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With the cassette came a letter 15 inches long by 4 inches wide printed out using the Sinclair printer. To quote from it: "nobody can describe the standard Sinclair hardware as especially suitable for word processing. However, with some lateral thinking applied to the problem the main deficiency, the printer, has been overcome". What they mean is that any text over 32 characters in width (normal screen) is printed out sideways - hence the 15" long letter.

A further quote: "we don't suggest anyone purchases Shifty as a dedicated word processor, but if your handwriting is like mine hand you need to upgrade your presetation then Shifty will allow you to do this at an acceptable cost". My own handwriting justified me purchasing a decent second hand typewriter. I have just worked out that if I used Shifty and the Sinclair printer, my average letter would be about a metre long!

With the tape came four pages of instructions set up by using SHIFTY, but printed out on a normal (I use that word advisedly) printer. Even so, I found using the program a tedious task. My advice to the programmer would be to either join a company which specialises in word processors, or use his or her very obvious talents for fun programs for the home computer market.

B.B.