This EUG I have sent two utilities for you to chew over:

MORSE

This program is converted from one I wrote to help the local Scout group in their "Communications" badge.

It may appear a little squashed up in Mode 4, as it was originally designed to fill Mode 7's screen. If you have access to Mode 7 then alter line 30 to suit.

The startup screen asks you what speed you're at; the Scouts almost always needed option 3 as they're not professionals!

Once the speed is chosen, simply type in the desired phase, including any one or more of the special codes shown in brackets. I suggest you start with SOS which is ...---...

The ratio of long to short is 3, as it should be (according to a book I have). If you want to alter the codes they are held as data at the end of the program in a script format explained by the REM statement. It stops after one message.

CWDIR

One of the serious weaknesses of DFS is that you have no way of telling what directory you're in.

To get around this I have trapped a redundant command "*DIR" which, on its own, does nothing at all. It doesn't even report "Bad dir" as you might expect!

With this program loaded, *DIR will print out the current drive and directory.

It occupies the character redefinition buffer on the BBC and Electron so it can't be used in conjunction with fancy Japanese character sets unfortunately! It does however work in any screen Mode provided you don't want to redefine any letters.

On the Master 128, &C00 is part of the Econet workspace so, provided you don't have a network in your room, you're OK.

If my use of the character redefinition buffer (&C00) does cause you any hassles, send £2.50 and a first class stamp to me noting the address you want the utility to load in at.

Unlike some crude versions which assume they are running on a BBC with one letter directories, this utility does take into account ADFS's support for long names too.

To run this utility, type *LOAD U.CWDIR (RETURN) or select it from the Utilities Menu. You can then remove the disk and carry on as normal.

Robert Sprowson, EUG #26