This ROM has some rather useful functions which BBC Micros owners with printers and, to a lesser extent, disc systems could use.

The 'buffer' part of the title refers to a Centronics-only printer buffer, for those with 'sideways' RAM fitted. The buffer can be up to 15.5K, depending on the amount of RAM present. *FX5,3 is used to select the small routine, which is place in the RAM. This saves the cost of a printer buffer, which could be rather expensive. Now, you are able to get on with important work while your listings are printed for you. Output may be stopped at any time by pressing BREAK which also tells you how much space there is left in the buffer area. (*HELP BUFFER also does this.)

The other commands available are of less importance, but can also save time and effort. *VAR lists all variables in use, with arrays displayed as sizes only. *TCOPY is a tape to tape or tape to disc copier, which is quite effective. Whether tape duplication should be encouraged is another matter, but Watford does state that the command should not be used for illegal copying.

Like *TCOPY, the other utilities provided are Basic files run under the ROM filing system, which is booted using SPACE-SHIFT-BREAK. A menu appears quickly, offering ROMLOOK, D-TAPE and DSKMENU.

*ROMLOOK will copy the contents of a selected ROM socket to user RAM, from &3000 upwards, listing the contents in hex and ASCII. Unfortunately, single hex digits are not padded with leading zeros, so the display becomes ragged and looks rather messy. *D-TAPE is a disc to tape copier. You build up a list of the files to be duplicated, and then you copy them. Fairly straightforward.

Finally, a disc menu is provided, for use on each disc you have. This is quite good, but could be expanded to allow more than just Basic files to be run.

Altogether, this is a useful ROM if you need such routines. It contains nothing unique, but all the commands can make life easier for you and it is good value. As with all Watford manuals, the documentation is well produced and easy to understand, even if you are a beginner.