Loadstar 128 40/q40.d81/t.hurricane

Text File | 2022-08-28 | 8KB | 189 lines

               H U R R I C A N E    T R A C K E R     1 9 9 9

                      Program and Text by Dick Heckert


 FENDER'S PREMUMBLE: It's hurricane season once again on the East and Gulf
Coasts so I've resurrected Dick Heckert's excellent tracking program, last
published on LS 128 #15. I gathered some information about infamous
hurricanes of recent years (from the internet) and entered them into the
program. While doing so I noticed a couple of glitches in the editing and
correcting routines so I tweaked them a little. If you have BASIC 8, the
80-column bitmap toolbox by WalruSoft, feel free to tweak some more if you
want. Now here's Dick to tell you about his program.


    In order to be prepared for a hurricane, most of us track the path of
these storms from the time they start out in the Atlantic until they go far
away. These weather patterns usually begin as a tropical disturbance with a
rotary circulation but no strong winds. The next stage is a tropical
depression with sustained wind speed of 39 mph or less. A tropical storm is
named when the low pressure area has a distinct rotary circulation and
sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph. When the wind reaches 74 mph, the storm
has become a hurricane and must be watched carefully.

    HURRICANE TRACKER is a BASIC 8 program that helps you maintain data and
plot the path of the storm on hurricane tracking charts. The charts and
data can then be printed and used to predict future storm motion.

 NOTE: 64K of video RAM is NOT required by this program. It will work on
any C-128.


 EDIT
 ----

    If this is the first entry for a storm you would like to track, press E
to enter new storm data. You will be asked for the name and the year of the
storm. The name is needed because the file on the disk will have the storm
name. Next, a series of inputs will collect the latitude, longitude, month,
date, time and status of the storm. The latitude and longitude will be used
to plot positions on the tracking chart. You may enter latitude and
longitude to the nearest tenth of a degree (25.6). Continue entering data
points as they are given on TV or radio. When finished, press X to return
to the menu and S to save the data to your disk.

    To add data to an existing file, load the file and then press E for
Edit. The last data line in the file is shown and you can add the new data
as noted above. You are limited to 49 total lines of data.


 LOAD
 ----

    Load an existing storm file by pressing L and entering the name of the
storm. Use the correct upper/lower case and spelling or you will receive a
cheer and be asked to try again. You may use wildcards such as b* for bob.
You do not have to enter the H. file identifier. If you enter $ for the
file name you will be shown a directory of the storm files on the disk. Use
the cursor to highlight the storm name and RETURN to load the file.

     To clear the screen for a new storm, just press L for load, press
RETURN and you'll get a "file not found" error, then press E and you're
ready to start entering new data for a new storm.


 CORRECT
 -------

    If you make a mistake entering data, just press C with the file loaded.
The data will be displayed and you can move the cursor to the entry that
needs revision. Press RETURN and the line chosen will be shown. Move the
cursor to the data that needs revision and press RETURN. Then enter the
revised data. The date should be entered in the mm/dd format to keep your
print-out neat. You can then correct more data items by pressing C or
return to the menu by pressing X. You can delete a whole line of data with
the DEL key or insert a blank line with INST. Then choose the blank line
and enter the new data.


 DATA
 ----

    You can look over the data at any time by pressing D. If you want a
print-out press P after the data is shown on the screen. Any other key will
return you to the menu.


 VIEW
 ----

    To view your storm file on the current tracking chart, press V and the
data in the file will be used to plot the storm track. If you want a print-
out of the tracking chart with the storm plotted, press P while the chart
is on the screen. Any other key returns you to the menu. If the data falls
outside the current chart to the east the correct latitude is shown along
the right edge of the screen.


 NEW CHART
 ---------

    Press N to toggle between the two tracking charts. The program begins
with North Atlantic which has the widest field of view. The first time you
press N it changes to Caribbean. The next time you will get the North
Atlantic. Any data that can be shown on the current chart will be plotted
when you press V.


 MULTIPLE DISPLAY
 ----------------

    There may be times when you would like to compare several storms on a
chart at the same time. Press M and you will be prompted for the names of
the storm files. You may use wildcards such as "b*" for "bob". Press X to
exit the entry mode and the program will load and plot the listed files.
This multiple chart can be printed by pressing P after plotting is
complete.

    If you get a "file not found" the message will be printed near the top
of the graphic screen. To erase the message, just press M again at the menu
and enter the storm names again.


 QUIT
 ----

    When you are through with HURRICANE TRACKER, press Q to reset your
computer to the default settings. Otherwise, the next program will probably
crash when loaded at the BASIC 8 location.

 FT'S NOTE: Side Two of the 1541 version of LS 128 #40 has the autoboot
sector set up to boot "star" so HURRICANE TRACKER does seem to return to
LOADSTAR. Once you copy all of the HT files to another disk (which you
should definitely do) it will probably just quit to BASIC when you quit the
program.


 PRINTERS
 --------

    The BASIC 8 printer file "p.hc-epson" is loaded by default. If you need
a different printer program, press P for the printer configuration. Cursor
to the line where the printer driver name shown and press RETURN. The
directory of printer drivers on disk will be displayed. Then enter the new
printer file. Density, secondary address, height, and rotation can also be
revised here. When finished, cursor to DONE and press RETURN. If you want
the revised printer information to load as the default each time you run
the program press Y when asked if you want to save the configuration to
disk. Any other key returns you to the menu.

 FENDER'S NOTE: I tried the Citizen and Epson drivers with my Star NX-1000C
and they both worked nicely, AFTER I switched the #1 DIP switch to turn
auto linefeed off. The #5 DIP switch was also "on" to switch the printer
into Epson mode. There are four drivers on this issue of LOADSTAR. If you
have BASIC 8, there are many more printer driver files on it.

    Check your printer manual for the available density settings for your
printer. A 640 dot wide screen will fill 8 inches at 80 dots per inch. A
height of 2 will give a graphic 5 1/2 inches high. Experiment until you get
the graphic you like and then save that configuration to the disk.


 STATUS
 ------

    Enter notes such as the wind speed in mph or the category at the time.
The categories are as follows:

  1 Minimal      - wind  74 to 95 mph
                 - storm surge 4 to 5 feet
  2 Moderate     - wind 96 to 110 mph
                 - storm surge 6 to 8 feet
  3 Extensive    - wind 111 to 130 mph
                 - storm surge 9 to 12 feet
  4 Extreme      - wind  131 to 155 mph
                 - storm surge 13 to 18 feet
  5 Catastrophic - wind above 156 mph
                 - storm surge above 18 feet

 To make your data line up best, be consistent with your data entry.

 FT: For the storms I entered I listed the type of storm (Tropical
Depression, Tropical Storm, Hiurricane, etc.) followed by the wind speed.

                    \\\\\ R - Run   RETURN - Menu \\\\\