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Disk 7 News
ENCELADUS DISK MAG
---------------------
Reviewed by Rob.Evans.
Well I am supposed to review this mag as if haven't seen one
before (mag that is), oh well here goes..
I had three issue's of this mag to review! the price of each
is £4.50p ....
Here's a short list of what is on issue No.1 and a what
I thought of each prog!!!...
START UP...not bad, a bit of tune + some spining boxes in the
top half off the screen + a logo printed along the bottom of the
screen, then you press any key to get a list of prog's as
below:-
ENCELADUS..is an editorial + a short description of each prog on
the disk.
DISTORTER...this is without doubt the best prog on the disk.
This prog will shrink a piccy if whole numbers are inputed and
will also make a piccy larger by inputing minus numbers, it does
this very fast then you can save your new piccy to disk.
UNIVERSE.. shows you a scaled down vesion of the universe??
I can't personally see the point of this prog.
MAGNIFIER...I can't under stand why this was put on the disk,
when Distorter does the same thing, and is a far better prog.
ORREY...simulates the orbits of the planets..(I can't see the
point in this prog either).
FONTS...there are loads of these on this disk and a lot of
them look very much the same and there is nothing really new.
DISC COPIER...I will let you guess what this is for, I'll only
say that it's very slow.
MANDELBROT...this gives you a pictorial representation of a
mathematical function, after waiting a long time it turns out to
be a fractal (what a load of rubbish), you could end up waiting
all night for some of the more complex ones, you also get a demo
of these in issue 3 (how exciting).
TRANSMOGRIFIER..with this you draw two shapes, then they are
blitzed from one shape to the other, very boring after awhile..
MASTER MIND...you now what mastermind is, and this not a very
good version of it.
CHARACTOR DESIGNER...this is not bad! Its a different approach,
you have a sq. in top right corner, and the rest of the screen
is a sort of abstract, odd really, anyway to use this the first
thing you would have to do is write down the all the keys that
are used! There are a lot better progs about than this, but its
novel.
RELION SOFTWARE.. These are adverts for hardware and software.
DISK-EXAMINER...this is supposed to show any Text or Graphics
that are stored on a disk, but unless Graphics are stored as
screen$ it does'nt work. Not a lot of use!
My overall opinion of issue No.1, is it's not worth £4.50. But
if the price came down to about £2, it might be worth it. After
looking at issue No.2, I thought that wasn't as good as issue 1,
but I was surprised by No. 3, which was not bad at all, but
again the price is too high for what you get.
________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS MANAGER by Steve Monk
Reviewed by Dave Ison 2 Fairfield Gdns, Burntwood, Staffs
This is a database type program written in Sam basic by Steve
Monk.
Its dedicated to the handling of addresses and telephone
numbers, and as such does the job well. Once addresses and
numbers have been entered, it will amend, sort, search and
delete.
It will print the addresses, without any need for futher
messing with layout, onto standard labels, up to three across,
and you can choose whereabouts each address is to be printed,
i.e. on the first second or third label across.
It will print out telephone numbers separately, not with the
labels.
There are versions to work with Sam DOS and MasterDOS with
SAMBUS so that current time and date can be shown on the menu
screen, and saved records can be dated. Lacking a BUS I have'nt
tried out the latter features.
In contrast to some database programs I could mention, this is
a very user friendly program; the start up menu is clear,
especially when used in conjunction with the instructions, and
the program does what is expected.
There were one or two features I wasn't happy about: When
entering addresses, its difficult to avoid a finished address
layout that hasnt got a large space between title (in my case
Mr) and the rest of the name. It can be overcome by a bit of
fiddling, and is really only a niggle.
The second problem is a bit more serious for me, and concerns
the printing. Its perfect if you have a run of different
addresses which you want printing off, it will churn through
three across the line of labels. But if you want to select one
label at a time, or the 'multiprint one label' option, (if
you're conceited and want a lot of your own addresses) then two
labels are missed, and the printer is onto the next row of
labels. My printer will not (I know I've tried it with gummed up
roller results) go backwards with labels on board, even with a
tractor drive. The answer to one of these problems might be to
be to introduce a copy option.
Finally the sort option is in fact an 'alphasort' and only
works on the surname part of the address. Steve points this out,
and also says its slowish with larger numbers of labels (I didnt
try it).
Would I buy it? Probably if I needed to print out a lot of
address labels, and if the label problem were sorted out. Its a
very straightforward, unfussy program.
________________________________________________________________
SC-FILER (Review by J.L.Phillips)
Members who have read any of my reviews published in
SUPPLEMENT will be well aware of the importance I attach to the
instructions, particuarly for utility programmes. It was
refreshing, on this occasion, to read the instructions for
SC-FILER. They are clearly written, with no ambiguity, logically
arranged, understandable and comprehensive. I read them through
for the first time in about 10 minutes, and immediately felt
confident that I could tackle the programme with thereafter no
more than a need for occasional reference to the instructions to
remind me of certain key functions. This turned out to be the
case, and the liberal use of screen menus soon completely
eliminated the need even this sort of reference. When trying
something "new" for the first time, the layout of the
instructions was such that the required information was very
quickly located.
The disc contains three main programmes, together with
conversion files to make possible the use of LERM's ADDRESS
MANAGER and GM's GM-BASE with SC-FILER.
The first of the three main programmes is a ready-made, empty,
database for names, addresses and phone numbers. This is a
useful utility in itself, but to anyone who is having first
experience with a database, it serves as an admirable
illustration of what can be achieved using the second major
programme, viz., the "create" file. Moreover, examining and
using this "Addrphone" database is a sound basis upon which to
approach creation of a customised database to suit the user's
particular requirements.
Incorporated in any database produced by following the
"create" instructions, are search facilities with associated
modification, deletion and printout options. Records can be
called up by reference number, if known, or displayed
sequentially, and the aforementioned options are available for
use with any record. Printout affords two options, DUMP which
gives an exact copy of the recorded details, and LPRINT which
gives only information in previously specified fields, for
example when producing address labels.
The programme is compatible with SAMDOS and MASTERDOS. It is
set up for immediate use with the 256K machine and a simple
operation can be used to configure the system to take advantage
of the 512K Coupe - giving 384K of memory - which should cope
with the majority of databases likely to be encountered. Up to 8
character sets can be used, chosen from a selection of 72! There
is the expected choice of colours for paper and ink, and Mode 3
screens allow the choice of another two colours, making four in
all. A 'sort' field can be nominated as the one upon which
alphabetic sorting cen be initiated, and an extra window can be
designated for sorting under a different presentation of the
name, for use with the LPRINT facility when label printing.
The completed database file can be saved to either drive
after it has been given a name. There is also an option to
catalogue the disc directory, and if you are using MASTERDOS,
you will be asked which of the 7 discs you wish to see (i.e.
RAMDISKS are accessible). There is also the option to enter
Basic so as to alter the programme listing or configure for a
particularly large file.
Overall a very versatile, user-friendly, database creation
programme. And finally, there is the added bonus of a filled
database giving details of operation and effect of the Z80
machine code instructions.
..
**** N E W S ****
From S. Goodwin
* NEWS for any QL or Thor user (or emulator) reading - I have
developed SAM PROCs to read QDOS disks, and a multi-tasking
reader for GDOS, G+DOS, SAMDOS, UniDOS, BetaDOS and MasterDOS,
which runs on a QL with suitable drives. Is anyone interested?
If so, please pass on your name, address and systems details to
Dave Tonks, and I will contact you when I have a set of transfer
utilities to suit. I may do screen, font and BASIC token conver-
ters, but would like to know what other users would find useful.
________________________________________________________________
Our own Darren Talbot is no longer selling his colour dump
routine for the Star printer. This has been taken over by PBT
Ltd, who are also selling Citizen Swift colour printers to go
with it. A printer will cost you £195 with a free copy of
Darrens dump. The dump on it's own costs £7.99 for which you get
extra routines on the disc, which allow you to modify FLASH to
do colour screen dumps.
Contact PBT at:-
Port Talbot Workshops
Unit 17,
Addison Rd,
Port Talbot SA12 6HZ
________________________________________________________________
THE ALL FORMAT SHOW (23/3/91)
Again this show was held at the Horticultural Halls in
Westminster, and what a show it was. Team Sam took up about a
third of the hall, and most people who are supporting Sam were
there.
PBT Electronics were on hand to help Sam users out with any
hardware problems. They also had a nice range of printers on
show, which were selling quite well. This was in addition to
their normal range of leads for connecting the Sam to printers,
monitors etc.
Blue Alpha had for sale their new sound sampler, which, even
thought I'm tone deaf, sounded pretty good to me. We hope to
have a review of it shortly.
Outlet was there in the shape of Ron and Brian Cavers. They were
selling pre-production copies of there new word processor
"OUTWRITER". The Supplement has a copy of it, and even though
it's not quite finished yet, it really is superb. Again a review
will be publish in a future issue.
Brian Gaff was on hand with help and advice for Micronet users,
and Mark from Enigma was around selling software and telling
people about the next release, which is Escape From The Planet
Of The Robot Monsters. A review copy is winging it's way towards
me as I write.
Samco themselves were of course there, selling a fair few Sams
and periferals. They also had their first 2 programs on the new
"REVOLUTION" label on sale. There was "HIGHWAY CODE", the first
of a series of educational programs that they have planned, and
also "QUIZBALL" which is an absolutely brilliant, superb, great
game written by Daton!!!! I'll try and get a review of them, but
Brian Mumford won't let me do the Quizball review, because he
says that I may be biased.
Alan tells me that they will keep the Sam to £199 ever thought
the VAT is going up, but the periferals may have to rise.
Samco also ran a seperate demonstration of the Sam, with various
subjects covered during the day.
Andy Wright showed me some of the new commands on his new BASIC
package, and I was truly impressed. I can't wait to get my hands
on some of the things that it lets the Sam do.
There was also a demo of the Sam connected to a music keyboard
via the midi port, and a nice piece of software to run it,
which, for the musically minded, was extremely good.
The Supplement was of course in evidence, with Brian, myself and
Jean my wife kept busy all day signing up new members and
meeting existing ones. The Sam was never idle, and many problems
were solved and programs looked at during the course of the day.
Overall, a good time was had by all, and I came away with the
feeling the the Sam at last is begining to gain momentum.
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