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EDITORIAL by THE EDITOR (Who else???)
Well, let me get straight down to the news of the month, which
for those of you who have not heard, is that SAMCO have gone
into receivership. There are probably some more of the whys and
hows in the NEWS section, (I haven't looked yet), so I won't go
into all that here. What I would say is that the Sam Coupe is
NOT dead.
The Supplement has made enquiries and has found that we can
still get spares and repairs easily, and more importantly for
the foreseeable future. The Supplement has no intention of
dropping the machine, and speaking to the people at Outlet and
Fred Magazine they feel the same.
As far as I can tell there will still be software written for
the machine, and after talking to people at the All Formats Show
the other Sunday, I think that the popularity will still remain
high.
There is of course a down side to this news. The most worrying
of which is those people who have recently sent money or Sams to
Samco. I have made enquiries on your behalf and have found out
that the company handling the liquidation is:
STONES & JONES
63 WALTER RD,
SWANSEA SA1 4PT
Tel 0792 654607
I have contacted them and they tell me that they will deal will
any enquiries from creditors of Samco.
If you have any other Sam related problems, please let us know,
and we will do our best to find the solutions.
Right, now onto other matters...
I have been informed that there is a problem with the index code
in issue 22. This can cause you to lose chunks of the Supplement
index, if you are not careful.
I apologise for this hiccup, and I can only put it down to a
small index system not being able to cope with the ever growing
mag issues. There is no index in this issue, as I want to try
and rewrite the main program to be a little more reliable.
Hopefully I shall have a new index by next issue.
I would also like to whet your appetite by telling you about a
forthcoming program in the mag. Dave Hall has spent weeks
revamping our very own Samscratch, and the final result is
MASTERSCRATCH, which as you can probably gather, is a
Masterbasic/Masterdos version of the program. I have seen the
nearly finished version, and he has done a great job in adding
loads of extras which use the extra speed and commands of
Masterdos.
Hopefully this will appear in the next issue, if all goes to
plan.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Pottery,
24, Buxton Old Road,
Disley,
STOCKPORT,
Cheshire,
SK12 2BB.
Sam System:
512k SAM Coupe with ROM v3.0
Single internal 3.5" drive
Single external 3.5" drive
Single external 5.25" drive (homebrew)
Mouse
Star LC10 printer
MasterDOS v1.7
MasterBASIC
Dear Brian and Dave,
I'm sorry that I haven't written for a
couple of months, but my A-Levels took ALL of my time (every
waking hour! Sniff); I've still got another exam to go, but
that's on Friday (Biology Special Level!), this is Tuesday.
Yesterday, I received a copy of SAM
Supplement 21 which I hadn't ordered; I enclose an extra disc
for this, along with 50p extra- so don't send it back!
In response to your letter concerning
contributions, I am preparing a few things. I'll tell you about
these below. I shall send these in the next couple of months.
1. A "correlation co-efficient calculator"; those who are going
on Biology Field Trips, or who do A-Level Maths & Stats will
find this useful; I've got all of the programming and
mathematics worked out, I'm just making it a bit more
user-friendly, and making the programming more elegant for those
among your readers who like to dissect programmes.
2. Connecting up a cheap external disc drive. If you've read my
system details above, you may have noticed that I have an
external 5.25" drive. This used to be an internal TEAC drive on
an IBM PC, but it was sold to me as reconditioned surplus. I'll
send you wiring details, DOS modifications (there are only a
couple of DVAR pokes), and power-supply construction
instructions when I've refined the system; at the moment, it's
running on penlight batteries!
3. A touchscreen. This sounds ambitious, but it's really quite
straightforward. I've just got to track down a certain
Integrated circuit (an LM555 timer. Has anyone got a spare,
undamaged one I could buy, or where can I get one? Maplin and
Tandy don't stock them (so far as I can see). Or is there a
suitable replacement?). But please don't hold your breath; it
has got to be finished by 4th October (when I shall, hopefully,
go to University), or else I won't be able to finish it. After
I've sent you 1 and 2, I'll start work on this.
I didn't realise that you were going to use my letter in
issue 20! It was a nice surprise to see my name in "print". On
the subject of English Grammar (capital letters are used, since
it is a formal subject at my school, Stockport Grammar), Mr
Peter Bell is absolutely correct in the eternal "me and I"
debate. It gets on my nerves a bit when people misuse it.
"Peter and I are correct in this..." CORRECT
"Here is the news from Laurie and me..." CORRECT
"This is just between you and me..." CORRECT
Any English "teacher" who refutes this doesn't know what
they are talking about. All English Grammar textbooks back us up
on this.
I feel that I must apologise to Duncan Monro, the co-ordinator,
creator and all-round super-being of the SAM Dictionary Project;
I was interested in helping with the project, but, even six
months ago, I was revising for exams (my school believes in the
"Work hard, fight easy" ethic!), and so I had to give it a miss,
hoping that I could help out when my exams were over. However,
it seems that the project has finished without me. The SAM needs
more people like Mr Munro, with the get-up-and-go to go ahead
and do things which need doing. If we all sit around on our bums
all day, and wait for SAMCo to do it all, then we might as well
all buy that new Amiga 600 (spit!), and throw our SAMs away,
because without us all doing something, the SAM will die. A
micro in the early days of its life relies upon the users far
more than large companies. Companies like Ocean are too big to
notice the SAM. But they will, once the users make the SAM a
desirable computer to have. SAMCo are doing their bit; they've
stripped the SAM of extra memory and the drive, and are touting
the SAM at the games market (although this worries me; see
later), to try to boost sales. They are also trying to develop
peripherals but we've got to do our bit. The very fact that you
had to send us the letter asking for contributions screams out
that we are all being far too lazy; expecting something for
nothing. If people can't write the SAM conversion of Robocop 10,
or wire-up a 420 MB harddrive, then they should all do something
everybody can; write around. Write to you, even if just to say,
"Hey! I'm alive! I've got a SAM! I think it's the best thing
since the pocket calculator! Oh! and by the way! I love what
you're doing!"; doing this will inject the electricity and
enthusiasm we all felt when the Speccy 16K was first released.
And if you can program Robocop for the SAM, SAM's parents in
Swansea would love to hear from you.
I said that SAMCo's current strategy worries me. I'm also
going to write to Alan Miles about what I'm going to say here.
If SAMCo are selling a bare-down strip-naked SAM Coupe, renamed
the Gamestar and bundled with a few SPECTRUM games and an
emulator, then they are walking the tightrope with an anvil tied
to their ankle. And there ain't no safety net (double
negative... blast!). Why? Well, at £99.99, they aren't going to
be making a profit. I bought a basic SAM Coupe from MGT for
around two hundred pounds (or was it £150; it was 3 years ago!).
Now, DRAM chips have decreased in price, sure, but not so much
that SAMCo can still make a profit by slashing £100 pounds off
the price and bundling with a few extras. That is my main reason
for concern; none of us want a repeat of May/June 1990 (two
years this month!).
Another reason for concern is this: the SAM needs a disc
drive as standard. This is what crippled the Spectrum in the mid
1980's. There were far too many disc interface standards, too
many different storage devices. I know! I bought most of them!
The wafadrive, the microdrive, the Kwickspeed tapedrive, the
swiftdisc, the Plus 3, and the plus D to name most. While this
may seem irrelevant, it meant that the only really popular
storage device was tape. The people who buy the SAM Gamestar
will, eventually buy a disc drive, but there will always be some
who still use tape, and so, the software companies will have to
produce two formats; tape and disc. If they only produce disc,
the tape version of SAM will be unpopular. If they only produce
tape, which is unreliable and slow, as well as being
ridiculously easy to copy, then the disc users won't buy the
game, because waiting half the evening for a game to load into
256K is silly when the speed and power of a disc drive is
sitting there in front of you. We can see this in the Amstrad
and Spectrum markets. All machines (except the 6128 plus, which
can be modified anyway) load tape. About a third of Amstrads and
a tenth of Spectrums load discs. It is entirely to be expected
when WHSmiths says "we are no longer going to stock Spectrum or
Amstrad discs".
Having said this, the Gamestar will probably turn the SAM
market around, with the users eventually upgrading. And anyway,
I can't come up with any better suggestions for giving the SAM a
boost.
However, I must say that I totally and utterly
disagree with Mr Jeff's views about payment for contributions.
This, I feel, defeats the whole idea behind SAM Supplement. I
also find his insulting attitude towards you both completely
abhorrent. By calling Brian "flamboyant and childish" was
completely unnecessary, and without basis in fact. It is for
this reason that I call upon Mr Jeffs to apologise to you both.
The matter of recompense for his discs could have been solved
without insulting either of you. He also accused you of
"stealing" his discs. I quote the Oxford English Dictionary as a
guide to the actual meaning of the word...
"STEAL v. take DISHONESTLY and esp. SECRETLY what is
another's." (my capitals)
Since the work was, presumably, unsolicited, I do not
regard the non-return of the discs as a crime, since, from his
letter, he neither requested the return of his discs nor
provided an SAE for their return. If he had done both of these,
THEN he could "expect" (his choice of word) his discs to be
returned. Discs can be picked up for as little as 30 pence each,
which isn't very much, even to me (a student having to support
four A-Levels, an S-Level, and two computers). Mr Jeffs is
probably one of these people who enjoy making mountains out of
molehills. Kev hit the matter right on the nose in issue 21.
On another matter, I would like to register my willingness to
write reviews on products for Supplement, as well as
"space-fillers" (opinion, etc), or everyday technical help, etc.
Right, I've had my witter. As I said, I'll send you the stuff
as and when I've refined it. Thanks for Supplement; your cover
pictures are extremely good, and well appreciated (I loved the
chipmonk in issue 21).
Yours faithfully,
WILLIAM EASSON,
Member Number 89
PS. Smile! It makes people wonder whether you're sane!
EDs NOTE...
I look forward with anticipation to your contributions
for the Supplement. Especially the disc conversion, which I am
sure will be of great use to members who, like yourself, have
had many disc systems for the Speccy, and may have an odd drive
lying around doing nothing.
I also thank you for all your comments on both the Sam and the
Supplement and can agree with most of what you said. This is why
a fellow member and myself are churning out cheap software for
the Sam. It may not be up to Ocean's standard, but it's playable
and we are releasing a new one every few weeks. We think that it
may just fill a gap in the market, whilst the "proper" software
gets going, (althought I think that for a 3 year old machine,
the rate of software release is still very slow).
Dave
P.S. Whether I smile or not, people still wonder if I'm sane!!
----------------------------------------------------------------
11th July 1992 53 Mill Lane
Carshalton
Surrey SM5 2JS
081 669 9663
Dear Dave,
Please find on this disc a printer set-up program that I wrote
for the Spectrum/Discovery which you may find interesting or
useful. It seems to work fine on the Sam with virtually no
alteration.
The Sam Supplement remains as usual, excellent. So much effort
going into it from all the contributors, and of course the
editor himself! I especially like the musical contributions.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Wood.
ED's Note...
Thanks for the routine Peter, it's included on this
disc. I've taken the liberty of adding a couple of options at
the end to let you return to the mag, or delete the BASIC to use
the codes with another program.
----------------------------------------------------------------
.
Peter D Bell, 5 Mill Hill Close, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex,
BN43 5TP.
Dear Dave, Jean, Brian & all Members,
Thankyou all for the "Get well" card, which came out of the blue
but was very welcome, as I was a bit down at the time. How you
all knew about me being ill, I can't imagine, but I can rely
only on the wording on the card. During one of the earlier wars
this century, I was away off West Africa, fighting for King and
country, and not making a very good job of it, as I lost my
ship. Please don't tell the Admiralty, or I may get a belated
bill.
Eventually I was landed at Lagos, and within a short time was in
hospital, suffering from malaria. The mosquitoes must have been
lined up, waiting for me. To cheer up anyone going out that way,
if you can hear a mozzie, don't be fright, as it will be a male,
and capable of delivering just a painful bite. Malaria is
carried only by the female of the species, and it is silent in
flight.
With my usual luck, I caught the recurring type, and so, over
the years, I have been laid low for short periods with repeat
bouts. Not having had one for about ten years, I thought I was
clear, but this time I had a sharp reminder that lasted twelve
days, a right boil-in-the-bag one, that lost me a stone in
weight. Not recommemded as a quick diet.
During the convalescent period, I was able to have a think, and
I reconsidered my idea of a connector to allow me to plug in my
one meg memory and external drive/printer interface at the same
time, without going to the expense of a SAMbus. This I had hoped
to be able to do with one male and two female Euroconnectors of
the IDC variety, but the former are not available, at least, not
to the general public. I had also been advised that I would need
a "gender bender" to join them. The total cost of these parts
would defeat the original aim, so I shelved the idea. Logic
tells me that this sex swap gadget is not needed. I will
explain, and if anyone can see where I am wrong, queue up at the
above address to let me know.
Obtain one standard male and two standard female Euroconnectors,
which have 32 pins in each row. With power off, plug the male
into the back of SAM. Plug one of the females into an interface
and place it as if to plug it into SAM. Now, if you joined 1A to
1A, by soldering a short wire between them, and repeated along
to 32A, then did the same from 1C to 32C, you should now be able
to power up and use the interface as if it was plugged straight
into SAM.
Plug your remaining female into your second interface and lay
it on top of the first. Power off. Now join 1A to the 1A below
by soldering a short length of insulated wire between them.
Complete row A and C as before. Power up, and now you should be
able to run both interfaces at the same time, - or am I wrong?
I realise that in practice it would be easier to do the
soldering with the parts separated and it would be fiddly, as
there are 256 joints to be made, and the wires would need to be
short, but you are allowed to swear, and think yourself lucky
that you don't have to do the B rows.
Just had a thought, and raked out from my junk box a piece of
translucent milky plastic, punched with standard spaced holes
like Veroboard. The holes are tapered, so that they grip the
pins of components pushed into them, and this piece has 19 by 38
holes. It was given with an electronics magazine for "dry-wired"
projects.
If the female connectors are pushed into rows 1 to 3, and 17 to
19, they are just the right distance apart to plug into the two
interfaces on top of one another. If placed centrally, there is
the right amount of room at each end to drill bolt holes to
attach the connectors permanently. Take an old piece of printer
cable and peel the wires apart, cut into 64 x 5" (12.5mm)
lengths, and the job is almost finished. My hands are getting
too shaky to do fiddly soldering. Anyone fancy finishing the job
for me?
Now for an apology to Duncan Munro. When I sent my disks with my
allotted section of the dictionary, I never sent the return
postage for the same reason that has been mentioned before.
Disks are so cheap now that if the odd one isn't returned, it's
no great loss. One will come in from somewhere else.
Guess who was the one with the Chambers Dictionary? Well, I
would have, wouldn't I?
I received the programme from Duncan and which section I should
copy. So I started, and being a one and sometimes two fingered
typist, it took me quite a while. One night I stayed up late and
put away about 1500 words. The next day, on loading up, half
were missing. I couldn't believe it as I am usually careful and
save my work every twenty minutes. I pressed on and put away
even more this time. Next day, back where I started the day
before. I broke into the programme, but couldn't see what was
wrong. Duncan's name was mud.
That day I received an apologetic letter from Duncan, explaining
how to overcome the problem, so I was able to finish the job,
and send off the two disks I'd filled. I reckon I typed in 6000
words, allowing for losses, to get the "B" section completed,
and now someone has to vet it and erase the words not contained
in whatever standard dictionary has been used. Hopefully, when
the whole lot has been finalised, I will get a copy of it.
The last copy of SAMSUP was unusual in that it didn't fill the
disk, and I hear Dave the Ed is after more to fill the next one.
Perhaps this rambling will do, and if the centre section is not
illogical, it may help someone. Having recovered from one upset,
I am now suffering from logorrhoea, so I'll pack up.
Regards, Member No: 12
----------------------------------------------------------------
.
From:
Jack Gibbons
3 Suffolk Drive
Guildford Surrey, GU4 7FD
Dear Dave,
Well you asked for it! Let's have some letters you said ...
As they all say, I've been meaning to write and support the SAM
Supplement Team but there are always a million other things to
do at the same time. Who said I should be better organised?
Well I have just finished the new Personal Filing System and
copies have gone out for Beta testing. I am sure that people in
general do not realise the amount of effort that goes into
writing a program. And when you have nearly finished it, there
is still about six months' work to do, or so it seems!
For the benefit of those new, or nearly new to computing, I
thought that I would describe how I struggled to get to grips
with this technological world of computers. In fact, one finds
that there is so much to learn that you are always learning more
and more (there is no shame in the professional world for not
knowing about a particular aspect - there is usually someone
else you can ask, and they usually take delight in telling you).
So the secret is, if you don't know, ask.
In the summer of 1980 I was attracted by this advertisement in
one of the 'dailies' for a home computer costing less than £100
that was so powerful that it could run a power station. Well, I
didn't have a power station handy but I was suitably impressed -
particularly as you had 14 days to get your money back if
dissatisfied. So I thought that I could try and see if I was
clever enough to be able to drive the thing, without risking a
100 notes (it was worth a lot more then!).
So I sent off my order and learnt my first lesson - the
initials of Science of Cambridge really stands for Silence Over
Cambridge - orders for computers and add-ons have to travel via
a devious route (via Alpha Centauri so it seems). When the
technological miracle arrived in it's very small box, I thought
it looked much larger in the advert and perhaps they had just
sent the instruction book. After I hastily unpacked I found both
manual and ZX80. (a brief note here - a ZX80 is one of the
forerunners of the Spectrum which is also from the brain of Sir
Clive Sinclair).
Not to be put off by size as they say, I quickly powered up my
new acquisition and started pressing a few keys to see what it
does. I say 'keys' although I meant that I pressed pictures of
keys on the circuit board. Having burnt the midnight oil for two
weeks and managed to type in example programs and make them run,
if not understand them, I was convinced that I was making
headway and the beast was to stay.
The next stage of the waiting game arrived with release of the
famous 16K RAM pack. Oh, didn't I mention that the ZX80 came
with a full 1K of RAM. Skilful programmers learnt how to put a
quart into a pint pot, others waited and waited for the RAM pack
to arrive (S.O.C.). I say famous RAM pack because it was
renowned for wobbling around the back of the ZX80 and now and
then forgetting everything it was supposed to be storing - much
to everyone's frustration (I believe Blu-Tack was invented at
this time!).
I still found that I was not learning how to program - I needed
an application that needed computerisation. I had just finished
agreeing my hand-written cashbook with my Bank statement, having
made many alterations to the balances (because I always make
mistakes with arithmetic, although I somehow managed to pass my
GCE). And then EUREKA ! I will write a Bank Account program to
do the job for me. Bank Account programs were very rare at the
time (in fact all programs for the ZX80 were rare).
After much struggling I came up with my first attempt and here
it is:
10 LET B=100
20 GO SUB 1000
30 PRINT ,,,B
40 INPUT I
50 IF I=1 THEN GO TO 100
60 IF I=2 THEN GO TO 200
100 INPUT A$
110 INPUT D
120 PRINT A$,D,,B-D
130 LET B=B-D
140 GO TO 40
200 INPUT B$
210 INPUT C
220 PRINT B$,,C,B+C
230 LET B=B+C
240 GO TO 40
1000 PRINT " ** BANK ACCOUNT **"
1010 PRINT
1020 PRINT "ENTER 1 FOR DEBIT"
1030 PRINT " OR 2 FOR CREDIT"
1040 PRINT
1050 PRINT "DETAILS DEBIT CREDIT BALANCE"
1060 RETURN
9000 REM BANK ACCOUNT
9010 REM
9020 REM ZX80 VERSION
9030 REM © J P GIBBONS SEPT 1980
By the time that the 16K RAM pack had arrived I had progressed
a bit further and BASIC was beginning to make sense. After I had
filled up the RAM pack with my program I thought I would send
out a few copies to try and get it published. I tried the
computer groups and also a few software companies (there were
only a few then anyway). Eventually, by March 1981 I had a call
from Syntax Software in Essex who were very interested. Remember
S.O.C. ? Well it seems that the silence extended to Essex also.
Then the big announcement came from Sinclair - change of name
to Sinclair Research and the release of a new computer, the
ZX81. Obviously, incompatible with the ZX80, but you could still
buy the floating point ROM and upgrade the ZX80.
This meant that my 13K program had to be converted and entered
into the ZX81. But then the ZX81 had a constantly updated screen
- oh, didn't I mention that when you pressed a key on the ZX80
the screen went off while the computer thought about what key
you had pressed?
A few more months of burning the midnight oil with the ZX81
program. Syntax Software broke their silence and placed an
advert in Your Computer magazine issue 2 or 3. Someone called
Mike Johnston phoned and said he was arranging a ZX Microfair in
Westminster, would I like to book half a table there? Yes, I
said - why not! Having painstakingly made up 10 copies of the
PBS (as it became known) which seemed to take all night, I
arrived at the first ZX Microfair in September 1981.
Sinclair Research had the opposite tables to my half and were
demonstrating the all new ZX printer. I managed to be first in
borrowing it to demonstrate its usefulness and promptly listed
the PBS program (up till now one had to keep hand written copies
of programs and lots of bottles of Tippex - are we allowed to
advertise here Ed?).
The show was an unbelievable success - I sold all ten copies
and came away with the feeling that perhaps my learning program
was worthwhile after all. Up until then I didn't seriously
believe that anyone would want to buy my efforts.
Needless to say my thirst for learning gathered momentum from
then on and I have felt confident in furthering my knowledge of
computers and languages.
The moral of this script is, of course, that you can start to
learn about computers and programing (you don't HAVE to learn
both) from simple beginnings and you are unlikely to ever know
everything (although some people think they do). You are not
expected, even as a professional, to be an expert in everything.
If you do not understand anything then do not hesitate to ask
for advice. Those who can answer your queries usually enjoy
doing so. I doesn't matter what age or sex you are (nor which
computer you have for that matter). As you get older it takes
longer to understand the technology, but you can accomplish it
just the same.
PS The asterisks in the Bank Account program are the only bits
of code to have been carried over to the latest versions of PBS
so readers are quite free to market the enclosed program, as
long as they include an acknowledgement of all the hard work I
have done in writing it!
----------------------------------------------------------------
Mr David Tonks, Palfreys,
The Editor, 51, Orchard Road,
Sam Supplement, Seer Green,
37, Parker Street, Beaconsfield,
Bloxwich, Bucks.
Walsall, HP9 2XH.
West Midlands.
WS3 2LE. 8th July 1992
Dear Dave.
Thanks for yet another packed issue of the
supplement.
Reading through the letter section in issue 22 I
noted the comments M.A. Telling made on the Philips CM8833-11
monitor. This I believe is a very good monitor however I should
point out that if anyone sees the earlier CM8833-00 either new
or secondhand this is ideal for SAM and can use the standard
SCART to SCART cable. The stereo sound amplifier in the monitor
has a filter network that removed most of the SAM buzz.
Coming back to the SAM buzz, any of you who receive
the SAMCO Newsdisk may have read my article on a modification to
the Power Supply Unit to remove the modulator and place it in a
separate box. For anyone who has not seen the article it is
enclosed on this disk. Feel free to publish it if you like. What
SAMCO does not mention is that I can supply kits of parts with
full instructions, all holes pre drilled and some soldering done
for £9.99 + £l.50 p+p.
(Article is in this issue's TIPS section ED..)
SAMCO have one of these modified PSU's as does Colin
Mac.Donald of FRED. The buzz is NOT totally removed but when
using a TV set a reduction of about 50% can be obtained. If you
use a monitor you plug the PSU directly into SAM without the
modulator connected at all, this will reduce the reduced buzz by
a further 50% or so. This means that you can realisticly use SAM
with the sound turned up for wordprocessing etc.
If the Supplement would like to have one of the
modified PSU's for testing and for others to try, just send me a
standard SAM PSU and I will modify it for you. Please make sure
that it works first (SAMCO supplied me with a dud).
Also I am working on a MK2 version which plugs
straight into the SCART connector on SAM. This will also have a
stereo amplifier in it that will cut off the audio to the
modulator when connected to a headset or speakers.
Also on this disk is a much modified version of the
CASHFILE programme that you published a year or so ago. You can
change a record and the subsequent balance will be recalculated,
it also includes some printer control codes.
(Due to lack of disc space, the CASHFILE program will be in a
future issue, ED...)
Regards J.J. Flood
----------------------------------------------------------------
55, Holt Park Road,
Adel, Leeds.
LS16 7QS
10/7/92
Dear Dave,
Just writing to give details of the programs included
on this disk.
OleHse.MSC - This Ole House for Sound Machine
(It is too slow but this is as fast as the SM goes)
I can supply the words as well if anyone is
desperate enough to sing along !!
KittLEDs - An interrupt driven pattern for the LEDs in the
KittLEDs.O - Hardware development kit.
KittLEDs.S - The source code for this, for the Comet Assembler.
This routine I wrote shortly after building the Hardware
development kit, and was based on the demonstration programs
supplied with the kit. It is extremely easy to alter but the
annotated source should make it clear what is happening.
I have recently updated to Version 2.0 of the SAM Midi Sequencer
and I am very impressed. Tim Humphries has added many new
features such as a graphical editor and real time control of
channels and voices during playback, as well as allowing the
sequencer to be mouse controlled. This is well worth updating to
if you only have the original version.
On the subject of passing parameters to machine code routines,
if you use SAM Basic's CALL address param1,param2,... command
then all the parameters are placed on the FPC stack and can be
retrieved using the relevant ROM routine. Both strings and
numbers can be passed in this way. On entry, the A register
holds the number of parameters included. An integer is stacked
with each of the parameters on the FPC stack giving details of
the parameter type. I believe this is 128 for a number or 192
for a string. This avoids the need for searching for the
addresses of strings or similar techniques, and is also an
extremely good way of passing parameters to relocatable code
without having to calculate offsets for poking data in.
I am having printer problems at the moment, mainly because I
don't have a manual for it. I have an Amstrad DMP 2000 printer
and I am looking for anyone who can lend me a manual, or even
just details of the DIP switches and control codes.
I tried writing this letter on a pre-release version of the
Secretary but I found so many bugs that it was un-useable.
Feel free to do what you wish with this letter and the contents
of the disk. Hope I can write again with more items for the
Supplement.
Yours Sincerely
Tim Wells