Many years ago, TV and monitor screens were not used to display output from the early computers. Instead, they relied upon a panel of indicator lights. Similar to those seen in many science fiction films from the fifties, they were known as front-end control panels, and became extinct with the advent of the monitor.

Now ACP has revived the control panel idea, giving Electron users a friendly front-end panel. Replacing the bulky electronic display, it is supplied as software on ROM. To use it you will need an Acorn Plus 1/AP1 with a suitable ROM cartridge or Rombox.

The panel appears instantly on power-up, taking control of the machine instead of BASIC. At this point the only major problem many Electron users are likely to encounter becomes apparent - the display in unalterably in Mode 0.

This is necessary for the software but is a nuisance if your screen can't display 80 column text clearly - and this means the majority of televisions.

The control panel provides you with a very convenient interface between you and the micro's more complex functions. The initial control panel display has four window headers - Language, MOS, File and Panel. Highlighting Language, using the cursor keys, brings up a language window. Under this heading are listed all ROMs present in the machine that announce themselves as languages. Normally this will just be Advanced Control Panel itself, BASIC and the Plus 1 ROM.

It is important to note that language ROMs ar not necessarily programming languages, just that their designers included a language entry point in the software. The Plus 1 ROM can't be selected, even though it appears on the list.

If you have the language cartridges View, Viewsheet, Lisp and so on, these will appear on the menu. Entering a ROM from the panel is a simple matter of highlighting the one you wish to use and pressing RETURN.

Under the heading MOS lie the Operating System functions. Some functions listed under this menu and further sub-menus do not directly concern the Electron - the ROM can be used on the BBC Micro and Master as well. Clock, for instance, accesses the real time clock in the Master. Trying to access one of these extra function on the Electron results in the error message: "Not supported".

This should not be a problem, and if you ever upgrade to the heady heights of the BBC Master, you'll have one less ROM to replace.

Available under the same heading is a pop-up-calculator that allows conversion between decimal, binary and hexadecimal and simple arithmetic to be performed. It's a lot easier to use this than to perform the same feats from BASIC.

Another useful function under the same heading is the ROM list which lists the 16 ROM locations allowed by the Operating System and their contents, if any.

In this window it is possible to switch off (in effect unplug) any of the ROMs. This can be useful for stopping one ROM accepting a star command intended for another.

Under the File menu are various functions concerned with filing systems, information on files, changing drive with disc systems and so on.

Finally, most powerful of all, is the Panel menu itsef. This enables you to tailor the panel or design a completely new one.

It is possible, for instance, to create a panel which only contains those functions directly relevant to the Electron. Although this is not strictly necessary, it shows what can be achieved.

User defined panels can be saved to the current filing system, ADFS disc for example, and then the panel can be re-entered at a later date with *ACP followed by the filename.

Advanced Control Panel is supplied with a comprehensive 29 page manual that contains everything to get you started from fitting the ROM right up to the more advanced features of the software.

It is a reasonably user-friendly piece of software, and although a luxury item I can recommend it to anyone who wants easy access to the Electron's functions.

One word of warning before you rush out and buy it - make certain that you can easily read 80 column text on your television or monitor.

Mark Smiddy