AppleLink
APPLE II DEVELOPMENT FORUM CONFERENCE LOG
January 10, 1989  10:00 pm Eastern
Topic: BASIC
Forum Leader: James Luther (AFL Jim)


AFL Jim    I'd like to welcome everyone to the Development Forum. Tonight's
AFL Jim    topic *is* BASIC.
AFA Parik  :)
AFL Jim    10 GOTO 10
KyleI1     Please slow down. I'm only 11; bear with me. :)
JSchober   Jim writes COMPLEX programs, it looks like...
JSchober   Hi, Rick.
KyleI1     AFL Jim, into "dead" routines?
AFL Jim    <- looping
RickKE     Hi JS
JSchober   Ugh.  Hi, Marty!
AFL Marty  <- indexing
ScottG25   Hi! Marty!
RickKE     Hi Marty
ScottG25   Hi RicKE!
KyleI1     Excuse me, let's just settle down and get started... I'm not very
          patient
AFA Gary J CTRL-C .... "beep"
JSchober   Hi, John.
AFA Gary J Hi John.
KyleI1     CTRL-G...."beep"
AFL Marty  Hi John!
JSchober   No.  Ctrl-C... "BREAK <beep!> IN 10".
AFA John   Hi Marty, Gary, and Joey!
RickKE     Hi John!
AFA Gary J (Right, Joe!  :)
AFA John   Hi Rick.
AFL Jim    OK, let's get into BASIC here. Kyle, do you have any questions
          you'd like to
JSchober   (or on a GS, replace <beep!> with <bong!>)
AFL Jim    start off with?
KyleI1     It's too bad I can't screen dump my biggest program; we'd be
          sitting here
AFL Jim    (protocol *please*)
KyleI1     for hours!
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle
KyleI1     Protocol?
AFL Jim    Yes...
Dave Lyons (back) I actually did leave (physically)
AFL Jim    Type a "?" on a line if you have a question. Type a "!" if you'd
          like to make
AFL Jim    a comment.
KyleI1     I regret not seeing the protocol rules like everyone else... ;)
KyleI1     ! Ok.
AFL Jim    Go ahead, Kyle
KyleI1     ? Who's the Sysop?
AFL Jim    Gary will keep the queue.
AFL Jim    I'm the Forum Leader.
JSchober   (greetings, Matt!)
AFL Jim    (at least here in this forum)
KyleI1     ! Oh, sorry, Jim.
KyleI1     Those banners!
Matt DTS   Hi (AFK, just watching from a comfortable position)
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle
DanB35     ?how does protocol work:  Do I type ? <CR> and wait to be
          called?
AFA Gary J Right, Dan.... I'll put you in the queue.
AFL Jim    Kyle, you only need to type a ? or !  "raise your hand" we'll call
          on you in
KyleI1     I was wondering that too, DanB35.
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle, Dan
AFL Jim    the order the questions or comments are received.
KyleI1     OK, now shutting up... Please start this thing, you're using up my
          Log File.
AFL Jim    It's already started, Kyle.
KyleI1     Ok.
KyleI1     ?
AFL Jim    go ahead, Kyle
KyleI1     Why isn't anyone talking?
AFL Jim    We were waiting for your question, Kyle
KyleI1     Oh. Well...
Ralfy      21 people - sheesh what a mob!
Ralfy      Hi all.
AFL Jim    Well, let me start off with this...
KyleI1     I was wondering how to copy BASIC files from INSIDE a BASIC
          file.
Dave Lyons !
AFL Jim    ooops, GA Kyls
AndyWells  !
AFL Jim    GA Dave
KyleI1     OPEN, READ, CLOSE doesn't work.
Dave Lyons There's no command built into BASIC.SYSTEM for copying files, so
          you have
Dave Lyons a couple of alternatives.  (OPEN/READ/CLOSE were designed for text
          files, or
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Dave, Andy), Dan
Dave Lyons for reading DIRs _as_ text files, so they don't help much.)  You
          can either
Dave Lyons buy an add-on COPY command for BASIC.SYSTEM (any package names
          come to mind,
Airship    ?
KyleI1     Use EXECs to load them into /RAM and vice versa?
Dave Lyons guys?), or you can carefully use BLOAD and BSAVE to copy files one
          chunk at a
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Dave, Andy), Dan, Airship
AFL Marty  !
Dave Lyons time (or in one chunk if they're small).  The ",Txxx" option will
          be needed to
Dave Lyons stop BSAVE/BLOAD from complaining that the files aren't BIN files.
           (done for
Dave Lyons now)
Matt DTS   !
AFL Jim    GA ANdy
KyleI1     !
Ralfy      There are some Shareware programs (very nice) in the Applelink
          libs.
AndyWells  Well, a couple of added comments.
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Andy, Marty, Matt), Dan, Airship
Ralfy      Procopy works from within a Basis program.
Ralfy      Basic.
AndyWells  First, a BAS program cannot be properly copied with BLOAD/BSAVE
          since the aux
AndyWells  type must be $801.  You really should use an EXEC file.  That file
          can be
DanB35     ?
AndyWells  created by your program, then the program exited (After the EXEC),
          but make
KyleI1     It'll take some work, but thanks!
JSchober   ?
Matt DTS   !!
AndyWells  sure you have the EXEC file execute the program you want it to.
KyleI1     Thanks!
AndyWells  You can set your EXEC file up as STARTUP to do it too..
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Andy, Marty, Matt!!), Dan, Airship, Joe
AndyWells  DONE
KyleI1     But I can't have a copy program set it up that way...
KyleI1     DONE
AFL Jim    Marty, GA with your comment....
AFL Jim    and then Matt !!!!
Matt DTS   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<I hate
          Jim>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AFL Marty  The Procopy command is part of the ProPower Utilities package
          written
AFL Jim    (thanks, Matt ;)
AFL Marty  by Bill Tudor.  It's available in the library here.
AFL Marty  done
AFL Jim    GA Matt!!!
KyleI1     !
Matt DTS   THANK YOU!
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (MATT!!!), Dan, Airship, Joe
Matt DTS   (He's gotta work next to me in a few weeks and I'll have my fun
          then)
AFL Jim    ut oh...
Matt DTS   Unfortunately, doing this with an EXEC file just isn't that easy.
          Here's why:
AFA Gary J :)
RickKE     ?
Matt DTS   Normally, the last line in the EXEC is something like "RUN
          MYPROGRAM", and...
KyleI1     !!!!!!!!!
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Matt), Dan, Airship, Joe, Rick
Matt DTS   ...this has the side effect of leaving the EXEC file open.  So if
          you're...
Matt DTS   ...on a one-drive system and ever try to PREFIX to another
          disk...
Matt DTS   ...BASIC.SYSTEM will return I/O ERROR, which is the translation of
          the MLI...
Matt DTS   ...error "Disk switched", since the open EXEC file is no longer
          online.
AndyWells  About 8 pokes and a call will fix that...
Matt DTS   The added COPY command is really the best way to go about this;
          you can...
Matt DTS   ...write one yourself with minimal features if you know machine
          language.
KyleI1     Matt, I'm on a 2-drive system.
KyleI1     And I don't know machine lang.
Matt DTS   And as someone who's in a position to know, Andy, I wouldn't be
          POKEing and...
Matt DTS   ...CALLing into BASIC.SYSTEM at this point.  (Kyle, all your users
          might not.)
Matt DTS   GA.
AFA Gary J Q = Kyle (Matt), Dan, Airship, Joe, Rick
AFL Jim    Get enough, Kyle?
KyleI1     OK.
AFL Jim    OK, you're up, Dan!
Matt DTS   (Unless the pokes or calls are in the $BExx page, of course.
          Forgot that.)
AFL Jim    GA with your question...
AFA Gary J Q = Dan, Airship, Joe, Rick
DanB35     How can I access the GS's Sound potential through AppleSoft (dumb
          ?)
Dave Lyons !
AFL Jim    No question is a dumb question, Dan...
JSchober   <ugh... I WISH it was a dumb question... :( >
AFL Jim    GA Dave
Dave Lyons Since nobody else seems to want to answer that..."with great
          difficulty."  Not
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Dave), Airship, Joe, Rick
Dave Lyons a dumb question at all, but I don't know of any utilities to make
          things easy
AFL Marty  !
JSchober   !
Dave Lyons for you; you may be stuck with using maching language routines to
          call the
Dave Lyons Sound Manager (toolset #8; see Toolbox Reference Vol I from
          Addison-Wesley).
Dave Lyons (done)
DanB35     !
AFL Jim    GA Marty
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Marty, Joe), Airship, Joe, Rick
Dave Lyons (Oops! Vol II of the TB Ref.  Sorry.)
AFL Marty  What about the Sonix program from So What Software? Won't that
          allow access
JSchober   (cancel my ! ... :)
AFL Marty  to the sound features on the GS?
AFL Jim    Yep, it will, Marty
AFL Marty  (and I didn't even need a TB Ref :)
DanB35     I don't know ML; are there any shareware progs. in the libs.?
AFL Jim    So What Software can be reached at 10221 Slater Ave, Suite 103,
Matt DTS   !
AFL Jim    Fountain Valley, CA 92708
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Matt), Airship, Joe, Rick
AFL Jim    GA Matt
DanB35     ... or freeware, or PD.....
Matt DTS   <This is a personal opinion which follows; please adjust
          accordingly>
Matt DTS   Dan, I personally believe you'll be better off using a full 16-bit
          BASIC...
AFL Jim    (and I kewn this was coming :)
Matt DTS   ...such as TML, Micol, or ORCA (when released) or AC/BASIC...
AFA Gary J hehe  :)
AFL Jim    (knew it too :)
Matt DTS   ...than trying to access a whole lot of things from AppleSoft that
          it wasn't...
Matt DTS   ...meant to do.
Matt DTS   I just believe programmers will be better off with a more powerful
          language...
Matt DTS   ...than trying to superimpose every new feature on a 10-year old
          dialect of...
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Matt), Airship, Joe, Rick
DanB35     Is there a PD, freeware, or shareware utility which will give me
          access to...
Matt DTS   ...BASIC that has faulty arithmetic in it even. <Grin>  GA.
DanB35     The GS's sound?
AFL Jim    I can agree with Matt on this... although I know Applesoft better
          than any
AFL Jim    other BASIC, I've found the newer IIGS BASIC give you much easier
          access to
AFL Jim    the power of the IIGS.
DanB35     < trying to go low-budget... ;) >
Dave Lyons !
PrimeDude  how much is your time worth?  :)
AFL Jim    ScottG!! any suggestions from your side?
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Dave), Airship, Joe, Rick
Dave Lyons Dan, you definitely won't be able to use the Note Synthesizer or
          Note
Dave Lyons Sequencer from Applesoft--those are RAM-based tools, and the
          Loader (part of
Dave Lyons GS/OS) isn't available to load it under ProDOS 8.  (done)
DanB35     UG.  Oh well...
Dave Lyons ("it" = "them")
Matt DTS   But with a 16-bit BASIC, you could use them SO easily!
          <ducking>
AFL Jim    You might check the Music Forum here on AppleLink... they might
          have something
AFL Jim    of interest to you, Dan.
DanB35     OK then, what's the cheapest 16-bit BASIC?
DanB35     < Cheapskate me... :) >
AFL Marty  !
AFL Jim    GA Marty
AFL Marty  Opinion here....
AFA Gary J Q = Dan (Marty), Airship, Joe, Rick
AFL Marty  You get (mostly) what you pay for.  What you save in terms of
          dollars...
Matt DTS   !
AFL Marty  may be more than made up in terms of lost time and 'sweat equity'.
           Just off
DanB35     Rephrase:  What's the best _value_ on a 16 bit BASIC?
Raider10   Can I ask someone about using a modem on BASIC
Matt DTS   (withdraw the !; Marty said what I was thinking)
AFL Marty  the top of my head, I think ORCA Basic sounds like it will be a
          winner....
AFL Jim    Put Raider in the queue, Gary.
AFA Gary J Q = Dan, Airship, Joe, RIck, Raider
AFL Marty  if only because of ByteWorks' reputation.
AFL Marty  done
AFL Jim    Dan, they all run somewhere between $80-100 mail order.
DanB35     I know, I know...  repeat: UG!
AFL Jim    Let's move along here...
AFA Gary J Q = Airship, Joe, Rick, Raider
AFL Jim    GA Airship with your question.
ScottG25   !
Airship    Have any of you seen Orca Basic yet? I'm currently using TML Basic
          which is a
Raider10   Who sent me the
          flashnote??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Airship    very nice system but still has a few bugs that are driving me
          nuts!!!
Raider10   Thank you
AFL Jim    ORCA/BASIC should be out sometime this spring according to the
          Byte Works.
Ralfy      ?
Airship    I was just wondering if anyone had even seen it in Beta form.
Dave Lyons !
AFA Gary J Q = Airship (Dave), Joe, Rick, Raider, Ralfy
Dave Lyons Airship, if anybody here _has_ seen an unreleased product, most
          likely they've
Dave Lyons also signed something saying they can't admit it.  (done)
ScottG25   !
Airship    Hmmm...didn't realize that...
JSchober   (oops!  there goes Jim... :( )
AFL Marty  Jimmy go bye bye :)
AFA Gary J Ooops!
AFA Parik  Give a person DTS position, and he thinks he can walk out on us.
          :)
Airship    I agree with the earlier comment about Orca's rep....am looking
          forward to it.
Raider10   HAHA
Airship    (done)
JSchober   :)  Parik...
AFL Marty  !
ScottG25   !
Matt DTS   Watch it Parik.  There's plenty of room in the next release of
          GS/OS...
AFA Gary J GA, Scott
Matt DTS   ...to say rude things about you.  <grin>
Raider10   bye all
AFA John   LOL!
JSchober   LOL... (can I say rude things about him, too, Matt?! ;)
AFA Parik  :P Matt
AFL Marty  (Must be practising his coffee break :)
Matt DTS   <laughing maniacally>
ScottG25   I just want to agree with those who said Orca will probably be the
          basic
AFA Gary J Q = Airship (Scott, Marty), Joe, RIck, Raider, Ralfy
ScottG25   of choice on the GS... Everything ByteWorks has done that I've
          purchased (M for
ScottG25   the GS, and Pascal) are top notch products. GA
AFA Gary J Re-hi, Jim  :)
JSchober   (wow! welcome back, Jim!  :)
Dave Lyons Re-hi, Jim  :)
AFL Jim    (Telenet in KC died....)
AFA Gary J GA, Marty
AFL Marty  I believe if you check the message board, you'll find a
          substantial...
AFL Jim    (Back with Tymenet)
AFL Marty  discussion of ORCA Basic.
ScottG25   (missed the Pie throwing)
AFL Marty  done
AFA Gary J Q = Airship (Marty), Joe, Rick, Raider, Ralfy
AFL Marty  (coffee break over already, Jim? :)
Raider10   Hi Kyle
AFL Jim    yep
Airship    I'll do that, thanx.
AFL Jim    OK, Joe, your question is next.
Raider10   Anyone have a BBS prog here?
JSchober   Alrighty... I'm working on a command-line shell in BASIC (well,
          the parser and
JSchober   dispatcher are in BASIC; actual disk I/O is in m/l)... what I'd
          LIKE to do is
AFA Gary J Q = Joe, Rick, Raider, Ralfy
JSchober   be able to implement script files by simply putting shell commands
          into a text
JSchober   file, and EXEC'ing the thing.  I was under the impression that
          EXEC simply
JSchober   passed the contents of a disk file to INPUT (or equiv) statements;
          however, a
Raider10   Does anyone have a BBS Here
Raider10   Or are you a SysOp
JSchober   file in the script like   echo Hello, World!   gets passed as
          ...
JSchober   echoHelloWorld!, and rejected.  Any ideas why that happens, or how
          to get
JSchober   around it?
Dave Lyons !
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Dave), Rick, Raider, Ralfy
Dave Lyons Sounds mysterious to me, Joe.  Are you using GETLN to read lines,
          or what?
AFL Jim    GA Dave
JSchober   I'm using a custom input routine that basically does RDKEY's
          (ummm... or
JSchober   is it GETKEY?) repeatedly until RETURN.  It works just dandy at
          the keyboard,
JSchober   or over the modem.
JSchober   (ga...)
AndyWells  !
Dave Lyons Beats me what's happening...if a small piece of code can demo the
          problem,
Dave Lyons send it to me!
AFL Jim    Andy... GA
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Dave, Andy), Rick, Raider, Ralfy
KyleI1     !
KyleI1     !
JSchober   Alright, I'll write up a short demo and send it to ya' tonight...
          (it's RDKEY)
AndyWells  Well, I do not believe that GETKEY will do it for you.
AndyWells  Or RDKEY.
KyleI1     !
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Andy, Kyle), Rick, Raider, Ralfy
KyleI1     !
AndyWells  Since you are inputting lines, you should use the GETLN routine.
JSchober   What's the problem there?  It seems to work fine EXCEPT for the
          ignored spaces.
AndyWells  Try it that way, and I think you will find that it works then.
AndyWells  Done
JSchober   (and I =can't= use GETLN ... :( I need certain special things for
          the bulletin
KyleI1     Jschober, I probably don't know what I'm saying, but...
JSchober   board system...)
Raider10   I have to go bye
AFL Jim    Bye Raider
AndyWells  GETLN should return the exact data stored in the file.
KyleI1     EXEC files are for commands(E.G. immediate execution) in BASIC?
PrimeDude  (or just look in the $200 buffer after the file call and get the
          data yourself..)
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Kyle), Rick, Ralfy
KyleI1     done
JSchober   Ummm... ok, just a second, here...
JSchober   The code I use is in the form CALL <addr>,misc.parms...,I$, where
          I$ is what
JSchober   I'm inputting.  The m/l code itself repeatedly RDKEY's, until it
          gets an #$8D;
AndyWells  Remember this, a call to RDKEY will read the whole line from the
          disk.
JSchober   then it moves I$ from $200..?? to a variable (using some ASoft
          subroutines). I
AndyWells  It's a wonder that you got most of it.
RickKE     I'M BACK.  Got cut off????..
RickKE     ?
JSchober   use this for user input and disk input (READ file), and it works
          perfectly;
AFA Gary J You're still in the queue, Rick.
JSchober   only with the EXEC mode am I getting problems... I tried to use
          READ's instead,
KyleI1     Why do you use that instead of EXEC filename?
AFA Gary J Q = Joe, Rick, Ralfy
JSchober   which works ... kinda -- certain routines expect fileref #1 to be
          free.  GA...
AndyWells  When I wrote routines a long time ago for my BBS, I separated the
          routines
Ralfy      !
AndyWells  I used separate disk access routines from user input routines..
AFA Gary J Q = Joe (Andy, Ralfy), Rick, Ralfy
AndyWells  You might be better off doinf it that way.   Done.
AndyWells  f=g
AFL Jim    Ralfy, your comment?
JSchober   Mmmm... I could, but I'd like to eliminate redundancy, if at all
          possible...
Ralfy      Why not get the bytes yourself with a LDA (or whatever) from the
          'keyboard'..
Ralfy      byte in memory?
Ralfy      (done)
JSchober   An EXEC won't pass data to $C000 ...
AFA Gary J Q = Joe, Rick, Ralfy
JSchober   Ah well ... unless anyone has another idea, thanks anyway ...
          GA.
AFL Jim    OK Rick. Your turn.
AFL Marty  (You could get rid of your BBS :):)
AFA Gary J :)
RickKE     I have a question about DOS 3.3 to ProDos conversion.  After I
          converted my
RickKE     program it crashes
JSchober   It's been considered =many= times, Marty...
AFL Jim    What kind of program? BASIC? BIN?
RickKE     I also used APEX Text for text generation
RickKE     The program is BASIC with some Mchn routines
AFA Gary J Does it crash into the monitor, or just break into the BASIC
          prompt?
Matt DTS   Machine routines that do what?
AFL Jim    That is the start of your problems - the ML routines.
RickKE     Monitor
Dave Lyons Machine routines that load _at what addresses_?
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy
Matt DTS   (You include the Monitor with your program?)
RickKE     I'm looking
AFL Jim    DOS and ProDOS don't use the same memory, so it's very likely they
          are running
AFL Jim    over (or getting run over by) ProDOS.
RickKE     $4000
Matt DTS   What do your machine language routines do, Rick?
AFL Jim    Either that or they call routines that are in DOS 3.3.
RickKE     One is the text generator and the other is a timer
Matt DTS   What address does it crash into the monitor at?  (Clearly fishing
          here)
RickKE     The text generator begins at $7700
AFL Jim    Here's a pole, Matt __________
Matt DTS   Text generator:  Ends at?
Dave Lyons Ouch!  I smell HIMEM trouble.
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy
RickKE     Let me check
RickKE     Ends at $6000
JSchober   (that's amazing! it takes -$1700 bytes!)
Dave Lyons :)
AFA Gary J What??  :)
AFL Jim    :)
Matt DTS   Begins at $7700 and ends at $6000 for a total length of -$1700
          bytes.  Wow.
JSchober   (I wish =I= could write such compact code...)
AndyWells  So do I..
AFL Jim    Is the length, $6000, Rick?
Dave Lyons You don't need to, Joe--waste as much space as you want, but be
          sure to load
Dave Lyons in lots of copies of that -$1700 routine.... ;)
AFA Gary J Special offer : Get free RAM with this program....
JSchober   hehehehe
RickKE     No the location is $6000
Matt DTS   You said the location was $7700!
AFL Jim    OK, how log in the routine, then?
AndyWells  Maybe it loads in at $6000 and ends at $7700?
Matt DTS   Say, there's a thought!
AFL Jim    log - long
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy
RickKE     Large font is at $7700, small font at $6800 and the generatos is
          at $6000-$6800
Matt DTS   Ok, now we're cooking.  How large is the large font?
AFL Jim    How big is the large font (in bytes)
AFA Gary J If it's that low in memory, it shouldn't effect ProDOS unless it
          is trying to
AFA Gary J call a DOS 3.3 routine.
Matt DTS   Do you load the fonts, or does the generator load them on
          command?
RickKE     Large is from $6b00-$7700
RickKE     On command
Dave Lyons !
Matt DTS   bingo (it seems)
AndyWells  There's the problem
AFL Jim    The Generator loads them?
AFL Jim    It is probably calling DOS 3.3 which isn't there.
Dave Lyons If HIMEM is being set to just below the first location of the
          code, then
AFA Gary J Q = Rick (Matt, Dave), Ralfy
Dave Lyons BASIC.SYSTEM will use the first 1024 bytes of the code as buffer
          space!  HIMEM
AndyWells  It's probably trying to call the DOS 3.3 file manager through $3D6
          maybe..
Dave Lyons is used somewhat differently than under DOS 3.3.  Must always set
          it to a
Dave Lyons multiple of 256, and storing something _above_ himem is tricky,
          and storing
Dave Lyons _below_ himem can't be done (it moves around automatically as
          files are opened
Dave Lyons and closed).  So it looks like there may be _several_ problems to
          deal with.
AndyWells  I'd call $bef5 with A holding $36.  Instead of useing HIMEM
Matt DTS   You can get buffer space from BASIC.SYSTEM if you really want
          it.
Matt DTS   The technique to do it (which Andy is giving an example of)...
Matt DTS   ...is in ProDOS 8 TN #9, which should be up here just any day now
          (I hope).
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy, <END>
AFL Jim    My fist job at Apple, Matt?
Matt DTS   (ahem)
AFL Jim    first
RickKE     Thanks.
Matt DTS   (whatever)
AFA Gary J :)
Matt DTS   (no, it's already written and in distribution; APE should have
          them soon.)
AFA Gary J Oh, so Jim will distribute them, huh?  :)
AFL Jim    Rick, the bottom line on all of this is that converting BASIC
          programs is
AndyWells  $BEF% is the allocate buffer/memory entry point, A holds the
          number of pages.
AFL Jim    fairly easy until you start converting programs that use ML
          routines. The ML
Dave Lyons (%=5)
AndyWells  When it comes back, A holds the page # of HIMEM.
AndyWells  %=5
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy, <END>
AndyWells  To release it, call $BEF8.
Matt DTS   You can also set RSHIMEM to keep FREBUFR from freeing up that
          space as well.
AFL Jim    routines can: Call DOS 3.3 which won't be there; Load into memory
          that ProDOS
Dave Lyons Andy, to you need to add 4 to that returned value, or does it
          actually return
JSchober   (releases ALL of it, no?)
Dave Lyons 4 more than the new value of HIMEM?
Matt DTS   RSHIMEM = $BF98?  (Working from memory here; see P8 TN #9)
Matt DTS   (I meant $BE9F)
AFL Jim    will run over; or Run over ProDOS among other things.
AFL Jim    A good book for solving some of your problems is "ProDOS Inside
          and Out" by
AndyWells  Good ?  I'll check..
AFL Jim    Dennis Doms and Tom Weishaar.
AFA Gary J Q = Rick, Ralfy, <END>
Matt DTS   I like "Exploring Apple's GS/OS and ProDOS 8" by Gary Little...
Matt DTS   ...since my name's in it (unabashed plug).
AFL Jim    I'm waiting for it, Matt...
AFL Jim    Ralfy, GA with your question.
Matt DTS   Gary showed it to me today; so it's being shipped.  Looks nifty.
RickKE     bye
Matt DTS   Bye and good luck, Rick.
AFL Jim    Bye Rick
JSchober   (bye, Rick)
Ralfy      I wrote a routine in TML BASIC to process lots of text.  Ran into
          the 32K ...
RickKE     Thanks for the help:)
AFA Gary J Q = Ralfy
AndyWells  Actually Dave, you have to remember to count starting at $9A00,
          not $9600.
Ralfy      problem.  Is there any way to compress or clear the string pool
          area?  99%
Ralfy      of the pool is old data.
Matt DTS   "The 32K problem..."  Hmmm.  <What is it?>
AndyWells  The number returned will not include the first buffer, so subtract
          4.
Ralfy      TML BASIC has a string pool definable from 8 to 32K.  When it's
          full yopu get
Ralfy      an error message.  The FRE commands have nothing to do with
          strings.
Matt DTS   Well, I'm out on this one.  Any takers?
AFL Jim    looking....
AndyWells  Most BASIC's of that sort have a FRE$ command.  If it doesn't, I
          don't know
AndyWells  $99
Matt DTS   While we have this lull in the action, I'd like to suggest to
          Quantum...
Matt DTS   ...that they save space in the billing computer by keeping track
          of all our...
Matt DTS   ...bills by using a nibble value.  This will save a lot of space
          on their part.
Matt DTS   (And also keep our bills from going over $16, for that matter.)
JSchober   :) hehehe
Dave Lyons (Yeah, I want my bill to wrap around from $15 to 0, too....)
AFL Jim    :)
Matt DTS   Just a friendly suggestion.
Ralfy      There are 11 variations of the FRE command.  They all tell you how
          much free
JSchober   (less than that!  they still need a decimal field.......)
Ralfy      memory is left.
Dave Lyons (15 cents is even better)
AFA Parik  (next thing you know, he'll want to keep it as a bit...)
Ralfy      Have I struck out?
AFL Jim    I've been looking Ralfy, but TML's manual is kind of sparse when
          it come to
Matt DTS   A bit of what?
AndyWells  The returned value is the bottom of the allocated space, then the
          buffer is...
JSchober   There ya' go, Dave... or better yet, Parik...
AFL Jim    telling how things work.
Ralfy      (Sigh)
AndyWells  below that.
JSchober   Your bill is either $0.01 or $0.00 ... how nice.  (Sounds like
          beta, actually)
AFA Parik  :-)
Matt DTS   If TML had a STORE/RESTORE option, you could do that to wipe out
          the dead space
AFL Jim    Leave your question in the message boards with an example and I'll
          work on it.
Matt DTS   but I really have no solid ideas.
Ralfy      O.K.
Ralfy      I think our hour is up.
Matt DTS   Only about 20 minutes ago.
Ralfy      Gnite all.........
AFA Parik  Thanks to Matt, we can only measure fifteen minutes...
AFA Gary J Goodnight, Ralfy
AFL Jim    Bye Ralfy
Matt DTS   I'll be leaving now too.  Goodnight all.  (hey, I didn't say it
          was *perfect*)
ScottG25   Bye Ralfy
AFA Gary J Goodnight, Matt.
ScottG25   Night, Matt!

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