OVER THE NEXT FEW ISSUES I will be taking you on a guided tour of the languages available to you with your PCW. This month I am looking at CP/M Plus and DR LOGO, both bundled with the PCW and available to everyone. USING CP/M Control Program and Monitor (CP/M) was developed during the first half of the last decade and became a Commercial product in the U.S. during the mid 70's for computers using the Intel 8080 microprocessor. CP/M Plus is a relatively simple operating system just waiting for you to explore - Locomotive Systems have adapted CP/M to take advantage of the Zilog Z80A microprocessor, as found in the Amstrad PCW machines - although CP/M was originally developed as a programmers' language, with a little effort you can also use it. If you are a beginner then the manual supplied with the PCW gives a good introduction into the subject. If you find this difficult to understand you may prefer Ian Sinclair's, 'Using Amstrad CP/M Business Software' as a source of supplementary material. Try your local library first, it is probably just waiting for you to borrow. Don't be put off by the title. This book covers many basic procedures and only assumes that you have a PCW 8256/512 that you use for word processing. Of the 136 pages, thirty are concerned with Business Software - Supercalc 11, Scratch Pad Plus, dBASE11, Cardbox, Magic Filer and New Word - the rest covers Disc Drives and Files and their associated CP/M commands, the use of SUBMIT files and ED. There is a good section on personalising your system. INITDIR and SET are also explained well. Even if your desire is to use the PCW to run 'off-the-peg' CP/M programs, you will find that an elementary knowledge of CP/M is very useful. If you don't like manuals or only use them when you get into trouble, you too will find Ian Sinclair's introduction to CP/M useful. Yes, there are some other good books available for beginners, but I found this and the manual sufficient to allow me to competently use CP/M. Now if I were programming the PCW, that would be a different matter.... EDUCATING RITA A young niece of mine came to visit recently and immediately struck up an in depth conversation on the merits of using word processors. The relative pros and cons were discussed at length. At school, with their BBC model B and software, this six year old regularly writes mini stories using modern technology. At this age she is clearly 'hooked' on the benefits of being able to refine her simple story, aided by the teacher, until she is pleased with the result, before printing it out on the printer. DR LOGO I gave this eager youngster her first session with LOGO on the PCW. I was amazed at her ability and after a short time she was drawing shapes easily with the turtle. LOGO was developed by Seymour Papert, Professor of Mathematics, now famous for his educational research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The whole idea of using LOGO with children is to allow them to program the computer rather than the reverse. The more that children (and adults) can actively do for themselves whilst learning the better. The old proverb, 'I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand' is very true. What better way for youngsters to learn abstract lessons than actively interacting with the computer? (Not to mention learning keyboard skills etc.) The computer encourages and develops mental creativity rather than passiveness that the 'other' screen creates. Even the popular computer games demand a high level of concentration and control. GETTING STARTED DR LOGO, supplied with the PCW, is a fair implementation of this language. LOGO was created to be used by all age groups, from preschool upwards, why not take the plunge and discover the delights of this fascinating language from Digital Research. Now that you have decided to try out Logo you must copy some files from the master set of discs - supplied with the PCW - onto a fresh formatted disc. This will be your Logo system disc that will load CP/M then Logo automatically after switching on. Here's what to do: 1 Format a fresh disc and copy three files onto it J14CPM3.EMS SUBMIT.COM SETKEYS.COM from side two of the master disc using PIP.COM (or NSWEEP.COM from our P.D.Library). NOTE: (The file J14CPM3.EMS MAY BE NAMED SOMEWHAT DIFFERENTLY ON YOUR MASTER DISC SIDE 2, BUT IT WILL BE THE ONLY FILE WITH THE '.EMS' EXTENSION) 2 Copy three files from side four of the master disc KEYS.DRL LOGO.COM LOGO.SUB onto your new Logo Disc. 3 Rename LOGO.SUB to PROFILE.SUB (REN PROFILE.SUB=LOGO.SUB) 4 Check your new Logo working disc with NSWEEP.COM or DIR to make sure that you have the following files: J14CPM3.EMS KEYS.DRL LOGO.COM PROFILE.SUB SETKEYS.COM SUBMIT.COM Now remove all discs and reset the PCW, insert your new LOGO Disc and if all is well it will load CP/M+ as usual giving the system details. Next you will see A> SETKEYS KEYS.DRL and then A> LOGO.COM followed by the Logo Title screen and then the Logo Prompt appears (?) in the top left hand corner. You now have a working Logo self starting disc. Towards the end of the AMSTRAD Manual (Blue book one) there is an introductory text which should help you to get moving with Logo. Try the examples as you go along. Logo isn't just about Turtle graphics and drawing pretty pictures. It is a programming language in its own right, and as such can be used for a variety of applications. Why don't you experiment a little with DR LOGO. Try drawing various shapes: Squares, Triangles, Circles and patterns. Send me examples of your work and I'll include them in this column. If we can get enough to fill a disc then I'll send it to the Librarians. That wraps it up for this month, don't forget to send your Logo Procedures to: Gerry Austin, 7 Deeley Close, Cradley Heath, Warley, West Midlands. B64 7NF