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2022-08-26
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u
D O T B A S I C
Last Minute Improvements
by Dave Moorman
I need to thank beta tester Robin
Harbron for making sure LOADSTAR's
text is fairly free from misspelled
words and checking that programs load
and run as advertised. He dove into
DOTBASIC and found a couple of
problems, which I have now fixed.
Somewhere in the documentation,
you are warned that after a BASIC
ERROR message, you need to type:
.of <RETURN>
to reset BASIC 2.0. Silly of me! By
adding yet another vector wedge, I
have DOTBASIC itself watch for ERRORs
and shut itself down. If you hit the
STOP key, DOTBASIC is still running --
so do the above. Better yet, don't use
the STOP key -- the .WB command
watches for the <BACK ARROW> Key and
does a complete shut-down.
The trick is to look for the mouse
arrow. If it is present, DOTBASIC is
probably still running in the
background. Use the .OF command then.
And don't worry, if DOTBASIC is not
running and you try the .OF command,
you will get a nice SYNTAX ERROR and
nothing will be hurt!
Robin also found that I didn't do
what I [always] do -- create SAFE
wedge connection code. That means
START
LDA START.FLAG
BEQ START.CODE
RTS
START.CODE
INC START.FLAG
etc...
and
STOP
LDA START.FLAG
BNE STOP.CODE
RTS
STOP.CODE
LDA#1
STA START.FLAG
etc...
With these steps, there is no way
you can try to do the wedges twice (a
very confusing problem for BASIC 2.0)!
COMING SOON
-----------
As I continue to work with
DOTBASIC as a programming development
tool, I find some features that are
all but unneeded, and several controls
that would greatly help. For instance,
Mr.Mouse has "Region Text" commands
which display text banners like the
bar near the bottom of the LOADSTAR
Presenter Menu. DOTBASIC should be
able to do this!
There are times when one may want
certain Event Regions disabled. Also,
one may really need to disable the
Rollover color change feature. (I am
thinking about doing a Solitaire game,
and changing the colors would mess up
the nice, multi-color card faces.) Or
perhaps just reverse the present
colors would do the job. These are
three more controls DOTBASIC needs.
And lastly, the arrow should be
able to change its image as it rolls
over a region. Again, with the card
game -- the shape of the arrow could
indicate which column is a legal play.
At the LUCKI EXPO, I handed out
about a dozen beta copies of DOTBASIC
to people who wanted to take a shot at
using this development environment. I
bet I will hear from several of them,
with great ideas about how to make
DOTBASIC better still.
And you, gentle readers, are
welcome to send in your comments,
suggestions, complaints, and threats!
LOADSTAR loves to hear from you!
DMM