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2006-10-19
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.IF DSK1.C3
^^^^^^^TEXTWARE, SOFTWARE, and
ELSEWHERE
^^^^^^^^^^^^TI Happenings
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^by Jack Sughrue
One of the delightful things about
doing these columns each month is
setting the time aside to read the new
books and magazines and try out the new
software. So often we fall victim to
the "I would love to do more ___________
____________, but I just can't seem to
find the time" syndrome.
Well, with having to "do my duty"
for M.U.N.C.H. every month, I must do my
duty and read that book, play that disk,
stick in that cartridge. And get lost
in the make-believe world of
computerhood. (All of us have our own
forms of suffering. I just choose the
painless ones.)
And, as I also choose what I wish to
review, I have been choosing not to
waste my time reviewing stuff I wouldn't
recommend. (Unless I slip into a foul
mood and my Irish ire rises.)
So, another recommendation tonight.
And from an old friend, the Howard
W. Sams Co. (4300 West 62nd Street,
Indianapolis, Indiana 46268).
The Sams's combo packs are popular
with many TI owners because they contain
the books with the tapes of all the
programs in the books. Books and tapes
can also be purchased separately.
(Their latest catalog are in most
user-group libraries and worth looking
at.)
TI-99/4A GRAPHICS AND SOUNDS by
Timothy Orr Knight (probably the richest
young book-writing programmer in America
today) is another excellent SAMS' combo.
The book contains 37 programs, 5 of
which can only run in BASIC. The other
32 can run in Extended or regular.
At first glance,, one feels it is a
lesser work than the COMPUTE! book of
similar title. Second and third glances
(and a little hands-on follow-along)
will soon prove that this book is a
wonderful tutorial, that the mini
programs can easily be built into some
wild and wonderful subroutines, that Mr.
Knight has provided yet another superb
book for us TI owners.
This is a great book for the novice
who has gone beyond the manual. It is
an equally fine book for the advanced
programmer.
This book could easily be renamed
BASIC TRICKS FOR THE TI-99/4A, except
that it is already a title for another
SAMS book we'll be reviewing in the
future.
Meanwhile, back at the console - the
wizards and warlocks gone, the alien
spaceships gone, the eat-em-ups and
shoot-em-downs gone - we're left with
this computer staring us in the face and
little to do.
Well, you've created a "guess the
number" game and you've tried a graphic
stick figure dancing across the screen
and you've had your name scroll up the
screen two million times and you've put
together five successive musical notes.
All for the good.
This book, however, lets you move
into the big time (not BIG TIME or even
Big Time, however). You do not do
quantum leaps. This is a steady
one-at-a-time approach that opens up
that creative door and lets your
imagination roam free. Each of the
mini-programs does a single thing (make
a diagonal line, random dots, circles,
triangles; create random periodic
noises, white noises, up and down
(swooping) sounds; develop basic
animation techniques, sound techniques;
draw three-dimensional and multiple
combination graphics; learn how to
downward scroll, horizontal scroll,
change characters; and more) and does it
well.
The end result is a compiled set of
skills that lets you apply the learned
information readily to numerous
situations. (Do you remember the first
time you changed the screen color on a
simple program you wrote? Remember how
proud you felt? How excited? These
programs let you re-experience that kind
of pride and excitement at a little more
advanced level.
Constantly I found myself saying,
"Oh, neato. Now I get it."
This is a good book (and better
combo pack). And it has a bit more than
other similar books. It has an appendix
that list the color codes, the ASCII
codes, the character sets and codes, the
pattern identifier con ersion, and a
very comprehensive list of musical
frequencies.
If this book is near your computer,
you'll never need to rifle through
manuals looking for quick references
again. (As a matter of fact, quick
reference guides containing these pieces
of information sell for $3.95 in card
form.)
The book alone is $9.95. The tape
is $7.95. The combo pack - in a nice,
hard, book-look container - is $16.95.
I'd recommend either the book or pack,
as the tape alone does not contain the
valuable written tutorials.
As a mention, I happen to have
bought all the SAMS' books published to
date (10, I think, off hand). They are
all excellent. Each does what it sets
out to do and does it well. Can one ask
any more of anybody?
If you own lesser computers
(Apple, whatever), SAMS also publishes
some excellent books for them, too.
The next time you go to a
bookstore that carries TI stuff, look
for the SAMS' books. If you have enough
money, buy any or all. Then notify your
user group that SOMEBODY somewhere is
carrying TI books.
This is so weird.
Here we are in the throes of an
incredible deluge of great software,
mostly through Fairware, but we have
dwindled almost to nothingness in
textware. And in those magazines who
still publish but no longer support us
(FAMILY COMPUTING, COMPUTE!, etc.).
Don't support them and don't support
their advertisers without writing to the
advertisers first and expressing your
displeasure at being treated so
abominably.
I can't help feeling that a
massive letter-writing campaign to these
magazines would not have a turn-around
effect. It worked once with COMPUTE!.
It could again.
Fight!
[AUTHOR NOTE: There wasn't enough
fighting for FAMILY COMPUTING or,
eventually, for COMPUTE! So they're no
longer available for us. However, we do
have MICROpendium and TIBITS and ASGARD
NEWS and all those wonderful newsletters
still being published.]
Fight! (by supporting what we do
have)
[Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas,
MA 01516]
**********
If any newsletter editor prints
these articles, please put me on your
mailing list. Thanks - Jack
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