8 BIT SOFTWARE
From: K6X (Cluke)
Subject: p
yr
amid
Patience
I found this to be a well-written
game, with good graphics, requiring a
certain amount of strategy to be used
to uncover some of the necessary cards
on the way up to the top. However, I
did soon tire of the boops and beeps
that accompany the game, and upon
listing the program to hunt down the
offending noises, found a message at
the end of the listing which goes a
long way towards explaining why I have
never managed to finish the game. Has
anybody else, I wonder?
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3PM
Subject: OSMAP by K3T
Lines 200 to 260 are a bag of worms!
It works but bad practice to jump out
of FOR/NEXT loops. Fortunately this is
a simple case.
Firstly 230-260 just divides N by 26
and adds 1 to get C and exits with N
set to the remainder. So no need for a
loop :-)
230 C=N DIV26+1
240 N=N MOD26
Delete 250 & 260 Try it.
Lines 200-220: BBC Basic has a much
better way :-)
200 N=INSTR(A$,C$) :IF N=0 P."Invalid
Map Reference":END
Delete 210 & 220 Try it.
Line 200 searches A$ for the 2 chars.
(contiguous) of C$ and returns the N
value of the first character. Add :P.N
:STOP after ..,C$) to see this.
And lastly, 40 PROCnc
80 PROCnc
140 END
190 DEF PROCnc
270 ENDPROC
Nothing wrong with GOSUB but PROCnc is
identifiable as a subroutine to find nc
or whatever you like to call it. You
can also jump out of a DEF PROC by
including IF.(condition).ENDPROC in one
of its lines so no need to bother about
a GOTO line number.(not needed anyway).
A nice idea Neil.Now how about a PROC
to check that the right no. of Map Ref
digits have been input? And journey
time? And carbon monoxide emission? And
depreciation increment? And scrap value
...well I suppose the distances will be
about the same on my bike, and I know
it will be quicker..intellectually!
PS How about a little picture on the OS
Map to tell mobile female drivers what
that dial on the fascia is for? 'Baby
on Board', 'Granny on Plank' a myopic
blur as they rocket away like weasel
s**t off a shovel. Anyone want a mucky
bike?
From: K7T (D. Ambrose)
Subject: MERGE
I thought I should try my own program,
and I find that on my copy of the disc
for the 39th issue (and presumably,
therefore, on all other copies) the
progam MERGE already has PROCovly
appended. I do not know how it arose,
but this is a mistake and it should be
deleted. If the program is run as it
stands and ESCAPE is pressed when it
first stops LIST will show that
PROCovly now appears twice, which was
not intended. However, the duplication
does not interfere with the operation
of the program.
It will be noted that MERGE and
OVLY both include a DEF FNN where N is
the name. This is recommended on page
K.3-2 of the Master Reference Manual,
Part 2, and allows the program to
saved by the command SA.FNN. I
invariaby use this method as it
avoids the possibility of making a
mistake and overwriting the wrong file
when saving to disc. The method
applies to the Master but appears not
to be applicable to the BBC B.
EDITOR..... I always put FNS at the
start of my own programs. Something
like:
10 DEFFNS="Wonderful"
Typing SA.FNS will then save the
program. I used to also use TIME$ to
directly poke the date and time into a
REM line at the end of FNS, but this
occasionally caused me to lose programs
for various reasons, such as when TIME$
became corrupted with low battery
backup putting garbage into the line
causing a bad save. The SA.FNS function
will work on both Master and BBC.
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Subject: ISSUE 39 (DEC.)
The Christmas Disc by the ED.
A disc full of good cheer and
just right for Christmas. We had
falling snow, snowmen, sleighs plus
all singing, bells an'all. Well
done our ED. Chris, and all the
contributors.
Short Story by Robin M. K4R
A very entertaining story from Robin
about how a computer can take over
your life!
.....and one from K2B Colin C-S's
other half.
This was a good laugh, a bit saucy
but true. We have had many a member
with a little cry for help saying that
his wife cannot understand their love
and affection for the Beeb!
Pyramid Patience by L.FOWL
I love these card games. We've had
some good ones on different issue
discs. The display was very good. I
have spent many a tense game on this
one but it beats me every time!
REM Programming Tip. by MICK P. K3G
A nice little tip from Mick to jazz-
up your listings. All these tips help
the new uns and remind the old uns.
Congratulations on your first Mick
let's see some more.
Lottery.(Select no's)by JOHN D. K2F
John's way of using the Beeb to get
those lottery numbers instead of
birthday, anniversary dates etc. is an
attractive idea. But I must be unlucky
because even with this when it asked
for and I gave my lucky number it
never did show up!
Modems. by John I. 27N
I was pleased with this information
and John explained it well. The
trouble is I still would like to know
more such as....If a SYSOP is one 'in
charge' do they do it for free or is
there a charge/sub? Are you a'SYSOP'and
would we use that number you gave us?
Is the phone used for very long and is
it a local charge? Is a system
operator like CHRIS, an editor but the
phone line used instead of post? The
radio 5 prog.BIG BYTE Sunday 12.15pm
use E.MAIL:big-byte@bbcnc.org.uk
can you give us a bit of info. on
this type of system? Thanks JOHN.
OS-Map. by Neil T. K3T
I had a go with this one quite a lot
just to see how close the miles from
'A' to 'B' compared to my atlas. It
was very good. But I'm no good at
maths. so I couldn't understand the
'RANGE IS x TO y MILES' bit.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Subject: Lottery Game (issue 39)
The cheat revealed. It will let you
know what the first random number
will be.
Before you mark your playslip a blue
dot (full stop) will appear above the
line... .
JACKPOT WINNER...IT COULD BE YOU.
the code is... 123456789
So if the dot is over the I then the
first of the four random numbers will
be 1. If it is over the T then it will
be number 2. If it is over the space
before C then it will be 3 etc.
If you mark all three boards with
this number you can now bamboozle
anyone looking over your shoulder and
they will say, "How do you do that?".
Congratulations to all of you that
solved the cheat (issue 39) without
listing the program.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Subject: My Lottery Game (Lotter2)
in last issue (39)
A BUG SOMETIMES CREEPS IN!
(Don't moan even INTEL have them!!)
Unfortunately the 'points scored' will
show weird results if the program
picks up certain variables left over
by some other programs.
To stop the bugs creeping in we must
set these variables to zero at the
beginning of the program. If you wish
to do this and not quite sure how to
then here are the instructions.
1, Load and list the program (LOTTER2)
(list the program to the end)
You will see that line 2320 shows
A%=0:Z%=0:X%=0
We must create another line like this
at the beginning of the program so...
2, Type 125 A%=0:Z%=0:X%=0 <RETURN>
3, *ACCESS the program as it may be
locked
4, SAVE "LOTTER2" <RETURN>
then if you have ADFS disc...
5a, Type *ACCESS LOTTER2 LWR <RETURN>
or if you have DFS disc...
5b, Type *ACCESS LOTTER2 L <RETURN>
that should do the trick.
EDITOR....... Thanks for this Roy.
Anyone receiving issue 39 after 17.1.95
will not need to worry about this error
as I have corrected it on the master
copies.
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: Roy Dickens' Lottery program
I thought this was very enjoyable, but
I have two suggestions which would
improve it slightly in my opinion.
Firstly, I think it would be better to
go straight back to the 'choose your
numbers' screen on each new go, rather
than having the instructions
redisplayed. This is largely a
personal preference, but at first I
thought it simply started again each
time and didn't keep a running count
of your winnings (which it does, of
course).
Secondly, I found it was possible to
choose the same number more than once
on a playslip (so, for instance, you
could choose 4,4,6,3). This might be
intentional, but I don't think so.
I particularly liked the 'secret dot'
- printing this in blue was the master
stroke, in my opinion, as this colour
doesn't stand out too much when there
is only a small amount of it. I didn't
notice it until I read the
instructions!
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Article: John Ilsley's modem article
I can't comment on most of this
article as I have no experience of
using modems, but I can't help feeling
that the prices mentioned are a bit
too high. A quick look in a recent
MicroMart shows that a new US Robotics
modem (model not specified) capable of
14400 baud costs about £150-160 new,
inclusive of VAT and postage. I
presume this would work with a BBC,
although I don't know if it would be
possible to run it any faster than
9600 baud.
I also came across similar speed
modems (but not BABT approved) for
around £90, although using one of
these is illegal. Incidentally, how
important is it that a modem is BABT
approved? - I read somewhere that it
was not important because even an
unapproved modem was no risk to the
telphone system, but I read somewhere
else that it is vital to get an
approved modem...
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4D (Lorin Knight)
Subject: Thanks
Modems have always been something of a
mystery to me and I found John Isley's
little article very helpful. Thank you
John.
- And Melvyn Wright's snowmen were a
sheer delight. They gave my family a
lot of amusement.
From: K2F (John Davis)
Program: Magic Eye x 2
Having just recently finally cracked
the problem of seeing Magic Eye type
pictures properly, it was entertaining
to go back to the programs in issues
35 and 38 which create and print these
pictures. Worked very well. As an
experiment, I simply changed the words
printed out by the issue 38 program to
a name and address, glued it to a
large envelope, and posted it with a
little note written on the edge
inviting the post office to figure it
out. It never got there.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K5K (David Robinson)
Subject: BBC Emulators
This was intended for issue 39 but my
submissions disc got corrupted in the
post.
I was interested to see the list of
BBC Emulators in Issue 38. My
understanding of an emulator is that
it is a program to run machine code
intended for one microprocessor on a
completely different one. This is
done by calling machine code routines
which perform the equivalent function,
in place of each opcode, in a way
compatible with the hardware of the
host processor.
Not everyone has the same
understanding of the term "emulator"
though, because "Wave Electronics"
were recently advertising a range of
emulators for the PC. The BBC
Emulator I bought turned out to be
another dialect of BBC Basic for the
PC (MS-DOS BBC BASIC Version 3.03 by
Jon Welch). It is not bad value at
`5.00 if all you want is something to
run BASIC programs on a PC (although
not as good as BBCBASIC 86), but it is
not an emulator!
Incidentally, once you have written an
appropriate microprocessor emulator,
the logical way to develop a
microcomputer emulator is to use the
target microcomputer's operating
system (at least as a basis). I have
been told that some emulators have
been withdrawn from sale for
infringing copyright in this way.
BLAM!