Using JOYCE

Disclaimer

The object of this page is to interest you in trying JOYCE and I guarantee that if you have or have had a PCW then you will enjoy the experience. As well as commercial PCW programs, you will be able to try programming for yourself with Mallard Basic, C, Fortran, Logo, or any of the myriad of programming languages that were available for the PCW, not forgetting Assembler or machine code. Programming a PC today is almost unattainable for most of us; it is complicated, uses very expensive aids and is done by teams rather than individuals, but programming done with the PCW or JOYCE is never wasted as it gets you thinking like a programmer.

I have no inside track with JOYCE. I have never met John Elliott although he has been kind enough to give me a couple of pointers to JOYCE which I mention in the page JOYCE for Windows. All I know about using JOYCE has been garnered from the documentation and my own experience in learning new programs. This can be summed up in the words "need to know". That is, I plough on until I hit a problem then try to find a solution. I taught myself Mallard Basic this way and hope to progress with JOYCE.

In any program the size of JOYCE there are many facets; far too many for me to cover. I have my own interests, you'll have yours and they may not be the same. In my opinion, Amstrad's first PCWs, the PCW8256 and 8512 were the best, and so at present I'm using JOYCE as a PCW8512. I have had most PCW models at one time or another so I shall be dabbling in other set-ups from time to time.

In short, please don't expect me to be an expert user of JOYCE. I am in my 8th decade and I'm sure that my learning capabilities have slowed but what I lack in speed I gain by perseverance. I'm also cleverer than the average idiot and know a good thing when I see it. JOYCE can give you a lot of enjoyment for free and you can't get better than that! So why not download joyce200.zip, print out the manual and see what JOYCE can do for you?

Notes on using JOYCE

  1. Although JOYCE can load standard PCW system and data discs (provided they're on 3.5" media) from the floppy drive of your PC it's a slow process taking several minutes (I kid you not) and it's best to use the facilities in JOYCE to convert your standard PCW discs into files when they load into JOYCE at normal PCW speeds.
  2. Once the welcoming screen of JOYCE appears, what may be described as "external functions" become accessible by pressing the F9 key. These functions are accessed through a menu bar which appears above the welcoming screen. I say "external functions" because they involve actions which are for the most part would be conducted outside a PCW, such as changing discs, moving the printer bail bar or, indeed, moving to a different model. Menus can be accessed by mouse or keyboard. When using the keyboard press the function key indicated. Thereafter arrow keys are used to select an option and confirmed with the Enter key. The mouse can be used for most functions and is quicker, often too quick, so for starters I recommend using the keyboard until familiarity is achieved.
  3. When the menu bar is visible none of the PCW's functions are available, but pressing Esc loses the menu bar and JOYCE functions just like the PCW of your choice.
  4. Your PC keyboard is, of course laid out differently from the PCW keyboard, but JOYCE uses standard PC keys to emulate those of the PCW keyboard. These are shown in the documentation and there is also a graphical keyboard layout shown in the "Help" menu on the menu bar. The number and letter keys remain the same but some symbols appear where they would on a PCW keyboard although the legend is different. After a short practice it becomes second nature. It only takes a couple of minutes to press each key to familiarise yourself with the keypresses.

Starting JOYCE

If you have down-loaded JOYCE and installed it as discussed in the JOYCE for Windows page of this section you will have Joyce installed in the Start Menu, offering three choices

The Joyce documentation is in PDF format and has to be read by Acrobat and it's well worth printing out for reference as it tells all there is to know about using Joyce. If you track down the Joyce folder, probably in C:\program files\joyce\ and open the docs folder you will find two other .PDF files; edops.pdf and hardware.pdf. These are also worth a look as they display much of what John Elliott found out and used about the technical side of PCWs whilst writing JOYCE. If you're an experienced programmer these files will be indispensible; if you're like me, just look and marvel!

Options are given to start JOYCE either in a full screen or "windowed" but to start Joyce in full screen requires DirectX drivers. At present I prefer the "windowed" option for reasons which I give in the JOYCE for Windows page. Selecting either option brings up a "Welcome to JOYCE " screen with a numbered list of boot discs which you hopefully will have installed as described in my Joyce 1.9.3 file in this section.

my installed boot discs are:-

  1. Locoscript228
  2. CPM3 v1.4
  3. Knife Plus

These boot disc files were named by me but it's obvious what they are. In the case of Knife Plus, CPM boots first and a profile.sub file loads Knife Plus ready to go with files loaded on to the M: drive, all exactly as on a PCW. If you have programs that you use on a regular basis it makes life easier if you set them up as a boot disc file.

Defining your PCW

My favourite PCW is the PCW8512 so I have set up JOYCE to emulate this model. To do this I pressed F9 to bring up the menu bar, then selected the Settings menu. General is used to select the basic machine, Memory amount of memory, disc drives for types of drive. I selected a PCW8512 with 512k of memory, a 180k 3" A: drive, and a 720k B: drive. To set this I checked Save settings then Exit. There are other options in the Settings menu which I may use later when I have more experience.

Running Locoscript

Pressing Esc to get rid of the menu bar I pressed 1 to select Locoscript228, which is how I named Locoscript version 2.28a, my favourite Locoscript for the PCW8512. Immediately, the familiar horizontal lines came scrolling down the screen and then the familiar opening screen began to appear, showing that Locospell and Locomail had also loaded. When the management screen appeared it showed the Locoscript system files in Drive A:, with Drive B: empty. I usually use Drive B: to write and edit files so now I needed to put a disc into Drive B: I had previously converted a couple of Locoscript 720k discs to disk images using JOYCE, one of which was a blank so I decided to use this.  Instructions below are for using the keyboard, but a mouse can be used for most functions.

  1. Press F9 to activate Menu Bar
  2. Press F2 for Disc menu
    3. ........ Menu 1 (shown below) appears.
  3. Select Drive B: highlight Insert using arrow keys (up or down) Press Enter
  4. A dialogue box appears headed "Enter Filename for image".....Menu2 (shown below) Highlight Disc file and press Enter. The box expands to show the user files available..... Menu3
  5. Highlight the file of your choice; press Enter

    6.

Menu 1

  1. Menu3                                                 Menu2

6. Menu 3 disappears and the File/drive section shows the chosen file
7. Highlight OK and press Enter
8. Menu 1 reappears showing file to be loaded into drive B:. Highlight Exit and press Enter
9. Press Esc to lose the menu bar. Only the PCW management screen is showing now.
10. Press f7 (disk change) and B: will load.

Using Locoscript in Joyce

I found few problems using Locoscript in JOYCE. I was surprised how faithfully the emulation mirrored the original. The only problems I had were concerned with the PC keyboard. I obviously use the PCW keyboard instinctively and I had to think hard at times on how to perform a task. My B: drive showed that the disc was completely empty, so I used the arrow keys to highlight a group in B:, then pressed C for Create. The familiar dialog box came up and I was soon away, typing like mad. After saving my first Locoscript document in JOYCE I saved it by pressing EXIT (Esc key on PC)and selecting Finish edit.

Using CP/M in JOYCE

CP/M programs can be loaded similarly. Boot CP/M then load the relevant disc file. However, a better way, if you have the facility is to prepare an autoboot disc on a PCW and use that as a boot file in JOYCE. JOYCE can show up to nine boot options on it's Welcome Screen, but will accept more; press F3 to see the others.

Ron King .

Andover March 2002

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