The magazine for members of · for Eureka over the years for making it possible to keep the magazine so well filled for so long. From the next issue onwards, Andrew Wyver will be

The magazine for members of

We celebrate Eureka’s50th issue

Complete souvenirreprint of issue 1

Second thoughts on the optical mouse

Join a groupto write a game

Issue 50 — Summer 2004

Welcome to the 50th issue ofEureka. The magazine has

been appearing regularly now formore than 13 years, with every issuefil led with contributions for and bymembers of The ARM Club.

We are commemorating the occasionby publishing a CD which contains all50 issues of Eureka, with a completeindex, the contents of al l themagazine discs which once came withit and some extra free software.

So, even if you have not been with ussince the early days of Club A3000,the users’ club for al l Archimedesowners, as we were then, you can stilllook nostalgically back and follow allthe developments we have recordedover the years wi th the addedattraction of seeing most of theillustrations in colour for the first time.

You can find fuller details of the CD,which is being offered at the bargainprice of £5, on page 10. I t wi l l beavailable at the Wakefield Show ordirect from the Club, post free.

As already announced, this will be mylast issue as Editor. I have previouslyrecounted how I joined the Club to getthe magazine — not to take it over butjust as a reader. Now, after eight yearsand 32 issues as Editor, I am lookingforward to rejoining the readershiponce again.

I will miss all the friendly, interesting,and often witty emails and letters Ihave had from our contributors and Iwould l ike to express my sincerethanks to all those who have writtenfor Eureka over the years for makingit possible to keep the magazine sowell filled for so long.

From the next issue onwards, AndrewWyver wi l l be using his longexperience edi ting a musicians’magazine to become Eureka’s newEditor. I hope he enjoys the job asmuch as I have and he has my verybest wishes as he begins Eureka’snext 50 issues.

Peter Jennings

50 — Not Out

All opinions expressed in Eureka are those of the authors and not necessarily

those of the Club or its Committee members and officers.

2 Eureka 50 — Summer 2004

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How it all beganOur founder remembers how theClub started and Eureka was born.

The Chairman RemembersExciting events, news, reviewsand some vital decisions, reportedin Eureka over the years.

The Eureka CDIssues 1-50, with a completeindex, all the magazine discs andbonus free software, all for a fiver.

Free for allThe best of PD software, featuringAntiSpam, Swipe and PsiFS.

ARM ArenaThe old favourites from earliermachines which are being playedagain on new RISC OS computers.

Site Seeing: Museums & WarThe attractive sites offering somefascinating glimpses of ancientand modern history.

Optical Mouse long term testDoes the cordless mouse reallymake it easier to control yourcomputer?

Issue 1A complete souvenir reprint ofour first Club magazine.

The Double Cross puzzleGrapple again with those wordswhich are not so simple tocomplete.

All about RISCWor ldThe Editor of the bi-monthly CDwrites about his magazine (andbeer).

CONTENTS

First issue of the Club’s magazine

Eureka 50 — Summer 2004 3

45

48

56

I f at first you don’ t suceed...You can try sulking but be carefulof the furniture.

The Double Cross solutionCheck the words you fitted in andany that eluded you.

No bugs from BillThe Omegus family find somesafe software to download.

Club contactsThe names and email addresses.

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66

67

68

RISC OS RhymesThe Hunting of the Snag, fromthe days of DOS.

Winning games with logicPart 6 of our regular series looksat how we can allow free will forrobots.

Questions answeredSome of the latest problems, sentto and solved by the Club’sTechnical Help Service.

Join a games writing group

Are you interested in games? If so, would you like to join a proposed groupto co-operate in writing some?

Barry Aulton, our Winning Games With Logic expert, would like to contactany members of the Club who would be interested in taking part. Youwould be free to contribute to the project, as and when you wished, withany aspect of it, including being a tester, helping with design or justoffering advice. Barry, for example, can do his bit designing andprogramming but says he is not so great with graphics.Our ARM Arenacontributor, Andrew Weston, will also be lending his expertise.

It may even be possible to set up an advisory team, perhaps to work withthe Club’s Technical Help Service, to offer queries on games development.

If you are interested, you can email Barry at [email protected]

I t al l began about 14 years ago,when I invested almost all of my

savings and bought myself — a BBCB computer. This was somewhere inthe year 1988-89 and was my f irstexperience with a home computer.

Going through the computer manualsgot me nowhere and, in the process,all that the computer was being usedfor was for games by my chi ldrenReuben and Deborah.

Having read about modems, I thoughtI’d buy one as the idea of buying andselling on the Internet fascinated me.I thought I’d impress my wife, Maria,but it was not to be. Maria did notreceive her flowers that I believed Ihad ordered for her birthday and I didbetter with the local flower seller!

Despi te that, Maria continued tosupport me in making my dreams ofbuilding a computer club for the BBCcomputer users in the UK.

Together we worked to realise ourdreams. We had a go and the result iswhat The ARM Club (originally ClubA3000) is today: I bel ieve a greatstory of success!

Why we formed the Club? Frustration at not making progress onmy computer led me to believe that Ineeded to find a solution. I thoughtthe best way forward was to form aclub — believing that clubs broughtpeople together.

I dreamt that bringing people togetherwould be beneficial to all members ofthe club. Those who knew wouldshare their knowledge with those lessable to understand the ins or outs ofthe computer.

I bel ieved that al l members wouldgain in some way or another and I wasright, as I can see by the results today.

Eureka 50 — Summer 20044

How It All Began

The Club’s Founders, Rene and Maria Barreto, recallhow The ARM Club began life, as Club A3000, andbrought out the first issues of its new magazine.

EUREKA 50

How I went about it I have never shied away f romapproaching anyone to support myidea of forming a computer club.

I read all the computer magazines thatI could lay my hands on that wereassociated with the BBC computers.While reading one of the magazines, Igot an idea. I thought I would sharemy thoughts wi th the Edi tor ofArchimedes World and I asked him ifI could have a small announcementinvi ting people owning BBCcomputers to write to me if they wereinterested in joining a BBC Computerclub. To my surprise, I received over156 replies.

I then had to compi le a l i st ofcoordinators for the UK and thesenames were then publ ished inArchimedes World (March 1991) ona ful l page, cal l ing them localcontacts (coordinators).

I also had a few who wrote to me fromoutside the UK; places as far as NewZealand and South Africa.

Invitation One early morning, I was pleasantlysurprised by a call from Geoff Potter,the Organiser of the BBC AcornUsers Show, inviting Club A3000 toexhibit at the world famous WembleyExhibi tion Hal ls. I accepted theinvitation without any hesitation and,12 years on from then, we now have ateam that runs its own exhibitions.

At the BBC Acorn Users Show, werecrui ted as many as 600 newmembers. It was hard work, but it wasworth all the effort.

I approached the then ManagingDirector of Acorn Computers, askingfor his support. His polite reply to mewas: “ I have seen and met many likeyou. We have many coming forsupport but have seen no concrete


The ARM Club in its original form

results from any of those who haveapproached us.”

He asked me to come back next yearand let him know about the progressof the club. I did just that. He wasimpressed and promised his supportfor us.

Open days One of our first open days was held atBishop Douglas School, in HamiltonRoad, East Finchley, Lodon, wheremy children went to school. This waswell attended and was the beginningof many more open days which weheld from time to time.

But the success does not belong justto us (Maria and me) as there weremany others who played a part in it.Some of the names that come to myfai l ing mind are: John Bancrof t,Bruce Dickson, Mark Smith, SteveArnold, Andrew Thacker, MarkWatts, Toby Smith, Ralph Sillett, andTom Hughes, many of them sti l lactive members. I do apologise for thenames I have left out.

Public DomainThe Public Domain Library was verypopular and Nick Evans was

responsible for setting i t up andrunning it. I believe that this libraryhad a great part to play in making theClub successful.

Computer classes A great attraction were our computerstudy classes and workshops held atMill Hill School under the guidanceof Bruce Dickson. Later, Steve Arnoldtook over the running of these classes.

The magazine Those were the days when some ofour members would travel for hoursand spend days putting the magazinetogether.

I remember when we met at our placein Finchley and worked round theclock to bring out our f i rst issues.Simon Burrows travel l ing f romLeicester, Andrew Thacker f romCroydon, John Bancrof t f romNorthamptonshire and Nick Evanswho lived not too far from where welived. There were others too.

Maria fed the hungry ones, by servingthem with Goan curries. I am surethey enjoyed them as we always had agood turn out for the next productionof the magazine.


SupportComputer Concepts was one of thefirst companies that gave us theirsupport, by way of the loan of theirlaser printers for the production of thefirst few issues of the magazine.

I had to travel to their offices, collectand return the machines, all for thelove of the Club!

It was not an easy ride butperseverance from our dedicatedmembers helped us to make a success.

Name changeThe biggest change came in 1992,when it was decided that the clubshould be renamed from Club A3000to The ARM Club to reflect its wideraims and membership. This had bynow become international and we hadmembers from Africa to America,from Australia to Argentina. Themagazine also got its new name andbecame Eureka.

Change of EditorWe cannot compare our earlymagazines with the Eureka we havetoday. We had to make a start and Iam proud to be a part of the magazinewhich we produce today under theeditorship of Peter Jennings. I amsorry to see him go but I am sure hewill always be with us. I am glad thatAndrew Wyver has agreed to be ournew Editor and I am sure he will bringin some new ideas and that he will getall the support he needs fromeveryone in our Club.

We wish him all the best.

Rene and Mar ia BarretoFounders of The ARM Club(Former ly known as Club A3000)


New names for Club and magazine

So Eureka hits the 50th issue. Sucha long time, yet it seems like

yesterday.

As I started writing this article, I readback through all the articles I’vewritten for the magazine before — a

pleasure you’ll all be able to sharesoon with our new Eureka CD, shouldyou wish. There were quite a lot;some technical, some emotional,some reviews of long standingpackages, some comments on thevery cutting edge of development.Some covered exciting newannouncements like the Risc PClaunch; some dealt with bad times,like the non launch of Phoebe. We’vecome a long way since the Clubstarted and it’s all been documented inthe pages of these 50 issues.

The ARM Club was started early inthe life of the RISC OS computer (orArchimedes as it was then) as an

enthusiasts’ club. A club ofenthusiasts, for enthusiasts, run byenthusiasts, with the aims ofenthusiasts. We’ve done many thingsover the years, run local open days,boosted them from small school-hallevents to increasing large regional

shows and gone from strength tostrength in membership. Eureka, in itsmany forms and layouts, has been oneof the mainstays of that enthusiasmright from the beginning of the Club.It provides a vibrant way of keepingthe membership in touch with thewider RISC OS scene and vice versa.

Steering the helm of Eureka recentlyhas been our third editor, PeterJennings. Over his years of tenure hehas put in a lot of effort to Eureka andthe Club, both in terms of time spenton the detail of the magazine pages,article commissioning and such like,and also in providing a pair of guidinghands to the overall development of


The Chairman Remembers

Our Chairman, Toby Smith, looks nostalgically back tothe early days of the Club and the events, exciting orsometimes sad, recorded in Eureka over the years.

EUREKA 50

Eureka’s place. His commitment andskil l have been evident throughoutand I’m sure you’ll all join with me ingiving Peter our heartfelt thanks.

Joining the committee to fill Peter’sshoes is our new Edi tor, AndrewWyver. As briefly mentioned in thelast issue Andrew has been usingRISC OS for many years and editinga similar musicians magazine for thepast eight years. He joins us excited atthe prospects for Eureka and full ofideas for “ the next 50 issues” . AgainI ' m sure you’l l al l join me inwelcoming him to the Editorship andwish him luck.

We hope that Eureka will continue tof i l l an important part of the widerange of RISC OS informationavailable to you. We try to positionthe content as different from othermagazines, concentrating on theClub’s strengths. We aim for in-depthanalysis in our reviews, building onthe avai lable time for a quarterlypubl ication and the advancedtechnical knowledge that we can drawon.

We also aim for accessibi l i ty, withinformation provided at the level that

we hope all interested members cantake on board and learn from. We alsoaim for uniqueness, providing someof the stories and information that noone else can. All in, we hope it makesa good read.

If there is ever any topic you’d likecovered in Eureka, do wri te in toAndrew (see Club Contacts, at theend of the magazine) wi th yoursuggestions. Better still, if you havesomething you’d like to cover, offerus an article!

While I may wax lyrical through thishistory and beyond, the point is thatThe ARM Club is and always hasbeen an enthusiasts club. By groupingtogether, we enthusiasts can providehelp, support and assistance to eachother and also have a notable voice inthe important discussions.

Whi le there are sti l l enthusiastswilling to give a little of their time tothis organisation, there will still be anenthusiasts Club and an enthusiasts’magazine.

Toby SmithChairman



Eureka CD Offer...

£5

• Every issue of Eureka to date.

• With illustrations in full colour...

...as you’ve never seen them before.

• A complete index to help you find anything you want.

• Plus the contents of all the magazine discs.

• And a bonus of extra software previously sold by the Club.

Order now, post free, from:CD Offer, The ARM Club, Mer ton Cour t, 38 Knoll Road,

Sidcup, Kent DA14 4QU

Or buy at our stall at the Wakefield Show

Special price(Post free)

On the CD you get:

!AntiSpamAs mentioned in our last issue, I amusing AntiSpam wi th Argonet’s!Voyager internet suite of programs— and not wi thout having someproblems. First I forgot to turn off themai l and news download

(Preferences-User-Disable Mail

Usage and Preferences-User-DisableNews Usage) and so Voyager wasdownloading the stuf f i tsel f . Onstarting AntiSpam, it moaned that theinternet connection was in use and soi t couldn’t do what i t wanted. Idisconnected. This time I successfullydisabled mai l and news (news isprobably extraneous to disable),connected with !AntiSpam displayingIdle on the task bar. Nothinghappened. I then opened the menu onAntiSpam, and selected Connect-Argonet which is what I set up in myconf ig f i le. AntiSpam then starteddoing the business, tell ing me whatemails it had deleted and which one it

was on to. As I was pushed for time(I had to get to work) I disconnectedVoyager. AntiSpam seemed to hang asdid the A7000. As I really couldn’tworry about this at the time, Iswitched off my A7000, to get back topick up the pieces later.

!SwipeSwipe is a simple appl ication thatallows one to ‘ swipe’ text from anyoutl ine-font represented text on aRISC OS window. I t apparentlycannot copy text from StrongEd oranything using ZapRedraw (whateverthat is) or pre RISC OS 5 desktopfonts provided by !FinalLook, orfrom ANT Marcel.

It works by checking for the pressingof a combination of keys on thekeyboard that alter the way that Selectand Adjust mouse buttons respond.

Al though the instructions suggestusing the left control and left shift


Free For All

Andrew Burgess spends more time getting hisAntiSpam software to work with Voyager and changesto a free program to link his RiscPC and Psion.

keys together, I couldn’t get this towork. The text does mention thatpressing lef t control and lef t shi f treplaces the ‘old’ method of left shiftand left Alt, which is the combinationI got to work on my A7000+ runningRISC OS 4 (and is included in theusual blurb on the websi te). Theinstructions do tel l you how toreassign your keys. In use, !Swipe isvery, very simple, though I did notfind the instructions so good:

Double-click the icon. No iconappears on the task bar, but it doesappear in the task manager.

This example uses !Swipe to copy thetitle bar (say) from an active windowand copy the text into an open !Editwindow (i t has to be openbeforehand).

• Hold down left Alt (or left Control ifthat works for you) and Left Shift.Double click to select a single word (ala Windoze), or select-click-drag thetext you want. There doesn’t seem tobe a way of selecting the whole text.• Sti l l holding down the keyboardkeys, move the mouse to yourdestination: the !Edit window andclick Adjust to paste it into the text

window. If you get ‘ (Adjust to Paste)’in the paste window or in the textcopied, then you’ve either releasedthe keyboard keys too early, or !Swipecannot copy this particular text.

This is something that I don’t thinkWindoze can do, unless there’s apiece of shareware out there, but asI’ve said before I’m not interested inlooking for that! I t’s a piece ofsoftware that I’d definitely be addingto my boot sequence!

Psion connectivityI had previously bought thecommercial !PsiRisc to link my RiscPC to my Psion 5. I had experiencedno trouble with this software, until Idug out my Psion after two years ofinactivity. PsiRisc copied previouslybacked up f i les f rom my A7000(RISC OS 4) to the Psi 5 no problem.I wrote a document and attempted totransfer it back to the A7000. PsiRisccrashed wi th ‘ No stack for traphandler’ every time I tried copying afi le onto the A7000. I rememberedjust after I ’d bought !PsiRiscsomeone asked me “Why didn’t youget !PsiFS, it’s free?” . I thought ofthis when PsiRisc crashed and lookedup !PsiFS on the Internet.


Www.drobe.co.uk gave me loads oflinks to it, most of which werebroken! I then did awww.google.co.uk search and it gaveme a site owned by a Greek whocalled himself ‘Thouky’ (anabbreviation of his surname).Reviews of the software on Thouky’ssite indicated an excellent piece ofsoftware. The first link returned byGoogle proved to be the best. Iselected the download option andstored the 587K Zipped file while Icooked our bangers and mash dinnerdownstairs!

Sausages eaten, I returned upstairs tocopy the files from the Psion throughPsiFS. It took longer to connect to thePsion than through PsiRisc but Imanaged to copy my files, whichPsiRisc had refused to do. I notedonly one real drawback in that itseemed to keep the Psion switched oneven when idle. If I’d been onbatteries, I could have worn themdown a bit.

I also tried installing PsiFS on myAcorn A4 laptop running RISC OS3.10. It ran straightaway, but moanedthat I didn’t have the ‘Messageextend’ module installed and told me

what version it needed, so I couldn’tget it to work on that machine.

See you next time, when there will bemore on !Organizer, which I wroteabout last issue.

Sources:!Swipe Web: http://astubbs.webspace.fish.co.uk/swipe.html Download: http://astubbs.webspace.fish.co.uk/swipe.arc

!AntiSpamWeb: www.apts04.dsl.pipex.com/Progs/Antispam.htm Download:www.apts04.dsl.pipex.com/Progs/AnSpam122.zip

!PsiFSWeb: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/thouky/software/psifs/Download: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/thouky/download/psifs.zipDownload with source: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/thouky/download/psifssrc.zip AlexL ib (needed to recompile!PSiFS): http://homepage.ntlworld.com/thouky/download/alexlib.zip


This issue’s column coincides withthe 50th edition of Eureka

magazine, a milestone in the historyof The ARM Club, originallyintended as a user group for A3000owners.

Since this time The ARM Club hasreleased games-related software(such as StrongGuard and GameOn!),supported major Acorn/RISC OSshows where new games have beenshowcased and published numerousgames reviews and this column inEureka. So it’s fair to say, The ARMClub has done its share for gaming.

The main area of interest with regardsto gaming at the moment is in runningolder games on RISC OS 5 (that is, onthe Iyonix from Castle) and to a lesserextent on RISC OS 4 machines.Therefore at the upcoming WakefieldShow it is expected that thecommercial package Aemulor Pro,that aims to bring 26bit compatibility

to the 32bit Iyonix, will be asignificant attraction for many users.Along with this application, however,there are several other developmentsto report this time around whichshould appeal to retro-gamers.

Aemulor ProAemulor was released shortly afterthe Iyonix and was seen as a crucialpiece of software as it aimed to allowprograms written for those ARM-based machines prior to the Iyonix torun on the Iyonix. In other words, toallow programs designed to run on26bit ARM chips to work on the 32bitARM-based chip that the Iyonix uses.

While older machines were alwaysreferred to as 32bit, as machine codeinstructions were sent to the processoras a 32bit long ‘word’, the 32bit is nowgenerally taken to mean strictly theinstruction itself and not auxiliaryinformation that used to be passed to theprocessor in the same stretch of binary.


ARM Arena

Andrew Weston looks back at some of the old favouritegames from earlier machines now being updated toplay on modern RISC OS 4 or 5 computers.

The release was seen as essential asmany applications were waiting to beconverted to the new hardware andmany others are unlikely to beconverted and have no equivalentcounterpart that will work on theIyonix. This urgency thereforeopened up the possibility of playingolder games on the latest, mostadvanced, RISC OS machine as anadded bonus.

Along with pre-RISC OS 5compatibility, however, comesconsiderable complexity in that muchof the hardware along with the centralprocessor has changed. Examplesincluded the sound and video systemsand consequently many games didn’twork properly or didn’t permit sound.Such issues have been addressed inthe latest version of Aemulor,Aemulor Pro, which has already beenhailed as working with the classicgame Elite (the Archimedes version)!

Of course there may be a lot of otherreasons why a game won’t work onRISC OS 5, aside from the machinecode that the game may contain. Forexample, the game may have beenupdated to work under RISC OS 4. Asfar as I can gather in relation to areas

which are important to games, such asscreen memory access, RISC OS 4has diverged more profoundly beyondRISC OS 3 than has RISC OS 5,despite both originating from Acorn’sRISC OS 3.8 development version ofthe operating system. Other updatesto the operating system in the Iyonixcould further confuse the situation.

Nevertheless, Aemulor and AemulorPro are significant steps in the rightdirection for allowing backwardscompatibility for many of the majorgame releases for RISC OS whichIyonix owners may possess, or evenwish to purchase, to play on theirlatest machine.

Updates are planned for Aemulor andAemulor Pro which are priced at £50and £99 respectively, available fromthe Aemulor company itself (see atend) or Acorn/RISC OS dealers.

A310emOn the subject of gamescompatibility, many RiscPC owners,especially those with RISC OS 4,have been frustrated with the inabilityto play games released during theRISC OS 3 era. Most of the RISC OS3 games tended to work on most


RISC OS 3 computers, with the issueof speed occasionally needing to beredressed on ARM 6/7 computerswith utilities such as The ARM Club’sGameOn! Also most RISC OS 2games worked on RISC OS 3 whilesome were updated. However, thecombination of the StrongARM and

RISC OS 4 proved a lethalcombination to many older games.

While some have been updated,notably those from the 4thDimension, and individual patcheshave been made available by the likesof Theo Boogaert and Alex


A favourite Archimedes game gets a new life on new machines

Macfarlane Smith, there remain manypopular games which won’t run onthis specification of machine.

With this in mind, the ongoingdevelopment of Jan de Boer’sA310em is almost a God-send togames fans. A310em aims to emulateall computer operating systems up toand including RISC OS 3.11. Thisalso includes release 1 of theoperating system (known as Arthur),the interim user interface while themulti-tasking RISC OS 2 was beingfinalised. Since the first 32bit Acornmachines to be released, the A305 andthe A310 were capable of beingupdated right up until RISC OS 3.11,the name of the application istechnically correct!

A310em works within the RISC OSdesktop and is remarkably fast,providing hard-disc support in theform of virtual discs that in reality usethe hard-disc of your own machineand floppy disc support in a similarway.

Despite this, transferring programsacross can be a problem as the floppydisc is read in its entirety into theemulator making the process slow.

This can be alleviated, however, byusing an accompanying programwhich allows files stored on the user’sactual hard-disc to be dragged onto afiler directory display in the emulatorwindow.

One issue here is that many gamesrequire an original floppy disc to beplaced into the drive before a game,installed on the hard-disc, is run. Myattempt at reading in such a disc for acertain RISC OS 3 game beforerunning the game installed into theemulator’s hard-disc has so far beenunsuccessful.

Jan is aware of these technicalitieshowever but for now wants toimprove the performance andaccuracy of the emulation.

ImprovementsExamples of such improvements thatJan has in mind are quite impressiveand include allowing a single-taskingmode to enable the emulator to runmuch faster. The emulator as it standsis quite capable though of running awide range of old games some whichdate right back to the beginning of the32bit machines’ history.


With some improvements to thedocumentation, to allow users to getstarted in the minimal time whileincluding information on the widerange of features and detailed statusdisplays, A310em could potentiallybecome the definitive means ofbackwards games compatibility.

A further possibility which Jan hasraised is the conversion of A310em toRISC OS 5 which is highlysignificant as this would very likelybe a preferable option to thecommercial Aemulor, for games atleast.

Should this happen it would be acommendable achievement indeed.

One aspect which may concern somereaders is the availability of ROMsthat A310em requires.

Jan has kindly provided the followinginformation for those who wish toextract the ROM from an Archimedesor other Acorn machine that they ownfor use within the emulator.

I hope that is some use and manythanks to Jan de Boer for the detailedhelp.


To get the factory settings hold down the R key and turn thecomputer on.While in the desktop, format one floppy, then click Exit.At the asterisk prompt, type: *save :0.RO110 3800000 +80000and hit Return.Now wait until the saving is finished. You can return to thedesktop with *Desktop. Take out the floppy,bring it to a RiscPCor Iyonix and copy the RO110 to the OS directory of !A310Emu.

Leave the desktop by hitting F12, at the asterisk prompt, type:*save RO200 3800000 +80000 and hit the Return key; to returnto the desktop, once more hit the return key when the saving isfinished.

OS

Arthur(A310,A410,A440,A3000)

RISC OS2 (above)

Extraction


The only little problem is that the OS is too big to fit on onefloppy; if you compress it it fits on a 1600K floppy in newermodels but that will nothelp if you have an old model [drivehardware].You can save it to a harddisc with (F12) *save :4.RO310 3800000+200000 and spl i t this 2Mb f i le with !Spli t, transfer i t on 3floppies and restore it on the RiscPC side;alternatively, you cansave i t in 4 parts, af ter each save transfer the f i le to theRiscpc/Iyonix harddisc, delete the file and fetch the next part.To save the 4 parts: *save :0.RO310pt0 3800000 +80000 (+transfer f i le to RPC/Iyonix harddisc,delete it from floppy)*save :0.RO310pt1 3880000 +80000 (+transfer&delete)*save :0.RO310pt2 3900000 +80000 (+transfer&delete)*save :0.RO310pt3 3980000 +80000 (+transfer) Now you have 4 files, presumably in the root directory of yourharddisc :4. To join them in the RiscPC you need a small program: 10 END=HIMEM+& 200000:REM This is because we needspace for a big array 20 DIM space% &200000 30 OSCLI” load :4.RO310pt0 “+STR$~space% 40 OSCLI” load :4.RO310pt1 “+STR$~(space%+&80000) 50 OSCLI” load :4.RO310pt2 “+STR$~(space%+&100000) 60 OSCLI” load :4.RO310pt3 “+STR$~(space%+&180000) 70 OSCLI”save :4.RO310 “+STR$~space%+” +200000” 80 END After running this program, the file called RO310 can now becopied to the OS directory of !A310Emu.

RISC OS3 (aboveandA3010,A4000,A5000,etc)

ExtractionOS

Classic re-issuesA name which may ring a bell forlong-time users of 32bit Acornmachines is Tom Cooper who wasresponsible for a range of high-quality games in the early 1990s.Some of these games were publishedindependently under the Software 42label and eventually bought by theformer games division, Eclipse, of thecompany that is now Argonet (theinternet service provider). Otherswere written for Eclipse themselves.

In any event, the situation now is thata sister-company to Argonet calledImparo now owns the copyright andfollowing negotiations with theirpersonnel there they have decided torelease the games as freeware.Consequently the games are nowavailable to download in the freegames area of the Acorn Arcadewebsite.

IxionThe games now regarded as freewareinclude an early but immersivevirtual-reality type game called Ixion,some graphical adventures (such asDarkwood) and shoot’em ups and theworld-management simulationstrategy game Worldscape. Please

note that a copy of Worldscape is stillbeing sought by Acorn Arcadethough.

At the time of writing, I am aware ofonly Ixion having been updated to runon OSs up to RISC OS Select andStrongARM.

If anyone is unable to download thesegames, for example through nothaving internet access, and reallywants to play them again then pleaseget in touch with me, through theEditor of Eureka, as if necessary, Iwould be prepared to return any blankdiscs sent with a stamped, self-addressed envelope with any of thegames on.

65linkA piece of software that gets a regularmention here is 65link by JohnKortink, the RISC OS machine-basedfile-server for 8bit BBC Micros.Version 1.35 has been released which,in addition to its existing functions,allows the BBC Micro to access discimages downloaded from the internet,or created by the user, from the RISCOS hard-disc. 65link allows transferof files back to the RISC OS machinewhich can then be made into a disc


image using a program such as!BBCfiles (available separately).John has recently announced theclosure of his Windfall Engineeringcompany that supplied the Viewfindergraphics enhancement expansion cardbut informs me that he has no presentplans to cease development of 65link.

As usual, the software requires aspecial cable to link the two machinesand a special ROM to insert into aspare slot in the BBC Micro whichcan be provided at a cost. Paymentdetails are provided on the website(see at the end). Note that 65link isnot yet compatible with RISC OS 5.

UpdatesThe ongoing development and goal ofuniversal compatibility for Starfighter3000 continues with Chris Bazleyreleasing the latest patch for theIyonix-’neutral’ version of the gameon his website (see end). When run onIyonix machines the game could notswitch from desktop to full screenmode without an error being reportedand the latest patch should fix this,applying to version 3.00 of the game.

One computerised board game whichhasn’t been featured here before is the

RISC OS implementation of theworld-conquest war game RISK. Thishas recently been updated with newmaps and enhancements which can bedownloaded from Mac Andanna’sRISK website together with an oldBBC Micro game which some mayremember of the same genre.

8bit conversionsSome further nostalgia for emulationfans is the availability of two gamesoriginally programmed for the BBCMicro that have been re-coded towork on RISC OS. These areTutenkamen, a platformer convertedby Chris and Harriet Bazley, andFeud, a two player combat game byJustin Fletcher. Both may appeal toyounger users with Tutenkamencoming with a level editor and Feudbeing a game written by Justin in theearly days of 8bit computing.

Enjoy the showI hope that this month’s offerings givescope for enjoying existing gamesand perhaps open up the possibility ofbuying a few older titles that shouldbe on sale at the Wakefield Show.

Most of the software reported here isweb-based but breaking news is that


the Unix Porting Project that convertsUnix projects to RISC OS has justreleased a PC emulator with wide-ranging emulation of early PCfeatures.

It may be worth looking out for theproject at the Show as CDs are maderegularly containing the range ofsoftware (including games such asCivilisation and Ultima 4) that hasbeen released for low-bandwidthinternet users.

At the time of writing, theirattendance has not been confirmedhowever. Nevertheless, I will lookinto this release in more detail fornext time but a wide range of PCgames are reported to be playable andthe software is said to be particularlysuitable (and thus compatible) for theIyonix.

ContactsAemulorWeb: www.aemulor.com

A310emWeb:http://home-1.worldonline.nl/~jandboer/

Acorn ArcadeWeb: www.acornarcade.com(Features section)

65linkWeb:http://web.inter.nl.net/users/J.Kortink/home/software/index.htm

3000Web:http://starfighter.acornarcade.com

RISKWeb:www.maxandanna.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.htm

FeudWeb:http://homepage.ntlworld.com/justin.fletcher/Usenet/Feud/

TutenkamenWeb:www.starfighter.acornarcade.com/mysite/

DOS box (PC emulator)Web:www.chocky.org/unix/downloads.html#dosbox


You don’t have to be a student ofhistory to enjoy visiting

museums and much the same appliesto visiting museums online.

The British Museum is a fascinatingplace to visit if you are interested in

world cultures. The main site atwww.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/ gives abroad picture of what the museumoffers but clicking on their Compasslink takes you to their onlinecollection. There are two versions ofthis; one for adults and Children’sCompass. In the adult site there arefifty-three tours that can be followed,

at the time of writing. These rangefrom Buried Treasure, revealing someof the things learned fromarchaeological finds made in Englandand Wales, to Queen of Sheba:

Treasures from Ancient Yemen.Helpfully, all of the tours, both adult’s

and children’s can be accessedthrough a text-only version, withlinks to fetch the images.

The tours on the children’s site alsofeature some for younger children andfamilies. Mostly text and images,there are a few links to some Flashgames, which sadly don’t work here


Site Seeing: Museums Of Life & War

Sue Clamp finds that stories of life during peace andwar, from history to the present day, make fascinatingbrowsing on the museum websites devoted to them.

The British Museum’s world-wide offerings

in Oregano 1. The topics covered bythe children’s tours, such as Sport inAncient Greece, connect with some ofareas of the history curriculum, whileothers, such as Horses and Riders,may appeal to children’s interestsoutside of school.

Another impressive online museum isthe site of the Imperial War Museumat www.iwm.org.uk/. It is actually acollection of sites, each one dedicated

to a different aspect or branch of themuseum. The most interesting, in myopinion, is the Collections On-linesite at www.iwmcollections.org.uk/

through which you can access theircatalogues. This contains short essayson major historical themes which areillustrated with small images anddownloadable mp3 files. Theseinclude eye witness accounts,recollections of events and extractsfrom radio broadcasts. There is also a


The role of civilians in wartime, at the Imperial War Museum site.

searchable database of almost 60,000records held by the museum.

Staying with the theme of war, mynext site of choice is The SecondWorld War Experience Centre atwww.war-experience.org/. Theirstated mission is: ‘To collect,document, preserve, exhibit andencourage access to the survivingmaterial evidence and associatedinformation of the men and womenwho participated in the war inwhatever their capacity whethermilitary, civilian or conscientiousobjector.’ The site already holds aninteresting collection of personalaccounts and images of donatedartefacts, which they will hopefullycontinue to build up.

The First World War gets extensivemultimedia coverage atwww.firstworldwar.com/index.htm.There is so much here that only a visitto the site’s statistics page reveals:3,900 pages, 3,100 photographs,2,200 encyclopedia entries, and thelist goes on! There is a largecollection of propaganda posters(250), a collection of poetry, battlesummaries, diary entries andmemoirs.

Unfortunately, the video collection of100 files is inaccessible on RISC OS,being in WMV (Windows Media)format, although the site’s Editor islooking into the feasibility of makingthem available in MPEG format. Onthe other hand, the 150 audio files arein MP3 or WAV format and rangefrom songs by the likes of Gus Harrisand Marie Lloyd, to recordings of thelast emperor of Austria-Hungary, KarlI. The site can also be purchased as aCD ROM at a very modest price. Thisis very useful if you intend to exploreit fully and wish to limit your timeonline.

The National Maritime Museum atwww.nmm.ac.uk/ has also made ahuge effort to make its onlinepresence interesting to all age groupsand accessible to those with slowInternet connections, with theprovision of a low graphics version.

As well as providing information tovisitors of the offline museum, theonline visitor can explore a number ofcollections online. These present youwith good quality images alongsidebrief descriptions of the artefacts.Prints of the images can be purchasedfor non-commercial or personal use.


The site also has a super section forchildren, with projects to help themmake sea monster masks, a model ofthe Victory, a globe or a quadrant —very useful resources for boredyoungsters at wet weekends!Asection on Tudor Explorationcontains some interesting and well-

presented information and activities.The main pages use Flash, whichdon’t work on RISC OS, but againthey have provided a low graphicsHTML version of the site.

This part of the site is closely linkedto the Key Stage 2 National


Glimpses of the First World War from its own museum

Curriculum and the QCA scheme ofwork.

Not quite a museum, but scraping intothis article because it does have anoffline site that can be visited, andbecause I like it so much, is the PublicRecords Office’s Learning Curve siteat http://learningcurve.pro.gov.uk/.

There are three different types ofresource here: in-depth topicinvestigations in Exhibitions,interactive investigations in Focus

on... and lesson-sized activities inSnapshots.

Sticking with the war theme of thisarticle I decided to explore the HomeFront exhibition. This is divided intosections which include Women At Warand Evacuation, and each page has ashort introductory text with links tosources which the reader needs toexamine closely in order to answerquestions.

Each exhibition has a Flash activity, aset of worksheets in Word format, atimeline and a glossary. You can alsodownload the sources in pdf format toprint out.

There are currently ten exhibitions inthis part of the site covering periodsof history from medieval times to the20th century. Focus on... has just fourinvestigations at the moment. Thereare activities here in Flash and non-Flash formats, although, for once, theFlash version worked fine in mybrowser!

There is a long list of Snapshots,educational features and activitiesbased on visual sources from theNational Archive, covering workfrom Key Stage 2 - 4. These usefultasks are usually accompanied byteacher’s notes and linked to unitsfrom the QCA scheme of work.

I took a closer look at the AssassinateHitler Snapshot, which explores theSpecial Operations Executive’s plansto assassinate Hitler in 1944. Thedocuments shown here detail two ofthe proposed plans that formed part ofOperation Foxley. The task is todecide which of the two ways ofkilling Hitler should be given the go-ahead.

I wish that learning about history hadbeen so interesting when I was atschool!


The motoring magazines all havelong term test articles when they

come back to what they thought wasthe latest and greatest at the time to

see if it was as good to live with ineveryday use for an extended period.

It’s now 18 months since I bought aLogitech Pilot optical mouse (seeEureka 43) and I was very impressedwith the smoothness and lowmaintenance.

However, after a few weeks of use Inoticed what I thought was anannoying fault. I would be dragging afile around and find that the mousepointer would shoot off to the top leftof the screen and in my surprise I’dtake my finger off the button anddump the file in the wrong directoryviewer or the pin board.

This wasn’t normally too much of aproblem but once it was quite

embarrassing as I dropped a largesource file on a telnet window hostinga technical talker (grown up versionof online chat room) and everyone got

swamped with several thousand linesof code scrolling past — oops!

It took a quite a while to discover thiswasn’t a fault in the mouse but rathera small flaw due to the way it works.

With a ball mouse, you are used tomoving it to the edge of the mat, thenpicking it up and putting down againin the middle to continue to movefurther in the intended direction.

However, with an optical mouse ifyou only lift it very slightly it can stillsense movement but it is greatlyamplified which cause the mousepointer to shoot off. If you lift it alittle bit more the problem doesn’toccur, which is why it didn’t happenall the time.


Optical Mouse Long Term Test

David Ruck gives a long-term report on his opticalmouse and compares it with the same manufacturer’scordless ball version.

I found the easiest solution was toensure I didn’t need to keeprepositioning the mouse, byincreasing the mouse step value, soless mouse movement is needed totraverse the screen. This can be donefrom the mouse section of !Configurewhich is run by double clicking on!Boot. However, if you use too large avalue, you’ll find you may not be ableto hit every pixel on the screen, whichcan be important for graphics work.

An alternative is to use a mouseaccelerator, which allows precisepixel accuracy when moving the

mouse slowly but faster movementcauses it to travel much further,allowing a quick flick to cover mostof the screen.

!Mouse utilityI’ve made a 32 bit version of NickJarman & Roger Spooner’s !Mousescale utility available atwww.quantumsoft.co.uk/druck/ whichwill work on both the Risc PC andIyonix.

After solving this problem I did stillfind the pointer moved erraticallyoccasionally and examining the


underneath, I found it was due to asmall hair getting caught in a recesswhich houses the LED and sensor.This can easily be hooked out with afinger but be careful not to point theLED directly at yourself, asmovement of your finger will cause itto switch in to high power, which isexceedingly bright and will leave youseeing a blue spot for several minutes.

Pilot mouseWhen I bought my Iyonix, I foundthat it came with the standardLogitech Pilot mouse, which isotherwise identical except that itcontains a ball instead of optics. I wasthen able to see how the twotechnologies compared.

At first, I was veryimpressed with the ballversion, as it was justabout as smooth andresponsive as the opticalmouse. I could also run itdirectly on my whiteFormica desk without amouse matt, which is oneof the few surfaces theoptical mouse doesn’t like.

However after a week the mouse wasmore difficult to move and lessprecise. Opening it up showed thesame old story, a thick coating of crudon the rollers, requiring a fiddlyfingernail scraping session to restoreit to its previous smoothness.

SwappedSuffice to say as soon as I startedusing the Iyonix as my main machine,the optical mouse went with it and Iswapped the ball one on to the RiscPC, which is now used far less often.So if you are still using what nowmust be quite a grotty ball mouse onyour Risc PC, or you want somethingwith less maintenance on your Iyonix,I’d still strongly recommend anoptical mouse as a replacement.


��

Welcome to Club A3000, the user club for all Archimedes users,and our very first newsletter. Over the past few months, since beforethe BBC Acorn User Show, we have been busy setting up the Clubso that it can provide all sorts of useful services to Archimedesusers.

• Our primary aim is to put Archimedes users in touch with eachother, so that we can all share each others' experience and equip-ment, and benefit in other ways, such as by the exchange of PublicDomain software. So often, computer users can feel isolated as faras their machines are concerned, and we want to try to help. Youwill see that a Club hands-on Archimedes workshop day has beenorganised for those in the London area, and we hope that this willbe the first of many successful events.

• To encourage users to get in touch with each other, you will findenclosed with this newsletter a printout of the names and addressesof some fellow Club members who live fairly near to you, and wewould encourage you to get in touch with them by letter. Find out abit about them, and see what interests you share. If our experience isanything to go by, you will soon notice the many benefits of beingin touch with other users.

• If you have any good ideas for the Club, of any sort, please sendthem to us. Your input is vital if we are to make Club A3000 a trueuser club for all Archimedes owners, so please help if you can.

• Club A3000 already has quite a large number of members in theUK and in Europe. However it is our belief that the more memberswe can get in each area, the better the service that we can provideputting users in touch and organising local events.

�� "!#$��%�'&(!*)+�,�-!.�+/.�-0�12/43�)+15�6�615�879�:�4;<��15�87=#$�?>@0%A%)+1CBD&FEG&-/#$�'EDB91 7H)'3�IC12��&(3J�6KL�M15� NPOQIR&-#�/F&S#�/"�T3C)�&FBU3J�V/F&%�'EW#$��XY>?Z[3J��3�)�&]\ÎC�G;_#HEGE�0`&-/-/V#$�'EW!^&V!a1JIbIc/F&"�'E@3�)�&FB#dA-�FBWO�IR&e3b&_15�P��F0`BW#�3f1f�L�@OY#QAL�hg

1

Issue Number 1 February 1991

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��

The Retail Catalogue published by Beebug Ltdcontains a large advertisement as follows: "HighDensity Discs for the Archimedes... We are nowable to offer high density (1.6Mb) 3.5" discs forextra reliability" priced at £22.45 for ten includingp&p. Do not be fooled by this; no more data can bestored on these discs than ones costing 50p each orless, and the reliability point is dubious. "Proper"Beebug Archimedes blank discs are mentioned inthe small print at £12.94 inc. p&p for ten, which isstill rather expensive! This advertisement is deliber-ately misleading/ambiguous and should not bepublished. If you have been mislead then perhapsyou should moan to Beebug.

When buying blank discs, youshould be aware that the discs fallinto two categories, branded discsand unbranded ones. Generallywithin each of these categoriesthere is little to choose between thevarious discs. The only require-ment is that they would be doublesided and double density. Brandeddiscs generally cost the most, but oftenthere is little difference between theseand the cheaper unbranded discs. It is n-ot recommended that you buy very cheapunbranded discs (less than 30p each), but per-fectly adequate discs for general use can be boughtfor round about 40 - 50p each.

��! #" $ ��%�&�'�)(*�+ ,��.-/�

• Clicking on menu options with the adjust buttoncauses the menu to remain on screen.• Closing a directory window by clicking on theclose icon with the adjust button causes the windowof the parent directory to be opened if possible.• Dragging a window using the adjust button doesnot bring the window to the front - you can slide itbehind other windows.• To format floppies in E format, it is not necessaryto go to the format sub-menu; just click on formatin the ADFS menu.• On an A3000, pressing SHIFT, TAB, Q, Numlock

carries out a Control Break (veryuseful!?).• Holding down * on the numerickeypad whilst pressing reset causes2

the machine to start up in supervisor (*command)mode.• When a window has a vertical scroll bar, clickingon a vertical arrow with the select button causes thewindow to scroll in the direction indicated, whilstusing adjust causes it to scroll the opposite way.• To completely wipe a disc quickly, keep a blankdisc handy and just backup this disc onto the one tobe blanked. This is much quicker than selecting alland deleting items one by one.• Holding down CTRL and SHIFT and pressingF12 causes the desktop and all application tasks tobe quitted. • Spaces can be included in file names if you holddown the ALT key when you press space.• When you need a printer driver but memory is

tight, load the printer driver and set it upas usual, and then quit the printer iconon the desktop. This frees almost 100k

but leaves the printer driver module,which is all that is needed to print. • If you have a large number ofoutline fonts, you will soon dis-cover the problems this can cause.

Some applications (such as!Edit) crash immediately ifyou have too many, and evenwell behaved packages such

as !FontFX and Ovation areslowed down. Long menus ofoutline fonts are often unwieldy

on screen. A good solution is to keepone !Fonts folder containing a core set ofregularly used outline fonts, and then

have several other folders containing small groupsof related outline fonts (each folder having a differ-ent name). You must then alter the !Run files of theauxiliary !Font folders so that when you click onone of these, the system does not forget the outlinefonts already seen. Alter the "Set Font$Prefix" lineto:

Set Font$Prefix <Obey$Dir>,<Font$Prefix>

By this method, you can keep one core set of fontsplus several smaller sets to be called up only whenyou need them. Remember though that most appli-cations only recognise the fonts which the systemknows about when they are first loaded.

0214365'7.387.3%9;:=<49>5?9A@CBD<E9GFH7I5?9;:>FJ<LKM78N�BD<PO%B=QR5S@=TU3WVYX<49GFP3.Z[367UF\FJV]V^FHB_3.Za`b7.3cZ 7?d

3

If you obtainyour Public Domain

ing up, run by individuals or companies, rememberthat the authors of this software have written it forfree, and yet some of these libraries are makingmoney for themselves by distributing this freesoftware at high prices.With a disc of soft-ware costing as muchas £3.59 inc p&p alarge pro- fit is clearlybeing made consid-ering that the cost(excluding advertising) of producing and distribut-ing each disc is no more that 80p.Most PD authors state that no charge may be madefor their software except the cost of media andpostage, and so what some of the libraries are doingsee- msrath- erimm- oral.Muc- h ofthe bestsoft- wareshou- ld notbe distributed by these libraries, since they would

software from one of the commer-cial PD libraries which are currently spring-

be breaking theterms and conditions,and because the authors some-times disapprove, do not keep them upto date with the latest versions.Norwich Computer Service's excellent ArchiveShareware / Careware discs, and discs fromDiamond Public Domain Library not not suffer inthis way, because the profits from the sale of thediscs go to charity.

• It is not necessary to pay large amounts to gethold of the best PD software. There are severallibraries / user groups which distribute PD for free,in return for blank discs andreturn postage, and they often letyou choose exactly whatitems are on the discs, so thatyou can be sure that the discs willbe full. The monthly disc which accompanies theMicro User magazine contains some good PDsoftware.

Another effective and satisfying way is to build upa network of Archimedes contacts, and swap PDsoftware with each other. Speaking for myself, Ihave amassed a very large collection of PD soft-ware but without paying out large sums of money,

�� "!#�$�&%'�)(&��*��+!#��,-� /.�"01�2,3�546��6�&798 �6�"0:�<;=��>�@?��

ACB&D&EGFIHKJ#DML2BMHNDOB&PQD:PRFTSMB&UVHWLXE�B&Y&ENFIHKJ#D&U�Z<S#[]\^L_Z2Z�[�D&`�Y�à D�`bBTY:EcF@PIL/YdH�efL�[�S�HNLXB�gThIS�[&Z/LiUkj�E a `bLXBbY6EcFOH�\5`#e"D�[OD�HN\lD�D�B#UVZiS�[a D a [@D:emY�npoMJTD:e"D�F:E:e"DOqGL F&rTE�SIJT`�s D�`tZu`Me�g#DVvwS&[#ZXL/U P�E a `ML<BI[@`bY6D`QB&Px\1EOSQZ/Px[TDM\yLcZ2Z*L2B:g-HNE�gQLps6D�Sdvz`-[#LpHfENFQY�v{`QefD�HWL a D#P3Sbe|LpB�gHGJ�D&\}DdD�~IH�ETU�E�v3r�Y�E�F@HG\}`�emD�F�E:e>U ZXS&[ a D a [@D:efY�qWHGJ�D�B3L*B"F�E:e a HGJ�DU Z<S&[Q`MY�Y�E�EOBI`bY6v]E:YdY�L<[MZiD�n_o�J&D�emD#\^LpZ*Z�[TDT`tB�E a L*B�`�ZpU)J�`�eGg#D�v]D:eP�LXY:~I��v{emE:[@`M[bZirQ`M[@E�SbH_�9��H�E@U�E�s D�e>Y:STURJQD��v3D�B�Y�D�Y�`MYVv3E�Y:H�`�g#DT�v�`&UR~O`:gML<B�gQ`#Y@\5DOZ<Z<`#YTHcE�F�LXB@`�B@U�DOE:HNJTD�e|UVZ�S�[b`&P a L<B&L�Y�HNe�`�HNL/E:BU�EdY:HNY&��Y:STURJQ`bY�HGJ�D v{emEdP�STU)HKL/E�BQE_FMHGJ�D&BTD:\1YOZuD�HKH�D:ec�mqG[&S#HfHNJML�Y�LXYY�HKL2Z*Z*`tZuE�H�URJ�D�`�v3D:e�HGJ�`MB�`�BTrQP�D�P�L/U�`�H_DdP�h]n�j�nNJ�E�S�Y6DOn<h]ZiD�`bY�DBTEOH�D�qKJ�E�\�D�s6D:e�qWHGJ�`QH��zZXS#[:��Q�b�#�3\�`MY&BTEOH"URefDd`QH�D�P>��S&Y:H"`MY@à D�`�BTY�E_F�g#D:HKHGL<BdgwZuE�H�YOE�F:h�S&[bZ�L/U�jCE a `�L<B�Y�E_F@HN\}`bemD�U�J�Dd`dv-Zurbn<�mBHGJ&DMB�DR�bH�LXY�Y�S�D#\1D#�/Z2ZGZ/E�EO~�`QHfYdE a D�ENFQHKJ&D#[TD:Y�HGh{nij�nG`�emEOSbB�P]n

Archive magazine published by Norwich Com-puter Services is the least known of theArchimedes magazines, but in the opinion ofmost who have read it, the best. Below aregiven a few comparisons between Archive andthe other A5 format, subscription-onlymagazine, RISC User published by BeebugLtd., and the support behind them, to allowreaders to make a more informed choicebetween the two. Please remember that theseare personal views and do not necessarilyreflect the opinions of the Club organisers.

• Archive is published twelve times a year, andan annual subscription costs £17; an annualsubscription to RISC User costs £19.90, whichis for ten issues. In each issue of Risc User,there are approximately 70 pages, of which justunder half are advertisements. Each issue ofArchive consists of roughly 60 pages, of whichabout 15 pages are advertisements.

• The contents of RISC User are only written bya handful of people, whilst Archive consistsvirtually entirely of material (hints, reviews,news, programs etc) produced by readers; theNCS team only edit the material into a coherententity. RISC User often has some good pro-grams and applications to type in, and alsocontains excellent articles on programmingtechniques, such as a series on programmingthe WIMP, programming in C, and on usingpopular software packages such as Pipedreamand Impression.

• The RISC User magazine discs are better (butmore expensive) than the Archive discs.

• Beebug seem to have recently stopped callingRISC User an "independent user group", and soaccording to the adverts, people are no longermembers; instead they are now just "magazinesubscribers". They have stopped members'discounts (without consulting members), andchanged their technical help service so that it

will now only help with productsbought from them (which anydealer will do!), unlike NCS whowill help (free) with any prob-

lems by post.• No discounts are available for RISC Usersubscribers, except for occasional special dis-counts on major items of software and smalldiscounts on Beebug's own software. AllArchive members receive a members' price listeach month, with prices including VAT andprompt delivery, and the prices are very welldiscounted (frequently 15%+). The Beebugprices are generally not very competitive (witha few exceptions), and prices are often given exVAT only, meaning that you have to get acalculator out to work out the true price!

• RISC User suffers from the problem thatBeebug produce their own software and hard-ware, which makes it difficult for them to beimpartial towards similar products from othercompanies. The magazine frequently refers toBeebug's own products without mention ofalternative products, and often praises Beebug'sown products. NCS do not produce hardware /software of their own, and so do not suffer fromthis problem. Beebug have a strange policy ofcopying other companies' product ideas, ratherthan on producing original hardware and soft-ware (examples include DTP, SCSI, VIDC,ARM3, External Disc drive buffer, Scanners,Extra RAM, C Compiler, Public DomainLibrary).

• Sadly Archive is not as well known or appre-ciated as RISC User (only a few thousandmembers). Ideally, I would recommend you tosubscribe to both magazines, since asmagazines, each has its own strengths andweaknesses and both are certainly worth read-ing. However I would say that the support fromNCS is significantly better than that fromBeebug, and for what you get, an Archivesubscription is better value for money If youdo join Archive and do not like it, you cancancel your membership at any time andreceive a refund on issues not yet published.Give it a try, and send in your thoughts onpaper! �� ! ��"�

�#�%$&�('��" ��) *�+,�-�.��"�-/0��1�32

4

Computer Concepts' Impression II document processoris now available, and having received the upgraderecently, I have to say that I am extremely impressedwith it. Impression has made it really easy to design thisnewsletter, and is suitable for anyone from a DTPbeginner to a convert from Macintosh DTP packages,with many powerful yet well thought out facilities.

Whilst using the alternative packages on a one Mega-byte machine is a tight squeeze, Impression II will fiteasily with room for a decent font cache. The cacheingof fonts requires a lot of disc accessing, but use on afloppy disc only system is perfectly acceptable, andspecial screen fonts are supplied for use on a non-multiscan monitor.

There are far too many features to describe them allhere, but if you are interested, take a look at the recentadverts for Impression II in the glossy magazines andthe comments in the same. One of the nicest thingsabout buying Impression is the excellent support pro-vided by Computer Concepts.

A regular newsletter is sent out to customers, with newsand hints on using their products. You can upgrade tothe latest version at any time free of charge by sendingin your program disc, and a telephone helpline is run tohelp with any problems. In particular, ComputerConcepts listens to its customers and acts on suggestionsand criticisms.

• Providing you can afford the asking price (make surethat you shop around) I believe Impression to be the bestbuy of all the DTP packages (and I've used them all).Since it sadly has to be protected with a dongle, Impres-sion II comes with a no quibble money-back guarantee.

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There is a bug in Impression in that whenever youdrop a graphic into a frame or FIT TO FRAME,the very edges of it will get 'clipped off' when youprint it out (try printing out a thin rectangle thathas been 'fitted to frame'). The solution is to setthe Horizontal and Vertical inserts to 0.01 inches,then FIT TO FRAME, then set these inserts backto 0.00 inches.

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Club member Nicholas Horn runs a very worth-while service to Science teachers , with the supportof Computer Concepts, providing public domainmaterial for the Archimedes to help schools in theteaching of the sciences at the Secondary Schoollevel. At the moment several discs are available fornext to nothing, containing information and worksheets, a large poster to be printed out, and a data-base listing science and technology educationbroadcasts, all for the Archimedes. The minimumof technical expertise is required to use the discs,and full instructions are included. All material maybe freely copied and duplicated. It is availablecompletely free in return for discs and postage, orthese can be paid for at very reasonable prices. Formore information please send a SAE to:

ef?Rg@?H=@?HGWPQ? [ ]`GTXW]Ò"A

If you have shuddered at the massive price of theseessential manuals (currently £79), yet desperatelyneed them for, well, reference I suppose, then whynot get your library to buy them for you. They willusually charge a nominal sum of 50p or so to orderthem, yet it is cheaper than £79, andthey will be as good as yours.

Mr Nicholas Horn,Electronic Science Support Material,

Rosemary Musker High School,

Croxton Road,Thetford, Norfolk

IP24 3LH

5

e-ditors and the magnifier is smooth and quick, and there’seven a sprite editor which is good, but not a patch on !Paint.There are many different anti-aliases and smoothing effects(including Anti-Alias squash and an option to convert (bybrushing) all shades of one colour to shades of another).

There are 3 undos. The first (F1) is a simple undo-screen.The second (F2) undoes a specified rectangle, and the third(F3) lets you brush the screen and undoes the area under-neath. Very clever, but it’s a pity you can’t undo the undoshould you need to.

Every last detail is covered. The pointer reflects the currentcolour. It changes to reflect certain operations (e.g. magnify,print, disk access, filling etc.) Left-handed and Apple Macstyle options are provided as well, and little points that reallybug you about other art packages have FINALLY beenincluded (like being able to plot a sprite half off thescreen.....AT LAST!)

Its wrapping features are breathtaking. You can design acomplex vase or bottle and Atelier will wrap a shape round itand can even include shadows - WOW. However, the speed(or lack of it) reminded me of the days of Quest Paint on theBBC Master!

Also included is an animator, but it doesn’t use DeltaAnimation, rendering it practically useless for seriousanimations and this part of the package represents more of anafterthought on Minerva’s part. It lacks polish. Stick with theexcellent RISC User movie maker (plug plug!) for animationwork.

On the whole, the manual is excellent and the tutorial guidesyou step by step through most options by showing you theiruses by getting you to finish off half-started pictures suppliedon the disk. The manual even tells you how to achievespecial effects such as smoke, textures, metallic surfaces etc.

So, is it perfect? No. It has a few niggles. All routines, evensimple ones like drawing curves, are slow (note there are noproper bezier options). Make sure you have a big enoughfont cache whilst entering in text (it uses the outline fontsystem giving great flexibility as well as great text!) or it willcrash. You also can’t rotate text without resizing it renderingthis feature almost useless. The supplied printer drivers arenot needed because they are not as good as the RISC OSones (laser printers are not covered). Removing this optionwould have provided more free memory which is tight on a1mb machine. Even with all these features, its still not asgood as some I’ve seen on the Amiga, but it does make thelikes of ProArtisan look a little stoneage in comparison.

The first time I’d ever seen this package was at the B.A.U.show after some designer said it was brill and did �� I already had Art Nouveau and ProArtisan, and between thetwo I got the effects that I needed, so what made this one sospecial? Simply, that it offers 99% of the features that theforementioned two offer, and a hell of a lot more added in forgood measure.

As with every Art package, it’s got stacks of simple—yetessential—routines, and I won’t bore you detailing these(anyone can program the Arc to draw a line!), but whatmakes it stand out is the sheer number of features that younever really get to grips with (i.e. the more advancedeffects!), and even one or two (like �� ) that younever really find any use for.

It installs itself on the icon bar and uses a limited form ofmulti-tasking. It waits there on the icon bar until clickedon—then it takes over as a single-tasking application until F8is pressed and you return to the multi-tasking desktop whereyou left off. Very clever! This method makes memory re-allocation whilst using the program (e.g. to increase spritememory) simple.

At any time, a special magnifying glass/help text can bedisplayed (like !Help and !Magnify in one!). Not only does itshow where the pointer is for accurate lining up, but it givesdetails such as pointer coordinates, the radius if drawing acircle etc. as well as step-by-step instructions on every tool(if the tool is a multi-stage option (e.g. drawing a rectanglemeans selecting the start and end coordinates) you can evengo back step by step as a form of undo by pressing adjust).

The colour menu is very advanced—even daunting. Itfeatures palettes, sliders and priority colours (i.e. makingsome colours ‘unremoveable’ so that you can draw ‘behind’them).

Copying has many options. You can stretch, rotate anddistort a shape using many different options (e.g. logarith-mic mapping!) Indeed, for plain filling, Atelier boasts over340 different combinations to fill, including plain fill, spritefill, graduated fill using 4 differing finenesses of ditherranging from no dithering (like Art Nouveau) to super-smooth so that you can’t really see the graduations. To chosea colour graduation scale, simply select the first and lastcolours (e.g. matt black and brilliant white) and Atelier willactually work out the colours inbetween. Although time-saving, this presents a problem if you want to create a multi-coloured (e.g. rainbow) graduated fill).

All sorts of editors are provided, including Pattern and Brush

6Of course, the really good thing about Andrew Thacker is that he doesn't take advantage of the fact that he is designing this newsletter to 'slip in' a shameless plug for his business!!!

financed.

However before you hold up your hands in horrorat the thought of the massive expense, we shouldpoint out this is really only a contribution towardsthe running costs, and certainly no-one is makingmoney out of the Club.

We hope that you feel it worthwhile to support theClub, so that the membership will continue to grow,increasing the support available.

Some benefits of Club A3000 membership havealready been mentioned, and we hope to expand theservices which the Club can offer as quickly aspossible.

Unfortunately this does cost money, the majorexpense being the duplication and postage costs forClub literature.

You will find accompanying this newletter a sheetgiving details of how we intend the Club to be

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Return this form (or a photocopy of this form is you wish to preserve the newsletter), together with yourcheque (payable to Rene Barreto) or 1st class stamps (to the value of the donation) to —

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A J

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E E A I

I I A A

A E E E

O L K H

C M H M

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A E L S

A E M S

A E N T

B E N T

B H O T

B H O T

B K O V

C L P Y

D L Q Z

WORD

PUZZLE

By Roger K ing

Place the 36 lettersshown below intothe grid to makevalid words

The solution is on page 66

I keep getting politely asked if Iwould like to write an article for

Eureka to explain what RISCWorld isso, for those that don’t know,RISCWorld is a bi-monthlysubscription magazine published byAPDL. But we will come back to that.

So why, after coming up with evenmore flimsy excuses every time, haveI finally managed to get round towriting something. Well it’s down to acunning threat by your tenaciousEditor. Since I can’t seem to manageto write an article myself perhapsDave Bradforth (who contributes toRISCWorld on a regular basis, andhelped me out a great deal when I firststarted editing the magazine) couldhelp. Ahhh, err...right.

Well the thing is, although I have thegreatest respect for Dave as an authorI can’t actually write with anyone

else. Yes I can edit things written byothers, mess up the grammar andgenerally make a dog’s dinner of awell written article, but I can’t writein conjunction with anyone else.Why? Well I work in my ownway...er...like to get things

correct...em...spend ages agonisingover the correct phraseology...Ohlook, I’m an awkward bugger and I dothings my way. If it helps you out youcould think of this article as beingco-authored; I wrote the words andDave Bradforth wrote the gaps inbetween. Does that help?

Now, back to RISCWorld. As I saidearlier (think of this as a sort of“previously in this article” voiceover) it’s a bi-monthly magazinepublished by APDL. I have beenediting it since volume 1 issue 4 andat the moment I am working onvolume 4 issue 6. The original Editor,David Matthewman, felt unable to


All About RISCWorld*

Eureka has, in the past, invited the Editors of all theRISC OS magazines to describe what their publicationoffers. Now Aaron Timbrell tells us about RISCWorld.

* and beer.

continue after a couple of issues and,due to a big mouth and anunderdeveloped sense of danger, Isaid that editing a magazine would beeasy and offered to do an issue toprove my point. The fact that I am stillediting it would tend to demonstratethat I have so far been totally unableto prove this point.

Anyway, back to RISCWorld. Unlikemost other magazines, RISCWorld ispublished on CD, rather than printed.This has a number of advantages suchas:

• We can print articles of any length.• We can ‘cover mount’ the softwarewe talk about without having a cover.• We can tightly control productioncosts to keep the subscription pricelow (see details at end).

However, producing a magazine onCD does have one disadvantage: youcan’t read it on the toilet. Actually,having just written that sentence, Iappreciate that it isn’t entirely true. Ifyou had a laptop you could put it onyour lap (watch out for burns) andread while on the loo. Also if you had


a strong microscope and could readthe pits in the CD and convert thatdata into words in your head, youcould also read RISCWorld on theloo. Actually, you could also just sitthere and read the printing on the CDbut that wouldn’t take very long andafter a few issues would get a bitrepetitive. So let’s just say thatRISCWorld isn’t as easy to read onthe loo as other magazines.

Anyway, back to the main thrust ofthe article. RISCWorld usually hasaround 22 to 25 articles per issue. Wehave a number of regular columnscovering Games, Public DomainSoftware etc. We have a number ofregular columnists, some of whomare allowed their own columns. Wealso commission articles from allsorts of RISC OS users. We also paymoney for articles as well, which isquite unusual these days. Actually Iwonder if I am getting paid for this? Idoubt it. (You’ re right there. I don’t

get paid, either. -Ed) Still it’s 10:30 atnight, there’s nothing on telly,Hayley’s gone to bed, so I might aswell sit down and write this.

To make it even more pleasurable Iam also sitting here with a Bitter and

Twisted. Now for those of you whomisread that sentence please go backand try again, I didn’t say I was sittinghere bitter and twisted but that I wassiting here with a Bitter and Twisted.For those that don’t know, this is avery fine bottled bitter, which in it’scask conditioned form was voted asthe Champion Beer of Britain 2003.Well that’s what the label saysanyway. The reason I mention thebeer is in homage to The ARM Clubpresence at RISCOS Southwest 2004.If there had been a show award forsynchronised staggering then I think Icould guess the winners.

Ah, I seem to have gone off thesubject again. Something else we doin RISCWorld is publish full versionsof software, not demos, notshareware, but full on, complete withHTML manuals, software. SinceAPDL now owns the rights to its ownsoftware, as well as iSV Products,Clares, Topologika, Beebug andcountless others, we have quite alarge back catalogue to pick from.Over the last few issues we havegiven away Recycler, DrawWorksMillennium, TableCalc, Sleuth 1,Rhapsody and Menubar.


On the issue I am working on now wewill be cover-mounting ProArtisan.We also feature as much of thesoftware as possible that is covered inour other columns, including thelatest PD/Freeware/Shareware ascovered in the PD column and anyother software that our authors thinkthe readers would be interested in. Wealso commission software just for themagazine, as well as publish softwarewritten by myself and Dave Holdenfor our own use. Now readers who arepaying attention may have noticed apause of two minutes after the lastsentence, this was caused by a faultybeer glass (it was empty). The glasshas now been re-booted and normalservice will be resumed.

For those that would like to take alook at a sample issue of RISCWorldwe have a website cunningly hiddenfrom prying eyes atwww.riscworld.co.uk. This contains asample issue made up from articlesmainly from the first couple ofvolumes but with a few newer onesthrown in for good measure. You canalso find out the latest subscriptionrates and also see the contents pagesfrom each back issue.

RISCWorld is a bit different fromother magazines. I know this becauseI get told it by our readers. Itsdifference is one of the main reasonswe have such a dedicated subscriptionbase. What that difference is I don’tquite know. I approach the magazinefrom a simple point of view: would Ilike to read each issue. I work out thecontents based on what I would like toread myself and on what our authorswant to read, then do my best to getsomeone to write it. We do get offeredarticles ‘on-spec’ and this cansometimes prove very interesting,with one article that I wasn’texpecting having a knock on effect onthe entire issue. Sometimes this canresult in large sections being re-written, but it’s all good fun.

So I enjoy editing RISCWorld, itmeans I keep abreast of what’s goingon in the RISC OS world and it meansI get a chance to write for money,which is nice. Actually, I could makean advert out of that: “Want to writefor money? Then talk to one of ourRISCWorld advisors...today!”

So so far I have mentioned two oflives essentials, beer and money.What I haven’t mentioned is cars.


These are another essential, as regularRISCWorld readers will no doubtknow. Still I will leave my latestmotoring mishaps to my editorialpages. In the coming issue you will beable to read all about my fun andgames trying to insure a Shogun;whereas anyone with back issues canpick up on the long running saga ofmy VW Camper.

Anyway I seem to have gone off thepoint once again. So, to finish up,what’s the perfect RISCWorld article?Well it should be interesting, differentand not featured in any othermagazines. Since so many RISC OSusers subscribe to a number ofmagazines they shouldn’t see thesame things again and again indifferent publications. Anyway, thekey to writing the ideal RISCWorldarticle is keep it to the point, start witha punchy title, introduce your subject,get sidetracked, waffle on aboutsomething that isn’t strictly relevant.Then try and get the article back ontrack, succeed for a paragraph or soand then lose the plot again. Continueuntil you reach the end where youexplain the whole thing nice andneatly.

RISCWorld: it’s on CD, it’s a goodread, we give away lots of softwareand back issues make an ideal frisbeefor rabbits.

About the AuthorAaron Timbrell was born at an earlyage. He continued this early success,

first coming into contact with Acorncomputers shortly after the Atom was

launched. He wrote a number ofwoefully unsuccessful shareware

programs before working at EFF inthe early nineties. He started ISV

Products in 1994. In 2001 he sold ISVto APDL and launched VirtualAcorn.

Since then he has never looked back(mainly due to a niggling neck

injury). He lives in constant dreadthat one day he might have to get a

proper job. The VW Camper still isn’tfinished.


RISCWorldAnnual subscription: UK £19.99Overseas £21.90Supplier: RISC World, c/o APDL,39 Knighton Park RoadSydenham, London SE26 5RN.Tel: 0208 778 2659Fax: 0208 488 0487Email: [email protected]: www.riscworld.co.uk

Eureka — Summer 2004 45

RISC OS Rhymes

Alan Wickham writes: I have found something that was written by an old

DOS machine where I used to work It seems to be a parody on ‘The Huntingof the Snark’ by Lewis Carol and is concerned with a Rel(iability) Man.

The Hunting Of The Snag: A Reliability Study In N FitsFit: This can mean a group of stanzas or a term used in reliability analysis. Rel-Man: Reliability analyst PM: Project Manager TBD: To Be Determined specs — Specifications PET: Early desktop computer loom — Bundle of wires

Just the place for a SNAG the Rel-Man cried, Filling his team with shame. Telling them no matter how hard they tried, They still would get all the blame.

Just the place for a SNAG — I’ve said it twice; That alone should make you terrified. Just the place for a SNAG — I’ve said it thrice; What I tell you three times is verified.

His team was complete and included a ‘Maths’, A tester of counters and RAMs, A PM to give them critical paths, An Engineer to get them out of the jams.

There was also a Programmer, who would pound his keyboard Or sit gazing into his screen, And had often, the Rel-Man said, saved them from fraud. To believe that they weren’t very keen. Continued..


There was one who was famed for the number of things TBD when he came to the ‘mob’. All his tolerances, limits and digital strings, And the password to enter the job.

He had fourtytwo Specs, all carefully typed, With requirements there, so to speak. But as he omitted to state what they were, All might well have been written in Greek.

He had brought them a circuit representing the Gear, Without the least vestige of wires. And the team were much pleased when they found it to be: A drawing that really inspires.

What’s the use of Transistors, Diodes and Resistors Generators, sources and Sinks, So the Rel-Man would would cry, and the team would reply: They are merely a waste of good inks.

He would answer to “Mac” or “Waste Paper Sack”, Or any such technical term, But what he preferred, when it came to a word, Was “Statistical Isotherm”.

He came as a Manager and gravely declared, When the job had been running a year, He could only sack Programmers — the Rel-Man looked scared And almost wept into his beer.

At last he admitted with faltering tone, That only one programmer was nigh,

Eureka — Summer 2004 47

And that was a PET one he had of this own, Who’s loss he would sorely decry.

The Programmer, who happened to hear of this brag, Put it round, with electronic gear, That not even the pleasure of hunting the SNAG, Could allay this terrible fear.

But ever after that sorrowful day, Whenever the Manager appeared, The Programmer looked the opposite way, And mumbled into his beard.

There was one was famed for the number of things She could gossip about on the phone; Marriages, Pregnancies, Eternity Rings, How to interpret the Manager’s tone.

She came as a Stripper, and quietly said, When the job had been running a day. She could only strip wires. The Rel-Man turned red, And promised to double her pay.

At last he admitted, though not very hard, There were not many wires to be had, And they were expensive ones, ten pounds a yard. To strip them you’d have to be mad.

But ever after that hour of doom, Whenever the stripper got keen, The wires would form themselves into a loom And pretend that they could not be seen.

If any of you still watch Robot Warsyou may have noticed that hardly

any have any degree of autonomy.(There were a few with automaticallyfiring weapons mounted on robotswith bumpers to detect another robot

but these got creamed). OK they arerobots but hardly autonomous. Whathappened to emotions, desires etc oreven free will?

Animals have free will and can evenuse tools. Chimpanzees in Tanzaniaselect long twigs, strip off leaves, dipthem into ants’ nests and pull outedible ants. Others in the Ivory Coastbuild anvils from stumps and rocks,then use a wooden or rock hammer tobreak open nuts. Many animalsappear to be ‘hard-wired’ for somebehaviours. For example, a malegrayling butterfly flies up to materather large, dark, close, dancingobjects. These can include not onlyfemale graylings but also birds,

falling leaves and shadows. (Being agrayling butterfly must be afrustrating business!).

OK, all we have to do is net lots ofgrayling butterflies, shove them in

our RiscPCs and, well, we can makeuse of the idea.

Behaviours called fixed-actionpatterns occur in animals. Forexample, the greylag goose is a bitdim but is an Einstein compared toyour average Flipper wielding robot.These birds nest on the ground. Whenan egg has been displaced a shortdistance from the nest, the incubatingbird tries to roll it back with its beak.If the egg rolls slightly to one side, itmoves its bill to correct for this, (thatis, it makes small adjustments to suitthe circumstances). However, if thebird loses contact with its egg itcompletes its retrieval movement. Itextends its head to reach the egg and


Winning Games With Logic

Free will for robots? Barry Aulton looks at how they canbe allowed to make their own decisions in game or evenat work, with the aid of some careful programming.

Part 6

then moves the bill along the groundto a position between its legs, whetheror not the bill is still in contact withthe egg.

Again you can’t ask the goose what itis doing and its response if you didprobably wouldn’t help!

How can we apply animalobservations to robots or computercontrolled characters? Let’s abstractthe idea. What we have here is astereotyped behaviour. Are thererobots that do this? One such robot isa car washing machine. Some of thesehave sensors that decide when the caris in the right position and then triggerthe wash cycle. (Say: spray soap,wash/brush front, wash/brush back,wash/brush top and sides, blow dry).Some can adjust to the cars’dimensions. Such behaviourprogresses by changes of ‘state’ in thesense that the ‘state’ of having doneone activity leads to another. Forexample, the car-washing machinedoes not attempt to dry the car beforehaving washed it.

In the same way, all CCC’s in acomputer game can be thought ofbeing in a particular ‘state’ at any one

time. For example for a computer-controlled tank, the states may be:attacking, fleeing, under attack, beingrepaired. What we must do is havesome way of enabling the tank tochange its state from one state toanother in a way that will help it winthe battle! Easy peasy!

At this point you may have spotted asnag. Who said there was just onetank in the game? You can give eachtank commander fixed orders from onhigh. (“Roll off that cliff” — “Why?”— “Orders!”) Or you give each tanksome degree of autonomy. You nowhave a communication problem thatyou didn’t have before. Just whatdoes each tank commander


A grayling’s life is so frustrating

communicate? This is the‘information overload’ problem suchagents face in a highly dynamicenvironment. It has resulted in manytechniques relying on minimalinformation, to increase decisiontime, execution time and re-planningspeed.

These techniques reduce the complexhighly dynamic geometry and detailin the ‘situations’ each agent mustface to simple (ad hoc) formulae, thatis a few magic numbers (see issue 49).

For each possible action we make upsome ad hoc formula to decide howgood an idea it is for the agent toperform that action.

The more modern AI-LIFE ideas of atop level decision maker is essentiallya simple arbiter rather than a complexdecision process in itself. This freesthe lower level decisions fromcomplex interactions with upperlevels, (see issue 49). An algorithmthat implements and extends thismethod to deal with multiple agents(CCC’s) is shown below in fig 1:


Fig 1The information flow for a

computer controlled character

Now, providing more detail, the stepsof tactical control in a computer gameare respectively:-

1) Observation: Extract from thegeometry of the game the tacticalinformation each CCC must have forall situations. Keep this to aminimum.2) Inference: Convert thisinformation into a few magicnumbers, each one inferingsomething critical about your game.Use these inference numbers and theCCC’s current action to decide: A) A unique situation your CCC is in. B) A number indicating how wellthis CCC is performing at this point inthe game.3) Mapping: Form an action-map,mapping each situation to all possibleactions that the CCC could perform(in that situation). Its entries beingnumbers representing the relative‘usefulness’ of carrying out an actionwhen in a given input situation.4) Select a ‘new’ action (plan) toperform given the currentsituation.5) Optimisation: From the geometryof the situation choose an optimalway of carring out this action plan. ( Asearch technique may be used here

since this information does not nowdepend on dynamics).6) Execution: Carry out the detailedplan execution.

The technique I will explain hereextends the technique I discussed inthe last issue. Suppose now we haveseveral CCCs to control. How muchcommunication between characters isneeded? To minimise complexity thisis kept as simple as possible. EachCCC broadcasts only to all otherCCCs on the same side that it iscarrying out a particular action(behaviour).

The method relies on just two timers.One builds up impatience if a job isnot getting done. The other tells anagent to stop if it has taken too long.Such simple algorithms seem idealfor a tactical decision maker, beingessentially just an arbiter whichchooses a suitable task for each CCC.This is consistent with AI-LIFEtechniques which attempt to minimisetop down complexity for fastreaction. There are two kinds ofaction: those that are mutuallyexclusive and those (if any) that canall be performed simultaneously. Themethod has been tested using real


robots in several situations; forexample, collecting and emptyinggarbage cans.

This is an extract from a typical run:“Upon hearing that robot 2 is alsoheading towards the same garbagecan robot 1 selects another can to

empty. After emptying its can, robot 2then heads towards a third can,bypassing the can that robot 1 hasemptied. Robot 1 is then satisfied thatall garbage cans will be emptied, eventhough robot 2 has not yet reached itsthird can. Robot 1 then selects anotheraction , that of dusting the furniture.”


procedure change_motivation() { // This routine is just an example if an action is required? { if( have sufficient other CCC’s performing this action { motivation_increase = SLOW_INCREASE ; } else { // need more CCC’s to perform this action motivation_increase = FAST_INCREASE; } } // if

increase CCC’s current motivation if it is reqd.

if we have an ‘opportunity’ to perform this action? { // This is decided externally boost the motivation to perform this action } return; }

procedure reinitialise()


{ set CCC’s current action to NOACTION reset CCC’s busy threshold (to not busy) reset timers loop round all actions { if this action is not reqd ? { reinitialise its motivation } } // end loop

return;}

procedure do_thresholding(){ // here we are deciding how busy our CCC (see last article) is it time to change CCC’s threshold ? { change CCC’s threshold limit threshold to minimum or maximum for current action reset timer }

has CCC motivation for the action it is considering reached the threshold to perform the action ? { limit the motivation to maximum for that action has CCC motivation for this action also reached its ‘busy’ threshold ? { are we starting a new exclusive action? {


start new action set CCC’s action timer to current time set CCC’s action index to new action } } // has } // has return;}

procedure motivate_a_CCC(){ loop round all actions CCC can perform { if CCC is reqd to perform this action ? // This is decided externally { store this required action index } else { clear units motivation to perform this action if CCC is still performing this action ? { reinitialise(); // action no longer required } } // end if } // end loop if CCC is not required to perform any action ? { // reinitialise coz no actions are reqd reinitialise(); set_threshold(); return 0; } // if loop round required actions


{ get index of required action to consider if CCC is performing another valid exclusive action? { clear motivation for this required action }

is it time to stop doing current action? { CCC will cease doing action if action no longer required { clear motivation for this required action reset CCC’s threshold set current action to NO_ACTION } } // if time change_motivation(); } // loop do_thresholding(); return;}

We now have one simple method ofselecting an action for a computercontrolled character to perform.When there is only a choice of a fewactions, such as controlling tanks ina battle game most methods willwork. (This one works well whenthere are many CCC’s to control.)However, a virtual creature may

have many choices of actions andhave to perform some actionssequentially to stay ‘alive’.

We will look at methods ofachieving this next time.

What happened to the robot dog?We are getting there!

ArcFS error messageQuestion:I have a Risc PC running Select 3 andfind that ArcFS isn’t functioningcorrectly. It loads on the icon bar butwill not open any of the ArcFSarchives but states that ArcFS is in

use, in an error window. I don’t knowif anyone else has the same problembut would be much obliged of someinput from you. It is a read onlyversion number 0.73, dated 27th July1996 SA aware.

Joseph J Robson

Answer:You need to get 0.75 from our website. That should work fine withSelect 3.

Acorn A4Question:I have just acquired an AcornA4 butwhen I boot it up it says:

RISC OS 4096 ERROR:USE*DESKTOP TO START TASKMANAGER (ERROR NUMBER&4) *

Do you have any idea how what Ineed to do to get this to boot up with

RISC OS? I have typed ‘*desktop’and it says:

ERROR: SWI &400F2 NOTKNOWN (EROOR NUMBER&I1E6)

I am not familiar with the computerscommands or anything. I did have anA3020 Archimedes that wouldn’tboot up and I had to hold down ‘S’ orsomething when booting to reset it allto default settings.

Is there anything like this I need todo?

Mark Davies


Questions Answered

Some of the recent problems sent to the Club’sTechnical Help Service and the answers that the team,co-ordinated by David Ruck, provided.

Answer:Yes, I suspect that the CMOS memorywhich stores settings when thecomputer is switched off has becomecorrupted due to the battery runningdown when not used. Turning on themachine with the Delete key helddown, will set the CMOS back todefault. Power on plus ‘R’ can be usedfor a more thorough reset to factorydefaults.

Buffer overflowQuestion:I’m having problems loading severalof the older educational programs onmy Risc PC 600. I am using RISC OS3.7, have 4GBytes of hard drive and37MB Ram. When trying to accessprograms such as Impression Style,PenDown, and Full Phases, I keepgetting the error message ‘Bufferoverflow’.

I have solved the problem withPenDown as I am able to load existingdata into PenDown DTP but cannotdo the same with either of the othertwo programs. I know they are oldprograms but I am more concerned atbeing able to access existing datarather than using them, as I generallyuse Textease now. However it would

still be useful to use Phases with mylittle grandson.

The problems seemed to start when Iloaded in an upgrade of the internetprogram Oregano, as things were OKtill then. Can you help me please?

Val Leeman

Answer:This problem is caused by having toomany fonts installed, which causessome older programs to exceed thememory they have set aside for fontnames. It can also happen withindividual fonts that have very longnames.

The first thing to do is to remove fontswhich you don’t use regularly from!Boot.Resources.!Fonts until theprograms will run again. You can thenuse a font manager utility to select asubset of your total collection thatwill be seen by programs at any onetime, to allow you to use the fonts youwant without problems.

The are serveral such font managerprograms available.

A free one is !FontMgr2 from


http://users.argonet.co.uk/users/tteht

ann/Programmes/

CD Drive not foundQuestion:I am new to RISC OS, a completenovice. I have StrongARM and it’srunning RISC OS 4.

I seem to have lost the use of my CD.It is sitting there on the icon bar but ifI try to use it I get “‘CD ROM Drivenot found’.

Where is it? How do I get it back inuse? What did I do to lose it in thefirst place?

Peter L inley

Answer:Is this a sudden failure; when did itlast work?

Assuming it hasn’t physically brokendown, it will probably have stoppedworking either due to becomingunplugged, or a change to themachine preventing its driversoftware from loading.

First, check that the drive’s power ordata cables have not become loose.

Unplug them and reinsert again.

Second, check if the driver modulesare active.

Press Ctrl+F12 and type:*Unplug

Check if there are any module namesbeginning with CDFS in the list,especially any called CDFSSoft.

If you see any type:*RMReinit module_name(where module_name is the name ofthe module).Reboot and see if the CDROM can beaccessed.

If this doesn’t work, did the CDROMdrive come supplied with anyadditional driver software?

If so could it have been removed fromyour boot sequence after an OSupgrade for example?

Error C63Question:I have a Risc PC 600 Mk1 upgradedto StrongARM running RISC OS4.02.


I get the Error message C63 when Iclick on the bookmark tab in OreganoOne and Oregano Two (trial copy). Ican continue by pressing ‘Continue’in Oregano One but the errormessage locks up the PC in Two andit has to be rebooted.

This is an old problem that I havelived with but cannot upgrade toOregano two.

Do you know the error messagerelates to and how it can be fixed?

Paul Millard

Answer:It means your Shared C Library is outof date. Clicking on the bookmarkbutton is probably running the!Bookmark program, which requiresthe new 32bit Shared C Library. Youcan download it from:www.iyonix.com/32bit/download/TBo

x.zip

Make sure you install it by runningthe !SysMerge obey file in thearchive, rather than any other methodsuch as !Configures System Merge, orit won’t be run automatically atstartup.

Risc PC changesQuestion:The problem is a change in thebehaviour of my StrongARM RiscPC.

I noticed the change shortly afterinstalling a network card in the RiscPC together with loading and using!LanMan98 and !SMBserver (Samba)although I have since realised thatSamba is not needed so I no longerload it.

The effects are present whether or notthe network software is active.

The changes noticed affect thehandling of large JPEG files, such assatellite photos downloaded from theinternet, and have included variouseffects with files of 0.8MB to 2.5MB.I have previously downloaded andprocessed files of this size and largerfor over a year without problem.

Previously, a large JPEG woulddownload within Fresco in one of twoways:

(a) It would appear on the screenprogressively from top to bottom.


(b) The Fresco window would remainblank until the download wascomplete when the picture woulddisplay. The downloaded picturescould be displayed by !Megumi or!Thump. ‘Progressive JPEGs’ neededprocessing by !CleanJPEG as didEXIF files from digital cameras, butcould then be displayed.

Now I have found three differences inbehaviour:

(1) A very large file downloaded byFresco does not display oncompletion. Instead a small ‘QuestionMark’ icon appears at the bottom ofthe otherwise blank Fresco page.This file can however be saved and afurther copy is in Fresco’s cache.These, which are both JPEGs, bothdisplay perfectly in the Windowsenvironment.

(2) !Thump is unable to display thesepictures, apparently going into anendless loop.

(3) !CleanJPEG fails to process thesefiles on an “Insufficient memory(case 4)” error - the Risc PC reports32MB of free memory. Othermemory errors have occurred and my

ScrapFile gains some apparentlyenormous datafiles containing onlyzeros.

Roger Dye

Answer:I suspect it is nothing to do with thenetwork card at all and is the result ofother changes made to the system ataround the same time. You couldalways try taking the network card outand seeing if the problems still occur.

The only influence the network cardcould have is if additional moduleshad been placed in its flash ROM.Press Ctrl+F12 and type:

*ROMModules

Check which modules are listed underPodule 9 which is the network card.

If it proves not to be the network card,try to track the problem down byremoving any third party programsand modules which have been addedto the Boot sequence via !ConfiguresLook At/Run at Boot options, andanything you have placed in!Boot.Choices.Boot PreDesk andTasks directories. Then reboot.


Try the operations on JPEGs whichfailed and see if they still occur.

If they work correctly, add the thingsyou have removed from the bootsequence one by one, rebooting andchecking each time, until you find theculprit.

If you do find it please let us know, asit may help other users. If you don’thave any luck, get in touch again.

Select problemQuestion:I am experiencing a problem withRO4 select 3.

I used softload to boot into RISC OS4 so that I could run !PCconfig (whichI have never got to run under Select).In the event I changed nothingalthough I might have pressed ‘OK’rather than ‘Cancel’ when closing thewindows.

However, when I tried to rerunSofload to go back to RO4 Select I gotthe following error message fromSoftload Setup: ‘The gadget flagshave reserved bits set (gadget type0x4018)’.

I have since updated RISC OS 4 to thenew C Library and the latest tooboxmodules which came with Select 3.

The CLib enabled me to use theinternet again but the toolboxmodules have had no effect on theproblem.

I have tried emailing RO Ltd but havehad no reply after a week and I am ata loss what other action to try.

Doug Thompson

Answer:I suspect that the copy of !SoftSetupin !Boot.RO400Hook.Res has beenupdated to use the new toolboxmodules, and while you might haveinstalled them under Select, when youchange back to RISC OS 4 it actuallyuses a different !Boot (!Boot.OldBootbecomes !Boot, !Boot becomes!Boot.NewBoot), which has not gotthem installed.

The solution should be to install thenew toolbox modules while in RISCOS 4. So they are then available inboth the boot sequences.


In my last article I told you of mysuccessful use of cunning plans to

get hold of the latest hardware andsoftware available. But, a word ofwarning just like Baldric my planssometimes go amiss. For instance:

Shortly after I had purchased myIyonix I decided that a new monitorwas required to really use itscapabilities fully but, no. my financialadviser would not on this occasiongive way. I decide to sulk.

Theatrically I throw myself down intoChristine' s favourite armchair and gostraight through it, so far that only thecarpet is supporting my posterior.

Now Christine has the loveliest ofgrey eyes but when she is angry flecksof green permeate said orbs. In thisinstance there is so much green, hereyes resemble Druck' s favouritetraffic light colour.

I beat a hasty retreat to the brown popshop via a detour to my friendlyNewsagent where a large box ofchocolates is purchased and alongwith a free bunch of flowers donatedby him is delivered back home by his

nephew. (Strange how some peoplestroubles are funny to others.)

After a suitable period of time I gohome and, although vastly reduced, asare the chocolate box contents, thereis still enough green to signal thattrouble is in store.

“Look at my chair!” says Christine.

I can' t bear to look so consign debristo the garden. “I want a new chair andyour computer fund is going towardsit" says hard hearted Christine.

"What am I going to spend atWeston?".


If At First You Don’t Succeed - Sulk

A too vigorous bit of sulking wrecked Ron Briscoe’scunning little plan to buy a new monitor and nearly costhim a happy day out at the SouthWest Show.

"Nothing because weare not going".* I decide that I mustaccept mypunishment withgood grace and sowhile the rest of youwere enjoyingyourselves I was stillwatching Christinetry out every chair inevery furnitureshowroom in theWest Midlands. Soremember goodpeople, be careful inthe use of cunningplans.

Apart from that littleset back my cunning

plans have on the whole beensuccessful, like for instancesubscribing to Peter Naull’s ‘UNIXPorting Project’.

I think it is a good idea, the financialadviser is dubious. I quickly give averbal sketch of Peter starving in agarret with only an overclocked X86box to keep him warm. This, althoughChristine does not really believe me,does the trick and so another amount


* Although I am allowed to go to theBirmingham show on my own

Christine accompanies me to thetowns where the other shows are

being held.

She builds sand castles at Westonand goes sightseeing in Wakefield

while I spend money at the showsand we meet later for a meal before

the journey home.

Sulking can damage your seating

of money is put to the good of RISCOS.

Justify the cost Now I have seen several commentsalong the lines of "The Iyonix looksnice but I can' t afford/justify the cost".This is bad thinking!

Take, for instance, including timeowning the machine. if like me thesaid people had purchased an Iyonixin November 2002 they would havepossessed it for fifteen months bynow.

Hmm!; £1399 divided by 65(15Month = 52Week+13Weeks) = about £21.50 per week and the costis falling all the time.

If your partner would rather waste themoney on such frivolities as furniture,excluding of course replacing brokenchairs, a good ploy is to discover anhitherto unknown environmentaliststreak and ask if it is really a goodidea to replace something that is notworn out.

Of course if you wish to use thisargument you must find that‘program’ that produces strange

noises and does funny things to themonitor display and run it atjudiciously judged intervals.

Hand painted packing casesHowever do not in any circumstancestry the ‘hand painted packing casesare the new thing in seating’ ploy as Iknow that one is doomed to failure.

Another thing to remember is that bypurchasing an Iyonix you areencouraging the software developers,think of all the happy hours softwarewriters have spent 32-bitting. Doesn' tit send a warm feeling coursingthrough your body to have been ofsuch good service to them?

Seriously people complain that ourplatform is falling further behind theothers but we are not going toprogress unless we support the effortsbeing made on our behalf.

Of course, during all of this drivel younotice that I speak not of the fabledOmega or of the various RPC on a‘Windross’ box solutions and that isbecause in the case of the Omega itcame too late for me and from what Ihave heard is still not up to thespecifications that first excited me.


But that of course could change. Asfor RISC OS emulated on variousflavours of ‘Windups’, I personallyprefer the real thing.

Although the new monitor has had totake a back seat, further cunning planshave been hatched. For instance, dueto politician style mathematics I amnear to convincing my financialadviser that having a Blueyonder;Broadband, television and phonepackage will result in financialsavings. I have of course neglected totell her that the number of receivableTV channels will be reduced.

Digital cameraFor my birthday, I am to receive adigital camera. Naturally I have hadto try it out so as to see if it iscompatible with my Iyonix — and itis. Reluctantly I have to allow it to beput away till my birthday.

This in turn has led to further cunningplans. “Of course this means that Iwill have to get a new USB printer sothat I can print out anything you wantto keep”, sayeth I.

“What is wrong with the one you havegot?”

“It is a parallel type printer and it onlyworks with the RPC and it is a realpain swapping all the leads over andyou wouldn' t let me buy a switch boxfrom Stuart Tyrrel”.

This without mentioning that USB toparallel leads are available for notmuch money.

“Besides I need a new printer to putGimpPrint through its paces”.

Meanwhile, tucked away for easyreference is an RO Printers mailinglist message from Martin Wuerthnerstating that in certain circumstancessome print outs require 100MB ofmemory. Ha! I feel a memory upgradeplan is on the way.

Happy dayBy the time you read this — that is ifyou have got this far without givingup in disgust and consigning yourcopy of Eureka to the recycle bin —we and my Iyonix will have been toWeston and hopefully spent a happyday out, the Iyonix having variouslittle fixes, me spending money andChristine will have spent a few happyhours by the sea.



B A N J O

E U N

Z E B R A

I I G

Q U A K E

U N R

L E V E E S A H I B

I I A A

D A L E K T E N E T

O L K H

S C A M P T H Y M E

O B E

T R O L L

H O E

E T H I C

R O O

B R O O M

©

WORD PUZZLE SOLUTION

The puzzle is onpage 39


No Bugs From Bill


Published by The ARM Club

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Documents

The magazine for members of · for Eureka over the years for making it possible to keep the magazine so well filled for so long. From the next issue onwards, Andrew Wyver will be