PROGRAM PITSTOP
Your Sinclair, April 1992

JD has fallen foul of exam fever, so he's listening to loads of relaxation
tapes. Luckily, we've got CRAIG BROADBENT. He's never owned a relaxation
tape, and he's not into yoga either. But he's got some rather nice lists ...

Another new face! Yes, it's sad but true - the bane of university
students everywhere, namely the last year and the dreaded final exams,
has befallen poor old JD. He's had to make the tough decision of
whether to climb out of the metaphorical abyss clutching a draft copy
of Program Pitstop or a degree. It'll be evident to you by now that
he's chosen the latter, which leaves me conveniently sitting by my SAM
word processor with a pile of programs, a Speccy to try them out on,
an empty mug displaying a distinct lack of tea, and a Pitstop to
write. I don't know what to do first - put the kettle on, or introduce
myself. (That's a good idea! Ed) Okay, I'm Craig Broadbent. Even
though I often get mistaken for Keanu Reeves on the street. (Me too!
Ed) Hopefully, I'll be sitting in this rather dashing racing car for a
while So lets get on with it shall we? (Yep, then Linda can type it
all up. Ha! Ha! Ed)

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GRAPH-ED
by Daniel Azzopardi

[The program in GRAPH-ED.TAP includes the corrections from the July issue.]

The pick of this month's rather meagre bunch of entries was sent in by
Daniel Azzopardi. You may remember his entry in November's Pitstop,
that won him fifty smackeroonies, and he's onto another nice little
earner. Daniel's winning entry this month is a nice little utility
which is, in the words of its author "interesting and useful, unlike
many message scrollers." Hmmm, yes, I think he's made his point.

Anyway, the utility in question is a graphics editor which enables
anyone who's not quite up to sprite level to design and use up to 256
UDGs in their programs. This is a good step up from the
not-nearly-enough 21 that are normally allowed. The difference here is
that, instead of being stored in the normal UDG memory space, these
are chucked in at 25600 (the other end of the RAM, if I remember
rightly) and take up to 2K's worth when all 256 UDGs are used.

There are two listings, a BASIC program as usual and a Hex dump. Type
in the BASIC and SAVE "Graph.Ed" LINE 500. Then enter the Hex and save
with SAVE "GraphCode" CODE 50000,704. All this has to be done in 48K
mode on 128Ks.

By all accounts, this Hex business has been giving a number of people
hassle, not least Peter Cadegan who lives just down the road from me
in Corsham. Just for you Peter, and anyone else who's stumped, here's
a more detailed than usual guide to entering Hex ...

* Type in the Hex Loader and save it on a separate tape for future use.
* RUN it, enter the Start Address (the first five digit number in the listing).
* When prompted, enter the line of Hex (16 characters).
* Enter the checksum on the right, repeat for the next line of Hex and so on.
* At the end, enter STOP instead of a line of Hex and save the created code
  after the BASIC.
* If you still don't understand try reading the article in Spec Tec, issue 68.
  (Simply turn to Back Issues on page 49 to order your copy. No fuss,
  no tears -just simple! Ed)

That's enough of that, back to business! All the control keys for
Daniel's program are listed when the program is running, so I won't
bother writing them all out here. After you've generated your graphics
and pressed Z they'll be saved in normal UDG format to 25600. By
normal UDG format I mean 8 bytes each, each byte representing a line
and each bit representing a pixel when expressed in binary form. And
that's it. (Phew! Linda) If you've got something better lying around,
send it in and win 50 quid!

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FADE IN - FADE OUT
by Daniel Funnell

This is one for all you BASIC programmers who don't like having
several incomprehensible Hex routines hanging around in memory. It may
not be as sophisticated as all the machine code faders that have
featured in Pitstop over the aeons, but it does do its job neatly.
Actually, it's a bit like the one in Op Wolf.

The originator of this routine is a Mr Daniel Funnell who seems to
think that spelling is something that happens to other people! The
program is pitifully easy to use and I've altered it to make it a bit
more friendly. Just substitute the message and the x and y values you
want in lines 20-30. Better still, stick it in as a subroutine and
define values for x, y and s$ each time you call it up. You can alter
the time between fades by changing line 60.

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SMALL PRINT
by Nigel Grange

Got an Epson-compatible printer? Fancy printing out a screen in
quarter-size? What a stroke of luck - this natty program does exactly
that. Not only does the printout look good it saves on the ribbon.
There are full instructions in the listing itself, so basically bash
it all in and the program will take it from there.

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WHOOPEE!
It's been a bit quiet in the Pitstop this month, so now is the time to
send me that masterpiece you wrote but never thought would get published.
48K programs are preferred as they're then available to all users, and I
don't have to go hunting for a +3 to try them out on. Send 'em in, on a
tape if poss, to me, CB at Pitstop, YS, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW.
Oh, and I'm afraid I can't do personal replies to queries but, if you send
a decent prog along with any queries they might just get an airing in the
national press! Bye!

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