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************ Topic 3 Mon Oct 21, 1991 H.HERMAN1 (Forwarded) Sub: miscellany... I couldn't think of any other place where I could put this. 82 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 1 Mon Oct 21, 1991 H.HERMAN1 (Forwarded) I've run into a problem with the type-in program listed on page G-24 in the November Gazette edition of Compute. I was very careful, and meticulously typed in EVERYTHING exactly as it appeared. I then saved everything to disk, and then entered RUN. Nothing happened... I waited and tried again... RUN. RUN RUN!!!!! Still nothing.... Did I miss something? :) Howie ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 2 Tue Oct 22, 1991 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] (Forwarded) Do they have a checksum program and did you use it? ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 3 Tue Oct 22, 1991 H.HERMAN1 (Forwarded) JBEE, did you see the program... :? ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 4 Tue Oct 22, 1991 H.HERMAN1 (Forwarded) Well... Let me explain... It seems Compute goofed BIG. Page G-24 is a three column page, with two columns describing waves, and how to get waves on some older model 64's. A few extra pokes... Then we come to column three. NOTHING!!! It is BLANK. Obviously someone was supposed to paste some program into that space, but forgot. Can you imagine. Two columns describing a routine, and then forgetting to put it into your magazine! :( Howie ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 5 Tue Oct 22, 1991 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] (Forwarded) I haven't seen Gazette since they dropped the G section from their news stand edition. Yea, that is pretty terrible for a multimillion dollar magazine. I wonder if it was a goof or maybe the program as printed wouldn't run and they deemed it better to leave it out until the next issue so they wouldnt receive 100s of calls about why it wouldnt run? Either way whoever the proofreader was is in deep trouble. Either that or the pasted on section fell off and noone noticed while taking the shots. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 6 Thu Oct 24, 1991 HOWIE-CBM [H.HERMAN1] (Forwarded) JBEE, You might want to take another look at Compute at the newstand. I don't know the full story, but shortly after Compute removed the Gazette edition from newstand copies, they reversed themselves. So, as far as I know (I get the subscription edition which includes the Gazette) the newstand edition would include all the inserts now. Howie ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 7 Thu Oct 24, 1991 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] (Forwarded) It doesn't. I checked it out when I picked up the Dec91 issue of Run. Or at least I couldn't find the G section listed in the table of contents. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 8 Fri Oct 25, 1991 C128-BILL [Bill] (Forwarded) Howie, I saw the missing column last night. Had to chuckle a bit! ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 9 Fri Oct 25, 1991 HOWIE-CBM [H.HERMAN1] (Forwarded) JBEE, The table of contents for Gazette appears on page G-1, and I suspect the same for the other insert. Only the main body and ms/dos are up front. Everything should be in there. In fact, it should be pretty easy to locate the Gazette portion. Just look for that page with the blank column 3. :) Howie ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 10 Fri Oct 25, 1991 HOWIE-CBM [H.HERMAN1] (Forwarded) Oooops.... That's what happens when I post my messages willy nilly, and don't look to see what's been happening first... :) Howie ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 11 Fri Oct 25, 1991 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] (Forwarded) I will have to go down the bookstore and check again! ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 12 Sun Jun 21, 1992 M.MCCORMIC10 [Mike Mc-] (Forwarded) I have a program that I DL'ed many years ago from "Q".It has a few bugs but it is one of the better genealogy programs.I wrote to the shareware address ,but my letter was returned.The name was ERO Systems,in CA.The author was listed as Dennis Davis in Cherry Hill,NJ.He doesn't live there anymore. If anybody wants to try to get the bugs out of this program,I will E-MAIL it to them.It is 5 SDA's. You need 2 discs. I would really like for somebody to make this compatable with Ramlink,but first let's just get it running properly.The instructions are a little confusing. If anybody can contact"railbird" on "Q" I think he had something to do with this program. Mike Mc- ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 13 Thu Jul 16, 1992 G.BIRECKI3 (Forwarded) Hiall, I am writing a program that is menu driven, I am having a problem with the menu system. I would like a menu that highlights each choice as you scroll through them. I have written a sample program that is rather lengthy, and cumbersome, but gets the job done. Any suggestions? I'll upload my sample to the library if anyone would like to see it. Also, is there a command which moves the cursor up and down, instead of side to side like TAB AND SPC ? Thanks for any help you can give. Eric ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 14 Fri Jul 17, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] (Forwarded) You could always position the cursor with the "char" command and use a simple getkey test to determine if you should increase or decrease the "y" value in the "char" command. If the menu choices are contained within a string array you could open a "reversed" window, print the string, and position the string at the "top" of the one line window. If the person presses a key telling you to move up or down you then open a window over the current one (unreversed using the fg/bg colors which should be a variable), print the string, then go to your routine to open a window in reversed colors, print the string that should go at that location etc etc. One small point ... turn off the screen scrolling (forget the poke ...) and using the "char" place all the menu choices on screen and then go to your cursor/selection routines. Describing it takes longer than the code :) If you are reading in menu choices from a scrolling directory just read the choices into the array again as you keep scrolling the current choices. Since the number of menu choices on screen are probably going to be finite it wouldn't be a bad idea to DIM the string variable at the beginning of your program. That way you could offer the user the ability to go back in the menu to pick previous passed over choices. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 15 Sat Jul 18, 1992 G.BIRECKI3 (Forwarded) If you could dig up the poke for no screen scrolling, I'd really appreciate it. also, what is the format for the CHR command. One more thing, when you say 'open a window', do you mean just printing a line in reverse? Eric ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 16 Sat Jul 18, 1992 M.MCCORMIC10 [Mike Mc-] (Forwarded) Eric- I got your e-mail.I do not want to upload a program with bugs. The error message I am receiving is "string too long error in 5997",how do I fix it? If any body wants to play with this genealogy program,I probably could upload directly to them. It has 5 ARC programs and many modules.It looks like it is a good program once it is de-bugged. The docs that come with it look like they are from "Q".I am not on that system. Mike Mc- ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 17 Sat Jul 18, 1992 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] (Forwarded) This is in response to the request for a highlighting menu program... Are you doing this on a C64 or a C128. The address you want to turn off screen scrolling can be accomplished on the 128 by sending ESC-M ESC-L toggles. Forget which one does what, but whichever one turns it off, the other one turns it on. WRT the 'string too long' error, you are building a string in your program that becomes longer than 255 characters. This is an easy mistake to make when building things in GET loops, but that is not a good practice there anyway because of garbage collection. My recommendation wrt the menu hilighter would be to do the routine in ML, if possible. That is the fastest, and most bulletproof, way to do that kind of routine. Isn't the source to my Catalog program somewhere in the library. I have just such a routine, for the C64 of course, tho. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 18 Tue Jul 21, 1992 M.MCCORMIC10 [Mike Mc-] (Forwarded) CBM ED- The "string too long"error is in a program that I have downloaded a while ago.Here is how it works, maybe you can tell me how to correct it.I have NEVER programmed before. This is a genealogy program and you can search for and display various family charts. The error appears to only happen when searching for chart #2.The other charts run fine. This is on a 64C. Mike Mc- ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 19 Wed Jul 22, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] (Forwarded) If the program is in Basic you should upload it to the Flagship library so people can take a look at it. If the code isn't too messy it should only take someone 20-30 minutes to find the error and fix it. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 20 Wed Jul 22, 1992 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] (Forwarded) Famous last words.... hehehehe Actually, JBEE is right, Mike. The problem must be in a string building loop or a file read, and if it is in BASIC, it should be easy to find. If it is compiled BASIC, it may be impossible to find cuz the references to line numbers are bogus. But upload it. I'll take a look. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 21 Thu Jul 23, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] (Forwarded) This is in response to the "scrolling" question and also a few other tips thrown in: ====================== 100 rem dsave"db.v0.012.bas" 110 bank15:poke(47),0:poke(48),153:clr:rem set up bank1 - variables start 120 rem at 1020 to 39015 = total space 130 rem available = 37995 byte 140 bank15:graphic 1,1:rem reserved bitmap and clear it 150 : 160 lo=1:hi=64 170 bank15:poke(45),lo:poke(46),hi:rem set start of basic at $4000 180 bank15:poke(lo+256*hi)-1,0:rem basic prgs starts with a zero 190 graphic clr:rem get rid of bitmap and clear 200 graphic 5:rem pick the 80 column screen 210 : 220 poke 248,128:rem stop screen scrolling 230 : 240 fast:printchr$(14) 250 key5,"fast:list"+chr$(13) 260 key6,"fast:run"+chr$(13) 270 key7,"fast:list1700-"+chr$(13) 280 key8,"fast:renumber100,10,0"+chr$(13) 290 : 300 rem - skip over these pointers ------------------------------------------- -- 310 goto 440 320 gosub 590:rem reserve all character strings 330 gosub 1660:rem routine to print help screens 340 gosub 1820:rem routine to print 1st input screens f01-f27 350 gosub 2130:rem routine to print 2nd input screens f28-f63 360 gosub 2520:rem routine to print 3rd input screens f64-f81 370 gosub 2720:rem routine to clear input screens 380 gosub 2770:rem getkey a$ - blank key press routine 390 : ====================== line 100 - I always keep the name in a rem statement, when I change the version I change the rem statement, hit return to enter the line, cursor up erase the rem statement and save the file to disk with the name in the rem statement. line 140-200 A way of having the start of Basic stay that way after stopping a program so the data you store in the hires bitmap area doesn't get nuked. This works great with the Abacus 128 compliler when you reserve memory. The idea is to let the graphic command move all your data/basic for you. line 220 - STOP screen scrolling ;) line 240-280 I like to redefine my Fkeys and once your program starts to grow you want the line command to start where you currently are in the program. line 310- I program by making everything a subroutine. When reading a Basic program later it is easier to follow. The trouble is you can end up with over a 100 subroutines and keeping track of them on what line number after renumbering your program umpteem times is tough. This way you list them all in gosub commands with liberal REM statements. Once you build up a library of routines you can reuse them in all your Basic programs! ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 22 Thu Jul 23, 1992 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] (Forwarded) I can add a couple of suggestions to yours JBEE. In your first line, with the dsave, I always precede that with a scratch command and follow it with a dverify command. But after the REM, I put a quotation mark followed by enough deletes to pull all but the command back to the start of the line and delete the REM and the line number. I usually include an 'x=08' or something as the first statement on the line, and a ,u(x) after the 'scratch', 'dsave', and 'dverify', so that I can easily change device numbers in all 3 commands with 1 or 2 keystrokes. It usually works out to about 8 deletes after the quotes. *note* this will *NOT* work if your filenames have upper case letters in them. I do something similar w/my routines, but I renumber them just before I save them to disk, then incorporate the first number into the file name. For example, if I have a routine to display a directory, I might renumber it starting with line 1000 in increments of 1 line number. then when I save the file, I'll call it 1000 directory. I have a COMBINE command built into my C128 chips, and use that to build up a foundation of routines for new programs. Just renumber when I'm finished. Each routine on the 'routine disk' starts with a different group of line numbers, which is why I can combine them w/o fear of overwriting anything, and since I renumber in increments of 1, I have a *lot* of space to maneuver. BTW, that inclusion of deletes can work for any line you use to clean things up with after a test run. I use one to restore the character set pointer and one also with the FIND command, also in my C128 chipset. Your suggestion about the routines reminded me of the disk I have dedicated to that purpose from TotalRecall that speeded up development of the support programs. It is a source of much of what I have entered into that Snippits topic in Cat 21. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 23 Fri Jul 24, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] (Forwarded) The only thing I don't like about scratching old files is sometimes I need them :D Also, I keep a time and date log of all the files created both for development, legal, and accounting purposes. So it literally doesn't pay for me to scratch them :) Of course if you are using a 1541/71 and saving 140+ block files every ten minutes scratching the old ones will probably save a ton of disk space. Even at $0.25 a piece you could go through some dollars fast :) The combine command sounds pretty interesting, did you burn your own routine into a ROM? ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 24 Fri Jul 24, 1992 HOWIE-CBM (Forwarded) JBEE, The Basic program listing, and structure is terrific! You have several features that I will now incorporate into my template for use with new projects. They all seem so easy to implement. I don't know why I never thought of them. Very helpful info! :) Howie ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 25 Fri Jul 24, 1992 HOWIE-CBM (Forwarded) Ed, Yes! Tell us more about your custom chips!! And especially COMBINE. :) For short combines, I've used that ole: LIST, LOAD, and enter <CR>'s. For big combines, and where something gets inserted into the middle of something else, BTP's buffer. :) Howie ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 26 Fri Jul 24, 1992 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] (Forwarded) John: get ready to blush. The COMBINE command in my C128 is indeed from a set of custom chips from Free Spirit, a ROM replacement that I was sold on when I read the review many years ago in TC128. Course, you were not the publisher then. The chips also have a FIND, CHANGE, and MERGE. The MERGE gets a little flakey sometimes, not sure why. I have a Super Chip (ha!) from I forget who that is really a piece of gabage. Anyway, the COMBINE function just appends programs to the end of whatever program is in memory. Then I just renumber the file. It's great. as a matter of fact, I use FIND and CHANGE so much, I don't think I'll get JIFFY DOS any time soon cuz I would lose that in their chip upgrade. The chipset also fixes some bugs like the shift-q, and I believe the relative coordinates in the graphics commands. There are other commands I have long since forgotten because I don't use them. I think there is also a numeric base conversion function but since I have that in the BASIC language, the MLM, and probably my Mach 128, I"m not sure about that. I believe there is also a nice set of FKEY definitions,but there is some contention among chips in my C128 so I"m not sure which chipset has the priority in that regard. Know the ones I like are not the ones I have, but it is a nice chip set. At $50, it was not cheap though, and I don't know if it is still available, but for the FIND and CHANGE alone, it was worth every penny! ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 27 Sat Jul 25, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] (Forwarded) Yea, I remember that review ;) ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 28 Sat Jul 25, 1992 M.MCCORMIC10 [Mike Mc-] (Forwarded) I have uploaded the genealogy prigram that we are discussing and started a topic for it in Cat.3,Topic #27. The files are #'s 9900,9901,9902,9903,9904,9905. All are SDA. Mike Mc- ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 29 Sun Jul 26, 1992 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] (Forwarded) I grabbed them yesterday Mike. They dissolved ok, but file 3, I believe, has a couple of duplicate files at least. I started over on a separate disk after 2 failures for that reason. The filenames as uploaded don't reflect the fact that they are SDA's either, for general info. I didn't have time to run the prgs, and will now have to move them around on disks first. >>sigh<< but this is a *massive* program in terms of support file count, etc. Can you give me some kind of idea what files I *need* to run the prog and duplicate the problem. I'd rather not have to deal with all of those files if I don't have to. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 30 Sat Oct 31, 1992 M.MCCORMIC10 [Mike Mc-] at 07:29 EST Ed- I didn't realize that you had also answered my question in this topic.You can eliminate; overlay,notewriter,and files that have those names. I will repeat the problem.This program will do all that I ask "EXCEPT"create a record or chart for the first great grandfather person # 8. That is where I get "string to long"error.All the great grandparents work fine. Could there be a missing module? This is everything that I have. Mike Mc- ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 31 Sat Oct 31, 1992 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] at 08:53 EST I just posted a long answer to your other post, Mike. See my post and then we can go from there. I have to dig up my copies of all those files. When dissolving them, I found at least 1 or 2 duplicate files in different archives and was never sure if they were different, or what. Also, this puts another thing into the equation. Your data. Could you drop a copy of what you are entering here or in my mailbox (CBM-ED) so I can enter things exactly as you are entering them. I may or may not be able to duplicate your results if I am not using the same data. But let me see what I can do... and give me every detail of what you have done. I've never used a genealogy program so I am starting from square one on every front. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 33 Tue Jan 19, 1993 R.KNOP1 [Rob Knop] at 00:43 EST I echo Bruce's sentiment that the Hacking Magazine is a good place to see source code. Some of the articles there are pretty technical, and useful even for folks who are old hands at ML. Recently, the editor, Craig Taylor, started up a series where he's writing a "Space Invasion" game, which looks like it could be very useful for someone who knows the basics of ML but is unsure how to do anything with it. Another good place for source code with explanations are the old Transactor magazines! -Rob ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 34 Sun Jun 06, 1993 GULLIBLE [Jon] at 16:53 EDT Can't think of a better place to put this... I'm working on a sequel to my PI DEMO. A demo which has the first 18,000 digits of PI in the scroll. I now have a file listing the first 1.25 Million digits of PI and I would like to come up with a compression method that will let me put as many digits possible in available memory...probably about 40K. So far, the best I can get is a 2.4:1 compress ratio. It works like this: Take the sequence: 123456789012 123 = 0001111011 456 = 0111001000 789 = 1100010101 012 = 0000001100 These 40 bits equal 5 bytes: 00011110 11011100 10001100 01010100 00001100 Thus, 12 digits in 5 bytes or 2.4:1 Can anyone think of a better compression method? The reason I ask is that 0-9 is only 10 different characters and there are 256 in a byte. 25:1??? I know this is a weird request... :) But, I'd appreciate any help or suggestions. Thanks. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 35 Sun Jun 13, 1993 C128.JBEE at 09:01 EDT Gullible, I have been thinking this over and believe I have found a solution, short of compression, that might work, especially with a series of numbers such as PI. Which is special in the way the numbers are (not;) sequenced. It takes 3 bits to represent a digit 0-9, but how about representing the difference from one digit to another instead of using a trinary solution? Example: Start the data flow with the first number then start reading everything in according to bits If the first bit is zero it means to use the next bit to add or subtract 1 from the number in the A,X, or Y register. Then display that number. 0000 0000 -> first bit=0 so use the next bit to determine if you should add or subtract, it is zero so subtract -1 from the A reg 0000 0010 -> first bit=0 so use the next bit to determine if you should add or subtract, it is one so add +1 to the A reg If you have a zero following the nine you would add one but write a zero to the register. So you would have to sacrifice speed for compression by doing comparisons to a table of rules that says if A is greater than nine (CMP) then A = 0 If you have a sequence of numbers such as 4345 that would require 12 bits at least but using this method only 8 bits! Now what happens if the first bit encountered is a 1? Then use the next three bits to branch to a table that keeps spliting the table of remaining numbers in half. 01x3x56789 0135 6789 Bit #2 true false 0135 6789 / / Bit #3 =1 Bit #3 =0 true false true false 01 35 67 89 / / / / Bit #4 =1 Bit #4 =0 Bit #4=1 Bit#4 true false true false true false true flase 0 1 3 5 6 7 8 9 The only draw back is the size of the table vs compression gained and the logic needed to keep track of where you are in the current byte (bit wise). I am not even sure it would compress the file better than using your method. But this is all I could think of taking into account the way PI is represented and not knowing the odds of a digit having or not having a number lower or higher than it, following it. Though I am sure the occurance of such is probably high. Hey, that in itself would make an interesting project :) ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 36 Sun Jun 13, 1993 GULLIBLE [Jon] at 15:58 EDT Thanks for the response. I hadn't thought about using a difference method. I am a bit confused as to how 4345 can be represented as 8 bits. If you have two bits that say subtract 1, then how do you know if those two bits mean subtract one or are the first two bits of a 3-4 bit sequence? I will look over your post in greater detail. I do believe that using math will yield the best results. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 37 Sun Jun 13, 1993 C128.JBEE at 23:17 EDT If the first bit is unset (0), you know you are going to add or subtract with the bit following it. If the following bit is set you add one, if it is unset (0) you subtract one. So a sequence of numbers such as 4345 (remember we started with a number three) only requires two bits per digit because we are representing the change, not the digit. Since the sequence 4 3 4 5 | | | | up one ____| | | |___ up one down one ______| |______ up one looks like that it would be represented in binary as 10100010 -|-|-|-|(4 up one) | | |(3 down one) | |(4 up one) |(5 up one) 8 bits! You use the first bit to determine if you are going to be using two bits or four bits to determine the next number. So you will always have at least a 2x compression over the storing of just the numbers is ASCII form. ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 38 Wed Aug 25, 1993 T.RUTTER2 [Troy Rutter] at 19:17 EDT Hi again people, well, its time to jump on the bandwagon and TRY (crossing fingers) to finish my SIDplayer. As many of you have followed through the Ultrasid Player topic under Sight & Sound, my SID player plays the individual parts of the sid archives, msw, pil, wpl, sal, slr, etc... without having to dissolve them. The only thing holding me back is the words display. Right now the conversion time from in memory to display is awfully sloooooooow. Heres the scoop: For some odd reason, the creators of Singalong songs (Kermit and Joe I think?) decided to store the word files in standard ASCII instead of PETSCII. So... heres what happens in my program as it stands now. (Simplified of course) Im doing this as a basic source around ML subroutine... so bear with me... get location of words file, assign this to variable: WD create array wd$ get character from memory compare - does it need to be converted? If so, convert If not, store as is in WD$(x) if peek(wd)=carraige return then x=x+1:go start over if peek(wd)=0 then start music, start wds display. This takes forever. I have also tried two other ways: 1) The "Index table" as it is referred to by ML experts. This works... but still bothers me... slow, plus i have no idea what im doing. 2) Display without storing in wd$. This is faster, but it is not guaranteed to display fast enough to keep in time with the mus flags. If anybody can take a look at some SID player source code and help me out, i would appreciate being enlightened on how to display the words. It seems like most sidplayers do some kind of banking so its automatic. I dunno. I have the source and object code in PAL (i think) of sidpic 3.4 if that would help. I REALLY want to get this sucker done before the next SID-Fest. Thanks, Troy ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 39 Wed Aug 25, 1993 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] at 21:26 EDT Troy: TR> I have also tried two other ways: 1) The "Index table" as it TR> is referred to by ML experts. This works... but still bothers TR> me... slow, plus i have no idea what im doing. 2) Display TR> without storing in wd$. If you are insistent on doing this display in BASIC, the 'Index Table' is the fastest possible if done correctly. What you are doing is creating a lookup table for conversion from ASCII to PETSCII. You use the numeric value of the ASCII character as an index into the table, which eliminates all IF statements, the REAL time hogs in a BASIC program, from the equation entirely. I would recommend doing the whole operation in ML, which would assure the needed speed, and if you shelled to it from BASIC, you would still be in control of the timing of the display. An added plus is that it would take far less memory to do in ML than it would in BASIC, particularly when you consider the elimination of the arrays, another BASIC time hog. TR> If anybody can take a look at some SID player source code and TR> help me out, i would appreciate being enlightened on how to TR> display the words. It seems like most sidplayers do some kind TR> of banking so its automatic. I dunno. I have the source and TR> object code in PAL (i think) of sidpic 3.4 I will be happy to do that for the opportunity to get hold of the sid player source code. What you are requesting seems to me to be an extremely easy thing to do. However, when is the SID-Fest. I will have to get your source code quickly to get it done for you because I am leaving for vacation tomorrow night. On the upside, I can't imagine what you want taking any more than about 5 minutes to code once I have the source code. If you can't work with this time-frame, I hope you will still share the SID Player source code, which I've been looking for for a long time. I'm not planning anything that would 'compete' with your work, and not for the C64 at all. But how does all of this sound? I already have the lookup-tables in files from other programs.... You get the code uploaded tonight I may be able to have your solution first thing in the morning when I get home from work. (The above assumes we are talking ML source code, tho your mention of PAL format pretty much indicates that) ------------ Category 5, Topic 3 Message 40 Wed Aug 25, 1993 R.KNOP1 [Rob Knop] at 22:25 EDT 5-3 Troy- what exactly is done in the "compare" step where you decide if the string needs to be converted? Is this something that detects whether the string is PETSCII or ASCII, or is it done on a character-by-character basis? One thing that will help is to write a short ML subroutine to do your conversion for you... this will tend to make things faster. Once in ML, my favorite way to do these things it the "Index Table" method. Basically, you need to build a 256 byte table. Let AV be the ASCII value (known) of the character, and PV be the PETSCII value (desired) of the character. Then, the AV'th byte in the table is PV, assuming a properly built table. In other words: ldx #AV ; or wherever you find the ASCII value, put that in .X lda table,x At this point, .A will hold the PETSCII value, and you can stick it wherever you want it. -Rob