
A similar problem occurs with
IBM’s CrsLin function which
returns the cursor’s current line
number. Again, the nearest to this
in MSBasic is Pos, If the cursor
position needs to be calculated,
the best method to use would be to
place the appropriate code in the
Include file Stdi/o.inc:as in table
5. Then Gosub 2000 will place the
screen relative position of the
cufsor into the integer variable
Position%, and we can work out
the row and column co-ordinates
from this value.
However, care should be taken
so as not to use the variable
Position% for any other purpose.
The function Width can be
utilised in much the same way as
Pos(X) except no returned value is
required. If the program is to be
_ used with either a monochrome or
colour monitor, Basic is not the
best language to use as, depending
on the number of monitor
dependent functions, a global
variable will need to be intialised
and a conditional call made to
whichever routine is needed,
depending on the type of monitor
indicated by the global variable.
This produces fat more program
code than would normally be
acceptable and the program exe-
cution speed would be reduced.
Again, this problem could be
overcome by using assembly-ian-
guage routines, but this calls for a
far greater level of expertise and .
would dramatically increase the
LISTING 1.
main()
printf(’’text text text’’);
development time and costs. In
this case, a library-orientated lan-
guage should be used.
As any C programmer will
know, a program written in the C
language is nothing more than a
series of functions. So, in the case
of our incompatible functions, no
provision would have to be made
in the program code for them.
The Clear Screen function in
listing 1 is programmed to clear the
Apticot’s screen. So in order to
make it flexible we must remove
the function Clear__Scr and place
it in a separate source file. In this
case, we would put all the VDU
telated functions — Clear Screen,
cursor positioning, direct screen
addressing, etc. — in libraries
called, for example, vdu__apr and
vdu__ibm. We would link in the
appropriate file at link time, that is
A>I|n myprog vdu__opr
Bearing in mind that we may
be using machine-specific code,
thought should be given to the
other areas in which creating
libraries would be advisable. For
example, input/output functions
and, if possible, grouping together
other machine-specific functions
which fall into neither of the cate-
gories mentioned.
To the programmer unfamiliar
with libraries it may seem a little
confusing at first, but all we are
doing is following the basic C pro-
gramming conventions, which can
be picked up in very little time
by those familiar with another
programming language. As I
mentioned earlier, the colour
monitor does add a further com-
plication to our task but using the
C language the solution is quite
simple.
For example, suppose that we
wanted the program to leave the
screen blue every time we used the
Clear Screen function, we could
just add the statement Color 10,1
pfior to clearing the screen. But
this statement would not be valid
on a monochrome monitor, so in
order to overcome this problem we
use a global variable, the status of
*/ When o key is pressed, the next function
(clear_scr) will clear the screen. /*
clear__scr();
exit();
clear__ser{)
putchar(27);
putchor ('’E’’);
H
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
*/ Clears the Apricot’s screen /*
TABLE 4.
IBM
Beep
Apricot
PRINT CHRS(7);
Circle
Cls
Color —_
Com
CrsLin Pos
Draw —_—
Key
Line
Locate
PRINT CHRS(&H1B)+
32) + CHRS$(COL +32);
LOf
MkDir
On Com
On Key
On Pen
On Strig =
Open
Com...
Paint
Pen
Play
Point
Pos
PSet _—
PreSet
Screen
Sound
Stick
Strig —
VarPtr$
Width
TABLE 5.
IBM
2000 POSITION% = POS(DUMMY%) +
CRSLIN(DUMMY%)
2010 RETURN
which indicates whether we have a
colour or monochrome monitor
attached to the computer. This
basic principle will work with
all the monitor related functions
as shown in listing 2, where
col_mon is the global variable.
It is possible to place all the
machine-specific functions in one
library, but this is bad pro-
gramming practice as it tends to
LISTING 2.
function__name()
if (! col__man)
PRINT CHRS(&H1B) + “’E”;
CHR$(&H59) + CHRS(ROW +
The compiler-compatible functions which must be avoided in
order to maintain machine-independency. Many IBM
commands have no equivalent on the Apricot.
APRICOT
Comments
Apricot format should be
used on both machines.
See table 1.
Format difference.
See table 1.
Format difference.
Format difference.
Apricot
2000 POSITION =
POS(DUMMY%)
2010 RETURN
make finding a particular function
difficult.
When using C you must care-
fully plan the use of such functions
ptior to their implementation,
otherwise you may well end up
with a program full of functions
which call another function which
in turn calls another function and
so on, just to perform the simplest
of operations. PC
*/ monachrame function code */
}
else
*/ calour function code /*
}
}
101
44 NAdO
OPEN FILE
MBASIC
MACHINE-CODE subroutines can
often provide a solution to special
requirements which are not
catered for directly in MBasic. In
addition, when certain processing
tasks are proving annoyingly slow,
a machine-code subroutine may be
the answer. The code so produced
is often faster in operation than
that obtained by compiling pure
MBasic source code.
Before you rush in to coding you
must first decide where to put the
machine code in memory. MBasic
itself loads under CP/M at 100hex
and stretches up to a little beyond
6000hex. Your Basic program and
variables go above this and use the
space up to CP/M’s FDOS.
MBasic can be loaded using the
/M: switch to free a space, but at
this point you might not know
what value to specify for the top of
MBasic. So proceed by loading
your Basic as normal and then
type:
PRINT HEX$((PEEK(7) * 256)
Location 7 contains the high byte
for the starting address of the
CP/M FDOS. On my 56K North
Star using CP/M 2.2 I obtain the
value C500hex. This now gives
some idea of where code may be
placed. If in future I boot up
MBasic using:
A>MBASIC /M:&HC000
then I have 500hex bytes free for
my machine code.
Alternatively MBasic 5 can resize
itself using the Clear command:
CLEAR, & HCO00
Now you might think that an
MBasic program which Peeks
location 7 and then resizes itself
automatically using Clear would
run with the same free space for
machine code, whatever the size of
RAM available. However, this
approach is not without its draw-
FIGURE 1.
MVI
LXI
CALL 5
RET
DB
Gao
LD
LD
CALL 5
RET
DEFM ‘HELLO’
DEFB 18,13,36
(8
102
D, MESS
'HELLO',18,13,'$'
LISTING 1.
CLEAR, &HCO8S
MLOC=&HCOBS
FOR J=8 TO 16
READ N
POKE MLOC+J,N
NEXT J
98
166 CALL MLOC
116 END
REM MAKE AN AREA FOR THE CODE
REM PUT CODE INTO MEMORY
REM CALL IT WHEN EVER I WANT IT
120 DATA 14,9,17,9,192, 205,50), 201
138 DATA 72,69,76,76,79,18,13,36
MACHINE-CODE
SUBROUTINES
David Dawe details the techniques required to link a machine-
code subroutine to an MBasic program running under CP/M, with
examples for 8080 and Z-80 systems.
backs, since the code you need to
use will probably have its origin
fixed. Z-80 freaks hold your
horses! I know you have relative
jumps, but you don’t have any
relative Calls and any useful sub-
routine will contain Calls and so
cannot be considered relocatable
unless it contains some very clever
stack manipulations.
The link between MBasic and
machine code is via one of the two
statements USR and Call. The
former exists in MBasic 5 only to
achieve compatibility with earlier
versions. Use of Call is much
better, and it is this technique that
is covered here. Call provides the
ability to use a machine-code sub-
routine, and in addition allows a
number of parameters to be passed
FIGURE 2.
Hex
OE 09
11 09 CO
CD 05 00
C9
48 45 4C 4C 4F 0A OC 24
to the subroutine and also to
collect the returned values.
As an example of Calling a
machine-code program without
parameter passing, let us write a
routine to print ‘‘Hello’’ — a
common introduction to many
computing techniques. The pro-
cedure to print a string under
CP/M is to write code that Calls
the BDOS function number 9. A9
must be placed in the C register,
and the DE register pair must
contain the address of the message
to be printed. This message must
terminate with a § sign.
MBasic protects itself by saving
all registers before responding to
your Call, but if parameters are
passed then the registers are
required and you may have to save
Decimal
14 09
17 09 192
205 05 00
201
72 69 76 76 79 10 13 36
;BDOS function 9
saddress locator
;call cpm
sreturn to MBASIC
DE, MESS
;the message + CRLF & $
them in a local area or on the stack.
It is unlikely that you will need to
allocate a separate stack area since
MBasic’s is quite big enough. The
source code is shown in figure 1.
The source code must be assem-
bled to determine the object code.
We also have to decide how MBasic
is to place this code in memory at
the location allocated. The process
of assembly may use ASM or
ZASM, etc., or it may be done
manually by looking up the hex
codes and calculating the decimal
equivalents using an origin of
C000. The manual method is just
as quick for small routines and
gives the results shown in figure 2.
Placing these values in Basic
Data statements gives listing 1, our
first program with a machine-code
subroutine.
The next step is to write a
program that passes a value to be
processed by the subroutine. At
this point it is important to realise
the difference between the types of
variable that MBasic uses, and the
way in which they are stored.
There are four types of variable:
integer variables, such as A%, use
two bytes; single-precision vari-
ables, such as A or A!, use four
bytes; double-precision variables,
such as A#, use eight bytes; and
string variables, such as A$, use up
to 255 bytes. Integer variables are
stored low byte then high byte in
the same way that machine code
deals with 16-bit values. This
means that providing the value
you want to process lies in the
range - 32,768 to 32,767 then you
should always use integers as par-
ameters to be passed.
Single-precision variables use a
three-byte mantissa and a one-byte
exponent, while double-precision
values have a seven-byte mantissa
plus one-byte exponent. The
format is similar to the normal
representation. String variables are
as long as you make them, subject
to the 255-character maximum,
but there is a three-byte overhead
which gives the length of the string
and the address where it is stored.
The next example, which passes
a parameter to the subroutine, is
again chosen for its simplicity. It
passes a value of A%, where A% is
less than 128, and doubles it. This
restriction ensures that the result
can be contained in a single byte.
The MBasic part of the program is
simply to clear space as before,
Input the value of A%, Call the
subroutine, and print out the new
value of A%. The Call is simply
written as
CALL MLOCIA%)
but the hurdle we now have to
overcome is how to locate where
A% is stored in memory so that we
can double it.
Having Called the machine code
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
the HL register pair contains the
address of the location where
MBasic is storing the value of A%.
HL does not contain the value of
A%. We must now pick up the
value from the address pointed to
by HL. This will give the low byte
of A% — which is all that is
needed since A% is small —
doubles it and replaces it where it
came from. The necessary code is
shown in table 1. The calling
program might be as shown in
listing 2.
If the subroutine needs HL,
then the present contents must be
stored for later. The code in figure
3 does much the same as before
but deals with larger numbers, as
both bytes of the integer are con-
sidered in the doubling code. If
you use Zilog code then the
routine may be simplified by using
some of the Zilog-only instruc-
tions.
The calling program is much the
same as before but uses the follow-
ing Data lines. Change the limit of
the For statement in line 50 to 20:
1000 DATA 34,19, 192,94,35,86,
33,0,0,25,25
1010 DATA 235,42,19,192,115,
35,114,201,0,0
Another example of passing a
single parameter is given in the
following very useful program. It is
used to change the currently
logged disc drive from within
MBasic without going down to
operating-system level. CP/M
function number 14 is used by
simply using the machine code
shown in figure 4. Since this code
is totally relocatable it can be
placed anywhere in RAM. The
MBasic program given in listing 3
Peeks CP/M to determine its size
and places the subroutine at the
top of RAM, having Cleared a
space for it. This calling activity
only changes the logged disc drive
temporarily, until MBasic is
exited. It is also necessary to
TABLE 1.
Intel Zilog
MOV M,L LD (HL),L
ADD A ADD A,A
MOV L,M LD L,(HL)
RET RET
LISTING 2.
16
26
38.
CLEAR, &HCOB8
MLOC=&HC8BS
408
58 FOR J=@ To 3
6@ READ N
78 POKE MLOC+J,N
88 NEXT J
98
116
128
136
CALL MLOC(A$%)
END
DATA 126,135,119, 261
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
REM PUT CODE INTO MEMORY
INPUT "WHAT VALUE TO DOUBLE"; A%
REM CALL IT WHEN I WANT IT
PRINT "THE DOUBLED VALUE IS ";A%
FIGURE 3.
- INTEL
ORG SCOOGH
SHLD KEEP
MOV
INX
MOV
LXI
DAD
DAD
XCHG
LHLD
MOV
INX
MOV
RET
KEEP : DS
LISTING 4.
COBB
COBB
C81
C882
C883
C804
CBO5
COB6
C808
COB9
COBA
COOB
COBE
| FIGURE 4.
INTEL
C285Cce
co
MOV E,M
MVI C,14
CALL 5
RET
change the least-significant nybble
of location 4, where CP/M keeps a
note of the currently logged drive,
if you want to return to the newly
selected drive after a System
command.
When passing single- and
double-precision variables you
should proceed as before. But be
careful, since the address passed in
HL is the address of where to find
Hex Dec
TE 126
87 135
7 119
C9 201
REM MAKE AN AREA FOR THE CODE
ZILOG
OCOBSH
(KEEP ),HL
7ZeEr° HG
;add DE to HL
; twice
;xfer result to DE
;restore pointer
;replace var in memory
7xfer length to B
;xfer str addr to DE
.
-
?get char from string
;modify the ASCII pattern
;put it back
;bump pointer
;decrement count
;done ?
7get passed var
7BDOS fn 14
7gO set drive
7return to MBASIC
the four- or eight-byte representa-
tion of the variable. Handling of
these bytes by your subroutine will
be much more complicated than
using two-byte integer values.
String variables are handled
similarly, but this time HL
contains the address where you
find the three-byte descriptor for
the actual string. The first byte
pointed to is the string length, and
the next two are the string address.
As an example, the calling pro-
LISTING 3.
tketkatkathkare
138 '
1528
"PROGRAM BY D F DAWE
D%=ASC( DRIVES )-65
RESET
FOR J=6 TO 6
READ N
POKE DEST+J,N
NEXT J
CALL DEST(D%)
END
7Origin of free space
;save
7xfer var to DE
IPE SSE SSSA RESESE REE RES ESESES RES ER REE ERR RSE EE ES
XDISK
DR ERERERAERAERERENEEEKREEREAKKAERAEARAK KAA ERE EE
"Program to change logged disk drive from MBASIC
"CORNWALL MICROELECTRONICS CENTRE
CLEAR , PEEK(7)*256+PEEK(6)-108
INPUT "WHICH DRIVE IS REQUIRED.....";DRIVES
IF Dt=@ OR D%=l1 THEN 248 ELSE 2086
POKE 4,(PEEK(4) AND &HFO)+D%
DEST=PEEK(7 ) *256+PEEK(6)-19
CLEAR, PEEK(7)*256+PEEK(6)-2
DATA 94,14,14,195,5,8,281
me MBASIC
pointer
gram will pass a string of upper-
case letters and the subroutine will
change the string into lower case.
The program also works for the
Opposite conversion.
The technique relies upon the
similarity of the ASCII codes used
for the upper- and lower-case
letters. XOring the pattern for A
with 20hex gives the pattern for a,
and vice versa. The subroutine in
8080 code is shown in listing 4,
and the calling program is shown
in listing 5.
If more than one variable is to be
processed then the Call takes the
form
CAUL(Varl, var2... secaneerer.. varN)
and, having Called, the register
contents are as follows: HL the
(continued on ‘next page)
kk kkkkkkkkkhkak
103
4l4 NadO
:
MBASIC
~ LISTING 5. LISTING 7.
— 18 REM MAKE AN AREA FOR THE CODE one gcosen
ee. Ed Sopa tM ; FIRST STORE PASSED PARAMETERS...HL & DE IN USE
= PUSH HL
ve 49 REM PUT CODE INTO MEMORY PUSH DE
58 FOR J=@ TO 14 ;NOW MULT FN NUMBER IN A BY 2
| | J |. 68 READ N A, (HL) 7get function number
78 POKE MLOC+J,N ce 4 ;valid functions are © to 3
jas 88 NEXT J JR NC, ERROR ;invalid so return
98 INPUT "WHAT IS YOUR STRING"; AS ADD ALA idouble it
18@ REM CALL IT WHEN I WANT IT bi oan ee cues
’ 7ze
eal LD HL, TABLE ;get table addr ;
13@ END ADD HL, BC rand offset to reqd jump
;HL NOW POINTS TO REQUIRED JUMP TABLE ENTRY
1800 DATA 78,35,94,35,86,26,238,32,18,19 JP (HL) :go there
1818 DATA 5,194,5,192,261
ERROR: POP DE ;Yestore stack & return to basi
LISTING 6. POP HL
RET jand return to MBASIC
4total number of vars ao gE =
SHLD AP1 ;save addr of varl IR FN2
XCHG 7xchg DE with HL JR FN3
SHLD AP2 ;,save addr of var2
MVI A,NUM-2 7count of remainder 7; FUNCTION @ TO TRANSLATE TO LOWER CASE
LXI D,AP3 ;addr of local store FNO: PoP DE restore parms
MOV H,B 3xfer table addr to BC POP HL
MOV L,C CALL COLLECT ;reposition parms
MORE: MOV C,M MORE@: LD A, (HL) iget character
INX H CALL FIX@ 3f£ix it
MOV B,M INC HL 7;bump memory pointer
DEC B ;decrement char count
INX H : JR NZ, MORES ;more ?
XCHG #point HL to local store RET ;done
MOV M,C jsave addr of var locally FIX@: cP WAL Se jis it above letter 'Z' ?
INX H RET NC ;skip it
MOV M,B cP As zis it below letter 'A' ?
INX H RET c 7skip it
XCHG ;restore table pointer ADD A, 208 iupper case bias
DCR A ;decrement count <a Lon Ieepl ace
JNZ MORE ;done ?
Fite inan : * ?FUNCTION 1 TO TRANSLATE TO UPPER CASE
s in here >
your subroutine FN1: POP DE ;restore addrs
PoP HL
CALL COLLECT 7xreposition addrs
MOREL: LD A, (HL) ;get character
APl Ds 2 gstore for addr of varl CALL FIX1 #fix it
AP2 DS 2 ;store for addr of var2 INC HL ibump memory pointer
AP3 DS (NUM-2)*2 ;store for var 3-8 DEC B idectemensicount
(continued from previous page)
address of varl; DE, the address of
var2; and BC the addtess of an area
of memory where MBasic is storing
a table of two-byte addresses which
indicate where the remaining
variables may be found. When
dealing with string variables the
contents of HL, DE or the table
address, as appropriate, will give
the string descriptor location.
Your subroutine must know
exactly the type and number of the
variables to be passed. Having
Called the subroutine we are
immediately faced with the prob-
lem of unloading the registers of
the vital information that they
contain before we can use them
ourselves. Thus we must set up a
local storage area to accept them or
use the stack. For a total of eight
variables we might proceed using a
local storage area, as in listing 6.
Listing 7 is a working example,
coded in Z-80 mnemonics, of
passing two variables. It uses the
stack for noting the contents of DE
and HL. The subroutine call takes
the form
CALL MLOC(F%, AS)
where A$ is a string which is to be
processed and F% controls what is
to be done with it. Only alphabetic
| LISTING 8.
198 CLEAR, &HCOOD
116 MLOC=&HCOOS
128 PRINT "DEMONSTRATION OF PARAMETER PASSING"
138 FOR J=8 TO 128
149 READ N
158 POKE MLOCt+J,N
166 NEXT J
178 INPUT "Message required"; A$
188 FOR F%=8 TO 3
198 CALL MLOC(F%,AS$)
260 PRINT AS
218 NEXT F%
228 END
238 DATA 229,213,126, 254,4,48,9,135,79,6
248 DATA @,33,19,192,9,233,289,225,201,24
258 DATA 6,24,28,24,50,24,69, 209,225,205
260 DATA 121,192,126,265,41,192-,,35,5,32,248
276 DATA 261,254,91,2088,254,65,216,198,32,119
280 DATA 261,209,225,205,121,192,126,205,65,192
298 DATA 35,5,32,248,281,254,123,208,254,97
368 DATA 216,214,32,119,201,289,225,285,121,192
318 DATA 126,295,65,192,35,5,208,126,205,41
7 320 DATA 192,35,5,32,248, 201,209,225,2805,121
338 DATA 192,126,265,65,192,35,5,200,126,205
349 DATA 41,192,35,5,200,254,32,48,238,24
358 DATA 243,235,78,35,94,35,86,235,281,129
104 PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
JR NZ, MORE]
RET
FIX1: ce ‘2'+1
RET NC
CP rat
RET Cc
SUB 20H
LD (HL),A
RET
; FUNCTION 1
FN2: POP DE
POP HL
CALL COLLECT
LD A, (HL)
CALL FIX1
INC HL
DEC B
RET Z
MORE2: LD A, (HL)
CALL FIX
INC HL
DEC B
JR NZ,MORE2
RET
;FUNCTION 3 FIRST LETTER OF ALL
FN3: POP DE
POP HL
CALL COLLECT
LOOP: LD A, (HL)
CALL FIX1
INC HL
DEC B
RET Z
MORE3: LD A, (HL)
CALL FIX@
INC HL
DEC B
RET Z
cP oe
JR Z, LOOP
JR MORE3
; SUBROUTINE TO COLLECT PARMS AS
COLLECT ; EX DE, HL
LD B, (HL)
INC HL
LD E, (HL)
INC HL
LD D, (HL)
EX DE, HL
RET
characters are affected by this.
If F% is set to 0-then all trans-
lation is to lower case. If F% is set
to 1 then all translation is to upper
case. If F% is set to 2 then only the
first character is translated to upper
case; the rest will be lower case. If
F% is set to 3 then the first charac-
ter of each word is translated to
upper case; the rest will be lower
case. This is an excellent example
since it shows how much faster
strings can be processed by
machine code, rather than by
functions.
The demonstration Calling pro-
gram is shown in listing 8. If you
need to pass a number of values
which are in the range 0 to 255, it
might be easier to Poke them into
the free memory area directly and
let your subroutine take them up
from there. You may even place
results back into such locations and
on returning to MBasic pick them
up again by Peeking them.
On a practical note, the biggest
problem you will face in using the
ideas presented in this article is
converting the machine code into
the MBasic Data statements. The
method I use is to write the source
code using any standard editor,
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
using MBasic’s string-handling:
;more ?
;done
tis it above letter ‘z‘ ?
pskip it
zis it below letter '
?skip it
;subtract bias
ireplace
TRANSLATE FIRST CHAR TO UC & REMAINDER TO LC
jrestore stack
;first char
;force upper case
;bump memory pointer
;decrement count
rdone ?
7get next char
;force remaining chars to le
;bump memory pointer
;decrement count
;more chars ?
;done
WORDS UC REST LC
?restore stack
;reposition addrs
7first char
;fix it
;bump memory pointer
;decrement count
;done ?
iget next char
prix Ait
zbump memory pointer
sdecrement count
7done ?
jwas last char a space ?
yyes ..so treat next as first
jno....treat for lc
REQD
;swop de & hl
;put length in b
tlow byte of string address
thigh byte of string address
;Swop back again
;done
and then assemble it to produce
the Intel standard .Hex file using
ASM or ZASM/Link, etc. Having
obtained the .Hex file I simply run
the program shown in listing 9,
which reads the .Hex file and
writes a .Dat file which contains
the MBasic Data lines as required.
The lines start from any line
number and increment by 10.
They have 10 items of data on each
line. In addition, a final value is
added to the data which gives the
total number of items preceding it.
LISTING 9.
‘LISTING 10.
IF X$=CHR$(27) THEN END
CALL CODE
168 GOTO 70
LISTING 11.
PUBLIC CODE
BDOS EQU 5
PRSTR EQU 9
CODE: MvI C,PRSTR
LXI D,MESS
CALL BDOS
RET
MESS: DB
DB
DB
END
This figure is helpful since it gives
the looping total for Poking the
data into memory. The looping
figure should be one less than the
last item in the Data. The .Dat file
may be loaded or even merged as
required, since it is an ASCII-
format file. I have been using this
program for some time, and so far
it seems to cope with all I have
demanded of it.
If you have Bascom, the Micro-
soft Compiler, then any programs
saved in ASCII can be compiled
directly using the sequence:
A> BASCOM = PROGNAME
and then linked with
A>L80 PROGNAMEI/N,
PROGNAME/E
This is the standard use of the
compiler. Watch out for the
common pitfalls of using some
form of coding that is acceptable
for interpreted Basic but which is
not supported by Bascom.
The more professional approach
is to write your subroutine and
MBasic program separately and
combine them at link time. This
avoids all the awful Poking and
Data statements. Write the MBasic
“Each time you hit a key I will”
“print a message using a m/c subroutine"
16 PRINT “ DEMOSTRATION OF
28 PRINT
36 PRINT
48 PRINT
58 PRINT "Hit ESC to finish"
68 PRINT:PRINT
78 XS$=INPUTS (1)
‘This message was printed',19,13
‘py a machine code subroutine',10,13
‘of a MBASIC program',16,13,'$' ;
MBASIC
MACHINE CODE CALL"
part of the program as before, but
this need now only contain the
Call statement. Since there are no
Data, Pokes or even an address of
the machine code, the interpreted
version will not run as before.
Secondly, write the subroutine.
This should have a label which is
referenced by the Call in the
MBasic statement, and is defined
as a Public or Global variable. Use
Bascom to compile the MBasic part
and presumably M-80, as this is
part of the compiler package, to
assemble the machine-code part
without an origin. Note that M-80
assumes a .Mac extension.
Finally, link the two together.
The linker will decide where to
place the subroutine in memory
and arrange for the MBasic part to
find it correctly, which is why you
must not specify the absolute
address of the subroutine in your
program.
The MBasic in listing 10 makes a
simple Call to a subroutine that
prints a message. This program I
have called. MBDemo.Bas and
saved it in ASCII format using
SAVE’’MBDEMO”’,A
(continued on next page)
-HEX file into"
«DAT file which may be merged intoa MBASIC program”
“ready for POKEing into memoryas a M/C subroutine.”
“THE LAST ITEM IN THE DATA IS THE NUMBER OF PRECEDING BYTES"
19g PRINT “Vkk&kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk"
20 ePRENC eae *** HEX2DAT *****%
38 PRINT Vek kkKKKKKKKKKKKkKKKKEK"
48 PRINT
58 PRINT “Program to convert a
60 PRINT "a
78 PRINT
88 PRINT
98 PRINT
188 PRINT
116 INPUT"STATE FILENAME TO CONVERT";NS$
128 DIM BS(588)
136 OPEN "I",#1,NS$+"..HEX"
148 LINE INPUT #1,A$
158 GOSUB 440:FB=NB
16@ CLOSE
178 OPEN "I",#1,NS$+".HEX"
188 WHILE NOT EOF(1)
198 LINE INPUT #1,A$
(listing continued on page 106)
105
4l4 N4dO
ml
MBASIC
at ({cantinued from previous page) LISTING 9.
== | Having returned to CP/M using —, :
a rhe System canna you can now {listing continued from page 105)
invoke the compiler to produce a 2a¢ GOSUB 44@
FA -Rel file from the MBasic source 219 IF NB=FBtI THEN 258
code with 229 FOR K=l1 TO NB-(FBtI)
bl A>BASCOM=MBDEMO 230 I=I+1:B¢ (1) =0
a. The machine-code routine | 246 NEXT K
O have called MCDemo. Mac simply 258 FOR‘J=1@ TO LEN(A$)-2 STEP 2
panes We meee Note the 268 X$=MID$(A$,J,1):GOSUB 5@@:L=Z
-Public declaration of the label git ee ees, Fie ROSE “SOAs R=2
Code, which will be searched for || 39g aie rere
during link time. This subroutine, 300 WEND
shown in listing 11, must now be
assembled using M-80 to produce | | 310 INPUT "STATE NUMBER OF FIRST DATA LINE"; LN
another .Rel file. To do this a2p net Ps -
A>M80= MCDEMO oe ee ee
_ You must now use the L-80 35@ PRINT #2,LN;"DATA ";
linker to link together the .Rel files 369 FOR J=1 TO 19
which were obtained from the 379 I=I+1
MBasic program and the sub- 380 IF J<>1®@ THEN PRINT #2,RIGHTS(STRS$(B%(I)), LEN( STR§(B8 (I) ))-
routine. You must also specify that | | 399 IF J= 18 THEN PRINT #2, RIGHTS (STR$(B%(I)),LEN(STRS (B%(I)))
the library file Baslib is to satisfy 420 IF I=N THEN 548
any references to code required by 41@ NEXT J
the linker. The command line 420 LN=LN+16
A>L80=MBDEMO, MCDEMOIS, 449 REM Find address for the bytes in A$
458 NB=@
BASLIB/S, DEMO/N/E pee ea ged to 7
gr oun paleo tee ae X$=MID$(A$,J,1):GOSUB 5@0:NB=NB+Z*16"(7-J)
resulting code to a file called 480 NEXT J
Demo.Com. This is the alternative 498 RETURN
compile and _link procedure, 5@@ REM CONVERSION SUBROUTINE
invoking Obslib. The switches 519 IF ASC(X$)>64 THEN Z=ASC(X$)-55
used in the link command are as 526 IF ASC(X$)<64 THEN Z=VAL(X$)
follows: /S means search this file | | 538 RETURN
for undefined globals; /N means
this is the name of the file to be | | 948 PRINT #2, RIGHTS (STRS$(1I) , LEN(STR$(I))-1)
saved; and /E means exit L-80 and Hers —
return to CP/M. PC
DWP-1120 £299
NOW REDUCED TO:
Daisy Wheel Printer f 2 2 5
Unicorn
Business Systems
15 Ticknall Road, Hartshorne, Burton-on-Trent
COMPUTERS
APRICOT F1 + Software
APRICOT PC + Software + Monitor
AS ABOVE but with 2 x 720K
SANYO MBC 550 1 x 160K + Software
SANYO MBC 550 2x 160K + Software
SANYO MBC 555-2 2x 360K + Sofware
SANYO 555-4 2 x 800K + Software
OLIVETT! WYSE Altos
Printing speed: 20CPS
13” paper capacity
96-character printwheel
Spacings: 10-12-15-PS
Printwheel & ribbon: Qume compatible
COMPLETE SYSTEMS: RING FOR OTHERS
SANYO SANYO APRICOT PC
MBC 550 MBC 555.2 ACT 9” MONITOR
Sanyo Monitor Sanyo Monitor
rinter rinter Printer
£400 Free Siware| | £1000 Free S/ware Free Software
Cable Cable } Cable
i
£1095 «=| 1605 «= «£1695
a
Curzon systems ttd.
38 STANLEY AVENUE
ST ALBANS
HERTS AL2 3AZ 0727 50674
@ Circle No. 163
106 @ Circle No. 162 PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
ini
0283 212442/0530 412333
PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS
VISIT OUR NEW SHOW ROOM
MICRONIX ESB-1
32 BIT MULTIUSER COMPUTER
NOW AVAILABLE
ESB-MATE
EXPANSION BOARD
upgrades ESB-1 to 4 user!
512K RAM, 2 serial ports,
parallel port SASI Hard Disk
interface, clock/calendar
£399+ VAT
¥% 68008 8 MHz CPU * 128 RAM (expandable to 256K) * Up to 64K EPROM
1Floppy disk controller for 5%”, 3”, 3%” drives *2 RS232 serial ports
* Mounts directly on 5%” drive # 2 x 8bit parallel ports * Full debug monitor
with single line assembler and disk loader * Expansion bus * Power
requirement: +5V/1.5A, +12V/100mA, -12V/100mA.
Available as a Bareboard with Monitor ROM and IFL Chip Set £199 + VAT =
£228.85 or completely assembled £499 + VAT = £573.85 128K Expansion
Board (recommended for OS9/68000) £199 + VAT = £228.85 —0S9/68000
real time, multitasking, multiuser Operating System (similar to UNIX)
£300+ VAT= £345 C Compiler, BASIC 09, PASCAL and FORTRAN available.
ESB-MATE with 512K RAM, 2 serial, parallel, clock £399 + VAT
IBM PC/XT COMPATIBLE SYSTEMS
Full IBM PC/XT compatibility at low, low prices. Completely assembled systems ready to
run.
640K RAM, TWIN 360K DRIVES, COLOUR/MONO CARD,
83 KEY KEYBOARD with green MOnitor...........-:sssserscesersaessseesserseesneesseceeesuesenecens £1300+ VAT
with 14 inch hi-res Colour MOMIROL............cs:cccseccesseessccerscssessneconenessscenessnsenennessesteet £1600+ VAT
640K RAM, SINGLE FLOPPY, 20MB HARD DISK,
83 KEY KEYBOARD with green monitor.
with 14 inch hi-res colour monitor.
£2000+ VAT
£2300+ VAT
The following boards and peripherals are available to build a system of your choice:
1. IBM PC/XT compatible motherboard (same as MEGABOARD)
8 slots, RAM up to 1MB with 128K/640K RAM.............cccccssseeeeee £260/£360+ VAT
2. Colour/graphics adapter 320200 up to 16
foreground and 8 background colours 640200
MONO) QrapN Os ieen.seetergectecstetesescoccescsccerecscercescereseaaremcqytersecseansnoree £160+VAT=£184.00
3. Multifunction: board with OK RAM (up to 256K), 2 serial,
1 parallel, clock, ramdisk, printspoo}
3a. Same as above with Ok RAM (up to 384K)
4 Floppy disk controller (up to 4 drives)
5 5.25 inch floppy disk drive 320/360K.
6. 108 key professional UK keyboard..
Ga, 83 key keyboard... ccssscseeseeees ww £135+VAT=£155.25
7. 135W switched power supply with fan...... .-£140+VAT=£161.00
7
8
9
a. 135W replacement power supply for IBM P ww £ 160+VAT=£184.00
Metal system Box-flip top COVEL...........:.ssscscsssseerccssnecseseneesensene £100+VAT=£115.00
Hercules Compatible Board 8025 text
720* 348 Graphics with paralllel port................sccsssesesescerseens £260+VAT=£299.00
CARRIAGE: system £20, system box £15, kb/drive/PSU/board £5
ADD-ONS FOR IBM PC/COMPATIBLES
64K RAM upgrade (9 chips)....................005 £ 13.50+VAT=£ 15.53
128K RAM upgrade for AT (9 piggybacks.......... £ 63+VAT=£ 72.45
256K RAM upgrade (9 chips).................000s02e0 £ 54+VAT=£ 62.10
256K RAM Board — fully populated.................. £ 140+VAT=£ 161.00
512K RAM Board — fully populated................. £ 240+VAT=£ 276.00
SSaKey Key boar esc ctismcn essen odgeeanswnee f£ 135+VAT=€£ 155.25
TOSikeWWKi keyboard iies.......--cc+..+0-lliseeceectuleus £ 160+VAT=€£ 184.00
20MB Half-height HD+ controller + cables........£ 800+VAT=£ 920.00
20MB Half-height Hard Disk for AT.................. £ 600+VAT=£ 690.00
7OMB Hard Disk for AT (30mS access time)...... £2000+ VAT = £2300.00
MONITORS
14 inch hi-res Microvitec monitor 640 dots................ £400+VAT=£ 460
PENIS: 125" QE Rewnvosee escnsemageroewenmat tar: «2 eto £100+VAT=€£ 115
micromisze
computers Lid
THE ERICSSON PC
INCREDIBLE OFFER — COMPARE OUR PRICES BEFORE YOU BUY
ELSEWHERE
FREE 640K RAM UPGRADE WITH ANY ERICSSON SYSTEM
20MB, 1 DRIVE, MONO, 640K RAM SYSTEM............ ONLY £2200+ VAT
SAME AS ABOVE BUT WITH COLOUR MONITOR........ONLY £2500+ VAT
640K RAM, FULL
MONO 12 MONTH
TWO DRIVE ON-SITE
SYSTEM WARRANTY
ONLY £1500 BY
+VAT ERICSSON
PRINTERS
KAGA 810 80 column, 160 CPS/27 CPS NLQ......... £240+VAT=£276
QUEN DATA daisy wheel 18 CPS..........cc00 e000 £260+ VAT = £299.00
FUJITSU DPMG 91 IBM compatible
oe kee £360+VAT=£414
DISK DRIVES FOR BBC
MX152A 400K single 8OT/DS, 40/80T switch........£100+VAT=£115
MX252A 800K twin, PSU, 40/80T switch.......... £240+ VAT=£276
DRIVES FOR APPLE Il, lle,llc &
MACINTOSH
MIXGIDSOAPI tor APREE UI Si lG: xismccee. =... -ctwninaheeesemenlme £120+VAT=E£ 138
NOGISOAM Ic ton APREE Ile: b-e.cameqs ove .urcsecaper esses £160+VAT=£184
MAC-400 for MACINTOSH 400K 3.5inch.......... £249+VAT=£286.35
DISKETTES
5.25” SSDD 48 TPI, single sided (10).........0........08 £15+VAT=£17.25
534” DSDD 48 TPI, double sided (10)....................8. £18+VAT=£20.70
54° DSQD"96 TPiidouble: sided! (1\0) 2... ...-..sceewen-- £23+ VAT=£26.45
53” high density 77 track for IBM AT (10).............. £50+ VAT= £57.50
Sram esingte ‘sided! (110) 522: Frmmisawanis + dvapse--c0ssr0.+- aaa £39+VAT=£44.85
3:57 double.sided (1:0). « s.ccosceempeemecae sary ememmeresanewss £49+VAT=£56.35
METAL ENCLOSURES FOR SYSTEMS
& DRIVES
SINGICMORIVEN DON: cocn.c< esc teeters ovine sees
Dual drive box — vertical or flat type
(takes MX45 PSU — PSU extra)........ £20+ £5 P&P+VAT=E£ 28.75
System box for ESB-1 (takes two
534” drives and MX100 PSU).......... £99+£11 P&P+VAT=£126.50
VISA, ACCESS WELCOME Se, |
Ordering Information:
Prices are exclusive of VAT unless stated otherwise. Unless otherwise stated,
Postage/Carriage free within UK for advertised prices only — special or
discounted prices will attract postage/delivery charges at cost. All goods are
subject to availability and prior sale. Prices are subject to change without notice.
We accept VISA and ACCESS.
* Visit our brand new Showroom — off-street parking, nearest tube Kilburn
{Jubilee Line) OPEN MON-FRI: 9.30am — 5.30pm
A micronix
computers Lid _
.£10+ £2.60 P&P+VAT=E 14.49
WILLESDEN LANE
BURTON AD.
KALBURN TUBE
1 Grangeway,
Kilburn,
London NW6 2BW
Tel: 01-625 0295/9 (5 lines)
Telex: 295173 MICROX G
@ Circle No. 164
e
Fd
<
>
8
2
s
MESSINA AVENUE
GRANGEWAY
NETHERWOOD ST
OVERIDGE RD
MAYGROVE AD
OPEN FILE
|
BY NICHOLAS McCUTCHEON
ROM DISC
GAVIN CRADLE has submitted a
program that enables paged ROMs
to be transferred on to disc so that
they can be loaded into and run
from sideways RAM.
The program operation can be
machine. Then you enter the
number of the ROM to be saved,
activate the selected paged ROM,
and copy the ROM from &8000 to
RAM at &3000. Finally you save
16K of RAM, starting at &3000.
title is more than seven characters
long the first seven charactets are
used. Any spaces embedded in the
name are replaced with a - charac-
ter, so Disc Doctor becomes Disc-
do-. All ROMs are saved under the
R. directory.
The program is written in Basic
1, and because line 270 sets P% to
be reloaded with Page set to &3000
to Run.
This utility is most useful for
looking at any of the paged ROMs
other than the DFS as the OS does
not allow access to other ROMs
while one is being executed. The
object code can be saved and *Run
later to save another ROM for
divided into five main actions. The file name used for saving | &1900 the program should be | inspection and/or running in
First list all the paged ROMs in the | the ROM is its title. If the ROM's:| typed in, then saved. It can then | sideways RAM.
ROM DISC
10 REM M/C routine to copy a spe \back on. \currently selected rom.
cified paged rom down 540 LDA #26 1010 RTS
20 REM from &8000 to &3000 then 550 JSR oswrch 1020 .proms
save it onto disc. 560 LDA #12 1030 LDX #0
30 REM 570 JSR oswreh 1040 .p2
40 REM Written by : Gavin J. Cra 580 JSR osnewl 1050 LDA roms,X
dite. \Clear the screen and 1060 BEQ@ op2
50 REM Started : 8th February 590 RTS 1070 JSR oswrch
"BS \return to BASIC. 1080 INX
60 REM Finished : 13th Februar 600 .init 1090 JMP p2
yi 185 610 LDA #1 1100 .op2
70 REM BASIC 1 version, \Switch the escape key 1110 JSR osnewl
80 620 STA &258 1120 [DY #15
90 MODE7:VDU23;8202;0;0;0; :PRINT \off. 1130 .List
"Assembling in progress." 630 LDA #0 1140 STY &FE30
100 oswrch=8F FEE 640 STA fromt \Patch in a rom.
110 osrdch=&FFEO 650 STA tol 1150 STY &F4
120 osnewl=&FFE7 660 LDA #&80 1160 LDA Cromt),Y
130 osby te=&FFF4 \State where the rom is \Is there a rom in this
140 oscli=&FFF7 670 STA fromh 1170 BE@ nsock
150 osword=&F FF1 \to be moved from and \socket?
160 romi=&70 680 ‘LDA #&30 1180 LDX #9
170 romh=&71 \where it is to be moved 1190 LDA #32
180 current=&72 690 STA toh 1200 .p3
190 romno=&73 \to. 1210 JSR oswrch
200 fromt=&74 700 LDA #&7C 1220 DEX
210 fromh=&75 710 STA &7 1230 BNE p3
220 tol=&76 \Set HIMEM to its correct 1240 TYA
230 toh=&77 720 LDA #0 1250 cMP #10
240 svl=8&78 \value for MODE 7. 1260 BMI ‘ess
250 svh=&79 730 STA &6 1270 LDA #49
260 740 Lbx #0 \Print out the rom
270 FOR pass=0 TO 1 750 .p1 1280 JSR oswreh
280 Px=81900 760 LDA title,X \number.
290 C 770 BEQ@ op} 1290 TYA
300 OPT pass*2 \Print out the title 1300 cLC
310 .romdisc 780 JSR oswrch 1310 ADC #38
320 JSR init \screen for the utility. 1320 JSR oswrch
\Initialisation section. 790 INX 1330 JMP ptitle
330 JSR proms 800 JMP pi 1340 .less
\List all paged roms. 810 .op1 1350 LDA #32
340 JSR selrom 820 JSR osnewl 1360 JSR oswrch
\Select the rom. 830 LDA #28 1370 TYA
350 JSR move 840 JSR oswrch 1380 CLC
\Move the rom. 850 LDA #0 1390 ADC #48
360 JSR save 860 JSR oswrch 1400 JSR oswrch
\Save the rom. 870 LDA #23 1410 .ptitte
370 LOX #0 880 JSR oswrch 1420 LDX #15
380 .pf \Set up a text window 1430 LDA #32
390 LDA fini,X 890 LDA #39 1440 .pspaces
400 BEQ opf \that wilt leave the top 1450 JSR oswrch
410 JSR oswreh 900 JSR oswrch 1460 DEX
420 INX \four Lines of the screen 1470 BNE pspaces
430 JMP pf 910 LDA #4 1480 TYA
\Inform the user that the \disptayed. 1490 PHA
440 .opf 920 JSR oswrch 1500 LDY #0
\rom has been saved onto 930 LDA #170 1510 .pit
450 JSR osrdch 940 LDX #0 1520 LDA &8009,Y
\disc and ask whether any 950 LDY #255 \Print out the title
460 cMP #78 \Find out the high & tow 1530 BEQ opit
\more are to be moved. 960 JSR osbyte \of the paged rom.
470 BEQ exit \bytes of a table holding 1540 JSR oswreh
480 CMP #89 970 STX romt 1550 INY
490 BEQ@ romdisc \details of the types of 1560 CPY #7
500 JMP pf 980 STY romh 1570 BNE pit
510 .exit \roms in the machine. 1580 .opit
520 LDA #0 990 LDA &F4 1590 JSR osnewt
\Switch the escape key \Save the number of the ‘
530 STA &258 4000 STA current (continued on page 110)
108 PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
EDSON's New
‘13-seconds -to-draft- J
an-A4- page’
printer at 200 cps.
—— ee
m BBC
2290 JSR
110
LL | [ROM DISC
‘ (continued from page 108)
LL. 1600 PLA
Tl : 1610 TAY
1620 .nsock
LL 1630 DEY
1640 cPY #0
O- 1650 BPL List
O 1660 LDA current
\Patch the rom in use
1670 STA &FE30
\before this routine
1680 STA &F4
\was called.
1690 RTS
1700 .setrom
1710 JSR osnewl
1720 LDX #0
1730 .p4
1740 LDA seLlprt,X
1750 BE@ op4
1760 JSR oswrch
1770 INX
1780 JMP p4
1790 .op4
1800 LDA #0
1810 STA romno
1820 STA &80
1830 STA &81
1840 STA &82
1850 LDX #bLock MOD 256
1860 LDY #bLock DIV 256
1870 JSR osword
1880 LDA &80
\Work out what the
1890 CMP #13
\number is of the rom
1900 BEQ error
\that is to be copied
1910 LDA &81
\Nonto disc.
1920 CMP #13
1930 BE@ Lessten
1940 LDY &80
1950 cPY #50
1960 BCS error
1970 LDY &80
1980 CPY #48
1990 BE@ switch
2000 LDA #10
2010 STA romno
2020 LDA &81
2030 SEC
2040 SBC #48
2050 cLc
2060 ADC romno
2070 STA romno
2080 JMP check
2090 .switch
2100 LDA &81
2110 STA &80
2120 .lessten
2130 LDA &80
2140 SEC
2150 SBC #48
2160 STA romno
2170 «check
2180 LDY romno
2190 CPY #16
2200 BCS error
2210 LDY romno
\Ensure that there is
2220 LDA (romt),Y
\Nactually a rom in
2230 BE@ error
\this socket.
2240 RTS
2250 .error
2260 LDA #7
2270 JSR oswrch
2280 LDA #12
\Errors cause the routine
oswrch
\to clear the screen,
2300
JSR proms
\print out the rom titles
2310 JMP seLlrom
\& ask you to reselect.
2320 .move
2330 LDA romno
2340 STA &FE30
2350 STA &F4
2360 LDX #840
2370 Loy #40
2380 .downl
2390 LDA (froml),Y
2400 STA (tol),Y
\Move the specified
2410 INY
\paged rom down from
2420 BNE downl
\&8000 to 83000.
2430 INC fromh
2440 INC toh
2450 DEX
2460 BNE downLl
2470 LDA current
2480 STA &FE30
2490 STA &F4
2500 RTS
2510 .save
2520 LDX #sblock MOD 256
2530 LDY #sbLock DIV 256
2540 STX svb
2550 STY svh
2560 INC svt
2570 INC svt
2580 INC svL
2590 INC svt
2600 LDA romno
2610 STA &FE30
\Save the specified
2620 STA &F4
\paged rom in the R
2630 LDY #0
\directory on the
2640 .name
\disc using the roms
2650 LDA &8009,Y
\name as the filename.
2660 BEQ@ ename
2670 CMP #32
2680 BE@ cspace
2690 .notspc
2700 STA (svl),Y
2710 INY
2720 CPY #7
2730 BNE name
2740 .ename
2750 LDA current
2760 STA &FE30
2770 STA &F4
2780 LDX #sbLlock MOD 256
2790 LDY #sblock DIV 256
2800 JSR oscli
2810 LDA #32
2820 Loy #7
2830 .cname
2840 STA (svl),Y
2850 DEY
2860 BNE cname
2870 RTS
2880 .cspace
2890 LDA #ASC"-"
2900 JMP notspc
2910 .tjtle
2920 J
2930 !P%=&20200716
2940 P%!4=&28839D84
2950 P%!8=847202943
2960 P%!12=86E697661
2970 P%!16=&202E4A20
2980 P%!20=864617243
2990 P%!24=8202E656C
3000
$(P%+28)=" 10/2/85.
+CHRS156
3010 P%!40=&8DO0D0A0A
3020 P%!44=820202020
3030 P%!48=&20202020
3040 $(PX+52)=" ROM to disc
utility."
3050 P%!72=&208D0D0A
3060 P%!76=&20202020
3070 P%!80=&20202020
3080 $(P%+84)="ROM to disc
utility. "+CHRSO
3090 PX=P%+105
3100 C
3110 OPT pass*2
3120 .roms
3130 1
3140 'Px%=&2020200C
3150 $(PX%+4)=""| Rom number.
3160 P%!17=&20202020
3170 P%!21=&20202020
3180 $(PX+25)="" Rom title."
3190 P%!36=&20200A0D
3200 P%!40=85F202020
3210 PX!44=85FSFSFSF
3220 P%!48=85FSFSFSF
3230 P%!52=820205F5F
3240 P%!56=&20202020
3250 P%!60=&5F 202020
3260 PX!64=85 FSFSFSF
3270 P%!68=85 FS FSFSF
3280 P%272=85F
3290 P%?73=0
3300 PX=PX+74
53510) &
3320 OPT pass*2
3330 .selprt
3340 J
3350 $PX="What no. rom do y
Ou want to copy ?"+CHRSO
3360 PX=PX+35
3370 C
3380 OPT pass*2
3390 «block
3400 J
3410 !P%=&30020080
3420 PX24=839
3430 PZ=PX+5
3440 C
3450 OPT pass*2
3460 .sblock
3470 J
3480 $P%="S.R. 3000
OFFF 8000 8000"+CHRS 13
3490 PX=PX+32
3500 C
3510 OPT pass*2
3520 .fini
3530 J
3540 'PX=R80ADA0A0C
3550 P%!4=8&20202020
3560 P%!8=&20202020
3570 $(P%+12)="ROM successf
ully copied."
3580 P%!36=&0A0A0A0D
3590 P%!40=80A202020
3600 P%244=820
3610 P%245=820
3620 $(P%+46)="Do you want
to copy any more ?"
3630 P%!76=& OAOADA0D
3640 P%280=&20
3650 P%281=820
3660 $(P%+82)=" Press 'Y' f
or yes and 'N* for no."+CHRSO
3670 PX%=Px%+120
3680 NEXT pass
3690 PRINT:PRINT"Use *SAVE ROMDISC
1900 ";~PX%;" 1900 to savethe objec
t code."
3700 END PC
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Epson's new
‘widest - ever- spreadsheet’
printer
EPSON to-1s00 |
PEN FILE
|APPLE
BY BILL HILL
ON RESET
GOTO
ON OLDER versions of the Apple
II + it was possible to accidentally
press the Reset key instead of the
Return key because of their
Proximity. Later versions of the
Il+, and the Ile, solved this
problem by only allowing a Reset
when the Ctrl and Reset keys are
ptessed simultaneously. Some-
times it would be nice to disable
LISTING 1.
ASSEMBLER
$300
SOSEA
SDAFB
£%00
$351
£$00
$50
$D941
$D7D2
MACHINE CODE
0300:
0308:
O310:
LISTING 2.
E 100
112
10 REM ON RESET GOTO DEMO
the Reset key so as to make a pro-
gram idiot-proof. Jason Smith has
sent in a routine to do just this.
When Reset is pressed, the
Autostart ROM causes a branch to
the address specified by the
contents of addresses 1010 ($3F2)
and 1011 ($3F3). The default
values stores at these locations after
DOS has been booted at power-up
are the DOS Restart address.
Decimal Hex
Addr. Contents Addr. Contents
1010 191 $3F2 SBF
1011 157 $3F3 $9D
1012 56 $3F4 $38
The value stored at address $3F4
is the result of an EOr of the value
stored in $3F3 with the value $A5.
If you put a different address in
these locations then you can force
the Apple to jump to your own
routine. The short machine-code
routine starting at $300 in listing 1
will branch to a line number in a
sMake sure DOS is connected
3Print a <CR>
sHi-byte of BASIC line no.
3Store in Page Zero
s:Lo-byte of BASIC.line no.
:Store in Page Zero
:Find line in BASIC program
sand start execution there
20 EA O03 20 FB DA AY O00
85 51 AY 00 85 50 20 41
D9 20 D2 D7
13 REM SET UP RESET VECTORS
15 POKE 1010,0: POKE 1011.3: POKE
1012, 166
16 :
20 LI = 160: GOSUB 200
2a =
30 PRINT : PRINT "PRESS ’ RESET’,
OR ANY OTHER KEY TO END"
40 IF PEEK ( — 16384) > 128 THEN
250
45 FOR J = 1 TO 100: NEXT J
50 GOTO 30
60 :
7O ¢
99 REM RESET WILL BRANCH TO LIN
“YOU PRESSED IT!!":
Basic program each time Reset is
pressed.
Listing 2 is a Basic program that
demonstrates how the machine-
code routine can be used. The Basic
program changes the Reset vectors
to point to the machine-code at
$300. To define which line the
machine-code routine will jump to
when you press Reset, set the Basic
variable LI to the required line
number and call the subroutine
starting at line 200. Replace the
Reset vectors with the original
values when you have finished
using the program. PC)
INVERSE
CHANGE LINE NUMBER
POKE 775
REM DEACTIVATE RESET VECTOR
PRINT =: PRINT :
110 PRINT
NORMAL
120 PRINT : PRINT
130 GOTO 30
140 :
150 :
199 REM
200 Z = INT (LI / 256):
e4
210 POKE 779.LI -—- Z * 256
220 RETURN
sO:
240 :
250
=]
260 POKE 1010,191
270 POKE 1011.157
280 POKE 1012.56
290 END
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
rs
ae
—
a,
EDson’s new
‘near-as-makes-no-
difference-to-
typewriter- quality ’
» printer
_- a ' .
25
EPSON vo-soo
ORENIF IEE
BY JACK SCHOFIELD
DIR BYTE-SUM
JOHN PALMER of Maidenhead
doesn’t like the fact that Dir only
tells you how many bytes there are
free on a disc, but not how many
bytes your files add up to. He has
therefore written a small Basic
program, Dir.Bas, to do this.
To use it, you first type in the
using the command
COPY CON BYTES.BAT
and press F6 or Ctrl-Z to end.
Bytes.Bat creates a disc file,-
Dir.Lst, which. contains an image
of the normal screen output. It
then runs the Basic program
four-line batch file listed here, |
program finally returns you to the
system level.
The variable parameter %1
enables you to specify the files
requifed in normal syntax. For
example, to list all the Basic files
starting with Fred you would enter
and_it would tell you the space
consumed.
The program works with both
floppy and hard discs, and could
be enhanced by including, say,
Tree in the batch file, then
modifying Dir.Bas to print a
summaty of the bytes in each
DIR BYTE-SUM
BASIC PROGRAM
100 REM PROGRAM = DIR.BAS
110 REM
120 REM A = INPUT RECORD CONTAINING D
IR LINE
130 REM B = INSTR TARGET VARIABLE
140 REM C = FILE COUNTER
150 REM D = BYTE COUNTER
160 REM E = BYTE TOTAL COUNTER
170 REM
180 CLS:OPEN “DIR.LST" FOR INPUT AS #1
190 WHILE NOT EOF (1)
200 INPUT #1,A%
210 B = INSTR(A$,"Volume"):IF B <> © TH
EN 270
220 B = INSTR(AS,"Directory"):IF B <> 0
Dir.Bas to list the specified files
and print the number of bytes of
disc space taken up. This Basic | really useful.
KEY UTILITY |
10 REM TEST FOR SHIFTS, CONTROL, ALT, IN
S AND LOCK KEYS
20 DEF SEG=464
30 CLS
40 LOCATE 8,118PRINT "INS CPLK NMLK SCL
K ALT CTRL LSFT RSHFT"”
SO X=PEEK (23)
60 LOCATE 10,10
79 FOR 1=7 TO © STEF -1
80 PRINT SGN(X AND 2°1)4SPC(2)4
90 NEXT I
100 GOTO 50
directory and sub-directory. For
hard-disc users, that would be
DOS PROMPT
PATH=C: \; DOS21UK
KEYBUK
WTDATIM
ECHO OFF
CLS
PROMPT Jack t$h¢h¢héhshths_tn$qQ
TYPE MENU. TXT
~ —
SYSTEM CHECK
REM System Features
GOSUB 1000 ” Check system
30 CLS
40 SCREEN 0,0,0
SO WIDTH 80
60 PRINT "This IBM PC has :"
70 PRINT
PRINT RAM; "k Memory”
PRINT DISKS;"Floppy disk drive(s)”
100 PRINT HDISKS;"Hard disk drive(s)"
110 PRINT RS232;"Serial port(s)"
120 PRINT PPORTS;"Parallel port(s)”
130 PRINT GA;"Games adapter (s)”
140 PRINT " ";MON#(CM)5" monitor”
150 PRINT " is the current display”
160. END
1000 REM SYSTEM
1010 DEF SEG=64 :
1020 RAM=PEEK (19) +PEEK (20) 8256
1030 DISKS=1+(PEEK(16) AND 192)/64
1040 HDISKS=PEEK (117)
1050 PPORTS=(PEEK(17) AND 192)/64
1060 RS232=(PEEK(17) AND 14)/2
1070 GA=(PEEK(17) AND 14)/16
1080 MONS (0) ="Monochrome"
1090 MONS (1) ="Colour”
1100 DEF SEG=0
1110 CM=ABS( (PEEK (1040) =157))
1120 RETURN
114
THEN PRINT A: PRINTsGOTO 270
230 B = INSTR(AS, "bytes free"):IF B <>
© THEN 270
240 B = INSTR(AS,"<DIR>")aIF B <> O THE
N PRINT A¢:GOTO 270
250 IF AS = " “ OR AS = "" THEN 270
260 C = C + 1:D = VAL(MID$ (AS, 13,9) ) rE
= £ + D:PRINT AS
270 WEND
280 PRINT:PRINT C
“files found,
totallin
go" E "bytes. "sPRINT» CLOSE: SYSTEM
BATCH FILE
ECHO OFF
DIR “41 =DIK.LST
BASICA DIR.BAS
ECHO ON
KEY UTILITY
ONE OF THE problems with the IBM
keyboard is that you can’t tell
when any of the special keys have
‘been pressed to set Insert, Caps
Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock, Alt
ot Ctrl — or, indeed, the left and
right Shift keys. If you want to -
write a user-friendly program, this
is something you can take care of.
Mike Curtis points out that
there is a simple way to tell by
Peeking location 23, and his Key
utility shows how it’s done. If you
tun the program, this shows 0
when each of these keys is not
pressed, and 1 when it is.
It is also possible to force the
Control key on by
10 DEF SEG=64
20 POKE 23,4
DOS PROMPT
IT IS supremely easy to change the
system prompt in PC-DOS. All
you have to do is type the word
‘‘prompt’’, and then whatever you
want the prompt to be, such as
PROMPT System crash
and press Return.
There are also some special
features, described on pages 10 to
18 of the DOS manual, which
enable you to get non-ASCII
characters into it. Each must be
preceded by the $ character.
For example, $d will set the date
as the prompt, and $t the time.
Especially useful for people with
hard discs is $p, which makes the
prompt into the name of the
directory you are in at the time —
such as C:/SALES/MPLAN or
whatever. $p$g will include the
>.
If you want to change the
prompt, include a line in an Auto-
exec.Bat file so that this is done
whenever the machine is restarted
or turned on. An example is given
above left.
In this case the time, $t, is
reduced to show only hours and
minutes by the use of repeated
destructive backspaces, $h. The
underline character, $__, starts a
new line, and then $n$g provides
the standard prompt, such as C>.
The result is a two-line prompt of
the form
Jack-15:17
Ge
at 3.17pm. Resist the temptation
to construct very fancy prompts.
They become tedious if you see
them often.
SYSTEM CHECK
ANOTHER small utility from Mike
Curtis provides a simple way to
check the facilities of an IBM PC,
just as the IBM diagnostics disc
does.
In line 1110, CM returns 0 if a
monochrome monitor is fitted,
and 1 if it is colour.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
[EPSON Lo-isao |
EDsons new
adhesive label
printer
Epson’s new
adhesive label
printer
Epson's new
OPEN FILE
END OF FILE
A PROGRAM from Alan Mackay
defines Russian, Greek and
Turkish characters for the Epson
FX-80 printer. It is written in
Microsoft Basic avoiding machine-
specific commands, and so should
run with little alteration on most
machines.
As many characters as possible
are designed to correspond to
similar characters in the familiar
Latin alphabet, which makes it
easiet to find characters on the key-
board and recognise them on the
screen. When the program is run,
the appropriate character set is
PRINTING FOREIGN TEXT
downloaded into the printer’s
memory and remains there until
the printer is reinitialised or turned
off. You can then go ahead and
run other programs normally, but
whenever a file is printed the
characters will come out as the
foreign equivalent.
The program should be of use in
schools and other places where
Russian, Greek or Turkish text is
tequired but a special printer is
not available. Labels can be stuck
ABCDEFGHIJKLHNOPQGRSTUVUXYZ\0E?/
ABUBE SF XUIK AMHONWPCTY BUM eSuwWd2
abcdefghiikimnopqrstuvuxyz=—-_ Je
a6ugeorxntkKAMHOonwPcTyauxna YyAgn
English to Russian.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPOQRSTUVWXYZ
ABCAEC@FXIHKANNOAMOPSTQVHEYZ
abcdefghijklmnopaqrstuvwxyz
on the computer’s keyboard if aBSSesFXcnkaAUvonepatuwvysusg
necessary to help with character
identification.
English to Greek.
10
20
30
40
So
60
70
80
90
190
110
120
130
140
REM
REM
REM
REM
REM
REM
REM
WIDTH LPRINT 255
change type font
REM set left margin
250
260
270
280
290
300
310
320
330
340
350
360
370
380
390
400
410
420
430
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA m
FOR I= 1 TON
READ As(F)
NEXT I
LPRINT
REM
REM
REM
DIM
MON)
FOR I#1 TON
READ M(I)
NEXT I
DATA
DATA
FOREIGN TEXT. RUSSIAN.
REM initialise printer
LPRINT CHR#(27))"@"4
REM type style condensed enlarged
LPRINT CHR#(27)_9"!"“—pCHR#(52) 45
program name RUBBIAN
copyright A.L.Mackay
Birkbeck College,
Microsoft Basic for Nasscom II micro
and EPBON FX-80 metrix
set infinite line width
London
printer
LPRINT CHR#(27)45"1"sCHR#(8) 4
150 REM copy original characters
160 LPRINT CHR#(27)5) "0" sCHR#(0) sy CHRS (0) sCHR8(0)4
170 REM select download set
180 LPRINT CHR#(27)5"%"sCHR#(1) 5) CHR#(0O) 4
190 DEFINT I-N
200 DIM L(11)
210 REM number of characters to be re-defined
220 N=#51
230 DIM AS(N)
240 REM N characters to be replaced
Wewy Nel yCyeyX yey Pal
DQ DydyyybLylyVymym
DATA _,3,U,uU,B,b,G,QgyHyh
Tyigigk sy NynyPypeRyr
By Set yeVyvyZyla tek yf
if there are descenders in new chars.
then attribute is 11,
list of attribute chars.
otherwise 139
139,139,11,11,11,11,139,139,139,139
440
450
460
470
480
490
300
310
320
330
340
350
360
370
580
590
600
610
620
630
640
650
660
670
680
690
700
710
116
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
139,139,139,139,139,139,139,139,139,139
139,139,139,11,139,139,139,139,139,139
139,139,139,139,139,139,139,1359,1359,139
139,139,139,139,139,139,139,139,139
139,139
REM redefine characters
FOR Ie#i TON
LPRINT CHR#(27)4"&"s CHR#(O))
LPRINT CHR# (ABC (AS(I))) SCHR#E(ASCCAS(ID DDG
LPRINT CHR#(M(I) D9
FOR J=1 TO 11
READ
LdJ)
LPRINT CHR#(L(J))3
NEXT
NEXT
REM data for
REM 11 items
REM data for
J
I F
N characters
for each
RUSSIAN
LPRINT
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
0,254,0,2,0,254,0,2,0,254,0
0 ,6250,2,0,62,0,2,0,62,0
0,252,0,4,0,252,0,4,0,252,3
0,124,0,4,0,124,0,4,0,124,3
0,0,252,0,4,0,4,0,252,3,0
0,0,124,0,4,0,4,0,124,3,0
0,130,108,16,0,254,0,16,108,130,0
0,34,20,8,0,62,0,8,20,34,0
0,68,0,130,0,146,0,146,68,546,0
0,36,0,66,16,66,16,66,36,24,0
720 |
730 DATA 0,254,0,16,0,124,130,0,130,124,0
740 DATA 0,62,0,8,0,28,34,0,34,28,0
750 DATA 0,3,4,250, 0,130,0,130,0,255,0
760 DATA 0,3,0,62,0,34,0,34,0,63,0
770 DATA 0,62,0,18,12,0,0,62,0,0,0
780 DATA 0,4,0,194,60,128,0,128,0,254,0
790 DATA 0,0,50,12,32,0,32,0,62,0,0
800 DATA 0,48,0,32,0,62,0,18,0,12,0
810 DATA 0,240,0,8,0,8,0,8,0,254,0
820 DATA 0,0,56,0,4,0,4,0,463,0,0
830 REM
840 DATA 0,986,4,152,0,144,0,144,254,0,0
850 DATA 0,0,27,0,36,0,346,0,463,0,
860 DATA 0,129,64,33,18,12,16,32,64,128,0
670 DATA 0,1,64,33,198,12,16,32,64,0,0
B80 DATA 0,254,0,146,0,146,0,146,12,0,0
890 DATA 0,0,106,18,128,18,128,18,140,0,0
900 DATA 0,254,0,128,0,128,0,128,0,128,0
910 DATA 0,0,62,0,32,0,32,0,32,0,0
920 DATA 0,0,130,68,40,16,40,68,130,0,0
930 DATA 0,0,34,20,0,8,0,20,34,0,0
940 REM
950 DATA 0,254,0,4,8,16,32,64,0,254,0
940 DATA 0,0,462,0,4,8,16,09,62,0,0
970 DATA 0,0,62,128,4,72,16,128,62,0,0
980 DATA 0,0,62,0,8,0,20,0,34,0,0
990 DATA 0,254,0,16,0,16,0,16,0,254,0
1000 DATA 0,0,62,0,8,0,8,0,62,0,0
1010 DATA 0,254,0,128,0,128,0,128,0,254,0
1020 DATA 0,0,62,0,32,0,32,0,62,0,0
1030 DATA 0,254,0,144,0,144,0,144,0,96,0
1040 DATA 0,0,463,0,36,0,36,0,24,0,0
1050 REM
1060 DATA 0,124,130,0,130,0,130,0,130,68,0
1070 DATA 0,28,34,90,34,0,34,0,34,0,0
1080 DATA 0,32,0,32,0,62,0,32,0,32,0
1090 DATA 0,130,124,130,16,130,16,130,16,108,0
1100 DATA 0,0,62,0,42,0,42,146,6,0,0
1110 DATA 0,0,68,130,0,146,0,146,108,0,0
1120 DATA 0,0,20,34,0,34,0,42,20,0,0
1130 DATA 0,0,62,0,18,0,18,12,0,0,0
1140 DATA 0,130,16,170,0,124,0,170,16,130,0
1150 DATA 0,28,34,0,34,93,34,0,34,28,0
1160 REM
1170 DATA 0,62,0,16,8,4,8,16,0,62,0
1180 REM test data
1190 LPRINT
1200 LPRINT CHR#(27)3"4"5
1210 LPRINT "English to Russian"
1220 LPRINT
1230 LPRINT CHR#(27)5"5"5
1240 LPRINT CHR#(27)1"4"3
1250 LPRINT "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPORSTUYV
WXYZNC?/=-— Je"
1260 LPRINT CHR#(27)5"5"8
1270 LPRINT “ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPORSTUV
WXYZ\C?/s- Je"
1280 LPRINT CHR#(27)4"4"5
1290 LPRINT “abcdefghijkimnopaqrstuvwx yz“
1300 LPRINT CHR#(27)5"5"3
1310 LPRINT “abcdefghi jkil mnopqratuvwn yz"
1320 LPRINT
1330 LPRINT CHR#(27)4"4"5
1340 LPRINT "Russian to English:”
1350 LPRINT CHR#(27)5"5"45
1360 LPRINT
1370 LPRINT "ABVGDEXZIKLMNOPBTUFHC=W\Y#70_"
{continued on page 118)
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
IF you haven't guessed by now, -
Epson’s new printer is the
LQ 15@@. It’s everything 1n one
And this 1s the coupon to
send off for details.
Or tel: EPSON FREEPHONE
Name
Position
Company.
Address
To: Epson(UK.) Ltd.
Dorland House, 388 High Road, Wembley, Middlesex, HA? 6UH.
24 pin impact dot matrix, 200 cps, 67 cps NLQ mode, 101~406mm paper width, up to 272 characters per line.
Options: single or double sheet feeder, tractor, parallel and serial 2K or 32K, IEEE 2K.
EPSON
@ Circle No. 165
OPEN FILE
END OF F
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240
250
260
270
280
290
300
310
320
330
340
350
360
370
380
390
400
410
420
430
440
450
460
470
480
490
500
510
520
530
340
350
5360
570
OF Er
Oo LP
Oo LP
Oo LP
Oo LP
Oo LP
Oo LP
REM
REM
WIDT
REM
REM
LPR
REM
LPR
REM
LPR
REM
LPR
REM
LPR
DEF
DIM
REM number of characters to be re-defined
FOREIGN TEXT. RUSSIAN.
(continued from page 116)
RINT
RINT
RINT
RINT
RINT
RINT
RINT
CHRS(27)4"4"4
"ABVGDEXZIKLMNOPSTUFHC@W\Y#70_"
CHRS(27)45"5"4
"“abvgdexzikimnopstufhe-wly#/qi”
CHRS(27)5"4"5
"abvgdexzikimnopstufhe-wly#/qi"
CHRS(27)4"5"3
change type font
program name GREEK
copyright A.L.Mackay,
Birkbeck College, London
Microsoft Basic for Nascom II micro
and Epson FX-GO matrix printer
set infinite Line width
H LPRINT 255
put Greek characters into Italic set
initialise printer :
INT CHR#(27)4"@"s5
type style condensed enlarged
INT CHR#(27)5"!" gCHR#(52)45
set left margin
INT CHRS(27)4 "1"; CHRS(8)y
copy original characters
INT CHR#(27)4"1"s CHR (0) sCHRS(O)4
CHRS (0) 5
select download set
INT CHR#(27)5"%"pCHR#(1) |CHRS(O) 4
INT I-N
L121)
N=37
DIM
AS (N)
DATA ayh,XyFyQyGylyXyf yD
DATA dymyPyhy@yZyNgPyWy J
DATA QyQyrywyisksyyt yuyu
DAT
FOR
A ¢,b,J,R,8,H,s
I= 1 TON
READ AS(I)
NEXT I
LPR
REM
REM
REM
DIM
FOR
READ
INT
if there are descenders in new chars.
then attribute is 11, otherwise 139
list of attribute chars.
MON)
I=1 TO N
M(T)
NEXT I
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
REM
FOR
LPR
LPR
LPR
FOR
139,11,139,139,139,11,139,139,139,11
12,11 ,139,139,139,139,139
redefine characters
I-1 TON
INT CHR#(27)3"&"sCHRS(O) 3
INT CHR#(128+ASC(AS(1)))sCHR#E(126+
« ASCCAB(I)) D4
INT CHRO (MCT) D9
Jei TO 11
READ L(J)
NEXT J
FOR
J=1 TO 112L PRINT CHR#(L(J))51NEXT J
NEXT I
REM
REM
REM
LPR
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
REM
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
REM
DATA
DATA
DATA
DATA
data for N characters
11 items for each
data for GREEK
INT
0,28,0,34,0,34,20,8,20,34,0
0,25458,16,32,64,128,112,14,0
0,2,0,146,0,146,0,146,0,128,0
0,24,36,2,76,16,100,128,72,48,0
0,32,64,135,0,138,84,40,64,128,0
0,6,24,96,128,0,128,9,128,0,128
0,130,0,132,64,40,16,8,4,2,90
0,40,65,128,85,0,85,34,64,32,0
0,16,41,2,86,16,100,128,40,16,90
0,2,4,10,16,34,64,130,112,14,0
0,0,764162,16,130,16,130,76,0,0
0,3,12,48,68,0,4,8,52,64,0
0,6,24,96,128,0,128,6,152,96,128
0,34,0,34,20,8,20,34,64,2,0
0,90, 20,42,0,42,0,34,20,0,0
0,1,0,177,8, 66,136, 66,140,64,0
0,32,18,12,2,0,4,8,16,48,0
0,34, 4,56,0,32,0,32,26,34,0
0,128,120,5,128,127,126,5,120,128,0
0,0,64,60,0,64,0,64,63,0,0
0, 28,34,80,130,16,130,20,136,112,0
0,12,18,8,34,8,34,8,36,24,0
0,7,24,32,4,64,4,64,8,48,0
0,96,16,0,11,20,104,128,16,96,0
139,139,139,139,11,139,139,139,11,139
139,139,11,11,139,139,139,139,139,139
840 DATA 0,0,0,0,0,60,2,0,2,0,0
850 DATA 0,0,62,0,8,16,36,0,2,0,0
860 DATA 0,32,12,48,2,0,2,4,56,0,0
870 DATA 0,32,0,60,2,32,2,32,90,32,0
860 DATA O,26,34,0,2,28,2,0,34,28,0
890 DATA 0,50,72,2,132,0,132,2,72,50,0
900 REM
910 DATA 0,468,72,1,68,1,68,1,70,32,0
920 DATA 0,127,128,4,160,4,160,4,88,0,0
930 DATA 0,6,56,192,16,0,16,6,56,192,0
940 DATA 0,6,24,96,144,0,144,0,144, 96,0
9350 DATA 0,2,0,134,64,170,0,146,0,128,0
960 DATA 0,2,132,72,32,24,36,2,64,128,0
970 DATA 0,12,16,34,0,34,0,52,8,32,0
980 LPRINT "English to Greeks"
990 LPRINT
1000 LPRINT "“ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRETUVWXYZ"
1010 LPRINT CHR#(27)4"4"5
1020 LPRINT "“ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPOQROETUVWXYZ"
1030 LPRINT CHR#(27)4"S"$3
1040 LPRINT "“abcdefghijkimnopqr stuvwxyz"
1050 LPRINT CHR#(27)45"4"5
1060 LPRINT “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
1070 LPRINT CHRS(27)5,"S"$3
1080 LPRINT
1090 LPRINT “Greek to English:"
1100 LPRINT
1110 LPRINT CHR#(27)3"4"5
1120 LPRINT "“ABGDEZJQIKLMNXOPRSTYFHWU"
1130 LPRINT CHR#(27)4"S"4
1140 LPRINTs$ “ABGDEZJQIKLMNXOPRSTYFHWU”
1150 LPRINT CHR#(27)5"4")5
1160 LPRINT "abgdezjqikimnxoprstyfhwuc"
1170 LPRINT CHR#(27)5"5"45
1180 LPRINT “abgdezjqikimnxoprstyfhwuc"
TURKISH
10 REM change type font
20 REM initialise printer
30 LPRINT CHR#(27);"@";
32 REM type stvle condensed enlaraed
34 LFRINT CHR#(27);"!";CHRS (52):
40 REM copy original characters
50 LPRINT CHR$(27);":
"5; CHRE (0) ; CHR? (0) ; CHRS (0) 5
60 REM select download set
70 LPRINT CHRS (27); "%":CHR$ (1) s CHR$(O) 5
60 DEFINT I-N
90 DIM L(11)
100
110
120
130
140
150
REM number of characters to be re-defined
N=10
DIM AS(N)
REM N characters to be replaced
DATA Cywo/,! yWyQy1 4% XO
FOR I= 1 TON
READ AS(T)
LPRINT A#(1);
NEXT I
LPRINT
REM if there are descenders in new chars.
REM then attribute is 11, otherwise 139
REM list of attribute chars.
DIM MCN)
FOR I=1 TON
READ M(T)
NEXT I
DATA 139,139,139,139,1397,11,11,11, 511,11
REM redefine characters
FOR I=1 TON
LPRINT CHRS(27); "&":CHRE(O) 5;
LPRINT CHR# (ASC (AE (I) )) |; CHRS (ASC CAS(I))) 5
REM attribute "a"
LPRINT CHRE (MCT) ) 5
FOR J=1 TG 11
READ LJ)
LPRINT CHR#(L(J));
NEXT J
NEXT I
REM data for N characters
REM 11 items for each
REM data for TURKISH
LPRINT “TURKISH”
DATA 0,0,28,162,0,34,0,162,28,0,0
DATA 0,0,60,128,2,0,2,128,60,2,0
DATA 0,0,34,0,62,0,2,9,0,0,0
DATA 0,0,0,66,0,254,0,66,0,0,0
DATA 0,60,64,130,64,2,64,130,64,60,0
DATA 0,56,68,1,68.,1,70,0,36,0,0
DATA 0,25,128,37 ,64,37,64,37,128,50,0
DATA 0,32,84,1,84,1,86,0,84,8,0
DATA 0,72,132,33,132,33,134,32,132,24,0.
DATA 0,126,132,1,132,1,134,0,132,72,90
REM test characters
FOR I=1 TG N
LPRINT ASCII);
NEXT I
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August ! 985
L MicroSight LC
NIMBUS VISION
A complete image capture system including an
80186 based microcomputer with high resolution
graphics, mouse, a high quality vidicon camera and
a video digitiser with up to 512 x 512 pixel resolution.
Applications include video displays, image analysis,
object counting etc. Complete systems from
£2950 + VAT
MICROSIGHT
For connection to a range of microcomputers,
MicroSight systems can provide a low cost image
capture facility up to 512 x 512 resolution either
by scanning or frame grabbing. Packages including
camera, interface, software for disk storage, hard
copy and display are available for |BM PC, Apricot,
Hewlett Packard, BBC Model B etc from
£900 + VAT
MICROEYE
Video interface with 512 x 512 x 8 resolution
MicroScale image analysis software to run with
MicroSight Systems
* Particle sizing and Orientation
User definable scaling
Hard copy and disk file dumping of results
Dimensioning
User definable windows
Available for IBM PC, AT, XT, RML Nimbus,
Hewlett Packard 9816, Apricot, BBC Model B etc
*
*
*
*
from £950 + VAT
For further details contact:-
DISTT HRS Fs nermtiset
Digithurst Ltd.
Leaden Hill, Orwell, Royston,
Herts. SG8 50H Telephone (0223) 208926
@ Circle No. 166
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
APC Ul sua
1 -AMB floppy
from fF 1 499
1 1 MB hard disc
+floppy
Bat from £2399
STANDARD FEATURES
SPEED: full 8MHz 8086-2 16 bit processor (true 16 bit data).
CAPACITY: two 5} inch disk drives (640K each formatted).
MEMORY: 128K user ram + 64K graphics + 8K text video.
OPERATING SYSTEM: MSDOS 2.11 standard. Full screen ICON
graphic display menu. (Needs 256K RAM).
HIGH RESOLUTION: 8 x 16 dot screen character definition (25 lines
of 80 characters). 14 inch high speed screen with tilt and turn base.
AWARD WINNING NEC 7220 graphic controller. 256 standard
character set includes maths/Greek and graphic symbols.
ADDITIONAL 256 user-programmable shape character set.
DETACHABLE KEYBOARD: fast buffered top quality keyboard,
numeric keypad, 12 function keys enabling 60 functions to be
programmed, with template.
SERIAL RS-232: to 9600 baud synchronous/asynchronous.
PARALLEL printer port.
TOP VALUE from Japan's top micro company.
GW BASIC Microsoft language standard, full graphic commands.
PRICE; top value for money from:—
FREE SOFTWARE: Communications, Text Editor, Typwriter.
OPTIONAL EXTRAS
EXPANDABLE USER MEMORY: in 128K units to maximum 640K
RAM.
10MB HARD DISKS: INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL.
8 COLOUR MONITOR SCREEN.
VERY HIGH RESOLUTION GRAPHICS: 640 x 400 x 8 colour or
mono graphic screen, up to 192K RAM additional to user memory.
32 BIT HARDWARE ARITHMETIC PROCESSOR: 8087-2 at 8MHz —
fast!
OTHER NEC BARGAINS
NEC Spinwriter 20 chars/second, quality printer: £425
NEC PC-8201 16K battery portable computer: £299
SOFTWARE
ALL GENERAL MSDOS SOFTWARE.
AUTOCAD: CAD GRAPHIC DESIGN PACKAGE now available, best value
hardware.
ACCOUNTS: Pegasus, Sage, Multisoft, etc.
WORD PROCESSING: Wordstar, Spellbinder, Lex, etc.
LANGUAGES: C, CB-86, CBASIC-86, Microsoft BASIC, COBOL,
FORTRAN, PASCAL, Pi/1, etc.
DATABASE: DBASE Ii, Rescue, Friday!, DataStar, Delta, etc.
SPREADSHEETS: Supercalc 2 and 3, etc.
COMMUNICATIONS: Asynch, SDLC.
* (prices exclude 15% VAT)
Brighton Computer
Lentre
130 Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 3LG
0273)673114 Mon-Sat 10am-6pm
Please send me further details of the NEC APC Ill
Company
Address
@ Circle No. 167
19
Sl
@ Dual role-
typewriter — printer
@ Host of added features — 10, 12,
15, proportional, red/black,
bold, centring, underline etc.
@ Accepts — Sid,
Int’l., ASCIl and Symbol daisywheels
@ Ribbons — Correctable, Multistrike, Fabric and Coloured
@ Integral parallel interface — direct connections to home and business computers
@ Logic seeking, bi-directional printing — faster than Brother HR-15!!
@ Without doubt — the most affordable printer ever offered
@ Dataplus — UK Distributor, Brother CE-50 Super
Access Barclaycard
DATAPLUS-PSI LTD 39-49 ROMAN ROAD
CHELTENHAM GL51 8QQ TEL: 0242-30030/37373 &
573573(24Hr) EASYLINK 19004620 TELECOMGOLD 83: JBC013
ALOW COST DISC BASED
PROFESSIONAL
ACCOUNTING PROGRAM
For The BBC Computer
aa s oe
Micro-Trader
INTEGRATED SALES PURCHASE AND NOMINAL LEOGERS
Designed for business use by a business man. * Micro-Trader “is a fully
integrated program in which all Sales and Purchase Ledger Transactions
are automatically updated to the Nominal Ledger.
" Micro-Trader ” offers full Sales and Purchase Ledger facilities including
SALES INVOICE and STATEMENT PRINTING with a capacity of 450
accounts and 3000 transactions per month in each Ledger.
Normal Income, Expenditure, Assets, Liabilities & Journal Posting in the
Nominal Ledger with full Reporting for individual accounts, Audit Trail, Trial
Baiance, Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet.
* Micro-Trader “ is certified by Customs and ONLy
Excise tor V.A.T. extraction. . £200
* VAT
A V.A.T. Return produced in 2 minutes t 11!
STOCK CONTROL and MAILMERGE
programs can be added
PHONE TODAY FOR A FREE FACT SHEET
MEADOW COMPUTERS
HEBREWS MEADOW. LOWER EVINGAR ROAD, WHITCHURCH, HANTS
r
Telephone: Whitchurch (025682) 2008
@ Circle No. 169
120
@ Circle No. 168
” CABLES
x Our low cost, high quality and fast
igs helpful service has meant we are
now established as the UK’s top
, manufacturer of solder, IDC and
moulded computer interface cables.
For advice or a price
Phone 01-441 1282
SMC SUPPLIES
11 Western Parade, Great North Road, Barnet, Herts EN5 1AD
Tel: 441 1282, 441 1698, 441 0535, 441 1225. Telex: 295181 SMC G
@ Circle No. 170
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
BABBLING BOOKS
With the machine itself settling into maturity, Simon
Beesley finds that books on the BBC Micro are waning in
number but improving in quality.
BBC OWNERS who fear that the
machine will soon pass into
obsolescence can take heart from
the continuing flow of new BBC
books. Admittedly it is not as great
as it was: no longer the raging
torrent of yesteryear, more a
babbling brook. But the quality of
these books is generally much
higher now. Instead of being
directed at an imaginary beginner
who is perpetually baffled, most of
them take a more practical and
detailed stance.
The BBC Micro Add-On Guide
is a good example. Without
assiduously reading four or five
computer magazines every month
it is impossible to keep up with the
range of new BBC products. This
guide does it for you.
Naturally books of this sort soon
become outdated. The prices given
are already too high, particularly
for disc drives which a few months
later are almost 25 percent
cheaper. There is also no mention
of Acorn’s Music 500 or the
excellent AMX mouse and its icon-
based software. Both products
were released after publication.
But the book manages to cover
most of the add-ons currently
available and, more importantly,
gives a fair appraisal of each.
On the software front, Business
Applications on the BBC Micro by
Susan Curran and Margaret
Norman provides a similar service.
First the authors give a good
account of what to expect from the
various types of business programs
— including specialised appli-
cations such as accounting and
stock control. Then they supply
reviews of most of the leading
products. A pity, though, they
they could not get hold of a copy of
View to round off their survey of
word processors.
Hardware buffs who are pre-
pared to wield a soldering iron are
catered for by Interfacing the BBC
Microcomputer by Colin Opie and
BBC Hardware Projects by Don
Thomasson. Of the two, Colin
Opie’s book is stronger on
explaining the principles involved
in interfacing. It gives more detail
on how to program the hardware,
including a useful section on
programming the VIA. Hardware
Projects is more for those who want
ready-made projects to go to work
on. Along with construction
details it provides diagrams of
circuits, boards, and connectors for
Creative Sound
on the BBC Microcomputer Mode! B
DAVID ELLIS
and CHRIS JORDAN
a variety of devices — light pens,
hex keypads, 255-way controllers,
and such like.
Disk Programming Techniques
for the BBC Microcomputer by
Michael Coleman is one of a series
of personal computer books
published by Prentice-Hall
International. In common with the
rest of the series it is attractively
produced and has the look of
a high-quality textbook. But
although it includes a very useful
section on creating serial and
random access files its treatment of
the subject is not quite as advanced
as one might hope.
A rather curious feature of the
book is the author’s practice of
heading each chapter with
irrelevant quotes — a bad habit
probably caught from Boris Allan.
His intention is humorous and
after quoting Hamlet, ‘‘in form,
in moving, how express and
admirable’, he comments:
“Hamlet ... had probably just
succeded in formatting his first
ever disc’’.
Another book in the Prentice-
Hall series is Applied Assembly
Language on the BBC Micro-
computer by Edward Ball. He says
in the preface that books on
assembly language are often dry
texts on computer science: this one
REVIEWS
is meant to be more attractive to
beginners. In fact almost every
book on BBC assembly language
makes the same claim. So, as you
might expect, there is not much
new material here. The two most
interesting chapters are on
animation and writing a word
processor in machine code.
People who submit machine-
code programs to magazines often
apologise for the quality of their
programming. What they need is
not another course on assembly
language but advice on how to
write more efficient code. I have
only seen one book that sets out to
do this: 6502 Machine Code for
Humans by Alan Tootill and
David Barrow. It tries to find the
most effective code for a number
of common tasks. While not
specifically aimed at the BBC
Micro its routines are easily
modified.
However, you do not have to be
fluent in machine code to write
adequate programs. Rather you
can simply cobble together
routines that are already available.
Bruce Smith’s The BBC Micro
Machine Code Portfolio is
designed for just that purpose, and
supplies 75 procedures ready to
be incorporated in your own
programs.
Creative Assembler can also be
treated in the same spirit, as a
library of routines, hints and tips.
But coming from Jonathan
Griffiths — the author of
Acornsoft’s superb Pacman game,
Snapper — the book is something
of a disappointment. There is too
much on an elementary level, and
not enough on the art of designing
an arcade game.
The Advanced User Guide has
become an essential reference work
for BBC owners. Adder Publishing
has followed it up with the Baséc
ROM User Guide by Mark
Plumbley, which gives a com-
prehensive description of the
workings of the Basic interpreter.
Although it contains a number of
handy example programs and a
section on adding new commands
it has less practical application
(continued on next page)
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
121
REVIEWS
(continued from previous page}
than the ealier book; but it is of
considerable interest nonetheless.
The two books stand as a model for
how to produce a microcomputer
teference guide: they are clearly
written,- well presented, and are
largely free of padding.
Computer book titles often
bear only a tenuous relation to
their contents. Jeremy Ruston’s
Advanced Programming Guide to
the BBC Micro is a case in point.
Inside the cover it calls itself the
BBC Micro Compendium and this
is a better description for it. The
author hops about from topic
to topic — from recursive
programming to floating-point
arithmetic — until he finally
settles down and hatches out
listings for two compilers, Froth
and Slug. Froth is a threaded
language similar to Forth,. while
Slug is a structured language which
generates assembly language
statements. Since Jeremy Ruston
is a talented programmer this
approach is quite fruitful. The
book has some interesting snippets
of information and a number of
entertaining diversions such as a
program for writing text on a tube.
Of all the books under review by
far the best buy is Creative Sound
by David Ellis and Chris Jordan.
The authors are particularly well
qualified for their subject matter:
David Ellis is a musician, composer
and programmer, while Chris
Jordan designed the BBC’s Sound
and Envelope commands. Their
approach is to talk about the field
of computer music in general and
then show what is possible on the
BBC Micro. The result, over 300
pages, is a book that is full of
fascinating digressions and jam-
packed with information. It ranges
over such topics as the history
of synthesisers, psychoacoustics,
computer assisted composition,
sound effects, and using mictos | this one.
The BBC Micro Add-On
Guide by Allan Scott, Mike
Rohan and Philip Gardner.
Published by Collins, £6.95. ISBN
0 00 383008 8
Business Applications for
the BBC Micro by Susan
Curran and Margaret Norman.
Published by Granada, £7.95.
ISBN 0 246 12530 6
Interfacing the BBC
Microcomputer by Colin
Opie. Published by McGraw-Hill,
£8.95. ISBN 0 07 084724 X
BBC Hardware Projects by
Don Thomasson. Published by
Melbourne House, £9.95. ISBN 0
86161 139 .X
BABBLING BOOKS
Disk Programming
Techniques for the BBC
Microcomputer by Michael
Coleman. Published by Prentice-
Hall, £7.95. ISBN 0 13 215930 9
Applied Assembly
Language on the BBC
Microcomputer by Edward
Ball. Published by Prentice-Hall,
£7.95. ISBN 0 13 039389 4
6502 Machine Code for
Humans by Alan Tootill and
David Barrow. Published by
Granada, £7.95. ISBN 0 246
12076 2
The BBC Micro Machine
Code Portfolio by Bruce
Smith. Published by Granada,
£7.95. ISBN 0 246 12643 4
Si a
as musical trainers. Equally
impfessive is the accompanying
software — over 200K’s worth of
Basic and machine-code programs
given as listings and also available
‘on tape or disc.
Creative Sound is probably not
for the complete beginner, who
may find it a little heavy going
in places. Anyone else with just
a smattering of musical or
programming knowledge will
certainly enjoy it. Indeed I can
think of few computing books that
Ihave read with as much interest as
Creative Assembler by
Jonathan Griffiths. Published by
Penguin, £5.95. ISBN 014 00
7809 0
Basic ROM User Guide by
Mark Plumbley. Published by
Adder Publishing, £9.95. ISBN 0
97929 04 5
Advanced Programming
Guide to the BBC Micro by
Jeremy Ruston. Published by
Interface Publications, £7.95.
ISBN 0 947695 21 4
Creative Sound by David
Ellis and Chris Jordan. Published
by Acornsoft, £9.95, £17.95 with
cassette, £19.95 with disc. ISBN 0
907876 22 6
your disk drive.
FACT: Wet Disks can attract
dust into your disk drive.
122
FACT. Solvents can damage
Solvent.
FACT. PRO-GUARD disks are
dry.
brand new non-abrasive
material.
and approved by experts.
PRO GUAR
34 and 5} DRY CLEANING DISKS AVAILABLE NOW
@ Circle No. 171
FACT. PRO-GUARD usesa
FACT. PRO-GUARD is tested
SOLVENT ABUSE?
FACT. PRO-GUARD uses no
EUROPEAN & UNITED KINGDOM TRADE
ENQUIRIES WELCOME:
GUARDLINE DISPOSABLES LTD
1 WOLSEY ROAD
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, HERTS
Telephone: (0442) 56860/47275
CONTAINS 15 DIBKS
"ORY CLEANING
5 KIT
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
THE ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE
PROFESSIONALS CAN'T RESIST.
page
Wired SWr0
MRONICS &
SWwOr
04 ac
crocomp
Electronics and Wireless World is
the only electronics magazine to really
y tempt the professionals. ;
2. fil Its the only onetheytakethe trouble |
to pick up for themselves.
That's because it's written for the
engineer who sees electronics not only as
a job, but also as a hobby.
Its written on a technical level that
doesn't talk down to you.
It keeps you up to date with all the
latest products and processes, applica-
tions and equipment.
And it covers every industry where
electronics is involved.
Just one look at the new look
magazine and you'll see why it gets pro-
fessionals like you out of the office, and
down to the newsagents.
The leading magazine for electronics engineers.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985 ®@ Circie No. 173 123
MAKE YOUR PC MULTI-USER FOR ONLY £595
IT SOUNDS UNBELIEVABLE BUT ITS TRUE!
With FORMULA IV, the Applicator Creator, your computer system can become multi-user. without the need
for hardware modification. Formula IV is the ONLY software that will convert IBM PC, XT, AT, and com-
patibles into multi-user application systems.
Just connect two inexpensive terminals to your PC and PRESTO! — you have just created a true multi-user
system that triples the power of your computer.
FORMULA IV contains a wealth of features, including a relational database system, a powerful query
language, an on-line help facility, a free format report generator, plus menu generation capabilities. FOR-
MULA IV combines the power of a computer language with the simplicity of a word processor.
PHONE TODAY FOR DETAILS OF THIS AMAZING PROGRAM.
Check our prices on these IBM compatibles
Ferranti PC860
Canon A200
Commodore PC 10
Ring for software special offers
CARRERA COMPUTING
12 Lyons Avenue
Hetton-Le-Hole
Tyne & Wear
DH5 OHS
Tel: SUNDERLAND (0783) 267816 Open 7 days 9.00 a.m. — 9.00 p.m.
LUTTERWORTH
SOFTWARE
THE NUTCRACKER SUITE
Why use asledgehammer to crack a nut? Most word-processors are
too powerful, too complex and too expensive. The Nutcracker Suite's
three programs are really easy to use. Youcaneven print text as you
enter it. Has word-wrap and paragraph reforming, plus line and
page editing functions using every key in the most natural way.
Reads and unscrambles Wordstar files. Saves and prints in 100%
ASCII format. Special printer control program also included.
Winner C.T A. Award Best Business Program 1984
THE ULTIMATE DIARY
Event based diary for every professional. Events can be entered
with a frequency tag (e.g. every two weeks, every three months,
annually, even every second Tuesday'), and will re-appear inall
future reports. Reports for today's events, this week's events, this
month's events. Calendar for any month up to 2083. Simple search
routine (any field) with wild cards. Up to 5000 separate entries, which
can easily be amended or deleted.
MICROFILE
Powerful flat form database. User can set field lengths and labels for
any number of separate databases. Up to 16 fields and 32,767
records. Search or sort on any field. Print format options, allowing
mail-merge, on both automatic and inspection basis. Superbly easy
to use with all prompts on screen.
EACH PROGRAM IS ONLY £43 + VAT (£49.45)
FORMATS: IBM PC DOS/APRICOT MS DOS
Ask your dealer for a demo, or send cheque to:
a LUTTERWORTH SOFTWARE,
126 NEW WALK, LEICESTER LE] 7JA (Tel. 0533 550822)
@ Circle No. 174
124
® Circle No. 177
PRINTER REPAIRS
AND SERVICE
TEL: 061-428 2014
* DOT-MATRIX &
DAISYWHEEL
* COLLECTION & DELIVERY
SERVICE
* FAST TURNAROUND
*3 MONTH WARRANTY ON
WORK
* FIXED RATES — FIRM
QUOTES
* WORKSHOP CONTRACTS
AVAILABLE
A+G COMPUTERWARE
PO BOX 34
CHEADLE
CHESHIRE SK8 4PT
®@ Circle No. 175
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
LAST WORD
ore than any other facet of com-
M puters, the various forms of disc
operating systems DOS do not lend
themselves to simple comparisons. At a very
simple level, how can I compare an MS-DOS
implementation which provides 360K discs,
with an Acorn DFS which gives a possible
400K per disc, but which splits the storage
into two separate sides, each of 200K? Is the
400K of the Acorn DFS worth more or less
than an MS-DOS 360K? Can the MS-DOS
360K store more information than the
Acorn 400K?
In general, 360K for MS-DOS is worth
more than a 400K for some other DOS
versions because of the way in which the
information is stored on the disc. For many
versions of DOS, disc files are stored in
contiguous sectors on the disc so if a file is
erased, unfillable gaps may appear on the
disc. Some DOS versions have commands
such as Compact or Crunch which can be
used to reorganise disc storage by moving
files to fill empry sectors. If there is a good
deal of disc file creation and manipulation
within an application, compacting is a fre-
quent necessity, ‘as in UCSD Pascal.
MS-DOS uses a more sophisticated
method of storing files, based on the idea of
linked lists. Each section of a file in MS-DOS
has a pointer to the next section, and so a
particular file does not have to be stored in
contiguous sectors. Therefore, with MS-
DOS there is no need to Compact or Crunch
— although it does help if files are tidied
every so often, by use of Copy *.* from one
disc to another.
So when investigating benchmarks for
disc systems you need different kinds of
benchmarks for different types of DOS. My
first benchmarks were designed to compare
| the performance of the same version of DOS
across several computers. Because of the in-
creasing importance of 16-bit systems, I
.chose to start with PC-DOS/MS-DOS.
MS-DOS — in which I include PC-DOS
— claims to be a fairly sophisticated system,
and I decided that one of the features I
would investigate would be the effects of
different. MS-DOS configurations. I decided
to investigate only a few facilities at first and
then examine the facilities over a fair
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
| By Boris Allan | Boris | By Boris Allan |
INVESTIGATING MS-DOS
Should comparative benchmarks for disc operating
systems be treated with suspicion?
FOR I=1
FOR M=1
FOR I=1
FOR J=1
NEXT I
NEXT M
FOR I=1 TO
FOR I=1 TO 15: 0PEN"o0
FOR M=1 TO 10
FOR I=1 TO 15
10
20
30
1.40
So
60
70
80
90
100
10
15
110 FOR J=1 TO 60:
120 NEXT I
130 NEXT M
140 FOR I=1 TO
150 FOR I=1 TO 15:QPEN"
160 FOR M=1 TO 10
170 FOR [=1 TO 15
180 FOR J=1 TO
190 NEXT I
200 NEXT M
210 FOR I=1 TO
BASIC FILE CREATION PROGRAM
15:CLOSE I:NEXT I
15:CLOSE I:NEXT I
a", 1,CHR#(64+1I)+".1":NEXT I
60: PRINT# I,"rstuvwxyz"sNEXT J
15:CLOSE I:NEXT I
15: OPEN"o",1,CHR#(64+I1) +".
60: PRINT# I,"rstuvwxyz":NEXT J |
",1,CHRS (6441) +".2":NEXT I
PRINT# I,"rstuvwxyz"sNEXT J
number of different MS-DOS configur-
ations — by which] mean different ways of
setting up MS-DOS for the same computer.
As the storage of files in MS-DOS is by the
linked-list system, I produced a special disc
with files having many non-contiguous
sectors. The example disc was produced by
funning a short Basic program which
produces a disc with 30 files.
The way in which the first 15 files — those
with extension .1 — are created means that
ADVANCE 86B RESULTS
Buffers
Format
41.4
41.5
41.4
41.7
Mixed copy Clean copy
100.3 99.4
97.8 93.0
98.0 93.7
98.0 94.3
98.4 93.4
41.6 98.4 93.4
41.5 105.2
— F 118.0
41.7 : 94.7
41.4 93.1
Timings in seconds.
41.6
consecutive elements of the files are very
widespread. These first 15 files are produced
a poftion at a time, in 10 distinct sections.
The next 15 files — with extension .2 — are
created in a similar manner, and finally the
first 15 files are extended even further with
another 10 sections.
Each of the files with extension .1
occupied 13,312 bytes, and the files with the
.2 extension occupied 6,656 bytes. But there
were many non-contiguous sectors for both
types of file. There were 55,296 bytes free on
a 360K disc.
The configuration of MS-DOS is altered
by use of a Config.Sys file. The first element
of the configuration to be altered was the
number of disc buffers by forming a
Config.Sys file with varying Buffers =
commands. In MS-DOS, a disc buffer is
0.5K of memory set aside for intermediate
storage of disc files. The default number of
buffers is two, and thus the total disc buffer
area is 1K. The number of buffers can be
set to 98 — that is 49K — and so I wanted
(continued on next page)
125
BLAST WORD
(continued from previous page)
to investigate performance with varying
numbers of buffers. Later I was going to
examine the effects of other parameters.
The investigation used three tasks: for-
matting a disc; copying the standard mixed
disc files by use of Copy *.* B:; and taking
the new, clean arrangement of files on the
second disc, and copying those to a new disc.
The first task was introduced because
essentially it is independent of the buffers,
and thus should not alter in time taken. The
copying of the mixed files was set as a worst-
case scenario, which could then be compared
to the third task. The intention was to
investigate the extent to which non-
contiguous files slowed down copying.
The results for the Advance 86B are
shown in the table. They indicate that
special attention should be paid to the
results for 70 buffers. The time taken to
format a disc is effectively constant, except
for the case of 70 buffers. In the case of 70
buffers it was impossible to format, and bad
disc sectors were reported. Both types of
copying worked for 70 buffers, but there was
a degradation in performance, tailing off
either side of 70 buffers.
As MS-DOS takes up 29K, and 70 buffers
is equivalent to 35K, the DOS and buffers
were taking up 64K of memory. The Intel
8086/88 processor divides memory into 64K
segments, and to move from one segment to
another requires a modification of the
segment register. Unlike, for example, the
Lynnem
Acoustic Hoods
As approved and recommended by British
Telecom and IBM.
Designed for
today’s office
Lynnem Computer Products have over 15 years
experience in providing the complete solution to the
problems of noise caused by today’s office
equipment.
Built to meet your exact requirement
So before you buy an acoustic hood talk to our
experts and compare ours with the Rest!
Lynnem Computer Products Ltd
277 London Road, Burgess Hill
Tel: 04446 3377/6632
Sussex RH15 90U
126
\ — = = —
Ail MS-DOS buffers behave badly when 70 buffers are set, not just the Advance.
Motorola 68000 series, there is no simple
address register which can point to anywhere
in memoty. An address register for the 8086
can only point to 64K, and which 64K is
determined by the segment register.
The problem with MS-DOS on the
Advance 86B seems to be tied into the use of
segments, and it seems as if the handling of
inter-segment addressing is not as clean as it
should be. The next question was to estab-
lish whether the possible inter-segment con-
fusion was a specific Advance 86B problem,
or a general MS-DOS design fault. Chris
Williams examined the effect of setting
buffers to 70 on other MS-DOS machines,
including the IBM PC.
All the MS-DOS/PC-DOS machines
examined so far were found to have
problems with 70 buffers. For an Apricot
with 256K the system claims to have run out
of memory, and the machine is completely
paralysed. The extra problems for the
Apricot may be due to the lack of a DMA
chip, but I do not have any real explanation.
The unreality of specifying 70 buffers is
immaterial, because there should not be
strange results for a standard facility. This
particular MS-DOS fault for all machines
examined is indicative of a basic design flaw
which may have other, less obvious, con-
sequences. What this has shown is that
benchmarks designed to really test a DOS
can have a far wider utility than merely com-
paring speeds. PC)
quotation
REPRINTS
areadymade sales aid
\f you are interested in a particular article or
advertisement in this publication why not take
advantage of our reprint service. We offer an excellent,
reasonably priced service. For further details and a
Ring Michael Rogers on 01-661 3457
@ Circle No. 176
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
“PRACTICAL
COMPUTING
ADVERTISEMENT RATES
Rates quoted below are subject to the addition of 15
Display Rates
$18.00 per single
Column Centimetre
Minimum 5cm x 4 col
One Insertion
Three Insertions
Six Insertions
Nine Insertions
Twelve Insertions
£18.00 per scc
$17.25 per scc
£17.00 per scc
£16.50 per scc
£16.00 per scc
FORTH = TOTAL CONTROL
FORTH 83 — Professional FORTHS from Laboratory
Microsystems. Screen editor, assembler, utilities, full
documentation. Special version for IBM PCs and 100%
compatibles. State disc format with order. CPM-80 £95+VAT,
CPM-86/MS/PCDOS £190+VAT.
QL FORTH-83 — screen editor, macro-assembler, decompiler,
turnkey compiler, binary overlays, floating point, colour,
graphics, sound, ‘hash cache’ fast compiler, and 70 page manual
— £29.95.
NEWBRAIN FORTH in PROM — includes screen editor, full
integration to NEWBRAIN ijo handlers, Z80 macro-assembler,
floating point, graphics, decompiler, utilities, and manual —
£51.75.
ORAGON FORTH cartridge — split screen editor, sound colour,
decompiler, overlays, joystick and timer support, full
documentation, and complete source code — £35, CoCo version
£45,
Oo-it-yourself FORTH. Installation manual — How to do it,
,model, definitions, editor — £7. Source code: 6502, 6800,
6809, 8080, 280, 8086/8088, 9995, 1802, 68000, 28000,
VAX, Apple JL, LSI-11 — £7 each.
Implementations for Spectrum to VAX, and a range of FORTH
books, 81
Me
MicroProcessor Engineering Ltd
21 Hanley Road Shirley EN
Southampton SO! SAP
®@ Circle No. 320
Tel: O703 775482
SCIENTIFIC SUBROUTINE LIBRARY
VOLUME 1 — STATISTICS AND CURVE FITTING
Mean, SD, Normal Distribution, Partial Expectation, Chauvenets,
Criterion, Least Squares Fit to a Polynomial and Arbitrary Function,
Repetitive Least Squares Fits, Covariance Matrix, Chi-Squared
Statistic, Matrix Inversion, Solution of Linear Simultaneous Equations.
VOLUME 2 — LINEAR PROGRAMMING
Reduction of a Simplex Tableau, integer Programming, Partial Integer
Programming, Conversational Linear Programming System, Least Cost
Mix Problem.
VOLUME 3 — FURTHER STATISTICS
Ranking, Quantiles, Frequency, Correlation Coefficient, T, Chi-Squared
and F Distributions and their Inverses, T Test, Chi-Squared Test,
Wilcoxson Test, Linear and Multiple Regression, ANOVA 1-way and
2-way.
VOLUME 4 — TRANSFORMATIONS AND SORTING
ALGORITHMS
Fourier and Fast Fourier Transforms, Numerical Integration and
Differentiation, Harmonic Analysis, Interpolation, Coordinate
Transformations, Exchange Sort, Quicksort, Shellsort, Tree Sort.
All routines are written in BASIC for easy implementation on any
machine.
Machine readable source code — £75 plus VAT per volume.
(Most disk formats plus OL microdrive now available)
Manuals including full source listings with implementation notes and
documentation — £25 per volume.
CP/M TO DEC FILE TRANSFER
Software to read and write RT-11 format RXO1 diskettes under
CP/M80. Supplied on 8” SSSO diskette — £25 plus VAT.
SERVICES
Micro Logic Consuttants specialise in scientific data processing and
the interfacing and control of laboratory instrumentation.
We can advise you an the best approach to your problem, or provide
a complete solution. Contact Derek Clifford on 0860 319482.
MICRO LOGIC CONSULTANTS LTD.
57 Station Rd., Southwater, Horsham,
W. Sussex RH13 7HO
Telephone 0403 731818
I Sy
@ Circle No. 321
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Telephone Simon Vickers 01-661 8163
Copy Date
% VAT.
Shopwindow advertisements for the
Micro Ads.
Linage 40p per
October edition will be accepted up to
25th August subject to space being
word minimum of available.
20 words.
Prepayable. Post to
Practical Computing, Classified
Department, Room H211, Quadrant House,
The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS.
CAPTURE THE FUTURE WITH YOUR
MICRO
Bored with games and want to do something worthwhile? Finding manuals
difficult and frustrating? Do you want the advantages of programming
skills? Do you want your own ‘expert’ to show you how to do it?
Then you need
“TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR MICRO’
* EASY and ENJOYABLE steps to practical BASIC
* EXAMPLES to see and EXERCISES to do
* FEEDBACK MODULES give you PERSONAL GUIDANCE
* STRUCTURED for HOME, SCHOOL and COLLEGE
* For BBC SPECTRUM and COMMODORE micro-computers
TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR MICRO gives you the helping hand you need to
gain the skills, advantages and benefits in TOMORROW'S WORLD.
Price only £25.00 includes delivery UK, Please state your micro
Contact: SS software
18 Fernbank Drive, Eckington, Sheffield S31 9HG
OON'T BE LEFT BEHIND >>> MAKE 1985 YOUR YEAR TO LEAP
AHEAD 103
@ Circle No. 322
35 FUJI
2 Microdisks
sso £29.95
oso £39.95
FLOPPY- UJ
5 DISKS
Suitable for use on nearly all single
and double-sided 5%" disk systems
© Replatement Guarantee
= Hub rings
= Boxed in 10s
PRICES PER BOX
PRICES PER BOX
pe SS oe
Ss 2995 2950 2310 |
OS 3995 39,30 38.70
Full Lifetirne Guarantee
REPLACEMENT
GUARANTEE
Hf amy dish shouid fad,
return it for free
replacement. .
SEE10 LIBRARY CASES
{Hold 10 disks)
iss tes vgs | [DELIVERY
199-488) 1.75 BRA ies bes} % ay
Library Cases 60p 30p 25p
HOW TO ORDER Lee
To total order value add Delivery, then add 15% VAT and send to:
1D Computer suppues
OF no. wox ase. eancrorr. wncton KEYMES mx13 00%. To: (ov0H! 310898.
@ Circle No. 324
SUSS BOX
The OUPLEX SUSS-BOX has been designed
to enable the less skled computer user to
have a better understanding of the correct
working connection between a”
computer and 4 peripheral, such as a
printer. This is achieved by using |
the common!y used signals
(wires) of the RS232C serial
data cable specification, a
matrix-block and special
connector pins. By inserting the
connector pins into the $USS-BOX's matrix-biock at the axis of two
incoming signals the user can quickly establish a firm connection The
signals are routed into the SUSS-BOX by two 25 way D type connectors;
,
ie
1x female. 1xmale, The SUSS-BOX also provides a lamp for each signal to
show its condition when connected in line, ie high or low. SUSS-ADAPTOR
& CABLES available,
OCTET/HERMIT
Typewriter Interfaces
ADD ON TO THE - ®
OLIVETTI ET121 Ideal for
OR HERMES TT21 “7 TELECOM
ELECTRONIC TYPEWRITER GOLD
AND HAVE THE BENEFITS OF
THESE FEATURES: ox
ew
SACOMPUTERTEAMIAL (True RSA LOW
@ ATELEX TERMINAL using the Ducten DIAL-TEXT modems ry *
@ A COMMUNICATING TYPEWRITER (QIAL-TEXT Comoatbie, prices
@ AREMOTE PAINTER using DIAL-TEXT modems
DUPLEX COMMUNICATIONS (UK) LTD.
2 Leire Lane, Ounton Bassett, Ns Lutterworth, Leicestershire LET? SUP
Tel, 0455 202154
@ Circle No. 325
LOW PRICES IN
THE NORTH WEST?
PCs
APRICOT 256K 2 x 315K
Drives & Mon
APRICOT 256K 2 x 720K
Drives & Mon
Ex. VAT
£1345.00
£1545.00
£2200.00
PC SOFTWARE
WORDSTAR 2000.. £295.00
£135.00
-£200.00
£345.00
... £245.00
PEGASUS LEDGER MODULE..
PSION EXCHANGE
ESTIMATOR
PC PRINTERS
EPSON LQ 1500 200 cps
STAR SR-15 MATRIX...
SILVER REED EXP 770 (p)..
OLIVETTI DY 450 45 cps (p)....
«£895.00
£475.00
£675.00
+.£780.00
The above are only examples
Ring now for your low price deal
CITY COMPUTERS
Queens House, Queens Road
Chester CH1 3BQ
Tel: 0244 47019
Wo
@ Circle No. 326
127
BUSINESS OR SERIOUS HOBBY
THE ONLY WAY YOU WiLL BEAT OUR NORMAL PRICES IS TO
JOIN OUR DISCOUNT GROUP. WE DARE NOT PRINT THEM!!
Apricot, Atari, Amstrad, Brothers, Cannon, Commodore,
Cumana, Enterprise, Epson, GCC, Juki, Mannesmann Tally,
Mitsubishi, Opus, Philips, Sanyo, Sakata, Sorryifwemissedyou,
Sinclair, Solidisk, Tatung, Torch, Triumph, Adler.
THIS MONTH'S SPECIAL
CANON PW 10804 NLO Dot Matrix €240+VAT=£276.00 Inc. VAT
ACORN MUSIC 500 FM Synth. £150+VAT=€172.50 inc. VAT
AMSTRAD 664 Colour + Drive £374+VAT £430.10 Inc. VAT
GREEN SCREEN MONITOR Q” HI-RES © £43+VAT= £49.46 inc, VAT
We-carry most leading brand names.
For more information on how to get our monthly price jist of
genuine discount prices and details of the other services we
offes, contact:
COMPUTER DISCOUNT GROUP
8 WESTWOOO LANE, WELLING, KENT, OA16 2HE
TELEPHONE: 01-301 3745/03224 48561
102 CALLERS BY PRIOR APPOINTMENT ONLY
@ Circle No. 327
USED MICROCOMPUTERS
at BARGAIN PRICES
We have a number of 8 and 16 bit
micros for sale which are surplus to
our requirements.
These include:
Apple !l inc CP/m £400
North Star Horizon £450
Columbia Portable £1025
Phone or write for details of these and
others.
The SOFT OPTION (UK) Ltd. School
Lane, Colsterworth, GRANTHAM, Lincs
(0476) 860171
111
® Circle No. 328
FERRANTI ‘ADVANCE 86b
Still available for under
£800 (128Kb module)
also Printers from £199 &
Screens from £90
LONGSEER LIMITED, FREEPOST 19
Middletons Lane, Norwich
Norfolk, NR6 5BR.
Tel: (0603) 487199
@ Circle No. 329
ATTENTION PC/MS DOS
SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS
PROGRAMMERS TOOLKIT FOR IBM
PC AND COMPATIBLES
A set of 14 utility programs providing UNIX-IIke
facilities under PC-DOS or MS-DOS.
Package includes:
MAKE
equivalent to UNIX make command, rebullds pro-
grams with minimum recompilations after one or
more source tiles modified. Same spec as UNIX ver-
sion, Including macros, built in and defineable rules
and 11 command line options.
XCOPY
equivalent to UNIX copy command (plus extra
features). Coples files, directories, or whole fille
trees. | command line options, Including archive op-
tion which copies only flles modified since last
backup. Also permits disk change It destination fills
up part way through operation.
grep (pattern matcher), WC (word count), Is (file list),
tee (for splitting plpes), cat (file concatentlon), rm
(ftle remove), find (searches tree for files), touch (up-
dates file date/time stamp), mu (moves files), hd (hex-
dump), chmod (changer tide attributes)
All the above accept starnames, where relevant, and
multiple arguments (eg grep main *.c)
£59.95 free postage
Demo Diskette also available for £3, this
demonstrates how the above are used and produces
sample output. (included In full package)
AXIS SOFTWARE, Orient House 42/45 New Broad
Street, London E62M 10Y
mail order only please
14
© Circle No. 330
128
DISK COPYING/FORMATTING/
FILE TRANSFER
WE CAN TRANSFER YOUR DATA
BETWEEN OVER 500 DIFFERENT
MACHINES.
FORMATS INCLUE:
CPM, CPM86, MSDOS, PCDOS,
UNIX, XENIX, TAR, RT11, MDOS,
IBM BEF, ISIS, FLEX, VICTOR
SIRIUS, TORCH, ACORN, MISC.
TYPESETTING/WORD
PROCESSING
* OVERNIGHT SERVICE — most
formats retumed by next day’s Post
* £10.00 + VAT per copy (Blank
disks not included)
4 * DISCOUNT for Bulk
SS aeowntoapinc
@ Circle No. 331
SECOND USER EQUIPMENT NETWORK
UPTO 254 MICROS with a 10 mbyte
MICROMITE FILESERVER
complete with 3 ‘‘Apple’’ interface
boards and cables Interface Boards for
other Micros are readily available for ACT
SIRIUS: Epson QX10; IBM PC
Maintainance available from Micromite
Services Ltd
Cost New over £8,000
Offers around £4,000 please
Also 3 seconduser Epson HX20
computers available @ £200 each
CONTACT: Tim Woodruff, Valldata Services Ltd
OAKWOOO HOUSE, SPA ROAO, MELKSHAM,
ae WILTS (0225) 705957
@ Circle No. 332
CAPTURE THE FUTURE WITH
YOUR MICRO
Are you bored with games?
Do you find manuals difficult and frustrating?
Do you want the advantage of programming skills?
Do you want your own ‘expert’ to show you how to do it?
Then you need ‘TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR MICRO’
Easy and enjoyable steps to practical BASIC.
Examples to see and exercises to do.
Feedback Modules give you Personal Guidance
Structured for home, school and college.
For BBC Spectrum and Commodore micro-compiters.
TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR MICRO gives you the help you need to
gain the skills, advantages and benefits in TOMORROWS WORLD.
Price only £25.00 includes delivery UK. Please state your micro.
Contact:
SS Software, 18 Fernbank Drive, Eckington, Sheffield
$31 SHG. 101
Don't be left behind. Make 1985 your year to leap ahead.
@ Circle No
SEX PROBLEMS?
Solve all your RS232 problems with our universal cable.
Plug and socket at both ends of the one metre cable.
Price £29
GENDER CHANGERS
M m3,£180,M F=€17.00,F F=€16.00
All are 3" long
ALSO
One metre Centronics cables:
One metre RS232:
Commodore 64.. j
Epson PX-8.........
Epson HX-20
Please add £2.00 per metre to above f
lengths. All prices Include VAT, Postage, and Packing in
Europe.
See our range of computer/printer cables, communica-
tions cables, custom cables, interfaces, data-switches.
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FURTHER DETAHS OR
ring our 24hr answering service on (0223) 322394
TYEPRO Ltd., 30 CAMPKIN ROAD,
CAMBRIDGE CB24 2NG.
DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME
115
@ Circle No. 334
CP/M USER groups disk. Libraries. 300+,
volumes, £1.50/vol. Copying free. Also disk
format translation, £6.50/DSK. Most
formats possible. SAE or phone R. Smith,
138 Holtye Rd., E. Grinstead, Sussex RH19
SEA. (0342 ) 313883. 169M
SOFTWARE. Probably your - cheapest
inclusive source. Eg, WordStar 2000 £340,
WordStar Professional £285, Lotus 128,
£355 including VAT, carriage. Call Scimitar
Business Services. (0705 823052, oven?)
todiscuss your requirements. 179M
TRS 80 Model !! £600 + VAT. Model !V with
integral 5M hard disk £1,300 + VAT. Model
100 32K £350+VAT. Also printers and
cassette. Ring Southampton (0703) 551582
any time. All with guarantees, 184M
COMPUTER WEEK. 9-14 year olds, 27-31
August, daytime, Berkshire. Write: Avion
Leisure Care, 62 Elder Road, Bisley, Surrey.
187M
TANDY TRS 80 Model 2, 64K, two printers, 1
Daisywheel, software, WP and accounting
manuals, Inmac discs and tapes
equipment, very little used. Plus ie
£2,200 0.n.o. Tel. 07842 52031. 195M
SHARP M2Z700, 711, 713 software for home
and business. I.E. “Stockcontrol 750”
£29.95. “Programmers Kit’ (for Basic)
£15.95, etc. C.W.O. or SAE for complete list.
Maysoft (OMB), 50 Thompson Avenue,
Colchester. Essex CO3 4HW. 197M
CASIO — Portable Computer (P.B. 700). 16K
+ FA.10 Interface printer, + micro-
cassette. RRP.£492. Bargain at £260. Tel:
01-373 0645. 199M
BBC, Cumana 40 track dual discs, colour
monitor, 32K sideways RAM, speech synth,
Beasty controller, Shinna printer, Pascal,
Exmon, Wordwise, disc Doctor, and other
Roms, much software including Forth.
£1100 ono. Phone: 04207 443 after ela
SIRIUS 1.2meg TWIN floppy disc with green
screen £1050 ono Sirius 10 meg, green
screen. Good condition software available.
Phone 0423 57126. 201M
AMSTRAD SHARP MZ700 Spectrum
software the cheapest games software
around prices between 75p to £1.75 send
SAE to Pacetapes 40 Bainton Grove, Clifton,
Nottm. NG118LG. 202M
IBM SOFTWARE: Lotus 123, Wordstar,
Wordstar Professional, dBase II, dBase II
tutorial, dutil utilities, quickcode program
generator. All with accompanying literature
and never been used. £400 or will swop for
Sinclair QL. 01-624 1816. 203M
FUTURE FX20 TWIN 820K disk drives 128K
RAM with CP/M86 MS DOS Supercale 2
Spellbinder Datastar etc. V.little used & still
under manufacturers guarantee £1250
o.n.o. Also available EPSON RX80F/T
printer offers? Telephone Oxford ee
882604 evenings. 204M
SUPERBRAIN Z80 CPM with integral
Monitor, discs & keyboard. QD Model
(2x350Kb). enhanced with many useful
features including Micromods “Supervid”’
video enhancements and excellent
Superbios operating system. Superbios
provides capability of reading other 5”
floppy formats in addition to many other
enhancements. System also equipped with
an 8” disc making it ideal for software
developer. Can be expanded with
Winchester if needed. £700.00 plus VAT.
buyer collects. Tel: OEAN (0594) we it
CP/M-IBM user group. disk libraries 800 +
volumes 12000+ items also cheap disk
format translation service most formats
possible. Sae/Tel R. Smith 138 Holtye Rd.,
East Grinstead, Sussex RH19 3E (0342)
313883 211M
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
RAIR BLACK BOX and ICL PCs @ bit).
Bought sold exchanged repalred and advice
given. Ring 0628 71243(Maidenhead). 206M
COMMODORE 9090 7}4Meg hard disk
perfect order £850 ono Keith Webb Tel 0386
792785 any day/evenings (suits any ae
series.
TRS-80 MOD |, 48K, two disks, Epson dot-
matrix printer with Graftrax +.LDOS V5.1.3
DOS, visicalc, books, manuals. CPU
enhancements: lower case, extra reset,
screen de-glitch. £695 (0602) 761566 day,
(0949) 37586 evenings. 208M
SCIENTIFIC COMPUTER SIMULATIONS for
the Spectrum 48K. Electrodynamics,
rotation, gravity, relativity. For further
information contact: Anima Scientific
Computing, 23 Crawley Avenue, Hebburn,
Tyne & Wear. Telephone 0632 832825 & 0632
834556. 209M
SHARP MZ80B + 64K + M2Z80FD dual
floppy drive + MX80 P6 Tractor friction
printer. All interfaces, G-Manual. 100’s
business/games program
Assembler/Disassembler cheapest
anywhere £1,900, will accept £1,400. Tel. No.
0454 413511. 210M
SUPERBRAIN “for sale. 64K: CPM with
10Megabyte integral Winchester disk £995
or nearest offer. Phone Brian Taylor 0422
41152. 212M
WORD PERFECT, The Report-Writer's
dream, available at only £285 (incl. carriage,
VAT)
Portsmouth 823052 (evenings).
from Scimitar Business Services,
213M
PRACTICAL COMPUTING, all issues to date
including launch issue July/August 1978.
Offers to 8 Kingsland Gardens Close,
Plymouth, Devon. 214M
APRICOT Xi10-S, 512K RAM 10MB hard
disk, 12” monitor. Complete new unrequired
system and carry cases. Software includes:
Wordstar, Superwriter, Supercalc,
Superplanner, £2,750 +VAT. 042 aerrnt
15M
COMPETENT person required to write,
control and graphics program for science
education. 380Z Apple or BBC. Indicate
experience. Box No. 216 216M
TANDY Business Systems, TRS 80 Mod. |,
48K, double density, upper/lower case,
numeric pad, twin 40-track drivés double
density 360K, twin 80-track drives double
density 720K, Tandy Lineprinter Vill, with alt
covers and cables on Tandy System Desk in
perfect working order, including complete
set of accounting software, word processor
and spreadsheet, £750, will split. Tel. oleae
373) 3574. |
IBM PC compatible Business ae
with monitor and Epson RX80 F/T printer.
Twin half-height 360K drives, 256K memory,
8 expansion slots, will take internal hard
disk, complete with PC DOS 2.11 etc. £1,495.
Tel. (0283 373) 3574. 218M
TANDY TRS 80 Model Ill, 48K, twin 40- track
drives, £550, Lineprinter Vill £100, twin
40-track DID external drives, half height
£175, twin 80-track D/D external drives £150,
all with cables and covers. Tel. (028 373)
3574. 219M
DISK COPYING SERVICE
Moving data and program files from
one machine to another is often made
difficult because different
Manufacturers have adopted different
disk format standards.
We can copy your files to and from
over 250 disk formats including
cP/M, CP/M-86, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, ISIS,
APPLE, SIRIUS, TORCH, APRICOT, HPL50,
DEC RT-11, and IBM BEF.
Disks are normally despatched on the
day they are received.
Our charge is £10.00 + disk + VAT.
Special prices for quantities.
For more information call us.
GREY MATTER
L
4 Prigg Meadow, Ashburton, Devon 1013 7DF
TEL. (0364) 53499 10
~"e Circle No. 335
When replying to
Cl lassified Ll) nd
readers are recommended
to take steps to protect
their interests before
sending money.
RACTICAL|
oe ae COMPUTING
Classified Rates
Lineage 40p per word Please insert the following advertisement in Practical Computing LINAGE
Minimum 20 words prepayable. r j j
Box No. $7.00 extra | [ Cost per insertions
Display Adverts. | | 1 Ins. [ 8% [TOTAL
Rate per single column I + ‘ =
Centimetre: £18.00
Minimum 5cm r T
SERIES Discounts £6.00 | £0.90 | £6.90
Available on request T T T
cereca a Vickers on £8.00 | £1.20 | £9.20
1-661 8163. 7 1" 7
7 £10.00 | £1.50 | £11.50
Method of Payment i
Cheques etc eee - : | zl aI £12.00 £1.80 £13.80
payable to BUSINESS PR
INTERNATIONAL LTD. and crossed. + 4 1 H) } £14.00 | £2.10 |£16.10
lenclose herewith cheque/PO for £16.00 | £2.40 |£18.40
— +- _+— +—
Ria. Ser Ee oad y £18.00 | £2.70 | £20.70
Post to:
Cut out the order form and return
together with your remittance to:
Classified Department,
Practical Computing,
Room H211, Quadrant House,
The Quadrant, Sutton,
Surrey SM2 SAS.
Conditions of Acceptance
Micro Ads are accepted from
Private readers only and must be
submitted on (or a photocopy of)
this orderform. All Advertisements
must be prepaid.
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
Box No. Required YES/NO
NAME (Please include initials)
ADDRESS_
No. of Insertions
(50p discount for 2 ins.)
[THis FORM SHOULD BE RETURNED BY 25TH AUGUST FOR THE OCTOBER ISSUE
Company Registered Number: 151537 (ENGLAND). Registered Office: Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 SAS.
129
PEGASUS ACCOUNTING
Regarded by many accountants as the very best
accounting software available. Pegasus comprises
eight modules, most of which will operate alone or
will work together in a totally integrated system.
We have professional staff, in London and the
Midlands, fully trained to install and support
Pegasus. Prices and details on request. We are
authorised Pegasus dealers.
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
As specialist consultants in this field we can supply
either software only or a total system configuration
with full support. We are suppliers of AUTOCAD,
DOODLE and a number of other CAD packages. The
productivity benefits of CAD are enormous — the
cost of a system is almost certainly much less than
you would expect. In most cases our clients have
found a system pays for itself within 3 to 12
Months!
MULTISOFT ACCOUNTS
A system offering top-level functionality at a very
reasonable price. Recent press reviews have high-
lighted Multisoft as one of the most powerful
Micro-based accounting systems currently avail-
able. We concur. Very impressive indeed! Please
telephone for further information. We are officially
appointed Multisoft dealers.
CHIT-CHAT
The new telecommunications package from
Sagesoft which we feel represents outstanding
value for money.
* Micro-to-micro file transfer.
* Top of the range EMI Datatek modem.
* Free subscription to Telecom Gold (worth £100).
* Access to Viewdata and Prestel.
* Electronic mail, telecommunications and telex.
List price £399 our price £325.
“PRACTICAL
COMPUTING
A
Aculab Ltd. 97
A&G Computerware 124
AMA Computer Supplies 62
Amstrad Consumer Electronics
38/39
Associated Book Publishers 30
AWS Computerware 44
B
Barbatan Ltd 14
Brighton Computer Centre 119
Brom com WS)
Business Computer Centre 36
Cc
Camera Computing 124
Cambridge Micro Electronics 28
CED Realtime Systems {FC
Computer Discount Store 34
Computer Enterprises
International 9
Computer (Hardware &
Software) Supplies 42
Compact Communications 76
Curzon Systems Ltd 106
D
Datafax Ltd 84
Dataflex Cimformation 9
Data Products 98
Dataplus-PSI 120
DDL 83,95
Dennison Mfq Co Ltd 4
130
BEST UK SOFTWARE PRICES?
0629-3021
Over 400 leading software packages
Independent advice in making your choice
Professional staff + network of consultants
Most formats. All programs latest versions
DBASE II £239
WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL £265
List i
MULTIMATE ver.3.3
SPELLSTAR
VOLKSWRITER DEL.
iS WORD
M
SUPERCALC Ill
MULTIPLAN
SUPERCALC
DATAMASTER
DMS DELTA 4
KNOWLEDGEMAN
PERTMASTER 1000
MS PROJECT
SUPERPROJECT
CARDBOX
CARDBOX PLUS
OPEN BCCESS
ASCOM
RT
DELTA GRAPH
ENERGRAPHICS
EXECUVISION
DRC COMPILER
PASCAL MT+
LEVEL II COBOL
MS BASIC
MS PASCAL
QUICKCODE
SYCERO
D UNTIL
SMARTKEY I
SUPERSORT
SAGE PAYROLL
SAGE A/CS/PAYROLL
SAGE PLUS/PAYROLL 795
SAGE ACCOUNTS £245
SAGE PLUS £485
All prices exclude V.A.T. Carriage is charged at £2+V.A.T. parcel post or
£5+V.A.T. lst Class. Please phone or write for our comprehensive price list.
Local] Authority, Government and European enquiries welcome
Further discounts may be negotiated for large orders
frrSorrLrp
INDEPENDENT MAIL ORDER DISTRIBUTORS OF QUALITY SOFTWARE
Trisoft Ltd, Crown Square, Matlock, Derbyshire DE4 3AT. Telephone: 0629/3021
Advertisement Index
HARDWARE SERVICE
Please telephone for prices and details of our
optional installation service. We supply:—
APRICOT
U.K.’s highest selling serious business micros; we
supply the full range from the F1 to xi20s.
OLIVETTI
M21 and M24. In our opinion the Olivetti range
offers the finest {BM-compatible, single-user
hardware available.
NORTH STAR DIMENSION
The only 100% PC-compatible multi-user, multi-
Processing system currently available. Will accept
up to 12 work stations and runs all IBM “off-the-
shelf” software. Tremendously cost-effective as
compared to IBM PC networks; up to BOMB central
storage. Entry-level, 2 screen configuration with
15MB central storage — only £5875, R.R.P.
SPECIAL OFFERS
IBM/APRICOT ONLY
For July/August only
DBASE Il
* DBASE III.
* FRAMEWORK..
LOTUS 1-2-3
SYMPHONY.
WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL.
* WORDSTAR 2000
* Not available for the Apricot
DISKS PER BOX OF 10
SONY 3.5” DSDD
DYSAN 5.25” DSDD.
3M 5.25” DSDD
Please add £1.00 carriage per order.
@ Circle No. 178
Digitask Business Systems
24/25
Digithurst 119
Disking International 26/27
E
Elite Computer Systems 76
Epson (UK) Ltd
10/11/109/111/113/115/117
Electronics Wireless World 123
F
First Class Peripherals 40
G
Gemini Micro Computer JBC
Guardline DisposablesLtd 122
H
Homestead Electronics 62
l
Intelpost (Royal Mail Services) 46
J
Jarogate Ltd UG
Juki (Europe) GmbH 20
K
Keyzone Ltd 76
t
Leroy Somer
Lucas World Service Ltd
Lutterworth Software
Lynnem Computer Products 126
M
Mancos Computers
Mannesmann Tally
Mayfair Micros
Medow Computers
Mercator Management
Consultants
Microft Management
Consultants
Microprocessor Eng Ltd
Micronix
Miracle Technology
Modular Technology
Mountaindene
N
Nation Computer Services
Newtrends Technology
oO
Olympic Systems
P
Practical Computing
Q
32 Qume (UK) Ltd 61
60
124 R
Regional Systems 16
Reprints 126
Research Machines 12
96
91 §
18 Sage Soft 64/65
120 Samleco 88
Sanyo Maruberni OBC
28 Sentinel Software a
Silica Shop 30
28. Sky Software 18
44 SK(Sunkyong) Europe 54/55
107 Softsel Multimate 44/45
63 SMC Supplies 120
43 SouthdataLtd 56
62 Synamics Business Systems 53
T
TABS ayy
96 = Timatic Systems Ltd 96
80 TMAT 96
Trisoft 130
60 U
Unicorn Business Systems 106
Ww
82 West One Galaxy 22
PRACTICAL COMPUTING August 1985
If you are a standard size and all your clothes fit
you perfectly, you're the rag trade’s ideal customer.
But, for most of us, buying a new outfit is far
from simple: right size but wrong colour, right
ssi but wrong size, sleeves too short, legs too
ong...
ee
| AE:
at off-the-peg_ |
prices =e
. « « With a Gemini all you have to do is decide what you want
your micro based system to do for you.
Each system can be tailored to individual needs. No wasted
so no wasted money. Add to that a choice of hundreds of CP/M se
packages and your Gemini system really starts to show its versati
It’s even flexible enough to allow a D.LY. system to be ;
manufactured to your own specification.
And when your needs grow or diversify, so too can your —
Gemini’s capabilities and memory. You can even :
integrate your system to link up to 31 terminals -
to give a full local area network.
If you want to know more about the technical ‘ins
and outs’ of our remarkable and easily expandible
modular system, just write to us for our brochure.
If you're not that interested in RAMs, ROMs,
LANs and CPUs, then just pop into one of our
customer-friendly, hand-picked dealers who will tailor
a system to your needs.
(4
Gemini produce a large range of compatible boards, ensuring the maximum
flexibility and ease af upgrade in the expansion of any Gemini based computer system.
Whilst the Gemini system uses CP/M, the addition of a 16 bit card will allow you to
ee
run many popular programs now being generated. Pal
a
or a
MULTIBOARD COMPUTERS :
fA gt S
oa — Key “
Setting Fashion Trends ‘ Oe ae ae,
oF & ee J ye
es Cal - :
ox 2 Re
Gemini Microcomputers Ltd, 18 Woodside Road, Amersham, Bucks,
England. HP6OBH. Tel: (02403) 28321. Telex: 837788 KS i i a ci en a GT i Ss hme
@ Circle No. 103
rae
NN
WY
a
SS
Sas
id Af
Y iy Si “ery
if; EE ESN
“oe
Wy
ie
“My portable micro is IBM compatible” “My portable micro is IBM compatible.
And it has a colour screen?
There were once two businessmen in the market
for a portable micro computer.
The first, a proud and somewhat shortsighted man,
snapped up the first IBM compatible machine
he encountered. Thinking he'd done wonderfully well.
The second, a wise old bird, considered the options
carefully and settled on the Sanyo MBC 775.
His patience was admirably rewarded.
Not only did his chosen machine have full IBM
compatibility, with twin 360K disk drives, 256K RAM
expandable to 640K RAM, but also a colour screen.
The only portable micro with a colour screen.
The price of £2,150 included not only the monitor
but £500 of free software like Calcstar, Wordstar, and
GW Basic.
Andhe was given the opportunity tojoin the Sanyo
Micro-Users Association, giving direct access to product
and software information.
For full details ring Sanyo Business Systems on
0923 46363.
And remember the moral of the story is, see Sanyo,
then decide. F# SANYO ® Circle No. 102
i... = » wan
N
[ivan |
In |
one
~~)
\
Open Library