*+*+*+*¢ UNBUGGING BASIC!¢¢ UNDOING THE BASIC GARBAGE QUIRK¢ A mini-tutorial by Les Wagar¢ Reprinted from NORTH SCOTLAND ATARI¢ USER GROUP "FUTURA" newsletter, by OL'¢ HACKERS, N.Y.¢¢ (Ed. This article, I believe, refers¢ to the famous ATARI BASIC BUG "B", not¢ the later "C" version, but it's still¢ good advice for all!)¢¢ BASIC GROWS ON YOU¢¢ Have you ever noticed that your¢ Basic programs seem to get bigger all¢ by themselves, taking up one or¢ several sectors more disk space than¢ they used to? Take VIEWDOCS.BAS on¢ Futura issue 11, for instance. It¢ takes up 24 sectors--but without¢ changing one byte of the program as¢ written, it should take up 22¢ sectors.¢¢ ITS NOT THE PROGRAM¢¢ The quirk is not in the program. ¢ The quirk is a bug in the SAVE¢ procedure. If you have been working¢ on a program--adding, deleting,¢ whatever--or been working in Immediate¢ Mode with the program installed, and¢ then proceed to SAVE the program, you¢ have likely added garbage data to your¢ program. The variable list, for¢ instance, will still include any¢ variables which you have deleted from¢ the program or have otherwise played¢ around with. The simple solution to¢ the problem is: don't SAVE, LIST.¢¢ THE REMEDY!¢ ¢ To SAVE a clean version of¢ VIEWDOCS.BAS, enter commands in¢ Immediate Mode as follows:¢¢ 1. LIST "D?:VIEWDOCS.LST¢ 2. NEW¢ 3. ENTER "D?:VIEWDOCS.LST¢ 4. SAVE "D?:VIEWDOCS.BAS¢¢ Your BAS version now takes up 22¢ sectors. You have removed the¢ garbage.¢¢ BUT¢¢ Note in passing that your LST¢ version takes up only 18 sectors, and¢ you may well ask why your BAS version¢ is still taking up 4 more sectors than¢ it possibly could.¢¢ WHY?¢¢ There's an answer to that¢ question, too, but now you've got to¢ look hard at the program itself. How¢ many times do you repeat numbers that¢ could be replaced by a variable? If a¢ number is repeated more than twice,¢ replace it with a letter. Let A=1,¢ B=2, C=0, D=3, etcetera, replace the¢ numbers accordingly, and (lo and¢ behold!) your SAVE after a LIST is now¢ getting close to 18 sectors--if not¢ bang on!¢¢ CAVEAT¢¢ But be careful, of course. When¢ you start revising a program, ALWAYS¢ be sure a working version is tucked¢ away somewhere out of reach.¢¢ Have fun!¢ *+*+*+*¢¢
