READERS' HINTS 




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    USEFUL BATCH FILE


Dear Ed:

    As a followup on my August 30 letter to Mr. Lang, I have another
  suggestion for renaming a list of files in a directory.  This makes use
  of the alias REN in my copy of WB1.3. [Ed: To see what your Aliases are,
  just type ALIAS in the Shell.]

    My example involved adding the extension .instr to a listing of
  instruments from Deluxe Music.  Cd to the directory containing the
  instruments and type REN #? %S.instr -- type dir and there is the list
  with the .instr extension added.  I wanted to do my work in RAM; so I
  did this:

>copy df1:instruments to rem:instruments
>cd rem:instruments
>REN #? %S.instr
>dir rem:instruments

    And there you are!

    If you wish to see what REN does,
>Type S/DPAT
    Pretty impressive!

    MD PRINTOUT

    I have created a useful batch file for those who would like to print
  out a listing of Megadisc programs without the clutter of the .info
  listings.  I put this in my Workbench S directory:

    First, Unprotect the WB disk, and type the following:

>Ed s/NoInfo.script
;Batch file to list programs without the .info extension

Copy df1:programs to rem:programs quiet
cd rem;programs
delete #?.info
list >prt:
cd rem:
delete programs all

    Now press the escape key and the x key to save the program to the S
  directory on the WB disk.  You can execute the program directly after
  typing the following:

>cd dfO:s
>protect noinfo.script +S

    Now to execute the program just type NoInfo.script in the Shell.

F.Dan Meadows
Los Altos,  Ca.


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    TERMINAL IDENTIFIERS

Re: BIX Logon

    [Ed: Last issue I put some info in MegaBites about logging on to BIX
  in the US, and wondered what a "terminal identifier" was, and it seems
  like it's not the person who finally checks you out in the morgue.]

    The Terminal Identifier is the means by which the Async software in
  the Tymnet node (whoops..British Telecom) determines the speed of the
  connection.  At the time it prompts for the terminal identifier, it
  knows that a call has come in - from the change in the modem signals,
  but it may be at 300, 1200, 2400 bps etc depending on the modem at the
  remote end.  Knowing that the incoming character is an 'a', the port
  examiners the received signal and decides that for this collection of
  voltage changes to be an ascii 'a' it must have been transmitted at 2400
  bps, or otherwise as the case may be.  It then uses this speed for the
  remainder of the session.

    The advantage of this from the networks' point of view is that ports
  with the same software configuration can be connected to any type of
  modem is not dependant on interpreting Hayes strings etc, of varying
  speed capabilities, accessed via only one telephone number (either PABX
  or Telecom reotary group).  When you're putting modes in places like
  Africa and India and worse, being flexible about what equipment you're
  connecting to is very handy.

    (If you were concentating during the first bit you may well ask how
  come you could read "Please type your terminal identifier" if it didn't
  know the speed at that time?  For that you need Lesson 2.)

Keith Gibbon


    Ed: Ok Keith, what about Lesson 2?



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    PAPER CHASE

    A quick addition to the A4 paper saga.

    If you're having problems with cut sheet paper on an auto sheet feeder
  using some wordprocesors or Desktop publishers etc.. such as a sheet
  being ejected 9/10 of the page down and the rest printed on the next
  sheet: select single sheet from the printing window
	 Click on printing.
	 When it finishes a page a formfeed will be sent to the printer
  instead of a few linefeeds. This will eject the page.
	 Your program will then ask you to insert another sheet. Just
  click on ok.  It will do this every time a new page is needed.

    My printer is now 5 years old, so the cut sheet feeder technology is
  fairly basic. If users with newer printers have their paper size
  selected right they shouldn't have any problems.  Or so I'm told (by a
  new printer owner no less!).


Randal Reynoldson
Braidwood
NSW 2622



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    SOZOBON C PD COMPILER


    Dear Ed:

    You may remember that I was hoping to find a satisfactory PD C
  compiler. I did as you suggested and spoke to Robert Lang but, like all
  other C programmers I know, he uses Lattice. A short note in Amiga
  Computing magazine said that the Sozobon compiler was very good and this
  prompted me to search through your catalogue where I found that, on Fish
  314, there is a compiler Zc which is a transport of Sozobon from Atari
  to Amiga.

    To my amazement, this turns out to be a gem. It has all those
  features claimed by Lattice (including source level debugging) and the
  only bugs I've found are insignificant. The only extras required are an
  editor (QED) and the Commodore includes. Naturally I cannot claim Zc is
  the equal of Lattice, but I for one am not prepared to pay another $400
  for the additional features it may have. In my estimation it is the
  best productivity program in PD. I am using the Abacus books which are
  suitable as manuals for Zc.


Yours faithfully

George Knight
Berkeley Vale NSW


    Ed: George has set up a disk with all that's needed for a good C
  environment - check the PD_UPDATE drawer for more info.



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    PAINT HINTS


      Hello Ed.:


    1) A tragedy narrowly averted; Herewith some 'Root of all Evil', to
  continue sub to MD (6 issues).

    2) A cupla things I found along the way of constant experimentation
  that may be useful to others, (and for which disks are not sought, as MD
  has been a major learning tool for me, so am pleased to be able to give
  something in return). you dig!!

      So: THING No. (1)

  DIGIPAINT III TxMap MODE: How to use it in more than only brushes:

    TXmap & Warping stuff, according to the manual, is supposedly only
  available when in brush mode, - Not so! ...TRY THIS...

    Put a color over the screen, and a few splashes of other color over
  each other.

    You can't select Tx from the menu as it is ghosted..BUT..  YOU CAN
  SELECT IT WITH key 7.

    So after your last brushstroke, get the tools window up that has the
  Warping stuff (F1 once or twice); hit key 7 and VOILA!  ALL the WARP
  stuff becomes selectable; dive in and make some settings; hit AGAIN or
  (F5) and have a few descriptive expletives at tongue readiness, as wot
  you will see, oft is substantially totally mindblowing, and I mean
  Totally!)  UNEXPECTED VISUALS are what we're talking about here.

      and: THING No. (2)

    TO READ/PRINTOUT MD DOC FILES WITH Mike Hansells' (Tup) DUTILS:

    Being a prolific user of Dutils (Yeah, I paid my $$ to Tup!) Along
  the way this is what I discovered.

    In the FLUFF file used by DUTILS (in the C dir) SELECT MOST as your
  EDITOR (LINE 4).

    Now, let's say you are using DUTILS to see what wondrous goodies are
  on the latest (found in the letterbox) MEGADISC, and you spot something
  interesting (of course you'll spot a HEAP of interesting things, but
  until us humans are made with more than one pair of eyes, we gotta be
  content with reading only one file at a time *!?@). So we decide to
  read the docs on an offering from the Programs dir.

    TRY THIS: Klik ONCE on the file to read: Then Klik ONCE on EDIT:

    The file will be displayed by MOST, and all of the MOST menu features
  are selectable.

    So if you wanna print the file, it's gotta be the most easiest thing
  to do, to just zip over to the menu with your digit holding the rat
  button( ); settle your pointer on PRINT Page or File, Lift digit, and
  sit back.

    IF NOTHING HAPPENS: in your eagerness to try this, you'll find the
  solution is that printers need to be switched on to operate.  _ _ _ For
  New Amiga Recruits:

    * I've included a Config'd FLUFF file to copy - if Tim wants to make
  it Tooooo easy, else he might want you to think a little bit, and
  figure it out yourself.  It wasn't that long ago that I also was a NAR
  and how little I knew and still don't know is reinforced virtually every
  day, with each new discovery, but there's very few alternatives, as far
  as I'm concerned that come close to being almost total entertainment.
  (But replace women they cannot.......) Well,,, after all.???

			That's it....till another time....

    Eddie Stevens
    Waverley, NSW

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AMOS BUG FIX


    In the last issue of Megadisc (23), I wrote about a bug in AMOS which
  affects the use of the INPUT statement. If you apply the AMOS v1.23
  update available on UT223 (APD36) this problem will be resolved.

John Knight
Boronia, VIC.




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POWERMONGER CHEATS


   Dear Ed:

    Thank you for the Megadisc catalogue, I am going through it in fits
  and starts and making a list of disks I need. I must admit that most of
  my spare time has been taken up by that hair wrenching and frustrating
  pastime of POWER MONGERING. Great game for insomniacs, but for those
  of us needing our beauty sleep it can cause a few problems. Anyway I
  have jotted down a few tips for your readers and they may be of some
  assistance.

    If you have been playing a particular map for some time, and are
  running desperately short of food. Try looking at the edges of the map
  for wandering sheep. They tend to congregate there after their
  villagers let them go free when enlisting or being killed.  You can
  often find enemy leaders standing alone somewhere on the map. By
  becoming aggressive and killing them, they will leave behind a nice bag
  of tucker. WARNING..If the leader is in a village or town, kill him,
  grab the food, become passive and get the hell out it, before his army
  comes looking for you.  If you come across two rival armies fighting,
  stay passive and sit on the sidelines. If the invading army loses, you
  will find another bag of food waiting. Also, don't forget you can pinch
  sheep from a village that isn't yours, by again being passive and
  killing them. But be carefull you don't click on them just as a
  shepherd starts herding them. or he will take it as sign of aggression
  and start a fight you can't win. If you try this you will find it
  easier to zoom right in on the sheep if they are close to the village
  border. Otherwise, if you click too close to the village the
  inhabitants may again think you want to fight them.

    Here is a cheat I discovered by accident. If you are defeated on any
  country. For your next go, click on random land and play it instead of
  continue conquest. when you win it [random lands are usually easier to
  beat] you will find a dagger over the ori ginal country you lost.
  Follow this with Continue Conquest to get to the next country on the
  map.

    One more tip....Don't forget to save to disk when you knock off for
  the night.  There's nothing worse than having to go back and defeat
  lands you have already won at the next sitting.

    GOOD LUCK fellow Power Mongerers, I can't wait for the new data disks.


Stuart Bazley
Narrabri..N.S.W. 2390.



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SPREADSHEETS AND FLIGHT PLANS

    Ed: Chris is a pilot who has sent in a flight plan worksheet for a
  couple of Amiga spreadsheets and comments on the process below. If
  you're interested in his worksheet get in touch through us.


    Dear Ed:

    A few notes about the SuperPlan conversion of FlightPlan from VIP.

    SuperPlan does not support the '/XM' or '/XN' macro functions (amongst
  others), hence the on-screen data entry and retrieval lines, and
  flashings, etc., while some functions are being carried out.  These will
  hopefully be corrected in a later version.

    On the plus side, there are more lines available on the screen (than
  VIP), and if you wish some data may be easily and quickly entered
  wherever you wish in the plan by moving the cursor to the required cell
  with the mouse.  Obvious uses for this facility are to enter place names
  before printing (eg for lat/long waypoint entry), starting fuel (instead
  of using the menu facility), or changing details such as altitude and
  wind after completing a plan.

    Note that calculation has been left as 'Manual' rather than with each
  data entry, although recalculation will be carried out with each macro
  entry so there is no difference in 'normal' use.  This speeds up
  response of the programme, particularly if data is entered using mouse
  control of the cursor; if data is entered using 'mouse control', just
  add a click on the '!' button when ready for calculation to occur.

    At this stage, don't expect any more updates of FlightPlan in
  VIP/Lotus format; SuperPlan has just too many advantages.  Saving as a
  Lotus file from SuperPlan may provide a partial answer, although macros
  would still need to be converted.


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AN A3000 STARTUP-SEQUENCE (Chris Hussey's)


c:setpatch >NIL:
c:version >NIL:
Failat 21
resident >NIL: c:Copy pure add ; Note that ARP 'copy' won't work
resident >NIL: c:Assign pure add ;'assign' used frequently later
makedir ram:t ram:clipboards
copy >NIL: ENVARC: ram:env all quiet noreq
assign ENV: ram:env ;required to read preferences settings
assign T: ram:t ;'T' used by several applications
assign CLIPS: ram:clipboards
assign wp: dh0:wordproc
assign print: dh0:wordproc
assign deluxepaintiii: dh0:
assign pdr: dh0:
assign superplan: dh0:
assign spx: dh0:
sys:System/AddMonitor NUM=3 NAME=multiscan.monitor; rather than
	;'executing' the equivalent script
iprefs
setenv Workbench $Workbench
setenv Kickstart $Kickstart
mount rrd: ; a RAD: modified with dynamic sizing
path ram: c: sys:utilities sys:system s: sys:prefs sys:wbstartup sys:tools add
conclip
rexxmast >NIL:
LoadWB
wait 3 ; required by 'addmenu'
addmenu -t ; adds items to 'Tools' Workbench menu (Nic Wilson's)
endcli >NIL:


; Programmes started via the 'WbStartup' drawer include
; SetMap (required to custom-coordinate screen display and printer)
; fBlanker
; MouseBlanker (modified to move hot-key to other than Shift-F1)
; NewShellCX
; NoClick (another Nic Wilson quality product)



Chris Hussey
Perth WA


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ASSEMBLY PROGRAMMING HINT

    *** instructiontimetest ***

    From Amazing Computing v6 no. 3 March 91 page 79

    From an article called Writing Faster Assembly Language by Martin F.
  Combs:

    For timing individual instructions, just insert the instruction into
  the position marked, assemble the program, run it and the time the
  instruction took is printed to the screen. The instruction is repeated
  several times in a couple of loops in such a way that the faster
  instructions such as move.l d0,d1 always score around 100 enabling you
  to have something to compare it with.

    I've only started to learn to program in assembly and I have found
  this helpful to compare instructions such as adda.w #1,a4 and tst.b
  (a4)+ for incrementing address registers by one.  Every one tells me
  addq #0,d0 is faster than clr d0 try them and see for your self.

    And if you can, get hold of the above-mentioned magazine and read the
  article. It is articles like that that are helping me find my way with
  assembly.

Brian Scott.
Perth WA

    Ed: See Brian's program ICD in the PROGRAMS drawer this issue.



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 ****** INSTRUCTION FOR RUNNING Abasic OVER AN IFF PICTURE ******

    Dear Ed:
  This is in reply to Gwyn Morfey, Perth, WA, requesting about using an
  IFF picture as a background for Amiga Basic.  Like you said you have to
  work at it to make it happen but it gives Amiga Basic more scope.



    1. Make a disc with Abasic,BMAPS,LOAD ILBM_SAVE ACBM and LOAD
  ACBM, from the BasicDemos draw on EXTRAS 1.3 disc. Also the IFF picture
  file you wish to use as your background.

    2. OPEN the program LOAD ILBM_SAVE ACBM enter full pathname (name of
  disc:name of IFF file) at prompts. This prepares the IFF file for
  loading this only has to be done once then the LOAD ACBM which becomes
  part of your program does it,make sure you have another copy of the IFF
  picture as D/Paint will not load in this form, in case you need to make
  changes. This converts your IFF picture.

    3. OPEN the program LOAD ACBM and LIST,then change the following.
  LIST Main..delete the PRINT statements (12) down to GetNames.  At
  GetNames.. delete INPUT statement replace with..  ABCMname$="full path
  name".(Name of disc:name of IFF file) LIST Mcleanup..one line above
  insert your first line lable of your program (such as progHere: so you
  can find it later) LIST ChunkLoop..find WINDOW statement change title if
  required and to refresh after other windows. Change to WINDOW 2,"Your
  Title",,16,2 the 16 being the change.

    I have enclosed a demo disc of this system.  It contains all the files
  needed.  Demo..to show it working Tester..the LOAD ACBM ready for use
  just LIST ProgHere and put your program in,after you put your IFF
  picture throu LOAD ILBM_SAVE ACBM.  palNo..a utility to get the colour
  numbers of the picture.  (I also have one that gets the palette
  data,somewhere) I hope this is of use,for me it renewed my interest in
  Abasic..


A.J.Layland
Wellington  2820
NSW



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