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You’ve just handed over your hard earned cash fora new TS-2068 computer and hurry home to set up the system. After working your way through the excellent manual provided, you discover that at times when entering your listing some unexplained actions take place on your monitor as the listing is displayed. You also notice that as you DELETE through a listing line, Question Marks ‘?‘, appear and then are deleted. |’ll attempt to shed some light on what those ‘‘?‘ indicate, how your listing maybe enhanced and some shorthand that can be included within the PRINT statements to reduce the memory used.
Embedded Color Commands
We’ll start with a clear screen and no listing in memory. First enter a line number and then get a E cursor displayed. Next hold down the CAP SHIFT key and press one of the color keys – say 4 – which will give you a Green colored K cursor. Now enter REMark and it will be printed in Green ink. That wasn’t so difficult. The next step is to invert the paper and ink so press the #4 key while holding down the CAP SHIFT key. When the SPACE BAR is depressed, a Green square should appear. So far – So good. We have a Green background, now let’s print in Yellow ink.
To get Yellow ink we must again bring up an E cursor – by holding down the CAP SHIFT & SYMBOL SHIFT – then without depressing any other key, press the #6 key. Behold, the L cursor is displayed and now it is Yellow on a Green background. Should you want to change the line to Green ink on a Yellow background, just hold down the CAP SHIFT and depress the #3 key – this switches the display back into the TRUE VIDEO mode.
Embedded Flash/Bright Commands
Now let’s have some fun with the listing and really make it an attention grabber! Hold down the CAP & SYMBOL SHIFT keys to bring up the E cursor again. This time while still depressing the CAP SHIFT key, depress the #9 key. The next character entered will be displayed in the FLASHing mode. This display feature can be turned off by duplicating the above operations, except depress the #8 key instead of the #9 key.
Following the same procedure as outlined above, obtain another E cursor. This time depress the #9 key without depressing the CAP SHIFT key and the paper/ink will turn BRIGHT. To turn off the brightness, obtain the E cursor and depress the #8 key without the CAP SHIFT key. This returns the paper/ink to normal.
We can now enter a listing in vivid color and have selected parts or word/symbols flash or turn bright as desired to attract attention to important program lines or REMark statements. These features also have some other extremely useful functions that can be used to SHORTEN program lines and separate sub-routines within the program listing. When entering program lines, I write all my REMark statements in Green and at the end of the statement change the ink back to the primary ink I’m using for the listing. This also resets the ink color from the default color Black set by the ROM when the computer is turned on. The advantage is that if you should desire to make the listing harder to read, set the paper color the same as the primary ink color and all that can be read are the REMark statements.
Now that we have learned to write our listing in color with portions flashing or bright, this technique can be used to advantage when writing PRINT statement; as the computer PRINTs literally and whatever is enclosed within the ” ” marks is printed as it appears in the listing. If you have entered the statement in a defined ink and paper color, it will be printed that way. If you used the embedded FLASH and /or BRIGHT option, the characters or symbols will be printed as entered in the program listing. This reduces the amount of memory used as all of the ink, paper and flash commands for a print statement maybe embedded and defined within a single command; i.e., INK2; – seven memory bytes, becomes 1 byte when embedded. However, no matter what paper, ink or other attribute is specified before by the program listing, the embedded commands will be displayed when the line is PRINTed.
Some Useful Poke Commands
The following POKE commands are useful when programming to assist in making the TS-2068 screen and operating system respondin a manner suitable to your immediate needs.
POKE 23658,8 — Sets the computer’s cursor in the CAPS LOCK mode.
POKE 23658,0 — Returns the cursor to t he normal mode.
POKE 23608,x – Renders all program lines and screen printing unreadable. The default setting is 0. This address points to the start of the first character address in ROM and is incremented in steps of 8. Any number that is a multiple of 8; i.e., 16, 32, 48, 112, etc.; and less than 255 gives complete characters; however, they are above the character called for by a factor multiple. Numbers not a multiple of 8; — say 21 — gives completely scrambled characters as the character address starts in the middle of the actual character byte string. POKEing 0 in the immediate mode returns all normal characters.
POKE 23659,1 – Allows line 22 to be used for printing; however, a 2 must be POKEd before an INPUT request is used or your screen will go to vertical lines and all data stored in the display file will be lost.
POKE 23609,x – Sounds the ‘sound chip’ when a keyboard key is depressed. A number between 60 and 110 seems to give the best result. Just use a number that sounds pleasing to your ear.
Now that we have learned how to embed colors, make things bright or flash – even all at the same time – lets put it TOGETHER so that the listing are divided into sections that stand out and also secure the program so that only you – the programmer – can get into it.
Here are some techniques that I have developed over a period of time and work well for my purposes. Use those that fit into your programming style. I make all my REMark statements green and white (1st color – paper/2nd color – ink) and flashing. This makes them stand out as the program is scrolling. My major subroutines are at the beginning of the program and each is in a different color paper and ink. Use what ever is pleasing to your eye and taste. The main body of the program is usually in the default colors (white/black). Then the initialization, instructions and ending routines follow to conclude the program.
Putting on a Program Lock
At the front of the program, write an ON ERR GO TO statement that will send the individual to a predetermined line in the program. I like to send them to the first menu routine when either the BREAK key or STOP is input in response to an input statement. The TS-2068 reads both keys as errors in response to INPUT, INKEY$ statements and also during computing routines. I also write a ‘back door’ in an INPUT or INKEY$ series so that I can break into the program at a later date if necessary. During experimenting sessions on the TS-2068, I found that the SYMBOL SHIFT key does not register when either an INPUT or INKEY$ request is made by the program, so my ‘back door’ is usually a CODE number for one of the math operators; i.e., +, 1, etc… However, it could be any CODE number between 32 and 255. Whatever you fancy and will remember. This CODE number INPUT during a menu selection then sends me to a line that includes RESUME and the LIST command. The program will open up when your own CODE number is entered. automatically without touching another key on the keyboard. In a later article I will have more to say about how the computer reads the BREAK key and how you can determine when it has been depressed.
Summing Up
With practice you will have technicolor listing where each routine can be quickly located and hidden from view so that only you will know how it looks. But your editing job during development will be easier and quicker. Until next time, happy TS-2068 computing.