If you are tired of slow sequential file readers/printers like Sprint, this is the program for you. It has some limitations, but I think you'll find it to be the fastest at what it does, and it has the added ability to translate true ascii and screen ascii files on the fly. Since this is a RAM based reader, there is a limit of 250 blocks that can be read. How many documentation files do you have that are bigger than that? The speed of Blaze rivals that of a word processor for output.
Screen ascii files are 'fixed' before display or printout for 80 column display. That way, you don't have the broken words at the end of lines.
When you run Blaze.....
You will be asked:
Format into Pages
y - break document display into pages of length in lines you
will specify
n - no page breaks. If document is already formatted into pages
that will not be changed.
Lines per Page 66 [6 Lines/Inch]
If you opt to format your document into pages, you must specify how many lines each page is going to be. If you are printing on 8.5 by 11 inch paper, use 66 here (6*11). If you are using 11 by 8. (I do) use 51 (6*8.5). Get the picture?
Page Numbers
y - put a page number on each page. Screen displays are numbered at the left of the screen. Printer displays are numbered at the right of the page.
n - don't number pages. Page 1 is ALWAYS numbered!
Screen or Printer
s - Display to screen. Use SHIFT or NO SCROLL to pause display. Use STOP to
exit.
p - Print document. SHIFT, NO SCROLL, and STOP function the same as for screen
displays.
From Drive 8
What drive will you be reading the file from. Valid devices are 8-11.
At the prompt with the '$' sign, you can enter your filename. It must be an exact match to the file on the disk. Pattern matching will only display the directory pattern. Just press RETURN with the cursor over the '$' to bring up a complete directory. You can also get specific directories using pattern matching as in:
*=s All sequential files
*=p All program files
*=u All usr files
name* All files starting with the characters 'name'
Press SHIFT-3, the '#' character, to change devices. You will again be asked to specify screen or printer, then the disk number.
When you bring up any directory from this screen, it remains on the screen for your reference when entering the file to be printed.
Finally, you will be asked for the format the file is currently in:
1] True ASCII
- You can tell because all capital letters and lower case letters are
switched.
2] Screen ASCII
- Speedscript, The Write Stuff, etc.
- You must enter a value for the CR used by the file you want to view.
Default is 31, which is used by Speedscript and The Write Stuff.
3] No translation
- Normal 'sequential' type file.
Blaze is as fast as it is because the file to be printed is loaded into Bank 1 and printed from there instead of putzing with the disk drive on all the time. this necessarily limits the size of the file you can print or read, but at 250 disk blocks this is not a very restrictive limit. Try Blaze against Sprint and see which is faster. For smaller files, Sprint MAY win if you only want to see 1 file. For large files, there will be no contest.
There is only 1 negative thing I have to report about Blaze. It requires files to be in PROGRAM format. This is not a limitation on my programming. It is the stupid Commodore DOS for the 128. You can BLOAD a sequential file by appending a ',s' to the end of the filename -- Sometimes --. Sometimes not, and never from program mode. I had to do it this way. However I can still help ease the burden of this annoyance. There is a program called FLIX 128 which I also wrote which will change filetypes. You can do all files on a disk individually or just tell FLIX 128 to go through the whole disk changing all SEQUENTIAL files to PROGRAM files (or PROGRAM to SEQUENTIAL, or SEQUENTIAL to USR, etc. etc. etc.). This is a much expanded version of a program I wrote several years ago for the C64 called EGB.TYPECHANGER or something like that. FLIX 128 works with the 1581 including partitions. It also allows you to lock and unlock files. It is a worthwhile program in its own right.
Put Blaze on a disk and keep your documentation files etc. on that disk. I know you're gonna like this. If you do, I request a $3 shareware contribution. Send it to
