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Their height is unrestricted. Ricker is removed from all interlaced modes by means of a built-in de-interlacer chip. The new Amigas have been beefed up on the sound front, too.

They both come with a built-in digitiser which will sample sounds with 8-bit resolution at 22KHz. Sound output is even more impressive.

Four bit channels are provided which are capable of reproducing frequencies of up to 56KHz. These channels can be used to emulate eight 8-bit channels at 56KHz or 16 8-bit channels at 28KHz. A new Motorola Digital Signal Processor chip is also believed to be included with both models - this is a microprocessor in its own right, working alongside the central processor.

It is a bit device clocked at 27MHz that can be programmed to perform complex sound processing operations at high speed. These could include sophisticated filtering and sound manipulation effects. No prices or details of availability are known, except that the cheaper of the two will come in at a price above that of the A, and that at least one of them is due in four months.

The verdict was, to say the least, highly critical - much of the flak targetted at the Amiga A Which, as you might expect, provoked a number of enraged A owners to set the record straight I am a very proud owner of one and think this is a remarkable computer! The A is the first computer I have bought, having arrived at this decision to buy one because my SEGA console is not what I want anymore - and I love it!

It's more compact than the bulky, slab-like , and looks more attractive! Granted, its arrival is a bit obsolete, but don't knock ft until you've tried it! I totally resent the remarks made by some of your readers about its size and its seemingly "console" like approach. These comments come from a bunch of closed-minded misnomatics who cannot swallow the fact that the A is history and that the light isn't in their ball court any more!

You lose, oh brainless ones! Long live the A Gary Entwistle Tonbridge Hmmm, I think 'childish playground attitude' is a bit strong there, Gary - we adopted an even handed response to the story in our news reporting and in these letters pages. But many A owners were somewhat peeved and said so in no uncertain terms. Now, I don't want to get drawn into a My-Amiga-is-better- than-your-Amiga type argument here, but hey!

I'm sure the A has got a helluva lot going for it. As you say though, the err In particular I was surprised at Margaret Haedicke's assessment that the A Is "mainly for games" and Mr Scott's view that the A was unexpandable. What utter rubbish! Please explain to me how a machine with exactly the same processor and graphic specifications as the A, but with the added advantage of a built-in hard drive interface and TV modulator, can in any way be described as a games machine?

The almost crazed and illogical ravings that I was forced to read in your magazine really made little sense. The authors were obviously just jealous that now people can go out and buy an A for the same price as an A and revel in the advantages of hard drive interface, portability and incredible reliability that the new machine offers.

Certainly to describe the A as a games machine or as inferior to the A is showing crassness not worthy of an Amiga owner! In my mind the A Is a worthy entry level machine offering a cheap and easy upgrade path to hard drive ownership whilst still having two expansion slots like the original A The A is the perfect machine for home and hobbyist use; I am only disappointed that it was not released several years ago.

Certainly no other computer can offer such power at such a low price. Stick with the Amiga and Commodore! The new range of Amigas and the new improved "The crazed and illogical ravings I was forced to read really made little sense graphics and sound which are on the way will certainly be something worth beating the PC owning world with! The main criticism levelled at the A is its alleged lack of expandability.

As such it's seen as a games machine. Like so many new advances though, it's a question of Time Will Tell. The quicker the A's on the street, the better. I, however, think it is an excellent move. The Big C has already announced that it intends to release new Amigas soon - as the A is just a taster of things to come.

OK, so the A will be incompatible with a lot of hardware, but before people go jumping to conclusions and start asking where this leaves users who wish to expand their machines, consider the following The majority of people who will want to purchase the A are people who not only want to play games but also to use it to type out the odd letter. The A Is a step forward for the Amiga and is perfectly designed hardware wise - if you want to load the Amiga with accelerators and the like then buy a machine that is designed to do that.

Maybe one of Commodore's new machines will be a portable; the miniaturisation employed in the A sure makes this possible. Existing A owners must not despair, the A will ensure the future of the Amiga in the 90s and beyond. Philip Chung Cheltenham Yes, and in your last paragraph you hit the nail firmly on the head.

Don't think there's much chance of a portable though. The A is quite simply a recased A Plus but with the bonus that you can now have a hard drive, for the price of an external drive and a half meg upgrade, just eighty pounds! So you now don't have to pay the ridiculous price of three hundred pounds for the simplest hard drive. Your average Amiga owner aspires to a hard drive and a few megs of extra memory at maximum.

You can have all of these things on an A for a lot less dosh than an A, this is a fact. The simple fact is that the A is here to stay and all the whingeing in the world from the techies who mourn the loss of their best friend will not bring back the over-sized A I had an A for three years and loved the machine but time moves on, and in my opinion the A is much more desirable than the chunky old faithful and also more reliable. The simple fact is that the Real 3D images I now produce on an A look just as good as the ones produced on an A But now I can save them to my hard drive!

It is just a pity that Amiga Shopper couldn't take a positive attitude and welcome the A for what It is, the best cheap home computer on the market, which will 'The A is much more desirable than the chunky old faithful" give you access to the wonders of DTP, 3D modelling, word processing and perhaps even the odd game at a reasonable price with great reliability.

Steve Summersklll Wakefield Fair enough. I honestly don't think you can accuse us of taking a negative attitude though, Steve.

Maybe we didn't go over the top about the arrival of the A but then I don't feel there's a great deal to go over the top about. It's a neat machine, sure - but nothing to knock your socks off. Now that's not being negative - being negative is me printing in a national magazine "The A is a waste of space". Which it ain't. Just because Commodore brings out the A and stops producing the A everyone seems to think It is the end of the Amiga. So many of the letters I have read gave me the impression that the writer was going to do a Lemming!!

Total flops brought out by Commodore as the next step forward. You have to remember that with the bad you get the good. It is not technically superior. The A has not yet reached its peak, there are a good years left in the old girl yet. You don't think the third party developers are going to chuck all their A goodies and start producing Aonly goods, when there must be less than 10, As in the UK homes, if that. One other thing, why should A users worry whether the A is upgradable or not, if someone wants to buy an upgradable machine, then they won't buy the A, which will show in the numbers sold, and make Commodore realise what a mistake it has made.

All you readers stop fretting, you already own a good, solid, upgradable machine, why worry about a machine you don't like anyway? Also what is this obsession with chucking the Amiga and getting a PC? There's one line of argument, ably presented in the next letter funnily enough, which claims that the A range was scrapped precisely because of its upgradability. But it's also got a lot to do with cheaper construction costs and greater reliability. Expandability will come for the A though because there's always a demand for maximising what you've already got without splashing out on a brand new machine.

That's what propels the PC market and presumably that's why a few readers thought the PC was a more future- proof option. It's got A owners everywhere paranoid that the third- party developers will just turn their backs on them as if the mighty A never existed. As for becoming obsolete, it is still an Amiga after all, with the same software base as the and , and that's not going to change much for this new computer.

Commodore's marketing strategy is obvious; keep the games players with the A and force the hobbyists and "serious" users into buying a bigger, more expandable machine. This has always been their game plan but the A proved to be just as expandable as any other Amiga. There are a wide variety of peripherals for the A; high power accelerators, bit graphics boards, 10Mb of RAM, anything a serious user would demand from a computing system.

I think in the eyes of Commodore it became too easy to transform an A into a beast more powerful than the top-of-the- line Surface Mount Technology will take care of that, and then customers will have to get a bigger Amiga, or a big ugly PC. Commodore will have to develop a more advanced middle-range machine if It doesn't want to be alienated from the "serious market" of the PC and Macintosh, especially with the current pricing trend.

Amigas are no longer the great bargain they used to be, and the new range will stand or fall on its own merits, not a cheap price tag. This can be done, but the Amiga is going to have to evolve into a more powerful machine, sporting a as standard, and a and af least true bit graphics for the top of the range.

As for existing Amiga owners, I say only this. Don't worry about your computer becoming obsolete. It's the A the third parties might not support. Anyway, if your system does what you bought it for, what's the problem? PB Stanley Stamford, Lines I think the Amiga is already alienated from the serious market if you define this as being anything other than video and bit graphics work.

While Amigas are clearly capable of handling serious applications, they're not perceived as anything more than souped-up consoles by the business user. Yet with the A you have a machine that'll give most Macs and PCs a run for their money. There's one way this can be rectified and that's for Commodore to start promoting it as a serious machine range.

Full stop. Gosh it Is a "nightmare" - that blue screen and nasty topaz font mocking my lower status in life. All those bugs! Oh, it's so slow and horrible! Heck, I can barely show my face in public without being pointed out as a 1. But there's little I can do to improve my predicament. Looks like I'm stuck with this archaic 1. Frankly I'd rather Shopper devoted a little more space to telling me how to make use of what I've got rather than suggesting 1, different ways to spend money I haven't got.

I appreciate that Mr Smiddy did, in fact, devote his column to updating a previous program for 1. Please Inform your staff that many of us are operating on far less than what they consider to be the minimum requirement for an Amiga system. Ade Rixon Warrington We try and draw a balance which is more heavily weighted to tips, advice and tutorials than new product reviews, but we can't ignore advances.

However, you'll be pleased to know that next ish we're bringing you a 32 page Amiga Answers Special designed to help you get more from your machine. The following might save your readers some trouble.

At one point I found that the internal disk drive in my Amiga was scratching and destroying disks. I removed, cleaned and replaced the recording head. Realignment was a bit of a fiddle but for a long time I kept having to repeat the realignment at frequent intervals, although there was no obvious fault. To cut a long story short, I discovered that the trouble was caused by magnetic interference from the monitor whether from the loudspeaker magnets or the tube field coils, I do not know.

The internal magnetic shield of the computer was not totally effective. The cure: a steel biscuit tin lid is now attached to the underside of the shelf which supports the monitor above the right hand side of the computer. This has proved completely effective.

H Owens Thanks there. H - send me your address and I'll send you a fiver. One this month, five the next! Now can we leave poor Mark alone? I use several of the music programs and am finding this of great assistance in the line of business I have chosen following my retirement after 35 years in the police service. However, Jason omitted to mention probably the most pertinent point regarding PD houses.

He did not say that there is a positive chance that some of your readers who send their orders and their money to some of the PD houses who advertise In your magazine will not receive a reply, nor their disks, nor their money back. It goes without saying that many of the 'houses' give an excellent service and, in one instance, 6 disks arrived at my address within 36 hours of my posting the order.

However, unfortunately, there are those who do not supply the goods, nor do they return the cheque. They cash it instead! I have been defrauded three times. For various reasons I'm not prepared to name the 'houses' who have failed in their commitment and, in doing so, have indirectly discredited your magazine.

Another point Jason failed to mention was the fact that there is an unnecessary amount of obscene and other unpleasant language used on some of the PD disks. I don't suppose I need to go into detail but I will refer to one particular music disk I bought.

Being new to it all, and self-taught, I obviously make many mistakes when trying to run my software. On one of these disks, each time I do something wrong, a rather disgusting message flashes up saying 'F Off, Lamer' etc. Is there any need for this? What sort of people are these faceless perverts who thrill to using this language, knowing full well that the persons most likely to be confronted with it are young persons and children?

I realise, of course, that there is nothing you can do about the way sick programmers write their materials, nor is there much you can do about the contents of disks sold by the PD houses.

However, I would like to know what sort of scrutiny you subject your advertisers to before accepting their money for advertising. Are any steps taken to check out the bona fides of would-be advertisers, or can anyone who might use a garden shed or a spare room in a lodging-house as a temporary address set up a business as, and advertise as, a PD house?

I am sure most of your 45, readers would be delighted to know the answers of these questions. JD Martin Hull Well, first of all, I'm sorry to hear you've been subjected to abuse and ripped off on a number of occasions. Unfortunately, in the first instance, we have to take adverts placed with us on the basis of trust. Other than the normal credit checks we can't assess a company's morality.

It's only when we receive complaints from individuals who've been mistreated that we prevent that company from appearing in our pages. And then again, we can't rely on isolated incidents - there has to be a number of complaints from people over a period of time so as to make sure we're just not acting on someone's private vendetta or a temporary mail order processing problem.

So I'm afraid it's a difficult judgment to make - after all, what's the alternative? Like all walks in life, there's always a small minority who spoil it for everybody. So, I guess you just have to make sure you deal with reputable suppliers I own one of these machines and after reading the Diamond advert in your August edition on page I was feeling rather ill.

Could you write some kind of soothing words to restore my lost faith in the machine, if not I might just do something drastic like get CD-I instead. I have had my CDTV for just two months and am amazed by it. I am writing this letter on the machine at the same time as listening to a music CD. Try doing that on the CD-I unit! I have seen the first batch of releases on the machine and it really Is a joke. Now on to the writer of the advert. If he had taken time to actually use the CDTV and some research, he would know that the machine is not dead and that most of the owners are very pleased with the machine and that good software was starting to appear.

Sim City is absolutely amazing. It has four full sound tracks on ft. I have also had a look at the Trivial Pursuit game. This is one that interests me because of the size of it. It comprises of two CDs. That's over a gigabyte of information! If I were the editor of your magazine I would drop the Diamond advert because It doesn't do much for sales of your magazine.

Diamond might be better off trying to beat that. Bet it can't Go on - join the Amiga's liveliest letters pages! Did you buy Betamax when everybody bought VHS?

Have you booked your summer holiday In Yugoslavia? I bet you've got CDTV. Well don't worry we won't take the mlcky anymore because your not the only person who ell for all the hype, but don't panlck, Copfa nd os always Is here lo save the day. Now who was it who said that ads were boring? We'll have the dosh for the re-run too lads! Could you create the next bestseller?

Thanks to packages such as Palace's Shoot'em up Construction Kit and - more recently - Domark's 3D Kit, Amiga owners have been able to churn out fast arcade games complete with fancy sprites, smooth scrolling and even solid 3D graphics with not a single opcode or status register in sight. Although Europress has gone to great lengths to stress AMOS' other uses, it doesn't take a brain the size of a planet to realise the true nature of the beast.

High speed hardware scrolling, copper rainbow effects, blitter objects and interrupt driven music are hardly the kind of facilities that your average spreadsheet programmer is ever going to need.

There's no doubting that arcade fanatics are certainly well served, but developers have sadly ignored the one type of game that arguably started the computer gaming craze in the first place - adventure games.

Shame on them! Loading up the two demo games that are bundled with Visionary one of which is a very p r. You are walking through the sand dunes. I 5 You are standing in a neadou, bg an old unnrfpn shark. They are quite simply of commercial quality and as a yardstick of the program's capabilities, Visionary seems almost too good to be true.

All this power comes at a price, however. Visionary is actually a BASIC-like programming language which has been specifically designed to handle the task of writing adventure games. So what's the point? I hear you ask. Sure, it could be argued that AMOS is just as qualified to handle adventure games, but what makes Visionary so special is that the heart of all adventure games, the parser, is built in to Visionary so you don't have to worry about coding your own.

As a result, your adventure games will boast a parser that would have turned even Infocom the masters of the adventure game genre green with envy. Obviously Visionary allows you to modify it to suit your own particular needs, but it's nice to This Dungeon Master clone serves as a perfect example of what is possible with Visionary.

It's just a shame that it takes so much work to achieve this sort of result! Both of these programs are Shell-based, so you're going to need a pretty good knowledge of AmigaDOS to get them running. To create an adventure, you must first produce a series of source files that are then passed to the Visionary compiler for compilation. If no errors are found they usually are! Visionary programs don't just consist of a single source file.

Instead, each aspect of your game must be split into a strict series of separate files that define such things as the startup code, the map data and objects. Each of these files must follow strict filename conventions for the compiler to recognise them. If all the source files that are needed are not present, the Visionary compiler will take exception and throw your know that this all important routine is available 'off the shelf so to speak.

Traditional adventures were completely text based - instead of relying upon fancy graphics, the adventure weaved a yarn through the quality of its descriptions. The player interacted with the game by typing in English sentences 'attack editor with sharpened mouse', for example.

Parser - All adventure games that are played by entering English sentences via the keyboard Take apple', for example share a common routine called a parser. A parser is a routine which takes the string that the player enters and breaks it down into a series of commands and parameters that the game can act upon. In the example above, the parser would break the string 'Take Apple' down into one command and one parameter - 'Take' and 'Apple'.

The most important of these two files is the. This file basically contains all the startup information required to get your adventure running plus a few global definitions that you may need to make. Once this has been processed, the compiler then reads in the rooms file which contains the code to control the map data and the player's movement within your virtual world.

GnU Visionary insists that the source code for your adventure game is split into a set of discrete source files. Here's only a small section of the absolutely massive rooms file which Is required for the Visionary demo game including IF.. If the parser finds the word 'Take' for example, it would then check to see whether a parameter follows.

If it doesn't, you'll be presented with a line that reads something like 'Take what? If a parameter does follow though, the parser knows that because the player is trying to 'take' something, the parameter must contain the name of an object within the current room that can be picked up.

It then checks to see whether that object is there and whether it can be picked up and then acts accordingly. Simple parsers are generally quite easy to write because the 'commands' that they accept follow a strict format.

A decent parser however like the one in Visionary is far more flexible and will accept 'Take the red apple' or just 'Take apple' without batting an eyelid. Compiler - A compiler is a separate program that converts the ascii text file that you create your source code into a stand-alone program.

Although still not as fast as pure assembly language, compiled programs usually run considerably faster than their interpreted counterparts AmigaBASIC Is interpreted, for example. By defining discrete 'views', resolutions and screen modes can even be mixed a HAM picture in the top half of the screen and a medium resolution text region in the bottom half, for example.

If you need to change any part of your graphics, Visionary also supports a number of generic drawing commands some of which put even AMOS in the shade!

Hot spots are also another powerful aspect of Visionary. Unlike a traditional graphic adventure, the player of your game can interact with objects using the mouse simply by setting up a series of hotspots. For example, if a scene contained an object such as a copy of Amiga Shopper, the player could examine the object simply by clicking on it. Your games aren't just restricted to graphics. Having struggled through assembly language, Cobol, C and AMOS, I must admit that the thought of learning another language didn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm.

Aegis claims that Visionary is a tracks and graphics. Using its powerful screen buffers facility, it's quite possible to create anything from a simple graphic adventure like Magnetic Scrolls' The Pawn to even very straightforward language, but I'm afraid I'm not totally convinced. Although its command set is fairly straightforward, the amount of work required to get a game off the ground is quite over the top.

Many of the coding tasks could easily have been handled via some form of source code generator. It took me little more than a quarter of an hour to realise that some form of source code generator was needed, so I'm surprised that Aegis itself didn't come to the same conclusion.

I have to say that I'm impressed with the power of Visionary. It isn't the answer to everyone's dreams, but coders will no doubt love it. If you can face learning another new programming language, perseverance will reap substantial reward. The results obtainable from Visionary are out of this world. It's just a shame that so much work is involved!

It's just a shame that it isn't more accessible for the average user. Even if you have had a lot of experience at word processing, the transition to desktop publishing is not always an easy one.

Word processing places certain restrictions on what you can and cannot do, it's a bit like painting by numbers. Desktop publishing is all about freedom of expression - you are given the canvas, the brushes and the paint, the rest is up to you.

Not everyone is suited to DTP, you have to have a degree of flair for design, or at the very least a desire to design, otherwise the frustration builds up as page after page comes out looking like a pair of dingo's kidneys. To desktop publish properly, with complete freedom I mean, you need various things.

You need lots of memory - the more the better, but at least 3Mb. You need a hard drive because loading fonts, pictures and text from floppies tends to dampen the enthusiasm for design. And you need good software - which Is what this article is all about. The answer is to test the water first. Buy a budget DTP package that works almost exactly the same as a professional one.

There's only one choice, PageSetter II. In fact that version 1. It's nothing like it. It's actually a black-and-white version of an earlier incarnation of Professional Page.

It supports the Compugraphic font format, and looks and operates almost exactly the same as Professional Page 1. And although various advanced features are missing, PageSetter II can actually do a few things that even Professional Page 3 can't. So if you are a beginner and are thinking about getting into desktop publishing, there is no better place to start than PageSetter II.

Professional Page has moved on to version 3. It's time to take stock and look at ail three as they stand today. WORDS Publishing is all about getting a message across to whoever is reading your publication, so the PageStream supports Adobe Type 1 fonts as well as its own outline font format and Compugraphic fonts features of a DTP package relevant to putting words on the page are arguably the most important.

On top of these. Professional Page comes with its own 'article editor', called AE, which is basically a version of the TransWrite word processor with the printing features removed. This hotlink between AE and Professional Page works well and means that you do not need to buy a separate word processor and spelling checker for preparing and editing text, but Professional Page itself has a simple built-in text editor should you wish to change text directly on the page; it works quite slowly, however.

PageStream does not come with a program with which to prepare text, so you will need a word processor if you don't want to use PageStream's built-in text editor which, like the one in Professional Page, works slowly. This text editor does include a spelling checker, but it is so slow that I can't imagine anyone wanting to use it for anything but checking the spelling of very small sections of text.

For more info on this, check out last month's issue of Amiga Shopper. Saxon Publisher doesn't come with a text preparation program either. But it has a built-in text editor which, again, operates slowly. Like PageStream, you need to buy another package, only this time there's no hotlink available.

Professional Page is clearly winning the text importing and editing battle, with PageStream running a close second. Professional Page works with only Compugraphic or Amiga bitmap fonts. The bitmap font support is there to speed up things for PostScript users - they would use the bitmap font on screen because it draws itself faster than the Compugraphic equivalent, but at output time it is the PostScript font of the same name built into the PostScript device, or downloaded to the PostScript file that gets used, which again is quicker than rendering a Compugraphic font.

Now there's nothing particularly wrong with the Compugraphic font system except that there are relatively few commercial Compugraphic fonts available, and next to no shareware or PD Compugraphic fonts. Professional Page is supplied with seven Compugraphic fonts, and Amiga bitmap fonts of the 'classic 35' found inside PostScript devices. Because printer output is handled by the SaxonScript Professional PostScript interpreter, which comes as part of the Saxon Publisher package, all of these fonts can be output to Amiga Preferences printers any printer for which there is a Preferences printer driver as well as PostScript devices.

On top of this, Saxon Publisher is able to use any Adobe Type 1 font, and a utility can convert the lower quality Adobe Type 3 fonts into the higher quality Adobe Type 1 format. Saxon Publisher produces a screen font 'on the fly' and does not require Adobe Binary Font 'ABF' files, which are bitmapped representations of the fonts for screen display purposes only. PageStream has its own format of outline font, plus it supports Compugraphic and Adobe Type 1 fonts.

It comes with 10 Compugraphic fonts and eight Soft- Logik outline fonts. Fonts-wise, then, we have a mixed bag. Saxon Publisher is probably leading, having the most flexible system, although it doesn't currently support the Compugraphic format I'm told that version 2 will. It Saxon Publisher's font system is probably the best of the lot. The ones in this list are provided with the package, plus It will Import any PostScript font you throw at it certainly comes with the greatest number of fonts.

Thanks to the new FontManager program that comes with Professional Page 3. PageStream actually comes with more fonts, so it's probably got its nose in second place. One aspect of outline fonts I haven't discussed yet is the time it takes to draw them on the screen.

In the past PageStream was extremely tardy in this area, particularly with Compugraphic fonts, but version 2. Professional Page 3. But Saxon Publisher 1. The answer is academic because Saxon Publisher is faster than both, although it should be kept in mind that Professional Page's Interruptible Refresh feature means that you don't have to wait for the whole screen to refresh in order to carry on working.

It is important that, when you have a complete change of mind, the DTP program enables you to change things quickly. Otherwise it would mean starting from scratch and typesetting the whole thing again. That's what style tags are for. For instance if I've got 30 chapter headings in mm m my document, all set in Times-Bold 16pt, picked out in red and left justified, and let's say I decide to change them to Times-Boldltalic 18pt, turn them blue and right justify them, then it's going to take ages to do each of them one at -— a time.

With a style tag set up for chapter headings I would simply alter the relevant attributes in a style tags requester, and then every bit of text "With the Pantone colour system, you get a reference book to select exact colours," matter how small the difference, before you can put that piece of text on to the page.

PageStream and Professional Page also enable you to save and load style tags. Of the three style systems, Saxon Publisher's is by far the most comprehensive, including details of "things like outline, fill and drop shadow colour, plus 'texture', which is a special type of fill pattern.

Its Type Style and associated Texture Definition requesters contain a plethora of features, and it only falls down on tab positions, which can be only evenly-spaced - every half-inch for nstance. Professional Page's style tag system is just a whisker behind Saxon's, with the added benefit that separate Paragraph Tags can be set up and included as part of a Style Tag.

I don't trust PageStream's style tags. I've had so many crashes and strange things happen while using them that I can't help but wonder if Probably the best thing about Saxon Publisher is its text style tags system.

Each style can have five slight variations below the words 'Font to Edit' , and note that individual styles can be flagged to be greeked or not in the document that had that tag applied to it would automatically change to the new requirements. All three packages support style tags. PageStream and Professional Page let you set text the hard way, without style tags, if that's what you want, but Saxon Publisher insists that every single piece of text you have in the document has an associated style tag.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it forces a 'structured' approach to your typesetting, but it also means you have to go through the style set-up process first, for every section of text that is set in a different style, no Like Saxon Publisher's style tags, the Texture Definition feature is excellent, allowing a separate colour and line weight for outlined text, and the ability to fill text with special 'bitmapped' textures, which are things like radial and gradient this part of PageStream is fully working.

In any case the system is the worst of the three, although adequate. Lastly in this section about Words, a bit about colour. Unless you've used a PC for graphics work you won't really understand how important this is. I spoke to a guy the other day who is writing a book on PC graphics file formats and conversion utilities; after just a couple of weeks work he'd unearthed about 80 different formats. I'm telling you this so you understand SEE Fills and colours..

While this involves the cost of a separate printing plate for each Pantone colour used, it does mean that you get exactly the colour you ask for. However for the most part you should find CMYK plenty good enough for the majority of colour work, and all three packages support the selection of colours using this system adequately. PageStream's graphics formats support is impressive. Anything you import into PageStream is handled by a support program called a 'driver', so in order to recognise a new format of file all that needs to be written is a driver for it.

OK, it's a cliche, but before it became a cliche it was a fact. Now, we are lucky on the Amiga There's no space in this article to explain what these names and letters mean, it's enough to know that they are popular graphics formats on the PC, Mac and Atari ST.

You should also understand that while graphics in these formats can be imported into PageStream and displayed on the screen, you cannot alter them in any way. But there is one type of graphic that can be edited after importing, a structured drawing.

And while 'ungrouping' and editing such graphics in PageStream gives you a by-the-seat-of-the-pants feeling, it's an impressive feature. The GEM Metafile structured drawing format is also supported, not sure if you can edit these though as I haven't been able to find a GEM drawing to test.

You don't need me to tell you that this is an impressive list of graphics formats. But there's a problem with the bitmaps - memory. PageStream insists on importing and storing the whole of the bitmap in memory, and if you use the same graphic more than once, it loads it and stores it in memory more than once. So what? You see, even a smallish bit scan at dots per inch takes up about 2Mb or 3Mb of disk space. But this is in a compressed format, de-compressed it can double in size, or more.

So for PageStream to import such a graphic it requires enough memory, after the graphic has de- compressed, to store it, and then a bit more to display a black-and-white representation on-screen. With Mb of memory you've got no chance, with 9Mb you might get away with one bit picture and a bit of text.

There's a less memory-hungry way to do it - read the picture in a little bit at a time, and as you do so create say a four-colour version of it in memory for screen display purposes, but leave the picture itself on disk.

After all, the desktop publishing program only needs the real colour information at printing time, at which point it can read it from disk. There are further advantages to this method which affect the speed at which you can operate during the "If you want to use bit IFF ILBMs, you've got no chance unless you've got a seriously expanded Amiga," page design process. This 'leave it on the disk' technique is the one Professional Page employs and means that dozens of large bit pictures can be included in a single document without having to own a 64Mb expansion board.

This situation shall also give rise to an alarm and the representation of the corresponding device upon diagram displays as being in an 'undefined' state. Date and time from the event message time stamp Location description e. When an event list is first called up for display in a list window, the most recent page of entries shall be presented. The list shall be updated automatically with new entries as they enter the system.

The operator shall be able to page through the lists in either direction, but each new page displayed shall retain some lines from the previous page, to provide visual continuity.

In addition to the paging mechanism, there shall be a facility to jump immediately to an approximate position within the list, including either end of the list. It shall be possible to use the jump and page controls at will, to achieve rapid location of any portion of a list.

If page 1 most recent entries of a list is displayed, it shall be paged automatically, so that it always displays the most recent entries. When the page is full the system shall refresh the display to ensure that the latest events are shown. A search and sort facility shall be available to the operator, whereby he shall be able to produce a reduced list, filtered and sorted according to certain criteria. The criteria shall be entered through a pro forma mask that the operator shall be able to call up, as required.

The search and sort facility shall be very flexible, incorporating features such as variable length character string searches and the use of wildcard characters. It shall also be possible to save a number of search criteria for quick access and use in the future. An operator shall be able to send the search output to a printer or a disc file, upon operator request.

Event list shall be sized to accommodate at least 10 events and shall automatically archive any overflow on a first in first out basis. Additionally, it shall be possible to generate an audible annunciation for selected alarms by setting attributes in the database. A list of substations and SCADA system groups with unacknowledged alarms shall be available to the operator. Alarms shall be displayed on Acknowledged and Unacknowledged alarm lists. The alarm lists shall be displayed in chronological order with the most recent alarm first with the occurrence of new alarms handled in the same manner as events.

Each alarm entry shall include the time and date of occurrence, location, and device or other identifier, action, status, value and normal limits. The search and sort facility shall be very flexible, incorporating features such as variable. A display shall also be provided which identifies all substations with unacknowledged alarms. It shall be possible to navigate directly to the substation unacknowledged alarm page from this display.

Alarm list shall be sized to accommodate Alarms and shall automatically archive any overflow on a first in first out basis. All alarms shall be brought to the attention of the operators.

The alarm sequence shall be as follows: a At the onset of the alarm condition the alarm will be entered into the alarm window, and into the Unacknowledged alarm list where displayed. Its priority shall be highlighted with the use of colour. Flashing shall not be used in the alarm lists. Any device being displayed on a one line diagram to which the alarm is associated shall flash.

The alarm message will be acknowledged by the operator. If the alarm is fleeting it shall disappear from the alarm lists. If the alarm is persistent it shall be displayed on the Acknowledged alarm list. Symbols on the one line diagrams shall cease flashing when the alarm is acknowledged. The acknowledgement shall be logged in the event list. Reset of alarm condition shall be treated in the same manner as the onset except that on acknowledgement the onset and reset messages shall be removed from the alarm list.

Where the reset condition occurs before the onset has been acknowledged, the message for both conditions shall remain in the alarm list and device symbols shall flash at half the rate of the alarm conditions. The presence of an unacknowledged alarm which has reset shall be indicated by colour in the alarm list. The operator shall have the facility to accept alarms individually, on a page basis and from diagrams on a device basis.

Silencing alarms shall not inhibit the annunciation of further alarms or constitute an acknowledgement of the alarm. The software shall support two forms of alarm suppression manual and automatic. This facility is intended for use in cases where faulty signals generate repetitive nuisance events and alarms.

For manual suppression, it shall be possible for the operator to suppress the processing of individual alarm. Each suppression command shall be recorded on the event list. The system shall support the automatic suppression of nuisance alarms. A nuisance alarm shall be defined by the occurrence of a user definable number of changes of state within a user definable period. An alarm shall be generated indicating that the event has been automatically been suppressed. When the number of changes of state fall below the user defined threshold then the SCADA software shall remove the automatic suppression of the alarm.

An alarm reset shall be generated indicating the removal of the automatic suppressed condition. All suppressed alarms either manually by the operator or automatically shall be displayed on a list suppressed alarm list. Events where a time stamp is applied to a signal on receipt by the Master Station b. Events that are time stamped on occurrence by the Outstation. The sequence of events processor shall maintain a chronological list of events that can be viewed on a station, circuit or system basis.

The process shall also group the data on an event basis, e. The data shall be readily available to include in reports. A first in first out log of values and events shall be maintained such that following predefined alarm conditions the values of measurements and status received from the entire telemetry system for the previous 5 minutes and the values for the following 10 minutes shall be stored and made available in a disturbance monitoring record.

The total pre event and post event storage times shall be readily adjustable using simple user instructions. The initiating of such recording shall also be possible from logical rules and calculated values. The records shall be available for inclusion in reports and shall be readily viewable by Operators at their workstations.

It shall be possible to alter the duration of the pre and post event recording by simple Operator settings. The Bidder may offer a system that records all data samples and provides facilities to construct such reports.

It is not intended that they should define in detail the methods of presenting information to the operator and the means of operator interaction with the system. Rather, the main functional requirements and principles of operation have been defined and it is required that the Contractor shall develop his design accordingly, incorporating all additional detail necessary to furnish a comprehensive and fully functional interface for interaction with the system.

The design of the User Interface shall be based on standard software packages. An organised approach to handling multiple windows, which allows the operator to save and subsequently restore the screen layout and its contents, is preferred.

The workstations shall be capable of supporting as a minimum the number of windows per display specified in the Schedules. Access control shall be provided which requires all users to identify themselves and enter passwords before being granted access. The system shall be capable of supporting a minimum 32 different levels of users.

The access control facilities shall be arranged to restrict functional access to predefined users. Access privileges shall be freely definable and shall determine access to areas such as: a Functions controls, displays, reports, etc. Geographical areas Designated areas of responsibility Editing or creating data files, reports, etc.

Database and graphic display amendment. The actual access privileges and users will be defined during the detailed implementation phase of the project. Schematic layouts shall be represented in which the substations are laid out in approximate geographic positions with the interconnections shown by orthogonal lines with minimal crossovers. When fully zoomed in the diagram shall show the level of detail traditionally included on substation one line diagrams making these unnecessary.

Additional means of navigating the network diagram shall be provided apart from panning. These shall include selection of individual stations from the overview diagram and by database search selection using the station name or mnemonic. The search facility shall allow the use of 'wild cards' so that it is not necessary to enter the full name.

It shall also be possible to navigate directly to the network display of an item of plant which is in alarm by selection from the alarm list and similarly to an alarm list entry from an item in alarm on the network diagram. The main network display shall be updated in real time with plant status and measurement information from SCADA or manually dressed and shall be used for initiating control actions and recording a variety of information concerned with the operation of the network.

It shall also be possible for the operator to access any data which has been associated with the plant item by selecting the item on the diagram displayed on the workstation. Generally the design of displays shall focus on clarity and bringing abnormal conditions to the attention of operators. Network Topology Processing The topology of the power network shall be monitored to determine the network connectivity.

Connectivity shall be determined and held for each version of the network image resident in the database, whether real time or study cases. An alarm event shall be generated whenever the topology processor encounters a circuit arrangement resulting in the interconnection of the secondary windings of two transformers in either the same or different substations at the distribution level 11 kV or 33kV.

Connectivity Presentation The operator shall be able to call up connectivity information for superposition upon a network diagram display. This function shall have both global and operator selective modes. In global mode, all islands of interconnected equipment shall be highlighted. In operator selective mode, the operator would position the cursor on a circuit element in the portion of the network of interest and all circuit elements electrically connected to that selected shall be traced and identified by the System, originating at the primary substation source circuit breaker and terminating at the open point s of the circuit feeder.

The identification shall be carried out by means of a change of colour, or a change of line type e. The actual line attribute change invoked shall be freely user definable, although default selections shall normally apply.

For example, if yellow colouring is set up by the system engineer as the default line attribute, selection of the connectivity presentation function by the operator shall cause the lines of the relevant portion of the network to be displayed in yellow.

The line display attributes for the connectivity presentation function shall be set up in a priority display table such that when an operator invokes multiple connectivity traces i. Separate commands shall be available to enable the operator to clear down the connectivity traces both individually and globally. Automatic clear down shall occur upon closure of the display window, but not during panning and zooming actions.

The operator shall have the facility of an independent command to visually accentuate the open points in the network. Clear down shall be by manual command and automatically upon closure of the display window. Displays representing the hydro complexes shall be provided that show water levels for reservoirs and ponds in a cascade overview indicating spill gate operation, near spill and whether operation is near minimum limits. These displays shall be driven by telemetered and manually entered data and shall indicate warning and alarm conditions.

In addition to these displays being available on Operator VDUs and the Video Wall, permanent pictorial displays shall be located adjacent to the Video Wall. For each station, tables of measured values comprising circuit loading A, MW, MVAr , voltages kV , frequency Hz , transformer tap positions, energy meter advances kWh, kVAh and other measurements shall be available for display.

The video wall display shall be capable of presenting any of the Graphic and Tabular displays available in the system. System Frequency Trend derived directly from the above measurement A further 6 frequency measurements shall be available for display that are derived from other GSS or generating stations and provided by direct communication via digital channels supplied under this contract.

It should be noted that the frequency measurements are the most critical system control variables and are required to be displayed without any delays incurred in the SCADA acquisition process and must be available in the event that the SCADA system fails. With the exception of the latter 6 frequency measurements these values shall be permanently displayed on a panel adjacent to the video wall.

The display of the other 6 frequency measurements shall be operator selectable and presented in the same panel. Provision shall be made for 3 such frequency measurements to be displayed simultaneously.

The User Interface shall be designed to maximise the use of graphical interaction implemented using standard software wherever possible and to this end it must be stated where the standard software, as offered, does not comply with the functional requirements detailed herein. The software shall also guide the user, step-by-step, through each sequence by identifying the remaining valid entries, preferably via the use of pop-up menus, dialogue prompts and help screens.

All such facilities shall be context sensitive and, for example, only menu options relevant to the command sequence being executed shall be presented to the operator for selection. Where a command sequence requires selection from a series of menus, they shall be displayed sequentially at approximately the same position on the screen.

Where text entry is more appropriate for the interaction or dialogue between an operator and the system, pro forma screens data entry masks and dialogue boxes shall be used. These shall contain field descriptions that readily identify the required information to the operator.

Wherever possible, previous values or default values shall be entered into the interactive fields by the system, so that an operator only needs to make amendments, rather than completely filling the pro forma each time. Context sensitive help screens shall always be available to the operator to assist him to interact with the system. Where practicable, the help screens shall consist of the relevant pages of the Operators' Manual. All operator entries shall be checked by the system for validity and plausibility.

The operator shall not be permitted to make invalid entries. Any invalid entry shall be detected by the software and ignored. An explanatory message shall be displayed. It shall then be possible to continue the sequence with a valid entry. For rapid selection and control of diagram manipulative functions in particular, pointer selectable "softkey" symbols shall be available for use by the operator. Such soft keys shall duplicate equivalent selections available via the keyboard and through menus and shall typically be used to switch between mouse controlled actions e.

Softkey control shall avoid the use of more cumbersome menu selection sequences in situations where one step execution of and rapid switching between functions is desirable. Where appropriate, the latched selection of a softkey function shall be visually indicated by a change of softkey appearance. Selection of a softkey function shall automatically cancel any alternative mutually exclusive selections previously made.

Linking shall also be possible between text lists e. For example, selecting an alarm entry in a list may be configured to open a diagram window and display the related substation at an appropriate level of detail. It shall be possible to navigate directly from station single line level to both station acknowledged and unacknowledged alarm lists. Warning messages shall indicate if for any reason the selected control action is not possible. These reasons shall include the following:.

A cancel key shall be provided to allow termination of the command sequence. In the event that a command sequence is left incomplete, subsequent inadvertent operation of the execute key shall be prevented. This shall be achieved either by a 30 s time-out function initiated by the key sequence reaching the execute stage. Only one valid circuit breaker control order may be sent at any time to a given Outstation. In communicating commands to the Outstations, the following conditions must be satisfied: a Initiation of a command shall involve a select before operate procedure.

Alternatively the validity of the command should be checked at the main computer and, if correct, transmitted to the Outstation at very high security. Status changes arising from operator issued commands shall not be treated as alarm conditions.

Normally, circuit breaker closing will be initiated by a 'circuit breaker close' command issued by the operator. Checking for synchronism and dead line conditions will be carried out locally by the switchgear control scheme, by means of appropriate check synchronism and dead bus relays. Certain circuit breaker closing command schemes will incorporate synchronising relays. Three special control signals are associated with such breakers: ''circuit breaker sync select', ''circuit breaker sync close' and ''circuit breaker deadline close'.

The ''circuit breaker sync select' command is latched within the switchgear control panel and connects the appropriate "running", "incoming" and "phase angle" voltages to bus wires.

These voltages shall also be transmitted to the Master Station for display to the operator. Unlatching will be performed locally by the closing logic, or through the ''circuit breaker sync deselect' command common for the substation. Circuit breaker closure will be controlled as follows: a Where voltages are present on both sides of the 'circuit breaker, the ''circuit breaker sync close' command should be issued by the operator. This will initiate the synchronising action of the local synchronising relay, which will latch the command until one of the following occurs: the relay closes the 'circuit breaker, a watchdog timer expires, or the ''circuit breaker sync deselect' command is issued by the operator.

This command shall be interlocked in software to prevent its issue if voltages exist on both sides of the 'circuit breaker. Under normal operation, transformer tap changers will be controlled by automatic voltage regulating AVR relays, at the substation.

Facilities shall be provided to allow the switching between automatic and manual control of the AVRs. When selected to manual control, it shall be possible for raise and lower commands to be issued to the tap changers from the master station. The raise and lower commands shall not require an execute action by the operator. Feedback of command execution will be by an associated change in the indicated tap position.

These facilities shall include syntax and logical validity checks on the sequence. Associated with each sequence shall be a text description to allow the operator to identify what will be achieved by the sequence and a summary of the steps involved. All sequences shall consist of checks, automatic controls, manual controls and delays. Checks shall provide the facility within a sequence to verify that an item of plant is in a particular state or that an analogue value is within pre-defined limits.

Any check must be successful before the system proceeds to the next step. A failed check shall cause the sequence to suspend operation and alert the operator that this has occurred. Automatic controls shall be issued by the control sequence function. The system shall handle a sequence generated control exactly as if it had been manually generated and shall provide all of the necessary time-outs and check of plant status.

Circuit breakers and other remote controlled plant included in a control sequence selected for execution or being executed shall be identified on displays by a symbol. Manual controls included within a sequence shall be carried out under instruction from the operator.

The operator shall be required to enter that the control instruction has been issued before the sequence will continue. It shall be possible to execute a sequence automatically or on a step by step basis.

If a control sequence fails because of an unsuccessful check or control, then an appropriate operator alarm message shall be generated and the sequence shall enter a paused state. This shall require the operator to decide whether to continue by retrying the check or to cancel the sequence. The initiation and completion of a predefined control sequence shall be logged.

It shall be possible to configure such set points independently for manual entry, via the GUI, or for automatic transmission eg. Such set points may be used for machine control or remote indication; the need for set point acknowledgement may vary, therefore, and this aspect shall be user configurable.

Where set points are used for the transmission of MW and MVAr target indications to displays at power stations, the following principle of operation is expected to apply. Where the transmitted values have been manually set by an operator or the output of an EMS function has been manually endorsed by an operator receipt of new set point values at the remote station will produce an indication that they require acknowledgement by power station operators.

Power station operators acknowledgements shall be transmitted to the master station via the respective Outstations. Once acknowledgement is received, the master station automatically resets the indication to show that acknowledgement is no longer required. If acknowledgement is not received after a preset time user configurable an alarm shall be generated and a message shall be displayed to the System Control Room operators.

Operators may change the status of manually-dressed elements on receipt of verbal instructions from site stating the actual element position. The manually-dressed changes shall be inserted automatically in the database and logged as an event. It shall be possible from the operator workstation to remove from scan any measurement, or indication that comes within the operators area of responsibility.

This shall be suitably indicated on the display by a symbol or tag to indicate the removal from scan. It shall then be possible, from the workstation, to insert a new manually-dressed value for the element, with the manual-dressing also suitably indicated by a symbol or tag.

The manually-dressed changes shall be inserted automatically in the database and thus on all other displays on which that element occurs.

On manual restoration of the elements back into service the readings shall again be recorded in the database, returned to their normal presentation and hence regularly updated on the displays. Manual-dressing operations, as described above, shall be logged as an event.

The system must recognise an attempt by the operator to make an invalid manual-dressing operation and this should be blocked, with a suitable error message being displayed on the screen. The trend display shall have adjustable x and y axis. It shall be possible to compare on the same display, up to sixteen trends of real-time data or historical data. The operator shall have the facility to tag network diagrams to indicate various conditions.

The system shall support as a minimum 16 different tags. Fault Information. It shall be possible to place a tag marker anywhere on a diagram, where it shall act as a selection point to tag data and corresponding notepad pages associated with each tag. The notepad pages shall enable supporting textual and graphical information to be held in the system. It shall be possible for the operator to link the tag to diagram elements, so that control actions e. Each tag placement, modification and removal shall be accompanied by an entry in the event list.

In such cases of multiple tags the tag shall be presented in such a way to show that other tags are present. These other tags shall be readily opened via the priority tag. It is essential that all tag lists and associated notepad pages are held on disc to ensure non-volatility of data in the event of a total Master Station shutdown. Expiry time. Where a tag has reached its expiry time the Operator shall be alerted to this automatically.

Expired PTW entries shall be retained on the system until manually archived. The earthing list shall hold a comprehensive record of all earths applied to the network. The list shall hold earth tag entries, telemetered earthing point status information and manual diagram dressing information. The System shall provide a facility to allow operators to create notes or messages to other operators. It shall be possible to define notes which include displays or segments of displays.

The notes shall be stored in the System and their existence shall be indicated on displays to catch the attention of operators. All printers supplied shall be under the control of printer management facilities which provide buffering such that print requests do not disable operator interaction at a workstation whilst printing is taking.

Printer buffers shall also retain data waiting to be printed to cater for events such as printers being temporarily off-line for paper loading, etc. The printer management facility shall warn operators of pending print buffer overflow. It shall be possible to direct output to any appropriate printer type, in any location, at the time a print-out is ordered, whether for immediate, future, periodic or continuous printing. Printer selection should preferably be via a menu list although the system shall preset the selection to a user defined printer, at each request, to aid the operator.

It shall be possible for the print manager to automatically, or manually upon operator request, redirect print output to an alternative printer to that originally selected to cater for situations where the originally selected printer is unavailable for printing. This facility shall be user configurable.

An operator shall be able to initiate a screen print to a full graphic colour printer upon demand. This facility shall be additional to those for printing of lists, reports, diagrams, trend displays, etc that are specified elsewhere. A comprehensive and integrated suite of power system computational assistance programs is required for the monitoring, control and management of the kV and kV transmission network.

The suite of software shall comprise two principal sub-systems: a Network Analysis and Security Assessment b Forecasting, Production Scheduling and Despatch. In the near future the Employer intends to implement a Transparent Despatch facility to enable the details of daily despatch to be made available on line to market participants. The EMS system shall be able to interface with such a facility. The Bidder shall describe the method and tools that are used in his standard system to achieve this.

The functional and performance requirements of the EMS are described in the following Clauses. The set-up and execution initiation for each application shall generally be through an Execution Control Display which shall have a similar layout for each application or facility, as appropriate. Any decision relating to the selection of particular methods, in order to ensure that the specified requirements are met, such as the use of accelerating factors, optimisation algorithms, sparsity techniques or special file management and accessing techniques, shall be the responsibility of the Contractor.

Wherever possible, the Bidder shall offer standard EMS modules with proven software. The Bidder shall identify in Technical Schedules those EMS modules which will require modification to meet the specified requirements and shall provide an estimate of the extent of amendments necessary. The Bidder shall state the service experience of each module. Any EMS module requiring special development for this project shall be identified.

The Bidder shall provide sufficient technical detail in the offer to enable a full assessment of the suitability and compliance of facilities, and any proposed alternatives, to be made. The estimated CPU loading factors and execution times for each major application program shall also be stated in the Technical Schedules. The Contractor shall demonstrate the accuracy of solutions and optimisation result for each application prior to operational acceptance of the system.

The transmission network presently comprises kV and kV cables and overhead lines, which feed an extensive radially operated 33kV and 11kV networks. The application of kV is likely in the future.

The transmission network is an island network but may in the future be interconnected with the Transmission System in Southern India.

There are a number of hydro and thermal generating stations within the Country. The EMS shall cater for both existing and future multiple voltage network configurations and for a comprehensive mix of generating plant. The scope of coverage of the EMS shall extend to the 33kV load points. However, embedded generation which may include small thermal, hydro or wind turbines exists in various parts of the network.

The smoked top locks down. Dividers and adhesive litte strips are supplied for ellicient filing, of discs. Supplied complete with integral power supply, cables and Utilities disc. DLC2- Holds 1 0 x 3. DLC3 - Holds 5 x 5. DLC4 - Holds 1 0 x 5. Its multi scan circuitry provides automatic adjustment for frequencies between 30 and 60KHz horizontal, and 50 and BQHz vertical, its 0. Increases productivity in offices. A must for wondprocessor users.

AH controls are located on the front panel for ease of use. Ideal tor BBC. BBC Master. Archimedes and Amiga. There are 2 versions to suit all requirements. The multimode software supplied, provides all Ihe new modes for the selected monitor type, including the now standard Computer Concepts modes.

With VGA monitor, you are no longer restricted to a tew modes. A WIMP application supplied on disc, allows new modes to be designed and existing modes to be modified for particular monitors. They can be used as Aulo Sharers, Printer Buffers or bolh. ConQuest lakes this principal even further, by utilising the otherwise normally incompatible Sideways RAM facility by holding pictures in them. This handy little gadget solves the problem of where to store your mouse when it is having a rest.

Made of sturdy plastic, the WE Mouse House attaches to the side of your computer, monitor, disc drive or desk. It protects it from damage when not in use. Requires very tittle desk space. Mouse Cleaning Kit To obtain trouble free operation and prolong the life of your mouse, it requires regular cleaning. It is totally insensitive to local lighting conditions and works with many different monitors.

An LED indicates when valid video data is being produced. A conveniently located switch is also lilted. This uses the lull graphics capacity of the BBC micro in modes 0, 1 or 2. The video source may be a camera, video recorder or television, and is connected via the video output socket. The software supplied includes a sophisticated, fast screen dump rou tine.

Images produced can be compressed, stored td disc, printed on an Epson compatible printer, directly used to generate graphics, analysed or scientific and educational use or converted to other formats e. Stow Scan TV or receiving a piclure from a remote camera using a modem.

The output from the digitiser exactly matches the graphics capability in each mode, with up to 8 levels of grey in mode 2. The unit connects into the User Port and automatically scans a complete picture in 1. HandSean is a compact unit which will allow photographs, diagrams, or any other documents to be digitised quickly and easily, to hen be used in a desk top publishing package, ari program, or even in your own Basic programs!

These useful devices have been available or faster and more expensive micros for some time, but only now is Watford Electronics able lo otter the BBC Micro computer. All necessary software has been included in the lirmware lo allow Ihe scanner lo read images directly into our Wapping Editor with little more than lha click of the mouse.

The digitised picture may Ihen be incorporated into your magazine, newsletter, report or any other document. The package includes a 64K ROM containing ALL he software needed to get into print fast: a very sophisticated graphics module, professional quality typesetting software, a word processor, a comprehensive font editor for designing your own typefaces, and a variety of printer dumps.

A comprehensive page man uaf completes the package. The Support ROM contains routines to allow an area lo be rotated to any angle or distorted lo any four- sided shape. Page Layout Section The Wapping Editor may be used lo create pages of any sue from an A6 to a full A3 page, If none cl the eighl default page types suit your purpose, the stand-alone page creation program may be used to create pages to your own requirement- By using proportionally spaced fonts and genuine microspacing it is possible to print over ISO characters; across an A4 page.

Text may be typeset, either justified or unjustified, in any font anywhere on the page. Simply select which lent and text document you wish to use, and pull out a rectangle on the page where you warn the text to be - it's as simple as that!

Multiple columns may be printed just as easily and a special 'expand 1 feature may be used to expend the microspacing so that the docu ment exactly tits the space defined. Word-Processor The integral word processor is Ihe ideal tool lor producing your text documents, although text can of course be read in from any ol the other popular word processors such es View, Word wise etc. The Font Editor The font ediior module will allow you to design your own typefaces or to modify the ones provided on the utility disc.

This sophisticated editor has numerous functions designed to lake the ledium and frustration out of producing good looking, well balanced fonts.

Each character may be individutly proport ton ally spaced and characters of any size Up to 16 x 16 pixels may be defined. Pictures include maps, transport, people, media, sport, games etc.

Two 'ratio' screens for use with hi-res and rotated A5 pages lo ensure images are not distorted when printed Cut, Music writing symbols in the form of pattern and brush for quick production of manuscripts are included together with slaves.

There are two prepared hi -res pages layed out for printing labels, both single and double width. Ready made label designs are included but these can be easily replaced with your own designs. A Mode 0 screen dump routine is also included. To pack such a targe amount of data onto Ihe discs the screens have been compressed and routines to compress and expand Mode 0 screens are included on both discs.

Using Ihe packing routine you can archive large numbers of screens onto a single disc. Also included are Ihree Mode 0 screens containing giant 'headline' fonts to cut and paste to create extra smooth headlines.

Features provided include facilities for zooming In on an image and inverting the image in X and Y directions, saving and printing of the sprite created. Interactive help is supplied using the 'HELP application on! The mm scanning width can cope wifh both desktop scanning ol single sheets, photographs, diagrams, etc. Scanned image control can be freely adjusted in increment of 10 dels per jneh from 10G up to dpi resolution with 64 levels of grey scaling.

A buill in shading controller and manual brightness control achieve Optimum image clarify. All these features and facilities combine lo make Ihe Archi Page Scanner the fast and convenient way in which to add that extra impact, interest and clarity to documents, reports, instruction sheets, manuals, news letters, etc. The package includes the most comprehensive utility software available for the Archimedes, a high quality hand held scanner, and all necessary documentation to get you going straight away, SCANNER The scanner is capable of scanning up to an amazing dote par inch DPI!

The dot resolution may be swilched to , , or the maximum dpi- One of tour operating modes may be selected offering either pure monochrome scanning, or one of three grey revel modes. The grey level modes use different size dilher patterns to represenl up to 16 shades of grey. There is also a dial to allow the "brightness'" to be adjusted over a wide range, in order to optimise the quality for any specific image. The scanner interface is a standard, single width, expansion card podule which plugs into the Archimedes' backplane.

The socket on the rear panel connects the scanner by 1. The software is sup- plied in a 64Kbyte ROM located on the interface board.

The scanner appears as a small icon on the desktop icon bar, and the software is retrieved from the ROM simply by clicking on that icon. As you scan a page, the image appears in the scanning window on ihe screen, scrolling up in real lime.

The other facilities included in the software are. Cropping and seating to any size including stretch- ing and squashing in X and Y direction separately. Colour tinting. X and Y flip, Edge detection which turns solid objects into outlines. Selective directional copying which allows features i. Scanned images may be saved as sprite files dr transferred directly into olher RiscOS applications DTP, Draw, Paint simpty by dragging the sprite tile into the application's window.

Sprites may also be generated using anti-aliasing. This greatly improves picture quality and is particularly affective when scanning material wiih a range of grey tones, such as photographs. Images can be printed on any printer that is supported by a RiscQS printer driver, with optional settings lor portrait or landscape modes, image scale and positioning, [mages are printed using the full resolution of the printer and are not limited to the screen resolution.

On-screen help is provided via Ihe RiscQS interactive help facility. Calls are also provided in the ROM for users wishing lo write their own software, incorporating the use of the scanner. We also supply a purpose designed see-through slorage container with anti-static lining, allowing you to store up to 12 ROMs, prelecting them from mechanical and static damage.

It is a must for professionals and Hobbyists alike. This product is recommended as an ideal complement by Computer Concepts. Lisp and BCPL programs in any screen mode. Sideways RAM enables you to load sideways ROM images from disc, allowing you to have a large library of sideways ROMs subject to the copyright holder's permission stored on disc.

The B32 simply plugs into the processor socket on you BBC micro - no flying leads to connect and no soldering. In addition, there are two sockets for sideways RAM. This extremely uselui little device aitows two units to be connected to the User Port simultaneously, and select between them simply by toggling a switch. Using the B, up to 15 devices may be connected in a single high-speed data network.

Commander is particularly good tor flight simulation and drawing programs. Following the success of this board, we have designed what probably represents the ultimate in expansion boards, Watford's ROM. This leaves free all the existing ROM sockets, which can still be used normally. It is designed to replace your existing cashbook system and will provide you with a computerised system complete lo trial balance. Enables you to keep records of names and addresses and then print, examine, serf and find them, all with special selection techniques.

By utilising the powerful Wordwise Plus programming language, Word Aid provides a whole host of extra features, all accessed via a special new menu option.

Search and display in preview mode. All standard highlight sequences are also supported- A large range o printers are supported by drivers contained within the ROM the drivers can be downloaded and customised. Other printers are readily supported by defining a Printer Driver using he built-in Printer Driver Generator. The lealures mentioned below are available to both the built in Printer Drivers and user defined drivers assuming the printe r supports the lealures.

NLQ control, Underline. Bold, Proportional Spacing, Microspacing, italic. LPI 6 , Set characters per inch numerically e. CPI 5 , Select printer font, Select printer ribbon colour. Full printer setup, Send control codes. Ol course. View 1. The BBC 8 series and Master series of micros arc supported.

A comprehensive manual is supplied. All in all, a very professional product or the discerning user who wants power at their finger tips.

Has VAT routines and footer messages lacilily. STOCK CONTROL - Allows you to enier stock received, stock out, summary of stock items and current holdings together with details of total cost, total stock to minimum level, units in slock ordering, quantity and supplier detail. Available in 2 lull A4 versions, desk resting and shelf clamping.

Paper Is held firmly by means of a plastic retaining ruler and a dip grip. By hand or foot pedal. Batteries 2 x A A not included. These units are extremely handy. However, now that you have got it home and connected it to your BBG microcomputer, you are wondering how to make it perform these magical tasks. The manual seems to give no ciues, and when you type in the example programs, the computer throws the LPRINT statements back in your face.

This book describes in plain, easy to understand English, how to use and make the most of your KP It describes in detail how to obtain the maximum in graphics capability from your printer and includes full indexes allowing you to cross Index the numerous commands.

Every command is explained in detail, with an accompanying BBC Basic program and an example of its use from Wordwise. Do you have to use both Acorn computers and PC's? As a result school computer users are at a disadvantage whan moving inio 'business' computing. PCs and other commercial computers use MS-DOS as the operating system, so commands tor formatting, copying, backing up, priming and the modem are not Ihe same.

Even file names are written differently! And did you know teal there is one Acorn commancf which, if used in MS-DOS, wipes everything in the current directory? John Lockley, who has wide experience of writing and broadcasling. Price: E Electron, Master 1 28 or Master Compact, or Archimedes, then his is the book for you. It shows how to get Ihe best from your machine, and how to make il work for you. The general style and level of presentation means ihal bolh ihe expert and beginner alike wilt feel comfortable with Ihe quality and quantity o!

Subjects covered include the general used computers, hardware design and peripheral devices like printers, disc drives, etc, and Networking. Programming hints and lips and various disciplines for making a better program are- discussed in some detail, including debugging of specific errors. Standard programs are covered, such as wordpnocessors, spreadsheets, databases, graphics, communications, elc.

A book you will enjoy To use as a reference, or read from cover to cover, over and over. It explains all the principles required by the hardware and associaled software, and also example listings for inclusion into custom programs, The manual first details Ihe basic principles of the mouse and a simple program which uses these principles.

This information should be adequate or most applications. However, it is possible to improve the performance ol the mouse by expanding on ihe principles already used in the software.

This is again fully explained and an example program given. It is possible to gain a full understanding of the mouse from this manual. For those not interested in exactly how the mouse functions, complete example programs are aiso included.

These may be typed directly into Ihe micro, without the need for any understanding of the hardware or software involved, enabling the mouse to be used lor custom applications. Beeb DOS provides a practical method of transferring information between these two micros. Beeb DOB is a collection o! Will only work on K Drsk Drives 8. Our micro plinths, have slots for maximum ventilation.

The compuler slides neatly in the lower section allowing easy access to remove the lid. Software switched. Sections of image can be loaded separately. Part programming. Edit data in memory. There is also a blank check facility. More than one file per ROM permitted.

The TEX erasers operate following the manufacturers specificalions to give the maximum possible working life by not erasing too fast.

Our Kit 14 is Ideal for the purpose. Supplied wired up with mains plug ready for use. Can be screwed to tloor or wall if required. Very uselul for tidying up all the mains leads from your peripherals.

Up to four drives are supported by the IDE filing system 10 EPS, up to l wo drives can be attached to each expansion card, up to lour cards can be installed in a machine.

An optional 20Mb or 40Mb hard disc can be supplied on the podule expansion card itself, wilh ils fast iransfer rate and power saving modes the drive is ideal for storing commonly used software such as the! Fonts application. Once locked, the Configuration can not be changed until a secret password is used.

By an innovative use of on-board memory, the card will remember its configuration, even if moved to another slot or even a different machine, this also includes the unique security features. Software supplied in, On-board ROM. Wo soldering required. Simply plug info the ellcted space.

These stunningly engineered, light weight but fast, 2. A novel feature of the hard cards is thai they can be easily removed and transported to another Archimedes, for example to make a hard disc backup, or to transfer saved files from work to home etc. Security of files on the hard disc is ensured by our unique security password lock, which allows files to be read only, but not overwritten or deleted - ideal for use in school applications where the integrity of your master software needs io be retained.

The cable is always being caught up in papers, tangled round equipmertf and other cables etc, and what about that cup of coffee spifled over your work! In use, there are no operating differences between the standard mouse and the new cordless mouse so all mouse funclions and mouse driven RISC software will be fully compatible, Pinpoint accuracy is ensured by a unique Accelerator button, which, when pressed, moves Ihe pointer by just a tiny amount or a large slow movement of the mouse, but by a large amount for a quick wiiz of the mouse.

Shop Hours: 9. Monday to Saturday. Thursdays 9am lo Spm. Free Customer's Car Park. WAT: Uk customers please add Specifications of all products are given in good faith but are subject to Change without notice. Some items vary in their availability. Watford Elecironics Terms and Conditions are available upon request. Please ring lor latest delivery situation. We have changed our name but not our service.

Broad Oak Computers have been giving a superb service to Acorn Users for over a year. But we don't just sell computers, we offer a complete service to the computer user and buyer which includes FREE local delivery and training, and full after sales support with a good choice of software always available. Our superb training facilities offer courses for all levels of experience including complete beginners. Our new correspondence courses are perfect for those with a busy lifestyle.

This is especially true for Ehc RiscOS machines which, unlit recently, were over- shadowed by the Beeb. The upgrades allow access to overlay key- boards, touch screens, modems and switches, but it is the utilities provided which are at the heart of the package. One of the utilities pro- vided is ASP, switch interface software which allows disabled users to access Rise OS appli- cations, by using a single switch device.

Big Fir offers an enlarged and visible pointer whereas Close up presents a small magnified window which can move around the screen. Flasher gives a more visible flashing caret and a cursor-homing device.

With Chars, typing can be achieved, using the mouse to select characters from a screen display. The Acorn package also allows you to use Midi musical instrument digital interface equipment. The interface has four jack sockets designed to take switches and a familiar BBC-sly le user port connector and also provides a small through -connector with the printer connected at the end of the queue.

The overlay keyboard is extremely versatile, since it is simply a piece of paper. Basically, it provides a choice of icons which the user presses instead of the normal keys. Concept Designer and Conform make programming the device easy, if you want to create overlays for a specific purpose. The Overlay Keyboard is made from high- impact plastic, which makes it both light and sturdy, meeting educational safety and design criteria extremely well.

A single switch interface ia built in as standard and is used by inserting the switch jack plug into a socket which automatically disables the key- board and selects the switch. Most important ly. Other input devices include touch screens see BA U February 92 issue , alternative keyboards, mice, traekerballs, switches and voice input devices.

Two leading Touch Window systems i Keyboard Technology and Lmgenuity are made up of the same hardware, with differing software drivers. They are accurate, responsive and can be adapted to fit almost any monitor. Their high resolution, coupled wiih the ability to be removed from the monitor to be used as a Tracing window", add to their versatility.

One successful alternative to the mouse is the Deha Cat which can prove very useful in specific circumstances, especially if the joystick is firmly mounted and an extension tube is fitted over I he stumpy control stick.

It can offer con- trol via foot buttons and mouth stick. If you require a better mouse than the standard one provided with the Archimedes, then I recom- mend Clares' rodent, which nestles comfortably in the palm of the band, allowing the fingers to rest more naturally over the buttons.

For a trackerball literally an upside-down mouse the sturdy Marconi unit has performed well over the years, but is shortly to be eclipsed by the new Ark Tracker. Not only is this tracker ball extremely rugged but it has all the mouse operations on separate buttons. A perspex over- lay can be added to help with locating the buttons and a separate switch provides control over the pointer speed.

As the unit remains stationary, pointer operation is controlled, with the fingers alone negating the need to move the whole arm - useful for a disabled person who has fine motor control hut finds larger arm movement more difficult. For those whose only means of communi- cation w ith a Beeb is their voice, the MicroMike has proven successful, giving voice- volume control over a variety of activities, Et can pro- mote vocal play, control of volume and liming of vocalisation.

The popular Sid and Mike wjftware has now been converted to Archimedes use. Alternatives to the standard keyboard are available from Special Access Systems, starting with a metal keyguard which fastens on to the keyboard.

Holes on the keyguard permit hands lo rest on the guard, while fingers can access individual key holes. Users can also perform multi key presses as one operation and four programmable delays can cope with uncertain or over- long key presses. Furthermore, bright LEDs or programmable sounds can help those with sensory disabilities to know when a key has been pressed. Contact Keyboards Keyboard Technology clip on over the existing keyboard, keeping unused keys hidden from prying fingers and making programs highly resistant to accidental crashes, Obviously such a device is tied to specific software applications and as yet.

One advantage of these devices is that they provide sensory feedback to the user. Incidentally, the Matchmaker interface can be used to connect virtually any input tie vice device switch, joystick, trackerball.

Next month, we wilt look at the softw are options for special needs. Northwest SEMERC, under director Martin Little r right is a fountain of information, help and advice, if you are involved in special education, then the exhibition is worth a visit- Northwest SEMERC also publishes a special needs newsletter entitled Copy which is full of interesting case studies and reviews of how people are coping with the BBC, AQ, Archimedes and other machines.

Given the prestigious nature of the other nominees, this award is particularly satisfying. This made me wonder if it was possible to do something similar on my trusty Acorn machine, Well, it was, and here it is,.. The program draws a lace on the screen.

Then slowly the face undergoes a metamorphosis, changing into another and another. It is a great showpiece, and has an almost hypnotic effect on people. Part of the inspiration came from an excellent book by A Dewdney called The Arm- chair Universe In fact, the data for the face is based on an example w ithin the book.

It then generates two completely different faces, let's call them face I and face! These faces are stored as PLOT commands in arrays. In the main loop, the co-ordinates for face] and face 2 are being averaged by a formula which, at the start of the loop is weighted solely towards face] but, at the end of the loop is is weighted solely towards face2, By using this formula, a face which lies somewhere in between can be generated.

This face is drawn on the shadow screen. When the drawing is finished, the active and shadow screens are switched, the weight is changed a little towards face2 and the main loop is entered again. The face is eventually changed totally into face 2, then face 2 is made into fa cel, a new face2 is generated and the changing process starts again.

When you run Facet some data wilt be created, then you can run Face2. The program consists of three parts: an initial- isation, a face generator and a main loop, which makes the face slowly change from one to another The most complex part of the program is the procedure PROCdistan. It takes the array distort and returns it distorted by the required amount. Two arrays, re fx and refy, are the coordinates for face l and face 2, The original coordinates are not changed at all by the distor- tion of the face and are these are therefore stored in a single array.

The distortion method is mainly a simple multiplication around a point. In the procedure, the distortion factors lucewittih etc,.. These points arc used in combination with the distortion factors w hen changing certain parts of the face.

The first of the reference points is a global point, used for distorting the entire face. Reference points two to nine also go through the distortion calculation. Incidentally, line 1 in this loop contains the calculation that makes the face egg shaped, with the point either at the top or the bottom.

In the main loop the points of the face are distorted. The general distortion of the entire face is being handled by lines to This calculation is exactly the same as the one shown in lines to Most of the distortion of various parts of the face are made by multiplication around a point, but some require that the parts are moved too - such as in the case of the eyebrows.

This happens at lines and the distance between the eyes and also at line which produces the rais- ing of the eyebrows. The part of the face to be distorted by certain factors is controlled by counting the points in the face- drawing and by testing the counter. This is what happens in the various when blocks. When the counter has reached 1 tt6.

The distorted face is then stored in arrays, which takes place at lines and David Lawrence has also written a version of Face for eight-bit owners. To use it. The program works by calculating the in- between stages this will lake 20 or so seconds and then the animation takes place.

Indeed, why stop at the face? The program could be used on the entire human body! Either turn to our yellow pages section and type the program in, or if you are a subscriber, simply load it from yogr free monthly disc. Yet in he Late 70s this was the faraway dream of a lew electronics boffins. Ami rite rest, as they say. It is that history which the BBC is celebrating in a special minme programme. The Trojan Mouse, due to be screened on Sunday April 5 see box for details.

This programme will examine the effects of the computer literacy project and the BBC micro on personal comput- ing, as well as highlight the key developments Humble beginnings with the Acorn Atom of the past decade. The magazine was actually launched in response to the success of both the TV computer literacy programmes and the Acorn -produced BBC micro - and we have been around ever since, charting the ups and downs of she Acorn market.

Roger Wil- son joined the company straight from university to help design the Atom and remains with the company today, developing new projects. Produced by Dave Thomas, who was responsible for producing previous computer pro- grammes, the programme is hosted by Ian MacNaught Davis, who appeared in the first series.

The programme traces the evolution of the project, the related hardware and software achievements, and talks to many of the people who were involved along the way - from Cambridge graduates putting together the earliest prototypes, to teachers whose lives were completely changed by the introduction of the first BBC micros.

But the programme isn't just about the past - it brings you up to date with current developments and poses some questions about the future.

Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry put forward the Acorn Proton design, which was to more than match the specification. In April Acorn was contracted to supply 12, machines that the BBC expected to sell by mail order The figure of I2,IH 0 machines was cautious - in fact, more than that were ordered before the first series was even screened.

The result? A runaway success for the BBC and Acorn with further series in the pipeline. Also the Micros iti Schools scheme was launched - the brainchild of Kenneth Baker, the education secretary at that time.

While popular, it was to be dogged by produc- tion problems and by Christmas public enthusiasm had waned and one-third of the Electrons built were apparently never sold. The share price fell and finally the Italian computer giant, Olivetti, stepped in to save the company. Curry and Hauser signed away their controlling interests to Olivetti, but both stayed on ns board directors. While cheaper to manufacture, the Master was more expensive to buy and. The Master Compact followed, but offered little that was new.

It will be packed with interesting facts and figures, charting the ups and downs of the Acorn market and looking at some of the key people who have helped to shape home computing. Producers involved with the early series will give their assessment of what has taken place over the past decade and we will trace the history of Acorn in detail, with a machine 'family tree' and profile the key people involved- There will also be an overview of the impact of computing on education, how the BBC micro changed some people's lives, and well be doing some crystal ball gazing into the future.

So, whether you are an avid BBC micro fan. Or you are just inter- ested in finding out why this machine has had such an impact on personal computing, be sure not to miss our special supplement. Place an order with your newsa- gent now - you can use the special coupon on page 85 of this issue. Or to subscribe to the magazine turn to page 29 for details of our special subscription offer.

Based on Rise technology, the one in a I machines carried the BBC tag, Flu this was io cause much controversy us the Corpor- ation was seen lo be endorsing untried technology. The original stop-gap Arthur operating system was later lo become Rise More affordable than the Arehi- 01 l-iV. The Learning Curve package, including an A and supporting software.

The Archimedes A is the latest Acorn machine. Rise 08 3. But what of the future? Find out in next month's special issue of BAU. Marley Electronics new removable cartridge hard disc systems can work on the A through to the A including the new A as well as on BBC Master computers.

The secret lies in the hard disc cartridge which after dismounting can be taken o ut and sto red , o r be rep laced by another cartridge within a few seconds. Security isso easy with these discs because you can simply take them home or lock them away.

The unit can also be used as a backup system for internal hard drives as well. Once you have looked at the prices you will see that they are significantly cheaper than tape streamer sytems. You also have virtually instant access to the information stored on them because they are a hard disc and therefore it is simply a matter of copying files from one disc to another instead of having to run lengthy restore programsto recover information from tape.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of these units isthat when one cartridge is full then all you have to do is purchase a new cartridge and not a whole mechanism saving you a small fortune in the process. The mechanisms can be either 44MB or 90MB, however please note that the cartridges are not interchangeable between the two. The mechanisms are true SCSI devices. Prices exclude VAT and carnage. Prices include mechanism, case, one cartridge, all necesary cables and software.

Prices excluding interface card do not include software. Please call for prices. Unfortunately you cannot use he obvious: MOV ro. The instruction that we use is mvn or Move Not, but, to be even more awkward, you cannot simply say: mvn ro, M or even: mvn ru. For some reason best known to Acorn, you have to supply the ones complement of the number.

Remember with twos complement you change all the Os to Is and Is to Os and then add 1. The easiest way to do it with the Basic assembler is to use the Basic keyword not. In fact, NOT actually performs the ones complement of its parameter - very handy! Some other assemblers, such as Acorn's own macro-assembler Aaam, actually allow MOV w id negative numbers, and simply perform the necessary bit-shuffling on the constant and assemble a MVN instruction instead.

Although you might have typed MOV ro. You might like to try typing in listing one in the yellow pages, which demonstrates ihe use of simple arithmetic on negative numbers.

Try following through the stages by 'hand" first to make sure you understand everything as it happens. I'd like to outline the basics of the hexadecimal number system. Clearly, referring to numbers in binary is quite contrived, not to say time consuming: 'Pardon?

Was that 10 1 or 1 1 ? Some computer systems use base eight, or octal, which uses the decimal digits 0 to 7. Converting from binary to octal is relatively easy - you simply take your binary number and chop it into three-bit chunks, which arc then converted to octal effectively decimal in this ease. For example, The disadvantage of octal is the chunks of three - not a nice power of two!

Of course, decimal only has 10 digits, so the letters A to F are used to represent the decimal numbers ID to Historically, eight bits arc called a byte. Words are 32 bits long in the Arm. Going the other way, half a byte four bits, one hex digit is, of course, a nibble. And no. I'm not joking!