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Table of contents: |
| COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE Issue #9 | Home | Index | Magazine | ||||||
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| Articles in section: ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| "ABOUT
CFDM" ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| Back to top |
"ABOUT CFDM" COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is dedicated to those who still enjoy running under RS DOS. It will deal with that format exclusively. A primary goal is to keep the COCO community strong. By providing a unique means of communication, maybe old fires will be rekindled as you and I share our knowledge and experiences! The success of this effort depends on each one who becomes a subscriber. Everyone must contribute his/ her two cents in the form of articles, programs, opinions, experiences, etc. If this happens we will all look forward to the next issue. (Check out the manual with your starter kit for details on how to submit material.) Now let's have some fun!!! =* |
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is the creation and property of Rick Cooper. It is distributed solely by RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE. The material which makes up each issue remains the property of the author(s) or contributor(s) unless an agreement has been made otherwise. COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is dedicated exclusively to those who enjoy the COCO3 operating under RS DOS. It is hoped that this publication will encourage the continued usage of our favorite computer. Neither CFDM nor RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE will be responsible for the submission or publication of any material that does not belong to the submitter. WE DO NOT ADVOCATE OR SUPPORT PIRACY! =* |
| Articles in section: ABOUT THIS ISSUE |
| CONTENTS...PART
1 (v1 i9) CONTENTS...PART 2 (v1 i9) CONTENTS...PART 3 (v1 i9) PROGRAM DIRECTORY (v1 i9) THIS MONTH'S COVER |
| Back to top |
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE (2)
1 "ABOUT CFDM"
2 ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE
ABOUT THIS ISSUE (5)
1 CONTENTS...PART 1
2 CONTENTS...PART 2
3 CONTENTS...PART 3
4 PROGRAM DIRECTORY (v1 i9)
5 THIS MONTH'S COVER
ACTIVE COCO (2)
1 COCO-PRO....GONE...?
2 J R WAGGONER'S HARDCOPY PROJECT
=>
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ADVERTISEMENTS (3)
1 FOR SALE
2 LOOKING FOR COCO SUPPORT??
3 LOOKING FOR COCO SUPPORT?? (II)
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH (5)
1 An article on programming
2 Art with Jim Gibbons Step2
3 BASIC MADE EASY III
4 DISK BASIC PATCHES
5 PLAY A PAUSE
COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY (3)
1 CFDM COMICS by Chai
2 CHURCH
3 FAMILY CREST =>
____________________________________________________
FAMILY TREE (4)
1 JERRY HOPSON
2 THE STERNETTs
3 THERE'S ROOM IN THE TREE! <g>
4 VIC KELLS
FORUM (4)
1 COCOISTS: ALL SHAPES & SIZES
2 HELP THIS SECTION <g>
3 Talking about Tandy
4 The New Coco 4 (?)
=*
|
FROM THE EDITOR (2)
1 KUDOS <g>
2 RENEWALS AND ATLANTA!
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (8)
1 About Hang-ups in CFDM
2 COLOR PAC ATTACK PALYALIKE?
3 CONGRATS!
4 Dear Rick:
5 LETTER FROM DOWN UNDER
6 OH, THANK YOU!
7 PEEKs, POKEs and STUFF
8 SUPERPUT is really super!
=>
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POTPOURRI (8)
1 ANDANTE
2 CHRISTMAS CARD ANYONE?
3 ED. RESPONSE
4 EDUCATION PROJECT UPDATE
5 Lightning
6 MUSICTUT (Great Ed. Project)
7 REPLY TO MR. JOHN CLEMONS
8 TO HERB SCHULER & MUSIC3+ USERS
=>
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PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH (6)
1 JOURNAL
2 KILLFILE
3 MACHINE LANGUAGE ADDRESS FINDER
4 NIBLOADER CMP/RGB/MONO
5 RACEWAY
6 Ultralace: Installment 1
REVIEWS (2)
1 BLUE STREAK ULTIMA
2 La Belle Lucie
=*
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (11)
1 ABOUT THE THEXDER ROM-TO-DISK
2 ANSWER TO ROGER GINGRAS
3 BOOT/BAS AGAIN
4 CFDM FONT
5 COCO UNDERSCORE-DEBRA CAIN
6 DLOAD: Norm Barson
7 DMP-133, DMP-442 DRIVERS?
8 GENERIC DATABASE NEEDED
9 IBM TO COCO
10 NO FAT DISK
11 TO VIRGINIA HAWXHURST
=*
|
Here's a description of the files on the PROGRAM/
SIDE. File names preceded by an asterisk are data
files and not to be RUN or EXECed!
NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION......
! .BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
ANDANTE .BAS..RUN...POTPOURRI.....................
* ANDANTE .BIN........DATA FILE FOR ANDANTE.BAS.....
* ART2 .NIB........PIX FILE FOR ARTSTEP2.........
* ART3 .NIB........PIX FILE FOR ARTSTEP2.........
* ART4 .NIB........PIX FILE FOR ARTSTEP2.........
ARTSTEP2.BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
CHURCH .BAS..RUN...ART GALLERY...................
FAMCREST.BAS..RUN...ART GALLERY...................
* FAMCREST.NIB........PIX FILE FOR FAMCREST.BAS.....
* FONT .BIN........DATA FILE FOR PRINTME3.BAS.=>
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GENDMENU.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
GENFMENU.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
GENFONTI.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
GENSTR .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
JOURNAL .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
KILLFILE.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
LABELPRC.003..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
* LABELTUT.003........DOC FILE FOR PRINTME3.BAS.....
* LOG .DAT........DATA FILE FOR JOURNAL.........
ML-ADDR .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
MUSICTUT.BAS..RUN...POTPOURRI.....................
NIBLOAD2.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
* NIBLOADR.BIN........PIX LOADER UTILITY............
PRINTME3.BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
RACEWAY .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
=>
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On the MAGAZINE/SIDE of this issue you will find
the file BOLDFACE.BIN. This file is to be used
as an alternate font on the HSCREENS. See the
Q & A section for more information.
=*
|
Ocean View Another state I have visited is Florida.
I really enjoy looking at the ocean because it
gives a feeling of peace and relaxation.
This view taken from a beach in Florida
gives such a feeling. I visited Maine this year
as well and I hope to paint some pictures of
the ocean and some lighthouses from that state.
In this picture, the important thing to
do is get as many shades of blue as possible.
If the color is not available, you can use the
spray can to give the illusion of other shades
of color. It's difficult because the spray can
can only get so small. So you have to use the
smallest paint brush size to fill in the gaps.
I hope you enjoy the picture.
- Jim Gibbons =*
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| Articles in section: ACTIVE COCO |
| COCO-PRO....GONE...? J R WAGGONER'S HARDCOPY PROJECT! |
| Back to top |
COCO-PRO....GONE...? As you may have noticed, Coco-Pro one of the last
big advertisers in the Rainbow is no longer placing
any ads in the Rainbow.
Are they out of business...? Gone...? Kaput...????
NO,NO,NO. They are still in business. Why are they
no longer advertising ? Well according to Cray
Augsburg, editor of the Rainbow, "They were losing
money and it was no longer worth their while to
advertise." According to Dave Meyers, of Coco-Pro,
"They had Philosophical differences" Whatever the
case may be: You can still order from them by
calling 1-313-482-8128 or write them at: P.O.Box 763
Ypsilanty,MI.48197. Or even better, if you have a
modem you can download a list from their BBS
containing over 200 new and used Coco hardware and
software items. Some real GOOD bargains too. =>
____________________________________________________
I bought a two button white Coco mouse for $17.00.
The number of their BBS is 1-313-292-4713.
They accept 300, 1200 and 2400 Baud. wordlength 8,
1 stopbit and no parity. ( 8-N-1 ).
If you have a Visa or Mastercard you may order
direct from their BBS 24 hours a day. I got my order
in 36 hours. How about that for Service.????
Since so many people are looking for Coco hard and
software these days. I thought this information
might be useful to some of you.
George ......>*
P.S. Mention CFDM when you order, maybe we can lure
their advertisements to this magazine. ????
>***
|
J R WAGGONER'S HARDCOPY PROJECT! A most interesting package arrived at RCE, a couple
of weeks ago. The contents was a hardcopy of CFDM
issue #2. Not just any hardcopy, but a completely
magazine-looking version. The letter which came
with the package was from our friend J R Waggoner of
Stuttgart, Arkansas. J R writes:
..Enclosed you will find a hard copy of Vol. 1,
Issue #2 of your "CoCo Friends Disk Magazine".
After reading the letter from Andrew Kenny in this
issue, I was curious as to how CFDM would look in
magazine form. Also,I needed the practice for
producing a family newsletter that I try to print
every year in October. So, armed with a modified
version of your HARDCOPY program, MAX-10, CoCo MAX 3
a new STAR NX-1020 printer and two weeks vacation
with no where to go, I decided to see what I =>
____________________________________________________
could come up with.
Things that I did not include were the program
listings and printouts of screen displays. I did
place printouts of the art gallery, LIVLINES/BAS,
and HELMETS/BAS to give it a little color. Also,
I threw in a few pieces of clip art that I had lying
around.
I figure if I had included the program listings
and screen displays this would have added another
ten or more pages. This would have made this issue
longer than the last issue of The RAINBOW (Jan. 92)
that I have. (And there are not near as many ads in
CFDM as there are in RAINBOW.)
=>
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Since this is the only copy that I am going to
print out, I thought that you might like to have it.
..... - J R Waggoner
RICK: THANKS A BUNCH J R! You did a terrific job
and I'd bet you spent a lot of hours on the project!
I wish everyone could see it!! THANKS AGAIN for a
most interesting submission!
=*
|
| Articles in section: ADVERTISEMENTS |
| FOR
SALE LOOKING FOR COCO SUPPORT?? LOOKING FOR COCO SUPPORT?? (II) |
| Back to top |
FOR SALE I STILL HAVE A LOT OF PROGRAMS FOR SALE. I HAVE DISK, ROM-PAK, AND SOME CASSETTE. SUCH AS DESK MATE #26-3259, FLIGHT SIM.2 #26-3242, EDTASM+ #26-3250, ORCH.90 MUSICSYN.#26-3143, OS-9 LEVEL 2, AND BASIC 09 TOUR GUIDE BOOKS #26-3188 & #26-3189. I ALSO HAVE SEVERAL DUST COVERS. ALSO THE #26-3025 COLOR MOUSE. SEND A LARGE SASE FOR PRICE LIST. I AM LOOKING FOR A SPEECH-SOUND PAK, APPLIANCE MODULES FOR USE WITH PLUG'N POWER CONTROLLER #26-3142, ALSO I AM LOOKING FOR SEVERAL BACK ISSUES OF RAINBOW MAG. I WILL BUY OR TRADE FOR THE ABOVE ITEMS, OR ANY THING ELSE YOU MAY HAVE THAT YOU NO LONGER WANT OR NEED. JIM STERNETT 3000 WOODLAND HILLS DR. APT.14 ANN ARBOR MI. 48108 =* |
LOOKING FOR COCO SUPPORT?? More than a local meet...we are a national reachout!
Our "UPGRADE" National Disk Newsletter, has become a
hit with MAX III graphics accompanying articles. The
articles from RSDOS Basic programming, and hardware,
to OS-9 by James Jones of Microware; dump to screen
(TV, Mono, or RGB) or printer. Sometimes with the
news before the big mags, and editorials you will
not see in the commercial magazine. With many user
tips, and ideas.
Our Power Packed Domain Library: is purposely small
relative to thousands available; because the few
hundred disks there are carefully selected as "The
Best Available"! Public Domain, Shareware, OS-9, &
previously big named Orphanware programs.
=>
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We also have, a "Christian Software Sub-chapter".
Which simply offers Christian oriented software and
listings for those interested.
Where can you buy? Or sell that equipment you've
just upgraded from. Your free ads will be in the
middle of the community.
Have you noticed the 3rd party market producers
(i.e. support) dropping like flies in the winter
time? The shrinking RAINBOW? The support of your
CoCo is rapidly being left up to YOU! As third party
decreases; belonging to a CoCo group is your only
support. Radio Shack and a long list of magazines
have folded it in. If one more magazine folds..where
will you look next month? =>
____________________________________________________
Our eight year record speaks very well to reaching
out and serving members. A strong treasury assures
confidence of delivery. Most members are out of town
or out of state! Presently we have paid memberships
in over 20+ states plus Canada. Plus five clubs and
some dealers. Our 90% renewal rate says most all
feel MI&CC is very worthwhile. Join up and see why:
even user groups vote; sign up with a paid member-
ship!
Your membership will bring you all Newsletters,
Library, Voting, and other priviledges, for a year.
($3 sample disk)
(See Part II)
=*
|
LOOKING FOR COCO SUPPORT?? (II) Mid Iowa and Country CoCo (non-profit)
"Gathering the CoCo community"!
Do you want support tomorrow?
Then stay with a group that keeps you in touch!
Annual Membership: $14.00 US - $19.00 Canada
Say, "I saw it in CFDM" and receive...
an UPGRADE Disk + added bonus disk via return mail!
Terry Simons (MI&CC Treas.)
1328 48th St.
Des Moines, IA. 50311
(515) 279-2576 (after 8:00)
=*
|
| Articles in section: ARTICLES OF THE MONTH |
| An
article on programming Art with Jim Gibbons Step2 BASIC MADE EASY III DISK BASIC PATCHES PLAY A PAUSE |
| Back to top |
An article on programming This article will be a kind of overview of four phrases that are kicked around in programming. It may continue into a part 2. The four phrases are Top-down programming, Bottom- up programming, modular programming, and non-modular programming. I will briefly describe each, and tell if I use it much, (or suggest you use it.) Top-Down Processing: This basically means that when you write a program, you begin with the Main routine of the program, and then write all the little support bits and pieces. For example, you write a drawing program. You begin by writing the main menu part of the program, THEN you write all the little bits that do the painting, the dots, the lines, etc. => ____________________________________________________ I don't usually use Top-down programming. I tend to favor bottom up. Bottom Up Programming: This is the opposite of Top-Down. You start out by writing the little routines, THEN you write the main part to tie it altogether. In our example, you would write the routines to do the painting, the dots, the lines. You would make sure they all work. Then combine them with a main routine. I use this quite a lot, although most books suggest this method is the worst. When I wrote Forms1, I began with the routine to switch the Hprints, then I did the graphic codes for the printer, THEN the main section that accesses these routines, then I changed to top-down, and wrote the saving and load routines. I guess I used a little of both. => ____________________________________________________ Modular Programming: This is typical of both top- down and bottom up. Each little function of the program is its own separate routine, typically called with a GOSUB. In Forms1, when you select the SAVE option, the program GOSUBs to the Module, or routine to do saves, then RETURNs to the Main part. This is the neatest and most effective way to write a program. It makes it easy to go back later and figure out what does what, and even to modify parts of the routine. I strongly recommend this, and use lots of REMs so everyone knows what is going on! Non-Modular programming is the opposite: It is a MESS! The computer goes all over the program, jumping all over the place. No modules exist, just lots of GOTOs. Don't ever do this! It is a great place for ERRORs that you'll never find.! STUART=* |
Art with Jim Gibbons Step2
Step 4 - The next thing to do is to paint using the
spray can. Inside the brush size icon, pick the
size spray you will need. This will take some time
to find the right size. After you have picked that
spray size you then can add in a new color or shade.
See the graphic ART2.
Step 5 - Painting the sky in a silhouette painting
is the most detailed work you will be doing for this
painting. I am going to show you the progression of
color and shade in the next few picture frames.
Step 6 - See the graphic Art3 - More on adding color
and shade. This will take some practice and as you
know, if you make a mistake on the picture, you may
have to start over again. That is why I save each
step of my picture as I paint. This makes painting
more enjoyable than cumbersome. So keep on =>
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practicing with the color shading until it is just
the way you want it.
Step 7 - Now the black and gray portions can be
added to your picture. Be sure that your mountains,
hills, and other background and foreground is
complete. That is, a line that connects all the way
to the edge of your picture. If you do not have it
connected, the picture may very well be filled in
with black or gray. If this happens, just pick the
UNDO command by use of the mouse, and all is well.
Again, please be sure that you save each little part
of work on your picture just in case of an accident.
See ArtNib4.
Step 8 - This actually a continuation of Step 7.
Work carefully with the less detailed portion of the
background and foreground. When this is done =>
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then you can begin the detailed section of the
picture. There is much to do with the background
and foreground, but it is the easiest to handle in a
silhouette painting.
I hope you have had success up to this point, but
if it comes difficult to you, keep practicing, I
know it becomes easier along the way.
If you have any questions about the article, please
write or call me, or leave word in the question and
answer section of "CFDM". Thanks for your interest
and I hope to see some of your pictures in the
Gallery section of "CFDM" some day soon.
- Jim Gibbons =*
|
BASIC MADE EASY III Well, here is chapter 3. The input editor is done.
I have not made it to the code involved, but after
you read the article, you can play around with the
input editor and get "the feel of it" so to speak.
This months programs include:
1. LABELPRC/003 The program thus far.
2. LABELTUT/003 The article, 7 pages.
3. PRINTME3/BAS Program to print out
LABELTUT/003, Ados use scanp.
4. FONT/BIN For our new friends.
P.S.
As always direct any comments and/or suggestions to:
George Quellhorst.
203B Meadows Drive.
Painesville,Ohio.44077-5361 ............ George >*
|
DISK BASIC PATCHES The program !.BAS contains numerous patches to
Super Disk BASIC that make life a bit easier. Here
is a list of the patches made when you run it:
* A white-on-black 32width screen w/ true lowercase.
* PCLEAR0 is allowed, which can give you an extra
1536 bytes of program memory.
* Disk BASIC can use 40 tracks, with a shorter
access delay and a 6ms step rate.
* A new >> prompt.
* A patch to BASIC's ReadKey routine that allows
BASIC to run faster (this is explained in greater
detail in MADMIKE'S PEEKS/POKES/EXECS under
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH in CFDM #6) .
* HSCREEN now displays 200 rows, and all Hi-res
commands are patched to handle the 8 extra rows.=>
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After the patches are made, the following
commands are made:
PCLEAR0
FILES 1,550
CLEAR 467,&H7FFF
DSKI$ 0,0,1,A$,A$
NEW
These will give you 28700 bytes of free RAM,
and the DSKI$ will move the drive head to track0.
I run this program the moment I turn on my COCO3,
and I run it before I shut it off. Parking the drive
head at track0 makes it easier on the drive the next
time you turn the system on.
=>
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When you turn the COCO on, it thinks the drive
is at track 0. The first time you access the disk,
it will move 14 tracks to try to read the directory.
When it reads the track, it will see that it is not
track 14, it will restore to track 0, get its facts
straight, and then try to read the directory track
again. If ,when you turn on the system, the drive
head is past track 25, you will "bump" the head when
it tries to move ahead 14 tracks, past track 39. If
this happens you risk misalligning the drive,a very
expensive problem to fix. Having the drive head at
track 0 when you turn on the system prevents all
this trouble, because the drive head is where the
computer thinks it is.
=*
|
PLAY A PAUSE EVEN THOUGH YOU DO NOT WRITE A MUSIC PROGRAM YOU CAN STILL USE THE PLAY COMMAND. INSTEAD OF THE USUAL FOR T= 1 TO 100: NEXT T YOU CAN USE PLAY"P30" OR SOME OTHER NUMBER FROM 1 TO 255. 1 IS THE LONGEST. IF YOU NEED A LONGER PAUSE USE A SERIES FOR EXAMPLE PLAY "P1P1P1". YOU MUST USE QUOTES. IF THE VOLUME IS UP YOU WILL HEAR A SLIGHT CLICK BECAUSE THE AUDIO IS TURNED ON DURING THE PLAY COMMAND, BUT THAT IS NOT USUALLY OBJECTIONABLE TO ME. CHARLES GIBSON =* |
| Articles in section: COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY |
| CFDM
COMICS by Chai CHURCH FAMILY CREST |
| Back to top |
CHURCH CHURCH is a graphic drawing that was on the front cover of COCO-LINK...It was drawn by Graham Elphich of St Marys N.S.W. Australia using Tom Lehane drawing program Line-Master...I have redrawn it using Keiran Kenny's program PM4FNDXY which helps you find the (X,Y) much easier and takes out all the guess work in finding the right positions. So CHURCH is not quite the same, I have included all the Palettes in the program, so if you want to change the colours please do so...I have been given permission by Graham to submit this drawing to CFDM. P.S. I them changed it to HSCREEN2. Arthur Williams =* |
FAMILY CREST
THIS IS MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT USING THE COCOMAX III. I HAVE DONE SEVERAL PAINTINGS IN OIL DURING MY LIFE, BUT THIS IN SOMETHING ELSE. I HOPE TO DO MORE IN THE NEAR FUTURE COME ON YOU COCO-NUTS, LET US SEE YOUR FAMILY CREST. HAROLD J.MOENICH 715 GREENLEAF DRIVE MONROEVILLE,PA 15146-1133 (412) 373-1309 =* |
| Articles in section: FAMILY TREE |
| JERRY
HOPSON THE STERNETTs THERE'S ROOM IN THE TREE! <g> VIC KELLS |
| Back to top |
JERRY HOPSON I am another of those "mature" CoCo fans (with a
1923 birthdate) who seem to keep turning up here.
Stratton, Maine, the town to which I moved (from
Baltimore, Maryland) in 1978, with a year-round
population of about 500, is in the state's
western mountains, near the Sugarloaf/USA ski
area. My wife and I run a bed-and-breakfast in
in an old victorian mansion. Our kids--3 girls
and a boy--have all grown up and moved out of state.
My hobbies include skiing (cross-country and
alpine), mountain biking, canoeing, reading (I'm
the town librarian), and, of course, my CoCo.
I have a 128K CoCo3 (soon to be upgraded to 512K,
I hope), dual FD-502 double-sided drives, a CM-8
=>
____________________________________________________
monitor, a mouse, and a DMP130A printer, with a Blue
Streak Ultima serial-to-parallel converter attached.
My primary interest computer-wise is in writing
utility programs, but I also use it for word-
processing and desk-top publishing applications.
My address is: JERRY HOPSON
PO BOX 150
STRATTON ME 04982
=*
|
THE STERNETTs THE STERNETT'S ARE, JIM, MARGO, SEAN,(14) & NICOLE
(12), AND OUR FOUR COCOS. THREE OF THEM ARE COCO-3S,
ONE A 512K, A 128K, AND ONE NEW IN THE BOX FOR A
SPARE. WE ALSO HAVE A COCO-2 TO RUN OLDER PROGRAMS
ON. WE USE ONE DUAL DISK DRIVE, AND A SINGLE DRIVE,
WITH A THIRD ONE NEW IN THE BOX FOR A SPARE. WE USE
CM-8 MONITORS. FOR PRINTERS WE HAVE A DMP-130, A
DWP-230, AND A STAR NX1020 RAINBOW. NOT ONE OF US
ARE PROGRAMMERS, EXCEPT TO REWRITE SOME PROGRAMS TO
OUR NEEDS. ALTHOUGH I PLAN ON LEARNING TO WRITE
PROGRAMS, IT MAY HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL I RETIRE IN
ABOUT 10 YRS. OR SO, BUT I WON'T GIVE UP ON THE
COCO. WE HAVE BEEN USING THE COCO FOR ABOUT 4 YRS.
OUR FAMILY LIVES IN ANN ARBOR MI. IN AN APARTMENT
SUPPLIED BY MY EMPLOYER. WE ALSO OWN A =>
____________________________________________________
HOUSE ON A LAKE IN THE COUNTRY. WE PLAN ON MOVING
BACK THERE SOMEDAY. THERE THE COCO WILL HAVE A HOME
FOR AS LONG AS I DO. THE KIDS USE THE COCO ALL THE
TIME, BUT I DO PLAN ON SOMEDAY BUYING AN IBM TYPE
COMPUTER, BECAUSE THAT IS THE TYPE OF COMPUTER THAT
THEY WILL HAVE TO GROW UP USING. (SAD TO SAY, BUT
TRUE.)
RICK, KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, AND KEEP CFDM COMING
OUT TO US. I MAY NOT KNOW MUCH ABOUT COMPUTERS, BUT
I CAN LICK LABELS OR SOMETHING ELSE IF THATS WHAT IT
WOULD TAKE TO KEEP CFDM ALIVE.
=*
|
Another CoCo Friend Belonging to the family of CoCo friends since
issue No. 1 has been a very real pleasure for me.
My CoCo keeps this otherwise lonely 71 yr. old in
touch with many people who share a common interest.
I bought my first CoCo II, Drive & printer used, in
1988 and today have a CoCo Friends Library in my
former pool table & bar area of the basement. I
have over 12,000 programs, 3 CoCo 3's, 512K, 1 CoCo
II, 4 dual, double-side drives, CM-8 monitor & 3
Monochrome monitors, Hi-res I.F., Multipak I.F.,
speech/sound pak, Orchestra-90, X-Pad, etc. etc.
Also, DMP-106, DWP-210, Seikoska 1300, Star Delta-
10, CGP-220, CGP-115 printers. I belong to a local
Computer Club which brings many people to my library
to share in the fun. =>
____________________________________________________
I do not do programming but have associate
members who can modify a program to my needs. I
welcome any inquiries. I have many hardware and
software "extras" to help those who can no longer
find them at Radio Shack. These were acquired from
members who had to go to MS-DOS for business reasons
and there were about 14 of them! As the word gets
around on this I am kept busy with helping out those
searchers find what they want. However, this is my
hobby, buying & selling to help others get started,
and it's a non-profit set-up, moneywise, but I do
profit from the joy of having, on hand, the software
or hardware for those who need it. I prefer to keep
this LOCAL so any mail-orders will be rarely honored
and I'm sorry about this. I have always believed
in taking care of your own first...=>
____________________________________________________
Rick: In closing, your magazine makes me feel
like I know so many of your friends and I sincerely
thank you for that. I print out each issue first,
so I can leisurely read through it and later for
easier reference. It takes about 30 minutes for
60 pages. Suggestion: It would be even faster if
the command to "print the page" were first, instead
of third. God bless you and all of your CoCo
Friends.
Vic Kells
424 S WEIMAR ST
APPLETON WI 54915-3415
414-730-9071
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|
| Articles in section: FORUM |
| COCOISTS:
ALL SHAPES & SIZES! HELP THIS SECTION <g> Talking about Tandy The New Coco 4 (?) |
| Back to top |
COCOISTS: ALL SHAPES &
SIZES! Isn't it amazing how many different things you can
do with your CoCo? And probably no two of us have
the exact same interests! Some of us enjoy writing
programs and some of us enjoy using programs. Many
enjoy doing or collecting graphics, while others
have told me they are not interested in that area.
Some like modeming, while others enjoy using their
CoCos to enhance their ham radio hobby. I guess
nearly everyone uses their machine for writing
letters or other documentation. At least to some
extent. Printers and word processing seem to be
the main interest of some very talented Friends,
such as Allen Curtis and Walter Bayer.
Most of us like to program. The degree of our
expertise varies greatly, but the enjoyment =>
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is still there for all. Some have no desire to
program at all. I must admit that I love to
program. And I rarely RUN a program that doesn't
help me complete a program I am trying to write!
The problem is that nowadays, I just don't seem to
have time to program! There are three projects I
really would like to do. Number one is to complete
BYTE TUTOR II. You may recall BYTE TUTOR I from
an earlier issue. Well I really have worked on the
sequel, but never find time to complete it.
Number two is to update the RAINBOW INDEXES. It's
going to be a somewhat difficult job because of
space limitations on the already almost full disk!
=>
____________________________________________________
Number three is a generic database program such as
Keiran Kenny recently suggested. I have an idea
but I realize that it will also be a pretty big
project!
I know this has been a rambling forum, but I wonder
if you have ever thought about how different we are,
yet how much we enjoy our CoCos to the same degree!
=*
|
Talking about Tandy My beef against Tandy is that they had a great computer in the CoCo but failed to give it support in the most important area of support that a computer manufacturer owes those who buy his product. In short: THEY FAILED TO GET OUT AND SELL IT AS IT DESERVED TO BE SOLD. My impression of a Tandy store is a few disinterested gentlemen waiting around till the world in search of a better computer beats a path to their door. Meanwhile, in department stores and electronics stores there were Commodores and other brands to be seen and tried and compared. That's where they should have marketed the CoCo. That's why, when both computers were at their sales peaks, the C64 was outselling the CoCo fourteen-to-one. That's why nobody ever heard of the CoCo. =* |
The New Coco 4 (?) Coco Friends Everywhere. CFDM wants input on the
new COCO4. Here are my suggestions:
Memory:
1 meg standard fully addressable RAM, all available
to BASIC and/or/both assembly.
Upgradable to 20 meg.
This would need a chip far superior than that GIME
chip. This would need the ISFARAMAGC, or the
Incredible Standard Fully Addressable Random Access
Memory And Graphics Chip.
Speed:
The coco would have a standard speed of at least
2 gadzillion megahertz. (it currently runs at about
.8 meg. (that's POINT EIGHT))
Graphics: (wait till you see them...) =>
____________________________________________________
The usual screens for compatibility plus new ones:
640x192x4 - 640 across, 192 down, 4 colors
640x192x16
640x192x256
1280x400x64
2560x800x1.2 million
5120x1600x8 million
Graphics would use its OWN RAM, and some of the new
modes would need the Super-Ultra-Megga-Sooppa-SYNC
monitor.
Connections to the outside world:
4 joysticks
2 serial mice (mouses?)
cassette i/o
up to 4 double sided 35/40/80 track drives
2 high-density disk supports =>
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2 hard-drive interfaces up to 160 meg each
Tape backup system
CD-RAM (that's RAM not CD-ROM)
composite/tv/RGB/Sooppa-SNYC outputs
Serial/parallel/centronics/rs-232 ports
MIDI in/out/thru
Quadraphonic sound output w/ built in 100 watt per
channel amp for each of the 4 channels.
Slow-Scan/Fast Scan t.v. inputs and outputs
Video/audio in for digital stuff
Ham radio in/out
CB radio in/out
WEFAX/PACKET/RTTY inputs and outputs
phone in/out
Built-in Uninterruptable power supply.
*did I get everything?* =*
|
| Articles in section: FROM THE EDITOR |
| KUDOS
<g> RENEWALS AND ATLANTA! |
| Back to top |
|
KUDOS RIGHT ON TARGET! CHAI BOUPHAPHANH H ALLEN CURTIS PERRY FRIESEN JAMES GIBBONS CHARLES GIBSON MAD MIKE HOKE JERRY HOPSON CORY JACKMUFF PAUL H JOHNSON DONN JONES VIC KELLS KEIRAN KENNY GEORGE LEVKA MICHAEL LEWIS HAROLD MOENICH GEORGE QUELLHORST ELAD REMARK HERB SCHULER TERRY SIMONS JIM STERNETT ROBERT A TURNER J R WAGGONER ARTHUR WILLIAMS STUART WYSS-GALLIFENT THERE'S ROOM IN THE TREE FOR YOU!! SEND YOUR BIO! |
RENEWALS AND ATLANTA! Greetings Friends! Another issue of CFDM is nearing
completion. I thought I had a good early start on
this one, but there's been a lot going on and I'm
not getting finished any earlier than usual!
What has been going on? Well, school for one thing.
We got off to an unusually rough start this year.
It seems that all the old responsiblities plus some
new unexpected ones have visited this time. Finally
things are starting to normalize on that front!
In addition to RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE business,
I've been trying to get ready to go to Atlanta to
the CoCo Fest on October 3rd and 4th. My friend,
Mike Brown and another friend, David Breeding, will
be heading out on October 2nd for the big event! =>
____________________________________________________
It's the first for all of us. I'll have a booth and
hope to make some new Friends for us! As I said,
it's a first and there is a little apprehension. My
greatest fear is that everyone there will be OS-9
oriented! But I'm sure there are still some RS DOS
devotees that attend such events!
I hope some of you will make it. Robert A Turner
is planning to attend and we're looking forward to
seeing him. I'll give you a report next issue on
how this trip turns out.
Renewals have been very good! I'm sure that info
will be of interest to you, as well as me! Not all
have renewed at this time, but I guesstimate about
80% have. And newcomers have almost made up =>
____________________________________________________
the difference! Thanks to 3 nice mailing lists sent
by John Pendleton, Terry Laraway, and Allen Curtis,
quite a number of new Friends have tried CFDM. Some
have already joined for additional issues. Thanks
fellow!
In closing, here's one of my favorite scriptures:
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then
face to face: now I know in part; but then shall
I know even as also I am known.
I Corinthians 13:12
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|
About Hang-ups in CFDM I have seen several complaints from CFDM readers
about "hang-ups" in the driver. i.e. Attempting to
access a file and having the border change color &
getting stuck in that section for a few [BREAK]
presses, or worse, having to press RESET. I have
found two probable causes of this, with the second
generally being the cause of the first. #1: When
the CFDM driver encounters an I/O (or other) error.
#2: The user's disk drive being slightly out of
align. This causes, in most cases, problem #1. I
encountered the hangup problem rather often, until I
replaced my disk drive, after the old one began
showing signs of age. Aligning it solved the problem
for a while & it finally croaked completely. I hope
this helps.
=*
|
COLOR PAC ATTACK PLAYALIKE? Your volume 1, #7 interested me enough to order
yourfirst 6 issues as well as 6 more. I am not a
programmer, but do have at least 75-100 programs
purchased through ads in The RAINBOW, to which I
have been a subscriber since about issue 5..........
By the way, when I still had one of the earlier
CoCo's, about 1982, I had Computerware's COLOR PAC
ATTACK, which of course doesn't run on CC3. I
wonder if anyone has a program like it?
Good luck and hope we can continue CoCo for a
long time.
=*
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CONGRATS! Dear Rick,
Just a line to tell you that CFDM seems to get
better with every issue, and a couple of suggest-
ions: (1) Every review should give the source and
current price, if available, of the program or hard-
ware item which is the subject of the review. (2)
It would be a big help in writing entries if you
could modify the entry writer so that it would give
an audible warning when you've reached the last
line. I don't know how many times I've been bopping
along then had to delete my last line to get the
continuation sign (=>) in.
Keep up the good work.
Jerry
RICK: Thanks for the tips AND entries Jerry! =*
|
Dear Rick: CFDM #6 and Offer #1 arrived in good order yes- terday. Of course it will take me a few weeks to get through all that but I have already started working my way through my disordered disks with Master Dir 3 and I'm really amazed, not only by how easy it is to use, but also by how quickly it returns data I ask for. I have a feeling that, at long last, order may emerge from chaos. If I might offer one suggestion, it would be that I would prefer to have a disk directory displayed on the screen before I give it a name. The Gallery display is certainly a work of art in itself but I must confess that I am more comfortable with the PIXLOADR program I sent you recently. Thanks for the repeat function on the CLEAR key. That's just great! (4 July 1992) =* |
LETTER FROM DOWN UNDER Thank you for your letter dated 30 June 1992 and the
disks which arrived in good condition...I hope if
all goes to plan I will be able to subscribe to
CFDM for sometime to come.
Rick keep up the good work and I thoroughly enjoy
all the programs for the other programmers.
Arthur Williams
Harrington
Australia
RICK: THANKS FOR JOINING US ARTHUR!! WE REALLY
ENJOY YOUR WORK!
=*
|
OH, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Thank You!
thank you!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!
THANK YOU!
thank you!
THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU FOR PUTTING MY PROGRAMS AND ARTICLES IN
THE MAGAZINE!!! YOU'VE GIVEN MY LIFE NEW MEANING
AND PURPOSE!! HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE CAN SEE MY WORK!
I'VE SHARED A PIECE OF MYSELF WITH THE REST OF THE
WORLD!! I'VE MADE A CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMMUNITY!
THANKS!
Madmike Hoke's Ego =*
|
PEEKs, POKEs and STUFF Rick:
I really enjoy articles and letters that provide
those special Hints, PEEKs, POKEs, EXECs, and the
like. I hope people keep providing them. Even if a
person doesn't do much programming of their own, it
helps de-mystifying all those weird POKE lines that
'real' programmers are fond of using. I don't mind
if I've seen them before, because someone else might
not. For example, everyone knows EXEC 44539 is a
neat Pause and Wait for Key Press function, but do
they know they can identify the key pressed by
adding :KEY=PEEK(135)?
A couple of POKEs I use regularly when programming
are in a special key allocation table beginning at
address &HA26E (41582 decimal). This table assigns
=>
____________________________________________________
ASCII values to the arrow keys, SPACE, ENTER, BREAK,
CLEAR and 0 (Zero) keys, including shifted versions.
POKE 41596,18 makes the CLEAR key a CAPS LOCK,
(like shift 0)
POKE 41598,19 makes the BREAK key a PAUSE function
(like shift @, the key between P and CLEAR)
(Rick: is there any way to type this key in the
ENTRY WRITER?)
This makes it possible to hit only one key instead
of two for the above frequently used functions when
typing and listing programs, which is a lot quicker
and easier.
Another neat area to play with, although I haven't
done much, is the alpha character table beginning at
&HF09D. Groups of eight bytes each are used to
=>
____________________________________________________
define the font style used to print alphanumeric
characters on the screen. I've seen at least one
programmer use this to create special graphic
characters for graphics on a text screen. Also, we
could POKE in our own specially designed font.
I've accumulated a lot of miscellaneous PEEKs,
POKEs and EXECs over the years, but I always like
to see more (and have them explained).
Note to George Q-: I've just printed out your 6-page
article using PRINTME and am looking forward to
reading it. From my first quick reading on the
screen, it looks like just the thing we would all
like to see. Keep up the good work.
Regards, Paul =*
|
SUPERPUT is really super! When I first read MADMIKE's instructions for SUPERPUT, I thought he's gotta be crazy if he thinks that's easy. But then, I'm one of those who can only learn something by doing it. Maybe other slow learners like me would be interested in how I went about it. I used a program PRT#1CFD that I submitted recently to do an ASCII save of Mike's instructions. Then I saved DEMO and SP TEST as ASCII files. I loaded DEMO into Telewriter-128, appended SP TEST and the instruction text files. It was then easy to scroll back and forth through the listings as I read the instructions. When I thought I knew enough, I wrote a short basic file under the instructions and did a % SAVE from Telewriter-128's menu and then saved the lot => ____________________________________________________ for just in case - luckily enough, for my first try bombed out. I loaded the big file again and, after a bit more scrolling back and forth through instruc- tions and listings, I found my errors and the second try worked. I have since tried animation test programs using conventional HGET-HPUT code and SUPERPUT, an orbit- ing red disk. The SUPERPUT version was so fast that I had to insert a delay loop because the screen could not adjust to the changes. However, you can get a marked increase in speed with conventional HGET-HPUT if you make sure that the your parameters begin with a multiple of eight and end with one less than a multiple of eight, e.g. HGET(0,0)-(63,71),1 and HPUT(128,96)-(191,167),1. Very effective on the otherwise slower HSCREEN4! => |
ANDANTE I hope you are all enjoying this music I present to
you each month. And I urge you to plug your computer
output into a hi-fi or stereo system to listen to
it. This month let's look at a piece you will find
in many Organists' resource books. It's is titled
'ANDANTE' and was written by a composer I know
nothing about except his name is HESSE. However,
this work is a good example of the compositions for
the organ that are used by Organists as fill-in on
occasions like before a service, or as an offeratory
or as the congregation leaves the Church. As you
listen to this piece close your eyes and try to
imagine yourself as the Organist in a large Church,
you are there alone, playing only for your own
enjoyment. RUN "ANDANTE" on side 2 and enjoy.
Herb Schuler =*
|
It appears there's a lot of communication going on
among the members of CFDM. And that's great! One
of our most popular sections is the FAMILY TREE.
And many of you have commented that you enjoy
finding out about other Cocoists.
Sharing, communication, and participation will keep
us strong. So here's a simple idea, with only a
small amount of commitment required, which will
give each of us a chance to strengthen our bond and
let each feel a little cheer at the special season
that is fast approaching!
The project consists of sending a Friend a Christmas
or seasons greeting card. In return you will receive
a card from a different Friend. =>
____________________________________________________
If you would like to participate, just send me a
post card with your name and address printed
clearly on the back side. Also print "HOLIDAY",
to indicate that you would like to participate.
When issue #10 goes out, in November, I'll place
your card in the mailer of another Friend who has
returned a card. (If I receive your card after that
mailing, I'll send it with #11 in December.) WHEN
YOU GET THE CARD WITH THE ADDRESS, SEND A GREETINGS
CARD TO THE FRIEND WHOSE NAME IS ON THE CARD.
>> PLEASE DON'T ENTER THIS PROJECT IF YOU ARE NOT
PREPARED TO BOTH SEND AND RECEIVE A CHRISTMAS OR
HOLIDAY GREETING CARD! <<
HERE'S HOPING FOR A GREAT RESPONSE!! =*
|
ED. RESPONSE I BELIEVE I MAY HAVE SOME GOOD IDEAS FOR THE
EDUCATION PROJECT AND WANTED TO PASS THEM ALONG.
#1: "MATH PYRAMID" - A MATH QUIZ THAT REWARDS
ONE PYRAMID BLOCK EACH TIME THE USER ANSWERS 4
OUT OF 5 QUESTIONS CORRECTLY. THE PYRAMID WOULD
HAVE 4 BLOCKS AT THE BASE FOR A TOTAL OF TEN.IF
THE USER SUCCEEDS IN BUILDING A COMPLETE PYRAMID
THEN THEY WOULD REIGN AS "MATH PHAROAH". THE
PROGRAM SHOULD SHOW THE SHAPE OF THE USERS PYRAMID
AT THE END OF THE GAME SO THAT PROGRESS COULD BE
EASILY MONITORED (IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED...).
B
B B =MATH PHAROAH!
B B B
B B B B (CTRL 2)
____________________________________________________
#2: "SCHOOL JEPARDY" - LIKE THE T.V. SHOW IT
WOULD HAVE SEVERAL CATEGORIES. MULTIPLE GUESS
"QUESTIONS" COULD APPEAR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE
SCREEN. THE USER WOULD PICK THE CORRECT QUESTION
FOR THE CATEGORY. THIS PROGRAM COULD BE SUBJECT
INTENSIVE - E.I.,"MATH JEPARDY" COULD HAVE
CATEGORIES FOR ADDITION, MULTIPLICATION, DIVISION,
ETC.
#3: "CAPITOLS USA" - DRAWS A MAP OF THE U.S.
AND ASKS YOU TO PLACE THE CAPITAL THAT APPEARS
BELOW INTO THE CORRECT STATE.COCO MAX III MIGHT
PROVIDE AN EASY MEANS TO DRAW THE MAP AND USING
THE SELECTIVE CLS TIPS FROM "HCLSINFO" BY COLIN
NORTH COULD CLEAR THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN FOR
TEXT.
=>
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ALSO USEFUL WOULD BE TO USE IDEAS FROM THE
"LPOKE" PROGRAM.
I HOPE THIS HELPS OUT. =*
|
We've received a few entries for the GREAT EDUCATION
PROJECT, but would love to have some more. If you
need ideas, look at the entry from Elad Remark in
this section. This is a wide-open project and the
possibilities are endless. Please give it a try.
Your entries don't have to be large or fancy. It
just takes a little thought to do something that
will be useful and fun!
=*
|
Lightning I used to think that lightning in thunderstorms would NEVER affect me, old JOE on the street coco user, until I had all the following items destroyed during electrical storms. Now I unplug EVERYTHING when a storm comes:(I don't know if I should trust those static protectors, so I don't!) Non-computer stuff: two cordless phones one speaker-memory phone (my favorite one) computer stuff: one 1200 baud modem one 2400 baud ZOOM modem that I paid $120 for. Anything on the phone line seems susceptable So please, remember to disconnect that stuff! =* |
MUSICTUT (Great Ed. Project) Because of the super graphic capabilities, I believe
the CoCo 3 has virtually endless educational
possibilities. With that spirit I wrote Music Tutor
(MUSICTUT.BAS).
MUSICTUT tests your knowledge of the lines & spaces
of the treble and bass staffs, key signatures, and
the symbols for notes and rests. Operation of the
program is very straight forward. Answers are setup
to require only a single key press. The number of
questions for the quiz and the waiting response time
are changable from the main menu. You may terminate
the quiz at any time by pressing the ESC key; this
will give you the score screen with remain questions
being marked wrong. To quit, you must choose this
option from the main menu. =>
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Most classrooms in Canada use the Apple II computer,
but from what I've seen of their software I believe
that the CoCo 3 has even greater potential in the
educational market. LET'S CRANK IT OUT! I hope to
sharpen my programming skills and start turning out
commercial software for the CoCo in the near future.
I've decided to call my future company "MagnaColor
Systems."
I hope you enjoy MUSICTUT!
=*
|
REPLY TO MR. JOHN CLEMONS Hi, Mr. Clemons. My name is Cory Jackmuff and my friends call me Dewey. I am three and a half years old. I live across the street from Mr. & Mrs. Herb Schuler. Once or twice a week I get to visit them (they baby-sit me) when my Daddy & Mommy are both at work and my brothers, Jarrett & Brandon, are in school. I've seen The Three Bears & Goldilocks two times and it's really neat. After learning the story as Goldilocks & The Three Bears, and seeing it twice on the 'puter, I can recite the whole story as I watch it. And I get to push the bar to change each scene. I laugh and get excited with each picture. I hope you continue making these stories. One I like a lot and wish you would do is "The First Day Of School" about Elizabeth and her teacher, Mrs. Ford. Thanks for thinking of us kids. Your FRIEND, Dewey=* |
TO HERB SCHULER & MUSIC3+
USERS I AM VERY PLEASED THAT YOU FOUND MY ENTRY HELPFUL.
AS A SUGGESTION TO THOSE WHO DO NOT WANT THE DISK
DRIVE TO SPIN WHILE THE MUSIC IS PLAYING, ADD A
PAUSE AFTER THE LOADM "FILENAME" IN THE BASIC
PROGRAM.
FOR EXAMPLE = 20 LOADM"FILENAME.BIN":PLAY"P1"
30 POKE65497,0:EXEC
40 POKE65496,0
LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE ENTRIES IN THIS CATAGORY.
CHARLES GIBSON 701 SHERMAN EDWARDSVILLE, IL 62025
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|
| Articles in section: PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH |
| JOURNAL KILLFILE MACHINE LANGUAGE ADDRESS FINDER NIBLOADER CMP/RGB/MONO RACEWAY Ultralace: Installment 1 |
| Back to top |
JOURNAL IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KEEP A DAILY RECORD OF YOUR
ACTIVITIES OR OTHER INFORMATION ON DISK, OR SET UP
AN APPOINTMENT CALENDAR BY DATE, THEN JOURNAL WILL
LET YOU DO JUST THAT.
YOU MAY ENTER A 32 WIDE SCREEN FULL OF INFORMATION
AND EDIT IT BEFORE ENTRY OR RETRIEVE IT FROM DISK,
EDIT IT, AND REFILE IT, OR ADD TO IT. IF YOU WANT TO
BROWSE THROUGH THE JOURNAL, YOU CAN DO THIS BY START
ING AT A SINGLE DATE OR FILE NUMBER AND PAGE THROUGH
ONE ENTRY AT A TIME.
YOU WILL HAVE TO FORMAT THE INFORMATION, AS WITH
CFDM (THERE IS NO WORD WRAP),BUT AT THE END OF EACH
SECOND LINE THE LAST FOUR CHARACTERS WILL BEEP AND
THEN JUMP TO THE NEXT LINE IF YOU HAVEN'T PRESSED
ENTER. THIS IS SO THE INFORMATION WILL COME BACK AS
ENTERED. YOU MAY USE THE BACKSPACE WITHIN A TWO =>
____________________________________________________
LINE SEGMENT, BUT AFTER THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO
FINISH AND THEN GO TO EDIT TO MAKE A CHANGE.
OPTION 8, EXIT DOES NOT COLDSTART OR WIPE OUT THE
PROGRAM. IF YOU FIND YOU ARE NOT WHERE YOU WANT TO
BE IN THE PROGRAM, YOU CAN USE BREAK AND THEN GOTO
195 TO RESTART WITHOUT AN INTRODUCTION OR GOTO 200
TO RETAIN THE CURRENT FILE, PROVIDED YOU HAVE NOT
USED THE BASIC EDITOR ETC.
IF YOU ARE USING A COCO3 YOU WILL HAVE TO USE THE
32 WIDE SCREEN, BUT YOU CAN CHANGE THE COLOR BY
CHANGING THE NUMBERS AFTER THE COMMAS IN LINE 140 .
FOR PRINTING YOU WILL HAVE TO CHANGE THE BAUD RATE
FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN 600.
COCO2 USERS DELETE LINE140.
THE DATA FILE IS NAMED LOG/DAT. TO CHANGE THIS TO
YOUR FILE OF EIGHT LETTERS, EDIT LINE 575 OR IF=>
____________________________________________________
YOU WANT TO KEEP MORE THAN ONE FILE ON A DISK SUCH
AS A DIARY AND AN APPOINTMENT FILE OR IF MORE THAN
ONE PERSON IS KEEPING A FILE ON THE SAME DISK THEN
PLACE AN ' AT THE BEGINNING OF LINE 575 AND YOU WILL
BE PROMPTED FOR A FILE NAME EACH TIME YOU ACCESS THE
DISK. A BLANK DISK OF 35 TRACKS SHOULD HOLD A FILE
OF ABOUT A YEAR OF INFO.
THERE IS A SAMPLE FILE INCLUDED. YOU CAN SEARCH FOR
A DATE FROM 08-1-92 THROUGH 08-5-92 OR YOU CAN PAGE
THROUGH STARTING WITH FILE 1, JUST TO SEE HOW IT
WORKS.
I HOPE THIS PROGRAM WILL BE OF USE TO YOU. CHAS.
=*
|
KILLFILE KILLFILE is a program (as the name suggests) to kill
a number of files on a disk, without the tedium of
writing KILL "FILENAME.EXT" every time. When you
run it, it first asks for the drive No., then lists
the directory, then asks for specifications for the
files to be considered. Nothing is killed at this
time. All files meeting the specification are now
listed, and you are asked about each one: KILL
(Y/N)?, and the program proceeds accordingly. The
program only runs on the COCO3, because it uses the
80-column screen. Note: the program uses the high-
speed poke when doing the directories, so if you
BREAK out of it for any reason, be sure to return
the CoCo to normal speed (POKE 65496,0).
=>
____________________________________________________
(It would have been a little faster to use the
DISKO$ command to zap the disk directly, but I
didn't feel the saving was significant enough to
justify complicating the program, when the DBS KILL
command worked almost as fast.)
=*
|
MACHINE LANGUAGE ADDRESS FINDER Have you ever wished for a program that would find
the START, END & EXEC (TRANSFER) addresses of your
machine language programs? If so, then the MACHINE
LANGUAGE ADDRESS FINDER may be what you have been
looking for. It will ask you to enter the filename
of a program & then ask you whether the program is
on disk or tape. A tape program must be CLOADMed in
order to find these addresses, but "ML-ADDR" will
automatically CLOADM it for you & then give you the
addresses. A disk program does not have to be
LOADMed in order to obtain the addresses, as
"ML-ADDR" merely analyzes the HEADER (PREAMBLE) of
the file to obtain these addresses. You may then get
a hard-copy of the addresses, if you choose. The
program also supports the TANDY SPEECH/SOUND PAK. To
turn on the VOICE, answer Y to the first prompt. =>
____________________________________________________
When the Speech option is activated, it will speak
everything that appears on the screen. This program
is the result of several hours of continuous work,
so I hope it is of use to some of my fellow CoCo
users. I did not really need this program, but I
wrote it as an intermediate stage for a program that
I am working on that will transfer BINARY files to
ASCII files. The reason that I'm writing this latter
program is in response to CFDM reader Roy Atkins,
who has need of such a program. Look for "BINASCII",
coming soon to a CoCo near you, via CFDM! A final
thought on "ML-ADDR"; The DISK routine will not pro-
vide the correct addresses for Multiple-Origined
Machine Language Programs. Assembly programmers will
know what I'm talking about. It will serve most pur-
poses though. The program could be modified =>
____________________________________________________
to provide the correct addresses for such Multiple
Origined files, but I don't have enough free time
for the required tinkering. I'll leave that open to
you capable CFDM readers & programmers.
Robert Allen Turner
C/O Kathy & Terry Dale
RT 3 BOX 458
DOUBLE SPRINGS, AL 35553
P.S. ROY ATKINS - IF YOU'RE READING THIS, HANG IN
THERE. I SHOULD HAVE A BINARY TO ASCII TRANS-
LATION PROGRAM COMPLETED SOON (MAYBE IN TIME
FOR THIS ISSUE?).
RICK: BINARY TO ASCII (COMING VERY SOON!) =*
|
NIBLOADER CMP/RGB/MONO Although Rick's NIB is a superb graphics
compressor, I have one major gripe. I have a TV and
a mono-CMP monitor, and all the NIB pictures I have
ever received have RGB colors...
So with the help of Appendix E of SUPER EXTENDED
COLOR BASIC UNRAVELLED, I've patched NIBLOADR.BAS to
switch between RGB and CMP colors.
When the program loads and decompresses a
picture, the program will save the palettes in an
array. If you press C, those colors will be convert-
ed from RGB to CMP. Pressing R will convert the
colors from CMP to RGB. M will toggle the GIME chip
monochrome bit (bit4 of $FF98). Pressing [SPACE]
will bring back the original colors in the array.
Each time you press C or R, the conversion will
be based on the colors in the array. =>
____________________________________________________
One more thing--when NIBLOADR asks you for a
filename, typing DIR [ENTER] will give you a
directory listing. Press any key to go on.
I hope this makes NIB a little more useful.
Call me if the CMP-to-RGB conversion doesn't work-
I don't have a RGB monitor to test it with!
Madmike Hoke
166 AYCOCK HALL
ECU COLLEGE HILL DRIVE
GREENVILLE, NC 27858-4353
TEL: 1 919 931-7083
=*
|
RACEWAY Raceway is an extremely simple little program that
I wrote in 1985 for my Timex Sinclair 1000. I
converted it for the CoCo in 1986. The object of the
game is to move the race car (the middle line) left
& right, while trying to avoid hitting the walls
(the outer two lines). It is real easy to beat in
level 10, but extremely difficult to whip at level
0. It's a good game to keep children occupied, but
the grown-ups may get bored with it rather fast.The
program uses the sine function to plot the walls &
actually only plots one wall & the other wall is
plotted relative to the first. I hope my fellow CoCo
Friends can find a use for it.
==*
|
Ultralace: Installment 1 With this installment begins a 3 part series on
Ultralace, a desktop publisher. Ultralace was first
published in THE RAINBOW in 6 articles - May 1991
through September 1991 and then May 1992. Because I
still own the copyrights to the programs that
appeared in the aforementioned articles, I am happy
to be able to present all of the programs in CFDM
also.
Ultralace requires either an Epson-compatible 9-
pin dot matrix printer or a Tandy dot matrix printer
that can print in its GRAPHICS mode at least 800
dots across a page. Most inexpensive non-Tandy dot
matrix printers are Epson-compatible. Ultralace
performs well with 128K bytes of RAM, but it works
even better with 512K.
=>
____________________________________________________
To use the programs included with each install-
ment and to be able to operate Ultralace properly,
you MUST read (carefully) the 6 RAINBOW articles.
If you do not have those issues of THE RAINBOW, I
suggest that you purchase the May 1991 issue from
THE RAINBOW. If you like what you see, then get the
other 5 issues.
In this initial installment appear 4 programs:
GENFMENU.BAS, GENDMENU.BAS, GENSTR.BAS, and
GENFONTI.BAS. Two of these, GENFMENU and GENFONTI,
were printed in the May 1991 issue of THE RAINBOW.
The other two were in the June 1991 issue.
As you will see, when you run GENFMENU, Ultralace
makes use of 25 different fonts, designated as
Font A through Font Y. In the present installment
you will generate Font I. In the second =>
____________________________________________________
installment you will generate Font N. You have the
option of using only Fonts I and N or having the
variety of a full complement of fonts by ordering
from me a font disk containing all 25 Fonts A - Y at
a price of $15 ($4 less than I asked in THE RAINBOW
articles). If you are interested in the font disk,
please send a check or money order to:
H. Allen Curtis
172 Dennis Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23185
=*
|
| Articles in section: REVIEWS |
| BLUE
STREAK ULTIMA La Belle Lucie |
| Back to top |
BLUE STREAK ULTIMA The Blue Streak Ultima serial-to-parallel interface
(Dayton Associates, Inc., 9644 Quailwood Trail,
Spring Valley OH 45370; $29.95+$2 S&H) Is one of the
best values for the money I've ever run across. If
you're still stuck with serial input to your printer
you owe it to yourself to try this. The luxury of
not having to wait for the printer buffer to fill
before each line is something you'll find you can't
do without, once you've tried it.
Hookup is simplicity itself: You just plug the
interface into the printer's parallel port, set the
baud rate using a multi-position switch on the
device, plug the end of the cable into the serial
output jack on your CoCo, and you're ready to roll.
=>
____________________________________________________
Complete directions and a test program are included.
(You have to change the CoCo's baud rate in your ex-
isting programs, too, of course.)
Another advantage to parallel input is that you can
use the IBM-emulation mode on your DMP if you wish.
(Incidentally, Dayton Associates is one of the most
faithful advertisers in Rainbow Magazine. They
deserve your support for this reason alone.)
=*
|
La Belle Lucie My interest in Solitaire games has been luke-warm,
at best. Most of them allow little scope for
strategy or the chance of success, providing little
more than a way to pass the time.
La Belle Lucie is a Solitaire game that is unlike
any other I have seen. While still subject to chance
in the lay of the cards, it provides many choices in
play, and success is in proportion to the depth of
your analysis. Some games are tough, some are easy.
I purchased the disk about 2 months ago and have
played over 1500 games, keeping records. Careful
play allows one to WIN about 1 game out of three,
and the strategic and tactical problems are quite
complex.
=>
____________________________________________________
La Belle Lucie is sold by Eversoft Games, LTD
(P.O.Box 3354, Arlington, WA 98223, 206-653-5263)
for $14.95 + $2.50 S&H. It is on a single disk that
is not copy-protected. Written documentation shows
how to run the game, and the rules of play can be
accessed at any time during play by pressing "?".
I could not recommend this game more highly, for
anyone who is looking for a solitary challenge of
wits on an intellectual level. Play is easy, using
a joystick and fire button. The graphics are neat,
attractive and easy to read.
The program is written in BASIC. For my own use, I
modified the program to allow re-playing a game
=>
____________________________________________________
from the start. This allows me to write down any
interesting layout for the entertainment of my
friends and neighbors. If anyone might be interest-
ed in this Mod., we would have to obtain permis-
sion from Eversoft to publish it, but I'm sure
other programmers could do the same. (Hint: I POKE
the original layout into un-used memory for later
retrieval if desired.)
Once in a very great while, a small glitch shows up,
in that a long tableau of cards overprints an
adjacent tableau. It happens so seldom I don't
regard it as a real problem.
Once again, La Belle Lucie is a great game.
=*
|
ABOUT THE THEXDER ROM-TO-DISK I've read the THEXDER Rompak-to-disk transfer
article by George Q. that appeared in CFDM #6. I've
made the transfer without much trouble (just the
neverending I/O errors I've come to expect from
tape ). The only problem with the disk version is
that when the robot is in jet mode, the jet doesn't
look right when it flies up, down, or diagonally. It
looks like half jet/half garbage. I've made the
transfer several times and it still does this. Any
explanations, suggestions, or fixes?
MIKE HOKE (NEW ADDRESS)
166 AYCOCK HALL
ECU COLLEGE HILL DRIVE
GREENVILLE, NC 27858-4353
=*
|
ANSWER TO ROGER GINGRAS Roger, in issue #5 of CFDM, you asked about how to go about joining two M/L programs and have them work like the other is not there; specifically your eprom which contains a 40 TRACK RS-DOS + the DISK UTIL by Jeff Francis. Okay, here goes: RS-DOS is only 8K in length & thus will fit in an 8K eprom (your normal RS-DOS rom is a 24 pin 8K device). However, Radio Shack allotted 16K of memory space to the sel- ect signal which activates the RS-DOS ROM. This is, by the way, the same select signal that activates the Program PAK games. Your modified 8K RS-DOS takes up the first 8K of your custom eprom which is prob- ably a 28 pin, 16K eprom. The DISK UTIL then resides in a portion of the upper 8K of the eprom, which is not used by RS-DOS. As far as RS-DOS is concerned, there is nothing in that upper 8K block => ____________________________________________________ of eprom. Now, let's look at the EXEC command for a moment. When you LOADM a program, it's start, end & transfer (EXEC) address is stored in the computers memory. So, when you type EXEC <enter>, then the computer will EXEC at the last specified EXEC addr- ess, or if none, at the one retrieved by the LOADM command. When you LOADM a program, it is placed in the computers memory & is ignored by RS-DOS, except for those memory pointers. EXEC then transfers con- trol to the LOADMed program, which then does its purpose. Well, think about your DISK UTIL as being LOADMed into your computer. It is ignored by RS-DOS until you EXEC it via EXEC 55505. If you are wanting to change the DISK UTIL program, just load a dis- assembler program & disassemble DISK UTIL starting at address 55505. This will allow you => ____________________________________________________ to search for what changes you want to make. To act- ually change the program may be a bit difficult. At power up, the CoCo 3 transfers the BASIC & EXTENDED BASIC ROMS into RAM. If RS-DOS is present, it is also transferred to RAM, and your DISK UTIL is also transferred. Once you get past finding what changes you need to make (that will be the most difficult part), it may be possible to just POKE them right into memory. If this is the case, after making the POKES, you can then SAVEM "NAME",&HC000,&HFEFF, &HC000 to save it to a disk and then have someone burn it into a new 28 pin eprom. The DISTO eprom adapter works great for this! Note that although RS- DOS ignores DISK UTIL, DISK UTIL probably does not ignore RS-DOS. It probably uses the DSKCON from RS- DOS. I believe all of this info to be correct. =* |
BOOT/BAS AGAIN I have to make a correction here, about what I said
about this nifty little thing in the last issue.
It was NOT Marty Goodman who said that he did not
know how this program worked.
MARTY IS THE AUTHOR. SORRY MARTY. WONT HAPPEN AGAIN
Someone else in another column made that statement.
If no one comes up with the answer, Ii will publish
the solution in next months issue...
George........>*
|
CFDM FONT I have about a dozen fonts that I can LOADM into
the CoCo 3 and use them as HPRINT fonts. This can
make graphic screens extra attractive.
I love the bold font that CFDM uses for section
headings. Has anybody any suggestion as to how I
might LOADM it from the CFDM magazine side and SAVEM
it for loading into CoCo's HPRINT buffer?
RICK: Keiran, I've saved the bold font for you on
this side of the diskette. The file is "BOLDFONT".
When you wish to use it just LOADM "BOLDFONT" and
go to the HSCREEN. Hope you enjoy it. By the way,
I'd love to see your collection of fonts. Maybe
the other Friends would too!
=*
|
COCO UNDERSCORE-DEBRA CAIN. Debra, Rick and the Rainbow were right in the answers they provided to your questions. However they failed to mention the reasons for all of this. Tandy, in designing their computers and printers, failed to match the ACSII codes for the computer and their DMP 110 and 130 series printers. The result is that a CHR$(127) or CHR$(255) print as underscore characters on your screen, but they are ignored by the printer (Models with the Tandy character set). A UP ARROW or CHR$(94) is an UP ARROW as far as the Color Computer is concerned but it is a CARAT when the printer looks at it. More...SHIFT-UP, CHR$(95): Coco a left arrow, printer ignored. There are more but you get the idea. !!!! George .....>* |
DLOAD: Norm Barson Norm, The DLOAD command is a forgotten left over from the Coco I days. It was originally supposed to be used to load a machine language program from one Coco1 to another. You can see why not too many people used the command. Only Tandy knows why they used this command in OUR Ccco in the first place. The initia- lization routine for the Coco 3 starts at address &H8C1B and guess what, that is the exact same place the old DLOAD command used to be. Except that they forgot the remove the DLOAD entry when they made the new ROM for the Coco 3. The result is that typing DLOAD-ENTER is the same thing as pressing the reset button on the back of your computer. Thus POKE113,0- press reset is the same as POKE113,0:DLOAD. Hope this helps. George......>* |
DMP-133, DMP-442 DRIVERS? I have been trying to find a screen dump that will
dump screens to my DMP-133 and DMP-442 in IBM mode.
......Do you have such a thing or know where I can
find one. This is a problem as I have to give our
Board of Directors a monthly report with graphs. I
have used CC-3 to do this. I used BIG BASIC.
RICK: I have referred Donn to several articles in
past issues of RAINBOW and to an earlier screen dump
by Stuart Wyss-Gallifent in CFDM. None of these
referenced the above mentioned printers and I do not
have knowledge of or access to these printers. Can
someone help our Friend?
=*
|
GENERIC DATABASE NEEDED ...do you know of a good data base I could purchase?
What I want to use it for is my 2nd hobby, "Sega
Genesis" video games, to keep track of codes, hints,
articles, etc...that appear in various game mags.
I guess what I'm looking for is a data base I can
configure to fit any other need I may have for it.
Thanks in advance for any info you can pass along
to me.
Michael Lewis
1311 Second St.
Moundsville, WV 26041
=>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Take a look at Charles Gibson's JOURNAL in
this issue. Charles mentions that it can be used
to keep various types of data.
=*
|
IBM TO COCO I JUST RECIEVED AN IBM DISK CALLED "EXPERT HOME
DESIGN" BY EXPERT SOFTWARE, AND IT IS GREAT! MY
QUESTION IS, CAN IBM PROGRAMS BE CONVERTED TO RUN ON
A COCO? I BELIEVE MY FRIEND'S IBM IS A 356K MACHINE,
AND WE ARE USING A 512K COCO, SO WE SHOULD BE ABLE
TO USE THIS PROGRAM. WHERE CAN I GET IT REPROGRAMED
TO RUN ON OUR COCO?
ALSO I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY
DRAFTING PROGRAMS AVAILABLE FOR THE COCO?
AND STILL ONE MORE QUESTION, WE HAVE THOUGHT
ALOT ABOUT GETTING A HARD DRIVE FOR OUR COCO, AND
WERE LOOKING FOR ONE THAT IS NOT TO EXPENSEIVE, BUT
COULD SOMEONE WRITE AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE PROS & CONS
AND WHAT WOULD BE NEEDED TO USE A HARD DRIVE WITH A
COCO? JIM STERNETT 3000 WOODLAND HILLS DR. APT. 14
ANN ARBOR MI. 48108 1(313)677-2418 =*
|
NO FAT DISK WHILE WORKING ON TW128 I KILLED A FILE AND SAVED IT
(I THOUGHT), THEN I FOUND THAT NOTHING ELSE WOULD
LOAD. I TRIED TO FORMAT A DISK. THAT DIDN'T WORK. SO
I OPENED THE DRIVE AND FOUND A LOOSE EDGE CONNECTOR.
PUTTING IT BACK, ALL WAS OK AGAIN (WHEW). I STILL
COULD NOT ACCESS THE 45 FILES. I LOADED AND RAN A
DISKLOOK PROGRAM AND FOUND THE FILES WERE ALL THERE.
TRACK 17 3-8 SHOWED THE DIRECTORY WAS ALL THERE. I
WENT TO TRACK 17 SECTOR 2. WOW -NO FAT! THE FILE
ALLOCATION TABLE WAS WIPED CLEAN! THIS IS MYSTERIOUS
STUFF TO ME. I HAVEN'T HAD TO GET INTO THE DISK
BEFORE. I FOUND A DISKFIX PROGRAM IN HOT COCO SEPT.
1985 P55. (KEEP THOSE OLD COPIES) . IT TOLD ME THAT
BYTE $0D (13) OF THE DIRECTORY POINTS TO THE GRANULE
IN THE FAT TO POINT TO THE FILE. HERE AGAIN IT IS IN
HEX. SO I WROTE A SHORT PROG TO PRINT A LIST OF =>
____________________________________________________
HEX TO DEC CONVERSIONS 0-68. I NERVOUSLY WENT FOR-
WARD AND WAS ABLE TO REWRITE MOST OF THE FAT AND RE-
GAINED MOST OF THE FILES. I FEEL IN TIME I WILL GET
THEM ALL.
THE PROBLEM I HAVE IS THAT THE ARTICLE SAYS THIS
"THE GRANULE NUMBER OF THE FORM CX WHERE 1<X<9. THE
DIGIT X IS THE NUMBER OF SECTORS USED BY THE FILE IN
THE LAST GRANULE." DOES ANYONE UNDERSTAND THIS? I
THINK IT IS A FORMULA FOR THE SECTORS AND BYTES OF
THE LAST PART OF THE FILE, BUT I CAN'T FIGURE IT. IF
SO PLEASE INFORM ME.THANKS.
701 SHERMAN EDWARDSVILLE,IL 62025
=>
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RICK: Charles, take a look in your DISK SYSTEM
manual, page 59. As you know Sector 2 of Track 17
holds the FAT (File Allocation Table). Only the
first 68 bytes will be used (if you're using 35
track mode). Each of these bytes corresponds to one
of the 68 granules on your disk. (You have 34 tracks
of 18 sectors free to use on a 35 track drive.) A
granule is 9 sectors, so you have a total of 68
granules on a disk. If a byte in the FAT is a 255,
then that granule (9 sectors) is unused. If the
number is $00-$43 (0-67), then that number is the
location of the next granule used in that file. If
the number is $C0-$C9 (192-201), then this is the
last granule used in the file. The last digit in
the hex number ($C0-$C9) tells how many sectors in
this last granule are actually used. =*
|
TO VIRGINIA HAWXHURST VIRGINIA, in issue 3 of CFDM, you asked how to do a RUN "boot"? from within your programs rather than having to type: LOAD "NAME/PRG",R. Actually, you should be able to use RUN "NAME/PRG" from within a program. However, when a variable is used, that will not work; i.e. RUN A$ will not work. The DISK BASIC manual says to use: LOAD A$,R. I assume this is what you were asking about. You can use the following (which, by the way, is not mentioned in the manual): RUN ""+A$. This line will function the same as: LOAD A$,R. Also, you asked about a program for 2 column DIRs in WIDTH 80. I wrote such a program in 1986 for the WIDTH 32 screens. I am working on a new version that will automatically detect what WIDTH you are in & function accordingly. When it's done, I'll submit it to CFDM. Hope I've been of some help. =* |
