Amstrad PCW and parallel and serial ports
Piotr Karocki
(interface made by Amstrad).
Is somewhere guide/tutorial how to use these ports (from Amstrad side)?
I could write simple program to read disks at PCW side and transfer their
images to PC (on PC even with Windows interface :) ), but I need some
information :)
I can only find programs to make such transfer for CPC, not for PCW :(
Mr Emmanuel Roche, France
; --------
;
; Amstrad CPS-8256 -- SEND.HEX
;
; Disassembled by:
;
; Mr. Emmanuel Roche
; Chemin de Boisrond
; 17430 Tonnay-Charente
; FRANCE
;
; Generation: MAC SEND
;--------------------------------
ORG 0100H ; Standard CP/M COMmand file
;--------------------------------
; Page Zero locations used.
BDOS EQU 0005H
FCB EQU 005CH
DMAbuf EQU 0080H
;--------------------------------
; BDOS functions used.
;--------------------------------
SysReset EQU 0 ; System Reset
ConOut EQU 2 ; Console Output
AuxInp EQU 3 ; Auxiliary Input
AuxOut EQU 4 ; Auxiliary Output
Pstring EQU 9 ; Print String
OpenF EQU 15 ; Open File
CloseF EQU 16 ; Close File
ReadS EQU 20 ; Read Sequential
;--------------------------------
; ASCII characters used.
;--------------------------------
bel EQU 07H ; Ring the bell
lf EQU 0AH ; Linefeed
cr EQU 0DH ; Carriage Return
;--------------------------------
; XMODEM control codes used.
;--------------------------------
NUL EQU 0 ; Nul
STX EQU 2 ; Start of TeXt
ETX EQU 3 ; End of TeXt
ACK EQU 6 ; ACKnowledge
;--------------------------------
start:
lda FCB+1 ; Get filename after command
cpi 20H ; Empty?
jz notfound ; Yes: "File not found."
lxi d, FCB ; No: Open file
mvi c, OpenF ;
call BDOS ;
cpi 0FFH ; File not found by BDOS?
jz nofile ; Yes: "No file specified."
call do_transmit ; No (found): Transmit it
mvi c, CloseF ; Once done, close it
call BDOS ;
lxi d, Tcomplete ; "Transfer complete."
mvi c, Pstring ;
call BDOS ;
rst 0 ; Go back to CP/M
;--------------------------------
do_transmit:
lxi h, 0FFFFH ; Initialise to -1
shld block_number
init_link:
mvi e, STX
mvi c, AuxOut
call BDOS
call wait_ACK
jnc init_link
send_block:
lhld block_number
inx h
shld block_number
call send_blockname
call send_blocknum
call read_block
ora a
jnz send_NUL
resend_block:
call send_blocklen
call send_blockdata
call send_checksum
call wait_ACK
jc send_block
call send_blockname
call send_blocknum
jmp resend_block
;--------------------------------
resend_NUL:
call send_blockname
call send_blocknum
send_NUL:
mvi e, NUL
mvi c, AuxOut
call BDOS
lxi h, 0000H ; Initialize checksum
shld block_cksum
call send_checksum
call wait_ACK
jnc resend_NUL
ret
;--------------------------------
wait_ACK:
mvi c, AuxInp
call BDOS
cpi ETX ; Already the end?
jnz ACKnowledged ; No: continue
pop psw ; Yes...
pop psw
lxi d, aborted ; "Transfer aborted by other end."
mvi c, Pstring
call BDOS
ret
;--------------------------------
ACKnowledged:
cpi ACK
stc ; Set Carry is ACKnowledged
rz
cmc ; Reset Carry if not ACKnowledged
ret
;--------------------------------
send_blockname:
lxi h, FCB ; Point to filename
mov a,m
ori 40H ; Make sure it is uppercase
mov e, a
mvi c, AuxOut
push h
call BDOS
pop h
inx h
mvi b, 11 ; FILENAM + TYP = 11 characters
jmp send_filename
;--------------------------------
send_blocknum:
lxi h, block_number
mvi b, 2
jmp send_nchars
;--------------------------------
send_blocklen:
mvi e, 128 ; Length of a CP/M record
mvi c, AuxOut
call BDOS
ret
;--------------------------------
send_blockdata:
lxi h, DMAbuf
mvi b, 128
jmp send_nchars
;--------------------------------
send_checksum:
lxi h, block_cksum
mvi b, 2
jmp send_nchars
;--------------------------------
read_block:
lxi h, 0000H ; Initialize checksum
shld block_cksum
mvi c, ReadS
lxi d, FCB
call BDOS
lxi h, DMAbuf
mvi b, 128
compute_chksum:
push h
mvi d, 00H
mov e,m
lhld block_cksum
dad d
shld block_cksum
pop h
inx h
dcr b
jnz compute_chksum
ret
;--------------------------------
send_nchars:
push h
push b
mov e,m
mvi c, AuxOut
call BDOS
pop b
pop h
inx h
dcr b
jnz send_nchars
ret
;--------------------------------
notfound:
lxi d, Pnotfound ; "File not found."
mvi c, Pstring
call BDOS
rst 0 ; Go back to CP/M
;--------------------------------
nofile:
lxi d, Pnofile ; "No file specified."
mvi c, Pstring
call BDOS
rst 0 ; Go back to CP/M
;--------------------------------
send_filename:
call send_nchars
mvi b, 04H
send_nzeroes:
mvi e, NUL
mvi c, AuxOut
push b
call BDOS
pop b
dcr b
jnz send_nzeroes
ret
;--------------------------------
; Messages area.
;--------------------------------
Pnofile:
db lf, bell, 'No file specified.'
db cr, lf, lf, 'Transfer aborted'
db cr, lf, lf, '$'
Pnotfound:
db lf, bel, 'File not found.'
db cr, lf, lf, 'Transfer aborted"
db cr, lf, lf, '$'
aborted:
db lf, bel, 'Transfer aborted by other end.'
db cr, lf, lf, '$'
Tcomplete:
db lf, 'Transfer complete.'
db cr, lf, lf, '$'
;--------------------------------
; Data area.
;--------------------------------
block_number:
dw 0000H
block_cksum:
dw 0000H
;--------------------------------
END ; Standard CP/M COMmand file
Piotr Karocki
c42d-4354-845...@j21g2000yqe.googlegroups.com:
> (long listing truncated)
Ok, thank you very much.
Do exist some "sender's-loader", i.e. some very short program for PCW to
read 'true', big program from AUX then run this program?
If not, I think I should write them to simplify operation :)
As I would have access to PCW at weekend, I couldn't check if it
(=send.com) is standard CP/M+ program or something other... so two maybe
stupid questions:
1) it sends file contents to AUX - how to configure AUX to be serial port,
and with proper baud rate etc.?
2) it checks for some ACK signal from BDOS or other side. So, is any "PC-
companion" to this file sender?
John Elliott
: I have Amstrad PCW 8512, with parallel and serial ports attached
: (interface made by Amstrad).
I have successfully used a CPS8256 to image disks on a PCW and transfer
the result to a PC. I was using Linux, but I think it ought to work with
Windows as well.
The programs are my own -- libdsk at the PC end, auxd at the PCW end.
Both can be downloaded from <http://www.seasip.info/Unix/LibDsk/>. You'll
need some kind of serial transfer software to get AUXDPCW.COM (and maybe
CRTSCTS.COM as well) over to the PCW first.
--
John Elliott
Thinks: This is what a nice clean life leads to. Hmm, why did I ever lead one?
-- Bluebottle, in the Goon Show
John Elliott
: Do exist some "sender's-loader", i.e. some very short program for PCW to
: If not, I think I should write them to simplify operation :)
SEND was originally supplied as a hex listing in the CPS8256 manual. The
idea was, you'd use it to send files from another CP/M computer to the PCW.
You'd type in the hex listing on the other computer, and then use
LOAD SEND or HEXCOM SEND
to create SEND.COM. Then run MAIL232 on the PCW, set it to receive, and run
SEND.COM to transmit from the other computer.
: stupid questions:
: 1) it sends file contents to AUX - how to configure AUX to be serial port,
: and with proper baud rate etc.?
AUX should be set to SIO already, but if it isn't, DEVICE AUX:=SIO will do
this.
SETSIO is documented in the Spectrum +3 CP/M manual:
<http://www.worldofspectrum.org/Plus3CPMManual/p3cpm5.html>
but note that unlike the Spectrum, the PCW _does_ support interrupt driven
mode and XON/XOFF handshaking.
: 2) it checks for some ACK signal from BDOS or other side. So, is any "PC-
: companion" to this file sender?
No. Or if there is, Amstrad didn't provide one. You'd have to use MAIL232
running in an emulator.
Mr Emmanuel Roche, France
> I have Amstrad PCW 8512, with parallel and serial ports attached
> (interface made by Amstrad).
>
> Is somewhere guide/tutorial how to use these ports (from Amstrad side)?
1) Is your e-mail return address valid?
2) Normally, the CPS-8256 was provided with a manual:
- "Amstrad CPS-8256 User Instruction Book"
RS-232C Serial Interface & Parallel (Centronics) Interface
First Published 1985
Written by Roland Perry
Illustrated by Alexander Martin and Julie Morement
MAIL232 by Vik Olliver and Roland Perry
I have it in a ZIP file. I could send it to you, if you had a valid e-
mail address.
> I could write simple program to read disks at PCW side and transfer their
> images to PC (on PC even with Windows interface :) ), but I need some
> information :)
3) Yes, sure. The programs provided by Amstrad, SEND and MAIL232, are
*NOT* XMODEM-compatible (XMODEM was the standard for file transfer via
the RS-232C port until a few years ago). They work when communicating
with each others, but they will not work when "talking" to any real
"standard" PC file transfer program like XMODEM, UKM7, IMP, YMODEM,
ZMODEM, XMODEM-CRC, XMODEM-1K, HYPERTERMINAL, etc.
> I can only find programs to make such transfer for CPC, not for PCW :(
4) According to the Web site of Amstrad, 8 millions PCWs were sold in
Europe, versus 3 millions CPCs. I simply don't understand why there
are less Web sites dealing with the PCW than the CPC. It seems that
this was due to the fact that one was mainly used to play games, while
the other was mainly use to do word-processing.
Yours Sincerely,
Mr. Emmanuel Roche, France
(I am a regular of the comp.os.cpm Newsgroup, not the comp.sys.amstrad.
8bit, that I read infrequently.)
Piotr Karocki
> mail address.
Probably all guides/manuals are lost "in time" :(
But probably I will not write such program as such program already exist.
My main goal is to make disk images for Joyce emulator for every Amstrad
disk I have.
As John Elliott points me to his AUXDPCW for PCW side and LibDsk for PC
side, the one and only obstacle is to how transfer AUXDPCW to PCW.
And probably it could be done using bin2hex (PC side), PIP
auxdpcw.com=aux: and HEXCOM (on PCW side),
> 4) According to the Web site of Amstrad, 8 millions PCWs were sold in
> Europe, versus 3 millions CPCs. I simply don't understand why there
> are less Web sites dealing with the PCW than the CPC. It seems that
> this was due to the fact that one was mainly used to play games, while
> the other was mainly use to do word-processing.
And LocoScript has uniq and best method of writing multilingual texts. Any
accent could be combined with any character in consistent way (sequence
Extra, accent, character).
When someone write semi-scientific book, with links to bibliography in
footnotes - but sources are in german, french, and some other languages
with many own 'strange' characters, the only way on PC is to use charmap.
Mr Emmanuel Roche, France
> Yes, address is valid.
Ok. I will try to send you the CPS-8256 manual.
> As John Elliott points me to his AUXDPCW for PCW side and LibDsk for PC
> side, the one and only obstacle is to how transfer AUXDPCW to PCW.
> And probably it could be done using bin2hex (PC side), PIP
> auxdpcw.com=aux: and HEXCOM (on PCW side),
Well, this is very easy with a command line. You plug your "null-modem
cable" to both computers, type pip aux:=con: on one computer, and pip
con:=aux: on the other, then type something like "The quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog". (This is a pangram (a phrase that contains
all of the letters of the English alphabet) that was often used to
check that all the keys of an ASR-33 Teletype were working correctly
-- the TTY only had uppercase letters.)
Your two computers are now communicating.
Instead of PIP, you can now use "modem" programs, and all the files in
a directory will be transferred to the other computer automatically
and with error checking.
Else, to begin manually, like SEND, you either retype the one-page HEX
file, or capture it with PIP. Once you have recreated the COM file,
you can send files to MAIL232 running on a PCW. (This assumes SEND
running on a CP/M computer, or in a "DOS Box" under Windows.)
There are also versions of XMODEM in 8080 or BASIC in the CP/M
Software Library.
I imagine that this should be roughly the same with HyperTerminal
under Windows, but never tried.
> And LocoScript has uniq and best method of writing multilingual texts. Any
> accent could be combined with any character in consistent way (sequence
> Extra, accent, character).
> When someone write semi-scientific book, with links to bibliography in
> footnotes - but sources are in german, french, and some other languages
> with many own 'strange' characters, the only way on PC is to use charmap.
Personally, since I mostly write in English, the USASCII character set
of "Code Page 850" is enough. When I tried LocoScript, I was surprised
how slow it was, compared to WordStar. Hence its nickname:
"LocoSnail". Now that the Internet is the standard for communicating,
I wrote a WS4-to-HTML File Converter. So, all the "extended" Code Page
850 characters are displayed and printed correctly using any browser.
That's enough for me.
But I recognize that the way LocoScript Version 2 dealt with all the
European characters was clever. At a time, it was the standard word-
processor for european translators, then disappeared. Steve Denson,
who bought Locomotive, told me that he is going to close the
Locomotive Web site: not enough buyers. Too bad LS2 did not became a
standard. It is dead, now. (The comp.sys.amstrad.8bit is not very
alive, too, compared to the comp.os.cpm Newsgroup.)
Prai Jei
continuum:
> Probably all guides/manuals are lost "in time" :(
Expecially if (as here) they're written by Roland.
--
ξ:) Proud to be curly
Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply
Mr Emmanuel Roche, France
> Expecially if (as here) they're written by Roland.
I wondered what was meaning "Prai Jei"?
I found: "Prai Jei" is a Hallon nom-de-plume, meaning literally "blue
eyes".
(However, your Hallon Web page is so small that I could not find
"green".)
There is a 2006 picture of you on the AUE Web site, but impossible to
say if you have blue eyes... At least, they are not bright. I knew a
young girl who had incredible green eyes: when she was entering a
room, her eyes where shining like cat's eyes across the room...
Unfortunately, they became normal when she became a teenager. I then
noticed that children's eyes are, usually, much "purer" than adults'
ones. I don't know why. They do not change gradually: they seem to
change abruptly.
By the way, if you are interested in the pronunciation of the English
language, I once read a poem whose title was: "This English
(Labyrinth?)". As far as I remember, it was a poem by a Dutch which
listed lots of English words having the same sound, but written
differently. Of course, I did not manage to find it now.
Finally, were you born in 1964?
Mr Emmanuel Roche, France
> By the way, if you are interested in the pronunciation of the English
> language, I once read a poem whose title was: "This English
> (Labyrinth?)". As far as I remember, it was a poem by a Dutch which
> listed lots of English words having the same sound, but written
> differently. Of course, I did not manage to find it now.
Finally found it:
http://www.flying-w.net/knowledge/English/phonetic_labyrinth.html
Prai Jei
space-time continuum:
> I wondered what was meaning "Prai Jei"?
>
> I found: "Prai Jei" is a Hallon nom-de-plume, meaning literally "blue
> eyes".
>
> (However, your Hallon Web page is so small that I could not find
> "green".)
Hallon is a fantasy language that emerged from my childhood. Being the
intellectual type I was bound to be a bit of a loner, so I was able to
construct imaginary worlds (rather like Tolkien though on nowhere so grand
a scale). Hallon began life as a substitution cipher, carefully set up so
that the words could be pronounced, but what happened then was that it soon
began to diverge from substituted English and became a language in its own
right, with its own minimal grammatical structure.
The web page is rather brief. I keep thinking of going back and expanding it
but never seem to have the time. The Hallon word for "green" is "shalim".
Go dos eva seda shalim jei? (Est-ce que vos yeux sont verts?)
> There is a 2006 picture of you on the AUE Web site, but impossible to
> say if you have blue eyes...
Yes I have, though (like my hair) they darkened as I grew up and reached
their final "stormy" shade when I was a teenager. Check out my other
picture on the same site, taken when I was about three years old, a bubbly
blond cutie. By the time I was a teenager my hair was quite dark, and is
now starting to go a bit grey. At least, as my sig suggests I still have
that thick mop of curls to be proud of.
> Finally, were you born in 1964?
I'm rather older than that. I was born in 1955.
Vous comprenez? Je peux essayer une traduction en français si vous
préfériez.
Prai Jei
space-time continuum:
> Finally found it:
>
> http://www.flying-w.net/knowledge/English/phonetic_labyrinth.html
Sacre bleu!
Mr Emmanuel Roche, France
> > Finally found it:
Argh! Another research ended by the discovery of:
http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j17/caos.php
which seems to be the ultimate source of information on this poem.
A friend of mine, English translator, told me that he tried several
times to read aloud the whole poem, and never managed to finish it
without wondering how to pronunce correctly a word. He was thinking
that, except a handful of Phonetics teachers, no Englishman would be
able to pronunce it correctly. It could be a game on the BBC.
> Go dos eva seda shalim jei?
Ji.
> Sacre bleu!
Sorry, good try, but "sacre bleu" = "blue coronation"...
However, "sacrebleu!" = "damn!".
> Vous comprenez? Je peux essayer une traduction en français si vous
préfériez.
Oui, je comprends. Bon essai, mais le dernier verbe est au conditionel
(would prefer) plutot qu'au présent (prefer): "préférez".
> "At least, as my sig suggests I still have that thick mop of curls to be proud of."
Ha! This is why you write: "ξ:) Proud to be curly". Personally, I
never cared about my hair. If I remember well, the fact that hair is
straight, curly, or kinky depends on the angle of the hair exiting the
skin. This is all I remember. I did not pursue the subject any longer.
Finally, what are you doing in the comp.sys.amstrad.8bit Newsgroup?
Did you start computing with an Amstrad, like several millions of
Brits?
Prai Jei
space-time continuum:
>> Sacre bleu!
>
> Sorry, good try, but "sacre bleu" = "blue coronation"...
>
> However, "sacrebleu!" = "damn!".
Nom d'un chien! I last studied French at school (age 15) but I thought I
remembered everything.
>> Vous comprenez? Je peux essayer une traduction en français si vous
> préfériez.
>
> Oui, je comprends. Bon essai, mais le dernier verbe est au conditionel
> (would prefer) plutot qu'au présent (prefer): "préférez".
Translating literally from the English making it less abrupt - "if you
*would* prefer". Like using "je voudrais" instead of "je veux".
>> "At least, as my sig suggests I still have that thick mop of curls to be
>> proud of."
>
> Ha! This is why you write: "ξ:) Proud to be curly".
At least your browser got the Greek letter xi correct. Some people are
puzzled trying to visualise a hairstyle from ?:)
The office where I work is in the same building as a cash-and-carry
warehouse, and we regularly go there for our supplies so I am well-known to
the staff there. On one occasion, one of the ladies called me aside and
said "A customer brought this back claiming it doesn't work. Could we try
it on you?" I took one look at the box she was holding up, and ran away in
panic.
Hair straightener :(
> Personally, I never cared about my hair.
By contrast I'm rather more "attached" to my hair than most and I want it to
keep growing. A couple of odd single hairs that regularly pop up here and
there have almost the status of favourite pets. Similarly I have absolutely
no hangups about my body hair and dread the thought of waxing or any other
treatment to remove it.
> If I remember well, the fact that hair is
> straight, curly, or kinky depends on the angle of the hair exiting the
> skin. This is all I remember. I did not pursue the subject any longer.
Yes it's a genetic thing.
> Finally, what are you doing in the comp.sys.amstrad.8bit Newsgroup?
> Did you start computing with an Amstrad, like several millions of
> Brits?
I actually began with a TRS-80 Model 1 computer in about 1981 or 1982, but
it was extremely limited since loading and saving was to tape cassette. I
had been thinking for a while about moving up, and had tried and considered
a few different models but none of them showed any real promise of
surviving in what was then a saturated marketplace, new models coming and
going overnight. When the Amstrad CPC series came out in 1984, somehow I
knew "this was it" and bought one. The disc interface followed a few months
later and then I was in my element.
The CPC was my main computer until I had my first PC (286 portable with
monochrome plasma screen) in about 1991, A proper PC followed in about 1994
or 1995, and my current model (AMD64 with 1GB of ram) followed in 2004,
loaded with both Windows (ME and XP) and Linux (SuSE v11.0). Nearly all my
web browsing, and all my emails and newsgroup postings, are done through
Linux.
I no longer have the Amstrad machine but I preserved all my software on the
PC and was able to dust it off when I discovered the emulators. So now all
the Amstrad stuff runs under WinApe - including a few favourite games from
those days.
--
ξ:) Proud to be curly
Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply
Mr Emmanuel Roche, France
> >> Vous comprenez? Je peux essayer une traduction en français si vous
> > préfériez.
>
> > Oui, je comprends. Bon essai, mais le dernier verbe est au conditionel
> > (would prefer) plutot qu'au présent (prefer): "préférez".
>
> Translating literally from the English making it less abrupt - "if you
> *would* prefer". Like using "je voudrais" instead of "je veux".
Yes, but the problem is that the first verb ("vous comprenez?") is
obviously in the present. In this case, I would use "si vous le
désirez" ("if you wished (it)"). In this case, what the user wants is
taken into consideration, while "prefer" offers him several choices,
and he is obliged to make one that he prefers among them.
This is the problem of translation: the more you learn a foreign
language, the less you translate word for word. The problem being to
be fluent in expressions in both languages. And there are hundreds, or
thousands, of expressions that, simply, cannot be translated from one
language to another. "My advice: Give it up!"
By the way, this reminds me: I remembered the famous poem of Trenité
as being named "This Phonetics Labyrinth" while, in fact, he named it
"The Chaos". Notice that a labyrinth has an issue (that is to say: is
ordered, has a meaning), while the chaos is pure random, before God
create the world and put order in it. (In French, "ordinateur" was
during several centuries a religious expression designating... God:
"Dieu, le grand ordinateur de l'univers".) Since Trenité ends his poem
by: "My advice: Give it up!", it is clear that the real title of his
poem is "The Chaos", and that he was very pessimistic about phonetics.
> By contrast I'm rather more "attached" to my hair than most and I want it to
> keep growing. A couple of odd single hairs that regularly pop up here and
> there have almost the status of favourite pets. Similarly I have absolutely
> no hangups about my body hair and dread the thought of waxing or any other
> treatment to remove it.
Well, then, the logical outcome will be for you to become a Indian
Sadhu...
> I actually began with a TRS-80 Model 1 computer in about 1981 or 1982
Me, with a Sinclair ZX-81, probably in mid-1982.
After that, it is more complicated. I became a COBOL programmer on IBM
Mainframes, but this was frustrating (there was a time when I worked
on the powerfullest IBM Mainframe in the whole of France: 16
MegaBytes!...). So, I searched for something that I could afford to
own. At the time, CP/M ruled, so I investigated CP/M 2.2. I started
with a NorthStar Horizon that a French company had used for word-
processing (price: a brand new car...), so I also got a Qume Sprint 5
Daisy-wheel printer... When the Amstrad CPC-6128 appeared, I tried it,
but rejected it for the Amstrad PCW-8256. However, I saw some typists
destroy PCW keyboards in less than a year. They were cheapo plastic
constructions. Searching for something better, I finally settled for
the Epson QX-10, running MML Ltd.'s CP/M Plus. I used it during 15
years, seeing the wrecking of "home computing". User groups
disappeared one after the other. One day, I finally had access to the
Internet, and found the comp.os.cpm Newsgroup. I have been
contributing to it for 10 years, now. (I was an active member of the
CP/M User Group (UK).)
Ok. This was the past. Let us now talk about the future.
I have a network of foreign correspondents. Would you like to be one
of them?
At the moment, I am searching for 3 things in England (I am a "book
worm"):
1) A 1918 Japanese booklet written in English, last seen in London in
1972.
2) A man living in Canterbury in 1997.
3) A BYTE article, but published only in the "International Section"
of the magazine: An American did not find this article in his US copy,
and a French librarian did not find it either in a French library. So,
since the article is about an English computer, I think (hope) that
the English edition of BYTE contains it.
If interested, send me a private message. This e-mail return address
is valid: I use it for writing to the comp.os.cpm Newsgroup. This is
not my private e-mail address.
Besides computers and programming, I also have other interests, like
sailing. I have been a member of the (english) "Amateur Yacht Research
Society" (ayrs.org) for several decades.
Mr Emmanuel Roche, France
> (...) "si vous le désirez" ("if you wished (it)").
Gasp! The French verb is in present, while the English werb is
preterit!
It should have been: "if you wish".
Thinking about it, since the Brits are not famous for expressing their
emotions, I think that a native English-speaker would simply says: "if
you want".
mike7g
wrote:
Well thats very interesting; and, whether it is true-or not, you may
think all us Brits do not express our emotions--if you like.
;-)
teile
> And LocoScript has uniq and best method of writing multilingual texts. Any
> accent could be combined with any character in consistent way (sequence
> Extra, accent, character).
> When someone write semi-scientific book, with links to bibliography in
> footnotes - but sources are in german, french, and some other languages
> with many own 'strange' characters, the only way on PC is to use charmap.
Or LaTeX . . . . You can always add your own character set if one
doesn't exist.
Locoscript had many fine features, but ultimately I stopped using it
in favour of another PCW word processor the name of which has slipped
my mind (the same outfit also supplied a very good assembler suite
using the same editor kernel, which I also used) because of what it
did to large text files. I had several large documents badly
corrupted when I tried to save them in Locoscript 1.
The good thing was that it prompted me to learn Z80 code so that I
could write programs to edit discs and recover what was left of
wrecked files.
LW
After years of using OpenVMS and Sun Solaris, I hanker to go back to
the simplicity and openness of the PCW, but it sits gathering dust
because its one and only 3" disc drive (it is an early PCW 256 beefed
up to 512 kB) has stopped reading my boot discs. I should have added
a 3.5" drive when the conversions were around.
teile
> In article <ddc5cdcb-f518-43e5-9c63-5b0b0ab0b...@e4g2000prn.googlegroups.com>,
> teile wrote:
> > Locoscript had many fine features, but ultimately I stopped using it
> > in favour of another PCW word processor the name of which has slipped
> > my mind (the same outfit also supplied a very good assembler suite
> > using the same editor kernel, which I also used)
>
Yes, a solid, fast editor compared with which Locoscript felt flaky,
and a terrific assembler and debugger. I suppose they're gone, now.
LW
Brian Watson
> Locoscript had many fine features, but ultimately I stopped using it
> in favour of another PCW word processor the name of which has slipped
> my mind (the same outfit also supplied a very good assembler suite
> using the same editor kernel, which I also used) because of what it
> did to large text files. I had several large documents badly
> corrupted when I tried to save them in Locoscript 1.
That would be Protext and the Maxam Assembler, now available for free
distribution... ;-)
--
Brian Watson (formerly of Protext Software)
Brian Watson
See my previous reply.
--
Brian