PROGRAM PITSTOP
Your Sinclair, July 1990

Pity the poor bloke. While others take off into the fast lane,
he gets stuck in the pitstop. Still, 'JONTY' DAVIES isn't
complaining. (Well, he can't. He's got a ruddy great helmet
stuck on his bonce.)

I'm supposed to be "house hunting" at the moment. Boring, eh? The
trouble is that next term I get turfed out of my cosy little
study-bedroom (which is definitely more bedroom than study at the
moment) and into the "Real World". Eek! So unless I can find a
suitably grimy bedsit pretty darn sharpish I'll have nowhere to sleep
and, more importantly, nowhere to plug in my Speccy. And that means no
more Pitstop!

All of which brings me (quite neatly, I thought) to this month's crop
of stuff. And the names to watch out for this time are Barry
McConnell, who's done something a bit special for +3 owners whose
drives are letting them down, and Colin Pearson with a routine that'll
let you rip huge holes in your program. Not forgetting, of course,
Messrs R Toms and A Linde. So, fingers into first, handbrake off and
away we go.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

"FORNOMINAL FORMATTER"
SKEWED +3 DISK FORMAT
by Barry McConnell

Guess where I'm going on holiday this year. No, Ireland actually. And
guess where this month's first program comes from. Wrong, it's Ireland
again. Spooky or what? I hope it'll be nice and sunny over there,
though. From what I've heard it tends to be a bit damp, and I'd hate
to have to spend the whole time stranded in a pub brooding over a pint
of Murphys. Although actually ...

Barry McConnell gets a pat on the head for this one (or should that be
a Pat?). He's noticed that the standard +3 disk formatting routine is
a bit crap, and he's come up with an alternative which'll speed things
up by up to 60% (40% on average) just by formatting the disk in a
different way. The way it works is rather technical, so skip the next
paragraph if you're not bothered about the details (and go away
altogether if you haven't got a +3).

"Skewing" is what it's all about. (No - "skewing".) When the +3
normally formats a disk it numbers the sectors of each track in order
from one to nine. While this might seem reasonable enough, as that's
the order they're read in, in practice you tend to find that when the
drive has finished reading one sector, the next has whizzed straight
past and has to wait for another revolution of the disk for it to come
round again. Hassleville, Arizona. The solution is to number the
sectors differently while the disk is being formatted. How about one,
eight, six, four, two, nine, seven, five, three? This means that each
sector should slide neatly into place just when it's needed.

Getting the program working is so easy you could probably do it with
your eyes shut. Just type in the hex dump (using the Hex Loader) and
save it. Then CLEAR 47999, LOAD "" CODE and there you have it. To
start formatting just slot in the disk that needs doing and PRINT USR
48000. And off it goes. Make sure you've put the right disk in and
everything, as there's no warning before it kicks off. The number
returned by the PRINT statement will be 0 if everything went okay, and
the appropriate DOS error number if there was a prob.

Enjoy.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

"ERM, RIGHT"
SCROLLING PAUSE
by Raymond Toms

Here's a snippet of hex that you'll probably find loads of uses for.
It's been put together by none other than Raymond Toms, and is ideal
for those points in your programs when you just want the computer to
sit there, waiting for you to press a key. "But why can't I just use
PAUSE 0?" you might ask. Well you could, but that wouldn't print lots
of scrolling coloured bars across the screen, would it, eh?

It's another "use the Hex Loader" one, so use the Hex Loader to type
it in, save it and then reload it at your leisure. Then just RANDOMIZE
USR 65266 to get it going, and press a key to stop it. POKEing 65321
with different numbers will do things to the speed.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

REALLY GOOD DELETER
by Colin Pearson

It's boring, isn't it? Deleting huge chunks of programs, I mean. What
you really need is some kind of a block-deleting routine that can wipe
out a huge section of a program with just one command. And, would you
believe, that's just what Cohn Pearson has come up with. Say goodbye
to those line-deleting blues.

Using it is simplicity itself (and simpler). Merely type in the Basic
program (which cunningly incorporates the necessary machine code) and
run it. Now, when you type PRINT USR ADDRESS,x1,x2, all the lines
between x1 and x2 will be wiped away instantaneously. Brill or what?
Oh, and it's a 48K-only routine.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

"UH-HUH"
SCROLLING SHUTTER EFFECT
by A Linde

If, like me, you've been crying out for a routine that does sort of
scrolly things, with overtones of a shutter effect, this is the
program for you. It's been written by A Linde, somebody who's
distinguished not only by his phenomenal programming ability, but also
by having the crappest typewriter I've ever seen. It really is
rubbish. The letters are all fuzzy with little red bits in. At least,
the ones that have come out at all are. Half of them have had to be
scribbled in with a biro. Anyway, it's a hex-free "bash it in and go"
job, so bash it in and go.
