ftp.whtech.com/ftp.whtech.com.tar/ftp.whtech.com/articles/Sughrue/funlweb.txt

Text File | 2006-10-19 | 14KB | 412 lines

 .IF DSK1.C3
 ^^^^^^^^^^^TEXTWARE, SOFTWARE, and
 ELSEWHERE

     ^^^^^^TI-99/4A Happenings

     ^^^^^^^^^by  Jack Sughrue

     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^FUNLWRITER

     [NOTE: Although the author wrote
 this four years ago when FUNLWRITER
 just arrived on our shores from
 Australia, the author feels even more
 strongly today
          about FUNNELWEB (as it is
 now called).  Still, it's nice to see
 the first impression this piece of
 software made.  It is now the single
 most-used piece of TI software among
 disk owners world wide.]


     Where do I 
begin?

     
Funlwriter is the most profound
 disk ever made for the TI/99-4A.

 I have many useful disks: data bases
 and spread sheets and educational
 programs and tutorials.  I have
 programs that shrink programs,
 programs that identify and list
 variables from programs, programs
 that can be merged into other
 programs, and even programs that make
 programs.  I have word processors for
 Extended BASIC, for MiniMem, for
 Editor-Assembler (including that
 editor itself).

     And, yet....

     I, like so many of my brothers
 and sisters in this gigantic TI/99
 family, am always looking for the
 "perfect" program.

     It's here.

     Take out your checkbooks and
 immediately send a $15 or better
 check to Tony and Will McGovern, 215
 Grinsell St., Kotara, NSW 2289,
 Australia.  And pop down to your
 nearest user's group for the
 
Funlwriter disk to make a copy for
 yourself.  (It's a "Fairware" item,
 offered to the public under the terms
 of personal trust: if you like it and
 plan to use it, send the money; if
 you don't like it, pass it on.  And,
 like so much of the "Fairware" things
 for TI, it's the best stuff
 available.)

     As I said at the beginning, 
How
 do I begin?

     First, I'll leap back a couple
 years.  I had written an informal
 letter to Chris Bobbitt, the general
 manager of Asgard Software,
 discussing a TI "wish list." As a
 writer, my wishes centered mostly
 around improvements for the 
TI
 Writer.  I wished for the ability to
 read Dis/Var 80 and Dis/Fix 80 files
 quickly on the screen.  (Think about
 that one for a while.) I wished to be
 able to load automatically from Edit
 or Format into my PIO printer.  I
 wished to be able to develop a better
 Utility system and to go from Editor
 to Formatter and to reFormatting (for
 the printing of multiple 
different
 files) without going back to the
 title screen or without reloading.  I
 thought it would be wonderful to be
 able to have an environment operating
 off (I felt then) the E/A cart which
 would access the TIW cart and the DM
 cart somehow."

     Well, all of the above is part of
 this extraordinary venture from The
 Land Down Under.  Notice I said
 
part.  And ALL from the XB module
 off a menu (
Yes, including loading
 up the 2.3 version of DM1000, the
 Editor/Assembler, the TI Word
 Processor, and, for the fun of it,
 Forth!). You are reading it right.
 It does all this with versions of
 each which are better than the
 originals or other updates.  (For
 example, from the DM1000 section of
 the menu you can draw up the file
 section and get as Option 3 an
 instant screen read of ANY Dis 80
 file; or from the word processor menu
 you can press SWITCH to leap
 instantly into the Assembler and load
 up an assembled file (or create or
 edit, just as with the cartridge AND
 disks).

 All this, say the authors "without
 loss of functionality." The memory
 banks maintain their same buffers.

     As for my own all-night testing
 the day I got it from Barry Traver at
 the New England TI Faire in
 Lexington, I found every aspect of it
 improved from the individual pieces
 from which 
Funlwriter evolved.  The
 McGovern geniuses seemed to have
 covered everything.  The docs are
 excellent and take up 80 sectors,
 which is also excellent.  After you
 make a copy to pass on to others who
 will also pass it on, erase the docs
 and fill up your 80 sectors with
 utilities galore.

 And everything is FAST,
 ERROR-PROTECTED, truly USER-FRIENDLY.
     I did everything I could possibly
 think of to mess up this
 environment, and, though I'm
 usually very good at messing up
 programs, I couldn't defeat this
 environment.  It did (does)
 everything I thought could only be on
 a TI owners wish list.
     Am I glad I'm a TI owner.
 Besides having the best in-residence
 abilties of ANY home computer
 (automatic numbering, resequencing,
 CALL subprogramming, color, speech
 synthesis, and so on), my computer
 now has an XB cart in port that will
 bring to my machine what would cost
 IBM or Apple (if even possible)
 owners 500 dollars or more to buy.


     Like all good tools, 
Funlwriter
 is also a great toy.  I don't think
 I've had as much fun playing with
 anything since I got my first set of
 Lincoln Logs on my seventh birthday.

     You can get inside.  You can
 change things.  The McGoverns even
 guide you into this in their docs.
 You can (I did) change the
 environment's screen/character colors
 within the XB load program (which may
 later be changed at MOST menus in
 this profound creation.  You can (I
 did) put in printer specifics (PIO
 and PIO.LF for the Editor and
 Formatter). This is also done in the
 loader which can then be saved
 forever and overrides all assembly
 defaults.

     Although I always manage to come
 up with "If only this program
 had...." to every piece of software
 (and textware) I've ever reviewed, I
 was stunned by this software into a
 euphoric silence. (My wife and kids
 appreciated 
that!) But it didn't
 last long.  I couldn't wait to write
 about 
Funlwriter.  But, three days
 and much use and abuse (including
 this report) later, I still cannot
 think of a single change I would make
 in the design of this software.  It
 is efficient, allows for considerable
 flexibility, does all the things I've
 dreamed of and many I haven't.

     The McGoverns, in entrusting us
 with this marvelous piece of work,
 are hoping they'll make enough money
 to get some additional TI equipment
 to do many more things, apparently.
 I hope they become rich beyond their
 wildest dreams and make great
 software for the TI forever.
     Let's support ourselves by
 supporting them.  Get 
Funlwriter as
 soon as you can, test it out, write
 out the most generous check you can
 afford, mail it to the McGoverns, and
 hurry back to your new, large,
 exciting TI environment.
     *************


     FUNLWRITER REVISITED

     Now that I've had 
FUNLWRITER
 as part of my system for a while, I
 can honestly say 
I Could Not Do
 Without This After Having Had It.
 It's better than I praised it last
 in my first article about it.
     For lots of reasons.
     I've loaded almost all my E/A
 programs without difficulty by
 loading the Utility option (3) from
 the first menu.  Then load ENTER NAME
 (9) from the second menu.  Basically,
 those programs previously loaded on
 Option 3 of the E/A cartridge (the
 DIS/FIX 80 files, usually), will load
 from this menu's Option 4.  Those
 programs which loaded from the E/A
 cartridge Option 5 in the past (the
 PROGRAM files, usually), will now
 load from this menu's Option 3.  (If
 the process had taken the word
 "START" as an additional program
 filename, it will load in
 automatically with this.  If the
 program required another "entry
 code" (DEF), this program will list
 it for you after the load filename(s)
 have been listed.)
     In short, it's easier than the
 E/A cart.  It finds things for you.
 And you keep your Extended BASIC cart
 in the port for long life.

     Examples:
     Let's say you have the game
 
SPOTSHOT.  The files are SPOTSHOT
 and SPOTSHOU.  (There's no mystery to
 this.  If an E/A program file exceeds
 33 sectors it automatically strings
 the files together by using filenames
 which step up the final letter(s) [or
 numbers] by one ASCII number.  You
 most often see this with GAME, GAMF,
 GAMG, GAMH.  That kind of thing.  So
 it is with this file.) These are two
 strung-together program files of 33
 and 17 sectors, respectively, and
 listed as PROGRAM or PGM on your
 cataloger.
     Choose the Option 3 on the
 
FUNLWRITER  E/A (which would be
 Option 5 on the cart), type in
 SPOTSHOT following the "DSK2.  " on
 the screen and it will load itself
 automatically.  (The cart would have
 required an additional input of the
 word "START" under Program File.)
 This loads on any diskdrive and, so
 long as you do not have to come back
 to DSK1 with internal loading
 directions from some imput, you're
 fine.  If you only have one drive you
 don't have to worry about it at all.
     Let's say you have the game
 
Entrapment.  This is a 32 sector
 DIS/FIX 80 file and would usually be
 loaded on Option 3 on the E/A cart.
 Load it on Option 4 here.  After
 "DSK2.  " just type "ENTRAPMENT".
 When a request for another input
 comes up, just press ENTER.  The
 "entry code" here is the word TRAP.
 It will come up on the screen and
 give you some other options with the
 loaded program.  Just type "R" and
 this program will also RUN
 automatically.
     It's great!

     For those of you with the 
DISK
 MANAGER 1000  version 3.1. there may
 be a bit of a disappointment for you
 (though I'm not sure why) because the
 new version cannot replace the 2.3
 version that the 
FUNLWRITER
 environment is built around.  Maybe
 another version of 
FUNLWRITER will
 house this latest DM.  But the
 modified 2.3 built in does pretty
 much everything the new version does
 only in different places or off
 different menus.
     When I replaced the 3.1 version
 in my 
FUNLWRITER, I could no longer
 load many E/A programs.  I could no
 longer copy or move files from one
 disk drive to another.  There were a
 few other little things, too, but I
 don't remember what they were.  I
 just put 2.3 back fast.

     The word processor portion of the
 
FUNLWRITER is perfect for my needs
 (once the docs have been replaced by
 80 sectors of programs and templates
 that work off the environment).

     Coming out of 
FUNLWRITER with
 an active catalog, one could easily
 build in some fascinating graphics
 programs, like GRAPHX (particularly
 now that those extraordinary
 COMPANIONS are made for it), and
 never have to come out to anything
 else.
     But any kind of template or file
 could be stuck inside and easily
 added to the automatic menu.

     I wore out cartridge ports on two
 99s.  Changing the XB to E/A to
 T.I.W. to DM (and not counting the
 constant changing of game carts and
 things like Personal Record Keeping).
 Now I keep XB in all the time.  The
 DM 1000 is about 1000 times better
 than the cart.  The E/A is better.
 The built-in screen dump is better
 and much, much faster.  The T.I.W. is
 better and faster and keeps you in
 the mode (if not the mood).  And all
 this is on one SSSD disk (with a
 Forth load and a few other things
 thrown in for good measure).
     Now with all my good stuff on
 disk I probably will have little need
 for removing my XB cart again.
     And with something so convenient
 as 
FUNLWRITER it becomes quickly
 addictive (in an 
easy to use kind
 of way).  It's just so natural for me
 to load up this disk without even
 thinking what I'm going to do on the
 computer.  It doesn't make any
 difference.  The environment as I've
 modified it permits me to load up ANY
 program I own, pretty much, whether
 BASIC, XB, E/A, FORTH, whatever.  Or
 look into things.  Or write letters.
 Or create programs.  Or read DIS 80
 files (text or code).
     There's just not much I would do
 on my computer anymore that couldn't
 operate out of this environment.

     If you don't have 
FUNLWRITER
 yet, get a copy from your users'
 group as soon as possible.  If you do
 have it, remember it's Fairware.
 Send a check to the authors as soon
 (and as much) as possible.
     And the possibilities are
 endless.  I've just released a
 diskful of programs and files and
 templates and additions and
 modifications (calling it 
FUNLPLUS!
 also put out through the Fairware
 market. I plan to send these
 additions and changes to the
 McGoverns.  If public domain people
 all over our TI world do the same for
 these Fairware programs (and in
 particular this one) just imagine
 what will come of it.  If you can.

     [UPDATE: Today's FUNNELWEB (the
 version 4 series) has so many greater
 features, it is impossible to
 delineate them here.  If you own the
 3 series FUNNELWRITER or FUNNELWEB or
 have never owned any of the above,
 you are in for a real computer buzz
 when you get the latest copy from
 your user group library.]

     [Jack Sughrue, Box 459,
 E.Douglas, MA 01516]

     ***************

     If any newsletter editor prints
 thse articles, please put me on your
 mailing list.  Thanks - JS

ÇçǼçïÉòƒ⌐╒╒╒╒╒╒╒╒╒╒Çï