Printing

[Peter Prewett]

The printer default is A4, it only has A5 and A4 installed, the document I am printing is A4, the Print Set Up shows Letter, if I do not change it prints A4 anyway and that is what the printer is set up for as this was the first thing I checked before asking for help.
I have no problem using Ovation Pro or any other SW or Works or Publisher etc.
I am aware how to get around and set up computers and printers since 1981 unless you want to go back when I worked, about 1957, at AWRE Aldermaston on a Ferranti Mk 1* serial #7 with CRT memory and valves.
Thanks for input,
Peter

[handrawn]

The printer default is A4, it only has A5 and A4 installed, the document I am printing is A4, the Print Set Up shows Letter, if I do not change it prints A4 anyway and that is what the printer is set up for as this was the first thing I checked before asking for help.

so in fact, there is not a problem in practice ? - it's just that the default setting in that xara program is letter and you cannot change this permanently, but you get an A4 print which is what you want, whether you change the setting or don't ?

as far as the reason why - it's a network printer right? could be that a network setting is making xara think it is a US config; different programs behave differently in that regard [and I am ssuming your shed computer is UK config

I have a security program that in places refuses to recognise my UK keyboard and enters US keys, something to be aware of when setting up passwords

...a Ferranti Mk 1* serial #7 with CRT memory and valves.
Thanks for input,
Peter

now that is going back a tad....

you are welcome

[pauland]

I am aware how to get around and set up computers and printers since 1981 unless you want to go back when I worked, about 1957, at AWRE Aldermaston on a Ferranti Mk 1* serial #7 with CRT memory and valves.
Thanks for input,
Peter

I would say that not everyone goes back to the Ferranti Mk1, some of us only used the FM1600E, Ferranti Argus 700 and M700!

It's not a personal insult to have people consider all possibilities because most people are not as computer literate as you or I (having never touched a Ferranti machine) and even we sometimes miss the obvious thing.

What is clear is that none of us, computer literate as we are, know exactly what is happening even though I used to make computer chips for the Ferranti M700 and even programmed (briefly) the first European 16-bit microprocessor the F100-L.

I tend not to mention this stuff because it often fails to impress, but since you mentioned it..

..normal service is now resumed..

[Boy]

...I used to make computer chips for the Ferranti M700 and even programmed (briefly) the first European 16-bit microprocessor the F100-L.

I tend not to mention this stuff because it often fails to impress....

Well, I'm impressed!

[pauland]

Well, I'm impressed!

It's old news but my time with Ferranti was great. The hardware used for complex systems would shock people today. One of the processors could only address 64K (16-bit) words and that was fine for controlling a lot of military hardware or process control plants. I look back in great fondness with what we achieved and the people I worked with. Good company, good people. Sadly no more.

[handrawn]

I'm impressed too

ever use Computer On-line Real-time Applications Language [coral] ?

hell that is so far back i had to look it up, I knew I'd got it wrong

guys I knew working on GWS used it a lot

[pauland]

I'm impressed too

ever use Computer On-line Real-time Applications Language [coral] ?

hell that is so far back i had to look it up, I knew I'd got it wrong

guys I knew working on GWS used it a lot

Yes, I used Coral. I loved the language, it came from Algol - a language I used at University. I (and everyone else) used to write a lot of numbers in Octal (base 8) too because we could manipulate bit patterns easily.

I was part of the MASCOT team for Ferranti then I moved to CAD development of chips for processor development. That involved Fortran and C. One fun program was to take a memory image and create a design that functioned as a ROM for the main processor providing the code for micro instructions for the main processor instruction set.

I was very geeky back in the day. There is a picture of me somewhere operating a CAD workstation with a huge CRT screen and a light-pen complete with cable to update CAD designs. We had a huge plotter that had a table that held paper to it's surface using tiny suction holes. The printouts would cover a wall in a room.

My first assignment in the company was writing data onto a disc drive by setting up instructions to the disk controller to move to particular sectors, etc on the surface of the disc and to read and write to it. It was very scary because any errors at all would lead to disc corruption on multiple computers throughout the company. I was very aware that unlike university assignments, the software had to work unlike the assignments where you were essentially proving that you understood the problem and could tackle it even if there were some bugs.

Anyway.. ..a long time ago. I mutated along the way from very system-oriented software to front-end development that morphed into iPad/iPhone apps.

[handrawn]

I just wondered...

Peter mentioned AWRE [Aldermaston] - when I came out of uni with an art degree I had no chance of getting an art related job, but elizabeth windsor took me under her wing for a few years and provided me with an income whilst I got my self together - today it seems strange, but then it only mattered that you had a degree, not what subject it was in, you could still get a non-technical job, in my case in the civil service [mod] - AWRE had a place in high holborn then, I went there once

long time ago as you say.. but a small world...

[Peter Prewett]

Thanks for input and the asides!
Peter