This section is a focus for news about the workings of AMPLINEX, corrections to items in previous issues, and other small items of information which might otherwise be missed amongst the details of each issue.

Text file format in AMPLINEX

As you may already have noticed, the text files in AMPLINEX have changed format - they are no longer right justified. This change has been made in response to a request by Ted Royffe who wanted to be able to change the text into 80 column format for printing, without the task of stripping out the extra spaces from the original 38 column justified text.

We felt that this was probably a common requirement and we trust that other members will prefer the new format.

We also received a request from Andy Gillanders to distinguish the various sections of AMPLINEX by using different DFS directories. This would enable the magazine's contents to be more easily split up for integration into each member's own filing system.

We have decided to do this, and have allocated a different directory to each section of AMPLINEX as follows:

$. for Music

A. for the Introduction and Adverts

F. for Features

H. for Hints and Tips

I. for Instruments

N. for News and Reviews

Q. for Questions and Answers

U. for Utilities

Using this system should enable more meaningful filenames to be used. The filenames of text files will, as before, be shown at the foot of the screen as the text is displayed.

In line with the above changes, the AMPLINEX 'environment' program has been changed from $.AMPLINX to A.MPLINEX (as you will by now have discovered).

We would appreciate your comments on these changes to AMPLINEX and on any others you would like to see.

Copyright and AMPLINEX

We have provided detailed information to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society about the operation and financing of AMPLINEX and we are now waiting for a decision from them on how we can publish material of which the contributor is not the copyright owner. We are hoping for a decision before the next issue of AMPLINEX in March.

If you have AMPLE music programs containing material which is not your copyright you can still send these in as contributions to AMPLINEX. We will simply retain these until the copyright issue is resolved.

AMPLINEX and 'Music City'

As mentioned in the previous issue of AMPLINEX, we have agreed to operate an exchange with 'Music City' the computer music section of Micronet. We will supply a copy of each issue of AMPLINEX to 'Music City' from which they can select anything which they wish to distribute via Micronet. Once they decide which contributions they want to use, we will put them in touch with the authors so that they can ask their permission and can negotiate any payment terms.

In exchange we will review the output of 'Music City' for pieces suitable for inclusion in AMPLINEX.

Since the operation of this arrangement means that we will be passing on members' addresses to Micronet, we would like to take this opportunity of asking any members who would NOT wish this to happen to let us know as soon as possible.

We must emphasize that no rights to publication are given to Micronet by AMPLINEX and the decision to allow publication of any material remains with the author.

We believe that this arrangement will have benefits for AMPLINEX members both in the availability of more information and in the possible financial gain from onward sale of their contributions.

Corrections

We are grateful to David Westbrook for highlighting two errors in the article on 'Advanced AMPLE' in AMPLINEX 001. This looked at the DIM, ARRAY and FRAME commands and in the section on the DIM command were two example words: one for storing a string in memory ("$!") and one for retrieving it ("$?").

In the case of the word "$?" the #B! on the second line should have read #B?. There should also have been a pair of double quote characters (indicating an empty string) at the start of the word.

The complete example should read:

"$?" [ "" % does address $? => string

#11 #B? FOR( 1 #+ % next character

#11 #B? $CHR $+ % fetch character

)FOR #2 % discard extra no.

$REV ] % reverse string

We are sorry for any frustration caused to those who tried the examples.

Feedback

To encourage just the sort of feedback which brought about the changes and highlighted the problems discussed above, we have introduced a new section to the AMPLINEX disc.

Under the section heading 'Feedback' is a utility to allow a short note to be written on the screen and then saved to disc. The advantage over use of a word processor or 'Notepad' is the ability to write the note whilst still within the AMPLINEX environment.

Thus you can jot down your thoughts as you read or listen to the contents of the new issue.

The files created using 'Feedback' can then be included on your return disc for the next issue of AMPLINEX.

More details on using 'Feedback' are given in the section itself and some notes on file naming are given in the 'How to contribute' part of the Introduction section.

Finally, thank you to all those who sent us comments about AMPLINEX after issue 002. Your views and suggestions are always appreciated and are the only way to keep AMPLINEX constantly improving.

If you have sent in comments or suggestions and don't see them acted upon straight away, please bear with us - we are trying to follow up on as many as possible as quickly as we can, without holding up production of the disc itself.

To provoke some thoughts from other members here is an extract from a letter we received from Richard Nevill:

"The music files on the issue 002 disc reinforce a suspicion I have long had that the Music 500/0 demands to have music especially composed for it, rather than to have pale conversions of popular and classical 'standards'."

We would like to promote some discussion on the musical constraints and opportunities presented by the Hybrid Music System - so let us know your opinions in time for the March issue.