Thank you for your letter re my problems with the mountains of manuals and their jargon.

If you remember, I was having problems digesting all the information acquired with the hardware when I bought it. I have decided to press on regardless with programming. And to surmount problems if and when they occur rather than attempt to learn it all before the keyboard is touched.

As you may remember, the purpose of purchasing the Elk (with all its accompanying software/hardware) was to be compatible with my childrens' school computer studies. And with that in mind I tentatively contacted various suppliers of software. Tentatively, because I didn't expect much.

I'm happy to report that support for the Elk is alive and tremendous. Though some of it is rather prohibitive. Cost being the main reason.

My first purchase was a disk: Swift Software's Keyword, a thesaurus/dictionary which has enabled me to finish crosswords and write letters without repeating myself. The next was a ROM Cartridge, Acornsoft's Tree Of Knowledge, which was very disappointing. The graphics were almost non-existant.

Unfortunately, my next purchase had to be another Electron due to some over-exuberant play on Tetris. (The RETURN key passed away!) So this has curtailed further forays into the software market for now.

Undaunted, I've ploughed/played on and happily am able to submit my first serious effort at programming to EUG. I hope it's of use. I've called it TIMESTABLES and it's aimed at the under 7 age group. (My oldest child is 7 at the time of writing and just beginning his tables.) It is limited from x2 up to x5 but it can easily be adapted once they've been mastered.

I look forward to your guide on ADFS as it's a mystery thus far and to receiving my first issue of EUG. Hopefully by the time April's issue comes out, I may have something else of value to submit.

Pete Howes

Tetris was almost the death of my Elk some time ago. My wife bought me one of the handheld versions but before I could get a chance to play with it she decided she liked it and so acquired it herself. Eventually, her sister bought me another one. We both still sit in front of the TV playing that blessed Tetris now. Except of course when 'Blakes 7' is on!

Gus Donnachaidh, EUG #19