USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. 8 Bit HELP! MESSAGES 1 HELP! MESSAGES 1 To: 999 (all members) From: K6Q (Leslie Roberts) Subject: RGB Synch circuit wanted If any member could supply an electronic circuit diagram to convert the BBC combined-synch signal to give separate horizontal and vertical synch pulses to operate an RGB monitor which I have, I would be very grateful. I will cover your expenses. L.T. Roberts 39 Willoughby Road Liverpool L14 6XA Tel:0151-480 1456 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K8F (Stuart Angell) Subject: MIDI Software I am a new member to the group and am still finding my way around. I am endebted to John from Plumstead for introducing me to 8BS. I have recently aquired a MIDI TRACK PERFORMER built by Electro Music Research and have managed to adapt it to my Master.The system is very good and I also aquired some software for writing music called SCOREWRITER. Unfortunately one of the two ROMs required is damaged and I would like to get hold of a new ROM image.The ROM in question is MSERV-B V2.0 Does anyone out there have any EMR MIDI software and is the company still going?? Thanks in anticipation ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 From: K4P (SUE EEDLE) Subject: MONITOR LEAD WANTED Can anyone help, I need a BNC to monitor lead for a mono monitor. If you have one you don't need anymore or if you know where I can get one PLEASE contact me on 01502 722335. MANY THANKS !!! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K3H (ALBERT SCHOFIELD) Subject: TAPE TO DISC ON THE BBC'B' Transferring files from tape to disc is usually a simple task. Utilities exist for doing this and the computer can be left to get on with the job. Getting the files to work on disc is when the problems arise. However sometimes transferring files from tape to disc can be a problem if the file is exceptionally long as in some adventure games. Even with page at &1100 the file tends to spill over onto the screen when loaded, and when saved to disc may have bits of the DFS rom in it which means that it will not work properly. A way round this problem is to transfer one block at a time. The following program will do this. 110 *TAPE 120 IN=OPENUP("") 130 *DISC 140 OUT=OPENOUT("filename") 150 *TAPE 160 REPEAT 170 C=BGET #IN 180 *DISC 190 BPUT #OUT,C 200 *TAPE 210 UNTIL EOF#IN 220 CLOSE#IN 230 *DISC 240 CLOSE#OUT Enter the filename for the file on disc at line 140. If the file should happen to be locked add the following lines. 10 FOR pass%=0 TO 3 STEP 3 20 P%=&70:[OPT pass% 30 PHP:PHA:TXA:PHA:TYA:PHA 40 LDA &3CA:AND #&FE:STA &3CA 50 LDA #0:STA &3C7 60 PLA:TAY:PLA:TAX:PLA:PLP:RTS 70 ]:NEXT 80 ?&220=&70:?&221=0 90 *FX14,4 The file will be transferred to disc automatically (providing you have motor control) with no more than one block in memory at any time. With the complete file in disc it will then be necessary to set the load and execution addresses of the file to the correct values. The following program will do this. 10 OSFILE=&FFDD 20 DIM PARAM 18,NAME 8 30 $NAME="filename" 40 !PARAM=NAME 50 PARAM!2=& 60 PARAM!6=& 70 X%=PARAM MOD 256 80 Y%=PARAM DIV 256 90 A%=2 100 CALL OSFILE 110 A%=3 120 CALL OSFILE Enter the correct filename at line 30. Enter the correct load address afte the '&' at line 50. Likewise enter the correct execution address at line 60. More next month. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K6N (Brian Raw) Subject: HELP I have been lent a modem to mess with, namely a DACOM DSL 2123 AD (auto dial) with power supply and manual but no software. Since rigging it up, all attempts to communicate with the device itself have been unsuccessful. The manual informs me that the serial link always runs at 1200 bps with even parity regardless of the transmit and recieve rates, but fails to say how many data bits or stop bits. Since the beeb defaults at no parity I have tried using :- *FX156,&02 7E2 *FX156,&0A 7E1 *FX156,&1A 8E1 and also A%=151:X%=&42:Y%=0:CALL&FFF4 7E2 A%=151:X%=&4A:Y%=0:CALL&FFF4 7E1 A%=151:X%=&5A:Y%=0:CALL&FFF4 8E1 still nothing on screen. I am pretty confident that the cable is sound since I have used it to pass files to and from my Apricot F2 although not entirely sure CTS,RTS were working or I just happened to be using such a bit rate as not to cause a buffer overflow Has anybody any suggestions ? ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 & K2F (John Davis) From: 15A (Steven Flintham) Subject: Pentium bug I tried the program given and as one might expect the result was not exactly zero, but it was very close (of the order 10^-10, if I remember correctly) - this is inevitable as a result of the way computers generally store floating point numbers. The Pentium bug is something completely different and the example usually given involves a similar calculation but with much larger numbers (I can't remember the example given off-hand) and the value returned is 256, which is too large to be a rounding error. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: 15A (Steven Flintham) Subject: Printing program manuals I can certainly sympathise with Brian Raw's problem with printing the manual for the Macro Assembler. I have always used A4 paper in my printers and so printing the documentation for many PD programs is something of an adventure. I haven't looked at his program, but when I printed it out a few years ago I had similar problems with the page length and had to bodge a program together to format the pages correctly. I am not really complaining about the author of the assembler as it is being given away free of charge and, in my opinion, would be well worth paying for. However, it would be nice if people realised that not everyone uses fanfold paper - I often have to resort to condensed print to fit documents on the page, which looks a bit squashed up. Unfortunately I can't see any satisfactory solution - supplying documetation as unformatted text would help, as then it could be formatted by the user as appropriate before printing. However, not everyone would be able to do this and it would be a bit inconvenient. Another possiblity would be a program which could take formatted text and reformat it to an appropriate width. I have tried several times to write a program to do this, but I have never succeeded as it is extremely difficult to tell where a paragraph starts and to handle tables or lists like this: Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 without them becoming: Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Does anyone have, or could anyone write, a program to reformat text files which can handle these problems? ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K2O (S Richardson) Subject: Forthcoming Articles Following my previous article on word processors on our 8-bit machines, I am planning to continue the series for several more 'mini-reviews' on the following topics :- Spreadsheets Databases Desk Top Publishing Graphics Packages The purpose of this message is to obtain some feedback as to the order in which I should prepare these articles for submission. So 8-Bit members, it is up to you! Suggestions to be forwarded to the editor or via messages to me via the message system or telephoning me at home after 18:00 weekdays or anytime at weekends on 0785-225781. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K2O (S Richardson) Subject: Members Library Facility As the proud owner of in excess of 100 books on various computing topics mostly BBC 8-Bit oriented but also covering Archimedes, Amstrad NC100 and NC200, Cambridge Computer Z88, and the Psion Series 3/3a, I was toying with the idea of setting up a 'Members Lending Library'. This would enable any 8-Bit Software member to request to borrow one or more books for a certain period of time. The cost to the member would be that of postage both ways. If you think this is a service that would be useful, then inform the editor or myself via the messaging system or alternatively telephone me at home after 18:00 weekdays or anytime at weekends on 0785-225781. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K2O (S Richardson) Subject: Possible Future Article As the author of a book on the 'Inter' series Roms from Computer Concepts (which unfortunately never made it to publication!) I may decide to take some extracts from it and create a series of articles on the above mentioned Roms. The decision of whether to proceed or not is entirely up to you 8-Bit members. The book concentrated on how 'Inter- Base' provides the 'glue' for all the other 'Inter' Roms. There were many programs detailed in the book covering a wide range of topics. The series of articles would follow a similar pattern to the book. To lodge your request for these articles, send a message to either the editor, or myself via the messaging system, or contact me by telephone after 18:00 on weekdays or anytime at weekends on 0785-225781. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, PRESS BREAK