Neil Johnston,
							 C/O WO2 Johnston,
							  B Sqn,
							   5 Innis DG,
							    BFPO 16.

							May 1991


Heeeeelllloooooo!!!!!!

    As you may be able to tell from my little introduction at the top, I'm
feeling pretty chirpy at the moment! Probably because I've got exams
creeping up on me in oohh .... just over three weeks. Yippee! I think exams
are so easy (honest!) and I might as well just sod all my revision time and
spend it coding a MegaDemo!!! (I Wish!). In 11 days, 1 hour and 26 minutes,
I will be leaving school! Well, not really leaving school, but I only have
to go in when I've got an exam, and after that I'll be free!!!! Hooorayyy!!!
Well, not quite free, there's just that little matter of two years at College
and then another three at Poly, and, and .... Oh Well! 

    (Back down to Earth with a Bump!)

    What does everybody think of that new Amiga Mag 'Amiga Shopper'? In my
opinion it's pretty good for it's measly 99p! I remember way back in the
days when I owned my VIC-20 and my regular 'Computer & Video Games', and all
other mags around at that time were also that price. How is it prices have
jumped so much from about a quid to nearly three! OK, so that is with a
coverdisk usually, and most mags are nearly in full colour, but that's
still quite a price rise. Isn't it funny how I used to read a mag dedicated
to games and now I like reading one which doesn't even mention them! I
still read AmC as well though!

   Well, I've just put the finishing touches to my TextMaster program, and
It's probably the first 'genuinely useful' and fairly original util I've
done to date! I hope somebody out there uses this utility for their demo
scrollers, etc. Sorry about sending the rather bugged version for ACC12,
but this version is the complete one, even though it doesn't really look
much different (apart from the Message box system), I can assure you the
code has had a fair bit of debugging done to it. If anybody out there wants
to rip out my Message system or anything else in the code, for use in their
own programs, then feel free to do so! While I'm talking about debugging, I
think I'll mention how much more of a challenge it is to write this
program than a demo. Although the code is only about 6K long, there is a hell
of a lot more debugging to be done whenever programs have to take user input,
like text files, various parameters, etc, and it takes a lot longer than just
a non-interactive demo! Speaking of which, I've surprised myself in recent
weeks, as I've always intended being a hardware programmer, but have spent
the past six weeks or so learning all about intuition, etc, and I now
almost know about things like Exec Lists & Nodes and message ports! But
don't worry, I'm not abandoning the hardware as Mark seems to have done
since he started his A68K Assembler project! I have a couple of hardware
ideas lined up already, but I want to have a good working knowledge of
BOTH the hardware and the software environments! The next thing you know I'll
be learning 'C'..... 

    ....Which brings me onto my next topic! Is there anybody out there who
is moderately 'versed' in the basic workings of 'C'! Why? Well I think it
would be a good idea for a tutorial!!! No, wait! I've not gone completely
nuts! It's just that so much Amiga documention expects to be able to
understand 'C' as nearly all the source examples are written in this
language i.e, open the ROM Kernal Manual at any page, and You'll probably
see a 'C' source example somewhere. I can understand much of the basics, but
is there somebody out there who can 'briefly' explain some of the more
complex 'C' areas? Yes, I know this is an MC mag and we're supposed to
descriminate against 'C' like Amiga owners descriminate against that ST
junk, but if ignorance towards 'C' means that the RKM examples are about as
intelligable as a Swahili man yelling Russian down a crackly phone line to
you(!?!), then it won't hurt to just be able to understand the daft language,
after all I've already shelled out about £150 for an assembler and other
books & stuff, and I don't fancy spending the ridiculous £200 odd for
SAS/Lattice C or whatever it's called, just to be able to do the same sort
of stuff as I can now, but in a different language. (Remember, I only get
about £7 a week (sob!)) and as I write this, have only the equivilant to
about 50p in my Wallet! Yes, jobs are hard to come by out here!!!

    Oh, as an addition to me 'slagging' off of the libraries over here, I
recently asked about all the 'computer' books, they had at our local
library, and to my utter astonishment, they actually had something like
68000 Programming by Sybex, and C++, or something like that. Of course,
they didn't actually have the books in the library, but they could always
order them from the main library.....(oh, and they STILL have that bloody
'40 great games for your Sinclair ZX Spectrum'!!!!!) 

    As the Amiga coding world anxiously awaits the release of Devpac 3
(Maybe it's been released by the time you read this!), we wonder what
surprises Hisoft has incorporated into the new version, and the million
dollar question is -- "Is it really worth the £35 to upgrade from V2 to
V3?" I'm sure somebody will soon give us the relevant info on this new
assembler, my guess is that it will be fast like ArgAsm with all it's best
features, and may well be the ultimate assembler! I just hope there aren't
any incompatibilty problems, as this could mean nasty things start happening
if people start sending in V3 code, which doesn't work without modification 
on V2!

    Joint projects -- Mark and Steve's ACC assembler may well be (nearly!)
finished now, and I think that there should be some sort of joint 'hardware'
project! Suggestions for a project could be a new menu system for the
disks, or maybe a pretty simple game. I think there's enough talent out
there to do either of these things, it's just a case of getting people
involved in it. I know the slow mail system, and only having ACC once a
month makes it hard to keep in touch with a project this way, but I for one
would be willing to get into something! Anybody else interested? Get in
touch!

    It's been just over two weeks since I typed anything in this letter as
I've been fairly busy with things, but I just have to say one thing:

    I HATE AMIGADOS! I HATE AMIGADOS! I HATE AMIGADOS! I HATE AMIGADOS!

    Why the strong words? Well, I recently spent a substantial number of
hours working on my menu program, and the bit I thought would be the
easiest, getting the menu to run the program, turned out to be the hardest
part!!! The main problems came from the bloody "Execute()" routine, at
first it wouldn't work at all, then it kept increasing the CLI number every
time you ran a program, then programs started to fail, then they started to
produce "Software Errors" whenever you quit the program......... After
spending quite a while tearing my hair out I finally resorted to using the
ARP library (yes, the ARP lib in a hardware program!) it 'eased' some of
the problems and I finally managed to get 'most' programs to work with it,
the current problem is getting any programs to produce any CLI output when
run with the menu, I`ve tried leaving the redirection fields blank in the
ARP Syncrun() routine and then sticking the value supplied with Output()
but to no avail. Why the hell is DOS written in that awful BCPL, (Bloody
Crap Programming Languge?) I've never used it but if the programs it
produces are as bad as some of the DOS routines then it's a good job CBM
didn't write the whole OS in it!! Some help with my problems would be really
appreciated as ideally I'd like to be able to use DOS routines and not have
to open a disk based library.

    Well I've just got my sweaty mits on ACC12, and I was a little
dissapointed that disk B didn't quite contain the expected hardware stuff,
but That's Life! (and I'm not talking about the Esther Rantzen programme
either!) Why doesn't anybody write letters for the letters page? Only me
and Steve wrote anything on disk 12 (as well as Mark's editorial) So c'mon,
get those WordPro's/Text Ed's/Devpac or whatever you type with out, and
write something. I always like reading stuff in the letters page and think
it's a good place to put all your thoughts and stuff on the disk and it's
contents. (I honestly haven't got a clue why I write all this every month,
but I just do, maybe I enjoy it?) Well at least everybody out there will
probably know me as more than just another name who sends source into the
disk!!!

    You'll be pleased to hear I've completed my menu program, and it works
almost perfectly! When assembled it produces a ridiculous 50K file, but
that's only because there's a large 2 Bpl, Hi-res pic in the code, just run
through any cruncher worth it's salt and you'll get it down to around 6K.
I am quite surprised that I managed to get the menu working properly as
when I first started on it, I hadn't got a clue how I was going to do some
of the parts, but as you can see I've managed rather well and the menu can
handle up to 39 programs AND can do proper argument passing, thanks to the
ARP library. I couldn't really see this being used for the ACC menu really
as it's not really been tested properly, and I don't feel it's at all
flexible enough (yet!), but that wasn't the idea when I started out, I just
wanted to get a menu done - but I do think we should seriously redesign the
entire disk so it's running off stuff produced by readers, Mark may have
started the ball rolling by dumping the ever used PPMore in favour of his
own program which I feel is quite good (and is a lot faster when doing full
screen scrolling than any other text viewer I've seen!), although I would
like to be able to page down with the space bar, and quit with the 'ESC' key
like you can do in PPMore! (Old habits die hard!) It would also be nice if
you were to add support for various on screen colours, ({ESC}[33m, etc.)

    The latest (completed?) version of my TextMaster is on this disk.
Thanks Mark, for fixing the bug last time as I didn't really have time to do
it myself before sending it off. However, I'd just like to mention that the 
way you put a "DC.B $0a" on a blank line when using prefix mode is not the
way I have done it -- Why? Well, many hardware programs cannot process
carriage returns in the way CLI output programs can, and only start a new
line after printing the correct number of spaces so that's what my version
does. As you can see I've put in a nice message handling system, and included
lots more checks for various overflow errors, etc. I have found one bug,
(about 3 weeks ago!) which I haven't corrected yet whereby when you do, for
example, a logo produced from a load of asterisks, it screws the output up
a bit. I haven't got a clue why, but I'll take a look at it and fix it
before I send it to you. Another advantage of using the OS for utils is
that you can use MonAm properly as you don't take control of the system,
which makes bugs a bit easier to find. (But it's not really easier to
debug!!!) I've also got a couple of additions to make to the program like a
"Don't Centre" option so you can type a scrolltext on a Text Editor,
process it, adding the "dc.b"'s and then insert it directly in your source.
In fact, I think I'll start work on that right now!

    Time passes.......

    Hi, I'm back! And the good news is that I've done the above mentioned
change without any problems whatsoever, and the hardest part was finding
the correct font to use as I have about a meg's worth of fonts (roughly
95!) on my HD and it's a real pain to go through them trying to find the
one I used last time, as you can see I must have goofed some other time as
the font used for the 'Process' gadget is slightly different, but I doubt
I'll ever correct that! Remember that bug I mentioned whereby certain lines
were longer than others, even though they shouldn't be? Well that turned
out to be the text editor I was using (I think!) and the problem has now
dissappeared! (Ahhh, if only all bugs would do that!!!) Right, what I really
want now are some suggestions for this program, I intend to develop it and
keep adding lots of new features, but I can't really do that without you, so
if you ever think of anything which may at all be suitable for inclusion in
the program then either write to me or Mark, but preferably me as I like
receiving mail and you may even get the 'feature' you requested back if you
send a disk! Now that's an offer you usually only get from shareware
programs, but even though I'd love people to start shoving fivers into
jiffy bags and then posting to me, I know that in the real world, nobody
does that unless you give them some real incentive to do so! (Which is why
this Licenseware lark is taking off, and I thoroughly agree with it, not
only because I may someday produce programs that could be distributed as
Licenseware, but because it means authors get something back immediately!)

    Mark: I'm surprised you could not mention the authors of the ARP library!
The library was started way back in '87 by Scott Ballantyne (SDB) and the
other main contributor is Charlie Heath (CDH).

    So what am I going to start coding now? Well I would like to do
something fairly big. I've considered maybe trying to help Steve Marshall
with some aspect of the programs he mentioned in ACC12, but I'm not sure if
my meagre twenty weeks of programming experience would be enough to do any
good! More than likely I would hinder him, so I'll have to think of something
else I can do. What do you mean anyway Steve, when you say you would like help
with the graphics area of the WordPro? Is it going to be something like the
ACC front end, but with loads of other functions and the facilty to import IFF
graphics into it? Well we shall expect the WordPro to be better than
Scribble Platinum because, as you say, you could write a better program
yourself.....

    That's all folks! See you next Month,

                                         Neil!