Professional Astrologer

ZX Computing

Brian Beckett

QL COLUMN Brian Beckett reviews Digital Precisions Professional Astrologer. Our fate dear Freddy lies not in our stars but in ourselves! This clever paraphrase of Shakespeare (whom I'm sure will forgive me) is for Digital Precision's ever-inventive and personable managing director Freddy Vachha who has released a new and highly sophisticated QL astrology program upon a weary and troubled world increasingly desperate to gain a measure of insight into whatever passes for destiny in these cynical days. Professional Astrologer sells for £59.95 or £69.95 depending upon an optional Professional Astronomer module. It comes on four microdrives or a single disc and is one of the most impressive pieces of micro software that I have ever seen. It is an excellent program/package which does the QL proud and has no real competitor on any micro. The amount of data that's been included in both the program and in the manual is impressive to say the least. The program's design allows for individual tailoring and is so flexible that highly personalised results are the order of the day. There's an editor and a printer driver facility (you can also save to Quill) that will produce length and detailed documents/reports of a professional standard. All together, the package accounts for some 400K but is designed to run easily on an unexpanded QL and its versatility and power makes one appreciate the scope for high level computing that is actually available to even the most humble of home micro owners when the machine is treated as a serious piece of modern electronics and not just a portable games arcade. I wish some other software houses had taken such a professional approach to QL programming. But - as one might have gathered from the opening line - I do not believe in astrology and rate its "scientific" worth as more or less equivalent to the old Roman custom of forecasting events by reading the entrails of sheep. While astrology is a good deal less messy and far more likely to keep the RSPCA off your back, its no less naive and - in today's world - an inexcusable exercise in the surrender of rationality to unreasoned belief. A great many believe in astrology to at least some extent (a great many people also once believed the earth to be flat) and there is clearly a market for a good program catering to their needs and Professional Astrologer is an indisputably good program. Besides, according to the (comprehensive) manual, neither Freddy Vachha nor chief program developer Elmar Duenssar believe in astrology either and I have no hesitation in recommending the quality of the package despite my total disbelief in the purposes for which it was designed. MICRO-ASTROLOGY The development of Professional Astrologer drew upon the consultancy services of honest-to-god astrologers so - if you're a true believer - have no fear of the scepticism voiced by the specialists who put it together or of the agnoticism of some reviewers who recommend it. It's fast, detailed and otherwise efficient but I can't suspend my disbelief enough to honestly comment on the results. My spies report very favourable if not enthusiastic attitudes towards Professional Astrologer in the star-gazer circle so, if you want a computer package for better gazing, this is undoubtedly the one to get. The package will do all the things a good astrologer should do save send you a bill. These include character evaluation from planetary positions at birth, character comparisons (check out your partner options), day-to-day and year-by-year forecasts. If you're intending to go into business as the neighbourhood Merlin, the word "professional" in the title is fully justified. The package is an impressive piece of professional software and would seem to contain just about every feature required for the complex calculations required by those who take astrology seriously enough to buy a program to aid their work. There's even plenty of scope for those of us who think it's all nonsense. Personally I intend to get some of my own back on all those glassy-eyed trendies who invariably appear at any party anywhere to stand around asking each other and the innocent alike what their signs are "I don't know, I leave all that sort of thing to my computer", ought to be a good conversation stopper. Professional Astrologer also allows for some phenomenally accurate modelling of the solar system and projections of planetary positions so that it is possible to use it for truly serious purposes (an astronomy package of equal power would be an absolute delight). If we can look for more quality software for the QL as we know it in the days to come, Digital is one of the few companies who will provide it as most of the others are now seeking new claims in more promising gold fields. I got a couple of arcade games (Droidzone and Blocklands) shipped to me along with Professional Astrologer as well as a pile of other recent Digital products, so you're likely to be reading a fair amount about the company in coming columns. For the moment, all I can say is that my 9-year-old finds Droidzone fast, exciting and fun, but that sadly Blocklands came on a duff microdrive that steadfastly keeps putting "bad or changed medium" on the screen. Just think where the QL might have been today, if Sinclair hadn't opted for those wretched microdrives. Dare I suggest that if Professional Astrologer had been available earlier, Sir Clive could have caught a glimpse of things to come and gone for a disc drive instead, or should we just take the old Greek view that while man cannot change his fate, he does have an inalienable right to bitch about it.

Sinclair UserSinclair User Classic

Overall 5/5

John Gilbert 5/5

STARRY SUCCESS FOR DIGITAL PRECISION John Gilbert has his horoscope set up by the Professional Astrologer PUBLISHER: Digital Precision PRICE: £49.95 (4 microdrives or disc) The ultimate astrology package is soon to be unveiled by Digital Precision. Professional Astrologer will, according to the company, make all other astrology packages on any micro obsolete. It's a heady claim but the software, which can be bought on four cartridges or one disc, contains all the features necessary to make a part-time astrologer happy. Although the system runs on an unexpanded QL it comprises almost 400K of program and data. The text files for house, sign and aspect interpretation consist of more than 250K of data which generates a ten-page report. BIRTH CHARTS Birth or natal charting lies at the heart of Professional Astrologer. You'll need your date and time of birth together with the longitude of your birth place - taking time zone differences into account. If you don't know your exact time of birth you can setup a solar chart, for noon, forget the positions of the zodical houses, and rectify the chart, to make it more accurate later. Confused? Well, the houses are zones of influence which affect property, money and friendships. They revolve around the Earth very quickly, according to astrological theory. The position of houses at the time of your birth will not be the same hours later. Rectification of a natal chart involves looking at a person's main characteristics and adjusting the positions of the planets to suit those to gain a more accurate birth timing. Once you've entered the personal data the computer calculates the positions of the planets and lunar nodes in degrees, minutes and seconds. The positions of ascendant - the sign rising over the horizon at the time of your birth - and mid-heaven - the sign directly above the birth site. The aspects are calculated and displayed by planet and type. An aspect is the angular distance between two or more planets. There are several different types - some powerful and some weak - and they influence the subject's character in a beneficial or malign manner. Each aspect is only displayed once and all calculations, for planetary positions are done in three dimensions - no mean task even for a competent mathematician. INTERPRETATIONS After all this 'pseudo-scientific' mumbo-jumbo you come to the character interpretations. There are a lot of them and most are verbose. Each is tagged with a number: the higher the number the more important the aspect. Any aspect between your sun sign's ruler, ascendant and mid-heaven are important, and the program will assign high numbers to them. If a lesser aspect is involved the number will be smaller. Using this graduated number scale you can eliminate most of the unimportant and often contradictory interpretations. The package also gives a general indication of whether your life will be trouble-free or not. It calculates the number of good and bad aspects and gives a score. From that score you can adjust the totals by omitting the newly discovered planets - Uranus, Neptune and Pluto - as well as the lunar nodes. The totals will, according to Digital Precision and its astrological associates, be more reliable. The astrological report generated by the program lists planetary interpretations by sign, house and aspects. You can change the order in which results are given, as well as the text in the interpretation files by using the full-screen text editor. It is loaded as a separate file. First you have the opportunity to change the order in which interpretations are given. For instance, you could change sign, house, aspect to house, aspect, sign. You can then load in the massive text files - which takes about 50 seconds - and start to edit them. You can even insert new interpretations. Each interpretation starts with a condition line which is followed by the descriptive text. The condition line is entered in capital letters so that the QL can scan the conditions. The logical operators AND/OR are used in a similar way to that of the SuperBasic If...Then statement. If, for instance, you want to set up a condition to print out 'A really good reviewer' when Saturn is in the sign of Aries and Jupiter is in the ascendant, or Mars is in the fifth house, you would type the definition: N: SATURN IN ARIES AND JUPITER IN ASCENDANT OR MARS IN FIFTH HOUSE. The N refers to the type of chart in which it should be included where N is natal, P is for progression and T is for transit. PROGRESSIONS Two other types of individual chart can be set up; Progressions and transits. A progressions chart is based on your natal map and shows how your character will develop and affect your future. The planetary positions of your natal chart are progressed using the 'year for a day' system. For instance, if you want to erect a chart for three years' time you would set up a chart for three days' time using the same time, longitude and latitude. The new interpretations would indicate how you have progressed in three years. Professional Astrologer will set up a cycle of those charts so that you can look at your evolving character and how it effects your life. For instance, you could get the QL to set up progressions every three years for a period of 12 years. Four charts would be erected and the program would scan through one after another. Astrologers do not, however, look for individual conditions such as Sun in fifth house, but rather for any planet aspected to another. No problem. Professional Astrologer allows you to set up a general condition with only a few words. You may, for instance, want to see if four planets are in Trine aspect with three others. The command $P 01278 IN THIRD HOUSE TRINE $P: 012 would do it. The $P: commands the QL to the task. The digits 0,1,2 represent the planets concerned, such as 0=Sun, 1 = moon. The process looks simple but is very powerful. It takes away the need for entering individual aspect conditions. I have never seen anything like it in an astrology program. Transitting charts are set up for the year, day, time in question and have no integral link with the original natal chart. For instance, if you wanted to do a transit chart for the subject's fourteenth year, you would produce it for the same time and place - only the date would be different. The program puts the transit chart on top of the natal chart and sees if any of the planets in one are aspected with those of the other. The text interpretations in Professional Astrologer show that transits predict general life trends, while progressions show character growth. SYNASTRY You may want to compare your chart with your partner - in love or in business - by synthesising the two charts. Professional Astrologer produces a Synastric chart by comparing the planet's positions on the charts of the two subjects in a similar process to that of transitting. The interpretations produced by the program show how compatible the two subjects are in love, business, and character. ASPECTS All charts produced by Professional Astrologer use aspects which are exact angular relationships between planets. Astrologers, however, claim that the influence of an aspect can be felt before the exact alignment is made and for some time afterward. The number of degrees to which a particular aspect can be 'out' is called the orb. For instance, you can take the effects of a conjunction - two planets close together - into account, even if a planet is eight degrees behind or in front of the aspecting planet. Each orb is set for a particular aspect within a program but you can change them to fit your own needs. For instance, you want to make the program pick up only accurate aspects, so you would reduce the orb values of each aspect to zero. Alternatively, you may want to widen the effects of certain aspects, so you would increase the orb values. PRINTER DRIVER Professional Astrologer's printer driver can be used to set up most printers to receive the astrological graphics and text. You may remember that Super Astrologer printed natal charts which resembled rugby footballs. The new package used proportional printing to display the charts circumference as a circle. However, if your printer does not accept the graphics of planetary and aspect symbols you can make the program produce keyword labels. ASTRONOMY And finally, the package produces a view of the solar system for any date and time. Astronomers will find this facility useful as it even calculates the position to place a telescope in order to see a specific planet, and indicates how much of the planet will be visible. You can also set up a moving model of the solar system for a specific time. All the planets leave a trail behind them showing how far they move in relation to each other. Everything is to scale and Digital Precision guarantees accuracy to within one minute - distance not time. Professional Astrologer is the most powerful and complete astrological package on any micro I have seen. It is complex enough for the professional while its A4 manual lets beginners in on a well-documented ground level. Whether you believe in astrology or not, or whether, like me you are an agnostic, the package provides everything that a present day Nostradamus will need.

Is your future foretold in the stars?