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APPLE II DEVELOPMENT FORUM CONFERENCE LOG
January 10, 1989 10:00 pm Eastern
Topic: BASIC
Forum Leader: James Luther (AFL Jim)
AFL Jim I'd like to welcome everyone to the Development Forum. Tonight's
AFL Jim topic *is* BASIC.
AFA Parik :)
AFL Jim 10 GOTO 10
KyleI1 Please slow down. I'm only 11; bear with me. :)
JSchober Jim writes COMPLEX programs, it looks like...
JSchober Hi, Rick.
KyleI1 AFL Jim, into "dead" routines?
AFL Jim <- looping
RickKE Hi JS
JSchober Ugh. Hi, Marty!
AFL Marty <- indexing
ScottG25 Hi! Marty!
RickKE Hi Marty
ScottG25 Hi RicKE!
KyleI1 Excuse me, let's just settle down and get started... I'm not very
patient
AFA Gary J CTRL-C .... "beep"
JSchober Hi, John.
AFA Gary J Hi John.
KyleI1 CTRL-G...."beep"
AFL Marty Hi John!
JSchober No. Ctrl-C... "BREAK <beep!> IN 10".
AFA John Hi Marty, Gary, and Joey!
RickKE Hi John!
AFA Gary J (Right, Joe! :)
AFA John Hi Rick.
AFL Jim OK, let's get into BASIC here. Kyle, do you have any questions
you'd like to
JSchober (or on a GS, replace <beep!> with <bong!>)
AFL Jim start off with?
KyleI1 It's too bad I can't screen dump my biggest program; we'd be
sitting here
AFL Jim (protocol *please*)
KyleI1 for hours!
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle
KyleI1 Protocol?
AFL Jim Yes...
Dave Lyons (back) I actually did leave (physically)
AFL Jim Type a "?" on a line if you have a question. Type a "!" if you'd
like to make
AFL Jim a comment.
KyleI1 I regret not seeing the protocol rules like everyone else... ;)
KyleI1 ! Ok.
AFL Jim Go ahead, Kyle
KyleI1 ? Who's the Sysop?
AFL Jim Gary will keep the queue.
AFL Jim I'm the Forum Leader.
JSchober (greetings, Matt!)
AFL Jim (at least here in this forum)
KyleI1 ! Oh, sorry, Jim.
KyleI1 Those banners!
Matt DTS Hi (AFK, just watching from a comfortable position)
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle
DanB35 ?how does protocol work: Do I type ? <CR> and wait to be
called?
AFA Gary J Right, Dan.... I'll put you in the queue.
AFL Jim Kyle, you only need to type a ? or ! "raise your hand" we'll call
on you in
KyleI1 I was wondering that too, DanB35.
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle, Dan
AFL Jim the order the questions or comments are received.
KyleI1 OK, now shutting up... Please start this thing, you're using up my
Log File.
AFL Jim It's already started, Kyle.
KyleI1 Ok.
KyleI1 ?
AFL Jim go ahead, Kyle
KyleI1 Why isn't anyone talking?
AFL Jim We were waiting for your question, Kyle
KyleI1 Oh. Well...
Ralfy 21 people - sheesh what a mob!
Ralfy Hi all.
AFL Jim Well, let me start off with this...
KyleI1 I was wondering how to copy BASIC files from INSIDE a BASIC
file.
Dave Lyons !
AFL Jim ooops, GA Kyls
AndyWells !
AFL Jim GA Dave
KyleI1 OPEN, READ, CLOSE doesn't work.
Dave Lyons There's no command built into BASIC.SYSTEM for copying files, so
you have
Dave Lyons a couple of alternatives. (OPEN/READ/CLOSE were designed for text
files, or
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Dave, Andy), Dan
Dave Lyons for reading DIRs _as_ text files, so they don't help much.) You
can either
Dave Lyons buy an add-on COPY command for BASIC.SYSTEM (any package names
come to mind,
Airship ?
KyleI1 Use EXECs to load them into /RAM and vice versa?
Dave Lyons guys?), or you can carefully use BLOAD and BSAVE to copy files one
chunk at a
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Dave, Andy), Dan, Airship
AFL Marty !
Dave Lyons time (or in one chunk if they're small). The ",Txxx" option will
be needed to
Dave Lyons stop BSAVE/BLOAD from complaining that the files aren't BIN files.
(done for
Dave Lyons now)
Matt DTS !
AFL Jim GA ANdy
KyleI1 !
Ralfy There are some Shareware programs (very nice) in the Applelink
libs.
AndyWells Well, a couple of added comments.
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Andy, Marty, Matt), Dan, Airship
Ralfy Procopy works from within a Basis program.
Ralfy Basic.
AndyWells First, a BAS program cannot be properly copied with BLOAD/BSAVE
since the aux
AndyWells type must be $801. You really should use an EXEC file. That file
can be
DanB35 ?
AndyWells created by your program, then the program exited (After the EXEC),
but make
KyleI1 It'll take some work, but thanks!
JSchober ?
Matt DTS !!
AndyWells sure you have the EXEC file execute the program you want it to.
KyleI1 Thanks!
AndyWells You can set your EXEC file up as STARTUP to do it too..
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Andy, Marty, Matt!!), Dan, Airship, Joe
AndyWells DONE
KyleI1 But I can't have a copy program set it up that way...
KyleI1 DONE
AFL Jim Marty, GA with your comment....
AFL Jim and then Matt !!!!
Matt DTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<I hate
Jim>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AFL Marty The Procopy command is part of the ProPower Utilities package
written
AFL Jim (thanks, Matt ;)
AFL Marty by Bill Tudor. It's available in the library here.
AFL Marty done
AFL Jim GA Matt!!!
KyleI1 !
Matt DTS THANK YOU!
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (MATT!!!), Dan, Airship, Joe
Matt DTS (He's gotta work next to me in a few weeks and I'll have my fun
then)
AFL Jim ut oh...
Matt DTS Unfortunately, doing this with an EXEC file just isn't that easy.
Here's why:
AFA Gary J :)
RickKE ?
Matt DTS Normally, the last line in the EXEC is something like "RUN
MYPROGRAM", and...
KyleI1 !!!!!!!!!
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Matt), Dan, Airship, Joe, Rick
Matt DTS ...this has the side effect of leaving the EXEC file open. So if
you're...
Matt DTS ...on a one-drive system and ever try to PREFIX to another
disk...
Matt DTS ...BASIC.SYSTEM will return I/O ERROR, which is the translation of
the MLI...
Matt DTS ...error "Disk switched", since the open EXEC file is no longer
online.
AndyWells About 8 pokes and a call will fix that...
Matt DTS The added COPY command is really the best way to go about this;
you can...
Matt DTS ...write one yourself with minimal features if you know machine
language.
KyleI1 Matt, I'm on a 2-drive system.
KyleI1 And I don't know machine lang.
Matt DTS And as someone who's in a position to know, Andy, I wouldn't be
POKEing and...
Matt DTS ...CALLing into BASIC.SYSTEM at this point. (Kyle, all your users
might not.)
Matt DTS GA.
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Matt), Dan, Airship, Joe, Rick
AFL Jim Get enough, Kyle?
KyleI1 OK.
AFL Jim OK, you're up, Dan!
Matt DTS (Unless the pokes or calls are in the $BExx page, of course.
Forgot that.)
AFL Jim GA with your question...
AFA Gary J Q = Dan, Airship, Joe, Rick
DanB35 How can I access the GS's Sound potential through AppleSoft (dumb
?)
Dave Lyons !
AFL Jim No question is a dumb question, Dan...
JSchober <ugh... I WISH it was a dumb question... :( >
AFL Jim GA Dave
Dave Lyons Since nobody else seems to want to answer that..."with great
difficulty." Not
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Dave), Airship, Joe, Rick
Dave Lyons a dumb question at all, but I don't know of any utilities to make
things easy
AFL Marty !
JSchober !
Dave Lyons for you; you may be stuck with using maching language routines to
call the
Dave Lyons Sound Manager (toolset #8; see Toolbox Reference Vol I from
Addison-Wesley).
Dave Lyons (done)
DanB35 !
AFL Jim GA Marty
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Marty, Joe), Airship, Joe, Rick
Dave Lyons (Oops! Vol II of the TB Ref. Sorry.)
AFL Marty What about the Sonix program from So What Software? Won't that
allow access
JSchober (cancel my ! ... :)
AFL Marty to the sound features on the GS?
AFL Jim Yep, it will, Marty
AFL Marty (and I didn't even need a TB Ref :)
DanB35 I don't know ML; are there any shareware progs. in the libs.?
AFL Jim So What Software can be reached at 10221 Slater Ave, Suite 103,
Matt DTS !
AFL Jim Fountain Valley, CA 92708
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Matt), Airship, Joe, Rick
AFL Jim GA Matt
DanB35 ... or freeware, or PD.....
Matt DTS <This is a personal opinion which follows; please adjust
accordingly>
Matt DTS Dan, I personally believe you'll be better off using a full 16-bit
BASIC...
AFL Jim (and I kewn this was coming :)
Matt DTS ...such as TML, Micol, or ORCA (when released) or AC/BASIC...
AFA Gary J hehe :)
AFL Jim (knew it too :)
Matt DTS ...than trying to access a whole lot of things from AppleSoft that
it wasn't...
Matt DTS ...meant to do.
Matt DTS I just believe programmers will be better off with a more powerful
language...
Matt DTS ...than trying to superimpose every new feature on a 10-year old
dialect of...
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Matt), Airship, Joe, Rick
DanB35 Is there a PD, freeware, or shareware utility which will give me
access to...
Matt DTS ...BASIC that has faulty arithmetic in it even. <Grin> GA.
DanB35 The GS's sound?
AFL Jim I can agree with Matt on this... although I know Applesoft better
than any
AFL Jim other BASIC, I've found the newer IIGS BASIC give you much easier
access to
AFL Jim the power of the IIGS.
DanB35 < trying to go low-budget... ;) >
Dave Lyons !
PrimeDude how much is your time worth? :)
AFL Jim ScottG!! any suggestions from your side?
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Dave), Airship, Joe, Rick
Dave Lyons Dan, you definitely won't be able to use the Note Synthesizer or
Note
Dave Lyons Sequencer from Applesoft--those are RAM-based tools, and the
Loader (part of
Dave Lyons GS/OS) isn't available to load it under ProDOS 8. (done)
DanB35 UG. Oh well...
Dave Lyons ("it" = "them")
Matt DTS But with a 16-bit BASIC, you could use them SO easily!
<ducking>
AFL Jim You might check the Music Forum here on AppleLink... they might
have something
AFL Jim of interest to you, Dan.
DanB35 OK then, what's the cheapest 16-bit BASIC?
DanB35 < Cheapskate me... :) >
AFL Marty !
AFL Jim GA Marty
AFL Marty Opinion here....
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Marty), Airship, Joe, Rick
AFL Marty You get (mostly) what you pay for. What you save in terms of
dollars...
Matt DTS !
AFL Marty may be more than made up in terms of lost time and 'sweat equity'.
Just off
DanB35 Rephrase: What's the best _value_ on a 16 bit BASIC?
Raider10 Can I ask someone about using a modem on BASIC
Matt DTS (withdraw the !; Marty said what I was thinking)
AFL Marty the top of my head, I think ORCA Basic sounds like it will be a
winner....
AFL Jim Put Raider in the queue, Gary.
AFA Gary J Q = Dan, Airship, Joe, RIck, Raider
AFL Marty if only because of ByteWorks' reputation.
AFL Marty done
AFL Jim Dan, they all run somewhere between $80-100 mail order.
DanB35 I know, I know... repeat: UG!
AFL Jim Let's move along here...
AFA Gary J Q = Airship, Joe, Rick, Raider
AFL Jim GA Airship with your question.
ScottG25 !
Airship Have any of you seen Orca Basic yet? I'm currently using TML Basic
which is a
Raider10 Who sent me the
flashnote??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Airship very nice system but still has a few bugs that are driving me
nuts!!!
Raider10 Thank you
AFL Jim ORCA/BASIC should be out sometime this spring according to the
Byte Works.
Ralfy ?
Airship I was just wondering if anyone had even seen it in Beta form.
Dave Lyons !
AFA Gary J Q = Airship (Dave), Joe, Rick, Raider, Ralfy
Dave Lyons Airship, if anybody here _has_ seen an unreleased product, most
likely they've
Dave Lyons also signed something saying they can't admit it. (done)
ScottG25 !
Airship Hmmm...didn't realize that...
JSchober (oops! there goes Jim... :( )
AFL Marty Jimmy go bye bye :)
AFA Gary J Ooops!
AFA Parik Give a person DTS position, and he thinks he can walk out on us.
:)
Airship I agree with the earlier comment about Orca's rep....am looking
forward to it.
Raider10 HAHA
Airship (done)
JSchober :) Parik...
AFL Marty !
ScottG25 !
Matt DTS Watch it Parik. There's plenty of room in the next release of
GS/OS...
AFA Gary J GA, Scott
Matt DTS ...to say rude things about you. <grin>
Raider10 bye all
AFA John LOL!
JSchober LOL... (can I say rude things about him, too, Matt?! ;)
AFA Parik :P Matt
AFL Marty (Must be practising his coffee break :)
Matt DTS <laughing maniacally>
ScottG25 I just want to agree with those who said Orca will probably be the
basic
AFA Gary J Q = Airship (Scott, Marty), Joe, RIck, Raider, Ralfy
ScottG25 of choice on the GS... Everything ByteWorks has done that I've
purchased (M for
ScottG25 the GS, and Pascal) are top notch products. GA
AFA Gary J Re-hi, Jim :)
JSchober (wow! welcome back, Jim! :)
Dave Lyons Re-hi, Jim :)
AFL Jim (Telenet in KC died....)
AFA Gary J GA, Marty
AFL Marty I believe if you check the message board, you'll find a
substantial...
AFL Jim (Back with Tymenet)
AFL Marty discussion of ORCA Basic.
ScottG25 (missed the Pie throwing)
AFL Marty done
AFA Gary J Q = Airship (Marty), Joe, Rick, Raider, Ralfy
AFL Marty (coffee break over already, Jim? :)
Raider10 Hi Kyle
AFL Jim yep
Airship I'll do that, thanx.
AFL Jim OK, Joe, your question is next.
Raider10 Anyone have a BBS prog here?
JSchober Alrighty... I'm working on a command-line shell in BASIC (well,
the parser and
JSchober dispatcher are in BASIC; actual disk I/O is in m/l)... what I'd
LIKE to do is
AFA Gary J Q = Joe, Rick, Raider, Ralfy
JSchober be able to implement script files by simply putting shell commands
into a text
JSchober file, and EXEC'ing the thing. I was under the impression that
EXEC simply
JSchober passed the contents of a disk file to INPUT (or equiv) statements;
however, a
Raider10 Does anyone have a BBS Here
Raider10 Or are you a SysOp
JSchober file in the script like echo Hello, World! gets passed as
...
JSchober echoHelloWorld!, and rejected. Any ideas why that happens, or how
to get
JSchober around it?
Dave Lyons !
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Dave), Rick, Raider, Ralfy
Dave Lyons Sounds mysterious to me, Joe. Are you using GETLN to read lines,
or what?
AFL Jim GA Dave
JSchober I'm using a custom input routine that basically does RDKEY's
(ummm... or
JSchober is it GETKEY?) repeatedly until RETURN. It works just dandy at
the keyboard,
JSchober or over the modem.
JSchober (ga...)
AndyWells !
Dave Lyons Beats me what's happening...if a small piece of code can demo the
problem,
Dave Lyons send it to me!
AFL Jim Andy... GA
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Dave, Andy), Rick, Raider, Ralfy
KyleI1 !
KyleI1 !
JSchober Alright, I'll write up a short demo and send it to ya' tonight...
(it's RDKEY)
AndyWells Well, I do not believe that GETKEY will do it for you.
AndyWells Or RDKEY.
KyleI1 !
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Andy, Kyle), Rick, Raider, Ralfy
KyleI1 !
AndyWells Since you are inputting lines, you should use the GETLN routine.
JSchober What's the problem there? It seems to work fine EXCEPT for the
ignored spaces.
AndyWells Try it that way, and I think you will find that it works then.
AndyWells Done
JSchober (and I =can't= use GETLN ... :( I need certain special things for
the bulletin
KyleI1 Jschober, I probably don't know what I'm saying, but...
JSchober board system...)
Raider10 I have to go bye
AFL Jim Bye Raider
AndyWells GETLN should return the exact data stored in the file.
KyleI1 EXEC files are for commands(E.G. immediate execution) in BASIC?
PrimeDude (or just look in the $200 buffer after the file call and get the
data yourself..)
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Kyle), Rick, Ralfy
KyleI1 done
JSchober Ummm... ok, just a second, here...
JSchober The code I use is in the form CALL <addr>,misc.parms...,I$, where
I$ is what
JSchober I'm inputting. The m/l code itself repeatedly RDKEY's, until it
gets an #$8D;
AndyWells Remember this, a call to RDKEY will read the whole line from the
disk.
JSchober then it moves I$ from $200..?? to a variable (using some ASoft
subroutines). I
AndyWells It's a wonder that you got most of it.
RickKE I'M BACK. Got cut off????..
RickKE ?
JSchober use this for user input and disk input (READ file), and it works
perfectly;
AFA Gary J You're still in the queue, Rick.
JSchober only with the EXEC mode am I getting problems... I tried to use
READ's instead,
KyleI1 Why do you use that instead of EXEC filename?
AFA Gary J Q = Joe, Rick, Ralfy
JSchober which works ... kinda -- certain routines expect fileref #1 to be
free. GA...
AndyWells When I wrote routines a long time ago for my BBS, I separated the
routines
Ralfy !
AndyWells I used separate disk access routines from user input routines..
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Andy, Ralfy), Rick, Ralfy
AndyWells You might be better off doinf it that way. Done.
AndyWells f=g
AFL Jim Ralfy, your comment?
JSchober Mmmm... I could, but I'd like to eliminate redundancy, if at all
possible...
Ralfy Why not get the bytes yourself with a LDA (or whatever) from the
'keyboard'..
Ralfy byte in memory?
Ralfy (done)
JSchober An EXEC won't pass data to $C000 ...
AFA Gary J Q = Joe, Rick, Ralfy
JSchober Ah well ... unless anyone has another idea, thanks anyway ...
GA.
AFL Jim OK Rick. Your turn.
AFL Marty (You could get rid of your BBS :):)
AFA Gary J :)
RickKE I have a question about DOS 3.3 to ProDos conversion. After I
converted my
RickKE program it crashes
JSchober It's been considered =many= times, Marty...
AFL Jim What kind of program? BASIC? BIN?
RickKE I also used APEX Text for text generation
RickKE The program is BASIC with some Mchn routines
AFA Gary J Does it crash into the monitor, or just break into the BASIC
prompt?
Matt DTS Machine routines that do what?
AFL Jim That is the start of your problems - the ML routines.
RickKE Monitor
Dave Lyons Machine routines that load _at what addresses_?
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy
Matt DTS (You include the Monitor with your program?)
RickKE I'm looking
AFL Jim DOS and ProDOS don't use the same memory, so it's very likely they
are running
AFL Jim over (or getting run over by) ProDOS.
RickKE $4000
Matt DTS What do your machine language routines do, Rick?
AFL Jim Either that or they call routines that are in DOS 3.3.
RickKE One is the text generator and the other is a timer
Matt DTS What address does it crash into the monitor at? (Clearly fishing
here)
RickKE The text generator begins at $7700
AFL Jim Here's a pole, Matt __________
Matt DTS Text generator: Ends at?
Dave Lyons Ouch! I smell HIMEM trouble.
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy
RickKE Let me check
RickKE Ends at $6000
JSchober (that's amazing! it takes -$1700 bytes!)
Dave Lyons :)
AFA Gary J What?? :)
AFL Jim :)
Matt DTS Begins at $7700 and ends at $6000 for a total length of -$1700
bytes. Wow.
JSchober (I wish =I= could write such compact code...)
AndyWells So do I..
AFL Jim Is the length, $6000, Rick?
Dave Lyons You don't need to, Joe--waste as much space as you want, but be
sure to load
Dave Lyons in lots of copies of that -$1700 routine.... ;)
AFA Gary J Special offer : Get free RAM with this program....
JSchober hehehehe
RickKE No the location is $6000
Matt DTS You said the location was $7700!
AFL Jim OK, how log in the routine, then?
AndyWells Maybe it loads in at $6000 and ends at $7700?
Matt DTS Say, there's a thought!
AFL Jim log - long
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy
RickKE Large font is at $7700, small font at $6800 and the generatos is
at $6000-$6800
Matt DTS Ok, now we're cooking. How large is the large font?
AFL Jim How big is the large font (in bytes)
AFA Gary J If it's that low in memory, it shouldn't effect ProDOS unless it
is trying to
AFA Gary J call a DOS 3.3 routine.
Matt DTS Do you load the fonts, or does the generator load them on
command?
RickKE Large is from $6b00-$7700
RickKE On command
Dave Lyons !
Matt DTS bingo (it seems)
AndyWells There's the problem
AFL Jim The Generator loads them?
AFL Jim It is probably calling DOS 3.3 which isn't there.
Dave Lyons If HIMEM is being set to just below the first location of the
code, then
AFA Gary J Q = Rick (Matt, Dave), Ralfy
Dave Lyons BASIC.SYSTEM will use the first 1024 bytes of the code as buffer
space! HIMEM
AndyWells It's probably trying to call the DOS 3.3 file manager through $3D6
maybe..
Dave Lyons is used somewhat differently than under DOS 3.3. Must always set
it to a
Dave Lyons multiple of 256, and storing something _above_ himem is tricky,
and storing
Dave Lyons _below_ himem can't be done (it moves around automatically as
files are opened
Dave Lyons and closed). So it looks like there may be _several_ problems to
deal with.
AndyWells I'd call $bef5 with A holding $36. Instead of useing HIMEM
Matt DTS You can get buffer space from BASIC.SYSTEM if you really want
it.
Matt DTS The technique to do it (which Andy is giving an example of)...
Matt DTS ...is in ProDOS 8 TN #9, which should be up here just any day now
(I hope).
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy, <END>
AFL Jim My fist job at Apple, Matt?
Matt DTS (ahem)
AFL Jim first
RickKE Thanks.
Matt DTS (whatever)
AFA Gary J :)
Matt DTS (no, it's already written and in distribution; APE should have
them soon.)
AFA Gary J Oh, so Jim will distribute them, huh? :)
AFL Jim Rick, the bottom line on all of this is that converting BASIC
programs is
AndyWells $BEF% is the allocate buffer/memory entry point, A holds the
number of pages.
AFL Jim fairly easy until you start converting programs that use ML
routines. The ML
Dave Lyons (%=5)
AndyWells When it comes back, A holds the page # of HIMEM.
AndyWells %=5
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy, <END>
AndyWells To release it, call $BEF8.
Matt DTS You can also set RSHIMEM to keep FREBUFR from freeing up that
space as well.
AFL Jim routines can: Call DOS 3.3 which won't be there; Load into memory
that ProDOS
Dave Lyons Andy, to you need to add 4 to that returned value, or does it
actually return
JSchober (releases ALL of it, no?)
Dave Lyons 4 more than the new value of HIMEM?
Matt DTS RSHIMEM = $BF98? (Working from memory here; see P8 TN #9)
Matt DTS (I meant $BE9F)
AFL Jim will run over; or Run over ProDOS among other things.
AFL Jim A good book for solving some of your problems is "ProDOS Inside
and Out" by
AndyWells Good ? I'll check..
AFL Jim Dennis Doms and Tom Weishaar.
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy, <END>
Matt DTS I like "Exploring Apple's GS/OS and ProDOS 8" by Gary Little...
Matt DTS ...since my name's in it (unabashed plug).
AFL Jim I'm waiting for it, Matt...
AFL Jim Ralfy, GA with your question.
Matt DTS Gary showed it to me today; so it's being shipped. Looks nifty.
RickKE bye
Matt DTS Bye and good luck, Rick.
AFL Jim Bye Rick
JSchober (bye, Rick)
Ralfy I wrote a routine in TML BASIC to process lots of text. Ran into
the 32K ...
RickKE Thanks for the help:)
AFA Gary J Q = Ralfy
AndyWells Actually Dave, you have to remember to count starting at $9A00,
not $9600.
Ralfy problem. Is there any way to compress or clear the string pool
area? 99%
Ralfy of the pool is old data.
Matt DTS "The 32K problem..." Hmmm. <What is it?>
AndyWells The number returned will not include the first buffer, so subtract
4.
Ralfy TML BASIC has a string pool definable from 8 to 32K. When it's
full yopu get
Ralfy an error message. The FRE commands have nothing to do with
strings.
Matt DTS Well, I'm out on this one. Any takers?
AFL Jim looking....
AndyWells Most BASIC's of that sort have a FRE$ command. If it doesn't, I
don't know
AndyWells $99
Matt DTS While we have this lull in the action, I'd like to suggest to
Quantum...
Matt DTS ...that they save space in the billing computer by keeping track
of all our...
Matt DTS ...bills by using a nibble value. This will save a lot of space
on their part.
Matt DTS (And also keep our bills from going over $16, for that matter.)
JSchober :) hehehe
Dave Lyons (Yeah, I want my bill to wrap around from $15 to 0, too....)
AFL Jim :)
Matt DTS Just a friendly suggestion.
Ralfy There are 11 variations of the FRE command. They all tell you how
much free
JSchober (less than that! they still need a decimal field.......)
Ralfy memory is left.
Dave Lyons (15 cents is even better)
AFA Parik (next thing you know, he'll want to keep it as a bit...)
Ralfy Have I struck out?
AFL Jim I've been looking Ralfy, but TML's manual is kind of sparse when
it come to
Matt DTS A bit of what?
AndyWells The returned value is the bottom of the allocated space, then the
buffer is...
JSchober There ya' go, Dave... or better yet, Parik...
AFL Jim telling how things work.
Ralfy (Sigh)
AndyWells below that.
JSchober Your bill is either $0.01 or $0.00 ... how nice. (Sounds like
beta, actually)
AFA Parik :-)
Matt DTS If TML had a STORE/RESTORE option, you could do that to wipe out
the dead space
AFL Jim Leave your question in the message boards with an example and I'll
work on it.
Matt DTS but I really have no solid ideas.
Ralfy O.K.
Ralfy I think our hour is up.
Matt DTS Only about 20 minutes ago.
Ralfy Gnite all.........
AFA Parik Thanks to Matt, we can only measure fifteen minutes...
AFA Gary J Goodnight, Ralfy
AFL Jim Bye Ralfy
Matt DTS I'll be leaving now too. Goodnight all. (hey, I didn't say it
was *perfect*)
ScottG25 Bye Ralfy
AFA Gary J Goodnight, Matt.
ScottG25 Night, Matt!