Hmmm, oh well, I suppose you will have to do it [Change the mag to disk - Will] but personally I prefer the 'hardcopy'; take it into the garden to read or read it when 'paying a visit' - you can't really take an Electron those places, can you?
Christian Weber: GOSUBs! You will find it much easier if you write BASIC programs without line numbers; you concentrate better on the actual program logic and not on all those numbers. Don't tell Acorn but I've got a 65c02 and BASIC IV (aka Master BASIC) in my Elk, so LISTIF helps to find things.
Gareth Boden: Ta for the compliment. You should have returned the Elk to Acorn when you first got it! My first Elk (1982!) had a similar problem and they soon had it back. I doubt anyone sells ULAs any more [Slogger do - Will] so the best bet is to pick up a cheap second hand Elk.
Derek Hilton: Nice to see an old Netter [Comms-speak for those who don't know! - Will] Bit 4 of the ctrl latch resets the 177x. There is a bug in the 177x which means that you have to initialise it before reset or it claims to be constantly busy. So ADFS on a reset initialises the 177x and then resets is via this bit.
Alexander Taylor: I can't find any info on the Gandalf DM49 or the address of Gandalf itself, but I know they still exist. Connecting it to an Elk depends on the serial port you have (I presume the Gandalf has a standard 25 pin socket) as the original Acorn/Pace one had a funny connector. I presume the Slogger and Jafa ones have normal BBC connectors. Software-wise, there is the original Pace software (Both tty and b&w Viewdata), Jafa (colour Viewdata) and mine (colour Viewdata and a range of tty ones), which are available to anyone who sends a disk (Any format except 40T 5.25") to me.
Gus Donnachaidh: I don't know which word processor you use on the A3000, but it's the wrong one! On the Elk (I'm going to get death threats for this!), you have a system which only has enough memory for small files. I've run out many a time - even with a second processor!
In addition, the system is slow in moving around, has a limited amount of functions - only able to see one file at once, etc. On the Arc, a hard disc is necessary - and, if by 'expensive' you mean the same amount as you paid for your Elk, then you probably complain about the extortionate price of bread compared with ten years ago!
Gareth Babb
Call the A3000 a decent computer?! Get real! Do as I have done and buy a Tomy "Speak-n-Spell"! This is a truly brilliant machine and it makes farmyard animal noises at the touch of a button! But seriously, that last bit was rather cutting, wasn't it? There is no need for any of us to fall out just because we have different opinions. We Electron owners must make allowances for those who have upgraded to 16/32bit machines as some of them are quite nice people really (Wouldn't want ya daughter to marry one, of course!).
In future, let's all try to be more understanding of each other, wear a kaftan, string bells and beads round our necks, put flowers in our hair, move to San Francisco... Wow man! Dig those crazy colours!...
1st May 1993