1) How can I acquire more copies of the Beboputer?

2) How can I synchronize my syncopated notchet tattles?

For the thousandth time, "syncopated notchet tattles" are just something that we made up in the book. They don't exist, so you don't need to synchronize them!

3) Hints & Tips #1: A little thought can result in faster programs!

4) How can I see the current input/output port values?

By some happy quirk of fate, we managed to squeeze a Port Monitor Display tool into the Beboputer just before the publication cut-off. To access this tool, select the "Port Map Status" entry under the "Display" pull-down menu in the Beboputer's project window. Whenever the Beboputer is powered up, this display will show the most recent values read from or written to the input and output ports, respectively. Note however that there's a slight "glitch" in version 1.0 of the Beboputer, in that the values shown in this tool are actually displayed in decimal (not hexadecimal as the display appears to indicate).

5) Why do the assembler, calculator, and character editor tools keep disappearing behind the project window?

Unlike the Beboputer's other utilities, the assembler, character editor, and calculator (the Beboputer's calculator, not the calculator used for the project in Chapter 14) are separate executables. Thus, when you click anywhere in the Beboputer's project window it leaps in front of these tools. You can return the tool in question to the foreground by clicking its icon in the Windows 95 task bar.

6) Why do I get sound but not video in the multimedia viewer?

A likely cause is that you don't have Microsoft's Video For Windows loaded on your system. Fortunately we're prepared for just this eventuality, and you can install this utility from the VFW directory on the Beboputer's CD-ROM.

7) Is the Beboputer's interrupt mask logically correct?

The interrupt mask in some microprocessors is considered to be an Interrupt Disable, which means that a logic 0 in this status flag enables interrupts while a logic 1 disables them. By comparison, in other microprocessors the interrupt mask is considered to act as an Interrupt Enable, which means that a logic 0 in this status flag disables interrupts while a logic 1 enables them.

The bottom line is that there is no standard way of treating this particular flag, so the way it works is at the discretion of the designers. In the case of the Beboputer, we decided that this flag would be considered to be an Interrupt Enable.

8) Why am I having problems loading and running the Beboputer?

First of all we're assuming that you're running the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system, because this is the only system for which the Beboputer is certified.

9) Does the Beboputer run under Windows NT?

The Beboputer is only officially certified for use under Windows 95. In the case of Windows NT 4.0, the Beboputer appears to run on some systems without problems but it crashes on other systems.

The two main problem areas appear to be when you click the main ON/OFF switch on the switch panel and when you try to invoke the paper tape reader/writer (no one has reported any problems with the hex keypad). With regard to the main switch panel, some readers have reported that clicking a few address and data switches before clicking the main ON/OFF switch prevents the machine from crashing, but we don't have a clue why this should be. Once again, the Beboputer is only officially certified for use under Windows 95.

10) Why is my Beboputer's splash screen squashed over to one side?

Depending on the way in which your system has been set up, when you invoke the Beboputer you may see the splash screen squashed over to the upper left-hand corner of its window. This problem may also manifest itself in the form of big, unwieldy toolbar icons, by white lines appearing on the Beboputer's switch or display panels, and by the characters on the memory-mapped display appearing squashed into the upper left-hand corner of the display.

In this case, you've run into a font problem. One way to solve this is to use "Start-> Settings-> Control Panel," then click on the "Display" icon, then select the "Settings" tab, then set the "Font Size" field to "Small."

11) Why doesn't the Beboputer's calculator appear when I try to run it?

If when you try to run the Beboputer's calculator nothing appears to happen (and assuming that you are NOT experiencing any other problems), then our first guess would be that you haven't followed the installation instructions in Appendix A of the book.

Come on, "Fess up," you didn't did you? You should be running with a minimum screen resolution of 800 x 600. If you're still running with a resolution of only 640 x 480 then, when you select our calculator, it is appearing ... you simply can't see it because it appears outside your screen area.