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Text File
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1987-04-21
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7KB
|
171 lines
A-Z of STOS
~~~~~~~~~~~
By Tony Greenwood
For STOSSER Diskzine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before i begin let me just say HELP!, Would someone please take over
this series, You can see what its all about from the last issue and this
issue, Simply write anything you want about the letter of the month, Its
easy and i really would like someone to take it over, Just get in touch
with Keefy at the usual address and the first one will get themselves a
series for STOSSER and also the dubious title of being a member of the
STOSSER team, Dont let me down, Write today please,
First let me explain that i am not about to go through all the commands
starting with the letter A. Well if i did that then i could package it
and sell it as a book, but then again i am not going to cover subjects
that should'nt need covering. For example when i get to P i will not be
writing about PRINT, hopefully i will however be writing about things you
will not find in your STOS manual. If i do, then i will be explaining
them a little better than the manual. You may also find a few of my
thoughts on certain commands starting with the letter in question.
We covered A in the last issue so we are now on B. As promised first
off is Borders and the removal of them.
Note: as in the manual, n is used to denote any number of your choice
within the commands limitations.
BORDERS ( Removal of )
There isn't an actual command in STOS or any other launguge that i am
aware of that lets you remove the borders. Neither is there an Extension
that does it ( Again not that i am aware of ). But there are a few
programs that can be loaded into a bank that will suffice, the one i am
using is quite small and to be truthful i have no idea of what it
actually does. I have a feeling that it quickly changes Hertz just
before and after a VBL. A lot quicker than Basic could do it, either way
i am not bothered and it does the job, besides we dont want to get too
techi do we. The coder of the program we are going to use is unknown to
myself, but the following code is by me.
On this disk you should find a folder entitled NOBORDER, inside which
you will find BORD.ASC ( The following routine ), BORD.BAS ( The routine
with the prg installed and BORD.MBK ( the prg file to use ).
10 mode 0: key off: curs off: click off: hide on: mouse off: update off
Line 10 normal set up
20 load "BORD.MBK",10
Line 20 loads the prg thats already in a bank
30 A$="STOSSER DISKZINE"+chr$(0) : B$="NO TOP/BOTTOM BORDER ROUTINE"+
chr$(0)
Line 30 assigns a couple of variables for use with the missing link
text commands.
40 reserve as work 11,43360 : fill start(11) to start(11)+43360,$0
Line 40 reserves a bank to fit the larger screen onto and then fills
it with 0's, that effectively cleans the bank.
50
Line 50 not used in this example
60 bcopy 11 to 12 : wait vbl
Line 60 copies to another bank then we can have one for logic and one for
physic
70 colour 1,$700
Line 70 simple set up colour for text befoe assigning the banks to physic
etc....
80 physic=start(12) : logic=start(11) : wait vbl
Line 80 assigns the physic and logic screens to the two banks
90 call start(10)+28 : wait vbl
Line 90 calls the prg in bank 10.....vola full screen
91 repeat : h=hardkey
Line 91 starts a loop
95 for N=0 to 24
100 text logic,1,varptr(A$),0,N
120 text logic,1,varptr(A$),24,N
121 next N
122 for N=0 to 6
123 text logic+32000,1,varptr(B$),6,N
125 next N
Lines 95 to 125 just do something, in this instance they place text onto
the screen, this could have been done at line 50, or a picture could have
been copied into the bank at logic 0,0 and at logic+32000 0,0
130 screen swap : wait vbl
Line 130 update the screen
140 until H=57
Line 140 waits for the space bar to be pressed then ends the loop.
145 floodpal 0 : wait vbl : call start(10)+28 : wait vbl
150 erase 11 : erase 12 : clear key : mouseon : default : end
Line 145 and 50 simply default and erase the banks and ends the program.
As you can see i have yet again used the Missing link extension, I did'nt
have to, but it has more commands available for use with actual address's
For instance you could'nt have printed any lower than line 23 using
PRINT, but with the text command you can add bits to logic rather than
add bits to the print location.
As i say, you could just as easily have placed a picture in the bank at
line 50, copying the picture from a bank to the new big bank and then
onto the screen would fill the top border and two thirds of the screen,
to place a picture underneath you would have to copy it 32000 bytes lower
Lets say you have a picture in bank 7 and a picture in bank 8
50 FASTCOPY START(7),START(11) : FASTCOPY START(8),START(11)+32000
Again the FASTCOPY command from the missing link is used. Some
experimentation would be neccesary to get two pictures to look right on
the screen, but it is possible. Have a look at the intro to issue 3
of STOSSER. This program was used for that screen, although the scroller
was a mess and not up to standards, it was about ten months ago when i
made that.
You can easily place a nice scroller into the top and if you wanted
bottom border of this routine, Just place the commands inside the loop
at lines 91 to 140. If you use the missing links SCROLLTEXT routine
then it will be easy enough to place your scroller at LOGIC 0,0 and
LOGIC+32000 0,n
Well all the above should be easy enough for you to follow and to change
to your own needs. If you havent got the Missing link (then why not)
you can always change the commands to suit STOS basic commands.
Note the mouse will stop the routine so always have it turned off using
MOUSE OFF from MISTY. If you haven't got MISTY then try
POKE $FFFCO2,$12 to switch the mouse completely off and
POKE $FFFCO2,$8 to switch it back on again.
Remember that HIDE ON simply does exactly what it says, HIDE's IT and
doesn't actually turn it off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If i am not mistaken its C next, well that has to be colour. And maybe
a few other things..........
Keep on STOSSING......!eyB