ZX Computings - OpenLibra

Take that, and
that
Dear ZX Computing,
During the few months in which
I have owned a ZX81, I have
been sampling the various
computer magazines.
This week I saw your
magazine ZX Computing, and a
quick initial look led me to
believe it might be the best of all
the magazines I had seen so far.
Unfortunately, first impressions
can be misleading. Although the
content ideas are admirable, the
total effort has been completely
spoilt for me by the shoddy
printing of many of the program
listings.
Several pages are too badly
printed for (he programs to be
followed, and I am too much of
a novice to work out what the
characters should be. In
addition, I've attempted the
program on page 96. As yet I
have failed to make it work. I
note line 4021, there is no line
4023. Your opening comments
are also interesting. How can
you change lines 6000 6500 and
8000 8500? They don't exist!
Consequently, your
magazine has been a
disappointing buy.
M G Roe,
Hinckley, Lancashire.
• Me a culpa. As you'll have
noted from my opening
comments, / determined very
early in the piece that we'd use
program listings direct from the
printer whenever possible, just
to make sure that the programs
were printed without bugs. The
inverse letters eluded us, so
we're doing out best to keep
these to a minimum. / still
believe accurate listings are
more important than pretty
looking pages. / hope you have
no problems with the programs
in this issue.
In common with other
editors of computer magazines,
/ often get fetters claiming that
program X or program Y should
never have been printed
because it does not run. But in
all cases, I have run the program
myself, then dumped it direct
from the printer. There is no
way it cannot run. Correct —
there is one way, if the person
entering the program makes a
mistake. / personally ran every
program in the first issue, and
this issue, which is dumped
from the printer, and checked
the other ones out very
carefully. If a program does not
run first time, check the
program you have in your
computer against the listing.
Regarding the "Horrorville"
4
program, a splendid one indeed
from N. Alexander of Margate.
The program works just as it is,
despite the non existent GOTO
destination. The ZX8I goes to
the next available line if the line
specified does not exist.
Certainly it would have been
neater if the line read GOTO
4030, instead of GOTO 4023,
but it has exactly the same
effect. The word 'change' in the
introduction should have read
'add', so the line read: "You can
add lines 6000 to 6500, and 8000
to 8500 to enter your own
adventures."
Do this, and that
Dear ZX Computing,
May I congratulate you on the
quality of content and
presentation seen in the first
issue of your magazine.
I would like to make two
suggestions for future issues
Ihese being:
1. Please devote as much space
as possible to the ZX Spectrum.
2. Please devote as much space
as possible to educational
programs that will stimulate
both computer awareness and
general learning in children of all
ages.
P.E. Bloxham,
East Leake, Leicestershire.
• Thanks for your comments.
We intend to support the three
ZX computers in accordance
with the approximate
percentage of ZX owners they
represent, with a slight bias
towards the Spectrum because
the number of Spectrum
owners will obviously increase
dramatically throughout the rest
of this year. As you can see,
we've included quite a bit of
Spectrum material in this issue.
We have also started including
educational material, and hope
to expand this section in future
issues. Educational programs
would be most welcome.
it worked!
Dear ZX Computing,
I have just finished your
magazine's suggested
modification to extend the
available memory on my ZX81.
It works very well and I thank
you for its inclusion in your
magazine.
t have, however, two
comments to make regarding
drawings on page 44.
1. The circuit diagram shows
the 'fourth' NAND inputs as
pins 14 and 13 in error.
2. The pictorial diagram (which
incidentally does not agree with
the circuit diagram, re. the
above point) is shown as a top
Letters
view of a 7400, not an underside
view as stated.
Apart from these minor
points I found the article
informative, cost-effective and
easy to follow.
Paul A Pitts,
Senior Development Engineer,
University of Leeds,
Audio-Visual Service.
It Didn't work!
Dear ZX Computing,
Thank you for publishing the
article on screen POKEs for the
81 and my Squareology
program. Unfortunately a few
errors crept in, especially to the
POKEing article, who's main
errors are:-
Firstly 3 or greater memory
required for this to work.
PAGE 53
"A Simple Program", Line 10
the ' should be a 0.
"Another Short Prog ", Line 30
the first / should be (.
Line 40 the > should be