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.IF DSK1.C3
.CE 2
*IMPACT/99*
by Jack Sughrue
^^^^^^^^DRACULA'S BYTES
(Every so often we devote a
column to a collection of tasty
little nibbles and call it by this
vampirical title.)
.IF DSK1.C2
Sometimes it's the little things
in life that really matter. Like
when you find a quicker way to load a
file, as Dan Rogers of M.U.N.C.H. did
for me on one of my Infocom [very
slow loading] games. Once I got
Dan's loader I went back to playing
the games much more often than I did
before. Just waiting those endless 4
or 5 minutes prevented me from
enjoying these excellent games
regularly.
Another of those happy moments in
life happened last Thanksgiving Day.
I was up early and on my computer,
trying to debug a very lengthy
program I had typed in from a
magazine. The program was printed 40
columns wide. My screen view was 28
columns and my printed out version
was 80.
I OLDed up the program and
ENTERed this one liner (shades of
that one-liner master Tony Falco of
M.U.N.C.H.) with my trusty Gemini
turned on: OPEN #1:"PIO" :: PRINT
#1:CHR$(27);CHR$(81);CHR$(40). Then
I ENTERed LIST "PIO" and Voila! my
printout was exactly the same as the
printout in the magazine. I could
quickly check all the line endings to
see if they matched. I had the
program debugged within a half hour.
It is even easier [for me] than using
the number system some magazines use.
People I've shared this with have
felt the same way. It was basically
a matter of looking through my
printer manual and noticing the right
margin code: 81. The rest is self
explanatory. I've also used this for
printing 28-column program LISTings
for use in newsletters and articles.
Whatever the width use you need, this
will print it out perfectly for you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MORE FROM DRACULA
Anne Dhein (outside Massachusetts she
istheexpert on TI WRITER) has
done it again! In an article in the
Chicago UG TIMES she continues to
write about TI Writer Graphics. She
has written an XB program that
convertsTI ARTISTinstances into
TIW files. Thus, you will be able to
print graphics through your
FUNNELWEBor whatever TIW version
you use. If it's as readily
convertible as it sounds (from a
second-hand report) and comes out in
DV80 format, this just might be the
ultimate graphics/text program for
the 99. Can't wait to see it and
play with it.
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Since this
article was written I received those
articles from Ohio's Deanna Sheridan,
along with some wonderful TL holiday
graphics she and other members of her
group did. Extraordinary stuff. If
interested, write Deanna Sheridan,
20311 Lake Road, Rockey River, OH,
4416. It'll be more than worth your
effort.]
Speaking of graphics, there are
literally hundreds (maybe thousands)
of RLE pics (which also may be easily
converted to DV80 files for message
sending or storage) now converted
toTI ARTISTinstances for screen
viewing and printing on our wonder of
a machine or for all of the above and
a slideshow by converting to GRAPHX.
And speaking of our wonder of a
machine, according to questions I've
been asking this past year of some
user groups to gather stats about the
TI, some people paid as low as $24.95
for the newer, white model during the
orphaning. I thought that was a
record at the time. The lowest I
paid was $39.95 for an unboxed "old
black and silver model," as the
salesman explained in a "Who'd want
thatat any price?" tone of voice.
Now I've heard of some instances
where storesgavethem away as
promotions for other things
orgavethem away if you bought six
reduced-price modules (a lathe
speech synthesizer)! Next, I'm sure,
someone will write to tell me that
some promoterspaidthem to cart the
99s away.
And speaking of carts, a group of
us MUNCHers were talking about the
cartridges and found amazing that
more of them contine to come out so
long after the orphaning: extended
Extended BASICs, supercarts, games
galore, word processors, utilities of
all kinds. Though we hoped the disk
programs would continue (and they
have beyond our wildest dreams), we
didn't imagine the module productions
would continue in any way. Look at
the latest Triple T catalogs (Tenex,
Texcomp, Triton) and just see what's
available today in addition to
moduleware: complete expansion
systems - 9900 Expansion Box with
Power Supply, 32K Memory, Double
Sided/Double Density Disk Controller,
RS232 interface for modems and
printers, disk drive with case and
power supply, lastest Disk Manager
with Improved Utilites, all cables
and manuals - for $379.95 (from
Texcomp) is an example of the kinds
of reasonably inexpensive upgrading
that can be done on our TI. Or the
cost of upgrading to 512K
("impossible on the TI" not too long
ago) now [in a single card] costs
less than half a dozen modules cost
just a couple years ago. There are
80 column cards and IBM (and the even
better - TI professional) keyboards
and RAMdisks and hard drives and
double and quad controllers and...
How far does your imagination
extend? That's the limit of our
computer.
And speaking of controllers, to fix a
DM1000 incompatibility between the
CorComp and Myarc Doubledouble disk
controllers, change byte 216 of the
MGR1 (version 3.5, anyway) from (in
HEX) 10 00 02 D0 00 5A. The first
pair change to read 12. Rewrite the
sector and you're fixed. (Please be
certain you have a working backup
first.) Better still, get the latest
(5.0?) version from Ottawa or Tony
McGovern's marvelous modification of
it as part of his 4.12 (WHOLLY
REMARKABLE) Funnelweb.
If you don't own the latest
Funnelweb, you are missing out on the
masterpiece of 99ing. Contact your
user group to get your update.
Getting back to graphics for a
moment, how do Deanna Sheridan of
Ohio and Rodger Merritt of California
and Anne Dhein of Iowa KNOW so much
about graphics for the TI? Rodger
created the fairware programs PRINT
IT and PICTURE IT. They give you
wonderful graphicswithTIW. Deanna
should write a book. I'll be first
in line. Besides being a good
writer, she is an excellent tutor.
Each month I learn something new from
her. Those Ohio users are really
potent TI force. Must be something
in the Ohio air. Besides Deanna,
there are some really active 99ers
who pop to mind: Jean Hall, Charles
Good, Jim Peterson, Irwin Hott,
Martin Smoley.
And speaking of graphics, theFRACTAL
EXPLORERdisk may be obtained by
sending $10 and a postpaid mailer
with an SSSD disk to Steve Langguth,
2956 South Barnes, Springfield MO
65804. This program lets the user
create "mathematical coastlines" -
multicolor fractal images on a color
monitor or TV. Disk drive, E/A, and
32K required. The user can create
and observe these images, then zoom
in and repeatedly magnify areas
almost infinitely. Besides the
aesthetic beauty and the ability to
save and/or print out these images
(computer-generated art), the
computing and mathematical pleasures
and creative problem-solving
techniques employed make this one of
the most unusual programs ever
adapted for the TI. Other computers
(such as the Amiga) have similar
"real world" geometric fractals.
CATALOGS- These are the
addresses to order the catalogs from
the largest three distributors of TI
items in America.
TRITON Products Company, P.O. Box
8123, San Francisco, CA 94128. TENEX
Computer Express, P.O. Box 6578,
South Bend, IN 46660. TEXCOMP, P.O.
Box 33064, Granada Hills, CA 91344.
(I would have also included
PILGRIM'S PRIDE, but I never received
a catalog after I paid my $3 last
year, though I received a notice or
two that I would get one. No hope.
Never even got an answer to my
inquiry about the money or catalog.
Last notice of coming catalog now 10
months ago.)
MICROpendiumis still the best
buy that a TI owner can get. It is
the only magazine devoted entirely to
the 99. It is worth ten times the
$20 annual subscription rate.
That's how you find out about the
new commercial, fairware, and public
domain software, firmware, textware,
and hardware. It is the main source
of whatever is going on today in the
TI world. I personally can't imagine
being a TI owner and not having this
helpful and fascinting friend coming
into my home each month. That would
be like owning a superb pair of skis
and trying them on each day for fit
and fancy but never going outside
after the snow has fallen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas
MA 01516]
If any newsletter editor prints
these IMPACT/99 articles, please put
me on your mailing list. THANKS - JS
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