Editorial Bonvenon al la 50a numero de SynTax Welkom tot het 50ste nummer van SynTax Welkom bij issue 50 van SynTax Bienvenu au numero 50 de SynTax Tervettuloa SynTax in numerolle 50 Welkom bij uitgave 50 van SynTax or in other words: Welcome to Issue 50 of SynTax! Issue 50 is a real landmark and though it seems no time at all since Issue 1, that was actually back in July 1989 when my hair was a lot darker and I hadn't passed the big 4-oh! About a quarter of the current SynTax readers have taken all the issues since the first one and another quarter have taken since Issue 10 or thereabouts. When you realise that for years the readership was stuck on about 50 or 60 an issue and the last issue went out to 120 readers, it shows that only a few of the initial readers have left the fold. All but about 20 of current readers are on the PC. As it's a special issue, I'm marking the occasion with a couple of extras. First of all, Alex completed programming SynWin 97 so PC readers will have a second disk with that on. Please note it runs under Windows 95 only - now isn't THAT a good reason to upgrade if you haven't already? It has lots of extra features, and is very easy to install and use, but if you have any queries it has a full Help file. It also contains the SynDex (SynTax Index) for Issues 1-50 and all readers will also receive a new printed copy of the SynDex. Big thanks to Alex for his hard work programming SynWin 97 and to Rudi, Vicky and James for their help testing it. Just as the last issue went out, I had BIG computer problems. A recurring error with the registry and the back-up meant that I had to erase and reinstall Windows 95 but in the end I reformatted the hard drive and started again from scratch. The whole system is now a lot more stable and runs much faster but it took over a month to sort it all out. I backed everything up data-wise - except for my last month's e-mails, which I lost, so apologies to anyone if your e-mail got lost in the confusion. I know I lost one contribution which was on an e-mail but I think that was the only one (sorry, Alex!) ... On a more personal note, I discovered, just as I was finishing this issue, that I had also lost the adventure I was writing using The Adventurer. I'd got to the final playtesting / bug-hunting phase and I still can't believe that I forgot to back it up! Luckily all the puzzles are still fairly clear in my mind so I will program it - again! - otherwise it will be 2 years' work down the drain, but this time I will go back to TADS which I really enjoy using and find so versatile. Though I am very busy with work, I am trying to take an hour each day to play a game ... the amount of software I have amassed over the years is getting an embarrassment. I was having some techy problems running Sam and Max (the sound is a bit iffy and the cursor has changed into a black blob!) so I went back to World of Xeen. I love that game! I'd completed Clouds so just have Darkside to do - and Swords if I can put up with the bugs. What else? Alan bought me VoiceType Simply Speaking for my birthday. It is a speech recognition program running under Win 95. You have to speak fairly slowly and distinctly, leaving definite gaps between words, into a microphone and the text comes up on the screen. It is brilliant fun. We had a good laugh at first, before I had 'taught' it to recognise my pronunciation when I read in the following paragraph from the manual ... If you see the following screen, connecting the battery adapter, check that your microphone is properly connected ... which it 'heard' as: Issue prehistoric aspirin, collecting their compatriots, checklist microphone improperly collected We-e-ell, it got microphone right! It's a lot more accurate now (certainly better than my typing). Okay, that's it for now, I think. Enjoy Issue 50, thanks for your support over the last 8 years and here's looking ahead to Issue 100!! Sue - o -