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Title SCREEN$

Disk 24 program notes


LABEL MASTER by D.Tonks                                         
                                                                
On loading the program you  will  be  presented  with  a  screen
containing a picture of a disc label on the left  and  an  empty
square on the right. At the top of the screen there  is  a  menu
bar with 3 items on it, namely LABEL, BORDER and EXTRAS.        
All options are selected using the cursor keys and space.       
Pressing the left/right cursors will cause the highlight to move
to the left or right, and pressing the down  cursor  will  bring
down that particular menu.                                      
Whilst a menu is down, pressing left/right  cursors  will  close
the current menu and open the next one.                         
                                                                
Once a menu is open, another highlight lets you select from  the
menu using the  up/down  cursors.  If  "SPACE"  is  pressed  the
highlighted option is chosen, and, if practical, acted  upon.  I
shall call this "CLICKING" from now on, (shades of 16 bit!!!!). 
                                                                
If you put the highlight onto the top menu item (the title)  and
click, that menu is closed down.                                
I'll now go throught the items on  each  menu  and  give  you  a
description of what they do.                                    
                                                                
                              LABEL                             
                                                                
New Label..                                                     
           Clears both the label  and  the  directory  and  sets
           everthing back to how the program loaded.            
Read DIR..                                                      
          Reads the directory of drive 1 into the window on  the
          right.                                                
Select DIR..                                                    
           Gives you a highlighted bar in the directory window. 
            Using the up/down cursor will move the bar, and if  
            there are more items will scroll  the  directory  up
            when the bar is at the bottom  of  the  window,  and
            down if the bar is at the top.                      
            Clicking at this  point  will  put  the  highlighted
            filename onto the label.                            
                                                                
            The last file is always called "END" and clicking on
            this takes you back to the pulldown menus.  You  can
            also end this phase by pressing either the  left  or
            right cursor.                                       
                                                                
Add Name...                                                     
           If the names on the directory are not quite what  you
           want on the label, this  option  will  allow  you  to
           input a 10 character name of your own, and put it  on
           the label.                                           
                                                                
Add Title..                                                     
           Alows you to  change  the  disc  name,  which  always
           defaults to "SAM DISC".                              
                                                                
Printout..                                                      
          This clears the screen, and puts your label at the top
          left. It now dumps it to a your  printer,  as  a  disc
          sized label.                                          
                                                                
          The program as it stands is set up for an Amstrad 2000
          DMP so it should work with most Epsom compatibles.    
          The XVARS in line 1 of the program  control  how  wide
          and how deep the dump goes,and these could be  changed
          if needed. Refer  to  the  back  of  your  Masterbasic
          manual for details.                                   
                                                                
                       * * * BORDER * * *                       
                                                                
This gives you the choice of five  different  borders  for  your
label. Simply click on the border of your  choice  and  it  will
appear. This can be done at anytime, and  does  not  affect  any
label being worked upon.                                        
                                                                
                       * * * EXTRAS * * *                       
                                                                
Fonts...                                                        
        Clicking on this will bring up an icon  with  which  you
        can select one of 19 fonts in memory. Use the left/right
        cursors to change the font used on your label. The label
        is updated straight away for you to see how it looks.   
        The rest of the screen will stay in the normal font  and
        is not affected by font selection.                      
                                                                
Sam Font..                                                      
          This will default back to the standard  Sam  font  for
          your label.                                           
                                                                
Left TXT..                                                      
          Clicking on this  option  will  take  all  your  label
          entries to the left of the label.                     
                                                                
Right TXT..                                                     
          Clicking on this takes all entries to the right of the
           label.                                               
                                                                
Center TXT..                                                    
            Clicking on this  will  center  each  entry  on  the
            label.                                              
                                                                
Nos On/Off.                                                     
           Note that this option only works if the  text  is  to
           the left of  the  label,  and  will  have  no  effect
           otherwise...                                         
                                                                
           The option numbers your entries on the  left  of  the
           entry in consecutive order.                          
                                                                
           Clicking on the option  a  second  time  cancels  the
           numbers.                                             
                                                                
----------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                
                            AUTODATE                            
                          by Colin Rout                         
                                                                
When Autodate is loaded you will be asked to input Today's date.
This should be entered as six digits without any spaces,  dashes
or any other signs generally used in a date.                    
                                                                
When  you have entered these you  will be asked "Is this correct
(Y/N)?" If you use the former of  these options the date will be
inserted and the program  will then go  on to the directory.  If
you use the latter you will be able to insert a new date.       
                                                                
You will  also  be  asked  "Do  you wish  to  check  the  date's
validity?"(C).  If you press C you can  then enter first the day
(two digits) then the  month (one or two digits) and finally the
year (four digits), and then the program will confirm the day of
the week of the date in question.                               
                                                                
You  will be given the  opportunity to change the  date if it is
incorrect otherwise it takes you to the directory.              
                                                                
This program can be saved by GO TO 150.                         
                                                                
It can only be used if you have MasterDos.                      
----------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                
                                                                
                    SAMSCRATCH AMENDMENT FOR                    
                      CITIZEN 120-D OWNERS                      
                                                                
                          BY COLIN ROUT                         
                                                                
                                                                
I  have been  experimenting with  the printing  of Samscratch to
enable me  to use all the different configurations available for
my printer, a Citizen 120-D. I have amended the print routine to
work with it and to provide most of the available options.      
                                                                
My  thanks go to  Dave Hall  who very  kindly pointed me  in the
right direction to get me started.                              
                                                                
I  started by amending the DEF PROC  print_set lines 5090 - 5180
by deleting  the items  that did  not apply  and replacing  with
commands that I needed. I LLISTed the relevant lines to  make it
easier and worked with a pencil  to start with, I was told  that
this is the best way.                                           
                                                                
I  found that I  needed to put  in more options  than there were
originally displayed so I had to re-arrange the screen layout.  
I  then amended lines 5190 -  5370 deleting codes not applicable
to the Citizen 120-D and  adding any necessary ones, although  a
good many codes seem to be fairly universal.                    
                                                                
I have included the options that I use regularly and some that I
use occasionally. There are  still a few that  I left out but  I
don't use them very often. I  have inserted a new option on  the
Print  Menu,  a  facility  to  return  to  the  Main   Menu.   I
occasionally find that when I need to print just a small part of
the text that I have forgotten to obtain the  line  numbers  and
this gives the opportunity to return to check. I have RENUMbered
from line 5090 so this DEF PROC now goes to line 5420.          
As I use single sheets of paper with my printer at present, I do
not  need  lines 3245  and 3251  part of  3200  - 3257  DEF PROC
printer. These lines are used for paging and form feed the paper
after printing.  Instead  of deleting  the  lines, I  have  just
inserted a REM after the line number so that the program ignores
them for now but they will still be available when I  need them.
My instructions  may be  too simplified for  some members  but I
often think that people who know  what they are talking about in
reference  to  computers   and  programming   often  leave   out
information that is important to beginners and improvers.       
                                                                
I  enclose a listing of the amended  part of the program. I hope
this is of  some help to other  members with a Citizen  120-D or
anyone else whose printer is different.                         
                                                                
Once you have made  your amendments and have saved  your amended
program ( Press CNTRL and S  ) and created your masterpiece then
Read On.                                                        
                                                                
                                                                
                        ##### ***** #####                       
                                                                
                                                                
When the PRINT  Menu is displayed you  have a choice  of several
styles of print as follows :-                                   
                                                                
1. Draft  2. NLQ  3. Pica  4. Elite  5. Proportional            
6. Compressed  7. Emphasised  8. Doublestrike  9. Expanded      
A. Italics  B. Underlined  C. Vertically Enlarged  D. Graphics  
E. Reverse Print  F. Pound Sign  G. Hash Sign                   
                                                                
Once a style of print has  been selected it will remain in  that
mode unless 'R' for RESET is selected first or alternatively the
printer is switched off.                                        
                                                                
There are a few things to be considered before printing.        
                                                                
If you wish to print a pound sign you must use '#'(hash) in  the
text,  and then select 'F' first in the Print Menu.             
Note :- You cannot print '£'  (pound) & '#' (hash) signs at  one
printing.                                                       
                                                                
If you are using the Graphics facility select 'D' next.         
If using underlining  everything is underlined including spaces.
If you want  to underline  one word  or one  sentence you  could
print that separately.                                          
When  using  Expanded you  must  consider that  the  letters are
printed double the  width and you will only get  half the amount
of words across the page.                                       
This is another  case of printing  a line separately.           
                                                                
You  must also  leave a blank  line above  the line you  wish to
print as the program will not allow the start and finish line to
be the same.                                                    
                                                                
Note :  If using  Samscratch 85  compressed (6)  must always  be
selected.                                                       
                                                                
                         ##############                         
                                                                
I  think  that  I have  just  about  covered  everything but  if
something  goes wrong and  you have a  problem, if I  can help I
will.  Send all complaints to  the address on  my letter or ring
and bend my ear.                                                
----------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                
BRIDGE DEAL by Ettrick Thomson                                  
                                                                
The  real-life  operations  of shuffling,  dealing,  and sorting
within hands,  are  done by  one  equivalent operation  using  a
technique  that may be applicable  elsewhere. The "pack", formed
in z$ at Line  330, represents the  cards in "bridge" order,  ie
A,Spades;  K,Spades;..,2,Spades; A,Hearts;..;2,Clubs.  The hands
are selected by going  through the cards left  in the pack, in  
order, and selecting or rejecting each card. The loop  LL170-190
does this; c indicates the card inspected, n the number of cards
still to be chosen  in the hand, and m the number of cards still
to be inspected, in the  working copy of the pack in p$, for the
hand  being dealt  with.  For the  1st hand,  we start  off with
c=1,n=13,m=52; for the other hands, c=1,n=13, but m is 39,26,13.
Each card inspected is chosen with probability  n/m, which gives
equal probability to all the sets of hands that might be chosen.
If  a card  is rejected,  then (L170),  m is  decremented,  c is
adjusted to  indicate the  next  card, and  n is  unchanged;  if
selected,  it is printed, then L220  decrements m, withdraws the
card from  p$ (which  means that  c does not  have to  change to
indicate  the next card), and n is  decremented by the NEXT n of
L230.                                                           
Serious readers might want hard copy: DUMP would provide, except
for the  UDGs  providing the  suit  symbols. So  L205  gives  an
alternative  to  L200, and  L335  to  L330,  replacing the  suit
symbols by S,H,D,C.                                             
----------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                
CASHFILER by Phil Seddon                                        
This is an update of a program by Phil in a  previous  issue  of
the mag. It is very easy to use and you now have no  excuse  for
your bank balance getting into a mess.                          
----------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                
'OLE HOUSE by Tim Wells                                         
This is a good rendition of Shakin Stevens hit THIS  OLE  HOUSE,
using the Sound Machine. As before, the file is cut to save disc
space, so follow the instruction to get  a  full  Sound  machine
file.                                                           
----------------------------------------------------------------
14 OUT by D.A.Lorner                                            
Another neaat   little card game from Mr. Lorner. So eay and yet
so frustrating. Full instructions included.                     
----------------------------------------------------------------
MASTERSCRATCH by Dave Hall                                      
An updated version  of  Samscratch,  using  Masterdos  and  512k
memory. Full instructions are in "READ.ME" file.                
----------------------------------------------------------------
SABATEUR MAPS by Bob Evans                                      
A truly gigantic map  of  the  game  SABATEUR.  Each  screen  is
actually several maps. There is even a map on how  to  put  them
all together.                                                   
----------------------------------------------------------------
SKITTLES by Ian West                                            
A nice little game showing what can be done with  just  a  small
amout of BASIC knowledge.                                       
----------------------------------------------------------------
GM SOUNDS by Andy Wright                                        
A set of PROCS which allow you to use sounds from  GAMES  MASTER
in your own programs.                                           
NEW INDEX                                                       
This is a temporary index to  replace  the  original,  which  is
still being worked on. There is a complete  code  block  of  all
issues up to 24.                                                
----------------------------------------------------------------
TIME PROCS by M.Nicholas                                        
These allow you to read the time and date into a string, for use
within a proram.                                                
----------------------------------------------------------------
MAP GAME by D.Hall                                              
Test your knowledge of English  places  with  this  geographical
game.                                                           
----------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                
                                                                
                                                                
                                                                
                                                                
                                                                
.                                                               

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