Loadstar 128 24/q24.d81/t.diskovery 24

Text File | 2022-08-28 | 8KB | 139 lines

        D I S K O V E R Y : IT'S A SMALL, SMALL, SMALL, SMALL WORLD

                              by Fender Tucker


     I've been a fan of the "smaller is better" philosophy for a few years
now, but I worry about what happens when small gets to be too small.  I'm
afraid that maybe the C-128 world is getting too small for its own good.

     I figure that with 3 million C-128s sold back in the 80s there must be
thousands of 128 users still around, but our subscription numbers continue
to hover under the 1000 mark.  Maybe that's a reflection on LOADSTAR 128.
Maybe if LOADSTAR 128 were a better product more people would subscribe.
Maybe we wouldn't be losing our customers to...  Who ARE we losing customers
to?  We're the only product in the world that supports the 128 mode
exclusively.

     Subscriber numbers is not something that you should be concerned with;
in fact, I shouldn't be concerned either.  It's our marketing department's
concern.  But the low numbers of subscribers does affect how LOADSTAR 128 is
put together.  Simple arithmetic tells me that I need to spend at least 12
times as much time on LS 64 as LS 128 because we send out 12 issues of LS 64
for every issue of LS 128 (we have over 4000 subscribers to LS 64, which is
mailed out monthly).  That ratio is about correct -- I spend less than 8% of
my time on LOADSTAR 128.  In fact, I do most of my 128 work at home on my
own time.

     So why doesn't Softdisk hire someone who can spend more time with LS
128?  Well, Softdisk doesn't make enough profit with our 800 or so
subscribers to pay for another editor.   If we had 2000 more subscribers you
can bet that I'd petition Al Vekovius to hire another 128 specific person
and the 128 mode would get the treatment it deserves.  But we don't have
2000 more subscribers.

     The solution to this quandary is to re-define what LOADSTAR 128 is.  We
are NOT a magazine that PRODUCES great software for your C-128 every three
months.  We are a magazine that PUBLISHES great software, written by real
experts who send in their programs and get paid a modest amount.  I enjoy
creating word and number puzzles for LS 128 but if I had submissions that
were better, you can bet I'd publish those first.  Readers tell me that they
don't like games and want "serious" software on every issue.  If I had more
"serious" stuff, it would be here, I assure you.

     Looking back on the past 23 issues I'd have to say that LOADSTAR 128's
greatest boon to 128 computing is not that we've supplied so many users with
good programs; it's the fact that we've provided a place for so many
programmers to get published and paid.  Let's face it, users.  Programmers
are just as important as users if we want to keep the 128 mode alive.

     But where do programmers come from?  They come from users who decide
that they're going to stop "using" all the time and start doing some
programming.  They are people like Ed Rainey of Jacksonville FL who read the
docs for CONTROL80-C (on LS 128 #22) and decided to see if he could write a
blackjack program.  Guess what?  He could, and you'll see it on the next LS
128.  I just called him and he says that except for the modification of
VIDEO CRAPS (on LS 128 #20), BLACKJACK is the first program he's ever
written.  He says he's just sorry that he waited until he was 81 years old
before starting to program.

     People like Ed Rainey are the future of LS 128.  Most of the "master"
programmers of the 80s are long gone but that just means that there's plenty
of room for upstarts.  You may think that your program doesn't have a chance
of being accepted by a snooty publication like LS 128.  Well, unlike Tina
Brown of THE NEW YORKER who wades through hundreds of submissions looking
for the best five, I wade through three submissions, accept them all, and
start thinking about what kind of program (or two) I can churn out at home
that will fill the next issue.

     Don't get me wrong.  Writing programs for LS 128 is the most fun I have
in my life.  But if you don't like programs like my annotation of MURDER IN
THE MONASTERY because it's not "serious", you should seriously start
thinking about writing a program you DO like and sharing it with all 800 or
so of your fellow subscribers.  As a kicker, I'll throw a few hundred bucks
your way.

     Before I sign off, let me say that there are a few 128 masters left and
LOADSTAR 128 is happy to be able to provide a marketplace for them and their
wares.  Bob Cook, Barbara Schulak, Maurice Randall, ed bell, Dick Heckert
and Reiner Richter are still with us, and they deserve our thanks.  Thanks,
masters!

 *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

     I recently compiled all of Walt Harned's artwork into one giant
collection, THE COMPLEAT WALT.  Anyway you spell it, it's over 250 hi-res
and multi-color pictures in their original slideshows as published on
LOADSTAR 64 over the past seven years.  It comes on seven 1541 disks (both
sides packed) or three 1581 disks.  This is the largest one-man art show in
all computerdom and it only costs $20.  That's $20 flat -- we'll pay
shipping.  Call 1-800-594-3370 and ask for offer #070425 (1541 disks) or
offer #070423 (1581 disks).  Or send a check for $20 (in US funds) to
LOADSTAR HARNED COLLECTION, PO Box 30008, Shreveport LA 71130-0008.  This
great price may not last forever.

 *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

     Here's a last-minute flash for you programmers out there.  If you have
a lot of text you want to display in your program, probably the best way to
handle it is to write the text with your favorite word processor (mine is
THE WRITE STUFF 128 from Busy Bee Software, call us to order) then somehow
get the text onto the screen.  For the past three years I've used
"quicktext", a little routine by Scott Resh that allows you to simply BLOAD
the text into Bank 1, where "quicktext" immediately turns it into
subscripted strings.  See LS 128 #6 for details.

     "quicktext" is great for big text files because it's so much faster
than opening a file and INPUTting or GETting the text.  It also allows you
to use commas, colons, semi-colons and quotes in your text.  Scott
envisioned it to be used primarily for getting the text for instructions
into subscripted strings.  In other words, he didn't think it would be used
over and over in a program -- just once or twice.

     Well, I like "quicktext" so much I used it for MURDER IN THE MONASTERY
on Side Two which reads numerous text files from the disk.  But I ran into a
problem: the program would lock up late in the game for no reason I could
find.  So I wrote a little program that used "quicktext" over and over and
found that after around 40 times, it locks up.  My guess is that the stack
is not properly handled by the routine.  If Scott knew about it, he probably
figured no one would ever need to call it that many times in a program.

     So I removed "quicktext" from MONASTERY and found that for the small
files that it uses, the BASIC command INPUT# works fine, as long as you
precede any line that has a comma, colon or semi-colon with a quote.
Programmers, I have a suggestion (a) and a plea (b):

 (a) Use "quicktext" with confidence if you are sure it won't be called over
40 times in your program, and

 (b) Find out why it crashes and fix it for me.  The PAL source code for
"quicktext" is on LS 128 #6.  The object code is on Side Two of this disk,
even though it's not used by MONASTERY.  If you'd rather write your own
program from scratch, that's okay, too.  We all need an easy, error-free way
to turn PETASCII text files into subscripted strings.

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