ANSWERS  TO  COMMON  QUESTIONS  ABOUT  VOYAGER
                               by Joseph K. Horn


The following information is provided as a service to those of you who got
your copy of Voyager by obtaining the EduCALC HP 48 Goodies Disk #2.

Note: This file was written by Joe Horn (not Voyager's author, Derek Nickel),
and therefore its accuracy is in no way guaranteed.

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Q1. I can't get Voyager to run; it immediately errors out saying something
like "error opening HP48.MEM as input".  What's wrong?

A1. Voyager needs HP48.MEM to run.  You haven't created it yet.  For detailed
instructions on how to do this, see the MEM.DOC file on this disk.

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Q2: Why did you choose to use HP's strange Assembly mnemonics instead of the
simpler mnemonics invented by Alonzo Gariepy from MicroSoft?

A2: (1) HP's mnemonics are strange, perhaps, but the only way we can expect HP
to respond to our BBS postings about assembly language is if we speak the same
language as HP.  They'll ignore our questions if they can't understand us. 
One 48 design team member has already said that "Alonzo's mnemonics are
incomprehensible."  (2) HP's mnemonics are many years old, and known by
hundreds (thousands?) of people; Alonzo's are relatively new and unknown. 
Using HP's mnemonics gives Voyager a larger audience.  (3) Historical acci-
dent: Derek learned HP's mnemonics first.

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Q3: SHOW MODES says that I'm always in STOP mode.  What's that?

A3: Ignore it.  MODE STOP/NOSTOP was obsoleted by MODE PAGER.

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Q4: I can't get BINTOMEM to work.  What's wrong?

A4: BINTOMEM uses .BIN as the default source filename extension.  If your
source file (the binary file) has no filename extension, you'll have to type a
"." after the filename to specify "no extension". For example, if the file's
name is FRED, type "BINTOMEM FRED.".

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Q5: Why does disassembly keep stopping every few lines?

A5: Type SHOW LIMIT to see how many lines your disassembly & dump limit is set
to.  You can change it, for example, by SET LIMIT 18.

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Q6: How can I exit early from the unthreading of a very large object?

A6: You can't.  Either be patient, or break out of Voyager entirely by
pressing BREAK or CTRL-C.

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Q7: The DNICKEL directory on this disk contains programs called ADDR and REV. 
What are they for?

A7: See full documentation for these (and many other useful programs) in the
IO.DOC file in the HORN2 directory on this disk.

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Q8: Derek's ASM.DOC (last page) lists the Saturn Registers.  Which of these
are used by the HP 48 operating system, and which are available for use freely
in Code object programming?

A8: B, D, D0, D1 and R4 are used by the operating system.  Never EVER change
the A field of R4; this is used as an interrupt vector.  The others may be
used if saved first (GOSBVL #679Bh does this for you), and then restored
(GOSBVL #67D2h) before returning to RPL.  See ADDR.LST for an example of these
routines in use.  (Note: Whether or not R4.A is used as an interrupt vector is
being debated as of this writing; for the time being, play it safe and leave
it alone.)

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Q9: My friend's copy of Voyager 6 (obtained elsewhere) doesn't seem to
recognize the EXAMINE MESSAGE_TABLE command.  But my Voyager 6 from EduCALC
works okey.  Are they really the same version?

A9: There are copies of Voyager 6 floating around which contain a minor bug:
instead of MESSAGE_TABLE, it expects NESSAGE_TABLE.  Your copy from EduCALC
has this bug fixed, of course!