22/06/94 Questions and Answers ===================== Q. My Apps icon has disappeared from my icon bar. How do I get it back? A. You need to go to the command line (F12) and type *UNPLUG to find out which modules are unplugged; one of them will be Resources. Re-install them using *RMREINIT . Q. I can't fit all my PC applications onto a single 32Mb partition, and I don't want to use multiple partitions; can I make a partition larger than 32Mb? A. Yes, you can. However, you won't be able to access the partition using DOSFS under RISC OS; partition access will only be available in the PC environment. The Secret Life of !System -------------------------- Many of your everyday programs use relocatable modules such as the Shared C Library; a lot of these are kept in !System.Modules. Your machine is informed of the location of !System by !System.!Boot, in the lines If "" = "" Then Set System$Dir If "" = "" Then Set System$Path . which first sets up the variable System$Dir to point to the location of !System, and then sets up System$Path, which is the variable applications should use as the start of the path they require to access modules. The modules in !System may be supplanted or updated either by copying the modules directly into !System.Modules, or, preferably, by running !SysMerge and dragging the relevant copies of !System to facilitate copying. A4 Battery Hints ---------------- We have recently investigated how best to maintain the performance of the A4 Nickel - Cadmium rechargeable battery. Our results suggest the following: After every few charges, try to discharge the battery completely before recharging it. This can be done, once the A4 has prompted you to save your work and switch off, by saving your work and then leaving the A4 switched on for another two hours or so. When the battery is recharging, it tends to get warm. The charging capability of the battery is best if it is kept cool while charging, and it makes quite a difference if an airflow can be maintained over the battery while it is charging. Even turning the A4 upside down will allow the battery to radiate some of its heat to the surroundings. Video Support on the Risc PC ---------------------------- The table below gives information on the range of Acorn monitors and standard resolutions supported by Risc PC with all VRAM configurations, and examples of typical backward-compatible numbered screen modes which display these resolutions. Although the box is ticked to indicate that 1600x1200 is possible on a machine with 2Mb VRAM, running this mode requires that the VIDC20 be clocked at a higher rate than it is specified for. Hence this display mode may not be steady on all Risc PCs. This table applies to the Monitor Definition Files as shipped; the 1600x1200 definition file can be obtained by AKF85 owners by writing to Acorn Customer Services. Changes to ftp.acorn.co.uk -------------------------- These are now listed in /pub/changelog; the biggest change since the Comms column in the May issue is that the ",ddc" archive file endings have been replaced with ".arc". In addition to fixing the lists problem under VMS, this means that WWW browsers such as xmosaic recognise binaries as binaries. ftp.acorn.co.uk is being mirrored by Arcade BBS (081 654 2212) and Digital Databank BBS (0707 329306), so if you have a modem but no Internet link, you can still download our files.