USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. 8-Bit Software 8-Bit Software Issue 47 Program Documentation. Issue 47 Program Documentation. Archive/De-Archiver Archive/De-Archiver By C.J.Richardson. This program will archive up to 50 filenames into one. Especially useful for DFS users. DFS has a filename limit. The program will allow you to add files to the archive at a later date. You cannot delete files from the archive (the program could be adapted to do so). The program allows you to de-archive all files or just one and then run it. You may view the files in the archive. You may also use * commands. To use the program: CHAIN"Arch`de" The main menu offers you 3 options and a * command facility: Option 1. Archive Files. Choosing this option takes you to a sub-menu with 2 further options. The first of which is to start a new archive, the second to continue building an existing archive. Both options start by asking which archive you want to begin/add to. You then enter the name/s of the file/s to archive. Finish by pressing RETURN. Option 2. De-Archive Files. When you choose this option you are first asked which archive you want to split. Enter the filename of the archive you wish to split. You are then presented with the available archived files in that archive. You may now choose option 1 to de-archive all of the files or option 2 to de-archive just one of the files. If you choose to de-archive just one file, when de-archiving is complete, you will be given the option to CHAIN or *RUN the de-archived file or to continue in the archiver/de-archiver. If you use a twin drive, you have no need to copy archived files to the blank disc first. Make the drive with the blank disc the current drive with *DR. . Then when prompted for the source file, enter the full pathname including the drive number. For example. The archived file View is in drive 2. The blank disc is in drive 1. Load the de-archiver. Type *DRIVE 1. Type RUN. Enter 2 to de-archive. Enter :2.View. Enter 1. The file will be de-archived directly from drive 2 to drive 1. Option 3. View Archived Files. Choosing this option allows you to see what files are in an archive. Enter the name of the archive. * Command. Type * followed by any * command to change drives etc. Remember that some * commands corrupt memory and will overwrite the program. Do not enter file names longer than 10 characters. This will not allow full pathnames in ADFS, but as ADFS uses a directory structure, there is no need to archive files for ADFS. This program will probably feature on future 8BS issues as it enables single programs to be easily fished out of a large archive. As a lot of the programs submitted to 8BS are short and sweet, this will no longer pose a problem for DFS users. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K6N (Brian Raw) Subject: Pattern V.2 The main reason for using higher level languages is to utilise their arithmetic functions but at the expense of usable memory and portability if using a rom. After messing with C and Forth, I have come to the conclusion I would be better off sticking to machine code. Until now I have avoided arithmetic in machine code, usually dropping back into Basic as necessary. Pattern which you may have seen in issue 39 seemed a suitable first exercise. In addition to the usual arithmetic it uses the SIN function. The standard method for these is to use a lookup table, which even if used in a Basic program will double its speed. The "integer" table in Basic would be of values 0 to 10,000, that is SIN(x)*10,000 which can later be divided down to a more suitable level. A table for machine code however would be easier to deal with if the values were rotated several times to make them larger i.e. 2^13 = 8192, so I have used a table 0 to 8192 or SIN(x)*2^13. So all the maths are using integer values simplifying the routines. I altered the action part of the program to allow a pause toggle on the spacebar and (D) screen dump to disc if required, (S) also toggles the display of current values. by poking a different rotate value alters the size of the pattern. On my humble beeb this has speeded things up by a factor of six approx. Some of the more complex patterns took about 40 secs. With the original program the coding brought this down to around 7 secs, and will no doubt be even faster on the Master. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all members) From: K6N (Brian Raw) Subject: Resistor codes Here is the finished version of the program in issue 44 which now converts both ways. The program itself warrants little explanation, if you don't already know colour codes then you should have a good idea of them after messing with this for ten minutes. The preferred values table may be unclear, these are the values that the manufacturers stick to, so subsequently the only ones you can get. The worst tolerance [20%] use [X] values only, next best (10%) include both [X] and (X) values,so then 5% are all the values. Electronics is not a precise subject. Small-C version *************** This is my first program in C and so probably my worst as well. However from what I have read I seem to have written a fair program without using what is purported to be C's greatest asset, that is pointers. I did use a variable called ptr to point into a string in much the same way as you would use it in MID$. An aforementioned pointer would be named *ptr but is in fact an absolute address pointing to a string. Both programs limit what can be input at the keyboard in different ways which is more important in C since the final code is in machine code, naff input may hang the system. The first program preprimes the string valid which the function chkin() then uses to compare with the character it is given from the keyboard, this is more useful if the allowed data is not sequential. The second program passes the upper and lower limit of sequential data as parameters to the input function. C treats strings as integer arrays! this causes all sorts of problems, not least that the first character position is 0 as opposed to 1 in BASIC To demonstrate this, in an earlier version I used the same string as in BASIC "0123456789" for use with the function instr(), checking for "0" returns 0 (false) which is incorrect so then adding a space to the string " 0123456789" doing the same check now returns 1 (BROWN) all the colours will be wrong by 1, this then is the reason for the alterations "+1" and "--ok" remarked in the source. I got a lot of variable declaration errors while writing this so here are some general rules. 1. Any variable, string or integer manipulated by more than one function is best declared global. 2. local variables may be passed as arguments to another function only from within the declaring function, but must also be immediately redeclared in the new function. ie this will cause an error newfunc(x,y) int z; /* new local variable */ intx,y; this will not newfunc(x,y) intx,y; intz; /* new local variable */ Has anybody noticed that the BASIC version runs faster than the C. This is not the usual case when you convert to machine code. Take a look at the size of the file. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: 3PM (dp-j) Subject: !Fred vers.Q7a This is a demo of !Fred text file reader running a teletext file written on the Master EDIT facility. It is like a computerised text book. Read text, RUN a demo program copied from the text (or loaded from disk) and return to text. It does not matter if the program being copied crosses a screen boundary. Copy the Basic lines available, return to text, scroll on, copy the rest and RUN it. The text file is just a pot pourri of thoughts on shedding light. A bit of a con really. Just a text file instantly CALLable from Basic but with lateral thinking it's a RUNable text book. However, it's ideal for use as a what-if teaching system. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, PRESS SPACE