WELCOME TO

                        KIDS DISK - NUMBER ONE

       The contents of this disc are copyright © 1993 Duncan Moran.

           All programmes on this disc were written with AMOS.

 All "Kids Disk" discs must be supplied complete, unchanged & free of charge.


Kids Disks are available through the Public Domain network. However it can
take a couple of months for a disc to become widely circulated and advertised.
If you would like to receive yours directly please send £1 (more if overseas!)
to cover cost of disc/postage/packing etc. for each disc required. State which
disc number you want.  This will be posted to you as it becomes available.
£4.50 will get you the next 5 Kids Disks.  DO NOT send coins through the post.

    Duncan Moran, 24 First Avenue, Colwyn Bay, Clwyd, LL28 4DQ  U.K.



 1:

        I must firstly thank all those who took the trouble to write or phone
with comments on my previous efforts.  Most respondents observed that their
children enjoyed using my programmes; perhaps this is as much as one could
ask.  There seems to be a general consensus that software for children is
a) Too expensive and b) Not very good.  I am aware that my own efforts could
well fall into the latter category, but  I am happy to make them freely
available and thus avoid the first charge.

 2:

The Official Campaign Against White Sliced Software:

        I would like Kids Disks to become a forum for your ideas and comments
on software for children. The comments of children on the programmes they use
would be interesting. Has anyone ever learnt anything, other than how to use
a computer, by sitting at a computer running some educational software?
What is wrong with the twee and bland commercial stuff?

        I would liken most software to white sliced bread.  It may not be
doing you much harm but it certainly is not doing you any good.  I find the
crusty, burnt round the edges but baked to satisfy a hunger rather than to
fill a perceived marketing níche stuff much more enjoyable.  There is at
present some concern that children are becoming addicted to computer games.
Surely the worry should be that they are so easily satisfied and that we
could not find them anything more (or even remotely) exciting to do.

 3:

        The correspondence I have received thus far would often include a
plea for help with a problem (or two!) that needed to be sorted out in the
writers own programmes.  There is obviously a lot of interest in "Write Your
Own" software but after the short demonstration routines there are few
examples that let you see how a whole programme hangs together. To this end
I have started an art programme which will grow over coming issues of Kids
Disk into a lengthy example of most of the AMOS commands.  If you have a copy
of AMOS (it was on the cover disc of Amiga Format Jan.1993.) you can load¤ the
art programme and you may find some of it informative and helpful: or not!

¤Load your AMOS editor. Press the Right mouse button, select MERGE ASCII.
 Double click on "Prog.asc" in the file selector and wait for it to merge!


 4:

NTSC Users:

        International acclaim carries with it a certain responsibility....
OK so every manual I have ever read warns about the problems that can occur
between the NTSC & PAL modes. I shall try to heed these warnings in future.
This should be OK apart from Colour The Alphabet (but see the instructions).


 5:

Interesting Things Number 47:

        Sometimes ye olde 1.3 Amiga will boot up in NTSC mode so you cannot
see the bottom part of the screen.  If this happens with this disc try
selecting Colour The Alphabet and once the rainbow effects start you can
view the whole screen. When you leave the options part and the rainbows are
gone you are unable to see the bottom part again.  Really interesting eh!



 6:

               If you have anything you would like included -
     reviews, programmes, music, pictures, comments in general or ideas
    for future issues please send them to me and I'll see what I can do.
   Remember this is SOFTware - nothing is fixed everything can be changed!



                  Bye For Now   {;-)  March 1993