Alan Mothersole

This article is for those Music 5000 users who already own an AMX Mouse and SuperArt ROM and want to experiment with cursor control within AMPLE. Unfortunately, users of Music 4000 cannot take advantage of a mouse because it too uses the BBC User Port for interfacing.

The purpose of the mouse is to allow the user to move the cursor around the screen without fiddling with the usual arrow keys. An additional advantage is that the three buttons on the mouse can be used to generate control codes such as <RETURN>, <COPY>, <DELETE> or duplicate the red function keys f0 to f9.

It is worth adding here that under all conditions the mouse works in parallel with the computer keys which can be used as normal.

Installation

The installation instructions for BBC B and B+ computers are given in the AMX SuperArt User Guide and will not be repeated here.

For a Master 128 computer the ROM file is held on the Master Disc. Type

*SRLOAD RomI 8000 W Q

and press <CTRL><BREAK>

Activating the Mouse

For BBC B and B+ computers type:

*MOUSE ON
*BREAK

For Master 128 type:

*MOUSE ON

and press <CTRL><BREAK>

Then, for all machines, type:

*MCURSOR ON
*SENSITIVITY 1,1
*BUTTONS 0

Mouse Control through AMPLE

Boot up your system disc as usual to display the main menu screen. You will now find that by moving the mouse up and down the cursor will also move. To select the appropriate choice simply press the left button on the mouse.

Mouse Buttons

There are three pre-defined settings for the mouse buttons which are applicable to Music 5000. These settings can be changed by issuing the command *BUTTONS n (or *BU. n) from any command line.

The definitions are as follows:

n   LEFT(L)     MIDDLE(M)   RIGHT(R)
–   –––––––––   –––––––––   –––––––––
0   <RETURN>    <COPY>      <DELETE>
1   f2          f1          f0
7   <SHIFT>     <SHIFT>     <SHIFT>
    cursor      cursor      cursor
    right       down        up

A description of mouse control in each module follows together with recommendations for the most useful mouse button definitions and their functions.

Mouse control in Notepad

Cursor moved by normal mouse movement: up, down, left and right.

In general use with *BUTTONS 1:
L - Text/Panel
M - Play
R - Main Menu

In Text mode with *BUTTONS 0:
L - <RETURN>
M - <COPY CHARACTER>
R - <DELETE CHARACTER>

In Panel mode with *BUTTONS 7:
L - Decrease number by 10
M - Decrease number by 1
R - Increase number by 1

Mouse control in Staff Editor

Effect of Normal mouse movement:
Left - Move left by one character
Right - Move Right by one character
Up - Text Mode (line)
Down - Symbol Mode (block)

Option 1: *BUTTONS 0
L - Insert new note
M - Delete character at cursor
R - Delete character before cursor

Option 2: *BUTTONS 1
L - Copy end of Music
M – Play
R - Main Menu

Option 3: *BUTTONS 7
L - Lengthen Note or Rest
M - Lower Pitch of Note
R - Raise Pitch of Note

Mouse control in Mixing Desk

Cursor moved by normal mouse movement: up, down, left and right.

In general use with *BUTTONS 0:
L - Play hit on current voice
M - No effect
R - No effect

On Tempo/Tune with *BUTTONS 7:
L - Decrease tempo by 10
M - Decrease tempo by one
R - Increase tempo by one

On Instrument/Voice with *BUTTONS 7:
L - Move Right (position)
M - Decrease Volume
R - Increase Volume

Conclusion

As you can see the mouse can be used to control many functions of the Music 5000. However, it should be realised that with some of the modules several keys are used to change the various parameters and they cannot all be represented by the mouse and its three buttons!

However, if you already own the necessary software why not experiment further? You could always change the button definitions by re-programming the function keys.

Now where did I put that cheese...

Published in AMPLINEX 004, March 1988

Mouse Control for Music 5000 System