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Loadstar 128 42
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q42.d81
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t.star loader
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2022-08-28
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3KB
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54 lines
S T A R L O A D E R
Program by Richard Derocher
Text by Fender Tucker
Richard Derocher is valiantly fighting to keep LOADSTAR 128 alive and
he's doing it the right way -- sending me 128 versions of some of the 64
programs he likes best. This time he's adapted Jeff Jones' STAR LOADER for
the 128 80-column screen. STAR LOADER is a program you put at the top of a
directory and when it's run, it gives you a scrolling menu of the boot
files on the disk, as well as the text files. With a single click you can
boot and run a program, or page through a text file.
There have been other programs like this but they usually require that
you "set up" the loader program by creating a file with the names of the
programs on the disk in it. This is the old-fashioned way. Why not have the
computer check the disk directory and make a menu of the boot files? This
way, you don't have to update the list every time you add a program to the
disk. It's automatically updated.
The drawback to this method is that there must be an "identifier" for
the boot and text files. This is nothing new to those who get LOADSTAR 64.
We've been using identifiers on LS 64 for about ten years now.
The identifier for a boot file, as far as STAR LOADER 128 is concerned,
is "r." for RUN. If any file on the disk starts with "r." it will be
considered a boot file and will show up in the scrolling menu. On the C-64
we use "b."
For text files the identifier is the same as on LS 64, a "t." prefix.
This means that it's a PETASCII file and is not packed. For the 80-column
128 it's formatted into 75 columns (0 left margin; 5 right margin).
If you select an "r." file, that program will be booted and run. If you
select a "t." file, the text will be loaded and you can page through it
(forwards and backwards) with the CRSR UP and DOWN keys.
Our thanks go out to Richard Derocher for this great idea. Just stick
all five files (star loader, starload.c80, starload.font, starload.qt '95,
starload.fn-inpt) at the beginning of a directory and get easy access to
all of the runnable and readable files on the disk.
Utilities like this should be all in one easy-to-copy file but since we
don't have a STAR LINKER for the 128 mode, that will have to wait. Until
then, you'll need to use a good file copier (or Copy It) to get those five
files over to another disk.
\\\\\ R - Run RETURN - Menu \\\\\