PCN September 1984

You all know the feeling: after hours, days or even weeks spent on a particular problem you suddenly see the answer. Or, on one of those late-night expeditions through the memory map you find some undiscovered feature. Well, don't keep it to yourself - send it here. We pay £5 for every tip and routine printed and £25 for a genuine Megawave.

Amstrad Snippets - Hints and Niggles

I have found that I keep hitting the ESCAPE key on the Amstrad keyboard when I really want to enter '1', both when entering line numbers and when making numerical inputs. This can be avoided by entering: KEY DEF 66,1,0The unshifted ESCAPE key will not now cause a BREAK, but still has its normal function with either CTRL or SHIFT.I found the Amstrad manual rather unhelpful regarding the function keys. The codes for the numeric keyboard are given but where are the expansion codes 141 to 159? It appears they are not actually anywhere but must be assigned to the desired keys. For example: KEY DEF 71,1,122,90,150 KEY 150, 'TEST MESSAGE'Entering the above will result in the 'Z' key having its normal functions when unshifted and with SHIFT or CAPS LOCK, but when used with CTRL it will give TEST MESSAGE, or whatever else you assign to the key code.On the subject of the function keys, a maximum of 120 characters for all of them is not much, but it can be increased to a couple of thousand, with a slight reduction in the ease of use.To use the '1' key on the numeric pad as an example: KEY 129, 'KI$' + CHR$(13) LET K1$='any string up to 255 characters maximum'Type in and enter the above, and then type in PRINT and press the '1' key on the numeric pad. The string assigned to K1$ is printed onto the screen, and can then be utilised as a direct command line, or placed in a program line, by using the copy cursor.This is not quite as convenient as the normal method, but each function key only has to hold four characters (using K1$, K2$, etc.), so up to 30 keys could be programmed with strings of length 255, giving 7.5K of user functions.Bill Robert, Pencoed, Mid Glamorgan ---

Amstrad Printer Problems

Q. I need to produce listings from my Amstrad but have so far been unable to track down a source of printer cables. I'm also looking for a word processing system.Boris Southwood, LancasterA. Amstrad printer cables for Centronics printers are currently available from Computer Services, 63 Quilp Drive, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 4YD at £14.87 (inc P&P). If you try other sources, such as Lion House, you can expect to pay up to £22.66 (Believe it or not), while Amstrad is selling one of its own for £9.95. Contact Amsoft at 169 Kings Road, Brentwood, Essex (Tel: 0277 230222).You should be able to cobble together a printer lead for yourself. After all it's just a question of linking a ribbon cable, a 34-pin edge connector (for the Amstrad end) and a Centronics connector: these components are available from many electronics shops such as Tandy. Most of the connectors are of the snap-together variety - so you don't even need a soldering iron.Most of the cables available won't work properly - you'll get double line spacing from them because pin 14 (AUTO FEED XT) is connected. However, with a steady hand, sharp knife and printer manual you should be able to sever this connection to rectify the situation. Then you can play around with DIP switch settings (SW 2-3 on Epson and compatibles like Mannesmann Tally) as well as the Amstrad's WIDTH command which sets the printer line width. WIDTH 255 should stop the Amstrad sending carriage return at the end of a line.Unfortunately, the Amstrad only sends seven bits to the printer, so you can't use the graphics facilities of printers like the FX80, or Epsons with the Graftrax option. Worse still, this poses major problems for anyone attempting to produce a high-resolution screen dump to any printer.On the software side, Amsoft is due to release Amsword, and Tasman is producing a version of its favourably received Spectrum word processor Tasword Two. This costs £19.95 and you can order it on 0532 438301. There is also The Typist, originally for the Dragon, but we've not seen it in operation. The Typist is available for £5 from South Molton Computers, 07695 2727.

September 1984 issue of Personal Computer News