Atari Mega Archive 2/Atari Mega Archive CD - Volume 2.iso/8bit/cislib_a/beer.doc

Text File | 1995-04-22 | 6KB | 122 lines

     BEER PARTY ATARI
     by DR.  JOHN C.  FERGUSON

     This useful applications program will keep track of the
best brew in a beer tasting party.  The programming makes
good use of custom display lists and character sets.  So non
beer-drinkers might wish to type it in and change the name to
Rootbeer Party Atari.  It is written in BASIC and will run on
all Atari computers with 16K.  A disk drive is recommended,
but the article explains how to run the program without one.

     "The Atari is just a game machine."  Do those words set
your blood aboil?  Well, the staff at Antic is tired of them
too, and spends a good portion of its time diligently combing
the incoming submissions for practical applications programs.
We receive a lot of disk directory programs, recipe file
storers, mini word-processors, and other rehashed versions of
old ideas.  But now we'd like to award Dr.  John C.  Ferguson
the Honorary Antic Unprecedented Application Program of the
Year Award for his fine Beer Party Atari.  A program whose
time has come.--ANTIC ED

     PARTY TIME
     My wife and I decided to have a party one evening for a
fairly large number of workplace acquaintances.  The trouble
with such social gatherings is that "shop talk" tends to
predominate and guests don't really get to relax and have
fun.
     Our answer to this concern was to organize the party
around the distraction of a "beer sampling" -- to determine
which brand of beer is best.  The Atari provided an ideal
tool to focus the group's attention towards finding an
unbiased corporate answer to this important question.
     We set up a table with five pitchers containing
different beers.  These were kept filled, out of sight, from
cans of popular brands kept on ice.  While the guests knew
which brands of beer were involved, the pitchers were only
labeled as "A","B","C","D", or "E".  The guests thus had to
taste from each pitcher and give the mystery beer a rating.
They could jot notes on a piece of paper to help themselves
remember.
     After sampling and rating each of the five beers, they
then typed their evaluations into the Atari.  The program I
developed for this purpose made it easy for even the most
computer-phobic in the crowd.

     SOBERING INFLUENCE
     The program provided a prompt for entering the rating of
each beer, and then a chance to verify that all five were
keyed in correctly.  It then calculated the average
accumulated score for each beer, saved the data to disk, and
quickly showed a graphic display of how the different beers
brands stacked up in the opinion of the judges.
     A lot of guests were very surprised to see how the
swiftly the scores changed as more and more people entered
their choices.  It became almost like a horse race!  If
things got close, the numerical values of the average scores
could be displayed by pressing [S] while the graph was
onscreen.

     VALUABLE DATA
     Saving the data to disk after each set of entries was a
feature added to the program to make sure that an accident
didn't happen to spoil the accumulated results.  It was
fortunate that this precaution was included, because a power
glitch did occur in the middle of my party and wipe out the
program.  However, I was able to quickly reload it, recall
the accumulated data, and continue on as if nothing had
happened.
     All in all, my beer party was a tremendous success.
Everybody had a good time, and work worries were kept well
out of mind.

     THE PROGRAM
     Type in the program, check it with TYPO II and SAVE a
copy.  Much of the program is internally documented with REM
statements.  When you RUN it, the computer will first ask you
if you want to add to a previous file -- that is, do you want
to start with data saved from a previous run of the program.
The first time your answer should be [N].  Note that if this
choice is taken, any previous file of BEERDATA will be
deleted and replaced with a brand new one.  If you answer
[Y], you are given a chance to insert the particular BEERDATA
file disk you want to add onto before the program continues.
     WITHOUT DRIVES
     If you do not have a disk drive, you can still use the
program without this feature.  You should tyoe REM"after line
numbers 110-160 and 1450.  This will update your scores in
memory without SAVEing them.  It also preserves the code for
possible future use when you do have access to a drive.

     MODIFIED CHARACTERS AND DISPLAY LIST
     Several programing "tricks" were used to produce the
varied and interesting screen displays.  First, some
characters of the normal Atari font were modified to produce
graphic representations of a beer stein and pilsner glasses.
(See lines 10000-10200.)
     Next, a customized Graphics 0 screen was produced by
modifying the display list to show several lines of Graphics
1 and Graphics 2 (program lines 1030-1055).  Now, when the
altered characters, the normal text, and the special Atari
control characters are all put together, in any of the the
three sizes provided by the modified screen, the result is a
really sophisticated display.  This was produced with
remarkably little code -- ah, the beauty of Atari!

     NAME YOUR BRAND
     When you use the program, you will want to select your
own five brands of beer to compare.  These should be
reprogramed into lines 1550-1630.  Note which beer
corresponds to each code letter -- you don't want to have
these mismatched.  For my first party I invested in a case of
pilsner glasses and a sufficient quantity of five middle-line
popular beers.  Next year I think I will do it again with an
international flavor -- rating beers from five different
countries.
     Dr.  John C.  Ferguson is a Professor of Biology in the
Department of Natural Sciences at Eckerd College in St.
Petersburg, Florida.  Dr.  Ferguson has taught at Eckerd
since 1963 and specializes in Marine Biology and
Oceanographic Sciences.