An announcement to all members: "Unfortunately the pressure of work at university has increased somewhat, and as a result of this I will be unable to edit Issue 28 as originally planned. So please IGNORE the statement in Issue 26 that Issue 28 will be edited by me; you should send your disks and submissions to Chris Richardson at his usual address. However there is still a possibility of me editing a few issues at some stage in the more distant future, apart from which I will be assisting Chris in running 8BS, contributing to issues and so on. A whole new variety of things are planned for 8BS, including the creation of a related PD library. So keep your submissions and support flowing in (but not to me!) Finally, due to the way in which I am handing things over to Chris in a bit of a hurry, I feel I may have forgotten about or omitted some matters. If you have any outstanding queries, or have submitted something and not received a response, please get in touch. This excludes a certain amount of material which reached me a while after Issue 26 was completed, and so was left at home, and has to be forwarded via university to Chris. This will be forwarded in due course, and should appear in Issue 28 if not in Issue 27. If there are matters which I was/am discussing with anyone, or any info/etc. I promised to send, please remind me as I may have forgotten. You can send me messages as User 483 through 8BS, write to my usual address (1 Oakwood etc..), or, from July onwards, phone after 7:30pm. Weizburg's second law: Progress is made on alternate Fridays. Daniel Shimmin, OXFORD, 10am May Morning 1993. " To : 999 (Everyone) From : 483 (Daniel Shimmin) Re : Repton Competition OK, um, it's over, only three people voted and two of them voted for themselves. (Yes.) Our very own Chris Richardson received two votes, and hence, ermmm, won. So there. I will be writing to Duncan Webster (who offered the prizes in the first place, sometime back in Spring 1971). To: 999 (Everyone) From: 483 (Daniel Shimmin) Re: Apologies, buying/selling hardware/upgrades A little while ago, Chris Richardson and I tried (for our own good reasons) to persuade people to buy ADFS and Sideways RAM upgrades for their BBC B's if they didn't have them. I would like to point out: (i) ADFS on the BBC B isn't as useful as I expected due to lack of RAM, and for #25 or so there are lots of more useful things you can get, like sideways RAM or even a 6502 second processor (anyone after one drop me a line I may be able to help). (ii) A lot of people then wrote in asking how/where to get Sideways RAM upgrades for the BBC B and I then advised them to buy a BBC Master instead. On re-consideration, this seems a little excessive - buying a 16K sideways RAM slot is quite a lot cheaper and also pretty useful. Having one 16K slot is vital, having four (plus all the other bits) is just convenient. So much for that. One more thing. I'm afraid that, after speaking to some people, if you really want to get rid of your BBC "B", a more realistic price is around #70 (plus little extra bits for all the little extra bits that you're selling with it). Sorry, but it's true. To: 999 (Everyone) From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass Re: Mandelbrots While recently looking through past issues of 8BS I came accross the mandelbrot creation program from issue 10. I decided to try my hand at deciphering the program, but to no avail. Can anyone help me to understand how mandelbrots are created and what is the difference between the division (divide by 2) and log versions of processing? I would also like to ask the reason why the programmer (who was he/she?) in question did not see fit to include a "load" option (any offers?)? I inserted a line in the program to *LOAD a previously created picture, but when I zoom in on an area I came up with a picture which had no resemblance to the original - what am I doing wrong? Does anyone have any time to overhaul this program or has anyone written their own (user friendly) program? I personally would be very interested if there exists a PD application which can do this - especially if it made use of the shadow screen memory on the Master series. To: 999 (Everyone) From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass Re: Screen saving/loading Another problem I have been having recently is the saving and loading of just part of the screen - how is it done? It would be useful to do this for instance with the mandelbrot program mentioned above where only 3/4 of the screen would have to be saved. Maybe someone could direct me to part of the reference manual or even write an article on the structure of graphics screens (for modes 0,1,2,4,5)? To: 999 (Everyone) From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass Re: Masterdisk Magazine Does anyone know if issue 6 (or greater) has been released yet as I only have issues 1 to 5? Does Andy Nibbs contribute at all to the public domain anymore? DGS replies: I am pretty convinced that Andy Nibbs is sufficiently busy not to be able to program/edit things any more. (I suspect he may be off to university/college, as Masterdisk 6 was planned as a "final issue" for summer 1992, but unfortunately did not appear). To: 999 (Everyone) From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass Re: Disk Copiers I own a DS DD 40/80 track switchable Watford disc drive and often have to back up DFS discs. This as everyone in the same position as me knows can take a long long time. What I need is a disc copier that covers the following specifications (PREFERABLY PD).... 1) Should be able to copy files from drive 0 on its own or 2 on its own or both drives. 2) Should contain an option to copy only selected files or all files present. 3) Should be able to detect and utilise all available Sideways (SWR) Ram eg 4 banks on Master series computers. (Similar to the ADFS quick backup system from a past 8BS issue) 4) Should be user friendly, clear, simple and quick to use. Can anybody help? To: 999 (Everyone) From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass Re: Length of magazine Don't change the format of 8BS's magazine section! I look forward to reading through the news, views, hints and tips in each issue. The magazine part of 8BS is what makes this user group stand out from the rest of the crowd and is something unique which we should cherish not critise for being too long! Keep up the good work Daniel and Chris! I am sure that the people complaining are a minority. DGS replies: All comments submitted about amount of text etc. have (I think) been published, so Andrew's last sentence appears to be correct. Sorry John... To: 999 (Everyone) From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass Re: PD Libraries What happened to the series of PD catalogues. Has anyone been in contact with PD libraries other than BBC PD, Welsh Boys PD, GLM PD, or Mad Rabbit PD? If you have been in contact with e.g. Headfirst PD, JJF PD, Screenteach or "The Wizard" please could you send in information on what software they provide as I have not heard anything about any of these PD libraries. DGS replies: hopefully I will be able to write an article (somewhere in this issue maybe) about the various PD libraries now available. It is unlikely (but still possible) that any further PD libraries' lists will be featured in 8BS issues, as we're quite short of space these days. The planned "catalogue disk" is still planned, but this depends upon how many catalogues we receive...