Loadstar 128 21/q21.d81/t.zero page 21

Text File | 2022-08-28 | 7KB | 145 lines

                  ZERO PAGE: LOADSTAR 128 GOES UNIVERSAL!

                              by Fender Tucker


 THE PREMISE
 -----------

    If you read this month's Diskovery you know that starting with this
issue LOADSTAR 128 now works on any drive, 8 through 31.  The programs on
LOADSTAR 128 have just about always worked from whatever drive you booted
them from, but the LOADSTAR menu system used to be hardcoded for Drive 8
only.  When Jon Mattson wrote the Presenter program three years ago, not as
many people had multiple drives as they do now.  Also, 3 1/2" drives weren't
in use as much back then.

    But once you get a 1581 (or a CMD FD drive) for your second drive, you
get spoiled.  I have.  Now I want everything to boot up FAST.  Sometimes I
even copy LOADSTAR into my RAMLink where every load is almost instant.

    So what's the problem?  With the old presenter, you had to have your
1581 designated as drive 8 for a copy of LOADSTAR on 3 1/2" disk to work.
With FD drives, CMD hard drives or RAMLinks, this was no problem; they have
the handy SWAP 8 switch which allows you to renumber the drive easily.  But
1581 drives had to be manually switched via the DIP switches on the back.
You had to turn off any 1541 or 1571 that was previously numbered 8.

    It was a hassle.  Now, with the new, revised Presenter on this issue,
just stick the LOADSTAR disk (whether it's the original, a 1571 copy, or a
1581 copy) in any drive, make sure that drive is the active one, then boot
LOADSTAR 128.  All the programs and features of our menu system should work
from that drive.  If you've copied LOADSTAR 128 into a 1571 or 1581
partition on your hard drive, just go to that partition and boot the issue.

    I had tried to revise "presenter.128" before but ran into snags with
bank-switching.  I called Jon Mattson and he gave me a few tips about
banking, and soon I had the Presenter fixed.  At least I think it's fixed.
Let me know if you encounter any glitches.

    I've tested this issue's programs thoroughly and they should all run
fine from any drive, 8 through 31 -- except maybe 15.  But what about all of
the previous issues of LOADSTAR 128?  Can they be revised?

    The answer is "yes" if you want to go through the trouble.  I've always
considered LOADSTAR to be a convenient way to be introduced to the programs
we present.  I figure that when you find a program you want to use, you
would copy it onto another disk and use that disk from then on.  The
LOADSTAR would be the backup and would not be used much anymore.  But your
letters have convinced me that many of you boot up the LOADSTAR disk (or a
copy) itself, again and again.

    I also figure that the main reason for wanting to run LOADSTAR 128 from
a drive other than 8 is that you have copied LS 128 onto a 1571 or 1581
disk. These formats are "one-sided", which means you don't have to flip the
disk.  To copy LS 128 to a one-sided format, copy ALL of the files on both
sides except the system files from Side Two.  The "system files" are the
first 12 files on Side Two, up to and including "goodbye".


 THE METHOD
 ----------

    So here's what to do if you want to make back issues (from LS 128 #10
on) work like this issue.

 (1) Replace "star", "hello connect" and "presenter.128" on Side One of old
issues with the same files from LS 128 #21, Side One.  "presenter.128" is a
CONTROL80 program so you can't just LOAD it and then SAVE it -- unless it's
been RUN).  You can use DISKSERVANT (on Side 2 of this issue) to copy the
three files to the back issues.  It has a great file-copier.  JiffyDOS' file
copier will also do the trick quite nicely.

NOTE: You should do this on backups of LOADSTAR 128s.  DISKSERVANT also has
a whole disk copier.  There's no excuse for not having backups of your
LOADSTAR 128s.

 (2) The Presenter now works on any drive.  But the programs on issues #10
through #19 all reconnect back to the Presenter with the command, RUN"HELLO
CONNECT".  In BASIC 7.0 this means RUN from drive 8.  Every program needs to
be changed!  Not much, but a little.

NOTE: Because you are a C-128 user, I won't treat you like an IBM user.  I
am going to assume that you are not afraid of loading a program, listing it,
modifying it, then saving it.  Even if you don't know ANY programming, as a
128 user you have the power to do the following.  IBM patsies quiver in
fright anytime they are asked to reconfigure their "autoexec.bat" file --
which every other program forces them to do -- but we C-128 users are of a
hardier (and more intelligent) breed.

    The sequence is:

 (a) run the program and break out of it with RUN/STOP-RESTORE.  You may
have to press CMDR-SHIFT to get a legible font.

 (b) find the line(s) where it returns to LOADSTAR.  It will look like
this:

   RENAME"HELLO CONNECT"TO"HELLO CONNECT":IFDS=63THENRUN"HELLO CONNECT"

 (c) change the code to:

   RENAME"HELLO CONNECT"TO"HELLO CONNECT"ONU(DV):
   IFDS=63THENRUN"HELLO CONNECT"ONU(DV)

 (d) scratch and save the program -- like this:

   SCRATCH"program name"ONU8:DSAVE"program name"ONU8

Substitute the number of the drive you're using for the 8s above.  Most LS
programs have a SCRATCH and SAVE on line 10000.  This line is hardcoded for
drive 8 since I do all of my editing on drive 8.  If you're using drive 8
you can just do a GOTO10000 and the file will be scratched and saved.

NOTE: There's no such thing as a universal fix like this.  Every author does
things his way and places his reconnect code where he wants.  It would be
nice if I forced every programmer to do things the same way, but forcing
programmers has been likened to herding cats -- it can't be done.  You WILL
find some programs that don't fit the mold.  Maybe the program doesn't have
any disk access (other than reconnecting to LOADSTAR) so the variable "dv"
isn't defined.  If not, then you'll have to add this line near the beginning
of the program (but AFTER any CLR command):

 DV=PEEK(186):IFDV<8THENDV=8


 BOTTOM LINE
------------

    When I finally got "presenter.128" working on all drives I was so
jubilant that I vowed to make it easy for all subscribers to modify their
back issues (#10 through #20) accordingly.  Now, after writing the above
text I see that it's not as easy as I thought, especially for someone who
does no programming.  The life of an editor would be so much easier if every
user knew some BASIC programming.  Your C-128 is a dream to program.  It is
THE best programming machine ever invented.  Do yourself and me a favor and
get used to twiddling with programs.  It's fun and rewarding.

    By the way, the reason I don't include issues #1 through #9 for this
revision is that back then we had a 40-column Presenter.  There are simply
too many things that would have to be changed.

FT

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