Category: BASIC
This little two line program from Lee Fastenau is sure to give your Apple II computer a bit of a complex and as he said, an Identity Crisis.
Many kids in the 1980’s began programming computers using the USBORNE computer books, which were very colorful, step by step books that were appropriate for any age in reality. These books took you through the stages of creating programs from the idea creation, the design, the programming, modifications, and quite literally, all the way to the finished product. These books were quite good at teaching fundamental concepts to users, giving a good groundwork upon which to build. From initial forays…
A few days ago, I read a post from a fellow programmer, Eric Clippert, and his blog post mentioned a weird little project that piqued my interest. Jeff Atwood and Eric Clippert have run through the entire book of the David H. Ahl produced BASIC Computer Games and is in the process of translating every single game in the book to nearly every modern programming language used in the mainstream, including Microsoft Visual Basic, Python, C#, Java Javascript and Ruby….
Microsoft released the source code to GW-BASIC this past week and then promptly made it un-modifiable announcing that the source code was for historical purposes only. No build scripts were included with the release and thus there is no way to create any binaries without a great heap of work. If you are still interested in seeing the source, you can check it out at:https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC
Hugh Hood, Longtime Apple II fan and programmer has announced a new TimeOut series product, TimeOut Edit BASIC 5.4 for Appleworks 5.1 Users TimeOut series products have long been the defacto go-to products for users of Appleworks with its series of timely and useful plugin utilities, designed to make the Appleworks a more complete package. While most users have long given up Appleworks as their production package, the programming arena is one area of usage not really foreseen as one…
The annual BASIC 10 liner programming contest is now under way. This contest allows users to write 10 line BASIC programs on any platform that they choose. The lines must conform with one of the contests three categories: 80 character, 120 character, or 256 character (extreme) programs. The contest runs from now until 24 March with the judging to occur there after and prizes given on the 7th of April. The rules according to the contest website: 1. Loading of…
FROM THE CSA2 This message to advise the community that an update of Peersoft has been posted on my Web site. This is version 1.5.6 which is a preview of version 1.6 due to be released this autumn^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hwinter^H^H^H^H^H^Hnext^H^H^H^Hthis year ;-). The download ilnk is http://bgilon.free.fr/apple2/Peersoftv1.5.6.zip . Two domains have been covered within this release: a) enhanced syntax and semantics: a.1) with a new integer subtype (byte) and the introduction of optional unsigned integer arithmetic; a.2) a new loop construct syntax…
What’s been going on in the Apple II world these past few days? Let’s take a look: 1.) Steven Weyhrich is asking about the Applesoft Firmware card in comp.sys.apple2 for his upcoming Apple II history book. 2.) The Daily Apple blog has been keeping up with daily updates. Currently we are working on Pascal and BASIC programming, and trying to use the Apple IIc as a command-line terminal. 3.) Wade Clarke has started a new web site called Wade-Memoir where he…
T. C. Lim has been working on a book about Pascal programming for the Apple II gs for the past several weeks, releasing preliminary versions along the way. The book includes a number of programs his kids have developed for the Apple IIgs in Pascal, Orca Pascal, and GSoft BASIC. The book was produced with iBooks Author and is the first Apple ][ series related book to be produced specifically for iBooks 2.0. T.C. has announced the immediate availability of…
A new way of writing Applesoft Basic programs has been created by Andres Lozano, known in the Apple ][ world as Loz. Virtual Basic is a complete BASIC with all of the same operators and commands as Applesoft, except that it is written in a style much like other high level languages of the modern era. The entire system for Virtual Basic is a series of python scripts. If you are writing Virtual Basic programs, they can written using…
Loading and Saving Graphics Screens on the Apple II Series Part 2 While last months article covered some nifty graphics manipulation techniques, I missed making a few points about some extremely important items which must be made in order to make our program work well. Every Apple II has some calls built in the rom of the machine which when called, perform tasks which we would normally have to assign basic statements to. A perfect example is the disk access…
Text by Dave. Lingwood Programs by Brian Matthews (Action-Research NW) BASIC COMPARISONS Most Apple /// Business BASIC users also work with Applesoft, either from earlier ][ days, or through emulation mode. Business BASIC (hereafter “BB”) has all the professional features you need, but it lacks the flexibility provided by the openness of the ][. This article and attached programs recount some of the pitfalls we encountered and useful tricks devised in transferring a large statistical analysis package from Applesoft to…
The Aldrich brothers strike again. Remember, folks, you read it first in Call-A.P.P.L.E.. “Convert”, by Ron Aldrich using the disk, will create a text file from an Integer BASIC program listing, call Applesoft, and presto, your program has been converted. After Conversion, list it out and note all the lines that need to be changed to conform to the Applesoft format. This means that the Integer commands that are not compatible with Applesoft must be changed. For example: TAB must…
Perhaps this may be the first disk program published for Apple’s new Disk II. If so, a feather for our cap! The “SAVE” program, listed in column two will ask the user to input the file names of six disk programs, start recording on tape and hit return. SAVE will then consecutively load from disk and save to tape, in one operation, the six named programs. A neat way to make a tape for a friend from your disk collection….
Note: In line 400 after the first quote, hit the Control key and the “D” key at the same time. This is how the disk system responds to commands within a Basic program, with Control D in a print statement.
By Bob Huelsdonk When inputting to a double loop by row, then jumping out to a double loop to total by column, it is necessary to revers the subscript order. This will not work in Applesoft BASIC because the right counters do not reset. The following simple example will demonstrate: 80 PRINT “INPUT ‘-1’ TO TERMINATE INPUTS” 100 FOR R = 1 TO 3 120 FOR C = 1 TO 3 140 INPUT A(R,C) 160 IF A(R,C) = – 1…
By Bob Huelsdonk Only line 30001 is required for less than 32K of Memory. The first GOTO 30000 shows result with greater than 32K of Memory. The second GOTO 30000 shows the result with less than 32K of memory. 30000 IF PEEK (203)>128 THEN 30002 30001 PRINT PEEK (202)+ PEEK (203)*256- PEEK (204)- PEEK (205 )*256;” BYTES FREE”: END 30002 PRINT 32767-( PEEK (204)+ PEEK (205)*256);” BYTES + “; PEEK (202)+( PEEK< (203)-128)*256 +1;” BYTES FREE”: END >GOTO 30000 30719…
This handy little subroutine can be used in two manners; to fill a screen page with repetitive material or to determine the length of a screen page of print statements. Assume line 100 is a print statement with which you wish to fill the page. 100 PRINT” “:GOSUB 400 400 IF PEEK(37) < 18 THEN RETURN 410 POP:PRINT “FOR NEW PAGE HIT ANY KEY”:CALL 756:GOTO 000 Line 400 reads the cursor and finds whereitis on the page. If less than…
Don Williams will be our instructor again for two levels of Integer Basic Programming classes available to our members. Beginning and Intermediate classes will be available, with the beginning class starting sometime in August. Details will be available in the next issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E.
As usual, we are down to the wire again as it comes time to write this column. We are still receiving applications from all over the country as we pass the 110 mark in membership, and we would also at this time like to extend a special welcome to our first overseas member, Paul Moortgat who lives in Nieuwkerken, Belgium! There are many special features for new members in this issue, and we would like to refer you to the…
