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* * * EDITORIAL * * *
by Dave Tonks
Well, here I am again, back in the land of the living after my
stay in hospital for a minor op, (HUH, minor op? anything which
involves the use of a scalpel is not minor to me!!!). I would
like to thank all those that enquired after the state of my
health during the last few days, and tell you all that I am now
recovering well. I can now get upstairs in less that 15 mins and
I have learned to type standing up.
In a few days time, I go away on holiday, so I am standing here
trying to get this issue ready before I go, and if you are
reading this, I must have succeeded.
After the demise of Samco a few weeks ago, I thought that things
would go a little quiet for a while, but as you can see from the
news and reviews section, there is a flurry of activity in the
software section.
The Supplement can still get new machines and peripherals, and
there is a good demand for these, so I would say that Sam is
actually holding its own at the moment.
I hear that J.Menzies are "jobbing" off Sams and drives at a
very reduced price. These are 256k, old ROM versions, but well
worth getting, as we can supply new ROMS and upgrades if
required. Well worth looking into!!!
A cautionary note to end on. There is still no news of Paul
Thomas of PBT. I have been advised by the Swansea Consumer
Protection dept to tell you NOT to send any money or equipment
to PBT until further notice.
I am now off to start packing my toothbrush, clean underpants
and computer (oops, no, sorry Jean, I didn't mean computer), to
go on holiday with. See you all soon....
Dave
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Steven Masey,
12 Arle Drive,
Cheltenham,
Gloucester,
GL51 8HT.
Phone:(0242) 512791
Membership No:5??
Dear Ed,
Firstly I want to say what a brilliant job you have
done. The utilities, programs, demos have helped me become
familiar with the Sam Coupe.
I've had my Sam since September last year and since then I
have learned a lot from Supplement. In fact I've learned more
with the Supplement than I did from the books I used when I had
my Spectrum. Now that's over onto the game that I've sent you.
The game is a very simple one, it's called "Skittles" and it
started off on the Spectrum, but when I bought the Sam, I wanted
to change it so that it would run on the Sam, and this is the
finished result.
Around May/June I sent it to Sam for them to play around with it
to see if they could make it into a game that they could sell
to the public. I hope you can spare the space on your disk just
to show that a simple basic program can be quite fun to play. I
would be very grateful if you would put it onto one of your
future disks.
Before I go I have this problem That I wondered if you could
help me with. The problem is if I make a file like this how do
I load it up from basic to print onto the screen because I'm
thinking of making a little program using the files from Sam-
Scratch. Please, please help me.
Ed's Reply...
Thanks for the game Steve, as you say, it shows what
can be done with just a little knowledge. I've put it on this
issue so you are now famous at last!!
To get a Samscratch or Tasword file to print out on the screen
is actually quite simple.
First, make a note of the length of your file. The letter you
sent to me was 1856 bytes long. Now load it into memory at a
suitable address (65536 is a good one), use the command load
"NAME" code 65536.
Now if you print out the memory from 65536 to 65536+1856 you
will see your text on the screen.
Use: CLS
PRINT MEM$ (65536 TO 65536+1856)
MEM$ makes the area of memory between the 2 numbers that you
specify a string, so that you could just as easily have:
LET A$=MEM$ (65536 TO 65536+1856)
PRINT A$
Note that MODE 3 is really needed, as MODE 4 will look odd.
John F. Guthrie
203 Long Lane
Bolton
Lancs
BL2 6EX
SAM SUPPLEMENT NO.72
Dear Brian,
Please find enclosed a formatted disk and a £1
coin,2 18p second class stamp for issue 23 of SAM SUPPLEMENT
DISK. The main reason replying so late is,that my computer went
down,just after you sent me issue 21,plus I have been away on
holiday,so I have had not so muchh time to myself until now. So
when I contnued with it (being issue 21),I find that it will ot
load,after pressing F9. I get an error message. The culprit, so
I am told when I took it for repair,that it was not the computer
but the p.s.u. Two resistors had blown,leading to the T V
modulator inside the p.s.u.,so that is why I had a blank
screen,so that is what corrupted the said disk at the dos
loading sector.
Now for some input into the Disk/Mag. you asked
for when you sent me issue 22. I am always being asked by my
friends,what is the current rom version of the sam?,and how do
you find it,if you do not know it? So here goes,the answer to
first part is easy if like me you have had rom upgrade,since you
bought the machine,namely ver 3.0. Now to answer the second
part,which I will answer in one go. There are three ways to find
this out as follows:- PRINT PEEK 15,PRINT PEEK &5CB4 or PRINT
(PEEK (DPEEK &5c9d))BAND 31, in the last statement it is
imperative that you end the brackets as a double bracket. The
answer to them all will be im whole numbers to which ever
version you have,whether it be 1,2,3, Just split the whole
number with a "." as follows,1.0,2.0,3.0. So this is me signing
off,as I have to go to bed,to get up for work in the morning
Yours faithfully,
John F. Guthrie
P.S I will send a review of Andy Wrights GAMES MASTER later.
P.P.S Telephone 0204 23357 8.30p.m till 10.00p.s
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10 Park Drive
Hastings
East Sussex
TN34 2PR
11 August 1992
Dear Dave,
In response to your request for letters, tips and
programs this is my contribution. It has taken longer than I
intended but I see you have managed to fill up the last two
issues from contributions from other members. Obviously your
plea worked.
I expect you get lots of similar programs so if you have had
them before please disregard them.
I am including a program modification, just the printer routine
for my printer the Citizen 120-D. I have just sent the
listing of amendments to the program, it is just a matter of
deleting some lines and inserting some new ones. I hope someone
else finds it useful.
The second program is one that I use all the time. It is only
useful to anyone who has MasterDos but does not have the
Sambus. It records the date on any new programs or files created
each day the Sam is used, so that if you do not remember to date
the program or file yourself, it is done by the computer at the
time of saving. When the program is loaded it asks for the date
to be input. To check for dates you only need to Dir Date,
preferably in Mode, 3 it is neater. I have also modified the
program from the Spectrum manual that works out the day of the
week and included it as a checker.
I have just received Issue 23 and I am sorry to hear the news
about Samco going into receivership but I am not surprised with
the economic situation as it is at the moment and the amount of
other businesses going under. The future is definitely nowhere
near as gloomy as when MGT went down and with all the support of
Mags such as ours, Outlet, Fred and Format the Sam should carry
on as long as the Spectrum has without Clive Sinclair.
I'm pleased to hear that the users will still be able to obtain
spares and repairs and that software is still being written for
the Sam. I agree with you that now the machine is established
popularity will remain high.
I agree with Ron Fox (Issue 22) that there is not much in the
way of listings to type in like there used to be in the past,
with the exception of Format. I found that typing in listings
was a good way of learning to program especially after typing
for hours and then when thinking it was finished the program did
not work like it was supposed to. Several hours more was spent
checking the program to find that something trivial was left out
like a semi-colon. After the amendment was done it then would
work properly and a week or so later I'd go through the whole
procedure again. At least I learned by my mistakes.
With a mag like Sam Supplement members are able to examine
programs that are sent in and with all the help provided with
the various lessons that have appeared from time to time by
yourself and others, it is another way of learning.
After I wrote to you earlier in the year I received
communications from other members and I had found that most
people were eager to help when I had a problem, so if any other
members have problems I suggest that they write in to the mag
and they can be sure to find someone to help.
One of the members that contacted me was Mike Haine who wrote in
Issue 22 that "he had made several attempts to start some
correspondence but with little success", I did actually reply
but got no response from him so I was wondering if he ever got
my letter.
I would like to comment on the criticism of sending in programs
and the returning of discs by Reg Jeffs in Issue 20. I thought
that he was very rude and insulting to you and your team and I
was very impressed by the way you handled it and I agree with
every word.
I must add my praise to all the others who have expressed their
appreciation of the mag's opening screens and say how excellent
and original I think they are.
I am not trying to create work for you but in Issue 23 the
program Blocks by D.A.Lorner stops with the Error "41 Basic
Stack Full 250:2". I don't know what causes it but it looks like
it is something to do with the timer.
This Error brings me to a complaint about Error Messages. The
definition of Error 41 Basic Stack Full is "Please see chapter
10 for dealing with memory stacks". When I refer to Chapter 10
there is no mention whatsoever of memory stacks.
I have also consulted the technical manual and although there
are many references to the stack I do not understand the reason
for this Error message.
This very same Error Message has cropped up recently while using
"SC_MONITOR" by Steve Nutting. I was even more puzzled by this
because not only is it mainly a machine code program but the
Error produced is "41 Basic Stack Full 31:255". I thought that
the numbers produced after the error message referred to firstly
the basic line number and the second number to the number of the
statement in that line. Line 31 of the Basic program has only
two statements. That's why I'm puzzled. Any ideas anyone?
My other gripe about Error Messages is that although most of
them give an explanation of the error the solution is not always
that apparent.
I think that's about it for now apart from saying I hope the Sam
Supplement continues to get lots of support from the members and
that it goes from strength to strength.
Kind Regards,
Colin Rout.
Eds Reply...
Thanks for the programs which are both in this
issue. I'm sure that members will find them useful, especially
the one that dates the files without the need of a Sambus. I
will use that one myself, as the Sambus I own has always refused
to hold onto its date after the machine is switched off.
I'm sorry that the BLOCKS program has a STACK FULL error, I do
try and check for common errors, but I really haven't the time
to run every program all the way through trying every
eventuality.
The most common reason for the stack filling up is through the
BASIC not clearing out its used bits as it runs. Let me try and
give you a simple example:-
Imagine the stack as a piece of drainpipe with one end sealed.
If you drop balls down the pipe, the pipe will of course get
filled up. Instead of the balls the Sam stores addresses in its
"pipe". Some of these addresses are the return addresses. When
you use GOSUB in a program, the Sam stores the address that it
has to jump to when RETURN is used. After the address has been
used it is deleted from the stack. You can fool this system by
not giving a RETURN with a GOSUB.
E.G.
10 GOSUB 20
20 GOTO 10
The above example will store the return address for line 10's
GOSUB but line 20 doesn't RETURN, it jumps straight back with a
GOTO. The same address keeps getting put on the RETURN stack and
eventually it will fill up and give a error.
I think that this is what may be happening in BLOCKS.
The Sam has a useful command to stop this happening called POP.
If you really have to jump out of a FOR NEXT or GOSUB loop you
can use POP to clear the last return address off the stack.
I know that this is a very simplistic view of the stack, but I
hope that it helps you to understand the principles.
Paul Hooper has asked me to mention that he has a supply of dust
covers for the Sam for sale.
The dustcovers are high quality, Clear, Anti-Static and
Flame Retardant, specially made for the Coupe. Cost- £5.00
(inclusive of post & packing) of which £1.00 will go to the
Supplement. To help with fast processing please call; giving
name, address, telephone number, and Member no., on 0446 736318
and ask for Paul. IMPORTANT: Call: After 6pm on weekdays
10am-10pm Saturdays.
Then send Cheque for £5.00, made payable to Paul K.J.Hooper,to:
P.Hooper, 110 Westward Rise, Garden Suburb, Barry,South
Glamorgan,South Wales. CF6 8PQ.
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Dear Sirs,
I am writing after reading the news sections of a few magazines
this month, the last one being Supplement's. Quite frankly, I am
very worried. SAMCo seem to be doing everything wrong at the
moment. Wrong for the user, and wrong for themselves, and they
aren't doing the SAM any good, either. Why am I so gloomy? I
hear you think. Well, in your news section of July 1992 issue,
it seems that SAMCo have no hardware in stock, and have missed
the opportunity to give SAM a decent wordprocessor. SAMCo are
being let down by people like Glenco, and are producing hardware
which, I feel at least, won't sell in the volumes required. Let
me elaborate a bit.
If SAMCo don't have much hardware in stock, they can't
expect to fulfil orders. If they can't fulfil orders, they don't
have money coming in to replace the money going out on staff
wages etc. Thus, we will have a repeat of May/June 1992, if they
don't do something about it.
The video digitizer seems to be taking up a lot of their
time at the moment. Now, while this will provide SAM with some
much-needed hardware, I can't see it selling in any great
quantities. I think that most people have the same set up as me;
their SAM, with a drive, connected up to their TV in a spare
room, or their bedroom. The video is downstairs, in the living
room, which is nowhere near the SAM. Even if I had a video near
my SAM, I would probably not buy the video digitizer. Why not?
Because there is nothing to use the grabbed images for. Sure,
looking at yourself in various poses, and editing them in FLASH!
can be interesting for an hour or two, but we need something
like PCG's DTP pack SPECIFICALLY FOR THE SAM. Last time I heard,
it was only possible to load MODE 1 pictures into the suite; not
mode 4, or Kaleidoscope-mode (64 grey-scale), which is what the
digitiser uses. This gives us a use for the digitizer. THEN
people like me will buy the digitiser.
From the sounds of the review, The Secretary is a
botch-job. MAINLY BASIC!!! I'm not going to cough up £15 for a
programme I could have written myself, or something which is
SAMScratch with a few more bells and whistles and a large price
tag! The programme needs to have the speed and versatility of
Tasword or Protext, for a machine as powerful as SAM & for
further modules to be added (eg Automatic Spell checker,
Thesaurus, Dictionary, etc). Even SAM BASIC is not good enough
for this task.
Now SAMCo are talking about GENLOCKs. Another product
which isn't going to project SAM into the marketplace. What
SAMCo should be doing is developing something which everybody
can use, and which will be useable with further pieces of
hardware. Here are some ideas; 1.44 Mb drive (downwardly
compatible, of course), DTP package, New Art package, a ROMBox
(Amstrad style- plug in ROMs which are accessible from BASIC,
giving instant loading of a programme such as a wordprocessor),
and, wait for it, a Hard drive INTERFACE;if possible, NOT the
whole thing, as many people would prefer to get their own
drive.Some of these are, admittedly, minority interest, and not
much use to anybody, until something else comes out which can
use it. SAMCo and Andy Wright got everything perfect with
MasterDOS and the 1Mb expansion; by itself, the extra memory was
nearly useless.
We hear repeated promises of "big things happening in
Swansea", but what is this going to mean for us, the users? It
has now been affecting service for two months. I only hope it's
not a buy-out, or similar! That completely destroyed the
Sinclair name, from a household brand, to a public joke. I doubt
whether it will boost the SAM, or its users. The whole thing
will, probably, be completely transparent to us; everything
continuing as usual. To be honest, I am starting to get tired of
it.
Normally, I sing the praises of SAMCo, and cite other
reasons for my present apathy for the SAM. I used to be really
enthusiastic about SAM. Now I'm not so sure. A girl at school
recently asked me for advice about the computer she should buy
for herself. She wanted to word-process, play the odd game, and
do other serious things with it. I am ashamed to say that I
recommended three computers for further investigation to her.
The IBM PC, Amiga 500 and the Amstrad CPC. It never even crossed
my mind to recommend the SAM, because she could not do those
things with the same efficiency on the Coupe that she could do
on the other three. Why not? The SAM is still really for people
used to handling computers, and are willing to get their hands
dirty; most of the serious programmes available for SAM are
written in BASIC, and are still quite primitive. This means that
someone like her, who just wants to "plug in and go", without
having to put up with the idiosyncracies and bugs SAM software
has, almost as standard. The SAM is still an endangered species;
I'm genuinely worried about SAMCo's approach to marketing the
SAM (detailed in my letter which I sent you one or two weeks
ago, and in a letter I still have to send to SAMCo's Newsdisk),
so I could not recommend a computer which might fail. I did the
best thing by her, not the computer.
In summary, SAMCo really need to get their act together
as concerns software, and marketing hardware, before I shall
recommend SAM to anyone but a Spectrum owner with more than
games-playing experience.
Well, that's all very depressing, isn't it? It just
reflects my feeling that the SAM market is stagnating; something
it shouldn't be doing if the Coupe is going to succeed. But,
enough of it. I enclose a "Correlation Co-efficient Calculator",
full programme notes are contained in a separate code file. It's
in BASIC, but at least it's not being sold for £15.
Thanks a lot for Supplement; it made my day today! Dave's
front-end screens are well-appreciated; they must take ages!
Thankyou.
Yours sincerely,
Will Easson,
Depressed SAM owner (my A-level results come out next month!)
Member number 89
PS PLEASE NOTE!!!!! THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE I HEARD ABOUT
SAMCo's DEMISE!!!
Eds Reply...
Thanks for your views on Samcos demise Will, I think that some
of your points are valid, especially regarding hardware
developement that was not necessary. I am still of the opinion
that a computer sinks or swims on the software available for it
at the outset, and that hardware should come later.
If you read this issue's NEWS, it may give your depression a
lift, as there is actually quite a lot of software ready for
sale..
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David Hall 77, Newton Road, Stowmarket, Suffolk. IP14 5AE
Tel. 0449 675828
Dear Dave and all,
I am sending you my upgraded Scratch with the
name of Masterscratch. It still needs a little more development,
mainly in the paragraph reform department. I did write a new
version which was faster and would pull text between narrower
margins etc, but I had a corruption and lost it. So it's back to
the keyboard on that, hopefully, I will be able to send it in as
a merge routine when I've managed to re-write it.
Masterscratch, with all its files comes to about 100K, with over
100 procedures in the main program which is getting very large
and complicated. Frank Harrop, Peter Bell and Ron Fox have
helped to field test it. I hope that we have found and cured any
major bugs, as well as adding some extra facilities, but if
anyone hits a snag then I'd like to hear about it so that it can
be dealt with.
One of the main improvements is a machine-code 'lastline'
routine written by Michael Nicholas. This has speeded many
things up, and allowed the implementing of options which
previously would have been too slow to be useable.
A facility that still needs adding is the ability to use
in-text printer control codes. Characters 169 to 178 can be
freed for this use, so if anyone out there would like to
collaborate on a machine-code printer routine (Basic is too slow
for this purpose), then I'd like to hear from you.
I am also sending a simple game proram "MAP", this was
originally typed into my Spectrum from one of the long defunct
magazines. I'ts been slightly 'Sammed'. An excellent small
program that is capable of much more, perhaps someone would like
to make a real Sam sized version. The original author's name has
unfortunately got lost along the way.
My request for information about bit mapped fonts has yet to
bear fruit. Any offers? (beg - beg)
Finally, I hear that in spite of the demise of Samco, that
there's quite a lot of software coming out. We are still looking
for reviewers, so if anyone is interested then please contact
me.
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