¢¢ Useful Short Routines in Turbo-Basic¢ by Ron Fetzer¢¢¢ TURBO-BASIC XL is turely the best¢language for the 8-Bit Atari. It is 5¢times faster than ATARI BASIC. It has¢a great compiler that increases the¢speed up to 15 times over the BASIC¢version of your program. It is¢completely compatible with ATARI BASIC¢and it gives you 1,747 more bytes of¢free RAM than ATARI BASIC.¢ If you are going to run your¢present programs on TURBO-BASIC be¢sure to change your time delay loops¢to the PAUSE command. The increase in¢speed will make it too fast otherwise.¢If you compile a program you should¢also use PAUSE otherwise the speed¢increase will be unacceptable. The¢compiler is very easy to use and you¢can make self booting programs with¢it.¢ If you are interested in¢TURBO-BASIC please get from our¢library THE COMPLETE TURBO-BASIC KIT.¢I do not know what number it is. You¢should also get from our library the¢COMPILER DISK. These 2 disks are all¢you need. For $6.00 you have a¢fantastic programming language that¢rivals the best anywhere.¢ On the TURBO-BASIC KIT disk you¢get a 37 page documentation manual for¢the language. It has an index to the¢page numbers and every command is¢explained in detail. The manual also¢gives you examples of how to use each¢command. In addition you get tutorials¢on sorting, arrays and matrixes as¢well as utilities. I think you will¢like it.¢ The following programs require¢that you use TURBO-BASIC. They are¢short programs that you can use¢frequently¢¢ THE QUICK FORMATTER¢¢ This short program lets you¢fromat a disk in BASIC without going¢to DOS. The XIO 253,#1,0,0,"Dx:"¢formats in single density. XIO¢254,#1,0,0,"Dx:" will format in 1050¢density. For "x" specify your drive¢number that you are going to use.¢¢ 10 --¢ 20 REM QUICK FORMATTER¢ 30 CLS:DIM A$(1):?:?¢ 40 ?:? "PLEASE INSERT A BLANK¢ DISK IN THE DISK DRIVE"¢ 50 INPUT "DENSITY - SINGLE OR¢ 105O>>",A$¢ 60 IF A$(1,1)="S" THEN XIO 253,¢ #1,0,0,"D1:"¢ 60 IF A$(1,1)="1" THEN XIO 254,¢ 0,0,"D1:"¢ 80 CLS:POSITION 16,12:? CHR$(253);¢ "DONE":PAUSE 60¢ 90 CLS:GOTO 40¢ 100 --¢¢ One of the quirks of TURBO-BASIC¢is that if you go to DOS you cannot¢return without loosing your program.¢The reason for that is that in¢TURBO-BASIC most of the DOS commands¢are accessed in the programmed mode.¢There is no need to go to DOS. Most¢progammers save their program before¢going to DOS.¢ If for some reason you do go to¢DOS you do not have to loose your¢program and you CAN return to¢TURBO-BASIC. On DOS 2.5 go to OPTION M¢and for the address type in 2447 and¢then list your program. Address 2447¢is VERY FRAGILE. The following actions¢will destroy this location and you¢cannot get your program back.¢¢ 1. Deleting or locking your¢ DOS.SYS on the RAMDISK D8:¢ 2. A very large program that¢ approaches the available free¢ RAM¢ 3. On DOS when you use the¢ OPTIONS¢ C,J, and O¢¢ This address will only work with¢an unmodified DOS 2.5.¢¢ The next program is for the math¢wizzards that have to pull roots other¢than square roots. In the program the¢rounded root is the more accurate¢one.¢¢ 10 --¢ 20 REM ROOT PULLER¢ 30 A=0:B=0:R=0¢ 40 CLS:?:?¢ 50 INPUT "WHAT IS THE NUMBER";N¢ 60 INPUT "WHAT ROOT TO PULL";R¢ 70 A=N^(1/R)¢ 80 ? "THE ROOT NOT ROUNDED =";A¢ 90 B=INT((A+.00001)*100)/100¢ 100 ? "THE ROOT ROUNDED OFF =";B¢ 110 --¢¢ Every once in a while you get a¢disk with a documentation file on it¢and no instruction on how to print it.¢This hint works with TEXT FILES, WORD¢PROCESSING FILES, DOCUMENTATION FILES,¢PILOT, ASSEMBLY, VISICALC TEMPLATES¢and LISTED FILES. It does not work¢with saved files because they are in¢tokenized form on the disk and make no¢sense when you see them. Go to DOS¢OPTION C¢¢ OPTION C 'GAME.DOC,E:' = SCREEN¢ OPTION C 'READ.ME,S:' = SCREEN¢ OPTION C 'DOCS.TXT,P:" = PRINTER¢¢ Either E: or S: or P: will copy¢the file to the specified device. Use¢CNTRL + 1 to stop the scrolling so you¢can read then.¢
